Work Text:
“ I ’ll find a way to erase them, ” Wei Wu Xian said to Jiang Cheng who pulled at his robes and stared at the scars on his chest . Scarred , inside–out.
Jiang Cheng looked back at his shixiong , Wei Wu Xian silently bit the inside of his lips.
The same gaze again , the eyes looked hollow and empty.
Wei Wu Xian hated this look on Jiang Cheng’s face, he didn’t recognize his shidi at all.
It was after the whole fiasco, the time right after Wen Ning helped him retrieve Jiang Cheng.
The younger man had been asleep for several days, Wei Wu Xian never felt as scared as he was for the past week.
Jiang Cheng was silent as the older man tried to cheer him up , both of them knew the younger man lost his core to the enemy.
Wei Wu Xian expected Jiang Cheng to be angry, to be in rage and depravity.
Yet the younger man looked so calm , too calm for a fifteen years old boy who just lost his entire sect and core. The tears rolling down from the purple eyes made Wei Wu Xian’s heart beat fast.
“N othing is okay, ” Jiang Cheng said, pulling the older man to his embrace before Wei Wu Xian could reason with it. It was the fact, nothing was fine for them . Two young boys, barely eighteen.
Jiang Cheng was shaking, trembling as he hugged his shixiong . Wei Wu Xian felt his heart clenched.
“E verything will be okay, ” Wei Wu Xian said as he caressed the small back. He always tried to make everything okay , it was the fault of Wei Wu Xian, the shining Hero. Jiang Cheng was silent, calming down a little as the older man pulled back and wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes.
“I have a way to fix this Jiang Cheng! ” the mentioned male gazed at the young face of his Shixiong. Wei Wu Xian was talking nonstop, clearly trying to make Jiang Cheng happy.
But the older man was oblivious to knowing that Jiang Cheng was different …. Not just in front, he wasn’t the younger boy Wei Wu Xian protected just yesterda y…H e wasn’t the same young man who just lost his sect, not the person who was dragged back to the Lotus Pier and got his core melted. Watching the pile of corpses, those poor Yunmeng Jiang’s cultivators. Not even a single one got the proper rites for their funeral.
Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, the memories of him being whipped and defiled under his parents’ corpses while Wen Chao and Wang Ling Jiao laughed at him and embarrassed him beyond redemption.
For Wei Wu Xian it was days ago. For Jiang Cheng tt was more than two decades ago. The scar hurt, unlike the usual numbed pain older Jiang Cheng had lived with. This one was fresh and most of his wounds were still bleeding . The same kind of fresh crimson blood that painted the hand of Sect Leader Jiang.
The younger man closed his eyes, slowly leaning closer to Shixiong's chest. The older boy looked surprised for Jiang Cheng to openly show his weakness – perhaps it was before the tragedy but the soul inside his Shidi had matured – past the ego to be ashamed for showing affection to someone he cared for.
Jiang Cheng was tired and exhausted. He had been living for so long, twice– thrice more than the current Wei Wu Xian before him. The one that used to be his Shixiong now looked so young, so weak, so in pain and he wondered how blurred his eyes back then– to think Wei Wu Xian was flawless and never frightened. The boy looked at his end wit, trying his best to comfort Jiang Cheng–
His body was healing without a golden core. Wei Wu Xian looked a lot better, still having the brilliant core inside himself. The paleness of Jiang Cheng's skin made the other man worried, but Jiang Cheng knew he would survive this.
He knew the continuation of this story too well , he had been through this one. Although some of the memories were blurry because it had been decades for him . But he knew and remembered the major events as clearly as the day.
He wasn’t the same young cultivator who was desperate to gain back his power. To be the perfect heir for his dead mother– or to be the best cultivator. He missed his old home and part of him screaming in agony to the deity for giving him a second chance but not at the time he wished for. He wished to be able to be there when Wen Clan attacked Lotus Pier– yet when he opened his eyes he was facing Shixiong's face who looked like a kicked puppy.
‘H e must have thought I was going to di e ’
The hollowness had been a nightmare for him, a bad dream haunting him in the past. But this Jiang Cheng was already an old man , a sect leader , he knew other kinds of pain this event would lead them into. He knew after this Wei Wu Xian would sacrifice himself, losing his core and then be thrown to Burial Mount. A temporary solution to decades of torture– at least for Jiang Cheng who was labelled as ungrateful for having a core that he never knew was not his thrumming inside.
Like hell, he would let that happen again.
He hoped he was back much further, maybe at the time they were still in the Cloud Recesses.
Jiang Cheng knew a much worse nightmare, being heavily misunderstood and his only remaining family slipping away from his grasp. So he shook his head, “it’s useless,” Jiang Cheng spoke. His head was clearer as he proceeded, everything wasn’t a dream. He was in fact, back in the past, he wondered how he could change as he gazed down at his palm– some of the dried blood under his nails.
He won’t be the same fool who hiked a mountain and then trusted a stranger to give back his core.
“What do you mean-” Wei Wu Xian’s words died at the tip of his tongue. He bit the inside of his cheek when he met the hard gaze from Jiang Cheng, his Shidi never looked at him like that– no– he never saw that kind of eyes from the younger boy.
How could a younger boy look so much older than his age?
A sect leader. A figure parent. A man who lost the love of his life, thinking he could get a second chance – turned out to be just a mere replacement. Then losing the resurrected first love once again at the end. But hey Yunmeng Jiang was never a failure together with him–although not easy but they were thriving and A-Ling, his dear A-Ling, not yet born but he would make sure with his 2nd life that boy won’t lose any of his parents in this lifetime …
Jiang Cheng smiled, pulling Wei Wu Xian’s hand , he bent down as he clutched the hand closer to his chest. “ I will protect us both, ” he whispered, almost too small for Wei Wu Xian to hear. “ I will, ” Jiang Cheng vowed, the tears once again blurred his sight.
He would make it right , this time, with little power he had– with no knowledge how much he could change but he would try.
Making Wei Wu Xian and Lan Wang Ji happy together, saving some of the Wen Remnants that Wei Wu Xian loved so much– and the little boy who would be Lan Si Zhui as well. Rebuilding Yunmeng Jiang once again– he did once, he could do it again.
Wei Wu Xian was speechless, he didn’t recognize this boy but yet this was his Jiang Cheng. His beloved A-Cheng he failed to protect, looking so fragile yet strong.
And so, Jiang Cheng never went to the small mountain. The plan Wei Wu Xian had with Wen Qing never happened. Zidian never thrummed on Jiang Cheng’s hand this time , it was Wei Wu Xian’s in this lifetime. The Yiling Laozu never emerged , Jinling was not an orphan.
He could make it right, with a proper sacrifice this time.
"You know me a lifetime ago, Wei Gongzi, please refrain yourself from doing something that contradicted what you said to me in Guanyin Temple."
"Just like what you said, we're stranger now. Let past be the past."
"And our relationship also ended long time ago, Hanguang Jun."
"I don't, both of you don't have any need to know my health condition at all."
"Please leave."