With a heavy heap of magazines, wrapped up in wrapping paper to hide what they truly were Jiang Cheng headed towards the Nies' place. Knocking on the door stumbling could be heard coming from the other side. Huaisang was the same as ever. Opening the door Nie Huaisang met him with a smile.
"Look I didn't jump this time!" he said with great glee, as though not being terrified of your friend was a great accomplishment.
"You didn't. I would want a trade back, could you get me my notes?" Jiang Cheng asked as he handed over the stacks of porn.
"O-of course. I'll go get them, they were very useful" Nie Huaisang said in the least convincing way possible. He had likely not even opened the first page. Ever a terrible student, but ever a great friend.
"I assume you're here for me?" asked the man who had watched on as his roommate had scrambled to the door and now out back to look for the papers. He had silently watched the two cultivators' interaction and knew from the beginning that the one the Jiang was really here to meet wasn't Nie Huaisang.
"You're not as dumb as you look" Jiang Cheng commented before turning around and gesturing for the worm to step outside with him. It would take a while for Nie Huaisang to return but this was a conversation better kept away from him. Leading him behind the building away from unwanted eyes Jiang Cheng glared at the man.
"What's your defense?" Jiang Cheng asked, his hand grasping the hilt of Sandu.
"What do you mean?" the worm responded his voice filled with a mix of confusion and surprise. If you didn't know better you'd think he was innocent. He wasn't.
"I mean your actions almost killed Zewu-jun, give me a reason why I shouldn't end your life right here and now." Jiang Cheng was furious, images of his mother swinging her sword towards his lover's throat flicking through his mind. "Only reason your head isn't already on the floor is because my fiancé wouldn't like to see you without it" he hissed.
"Fiancé?" The worm asked, ignoring the Jiang's previous threats as though they had never happened.
"Yes, your little plan backfired. You're looking at the future Lan Furen." Jiang Cheng said with a proud smirk. His parents' arrival meant him and Lan Huan no longer needed to keep their relationship a secret. Jiang Cheng was now the Zewu-jun's official partner. A fact that would soon spread across not only the Cloud Recesses, but also the entire cultivation world. "So you should just give up already, he's mine."
"So Zewu-jun turned out to be a cutsleeve?" the Nie asked with his eyebrows raised in surprise.
"..."
The worm sighed heavily, his act fully gone as the Jiang didn't seem to care either way. "Had I known I might have actually been your love rival" the worm said with a joking tone.
"Wait... You don't love him?" Jiang Cheng asked. After all of that touching and getting closer to Lan Huan the worm hadn't liked him in the same way he did? That didn't make any sense, this had to be another game played by the Nie, his façade simply replaced by another.
"All of you constantly remind me how I'm nothing. But when it suits you, you go and forget about it. Young master Jiang is a respected and talented cultivator, a future sect leader, and now also the fiancé of the most eligible bachelor there is. Compared to that I am nothing, and without Zewu-jun on my side I'm stuck being nothing." None of what he said was wrong. Lan Huan was the only one who didn't instantly ignore the worm, he was probably the only one who actually cared. But even now Jiang Cheng held no sympathy or pity for him.
He held a cozy enough spot in the Nie sect and had somewhat gained the trust of sect leader Nie. But judging by the way he treated Zewu-jun that relationship was likely based on lies and manipulation as well. He stuck to them like a disgusting leech.
"I need him more than you do. Don't tell me I didn't warn you, it's still not too late to go back home to Yunmeng" the Nie threatened. He didn't want the Jiang to interfere and would prefer him to go back with his parents. Jiang Cheng was about to reply as his friend interrupted.
"Jiang Cheng!" Nie Huaisang called out from the entrance of the Nies' house.
"Over here" Jiang Cheng replied, inviting the Nie over.
"I-I'm so s-sorry. I-I must have misplaced them whilst studying." The Nie bowed deeply as he apologized, but at the end of the day it wasn't his fault. Nie Huaisang hadn't even touched the papers since he got them a couple of months ago.
"Don't worry about it, Meng Yao just complimented how neat my handwriting is. He must have borrowed them from you a little while ago" The same handwriting which he had copied when sending a note to Yunmeng. Even when using the Jiang's notes as a reference it was impressive how well he had imitated his writing style. Truly wasted talent.
"I'm sorry Huaisang, I thought I told you but perhaps I forgot. I'll go get them" the worm said, sounding perfectly apologetic. But even if he hadn't put his act on again Nie Huaisang wouldn't have noticed. You could practically feel the relief flowing out from him as he realized he wasn't the one to lose the Jiang's stuff.
"Congratulations on your engagement by the way" The Nie said as the worm left to go grab Jiang Cheng's papers.
"You've heard already?" he asked, because of how recent everything was the word had yet to spread, not even the worm had heard about it yet.
"Wei Ying told me as he explained how it wasn't theft this time." Wei Wuxian had been running around with Lan Wangji's headband for the past hour making sure there wasn't a single Lan left in the Cloud Recess the dark about what had happened. He would make damn sure he wouldn't need to wait more than a month. It was surprising that he hadn't been caught by Lan Qiren yet for breaking the rules as a result of all his running and harassing the disciples, but perhaps there was a lot of paperwork needed to be done as a result of both his nephews getting engaged.
The other Nie soon returned with the Jiang's stack of papers, which Jiang Cheng would carefully look through once he got home. He needed to be sure none of the pages were missing so that the worm couldn't attempt something like this again.
"I'll need to head out. There's a lot of preparations to be done" Jiang Cheng said as he excused himself. But as soon as the Nies were both back inside he made a sharp turn to the right, walking straight into the nearby forest by which he had just talked to the worm. Walking up to an old tree with a large trunk he placed his papers on the ground before sitting down with his back against the tree.
"You were right. He doesn't like you like that" Jiang Cheng conceded, but his lover wasn't happy about this revelation.
"I would've preferred to be wrong" Lan Xichen said with a solemn voice, he had just lost who he thought had been a friend. When Jiang Cheng had said he was going to confront the man who had written the paper he had wanted to hear it with his own ears so he had come along and hid in the forest, close enough to overhear their conversation. Close enough to feel the betrayal. Jiang Cheng placed his hand atop Lan Huan's.
"It sucks but you hadn't known him for all that long. You couldn't have been expected to know better." He had never been one to comfort others, that was his siblings' role. As much as he loathed to admit it he was usually the one in need of being comforted. To Jiang Cheng the worm's act had been obvious, but Lan Xichen hadn't seen a reason to distrust him. Unlike the Jiang whose stomach swirled with jealousy each time he had made a move, Lan Huan had no reason to question his innocuous actions.
"You're right, it's only been a couple of months." Lan Xichen nodded his head and once he wore his usual smile once more. He was probably still not fine, but he was ready to act as though he was. "It's the same as when I found out just how many rules my fiancé was breaking behind my back"
Jiang Cheng froze, having walked right into a trap. In order to bring back the magazines to his friend he had needed to get them from his place. Having just claimed that he was confronting the man who had caused them so much harm Lan Huan didn't want to leave him alone in fear of him heading off alone and getting into danger. As such Jiang Cheng had made the Lan promise not to punish him for what he was about to see. Pulling out stacks upon stacks of adult materials the Jiang had grown more and more embarrassed as his lover realized just what he had intended to "study" all those months ago. Back then when the Lan had offered up becoming his tutor because of how "enthusiastic" he had been to learn.
"From what I've observed it's clear that you get yourself into far too much trouble to remain unsupervised" Lan Xichen stated in the same way he handed out punishments to the guest cultivators who broke the rules. He spoke slowly and with great authority, his words were not to be questioned.
"Yeah?" Jiang Cheng urged him to continue. He felt like he knew where this was going and it was not a bad direction.
"You should move in with me so that I can keep an eye on you." Jiang Cheng nodded his head in agreement.
"Yes, we can't have the future Lan Furen be caught behaving unbefitting of a Lan. We should act fast before it's too late." Standing up he reached out to help his beloved off the ground. No longer weighed down by the Nie's betrayal a stunning smile danced on his lips. Jiang Cheng once more recognized just how lucky he was. The man in front of him, his man, was beautiful inside and out. Picking up his papers from the ground the two walked side by side towards the Jiangs' place which would soon become Wei Wuxian's alone.
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A/N: As soon as I read the Bichen story I knew we needed a Xicheng equivalent and I felt like Jiang Cheng sucking off Liebing was the best comparison.
This whole story is one big experiment, not only is it the first mature story I've written (I'm so flustered just reading it, I don't know how I managed to write it to begin with), but it is also the first time I'll try having extras. Meaning that despite this being the final chapter there will be one additional chapter after this. So if you're curious how sect leader Jiang managed to convince Lan Qiren to accept Lan Huan and Jiang Cheng's marriage then stick around for the next, and final, upload of this story.