Ask not for whom the clarity bell chimes it chimes for thee

Ugh, Feelings

Disclaimer: MXTX owns MDZS I am only a wee fan. Also as CQL!JC and MDZS!JC have some major differences in characterisation, I'm going to be working with a mix of canons for his personality, and well I suppose on the whole it will be a sort of canon blend but heavier on the novel's events. Of course I plan for this to be some years after the temple incident where Jiang Cheng has had lots of time to reflect. Subsequently he'll seem a lot more eloquent when discussing his actual feelings instead of simply shutting down with strong emotion and only able to parrot things he doesn't even really mean just because he's incapable of processing and verbalising what it is he's really feeling.

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"Uncle!" Jin Ling panted, moving apart the lapels of his tent to find him sitting there with a cup of tea, "There you are!"

Jiang Cheng snorted, "Where else would I be A-Ling?"

His nephew scowled. "You could be sitting with the rest of us." He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Jin Ling had been setting him up. It was the third night hunt that he'd gone on with those friends of his that he'd actually invited Jiang Cheng to. Of course normally he'd follow Jin Ling anyway but Jin Ling used to scowl at him and pretend he was part of the scenery like the Ghost General who'd become his unwitting junior-stalking partner. He was surprised the first time he was actually invited. It wasn't until this last time however that he realised what his nephew was trying to do. Because on every occasion that he was invited someone else was too. Someone who his nephew tried very hard to get him to interact with.

"Go back to your friends A-Ling. You don't get much time with them as Sect Leader now do you? If you're taking precious time away from your sect for this the least you can do is use it well."

"How can I go back without you? I invited you, you know. Even Wen Ning is sitting around the fire with everyone and he doesn't even need to warm up!"

"Don't be stupid A-Ling you know very well that my presence will just make things awkward." As it had the past two times. The juniors were more subdued when he was around and Lan Sizhui looked constantly anxious and alert because if an argument started he would inevitably land up playing peacemaker. The Ghost General seemed to have exhausted his anger in one shot the night he shouted at him in his own home no less, and now spent the time fidgeting around him like he was a bomb ready to explode whenever they weren't busy spy-- protecting the kids. To say nothing of the other guest. Only the loudmouthed Lan seemed completely fine with his presence and he had to admit, the kid had guts. Well, except when confronted with ghosts apparently. A matter that gave him no small source of amusement when he really thought about it. It made the last night hunt slightly tolerable because it put him in a good mood --a cultivator afraid of ghosts! Who ever heard of it? (He found out this little fact when the unorthodox Lan was faced with the ghost of a butcher and was apparently way more terrified of the ghost than of him, given that he screamed at the sight of it and clung to Jiang Cheng like a particularly large baby...a move that startled him enough for Zidian to lash out and banish the ghost without him even consciously doing it. Lan Jingyi couldn't look at him for the rest of that hunt without turning beet red. It was hilarious. Contrary to popular belief, he did have a sense of humour. And if the action led to Jin Ling sticking closer to him than usual while petulantly glaring at the Lan all the while, well he wasn't going to complain...much.)

His thoughts sobered as his nephew, already worked up from running around to find him only to realise he was just in his tent all along, lost his composure. "I'm not being stupid! Is it so bad to want you two to get along?"

"Aha! I knew it. So you admit you've been inviting me so that Wei Wuxian and I would what, fall into each other's arms and cry and be bosom buddies again?"