How Jiang Cheng Found Out About Sizhui’s Identity

How Jiang Cheng found out about Sizhui’s identity

Inspired from Wangxian (no romance here tho) / Sick!JC

Things had gone wrong that night. They were night hunting (Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jin Ling, him and a handful of Lan disciples) in a remote place, a forest located two days’ walk from Gusu. Jiang Cheng had been reluctant at first, but ended up joining the expedition, along with Jin Ling.

 But then naturally, things went wrong. They were attacked by a particularly vicious ghoul and he ended up injured while trying to create a diversion. The group had to scatter. This is how he found himself alone with that Lan disciple Wei Wuxian doted on all the time (Sizhui, was it?). The boy kindly offered to help him walk to a safe place in order to treat his injuries and the sect leader had to swallow his pride and let Lan Sizhui support him for the rest of the way. They limped to an abandoned cave just as the wind was starting to blow harsher. There, Lan Sizhui treated him with a gentle poise and the patience of a saint, while Jiang Cheng cursed at Wei Wuxian during the whole process.

 Surely, the Yilling Patriarch’s bad luck had followed them to the cave because shortly after, a storm broke out outside. It seemed like their rescue would have to wait until the weather settled down. Lan Sizhui insisted that he lied still while he lit up a fire in a dry corner of the cave. Jiang Cheng pensively watched as the boy took out their provisions. The Lan disciple couldn’t be more than 20 years old, yet his eyes showed assurance and wisdom, which made him look much older, and more experienced than the other boys his age. He spoke in a soothing voice that put the sect leader immediately at ease. The Jiang sect leader was secretly glad Jin Ling had such a friend. 

After a few hours, the Jiang sect leader started shivering and aching all over and Sizhui declared that he had a fever. The cold and the pain kept him drowsy but unable to sleep and he found himself whimpering pitifully, delirious from the fever. Sizhui tried to make him drink from a flask, hoping to soothe his pain with medicine, but the bitter taste only soured his mood further. The boy helplessly put the flask away and went to rummage through his bag. For a moment, Jiang Cheng heard nothing and wondered if the young disciple had finally had enough and given up on trying to heal him.

 Suddenly, he heard the clear sound of a guqin in the cave. A few light notes and then, that soothing voice again. It was a lullaby. The kind a mother would sing to a stubborn child to put him to sleep. As soon as he recognised the melody, a quiet sob escaped him. This wasn’t just any lullaby; it was what his sister used to sing to him and to Wei Wuxian when they were still two rowdy boys, always sneaking out of their room to go swimming in the middle of the night. When Jiang Yanli had died, he had thought that he would never hear it again, for his sister made up the song entirely. Only Wei Wuxian and he heard it and he wondered in a corner of his mind if all this wasn’t just an hallucination due to the fever. He felt his heartbeat slow down a little. As tears slowly crept up his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, he finally fell asleep.

 Later that night, he dreamt of fire. Everywhere around him was chaos and death. Hearing a small gasp and the rustle of leaves behind him he turned around. His eyes met those of a toddler, no older than 3 or 4 years old, looking back at him with horror on his face. Jiang Cheng took a step forward and the child stumbled back with a whimper. Suddenly, from behind him, Wei Wuxian’s panicked voice screamed.

 “A-Yuan!”

 The next day, his fever subsided and help finally came. Wei Wuxian was there too, and he looked very happy to see them both safe and sound. He rushed towards the boy and called out to him in a sigh of relief.

 And so, Jiang Cheng knew.

I probably made some mistakes since english isn’t my native language, sorry about that !