#and Wei Wuxian stepping in to help despite those consequences

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Hello! Do you know that scene in mdzs where jyl comes to yiling with jc to show wwx her wedding dress?

What is your interpretation of wwx's attitude towards jc here?

I always thought he sounded pissed at him almost the entire time, telling him to shut up, saying it's none of his business when asked a question and getting annoyed at jc provoking him by toasting to the "yiling patriarch"

I've seen some comments where other people's reactions were something along the lines of "glad they're still friends" or laughing at the "banter" in this scene and I have a completely different view on this so i got curious and wanted to ask what do you think? And if you know how is it written in Chinese, what the tone of this scene is?

Maybe I got the wrong idea but it's almost uncomfortable for me how cold wwx is to jc in that scene, and justifiably so considering how jc fucked him over last time they met

Hello there anon!

For the scene in question (Seven Seas Edition)

The hanzi of it:

My translation:

Hearing this title, Wei Wuxian thought again of that domineering long flag fluttering in the wind, and his mind was filled with eight bright golden characters reading "Supreme Evil Lord Yiling Patriarch", and said, "Shut up!"

After taking a sip, Jiang Cheng asked, "How is your injury from last time?"

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s already healed."

Jiang Cheng hummed, "Ahh," After a pause, he added, "How many days did it take?"

Wei Wuxian replied, "It's been less than seven days. I told you, with Wen Qing, there's no need to worry. But, you were really fucking violent."

Jiang Cheng ate a piece of lotus root, "You asked him to break my hand first. You were sitting for seven days, and my arm was hung up for more than a month. "

Wei Wuxian hesitantly laughed and said, "How could I have not been cruel? It was your left hand anyway so it didn't prevent you from writing. A hundred days of broken muscles and bones to heal, three months of waiting isn't long."

Wen Ning's stuttering reply could be heard faintly outside the door. After a moment of silence, Jiang Cheng said, "Is this what you're going to do from now on? Do you have any plans?"

Wei Wuxian said, “Not sure. Those people don’t dare to go up the mountain, and no one dares to mess with me when I go down the mountain. As long as I don’t take the initiative to cause trouble, it's fine."

"Not taking the initiative?" Jiang Cheng sneered, "Wei Wuxian, believe it or not, even if you don't cause trouble, trouble will still find you. There is often nothing you can do to save someone, but there are more than a thousand ways to harm someone."

Wei Wuxian lowered his head, "One force with enough effort can defeat many, no matter the method. So, I will kill whoever comes. "

Jiang Cheng calmly said, "You never listen to any of what I tell you. One day you will know that what I say is right."

He drank the rest of the soup in one breath, stood up, and said: "Awesome. Amazing. As expected of the Yiling Laozu."

Wei Wuxian spat out a piece of bone, "Are you done yet?"

Before leaving, Jiang Cheng said, "Don't see us off. We don't want to be spotted."

Wei Wuxian nodded. He understood that this was not an easy journey for the Jiang family siblings. If others saw this, all the drama they put on for others would be in vain.

He said, "We'll go first."

So, as to my take for this, it's less of anyone is truly angry, as it is waiting for something to happen. The situation is played as a simple meeting when it no longer is, can't be, and will never be. There is a lack of this foreboding that overshadows the scene in the seven seas translation. Something I am not fond of as it uses more banter than Wei Wuxian exhibits in the scene. (Where snickers and the weird tone comes from with Wei Wuxian being surprised he was stabbed basically just brings more ire than I want that doesn't pertain to this question)

I think it's less that Wei Wuxian is angry at anything more than understanding what point they are at and him fully expressing he doesn't want anything further endangering him or the Wens after the defection was over and done with. If they keep low as he intends to, all could move on. Jiang Cheng of course doubts this as he thinks Wei Wuxian can't do anything else but cause trouble in his efforts to help. Two opposing sides of leave well enough alone, or, step in once again against cruelty despite the hurt.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 26 part one

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes! 

I’m Coming Up So You Better Get This Party Started

The Lans arrive just in time to see Cousin Jin Zixun hassling Su She, and they wonder how he has the fucking nerve to come to a party that they are also invited to. 

Su she was invited by his new best friend Jin Guangyao, who deploys a full-on charm attack, wrapping Su She permanently around his little finger. 

Smoother than the Lanling weather that’s how he holds himself together Watch out, he’ll charm you 

Jin Guangyao grew up with women who earned their living by being charming, pleasant, and hiding their true thoughts from their clients, and he appears to have mastered this useful skill set. With Su She, he exudes confidence and authority, allowing the lesser man to bask in his attention.

With Zewu Jun he deploys helplessness and embarrassment, effectively controlling a man with much greater power than his own.

Lan Xichen confronts him about Su She's presence, and Jin Guangyao pretends he didn't know that Su She was ex-Lan. This seems super unlikely, given that JGY is good at collecting information that he can use to fuck with people, and also that he sheltered Lan Xichen from the Wens directly after Su She betrayed him.

Lan Xichen seems like he doesn't believe what JGY is telling him but then he decides to drop it, passive-aggressively saying that since JGY is uninformed, he's not guilty. Lan Xichen is actually assuming a lot here about his right to tell Jin Guangyao who to invite and who to shun, but JGY doesn't push back. Lying is so much simpler.

(more behind the cut!)

Su She wins for most unintentionally sarcastic-seeming toasting expression.

Jiang Cheng, Party Animal

Jiang Cheng arrives at the party, bringing his Jiang retinue and his bad temper. He super obviously casts around to try to find Wei Wuxian, who already told him he probably wasn't coming to the party.

Jiang Cheng is that guy who only comes to a party because the girl he likes said she was thinking about going, and then he spends the whole party saying "hey have you seen Mei Lin? She said she was going to be here but I don't see her."

Jin Guangyao formally congratulates Jiang Cheng on the Jiang clan's success in the hunt, and Jin Guangshan toasts him. As always, Jiang Cheng reacts to praise from authority figures like it's rain in the desert, smiling from ear to ear. He says that the Jiang Clan will donate the prey from the hunt to the other gentry clans. ...what?

Are we seriously saying that when these dudes go night hunting it's not just to remove dangerous bad stuff, it's for profit? 

Like, do they eat monsters? Wear their fur? Make leather from their skin? Carve jewelry from their claws? Is Jiang Cheng wearing a purple monster's skin right now? (There will be an art prompt at the end of this post)

Meanwhile, check out the way Nie Huaisang is looking at Jiang Cheng, wow.

Forecast: Hazing

Having gotten the single pleasant part of the banquet over with, it's time for the Jins to pick on the Lans. Cousin Jin Zixun goads Lan Xichen into taking a drink with him, knowing that this is (mostly) against Lan rules. Jin Guangyao tries to stop him by saying, hilariously, that it's bad to drink and fly on a sword, but CJZX waves this away and keeps pushing, saying that if Lan Xichen won't drink, it's an insult to him.

A random cultivator who is definitely on the Jin payroll backs him up, saying that teetotaling is for losers, and Captain Blowhard boisterously agrees. Loudly agreeing with powerful people is the Yao clan's signature martial arts skill.

Jin Guangyao looks embarrassed and helpless, which is, as mentioned before, his own signature skill. But he's just playing his own part in this piece of theater; everything happening at this party (so far) is happening for the benefit of the Jin Clan. Cousin Jin Zixun is an ass, but he's not actually a loose cannon, and Jin Guangshan is clearly enjoying the Lans' discomfort.

Why? This entire party, the hunt, everything he's done since the end of the Sunshot campaign, has been designed to increase and consolidate his power. His main goal is to get the Yin Tiger seal, but reducing the status of the Lans is also a good move for him. The Lans have been the strongest opponents to the use of resentful energy, and worked the hardest to conceal and contain the Yin iron in the past. If he wants to use resentful energy as part of his own cultivation, he needs them to chill. 

So this is a bit of a test; will they comply with the will of the larger group in order to avoid conflict, or will they refuse, which will allow him to label them as iconoclastic weirdos?. 

Lan Xichen takes a long look at his brother, who is expressing all sorts of emotions while keeping his face very very still. 

At a guess, he is thinking that this entire party is bullshit, that his brother's willingness to play along with these assholes is bullshit, that being viciously beaten for having a single drink in his life was bullshit, that Wei Wuxian not being here right now is bullshit.

Lan Xichen picks the "go along, get along" path, having his drink and using his magic skill of anti-intoxication to neutralize it, as he'd done previously when drinking with Wei Wuxian. 

Cousin Jin Zixun picks on Lan Wangji next, and since he cannot magically or even non-magically tolerate alcohol, there is a real risk to his reputation if he drinks. But Lan Wangji breaks rules when he feels like it, not when people tell him to. He pointedly ignores the offered drink while Lan Xichen looks worried. 

The rest of the party guests have a wide variety of reactions, none of them helpful, to these shenanigans. Jin Guanshan's son and heir watches with calm interest as the power dynamics play out.

All of this is actually not great strategy for the Jins. The Lans don't play little social games to gain power, because all that time they spend not drinking, not gossiping, and not doing other stuff? Is spent cultivating and practicing sword and musical battle forms. The Lan Bros are overwhelmingly powerful as individuals, and embarrassing them won't change that.

It's moot, ultimately, because Wei Wuxian chooses this moment to arrive.

Darkness Visible

Wei Wuxian actually made a big impressive stair-climbing entrance to Jinlintai a few minutes ago, with camera work echoing Lan Wangji's stair climb at the Wen Indoctrination Bureau from several episodes back. 

But nobody was around to see that, other than us, and when he appears at the party it's in stealth mode; he steps into the frame from out of nowhere, and drinks Lan Wangji's unwanted drink.

Lan Wangji responds by looking at him like this for the next several minutes.

Wei Wuxian doesn't have time for their usual sport of Extreme Gazing, though; he came for a reason, which is to find and rescue Wen Ning. He gets right to it, asking Cousin Jin Zixun where he's keeping him.

Jiang Cheng, who is the king of worrying about the wrong fucking thing, jumps up to try to stop Wei Wuxian from talking. Like, seriously, he's ok with the Jins trying to take his clan's special extreme weapon, but he's not ok with his head disciple being rude in order to fulfill a whopper of a life debt--Jiang Cheng's life debt, in particular--or being rude in order to preserve the clan's independence.

Jin Guangshan decides this is a good moment to bring up the Yin tiger amulet. Wei Wuxian pushes back, hard, pointing out exactly what Jin Guangshan is doing. He says he's setting himself up to be a new Wen Ruohan. 

Lan Wangji pays close attention to Wei Wuxian's reasoning here, and so does Nie Mingjue, unless he’s just trying to mask his confusion. 

Jiang Cheng is too busy being horrified to listen, apparently. Or he just doesn’t agree, preferring to be reduced to a secondary authority, rather than defy a primary authority.

Wei Wuxian is, of course, all about independence; he was literally born to be a rogue cultivator, despite being dubbed “patriarch” himself, not long after this. 

Let’s Go Crazy Let’s Get Nuts

Wei Wuxian gets tired of the scene and decides to lose his temper. He makes a show of being enraged, and he genuinely is angry, but I don't think he's out of control, this time.  

He acts like he's out of control in order to scare everyone, but he makes his points very clearly, reminding everyone that he has power they don't have, that he's good at killing, that he's not patient, and that his teeth are nicer than everybody else’s. 

Everybody in the room freaks out to one degree or another--except Jin Guangshan, who is apparently too pissed off to be scared.

It's hilarious that Jin Guangshan thought he was going to get Wei Wuxian to hand the Yin Tiger amulet over by creating a complex system of social pressure against him. Wei Wuxian's favorite way of responding to social pressure is to escalate it into violence, regardless of the consequences; he's been doing that at least since Gusu Summer School and probably a lot longer. Jin Guangshan should know this, given how many beatings his son has taken from Wei Wuxian over the years.

Wei Wuxian does a fantastically sexy scary, theatrical countdown, and Cousin Jin Zixun caves in and gives him the information he wants. It's worth noticing that even under threat of death, CJZX doesn't comply until he visually checks in with his clan leader. He’s genuinely a bad person, yes, but he’s a loyal soldier, which is what most of these clans value most. 

As soon as he gets what he wants, Wei Wuxian is perfectly, smugly, in control of himself again. Everyone in the room is still stunned and afraid, so Jin Guangshan has achieved that much, at least; nobody likes Wei Wuxian having the Yin tiger seal now, including Jiang Cheng. 

As he leaves, Wei Wuxian has one of those conversations with Lan Wangji in which everything is said in glances in the course of a couple of seconds. 

WWX: I love you, I have to leave you; I've got some shit to take care of and I won't be coming back to all of this. 

LWJ: I love you; I'm probably going to have to fight you; your funeral is going to be so upsetting

Wei Wuxian turns away from everyone, and you can see the weight settling on his shoulders, as he contemplates the choices he just made and the choices that are still ahead of him. 

Jin Guangshan, for the first and only time, loses his temper in front of everybody, literally flipping a table because he's so mad about what just happened. 

Art prompt: Jiang Cheng wearing an outfit made of a Chinese mythical creature. Bonus points if it’s a qilin. Bonus bonus points if Zhang Qiling (from DMBJ/Lost Tomb franchise) is standing next to him looking grumpy while Jiang Cheng wears an outfit made from a qilin. 

Soundtrack: Get This Party Started by Pink, Charm Attack by Leona Naess, Let’s Go Crazy by Prince. 

[robininthelabyrinth]

Lan Qiren is in Qinghe for whatever reason, and hears JGY playing for NMJ. He recognizes the melody, but now what? They just came out of a war, the Lans are still weakened. He cannot go against the Jins alone, he learned that his nephews are as stubborn as their fatheir in their love and doesn't want LXC stuck in the middle, the Jiangs are still weak and recovering. There's only one person who can help him save his nephew's brother/boyfriend/soulmate/fiance/something? LQR visits Yiling.

Lan Qiren had once wanted to be a travelling musician, before his elder brother ruined both their lives.

He’d always been sensitive to music, even more so than most of his clan. When he was very young, he’d told his mother about the music he could hear all the time, in his head, the good music and the bad, the harmonious and the discordant, and she’d gently stroked his forehead and told him that one day he would learn to play something so beautiful that he could drown it all out.

He never had.

She was gone now, his mother, heart-broken and aged faster than she should have – another casualty of his brother’s selfishness, that he called love. Lan Qiren never denied that his brother’s song was a love song, the pure notes of the xiao calling out to a dream lover, beckoning but never summoned in return; it was only that long before his brother had met his wife he had already heard the way the high treble of his song was unstable, straining, powerful but without foundation. The direction of the music was the wrong way around, however beautiful: too many high notes, untethered to reality – untethered to anything, really.

Not to family, not to duty, nothing.

He didn’t care about anything, his brother. Only himself.

Lan Qiren still played, of course. He’d never been especially good at fighting – that had been the specialty of the mighty Qingheng-jun, noble and above it all – and it turned out he was a fairly good teacher, of music and cultivation and morality. That worked out for everyone: it meant he could stay home, where it was safe, and govern the affairs of the Lan sect to ensure that there was something there for his nephews to inherit.

He was never allowed to go travelling.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. Even if his brother renounced the world, he had given Lan Qiren his nephews. Beautiful children, both of them: the simple song of cleansing for Lan Xichen, the child who smiled as lightly as the breeze; the complex chords of Inquiry for Lan Wangji, the serious child who thought too much.

Lan Qiren tried to do his best by them both, however clumsily: he tried to teach them duty, to teach them the importance of family, he tried to teach them compassion – he tried to try to stamp out his brother’s instability and inability to recognize the damage his actions could do, and did, to others. His brother had been a genius, and his children inherited his talent, but Lan Qiren would not let them become arrogant, as he had become, to think that because of their talent the road before them would always be smooth – such that the first stumble would be enough to cast them down into the abyss.

The war, and their father’s death, taught them that better than he could ever have.

Lan Qiren was not a very good fighter, and an even worse general, but he did whatever he could. He had prepared Lan Xichen as much as possible for the position of sect leader, though he’d thought there would still be years and years before his nephew would have to take it up; in the end, Lan Xichen inherited it too early but still excelled, keeping his head and remembering to think things through.

Lan Wangji was earnest and hardworking, as Lan Qiren had once been; he protected what he could, did what he could, and never sought fame instead of helping the helpless.

Lan Qiren was very proud of both of them.

He only hoped he had done enough for them.

It was usually Lan Wangji he worried about, both in the past and today: he had the family stubbornness, their tendency towards blind faith, and he too often associated with bad company, which made Lan Qiren afraid.

His brother had loved a murderess, and sought to help her escape her punishment no matter what justice required – how dare you pardon her, he’d screamed at his brother all those years ago, don’t you remember that the man she murdered was my teacher too, that I loved him, that his wife grieves for him, that his children are orphaned, who cares if you love her, she still needs to pay for what she’s done, and his brother had shrugged it all off and said I have decided and because he was sect leader there was nothing Lan Qiren could do about it – and Lan Wangji is altogether too fond of Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch, who reminded Lan Qiren very much of her.

Lan Qiren had taught himself over the years not to hate her, his brother’s beloved with blood on her hands, for the death of his dreams and the cage of duty that had come down around him; those could only be ascribed to his brother. He still felt justified in hating her for the death of his teacher, who had been kind and strict and perhaps a little silly, overly moral, a stickler – he had only tried to stop wrongdoing, as he always had, and she had killed him in the defense someone she had believed was in the right without a shred of evidence, based on nothing but her belief that they wouldn’t lie to her.

Foolish.

That was the true tragedy of it. For all the damage she ultimately wrought upon his life, she was in the end little more than a stupid little girl who was, in her own way, deceived by love.

Friendship, too, was love.

Lan Qiren had brought her the signed confession of her dear friend, the woman she’d called her sister, the proof that that ‘sister�� of hers had in fact committed the crimes that the teacher had accused her of and that her counter-accusation against him had been fabricated purely as a distraction – you killed an innocent man, he had told her, voice cold, because you couldn’t be bothered to think for yourself – and that had been the thing that had made her finally realize that she would spend the rest of her life in a prison for what she had done. That there was no rescue, no reprieve; that this was the consequence of what she had done, the penalty she would have to pay, and she might as well make the best of it.

He’d finally had a nephew, the year after that.

It had been the only thing he could think to do for his brother, who despite everything he loved to the bone. They were all fools for love, in his family.

At least Lan Xichen had found himself a good love.

His childhood friend, who was as honest and upright as he was: Nie Mingjue was solemn and sincere, in need of someone to cheer him up, and Lan Xichen had no greater pleasure in life than trying to coax out his rare smiles.

Lan Qiren enjoyed ‘accidentally’ bumping into the Nie boy whenever he snuck out of the hanshi at odd hours, if only because it consistently made the other man look as though he was regretting being born. They were so shy about it, even though Lan Qiren had made it clear that he wouldn’t stand in their way as long as they did their duties to their respective families in regards to children.

Perhaps it wasn’t him that they were worried about. The rest of the world might not be so understanding; he couldn’t blame them for treasuring their love between them as if it were a tender flame that might blow out if exposed to the fierce wind.

He still enjoyed teasing them both.

This evening, though, it had been different.

Nie Mingjue’s face had been flushed red, as it always was, and he made his excuses as if they pained him – he’d never enjoyed hiding, would tell the world if Lan Xichen would let him – and that was all quite normal, but there was something wrong with his song. It was usually a steady beat, militant and powerful and inspiring, but it was oddly out of tune, another melody forcing its way in.

It wasn’t the gentle strains of two songs merging, each one yielding to the other, two songs joining together in harmony to become one – this was a clash, one melody suppressing the other and knocking it out of joint. Dangerous, disharmonic –

It sounded like poison.

It sounded like – Lan Xichen?

Lan Qiren bid Nie Mingjue a hasty farewell, forgoing his usual gentle mockery, and retreated to his own home, breathing hard. It was impossible, what he had heard, utterly impossible.

Lan Xichen would never – he loved Nie Mingjue.

Though – he loved Jin Guangyao, too, who presented himself as polite and gentle but whose inner tune was always a step off beat, sometimes too slow, at other times too frenzied. With such uneven music in his heart, it was always a surprise to Lan Qiren that Jin Guangyao could play instruments as well as he could, manipulating them with his clever fingers until they did what he wanted them to.

Lan Xichen loved Jin Guangyao, and Nie Mingjue did not, and…

There were always ways to resolve that sort of thing.

No. Lan Qiren knew his nephew, or thought he did. Lan Xichen was sincere in his affections, honest and righteous, and more than that he was caring – he would never, never, never murder one lover to more easily replace him with another.

And yet.

Lan Qiren recognized the song that was stealing into Nie Mingjue’s body, leeching away his self-control and pushing him slowly towards an agonizing death. It was Clarity, a song he had taught Lan Xichen with his own two hands, and the invading song was Turmoil, a collection in the Forbidden Library that no one but the sect elders could access – though such a restriction did not apply to the sect leader.

He hadn’t thought Lan Xichen had looked at those songs, but he had been the one who had taken their collection of books with him when he fled the Cloud Recesses. There would have been plenty of time to look over them, to learn them, to –

No.

Lan Qiren couldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t believe it. Even if the portions of the song that were Clarity sounded like a perfect replica of the way Lan Xichen played the melody, each pause and each start characteristic of his nephew – he would not believe it, not for nothing.

Not until there was proof.

He’d spent so long trying to save his nephews from his brother’s mistake – he would not now allow them to fall into their mother’s: of being too quick to judge, too trusting, too blind.

He would find out what happened first, and only then decide.

But how could he investigate? Lan Qiren knew himself: he did not have the power to take the journeys that would undoubtedly be necessary to find out what had happened, still healing as he was from the wounds of war; the strain on his heart would likely kill him. Lan Wangji had the musical talent to do it, and do it well, but it would break his heart even to ask him to consider his brother a suspect. But there was no one else so skilled in music, who lived with it day in and day out, who used it even above a sword –

There was one.

He wants to bring someone back to Gusu, uncle, to hide them, Lan Xichen had told him, his eyes troubled; they had both known without saying who that person was. I don’t know what to do. The things they are saying about him…

At that time, Lan Qiren had opposed any attempt to reach out to Wei Wuxian, that troublesome brat. He had still hoped that by putting distance between them, Lan Wangji would eventually learn to forget or at least learn to think clearly, but that was clearly not working.

He would write a letter, he decided, and send it off at once. There was no need for an introduction: Lan Qiren had been the boy’s teacher once – a teacher for a day, a father for a lifetime, no matter that they’d never one gotten along – and anyway, Wei Wuxian had been planning on leaving his mountain soon in order to attend his nephew’s first month’s party, to which he had been invited.

Lan Qiren would ask him to come to Gusu first, instead of heading to Lanling directly through the Qiongi Path. He would offer him the protection of the Lan sect in the event that someone in the Jin clan thought to make trouble, a safe harbor to go to Lanling and to return unscathed, and in return he would ask Wei Wuxian to help him figure out what had happened.

He would prove his nephew’s innocence, even if only to himself.

And perhaps he could even use the same occasion to explain to Wei Wuxian why he should let Lan Wangji go, or at minimum why he should exercise the greatest caution in the future, knowing that if he dragged himself down he would be dragging down another with him…

Yes, that was what he would do.

[featherfur]

Big Knife Meet Little Blind Ch.1

Xue Yang meets A-Qing before he meets Xiao Xingchen and decides he needs a disciple. Somehow he ends up with a kid, a heart, and an absolute mess of a cultivation world.

Warnings: Gore, Blood, Murder, Questionable Child Rearing, Xue Yang and A-Qing's potty mouth, Xue Yang isn't a good person and needs to get there, will eventually be SongXiaoXue, this is for fun and updates will be sporadic if at all so read at your own risk

The timeline's a little wonky to make it fit better. Xue Yang is 15 and A-Qing meets him at 4 around the time that Wei Wuxian dies. This is a mix of MDZS Novel and The Untamed, mostly the MDZS Novel but I'll take some liberties and cross over.

Read me on: AO3. Chapter Two

There were a lot of moments in Xue Yang’s life where he could look back on and go wow that was fucking stupid. Not that he would ever admit to that and, being fifteen, would absolutely not learn from his past mistakes. Unless it was to kill someone a little better, but that’s not the point.

The point is that Xue Yang managed to acquire a four year old child and he wasn’t thinking about how much of a responsibility that was, so much as he was wondering how long a child had to wait before they could hold a sword. The man who had helped Xue Yang cultivate a golden core a few years back had always chattered on and on about how you needed a young disciple so they’d never listen to anyone else.

That was probably good advice considering Xue Yang had killed him when he turned thirteen for being a general pain in the ass. (If anyone remembered the wild child who had flung themselves forward with a sword to kill the old man after watching him kick a child under the wheels of a cart, they were already dead or had the sense not to bring it up after watching only one person walk out of the scene alive.)

A-Qing was a quiet thing, usually. She’d managed to swindle Xue Yang out of a few coins by pleading about being blind and starving while wearing ragged clothing to sell it better, only to get caught a few minutes later when she ran directly to him to hide from whoever she’d stolen from. Xue Yang was impressed with her almost immediately and simply carried her off with the promise of dinner.

Xue Yang did not have a soft spot for abandoned kids, they weren’t his problem obviously. He did however have an incessant need to have things and he wanted a disciple. One that would be loyal to him and him only. It wasn’t like that was hard to do, people were so eager to give themselves over to someone else. Even the old man had been easy to fool into believing anything Xue Yang had said.

So there he was, fifteen, with a round-faced and probably feral four year old on his knee devouring a loaf of bread, and he finally realized that it may have been a stupid decision. He didn’t actually want to raise a child, what did one even do with a kid?

He was vaguely certain that you had to feed and water them but what else? Train them to sit and stay?

He probably should have taken his chances with someone a little older, around eight or so, so he could just hand them a sword and that would be all.

Then again, he realized with one hand moving to the back of A-Qing’s neck, he could still do that. No one had to know he grabbed the little brat and honestly a quick death was more merciful than dropping her back on the street, probably the only mercy Xue Yang had ever actually known.

White eyes blinked up at him, completely uncomprehending of the danger she was in, and then they flashed with something. She started patting herself down quickly, finding a small purse after a few seconds and pushed it towards him.

“What the hell is this?” Xue Yang grumbled, flicking it open and half expecting to find old food or bugs. Instead it was a pouch filled with money. A-Qing’s eyes were bright with the glimmering all bratty kids had when they got away with something they shouldn’t have.

“That’s why I was running.” She said pleasantly, either unaware or uncaring of any sort of moral dilemma other people would have. “Here. To pay you back.”

Her words weren’t the smoothest, and she didn’t have any idea of how to ‘pay him back’, but somehow his heart managed to soften just enough for him to move his hand from her neck. She was already prepared to steal, she had no problems faking blindness, and she seemed attached to him. He could work with this.

And, well, if he got annoyed he really could just kill her later.

“Well, Little Blind,” He hummed and pocketed the money to offer her a piece of fruit instead this time, “I think we’re going to work well together.”

_

Xue Yang thought everything was going well, he trained privately under a new master provided by Jin Guangyao during the day, then he returned to the little shack he had and made sure A-Qing hadn’t died while he was gone. It worked well for them and A-Qing didn’t seem to mind sitting next to the river for hours until he returned home as long as there was food to shove into her mouth.

Every day he’d come home to find her with one of her numerous sticks slapping at the water and the fish playfully. Sometimes she actually managed to trap one and they got to cook it for dinner. Other times she was so soaked with water that Xue Yang made the executive decision that it was Bath day and dropped her right back into the river to scrub both of them off and take the time to scold A-Qing for being a menace and a brat and ruining the nice things Xue Yang gave her.

The scoldings only worked for the first week and by the second A-Qing had turned the scoldings back on him, for coming home with blood on him.

Him. Xue Yang, a well known delinquent and killer, was being scolded by a four year old.

Somehow it managed to be more amusing than annoying and Xue Yang just dropped fish guts on her hair until she yowled like a cat.

For the first year it was rather peaceful and nice, not that Xue Yang would ever say it out loud, to come home to actually have someone there. Not to mention when he managed to wrangle her into half decent clothes and could take her with him into town, suddenly people were much more willing to trade things for half price. He could also release her like a dog and watch her disappear into the crowd and meet back up with her ten minutes later with a purse full of stolen money or whatever shiny ornament they’d seen and wanted.

Once he’d even brought her to his training when he knew he would be experimenting with the fierce corpses. She’d been mystified immediately, holding onto his hand as she leaned as close to the cages as she’d dared and turned to look up at him.

“Are they dead?”

“Yep,” He chirped happily, scooping her up onto his hip and moving closer. “Want to see what they can do?”

At her nod, Xue Yang called out to the corpse closest to him pulling at the resentful energy to command it. It wasn’t as easy as Wei Wuxian had it with his flute, though Xue Yang would do anything to have a chance to talk to him about it, but with the thick needles Xue Yang had shoved in their head the day before it was manageable.

Obeying his commands the corpse turned slowly towards one of the unconscious humans slumped against the wall in the back. Xue Yang walked with the corpse so A-Qing didn’t have to strain her neck, and with a flick of resentful energy demanded that the corpse rip the human open starting with the ribs.

A-Qing screamed when the corpse buried it’s fist in the human’s stomach and gripped the ribs, pulling and pulling until it tore the flesh, a dying scream echoing around the room. Her face was buried in his neck long enough that Xue Yang was starting to think maybe that gore wasn’t good enrichment for children and maybe he really should have read those books the Aunty from the dumpling shop gave him.

He didn’t want to break A-Qing, what use was she if she was broken? But how else could a kid get used to blood if it wasn’t shown to them?

Maybe, he thought with a subconscious stroke of her hair, he should have started with killing a chicken for dinner. Or maybe a cat, though A-Qing really liked cats so he’d have to pick a dog or a bird so she wouldn’t cry too much.

Then A-Qing chanced another glance, fingers still curled into the neckline of his robes, and seemed to be watching in fascination as the fierce corpse pulled out each organ and devoured them. She still shrank away when Xue Yang stepped closer to the cage but she didn’t scream again and Xue Yang knew he had this parenting thing down.

Kids were easy, you just had to feed and water them and show them some blood and they were happy.

“What do you think? Want to save the tongue for dinner?” Xue Yang teased her, cackling madly when she gave him a disgusted look.

“He didn’t wash his hands, it’s dirty, you said not to eat dirty food.” A-Qing scowled at him like she thought he was pranking her.

“Yes, yes of course, silly me.” He snickered despite himself, turning to place her down on one of the stools and approaching the cage alone. Despite A-Qing’s grumbling he still ordered the fierce corpse to rip out the tongue and bring it to him.

“I’m not eating that.” A-Qing spat when she saw him grab it with his bare hands. Xue Yang barely gave her an irritated look before he was moving towards the small fire pit and snagging a tea kettle.

Say what you want about him, Xue Yang still personally thought that Jin Guangyao was more insane than he was just for the fact that he had an entire set up for tea right next to a corpse cage.

“You’ll eat whatever I give you, brat.” Xue Yang snapped over at her before dropping the tongue into the kettle with water and set it over the pit. “Besides, this isn’t for you.”

He paused as took in the potential consequences of his actions for the first and probably last time of his life. He couldn’t stick a finger on why but he knew he didn’t want Jin Guangshan to find out about A-Qing. He’d been hiding her well, though he was sure Jin Guangyao had an idea, he didn’t want either Jin masterminds to know exactly how close Xue Yang was to her or what she looked like.

If he took the tongue tea to Jin Guangyao then he would want to see what Xue Yang was doing which would lead him right back to A-Qing. But Xue Yang really wanted to watch him drink it. Maybe instead he could ask for a few disciples to see what the effects of drinking human flesh tea vs fierce corpse flesh tea were.

The temptation tugged at him for a while before an actual tug made him look down.

A-Qing squeezed between him and the fire pit and bent down to light it with the flint and steel next to it. She had thought he wasn’t moving because he couldn’t figure out how to light the fire!

Xue Yang didn’t know if he was warmed by that or irritated that she thought he couldn’t do something so simple. Still, he just watched as she carefully set the logs on fire and nearly lost the flint into the inferno as the flames licked at her hands. They were moving faster than her little hands could get away and he knew immediately she would be burnt if he didn’t step in

He covered them with his own on instinct, ignoring the way the heat burned his knuckles and tugged her to the safety of his side instead. He could see the glistening skin on the back of his hands that were proof of his idiotic move and glared down at her. She grabbed for his hands, shrinking down when she saw the fury on his face.

“How many times have I told you not to play with fire? How stupid are you? Look what you did.” He snapped, ripping his hands away from her and staring at the bubbling skin instead. Forget how stupid she was, what the fuck was his problem? Why did he intervene instead of letting her learn her lesson?

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Yang-ge, I didn’t-” A-qing babbled as Xue Yang cursed at the pain steadily increasing. He kicked the pot of water and tongue over onto the fire and grabbed her by the back of her robes.

She yelped as she was dragged forward towards the exit, Xue Yang slowly getting quieter and quieter even as he radiated fury and killing intent. The hand on the back of her robes was tightening by the second, dragging her so quickly that her feet stumbled and he was hauling her across the floor instead.

She’d felt Xue Yang come home with the aftereffects of resentful energy clinging to him but she’d never felt him like this. It was suffocating and nauseating, but she was too terrified to even scream. Everything changed so quickly she didn’t know what to think, one moment he was laughing and now he.. He .. he was going to....

He didn’t respond when she called out to him, ignoring her yelp when her knees hit the stairs he was climbing.

Xue Yang was actively burning with murderous intent, he hated pain and when he was hurting he wanted others to hurt too. Even something as simple as his own accidental burns was enough to pour gasoline on the constant coals of fury that he held within him. He could almost taste blood in the air and craved being able to do so.

The crunch of bones under his heel was a building urge, and his hand tightened over the robes until it was clear A-Qing was lucky he hadn’t grabbed her by the neck or it’d be snapped. The familiar feeling of his sword plunging into flesh was like a phantom limb and his blood craved to feel it anew. To refresh that wonderful pleasure as he had it memorised and fill his ears with more screams then just echoes.

He finally made it to the last step, flinging open the door and tossing A-Qing in front of him. She flailed and landed in the dirt, eyes shining with tears even as Jiangzai was unsheathed.

“Yang-ge!” She cried, covering her eyes to protect herself.

A moment later she opened them when nothing came. Instead of Jiangzai being plunged into her belly it was buried in the chest of a Jin disciple who’d been unlucky enough to come check what the commotion was when he heard Xue Yang stomping up the steps.

Xue Yang looked at the corpse on his sword with blank eyes, twitching Jiangzai so the man fell to the ground in a heap instead. Usually he’d be slightly more careful so as to not invoke the wrath of Sect Leader Jin or Jin Guangyao, but this disciple had seen A-Qing and so his life was forfeit as far as Xue Yang cared.

He pointed at her, then the direction of home.

“Go home.” He ordered and in a flash she was running off.

He blinked twice to get the image of her in the dirt out of his mind, trying to push away the reminder that not even ten years ago that had been him.

When the thought wouldn’t leave him, he buried Jiangzai into the body of the Jin disciple a few more times and dragged the corpse downstairs to see if he could bring it’s resentful soul back for some fun. He couldn’t hurt A-Qing, but he knew what he could hurt to feed the powerful urge to cause pain.

[bloody-bee-tea]

BeeTober 2020 Day 1

Cliff - Mid-Autumn Festival

It’s October and you all know what that means! Another writing event, where I will post a fic every day. Since the Untamed Fall Fest is happening at the same time, I combined the prompts! There’s a series on my AO3 where you can read all of these as well, if that suits you better.

This first fic is Mingcheng, and it will probably change everything, plot-wise, but like always, don’t ask me about it XD

I hope you enjoy this event with me!

Jiang Cheng has a bad feeling about this conference. Despite what everyone thinks, he is in fact able to read a room and what he reads spells trouble.

And going by the looks Jin Guangshan keeps throwing him it will come from him.

The conference is just drawing to a close and Jiang Cheng finally allows himself to relax—if only a little bit—when Jin Guangshan turns his eyes on him.

Jiang Cheng immediately stiffens again.

“There is one more matter to address,” Jin Guangshan says and Jiang Cheng feels relieved to see that he’s not the only one who suppresses a sigh.

“And what would that be?” Lan Xichen asks, when Jin Guangshan falls silent, clearly waiting for someone to inquire after that mysterious matter, and a cold shudder runs down Jiang Cheng’s back when Jin Guangshan smiles at him.

“The matter of the Jiang Sect,” Jin Guangshan sweetly replies and everyone in the hall falls silent.

“What is the matter with my Sect?” Jiang Cheng asks with a slight bow and when Jin Guangshan looks at him like one might look at a particularly stupid child Jiang Cheng has to fight the urge to throw himself off a cliff.

Or maybe he’ll just throw Jin Guangshan off one, that should solve almost the same amount of problems for Jiang Cheng.

“You’re recruiting, and heavily at that,” Jin Guangshan says, just as Jin Guangyao nods in agreement. “One has to wonder if there’s a hidden reason behind that.”

Jiang Cheng works his jaw, before he gets up and bows low to Jin Guangshan, aware that all eyes are on him. And not all of them are friendly.

Jiang Cheng never did deal well with attention like this.

“There is no hidden agenda,” Jiang Cheng promises and then his petty streak makes an appearance. “I know Lanling Jin didn’t suffer the same losses, but Yunmeng Jiang nearly got destroyed when Lotus Pier was burned. I barely have any disciples as it is. I’m just trying to fill the ranks again.”

“And for what purpose?” Jin Guangyao asks him, clearly picking up on Jin Guangshan’s thread of thought.

“Yunmeng Jiang is one of the Great Sects. There is nothing Great about Yunmeng right now, and I’m just trying to rebuild it,” Jiang Cheng says through clenched teeth.

“Recruiting at this point of time seems suspicious. One could think you’re trying to replace Qishan When,” Jin Guangyao says, a polite smile on his face and Jiang Cheng wants to do nothing more than wipe it off.

Preferably with Zidian.

“I am not actively recruiting, though,” Jiang Cheng forces himself to say, because he can guess where this is going. “People come to me to pledge loyalty. I am in no position to send them away.”

“Even when they already have a Sect they belong to?” Jin Guangyao wants to know and of course this is the whole problem.

“I don’t question where my people come from,” Jiang Cheng admits. “If they are willing to be loyal, then I am willing to let them wear purple.”

“How can they be loyal if they already betrayed one Sect?” Jin Guangshan says and Jiang Cheng suppresses a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Nie Mingjue suddenly chimes in and when Jin Guangyao looks at him with much the same look Jin Guangshan just gave Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng feels his skin itch.

“People are falling over themselves to join Yunmeng Jiang. Even disciples who already pledged their loyalty to one Sect.”

“Ah, I see,” Lan Xichen says and stands up. “I don’t think that is much of a problem,” he goes on and Jiang Cheng inwardly shakes his head.

Of course he won’t think of this as a problem. Barely any Lan disciples came to Jiang Cheng after all. But his Sect is overflowing with Jin disciples and Jiang Cheng is honestly not surprised about that.

“Er-ge,” Jin Guangyao gently chides him and Jiang Cheng sees how Nie Mingjue works his jaw at the patronizing tone.

“I don’t see a problem with that, either,” Nie Mingjue says after a moment and Jiang Cheng is honestly surprised he is speaking up for him.

“But you should,” Jin Guangyao says. “I heard some Nie disciples defected as well.”

“As they should, if they can’t serve under me,” Nie Mingjue gives back without a beat and for once Jin Guangyao falls silent.

Jiang Cheng sees a dangerous glint in his eyes, and he thinks it might be better if someone interferes.

“Sect Leader Jin, I apologize if I offended you in any way,” Jiang Cheng says with a low bow. “But I am not actively recruiting and I am not doing background checks on my disciples at this time. Anyone who wants to serve me is welcome. I hope you understand the need to rebuild what was lost in this gruesome war.”

Jiang Cheng bitterly thinks back to his burned home, while Jinlingtai stands strong and perfect as ever and he wants to shake Jin Guangshan until his head falls off.

Besides, it’s not his fault that Jin Guangshan is such a shitty leader that his disciples are coming to Jiang Cheng in flocks. At this point, there are probably more Jin disciples in purple than any actual Yunmeng people.

Jin Guangshan narrows his eyes at Jiang Cheng, who keeps his bow low and respectful, even though he feels anything but, and eventually he waves his hand.

“Just see to it that your actions cannot be mistaken for anything but rebuilding,” Jin Guangshan warns him and Jiang Cheng suddenly understands that Jin Guangshan is afraid of him.

Jiang Cheng lost everything; his parents, his home, most of his Sect. His sister will marry into the Jin Sect and only the gods know what Wei Wuxian is up to these days and yet Jin Guangshan feels threatened by him.

It’s honestly a better feeling than Jiang Cheng has expected.

~*~*~

Jiang Cheng is on his way back to his quarters when Nie Mingjue stops him.

“Do you have a moment?” he wants to know and Jiang Cheng nods, despite how uneasy he feels.

Nie Mingjue had seemed okay with the fact that a few of his people decided to serve under Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Cheng knows better than to trust it.

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng stiffly replies and when Nie Mingjue steps closer, Jiang Cheng is acutely aware of the fact that Nie Mingjue is a very imposing man and that Baxia is a very huge saber.

“Is it true? Did some of my people join your Sect?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng squares his shoulders.

These people came to him in hopes of finding a new home, and he will not sell them out to their previous Sect Leaders.

“And what of it?” Jiang Cheng snaps but Nie Mingjue only smiles slightly at him.

“Nothing,” he easily replies. “I meant what I told Jin Guangshan. If they found someone more worthy to follow than me, then I am fine with that. I only wish the best for my people and if I am not it, then I would always encourage them to go find it.” Nie Mingjue tilts his head slightly before he adds, “Unlike some other people.”

“I see,” Jiang Cheng replies, because he doesn’t quite dare to trust this.

It is still very fresh in his mind that the other three Great Sects now have a sworn brotherhood, while Jiang Cheng and Yunmeng Jiang are standing all on their own.

“I am looking for seven disciples,” Nie Mingjue says and holds out a small scroll to Jiang Cheng. “Those are their names. I try my best to give the families of my disciples an account of what happened to them during a fight, but I can’t find these seven. Maybe they are with you?”

“I will not sell them out to you,” Jiang Cheng hisses and Nie Mingjue seems honestly taken aback by the venom in his voice.

“I am not asking you to. If they are with you, then that’s okay with me. I just want to know if I have to tell their families that they are dead or not.”

Jiang Cheng mulls that over for a few moments before he snatches the scroll out of Nie Mingjue’s hand.

He quickly unrolls it and scans the names, before he rolls it up again and puts it inside his own robe.

“I recognize four of them,” he finally tells Nie Mingjue. “They are alive and well.”

“And the other three?” Nie Mingjue lowly asks and Jiang Cheng shrugs.

“I haven’t heard their names. I’ll have to ask around.”

“Would you?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng scoffs.

“Do I have a choice?” he bites out and he almost—almost—softens at the surprised look on Nie Mingjue’s face.

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“I might be a newly appointed Sect Leader but I am well aware of the consequences refusing you would bring for me. Especially with the support you have in your back.”

“You have nothing to fear from me,” Nie Mingjue says with a small frown. “You have support as well.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Jiang Cheng sarcastically says. “I have your support, of course. Is that the reason you and your two sworn brothers decided to forget about me?” he can’t help but ask and Nie Mingjue rears back as if Jiang Cheng had hit him with Zidian.

“We didn’t mean to—,” Nie Mingjue starts but Jiang Cheng doesn’t let him finish.

“It doesn’t matter, it is done after all,” Jiang Cheng bitterly mutters. “I will see if I can find your missing disciples, Sect Leader Nie,” he then says with a mocking bow. “And please be lenient with me in the future.”

“Jiang Wanyin, we didn’t mean to.”

“And yet you did,” Jiang Cheng gives back. “You isolated me and now I am without support. Jin Guangshan must really love this. No wonder he comes after my disciples now. Thanks to you, they are the only support I have left. Now, if you would please excuse me,” Jiang Cheng finishes, before Nie Mingjue can find his words again, and he simply turns around and leaves.

He can’t even find it in him to care that he was rude. They don’t respect him anyway, one bow more or less won’t change that.

~*~*~

Jiang Cheng is in the middle of the preparations for the mid-autumn festival, when a disciple finds him.

“Sect Leader Jiang, Sect Leader Nie is requesting to see you,” he politely says and Jiang Cheng let’s out a frustrated sigh.

This is the first major holiday since Lotus Pier burned, since Jiang Cheng lost everything. He had planned to spend it with the only remaining family he has left, had hoped to spend it with his disciples who will hopefully turn into a new family for him, and he was not prepared to have this all interrupted.

“Fine,” he still sighs. “Send him in,” he instructs the disciple, not even caring that it is incredibly rude that he didn’t go out to greet Nie Mingjue himself.

Well, better the other Sect Leaders learn to manage their expectations early when it comes to Jiang Cheng.

“Jiang Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue greets him when he enters Jiang Cheng’s study, and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him.

“Sect Leader Nie,” he gives back, but Nie Mingjue waves him off.

“None of that, please.”

Jiang Cheng frowns but he doesn’t argue with Nie Mingjue.

“What brings you here,” he asks when it doesn’t seem like Nie Mingjue is going to talk, his gaze wandering around the study, and Jiang Cheng has a quick second to regret meeting him here.

But then remembers that this is Nie Mingjue, who is righteous and steadfast in a way not a lot of the other Sect Leaders are, and he reassures himself that he has nothing to fear from Nie Mingjue.

He would know it if Nie Mingjue wanted to harm him and his Sect, Jiang Cheng is sure of that.

“I have a proposal,” Nie Mingjue thoughtfully says but then stops himself. “But first I wanted to ask if you had any luck finding the other three disciples.”

“I did,” Jiang Cheng nods and gets the scroll. “Two of them are dead. I’m sorry. They died wearing my colours, which is probably why you didn’t find them. The third one is with me as well, and she is alive and healthy.”

Nie Mingjue scans the names and Jiang Cheng sees honest sorrow when he reads the names of the two deceased ones. 

Jiang Cheng knows the names of all his disciples, makes it a point to learn them, even though due to the recent influx of them he is a little bit behind, but he didn’t think anyway else bothered to.

Jin Guangshan certainly doesn’t seem the type, and neither does Lan Xichen, if he’s being honest.

“Thank you for finding them,” Nie Mingjue softly says and then quickly puts the scroll away.

“Don’t mention it,” Jiang Cheng gives back, more threatening than he actually means to, but this is making him uncomfortable now.

He shouldn’t be thanked for simply being a decent human being.

“Now, what’s the proposal?” he gruffly asks, desperate to change the topic and Nie Mingjue straightens up.

“We were wrong to leave you out of our sworn brotherhood,” Nie Mingjue starts with and Jiang Cheng already wants this conversation to end.

He doesn’t need to be reminded that despite whatever Nie Mingjue is saying right now, they did leave him out of it.

“And I know we can’t make up for it, because it’s already done, but I have an idea.”

Jiang Cheng hesitates for a moment, but then his curiosity wins out. He wonders what Nie Mingjue thinks he can do, given that he is already sworn brothers with Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao and a brotherhood of four is bad luck.

“Speak,” Jiang Cheng orders when Nie Mingjue falls silent again.

“You can swear brotherhood with Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan,” Nie Mingjue proposes and Jiang Cheng shakes his head, because what?

“I know it’s not the same, since neither of them are Sect Leaders, though Jin Zixuan is the heir. But it would still strengthen your standing. It would also help you to protect Wei Wuxian, because I have seen the greedy look on Jin Guangshan’s face when it comes to the Stygian Tiger amulet, but I have also seen how Lan Wangji looks at your brother. I doubt he would let anything happen to him, if he’s given a chance.”

Jiang Cheng has to admit that Nie Mingjue is right about that—he had noticed it as well—but he still can’t help the bitter huff he lets out.

“And you get out of this without any bonds,” Jiang Cheng bitterly says, because it didn’t escape his notice that there was no mention of the Nie Sect in any of this.

“I wouldn’t,” Nie Mingjue gives back and puts a box on the table.

“What is this?” Jiang Cheng wants to know, eyeing the box with suspicion.

“A courtship gift,” Nie Mingjue easily replies and Jiang Cheng freezes.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I am not. A sworn brotherhood can only get you that far, especially since you can’t swear with any other Sect Leaders. So I am proposing a marriage.”

“Between me and—?” Jiang Cheng wants to know, because he can’t quite believe that Nie Mingjue would sell Nie Huaisang like this, but on the other hand he can’t see Nie Mingjue accepting a spouse either.

“Me,” Nie Mingjue says, much to the surprise of Jiang Cheng and then chuckles. “I wouldn’t sell Huaisang. If I was proposing a marriage with him, he would be here.”

Jiang Cheng gapes at Nie Mingjue because this is so far from anything Jiang Cheng had imagined that he can barely wrap his head around it.

“You must be joking,” he finally manages to say, but Nie Mingjue shakes his head.

“I assure you, I am not.”

Jiang Cheng allows himself to imagine it for a few moments; not only the support this would bring to him, but also the marriage in itself. He can see himself falling in love with Nie Mingjue—he’s a catch, really, if you don’t mention the qi deviations—but Jiang Cheng knows better than to expect the same in turn.

“I will not enter into a loveless marriage,” Jiang Cheng declares, thinking back to his own parents, but Nie Mingjue shrugs.

“You are a very attractive man, Jiang Wanyin. And I admire your strength, your resilience and your biting tongue, and how you all use it to hide the fact that you love your family and people. I can see myself falling in love with you, but that is what the courtship is for, is it not?” Nie Mingjue gives back and effectively renders Jiang Cheng speechless. “And even if it doesn’t work out, I doubt I’m going to live to old age. You’d be free of me sooner rather than later.”

“You actually mean it,” Jiang Cheng finally chokes out, deciding to ignore the last part for now, and Nie Mingjue pushes the box towards him.

“Of course I do. I do not have the time for lies and deception.”

“Yeah,” Jiang Cheng agrees, because that he actually noticed before.

Nie Mingjue is the most no-nonsense person Jiang Cheng has ever encountered, and he knows Lan Wangji.

Jiang Cheng reaches out for the box with shaking hands, and he lets out a startled laugh when he opens it.

It’s full of nails.

“I thought you could need some funds to rebuild Lotus Pier. This was the easiest to carry with me,” Nie Mingjue sheepishly admits and Jiang Cheng chuckles again.

“You’re not actually wrong,” he admits and closes the box again. “If we’re doing this, there will be a proper courtship, Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng dares to say, figures if this is really happening then they better get used to this sooner rather than later, and Nie Mingjue nods.

“I wouldn’t want anything else,” Nie Mingjue replies with a smile and Jiang Cheng is startled to see dimples appear on his face.

He didn’t know about that. It could be a problem.

“Stay for the mid-autumn festival,” Jiang Cheng finds himself saying and is taken off guard when the smile grows in its intensity.

“With pleasure.”

~*~*~

When Nie Mingjue insists that they send a lantern off together, Jiang Cheng is not as surprised as he would have been a week ago.

Nie Mingjue stayed the whole week in Lotus Pier, helping with the rebuilding, but also actively courting Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng has to admit that he didn’t think Nie Mingjue even had one romantic bone in his body.

He had been wrong.

Sending off a lantern together, like only lovers would do, does not actually come as a surprise.

When the lantern drifts off, taking Jiang Cheng’s wish with it, he can’t help but to look over at Nie Mingjue.

The other man is already looking at him, and there’s something so soft in his look that it makes Jiang Cheng’s knees weak.

Jiang Cheng fights the instinct to run away and hide from that look—if this is going where Jiang Cheng finds himself hoping it will go he will have to get used to this, he’s sure of that—and instead he leans up on his toes to press a kiss to Nie Mingjue’s cheek.

Nie Mingjue freezes in surprise, Jiang Cheng can feel it, but he also puts a hand to Jiang Cheng’s waist, keeping him close and Jiang Cheng finds himself enjoying that more than he maybe should.

“I didn’t think my wish would be fulfilled this quickly,” Nie Mingjue mutters, much to Jiang Cheng’s embarrassment and he hides his face in Nie Mingjue’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m not used to getting what I wish for either,” he gives back and then feels how Nie Mingjue presses a kiss to the top of his head.

“Well, then it’s something we can get used to together,” Nie Mingjue decides and Jiang Cheng nods.

He’s actually looking forward to it.

Link to my ko-fi on my sidebar.

[tanoraqui]

[now all on AO3!]

it starts, like all great slightly cracky fix-it AUs, with Nie Huaisang impetuously deciding to do something slightly good and slightly selfish

basically, at Phoenix Mountain, while everybody else is busy having romantic drama and/or exchanging lukewarm shots in the building cold war over the Stygian Tiger Seal, NHS is busy getting reamed out by his brother again for not being remotely good at, uh…anything. Archery, ghost-hunting, monster-hunting…etc.

then he happens to look over at Jiang Yanli, the daughter of the goddamn Violet Spider yet who isn’t expected to do anything but be pretty and deal with romantic drama, and thinks, hmm.

Clearly the solution is to Acquire or Fake a Serious Medial Condition

Fake better than Acquire. NHS enjoys being a little dramatically frail, but he’d rather not actually have to deal with it. But in order to fake something well enough to fool his brother, as an ongoing thing, he needs

a competent medical professional

who would be reliably loyal to him (begging, bribery, and blackmail all valid options to ensure this if required)

and won’t be too intimidated to lie to Chifeng-zun himself

it is important at this juncture to remember 2 things about Nie Huaisang, as of approximately the Phoenix Mountain hunt:

he is the privileged second son of a mighty sect, not coddled but definitely humored quite a lot, and despite having gotten through a short war not long before, he has never personally faced a real consequence in his life. He’s seen some shit happen, to his friends and his family, but he himself has never experienced a real consequence in his life

he is, however, aware at every moment that real consequences exist, even when he’s doing truly outrageous things to deserve them. Unlike certain a demonic cultivator who shall go unnamed. in fact, he puts effort into avoiding them, also unlike a certain demonic cultivator

so Nie Huaisang asks around a bit, indirectly and sometimes over drinks, and a week later he’s at one of the small towns in Qishan where the remnants of the Wen sect have been stashed, requisitioning Wen Qing

“...why?” says the Jin disciple in charge of security, who maybe NHS has met at a cultivation conference or hunt before

NHS rolls his eyes and complains from behind his fan, “I don’t know! I think Da-ge just wanted to make me fly here, to build my endurance or something. But she’s on of the greatest healers in the land, isn’t she? Our training yards do produce a lot of wounds.”

The Jin disciple has to admit that all of the above is true and/or plausible. Maybe she makes eye contact with one of the Nie disciples NHS has brought with him as protocol and the dangers of the countryside demand, and he nods slightly. She knew him in the Sunshot Campaign, and trusts his judgement more than that of the flighty heir to Qinghe Nie, so she calls for Wen Qing to be found and brought to the oversight center 

(NHS has implied to his retainers/guards that he wants to ask Wen Qing about a personal medical matter that he doesn’t want getting back to his brother, and they accepted it and are prepared to obfuscate that “truth” to an outsider)

(NHS is still new to this; he’s letting his lies get too complex, different for different people and thus harder to keep track of)

Wen Qing is brought, chin still lifted with dignity despite her drab and dirty robes. The Jin scoff; NHS greets her as effusively and not-quite-politely as though they were still students at Cloud Recesses together, and begs a private audience that she can’t deny. The Jin captain offers her office, and the rest clear out.

“Okay so I need you to help me fake a serious but not too serious medical condition,” says Nie Huaisang, and explains the gist of his plan and desires. “In return, you’ll get out of here - come back to the Unclean Realm and live in, you know, whatever comfort a war-focused sect castle* which my brother won’t let me redecorate can provide.”

*apologies to the setting f fantasy Ancient China, but I cannot imagine the Nie sect inhabiting anything but, like, this

“What,” demands Wen Qing, because she isn’t given to absolutely ridiculous ideas, and moreover, she’s a responsible physician and this is so sketch

...but

she’s also a Wen, a curse which thus far has outweighed her gifts as a physician in the eyes of the world, and hand in hand with being a Wen and long before her hand first touched a needle, she is a sister

so she crosses her arms - no. She ducks her head deferentially and says, “I’ll need my assistant to help. My brother.” And she looks up with iron in her eyes, and they both know that this is the final price

NHS offers his hand to shake. “Done.”

here’s the thing though: Wen Qing does have those medical ethics though they don’t always extend to requiring consent for major surgery, and moreover she has a lot of practice surviving, and keeping her brother safe, in a court where they aren’t much wanted. And she’s honest by nature, which mostly means that when she tells lies, they’re carefully chosen

so a few days later, she stands bowing before Nie Mingjue in the grand front hall of Qinghe’s stony fortress, where the last time Wens were there, their blood spilled across the floor. Wen Ning bows from half a step behind her, where he always does; Nie Huaisang stands half a step in front of her, artfully stuttering in the face of his brother’s bellowing. He hasn’t even gotten to his false story yet

(Wen Qing knows real fear when she sees it, she’s both seen it and felt it enough in Wen Ruohan’s court and since, and the second son of Nie has clear never felt it in his life. Not, at least, because of his elder brother.)

“Sect Leader Nie,” she says, stepping past her would-be-cunning, would-be-savior. She bows even more deeply as Chifeng-zun’s attention shifts to her, but still speaks clearly. “Please forgive your brother his trespass, in bringing this one and this one’s assistant to your hall. His concern is only for you, and your health. I am Wen Qing, of the Dafan Wen, who have studied medicine for generations upon generations. I myself, and my brother to assist me, have particular experience managing spiritual power and preventing qi deviations.” It’s mostly truth. “We have been brought only to serve you.”

NHS: [*shocked pikachu face*; the words TOP TEN ANIME BETRAYALS! flash across the screen]

he recovers quickly, though. He’s good at that

“Yes - ” His fan flutters anxiously and tears well in the corners of his eyes. “Ever since the Sunshot campaign ended, da-ge, you’ve been even angrier...”

It takes a while. It’s very loud, and entirely in public. But this is Qinghe, where anything worth doing is worth doing aggressively and in-your face. 

Eventually Nie Mingjue turns back to Wen Qing and growls, “Even if they have some medical knowledge, why should we trust Wen-dogs?”

(Wen Qing hates this. She is Wen and she hates this; she is Wen Qing, reknowned physician, and she hates this. She hates the indignity, the disrespect, and that she’s about to call on a debt she promised herself that she wouldn’t because it shouldn’t have been a debt in the first place, it should have just been treating the patient in front of her)

“Wei Wuxian of YunmengJiang will vouch for us, Nie-zhongzhi,” she says, bowing deeply again.

NMJ’s lip curls, and he says flatly, “The demonic cultivator.”

(Mistake. She gambles harder.) “Jiang Ch- Sect Leader Jiang will also vouch for us. We sheltered him and his brother when Wen Chao hunted them, after the destruction of Lotus Pier.” She lifts her head then, to meet his eyes. “We are physicians first, and will treat the patient in front of us. And you, Sect Leader, need treatment.”

It’s become clear over the course of this confrontation - his eyes are bloodshot, his hand has the faintest tremor every time it’s not clenching his saber hilt so tightly that the palm must be bruised. If she could touch him and explore the state of his meridians, she’s sure they’d be as settled as a flock of crows awaiting the end of a battle

She knew it before, though, or she wouldn’t have started this gambit in the first place. The Nie saber method’s dangers of qi cultivation are well-known among physicians, albeit not understood outside of the Unclean Realm. More importantly, the fear of it was between the lines of every one of Nie Huaisang’s complaints about his brother’s overbearence and the horrors of saber practice, which she’s been listening to for the past day and a half. And Nie Huaisang is known for being a coward, but not on behalf of his brother.

Nie Mingjue raises eyebrows at her, but he gives a short nod. (She should’ve known, she thinks, that Chifeng-zun would respond better to fierceness than to obsequiousness. She’s still to used to Qishan, and recently to the attitude of Langling.) “You may join our physicians - once I receives word from Yunmeng.”

Wei Wuxian brings the affirmation himself, in the form of a letter from Jiang Cheng. Wen Qing doesn’t get to see it, but WWX assures her that it was very polite and approbational. She thanks him once and not effusively, and they both nod and know that their debt is settled - probably a brother’s life for probably a brother’s life 

(she can keep Wen Ning safe in this place, she’s already sure of it. It is Wen Ruohan and Qishan all over again, but far better - in Qishan what mattered was power, and she scraped and bowed for just enough to get by. What matters in Qinghe is strength, for which Wen Qing has never lacked a day in her life)

(What mattered in the few miles of land the had Jin hemmed them into was subordination and indignity, neither of which she has ever mastered)

{there’s another letter to Nie Mingjue that Wen Qing never knows about, from Jin Guangyao on behalf of his father in Lanlang, politely asking what the absolute hell Nie Sect is doing with the two highest-ranking remaining Wen cultivators. After being reassured that these Wen-dogs are tamed ones, Nie Mingjue writes back...well, pretty much that, with kind of a “fuck you and the sword you rode in on” flavor}

{Jin Guangshan swears, complains, and scoffs a great deal when he receives it, and eventually settles down with a grumbled, “Well, maybe the Wen bitch will simply poison him, or he’ll find a reason to execute her, or both. Then I’ll be rid of them both.” Jin Guangyao murmurs an agreement that’s almost entirely genuine, because he hasn’t forgiven Nie Mingjue for that comment about his mother)

Wei Wuxian stays a week, messing around with Nie Huaisang like they’re still children at Cloud Recesses (they were all children, then) or infuriating Nie Mingjue apparently for fun, or most often both at once. At least it makes NMJ’s temper suitably riled for Wen Qing to get in a good first examination. To the surprise of no one, he’s in bad shape. 

The author would put in fun fantasy medical language here, but this book explains jackshit about its magic system, but let’s say it’s like...when there’s been a fast, hard rain and the hillside has turned to mud and it’s not collapsing yet, no, there wasn’t quite enough rain for that - but one more strong shower could do it, bring the whole hillside down on the busy road below, and if one person goes wandering and steps in the wrong place, they might slip into a sinkhole and never come out again? Nie Mingjue’s spiritual energy is like that.

so Wen Qing bullies him into cutting back on saber use by an hour a day - bullying is her natural bedside manner, and she’s backed by several true Nie physicians, genuinely in agreement but grateful to have someone else take the brunt of their Sect Leader’s angry resistance. Nie Huaisang also helps, with an abundance of pleading and near-tears

he also has to accept the bargain of practicing with his own saber for an extra half hour every day that Nie Mingjue appropriately refrains, which is frankly hilarious

after a few more days of peace, she lets Wen Ning out of her sight, pairs him up with a junior Nie physician who knows the area well and sends them to find the herbs she needs. Nie Mingjue does not, at least, protest the sourness of the medicine she brews

and she recommends Lan calming music, because, honestly, why the hell wasn’t he being treated with that already. His sworn brother is Zewu-jun; why are men in power always so stubborn - 

well, of course she knows the answer, it’s “men” and “power.” And maybe she should be a little more deferential - but as discussed, that’s never been in her nature nor her bedside manner, and Sect Leader Nie seems to respond well to, if not simply being bullied, than at least the snappish [fantasy Ancient China equivalent of cop]/puppy eyes [ditto] routine she and Nie Huaisang fall into naturally

and...he starts to get better. It’s just a start, but the hillside starts to settle back into place.

it’s peaceful enough, it seems a steady and safe enough place, that 2 weeks after Wei Wuxian’s gone, she makes another gamble. Not with Nie Mingjue, though - she finds Nie Huaisang in one of his favorite painting spots, stands between him and the lovely mountain view, and demands a favor

To be continued... (this is 1 of 3 probably?)

[gusu-emilu]

Cantatio: Chapter Fourteen

Ship: Lan Zhan / Wei Ying (POV Lan Zhan)

Summary: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying get some bonding (?) time with Song Lan.

Cloud Recesses AU, Canon Divergence, Rated T, No Warnings Apply - read on AO3

< Ch. 13 | chapter list

* * *

The guardian lion statue was animated by Baoshan Sanren?

“Impossible!” Lan Qiren shouted. “Are you sure you understood correctly?”

Song Lan clenched his fists. “I would not mistake that name.”

“The ancient recluse?” Wen Qing said. “How could she be here?”

“She can’t. She’s dead,” Song Lan snapped.

“Daozhang! “ Lan Qiren shouted. “You—you—how dare you reveal this? No one is meant to know!”

“What does it matter?” Song Lan’s cry echoed across the lake. The clear water shimmered with ripples that carried his voice to the end of the cave.

It faded to silence.

Baoshan Sanren…dead?

“I thought Baoshan Sanren raised disciples in a hidden mountain,” Jin Zixuan said. “And protected the world from the Yin Iron Amulet. Who’s been shielding us from the amulet’s power if she’s dead?”

Lan Qiren’s voice shook with fury as he pointed at the group. “This is not a matter to be discussed with junior disciples! You will tell no one of what you have just learned!” A cloudy glaze spread across his eyes. “How could this be, daozhang…could one of her disciples still be alive?”

Song Lan slowly rose to his feet. His voice was raspy and laced with choked-back tears. “Is it not a tenet of the Lan Clan to avoid speaking careless words? You know as well as I do that Baoshan Sanren’s disciples are gone. You witnessed one of those deaths yourself. I—I witnessed the rest.”

“Daozhang! Enough! You are the one speaking carelessly!”

Song Lan inhaled deeply and regained some of his composure. “I suppose so. Let us return to the Cloud Recesses. We will not reach any conclusions here.” His eyes strayed to the muddy robes of the young cultivators. “I suppose we must also impose some discipline on these adventurous disciples. I found another entrance to the cave and watched for long enough to observe the situation. Young Master Jin, Lady Wen, Young Master Jiang have—for the most part—committed lesser infractions. I will let Shifu handle them how he pleases. For Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, however,” his voice grew quiet, “I have special consequences I would like to administer personally.”

Lan Wangji’s heart sank. He tried to swallow, but the saliva clung in his mouth and clogged his throat. He had never been addressed this way by an elder outside his family.

He had never been in real trouble before.

And why was he being singled out like this?

Lan Qiren fiddled with his hands in disapproval, as if hearing his nephew’s name in that same sentence as Wei Wuxian was wholly preposterous, despite the fact that he had just been scolding Lan Wangji himself. “And may I ask what daozhang has in mind?” he said sharply.

“They will do something useful for the Cloud Recesses. I will explain once we return.” He looked over at Wen Ning. “And please, reward young Wen Qionglin. It took great courage for him to go against his friends’ wishes. He even urged me to step in while I observed the disciples fighting the guardian statue. He is a bold young man.”

Wen Ning’s face turned white. He seemed like he didn’t know whether to feel praised or frightened.

How long had Wen Ning and Song Lan been watching them? Why had Song Lan not come forward to protect them when they were in danger?

And Baoshan Sanren was dead?

Wei Wuxian seemed to have had similar thoughts. “Daozhang, why did you wait and observe us?”

Something inscrutable flashed across Song Lan’s face. If his expression hadn’t been strained with hidden anguish, it might have been something close to amusement.

“So I would know whose punishment to claim.”

* * *

They traveled through the forest back to the academy on foot because Lan Qiren did not trust Wei Wuxian to ride his sword—and he certainly would not let him tag along on someone else’s. They formed a small, haggard parade: the dignified swishing of Lan Qiren’s blue robes in front, the shadowy steps of Song Lan in back, and the muddy disciples paired off in the middle. After some sarcastic (but warm) remarks from Wen Qing, Lan Wangji found himself next to Jin Zixuan, who at least was silent company, unlike the spritely Wei Wuxian chattering to an apathetic Jiang Cheng behind him.

Lan Wangji’s thoughts darted around incessantly. At the back of his mind like a constant buzz was the feeling of Wei Wuxian in his embrace. It lingered on the skin of his palms like a phantom touch, gentle and prickly. And very unwelcome. It had flipped a switch in him, awakened some slumbering villain that wanted to respond to the innocent warmth he had experienced with…with…Lan Wangji did not dwell on it enough to know what, but it was not good.

But something else tormented his mind with greater intensity.

What kind of punishment did Song Lan have in store for him? Lan Wangji’s throat tightened at the realization that his rule-breaking had finally caught up to him. He had been shirking the Gusu Lan Clan code since his first accidental infraction the night he fought the monster beetle. How comfortable he had become with violating the tenets that structured his life since childhood. No, not comfortable. He was still haunted by guilt, frozen by hesitancy. But he had grown too familiar with standing at the border.

Then again…would he really have done anything different? He didn’t want to admit the answer.

A gnawing in his chest told him that his rule-breaking days were not quite over. Especially knowing what lay in the top room in the mingshi.

However, the loudest thought of all was—

Baoshan Sanren is dead.

No one knew how to find her secret mountain lair. No one even knew how to communicate with her. But for centuries, she had been a constant reassuring presence in the cultivation world, the melodies of her flute echoing across remote valleys from her hideaway where she trained disciples according to a strict ascetic code. She was the protector of half of the Yin Iron Amulet. She was the only force preventing the power-hungry Wen Clan from joining their half of the amulet to its counterpart and recreating an ancient, evil weapon.

When had she died? What had happened to her disciples? Where was the half of the Yin Iron Amulet she protected? This news almost made Lan Wangji afraid, as if a candle had gone out in his childhood bedroom. He understood why the revelation was kept secret from the world.

A sinking feeling in his gut told him that somehow, in a way he couldn’t explain, this was related to the corpse and the guqin that rested in the mingshi.

He and Wen Qing had another mystery to discuss.

A slick voice beside him. “Is what Wei Wuxian said true? About Lady Jiang?”

Lan Wangji turned toward the voice. Apparently Jin Zixuan was plagued by worries of his own.

Lan Wangji replied with a nod. Jin Zixuan looked away, his brow furrowed, contemplative.

Neither spoke again until they arrived back at the Cloud Recesses. Jin Zixuan was welcomed with praise and relieved embraces, and he actually talked to Jiang Yanli. She seemed guarded, but happier than she had been earlier in the day. Perhaps there was hope for the arranged couple, although Jin Zixuan still did not seem like a worthy match.

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji, caked in mud and shame, was not greeted with praise. He was greeted by a gruesome punishment he’d be forced to share with Wei Ying.

* * *

“Young M-Master—”

“Wen Ning, stop with the formalities! Call me Wei Ying!”

“Oh. Sorry. Um. Young Master Wei, Second Young Master Lan, I’m s-s-sorry for getting you in trouble.”

It was evening. The screeching of cicadas had been replaced by the chirping of crickets as slender clouds in the sky were painted scarlet. Lan Wangji had bathed and changed, and was now standing next to Wei Wuxian under a tree in the center of the courtyard that held the mingshi. Lan Qiren had already delivered a long-winded, red-faced scolding and ordered beatings for the two rulebreakers—then two extra rounds once Lan Wangji confessed to being out after curfew and swordfighting over wine with Wei Wuxian the night before.

Lan Wangji did not mention entering the mingshi.

After their backs were battered and aching, Lan Qiren reluctantly left them in the hands of Song Lan, who now stood with the animated guardian lion at the foot of the watchtower. Wen Ning, who had been quietly following Song Lan around since the professor had praised him, was slumped before Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian with his hands wrung.

“Don’t worry about it!” Wei Wuxian said. “It’s not a problem at all! You’re just as daring as we are to disobey your sister and get help for us. That’s what I like to see.” Wei Wuxian winked and elbowed Wen Ning on the arm. “We would’ve gotten in trouble anyway, trudging back to the Cloud Recesses with half of us covered in dirt and blood and a lion at our tails. I’m used to getting punished by now.” He smirked. “Not Lan Zhan, though. Maybe Mr. Goody-Goody does want your apology?”

Lan Wangji did his best to tune out Wei Wuxian’s childish giggle. He politely shook his head at Wen Ning.

Wen Ning departed, and Song Lan walked over to the two disciples.

Wei Wuxian bowed. “Daozhang! What will our punishment be? I’m actually kind of excited for it from all the suspense you’ve kept us in.”

Shameless, Lan Wangji thought.

Song Lan scanned them with that cold expression like icicles, although it seemed softer than usual. “How long have you two been acquainted?”

Lan Wangji raised his eyebrows. Why would he ask such a question now?

“Oh, only a few days!” Wei Wuxian said with a grin. “We didn’t meet until we were here in the Cloud Recesses. But now we’re roommates, and best friends. Isn’t that right, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian slung his arm around Lan Wangji’s shoulders and tugged him closer.

Lan Wangji’s entire body tensed. He stared at the ground as warmth surged through him.

“Only a few days?” Song Lan asked.

"Yep!”

Song Lan’s eyes brightened. There was almost fondness in his expression, as if he were looking at a trusted belonging he had carried for many years. “Rather remarkable, to be acquainted for such a short time and already make quite the team.”

Wei Wuxian beamed. “Wow, you hear that, Lan Zhan? We’re such great partners that even the daozhang notices! How lucky are we?”

Song Lan paused. That hint of hazy sorrow crept around him again. “Lucky indeed.”

Lan Wangji studied the pebbles at his feet. This was the courtyard were Wei Wuxian had spilled Emperor’s Smile last night. He remembered how exhilarating their swordfight had been, how sweat had beaded at their temples from the challenging parry, how the sweet fragrance of wine followed them as they leapt across the rooftops. The red stain had long since been cleaned from the white gravel of the courtyard, but in Lan Wangji’s mind it was still there. It might be there for a very long time.

Lucky?

Not lucky. Unfortunate, to have met his match in both wit and skill!

“Daozhang,” said Wei Wuxian, “I thought you were going to punish us? Are we off the hook?”

“I have not forgotten.”

“Oh,” Wei Wuxian said, eyes downcast.

“Come with me,” Song Lan said.

With sore backs from their beatings, they limped after him to the bottom steps of the mingshi, where the guardian lion waited beside its stone podium.

“I am going to teach you how to de-animate a guardian statue.”

“De-animate? As in put it back to sleep?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“Correct. The process does not require anything near the spiritual energy needed for animation, but it is much lengthier, and much more emotionally taxing.” He narrowed his eyes. “Although, perhaps nothing will exceed the struggle Young Master Wei faced in the pixiu.”

Wei Wuxian gaped at him. “You—you know what I did?”

Song Lan gave a small smile. “I suspected. I only needed to recover the pixiu from the forest to confirm.”

“Is that why I’m being punished?” Wei Wuxian crossed his arms. “What about Lan Zhan? I don’t really see why we’re being treated differently from the others.”

“Yes, that is part of the reason. As for Lan Wangji, he is head disciple. Is that not explanation enough?”

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian exchanged glances. Something about this did not sit right. Song Lan had ulterior motives for isolating them—whether helpful or harmful, it could not be determined.

“Daozhang…what happened to Baoshan Sanren and her disciples?”

Darkness entered Song Lan’s expression and soon spilled over the two disciples. “I should never have let that information slip from between my teeth. We shall not discuss it again.”

“Okay…” Wei Wuxian rubbed his chin. “Then if she’s dead, how did she animate the lion?”

“I do not know. We shall not discuss her death.”

“…Who else knows she’s dead?”

“No one,” Song Lan said tersely, “and I will not hesitate to silence those who do.”

Wei Wuxian flinched. He looked down and dug the tip of his shoe into the pebbles. “My mother was taught by her.”

This surprised Lan Wangji. Wasn’t Wei Ying the son of a Jiang Clan servant?

Then he realized—Wei Changze—Clan Leader Jiang’s head servant had eloped with Cangse Sanren, a rogue cultivator who was one of only two disciples to ever leave Baoshan Sanren’s hidden mountain. Cangse Sanren and her husband had been dead for over fifteen years, and Baoshan Sanren’s other disciple Xiao Xingchen had disappeared. If what Song Lan said in the cave was true…then Xiao Xingchen must be dead as well.

The corners of Song Lan’s mouth tightened, etching lines into his skin. “I’m sorry.”

Wei Wuxian gave an empty smile. “The Jiangs raised me well, though.”

There was hesitance in his voice. Thinking back on Alchemy & Medicine class with Yu Ziyuan, Lan Wangji wondered how much Wei Wuxian meant those words. It was no secret that Yu Ziyuan had a fraught relationship with her adopted son. The blows she gave him in a classroom surrounded by other disciples was already enough to scar, never mind the effects of enduring a lifetime of what worse things she may do in private.

“I once knew someone who was acquainted with your mother,” Song Lan said.

Wei Wuxian perked up. “Really?”

“Yes. He said that she was…” He seemed to search for the answer in the clouds. “Headstrong, might be the word.”

“Haha! I’ve heard!”

Song Lan’s eyes twinkled. “She is likely the reason Lan Qiren harbors such a strong distaste for you.”

“Wait, really?”

Uncle has many other reasons to dislike Wei Ying, Lan Wangji thought.

Song Lan tilted his head, appearing amused. “I’m surprised you do not know why.”

“Well…the Jiangs never told me many stories about her.”

That made sense. Jiang Fengmian was rumored to have been in love with Cangse Sanren before his arranged marriage to Yu Ziyuan. It was likely that Madam Yu forbade mention of the woman in her house, unless it was by her own vitriol.

“I have spent most of my life outside of these lands,” Song Lan said, “but even I have heard the stories of the pranks that Cangse Sanren played on Lan Qiren. Notably, that she once cut off his beard.”

Wei Wuxian burst into laughter. Lan Wangji twinged his lips and straightened his posture, thinking back to the Trans-Himalayan nonsense about Lan Qiren in class.

That’s the part where Tran and Sim each grab one side of Lan Qiren’s moustache, Wei Wuxian had said before the classroom erupted into giggles.

Yes, Cangse Sanren sounded just as intolerable as her son, and just as disrespectful of Uncle’s facial hair.

Wei Wuxian rubbed his eyes, teary with laughter. “That’s amazing! What a bold move! I would’ve had the best mom!” His laughter cut off abruptly. His smile remained, but it was hollow again. He looked down.

A lump formed in Lan Wangji’s throat. Despite Wei Wuxian’s shamelessness, with every layer of this soul that peeled back for Lan Wangji to observe, he felt more and more drawn to him. They both knew what it was like to lose their mother at a young age. What other sorrows did they share?

“Daozhang, who was your friend that knew my mother?” Wei Wuxian asked.

Song Lan frowned, then turned away to stare at the horizon, where the sun was lowering in the sky.

A long silence passed. Finally, they assumed that he would not answer. They headed toward the statue podium, upon which the lion was now waiting.

“A good friend.”

They faced Song Lan again. For once, Wei Wuxian did not seem to know how to respond. The three cultivators stood motionless as the crimson sunset caressed their cheeks, a bit of Song Lan’s frosty demeanor seeming to melt beneath it.

“This is the best kind of friend,” said Lan Wangji.

Song Lan nodded. “Indeed. Shall we begin de-animating the guardian statue?”

“Do we have to? I kind of like him.” Wei Wuxian approached the lion and patted its head. His face lit up. “Wow, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, come here! Come pet him! He’s purring!”

Lan Wangji stepped forward and placed a hand next to Wei Wuxian’s. It was true. The stone beneath his palm was vibrating with a gentle hum.

“Mn.”

Wei Wuxian snickered. “You know, Lan Zhan, you purr too when you’re happy. Like a big burly stone-faced kitten. You two could be siblings.”

“Ridiculous.” Lan Wangji removed his hand and strode away to stand next to Song Lan.

“Haha! But really, Daozhang, do we have to put him to sleep?” Wei Wuxian said. “Why not keep him alive? Why not animate the spirits in all of the statues?” He ran his fingers over the lion’s carved mane. “They’re intelligent, kind, powerful. They could live with us in the Cloud Recesses. They could protect us and be our friends.”

Song Lan seemed to truly ponder this suggestion. Then he sighed. “Some spirits are meant to leave us. They walk alongside us, yes, but not in this world.”

“…Oh.”

The two disciples stepped into formation around the guardian lion, kneeling at its feet, with Song Lan at its side.

“So, how do we do it?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“The spirit will perform most of the work,” Song Lan said. “But it will need your assistance. Guardian spirits are formed from protective intentions gathered over many years. These prayers are still present, but they need to be remolded with the help of new ones. If many cultivators laid hands upon the statue at the same time, a simple focus from each person would be sufficient. However, there are only two of you. To obtain strong enough protective intentions, the spirit will put you through a trial.”

Lan Wangji glanced up. “Of what?”

Song Lan frowned. “Explaining it to you will not make you any more prepared. Just…just remember that none of what you will experience is real.”

That did not sound promising.

“Place your hands upon the statue and reach out to its spirit. It knows what must be done. There will be no need to communicate.”

They nodded, then laid their hands on the cold, rugged stone and waited for whatever fate the spirit had in store for them.

* * *

Thanks for reading! These chapters (and more to come) can also be found on AO3!

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[angstymdzsthoughts]

Ignorance is a bliss

Imagine if “come to gusu with me” ends up with wwx passed out of exhaustion before he could reject the offer. Lwj did brought him to gusu and under the jurisdiction of the elders, after wwx is nursed back to health, his demonic cultivation must be sealed and he must received say maybe 15 lashes as punishment for straying off the righteous path before were sent to seclusion with lwj so that wwx will finally be ‘cleansed’. Wwx wasnt happy ofc but what he could do with his powers are sealed away? Now , 5 strokes of discipline whip may cause a cultivator bedridden for months, how about to a non cultivator ? It must affect them severely so that is why discipline whip can never be used to a non cultivator. Lwj was forced to a house arrest guarded by three disciples due to him trying to (forcefully) persuade the elders to not hurt wwx. Lwj never thought that the elders were so hell bent on punishing wwx , where he promised wwx that gusu will be his safe haven (oh lwj, ignorance is a bliss).

The elders of Lan assumed that wwx’s core is still intact but maybe diminished due to demotic cultivation. So they still proceeded with the punishment. But halfway through the session, wwx lose consciousness and healers were called to heal him so that they could finish the punishment.However, upon trying to heal him , the healers discovered that wwx does not have a golden core. Lxc was horrified and ultimately barked an order to bring wwx to the sect’s infirmary to put him to rest. Glaring at lqr and the elders , he told them if wwx did not survive the ordeal , they would have become a murderer.

Lwj was devastated on the state wwx in. Wwx had a bad fever due to infection despite how hard the healers were trying to use medication. Bandages were changed thrice a day to ensure the infection does not spread to other parts of body. Wwx never gained consciousness for 3 months. He was delirious in fever as his health rapidly declining over the days. Healers concluded that wwx may not he able to perform his daily routine without help as the whip has cause major backlash on his physical and mental health.

After a discussion, the lans decided to finally informed the jiang sects of the situation wwx was in. JC was on his way when wwx woke up. Wwx was in confusion and struggling to get out of his bed. Lxc and lwj had to restrain him to ensure he doesn’t hurt himself. The last thing wwx remembered that his back and legs were excruciating painful and people in white robes are the cause of it.Paranoia settles in him causing wwx to be on alert every second and never utter a single word after waking up, not even to lwj. For wwx, lwj has brought him to gusu because he hated wwx so much that he let those people hurt him. He was betrayed.

Although he was reluctant at first, he forced himself to eat to regained his strength and escape this hell. When the jc arrives at gusu with a group of disciples , lxc and the elders met them at the entrance leaving lwj and wwx alone at the room. Wwx for the first time spoke to lwj, requesting for a new change of robe. “I just dont want anyone to see me in this dirty robe” . Lwj acquiesced.

When lwj came back with new set of fresh robes and a basin of hot water , wwx was gone. Due to the envoy from Jiang sect , the entrance was not guarded as usual and wwx miraculously managed to flee gusu. Wwx put his guard up even he has successfully escape and ran to the most secluded part of Caiyi town. After resting for few hours and after the adrenaline was gone ,wwx realised that he was severely injured and crippled. His left leg cannot be bend without causing painful jolt like feeling. Him running all the way from gusu to caiyi with a bleeding back and hurting leg was indeed a miracle. Now , if walking was painful , then running was courting death. With careful planning using his survival skills and experience , wwx continues his painstaking slow journey and enters a forest , opposite direction of gusu and lotus pier. Wwx was last seen by a fruit vendor of Caiyi Town ; limping away without a trace.

Lwj without a doubt used an inquiry to find wwx , but wwx was an ambitious lad. Wwx somehow managed to create a talisman that can hide his presence even to spirits. Jc has issued posters all over the place , in hopes that someone might give an intel for him to find his brother but to no avail , no one has a clue of where wwx has been gone to. Wwx - like a ghost , has disappeared . JYL and JXZ was also at deeps end, unable to trace her missing brother. Other major sects also keep an eye for wwx, though the Lan clan has claimed that wwx’s demonic cultivation was sealed and was severly injured, who knows what can that young man do ?

Timeskip to 13 years later, JL LJY and LSZ (assuming that the siege never happened, but lwj adopted a-yuan as per requested by wq and wn to ensure he was raised at a proper & healthy background and the wen remnants survived and disperse for safety) was attacked at goddess temple only to be saved by a mystery crippled guy with mask (JL: a non cultivator nonetheless!) (LJY: what an amazing talent ! Only using talisman to beat the statue!). The teenagers were awestruck with the masked man’s skill, that they wanted to thanked him with a meal and few drinks but was rejected and the man leaves.

JL who never accepts no for an answers suggest to secretly follows the man so that they can send drinks or some offering for him to his house instead. Ljy and Lsz tagged along as they were curious of their saviour after all. A non cultivator cannot detect presence like a cultivator do, so the man was unaware that he was tailed. Upon arriving an old shack with a small potato farm , the man limped and sat with a grunt. Taking off his mask , he took a bottle of water and consumed a few concoction of medicine before coughing. The teenagers was surprised on the living condition of their saviour. JL however upon seeing the face of the man, went wide eyes.

“That man, he was in the poster my jiujiu used to issue around LP . My A-niang talks about him a lot,” looking over his other two confused companions. “I can never forget that face. The face that always make my mother cry upon looking at his picture and frown at his name. He is my missing big uncle , Wei Wuxian of Jiang Sect.”

“Ah i heard about him. Apparently our Elders punished him until he was missing his golden core , i think? Or is it the other way around?” Ljy spoke. “But i think the limping was the consequences from our Sects’ punishment. That time , Lan sect and Jiang Sect almost broke the treaty. I heard Madame Jiang managed to convinced your uncle to stop”.

They saw the man plowing a part of his potato field ,who occasionally stopped due to his heavy cough and resume his work. “Wwx , he is the person my father has been looking for the past 13 years. I need to let him know” Lsz finally spoke, smiling.

“Oh my potatoes , I hope you grew up fat and yummy for this master over here! I need more money , or i wont be able to buy medicine. You dont want me to die yet are you~” sang wwx. The 3 looked at each other and finally decides to leave for their respective inn, bringing a joyous news for their leaders.

Next day, both JC and lwj accompanied by the 3 went to wwx’s house. Both heartbroken on the state of the old shack . Knocking the wooden door and clearly listening on the voice mumbling from inside “who the hell would come here early in the morning at middle of a forest”, jc and lwj was shocked on the physical appearance of their missing person. Sunken cheeks and dark eyes as indication of fatigue , limping , voice hoarse from sickness and the obvious whipping scars marring from behind his neck to under the ragged clothes , jc couldnt help but to greet wwx with a hug , holding him so gentle in fear that wwx would break with the slightest of strength. Wwx frozen in shock couldnt hug back but made eye contact with lwj. “Weiying, please forgive me that I couldn’t protect you. I am very sorry.” After 13 years of internal pain and agony , wwx for the first time shed his tears . “I forgive you , so you all should leave me alone. I am a burden. Im no longer a cultivator , but a crippled man with not much time to left. I am nothing but a burden. Please” sobbed wwx.

“Idiot. Give us a chance to take care of you. A-jie misses you so much, every day and night. You haven’t met your nephew , Jing Ling . Don’t you want to eat her soup? And about your health, i can call WenQing to help you. She is still the best doctor alive. Come back with us , okay ? And no one will hurt you. “ jc.

Wwx was shocked to hear wq was still alive and her name was spoken by jc without an ounce of hatred. What have been happening for the past few years he have been isolating himself ? With shaking hands , he grabbed jc’s robe and nodded. He made another eye contact with lwj and could see how sincere he is from his eyes. Maybe , all this time , the fact that lwj hates me and sending me to my demise was all a misunderstanding?

“I am no more a cultivator.”

“It’s fine , WeiYing”

“I cannot contribute to Jiang sect anymore.”

“Who cares about that, idiot?”

“I’m going to be a burden !!! I cant even walk properly. My health is deteriorating”

“WeiYing, if tired , I can carry. Let me take care of you when sick”

“Lan Zhan, i dont want to go to gusu”

“We can go anywhere other than Gusu.”

“I wont let you take a single step to that damn place , no offence Second Young master Lan”

“None taken.”

———

(Alternate ending)

Wwx was still unconscious and attacked by a high fever due to infection in his wound. Numerous method has been used to mitigate the after effect of the whip , but to no avail. Infection starts to spread to his legs, and wwx was delirious and moaning in his sleep due to pain. The severity of the wound caused both of his legs to sepsis and the healers has no other way than to amputate the legs to make sure that the infection will not spread internally.

After the surgery of removing wwx’s legs , the infection are able to be minimised but still needs to be monitored. Still, wwx has no signs of waking up. Lwj was loyal to his side , taking care of changing the bandages . Every night , lwj had a nightmare of the reaction of wwx waking up with no legs . One particular nightmare that haunts him the most is weiying took out his own life out of despair. Lwj couldnt sleep for two nights watching over wwx after that nightmare occurs.

After 6 days, lqr visited the room and berates lwj for neglecting his duty as a student of Lan sect. Lwj angrily talks back, and was taken to kneel in the hall for one day. When he came back , no one was watching wwx. He came back with pure silence from wwx .Where there should a ragged breathing from wwx , it was only silence. Wwx’s usually pale lips was ashen. Bandaged chest that should be heaving was still. Wwx finally succumbed to his injuries after 11 days of fighting and lwj (again) was not by his side. His sect (again) are the cause of pain for his beloved ones and has taken everything from him.

—-

Wow took this one hour and a half. This is my second time posting here. 😋 enjoy?

-b

[hamliet]

Nie MingJue: Righteousness Without Empathy

Nie MingJue is a character I do happen to like a lot despite his often-regarded unlikeable qualities. His arc is extremely tragic, and while Jin GuangYao is ultimately responsible for his tragedy, Nie MingJue played just as much a role in his own tragic downfall. He sacrifices empathy in the name of righteousness (and Jin GuangYao sacrifices righteousness for empathy), but both Jin GuangYao and Nie MingJue can honestly be said to be two sides of the same coin in that they both have a core of wanting to prove themselves, and it’s this core that destroys them both. 

Let’s begin with this conversation between the two of them: 

What Nie MingJue hated the most were such irresponsible words. Fuming, he lunged with his saber, “You had no choice? Whether or not to do it was up to you, and so was whether or not to kill them!”

Meng Yao dodged, protesting, “Was it really up to me? Sect Leader Nie, if we think from each other’s perspective…”

Nie MingJue had known what he wanted to say. He interrupted, “We won’t!”

Nie MingJue has always prided himself on being righteous, but he’s completely unable to consider things from another’s perspective. Jin GuangYao considers things from everyone else’s perspective--he’s extremely empathetic; however, he doesn’t really use that empathy for anything other than to manipulate to serve himself.

Jin GuangYao, “It isn’t that HuaiSang is a good-for-nothing, but that his heart lies somewhere else.”

Nie MingJue, “Well you’ve really discerned where his heart lies, haven’t you?”

Jin GuangYao smiled, “Of course. Isn’t that what I’m the best at? The only person whom I can’t discern is you, Brother.”

... Women, liquor, riches—he touched none; art, calligraphy, antiques—a pile of ink and mud; the finest green tea leaves and dregs from a roadside booth—there was no difference. Meng Yao tried everything he could think of yet still couldn’t find if he was interested in anything beside training his saberwork and killing Wen-dogs. He really was a wall made of iron, impenetrable by even the sharpest blades...

Nie MingJue’s understanding of righteousness completely fails to take into account the struggles of others who did not have his privileged background. He doesn’t consider this when he finds Meng Yao having killed a superior in the Jin Sect in Wen clothing (while the novel never states it explicitly, Jin GuangYao later mentions to Lan XiChen that Jin GuangShan somehow told him to kill Wen RouHan, so it’s not inconceivable that he was already planning to go undercover; then again, neither is it for certain). Jin GuangShan had just lied to Nie MingJue’s face about Meng Yao:

Nie MingJue’s brows immediately furrowed. Back then, the story that Meng Yao was kicked down Koi Tower passed around for quite a long time. Even others had known of such a farce, so there was no way that the person involved couldn’t remember the name. Only someone with the thickest of faces would be able to play dumb in such a situation. It was just that, however, Jin GuangShan just so happened to be such a person.

Yet Nie MingJue still refuses to consider that maybe he can’t trust Jin GuangShan to behave honorably. He refuses to consider that the world isn’t divided into black and white, underhanded trickery and forthright righteous honor. When he urges Meng Yao to confess and atone, he doesn’t consider that Meng Yao’s plea that he will be killed for it was very likely true. Jin GuangShan probably would have had him executed.

Nie MingJue, “To get here, you took the wrong path.”

Meng Yao, “You’re going to be sending me to my death.”

Nie MingJue, “If your words are true, it won’t happen. Go, reflect, and turn over a new leaf.”

Meng Yao whispered, “…My father hasn’t seen me yet.”

It wasn’t that Jin GuangShan didn’t see him.

He simply pretended to not know his existence.

So what happens when you have righteousness without empathy? Can you even call that righteousness?

Not really, which Jin GuangYao exposes to him.

[Jin GuangYao] looked up, unknown fires dancing within his eyes, “But, Brother, I have always wanted to ask you something—the lives under your hands are in any regard more than those under mine, so why is it that I only killed a few cultivators out of desperation and you keep on bringing it up, even until now?”

Nie MingJue was so enraged that he began to laugh, “Good! I’ll give you my answer. Countless souls who have fallen under my saber, but I’ve never killed out of my own desires, much less to climb up the ladder!”

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, I understand what you mean. Are you saying that all of the people you killed deserved their deaths?”

With courage gathered from nowhere, he laughed and walked a few steps closer to Nie MingJue. His voice raised as well, asking in an almost aggressive manner, “Then, may I ask, just how do you decide if someone deserves death? Are your standards absolutely correct? If I kill one but save hundreds, would the good outweigh the bad, or would I still deserve death? To do great things, sacrifices must happen.”

Nie MingJue, “Then why don’t you sacrifice yourself? Are you any nobler than them? Are you any different from them?”

Jin GuangYao stared at him. A moment later, as though he had finally either decided on something or given up on something, he replied calmly, “Yes.”

He looked up. In his expression were some of pride, some of calmness, and some of a faint insanity, “I and they, of course we are different!”

They deserved to die, did they? Yet we know Nie MingJue took part in the Siege of the Burial Mounds (even if he did not play a very large role), where the elderly and weak Wens were murdered and thrown into a blood pool.We know he refused to speak up for Wen Qing, saying this:

Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”

Yet that is exactly what he was doing right in that very scene, in the face of Jin ZiXun’s internment camps where Wen Ning was murdered: refusing to say anything because of his personal hatred for the Wens. In that very same scene, he even thinks that he knows Jin GuangYao was fibbing to help his father and yet says nothing, because it benefits him to have Wens hurt. 

In contrast, Jin GuangYao empathizes, he knows how people feel, but he doesn’t allow that to change his mind and help them. He too is always working for his own benefit, just like Nie MingJue. They’re not very different at their core. 

So basically, righteousness without empathy is pretty close to hypocrisy and allows injustices to prevail, which is made exceedingly clear when corpse!Nie MingJue enacts atrocities and murders many innocents. It’s a parallel what happened to Xiao XingChen at the hands of Xue Yang: being tricked into killing without realizing it. The difference, of course, is that Xiao XingChen did empathize with Xue Yang to an extent, whereas Nie MingJue refused to empathize at all with Jin GuangYao (hence why it’s super ironic that a technique called empathy is what exposes Wei WuXian to what Nie MingJue was feeling and to who the culprit is). 

Nie MingJue winds up as an unrestrained corpse killing at random in a futile attempt to put himself back together. While we don’t have a ton of background re: what made Nie MingJue the way he was, we know he witnessed his father tricked into a qi deviation which gave him a lifelong hatred for Wen RouHan, which might have traumatized him. That said, we can’t say for certain. But considering the themes of the novel and the motives for other killers--Xue Yang, Jin GuangYao, Wei WuXian--it’s not exactly far-fetched to theorize that this is symbolic of Nie MingJue trying to heal himself through violence as a way of setting the world/his body right, and that completely failing and just hurting everyone around him.  

Lan SiZhui, “It seems like he is searching for something… Maybe it is… his head?”

Wei WuXian, “That’s right. He’s searching for his head. There are quite a few heads here, so since he doesn’t know which one is his, he’ll pull off the head of each person and place it on top of his own neck to see if it fits or not. If it does, he’ll do with it for a period of time, and if it doesn’t, he’ll throw it away, so you should walk slowly. You must not get caught by him.”...

under the forceful attacks of the flute and the guqin, he looked as if he finally lost all energy, succumbing to the three instruments. With a stagger, he fell to the ground.

To be more accurate, it wasn’t that he fell down, but that he fell apart. There were the arms, the legs, and the torso, broken and scattered over the carpet of dry leaves.

He kills the Mo family (despite their awfulness), he tries to kill SiZhui, he tries to kill his brother, he would have killed even Lan XiChen if Jin GuangYao had not pushed him away at the last second. Righteousness without empathy is not righteousness at all; it is a sword that can only wound, not heal. (And for the record I’m not absolving Jin GuangYao of responsibility; it’s his fault for killing Nie MingJue--but please note Nie MingJue’s actions in death aren’t that different from his actions in life. Starts off killing evil people--the Wens, the Mos--tries to then kill people associated--all Wens, SiZhui who is a Wen--and spirals into lashing out at everyone around him including, finally, HuaiSang.)

Lan XiChen, “Brother, this is HuaiSang!”

Nie HuaiSang, “Brother can’t even recognize me…”

Wei WuXian, “Not only can’t he recognize you, he can’t even recognize whom he himself is right now!”

Nie MingJue had already become a corpse controlled by the heavy energy of resentment. He was fierce and violent, attacking indiscriminately....

Lest we think the novel wants us to ascribe these actions all to Nie MingJue being dead and unable to physically see, the novel refutes this:

The harsh, stern expression on his rigid face held a sense of judgement that was no different from before he died.

In addition, there are two foils that arise in the GuanYin Temple scene that add to this: Wen Ning and Su She. Nie MingJue attempts to kill Jin Ling in a case of mistaken identity (symbolic for how Nie MingJue acts/kills on incomplete information) and Jin Ling is only saved by a Wen, Wen Ning, jumping in front of Jin Ling to atone for killing Jin Ling’s father as a crazed corpse himself. It doesn’t kill Wen Ning, but it sets up a Wen as righteous and even trying to protect Nie MingJue from his own actions, and also showing that Wen Ning, who truly was not responsible for his actions back when he killed Jin Ling’s father, takes responsibility for what he did. 

Later on in the same chapter, Nie MingJue kills Su She in Su She’s attempt to protect Jin GuangYao. Nie MingJue despised Jin GuangYao for a moment of unrighteousness, and Su She served Jin GuangYao with unflinching loyalty because Jin GuangYao remembered him, so they are foils. Su She, of course, is extremely wrong in his petty cruelty and loyalty that is never questioned, but Nie MingJue’s inability to forgive similarly leads to killing. 

It’s also ironic, of course, that the whole reason Nie MingJue goes on a killing spree is because his little brother, the one he wanted to protect, is the one who unleashes him and damn the cost. Like, HuaiSang got Mo XuanYu to commit suicide, risked Jin Ling’s death multiple times, destroys a poor woman’s corpse just like his brother’s corpse was destroyed. 

Nie MingJue’s righteousness is a prison. It’s not righteousness at all, and it’s the reason he winds up trapped in a coffin with Jin GuangYao, whose empathy was not used for righteousness, for a hundred years. Both of these paths lead to death and imprison a person. 

[wangxiangiftexchange]

Winter Solstice Gift for ilyweiwuxian

For @ilyweiwuxian <3

Read On AO3

*****

how sweet it is

Lan Wangji knows what it is that others say about him.

He’s heard the awed whispers, swirling around him like gusts of wind as he strides past.

They say that he is truly a child of the snowy mountains near Gusu.

They say that he is as cold and untouchable as a wintry pond, the waters beneath the surface as still and icy as what lies above.

They say that his spirit is sheathed in ice that is as thick and impenetrable as the walls of the Unclean Realm.

Lan Wangji wishes it were true, but he knows that it’s not.

Within him rages an inferno, wild and untamed. It’s one he struggles every day to control.

Injustice sparks outrage within him, of course, and it always has, ever since he was a lonely child who could not comprehend why he was kept away from the warm embrace of the mother he loved so dearly.

But it’s the way he feels when Wei Wuxian is near, as though his veins burn ceaselessly with molten rivers of lava, that he finds the most troublesome, the most terrifying.

Lan Wangji can subdue rowdy disciples through his mere presence, and his icy glare has sent a shiver up the spine of many an evildoer.

Although Lan Wangji’s veneer of coldness is reason enough to demonstrate the respect that is due to a man of his station and bearing, for the soldiers of the Wen Clan who are dragging him to the Nightless City, it seems to be more of a challenge.

As he walks with all the stately pride he can muster, given the circumstances, they relentlessly try to see which of them can taunt and torment the great Second Young Master Lan into breaking.

Lan Wangji stubbornly does not allow them to see how deeply their taunts about the destruction of his clan, his home, his family, wound him.

He does not let them know that it is taking every ounce of his strength and self-control to stop himself from teaching them to show him the proper respect with the tip of his snowy white sword.

But he knows he cannot be so reckless. The consequences to those he loves would be far too dire.

It feels as though it’s only been moments since he saw flames rising above the only home he’s ever known, leaving behind nothing but ashes.

He cannot help but think, over and over again, that if he had not found the Yin Metal—if he had not defied the Wen Clan by seeking out the other pieces—perhaps, perhaps his home, his family, would not be lying in ruins.

He feels less a man and more a raw, bleeding wound. Every step he takes away from his home and family only cuts the wound deeper.

His mind is wracked with fear, doubt, and guilt as he trudges hopelessly toward the Nightless City, every step weighed down by a heart full of dread.

When Wen Xu had threatened to murder GusuLan’s disciples and Lan Wangji had opted to surrender and hand over the Yin Metal shard he’d guarded so carefully, had he done what was right? Or had he instead made possible a great evil for the sake of avoiding a smaller evil?

He’d thought, at the time, that it was right, but doubt has begun to creep in since then.

Once, and it feels so long ago now, he had been so sure of everything, of what was right and what was wrong, but his certainty has begun to fracture.

Lan Wangji feels more lost, more adrift, than ever.

His uncle is ill, perhaps dead, his brother fleeing from the Wen Clan’s forces, and may, for all Lan Wangji knows, be dead by now too, his home is in ashes, the Lan sect’s disciples dead or dying, and he cannot do anything about it all.

No—now he is trapped helplessly in the hands of the men who did it all, suffering stoically through the humiliations and indignities they heap upon him as they drag him to the Nightless City despite his broken leg.

He is terrified for his loved ones, and more alone than he has ever been in his life—and he is someone who knows loneliness. It has been his constant companion all his life.

But he will not give the Wen Clan the satisfaction of seeing him break.

He will exercise every scrap of the iron will that his uncle has hammered into him, and he will not break.

He will be the ice, cold and unbreakable, that they all believe he is.

And he will not break.

When he strides into the Wen Clan’s educational center and sees familiar faces—Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, Jin Zixuan, and, of course, Wei Wuxian—for the first time since the burning of Cloud Recesses, it is a relief.

He doesn’t miss the way Wei Wuxian tries to sidle over and surreptitiously check on him, even after his younger brother hissed at him to stop.

Lan Wangji feels gratitude swell warmly within his breast, but he doesn’t show it.

All of his strength, all of his energy, is devoted to maintaining strict control over himself.

Despite Wen Chao’s arrogance and viciousness, he cannot speak out, cannot defend others, even though it goes against his very nature.

No, instead he must play along with this cruel charade, because it is all that keeps his loved ones safe.

If he rebels openly against the Wen Clan, it is his family, his clan, that will pay the price. And they have paid more than they could bear to in blood and tears already.

Lan Wangji cannot be the cause of more suffering, no matter what it costs him.

And so he will hand over his beloved Bichen, even though it makes him feel as though he has lost a part of himself.

And he will steel himself to ignore the pointed jabs and insults of that loathsome Wen Chao.

And through it all, he will remember the faces of those he is keeping safe through these sacrifices of his honor, dignity, and pride.

And he will be ice and snow, cold, serene, and unbreakable.

When Lan Wangji is finally escorted to his rooms by the Wen Clan’s guards, he is surprised to discover that his quarters, while not his Jingshi, are comfortable enough.

He had expected to be marched to the dungeons of the Nightless City, but instead, he has been granted a moderately comfortable set of rooms.

He does not, of course, miss the fact that his guards do not truly leave—they station themselves just beyond the doors, allowing him some measure of privacy, but standing watch just the same.

Lan Wangji is under no illusions. This is a prison, no matter how comfortable, and he is its prisoner.

But this is the first time since he left Cloud Recesses that he has been allowed any privacy by the Wen Clan’s forces, and he relishes the solitude.

Finally, there is no one for whom he must playact.

But then comes the abrupt realization that there is also nothing to do save to linger on the devastating events of the last few days.

Lan Wangji knows he cannot do that. Surely the thought of all that he has lost will break him, and he cannot break.

And so he does what he always does whenever his soul is in turmoil: he pulls out his guqin and begins to play.

From his fingers spills a melody that has been haunting him, filling the silent spaces of his life, lingering always at the edges of his consciousness.

He has never heard it before—of that he is certain—and yet it is so familiar that it feels as though he has always known it, as though it is a part of him.

It is wistful. Sweeping. Romantic.

And, for some reason, it always makes him think of Wei Wuxian.

He doesn’t know where it came from. Doesn’t know what to call it.

But playing it fills him with serenity and joy, and he is in short supply of both these days.

His eyes drift shut as he loses himself in his music and his thoughts drift inexorably toward Wei Wuxian.

He thinks of the dark, lovely mischief of Wei Wuxian’s eyes, of a bright red ribbon fluttering above windswept, raven-black hair, of swift clever fingers working deft magic.

He thinks of the soft, delicate curve of Wei Wuxian’s neck and dreams of pressing his mouth against it, longs to hear Wei Wuxian gasp and moan with pleasure.

He dreams of taking Wei Wuxian into his arms and kissing a sweet red smile that is brighter than any sun. Surely it would scald his skin, but Lan Wangji cannot bring himself to care.

As his long, delicate fingers dance across the strings of his guqin, he dreams and dreams of how sweet it would be to kiss Wei Wuxian. The thought haunts his nights and fills his days with endless longing.

So when Lan Wangji feels soft fingers curl beneath his chin, tilting his face upward, and sees Wei Wuxian leaning over him, he is not sure whether he is sleeping or waking, does not know whether the amorous Wei Wuxian who fills his thoughts has somehow walked from his fevered dreams into reality.

Lan Wangji’s fingers still, the silence settling heavily around him, as he waits breathlessly for a kiss that never comes.

“Lan Zhan,” the vision of loveliness that is Wei Wuxian says earnestly, “I came to check on you. Are you all right?”

That’s when Lan Wangji realizes, with a surge of disappointment, that this is reality. He gently removes his face from the reach of Wei Wuxian’s fingers and stares down silently at his guqin.

Everything that he has been trying so desperately not to think about is crowding into his consciousness, crying out to be heard.

Instead of pleasant daydreams about Wei Wuxian, he thinks of his uncle, blood painting his mouth bright red, of his brother, lost in the wilderness and pursued by the ravening hounds of the Wen Clan, of flames rising above the cold mountains of his home, of ash drifting from the sky like flakes of snow.

His worry must be palpable, because Wei Wuxian’s hand settles warmly on Lan Wangji’s shoulder, and Lan Wangji does not protest.

That seems to worry Wei Wuxian more than anything else Lan Wangji has done since his arrival at the Nightless City. “Lan Zhan,” he repeats insistently. “What happened to you? What happened at Cloud Recesses? Is your family okay? Where’s the Yin Metal shard?”

Lan Wangji shakes his head once, a movement so minuscule someone less observant might have missed it.

Wei Wuxian’s keen eyes do not.

“Lan Zhan, you lost the Yin Metal? Does Wen Ruohan have it already? How did that happen?”

Horror and disappointment fill his voice. Lan Wangji cannot bear the thought that Wei Wuxian would be ashamed of him for surrendering the Yin Metal to Wen Xu so easily.

Wei Wuxian is so clever, so quick-witted. Surely he would have thought of a way to defy Wen Xu, protect his family, and keep the Yin Metal safe.

Lan Wangji did the best he was capable of, but for the first time in his life, it was not enough.

He discovers that he is disappointed with himself and ashamed of his failure.

He surges to his feet and begins to move away, desperate to distance himself from the intoxicating beauty of Wei Wuxian, desperate to hide his shame.

Wei Wuxian catches his wrist between fingers that are surprisingly warm.

“Let go,” Lan Wangji demands, half-turned away from Wei Wuxian.

He still cannot bear to look at Wei Wuxian.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian begs once more. “Tell me what happened after you left Qinghe.”

His grip tightens around Lan Wangji’s wrist as Lan Wangji halfheartedly tries to pull it away.

“I know something happened,” Wei Wuxian insists. “Lan Zhan, after everything I’ve done to help, I think I deserve to know.” There is no answer. He sighs, and then his voice softens. “Lan Zhan, you can talk to me.”

But Lan Wangji remains stubbornly silent. He desperately does not wish to speak about this. Not to anyone, but most of all not to Wei Wuxian.

He is not ready to speak of the losses he has suffered, the violence and indignities he has endured.

And he fears that Wei Wuxian’s high opinion of him will diminish once Wei Wuxian learns of how quickly he surrendered to the overwhelming force of the Wen Clan’s army.

“Leave,” Lan Wangji counters, voice as sharp, cold, and hard as the steel of his icy white sword. “I do not want you here.”

Wei Wuxian’s hand jerks away from Lan Wangji’s wrist. It is as if Lan Wangji had indeed thrust a sword into his body, although this is instead a wound of the heart.

Lan Wangji steps away from Wei Wuxian, his body stiff and tense, and clenches both of his hands tightly behind his back where Wei Wuxian cannot see this sign of agony and despair.

Wei Wuxian’s wounded eyes are fixed to his face as he slowly steps away. “Lan Zhan, why are you being like this?” Lan Wangji can hear the hurt in his voice, see it in the depths of his eyes. “I thought we were friends.”

They are friends, and much besides.

Lan Wangji’s fists clench tighter. His nails will draw blood if they dig into his palms much longer, but still he says nothing.

“All right,” Wei Wuxian sighs after excruciatingly long moments pass and still Lan Wangji remains stubbornly silent. “I’ll go, if that’s really what you want.”

As he turns to leave, defeated, Lan Wangji belatedly realizes that he does not want him to go. He cannot bear the silence, the ugliness, the loneliness of this dim prison.

This time, it is he who reaches out and catches Wei Wuxian’s slender wrist, and it is he who will not let go.

Wei Wuxian halts, glances, perplexed, to where Lan Wangji’s hand is wrapped around his wrist, and then flicks his eyes disapprovingly back to Lan Wangji’s face.

“So you don’t want me to stay, but you don’t want me to go.”

Lan Wangji lowers his eyes and says nothing. There is nothing to say. It is the truth.

Wei Wuxian sighs, frustrated. “So what do you want, Lan Zhan?”

At his words, a fire within Lan Wangji blazes to life, but this time, he is heartsick, and he is tired...so very, very tired. He does not know if he has the strength to contain the flames that burn within him any longer.

He tries his hardest, but it is to no avail.

He feels something within him break, and before he fully realizes what he is doing, he finds that his hand is tugging Wei Wuxian closer.

He does not know who is more shocked, he or Wei Wuxian, when his lips press themselves against Wei Wuxian’s as though they have a mind of their own.

It is not at all the kiss he has spent so many hours dreaming of. It is perfunctory and unsatisfactory at best.

It does not help that Wei Wuxian remains perplexingly still throughout the kiss he presses so swiftly against Wei Wuxian’s mouth.

Wei Wuxian does not push Lan Wangji away, but neither does he pull him closer.

Lan Wangji does not know what that means.

When it is over, Lan Wangji retreats, eyes lowered, the sweet taste of Wei Wuxian’s lips fresh on his own, and Wei Wuxian remains unnervingly silent.

Lan Wangji did not know he was capable of such prolonged silence.

Normally, he would be pleased by this discovery, but this is not how he would have wished to discover it.

“Say something,” Lan Wangji says gruffly when he can bear the silence no longer.

Wei Wuxian is a man of so many words. He is unlike Lan Wangji in that respect. Surely he will find his way to the words that Lan Wangji cannot.

He hears Wei Wuxian take a deep breath as though to steady himself. “Lan Zhan?” he asks tentatively, sounding more bewildered than anything. “Why... why did you... why?”

“Why do you think?” Lan Wangji replies, somehow managing to sound cool and collected despite the turmoil and impatience within his breast.

Wei Wuxian is not usually so slow to grasp a situation. His mind is quick and clever.

“You... Lan Zhan... you want me?” is the answer Wei Wuxian settles on. He sounds shocked by the realization.

Lan Wangji wants a great many things from Wei Wuxian, but he does not tell Wei Wuxian that.

He cannot, however, deny that he wants him.

He nods his head. Once, ever so slightly.

Wei Wuxian begins to laugh, in great echoing guffaws, bent over from the force of his laughter, and Lan Wangji’s eyes flash in anger.

“No!” Wei Wuxian says quickly, reassuringly. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing because... Lan Zhan, you’re really good at hiding your feelings. I never would have guessed that you felt that way about me. I thought you… I didn’t think you even liked me, much less liking me like that.”

Lan Wangji diplomatically chooses not to respond. It would be too easy to descend into a lengthy list of Wei Wuxian’s faults. He has come to accept and even like a few of them, but he cannot deny that they are there.

Instead, he hesitantly asks the question that has been occupying his thoughts more often than he would care to admit. “Do you… want me?”

Wei Wuxian tilts his head and taps a finger against his chin as he playfully pretends to think it over.

Lan Wangji's eyes flash. "Wei Ying!"

Lan Wangji's self-control is, admittedly, less strict than it normally is, but that is no reason for Wei Wuxian, much to Lan Wangji's growing fury, to collapse in laughter.

Lan Wangji feels as though they are back in the early days of their relationship, when Wei Wuxian teased him mercilessly and Lan Wangji was torn between wanting to kiss him senseless and longing to give him a lesson in swordplay he'd never forget.

"Shut up!" Lan Wangji snaps, in what is, he hopes, a forgivable lapse into immaturity.

It's not the most eloquent statement he's ever made, he admits that. He's not proud of it.

But when the laughter in Wei Wuxian's eyes fades away, replaced with something akin to curiosity, and he says, "Make me," in a voice that somehow sounds more like a promise than a challenge, Lan Wangji cannot say that he is sorry he said it.

He leans forward and cautiously brushes his lips against Wei Wuxian’s.

Wei Wuxian does not back away, does not laugh, does not mock him, as Lan Wangji had been half afraid he would.

He is half afraid that this is another one of Wei Wuxian’s games and that it will end with Wei Wuxian laughing at him for thinking Wei Wuxian could ever want him.

But if anything, Wei Wuxian seems disappointed, because he rolls his eyes, sighs, and says, “Lan Zhan, if that’s all you’ve got, then...”

He does not finish his—frankly ridiculous—statement. He cannot, because Lan Wangji interrupts by pulling him close, wrapping his arms around him, and pressing his lips against Wei Wuxian’s.

If their first kiss was fleeting, disappointing, and over nearly before it began, this kiss is its polar opposite.

Lan Wangji takes his time. He does not know if Wei Wuxian will ever allow him to kiss him again, and he intends to remember this kiss always--the sweetness of Wei Wuxian's mouth, the softness of his lips, his quiet, surprised gasps when Lan Wangji does something particularly clever with his tongue, the way he slips an arm around Lan Wangji's neck and presses himself closer with a fierceness that Lan Wangji does his best to match.

Lan Wangji feels as though everything within him has been set ablaze by the touch of Wei Wuxian's lips, his hands, his body.

No matter what his fate has in store for him and Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji knows this: he will warm himself with his memories of this kiss during all of the cold, lonely, miserable nights that are sure to follow.

The walls that surround his heart may be as high and as thick as the walls of the Unclean Realm, but behind them, this single memory will burn always, shedding its warmth, its light upon every moment of Lan Wangji's life, even when everything else has been reduced to ashes and embers.

Lan Wangji desperately does not want the kiss to end, and so h e kisses and kisses Wei Wuxian mercilessly, until Wei Wuxian melts in his arms and Lan Wangji suspects that Wei Wuxian has remained on his feet only because he is clinging so tightly to Lan Wangji, an arm thrown around his neck, the other clutching at his robes.

When Lan Wangji pulls away at long last, Wei Wuxian’s eyes remain closed, his lips softly parted, as though he is waiting breathlessly to be kissed once more.

Lan Wangji drinks in the lovely sight, until Wei Wuxian breathes deep, opens his eyes, smiles softly, and says, “Lan Zhan, where did you learn to kiss like that?”

Lan Wangji does not know how to answer. Wei Wuxian is the only person he has ever kissed. He was simply kissing Wei Wuxian the way he deserves to be kissed, the way he should always be kissed.

He supposes, then, that he learned how to kiss that way from Wei Wuxian.

He does not know how to say all of this to Wei Wuxian.

He settles for, “It is the way I have always wanted to kiss you.”

Wei Wuxian’s breath catches. “Lan Zhan,” he chides, “you can’t just say things like that without warning me.”

And then he kisses Lan Wangji, and this time he doesn't stop, not for a long, long time, and through it all Lan Wangji cannot help but marvel at the fact that everything in his life is somehow both the worst it has ever been and so much better.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Madam Yu starts loving Wei Wuxian and showing anything like remotely well intended affection toward Jiang Cheng in fix it fics, HAHAHAHAHAHA (breaths) Hahahaha!

After all of that, let me explain why this would not work considering even before the fall of Lotus Pier and her death she had hated Wei Wuxian the moment he had been saved by Jiang Fengmian as well as instilling that Jiang Cheng was only worth as much as his title as Sect Heir of Yunmeng Jiang. They also contrast the ideologies between Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu that were never understood by the other, mirroring the underlying resentment from a forced bond and the overall message that love can not be the only factor with peaceably accepting another person as your equal and confidant.

Madam Yu convinced herself that Wei Wuxian was usurping the position of power that Jiang Cheng held all because Jiang Fengmian had taken a shine to a child that was naturally good willed and bright. She purposely uses this as a tactic to drive a wedge between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian.

She derides her son while continuing to insist he is still above others leading to his complex of superiority and his jealousy of never being able to please her or his father. His lack of actual good will towards others (like his mother who ignored smaller night hunts to help commoners) leads to his father's lecture of not understanding what the Yunmeng Jiang motto really is, " 明知不可为而为之". Usually this is translated just as "to attempt the impossible" which is correct technically, but the full meaning of this really works better as "knowing you fight against impossible odds to do what is right".

Jiang Cheng went to her side. Madam Yu squeezed his arm with her slender fingers, then slapped his shoulder loudly, scolding, “There’s isn’t any improvement in your cultivation at all. You’re seventeen already, yet you’re still like an ignorant child, fooling around with others all the time. Are you the same as others? Who knows which sewers other people will be splashing in, but you’re going to be the leader of the Jiang Sect!”

At the same time she also uses these same insults against Wei Wuxian. However, he is confident in his own skills and talents which is a confidence she herself despises thinking he is unworthy as a servant's son or the son of a rogue cultivator with no clan ties to have a right to that level of cultivation and sees it as a slight against her authority. Neither can do right in her eyes whether they listen faithfully or question her meanings.

Madam Yu, “Wei Ying, what trouble are you stirring up this time?”

Wei WuXian stepped forward, accustomed to it. Madam Yu scolded, “You’re like this again! If you yourself don’t seek progress, then don’t drag Jiang Cheng along to fool around with you. You’re going to be a bad influence to him.”

Wei WuXian looked startled, “I don’t seek progress? Why, am I not the one with the most progress in the entire Lotus Pier?”

Young people were never too patient. They wouldn’t feel satisfied unless they talked back. Hearing this, an air of hostility seemed to form around Madam Yu’s brow.

Jiang Cheng wordlessly and obediently takes the reprimand, head down and silent, deferring to her. Wei Wuxian however arrogant it may seem, talks back questioning what she means that he has not progressed when he has the talent to show. This is early foreshadowing to their exact stances during the Wen Indoctrination.

Jiang Cheng held Wei WuXian firmly. Wei WuXian asked with a lowered voice, “What are you holding me down for?”

Jiang Cheng snorted, “Don’t do unnecessary things.”

He didn’t know why, but all of the boys sent from the GusuLan Sect looked somewhat pallid. Lan WangJi’s face was especially pale, but his expression was still as frosted as usual, distancing him from everyone else. The sword Bichen on his back, he stood alone, with nobody around him. Wei WuXian had wanted to go up to him and say hello, but Jiang Cheng warned him, “Don’t cause any trouble!”

MianMian knew that if she was hung up, she probably wouldn’t be able to come back down alive. She tried to run away, but wherever she fled, the people dispersed around her. Just as Wei WuXian twitched, Jiang Cheng held him firmly down. MianMian suddenly noticed that two people remained still. She hid behind their backs at once, shivering.

The two were Jin ZiXuan and Lan WangJi.

With the rescue of Mianmian and Wei Wuxian staying to protect Lan Wangji (who had protected Mianmian in turn despite repercussions) gained the attention of Wen Chao and his ire all of which Jiang Cheng kept ordering Wei Wuxian not to do. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are thrust into the role of the Jiang leaders stance of morality. Wei Wuxian, and by mention Lan Wangji, have done a unimaginable feat along with embodying the traits that Jiang Fengmian admires. As both did the impossible along with doing what was right in the protection of MianMian and Wei Wuxian staying to aid Lan Wangji.

Wei WuXian, “Those Wen dogs are talking nonsense, they have no face. Lan Zhan was clearly the one who killed it.”

Jiang FengMian gave him a smile, “Really? What a coincidence. The second young master of the Lan Sect told me that you were the one who killed it. So who was it, really?”

Wei WuXian, “I guess both of us did something. But he was the main one. I only went into the beast’s shell and chased it out. Lan Zhan was waiting for it alone outside. It only died after it dragged on for six entire hours.”

He described to Jiang Cheng and his father the things that had happened during the past few days. Jiang Cheng’s expression was complicated after he had finished listening. He only spoke a while later, “It’s pretty much the same as what Lan WangJi said. So it seems that both of you killed it together. What’s yours is yours. Why would you give him all the credit?”

Wei WuXian, “I didn’t. I just feel that, compared to him, I really didn’t do much.”

Jiang FengMian nodded, “Well done.”

He was able to kill a four-hundred-year-old beast at the mere age of seventeen. It was much more than a ‘well done’.

Jiang Cheng, “Congratulations.”

The tone of his congratulations sounded quite strange.

Jiang Cheng is once again faced with the reality that despite doing as his mother wanted, he is met with the reprimands of his father who does place loyalty and friendship in the face of dangers. Interestingly, the way Wei Wuxian defends Jiang Cheng mirrors the excuses that Jiang Fengmian had given for Madam Yu's harsh words and rumors about himself.

Jiang Cheng, “It served you right to be bored to death. You shouldn’t have played the hero and you shouldn’t have cared for such a hell of a thing. If in the beginning you didn’t…”

Suddenly, Jiang FengMian spoke, “Jiang Cheng.”

Jiang Cheng paused, knowing that he had said too much. He was quiet at once.

Jiang FengMian didn’t look as if he was blaming him of anything, but his expression had turned from calm to more solemn, “Do you know in which ways what you just said is not appropriate?”

Jiang Cheng’s head hung low, “Yes.”

Wei WuXian, “He’s just angry and speaking without care.”

Seeing how Jiang Cheng’s mouth and heart were still at odds, how he still felt defiant, Jiang FengMian shook his head, “A-Cheng, there are some things that can’t be said even if you’re angry. If you said them, it means that you still don’t understand the motto of the Jiang Sect, that you still don’t…”

That "hell of a thing" Jiang Cheng mentions is referencing that saving Lan Wangji was a waste in comparison to an easy get away along with Jiang Cheng. He helped a person that potentially was a future problem for them. A thought that hadn't been on Jiang Fengmian's mind as he praised not only Wei Wuxian's kill but his care in putting others first in such dire circumstances. Understandable praise for decent morals. And then comes Madam Yu,

The harsh voice of a woman came from outside the door, “Yes, he doesn’t understand, but what does it matter, as long as Wei Ying understands?!”

Like a purple bolt of lightning, Madam Yu swept inside, bringing in with her a cold breeze. She was standing five steps away from Wei WuXian’s bed, brows raised, “‘To attempt the impossible’ is exactly how he is, isn’t it? Fooling around even though he knew that it’d bring trouble to his sect?!”

Jiang FengMian, “My lady, what are you doing here?”

Madam Yu, “What am I doing here? What a joke that I am asked of such a thing! Sect Leader Jiang, do you still remember that I’m also the leader of Lotus Pier? Do you still remember that every inch of the earth here is my territory? Do you still remember, between the one lying there and the one standing here, which one is your son?”

Such questions he had heard countless times throughout the years. Jiang FengMian answered, “Of course I do.”

Madam Yu laughed bitterly, “You do remember, but there’s no use if you simply remember. Wei Ying, he really can’t take it unless he stirs up some trouble, can he? If I had known, I would’ve made him stay in Lotus Pier properly and not go outside. Could Wen Chao really have dared to do anything to the two young masters of the GusuLan Sect and the LanlingJin Sect? Even if he did, it’d mean that they ran out of luck. Since when was it your turn to play the hero?”

Do you remember who is a leader? Do you know what's mine? Do you know the worth of people's lives and what it gains me over the trouble of caring for them unconditionally?

Her arguments can be answered already, "Could Wen Chao really have dared to do anything to the two young masters of the GusuLan Sect and the LanlingJin Sect? Even if he did, it’d mean that they ran out of luck."

Yes, as they had already burned Cloud Recesses and physically harmed Lan Wangi once before. Jin Zixuan was expected to die as he had been abandoned in the cave already with no weapon his consequence was already passed. She also says "so what?" if they did retaliate because it was them choosing to play a game of hero and killing themselves for putting their head up against a higher power and baiting more trouble in the future, regardless of the Wen Sect attacking the sects one by one, and Yunmeng the next to be considered the weakest.

All which is parroted later by Jiang Cheng 13 years later when he demands Wei Wuxian beg in front of an altar, to make amends for deaths that hurt Jiang Cheng even when Wei Wuxian died for those once. He deserved to die for protecting the Wens that caused everything. He was shameless for sticking to Lan Wangji instead of honoring their childhood promise choosing someone else over him and loving another from the start. "What did I gain from you doing the right thing?" is the underlying accusation Madam Yu and Jiang Cheng use as a defense constantly.

Jiang FengMian stood up, “Let’s talk when we get back.”

Madam Yu, “Talk about what? Get back to where? I’ll be talking about it right here. I have nothing to be ashamed of, anyways! Jiang Cheng, come over here.”

Jiang Cheng was stuck between his father and his mother. After a moment of hesitation, he moved to his mother’s side. Holding his shoulders, Madam Yu pushed him forward for Jiang FengMian to see, “Sect Leader Jiang, it seems that some things I have to say. Look carefully—this, is your own son, the future head of Lotus Pier. Even if you frown upon him just because I was the one who bore him, his surname is still Jiang! … I don’t believe for one second that you haven’t heard of how the outside people gossips, that Sect Leader Jiang has still not moved on from a certain Sanren though so many years have passed, regarding the son of his old friend as a son of his own; they’re speculating if Wei Ying is your…”

Jiang FengMian shouted, “Yu ZiYuan!”

Madam Yu shouted as well, “Jiang FengMian! Do you think that anything will change just because you raised your voice?! Do you think that I don’t know you?!”

The two debated the issue outside. On the way, Madam Yu’s angered voice was louder and louder. Jiang FengMian argued as well, suppressing his rage. Jiang Cheng stood blankly where he was. A while later, he glanced at Wei WuXian, and suddenly turned to leave as well.

Madam Yu and Jiang Cheng use harsh language, twisted rumors and others that are dead and gone to guilt others into what they insist is the correct way to make amends to wrongs with wild standards. Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian fundamentally could not work with the other as an equal unit. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian become the worst of what Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian had built up before them.

The luxury that was given to Wei Wuxian was that he still had Lan Wangji standing by his side to pull him away from that cycle of continued misunderstandings and refusal of seeing the other as anything other than a person that would be a constant disappointment.

[curiosity-killed]

a bow for the bad decisions

canon-divergent AU from ep. 24 (on ao3)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 | part 15 | part 16 | part 17 | part 18

Nerves tumble through him, all delighted energy racing in his veins in place of blood. His robes are new, a surprise from Wen Qing, Granny, and two of the aunties. Ink-dark clouds bloom over rich blue silk the color of the first bruising brush of night, a deep red robe rustling underneath. Running his fingertips down along the neat folds, he bites back a shaking smile. He’s going to meet his nephew. He’s going to see shijie and Jiang Cheng and he’s finally going to meet his first baby nephew. If excitement were an animal, his would be a hundred gilded canaries flocking and whirling behind his ribs. He’s inundated, suffused. Joy is such a vibrant rush that it blots out all else. Under the sun-white glow of it, he can think of little else but the excitement of the day. There is no room for his worries: whether the sects will ever let the Wens go in peace to a new home; how Uncle Four and Granny are going to get through the worst days of winter; what it means that the back of his hip keeps going funny lately, like the threads holding it in place are slowly unraveling. Sliding a small wooden box into his robes over his heart, he steps outside. Wen Qing’s waiting, clearly pretending she’s not by studying the lotus pond like it holds some secret message. By her side, Wen Ning holds a-Yuan on his lap, listening seriously as the boy chatters and waves one of his spinning toys through the air. Wen Qing straightens first. “How do I look?” Wei Wuxian asks with a grin.

Pursing her lips, Wen Qing studies him with a sharp eye and her hands on her hips. “Like a nuisance,” she says and reaches over to tug a strand of hair into place. “Hey!” Wei Wuxian yelps, only a little faked. Wen Qing pulls back to fold her hands at her waist. Her expression goes a little soft, the way it sometimes does when she looks over all of them gathered for dinner in the firelight. Wen Ning has stood and come to stand at her shoulder now, and he manages a tremulous smile. He’s worked hard over this year, to get back his emotions. He can’t blush or cry anymore, but he’s gotten the hang of inflection again, and he can pull up these little smiles. In another year or two, perhaps, he’ll be able to grin and laugh once more. “Behave for your sister,” Wen Qing says and holds out a small pouch of silver, “and pick out something nice for your nephew.” He can’t help the way his smile goes soft and a little sappy. Wen Qing looks skyward as if for patience, but before either can say more, there’s an insistent tug on his skirts. “Xian-gege,” a-Yuan says, frowning like a Yunmeng thunderstorm, “why do you have to go to the baby?” His voice is so petulant, so full of little kid frustration with the wide world. Wei Wuxian fights back a laugh. “Ah, a-Yuan, don’t you want to meet my shijie’s baby?” he asks. “He can be your little cousin a-Ling.” “Don’t want a little cousin,” a-Yuan pouts. “Xian-gege promised older brothers and sisters.” He pauses and tilts his head to look up at Wei Wuxian sideways through his lashes, rubbing his nose with one finger. It is a preposterous expression on a four-year-old face, and Wei Wuxian has to bite his lips to keep in his laughter. “Maybe we can sell him with the radishes?” His voice is so hopeful, the question so absurd — Wei Wuxian lets his laughter peal out of him and swoops down to scoop him up in his arms. His back twinges, briefly, but he ignores it. A-Yuan’s eyes brighten as if he thinks he’s getting his way. “A-Yuan, so cruel!” he scolds, delighted. “How could we sell my very first nephew?” “We could trade him,” a-Yuan suggests solemnly, “and plant a big brother instead.” It’s too cute; too much happiness is flooding him all at once, and Wei Wuxian squeezes him close even as he pinches his cheek. “Ai, truly the son of the dread Yiling laozu,” he teases before leaning in to kiss his cheek. “And so cute!” Shaking her head, Wen Qing tries to stifle a smile, but it’s still there in the corners of her mouth as she reaches out and plucks a-Yuan from his arms. He looks briefly disappointed, but he laughs in surprise when Wei Wuxian chucks his chin gently and ruffles his hair. “Go on,” Wen Qing says, nodding toward the path down the mountain. “You don’t want to be late.” Grinning, Wei Wuxian waves an idle goodbye as he starts down the trail with Wen Ning at his side. Granny and Auntie Three tell him to take care when they pass, and Uncle Six wishes them safe travels as he returns from gathering water. Wei Wuxian could nearly skip all the way to Lanling with the way joy bubbles effervescent in his veins, but he settles for spinning Chenqing between his fingers and humming along to a song he half-remembers from childhood. They’ve left with enough time to fly to and from Lanling twice with rest on either end, but then, Wei Wuxian’s not flying anywhere. Suibian sits propped on a shelf in his cave, where it’s lain since they arrived. He cleans the blade as he has to, out of respect to the spirit that still thrums through it and to the bond he once shared with the sword, but otherwise, he pretends he cannot see it lying there. He doesn’t regret it. There is no world in which he could ever wish he’d made another choice, but—

He’d told Wen Qing he understood the consequences. That he knew the risks and the weight of giving up his golden core. He would forever be mediocre, destined to live out a shorter life and to never fulfill the great dreams he’d had in his adolescence. Such broad declarations could not fathom the painful prick of everyday loss. He no longer reaches for spiritual energy that isn’t there, but sometimes he dreams, and he still knows that familiar river-rush song of power at his center. It still feels right, still feels like the song his soul has known since he was twelve and he felt a seed of something strong and glowing deep within him. He wakes bereft, empty-handed, hollowed. It’s not even the dreams he misses most — those grand heroics were always stories, and his home has been in Lotus Pier alongside his duty for most of his remembered life. It’s the little things, the things he had taken for granted: being able to help when someone was ill or injured, being able to soar up on Suibian and see the tumbling world splayed out before him. He will never regret his choice. If anything, he’s been proven right over and over in how Jiang Cheng has led Yunmeng Jiang through the war and into this new reconstruction. Lotus Pier needed its leader, and Jiang Cheng has always been destined for that mantle. So, no, he will never regret his decision. But, sometimes, he grieves. It’s a selfish sorrow, to lie with his hand flat on his chest in the night-quiet and feel the resounding hollowness echo through him. There’s still spiritual energy lingering in him, enough to power a talisman or a weak spell, but it diminishes day by day, eaten away by the resentment hooking claws into his bones. Guilt does its best to drown the grief. He has no right to feel sorrow for a sacrifice willingly made. If he does not regret the decision, what reason is there for hurt? He should just be able to set it aside and move forward, onward. He tries. It works most days. They stop in Yiling to pick up a token with the money Wen Qing sent, and Wei Wuxian eyes the whole supply, running his fingers along the jade, weighing the heft of them in his palm. It’s only adornment, a small trinket to accompany his real gift, but he wants it to be perfect, too. Outside, Wen Ning waits patiently. He’s dressed in his best as well, neat black robes that don’t mark him as any sect but are carefully pleated and tied. Wei Wuxian grins and holds out the tassel for examination. “What do you think?” he asks. “It is very pretty, Master Wei,” Wen Ning affirms. “Is this your gift for young Jin Rulan?” Wei Wuxian scoffs and reaches into the folds of his robe to pull out the lacquered box. As if he would give his nephew something so small as a tassel and say that was sufficient. He passes the box to Wen Ning, who cradles it in his hands like a bird’s egg. Wei Wuxian waits, trying carefully not to preen, as he lifts the lid to examine the gift. “It’s warded,” he blurts out anyway, because he’s never been very good at bottling up excitement. “Low level ghosts and monsters won’t be able to come near him as long as my nephew wears it.” “I can feel it,” Wen Ning says, his hand hovering carefully away from the beads. The bracelet has taken hours of work and planning, the kind of mental challenge that is at once exhilarating and exhausting; he loves the strain of it, the puzzle in how to determine the right characters and imbue it with the proper strength, but it also required more planning and detail work than comes naturally. He can’t count the number of times he checked and re-checked his work to make sure he didn’t miss something tiny and vital. Wen Ning moves to touch the bracelet, and panic flashes through Wei Wuxian as he half-lunges to stop him. “Ah don’t touch it!” he yelps. He manages to reign himself back in as Wen Ning stops short and turns to him with something like alarm. “I’m not sure what it’ll do.” He tries not to wince as he says it; he hadn’t wanted to point it out at all. Despite his placid face, Wen Ning’s shoulders stoop a little, and Wei Wuxian’s heart squeezes painfully. He shouldn’t have to worry about this, shouldn’t have to think about how he’s been made into a monster. It’s not his fault, not something he had any say in, and guilt sours deep in Wei Wuxian’s belly at the way that he still has to carry the burden even when it was forced upon him in the first place. “Come on,” Wei Wuxian says, clapping Wen Ning on the shoulder once the box is stowed once more. He gives a smile of reassurance, apology, and Wen Ning quirks up his lips in his own smile. “Of course, Wei-gongzi,” he says. It’s a long walk to Koi Tower. Wei Wuxian almost wishes they had chosen to split up the trip between two days, but it’s not like they would have been able to afford an inn and a bath if they had. He spends the walk teasing Wen Ning and chattering. Wen Ning’s still a little demure, but he’s gotten better at teasing and understanding when Wei Wuxian is joking over the year. It’s nice in a way few things are anymore; Wen Ning knows, like Wen Qing, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to pretend around him. He cradled Wei Wuxian’s head as his sister pulled out the thrumming golden core at his heart, kept his shoulders pinned to the ground as he screamed. He understands in a way shijie or Jiang Cheng or Lan Zhan never can. They have done terrible violence to each other for the sake of their siblings, and they can laugh and talk and tease in the sunlight. It’s the kind of light that falls through cracks in ancient ruins, that illuminates and softens the ragged edges of history. They plan to pause and rest on the far side of Qiongqi Pass, Wen Ning’s enforcement of his sister’s order. “It would make Lady Jiang upset if you overexerted yourself before the celebrations,” Wen Ning says. That is certainly not how Wen Qing phrased it. Wei Wuxian accepts it with only a little complaining, to keep up appearances. It can’t get out that he can be persuaded so easily after all; his reputation would never survive.

[wonderstxrs]

@wickedcultivations​​ send: “find me in another lifetime.” ( for chenchen )

The junior Lan disciples followed Jin Zixun to Qiongpi Path to have it go as peacefully as possible. In all honesty, Lan Xichen wouldn’t have stopped them even if he had been there when Jin Zixun left with Jin disciples. He would have joined them to ensure Young Lord Zixun wouldn’t go too far. His dislike had been clear from the very start and no one had been happier about progress being made than Lan Xichen. Even as small as it were, everyone had agreed to let Wei Wuxian see his nephew. That’s a step in the right direction, and considering he has not done any unsavory deeds since he and the Wen clan moved into the Burial Mounds it was only just, as he is Jin Ling’s elder. 

But Lan Xichen had not been there, and many of the Lan disciples had been killed or injured by Wen Ning. If it weren’t for the direct involvement, perhaps he could have refused showing up at Nightless City. Alas, he could not. No matter what truly happened -- because it was clear this was not merely a one-sided action. There’s no doubt in Lan Xichen that if that ambush hadn’t happened, he would’ve arrived safely and had a long overdue reunion with his sister, nephew and brother. No matter what his own heart desired, many innocent lives had been lost. Lives of disciples he’s taught, known, and no matter how much he loves Wei Ying he could never condone such a thing. Not as Sect Leader, but even if he did not have that position he would never allow it either. The path Childe Wei chose was questionable at best. But at worst, it was what he’d always feared might happen. What both he and Wangji had warned him against.

By the sight of Wei Ying on that roof, it was clear his state of mind wasn’t right. The fear the Yin Tiger Seal installed in all the Sect Leaders and outside world may have been the cause of many misundertandings. It didn’t help that he completely abandoned swordmanship and only did his own crafy tricks, for lack of a better word. Lan Xichen had not been pleased with the news of the Wen clan’s death, of course not. Besides the Ghost General, they had all been defenseless. The situation called for it though. It could no longer be avoided. For that reason alone he tries to empathise, to understand. But part of him just wished Wei Ying stayed away. That he wouldn’t be found the next day in the Burial Mounds. After the disciple who fired the first arrow was killed, things escalated. He had been occupied with the corpses, trying to defend the fallen and injured of his own sect as well as others. 

Things were already dire as it were, but the moment the two halves of the Stygian Tiger Seal were out there and allies became foes--- things escalated even worse. Lan Xichen hadn’t been able to find room to try and reason with him, it was questionable whether or not it could still be done at this point. This was the Yiling Patriarch everyone feared, even if Xichen still sees someone else. The person he got to know when he attended Lan Qiren’s lectures at the Cloud Recesses. The only person who managed to befriend Wangji. He’s not sure what had occurred on that roof after Wangji showed up, he’d been too busy managing things down here to be able to go there. But right now, he manages --- comes to a stop a few feet away from Childe Wei and finds himself at a loss of words. What was there to say at this point? His heart aches for all the life that was unnecessarily lost in this bloodbath, as well as for Wei Ying, even for the last remnants of the Wen Clan. He’d always prefered civilazing over violence, but no compromise would have done it this time. Rationally he knows there was no other outcome then this, it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

But while words were lost on him, the emotion held in his eyes wasn’t that of any judgement. There was concern as well as fear. And had he known what Childe Wei planned to do, he would have forced himself to say something- anything. But he couldn’t look into the future and see how much he’d regret this later. But the moment the move was made, the moment Chenqing was let go off and he fell backwards - he rushed forwards to prevent his fall. Lan Xichen wasn’t thinking about his duty as Sect Leader, or how it would look to others. None of that was of any importance to him in this moment. 

       Find.               Me.                In.                Another.             Lifetime. 

They both knew the unspoken words behind that. They both remember a time of a completely different life, that makes no real sense. One you’d think is imagination instead of anything real, and yet.. even if it were, it was something they’d shared. Something that had connected them this time around. It caused his grip on his wrist to tighten, as well as letting go of Shuoyue to try and move in another position to pull him back up. But the other Sect Leader’s won’t stand for anything but his death. They want his blood. They want him gone. Were they completely in the wrong for wanting such? He forces the thoughts out of his head, focuses on the task at hand. But then Jiang Wanyin shows up and does the unthinkable. He would’ve hold on, despite the consequences. He would’ve. But it wasn’t enough. Because as Wei Ying forced himself free and fell, his last words forever burning him up from the inside. The sight of him falling, those words, it tears at Lan Xichen even thirteen years later. He’s lived with that regret, of not being able to do enough. Of not being able to prevent his death. And as well failing the Lan disciples. 

There had been a moment of weakness where he considered seclusion. He needed it, but he also knew he couldn’t do so. That much was expected of him, many of their disciples lost to them--- there’s much to do. Honoring the death, sending them off properly, making sure there’s remaining peace between the Sects. Otherwise it truly would all be for nothing. And he had done it, gracefully even, done what was expected of him. Even as it was a daily struggle to fight the grief from becoming too much to bear. Wangji knew, he’s probably the only one who knew. He had refused an explanation to anyone, they were all met with the same silence regarding those last moments before the fall of Wei Ying. Jiang Wanyin had given his truth, and that’s all there was to it. Because they would not get anything from him. It displeased Uncle and the Lan elders, but other then this he did what was expected and required. 

To this day he was still reflecting and grieving. While he remains kind to those around him, whether from other Sects or his own, cultivators or not.. while his smile may still be kind, it never fully reaches his eyes. It didn’t hold the same warmth it used to, because a piece of his heart died along with Wei Ying that day. 

[achromaticstars-archived]

surge (jc & wwx)

Painful Prompts |still accepting| 

The truth and identity of the Yiling Patriarch was still a secret, a secret that Wei Ying continued to keep hidden since it was unknown on what could happen. He knew that the Sects easily frowned upon the path that he had taken, the path of a demonic cultivator though. That was why the Sects were avoided if possible and that he stuck to Yiling unless there was a reason why he had to travel, mostly when it came to dealing with the rumors about possible Night Hunts. Everyone feared the Yiling Patriarch though and they never dared to step foot inside of the Burial Mounds because of that fear. The rumors that floated around helped with keeping the people away from the Burial Mounds even though most of those rumors were false. It wasn’t hard to blame the Yiling Patriarch for anything though since everything evil in the world usually caused his name to be mentioned. The rumors just made it easier to hide the truth, another reason why he let them float around without a second thought. He could hide behind those rumors without any problems. 

It has a surprise from the relationship that was accidentally formed with Jiang Cheng, the Sect leader of Yunmeng Jiang. It wasn’t hard to see Jiang Cheng as a friend despite the secrets that Wei Ying was keeping hidden, he needed to knowing that the other’s reaction was going to be. The Yiling Patriarch had to keep his abilities hidden to avoid from anyone from the Yunmeng Jiang Sect figuring out that he was the demonic cultivator everyone feared. 

Of course, it couldn’t stay hidden forever. The truth finally came out purely on accident. 

Wei Wuxian didn’t really remember what caused his outburst, the resentful energy easily reacts to his emotions depending on this situation. This one was no different, but consequences quickly followed. Ones that Wei Ying was quickly to regret he didn’t mean to hurt anyone, he has never tried to hurt anyone or even spill blood. There was no blood stained on his hands, another rumor that was wrong. The Yiling Patriarch has never killed anyone before despite what the rumors say about it, they were nothing, but lies. 

It was Jiang Cheng’s cry of pain that snapped him out of it, a cry that caused the resentful energy to disappear once Wei Ying realized what happened. The truth was out now, he couldn’t deny that the Yiling Patriarch was standing in front of the ones who witnessed everything that just happened 

“Jiang Cheng... I... Are you okay?” 

[newamsterdame]

what’s your favorite thing about the mxtx mains, and which hogworts houses would you sort them into?

sorting the main characters is a bit difficult, since for me their most prominent traits are their moral alignments, and my read of the hogwarts houses is that only two are really defined by personal morality. so going with that instinct, pretty much everyone ends up either in gryffindor or slytherin. with sorting i think complex characters can be arguably in multiple/all houses, so. these are just my first inclinations.

shen qingqiu - slytherin. he’s smart, initially self-serving, and looks good in green. he doesn’t have the general altruism of the other mxtx protags, despite having a generally positive effect on the world. he’s quick-witted, but those wits are usually used in service of his own survival, and not for the pursuit of wisdom generally. (i actually think shen jiu might be more of a ravenclaw than a slytherin.)

my favorite thing about him is his expressive inner voice versus his outer reticence/reserve. i think that makes him very emotionally complicated. 

luo binghe - also a slytherin, and not just because he’s shizun’s disciple. it’d be easy to say demons are bad and belong in slytherin, but i think binghe has a single-mindedness and selfishness, and the potential for ruthlessness, that suit slytherin more than any other house. again, he’s not generally an altruist, and all his wit and talent he uses in service of his own goals. 

my favorite thing about him is how he swings back and forth from cunning, ruthless demon lord to pure white lotus. i think they’re both sides of his personality, and the fact that sqq can draw out both is really good. 

wei wuxian - gryffindor. he’s got a martyr complex, believes in doing the right things despite social convention and political expedience, and is constantly stepping into danger for the sake of others without really thinking it through. his inventiveness and curiosity fit ravenclaw, too, but ultimately it’s his heroism that defines him. 

my favorite thing about him is that in a world that’s so built on hierarchy and propriety, he constantly says fuck the rules and does what he thinks is right.

lan wangji - also a gryffindor. i know he exudes the aloof scholar’s persona, and people like him in ravenclaw for that reason, but i think what really binds wwx to lwj is that they’re both really righteous people, despite the consequences. and that righteousness fits gryffindor more than the other houses. lwj seems like the perfect young master, but he feels very deeply and acts on those feelings, and he’s always “where the trouble is”– he’s always going out of his way to help and protect people.

my favorite thing about him is how deep is feelings run, despite his inability to express those feelings. i’m very interested in how his relationship with his mother affected his ability to connect and be understood. 

(and for the tgcf characters, my caveat is that i’m still in book 1, so these are just based on initial impressions.)

xie lian - another gryffindor. he wants to help the common people, to a seemingly naive/foolish extent! i think he’d also make a good hufflepuff, with his self-deprecation and general forgiving/easy-going nature. but i think his convictions in helping the world, despite what it costs him personally, are his strongest traits, so gryffindor. 

my favorite thing about him is how much he’s willing to do to help people, and how much he’s looked down on by the world as a result. that cuts… very personally deep, for me. 

hua cheng - i literally think he’d fit in ravenclaw for his competence, but ultimately i want him to be another slytherin. he’s cunning, he’s self-assured to the point of arrogance, he either is completely dedicated to people or has no problem utterly dismissing and humiliating them. so yeah, slytherin. 

thus far my favorite thing about him is how incredibly invested mxtx is in letting us know that he is unbelievably attractive. i believe and support her. 

[no--envies]

It’s very baffling to me that people try to change WWX’s personality so much, giving him traits that are very clearly not his. Characters who act in a self-sacrificing way because they don’t value their own lives do exist in other works, but in those cases it’s the narrative that portrays them as such. WWX is portrayed as the opposite: cocky, self-assured, completely confident in his own abilities. He’s aware that he is a prodigy in almost every area and it’s not like he’s particularly humble about that. His general attitude is actually very healthy: he doesn’t dwell on his regrets and his self-perception isn’t undermined by external factors like other people’s opinions.

WWX is completely aware of his own worth. He knows he can do what he sets his mind to and that he doesn’t need to rely on other people’s help. He never refuses help when it’s willingly offered, he just doesn’t expect to receive it since other people didn’t give him reasons to believe otherwise (unlike in CQL where he persistently rejects LWJ’s help despite knowing how much LWJ cares for him) and he’s confident that he can do well by himself anyway. Things aren’t always that simple, because there are a lot of things he can’t control, but most of the time what he can do is a lot.

I was so surprised when I first got into the fandom and saw so many people portraying WWX as insecure, because… if anything, he has the opposite problem: overconfidence. In his second life we see him behaving in a less brash and cocky way, because after everything he went through he understands when it’s better to take a step back and let the matter rest:

He knew that right now, nobody could take in what he said. Nobody would carefully consider his suspicions either. A few more words, and maybe the others would start to position themselves against him again. If it were ten years ago, he wouldn’t care about other people at all. He’d say whatever he wanted, and others would have to hear them whether they wanted to or not. Now, however, Wei WuXian no longer had the interest in taking the limelight this way.

(Chapter 86, ExR translation)

WWX has always been unafraid to speak his mind and stand out against public opinion, despite knowing perfectly well that doing so would put a target on his back. It’s part of what makes him the indomitable hero he is. He hasn’t lost his confidence at all in his second life, he’s simply become wiser. He’s still ready to stand up for what he believes in regardless of society’s opinions; he always expresses his right to defend himself when he gets accused of things he didn’t do. He never questions if he’s worthy of LWJ’s unconditional love and support, nor does he think less of himself for his past failures. All of this speaks of confidence, not self-worth issues.

I think many people see WWX’s decision to give his golden core to JC as a sign of low self-worth or guilt, ignoring the cultural norms his choice is rooted in. WWX doesn’t blame himself for the fall of Lotus Pier and doesn’t value himself less than JC. He gave him his golden core because without one JC had completely lost his will to live, while WWX knew he could live without a golden core somehow, and he did. It was also his way to repay his debt to the Jiang Sect for giving him a home and the chance to learn cultivation in the first place. WWX is a moral person who takes his debts of gratitude very seriously. This is both rooted in cultural norms and his strong sense of justice, and doesn’t have anything to do with self-esteem. WWX always thinks of the consequences of his actions, but accepts them anyway because he knows he’s strong enough to deal with them.

A lot of the Western MDZS fans seem to think that Wei Wuxian has self worth and self esteem issues.Is this interpretation true to the text? What does the Chinese fandom think about it?

Well, I don’t think the dividing lines within the English-speaking fandom (the West vs the East, Asian vs non-Asian, America vs the rest of the world, etc) are that clear-cut. Sure, cultural sensitivities differ, I only have to look at the comments on my translation of the Gusu Lan Sect rules to acknowledge that, some lambast the Gusu Lan Sect for the outrageous deprivation of fundamental liberties, others view the rules as strict but fair and even experienced something similar as part of their own education. However geographic origin is not the be-all and end-all that decides whose opinion is more informed. Curiosity, open-mindedness and a willingness to challenge one’s own frame of reference go a long way to apprehend a work outside of one’s own culture. And that’s what MDZS is for the vast majority of the fans in the international fandom, a piece of fiction from another culture and even a first encounter with a work of Chinese origin. In the end, international fans share the same fandom space without borders, they use the same social media, read the same version of the English translation, come across with the same fanmade content and engage in the same discussions.

The more manifest divide in my opinion is between the international side and the Chinese side. Within the English-speaking fandom, we have differences of interpretations and clashes of opinions but the Chinese fandom has an altogether separate fan culture and another relationship between the audience, the author and the source content. There are superficial similarities between the two sides such as some common fandom trends but they often differ in essence, for instance, the motivations and modus operandi of antis and purity cliques in the Chinese fandom are dissimilar to those in the English-speaking fandom. Both the international and the Chinese fandoms exist while being more and less dimly aware of the other’s presence but there is precious little interaction between the two of them as a whole. When content from one side makes its way to the other side, it’s fanart for the most part as well as Chinese-to-English translations of official and fanmade content. It’s more a unilateral transfer than a conversation between different cultures.

Chinese fandom is organised and segmented, the novel and its adaptation have their own supertopics on Weibo and proper tagging is mandatory so that people can stay in their own lanes. Contrary to the international fandom in which there are relatively few spoken and unspoken rules (you can pretty much post whatever wherever as long as it’s not offensive or stolen), the Chinese fandom abide by a whole set of mostly self-enforced regulations. For example, the MDZS supertopic which is novel-centric has its very own wall of rules in its pinned post, among these there is giving due respect to the author, the characters and the novel; the proscription of breaking up or reversing Wangxian, of disseminating content that distort the facts in the novel, etc, etc... There is a more rigid adherence to what is established as canon. What is not supported by the novel runs the risk of being considered ooc. It’s quite common for fanfics to have an author’s preliminary statement along the lines of “the characters belong to the author, any oocness is on me” as a precautionary measure. I’m describing all this to give a tiny bit of insight on what it’s like on the other side, I don’t think that one fandom culture is superior to the other. It’s like free verse and regulated verse, there’s not much point in comparing what cannot be compared. It stands to reason that the international and the Chinese fandoms have disparate views of the original content as they have evolved independently over the years and they do not consume it the same way. You also have fandom-specific interpretations that spread and become a prevalent norm (e.g. Lan Wangji’s speech patterns).

So, after excessive meanderings, I finally return to the main topic of your question. Wei Wuxian’s supposed self-esteem and self-worth issues are definitely prevailing traits in the English-speaking fandom. It seems to me that it stems from a misreading of cultural norms as many of Wei Wuxian’s actions are rooted in a specific historical and social context steeped in filial piety as well as a literary genre that idealises the archetype of a noble and righteous hero fighting for the greater good. That’s not to say that such representation of him is completely non-existent in the Chinese fandom, it does come up from time and time, perhaps more on the live action side. The more common portrayal of Wei Wuxian though is as a brash young man and a self-assured genius and you have some very good meta on why “perfect equality” between Wangxian is one of their main strengths as a couple (x).

Hope that answered your question despite the long digression =)