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Jiang Cheng knows nothing is perfect. He refuses to believe so.
His relationship with his parents isn’t how he thinks it should be.
A-Jie is smart and kind; smart and too kind.
Wei Ying is the epicenter of Jiang Cheng’s life, in two different ways that stretches him thin and pulls him taut.
So when Wei Ying comes into their room with stars in his eyes, Jiang Cheng doesn’t react. He just sits there, wondering if this is it. If this is why the world isn’t perfect.
But Wei Ying looks at Jiang Cheng and he looks unchanged. He grins with his entire face, eyes wrinkling at the corners, then his expression goes soft. His disciples' robes are rumpled and stained in places where it shouldn’t be, but he isn’t Wei Ying without them.
“Ah, looks like the surprise has to wait,” Wei Ying says, a stray piece of hair hanging in front of his face. “I got intercepted at the rooftops.”
Wei Ying looks like...Wei Ying.
Like he’s been running across the pier, sweating in his purple robes, endearingly dishevelled and laughing. If Jiang Cheng isn’t fully aware they’re not in Lotus Pier, he would’ve thought they’re still home.
His sleeves also look soaked.
Jiang Cheng leans forward and sniffs at him, an instinctive thing.
“Aiyo,” Wei Ying snorts in surprise, but he doesn’t back away. “Is this the morning inspection?”
He finally catches a whiff, then Jiang Cheng knows.
Jiang Cheng always knows.
There is nothing quite like everyday training that makes a cultivator know another. There is nothing quite like sitting on the docks at twilight, talking about everything and nothing at the same time.
“Ah.” Wei Ying looks a little timid, as if he didn’t know exactly what he’s walking into. He smells like alcohol, but not the one they’re used to. Sweeter. Sharper. “I mean, you said it’s the best alcohol ever.”
Wei Ying knows he looks pretty when he’s a little ruffled, a little shy. He might’ve even intentionally messed his hair up right before coming into the room; Jiang Cheng won’t put it past him.
However, his supposed shyness comes with a slight smirk. He knows what he’s doing.
Jiang Cheng knows he’ll lose this game again, and he doesn’t even try winning it.
“I heard it’s the best,” Jiang Cheng says.
Fourth Shidi heard his parents talk about something they heard from someone else, something like that. Point is, they are all fifteen and want to do what most adults do, so now they’re wondering about Caiyi wine and why it’s the best.
“I’m trying to be romantic here,” Wei Ying adds, and it leaves Jiang Cheng rather confused.
Why, he thinks, then he says it out loud.
Wei Ying shrugs at him. “I don’t know, A-Cheng. When a handsome someone buys you things thinking about you, what does that tell you?”
Jiang Cheng stares at him.
If this were like any of the sappy novels Wei Ying’s been telling him to read, Jiang Cheng should be feeling a change in his qi right about now. Or was it the wind? Someone playing romantic melodies in the background?
He feels nothing of the sort.
It’s awkward.
And silent.
And absolutely not like Wei Ying’s favorite romance novels.
Ah.
The silence is cut off when Wei Ying drops to his bed, sly smirk slipping away. He goes a bit rigid, but his hands move awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do. “Well. That didn’t work out like I imagined it.”
Now he’s embarrassed. Now, he isn’t playing it off.
Jiang Cheng loses. Again.
Wei Ying wins only when he isn't trying.
“Come on.” Jiang Cheng pulls at his damp sleeve, after a long moment of silence, gently tugging to get Wei Ying on his feet. “You need to change out of that.”
Wei Ying snorts, frustrated, but gets up and finds something to wear. Jiang Cheng shakes his head, crosses the room to catch Wei Ying’s robes before they hit the ground.
Jiang Cheng does feel bad. He doesn't get it, but he senses Wei Ying had been going for something. He doesn't get why Wei Ying looks so embarrassed right now—it's just Jiang Cheng, after all—but he’s still embarrassed and it's because Jiang Cheng doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.
“You know what?” Jiang Cheng huffs, as he folds Wei Ying’s discarded robes.
“What?”
“Just ask me to go down to Caiyi next time,” Jiang Cheng says. “If you really want to buy me something.”
The rigid awkwardness on Wei Ying's face loosens.
Jiang Cheng is annoyed that this is what he finds endearing. Jiang Cheng is so easy.
-
Jiang Cheng knows the world has shifted, unclear which direction it’s slowly pushing him to, but something’s changed. It happened sometime since their arrival and Gusu, and it continues to change the air around him like oncoming rain.
Rain. Not a storm nor a calamity.
It doesn’t bug him. He isn’t worried like he feels whenever either of his parents speak out of turn. It's more like one of Wei Ying's strange ideas, or when A-Jie breaks character and speaks longingly of Jin Zixuan. Not something awful, just an unknown.
And when Wei Ying eagerly sits next to a familiar disciple, he just sighs.
Wei Ying is always drawn to (admittedly) pretty things, but he doesn’t always know what to do with it. Lan er-gongzi sits like how people talk about him—prim, proper, and very, very straight-laced.
There’s no other adjacent table next to Wei Ying for him to occupy, and Jiang Cheng sees the exact moment Wei Ying begins to notice.
The way Wei Ying backtracks is familiar. He speaks and moves before he thinks about it, then proceeds to flail about when he realizes it’s not how he’d intended. Jiang Cheng steps in before Wei Ying starts thinking too deeply about seating arrangements.
“Is that taken?” Jiang Cheng asks, promptly; gesturing at the unoccupied table next to Lan Wangji.
From the corner of his eye, he sees Wei Ying lift his eyebrows in interest.
This is, after all, the first time Jiang Cheng has ever directly spoken to a Lan disciple so informally. He hasn’t spoken to anyone outside of the basic courtesies as you would a visiting son of a political ally.
“No,” Lan Wangji responds, like a skittish cat, because he is notoriously polite.
“I’ll sit over there,” Jiang Cheng declares. He glances at Wei Ying, shrugs, and carefully skirts behind Lan Wangji. Wei Ying keeps looking at him, unafraid but wondering, and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. “You don’t do anything rude.”
Wei Ying reacts to the banter faster than he considers the silent agreement, and does what he does best: whine.
“Rude!” he laments. “Did you hear that, Lan er-gongzi? Am I being rude to you?”
Oh dear.
Lan Wangji looks around like he doesn’t quite know how to interact with other human beings. His eyebrows knit up, perhaps the equivalent of Jiang Cheng pursing his lips when he doesn’t quite know what to say.
He looks hopeless.
It’s awkward. Jiang Cheng doesn’t mind it.
“Forgive him, Lan er-gongzi,” Jiang Cheng says. He relaxes into his seat as Wei Ying gets that look in his eyes that says everything and nothing at the same time.
-
Wei Ying gets sent to the Library for, again, speaking without thinking. He probably doesn’t mean what everyone thinks he means. There are some things you don’t talk about, but Wei Ying still likes talking about them.
"It’s a good theory," Nie Huaisang says, because that’s how he is.
"A good theory ," Jiang Cheng emphasizes.
Nie Huaisang fans himself languidly, like he always does when he mulls over something. An exact opposite of Wei Ying.
They laugh it off eventually. It's a theory. It's a far-fetched notion that they'll never need. Demonic Cultivation is an idea that's fascinating to think about. Most scholars write about it like legends and cautionary tales.
But Jiang Cheng knows when Wei Ying can't quite let something go. Like a clever prank or a line of poetry. He won't stop thinking about it until he's exhausted all the possibilities.
Jiang Cheng slowly pushes him in the direction of the Library Pavilion. "Buy me something from Caiyi, yeah?"
-
Wei Ying asks Lan er-gongzi to come down to Caiyi with them. Lan er-gongzi awkwardly, but politely, turns him down.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t understand why he feels a little disappointed.
-
Jiang Cheng has a hunch of where this is going. He's not entirely sure of the specifics of the said hunch, so he's not sure how he should feel.
Wei Ying spots Lan er-gongzi walking by himself as groups of Lan and visiting disciples make way for him in intimidated wonder.
"He doesn't sit with anyone at breakfast," Wei Ying observes.
"I noticed."
"Think we should ask him?"
Admittedly, there are times Wei Ying's friendliness put Jiang Cheng in difficult spots. It isn't anything serious, but Jiang Cheng isn't the type to speak so openly with someone he just met.
There'd be a new disciple, and Wei Ying would invite said disciple to the little stalls along the river, and Jiang Cheng would feel awkward the whole time. Wei Ying tries to help him interact, of course, but it doesn't always work.
"You know," Jiang Cheng sighs. "If this is your new way of letting me make friends, you can just tell me."
Wei Ying snorts. " Well , to be fair," he says, shrugging. "You're both really awkward—"
"I am not."
"—so I thought, hey, why not let two shy people—"
"I am not."
"—be friends?"
Jiang Cheng looks at Lan er-gongzi's deepening frown, and raises an eyebrow at Wei Ying. "He'll say no."
Lan er-gongzi says yes.
Albeit a bit tricked into it, but he does say yes.
-
It's been seven days.
And the pattern is the same: Wei Ying gets a head start by sitting wherever Nie Huaisang sits, and Jiang Cheng always ends up sitting anywhere adjacent to Lan Wangji. Both Nie Huaisang and Lan Wangji are apparently in denial of being childhood friends, despite knowing each other for even longer than Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying have.
They can't talk, of course, at least not during meals. But after, when they're all done, Wei Ying stays where he is and keeps gesturing at Jiang Cheng to speak with quiet Lan er-gongzi.
("Have you seen him?" Wei Ying had explained one evening. "He needs friends, and so do you!")
To be fair, it's not like Jiang Cheng doesn't like speaking to him. He rarely speaks at all, is the thing, but he listens quite attentively and can respond when accidentally put on the spot. It's Wei Ying who usually puts him on the spot, accidentally, but instead of getting irritated as most people do, Lan Wangji just looks endearingly confused.
(There are times when he does get annoyed, and he huffs out and swishes his robes around. It is actually quite...interesting.)
Jiang Cheng tries not to push it, though.
When Lan Wangji looks a little like he's overwhelmed, Jiang Cheng cuts into the conversation for him.
Wei Ying would know, because that's what Wei Ying does for him, too. When someone comes to Jiang Cheng and it throws him off, Wei Ying becomes the buffer, he engages with the person and lets Jiang Cheng think over his next response, and steps back when it's time for Jiang Cheng to speak.
So when Wei Ying asks, "What about you, Lan Zhan? When will you show us Caiyi?"
Jiang Cheng allows himself two moments to almost see Lan Wangji's thoughts race, before he says, "Lan er-gongzi said, ‘next time’."
Wei Ying blinks, and he stops to consider it. His eyes noticeably shift in Lan Wangji's direction, and he grins. "You can tell us next time. When you're not busy."
Lan Wangji still looks a little flustered, like he just went running around the Cloud Recess just to process everything that's happened in front of him. He does look a little shy.
"Hm," Lan Wangji nods, with the smallest of movements.
-
Wei Ying crawls to his side, as he always does when the weather in Gusu is colder than it already is. He's always cold, too used to the long summers in Yunmeng to properly function up in the mountains.
He presses close, breathing against Jiang Cheng's shoulder as they languidly lay awake way past curfew.
"I want fried food," Wei Ying announces, as if they've never left Yunmeng and the stalls that line Lotus Pier are just outside.
"We ate fried vegetables earlier."
"Unsalted, bland vegetables," Wei Ying whines.
Jiang Cheng sighs. He misses it, too. He has cravings, sometimes. He gets them in the middle of the night when he's lying down, and it gets so bad he'd consider climbing the walls to satisfy them.
But he can't be the delinquent one here.
"He'll be patrolling the rooms," Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Ying, a phrase that once never explained everything like it does now. "He'll know we're past curfew."
"Psh," Wei Ying snorts, his breath warming the back of Jiang Cheng's neck. "Like he'll tell on his biggest ally."
Jiang Cheng groans. He pulls Wei Ying's hand, the one that's already on his waist, and pulls Wei Ying closer.
There are certain tricks to keep Wei Ying where he is, and this is one of them. When Wei Ying kisses the back of his neck and settles, Jiang Cheng knows it works.
-
Jiang Cheng is fine with the scholarly arts. He's not great, but also not bad . He wins twice in every four games of weiqi, his paint strokes are okay, and his calligraphy is neat. He had qudi lessons with Wei Ying from ages ten to twelve, so he can read basic notations when he has to.
So when Wei Ying invites him to the Library, he doesn't really know where to start. Lan Zhan won't talk to me , Wei Ying had pouted, explaining that Jiang Cheng needs to do his assignments anyway, and why not do it in a well-lit room ?
Jiang Cheng goes, because Wei Ying will inevitably do something that even the most laid-back of their Yunmeng teachers get up in arms about. That, and Nie Huaisang says he needs to do some extra work to make up for terrible sparring scores he got two days ago and Jiang Cheng has no other friends.
So, here he is, in the Library Pavilion, poking at his drying ink block as Wei Ying bemoans his unfortunate existence.
"You're in on this, aren’t you?" Wei Ying accuses, swinging his head between him and Lan Wangji.
He looks at Wei Ying, then at Lan Wangji, then shrugs. Lan Wangji looks equally confused, but his lip twitches in response.
Jiang Cheng had decided not to speak while he's here. Wei Ying has already gotten extra punishment because he couldn't stop talking. The least Jiang Cheng could do, as he's always done, is to not get into trouble with him.
It's so much easier to negotiate punishments when one of them appears sensible, Jiang Cheng finds.
"Oh, no!" Wei Ying melts on top of the table, obnoxiously heartbroken. "I can't believe this, you two introverts are conspiring against me!"
Lan Wangji takes another piece of paper and lays it in front of Wei Ying, the swish of his robes dripping in smugness. Jiang Cheng suppresses a snort and buries his nose in his book before Wei Ying starts lamenting his life decisions.
Biggest ally , Wei Ying had said.
-
Sometimes, Jiang Cheng wonders what it is.
Jiang Cheng knows a few things. He knows he can't imagine a future without Wei Ying. He knows Wei Ying won't leave. He knows there isn't a world where they'll part willingly, not without anything that forcibly tears them in two.
But Jiang Cheng doesn't know what that is .
He doesn't remember how it starts and can't imagine where it ends. Jiang Cheng sees Wei Ying hovering over Lan Wangji, and he thinks he should be mad or disturbed or...jealous. But there's nothing he feels other than confusion, of not knowing what it is.
Jiang Cheng continues to wonder what it is one afternoon, as Wei Ying announces each and every passing thought. All three of them are at the Library Pavilion again, two of them trying to keep their peace as Wei Ying makes it his mission to break through.
Wei Ying sits in his usual spot, right in the vicinity of Lan Wangji's watchful eye, his fingers stained in ink. Wei Ying's sleeves are dangerously close to the wet ink block, which Jiang Cheng will have to help scrub off if he doesn't say anything about it now.
Lan Wangji had stopped scolding him for talking in the Library at some point, and Jiang Cheng is inexplicably relieved.
(Droning on is what Wei Ying does. It's what allows him to arrive at his strange ideas. It's where most of their most clever pranks had come from.)
(It is also what allows Jiang Cheng to catch the bad ideas before Wei Ying does them.)
Jiang Cheng continues to submerge himself in his confusion, until Lan Wangji slides a stack of books in front of him.
They're small and thin. They're not as intimidating as the huge volumes Jiang Cheng skips and avoids based on his experience with lengthy epics and compiled histories.
Jiang Cheng takes too long to realize that the books are being given to him, that Lan Wangji is walking away by the time looks up.
Wei Ying doesn't look as shocked as he is, but he does look a bit curious. He tries to sneak glances at Jiang Cheng, the stack of books, and Lan Wangji.
For the first time ever, Wei Ying doesn't say anything after Lan Wangji does something. Jiang Cheng thinks that means a lot, but he doesn't know why or how.
None of them speak, so Jiang Cheng resorts to taking one from the top of the stack, opens to a random page, and reads a few lines.
Poetry.
Not the kind that's popular. Jiang Cheng's sure he's never encountered any of them before.
The poetry is simple, unobstructed by strange forms and styles. It is not like the collections Jiang Cheng's teachers used to give him, which had been far too advanced for someone who's alright with the scholarly arts.
Jiang Cheng thinks he should be insulted in some way. His teachers had told him, Sect Leaders are the best of their generation, Jiang-gongzi should be reading more intelligent poetry .
He tries to understand what he currently feels, eyebrows furrowing, and he sees Lan Wangji twitch at the very edge of his vision.
Jiang Cheng thinks he should be angry, but he doesn't quite get there.
Sect Leaders are more advanced and learned , they say. But Jiang Cheng doesn't always understand. Jiang Cheng needs a few steps forward before he could get to things Sect Leaders are supposed to understand. There are a few things he is a little behind in, and has been constantly reminded of them, but no one seems to tell him what he should do about what he's doing badly.
"Oh, you were reading these yesterday," Wei Ying finally speaks, still very interested in this otherwise mundane interaction. Jiang Cheng realizes he's talking to Lan Zhan, but Wei Ying's eyes do not leave the book in Jiang Cheng's hand.
Jiang Cheng doesn't quite remember the series of actions he does, but he knows he grunts and gestures something in thanks, and he does so with some awkwardness.
Wei Ying snorts a knowing snort. It's between an I knew it and finally and Jiang Cheng feels an unknown warmth rush to his head. He feels engulfed in it. He still doesn't know what it is.
Lan Wangji returns to his work with his ears going awfully crimson.
Sometimes, there are moments like this, where Jiang Cheng wonders what it is.
There's that strange feeling of anticipation, of something coming his way. He realizes he doesn't know where this thing with Lan Wangji started, either.
-
Jiang Cheng gives Lan Wangji candy. He can't be trusted to make good book and music recommendations, so he falls back to what he knows.
"Lan Wangji?" Wei Ying huffs, as Jiang Cheng tells him who the Dragon's Beard is for.
"What." Jiang Cheng says, keeping his eyes on the artisan pulling and doing his thing with the sugar. (Strangely bland Gusu sugar, but it'll do.)
They're joining Lan Xichen—and subsequently, Lan Wangji—for some water ghoul problems. After Lan Xichen keeps throwing knowing looks at the three of them, that is. Jiang Cheng had been wondering the whole time whether he should be worried about that.
Wei Ying continues to hover beside him. "You're both so..."
"So?"
"Formal," Wei Ying says.
Jiang Cheng frowns.
This isn't the first time they're knowingly discussing what this is . Wei Ying is always the only one who verbally suggests this is going down a...romantic route.
(Jiang Cheng thinks that too, but he's terrified by the idea of having to face it head-on.)
Their conversation with and about Lan Wangji takes on the same form as their whispered exchanges with each other. Jiang Cheng thinks there's a conversation that needs to be had, but he doesn't know how or what or when.
"I swear, you shy people don't say what you want to say," Wei Ying fans himself, in some obnoxious impersonation of Nie Huaisang. "What am I, your messenger?"
"A harbinger," Jiang Cheng says. "A gossiping auntie."
Wei Ying trails behind him, squeezing Jiang Cheng on each arm and making frustrated toddler noises. "Why don't you kiss already, ugh."
Jiang Cheng feels something warm in his chest again. That strange feeling of something new, something to anticipate. It feels like how he'd felt about Wei Ying when he'd been thirteen—an entire year of wondering, getting embarrassed, and getting all frustrated for no reason.
That feeling around Wei Ying hasn't changed. It just settled, like a calm river. It continues to be in his mind, only quelled by the security of Wei Ying's presence around him. He imagines it'll come in full force at the prospect of things changing between them.
-
The prospect—no, the threat—of things changing between them comes on the same day. It isn't so much a change, as it is a frightening moment Jiang Cheng thought he might lose Wei Ying.
Wei Ying does what he does best. He discerns, executes, then he still has enough time to laugh and lift the heavy mood. Jiang Cheng resents that someone's always a few steps ahead of him, but somehow values that it's Wei Ying walking ahead.
He feels both proud and inadequate at the same time. Wei Ying pulls him thin and taut in two different ways.
"Are your robes alright?" Jiang Cheng asks, as Lan Zhan bemusedly listens to Wei Ying and his brother exchange ideas. (It's always a shock to people how Wei Ying knows so much. It never gets old.)
Lan Zhan hums, without a second look at his robes.
"He'd known you were going to avoid the splash," Jiang Cheng gently informs. "You knew that, right?"
Jiang Cheng must've given his worries away, because Lan Zhan's eyes light up in understanding. He looks almost endeared, and Jiang Cheng feels something he can't fully explain.
"Not mad," Lan Zhan says. And, with a little more hesitation, he follows it with, "Jiang Cheng."
This agreement to address each other more casually is still very new. He feels like he's trudging unfamiliar territory. Like a new city. He feels vulnerable in ways that he doesn't want to admit.
Lan Xichen hears the exchange, his knowing smile widens a little more, and Jiang Cheng looks away in lieu of running off to hide in the bushes.
Jiang Cheng has a brief time to simmer in the pleasant, relaxed air of the moment, before he feels turbulence beneath his feet.
-
Jiang Cheng feels a wave of regret as he reconsiders today. He lies down, blinking in the darkness, wondering how he's going to face the next day with everything that's on his mind.
Gusu is cold tonight, colder than it's ever been since they arrived. The cold makes it so apparent that Jiang Cheng isn't home.
He'd watched Wei Ying plunge into the water. Jiang Cheng thought he'd drowned.
He hates that he isn't fast enough—that he doesn't think quickly enough—to come and save Wei Ying when it matters. If Jiang Cheng had been the one drowning, Wei Ying would have gotten to him before anything happened.
Jiang Cheng had been overwhelmed. He's never considered the prospect of being without Wei Ying, let alone lose him for good. The threat of losing him had been proven a weakness.
Jiang Cheng doesn't remember what finally gave, but he'd kissed Wei Ying.
Out in the open. Where everyone could see. Where everyone could read the desperate, worried lines on his face.
All the things they only whispered about, hidden in their rooms and private moments, had suddenly been thrust in front of an unsuspecting crowd.
Before his thoughts could go somewhere terrible, Jiang Cheng feels Wei Ying slip under the sheets. His arm snakes its way around Jiang Cheng's waist, confident and secure, a familiar gesture that's been done far too many times to feel foreign or strange.
"They know," Jiang Cheng says, a sentence he's never said about this before. He's terrified of what it means and what it could mean.
He feels rather than hears Wei Ying chuckle, his chest vibrating against Jiang Cheng's back.
"You're that embarrassed, huh," Wei Ying says.
He reads the pain all at once. Jiang Cheng feels Wei Ying go tense and hears his voice go thin and wavering.
Jiang Cheng immediately turns to face him. Wei Ying lifts his arm as Jiang Cheng moves, then he settles it back down on Jiang Cheng's waist. The fact that he doesn't immediately recoil is a good sign.
With the candles out, Jiang Cheng can only make out the general shape of Wei Ying's face. His expression is cast in shadow, so Jiang Cheng can only see a luminescent outline of him.
"You—" Jiang Cheng desperately tries to steady his voice, but it comes off thin and garbled. There's a lump in his throat, a painful weight on his chest, and a stinging sensation in his eyes. "You know that's not what I meant."
Wei Ying circles his thumb on Jiang Cheng's waist. It's both to soothe Jiang Cheng and to calm himself down.
Jiang Cheng needs to say something. Anything. He needs to stop Wei Ying from fidgeting like he does when his thoughts are running too fast.
"I—"
"I know," Wei Ying says, pressing his thumb down, the weight of it grounding Jiang Cheng's own panic. "I already asked Lan Xichen. He also said Su She didn't see any of it."
Wei Ying is so calm.
His voice is so steady, with no lilting humor like it always does. He can be subdued and serious when he wants to be. "Despite my reputation, I know how to wait. It's worth waiting for."
"I know."
It would've been so easy. He's heard so many stories about handsome Shixiongs who are perfect and tortured in the most poetic ways. Jiang Cheng wouldn't have to go to great lengths to find the perfect spouse.
But he knows they can't right now. His mother would banish Wei Ying in a heartbeat.
Jiang Cheng thinks of Wei Ying, thinks of many things, and the future seems more complicated than he'd hoped. He leans into Wei Ying, and presses their foreheads together.
"On the subject of who else saw," Wei Ying says. "I'm assuming you also don't mind that Lan Zhan did."
He really doesn't, is the thing. Jiang Cheng wouldn't have been so worried if it's just Lan Zhan who'd seen. They'd talked about letting Lan Zhan see, but on their own terms, and not in a moment of desperation.
"Well, he better take a hint," Jiang Cheng grouses.
"Maybe he thinks we're just flirts," Wei Ying says, voice low.
"That's you," Jiang Cheng says, without a sliver of jealousy.
Jiang Cheng had expected Wei Ying to be with someone else at some point. He'd anticipated they'd have a very long conversation about finally breaking whatever this is off. That's why Jiang Cheng had never allowed himself to be jealous of Wei Ying's flirting. He'd thought he'd be stewing in it for the rest of his life if he starts now.
"That's me," Wei Ying sing-songs. "And it found us a pretty boy."
He could feel Wei Ying's breath, his heartbeat, his body heat. Wei Ying warms him amidst the cold that's come over Gusu tonight. Now that Jiang Cheng's relieved from the swirling thoughts, he doesn't feel like leaving the Cloud Recesses so soon.
"We need to figure out how three people can be subtle," Jiang Cheng says sleepily.
Wei Ying laughs. "Let's tell them we're friends. Really good friends."
Jiang Cheng snorts. Right.
"We'll think about changing that when you're Sect Leader," Wei Ying says, half-joking but mostly right. "I still think we should get Lan Zhan bunnies."
"Ugh," Jiang Cheng gently slaps him in the chest. "Lan Zhan isn't breeding livestock ."
Jiang Cheng hears the pitter-patter on the roof. It's a slow and gentle rain, not an aggressive storm. It strangely matches the rhythm of Wei Ying's muted laughter. It's...profound, like every sappy romance novel Wei Ying reads.