Chapter Text
They told him that his name was Jiang Cheng, courtesy name Jiang Wanyin.
They said that he was the Sect Leader of the Yunmeng Jiang clan.
That he had been out night hunting alone, and had later been found unconscious by a lake near one of the villages at the outskirts of Yunmeng.
He had been put on bed rest for a week, which frankly felt like a relief given that he had a throbbing headache and no idea what was going on.
A few healers had come and left, shaking their heads, and there had been a slightly severe-looking tall woman who had dropped in multiple times, conversing with the healers in hushed tones in between Jiang Cheng’s moments of wakefulness. There had also been someone else- a teen in gold robes, a vermillion mark on his forehead, who had been here the first day briefly but had disappeared after. Jiang Cheng did not know why, but seeing the teen had sent a twinge through his heart- a well of emotion which Jiang Cheng could not quite pinpoint.
This time, when the woman came into the room, Jiang Cheng had been fully awake, leaning his back against the wall.
“Zongzhu,” the woman said carefully, watching his reaction. “Do you still not… Do you remember who I am?”
He stared back at her. He tried to wrack his head for some sense of familiarity, but all he could recall was the details he had just been told. “I’m afraid your name evades me,” Jiang Cheng admitted, an uneasy smile on his face.
The woman barely hid a flinch, and it would have been imperceptible had Jiang Cheng not noticed the slight furrowing of her brow and twitch of her finger. “This one is Jiang Minrui, and I am the Head Disciple of Yunmeng Jiang.”
“I see,” Jiang Cheng said, inclining his head.
Jiang Minrui hesitated, the previously severe expression on her face melting into something more unsure, something more vulnerable. “Do you truly remember nothing? Not even Sect Leader Jin?”
“I don’t even remember my own name,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head, “I only know what the healer told me when I first woke up.”
“Oh,” Jiang Minrui said, glancing away. “That’s… not great.”
“Who is this Sect Leader Jin you speak of?” Jiang Cheng asked, confused.
Jiang Minrui slowly turned back to face him. “His name is Jin Ling, courtesy name Jin Rulan, and he is your nephew,” she answered quietly.
“I see,” Jiang Cheng said, after a pause. “Would he happen to be that boy in golden robes from a few days ago?”
“Yes,” Jiang Minrui confirmed, “Sect Leader Jin had come here to check on you. He should still be in Lotus Pier, shall I send for him?”
Lotus Pier. That was another new thing to remember. He supposed that must be referring to where they were now. “Sure,” Jiang Cheng said. Perhaps his nephew would be able to tell him more about himself.
Shortly after Jiang Minrui had left the room, there was a sharp rap on the door and the door was slid open loudly without waiting for his response. The teenager he had seen previously strode into the room briskly, his expression steely and guarded, with Jiang Minrui following closely behind.
“Jiujiu,” the boy said hesitantly, “Are you…”
“Jin Ling,” Jiang Cheng greeted with a smile.
Jin Ling’s face immediately shuttered. “I… I see,” Jin Ling said, his voice trembling slightly.
Jiang Cheng had to fight a sudden urge to reach his hand out to comfort the boy. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, “But really I don’t remember anything.”
At his words, Jin Ling’s face crumpled further, his large doe eyes starting to fill with tears. “I can’t do this,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, and then he turned and fled the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
“Is he alright? Did I... Did I say something wrong?” Jiang Cheng asked in bewilderment. All he had done was apologise!
“I... No, just… give Sect Leader Jin some time,” Jiang Minrui said, a pained expression on her face as she bowed and left the room.
—
Jiang Minrui came to check on him once a day, giving him updates of Sect business, and Jiang Cheng had only seen Jin Ling twice more briefly before his nephew returned to Lanling Jin. But he was aware that Jin Ling had certainly seen him more than he had seen his nephew, because there were multiple instances in which he had noticed a flicker of gold at the corner of his vision, only to turn and see no one there.
It was at least a relief that even though he could not remember any details about himself or anyone else, or really, anything at all, he still retained his combat abilities. They came more as muscle memory and instincts rather than his conscious actions, however, so he spent most of his time refining his sword forms in one of the family pavilions.
Lotus Pier sometimes felt quite stifling, though. There were always so many eyes on him, quietly watching and judging and seeing everything that he was and everything that he was not. They never said it directly, but he could tell that they were comparing him with the Jiang Cheng they had known, the Jiang Cheng that he had been, and whether he fell short. He probably did.
So in the small pockets of time that he had, when no one was watching, he would shed the Sect Leader crown and robes to sneak off to a nearby town, Yunping.
After his first trip, he had soon learnt that the people of Yunping knew his face well. So from the next trip onwards, he knew to wear a hat and hide his face with a cloth.
Incognito, it had been easy enough to slip into teahouses undetected, and it was there he learned many things through passing gossip and rumors.
One thing, certainly, was that people liked to gossip a lot about him.
He had another moniker that Jiang Minrui had not mentioned to him, apparently. Sandu Shengshou. Master of the Three Poisons.
He supposed that this name must have been derived from the name of his sword, Sandu. But he could not help but feel a mild crawl of his skin every time he heard himself referenced in that way.
While one favorable interpretation of the name could be to say that he had triumphed over the three poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance, he was pretty sure that those who were saying it were mocking him as being proficient in greed, hatred and ignorance.
Some of them said that Jiang Wanyin had been a bitter, angry man. That he had killed his own brother. (He had a brother?) That he had been blacklisted by every matchmaker in Yunmeng due to his bad temper. That he had no friends, and no one liked him. That he held his position not through respect, but through lineage and striking fear into the hearts of others.
Perhaps in another world, where he had heard all this with his memories intact, he would have been very offended and confronted these people for their words. Some part of him felt like he should stand up and say something to defend himself. But he all felt was an odd sense of detachment as he listened to stories supposedly about him that felt more like someone else’s tale, so he instead merely continued to sit and listen, placidly sipping on his tea.
But not all the rumours he had heard about himself were bad.
Some regarded him as a saviour. They said he had brought his clan back up from nothing at a young age. They said he was a nice and kindly man who liked to come to town and browse for wares, paying a premium for many local goods and propping up the local economy. They said that young Jin Ling had his uncle wrapped around his little finger, and that the best way to get the Sect Leader to buy something was through sweet-talking his nephew. That some of the children in town were very excited to see their idol and hero Sect Leader Jiang, and many hoped for a chance to become a disciple at Lotus Pier.
These rumours, too, Jiang Cheng listened to quietly as he sipped on his tea, before silently slipping out of the teahouse and returning to Lotus Pier.
And just like that, piece by piece, he tried to relearn what it meant to be Jiang Wanyin, Sect Leader of Yunmeng Jiang.
What kind of person was Jiang Cheng?
Was he a man who would forsake familial ties? One who was fond of his family?
A brutal leader who ruled with fear, or a kind leader who took care of his own?
Jiang Minrui had left a scroll detailing the current political climate, explaining all the different inter-sect relations, as well as major events in history he should know about.
There had used to be a clan called the Wen clan, apparently, before they had been wiped out in an event called the Sunshot Campaign.
The Wens had been the one to raze Lotus Pier, leaving almost no one behind.
Jiang Cheng had participated in the Sunshot Campaign, and later also led a siege against the Burial Mounds against one particular Yiling Laozu, the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
The other three of the four Great Sects, Jin, Lan and Nie had formerly been linked by a sworn brotherhood.
(Why were the Jiang not included? Was it because of Jiang Cheng's purported disagreeable personality?)
And then the former Jin Sect Leader Jin Guangyao had killed the former Nie Sect Leader Nie Mingjue, only to be killed by the Lan Sect Leader Lan Xichen.
And now Jin Ling, his nephew, was the Jin Sect Leader, while the Nie were led by Nie Huaisang, who was known as a Headshaker (what was a headshaker?) and the Lan Sect Leader Lan Xichen had recently come out from seclusion.
Presently, the Yunmeng Jiang was one of the most powerful, given the diminished capacities of the Lan and Nie Sect Leaders, the chaos within the Jin clan, and the close familial ties between Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling. And that meant that a lot of the minor sects were trying to butter up to the Jiang clan. However, there was some concern among the minor sects that a certain Wei Wuxian, spouse of Lan Xichen's younger brother Lan Wangji, also known as Hanguang-Jun, was too powerful.
But all these were just a list of events and names that now meant nothing to him.
"And what did I think of all of this?" Jiang Cheng asked, tapping his fingers on his table idly as he turned to Jiang Minrui.
"I'm afraid that I cannot speak for your thoughts, Zongzhu, because you have never shared it with me," Jiang Minrui answered with a bow.
"What about Jin Ling? Do you think he would know?"
Jiang Minrui pursed her lips for a brief second. Carefully, she said, "Sect Leader Jin is currently busy in Lanling, though if Zongzhu wishes, you could draft him a letter-"
"So he doesn't want to see me," Jiang Cheng interrupted.
Jiang Minrui looked away. "I did not say that."
"That much was obvious. I may have lost my memories, but I'm not an idiot, Jiang Minrui," Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. He sighed. "You did mention before that Lotus Pier is hosting the next discussion conference soon. How long do I have?"
"Two more weeks, Zongzhu," Jiang Minrui replied dutifully.
"I suppose I will see my nephew at the conference, then. And the preparations?"
"Thankfully, you had planned out and delegated all the work before your accident. The other disciples are in the midst of preparing for the conference in accordance with your instructions. I will brief you on your role closer to the date. Are you sure that you want to keep your condition secret?"
"It would be harmful if word got out that the Sect Leader of Yunmeng Jiang could not remember his own name," Jiang Cheng replied with a wry smile. "This would be for the best. I'll study hard for it, don't worry."
A look of discomfort flitted across Jiang Minrui's face once more, one of many that Jiang Cheng had already seen the past few days.
"I suppose that's not what I would have said," Jiang Cheng said with a sigh.
"It is not," Jiang Minrui agreed. After a hesitant pause, she suggested tentatively, "Perhaps it would help if you punctuated your sentences with 'or I'll break your legs'."
Jiang Cheng laughed.
But Jiang Minrui did not.
"You're joking, right?" Jiang Cheng said, his eyebrows raising high above his brow.
Jiang Minrui looked away.
"Jiang Minrui?"
In response, Jiang Minrui bowed, and slowly backed out of the room.
Heavens above, just what kind of person had Jiang Cheng used to be?