✧𝔻𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ~ 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃~✧

✧Nie Huaisang- Not Good Enough ✧

EVERYBODY KNEW THAT the heir to the leadership of the Nie clan couldn't cultivate well at all, it wasn't a secret. But they didn't know what happened behind the scenes as a result of him being unable to cultivate well.

You were one of the few that knew. You were the younger sister of Nie Mingjue and the elder sister of Huaisang, and you loved your younger brother with all your heart. Sadly, your elder brother didn't feel the same, and neither did his advisers. Many times you would return home and see Huaisang on the ground with his shirt off being beat brutally by the older and stronger ministers. At first you passed it by as just typical punishment, as he was quite a rule breaker, but after it happened many more times, you couldn't just pass by it anymore.

You were a brave and smart girl, and you were well-versed in the rules of your clan and other clans. Unlike the other women in cultivation clans that were all content with being used to produce offspring and cook and nothing else, you were exceptionally skilled at cultivation, almost as skilled as your prodigy brother Mingjue. Due to your great level of power, you would absolutely not accept being a useless wife, and you were already outspoken even at your young age. You decided you might as well use your outspoken qualities to save your darling younger brother.

So, on one late night, you went to your brother who was resting in his room and said flat out, "You need to stop beating A-Sang. It's useless and it accomplishes nothing but scaring and hurting him. He hides whenever anyone raises their hands now, and when someone yells, he jumps. He can't take much more of this! Do you want your brother to die?!"

Mingjue just stared at you, bug-eyed. He blinked a couple times before responding in a way that was absolutely not what you wanted.

"He deserves it. If he can't cultivate, he's just a disappointment. If he dies, it will simply be the death of someone useless. I feel no love for him, and you shouldn't either. If it really bothers you so much, just close your eyes and don't listen when he's beating beaten. I won't stop what's deserved and logical. You'd have a better chance shooting the sun out of the sky than getting me to stop Huaisang's punishments. He just got beat a few minutes ago, in fact. If you want to see him, go to his bedroom. Comfort him all you want, he's due for another one tomorrow."

You twisted your lips up in a hideous snarl at your older brother before rushing to Huaisang's bedroom. If he had just been beaten, he had to be exhausted, exhausted and scared. You felt terrible for never comforting him earlier, he deserved a sister's touch. Your younger brother deserved the world.

What you saw when you entered your brother's bedroom hurt your heart. Huaisang was writhing on his bed, tears and sweat streaming down his face. When he moved, you could see red cuts on his back. Had they beat him with a whip today? They had the audacity to treat their young master so terribly?

You laid your hand on Huaisang's bloody back and sighed when you heard him whimper. Your poor, precious, gentle brother...

"A-Sang, I'm here. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I'm so sorry," you whispered, feeling tears threaten to choke you.

He didn't respond, just kept tossing and turning. You could hear him muttering things under his breath, but he was too quiet for you to tell what he was saying.

"Sangsang, why don't you talk to me? What's wrong with you?"

Those words seemed to trigger him. He began to thrash around all the more violently, digging his nails into his sheets and screaming. You could hear what he was saying now, and you wished you couldn't.

"HURTS! Stop, stop, please! I' hurts- Sangsang is s'rry- stop, 'urts, -jie save m'!"

Due to the immense amount of pain he was going through, Huaisang was slurring his words when he talked, but it didn't take magic to recognize that he was calling for you.

And you hadn't come. You never came.

Tears flowed freely down your cheeks as you realized what a terrible sister you had been. It was a wonder Huaisang was still calling for you, you would've given up on yourself if you were him at this point.

As you were crying, you heard Huaisang say something that made you stop in shock.

"Jie, Sangsang is a disappointment. Sangsang knows... he's sorry... don't hate me. I'll disappear soon."

You didn't know what to say to that, so you let your reflexes take over. You threw your arms around your brother, ignoring his pained wails, and pushed his head into your lap, stroking his hair as he looked up at you with tears in his eyes.

"Sorry!" he kept on saying as he cried. "So sorry!"

"No, A-Sang," you sobbed. "No, I'm sorry. So sorry I left you in pain, that I didn't hear your cries for me. I'm so sorry."

After a few minutes of crying followed by silence, Huaisang shyly said, "A-are th-they going to h-hurt me ag-again?"

"No, they won't," you responded firmly.

"B-but th-they said- they s-said-"

"Pack your bags, we're leaving for Gusu."

Huaisang's eyes widened in shock at that, and it took him a minute to gather the wits he needed to actually do anything. But as soon as he could, he packed up all his bags under your supervision. Then he went with you to your room and stayed with you as you packed. You weren't going to let him out of your sight ever again.

After the two of you packed, you marched right into the throne room where Mingjue's advisers were sitting and drinking wine, lounging against the throne, some even having the audacity to sit in it.

When Huaisang saw the people who hurt him, he began to shake, and you could see that he was getting anxious again.

You took his hands in yours and whispered, "You'll never see them ever again. Just stay strong for a while longer." That seemed to lighten his spirits, and he left without many issues but a slight tremor in his hands.

Once you reached Gusu, you became a friend of the gentle Lan Xichen, and Lan Quiren admired your skill and love for your brother. They gave you a permanent home in Gusu, and even gave your brother textbooks on ornithology, which was a subject he really enjoyed.

As much as you missed home occasionally, you had to say, living in Gusu was much better for your brother, and whatever made him happy made you happy. You'd stay by him forever, until you died. Because that's what a good sister would do.