#lan wangji and his volatile bug zapper of a brother in law

[eenasbabysmom]

Psssst..what if...post/mid canon lwj was the one to discover jiang cheng's sacrifice for wwx

Oh boy, I had to take a minute with this one. If you have the time, here it is:

I'm going to straight off the bat divide this into two responses, because a post canon discovery and a mid canon discovery are two very different beasts, in my opinion.

I think circumstances for a discovery would have to be similar in either case-it is not something that anybody other than Jiang Cheng knows and he's not willingly giving out that type of information. Personally I think it's a combination of trauma, understanding it reveals too many about the depths of his feelings for WWX, later regarding it as a moment of weakness-of giving up and having his mother's voice in his ear forever berating him about it, trauma, not wanting to reveal it because he doesn't want WWX's sympathy/guilt/pity triggering him into being what Jiang Cheng wants/needs/hopes he will be (which is, always, at home, in Lotus Pier, as his right-hand man), and TRAUMA that keeps Jiang Cheng from letting others know about it. He is prepared, even after the Golden Core Reveal, to fully go to his grave without letting this secret out (the motivations for keeping it a secret can arguably be seen as changing or evolving, if you will, after the Golden Core Reveal). So for anyone, let alone Lan Wangji, to discover this secret, it would not be with the conscious consent of Jiang Cheng.

And so, I am going to hypothesize that the Fanfic-Cave-of-strangely-arbitrary-curses-which-prompt-unwilling-unburdening-of-lifelong-secrets must make its appearance no matter where in the timeline this discovery happens. In a post canon reveal, I think this doesn't change too much the nature of the relationship between the reluctant brother in laws. Lan Wangji might experience a slight softening of opinions in regards to Jiang Cheng, he would most definitely not keep it a secret from Wei Ying, but would it be enough to put him in favour of a Yunmeng-bros reconciliation? Not without explicit agreement from Wei Ying-like, if Wei Ying finds out and immediately wants to spend months tagging behind his older-little brother to try and coax him into an emotional confrontation about their tendencies towards self-sacrifice, like Lan Wangji would help. If Wei Ying doesn't know how to cope with this new information, doesn't actively seek out Jiang Cheng for a resolution-Lan Wangji is staying with his husband and not pushing/prompting anything. He still doesn't like the way Jiang Cheng treats Wei Ying, the way he behaves towards Wei Ying's developing relationship with Jin Ling, his inability to not use his words to lash at Wei Ying when in close proximity. It would be more of a 'you loved him, but you lost him through neglect' type response and while Lan Wangji might no longer viscerally hate the very sight of Jiang Cheng, he definitely still doesn't like him and/or only cares about him in relation to how he affects Wei Ying.

MID-CANON-I have some thoughts . . .

So let's put in the caveat here that I'm basing this a lot on CQL, as that was my first and most beloved exposure to this fandom. Like, I have read pieces of the novel, but I don't have the time I used to finish reading novels like I used to (I barely have time to read fanfiction!). How I think Lan Wangji would handle a Jiang Cheng sacrificing himself to save Wei Ying in mid-canon (or, the 16 years of Wei Ying being dead, dead, dead)-this too also depends a lot on the timeline, like I think a Lan Wangji just out of seclusion versus a Lan Wangji who is ten years past the loss of Wei Ying would be different. So, let's not get into the spectrum of what I think different Lan Wangji reactions would be mid-canon. Let's settle on a Lan Wangji that is 8-10 years past the death of Wei Ying.

*Insert confrontation in the Fanfic-Cave-of-strangely-arbitrary-curses-which-prompt-unwilling-unburdening-of-lifelong-secrets here*

So, like Lan Wangji can fixate on things, huh? Especially Wei Ying related things. Lan Wangji, who plays Inquiry every night for a soul that won't answer? That Lan Wangji? The one who hates Jiang Cheng for failing to help him pull Wei Ying to safety, that Lan Wangji? The one who has been a fantastic bitch to Sect Leader Jiang because he blamed him for failing Wei Ying when he should have loved him? The one who sees Jiang Cheng, the bane of demonic cultivators everywhere, and refuses to even acknowledge him because of how much he let down Wei Ying in the later years? That Lan Wangji? How could that Lan Wangji not fixate on this revelation? To turn it over and over in his mind, trying to jam into someplace into his understanding of Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying and finding that it doesn't fit? How could he not hound Jiang Cheng for clarification, for demanding to know why then but not later? How could you be willing to die for someone once and then try to kill them the next?

(That sword glanced off the side of the cliff because Jiang Cheng couldn't bring himself to look. Lan Wangji didn't see how Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, but he knows that Jiang Cheng is a formidable cultivator, a skilled swordsman, and if he really wanted to, he would have struck true-he's ALWAYS known that, but he didn't care to poke at it because it was easier to hate and blame than try to form an understanding of something so complex and tangled. BUT NOW there is more complication, more details sharpening in this blurred image of Yunmeng's Twin Prides, but also NOT ENOUGH of it).

And they fight about it-Jiang Cheng yells and threatens while Lan Wangji glares back bitch-faced and obstinate. Zidian uncoils and Sandu strikes, but Wangji and Bichen meet them both blow for blow. Lotus Pier docks are covered in smudged soot marks and tiny nicks from deadly sharp swords. YMJ disciples become well versed in moving bystanders out of the way, but they don't interfere because SL will have their asses if they do because don't they trust that their SL can handle Hanguang Jun's latest temper tantrum? (And they do not make any commentary about SL Jiang derisively calling out others for their temper because SL lets them get away with a lot of shit, up to and including playing pranks on SL Yao to convince him that there is a ghost in Lotus Pier that is after him specifically)

And after a long period of this happening again and again, and Jiang Cheng so tired of seeing Lan Wangji's bitchy face wherever he turns that he lets out all of his trauma in a verbal vomit of accusations, insults, condemnations, and recriminations. That Jiang Cheng DID give himself up for Wei Ying, because yes he DID love him and he wanted him to live. But also because, THEN, there wasn't a person in the world that he trusted more than Wei Ying. That if Jiang Cheng died, he would be leaving the responsibility for his sister and the remains of his sect to Wei Ying-AND HE WAS OKAY WITH THAT BECAUSE HE DIDN'T THINK THERE WAS ANYONE OUT THERE WHO COULD DO IT BETTER THAN WEI YING. He trusted in Wei Ying's love for their sister and for their sect and his great ability/genius/cultivation on being enough to save the remnants of his sect and get revenge on the Wens for the ones who didn't make it. At that moment, it was a straight exchange-Jiang Cheng for Wei Ying, a moment when love and trust outweighed fear and Jiang Cheng made a choice that he thought was going to end in his own grisly death.

(They both have scars on their bodies for love of Wei Ying, but maybe it says something that Lan Wangji has more than Jiang Cheng.)

But (and before you come for me, this is my approximation of Jiang Cheng's POV) then Wei Ying changed, during the war but more so after. The demonic cultivation and the attitude and surliness during the war-so what? Hadn't they all been through hell? Didn't Wei Ying lose just as much as Jiang Cheng? Wasn't Lotus Pier his home? Wasn't the sect his family? Of course, Jiang Cheng understood where that darkness in the midst of war came from-and he didn't care because he had it too. But when the war was over, when they had to become less unhinged and more upright in order to raise YMJ, to carry on the sect and his family's legacy-Wei Ying wasn't interested. He didn't seem to care at all about YMJ or Jiang Cheng or rebuilding the sect. He still seemed to care about their sister, so there was that, but everything that Jiang Cheng had expected of Wei Ying, of what he had been banking on since the Wens had burnt his home and killed his parents, that didn't happen. Jiang Cheng couldn't rely on Wei Ying for anything to do with the sect; he couldn't count on Wei Ying for anything but being drunk and insubordinate.

And then he chooses Wens over Lotus Pier? Time and time again, when Jiang Cheng asked and begged and pleaded, Wei Ying continued to choose those remnants of the clan that nearly took everything away from them. Jiang Cheng didn't understand how repaying a debt involved giving away your whole damn life. And he didn't care to know! What about the people of Yunmeng and Lotus Pier? Weren't they also owed a debt, a promise of protection in return for their service and their loyalty? How as Jiang Cheng supposed to risk all of them in defense of a wayward brother over a handful of Wen dogs? Were those people worth Lotus Pier? Jiang Cheng didn't think so-Wei Ying apparently did.

But whatever that disconnect led to, defection and fights and arguments-whatever that Wei Ying didn't seem to care about YMJ or Jiang Cheng anymore. He still cared about their sister, Wei Ying still loved his shijie. And that last bit of love Jiang Cheng had for his brother lasted right up until Wei Ying stopped protecting his sister in favour of protecting those damned Wen dogs.

See? The brother he let die wasn't the brother that he was willing to die for-and maybe if Jiang Cheng had been smarter, Wei Ying would have died then and Jiang Cheng might still have his sister now, Jin Ling might still have both his parents and life might still be good instead of endless slough of memories of things Jiang Cheng could never get back. And let Lan Wangji hate him for that, let him scoff at Jiang Cheng for being stuck in the past and simmering in his own bitterness-what did Lan Wangji know of it? Lan Wangji has his brother, his uncle, most of the people of his sect that he grew up with. Lan Wangji hadn't had to hold the cooling body of his dead uncle, watching the guilty culprit-HIS OWN BROTHER-stumble away, bodies dropping in his wake. Lan Wangji didn't have to face that moment, of the last betrayal he ever thought possible, so Lan Wangji doesn't have the right to judge because he could never UNDERSTAND.

SO-what does that change, if anything? I would like to think that Lan Wangji has to accept that perhaps there is more blame to go around than he previously thought. I don't think that it would change the fundamentals of what Wei Ying is to Lan Wangji. I don't think Lan Wangji would ever be like-'you know what, fair SL Jiang. Let me also join you in your condemnation of the criminal Yiling Patriarch'-that is never going to happen. Lan Wangji is in love with Wei Ying, he sees the righteousness in what Wei Ying did-he is still firmly in Wei Ying's corner. BUT, perhaps he understands, a bit more, that there are more casualties from all this than he cared to think about before. That bad decisions were made all around and while he still finds fault and guilt within SL Jiang, the story there is not one of a superior man falling because of an inferior man. That Jiang Cheng is a mess of feelings and thoughts about his former shixiong, and none of those things are ever going to be clarified or detangled. That Jiang Cheng is dichotomy made man-that he hunts and kills demonic cultivators but maybe for a reason; that he is cruel and unrelenting because he thinks that before he wasn't and it cost him everything; that he loves and hates Wei Ying at the same time, in the same breath, and the hurt associated with Wei Ying for Jiang Cheng is like his own, an open wound. But for Lan Wangji, that wound emits a steady stream of red blood while for Jiang Cheng, the wound has become infected and inflamed.

Are they great friends after this? Nope-Jiang Cheng is irritated by every little thing that makes up Lan Wangji and Lan Wangji still finds Jiang Cheng bitter and acidic. But does he acknowledge Jiang Cheng at meetings from then on? Absolutely-they disagree about everything under the sun, and Lan Xichen suspects that fifty percent of the time it's just disagreement for the sake of disagreement (he KNOWS his little brother can be a fantastic little bitch-it's one of the many things that he loves about Lan Wangji). But Lan Wangji brings his hands together and greets Jiang Cheng with an appropriately respectful "Sect Leader Jiang" and Jiang Cheng will return the favour with an equally respectful "Hanguang Jun" and it is a moment of peace before they start metaphorically trying to claw each other's eyeballs out the second demonic cultivation is raised during the conference. It is the same when they meet on night hunts, where the way they strive to outdo one another might be construed as a friendly competition, but there's no friendliness involved and YMJ disciples usually have to distract and carry off their Sect Leader for medical attention before he tries using Zidian to rip Lan Wangji's obscenely decorative hairpiece of his hair in retaliation for a passing commentary on how time seems to be catching up to Sandu Shengshou when a ghost gets close enough to claw through Jiang Cheng's robes to cut up his arm (AND LAN WANGJI IS OLDER THAN JIANG CHENG SO WHO THE FUCK IS HE CALLING OLD?)

Wei Ying coming across a Dafan Mountain hunt scene that is almost not threatening to breakout into a catfight. Lan Wangji destroying 400 spirit nets but not baiting Jiang Cheng by punishing Jin Ling with the Silencing spell (and definitely making a bitchy comment about overcompensation that has Jiang Cheng sputtering sparks from Zidian and still stomping away in a huff). Lan Wangji still helping Wei Ying evade his brother's hold, because while Lan Wangji sees Jiang Cheng differently now, he's not sure he wants to see what will happen if he actually gets his hands on Wei Ying.

(There is will either be bloodshed or crying or both. Lan Wangji is not interested in seeing Jiang Cheng ugly cry-AGAIN.)

Every confrontation with Jiang Cheng at that Discussion Conference is now met with a bitchy thinning of the lips and an audible scoff or two. Wei Ying being wary of his brother while Lan Wangji is just 'don't worry-he's always cranky before a conference because he's been dieting to fit into his ludicrously tight conference robes. He'll be fine after a meal'.

(Jiang Cheng hears all this because Lan Wangji refuses to whisper it and responds by threatening to raise tariffs on Gusu silks again-which has Lan Xichen shaking his head and rushing to get Jiang Cheng inside and to some food because while Lan Wangji is baiting SL Jiang, he's also not wrong.)

And a Golden Core Reveal where Lan Wangji already knows all this? The ache in his heart goes both ways, because now things are clearer to him, but also to Jiang Cheng. He sees a man who thought his love and sacrifice wasted and weak learn that it was actually something that was returned. Two idiot boys who loved each other enough to cut themselves to pieces over it (literally and figuratively) and now there's only scar tissue and dried blood left between them.

AND, I'm cutting myself off before I go on and on and on for another 3000 words.