Chapter Text
One person Jiang Cheng does not expect to see at the abandoned village days away from the first city bustling with life is First Jade of Lan sect. He is donned in rather plain looking robes which for once are pleasant blue with only white corners of light garments peeking from underneath, hair tied up with an elegant silver accessory, lacking the usual elaborate ornaments. Jiang Cheng misses the greeting he’s offered as his chest is slowly being pierced with a memory of grief and pain, and rather unexplainable guilt, yet on the outside, like always, he hides his face under the well-polished mask of annoyance.
"What are you doing here?"
Lan Xichen looks up at him, blinking innocently as if he's not sure the question is directed at him.
"I–" he starts, less smoothly than Jiang Cheng remembers him to speak. He bites his lip and exhales, slow and deep, "I could ask the same about you, Sect Leader Jiang."
Jiang Cheng quirks his eyebrow at the way Xichen tries to dodge the question, but perhaps it's only fair. Last time Cheng has heard about Lan Xichen, the man was still in seclusion, being weighed down by the burdens of betrayal, manipulation, and loss. It's a rather big change to see him so far away from Cloud Recesses, the light, albeit not as bright as in the old days, back in his brown eyes, making the specks of gold stand out. He looks lively again.
"Vacation," Jiang Cheng finally says, watching how Xichen's eyes widen.
"Vacation?" He points to a few fierce corpses around Jiang Cheng. "Pardon my rudeness, but that does not seem to fit the term," he says, swiftly covering his mouth with the long blue sleeve, but the shadow of his smile makes its’ way to his eyes nonetheless. Jiang Cheng sighs. At least Xichen has refrained from commenting on his already ragged robes, tied with simplest of belts, sleeves rolled up, hair in a low ponytail. Jiang Cheng does not look like the sect leader he is at all; he's mildly surprised that he was recognized that easily in the first place. With the purple of his old robes faded out by the sun, he’s easily passed as a regular traveler the past couple of weeks.
„Spring cleaning?" he offers an explanation, nudging one of the corpses with his boot. “I came across them by accident, but I believe they were abandoned by the rest of the villagers while moving away.” He points to two men behind himself, “Broken legs there, something internal here perhaps,” he says looking at the corpse he’s just nudged, “anything that would make it difficult to move.”
Lan Xichen nods accordingly, a gentle beam not leaving his face when he asks, “Is that what ‘hunts’ are being called these days? Vacation? Spring cleaning?”
It’s strange; the teasing note in Xichen’s voice, the ease of his movements, the light tone coming back, just how it’s been years ago during every little chat they’ve had. Jiang Cheng wants to straight-up ask what has happened with secluding himself, yet he’s not as cruel as to bring the most hurtful topic up when Xichen has purposefully ignored the first question.
“It’s not considered hunting as that is not the reason I’ve come here.”
“And what the reason might be?”
Jiang Cheng snorts, crossing his arms over the chest.
“Vacation, I’ve said it already.” He sighs, letting his hands drop by his sides again when Xichen actually lets out an oh , as if he really thought Jiang Cheng was joking. “Does my clothes not tell you enough? I’m traveling. Trying to rest, trying to– Finally, everything is calm in Yunmeng, the problems at Lanling Jin have been solved as well, at least the serious ones, so I’m not worried about Jin Ling either. It’s good, after everything, it’s all good, thus I figured maybe I have earned some rest, as improbable as it sounds.”
“You have,” Xichen suddenly agrees without a moment of hesitation. “You sure have.”
He looks fond when he says it, and Jiang Cheng does not know how to react to that, what to say. He’s not used to fond .
“It’s wondrous to meet you here.”
Now it’s Jiang Cheng who blinks in confusion, scowling at the idea that those words are directed at him. Lan Xichen has spent a few years in seclusion, perhaps it did have an effect on his mind if he goes around saying it’s wondrous to meet Jiang Cheng at the abandoned village, with three fierce corpses at his feet.
“Excuse me, but I have to say you do sound like a lunatic, Sect Leader Lan.”
“Please, forget that title,” Xichen breathes out, plastering another smile on his face, but he doesn't need to hide the brightness of it with his sleeve now as the hint of sadness does it for him. "I have been closed away for far too long to still be called a sect leader. I don't know my sect as I used to, I don't… I don't give enough of myself for that title, thus I have rightfully passed it on Wangji. It hasn't been officially announced yet, as I understand from your reaction."
Jiang Cheng nods, trying to smooth out the furrow of his eyebrows. No wonder he's been receiving reports signed by Lan Wangji lately, but perhaps they've been waiting for annual sects meeting to explain everything in detail eye to eye. Jiang Cheng can't say he's shocked or upset by this turn of events, and yet something in him stirs up at the thought.
"There are few to none cultivators who could be as good a sect leader as you are," he finally says.
"You are," Xichen says, a burst of silent, musical laughter bubbling up his throat. "It is why I think it wondrous to meet you here, dear Wanyin. Being alone with my thoughts for months to no end, I feel like I have finally attained for certain things, let go of other, and for the rest," he takes a deep breath, "for the rest it was time to go out and find the answers in the new places. I am looking for a second chance at life, and fate leads me to believe you might be doing the same, even if in a different way."
Jiang Cheng watches Xichen's face, searching for something in it, though he's not sure himself what. The words he's just been told sound ridiculous and yet at the same time they echo in his heart, trying to put his hidden thoughts into phrases which fearlessly leave usually tightly shut lips. It feels like Lan Xichen knows exactly what is happening inside Cheng, like he picks on Jiang Cheng's slightly dropped shoulders which are slowly getting free of tensity set in them for the last two decades of his life, like he reads his deepest thoughts that ironically tirelessly repeat in his head that he is tired of everything, that he needs a rest.
That he needs, indeed, a second chance at life, where maybe for at least a little while he can live for himself only.
He's not sure if it's really fate which Xichen speaks of that has brought them both here, at this very corner of the world, if it's only a coincidence, or if there's something more. There's not much he can figure out now, hence Jiang Cheng decides he's got nothing better to do but wait and see where it all goes. He looks away from Lan Xichen, then clears his throat and turns around to walk eastwards.
"I've settled into one of the houses nearby the lake," he says to Xichen, "there's enough space for two."
Lan Xichen smiles.
He barely whispers, but the wind carries his words forward: "I'm coming."
Jiang Cheng sighs; he's only not sure if it's a tired sigh or a relieved one.