#I swear you think about Jiang Cheng more than I do | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

robininthelabyrinth · 2 years ago

Note

Ah, this is invisible_cities from ao3 - dropping off a plot bunny I mentioned in a comment on 'No Complaints' as requested, since you considered it intriguing and didn't want to lose the idea. It went: I keep being haunted by this kernel of an idea, an AU in which LQR&JC -Done Uncles(TM) - have a (political) reason to Swear Brotherhood. Especially if it meant seeing the reactions of LQR's nephews AND LXC's sworn brothers. I think Nie Minjue might actually approve, as you write him.

Convenient Brotherhood - ao3

“You would make a good teacher.”

Jiang Cheng froze, abruptly overcome with a wave of hideous embarrassment, then a moment later with a wave of self-disgust for having felt that embarrassment. It wasn’t as if he were doing anything shameful, after all.

He’d only been showing the newest set of Jiang disciples the basic forms that they would need to know in order to build their foundation in the Jiang sect’s sword style. It was one of the most basic duties of a sect. Although it was normally done by an instructor, rather than the sect leader directly, even Jiang Cheng’s father had occasionally stepped in to show the children how it was done. There was nothing embarrassing about doing what he was doing at all.

It was only – being perceived, he supposed.

He turned and tried to salute, saying, “Teacher Lan –”

Lan Qiren stopped him, catching his arm and pulling him upwards, his hand seeming to Jiang Cheng’s perception to be blazing hot where it touched his skin. “I have already told you to stop with that,” he chided, though quite gently, and that hot feeling spread over the rest of Jiang Cheng’s skin, right up to his neck. “It has already become tiresome, and you can’t keep it up forever, now that I am staying here.”

Yes.

There was – that.

Jiang Cheng didn’t want to think about that. On why Lan Qiren was now residing in the Lotus Pier, the length of his stay indeterminate, lasting until…

Until nothing. Jiang Cheng wasn’t thinking about it.

“How is Jin Ling doing?” he asked instead, because it was easier. Jin Ling was still a baby, in need of tremendous care, and in all honesty Lan Qiren’s presence had been a godsend in that regard – the Jiang sect needed care, too, as needy as an infant going through growing pains as Jiang Cheng tried to help it settle into its rightful position as a Great Sect, and there were only so many hours in a day. He was already being torn to pieces by his obligations. He couldn’t even imagine the damage it might do to him if he were trying to take care of both Jin Ling and his sect, all on his own, unsupported by anyone, least of all –

Wait, no, he wasn’t thinking about that.

“Quite well. He’s just realized he can wave around his toys on his own,” Lan Qiren said, accepting the change of subject gracefully, just as he always did. “He was quite proud of his great accomplishment.”

Just like his peacock of a father, Jiang Cheng wanted to say, but his throat closed up. It had only been a few months, no more than half a year, since – since Jiang Yanli – since she had…since Jin Ling was orphaned.

By all rights, Jin Ling ought to be right now in Lanling City, being cared for by his paternal relatives, but Jin Zixuan’s death had overturned a hornet’s nest there, and even Madame Jin, for whom Jin Ling was now her sole purpose in life, didn’t think it was a good idea to risk keeping him there. Accordingly to Lanling Jin custom, the child was typically raised by the mother for the first few years of life, then handed over to the father to be educated. So, with Jin Ling lacking both mother and father, Madame Jin had proposed that Jin Ling be temporarily handed over to Jiang Cheng…

She must have been in a very tough position to have asked for such a thing. Jiang Cheng tried not to think about it, because it meant that he got to keep Jin Ling by his side, got not to be alone. Just him and Jin Ling…and Lan Qiren, now.

It had really only been when Lan Qiren had walked in and plucked a sobbing Jin Ling out of Jiang Cheng’s arms, ordering the frantic and under-slept Jiang Cheng to go get some rest, that Jiang Cheng had remembered all those rumors that made out that it was Lan Qiren that had raised his nephews, even since infancy. From the capable fashion in which he tended to Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng was inclined to think the rumors were true.

And since there could be no questioning Lan Qiren’s integrity, he didn’t have to worry about entrusting Jin Ling to him. There could be no fear that Lan Qiren was a secret assassin, or bribed by the Jin sect, or – or whatever Jiang Cheng’s paranoid mind had come up with. Admittedly, it was probably a little offensive to use a respected elder like Lan Qiren as a babysitter, but Lan Qiren had never complained.

“You should consider what I said.”

Jiang Cheng shook himself out of his reverie. “What? What you said when?”

“That you would make a good teacher,” Lan Qiren said. He shook out his sleeves and started heading back inside – had he come all the way out to the training yards just to say that? But no, it was getting to be dinner time. He had come to call Jiang Cheng, another thing that no one had asked him to do but which he did, as meticulous and inexorable as the Lan sect rules in all the things he did.

Having someone who remembered that he needed to be called in, that he forgot things like eating and drinking if he was too distracted…Jiang Cheng really shouldn’t enjoy it as much as he did.

It shouldn’t make him as happy as it did.

Jiang Cheng caught up with Lan Qiren, falling into step by his side. “Is this some sort of hint that you changed your mind and would like to start teaching again?” he asked. “I’m sure we could set something up here for you, if you like.”

It wouldn’t be the same as the Cloud Recesses, though. Nothing was ever the same as home.

Jiang Cheng knew that better than most.

“I meant nothing more than what I said,” Lan Qiren said mildly. “I have not varied from my decision not to teach this year. Perhaps when Jin Ling is older, we can reconsider.”

Because Lan Qiren would probably still be here then, Jiang Cheng’s traitorous mind noted. Jin Ling would grow up, and grow older, and eventually return to Lanling Jin to inherit his patrimony, but Lan Qiren would still be here in the Lotus Pier, far away from home, rotting away in a place he didn’t belong –

Lan Qiren cleared his throat pointedly.

“You are letting his thoughts get away from you again, I think,” he said. He sounded amused, of all things. “Shall I recite the rules regarding the importance of mealtimes once again…?”

“Please don’t,” Jiang Cheng said hastily. He’d made the mistake, in the first few days of Lan Qiren’s tenure when Jiang Cheng had been incredibly bitter about how everything had all gone down, of retorting to one of Lan Qiren’s invocations by reminding him that the Lotus Pier was not the Cloud Recesses and so the Lan sect rules did not apply here. It had been unwontedly cruel of him – reminding a man of the home that he’d lost through the actions of others, actions for which Jiang Cheng was in no small part responsible, whether directly or indirectly through others of his sect for whom he bore responsibility – and he’d been deeply ashamed of himself at once.

Lan Qiren, in contrast, had taken it in stride: he had only mildly responded that the Lan sect rules applied not only to the Cloud Recesses but to any person belonging to the Lan sect, no matter where they were, and furthermore that in any place where humanity gathered there were always rules, even when they were unwritten. He had thereafter devoted much of his free time, insofar as such a thing existed, into compiling a set of rules for the Lotus Pier.

Jiang Cheng had thought the project ridiculous at first, but Lan Qiren was meticulous, in this as with all things, and the first small booklet he had presented to Jiang Cheng had been…

Jiang Cheng hadn’t had any words for how it made him feel, only that he’d urgently needed to excuse himself to hide in his room and cry for a while, but in a good sort of way. The booklet contained not only the first few rules that Lan Qiren proposed, all of which were perfectly in keeping with the Lotus Pier’s tradition and full of good sense besides, but also the basis behind them: the logical arguments both in favor and against, the potential consequences, and most of all the history behind them, gleaned from the dozens of interviews Lan Qiren had conducted among both the few survivors of the Lotus Pier’s massacre and the common people outside their door.

Jiang Cheng treasured each survivor more than gold, but he’d never really known how exactly to ask them, or even what, and he’d never thought about asking the common people at all. To unexpectedly find that they, too, knew the stories of his family, his ancestors, to see the casual anecdotes his father had once, in a rare sharing mood, recited for them over dinner and which Jiang Cheng had nearly forgotten, all written down neatly in a book, something that could be copied and duplicated and remembered into the future…

There were stories in there that even he hadn’t known. Ones his father hadn’t mentioned, or hadn’t had a chance to, stories that his distant cousins, the older ones, recognized with a start that suggested they’d forgotten them, too – even stories about his mother, ones that she’d long ago discarded as embarrassing. Stories that made her appear in his memory, vivid and beautiful and headstrong, simultaneously just as he’d known her and yet also somehow like learning about her for the first time.

There were stories about Jiang Yanli, too. Things Jiang Cheng had never known about her, how she went out among the common people to help them small things within her power, dealing with the little pests and pestilences that accompanied daily life but which would win no one any fame and which most cultivators disdained as a result – even her likes and dislikes, recorded from the mouths of the merchants that had always saved a portion of their wares for her.

Even stories about him –

…anyway, the rules were good. The Jiang sect’s motto might be attempt the impossible, but there was no harm in having some structure. All his new disciples still needed their foundation, after all.

“Do you really think I’d be a good teacher?” Jiang Cheng asked, settling down beside the table. The Lan sect rules generally prohibited speaking during mealtimes, but they hadn’t started yet – Jin Ling still needed to be brought over by his wet nurse, since Lan Qiren insisted that all meals be taken together and Jiang Cheng, who would have Jin Ling in his sight at all times if he could, didn’t disagree. “I think most of my disciples are afraid of me.”

��If being cantankerous were a disqualifier, no one would ever come to me,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng had to suppress a snort – the other man’s sense of humor was another thing that had come as a surprise. Lan Qiren was in fact quite strict with his students; it was only now that Jiang Cheng had graduated to being one of his peers that Lan Qiren had allowed him to see the more personable aspects of his character. “Your disciples fear your temper, yes, but they respect and adore you. You will be an excellent teacher.”

“The Jiang sect sword style –”

“Not just that.”

“No?”

“Don’t look down on yourself. You have more to give to the world than just your blood and sweat.”

Jiang Cheng’s hand stole, without his permission, to rest on his stomach, on the stolen golden core that glowed inside of him, inescapable reminder of Wei Wuxian’s sacrifice of which he had been completely ignorant until – until it was very nearly too late. So very nearly. “I don’t know about that.”

It wasn’t a denial, though.

It was…hope, Jiang Cheng supposed. Hope that there might be something he could offer the world that wasn’t his bloodline or his endless years of effort, all of which seemed to turn to dust at once upon the revelation that it had been Wei Wuxian’s talent and sacrifice that had made it all possible. Being a teacher didn’t rely on or even require a golden core, especially if he taught the way Lan Qiren meant – not just swordsmanship, but cultivation, whether of one’s power or one’s mind.

It might be nice to have students, rather than soldiers.

“It’s settled, then,” Lan Qiren said. “We’ll plan out a curriculum for next year.”

As if it were that simple…though now that Jiang Cheng thought about it, why couldn’t it be? He was the sect leader here, with no elders to stand on his shoulders and force him to stop, and he had Lan Qiren, whose fame as a teacher was personal to him rather than generalized to his sect. If they let out that he would be teaching again, people from all over the cultivation world would send their children to learn, even if Jiang Cheng were teaching as well.

Maybe, after a while…

It wasn’t like Lan Qiren was going anywhere. He couldn’t.

Or, well, he could, technically. There was nothing wrong with Lan Qiren’s legs or his ability to fly a sword, he could walk out any time. But he wouldn’t – not when his presence in the Lotus Pier was one of the pillars that held together the cultivation world. Not when…

“Didi should stop thinking so much,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng winced the way he always did when Lan Qiren acknowledged the forced sworn brother relationship between them. “It’s not doing you any good.”

Jiang Cheng snorted. That was true enough. “This is when most people say I ought to get a wife.”

“What would be the point? If you wanted one, you’d have one.”

“The matchmakers –”

“Cannot do anything if the person asking them for help is also purposefully sabotaging their attempts. It’s really no surprise that they’ve banned you for wasting their time.”

Jiang Cheng grumbled a bit at that, but didn’t argue – mostly because the wetnurse had finally come, holding Jin Ling (who was, in fact, beaming at the toy clutched in his hand), and the fact that Lotus Pier didn’t have a rule against speaking at mealtimes meant absolutely nothing if the only two options were the silent Lan Qiren and the unintelligible Jin Ling.

After, Jiang Cheng collected Jin Ling and went with Lan Qiren for a walk through some of the pavilions. They stayed silent for a long while, Lan Qiren picking paths at random – whether he liked after-meal walks for the purposes of digestion or if it was simply another Lan sect habit, Jiang Cheng didn’t know – but then they ended up in front of the empty courtyard that Jiang Cheng had once had built with Wei Wuxian in mind, naively dreaming about the day his right hand would stop with his nonsense and need a place of his own to live, not too far away, so that their children would one day be able to play with each other…

Jiang Cheng turned his face away, his mouth compressing into a hard line as he tried to control himself.

Lan Qiren slowed to a stop as well.

“He’s taken to including notes on the back of Wangji’s letters to me,” he finally said, looking out across the water to avoid eye contact – thoughtful of Jiang Cheng’s dignity, gracious as always. “Since you’re not accepting the ones he writes.”

Jiang Cheng laughed, though the sound of it hurt his throat. “I accept them. I just don’t read them, or reply…what’s the point? Everything that could be said has already been said.”

Lan Qiren frowned, clearly on the verge of disagreeing, but Jiang Cheng got ahead of him for once.

“Aren’t you angry?” The words burst out of his mouth. “Aren’t you – it’s his fault you’re here, instead of at home. At home, with your nephews, with your family…”

“I maintain an extensive correspondence with those members of my family I actually like, and for the first time in my life, I am able to ignore those I do not,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng choked on the sheer incongruity of the statement. “I will not deny that it is strange to be here, or to think that I will be here for a long while yet. But my family can visit me, and I them, and things will not remain this way forever.”

“Forever, no. But – still –”

“I do not see it as a burden to be here with you.”

Jiang Cheng’s mouth dropped open. Lan Qiren had hit the heart of the matter like a dagger to the chest.

“I have always liked you,” Lan Qiren continued, straightforward and serious and patient, as if it was the first time he was saying those words instead of it being the thousandth repetition – though Jiang Cheng would hear it a thousand times more if he could. “You were a pleasure to teach, and you have not only attempted but achieved the impossible by resurrecting your sect after such devastation. You accomplished that, not Wei Wuxian, and not Wei Wuxian’s golden core; if strength in cultivation were all that were required to lead a Great Sect, we would not be so few in number. Even though the circumstances were not what any of us might have wished, I am pleased to call you my sworn brother.”

He paused – that was where he usually ended this particular recitation – but this time he seemed as though he had more to say. After a moment, he continued.

“I am only regretful that I am not the one you would have wished I be.”

Jiang Cheng had to turn away again, his eyes and nose hot with viciously suppressed tears that had sprung up out of nowhere. It was true, painfully true: it wasn’t supposed to be Lan Qiren that was living here in the Lotus Pier, it wasn’t Lan Qiren that was meant to be Jiang Cheng’s sworn brother.

It should have been Wei Wuxian.

But after Jin Zixuan died and Jiang Yanli died, it hadn’t been Jiang Cheng who had come to Wei Wuxian’s defense against the cultivation world. He’d led the forces that aimed at the Burial Mounds himself, insensate with grief and convinced that Wei Wuxian must have died or lost his soul long ago to have done such terrible things. He’d had some hazy thoughts of being the one to capture him, somehow knock some sense into him, but if he were being honest with himself he knew that it probably wouldn’t have worked out well for either of them if he and the Jin sect had been the first ones to reach the Burial Mounds.

Only – he hadn’t been.

It’d been Lan Wangji that got there first, Lan Wangji that knocked Wei Wuxian out and stole him away along with the rest of the Wen remnants, hiding them all away where the cultivation world wouldn’t ever think to find them. He’d been the one to declare that he and Wei Wuxian had sworn brotherhood with each other, and that that made Wei Wuxian a member of the Lan sect, all but marrying him in as if he were a woman.

(The way his father had, when it had been his bride who was accused…not that anyone outside the Lan sect, and very select others like Jiang Cheng, knew about that.)

Even that stratagem might not have worked, regardless of the Lan sect’s (reluctant) willingness to stand behind Lan Wangji – the cultivation world had pulled back in its confusion and out of respect for the Lan sect’s standing as a Great Sect, but it wouldn’t have lasted very long, not with how angry they were at Wei Wuxian. Only then Wei Wuxian had somehow used the extra few days that Lan Wangji had bought him to figure out that Wen Ning and Wen Qing were not actually dead the way the Jin sect had said he was, only hidden away, and that the supposed attack in Lanling had in fact been of the Jin sect’s own creation, that they’d intentionally incited Wen Ning in order to have a reason to steal Wei Wuxian’s creation and raid the Burial Mounds for his notes, seeking the source of his powers.

Decrying demonic cultivation with one side of their mouth, pursuing it eagerly with the other: the Jin sect had behaved like hypocrites of the first order, and worse, there were rumors that certain small sects that had recently disappeared had not in fact merely scattered or been absorbed into other sects, but turned into experiment fodder for the Jin sect’s vile experiments.

Jin Guangshan, caught with his pants down, had splutteringly tried to exculpate his sect, and when that didn’t work, he cast all the blame on the newly named Jin Guangyao, the bastard child. He’d even blamed him for inciting Jin Zixun to go lay an ambush at the Qiongqi Path, setting up the initial confrontation with Wei Wuxian, and then sending Jin Zixuan out without proper backing, hoping to use Wei Wuxian as a weapon to eliminate the heir that stood in front of him on his way to Jin sect leadership.

He’d offered to have him executed to appease the cultivation world’s anger.

No one had entirely bought the idea of it all being Jin Guangyao’s fault, not really, but it wasn’t as though most of them were in any position to object, not with the Jin sect being one of the few that was still strong after the Sunshot Campaign. Jin Guangshan might have been able to get away with it, if it hadn’t been for Nie Mingjue stepping forward and claiming Jin Guangyao as a member of his sect through their sworn brotherhood, based on the very same precedent that Lan Wangji had just established. It had saved Jin Guangyao’s life and freed him to testify against his father, confirming all those deeply unfortunate rumors and even more…

Really, it was no surprise that Madame Jin didn’t want Jin Ling to be in Lanling City right now.

As for Lan Qiren, the situation had been quite simple. With the Jin sect in turmoil and the Nie sect temporarily disgraced for having willingly taken in a potential fratricide, and moreover Wei Wuxian, the founder of demonic cultivation, now firmly in the hands of the Lan sect, the entire order of the cultivation world had been turned on its head, with the Lan sect standing ascendant above them all.

Only the Jiang sect was out in the dark alone.

Lan Xichen was Nie Mingjue’s younger sworn brother as well, providing the Nie sect with security, and the Jin sect was in no position to demand anything for themselves; only Jiang Cheng and his sect were the losers, now lacking both Wei Wuxian and adding in the additional burden of Jin Ling, and it had been Jiang Cheng’s own foolish decisions that had led him to that point. In order to maintain balance, to keep the cultivation world from fearing another war like the last one, it seemed obvious to everyone that the Lan sect needed to turn over a hostage to the Jiang in order to maintain peace.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t liked that as the answer, but…it was his sect.

It was something he had to do.

He would always do what his sect needed him to do.

But the question arose of who the hostage could be. It had to be someone of the main line, someone important and valuable enough that the sect would be deeply invested in getting them back, and obviously it couldn’t be Lan Xichen, the sect leader. And yet it seemed cruel for it to be Lan Wangji, who had done so much for Wei Wuxian, who loved him so desperately and who, rumors said, was loved in return…

Even Jiang Cheng, who resented Lan Wangji to no end simply because of how soul-scaldlingly jealous he was of him, didn’t have the heart to split them up.

They had been trapped in a seemingly impassible dilemma, and it had been only solved when Lan Qiren had volunteered himself for the task, pointing out that his nephews would be committed to his well-being in just the way that was required; he’d then ignored their protests and swore brotherhood with Jiang Cheng, agreeing to go live in the Lotus Pier for as long as it took the cultivation world to grow steady and peaceful once more, which would probably only happen when Jin Ling reached adulthood and took on his father’s sect as his own. Sworn brotherhood was what it was called, but it was only a mockery of the more genuine connections that had come before – Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, who were lovers, and Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao, who were…something, anyway. In reality, though, out of all of them, Lan Qiren was the only one who really was nothing more than a hostage.

Lan Qiren had taken it more philosophically than Jiang Cheng had.

“It’s not that,” Jiang Cheng finally forced out through numb lips. “It’s not – I like having you here.”

The confession was true, but that sometimes felt like the worst of it, the worst betrayal he had yet done. Wei Wuxian had given Jiang Cheng everything, even his golden core, a revelation that only came after everything had all been agreed, Wen Qing furiously angry from her near-death experience and lashing out recklessly with the truth as her only weapon, no matter how much she regretted it later. Wei Wuxian had given it all to him, and here was Jiang Cheng, living happily, letting another person fill Wei Wuxian’s shoes, take his place, forcing the role on a person who didn’t even belong here, and being traitorously happy about it all.

After all, Wei Wuxian wouldn’t have known what to do with Jin Ling, not the way Lan Qiren did, experienced and confident. Wei Wuxian wouldn’t know all the things Jiang Cheng had never learned about sect leadership, wouldn’t be available as a teacher, as a guide, as a mentor. Wei Wuxian…

Wei Wuxian would never have said I do not see it as a burden to be here with you.

“I am glad,” Lan Qiren said simply.

He even meant it, too.

“I – I can’t –”

“Do not strain yourself. A journey takes a step at a time, you don’t need to rush ahead to the end.”

Jiang Cheng nodded, and looked down at Jin Ling, who’d since fallen asleep, sucking his thumb.

“A teacher,” he finally said, once he’d gotten enough control of himself. He let himself imagine it – not just the actual act of teaching, but the joys behind it: grading papers with Lan Qiren, discussing topics, exchanging anecdotes, rolling their eyes at their juvenile tricks. Even the thought of Jin Ling having more children to play with as he grew up, and a reason to come back every year even after he went back to Lanling… “I could get used to that idea.”

Maybe, one day, he could even bring himself to look at Wei Wuxian’s letters.

Maybe, one day, he could write back.

My family can visit me, and I them, and things will not remain this way forever – that was what Lan Qiren had said. If it was true for him, then why not, maybe, for Jiang Cheng as well?

One day.

Not yet –

But one day.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #lan qiren #my fic #my fics #last one of the fourth round of prompts!!!#I can finally close the document!#this one can be read as platonic or shippy as people prefer

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bbcphile · 8 months ago

Text

More Ask Memes Answered!

Thanks, @fealiniel, for asking for #29 from this list:

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic.

I sadly don't have any other deleted scenes I can share for MLC stuff, but maybe you'll accept the opening of my abandoned modern AU (summer music camp edition) for The Untamed?

Cw/tw: allusions to physical abuse

“Wei Ying, I swear to God, if you play one more note on that fucking thing, I’m chucking it out the window,” Jiang Cheng growled, gripping the steering wheel like he wanted to wring its non-existent neck.

“You’d have to catch it first,” Wei Ying laughed, flinging himself as far from his brother as the seatbelt of the front passenger seat would allow, and clutching his bright red slide whistle to his chest.

“A-Ying, no antagonizing the driver,” Jiang Yanli laughed from the backseat.

“But A-Cheng’s being mean, jiejie! He’s not appreciating my skills!” Wei Ying whined.

“You can’t be skilled at slide whistle, idiot,” Jiang Cheng snapped. “It’s not a real instrument.”

“Don’t listen to the cruel man, babe,” Wei Ying cooed at the slide whistle while stroking it gently, barely avoiding calling it ‘my precious.’ “He’s just jealous of what you and I can do together.”

“No one could be jealous of that racket. It makes me want to claw my eardrums out. What are you trying to do, raise the dead?”

“It’s not a racket! It’s “Flight of the Bumblebee!”” A piece Wei Ying happened to have one or two pretty fucking fantastic memories of from a summer orchestra camp not too unlike the summer festival they were headed to, as it happened. “And anyway, I’d like to see you try to play it.”

“Hand it over and I’ll show you what I can do--”

“--by tossing it out the window? Yeah, no thanks.”

“Boys,” Jiang Yanli said, laughing and leaning forward from the backseat to put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Enough. A-Ying, it’s very impressive but also very loud and probably distracting for A-Cheng. If you want to play, why don’t you get out your flute and go through the fingering for your audition pieces?”

“Jiejieeee,” Wei Ying whined, then flipped the reclining switch for the seat and flopped back until he was practically lying down and staring up at his sister where she was sitting behind their brother. “I’ve already practiced the fingering for each piece twice AND listened to them each on my headphones. I can’t do it again. I will literally die of boredom. And then fucking Su She will get all my solos—

“—They’re not your solos, jackass! You haven’t done your seating audition yet.”

“—No, but they will be, because I’m better than he is.”

“Ugh. You are so full of yourself!”

“I am not! I’m just being realistic. Anyway, as I was saying: if I die of boredom, then Su She will get my—yes, MY—solos, and that can just never happen. It would be so wrong it would destroy the universe.”

Jiang Yanli smiled and shook her head. “So the fate of the universe depends on your playing slide whistle, then?”

“Exactly. Jiejie’s so smart. Why can’t you be more like her, A-Cheng?” He reached out and lightly bopped Jiang Cheng’s leg with his knee.

“No hitting the driver!” his brother yelled.

Wei Ying stifled a giggle. It wasn’t very successful. “Now, see, that’s louder than my slide whistle playing. I really think there’s an unfair double standard here, and--”

“--Will you shut the fuck up?” Jiang Cheng bellowed. “I’m trying to pay attention to the goddamn road”

“Ok, ok! Man, someone’s grouchy. Why—Oh!“ Wei Ying’s mind ran ahead of his mouth for a change, supplying him the answer to the question before he could even ask it. He popped his seat back to an upright position and whipped around to look at his brother. “Is it because you’re nervous about doing the conductor program this summer?”

“Of course I’m not nervous,” Jiang Cheng snapped, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

“Good. You shouldn’t be. I saw you practicing in front of the mirror last night--”

His brother turned red and glowered at the road. “--I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t --”

“--Yeah you did. It was around three this morning. You were standing there, in your purple pjs in front of the mirror on the bathroom door, practicing--I’m guessing 4th movement of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” given the opening syncopation--”

“--why the hell were you spying on me?”

“It’s not like I meant to! I just started packing late and then I heard movement so I went to check it out, and you’d left your door open! But anyway, it was awesome. Totally professional and confident.” The energy that had been coursing through him all night until he gave up on sleep and had him bouncing his leg against the footwell of the car flared with a potential outlet. “Ooh, I’ve got an idea! Did you want to try conducting with one hand while driving and I’ll play along and try to follow your cues?”

“No, because I’m DRIVING, and because you’d be BLASTING YOUR GODDAMN FLUTE IN MY EAR. Do you have a single fucking brain cell, or did they get fried by playing too many high notes on the piccolo?”

“A-Cheng, be nice,” Jiang Yanli said. “You know how he gets before auditions.”

“Yeah, A-Cheng, be nice,” Wei Ying pouted at his brother. “You -- wait, what do you mean, ‘how I get before auditions’?”

Jiang Cheng snorted. “Like you don’t know.”

“I literally just asked. Why would I ask if I already knew?”

“To hear the sound of your own voice? Why else do you normally talk?”

“Ok, you two. That’s enough,” Jiang Yanli said. “A-Ying, I just meant that you tend to . . . have more energy before auditions. Or concerts.”

“It’s like you revert back to you at age ten. Pre-Ritalin. You’re impossible to be around. No wonder Wen Qing isn’t coming to the summer orchestra festival this year. Probably couldn’t wait to be rid of you.”

“Very funny. You were on the text thread when she said she was doing the MGH research internship instead. It has nothing to do with her being my stand partner.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Hey! Come on, she thinks I’m great!”

“She insults you in every other sentence.”

“Exactly! It’s how she shows affection.”

“That’s not a thing.”

Wei Ying laughed. “Ok, didi. If that’s how you want to play it. Anyway, if Wen Qing hated me, then why would she ask me to look after her younger brother, huh?”

Jiang Cheng jerked his head to look at Wei Ying, before scowling back at the road. “She did what?”

“It’s his first year at Tanglewood. I guess he’s kind of shy. So she asked me to introduce him to people and make sure he made friends, didn’t have too hard a time, that sort of thing.”

“Why the hell would she ask you? You’re the least responsible person there.”

“Come on, I’m a GREAT big brother,” Wei Ying said, leaning over into his brother’s space so the dyed red steak in his ink black hair flopped onto Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “I’m gonna mentor him so hard he won’t know what hit him.”

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle he didn’t sprain anything. “Yeah, right.”

Something about his tone sounded off. It wasn’t the normal type of grouchiness. He was genuinely pissed at something. “What does that mean?”

“What, you don’t remember how well you mentored me, my first summer at orchestra camp?”

Wei Ying scrabbled around in his memory banks, but there was a huge blank spot where the data should be. He huffed out a nervous laugh to hide a sinking feeling worse than when Ms. Yu brought her palm back to strike with all her considerable force. Wei Ying hid a wince behind a chuckle and twirled his slide whistle between his fingers. “Um. Did it involve my pointing out the best waffle iron at the buffet and which shower runs out of hot water first?”

Jiang Cheng glared at the road so hard Wei Ying was surprised it didn’t cower in fear. “You got fucking expelled, asshole. Ringing any bells now?”

Wei Ying winced and looked out the window. Apart for some soup-related memories and a few vignettes with an uptight violinist, most of the year he’d turned 14 and the eight years before that were shut behind a door in his mind labeled “Do Not Enter” with several padlocks, deadbolts, and a retina and fingerprint scanner for good measure. Thank fuck for containment strategies and good trauma therapists. Not that he’d found a way to tell his family about the reason for the gaping holes in his threadbare memory. Well, maybe one day. Just . . . . not this one.

He peeked in the peephole of the forbidden door and reached for a memory. There was a faded one, almost in black and white, of him music dueling a kid his own age who seemed determined to win ‘stick in the mud of the year,” some snatches of him getting bored and improvising flute parts instead of observing a 50 measure-long rest, and— “Ah. Right. That was the summer conductor Lan Qiren threw a baton at me, wasn’t it?”

“Of course that’s what you remember. I still can’t believe how fucking proud of it you were. As though that were anything to be proud of. You better not try that shit here, ok? You know what Mom said.”

Wei Ying forced himself not to grip the slide whistle too tightly. Ms. Yu had said that if he made a nuisance of himself, then she and Mr. Jiang wouldn’t pay the room and board for the Berklee School of Music next year. He’d gotten full tuition covered with his music scholarship, but even the two jobs he had lined up wouldn’t cover his share of the apartment he was sharing with his brother or all of the scores he needed to buy. “Oh come on. I haven't done stuff like that in years,” he insisted.

His brother gave him a doubtful look.

“Aiya, everyone’s so suspicious. Fine, fine. I’ll be on my best behavior. Scouts honor.” He lifted three fingers up to his forehead in a mock salute.

Jiang Cheng scoffed. “You were kicked out of the boy scouts.”

“Because they didn’t like that I protested their exclusionary practices!” Wei Ying said, waving his slide whistle at his brother to punctuate each word.

“It’s not like you’re trans! Why do you have to fight other people’s battles? Can’t you just not make a mess, for once? Fuck, it’ll be a nice change to not room with you.”

Here, at least, they were on solid, familiar ground. Wei Ying had memorized the notes to this piece within a year of being taken in as a foster kid. He started twirling the slide whistle between his fingers and gave his brother his most charming expression. “Aww, Jiang Cheng, don’t be like that. Come on, admit it, you’ll miss me.”

“Bullshit. How could I miss you? Or your piles of sheet music with illegible scribbles you scatter on the floor instead of keeping them in a notebook like a reasonable person? Or practicing at 3 in the morning?”

“What else am I supposed to do? Not write down or try out the melodies when they come to me? Now who’s ridiculous.”

“Well, they better give your roommate a refund. Or at least cover his therapy bills. God knows he’ll need it after he’s done with you.”

The only evidence of Wei Ying’s wince was the sixteenth-note hesitation that interrupted the otherwise rhythmic twirling of the slide whistle. “What are you talking about? I’m a fucking delight,” he said, pasting on a bright grin.

#Ask meme #The Untamed #Wei Wuxian #Jiang Cheng #Jiang Yanli #modern AU #abandoned fic

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thememecrown · 3 months ago

Note

Okay now I need to know why the Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian One Shot would become long

WHY?

Why Jiang Cheng is more mentally fucked than many other characters..

His mental mechanisms are so difficult to dismantle and make him calm down or make him think like a normal person... that his emotions like joy, happiness,kindness, comprehension etc. Only almost suffocated by those that are noticeable from afar such as anger, guilt, hatred, a sense of not being enough, pride, revenge... Let's not also add the desire to be right at all costs, not accepting kind gestures, wanting to be above expectations etc...

Then there are also traits that are found in many characters but he keeps them like a shield and well raised, he doesn't know how to manage other emotions but he knows how to manage anger (very badly but let's shut up)

An example? Lan Qiren. He is the perfect example, that's why I think my brain connected its neurons and said "okay if you have to fight Jiang Cheng, use Lan Qiren's method, break it like a twig xoxo :)"

The only difference is that I don't have to desperately search for a crack for Jiang Cheng (like I did for Lan Qiren), Jiang Cheng has a gaping hole that is well exposed. So to make ten chapters it would be easier to get a bit more lore about him :)

But this can't be done while I'm writing Jin Guangyao analysis, they have very similar traits and I might confess if I get distracted for a moment... It's making a huge mess, HUGE.

The thing is Jiang Cheng can't do certain things (even though dark Jiang Cheng made me salivate, I swear it could be soooo juicy)

But I'll think about it carefully, maybe I'll go ahead with the chapters and I'll decide from there !!!!

#ao3 #ao3 writer #the untamed #mdzs fic #jiang wanyin #canon jiang cheng #fanfiction #ao3feed

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whumpbby · 1 year ago

Note

Since i'm dropping some of my takes here on your ask box let me tell you my most controversial one. I fuck with Jiang Cheng more than i do Lan Xichen, like, i don't hate the guy, but his "bad choices" have a body count on the hundreds thanks to him neatly handing Jin Guangyao a solid backing in the form of sworn brotherhood with two main sect leaders and i don't care what anyone says Nie Huaisang was a 100% right to include him on his revenge. I love him as a character, i want him happy, but he's a bad politician (I also think that Xue Yang would kinda be his type but that's less of my views on his character and more my thoughts when i was delirious on a headache a few weeks ago)

I love to see other people's takes:)

I agree here to a degree.

I have... conflictung feelings about LXC. Because I like him a lot - he's a type of a character archetype I actually adore. The stoic, good, kind person that will also kick ass.

But he is not a great politician - partly due to his uncompromising kindness and partly due to being raised in Lan sect and knowing how his mother's situation played out.

My issues with the Lan are numerous and the hypocrisy is the main one. For all the rules stuffed into their heads, there doesn't seem to be much space left for actually wanting to be a good person. Hence Lan Xichen and Lan Sizhui are so interesting to me - they are the outliers. In general, the sects are focused on themselves, and to a degree that's to be expected, you want your people happy and fed first and foremost. But the Lan have this fame of being righteous and wise - but when you actually meet the Lan and see them act, that illusion kinda goes away. Lan Wangji picks fights with teenagers and wilfully destroys other people's property. Lan Jingyi "decorum I don't know her" is on that list too. Lan Qiren doesn't stick to his own rules. His brother was a rapist and that's somehow okay. It's all about visuals with them. Following the letter of the rules and not the spirit.

And then there's the fate of LXC's mother.

The woman imprisoned for a crime no one knows the reason of, that has spent her life paying and paying for it. Like, how horrific it had to be for Xichen to get old enough to start asking questions and finally realise what was happening? That he and his brother were a result of what was basically rape. (Sect Leader couldn't leave seclusion to, you know, run the sect but could do it to fuck? Okay then). That there wasn't a fair trial - just one mistake and a horrific lifetime of paying for it.

And I think as much as Wangji is scared of becoming his father (trapping the person he loves because he's ineffective at communication), Lan Xichen is scared of becoming the sect elders - of judging someone too harshly for one mistake.

Meng Yao is kind, helpful, gentle and wise - just like LXC's mother. That NMJ judges him so harshly for something he might have done without considering the reasons rings a bell with LXC. He's all about giving people second chances, chances to explain themselves and so on, because what if he makes a mistake and someone ends up like his mother? He is downright predisposed to falling for JGY's lies, just as Wangji is predisposed to be a doormat of a husband.

That's how I see it.

And yeah, his decision to swear the brotherhood comes form a position of immense privilege of not having to think too much - the fact he didn't even consider how it would shift the political powers either means he didn't care to consider anything but his current crush, or that there was a political play there (in maybe trying to limit the scope of Jin hegemony as the one sect standing that took almost no damage, which is what I think would convince NMJ to agree, because he's actually a decent politician when not deviating) that purposefully excluded Yunmeng Jiang and threw smaller sects to the wolves. Either way, not a good showing. Out of everyone, you'd expect Zewu-Jun to be caring for this stuff? (Can you even wonder why Yunmeng Jiang became known for being dangerous to mess with? What other choice did they have to secure their place at the table? JC doesn't have to be nice to anyone of them - no one was in his corner when he needed help, it's a wonder he even talks to these people and his sect being the last one standing undamaged at the end is poetic justice 👌)

Nie Huaisang was 100% right to include Lan Xichen in his plan. Even if not as a straight up revenge - then out of anger at the wilful blindness the man kept exhibiting. Because if Huaisang caught on that something wasn't kosher - how could it be that Lan Xichen didn't?

#lan xichen #mdzs #i like a big brother type #I'm not gonna lie

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truly-morgan · 1 year ago

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[AA cross-over, JC moves to the US, befriend Edgeworth]

Jiang Cheng + Miles Edgeworth | Mo Dao Zu Shi Cross-over Ace Attorney + Modern AU 30-05-2022

[#mdzs #AceAttorney cross-over, #jiangcheng #milesedgeworth, modern sett.]

Jiang Cheng hadn't been surprised when he was basically shipped to America.

"We are expanding our company, I need someone to look over it in America" his father had said.

He knew very well this was all so he wouldn't be close to him all while not angering him too much his wife as he wasn't kicking him out.

But it was alright, he could roll with it, he would show them.

and with that Jiang Cheng had started to work even harder than before, ready to prove what he could do. He was pretty satisfied that the result he had were better than what anyone else had expected at first.

all this was achieved by him never really taking a break, working hard nearly every day without much care for his health.

All this to his assistant exasperation. The man had known him even before he started working at his father's company, caring about the younger man. This lead him to force him to take a break once everything was more stable and no one could really argue about the incredible job he did.

this is how Jiang Cheng ended up forced on a vacation for a weekend, driving himself to some kind of somewhat isolated retreat spa or something like this, he didn't really follow what his assistant said as he was only thinking about the work he would be missing out on ("the tickets are already bought! You have no choice but to go" he was told).

"Maybe some calm will help me" he had sighed at some point on his way there.

He did raise a brow when he saw a car speeding in the opposite direction, wondering why anyone would drive so fast away from somewhere that was meant to make you relax.

"Gumshoe, I swear your pay will be revised in the next evaluation" he heard mumbled as he got out of his car, finding a man on the side typing on his phone.

"Everything's good sir?" Jiang Cheng asked, unsure if he should really intervene with the angry-looking man.

"I am trying to call the man who dare call himself my friend, but I have no signal" the man sighed in frustration, "May I ask if you might have any?" he politely asked while joining him.

Jiang Cheng did take a look at his own phone, offering a sorry smile to the man. "No signal either" he replied, "I see I am not the only one being forced here".

The man looked a bit surprised by his word, before letting another frustrated sigh leave him. "Dare I assume it is also because you are 'working too much'?" the stranger asked.

This made Jiang Cheng chuckle a little, still a bit frustrated about it too. "Yes".

There was a silence afterwards, making Jiang Cheng a bit awkward, unsure of what to do from here. He was relieved when the man decided to extend a hand towards him, presenting himself "I am Miles Edgeworth, prosecutor".

Jiang Cheng was a little surprised. He had heard about the man more than once before, although not always presented in a good light. He did suppose it changed a bit in recent times.

"Jiang Cheng, COO of the Jiang Corp. branch in America" he said next.

Some recognition seemed to also pass on to the other man's face. He was still not used to people vaguely knowing who he was.

"Why don't we head inside?" suggested Jiang Cheng, "If we are to be stuck here, might as well settle down and have some tea".

Edgeworth seemed to think about it, before another sigh left him, this time looking resigned to stay here. "I suppose it couldn't do too much damage to take the weekend off" he admitted.

Like this they went inside, taking care of their reservation ("It must be fate, our rooms are next to each other" Jiang Cheng had joked a little when they were given their keys).

It was already getting late on a Friday night and so they decided to have dinner together. "I am sure having some company will make this trip a little bit better" Edgeworth commented.

And it did make the weekend pass by more quickly and in a less boring (and lonely) way than he first thought it would be. He dared to assume it was the same for the lawyer.

He never expected to connect so easily with the man, both borderline workaholics.

sure the treatments at the spa helped him relax, but having someone to talk about (or sometimes bitch about) work was nice and surprisingly therapeutic. He felt like he couldn't really do this with his assistant since he was still trying to keep a vague impression of professionalism between them.

After their little forced vacation, they decided to keep in contact, meeting only now and then at first, usually to have tea or dinner.

but soon their little rendez-vous became more frequent. It was their own little way to have a day away from work (before being forced to have one again) where they could talk about work without it technically really being work.

Edgeworth would complain about his cases and how bad the investigation would have gone while drinking his tea, sometimes exasperated despite something in him not complaining that justice had been done right.

"You complain about him quite a lot, but you seem to like him just as much" Jiang Cheng teased him after yet another trial where he was up against Wright. This did earn him a scoff.

"You don't see me mentioning you also enjoying a certain young master's visit more than you would let shown" the man had argued back, which man Jiang Cheng roll his eyes, not without a small smile on his lips.

Sometimes they'd be joined by Jiang Cheng's nephew as he came to visit him with his parents. The boy had been shy at first towards the other serious-looking man, but had slowly warmed up to him despite not understanding what he would say, his jiujiu needing to play translator for them.

"I sadly never learned Chinese" Edgeworth admitted with a small smile, "maybe it could be something I should pick up one day"

"I could help you if you ever need someone's help" Jiang Cheng offered with a laugh, a little a-ling also giggling with him despite not understanding what was happening before going back to his drawing.

They enjoyed sharing a good cup of tea every Saturday, talking and sometimes just sitting in silence, enjoying the time spent together. Maybe the reason they met wasn't one they enjoyed, but they weren't so mad to have find a good friend at the same time.

====

(I ran out of ideas here but maybe one day I'll pick up this cross-over, I dunno why, I just feel like I wanna see more of these two workaholic sarcastic men together)

Original

#my writing #tweet archive #short story #mo dao zu shi #ace attorney #jiang cheng #miles edgeworth #cross-over #friendship #stressed out men #they both need a break #modern au #1k - 2k words

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lansplaining · 2 years ago

Text

[the (i think) penultimate snippet of a chengqing holiday romcom] [previous part]

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian sat in silence as Jiang Cheng pulled out of Jin Guangyao’s parking lot. Wei Wuxian tentatively reached for the dial on the car radio, and Jiang Cheng slapped his hand away.

“Why did you leave,” Jiang Cheng said flatly, eyes on the road. Even so, he could see Wei Wuxian squirm in the corner of his vision.

“Ha,” he said. “Getting right into it. Right. I... freaked out. I mean, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said. “But somebody had to be there to handle the estate, and the school, and Jin Ling.” He started to turn to Wei Wuxian, but forced himself to look back at the road. “Even if you didn’t care about us, how could you leave him?”

“Who said I didn’t--”

“You!” Jiang Cheng cried. “With whatever you-- Wen Qing said it, before she knew we knew each other, that she had a friend who’d grown up with a horrible foster family--”

“That’s not-- fuck, Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian dragged his hands through his hair. “That was about Uncle Fengmian and Aunt Ziyuan. Not you. Not jiejie. And not-- not Jin Ling, obviously not him, I-- I’ve felt guilty every day about leaving him. I’m sorry, Jiang Cheng.”

“I don’t need you to apologize,” Jiang Cheng said. “I’m not that pathetic. I just--”

He had, he realized, no idea what he needed or wanted, actually. Except for none of it to have happened. For Wei Wuxian to have been here all along. For him to have cared as much as Jiang Cheng did.

“I needed you.”

Wei Wuxian, typically, snorted. “No you didn’t. Look at everything you’ve done. The school-- Jin Ling--”

“Yeah, well--” He tightened his hands on the steering wheel, unable more than ever to look over at Wei Wuxian. Yes, he’d done it all by himself. He’d survived, he’d managed. But suddenly, he was thinking not only of Wei Wuxian, but of Wen Qing leading Jin Ling through the Christmas tree farm, of her hair falling loose as she helped lift a stupid tree onto the roof of his car. “Just because I can do it alone doesn’t mean I should have to.”

Wei Wuxian fell silent. This was unusual enough that Jiang Cheng stole a glance as they pulled into a red light. Wei Wuxian was staring down at his hands, clasped tightly together in his lap.

If you never cared-- Jiang Cheng teed up in his mind, but he stopped himself from saying it. He’d listened to those voice messages.

“I’m sorry,” Jiang Cheng said. “You-- were losing your family for the second time. I didn’t think about that.”

“You had other things on your mind,” Wei Wuxian said. “I should have reached out. But I was afraid you’d be angry. You were angry,” he adds, which-- well, fair.

Jiang Cheng heard the implicit question: so then why did you come back? Jiang Cheng shifted to pull Jiang Yanli’s phone out of his pocket and tossed it onto Wei Wuxian’s lap. Wei Wuxian’s eyes went wide, and he picked it up carefully, almost reverently.

All this time, they’d been shouting into the same void. Reaching for the same thing.

“Why did you come back?” Jiang Cheng asked after a moment.

“I told you, Lan Wangji’s private--”

“I get how, I said why.”

“Wen Qing,” Wei Wuxian said immediately. “When you left, she came back and said if you were secretly an abusive asshole, I had to tell her right now, and I said no, he’s outwardly an asshole but actually a great guy, and she said I was an idiot and as soon as Christmas was over, she was paying for me to come up here. And then Lan Wangji called-- I have no idea how he got my number-- and things just somehow snowballed from there.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Fuck if I know,” Wei Wuxian laughed. “The guy I’ve been in love with since we were teenagers just sent a private jet for me. I think I need to ask him some questions. I think... I’d like to get to know Jin Ling. Spend time with him. With you. If that’s--”

“If you say if that’s okay, I swear to fucking god--”

“Okay! Jeez.” Wei Wuxian sat back in his seat, smiling a little. “Okay.”

#chengqing christmas

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sasukimimochi · 2 years ago

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eurghhghgh this gets a little long but i'm not putting a read more line cuz i put TLDR at the bottom and i want that shown.

i'm starting to think uploading weekly is more difficult than i thought now that i'm trying to also work on other things during the week, i haven't had time to work on any of the companion fics for gom or any of my other projects, and i think GOM is suffering a bit for it [last week i did just basic sketches for the chapter bc i was struggling to get everything done in time]

and that means i also don't really have time to stream if i want to draw while you guys watch, since i stream for a few hours at least [the one i did the other day was about six hr, you can see the highlight reel here, since the vod will eventually be deleted as all vods disappear after like 7 days. i just trimmed off the start and end where i'm talking nonsense and saved that as my highlight reel. sorry about the audio being a bit funky for my mic i'll bring my laptop closer to me next time].

But also the biggest thing [on top of wanting to complete more chapters and make a buffer]: i really want to reread the entirety of Ghost of mine so i can check for errors or inconsistencies, all i could do last week was listen to the tts of 12-16 while trying to get a drawing for 17 prepared, and i couldn't fix all the errors i heard since i was just trying to fix the timeline errors as a minimum before posting the chapter. the extra time would give me more time to proofread Ghost of Mine carefully, as well as give the new chapters and art the attention it deserves. [and...actually take care of my irl self better, it's hard to find time for things like cooking and cleaning beyond what i do for the older man i live with].

So what i'm trying to say is although i didn't think i needed it before, i am changing my mind about it now. so i think it's a good idea for me to upload every two weeks instead of one...at least until i (hopefully) am able to catch up to the point of having stuff prepared ahead of schedule.

i swear on my god awful adhd that i will sit down with my sprint bot [a bot that times me and tracks my word count, not an AI], and write with no distractions at least once a day [unless i have things that i am forced to do and can't get to it, but i can get a lot done when i'm using the sprint bot to make myself focus]. So i will hopefully be making the two week change worth it by getting a lot done and being able to return to weekly updates when things are less cramped and there's stuff prepared properly ahead of time.

I hope that's alright with all of you, cuz i love working on gom it's just a lot for me to get done in a week with everything else i want to do!!

just imagine if i had more time i might be able to start posting TWPT along side gom [it's the jiang cheng lan xichen companionfic for GOM that i haven't had time to write as of late, i have it completely outlined but i just don't have time to write it anymore rn. check it out on the masterpost for my MDZS projects]. or the MXY companionfic as well, which i already started but i can't keep working on because of time as well.

basically there's a lot going on for gom besides the main fic that i haven't been able to get to and it just continues to get further behind in those aspects because i can't get the time for it. so really, i need those two weeks and i'm only just now admitting it to myself that i can't push out updates every two days like i used to and especially not now with these other projects and wanting to branch my stuff out more. There's so much i wanna do! lmao

TLDR; i want to change to bi-monthly updates for GOM so that i can increase my quantity and quality of all projects and future updates properly. I appreciate your amazing patience and i hope to make this change worth it!

i will always update you guys if i make changes like this. i can't leave the changes in your hands completely, but i will continue to upload on sunday since that's the day you guys like! expect the next GOM update on the 23rd instead of the 16th, and every two weeks from the 23rd.

#sasu speaks #GOM updates #GOM #Ghost of Mine

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wangji-xiong-enjoyer · 1 year ago

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~MDZS~

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation

Audio Drama🌬️

Reading/watching/listening thread 🧵

(I copied it off my twt post, sue me)

I was originally just going to keep it on twt but then I started actually going thro my notes and wow. That...was a lot. And twt is a pain when you talk too much. (And I can edit so much better here??? The alignment is still my enemy though)

So yeah.

But anyways this is extremely random and mainly for the purpose of recording my immediate feelings to refer back to incase I ever want to write fanfics or something of that nature. Thought I had to re-read instead but this beats it.

It is also after everyone has already done listening and raving about it but here I am, late to the party.

Mostly because audio media (other than songs) were never my thing because unless I pay actual attention to it deliberately, I WILL tune it out lmao. Never thought I'd do it.

It's so funny that it took me more than a year (maybe two?) To finally get down to the audio drama lmao

I saw some snippets of faraway wanderers, erha and thousand autumns on yt. So i think I really may grow to love audio dramas in general too (ALSO I DIDN'T KNOW 2HA HAD AD?!)

But anyways onwards, enough rambling.

The voice actors are amazing, I love all of them but LAN XICHEN'S LAUGHTER IS SO PLEASANT?

Jiang Cheng's common name sounds so pleasant that it's a pity they don't use it often enough.

Before I start,

This is not spoiler free obviously, incase someone does stumble on this (I highly doubt that but still.)

Any screenshots shared are from the amazing suibian subs!

Now I am going to go and organise my random mess of notes before posting them season and episode wise.

😌✌️

Anddd that's all copied from twt.

I swear, my notes are actually more organised and nicely framed than this.

I was also thinking of doing a novel comparison side by side by that'll be too much so maybe I'll do that later.

P.S ignore the tags, they don't have any wisdom, just my attempt to throw as many hooks I can to keep my posts organised ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#mdzs #the grandmaster of diabolism #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic arts #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #audio drama #mdzs audio drama #mo dao zu shi audio drama #my posts #listening thread #listening posts #Reading/watching/listening thread #Reading/watching/listening post

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meteortrails · 5 months ago

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personally I’d argue that they both absolutely do have loved ones attempting to help. before everything starts going wrong during the sunshot campaign, jin guangyao has lan xichen and nie mingjue, both highly respected sect leaders who would’ve been more than happy to put their reputations on the line for him, firmly in his corner. but when things don’t go to plan and jin guangshan doesn’t acknowledge him still, he doesn’t go back and ask them for help, and he’s never fully honest with them after this point (he does a good show of it w/lan xichen but we know for a fact he’s not telling him the whole story). and his relationship w/su she never really seems to be one between equals, where the burden is truly being shared - jgy always holds all the cards, just like he always does.

and on the the other hand, jiang cheng and lan wangji may not be the best communicators (understatement of the year), they both actively attempt to get wwx to let them in and tell them what the hell is going on with him. the most that wwx ever hurts either of them is when he goes on one of his self sacrificial impulses and then says that they should just denounce him to the world so he’s the only one to face the consequences. nobody who truly loves you wants to see you suffer alone - if you cannot trust someone to help you when you are most in need of help, can you really say you trust them at all? this is like, the crux of the dysfunction between wwx and jc- it makes jiang cheng incandescently furious that wwx does not trust him enough to not shoulder all his burdens alone. I’ll never forget the scene where the wens go to sacrifice themselves and wwx thinks to himself ‘holy shit, no wonder everyone hates it when I pull this - it’s awful and violating and I hate it.’

this isn’t said to villainize either of them, or minimize the fact that there were reasons they didn’t want to share certain things with their loved ones. they had their reasons and some them were even good, but that doesn’t erase the impact it had on the people they cared for. jgy does a very good imitation of relying on people and asking them for help, and it’s a big part of why he has so many good positive relationships right up til the end, but he just can’t ever fully take the mask off, sometimes even when he wants to. su she never gets the part of him that believed in and cared about lan xichen to the extent that he was willing to swear brotherhood with nie mingjue for him; lan xichen never gets the part of him that was vindictive enough to kill his father in the way that he did. and the houses of cards wwx and jgy both built inevitably come crumbling down and suffocate them in the process - once nie mingjue’s corpse was reassembled, jgy’s death was mostly just a matter of time.

I mean fundamentally the issue with both jin guangyao and wei wuxian that ultimately leads to their deaths is that they can’t ask for help. when it really matters, when it comes down to the wire, both of them chose to take care of it themselves no matter what it could cost them, despite the fact that they both had trusted loved ones who were actively attempting to help! and their refusal to truly let anyone in gets the both of them killed. wwx’s choice to finally be open and honest with lan wangji and rely on him to help him navigate this new life is a big part of why he actually gets a second chance and why they’re able to actually catch jgy. idk i just think this idea of trust and relying on the people you love to help you is such a huge part of the novel and i really, REALLY like it

#mdzs #sorry this is so long 😭 but I’ve been thinking more about this post anyways bc it’s at the very least a fundamental part of wwx’s character #they’re both independent to a fault and I love them for it #but yeah I think jgy genuinely cared about su she but. it’s clear that at the least su she wasn’t confident he cared about him more than lxc #where jgy was willing to put himself at risk to try and leave lxc on good terms he was ok leaving su she to die #there was affection and care there but. I doubt jgy was completely open and honest with him. I doubt that he truly relied on him as a person #not as a pawn

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niilue · 2 years ago

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i know you love jiang cheng so can i ask for him being forced to masturbate for the reader? I can't get rid of the image of him blushing and cursing, wanting to go against your order but knowing you won't touch him until he obeys. whether he gets the reward of being able to cum or not is up to you ♡

ෆ ִ ׁ sub jiang cheng

cw; dom reader, sub character, gender neutral, forced masturbation, needy boy, reader kinda mean, shy but moody, jiang cheng

"i really hate you (name)" spat jiang cheng as he clutched his crotch, trying unsuccessfully to hide his wetness and hardness.

cute cute jiang, slightly flushed on his cheeks and what was more adorable was to see his ears red from the embarrassment of the situation.

"mmm, of course you don't hate me honey, just look at you." you walked up to him and gently took him by his chin. his eyes sparkled for a second when he thought you were going to kiss him. but you just smiled sideways and walked away.

leaving behind a very angry and needy jiang cheng, with his lips half open and wet and a more prominent scowl than before.

"you fucking idiot, you don't know how much I want to…" the black-haired man kept cursing you while you looked at him with desire, more and more.

you sighed and raised one of your eyebrows biting your lips. "shut your mouth, honey and let me see how much you want me." you sat up spreading your legs and patting your thighs. "if you're nice, maybe I'll let you ride here." you said teasingly.

jiang opened his mouth between indignant but damn tempted, you knew he was hard and thirsty for you. and you also knew how much he hated it when you ordered him around.

you lifted your shoulders nonchalantly and settled in ready for the show.

"get your hands off me, let me see."

reluctantly you did so, cursing what a pervert you are. "you're a freeloader."

as you watched the way his cock rose above his robes you could tell how fucking hard it was. so you wanted to play with his patience a little.

"rub your hands over your cock…- do it slow love, without cumming."

the man didn't love the way you commanded him but you did see the relief in his eyebrows as he touched his throbbing erection. using both his hands and the friction of the cloth to pleasure himself.

"mhng,aaah-" little sighs of pleasure escaped from his mouth. he didn't even look at your face you could swear this embarrassed him too much.

"watch me while you do it sweetie, don't get delicate when you're a slut." you said admiring him and laughing at how bad these words had made your lover feel.

"and you're a fucking bastard who loves this slut." he spat looking at you with watery eyes and trembling lips. still he obeyed your order and continued touching himself. this time his movements were faster.

"well, that's true i can't deny it." you winked at him making him squeal. "now take off that annoying garment and let me see your torso. i'm sure your nipples want to be touched too."

the man closed his eyes as the garment fell off and accidentally rubbed against your nipples, making him give a little jump that you'd swear almost made him run.

you watched as jiang cheng bit his lips while one of his hands pinched your sensitive pink button and with the other hand he used the palm of his hand to rub the tip of your nipple.

again and again. this was the simple order, to touch each other sensually and shamelessly in front of you, without cumming until you said so.

"nhg- fucking hell…isn't this enough to mortify (name) me, i'm already- ahggg!"

"don't even think about cumming, if you do, you'll face the consequences honey." you said in a serious manner.

jiang whimpered and did an annoying little kick, biting his lips hard and crossing his legs as he felt the excitement want to take over him.

he was sweating and panting constantly, his legs were shaking and he was a mess. too cute.

"do you like what you do? tell me what you would like from me?"

the black-haired man snorted and looked away, still touching himself, obviously. ignoring your question.

"come on love, it's nothing i don't know."

"then what the hell do you want to hear it for, huh?" he said angrily.

you took the opportunity to pull down your lower clothing, leaving nothing exposed on him.

"if you tell me, the next thing you'll see is you riding me like a maniac, my love.

#dom reader #sub characters #jiang cheng x smut #sub jiang cheng #mdzs #dom x sub #dom!reader #gender neutral dom #sub mo dao su zhi #mo dao su zhi #jiang cheng #seme male reader #male domination #x smut #smut #mo posts #sub character

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robininthelabyrinth · 2 years ago

Text

I got a whole lot of prompts for evil!Lao Nie and I couldn't think of how to fill them for ages and ages and then I woke up today and I figured it out. So here you go

---

“Qiren, Qiren! Aren’t you going to introduce me? Where are those vaunted manners of yours?” the man boomed, a wide grin on this face. He was a broad-shouldered man, dressed in all white, the guest robes the Lan sect gave out to people who’d damaged their own; he looked amiable, even a little mischievous in the way he beamed at Lan Qiren, who looked only stern and austere, disapproving frown on his face, in return.

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but be charmed, a little.

“Yes, Teacher Lan, won’t you introduce us?” he said, unable to resist trying to tease the older man – unthinkable when he’d been younger, but several decades of acquaintance whenever Lan Xichen was too busy to see him allowed for some leeway.

…or so Jiang Cheng had thought, anyway. Lan Qiren’s face was locked into a frown – a scowl, even – and it didn’t budge one bit, making Jiang Cheng take half a step back, suddenly embarrassed as if he’d done something horribly awkward.

“Sect Leader Jiang,” Lan Qiren said stiffly, biting out each word as if it pained him. “Allow me to introduce to you the worst man I have ever had the misfortune of meeting.”

Jiang Cheng stared blankly. What in the world…?

Lan Qiren had met Wen Ruohan. How could this man be worse?

“No, he’s right,” the man said, still cheerful, still amiable. “Let me salute you, Sect Leader Jiang! I’m given to understand that I ruined your life.”

There were quite a few people Jiang Cheng could say that about, but he still had no idea who this was.

“I see,” he said, playing for time. “You…”

“He’s the one who poisoned my uncle.”

Jiang Cheng’s head turned involuntarily. That was Wen Ning, standing there in the shadows as always, and Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian next to him – also staring at him in shock, which was comforting.

Wait. Wen Ning’s uncle? But wouldn’t that mean it was…

Wen Ning was staring straight at the man.

“It was you,” he said. “Wasn’t it?”

“It was,” the man agreed. “You’re Wen Ning, aren’t you? I guess I ruined your life, too…but you don’t get my salute, I’m afraid. It’s just your bad luck.”

“Bad luck!” Lan Qiren exclaimed. He looked offended.

“It is!” The man laughed. “I told Wen Ruohan that I’d wipe his surname off the face of the earth if he double-crossed me. He did, so I did; so it’s only this little gongzi’s bad luck that the leader of his family condemned him.”

“You poisoned Wen Ruohan,” Jiang Cheng said, more questioning than a statement. “I hadn’t even known he’d been poisoned..?”

“It’s all Qiren’s fault,” the man said, and Lan Qiren flinched as if he’d been stabbed. “He’s the one who’s always yattering on about the Lan sect rules – and above all, restraint! Restraint, restraint, restraint…he’s right, too. A sect leader who cannot restrain himself will inevitably overreach, and then the rest of the world will have to correct that overreach.”

The man’s smile widened.

“And it did!”

“You’re saying you did something that took away Wen Ruohan’s restraint?” That was Wei Wuxian. He sounded as confused as Jiang Cheng felt – confused, but also starting to get angry. “And then he – do you know what he did?!”

“Save your words,” Lan Qiren said heavily. “He doesn’t know the meaning of shame or regret. He even arranged his own death to achieve his aims.”

Jiang Cheng blinked, then looked closer: the man’s skin was ashen, like Wen Ning’s. He really was a resurrected corpse, or maybe a ghost of some sort.

“Hardly arranged,” the man demurred. “Inspired, perhaps.”

“You ensured that Wen Ruohan would be the one to kill you, thereby condemning your son to ruin his life by swearing an oath of vengeance against him. And that was the point.”

“And Mingjue did it wonderfully,” the man – the former Sect Leader Nie, apparently? – replied, unruffled. “So what’s the problem? While we may have taken the long way to get there, in the end we got to the outcome I wanted: my sect at the top of the heap, and his all gone. I’m quite satisfied.”

“Wen Ruohan destroyed the cultivation world,” Jiang Cheng snapped, his horror transmuting to anger. “He – my family, my entire sect – countless others – and you say you’re satisfied?! How dare you?!”

“I dare anything,” the former sect leader Nie said. “Anyway, there’s no point in recriminations. I’m already dead; I wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for Lan Qiren. I’m only here to be appeased.”

“Be – appeased?!” Jiang Cheng looked to Lan Qiren. “Teacher Lan?”

“He swore to eradicate Wen Ruohan’s family,” Lan Qiren said tightly. “While I did not know the full details until very recently, it appears that he has been unquestionably successful in doing so. I summoned his spirit here to make an offering – a swap, of sorts.”

“A swap?”

“He wants to give me something nice enough that I agree not to finish the job,” the man said. He was still smiling, horribly enough. “After all, isn’t there still one left?”

#mdzs #lan qiren #jiang cheng #wen ning #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons

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bloody-bee-tea · 3 years ago

Text

Lost

Jiang Cheng lets out a deep breath once he’s out of the hall. This has to be the fifth celebratory feast that is happening this week alone and he is tired of them. Sure, they worked hard for it, and they deserve it, but there’s also still so much to do. Not even to mention all the people they lost and the places that need rebuilding.

Jiang Cheng thinks that maybe they should stop celebrating so lavishly and get started on that, but then again it’s not as if Jin Guangshan shares any of his worries. He barely lost anything in this war.

Jiang Cheng tries to push these thoughts as far away as possible, because he’ll have enough to do in the future. There’s no space for all this hate he feels towards Jin Guangshan. He’ll need his energy for other things soon enough.

He aimlessly wanders around, hoping to get a clear head but the sounds of the feast can still be heard. Jiang Cheng doesn’t begrudge anyone the joy they get from it, but he’d prefer some peace and quiet right about now.

And it seems like he is not the only one, he realizes, as he spots a shadow in the dark.

Usually Jiang Cheng would move past–he left the feast to be alone after all–but he recognizes Nie Mingjue even in the deep of the night and he finds that he can’t just walk away.

Especially not when he notices the vacant look on Nie Mingjue’s face.

“Hey, you alright?” Jiang Cheng asks as he sits down next to him but he gets his answer a second later when Nie Mingjue starts to hyperventilate.

Jiang Cheng has seen his fair shares of panic attacks–both with an anxiety riddled Wei Wuxian when he first came to Lotus Pier and with soldiers on the battlefield–so Jiang Cheng kneels down in front of Nie Mingjue and takes his hand to place it on his own chest.

“It’s alright,” he says, keeping his voice down and trying for a soothing tone. “You’re safe, it’s just me here. How about we breathe a little bit, huh? In,” Jiang Cheng takes an exaggerated breath in, “and out.” He makes sure to keep Nie Mingjue’s hand on his chest, so he can feel the movement.

It takes a while until Nie Mingjue can follow along with Jiang Cheng’s breathing and even then Jiang Cheng keeps it up until Nie Mingjue takes his hand away.

“It’s fine,” he roughly says, clearly embarrassed and Jiang Cheng nods, deciding to give him face for now, instead of prodding further.

Besides, Jiang Cheng learned that most people are not good with silences. So he simply keeps quiet as he sits down next to Nie Mingjue and waits him out.

He doesn’t have to wait too long, though.

“Xichen wants me to swear brotherhood with him and Meng Y–Jin Guangyao,” he finally whispers and Jiang Cheng bitterly presses his lips together.

Of course. Leaving Yunmeng Jiang neatly out of the equation, and with the perfect excuse on top of that. Four is an inauspicious number, after all.

“And what do you want?” Jiang Cheng asks, because for all the bitterness in him, he realizes that Nie Mingjue is apparently not as okay with this as he might think.

“I don’t know what to do,” Nie Mingjue says and the lost look is back on his face. “I just–I don’t know,” he breathes out.

“You can accept or decline,” Jiang Cheng says with a small frown. He doesn’t think it’s that deep, and it certainly shouldn’t be enough to send Nie Mingjue into a panic attack.

Nie Mingjue’s breath goes a bit more shallow at his words and Jiang Cheng is quick to press their shoulders together. Jiang Cheng is no longer sure what is going on but he thinks prodding Nie Mingjue for answers might not be the right course of action.

They got–somewhat close over the course of the Sunshot Campaign, mostly due to the fact that there weren’t a lot of other people of the same standing they could talk to. Lan Xichen was traveling between their different bases as a courier and barely stayed for long enough to have a non-critical conversation with. And Jin Zixuan–well, he was more concerned to not lose any more face for his father than striking up a conversation with Nie Mingjue or Jiang Cheng and that really only left Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue. And they have found their way together–on the battlefield and afterwards–more often than not. It had been good, to have at least one person to confide in, to talk to during this whole mess of a war and Jiang Cheng already knew that he is going to miss their late night talks once they both return to their own Sects.

Or the burned out shells of their Sects, in Jiang Cheng’s case.

“I just–” Nie Mingjue starts but then cuts himself off with a look towards Baxia. “I don’t know what to do now.”

It sounds like a confession of a sorts and Jiang Cheng frowns. There’s always so much to do and even for Qinghe Nie, whose lands are mostly untouched by war, there surely must be something to rebuild.

But before Jiang Cheng can articulate any of his thoughts, Nie Mingjue goes on.

“I was made for this, you know. I–I’m sure you don’t remember but I ascended as Sect Leader even younger than you are now.”

Jiang Cheng doesn’t even want to imagine that, because if he’s being honest, then he still feels too young, even now.

“I was not even sixteen at the time when my father died. And since then my only purpose has been to kill Wen Ruohan.” He lets out a bitter chuckle. “And even before that as well. My father was always suspicious of Wen Ruohan, so as soon as I could pick up a sabre, I had to. I mean–I am martially inclined so it wasn’t that much of a hardship but I only ever trained with the explicit goal to one day be able to kill Wen Ruohan. Huaisang makes fun of me for not appreciating the arts, for never sitting down to relax and do something I like but the truth is–I don’t know what that is. I never had any free time I could spend like I wanted. I only learned calligraphy because it’s needed for Sect business. I never learned an instrument or how to paint. I wasn’t allowed to. And now–”

“And now you feel bereft of the only goal you ever had,” Jiang Cheng finishes for him when it seems like Nie Mingjue can’t.

“And it’s not even that,” Nie Mingjue eventually goes on. “It’s our cultivation style as well. We cultivate our sabres differently than you do your swords. And it’s killing us. Baxia is a very good sabre and trying her hardest not to hurt me, but it’s already started. The qi deviations will only get worse from here on out and it was fine, before, you know, because–”

Nie Mingjue cuts himself off and Jiang Cheng has to blink against the burning of his eyes. If all of that comes together for Nie Mingjue right now, then he can definitely understand where he’s coming from.

“Because you thought you wouldn’t survive Wen Ruohan anyway,” he whispers into the night.

“I thought I’d be long dead,” Nie Mingjue agrees with a small nod. “And instead I have to figure out what to do now.”

Jiang Cheng mulls his next words over for a while but he figures it’s best to go with honesty when it comes to Nie Mingjue.

“I can’t say that I can relate,” Jiang Cheng huffs out. “There is so much I have to do now, and I don’t know how to do any of it. I wasn’t properly trained as Sect Leader, you know. I don’t know enough about trade agreements, rebuilding, training, budgeting or even leading in general. And on top of that I have to deal with a wayward shixiong and a sister who might yet still marry out. I don’t even know where to start, honestly.”

“You already did a good job, though,” Nie Mingjue tells him and somehow manages a small smile for Jiang Cheng. “You showed up here with disciples, people who follow you. I would say you have the leader part down.”

“That’s not gonna help me figure out how to pay for rebuilding, though,” Jiang Cheng gruffly says, uncomfortable with Nie Mingjue’s praise. “I think I’ll have to rely on your guidance for a while there.”

At his words Nie Mingjue turns towards Jiang Cheng, a strange light in his eyes.

“What if I help you in a more hands-on manner?” he wants to know and Jiang Cheng frowns.

“How?”

“I mean–I have to figure out what to do now, right? And I know all the things you just mentioned. I’ve had experience with them. I could help you, teach you.”

“You have your own Sect to lead, though,” Jiang Cheng interjects and Nie Mingjue shakes his head.

“Being a Sect Leader is all I know. That and being a warrior. There–has to be something else, surely? And if I help you, I get a break of being–both of these things and you can benefit from my expertise.”

The idea is not without merit, Jiang Cheng has to admit that, but still–

“What about your Sect?”

Nie Mingjue hesitates for a moment before he shakes his head. “Huaisang has to learn. Even without the war, the qi deviations will kill me before three years have passed if I keep cultivating the way I do. And he showed he has a head for logistics during the Sunshot Campaign. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to make him acting Sect Leader, so he can gain some experience. It’s not like I’m out of reach for him. I would just be–with you.”

“With me,” Jiang Cheng whispers and ruthlessly smothers the rising feeling in his chest.

He got kind of good with that over the course of the Sunshot Campaign. It did help that either of them could die at any moment, so giving any more thought to these feelings was downright stupid, but now the war is over and Nie Mingjue is right here next to him.

And he’s offering to stay at Lotus Pier indefinitely.

“I can’t ask you to do that,” Jiang Cheng mutters and Nie Mingjue huffs.

“But you’re not asking. I’m offering. And honestly, you’d do me a favour. Like that I would still feel useful, have something to do. I can figure out what I really want. Who knows, maybe I have an ear for music or a head for poetry.”

He’s trying for a joke, Jiang Cheng can tell and despite everything he has to laugh. He truly can’t imagine Nie Mingjue as a poet.

“Maybe,” he allows and his stomach does that funny thing again when Nie Mingjue smiles at him.

“It would also give me time to put down Baxia and figure out a way to make it so that she won’t kill me. It’s probably a good thing Huaisang doesn’t like picking up his sabre.”

“We have–” Jiang Cheng starts, fiddling with the bell at his belt and wondering if he can share this secret with Nie Mingjue.

But he thinks if he can’t share it with him, then there might never again be someone.

Nie Mingjue looks expectantly at him and Jiang Cheng takes a deep breath.

“Our clarity bells are called that for a reason. We have some background as healers and even though my mother never liked me learning that stuff, my sister took me with her sometimes. I picked up a thing or two. Maybe enough to help.”

And even if he didn’t pick up enough to help right now, Jiang Cheng is convinced that he can figure something out. There has to be a way to counter the side-effects of the cultivation, if only so that Nie Mingjue might live a year longer.

“Would you?” Nie Mingjue whispers as if he doesn’t even dare to ask the question. “Help?”

“I think it’s the least I can do if you offer to help me first,” Jiang Cheng snaps but then he takes a deep breath. “But yes, of course. Even if you didn’t help me. If I had known that you had these problems then I would have offered to anyway.”

He might not have offered it for everyone else but this is Nie Mingjue. Jiang Cheng would probably offer him a whole lot more if he’s being honest.

“Thank you,” Nie Mingjue breathes out and leans in to press their shoulders together. “Thank you.”

His voice is a little choked up and Jiang Cheng is not sure what to do with that.

“Yeah, sure,” he awkwardly mumbles and stares out into the dark.

They fall into silence for a moment, and even that is nice. Jiang Cheng thinks back to the things Nie Mingjue has admitted to and it makes him feel even more for the other man. It must be hard not knowing your own purpose and he hopes that Nie Mingjue will figure something out for himself.

But these thoughts only bring him back to the original topic at hand.

“But what about the sworn brotherhood?” Jiang Cheng forces himself to ask because even if he doesn’t want to hear about this, he’ll need to know if only so he can prepare Yunmeng Jiang for it.

“I should agree to it,” Nie Mingjue mutters and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“Forget about what you should do for a moment. What do you want to do?” he asks and Nie Mingjue huffs out a laugh.

“Didn’t we just establish that I have no clue what to do now?”

Jiang Cheng laughs as well.

“Fair, I guess. But for this you must want something. I assume it’s safe to say that you want to be sworn brothers with Lan Xichen, right? But what about Jin Guangyao?”

Nie Mingjue had confided in him once, what he caught Jin Guangyao doing back then and for Jiang Cheng that would be an unforgivable breach of trust. But maybe Nie Mingjue is different.

“Do you trust him?” Jiang Cheng asks when Nie Mingjue fails to answer and this finally prompts a reaction from him.

“No.” The answer is quick and immediate. “No, I don’t. But Xichen, he–I’m not sure he understands.”

“Understands what?”

“Jin Guangyao is–the things he did–you can argue that it was to keep his cover but the satisfaction and glee in his eyes–” Nie Mingjue hesitates. “You can’t fake that. No actor in the world could fake that. And if we take into consideration what he did back in Qinghe– No. I don’t trust him, and I don’t think I ever can, not again.” Nie Mingjue balls his hands into fists. “He killed my men and he hurt me, and he liked it. You should have seen the look on his face. He liked it.”

“I believe you,” Jiang Cheng whispers, wary of the look on Nie Mingjue’s face. “It’s alright,” he says, carefully putting his hand on Nie Mingjue’s arm.

He doesn’t want to lose him to another panic attack and the faraway look in his eyes suggests he’s heading there again.

“It’s not–I–” Nie Mingjue cuts off. “What else am I going to do? Tell Xichen no?”

Jiang Cheng bites his tongue when the words that want to slip out are ‘Maybe you should for once’ and instead he thinks it over for a few moments.

There is another idea forming in his head.

“Or you could swear brotherhood with me,” he finally says, and it feels wrong to so boldly ask for that, especially when he didn’t even make the cut in the first place, but with everything they have talked about, Jiang Cheng thinks it might just be okay.

Nie Mingjue sucks in a surprised breath but before Jiang Cheng can feel self-conscious about his offer, his face lights up.

“That’s actually perfect!” Nie Mingjue exclaims and turns towards Jiang Cheng again.

The look on Nie Mingjue’s face reminds him more of the one he used to wear for a moment when they won a battle and Jiang Cheng forces himself to relax. Of course Nie Mingjue wouldn’t judge him harshly for asking for something for himself.

Jiang Cheng should have known better.

“Like this it’s much more plausible for me to stay in Lotus Pier for a while; it’s my duty as the older and more experienced one to guide you after all, and it would give you tangible ties to my Sect. This is much better.”

He sounds satisfied but Jiang Cheng can’t help but to chime in.

“For me. It’s better for me,” he mutters, because while he gets that it would be a valid excuse for Nie Mingjue to take a break as leader, it wouldn’t really benefit him at all.

There’s still a very good chance that Jiang Cheng will fuck up and drive the Yunmeng Jiang Sect into the ground, even with Nie Mingjue’s help.

“Yes? That’s a good thing. You deserve good things, you know.”

“You, too,” Jiang Cheng immediately gives back. “You deserve to take a break and figure out what you want, you know.”

Nie Mingjue laughs at his words and Jiang Cheng sighs a silent breath of relief. It seems like Nie Mingjue’s mood has improved and Jiang Cheng is glad for it. He didn’t like seeing Nie Mingjue hopeless and lost like that.

He’s also just a little bit proud that he was the one to help chase those bad feelings away but he doesn’t dare to linger on that thought for too long.

“Thank you,” Nie Mingjue says, leaning in yet again to press their shoulders together. “Really, thank you. When I came out here, I was–lost. Have been ever since the war ended, really. But now there’s a plan, something for me to do. Thanks to you there might just be a future for me yet.”

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng grumbles because he feels uncomfortable with that praise. “It was all your idea anyway, and I’m only profiting. It would be stupid of me to refuse.”

“It would have been in your right. It still is,” Nie Mingjue says, searching Jiang Cheng’s eyes to make sure he understands that it’s still an option.

As if Jiang Cheng would ever give this up again.

“You let an outsider meddle with your Sect. It would have been your right to yell at me and spit curses. Instead you agreed, and for that I am thankful.”

“I would be stupid not to, outsider or not. There’s a bigger chance that I’ll ruin the Sect with my ignorance or even on accident than you doing it on purpose.” Jiang Cheng hesitates. “I trust you, you know. Not just on the battlefield.”

“And I am grateful for that. I promise not to break that trust,” Nie Mingjue replies and he’s earnest enough that Jiang Cheng believes him without hesitation. “I’m not even allowed to, as your elder brother now,” he then adds with a wink and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“I’m sure that a vow has never been enough to stop people from betraying each other, but I appreciate the sentiment,” Jiang Cheng wryly says and Nie Mingjue smiles, a little wistful thing.

“And that is exactly what I would worry about if I were to swear brotherhood with Jin Guangyao,” he admits and then sighs. “I’m sure I don’t have to have those worries with you.”

“I hope you’re not implying that I’m too stupid to scheme,” Jiang Cheng sniffs out, a little bit miffed at how Nie Mingjue seems to see him.

“Never. You’re just too straight-forward. If you had a problem with me, you’d tell me. You wouldn’t scheme and plot and deceive and I appreciate that. We’re much alike in that regard, I think.”

Okay, that is something Jiang Cheng can appreciate, actually and so he simply nods.

“So I don’t have to be suspicious of you, either, right?” he gives back and Nie Mingjue gives him a soft smile.

“Never,” he promises, and despite everything that recently happened in Jiang Cheng’s life, he believes him.

And he’s looking forward to working with Nie Mingjue, for however long he decides to stay.

(Nie Mingjue stays forever, in the end, because it turns out the one thing he really wants to do is grow old with Jiang Cheng. And seeing as they both cultivate to immortality, thanks to Jiang Cheng’s clarity bell, that’s never going to happen. It suits them both more than fine.)

Link to my ko-fi

#bt writes #mingcheng #the untamed #mdzs #canon compliant #fear of the future #panic attacks #hurt/comfort #pre-relationship

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