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Jiang Cheng is absolutely flabbergasted when Nie Mingjue stops him briefly before they go into the conference room and presses something into his hands.
“For you,” Nie Mingjue says as he closes Jiang Cheng’s fingers around the small parcel and then he goes on as if nothing happened at all, instantly engrossed in a conversation with Nie Zonghui.
Jiang Cheng is left staring after him with no goddamn clue just what exactly happened right now and so it takes him a moment to regain his sense.
He refuses to admit that he only manages it because his second in command discreetly clears his throat behind him.
Jiang Cheng stashes the little parcel into his robes, unwilling to open it in front of everyone else and by the time the conference is done he has almost forgotten about it. Jin Guangshan and Sect Leader Yao certainly made sure of that by enraging him like no one else ever could and so it’s yet again his second in command who saves him.
“Do remember the gift,” he quietly says when they part for the evening and Jiang Cheng wonders how he could ever forget about it at all because all of a sudden it feels as if Nie Mingjue’s gift is burning a hole into his robes.
“Sure,” Jiang Cheng mutters back, suddenly desperate to get it open and see what Nie Mingjue got him and so he’s quick to go into his own room.
It’s only when the door is safely closed behind him that he pulls out the gift.
It really is small; small enough to entirely fit into his hand and even allow him to close his fingers around it and Jiang Cheng wonders what it could be.
He doesn’t wonder for too long though, because now he’s impatient and he rips open the wrapping. A small charm falls into his hand and Jiang Cheng is left blinking at it.
It’s delicately crafted and beautifully made and Jiang Cheng is pretty certain the he doesn’t deserve this at all.
It doesn’t help that it’s a small lotus flower that would fit perfectly on Jiang Cheng’s belt.
“What the hell is he doing?” Jiang Cheng mutters even as he clasps the charm onto his belt.
He can already imagine just how self-satisfied Nie Mingjue is going to look the next day when he sees it there and Jiang Cheng has to admit that he can’t wait for the small smile that it will surely bring out on the other man’s face.
~*~*~
It seems now that Nie Mingjue has started once he’s not going to stop with the gifts.
The next time they meet with Nie Mingjue being on an official visit to Lotus Pier, he has something else to give to Jiang Cheng.
“Here,” he says putting something that looks like a dagger on the table, though it is kind of hard to tell with how it’s all wrapped up.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Cheng says after a long moment of staring at the gift and by then Nie Mingjue has long gone back to reading the report in his hand.
It seems as if he doesn’t deem his own actions important at all.
“I’m reading,” Nie Mingjue instantly shoots back though Jiang Cheng can tell by the small twitch of his mouth that he wants to laugh at Jiang Cheng and certainly knows what he’s talking about.
Jiang Cheng huffs but doesn’t say anything else because by now he knows Nie Mingjue well enough to know that if he doesn’t want to explain something he simply won’t.
He can be stubborn like that.
Jiang Cheng gingerly picks the gift up and when he removes the cloth it’s indeed a dagger that gets revealed.
It’s beautiful and the intricate crafting on the handle is breath-taking and it’s exactly the right length to fit into Jiang Cheng’s boot, too.
Where there’s a dagger shaped space right now because he lost his own during the last night hunt he went to.
“How did you know?” Jiang Cheng asks and Nie Mingjue shrugs, even while he still pretends to read his report.
“A little birdy told me,” he easily gives back and Jiang Cheng frowns at the implication that Nie Huaisang was somehow involved.
Or maybe he’s reading too much into this at all and it was one of his own people who told Nie Mingjue about this. Which doesn’t actually make this any better. He’ll have to talk to his second as soon as Nie Mingjue is gone.
“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng whispers and Nie Mingjue only smiles at him in answer, his face soft.
Jiang Cheng wonders what this all means.
~*~*~
Jiang Cheng is still debating what he wants to get to eat on the market in Qinghe Nie when Nie Mingjue materialises at his side, a steaming hot bun in his hands.
“You’ll like this,” he says and presses it into Jiang Cheng’s hands, walking off without another word.
Yet again Jiang Cheng is caught completely off guard and all he can do is stare after Nie Mingjue until the delicious smell of the bun hits him.
It must be filled with something because no way could it smell like that otherwise and Jiang Cheng can’t quite supress the soft moan he lets out when he bites into it.
The filling is absolutely delicious and Jiang Cheng wonders just how many of these he can eat before he makes himself sick. But for that to do he first has to find out where Nie Mingjue got them from.
“Hey, wait,” he calls out, running after Nie Mingjue but despite the height of the other man, he can’t find him anymore.
The market is filled with people and despite his own height and status Jiang Cheng has a hard time making his way through the crowd with absolutely no chance of ever catching up to Nie Mingjue.
He guesses he’ll have to walk around the market on his own then, though that prospect doesn’t quite make him happy.
Jiang Cheng decides not to think any more about that, though.
~*~*~
When Jiang Cheng receives a letter from Nie Mingjue with a little package attached he’s not even that surprised anymore.
Just quietly resigned because it doesn’t look like Nie Mingjue is going to stop any time soon with the gifts, though Jiang Cheng still doesn’t understand why he’s doing it.
He didn’t get a chance to really talk to Nie Mingjue since this whole gift giving started, because even during his visit to Qinghe Nie they were so busy with Sect matters that they didn’t even have time to chat.
But it still doesn’t seem as if Nie Mingjue is deterred in his ways.
“What the hell is this then,” Jiang Cheng grumbles even as he opens the parcel.
He should probably read the letter first but his curiosity is piqued and he can’t be bothered to read first. It’s not as if anyone is present who could tell him off for it anyway.
What falls into his hand once he gets the wrapping removed is a new ink stone.
“What the fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters, ignoring the fact that he wanted to go out tomorrow to buy a new one for himself and rips open the letter.
He skims over the niceties and the Sect business until he finds the part about the gift.
During my last visit I noticed that you grind your ink too harshly. By now you are probably due a new ink stone. Do try to relax a bit, it’s not the inks’ fault after all, the letter says and Jiang Cheng has to snort at it.
It’s true, it’s not the inks’ fault but he does find grinding it strangely soothing. Even at the expense of his inkstone.
“Why do you even notice these things,” Jiang Cheng mutters, even as he replaces his old, worn-down inkstone and he can’t deny that it makes him happy to see the new one and be reminded that it’s there because Nie Mingjue noticed something about him.
Still, it doesn’t give him an answer to his question, so he vows to ask Nie Mingjue the next time he sees him.
~*~*~
The next time turns out to be just a week later when Nie Mingjue drops by for a surprise visit and just like Jiang Cheng promised himself he refuses the gift Nie Mingjue absentmindedly tries to push into his hands and instead he puts his hands to his hips and levels Nie Mingjue with a look.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jiang Cheng demands to know and Nie Mingjue blinks at him, clearly surprised.
“Trying to give you something?” he then asks, the gift still in his own hands, hovering kind of awkwardly between them.
“No, yeah, that’s kind of obvious.” Jiang Cheng curses himself for his fumble there. “I just mean—why?”
“Because I want to see you happy?” Nie Mingjue asks right back and it brings Jiang Cheng up short.
“What?” he breathes out because this doesn’t even make sense! “You never even wait to see my reaction!” he almost yells out then and Nie Mingjue shrugs.
“Maybe, but I do get to see that you are enjoying my gifts,” he then says with a small nod to the lotus charm that is hanging off Jiang Cheng’s belt.
It makes Jiang Cheng blush and he tries to hide the charm with his hand but of course it’s a totally useless move because clearly Nie Mingjue has already seen it.
Jiang Cheng is convinced he even knows about the knife in his boot. It already saved Jiang Cheng more than once, too.
“I just don’t understand,” Jiang Cheng goes on eventually. “How can you find all these things for me?” he asks because he truly doesn’t understand how Nie Mingjue always has something ready for him, no matter what.
Jiang Cheng was prepared for a lot of things but seeing Nie Mingjue blush slightly certainly wasn’t one of them.
“I just—” he shrugs, clearly unwilling to speak up before he seems to come to a decision because he straightens up. “I just buy the things that make me think of you. It’s nothing more than little trinkets anyway,” he tries to play it down.
“Well, you must think of me an awful lot then,” Jiang Cheng bites out, unsure what to do with this admission and whenever he feels lost in a conversation he tends to fall back on sarcasm and biting remarks.
But for once, it doesn’t work.
“I do. I think about you all the time,” Nie Mingjue honestly gives back and it leaves Jiang Cheng speechless.
And whenever he is met with an emotion he doesn’t know how to deal with, Jiang Cheng has one trusted method to handle it: he flees.
So he turns around on his heels and walks away from Nie Mingjue, into the private part of Lotus Pier where not even Nie Mingjue is allowed in.
He paces on his favourite pier, turning the words in his mind over and over again, looking for the hidden meaning behind them and always coming up short. He thinks he might have to admit that Nie Mingjue simply said what he meant, but Jiang Cheng isn’t convinced.
He doubts that Nie Mingjue even meant it in such a positive way; it’s much more likely that Jiang Cheng annoys the other man to death and that is the reason why Nie Mingjue can’t stop thinking about him.
It doesn’t quiet add up with the gifts though and Jiang Cheng Is this close to tearing his hair out when his second finds him.
“Zongzhu, Nie-zongzhu is about to leave,” he informs him. “If you do want to talk to him, you should do so quickly.”
Jiang Cheng would admonish him for the small smile that plays around his mouth as he says it, indicating that he already knows something Jiang Cheng doesn’t, but the thought that Nie Mingjue could simply leave sends Jiang Cheng into a panic.
He runs off without saying even a word of thanks to his second.
Nie Mingjue is apparently about to step onto Baxia when Jiang Cheng comes running and Jiang Cheng can’t let him leave without getting a proper answer.
“Wait,” he yells out and gets treated to the sight of Nie Mingjue stumbling over his own feet.
“You scared me,” he grumbles once he found his footing again but he doesn’t quite manage to meet Jiang Cheng’s eyes.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jiang Cheng mutters out once he’s certain that Nie Mingjue won’t simply fly off on him.
“Leaving? It didn’t seem as if I was very welcome here, with you running away from me,” Nie Mingjue immediately shoots back and Jiang Cheng winces.
“I’m sorry about that,” he says. “It’s just—you don’t make sense to me,” he then admits. “Your actions don’t make sense to me.”
“What is giving you trouble?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng would bristle at the teasing tone he uses but he finds that with Nie Mingjue it might be okay.
“You said—I just don’t understand,” he mutters as he stares at the ground and notices from the corner of his eyes how Nie Mingjue smiles at him.
“I’m trying to court you. Does that make more sense now?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng’s head snaps up so fast he fears he hurt himself.
“No! That doesn’t make sense at all!”
“Wanyin, seriously,” Nie Mingjue huffs out and steps close, taking Jiang Cheng’s hand in his. “I just admitted I think about you all the time. I have been giving you gifts for months now; gifts that you didn’t reject and even use. I thought my intentions were perfectly clear.”
“Yeah, well, they are not,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, but he can’t quite bring himself to take his hand back. “You should have said.”
“Alright,” Nie Mingjue says with a nod and takes Jiang Cheng’s other hand in his as well. “I’m gonna say it then. Are you going to run off on me again?” he asks and Jiang Cheng glares at him.
“Just say the damn sentence,” he hisses, causing Nie Mingjue to chuckle and Jiang Cheng finds himself thinking that he wants to do that more often.
“Okay then. I’m not letting you go again anyway,” he says and to emphasise his words he squeezes Jiang Cheng’s hands. “I want to court you. I have been trying to court you.”
The words hang awkwardly between them because even though now Jiang Cheng knew they were coming he can’t find his voice to say something to that.
And he stays quiet for long enough that apparently Nie Mingjue feels the need to ask a follow up question.
“Will you let me? Am I allowed to court you? Is it—wanted?”
He almost sounds unsure and that is something Jiang Cheng can’t have.
“I don’t know,” he snaps out. “Depends on your gift, I guess.”
He gives Nie Mingjue a challenging stare who relaxes again after he tensed at Jiang Cheng’s first words.
“Do not run off again, though,” he says, carefully taking his hands back and eying Jiang Cheng as if he is a flight risk.
It’s probably not entirely unwarranted, Jiang Cheng thinks, because he does feel as if fleeing might be the better option still. He forces himself to stay right where he is though and when Nie Mingjue presses the same gift from before into his hands he even takes it.
“There,” Nie Mingjue says and pats Jiang Cheng’s hands once. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
“I don’t know yet,” Jiang Cheng grumbles even as he tears the wrapping apart and then he is left speechless when he unwraps the most beautiful guan he has even seen.
It’s almost simple in it’s design, and Jiang Cheng thinks that might make it even more beautiful but what really gets to him is the fact that Nie Mingjue somehow managed to combine Yunmeng Jiang symbols with those of Qinghe Nie.
He would have to be a blind fool not to understand Nie Mingjue’s intentions behind this.
“There is no way you simply found this,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and Nie Mingjue chuckles nervously.
“No,” he then admits. “It’s custom made. I know it’s presumptuous, especially with your lack of a reaction to any of the other gifts so far, but I just hoped—”
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng cuts him off, tearing his eyes away from the guan to finally look at Nie Mingjue. “You can court me.”
Jiang Cheng did expect to get another smile for it but what he gets instead is Nie Mingjue distrustfully narrowing his eyes at him.
“If it’s just for the craftsmanship I can refer you to the expert,” he says and Jiang Cheng fights the urge to stomp his foot on the ground.
“You ridiculous fool,” he hisses out. “You give me the most thoughtful gifts, admitting to the fact that each and every one of them made you think of me and then you make this—” he shakes his hand with the guan “—combining our symbols and still expect me to say no?”
“Well, you did run from me not even half an hour ago,” Nie Mingjue says but there’s a hint of teasing back in his voice and that is truly all Jiang Cheng wanted.
“But then I came back. And now I ask you to stay.”
“Is that so?” Nie Mingjue asks and takes a step forward.
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng nods but he narrows his eyes when Nie Mingjue’s eyes sparkle with mirth.
“I didn’t hear a question, though,” he teases and Jiang Cheng slaps his chest.
“You’re horrible,” he complaints, though in all honesty, he doesn’t mind. He hopes Nie Mingjue knows that.
“I hear that from Huaisang all the time,” Nie Mingjue nods. “Still, I did not hear a question. And I’m afraid without that I’ll have to—”
He makes to move towards Baxia again and Jiang Cheng’s hand snaps forward, snatching his robes.
“Will you stay?” he asks and immediately Nie Mingjue pulls him into a hug.
“I thought you would never ask,” he whispers with a laugh and even knowing that he got played, Jiang Cheng can’t find it in him to mind it.
Not when Nie Mingjue thinks about him all the time and even freely admits to it.
Though it seems as if Jiang Cheng will have to step up his game if he wants this to be a real courtship and his mind starts to whir with all the possible gifts he could give Nie Mingjue.
At least right until he feels Nie Mingjue’s lips against the crown of his head and then he doesn’t think much about anything for a while.
He’ll have to come back to the gift later.