Chapter Text
EXODOS
I.
SiZhui @ spill the tea
> I don’t know where to start
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> ???
> what are you talking about?
JL @ spill the tea
> what happened
> we were together yesterday
> is everything alright?
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> ah, you’re in for a ride
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> wtf jingyi why do you know already
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> family privilege
SiZhui @ spill the tea
> So anyway what happened was this. I was home, reading with my father on the sofa, and someone rings the doorbell. Now, it’s the holidays, so it can happen that people come visit or sth but we weren’t expecting anyone.
> Anyway I go open the door and there he is: the mystery man on the photo on my dad’s desk. Looking all cool and dressed in black, wild hair and everything, unchanged from the photo, despite it being at least 13 years old.
> So I say “hello, sir, how can I help you?” because I don’t really know him?
> And he says “So you’re Lan Zhan’s son!” (and I’ve never heard anyone call my dad Lan Zhan )
> And I say “Yes, sir, I am. Do I need to call my father for you?”.
> Except my father is already standing on my side and is completely- idek wide-eyed? Confused? Looking like he’s seen a ghost??
> And my father says “Wei Ying?” and I say “Like Jin Ling’s uncle?”
> And he says “Yes, how cool Lan Zhan the kids are friends!”
> And I say “So you know each other?” like I’m stupid, because I didn’t know what to say
> And my father says “Yes.”
> And nothing else.
> I’m sorry I’m typing like I’m illiterate I’m just ????
> Anyways… I’m there standing like a third wheel, which I think I was at this point, and they’re there staring at each other, until this Wei Ying says “So you’ve got a son” and my father says “Oh,” like he just realised (guys wth) and I say “Ok, maybe you two need to talk, I’ll leave”.
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> and this is where he called me!
JL @ spill the tea
> WTF???
> my uncle????
> i mean i don’t really know him but still
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> omg
> were they like,, exes?
> or sth idk
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> have i told you recently that i think i may be in love with you?
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> not recently enough
> but SiZhui! Yuan! What happened next?
JL @ spill the tea
> yeah go on
SiZhui @ spill the tea
> Yes, so what happens next is that while I’m on the phone with JingYi they probably talk
> Then - and JingYi can confirm - I start hearing things
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> SiZhui?
> what kind of things???
JL @ spill the tea
> i’ve told uncle JC that you’re texting about Wei Ying
> and he said “oh cool, he wasted no time”
> and then “tell your friend to invest in ear plugs”
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> have i said today that i’m also in love with your uncle Jiang?
> jkfhjskgkajh
SiZhui @ spill the tea
>> [and then “tell your friend to invest in ear plugs”] THIS
> I mean: I didn’t think two adult men could be so loud in JUST KISSING
> I’m sorry I don’t even like caps lock
> I’m just
> I couldn’t even leave my room, it’s not like I could walk past them
> I wanted to die
> Well, not really but you get the idea
> Anyways.
> I think my father and Jin Ling’s uncle #3 are an item.
> And I think I won’t look either of them in the eyes for at least three months.
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> is there a backstory on this?
> of course there is
> but do you have it????
> i wanna know so bad
JL @ spill the tea
> sizhui i’m so sorry for you
> ew
> if i ever hear my uncle
> i think i’ll lose my mind
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> sz didn’t tell you that i wanted to save him
> so i went over to them and rang the bell
> and his father opened the door and omg guys you have no idea
> he stared down at me like i had offended him so bad
> he told me “wait i will get him” and left me AT THE DOOR
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> dead
> sizhui are you an exile now?
JL @ spill the tea
> JingYi!!!
> anyways i’m still stuck on the idea that my uncle #3 (also is #1 JC or uncle Jin?)
> well that uncle # 3 is SiZhui’s dad’s lover? fuckbuddy? boyfriend?
> like i need a moment to process that he appeared out of nowhere and then
> BOOM
> with sizhui’s father
> wow.
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> on this note,
> uncle Jiang? did they get back together??
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> these holidays wow
> good for everyone except me it seems
JL @ spill the tea
> yeah they’re ok now
> i think
> uncle JC came home super late
> didn’t supply lots of details
> but said they’re ok
OYZZ @ spill the tea
>> [good for everyone except me it seems] ??
> didn’t you build a fake christmas tree with me?
> are we breaking up?
Lan JY @ spill the tea
> ZIZHEN
> you gotta stop
> you’re straight
JL @ spill the tea
> you know mr Nie thought my uncle was straight ??
> my uncle is resentful on that
OYZZ @ spill the tea
> JL among us you were the one who believed that
> we’d told you he wasn’t
II.
Nie HuaiSang’s life was still very hard. Jin GuangYao wasn’t in prison yet, he kept having a nice life, a nice wife, and a nice house. Wei WuXian was working on all the evidence he’d left him, but despite how hard he worked there was still a lot of stuff to cast a light on.
Jin GuangYao had been careful, there weren't a lot of loose ends to grab onto, they couldn’t just go to court with mere speculations and the hope that he would trip over himself and just admit to planning Nie MingJue’s death over the course of at least three years. Wei WuXian had quickly seen that also Jin GuangYao’s father had died of some collateral effect of his meds, which was too close a coincidence to be considered such, and was now running through all hospitals and clinics to try and find some toxicological report.
Nie HuaiSang kept working at school, they all kept pretending that everything was the same, before Jin GuangYao could destroy some more evidence and save his own ass forever. So they kept pretending nothing had changed, they didn’t tell him Wei WuXian was back, they lied to Jin Ling telling him that it was WuXian himself who didn’t want anything to do with Jin GuangYao because of some old bad blood. WanYin hadn’t liked this. He hadn’t said so, of course, because it’s not like they had any other option, and it was too early for the truth, he hadn’t complained but it had been clear in the stern line of his mouth, in the set of his brows.
“I’m sorry,” he’d told him, later, when WuXian had left them. “I didn’t want to drag you into this, I knew it would make you unhappy, having to lie to him. I wanted to keep you out, I tried to.”
WanYin had only lifted a corner of his mouth, before taking a deep breath and saying: “I’ve been unhappy a lot in my life,” HuaiSang’s heart broke some more, “if we can close this door maybe we will all be happier.”
He kept saying things like this, talking about them having a bright future of happiness ahead of them, but HuaiSang only felt his breath go away when he mentioned the general idea of happiness. Because he had no right to it. Not when MingJue’s murderer was still around and doing whatever he wanted. As long as Jin GuangYao was not rotting in some cell, he couldn’t even think about being happy, it was something he owed his brother.
But HuaiSang was also becoming selfish, more than he’d been before. Because WanYin could make him forget very easily that he shouldn’t be happy, and he was becoming addicted to the way WanYin showed him he was there for him. He kept bringing him lunch, kept trying to invite him to dinner at home (and he kept saying no, because he was still Jin Ling’s teacher and it would just be too weird, and also it felt a little too close as hey, I’d like you to meet my family in a typically important fashion, thus giving a name and a relevance to our relationship that you still can’t accept because you just categorically refuse to be happy ). WanYin, though, was showing him a kind of patience and determination that HuaiSang would have hardly suspected.
“Somehow,” told him WanYin on one normal day in mid January at school, “we’ve both been invited to Lan WangJi’s birthday party.” He sounded so bitter at the prospect.
HuaiSang smiled a bit, “Is this so bad?”
WanYin threw him a murderous glare. God , this man. “It’s not bad. It’s crazy. It’s a vegan place, but somehow Wei Ying has organized all of this, in like three days? They’ve been- together , for like three seconds and he’s throwing birthday parties!” Oh, so this was the problem. Wei WuXian doing everything faster, and better, in Jiang Cheng’s perception.
“Good thing my birthday isn’t until the second half of May, then. You have like four months more to think of something,” he said, and he’d said that without thinking much of that, but when he noticed that WanYin wasn’t answering, he realised what he’d actually said. He tore his gaze away from WanYin’s awestruck face.
“Yeah,” said then WanYin, and HuaiSang cast him a quick glance, he was still staring at him but he was smiling quietly, “I guess I will figure something out by then.” They both knew the implications of this. At least five more months of them, together. WanYin went on, “But I will need to find a gift for Lan WangJi.”
HuaiSang got back to watching him openly, now that he wasn’t probably going to bare his whole heart again, “I could help you with it, if you want.”
“Mh? And where’s the catch? You never do anything nice if you gain nothing from it, HuaiSang.” WanYin had become more of a bitch since they’d gotten together, if possible.
“I don’t know, what are you offering in exchange for my help?” He asked back, and he held his gaze.
WanYin considered it for a moment, “I’ll go with you to watch that terrible musical at the theatre,” he said.
“Nah,” HuaiSang waved him off, “I don’t care so much about that. Try again.”
“I will let you decide on where we can have dinner for the next… three times?” HuaiSang did have a taste for places with some weird connotations.
“Is my help only worth three picks? Thankless person you are.” He watched as WanYin only looked more and more focused on the task. The truth was that he would have offered his help freely, because it was him, but he’d rather cut his own right leg than admit to it.
“Fine, I’ll wash the dishes whenever I eat at your place for the next six months.” He proposed, and HuaiSang just wanted to be closer to him, but they were in the middle of the school’s cafeteria, and the flirting was already a step too far.
“No, sir, specify the number of dish-washing sessions you’ll be doing, or else you’ll just have me over for six months trying to avoid this.” WanYin raised his eyebrows.
“I can pick my own gift for Lan WangJi, I don’t actually need you, you asshole,” he said, and HuaiSang burst out laughing at his betrayed expression. He definitely liked having Jiang Cheng around, he wanted to keep him as long as he could. And he knew what this feeling’s name was. But, again, not that he would admit to it.
III.
Jiang Cheng had promised a dog to Jin Ling before Christmas, and it had been more than a month and a half and he’d not gotten a dog. But he hadn’t forgotten, despite everything. There was nothing, no brothers coming back from South America, no new boyfriends or whatever they were, that could make him forget about what he’d promised Jin Ling. No one took precedence on his nephew.
“Where are we going?” Jin Ling said, when they passed the intersection to go home, and he turned left and not right as he should have.
“I promised you a dog,” he said, because he liked telling the truth and didn’t like when he couldn’t say it. Like he couldn’t tell him the reason why Wei Ying never spent much time with the two of them, despite he too would very much like to. Or like he couldn’t tell him the truth about why HuaiSang only agreed to see him outside their home.
“Uncle!” Jin Ling sounded so happy, “I thought you were too busy to think about that, now.”
Jiang WanYin thought of all the time he’d spent stalking animal shelters’ social media in these weeks to find some suitable dog for them. “I’m never too busy for you, A-Ling,” he said, and he meant that with his whole heart, “Never. You get this?”
Jin Ling grimaced somehow, but then he said, “Yeah, I know. I just thought that with you and Nie HuaiSang-”
“No,” Jiang Cheng interrupted him, “you were here before. And even if he’d been here before you- Jin Ling. I fought with all I had to be able to keep you with me. It’s not like any romantic relationship can erase that. I love him. And I would hurt anyone that hurts him. But you. I would kill them bare-handed if someone laid a finger on you. Every time someone has made you cry- I’ve had to force myself not to bully some five-year old kid at the park.”
Jin Ling huffed a laugh and then rolled his eyes, and changed the song that was playing, putting something quite unexpected from him, probably suggested by some of his friends. “You’re always so violent, though.”
Jiang Cheng wondered, what would YanLi think if she could see the both of them right now? Would she be proud of Jiang Cheng? Of what he’d done with her child? He knew he could have done so much better, but he’d really tried hard. He’d given his all, and something more.
“You know, uncle,” Jin Ling snapped him away from his thoughts, “at school everyone is gossiping about you two.”
What, now . They had been careful. Well. If one didn’t count HuaiSang grabbing him by the arm before his newspaper newsroom meeting, and pulling him in the newsroom, then kissing him senseless after sitting him on top of a table. You’re just too handsome , he’d told him, and Jiang Cheng had felt his face catch fire.
But no kids were around. And no kids had been around even when they’d discussed their plans for the evening in Jiang Cheng’s office, after a faculty meeting. And just a few kids had been around when, after the basketball match of last week, HuaiSang had taken his hand and kissed it before leaving to go check on something. Ok, maybe all these events in three weeks weren’t quite befitting the definition of careful .
“Oh?” he just said.
“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like anyone has proofs or anything, it’s all hearsay. But there is a lot of talk. So, I don’t know, ZiZhen suggests starting a sort of board on the website, where we update theories and stuff.”
Jiang Cheng laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea, “Like HuaiSang would allow it,” he just said.
“Actually,” his nephew said, “he totally approved of it.”
“What?!” Jiang Cheng braked very hard in the parking lot of the animal shelter. HuaiSang had threatened retaliation for the fact that he had ended up buying Lan WangJi’s gift alone, forcing him to buy a different one. But he thought that the school kids would stay out of it.
Jin Ling started laughing, “I lied,” he said, “but your face was priceless. Totally worth it.”
Jin Ling fell in love with a fat puppy the first second he saw her. He listened to the volunteer of the shelter tell him she’d been found abandoned without her mother near a trafficked road, and he just sat down to play with the small dog with the happiest expression on his face. He heard him tell the dog, you know, I practically never had a mom either, but life can be really great all the same.
The volunteer explained them all sorts of things, about dogs and about vet appointments, and about taking dogs on walks, and playing with dogs, and training dogs, and a lot of other topics. Jin Ling listened intently, and the puppy never left his side.
“Your son is good with dogs,” said the volunteer, just as they were leaving. It had been a long while since this very same pattern of conversation. When he used to bring Jin Ling out to play it had been quite a common occurrence. It had taken him years to understand that, materially, he acted like a father, but he would never consider himself such, because he was just doing this for YanLi. The son was hers. He was just the next best thing.
“He’s good,” he replied, “and he’s my nephew,” he stated, proudly, “my sister’s boy.”
Jin Ling sat in the backseat on the way back, with the dog. Fairy, he’d named her, which was a stupid name, and he would be bullied a bit for it. Jiang Cheng already knew that the Lan boy with too many facial expressions for his school would give him hell over the name. Jin Ling would survive.
Huaisang
> Puppy mission completed?
> A-Cheng! You keep ghosting me even after everything!!
> I just wanna see the dog, I don’t care about you, despicable heartless human boyfriend
jc
> we had to stop to buy stuff
> for fairy
> [photo attached]
> see she’s cute
Huaisang
> !!!! my heart!!!!
> (also, you’ve called her cute, are you okay?)
jc
> you’ve called me boyfriend, are you okay?
> still, you see she’s already “bff” with a-ling
> i’m just a third wheel
Huaisang
>> [you’ve called me boyfriend, are you okay?] I don’t like you anymore
> I think we should end our relationship here
jc
> idiot
Huaisang
> You keep being mean to me!!
jc
> you knew what you were getting yourself into
> now, if you’ll excuse me, i have a new daughter to pay attention to
> bye
Huaisang
> NOooo
> Pay attention to me, too!!
> Mr. boyfriend, please!
jc
> you said you didn’t like me
> act accordingly
Huaisang
> ………
> I lied
jc
> too bad
> i’ll send you pics
Huaisang
> Now I like you a bit more!!
IV.
Jin Ling usually woke up around 9AM on Saturdays, and he usually found his uncle already up and about, often at the kitchen table with a book or his phone with the remnants of his breakfast still on the table.
Which was why when he walked in the kitchen, bare-footed, a loose hoodie over his pajamas - kinda old and a bit childish, too - he did not expect his art teacher, Nie HuaiSang, to be fussing about the coffee machine.
“Hi,” Jin Ling said, because he had to say something, and also because that was his own house and he was not aware of any stay-over guests. He would have at least worn socks.
Nie HuaiSang jumped a bit, startled, and looked at him with an awkward expression. “Hi,” he said, “good morning.”
They both stayed silent for the following seconds, Jin Ling contemplating what he should do, or say. Maybe he should just go back to bed. Pretend nothing happened.
Something warm nuzzled his feet, “Ah,” he said, leaning down, “Fairy! Good morning to you, too, girl. Just wait a while and we can go for a walk!” The dog just wagged its tail, seemingly happy, before going to sit under the table.
“I’d offer you coffee,” said Nie HuaiSang, then, “but this device might just hate me.” He sounded still very sleepy, and very different from when he’d seen him in class. And even different than the few times he’d seen him with his uncle. Jin Ling studied him for a moment.
“I can make coffee for the both of us,” he told him, and got to do it, while Nie HuaiSang observed carefully which buttons he pushed and what he did.
They sat at the table, distant, on opposite sides, and no one said a word while they sipped coffee.
“My uncle-” started Jin Ling, then, just to say something, and because it was totally weird that Jiang Cheng stayed in bed in the morning.
“Still sleeping,” replied Nie HuaiSang, staring at his own mug, “at least, when I came down.”
Jin Ling frowned slightly. He didn’t particularly like the idea that his uncle had left him to have breakfast with his boyfriend or something, while he slept very peacefully. He said nothing.
“Did we-” Nie HuaiSang gulped down, and started again, “Did you sleep fine? Did we wake you when we came back?”
Jin Ling had played Fifa with his friends until midnight, then they’d gone home, and he’d gone to bed. He’d woken up the morning after, unperturbed. “No? I heard nothing?” Which, come to think of it, was perhaps a blessing, because he highly doubted that his uncle and Nie HuaiSang had just slept, if Nie HuaiSang was still here, and wearing his uncle’s very large clothes. Because that was his uncle’s stuff, both sweatpants and long-sleeved t-shirt.
“Mh,” Nie HuaiSang said, smiling slightly. “Cool.”
Eventually, they ended talking about what to cook for lunch, and then about general things, still nice, like music and films. And Nie HuaiSang knew a lot of things on many topics, but nonetheless kept asking what Jin Ling thought of things, and often kept his own opinion to himself, if it meant that Jin Ling could talk more.
“Ah, you’re all here.” Jiang Cheng appeared, it was 10AM, and he looked like daylight had personally offended him.
“WanYin, you asshole ,” Nie HuaiSang greeted him, and Jin Ling thought that maybe he could like Nie HuaiSang as a frequent guest, if this was the way he talked to his uncle, “you interrupted our very interesting conversation on superhero movies!”
Jiang Cheng frowned and said nothing, going to get his own cup of coffee. “No,” he said, grumpily, “I have to make it again from scratch, this thing is for two. HuaiSang, you’re never spending the night here again.”
Jin Ling watched, amused, as Nie HuaiSang just lifted an eyebrow, until Jiang Cheng sat down next to him, and then just stared at his uncle until Jiang Cheng tore his eyes away, his ears a burning shade of red. Jin Ling did not want to know.
He ended up walking the dog alone, which he didn’t mind, and when he came back Nie HuaiSang was not home anymore, and he thought he had just left, even though it would have been quite rude to not say goodbye, but maybe the conversation with him had been utter torture for his teacher-slash-uncle’s-boyfriend.
But then Nie HuaiSang reappeared with a lot of stuff to prepare lunch with, and Jin Ling felt almost relieved. His uncle was less bitchy if Nie HuaiSang was there, and he smiled more, and he yelled at him less. And Nie HuaiSang moved in their kitchen like he was made to be there, and he also played with Fairy when she went around his feet. If Fairy liked him in their home, maybe Jin Ling could like him here, too.
“Uncle,” he asked later, when Nie HuaiSang had gone back to his own apartment and whatever the hell he had to do there, “is he going to come over often?”
Jiang Cheng stared at him, frowning as per usual, and then he shrugged. “I cannot say,” he replied, after a while, “I guess it depends on him. I sure hope so.”
He watched his uncle saying this, a tinge of sadness to his voice and eyes. “I think he will,” Jin Ling said, “have him over often, that is.” His uncle sighed, and got up to do other things, like grading papers or whatever he did for fun.
V.
Jiang Cheng had read with apprehension the draft of the reportage Wei Ying had sent him at the beginning of May. His investigation had moved rather quickly, but the things he had unearthed were worrisome, some of them probably would have been better left alone.
Jin GuangYao would be accused of all sorts of nefarious deeds, and Jin Ling would have to shoulder the outfall. All while coming to terms that his remaining uncles had known of these things before him and told him nothing of them. If hell would finally peace out for Nie HuaiSang, its doors would only open for Jin Ling. What a mess.
Accused of multiple accounts of murder, all obtained by compromising pharmaceutical meds, accused of corrupting chemists and pharmacists to do the dirty work for him, he would hardly be declared innocent, and even if he were, he would have to move cities, if not countries.
The proofs Wei Ying would print were hardly confutable. Three newspapers would print his reportage, the NYT first and foremost, and with his own name. The police had already been alerted, so that as soon as the day of tomorrow striked, they would strike on Jin GuangYao.
Jiang Cheng had read the article, still a draft, and then he made three phone calls. The first one was to Wei Ying to tell him that he’d read his stuff.
“Is it any good?” Wei Ying had asked.
“You know damn well it is,” he’d replied. “But whatever happens, you don’t get to run away again.” Wei Ying had agreed, and told him he also had some sort of responsibility towards Lan WangJi’s son.
“You have responsibility towards A-Ling, too, I’m not letting you forget,” Jiang Cheng had threatened, before hanging up.
The second phone call had been to HuaiSang, and it had been super brief.
“Are you ready?” he asked. To see him in handcuffs? To face a trial? To testify?
“I have to be,” HuaiSang replied. He sounded a bit too closed off for his taste, but he could understand.
“You know I’m here, right?” He forced himself to say.
“Yeah,” came HuaiSang’s reply, in a breath, “I know. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
The third call had been to a therapist he’d contacted in advance, to make an appointment for Jin Ling. He’d already told her most of the background info, but Jin Ling would have to supply the rest and do all the work.
He sighed and got upstairs, knocking on his nephew’s door. Jin Ling opened and stopped the game he was playing as soon as he saw his expression. They sat down, both of them on Jin Ling’s single bed. “I’m so, so, so sorry,” he told his nephew, handing him Wei Ying’s article.
When Jin Ling cried in his arms, that night, he cried too. Jin Ling would be fine in the end, he had to believe this, he knew this.
He stayed back, the next day, when his nephew didn’t talk to him all day, he stayed back when his friends came to find him, as soon as they heard the news. He stayed back when, at the time of the therapy appointment, Jin Ling said harshly that he wanted ZiZhen’s father to drive him, not him.
“All of this is hardest on you,” whispered to him HuaiSang that evening, “you’re double tied to all people involved.” He knew that already, but it didn’t change anything. He hated inaction, and yet not doing anything was the only thing he could do right now.
Three days after Jin GuangYao’s arrest, Jin Ling sat down at the kitchen table and said: “I don’t hate you, uncle, and I get that you didn’t want to tell me before.” And then he sat on the floor to play with Fairy, and Jiang Cheng joined the both of them on his kitchen floor, like a lunatic. Jin Ling smiled at him, a tiny bit, and he thought they would be fine. Bruises heal.
VI.
Nie HuaiSang watched the judge ponder the sentence with the highest care and felt his heart stop in his chest. He was alone in the court stands, aside from Wei WuXian. Jiang Cheng had had to go to school, preparations for the new school year were terrible, now that he’d been made principal. Everyday he came back home more tired than the day before.
Home . Not that he had actually moved, yet. But it was more often than not that he had dinner with them, because it was Jin Ling that had insisted more than Jiang Cheng that he stayed to eat with them. That kid had a lot of Jiang YanLi in himself.
When the judge said the word guilty, Nie HuaiSang’s world crashed down on him. He felt both like a huge weight had been lifted from his chest, and like it had been replaced by a startling void.
He took a look at Wei WuXian and silently thanked him, he shrugged and made for the door, strolling like he was having the most fun of his life.
He, instead, he felt like he didn’t know what to do. It was mid-afternoon, he could go home, he could clean his living room before going back to Jiang Cheng’s for dinner. He could- he wanted to cry.
Jiang Cheng opened the door, the news was on, so they already knew. Jiang Cheng stared at him with a worried face, and he was so overwhelmed by everything, that he just threw himself against him, and didn’t even manage to get a hello out of his mouth that he’d already started sobbing. Jiang Cheng held him through the whole sobbing fit, and didn’t say anything at all.
He loved him. He loved him a whole lot. He loved Jiang Cheng, who loved him back, and who’d stuck with him though this hell of a trial, and who’d traveled to Venezuela to put this trial up in the first place, and who’d never abandoned Jin Ling or any other person in the meantime.
He loved Jiang Cheng when he yelled at him because he couldn’t stand the way he approached school problems, he loved Jiang Cheng when he sent him the worst texts anyone had ever received, he loved Jiang Cheng when he arched in need and want under his hands and mouth, when Jiang Cheng fucked him until he could barely remember his own name, when he made him breakfast the morning after, when he felt guilty at the thought of Jin Ling hearing them.
He just loved Jiang Cheng, a lot.
And he’d never told him, not once.
He probably knew, he was clever, and he understood him.
“Jiang Cheng,” he murmured, once his crying had stopped..
“Mh,” WanYin grunted, letting go of him, “What is it?”
“I never told you,” he started. And it was like opening a dam, a lot of feelings coming out after this. “I’m so far gone for you I don’t even know what to say. I guess I could just tell you that I love you. But it’s so much more. So much more than that. When I saw you again after all these years, I thought that it would be just like high school again, with me finding you hot, maybe with a crush on you, maybe thinking that I was in love with you-”
Jiang Cheng stared at him, confused. “You were in love with me in high school?”
“That’s so not the point, A-Cheng,” he cut short, “I thought I was, I liked you, but it was a lost cause and I thought it would be the same, but then you turn out the biggest badass, you’ve raised a kid, you’ve built a career from scrap, you’ve become amazing. And I just fell, hard. And I love you in such a way that I can’t put it into words, I- A-Cheng, I’m sorry I’ve waited all this time to tell you, you’re the only person that makes me really happy. And I know that I can be happy with you, I hope I can make you happy, too. And also I loved you already when I kissed you the first time, and it’s only gotten worse since.”
Jiang Cheng just looked at him, then he took his hand and he stroked it delicately.
“I loved you already when I kissed you back, too, you idiot,” he just said, and the way he kept calling him an idiot, it just sounded fond. HuaiSang smiled at him, tears in his eyes.
As he was getting closer to Jiang Cheng, ready to kiss him, to tell him that he would never stop loving him, the doorbell rang, again.
Jin Ling threw himself down the stairs, and his friends poured in from the door, the three kids all fussing around Jin Ling, asking about the trial, his well-being, Jiang Cheng’s well-being.
“So you’re related to a murderer!” Lan JingYi exclaimed, sounding delighted, and Jin Ling actually punched him, hard, in the shoulder.
Nie HuaiSang leaned his head on WanYin’s shoulder, while they heard and watched the kids do their usual noisy chatter.
Ten days later, HuaiSang realised he hadn’t gone home to sleep in ten days. He’d only been there to grab clothes, and hadn’t even brought home the dirty ones, which had been thrown in Jiang Cheng’s washing machine along with his and Jin Ling’s.
“A-Cheng, I know you would have said if I’d bored you,” he started, careful, “but either I move my stuff or this is going to be impractical”.
Jiang Cheng raised a corner of his mouth. “We can’t have impractical, can’t we?”.
“Of course we can’t! Imagine the headlines,” he replied, “ Art teacher forced to move one pair of socks at a time from old apartment to Principal Jiang’s house ”.
Dear Lily,
I’ve been in this school for a couple years, and I’ve got a serious question. We used to read a lot about Principal Jiang’s suitors, whether they were teachers or students. He used to be considered the most-desired man in this school.
What happened then? Why is it that this year no one talks about him in this newspaper? Is there an embargo, a ban, going on on this topic? I’m asking because it might be nice for anyone to know.
Thanks,
A concerned Principal Jiang enthusiast.
Dear fan,
I’m very sorry and pained to tell you that yes, we’re currently being censored on this topic. We’ve been censored for quite some time about Mr. Jiang, but we found ourselves with more than one conflict of interest going on right now.
One of our very own reporters is his nephew, but that’s not all. We’re being heavily scrutinized by someone who’s very close to Principal Jiang and who doesn’t find my own personal attempts at transforming our principal into a celebrity very funny anymore. And I do care about my academic results, sorry to disappoint you.
Lots of love,
Lily.
Dear Lily,
I think I’ve seen Principal Jiang on the rooftop here at school.
I know this is not a Spotted section, but you have nothing of the sort! And I needed to tell people.
He was talking with someone, and I think I’ve seen them hugging and kissing. Is our principal at last involved with someone?
Thank you, and keep up doing God’s work,
A.R.
Dear A.R.,
I, Lily, know everything and more, and knew already that those two would make the headlines some day or other.
This is why I formally invite you to buy our special printed number next week, the profits of which will go to our brand new scholarship fund, where you’ll see a unique interview with Principal Jiang. He even discussed some of his personal life.
On this very same note, one of the other teachers will have to add something. Who am I talking about? Just be sure to buy our special number!
Lots of love,
Lily.
FIN.