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[snowsparksjr]

Leave messages for me here. Don't waste my time!

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Text.

[secondjade]

Cultivation training.

Jeopardy, open area by lodging.

5:30 am. Weekday mornings.

[snowsparksjr]

[ 5:30am!! To get to Jeopardy every morning??

There’s no response, but he’ll be there. Especially since he’s squatting at Sizhui’s residence and no doubt Sizhui will drag him along.]

Read 1:12 PM.

[Gift]

[dazzlingdream]

[There is a wooden box waiting for Jin Ling on his doorstep. Inside, there is an ornate tea set complete with tea leaves in little pouches. There is no note, but come on - who else could this come from? Uncle loves you.]

[snowsparksjr]

[Jin Ling knows exactly who this is from. Maybe he should be alarmed that Jin Guanyao has managed to figure out that he's staying with Sizhui now and is leaving presents (traps) on his doorstep, but he's calmed down somewhat since that one particular conversation on the network.

He's mostly surprised that his uncle can afford something like this here. Back home, such a gift would be impressive but well within the Jin Clan budget. His budget now, his money, a fact that he would bitingly remind his uncle of if he really thought that the funds for this came from the Jin treasury. But if they were back home, if he was the Jin Sect Leader now, Jin Guanyao wouldn't be alive.

Here, where little things from home are so precious and rare, of course he loves the tea set. The one that he and Sizhui use is very simple and practical, with none of the exquisite elegance that Jin Ling is used to. But he isn't ready to forgive his uncle and he definitely isn't past his suspicion that a murder attempt is incoming.

He puts the box in an empty cupboard and puts a note on it in case Sizhui comes across it: "Don't use. Maybe poison."]

[text]

[snowsparksjr]

Thanks for the tea set. Every time I use it I'll think about how you murdered my parents.

[text]

[dazzlingdream]

[He is going to ignore those searing words. That was quite the burn!]

Jin Ling you can call on me any time.

- MY

[snowsparksjr]

I know.

I just don’t trust you not to murder me.

[dazzlingdream]

I have no reason to do so and that will not change.

[snowsparksjr]

You took my parents from me. No amount of gifts is going to compensate for that.

I’m not giving you the chance to take anyone else I care about away from me.

[dazzlingdream]

I am not trying to compensate for them. I can't.

There are few I care about as much as I care for you. I wouldn't have killed you, Jin Ling. I am sorry for injuring you and I am sorry for taking your parents from you. They were good and they loved you.

[snowsparksjr]

[ There’s no response. Jin Ling is going to just curl up somewhere and weep for a while. ]

[dazzlingdream]

[His exhaustion and regret - yes, he feels regret - ensure he is weeping too. Being a guardian to Jin Ling has given him a sense of family and now he misses him keenly.]

a few days after lessons start / text

[secondjade]

Jin Ling.

Meet me, at earliest convenience.

[ He will add the directions to the Textile Museum where he works. ]

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling goes as soon as his shift ends. Hanguang-Jun is a trusted senior who keeps him safe, so Jin Ling doesn't even need to ask what this is about. He just goes.

Soon enough he turns up, with Fairy trotting along at his side. He makes a little bow in greeting. "Teacher Lan."

[secondjade]

It is good timing, because Lan Wangji is finishing his shift as well. When Jin Ling arrives, he's just in a low conversation with his boss, and he bows to say goodbye to them, which makes them laugh, before he turns to Jin Ling.

"Young Master Jin." He bows in response, and then gestures for Jin Ling to follow him.

He takes him into the museum, past beautiful garments and textiles, until they come to a little door with a little room. It... it looks like maybe it was a janitor's closet, once, except that apparently the staff here have made it a little room for him alone, as it's been outfitted with cushions, a little table and screens to block the old shelves. On the desk is a stack of paper, ink, and two brushes.

He gestures for Jin Ling to sit, and then takes a seat himself.

"Adapting?"

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling makes a face at the tiny closet office, which looks extremely make-shift and cheap. He doesn't think he'll ever get used to how they're all poor now.

But he's gotten used to this place enough that he understands the need to make do with what they have, enough so that he doesn't verbalize his disdain. He sits.

"Yes." He lifts his chin proudly, but it's not one of his defensive boasts. He really is adapting well to this place. It's a marvel that he hasn't yet gotten fired from his job, because he's habitually late and takes direction very poorly, but he's exceptionally skilled as a dog trainer and extremely good with any children who attend the dog training sessions, so he keeps his job and endures the regular stern talking-tos about not just skipping shifts without notice. He's learned the network swiftly and is quick to adopt the new technologies of this world.

[secondjade]

Lan Wangji nods, and believes him. He thinks Sizhui is adapting fairly quickly too - it is the advantage of youth.

"Summoned as I must request a heavy favour."

He picks up the paper, places it in front of Jin Ling, and hands him a brush.

"Clear that I need all information possible. Events from Dafan Mountain, onward."

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling doesn’t find it that heavy of a favor. He wants everyone to know what he does, and he finds it maddening that Lan Wangji and Sizhui are still missing some of the important details.

So with no argument whatsoever, he picks up the brush and starts to write.

His account is highly biased and rather disjointed. Earlier events are skewed by later perspectives. Asides and opinionated commentary are frequent. He keeps remembering additional details and adding them in later. So even though his memory is good, the final results are a disorganized mess. Also his penmanship is terrible and his hands are now covered in ink.

[secondjade]

Ah. Hmm.

He takes the finished stack of paper, and starts to read through the first page, outlining Dafan mountain. As this particular part is something he also experienced, he knows that it's... well... a little biased. And the calligraphy...

He sets the stack down, then takes another stack of paper, putting it in front of himself. He copies out the first two sentences that Jin Ling wrote in a fine, delicate hand, correcting the grammar, and then puts it and the stack of paper back in front of Jin Ling.

"Again. Focus. Clear mind, absent emotion."

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling gives him a furious glare and puts down the brush indignantly. "Why? You wanted information. I'm giving you everything I remember, and I wrote it down for you as a favor. Why should I have to do it again? This isn't some kind of official testimony. There are only six of us here, and we're not going to remember any of this when we go home. If this isn't good enough for you, then get your information from somebody else!"

[secondjade]

He considers silencing him, but... the boy has a point. So he just carefully puts his brush down.

"Education my responsibility." His tone is even, and low, especially compared to Jin Ling's outburst. He puts his hand on the stack he was provided. "Your testimony is received. Will be fully considered. For own benefit, I task rewriting. Meditated on."

He paused, struggling to put into words what he meant, but like with Sizhui before him, he now considered it very important to actually teach Jin Ling.

"Meng Yao very adept at framing words," he settled on, finally. He had to be, to have fooled everyone for so long. "To combat lies, truth must be clear."

This is probably the most he's said to Jin Ling at one time.

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling continues glaring at him, breathing heavily, as Lan Wangji talks.

The basis for his temper is cut out from under him as Lan Wangji assures him that his testimony has been received and will be fully considered.

He's right about Meng Yao being adept at framing words, and Jin Ling has seen very clearly how he had used that even in a combat situation to regain control and tragically shift events.

To combat lies, truth must be clear. That's a skill he wants, to be able to cut through deception with pure clarity.

With one last sharp glare and a huff, he presses his palms together, takes a deep breath, and calms himself. Then he picks up the pen and starts again, more focused on re-creating the narrative in as clear an orderly a manner as he can.

[secondjade]

While Jin Ling writes, Wangji reads.

It's clear that it's not a full account, but he didn't expect it to be - Jin Ling, after all, could not be part of all events. He would not be privy to all that happened, and certainly not privy to Wangji's thoughts on the matter. Those truths would continue to lie in darkness, for him. But the rest...

Dafan mountain matches his own testimony, save for the fact that Jin Ling had clearly had others helping him, at the time, but he puts that up to the boy's own boastful nature rather than an attempt at deception.

His body stilled a little as he read through the description of Yi City, a piercing sorrow gutting him, even if it didn't reach his face. Xaio Xingchen and Song Lan... He'd admired them, as a young man, and then watched fate destroy them. It was difficult to read of their ultimate fate, but he was careful to try not to let that show, to Jin Ling.

He kept reading, through all of it, until he came at last to the final pages. To Guanyin Temple and the final confrontation.

He knew he was missing pieces - there were references made to meetings that the juniors weren't privy to - but it seemed pretty damning, as a whole.

Once finished, he set the papers back in front of him, and then looked up to see how Jin Ling was doing with his second copy.

"... Much missed," he murmurs lowly. He feels the lack of memory far too keenly.

[snowsparksjr]

Jin Ling looks up at the words, initially defensive because he thinks it's a critique of him leaving things out. But then he sees how Lan Zhan looks sorrowful, and he understands.

"Yeah. Now you understand why I'm so angry that none of the rest of you remember this." Remember him, specifically. Everything they went through together. Everything that Hanguang-Jun and Wei Wuxian came to mean to him.

The second version is more clear and careful, slower paced and more based on the sense description and the straightforward facts of each moment. Once his boasting is cooled and his desperation to communicate his testimony has been set aside, Jin Ling's an empathetic writer with a memory for details. Because of this, the second version changes in significant ways and contradicts the first in minor details--the accomplishments of others come into the picture more clearly, and Jin Ling even hints at his own weaknesses.

I faced off against the Ghost General when he came near Sizhui from the original versoin has become Wen Ning approached us and spoke to Sizhui, asking about his name and parentage. He called me Jin Rulan and I became very upset.

[secondjade]

"Great burden, set on you." Carrying that sort of knowledge, by one's self, not able to rely on the people they'd grown to trust...

He takes the second report and carefully reads it over, noting the details. He was right to ask Jin Ling to do it again - he's clearly thinking about it past his initial rush of emotion, now.

He says nothing while he reads, and then he sets the both copies next to each other, and raises his eyes to Jin Ling.

"Zewu-jun will be asked to give the same." He wants Jin Ling to know that he is taking this burden of memory and knowledge very seriously - nothing to be left out.

"Important matter at hand: Meng Yao."