"Truth was, Jiang Cheng would rather face a thousand battles than one humiliating moment of disapproval if he knew he was in the wrong. Right now he was wrong in so many directions, he was trapped like a fly in the spider’s web of his own pride. And so, true to form, he churned inwardly… and did nothing. But he did nothing with a lot of energy and frustration."
Jiang Cheng pisses off the cultivating world when he writes a treatise on exactly what went wrong in the Sunshot Campaign.
Yep! He's a little clinical about his deceased wife. There's a lot to unpack there.
He selected Jin Wumei based on a standard criteria of "what makes a good wife."
What he didn't know (though he guessed she was an unwilling wife from her behavior) is that she was pressured into the marriage by her mother at the instigation of JGY, who interceded after LXC found Jiang Cheng had been blacklisted by the female cultivators. Okay, so LXC and JGY were gossiping about the situation, but LXC took pity on JC (and usually had to justify his gossip to himself) and prevailed upon JGY to intervene. JGY did so for political reasons, as a favor to LXC, and also partially out of kindness to JC. He understood rejection very well.
But the marriage was a disaster. Much worse than JC admits.
Under any circumstances, they were unsuitable. Jin Wumei was shy and retiring, and startled again and again by JC's bluntness. Some women might've appreciated his honesty. Others might've called him on being too harsh and demanded he moderate his tone. But Jin Wumei just withdrew, hurt.
She was fragile like his sister, but not warm. She also was a Jin court lady, fine at being liked by a very political crowd, but Lotus Pier was too small and provincial for her. There were no courtiers. And she had no practical skills.
So under normal circumstances this would've been a bad personality mix.
But these weren't normal circumstances. She didn't want to marry him in the first place because of what she'd heard about him through the grapevine. Then she arrived like a parcel with an entourage, and he treated her like a guest. Then, despite sharing a marriage bed when he required her, she stayed separate from him as much as possible -- and it was quite possible, given his mother had had her own wing of the house.
Normally, Jiang Cheng would've just checked off the box marked "wife" and then proceeded on to the next task. She would've just been ignored. It's not as though Jiang Cheng has any model of a healthy relationship, and he'd count "not fighting" as everything going great. Perhaps in time they would've gotten to know each other.
But these weren't the best of times. Jiang Cheng had the poisonous combination of grief, rage, and the unchecked power of a sect leader as he hunted for WWX, certain WWX would use his demonic cultivation to come back. His logic: since WWX could raise the dead, why not raise himself? JC knew the common methods, but he didn't rule out WWX finding a new one.
When JC found a practitioner of demonic cultivation, real or fake, he would be outraged anyone would still follow WWX. Some, to get the torture to stop, would claim they were WWX, which would make it all worse, both when JC had the hope he'd caught WWX and then when he found out they were lying (he hates liars with a passion).
Seizing someone's body is so vile and ignoble an act that JC hoped to kill off any following or imitators WWX could ever have.
The whole household was affected by these rampages. JC came home like a thundercloud, and he didn't conceal the details of what he did. He wanted WWX's admirers to fear him. But it meant every servant and Jin Wumei whispered about it, and she grew terrified of him.
Then JC's servants proceeded to make things significantly worse. They felt bad that Jin Wumei was so lonely and frightened, and insisted JC wasn't a bad guy. They tried to get the couple together by coaching her on making traditional Yunmeng food. She knew nothing of cooking but was willing to try.
The servants were correct. Not every man can be reached through food, but JC has received so little nurturing in his life, it would've worked.
Except she made him Lotus Root soup. Of course. The servants knew it was a favorite of his.
JC's reaction... considering he wanted to kick Jin Wumei into a slowly decaying orbit until she crash-landed years down the road, he was actually quite restrained. That said, he reacted with barely restrained rage, and his takedown of how awful her soup was in comparison to Jiang Yanli's was quite cruel. Jin Wumei was very hurt, and his servants were breathless at how badly this went.
After that, JC couldn't bear to even look at Jin Wumei. He did his duty to father a child, and froze her out otherwise. He didn't take her with him when he did state visits, which had been her one relief from loneliness. She cried in her apartments and gave bland answers to friends' letters enquiring about her.
Jin Wumei hoped that she wouldn't get pregnant so that she would be sent home to her family. It would mean that she'd never marry, but at this point she would be happy to abandon marriage and family altogether. But although it took long enough that people were starting to wonder, she did get pregnant.
Some people bloom when they're pregnant. Others have every underlying illness exacerbated. Of course, just her luck, she was one of the latter. She had more than the usual morning sickness, it came at all times, and she couldn't eat Yunmeng food but had to eat the milder, sweeter dishes of the Jin. She lost weight from the nausea, and was anemic from unknown causes.
Usually a husband would become devoted and dote on a wife who was pregnant, but JC's feelings were such now that he couldn't stand being in her presence. He told himself that it was because she had attempted to replace Jiang Yanli, but it was much deeper than that. Jin Wumei had managed to step on his deepest trauma.
The result was that he relied on secondhand reports of her progress in her pregnancy and made excuses to be elsewhere. Those reports were aimed to please him (a lot of people feared him in those days) so left out a lot of medical detail. And even in the household the servants downplayed her ill health as the usual morning sickness and strange cravings of pregnancy.
Yet Jin Wumei's health continued to deteriorate. She remained in her apartments and only emerged to walk in her gardens, slowly. She couldn't eat but didn't want to insult anyone, so she threw the food out in the gardens, giving it to the dogs and the fish. She started having contractions, was finally in so much agony that she had to tell a servant. A doctor was sent for -- but the doctor was far too late. She had needed treatment at the beginning of her pregnancy. To everyone's shock, the baby was born months early and Jin Wumei died in childbirth. Her anemia was probably caused by some internal bleeding from early in the pregnancy. The baby died shortly thereafter.
The doctor and the servants were afraid Jiang Cheng would blame them -- especially the servants. After all, they'd been the ones sending JC those rosy reports. Everyone had looked back and realized there'd been many signs they'd missed. It was probably that they hoped a baby would solve everything for the lady and between her and JC.
To everyone's surprise, JC was virtually silent when they kowtowed and reported what had happened. Usually JC was all about the scapegoats. But not this time. He quietly accepted what they said, dismissed them, and went about funeral preparations and a formal mourning.
There was nothing anyone could fault. His behavior was respectful and normal -- for anyone but him.
It was a heartbreaking situation. Jin Wumei could've been happy anywhere else, with just about anyone else. Even with the circumstances, even after he'd had his trauma reactivated by the damned soup -- she didn't need to die. It's just that no one was looking out for her interests. She could've gone home to her mom's while she was pregnant.
Ultimately, she died of neglect.
It has solidified the female cultivators' low opinion of Jiang Cheng. He's not only black balled, it's now based on more than just his rudeness in those three dates. Nobody knows the details of what happened, but no one can miss that he's not exactly pining over her loss. There are politically motivated women willing to overlook that -- Jin Yunmei in particular considers Jiang Cheng "manageable." There are also girls way too young for him who don't know any better. But Wei Wuxian is going to be be earning his treats. That's why the girls he's picked so far are sooooo inappropriate.
The fact is, Jiang Cheng's particular trauma is focused on the women in his life, so it's a minefield for anyone to navigate. Finding him anyone that would work is going to be extremely difficult.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-11-07 12:22 pm (UTC)Enjoy!
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Date: 2023-11-19 04:24 am (UTC)The Cold Wind of Harsh Truth (or How We Nearly Lost the Sunshot Campaign): A Treatise
https://archiveofourown.org/works/46456102
"Truth was, Jiang Cheng would rather face a thousand battles than one humiliating moment of disapproval if he knew he was in the wrong. Right now he was wrong in so many directions, he was trapped like a fly in the spider’s web of his own pride. And so, true to form, he churned inwardly… and did nothing. But he did nothing with a lot of energy and frustration."
Jiang Cheng pisses off the cultivating world when he writes a treatise on exactly what went wrong in the Sunshot Campaign.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-19 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-19 08:32 pm (UTC)He selected Jin Wumei based on a standard criteria of "what makes a good wife."
What he didn't know (though he guessed she was an unwilling wife from her behavior) is that she was pressured into the marriage by her mother at the instigation of JGY, who interceded after LXC found Jiang Cheng had been blacklisted by the female cultivators. Okay, so LXC and JGY were gossiping about the situation, but LXC took pity on JC (and usually had to justify his gossip to himself) and prevailed upon JGY to intervene. JGY did so for political reasons, as a favor to LXC, and also partially out of kindness to JC. He understood rejection very well.
But the marriage was a disaster. Much worse than JC admits.
Under any circumstances, they were unsuitable. Jin Wumei was shy and retiring, and startled again and again by JC's bluntness. Some women might've appreciated his honesty. Others might've called him on being too harsh and demanded he moderate his tone. But Jin Wumei just withdrew, hurt.
She was fragile like his sister, but not warm. She also was a Jin court lady, fine at being liked by a very political crowd, but Lotus Pier was too small and provincial for her. There were no courtiers. And she had no practical skills.
So under normal circumstances this would've been a bad personality mix.
But these weren't normal circumstances. She didn't want to marry him in the first place because of what she'd heard about him through the grapevine. Then she arrived like a parcel with an entourage, and he treated her like a guest. Then, despite sharing a marriage bed when he required her, she stayed separate from him as much as possible -- and it was quite possible, given his mother had had her own wing of the house.
Normally, Jiang Cheng would've just checked off the box marked "wife" and then proceeded on to the next task. She would've just been ignored. It's not as though Jiang Cheng has any model of a healthy relationship, and he'd count "not fighting" as everything going great. Perhaps in time they would've gotten to know each other.
But these weren't the best of times. Jiang Cheng had the poisonous combination of grief, rage, and the unchecked power of a sect leader as he hunted for WWX, certain WWX would use his demonic cultivation to come back. His logic: since WWX could raise the dead, why not raise himself? JC knew the common methods, but he didn't rule out WWX finding a new one.
When JC found a practitioner of demonic cultivation, real or fake, he would be outraged anyone would still follow WWX. Some, to get the torture to stop, would claim they were WWX, which would make it all worse, both when JC had the hope he'd caught WWX and then when he found out they were lying (he hates liars with a passion).
Seizing someone's body is so vile and ignoble an act that JC hoped to kill off any following or imitators WWX could ever have.
The whole household was affected by these rampages. JC came home like a thundercloud, and he didn't conceal the details of what he did. He wanted WWX's admirers to fear him. But it meant every servant and Jin Wumei whispered about it, and she grew terrified of him.
Then JC's servants proceeded to make things significantly worse. They felt bad that Jin Wumei was so lonely and frightened, and insisted JC wasn't a bad guy. They tried to get the couple together by coaching her on making traditional Yunmeng food. She knew nothing of cooking but was willing to try.
The servants were correct. Not every man can be reached through food, but JC has received so little nurturing in his life, it would've worked.
Except she made him Lotus Root soup. Of course. The servants knew it was a favorite of his.
JC's reaction... considering he wanted to kick Jin Wumei into a slowly decaying orbit until she crash-landed years down the road, he was actually quite restrained. That said, he reacted with barely restrained rage, and his takedown of how awful her soup was in comparison to Jiang Yanli's was quite cruel. Jin Wumei was very hurt, and his servants were breathless at how badly this went.
After that, JC couldn't bear to even look at Jin Wumei. He did his duty to father a child, and froze her out otherwise. He didn't take her with him when he did state visits, which had been her one relief from loneliness. She cried in her apartments and gave bland answers to friends' letters enquiring about her.
Jin Wumei hoped that she wouldn't get pregnant so that she would be sent home to her family. It would mean that she'd never marry, but at this point she would be happy to abandon marriage and family altogether. But although it took long enough that people were starting to wonder, she did get pregnant.
Some people bloom when they're pregnant. Others have every underlying illness exacerbated. Of course, just her luck, she was one of the latter. She had more than the usual morning sickness, it came at all times, and she couldn't eat Yunmeng food but had to eat the milder, sweeter dishes of the Jin. She lost weight from the nausea, and was anemic from unknown causes.
Usually a husband would become devoted and dote on a wife who was pregnant, but JC's feelings were such now that he couldn't stand being in her presence. He told himself that it was because she had attempted to replace Jiang Yanli, but it was much deeper than that. Jin Wumei had managed to step on his deepest trauma.
The result was that he relied on secondhand reports of her progress in her pregnancy and made excuses to be elsewhere. Those reports were aimed to please him (a lot of people feared him in those days) so left out a lot of medical detail. And even in the household the servants downplayed her ill health as the usual morning sickness and strange cravings of pregnancy.
Yet Jin Wumei's health continued to deteriorate. She remained in her apartments and only emerged to walk in her gardens, slowly. She couldn't eat but didn't want to insult anyone, so she threw the food out in the gardens, giving it to the dogs and the fish. She started having contractions, was finally in so much agony that she had to tell a servant. A doctor was sent for -- but the doctor was far too late. She had needed treatment at the beginning of her pregnancy. To everyone's shock, the baby was born months early and Jin Wumei died in childbirth. Her anemia was probably caused by some internal bleeding from early in the pregnancy. The baby died shortly thereafter.
The doctor and the servants were afraid Jiang Cheng would blame them -- especially the servants. After all, they'd been the ones sending JC those rosy reports. Everyone had looked back and realized there'd been many signs they'd missed. It was probably that they hoped a baby would solve everything for the lady and between her and JC.
To everyone's surprise, JC was virtually silent when they kowtowed and reported what had happened. Usually JC was all about the scapegoats. But not this time. He quietly accepted what they said, dismissed them, and went about funeral preparations and a formal mourning.
There was nothing anyone could fault. His behavior was respectful and normal -- for anyone but him.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-19 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-19 11:06 pm (UTC)Ultimately, she died of neglect.
It has solidified the female cultivators' low opinion of Jiang Cheng. He's not only black balled, it's now based on more than just his rudeness in those three dates. Nobody knows the details of what happened, but no one can miss that he's not exactly pining over her loss. There are politically motivated women willing to overlook that -- Jin Yunmei in particular considers Jiang Cheng "manageable." There are also girls way too young for him who don't know any better. But Wei Wuxian is going to be be earning his treats. That's why the girls he's picked so far are sooooo inappropriate.
The fact is, Jiang Cheng's particular trauma is focused on the women in his life, so it's a minefield for anyone to navigate. Finding him anyone that would work is going to be extremely difficult.