#but i am grateful for the opportunity to ramble about my useless ship opinions. thank you

[difeisheng]

Pls tell us ur thoughts on chengyao

Fair warning: I’m not sure how well this is structured. I apologize in advance.

All right, the thing about Chengyao is that it is wonderful as a premise but a trainwreck as soon as you approach anywhere near execution. Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao are two rich uncles in joint custody of Jin Ling. They both have the background of being a son who tried to live up to their shitty father's expectations, but were in the end ignored for someone else. They're also under a lot of stress. With all this, in theory there should be a chance for something to happen between them, right? Right? No! Because neither of them trust anyone, Jiang Cheng doesn't like Jin Guangyao because he hides too much and Jin Guangyao doesn't like Jiang Cheng because he's so pathetically open about his emotions in public it's almost embarrassing.

Every interaction is full of awkwardness and forced smiles and politeness, and the only thing that can smooth it over is if Jin Ling is around. He's really the only thing these two will agree on. Which is highly unfortunate, because Jin Ling is an important thing in both their lives, and for sixteen years of co-parenting both sides of Chengyao have to cope with knowing the other person in this whole deal they find infuriating is also pretty much the only other person who cares about A-Ling as much as they do. They would really, really rather not meet with each other often, but for Jin Ling's sake they can suck it up and work out a schedule for each of them to see their nephew.

Regular visits with Jin Ling involved make it more amusing for us and worse for Chengyao. There's already a very, very begrudging respect between them because they're involved in Jin Ling's well-being, and as it turns out, people you don't like can still be good-looking. Yes, Jiang Cheng is a walking ball of insecurity and parental issues Jin Guangyao does not want to risk getting entangled in, at all, but that does not detract from how you could cut yourself on Jiang Cheng's cheekbones. And yes, Jin Guangyao gets on every one of Jiang Cheng's nerves, but he is tragically also very pretty and no one is immune to Lianfang-zun's dimples. Jin Guangyao watches Jiang Cheng teach Jin Ling how to swim and very pointedly does not think about the water dripping down Jiang Cheng's bare torso. Jiang Cheng sees Jin Guangyao sitting on the floor of Jinlintai, playing with Fairy and A-Ling, and struggles not to call the sight cute.

This 'goddammit, I guess I'm stuck with you' dynamic thanks to Jin Ling combined with some low-level repressed horniness culminates in what we get in canon, which is two men who have never once gotten close to fucking each other having Divorced Couple Energy through the goddamn roof. Neither of them are happy about this. They do their best to ignore it. To no avail, which is why even at Guanyin Temple you wind up with moments like this.

All of this aside, though, if Chengyao did manage to get together, around their dislike for each other and their individual relationship issues (which in Jiang Cheng's case is fearing a marriage like his parents' and with Jin Guangyao it's a whole complex surrounding extra-marital sex), it would be very fun, because Jin Guangyao would prefer to be in control of a situation and Jiang Cheng, regardless of whether he knows it or not, would prefer someone to tell him what to do. There would be many regrets involved and some mortified eye contact during social events after that, but at least the sex was good.

That's all I've got. Thanks for the ask!

#sorry if this wasn't what you were looking for anon #im not in a very serious mood right now lmao #but i am grateful for the opportunity to ramble about my useless ship opinions. thank you #mdzs #cql #chengyao #jin guangyao #jiang cheng #ashton answers #anon