#WWX's death here is not the one on MDZS canon but the one in CQL canon

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

May 16th

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1. Hello! Hello! This time I'm asking I'm in Mood for a Fic. So, I want that after WWY's death he is reincarnated in the modern world, with all his memories, and discovers that his past life is a book, his mother in modern life is a fan of that book and is the reason he is called Wei Ying again. He must also discover that Lan Zhan is in love with him. Honestly, this is the basis, it may or may not have just 1 chapter or be longer. I just want something like this. Thank you ☺️ @sweettiebah

Rediscovery by getwow21 (Not Rated, 7k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Modern AU, BAMF WWX, BAMF WQ, WWX is a Wen, WWX in WWX's Body, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Time Travel Fix-It, Modern WWX, POV WWX, Protective WQ, WWX & WQ Friendship, Good Sibling WQ, Protective WN, Madam Lan Lives, Wen Remnants Live, Madam Lan Leaves Cloud Recesses, Dimension Travel, No Golden Core Transfer)

What Your Heart Desires by pupeez4eva (M, 7k, WangXian, Humor, Crack, WWX is reborn in the modern world after his first death, where the MDZS novel exists, WWX becoming VERY well acquainted with the whole novel)

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2. I would like to find a WangXian fic where there will be some friendship between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zuxian + some cute moment between the latter and his wife? Maybe one where Zuxian doesn't die? (not a modern AU please)

🔒 Song by WithBroomBefore (T, 41k, WangXian, JC & LWJ & JZX & WWX, Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, WWX's canonical comfort with the prospect of his own death, Hurt/Comfort, JZX makes friends, Eventual Happy Ending, some unhappiness along the way, Canon-Typical Violence, JC keeps his golden core, JYL Lives, WQ Lives, Minor Character Death, Kissing, WWX Lives, no golden core transfer (because Jiang Cheng keeps his), JZX Lives, Fix-It, WN Lives, Weeping, temporary major character death, like extremely temporary, Murder Road Trip, Implied Sexual Content, Sunshot Campaign, Nonbinary NHS, Telepathy, platonic group soulbonding, Family, Found Family, POV WWX, Podfic Available) this might not quite be what they're looking for but Song features a strong friendship between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan (and Lan Wangji and Jiang Chen).

🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 803k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement) funny friendship btwn JZX/WWX, WWX helps him write letters to JYL

🔒 Candy & Conspiracies by Reverie (cl410) (T, 16k, WangXian, XuanLi, MianQing, Jīn Sect WWX, Chaos Gremlin WWX, Fluff and Crack, Humor, Cloud Recesses, Found Family, pure idiocy, And some light murder, good madam jin, No Angst, Canon Divergence) WWX grows up in the Jin sect, is a total chaos gremlin while JZX is the long suffering gege

watch what we’ll become by glitteringmoonlight (T, 59k, WWX & JZX, WangXian, Background JZX/JYL, WWX & JZX are married but completely platonically, featuring my let WWX and JZX be bros agenda, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Angst with a Happy Ending) JZX and WWX are forced to marry but WAIT it's actually cute and ends happily with Wangxian and Xuanli

Twin Treasures by crossdressingdeath (T, 81k, WIP, JZX & WWX, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Can’t quite tag this as ‘everyone lives’ but I promise everyone who dies will DESERVE IT, mostly novel-verse with a bit of CQL here and there, currently being edited) JZX and WWX grow up as brothers, JZX is overprotective gege)

🔒 Jin vs. Lan - For Wei Wuxian’s Hand by Vrishchika (T, 7k, WangXian, one-sided JZX/WWX, JZX & WWX, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, No War AU, Not JC Friendly, Not Jiang Sect Friendly) JZX falls for WWX first, competes with LWJ for his affections, ends up falling for JYL in the end bc Wangxian is goals

Couldn't Scream Couldn't Shout by mermorgie (T, 42k, WangXian, LXC & WWX, LXC & LWJ, LQR & WWX, JZX & WWX, WWX & NHS, LWJ & NHS, WIP, Not for JC stans, Muteness, Sign Language, references to selective mutism, Homophobic JC, canon JC characteristics, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Anxiety Attacks, Pining, LWJ is a Panicked Gay, Supportive Sibling LXC, JZX Tries, LQR Tries, Protective JZX, Scheming NHS, Bisexual JZX, LWJ is Bad at Communicating, WWX Has ADHD, Autistic LWJ, WWX Has a Fear of Dogs, Jiang Family Bashing) LWJ silences WWX and accidentally makes it irreversible, WWX can't speak or eat and it's a bad situation all around, turns out JZX knows sign language and he and WWX bond over learning together

With you, I can fight the World by Weiyingbestboy (G, 2k, WangXian, JYL/JZX, JC & WWX & JYL, JZX & WWX, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, JC is so done, JZX & WWX Friendship) time travel, JZX and WWX are at Qiongqi path and suddenly travel back to when WWX punches JZX at CR

A Peacock and A Raven by Akak_ShadMe (Not Rated, 2k, JZX & WWX, JYL/JZX, WangXian, Major Character Death, JZX & WWX Friendship, Time Travel Fix-It, Platonic Relationships, Protective JZX, Confused JC, JZX Lives, Oblivious WWX) this is a series, WWX and JZX time travel and confuse everyone with their friendship

Resonant Bonds by nirejseki (G, 3k, JZX & WWX, Soul Bond, Platonic Soulmates) JZX and WWX have a platonic soulmate bond and can speak to each other mentally

Fatherhood's Calling by Fortune_Maiden (G, 1k, JZX & WWX, JYL/JZX, Crack, Humor, Post-Sunshot Campaign era, in which JZX genuinely means well and it is a headache for everyone else involved) this is crack, JZX sees himself as WWX's new father figure bc JYL sees WWX as a son, not exactly friendship but hilarious nonetheless

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3. do you know any nice fic where Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian have a nice uncle-nephew relationship? If possible, without too much of JC'presence?

hills and rivers are waiting by LtLJ (T, 15k, WangXian, JL & WWX, Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, the family that hunts demons together stays together, and doesn't murder each other, Case Fic, BAMF WWX, Mojo's post)

A Civil Combpaign Series by Ariaste (T, 19k, JL/LSZ, wangxian, arranged marriage, courting, teenage drama, humor)

Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 63k, WangXian, WWX & JL, Post-Canon, Protective WWX, Protective JL, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, Reluctant Matchmaker JL)

three days gone by occultings (microcomets) (G, 4k, JL & WWX, WangXian, Post-Canon, Family Bonding, Homophobic Language, Fluff)

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4. Do you know some WangXian fics where Wei Wuxian come back from death sooner, before 13/16 years?

incantations and blood by reikadust (T, 36k, WangXian, WWX & WN, JYL/JZX, JC & JL, JL/LSZ, WWX & Juniors, WIP, Rape/Non-Con, Angst with a Happy Ending, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Rituals, Self-Sacrifice, WWX gets a body early, non-con tag is for og characters back story, Reincarnation, LWJ is So Whipped, JC & LWJ Dislike Each Other, Good Uncle LQR, Bad Parents JFM & YZY, WWX the parent that stepped up, Doctor WWX, OP WWX, Genius WWX, No Smut, MXY Deserves Better, i gave him his own story, Child Abuse, Forests, Murder, PTSD, NHS & WWX Friendship, Scheming NHS, Scheming WWX, LWJ doesnt care abt what WWX does cz he loves him, Medical Inaccuracies, Canon Divergence, fast burn, Smart WWX, Fast burn, - they kiss in like chap 4 or smth, MY BBG WWX GETS HIS OG BODY BACK BRO DW, Mr Queen inspired, TW: rape/non con, Letters, Exchanging Letters)

patching the road with vague intentions by loosingletters (T, 35k, LQR & WWX, WangXian, LSZ & WWX, LXC & LWJ & LQR & LSZ, WIP, Canon Divergence, Humor, Developing Friendships, WWX Resurrected By Others, Trans WWX, Case Fic, POV WWX, POV LQR, Family, Good Uncle LQR, Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core Reveal Slow Burn, Canon-Typical Violence, MXY Lives)

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5. after reading "baby, you ain't seem nothing yet" by triviasfolly, i have been obsessed with wangxian's parental dynamics with shizui and jingyi - are there any fics like this?

it doesn't have to be a modern au, but i would like if the juniors are teenagers. one of my favorite things were jingyi's crush/longing for a mom when it came to wwx, and how lwj seemed to be accepting him as a son. loved wwx discussion about self expression with, gender and romantic feelings with a'yuan, and that outburst with lwj not wanting him to grow up

To lurk, to lie in wait by trippednfell (M, 124k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Huli Jing, strangers to co-parents to lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Dragons, Kid Fic, teenage juniors, background NieLan, Angst with a Happy Ending, Case Fic, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Fox Spirit WWX, Dragon LWJ, Blood and Injury, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note) WWX is a doctor and huli jing, meets LSZ who's also huli jing but didn't know it, cue mentor relationship developing into dad later on; there's also a bunch of drama w/ LWJ lol

🔒 Due Process by Kytrin, ShotsOfSunshine (E, 280k, WangXian, LXC/JC/NHS, JL/LSZ/LJY/OYZZ, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Modern, Canon-Typical Violence, Fox WWX, Dragon LWJ, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid WWX, WWX identifies as male, Organized Crime, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, mentions of child abuse, Angst with a Happy Ending, Found Family, Reincarnation) Also huli jing WWX but with Mafia thrown in there, WWX is a professor and mentor to young genius kids, his relationship w/ OZZ is a special spotlight and so sweet

❤️ By Any Other Name by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 31k, Wangxian, Canon Divergence, Crossdressing, Misunderstandings, Identity Porn, Identity reveal) non modern, WWX comes back as MXY, runs straight to JC and disguises himself as a woman, has a really sweet relationship with all the juniors in a mentor/mom way, funny identity shenanigans throughout

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6. itmf fic where baoshan sanren comes down from her mountain to tell off JFM and madam yu for mistreating the son of her disciple—madam yu for all the obvious stuff, and JFM for allowing and possibly encouraging the rumors that WWX was his son, dishonoring cangse sanren’s memory with the idea she would have been unfaithful to her husband. i’ve seen them being criticized for that before, but never by BSSR, even though she’s the one with most reason to be mad on CSSR & WWX’s behalf

Song of Joy and Regrets by HelloKitten (Not Rated, 134k, wangxian, hualian, WIP, TGCF, Angst, Self-Harm, Child Abuse, characters watching their series, Time Travel Fix-it)

Consequences by Remma3760 (Not Rated, 58k, WangXian, LXC/QS, JYL/JZX, Canonical Child Abuse, Abusive YZY, Good Uncle LQR, WWX is a Lan, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Bad Parents JFM & YZY)

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7. I'm in the mood for a fic where wy gets dumped by someone, and lz has to comfort him, while also figuring out how to lock that down. Bonus points if lz is possessive and horny. Bonus bonus points if they're lesbians.

Just Ask Me To Stay by mrcformoso (M, 20k, WangXian, Modern AU, Former JZ/WWX, Minor NieLan, Minor XuanLi, No Powers, Dancer WWX, Musician LWJ, Roommates, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Recovery, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, Fluff, Light Angst, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Domestic Fluff, LWJ Has a Big Dick, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Size Queen WWX, Belly Bulge, Porn With Plot, WWX Has Friends, LWJ Has Friends, Hurt/Comfort, A lot of comfort, Romantic Comedy, Cuter story than the summary makes it out to be, Feel-good) WWX was dating JZXun which EW, but they break up bc JZX was cheating, LWJ comforts him through the entire breakup process, eventually ends up locking that shit down TIGHT

i as dance (i'm safe and holy) by QuietReader25 (Not Rated, 4k, WangXian, WC/WWX, Modern, High School, senior prom, Prom, Party, Swearing, Heartbreak, Love Confessions, Angst with a Happy Ending, Pining, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Mutual Pining, Panic Attacks, Sad WWX, Insecure WWX, Violence, Punching, Cheating, Implied/Referenced Sex, Protective LWJ, Protective Siblings) WWX and WC break up during prom bc WC is a horrible person, LWJ runs after WWX to comfort him and they dance under the moonlight and kiss and it's super cute

Keep You Safe by airinshaw (E, 26k, WangXian, Modern, F/F, Rule 63, Female WangXian, Kissing, Cunnilingus, sgwy, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Pregnancy)

🔒 Keep Me by wingsofbadass (E, 58k, WangXian, F/F, Modern, Friends to Lovers, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexuality Discovery, straight girl WWX, Minor WWX/WX, LWJ FUCKS, only off screen though, the spirit of madam yu manifesting behind you whenever you have a gay thought, Rule 63, Female WangXian)

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8. hello! i'm looking for wangxian fics in which lwj's family doesn't accept his relationship with wwx, i'm looking for something very angst

please! thank you 💕

Concord by Deastar (T, 41k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, Depression, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending)

hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (E, 23k, WangXian, Canon Compliant, discussion of canon character death, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Getting Together, Yearning, Literal Sleeping Together, Really Excessive Amounts of Hurt/Comfort) link in #13

Preparing the Soil by Rynne (T, 26k, WangXian, LQR & LWJ, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Family Issues, Family Conflict, Uncle-Nephew Relationship, Chinese Holidays, Chinese New Year, Birthdays, Good Kid LSZ, Meta Arguments, POV LWJ, Protective LWJ, Married WangXian, LWJ's Birthday, LSZ's Birthday, Soft WangXian, LWJ Has to Talk a Lot, Gusu Lan Sect Rules, Gusu Lan Sect, Letting Go of Resentment, The WWX Rule, Good Sibling LXC, Improving Uncle LQR, Grappling with the Lans' Part in the Siege, learning to be better, Music, LWJ is a Composer, LWJ Is Good at Communicating Actually, Not JC Friendly)

🔒 When has silence saved anyone? by Vrishchika (T, 6k, WangXian, LWJ & LSZ & WWX, Post-Canon, LXC Critical, Gusu Lan Sect, Not for LXC Fans, novel canon, Salt, Angry LWJ, Angry LSZ, Family Feels, WWX Protection Squad, LXC Gets Scolded, Based on Chapter 99 the Novel)

moonlight falls series by RoseThorne (T, 11k, WangXian, Found Family, Modern, Corporate Espionage, Bunnies, Adoption, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, References to Depression, Anxiety, Blind Character, POV Third Person, POV Wei WuXian, Confrontations, Bad Parent LQR, Pre-JC & WWX Reconciliation, Dissociation, Mental Health, Issues, Anniversary, Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Emotional Constipation, Communication Failure, JC is Bad at Feelings, JC is Trying, WWX Needs a Hug, Implied/Referenced Sex, Food Sex, Friendship Reconciliation, Psychological Trauma)

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9. I'm in a mood for fics with a main pairing you hadn't thought would work but *did*

a bird in your teeth by Eevee (ChaosBitch) (E, 61k, JYL/XY, wangxian, Let XY have nice things, Let JYL get some good dick, (sorry JZX I know you did your best), Past JYL/JZX, Past JYL/MM, All of the sex in this fic is consensual, But one of the participants IS a fierce corpse, JYL POV, Minor Character Death, I feel like this fic turned out surprisingly soft, but XY still does some onscreen murders, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mention of JGS’s canon behavior, Mentions of XY’s canon behavior, Also Wangxian is not the main pairing, but they’re definitely here and stupider in love than ever, Angst, past XY/JGY, Hopeful Ending) This fic made me ship Jiang Yanli/Xue Yang

Cursed Couple by shorimochi (M, 121k, LQR/WRH, CSSR/WCZ, Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Out of Character) can I rec Cursed Couple? I did not ever think I would read a WRH/LQR fic, but this one somehow convinced me to ship them

Delight in Misery by nirejseki (Not rated, 44k, WangXian, JC & WWX, JC & LWJ, JC/LWJ, WIP, Canon Divergence, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Accidental Life Partner Acquisition) wip. timeskip zhancheng with background wangxian

Spilled Pearls by nirejseki (T, 88k, LQR/WRH, Sect Leader Nie/WRH, Sect Leader Nie/LQR/WRH, Madam Lan/QHJ, Canon Divergence, Autism Spectrum Character, Asexual Character, Polyamorous Character, Atypical Relationship Dynamics, Age Difference, Dysfunctional Family, Child Neglect, Attempted Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Canon-Typical Violence, Self-Destructive Behavior, Not QHJ Friendly, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, LQR's No Good Very Sad Backstory, Tedious Joys AU, LQR-centric, the romance is secondary and takes a while to get going, WRH is not that evil)

How to Train Your Psycho by NotActuallyaSpider (E, 25k, JC/XY, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-con, Canon Divergence, Top XY, Possessive XY, Horny XY, , POV XY, Bottom JC, The power of sweets, the power of puppies, the power of treating people like people, There is violence in here, and SMUT, and attempted puppy murder (not by either JC or XY and very not successful), violence against animals, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, References to Transactional Sex, sad lonely boys, JGS is an Automatic Warning, Attempted Murder, Successful murder, albino puppy, courting, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Consent Issues, XY & JGY being BBFs, JC was raped by WC and WZL, Not Everyone Dies AU, Jiang sibling feels, past WRH/JGY, that wife/husband thing because I like it for whatever reason)

Cicada Sings Amongst Bamboo by Shadaras (T, 14k, LQR/QS, Madam Qin & QS, past JG/QS, Canon Divergence, Courtship, Time Travel, Second Chances, Recovery, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, references to canonical rape, This Burn Could Be Slower, QS Deserves Better, QS Lives, Sunshot Campaign)

Tread Lightly on my Ground by AshayaTReldai (E, 63k, LXC/QS, WangXian, JGY/QS, JGS/QS, JRS & LXC, QS & WWX, LXC & WWX, Major Characted Death, Rape/Non-con, PTSD, Rape, Past Rape/Non-con, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Not Really Character Death, Happy ending for LXC, Incest, Trauma)

watch what we’ll become by glitteringmoonlight (T, 59k, WWX & JZX, WangXian, Background JZX/JYL, WWX & JZX are married but completely platonically, featuring my let WWX and JZX be bros agenda, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Angst with a Happy Ending) link in #2

Multiplicative by jeejaschocolate (E, 51k, JC/WRH, College/University, Modern, Mathematicians, Bad Parenting, Daddy Issues, Shame, Self-Esteem Issues, Age Difference, Teacher-Student Relationship, Smoking, Masturbation, Porn Watching, Slut Shaming, Dysfunctional Family, Size Kink, Identity Issues, Developing Relationship, Public Masturbation, Light Dom/sub, affection and care, Phone Sex, Daddy Kink, Big Cock, Blindfolds, Multiple Orgasms, Praise Kink, Pet Names, Recreational Drug Use, Semi-Public Sex, Rough Sex, Cum Inflation, Confessions, May/December Relationship)

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10. Hii, for the next itmf I was wondering if anyone has any Spider-Man Wei Wuxian AU's?

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11. itmf modern au fluff fics like "Insert Coin Now for Extra Life" by TriviasFolly? it can be a/b/o or not. just want fluffy fics of wangxian loving eo 💌

🧡 paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 (E, 53k, WangXian, Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Everyone Is Alive, Modern AU, Dadji, Mutual Pining, Happy Ending, Brief Alcohol Mention, Masturbation, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Accidentally co-parenting with your son’s art teacher, Fatherhood)

Contingency Plan by krispy_kream (M, 8k, WangXian, Fluff, Getting Together, Friends to Lovers, Friends to Husbands to Lovers, Hand Jobs, Mutual Pining, Marriage of Convenience, (the convenience is that they're in love), Podfic Length: 1-1.5 Hours, Podfic Available)

🔒 blue-ribbon bunny by cicer (G, 15k, WangXian, Modern, Supernatural Elements, Shapeshifting, Fluff, Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Rabbit LWJ)

whiskey neat (you're too sweet) by mercurygirlwt (M, 1k, WangXian, Husbands, Established Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, Body Worship, Sort Of, No actual sex, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, WWX's general battle with insomnia, Teasing, date night :) )

Blooming Days by Atsushiis (G, 7k, WangXian, LWJ & LXC, LWJ & MM, Modern, College/University, Meet-Cute, First Dates, First Kiss, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, LWJ Has Feelings, Let LWJ talk about his feelings agenda, Romance, Falling In Love, Wangxian are softer than a baby bunny, gratuitous handholding, Give LWJ hugs agenda, LWJ Protection Squad, Spanish Translation Available) LWJ gets stood up on a date, WWX swoops in, very fluffy, very sweet

Hand in hand is the only way to land by so_shhy (T, 4k, WangXian, Modern, Meet-Cute, Fluff, WWX is wet and adorable, in a tree, With a Cat, LWJ had no chance, Don't Try This At Home) a really adorable series, WWX tries to save a cat in a tree, gets stuck, LWJ helps him

Just Ask Me To Stay by mrcformoso (M, 20k, WangXian, Modern AU, Former JZ/WWX, Minor NieLan, Minor XuanLi, No Powers, Dancer WWX, Musician LWJ, Roommates, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, Break Up, Post-Break Up, Recovery, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, Fluff, Light Angst, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Domestic Fluff, LWJ Has a Big Dick, WWX Has a Breeding Kink, Size Queen WWX, Belly Bulge, Porn With Plot, WWX Has Friends, LWJ Has Friends, Hurt/Comfort, A lot of comfort, Romantic Comedy, Cuter story than the summary makes it out to be, Feel-good) link in #7

The Art of Communication by mrcformoso (G, 4k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Meet-Cute, Engineering Student WWX, Music Student LWJ, Swimmer WWX, Martial Artist LWJ, POV Outsider, POV WWX, POV LWJ, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Communication Issues, But Wanxian Makes it Work, LWJ has limited words, WWX has too many words, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Love Languages, Requited Love)

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12. Any modern single parent WWX fics where LWG thinks that WWX is messy or disorganized or something on first meeting, just generally has a negative impression and dislikes him before finding out he's a single dad?

🧡 i really want to know (who are you) by Stratisphyre (M, 19k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Golden Core Reveal, Single Dad WWX, Reasonable Authority Figure LQR, Allusions to violence and murder, Hospitalization)

The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (E, 70k, WangXian, Modern AU, Accidental Baby Acquisition,Kid Fic, explicit in much much later chapters, green card marriage (but not really), pining for your own husband, endless pining, Slow Burn, Happy Ending, Nothing else bad or traumatic happens to the baby, [Podfic of] The Simplest Way Forward by knight_tracer) although Lan Wangji knew Wei Wuxian prior to Yuan surprisingly entering his life, I think The Simplest Way Forward is similar to the request.

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13. Wei ying has some illness and is brought to cloud recesses to recover @untamedlover

Sick Bed Reserved In Gusu Lan by scifigeek14 (T, 14k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Sick fic, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Golden Core Reveal, Fix-It)

hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (E, 23k, WangXian, Canon Compliant, discussion of canon character death, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Getting Together, Yearning, Literal Sleeping Together, Really Excessive Amounts of Hurt/Comfort)

🔒🧡 Company by WithBroomBefore (T, 29k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Pre-Relationship, Getting Together, POV LWJ, Fix-It, Pre-Canon, at least to start, WWX goes to Cloud Recesses, But Not In The Usual Way, fear of character death, Everybody Lives, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Light Angst, good teacher LQR, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, brief discussion of past minor character suicide, Kitten, Not YZY Friendly)

🔒 Heart of hearts by apathyinreverie (M, 3k, WangXian, Dark LWJ-ish, Not Cultivation World Friendly, Amnesia, WWX gets to be Not Okay after the BM, Recovery, Possessive LWJ, Possessive WWX, Protective LWJ, not nearly as dark as the tags make it sound, Golden Core Reveal, kind of, Hurt WWX, Caring, WWX Goes to Gusu, ridiculously self-indulgent, Canon Divergence)

🔒 Bright Voice Roughly Rendered Softly Silent by Preludian_Staves (T, 26k, WangXian, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, No Golden Core Transfer, Muteness, Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Not JC Friendly, Confessions, Angst, Choking, Red String of Fate, Appearances by Paperman WWX, Inventor WWX, Good Uncle LQR, WWX Goes to Cloud Recesses, Feelings Realization, Caretaking, Supportive Lan Family, Genius WWX, Angst with a Happy Ending, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Protective LWJ, Protective Lan Family, Character Death (not wwx or lwj)

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14. For the in the mood for thank you in advance

Financially struggling Wei Wuxian @kanrax-blog

the soft animal of your body by sysrae (T, 15k, WangXian, modern cultivation, Golden Core Reveal, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Animal Transformation, Shapeshifting, Getting Together, Confessions)

in the arms of the angel by ScarlettStorm (E, 37k, WangXian, Modern AU with Magic, Fox WWX, animal rescuer LWJ, Comedy, Smut, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Adhd WWX, the mortifying ordeal of getting your head stuck in a peanut butter jar)

❤️ the best of you by sysrae (E, 42k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, angst w/ happy ending, hurt/comfort, pining, getting together, past child abuse, mental health issues, Mojo’s post)

Work of Heart by Witch_Nova221 (T, 17k, WangXian, Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, soft romance, Artist WWX, Musician LWJ, College/University, Modern, Roommates, Friends to Lovers, Family Drama, Emotional Manipulation, Financial Issues, Bad Parent YZY)

artificial nocturne by idrilka (E, 10k, WangXian, Modern Cultivation, First Meetings, Sex Demons, Misunderstandings, First Time, Getting Together, Rimming)

Care and Feeding by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 16k, WangXian, Modern Cultivation, Sex Demons, slight dubcon, but all parties are happy, Hurt/Comfort)

Kitty-cat by canis_lupus, Lily Hargrave (canis_lupus) (E, 96k, WangXian, WIP, Cat WWX, Modern Cultivation, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, dom LWJ, Sub WWX, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jiang Family Dynamics, Abusive Jiang Family, POV Multiple, WWX Has ADHD, Autistic LWJ, Masturbation) WWX is living in very much a slum before the events of the story, this kinda comes into play. It’s also a modern cultivation au.

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15. Hey do you know any ff where wei ying is an omega and wangi is an alpha but no one knows that wei is omega and he is keeping it secret and he is so awesome that no one could guess, about him being an omega but lan wangi knew cause he is his mate and he tries to protect him, something like that....thank you😊

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16. Hi!! I'm ITMF a fic with badass WWX acting a little off-putting/eery from other ppl's POV, yk like how the juniors say that WWX feels kinda strange and scary sometimes because of his powers but also bc of something "inherent" with him? I hope it's clear enough.. tysm!! @harapecowee

You are what you eat by deliciousblizzardshark (E, 17k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eldritch WWX, Horny LWJ, Body Horror, Possessionof a sort, Cannibalism, kind of, Mild Gore, Teeth, Fluff and Humor, Smut, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Monster sex, Switching, Light BDSM, Rimming, Self-Lubrication, Seriousness treated Crackily, Implied/Referenced Torture, Dead WWX) Eldritch horror!WWX

pitfalls of greed by glitteringmoonlight (T, 3k, WangXian, POV Outsider, BAMF WWX, Kidnapping, Violence, YLLZ WWX, not exactly but the vibes are there, Post-Canon)

❤️ The One-Body Problem by metisket (T, 29k, LJY & WWX, LJY & LSZ, WangXian, possession, cohabitation, Mojo’s bookmark)

Lonely Thing by ByCandlelight (M, 15k, WangXian, Angst, Pining, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Cannibalism, Gore, Necromancy, Inspired by Addams Family, Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Kinda, smidge of hurt/comfort, YZY's a+ parenting, Fix-It of Sorts, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies)

~*~

17. IITMF ask; Does anybody know of any fics where after the sunshot campaign, they go to the death row Wen cultivators and give them the option of giving up their cultivation and leaving as a free but mortal person or death/labor camps until they die/basically whatever they did to the wens in cannon. As a way to fix some of the damage done by when Zhuliu(*cough cough* or just WWX *cough cough*). Does something similar to that exist? Like I'm not asking for anything where this is the main focus, this could be a minor mention/plot point. But does anyone know anything like it?

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[mrcformoso]

mrcformoso's Fanfic Directory

First off, if you love my work, if my stories have touched you, and you would like to offer monetary compensation (only if you are able to!), you can buy me a coffee here!

You may request prompts by sending an ask! :D I have a wide range of genres under my belt, and I hope you enjoy them!

My AO3!

Fandom: MDZS / Modao Zushi / The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

New Perspective Series - (WangXian, Heavy Angst with Happy Ending) Character analysis one-shots deep diving into their thoughts and how they develop from the events in CQL/The Untamed, and beyond.

New Perspective (LWJ POV, T, 8K, 1/1)

The Choice is His to Believe in Me (LWJ POV, T, 11.8k, 1/1)

Smoke and Mirrors (WWX POV, T, 6.9k, 1/1)

Revolution (LSZ POV, T, 8.4K, 1/1)

A Matter of Time Series - My Dark!LZ story! After Wei Wuxian's death, Lan Wangji went insane, doing everything in his power to get back his most precious person. Willing to sacrifice every single person in the cultivation world to reclaim his love. PLEASE read tags and warnings!

A Matter of Time (WangXian, E, 41k, 7/7 + Announcement chapter)

A Matter of Choice (WangXian, E, 17.6k, 1/1)

A Matter of Devotion (WangXian, E, 11k, 1/1)

A Matter of Closure (WangXian, SongChen, M, 13.9k, 1/1)

A Matter of Change (WangXian, NieLan, QingMian, SangNing, T, 7.5k, 1/1)

A Matter of Happiness (WangXian, NieLan, QingMian, SangNing, ZhuiYi, M, 9k, 1/1)

The Art of Communication - Modern!AU Fluff where Everything is Nice and Nothing Hurts (WangXian, G, 4k, 3/3) Lan Zhan can only say so much before the words get caught in his throat. In contrast, Wei Ying never seemed to run out of words. So the Gusu University students found it rightfully strange that the two were dating. (Podfic by Straynyx)

Just Ask Me to Stay - Modern!AU RomCom Hurt/Comfort (WangXian, M, 20.9k, 5/5) After a nasty breakup, Lan Zhan comforts his best friend Wei Ying, and does everything he can to reaffirm his self-worth. Including sex. And sometimes, it takes a good railing too see what has been in front of you all along.

When the Words Stop Coming - Angst with Happy Ending (WangXian, T, 7k, 1/1) Wei Ying had been openly declaring his love for Lan Zhan ever since they met at The Cloud Recesses. Confused and emotionally constipated, Lan Zhan rejected him, until everything went wrong, until he lost Wei Ying in the end. 13 years later, Wei Ying cannot trust Lan Zhan with his heart.

Window of the Waking Mind - Heavy Angst with Happy Ending (Wangxian, M, 8k, 1/1) Wei Ying always said he has a terrible memory, but the truth was that he was very, very good at packing away the most horrible parts of his life into a closet at the very back of his mind and shrouding it in the dark. But when a night hunt went wrong, and those memories were released, it is up to his family and closest loved ones to take the burden of his memories, lest Wei Ying implodes in his own grief.

-----

Fandom: TGCF/ Tian Guan Ci Fu/ Heaven Official's Blessing

Paper Flowers for the God of Gods - FlowerGod!XieLian AU with Rapunzel vibes and Hades & Persephone vibes, with a LOT of flower language. (HuaLian, M, 54k, 10/10 + announcement chapter) In another universe, The Crown Prince of Xian Le, Xie Lian, did not ascend as a martial god, but as a god of flowers, a minor god. Fanart Directory Here!

Paper Flower Extras - (HuaLian, T, Oneshot compilation) Extras from prompts for the Paper Flowers for the God of Gods universe. Current number of Extras: 4

And the Show Goes On - Modern!Idol!AU that is a horror mystery thriller. Featuring Idol!XieLian and CEO!HuaCheng. (WIP, HuaLian, M, 48k, 9/9) Eight years ago, the Xie Family was killed in a fire. A month ago, a new idol debuted on stage under the name Taizi Dianxia. Yesterday, a mangled body was found.

Mind in Madness, Heart in Peace - ReverseAU resulting from a canon divergence. Calamity!XL and Amnesiac God!HC. (WIP, HuaLian, M, 98k, 20/24) The Martial God of Death, Hua Cheng, ascended with little to no memory of his mortal life before godhood. Except…he seems to have caught the eye of The Scourge of Heaven, the Lord of the Ghost City, and The Mad Calamity: Fangxin, the Crimson Sword Deathly Flower.

Sleep - Yin Yu Appreciation Week 2024 Day 1 Prompt - Vacation (HuaYin Friendship, Minor HuaLian, Minor QuanYin, T, 3k, 1/1) Hua Cheng tells Yin Yu to take a break, but Yin Yu doesn't know how. He finds solace listening to Hua Cheng read aloud.

[jin-zixun]

MDZS Chapter 2 - The Intractable (apparently chapters 2-5(Aggression)) - Manhua Ch 2-12

Because I'm really going ahead and rereading... Alright.

Alright, again starting with the manhua here because holy shit does Mo Ziyuan just come in busting the door down with this! Oh man, what a guy.

I have nothing intelligent to say about this but oh boy.

"Go k-- oh you did. shit. damn."

So like two things I appreciate the manhua for in this page, which I've so, uh, cut up to show off. Number one, cute lil guys. That's a cute lil guy up there. And number two, the emotion in that face? Like it's not a big picture it's just like, a lil face but you can see it. It's a little more than just sad boy up there. Goes hard, like Mo Zixyuan bursting into the room.

"Adding frost to snow, something had upset Mo Xuanyu. When he returned home, it was as a madman. His mental state had been upended, as if he had been scared silly"

I'm keeping this quote. I'm not commenting on it or anything. Just putting it there.

"After Mo Xuanyu returned to his old home, he was bombarded with ridicule. This time, it seemed, the situation was unsalvageable. Unable to take this blow, Second Lady Mo was choked to death by her own unappeasable outrage."

Now this I feel I need to comment on? Mo Xuanyu's mother didn't die until after Mo Xuanyu was sent back home? She 'choked to death on outrage'? Is that a thing? I feel like that's not a thing.

There's a lot of exposition here, on Wei Wuxian and the Mo family but uh. That kinda stands out. To me. MXY was sent home to his mother, not just her relatives, like, she was there.

Oh, and number three thing I like about the manhua?

cutest. little. lans.

(also like. inspired choice to have sizhui be the one laughing here?)

"The boy hadn’t been this crazy when he first returned, so it was probably the family’s doing."

So, you mean, back when his mother was alive? Before she died of outrage? I've gone through this scene in a lot of adaptations (cql was the best for it ngl) but this Second Lady Mo conspiracy is drawing me in! I'm sorry!

“He knew he was my little cousin, but he still didn’t observe propriety and keep his distance, so who is the more shameless one here?! I don’t care if you don’t care about your reputation, but I still care about mine!! I STILL GOTTA FIND A GOOD MAN!!!”

Is it a problem if they're just cousins, maybe mo ziyuan really wanted to compromise him, I'm sure there's fanfic out there--

Mo Ziyuan/Mo Xuanyu is apparently not even a tag on AO3. Damn. I think I originally had a point to say about WWX here, but like WWX himself, I don't remember.

"Yet it just so happened that this spirit-attraction flag had unintentionally summoned something more terrifying than walking corpses. And it was precisely this unknown evil spirit that had killed Mo Ziyuan and robbed him of an arm!"

haha. Unintentionally. Yeah, want to take a second pass at that WWX?

(I'm certain it won't be the first time I ask that question, but as he does later take a second pass at it and it's clear canon that there's nothing unintentional here I'm gonna leave it at that. This time.)

"Wei Wuxian couldn’t take it anymore. He thought, After so many years, the Lan Family still acts this way. What’s the use of all that self-restraint unless you’re looking to suffocate yourselves? Watch me!"

I like it when he defends the little lans...

"Lan Jingyi and the others let out a breath, no longer looking as upset."

and the little lans like it too <3 How sweet.

"It wasn’t that this group of youths was slow to react; it was that the intruder was truly ferocious in nature. The cultivation sects had strict criteria for determining whether something was a “malicious ghost”: one was considered such if it killed once a month for up to three months consecutively. This was a criterion Wei Wuxian himself had set, and it was probably still in use now. Dealing with this type was his specialty, and based on what he’d seen, killing once every seven days would make this creature a malicious ghost that caused particularly frequent mischief. However, this thing had just killed three times in a row, and in a short time span too. Even accomplished cultivators would have been hard-pressed to come up with a counter strategy, never mind these novice juniors."

Yeah... Maybe I'll change my mind on this later but... The Nie are genuinely kind of just evil. Their cultivation method is bad and they should feel bad. Cultivate a righteous path. Don't do this shit. Don't become this shit. And yeah, that goes for both of them here tbh. Not giving Da-Ge a pass just because he's dead! He knowingly cultivated all of this resentment while he was alive!

The idea that NHS becomes Chief Cultivator after all of this is astounding. Guess his mom's not a prostitute though so it's fine.

Drawback to the manhua as an adaptation, you don't hear that iconic music cue when Hanguang-Jun appears. Sad.

I guess I don't have more to say (I have more to say but I shouldn't) so uh. Bonus cute Lan roundup?

[llycaons]

Cor’s Definitive MDZS/CQL Fanfiction Recommendation Page

Hi and welcome!

About me: I'm white and can only speak English, so while I’ve read a some analysis and done some research, I know my perspective is limited and I apologize in advance for any mistakes or misinterpretations.

I'm primarily a cql fan, though I did enjoy the donghua. I read the ExR novel translation several years ago and I have a complicated relationship with it, enjoying the explicit character development, humor, worldbuilding, originality, and some romantic scenes, while disliking how homophobia and sexual assault are handled as well as some structural elements. I have no familiarity with the audio drama or mdzs q show. I like tgcf, but the fics here are only for cql/mdzs.

About the fics: Any version of canon, though I prefer cql characterizations. Mostly wangxian, with a handful of other background relationships and some character studies. My favorite characters are wwx, lwj, jyl, wen ning, and jin ling, but lwj has a very special place in my heart. I enjoy jc as a character but find it hard to find fics that write him in a way I agree with. I prefer shorter works.

18+ rec list. Explicit works can be in any category.

I try to include content warnings on fics, depending on how well I remember. Please always defer to the tags and the author notes.

Works with be starred once for faves, and twice for ultimate faves.

Fics recommended in the first 5 sections of this list are guaranteed NOT to have the following

pedophilia/csa, teacher/student relationship, sexual ageplay, explicit works involving the juniors, or any couple with a significant age gap

incest, including wwx with jc, lsz with ljy, and jin ling with lsz. the canon qin su and jgy incest may be mentioned, but I find that comes up rarely

romanticized rape, including everything under the umbrella of noncon, dubcon, fuck or die, sex pollen, sex curses, drunk sex scenes, warprize, nonconsensual somnophilia, necrophilia, etc

note on novel ‘canonical kinks’ - a couple of fics do reference rape fantasy/cnc but they’re few and far between, and only in a few fics will there be any actual scenes of it

abusive or 'dark' wwx or lwj (or anyone not already abusive)

lxc/jgy, 3zun, or xy/xxc unless it’s treated critically. some fics may mention it but none will have scenes of them in a relationship

fics feminizing wwx - some gray area here, but if it's really bad I put it in section 6

genderbends/cisswaps

A/B/O

cop AUs

harry potter crossovers

Section 6 is reserved for fics with one of more of these issues (mostly background 3zun, some weirdness w the sex scenes, or hinted jl/lzs) , but none will have csa or sibling incest.

A note on authors: Vetted to an extent, based on tags for mdzs and cql works only. Anything above is listed in ‘author issues’ section. Current as of early 2023. There should be nobody on here who’s written csa or adult/child smut, so please let me know if you find something I’ve missed.

I haven’t reread all works on this list recently and I may have overlooked something about them. I welcome any corrections.

The list is split into sections and then categories by theme. The fics are otherwise not listed in any particular order.

With no further ado, let’s get to the fanfiction!

Section One: The heart of it all

I: The name of the song: that sweet sweet postcanon getting-together content II: To be in the world again: wei wuxian, relearning how to live III: From then on, he was unable to look away again: postcanon wangxian

Section Two: Snapshots

IV. So this first love was all for you: anything short and sweet! V. If I was doomed to death: angsty flashback-era fics VI. Now try saying something true and beautiful: explicit works that make a point using sex or sex scenes

Section Three: Character

VII. A-xian is my didi: on jiang yanli VIII. I still am: oh, lan wangji IX. Let’s be brothers again: jiang cheng, you clown

Section Four: Possibilities

X. Wicked tricks and beyond: modern with magic AUs XI: In another life: modern AUs - no magic XII. Things that might have been: canon divergences/retellings

Section Five: The Others

XIII. The little ones: works focused on the children XIV. Well well well what have we here: an exploration of other side characters XV: Shenanigans: COMEDY. boy do I love a laugh

Section Six: Lower your standards

XVI: Well you see…: Fics that I am still recommending, but with compunctions XVII: Put on some horse blinders: fics for which I have to list particularly egregious author issues (rape porn, sibling incest) XVIII: The shame corner for naughty fanfiction: fics with issues within the actual work (again, mostly minor)

Section Seven: The Dumpster Fire

He said WHAT?: Fics that are so bad I’m posting them for the sole purpose of complaining about them

Bonus Content

Misc treats: includes interviews, poetry, meta, and writing resources

this concludes my rec list! feel free to send me an ask about anything you found on here. thanks for reading! be well, stay safe, and have fun out there :)

[silverflame2724]

WWX, LWJ and Wen Remnants accidentally timetravel to the past.

From a outside perspective WWX and LWJ eloped and left their sects the day WWX was expelled coincidentally WQ is called back to Quishan after the volcano at Nightless City erupts unexpectedly killing WRH & sons making WQ the new Sect Leader by default. When asked to be Sect Leader WN went not it. WQ invites WWX and LWJ to join the new Wen Medical Sect.

For this to make sense, think of the terrain as the one in the Untamed as well as Wei Wuxian dying by throwing himself off the cliff. Everything else is the same as MDZS canon.

_____________________________________

Lan Qiren had hoped he was having an elaborate dream or some sort of mischievous sprite had cursed him to have such a memory, but no. Detailed in Wangji’s perfect calligraphy was the reason he had left Gusu: to elope with Wei Wuxian.

Things seemed to....change from that moment on and if Lan Qiren were to connect the dots - no matter how unrealistic it might seem - it had started the day Wangji had left the Cloud Recesses.

But for now, Lan Qiren quietly cursed up a storm - in a very Lan-like manner, at least - and sent out search parties for his runaway nephew and expelled student. He did not believe for a second that his precious nephew would just leave like that!

.......................

The Yunmeng Jiang sect and Gusu Lan sect had sent out search parties for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji but could not find them. It was like they had disappeared into thin air!

Lan Qiren had not given up though, periodically sending people out to see if they passed by any towns. Yu Ziyuan, on the other hand, had muttered ‘good riddance’ according to the Yunmeng servants and quickly made plans on replacing him. This was, of course, met with backlash from Jiang Fengmian and the married couple’s fights had gotten a lot worse from then on. According to a fisherman, with Wei Wuxian no longer around, Yu Ziyuan had started to target her own children more often now. 

But it seemed that the exciting news hadn’t ended yet! 

Apparently, when some of the branches of the Qishan Wen sect had been out on night hunts or collecting medicinal herbs, going about their normal business, the dormant volcano Qishan had rested on suddenly became active and flooded the main compound of the Wen sect with lava! Luckily, the civilians were able to be evacuated quickly. Unfortunately, Wen Ruohan and his sons, who had stayed at the Sun Palace to make plans for the archery tournament, perished in the chaos.

Everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief since Wen Ruohan had been pushing on the sects’ borders recently. 

The issue now, though, was electing a new Wen sect leader. The closest relatives were the renowned healer, Wen Qing, and her little brother, Wen Qionglin. Honestly speaking, Wen Qionglin should have inherited it but the boy had cited reasons he wasn’t suited to lead and handed the honor over to his sister, who was more than qualified in the eyes of the surviving Wen elders. So Wen Qing was crowned the new sect leader and went about making huge changes to the Wen sect. 

Whereas before, the Wen sect was an arrogant powerhouse, focused on only furthering their own selfish desires. Now, under Wen Qing, they specialized in healing and medicine. 

But that wasn’t all.

What made people the most shocked was that Wen Qing had personally invited the missing Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to join their sect..........and they accepted!

The Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan sects immediately stormed into Qishan, demanding to see their respective wayward disciple - who had been gone for five years now - only to see them leaning against one another, comfortable and happy.

No amount of pleading or poisonous words had deterred them from joining the new Wen sect and when asked why.......

“We have had enough of being fit into a mold of your own design.” They said. “It’s time for us to be ourselves with anything to restrict us.”

Lan Qiren had not known what to say to that.

“Are you happy?” Lan Xichen had asked. 

Lan Wangji’s resounding smile had been answer enough.

Yu Ziyuan, on the other hand, had to be escorted out. Jiang Fengmian had understood that Wei Wuxian had had enough of being put down in his sect and had accepted him leaving.

Jiang Cheng had been angry, upset that Wei Wuxian wasn’t at his side, but grudgingly admitted that Wei Wuxian looked happier than he had been in Lotus Pier. Jiang Yanli smiled and congratulated Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji on their union. 

All in all, a positive reaction to the situation.

....................

Wei Wuxian cuddled with his husband, content and relaxed. They had done it. 

One day, they had fallen asleep side by side and between one moment and the next, found themselves over two decades into the past. They had been disoriented but decided that the best course of action was to change the past. Finding out Wen Qing and Wen Ning along with all the Wen remnants came with them was a huge bonus and evidently worked in their favor. 

They had made plans to evacuate the citizens, made diversions so that the innocent branch families would be spared, and decided how they should move on after they had eliminated Wen Ruohan and his sons. In the end, Wei Wuxian had used resentful energy to stir up the volcano and make it active again, killing their biggest enemies including Wen Zhuliu in one fell swoop.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji debated on going back to their families but decided against it. Away from the influences of their families, they had both come alive in ways they hadn’t in their previous lives. They were happy, free, and unrestricted. It was......a fulfilling life. And they wanted it to stay that way.

Though.....joining the new Wen sect under Wen Qing would be nice. As much as a life of travel was freeing, they would have a constant roof over their heads and wouldn’t have to worry about a stray spirit or two causing havoc. 

Wei Wuxian had been thinking about adopting a child or two anyways. And five years away from the sects’ influences had been enough.

Wei Wuxian looked at Nightless City, lingering on a certain cliff’s edge. In that other world, on this day, he had died. Today, in this new world, he was living a happy life. All his loved ones were alive and he was not the enemy of the world.

As Lan Wangji came to his side, Wei Wuxian took his hand, looking forward - for once - to what life had to offer him next. 

[stiltonbasket]

Ugh, rewatching the untamed is so frustrating. Wei wuxian is the only one out here actually living up to the standards the sects preach about, while the sects themselves hurt innocent people, ignore innocent people being hurt, and then have the audacity to call wei wuxian a villain for doing something about it. The hypocrisy is really infuriating! Even the people in the sects who are considered genuinely kind or good turn away because its too much trouble to even fact check. Im mad!

Worse, they didn’t have to fact check. In the novel, the Jin sect was not wholly responsible for prosecuting/guarding the imprisoned Wens, and it is impossible that the sects colluded during the novel Burial Mounds siege without noticing whom they were killing. This piece of meta explains how unlikely it is that Wei Wuxian and the Wens ended up dead solely because the Jin lied to everyone else.

Nie Mingjue knew that the Wens WWX saved had no blood on their hands and held them responsible for the war because they didn't revolt against Wen Ruohan. The fact that they were non-combatants from a distant, powerless branch of the family did not matter to him.

Similarly, Jiang Cheng visited the Burial Mounds and knew there was a child living there; he also knew (or could make a very educated guess) that Wei Wuxian had not cursed Jin Zixun, and that Jin Zixuan's death could only have been a consequence of Wei Wuxian being ambushed. He attended the conference at the Nightless City anyway and later led the siege in Yiling: there is no indication that he tried to plead for the lives of A-Yuan and the other innocent Wens. Nor is it likely that he remembered A-Yuan and tried to look for him after the siege; Lan Wangji was informed after it was over and still managed to get to A-Yuan first, despite how badly he was wounded.

Lan Xichen is less culpable for the Wens’ fate, but not blameless. He did try to speak up for Wen Qing and Wen Ning and received no support;  because at the time, Jiang Cheng did not make it clear that he owed his life to the Wen siblings. He did attend the conference at Nightless City, but it’s unlikely that he was at the siege of the Burial Mounds because he was presumably caring for Lan Wangji at the time: we know Lan Qiren was the one who led the Lans to Yiling. Lan Wangji almost certainly informed him that the Wens were innocent, but the Lan sect still went to Yiling with Lan Xichen’s permission. They definitely weren’t there to kill WWX and spare everyone else.

Furthermore, Lan Xichen is aware of some of JGY’s crimes before he becomes a suspect in NMJ’s murder (in CQL and MDZS). He must know that Jin Guangyao “tore down the sect” Jin Rusong’s supposed killer came from;  he tells JGY that he “believed he had his reasons” for various crimes. At minimum, the crimes LXC mentions here include a sect being exterminated; and he still excused Jin Guangyao, though he must have known that the entire sect could not have been responsible for JRS’s death.*

Even in CQL/the Untamed, the Wens could never have been executed without the cultivation world knowing that the Jins were killing civilians: the entire jianghu was gathered in Lanling for Jin Ling’s full-month/hundred day celebration, and the Wens (iirc) walked up to Koi Tower before being hanged. If anyone of importance aside from Lan Wangji objected, those executions would not have taken place.

*Note: this sect was not the Tingshan He sect. He Su and his clan (including children under ten) were imprisoned and murdered because they were inconveniencing Jin Guangshan; they are the clan framed for killing Rusong in TMAAF, but not in canon. Depending the Jianghu’s reaction to the clan’s disappearance, Jin Guangyao may have taken responsibility for the deaths and convinced anyone who asked that he was justified. LXC might have known that they died by JGY’s order, but the reader can’t be sure either way.

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

Hello Mojo, hope you're doing well and that you had a good break! I wanted to signal boost the MDZS May Diaspora event collection on AO3, and point out my favorite fic from there: 归心似箭 | Longing to Go Home by dragongirlG! It's both tender and bittersweet and it features such mature writing. The author got some hate for it when it initially got posted so I wanted to counter that and give it some love instead! [Who would do such a thing?!  @dragongirlg-fics I’m sorry that happened to you, and here, have *so many hugs!* I’ll try to do a thing just for the diaspora event, but meanwhile, I’ll just treat this as a follower rec.]

归心似箭 | Longing to Go Home

by dragongirlG (M, 8k, wangxian)

Summary:  The destruction of the Yin Tiger Seal does not kill Wei Wuxian; it ages him instead. He takes shelter in a cave expecting to die, but instead he lives, slowly learning to embrace life with each new day.

Thirteen years later, a young man with a Lan forehead ribbon stumbles into the cave. His name is Lan Sizhui.

~*~

Hi Momjo!!! I recently read the most *adorable* fic, and I loved it so much that it dragged me out of seclusion (read: social anxiety cave) to rec it. It's called 'Covered in Bees' by ScarlettStorm in which the Cloud Recesses is an apiary, and Wei Wuxian has suddenly found himself host to a swarm of bees. ~ @akyra-talanoa

Covered in Bees

by ScarlettStorm (T, 8k, wangxian)

Summary: “Cloud Reccesses Apiary,” says a toneless, deep masculine voice, with zero question in it. Wei Ying doesn’t care, because whoever possesses that voice is probably going to come save him from bees like a fucking hero while wearing like, a suit of armor. That’s what you wear to catch bees, right?

“I have like, so many bees outside my front door right now,” he says, mouth running out ahead of him before he can even begin to think about reining it in. “It’s like a sandstorm of bees out there. There are so many bees. I got out of my car and there were just bees and I don’t want these bees. Do you want these bees? Please tell me you will come get these bees. I can’t leave my house and I have enough food for maybe a week but then I’m gonna have to learn how to cook dry beans and no one wants that, especially not me.” Wei Ying runs out of air, takes a breath, and belatedly adds, “My name is Wei Ying. Hi.”

Or: The beekeeping AU that no one asked for.

~*~

Hi, you are a bless to this fandom. Your blog feels like a library, so thoroughly arranged and always within hand reach. [Thank you, wow!]  Recently, I was going through Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn is a Wēn tag and came across a fanfic, it has 3 chapters till now and is so intriguing that i thought to recommend it to you. I don't know if I can recommend or if you have already checked the story, The legendary Phoenix and his Dragon by Devipriya. I am in love with this story. I hope you will enjoy it too, do check it out

The legendary Phoenix and his Dragon

by Devipriya (T, 7k, wangxian)

Summary:  Wen Wuxian, the essence of who he is, he is a naughty child, a prankster, an enchanting dizi player, a graceful dancer, an irresistible lover, a truly valiant warrior, a ruthless vanquisher of his foes, a man who left a broken heart in every home, an astute statesman and kingmaker, a thorough gentleman, a righteous individual of the highest order, and the most colorful incarnation.

He has been seen, perceived, understood and experienced in many different ways by different people. Different people saw different facets of who he is. For some, he is God. For some, he is a crook. For some, he is a lover. For some, he is a fighter. He is so many things.

But the phoenix, seen from the eyes of time was just a playful man. A man who plays with his awareness, with his imagination, with his memory, with his life, with his death. An individual who does not just dance with somebody. He dances with life. He dances with his enemy, He dances with the one he loves, He dances even at the moment of his death.

To taste an essence of who is Wen Wuxian, be with me in the journey of exploration, NO! playful exploration of life of a playful man.

~*~

Hi! Thanks for running this blog, it's helped me find so many fics. For your next follower recs post, I wanted to rec "This love like a flood, a fire, a fear" by natcat5. Its summary is vague (which I suspect is why it isn't better known) but it is a beautiful retelling of canon from LWJ's POV with slight canon divergence. I love the author's characterization of him and the prose is gorgeous. It is easily my favorite fic in the entire fandom, and I don't say that lightly. ~ @nyanja14

This love like a flood, a fire, a fear

by natcat5 (M, 57k, wangxian, lan wangji & lan xichen)

Summary:  “I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence, and as justice loves to sit and watch everything go wrong.”   - Lemony Snicket

~*~

i came to this ask to rec this baseball one called "Waiting for Spring" by thievinghippo on ao3. It somehow made me care about baseball soooo 'nough said ~ @scifikimmi

Waiting for Spring

by thievinghippo (E, 131, wangxian)

Summary:  “It is a well-known fact across the major leagues that one does not smack Lan Wangji’s ass.”

Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes. Everyone smacks everyone’s ass in baseball. It’s how the game is played. Lan Wangji does not get to be exempt from this most sacred of baseball traditions.

Wei Wuxian will make sure of that.

Or, a Major League Baseball AU

~*~

hi mojo! i wanted to rec Something Good by boxoftheskyking (a loose sound of music/canon divergence au) and also MDZS: The Golden Engine by iffervescent (immortal wangxian modern au where they gotta solve a mystery and save china, featuring jiang cheng/lan xichen)

Something Good

by boxoftheskyking (T, 43k, wangxian)

Summary:  "That Wei Wuxian, you know he used to be such a promising cultivator. Head Disciple of the Jiang Clan, can you believe it? You see, juniors, the punishment for traveling the path of demonic cultivation. No golden core, not so much as a whisper of spiritual power."

As a punishment for real and imagined crimes, Wei Wuxian is sentenced to work at Cloud Recesses as the lowest of servants. When a surprising reassignment lands him with eleven children to care for, everything changes again.

A Sound of Music AU

MDZS: The Golden Engine

by iffervescent (E, 82k, wangxian, xicheng)

Summary:  In the modern era, immortals Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian return to Gusu. New evil and old friends + new friends and old evils.

~*~

Hi Mojo! First of all let me just tell you that you are amazing and this blog is like a gift from the gods! Bless you and your endless patience and hard work. [Oh, thank you so much!]  I know that you have just accepted follower recs and I have missed miserably but I still wanted to write and bring attention to a writer by the pseudo Xiao_Hua on ao3, I think they are quite good and I just recently found the account with so much content. If you do have the time to check them out, I'd rec catfish, my fox or the red ribbon.

The Red Ribbon

by Xiao_Hua (M, 21k, wangxian, TGCF crossover)

Summary:  Wei WuXian died but not before saving HanGuang-Jun and A-Yuan, leaving so much more behind than just his ribbon.

My Fox

by Xiao_Hua (E, 13k, wangxian)

Summary:  Once he headed to YiLing that all changed for him. His priorities have been mingled with and ordered in complete disarray even without him noticing as he was left heavily influenced by a creature.

Or one where Lan WangJi is a dragon-spirit and he finds his mate in the form of a fox.

Catfish

by Xiao_Hua (E, 15k, wangxian)

Summary:  Wei WuXian has a common sense that believes it has a nine-to-five job while Lan WangJi finds that incredibly hot.

Or one where two catfish realise that neither of them truly catfished.

~*~

Hi Mojo i'm recommending this amazing fic it is called song of joys and regrets. it's a time travel AU it's amazing. And your Blog is a Godsend Thank you! [Aw, you’re so sweet!]  ~ @highgoddess

Song of Joy and Regrets

by HelloKitten (not rated, 59k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  The Archery competition at Qishan this year has hit a snag. As the Sects face the wrongs perpetrated by their future selves, Wei Wuxian finds himself adopted by half of the cultivation world who are determined to save him from himself.

Baby Wangxian suffers. Adult Wangxian's job here is done.

"I'm starting to see a pattern to all his plans..." "Do they all involve him being bait?" "Yes" came deadpanned responses.

~*~

Here’s a 2021 Reverse Big Bang entry, in time for Father’s Day; [Oops, my bad, sorry!]  Under a Blanket of Black Wings, by ChaoticAndrogynous (#31398395); LWJ, recuperating from the 33 lashes, tells A-Yuan a series of fairytales about a heroic monster and the brave little boy he befriended. Vampire! WWX (in the framing story as well as the story-within-the-story); happy ending.

Under a Blanket of Black Wings

by ChaoticAndrogynous (T, 19k, wangxian)

Summary:  Lan Wangji tells A-Yuan a bedtime story about a beautiful monster and the brave little boy who was his friend. Thirteen years later, the monster returns.

~*~

Hello Mojo! Have you read ‘Key Differences’ by Pupeez4eva? Its a MDZS!WWX meets CQL!WWX and its really good! [It’s on my list!]

Key Differences

by pupeez4eva (T, 6k, wangxian)

Summary:  “I don’t understand,” Wei Wuxian said, while his alternate self continued to stare at him with almost a look of hurt in his eyes. There was longing in there too, which Wei Wuxian would have easily recognised if he paid enough attention. “How could you not get together, after everything. What even went on in the Guanyin Temple if you didn’t confess?”

“The Guanyin Temple,” Wei Ying repeated incredulously. “You’re asking me if I confessed at — honestly, a lot went on that day. It was a life and death situation. There was no confessing.”

Wei Wuxian stared at him, appalled.

(Wherein Wei Wuxian ends up meeting an alternate version of himself who, much to his horror, never married Lan Wangji. Obviously he has to do something to fix this).

~*~

Hey Mojo i would recommend this fanfic if you already haven’t, it’s called “ take me back to a time “ by DizziDreams. It’s sooooo good

take me back to a time

by DizziDreams (T, 144k, wangxian, 3zun)

Summary:  Wei Ying has a lot on his plate right now.

It’s finals week -- which isn’t so bad. He’s never had to study much to do well in classes. But that just means that things are that much more tense with Jiang Cheng, who, as far as Wei Ying can tell, only takes study breaks long enough to glare at Wei Ying where he sits on the couch playing video games.

It’s not studies that have Wei Ying stressed out. It’s everything else. It’s the recruitment for the research trial he’s coordinating. It’s jiejie and her impending marriage to His Royal Douchebag Jin Zixuan. It’s the volunteer work at the palliative care facility. It’s Wen Ning’s worsening condition. It’s Wen Qing working herself thin to care for her brother and Wen Yuan. It’s the way Wen Yuan never seems to have enough food.

So, yeah. There’s enough on Wei Ying’s plate already, meaning it’s not entirely welcome when he comes home and finds a man standing in his bedroom. A man in extravagant white robes, a ribbon tied around his forehead, long hair gathered into a topknot, fist clutching a sword at his side, who asks him, “Where am I?”

~*~

Idk if this has already been rec’d (I’ve been off the grid for a while now), but there’s this absolutely incredible fic called Restitution by an anon on ao3 people should definitely check out!

this one?

on restitution

by Anonymous (M, 78k, wangxian, jin ling & wei wuxian, lan sizhui & wei wuxian, WIP)

Summary:  When Wei Wuxian regains consciousness, he is in a bed. A real, proper bed, not the slab he called a bed in his cave in the Burial Mounds.

Jiang Cheng is glowering above him.

Wei Wuxian doesn't die during the siege of the Burial Mounds. Rather, he is captured in secret and confined at Lotus Pier. Things change accordingly.

~*~

Hi momjo! I feel like every time I come to your blog there's twenty more new and amazing fics for me to read. Thank you for everything you do for this fandom!  [Thank you, sweetie!  And yes, I think there ARE 20 new fics every day out there in the fandom.  It’s amazing!] Today I come bearing my own rec to you. I've recently read this and it's IMO one of the best fics out there. It's called Lapsteel by carriecmoney and it's a modern stormchaser AU featuring country songs and coming home. ~ @manaika-chan​

Lapsteel

by carriecmoney (T, 42k, wangxian)

Summary:  Now and then, I think about you now and then...

It's been thirteen years since Wei Ying ran for the prairies, leaving behind a family in shambles and a secret on the Pacific wind. What happens when the storm he swirled catches up to him?

Modern AU with country music star Lan Zhan, stormchaser Wei Ying, and shared crossroads.

~*~

[squidspawn]

MDZS Rec List 4: AUs

So, several years ago I started a rec list for a friend I dragged into MDZS. More recently I’ve seen some folks wishing to read fics that pre-date a lot of the current fandom trends. Since I stopped updating the rec list in like... early 2020? most everything here is from that before time. I hope y’all can enjoy some of the old classics, and maybe find new fics you haven’t had a chance to read. And for newer fans, I hope you enjoy some of these fics that might have gotten buried at the back of the archives by the time you joined in the fun! 

Rec List 1: Everything that Happens in a Vaguely Canon-ish Verse, Wangxian Centric

Rec List 2: Supporting Cast Centric

Rec List 3: Early days of CQL fics

(S)- Short fic, either one-shot or up to three chapters in length

(L)- Long fic, four or more chapters

*(S) Swords I Guess by victortor- the fic where Wifi & LWJ are sword spirits, features quality Yunmeng bro feels: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14200701/chapters/32734884 

(S) Blow Me to Bermuda by victortor- LWJ was born at Beginning, Wifi was born at the End, they live passing each other: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17106704 

(S) Too Much Love Will Kill You by retts- Su She pov, Mafia au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17838158 

(L) Monotone by seredemia- LWJ & LXC are immortal and find all their reincarnated friends after 3000 years, Angst with a Happy Ending (also technically reincarnation from canon but with no mxy resurrection arc): https://archiveofourown.org/works/16464410/chapters/38558627 

(S) After the World has Ended (Heart to Heart) by LilyMaxwell- Bionic LWJ time travels back into the past and stumbles across a lone demonic cultivator, they save the world and heal each other:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795662

**(S) the necromancer’s fairytale- by iliacquer; A necromancer, his palace of bones, his long-lost husband, and the rise of their dark kingdom. https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501860/chapters/56357179 

(S) debt of a knife by iliacquer- The AU where warlord!LWJ fic takes rebel WWX captive ~as his warprize~ but is actually protecting him. https://archiveofourown.org/works/23720065/chapters/56958610 

(L) Alexandria by LilyMaxwell- Wifi is from a time of swords and sects, gets frozen in ice and unfrozen hundreds of years in the future to meet linguistic LWJ: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20981294/chapters/49891463

(S) These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou- Modern AU, Wifi is a former war correspondent on his way back home for good with a newly adopted orphan A-Yuan when tragedy strikes (beautifully written, happy ending):  https://archiveofourown.org/works/20993447

**(S) Take My Breath and Steal the Things I Know- Watership Down au, A rabbit expects to meet death, it is a part of their life. Lan Wangji just wasn't prepared to meet him so many times, or for him to be so insistent (Wifi is the Black Rabbit of Inle):  https://archiveofourown.org/works/18283106

(S) Watership Down au part 2 w/ SV characters: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18882328 

(S) critical path analysis by chinxe- B99 au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18173390

(S) phase boundaries by chinxe- Buzzfeed Unsolved AU, the cameraman may or may not be a demon, features best bro and reluctant wingman JC: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17816831

(S) Yunmeng Supernatural by Leffy- Buzzfeed Unsolved AU: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19485118/chapters/46382821

(L) Goblin Fruit by FayJay- HP au, good character analysis, fun shenanigans, 3zun as marauders, Wangxian displaying the worst/best aspects of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and JC having an existential crisis at age 11: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21172853/chapters/50396222

**(S) An Armful of Warmth- HP au, spontaneous collab between Silverink85 & Alaceron, features Prof. LWJ and (secretly patronus) rabbit Wifi, very fun and intriguing story and the art is gorgeous 

Ao3 fic address: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624144 

The tumblr post that started it all: https://silverink58.tumblr.com/post/190584256052/stop-causing-trouble-professor-lan-and-his 

**(S) WEI WUXIAN, VAMPIRE HUNTER  by SuspiciousPopsicle- Bunnicula AU, misunderstandings, LWJ’s gay panic & internal screaming, gratuitous vampire movie cliches: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1362655

*(S) Upon Metal by astrobandit- Modern AU, Long ago Wifi turned himself into a genie, but LWJ is very bad at making wishes: https://web.archive.org/web/20210127023041/https://archiveofourown.org/works/22267204 

(S) the clash of blades, its a greeting by astrobandit- Sword Tournament au, vaguely historical-ish, identity porn, Who could this masked swordsman be? Fun times: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20301244/chapters/48127177#workskin

(S) wei to the kingdom by bird_of_dreams- Another tournament au, this time with the prince’s hand in marriage as the reward, Wifi is dense and smart by turns: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17877590 

(S) A Butterfly’s Dream by rustycol- Historical AU, Wifi’s life as a poet, pissing off the emperor, falling in love with another poet, traveling the country, all the good stuff: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17122616 

(S) Desiderium by seredemia-  Royalty AU, all the fluff, childhood friends: http://archiveofourown.org/works/18554137 

(S) To Capture a Ghost by atomicmuffin- HoB au, Wifi is a Calamity, LWJ is a God, and JC is DONE WITH THIS SHIT: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21159371

(S) The Adventures of the Magic Path Group Masters (Or Why Wei Wuxian is No Longer Allowed to Name Things) by Quixiote - DnD fic, features NHS the most put-upon DM: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15762531  

(S) Pass GO by numinae- Disaster Monopoly Modern AU: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17299598 

(L) A Start on How by misscam- Or five times Wei Ying stayed over at Lan Zhan’s, and one time he just stayed - Modern AU fluffy romance; very sweet no pain: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20405866/chapters/48403222

Willful Blindness Verse by sarahyyy- ‘i thought it was a job interview, you thought it was a date’ as told through numerous drabbles, including marriage with Wifi none the wiser: (Note: So this started off as very funny crack drabbles but then got really depressing? Just be aware) https://sarah-yyy.tumblr.com/tagged/wilful-blindness-verse

******(L) Swipe Right: How not to use Chinese Tinder- by Bow&Tie Delightfully silly modern au, featuring social media shenanigans, baby relays, LXC just trying to be a good big bro, Wifi’s A+ childcare skillz, Yunmeng siblings being EPIC, & JZX getting his act together: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1202626 

*(S) Covered in Bees by ScarlettStorm- Modern AU, Wifi is trapped in his house while his front yard has a giant writhing mass of bees, fortunately someone from the Cloud Recesses Apiary came to save him (absolutely hilarious pls read) https://archiveofourown.org/works/27142841 

(S) treating a bunny to dinner by yiqie- modern au- Wifi takes his vegetarian bf to a bbq on accident, very soft and sweet, A++ character interactions: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23263096

(S) Rating: General Audiences by Mishaa- fandom au, falling in love during Big Bang, https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705079/chapters/44362705

*(L) And So My Heart Beats Wildly by lilywinterwood- Modern Magic AU, cultivation as an extreme sport, Olympic Shenanigans, miscommunications, angst with a happy ending, there’s also mystery & plot: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426555/chapters/41026187 

(L) hold me by the heart by lilywinterwood- Rule 63 Modern AU, feat. Chinese Literature professor Lan Zhan and her lingerie model girlfriend, Wei Ying: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1348840 

(L) From Me to You by Ceta- Actor/Musician AU, Social Media fic, Wifi being Dense, supportive fam:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200229045738/https://archiveofourown.org/works/16759042?view_full_work=true 

(L) If I can’t have you by Leffy- Actors AU, hardcore pining, misunderstandings, trying to be professional while filming sex scenes and not quite succeeding: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19992376/chapters/47334121

(S) Bewitched by Itabane- A Supernatural/Modern AU where everyone is alive and happy (for a while), quality Yunmeng siblings and Junior Trio content: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1122576 

(S) oscillatory by chinxe; Mer/Pirate AU; https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087141/chapters/45346516 

*(S) The Blacklisted Tavern by Rurella: High Fantasy roommate shenanigans, delightfully crack humor, nearly died of asphyxiation reading because i was laughing too hard: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16035929/chapters/37430825 

(S) ​​The Adventures of Wei Ying, Ancient and Powerful Mimic, and Some People He Promised not to Eat by @suspiciouspopsicle; DnD au (no players) w/ good crack & monsterfucking times: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186277 

(S) Across a River of Stars by jiangnan- Legend of the White Snake AU, canon-ish? setting, LWJ is a very persistent crane: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19086070/chapters/45343561 

(S) there will come soft rains by infinite- kinda Hades/Persephone AU? less kidnapping more the God of Spring won’t leave Wifi alone: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19026238

(S) Eye of Fire by mushin- Cyberpunk au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103110 

[aurora077]

MDZS Fics that I'll probably never write -- Based on this twitter thread

It's basically meant to be a time travel fix it but I can't write those sort of adventurous fics so it will remain here in my list of fics I'll probably never write. It can be shuangjie or chengxian depending on what you want to read it as, but it is based on the lotus seed pods extra. Idk what to call this verse, Blast to the Past?

So I saw this thread and had an idea of JC & WWX being on a night hunt post-canon. I tend to blend mdzs and cql canon depending on what I want for a fic so in this case we'd be following the end of CQL where WWX and LWJ parted as good friends. But anyway JC tends to follow JL on night-hunts and WWX tags along sometimes to see A-Yuan so it so happened they joined the juniors separately but ended up there together and having to work with the juniors because the night-hunt got more complicated than they expected. They weren't quite sure what they were looking for but the monster found them and they both tried their best to kill it, making the juniors act as backup only. They got banged up a bit and their robes got shredded from being thrown through a bunch of branches constantly, but eventually, they managed to trap and fatally injure the monster. In its death throes it sends a last-ditch attack, a solid red beam of something towards Wei Wuxian, who was pushed out of the way by Jiang Cheng. Except...it was just a bit too late and they both got touched by the beam, despite Zidian trying to shield them on her own. Jiang Cheng had landed solidly on top of Wei Wuxian and they both blacked out.

When next they came to... they found themselves in this situation from the lotus seed pod extra, just before Yanli came into the room. Somehow the beast's attack, upon colliding with the resentful energy around wwx and the crackle from zidian when she had tried to protect her master, had ended up distorting into something unknown. And because the attack hit both of them at the same time while they were connected to each other, it sent them to a time when they were in a similar situation.

And so Sect Leader JC opened his eyes to find himself somehow on top of a shirtless Wei Wuxian...a Wei Wuxian in his original body. Wei Wuxian himself opened his eyes all groggy and the first thing he said was, "Huh, it's hot." All their shidis are surrounding them concernedly cuz one moment they were squabbling and the next they both passed out even though they were lively as ever just moments before. To them, nothing had really changed. They had no idea the two in front of them may have looked the same, but were actually a lot older than they appeared.

JC's mind has blanked and is filled with white noise... he can't even hear their concern because what? Their shidis are alive? He was on top of actual Wei Wuxian and not MXY!WWX. He thinks he's hallucinating from the beast's attack and delirious and imagining things.

Meanwhile wwx, who'd just gotten his bearings back, was super mad. He's all like "JC how could you do that?" And not even realising he has his original body back or even thinking about the spectators (he'd not even looked at them, he was too focused on JC or he'd have realised something more was going on, he just assumed they were JC's disciples) he grabbed hold of JC tightly and released a loud sob.

It's super hot...they're really sweaty, and now wwx was octopus gripping him and crying about 'how could you throw your life away like that?' and 'you should have just let it hit me' and 'i'm supposed to be the reckless one how dare you put yourself in danger like that'

Wwx's tears on his bare skin are not helping the heat but somehow it manages to kickstart his brain again because wait, if wwx is berating him for trying to save him then this can't be him hallucinating.

He scowled, even as his heart was still racing from fear and adrenaline."You're an idiot," he said, even as he gripped wwx back, trying to hide how terrified it had made him to see wwx almost dying again, made even worse by the fact that now in front of him was the face of the boy he grew up with, and not the borrowed body of a stranger. It wasn't the first time he took a hit (or tried to at least) for wwx and it probably wouldn't be the last.

Jiang Yanli walks into the room to offer watermelon to her bored, sweaty shidis, expecting to find them groaning about the weather and training...and instead finds her brother and A-Xian clinging to each other for dear life while the rest of the shidis whisper among themselves that the heat had clearly made the young masters lose their minds.

----

When jc and wwx get over their near-death experience enough to realise their surroundings were real and not a figment of their minds they looked at each other & tried not to freak out. It didn't go great. They both saw Yanli and ignoring their state of dress they clung to her and continued to sob for different reasons this time.

Madame Yu of course comes into this scene and on a normal day she'd whip wwx for the audacity to cling to her daughter while he was indecent but wwx and crying didn't go in the same sentence and for once the shock of seeing both of them crying on a stunned Yanli was enough to have her send them to the healers, especially after their shidis told her what had happened. Maybe the kids needed a break from the heat after all, she couldn't have them descending into heat-induced insanity like that.

----

They manage to play it off like the heat's fault after all but they go on to plan how to fix things and along the way they fix their relationship too.

Whether Shuangjie or Chengxian it can work.

[gusu-emilu]

miscellaneous MDZS/CQL fic recs (AO3)

broken into sections: Character Study (-esque), Wangxian, Jiang Cheng ships, Yi City (or Yi City-adjacent), Humor/Crack, and Other

Character Study (-esque)

Wei Wuxian

my eyes got used to the darkness by @curiosity-killed (M, Sunshot Campaign era, 4.4k): The funny thing, the thing that makes his lips curl in a grin and his hands shake with laughter, is that all these cultivators with their lofty principles and noble ambitions can’t even notice the ghost among them. Sure, they shiver at his presence and flinch from his cold hands, but not one of them puts it together. Lan Wangji chases him with healing music and Nie Mingjue frowns solemnly at his dancing corpses—and he laughs and laughs and laughs because they just don’t get it. Emilu's commentary: CW for mild body horror.

Jiang Cheng

in our respective ways by @veliseraptor (T, Sunshot Campaign era, 5.7k): Jiang Cheng has his golden core back. But he seems to have lost Wei Wuxian.

You Know I've Fallen, but I Know How High by villainais (M, Post-WWX's death, 2.7k): Jiang Cheng loses both of his siblings in Nightless City. Minutes apart. He trudges home to Yunmeng with one body, holds a private funeral with a single coffin, and allows himself to wear his mourning robes for ten days—permits himself not a single day more. He is still too young and inexperienced, an unfledged boy to the cultivation world, and he is rebuilding Lotus Pier on his own. He will not gift the other sect leaders the satisfaction of seeing him vulnerable. Propriety be damned. Hanguang-jun emerges from his seclusion wearing white. He does not stop.

Nie Huaisang

it deepens like a coastal shelf by @wolffyluna (M, Post-WWX's death, 21.6k): When Nie Huaisang meets Mo Xuanyu, he realises two things quickly. One, this kid is so doomed. Two, this kid would be a great unwitting spy in his plans to bring down Jin Guangyao. It would be so easy to get into Mo Xuanyu's confidences, and so easy to get him to tell him anything he needs. ...only thing is, that wouldn't be very good for Mo Xuanyu's life expectancy. But he'll do it anyway, if it helps him avenge his brother. A fic about man handing on misery to man, the parallels and cycles in the relationships between Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu, and the lengths these characters will go to meet their goals and if there are lines they won't cross.

Lan Xichen

an old man in dried mouths by @tenacious-minds (T, Post-Canon, 3.3k): Xichen thinks. The tea had always stained the crockery red. Emilu's commentary: Lan Xichen and Jin Ling talk about Jin Guangyao.

can you be a quiet man? by @basket-of-loquats (Unrated, Post-Canon, 70.7k+) But something inside him snapped at Guanyin Temple-- and Lan Wangji watched it happen, saw the exact moment that Lan Xichen went from broken to shattered, when he buried his sword into Jin Guangyao’s chest, when his sworn brother stared up at him with wide eyes, blood dripping from his mouth, when he pulled himself closer and closer and closer-- When he whispered "Why don’t you die with me?", and Lan Xichen hadn’t argued. Emilu's commentary: Lan Xichen / therapy with a side of Wangxian.

Wen Ning

breathless (but i'll pretend to breathe for you) by swordsainted (T, Burial Mounds Settlement era, 4.1k): Wei Wuxian is silent for a long minute, and then he looks at Wen Ning, something raw and open and hurting behind his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says again, softer this time, and Wen Ning shakes his head, still smiling. “You’ve protected everyone. How could I hate you for that?”

Mo Xuanyu

stand at the pit's mouth by @eldritch-elrics (M, MXY's death, 9.3k): The dreams and regrets of a man on the edge of oblivion. Emilu's commentary: Surrealist/absurdist screenplay.

Wangxian

I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett (T, Immortality Post-Canon, 10.4k): During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair. “Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.” “I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.” “And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.” Emilu's commentary: Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian centuries later and does not remember the past. There is also an excellent podfic by @forgotten-envies

Look Not With The Eyes by Spodumene (G, Post-Canon, 28.1k): Wei Wuxian returns from his travels to join Lan Wangji on a routine night hunt, but when things take an unexpected turn, Wei Wuxian will have to fight for what he's really looking for. Emilu's commentary: Case fic.

All In A Good Time by bigboobedcanuck (E, Post-Canon, 8k): Lan Zhan is struck by a curse that brings him intense physical pain unless he's being touched. He is stoic and tries to hide his suffering. Wei Wuxian is worried and protective. Perhaps they will finally admit their feelings?

Across a Lake of Glass by Zizzani (E, Figure Skating AU, 92.2k+): Each year, Gusu Skating Club runs a camp for only the most elite athletes of each region. This year brings a new skater from the Yunmeng Club who wears skates lined with red and a smile made for war. He skates like a demon. Figure skating au featuring lots of healthy rivalry, pre and post-competition bonding, and an inexplicable fall from grace through the eyes of the media.

Jiang Cheng Ships

Chengqing

display my heart for you to see by @souridealist (M, Post-Canon Wen Qing Lives AU, 5.5k): Jiang Cheng has his own secrets. Some of them are part of the unburied past; some of them are about how long it's been since anyone has touched him.

while I'm in this body by @souridealist (E, Post-Lotus Pier Massacre, 3.9k): For just a few minutes, alone in her office, Wen Qing allows her self-control to slip enough to cry. It's just her luck that that's when Jiang Cheng comes looking for her. Emilu's commentary: Femdom.

Chengning

it may be that it doesn't matter by @wildehacked (T, Post-Canon, 6.6k) “Are you crying?” Jiang Wanyin asks him, and Wen Ning frowns. Pats his cheek with one hand. “No.” Emilu's commentary: Holy Grail of Chengning.

Whatever It Is by morau (E, Post-Canon, 20.5k): It starts, as with a lot of things, with a very poorly thought out prank, courtesy of Wei Wuxian. Emilu's commentary: A LOT of sex and even more emotions lol

won't run away (we're here to stay) by @qi-ling (T, Post-Canon, 3.5k): "Please don't feel any pressure to accept this, and you can take as much time as you need to think about it." It's a set of robes, in shades of deep purple, complete with leather bracers. Cut in a different style than that of the disciples or household staff, closer to the understated robes Wen Ning typically wears. He reaches out to feel the fabric. His deadened nerves can't sense delicate textures well, but even he can tell it's of a quality on par to Wanyin's own wardrobe. This is startling enough coming from Jiang Wanyin, but then Wen Ning notices the belt. In particular, the silver bell in the shape of a lotus affixed to it. Only recognized members of the Jiang sect may wear the clarity bell. Or, Jiang Cheng has an invitation for Wen Ning.

Zhancheng

By Proxy by @veliseraptor (E, Post-WWX's death, 12k): Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, looking for comfort in all the wrong places. Emilu's commentary: Hate sex that made me cry

Yi City (or Yi City-adjacent)

Songxuexiao

Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It by @silvysartfulness (M, Post-Yi City arc Canon Divergence, 123k+): One of the most complex spells of demonic cultivation the world has seen is brought to fruition, and Xiao Xingchen draws his first shaking breaths in over seven years. This, it turns out, is only the start of his problems. Emilu's commentary: Pretty sure everyone already knows about Silvy's happy songxuexiao road trip fic but it has to be here.

Xue Yang & Lan Xichen

Hours On Empty series by @lady-of-the-lotus (M to E, Post-Canon, 57.8k+): AU where Wei Wuxian never came to Yi City and Xue Yang is still running around post-canon disguised as Xiao Xingchen. "Fractured Ice" - Xue Yang whisks a nihilistic Lan Xichen off on a murder roadtrip to raise Xiao Xingchen and Meng Yao from the grave. Because that will solve all of their problems, right? "Control" - "Fractured Ice" retold from Xue Yang's pov. "A Thousand Miles In Its Light" - Alternate ending to "Fractured Ice" and "Control"

Songxiao with Xuexiao Flashbacks

Nothing Beside Remains by @eldritch-elrics (T, Post-Yi City arc Canon Divergence, 21.9k): And Xiao Xingchen is dressed in dark clothing that is not his, and his sight is all of a sudden sharp in a way that it has never been before, and Xue Yang is not here. “He wouldn’t,” he breathes. “No, he wouldn’t do that. He’s too—” “He’s too what?” Wei Wuxian steps a foot closer, face hard-set. “Too cruel? Or too kind?” Or: Xue Yang uses the Sacrifice Summon on Xiao Xingchen. Xiao Xingchen lives with the consequences.

Humor/Crack

The Hangover: A pre-wedding Dramedy series by natcat5 (M, Modern AU, 51.6k): It is not a bachelor party. That was made clear on all the invitations. It is a congratulatory get together for Jin Zixuan, attended by his family, the family of the bride, and the young masters of the other two families in their circle. The gathering is not to go later than midnight, everyone must drink in moderation, and no one is allowed to be hungover tomorrow. Wei Wuxian had promised Yanli, three fingers in the air. Jiang Cheng had rolled his eyes, but promised as well. Saturday morning, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng wake up alone in a hotel room, missing shoes, phones, and almost all their memories of what in the world happened last night. Also missing: Wei Wuxian, brother of the bride, Lan Wangji, esteemed guest, Lan Xichen, esteemed guest, Jin Zixun, cousin of the groom, Jin Guangyao, brother and best-man, Jin Zixuan, THE GROOM, who is due at his bride-to-be's house in six hours. That's plenty of time to find everyone...right?

Jiang Cheng Loves Jar Jar Bombad Mui by @lady-of-the-lotus (G, Post-Canon, 1.7k) Jar Jar Binks washes up on the shores of Lotus Pier. Can he win the lonely Jiang Cheng's proud heart? Neb neb answer is yesa. Emilu's commentary: There's also a podfic by @aowyn. Yes, with a Jar Jar voice.

Other

Nie Huaisang & Wen Ning

By Name by nirejseki (G, Post-Canon, 1.3k): After the traumatic events in the now-collapsed temple, Wen Ning lingered behind and unexpectedly saw Nie Huaisang, the undisputed victor of an all-around terrible evening, sitting on the steps of the temple, looking exhausted and miserable, as if he’d won nothing at all. Wen Ning found himself drifting over to him.

Jiang Yanli & Nie Mingjue

utility by magicites (G, Arranged Marriage AU, 2.3k): Jiang Yanli and Nie Mingjue's wedding is a political one — a gesture of unity between their Sects. A way for her parents to finally get some use out of the plain-faced sham of a cultivator they call a daughter. “Jiang-guniang,” Nie Mingjue says, and the formality in such a setting as intimate as their wedding chambers startles her, “I don’t wish to bed you. Or any other woman, for that matter. It isn’t fair for you to live alone because of my own preferences.” She rests her hand on his arm, cool relief flooding her body like water on a summer afternoon. “If it helps, I don’t feel desire for men,” she whispers.

Jin Guangyao / Nie Huaisang

Pulling Strings by @eldritch-elrics (E, Post-WWX's death, 5k): Nie Huaisang, quite drunk, turns up at Jin Guangyao’s door one night with an unexpected request. Emilu's commentary: Nie Huaisang knows Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue. This interaction is more symbolic than anything else...

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

From @ednamrenee 's comments that are way too wonderful and insightful to keep to the notes only and I'll try to go point by point with this since there is so much I agree to with this (excuse the messy thoughts as I go)

Lol, and I enjoy hearing the perspectives of those who have a harsher take on JC than me. 😂 I agree with you re: CQL, it definitely didn't seem to know where to put JC's character, which is a shame because he's a very interesting one. I don't mind if CQL-onlies want to that to that version, media consumption being a very personal experience and all that, but if I have to read one more interpretation like JC thought the life-debt between WQ and him was paid..

I do think that it's a detriment to the adaptions closer to the novel and the AU that CQL is to be so heavily tied together into the western fandom. Since they are so different from each other they really can't be compared to each other. The characters are not alike which lends to the very out of place interpretations that become so heavily popular.

...when he got her out of prison, I'm gonna go insane. Never mind that it's not what happened in novel canon (or even donghua canon, I don't remember about the manhua), never mind that it was an added scene to go forth with the one-sided JC/WQ thing, never mind that even if it had been canon, it in no way balances the life-debt JC owed the Wen siblings (and I'm not even considering the golden core transfer, we can't hold over him what he doesn't know).

In terms of the debt he owed even with the awkward romance they tried to make, if it was "payed back" it does not excuse him from essentially hiding that away and letting it be buried under the calls to exterminate all Wens. It does not erase the fact that they had helped, and he chose to just not expand upon this when their safety was at stake out of, I suppose, petty jealousy of Wei Wuxian (I really don't know what CQL was going for with his resentment towards Wei Wuxian since he'd had that since he was young. But, it also makes whatever love he did have for Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian so much more shallow then it was in the novel and starkly more cruel for a character they tried to humanize while keeping the novel points skewing the themes of Jiang Cheng as a character.

It just feels like a sorry understanding of life-debts and that's why culturally huge thing, so...no? Don't do that? It's fine having JC not pay much attention to the debts. It makes him interesting, it makes him coldly pragmatic over valuing even things that his own culture holds dear. It's a great trait, and even a good one for a leader maybe. I am up for JC deviating for the norm when it's about such virtues while WWX sticks to them, and JC wasn't exactly sneering...

Yes! This is Jiang Cheng as a character at his simplest and why I personally find him fascinating! He is pragmatic and cold to a fault that works well in the cultivation world MDZS set up, however, it doesn't work the same in CQL when you have the boogyman story of the Yin Iron as the root of all bad instead. The character actions no longer line up with the theme of the original work since so much emphasis is placed on a piece of metal ruining everything instead of the cruelty of humans alone.

...at the mo dao until it put him in a politically delicate situation. That's fine! Interesting character traits! But like. Fanon perception more often than not strips all of these from him and that's just unacceptable to me. I'm not even going to speak of the entire genocide thing, despite knowing about the innocence of the Wens and how they're just feeble old people and women and children.

The bleed over of CQL trying to make Jiang Cheng softer in his youth made headcanons with no true base for it in his behavior as an adult a lot more muddied. As an adult in any adaption, he's not really shown to have any positive sort of sentimentality towards Wei Wuxian. Certainly with Jin Ling in CQL it implied heavily that he did hit him just like Madam Yu to Wei Wuxian, where at least in the novel he was just... a very aggressively, unkind, cruel uncle that spoiled his nephew and gave in with that cycle of negative action over progressive action (The massive narrative mirror between how Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji raised a child left to them suddenly). He was not sorry for the hand he took in killing the Wens, he blamed them for taking his right hand man away and putting his sect, in what he thought, was unneeded trouble, morals be damned like his mother. Like she had said about Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan, they stuck their head too high and they brought death upon themselves for talking back to a higher power for acting on their kindness over politics.

(Lol, this got long, sorry!) I absolutely agree that in terms of interpersonal relationships, Jin Ling is the only one with whom Jiang Cheng can begin to grow. The thing about the Yunmeng brothers is that whatever was between them is now tainted by bad blood (quite literally) on both sides, both of them have hurt each, knowingly or unknowingly. Both of them are a source for mental stress for each other, that's canon for any adaptation.

I understand the urge to want a rosier, I guess, take on this. I'm more used to the novel interpretations and neither ever really use the wording of being like family, or brothers, this was left to Jiang Yanli specifically calling Wei Wuxian her brother as the only Jiang to do that. The barrier of their social class is still a backbone of Jiang Cheng's possessiveness in thinking Wei Wuxian was his to order about as a sect leader twisting the innocent promise Wei Wuxian gave. But both don't associate anything positive with the other anymore. Wei Wuxian certainly isn't sentimental for Yunmeng Jiang as a home when he is resurrected or Jiang Cheng. He was planning to run off in the opposite direction of it to start as someone new! That does not read to me as pining or love anymore for the past (and I've written a piece before how CQL sanitized his longing of Lan Wangji solely by replacing it with Lotus Pier want and Jiang Yanli as a parental figure).

Can we not act like "ohh it's just miscommunication, they're both just dumb and horrible at feelings". It's not that simple. MXTX establishes this painstakingly, and just loving someone has never been the point. YZY loved JC too, she still managed to mess up his head. Love isn't the point, which sounds very hurtful I know, but it's also true. Reconciliation after all this bad blood takes a huge amount of emotional labour on both parts.

I can not reiterate enough that love was not the only thing needed between the Yunmeng siblings. None of them really ever understood each other and had different wants. Jiang Cheng never understood Wei Wuxian and his fascination of Lan Wangji out of discomfort. He did not accept whatever was going on there and later used it as shaming fodder. Both have done an unforgivable disservice to the other and really, nothing can mend old hurts as bad as they were. The kindest option is to leave each other alone and move on with a happier life for the self. The codependency of this is more than disturbing when used in reconciliation material especially for Wei Wuxian who was never that and is the one who actively asked for Jiang Cheng to move on, because he does not have the will to extend the effort of rebuilding a relationship anymore. It's a very human response to a broken relationship and not cruel, it just is a realistic view of a bad relationship that always ended for the worst when they tried to talk. Their own ideals are nothing alike and clash, they are not what the other needs and Wei Wuxian by the end of the novel is ready to leave it and move on with others without Jiang Cheng.

And, never apologize for long thoughts! I love it! This is why I very much enjoy interactions on here that are productive. Seriously I am a Jiang Cheng fan, I am just not into the gum drop sweetness for reconciliation. They are a disservice to him and his end that can better him without the crutch of Wei Wuxian there, which is exactly how his resentment spawned in the first place. He has a chance to do better by himself on his own terms, that doesn't need to be ruined with a codependent bond that had been forced and very one-sided in the end and remained as that for 13 years.

[xiyao-feels]

Part Two: Claims about NMJ and NHS

Intro - Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

NMJ

1) NMJ wished to protect NHS from cultivating with the sabre as a youth.

I don't think he tells us this in quite so many words, but it seems implied by the flashback scenes: his giving NHS the paintbrush, the bit where he takes 修刀 and gives NHS 修心, and course him literally telling NHS that whatever NHS wishes to do, he'd support it.

As far as I can tell there's no evidence of this. Now, to be fair, we don't see them as children in MDZS, but there is not as far as I can tell any sign that NMJ has ever done anything but strongly desire that NHS work on the sabre. Indeed, even at Hejian during Sunshot, the reason he overhears MY and LXC's conversation is because he is bringing NHS' sabre to LXC so that NHS will not be able to escape practicing with it. He certainly does not renew any kind of commitment to allowing NHS to do what he wills before his death. In CQL, we see rather less, but as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be anything that contradicts MDZS on this front.

2) In his heart, NMJ carried significant doubts about the righteousness of Nie cultivation practices, including both the sabre-curse-inducing sabre cultivation and the practice of balancing the sabre spirits via corpses in the wall

This is quite central to the movie. It's arguably implicit in his desire to protect NHS from cultivating with the sabre, but beyond that, he is clearly extremely uncomfortable at NHS' moral challenge of Nie practices and believes at least partially that NHS has a point; moreover, it's implicit in his confessions to NHS in the tomb:

The Nie family's ancestors created this family foundation with great hardships. Unexpectedly, it was cursed by the sword spirit. I practiced swordsmanship hard and thought I could find a way to solve it, but I just followed the same old disastrous road of the ancestors.

And of course, his moral arc in the movie is about embracing those doubts and rejecting Nie tradition.

There is as far as I can tell no evidence of this in MDZS or CQL; in fact we don't learn anything about the Nie burial traditions in scenes where NMJ is still alive, and he never shows any doubt about the wisdom of sabre cultivation.

3) NMJ used to be "intelligent and wise"; it's due to the effects of the sabre curse that he is "moody and brutal".

We're explicitly told this by NHS at around 32:50: "Da-ge, look at you now, you have changed. When you were young, you were always wise and intelligent. Ever since you practiced swordsmanship, you've become moody and brutal." It's also backed up by the childhood flashbacks. The sharp distinction between NMJ and sabre-curse-affected-NMJ, shown by the way sabre-curse-affected NMJ is visually marked out, also helps suggest this.

Now, in MDZS and CQL, this…is complicated. Again, in MDZS, we don't see him as a child—the earliest we see him is still well past the time he began practicing sabre cultivation. And in ch 26 NHS does indeed suggest that sabre cultivation causes increasing irritability; it certainly seems plausible, indeed almost necessary, that he had less of a temper before he started practicing, and for that matter we see his anger grow worse as time goes on.

Nevertheless, we never actually see any trace of a calm-tempered NMJ in the text. Even by the beginning of Sunshot, his reputation as an angry man is firmly established. Consider the Nie men's reaction to his anger at their shit-talking MY, in the cave:

The entire cave was in a muddle. Everyone knew ChiFeng-Zun’s personality—the more one tried to explain, the angrier he was. Seeing that they probably couldn’t escape punishment and would have to tell the truth, nobody dared to speak a word.

Even his friend LXC says to MY, “MingJue-xiong has quite a fiery personality. It must have been truly difficult for you to have earned his approval.”

And NHS, who very much loves his brother even as he is also to some extent frightened of him, is never shown pining for the halcyon days of yore. Narratively speaking, sabre-affected NMJ is the only NMJ we know. I think…this is something a Nie brothers spinoff could theoretically do something interesting with, but the way it's presented in their relationship is all wrong.

In CQL, the evidence is much the same or just not shown. NMJ generally seems less angry (though even so, we see him be angry at the Nie men for mocking MY (in subjective CQL-Empathy, but still), at WWX for saying maybe let's not kill XY immediately, at JGY for having killed the Nie cultivators, etc.), and if anything his relationship with NHS seems better than it is in the novel, although this too is well after he's begun to practice sabre cultivation.

4) NMJ respects NHS' interests

When picking NHS to lead the other team in the tombs, NMJ tells us that NHS knows most about astronomy in the Nie, and NMJ clearly considers this valuable.

If NHS did actually have significant knowledge of cultivation, NMJ would probably respect that. However, this is what NMJ has to say about the interests NHS canonically has (ch 49):

Nie HuaiSang was absolutely delighted. He greeted Jin GuangYao again and again as he grabbed the fans in haste. Seeing how his younger brother reacted, Nie MingJue was so outraged that he almost found it amusing. He turned to Jin GuangYao, “Don’t send him those useless things!”

In a hurry, Nie HuaiSang dropped a few fans on the ground. Jin GuangYao picked them up for him and put them into his arms, “HuaiSang’s hobbies are quite elegant. He’s dedicated to art and calligraphy, and has no propensity for mischief. How can you say that they’re useless?”

Nie HuaiSang nodded as fast as he could, “Yes, Brother is right!”

Nie MingJue, “But sect leaders have no need for such things.”

In CQL, I believe we just don't see enough to say, although given that again, NHS' isn't actually studying cultivation, it seems likely NMJ' attitudes are much the same.

NHS

1) NHS is profoundly morally motivated

NHS is immediately and hugely upset with the practice of using corpses in the walls, explicitly on moral grounds, even though it was the practice of their ancestors, and even once he finds out that they're not (usually) Nie men, but evildoers.

Having been told by NZH that the blades need the corpses to suppress their aggressiveness: "But isn't that just sacrificing people?" "Zonghui, the Nie family have always been righteous. If we give sacrifice to it with life, we will become evil."

And then, to NMJ: "Wait. Let me ask you. Why is here called the Sword Sacrifice Hall? What is to balance sword spirit? I didn't understand before coming what exactly Sword Sacrifice Hall represents. I know it now. This is not balance but sacrificing flesh and blood!"

NZH: Second Young Master, you misunderstood it. Those corpses belong to evil men. The Nie family's ancestors had uses their bodies to balance the sword spirit. We also follow the ancestral instructions."

NHS: (to NZH) Evil men? (to NMJ) Aren't they human beings? Are you qualified for deciding their fate?

NMJ: The sword spirit is extremely dangerous. Generations of the Nie family all balanced the spirit in this way.

NHS: Even if they were wrong, you also follow their way?

In MDZS…I went over the chapters where he shows up, and I'm not actually sure we ever see him express a moral sentiment? I could be missing something, but it doesn't seem to be any kind of fundamental part of his character.

This is his reaction to WWX's first suggestion of demonic cultivation, when they're studying at CR (ch 14):

After thinking for a few moments, an expression of envy and yearning appeared on Nie HuaiSang’s face, “To be honest, Wei-xiong’s words were quite interesting. Spiritual energy can only be obtained through cultivation and taking great pains to form a golden core. It would take I-don’t-know-how-many years to do, especially for someone like me, whose talent seems as if it was gnawed by a dog when I was in my mother’s womb. But, resentful energy are from the fierce ghosts. If they can easily be taken and used, it would be beyond wonderful.”

And—granted this is several years down the line and NHS is keeping up his cover, but when NHS is explaining the sabre tomb to LWJ and WWX in chapter 26, he doesn't seem to have any problem with the practice. In fact, he tells us that he participated in choosing corpses for NMJ's sabre:

Nie HuaiSang was already shocked speechless. Wei WuXian inquired, “Who chooses the corpses that the Nie Sect uses for the Saber Hall?”

Nie HuaiSang replied with a glazed expression, “Usually, the past sect leaders chose and stored them when they were still alive. My brother passed away at an earlier age. He didn’t have enough, so I also helped him choose some… I kept whichever corpses that were complete with all limbs. I don’t know about anything other than this…”

In CQL...mmm. I rewatched all the pre-Sunshot scenes with him in it, and I do think he comes across as, at least, less amoral. We don't have the gee wouldn't demonic cultivation be nice scene, and you could definitely interpret him as being worried about the granny at Dafan, or even the temporary-puppets; he says you have to admire Songxiao's integrity and elegance as they depart; and while we don't see him be part of the initial 'maybe we shouldn't just immediately execute XY squad,' he does go da-ge after NMJ seems irritated at WWX, and after NMJ throws MY out he goes in and is like but why!!!! That said, in both cases where he challenges (and I use the term rather loosely for the da-ge after NMJ is irritated with WWX), he immediately backs down faced with NMJ's opposition. I really don't see any sign of the character who is so morally motivated and so sure of his own correctness he challenges NMJ, /in front of all their men/, and keeps up the challenge despite NMJ's consistent opposition.

2) NHS isn't really interested in JGY's gifts

At no point is he shown delighting over or interested in anything JGY gave him (except of course the flute for treating his brother), and in fact when JGY says that after the journey he will give him gifts he replies "San-ge, I am not afraid of difficult journeys. I'm not craving for toys either." On the contrary, gifts are associated with /NMJ/, who gave him a paintbrush as a child.

In MDZS, we see him explicitly delighted in and interested by JGY's gifts. In ch 49, we see him going over a dozen gold-lined fans, which turn out to be gifts from JGY; when JGY mentions he's going to play a song for NMJ, he expresses interest and mentions "the limited edition" JGY gave him "last time," and then when NMJ shouts at him to go to his room he runs instead "to the living room for the presents that Jin GuangYao had brought him;" when JGY shows up at Qinghe after the stairs incident, NHS "beamed as he got ready to go to Jin GuangYao and see what presents he brought this time." Considering how little time they have together on the page, the gifts show up a great deal.

In CQL, we mostly don't see a lot of NHS and JGY's interactions after JGY's legitimation but before NMJ's death, so it's impossible to directly say. However, he is at least shown to delight in and greatly value beautiful things (see at least the fan flashback in ep 35).

3) NHS is motivated by a desire for his brother's respect and the respect of their men.

This is the argument JGY uses which finally settles NHS on going along on the journey, around 14:30: "Both of you are pillars of the Nie family. You should work together. You can also prove yourself." See also his pleasure with himself at solving the puzzle quickly in the tombs; it's not a purely self-satisfied pleasure, but rather, "It seems I'm not useless" (27:35ish). When NZH replies, "Second Young Master, you are definitely not useless. It's just because everyone has their own will," NHS gives a firm little nod. NMJ's respect for NHS' skills and interests is also made central to their relationship.

In MDZS, NHS really doesn't seem to be motivated by people respecting him. Consider, again, what he says about WWX's idea of demonic cultivation (ch 14):

After thinking for a few moments, an expression of envy and yearning appeared on Nie HuaiSang’s face, “To be honest, Wei-xiong’s words were quite interesting. Spiritual energy can only be obtained through cultivation and taking great pains to form a golden core. It would take I-don’t-know-how-many years to do, especially for someone like me, whose talent seems as if it was gnawed by a dog when I was in my mother’s womb. But, resentful energy are from the fierce ghosts. If they can easily be taken and used, it would be beyond wonderful.”

A golden core was a core formed by cultivators after they had cultivated to a certain point. It can store and control spiritual energy. After the core was formed, the cultivator’s level of cultivation would increase at a rapid speed, and become better and better. Else, they would only be a low-end cultivator. If disciple from a prominent clan forms the core at a later age, it would be a disgrace to tell other people of it, yet Nie HuaiSang didn’t feel ashamed at all. Wei WuXian also laughed, “I know, right? No harm comes from using it.”

Even during Sunshot, he's slacking off, using the excuse of having forgotten his sabre. (ch 48)

And then in ch. 49, after NMJ burns his things:

Nie HuaiSang roared at Nie MingJue, “Saber, saber, saber! Who the fuck wants to practice the damn thing?! So what if I want to be a good-for-nothing?! Whoever that wants to can be the sect leader! I can’t learn it means I can’t learn it and I don’t like it means I don’t like it! What’s the use of forcing me?!”

I'm not necessarily saying he wouldn't enjoy it if NMJ respected him, and certainly it seems a fair read that he would like it if NMJ yelled at him less. But by and large, he just doesn't show any objection to being thought of as useless, even before his Headshaker cover—and there's a reason that cover worked, after all.

In CQL...well, again, he doesn't really show any sign of objecting to being thought useless, as far as I can tell.

4) NHS knows about the sabre curse

JGY explicitly says so at about 13:05: "You know his sickness. He didn't do it on purpose." Moreover, if NHS didn't know, the offer of flute-playing wouldn't really make sense.

In MDZS, NMJ explicitly hasn't told NHS at least as of JGY's visit after the stairs, and there's no indication he told him between then and when he qi-deviated. Indeed, it's JGY who thinks NHS should be told, while NMJ rejects this (ch 50):

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, these days you’ve been stricter and stricter towards HuaiSang. Is it the saber spirit…?”

After a pause, he continued, “Does HuaiSang still not know about the saber spirit?”

Nie MingJue, “Why would I tell him so soon?”

In CQL, we're not told either way; this being the case I tend towards defaulting to MDZS unless I have a specific reason to think otherwise.

5) NHS, though bad at fighting, is skilled in cultivation theory

Again, JGY says so, at around 13:19: "You are good at Daoist magic" (and NHS seems to accept it). Moreover this is continually backed up by the film, with NHS making good use of it in the tomb, and then of course in the last scene having put together the true effect of the corrupted passage.

There is no indication of this in MDZS. He's interested in art and beautiful things, but he struggles with the Lan lectures. When JGY defends NHS' interests, he mentions art and calligraphy, and says his hobbies are elegant; he makes no mention of any kind of cultivation theory. As WWX himself notes, thinking back (ch 21):

In the past, Wei WuXian and Nie HuaiSang studied together, so there were a few things he could comment about this person. Nie HuaiSang wasn’t an unkind person. It wasn’t that he was not clever, but that his heart was set somewhere else and used his smarts on other areas, such as painting on fans, searching for birds, skipping classes, and catching fish. Because his talent in terms of cultivation really was poor, he formed his core around eight or nine years later than the other disciples of the same generation as him. When he lived, Nie MingJue was often exasperated by the fact that his brother didn’t meet his expectations, so he disciplined him strictly. Despite this, he still didn’t improve much.

I'm not saying he couldn't have developed in this direction after NMJ's death, but there doesn't seem to be any indication he was skilled in that way beforehand. Again, there's a reason his cover as "totally useless person" works as a cover.

In CQL, again, we don't really see any evidence of his skill with cultivation. NHS is shown flipping through his book for the answer to the executioner question LQR asks WWX; he doesn't show any evidence of significant cultivation knowledge on the road trip section (although he is shown to have a good memory for things he's actually interested in, and you could argue he has good instincts!); his wish at the lantern festival is that he passes his studies at the Lan. I just don't see it.

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[hunxi-guilai]

hello! regarding wwx in mxy's body: i'm not actually sure what's going on with that? could you please explain? based on varying things i've seen it seems like 1) wwx is either just IN mxy's body now, or 2) wwx is just IN mxy's body but due to spirit hijinks of some sort mxy's body has developed a few of the features wwx used to have, or 3) mxy's body was like a cocoon that magically brought forth wwx in his OG body somehow? except apparently he's definitely shorter? pls help??

(all follow-ups to this post, and maybe the tags on this post)

please just assume I’m constantly flailing in the general direction of CQL worldbuilding because seriously, who do I have to pay to get some consistency around here, why did I ever leave the sweet sweet embrace of Cosmeric hard magic systems

so! I think a lot of the confusion about Wei Wuxian and Mo Xuanyu derives from the different adaptations we have. In MDZS the novel (and audiodrama -- unsure about donghua?) Wei Wuxian is resurrected into Mo Xuanyu’s body. It’s a mind-body dualistic world we’re all living in, and Mo Xuanyu-the-soul has vacated the premises so Wei Wuxian-the-soul can move in. Unwillingly. Let’s not get into consent issues and worldbuilding issues at the same time. The end result is that we have a Wei Wuxian who looks like Mo Xuanyu (who, by the way, is supposed to look completely different from Wei Wuxian), wears Mo Xuanyu’s body, and can thereby cultivate with Mo Xuanyu’s core.

(this is also why post-resurrection!Wei Wuxian/Mo Xuanyu!Wei Wuxian is definitely shorter -- they make a big deal of the fact that pre-death Wei Wuxian was three inches taller than Lan Wangji, and post-resurrection!Wei Wuxian-in-Mo Xuanyu’s-body is three inches shorter)

CQL then proceeds to fudge with the worldbuilding a bit, partially for production reasons, partially for plot reasons, partially for censorship reasons. The end result is that pre-death!Wei Wuxian and post-resurrection!Wei Wuxian are visually the same (since they are both played by Xiao Zhan), and we never actually see what Mo Xuanyu looks like. Presumably, he resembles Wei Wuxian enough in body type (beanpole) and physicality (over-the-top) that most people don’t question who it is under the mask (in fact, people seem to identify Mo Xuanyu based solely on the mask? At least, Jin Ling’s conversation with Wei Wuxian in episode 34 suggests this). That being said, that raises lots of questions about what the resurrection ritual actually did.

Considering the lengths to which CQL goes to try and reassure us that Wei Wuxian wasn’t actually one-hundred percent authentically perma-dead during those sixteen years (see: lack of a body, Inquiry without success, that whole conversation in episode 33 about 'not knowing where he was’), there’s a lot more room for interpretation. Our options for the resurrection process include (but are not limited to):

using Mo Xuanyu’s sacrifice to power the heavy duty magic of transporting Wei Wuxian in his original body straight from his swan dive off a cliff to sixteen years later 

pros: helps explain why Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji never found a body; explains why Wei Wuxian looks exactly like Wei Wuxian 

cons: doesn’t explain why post-resurrection Wei Wuxian lacks the same scarring as pre-death Wei Wuxian; doesn’t explain why Wei Wuxian comes to in Mo Xuanyu’s clothes rather than the clothes he died in; means Wei Wuxian is definitely unable to cultivate a new golden core post-canon :/

keeping Mo Xuanyu’s body but thanks to ~spirit hijinks~ (thanks anon for this delightful phrase), Mo Xuanyu’s physical form is altered to incorporate some of Wei Wuxian’s physical features

I’m basically imagining Wei Wuxian’s head stuck on top of Mo Xuanyu’s body for this

pros: helps explain why Wei Wuxian can pass as Mo Xuanyu; accounts for the lack of scarring on his original body; means that he has a weak golden core that would explain his ability to use Suibian post-resurrection; explains why Wei Wuxian can wake up in Mo Xuanyu’s clothes and, y’know, have them fit 

cons: doesn’t explain where Wei Wuxian’s body went those sixteen years; doesn’t explain why Wei Wuxian. . .  just looks exactly like Wei Wuxian instead of some combination of the two

magical resurrection meat grinder recycles the raw material of Mo Xuanyu’s body to make a brand new Wei Wuxian 

pros: grants Wei Wuxian the possibility of cultivating a new golden core, explains the lack of scarring while simultaneously accounting for Wei Wuxian looking exactly the same

cons: what the fuck did this ritual actually look like in the moment, no wonder why there’s so much blood, good god I hope Mo Xuanyu wasn’t conscious for this, still doesn’t explain why Mo Xuanyu cousin is such an asshole that he doesn’t even recognize a literal different person

[untamedunrestrained]

Moral of the Story

I was scrolling through the WangXian tag on Tumblr when I came across a post that I eventually scrolled past but it seems to have planted a germ of an idea that I just can’t shake loose and I tried and I tried and then I procrastinated some more for good measure but it didn’t work. So, here I am trying to present my thoughts with some degree of coherency.

The post that was the impetus for this post, talks about LWJ’s punishment after the events at Nightless City just before WWX’s death. That post raises the question of how LWJ could forgive his uncle and brother for a punishment that would have killed a lesser cultivator.

The moment I read the post I disagreed with it but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but since I have been thinking about it for the past few days, I now know exactly why I disagreed with the post in the first place.

Before we proceed, I would like to make it clear that while what I’m about to say tracks across every canon of MDZS, I’m going to pick the details from the novel verse because it’s more detailed with regards to this particular aspect of the story, and also if you have only watched The Untamed/CQL and not read the novel (albeit only in its translated form) it might be easier to fall into the type of thinking that lead to the previous post in the first place.

Ideally, I should just link to the original post but since I found the post while I was scrolling through Tumblr’s tag for WangXian and initially tried to ignore it completely because I didn’t quite understand why that particular idea was troubling me, I don’t think it would be easy to find it again and since I’m disagreeing with the post I don’t want the author of the post to find this because even when we try to be rational our first response to being disagreed with is hurt or anger and I don’t want anyone to feel that way. These are just my thoughts and you might agree or disagree with them but I feel like I should put them out there since the idea will not leave me alone.

So, let’s get into it.

LWJ is given thirty-three discipline whips for each of the thirty-three GusuLan elders he gravely injured to protect WWX.

When WWX sees LWJ scars in the novel these are his thoughts-

Usually, with only one or two strikes of the discipline whip, it would already be enough of a punishment for the bearer to remember it for their whole life, never to make the same mistake ever again. The amount of scars on this person’s back accumulated thirty at the least. Just what sort of monstrous crime did he commit for him to be whipped so many times? If it really was a monstrous crime, why didn’t they kill him?

As we will later learn LWJ’s punishment is a little more detailed than just whipping he was also made to kneel in front of the “Wall of Discipline” following the whipping.

It’s a barbaric punishment and of course, the ones ordering it are his uncle and his brother who have both been established as characters who truly do love LWJ. So, why? Why is LWJ’s punishment so severe, well there are two reasons for that and I will discuss the lamer one first.

His punishment was severe because by this point we know that LWJ is probably one of the best cultivators of his generation if not the best (I could definitely argue for the latter, I mean this guy can fight Xue Yang wielding his sword with one hand and keep an entire horde of zombies at bay while playing his guqin with the other. And, did I mention this is happening at the same time, he literally managed to fight a horde of zombies and Xue Yang with two different cultivation methods being practised simultaneously and of course, he won but not only that there wasn’t a moment during this entire fight when that wasn’t the expected outcome). So, of course, if you want to really punish this guy the punishment has to be on par with his own physical and spiritual strength, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment he was able to do it without even breaking a sweat. I told you it was a bit lame.

Secondly and more importantly, the punishment should fit the crime. If the crime is particularly grievous, the punishment must be as well, it must be severe and in this particular story, depending on the individual’s spiritual strength a severe enough punishment might be different for different levels of cultivation. So, the real question is did LWJ deserve the punishment and the answer is an unequivocal YES.

LWJ grievously injured thirty-three GusuLan elders who were looking for him specifically so that they could find him before the other clans did because if the other clans did find him first they would kill him. After all, he saved WWX and kept him alive. The same WWX who at the Nightless City declared war on the combined might of the Cultivation World and then proceeded to kill thousands of Cultivators and then when they died he resurrected them to fight their very own comrades, that WWX.

Now, we might all argue he only fought the Cultivators because they killed all the Wen remnants and that only happened because he killed Jin ZiXuan who he technically didn’t kill but he definitely provided the opportunity and the weapon for his death because his ego couldn’t let Jin ZiXun go. At this point, we don’t know that there is another player in the mix but both these fights that ultimately take the lives of Jin ZiXuan and Jiang Yanli respectively were both started by WWX and even if we forget about the inciting event (Jin ZiXuan’s death), WWX still killed thousands of people from all clans. But, we only know these intricacies because the story is told from WWX’s perspective. LWJ doesn’t know this and neither do most of the people in the Cultivation World.

What they do know is that LWJ took WWX after he had killed thousands of cultivators and depleted the remaining Cultivators of their spiritual energy so thoroughly it took them three months to recover enough to mount a second attack. No matter how you spin it WWX is responsible for those deaths and LWJ is responsible for saving an outright murderer and then he further cemented his crimes by fighting thirty-three of his own elders and grievously injuring them in defence of said murderer when it seems like they largely made the journey to protect LWJ's life and his reputation and not with the primary purpose of killing WWX.

So, yes he deserves his punishment and as he himself believes this -

But he (LWJ) said… that he could not say with certainty whether what you (WWX) did was right or wrong, but no matter what, he was willing to be responsible for all of the consequences alongside you.

The reason LWJ could forgive LXC and LQR for his punishment is because he didn’t need to. He understood exactly why he was being punished. At the end of the day, LWJ didn’t actually protect WWX thinking that he might be right, he protected WWX because he was intensely and irrevocably in love with him and he is ready to stand by his love right or wrong.

While these are all very valid points the real reason that post caused this disquiet to appear in me was because it was trying to paint LXC and LQR’s actions in a bad light with the power of hindsight completely forgetting that their actions were relevant in the context they happened in which brought me spiralling back to the story as a whole.

The story firmly tries to tell you that what you see and what you observe might paint a very clear narrative in your eyes but there is always a possibility that the narrative we feel is so immutable can completely change its structure if we were just able to see it in a different light as is beautifully illuminated by this story.

The other thing that we don’t realise is that in this story we aren’t depicted by LWJ or WWX or JC or JL or LSZ or even NHS and JGY for the matter. We are the mob, we are Sect Leader Yao, we are the people who are told stories that paint people in a certain light and then we can’t see them in any other light. In our very upbringing, some prejudices are a staple and we still harbour them and these influence how we interact with the world and more specifically how we judge people and their actions. This story urges us to remember that while things might seem black and white maybe unearthing the reasons behind them might make the story more grey, so the next time you decide to paint a group of people or even a particular person as wholly bad no matter how egregious their actions may seem remember the moral of Mo Dao Zu Shi, remember that there might be more to the story than meets the eye and more importantly remember that something in the future might make a success of today look like a blight on history.

If I have to be more precise, I would say the moral of this story is to be open to the possibility that we might not know the whole story and we might be wrong even when we are a 100% convinced we aren’t.

[sleepy-salami]

Jin Zixuan and Wen Qing for the ask game?

Thank you <3

Jin Zixuan

How I feel about this character: He definitely deserved better. We mostly saw him as a rich narcissistic asshole throughout the novel, and when he becomes a better person... it's for 15 minutes and then he dies. I kinda like how CQL toned down his asshole-ness a little and turned it into awkwardness. And he still has one of the best character growth arcs in both stories.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Jiang Yanli and no one else, thank you, she's perfect and why would anyone want someone else when Yanli is right there. (I haven't even seen any other ships with Zixuan, though ChengXuan is funny as a concept)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao would have been unstoppable, if Jin Guangshan wasn't such a piece of shit. I believed JGY when he said that he have never wanted JZX to die, Zixuan might have been one of the few Jins to treat him nicely. He even had his passionate rant about how people with poor backgrounds are often much better than nobility. Directed at Jiang Yanli, but still. He got the spirit.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Everyone and no one is guilty of Jin Zixuan's death. In this house we reject Demonic Cultivator Su She and Jin Guangyao Who Is Guilty Of Every Crime. And in the novel it's... it's such a massive fuck-up on all sides of the conflict, because no one wanted Jin Zixuan dead, but everyone contributed a little. JGS, JGY, Jin Zixun, Su She, Wei Wuxian, yes Wen Ning too, and even Jin Zixuan himself ("I'll try to grab this mentally unstable demonic cultivator who is currently convinced that I want to kill him, what can possibly go wrong?"). It's not a very unpopular opinion, is it? I just wanted to say it somewhere.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He would have been a good husband and father... I miss him so much.

Wen Qing (under the cut, because it's getting long)

(I’m mostly talking about her novel/donghua version here, because her character and story are a bit different in CQL... but I have a mess of all adaptations in my head anyway) How I feel about this character: Beautiful. Queen. Goddess. My favorite MDZS girl. I’d let her stick all her needles in me and then I’d thank her. AND she’s a complex character which makes her even more perfect. I love how multidimensional she is. She looks like a boss ass bitch at first, and it’s a correct assumption, she absolutely can kill you in seconds, and she might. But then you learn about the softer side of her personality, about how deeply she cares for her family. And then you realize how far she’d go to protect her loved ones, because that’s the main thing she cares about. And in the end you also see how naïve she is despite all her skill and competence, if she thinks JGS will be satisfied with her and Wen Ning’s deaths and leave Wei Wuxian alone. But everything she does, she does out of love, and... I just admire her so much.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Again, ChengQing in CQL is nice but she would probably kill him, and novel!WQ would kill him even faster. Wen Qing/Jiang Yanli is also nice, two queens deserve to be together. I also will explore that NMJ/WQ ship one day.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: As much as I love her relationship with Wen Ning, I’ll go with Wei Wuxian. They’re just. So perfect together as friends. Two gay geniuses with a lot of braincells, but Wen Qing has all of them. Every interaction they have brings me so much life. That moment when WWX complains that there’s nowhere to sit in his man cave, and Wen Qing just sweeps his Creative Mess™ from a stone bed onto the ground and invites Lan Wangji to sit there, while WWX cries in shock? Iconic. And then she literally dies for him and it hurts

My unpopular opinion about this character: I often see the narrative that, while the Wen sect did a lot of really bad stuff, the Wen siblings were “innocent”, I think even Wei Wuxian uses that wording and, well. Wen Ning, yes, he has done nothing wrong, ever, in his life. Wen Qing? We have to remember how powerful she was, how high her position in Qishan Wen Sect was. She was the same rank as Wen Chao. People hoped she would become the next Sect Leader, it was a possibility. Even if she used her power to occasionally stop Wen Ruohan from executing people, everything Qishan Wen has done over the years was done with her participation or silent approval. It was her timid little brother who finally made her do something about it. And I don’t blame her for putting her own and her family’s safety before the rest of the world, because it’s an understandable choice, and a difficult situation to be in, but still, I wouldn’t call her 100% innocent. And it’s not a bad thing, it adds more layers to her character.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she weren’t burned alive by an angry mob, accomplishing literally nothing with her sacrifice, yeah. I also wish she stuck some needles in Wen Ruohan so he just fucking died, and Wen Qing somehow became the Sect Leader, and everyone lived happily ever after and no one died (except Wen Ruohan, but he had it coming). If there’s a fanfic with that AU, please send it to me.

[magpiefngrl]

S & T for the game :}

Thanks for the ask, anon!

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Oh there's loads but I am particularly weak for bed sharing, fuck buddies that catch feelings, and my all time fave: enemies to lovers.

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

Not precisely. Can't stand sounds like I'm forced to tolerate something, but no one's making me read mpreg, for instance. So since mpreg isn't my thing, I can avoid the tag. I'm happy for it to exist somewhere and quite happy for me not to be there.

However, there are other stuff that bug me. Little things you can't tag for: more like vibes, interpretations, trends. Idk what to call them.

But in canon WWX spent merely a year with the child. He wasn't the only caregiver and I doubt even a very active one; A-Yuan was around actual blood relatives, he had his grandma to look after him, and although I'm sure he and WWX were close and played together, I see WWX as a cool uncle figure. Similarly, LWJ was in seclusion for 3 years while A-Yuan was growing in Gusu, raised presumably by other Lans who could take care of such a young child, and although I'm sure LWJ favoured him afterwards, I don't see him as taking an active father role in a formal way. There's nothing to indicate in the show, in the Juniors' behaviour and speech, that LSZ's position is different in the sect except for our knowledge that LWJ saved him from certain death.

In MDZS/CQL, and this is something I saw someone discuss a while ago in a similar ask, I'm annoyed by fic set in canon where Lan Sizhui is seen as the (adopted) son of WWX and LWJ, and he thinks of himself as such, and other people call him that too. It gets under my skin bc I really don't see it that way. (Yes, I know wangxian gives "married-couple-with-son" vibes, and it's cute for us to call them as such, but for me, it's quite a stretch for everyone to call him LWJ's son in canon. Modern AUs are a different story: I love single dad stories where one of them is LSZ's father.)

Other people have said it better than me re: A-Yuan's parents, so I'll end here. Again, I'm happy for people to write whatever their heart desires, it's just that this interpretation clashes quite strongly with mine to the point that I can't suspend disbelief.

fanfic ask game