Every couple of months Jiang Cheng decides he's going to get a dog. Two dogs. Ten. Lotus Pier will be filled with dogs, bringing life and joy and muddy pawprints to the all-too-quiet halls. Every couple of months he doesn't, and he never quite knows why.
Until he arrives at Jinlintai to visit his nephew and is greeted with a happy, fuzzy, pudgy ball of fur to the face. "Xiao-shushu gave her to me," Jin Ling says happily, down on his knees and scratching the puppy's belly. "She's a spirit dog, too! Not an ordinary mutt. Xiao-shushu said she'll be smarter than any other dog, smarter than most people!"
Jiang Cheng wants to tell him that the more he meets people, the more he'll realize that even a non-fairy dog is smarter than some of them. But he can't, because for some reason, his breath is seized in his chest by a frission of alarm.
It must be because of Wei Wuxian. That's the only reason he can think of, the only one that makes sense. Because Jiang Cheng likes dogs. He'd always liked dogs, but he hasn't had close contact with them since Wei Wuxian's arrival at Lotus Pier twenty years ago. Ever since then -- since the childish vow of brotherhood the two of them had made, I won't let any dogs near you, ever! -- dogs have come to mean something else. They mean trouble, they mean alarm, they mean your brother needs you. Protect him. Find him. Help him.
But Wei Wuxian is nowhere to be found, any more. And he was far, far past helping.
Jin Ling keeps on talking, prattling on about all the wonderful features of his new dog. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng does his best to keep a lid on the waves of emotion fighting it out in his chest, locked down tight. Alarm at the sight of the dog. Worry for his brother. Missing his brother. Hating his brother. Hating the fact that, even now, even after he's been gone for so many years -- even now his brother still has this much power over him. Why can't he just pet a goddamn dog without looking around for Wei Wuxian? Why can't he reclaim this part of his life without his brother's shadow falling over it?
Why didn't he think of giving a dog to his nephew.
"I think I'm going to name her Little Fairy," Jin Ling burbles on happily. "Because she's a sort of fey dog, so she should have a fey name, don't you think?"
"Sure," Jiang Cheng says automatically, instead of that's a terrible name, what the fuck are you thinking.
He cuts the visit to Jinlintai short -- his nephew is far more interested in his new pet than with his boring old uncle, anyway -- and returns to Lotus Pier, alone. To a house that is all the emptier since Jin Ling's regular visits stopped, to a house that has no children or nephews or nieces, no sisters or brothers. And no dogs. He's had ten years to fill it with dogs, and he never has, and the only reason he can think of is that Wei Wuxian poisoned them for him.
That night he drinks himself half into a stupor and thinks: fuck it, fuck this, fuck everything, and especially fuck Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is gone, dead and gone and good riddance; he's never coming back and even if he does, he'll never set foot in Lotus Pier again. Jiang Cheng doesn't owe him jack or shit, and especially not any kind of protection from dogs. Tomorrow, he's going to go down to the kennelmaster in Lotus Cove and pick out a puppy. Maybe two.
