Chapter Text
“Jin Ling, we need to talk.”
Jin Ling froze. He had never heard those words from Jiang Cheng before. Ever. They didn’t talk about things! They had awkward silences and emotionally stunted exchanges instead. Jin Ling could probably count on one hand the number of serious conversations they ever had.
Even when Jiang Cheng wanted to reprimand Jin Ling, he didn’t start with “we need to talk;” he merely began listing what Jin Ling had done wrong and what he was going to do about it. There was no hesitation, as Jin Ling swore he saw on his uncle’s face right now, nor was there any preface to what he wanted to say.
“Okay,” was all Jin Ling could say.
“Not here,” Jiang Cheng said, looking around at the Jin disciples wandering around the courtyard. “Let’s go to your office.”
Jin Ling nodded slowly, leading Jiang Cheng to the private office of the Sect Leader. He never became quite used to that being his room. That he was the one and only Lanling Jin Sect Leader. Of course, he still had others to help him, including a board of advisors elected by the members of the sect to assist Jin Ling until he became a bit older, as well as the other major clan leaders that always offered their assistance. But Jin Ling never accepted their help. He was fine on his own.
The Sect Leader’s office was fairly basic, although it had been filled with more treasures while Jin Guangyao was in power. The Jin Clan had cleared out all of his belongings, and Jin Ling wasn’t old enough to have collected many expensive items. The Jin Clan had been trying to erase their connection from Jin Guangyao as much as possible, even going so far as to publicly burn all effigies and paintings of him in Jinlintai.
Jin Ling’s office only contained a small desk with papers scattered haphazardly on it—letters from lesser Sect Leaders asking for resources, complaints from ordinary citizens about ghosts or monsters, and initial plans for more watchtowers. Also on the desk was a nice brush pen from Nie Huaisang, a special stone to sharpen his sword from Jiang Cheng, and a bunch of silly, inside-joke drawings and letters from Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi. The rest of the room consisted of a bookshelf filled with various books that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji gifted him.
“A good Sect Leader must be educated!” Wei Wuxian said when he showed Jin Ling the books he bought for him. If that was the case, why did he feel so stupid every time the advisors didn’t approve one of his propositions? Every time a Sect Leader came over to Jinlintai, yelling because his letters weren't yet answered ? Every time he went to sleep with a pile of paperwork sitting on his desk that he didn’t know what to do about?
Jiang Cheng shut the door behind him as he followed Jin Ling into the office, Fairy squeezing in behind them. Jiang Cheng sat down on one side of the desk, and Jin Ling sat down next to him, with Fairy settling on his lap, as she liked to do when he worked. He didn’t want to sit on the side of the desk that he usually worked on. It felt like a place for “serious Sect Leader work,” but he knew this conversation wouldn’t be like any of that.
He knew that because Jiang Cheng looked nervous. Jiang Cheng was probably at least third on Jin Ling’s ranking of “most terrifying uncles”—only because Mo Xuanyu and Jin Guangyao were pretty hard to top in that aspect—because he never got worried or nervous. He never focused solely on petting Fairy so that he could avoid speaking, as he did now. He never readjusted the cuffs of his robes. He never opened and closed his mouth without saying anything; he just said what he wanted to say when he wanted to say it.
“I was planning on making this announcement to the public soon, but I wanted to tell you first.”
“Okay,” Jin Ling said again, his mind trying to figure out what the hell Jiang Cheng was talking about but ultimately coming up with nothing. It had to be something important to him, something personal, but also something that he had to annouce to the public. What?
Jiang Cheng hesitated, and Jin Ling said, “Come on, Uncle, spit it out!” For once, he felt like the strict uncle trying to get his nephew to admit to something, not the other way around. And for once, Jiang Cheng didn’t yell at him for being brash.
“I’m getting married,” Jiang Cheng said, in an unusually quiet voice. Jin Ling wasn’t sure if he’d ever heard Jiang Cheng’s voice at such low volume, except perhaps when he was very young.
“Getting married?! To who?!” Fairy jumped up at the sound of Jin Ling’s voice raising. Jin Ling had never seen Jiang Cheng interact with any woman in a non-professional context. All he had been doing in the past few weeks was attending various meetings with Sect Leaders. Jin Ling only knew this because Jiang Cheng often passed through Jinlintai on his way to the Unclean Realm, which he had done several times in the past month. Jin Ling hadn’t thought much of it, but perhaps he should have… “You’re marrying someone from the QingheNie Sect?”
“How did you know?”
“You’ve been going to the Unclean Realm a lot recently.”
“Oh, yes.”
“I’m surprised you fell in love with a Nie Sect woman…” Jin Ling commented. It was merely a stereotype, but, since most all of the Sect members used sabers, their sect members had a reputation of being big, strong, fierce warriors. Wei Wuxian once told Jin Ling—after a few cups of wine, of course—all about the type of woman Jiang Cheng always said he wanted: gentle, beautiful, and “not too capable.” Those traits didn’t all necessarily match up with Jin Ling’s idea of Nie Sect women.
“Why?!” Jiang Cheng questioned defensively, seemingly gaining his old personality back now the cat was out of the bag. Little did Jin Ling know, there was still a bigger cat remaining, a cat that liked handheld fans and pretended to be oblivious about the world around him. “What’s wrong with the Nie Clan?!”
“Nothing! Jeez! Why are you being so weird right now?!” Jin Ling shot back. He wasn’t actually mad at Jiang Cheng, just confused. He was getting married! So what?! It happened to people every day!
“Jin Ling, if you keep talking like this, I’m going to—”
“You’re going to take me back to Lotus Pier and ground me until I’m thirty, I know. I can’t believe I’m a Sect Leader, and my uncle still gets to ground me…”
“Jin Ling!”
“Who are you marrying, anyway?!” Jin Ling said, to get Jiang Cheng’s mind off of the subject of punishing him. “What’s her name?”
“Nie Mian.” It was strange to hear Jiang Cheng say a birth name that wasn’t Jin Ling’s own. He didn’t even call Wei Wuxian, his brother, by his birth name. He must’ve been very close to this person—he had to be; they were getting married, apparently. But Jiang Cheng wasn’t finished talking yet. “Courtesy name Nie Huaisang.”
Jin Ling furrowed his brows. “Did having all those women reject you turn you into a cut-sleeve or something?”
“Jin Ling! That’s not how it works!”
“I didn’t know,” Jin Ling said, shrugging. “Although, how is this marriage even going to work? Is he going to move to Lotus Pier, or are you going to the Unclean Realm? Or are you both just going to live apart?” Jin Ling laughed. “What a marriage that will be—”
“We’re still working out the details.”
“Really? It’s your wedding, and you’re not sure how you’re going to announce it? You better get on that, or else so many people are going to complain…”
It wasn’t that Sect Leaders couldn’t marry each other; it was just that they very rarely did. It was much easier to encourage political alliances through marriages between non-heir family members, and it lessened the consequences of a failed relationship.
Scholars often liked to blame the downfalls of leaders on their romantic interests blinding them to reality, and Sect Leaders weren’t much different, looking at the criticisms aimed at Qingheng-Jun, Jin Guangshan, and even the rumors surrounding Lan Xichen after Jin Guangyao’s crimes were revealed. Any mistake committed by one leader would reflect poorly on both spouses. Sect Leaders had to be careful not to show preference to their spouse’s clan, and so on.
It was a tricky scenario. Jin Ling thought that his uncle must really be in love with Nie Huaisang to go through with the whole thing.
⚭ ⚭ ⚭
“Lan Zhan, you’ve been working all day, isn’t it time for a break?” Wei Wuxian pouted, sitting on the other side of a table where Lan Wangji was reading through a stack of papers, stopping every so often to frown, write something down, and move on to the next sheet.
“I must finish reading these night-hunt reports from the juniors,” Lan Wangji replied, not looking up from the papers.
Wei Wuxian leaned across the table towards Lan Wangji, placing his elbows on the stack of paper so Lan Wangji couldn’t pick them up anymore. Lan Wangji finished reading the page he was on and absentmindedly reached for the next one, only then realizing that Wei Wuxian was preventing him from working.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, looking at Wei Wuxian sternly. Wei Wuxian couldn’t be eye-to-eye with that gaze for very long; his goofy smile fell into a pout, and he took his elbows off Lan Wangji’s work.
“Fine. I guess my husband doesn’t love me anymore. I have to settle with being the poor, forgotten husband, waiting for my lover to learn to put me before his work for once in his life.” Wei Wuxian lamented, sprawling on the floor and covering his hands with his face. Lan Wangji continued reading his papers without acknowledging Wei Wuxian.
A knock sounded on the door, and Wei Wuxian jumped up to get it, knowing that Lan Wangji wasn’t going to part from those papers until he finished with them. A disciple stood at the door. “Here’s the letters addressed to you and Hanguang-Jun that we received today,” the disciple said as she handed several papers to Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian thanked her and sat back over by Lan Wangji to look through the letters.
“This one’s for you; it’s from Maiden Luo. I have one from Nie Huaisang. And another one from… Jin Ling?” Wei Wuxian opened the letter from Jin Ling first. He rarely sent Wei Wuxian any letters unprompted. They saw each other at least once a month at various night-hunts, but, on the off-chance that the Lan Clan didn’t attend, Wei Wuxian typically sent Jin Ling a quick letter to ask how he was doing, to which Jin Ling would casually reply. But he never was one to send a message to Wei Wuxian first.
Wei Wuxian read the first few lines of the letter, and his eyes widened. “Jiang Cheng is getting MARRIED?!” Lan Wangji looked up. “To Nie Huaisang?!” Wei Wuxian continued reading, scanning the rest of the page fervently. He gave a hollow laugh at one point, and Lan Wangji’s brows furrowed. “‘Uncle Jiang said he didn’t want to invite you, but I’m sending this letter anyway because I think he’s going to regret that.’” Wei Wuxian quoted, then sighed. “That sounds like Jiang Cheng.”
“When is the wedding?”
“Next month.”
“Will you attend?”
“Of-fucking-course. I don’t care if Jiang Cheng didn’t want to invite me. It’s my younger brother’s wedding. I have to go.”
Wei Wuxian didn’t say it, but Lan Wangji knew he was thinking about Jiang Yanli’s wedding. He missed almost every monumental event in her life after he relocated to Burial Mounds, and he sure as hell wasn’t about to make that mistake again. “I just can’t believe I had to find out from someone else. Jin Ling says that they’re planning on making a public announcement soon. Was Jiang Cheng just going to let me find out like everyone else, like I’m just another random cultivator?”
“It’s like Jin Ling said. Jiang Cheng would regret not having you there.” Lan Wangji pointed out.
“I know. Jiang Cheng is stubborn like that.” Wei Wuxian finished reading the last few lines of the letter and picked up the one from Nie Huaisang. “I assume this one is about the wedding as well.” He still wore a frown, but as he read more of Nie Huaisang’s letter, the frown softened into a slight smile.
“My old best friend and my brother. Getting married. And I thought I was the one who had borderline romantic tension with him when we were teenagers.” Lan Wangji’s hand tightened on the pen he was holding, but Wei Wuxian didn’t notice. “We definitely had our fair share of moments.”
Lan Wangji placed his pen carefully down on the table but still somehow filled the action with a slight rage. “I’ve finished my work for the day.”
Wei Wuxian looked over and saw that Lan Wangji had barely made a dent in the stack of papers still on the table. “That’s all I had to do to make you pay attention to me? Make you jealous?” Wei Wuxian scooted over to Lan Wangji, positioning himself right in Lan Wangji’s lap, so he was physically unable to focus on anything other than Wei Wuxian. Not that Lan Wangji wanted to focus on anything other than Wei Wuxian anyway. “I was just messing with you, Lan Zhan. You know that you’re my one and only.”
Lan Wangji frowned at Wei Wuxian’s teasing, but Wei Wuxian quickly wiped it away with a kiss. He put his arms around Lan Wangji’s neck. “No matter. Come on, Lan Zhan, let’s go take a break.”
⚭ ⚭ ⚭
The actual marriage ceremony passed in a blur for Jin Ling. Jiang Cheng almost burst a blood vessel when Wei Wuxian arrived with Lan Wangji, bringing gift money for the newlyweds and “bedroom advice” that Jin Ling ran away before he could hear. Jin Ling wasn’t worried about getting in trouble for inviting them, though. He didn’t think Jiang Cheng would ruin the mood of his own wedding to discipline his nephew, and, even if he tried afterward, Jin Ling would have the Yiling Patriarch and Hanguang-Jun on his side if it came to a bona fide Battle of the Uncles.
“I still cannot believe that you invited him without telling me,” Jiang Cheng said the next morning.
“I still cannot believe that you weren’t going to invite Uncle Wei to your freaking wedding! He already died once, are you just going to waste the second chance that the universe gave you?”
“Don’t lecture me on my wedding, Jin Ling.”
“Your wedding was yesterday. I can say whatever I want.”
“You…” Jiang Cheng started, and Jin Ling could feel a lecture coming on until Nie Huaisang walked in the room, surprisingly put-together and nice-looking for having just woken up. “Uh, hello, Nie M—H—Mian.”
“Hello, love.”
Jiang Cheng was making a strange face. The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile that Jiang Cheng immediately tried to suppress. But he couldn’t hide the joy in his eyes, no matter how much he tried to avoid expressing affection for others in public. All that internal conflict ended up making him look like a complete idiot.
Jin Ling almost made a jab at Jiang Cheng for it when Nie Huaisang spoke, sitting down at the table along with them. “Are we going to just sit around waiting for breakfast to fall from the sky, or…?”
“Why don’t you make it?” Jin Ling blurted, looking at Nie Huaisang.
Nie Huaisang raised an eyebrow and laughed. “I can’t fucking cook. Why the hell would I make it?”
Jin Ling’s eyes widened from the language that came from Nie Huaisang’s mouth. He’d always known Nie Huaisang as the Headshaker. The “pathetic excuse of a Sect Leader.” The one who cared more about pretty fans than sharp swords. And, just a few moments ago, the one who referred to his uncle as “love.” A loser, to be completely frank about it. But here he was, the Headshaker, making sarcastic jokes and cursing and talking back.
“I’ll see if they’ve prepared anything in the kitchen,” Jiang Cheng said, leaving Nie Huaisang and Jin Ling alone.
The only sound in the room was that of Nie Huaisang’s fan snapping open and gently waving in front of Nie Huaisang’s face. Jin Ling pulled a loose thread from his robes.
It wasn’t that the two didn’t know how to speak to each other. They had met many times at meetings and made enough small talk to be considered acquaintances. But Jin Ling certainly didn’t know how to interact with Nie Huaisang in this context. As a family member. As his new uncle. Was he supposed to share some sort of affection with him? Was he supposed to talk about Jiang Cheng, the one personal thing they had in common? Was he supposed to maintain the casual small talk they usually exchanged?
“How have you been doing recently?” Nie Huaisang asked. Small talk it was.
“Fine.”
“I heard about your proposal to keep up the watchtowers that Jin Guangyao built.”
“Just because he was corrupt doesn’t mean all of his ideas were bad. The towers were useful for providing rural people with access to cultivators that could help them. And I’m not my uncle; I won’t use them for any sort of hidden, immoral purpose.”
“Of course you won’t. But does everyone else know that?”
Jin Ling’s face hardened. “What are you trying to say?”
“Just that there’s more to being a Sect Leader than whether something’s a good idea or not. You inherited a difficult situation, Jin Ling.”
“So did Uncle Jiang, and everything worked out for him.”
“Yes…” Nie Huaisang said, looking over at the door Jiang Cheng had exited from moments ago. He clearly had more he could say on the matter. “I suppose I wanted to let you know that you can always come to me if you need help with anything: sect leader duties, clan politics, the woes of being a teenager. Although I can’t help you with girls, you’ll have to ask Wei Wuxian about that.”
“Oh god, don’t start acting all lovey-dovey now that you’re my uncle or something. I don’t need any help, and, as far as I’m concerned, you’re still just ‘Sect Leader Nie.’”
“Alright,” Nie Huaisang said. He had put down his fan while he spoke before, but now he used it to hide his face again.