Chapter Text
– In honor of the flowering of gentians that were willing to grow buried among soot and snow.
The sect conference at Qinghe Nie had finally ended and Lan QiRen was back at Cloud Recess after a week away, the week the disciples got a break from their severity. The elder returned exhausted as if he had gone and returned on foot carrying his entire commission on his back, so even after his return, classes were still sloppy with his absence.
Lan's disciples and guest disciples should still be in the classroom from a very early age, to listen to Zewu-jun - who was responsible for tutoring the young people after Lan Qiren's departure - rambling about rules, cultivation theory and about the clan's history, but that particular morning he was absent, Lan Wangji was present and didn't seem bothered at all, so this fact was completely overlooked. While they should have been rewriting the article, most of them were all having a heated conversation.
“Su-xiong, what do you hope your future wife will be like?” The conversations, although low-pitched due to Lan's rules – and Lan Qiren's punishments – were heated and due to crowding in a short space, easy to hear, intentionally or not.
Su She seemed to consider for a short while before smiling shyly. “Uhh… Obviously someone who is naturally pleasant and graceful, I hope she is handsome as much as possible, and smart and cunning, but with a good personality.”
Soon the murmurs increased, divided between those who agreed and those who completely disagreed. There were some who said they would only marry a very beautiful lady, and those who said that a cunning and intelligent girl would be exceptionally difficult and unpleasant to have as a spouse. And there was Jiang Cheng, who when he was a child wanted to marry his older brothers and currently wanted to go home and eat lotus seeds all day without having to deal with worries and eat A'Jie's soup while lazily maneuvering his sword every end in the afternoon.
He was genuinely trying to focus on his studies, but he was casually doodling on the blank parchment at his own desk. Jiang Yanli, her older sister, was right behind her with Jin Zixuan shyly at her side. Jiang Wanyin had no interest in participating in the conversation and was focused on not falling asleep, Jiang Yanli was genuinely enchanted by the poems about Lan An, and Jin Zixuan stared at her foolishly while thinking about how beautiful Lady Jiang was when she was focused.
“And you, Lan-Xiong? What girl is your type?”
“Hey, don’t talk like that! Lan-xiong already has a fiancee, his answer will obviously be his fiancée!” Someone from the Nie clan pointed it out exactly, as if it were obvious.
Suddenly Jiang Cheng, who had been trying hard to avoid paying attention, found himself focusing on that stupid conversation. He knew he couldn't contain his unpleasant expression.
“Don’t bother disturbing Lan-shixiong with something like that. He is already engaged!” Someone else complained.
One female disciple of Jin seemed particularly offended. “Yes, it is impolite and rude.”
“Serious? From which family? She must be beautiful and a talented cultivator! Right?!” One of Yao's disciples seemed exceptionally interested.
“Don’t bring this up again, it’s not important.” Lan Wangji replied, uttering a few words for the first time that morning. It was imperceptible, but his handsome, coldly sculpted face was frowning, almost rigid.
Jiang Yanli could feel a bitter taste in her mouth, coming from a conflicted feeling of disappointment and rigid tension beneath her shoulders. She sighed, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and remained silent. Jin Zixuan gave him a worried puppy look.
“Isn’t it important?!” Jiang Cheng raised his voice a little beyond what was allowed after a moment of silence.
Lan Wangji frowned even more as he stared at Heir Jiang with a deep coldness, and soon the attention of all the disciples surrounding Lan Wangji was focused on Jiang Wanyin as well.
“Forget.” Lan's second jade uttered turning her face away.
Jiang Cheng suddenly stood up and said, “What do you mean by ‘forgetting’!?”
Lan Wangji, who very rarely abandoned his reserved and indifferent posture, which gave him an air of distant maturity that others could only hope to achieve, felt the feelings that he tried so hard to stifle into his icy interior emerging frustratingly against his own control. This never happened, because people avoided him or he avoided himself, but the Jiang clan, which had given him a headache for a long time, seemed to have this misfortune as its main objective. - He really found the talent that people from this clan had in awakening negative feelings in him intriguing.
“Is the phrase 'forget' complicated?” Lan Wangji never wanted to sound arrogant, as that was against the rules, but his tone was more hostile than he initially wanted.
A pang of regret stained his conscience, but he refused to let it show, no matter how wrong it was among Lan's ideals that Wangji so admired and was proud of, it still made perfect sense; The Jiang clan flourished these unpleasant reactions in Lan Wangji, things he had never been willing to feel before, much less would like. The blame belonged to the recipient of his brusque tone who misinterpreted Lan Wangji's attempt to divert the topic.
Jiang Cheng only raged coldly, gritting his teeth mockingly. “The phrase itself is not difficult to understand. Rather, it is difficult to understand how you are dissatisfied with my shixiong.”
At this moment, everyone realized what had disturbed the hornet's nest in broaching this topic, or why the usual distant Jiang heir suddenly became a defensive creature. Second jade Lan's 'bride' was none other than Yunmeng Jiang's eldest child, the Sect Leader's nephew – Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian.
As soon as the whispers returned, Jiang Cheng didn't seem to care if he even noticed, Lan Wangji didn't notice, but his jaw clenched rigidly at the amount of unnecessary attention - in addition to the noise.
Wei Wuxian was nothing more than a mystery that little was known about outside of Lotús Pier, or worse yet, Jiang's own main residence. He was the son of the defected Wei Changze, Jiang Fengmian's cousin who adopted his biological father's surname and was raised merely as a 'son of a servant' within Lotús Pier. There were many rumors circulating the boy, vague, but many, highlighting his attractive personality and pleasant characteristics, the main one being the cruelest; about possible adultery, but none of them were brave enough to circulate it in the presence of Jiang's own heirs.
Lan Wangji was never in on the rumors, gossiping was forbidden, Wei Wuxian was just a name that cursed him since birth.
Lan's second jade clenched his fist, finding himself more emotional than he would have ever thought he was capable of. “Why don’t you ask me how I can be satisfied with him?”
Lan Wangji didn't want to continue this topic, he had as much social knowledge as he did humor, he had never been exposed under such tense situations with other people, so he just expressed his feelings as genuinely as possible towards Jiang Cheng's words.
This quickly frayed one of Heir Jiang's nerves, resulting in the contamination of more misunderstandings, as all he saw was a cynical mockery from the previously described 'respectful and ethereal' second heir of Lan.
Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and immediately stood up.
“A’Cheng.” Jiang Yanli, who was standing next to her brother with an apprehensive look, scolded him with a gentle yet strict tone of voice. She also didn't like Young Master Lan's words about her older brother, but she couldn't allow Jiang Cheng to make a scandal - even a bigger one - in this situation. – This was not Yunmeng Jiang, this was not Lotús Pier, and any direct conflict with Lan's disciples was absolutely unnecessary, let alone the heirs. –
“Jiang-shidi, calm down…” Jin Zixuan tried unsuccessfully alongside Maiden Jiang.
His efforts were not worth much, Jin Zixuan, no matter how hard he was, was shy and reclusive and, most of the time, just a very pretty scenery decoration. But Jin Zixuan was desperate at this moment, he really didn't want Jiang Cheng to fight, and he knew the boy well enough to know that an outburst from him was merely a 'want'.
But even so, Jiang WanYin felt compelled to retreat under the gaze of her sister and brother-in-law, tightly clenching her fists as she looked at Lan's second heir with dislike, the cold jade seemed to have reciprocated feelings for him.
Then he simply sat down again with his back straight, and suddenly sneered; “And you certainly think it’s quite satisfactory, don’t you?”
The hall was completely silent and Jiang Yanli felt all the color drain from her face as she assimilated her didi's words. Even Jin Zixuan, who was considerably dark, looked pale. The other disciples seemed to be too busy to speak, trying to decipher whether their ears had played a trick on him, or whether the Jiang heir had really needled the second Lan heir. During Gusu Lan's own speaking period.
They couldn't tell, but Lan Wangji himself was, for the first time in a long time, absolutely speechless.
Even the infamous little disciple of the Jin clan found herself holding her breath. Lan Wangji felt his blood absolutely boil. - ‘The rules, Wangji, be honest, be fair, be passive, but don’t submit, don’t gossip, don’t slander-’
But for some reason, Jiang Cheng didn't feel satisfaction from the silence. “Where exactly did your audacity to be demanding here come from? Your personality isn’t even good.”
Lan Wangji's blood actually boiled.
“If he is dissatisfied, tell him to get rid of this engagement!” The deathly silence became even worse, because Lan's second jade, Lan Wangji, Grandmaster Lan's model nephew just screamed. They were so focused on being shocked that they barely had time to be surprised by how much the second jade was verbalizing.
Jiang Cheng felt the blood polluting his eyes as he stood up again, about to curse another insult or be held back by his sister when he realized that Lan Wangji wasn't finished yet.
“In conclusion, I don’t care about your shixiong. If you care about him, ask your father! He wouldn’t prefer much more, I presume?”
...
Heir Lan's final insinuation affected Jiang's children more than anyone else could ever imagine. Now Jiang Yanli herself would not be against the poison that Jiang Cheng was holding in the bile in her throat almost to the point of choking, she herself felt her blood run cold as her grip on her brother's wrist became nothing more than a subtle touch. Jin Zixuan's eyes widened to the extreme as he instinctively raised his hand to his mouth to contain the shock, he obviously felt, more now than ever, disappointed.
Jiang Wanyin was the exact opposite of her A'Jie and Jin Zixuan's coldness, her blood absolutely boiling, shooting into her eyes as her posture became rigid with uncontrollable rage.
Meanwhile, Lan Wangji himself had frozen in shock as he assimilated and realized the very words he had just spoken. He felt amazed at himself, it was the kind of fright he never thought he would feel about himself, he felt like he was going to choke, because his whole body froze, but in a warm way. It burned, but it was cold. It resembles shame, but also regret.
‘He had broken... Too many rules.' – He gasped in shock in the back of his mind.
nfortunately, Lan Wangji didn't have enough time to properly assimilate the situation, as the shock had caused his guard to break enough for Heir Jiang to invade his personal space without him even noticing, and before he noticed, Jiang Wanyin had collided with his body. Specifically, the other boy's covered fist had stiffly made Lan Wangji lose his balance as it hit his face.
Young Jiang didn't give Wangji the privilege of completing his own thought sentence, but Lan had much more physical strength and muscular control than Jiang, but that didn't stop him from losing his balance as Jiang Wanyin charged at him. throwing the full extent of his body weight under Lan's cold jade without any care, taking them both to the ground.
Jin Zixuan clearly expressed his despair as the scene progressed as more and more wide-eyed gazes mercilessly surrounded the two heirs. He hurriedly glanced at Jiang Yanli, the girl had looked away and absently stared at the classroom exit. Young Jin felt tense as he questioned his beloved's sanity, the thought that she wasn't noticing the confusion was nothing but absurd, but then he noticed Lady Jiang's beautiful eyes, which since their first meeting were clear and beautiful and shaped like willow flowers, like the calm after a gale in a gentle climate that came to grace your sleep with a warm and peaceful evening, - but it was nothing but distant.
This conflict surprised not only the other students, but also the seniors who were hurriedly called in and also the prominent sects involved in general. On the same day, Jiang FengMian was being requested and hurriedly going to Cloud Recess from Yunmeng. However, QingHeng-Jun barely bothered to come out of seclusion, something that didn't exactly reassure those involved, in fact it just bothered Lan Wangji more than he would like to admit, but in the end it was his uncle who was left responsible for resolving the issues. details and consequences of the conflict. – As always, uncle was resolving what should have been Lan Wangji's father's obligation.
The path from Yunmeng to Gusu was not short even if you skillfully assembled the sword, and Jiang Cheng knew his own father and Leader Jiang would not abandon his formal commission. Not when he probably didn't judge the situation as truly important.
So Jiang Cheng took advantage of the time off from classes to organize his belongings before his father arrived at night or early in the morning along with his clan's sailboats. He was finishing stuffing a bunch of candles and incense sticks that he had stolen from the dormitory into his bag when he was warned by some of Lan's senior disciples, who alerted him to suspending dinner and also directed him to an area that Jiang Cheng thought was similar to the lounge. ancestor of Yunmeng, where he was usually punished for his transgressions at home.
So far he had not been seriously punished for any reason since arriving at Cloud Recess for the lectures. A'Jie and Zixuan were very correct and considerably studious, so Jiang Cheng was always focused on keeping up with them and hardly broke the rules, at most he was scolded by Lan Qiren because of incomplete test answers.
Jiang Cheng was forced to kneel and consider his transgressions absurd for an indefinite period of time, with only one guard watching over him. After lunch, when the man left for a moment, Jin Zixuan imperceptibly infiltrated the hall with agility and soon sympathized with Jiang Cheng's situation.
“Lan is... Intense.” Heir Jin sighed as he pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and took out two steamed buns.
“Huh, but I admit I expected to be whipped to death for hurting their precious heir.” Jiang Cheng muttered that he was joking, but Jin Zixuan let out an amused sigh nonetheless as he knelt beside his darling's brother.
“A'Li managed to somewhat trap Grandmaster Lan in the classroom for a moment. I know you're being punished for not eating, but this is... Extremely over the top.” Jin sighed as he offered the scarf to Wanyin.
Jiang didn't deny it, even though he had been practically eating specks for the last few days. Jin Zixuan felt his heart ease when he saw him eating, as absurd as it may seem, Jin Zixuan had a... History of bad experiences with hunger.
“At least he’s kneeling properly.” Zixuan joked as prepared to escape again before being caught by the guards. Jiang Cheng smiled subtly at the teasing, feeling less tense than he thought he was. “I’m used to kneeling anyway.”
Jin Zixuan snorted, not exactly finding it funny, but whispered stiffly. “Jiang-shidi, A'Li is worried that you might be in trouble. Jiang-Zongzhu has arrived and is talking to First Young Master Lan while A'Li is trying to hold Lan-Laoshi for a while.” Jin sighed as he saw Jiang stiffen on the floor. “We speculate that it is here to take you back.”
Jiang Wanyin nodded gravely, tucking Zixuan's handkerchief into her own sleeve. “I know. I shouldn’t have let my temper get the best of me, much less attack someone.” 'Even if it's Lan Wangji.' - He finished mentally. “But I don’t regret it.”
Jin Zixuan sighed, trying not to let himself get upset, this was Jiang Cheng's personality, he had already accepted this temperamental didi, so he should bear with it.
“That bastard who decided to be brave enough to offend my shixiong! Who does he think he is?”
“Jiang Cheng, calm down.” Zixuan caught his attention one last time. “I sent a letter to my Aunt Yu before there was a chance to get into trouble with Jiang-Zongzhu. A’Li is worried, so try not to cause trouble at least until one of uscan be around, okay?”
The Jiang heir felt a pang of disappointment at Jin Zixuan's warning tone, but he couldn't get angry, after all he truly deserved it, so he simply nodded in agreement.
Jiang Cheng continued to kneel for a while as Jin Zixuan escaped back, and shortly after Guard Lan returned, Jiang Wanyin’s presence was requested again. Her father was here, talking to Grandmaster Lan.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's engagement was officially broken.
Jiang Cheng absolutely didn't know how to feel.