[ Jiang Cheng's head jerks up at those last words, ready to dismiss all of the boy's defense of him until those last words. He's said it before, but it's always felt in the context of someone else, another life Jiang Cheng had no way of connecting with, of breaking through to. Just a part of Jin Ling's life related to him only by association.

But this time, it follows Jin Ling telling Jiang Cheng he's not leaving, and that fact seizes him by the throat.

Letting out a sharp, pained breath, he holds Jin Ling tighter. He shouldn't commit Jin Ling to this. His nephew isn't much younger than him, but young enough to be at the height of his teenage recklessness, barreling into things headfirst with no grasp, no consideration for how much it will hurt.

But he wants it too badly. Like with Jin Zixuan, he knows better and still cannot help himself at all, his worst weaknesses all lying in the gaps of love that life tears from his hands again and again, offering him but a single maddening taste before leaving him behind. ]

...don't say you'll stay if you don't mean it. [ Jiang Cheng's voice is tight, strained, on the verge of cracking. ] It will be the end of me, A-Ling. Children grow up, they⁠—⁠ They make their own lives. If you tell me you stay and leave me all the same⁠—

...you're all I have. You're all the family I have.