#jiang fengmien

[angstymdzsthoughts]

Hi! This isn't very angsty but I have had this thought living in my brain for MONTHS. What if Zidian had a curse or something placed on it that when used against an innocent would either backfire or abandon its holder? Like, when Yu Ziyuan used Zidian against Wei Wuxian Zidian either lashed back at her or attached itself to Wei Wuxian.

JFM totally put the curse on zidian after he found JC and JYL trying to bandage up little WWXs back

[rayan12sworld]

💠💙In Defence of Murder

By:WhiteWitchDark

Summary:

In an act of unrivalled stupidity, a group of cultivators, led by the Lan and Jiang sects attack Hanguang-Jun and Lan Sizhui in the hope grief will give them a shot at the Yilling Louzu. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.

Desperate to stop the demonic cultivator destroying their world in (well-deserved) revenge, Nie Huaisang suggests time travel as a way to fix everything. He promptly discovers that the Yilling Louzu is not willing to do the work for him.

Chapter:6/6

Words:18,194

Status:completed

He pulled two more letter from his sleeve, directing the servant to take the first one to Lan Xichen, “Lan Wangji also formally secedes from GusuLan, and refuses further contact from his former sect.” “No, Wangji…” Lan Xichen murmured in dismay. The second was given to Jiang Fengmien, “Wei Wuxian is grateful for everything the Jiang have done for him, but he secedes from the sect and considers any debt repaid by the scars of Zidian he will carry to the end of his life.” Everyone at the table froze.

[admirableadmiranda]

So, I read an answer you have given to another question about WWX owing the Jiang Clan debts and you mentioned Changse-Sanren having a debt owed to her by Lan Queen, Jiang Changze and Jiang Fengmien. And it brought up a question I had. In the Xuanwu of Slaughter when WWX is distracting the beast so the other Sect Heirs can escape and Su She pulls his shit and LWJ jumps in to help WWX and gets caught in the mouth. WWX jumps in to save him (bless these chaotic gays😮‍💨) Would it not be reasonable then to assume that the Lan Clan owes WWX a debt for saving LWJ, but the other Clans/Sects do as well for saving their heirs lives? And IF they do, how can the Clan/Sects that claim to be 'righteous' and 'honorable' move against WWX later? Is it all just hypocrisy? Or is there more going on here that a common western reader wouldn't understand?

Hi anon! I will do my best to answer your question clearly as we are moving beyond things I know super clearly.

So basically with life debts is that they are owed from a person to a person. Jiang Fengmian owes Cangse-sanren a life debt, so this is why him taking in her son would be closest to repaying it. Jiang Cheng owes Wen Ning and Wen Qing a life debt, which is why he should owe it to them to help and it speaks poorly of him that he doesn’t. Given what goes on during the Xuanwu cave, the debt would not be owed by the whole Lan Clan, but just Lan Wangji to Wei Wuxian, with the caveat being that a life debt can be repaid for example by taking in their child, which is somewhat what we get with A-Yuan, BUT!!!!

You say even yourself in your question that they save each other multiple times, so you’ve sort of got your own answer there. They have no debt to each other both because they are good people who would do this regardless and because they are mutually saving each other at the same time. A life debt is usually sprung when someone who isn’t in the same situation comes in to help at personal cost anyway. This is why the one between Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng and the Wen Siblings exists; Wen Ning was not involved and chose to get involved to save them. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were both trapped in the cave, so there’s no debt, only an alliance.

As for how the Lan could turn on him at the siege? It is largely hypocrisy, a poorly translated motto (@jiangwanyinscatmom please help me I have forgotten exactly what the Gusu motto actually means) and (in my opinion extrapolated from hints in the text and an interview with MXTX where she says what happened at Wen Ning’s execution was not an accident) the manipulation of the Jin in order to get them at a position where they would move against him. I firmly don’t believe it’s coincidence that when Wen Ning went berserk at his execution that him mostly killing the Lan and Nie that were there despite the lion’s share of events caused to him were caused by the Jin, and the fact that they already had Xue Yang who Wei Wuxian compares the needles in Wen Ning’s head and Song Lan’s head and verifies that they are the same, it’s not a difficult theory to justify. The Lan do give into mob justice, but I do believe they were dragged in by Jin manipulation to get all four great clans on their side for the siege.

That does not make what they did excusable, but it’s certainly not a chain of events that I see easily repeating especially given what happens in MDZS proper. The fallout of Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao’s sworn brotherhood will definitely have an impact on the clan that will likely shake out for the better in the future.

As for whether the other clans owe Wei Wuxian for saving their heirs’ lives? I mean probably, but it’s hard to say. Again, they were all trapped in the same situation, Wei Wuxian included. But incurring a life debt isn’t just as easy as helping put someone in trouble. You have to do more than just be there at the right time.

Also Lan Wangji would never want Wei Wuxian to feel like he’s holding some kind of debt over him. :P he gets very mad about that.

[somepinkthing]

AU where xiao xingchen catches wind of cangse sanren's death and decides to go look for her child and see what he can do for him. It works out since he had been thinking of striking out on his own for a while now, this might just be the push he needed. Plus doesn't he owe her at least that? He finds wei ying before jiang fengmian and... well he can't just leave him there can he? The poor thing is half starved to death! Basically a XXC (and song lan by proxy) raises WWX fic

[professorsparklepants]

So many aus where Wei Wuxian gets adopted by other families... Where's my au where the Jiang sibs have better parents

[bingleycharles]

Part 2 - The Sects and Clans: The Yunmeng Jiang Sect

The Yunmeng Jiang Sect (云梦江氏, Yúnmèng Jiāng Shì) - a cultivational sect located in Yunmeng's Lotus Pier.

Motif - The nine petal lotus

Motto - Attempt the impossible

Uniform Colors - Purple

Side Note: In The Untamed, you can always deduce a certain amount of information about a Sect from their general location. For example, the Lotus Pier is located near (and surrounded by) a vast body of water. As a result, although the Jiang Disciples practice ‘standard’ cultivation, they are exceptionally skilled at swimming, and have a great deal of experience in dealing with water ghouls, and other water-related mythical disturbances. 

Sect Members

Jiang Fengmian (江枫眠, Jiāng Fēngmián) - Yunmeng Jiang Sect Leader and the father of Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli

Yu Ziyuan (虞紫鸢, Yú Zǐyuān) aslo known as Madam Yu (虞夫人, Yú fūrén) and the Violet Spider (紫蜘蛛, Zǐ Zhīzhū) - the wife of Jiang Fengmian, and the mother of Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli

Side note: Yu Ziyian and Jiang Fengmian are a result of an arranged marriage. She did not take Jiang Fengmian’s name, and they lived in separate parts of Lotus Pier. I am only saying this so people do not misunderstand, and assume the cold nature of their relationship is some type of a norm.

Jiang Yanli (江厌离, Jiāng Yànlí) is the elder sister of Jiang Cheng and the elder sworn sister of Wei Wuxian

Jiang Cheng (江澄 Jiāng Chéng), courtesy name Jiang Wanyin (江晚吟 Jiāng Wǎnyín), title Sandu Shengshou (三毒圣手 Sāndú Shèngshǒu) - the son of Jiang Fengmien and Madame Yu, younger brother to Jiang Yanli, the younger sworn brother to Wei Wuxian, and the future leader of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect

Side note: Notice the above characters names all start with the sect name Jiang. This is a family name, and means that they are all the same clan. So even though Yunmeng Jiang Sect has many disciples, only those with family name Jiang are also a part of the clan. 

Wei Ying (魏婴 Wèi Yīng), courtesy name Wei Wuxian (魏无羡, Wèi Wúxiàn), title, the Yiling Patriarch (夷陵老祖, Yílíng Lǎozǔ) - son of Jiang Fengmian’s servant Wei Changze and a rogue cultivator Cangse Sanren. An adopted son of Jiang Fengmian, sworn brother to Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli. 

Side Note: Notice that Wei Wuxian’s name starts with his father’s family name Wei. Although Wei Wuxian is a senior disciple of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he does not carry the clan name. In other words, one’s status and success as a disciple in any Sect is not dependent on belonging to the clan, but on their cultivation ability. 

The Yunmeng Jiang Sect Motif

[angstymdzsthoughts]

Impostor!Au where Jiang Cheng is the only one to figure out that Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian are impostors. When they save the original MY and JFM, people ask him how he'd known then he'd say, "They were worried about me. They acted like they cared about me, JYL, and WWX. They were NICE." (Lowkey inspired by that one Supernatural scene) ain't that a trip? That literal Impostors were better parents to the three of them than the original people who "raised" them?

Oof

[angstymdzsthoughts]

The Wen conflict never happens. Instead, when JFM decides to retire, he runs away with a merchant’s daughter from the town he’s been having an affair with for years. He let the CSSR rumors remain to protect her from YZY. Back at Lotus Pier, YZY and the kids all have to live with this info and being the laughingstocks of the cultivation world.

Watch YZY hunt her ex husband for sport

[angstymdzsthoughts]

after jiang yanli and jin zixuan's engagement falls a part, jiang fengmian thinks about who he wants his daughter to marry and brings up the idea of wei wuxian and jiang yanli getting married. in his eyes this is a great match, as it means all of them can stay in lotus pier (so yanli doesn't have to move away to be with her husband's family) & he trusts wei wuxian to take care of yanli, but everybody else is horrified. yu ziyuan hates the idea of actually having to be related to wei wuxian even in an in-law capacity, the jiang sibling trio are horrified because they all view each other as siblings, and its a blow to wei wuxian because he always thought of the jiang family as his family, but this is sort of proof that jiang fengmian doesn't really think the same way (otherwise he wouldn't want wei ying to marry his daughter). since everyone hates the idea so much, jiang fengmian concedes that it wasn't a good idea, but even the fact that mentioned it permanently ruins everybody's family relationship with him and makes wei wuxian feel like he is viewed as an outsider.

maybe also as a consequence to this, wei wuxian starts acting more distant from jiang yanli because he is afraid of how other people view their relationship now (he has always viewed her as an older sister, and while he knew that some people didn't understand that, in the past he didn't care because he didn't care what others thought in the distant, but now he knows even someone as close as jiang fengmian can misinterpret that relationship, and he doesn't want anybody to try to misinterpret it again) and jiang yanli is heartbroken because she also loves wei wuxian as a brother and hates how distant he's being, but she understands that it's not really his fault and that this is just a bad situation

Oh I like this one. JFM wants WWX to be his son in law but all the siblings are like isnt he Already Your Son?!?

[angstymdzsthoughts]

The old Jiang sect leader, JFM's father, rather liked prostitutes. It's the main reason JFM doesn't have a whole flock of siblings and half-siblings running around Lotus Pier (and seriously, as a Chinese person, I'm genuinely amazed at the lack of concubines with all the unhappy marriages in MDZS).

CSSR is the only half-sibling JFM is ever able to track down. Oh, sure, he had a brief, slight crush on her during his stint in CR, then they both worked out her paternity (her mother was - a kept woman, on retainer, so to speak) and disgust rather killed any other thoughts. To make up for his mingled disgust and guilt at her ending up in the streets after her mother's death, rather than being taken to Lotus Pier like a child of Sect Leader Jiang should have been, JFM ends up doting on her, in a strange sort of way - like an older brother should, he thinks.

They both swear themselves to secrecy on CSSR's true lineage. The mix of stigma at being the daughter of a prostitute (rather than an anonymous street child) and inevitable dragging into the power games of the high and mighty that would come with revealing CSSR's parentage is not something either of them want.

Yeah well, this comes off VERY differently to the outside world. JFM buying CSSR meals, whatever stupid shit caught her eye at the market, defending her against the other disciples (not that she needs it), and going along with her antics reads - very strangely - in a society with extremely strict separation of men and women, and without the context of knowing they're half-siblings.

JFM ignores this and happily sees her marry WCZ. All is right in the world when little Wei Ying (did she seriously name her son Baby Wei? what did he expect out of his goblin sister, honestly) is born, and when he hears word of their deaths - he's his jiufu. Since WCZ doesn't have family that he knows of, it's JFM's job to take in Wei Ying. He can't have him call him jiufu, as is proper - the more generic shushu is the closest he can get - but at least his nephew is where he should be, under his care.

Unfortunately, this again reads somewhat strangely with the rumours of his love of CSSR - rumours which he never fucking bothered to refute, rumours which are coming to bite him in the ass now. And he can't say anything, can't say the five words 她是我的妹妹/she is my (little) sister that would shut the fucking ridiculous gossip up. And from his own wife, no less.

For something like a decade, he gets to hear endless rumours of him sleeping with - though he is the only one alive who knows it - his own half-sister and siring his nephew on her, repeated by everyone, including his wife throwing those accusations in his face. And he - he can't say anything, because he and CSSR swore themselves to secrecy to protect her. Even if the accusations hurt her son, even if it hurts him. The oath taken to protect her has now turned on him and her son.

But it would still probably be less painful than exposing the truth and then bringing WWX into the mess. As JFM's blood nephew, he would have far higher expectations of him, a harder time escaping the politics of the main sect families than if he was just the son of a favoured servant - politics he is utterly unsuited for, that will suck his joyful soul dry and eat him alive. And damn it, JFM will at least spare his nephew that, if he can.

JFM grits his teeth around the truth, and calls for a servant to bring some wine to his study. It's been a long day of hearing his wife scream at him about supposedly fucking his own sister.

You ever just wanna beat JFM over the head and scream Communication! Is! Key! To! A! Healthy! Relationship!

[angstymdzsthoughts]

Fem!WWX au, where JFM gets her engaged to JC as an excuse to attach her to LP while she comes of age. YZY is desperate to get her out of LP not because she hates her, but because she sees the way that her husband looks at the 15yo WWX with lust, who would’ve thought that her husband was like that pig JGS? When WWX goes to gusu and starts liking LWJ, she grabs the chance to marry her before the lectures even finish, and if JFM dies some time after the wedding nobody will suspect it was his wife.

"You know your mother and I met when she was just a few years older then you are now," Jiang Fengmian said with a smile. From a distance someone would think the way he pats Wei Wuxian's head was parental affection, but Wei Wuxian is close enough to see the intensity in his eyes, the way his hand lingered, how his fingers dug into her hair enough to pull. She is careful not to flinch. She doesn't want him to know she's uncomfortable, doesn't want him to think he should move whatever plans he has for her up before she becomes frightened and runs.

"I swear, you look more and more like her every year," he says, not for the first time. Wei Wuxian is fifteen. Jiang Fengmian met her mother when she was nineteen. Wei Wuxian has four years. Probably less.

Yu Ziyuan watches from a distance and she burns with disgust (Not jealousy. Never jealousy for a literal child who should never receive such looks from a man who raised her). She sees the look in her husband's eyes when he looks at his young ward- the fever of obsession, the intensity of his desire growing every passing day. She has four years to find a match for Wei Wuxian. The further away from Lotus Pier the better.

It's not as easy as throwing Wei Wuxian at the second son of a minor sect. The match has to be so much better then her current one that it won't be an insult to Jiang Cheng and their clan. It has to be someone who would be willing to fight for her despite her arranged engagement. The Lan clan have a history of being romantics.

She insists that Wei Wuxian go to the Lan Sects lectures with Jiang Cheng. She argues that it is her duty as head deciple. She demands to know why her husband doesn't want Wei Wuxian to go and he backs down and bends to her will.

The night before they leave she visits Wei Wuxian's room. "You will do everything in your power to find a husband among the Lan clan," Yu Ziyuan orders her. "The higher in status, the better. Do you understand, girl?" Wei Wuxian, for all the love she has for her home and her family, knows she will never be completely safe in Lotus Pier. She agrees. Yu Ziyuan gives her an approving look. "It would be best," she continues in a tone that isn't as harsh as normal. "if we have a reason to rush the marriage."

Three months later they receive an urgent letter from Lan Qiren demanding they come to the Cloud Recesses. Yu Ziyuan hides how pleased she is when he tells them that Wei Wuxian had been caught in his younger nephews bed with evidence of debauchery on her thighs. Jiang Fengmian is near apoplectic with rage and needs to leave the room for some air. Once her husband steps out Yu Ziyuan pushes for marriage. After all, the Second Jade of Lan has so clearly ruined their head deciple for marriage to anyone else. Lan Qiren is visibly pained when he agrees.

Later, Yu Ziyuan goes to where Wei Wuxian has been kneeling all day as a part of her punishment. She had no doubt that both she and Lan Wangji had recieved brutal beatings after being discovered and would likely be put in seclusion for months. Perhaps just until they find out if Wei Wuxian is pregnant or maybe until the day of their wedding. She leans in and whispers "You did well." It is without a doubt the highest praise she has ever given the girl.

Wei Wuxian's smile is a small, tired thing. She has tarnished both her and Lan Wangji's reputations with this. She doubts the Lans will ever forgive her for ruining their younger jade. Lan Wangji may hold resentment against her for the rest of their lives for seducing him. But she will be able to sleep at night without jumping at every sound and setting up dozens of traps and locking barriers in her room in fear of her uncle trying to visit her. It will be worth it.

[angstymdzsthoughts]

In canon wcz and cssr tell wwx to wait for them but they never come back because they died.

In this au they tell wwx to wait for them and they knowingly leave him there so they can live their life to fullest.

Here they realised that parenthood is not something they're suited for so they leave wwx in the inn and write a letter to jfm. They think he'll come in three days max and they paid three days rent at the inn

But the messege never reaches jfm. And wwx lives his life in pain, always missing his mom and dad.

Post canon he meets them and finds out the truth. They now have another child. Some 7-8 year old child because now they were ready after living their life to the fullest.

They now want wwx back. But wwx can't help but wish that it was better when his parents were dead.

Ok but dude... they waited 30+ years? What if they came back when Wei Wuxian was still a teenager, before the war started and everything went to shit? Then Jiang Fengmian is still around and the perfect memory/image he has of his two old friends gets shattered beyond repair alongside Wei Wuxian's heart! I want to see Jiang Fengmian getting into a very confusing and messy custody battle with them! I want to see young Wei Wuxian asking himself why they didn't want him and what about him was so unlovable that his own parents chose to abandon him to the streets!

[angstymdzsthoughts]

No more angst, enough angst, YZY divorces JFM, they have shared custody of their two kids and WWX lives with JFM 24/7, everyone's happy ;^;

Sorry, what was that? More angst? Not enough angst? Ok!

WWX blames himself for the divorce and feels crippling guilt over it :)

YZY starts to manipulate her children to alienate them from JFM :)

JFM is noticeably happier after the divorce and JC and JYL take that as a sign he doesn't want or love them :)

Since JFM is a workaholic WWX is left alone at home almost everyday that JC and JYL are with their mother and feels incredibly lonely :)

[angstymdzsthoughts]

When YZU dies, she gets the chance to change smth. So she makes it si CSSR never married WCZ

Things proceed. WCZ is a good first disciple, but unhappy. YZY tries not to care, he's alive bcs of her

JC is worse than before. W/o someone to complete against, he has no reason to get better. None of the disciples dare become better than him. JFM is still passive and YZY has no excuse

Cssr is passing the land leaving death and glory in her path. Wwx has been born and YZY hates, but there's not.much she can do.

Then, before the GuSu camp, they find CSSR s corpse. It's obviously a murder, and q cruel one at that.

JFM and WCZ bury her and make her a tablet. YZY wants to yell

Gusu happens and so does the indoctrination. YZY doesn't prepare. Wwx didn't annoy the wens this time, LP is safe.

And then the Wens attack.

Wwx is there. Clad in Wen colours. He throws JC to the side qnd storms to JFMs office. He stabs the man who should have been his father and looks over YZY. Eyes that used to be filled with fear, with respect don't even have hate in them now. Barely indifference. He steps over her and craddles CSSRs tablet and to his chest

Then, the third sun of Qishan Wen, WRHs bastard son claims domain over Lotus Pier

.

[angstymdzsthoughts]

There are a lot of yzy giving away wwx AUs so lemme add one more to that pile.

When the wens came and demanded for wwx to be given to them as compensation for the things he had done against the wens sect and for sparing lotus pier from the consequences of his actions, yzy really didn't need to think twice. The boy was a servant, one she wanted to be gone the very day he set his foot inside the sect grounds. What's more is that now she really has a reason for his destruction. She knows this situation has won over the care and protectiveness jfm had for wwx when she sees him looking at wwx distantly, almost as if he was apologizing and pretending not to care. Afterall the choice was either their own children or wwx and it was about time wwx knew he never belonged to the jiang family.

-------------

When lotus pier is again attacked 3 months later, the jiang sect is prepared. They had trained every one of their disciple and always been on high alert, taking care about setting up traps and array for the wens army that might March upon them. Afterall for yzy, wwx's life only had this much value. Fair trade she thought, 3 months for the jiang sect to prepare.

But what the jiang sect wasn't prepared for were the fierce corpses that descended upon the pier like moths around a flame, obscuring its light and plunging the sect in chaos.

Yzy was fighting alongside her husband. In the three months they had sent yanli away to meishan yu when she had had enough of yzy screaming about her poor cultivation and what burned she was.

The jiang sect fought but they where loosing ground and being pushed back step by step until everyone who was surviving was surrounded in the main training grounds.

They would not survive this, yzy thought. She and jfm were engaged in a fight with wzh and a fierce corpse. The latter having visible advantage. She slashed at the corpse, trying to cut one of his legs to tip the fight in their favour when she felt a hand hovering over her abdomen and radiating so much spiritual energy in such a small span of time that she felt her core crack, the light leaking and burning her meridians which were near the core and then the spiritual energy seeping down from where her core used to be like water splashed on sand. It might've taken an eternity, it might've lasted for a second but yzy felt her will crumble and sucked out of her as she collapsed, followed by jfm as he received the same fate when he tried to save her.

Coreless

A shrill note echoed from one of the highest roofs between the battle sounds just as jfm's kness hit the ground.

Some of the swords froze, as if time had been stopped for the chosen few.

And then turned, readjusting their targets as they slaughtered the wens and gained upon them. The jiang sect, few who were surviving, looked at the fierce corpses fighting their own army of living. The wens retreated, not many were even out of the threshold of the jiang sect before thy were slashed through with the swords or torn with bare hands.

As soon as the last wen fell, the fierce corpses also fell down, becoming just corpses in the blink of an eye.

And then they spotted a lone figure on the darkest blacks and the deepest reds lowering his flute, the moon painting his silhouette black. His robes were bellowing in the wind which flowed, the only small noise in the now deadly silent pier as he turned and left without another glance.

Wei Wuxian.

Jfm knew even before he saw his side profile when he turned his face and the moon illuminated it as the right angle to be visible.

And somehow even if he raised the child, he felt horror crawling up his spine as he saw the wide eyes of his wife and the corpses now lying unanimated around them.

---------------------------

He knows why he saved lotus pier and he knows why he saved when he saved it.

After all they had done, they deserved their golden core taken away.

And if not the burial mounds, they deserved to suffer surviving the type of life their forced wwx into.

He couldn't let them die this soon and easily.

(Okay this is quiet long and it's 2 AM pls ignore the grammer and typos)

.

[angstymdzsthoughts]

JC's angst time. There was a prompt where YZY and JFM are alive, but no one of them gave his golden core to JC, but WWX did it. I was thinking how JC would feel after his parents told him. Guilty? angry? shame? I can imagine YZY shouting and making this "secret" public, JFM's mixed feelings and JYL trying to soothe him. I don't know if WWX is still around or JFM kicked him out of the sect -since he's not a cultivator- to prevent WY's involvement in the Sunshot Campaing.

The heavy silence that follows Wen Qing's explanation of the core transfer procedure was deafening. Jiang Cheng looked at his parents, strong and healthy if a little worn down from the battle at Lotus Pier. His father looked defeated and tired and said nothing. His mother took a minute to process everything and then crossed her arms and glared at Wei Wuxian.

"Well?" she snapped. Wei Wuxian startled and looked at her in confusion. "You wouldn't have even developed that core if we hadn't taken you in! You owe everything you've done to us!"

Jiang Cheng felt numb. He had felt numb and empty since he felt his core burn away to nothing inside him, but this felt different. They wanted Wei Wuxian to give him his golden core. Wei Wuxian who was young and recovering from the beating his mother gave him and had all the potential in the world to be great and they wanted to rip that away from him. They demanded he make a sacrifice they were unwilling to.

"Mother," Jiang Yanli started. She was sitting by Jiang Cheng holding his hand after she had managed to get him to eat a few spoonfuls of soup.

"What?! Will you try to offer the core you don't have?! Stay quiet, A-Li, you have nothing to contribute to this."

"I will not operate on anyone unwilling or coerced into this," Wen Qing snapped. "And I already told you it would be better if it was one of you since-"

"I'll do it," Wei Wuxian interrupted. "Madam Yu is right. I... I would never have had this core if not for the Jiang Sect. Of course I'll give it to Jiang Cheng."

Jiang Cheng shook his head. Not Wei Wuxian. He would accept a golden core from anyone but him. He won't take that from his brother. "No," he protested. He felt tears sting at his eyes. "No, I don't want it."

"You will be quiet!" Yu Ziyuan snapped at him. "What sort of sect leader will you be without a core!? We have found a perfect solution to this! Don't you dare try to reject this for his sake!"

Wen Qing reminded them again that she wouldn't do this on the unwilling and started to leave before Wei Wuxian stopped her, begging and pleading. Why was he asking for this? No one should ask for this emptiness!

"Not Wuxian," he argued. He felt so tired. Did they put a sedative in the soup A-Jie made? He held his sisters hand tight. "Anyone but him..."

Jiang Yanli shushed him and patted his head. She had tears in her eyes. "It's going to be alright, A-Cheng. I won't... I..." She couldn't promise that she wouldn't let this happen. She couldn't do anything.