Work Text:
When Jiang Cheng is ten, he suffers a blow to the head. It's an accident, as these things usually are for children. He simply isn't minding his step as he runs on the wet pier, teasing the other young disciples as they play in the water. Inevitably, he trips and falls, a slip and a stake to the head. By the grace of the gods, he doesn't fall into the river, but there is blood on the pier when he is hoisted up and hurried to the doctor.
His golden core, though fledgling, takes the brunt of the healing. The doctor swears to his family that little Jiang Cheng will be fine in two weeks time.
Bed rest really sucks, though. Jiang Cheng is terribly bored. He only has a nursemaid and Yanli for consistent company, but they don't talk much. His mother and Wei Wuxian come to visit at least three times a day, but Wei Wuxian is too exuberant and his mother too somber. His father only visits once but--but that's fine. It's normal.
Without much in the way of entertainment, Jiang Cheng finds himself watching the mulberry tree outside his room. It's still young, much like him, but it is strong. It stands through anything and everything, rain or hail or thunder. It reminds Jiang Cheng to not be scared, to stand strong like the tree. He can handle anything, just like the tree!
Sometimes, though, in those two weeks of convalescence, Jiang Cheng does not know how to be strong. He's scared, some nights. As the nursemaid works on her embroidery and the rest of Lotus Pier falls silent, Jiang Cheng is terribly scared. His home is different at night. Something different walks under the dark sky, crawling over wooden houses and peaking into doors. He's a cultivator, the proud son of Jiang Fengmian and the Violet Spider. He can fight back against the strangeness if he so chooses. But he can't choose right now, not with a head injury.
So Jiang Cheng speaks to the mulberry tree. He whispers all his fears to it. He tells it of his boredom and his frustration, of what he thinks lurks in the darkness at Lotus Pier, of all the things he wants to do when he heals. He talks to the mulberry tree until he falls asleep, safe in his bed and under the watchful eyes of quiet branches.
~~~
Jiang Cheng is twelve when he realizes his father doesn't love him. It's barely a surprise. He's Yu Ziyuan's son, after all. If not even she can accept him, then how can he expect his father to?
Jiang Cheng says as much to the mulberry tree. It has become his stalwart companion in times when neither Yanli nor Wei Wuxian can support him. He knows how sad that is, but he really, truly feels like it can hear him in times like these.
"I don't know what to do," he says to the bark. "What can I do to make him--I don't know, like me?"
Leave them.
The voice echoes in Jiang Cheng's ears. He startles back. The leaves of the mulberry tree rustle silently.
~~~
Jiang Cheng's good sense tells him to not return to the mulberry tree. Whatever lurks in Lotus Pier at dark must also reside in his stalwart friend. As a cultivator, he knows how to avoid danger.
But then there are his parents; the constant war on his mother's tongue, the impenetrable wall of his father's neglect. There is also his sister, pining for a boy who deems her beneath him. And there is Wei Wuxian, leagues ahead of Jiang Cheng, running a race only he can win. Wei Wuxian, who shines brighter than the sun, who could easily replace Jiang Cheng should the boy disappear.
Jiang Cheng would be all alone without the mulberry tree. He continues talking to it. In the quiet of night, he tells it all the things he cannot say to anyone else.
And the mulberry tree, made of patience and abundance, listens.
~~~
His time in the Cloud Recesses is unremarkable. When Wei Wuxian is kicked out, Jiang Cheng is left lonely, since there is nobody else willing to approach him. But sometimes, when Jiang Cheng sits alone in a peaceful pavilion, he catches the eyes of Lan elders. Though he tries to meet their gaze, they stare right through him, as if they can see something on him that he can't.
When Jiang Cheng finally returns home, his first visit is to the mulberry tree. He is happy to no longer feels alone.
~~~
Wang Lingjao visits Lotus Pier, bringing a small army of Wen soldiers with her. Yu Ziyuan injures Wei Wuxian shortly before losing her temper and inciting a battle to protect her home. Jiang Cheng runs for the boats, carrying Wei Wuxian on his back. He passes the mulberry tree on his way.
That day, the Wen lose. Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian manage to defend Lotus Pier. But among the dead and the living, there is someone missing. Jiang Cheng cannot be found anywhere. Wei Wuxian was the last person with him. Yet no matter how he is pressed, what concoctions he is given, or what punishment he endures, he cannot remember what happened to his brother during their escape. There is only blankness on his face as he tries to recall.
The Wen do not give up on Lotus Pier. They strike during the day, as many times as it takes, until their clan is no more. A rumor spreads through the cultivation world in the wake of the Wens’ defeat—that Lotus Pier is cursed. That the reason the Wen never attacked at night was because something haunts the nights in the Jiang home. If a single enemy were ever to trespass without the sun at their side, they would be gone the next morning.
There is more truth than lie to these words.
~~~
In a few years time, a funeral will be held for the once-sect heir, Jiang Wanyin. There will be no body to burn, no ashes to gather. Respects will be paid to his family and curious glances will be shared between mourners. Nobody will know how Jiang Wanyin died, nor how he was found, nor what happened the fateful day Wang Lingjao trespassed on Jiang territory.
All this will be because Jiang Wanyin will never be found. But he is not dead. He simply is not here.
~~~
“Do you promise to never leave me?”
Cheng hums. Huaisang holds him close, a snug, steady, stalwart presence at his back. He cannot remember a day without this warmth. With a pleased sigh, Cheng says, “I promise.”
The mulberry tree blooms.