Work Text:
Jiang Yanli is the calm to her brothers' storms, so people forget that she is Yu Ziyuan's daughter. They see her talk A-Cheng down with gentle words, soothe A-Xian with soup, comfort them both with soft caresses, and think of her father at his most indulgent. This suits the three of them.
Only her brothers know what Jiang Yanli is like behind closed doors, how she puts A-Cheng on his knees and makes him stay there, how she ties A-Xian up until he can't run away, can barely move, long limbs straining. Only she knows how they beg for it. They shine, and they rage, and she keeps them from burning out, trying to re-light the fire of Yunmeng Jiang, trying to illuminate the difference between what can be done and what should. She loves them, her beautiful boys forced to grow up too soon, loves them enough to concentrate her own brilliance into this: a precise knowledge of how far to push—and a growing repertoire of ways—to bring her brothers some peace.