Work Text:
"Listen well A-Cheng, sometimes special people come into our lives, stay for a while and then they have to leave" His sister's gentle voice coaxed him as she tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.
Jiang Cheng looked up at Yanli with tears in his eyes, his nose red from wiping away the snot continuously "but that's sad" He said through his sniffles.
"I know... But the moments you had with them were happy weren't they?" Yanli asked with a chuckle as she wipes the tears away from the little Jiang Cheng's eyes who only stared at her with curiosity.
"Yes of course, we played together all the time" His voice was childish and pure.
"Then it is all worth it" Yanli explained as she pat the little Jiang Cheng's head with affection.
Jiang Cheng woke up in his jingshi, his head resting on top of the scrolls he was supposed to go through— until exhaustion took a hold of him.
A dream. A distant memory from when he was 10 and still naive. It was the day he was forced to send his dogs away upon the arrival of Wei Ying he had cried and cried flipping the entire place upside down with his tantrums until his sister sat him down with her and comforted him.
Jiang Cheng chuckled bitterly at the memory, he really hated Wei Ying when he first arrived because of that but he was a child back then, hate was relinquishable. He had grown to love Wei Ying as his own brother since then, someone to lean on, someone to protect.
He was 32 now, a fully grown adult and hate was something he could not just forget. Not when he lost everything, not when he lost her.