Jiang Yanli - Tumblr Posts

I wanted to do some fan art and wanted to play with a different style and a different brush than I usually use. So here's Jiang Yanli. I imagine her in Koi tower, bending down to pick up toddler Jin Ling.

Based on this photo

My WIPs folder is groaning, but I just started another. This one is canon era, Jiang Yanli-centric. It really is: Jiang Yanli's love language is food. No one expects her to be hard at all, in any way. What can a weak woman do? Too bad for her enemies (JGS) she isn't actually a weak woman. She's spent plenty of time in Meishan. She has access to all the food.

Jiang Yanli Sunset Portrait, created as part of the 2020 Sunshine Challenge

From the scale of Punching Zixuan to "Accidentally" killing him. How bad is it?👀

Wei Wuxian: Shijie, do you love me?

Jiang Yanli:Of course I do!

Wei Wuxian: Would you still love me if I did something bad?

Jiang Yanli: Well, of course I would...

Wei Wuxian: I mean something really, really-

Jiang Yanli: A-Xian, what did you do?

Jiang Yanli, the magnus archives au

what happens when you give a monster fucker a gun

[SUPPLEMENTAL]

•im just saying mdzs would have been a lot shorter if my girl had just gone apeshit

•jiang yanli is a furry canon, confirmed, true facts, NOT CLICKBAIT

•if you want to know what the artifact that is meant to protect jin ling looks like, check his waist on his character card hehe (well now the artifact is kinda useless since my boy keeps walking into dangerous situations willingly, but when he was a child it did it's job)

•i wanted her to look really cute and unsuspecting, cuz she's bait for the entities' creatures sometimes and once they get close to her it's too late once they realize they're fucked

•The Stranger wants something from jing ling uUuuUUu what could it be?????

•turns out yanli and zixuan didn't disappear because of wei wuxian, but with wei wuxian's help (but jiang cheng doesn't know any of that, he was left out of that one specific family meeting where they planned their escape, poor guy)

she doesn't see red flags she sees an opportunity

If you want to see more of them in the tma au:

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan

extra

MDZS color wheel challenge!

Thinking about an AU where Jiang Yanli's "weak / mediocre cultivation" was caused by a horrific training accident when she was pretty young, in part to explore the tragedy and disability of it all and in part for the humorous "older relative casually drops wild personal lore that changes your entire perception of them" angle.

Like, Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan's firstborn child is a girl, which is not ideal in this deeply sexist world, but the sect motto is "attempt the impossible", right? It's not unheard of for female cultivators to lead sects and Yu Ziyuan wants her daughter to be the first female Jiang sect leader, to show up the cultivation world, and Jiang Fengmian isn't against the idea and wants the best for his daughter (although he probably doesn't want her to be a copy of his wife). So Jiang Yanli starts her cultivation training pretty early. There's a lot of intense pressure, a lot of expectation and projection and some arguments, and it all culminates in this poor child getting badly injured, with permanent damage to both her body and to her cultivation. It's a "no one's fault and everyone's fault" thing.

Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan quietly drop their plans for Yanli to become the sect leader and focus on a very young Jiang Cheng instead, which is easy in part because everyone expects the son to inherit anyway. A young Jiang Yanli is betrothed to the heir of the Jin Sect and this is basically never talked about ever again. General perception is that Jiang Yanli is a mediocre cultivator at best because she was born that way (she's a WOMAN, after all) and/or because her disposition is just too sweet and agreeable, and OF COURSE the son became the heir as soon as the Jiangs had a son. That's just how things work!

So, in an AU where Jiang Yanli (and Jin Zixuan?) lives and teenage Jin Ling is freaking out about some embarrassing and/or dangerous mistake on a night hunt...

Jiang Yanli, patting her son's shoulder: "It's going to be okay. You know, when I was a young child, I permanently injured myself in a training accident and could no longer become the Jiang sect leader, and it felt like the end of the world, letting everyone down, but it all worked out in the end!"

Jin Ling, whose entire 15-year-old worldview just got flipped upside-down: "...Mother?! What?!?!"

I think about jiang yanlis most stupid choice so often of running onto that battlefield. It's her most stupid choice but makes the most sense within her character and the story. She has spent her entire childhood perfecting these peacemaking skills and being a pillar for her brothers, protecting them from her parents. But they kept getting older and all of a sudden she isn't protecting them from her parents, there's politics and wars and so much violence that her soup can no longer fix. She watches as she gets closer and closer to losing at least one of her brothers, as their family falls apart and all of a sudden she's grieving her husband, alone with a baby in a place so foreign to her with no support and she is going to lose one if not both of her brothers and she is going to be alone. So she doesn't make the rational choice, she's scared and she's already had a taste at what might happen if she doesn't do something but all she has are the skills of a peacemaker from a time when things were simpler but she tries her best, doing what she knows to keep her brothers safe and fails. It's the stupidest thing she could have done and also the only thing that made sense to her at that moment

Ribbons on the cloak. Or Wei Wuxian has a minor obsession with ribbons that Lan Wangji keeps buying him. Just because it’s not a central part of the plot doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

April 25: ribbons

A Swan Maiden Fairy Tale Fusion

Lan Wangji is a huntsman who happens upon a pond in the woods. He sees this epic coat thing made from raven feathers on the banks and goes “wow this is so cool and so pretty i should give it to my brother” and picks it up. Then he sees this guy on the shore and freaks out wondering if he’s dead, but he’s not, he’s just unconscious & naked. So Lan Wangji wraps him up and brings him home, because he’s nice. Then the guy wakes up, introduces himself as “wei ying, courtesy wuxian”, sees the feather cloak and says “nice…cloak you got there”

“it is a gift for my brother”

“ah. Right…when’s ur brother getting here?”

“i will visit him when the snow melts”

“k. Cool. guess im staying here until then”

“can you not go home?”

Wei Wuxian eyes crinkle like he’s sharing a private joke: “Not until the snow melts”

Lan Wangji is a good host and doesn’t know how he feels about this guy just declaring that he’ll live with him for the next several months but…okay.

Lan Wangji finds out very quickly that Wei Wuxian isn’t normal, and it doesn't take him long after that to guess that Wei Wuxian also isn’t entirely human. He’s a very bad houseguest, he just sits, doesn’t know how to cook or anything really, and talks at Lan Wangji while Lan Wangji makes them breakfast. He follows Lan Wangji everywhere he goes with no explanation, just invites himself along. He talks while Lan Wangji is trying to hunt but somehow that doesn’t scare away the game. He flinched the first time Lan Wangji’s arrow found a mark, and insisted on honoring the fallen bird before returning. He passes time whistling and carves himself a flute, they play duets and Lan Wangji finds himself composing something on his guqin in the early morning while Wei Wuxian is still asleep on the floor. Wei Wuxian introduces him to spice, which he hates, but watching Wei Wuxian’s face light up isn’t something he thinks he can ever get tired of.

Wei Wuxian talks a lot about his home and his family, which is apparently a port by a river delta, which is how Lan Wangji learns that Wei Wuxian a very good swimmer, like everyone else there, and that he and his brother are constantly pushing each other in the lake, that he goes out to the pier to drink at night, that he has the best big sister who makes lotus and pork rib soup and stops Wei Wuxian from fighting with his brother, who is an angery smol one but also the best little brother ever (how this is possible, Lan Wangji doesn’t know, it’s clear Wei Wuxian loves his brother even if he spends most of the time making fun of him)

Lan Wangji doesn’t understand why Wei Wuxian can’t return to this home he’s heard so much about, doesn’t know why he found Wei Wuxian abandoned & naked by the side of the pond, but decides that Wei Wuxian is magic and it’s a magic pond, and if his family would leave him in that state, they don’t deserve him. He works up the courage to ask “wei ying. When the snow melts. Stay with me.” and Wei Wuxian is Conflicted bc he likes Lan Wangji and would like to stay but hates that he has to and maybe won’t see his family ever again. In the end all he says is “okay” and Lan Wangji is Very Happy. He also sees Wei Wuxian eyeing the feather cloak often but he already said he’d give it to his brother and doesn’t know how to offer it to Wei Wuxian. But then Wei Wuxian says “guess you’re not giving it to your brother now” which is basically how Lan Wangji thinks Wei Wuxian asks for things so he just nods vaguely.

Wei Wuxian guesses pretty early that Lan Wangji doesn’t know the full extent of what he’s done, and he clearly doesn’t know who Wei Wuxian is, but that’s not surprising. He decides not to tell him, because why would he? On the off-chance that Lan Wangji will just...give it back to him? Wei Wuxian has heard the Swan Maiden tale, he's has seen the worst parts of humanity; he can’t trust that.

It’s been raining a lot recently, which means Lan Wangji has less opportunity to hunt, and it’s harder to hunt after rain. He goes to the nearest town to trade when his supplies get too low (Wei Wuxian comes with obviously) and there the gossip is that some villagers swear up and down that they saw purple lightning (Wei Wuxian isn’t surprised, just sighs and says “of course”) which means that Sandu Shengshou is angry! And that the Lady of Lotus Blossoms, who usually blesses typical goddess things like matchmaking and fertility/childbirth, has 1) stopped and 2) started leaving white lotus blossoms behind, which means that she’s mourning which is sad and terrible! (Wei Wuxian agrees that her being sad is terrible and gets misty-eyed. Lan Wangji wasn’t aware that Wei Wuxian held her in such high regard).

In town, Wei Wuxian gets Lan Wangji better deals, flirts with some girls which makes Lan Wangji sad for unknown reasons, gets harassed by some guys which is how Lan Wangji confirms that Wei Wuxian is not human/magic bc in the dark & rainy night his eyes looked red and his teeth in the moonlight looked too long and too sharp, and no one heard from Wen Chao again. Lan Wangji also buys him clothes

The snow melts. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian set off to visit Lan Xichen. Wei Wuxian isn’t wearing the cloak and Lan Wangji doesn’t understand why? But doesn’t ask because he never does. They get to the lake where Lan Wangji found Wei Wuxian and wait for Lan Xichen to meet them there, meanwhile Wei Wuxian hisses at a peacock and talks to a sparrow (Lan Wangji doesn’t question it. He never does), then Lan Xichen arrives and at the same time purple lightning flashes and a young man descends from the sky dressed in rich purple silks followed by a lady dressed in lavender and rose pink. they’re easily recognizable as Sandu Shengshou, the Lord of the heavenly Lotus Pier, and the Lady of Lotus Blossoms, his sister and the Lady of Lotus Pier. Lan Xichen is like “wangji wtf is going on” meanwhile Jiang Cheng accuses Lan Wangji of kidnapping his brother, and Jiang Yanli is like “we’re willing to bargain for our brother back. what do you want?”

Lan Wangji: "If he’s ur brother why did you abANDON him"

Jiang Cheng: "how DARE we’ve been searching for him for MONTHS ever since you TOOK him"

"i found him abandoned so i took him home to PROTECT him"

"that’s a fancy way of saying you decided to keep him like an exotic pet"

"i did no such thing"

"then why did you keep that!?" Jiang Cheng points at the feather cloak and everyone looks

Lan Xichen: "oh no"

Lan Wangji: "what"

Lan Xichen: "wangji. the swan maiden"

Lan Wangji: *remembers the story about the swan maiden who left her swan feathers by the side of the pond while she bathed and the huntsman who took her feathers and thus took her, forced her to marry him and bear him three children, before she found her feathers, after which she yeeted outta there with her three children and never left the heavens again, leaving huntsman to die of a broken heart.*

Lan Wangji hadn’t even considered it, maybe because Wei Wuxian was sleeping and therefore didn’t beg for the feather cloak back, maybe bc he made a weak joke instead of flat-out asking Lan Wangji what he planned to do, maybe because his wasn’t pure and white but rather made of raven feathers and pitch black

Also Wei Wuxian got roaring drunk that’s how he ended up there. Jiang Cheng is like “just bc my brother is the stupidest dumb person to ever idiot–” “hey!” “does not mean you can just taKE ADVANTAGE of him”

Anyway Lan Wangji freaks tf out and practically throws the feather cloak back at Wei Wuxian, who hasn’t been meeting his eyes and not saying anything this whole time and tries to apologize. Jiang Yanli grabs it and her brother and walks into the lake, pink and cream lotus blossoms blooming under her feet; she doesn’t sink under the surface. She stands in the middle and they both go under. Then Wei Wuxian arises in his full black-and-red glory, Jiang Cheng shoots Lan Wangji one last glare and then the three of them promptly disappear into the heavens

Lan Xichen holds Lan Wangji for the first time in years while he cries. He stutters his way through an explanation of what happened the past three months, saying again and again that he didn’t know, he noticed that Wei Wuxian wasn’t human and a little bit magic but he didn’t expect this and he didn’t realize that he was preventing Wei Wuxian from leaving. Lan Xichen says things like “i believe you” and “you’re not a terrible person, you just made a terrible mistake”

Eventually Lan Wangji stops hyperventilating, and that’s when a flock of crows leaves their roosts, the wind shrieks, and Wei Wuxian descends again. Lan Wangji doesn’t understand how Wei Wuxian could possibly forgive him, or how someone like Wei Wuxian could possibly take interest in a lonely huntsman like Lan Wangji, but Wei Wuxian holds his hand out and says that he promised to take Lan Wangji on a tour of his home (lotus pier!!), and his eyes do that thing and he says “well? Are you coming?” and how can Lan Wangji say no?

So, I’ve figured out the reason why Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing had to die before Wangxian really took off. No way would either of them have put up with over a decade of mutual pining and misunderstandings. They’d have either gotten them together or committed a murder. Whose would depend on how annoying Wei Wuxian had been lately and how badly Lan Wangji had bungled using actual words.

I keep running into the fic where the tags and summary make it very clear that Madam Yu knows her husband is a pedophile and doesn’t care so long as he focuses on Wei Wuxian instead of their kids. And you know what, that’s ok. I’m not going to read it, but it’s ok for them to write it and other people to read it. That’s not what this is about. This is about the damn crack fic and crack ship it spawned in my head. Not sure if this is a ‘no-war’ AU or not.

Madam Yu is not ok with this, and she takes steps.

She was married to a monster worse than any she hunted. She didn’t like the brat her husband brought home, but he was a child. He had no clue what her husband’s lingering looks and hands meant but she did. So Madam Yu made an excuse, bundled up her daughter and the brat and set out for Meishan. On the way, in a tiny port town, she hands her daughter, dressed in plain but sensible hanfu, a dagger and a purse full of silver. She put the boy’s hand in hers and told her she could never come home again. And she told her first born why.

But that’s only the beginning. Wei Ying may have been a child, but he came from the streets. He had known very well the role he had been meant for in that house. Madam Yu had just made it clear that such men are wrong. So Jiang Yanli and Wei Ying are on their own now. Wei Ying has a few years of cultivation training now, and Jiang Yanli has a few distantly remembered sets from before her cultivation had to be diverted to maintaining her health. They make their way as wandering cultivators, young to be on their own, but better by far then other options. A few hunts around the borders of Qishan, and they run into a Wen doctor.

He patches them up, and helps Yanli with better strategies to mitigate her illness to keep up with her lifestyle. It’s not a cure. Sometimes finding the right strategies and combination of things really helps to manage a condition and that’s what I’d like to see. Mostly because I remember a post where someone speculated that the problem was actually something like a congenital heart condition that could have been fixed with surgery but the cultivators just applied spiritual energy to fix. So. Keep the vague nature of her medical condition, but she can manage it. Empower her to be able to take control of her body and health.

Wei Ying is not going by Wei Wuxian or Wei Ying in public. Yanli always calls him ‘didi’ and he calls her ‘a-jie.’ I don’t know enough characters to pick out appropriate names for them, but they use homophones for their original names.

They nighthunt, and they do odd jobs. Yanli grows skilled with her dagger and takes to singing while A-Ying plays his dizi at night. They fish a sect cultivator out of a very messy night hunt when A-Ying is just shy of fourteen. The stranger is finally dressed and equipped, but the monster they finished off was cunning. I’m thinking spider based, for the traps and I hate spiders. Really creepy area.

Of course they’re still fundamentally themselves, still kind. So they nurse this cultivator back to health. And he wakes up. He’s arrogant but not unaware of the debt he owes. He could have done it himself, but they had stepped in on his behalf for no real reason. Also, the woman held a dagger against his femoral artery when he was threatening her brother when he first woke up. He found that very, attractive.

After all blades are sheathed, clothing and wounds tended to, introductions are made. A-Ying and A-Li make the acquaintance of Wen Xu, First Young Master of the Wen sect.

Adventures are had, bonding, a very vague backstory of why they are on their own. When A-Ying is fifteen, Wen Xu finally convinced A-Li to accept his suit and become his wife.

This explains why Madam Yu doesn’t kill Wei Wuxian over the broken engagement.

MDZS: analyzing the Cloud Recesses Lectures Brawl, and Jin Zixuan's uncaring attitude towards Jiang Yanli

I know a lot of people tend to think JZX's insulting JYL, and the subsequent brawl during the Cloud Recesses Lectures arc, isn't really a very big deal, and I sorta get why? his insult seems pretty lukewarm, and boys will be boys, and so on… but honestly, if you start reading more Chinese novels, you'll pretty soon pick up that the brawl had a very good reason to happen.

I was talking with a good friend about it, and we ended up breaking it down. They suggested I might as well post about it.

let's start with Chinese Historical Customs: a married lady would have near total reliance on the backing and favor of her husband to have any power whatsoever within her household, or even be able to live comfortably -- without his backing and support, she'd be cut off from money, essential materials such as winter gear and heating fuel, even good food; the servants wouldn't bother listening to her (she'd have a few of her own brought from her first home, but not many); and being bullied (read: anything from humiliated to actually hurt) by her new family wouldn't be uncommon (and we all know what a pit of vipers the Jin Sect was even then).

doublespeak, face, and reputation, all meant that, intentionally or not, JZX was setting JYL up for a MISERABLE future life: by badmouthing her in public so everybody knows that her future husband thinks she's mediocre and unsatisfactory, he's saying he doesn't respect her (or her family! more on that in the next bullet point). if he doesn't respect her, he won't support her or help her if she needs him, because he doesn't care about her reputation, and therefore neither does he care about her comfort, or, well, about her... anything.

more Chinese Historical Customs, or, the Natal Family's Protection: a married lady's last backup defense is the fact that disrespecting her means disrespecting her family, who the husband has allied himself with by marrying her. the more they care about her, the more the natal family will respond to slights to her. they respond through retaliation -- by making the husband pay for disrespecting their daughter.

thus WWX's and JC's immediate answer of punching JZX for his remarks may have seemed disproportionate, but was actually not incorrect.

(They even gave JZX the chance to retract his words first!)

Stressors and Magnifiers: JZX isn't just being this dismissive in front of the two of them, which is already grounds for STRONG retaliation -- he's disrespecting their family's daughter right to their face!!! -- he's ALSO saying this to every single important peer they have, all of whom will go back home and tell that JZX, whose mother is dear friends with JYL's mother, and who visit each other all the time, and who thus must know her best... thinks she's so worthless, she can even be badmouthed in public. he's not only saying he will allow her to be disrespected by others, he's also drastically lowering her value to every other gentry prospect!!!

punching him was a brute and unrefined response, but it was a tradeoff: it traded away "face" for JYL's sake and protection. which she desperately needed right then. it sent the answer that disrespect towards JYL would be met by the strongest and most immediate retaliation the Jiang could possibly make;

and JFM agrees with the whole thing, because he finishes the move and breaks the engagement: "if you don't value her, then you don't get to have her".

(obligatory note that WWX was not expelled for his actions that day, and chose to return to Lotus Pier with JFM on his own... after finding out that LWJ had gone into seclusion and would no longer be around for him to tease.)

(obligatory note that it's extremely unlikely JZX was a malicious mastermind doing anything on purpose during this scene. we don't get a lot on him, but he was probably, honestly, just being a stupid teenager about a situation he was upset with. unfortunately, the above consequences still apply.)

(final note that neither JZX, nor, apparently, JYL, learned anything from this whole debacle. the Wartime Soup Incident is the exact same damn thing, except about ten times worse, and with much greater damage potential to her prospects and reputation.)

I adore Jiang Yanli so much, and I need you all to realize that she knows everybody’s secrets. The good thing about being underestimated is that people don’t hold their tongues around you as much. She’s a steel vault for the right people, but if she doesn’t like you, you will never know until it is too late. Jiang Yanli also has a knack for timing (growing up in that toxic af household will do that to you) so if she wants to eviscerate you, it will be with pinpoint accuracy at your lowest and you will be hard-pressed to recover.

Uh. Hm. Damn it. Even my favorite SVSSS pairing had less red flags. And those two had distinctly different courting styles in the first place. But at least Mobei-Jun tries to change his behavior.

Jiang Yanli: Jiang Cheng’s Bargaining Chip

I feel like I said this before in passing during my first read, so I wanted to go through it more in-depth this second time around. Note that this post will not be covering the validity of xuanli’s marriage or love for each other. I will only be addressing Jiang Cheng’s change of heart surrounding his opinion of Jin Zixuan and why I think this has everything to do with Jiang Cheng’s loss of established power after the fall of Lotus Pier. Bear with me, now, as a lot of these scenes are located all over the place in the book, but with the exception of a few scenes, everything that I will be using will come from exr’s chapt. 69.

The relationship between Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan before the Sunshot Campaign is not a good one on account of Jin Zixuan’s treatment of Jiang Yanli:

Neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng liked to play with him; only Jiang Yanli wanted to feed him the food that she made. Jin Zixuan, however, didn’t really like to pay her any attention. This made Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng yell with anger in a few instances.

This already-soured blood is what prompts the fight that ends xuanli’s engagement in chapt. 18, in which Jin Zixuan insults Jiang Yanli to Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng’s faces in a crowd of their peers. In this event, both Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are moved to violence at Jin Zixuan’s words, though Wei Wuxian ensures that Jiang Cheng never throws a punch. And although Jiang Yanli doesn’t make her feelings on the matter clear when Wei Wuxian goes to her to apologize, Wei Wuxian understands later that she “must’ve been feeling quite dejected on the inside” for what transpired. This makes me feel that, even though Jiang Yanli was nice to Jin Zixuan where her brothers (and yes, I am counting wwx as such because Jiang Yanli counts wwx as such) aren’t, neither understood the depth of her feelings until much later.

Up until this point, we have not seen xuanli actually interact with each other; that chance comes when the Sunshot Campaign happens. We can assume with the engagement broken off that Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli do not meet again until the soup incident, which is where Jin Zixuan falsely accuses Jiang Yanli of trying to steal credit from a servant, publicly chastising her after her entire clan has been slaughtered just months prior, causing her to burst into tears despite her “easy temper.” Here, we get the damning critique that Jin Zixuan “had never understood her, and hadn’t ever wanted to understand her either.” We also get the first omission of Jiang Cheng from Jiang Yanli’s defense. Only Wei Wuxian is said to defend Jiang Yanli; Jiang Cheng only shows up in the retelling to pull Wei Wuxian off of Jin Zixuan.

Fast forward to the flower banquet directly after the war ends. Because of the soup incident, Jiang Yanli refused to even give Jin Zixuan “a proper look” before Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian take her back to Yunmeng. But Jin Zixuan, in turn, immediately begins to ask after Jiang Yanli, post-war. There is no mention of whether he ever directly attempts to appeal to Jiang Yanli, herself, but he approaches Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng at his clan’s flower banquet back in capt. 49 with the intention of once more asking after her. Wei Wuxian, understandably, reacts poorly to this:

Wei WuXian heard his own raging shout, “Jin ZiXuan! Don’t you forget about what things you said and what things you did? What do you mean by this, now?!”

To which Jin Zixuan responds:

“Sect Leader Jiang—this is our sect’s flower banquet, and this is your sect’s person! Are you going to look after him or not?!”

Wei Wuxian ends up storming off, but not before Jiang Cheng  chastises him and apologizes to Jin Zixuan for his behavior. He even answers Jin Zixuan’s questions and starts a conversation!

…Jiang Cheng’s voice came, “Wei WuXian, you can just shut your mouth. Young Master Jin, I’m sorry. My sister is doing quite well. Thank you for your concern. We can talk about this next time.”…

…He then began to converse with Jin ZiXuan.

This is a startling departure from his attitude towards Jin Zixuan’s transgressions against his sister in the Cloud Recesses, and while Jin Zixuan is being cordial, the Langya debacle was much more serious than his words during the lessons. Yet Jin Zixuan is the one to demand and be given an apology for being reminded of his past abhorrent behavior, whereas none was demanded (by Jiang Cheng) or seems to have been offered on Jin Zixuan’s end to Jiang Yanli for that same behavior that victimized her, not even to her brothers on her behalf. Plus, Jiang Cheng’s attitude cannot be said to be for Jiang Yanli’s benefit, as we know that she has completely removed herself from anything related to Jin Zixuan since the soup incident, and her feelings remain unchanged up to xuanli’s next in-person interaction at Phoenix Mountain, in which Jiang Yanli does not come of her own will:

Wei WuXian, “Don’t worry. As long as he doesn’t make shijie cry again, I don’t even want to pay him any attention. You shouldn’t have brought her in the first place.”

Jiang Cheng, “The LanlingJin Sect insisted on it. I didn’t have the face to refuse.”

Wei WuXian, “More like Madam Jin insisted on it. After this, she’d definitely find some way to urge shijie and that male princess to one place.”

She even seems uninterested in being there outside of seeing her brothers:

Jiang Yanli usually had an almost bland face, her features mild. However, as she saw her two younger brothers wave at her, her face immediately lit up. She lowered her fan. Shyly saying a few words to Madam Jin, she walked to the edge of the watching platform and tossed out two flowers at them.

vs.

Suddenly, a row of cultivators wearing white, gold-lined robes rushed out, dressed in light armor and riding on broad stallions…

..Madam Jin immediately patted on Jiang Yanli’s shoulder. Holding her hand, she dragged her to the edge of the watching tower again, pointing to her the riding formation of the Lanling Jin Sect.

Clearly, even if Jiang Yanli is still harboring (seemingly) unrequited feelings for Jin Zixuan, she is unwilling to entertain the thought of a relationship anymore. So why, then, would Jiang Cheng suddenly change his opinion of Jin Zixuan from a “peacock” who treats his sister poorly to “my sister loves him, so what can I do but reinstate the engagement?”

I posit that Jiang Cheng’s change is directly tied to the fall of Lotus Pier. With the Jiang massacre, Jiang Cheng is without any real power or allies of his own. The post-war Jin are very obviously amassing power, and the other three great clans are allied via 3zun’s sworn brotherhood. Jiang Cheng has no friends so cannot enter the sworn brotherhood, and his power is held in the hands of Wei Wuxian, who he can neither claim via blood relation nor use as a bartering chip since he isn’t a Jiang. So his only other option to gain an alliance to the other great clans is through Jiang Yanli’s marriage. And what’s an easier route than reinstating the engagement that was already previously an option now that the other party seems willing (and desperate) to forget the past and start anew?

Part of this is also tied up in Jiang Cheng’s own insecurities about his authority as a clan leader, which is provoked from the gossip at the Phoenix Mountain hunt. But when he begins to admonish Wei Wuxian on the behaviors brought up in gossip, he is easily diverted from it by Wei Wuxian’s nonchalance. He then turns the conversation to Jin Zixuan:

Jiang Cheng smirked, “Don’t carry your sword, then. It doesn’t matter. But don’t provoke Jin ZiXuan from now on. He’s Jin GuangShan’s only son, after all. The future leader of the LanlingJin Sect will be him. If you beat him up, what should I, the sect leader, do? Beat him up with you? Or punish you?”

Jiang Cheng is actively trying to court favor with the Jin but cannot do that if Wei Wuxian refuses to show grace to his social “betters”. And Wei Wuxian calls him out on this, particularly as his altercations with Jin Zixuan have all been in defense of Jiang Yanli:

Wei WuXian, “It’s not impossible? Have you forgotten what he did in Langya? You’re telling me that it’s not impossible?”

Jiang Cheng, “He’s probably regretting it.”

Wei WuXian, “Who cares if he regrets it. Do we have to forgive him just because he apologized? Look at what his dad’s like. Maybe he’ll be the goddamn same in the future, killing time searching everywhere for women. Have shijie be with him? You could take it?”

Jiang Cheng’s voice was frozen, “See if he dares!” After a pause, Jiang Cheng glanced at him before he continued, “But, it’s not like you have a say in whether he’s forgiven or not. Sister likes him, so what can we do?”

Jiang Cheng starts by defending Jin Zixuan by assuming that Jin Zixuan feels bad, making no mention whatsoever of any changed behavior of the other man’s that would justify such an assumption. It is only after Wei Wuxian brings up Jin Guangshan’s reputation that he even begins to defend his sister, but, once again, he pauses and pivots in defense of Jin Zixuan, this time by placing the blame on Jiang Yanli’s “feelings” for why they “must” make nice, because he knows that Wei Wuxian isn’t moved by appeals to power or reputation. Nevermind that two months prior, Jiang Yanli had chosen to leave the Phoenix Mountain hunt with Wei Wuxian, and in the scene immediately after the above conversation, Jiang Yanli is reluctant to talk about “why would someone like another person” and deflects to asking Wei Wuxian if he likes someone, instead. Reinstating the engagement is not Jiang Yanli’s present will, which only leaves Jiang Cheng’s will to consider.

Jiang Cheng’s priority when it comes to Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan’s relationship is not his sister’s feelings or well-being but ensuring that he can ally his recently demolished clan to the new leaders of the cultivation world where he has been locked out by every other avenue. And he is willing to overlook every red flag Jin Zixuan displays towards Jiang Yanli in order for this engagement to go through.

Let’s not leave these in the tags…

Madam Yu admonishes Jiang Yanli for peeling lotus seeds out of their pods for Wei Wuxian to eat, insulting her for the act by telling her she’s “not somebody’s servant!” Jiang Yanli ignores her and passes the fruits of her labor to Wei Wuxian, who eats them happily.

Madam Yu admonishes Jiang Cheng for practicing his archery skills with Wei Wuxian (and the other disciples), insulting him by calling him an “ignorant child, fooling around with others all the time” who are “splashing in sewers.” Jiang Cheng tells Wei Wuxian to shut up when Wei Wuxian attempts to speak in his own defense, while Jiang Cheng speaks only to defend himself.

Who’s braver?

lullaby

I feel like there is something very sentimental in the way that Wei Wuxian doesn't have anything material kept of his loved ones that he had lost during his life, aside from the tree that he associated with Jiang Yanli. And he keeps that closest to his heart as the most significant point of kindness he ever received and her not looking for him out of any sense of duty herself or for anyone else's sake.

She endeared herself to him out of her own kindness, which is what he idolizes in other people. Very few people in his life willingly reach to stand with or fall with him. The only other one that had was Lan Wangji who is framed in that same instance of the tree rendition where Jiang Yanli once had stood.

He doesn't tell anyone about this, even Lan Wangji, what had transpired when he was a child with Jiang Yanli, but I think it speaks all on its own how he associates those two specifically with safety to finally be as he is without apology or further expectations to be more or less than what he is and be loved for that.