Jiang Cheng's Honest Feelings (Xicheng)

Chapter 14: Returning to Hanshi

"Zewu-jun!" Distant shouting could be heard as he ran out of the cave, he was in the Cloud Recesses once more. "Zewu-jun!" the man behind him shouted once more. But Lan Xichen did not stop, not until Wei Wuxian caught up to him and physically whirled him around tightly gripping his shoulder forcing him to stay.

"What!?" Lan Xichen snapped, he did not have the patience to deal with his brother-in-law. Not right now.

"How could you leave him behind? After you left she threw us out, she wouldn't even allow another trade. You know what this means right?" Wei Wuxian shook the still out of breath man in front of him. "It means we can never get him back." he shouted into his face. But the Wei's distress wasn't able to stop the swirling urge Lan Xichen felt.

"Leave me alone. They were all fake" None of them had been the real Jiang Cheng. "At least this one won't disappear in a couple of days." This one was an original.

"How can you say that, have you gone crazy?"

"So what if I have?" Lan Xichen responded before he had time to think. Not that it wasn't true. There was nothing sane about his current behavior. Wanting to lock himself up inside Hanshi with the box he'd brought along from the place they'd just left. With explanation it was crazy, without it it must look even worse. But he didn't care. "Let go of me"

Lan Xichen shrugged off the Wei and stomped away, carefully balancing the box he held in his hands. Taking great care not to rock it unnecessarily.

"Was it really that bad that you chose that thing instead?" Wei Wuxian pointed to the large box the Lan had brought along with him. The thing that he had chosen to exchange his headband for. Soon the rest of the group caught up them, they too had seemingly also gotten thrown out by the woman. Lan Wangji blocked his path, forcing him to face the group and provide an explanation.

Placing the box on the ground, Lan Xichen used his spiritual energy to undo the lock. Opening the lid, 'the most aggressive creature known to man' soon reared his face. A pair of bloodshot eyes squinted as they were met by the bright sunlight after having spent who knows how long locked up in the darkness of the box. Lan Xichen hunched down to undo the gag covering his mouth.

"Every single one of you, IDIOTS!" Jiang Cheng shouted as soon as he was able to speak again. There were still a couple of ropes binding his arms and legs, but being outside of the power-suppressing cave Jiang Cheng had no problem getting himself free. "Turns out I can't rely on anyone but sect leader Lan. Not my brother, not my oh so famous and powerful brother-in-law, not even my own nephew. USELESS, all of you" he shouted whilst violently pointing at each of them in turn.

CLANG CLANG CLANG

After getting all of his anger out, Jiang Cheng took a deep breath.

"I can't believe you couldn't recognize me" he mumbled quietly, more so sad than mad.

"Hey, they were all identical to you. It was impossible to tell them apart" Jin Ling defended himself. He had tried his very best to find his uncle and no one, not even the uncle himself, was allowed tell him otherwise.

"Clearly not. Zewu-jun managed to find me just fine." Jiang Cheng argued back. An undeniable fact, despite not even being in the lineup of options the Lan had still managed to find him. That could not have been a case of luck.

"It really did seem impossible... So how come you managed to find him?" Wei Wuxian posed the question towards his brother-in-law who ever since releasing the beast had come to his senses and composed himself, being back to his regular self.

"The bell" He pointed to the small bell still attached to the Jiang's hip. "His emotions didn't match up to what any of the others were experiencing" To confirm his suspicions of Jiang Wanyin being in the box he had gotten the attention of all the Jiangs in the room before doing something they couldn't stay reactionless to. Whether he was experiencing it himself or watching from afar, for sect leader Lan to kiss him would certainly cause sect leader Jiang to have some sort of reaction, good or bad didn't matter. He just needed the Jiang to give him a reaction. But there had been none.