#This answer is very much only about zhancheng but if I'll start talking about chengxian I'll never shut up lmao

[add1ctedt0you]

hi! zhanchengxian for the ask game?

Ship It

What made you ship it?

Awful people should stick together <3. No, seriously lol, initially I didn't ship them, but I read one fic that made me consider them as a thing ( pillow talk by sugar_shoal). And I figured out that I enjoy their dynamic!

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Putting in a room people who have caused each other great harm and watch what will happen is my jam tbh. I like how all of them have to struggle to be together! We have jc's insecurities and grief, wwx's aversion to open vulnerability and his resentment, lwj's stubbornness and pettiness... So juicy!

Like, how do they get there? How do they reach a point of balance? How do you reconcile wwx's deflecting mannerisms, jc's snapping attitude and lwj's selective mutism? imo wangxian works so well (novel canon) because there isn't history, there aren't dead bodies or broken promises or broken comradeship. But, with jc in the mixer, we have it all! They can get on each other nerves (lwj, jc), bring the worst out of each other (jc, wwx) and enable each other worst traits (lwj, wwx). We can have interesting dynamics! They can heal each other wounds or they can cut deeper each other even more... It's so interesting!

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Mmmm. Idk even know what is unpopular here lol, but, I do think that if zhancheng happens during wwx's death, canon is different! While I emphasize with the desire of skipping the hassle of changing canon, and like, people can be into whatever, imo, to have the characters ring true to me, things have to be different!

If lwj has an affair with jc, I don't think he won't fall in love/be softer with him! If they have occasional hook up, fine, but a whole ass (sexual) relationship? He's going to catch some feelings! My interpretation of lwj's character is that, despite his cold demeanor, he's soft and squishy inside! He's prone to love! He's going to understand and emphasize with jc! Cql!lwj is already doing an half attempt at encouraging a yunmeng bros reconciliation, but a lwj who has been ball deep inside jc? Who knows that jc is cruel and snapping, but who knows that jc is much more too? Canon changes imo. (again, I fully understand people who don't want to touch canon)

(I am not talking about jc because it's obvious that he's having feelings for lwj. He's also very mad at all of them!)

(and, if they have a relationship but jc -feeling too much exposed, not used anymore at someone really watching him, doting on him- lashes out and breaks their 'arrangement'... Then yeah, lwj could be even worse than in canon imo lol)

Also, mmm, while zhancheng is mostly about wwx (and it should be like that!), lwj was very much dumped back then during the war. jc was his first real friend! They understood each other! They were a team! They were on the same page! And jc dumped him :-/