Lan Wangji didn’t have much of an impression of Jiang Cheng at first, during his time at the Cloud Recesses. He was supposed to have joined in the first round of lessons with him, in fact, but he’d instead chosen to remain in seclusion a few extra months, focusing on strengthening his will and his heart, and that meant that he'd missed this Wei Wuxian fellow - probably for the best, since he seemed like he’d require a great deal of effort and forbearance. It wasn’t until later that he started appreciating Jiang Cheng.

When Lan Wangji ran away from the jingshi to look for himself, his back still raw, and on Yiling he found only a small child, feverish but still capable of a little bit of babbling, still able to tell the story of what had happened – when he found the traces of blood on the ground, Wei Wuxian’s from when his power had backlashed on him – when he saw the bodies in the blood pool, already rotting – For the first time in his life, Lan Wangji didn’t want to go home. (what if he had another option?)