Chapter 3
The rest of the day flew by so quickly, and Jiang Cheng seemed to passed through it all as if he were just walking down a memory.
Jiang Cheng had left his bedroom, looking like a boy who rolled out of bed, and had went to the living room. He feels like there is a weight on his body, heavy that had him feeling weak and nauseous, so he leans on the walls. And he watches as more people came to the living room, with faces that had haunted Jiang Cheng for so many years in his sleep.
Jiang Fengmian who was busy talking to someone in his phone while looking at the papers in his other hand. A warm mug of coffee on the table. He looks like the businessman he is with his tailored suit on. Jiang Cheng can see how much his A-Jie had taken after their father, all soft and gentle slopes and curves, but she was warmer and kinder. She always was warmer and kinder. Their father however, despite being a soft and gentle man, never seemed to exude that warmth and kindness. Especially to Jiang Cheng.
Yu Ziyuan comes in with her heels clacking on the floor. Painted long nails, red lips, and sharp cat's eyes. She looks beautiful, but cold. His mother seems to be just as far away as his father, despite always being around him when she wasn't at work. He took after her a lot. His mother's son, his father would murmur. Sharp, cold and angry. Never pleasant to be with.
Then comes in Wei Wuxian, who made Jiang Cheng jumped slightly after appearing so suddenly. Bright grey eyes, boyish but handsome-looking, Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng nose pricks, and his fingernails digs into his palm, when he realizes this boy didn't smell of Yiling's corpse-filled street, of that dark cursed Burial Mounds, who didn't stink of Wens with A-Jie's blood splattered on him.
This boy was the boy who had once known Jiang Cheng so well. This was a boy who hadn't looked like anyone else but himself. Wei Wuxian, that loud and annoying and bright alpha of his childhood. He didn't wear white yet. He didn't look like a stranger, didn't look soft and small and weak. He hadn't left yet.
This was a boy who still smells of spice and reminds him of summer and the warm waters of Yunmeng.
And then that tranquil peace, the one that felt like the calm before the storm, disappears when his father looks up from his papers, a gentle and warm smile emerging from his face as he greets Wei Wuxian. His mother's dark brown eyes darted over at his father and Wei Wuxian, eyes sharp and angry, before it fell on him. A scowl emerged on her face (a face that eerily looked like the face he'd see in the mirror since he reached his 20s) and she thundered, berating Jiang Cheng angrily.
Jiang Cheng can't hear it though, and he doesn't find it in himself to care. All he can hear are dying screams, of grunts and snarling, of flesh being torn by teeth, and then after that is just blood and death, with no one but himself.
"JIANG CHENG!" came the loud and sharp angry yell from his mother, but he didn't even jump. He used to jump, and curl to himself, suppressing that weak omegan whimper and his scent that would tell the whole world how he'd felt. Jiang Cheng didn't do that.
Jiang Cheng eyes glanced from his parents and to the frozen-looking Wei Wuxian, lets out an exhale, before he shook his head and left.
His last memory of his father was of how he told Jiang Cheng to be safe, and then all he could hear was loud his screams were as he was being feasted on alive by monsters who cackled. His last memory of his mother was how she had forced him on a boat with Wei Wuxian, telling him the safe thing, before rushing off to his father. When he comes back, Jiang Cheng's mother had been stripped, dirtied, and killed amidst the many corpses of the Jiang Mansion.
Wei Wuxian? His last memory of Wei Wuxian is that of a stranger, who didn't look or smelled of an alpha, who wore white clothes and left Jiang Cheng to stare at his back whilst he walked away with his husband
Jiang Cheng leaves.
He's going to make sure everybody lives.
By the time the fog fades out and there is clarity in Jiang Cheng’s eyes, he find himself in his school uniform, and in a slowly-emptying classroom with the loud chatter of students.
Jiang Cheng wants to prepare for the Three Ends and save his family from their fates. But he doesn't know what to do. Where to start. He needs help, he admits to himself, and decides to prevent one of his regrets in his life.
He doesn't want to lose Wei Wuxian again.
So he goes and chases after Wei Wuxian who was laughing with bright eyes.
“W-wait up!”
Wei Wuxian - or Wei Ying as he was right now, stops, and turns to Jiang Cheng. The laughter stopping, but an easy-going smile on his face. Grey eyes that had yet to turn silver, didn’t look as bright as it was before.
Jiang Cheng who was huffing and gasping from the running (for goodness sake, he was weak!) and stands up properly “can we walk home together? I have something to tell you-”
“Ah, sorry Jiang Cheng!” Wei Ying immediately cuts him off, eyes apologetic as he loops an arm around the tall, stoic boy at his side “I have plans with Lan Zhan here!”
“Lan Zhan?” Jiang Cheng blinks, glancing at the boy's solemn, stoic face and immediately recognizing him as the young Lan Wangji version, with brown eyes instead of gold. Ah, he forgot. Hangguang-Jun was a schoolmate of theirs before the apocalypses. Jiang Cheng wrinkled his nose, figures that they were highschool sweethearts.
Jiang Cheng briefly remembers of the married couple, always clinging to each other and sucking faces even if they were in public, and now he wants to barf.
“You can reschedule your plans tomorrow, Wei Ying” Jiang Cheng says, determined “we got to talk”
Wei Ying scratches his head, awkward and nervous “Aiya, Jiang Cheng, I would really love to go with you but I really have this- this super duper serious important plans with Lan Zhan! We can talk tomorrow.”
Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes “Come on, Wei Ying, I know that’s a load of crap” he sighs, remembering that yeah, at this time, Wei Ying for some reason was ignoring him and ditching him for other people. They were talking again after they reunited sometime after the First End, but they never had the same close friendship they once had, and Jiang Cheng intends to change that by taking the initiative to end this teenage drama they have “I don’t know why you were ignoring me these past few days, but we really have to talk-”
Lan Zhan, the oh-so-righteous and honorable hunter, the future Hanguang-Jun, steps in front of Wei Ying.
“Wei Ying said no.”
What. Jiang Cheng stared.
“Leave him alone.”
The fuckign audacity of this bitch- but looking at the growing crowd, the whispers and murmurs and pointed stares, Jiang Cheng shut his mouth. This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Giving an incredulous look at the stupid Lan, Jiang Cheng gives a pointed look at Wei Ying, who avoided his eyes and fidgeted.
Jiang Cheng faltered.
“Wei Ying?”
Wei Ying’s gray eyes met Jiang Cheng’s greyblues, hesitated, before shaking his head at him.
“Sorry Jiang Cheng, maybe next time” Wei Ying said, looking away again.
Jiang Cheng froze.
“Sorry Jiang Cheng," and that alpha, that infamous and fearsome and demonic Yiling-Laozhu, gives him that sad smile and lets go of his hand and lets himself be devoured by his own demons.
Huh. I see, Jiang Cheng thinks to himself in realization.
Right. Right.
"Farewell, Jiang Cheng" an omega with familiar silver eyes says, a sad look in those eyes, before walking away with his husband, their clothes pristine white.
What was he even expecting from this moron who clearly wanted nothing to do with him? In the past, when Jiang Cheng found Wei Wuxian, he was bombarded with apologies and tears and a tight embrace. Jiang Cheng had easily forgiven him for being cruel in their school days, but after a while, the same distance and aloofness and ignoring Jiang Cheng returned again. And then with the war, the fighting and the battlefield and vanquishing gates, the fucking Wens, with the scheming yellow rats, Jiang Cheng had to be forced to overlook his friendship with Wei Wuxian, and by the time he had realized it was all a scheme to bring them both down, Wei Wuxian had thrown himself to death. And after that was 13 years of waiting, hoping and looking for signs that Wei Wuxian would come bacl (he'd do the impossible, he always does the impossible). Wei Wuxian had came back, but he came back wrong. Silver eyes in a stranger, and Jiang Cheng who had hated him, grieved him, and missed him, was told of the truth. With the truth out, there were no more ties between them, all debts were paid, and now they were truly strangers to each other.
Jiang Cheng wanted to prevent that. He didn't want that regret of losing Wei Wuxian. He wanted to change everything, and he wanted to do better, to be a better friend to Wei Wuxian and be sworn brothers. Jiang Cheng never had someone like Wei Wuxian, who he trusted with all of his being. And Jiang Cheng wanted that, he wanted that again.
But who would have thought this early on, Wei Wuxian had wanted nothing to do with him? That the Wei Ying he knew before the apocalypses, was already a Wei Wuxian, who didn't want anything to do with Jiang Cheng? He had thought all this distance and ignoring and ditching him for others was from a petty school spat, and the reason why their friendship didn't become better and instead deteriorated, was because of everything that was going in the world, was because Jiang Cheng had neglected Wei Wuxian and overlooked their friendship, taking it for granted.
He was wrong.
If Wei Wuxian hadn’t been living with Jiang Cheng in the same house, he would have perhaps already cut contact with him, Jiang Cheng realized. Maybe that was his plan once reaching his 18th birthday, just vanish off the night and cut contact with the Jiangs and just run away with that stupid Lan Wangji of his.
“Fine.” Jiang Cheng says, jaw clenched tight “fine.”
If that’s what you want, Jiang Cheng thinks as he glares with burning eyes at both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, if that’s what you fucking want then alright.
Fine.
You. Can. Fuck. Off.
Jiang Cheng turns around to head home.
He reaches home, and calls his father. He gets no answer. Not even after several tries, which… isn’t surprising. Jiang Fengmian, as much as Jiang Cheng respected him and mourned him, had held no affection or warmth for his son. So Jiang Cheng calls his mother, who picks up.
He sighs, relieved.
“I just wanted to ask if you and Dad can come home early, I have something important to say-”
“A-Cheng, you know very well that we come home late.” She says, her voice static-y from the phone “just eat your dinner and study, and then go to sleep. I want you to go to school early. You must excel your studies to have a bright future.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk you about, Mom” Jiang Cheng says, telling the truth… in a way “about the future, I decided to not to go to college once I graduated-”
And then he stops at the thundering anger on his mother’s face, still able to affect him and stun him even if they were miles apart.
His mother always had that hold on him.
“Are you stupid? Have you become a fool, A-Cheng? Unless you want to be a beggar on the streets and picking up garbage to make a living, you will go to college once you graduated-”
“But Mom!” what was the use of college when the world was going to end via man-eating monsters and incomign world apocalpyses? “College isn’t going to be helpful to me at all-”
“Shut up!” His mother snaps, silencing him at the sharp tone she used on him “you might as well hand the company to that Wei Ying with how much stupid nonsense that comes out of your mouth” she spits.
Jiang Cheng eyes pricked.
Her eyes are the same color of honey as his sister’s, but whereas Jiang Yanli’s honey brown eyes filled with gentleness and warmth in them, Yu Ziyuan’s were cold, eyes narrowed at him.
“Listen to me Jiang Cheng, and listen well. If you fail to do what is expected of you, if you become a failure in someone’s eyes, you are a failure to society. You bring shame and disgrace to our family. You shame and disgrace me.. And I won’t allow that, I will not allow myself to have a son who will fail me like that.”
Jiang Cheng’s eyes never left his mother, his mouth was open as if he was about to protest. But he was so still, and no word left his mouth, and he found he couldn’t say anything even if he wanted to.
Something cold settled in his chest.
“You will do as you are told, Jiang Cheng” Yu Ziyuan says, in a voice that would not be argued with “you are your father’s heir, the one who will take over the Jiang Corps. Just focus on working hard to deserve it.”
Jiang Cheng shut his mouth closed.
“Do you understand me?”
Even though they were communicating through a video call, Jiang Cheng dropped his head and lowered his gaze in respect and deference to his mother.
“I understand you, Mom. I won’t ask again.”
His mother leaned back to her chair, nodding in affirmation but the anger and disappointment in her eyes was still there “Make sure you do, son. I’ll be watching you.” she says, arms crossed “I’ll have to go now, I have papers and incompetent people to correct.”
And she left.
Jiang Cheng stared at his phone. It was 10PM in the evening. Wei Wuxian hadn’t come back yet. His mother and father were busy with work. His older sister was several cities away with her boyfriend, attending culinary school.
He was alone.
Fuck.
He exhaled, though it sounded and felt shaky and uneven. Knees tucked underneath him, and his spine curving, and he held his head with his hands. Tears dropped from his eyes, his shoulders trembled, and there was a slight hitch to his breath.
He had forgotten.
His parents had a marriage of convenience, and were so incompatible that they were unable to stand each other. Their marriage is of hard eyes, cold faces, distant and resentful to each other. Jiang Fengmian was arranged to marry Yu Ziyuan, and so he married her. He was gentle and quiet, a contrast to his willful and loud wife. He did not like her, could barely stand the sight of her, and that meant he did not like his children with her. He might loved his eldest, the daughter who took after him. But he could hardly look at his son, his heir, who resembles so much of his wife. Yu Ziyuan was a woman of pride, who came from a similar background of her husband. She was bitter that she could never compete to the white moonlight of her husband’s heart, that she would always be competing with a ghost, but she was furious and resentful that not only had she have to live with that woman’s son, but that boy shadowed Yu Ziyuan’s own son. It was a slight to her pride, and Yu Ziyuan never forgave Wei Ying and she had never let Jiang Fengmian forget it either.
They should have gotten a divorce, why they didn’t, Jiang Cheng doesn’t know. He doesn’t care. He’s had years to deal with their loss, and he has moved on.
But he had returned to the past. He was sixteen again, and everyone he had lost are all alive and well, and now he has to face the reality of who they were and the role they played in his life.
Jiang Cheng remembers. Their anger and resentment to each other had bled on the children in the house. Whenever they would have to eat together, Jiang Cheng would dread it every single time. How could he not? They would always argue in front of them, even sometimes escalating into yelling and screaming, of throwing things at each other, before his father would walk away with dislike, dissatisfied and disappointed while his mother would scream at him and Wei Ying.
Wei Ying didn’t want to do anything with him. Most likely because he was sick and tired of being shit on by Jiang Cheng’s mother. His older sister is so far away, studying culinary with her boyfriend. His parents are not here, they won’t come home, and judging the anger in his mother’s eyes, she would rather kill Jiang Cheng than allow him to not go to college.
And, and Jiang Cheng is here from the start. From the beginning - before the beginning, and yet he’s falling apart in just a day. Jin Ling was gone, dead - no, not dead this time, not born yet. A shudder, and hiccuping through his silent tears, Jiang Cheng curled to himself much tighter. He misses his nephew so much. He wants to see that boy again, deck that stupid idiot on the head before pulling him into a tight hug. Break his legs so he can’t escape for stupid ideas. Feed him until his cheeks become round and pudgy again. Just make sure he stays safe and sound, happy and unharmed, just far, far away from danger.
He has so much to do. So many plans to prepare for the incoming catastrophe. He can prevent so many unnecessary death. He has to kill some people to make sure they don't cause trouble and unnecessary death.
Jiang Cheng has so much to do and doesn't even know where to begin, and he's falling apart because Wei Ying doesn't want to do with him, his mother shutting him down before hearing him out, and that he had time travelled had finally sunk in and settled. There are so many ghosts, ghosts that have haunted you, that you grieved and mourned, and having to deal with them in your nightmares and dreams. Jiang Cheng was well aware of his parents flaws, and very well aware as the years flew by, and he has come to terms with it.
He always had thoughts of wanting them back, despite never being good parents to him.
And now he's returned as a boy with a father who dismisses him and overlooks him, a mother with heavy expectations on him, and a friend who was going to leave, and a sister very far from home, from safety.
Jiang Cheng finds it in himself that he doesn't regret anything at all. He loves them still, will always will, and he will save them from their fates. Jiang Cheng wipes his tears with the back of his hand, and sniffled. Of course he was troubled, it had hurt to be dismissed and it had hurt to be yelled at, and their expectations of him was heavy to bear. But they were, are, still ghosts in his head. He had outgrown them, had moved on from them, and so the pain and hurt were dull as a breadknife.
But he has a lot of things to do, and staying here wouldn't help him. In fact, he would be held back, be distracted, if he stays here. He may love his parents and will do anything to keep them alive, but Jiang Cheng didn't go back in time for them. He came back for A-Ling.
He has to fix things.
Jiang Cheng is currently 16 years old, and he had two years before the First End comes with a Gate appearing above Y City, ripping the sky in its existence, a vortex of a red portal that spits out many monsters.
Two years to prepare and plan.
He had needed help from Wei Wuxian. He had needed help from his mother.
There is only one person left, the one person who could help him and not disappoint him as the other two had.
A-Jie.