Chapter Text
“Lady Jiang, Lady Jiang,” A voice is calling for her. Did I pass out while sitting vigil? Where is Jin Ling? Her thoughts turn into panic
“A-Li,” She sits up in a jolt. Her husband’s voice. Her husband was alive! What was happening? As she looks around her surroundings, she realizes she’s in her room at Carp Tower. Baby Jin Ling is lying next to her. Hastily, she gets out of bed, picking up Jin Ling in her arms just as the door opens.
“A-Xuan,” Her voice was barely a whisper. Her husband was alive and standing in front of her, smiling lovingly at her.
“Your brother, Wei WuXian has been invited to A-Ling’s first month.” For a second, Yanli stands there in silence and confusion. Hadn’t that already passed? Did she get sent back in time?
“That’s wonderful,” She finally says, telling herself to stay calm. “A-Ling, your uncle can come to see you now,” She tells the infant in her arms. Perhaps this was fate. Perhaps I can prevent the terrible things in the future from happening again.
~
“A-jie, what are you saying?” Jiang Cheng stares at her in shock.
“I want to see A-Xian. See how he’s been doing. You visited Yiling several times didn’t you?”
“I...went to Yiling, but I did not bump into him. I can’t be seen with him anyways,” Jiang Cheng mutters.
“We’ll go in disguise,” Jiang Yanli says firmly. She was not going to back down this time. She knew something had gone wrong at Qiongqi Path. She knew her brother would never kill her husband in cold blood, no matter how much they had quarreled in the past. He was, after all, his nephew’s father.
“He should get to meet A-Ling.” She adds. Jiang Cheng looks away.
“He’s coming to the one-month celebration anyway, isn’t he? He can’t just wait?” He grumbles.
“A-Cheng, I remember you were impatient to meet little Jin Ling too. How do you think A-Xian feels?”
“He wouldn’t have to wait if he just...came home,” The frustration in his voice had melted down to softness.
“Let’s go see him, okay?” Jiang Cheng nods.
Jiang Yanli tells Madam Jin and Sect Leader Jin that she is homesick and will be going back to Yunmeng with Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng for a week. Her husband came with them, wanting to visit Lotus Pier again. This was her opportunity to visit Yiling. They both wear hoods until they made it towards the edge of town and towards the Burial Mounds.
“A-Li, where are we going?” ZiXuan asks, confusion in his gaze.
“Visiting A-Xian,” She tells him. Although the Jiang Sect had broken off ties with Wei WuXian, she trusted her husband to keep this visit a secret.
After making sure they weren’t being tailed, they are greeted by a stunned Wen Ning at the edge of the wards. Without a word, he leads them inside. The sight around her makes her chest tighten. There are elderly men and women staring at them, looking up from where they were shoveling dirt. They back away as she, ZiXuan and Jiang Cheng approach.
“Xian-gege! There’s a beautiful lady here!” A breath caught in Yanli’s throat. A child was running towards the entrance of a cave, poking his head inside. Almost on reflex, she tightens her hold on her son, who was sleeping soundly in her arms.
“A-Yuan, who could it be if it’s not Qing-jie. Oh-,” Wei WuXian freezes when he sees her.
“Shijie?” He sounds shocked. “Why are you here? Jiang Cheng, you too?”
“Nice to see you too,” Jiang Cheng growls, not meeting his eye. Jiang Yanli hands Jin Ling to her husband steps forward to hug her brother
“We’re here to see you...and,” Jiang Yanli’s voice falters when she realizes how skinny her brother is. How skinny all of these people were. She had been told that her brother had been hiding an army of Wen cultivators. When in truth, it was just elderly and weak. And a child . Why had A-Cheng not told her? Anger flares up in her chest and eyes and she turns to glare at Jiang Cheng who flinches back in surprise at her expression.
“A-Cheng, why didn’t you tell me? That there were old men and women here? And a child ?” The granny she had seen was almost as old as her grandma in Meishan. Her voice is fierce and full of anger. Wei WuXian stares at her in shock. He had never hear her speak in such a tone before. Even when she had defended Wei WuXian in front of Jin ZiXun, her voice was not nearly as fierce. In this moment, she had never felt more like Yu Ziyuan’s daughter.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t meet her gaze, suddenly guilty. Wei WuXian looks at him with sadness and frustration in his eyes.
“A-Li...who are all these people?” Her husband finally spoke up. “Father told me there was an army of cultivators here and…,” he breaks off as Wei WuXian lets out a snort of disgust.
“Must you believe everything he says? He never told you about the labour camps, did he? How they were basically working eldery women and men to their deaths? How they killed Wen Ning out of cruelty?” Jiang Yanli sucks in a breath. She had heard about Wen Ning’s death and how Wei WuXian had turned him into a conscious fierce corpse.
“Lady Jiang,” As if on queue, Wen Ning steps from behind Wei WuXian.
“Wen Ning, stay back,” Wei WuXian orders, eyeing the sword in Jin ZiXuan’s hand warily.
Jin Zixuan looks down at the sword and places it against a tree. At this, Wei WuXian relaxes again.
“Xian-gege, who is she?” Jiang Yanli looks down to see a child clinging to her brother’s ankles, staring at her with wide eyes.
“This is my Shijie,” Wei WuXian scoops the boy into his arms. “Shijie, this is...my son, A-Yuan.” Jiang Cheng lets out a shocked choke from behind him.
“Your son ? What?” He sputters.
“Your nephew,” Wei WuXian answers back with a beam.
“Don’t make jokes like that, idiot!” Jiang Cheng hisses.
“Boys,” Jiang Yanli says in a warning voice. She reaches to touch A-Yuan’s cheeks.
“I’m your Aunt Li,” She says sweetly. “You’re a good boy, right? Have you been listening to your Xian gege?” The boy nods excitedly. Then he catches sight of Jin ZiXuan and immediately shrinks back into Wei WuXian’s shoulder.
“Man in gold bad!” Wei WuXian immediately tightens his arms protectively around him
“Jin ZiXuan, you didn’t visit the labor camps, did you?” He asks angrily.
“N-no, I never knew of them. It’s like you said,” Jin ZiXuan insists. The child had begun to cry. Jiang Yanli hurries to soothe the child.
“A-Yuan, it’s okay. He wouldn’t hurt you. A-Xuan, bring A-Ling to me. Hurry.” Her husband obliges.
“This is Jin Ling. That man is his baba, just like Xian-gege is like to you. He wouldn’t hurt you or anyone here.” A-Yuan stares at the baby with wide eyes.
“Jin Ling is like A-Yuan?” He asks. Jiang Yanli nods. The child stops crying and reaches a hand out to touch Jin Ling’s small ones. Soon he had calmed down and Wei WuXian sets him down. Jiang Yanli, with Jin Ling still in her arms, kneels down so the other child can have a better look at him.
“A-Xuan, we have to do something. They can’t stay here. A-Cheng, you need to do something too,” She fixes him with a fierce look before he could open his mouth to protest.
“I’ve tried talking to him, didn’t I?” Wei WuXian says dryly. Jiang Cheng grits his teeth at him. Jiang Yanli looks between her two brothers with a sigh.
“Then I will go talk to Sect Leader Jin myself. A-Xian, bring A-Yuan with you and come with me.” Wei WuXian gapes at her and doesn’t move until she practically grabs him by the wrist and drags him.
“A-jie?” Jiang Cheng follows them in confusion. Wen Qing and Wen Ning stare at them from a distance, mirroring his confusion.
“Shijie, wait, the Wens. Someone needs to protect them,” Wei WuXian begins.
“Then they can come too,” Yanli says firmly. “Perhaps we need to show Sect Leader Jin that these cultivators are harmless. Clearly , our words is not enough to make them believe that my brother isn’t sheltering dangerous war criminals.”
“A-Li,” Jin ZiXuan begins slowly. “We can’t just bring all of them to Carp Tower like this.”
“I don’t know what else I can do,” Yanli snaps back. Again, Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian stare at her in shock. She was done with being gentle at this point. She had seen the autorcities that the Jin cultivators inflicted on these innocent people. Mianmian was right. The Jins really were abusing innocent people. She and Luo Qingyang had been exchanging letters ever since she had left the Jin Sect. Her friend had told her in detail what had happened the day Wei WuXian stormed the labor camps and rescued the Wens and the conference meeting that followed. “I won’t tolerate innocent people being hurt.” She says at last. “We have to do something.” She fixes Jiang Cheng with a stern glare until finally he nods.
~
“Lady Jiang, what’s the meaning of this?” Jin Guangshan stands up from his chair at the end of the room, his eyes shocked and filled with anger.
“Weren’t you going back to Lotus Pier? What is going on?” Madam Jin demands. Conveniently, Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen were in the hall as well and they watch the speculation unfold with awe.
“These people are the so-called ‘army’ my brother has rescued at the Burial Mounds. Do you have anything to say?” The fierceness in her voice ran out over the hall. Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian let her do the talking while they and several Jiang disciples flank the Wens protectively from the side. There were Jin cultivators with their swords pointed at them the second they walked into the hall. Wei WuXian holds A-Yuan tighter to him.
“And why have you brought the Wen-dogs into Carp Tower? Has your brother finally come to his senses and is delivering them back to us?” A delight rings out in his voice.
“No, we are not doing that,” Yanli says sharply. “We already know you put these people in labor camps and worked some of them to their deaths. Why should we let you handle them?”
“Lady Jiang, I assure you that these labor camps were meant to keep the Wens under watch,” Jin Guangyao says with a smile.
“And what about the bodies that we saw?” Wen Qing speaks up from her group of people. “Wei WuXian and I were both there.”
“We found Wen Ning among them,” Wei WuXian adds, fury ringing in his voice. A-Yuan curls his head into Wei WuXian’s chest.
“Scary…,” The child whimpers. “Scary man.” Wei WuXian tenses and looks down at the child then back at Jin Guangyao.
“The child recognizes him?” Nie Mingjue narrows his eyes.
“A-Yuan, do you know this man?” Wei WuXian’s voice softens when speaking to the child.
“Bad man. Men in gold bad. They kicked Granny and Uncle Four,” The child whimpers.
“They..,” Jiang Cheng seethes.
“Sect Leader Jiang, surely you can’t trust the word of a four year old child? What would he know?” There was a sneer to Jin Guangyao’s voice.
“Do you not trust the word of a child? Or do you not trust the word of a ‘Wen’?” Yanli says coldly. “A-Yuan reacted in fear when he saw my husband in gold. It’s clear that he associates the Jins with bad things.”
“Even if the abuse did not happen, these are still old men and women,” Nie Mingjue says loudly. “And there is a child. We were told Wei WuXian was keeping an army of cultivators. This, is clearly a lie.” he glares at Jin Guangyao, who shrinks beneath it.
“They are still Wens!” Jin Guangshan barks. “They destroyed the sects, yours included, Lady Jiang and you still want to protect them?”
“Lady Qing and Wen Ning helped us,” Jiang Yanli snaps back. “If it weren’t for them, my brothers and I would have been captured and killed.”
“It’s true,” Jiang Cheng finally speaks. “They provided shelter to us, despite knowing the risk of angering Wen Ruohan. The reason they never spoke out against his actions was because he was holding her family members hostage.”
“Hostage?” Jin Guangshan scoffs. “His own people? That is ridiculous!”
“It is not,” Wen Qing says hotly. “My branch of people have been doctors for centuries. We have never killed anyone. Sect Leader Wen found use of my medical skills in providing him acupunctural care due to his handling of the Yin Iron. We have never contributed to the war nor the destruction of any of the sects.”
“Now that it seems Sect Leader Jin is incapable of handling the Wens, the Yunmeng Jiang Sect will be responsible for them now. My brother has managed to protect them well with what humble home they’ve created in the Burial Mounds,” Jiang Cheng declares.
“Jiang Cheng?” Wei WuXian looks at him with astonishment.
“Shut up and let me do the talking,” Jiang Cheng snaps back.
“I agree with Sect Leader Jiang,” Nie Mingjue says. “Sect Leader Jin lied to us about the conditions of the Wen prisoners. In truth, all the sects should have played a hand in them, but insead, Sect Leader Jin decided to take all the responsibilty upon himself. Even if there is no clear evidence of abuse, it seems suspicious as to why he was so eager to handle the Wens by himself after the war. It is clear that he wanted to hide the truth from us.”
“That’s nonsense!” Jin Guangshan rages, but no one is paying attention to him anymore.
“The Wens can help us rebuild our sect. It only seems fitting, does it not?” There’s a tender sweetness to Yanli’s voice now.
“A-jie, let’s go,” Jiang Cheng says into her ear.
“Oh, and my stay at Lotus Pier will be extended. A-Xuan, will you come?” Jin ZiXuan looks from his father’s who face was etched with fury back to his wife.
“Yes, I will come.”