The Pods of Lotus Pier

Jiang Cheng always believe that people have something that defines who they are.  

For his sister, she was the protector and nurturer in their trio.  A-Li had grown up being interested in the traditional Chinese arts such as embroidery, tea ceremony, cooking, guqin, and other long and forgotten arts.  However if anyone threaten someone under her protection, Jiang Yanli would smile before slapping their head off their body.

For his brother, he was the creator and free thinker.  A-Ying had a mind that could unlock the secrets of the universe if he wanted.  He had created hundreds of new talismans and arrays, reconfigure mortal technology with cultivation, recreate lost cultivation tools from what little debris they could find from their travels, and often solved their most difficult cases.  If only the idiot could remember his damn wallet whenever he goes out.

For Jiang Cheng, he was always the fighter and the supporter. 

It took him a long time, much too long for his liking, to accept that he was not as talented as his siblings.  Jiang Cheng's older siblings were popular with strangers and have the ability to get along with people.  They also are talented with their cultivation and interests while he had to struggle with his spirit root and finding something he liked to do and be good at it. 

If he was born in another place and time, Jiang Cheng would have nurture a huge inferiority complex and become a bitter petty man.  Luckily, he had Uncle Wei who was just as ordinary. 

Uncle Wei was always patient with Jiang Cheng and stubborn enough to get the last Jiang male to talk about the insecurities in his heart.  After listening to the teenage boy's frustrations, Uncle Wei would patiently explain that Jiang Cheng was born to be a leader.  Being a leader did not mean that he had to be better than everyone else; he just needs to have the ability to lead those around him.  The older man also encouraged him to branch out and try new things.  So taking that advice, Jiang Cheng tried to find out what he was good at.

After several years of going to community classes, changes in degrees at college, helping out his siblings with their various projects, and working on The Pods of Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng finally figured out that he was good at supporting people.  While, he is unable to create a new dish or cake like Yanli, he was an excellent sou chef and often helped her with the cooking when they received a catering job (apparently, some rich fan wanted Yanli to cater their wedding reception.)  At the same time, while he could not invent a new machines or tools, Jiang Cheng was good at fixing broken ones or making the bits and pieces that Wei Ying often needed for his projects.

Then when The Pods of Lotus Pier started to get promoters, Jiang Cheng found his calling - fighting.  While he was good at fighting as a cultivator, the lone Jiang male found that he was good at negotiations which required fighting verbally for better benefits in their contracts.  The three siblings had learned the hard way when Wei Ying tried to lead the negotiations - it had led to A-Ying challenging everyone into a drinking contest with expensive liquor, and after that one sleaze bag proposed to their sister, it left Jiang Cheng to do the negotiations. 

And he was damn good at it. 

Jiang Cheng was also good at researching and getting the lay of the land before they started to produce their next episode.   

Thus, he was found the role as the supportive leader.  It was a pity that his cultivation spirit root did not match it.

When they laid dying, Jiang Cheng kept on fighting to move and help his siblings.

He took a break and woke up to keep fighting. 

And fighting.

And fighting.

And fighting.

Until he finally stopped and everything clicked together.  The moment Jiang Cheng stopped, he could feel his throat was sore, his eyes were puffy, and his nose felt runny.  He also felt fat.

For a moment, he silently took stock on his surroundings.  Sniffing, Jiang Cheng squinted his eyes and tried to sit up - he found that he could barely move properly.  It took far too long for him to roll on his front and push himself up to a sitting position.  Breathing harshly, he finally calmed down enough to look down at his hands.

They were tiny, pudgy, and scarless.  The clothing he was wearing felt hand woven - not like the clothing from modern machine or those woven by cultivation.  His feet were covered in tiny slippers - slippers!  Who the hell put slippers on his feet?!  However the most important thing Jiang Cheng notice was that everything looked too big.  There was only one explanation for this - he got cursed.

"Fuck!"

"Jiang Cheng!"

Blinking in surprise, he looked up to see...a manly woman?  They were looking at him in shock and was that another woman?  They were both wearing some sort of costume from a wuxia drama.  Who were these people?

"How did he learn that word?  I thought with all the crying he would not be able to hear anything." a harsh female voice snapped as he was picked up by the manly woman.  Jiang Cheng was pretty sure this was said by the other woman whose chest was more visibly female. 

"We must have said something to him since we are the only ones caring for him, my lady." a male voice replied tiredly.

Huh.  Jiang Cheng was wrong as he patted at the chest in front of him.  The manly woman was a dude.

"He is being oddly quiet for once." the woman grumbled as Jiang Cheng was passed from the man to the woman.  He looked disdainfully at being passed around but still remain silent.  He needed to find out what this curse was.  It looked like he was in a set of an ancient Chinese drama. 

"Father, mother, how are you?"

Jiang Cheng's head snapped to attention to see his sister as a young five year old child.  He quietly sighed in relief that he was not alone in this curse.  Impatient to be with someone he actually knows, he started to struggle out of the woman's grasp.

"Jie!"

"Hold still you xiao bendan!"

He snarled and struggled harder before his bowels loosen and a loud rip of air echoed the room before a disgusting smell floated upwards.

"My lady!"

"Little shit!"

As embarrassing as it was for Jiang Cheng, apparently farting was enough for the woman to let go as he fell to the ground.  Luckily, his sister had ran and caught him before it was too late.  He held and hugged her tightly.

"Jie." he whined.  His jie smiled sweetly and hugged him back.

"Didi is being naughty to fart in mother's face."

Mother?  Looking up at the woman was fanning her face in disgust and the man hovering over her, he tried to see if what his sister said was true.  He could barely see it since the last time he saw his mother, her hair was not elaborately done up in some weird hair style and her taste in clothing was fashionable and functional - not traditional and long.  Jiang Cheng had the vague memory that their mother only liked the fashion from the mortal realm and thought everything else was stupid.

"Of course his first real word is going to be his sister.  The next one better be mother." their mother(?) snapped as she glared down at the toddler who only looked up at her with an imperious look.  Like hell, lady.  He grew up without a mother for twenty years and he is too old to pander to such nonsense. 

Jiang Cheng yawned before clutching his sister tightly who only rubbed his back soothingly before looking up to their parents.

"Mother, Father, I think A-Cheng needs a nap.  I should take him to my room and we can nap together."

He barely paid any attention before feeling his sister carrying them away to somewhere before he nodded off to sleep.

When he woke up, Jiang Cheng learned that all three siblings had been reborn into another world and awaken as babies - fucking babies!

The more his sister told him of this new world, the worse he felt.  Primitive cultivation, lack of modern conveniences, and that he was once again the Jiang heir pissed him off.  In his previous life, Jiang Cheng did not have to take on the role of being the heir of Yunmeng Jiang sect because it was destroyed before he got a chance.  While in the beginning, he had been upset to lose everything; Jiang Cheng grew to accept his loses and appreciate the amount of freedom of being a rogue cultivator. 

Well, these 'parents' of his looked young enough to have another son, so maybe he could stick the heir business on his future brother.  Or sister - a little sister could be a sect leader too.

Too bad Wei Ying was traveling around this world with Uncle and Aunty Wei.  However he was glad that his brother is aware of being reborn.  Now, Jiang Cheng is busy trying to grow strong enough to start on basic cultivation.  He spent the day sleeping, strengthening his arms with push ups, kicking the air to strengthen is legs, and mediating with A-Li.  His sister mentioned it was cute how he would work hard in exercising only to fall sleep before waking up and starting all over again.  

It was honestly annoying how much sleep this baby body of his needed.  It kept him awake at night and it was boring at night.  He already escaped out of his crib several times - the rails were surprisingly low and easy to get out.  The pillow was large and thick which made a good cushion to fall on.  Apparently he did not have a nanny to watch him at night and he spent that time crawling around the area to see that his new home was built near a very large river and there was a heavy scent of lotus in the the air.  Unfortunately, he kept getting caught by either his father or some guards that they built a new crib with higher walls.

He got out of that by ripping out his blanket into strips and wrapping the strips on to the rails of the corner of the new crib so he could climb out like a ladder.  Jiang Cheng became exhausted from the extra work that he fell asleep after crawling out of the door way.

Now he current has a crib that has protection arrays to keep him prisoner.  Luckily, there arrays on the inside of the crib and Jiang Cheng is pretty sure that as soon as he can get a sharp tool and an extra large blanket; he would be making another escape attempt.

Luckily, today is the day that the Wei family was coming back to see the Jiang family.  Jiang Cheng was excited to finally see Wei Ying and prayed to whatever deity that sent them to this world that his brother's cultivation was the same.  That meant there was a possibility that Wei Ying still had most of their stuff locked in his spacial dimension.

Whenever they got ready for battle, the three siblings always carry a spatial ring that had the essentials like talismans, extra miscellaneous weapons, a simple cultivator's first aid kit, and money.  Everything else gets put away into Wei Ying's personal spatial dimension.  Which means that the van is in there as well as the jade slips consisting all the information they found from their own world.  His brother could recreate their weapons again!

Or weapons close enough - that piece of Polar Void Steel and the Yang Steel was nothing more than pure stupid Wei Ying luck.

Whatever, the important thing was that Wei Ying was coming back! 

And he and his sister have strategize plan after plan to keep their brother with them.

Wei Changze felt like a melon has settled in his stomach as the boat slowly approached the pier and the sight of the family in purple waiting upon them. 

Lotus Pier was once his home and he had spent many happy days there with his sect leader and best friend.  Memories of night hunting and having his friend' back and vice versa, of eating lotus seeds, of fishing and hunting, and sparring with the other disciples warmed his heart with a tinge of homesickness.  While he traveled around the country with his family, Wei Changze always believed that some day they would settle down to Lotus Pier and that his son would become a disciple of Yunmeng Jiang.

However as his wife and child were cheerful of meeting the new sect heir, Wei Changze was dreading it with a vengeance. 

Jiang Fengmian is a man who is calm and steady.  The sect leader rarely gives into any urge for power plays like the Qishan Wen Sect or the Lanling Jin Sect and can smile politely even if someone were to insult him to his face.

Except that over the past year, his best friend has been sending letters upon letters regarding the sect heir.  At first, Wei Changze was just amused that his friend was complaining about not having another perfect child like Jiang Yanli.  But as the letters kept coming with the same complaints, he was beginning to see that his friend actually had a problem.

A baby that constantly cries and screams is a serious problem.  He had suggested to get a shaman or healer to deal with the problem only to receive a letter that the healer ran away and the shaman had gone off on a journey after a weeks stay.  Also, the baby heir was now constantly peeing on both parents.  There were also hints of invitations to return to Lotus Pier, but those he ignored for the sake of his wife's urge to travel. 

It had nothing to do with his instinct that Jiang Fengmian would make him babysitting that demon baby.

Unfortunately, his best friend married a woman who did not give a shit about being nice and demanded that the Wei family return.  He could run, but Wei Changze had a feeling that Madam Yu would sent half of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect after them and her own maternal sect as well.

The gentle thud of the boat hitting the pier broke him out of his thoughts and the former head disciple gave a small smile to his old friend who was currently holding on to a struggling toddler.  Looking at the toddler, it was difficult to see how such a small being caused so much chaos.  Even Wei Ying who was a small of energy did not cause his parents to worry so much.

"Down!"

The toddler was also making himself heard with that loud demanding tone.

Wei Ying did not seem to think anything was wrong since he was toddling over to the little heir. 

"Didi!"

"Ge!"

The four adults looked that the two boys in horror as the Jiang heir was finally freed from his father's arms and was caught by his older sister who smiled and carried her baby brother to Wei Ying.  Wei Changze was impressed with how strong the little girl had grown.  He also felt a phantom pain as he remembered how two years ago his shins suffered blows.

He watched his son rubbing his cheeks with the sect heir who looked disgusted at the affection before clutching on to Wei Ying.

Wei Changze had the sinking feeling that his family was not going to leave Lotus Pier anytime soon.