juju

like. that guy did not care what anyone thought. he had a whole system for ignoring yu ziyuan's opinions when he felt she was wrong. he's intense about duty. wei wuxian was very much his favorite student.

if that favorite student had in fact secretly been his own son, he'd have processed the paperwork at the first opportunity. and by the time the boys were teens, have given serious consideration to passing jiang cheng over for the inheritance, if wwx showed any willingness to take the job. because he had serious concerns about jiang cheng's psychological fitness for the role.

acknowledging a bastard with an existing legal father and adoption are afaik the same exact legal process; he wouldn't have had to lie or openly admit anything to do it.

(which is exactly why if he had adopted the kid everyone would have considered that an admission, regardless of the facts. which pretty plainly would not have stopped him. because if jiang fengmian cared enough about that sort of thing to make his decisions on that basis, he wouldn't have handled the entire wwx situation with the deliberate shamelessness he in fact did.)

and which is why, while this logic probably is very identity-affirming for wei wuxian, it only makes jiang cheng feel worse. 'no see, he's not actually a threat to your position, because if he was you'd have lost already.'

Rulan, after JW Waterhouse’s Cleopatra.

I decided that this would be titled “Rulan” rather than “Jin Ling”, with the thought that the setting of the painting, somewhere in Koi Tower, is one where people are more likely to call him Jin Rulan. I also considered titling it “(New) Sect Leader Jin” but I thought that would be confusing, and “Rulan” better parallels the original painting title.

Initial sketch is here!