Chapter Text
"Did you hear that? The Yiling Patriarch dissappeared!"
"I did, and right after killing many Jin disciples along with Jin Zixuan!"
"What a cruel man! Killing his own shijie's husband on her son's hundred-day celebration."
The rumors were spreading like forest fire after all the sects agreed on hunting down Wei Wuxian but when they arrived on the burial mounds the only thing they could find was ashes from burnt papers and many broken gadgets including the Yin Tiger Tally. Leaving the burial mounds without anything was already bad but the fear the commen people suffered after learning the situation was worse. Still it didn't take long for most people to forget about it and gossip like they always have but it was different from the sects.
Right after learning the planned attack on the burial mounds Jiang Yanli had begged Jiang Wanyin to find a way to save her dear shidi which angered Jiang Wanyin quite a lot but he couldn't dare to say anything else than "I'll try." to his mourning jiejie. The real anger hit him when they arrived on the burial mounds and found out Wei Wuxian just left without a word which caused him a bad temper for weeks.
However during the time everyone was gone Jiang Yanli received a very short letter;
"I'm sorry. I'm safe.
- Wei Wuxian"
After reading the letter Jiang Yanli sighed in relief believing Jiang Wanyin helped Wei Wuxian escape like she asked and made him send a letter when he found somewhere safe. She burned the letter for the better since someone finding it could cause problems for her shidi.
All of Jiang Yanli's theories vanished after talking to Jiang Wanyin for the first time since the failed attack. Learning that Wei Wuxian was gone even before the attack had brought comfort to her but the worry was much bigger because now she didn't know where her shidi was and wasn't sure if he was truly safe and the worst possibility would be that she couldn't ever see him again. Jiang Yanli didn't know if she was ready to lose someone of her family again right after losing her husband and the worst part was she didn't even get to say she never blamed Wei Wuxian about Jin Zixuan's death.
All the overwhelming thoughts vanished from Jiang Yanli's head after hearing the cries of her, Jin Zixuan's baby. She hurried to pick her baby up and it didn't take long for little Jin Ling to stop crying and start laughing in his mother's arms. Watching her A-Ling laughing, Jiang Yanli smiled, maybe she could continue living like this as long as she had her A-Ling and as long as she knew her shidi, her little three year old XianXian was safe she could keep going. After placing a kiss on Jin Ling's forehead she put him to his cradle for sleep and lay down on her own bed to sleep as well still somehow, selfishly wishing she'd be able to see her little XianXian again one day.
Believing in that worked and Jiang Yanli was able to live a peaceful life, well for a week.
It was a normal night when she woke up to a loud thud causing also Jin Ling to wake up with her and start crying. Even though the sound was concerning Jiang Yanli decided to calm down her son first, after that was done it had already been few minutes but she decided to still look what the sound came from and lit up a small candle before leaving her room.
The hall was empty and quiet which was weird since Jiang Yanli thought the sound would wake up much more people or maybe it was because she got used to wake up at the quietest sounds to check if Jin Ling had woken up. After a bit of walking she started to think everything was already taken care of or maybe she even imagined it but another thud took her interest as she moved to the sound. It came from her in-law's bedroom, knowing the relationship between her in-law's Jiang Yanli decided it wasn't her business and turned to leave but that was when she heard the shouting from the room.
"First you tell me the Yin Tiger Tally is unfixable and that Wei Wuxian is still missing! Now you're telling me the Lan clan is refusing with anymore help about it?! You son of a whore! I didn't turn a blind eye to you planning my son's death for this!!"
...
Hearing the last part just caused Jiang Yanli to lose her general ability to hear. Her ears were ringing while her vision slowly got blurry from the tears forming in her eyes. She just froze, what were they talking about? A-Xuan's death? What was that about? The sound in Jiang Yanli's ear just got louder as she grew more scared by the second, the only reason she remembered she was still right outside the door was that the candle on her hand almost fell. After catching the candle she didn't waste a second to return to her room almost running. When Jiang Yanli got to her room there was still many things she couldn't understand but it didn't take her long to realize she couldn't do anything.
Between sobbing and taking Jin Ling to her side she decided she would write a letter to Jiang Cheng in the morning to get away from here since she didn't know who she could trust here nor if it was safe for her A-Ling.
Jiang Yanli didn't need to inform anyone when she took a brush and paper in the morning the stressful part was what could she write. She decided to keep the truth hidden since she believed telling what she heard would cause violence and the Yumeng Jiang Clan wasn't ready or strong enough for a war right now so she had to find a good enough lie that would get both Jin Ling and her out of The Golden Carp Tower.
In the end Jiang Yanli ended up writing a letter to her didi about how staying in The Golden Carp Tower felt alone and distant while everything in there also reminded her of now dead husband making focusing harder. It could count as a "normal" letter considering her current situation. With that it didn't take long for Jiang Wanyin to send a letter to Jin Guangshan requesting his newly widowed elder sister and nephew to move to The Lotus Pier to recover in a more familiar place.
After a bit of Jin Guangshan's regular nonsense the request was accepted and Jiang Yanli wasted no time to move to Lotus Pier finally calming down a little believing her A-Ling, her reason to live was safe in Lotus Pier now.