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Jiang Cheng has always known he takes after his mother.
He feels it in his sharp tongue, sees it in his father’s disappointment, hears it in the pitying whispers of the servants around Lotus Pier. Still, it isn’t so bad, knowing that his father only had one son. With his sister being promised to Jin Zixuan as a child, he is destined to take over the Yunmeng Jiang Sect one day.
That is, until Jiang Fengmian sends away his dogs—the only gifts he has ever given Jiang Cheng—with no explanation, and brings home a thin, starving child dressed in rags in exchange. The orphan’s eyes are wide, his face streaked with dirt, a fearful expression on his tiny face as Jiang Fengmian hugs him close. When the two of them pass through the main gates of Lotus Pier, into the central courtyard, Jiang Cheng’s first thought had been, he’s never held me like that before.
From the day Wei Wuxian had come into his life, Jiang Cheng had known with a sense of certainty that Jiang Fengmian had found his perfect heir.
Somehow, he doesn’t resent his new shixiong (though he’d rather die than to address him as such), but Wei Wuxian’s arrival only widens the gap between Jiang Cheng and Jiang Fengmian, and even his sister’s best efforts cannot mend something if it had never existed.
The tension in the household mounts, rising and rising even as his parents talked less and less. It erupts one day in a massive shouting match between Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian, much to nobody’s surprise. Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli huddle together outside the sect leader’s office, wincing at Yu Ziyuan’s shrill jeers and her husband’s tense replies.
What is surprising is Yu Ziyuan practically ripping the door open, and, upon seeing the eavesdropping children, grabs Jiang Cheng’s arm and tugs him up. His tiny legs can barely keep up to her long strides, and he desperately tries to escape his mother’s painful grip, but she doesn’t let up.
Yu Ziyuan only shoots him a side-eyed glare and says, in the coldest tone he has ever heard from her, “A-Cheng, pack your things. We’re leaving.”
At eight years old, Jiang Cheng is too young to understand what ‘leaving’ means. On a trip? But night is falling, and they usually travel at dawn. To one of the docks? No fisherman or merchant would be arriving this late. To Jiang Cheng, who has known nothing but Lotus Pier his entire life, the idea of abandoning his childhood home is unfathomable.
In hindsight, Jiang Cheng remembers very little of the trip east to Meishan. All he recalls are snapshots of a long, bitter night of flying on a spiritual sword, with nothing but a little qiankun bag clutched in his arms. His mother barely helps him remain upright the entire way. They had stopped shortly at an inn come daybreak, but they had been on their way again soon enough.
The Night-Weaving Cliffs had been intimidating the first time Jiang Cheng had seen them, and even after living there for ten years, he would still find the place deeply impressive.
The Meishan Yu Sect stronghold is a thing of dark stone, half-hidden into the side of a mountain and invisible from view until one comes to the feet of the cliffs. The walls reflect its shadowy surroundings, blending into neighbouring bedrock seamlessly, with entrances and exits resembling natural cave openings on a pock-marked cliff-face.
Inside, the corridors are just as overbearing, formed from a combination of naturally-occuring tunnels and manmade passages, creating a convoluted maze that is extremely difficult to navigate for all but those who have grown up within the mountain. Over the years, Jiang Cheng would learn these paths like the back of his hand, finding the closed spaces more oppressive than Lotus Pier’s open air, but more liberating all the same.
At Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng had always been second best, earning only half of his father’s attention, if even. More often than not, he had been left to train on his own, forced to catch up to Wei Wuxian who received Jiang Fengmian’s personal instruction. In the Night-Weaving Cliffs, however, Jiang Cheng is trained like any other Meishan disciple. The only thing that demonstrates his worth is his own skills, which are honed under the harsh but effective guidance of the sect elders. Slowly, he begins to thrive under the strict disciplinary environment of his maternal sect.
Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli visit occasionally, bearing sweets and soup and tales of whatever mischief Wei Wuxian has gotten up to at Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng listens to these stories with all the amusement of an outsider, but he surprises himself when, during their first visit, he feels no bitterness. Instead, he is able to smile and laugh with the two of them, feeling lighter because he is no longer weighed down by unmet expectations.
Jiang Fengmian comes to see him once, when he is twelve years old, asking how Meishan is treating him, and whether he’d like to return to Lotus Pier. Yu Ziyuan herself had been splitting her time between the two sects ever since she brought Jiang Cheng to the Night-Weaving Cliffs, though she seems content to leave him to the elders.
Jiang Cheng, with all the politeness of speaking to a stranger, replies, “Meishan is treating me well, and I would like to continue my training here. Thank you for your concern, but I am quite comfortable. Now, if Sect Leader Jiang would excuse me, I have a lesson to attend.”
He leaves the room so quickly, he misses the flash of hurt in Jiang Fengmian’s eyes.
And so, his training continues. Meishan is a sect of assassins, and he rapidly becomes accustomed to fighting with a whip alongside the sword. He learns the bow, the blowdart, and a series of throwing stars from Dongying. But Jiang Cheng also learns that weapons aren’t the only ways to assassinate someone, and he masters the craft of poison, the art of seduction. When he receives his personal peijian at fifteen, he names it Sandu, vowing to rid the world of the illnesses that plague the character rather than the body.
At sixteen, he accepts the invitation to go to Gusu for their coveted lectures, and though the wall of rules seems excessive, he feels quite comfortable with the level of discipline they enforce. He finds the silence slightly disconcerting, however. In Meishan, while the disciples all know how to make themselves unheard, they are nowhere as serious as their outward appearances suggest, outside of lessons and training.
Unfortunately, since all the young masters of the cultivation world are invited, it means that Jin Zixuan is also at the Cloud Recesses. When he begins bad-mouthing his sister, Jiang Cheng has to strike at several of Wei Wuxian’s acupuncture points in order to subdue him and avoid a physical fight. He excuses them politely, ignoring Wei Wuxian’s glare of betrayal, and the next day, Jin Zixuan doesn’t show up to class.
He overhears a few Jin Sect disciples wondering how their precious young master could’ve fallen ill so suddenly, and if anyone is looking, they would see Jiang Cheng pretending to be engrossed in his notes, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
The end of the summer marks the beginning of the Wens’ open tyranny, and when they demand that each sect send direct descendants over to Qishan for indoctrination, Jiang Cheng appears in dark Meishan blue, heedless of the stares of shock from the other disciples.
Jiang Cheng had heard all about the Wens’ brutality, but that doesn’t prevent him from being disgusted when Wen Chao blatantly uses them as bait for some hundred-year-old beast that might not even exist. They barely escape with their lives, leaving Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji trapped inside the cave, but instead of heading to Yunmeng, Jiang Cheng turns to Nie Huaisang, who backs up immediately at the glint in his eyes.
Within half an hour, he had convinced his friend to return to Qinghe for aid, before sending the Jiang Sect disciples back to Lotus Pier to alert Jiang Fengmian of the situation. Once reinforcements arrive, Jiang Cheng only sticks around long enough to make sure Wei Wuxian is alright before returning to Meishan.
As the months pass, the Wens become more and more daring in their provocation, knowing full well that no one is quite capable enough on their own to stand up to them. It’s half a month after the Xuanwu incident that Jiang Yanli is sent to the Night-Weaving Cliffs, as her weaker cultivation means that she is at risk if Yunmeng gets caught in the fallout.
The fallout comes sooner than any of them expects.
It’s the middle of the night when Wei Wuxian comes to them, half-crazed and shivering, begging them to help Lotus Pier, which had been burned to the ground by the Wens.
Jiang Cheng stops listening the moment Wei Wuxian presses Zidian into his palm, the whip recognizing him as an owner and sparking to life. His blood runs cold, and the chill somehow clears his head, allowing the flames of revenge to burn low in his core. The destruction of a sect is horrifying, of course, but the Cloud Recesses had been burned, too. Several minor sects had already crumbled under the Wens’ pressure, either joining their side for protection or being massacred ruthlessly.
No, the knowledge that nearly crushes him is the news of his mother’s death. Yu Ziyuan had saved him from a life of being second best, had brought him into an environment where he was allowed to flourish, and for that, he greatly respected her, if not loved her.
In that moment, as Zidian purrs and coils around his index finger like it had always belonged, Jiang Cheng vows to murder Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu himself.
As if reassured by his presence, Wei Wuxian slumps against him, grief and exhaustion overtaking his normally cheerful features. Jiang Cheng leads him to a guest room, letting his sister fuss over him as he recovers from the shock.
Wei Wuxian spends the next few days in a delirious haze. Jiang Cheng is bringing him a bowl of medicinal soup one morning when his shixiong wakes, his grey eyes clear for the first time in nearly a week. As if Jiang Cheng is his lifesaver, Wei Wuxian takes hold of Jiang Cheng’s sleeve and pulls him into an awkward half-hug.
“Thank god you’re okay,” Wei Wuxian whispers hoarsely, his voice muffled by Jiang Cheng’s robes. “We still have disciples who survived, and with you, we can go and take back Lotus Pier—”
Jiang Cheng separates them gently so he can grasp Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, looking into his eyes with tender determination. “You can go and take back Lotus Pier.”
Wei Wuxian frowns. “What do you mean? Haha, don’t joke around with me, Jiang Cheng, my heart can’t take it. You’re the heir of Lotus Pier, you know that, right? Being the sect leader is your birthright.”
Jiang Cheng shakes his head, smiling slightly. “You were always the preferred heir, Wei Wuxian. The heir he wanted, the one that embodies the Yunmeng Jiang Sect spirit the best. I’ll help you, of course I will. But the person who should take over is you.”
With that, he collects the empty bowl and leaves the room, leaving Wei Wuxian gaping at him on the bed.
Because no matter what anyone says, Jiang Cheng is his mother’s son, and the Meishan Yu have always made their own destinies.