Yep, very timely note to self.

Oh no what did he do :((. He knows what he did and this is not a surprise and if he suddenly gained a 'put actually 0 insolence into stuff he says' ability out of being in another world that would be a surprise. Also then other him might think he was an imposter. Other Jiang Cheng having about the same level of tolerance his has for when he is really trying to be properly obedient is very good, not all doms would be (or have been) that tolerant with him. This is a contrite and biddable-as-he-gets and properly appreciative Wei Ying.

Wei Wuxian will absolutely notice. But, nope, none of that, subspace brain, he is having no stupid reactions to other Jiang Cheng talking how Jiang Cheng usually talks just because it is currently a contrast to something.

...Wait he is getting to know the reason cultivation is usually started in childhood? He is! (This is going to get part of his brain suggesting that other Jiang Cheng must be at least a little sort of something like pleased with him, because he's telling him things; another part of his brain pointing out that other Jiang Cheng might just think he should know things about this world because he's in it, and knowing what causes problems at least makes him less likely to cause them by accident; and approximately all the parts of his brain distracted because alternative universe power information!!)

(aw that sucks about twenty. Though maybe there's a way around it that they haven't found here yet. Like other Jiang Cheng said it's not exactly the same thing as with a Foundation. Other Jiang Cheng said 'as the body is also growing'; it'd be pretty weird if golden cores were getting their 'is the body growing' signals from the Objective Font of Bodies Facts and not from the body they're in right. So potential step one, track down what they're getting as signals - did people already know about growth hormones at this point in history, he doesn't think so? (Wei Wuxian also doesn't actually know much about growth hormones. But he knows they exist!) Potential step two...)

(It takes him a moment to catch onto the live action metaphor, but he gets it.)

He has another moment like those times when he thought someone was speaking one of the languages he knows, and then his brain actually tried to resolve the syllables and they did not turn into words he understood at all. Then – ohhh! That kind of war. ...Or possibly not related to the war, but point is, something here is not at 'submissives are to be taught the appointed order of the world and show proper respect', and is at 'we don't respect those guys over there at all, look how much we don't do that'. - He's going to think this through some more later, right now he needs to answer the question.

Wei Wuxian partially suppresses a smile into his plate again. "Well, they're not all idiots - Sandu Shengshou." (It's a 'to be fair' kind of tone. These days a large part of the recipients of his opinions-at-length are Lan Zhan and Wen Ning, and it's gotten him into the habit.) 

Of course it's important to be aware and careful of dangers! (He does not say this like someone who came to this thought entirely independently). But that just means you have to figure out the way that really works, right, you can't go avoiding anything in the vague vicinity of 'something bad might happen'. If you did that you'd never have - surgery, or internal combustion engines, or fertilizer let alone dynamite! People get all nervous when it's power use because 'you can't understand it in exactly the same way as everything else' and 'it's hard to see what you're doing', but that doesn't mean it's different, if you - 

(This time he kind of forgets to keep a hold on the technical detail, but it should be possible to get a general idea.

The general idea might remind someone of a cultivator earnestly and passionately explaining that really, he has absolutely found a completely safe and reliable way to fly a sword into a hurricane. When said cultivator is both someone who could come up with that - not just if anyone could but if no one could. And also someone you would find in the infirmary, with the attendant healers explaining that he tried to fly a sword into a hurricane.)

Or in other words, Wei Wuxian sounds like Wei Wuxian.  It's an unusual mix of comforting and ominous.  His frustration at being kept out of the loop is replaced with frustration at seeing a Wei Wuxian yet again say things that could get him hurt.

Jiang Cheng is aware enough about how people work to know that he shouldn’t immediately yell at Wei Wuxian for being reckless - that is how you get people to not open up to you again.  On the other hand, not pushing back enough on his Wei Wuxian’s risky behavior also didn’t work very well.

He finishes the last bite of his last meat skewer as he tries to come up with something that will neither result in an argument nor Wei Wuxian shutting down and refusing to talk further.  

"Make sure you think about all the ways something can go wrong and find ways to prevent them, instead of assuming that you'll never make a mistake or get unlucky.  Let others be the ones to take risks.  Talk things through with people who can point out problems.  Even if they're not as smart as you, they might be able to see problems from perspectives you can't."

“There are people who care about you.  If you get hurt, they'll be hurt by that.”

No matter how strange the other world and other Jiang Cheng and other relationship are, that couldn't possibly change.  No one with any sense at all could know a Wei Wuxian and not love them. 

The problem with talking is that starting to talk because a relevant dom wants him to has a real tendency to turn into talking way past the point where any relevant doms wanted that at all. (You'd think after all this time he'd be able to stop at something resembling the right point. Or maybe you wouldn't think that; not about him anyway.)

Other Jiang Cheng has not started looking happier again. (Is maybe looking differently not-pleased, but Wei Wuxian doesn't think he's going to figure out the details.) And now there's some silence. 

Yeah. He looks at his plate. And other Jiang Cheng's table. He reviews his note to self.

...Other Jiang Cheng is giving him advice on how to do power experiments he's not supposed to do?? (Mostly) good advice? (And also thinks he's smarter than other people??)

…Yes he’s immediately tempted. He might be stuck here for a while! Other Jiang Cheng is a completely reasonable authority figure for power use in this other universe where it’s different! Telling him how to do versus not do something is basically like permission, right? He doesn’t have to go all the way with anything, he could try some stuff out and when he got back to his universe, he’d still have the results - 

NO, Wei Ying. (First of all, power use experiments take a long time, assuming it even works the same here which he doesn’t know yet, and if he has time then priority is obviously the local power use. Second of all, he does not think his Jiang Cheng is going to sell him to this one or anything, so he’s still going home at the end of this. Third of all, he has given other Jiang Cheng one summary, and if other Jiang Cheng knew more than that (for instance, the story that he is still not telling right now) he’d probably come to the same proscription. And zeroth of all, he doesn’t want to tell that story, but he learned that lesson and it’s not one of the ones he wants to do again. And not when he’s more than 14 now and his brother carries Zidian.

And Shijie would be very upset.)

He should probably respond to the ?advice(/instructions). But, before he can do that,

Ow. And, other Jiang Cheng continues to be very good at telling him off. He looks at his plate again. (Is his Jiang Cheng going to pick it up from other Jiang Cheng? He shouldn't think so, right, his Jiang Cheng could have done what Shijie does, like Shijie does, if he was going to. But maybe it'll only make sense to him from another Jiang Cheng in some way.)

"I understand," sir "Sect Leader Jiang." ...Wow he's lucky he has kind of tolerant doms. That is not what anyone has ever meant by 'be honest and tell the truth to your dominants'. (He just -. He wanted -) Plate. Table. "Sorry. I mean, yes, Sect Leader Jiang."

Why did Wei Wuxian act like he was just yelled at?  Jiang Cheng had thought he’d offered basic advice.  Is that considered rude in the other world?  That, or other Wei Wuxian hates that his own family cares about him, which- no.  If it were just other Jiang Cheng, sure.  But there’s a Jiang Yanli in that world too.  

Damn it.  He’d been actively trying to not yell at Wei Wuxian.  

Jiang Cheng sulks, looking at his bowl.  The bowl is empty and therefore not providing much distraction.  Only the stick of tanghulu is left, and Jiang Cheng isn’t in the mood for eating that right away.  It’ll last another hour or two.

It has become clear throughout the meal that other Wei Wuxian is taking cues from what Jiang Cheng does.  How does he explain that Wei Wuxian can eat his own tanghulu if he wants to, without demonstrating…

Oh right, verbal communication.  

“You can have your dessert right away, if you want.  I’m going to save mine until after I’ve finished my work for the afternoon.”  

And speaking of which, there’s another thing he ought to ask out loud.  “I was planning to do my reading in here, but I won’t impose if you’d rather be alone.  Which do you prefer?”

He tries to tell himself that he won’t be upset if he’s kicked out, since he wants to run away anyway and only isn’t doing so because he isn’t a coward.

He has the impulse to hug other Jiang Cheng again. Fortunately there is a table between them, so even if he got a moment of being that much worse at not doing things he shouldn't do than usual, it would take him longer to actually manage it. "Thank you, Sect Leader Jiang." He is either not really suppressing smiling into his plate, or else he is very bad at it. (It's just - he's still subspacing, and that's so nice of other Jiang Cheng - 

- Not the letting him have dessert - though that's also really nice; feeding the submissive might be just what a dom has to do when they're housing someone else's submissive, but that probably doesn't apply to letting them have dessert, especially when they can't even behave. But other Jiang Cheng told him he was allowed, instead of just going about his own other Jiang Cheng business and leaving him wondering, and other Jiang Cheng was paying attention to him and thinking about him, and it's exactly a dom kind of being nice - )

"You're really great, Sect Leader Jiang." And then he shoves about as much of the stick of tanghulu as will fit (possibly slightly more) into his mouth at once. 

Stick of tanghulu: also delicious! He thinks he read somewhere that sweet things used to be less sweet in the past, but whether or not that's true in this universe, it is not being a problem for him with these tanghulu.

...And then this turns out to have been a good idea for a different reason, because now he has an (at least hard to argue with) excuse for taking slightly more time to get his answer together here.

He thinks that was the kind of question that's about what he personally would like. Which is always etiquette on supremely much hard mode, because he needs to say what he would like, since that's answering the question, while also conveying that of course all decisions about where in their house to be and also about Wei Wuxian are doms'/other Jiang Cheng's, and he continues to know that. Especially (very especially) is he's wrong about that being a what-he-would like question, which he might be. Because other-cultural etiquette that is also in another universe.

...Yeah he gives up. Not like he doesn't get smacked all the time for being terrible at etiquette! He may as well get something out of that when it's useful. (His brain, which apparently needs some sort of reminder lecture about counting blessings, meanwhile produces the idea that if other Jiang Cheng's going to read in the room, other Jiang Cheng could maybe also let him put his head in his lap?)

"You're really, really great, Sect Leader Jiang." ...Here's a question, why do any doms let him talk in their presence at all. "Sorry, Sandu Shengshou, I mean - if you're asking what I'd like more myself, then thank you, yes please, Sandu Shengshou. -You know I'm terrible at attending, but I'll really try my best if you'd like, I know you can't get anyone else in here." He is good at putting his head in people's lap though! So maybe they can do that instead?

"- If you weren't asking then this one apologizes, Sect Leader Jiang, this one meant no presumption and will be obedient."

It's finally not annoying that Wei Wuxian keeps looking down instead of at Jiang Cheng's face, because he is feeling incredibly flustered about all of these complements and is not successfully hiding this at all. 

He’d thought he’d made himself clear.  Then again, Jiang Cheng knows well how formality and honesty don’t mix.  So, since speaking plainly is both: a) What he wants to have happen; and b) Something he has just been rewarded with compliments for having just done, he will continue trying at it.

“I had been asking for your real answer.  I don’t know what you mean by ‘attending’.  You can,” he begins, then pauses.  ‘Do whatever you feel like doing,’ is far too open ended.  His Wei Wuxian would find something horrible to do, either because he’s unreasonable or to punish Jiang Cheng for not being specific. “You can draw, meditate, work on notes for my Wei Wuxian, or practice with your flute.  Or, you can ask if there’s anything you were planning on doing that you think won’t be inappropriate.”

“Ah.  And the formality practice for the day is concluded.”  Which sounds terribly awkward.  The local Wei Wuxian would have raked him over the coals about saying it, even if he’d gone along with the formality to begin with.  He can’t ignore years of training to expect a devious grin and to be immediately jabbed in the side and an argument to break out.

(Wei Wuxian is in fact high on subspace enough that he isn't at the current moment sneaking glances at other Jiang Cheng.)

(-Ha, he got it and was so correct-)

They haven't invented attending!? Is that a thing?? How is that possibly a thing?! Maybe if he'd gone to such a farther-back-in-history universe that he'd landed on cave Neanderthals – no that's stupid he doesn't know why he even thought that, obviously they just call it something else here. He should - 

He's allowed to practice with his flute?!! Also other Jiang Cheng is telling him explicitly what he's allowed to do, which is great. It isn't very many things, but one of them is practicing with his flute(!!), and also he also has explicit permission to ask for more things. ("that you think won’t be inappropriate" is obviously a warning, but it's a pretty gentle warning.)

"Tha - sorry! Yes, Sandu Shengshou, thank you Sandu Shengshou!!!"

The formality what is what? - oh, right, the higher etiquette lunch, other Jiang Cheng must mean that. ...Oops he totally spoke not formally before other Jiang Cheng said that. Well, other Jiang Cheng isn't currently telling him off for it. Possibly he meant for the higher etiquette to be done earlier and didn't mention it (maybe there was a sign that anyone local would catch), so he's letting it slide. Wei Wuxian isn't going to draw attention to that - if other Jiang Cheng had wanted to end the higher formality earlier and only just realized he needed to say so, he's probably going to be embarrassed about it, so Wei Wuxian is going to just act as much as he can like he didn't notice.

"Yes, Sandu Shengshou." Another smile down, this time almost shyly. Not so concealed. "Thank you for -" wow it is really hard to find synonyms for 'teaching me' that don't seem like they could be what you're in local style supposed to say after punishment. "helping me learn the etiquette here, Sect Leader Jiang."

Jiang Cheng sits up straighter but fidgets with the empty plates as he stacks them and moves them aside.

“Hopefully things go well enough that you’ll be able to make use of the skill.  Formal banquets are a boring pain in the ass but it’s better than hostility and fighting.”  Barely.  And he can almost hear his Wei Wuxian’s voice vehemently disagreeing loud enough to be heard from all the way in the Burial Mounds.  

He gets out the yao lecture reorganization proposal which is the first of the documents he ought to read and form an opinion on before tomorrow.  “I’m not touching the mess you made out of the desk,” he says, believing that he’s telling Wei Wuxian that the desk remains free for him to use if he wants to, and that Jiang Cheng has no interest in causing him delays by having to put everything away just to set it back up later.  He has his own mobile writing kit he can use when he wants to take notes.

Not that he expects Wei Wuxian to do his own writing; he saw how his eyes lit up when he mentioned the flute. 

Wei Wuxian will (try to) help with the plates! ...Note to self, review etiquette instructions later. He makes a bit of a face at 'formal banquets' (oops). But, yes, cannot argue with that, formal banquets are definitely better than whatever war had happened here. Or most other wars.

(...also other Jiang Cheng just called formal banquets a boring pain in the ass. He does not start laughing, because then other Jiang Cheng would either ask him what he was laughing about or be preemptively annoyed at him or both, and he would like to continue to avoid trying to explain that world difference. Nope, no laughing.) (Though wow, if other Jiang Cheng thinks the local banquets are a boring pain, they have to be terrible. Who are they even being organized for at that point, Lan Qiren? ...That might be it.)

"I'll try to review it, Sandu Shengshou." Is he going to get a-look-or-more-than-that for the 'try'? Well. It's true and since it's true he isn't going to leave it out. If Lan Zhan were here he could say he'd review it. No, no thinking about that right now. 

Ooh he wonders what kinds of things other Jiang Cheng works on here. He is not going to respond to this curiosity by trying to read over other Jiang Cheng's shoulder. Or by trying to ask if he can do that, also no.

...Right, that. "Sorry, Sandu Shengshou." It is very unfair of other Jiang Cheng to tell him off for that again, given that not only has he not had any time or opportunity to fix it since the last time other Jiang Cheng told him off for it, but other Jiang Cheng specifically told him not to! Noooot that he can claim it's unfair for other Jiang Cheng to suspect he was going to completely forget about it. But he could have given him a chance! At least before going right to the 'telling off' part! -Anyway, he can do it now.

...He runs over other Jiang Cheng's list in his head. Tidying up his papers and making the bed: notably not on the list (except inasmuch as he could argue for cleaning the notes up being sort of part of working on notes, and maybe argue for making the bed being sort of part of doing something on the bed after that, which either meditating or practicing with his flute could be). (Thank you Wei Ying's brain; no he is not going to try that.) Does that mean he should ask...?

...He does not think other Jiang Cheng is going to be very patient or pleased if he uses his very broad asking-things-permissions here to ask if he should do the thing that other Jiang Cheng earlier told him he was expected to do, and now is reminding him again that he should do it. And he doesn't really think or see Jiang Cheng starting to yell at him for trying to do some (non-disruptive and very appropriate) room chores because they are not technically and literally on his mentioned list.

He (sneaks a glance at other Jiang Cheng, and) goes over to the bed. First up, notes. Or, notes into stacks and out of the way first; he can put them in order better later. Second up, making the bed. The bedclothes aren't exactly what he's used to but he can still be pretty efficient about it.

(Depending on how much making the bed training local Wei Wuxian may or may not have had, Jiang Cheng might notice that this Wei Wuxian has clearly had significantly more of that.)

Jiang Cheng hadn't meant that as a command, but sure- studying for formal banquets is one of the less disastrous things a Wei Wuxian can do.  Cleaning is also a pretty good thing for him to be doing.  Jiang Cheng is familiar with his own Wei Wuxian's habit of either doing something immediately or forgetting to do it at all.  

Instead of watching him, Jiang Cheng turns back to his reading.  The current sect policy is to teach about yao starting with the most common species.  The proposal is to instead start with the weakest species.  It would encourage young disciples to look for prey suitable to their skill level, but leave them unprepared if they run into more dangerous creatures while out hunting.  Jiang Cheng is already tempted to mark it down as a 'no' but figures he ought to at least read it through first and see if anything will change his mind.

Wei Wuxian would probably end up with an opinion on this, despite his lack of background, and would only mostly probably avoid saying said opinion in other Jiang Cheng's hearing, but he doesn't have that problem because he is not looking!

Bed: made! Papers: stacked (neatly!) 

Flute!!! 

Here are some notes he took on other him's music notes; here are some other him's music notes - he can't just sightread them in the moment (yet!) but he's got them for reference. And now he can actually try this out out loud!!

(Wei Wuxian has, at this moment, genuinely failed to observe or think through the fact that 'you can practice with your flute' is a different statement from 'you can play whatever you want on your flute', and that other Jiang Cheng may very likely have meant that he can practice the things he usually practices, and not that he can try out magic music that he saw less than a day ago and that other Jiang Cheng apparently thinks is evil. Since this has not occurred to him, he also isn't thinking about the fact that other Jiang Cheng will really likely be able to tell if he plays other him's music as soon as he does it out loud. He's not seeing himself as hiding anything or doing anything illicit, so there's no reason to pay attention to concealing it or not.)

Jiang Cheng recognizes the song immediately, giving it a confused eyebrow raise for a moment before he realizes what other Wei Wuxian is up to and rolls his eyes.  Of course he'd do this.

It's always a strange experience to hear a musical cultivation song played by a mundane musician.  It's like a carved stone sculpture of a teapot - the same size and shape but solid all the way through, with a scored line around the top to imply a lid and a shallow divot carved into the end of the fake spout.  Musical cultivation isn't ugly, usually, but there are differences between it and music intended purely for aesthetic enjoyment which become obvious after enough exposure.

Jiang Cheng hadn't fought much alongside Wei Wuxian; Their forces were spread too thin to send them both to the same place very often.  Still, there had been the occasional time he'd heard Chenqing in action.  He still remembered the surge of relief.  For himself, as he knew the battle would be won and over quickly as soon as Wei Wuxian entered.  For Wei Wuxian, who he could hear playing and know he hadn't gotten hurt.

This is probably not the way he is supposed to feel about a song associated with armies of walking corpses. 

Reading?  Reading.  The proposal continues to be neither interesting nor persuasive.

Objectively he should absolutely be continuing to pay attention to other Jiang Cheng's facial expressions. But in fact at the moment he is: not. Flute flute magic muuuuusic. He is going to do a variety of things that an educated flute player might do when encountering some new music he is very interested in, and also a few things that he is kind of making up on the spot out of a mix of fictional magical systems stuff he remembers and computational power analysis theory. Which may not be relevant to anything in reality here, and since there isn't any improperly buried people energy around (...that he knows of...) and also he doesn't know how to actually make the music magic, he isn't even going to be able to try and tell. But he can get to that!

Flute magic flute music (other Jiang Cheng is here in the rooooom and gave him permission to do things with his fluuuute) magic music flute. 

Jiang Cheng sets aside the previous work and picks up the next one on his pile, because he did not come here to watch Wei Wuxian have fun.

He's used to Wei Wuxian improvising on existing melodies.  Despite the differences in musical styles between worlds it is easy for Jiang Cheng to tune it out and let the music exist as background noise.  No mathematical combination of notes produces magic, at least not in this universe.  Not that Jiang Cheng has any idea that Wei Wuxian is trying anything of the sort.

There is still a pile of things for Jiang Cheng to read.  A request to use the fancy main hall for a wedding party, which he's fine with.  A query about why they're bothering to keep the raised thresholds that ward away evil spirits if they are cultivators and capable of handling them, which Jiang Cheng thinks just sounds like tempting fate for no reason.  A suggestion to try staking a claim to the abandoned silver mine the Chang Clan estate had been built on, which has useful spiritual properties.  That one is promising, but will stretch their resources thin.  Jiang Cheng focuses all of his attention on it, debating and calculating expected benefits and costs, eventually writing down a list of things he'll need to look up and check with others before committing.

Eventually, he finishes everything he can and organizes his own notes before tucking them back into his qiankun pouch.  

Jiang Cheng looks around the room - reasonably clean, with a Wei Wuxian who has been well behaved, and decides to pull the jars of wine out.  Jiang Cheng tries to think of a way to tell Wei Wuxian he appreciates the cleaning and obedience without either feeling terribly awkward or weird, and without inadvertently prompting misbehavior.  He fails and instead just passes over the alcohol silently.