Work Text:
The vast majority of the piers in Yunmeng always bustle with activity, especially the prestigious Lotus Pier — they thrive with early morning dock workers rushing about to prepare the fishing boats, and visitors sailing in mid-afternoon from villages up and down the coast, eager to spend the day mingling with the locals who have made Lotus Pier their home.
Vendors selling lotus seed pods, and water chestnuts, and all sorts of other treats attract the attention of locals and visitors alike. Children laugh and play wherever there’s room. It’s a lively place. It’s Jiang Cheng’s home.
Lotus Pier lays acclaim to the widest network of piers in the cultivation world, sprawling across the shore of the beautiful lotus lake, and most of them are open to the public. There is, however, a private network of piers built directly out of the Jiang Compound. Only the Sect Leader and direct family members are allowed access, leaving it the perfect place to spend an evening in quiet contemplation.
Or, when Lan Jingyi is involved, it’s the perfect place to spend an evening not in quiet contemplation. He never stops talking. The two of them — Jiang Cheng and Lan Jingyi — sit on the farthest end of the longest pier. Frogsong rises all around them as fireflies twinkle in the darkening light.
Jiang Cheng is very familiar with the Lan’s rule of not talking while eating, but apparently that doesn’t stop Lan Jingyi. Between bites he rambles about the new training regimen that he’s helped Jiang Zhiping put into place for all new Jiang disciples. When he describes the way the junior disciples had taken to it, and how intuitive they’d found the new exercises, his eyes light up.
Jiang Cheng loves, adores, cherishes many things about Lan Jingyi. His passionate nature is one of them. The way he doesn’t take shit from anyone is another. Sometimes he talks too fast during dinner, like now, and ends up choking on his food. Jiang Cheng adores that, too.
Jiang Cheng rubs Lan Jingyi’s back while he coughs. “You okay?”
“Ugh,” Lan Jingyi says. And that’s another thing Jiang Cheng loves about him — his frank, open nature. “When will we develop a talisman that allows for telepathy? It’s not fair that I have to eat and breathe and talk all at the same time.”
“Attempt the impossible,” Jiang Cheng recites. “If anyone could it would be you and my brother.”
Lan Jingyi’s eyes light up again. “Oh! I received a letter from him earlier today. Said he was planning on making a trip to help us with final wedding preparations in a few weeks, once fall has set in.” His mouth falls a little. Picks a water chestnut out of the bowl in his hands and munches on it, sullen. “I wish he could be here for my birthday.”
“Mm.” Jiang Cheng had also received a letter from his brother earlier. Wei Wuxian is planning on arriving early enough for Lan Jingyi’s birthday, but it’s to be a surprise. “I’m sure he wishes he could be here, too.”
And then, in true Lan Jingyi fashion, he jolts and Jiang Cheng ends up watching him, amused, as he scrambles through his qiankun pouch for… Jiang Cheng waits. Ah, for a writing set. “Distance shortening array,” he marks down on the back of what appears to be one of the junior disciple’s recent essays.
Jiang Cheng raises a brow.
“The concept has to marinate,” Lan Jingyi explains as he waits for the ink to dry, “but imagine an array that you step into and it takes you from one place to another. Like, imagine stepping into a room in Lotus Pier and you end up walking out of a room in the Cloud Recesses.”
“Sounds like I would never have another peaceful day, ever again.”
Lan Jingyi’s laughter is bright in the golden lantern light illuminating their end of the pier.
Jiang Cheng loves him. And in a few, short months Jiang Cheng is going to marry him.