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The early morning mountain air of the Cloud Recesses was cold but refreshing. There was a crispness here that was wholly unique from Yunmeng, whose mornings were frequently covered in a dewy moistness due to the humidity of the climate.
Though it was quite different from what Jiang Cheng was used to, he wasn’t wholly opposed to the feel of it as he took in deep breaths between sets of sword drills.
He’d gotten used to waking up at dawn shortly after Wei Ying had been expelled from the Cloud Recesses for getting into a fight with the Gilded Peacock. It turned out that once his brother had stopped pulling him into crazy antics until late at night, whether it was sneaking out, drinking, or paying a visit to Nie Huaisang’s room - Jiang Cheng was finally able to acclimate to the Gusu Lan rhythm of living.
He had faced this realization with little satisfaction, however, even though his performance in all lessons had improved. Without his brother here, the Cloud Recesses was invariably the dullest place he’d ever stayed.
Sure, the vistas were beautiful and the Recesses itself was a stunning accomplishment of both art and architecture, but it lacked the soul of Lotus Pier.
Or, if he was truly being honest with himself, it lacked Wei Ying specifically.
Now that his brother was well and truly gone from these halls, he’d tried to find contentment in the repetition of his days, the little parts of each one that brought him calm or joy.
He’d found there were really only two distinct sources; the first was morning drills. Jiang Cheng had always felt much better on the training field or on night hunts rather than in a stuffy classroom listening to lectures. He relished the physical exercise, the way his mind could quiet in order to focus on the burn of his muscles or the execution of each form. Nothing good came of droning teachers or copying scrolls, his thoughts wandered too often and too quickly to darker places.
Jiang Cheng couldn’t help the way his focus would shift from the words he was trying to absorb to the fear of what would happen if he didn’t do it correctly.
His father’s mouth turning downward just slightly below furrowed brows as he looked on in disappointment. His mother’s scowl as he came in second again and again and again.
His own reflection as he couldn’t stop Wei Ying from doing something reckless and his brother either got hurt or angered someone so much that it reflected poorly on their sect.
Only with Sandu in his hand, each arc of the blade rising and falling like a river cutting its way through miles of land, was Jiang Cheng able to finally quiet those thoughts.
Yet morning drills lasted only a precious few hours and Jiang Cheng was not well-suited to being left alone with himself. Despite his intimate knowledge of this fact, he was still not all that good at making friends without Wei Ying there to smooth out the sharper parts of his personality with a smile or a joke.
This led him, surprisingly, to the second source: Nie Huaisang. The older boy had, in complete disregard of Jiang Cheng’s self-sabotaging tendencies, still hung around him even after Wei Ying had departed.
When they’d first arrived, Wei Ying and Nie Huaisang had stuck together immediately. Jiang Cheng would be lying if he said it hadn’t filled him with jealousy each time they ran off together to skip some important function.
They had similar avoidant tendencies when it came to all things that they found uninteresting, which was to say, most of the Cloud Recesses.
On top of that, Nie Huaisang had an easy laugh and mischievous personality that worked so well in tandem with Wei Ying’s that Jiang Cheng wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that they shared a relation somewhere down the line.
He supposed it was easy when neither of them had any real expectations for their futures. Wei Ying would do… well, whatever he wanted to do. Nie Huaisang had an older brother, a very capable one at that, who led their sect with dignity and strength.
Neither of them had real weight on their shoulders and it showed in the easy way they shucked off their duties in favor of whatever they found fun at the moment.
Even so, Wei Ying and Nie Huaisang had never excluded him and Jiang Cheng felt that hot flash of jealousy start to die down after the first week. His brother was allowed to have other friends and it was not his fault that Jiang Cheng couldn’t let down his walls without painstakingly removing them one-by-one. Jealousy had turned to guilt as it so often did, but neither Wei Ying nor Nie Huaisang seemed to mind his moodiness. In fact, it only seemed to urge them to include him more, to see which buttons they could press to get Jiang Cheng to react in a way they found amusing.
After a few weeks, it has stopped feeling like Wei Ying was abandoning him and more like they were integrating Nie Huaisang into their pair.
It felt… nice, actually. Good to have another friend. As similar as Nie Huaisang and Wei Ying were on the surface, they differed starkly underneath. Where his brother savored challenges, Nie Huaisang was particularly adverse to anything arduous.
In the beginning, Jiang Cheng had felt an ugly, dark part of himself grow gleefully content whenever they got their lesson results. It would seem he’d never beat his brother, but he’d easily surpassed Nie Huaisang in almost every area, despite the fact that the boy from Qinghe had taken all of these courses before.
He relished being better than someone for once.
And yet, that too quickly faltered. He had come to see Nie Huaisang as a friend, which made that satisfaction sour into shame, and he really couldn’t bring himself to feel good about succeeding over someone who had never even tried in the first place.
Despite the growing friendship he had felt on his side, Jiang Cheng could never bring himself to believe that Nie Huaisang felt the same way about him. It was obvious that the older boy and Wei Ying were closer to each other, seeing as they were thick as thieves from the beginning.
When Wei Ying had been kicked out of the Cloud Recesses, Jiang Cheng had fully expected Nie Huaisang to drift away from him as so many others had once his brother had left his orbit.
And yet, Nie Huaisang continued on exactly as they had been before.
Of course, the dynamic was different without Wei Ying. There were fewer antics, but warm camaraderie had stayed. Nie Huaisang didn’t seem to mind that Jiang Cheng had fewer entertaining observations or anecdotes to pass the time than his brother. He would seamlessly guide them in and out of conversations by asking Jiang Cheng’s thoughts and opinions on any topic that seemed to cross his mind.
Jiang Cheng hadn’t even noticed it was happening at first. If he had, he would’ve thought it nothing more than an annoyance - to speak so frivolously with someone like himself who was so obviously unremarkable at conversation. However, as soon as he’d realized it was happening he’d also realized that he’d never given his own opinion on so many topics.
Not because he’d never thought of them, but because no one had ever asked.
Wei Ying was a hurricane of energy and it was Jiang Cheng who was swept up alongside him. It was exhilarating and terrifying and chaotic, but he was always a participant - never the instigator.
With Nie Huaisang, he felt like he was walking side-by-side with someone, at the same speed. Partners trading back and forth and back again. It felt… equal, he supposed.
Jiang Cheng couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt equal with anyone in his life.
And so, Nie Huaisang had proven himself to be an unexpected source of happiness in his life at the Cloud Recesses. At least for now. There was a part of him that would always expect the other boy to realize Jiang Cheng would never be as charming or light-hearted as his brother and stop speaking to him. At this moment, though, things were… good.
Jiang Cheng felt his arms start to burn that familiar, satisfying way that meant improvement. It was still very early morning, but he felt wonderfully awake - his mind and body alert in tandem.
His gaze fell on the green-robed lump that leaned against a nearby tree in the courtyard where they trained.
Lazy.
Nie Huaisang was skipping drills again. In fact, Jiang Cheng couldn’t remember a time that the other boy had participated at all.
Jiang Cheng had been confident that Nie Huaisang was going to run out of legitimate excuses months ago, and yet, here they were. This week had already contained a mixture of reasons.
“Honored Instructor, regrettably my stomach is feeling quite upset. I think it was the soup - perhaps there was something undercooked?”
“Honored Instructor, my weak constitution is easily tired, please excuse me as I sit for a spell.”
“Honored Instructor, I tripped on my very own robes this morning and twisted my ankle! I nearly died from embarrassment! Please excuse me while I rest it.”
Whether or not it was just that the Lan overseers had given up or he really was just that good at lying, Jiang Cheng couldn’t say. It truly was as impressive as it was infuriating.
Jiang Cheng let out a little sigh and fell back into the movements.
The Yunmeng Jiang style was known for its fluidity. His forebears had prided themselves on their ability to capture the spirit of the rivers in their homeland. The purpose of the style was to shift around your opponent, to move close and slip away, like water. He had spent many years learning each set. While their complexity had been intimidating at first, he now found each one a comfort. Like meeting an old friend, he fell into practiced motions and let his qi pour into and out of Sandu with each strike.
He was the rapids, relentlessly colliding against any obstacle. He was the tide, pushing and pulling with enough inevitably to tire who faced him. He was the calm morning waters and the churning torrents of a lake in a storm.
Jiang Cheng reached the end of the sequence and wiped his brow, feeling content. The sensation dissipated rapidly as he felt the tingling sensation on the back of his neck like he was being watched.
Jiang Cheng glanced around the training area but couldn’t see anyone paying him any more mind than usual. He frowned, rubbing the sweaty skin there. Perhaps he was just being paranoid?
His eyes fell back to where Nie Huaisang was sleeping except, to his surprise, the other boy wasn’t sleeping any longer. He was propped up against the tree, his fan waving slowly in front of his face, eyes in Jiang Cheng’s direction.
Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow at him but Nie Huaisang said nothing. With a shrug, Jiang Cheng continued with his practice. He only had a few hours a day outside of that dull lecture room, he wasn’t going to waste them.
Though he tried to let his mind calm and recenter itself, he couldn’t shake the feeling. After a few subtle glances towards Nie Huaisang, he started to grow more and more self-conscious.
Was his form off?
Was he making a mistake?
He felt the pit in his stomach grow bigger, the same way it did when he knew his mother was observing training or his father was overlooking his lessons.
Was he not good enough?
Jiang Cheng’s grip tightened on Sandu as he turned on his heel towards Nie Huaisang.
“What?”
He was irritated, he could feel the insecurity and anger in his question even as he said it.
Nie Huaisang continued to wave his fan slowly and gave him a lazy smile as if he hadn’t just been looking only at Jiang Cheng for the better part of a half-hour.
“Why do you keep staring at me? What’s your problem?”
Nie Huaisang sighed good-naturedly. “Jiang-Xiong, why must you assume that everyone always has a problem with you?”
Because they usually do.
Jiang Cheng leveled the older boy with a glare. “I’m trying to practice. If you don’t have a problem then stop. It’s distracting.”
“Jiang-Xiong.” Nie Huaisang let out a whine of disappointment but didn’t look offended as he flicked his fan closed. “Don’t be angry! I was just observing.”
“Observing what, exactly?” Jiang Cheng’s arms crossed his chest, defensively.
“You, of course!” Nie Huisang flipped the fan open again with a broad smile. “Your swordsmanship. The Yunmeng Jiang style is truly a beautiful sight to behold.”
Jiang Cheng felt his face heat, he knew color was dusting his cheeks as he tried to look anywhere but at Nie Huaisang. He hated looking flustered but no one had ever described anything about him as beautiful before. It felt strange.
“It’s quite different from the Qinghe Nie style.”
Jiang Cheng’s gaze finally met back with Nie Huaisang’s, feeling a spark of interest at the mention. He didn’t often get to see cultivators from Qinghe fight. Really, the only person from there that he associated with regularly was the boy in front of him and this particular member of the Nie Sect seemed just as allergic to his sword as Wei Ying was to following rules.
“Is it really that different?”
“Mmhm!” Nie Huaisang stood up, dusting his robes with an easy smile on his face. “You move like a river, it’s like watching the water flow.”
Nie Huaisang delicately moved his fan with his hand, mimicking some of the moves Jiang Cheng had performed earlier with surprising accuracy.
“The Qinghe Nie style is like shifting stone, it's slower and more rigid in its movements - but what it lacks in adaptability, it makes up for in raw power.”
Nie Huaisang tapped his fan against his chin, stepping towards Jiang Cheng with a look of consideration on his face.
“The Yunmeng and Gusu styles are much more similar to each other than Qinghe. Like water and wind against a mountain.”
Jiang Cheng stared at Nie Huaisang, surprised. He hadn’t expected the older boy to care enough to observe fighting styles, let alone keen enough in his studies to make insightful comments. Jiang Cheng felt his internal understanding of his friend shift, just slightly.
“I wish you would stop making excuses and just train with us.” Jiang Cheng sighed. “It would be good practice to see Nie Sect moves, fight against them since they’re so different.”
Nie Huaisang flicked open his fan and bowed his head demurely behind it. “I assure you, you do not Jiang-Xiong. I’d be more likely to accidentally trip and stab you rather than offer you an opponent of any merit.”
Jiang Cheng scoffed at the comment. “You’d be more likely to stab yourself than land a hit on me, accident or otherwise.”
“Ah! Yes, of course, you are as insightful as ever, Master Jiang.” Nie Huaisang’s brows raised, just slightly, and Jiang Cheng had a distinct feeling he was being laughed at. He found he didn’t mind, not when it was Nie Huaisang, at least.
“My brother, on the other hand, would be a much better match for your skills.”
Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened, a touch of anxiety running through his veins at the notion. Nie Mingjue was a legendary fighter, renowned for his strength - just the sight of his saber alone could strike fear into his enemies.
Nie Huaisang’s eyes sparkled with mischief as they trailed across Jiang Cheng’s face, drinking in the reaction.
“I don’t - I mean…” Jiang Cheng’s face colored again in embarrassment as he mumbled. “I still have a lot to learn.”
“You should come to visit us then, Jiang-Xiong!” Nie Huaisang gave him an excited look, his expression brightening. “I’m sure Da-Ge would love to have someone to teach that’s not, well, me. And you could learn more about the Qinghe style!”
“You want me to visit you?” Jiang Cheng said it back slowly. “You want just me to go?”
Jiang Cheng had never been invited to another sect outside of dignitary visits. He certainly had not been extended an invitation on the pretense of friendship.
The notion suddenly filled him with a rush of nervousness.
“Yes?” Nie Huaisang looked back at him curiously. “It would be much more fun with you there.”
“Da-Ge gets so… involved.” Nie Huaisang pouted. “All he wants me to do is train and study and attend meetings. It’s rather dull.”
The other boy let out an exasperated sigh, waving his fan back and forth in a dismissive motion.
Jiang Cheng couldn't help the startled laugh that escaped his mouth. “You mean he wants to prepare you for being a Sect Leader.”
“Yes, I suppose he does, but there’s really no point to it.” Nie Huaisang shrugged. “Everyone knows I’m no good at any of those things, so it really ends up being just a waste of time.”
Jiang Cheng let out a non-committal noise. He couldn’t help but kind of admire Nie Huaisang’s dedication to avoiding work. If only he could channel that same dedication towards anything useful, he might actually amount to something spectacular.
“Anyway!” Nie Huaisang’s excited smile was back, plastered on his face. “If you’re there, he can focus on you instead! You get to learn from one of the best fighters in the cultivation world, I get to avoid Da-Ge's ire, and we can spend more time together!”
Jiang Cheng blinked a few times, he felt woefully out of depth without his brother here to take the lead in conversations of this sort.
“I guess I could ask Wei Ying if he wants to go?”
Jiang Cheng’s chest tightened as he said the words. He assumed that for Nie Huaisang, he and Wei Ying were a pair. Even though they were getting along well enough without his brother here, Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but feel that old insecurity whisper in his mind over and over again that there was no way Nie Huaisang would want to spend time with him alone.
“Wei-Xiong?” Nie Huaisang tilted his head in question. “Isn’t he back at Lotus Pier?”
“Yes, he is. I just…”
Jiang Cheng’s face flushed for the third time. He was really getting sick of this response. His hand tightened on Sandu, seeking comfort as he tried to untangle the knotted threads of his mind. He felt so stupid. Jiang Cheng didn’t want to be vulnerable, not like this, and yet there was no other way to say it.
“I assumed you wouldn’t want to invite me without him.” Jiang Cheng mumbled the sentence lamely, refusing to look at Nie Huaisang’s face.
He suddenly felt a smooth hand grab his, the lack of sword callouses distinct. He was startled into looking up, finding no way to avoid Nie Huaisang’s eyes now.
“Jiang-Xiong, don’t be silly. We’re friends even without Wei-Xiong! You can visit me with or without him any time you want.”
Jiang Cheng’s surprise grew to a happy warmth that filled his chest, pleasant but equally unfamiliar. It was a bit uncomfortable, to be honest.
“Oh… Okay.”
“Is that a yes, then?”
Nie Huaisang beamed at him, his face just partially obscured by his fan.
“I… Uh. Yes, I suppose so. If you’re offering.”
“Excellent!” Nie Huaisang grinned. “I will send a letter to Da-Ge and let him know. This will be so much fun, Jiang-Xiong! Well, you might not think so after you spar with my brother, but it will be very fun for me!”
Jiang Cheng let out a small laugh, that warmth curling in his chest, settling there.
“This doesn’t mean I’m going to let you copy my work.”
“Of course not.” Nie Huaisang gave him a mockingly formal bow. “Young Master Jiang is much too honorable to indulge in my deficiencies.”
Jiang Cheng shoved the other boy’s shoulder like he’d done to Wei Ying a hundred times before but had never felt comfortable enough to try with anyone else. Nie Huaisang let out a delighted laugh and pretended to hold his injured shoulder.
“Jiang-Xiong is so cruel!”
“Oh, shut it.”
Jiang Cheng grinned back at Nie Huaisang, feeling lighter than he had since his brother had gotten kicked out. Perhaps the Cloud Recesses wasn’t so bad after all, Jiang Cheng thought to himself as he walked out of the training area with Nie Huaisang at his side.
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