One glace at Jiang Fengmian and Jin ZiXuan’s shoulders inched up. Forcing himself to relax, he darted a glace at Jiang Wanyin and Wei WuXian. They both looked tense. Barely concealed annoyance at yet another “convenient encounter” with his former fiancee on a night hunt, and the resulting invitation to Lotus Pier, evaporated at the distinct feeling that something was wrong.
Jiang Wanyin stepped forward and greeted his mother, eyes ticking toward his father and away in a nervous motion. Not exactly unusual. Jin ZiXuan had long since noted Jiang Wanyin was always overly formal and stiff in front of his father, ever trying to please him. Wei WuXian was what gave him pause. Jiang’s Head Disciple uncharacteristically hung back as Madame Yu stepped forward to order accommodations for he and his Jin disciples to their greeting party. Grey eyes swept the assembly, lingering with a suspicious glint between Jiang Fengmian and Madame Yu.
Much as he despised him, Jin ZiXuan would acknowledge Wei WuXian came by his reputation honestly. That even he was edgy spoke volumes.
His attention was suddenly drawn to the side as Jiang Yanli stepped forward. She too seemed acutely aware of some sour note in the air, her hands fidgetting as she watched her parents stiff greetings with a pinch to her mouth that was going to leave creases in her lipstick. Not that he cared. A lock of Jiang Yanli’s hair brushed his elbow as the wind picked up.
“A-Xian.” she called sweetly, and Wei WuXian’s grave, assessing look dissolved into that usual idiotic smile. Deliberately not stepping back as she stepped forward, Jin ZiXuan watched as she turned a warm smile on her parents. The same one he’d seen diffuse their infamous arguments many times. Madame Yu subsided. Jiang Fengmian though…instead of his usual smile in return and gentle words, a look of veiled bitterness and suspicion crossed his face before his expression smoothed out into something faintly displeased, but otherwise unreadable.
A cold stone seemed to settle in his gut as Jiang Fengmian abruptly turned on his heel with a gesture to follow without acknowledging his daughters greeting. “Dinner will be soon. You’ll want to refresh yourselves first.”
Jiang Wanyin stumbled to follow, then hesitated before offering his arm to his sister, which gave Jin ZiXuan a moment to catch up.
“What happened?” Jiang Yanil whispered softly enough the sect leader and his wife wouldn’t hear as Wei WuXian moved to walk on her other side.
He could see Jiang Wanyin’s jaw tick from where he walked behind them and the glance he shared with Wei WuXian over her head. “I don’t know.” he responded at last, voice tense.
“He just got really quiet about a week ago.” Wei WuXian added when it was clear Jiang Wanyin wouldn’t say more. “He’s had meeting with his inner circle almost every day, and for some reason he keeps watching us.”
Jiang Yanli’s pretty face turned into a frown as she craned her head to look up at him. “Watching you.”
“Yeah. It’s weird.” another look was shared over her head. “Like he’s looking for something.”
“Or waiting for us to screw up.”
“Jiang Cheng!” Wei WuXian leaned improperly close to Maiden Jiang to hiss at Jiang Wanyin. “That’s not it.” turning back to Jiang Yanli, he frowned and seemed to debate with himself. “Its more like…he suspects something. Not like we broke some rules. We haven’t. But more like…a traitor?” his voice dipped lower, became uncertain with the wish to not believe what he was suggesting.
“He thinks someone betrayed him? One of you?” she sounded just as disbelieving.
“No. I - I don’t know.” Wei WuXian trailed off awkwardly.
A servant flagged the Jin disciples then and lead them to their usual guest rooms.
“I think it was a mistake accepting Madame Yu’s invitation.” one Jin disciple spoke as soon as the Jiang servant leading them left the room.
“Yeah. I don’t want to be here if they’re dealing with a traitor. It might me bad for our Carp Tower.”
“Or good. We can get the news first hand.”
Leaving the four of them to their gossip, Jin ZiXuan set about making himself decent for a meal. Briefly he wished he’d brought someone he was closer to and could speak freely with, but didn’t waste to much time on the thought. Taking some lower ranked disciples on a simple hunt on the pretense of helping them expand their cultivation was supposed to be a relaxing time away from the rumors and intrigue of Carp Tower. Of course he’d run into a similar mess anyway. This though…
Jiang Fengmian was an overly even tempered man. Even when in the middle of a fight with his wife, it was always her voice and temper that raged. His voice remained even and he made pointed remarks before walking away. He didn’t think he’d ever really seen the man angry. For him to be acting so unusually…Jin ZiXuan didn’t like it.
Dinner was unspeakably awkward.
Jin ZiXuan seripitously watched the sect leaders table as he ate and thought of what excuses he could use to leave Lotus Pier immediately after without insult. Madame Yu’s expression was especially sever, the mood in the room putting her on edge and sharpening both her moments and the few words she spoke in response to the sporadic attempts to start a conversation. Maiden Jiang tried. Offering news from the Meishan, then asking about the past few months in Yunmeng. Wei WuXian did a decent job of sounding cheerful about boat trips and training before Madame Yu snapped at him and a heavy silence fell. Jin ZiXuan was struggling to find more to say than a clipped “fine” to her latest attempt, inquiring about his own cultivation advancement - clever that, Madame Yu would never interrupt a conversation between the two of them - her honey brown eyes desperately grateful as he started to explain his frequent night hunts to train his juniors when he was interrupted by Madame Yu slamming down her teacup.
A disgusted noise escaped her as she turned to look directly at Jiang Fengmian for the first time. “Are you some pampered mistress? Sulking in silence and forcing everyone around you to walk on eggshells? If you have something to say, say it!”
“I am no one’s mistress.” Jiang Fengmian said slowly. Jin ZiXuan began to sweat at the mild tone, all at once reminded of his mother.
Madame Yu’s mouth tightened at the suggestive emphasis and straightened her spine in blooming outrage before visibly gathering herself. With a soft “che” she turned away from him, obviously just as thrown as everyone else in the now dead-silent dining hall, and just as obviously not willing to show it.
Turning just enough to put her back insultingly toward the sect leader, she instead spoke to Jiang Wanyin. “Well? How did you handle the disciples while I was away?“
Jiang Wanyin froze with his tea half-way to his mouth and cleared his throat, head jerking as if he wanted to look toward his siblings, then straightened his shoulders in a way remarkably like his mother just had. “The disciples have done well mother. Several have increased their cultivation enough to hold their forms longer than before. I had -”
“A-Xian did a better job.”
Jiang Wanyin blanched at his father’s voice. Trembling hands barely set down his teacup before he could drop it. Wei WuXian jolted as if stabbed, head snapping toward Jiang Fengmian with an aghast look, before turning toward Jiang Wanyin with a helpless expression, shuffling as if he wanted to leap from his seat and rush to his side.
Jin ZiXuan felt his stomach shrivel as the room stopped breathing. His juniors shuffled anxiously beside him. Had he really just….? At the head table, Jiang Fengmian was not even looking at any of them, half-lidded eyes pinned to some middle distance toward the door. Jin ZiXuan knew that look.
“What did you just say?” Madame Yu hissed like an angry cobra.
“A-Xian did a better job training the disciples.” he replied, mild as if commenting on the weather. “A-Cheng did well, but his teaching style is too much like yours. He pushed several disciples too far too quickly and nearly damaged their meridians.” Jiang Wanyin’s face twisted like he was going to cry and Jin ZiXuan desperately tried to find somewhere else to look, but only found Maiden Jiang’s eyes welling with tears as if she were crying for him. “A-Xian had no such issue.” Wei WuXian flinched and began to shake, head ducked too low for his expression to be made out.
“You. DARE?” Madame Yu slammed her hand onto the table and half rose with an aura of danger Jin ZiXuan had never seen outside of battle. “You dare show such blatant favor for that son of a servant?” she spat, painted lips twisting into a smile that made her beautiful face ugly. “Or are you at last going to admit it? Admit Wei WuXian is your bastard?”
“No.” Jiang Fengmians voice was soft with fury, steady with rage, but had a rising note of almost depraved triumph. ‘Oh shit’ Jin ZiXuan thought as Jiang Fengmian reached into his sleeve. With a flick of his wrist, a folded letter snapped out, bouncing off Madam Yu’s chest and landing on the table. Jiang Fengmian’s chin lifted in something too imperious to be defiance. “Though, apparently, A-Cheng isn’t either.”
“….what?” Jiang Wanyin choked into the stunned silence, but one look at Madame Yu and Jin ZiXuan knew. She stared down at the letter in recognition and a flash of panicked horror. Snapping her arm out and sending the letter and dishes on the table flying with a crash, she stood in one wild motion, then paused, struggling for words.
“How shameless.” Jiang Fengmian’s voice rose a notch as he stood to meet her. “Ho utterly shameless to put down A-Xian all these years as a son of a servant and throw another son of the same man at me a call him mine.” a wretched noise escaped Jiang Wanyin, almost covering Wei WuXian’s shocked gasp. Almost. Relentless, not seeming to notice or care who else was in the room, Jiang Fengmian continued. “How long did you carry on that affair with Wei Changze? Is even A-Li my child? Or perhaps I should ask the servants or the cooks who is her father?”
Jin ZiXuan thought of how Jiang Wanyin and Wei WuXian praised Jiang Yanli’s cooking endlessly and gasped at the vicious insult. Maiden Jiang sobbed and buried her face in her hands, alowing him only a glimpse of the hurt betrayal in her eyes. Wei WuXian moved, embracing her gently even as he stared up at Jiang Fengmian with the most naked emotion Jin ZiXuan had ever seen. Too much to define or name.
Madame Yu’s face rapidly changed expression and color. She snarled, rage overpowering the dawning humiliation at last. “Turn about is fair play, isn’t it?” she shouted. “Cangse SanRen seduced you so completely you never had a thought for me! I might have thought her a whore for how many men trailed after her. It’s only fair to seduce one from her for once.” she lifted her chin with a nasty grin. “I guess she wasn’t quite the temptress you imagined though. Wei Changze was all to easy to pull into my bed.”
A soft, pained moan drew his attention back to where Wei WuXian was embracing Maiden Jiang, though now her hands were pressing over his hair as if he were a child. Abruptly Jin ZiXuan recalled that Wei WuXian’s parents were not only dead, but had never been found to be properly buried and he had no ancestor tablets to offer them incense or prayers.
He didn’t make the decision to act, merely lunged up and across the room.
“I am divorcing you.” Jiang Fengmian’s voice deepened with the unspeakable wrath of the rarely angered.
Grabbing first Jiang Wanyin, then tugging the knot of sorrow that was Wei WuXian and Jiang Yanli apart, Jin ZiXuan rushed them out of the room, the disciples hurrying ahead and already pushing the doors closed as they passed through. The crack of a palm against cheek echoing behind them caused them all to stumble as the hall doors shut with a dull thud of heavy wood. Voices rose toward screaming from the other side and Jin ZiXuan’s only thought was They can’t see this. They shouldn’t hear this. Not letting go, he began dragging them away.
Guilty gratitude for his parents at least keeping their arguments out of his presence quickened his steps. What kind of person was he to feel such a thing when someone else’s family was ripping itself to shreds before his eyes? Pushing down his disgust with himself, Jin ZiXuan paused at the next intersecting hallway and shot a piercing glare at the most competent disciple.
“You. Go get our things. We’re leaving. Now.” after a moments thought, he turned to the three Jiangs, letting go of them with a strange reluctance. Wei WuXian seemed the most steady, but even he was greyfaced with eyes that darted back and forth as he thought things Jin ZiXuan was certain it was better he didn’t. “Wei WuXian?” he jolted at his name, then thankfully focused. “Go get your sword and Jiang Wanyin’s sword. We’re leaving.”
Pale and still speechless, Wei WuXian nodded, some animation coming back to him at the task. In a moment he was gone at a run.
“Young Master Jin! What are you doing?”
“I won’t leave them here.” he snapped. “We’ll take them away until this resolves itself.”
No. Absolutely not. Carp Tower would eat them alive, every social climbing dog would line up for a shot at them. But where could he go…
Gossip is Forbidden. Speaking of others behind their back is Forbidden. Slandering another’s reputation is Forbidden…
Lan QiRen’s droning voice rose in his mind like the lyric of a song that never left your thoughts. Those particular rules had stood out to him as a ridiculous contradiction to how Carp Tower functioned, and also for how they’d all seemed to be the same thing reworded. Trying to disguise boredom while the bright sun and warm breeze of a perfect day for hunting and training filtered through the window, he’d scoffed to himself and thought “So much for ‘3,000 rules with no repetition’”
“Gusu.” his own decisiveness surprised him.
“Gusu?” one disciple asked, bewildered.
“Yes, Gusu!” Jin ZiXuan was in no mood to be questioned. “It’s closer.” That sounded stupider out loud than he’d been expecting, but he couldn’t take them to Carp Tower and he couldn’t explain to a group of said social climbers. Already he could see the shock of what they’d witnessed bleeding away in favor of an eagerness to be the first to share the gossip.
“Jin ZiXuan,” he turned toward the soft touch at his elbow and frowned unhappily at the tears that greeted him. He didn’t want to marry her, but he didn’t want her to be so miserable either. Jiang Yanli’s mouth trembled as a heartbroken gratefulness overcame her face. “Thank you. You - thank you.” she swallowed thickly and tugged her brother closer. He nodded in acknowledgement, not sure what he could possibly say.
Jiang Wanyin’s dull eyes gazed at nothing. It was a kind of shock more common in civilian survivors of fierce corpse attacks.
“But young Master Jin! We have to report this to the sect leader!”
“Yes! This sort of news can’t wait, we should -”
“Then you lot return to Lanling!” Jin ZiXuan interrupted. “I am taking them to Gusu.”
Wei WuXian arrived then with not only their swords but also a couple quankun pouches that he divided between the three of them, ending any further protests. In short order, they were in the air. Jin ZiXuan carrying Maiden Jiang and moving slower than he’d like, but it was probably for the best as Jiang Wanyin appeared about to fall off his sword. Some well of strength and responsiblity had Wei WiXuan hovering a bit below and behind him, sharp eyed enough Jin ZiXuan decided to leave Jiang Wanyin to him for now.
The other Jin cultivators were a yellow dot in the distance toward Lanling.
He only hoped they would reach Gusu before Carp Tower’s swift messengers could have a party of the cruelly curious greet them at Cloud Recesses.
So, yeah. I’m not too confident about the fight, that’s why I went with an outside POV and only had part of it.
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