#meanwhile wwx is going completely ham because he finally gets to talk about jc without actually talking about/to jc

[qiu-yan]

at first, the irritated reactions that fans of these writings provoked in jiang wanyin made the venture immediately worth it. sure, having lan wangji's own writing exposed to the public was embarrassing, and sure, whenever lan wangji overheard fans eagerly quoting particularly vivid passages from his writing, part of him wanted to curl up and die. but watching jiang wanyin's face turn a shade of purple fit to rival his robes when he overheard the same quoting made all of this entirely worth it. and, to make things even better, wei ying had published lan wangji's writings anonymously and (as editor-in-chief) had cleverly obscured all possible hints to the writer's identity in the text - thus, jiang wanyin did not even know who he should blame for his newfound misfortune.

so everything was good.

at first.

lan wangji, who liked to think of himself as a humble person unconcerned with worldly fame, was largely uninterested in managing this project; instead, responsibility for the editing and distribution of lan wangji's writings was claimed by wei ying. yet, as time went on and the popularity of this publication snowballed, lan wangji began to notice a worrying trend. wei ying, his editor-in-chief, was getting really into it. as in, disturbingly into it. as in, so disturbingly into it that he would spend hours upon hours holed up in lan wangji's jingshi going over lan wangji's writings. increasingly, all of wei wuxian's waking hours became occupied by the revision and refinement of these descriptions of jiang wanyin; when once wei ying filled the quiet of the cloud recesses with anything from chatter about his latest talisman experiments to jokes about eating lan wangji's rabbits, now he spoke of nothing but editing. how should he best describe the curl of jiang wanyin's sneer? how should he best capture the snort of jiang wanyin's rare laughter? did lan wangji's description of the way jiang wanyin's robes flowed behind him do the sight justice? the words lan wangji had chosen to describe the violet flash of jiang wanyin's eyes - were they the best possible words for such a stormy, striking visage?

when wei ying turned down their everyday in favor of prodding once more at lan wangji's word choice - word choice lan wangji had already put quite a lot of thought into, thank you very much - lan wangji knew that enough was enough.

the more things change, the more things stay the same. situations may change, but some constants remain immutable. what he realized now was exactly the same as what he realized over fifteen years ago, when wei ying and his obnoxious shidi first set foot into the cloud recesses: the purple slut from lotus pier had to go.

zhancheng to me is like this:

imagine a scenario in which jiang cheng actually does know quite a lot about lan wangji's tastes: his favorite and least favorite tea flavors, snacks, food, books, music, authors and artists, and so on.....except jiang cheng specifically sought out this information during the 13 year timeskip to make lan wangji miserable.

maybe lan wangji is just publicly A Bitch to him one too many times and jiang cheng finally decides he's had enough. so, for the next few months, jiang cheng spends an inordinate amount of time gradually sussing out everything he can learn about lan wangji's tastes. what kind of tea does he like? what kind of tea does he despise? which authors does he always read? what temperature does he prefer his room to be? what new trends in music does he find completely unbearable? when he passes through a region whose cuisine he hates, which restaurants does he find slightly less intolerable?

and then, the next time there's a discussion conference at lotus pier, jiang cheng weaponizes this knowledge. actually, the next time there's a public event anywhere wherein both jiang cheng and lan wangji are in attendance, jiang cheng weaponizes the fuck out of this knowledge. he makes sure that the tea lan wangji hates the most is served to everyone. he has his disciples buy all the local snacks he knows lan wangji has a preference for, just so lan wangji can't have any. he makes sure lan wangji's room and bed are heated to the exact temperature lan wangji finds just too hot to be comfortable. whenever lan wangji's favorite obscure author releases a new work that gusu lan doesn't think is cultivation-related enough to include in their library, jiang cheng has a bunch of his disciples swoop in and buy as many copies as possible, just so that it takes lan wangji a bit longer to get his hands on a volume. jiang cheng "leaks" to a few minor sect leaders the idea that lan wangji actually does like spicy food, and said minor sect leaders actually believe that information for a full year of hosted visits and public events.

this continues for all 13 years of the timeskip. of course, jiang cheng isn't outstandingly successful in actually making lan wangji miserable, because there are limits to what jiang cheng can actually achieve and what he's actually willing to spend enough time on; realistically, all he's accomplishing is causing lan wangji some minor irritations once in a while. but it's enough for jiang cheng to know that, every time lan wangji has to pass through yunmeng, he's absolutely miserable because jiang cheng has persuaded/paid every musician in the area to play the one song lan wangji hates the most.

jin guangyao, of course, figures out what's going on immediately. but even loyalty to lan xichen isn't going to make him sacrifice potentially useful dirt by putting a stop to jiang cheng's asshole behavior himself, so instead he just decides to watch and wait. he also just finds it really funny. meanwhile, lan wangji, for all 13 of these years, never figures out what's going on. he never figures out why he can't ever find the lanling-style osmanthus cakes he hates slightly less than the rest of lanling cuisine whenever he passes through the area and runs into disciples from yunmeng jiang. when his favorite obscure author releases a new book, he gets in line at the indie bookstore in qinghe he went out of his way to visit, and just doesn't question why everyone in front of him is wearing purple.

postcanon, though....now lan wangji has one hell of a source of insider information (wei wuxian), so the turns are about to get fucking tabled.