Chapter Text
Second year starts inauspiciously.
Three weeks into the first semester they find out someone disabled the fire alarms in Jordan's building so they could smoke in their room.
Which meant by the time someone noticed that there was a fire, it was too late.
Jordan was in class at the time. She really wishes she'd taken her laptop with her - it's a really nice one, her Christmas present from Jiang Ying, and it's now a scorched and sodden ruin.
She's also lost most of her clothes and is suddenly looking for somewhere to stay that isn't an air mattress on Ava's floor.
"You know the answer," Ziyuan tells her at lunch the next day. Jordan is wearing clothes she borrowed from Ava. They are terrible and she hates them.
Jordan shakes her head. "I can't. It feels like too much. No, don't -" she yelps, as Ziyuan picks up her phone.
"Too late," Ziyuan says. "Hello, shushu. Did you know Jordan's building caught fire?" She pauses. "Everything except the clothes she was wearing, yes." Another pause. "Of course, shushu. I'll see you later." She presses the button to end the call. "We'll be going to their house at three."
"I have a class," Jordan says helplessly.
Ziyuan shakes her head. "He's going to cancel classes for anyone who was affected by the fire for the rest of the week so you'll all have time to adjust."
"He can't -" He only teaches computer science, and Jordan isn't in any of his classes.
Ziyuan gives her a look. "Never say that he can't do anything. He can. It's best not to try to figure out how."
~
At three o'clock, Jordan approaches Jiang Ying and Lan Zhan's house with a certain amount of trepidation.
These men, she knows well, are very kind, very rich, and completely lacking in anything resembling a sense of moderation. At minimum, they're going to be feeding her and Jiang Ying will fuss. She's slightly afraid that he'll have bought her a new computer and booked her a fancy hotel. When she passed him on campus this afternoon Lan Zhan gave her a look that she's pretty sure was overt concern.
Jordan hesitates to approach their door. Ziyuan takes her hand and tugs her forward, which - they're touching? Hands? Jordan doesn't think they've ever touched. Is this weird? Is it weird that she's thinking about it? Ziyuan is raising her other hand to knock and Jiang Ying is pulling open the door, and Ziyuan drops Jordan's hand to allow him room for his concerned examination of her.
"You poor thing! A fire? Your home burned? So terrible, so awful, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, shushu," Jordan tries to tell him. "I wasn't even there, I was in class." He's patting her arms and doing a little circle around her as if to inspect her for fire damage.
"You weren't there? Well, that's -" He goes still for a moment. "There's no good way for it to happen, but at least you aren't hurt. Come in, come in, Lan Zhan is cooking dinner so I'll just show you to your room so you can put your things down."
Jordan feels a spike of... some kind of feeling. "My room?" she repeats weakly.
"Of course. You and Ava won't get along at all well if you have to live together, we both know that." He smiles. "We're putting you in A-Yuan's room. Well, it was his room. Now it's your room, we'll set up a new one for him because we don't know when he'll next visit us but it's definitely not tonight."
"Da-ge always has a room, doesn't he?" Ziyuan says, sounding slightly amused about it.
"Of course," Jiang Ying says firmly. "What kind of parents would we be if our baby couldn't come home any time he wanted? Wherever home might happen to be."
Jordan shakes her head. They're setting up a new room. "How long are you inviting me to stay for?" she asks, slightly reeling.
Jiang Ying blinks at her. "As long as we're here, really. We might leave the city after Lan Zhan graduates, but I'm sure you'll have graduated too."
"What kind of rent do you -" She stops. He looks somewhere between amused and offended.
"Don't be silly. Come along." He leads them deeper into the house.
"The price you pay for this is that you know exactly what he's like and he'll keep being like that," Ziyuan whispers.
A-Yuan's room is furnished in what looks like high-quality antiques that might actually have been shipped here from Yunmeng, Jordan thinks. It's all elegant and beautiful and Jordan thinks she'd be afraid to breathe on it. There's a gleaming new laptop on the desk, and -
"Lan Zhan let me know that you're wearing Ava's clothes today, so clearly you lost most of yours," Jiang Ying says, opening a door inside the room. Jordan sees, with some kind of aghast awe, that it leads to a walk-through closet, with another door at the end that is open to an en suite bathroom.
The closet is full of clothes.
"Let us know if anything doesn't fit," Jiang Ying says, and turns to wag his finger at her. "I mean it! Don't wear uncomfortable things just to avoid making a fuss, all right? There's toiletries and girl things in the bathroom, let us know if you need anything else. You can put things on the grocery list that's on the fridge, you know where the kitchen is. I think Lan Zhan has been going through everything in the freezers while he's cooking to make sure everything you're allowed to eat has a label in English."
Jordan has a horrible feeling she's about to cry. "This is too much," she manages to say.
"Nonsense," Jiang Ying says. "Do you need a hug? You look like you need a hug."
He gives really good hugs.
~
So this is Jordan's life now:
Every morning, Lan Zhan cooks breakfast for all three of them. He and Jordan eat theirs quietly, and Lan Zhan leaves Jiang Ying's carefully covered on the counter because he doesn't get up before mid-morning.
And then Lan Zhan gives her two packed lunches - one for her, one for Ziyuan. Jordan leaves earlier than he does, because Ziyuan has an early class. She used to come by Jordan's building with breakfast and they'd walk to campus together. Now she stops by the house and waits outside. Jordan isn't sure how long Ziyuan is going to hold out on coming in for breakfast with Lan Zhan - or if she's right that if she does, Jiang Ying will get up early just so he can pester her to move in with them too. (He definitely wants her to, but she's determined to refuse.)
Most evenings, there's study group at the house. Jordan tends to stay out - at the library, or with her friends - on the evenings it's not her group. If she doesn't eat some of the leftovers (carefully labelled in English) Lan Zhan gazes at her sorrowfully and asks if she ate while she was out. Jiang Ying wants to know what she ate and will strongly encourage her to eat more if he doesn't think it was sufficient.
Jordan remembers the conversations about how Jiang Ying was in trouble for their not having personally ensured that Ziyuan was eating enough. (Ziyuan comes to dinner once or twice a week, at this point, and it's only not more often because she's actively and strongly resisting.)
The bathroom is stocked with a range of grooming products that she's never, ever seen in a shop before but they're really really nice. There's also fourteen different kinds of tampon and twelve kinds of sanitary pad. Which seems like overkill, and that's before Jiang Ying knocks on her door one evening a few days after she moved in.
He's holding a phone. "Do you have a few minutes free?" he asks her.
"Yes?" She was just writing a letter to her gran.
"Great." He hands her the phone and leaves, closing the door gently behind him.
"Hello?" Jordan says cautiously.
"Hello. I believe I'm speaking to Jordan?" It's a woman's voice, gentle and warm.
"Er. Yes? I'm Jordan."
"It's lovely to speak to you at last, Jordan. A-Xian - Jiang Ying, to you, of course - speaks very fondly of you."
"Um. Thank you." Jordan sits on her bed, remembering Jiang Ying talking about how he signs his operating system A-Xian because it's for his brother and sister. "Are you his sister?"
The woman laughs warmly. "Yes. You may call me Yanli. A-Xian asked me to speak to you because he is concerned that his preparations for your comfort might be inadequate, and that it might be an invasion of your privacy to ask what you will need resupplied."
Jordan covers her eyes with her hand. "Do you mean the sanitary supplies?"
"I do, yes."
"Thank you, and it's very nice of him, but I really can just buy my own." She's not spending much on anything else at the moment.
"A-Xian would be mildly distressed by that. However, if you are uncomfortable informing him of your preference, that is his problem, not yours."
"Why would he be distressed?" Jordan tries to keep her tone mild and not a despairing wail.
"I know it seems strange," Yanli says, sounding sympathetic. "A long time ago, A-Xian's home was destroyed, and he was unable to care for those he loved as he would have wished. You lost your recent home to fire. I believe he is finding it meaningful to provide for you."
Jordan falls back onto the bed. "You're serious."
"I am."
That caring asshole, she thinks. "I'll give him a list." She'd feel like a monster if she didn't, somehow.
"Thank you, on behalf of our family," Yanli tells her, sounding sincere. "If I might impose still further - how is Ziyuan? I understand you are friends."
"She's great," Jordan assures her. "Shushu is trying to persuade her to move in here too, but she's happy where she is."
Yanli laughs. "You already live there, now. Do you think you would find it difficult to spend so much more time in Ziyuan's company?"
Jordan is glad it's just a phone call, suddenly, because her face feels hot at the thought. "That would be, um, fine," she says, and winces. Her voice sounded weird, there. "I mean, she's the one who's family, not me. If she wanted to live here that - I really wouldn't want to get in the way of that, or anything." It would be so embarrassing to get between Ziyuan and her family. What an awful thought!
"I am glad to hear it," Yanli says. "Do you have time for a longer conversation? I would love to speak to you longer."
"I have time," Jordan says, and settles back more comfortably. "Was there something you wanted to know?"
"Everything about you," Yanli says, and Jordan laughs. She's funny.
~
Jordan isn't going home to the farm for the mid-year break. She's working at the same vet clinic that took her on last summer.
She comes back to Jiang Ying and Lan Zhan's house from work two days after the end of exams - she's not worried about them, Jiang Ying and Lan Zhan did the same thing with study group they did last year - and is slightly puzzled to see a motorcycle parked in the front garden.
It can't possibly be Jiang Ying's, Lan Zhan wouldn't let him, she thinks, and Lan Zhan doesn't seem the type.
There's also a pair of unfamiliar boots on the shelf inside the door, and a leather jacket hanging on one of the coat hooks, and she can hear Jiang Ying's voice somewhere inside, louder than usual.
"- just something to do!" Jiang Ying exclaims. "It's just a few videos, it's nothing important!"
"You're an idiot," an unfamiliar voice growls. "I'm going to break at least six of your bones."
They're in the lounge room. Jordan hesitates as she approaches passing the arched doorway, because this sounds kind of... not okay.
"You're scaring Jordan," Jiang Ying says accusingly. There's a slight scuffle inside the lounge room, even as Lan Zhan steps out into the hall.
"You are not in danger," he says, and she's sure it's meant to be reassuring.
"Come meet someone!" Jiang Ying calls.
With great trepidation, Jordan enters the lounge room.
Jiang Ying is on the couch in a pose of exaggerated relaxation. Sitting across from him in one of the armchairs is a man Jordan is sure she would have found too devastatingly handsome even to contemplate if she hadn't had so much exposure to Jiang Ying, Lan Zhan, and Lan Yuan. As it is, even with the leather trousers and tight purple sleeveless shirt she's surprisingly unmoved.
He stands immediately, smiling politely, and she's maybe a little moved after all but he was threatening her adoptive shushu so she refuses to show it even as she warily shakes his offered hand.
"Jordan, this is Jiang Cheng, my little brother," Jiang Ying says. "I know he makes a very bad impression, but it's only sort of accurate. He's just as bad-tempered as you probably think, but he's not going to hurt anyone."
"I see," Jordan lies.
Jiang Cheng is rolling his eyes. "I'm bad-tempered around you," he grumbles. "Jordan, it's nice to meet you."
"You too," she says uncertainly.
"He wants to ask you a favour," Jiang Ying puts in.
"Would you like me to start counting more bones to break? I am capable of having a conversation with one girl," Jiang Cheng snaps at Jiang Ying, and turns his attention back to Jordan. "I realise there is no excuse for him, but please excuse him anyway." He drops back into his seat. He moves like a cat, Jordan notices, even as she lets Lan Zhan usher her to sit down too.
"Um. What's the favour?" she asks warily.
"Shut up," Jiang Cheng growls as Jiang Ying opens his mouth. "Jordan, are you familiar with N5 Motorworks?"
"The car company?" She's heard of them.
Jiang Cheng nods. "Yes. We're looking for people to test the prototypes for a new line - people who can really tell us whether they do everything they're supposed to do."
Jiang Ying rolls his eyes. "Jiang Cheng spends too much time talking to stupid people. Jordan, they're making utes and want to know if they're good enough. Can you put us in touch with some of your family and their friends who use them a lot?"
"We'd deliver the vehicles, obviously, and pay for all maintenance and running costs. They'd be replaced when we've refined the design based on feedback, and then when we've finalised it we'll leave them with the final model as a measure of our thanks." Jiang Cheng leans forward. "We'd prefer it if we could keep it low key. No social media about them, things like that. This is a new area for us."
This is going to be a weird conversation with her parents, Jordan thinks. "We can probably do that."
Jiang Cheng smiles.
Knowing these people doesn't get any less weird.
~
Everyone knows that the Five Nations cultivation sects are just about the last surviving magic-users in the world. Jordan hadn't really thought about how mundane that could be.
Jiang Ying, especially, will hit light switches from across the room with a flick of his fingers. She's pretty sure his tote bag is magic and absolutely certain his jeans are, because he pulls things out of the pockets of both that couldn't possibly fit.
One rainy evening Jiang Ying calls Jordan into a room she's never been in before. It's warmer than the rest of the house, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end when she notices the window.
Firstly because the room shouldn't have a window, she's pretty sure. It should be right in the middle of the house.
Secondly because she knows it's raining hard outside, right now, and it should be lashing down outside the window that shouldn't be there too, but it isn't. The window shows moonlight glittering on a lake that definitely doesn't exist outside this house.
It looks too real to be some kind of projection.
And that's before Jordan looks at violet flame flickering over a bowl of what looks like water with no apparent fuel source.
And before the flame speaks. Jiang Ying translates for her and introduces her to Ziyuan's grandmother, who wants to talk to Jordan and apparently doesn't use phones.
The conversation is short and perplexing. Ziyuan's grandmother wants to know about Jordan - about her family, about whether she likes children, about her personal history and life plans.
In the end she - demands is a strong word, and yet - has Jiang Ying promising to translate Jordan's letters and Jordan promising to write them.
Jordan is starting to understand why Ziyuan came so far from home, she thinks. Her family are very... something.
~
me
see, I told you she's a good girl
Popo likes her
QUEEN
As do I.
me
and Popo is picky when Yu kids are involved
best orange
her family have been helpful with the new models
she has a cousin who's almost as hard on cars as baby
unrelated I'm thinking about a new project I want to start when radish is done in Vienna
could use some input from baby too
me
me?
is this a car project?!
best orange
yes but don't get excited
it's not like I'll let you drive it
me
you are no fun
best orange
for you? not if I can help it no
~
Jordan and Ziyuan habitually hang out between classes, even if their other friends are busy, but some of Ziyuan's classes happen when Jordan doesn't have class and everyone else is busy and really, why wouldn't she just bring her stuff along and study in the lecture hall next to Ziyuan?
The lecturer is Jiang Ying. She's sure he won't mind.
His teaching style is surprisingly chaotic for comp sci, but the students all seem very into it. It's only surprising for the subject, of course, not Jiang Ying, because Jordan knows very well that he's an extremely chaotic person quite a lot of the time.
He's still doing his YouTube channel. She's helped him with filming a couple of times, and also pointed out that Darren was filming the time Jiang Ying climbed to the roof of the clock tower to rescue a kitten - one of the stray cats that make their home around campus.
Jordan does not think it was strictly necessary for Jiang Ying to hang from the roof by one food hooked over the edge as he handed the kitten down.
She is also absolutely certain he didn't actually slip so much as deliberately let go so that he could draw gasps from the onlookers as he caught the hour hand of the clock, swung a full twelve hours around and did a somersault to land on the roof.
He was just showing off, she knows it, but the video goes viral and his subscriber count goes up almost a million.
~
Jordan grew up on a farm. At school there were eleven kids in her class - the same eleven kids, every year, and Jordan was the only one who was trying to get into university.
She didn't go to a lot of parties.
In first year she didn't go to parties at university, either, because even if she'd heard about them she hadn't been invited, she thought -
"If someone tells you they're having a party and gives you the time and address, that's an invitation," Michelle told her firmly. "You're supposed to bring alcohol at least most of the time if you're drinking."
- but suddenly she's going to parties every week, it seems like.
"It has to bounce off the table and land in the glass," Chris says, holding up a coin. "If it goes in you get to make up a new rule. If you miss, take a drink. If you break a rule, take a drink. You can use your rule to cancel another rule."
Jordan isn't sure she wants to be drinking, actually, but fortunately she's good at this because she's enjoying being part of this. People are laughing and having fun.
So far she's managing to keep a mental list of all the rules.
Everyone has to sit between a boy and a girl. (That was a brief shuffle of seating, and Jordan wonders what that one was for. She's sitting between Darren and Ziyuan now.) If the coin doesn't touch the glass, everyone calls Air Coin and you have to drink twice. Tap the coin on the table before you bounce it. You aren't allowed to say the word 'the' unless you're making a rule.
"New rule," Peter says. "Clap twice before you pick up your drink."
It's Michelle's turn, and she bounces it in neatly. "New rule. If your coin doesn't touch glass you have to kiss the person sitting next to you."
"Left or right?" Chris asks, retrieving coin from glass.
"Flip the coin. Heads it's left, tails it's right."
Coin misses glass, and Chris rolls his eyes and flips before kissing Michelle's cheek to the sound of people calling air coin. He claps twice before he drinks twice.
"Weak," Darren says, laughing. He's on Chris's other side.
"If I have to kiss you we can play gay chicken." Chris passes coin and glass along.
"I am gay." Darren's shot bounces off rim. He claps twice and drinks.
"Then this will be a great story to tell our grandchildren." Chris smirks.
Jordan taps and shoots. It tinkles neatly into place.
"Jordan's too good at this," Dave says, narrowing his eyes at her, but his grin says it's a joke.
"Get good I guess." She shrugs and passes coin and glass to Ziyuan.
Whose shot doesn't touch glass.
Ziyuan flips.
"Tails," Michelle says. "Ziyuan, kiss Jordan."
Jordan's heart is suddenly in her throat. Does she - what -
Ziyuan takes her hand, pressing her lips to Jordan's knuckles for just a moment.
The room is too loud. There are too many people. Jordan can't make out any words, suddenly, in the clamour of noise all around her.
"I have to," she says, and doesn't know how to finish that sentence. She runs.
~
The party was at the house Michelle, Chris, Kim and Darren share. A couple of blocks away there's a park. The park has one of those wooden structures like a little hut at the top of the slide. Jordan's certain there's no way she's visible from the road, and she left her phone in her bag, which she left at the party.
She has no idea how Jiang Ying could have found her, but suddenly he's there, climbing into the hut and folding himself into the rather small amount of space remaining.
Jordan tries to pretend she hasn't been crying. It's mostly because she feels like an idiot.
"So," Jiang Ying says softly. "Did you run because you didn't want her to kiss you, or because you wanted it too much?"
Oh. There are the tears again.
Jiang Ying is a bare shadow in the darkness. "If you're worried you ruined the party for everyone, don't. Lan Zhan is doing that." He shifts. Leaning forward, she thinks. "He's giving everyone very disappointed looks. I expect Michelle will apologise to you the next time she sees you. It was a trick coin. Tails on both sides. In fairness, I don't think she intended to be cruel."
Jordan presses her face into her knees, mortified. "Did she know I liked Ziyuan? I didn't know!"
His hand is warm on her shoulder. "She thought you liked each other and that neither of you was going to make a move. They're all lucky Lan Zhan is there, I think. Ziyuan is furious, and it's never a good idea to make a woman named Yu Ziyuan angry if you can help it."
"Furious that she had to kiss me?" It figures, Jordan thinks miserably.
"Furious that you were upset. I think she'd be very happy to kiss you again if you wanted her to." He's speaking very gently, she thinks. "If you don't want her to, she still wants to be your friend."
"I." She stops, swallows. "I might? Want that?"
His smile is a glint in the darkness. "Come home."