#turned to

He really didn't have time to play along with Nie Huaisang. He was tired and sore from all the fighting but even more exhausting was playing politics with a bunch of old fogies who were intent on looking down on him and the handful of disciples he'd managed to scrape together to call a sect. Never mind it was his ragtag group of cultivators doing some of the most damage in their effort to overthrow the tyrannical Wens, while some (*cough* like Jin Guangshan *cough*) sent others to do it for them and sat comfortably in their tents or homes, claiming glory which wasn't theirs.

"Alright alright, well to be honest it's a bit of both," said Nie Huaisang.

"You really do have something important to talk to Jiang Cheng about?" said Wei Wuxian astonished. They'd both thought it was just Huaisang wanting to sneak away for a drink or something while his brother wasn't looking, using the excuse of diplomatic relations.

"Well, I presume that Jiang Yanli counts as important, yes?"

Both their eyes narrowed at him and he gulped, suddenly feeling a bit hot. He waved his fan even more as Jiang Cheng gestured at him to enter his official sect leader tent, instructing a disciple that they were not to be disturbed.

----

"You want us to what?!" choked Wei Wuxian.

"No, absolutely not! How could you even think..."

"Just hear me out!"

"Huaisang, I'm not going to push my sister into another arranged marriage. I know that it would be politically advantageous for us and yes, we do need all the help we can get, but A-jie will not be a pawn!"

“No! You’ve misunderstood! I didn’t mean for it to be an arranged thing. Listen, do you think my brother is even thinking about marriage? He might be a Sect Leader but as far as he is concerned I am his heir. He is in no hurry I assure you. Even if you were to propose a marriage alliance I think he’d decline, not because of anything wrong with your sister or your sect but just because he’s a blockhead like that. All he thinks about is training and getting me to train. But it can’t go on like this! If we all survive this war and manage to get rid of Wen Ruohan, he will have succeeded in avenging our father. But don’t think for one second this means he’ll calm down about training. Regardless, Da-ge needs a wife and there aren’t many who I think he’d like. But I think if he got to know Jiang Yanli, he would like her. He appreciates thoughtfulness and hard work. And I think he needs a gentle touch in his life to smoothen out those rough edges of his. And Maiden Jiang would have someone who would definitely appreciate her cooking. Da-ge is not the most romantic man sure, and don’t think I’m only saying this because I’m his brother, but he’ll treat Maiden Jiang well. He will not disrespect her like Jin Zixuan. Da-ge might be a bit socially awkward but he’s very upright. She’ll be in good hands. I think she could probably like him too. But it’s just for them to see each other as a potential match. It wouldn’t be an arranged thing, nothing formal like that. We’d just be testing the waters to see what they think of each other. And try to bring them together so they can get to know each other better, that’s all. If we try and they really end up not feeling anything for each other, it would just be us strengthening our sect ties is all. We won’t lose anything by it. If they do fall in love however, well…”

“Well all the better for us,” Wei Wuxian said grinning, coming around to the idea. “Jiang Cheng, Chifeng-Zun is a huge step up from Jin Zixuan.” As much as he wished his shijie would stay with them forever, she would have to get married and have a family one day, it might as well be with someone upstanding like Chifeng-Zun.

Jiang Cheng agreed that Chifeng-Zun was better than Jin Zixuan but he still looked sceptical.

“Jiang Cheeeng, he may be on to something,” Wei Wuxian said, leaning against the grumpy sect leader coaxingly, “If we all get through this alive, maybe we could invite Chifeng-Zun over to Lotus Pier for the Dragon Boat Festival. Qinghe doesn’t have that many waterways; it might be a nice change of pace for them to come over to Yunmeng and celebrate with us. And as Huaisang said, it’s just for them to get to know each other in a casual setting, it isn’t anything formal. And if they like each other then shijie will have a good husband AND we won’t have to be related to Jin Guangshan. And you know I wouldn’t put it past him to want to try and control us by reinstating the marriage.” Like sure for now the engagement was off and all… but shijie clearly still loved the peacock, and Jin Guangshan was already acting like a sleazy dirtbag trying to give Jiang Cheng ‘fatherly advice’. (How dare he touch A-Cheng’s shoulder like that? 😡 What if he passed on some disease? Who knows what that man-whore had?)

Jiang Cheng’s face twisted at that, “Okay you’ve got a point there. But aren’t you two forgetting something important?”

“I’ve thought things through extensively before I came to you, what could I be forgetting?” said Huaisang, “They’re of appropriate social status, their charts match (“How do you know–” “Ah hehe I’m just interested in things like that…”) and they complement each other’s personalities nicely.”

“If A-jie and Chifeng-zun do happen to fall in love and decide they want to get married, I can’t afford to help with a wedding. As it is we hardly have people and we don’t know how many of us will make it out of this. If we take back Lotus Pier we have a lot of work to do before I can even really host another sect leader, let alone afford to marry my sister to said sect leader.” Weddings didn’t have to be expensive or complicated, but this would be the wedding of a sect leader to a sect leader’s sister. It would have to be lavish as befitting the status of the couple.

“Oh that,” Nie Huaisang waved a hand unconcernedly, “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. (“Nie Huaisang!”) It’s all good. The important thing is that we show our siblings how good they would be together. Since they probably won’t get to spend a lot of time getting to know each other at the moment we can drop hints about the other person for them and I can invite you all to have dinner with us from time to time. All they need is a little encouragement. Afterwards, depending on what happens with the Wens we can proceed from there.”