being maudlin about jc
the way he wasn't expected to get involved, at all, in raising JL or in JL's life - the way wanting to gave the Jins the upper hand in their relationship, the way JC could simply lose JL privilege
the way he clung to that, JL was his last remaining family in this world, JC had no-one left, and he clung and cherished and was so, so involved that the adult JL trusts 100% to defend and protect him, the adult he's comfortable mouthing off, the first adult JL names when confronting a situation is his maternal uncle? A dude that is roughly expected to have no involvement, by social norms.
JC only cares about social norms because flouting them can have consequences, but he's been in JL's life since before he was powerful and feared enough that he could simply not bother playing nice. (With the Jins he's never as powerful and threatening anyway; because they have JL.)
Maybe he made a point of building as scary a reputation as he could because that's what he can offer JL. For his maternal uncle to count, the maternal uncle must have a formidable reputation. So when JL says "my jiujiu will hear about this!" people stop.
He doesn't let anything get him away from JL, and JL loves and trusts him so much, and JC did so good with JL, loves him and was there and partly raised him.
