Male Reader inserts

茉莉花 || jiang cheng

{angst, fluff}

source: 魔道祖师，陈情令，Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Untamed, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Chen Qing Ling

artist: official

~

When remembering the massacre that happened in YunmengJiang, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but fume. Not only had he lost his parents there, he'd lost friends. So many of his shidi and shixiong were slaughtered, all for the entertainment and benefit of some disgusting old bag of a sect leader who only lusted for power. No matter how well Jiang Cheng rebuilt Lotus Pier and the surrounding villages hit by the Wen Clan, nothing could bring back those shidi and shixiong. He had thought those people were long lost to memory, and while he hadn't been close with them, it really felt like a harsh punch to the jaw every time he remembered that they were dead. Sometimes he'd confide in Lan Xichen, but only vaguely and briefly. He didn't want to burden a man already so burdened with the weight of the cultivational world at his shoulders now that Jin Guangyao was well and buried. But now that Lan Xichen had come out of seclusion, Jiang Cheng had caught himself forming the bad habit of visiting more often. He knew he shouldn't, and that should anything be amiss, he should talk about it with at least Jin Ling so his nephew would know to be on better behavior (he was already pretty well behaved when he kept himself quiet). There was just something so cathartic about being able to talk about things the moment they troubled him, even if it was something so vague, not even he would know what he was talking about. Besides, it provided Lan Xichen with a distraction that he very much needed.

That's what Jiang Cheng told himself as he traversed up to the Cloud Recesses, back straight and broad with his hands clasped behind his back.

The sun was neither overbearing nor shy, simply kissing the back of Jiang Cheng's pale neck with gentle lips. The handsome tan he'd had in his youth had vanished almost completely, roughhousing outside with Wei Ying replaced with the mundane shuffle of paperwork and sectoral politics. He was not in a good mood, per se - he was never in a good mood when he sought company with Lan Huan - but it was tolerable. He could stand to be polite. He would stand to, he told himself, reaching the gates of the Cloud Recesses. He entered easily enough, those guarding the gate knowing he wasn't here to cause a ruckus. Lan Qiren, who had just released a classroom of disciples, noticed his arrival.

"Xichen is in the courtyard. He's waiting for you." Jiang Cheng gestured politely and made his way towards the courtyard he knew Xichen would be waiting for him at. The Cloud Recesses was peaceful as usual, the impending quiet signifying that Lan Wangji and Wei Ying weren't here at the moment. Thank goodness for that, because Jiang Cheng did not want to ruin his streak of avoiding Wei Ying just yet. He didn't have to walk far to find the not totally secluded courtyard where Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren often took tea together. He stalled, though, instead of going to sit in the space across from Lan Xichen like he normally would've. That was because there was someone already standing and talking to Lan Xichen.

Their meager robes indeed made them out to be a rogue wandering cultivator, their face polite and amicable in the face of someone just as so as Lan Xichen, who was indeed looking more sallow and worse for wear. They gestured as they talked to him kindly, not unmannered but moreso unrefined from possible lack of social interaction. That was all well and good to Jiang Cheng, he'd seen many rogue cultivators and he'd let them all be, but what interested him was their sword. Specifically, their sword tassel. The purple tasseled silver bell attached to the pommel of the cultivator's sword was something that only Yunmeng disciples were given, and no disciples had yet graduated under Jiang Cheng's Yunmeng. A disturbing thought rushed through him and he stormed over, intent on confronting whoever this corpse looter was.

The cultivator, who undoubtedly heard Jiang Cheng's determined steps, turned to look at the approaching figure, which likewise made Jiang Cheng stop again. The day before the siege of Lotus Pier, a small group of shixiong, no more than three graduated Yunmeng disciples, had gone on a short mission. Jiang Cheng hadn't known about what, but what he did know was that they hadn't returned before the siege and they certainly hadn't returned after he'd rebuilt his home. One of the shixiong that left, and Jiang Cheng had presumed dead, had been (L/n) (Y/n). (Y/n) had been the only person that hadn't preferred Wei Ying over him, besides his mom. And the best part was that (Y/n) didn't have to be told, like some of Jiang Cheng's shidi. That's not to say that (Y/n) completely avoided and ignored Wei Ying, but he didn't really need to. Wei Ying made tons of friends all on his own. Jiang Cheng was finally ecstatic to have someone all to himself. Wei Ying could call 'jiejie, jiejie!' all he wanted, because now Jiang Cheng could call 'gege, gege!' right back, and (Y/n) would float over to him just like Yanli would flutter over to Wei Ying.