ic inbox, ryslig.

[daozhangs]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, XIAO.XINGCHEN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** XIAO.XINGCHEN has joined 018.07.154.55 <XIAO.XINGCHEN> You have reached Xiao Xingchen. <XIAO.XINGCHEN> I am often away from my laptop, but I will do my best to answer as soon as I'm able.

Comments

[daozhangs]

I can't pretend I didn't picture you training in your rain-suit.

( but the rest is quite a bit heavier. his own fault, really, but xingchen can't help but sit for a moment with the notion of what that reality might have looked like.

and then with the dull, aching recognition that his notion was skewed - that it pictured a version in which xue yang arrived from behind the scenes only at the end, not a version in which xue yang was there to observe him (isolate him, how else had zichen ended up dead?) at any given time. )

Perhaps it's better that you didn't. Your first impression of me was far better than that would have been.

[legbreakings]

I

I might have trained in my rain suit once or twice.

[ He does grin a little at the thought but then he thinks of how to respond to the more serious part of the text message and... Well, that is certainly sobering. ]

It would have been a terrible second impression but I like to believe it would have improved eventually.

[ And maybe, just maybe, he would have been able to save Xiao Xingchen's life. No saying that he could have - demonic cultivators know he spares them no mercy, so knowing he would die, he figures Xue Yang would have wanted to take Xiao Xingchen with him. But it's hypothetical, so he can fantasize about better outcomes. ]

[daozhangs]

( this isn't the first time they've spoken of his fate and the brief time before it, but he has had quite a bit more time to think since then. time to ruminate, to wonder - not just at how things might have been, but at how things even were, before his death or after it.

but now isn't the time for that. )

You're certain you would've had that sort of patience? ( which is less about jiang wanyin's patience at all and more about how frustrating xingchen is entirely self-aware enough to know he would've been. he was frustrating enough coming here, where it's all (somehow) a bit easier to adjust to. where retribution for the harms he's committed comes built right in, even if just in miniscule doses. )

[legbreakings]

[ Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, takes it quite differently than intended. With a wince, even. ]

I would like to think I would have given you a chance to explain yourself before killing you, yes.

[daozhangs]

My friend, you've misunderstood.

I simply meant that I would have been terribly frustrating. More so than I've been here, I'm quite sure of it.

[legbreakings]

[ The next response takes longer. ]

I apologize.

You would be frustrating, in a place where our differences of opinion hold more weight.

[daozhangs]

How fortunate that we're no such place, then.

[legbreakings]

[ Hrmpf! ]

Hilarious

[daozhangs]

Was it? I didn't intend it as such. As doubtful as it may at times seem, I prefer not to frustrate you too terribly.

[legbreakings]

What I get from this is that you are only aiming to cause me a medium level of aggravation

[daozhangs]

You'd like me quite a bit less if I didn't.

[legbreakings]

That's not even the point!

[daozhangs]

Is there a point? I'd lost track.

[legbreakings]

The point is that just because I let you aggravate me doesn't mean I'm not going to complain about it!

[daozhangs]

I wouldn't dream of suggesting otherwise.

[legbreakings]

Good. As long as you don't forget that.