Longing makes the world bright and the yearner blind, he knows, but even without his want soaking through and staining it, he thinks— he would be sure.
The spark of it starts small, well beneath Jiang Cheng’s notice, but builds steadily.
“We raised a child together,” Jiang Wanyin says, voice thick with pain. “You two were sworn brothers.” He swallows hard and oh. Oh, no. Lan Xichen is not ready for this conversation. He is never going to be ready for this conversation. “And because of what he did, there is nowhere outside this room that either of us can mourn him.”
Lan Xichen has been in seclusion for half a year, healing, he thinks, from the way his world was upended that night in a temple in Yunping City. Then, Jiang Wanyin comes to visit—breaking the fragile peace he has been building, but offering, perhaps, a better healing.
When they arrive in the Yiling Supervisory Office, Jiang Yanli freshly recovered from fever, Jiang Cheng in a coma, and Wei Wuxian nearly at the end of his rope, Jiang Yanli does what she does best—acts as the warm, nurturing support for her brothers. But she's tired, too.
“Has no one done this for you?” Jin Guangyao asked, eyeing Xue Yang in the mirror.
Jiang Cheng takes a dagger meant for Nie Huaisang. In the rapidly ensuing aftermath, bleeding out in the middle of the Unclean Realm becomes the very least of his concerns.
"My gongzi is a fool!" Luo Qingyang bursts out as soon as they're alone in her tent. "How can he look at someone so kind and lovely and skilled and—”
Jiang Yanli laughs softly. "It's a good thing we're not engaged then. I can spend time with someone who appreciates me."
"It's not a competition, guys," Zizhen says. "Surely we can think of better things to do while we wait for peak meteor visibility hours."
Sect Leader Nie has still not returned to the main hall over half an hour after the agreed time.
However could he run from Nie Mingjue, after all, when it is always and only ever will be Nie Mingjue that he runs to?