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Jiang Cheng is already having a bad day by the time his second in command comes into his office and just going by the look on his face Jiang Cheng can tell that his day is not going to get any better.
“What is it now?” Jiang Cheng snaps out, pinching the bridge of his nose as his second in command makes a face at him.
“It’s Nie-zongzhu,” he still says and there it is.
Jiang Cheng’s entire day is ruined.
“Send him away,” he tells his second who shuffles on his feet.
“We already did that.”
“And he’s not leaving,” Jiang Cheng guesses because Nie Mingjue is known for his stubbornness.
“He’s not leaving,” his second confirms. “He put up a tent outside when we told him he’s not allowed in.”
Letting another Sect Leader camp outside is actually ruder than what Jiang Cheng normally does but he thinks he’s allowed this one time. Nie Mingjue very rudely rejected his courtship offer and Jiang Cheng thinks he’s entitled to this right now.
“Let him rot outside then,” Jiang Cheng decides and turns back to the letter in his hand.
It doesn’t lift his mood seeing as it is from Sect Leader Yao but at least it takes his mind off Nie Mingjue.
~*~*~
“He’s still outside,” Jiang Cheng’s second in command tells him three days later and Jiang Cheng groans.
“What the fuck does he want?” he mutters and his second shrugs.
“He said he wants to put something right but he’s only going to talk to you,” he tells Jiang Cheng who glares at him.
“Who gave you the right to speak with him?” Jiang Cheng wants to know and his second stares him down.
“You when you wouldn’t deal with him,” he shoots right back and well, fair enough, Jiang Cheng guesses.
“If he’s still here in two days, let him in,” Jiang Cheng decides and he doesn’t even feel bad about doing this to Nie Mingjue.
Nie Mingjue broke his heart in the most callous of ways after all, so this truly is the least he can endure.
“Alright,” his second nods and leaves Jiang Cheng to his paperwork.
Jiang Cheng isn’t sure if he wants Nie Mingjue to endure and stay just so he can yell at him or if he wants him to give up and leave.
He guesses it’s out of his hands now.
~*~*~
Nie Mingjue stays.
And Jiang Cheng is nothing if not true to his word so his second in command leads Nie Mingjue into his study on the afternoon of the fifth day.
“What do you want?” Jiang Cheng bites out, not looking at Nie Mingjue, not asking him to sit and certainly not offering him anything to drink.
He guesses this will be a short talk.
“I’m here to apologize,” Nie Mingjue says and he doesn’t take the liberty to sit where he wasn’t invited but it doesn’t take long for Jiang Cheng to feel uncomfortable with Nie Mingjue looming over him, even though he stands a respectful distance away.
“Sit, for heaven’s sake,” Jiang Cheng grumbles out and immediately lowers his eyes when Nie Mingjue smiles at him.
Fuck him and his dimples, Jiang Cheng bitterly thinks and slams the letter he was pretending to read on the table.
“Apologize for what?” he bites out as Nie Mingjue sits down opposite of him but Nie Mingjue doesn’t seem put off by his stand-offish behaviour.
“For rejecting your courtship offer,” he says without warning and Jiang Cheng freezes.
“Yeah, well, everyone is entitled to their own feelings, right?” Jiang Cheng then mockingly asks, citing a passage from the rejection letter.
“Is that what—” Nie Mingjue cuts himself off and takes a deep breath. “Listen, let me explain, okay?”
“I don’t think I want to,” Jiang Cheng tells him and is about to get up when Nie Mingjue’s hand shoots out and encircles Jiang Cheng’s wrist.
“It wasn’t me who rejected you,” Nie Mingjue says and that startles a laugh out of Jiang Cheng.
“Right, it was your evil twin brother,” he hisses and wrenches his arm free.
“I do not personally get any of the courtship proposals,” Nie Mingjue starts to explain even though Jiang Cheng wishes he would shut up. “My advisors get those, because I got tired of dealing with them. I haven’t seen a courtship proposal in years and I like it that way.”
“Good for you,” Jiang Cheng snaps out because it’s not as comforting as Nie Mingjue clearly thinks it to be.
“I’m doing this all wrong,” Nie Mingjue mutters, rubbing a hand over his face. “I started to get courtship proposals soon after I became Sect Leader,” Nie Mingjue tries again and Jiang Cheng has to admit that that must have sucked.
He was fairly young after all and his father did just die.
“You can imagine how I dealt with that. I rejected the first two in person and nearly started a war because I was so blunt with my words. I appointed someone to deal exclusively with courtship proposals then. I planned to eventually deal with them myself again—a marriage is kind of expected after all—but then it became clear that I suffered from qi-deviations, just like my father.”
“So?” Jiang Cheng wants to know because that doesn’t make sense.
There are various treatments for qi-deviations these days.
“Our qi-deviations—they are based in our cultivational style and I’m not going to put Baxia down,” Nie Mingjue explains and Jiang Cheng frowns at him.
“Should you be telling me this?” he asks because this sounds a lot like a Sect secret and Jiang Cheng does not want Nie Mingjue to disclose something to him he’s going to regret afterwards.
“I should,” Nie Mingjue decisively nods, “because this might influence your decision too.”
“My decision?”
“Of offering a courtship. You might change your mind. I’m going to die young,” Nie Mingjue tells him with a shrug as if he already made his peace with that. “I figure being with someone who makes me happy is probably going to slow the process down, but it won’t be enough to stop it completely. Based on previous cases I have around three to five years left. I am fine with spending those with you, but if you don’t want that, then I understand.”
“Hold on,” Jiang Cheng says, raising a hand and rubbing his temple with the other. “You rejected my courtship offer. There’s nothing to want here.”
“My advisors rejected your courtship offer, like they do with all of them. Mine and Huaisang’s.”
“How did you even hear about this then? If you didn’t read it?”
“Huaisang loves to meddle and sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. Usually it’s a source of my headaches but with this I guess I have to thank him.”
“So what? He saw my letter, and snitched to you?”
“Yes. Because he knows I’m in love with you,” Nie Mingjue bluntly says and Jiang Cheng jerks with his words.
“What the hell,” he hisses but Nie Mingjue shrugs, completely unrepentant.
“I have been in love with you since the Sunshot Campaign. I should have told my advisors that if there should ever be a courtship letter from you they should hand it to me, but I forgot.” He huffs out a small laugh. “Well, actually I thought there was no sense in doing so because surely you would find someone more sensible to court, so I didn’t say anything. I should have, in retrospect, but I didn’t. And that’s on me.”
“Someone more sensible?”
“Someone with less anger issues and non-fatal qi-deviations,” Nie Mingjue explains.
“You seem to be doing fine, though,” Jiang Cheng mutters and Nie Mingjue smiles at him.
“That’s partly your fault, too,” he tells him. “I felt fine during the Sunshot Campaign despite everything that happened there. The qi-deviations picked back up again recently, though. It’s why I think that being with someone I love might actually help.”
Jiang Cheng reflexively puts a hand over his bell, even though he knows that if Nie Mingjue can hear it, it won’t do anything to dim the sound at all.
“Can you hear the bell?” Jiang Cheng dares to ask, and he holds his breath for Nie Mingjue’s answer.
“I can,” Nie Mingjue gives back, a puzzled look on his face. “Am I not supposed to?”
“No, it’s—” Jiang Cheng cuts himself off, though he knows he’s already bright red in the face. “It doesn’t matter,” he still insists. “I have your rejection letter right here.”
“I keep telling you, it’s not mine,” Nie Mingjue sighs out. “I’m going to destroy it if you give it to me. I would have never rejected you. Please, give me a second chance?” Nie Mingjue asks him and Jiang Cheng works his jaw.
“Prove it then,” he dares Nie Mingjue and holds out the cursed letter.
Nie Mingjue takes it from him and shreds it to pieces without hesitation.
“Now, do you have a copy of your proposal? I’m going to answer to it right now,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng huffs out a breath.
He does not have a copy of the letter but he guesses there are no formalities needed right now, so he simply picks up an empty sheet and writes down I wish to court you. Will you accept? before he hands that over to Nie Mingjue.
Nie Mingjue takes it with a smile and then steals the brush right out of Jiang Cheng’s hand before he writes something down. He’s smiling broadly when he hands the sheet back to Jiang Cheng.
I accept your official courtship proposal, it says in bold strokes and Jiang Cheng’s heart threatens to beat out of his chest.
“Seriously?” he whispers, because he can’t quite believe it, no matter what Nie Mingjue just told him.
“Seriously. I wish to court you. I am in love with you. Will you tell me what’s up with the bell now?” he asks and Jiang Cheng groans even though it feels as if he’s overflowing with happiness.
“It’s—” he cuts himself off again, almost too embarrassed to say it.
“Tell me, Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue prods him, a soft smile on his face as if he already knows what Jiang Cheng is going to say.
“Only a fated person can hear it,” Jiang Cheng rushes out, not daring to look at Nie Mingjue. “I did not care because I don’t believe in fate but—” he trails off with a shrug. “It seems as if fate brought us together anyway.”
“Thankfully it did,” Nie Mingjue agrees and tilts his head, clearly listening to the bell.
It makes Jiang Cheng blush all the more.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng snaps out, which only makes Nie Mingjue laugh before he turns serious again.
“I won’t. But I still need you to understand that I do not expect to live for longer than five years at most,” he reiterates once again. “You need to be prepared for that.”
“Like hell,” Jiang Cheng huffs out. “It’s called a clarity bell for a reason. You’re not dying on me,” he decides. “You’re going to tell me all about that stupid cultivational style of yours and then you’ll let me find a solution.”
Nie Mingjue stares in awe at him before he finally nods.
“Alright, my heart. I’ll put my life in your hands.”
That does something funny to Jiang Cheng’s own heart but in the end he only nods, satisfied that Nie Mingjue agreed to this as well.
“I know I proposed the courtship but with what happened before, you better blow me off my feet,” he then decides, narrowing his eyes in warning at Nie Mingjue who simply laughs at his demand.
“Of course, do not worry. I come with a first courtship gift anyway,” he tells him with a wink. “But I think that will have to wait until dinner.”
Jiang Cheng frowns at that but he’s delighted that Nie Mingjue came prepared. It appeases Jiang Cheng’s last worry that Nie Mingjue might not be really in this because it seems as if he’s already fully committed.
“You’re unbelievable,” Jiang Cheng huffs out and gets up, motioning for Nie Mingjue to follow him. “Come on, no husband-to-be of mine is going to sleep outside in a tent. I’ll show you your room.”
“Gladly,” Nie Mingjue says, getting up as well and even though it’s not proper, he steps close to Jiang Cheng, one hand on his hip, and pulls him into his side to press a kiss to his temple. “Thank you for giving me this second chance,” he whispers against Jiang Cheng’s skin.
“Better not waste it,” Jiang Cheng mutters but he softens when Nie Mingjue kisses him again. “I love you, too, you know.”
“I should hope so, with the courtship and all,” Nie Mingjue gives back and then steps back from Jiang Cheng. “And we’re going to do this right.”
“We’ll see about that,” Jiang Cheng says, because now that he got a taste of Nie Mingjue already, he’s not sure if he can stick to the rules.
He guesses they will find out how their courtship goes over soon enough though and honestly, Jiang Cheng will be happy with anything as long as it ends with him and Nie Mingjue married.