Chapter Text
Jin Ling draped himself over the couch, dramatically sighing to get his uncle's attention. He had waited nearly fifteen minutes for the shop to close! That was fifteen minutes him and JiuJiu could have been at the arcade, like he promised. From the front of the bakery, Jiang Cheng yelled back at him.
"Stop acting like a princess! I'll be done soon," he grunted, setting down a clean baking tray. MianMian smiled from beside him as she helped finish the dishes. Despite his annoyed tone, she knew Jiang Cheng was looking forward to spending time with his nephew. He adored Jin Ling, grumpy as he may have seemed.
Just as Jiang Cheng was about to take off his apron, the bell dinged and the door swung open. He groaned inwardly. 'I thought I locked the front already.'
"Tell them we're closed, MianMian. I'm going to put this away," he said, indicating the large bag of flour they would need for the next day. He grabbed it and made his way to the stockroom, trying not to get any of the white powder on his clothes.
Jiang Cheng caught the end of the customer's sentence as he returned to the front.
"-can get something for me alright," the man was saying, a greasy look on his equally greasy face. He was broad and frankly quite ugly, but he seemed to carry himself with an air of confidence, like everyone else was below him. And something about him was so familiar… maybe he had seen him at an event or something? But the way he eyed MianMian like she was a piece of meat really grinded on Jiang Cheng's already shot nerves.
"Can I help you?" He spit out, doing his best to take the attention off of his female employee. The man looked at him with an annoyed twinge of his eyebrow.
"You can't," he smirked, oil black eyes flicking to MianMian for a brief moment.
Jiang Cheng leaned over to his coworker, keeping his voice low and even.
"You go back with Jin Ling, I'll handle this. Stay in there until I come and get you guys, alright?"
She nodded, looking both unnerved and uncomfortable, and shuffled quickly to the back room. After a look from Jiang Cheng, she shut the door.
"I'm sorry sir, but we're closed for the evening," he said, turning back to the customer. "I'll have to show you outside."
He managed to drag the dude halfway out the door before he was met with resistance.
"The door was unlocked," he sneered. "So you obviously aren't closed."
"We don't have anything to serve you. So please leave." He practically shoved the guy out of the door and felt a brief gust of air as it swished shut.
"You could serve me that pretty little lady hiding back there," he drawled.
Jiang Cheng saw red. MianMian was like a little sister to him; he felt rather protective of her. On top of that, he tended to be fiercely loyal. He wouldn't let this walking talking pile of used napkins slander his friend. So, despite the other man being at least 3 inches taller than him, he lunged forward and fisted the dude's black tee shirt in his hands.
"Get the hell out of here."
The man retaliated with surprising grace, grabbing his wrists and pushing him back. Jiang Cheng stumbled, waving his hands a little to stay upright. His efforts were in vain, however, because the douchebag pushed him again. Rough cement scraped the palms of his hands as he landed, leaving a bright stinging sensation.
Jiang Cheng was more surprised than hurt because no one had ever pushed him over. 'What a dick.' It was then that the ever-loving douche lord himself crouched down in front of him with a stupid, shit-eating grin on his offensive face. The smile was honestly bordering on manic and made the guy look even crazier than before.
"Oh, I'll get the hell out of here," he chuckled like he had just told the world's funniest joke. "And you're coming with me."
"What the fu-"
An aggressive pain splintered across the back of his head, knocking the curse words out of his mouth. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the shockingly ugly man and his disgusting grin.
xxx
Lan Xichen unlocked the door to his apartment, excitement fluttering in his stomach. He always felt like this after a long day of work because he knew his husband would be home, watching a movie or doing one of his little baking experiments. Fondness bubbled with the excitement as he swung the door open, expecting the blare of the TV or perhaps the decadent smell of Jiang Cheng's famous chocolate chip cookies. He was met with silence.
He frowned. Perhaps A-Cheng had a late day at the bakery. He was rather late himself today, and found it especially unlikely for Jiang Cheng to make it home after him. Lan Xichen stepped further inside, slipping off his shoes and coat neatly.
"A-Cheng?" He called tentatively. "My heart, are you home?"
The apartment was quiet. Lan Xichen's stomach dropped. This wasn't the first time this had happened; after all, there are multiple unknown factors in play when returning from work. Maybe there was a large group of customers near closing, or maybe the traffic was bad, or maybe he simply stopped to get some dinner. But why did something feel so wrong?
Xichen's phone buzzed and Jin Ling's name popped up. Oh yes! A-Cheng did say he was going to spend time with A-Ling today. That must be it. He chuckled to himself. How had he forgotten that?
"A-Ling!" He answered pleasantly.
"JiuZhang!" Jin Ling's voice was shaky and panicked, immediately setting Xichen on edge. His husband's nephew never sounded like this. "It's JiuJiu! Some guy came to the shop and JiuJiu talked to him outside and now we can't find him!" His words were thick with subtle tears.
Lan Xichen's heart stuttered. 'Can't find him?' "W-what do you mean? What happened? I'm on my way right now, just tell me exactly what happened."
The short car ride to the bakery was full of Jin Ling's anxious story about the strange customer that night, and it took every bit of concentration in Xichen's body to drive.
His car screeched next to the curb and he practically flew out, dashing to a waiting Jin Ling and MianMian. The young man was pacing back and forth, a pained scowl twisted onto his face while MianMian watched with a stricken look. They both looked up at his arrival.
"Have you called Jiang Yanli or Wei Wuxian? Perhaps they know where A-Cheng is," he murmured.
"Of course I called them… they're coming now," Jin Ling said. His voice shook as he whispered, "they don't know where JiuJiu is…"
"Oh, A-Ling," Xichen responded gently, noticing the shine in the young boy's eyes and sweeping him into a warm embrace. Jin Ling clutched the back of his sweater tightly as if trying to ground his chaotic thoughts. Tonight was supposed to be fun. They were supposed to have fun.
Wei Wuxian arrived, as he often did, with a crash of nervous energy and messy clothes. His hair looked like he had just stuck his head out of a train window, but somehow, he made it work. The crumbled detective's shirt he had on was tucked haphazardly into his pants, which looked inside out. Overall, it was very Wei Wuxian.
"I just called Lan Zhan. Oh. What do we do? What do I do? I'm a detective, how can I not know what to do? I just barely woke up and my Didi is missing. Oh. How am I-"
He was interrupted by Jin Ling unsticking himself from Xichen and crashing into Wei Wuxian's chest. At this point, he didn't even care how embarrassing it was to hug his crazy uncle, he just needed someone to hold on to. At least until his mom got here. At least until they found JiuJiu.
The second Jin Ling ran to Wuxian, Xichen immediately pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed his husband. He held the device to his face, hands shaking and heart beating. The sound of ringing only worsened his anxiety.
It rang once. Twice. Xichen felt a sheen of nervous sweat on his palms. Three times.
A bright jingle rang out from behind him.
Everyone looked. Jiang Cheng's phone lit up on the dirty sidewalk, screen cracked but still operating. Impossibly, Xichen's stomach dropped even further. Why would A-Cheng leave his broken phone on the ground before he went somewhere?
He wouldn't, a voice whispered in his head. He didn't. Something bad happened. Lan Xichen started out of his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder, realizing he'd been staring at A-Cheng's phone for too long. He turned to see Wei Ying; apparently Jiang Yanli had arrived with her husband and was now clutching Jin Ling tightly, like he could disappear at any moment. A horrifying thought now occured: maybe he could.
xxx
Jiang Cheng was suddenly and quite rudely jerked back into conciousness. His eyes shot open and he gasped a bit, like he had just woken up late for work. No, that wasn't it. A throbbing pain pulsed on the back of his head as he strove to shake the confusion off. What the hell?
He remembered the ugly man with a grimace. Did that dude really punch him? No. He must of have someone else sneak up from behind. What a douche.
Jiang Cheng realized he couldn't see; some type of thin fabric was over his entire head, blocking most of his vision beyond blurry splotches of light. 'Holy shit. Did this guy kidnap me too? What the hell for?' Sure enough, his hands and feet were tied with something that felt like rope and a strip of duct tape was covering his lips. After a bump beneath him, he guessed that he was in a car. Knowing his luck, it was probably a creepy white van.
Jiang Cheng couldn't fight the rush of frustration. Just when his life was looking up… just when he got married, just when his dream career was finally doing well, just when he was finally starting to be happy, some random dickhead that looked like the human embodiment of a gas station bathroom had to kidnap him. The question still lingered: but why?
Despite his grumpy attitude, Jiang Cheng really tried to avoid pissing other people off. He tried to avoid other people as a whole, most of the time. In fact, he was actually trying to make others happy, hence the bakery. But whatever. He guessed the universe didn't care what he was trying to do.
Although Jiang Cheng was loathe to admit it, slivers of cold fear were running down his back. What was going to happen? Who took him? Were they going to kill him? Were Jin Ling and MianMian ok? He just left them. What if more people came and attacked them? Were they here too? Was Xichen ok? His husband was too soft for this kind of thing. He had to pinch his tightly tied wrist to stop the spiral, surmising that if he wanted to escape, he had to stay calm. 'Dammit. I should have paid more attention in that self defense class Wei Ying made me take with him. I think they said something about how to escape restraints?'
Wei Ying. The situation suddenly donned on him as ironic. His older brother was always running around like an idiot at his job, getting into car chases or gun fights and overall causing many gray hairs on Jiang Cheng's head. Wei Wuxian arrested so many criminals that it seemed inevitable, as horrible as it sounded and as much as he wished it wasn't true, that something would happen to his brother some day. The little gremlin already knew the ER doctors by name. But Jiang Cheng tried to lead a quiet life! He didn't do half of the reckless nonsense Wei Ying did. Maybe this whole thing was good. Maybe Jiang Cheng getting kidnapped was the price to pay for his family's safety. Though he knew his logic was ridiculous and flawed, his head hurt so damn bad that he couldn't seem to care.
The car shuddered to a stop and Jiang Cheng heard doors slamming. Someone roughly yanked him onto their shoulder, making his already dizzy head even dizzier. 'I'm being carried like a sack of potatoes.' Despite the situation, the thought was embarassing.
He was dropped uncermoniously onto a hard metal chair and the bag was pulled off of his head. Jiang Cheng blinked in the low light, trying to focus his fuzzy vision into something comprehendible. A person. There was a person in front of him, also seated. After more squinting, he recognized the person as the Ugly Asshole. The freakshow even had the nerve to smile, like this was some sort of date with a friend.
"Jiang Wanyin. Nice to see you," he said in that same drawling tone. Jiang Cheng fought the urge to wince; no one except for Xichen ever called him Wanyin. Since the tape still restricted a snarky remark, he opted for a raised eyebrow and what he hoped was a judgemental glare. The other man didn't seem bothered. Jiang Cheng still couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity. Where had he seen this guy before?
"Allow me to introduce myself, as I'm sure you have many questions. My name is Wen Chao."
Ah. That was it. The puzzle pieces started to click together in his mind. So that's what this is about. The Wens. Now he could imagine why this guy was insane. Wei Wuxian had been the one to catch the entire (well, I guess not) family, and Lan Wangji had been the prosecuting attorney. The great WangXian power couple themselves had taken down the biggest crime sindicate in the city… but what did that have to do with Juan Cheng? He baked cookies. For fun. How did that make him a target?
"Your family ruined my life," Wen Chao said, his disconcerting smile darkening. "Lan Xichen, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian." He practically spit Wei Ying's name out. That's right, Jiang Cheng remembered. Xichen was on the prosecution team as well.
As much as he was glad it was him in this chair instead of his family members, he still didn't quite understand it. Wen Chao must have noticed the confusion on his face because he chuckled and clicked his tongue.
"Revenge is complicated, Wanyin. It's not as simple as taking a gun and blowing Wei Wuxian's brains out, delightful as that sounds."
Jiang Cheng's fist clenched in rage. This guy really was a psychopath. And the way Wen Chao addressed him didn't sit right. It sounded… wrong.
"And the Lans are so hard to get to that I almost don't want to bother with one of them. But you… you're something they all have in common. And taking you was easy. You're low profile, quiet… reachable," he stood and began to walk in circles, stopping every once in a while to pat Jiang Cheng's head or touch his shoulder with those disgusting hands.
"Not to mention," Wen Chao added with a smirk, leaning close to his face. Jiang Cheng wanted to comment on how bad his breath was or how yellow his teeth were… curse this damned duct tape. "Hurting you would cause Wei Wuxian more damage than anything we could ever do to him. Lan Xichen, too. And what hurts them, hurts Lan Wangji."
His sick smile twisted into a laugh and he finally leaned back. "I can see it now! The husband, brother, and brother-in-law of three upstanding, lawful, good citizens, dead in a ditch somewhere."
Jiang Cheng's heart thudded. 'So he's planning to kill me.' "Or perhaps he just disappears without a trace! That would break them, to never know." 'I have to get out of here.' "But, I think I'd rather like them to know. That might be even worse. Oh yes, how delicious. They were the cause of their dear Jiang Wanyin's untimely death! I imagine that eats one up inside."
Jiang Cheng wished Wen Chao would stop smiling.
"Of course I could've gone for your sister, or maybe even that little nephew of yours… but they lived too far away."
As if that was that was a valid reason to not kidnap someone. As if there was a good reason to kidnap someone in the first place. Jiang Cheng found himself feeling grateful that Jin Ling had been in the back tonight. If Wen Chao had seen him… he didn't want to think about what else this psychopath was capable of.
"But now I have you," he sighed, content. "And as fun as it would be to start our time together now, I'm quite tired. It is late, you know." 'This guy's reasoning is shit.' "However, I think we should send our intrepid heroes a gift, hmm? Something to remember you by?" Wen Chao crept close again, and Jiang Cheng leaned back. Who knows what this guy would do to him. What he was about to do to him.
The other man trailed his finger along Jiang Cheng's jaw and ended by his hairline, so close that his breathe skirted along his captive's cheeks. He twirled a lock of Jiang Cheng's inky hair between his fingers.
"Perhaps…" he whispered. Wen Chao grabbed a knife from his pocket and swiftly sliced a lock of hair off. He grinned down at it. "Do you suppose your husband will recognize it?" 'Yes. Xichen knows. A-Huan always knows.' He wanted to scream. "Let's send something else, just to make sure." He crouched down and fiddled with Jiang Cheng's hands, ignoring the grunts of protest.
Wen Chao slid the wedding ring off and into his palm to join the hair. He smeared some of Jiang Cheng's blood from his head wound onto the smooth, gold band, then turned to wink at him. "To add to the effect."
Then he slipped them into a creme envelope, and handed it off to one of his lackeys. "See that this is delivered. Tonight." The guy nodded and stepped away into the darkness. "Take him," he said to another man. "And kick him a few times, if you wish. We'll continue this tomorrow." Jiang Cheng felt a bit of relief as Wen Chao exited, but it was stomped out when he saw who stepped forward.
It was Su She. He looked cool and calculating now, but the anger still burned in his dark eyes. He hated the Lans. When they found out he had been paid off by the Wens to provide fake evidence in the court case, they fired him and basically blacklisted him from every Law firm within a 200 mile radius. After that, they never really knew where he slunk off to. Guess this answers that question.
Su She made a gesture with his hands and two more big guys forced Jiang Cheng to stand and walk. They moved through the dark into a small, dingy cement room that looked suspiciously like hell. 'I just want to sleep. Is that so much to ask?'
They shoved him forward and left, leaving him alone with Su She. The man let a small smirk inch onto his icy face.
"Hmm… Wen Chao said only a few times right? He better not get mad at me if I lose count."
xxx
Xichen could only stare. Stare at the wall of his apartment where they had decided Jiang Cheng would be most likely to return to. Stare at MianMian's retreating back as she left with her boyfriend, telling them she'd be back tomorrow. Stare at Jin Ling, asleep in his mother's lap, tear tracks on his young face. Stare as Yanli stroked his hair and let her own tears fall silently. Stare at Wei Ying on the phone with the police, arguing about missing persons reports. Stare at the floor until his younger brother arrived. Stare at his hands while Wangji comforted his husband. He only stopped when a knock came at the door.
Lan Xichen stumbled desperately over, throwing the door open.
"Wanyin-"
But there was nothing. Nothing save a small envelope, resting innocently on the door mat, contents thick and bulky. Wangji appeared behind him, Wei Wuxian in tow.
"What is it, brother?" His voice was quiet and even.
Xichen bent and grabbed it, looking to see anyone walking away. The halls were empty. He turned and let the door fall shut behind him.
"I don't know, Wangji," he replied softly, turning the envelope over in his hands. He slid his long fingers inbetween the seal and tore it open, without his usual grace and patience. The contents spilled into his unsuspecting hand.
Wei Wuxian's face lost any remaining color. Wangji appeared as horrified as he could ever look, which was wide eyes and mouth slightly agape. Xichen's knees buckled and he let out a strangled sound, collapsing to the floor with a thud.
"Brother!"
"Xichen-ge!"
The calls from Wangji and Wuxian woke Jin Ling and startled Yanli, who let out a soft gasp at the sight. She pulled Jin Ling against her and glanced at her husband, who was seated silently next to her. He took his son into his arms and held tight even as the boy struggled groggily against the grip. 'A-Ling doesn't need to see.'
Wangji immediately knelt down and supported his brothers back with his hand.
"Is it… his?" Wuxian's voice sounded choked and scared, a far cry from his normally confident intonation. Xichen's shaking shoulders and broken sobs were enough of an answer. The ring and the hair were Jiang Cheng's. And the ring was covered in blood.