Chapter Text
“Mother, I know this challenge is important to you and all, but for the love of Yunmeng do you have to be THIS realistic about it?!” Jiang Cheng questioned.
Normally Jiang Cheng was not one to question his mother. He had the utmost fear –ahem- respect for her, outside of the dark superior alpha within him. He was kind, grateful, and filial, but to be fair to him in this particular instance he was also dangling from the ceiling of a cave-like under ground structure, held mostly by a rope.
Fortunately even Madam Yu, who had made this decision, had to admit that this method was worth something of a spirited conversation at the very least. But of course she was quite ready to defend her actions,
“Of course it has to be realistic. How else am I supposed to know which of these so called marriage prospects I can entrust with your life?”
“First of all I would like to point out that the kidnapping of one’s adult son should not normally be at the forefront of a parents mind, and even if for whatever reason it was they don’t usually actually act on it!” Jiang Cheng insisted wiggling in the air in protest, before continuing, “secondly, does that mean I am expected to just dangle here potentially for hours?!”
Madam Yu scoffed at the comment, taking a sip from her cup of tea at the makeshift rock table that had been set up for her, her two most trusted disciples from before marriage on either side faces unreadable, with some Jiangs at any currently possible entrance of the cave at the moment, before responding,
“Whoever told you our sect was normal grossly mislead you, and as for your second question, I’ll have you note that I dangled you in the most comfortable of positions. I even made it so the rope holds most of your weight, and you even have a platform just under you so don’t be so dramatic.”
Jiang Cheng frowned as he purposely demonstrated just how much of a help the alleged ‘platform’ was. Truthfully the word platform was being exceptionally gracious. What she was referring to as one was the equivalent of a one and half foot thick branch. Considering most of Jiang Cheng’s weight was being held by the rope around him, it was still holding up, but Jiang Cheng had to work hard and concentrate to actually even get a few seconds rest on it. His feet both only fit when he was basically on his tippy toes in the air. When he went to attempt to settle down if he had perfect balance then he could breathe for a second or two before he lost balance and ended up angrily dangling again. He made sure to show this to his mother with a very judgy expression before frowning at her in disapproval once his balance was lost and he began swinging again before he took a break and the rope settled. Clearly he completely disapproved.
Madam Yu’s mouth twitched, a little amused by her son’s antics. She thought he looked pretty adorable glaring and flailing around via the rope. She had made sure that it should be as comfortable as she could manage in case it really did take hours for her Cheng to be rescued. But she felt the thought of just having him tied up in a chair so…basic and boring. So she ignored her son’s protests, saying,
“You’ll be fine, don’t be so dramatic.”
Jiang Cheng glared at her, not even caring if she noticed and took offense to it, as far as he was concerned he was already being unfairly punished, so he wasn’t worried about righteous punishment for now. But as he rocked side to side he couldn’t help but wonder why his internal superior alpha was allowing this ‘humiliation’, did it not see it as one or worse was it enjoying it because it didn’t consider it to be it’s own problem?
Whatever the case, Jiang Cheng wanted to exterminate it. It was bad enough that it made him feel like an out of control monster, but the fact that it just did what it pleased and always came at a bad time instead of a helpful time was in the Jiangs opinion absolutely unacceptable. If he had to deal with the bad parts, there should at least be some kind of benefit other than the cultivation world suddenly wanting him to marry into their families, and quite frankly Jiang Cheng was still counting that as a punishment rather than a benefit, after all that was the reason he was dangling in the air like a fish caught and stuck on a fisherman’s hook in the water. Also it was bad enough that his own sect got to see him like this, he would be even more humiliated if the contestants saw him and worse rescued him like some sort of damsel in distress.
He couldn’t believe that this was the work of someone who called herself his mother…although, on second thought Jiang Cheng realized that actually he could. Because it was his mother. His alpha mother who made a great many men flee from fear in her time. But he still wished that she would cut down on her showmanship and obsession with realism during this asinine kidnapping scenario that she had made up herself. How this was supposed to help her determine her favorite mostly omega marriage candidate Jiang Cheng felt he might never know.
After a little more squirming his temper began to rise again, and he hissed,
“Could you at least let me down until there is even the faintest chance that someone is in the area? I know you must have sent some people to track each one of them, so as long as they didn’t lose their tail it’s not like you wouldn’t know.”
Madam Yu shook her head,
“No, no whether I sent people to tail them or not we can’t be absolutely sure that we won’t be surprised. All of the candidates seem pretty surprising if you ask me. Besides what if they do lose the tail or the tail has no way to signal me? Or what if one of them is incredibly lucky and just happens upon it without even trying? No son, you’ll just have to grin and bear it for now.”
“That’s ridiculous! Do you really think that one of them is just going to magically appear from out of nowhere in this random ground cave thing that the Nie’s probably don’t even know exist here? Besides how would they get in before we had at least a few minutes to dangle me from the ceiling? You’ve got look outs and people at all of the possible entrances. What do you think that all of a sudden a brand new opening will just appear out of-”
A loud bang and an explosion erupted from the ground diagonally behind him, although Jiang Cheng questioned if it could still be called the ground if it was over ones head like a ceiling. It was not directly just above him but rather a bit diagonal, but he still very much had to look up as well as back for this one. The rope however, was still quite securely in place, which was more than could be said of Jiang Cheng’s current dignity and sanity, at least in his own estimation,
“-nowhere.” The young alpha finished weakly, his mother eyeing him haughtily.
“You were saying?” she quipped with a raised brow.
Jiang Cheng looked back at the now random hole in the ceiling and wisely choose not to respond to that remark, for the time being anyway.
“Now aren’t you glad that you listened to me and stayed in position?” she questioned, as she rose, preparing herself for a fight.
“No.” the Jiang stated honestly and stubbornly.
“You aren’t actually planning on fighting them? You do realize that they all have intense political ties and that you are way overpowered to be doing that, right?”
“Don’t worry I won’t hurt any of them too badly. I know when to stop.” Madam Yu insisted, cracking her knuckles.
“Somehow I highly doubt that,” Jiang Cheng said with a sigh nervously glancing up, yet thankful not to see anyone poking their head or anything else through the hole in the ceiling yet.
“If it makes you feel better I won’t use weapons then.”
Jiang Cheng let out a little sigh at that. Grateful for that at least.
“Not that I’ll need them.” Madam Yu finished under her breath as she glided over to stand waiting on the ground just underneath the open hole, like a snake waiting for a rodent to fall into its trap.
And for his part Jiang Cheng craned his neck to look just slightly behind him at the opening to, willing whoever made the hole to rethink their life choices. Although, he had to admit, he also wouldn’t mind if they at least helped him get down and untied first.