Summary: Jiang Cheng is jaded, bitter and miserable. Lan Xichen isn't sure he can ever trust anyone again. They've always been at the periphery of each other's lives, perpetually visible but never touching, and it seems it's going to stay that way. Then Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui fall in love, and everything changes.

Thrown together as the only single men in a family full of couples, neither is exactly happy about their situation. But when two lonely people find each other, sometimes they can be a little less lonely together.

Written because both Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen deserved better, and their characters go so well together. Also I needed something to get back into writing.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824490/chapters/39493117

Note: This fic starts after the novel ends where Lan Xichen is in grieving the death of his sworn brothers in seclusion. Jiang Cheng comes across him by accident and from there the story unfolds. The plot and characterisation is really good although it is little slow at the beginning. However, the author captured the emotional turmoils very well. Add to it the chaos created by Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi and the romantic couple WangXian and you have a story worth reading.