Jiang Cheng says, “If you protect them, I can’t protect you.” And he means it. Not as a threat — as a heartbreak. He means, I want to. He means, I promised. He means, I would’ve protected you from everything if you’d let me. I was going to chase all the dogs away. I was going to be enough.
But Wei Wuxian doesn’t let him. Won’t let him. Won’t come back. Won’t listen. Won’t trust. And it kills Jiang Cheng.
Because to him, love has always meant choosing. And Wei Wuxian is making a different choice.
What Jiang Cheng says is, “I can’t protect you.”
What Wei Wuxian hears is, “You’re a burden.”
What Jiang Cheng means is, “Please let me protect you anyway.”
And Wei Wuxian—
Wei Wuxian says, “Then leave me.”
He draws a line because he has to. Because someone has to protect the remnants. Because they’re helpless and scared and he can’t sit back and do nothing. Because Jiang Cheng has a sect to lead, a family to protect. Because Wei Wuxian is not going to drag him into a second ruin.
He thinks he’s doing the merciful thing.
What he says is, “From now on, everything I do has nothing to do with Yunmeng Jiang.”
What Jiang Cheng hears is, “I’m choosing them over you.”
What Wei Wuxian means is, “I love you too much to take you down with me.”
They both walk away thinking they weren’t chosen.
They both loved each other first.
This is the tragedy of two people taught to love without ever being shown how to hold it.
Yu Ziyuan taught Jiang Cheng that he was unworthy of affection, that no one would choose him unless he made himself useful enough, obedient enough, perfect enough. JFM taught Wei Wuxian that love was conditional—soft and indulgent until it was tested, and then sharp, humiliating, distant.
Jiang Cheng loved like someone desperate not to be left. Wei Wuxian loved like someone expecting to be punished for it.
And when everything started burning, they both chose each other. Jiang Cheng stayed after the Wens. Took back his brother. Waited for him to come home.
Wei Wuxian left to protect him. Shielded him from the consequences. Told the world Lotus Pier had nothing to do with him anymore.
They never talked about it. Never said it out loud.
And that silence sat between them for years. Hardened. Soured.
They were taught to protect each other through sacrifice. So that’s what they did.
They were never taught how to stay.
