lastjinstanding | Brothel meme continued

He wants to argue further about Liling but, he can't. He just knows Yuan's not backing down with that tone in his voice and maybe it's selfish but he doesn't really want to lose her too. Yuan's going to be the one surrounded by people he sort of trusts anyway (and Jin Ling's 'sort of trusts' was pretty good!).

He remembers now what his uncle said and while he doesn't believe this is going to happen- he knows he's going to be forgotten- he doesn't to repeat them anyway.

"It's not forever. He's my uncle, you know? Gusu and Lanling aren't that far from each other. We can write and visit." He holds Yuan and places a hand gently on the back of his head. "No matter what, know I'll always love you okay? Even if I can't say it or show it for some reason?" Like if his elders succeed in forcing him to marry. "Just trust me it's there. Always." He reaches down and removes a ring from his finger and places it in Yuan's hand. Never mind that it belonged to his mother. "You don't have to wear it. Just keep it."

"I trust you," he says, drawing back a little so he can look up at Jin Ling's face, so he can see how seriously Yuan is taking his words. "I love you too. Forever, no matter what." he echoes.

He looks down at the ring before closing his fingers around it, clutching it so tightly it almost digs into his palm.

"It's beautiful. I'll treasure it always." he promises, voice cracking a little in a way that has nothing to do with the injury to his throat.

It's not the only thing, he's still got the box with the peony stored safely away, but he likes the ring, something he can keep on himself every day, a simple reminder no matter where he is that he is loved, and that Jin Ling is out there somewhere, even if they can't be together.

For now, he tells himself, it's only for now.

“Good bye, A-Yuan,” he says after a long moment of just looking, trying to memorize every aspect of the young man’s face, imprinting it forever on his heart.

He gets up then and grabs his sword. He has to leave. If he doesn’t, he might never. He doesn’t look back and in the hall he calls to his men to get their things and meet him in the boats immediately. He doesn’t wait to say goodbye to his uncles and his parting word to one of the Jiang disciples about the boat he’s leaving behind is Jiujiu can keep it or burn it for all he cared.

As they depart though, a certain young, nervous disciple is no where to be found, not that anyone would think to notice. Not when so many other important things were happening like a carriage for Jingyi and Zizhen had just arrived and the last of the Ouyang’s were requiring a proper farewell from their host, Jiang Cheng.

"A-Ling," the name is almost a sob, and he sits up to watch him leave with a heartbroken expression, clutching the ring like a lifeline.

As soon as Jin Ling has left, he pulls his knees up to his chest and breaks down - which is where Wuxian finds him when he returns, and he pulls his son into his arms and whispers apologies and reassurances, so focused on the crying young man that he doesn't think to go check up on his nephew, to go find out what Mentao discovered and pass the information on, he just clings to his son until his tears have run out.

He does think of it later, when Yuan has cried himself back to sleep, he tucks him up in the blankets and steps outside to go in search of his nephew - who he's told has left - and then Jiang Mentao. He should find his husband, too, and make their own arrangements to leave.

(And in his guest quarters, Nie Huaisang amuses himself with one of his favourite books and waits for everybody else to have left)

Jiang Mentao is missing and as Wuxian keeps asking around, so is the friend he’d recruited to help him. Eventually one of the servants confesses they think they might have seen the two helping the Jin Clan load their boats. Not the most helpful info but it’s a start.

Lan Zhan, unaware anything is wrong for once, has the preparations to leave well in hand. Someone was ready to go home and wasn’t being shy about letting anyone know about it. He has a basket for Yuan Liling quickly prepared for him full of all the things Jin Ling had given him and a ribbon that belongs to her, not that she figures he’ll notice with everything else.

He looks up from supervising the last of the packing when his husband enters and gives him a small bow of his head.

"Lan Zhan," he says, a concerned frown on his face "two Jiang disciples are missing, and I never got to the bottom of who else in Jin Ling's guard might be a problem before they rushed off."

He hates to do this, but he feels like they already failed Jin Ling by letting the plot get this far (even though they had no way of knowing), so he presses on.

"Can you get A-Yuan back to Cloud Recesses with you, I want to go after Jin Ling before anything happens." he asks "He's asleep in his room."

Lan Zhan's heart drops seeing the look on his husband's face. He immediately thinks of Yuan and worries if there was an injury they missed. The news is troublesome but on a personal level it isn't as bad as it could've been. Nonetheless, he isn't heartless and that is his husband's nephew, so he can sympathize with the fear.

He steps closer and draws Wuxian into an embrace. He kisses him softly and then nods. "Be careful." They would wait for him to return here in Lotus Pier, but they really needed to leave, if not for Jiang Cheng's mental state then for Jingyi. The longer he slept, the more he could benefit from the medical expertise found in Cloud Recesses. If only it hadn't been a head wound!

After seeing Wei Wuxian off, he goes and collects his ~~baby boy~~Yuan. With a little extra help from some magic to keep him asleep, he lays him in the carriage along side Jingyi with Zizhen watching over them and gets the cart moving. Lan clan disciples follow behind like a funeral procession.

Jiang Cheng watches from the gate with a cold exterior. Nearly every person leaving had tried to reason with him about breaking the engagement or remarked on some character flaw of his. If he ever married again, it would be a private ceremony and none of these fuckers were invited.

He looks down removes from his robes a set of red painted wooden combs with a golden filigree of a butterfly. Anju's favorite. This was the second time he'd gifted a comb (or combs) from his heart only for it to be given back. There wouldn't be a third.

Turning back to his house that would be blissfully empty of guests, he planned on finding a few more of those wine jugs and draining them in his room alone.

The wine jugs are currently missing one.

Well, missing more than one actually, but that's because somebody let Wei Wuxian get near them, they are also missing one more.

Jiang Cheng won't have to go far to find the culprit, if he even notices, because as soon as he steps foot in the main courtyard of Lotus Pier after seeing off what he thinks is the last of the guests, he'll see a familiar figure lounging on the steps leading up to Sword's Hall, jar of wine in one hand and ever-present fan in the other.

When he sees Jiang Cheng, he regards him with a knowing look and, entirely ignoring the fact that he's the one imposing on the Jiang Sect's hospitality, motions to the steps beside him.

"Care to join me, Jiang-zongzhu?"

He stands in the courtyard staring at the Nie sect leader completely stunned, like his old classmate had angel wings. Why on Earth was Huaisang still here? He thought he was finally done playing host and now he was having to deal with this? Except.. what was this?

After all the harsh criticism and anger over 'his' decision to cancel the wedding, to have someone (besides his brother) concerned with Jiang Cheng was rather.. it was a new feeling. He was wary of new. New could be confusing and make you clumsy and make stupid mistakes. New could also lead to dangerous things that you didn't see coming because you lacked the experience. New could also bring the most wonderful things. Who knew?

"Very well," he concedes after a moment. "What are you still doing here?" The question was meant to come out with a disapproving tone but instead it only managed a curious one.

Huaisang regards him for a moment, like he was deciding the best way to answer, but he decides quickly enough that Jiang Cheng deserves a little honesty - no politicking, no carefully chosen words they both have to dance around, and nobody trying to spare his feelings - or forgetting, entirely, that he had them.

"You," he says, flicking his fan closed and pointing it at the other sect leader "seem very much like you need a friend."

And probably an excessive amount of wine, but he'll leave that part up to Jiang Cheng.

"We're friends?" The words are out of his mouth before he can really think about them in a typical Jiang Cheng fashion. To others the question is a harsh rhetorical question since the assumed answer would then be 'no'. To this straight forward, but at times a little clueless, sect leader it had been a genuine question. He wasn't sure of the answer. Had they established that at some point and he was unaware of it? He wasn't like his brother who would, at times, declare someone as 'friend' or 'someone he approved of'. Those weren't things that were ever said aloud, right along with most matters relating to the heart. The only emotion Jiang Cheng ever allows himself to feel or express was anger because nothing else made sense or it was too painful.

Whether he gets an answer or not, he sighs. "Come eat with me, then." It is sort of an invitation, though not the politest one. He's worn out though and still a bit perturbed everything erupted right before he got to eat anything earlier. The food waste that must've created.. he didn't even want to think about.

He gestures for the pretty man to go first.. and tries not to notice the view from this angle. He resumes his proper seat at the head of the room, but a few servants hurry forward to arrange a table in front of him and a spot across from him (or cattycorner, whichever Huaisang seems to prefer) for his new guest.

"Aren't we?" Huaisang asks easily, throwing the ball back into his court and saying yes at the same time. He considers Jiang Cheng a friend, or at the very least a friend of a friend (well, brother of a friend) which is close enough - it doesn't really matter to him if the other man feels the same way, though, because right now friends and family are caught up in their own dramas or mad at Jiang Cheng for the broken engagement, and Huaisang is quite confident that the man really needs a friendly face around, even if it's not one he actually considers to be a friend right now.

He doesn't even blink at the phrasing of the invitation - his purpose right now isn't to judge or nitpick, his intent is to simply let Jiang Cheng be himself, because he thinks remarkably few people probably allow him that luxury.

"I'd be delighted," he says with a grin, pushing himself upright and dusting down his robes before turning to walk up the steps. He settles comfortably across from Jiang Cheng, thanking the servants and placing his fan on the table, then he pours them both a cup from the wine in his hand as soon as the servants furnish them with cups.

"I'm sorry." he says, genuinely, lifting his cup towards the other man and smiling faintly as he offers a toast "May you find a wife who cannot be driven away by your family's inevitable nonsense."

He has a friend. What do you know? He doesn't recall the last time he had someone he might call that and actually mean it. There were some people who he didn't completely dislike their company and a few who were as useful to him as he was to them. He tends to believe that mutual using of each other for personal gain was friendship. For some reason he can't quite put his finger on, Huaisang doesn't seem to want anything from him. Yet. Of course, yet. That had to be it. It was still coming.

Feeling more comfortable, he watches as his guest pours him wine- which shouldn't it be reversed? Oh well- and offers it to him so sweetly. He takes the glass and finds when he smiles his thanks it isn't quite as forced as he would've thought it would be. "Thank you, Nie-zongzhu." Lifting his glass to the toast, his smile wavers at hearing the word 'wife' but the end is so close to getting a laugh out of him that it's forgotten quickly. He drinks so much of his glass, it is reminiscent of Wuxian's antics.

"If I ever find someone again, we're eloping. I might introduce my brother after we've had our third anniversary." Maybe. "At least you don't have to put up with such things!"

Huaisang does him the courtesy of also not judging how quickly he drinks, instead he just refills the cup as soon as Jiang Cheng puts it down again. Supportive friends let you drink as much as you like when your marriage just got called off.

He snorts at the comment, nodding his agreement.

"That's only because noone will have me," he retorts cheerfully (a little too cheerfully), sipping at his own drink - a little slower, he's more than happy to get merry, but he's also intending to stay sober enough to look after Jiang Cheng after he inevitably drinks too much.

"Are sect leaders allowed to elope, do you think?"

He really does have a true friend. Too bad he's too busy wallowing to notice yet. He's only grateful for more booze. Fortunately there's food coming so this bout of poor decision making was going to get slowed up to a degree.

Another reason he'd just found a true friend is Huaisang laughing at his inappropriate joke about family. It would've been so easy to take his comment to heart and gotten sad or hurt by it. As his sworn brother has discovered time and time again, little progress has been made on Wanyin's ability to curb what comes out of his mouth when his emotions get the better of him. What he says, luckily, doesn't always reflect what he actually feels.

"People are fools." He has no idea why Huaisang, even though he's a twit, hasn't found some strong man or woman to take care of him. In all likelihood, a man, but he wasn't the sort to doubt the ferocity of the opposite gender. Although another look at his dinner guest and he finds himself smiling just a little. No, a man. Only another man would put up with his nonsense. A man would find Huaisang helplessness cute while a woman would never put up with that bullshit. He thinks back over the years at some of the utter ridiculousness this man has done and..

"Hmm?" His gaze moves from where it had settled on the soft, pale skin of Huaisang's throat to his eyes. What was just asked? He hasn't the foggiest idea. "My apologies, Nie-zongzhu, I may not be the best company tonight. Perhaps you'll indulge your friend in some news from Qinghe?"

Huaisang tilts his head curiously at that, a smile playing about his lips - fools, hmm? Could it be that the grumpy, unapproachable Sandu Shengshou himself actually sees something valuable in Huaisang? The Nie sect leader was well aware of his reputation, even after the events of Guanyin temple, he's relaxed the headshaker act a little, but it still suits him to be underestimated. He wonders what Jiang Cheng sees in him that would make him say such a thing.

He smiles slightly at his distraction - for a moment there it almost looked like Jiang Cheng had been staring at him, but perhaps he just happened to be staring into space in his direction. He picked up his fan, watching the other man over the top of it, curiosity in his gaze.

"Ah, if we are friends, why stand on such ceremony tonight? I will tell you any news you want to hear if you call me Huaisang?" he bats his lashes theatrically.

Mostly he's just trying to lighten the mood, but he can lighten the mood and enjoy the sound of a little more familiarity from Jiang Cheng at the same time, right?

Just because Wanyin believes Huaisang is cute and silly doesn't mean he's also one of his fools. He witnessed what happened at the temple. He had Wei Wuxian explain what the hell happened (three times) and what exactly the shrewd sect leader from Nie had allegedly done. Okay, it was possible by the third time he was just intrigued and hadn't legitimately needed it explained again but his brother didn't need to know that.

His mouth goes dry at the pretty way the other man bats his eyes. It is a bit embarrassing to admit how much lovelier Huaisang is than the woman he was just jilted by. He'd wanted an uncomplicated heir and had assumed a woman would be easiest, but as he watched Huaisang he couldn't help wonder...

No. It is the wine muddling his thoughts. He is just lonely. He has just been jilted in a very public way (even if he made it seem as though he did the jilting).

"Huaisang," he repeats with a small smile. "And what do you wish to call me?" He asks, not quite meaning his tone to sound as suggestive as it does.

Huaisang really is just here to be a friend, he is, he picked up the intricacies of the situation in a way he isn't sure that anybody else did, and he thinks Jiang Cheng deserves somebody around who knows what he sacrificed to save his ex-fiancee's face, as well as his nephew's, since it's probably going to be a while before people stop making snarky comments about his rudeness and bad temper.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't find the other man attractive, and it doesn't mean that slightly suggestive tone doesn't do funny things to his insides. Oh, Jiang Cheng, if only you knew, he has a list.

But he long ago resigned himself to the fact that his best friend's brother would never consider him in that way. He can look, but that's all.

"How about Wanyin?" he suggests - far more familiar than Jiang-zongzhu, but not so familiar as to call him Cheng, that feels like an appropriate level.

(Hearing his name from Jiang Cheng's lips is, of course, just as lovely as he expected).

Edited 2021-08-20 23:41 (UTC)

No one else noticed. The only ones who might have noticed because of how well they knew him and their observation skills were extremely distracted with their own things. In this instance, Wanyin didn't fault them for it. He wasn't sure if Wuxian had figured it out or if he had just been annoyingly sympathetic regardless of the reasons involved, ugh. Wangji was the other one and he just didn't give a fuck. The man was a total bitch.

It seems like it has always and will always be this way too. Any time he makes a move to protect, it's lost behind other people's bouts of glory or some other distraction. Does anyone remember that he charged the temple alone, leaving a trail of bloody bodies in his wake, for his family? No. The stories speak of Wei Wuxian, Wangji, and the two who actually deserve mentions, Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen. He sympathized with that particular Jade. The man was handsome, kind, and had been played a fool. Sound familiar?

He sighs as his attention returns to the present to another man who idolized his idiot brother. The amount of shameless fawning Huaisang has done over the years has been embarrassing, or perhaps it's Wanyin's reaction to that fawning that's the real disgrace. Fortunately that is one humiliation no one ever has to be aware of. Just like now, he can pretend hearing his name doesn't bring butterflies to his stomach and he's drunk enough not to notice the smile that blossoms on his face. If only it had been Cheng..

He's prevented, at least temporarily, from saying anything stupid as his servants come forward to deliver their meal. He tries not to notice it's some of the expensive beef that was to be prepared the next day. He was going to have to find a way to thank his chef for the wise and subtle decision to use it before it went bad without forcing Wanyin to have a discussion about it first.

"Please, Huaisang eat your fill. There's plenty." It's.. a whole cow after all and no guests. No guests or a family or children.. just like his life. The people of Yunmeng would be enjoying the rest of this food tomorrow, he decides.

Huaisang can see the melancholy mood creeping over him again - he's hardly surprised, all things considered - and decides he needs to do something about it.

So he talks. While they eat, he fulfills Jiang Cheng's request and tells him all about the latest goings on in Qinghe, and a few other tidbits of gossip he's picked up here and there - he focuses on lighthearted things, or dramatic stories of nighthunts, avoiding any talk of marriage or courting or even family drama. He talks, and he eats, and he keeps Jiang Cheng's cup filled with wine (and maybe his own too).

When he's eventually run out of stories, and eaten enough that he's officially stuffed, he leans back a little to regard Jiang Cheng thoughtfully, fanning himself lazily as he contemplates the other man and tries to judge where his mood is, and what he might do to keep it light.

Unfortunately, the ratio of food to wine the sect leader of this realm consumes is greatly imbalanced. It isn't necessarily because he doesn't eat- he does- he just drinks.. a lot. The fact that he's still not completely drunk off his gourd is likely a bad, quiet sign of how often this might actually happen when he's alone. He didn't have this much tolerance once upon a time, after all. He was no Wei Wuxian at Cloud Recesses!

Regardless of Huaisang's desire to keep things light, Wanyin is quiet for a spell and his expression turns darker instead. "After everything I've done for him- raised him, given to him, set him up in his tower, he brings.." He shakes his head like he can barely even say the word. "He brings a paid whore to my wedding. A prostitute."

Huaisang thinks about this for a long moment - if Jiang Cheng wants to talk about this, he's probably the safest person to do it with, nothing he says is going to leave Huaisang horribly offended, after all, and as much as he enjoys having information he can use against people, he has absolutely no intention of using any of this against Jiang Cheng, and he is very good at keeping secrets.

Better that he gets it out now rather than says it in front of Jin Ling - or, arguably worse, Wei Wuxian, given who the aforementioned whore turned out to be.

He takes another sip of his own wine before he speaks.

"It is one of his dumber ideas," he agrees

It is true, his brother wouldn't be able to separate the word Wanyin is using and the person he's talking about from the point he's actually complaining about. To his benefit, Huaisang sees through the language to the frustration. Jiang Cheng values his reputation greatly, which only further compounds the sacrifice he's currently enduring for his ex-fiancé. For Jin Ling to have treated his uncle's reputation so carelessly, Wanyin can't even begin to process how betrayed he feels by the stupid boy.

"I can't fathom what he was thinking. Who would do that to someone? The boy is such a fool. I'm sure you overheard the rest. You seem to have ears like a wolf." Judging by that gossip of his.

"I overhear a lot of things," Huaisang agrees "which is why I know what he was thinking."

He's actually quite glad he caught this little tidbit, because as much as he wants to be supportive and agree with Jiang Cheng in this moment, he doesn't actually want his relationship with his nephew to be totally ruined - it's going to be a bit dented for a while, but he can help shed a little light on the situation if nothing else.

"He was trying to avoid the inevitable questions about his own marriage prospects, and he thought, however stupidly, that hiring somebody would be the most efficient way to do that."

If there was anyone who could understand how irritating those questions could get, it was the two men at this table. He's not saying Jin Ling isn't an idiot, but at least it wasn't malicious.

His frown turns into an angry scowl. He wants to tell Huaisang to shut up and not to try and make excuses for the little fool, but he waits just long enough for his brain to start processing what he was told instead. His own marriage prospects? Ooooh!

He growls under his breathe and pinches the bridge of his nose in irritation. "The Jin elders are relentless! I've heard the Nie clan can be that way too, as mine can, though not as bad. Yours and his are worse. We've talked about it a couple of times in the few letters he's sent since he took over. Did you know he's had people falling over themselves trying to trick him into bed since he came back from the temple? He was fifteen!"

That wasn't exactly a problem Jiang Cheng has run into. He could find bed partners if he wanted them, sure, but they weren't sneaking into his chamber and trying to seduce him into making a bastard. He wasn't sure if it was his looks, his reputation of being ill tempered, or what exactly prevented that but he was almost glad he didn't suffer from this headache. Almost.

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