This is a very specific My Story I Am Currently Writing thing, but I am now obsessed with the idea of Jiang Yanli always having been secretly convinced it was Wen Qing, Certified Wen Medical Genius, and not Baoshen Sanren, who restored Jiang Cheng’s core (who were WWX/JC even kidding with that ridiculous magic mountain story!) and being silently grateful to Wen Qing for years because of it.
…until Jiang Yanli eventually finds out exactly how Wen Qing restored Jiang Cheng’s core. At which point, her feelings become, shall we say, Decidedly Mixed.
Anyway, this is like the best argument for Chengqing, ever, because my god can you imagine the tension. Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing get married and for years, for YEARS, at every family event, Jiang Yanli is just like trying to endure this with a rictus grin, trying to be polite to her sister-in-law who saved her brother’s life by carving out her other brother’s spiritual internal organ and transplanting it into him and she’s pretty sure Jiang Cheng knows about this by now but they never talk about it; they never talk about how they alllllll know why Wei Wuxian always gets a sword Lyft to Sunday dinner; and Jiang Yanli, who believes the best of everyone and profoundly wants everyone she loves to be happy, at peace, and not in conflict with one another, is just constantly struggling with the desire to hold her sister-in-law’s head under the river until she stops twitching.
Jiang Cheng, who knows his sister well, but not well enough: Jiejie why does your eye always twitch whenever Wei Wuxian comes to visit us and he hugs my wife?
Jiang Yanli: nothing, brother dearest. Oh my dearest sister in law, it’s that a scalpel you’re holding? I’ll just take that, there are children around, wouldn’t want anyone to get stabbed or wounded in the abdomen or anything.
Wen Qing: it was a letter opener?
Jiang Yanli: sharp edges!
Wen Qing: it was a SAFETY LETTER OPENER
okaydoes Jiang Cheng know, though
Whatever’s funniest! So….probably not? If he doesn’t know, Jiang Yanli’s frequent veiled allusions towards Just Being Honest With The People You Love, directed at Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian, go sailing over Jiang Cheng’s head, while Jin Zixuan comes to the stomach-churning conclusion that Wen Qing is cheating on her husband with Wei Wuxian, and this a kind of family drama he wants no part of.
I’m torn between wanting Wei Wuxian to notice and try to appease Jiang Yanli without directly addressing the subject, and him being absolutely oblivious and continually confused over how Wen Qing’s serving of soup always seems to be mostly broth.
