Chapter Text
"Hey have you seen sect leader Jiang anywhere?"
"No! I thought he was with Jin-Zongzhu..."
"You idiot why would he be with my sect leader!?" the one who started the conversation scoffs "he's obviously with Zewu-Jun"
"No he's actually not with my sect leader..." A Lan disciple says
Just where was Jiang Cheng? Wei Wuxian thought as he listened to the talking disciples. Well there was a Lan there so it couldn't really be gossip... but after Jiang Cheng begrudgingly opened up to Wei Wuxian, Wei Wuxian knows that this time of year was really special to him because this is when they plant lotuses and Jiang Cheng would rather die than let his disciples miss out on events like these. (They love planting lotuses for some reason)
"Xichen-ge, have you seen Jiang Cheng?" Wei Wuxian asks the Lan next to his husband
Xichen pauses and thinks, then he shakes his head "No, I haven't.. Although during the meeting I saw his touch his temples a lot, so he might be in the infirmary consulting Jiang-daifu about what I think could be a headache" he smiles
"That's not possible.. remember when Jiang Cheng got injured much worse than a headache on that night hunt a few weeks ago? You and Lan Zhan had to hold him down and knock him out just to take him to the infirmary to get it checked..." Wei Wuxian shakes his head "I do hope you're right, Xichen-ge. If he went to the infirmary over a headache he must have taken Jin Ling's threatening to heart-" a hand clasped over his mouth, he looks up and sees it was Lan Wangji, his dear husband. he smiles behind his mouth.
"Wei Ying. Jiang Wanyin is a strong man" Wei Wuxian is also really happy that Lan Wangji isn't choking blood every time he says that now "And Yunmeng healers are known to be impeccable, he will be just fine." Then Lan Wangji lowers his hand, still looking at Wei Wuxian.
"Wangji is right, if Wanyin felt disturbed by his headache there's no doubt that Jiang-daifu would be able to aide his pain" Xichen agrees with a reassuring smile, although he was also worried deep inside.
"Ahh..." Wei Wuxian shakes his head to clear his mind "You two must be right. haha me and my shidi married such smart people!" he laughs out "Although Xichen-ge, you and Jiang Cheng should really push your wedding closer to like... soon."
"I don't think you could be talking, Wuxian. for all I know, you and my brother got married, oh sorry. eloped." Xichen replies with the same teasing tone Wei Wuxian knows Jiang Cheng taught the man
"Wahh Lan Zhan is so mean! tell him to stop bullying your poor Wei Ying.." he dramatially collapses into Lan Wangji's arms
"Mn." Lan Wangji nods "No bullying." he adds on, glancing at Xichen before picking Wei Wuxian up and leading him (carrying him) to their room.
Xichen looks down at the clarity bell Jiang Cheng had gifted him as an engagement gift. 'I really do miss you Wanyin, we haven't had the chance to privately talk in months...' Xichen sighs, he knows it's foolish because he saw Jiang Cheng literally 10 minutes ago.
"A-Die, could you stop eating a-niang's face so we could go down for our mission? there's literally other people around!" Jiang Cheng gestures to the civil gods around them in the palace of Ling Wen "Seriously, the most shameless people I know!" he huffs
"That's right, general Xuan Zhen and Nan Yang. Your son is eager to go on his first mission. And quite frankly, no one here wants to see you two make out with you eyes. So please, just take this scroll containing the details on the mission and get out of my palace." Ling Wen hands a scroll to Feng Xin, who is anything but ashamed.
"Alright, alright. This is in the eastern lands right? aww Qing-er look, it's where A-Cheng's sect is located.."
"LET"S GO!!" Jiang Cheng literally pushes the two out with him "I just want to get this over with, I have a spring celebration to get to..."
"A-Cheng could we come? I feel like it's a good opportunity to get to know you better after we've been absent for like, your whole life" Mu Qing replies "Eh, we'll just show up"
"No you cannot just show up..." Jiang Cheng sighs. Sometimes when he's with his mother and father (Who he discovered were his real parents like, a few weeks after his ascension 10 years ago!) he feels like he's dealing with another Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, but he much prefers Mu Qing and Feng Xin after the love they tried to show him. Although feng Xin isn't all that good at it, they're still trying after learning he's their long lost kid. "My family-" he sees their faces "I mean my mortal family is really protective of me, they'll be suspicious of you two..." he sighs
"Well A-Cheng, we could just show up as Nan Feng and Fu Yao..." Feng Xin says
Tired, Jiang Cheng puts his hand on his face and replies "Can we just get to the mission? Let's do family bonding after we take care of the wrath terrorizing my people"
"Fine..."
When it came time for the night hunt scheduled for that day and Jiang Cheng still wasn't there, people were really worried.
"Oh goodness do you think he died!?" A very dramatic disciple called Ouyang Zizhen cried out, another dramatic disciple named Lan Jingyi repeated the same thing.
"Shut up!" Jin Ling yells "My Jiujiu is more than capable of keeping himself safe! besides, we didn't see any flare signals so he's fine!" he crosses his arms, although he's also worried. His uncle was never absent for this long without notice... he frowns deeply despite his words.
"Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng still isn't here..." Wei Wuxian frowns
Xichen looks around at the distressed yunmeng disciples, and the 4 juniors and speaks. "Everyone, I'll take some people with me to search for our dear Sect Leader Jiang" he pauses to dreamily think about the hot man who he's fortunate enough to call husband "Wangji, Wuxian, Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, and Lan Jingyi will come with me." he says after a few seconds
"Aiyah sect leader Lan what about me!" Zizhen exclaims
Xichen turns to him and says "Zizhen, do you really want to go?" he raises an eyebrow, because Zizhen is notorious for being just as lazy as Nie Huaisang that even Huaisang himself had said he wishes Zizhen would be a Nie instead.
Zizhen fakes a thinking face and shakes his head. "That's what I thought" Xichen smiles and turns to the people. "We'll be back soon. worst case is Jiang-zongzhu is injured and is waiting for us to find him. Or best case, he really is just tired from the conference" he turns to the people he chose "Wangji, could you gather up everyone else and have them come with us?"
Lan Wangji nods. he moves to gather up the 3 juniors and Wei Wuxian. he comes back with a loudly complaining Jin Ling, an embarrassed Jingyi and Sizhui all being held by his arms and a cackling Wei Wuxian next to him.
"A-Xin, I am NOT wearing these robes you call clothes!' Mu Qing frowns “Those are more like protective clothing disguised as rags!”
Feng Xin rubs his temples "A-Cheng, explain to your mother why this is neccesary.."
Jiang Cheng examines the robes they're using to go undercover and says "These are quite itchy if I say so myself..." he crosses his arms, mirroring Mu Qing
"See! A-Xin, go get something else, do you want me to have a rash!?" Mu Qing huffs as he slaps Feng Xin's arm. Then he turns to Jiang Cheng "A-Cheng, aren't you connected to all the 4 sects? can't you get us something more comfortable?"
Now it was Jiang Cheng's turn to frown "I can't.. if they even see me they'll want to tag along and this is a mission from the heavens, not from the mortal realm. Eugh, my nephew will absolutely go insane if he doesn't see me wearing exquisite clothes because apparently that's all I deserve. And my fiance gets angry when I downplay anything about myself at all!' He sighs “And besides, these robes are the thickest and most protective robes that we could find. At least they’ll offer protection…”
Mu Qing also frowns again. "Fine. But I'm not wearing this. A-Xin, go get us better robes."
Feng Xin rolled his eyes "Ok princess Mu Qing." he huffs as he walks away, grumbling about his husband and son teaming up against him but the fondness in his voice betrayed his words.
now Jiang Cheng and Mu Qing were left alone. Jiang Cheng takes a moment to take everything in. 11 years ago, before his ascension, he was shattered from the death of his whole family. Even after he ascended, he was still utterly miserable. That was when Mu Qing approached his with determination, and maybe a little red eyes (because he doesn't cry!) talking about a son he gave birth to 20 some years ago and was forced to give the child up because of the fall of the heavens, before it was reconstructed.. and how he knows Jiang Cheng is that kid because Mu Qing gave the kid to a woman named Yu Ziyuan.
Jiang Cheng was shocked when the god infront of him mentioned who he thought was his mother. Was that why both his parents didn't really act like his parents? because he wasn't theirs? No, Yu Ziyuan loved him but not in the way that would have been easy for a child like him to understand. It was only after Mu Qing explained everything that he broke down about everything that happened in the war, about how he was only 24 with a whole baby to raise and a sect to rebuild.
So, that was the moment Mu Qing huffed and decided Jiang Cheng would now be his and took him in. Jiang Cheng didn't even realized he was adopted by his new parents until Feng Xin had gone up to him and spelled it out for him.
"kid, you do know you're our son now right?"
"...What?"
yes, that's how it went.
"A-Cheng" Mu Qing started, pulling Jiang Cheng out of his thoughts. "tell me about this nephew of yours, you seem so fond of him."
Jiang Cheng looked up and smiled "Well his name is Jin Ling, really the sweetest kid once you get to know him. Every time someone offends me, he gets even more upset and beats that person up for me, I stopped multiple fights he started over me many times. When I got engaged a year ago, he demanded a dowry from my fiance and the dowry was a bag of candy." he smiles fondly "But I'd rather die than tell him that."
To his surprise, Mu Qing patted his head. "You do this to your nephew, don't you?" he pauses "Look at you, you're only 32 and I'm 800 and you're better at being a parent than I am..."
"No, you're great too." Jiang Cheng interrupts "you were a better parent to me than my mortal parents were." he looks down "why's a-die taking so long..."
"because he's an idiot who likes taking his time to piss me off." Mu Qing sighs "even after 632 years 8 months and 2 weeks of marriage he still hasn't learned how to hurry up.."
"A-Niang, do you count how many days you've been married?"
"Oh come on not you too!" Mu Qing groaned
All Wei Wuxian had to go on was a demonic cultivator in the area, this was a particularly powerful one and he heard the locals have been praying at the local deities temples. Apparently, this deity had no statues and was still a small one because they only ascended about 10 years ago. and about not having statues? Wei Wuxian doesn't know.
As he and the 5 other people with him walk through the streets, they sense an overwhelming sense of spiritual energy, as if the person was overflowing in it. They step closer and see a man so out of place with his armor, and his hair tied up in a bun with a yellow ribbon. He was tall, perhaps just around the same height as the twin jades.
"Look. I need these in a smaller size now." The person says "I'm literally General Nan Yang how could you not hurry up for me!" they hear the person say
"Ok fine. how tall is the one you're looking to fit these for?" the seamstress asks
"180 cm and 185 cm." Nan Yang replies
The seamstress turns around and gets to work.
"uhh, dajiu." Jin Ling starts "Isn't general Nan Yang a god from the southeast..?"
"woah yeah he is.. what is a god from the southeast be doing in Yunmeng?" Wei Wuxian replies
"because it's southeast and maybe he was the god put in charge of handling the demonic cultivator the locals have been praying at the Tudi-gong temples about." Jingyi says "duhhh"
"Jingyi." Lan Wangji says
"yes hanguang-Jun I will never disrespect Senior Wei again." Jingyi straightens up.
"here you go general Nan yang" the seamstress hands 2 sets of clothing to Feng Xin, who takes them, pays, and leaves.
Qing'er and A-Cheng are going to kill me for taking so long... Feng Xin thinks as he walks away, fingers feeling the fabric of the robes. This really is rough… huh. Oh well, I’ve worn worse..