“Wei Wuxian, at this point you need to try to make people see you as less of a threat—“

“Why?”

“Because Jiejie hopes to have you in her life again! And in her son’s life. And that won’t happen if things go on as they are!” He paused to take a deep breath. He hoped his voice was calmer. “Jin Zixuan had to do a lot talking to convince his father to allow you to be invited. It probably only worked because Jin Guangshan is ecstatic to have good first grandson. But unless you make an effort to not do anything to put anyone’s back up, your being there will only make things worse.”

Wei Wuxian frowned but he didn’t immediately rebute Jiang Cheng. After a moment, he let out a breath.

“Do you really think it can work?”

And Jiang Cheng heard it. The hope in his voice. It tore at Jiang Cheng’s heart. He said only thing he could.

“I don’t know. Maybe. But not if you start by showing up with him.”

“I can’t just abandon everyone at the Burial Mounds, you know that.”

“I know. And we’ve been discussing that, Jin Zixuan has some ideas.”

Personally, he thought Jin Zixuan was pragmatic and politically savvy, and he thought his proposals just might work. So did Nie Huaisang. He knew Wei Wuxian wouldn’t necessarily like those ideas, but the only way to resolve the situation was with compromise on both sides. But he knew he wasn’t the right person to present them to Wei Wuxian.

They had all agreed that person should be Jiang Yanli.