Jiang Cheng tries not to think too much about that night, about how afraid he had been. He hadn't been scared to face Jin Guangyao; he hadn't been afraid of meeting any other man or woman in that place, hadn't been afraid to fight them. The only thing he had been afraid of was losing his nephew, losing another member of his family, seeing someone else's life stolen from right in front of him. That had scared him almost more than anything else - and instinct had guided him more than anything else, leaping in front of swords and danger to protect his nephew and brother both.
It had come as a shock to Jiang Cheng as much as he is sure it surprised Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.
It's equally hard to rationalise his place in it when his life has been a long list of failures, from childhood to growing into the Sect Leader he was today. His stomach twists and all he can do is breathe out, frowning as he tries not to let his emotion get the better of him - again. Weak, vulnerable, foolish, all words from his mother what whip him like Zidian even now. ]
Don't act as though you were not the hero in the temple, Wei Wuxian. He was saved because of your Demonic Cultivation.
[ The kind he had tracked down and hunted for years. His attempts - fighting, trading his life for a-Ling - had failed. ]
What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do? I know what I have done in this life, Wei Wuxian. I do not get a second chance.
again i am the slowest of slows
Jiang Cheng tries not to think too much about that night, about how afraid he had been. He hadn't been scared to face Jin Guangyao; he hadn't been afraid of meeting any other man or woman in that place, hadn't been afraid to fight them. The only thing he had been afraid of was losing his nephew, losing another member of his family, seeing someone else's life stolen from right in front of him. That had scared him almost more than anything else - and instinct had guided him more than anything else, leaping in front of swords and danger to protect his nephew and brother both.
It had come as a shock to Jiang Cheng as much as he is sure it surprised Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.
It's equally hard to rationalise his place in it when his life has been a long list of failures, from childhood to growing into the Sect Leader he was today. His stomach twists and all he can do is breathe out, frowning as he tries not to let his emotion get the better of him - again. Weak, vulnerable, foolish, all words from his mother what whip him like Zidian even now. ]
Don't act as though you were not the hero in the temple, Wei Wuxian. He was saved because of your Demonic Cultivation.
[ The kind he had tracked down and hunted for years. His attempts - fighting, trading his life for a-Ling - had failed. ]
What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do? I know what I have done in this life, Wei Wuxian. I do not get a second chance.