Chapter Text
POV Yanli
A shiver runs down Yanlin´s back, and she knew by her instincts it wasn´t because of Wei Wuxian´s arm wound. It wouldn´t be the first time nor the last time both her brothers got hurt while playing, A-Xian should be perfect in a few days, even less with his high level of cultivation skills.
-Shijie, are you all right?- A-Ying was watching her with worried silver-moon eyes when she got lost in her thoughts.
It never stopped to astonishing her how little he cared about himself and how much he could worry about others. ‘A-Xian, you should worry about yourself more’ She thought quietly before giving a gentle smile, the deep unsettling feeling did not go away. “I´m alright, A-Ying”.
Fortunately her father arrived in a hurry to check on Wei Ying, after they reassured him she asked him to take care of the boy while she went and got them some food from the kitchen.
Jiang Fengmian agreed readily and gave her a soft tap on her head. Jiang Fengmian then started to talk animatedly with Wei Ying. Yanli smiled at the sight before she left the healing ward.
‘A-Cheng is taking too long’ Yanli reflected with deep worry, and the heavy unease feeling refused to leave her stomach. Her didi was supposed to report to their mother, so the punishment on Wei Wuxian could wait a little longer and give his arm some time to heal, but something was suspicious.
Yanli swiftly wandered down her A-Niang´s section of Lotus Pier, and towards her inner chambers. She noted the air was tense with desolation and that it was far too quiet.
¡Crackle!
Yanli felt the air in her lungs leave her sharply all at once. ‘It couldn´t be, right? A-niang is our mother and would never dare commit such a mounstrosity’. Jiang Yanli bolted to were the noise came from.
¡CRACKLE!
“What a waste of space” Yanli hear her mother utterly coldly precisely as she pushed the door to her inner room opened, and then she spotted Jiang Cheng laying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood “Jiang Cheng!” she cried with horror and anguish as she bolted over to didi´s side
Two pair of hands pulled her away from her little brother, some disciples carefully raised him. The older of the three Jiang siblings was still stunned, thinking of what she saw, wondering what happened ‘how did this happened’
“ Don´t make such a fuss, child” Yu Ziyuan coldly spoke cutting of her daughter from her spiraling thoughts “ Jiang Cheng will be perfectly fine in a couple of days” she calmly cleaned Zidian of red blood, her didi´s blood “ This will teach him not to meddle”
That was the moment she understood. Their mother, no from this day on, Yu Ziyuan will no longer be part of Jiang Yanli´s family. Yu Ziyuan had done this, she had hit him, hit her little brother with Zidian simply because he had refused to let no harm come to Wei Ying. A child that the woman hated for past misunderstandings, for resentment to a death woman and problems with their father. None of her brothers had anything to do with those disputes between the adults, and yet every day the boys were put in the middle of their fights and ended hurt by their words, and lately by their hands.
Yu Ziyuan headed to the door, but for the second time that day one of her children blocks the way. Except this time the one challenging her authority did not remain head down, but looked her directly in the eyes with the fury of a true mother tiger that had found her cubs hurt.
Jiang Yanli had witnessed her mother shout out obscenities to the memory of a dead couple; whisper insults in her brother's ear, and even slap her adoptive brother after he broke only a dish. Yanli wasn´t stupid, but she hates to intervene in arguments, and it was even more uncomfortable if those arguments involved were her parents.
She always felt so useless watching her brother´s get hurt, so small and helpless. However, in never crossed her mind that one day the life of her brother would be in danger, solely because she chose to ignore the warning. But that will stop now, because if she didn´t step up, if she let that woman raise her hand one more time against the boys, Yanli would never forgive herself
The eldest of the Jiang siblings brooded all this while she watched the attendant spiders take the body of her brother to the infirmary. When she saw the one she once considered her mother walk away as if nothing happened, she did not care if her intention was to go to the kitchen for dinner or as she suspected, to search for Wei Ying and give him the same treatment she gave to Jiang Cheng
She would face her head on the legendary Violet Spider and ensure that those two stay safe "You will not approch them" Yanli spoke with such intensity and sharpness, unlike her usual gentle manner, that Yu Ziyuan was petrified of her daughter. "You will never touch any of them, or I swear on my life you´ll regret it". Before Yu Ziyuan could recover from the astonishment of her own daughter, threatening her, the elder sibling had left and headed back towards the infirmary
Inside the healing room, there was chaos. The healing Chief and his two protégés move around the bed where Jiang Cheng was placed by the spiders. They applied tonics, warded his meridians an placed needles in his injured body.
When Wei Ying saw her coming, he threw himself into her arms while sobbing eyes as if she was their savior. "Shijie! What happened? Madam Yu´s spiders brought A-Cheng in like that and refused to give any explanation, and our didi won´t wake up, and-" Yanli, in any other circumstances, would have found Wei Ying´s babbling nonsense cute, but now it´s only a mirror of her own panic and despair.
"it was her, Yu Ziyuan did this, and she never gave it a second thought about it" Everyone in the room glanced at her with different degrees of astonishment. Astonishment because of the dire action she took, or noticing Yanli´s tone full of hate. It didn´t matter when Jiang Cheng coughed blood, causing Wei Ying to hold on her almost painfully. The healers kept attending to the young heir.
" Will he be fine?" Wei Wuxian asked with a broken voice as he stared at the bruised, bloody, and limp body of his didi.
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Yanli could only feel rage as she watched her little brother cry, while her other brother lay broken and battered in the medical bed. Jiang Cheng was laying face down as a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. Above him, three healers strived to repair some of the damage Zidian had inflicted. Even when Yanli could only see half of her brother´s face, the pain he must be feeling made his young face look pale, as it constricted itself in a grimace of pain.
The laceration in his back run from the beginning of his neck to the end of his tight, some of them surrounded his torso till they disappear in the front, beyond the bed sheets. Jiang Yanli felt her stomach drop seeing the amount of blood in the wood floor and had to take a deep breath when she distinguish something white sticking out of his back wounds
----
The healing chief, Jiang Gangzi, glanced at them from behind the beaten body of his Jiang Cheng and consider the question Wei Ying asked for a moment “We will do our best young master and mistress” was his calm reply.
Yanli swallowed the lump in her throat as Wei Ying squeezed her arm in reassurance for them both. One of the other healers, a young woman with light green eyes , one of the newest recruits, spooked uncertain “Maybe a little help from Gusu would be beneficial, my lady, they have songs that can help with the healing”
The chief healer gave a nod of agreement when noticed their doubts and opposition to leave the younger teen alone, Gangzi smiled gently at Yanli and Wei Wuxian “ You two can´t do much here currently, so go see our sect leader and ask him to send a letter to Cloud Recess.”
The two teenagers agreed and left the room with a last glance at their didi. The image of Jiang Cheng having sharp and laborious breathing, as some tears fell past his eyelashes showing his pain even when unconscious pained them.
Finally Jiang Yanli had to drag Wei Ying by the arm to leave their young brother in the hands of the healers. Together they headed to Jiang Fengmian´s office where he retired after visiting Wei Ying just a few of minutes ago. it seemed almost impossible that he did not hear the disturbance or that no one informed him about what happened with his young heir. Wei Ying stopped before knocking the door as if a terrible thought startled him. “What if… if something…A-Cheng, oh god´s heaven there was so much blood” Wei Wuxian sobbed.
Yanli gave her brother a tight hug, giving him strength and taking some for herself “A-Cheng is strong, he will fight and we just have to make sure he wins. We will help him” she whispered while holding Wei Ying close to her. She didn´t know what will happen when the door opens. Her father was indifferent in the best cases of whatever concerned the youngest of three of them. But just as she promised that Yu Ziyuan would never touch her boys again, if their father refused to help them, to help his son Jiang Cheng, he would become a stranger just like her mother. She, with Wei Ying, will find another way to save their didi, and that no harm will come to him ever again.