But he doesn’t.

He smiles. Not only smiles, but smirks, like, “…Saw THAT coming.”

He is proud of his brother. 

He is so, so proud. And proud to be Wei Wuxian’s brother.

Before the time-skip, Jiang Cheng actually doesn’t really dwell on how Wei Wuxian is better than him. How much he’s going to get them in trouble, sure! How his arrogance is writing checks his abilities can’t cash, of course! How he just won’t get it through his thick skull that there are political consequences to his fucking actions, all the time! But not a constant green-eyed envy.

(Now, yes, there’s a bit of dwelling on the subject after the whole Dad-says-I’ve-missed-the-whole-point-of-our-clan-motto-and-then-mom-dragged-me-between-the-two-of-them-and-yelled-about-how-pathetic-I-am-and-how-other-people-think-Wei Wuxian-is-much-cooler-than-me-and-then-confirmed-the-fact-that-dad-doesn’t-like-me-very-much debacle, but in light of the whole situation, Jiang Cheng’s very understandable sulk-fest was focused much more on his own shortcomings or the general injustice of the situation as opposed to envy or resentment against Wei Wuxian himself.)

This is going to dovetail with a post I’m planning on writing about the Jiang sibling trio and love languages, but I personally think that it’s because more than anyone else- more than even Yanli- Jiang Cheng has grown up knowing with absolute certainty that Wei Wuxian loves him. I headcanon (and will die on the hill) that Jiang Cheng’s love language is physical touch. Yanli is affectionate but more physically reserved, whereas Wei Wuxian is constantly draping himself over Jiang Cheng, shoving him with his shoulder, slinging an arm around him, even punching him and getting into physical scuffles. Jiang Cheng is constantly hearing his brother say “hey I love you hey I love you hey I love you!”, and with all of that unspoken evidence poured over him almost every waking moment of his life, the poison from his mother and the ice from his father just… doesn’t stick. Even when he’s frantic and beside himself with grief over his parents’ deaths, accusing Wei Wuxian of being the source of their misfortune, Jiang Cheng is still is grabbing him, shoving and shaking him, even choking him- still actively seeking physical touch to process his grief. We only see the poison really start to sink in after Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds and becomes so distant. The more he pulls away, the more he avoids physically engaging with Jiang Cheng (”What? You want to fight?!”), the more the latter begins to doubt Wei Wuxian’s love for him, the more the latter thinks that Wei Wuxian doesn’t give a fuck about him or their sect family anymore. 

And what is the turning point after the time skip and sixteen years of seething grief, bitterness, and resentment? Not just after he’s vented his feelings in the temple, but after Wei Wuxian reaches out to him and strokes his face. After his brother gently wipes the tear from his cheek. After Wei Wuxian finally says- in the unspoken language that Jiang Cheng understands best- “I still love you.” 

四季花常在 

I just realized I never posted the full video, only the gifs I made.