Well its iirc said that the reason JGY is managing the whole crowd as JGS' right hand is because Zixuan's off on business, so maybe JGS purposefully did not send for his honorable hot head of a son in love with Yanli who may have derailed the meeting in a way not beneficial to JGS. Or MXTX just didn't want him there.
Ooh, this is interesting, and it gives me an excuse to go on about how JGY is presented when we see him serving his father at events.
At the Nightless City victory banquet, JGY's role seems to signify a decent amount of status. He's working the event, but JGS is there making announcements and greeting guests right alongside him and he has his own seat with the rest of the gentry, in a prime location right between his half-brother and his eldest sworn brother.
Fast-forward to the Phoenix Mountain Hunt the following month, and things have changed. JGY is master of ceremonies, explaining the rules of the competition during the hunt and commending everyone's performances at the banquet. He makes announcements at his father's behest and stands up on the dais near the throne, which seems like it's a privileged role, except that this time, he doesn't get to sit down.
He alone greets guests as they enter, he alone circulates in an attempt to deescalate the various conflicts his cousin instigates, he alone is responsible for finding more monsters to hunt when people throw a hissy fit about WWX catching too many. His half-brother, meanwhile, participates in the contests, goes on an awkward not-a-date with his crush, and spends the entire banquet (with all its drama) seated in silence. JGY's seeming authority prevents him from participating in the festivities the way that his supposed peers do. Yeah, he's by the throne, but he's standing--not unlike the servants.
Now, to be clear, he does have a place set for him! When he stomps over to try and make Jin Zixun stop bullying the Twin Jades into doing shots, he rises from the place across the hall from Jin Zixuan that's unoccupied in the second image.
So JGY's certainly afforded more status than a servant, but he's not being treated like a family member, either. No other Jin family members or disciples rush up with a bowed head alongside one of the maids to offer JGS a new cup of wine after JGS flips a table in anger at WWX's disruption.
And it's certainly not Zixun (who instigated the disruption and embarrassingly lost the ensuing power struggle) or Zixuan (who is still trying to marry the disruption's elder sister even after she publicly turned him down) who are getting wine thrown on them for their trouble!
All this is to say, I'm surprised to hear that the novel explains JGY's role as something done out of necessity due to Zixuan's absence, because my takeaway from CQL is that these responsibilities are a deliberate attempt to set JGY apart from Zixuan as different and lesser. Zixuan's right there and he does nothing, either in fulfillment of an assigned duty or of his own volition. I can't imagine him overseeing an all-sect meeting, even on something that didn't tangentially involve his personal life.
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