Chapter Text
Takeshi Izumu wakes up groggy, rubbing his eyes as he sits up. He can feel his weird clothing and furrows his brows, wondering what is going on. Reaching to the other side of the bed only to find it empty, he is surprised, wondering where his wife is. His wife never wakes up before him, and to find her side of the bed empty, he wonders where she is.
However, it is at this point that he realises that he isn’t in his bedroom. Panicking, he gets up from the bed and looks around. Everything looks very old, almost ancient. Looking down at his clothes, he realises that even his clothes are ancient, what surprises him the most is the length of his hair. If it is a prank, then he understands the room and clothes, but hair? No, it is not possible to have such long hair overnight.
He tugs on his hair, trying to check if it is real, only to wince when it is confirmed that the hair is real.
“Jiang Cheng!” The door bursts open.
Izumu looks at the figure standing and swears. Wide-eyed, Izumu realises what is happening to him.
“Jiang Cheng! You are here!” The boy runs to hug, but Izumu steps back, avoiding the hug.
A headache forming, he steps back trying to comprehend the situation, “No!” He exclaims, “No! No! No!” Looking wild as he keeps looking around and then back to the boy’s face, “And did I say NO!”
“Jiang Cheng,” The boy says softly, trying to calm him down, “Are you okay?”
“Are you fucking with me, Wei Wuxian!” He yells at him, “What did you do!?”
“Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian steps back, startled, “I promise, it will be better this time. See! I brought us back! We can change everything!” He tries to persuade him.
“Brought us back? Who else did you bring back?” Izumu, who was known as Jiang Cheng in this life, asks, stepping forward to Wei Wuxian in anger.
“Jiang Cheng?” A soft voice comes from the door. Jiang Cheng looks to find Jiang Yanli standing there, tears in her eyes.
“Oh fuck,” He breathes, before running to hug her.
Yanli wraps her arms around her brother as he hugs her tightly, fearing she would be gone… again.
Tears falling on her shoulder as Jiang Cheng hugs her tightly, “A-Cheng,” she breathes in relief at seeing her brothers again, “I am so glad you are here too.” She softly rubs circles on his back.
It takes a moment to consider her word and realise what she actually meant, “A-Jie?” looking at her confusion in his eyes, “What do you mean?”
“That would be my doing.” Wei Wuxian says sheepishly from behind as he observes the reunion between his siblings, glad to have seen this again.
“Your doing?” Jiang Cheng repeats slowly, “Wei Wuxian! What the hell did you do?!” He yells at him.
Jiang Cheng takes a threatening step towards him as Wei Wuxian is sweating, slightly afraid, “It’s just that after you died, Jin Ling was so sad! And honestly, I was also regretting that we couldn’t reconcile, and it was actually Nei Huisang’s idea,” He keeps stepping backward as Jiang Cheng keeps stepping towards him with a scary face, and this is how Jiang Fengmian finds his children.
“A-Cheng!” He walks fast, coming between his son and ward, “What do you think you are doing?!”
“Do you know what he did?!” Jiang Cheng snaps at his father and then looks towards Wei Wuxian, “Somehow, he made out conscience travel back in time!”
“Yes, we know that A-Cheng.” Comes the surprisingly calm voice of his mother from behind him.
Jiang Cheng snaps back at his mother calmly, coming as she pats his sister’s shoulder, before his sister looks up to her, smiling a little. He feels like he has stepped into another universe, well, technically he did, but…..
“Did he bring you back, too?” He asks, curious, absolutely ignoring his father, as his father fusses over Wei Wuxian.
“No, but he has been back for about a year.” His mother comes closer to him as he looks up at her, not yet taller than her since he was only fifteen or sixteen years old.
“A year?” He mumbles, shocked at the implications, “A-and who else is back?” he asks, stammering a little.
“Your sister, Lan Zhan, Nei Huisang and you,” she answers.
“Actually, you were the last, since it was very hard to find your soul,” Wei Wuxian added, coming towards him, looking awkwardly, as if he wanted to hug him, but something was holding him back.
Jiang Cheng glares at him, “You never wondered why?!” he yells at him making Wei Wuxian flinch.
“Jiang Cheng,” He mumbles a little afraid,” I just wanted us to be back and change everything. It didn’t matter to me that bringing you back was taking time.”
“A-Cheng, you should be grateful that A-Xian brought you back, giving you a chance to make everything right,” his father admonishes him.
“Grateful?” Jiang Cheng finally looks at his father, glaring, “For what?!” Taking a step towards him threateningly.
“A-Cheng! Is that how to talk to your father?!” Jiang Fengmian scolds him while taking a step back unconsciously.
“Make everything right?!” Jiang Cheng ignores his words, “I lived my life! And was good enough to be reincarnated! I was living a happy life in another world until your precious A-Xian brought me back to this nightmare of a life!” He yells at his father, now breathing heavily.
His words leave everyone silenced.
Reincarnated. In another world. Happy life. This nightmare.
These were the words ringing in their head. Jiang Cheng sighs before ignoring his whole family and going to sit on his bed, his face in his hand, a few tears escaping as he thinks back on his life in the modern world.
“What happened to the me there?” He softly asks.
“Huh?” Wei Wuxian comes out of his stupor, “Oh! You mean the you in that world,” He looks up at the ceiling thinking, “I think only a dead body is left behind,” He grimaces at the thought, “Sorry, A-Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng curses, flopping back on his bed. “Leave,” He says, one word to them.
“A-Cheng, We have a lot to discu-” Wei Wuxian is stopped by Yanli as she shakes her head.
“Wei Wuxian, just leave.” Jiang Cheng sighs before turning away from them on the bed, “Just looking at all of you is giving me a headache. Whatever it is, we will talk in the morning.” A few tears escape his eyes, hidden from his fam- well, these people.
“A-Cheng! You can’t be weak!” Yu Ziyuan snaps at him, “Be ready in the morning. We have so much to do.” Then she turns and leaves, and the rest of the family follows her. Yanlia and Wei Wuxian share a concerned look as they give their brother a concerned look before leaving, and hope that he adjusts soon.
As the door closes behind them, Jiang Cheng is left with only memories.
“Gomenasai, Ayesha.” He whispers in the darkness of his room, hoping that the word reaches his wife in the other world, who would’ve probably found him dead in the morning. He apologises for leaving her like that, for giving her such a trauma to find her happy and healthy husband, dead in the morning.