Thread by @PoppiCosmos

#Xicheng #Allcheng (maybe?) Time-travel with accidental fix-it sorta.

It was quietly whispered politely across the cultivation world behind closed doors in recent months.

'Jiang Fengmian's fifteen year old son tried to commit suicide. His one and only 𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧.'

Lan Xichen frowns deeply as he hears the unsavory whispering from two of his own disciples nonetheless.

'They say Jiang-guniang screams were so bloodcurdling when she found her didi's body dyed in red they were heard far into town.'

'He slit his throat using his own sword.'

'Lotus Pier has closed their doors.'

'There is no laughter to be found there anymore. It is quiet and solemn.'

Lan Xichen goes to reprimand the two disciples when Nie Mingjue beats him to it.

"I'm pretty sure one of the rules here is no gossiping behind someone's back." The drawl is short, and the reprimand to the point.

"Chifeng-zun!" The two disciples cried out as they bowed deeply before the towering man.

Lan Xichen swiftly turns the corner, giving his own friend a gentle smile, before turning to frown at the two bowing disciples. "Go and copy the book of conduct six times until the lesson of talking about others sinks into your brain." Lan Xichen ends sharply, taking back both

Nie Mingjue and the disciples with his unusual harsh tone.

"Yes, Lan-gongzi." The disciples muttered before they swiftly fled, their cheeks flaring in embarrassment and slight anger at being caught by two respectable people. One to be their future leader nonetheless.

"Da'ge!"

Lan Xichen uttered happily. "I thought you were sending a servant and a few disciples, along with Nie Huaisang this time."

Nie Mingjue gave a grimace to his childhood best friend. "I was going to, but then the situation a few months ago with the Jiang sect." He trailed off as he

gave Lan Xichen a brotherly worried look. "It made me recall all the times I was so harsh on A-Sang, that I wanted him to know how much I care and love him so-"

"So he doesn't do what the Jiang heir did." Lan Xichen ended with a knowing whisper as he began to walk towards the

stone steps and arc to greet the welcoming students. Lan Qiren wanted both his nephews to be more hands-on in this studying cycle after what happened to Jiang Wanyin. Especially since said heir was coming for both healing and learning.

Jiang Wanyin's suicide attempt had caused

a ripple across the cultivation world.

Parents had gripped their children harder, keeping them close.

His a-die even managed to take back a few of the sect's responsibilities from Lan Xichen, even if he still hadn't left his self-imposed seclusion. (It was still a better

improvement than before.)

The Wen sect seemed to have halted their activities.

Hell, even Jin Guangshan was being silent and not whore mongering like he usual does. Though it might be because his clan is allied to the Jiang via arranged marriage between his own heir and

Jiang-guniang. (He actually feared both his wife's wrath and the violet spider.)

"I can't believe Jiang Wanyin would do such a thing. What could have driven such a talented boy to do this?"

Nie Mingjue flickered his eyes around before he lowered his voice. "In truth, Jiang-zongzhu begged me to check his child for any signs of qi deviations, despite the Lotus Pier healers saying his child did not qi deviate."

"And?" (Did you see him?) was the unspoken question.

"He was quiet, didn't speak a word." Nie Mingjue admitted softly. "He seemed small too despite his growing height. One look despite the bandages around his throat, you think a simple wind would blow him away. But-" Nie Mingjue trailed off as his eyes furrowed deeper upon his

brow as a strangely bitter yet worried frown curled on his lips.

"But what?" Lan Xichen inquired as he gave his friend a small nudge to continue.

"It was his eyes that got me, Lan Huan."

"What about his eyes?" Lan Xichen questioned as he took in his friends now worried and frightened expression.

Nie Mingjue stopped walking and turned to fully face his friend. "His eyes were dead. No life could be seen in them. It was as if he had seen all the horrors of the

world and decided to give up." Nie Mingjue then turned his head up towards the sky, allowing the brief sunlight to brush across his face as he closed eyes.

"It was the eyes of a dead man."

"Truly? Perhaps you are wrong with what you saw, da'ge?" Lan Xichen mutters softly a worried frown, replacing his usual gentle smile he was known for. "A fifteen year old cannot possibly see all the horrors of the world. Da'ge, not even the two of 𝙪𝙨, have seen it."

"I know what I saw. I saw what I saw, and it has unsettled me greatly, A-Huan." Nie Mingjue opened his eyes and returned his eyes back onto his friend. "I would walk with great caution when Jiang Wanyin comes, if she does anyways." The elder of the two warns as he begins to walk

again, causing Lan Xichen to swiftly follow after him.

"Wait, she?!" Lan Xichen snapped his citrine hued eyes, going wide as he reached his hand at and clasped it tightly onto Nie Mingjue's sleeve and pulled it. "What do you mean by she!?" Perhaps later in the future Nie Mingjue

would tease at the strangled high pitched sounds his friend had made, but today was not the day.

Nie Mingjue abruptly stopped walking, sending Lan Xichen to slightly stumble forward as he let his grip go from holding onto his friend's sleeve. "Fuck, forget I said anything." Nie

Mingjue grunted as he briskly picked up his face.

Lan Xichen stood stunned for a moment before he chased after his friend, and in his panic threw himself onto his friend's back. "DA'GE, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SHE? I NEED TO KNOW! A SHE HAS TO BE A HE, SO HE CAN STAY WITH ME IN THE

HANSHI!" Lan Xichen knew that if his uncle had walked by them at that very moment, he would have suffered a qi deviation on the spot in witnessing his elder nephew clinging like a baby pangolin to another sect leader's back despite said leader being his childhood friend.

"Wait, what do you mean by staying in the Hanshi?" Nie Mingjue grunted as he jerked, trying to fling his sticky friend off his back.

Lan Xichen clung tighter without remorse using his famed Lan arm strength.

"Damn it, A-Huan, were you the one to teach A-Sang how to cling like

a fucking monkey!"

"Uncle is allowing Jiang Wanyin to stay in the Hanshi with me, so I can play the Song of Clarity in the morning, afternoon, and night to help heal them."

"Oh, well." Nie Mingjue grunted as he twisted again and then bent forward, hoping to unlatch Lan Xichen.

Lan Xichen clung even 𝙩𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧.

"A-Jue, confess!" Lan Huan howled, not caring to the fact that he was acting like a young child, instead of the eighteen year old he truly was.

Nie Mingjue heaved a sigh and then went slack, causing a surprise yelp to leave Lan Xichen's

lips as he fell to the ground from the sudden motion he was unprepared for. "You cannot tell anyone this, Lan Huan. I was sworn to an oath of secrecy, but my big mouth around you has gotten me into more trouble than I can count." He ends with a dry look he tosses over his

shoulder, and to Lan Xichen, who still sprawled out on the ground.

"..Hey." Lan Huan was not 𝙥𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.

"Jiang Wanyin was not born a man, but as a woman instead. It appears Jiang-Zongzhu and Madam Yu covered it up and forced her to be male instead. Then again, this could

be a simple case of misaligned reincarnation. Yet, as I have told you earlier, during my assessment of Jiang Wanyin's meridians, they did not speak."

"...Da'ge, I'm doomed." Lan Xichen muttered out.

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes at his friends dramatics as he grabbed him by the

back of his robes and began to drag him like a mother cub would her offspring in her mouth. "Stop making it sound like Jiang Wanyin will gobble you up like a rabbit eating cabbage."

"Da'ge!"

"Lan Huan!"

---------

So it goes a little something like this...

Jiang Wanyin is born the heir of the Yunmeng Jiang sect. The first eight to nine years of his life are relatively fine, despite how distant his father was and the occasional screams his mother would give in response to him turning down

all of Jiang Wanyin's requests to spend time with him.

He had a lovely jijie who was gentle and kind, and who also loved to spoil him rotten.

He also had three best friends in the form of spiritual dogs, Love, Princess, and Jasmine.

He adored them the best, because they were the first gift his a-die had ever given him.

When he turns ten, another little boy turns up. His dogs are given away, he has to share his sister's attention, and to his a-die it's like he was never there to begin with.

But that's okay, he has the best gege now, and his name is Wei Ying. A-Ying has promised to always be by his side.

He's fifteen and he has a mountainous valley of his a-niang's disappointments firmly pressed down on his shoulders as he desperately holds his a-die's second

present to his chest, and tries not to choke and suffocate on the sob that wants to leave his throat.

He wanted to name his sword.

Sandu shines in lovely hues of purples and glistens so prettily and deadly underneath the sun and moonlight, but it doesn't stop the hurt burning

in his chest any less.

'𝘐 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘶, 𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴.'

His mother's screams have gotten louder, crueler, and harsher as her demands have become, and his sister has forgotten all that he loves

in favor of another.

But that's okay, his Ying-gege is still here.

Cloud Recesses is lovely, and he grows, learns, and loves.

Nie Huaisang becomes his first friend, and then his blood brother, and the matching healed wound on his palm, will follow him across lifetimes.

Lan Huan kisses are sweet as they are gentle, but it hurts when he pulls away and pretends not to know him.

Ying-gege has been chasing and teasing after another student, A-Huan's brother. He is afraid, he is scared, and the absence of his brother's echoing laugh makes him,

𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙡𝙮.

He is sixteen and his home has burned to the ground. Blood of his sect siblings dyes the river red, while the bodies of his parents hang swinging like a prized trophy.

His golden core is lost among torture and then swiftly returned, but the price is his brother, who's not where he promised to be.

This will not be the first time Wei Wuxian breaks his promises.

War is cruel, horrible, and terribly soul crushing in the years he is seventeen and

eighteen.

Nineteen brings little to no joy, except for his sister's smile on her wedding day, as they both ignore the empty gap between them where their brother was supposed to be.

'𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵. 𝘎𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘈-𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐 𝘰𝘸𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.'

Jin Ling is someone who settles something warm in his long harden and numb heart.

Twenty brings him nothing but 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 and 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨.

Only the sound of a baby wailing brings Jiang Cheng from slicing his neck and ending it all.

His twenties go back, and then by thirty his world is yanked from beneath his feet.

The golden core is not his and his brother is not his brother, and there is nothing but anger and hurt where love and trust used to be.

Ten year old A-Cheng lets his Ying-gege go.

He does not look back.

When he is forty, still looking twenty, his affairs are in order, the sect

is settled, and Jin Ling ruling perfectly fine when he decides to finally rest.

He says his goodbyes and thank you's before his ancestral hall, and then he is back to the only piece of his childhood that survived the Wen's attack.

It was the tree his Ying-gege had once climbed when he thought he would have chased after him with his dogs.

The tree where promises of a sweet childhood were made.

He sits with a tired smile, but a smile nonetheless, and calmly eats the special soup he had prepared by his own hands in the kitchen.

He hums the Yunmeng lullaby his mother used to sing to him once, then twice more.

When the sunrises in the sky, Jiang Wanyin closes his eyes and breathes his last breath.

The aftermath of his death goes a little something like this...

It's not his second-in-command or fellow Jiang disciple that finds Jiang Cheng in the mid-morning sunlight as the sky turns hues of violet-reds, and the wildlife awaken with their own harmonized music.

Neither was it Jin Ling or Wei Wuxian.

Or his sworn-brother or estranged former lover.

The person who surprisingly comes across him is the person who hated him the most.

(Unknown to Wei Wuxian that his brother finally allowed him within Lotus Pier's walls to say a final goodbye.)

(He might have let him go, but in the end he was still very much his brother.)

Lan Wangji stumbles across Jiang Cheng after recalling the fond talks of his husband's

childhood, and he swallows the bitter jealous that swells in both his stomach and chest at the mentions of another man.

Wei Wuxian might be unaware of his true feelings for his former brother, but he was not.

"Sect Leader Jiang." Lan Wangji had greeted coolly, expecting the leader to open his eyes and sneer hatefully back at him with a bitter greeting.

Silence was what greeted him instead.

With furrowed eyebrows, the younger Jade of Lan stepped closer towards the tree as he realized slowly, with a small sense of dread that the other man's chest wasn't rising.

Bending down, he placed his fingers to the man's neck to find a pulse. However, the cold hard feeling of

his neck followed by how stiff and frozen the man's fingers were around an empty bowl, Lan Wangji knew.

Jiang Wanyin was dead.

The devastated howls of both Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling were heartbreaking, to say the least.

Especially when it was confirmed Jiang Wanyin willingly committed suicide.

The grief and guilt were ten-fold on everyone involved, from the Jiang sect itself to the only blood relative, to the adoptive brother, to the sworn brother, and even to the former lover who had stumbled

his way out of seclusion like a drunk man trying to recover from a hangover.

While in one world, there was a permanent state of grieving chaos and guilt, with unanswered begging prayers.

In another world, a dying man wakes up.

Jiang Cheng wakes with a sharp gasp.

Clematis-gray eyes are blown wide, clearly unfocused as he tries to understand what the hell was going on.

His throat is burning, and within his foggy desperate confusion, he nearly misses the yell of his voice.

"A-Cheng!"

He vaguely

registers the turn of his head, but he hears the loud white noise of his ears ringing when he sees his A-jie standing in front of him crying her heart out when she notices he has awakened.

Jiang Yanli is healthy, whole, alive, and so very young compared to the last moment Jiang

Cheng remembers of her being alive.

He promptly bursts into tears.

'OH AM I IN HELL...?'

His throat is on fire to the point it feels as if it's currently burning, and he realizes the sounds he makes are sharp and rattled.

No other noise can leave his mouth, and in a brief

moment of hysterical confusion, he brings his hand to his throat and feels the bandages tied tightly there.

'Ah, right.'

He finally recalls as everything comes into focus despite his breathing and sharp sobs.

'I killed myself and woke up here. I then proceeded to try and kill myself again, but A-jie walked into my former room only seconds after I had slashed my throat.'

Maybe once a long time again he would have felt guilt at causing his sister such distress and for allowing her to

witness something so gruesome.

He might have, but he no longer does.

Guilt, resentment, foolish all compassing love, and loyalty have been bled from his heart.

Jiang Cheng can no longer muster up the will to keep breathing or somehow fix his heart to feel something again.

Jiang Cheng had finally been shattered into several pieces.

And this time he refuses to be put back together.