Work Text:
Jiang Cheng clenched his fist in desperation. He watched the scene in front of his eyes, his beloved brother gone and his sister dead because of this one brother. The man he grew up with, the man he always looked up and looked after, the man who caused his sister’s death and the man who was always smiling brightly no matter how bad the situation. He was always scared of dogs, wouldn’t he be scared of death?
Jiang Cheng turned his back to Lan Wangji, who was still standing at the edge of the cliff puzzled. His eyes were still looking into the bottomless abbys, into the dark.
Jiang Cheng walked away with his head lowered, not seeing the ground he was stepping on. His head was buzzing, and there were two images playing in loop in front of his eyes: his siblings’ deaths.
He didn’t realize he was crying till he arrived to the place where Jiang Yanli’s lifeless body was lying down.
He fell on his knees.
When everybody was moving around him, he just leaned over his sister and cried quietly.
No sound, not even a breath could be heard.
He cried for his sister, for his brother, for his nephew… Why was that there’s so many things to cry for?
He had lost everything.
14 YEARS LATER
Jiang Cheng’s head was aching from knitting his brows all day long. He decided to stop working on the sect’s works for a moment and rubbed between his brows. There was still so much to do, aside from raising a child on his own. 14 years olds were pain in the neck, even thinking about what he was possibly doing at the moment was enough to trigger another headache.
Jin Ling slammed open the doors in full speed and stumbled in. Jiang Cheng inhaled. “Didn’t I tell you to stop running in the halls? Do you even listen what I say?!” Jin Ling straightened himself out and waited for a moment to catch his breath. “Wei Wuxian is here!”
It was almost been a year after they went to their separate ways. Jiang Cheng decided to not to see him and Wei Wuxian was happy with Lan Wangji in Gusu. Wei Wuxian living in a place with 3000 rules was still amusing to Jiang Cheng but it was his life after all, who has he to tell him otherwise? And on top of that, it was still making his heart ache whenever he thinks about Wei Wuxian in general. He was the reason why Jiang Cheng's current situation: no parents, no siblings, lots of responsibility and a child with no parents.
But now he was there, in Yunmeng, after a year. With many thoughts -and most of them were about Wei Wuxian being possibly in a dying state, again- he followed Jin Ling to see his… brother. He bit his lip, the word was still pouring the salt on his wound.
Wei Wuxian was leaning back to the wall and Jİang Cheng could only see his side profile but he was indeed in distress, his face was ugly with worry. Jiang Cheng couldn’t hold himself back from quickening his steps. “What?” That annoyed voice just left his mouth wasn’t in the plan.
Wei Wuxian turned to the voice and tried to smile but failed miserably. “I can’t find Sizhui.” Jiang Cheng furrowed his brows. He was getting ready for the bad news but this wasn’t the one. “Does Lan Wangji know?”
Jiang Cheng wasn’t so fond of the man but he was the one who raised Lan Sizhui. Even though they really didn’t communicate more than nodding to each other during the sect meetings, for all these years Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui got familiar with each other because they were accompanying their caretakers to these meetings. And apart from that, Lan Sizhui was basically Jiang Cheng’s nephew, even if he couldn’t get used to the idea yet.
Wei Wuxian didn’t raise his eyes from his feet. “I didn’t tell him. We were in Yunmeng because of the sect matters and when Sizhui heard that there were creatures disturbing people, he wanted to go after it. I let him go by himself and now he’s not back. I… I can’t let Lan Wangji know this. I have to find him first.”
Jiang Cheng was read to agree to let his men go look for it but then he felt a tug on his arm. It was Jin Ling. He was looking at his uncle with eyes full of fire. The message was clear: We should be the one to go.
Jiang Cheng let out a breath and turned his head away from his annoying nephew, then called the guards over. “I will leave for some time. Let the disciples know that they have to look for a Lan Sect disciple…” He then stared at Wei Wuxian with strained voice. “Lan Sizhui is missing.”
Along the way to the woods -it was the way Lan Sizhui went- they didn’t say a word to each other. Jin Ling deliberately left them to walk side by side and followed them from the behind but it wasn’t enough to make them talk. He could feel the tension in the air and if it weren’t for him fearing his uncle’s anger this much, he would already said something like ‘Uncles… You’re both the pain in my neck.’
It was already night time when they arrived to the middle of the woods. The tall trees were bending over them and the only source of light was the full moon in the sky. Jiang Cheng pulled the Zidian and their surroundings shone with purple lightnings. Wei Wuxian couldn’t hold his tongue anymore. “Why are you always so angry? Isn’t it hurting your face to be knitting your brows all the time?” Jiang Cheng had to use the last drops of his patience to not whip this ruin of a man. “Why is that, I wonder? Who is responsible for it?” Jin Ling cut of Wei Wuxian before he could open his mouth to resist. “I’m sorry, uncle.” Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue to him. “I’m not talking about you. Even though you gave me some hard times over the years, you're not the main reason of my stressful life.”
Wei Wuxian was always feeling sorry for everything he had done 14 years ago and he always knew that how many times he would say that he was sorry, it wouldn’t be enough. They lost their home, Jiang Cheng lost his parents and they lost their sister because of him. And he lost Wei Wuxian too. Jiang Cheng never admitted that it was painful to lose him, but Wei Wuxian knew that it opened a wound that would never heal.
“I’m sorry.” Jiang Cheng turned to the voice. His hand over Zidian tensed. “Yeah? You better be. We should find Lan Sizhui. Tell me what happened exactly.”
Wei Wuxian decided to not talk about it anymore and simply explained the situation. The rumor Lan Sizhui heard was about a woman who was taking people’s souls. “It was said that once two people went into this woods and only one came because the other’s soul was trapped in the woman. The one who could come back alive told everyone that the woman took his friend’s face first and soul second.” Jiang Cheng held Jin Ling’s arm furiously and pulled him closer. He was extremly angry. “And you let Lan Sizhui alone after this? Are you crazy?!”
“Appearantly I am. I told him to not engage, he was just gonna see if there was anything wrong. And I wanted him to get experience. He’s almost 17, we were hunting beasts together at that age.” Jiang Cheg sneered at these words. “No, you were on a murder spree and I was trying to stop you.”
Jin Ling held his breath.
Contrary to Jin Ling’s expectation, Wei Wuxian actually got angry. He was always saying sorry and accepting his fault till now, so he thought that would happen again. “Jiang Cheng, I never wanted to do all these. Do you think I wanted to burn our house down? Do you think I wanted to see my sister giving her last breath in my arms, trying to protect me? Do you think I wanted you to take all the responsibility by yourself? Do you think I never wanted to watch Jin Ling grow up too? To witness his first steps or to see him trying to call me? I could’ve get old with you! Twin Heroes of Yunmeng!” With every word he said, with every breath leaving him, he felt tired and tired. At the end, he was whispering with a cracked voice, his head bowed down.
Jiang Cheng didn’t realize he was squeezing Jin Ling’s arm all this time. Wei Wuxian’s words opened the old wounds and made them bleed again. All these were the problems they never managed to talk it out. Jiang Cheng was too closed to talk about them, he buried all his sadness and in time, the sadness turned to anger. And Wei Wuxian was too sorry to be the one to start the conversation, whenever he remembered the things he did, the things he put Jiang Cheng through, his whole being was starting to tremble.
But here they were.
Jiang Cheng took Jin Ling with him and walked away from Wei Wuxian, left him there by himself. But before he could take the fourth step, he stopped in his tracks to say something.
He couldn’t.
There was a woman standing behind Wei Wuxian, her clothes were torned and a shade of pink. When he looked at it closer, he saw that the pink wasn’t the clothes but the blood stains on it. He waited for Wei Wuxian to notice the danger behind him but he was too invested in the moment, that was so unlike him. Wei Wuxian would never let his guard down, specially when he knew there was danger for sure. Jiang Cheng inhaled sharply to warn him. “Wei Wuxian!”
He turned around and jumped far from the woman. At the same time, a sharp whipping sound heard between the woman and Wei Wuxian, slowing the woman down till he went back to Jiang Cheng’s side.
Jiang Cheng found the solution in the shouting.
“Are you out of your mind?! Why don’t you look out for the danger? Do you want me to tell Lan Wangji his cultivation partner and adopted son are both dead?!” Wei Wuxian laughed loudly and put his tongue out to him. “I’m his husband!” Jiang Cheng grimaced to him while guarding Jin Ling from the woman. “Was that the problem?!”
The woman came closer to them slowly. She was so slow that waiting him was more stressful then getting ready to kill her. When she came close enough, Wei Wuxian suddenly stopped Jiang Chen who was ready to whip her to death with Zidian. “Look closely. Her face is not normal. If she were to take Sizhui’s face and soul, we would see him on her face. Sizhui is fine.” Jiang Cheng heard him relieving and couldn’t help but feel relieved himself too. Behind him, Jin Ling took a deep breath with them. “But who is she, then?” Jin Ling looked at Wei Wuxian. He was waiting the answer from Wei Wuxian while Jiang Cheng was here, he gritted his teeth. “I don’t know, let’s hear it from her.”
The woman raised her head and they saw her face clearly for the first time. There was nothing to see, her face was messed up with cuts. Jiang Cheng tried hard to not turn his head away from the sight. She pointed to Wei Wuxian for a moment, then turned back. Wei Wuxian followed her without asking any questions, and Jiang Cheng once again wondered how he lived to this day -minus being dead for 13 years.
She leaded them deep into the woods, after half an hour of walking they saw a cabin that’s barely standing. Wei Wuxian finally stopped the woman. “Do you live here? What’s your name?” The woman touched to her face first and to her clothes second. Then answered to them slowly. “I live… there. They… want to… take my… pearl.” Jin Ling left his uncles’ side and went to the cabin. When Jiang Cheng saw this, he felt the world collapse on top of him. “Jin Ling?! Hace you lost it?! Come back here!” Woman watched Jin Ling but didn’t do anything, she just kept looking at them. Jin Ling didn’t turn back, he just waved to Jiang Cheng. “I saw a movement from the window!” Jiang Cheng wanted to follow him but Wei Wuxian stopped. “Remember the experience?” Jiang Cheng took his arm from Wei Wuxian’s grip. “Remember the answer?”
Jiang Cheng shifted his attention to the woman again. “Answer. Who are you? Why are you taking people’s souls and faces?” He tilted his head to Wei Wuxian’s side and whispered. “She doesn’t look dead.” Wei Wuxian nodded and waited for the woman’s answer. But instead, they heard a boy’s voice. “I don’t know her name but she’s not a bad person. The villagers were trying to rob her and this man over here was helping her to get rid of them.” Both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian turned to the voice. Wei Wuxian immediately left Jiang Cheng’s side to take the boy in his arms. “Sizhui! You’re okay!”
After they left the woman with the young villager, Lan Sizhui and Wei Wuxian criticized the story between them. “She found me when I was walking down the path. She just came closer and held my shoulder, then I felt someone else was standing behind me. It was that man in the cabin with her. They insisted on not telling their names, but they told the story.” Wei Wuxian was walking with his arms crossed. Jiang Cheng was walking in front of them while Jin Ling following close by. Wei Wuxian was keeping up with Lan Sizhui's story. “So, someone from LanLing Jin gave a pearl to her as a compensation because they caused the cuts on her face but when the people learned that, they wanted to rob her and she ran to Yunmeng. Yet, the people are people and they heard the story, wanted to take the pearl from her.”
“That man took pity on her, decided to help. She distracts them with her face and he takes them out, coming from behind.”
“But where’s the stealing the face and soul story came from?”
“That, even they don’t know. But did you see the weeds around these bushes?”
“Good job. There were opiums. They can cause hallucinations. And they were scared their wits off too.”
Jiang Cheng cut them off. “Good for them. I just want to know why didn’t I hear about this?”
Lan Sizhui quietly slowed his steps down and waited for Jin Ling to come near him, so Wei Wuxian could go to Jiang Cheng. “We’re miles away from the sect. You can’t possibly know everything.” Jiang Cheng shook his head off, he wasn’t convinced. “I’m the sect leader. People wants you to be a problem solver. I should’ve known this.” Wei Wuxian took a look at the juniors and after seeing them busy with their own conversation, he held Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “Don’t go hard on yourself. You will get old earlier than the usual.”
Jiang Cheng wanted to shook his hand off of his shoulder but he felt extremely tired of everything. He felt tired of being on guard for any behavior and word coming from Wei Wuxian, with the fear of talking about the past and feeling all that misery over again. He just sighed. “Wei Wuxian, I won’t forgive you.” Wei Wuxian took his hand back like he just touched fire. “Deep down, I always know you didn’t kill my sister on purpose. I know you didn’t destroy our house knowingly. But Wei Ying, despite the common knowledge, you were the one who always acted in the spite of the moment, not me. If you would ever just stop and think about what could happen, or even listen to me for one second, we may not be talking about these right now. I can never forgive this.”
Wei Wuxian smiled to himself and watched the grasses getting destroyed under their feet. “I would say that it was because of the-“ Jiang Cheng stared at him with dark eyes. Wei Wuxian wanted to take a step back but stopped himself. “Okay, I won’t say anything.”
Jiang Cheng touched the Zidian around his finger, rubbed the ring with his thumb. “The Twin Heroes of Yunmeng… What a joke.”
Wei Wuxian made a face to Jiang Cheng. “Yeah, there was only one.”
Jiang Cheng glared at him, he was still playing with Zidian. “Tell me it was you and I will whip you to death right here, for good.”
Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui’s conversation was already over, they were watching Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian talking. More like, Wei Wuxian trying to get over it with humor. “Are they good?” Jin Ling didn’t take his eyes off of his uncle’s darkened face, but he also saw an annoyed look. “He looks at me like this too when I make him angry.” Lan Sizhui shrugged and smiled to the boy walking with him. “Far from good. But I guess it’s a start?” Jin Ling nodded and didn’t say anything till Lan Sizhui spoke with a smile in his voice. “I always wanted to get to know him. Your uncle, I mean. He was always looking grim during the meetings but he never raised his voice to us. Now I know he must be hating me for being a Wen, and yet he never said anything hurtful.” Jin Ling puffed his cheeks, he asked about this to his uncle too. It felt odd to him, Jiang Cheng being this hateful towards everything related to Wei Wuxian but never saying anything about Lan Sizhui. “Do you remember that one time I threw a ball at your face and your right eye was swollen because of it?” Lan Sizhui laughed. He walked around with his eye closed for two weeks because of it. “My uncle told me that I should be kind to you because you’re like me. With no parents. He actually wanted us to be friends, I think.” Lan Sizhui stared at Jiang Cheng’s back for a long time, till they came to a crossroads.
Lan Sizhui went to Wei Wuxian’s side while Jin Ling was walking to Jiang Cheng. They looked at each other without talking, and turned their backs to leave.
Wei Wuxian stopped after a few steps. “Can we visit you again?” Lan Sizhui held his breath and waited for Jiang Cheng’s answer.
Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything for a long time. Wei Wuxian smiled bitterly to himself and wrapped his arm around Lan Sizhui’s shoulder, started to walk away. Of course we can't visit him.
“If you can stop being lovey-dovey with Lan Wangji in fron of my eyes.”
Lan Sizhui could swear he saw flowers bloom in Wei Wuxian’s face. “I promise!”
Jiang Cheng didn’t stop for an answer and went down the road with quick steps, Jin Ling following him behing almost running.
Lan Sizhui turned to see Jin Ling, he was looking at Lan Sizhui too.
With big smiles on their faces, they gave each other thumbs up.