eastbound inbox.

[lanclan]

inbox for the mirror pendant of 'Average Sighren'.

“Please leave your message and I will attend it as soon as possible.”

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[consignation]

[ strange that xichen should be the only one to ask him this. it catches jiang cheng off guard, to the point he can only blink after xichen in befuddlement as he tries to parse the question. how does he feel about wei wuxian and lan wangji...? ]

...I don't know, [ he confesses quietly, looking away. ]

I haven't really thought about it. It's been hard. Things aren't how they used to be, and they never will again. This doesn't seem to trouble anyone but me. I don't think Wei Wuxian even thinks about it.

[ jiang cheng's voice drops. ]

That he left me behind. He's spent years not thinking about it.

[lanclan]

Years here, I assume.

[ There are two in which this relationship has blossomed and he has missed much of it. Jiang Cheng has often been left out of things when it comes to his brother, from what he remembers of the display at the Guanyin Temple ... even if this Jiang Cheng hasn't lived through all of it yet. ]

Wangji was lost to me for sixteen years. I had never seen a man so gutted of a reason to live as in the aftermath of Wei Wuxian's demise.

We must be patient with them, no matter what, and glad they are reunited as zhiji.

[consignation]

[ jiang cheng shakes his head, trying not to sour the mood here by growing too bitter but it's a tough subject for him. ]

...no, years before that too. In the years leading up to— ...his death. After the war. He picked a path I couldn't walk with him and never looked back.

[ the comment about the depth of wangji's grief draws his shoulders taut, however, and he adds— ]

Some of us could not afford to fall apart even after losing all the family we had left.

[lanclan]

[ There is nothing Xichen can do to ease the pain of Jiang Cheng's experiences so he simply listens at first, not wanting to devalue them. It's sad because the two boys and their sister who studied at Cloud Recesses so many years ago were incredibly close, more so than any other group; how time alters the fabric the life, he thinks sadly. We are all threads stitched at the whim of time.

There is that and how grief-stricken Jiang Cheng had been at Guanyin, wracked with sobs over the familial deaths and betrayals that hit him over and over. It was not forgettable. ]

You are the strongest sect leader I have ever known, to have endured as many trials as you have and to remain a good man throughout it all. [ It is not flattery, he speaks honestly as he sits on the bench weighing the man before him. ] There are those who say you have little patience ... I am aware, I have ears. [ A small smile. ] But, the Wanyin I know never speaks truly unkindly when it is undeserving or suffers others' pain if he can help mend it.

[ A gesture covers the whole snack conveyor-belt they have sprinkled between their laps, amused and fond. Xichen tilts his head, makes a show of glancing up and down over Jiang Cheng, and shrugs subtly to help lighten the mood with some genuine fondness. ]

You're my brother-in-law now, and I'm very proud to say so. I hope you feel the same and will pardon my faults, as you do with many, while showing such patience.