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Jiang Cheng know his fate has been decided when Jiang Fengmian calls him into his study.
“We have an answer from Qinghe Nie,” he tells him and Jiang Cheng sits down. “They agreed to the marriage.”
“But why them,” Jiang Cheng whispers out.
He doesn’t care about himself—being married off has always been his future and he made his peace with that long ago—but to the Nies—that is a cruelty Jiang Cheng didn’t think Jiang Fengmian to be capable of.
“You will go where I send you,” Jiang Fengmian says and Jiang Cheng is quick to nod.
“Of course I will, but they will find out. And they won’t be too happy.”
“You are a foundling, and that is all you’re ever going to be,” Jiang Fengmian sneers out and Jiang Cheng flinches. “Qinghe Nie believes in the occult; they think someone like you is a lucky sign. They are more than happy to take you and you will do your utmost to get this marriage over with. I do not have to remind you what should happen to you if the marriage falls through.”
“Understood,” Jiang Cheng mumbles but he can still barely understand Jiang Fengmian’s hate for him.
Yes, he is not his son, but Wei Wuxian is; Yu Ziyuan and he must have cheated on each other at roughly the same time after all. The story of Jiang Cheng being a foundling is just that—a story, carefully distributed throughout the world to not arise suspicion when Jiang Cheng doesn’t end up looking anything like his father.
Which happened, of course, because Jiang Cheng is the spitting image of his mother, but that in turn made new problems rise up.
Jiang Cheng is aware of the rumors going around that the foundling story is just a cover-up to hide Yu Ziyuan’s betrayal and they are not even wrong.
And Nie Mingjue is going to have his head when he finds out who Jiang Cheng’s real father is.
Jiang Cheng had hoped to be married off to one of the other Sects—even a lesser one would have been fine—because Jiang Fengmian never made it a secret that this was going to be his future.
He is not the heir and he has never been regarded as such, especially not since Wei Wuxian came to live with them. Jiang Fengmian was quick to appoint him heir and he didn’t hide the fact that Wei Wuxian was his actual son.
To this day Jiang Cheng will never understand how it’s okay that Jiang Fengmian has a bastard but should word ever get out that Jiang Cheng is a bastard as well his mother will likely be killed.
It simply makes no sense but of course he knows better than to argue against this.
Jiang Fengmian waited until the last possible moment to tell him about the marriage because not even a day later Jiang Cheng is being sent away, with the required minimum of people to follow him to not offend Qinghe Nie.
He didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to his mother or sister and Jiang Cheng knows that it’s a very deliberate move from Jiang Fengmian.
His mother probably has a thing or two to say about his marriage to Nie Mingjue after all.
By the time he arrives in front of the gates to the Unclean Realm, Jiang Cheng has his mind made up. He has met Nie Mingjue before on several occasions and he likes the other man; he is not going to lead him on about his heritage, no matter what it should mean for himself.
So when Nie Mingjue leads him to the rooms where he’ll be staying in for now, Jiang Cheng stops him with a hand to his elbow.
“I would like to talk to you about something,” Jiang Cheng says and then sends a pointed look at the people around them. “In private, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“That’s highly inappropriate,” Nie Huaisang chimes in but Nie Mingjue only rolls his eyes at him.
“And who here is going to care or breathe a word of this?” Nie Mingjue shoots back, glaring at everyone. “I thought so,” he then smugly says and points at a door just up ahead. “We can talk there.”
Jiang Cheng nods and leads the way, and he doesn’t even care that his behaviour is almost offending. His life is forfeit anyway, this should hardly make a dent in Nie Mingjue’s regard for him.
The room is a simple office, furnished with nothing more than two tables for paperwork and one to take their tea and Jiang Cheng thinks it’s perfect.
This will be over quick anyway.
“What is it you want to talk about?” Nie Mingjue asks as he closes the door behind them and Jiang Cheng sits down.
He didn’t give much thought on how he’s going to break the news to Nie Mingjue but he knows one thing.
“Before I start, there’s a condition,” he says and meets Nie Mingjue’s eyes without wavering.
“Okay,” Nie Mingjue unsurely says, clearly at a total loss as to what is happening right now.
“After I said what I want to say, you’ll no longer want to marry me. And that is fine, but you can’t send me back to Lotus Pier. So I need you to promise me that you’ll either kill me after, or you’ll help me get away.”
“Kill you,” Nie Mingjue mutters. “What the hell is going on here, Wanyin? Are you here to spy on us? To kill me to take over Qinghe?”
It’s not a bad guess all things considered but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“Promise me,” he insists instead of explaining and watches as Nie Mingjue presses his lips together.
“Fine, I’ll promise. I’ll either kill you or help you vanish.”
“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and slumps over a little bit. This was the most important part, at least to him. “I am not a foundling,” he starts with and immediately Nie Mingjue frowns.
“You’re not—does that mean the rumors are true? The Violet Spider is your mother, then?”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng nods and watches as Nie Mingjue puzzles out the rest.
“But Jiang Fengmian is not your father, then, clearly. And you think this knowledge will make me want to kill you—” he trails off there but when a surge of killing intent goes through the room Jiang Cheng knows that he figured it out so he nods.
“Wen Ruohan is my father.”
It seems as if Nie Mingjue has a hard time to calm himself down at those words, but Jiang Cheng isn’t worried. His death has always been on the table after all.
“He killed my father,” Nie Mingjue finally presses out and Jiang Cheng nods.
“I know. That’s why I had to tell you. Jiang Fengmian insisted on marrying me off and he can’t marry me off to Qishan Wen for obvious reasons. He already has alliances secured with Lanling Jin and Gusu Lan, though, so that only left you, despite my protests. He doesn’t care.”
“You are the son of that monster,” Nie Mingjue hisses and even though Jiang Cheng flinches at that, he still nods.
Wen Ruohan is a monster and Jiang Cheng is his son. Jiang Cheng didn’t chose him as a father and he has no contact to him at all but of course Nie Mingjue would not be able to see past that. Jiang Cheng knew that from the very beginning and yet it still hurts somehow.
“You are the son of the Violet Spider,” Nie Mingjue breathes out next and suddenly all the killing intent is gone.
“What?” Jiang Cheng asks because that shouldn’t even factor in here. “Listen, it doesn’t matter who my mother is. If you send me back then something worse than death is waiting for me, Jiang Fengmian will make sure of it. So either you kill me—as would be your right—or you help me get away from all of this.”
“This is why Popo Yu has always been so fond of you,” Nie Mingjue goes on as if he hasn’t heard Jiang Cheng at all.
“Mingjue, listen to me!” Jiang Cheng yells out. “Jiang Fengmian thinks you’re just a bunch of savages who believe in the occult and so you wouldn’t look more closely into this matter, but I am telling you, I am not a foundling, I do not bring luck and my father is your sworn enemy!”
“But we do believe in the occult,” Nie Mingjue says as if Jiang Cheng’s other words mean nothing. “And you are the son of the Violet Spider. Spiders do not have sons. They only birth daughters.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Jiang Cheng asks, completely puzzled by this turn of events.
“It means that you’re a miracle,” Nie Mingjue tells him. “Popo Yu dotes on you because you’re the first male Spider in centuries. We Nies do believe in the occult and a foundling has nothing against a male Spider.”
“But I am not—I haven’t received proper training,” Jiang Cheng stammers, unsure what exactly is happening right now.
“I am sure Yu Ziyuan would love to join us here under the guise of advising you through this courtship,” Nie Mingjue gives back and Jiang Cheng blinks at him.
“Mingjue, I am telling you that I am Wen Ruohan’s son and you plan to do what? Marry me?”
“Yes,” Nie Mingjue easily gives back and Jiang Cheng rears back as if Nie Mingjue has hit him.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
“I felt the killing intent coming from you just a moment ago! How can you even ask me that, I have felt exactly how you feel about this.”
“No. You felt how I feel about Wen Ruohan,” Nie Mingjue corrects him. “You have no clue how I feel about you. And before you start again—it doesn’t matter that he is your father. It wasn’t you who killed my father and it wasn’t you who made him kill my father either. You’re just a kid who got settled with a monster for a father, but that isn’t your fault. And you do not have contact to him, as far as I know, right?”
“Right,” Jiang Cheng slowly says. “I haven’t even met him once in my life.”
“Then I don’t see how I would make you responsible for my father’s death.”
“What if I don’t want to be a Spider?” Jiang Cheng tries again, because he thought his only two options were death or banishment.
He never considered that marriage might still be on the table and now that it is, he doesn’t know how to handle it.
“Then you won’t be,” Nie Mingjue gives back with a shrug. “I just thought you’d want to learn something about your heritage. You don’t have to, though, I will marry you regardless.”
“Why though?” Jiang Cheng breathes out and Nie Mingjue smiles at him.
“Because I like you. Because I can see myself falling in love with you. Isn’t that enough reason?”
It is enough reason, of course it is, it’s just not what Jiang Cheng expected so he has a hard time wrapping his head around this.
At Jiang Cheng’s continued silence, Nie Mingjue’s smile dims.
“Of course I understand that you are an unwilling participant in all of this, so if you’d rather vanish and leave all of this behind, I will help you however I can,” he finally awkwardly says and Jiang Cheng is quick to shake his head.
“I am not entirely unwilling to marry you,” Jiang Cheng tells him immediately. “I just thought—I didn’t think that was a possibility still.”
“Well, then it’s a day full of surprises for both of us,” Nie Mingjue says, his smile making a return. “But I still need to hear if you want to marry me.”
“Yes, I want to,” Jiang Cheng rushes out, afraid to miss this one chance to maybe get some happiness in his life.
“Then we’ll proceed with everything as was planned,” Nie Mingjue decides and offers Jiang Cheng his hand to take, which of course Jiang Cheng immediately does.
This day certainly ended better than he ever dared to hope for.