Jin Ling’s needs were constant and repetitive; they ran like a lifeline through Jiang Cheng’s days. He didn’t need to see past the next feeding, the next changing. He didn’t need to persuade himself to get out of bed in the morning; sooner or later Lingling would cry, and he would find he could move after all. In the middle of the night, when neither of them could sleep, he paced up and down the room, holding Lingling to his chest, whispering, “Jiujiu’s here. I won’t leave you alone. I promise.”
---
Jiang Cheng knew Lan Zhan had been seeing way more of Wei Ying than he had, but it still burned: Lan Zhan’s easy familiarity with Wei Ying’s household, with his thoughts. I’m the one that grew up with him. He was mine first.
Lan Zhan blinks at him, the heat of a moment ago fading fast, and somehow that pisses Jiang Cheng off even more—enough for him to slam the glass on the counter and jab a finger into Lan Zhan’s chest. Enough for him to demand, “What the fuck’s your deal? Seriously—if you’re gonna get so fucking judgmental about how I grab a goddamn cup, then at least get the balls to say it to my fucking face!”
Lan Zhan’s eyes get wider and wetter and wildly confused with each word; his stupidly nice lips part, just for a second, like maybe he’s gonna say something—like maybe he’s going to do exactly what Jiang Cheng said, but—shit. Fuck—balls.
Jiang Cheng didn’t mean to look.
There’s not even a chance to get mad at himself for it, not when Lan Zhan’s eyes go flinty and hard, when his hand wraps around the back of Jiang Cheng’s head in the blink of an eye—
—not when Lan Zhan’s kissing him about it.
Don't ask about the cabinets; don't ask about anything at all.
For a man such as Wei Wuxian to have a second chance at this life was surprising enough, a third could only be some kind of cosmic joke.
__________
Two years post-canon, the Yiling Laozu wakes on the streets of a town far from home. Two years post-canon, Wei Wuxian walks into Guangling and meets himself.
After Wei Ying is disowned, Yu Ziyuan forbids Jiang Cheng from letting Wei Ying live with him. Jiang Cheng lets him stay anyway because Fuck That. He tells his parents Lan Zhan is his new roommate instead.
He hadn’t even been sure that he’d be getting another invitation. They might have changed their mind about taking him to bed again; they might never have been serious about it in the first place. He’d spent a lot of time telling himself that it might just have been a whim of Wei Wuxian’s: one fling for old times’ sake. Lan Wangji, of course, would go along with whatever his husband wanted. It had been — good, he thought when he was alone, overwhelmingly good, taking hold of himself as he remembered Lan Wangji filling him, Wei Wuxian’s mouth around him — it had been good, but that didn’t guarantee they would want a repeat.
Jiang Cheng gets sex pollened while stuck in an island cave with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. They do their best to be helpful.
“Listen to me,” Wei Wuxian said. “You can’t take care of this on your own. Lan Zhan doesn’t exaggerate; you know that. You could die, Jiang Cheng.”
From over Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, Lan Wangji was shrugging out of his outer robes; it stilled Jiang Cheng for a moment, but the sight of him next spreading them out on the cave floor, like they were about to undergo some ritual deflowering, brought him swiftly back to life.
“Then I’ll die,” Jiang Cheng snarled, trying again to pull away. But the movement was careless, and fabric shifted painfully against his lap, more constricting now than he had realized. He fell forward, fully into Wei Wuxian’s arms, shaking and cursing.
You and me, Wei Ying had said. Jiang Cheng is going to take him at his word.
Command says that the first neural link is the one that stands out the most, the one that everyone has to be the most careful of, because a navigator’s thoughts can get tangled up with their pilot’s and become inextricably linked. Entangled.
You want to see the true legacy of the Yiling Patriarch? Look at the empty spaces Sect Leader Jiang leaves in her wake. Look at the things Hanguang-jun hides in his floorboards.
Dreadnoughts were powered through the combined efforts of three pilots: the source, to generate the raw power; the channel, to refine it and amplify it; and the vessel, to control it.
When their channel Wei Wuxian goes missing, Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan have to figure out how to work together to find him while surviving a war.
"You and Lan Wangji taste different,” Jiang Cheng mumbled as he pulled himself away from Wei Wuxian's mouth.
Wei Wuxian’s eyes grew wide as saucers in the moonlight. “You’ve kissed Lan Zhan?”
Or: Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng fall into each others' bedrolls while searching for Wei Wuxian. Complications ensue.
The events of their lives become stories traded around fires at night hunts, which become legends in the homes of common people. Optics are everything, and everything is political.
Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng work with Nie Huaisang to rehabilitate their reputations by being married but not really. Lan Wangji is just trying his best to keep up.
Or, the aftermath of Guanyin Temple told in four seasons, because it was never going to be simple walking away from each other.
Jiang Cheng didn’t have a plan for Wei Wuxian coming back into his life, and he realizes now this was a mistake. He’s going to slip up. He’s going to give it all away.
Fate—or at least Jin Ling—is going to make sure of it.
Jin Ling had begun to suspect years ago that there were parts of his family history that had been crossed out; long streaks of black where Wei Wuxian had been. The truth is more like whole books being brought up from their hiding places again.
Or: Jin Ling tries to figure out what family means, now.
Transplanting a core into a new person isn’t without repercussions. One year after the events at Guanyin Temple, Jiang Cheng found himself once again faced with the possibility of losing everything he had. Reconciling with his brother, learning to let Jin Ling go, and dealing with his blooming emotions toward the First Jade of Gusu — will Jiang Cheng accomplish what he wants before time runs out?
In retrospect, it was so much easier to hate Jin Zixuan when Yanli was into him, because all the anger he makes Jiang Cheng feel just by existing was automatically justified.
Wei Wuxian sighs dramatically. “I leave you two alone for one little life or death situation and suddenly you’re in charge of him, Wen Ning?”
“He is,” Jiang Cheng confirms, because he’s still tired and achy and Wen Ning is patting him and his cool form feels very good against Jiang Cheng’s front.
Talking at someone is only fun for so long. That's all being a sect leader is: talking and talking to people bound by courtesy to listen to you. It's so fucking dull. A relief, then, to face one’s equal, and no less an old friend who is inclined to interrupt you whenever you ramble. He likes it. It’s one of Jiang Cheng’s best qualities.
In the years after Guanyin Temple, Nie Huaisang attends to unfinished business.
Jiang Cheng blinks. “Dammit, they do think you’re dating one of us! I hate it when Wei Wuxian is right.”
“Excuse me?” Nie Huaisang gives him an incredulous look. “First of all, they think I’m dating you, and if anything, they’re getting more aggressive!”
Wen Qing returns to full consciousness the way she imagines babies emerge from the womb: bewildered by a rush of blurred shapes and incomprehensible sounds. She falls to her knees. The ground is soft green underneath her body. She takes long, shuddering gulps of air. A healthy infant would cry after birth; Wen Qing does not.
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