Sorry it's so late, real life is kicking me around. However. I am also running out of chapters. D: Gotta edit faster. Still, have this bit, one of the few bits that didn't have very many spoilers (and don't worry; everyone's okay at this point, and the only character death(s) are from canon. Never fear.)
Lan Xichen stops feeding spiritual power into Jin Guangyao’s injured hand and wraps it carefully in his handkerchief. Once it’s tied, he looks up into a-Yao’s big brown eyes (admiration. It’s admiration and always has been) and smiles.
“Feeling any better?” he asks.
“Of course,” Jin Guangyao says, pulling his hand back and rubbing gingerly near the burn. “Thank you.”
“Any time.” Lan Xichen smiles. “Do you have a date for your… conference?” he asks.
“A bit over a week,” Jin Guangyao replies. Taking a breath, he gestures at a servant to come get the forgotten teapot and turn back towards his residence. “I’ve sent out missives,” he says as they walk, “but imagine you likely missed yours, and Huaisang his.”
“It’s no matter,” Lan Xichen says, smiling. “If we could inconvenience you for a few extra days, I’m sure Huaisang would appreciate the time with Mo-gongzi.”
“What inconvenience would it be?” Jin Guangyao asks with a broad, genuine smile. “Er-ge is always welcome in Jinlintai, for as long as he likes.”
Smiling, Lan Xichen nods.
“So, tell me. How are preparations going? Is there anything I can help with?”
Jin Guangyao sighs fondly and shakes his head. “A great many things. This a-Yao will have to beg Zewu-jun’s assistance and be an inconvenience.”
“What inconvenience?” Lan Xichen asks, teasing a-Yao some.
Chuckling, Jin Guangyao nods. “Very well. Come, I’ll get us new tea and tell you what’s going on.”
Not once has he mentioned Jin Ling.
Like I said, don't worry!
Anyways, here's this week's snippet. I'll try to remember next week's in a more timely manner uwu.
The sun is shining brightly when Nie Mingjue steps onto the campus of the local university. He’s not yet old enough for people to stop and stare at him, but he feels wildly out of place nonetheless. It’s the middle of the day, so the place is bustling with activity and Nie Mingjue feels slightly uncomfortable with everyone rushing about.
Still, he shuffles forward, unsure of where he wants to go and right about now he wishes Nie Huaisang were there with him, because he would no doubt have a plan of where to go and what to do.
But Nie Mingjue didn’t think before coming here and so he’s a little bit lost.
He remembers the first time he visited this campus and he can very well still recall the wide-eyed wonder with which he’d walked around. From what he can make out, nothing much changed over the years.
Something not unlike regret swells in his chest when he sees a group of friends passing by, laughing loudly but he squashes it down.
He made the right decision back then.
It was either him dropping his studies or Nie Huaisang going into foster care, and really, there was no decision at all to make.
Of course he would put taking care of his didi above everything.
And it’s not really like he regrets it; everything worked out quite fine for them in the end. It’s just–Nie Mingjue is keenly aware that he missed out on a lot of experiences by not going to college and sometimes he wonders who he would be if he had gone to college.
But it’s not something he can–or even would–change, so it’s futile to ruminate over that.
Nie Mingjue decides to come back with Nie Huaisang next week, just so that he can see a bit more of the campus. He can already imagine Nie Huaisang complaining, but since this break was his idea, he can damn well do his best to entertain Nie Mingjue during it, even if he arrives late for it thanks to his own classes.
Mind made up, Nie Mingjue briskly turns around, intent on walking back to the hotel but before he can even make one step, he collides with someone.
“Fuck,” Nie Mingjue says as he stumbles, though he catches himself soon enough.
The other guy is not quite as lucky, because he falls backwards right on his ass and a cup of coffee goes flying through the air.
“Fucking hell,” he man mutters and Nie Mingjue twitches with how familiar the voice sounds.
Once Nie Mingjue is stable on his feet again he gets a good look at the other guy and his heart immediately drops into his stomach.
The guy he just ran over is Jiang Cheng, a decently famous youtuber. A youtuber Nie Mingjue watches almost religiously.
“I’m so sorry,” Nie Mingjue stutters out and refuses to admit that his heart beats just a little bit faster when Jiang Cheng looks up at him.
Nie Mingjue watches his cooking videos for inspiration, mainly, but he has to admit that Jiang Cheng’s voice has something of a soothing effect on him and Nie Huaisang likes to tease him about his celebrity crush.
Which Nie Mingjue of course doesn’t have. Not at all.
Jiang Cheng is still looking at Nie Mingjue but now there’s a small smile on his face. “I’m really sorry about that. Let me get you a coffee, as an apology,” he says and Nie Mingjue refuses to admit that he might be blushing.
He might be a little bit dense when it comes to matters of romance but he can definitely tell that Jiang Cheng is hitting on him.
“I ran into you, though,” he says and immediately curses himself.
What a stupid reply!
Jiang Cheng’s smile turns into a smirk as he holds out a hand to Nie Mingjue. Nie Mingjue takes it and hauls Jiang Cheng off the ground, suddenly keenly aware of the spectacle they must have made.
Jiang Cheng stumbles just a little bit too close once he’s on his feet and Nie Mingjue has to swallow hard when he looks up at him.
“Then maybe you should take me for an apology coffee,” he suggest, clearly not at all deterred by Nie Mingjue’s fumbling.
“I know who you are,” Nie Mingjue blurts out and Jiang Cheng blinks in confusion at him, before he warily takes a step back.
“You what?” he asks, clutching his bag a bit closer now and seemingly ready to run off at a moment's notice.
“I watch your videos,” Nie Mingjue admits because it would be the highly inappropriate to go on a date—is it even a date?!—with Jiang Cheng without telling him that.
“Good for you,” Jiang Cheng snaps and then winces at his own tone. “Are you following me? Are you one of those crazy fans?” he demands to know and Nie Mingjue takes a step back as he lifts his hands.
He very decidedly does not pay any attention to the flash of rage that goes through him at the thought that other people have stalked Jiang Cheng like that.
“No, I’m not,” he says and makes a face at how unbelievable it must sound. “I’m here on vacation, I didn’t know you live here. Or study, or whatever,” he rushes to add on and watches as Jiang Cheng straightens up and raises his chin at him.
“You look a bit old to be studying here,” he challenges him and Nie Mingjue gives him a sheepish smile.
“I am now,” he agrees. “I–was accepted here a long time ago, but life had different plans for me,” he tells Jiang Cheng.
“Can’t be that long ago,” Jiang Cheng mutters, giving Nie Mingjue a once over and Nie Mingjue flushes again when he hears it. “Fine. You can still take me for an apology coffee,” Jiang Cheng finally decides and Nie Mingjue can’t help but to raise an eyebrow at him.
“Who says I even want to?” he asks, mostly just to see Jiang Cheng flounder at least once and he’s not disappointed, though he can’t say he likes the flash of hurt that passes over Jiang Cheng’s face.
“You–”
“I was joking,” Nie Mingjue rushes out before Jiang Cheng can go fully defensive. “Of course I want to take you out for an apology coffee.”
Jiang Cheng relaxes slightly at his words.
“But?” he prompts, clearly noticing that Nie Mingjue wants to say something more.
“But do you think that’s wise? I mean, I did just admit to watching your videos.”
“Yeah, well, at least you admitted to it outright,” Jiang Cheng huffs out and his shoulders drop. “Usually people play all nice with me, and ask for my number and take me out on a date before they do that. So I guess that’s a point in your favour.”
“If you’re sure,” Nie Mingjue says and then looks around, not knowing at all where to take Jiang Cheng.
It’s not like he knows his way around here.
“I’ll tell you a good coffee shop if you tell me your name,” Jiang Cheng says, crossing his arms in front of his chest and Nie Mingjue flushes when he realizes how rude he has been.
“Nie Mingjue. My name is Nie Mingjue,” he introduces himself and watches as Jiang Cheng frowns, repeating the name to himself.
“That sounds familiar somehow,” he slowly says, narrowing his eyes at Nie Mingjue. “Is there–someone else in your family?”
“I–there’s my brother and my cousin,” Nie Mingjue answers. “Nie Huaisang and Nie Zonghui.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and then starts to laugh so hard that he bends over. “You’re Huaisang’s da-ge!”
Nie Mingjue is too speechless to say anything, he just stands there and stares at Jiang Cheng.
How the hell does he know Huaisang?
Before Nie Mingjue can bring his thoughts in order and actually formulate a question, Jiang Cheng gets himself back under control.
“Come on, I promised you a good coffee shop,” Jiang Cheng says and tugs on Nie Mingjue’s sleeve, clearly no longer reserved around him.
Nie Mingjue can do nothing but follow him, his mind still spinning, but he perks up when Jiang Cheng is about to shove him into a booth.
“It’s my apology coffee,” he decides and simply turns things around on Jiang Cheng by shoving him down to sit. “What do you want?”
“Oh, wow,” Jiang Cheng mutters, going a little bit red in the face as he swallows heavily. “Sure, here, let me show you,” he finally says and points to a sugary monstrosity on the menu.
Nie Mingjue doesn’t bat an eye at that though, because he’s used to worse from Nie Huaisang and simply marches off to place their orders.
“So, you know my brother, huh?” he asks once he’s seated and placed Jiang Cheng’s coffee in front of him.
“I do,” Jiang Cheng says with a smile and shakes his head. “And he didn’t tell you he knows me?”
“No, he didn’t,” Nie Mingjue says with a frown, because it only now occurs to him that he gushed to Nie Huaisang about Jiang Cheng more than once. “But it would explain how he always knows when one of your videos comes out.”
“He should know that,” Jiang Cheng agrees. “He’s the one who edits them.”
“Of course he is,” Nie Mingjue says with a weary sigh and rubs his temple. “I wouldn’t put it past him to have set this up,” Nie Mingjue mutters and Jiang Cheng shrugs.
“Did he send you on this vacation?”
“He did. He doesn’t know about the university, though, I don’t think, but there’s a good chance he found out about it anyway.”
“And why do you need to be sent on vacation? You seem rather unwilling, even still,” Jiang Cheng asks, his eyes on Nie Mingjue even as he leans back and takes a sip of his coffee.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Nie Mingjue admits. “I work a lot, yes, but I go to the gym and I do have friends that I see regularly. I guess it’s just–”
“That you don’t really take time off,” Jiang Cheng finishes for him. “When was your last vacation?”
Nie Mingjue sends him a look at that and Jiang Cheng laughs in his coffee.
“I see. So never.” He holds out his hand and only elaborates when Nie Mingjue frowns at him. “Gimme your work phone,” he says, wriggling his fingers as Nie Mingjue’s brows rise.
“What makes you think I have it with me?” he asks but of course the phone is burning a hole into his pocket right about now.
“I know your types. Of course you have it with you. Give it here.”
Nie Mingjue sighs, not too keen to fight over something like this—not when this not quite date is going really well so far—so he fishes the phone out of his pocket.
“I’ll have you know, it is turned off,” Nie Mingjue snappishly says and it’s not even a lie.
He’s just not going to mention that he logs in every evening to briefly check his mails and see if there’s anything that needs his immediate handling.
“For now,” Jiang Cheng says, clearly seeing right through Nie Mingjue and then he gives him a cheeky smile. “I’ll give that to Huaisang, I’m sure you have no need for it, right?”
“How would you know if Huaisang is coming?”
“He said something about being in town next week. It’s because of you, right? He’s meeting you? I will give the phone to him, so you don’t get any ideas during your time off.”
“You’re worse than my brother,” Nie Mingjue mumbles and busies himself with his coffee so he doesn’t have to look at Jiang Cheng too closely when he laughs again.
He doesn’t laugh a lot during his videos normally and now Nie Mingjue is kind of glad for it. He’s not sure he could handle it if Jiang Cheng always laughed like this.
“So what are you going to do while you are here?” Jiang Cheng asks him once the phone is safely put away and Nie Mingjue shrugs.
“To be honest, I’m not quite sure. Huaisang dropped me here without warning or a schedule and the university is the only thing I really know and wanted to see. I just thought of wandering around for a little bit,” he admits because it’s not as if he could lie his way out of this.
He hates being without a schedule or a definite goal in mind, even for this vacation, but Nie Mingjue guesses he can handle it for a week. Surely Nie Huaisang will show him around once he arrives.
“Unacceptable,” Jiang Cheng decides and holds his hand out again. “Now give me your actual phone,” he orders.
“What for? You can’t take that away from as well,” Nie Mingjue says and crosses his arms in front of his chest, unwilling to listen to Jiang Cheng with this demand.
“I’m not going to take it away. I’m going to add my number, because I’ll be your tour guide. It’s absolutely unacceptable that you have no idea what places to visit and I’ll make sure you actually get to see something of this town.”
Nie Mingjue’s heart starts to beat rapidly in his chest. It’s not enough that he has to sit here in front of Jiang Cheng and watch him laugh, now he’s also going to be his personal tour guide? That’s almost too much to take for Nie Mingjue.
“You have your classes though, right? I shouldn’t take up too much of your time,” Nie Mingjue says, because he really shouldn’t hog all of Jiang Cheng’s time, but Jiang Cheng shakes his head.
“I have like four classes the entire week,” Jiang Cheng shoots back, still wriggling his fingers for Nie Mingjue’s phone. “And no exams coming up, before you get started on that,” he says with a wink and Nie Mingjue fights the urge to drop his head in his hands and groan.
Jiang Cheng has absolutely no business being this enticing.
“I’m just not sure—” Nie Mingjue starts but Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.
“Mingjue, just gimme the damn phone. I intend to take you on at least four proper dates before Huaisang arrives and if you’re being difficult like that I won’t manage it,” he boldly declares and Nie Mingjue blinks in surprise at him.
“Dates?” he weakly whispers and Jiang Cheng nods decisively.
“At least four,” he repeats and in face of that Nie Mingjue is unable to deny Jiang Cheng anything. He hands his phone over.
“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng pointedly says and starts typing. “I already messaged myself, so don’t even think about not contacting me.”
“I would never,” Nie Mingjue breathes out and Jiang Cheng smiles at him, causing butterflies to erupt in Nie Mingjue’s stomach.
“Good answer. Now, here’s what I have planned—”
~*~*~
True to his word, Jiang Cheng spends most of his days with Nie Mingjue. He takes him to the more tourist-y spots the city has to offer, but he also shows him the secrets of the city, the places only locals would really know.
Nie Mingjue tries to pay attention to everything Jiang Cheng shows him, but if he’s being honest, he pays more attention to Jiang Cheng than to anything else.
And he’s not subtle about it either.
“Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng heaves out with a big sigh when Nie Mingjue doesn’t quite look at where Jiang Cheng is pointing to at the moment. “If this is boring to you, you should just tell me,” he goes on, but the small curve to his mouth lets Nie Mingjue know that Jiang Cheng doesn’t really believe him to be bored.
“I am interested,” Nie Mingjue says and almost doesn’t flush at all at the double meaning of his words.
“Clearly not enough,” Jiang Cheng tells him and before Nie Mingjue can argue, the smirk comes out in full force. “Because I’m still waiting for my first kiss.”
His words freeze Nie Mingjue for a moment, but then he moves right in, not wasting any time in bending down to kiss the sass right out of Jiang Cheng.
“Better?” he asks when they part and Jiang Cheng blinks dazedly at him.
“Much,” he decides and when he steps back he immediately reaches for Nie Mingjue’s hand to tangle their fingers together. “Now, as I was saying—”
~*~*~
“You think he’ll be surprised?” Jiang Cheng asks, craning his head to see if he can spot Nie Huaisang already.
“I think he’ll tell us that this was his plan all along,” Nie Mingjue gives back with a sigh, because he knows his brother well enough.
“But he planned it for this week. I can’t imagine he planned for us to run into each other like that,” Jiang Cheng gives back with a frown and Nie Mingjue raises their clasped hands to press a kiss to the back of Jiang Cheng’s.
It was a delightful surprise to find out that Jiang Cheng doesn’t mind Nie Mingjue’s physical affections at all and Nie Mingjue is making good use of that.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Nie Mingjue grumbles but he can’t really be mad, not when Jiang Cheng is pressed to his side so sweetly.
“There he is!” Jiang Cheng calls out, immediately waving for Nie Huaisang who lights up as he sees him.
Nie Mingjue kind of enjoys seeing his face fall when he sees Nie Mingjue right next to Jiang Cheng.
“You—have met?” Nie Huaisang asks and puts a smile on his face. “That’s so good.”
“Right,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and lets go of Jiang Cheng just long enough to pull Nie Huaisang into a hug. “We even got the dating thing out of the way, so you’ll have to come up with new plans for this week,” he then tells him on a whim and gleefully watches how Nie Huaisang’s eyes go big.
“No! You two were supposed to be pre-occupied so I could—” he bites his tongue there and Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow.
“Oh? You meant to ditch us to go meet Xuanyu?” he asks him and Nie Mingjue has never seen his brother blush but it seems like Jiang Cheng manages to make him effortlessly.
“Xuanyu? Mo Xuanyu?” Nie Mingjue clarifies and watches how Nie Huaisang shuffles his feet. “He’s in this city?”
Nie Huaisang doesn’t like to talk about Mo Xuanyu that much, but Nie Mingjue always had the distinct impression that he was still heads over heels for the other guy.
“He left for his studies, right?”
“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang whines and clings to Nie Mingjue’s arms. “A-Cheng is being mean to me!”
“We can go on double dates,” Nie Mingjue says with a grin while Jiang Cheng nods enthusiastically.
“Yes, that’s perfect, I haven’t seen Xuanyu in ages.”
“I hate you both,” Nie Huaisang grumbles and starts to walk away from them.
Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng share a look before they rush to catch up.
“We love you, too,” Jiang Cheng gives back and Nie Mingjue reaches out to ruffle Nie Huaisang’s hair, making him squawk in the process.
“That’s what you get for plotting,” he tells his brother with a smug grin. “But rest assured, Wanyin and I still need some alone time.”
“Ugh,” Nie Huaisang says as his hands fly to his ears. “That’s gross.”
“That’s love,” Jiang Cheng replies and gives Nie Mingjue a soft smile.
It is kind of a whirlwind romance, if Nie Mingjue is being honest, because it’s not even been a full week since he met Jiang Cheng, but there’s only one possible answer to it.
“It is.”
(It turns out that both Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu think of the other as the one that got away, and by the end of this trip they have their shit together enough to be in a committed relationship. Jiang Cheng finishes his studies that semester and even though Nie Mingjue figures it’s still a bit early, he asks him to move in once he’s done. Jiang Cheng gladly does and his channel grows even more once Nie Mingjue joins him for the cooking videos. They announce their marriage by wearing their wedding rings in one video and it completely blows Jiang Cheng’s notices.
Nie Huaisang still maintains that it’s all thanks to him that they got together and the first and only time Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue admit to that is during their wedding. Nie Huaisang cries almost more than they do. Mo Xuanyu sometimes wonders what he got himself into, but during his and Nie Huaisang’s wedding he cries more than all three of them put together.)
