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remma3760 · 7 months ago

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Chapter 4

Summary:

Where does Wei Ying belong? Should he stay with the Lans, or should they let the Jiangs have him back?

"So you think he would want this? It would be good for him?" Lan Qiren was anxious. The Elders had approved his request, but he was unsure on how to approach Wei Ying, so had come to Lan Huizhong for advice.

"I do. He needs to feel safe. That he won't be discarded for the slightest mistake, and the onus of that is going to fall on you, Qiren. But you won't be alone in this. We have all become very fond of little A-Ying."

Lan Qiren smiled. Yes, the boy was certainly endearing. He had never thought he could feel such fondness for a child of Cangse Sanren. But, here they were. Less than two months and already Wei Ying had made such a difference in all their lives. "How are his sessions coming on, Huizhong?"

"Qiren, you know I can't talk about them. When Wei Ying is ready to share with you, he will. Although, I am considering additional sessions involving all of you."

"All of us?"

"Yes. You know I've been including A-Zhan already, and I feel that that has helped both of them, so in time, perhaps you and Xichen could be there too."

"I have noticed that A-Zhan seems more at ease. He smiles now, Huizhong. I had given up all hope of seeing that again. Was he really so traumatised by what happened at Lotus Pier?"

"His faith in the infallibility of adults was severely shaken, but honestly, he should probably have been seeing me since his mother died."

Shocked, Lan Qiren stared at his friend. "But he got over that. He stopped sitting outside her door every month and went back to being the well behaved boy he was before."

"The well behaved boy who never smiled and rarely spoke."

Dropping his head into his hands, Lan Qiren sighed. "I missed so much, Huizhong. I was never meant to be a Sect Leader or a parent, yet now I have to be both. All I wanted was to study and teach."

"Do you regret it?"

"No. Not for a moment. They're my boys and I would die to protect them. They make me a better man. Did you know that A-Zhan stood up to Madam Yu because he thought that that's what I would have done had I been there?"

"Isn't it?"

"I don't know. I would hope so. Even so, A-Zhan's trust in me is humbling. I only hope I can live up to it."

"Yes. The faith of a child is absolute and terrifying. And now you're taking on a third."

Lan Qiren huffed. "Am I mad, Huizhong? What was I thinking?"

"You were thinking that there was an innocent child who needed your love and protection. You're a good man. Qiren. Never think otherwise. Raising a child is the hardest job any of us will ever undertake. You're doing well, my friend. And you are free to come to me anytime you have doubts or uncertainties. I will always listen."

Lan Qiren smiled and sighed, giving his friend's shoulder a squeeze as he left to find his children.

***

"Why is Mother so angry, Yanli?"

"I expect she's missing A-Ying."

"No she's not. Why would she, she has us, and he was always being bad anyway and she hated him. I expect she's happy he's gone."

"Don't say that A-Cheng. Mother doesn't hate him. She cares about him deep down, she just wants to help him be better so she has to punish him sometimes. It's for his own good. Don't you miss him too?"

"No! I'm glad he's gone. He made Mother and Father fight and Mother was always angry because of him. Mother is still being angry because of him. I wish he'd never come here."

"You don't meant that A-Cheng. Think how much fun you had playing together."

"I had fun with my dogs but Father took them away because of him. Oh, do you think I can have them back now that he's gone?"

"He isn't gone. He's just visiting Cloud Recesses for awhile. Father means to bring him home soon, and Mother agrees. I heard them talking, and Father said the Lans were being difficult so Mother told him he had to be more forceful or she would take things into her own hands and go and get him herself. So you see, Mother does want him back and she must care for him."

"But if he's bad again, she'll get angry."

"Yes, but if he's here she can guide him to be better. Teach him to be good. This is his home. Father has been helping me write to him so he will want to come back. Maybe you could write, too, or we could send him a present. He must miss us both terribly. You know he loves us."

"I suppose. I could send him the frog I found!"

"Well, maybe not the frog."

"Can I send a bug?"

"A-Cheng, I really think it would be better not to send anything alive. Maybe a picture?"

"Drawing is boring."

"A-Cheng."

"What about the funny rock I found? that's not alive. can I send that?"

"Yes. That sounds good. I'm sure A-Ying will love it. You go get it and I'll ask Father to put it in with the newest letter."

Running off happily, Jiang Cheng went to retrieve his rock, while Jiang Yanli went to get her Father's help with a new letter.

***

Standing in the doorway, Lan Qiren quietly observed his family. Xichen sat at his small desk, finishing his lesson, while the little ones played by his feet. Some new game where his shoe had somehow transformed into a rampaging beast and was menacing his spare socks and a teacup.

Taking a deep breath he entered and closed the door behind him, drawing their attention. A-Ying jumped up immediately, running over and grabbing his hand to draw him into the game. A moment later A-Zhan joined them, tentatively taking Lan Qiren's other hand. This was a new developement as before A-Zhan had been reluctant to engage physically, but now that seemed to be changing. He knew how happy that made Xichen as he was now able to hug his little brother without feeling him turn into a block of stone. In truth, it pleased Lan Qiren too, although he had never before realised that this was something he wanted.

Giving the small hands a squeeze, he settled himself down with the boys by his side, beckoning that Xichen should join them.

"Boys, there is something I need to talk to you about."

"What is it, Shufu. Is something wrong?"

"No Xichen. Nothing wrong. In fact, this is something good. At least, I think so, and hope you will to."

Xichen was confused. It wasn't like his uncle to ramble like this. He was usually so direct, but he said it was a good thing so he wasn't worried. Shufu never lied.

Taking a deep breath, lan Qiren looked at Wei Ying. "A-Ying, are you happy here?"

Wei Ying started. "Yes, Lan Xiansheng. I'm so happy. Everyone has been so kind to me and I have my own bed and my own comb now. I know so many rules and I follow all of them, don't I Lan Zhan?"

Lan Zhan nodded and hummed. Then, in case his uncle didn'tfullu comprehend added, "Wei Ying is good."

Patting both boys on the head, Lan Qiren nodded. "I know. I know Wei Ying is good. But A-Ying, even if you do sometimes break a rule, it's okay. As long as you try your best, that's enough."

Getting agitated, Wey Ying shook his head in denial,"no, no, A-Ying is good. A-Ying will follow all the rules, always."

Holding his now shaking hand, Lan Qiren soothed him. "I know you will always do your best, but even if you do accidentally break a rule I need you to know that I will understand. Even A-Zhan has broken a rule."

Amazed, Wei Ying stared open mouthed at Lan Zhan who nodded sadly. Lan Zhan had broked a rule? But Lan Zhan was perfect! How could that be? Wide eyed, he looked back to Lan Qiren.

"So you see, A-Ying, all I ask of you is that you always try to be the good, kind boy I know you are. Do you understand?"

Wei Ying wasn't sure he did. He could make mistakes? He could break a rule and not be thrown away? His mind was reeling.

Lan Qiren gave his hand a little tug, getting his attention back. "That doen't mean you can run riot, A-Ying. You still should try to be good and follow the rules. Simply that you are young and still learning. Don't be afraid. I promise, if you fall, I will pick you up."

Wei Ying's smile was blinding. He hugged Lan Qiren's leg, bouncing happily. Patting him again, Lan Qiren continued. "Well then. A-Ying, since you want to be here, and we want you to be here, I would like, with your consent, to adopt you."

Silence. Nothing but blank looks. Had he been wrong? Was this a mistake. Then Xichen gave a happy squeal. "A-Ying, you would be my little cousin, my Tangdi! You could call me Tangge. If you wanted. Do you want to? A-Ying? Do you?"

"Your cousin? I could call you Tangge? Really. What about Lan Zhan? What would I call Lan Zhan? Could I still call him Lan Zhan? I like calling him Lan Zhan. I like just saying Lan Zhan. And Lan Xiansheng. what would I call Lan Xiansheng? Will I be a Lan? Lan Ying? I won't be Wei Ying anymore?" He was so confused. What did all this mean?

Pulling the boy into his lap, Lan Qiren huffed a laugh. "A-Ying, it's alright. Wei Ying can still be Wei Ying. The choice is yours. Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze will still be your parents. Only that, since they can't be here, I will be with you in their place. I will make sure you get enough to eat, have a bed to sleep in, that you clean your teeth and brush your hair. You will have a ribbon, like Xichen and A-Zhan, and we will be family. You will grow up here, alongside A-Zhan and when you are old enough, you will get a sword and be a disciple. You can call Xichen and A-Zhan whatever they wish you to call them, and they will call you whatever you wish to be called. As for me, I know you called your father Baba, so perhaps you could call me Die or Fuqin?"

"A-Die?"

Chest tight, Lan Qiren Nodded. "I would like that very much A-Ying."

"Can I still be Wei Ying?"

"Of course. Your parents were good people, and deserve to be remembered. I have already spoken with a craftman. He is making tablets for them both. They weren't Lan, so I'm sorry, but they can't be kept in the Ancestral Hall, but we can build a shrine for them so you can visit with them, and honour them. You can even choose where you want the shrine to be if you wish."

Overwhelmed, Wei Ying burst into tears, clinging desperately to Lan Qiren and pulling Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen in close. Lan Qiren hugged them all. His family.

***

She watched the white clad cultivators as they wandered through the market. They were young, and hadn't yet learned discretion. They weren't shouting but she could easily hear them as she followed at a safe distance.

"No, it's true. Lan Xiansheng is definitely adopting Wei Ying. A-Niang told me. There's going to be a ribbon ceremony and everything."

"The Elders agreed?"

"They did. A-Niang siad that at first, they were worried about fallout from the Jiang, but Lan Xiansheng convinced them."

"I still can't believe that our little master stood up to Madam Yu. That woman is terrifying."

"He probably didn't really do it. The stories have to be exaggerated. He's seven. She was probably just telling the Wei boy off and Lan Zhan interfered so it became this whole big thing."

"Are you crazy? Wei Ying was in the infirmary for weeks. You think what, he was so devestated at being scolded that he had a mental breakdown that needed weeks of recovery? Come on. A-Niang said that she heard Daifu say that Lan Zhan saved Wei Ying's life. His life."

"Wow. Lan Zhan always seems so quiet and reserved. Who would have thought he had such courage?"

"Well, they say it's always the quiet ones. And just think, if he's willing to stand up to Madam Yu for a complete stranger, what wouldn't he do for us, his sect brothers?"

Nidding in agreement, the disciples moved off. She watched them go. So, the rumours she had heard were true. Maybe it was time to pay a visit to Cloud Recesses.

#the untamed #untamed fic #untamed fanfiction #wangxian

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stiricidewrites · 1 year ago

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The Damage You Do: ch 17, pt 4

Previously~

Extra long, cause I was having difficulties writing yesterday and forced myself to make up for it >_<

CW: more consensual noncon, mentions of hitmen and generally bad consequences of working for the mob

“Nn—” wwx bite out, trying to tell lwj off, each of his brutal thrusts forcing a new word out of him. “That— ’s— not— what— I— meant!” he cried, voice almost wobbly to lwj’s ears—almost. The sound wasn’t quite right, though. It was too forced, too fake to be real distress—real tears threatening at his eyes—and suddenly lwj wanted nothing more than to make the man cry, to see those beautiful silver eyes filled up with tears because lwj had taken and taken and taken from him until he sobbed out for relief—until he broke. Then he could wrap himself around his adorable sub as much as he wanted—as much as he was afraid to admit he needed. He enjoyed taking care of his subs—both in the general and aftercare sense—but this, wanting wwx in his arms as he floated back to reality…

One of his first subs had actually hated being touched during aftercare, preferring to be tucked into a fluffy bed and left to come back up with only the occasional check in. Another had barely even wanted aftercare, only really tolerating it because he was being paid to sit there and let lwj wash his hair, and the tension that caused between them had been too much for the relationship to last. Another had loved aftercare, but never truly been soft—never truly been dependent on lwj to protect him, to keep him safe until he came back up.

wwx needed that. wwx needed to be held and caressed and lwj was quite sure that, did he not have a child who required his attention and physical existence, the man would be perfectly content to live in his lap. And oh, how lwj loved him there. He would happily let wwx spend the rest of his days there if he could. Soft and malleable and open about himself to the point of stupidity. It really was lucky for the man that his pseudo-grandmother had shown up to tell lwj about his past with the Jiangs before he accidentally let it slip. He hadn't yet, of course, but lwj was sure it was just a matter of time. Just a matter of time before wwx slipped up and mumbled about his so-called brother and sister, about whatever horrific abuse he had suffered at the hands of Madam Yu—whatever thing it was that had driven him out of their home and family.

Whatever thing—whether it be a scandal or death or anything else—it was that lwj would find himself fighting against when it came out that the two of them were now associated. Would the Jiangs let things lie? Be glad wwx was permanently out of their hair and entwined with the Lans? Would they start a war? Demand recompense for whatever had happened, for raising him—or perhaps for losing wwx as a member?

There were so many ways that—the revelation that lwj had permanently attached himself to wwx—would go. Every family had a different way of handling their affairs, the members who left their groups. The Lans rarely let anyone go, preferring to simply assign them to less important tasks or keep them under their umbrella as regular workers in their empire—most everyone who worked at one of their restaurants, law firms, or whatever else they happened to hold at the time were fully aware they were working for the mob and would never be allowed true freedom ever again, although they were far more free than either ex-Jin or Wen members were.

The Wens killed those who even thought to leave, body parts laid strewn across the city as a message to the world: Once a Wen, Always a Wen.

The Jins killed a fair few of their ex-members as well, although they were more likely to be officially allowed to leave, only to show up dead a few weeks later—or worse, disappear altogether. No death had ever been tracked back to the Jins—unlike the Wens, where it was an open secret Wen Zhuliu was their top hit man and the cops just couldn’t get enough evidence to convict him. No one who disappeared ever reappeared—but there were rumours. Rumours of sales into slavery and prostitution and transplant rings and heaven knew what else.

Everyone knew the Wens would kill you if you left; everyone suspected the Jins would make you wish you were dead.

The Nies, on the other hand, tended to simply let their members go, seemingly with nothing but a fond farewell—lwj had long suspected that nhs had a hand in keeping those who left quiet and obedient, however. Many people—both of their elder brothers included—tended to look upon the younger Nie boy as flighty, content to run his wh*res and party all day long—lwj was not so stupid. nhs had his hand in practically every pot, and lwj had taken great efforts through the years to maintain his passing friendship with the man, generally finding subs through him, and sharing secrets with one another. Speaking of which, nhs had yet to respond to his request for information on the Jiangs and wwx. It wasn’t exactly uncommon for the man to take days—and occasionally weeks—to respond, but someone lwj had a feeling the man was avoiding him (nhs had responded to a request for a sub by someone lwj had referred after his own message had gone ignored).

As for the Jiangs… no one really knew. It was so rare for someone to leave, and as far as lwj knew wwx had been the last to do so—something that had been completely secret for over a decade. He was fairly sure his sub’s father, Wei Changze, had effectively left the group sometime before wwx was born, however little detail of that was available on that either, and he knew for certain that the man had returned several times before his apparent death to do work for the Jiangs. He had found several similar occurrences over the last few decades during his research into the group, following the Smoking Flower’s visit. Members left, disappeared from public view, only to reappear and then vanish again. So perhaps no one ever truly left the Jiangs, which meant…

“Hey~” wwx whined back at him. “You’re doing it again! What’s the point of doing this if you aren’t paying attention!” he added, and oh. This time he truly did sound close to tears and lwj wanted to see it—the tearing welling in his eyes, the way his lips wobbled and his jaw clenched—the hand he had been using to hold wwx’s hips rising to twist the man’s face towards him.

wwx blinked watery eyes back at him and lwj had to will himself not to come at the sight of the man’s beautiful, wrecked expression, his nose blushed over in cold and embarrassment and distress that lwj wanted to worsen, the sadist inside him preening at the reality that he had done that. He had made his bratty, impatient little sub break, not by r*ping him in the woods, but by ignoring him while he did it.

“What’s wrong?” lwj asked, leaning in to press his lips to one of the tears sliding down wwx’s cheek. “Does Wei Ying not like being used as a hole to keep my cock warm while I think?”

wwx shuddered, his hole clenching erratically around lwj’s girth as he shook his head and nodded it in turn. “No!” he said, eyes fluttering shut as he tugged against lwj’s grip. “No!”

lwj hummed, hauling wwx backwards into his chest, the change in angle dragging a moan out of the other man. “Too bad. Wei Ying makes the perfect home for my cock.”

#stiricidesmobji #wangxian #mdzs fanfiction #fanfic #dark lan zhan

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flautistsandpeonies · 3 years ago

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AITA For Sticking Up For My Mother Against My Father and Foster Sibling?

Alternative title: The Grandmaster of Assholes

You can also read this on my Wordpress.

Tags: Not For JC Fans, JC Canon Characteristics, JC Canon Homophobia, JC Canon Misogyny, Not For Madam Yu Fans, Madam Yu Canon Characteristics, Alternate Universe: Modern AU, a slight attempt at humor for me

Word Length: 2,757

Time to Read: 16 Minutes

Chapter Summary: Jiang Cheng posts on the AITA Reddit

Right, so last week I (22M) got into a fist fight with my foster sibling (22M) after my father (52M) called him and told him to come back to our house. The bastard ended up breaking my arm, and now I have to wear a cast for an entire month. My mother (52F) and father are now arguing about my mom taking legal action against him.

Some context:

My foster brother has always been an annoying and tedious ass. He always loves causing trouble and trying to show me up cause he was born into a poor, nomadic family and I was born quite wealthy. My dad brought him into our home thirteen years ago after his parents died in some car crash or something, I don’t care to remember, and his parents had my father as a guardian on his papers since they were both orphans.

My dad has never loved me, and has always favored my foster brother. He spent more time with my brother when we were young, taking him to what he claimed was physical therapy but I knew he just wanted to spend some alone time with him. On the contrast, my father rarely even looks at me, and if we are near each other he’s scolding me over something I have no control over- like being like my mother or not doing everything “like the family motto”.

My father has also never loved my mother. They got together in an arranged marriage (I don’t want any comments about how “traditional” and “old school” it was, mind your damn business) and my father has never given my mother the time of day. Despite having two kids with her (I have an sister (25F), they don’t even sleep in the same wing of the mansion and don’t spend any time together.

Anyway, my mom threw my foster brother out when we were seventeen after he stole first place in a contest from me. It was a special event held by our mutual family vocations and I was the only heir to not get a prize; he just had to show me up in front of everybody, again!

The son of a bitch was so full of himself that instead of waiting until my father got home that night to let him inside, he took a bus a few towns over to go stay with his friend (Wen Ping or something). Serves him right though, cause my mom had the locks changed the next day.

After that, my dad got so angry with my mom, saying that one of his colleagues, who we’ll call WRH threatened to go to the media about our family abusing 🙄🙄🙄 my foster brother if my dad didn’t sign guardianship over to him. My parents fought for such a long time over that, it was even worse than the normal fights my brother caused. It got so bad that my sister left the house to stay with her fiance’s family.

In the end, my father did end up signing guardianship over to WRH, and you would think that my life would get better after that, but no, it got worse!

When my foster brother started living with WRH he started to show up everywhere in our family’s social circles for academic rewards and flute recitals. It was like WRH had adopted him as his son or some shit; it was ridiculous.

My mom was so angry cause my foster brother was clearly trying to show me up again, cause my father wouldn’t dare showcase my achievements like that and he knew it.

Back to the present. My father claimed that he called my foster brother here after all these years to get his shit that my father refused to allow my mother to throw away- seriously, his trash has just been sitting in a room all these years collecting dust- now that he was getting married to his fiance and moving in with him. (I had no idea the man was gay, ugh.)

I know that had to be a lie though cause I have a big event coming up that I prepared a speech for, and my foster brother is going to be present as his fiance’s plus one. (Blergh). My father had read over my speech, and told me it was “too confrontational and lacking regard for the other familys’ beliefs and history”. (I told you he never approved of me.)

Anyway, my mom and I caught them red-handed after we came back from shopping for new suits for the event. My foster brother was on the front lawn with a woman we’ll call WQ and Wen Ping loading his trash into a moving van. My dad was handing him a file box, and I knew it had to have all my speeches and work plans in it.

My mom knew too and started arguing with my father about trying to sabotage me again. My father, as usual, denied it, and even raised his voice at her. She started going in on my foster brother as well. However, my foster brother had learned to disrespect my mother from somewhere (I’m betting it was WRH) and was talking back to her saying that she “had no power over him anymore.” and “wasn’t worth his time”.

I fucking lost it and tackled him then and there. We ended up tussling all the way into the front yard’s fountain and he broke my arm over the statue. I remember almost fucking drowning while that son of a bitch took everything and left.

My mom was so fucking pissed she’s going to take him to court for robbery and assault. I’d like to see WRH get him out of that.

So, that’s all that happened. I’m having my room’s maid type this for me as it is, but I really need her to get back to work. I don’t really care about comments; I already know I was in the right in this situation, I just needed somewhere to vent really.

...

Comments:

That-One-Lizard: Wait, so your mom threw your foster brother out of the house when he was 17? For winning a competition??? -Original Poster: He wasn’t supposed to win. It should have been my trophy, but he got in the way. Weren’t you paying attention? --That-One-Lizard: Dude.....he was 17...... ---Original Poster: And? I mean he was honestly lucky she didn’t beat him with the family’s discipline whip; that’s what she normally does when he shows me up. She was just tired after a long night and didn’t want to deal with him. ----That-One-Lizard: .........No comment......... ----Angel-Food-Cake: What the fuck...... ----Chicken-Elizabeth-Nugget: What the fuck is a discipline whip? Do I even want to know? -----Original Poster: Are you two stupid or something? A discipline whip is exactly what it’s called, a whip for disciplining unruly and traitorous people. ------Angel-Food-Cake: WRH shouldn’t have gone to the media, he should have gone to the police. What the absolute fuck, no wonder he didn’t come back home! Your mother’s a crazy fucking bitch, who does that to a child??!! -------Original Poster: Fuck you!!! How dare you insult my mother!!! --------Chicken-Elizabeth-Nugget : I realize now why your father doesn’t like her. (Click here to continue thread)

Broccoli-Bandit: Gonna need a little bit more context about the foster brother before I can decide. -Original Poster: What more do you need to know?? He ruined my life!!! Broccoli-Bandit: You said he liked causing trouble? --Original Poster: He loves to act like he’s so charitable and shit, like he wasn’t using my family’s money. One time, he even gave his entire allowance away to a beggar woman on the streets and my dad dipped into his own monthly budget to give him more. My parents fought for three days. ---Broccoli-Bandit: ........What the fuck? So he’s a normal human being?? ----Original Poster: What’s normal about wasting money? Also, he was always getting into fights with other men trying to get with women, just so he could be some knight type of character. (Click here to continue thread)

All-Around-Me: You are definitely the asshole for your homophobia alone. -Original Poster: Are you fucking serious? That shit is not normal; what normal person wants to have sex with another man? --All-Around-Me: You’re disgusting. ---Original Poster: Disgusting my ass! My foster brother’s the one that disgusting; it’s like he got possessed or something. I swear he’s not so much as looked at another man in my presence. ----All-Around-Me: Probably cause you’re a homophobic piece of shit??? (Click here to continue thread)

ChaoChao: NTA, that street rat should have known better than to come into better people’s homes and steal fathers’ affection from the blood children. I can’t imagine what the two sons of WRH went through in his household after he came there. -Original Poster: How do you know WRH has two sons? --ChaoChao: None of your fucking business, just take my opinion.

Bi-the-Bi: I feel like the sections about the foster brother are intentionally vague. -Original Poster: What the fuck do you mean vague? I told you everything you need to know! --Bi-the-Bi: You’re just constantly calling him an asshole, and claiming to know all his intentions? The only thing he’s done that we know of is leave after your mom kicked him out (nice mom by the way *sarcasm*) and defended himself after you attacked him. ---Original Poster: I told you he was trying to steal my work. And don’t you dare insult my mother!!! ---- Bi-the-Bi : No, you said you “knew”, which doesn’t immediately mean you were right. That could have been his birth certificate or something, awards from school since you say he was so smart. (Click here to continue thread)

Load More Comments (256)

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Edit:

Okay, since some people brains can’t seem to function properly I guess I have to give you my entire life story for you to understand “the whole story”.

I (22M) was born to JFM (52M) and YZY (52F). They had JYL (25F) three years before me. My parents were arranged to marry by my mother’s request. Even then my father couldn’t recognize what a woman my mother was and did his best not to marry her, however my grandfathers banded together to make the marriage happen.

My father always made family life hard even before my foster brother got there. He never gave me or my mother attention, claiming that because my mother refused to take on the duties as the house’s madam he had to run both his position and her’s. Instead of supporting my mother’s endeavors, he spoke against her and my mother started going out of the house even more than usual to the point where I only see her for a couple of weeks a month.

Things got even worse when my foster brother (22M) got there. Like I said, his parents died and my father picked him up. My father started spending a lot of time with him. “Doctor appointments” for his legs after the accident, my father claimed, but my mother always showed me the receipts for the hunan restaurants he always took him to on those days.

My foster brother always loved to show me up. He did everything he could to have better grades than me, look better than me, have more friends than me, anything he could think of, he did it. Everyone always fell for his good-boy shtick; everyone, except for me and my mother.

My mother knew that my foster brother was likely my half-brother. His mother was apparently a real whore and got around with a lot of men before she married my dad’s butler and took off. My mother thinks that since my foster brother is only five days older than me, she must’ve snuck back into our home to sleep with my dad when my mom was out one day. My father once got a paternity test, but he paid the doctor off to skew the results to hide the truth.

My father denies that my foster brother is actually my half-brother, but he shows it in how he treats us. He hates my mother, so he hates me, but he loved his mother, so he loves him. Whatever I do can never seem to please him, but my brother can apparently paint a banner with our families crest and motto and my father hangs it up for all to see.

My mother does not tolerate my brother. Whenever he does something foolish or other deserving of punishment, she deals with him the only way she knows how. She has to use physical punish so he’ll learn, and she makes him sleep outside so he’ll remember his place- a half breed will never be allowed to inherit.

Anyway, things came to a head at one of our mutual family conference five years ago. Now that I think about it was WRH’s conference; I bet he set it up for my foster brother to get ahead of me! My foster brother/half-brother stole my trophy from me in front of our entire social circle and embarrassed me in in front of all of my peers.

My father had to stay behind to sort out some matter, and my mother, sister, and I went home. My mom threw my brother out for what he did to me and I took back my trophy from him while he picked himself up out of the lotus pond. We locked the door after that and went to bed. The next morning, my father was looking for him (figures), but we couldn’t find him.

A week later my father up getting a call from WRH’s secretary. My foster/half brother apparently went to his niece’s WQ house and was staying there for the time being. He wanted my father to sign over guardianship of my foster/half brother lest “our reputation be damaged”. My father blamed my mother for everything and they fought again.

My father ended up signing the guardianship over, and that should have been it. My life should have gotten better without him there to ruin it. But, as he was determined to make my life a living hell, he did all he could to put his name out there. I can’t imagine how much money WRH wasted on him. I spent five years continuing to live in his shadow.

It came to a head again just last week. Like I said before, my father was trying to sabotage my speech, giving my foster/half brother a heads up. I knew that if he read my speech he would probably say something to one up me at the conference. My mother knew it too, that’s why she said something. How could I have just stood there while my father and that bastard disrespected her in her own home? I did what I had to do and that son of a bitch broke my arm, so now I’ll see him in court.

Now that I’ve laid the story out more plainly for you will you people stop acting like my foster/half brother is some sort of helpless victim?

...

Comments:

I-Hate-Sabers: ....I’m going to ruin your life. I’m going to ruin your mother’s life. You two are going to wish she never left Meishan. -Original Poster: Who the fuck do you think you are? -Original Poster: Answer me you son of a bitch! -Original Poster: Probably another pussy who’s all talk over the computer but pisses themselves when ordering food.

Emperor-of-the-Smile: Definitely The Asshole. I don’t know what’s funnier: the fact that this piece of shit thinks he’s in the right or the fact that he thinks if he talks more about how he and his mother treated his foster brother like shit we’ll start agreeing with him. -All-Around-Me: I think it’s that he thinks he’s in the right. -Chicken-Elizabeth-Nugget: I think it’s how he’s so far up his own ass he can’t see or smell anything but himself. --Original Poster: Fuck all of you. I put this on here to vent about my frustrations, but you’re making shit up about me that’s not true. (Click here to continue thread)

ChaoChao: Still NTA, am I supposed to feel sympathy for some slutty woman’s orphan son. I mean look at all the trouble he cause people in his life! -First-Born-Sun: Chao-er, shut the fuck up.The only person in our household who doesn’t like Ying-er is you. --ChaoChao: I thought you said reddit was beneath you? ---First-Born-Sun: Not when someone I actually like and respect is mentioned. ----ChaoChao: You just like him cause you want to fuck him!!! -----First-Born-Sun: And? ------Original Poster: Who are you people?!

Plum-Soup: Definitely the Asshole. I don’t know who I feel for more. The father trapped in this abusive arranged marriage, or the foster brother who went from one traumatic situation to the next. -Original Poster: Why should you feel for them at all? My mother and I are the victims here!!! --Plum-Soup: Get help, asshole. (Click here to continue thread)

Lady-Mai: The asshole. Homophobic? Check. Misogynistic? Check. Abusive as all fuck? There’s not enough paper in the world to check this off. -Original Poster: Go fuck yourself!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes:

Hope you all enjoyed. I’ve never actually been on reddit before and the only posts I’ve seen from it are on tumblr. Hope I did a good job!

Read the Next Chapter

Read My Other Prompts and WIPs [Here]

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grewlikefancyflowers · 4 years ago

Text

JC’s deeply rooted resentment of WWX, JFM’s parenting, and the inevitability of the falling out of the ‘Yunmeng bros’.

In discussion of the breakdown of JC and WWX’s relationship, their falling out is often regarded as a mutual failing on both sides to properly communicate and maintain their relationship. I’m making the case here that their falling out was a foregone conclusion from the start, and in no part due to the actions of Wei Wuxian.

This is because YZY has instilled in JC the idea that JFM dislikes him, something he believes before WWX arrives in Lotus Pier, JC already feels inferior, thus as soon as potential competition for JFM’s attention comes along in the form of WWX, JC resents him, believes JFM prefers him, and looks for reasons to justify this.

Summarising their very first interactions - from chapter 71 - WWX arrives at LP, sees JC with his puppies and is so terrified that he refuses to come down from JFM’s arms the entire day. The second day, JFM gives JC’s puppies away.

Now, I would like to think that no one seriously believes that this is an act of favouritism, but I have seen this case being made so I just want to make clear that WWX is obviously traumatised by his previous interactions with dogs. After trying for a whole day to comfort WWX, with no success, JFM does not exactly have any other choice than to give the puppies away, WWX cannot be expected to live in constant terror in the place that is supposed to be his home.

Consequently, ‘This angered Jiang Cheng so much that he threw a big tantrum. No matter how much Jiang FengMian comforted him gently, telling him that they should ‘be good friends’, he refused to talk to Wei WuXian.’

JC’s reaction is fairly understandable for an 8 year old. JFM comforts JC, and does not treat him callously or dismiss him, however it takes several days until JC will even talk to WWX.

When JC does start to warm up to him, JFM thinks it’d be a good idea for them to have a sleepover, JC is on the ‘verge of agreeing’ to this, which JFM is overjoyed by - so much so that he picks WWX up.

This is not an example of favouritism, JFM doesn't repeatedly give affection to WWX and not JC, he holds him twice - the first instance being purely because WWX was too terrified to leave his arms, the second being this one. These are the only two times where JFM is described as being affectionate towards WWX, JC is still in the lead on this count. But JC interprets this as JFM preferring WWX.

This results in the JC shutting WWX out at night.

At that time, Wei WuXian didn’t know what Jiang Cheng was mad about at all. After a pause, he replied, “I didn’t steal anything. It’s Uncle Jiang who told me to sleep with you.”

Hearing that he was still bringing up his father, almost as if he was purposely showing off, Jiang Cheng’s eyes reddened as he yelled, “Go away! If I see you again, I’ll call a bunch of dogs to bite you!”

This is the important part - JC sees WWX in the worst possible light, and rarely thinks of WWX as a person outside of how he directly impacts JC - he concludes that WWX is purposefully antagonising him, this is a trend that continues well into adulthood.

Then, when WWX flees LP after JC threatens him with dogs, JYL tells JC to find people to help search for him. However,

‘If any other disciple or servant learned about this and told Jiang FengMian, after Jiang FengMian knew how he threw Wei WuXian’s sheets out and made him hurt his leg, Jiang FengMian would definitely dislike him even more. This was also why he only dared chase after them alone and didn’t get anyone else.’

JC has obviously behaved wrongly here, and JFM would be right to scold him for it, but JC interprets this as JFM disliking him. We haven’t seen anything to suggest that JFM actually dislikes JC, he always treats him quite gently, actually. But JC is already at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, and twists events to suit this - if his dad scolds him for misbehaving, it’s because he dislikes him. This pattern repeats after the Xuanwu Cave arc too.

This is because Madam Yu has ingrained into him the idea that JFM dislikes him, because he’s her son. This has nothing to do with WWX - because both her and JC already believe that JFM dislikes JC prior to WWX’s arrival - she only sees him as additional fuel to use.

The only other person who mentions JFM supposedly treating WWX better than JC is JZX. I’m sure it's a coincidence that he’s the son of YZY’s best friend.

‘“Doesn’t he treat you better than treating his own child or something?”’

Note the ‘or something’, - JZX doesn’t seem to know this with certainty - he’s repeating what others have said, despite having visited Lotus Pier several times (as stated in ch.69), JZX hasn’t seen evidence for himself that JFM prefers WWX.

‘“Maybe I should’ve let you hit him, while I stand aside and watch. This way, Uncle Jiang might not need to come. Oh well, I really couldn’t hold back!”’

We know that WWX doesn’t see JFM as favouring him - so what does he mean by this? Well, LQR has had it out for WWX from the moment they met, and has already sent a letter to JFM complaining of his behaviour - at this point WWX doesn’t know that this results in them breaking the JZX/JYL engagement either, so he’s probably purely thinking that LQR summoned JFM to CR to discuss WWX’s repeated offenses. JC hasn’t done anything to invoke LQR’s ire (or rather, he’s gotten away with everything he has done), so WWX thinks that if JC fought JZX, it would not have been treated so seriously, compared to WWX, who has repeatedly misbehaved.

Contrary to fanon interpretation, WWX is not oblivious to other people’s feelings, he’s very empathetic, and additionally understands JC very well. He doesn’t see how JC is feeling here, because JC’s feelings are just so illogical...

‘Although it was only Wei WuXian’s casual words, he held mixed feelings, because he knew that this wasn’t a lie.

Jiang FengMian had never hurried to another sect in one day for anything related to him, no matter if the issue was good or bad, large or small.

Never.’

Once again, JC’s at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, he twists events to support this. He’s looking at this scenario very strangely - JFM didn’t rush to CR because he likes WWX, he was called there by LQR, to discuss JYL’s engagement with JZX. Secondly, we’re never given any examples of scenarios where JC does anything to warrant JFM rushing over. As far as we know, they never even stay with other sects. Knowing JC’s personality, his dislike of doing anything to rock the boat, it’s extremely unlikely that he’s ever done anything to warrant JFM rushing over like this. Moreover, it’s a bizarre thing to be jealous of, WWX is in trouble, he’s not on the receiving end of positive attention from JFM.

JC’s flawed reasoning is once again illustrated after the Xuanwu Cave arc...

‘Jiang Cheng’s expression was complicated after he had finished listening.’

This is Jiang Cheng’s reaction after WWX credits LWJ with killing the tortoise of slaughter - this is before JFM congratulates him. Before JFM says anything, JC is purely resentful about WWX having done something heroic, more so, resentful that WWX is willingly to let LWJ take most of the credit - he’s annoyed about this, most likely feeling that WWX is rubbing in his face that he doesn’t need the recognition that JC so desperately craves.

‘Jiang FengMian nodded and said, “You did well.”

Killing a giant 400-year-old beast at only 17 was way beyond what one would call ‘doing well.’’

JFM knows about JC’s… issues, he knows how he’ll react to WWX’s receiving recognition, he likely purposefully downplays his praise to avoid upsetting him. (Who’s really being favouritised? Lol)

But, even to this, JC reacts badly, he lashes out at WWX, once more interpreting him in the worst possible way.

‘Jiang Cheng hissed, “Too fucking bad, then. You shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn and you shouldn’t have cared so damn much about such a trivial thing. If you’d never moved in the first place –”’

JC’s response is to basically tell him the entire incident was his fault. Which is objectively not true - WWX only gets involved in the conflict after it has already started, and then he acts deliberately to try to end it, rather than impulsively fighting. He also starts to say that WWX should have left their allies - LWJ and JZX - to die. This is where JFM cuts him off, and tells him it’s not appropriate to say such things - he’s not scolding him harshly, JC is not being unfairly treated here, he’s done wrong, and JFM is trying to teach him why, you know, parenting. But JC, and YZY, take this to mean JFM dislikes JC.

JFM tries to teach JC about the Jiang sect’s motto once more - this is of course, not just about the motto, but about the values that JFM wants to instill in him, as a parent.

This is where Madam Yu arrives.

“Yes, he doesn’t understand, but what does it matter, as long as Wei Ying understands?!”

Of course, what she says is nonsensical, it does matter to JFM that JC understands the motto, that’s why he’s trying to teach him. If he did not care, he would have given in already.

This is further supported...

‘Jiang Cheng’s appearance and temperament all resembled his mother’s. Jiang FengMian guided him from childhood, but no matter how much he tried, he still couldn’t change his son’s nature. As such, it always seemed like he disliked his son.’

JFM has never been dismissive of JC just because he’s YZY’s son, he’s always tried to teach him, but JC always had his mother’s nature - YZY’s nature being harsh, standoffish, foul tempered, with no care for others - Note that is says it ‘seems’ like he dislikes his son, solely because he’s trying to teach him to be a better person. He has good reason for doing so - as a kid, JC never had friends, he doesn’t seem to as an adult either, he only has Jin Ling, whom he pushes away with his foul temper. JFM was just trying to raise JC to being an even-tempered person, capable of functioning in society, which is kind of what parents are supposed to do. But once more, this is taken as dislike.

Note that during JC’s outburst, every single thing JC claims about what JFM thinks of him, he’s parroting what YZY has said, none of these points have any actual evidence.

The next point to consider is how JC blames WWX for the fall of LP, despite it objectively not being his fault - JC knows this too.

‘In his heart, Jiang Cheng knew clearly that back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter at Dusk-Creek Mountain, even if Wei WuXian hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, the Wen Sect would have found some reason to come over sooner or later’

Even if WWX’s actions did prompt the Wens to act sooner than they otherwise might have - coming sooner or later would have made no difference at all because YZY outright stated she had no intention of preparing for an attack, even after WWX suggests they should, and JFM was still going to the Wens asking for their swords back - they were still uselessly trying to suck up to the Wens, thinking it would save them.

Despite knowing deep down that WWX was not to blame - he still uses it to fuel his resentment of WWX, because the resentment was there from the beginning, the only uncertainty is the means he uses to justify it.

During the ancestral hall confrontation - he uses this excuse again.

‘Jiang Cheng responded contemptuously, “You really are forgetful. What’s called a shameful person? Let me remind you. Just because you decided to be a hero and save this Second Young Master Lan, the entire Lotus Pier including my father and mother was buried. If this wasn’t enough, after the first time, you still want a second time, even wanting to save Wen-dogs and implicating my sister and her husband, how noble of you. Even nobler, you are so magnanimous to bring these two to Lotus Pier. Allowing the Wen-dog to stand at the front of my gates and letting Second Young Master Lan offer joss sticks, purely trying to antagonize me.’

Obviously, WWX did none of these things to antagonise JC, in fact he was going through a complex emotional journey of realising that he has feelings for LWJ, and that LWJ probably has feelings for him too, he doesn’t go to the ancestral shrine to mess around - he’s ‘introducing’ LWJ to JFM, YZY, and JYL, because he’s thinking about marrying him.

The problem is, JC never really sees WWX as a person, WWX has always been more of a concept - someone to compare himself to, the reason his father doesn’t like him, the reason his mother uses to berate him. It doesn’t occur to JC that WWX is a person outside of what he is to JC, and he is therefore incapable of empathising with what WWX might be feeling right now, instead the only possible conclusion is that he’s antagonising JC.

He follows the same line of thinking when WWX defects with the Wens. JC knows what he and WWX owe them, in fact JC owes them, far, far more than what WWX does - it was his parents whose bodies Wen Ning retrieved, and it was him who WN had to rescue from LP. But JC thinks, he can get away with not paying this debt, so why should he? JC is selfish, he doesn’t understand why WWX would want to help others when he doesn’t have to, so JC concludes, this is WWX showing off, ‘playing the hero’.

Because from the moment they met, JC has never tried to know WWX for who he is, whatever WWX does, JC interprets in a negative light - when WWX tries to get LWJ’s attention, (despite it being painstakingly obvious that WWX has a crush on him) JC concludes that WWX is messing around foolishly, without reason (parroting the untrue things YZY says about WWX always seeking trouble). When WWX wants to help people, he’s playing the hero, one upping JC. JC only ever thinks of WWX in relation to himself - when WWX disappears for three months, JC’s immediate complaint is that WWX kept him waiting, that he’s put JC out by making him search for him. You could argue that JC was just worried about WWX, and not able to express it - and on some level that’s true. But there’s a very intentional contrast between how LWJ and JC react to WWX’s return - LWJ is worried about WWX, about how his cultivation method is affecting him, moreover, WWX is very clearly not himself. JC, however, does not care for that - he only sees WWX, and modao, as a tool for killing Wens.

It takes almost nothing for JGS to manipulate JC into turning against WWX in ch.73 - he readily believes every negative thing JGS says about WWX, despite being called out directly for lying by LWJ. JGS talks as if he is a servant who has forgotten his place, unlike JYL, JC does not defend him. He refuses to speak up for him - he claims that no one will - yet LWJ and MianMian did. JC didn’t turn on WWX because it was impossible for him to speak up - he was living proof that WQ and WN did not support the Wen sect in the war, he drops him the moment he can because he’s resented him from the beginning.

Another interesting tidbit about JC just fundamentally not understanding who WWX is as a person, is that he only blames LWJ for the Xuanwu Cave incident - not JZX, despite him behaving no differently to how LWJ does. This is probably because he realises WWX’s fixation on LWJ, and supposes that this is the reason that WWX got involved in the conflict. But of course, WWX would have done something whether it was solely JZX, or just a random person.

Taking all this into account, it seems almost inevitable that WWX and JC would fall out eventually, because JC was, from the start, looking for reasons to dislike WWX, he turns against him at the first opportunity he got. For the ‘Yunmeng bros’ to have a healthy relationship, JC would simply have to fix his entire personality.

JC is unable to see WWX as a person, right up until the very end of the novel - when he recalls how he impulsively put himself at risk in order to save WWX. Finally, for the first time, JC is able to understand why WWX stood up for others in Xuanwu Cave, why he helped the Wens, because JC did the same thing, put himself on the line for WWX, probably the only time JC has ever acted so selflessly. And this is why he lets him go, he lets go of the things he blamed WWX for. For the first time, he is able to empathise with WWX, he understands that WWX was never ‘playing the hero’, seeking praise or recognition, he understands that WWX helps people purely because he feels in the moment that it’s the right thing to do. This is what enables him to finally let go of WWX.

I’m always a bit baffled when people claim mxtx never gave JC a happy ending, because this is his happy ending - him being able to realise that WWX never wronged him - when he finally lets go of this, he can live freely.

#mdzs #jc wank #mdzs meta #jiang cheng

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goodlucktai · 4 years ago

Text

out past the shallow breakers

the untamed pairing: jiang cheng & wei ying, jiang cheng & lan sizhui word count: 3148 read on ao3

“He died!”

The words ring loud, sharp—in the pavilion where they’re taking their evening meal, surrounded on all sides by untroubled water, the words seem to carry for miles.

It’s unlike Lan Sizhui to raise his voice at all, much less to raise it toward a senior. His hands, resting politely on his knees under the table, have curled into fists.

“Everyone goes on and on as though baba has so much to atone for,” Lan Sizhui says, each word lurching from his throat like a line of fierce corpses shambling through brush. “What more is there for him to give? What more do you want? He died.”

Jin Ling is staring at his friend as though he’s never seen him fully before. On Lan Sizhui’s other side, Wei Wuxian’s expression is shifting rapidly from alarm to comprehension. His gray eyes are full of a painful understanding.

“Sizhui ah,” Wei Wuxian says, touching the boy’s shoulder. “Come take a walk with me.”

Jerking his head in a nod, Lan Sizhui pushes to his feet and then pauses there. His Gusu Lan whites, those extra lines and layers that denote him a member of the main family, ghost elegantly around him when he lowers himself in a bow that is every inch deep that it needs to be and not one inch deeper.

“Sect Leader Jiang, this disciple apologizes,” he says. The cheerful ‘shushu’ of earlier that morning might as well be a memory of another life. “My behavior was unworthy.”

He doesn’t grit it out, the way Jin Ling would probably have had to. It doesn’t even seem to cost him any pride.

For one, single, impossible moment, it’s as though Jiang Yanli is standing there, making her apologies to their mother for her brothers’ sake, to spare them any pain she could. It didn’t matter that the blame wasn’t hers. It didn’t cost her any pride, either.

But Jiang Yanli didn’t have a chance to be a part of her nephew’s life, as much as she would have wanted to be. This likeness isn’t hers, not truly. Wei Wuxian was always more like his sister than he or Jiang Cheng were ready to admit.

“Forget it,” Jiang Cheng says. His voice is hoarse, but in the stillness of the water and the silence of the pavilion, it carries, too. “Go on.”

Wei Wuxian shepherds his son from the table. He glances back at Jiang Cheng once, a grimace of apology on his face, but then Lan Sizhui’s hand finds the trailing black hem of Wei Wuxian’s sleeve and clutches to it, and that steals all of Wei Wuxian’s attention as easily as a slap or a shout might have.

The moment they’re gone, Jin Ling lets out a breath he must have been holding, and rounds on his other uncle with wide eyes.

“What did you say?” Jin Ling blurts. “I wasn’t really paying attention, but it didn’t sound like—I mean, it sounded normal.”

Jiang Cheng is still staring at the place Lan Sizhui had stood.

The last living remnant of a persecuted clan, so much an amalgamation of his two fathers that it didn’t make sense that one of them had been dead for most of his young life—holding a grudge and bowing his head at the same time. Lan Wangji, in Jiang Cheng’s experience, has never once let something go that he could nurse icy resentment for instead. Wei Wuxian has always choked down hurt like it was second nature, no matter that it must feel like swallowing nails every time.

It was a normal conversation, but perhaps that’s exactly why Lan Sizhui couldn’t bear another second of it.

“He died,” Lan Sizhui had said, as raw as a fresh wound, or one that kept getting torn open again before it could heal. “What more do you want?”

“Ah, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian says the next morning, meeting him in the courtyard. “Did you sleep well?”

He’s smiling with a certain nervous energy that Jiang Cheng can only pick out because he spent the formative years of his life raising and being raised by his siblings. To an outsider, there probably wouldn’t be a single visible chink in that cheerful armor.

Jiang Cheng, for all his failings, isn’t an outsider. Not quite. The door between them is closed—has been closed for years, almost decades—but Wei Wuxian isn’t the one who closed it. There almost certainly isn’t a lock or talisman keeping Jiang Cheng from forcing it open again.

It won’t come open again easily. There is so much stacked in the way. Hurt and betrayal and grief throw their weight into keeping it shut, weighing it down on either side.

But—

“What more do you want?” Lan Sizhui had asked.

“Fine,” Jiang Cheng forces out. Wei Wuxian blinks, as if he didn’t expect a forthright answer, or any answer at all. Something about his open surprise at the barest scrap of civility makes Jiang Cheng add, “If you’re awake this early, you didn’t sleep at all.”

His brother takes the opening for what it is, and bends into character. “Oh! You know me so well!”

Mo Xuanyu’s body is smaller, slighter, than the body that Wei Wuxian was born into, and his face is not quite the same, but Wei Wuxian’s mannerisms shine through so clearly that it’s easy to look past everything else. Even the way he stands still is entirely his own, his whole body vibrating with the necessary focus it takes to keep from bursting into movement again.

He is so familiar. The most familiar thing in Jiang Cheng’s entire, almost-empty life.

“I’m sorry about last night,” Wei Wuxian says. The words spill from his mouth like river pebbles, scattering around their feet. There’s that echo of their jiejie again, smiling around I’m sorry. “Don’t hold it against him, please. He’s so young, and he’s struggling to make sense of some things. He was happy that you invited him to Lotus Pier.”

The past-tense makes Jiang Cheng want to flinch, but he doesn’t. He just stands there in the peach pink morning and absorbs the beginning of a goodbye.

“So you’re leaving, then?” he mutters.

“I think we’ve definitely worn out our welcome this time,” Wei Wuxian says, easily shouldering the blame for everyone else’s bad behavior. They might as well be twelve years old again, kneeling here in the courtyard under Madam Yu’s furious eyes. “But it’s alright! Wen Ning sent word that he’s waiting for us outside of Yunmeng and Sizhui is eager to see him. We’ll go find some trouble to get into before we head back home.”

He won’t say a word about this change of plans to his husband, but Lan Wangji will still find out—whether Lan Sizhui tells him, or Wen Ning, or he just picks up something from Wei Wuxian through osmosis—and the next cultivator conference will be excruciating. And if the Jiang clan gets anything out of it, it won’t be anything good. And Jiang Cheng will feel slighted and angry for months, until the next time Wei Wuxian swings by for a visit. And having his brother nearby will soothe an ache in the pit of Jiang Cheng’s chest that he’s able to ignore all the rest of the time. And then, inevitably, Wei Wuxian will look wistfully at the water, or linger for too long by the flowers their sister liked best, or bring some other manner of ghost to the dinner table, and Jiang Cheng will lash out because it’s the only way he knows how to handle hurt. And then Wei Wuxian will extract himself and go home to Cloud Recesses early, and Lan Wangji will rightly guess why. And it just never fucking ends, does it?

The grief he carries around with him—he’s not wrong to carry it. It’s his. He was hurt, time and again, by a person he used to count on not to hurt him. He’s two times an orphan; once when his parents died, and again when his siblings did. He had to rebuild his home from the ground up, by himself, with his own two hands. Everything he has is what he was able to dig out of the dirt and ashes.

It isn’t Wei Wuxian’s fault that Lotus Pier fell. It isn’t his fault that the Wens were persecuted, that they had nowhere else to turn for protection. And it isn’t—

This one hurts; this one comes away bleeding. Jiang Cheng forces himself through it anyway.

It isn’t Wei Wuxian’s fault that Yanli died.

She died for him, but he didn’t ask her to.

Jiang Cheng feels his brother’s golden core thrumming inside his chest, hyper-aware of it now in a way he rarely was before—how it feels the way the sun looks in the morning, warm and brilliant and spilling color across the dull gray of dawn.

He didn’t ask Wei Wuxian to cut himself open for Jiang Cheng’s sake. He can’t be blamed for his brother’s choices. And if that’s true (and it has to be true or Jiang Cheng will go insane) then Wei Wuxian can’t be blamed for their sister’s choice, either. Yanli died for Wei Wuxian because she loved him, and Wei Wuxian gave Jiang Cheng his golden core because he loved him, and Jiang Cheng never moved on and never let go because he loved them, too.

They weren’t raised to love softly or quietly. Love between the three of them was always fierce, like a wild animal baring its teeth. Clinging to each other in a world that wanted to rip them apart. Even Yanli, who smiled and spoke with such sweetness, went to war because her brothers were there.

“What more do you want?” Lan Sizhui had asked.

Jiang Cheng lifts his head. Wei Wuxian is already looking at him, poised, as ever, to leave the moment Jiang Cheng gives him any indication that he should, like a bird ready to fling itself into flight. His brother, dead for thirteen years and back again, and only sometimes-welcome in the place he used to call home. Only sometimes-wanted by the person who used to be his family.

In a world full of people missing people they’ll never see again, Wei Wuxian is a miracle that Jiang Cheng is entirely unworthy of.

He’s right to carry his grief, because it’s his. But he wouldn’t be wrong—it wouldn’t be a betrayal—if he chose to set it down.

“You find trouble as easy as breathing,” he says, speaking through his heart, where it’s lodged in his throat, “so that shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Maligned!” Wei Wuxian cries with an air of great sorrow. “Blatantly maligned, by my own flesh and blood!”

Jiang Cheng can’t say what he wants to say. He can’t find the words. There’s only so much of himself he can dig up and expose like raw nerves before the pain of it becomes overwhelming, and he reacts to the hurt the way he always does, and shoves Wei Wuxian away.

“Don’t forget to say goodbye to Jin Ling, or he’ll never forgive you,” Jiang Cheng settles for. “And I’ll be the one stuck hearing about it.”

“I would never forget my favorite nephew,” Wei Wuxian says easily.

“And if you fuck up, and get yourself into a stupid mess,” Jiang Cheng adds, before he loses his nerve, “don’t let me hear about it from someone else.”

For a moment, Wei Wuxian doesn’t seem to know what to say.

“What if it’s very stupid?” he finally asks, his voice at once both faint and painfully fond.

“What else is new?” Jiang Cheng snaps. “Just send for me, and I’ll come.”

Above them, the pink and orange of fresh dawn make way for vivid blue. As Jiang Cheng stands in his childhood home with his only brother, while the market comes to life outside the walls and the breeze sweeps the smell of lotus flowers and scallion pancakes through the courtyard, the years seem to fall away. For a brief, uninterrupted moment, they’re both back where they belong.

“Aiyah, shidi,” Wei Wuxian says. “Of course you will.”

The next time Jiang Cheng sees Lan Sizhui is at the cultivation conference in Gusu, two months later.

The boy smiles politely but greets him as ‘Sect Leader Jiang’ again, and next to him, Jiang Cheng can feel Jin Ling wince. Lan Sizhui’s counterpart, the wildly opinionated and deeply un-Lan-like Lan Jingyi is giving him a frank, up-and-down appraisal.

“I mean, I’ll give it to you,” he says baldly. “You’re brave. Like, if Hanguang-jun hated me as much as he hated you, I just wouldn’t show up. You couldn’t pay me to show up.”

“Jingyi,” Lan Sizhui says at length.

“No, I know. I’m just saying. Young Mistress,” he adds, sweeping into a deep, performative bow in front of Jin Ling, “if you’ll come with me, your presence is earnestly awaited by Young Master Ouyang in the library pavilion.”

“Shut up, Jingyi, I swear,” Jin Ling snaps, but he lets himself be herded away with only a single worried glance back at his uncle.

Lan Sizhui is gazing up at Jiang Cheng with a complicated expression. Even though the explosive anger of that disastrous dinner doesn’t seem likely to make a reappearance, there is still something troubled in his eyes.

“I wanted to apologize, shushu,” the boy says slowly. “Properly, that is. For the way I spoke to you last time.”

Ah. So the stiffness isn’t born of lingering irritation, but worry. These Lans, Jiang Cheng thinks, with significantly less venom than he’s used to thinking of the Lan sect with.

He has a well of patience for his nephews that has never run dry. Jin Ling has stretched it nearly to the limit, more than once, but it will take Lan Sizhui more than one emotional outburst to come even close. Given that they’ve only been family (for given value of the word) for a short while, it makes sense that Lan Sizhui wouldn’t know that.

“It wasn’t you that I was angry with, not really,” Lan Sizhui says, explaining when Jiang Cheng has already largely guessed. “I know that you care about baba in your own way, even if a-die doesn’t think so. But—there are—”

His young face folds in frustration, less remarkably than Jin Ling’s does when he’s having a snit, but just a creased forehead speaks volumes in this repressed sect.

“There are other people. Who say similar things. And they don’t mean it the way you mean it.”

Jiang Cheng knows that. He attended those meetings, too.

“And let me guess,” he says, “my idiot brother doesn’t want you speaking up for him.”

Lan Sizhui’s mouth twists. “He says that he did horrible things, and those people are well within their rights to feel about him however they want to feel about him. But—he did good, too. He protected my clan, even though he had to do it alone. I don’t remember very much,” he goes on, slightly quieter, “but I know that he made the Burial Mounds a warm and safe place for me. I know that I never felt scared or cold or hungry when I was there with him. And I don’t think most people could have done that.”

Jiang Cheng boxes up the involuntary pain that swells into place at the poking of this half-healed wound, and gives himself a moment to organize a reply. Talking to the mind-healer his chief physician recommended to him has helped a lot, not that he’ll give that smug witch the satisfaction of admitting it.

“Wei Wuxian hurt a lot of people, but so did everyone else,” he says when he’s certain he can say it without losing his composure. “We were at war. None of us are blameless. He was just the most convenient scapegoat. He still is.”

Lan Sizhui’s eyes are bright with vindication. He was born a Wen and raised a Lan, but there’s a streak of Jiang in there, too, Jiang Cheng thinks with pride. It’s that love that Jiang Cheng recognizes, the same kind of love that he and jiejie and Wei Wuxian had cultivated between them since they were children—the vicious, untamed kind of love that marches to war and claws its way up from hell and clings too hard to things it rightly should let go of.

“It isn’t fair,” Lan Sizhui says.

“No,” Jiang Cheng allows. “It isn’t.”

Wei Wuxian waves animatedly at Jiang Cheng from across the room, even though it makes Lan Qiren scowl at him. It’s reminiscent of every single stuffy banquet they had to sit through as kids, making faces at one another when Madam Yu’s eyes were turned away.

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes in return, and Wei Wuxian lights up like he’s been handed a pile of gold. Lan Wangji gazes at him with a tenderness that would be absolutely absurd if Wei Wuxian didn’t actually deserve every scant inch of it that got sent his way, and even though the entire cultivation world is waiting, he spares a moment to tuck a stray piece of hair behind Wei Wuxian’s ear.

Sect Leader Yao scoffs, a bit too loudly. “Shameless upstart.”

Lan Wangji’s eyes turn so sharp so fast that it promises violence.

Before he can say anything that starts another war, Jiang Cheng turns fully around in his seat.

“Problem?” he asks shortly.

Baffled, Sect Leader Yao’s gaze skates around the room for a moment before landing back on Jiang Cheng.

“If you have something to say about my brother,” Jiang Cheng says, his voice a snarl, zidian sparking on his arm, “say it so that I can hear you.”

“Ah, this meeting is off to such a lively start,” Wei Wuxian says into the ominous stillness of the room. “Shidi, you’re so energetic, why don’t you kick things off?”

It would be the first time in his career that he’s the first to speak at a conference. Openly disbelieving, Jiang Cheng looks from his brother to Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji’s eyes are narrowed, but not as though he’s sizing Jiang Cheng up for a coffin, which is how he usually sizes him up. All he does is tip his head incrementally, conceding the floor to him.

Gods. It’s that simple.

“You are really not a difficult person, are you?” Jiang Cheng says aloud.

“No,” Lan Wangji agrees, this force of nature who turned the world upside down and challenged every single person in it, who would do so again and again and again, just to be able to sit there and hold Wei Wuxian’s hand.

And then, in the closest the two of them have ever come to an understanding, Lan Wangji adds, “Neither are you.”

#mo dao zu shi #the untamed #yunmeng shuangjie #jiang cheng #wei ying #lan sizhui #mdzs #wangxian #my writing #mdzs fic

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thebananatroll · 2 years ago

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Chapter 4, part 2

二 . 烟花风月 Èr. Yānhuā fēngyuè Two . Matters of love between men and women

[宋嫂] 真是不好意思! 又一次劳烦少侠了… Zhēnshi bù hǎoyìsi! Yòu yīcì láofán shǎo xiále… I’m truly sorry! Once again troubling the young hero…

[Player] 举手之劳, 不必言谢。不过他们刚才提到的“鱼叔”.... Jǔshǒuzhīláo, bùbì yán xiè. Bùguò tāmen gāngcái tí dào de “yú shū”.... Merely the effort of lifting one’s hand, no need to say thanks. But the “Uncle Yu” they mentioned….

[宋嫂] 哦! 你说“鱼叔”呀? 他是住我家隔壁的邻里, 定居西湖也有些年头了。 Ó! Nǐ shuō “yú sh��” ya? Tā shì zhù wǒjiā gébì de línlǐ, dìngjū xīhú yě yǒuxiē niántóule. Oh! You said “Uncle Yu”? He’s the neighbor that lives next to my house, living in the West Lake also for some years already.

[宋嫂] 他平日里寡言少语, 独来独往, 成天剑不离手, 斗笠不离身。我也不知道他到底是做什么的… Tā píngrì lǐ guǎyán shǎo yǔ, dú lái dú wǎng, chéngtiān jiàn bùlí shǒu, dǒulì bùlí shēn. Wǒ yě bù zhīdào tā dàodǐ shì zuò shénme de… He is usually taciturn and rarely speaks, coming and going by himself, all day long his sword never leaving his hand, bamboo hat never leaving his body. I don’t even know what he does…

[宋嫂] 我听其他邻里说…鱼叔是个打手, 大家都有些怕他, 轻易不敢靠近。 Wǒ tīng qítā línlǐ shuō…yú shū shìgè dǎshǒu, dàjiā dōu yǒuxiē pà tā, qīngyì bù gǎn kàojìn. I heard from the other neighbours saying that…Uncle Yu is a hired thug, everyone is somewhat afraid of him, not daring to approach rashly.

[宋嫂] 但我知道, 鱼叔并不是像传闻说的那样, 是个可怕的人。平时多亏他照料, 这些流氓才不能得逞。 Dàn wǒ zhīdào, yú shū bìng bùshì xiàng chuánwén shuō dì nàyàng, shìgè kěpà de rén. Píngshí duōkuī tā zhàoliào, zhèxiē liúmáng cái bùnéng déchěng. But I know, Uncle Yu is not at all like rumours say he is, being a scary person. Usually it’s thanks to his care that, only then do these hoodlums can’t have their way.

[宋嫂] 否则, 像我这样一个弱女子, 丈夫早逝, 又怎敌得过那些恶霸.... 今日许是看鱼叔出门了, 他们才会如此嚣张… Fǒuzé, xiàng wǒ zhèyàng yīgè ruò nǚzǐ, zhàngfū zǎo shì, yòu zěn dí déguò nàxiē èbà.... Jīnrì xǔ shì kàn yú shū chūménle, tāmen cái huì rúcǐ xiāozhāng… Otherwise, someone like me, a lone weak woman whose husband died an untimely death, how would it be possible to resist those evil tyrants… Perhaps seeing Uncle Yu had left home for today, only then they dare to be this arrogant….

[Player] 原来是这样。抱歉, 提到了夫人的伤心事.... 那您可知鱼叔今日去哪儿了? Yuánlái shì zhèyàng. Bàoqiàn, tí dàole fūrén de shāngxīn shì.... Nà nín kězhī yú shū jīnrì qù nǎ'erle? So it’s like this. Apologies, I’ve brought up madam’s hurtful affairs…. Then would you know where Uncle Yu had gone today?

[宋嫂] 他好像说....要去南街? Tā hǎoxiàng shuō.... Yào qù nán jiē? I think he said something like….wanting to go to South Street?

[Player] 好的, 谢谢宋嫂。 Hǎo de, xièxiè sòng sǎo. Alright, thank you, Sister Song.

[宋嫂] ....冒昧问一句, 少侠您与鱼叔? .... Màomèi wèn yījù, shǎo xiá nín yǔ yú shū? …..If I may be presumptuous, young hero, you and Uncle Yu?

[Player] 鱼叔是我的亲人, 此番出行, 正是为了带他回乡。 Yú shū shì wǒ de qīnrén, cǐ fān chūxíng, zhèng shì wèile dài tā huí xiāng. Uncle Yu is my relative, this long journey, is for the purpose of bringing him back to his hometown.

[宋嫂] 那少侠您又为何要寻我呢? Nà shǎo xiá nín yòu wèihé yào xún wǒ ne? Then, young hero, why were you also looking for me?

[Player] ........

[Narration] 我心想总不能告诉宋嫂你, 西湖醋鱼是自你手中诞生的吧.... Wǒ xīn xiǎng zǒng bùnéng gàosù sòng sǎo nǐ, xīhú cù yú shì zì nǐ shǒuzhōng dànshēng de ba.... I think to myself how I can never tell Sister Song, you, that Xi Hu Cu Yu was born from your hands…

[Player] .....自是为了一尝那碗传说中的“西湖醋鱼”! 我....现在先去南街走走, 看能不能碰到鱼叔, 回见! ..... Zì shì wèile yī cháng nà wǎn chuánshuō zhōng de “xīhú cù yú”! Wǒ.... Xiànzài xiān qù nán jiē zǒu zǒu, kàn néng bùnéng pèng dào yú shū, huí jiàn! ……It’s because I wanted to have a taste of that legendary “West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy”! I….will go to South Street now and take a walk, see if I can bump into Uncle Yu, see you later!

[鹄羹] 少主, 刚才路过的那位顶戴斗笠的男子, 应该就是西湖醋鱼了吧? 他好像进了这个店呢。 Shǎo zhǔ, gāngcái lùguò dì nà wèi dǐng dài dǒulì de nánzǐ, yīnggāi jiùshì xīhú cù yúle ba? Tā hǎoxiàng jìnle zhège diàn ne. Shao Zhu, that man wearing the bamboo hat that just passed by, it should be Xi Hu Cu Yu? He seemed to have entered this shop.

[Player] 咦?! 西湖醋鱼在空桑可是出了名的惧怕女色, 怎会来这种.....烟花之地? Yí?! Xīhú cù yú zài kōng sāng kěshì chūle míng de jùpà nǚ sè, zěn huì lái zhè zhǒng..... Yānhuā zhī dì? Eh? But Xi Hu Cu Yi was well-known for being afraid of women in Kong Sang, why would he come to this sort of…..place for ‘fireworks’?

[鹄羹] 烟花之地? 有什么特别之处吗? 在我看来, 也就是热情的漂亮姑娘比较多..... Yānhuā zhī dì? Yǒu shé me tèbié zhī chù ma? Zài wǒ kàn lái, yě jiùshì rèqíng de piàoliang gūniáng bǐjiào duō..... Place for fireworks? Is this place anything special? From how I see it, it seems that there are more passionately beautiful women here….

[Player] 此事鹄羹你还是少知为妙.... Cǐ shì gǔ gēng nǐ háishì shǎo zhī wèi miào.... Hu Geng, it’s best for you to know less about these things…

[鹄羹] 少主, 他们为什么都用奇怪的眼神看着你? Shǎo zhǔ, tāmen wèishéme dōu yòng qíguài de yǎnshén kànzhe nǐ? Shao Zhu, why are they all looking at you with a strange look in their eyes?

[Player] 赶紧把西湖醋鱼找出来带走吧, 我不能在这里逗留太久 … Gǎnjǐn bǎ xīhú cù yú zhǎo chūlái dài zǒu ba, wǒ bùnéng zài zhèlǐ dòuliú tài jiǔ… Search out Xi Hu Cu Yu and take him away without delay, I can’t stay here for too long….

[???] 姑姑姑姑、姑娘我只是寻人…并、并不是… Gūgūgū gū, gūniáng wǒ zhǐshì xún rén…bìng, bìng bùshì… Y-Y-Y-Y, young lady I am just looking for someone…. A-am not at all…..

[芳儿姑娘] [Young lady Fang Er] 大侠, 您到底要寻哪位姑娘呀? Dà xiá, nín dàodǐ yào xún nǎ wèi gūniáng ya? Chivalrous hero, which young lady are you actually looking for?

[???] 你你你、你误会了… Y-Y-Y-You’ve misunderstood…

[Narration] 前方听见熟悉的声音, 走近一看, 果然是西湖醋鱼。 Qiánfāng tīngjiàn shúxī de shēngyīn, zǒu jìn yī kàn, guǒrán shì xīhú cù yú. Hearing a familiar voice ahead, I drew nearer to look, as expected it’s Xi Hu Cu Yu.

[Player] 鱼叔! 你在这里做什么……快跟我离开这个地方! Yú shū! Nǐ zài zhèlǐ zuò shénme……kuài gēn wǒ líkāi zhège dìfāng! Uncle Yu! What are you doing in a place like this…..Quickly follow me and leave this place!

[西湖醋鱼] 你、你是哪位?为、为什么听你的..... Nǐ, nǐ shì nǎ wèi? Wèi, wèishéme tīng nǐ de..... You, who are you? W-why should I listen to you…

西湖醋鱼 Xīhú cù yú West Lake Fish With Vinegar Sauce

[来鸿去燕无名剑侠] 诞生于一场伤感的别离之中行侠仗义便成了他此生的追求自诩见惯风月却对男女之事一窍不通 [Lái hóng qù yàn wúmíng jiànxiá] dànshēng yú yī chǎng shānggǎn de biélí zhī zhōng xíng xiá zhàngyì biàn chéngle tā cǐshēng de zhuīqiú zì xǔ jiàn guàn fēngyuè què duì nánnǚ zhī shì yīqiàobùtōng [the goose comes, the swallow goes (always on the move) Nameless Swordsman] Born during an event of emotional separation The pursuit of chivalry became his life Brags about being used to seeing romantic affairs But is absolutely clueless about matters between men and women

[Player] 嘿? 你还不舍得走了是吧? 看我替爹爹教训你! Hēi? Nǐ hái bù shědé zǒule shì ba? Kàn wǒ tì diēdiē jiàoxùn nǐ! Hey? You’re still not willing to leave, are you? See me lecture you on dad’s behalf!

[西湖醋鱼] 哎你、你、我不打女人! — Āi nǐ, nǐ, wǒ bù dǎ nǚrén! — Ai you, you, I don’t hit women!--

#食物语 #食物語 #the tale of food #tale of food #story

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bloody-bee-tea · 4 years ago

Note

If you ever feel like it, I would love to see a fic for the scenario where wwx and jyl call jc after a family dinner only to find out that their parents didn't invite him. I loved all your bad parents + jc fics! My favourite so far was the mingxicheng one, where madame yu made jc leave them for 3yrs! And the series where lxc saves jc from zidian and takes him to cloud recesses has a special place in my heart (first cql fic ive ever read!)

BeeTober 2020 Day 15

Spite - Golden

Day 15 of BeeTober 2020 finally gives me an excuse to finish this wip that has been laying around for far too long now. Have some family feels between these three siblings!

Jiang Cheng is enjoying a rare, quiet evening at home, when his phone rings.

He put it on the table when he swaddled himself in a blanket, and it’s biting him in the ass now, because he not only has to unwrap himself, but he also has to stretch uncomfortably to reach the phone.

When he half slides off the couch in the process, Jiang Cheng figures it would have been easier to simply stand up, but by then the phone is in his hands.

Nuisance it says, and Jiang Cheng groans into the couch.

He was having a calm evening. He does not want to talk to Wei Wuxian, who will upend Jiang Cheng’s tranquillity.

Jiang Cheng is still debating weather he should mute his phone or not, when it suddenly lights up again, but this time it says A-jie.

There is no way in hell that Jiang Cheng wouldn’t pick up when Jiang Yanli is calling but seeing her name on the phone so shortly after Wei Wuxian’s makes Jiang Cheng panic.

“Is everyone alright?” Jiang Cheng asks as soon as he accepted the call and when Wei Wuxian huffs at the other end of the line, Jiang Cheng feels betrayed.

“So you have time to answer shi-jie, but not me?” Wei Wuxian asks and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“You know I love her more,” he gives back, laughing at Wei Wuxian’s indignant squeak. “What do you want?” Jiang Cheng asks once Wei Wuxian calmed down and he feels slightly betrayed when he realizes that his siblings are together and didn’t even ask him to join them.

Jiang Cheng tries to push that thought away, because they are allowed to spend time together without him—of course they are—but Jiang Cheng has a hard time fighting his insecurities.

“What are you doing?” Wei Wuxian asks and Jiang Cheng looks down at his blanket.

“Nothing?” he asks, because he doesn’t think it warrants being said that he is a slob tonight.

There is a very icy silence from Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng frowns.

“Why?” Jiang Cheng carefully asks, already on the defense.

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Wei Wuxian snaps and Jiang Cheng shrugs, even though Wei Wuxian can’t see him.

“I mean, I’m on the couch, about to start my second movie?” Jiang Cheng unsurely gives back.

“You stupid asshole,” Wei Wuxian seethes and before Jiang Cheng can react to that Wei Wuxian snaps out “Just stay where the fuck you are,” before he simply hangs up on Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng is left to stare at his phone, wondering what that was all about, before he remembers that Jiang Yanli must have been with Wei Wuxian.

He clicks into his conversation with her and quickly types out Is everything alright?

It doesn’t take her long to answer, but when Jiang Cheng gets the message, he feels as confused as before.

Yes. Stay where you are!

As if he was going to leave his blanket nest, Wei Wuxian’s mood be damned.

It takes them almost half an hour to get to Jiang Cheng’s apartment, and when they ring, Jiang Cheng stays on the couch.

They are being cryptic, and rude for no reason, and they interrupted Jiang Cheng’s relaxing evening; so just to spite them Jiang Cheng makes them search for their own keys instead of getting up and opening the door for them.

Jiang Cheng can hear Wei Wuxian curse before he even gets the door open, and Jiang Yanli’s calming murmur is not far behind, but still, Jiang Cheng is entirely unprepared for the way Wei Wuxian storms into his living-room.

“What the fuck,” Wei Wuxian says first thing when he sees Jiang Cheng all bundled up on the couch, and Jiang Cheng glares at him, because he told him that was what he was doing.

There really is no need to be this surprised by it.

“What?” Jiang Cheng asks, directing the question more to Jiang Yanli than Wei Wuxian, because she’s bound to be the more helpful one here, but Wei Wuxian steps between them.

“Have you been doing this all evening?” Wei Wuxian asks and his voice is so accusing that Jiang Cheng immediately bristles.

He’s allowed to take the evening off, thank you very much.

“Yes,” he bites out, not bothering to explain anything, as long as Wei Wuxian doesn’t tell him what has him worked up like that.

“And you think this was more important than coming to family dinner? Where Uncle Jiang announced that he’ll be stepping down soon? Really?” Wei Wuxian demands to know and Jiang Cheng goes ice cold all over.

“Family dinner,” Jiang Cheng repeats and he starts to tremble all over.

“Yes, for fucks sake. The one you couldn’t attend because you’re so ‘busy’,” Wei Wuxian bites out, but Jiang Yanli puts a calming hand to his arm.

“A-Cheng?” she asks, clearly picking up on Jiang Cheng’s mood, but Jiang Cheng is already untangling himself from his blanket.

“I need to be alone,” Jiang Cheng says, and he feels very removed from his own body.

He’s cold all over, and he thinks he’s still shaking faintly but he barely registers it. All he knows is that he needs to be alone right this moment.

So he gets up and walks past Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli without looking at them, and then he makes a beeline for his bedroom.

He feels like he’s frozen, rather than angry, and so he closes the door behind him with a soft click instead of throwing it shut and then he simply stands in the middle of his bedroom for a moment, before he walks over to the bed and crawls under the blanket there.

He pulls it up over his head, and then he simply stares into nothing.

A family dinner. Where his father made a very big announcement.

And Jiang Cheng wasn’t even invited.

That thought finally breaks through his shock and his eyes start to burn with tears.

He always knew that Wei Wuxian was his father’s golden boy and that Jiang Yanli would always be the most beloved by his parents, but to think that his parents didn’t even ask him to this family dinner cuts deeper than Jiang Cheng could have ever imagined.

Jiang Cheng curls up into a small ball and presses his face into the mattress, overly aware of the hot tears that slide out of his eyes.

When his door opens, Jiang Cheng startles. He forgot that Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli were still in his apartment and he wishes they would just leave him alone.

He doesn’t want them to see him fall apart.

“A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli says, and her voice is soft and careful.

“Don’t fucking coddle him,” Wei Wuxian mutters, clearly still angry, but Jiang Yanli doesn’t pay him any attention.

“A-Cheng, did you not know about family dinner?” Jiang Yanli carefully asks and Jiang Cheng presses his eyes closed even harder than before.

“What?” Wei Wuxian gasps and Jiang Cheng can just imagine how he shakes his head. “But Uncle Jiang said Jiang Cheng couldn’t make it because he was busy!”

“A-Cheng?” Jiang Yanli carefully prods him again and Jiang Cheng feels how she sits down on the bed. “Did you know about it?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng croaks out and he hates how his voice breaks.

There’s a horrified gasp, most likely coming from Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng curls up tighter.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” Wei Wuxian repeats and now the familiar anger bubbles up in Jiang Cheng.

He flings his blanket away as he sits up, not caring that the tears are still streaming down his face as he glares hard at Wei Wuxian.

“I mean that no one fucking told me about family dinner tonight,” he hisses out and he cannot stand to look at Jiang Yanli, because he can imagine the heart breaking look on her face and that is already bad enough.

“No one told you,” Wei Wuxian whispers, the disbelieve clear in his voice. “But Uncle Jiang said you couldn’t make it!”

“Right,” Jiang Cheng bitterly says. “And no one ever lies in this family,” he tacks on and looks down at his hands.

He’s still shaking, he notes, and that’s rather unfair, because shaking implies that he’s feeling something. But all Jiang Cheng can feel is a pitch black hole, right where his heart is supposed to be.

He knows that his parents don’t like him, knows that his father prefers Wei Wuxian and that his mother thinks him useless and worthless, but to have it thrown in his face like that still hurts more than Jiang Cheng could have ever imagined.

“We didn’t know,” Wei Wuxian says, just as Jiang Yanli pulls him into a hug.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t have the strength to fight her hands on him, and so he falls into her deceptively strong arms.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jiang Cheng mutters, because his parents were going to do whatever they fucking pleased.

“It does matter,” Jiang Yanli determinedly says and presses a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s head. “You’re family, and what they did was despicable.”

Jiang Cheng wants to cry and break down and agree, but all he does is ask “What were the big news again?”

“Uncle Jiang is stepping down soon,” Wei Wuxian says, just as he plasters himself to Jiang Cheng’s back. “He wants to announce the next CEO soon.”

Jiang Cheng huffs out a humourless laugh, because with how today went, you don’t need to be a genius to realize that it will not be Jiang Cheng’s name he announces to the world soon.

“Congratulations,” Jiang Cheng bitterly says and he feels how Wei Wuxian shakes his head.

“No. I won’t take that position. He never asked me, and it’s not right. I won’t do it.”

“Well, I won’t do it either,” Jiang Cheng gives back, because he has no intention of accepting that position as a second choice.

Either his father wants him to lead the company or he can go look for an heir elsewhere.

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says, and it’s so surprising that Jiang Cheng moves out of her arms.

“What?” he asks, because usually Jiang Yanli is the one to mediate between all of them, and to keep the peace in their family.

But going by the dark look on her face, she’s over that now.

“This will be the last dinner we attend with them,” she says and pulls Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian back into her arms. “I’m tired of seeing them fight, and of hurting you two. We’re not going back there.”

“It won’t be quite that easy,” Jiang Cheng says, because he knows his parents. They have ways to make their life hell, if they don’t do as they say.

“It will be. I will not allow them to hurt you further,” Jiang Yanli decides and Wei Wuxian is quick to agree.

“We’ll make our own family dinners,” he decides and puts an arm around Jiang Cheng as well. “Once a week, and we will never invite them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jiang Cheng chokes out, fighting with his tears again, but for completely different reasons now. “I don’t want to see you that often.”

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian yells and then topples them all over when he tries to tickle Jiang Cheng in retaliation.

Jiang Yanli moves out of the way, though she doesn’t do anything to stop them and simply watches on.

Wei Wuxian’s clever fingers find all of Jiang Cheng’s weak spots and soon enough he’s crying he’s laughing so hard and once the tears start, he can’t seem to stop, so it turns into pitiful sobs soon enough.

It seems like Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian simply waited for that, because they bracket him in on either side, and simply hold him while he cries and cries.

“We’re your family, A-Cheng,” Wei Wuxian whispers and Jiang Yanli presses a kiss to his head.

“And we don’t need them,” she agrees and Jiang Cheng clings desperately to both of them.

It still hurts, to know that his parents wouldn’t even think to ask him to come to a family dinner, but with his siblings at his side, it’s almost bearable.

“I love you,” Jiang Cheng chokes out when his sobs started to die down and Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are quick to return the sentiment.

It’s not enough, not right now with the hurt so fresh, but Jiang Cheng knows that he can count on them, always.

And in a week he might also believe them when they say they love him, but right now he needs to wallow and be coddled.

And Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian seem more than ready to do whatever Jiang Cheng needs.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

#bt writes #beetober 2020 #untamed fall fest #the untamed #mdzs #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #jiang yanli #family feels #jfm and yzy are fucking assholes #and i will stand by that #hurt/comfort #jc has the best siblings #Anonymous

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rosethornewrites · 3 years ago

Text

5/30-6/4 NR, E, & M reading

The usual

Finished

Explicit:

Library, by tailor31415

"Lan WangJi gave no other response than a snarl against Wei WuXian's ear, breath puffing out against his skin in a blast of heat, and Wei WuXian let out a gasp as he realized he had finally, finally cracked the surface of the impenetrable Jade."

Mature:

Rare Beauty, by Anonymous

Wei Ying takes hold of the books, sheepishly sliding them toward himself. Then he looks at Lan Wangji, his pout transforming into a mischievous smile. “You didn’t peek inside them, did you, Lan Zhan?”

Lan Wangji says nothing, but he steadily holds Wei Ying’s gaze.

“Don’t tell me you’re still embarrassed by things like this,” Wei Ying says. He leans an elbow on the desk and flips one of the books open to an image of a man bending another over a low-hanging tree branch. “After all these years? Ah, Lan Zhan?”

Nie Huaisang sends Wei Wuxian some erotic books at Cloud Recesses. Lan Wangji accidentally intercepts them—and precipitates a revelation

Unfinished

Not Rated:

Jiang Cheng- Dumb Ways to Die, by such_stuff_as_dreams_are_made_on

Jiang Cheng somehow manages to send his consciousness back in time. However, instead of saving everyone, he keeps on dying.

No Loss, by eb4life

After being forced to remain stuck in his wolf form by Madam Yu, Wei Wuxian conforms to her wishes of making it appear that he's runaway from home by doing just that. When he's God knows how far from home and manages to get captured by the knights of a king he's only heard rumors of, Wei Wuxian expects to be killed or imprisoned as the king's personal attack dog. He doesn't expect to move from "exotic pet" to "closest friend" within only weeks of his stay at the king's side. This story is inspired by Bisclavret.

The Untamed: To Walk in One's Shoes, by YenGirl

It turns out that that old adage of 'To walk a mile in someone's shoes' proves to be the most effective way for three siblings to understand one another. Too bad there's a wedding involved.

You double-faced entendre, by pink-lotus-pods (Waterlogged_fireflies)

Five years since the Yiling Patriarch surrendered himself to Lanling Jin.

Seven months since Yuandao woke up in a mudfield, caked in blood and filth and his mind completely wiped clean. Seven months since Yuandao traced the scars on his body and made up stories for them, because he didn't know the history of his own body.

He'd heard somewhere that amnesiacs get dreams, sometimes. He wished he got dreams, but his dreams were always gone by morning. He wondered if he was the kind of amnesiac to simply just... not remember his previous life. An anomaly. His Yulang-jie always said that he was always exceeding expectations.

Exceeding expectations.

Now where had he heard that before?

Or, an amnesiac Wei Wuxian wakes up, gets himself a new family and is immediately roped into a political schism, EXACTLY in that order. Updates will be once every two weeks.

Mature:

Keep Holding On, by abCEE

As they reached an inn and Wei Wuxian got them a room with three beds, the world seemed to have frozen for Jiang Yanli when her brother suddenly fainted and Jiang Wanyin was just fast enough to catch him before his body could hit the floor.

"A-Xian!"

"Wei Wuxian!"

In which after the Lotus Pier Massacre: Wei Wuxian was greatly injured by Zidian, Jiang Yanli left the inn to buy the medicines and food, and Jiang Wanyin distracted the Wens.

(With a bonus of Wei Wuxian knowing the title of the song and more things ensued inside the Xuanwu Cave that may or may have not involved Lan Wangji's forehead ribbon)

Canon diverged from there.

Impossible Remains, by Jengabears

Jiang Cheng wakes slowly to the feeling of spiritual energy swimming through his veins. Not just swimming. Singing. Flooding. He was filled with it. He didn't know if it was because he had been without any for so long or if Baoshan Sanren had chosen to make him stronger, but he had never felt so powerful in his life. It was glorious. It was everything. He felt alive again. Whole. Better than whole. He had to thank her. He had to scream his joy across the mountain. He was so infinitely grateful.

He ripped off his blindfold, turned to look around him, praises and gratitude resting on the tip of his tongue. Yet what his eyes rested on was a face he never expected to see. His joy and gratitude instantly snuffed into ashes in his mouth. His eyes widened in horror at the sight which greeted him. He wished he could take everything back. Every thought which had passed through his mind since he'd woken.

How could this happen?

Wei Wuxian dies in the core transfer.

Time, by WithBroomBefore

Time travel fix-it AU, diverging from after Wei Wuxian's death and before Lan Wangji's punishment.

One: Perhaps the not-voice is a spirit, wailing its own grief. Two: Perhaps it is Wei Wuxian. There is no shortage of unhappy spirits in the world, now, so there is no certainty of that, but Lan Wangji must find out if there is any chance at all. Three: They have not taken his guqin, but the guards will hear it if he plays, and they may stop him. Four: He must then leave Cloud Recesses.

Get it right (this time), by AmiraAlzilu

Death would be a fate too kind for Wei Wuxian. He should pay for every sin he committed.

At least that’s the only explanation he has for this impossible situation. After falling from the cliff he woke up in his 15 year old body, just before his months of study at Cloud Recesses.

So, thinking it was for the best, he decides to disappear when he was supposed to be searching for their lost invitation.

Little does he know someone else came back in time with him.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #cql #chen qing ling #untamed fanfiction

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eleanorfenyxwrites · 4 years ago

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After Each Midnight Begins A New Day

[Extra #5 - @threephasebird requested that the next extra be some Jin Sibs and Xuanli’s horde of children so here it is! This is (mostly) set post-fic, just as 3zun are on their way to Jinlintai to visit at the end of the last chapter]

[Masterpost]

A quick brief on the children’s names and ages:

Jin Ling (金凌 - rise above) - First son, 20

Jin Fei (金飞 - to fly) - Second son, 17

Jin Yu (金雨 - rain) and Jin Yan (金焰 - fire) - First and Second daughters, 14

Jin Zhuang (金庄 - solemn) - Third son, 12

Jin Lu (金露 - dew) - Third daughter, 7

Jin Ye (金烨 - breathtaking/blaze of fire) - Fourth daughter, 3

As a young boy, Jin Zixuan had often wondered when he would get a sibling. Everyone else had one, it seemed. The Lan Heir had a little brother. The Nie Heir did too. The Jiang Heir got two siblings which seemed like too many, and even those awful Wen boys had each other. He had asked his mother (when he was still young enough to be innocent of the politics of such matters) when he was going to get a didi or meimei of his own, but Madam Jin had just patted his hair and tapped the tip of his nose with her knuckle. It was too gentle of a touch to ever hurt whenever she did that, of course, but he always wrinkled his nose anyway to make her laugh.

Not long after that conversation, he hadn’t gotten a sibling but he had gotten a Mianmian.

She’s technically his shimei, of course, but that hardly matters to him. What does matter is that Luo Qingyang is nothing like the siblings he had imagined for himself when he had asked for one. For starters, she’s older than him by a month, which she makes sure to smugly remind him of at every opportunity. She’s really really polite to adults but annoyingly bossy to him when they get left alone to play. She’s reckless too, and more often than not Jin Zixuan just ends up pouting and dragging his feet as he follows along behind her wherever she wants to run, using his presence at her side as an excuse to sneak into every family-only part of Jinlintai that she can.

By the time they’re 10, though, he loves her fiercely as the sister he can understand by now that he’s never going to get to have. His parents hardly ever see each other, after all, and while he still isn’t totally sure how siblings are made he’s definitely sure that parents have to see each other more often than a few awkward meals a week for it to happen. It’s alright though, he has Mianmian to keep him company and make fun of him whenever he says something dumb (or yell at his cousins when they try to make fun of him for the same).

As they grow, she’s at his side for every important event in his life, as he is for hers. Every birthday, every New Year’s, every important training milestone they get to share. She’s even at his side for the meeting when they’re 14 where it’s announced that he is engaged to Jiang Yanli of the Yunmeng Jiang. Mianmian laughs for so long at that one once they’re alone that his own crushing panic recedes enough for him to punch her in the shoulder and tell her to knock it off, which of course does as little good as ever.

(To this day he still laughs when he remembers the look on her face when she’d heard he was going to get married one day - the shock followed by quickly-repressed snickers throughout the rest of the meeting that had been mercifully, tactfully ignored by the adults in attendance.)

Soon after they turn 16, they’re both there at the main hall the day that a boy who looks to be close to his own age presents himself at Jinlintai to ask for discipleship, claiming blood ties to...to Jin Guangshan as his reason for coming to Lanling all the way from Yunping, rather than going to the Jiang. Jin Zixan is helpless to do anything but watch on in wide-eyed shock as his father kicks the boy down all those stairs, Mianmian’s shocked gasp at his elbow echoing his own as everyone else in the vicinity watches on impassively. They watch together in fascinated horror from their hiding spot behind a large statue to the side of the stairs as the boy somehow manages to pick himself up off the ground at the bottom and bow to Jin Guangshan at the top of the tower with flawless form, the blood on his forehead and the stiffness in his chest as he bows visible even from where they are.

“Oh no,” Mianmian says softly under her breath when he turns to leave. “Do you think he’ll be alright?”

“Maybe...Hopefully,” he replies, numbly, still reeling from the idea that he might have...a brother? A half-brother? Certainly if his mother had given birth to the boy he wouldn’t have been living in Yunping, he would have been there in Lanling with the rest of the family. Besides, there’s no way Madam Jin had been pregnant with..twins (judging by their apparently similar ages) and he hadn’t known it, or no one had mentioned it. Either way - this boy thinks he’s Jin Zixuan’s brother, and his father has just kicked him down the stairs for it. In front of everybody. It’s..jarring, to say the least.

It isn’t long after the boy’s dejected departure from Jinlintai that Jin Zixuan is forced to confront his own feelings about the rumors of his father’s...exploits. Not that he hadn’t heard snippets of it before, snide comments muttered behind hands and under breaths, but they always seemed..unimportant. Just idle gossip, and Madam Jin has never been anything but perfectly (if a bit coldly) civil to Jin Guangshan in the rare times they’re in the same room. It had always seemed best to follow her example and ignore it, but now...well now there’s the boy who had come to them with an honest request, a valid one, and had been kicked down the tower for it, just for being physical proof of the rumors that had always circulated. He can’t ignore it any longer.

Jin Zixuan doesn’t know what to do about it, of course, and he eventually has to acknowledge that there’s nothing he can do, but that still doesn’t keep him from thinking about it until even Mianmian grows tired of his fretting over it all.

Despite his agonizing over the subject, when he sees the boy again in Cloud Recesses two years later as a retainer with the young Nie-gongzi, Jin Zixuan doesn’t even recognize him at first. He personally feels it’s justified considering the circumstances of the only time he had ever seen him (besides the fact that Jiang Yanli - perpetually trailed by her obnoxious brothers - is proving far more of a distraction than he had anticipated), but Mianmian still cuffs him on the ear for it once they’re in private.

“What are you going to say to him?” she demands at the end of her lecture about it, arms crossed over her chest and that mulish look on her face that he had learned to fear a long time ago.

“Wh-what would I even say to him?” he retorts quickly, horrified at the thorny social situation this presents. He isn’t even good at the normal ones, what is he supposed to say to his supposed half-brother who is living, breathing proof of an extramarital affair, and who has been resoundly refused entry into Jinlintai in such a horrible, public fashion? A half-brother who is, apparently, now a member of the Nie Sect and has gained enough of Nie-Zongzhu’s favor to be sent to Cloud Recesses during the lecture season to look after Nie Huaisang, who everyone knows Nie Mingjue doesn’t trust with just anybody…

Where to even begin?!

(Jin Zixuan also laughs about that now, how scared he had been of his brother and how unimpressed Mianmian had been with all of his arguments on his own behalf. He has never once in his life been good at arguing with her, after all.)

In the end, he’s lucky enough a couple of weeks into their studies to have an opportunity to pull Meng Yao aside and stammer through the apology he had rehearsed over the last few days with Mianmian’s help. He apologizes as profusely as he can manage for his father’s behavior towards him, as well as extends a tentative request that they get to know each other better as half-brothers even if Jin Guangshan won’t like it. None of it is polite or graceful, in fact he knows that some of it is inadvertently uncouth bordering on offensive, but Meng Yao still accepts all of it with wide-eyed surprise and, when Jin Zixuan finally stumbles to a verbal halt, with a small, affectionate smile on his handsome face.

----

He finds Mo Xuanyu next.

Word had reached him by letter one day from a woman in a small village who had finally worked up the courage to attempt to appeal to Jin Guangshan on their son’s behalf, only for her to find out from her sister, the Madam of the local main family, that Jin Guangshan is several years dead. She had appealed to him instead, of course, as the boy’s brother and Jin Zixuan had taken Jiang Yanli to Mo Manor with him so they could learn the truth for themselves.

Mo Xuanyu is...wary of meeting him, which Jin Zixuan doesn’t fault him for for a second. In fact he had expected it, which is partially why he had brought Jiang Yanli along (besides the fact that he also just enjoys traveling with his wife).

He meets with Second Madam Mo and her son in as neutral of a space as he can find - and alone, to begin with. It’s clear within minutes of observing the boy that he’s a Jin even before Second Madam Mo outlines the events that had given her her son. Jin Zixuan does his best to reassure her that Mo Xuanyu will be welcome as a visitor in Jinlintai should he wish to come, that he will be legitimized if he wants to be, and that he will be allowed to train with the other disciples as well whether he wants to be legitimized or not.

He doesn’t do a very good job of explaining it, unfortunately (nor does he think he managed a very good job of inspiring any sort of confidence in him as a leader, which is unfortunately a frequent occurrence without Jiang Yanli or Mianmian with him to help him talk). As is usually the case after such instances, he finds himself pleading with Jiang Yanli that evening for her help. The pair of them visit the Second Madam Mo and her son in their home on the Mo estate the following day, and Jiang Yanli charms them both so thoroughly that Mo Xuanyu agrees to pack his things and come home with them two days later, with his mother’s full support.

It quickly becomes clear once they arrive in Jinlintai and Mo Xuanyu settles into his cultivation training with some of the younger children that while he is a Jin in name (sort of) and looks, he is infinitely.. weirder than any other Jin that Jin Zixuan has ever met.

By now he and Meng Yao have both put in the work to have formed something of a decent - if still slightly stilted - relationship, and so he’s become well aware even in their relatively limited interactions that his brother works hard to be an unfailingly polite and graceful sort of gentleman. And of course he still thinks of Mianmian like a sister even now that he has made her his Second; and while her behavior is much more brash than his own or Meng Yao’s she still knows the rules of society and chooses to follow them whenever necessary. Besides, she’s a Luo, not a Jin, despite being raised pretty much exclusively in Jinlintai. She gets a free pass.

Mo Xuanyu had been cheerful enough during the trip to Jinlintai with Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli but also on his best behavior, and Jin Zixuan supposes (a bit too late) that being surprised by what has followed is his own fault for assuming that the boy’s nervousness and uncertainty during that trip with two strangers - powerful strangers - was a good representation of his permanent personality.

Long story short - Mo Xuanyu comes to Jinlintai and raises absolute hell.

Jiang Yanli adores him.

Mo Xuanyu clings to her like a burr in response, soaking up her indulgence and the unfailingly kind older-sister energy that she exudes at all times like he’s been desperate for it, for the gentle love of a woman as incredible as Jiang Yanli. And not that Jin Zixuan had ever planned on going back on his promise to legitimize the boy and maintain his offer of a place for him in Jinlintai, but now he truly can’t even begin to consider it after seeing how excited Mo Xuanyu is to find siblings, nieces and nephews, and friends there.

Jin Zixuan legitimizes his youngest brother in an official ceremony conducted by himself and Meng Yao after the first year of Mo Xuanyu’s cultivation training, once his golden core has formed and he is able to begin his true discipleship alongside the younger students at similar levels of cultivation - Jin Ling and his peers, in fact.

And Mo Xuanyu just...stays. His mother had traveled to Lanling to visit him a few times early on when he could take breaks from his training, but after she passes away Mo Xuanyu declares in the midst of his grief that without his mother there’s nothing and no one in Mo Manor to draw him back, and he becomes a permanent fixture of life in the tower - perpetual wild child Mo Xuanyu, with his insistence on wearing black and red clothing (which he swears has nothing to do with Wei Wuxian but he fools absolutely no one), his absolutely wildly dramatic personality, his equally dramatic makeup, his loud laughter.

He proves himself very quickly to be excellent for irritating the Sect elders whenever necessary, and Jin Zixuan privately enjoys watching the stuffy old men try to figure out how to handle his brother’s...unique brand of flamboyance. Of course he’s usually just as flummoxed as they are, the difference is that he’s very fond of it and they are definitely not.

These days, Mo Xuanyu’s position in Jinlintai is more secure than ever. He’s a source of fun and lightheartedness at family gatherings, he’s an attentive presence during the children’s lessons and he plays with them whenever they would like during their leisure time. He’s a wonderful brother and uncle, in his own way, and a cheerful presence wherever he goes.

He also makes for a good litmus test, of sorts. Everyone who deals with the Jin Sect regularly knows of him by now, and Jin Zixuan has gotten into the habit of making sure to keep a careful eye on anyone who dares to step into his home and speak unduly harshly about his youngest sibling. He learned early on to be wary of how that sort of rigid attitude may negatively impact policies they plan to propose or favors they need to ask. He’s also not above deploying Mo Xuanyu himself to handle them in the most obscenely awkward ways he can devise - and those are many and varied. Jin Zixuan himself had stopped getting embarrassed by it a long time ago out of a sense of self-preservation, but others are not so fortunate.

And that had been enough.

Two surprise brothers plus a Mianmian (not to mention his six brothers-in-law plus his and Jiang Yanli’s four children with their fifth on the way at the time) had been more family than he had ever dared to dream of, let alone knew what to do with now that he had it.

But then, not long after Mo Xuanyu’s declaration at 16 that he will be remaining in Jinlintai for the rest of his life if at all possible, Jin Zixuan and Meng Yao take a short trip together to Laoling Qin to discuss a bit of trade business.

Qin Cangye had very politely requested that any discussions they needed to have with him be held in his own home as his wife was too ill to travel, and with Mianmian to run things in his stead in Lanling for a few days (and as many nurses as Jiang Yanli could ever need to help with the children for the short-term) he had been more than willing to travel to accommodate. He had also been perfectly happy to conduct the business they needed to with nothing that threatened to distract him - right up until their second full evening in the Qin home when Meng Yao had approached him in his room after dinner, unusually serious even for him, and told Jin Zixuan that he needed to listen to something important Madam Qin wanted to tell them.

He had listened to her and her handmaid, and he had believed them, and he had been unsurprised to find himself thinking quite uncharitably of his father following his promise to Madam Qin that he would do everything in his power to make it right, as much as he could.

They return to Jinlintai the day after the next, once their business is concluded. He’s relieved when nothing needs his immediate attention as it means he’s free to retreat into his and Jiang Yanli’s quarters so he can tell her everything that’s weighing on his mind.

“No more surprise siblings from now on,” he sighs into the comfort of Jiang Yanli chest when he’s finished outlining what has happened and his plans to prepare a new suite of rooms in the family wing of the tower. For Qin Su. His sister.

Jiang Yanli just laughs her tinkling laugh and kisses him, her hands gentle as she combs his hair back from his face with her fingertips. “You’ve got more siblings now than any of the rest of us,” she teases with a mischievous smile down at him that is a bit too reminiscent of, weirdly, both Wei Wuxian and Mo Xuanyu for comfort. “Two brothers, a sister, and of course we must keep Mianmian in her spot on the list. If you would like to count brothers-in-law as well you’ve also got A-Xian, A-Cheng, Huaisang, Wangji, Xichen, and Mingjue...”

He groans and hides his face properly in the soft silk of her robes even as she laughs again over his head.

“Young boys who ask their mothers for more siblings should be careful what they ask for, shouldn’t they?” Another kiss, this time to his cheek, and he accepts it with a sigh. He certainly can’t deny that his misguided childhood jealousy has certainly been made null. He has a much bigger family than he could have ever imagined.

It’s nice to feel that, finally, Jinlintai is full to bursting with people who genuinely care about him, and who he is allowed to care about in return.

----

Most of that happened long enough ago, though, that these days Jin Zixuan actually has some trouble bringing the memories back to the surface at first demand (though he knows that he’ll never truly forget the ways he had come to know - and subsequently legitimize - all three of his biological siblings).

“A-Xuan?” Jiang Yanli calls now from the doorway of his personal office. Her voice is as soft as always, but it’s tinged with his favorite variety of amusement - the kind caused by the mischief of any member of their (enormous) family. He looks up to find her holding a letter from Gusu judging by the distinctive blue, one eyebrow raised and a smile on her lips. “Were you aware that A-Yu has apparently been begging A-Yao to pay us a visit for over a month?”

“No I wasn’t, but I’m not surprised,” he replies with a sigh and a shake of his head. He loves Mo Xuanyu, of course he does, but he will readily admit that the ever-unbridled chaos of his youngest brother still makes him wonder how they’re related even now over a decade into their relationship. “Can I assume that A-Yao and our brothers-in-law have caved to his demands?” he adds with a gesture towards the letter. Jiang Yanli tucks a gentle laugh into the embroidered cuff of her sleeve.

“They have indeed, A-Yu will be so pleased. They’ve asked to spend a while here though - longer than their last few visits have been at least but A-Yao didn’t specify precisely how long they’d like. I’m going to tell them that anything they want is perfectly fine, unless you have a reason not to accept?”

“No, there’s nothing I can think of. Did they say why they want to stay so long? Is everything alright?”

“They didn’t say, but I think they’re fine. A-Yao only says here that they need a change of scenery for a while and A-Chen suggested they travel. I’ll go ahead and send our acceptance, then?”

Jin Zixuan nods and returns to the report he’s reading. After so many years together, though, he knows enough about his wife not to be surprised when she steps further into the room to put a hand on his shoulder and lean down to press her forehead against his temple for a long, quiet moment. He lets his eyes drift shut as he takes a deep breath in of the familiar scent of the lotus-scented oil she wears in her hair and the hint of incense still clinging to her skin from her morning meditation to help strengthen her core.

“I’ll be playing with the children in the garden when you’re finished if you’d like to come find us,” she murmurs against his cheek and punctuates it with a kiss, offering him precisely what he needs after a long morning of dealing with Sect business - both with the affectionate gesture and with the promise of getting to enjoy spending time with her and their children.

He doesn’t mind being Sect Leader of course, and in fact the job is much easier these days than he had ever expected it to be when he had been a young teenager observing the workings of it under his father’s...less than dedicated hand. But he still privately thinks sometimes that he’s much more cut out for corralling his and Jiang Yanli’s children than he is the Jin Sect.

“Make sure Ling-er practices his sword forms, either against a training dummy or the twins if they want to play with him.”

Jiang Yanli’s quiet chuckle against his cheek is one of his favorite sounds in the world.

“You already know they’d love to team up and see if they can finally win against him. I’ll fetch their practice swords in case they want to use them. You’ll join us, won’t you?”

“Of course,” he reassures, turning his head to look up at her and meet her smile with one of his own. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

----

“All I’m saying Li-jie,” Mo Xuanyu posits loudly from the ground where he’s currently buried under a small mountain of gold robes, flailing limbs, and shrieks of laughter, “Is that if you’ve already got seven you might as well go for an even ten, wouldn’t that be satisfying?!”

“A-Yu,” Qin Su admonishes from a bench nearby, not even bothering to look up from her embroidery. “If you think the children need more playfellows I’m sure we could find you a wonderful husband to adopt your own children with.”

“Absolutely not! Can you imagine me as a father? Disastrous. But if you’re offering to play matchmaker I might actually take you up on that.”

“No matchmaking, you two,” Jin Zixuan sighs as he enters the private family garden and joins Jiang Yanli where she’s sitting at the edge of her lotus pond trailing her fingertips through the water and watching the chaos that is their family unfold around her with a beatific smile on her lips. “Please, I’m begging you, our family is already confusing enough and you’ve both promised me you have no intentions of marrying. Since when do you even want to get married, A-Yu?”

“Listen to me very carefully, A-Xuan - ” he starts with a meaningful waggle of his darkened brows, “I look at what A-Yao has, if you know what I mean, and then I look at what I have, and I just think there’s definitely some room for..improvement in my situation, that’s all.”

Jin Zixuan lifts his chin a bit to give his responding eye-roll the best effect he can while Jiang Yanli and Qin Su both giggle into their sleeves and Jin Ling makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat that carries all the way across the garden.

“Okay first of all, don’t talk about Uncle Jue and Uncle Chen like that, that’s disgusting.”

“Well they’re not my uncles, kid, I can talk about them however I want.”

“Second of all - hey! Quit calling me ‘kid’, we’re the same generation!”

“Enough, you two,” Zixuan sighs to head off the too-familiar argument that Mo Xuanyu is clearly working himself up for with one of his signature borderline-manic grins that makes most Sect Leaders shrink away in fear. “Lu-er, Xiao-Ye let your Uncle Yu get up off the ground, please.” It takes a moment for their two youngest daughters to untangle themselves from where they’ve tackled Mo Xuanyu to the ground but once they’re free they come running to him instead to clamber into his lap, little Jin Ye throwing her arms around his neck and snuggling into his chest immediately as Jin Lu tucks herself into his side under his free arm to start playing with his fingers.

Jin Zixuan sighs again as Mo Xuanyu makes a little show out of rolling to his feet and readjusting his hair and clothes, dabbing at his makeup to make sure nothing has smudged in the tussle. He dusts himself off one more time with a definitive pat before winking and turning his crooked grin on Jin Ling. Their eldest son is waiting for Jin Yu and Jin Yan to get their breath back from their latest bout against him - the twins leaning their weights on their wooden practice swords and clutching their sides - which means that he has no excuse not to listen to Mo Xuanyu’s teasing. (Jin Zhuang, he notices, is sitting on the other side of their sparring circle in a patch of shade cast by a tree and the side of the closest building - well away from the antics of his siblings - to alternate between watching the sparring and practicing his painting on a portable little desk balanced on his knees.)

“Listen to your wise old uncle, Xiao-Ling,” Mo Xuanyu teases, recalling Jin Zixuan’s attention to him and Jin Ling. “You’ll understand when you get to be my age just how nice it might be to have a big strong husband or two to look after you!”

“We’re classmates!!” Jin Ling insists again, beginning to sound desperate as his face goes bright red - though whether it’s out of embarrassment from the teasing about husbands or irritation at being needled about his age is unclear. Jin Zixuan suspects it’s a bit of both.

“A-Yu come help me finish unpacking from my trip before you send our nephew into qi-deviation. I’ll teach you a new huadian to wear as repayment,” Qin Su calls as she stands, graceful as ever. She tucks her embroidery into her sleeve and holds her arm out for Mo Xuanyu to take; he can never resist dramatic gestures and true to form his entire face lights up with mischievous delight, the expression exaggerated by the dark lines of kohl around his eyes, his painted lips, and his rouged cheeks. He bounds over to her to take her proffered arm with a comically genteel air, sweeping her gallantly from the courtyard towards her suite of rooms with such over-the-top fawning that they can hear her sweet laughter bouncing off of the nearby buildings even after they’ve turned the corner out of sight of the garden.

“Dad - ,” Jin Ling pouts, eyebrows drawn down.

“He’ll tire of the joke soon enough, A-Ling,” Jiang Yanli soothes with poorly-concealed mirth before Jin Zixuan can reply similarly. “There are worse things than having an uncle who enjoys a bit of teasing every now and then. Show your father your new sword forms now that you’re warmed up, you’ve been doing so well.”

Jin Zixuan settles his youngest daughters more comfortably in his arms as the twins return to their ready stances against their oldest brother, identical steely glints of focus in their eyes as they resume their sparring. Jin Zhuang brings his painting desk out of the shade to settle in with him and Jiang Yanli now that they’ve created a peaceful center for the family to orient themselves around, and Jin Zixuan feels his chest grow warm with affection as he relaxes into the soothing patterns of quality time with his children.

There are, he thinks, much worse ways to spend an afternoon.

----

Most people, Jin Zixuan thinks, would likely be surprised to find that as wild as their family is, dinners together are frequently calm affairs. Tonight is slightly more raucous than usual as Jin Fei has just returned from the first night hunt he’s led by himself, but it’s still much calmer than any outside observer would have reason to expect from them.

Jin Fei has finished giving his report - with none of the extra boasting that his older brother would pepper into the story were it his to tell - when Jiang Yanli clears her throat delicately for attention, which all of the children dutifully give her. (Well, except for little Jin Ye, who’s busy clambering into Mo Xuanyu’s lap so that she can smile sweetly up at him to demand he feed her the rest of her dinner).

“We received a letter yesterday from your uncles in Cloud Recesses,” she begins with a soft smile, “and you all owe your Uncle Yu a thank you for asking Uncle Yao to come and visit - they have accepted his invitation and will arrive within the week.”

There’s a general excited commotion as all the children start talking at once - beginning with their thanks to Mo Xuanyu as instructed and then shouting to and over each other as they begin arguing over who’s going to get to spend the most time with them.

“WHAT?!” Mo Xuanyu practically screeches, much to Jin Ye’s displeasure if her pout and hands over her ears are anything to go by. “I’ve been bugging him for weeks and he writes to you to accept?! The nerve! The gall!”

“A-Yu,” Jiang Yanli giggles while Jin Zixuan glares at his youngest brother for daring to be offended by anything involving Jiang Yanli.

“Ah sorry Li-jie, sorry. But Su-jie, back me up! He should have replied to me!”

“Li-jie is Madam Jin,” Qin Su replies implacably with a soft smile at Jiang Yanli. “It is proper for him to address a request to visit us to her before you, and A-Yao always follows proper etiquette.”

“Betrayal,” he accuses with a jab of his chopsticks in her direction that’s firm enough to make the ornaments in his hair jingle. “Betrayal by my own jiejie, I don’t believe this. Xiao-Ye, can you believe your aunts?” He directs the last to the toddler in his lap who’s reaching out for one of his dumplings with a bare hand - he immediately pinches it between his chopsticks to hold it in front of her mouth for her so she can munch on little nibbles of it. “Xiao-Ye is the only person in this family who loves and respects me, I’m stealing her and running away with her to escape your cruelty.”

“That’s not true, Uncle Yu,” Jin Yan pipes up around her next bite, which she quickly swallows when Jin Zixuan gives her a look. “Uncle Xian thinks you’re alright sometimes too,” she teases with that wicked grin of hers and Jin Zixuan has to duck his head to hide a smile at the wounded noise Mo Xuanyu offers by way of reply before he settles in to grumble to himself while he feeds Jin Ye like the little princess she already is.

“Father?” Jin Zhuang says softly from where he has come to stand beside him. Jin Zixuan leans over a bit, away from the table, to make it easier for their third son to step close enough to speak as quietly as he likes. “May I show Uncle Chen my paintings?”

“I think he would like that, Zhuang-er, that’s a good idea,” Jin Zixuan replies in an undertone with a nod. “If you ask him to, he may even paint with you. Have you finished your dinner?” Jin Zhuang nods and steps closer to his side as there’s a sudden burst of laughter from Jin Yu and Jin Yan at whatever Jin Ling has just said. “Would you like to go somewhere quiet until it’s calmer in here?” Another nod from Jin Zhuang which Jin Zixuan returns with one of his own. “Alright, that’s fine. I’ll send Aunt Su to come and fetch you when your siblings and Uncle Yu have settled again, okay? Don’t go far.”

Jin Zhuang offers him a quick bump of his head against his before he retreats, slipping out of one of the side doors to go wait in the quiet of the hallway until things are less overwhelming. Jin Zixuan turns back to the rest of his family who are still discussing what they’d like to do now that they know they’ll have fresh entertainment.

“Do you think Uncle Jue will spar with all four of us at once? We could probably take him out, don’t you think A-Ling?”

“You two couldn’t even beat me and Uncle Jue is like, twice my age!”

“Size, too,” Jin Fei drawls.

“Well we can’t all be Nies, and you’re still shorter than me!” Jin Ling huffs with a punch to his second brother’s shoulder.

“Shut up you two, stop arguing for just five minutes, you’re so annoying. Yanyan is right - four of us together against one, we could do it!”

“You want to fight Uncle Jue?!” Jin Lu pipes up in horror. “Why?!!”

“It’s alright A-Lu, don’t be upset. It’s the same reason the four of us train with our swords together, or like when we practice with dad sometimes,” Jin Fei is quick to reassure while Jin Ling is busy sticking his tongue out at the twins. “It’s fun for us and it’s good training, we don’t want to actually hurt Uncle Jue.”

“He’ll kick your bratty little butts anyway, and I’ll bet he does it without even breaking a sweat,” Mo Xuanyu asserts as he wipes Jin Ye’s face clean with a bit of his sleeve. “There you go sweetheart, all done. Go sit with your mom so Uncle Yu can finish eating.” Jin Ye stands up obediently to come around the table, clamber into Jiang Yanli’s extended arms to settle in the cradle of her lap, and promptly close her eyes.

“He would not!” Jin Ling argues instantly, of course.

“Would so. He’s been training with a saber - bigger than a sword, remember - since he was younger than you and I were when we first touched our swords, Lingling. And A-Fei is right, he’s got height, weight, and bulk on his side. He’ll kick your butts.”

“Well I want to try anyway,” Jin Yu reasserts as Jin Yan nods along beside her. “If nothing else we can turn it into a game to see just how quickly he can beat us, if it turns out we really can’t beat him.”

“Oh that’s a good idea. A-Zhuang could keep score, right? Hey. Where’d he go?” Jin Ling looks around sharply, searching for his third brother.

“You were all yelling so he left,” Jin Yan supplies, talking with her mouth full again.

“Oh. Oops.”

“You can apologize when he comes back,” Qin Su offers before looking at Jiang Yanli. “Li-jie, we should arrange to have tea with just A-Yao at least a few times while they’re here. He needs to catch us up on his gossip and we need to tell him ours.”

“I’m sure he’ll accept, it’s been far too long since the three of us have sat down to talk together,” Jiang Yanli replies, and as if by magic the atmosphere settles again as the children respond automatically to the gentle steadiness of their mother and aunt. “I believe Zhuang-er will be able to come back in now,” Jiang Yanli adds with a pointed look at the children that warns them to keep their calm for the rest of the meal for their brother’s sake.

They all nod and return to eating and chatting at a more reasonable volume as Qin Su rises to poke her head out into the corridor. She returns immediately with Jin Zhuang at her side, his hand in hers until he releases it to return to his seat between the twins.

“A-Zhuang,” Jin Fei says once he’s seated across from him. “We’re sorry for being too loud. If we come up with a game to play with Uncle Jue can you keep score for us? You’re the best at watching and keeping track of what happens while we spar. A-Lu can call out whatever you need to say to us while we play.”

Jin Zhuang takes a long moment to consider this in silence, as is his habit, before he nods once firmly and picks up his teacup to take a slow sip while his older brothers and sisters grin first at him then at each other.

“This is going to be so fun,” Jin Lu gushes with a dreamy little sigh into her soup that makes all of her older siblings laugh, even Jin Zhuang with his silent chuckle hidden behind his hand.

Jin Zixuan looks around the table at their family - loving, loud, wild, and theirs, and, not for the first time nor the last, wonders just how in the world he got so lucky.

----

By some small miracle, he and Jiang Yanli manage to gather all the children and get them looking presentable enough in time to greet their uncles when they arrive several days later. He looks for some sign as they approach that something is secretly wrong to have prompted the visit, but they seem alright at first glance. Of course any closer examination that could possibly tell him otherwise is abruptly made completely impossible when they’re promptly swarmed by all of the children save for Jin Ling and Jin Fei, both of whom are too old to run to them and cling around waists and knees to better clamor for gifts and stories with the rest of their siblings.

Jin Zixuan can only shake his head with fond dismay as he watches Jin Ye immediately try to cling to Meng Yao in between his husbands while Jin Zhuang drifts over to stop next to Lan Xichen so that he can stay away from the main hubbub and still slip one hand into his uncle’s with amusing gravity. Jin Lu studies the three of them for a moment before she decides to hug Lan Xichen first as he’s the easiest target, her tiny arms wrapping tightly around his legs as she clings. Nie Mingjue, of course, is immediately swamped by the twins who flank him to start talking about something with broad gestures - he sees Jin Yan make a stabbing motion after a moment and Jin Zixuan realizes they’re likely talking about their newest obsession - knives. A father’s dream.

“Out of my way brats, those are my brothers!” Mo Xuanyu suddenly shouts as he comes streaking out from the nearest building, practically a blur of black and red aimed straight at Meng Yao who has lifted little Jin Ye up in front of himself in his arms to better listen to her intently as she babbles to him.

“A-Yu!” Jin Zixuan chastises tiredly with a sigh even as Nie Mingjue sticks an arm out to catch Mo Xuanyu in midair right at the last moment before he can barrel into any of the children or Meng Yao, who, to his credit, hasn’t even twitched (though Jin Zixuan is absolutely sure that he knew Mo Xuanyu had been running straight for him). He always manages to forget how strong Nie Mingjue is until he sees an example like that; he hadn’t even jolted when Mo Xuanyu’s full weight had collided with his arm, and while Jin Zixuan won’t ever claim to be attracted to any of his brothers-in-law, he’s also not blind to the virtues of men. He can at least admit that he doesn’t fault Mo Xuanyu for his desire to find someone like that for himself.

“Mo Xuanyu,” Nie Mingjue greets, as gruff as ever with his brows drawn low over his eyes and his expression stony. He stares just long enough to make Mo Xuanyu laugh a bit nervously before he drops him back on his feet to reach down and pick up Jin Lu, who has released Lan Xichen in favor of tugging on Nie Mingjue’s belt and holding her arms up to him in silent request. She settles happily on his hip like she belongs there as he resumes his conversation with the twins, her head instantly landing on his shoulder and one hand curling around the collar of his robes as she snuggles in.

As always, watching his brother and brothers-in-law interact with the children does something funny in his chest, and just as he’s thinking of reaching down to take Jiang Yanli’s hand next to his to try to do something with that feeling, she slips it comfortably into the crook of his elbow as she lays her head on his shoulder in silent understanding and agreement.

There will be a formal banquet to welcome them later, of course. But for now the only people around are the members of the family themselves and those who have been living and working in Jinlintai long enough to have seen the rather informal comings and goings of every member of the extended family. There’s nothing official about this greeting, just loved ones reuniting. Happy. Together.

Jin Zixuan glances over to Jin Ling at his left when his son nudges him with an elbow only to find him smirking over at him. His son doesn’t even have to look up at him to do it anymore, and Jin Zixuan still can’t quite pinpoint when that happened.

“Tearing up, dad?” Jin Ling jokes, jerking his chin up in a proud gesture that Jin Zixuan will deny having ever been the example for him to learn from until the day he dies.

“You say that like he doesn’t cry every time any of our uncles come to visit,” Jin Fei sighs from the other side of Jiang Yanli. His posture is relaxed enough - he’s got his arms crossed loosely behind himself and his head tipped back as if studying the clouds and his tone is light and easy. The laid-back attitude is only marred by the fact that there’s clearly a teasing smirk dancing on his lips. “You didn’t cry for me when I got back from my night hunt the other evening. Should I be jealous, dad?”

“Boys,” Jiang Yanli cuts in to chastise with all the affection she can muster - which is, of course, quite a lot. “Your father enjoys having everyone home, that’s all. Be good and go say hello to your uncles, I’m sure they’ve missed you.”

They snicker but step away without any further argument, closing ranks immediately to walk across the courtyard shoulder-to-shoulder so they can put their heads together to laugh about something - Jin Zixuan, most likely.

“They look alright, don’t you think?” Jiang Yanli murmurs.

“I do. I’ll ask A-Yao to be sure when I can see him in private, but I think you were right - there doesn’t seem to be anything urgent.”

“A relaxed family visit, then,” she sighs happily, clearly smiling as she nuzzles her cheek a little more firmly against his shoulder and he drops a kiss to the top of her head before she straightens back up again. “It’ll be so lovely to have them here.”

“I’ve missed them,” he admits for her ears alone and Jiang Yanli squeezes the crook of his elbow in silent understanding.

#The untamed fanfic #Xuanli #Jin Zixuan #Jiang Yanli #Mo Xuanyu #Qin Su #3zun #right at the end #if anyone sees any issues with the names for all these children please don't hesitate to tell me I'm totally fine with changing #anything that should have been different to be more accurate #y'all would not believe the amount of age math I've done for all of this please don't look at any of it too closely #also if anyone wants my MANY headcanons in a bullet-list format let me know and I'll post some #there are Many of them with so many fun oc's lol #also if anything about the children or anything is unclear don't hesitate to ask for clarification!#oh headcanons can be about mianmian too even tho I didn't give her any real screentime in this (sorry!)

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sincerelystranger · 5 years ago

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Author: Snippet of Yunmeng Bros childhood years. I imagine them like 10~12 yrs old here. Also inspired by T.Swift’s song, “Seven”

---

Wei Wuxian breaks the water to see Jiang Cheng glaring at him from the pagoda. His eyes are red rimmed and it sort of breaks Wei Wuxian’s heart to know that he’s at fault.

“Want to join me, Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian asks, smiling as he swims closer to the pagoda.

“Get out,” Jiang Cheng says, frowning.

Wei Wuxian, ever obedient, pulls himself out of the water and onto the pagoda. He whips his hair wildly, bombarding Jiang Cheng with water. He expects some sort of exclamation at his actions, but Jiang Cheng is quiet. He must really be upset.

He looks over at Jiang Cheng as he wrings his hair out. Jiang Cheng’s lips are pulled down in a frown and he looks like he’s two seconds away from crying again. “Jiang Cheng, don’t be upset,” Wei Wuxian says, patting him on the shoulder, “Madam Yu went really easy on me this time. It already doesn’t hurt!”

If possible, Jiang Cheng’s lips pull further down at Wei Wuxian’s words. Jiang Cheng looks up at him (always so much smaller than Wei Wuxian) and holds up a sack that Wei Wuxian hadn’t known he was holding in his hands. “Come on, we’re leaving,” Jiang Cheng says seriously.

“Leaving?” Wei Wuxian asks, shrugging on his clothes, “Leaving where?”

“Qinghe,” Jiang Cheng says, taking Wei Wuxian’s hand and pulling him out of the pagoda.

“Great!” Wei Wuxian says, always down for shenanigans, “But why Qinghe?”

“Nie Huisang says there’s a witch in Hebei who makes a medicine that calms anger,” Jiang Cheng explains hurriedly. He looks around carefully before running out of the gate of the residences, pulling Wei Wuxian behind him.

“Interesting,” Wei Wuxian says. Jiang Cheng can be so cute sometimes. “Why do we need medicine to calm anger?”

Jiang Cheng glances back at him as if Wei Wuxian just asked if the sun was going to rise tomorrow. “To give to mama, duh!” Jiang Cheng says with a roll of his eyes as if he can’t believe how stupid Wei Wuxian is. “She must be sick! That’s why she’s so angry all the time.”

Wei Wuxian laughs at that – can’t help himself. “She’s not sick!” he says, shaking Jiang Cheng’s hand fondly, “She’s only ever angry at me!”

Jiang Cheng stops running then and turns to glare at Wei Wuxian. He looks close to tears again, it makes guilt well up in Wei Wuxian’s chest. “She’s sick!” he says, his bottom lip trembling, “She’s gotta be. And if we get her this medicine she’ll get better and she won’t punish you as much.”

Wei Wuxian squeezes Jiang Cheng’s hand in his. He’s always known that his punishments hurt Jiang Cheng more than they hurt him. “How are we even going to buy this medicine?” he asks gently, “How are we even getting to Qinghe!?”

Jiang Cheng raises the sack in his hand again. “Jiejie gave me her pocket money and I took your pocket money from your room. Combined with mine, we should have enough! And we can just take the boat up to Qinghe.”

Wei Wuxian knows that he should tell Jiang Cheng that they should go back home. Knows that if he goes along with this, Madam Yu will just punish him again. He knows that Madam Yu’s anger cannot be quelled with medicine.

But… Jiang Cheng is looking up at him resolutely, as if he’s sure that he’s figured everything out. Jiang Cheng’s always liked playing the hero and he hates it more than anyone when Wei Wuxian gets punished. Would it really be that awful to go along?

“You really thought this through, huh?” Wei Wuxian smiles. Jiang Cheng nods seriously back at him. What was one more punishment, really? If going along makes Jiang Cheng feel better, he’ll go along for the rest of his life. “Well, we better get on a boat before sunset.”

Jiang Cheng nods again and begins running, pulling Wei Wuxian behind him.

He’s so blessed, he thinks, watching Jiang Cheng’s fingers holding tight onto his hand. He’s so blessed to have a brother like Jiang Cheng. If Madam Yu’s anger is the price he has to pay to have a brother like this, he’ll gladly pay it – 10 times, even 100 times over.

They share some vegetable pancakes that shijie packed for them in the boat to Qinghe.

“Does it really not hurt?” Jiang Cheng whispers to him, brushing his fingers lightly over Wei Wuxian’s back.

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Wei Wuxian assures him with a smile, “I think I’ve gotten too strong for it to hurt anymore.”

Jiang Cheng’s brows furrow at that. They’ll get stuck like that if he keeps scowling, Wei Wuxian thinks fondly. He rubs a finger between Jiang Cheng’s eyebrows, erasing the furrow.

“Mama gets so mad because you’re so strong,” Jiang Cheng sighs, crossing his arms, “stronger than me.”

He looks like he’s about to cry again. It makes Wei Wuxian’s fingers tingle. He hates it when Jiang Cheng cries.

“If I was stronger, mama wouldn’t get so mad at you,” Jiang Cheng says, and his lower lip starts to tremble.

Wei Wuxian throws an arm over his shoulder and pulls Jiang Cheng close to him. “Sorry, Jiang Cheng, but I have to stay the strongest,” he says, shaking Jiang Cheng fondly.

“Why?” Jiang Cheng asks, fighting weakly against Wei Wuxian’s embrace.

“Lots of reasons,” Wei Wuxian says, tugging Jiang Cheng even closer. He rubs his cheek against Jiang Cheng’s hair, messing it up. Jiang Cheng can be so cute sometimes. “I’m going to be your right-hand man when you become sect leader – I have to be strong for that.”

What he doesn’t say is that he knows that as much as Madam Yu hates him for his strength, it’s also the only reason she’s allowed him to stay. She recognizes that he can be used. She knows that if anything were to happen, Wei Wuxian would protect Jiang Cheng with his life. Maybe she hates him, but she recognizes a weapon when she sees one.

She’s earned the name ‘Violet Spider’ for a reason.

“When I become sect leader, I won’t let anyone raise a hand against you,” Jiang Cheng promises fiercely, his small fists clenched tightly in his lap.

Wei Wuxian is so blessed. Maybe he doesn’t have a mother or a father, but he has a brother who loves him. He takes another bite of the vegetable pancake. He has a brother who will use up all his pocket money for some medicine that only might work, and he has a sister who loves him so much that she packed him his favorite pancakes and gave up all her pocket money too. He doesn’t need anything else.

They make it to Qinghe safely and find the witch in Hebei relatively easily. They barely have enough money for one small vial of anger calming medicine, but it makes Jiang Cheng smile – and Jiang Cheng smiling is so very rare – so Wei Wuxian chalks up the trip as a success.

Of course, he gets dragged in front of Madam Yu almost as soon as they take one step into the residences, but before even a slap can rain down, Jiang Cheng runs in front of Wei Wuxian and basically throws the little vial of medicine to Madam Yu.

“Mama!” he cries desperately, throwing himself in front of Wei Wuxian like a human shield. “It was my idea – don’t punish A-Ying. We were just getting some medicine for you.”

Madam Yu, probably subdued by the cuteness of Jiang Cheng, looks at the vial in her hand. The electric anger in the air seems to disappear. “Medicine?” she asks faintly, “What for?”

“It’s supposed to calm anger, mama,” Jiang Cheng answers quickly, “maybe if you drink it, you won’t get mad at A-Ying so often.”

Madam Yu looks at the small vial and looks at Jiang Cheng. She sends a quick glare to Wei Wuxian before turning around. “Instead of spending your time doing useless things like this, tell that A-Ying of yours to learn how to behave less shamefully,” she says, before disappearing back into her room.

Jiang Cheng turns around and looks at Wei Wuxian with big eyes. Wei Wuxian smiles.

“The medicine is already working, Jiang Cheng,” he smiles.

Wei Wuxian is so blessed.

#the untamed #mdzs #my fic #yunmeng bros #jiang cheng #wei wuxian

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baoshan-sanren · 5 years ago

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Chapter 14

of the wwx emperor au that’s now more like the terrible horrible time the Lan Sect is having ugh

It does not take long to leave the noise of the disciples and their game behind them.

The path around the mountain is wide, and appears to have been well tended throughout the warmer months. Still, the evidence of the recent autumn storms is everywhere, frequently forcing them to detour around fallen branches and uprooted brush.

The first time Nie MingJue offers him a hand in assistance, XiChen nearly trips over nothing but his own feet. Although they hardly come upon any obstacles that require such attention, XiChen accepts each time, and each time the anticipation of the next seems to grow.

XiChen’s hands are not soft by any means. His calluses are not only present on the areas so frequently affected by sword practice, but years of playing the guqin have hardened his fingers as well. They are not hands that must be treated with care, yet Nie MingJue does, his grip light and gentle. Each time, the warmth of his palm inevitably travels to XiChen’s face, and XiChen very much hopes that the color in his cheeks can be ascribed the cold mountain breeze instead.

“How do you like the Peach Blossom Pavilion?” Nie MingJue says, and XiChen finds himself surprised by the question.

For all the insinuations the Royal Companion had made about Madam Yu being attentive to their accommodations, at no point has anyone actually inquired after their comfort. XiChen is fairly certain that most of the guests are unaware of the Lan Sect’s current residence in the Immortal Mountain City.

It is logical, that the General of the Emperor’s army would keep a close track of everyone’s accommodations, and express some interest in the matter. Still, XiChen so rarely considers his own comfort, that it takes him a few moments to formulate a response.

“It is peaceful,” he says finally, “I like it very much.”

It is far removed from the palaces usually occupied by distinguished guests. It is also small, and does not require a sea of servants to maintain. These are all welcome things to the Lan Sect, who do not want to be in close proximity to the others, and place great value in peace and silence. However, XiChen does not know how to voice any of those benefits without making them sound like grievances.

“It is one of the oldest structures in the Immortal Mountain City,” Nie MingJue says, “do you know the story behind the name?”

“Only that the Empress Immortal had settled there upon first arriving to the Immortal Mountain.”

Nie MingJue nods, and helps XiChen navigate two crude stone steps, worn down by centuries of wind and rain. The path evens out again, but the incline is now noticeable. The air is so rich here, that XiChen can almost taste the coolness of it on his tongue.

“At the time, the Empress Immortal was only a rogue cultivator,” Nie MingJue says, “A capable one, but not yet renown enough to form an Empire. It is said that she could feel the inherent power of the Immortal Mountain, and had chosen to settle here precisely for this reason. I, however, am more inclined to think that she was simply searching for some peace and silence.”

The words are followed by a small smile in XiChen’s direction, and XiChen cannot help but smile back.

“The Peach Blossom Pavilion is named for the peach tree that grew in its place. The legend states that the Empress Immortal spent her first night underneath this tree, and that the tree bore fruit the next morning to provide her with nourishment.”

This part of the story is unfamiliar to XiChen, and he listens attentively, wondering where it could possibly lead.

“She built her first home next to that same peach tree, and when the autumn storms took it down, her second and her third. Although she still traveled far and wide, the Immortal Mountain became a place she considered her own, a shelter from the rest of the world.”

Ahead, a small pile of rocks obstructs their way. Larger boulders had dislodged at one point, but the majority of them had rolled past the path itself, crumbling into the fissure below. Still, when Nie MingJue offers his hand, XiChen takes it.

“Eventually, the peach tree died. Most commonly it is said that the Immortal Empress was gone too long, and found it already withered on her return. Some prefer to think that a storm had uprooted the tree, a lesson on the inconsistency of all living things when faced with the might of Heavens. Others say that enemies of the Immortal Empress destroyed it on purpose. The details vary from one region to another.”

At one point, Nie MingJue’s fingers had tightened around his own, and now, XiChen cannot seem to shake the tingling sensation that envelops his hand from fingertips to his wrist.

“The story is always clear on the aftermath, however. The Empress Immortal was still young, and already extremely advanced in cultivation. She had not yet learned that spiritual power has its limits, and that the natural progression of life cannot be altered without consequences.”

The path is steadily rising now, curving more sharply around the mountain face, the trees growing scarce.

“She was determined to have her peach tree. In order to accomplish this, she sunk all of her power into the mountain soil. She exerted herself to such an extent that her death should have been the outcome. And although she lived, nearly half a century would pass before her spiritual power recovered.”

The next curve stops XiChen in his tracks.

The mountain face is steep here, but not so steep that it cannot support growth. A field of grass and wildflowers stretches in front of his eyes, waving in the mountain wind. And in the middle of this field, dozens of peach trees stand tall, each one in full bloom.

They are beautiful. The color of their blossoms is so vivid, it seems painted on with a heavy hand, the innermost flowers so dark, that they resemble droplets of blood. The breeze easily snatches their petals, carpeting the field in an ocean of pink and white.

They are lovely, and yet, the longer XiChen watches them, the more unsettled he feels. It takes him a few moments to pinpoint the source of his unease, and then it is so obvious that he feels foolish.

It is late autumn. No peach trees bloom in autumn.

“They bloom all year long,” Nie MingJue says, “They never age, and they never bear fruit.”

“Oh,” XiChen says, more of a breath than a word, and easily lost in the wind.

They are not real.

There are so many wondrous things one can accomplish with spiritual power, but no amount of skill or strength is capable of creation. Spiritual power cannot turn back death, and it cannot give birth to new life.

XiChen remembers this lesson so clearly, that for an instant, he is back in the Library Pavilion at Cloud Recesses, hearing his uncle’s calm voice, smelling the gardenias growing by the pavilion windows.

All things are born, and all things must die. Even the greatest cultivators in the world, those who reach immortality, will one day be nothing but bones and dust in the earth, their last purpose to nourish new life. He had committed the lesson to memory then, but he does not think that he fully understood it until this very moment, faced with a dozen blooming peach trees in the late autumn.

Frozen in a moment, forever unchanging. Beautiful to see, but lacking everything that makes them truly alive.

A deep, inexplicable sorrow envelops him, and he feels his breath stutter in his chest.

“I have upset you,” Nie MingJue says, voice heavy with concern, “Forgive me. That was not my intention.”

“No, I--“

XiChen does not know how to explain himself. His happiness or melancholy are so rarely addressed in words, that he does not possess the vocabulary necessary to speak of them.

“I am not upset, I am only-- sad for them, I suppose.”

He cannot meet Nie MingJue’s eyes. He feels silly, and wonders if the man thinks him ridiculous.

“You must think me foolish.”

“I do not,” Nie MingJue says.

He sounds upset at the implication, but whatever other words he may have to say never come.

There is an unexpected noise behind them, a sound of many boots traveling the same path. XiChen turns to find a dozen men in the uniforms of the Imperial Guard.

The man leading them, a tall youth XiChen does not remember meeting before, bows to Nie MingJue and addresses him directly.

“General Nie, forgive me. I have been ordered to take Young Master Lan into custody, and escort him to the Jade Sword Palace.”

XiChen feels every part of his body turn numb at the words.

“Into custody?” Nie MingJue says, “For what reason?”

“For the attempted murder of the HeJian Fan Sect Leader.”

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stiricidewrites · 10 months ago

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All the Things We’ll Leave Behind: ch 32, pt 1

Previously

“Maybe, if we refuse to answer, they will leave,” lwj said as he glared towards the door of wwx’s house.

“They will,” jzxuan said from where he sat at the kitchen island, lazily drinking some weird smelling tea that a servant had delivered for them along with breakfast that morning—courtesy of his mother, his friend had said. She’d called him the evening before, demanding to know where he was. Apparently, she had trusted jgy’s word that he was safe for the majority of the day, before cracking when her son failed to return to their rooms yet again, giving into motherly concern and calling him.

It had been cute, watching his friend smile and laugh as he talked with her for almost an hour. It had been sweet and loving and made lwj’s heart break for his own mother, driven to an early grave by his father and the misery of their world. His scent had soured, and then jzxuan had been there, soft eyes looking into his as he bid his mother an abrupt goodnight. He hadn’t cried—there was no point in crying for his mother anymore, not when his father was just as dead and all his mother had wanted for her children was happiness and freedom.

lwj figured she’d be mostly happy to see how their lives had ended up. They might not be free, but perhaps she would have thought happiness enough? She’d be here, smiling and teasing. She and wwx would have gotten along, after she destroyed him for dating someone so young, of course. He couldn’t remember much of his mother, but he remembered those things: a sad sort of happiness, a sharp tongue and a joy for teasing and pulling pranks. His brother, unfortunately, had inherited her penchant for teasing, and for a long time he had hated it.

Then, he had met wwx. Then, it had reminded him of the home he had so rarely been allowed to visit and the happiness of childhood and love.

A fist banged against the door again and lwj really wished they would just go away. Some servant of Madam Yu, no doubt, come to drag them along to today’s mating activity—sans the omega they were supposed to be competing for. jyl had gone silent now, likely at the height of her heat and in excruciating pain. She’d sent one final text, from an unknown number, the afternoon before: Good Luck!

Luck was something they would most certainly need, if they were going to survive the collection of events Madam Yu had scheduled for the next three days. After that, assuming her daughter was fit to face the world, they would return to what were currently considered more standard mating events, which were effectively just chat sessions. Boring and unpleasant, what with all the RAAR members around, but nothing too strenuous or annoying.

The events for the next three days were going to be hell. lwj would have left, were he alone. Now, he was friends with jzxuan. His friend couldn’t leave, and lwj couldn’t leave him, so he was stuck, and life was horrible and—

#fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #wangxian #stiricidesbottomji #omegaverse

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flautistsandpeonies · 4 years ago

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You ever think about how dirty Jiang Fengmian got done?

You’re a sect heir to what is supposed to be the most “free” sect of all the great sects. Expression, play, and ingenuity are literally built into your teachings, and all of a sudden your father wants to set you up into an arranged marriage.

You meet your perspective betrothed, and you don’t like the way she conducts herself. You tell her and your family multiple times that you don’t think that you two would be an appropriate match for one another. Your betrothed, however, wants to marry you- it doesn’t matter what you think apparently- and her family starts pressuring you into marrying their third daughter. You try to hold out and keep denying, but then your best friends want to get married and travel the world together so you are left all alone to fight an entire sect and your father’s wishes by yourself.

Needless to say, you find yourself getting married to the Violet Spider.

So, Yu Ziyuan moves to Lotus Pier and one of the first things she decides is that she doesn’t like her new home and has an entire pavilion built to cater to her needs and brings a bunch of people from her natal sect sect and barring Jiang from the premises.

There are Jiang disciples that have lived in Lotus Pier long than Yu Ziyuan that can no longer access a part of their home because their new madam forbade them from coming there.

She also decides that she isn’t going to take on your family name. She refuses to take the mantle of Madam Jiang and wants to be called Madam Yu despite the fact that she is the one that wanted the marriage in the first place.

Thirdly, she refuses to take care of the household of the Jiang sect. Instead of doing her duties as the Madam of Lotus Pier she would rather go on night hunts and she’s barely home.

So, now you probably have to not only take care of duties as sect leader, you also have to take care of the household cause your wife is almost never home.

Despite all this, you manage to perform your marital duties and you have your first child together! A baby girl who was born frail and with a weak constitution. You decide to name her Jiang Yanli.

Your wife informs you that since she and Jin GuangShan’s wife Madam Jin were the bestest of friends since childhood and made a promise that their first born children would marry one day, your daughter is now in an arranged marriage with the heir to the Jin sect.

With that, you no longer have a sect heir as men do not marry into the woman’s family. You’ve simply had a child to further the Jin sect rather than your own.

Since that’s done, you end up performing your marital duties again, and three years later you end up with a boy this time! You decide to name him Jiang Cheng.

Life is pretty normal, your wife is still never home, Yanli, while not good in cultivation seems to enjoy cooking, and you get your son three puppies to play with.

Four years later, you get the news that your best friends are now dead from a night-hunt and their little boy, just a few days older than your son is missing.

You spend five years looking for Wei Ying and miraculously find him eating the trashed rinds from people who bought watermelon. You buy him food and clothes and bring him back to Lotus Pier where you find your son playing with his puppies, Princess, Jasmine, and Love.

At the sight of them, Wei Ying starts screaming and crying, he’s shaking and sweating and doesn’t seem to be able to perceive the world around him. You see it’s a panic attack induced by the dogs, so you pick him to get him from the same level as the animals and try to calm him down.

Since you doubt the panic attack will be a one time thing, you decide that the best course of action is to send the dogs away. This devastates your son as he really loved his furry friends, so you decide to replace his animal friends with Wei Ying and set them up in the same room.

All this infuriates your wife, and she starts to accuse you of having an affair with your best friend. She accuses you of not loving your son, of being unfaithful, and having a bastard son from a woman who has been dead for five years.

There is a new normal in life with Wei Ying at Lotus Pier. While Yu Ziyuan still night-hunts alot, when she’s home she’s constantly accuses you of favoring Wei Ying over your own son, and claims that Wei Ying is your bastard. Yu Ziyuan has also taken zidian and whips Wei Ying with the spiritual weapon whenever she wants. Some days you come home late at night and find Wei Ying trapped in your family’s ancestral hall kneeling for hours.

Your wife has taken a spiritual tool that has been passed down the Jiang family for generations and she uses it to whip the child of your two best friends. She traps him in the ancestral hall, without medical attention, for hours, until you let him out late at night.

Your wife constantly tells your son that you don’t love him, that you wish Wei Ying was your legitimate heir, that he will never meet your expectations.She berates your daughter for her hobbies and looks down on her. Wei Ying gets whipped for simple things such as not wearing a shirt on a hot summer’s day.

Life passes on like this. Before you know it, you are sending your son and Wei Ying off to the Cloud recesses for study. Three months later, you are called to the mountain headquarters because your head disciples beat up the Jin heir.

Lan Qiren tells you that Jin ZiXuan disparaged your daughter in front of every eligible male in the cultivation world. You understand being betrothed to someone you don’t love, but Yanli didn’t cause the arrangement and even if Jin ZIXuan didn’t want to marry her didn’t mean he didn’t have to talk down about her to any other boy who you could possibly try to set her with. So, with that, you get Jin GuangShan to recede the arrangement and you take Wei Ying home.

I wonder if you will be able to find your daughter a husband after every heir that studied at the cloud recesses heard about how weak in beauty, smarts, and cultivation she was.

For the next two years, you deal with the new normal and your wife cursing you for ending your daughter engagement.

The Wens host an archery competition and then weeks later demand your heirs and disciples as hostages. They demand an heir so you are forced to send your son. Wei Ying volunteers and your wife accuses you of favoring Wei Ying despite the fact that Jiang Cheng really has no choice in the matter.

One month later, your son and disciples come home from a near death experience with a deformed beast and second Wen heir. You are informed that your head disciple stayed behind so you go to retrieve him and find that he and the second jade of Lan killed a hundreds year old beast.

Wei Ying is suffering from an infection from a brand, arrow wound, and a lack of spiritual power and stays in a coma for an entire week. As soon as he wakes, you congratulate him on this rare feet.

Your son is now saying that Wei Ying should have let the sect heirs to two other major sects die and and you try to make him see why that sort of mind set is wrong.

It probably reminds you of being a teenager and almost dying on a night hunt due to Lan Qiren unchangingly following his sect rules, and the only reason you are currently alive is because your friend CangSe SanRen saved your life.

Your wife bursts in and again accuses you of favoring Wei Ying. She claims that you don’t love your son again because she is his mother. It’s the same old argument and she storms out as angry as she came in.

Days go by and you and your wife are still arguing. It gets so bad that you leave your home to go appeal to the man who ordered your son to be a hostage to give you their swords back. You fail.

You’re going home when you find your son and Wei Ying tied together with zidian on a boat. Your son tells you the Wen sect is attacking and that your wife is fighting the core melting hand. You send the boys away; you tell your son to be well, and tell Wei Ying to look after him.

You go home to fight for you sect.

Your core is melted.

You are killed.

Your home is burned to the group.

All your disciples are killed.

All your treasures all stolen.

YunmengJiang is now the Wen Sect Supervisory Office of Yunmeng.

JC Stans Don’t Clown on my Post - Madam Yu Stans Don’t Clown on my Post

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somepinkthing · 5 years ago

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@angstymdzsthoughts for your YZY ultimatum AU where the nie bros adopt Wei Ying after he’s been kicked out.

Part 1 of 2 because I hate myself

[Part 2]

---

Wei Ying wished he could at least say goodbye to Jiang Cheng and shijie.

“I am so sorry, A-Ying,” Jiang Fengmian said, looking as close to tears as his serene face had ever seemed to Wei Ying. It’d been a long week for him, to say the least.

“It’s alright!” Wei Ying chirped back, “I’ll be okay!”

Wei Ying had been ready for this, even if Jiang-shushu wasn’t. After Madam Yu had uttered that ultimatum for the whole of Lotus Pier to hear before storming off with both of the children she bore, what else could be done? Jianf Fengmian could stall as long as he wanted but he had his own children and a wife and a sect to think after--Wei Ying knew he couldn’t hold a candle to the real family he might end up costing his uncle.

“If you need more money, say so,” Jiang-shushu said. Wei Ying jingled his completely packed wallet.

“I think you should take more food after all,” Jiang-shushu said, wringing his hands.

“You’ve packed me with all I could possibly manage to carry, “Wei Ying said with a laugh, “I’m going to be mugged the second I step foot out there! And qiankun pouches don’t make things lighter! Please spare me! Anything else and I’ll be crushed!”

Jiang-shushu huffed affectionately at him before falling back into silence.

This mood was way too heavy for Wei Ying’s liking. Slowly, he reached down to fiddle with his Clarity Bell. It was the first present shijie had ever given him. Jiang Cheng had been so excited, bouncing up and down yelling at him to hurry up and open it. A sign that he was of Yunmeng, recognizable wherever he went.

Well, time to bite the bullet.

Wei Ying made to untie his bell but his uncle’s hands stopped him.

“Keep it. That way, if there’s ever an emergency ...” Jiang-shushu trailed off at the end. Yu Ziyuan was a woman of her word. Even if it were an emergency, Wei Ying would never be welcome back, bell or no bell. They both knew that.

“Just keep it. Please. It belongs to you,” Jiang-shushu whispered.

Wei Ying nodded and gave his uncle’s hands one last squeeze before stepping onto the boat that would take him from his (former) home.

He looked back until there was nothing else to see.

—-

5 Months Later

“Sir? Are you alright?” a hesitant voice called out to him. Wei Ying looked up to find a rather attractive boy peering down at him. He had wide, harried looking eyes that reminded Wei Ying of the pheasants he used to hunt--they’d look around with those eyes right before running. Behind the young man was a carriage, the driver leaning forward and scowling.

Ah. Wei Ying was in the way of the road then.

“I apologize, young master,” Wei Ying said, standing up with a smile, “I’ll move out of the way!”

“I-It’s okay!” the other boy said, following Wei Ying to the side of the road and looking him up and down. “You-you’re not injured are you?”

Wei Ying shook his head. “I thank you for the concern, young master, but I just slipped on the ice a bit and decided to take a rest.”

“A rest? On the ground?” the boy asked, aghast.

“Yep! I slipped and hurt all over! The snow will comfort me and my bruises.”

The young man looked down at Wei Ying’s feet. “Yes, with shoes like that you would slip on the ice. You must not be from around here. You should really pick up some winter gear. I know a few good stores that could take you right away!”

“Would that I had the money to,” Wei Ying replied wryly before he could stop himself. This boy didn’t need to know how destitute he had let himself become. Turns out, no one wants the help of a child rogue cultivator, no matter how talented. He had thought that Qinghe might have some work for him, given their abundance of smaller demons crawling on the mountains, but he had been unprepared for the winter. But, again, this young master who traveled around in a carriage would hardly understand that. Probably the son of a wealthy merchant or something. He was a friendly one though, those were rare.

The boy in front of him immediately looked uncomfortable, biting his lower lip and dropping his gaze.

“I-I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to pry. Um, if you want…”

He was interrupted by the carriage driver.

“Young Master Nie, I am to bring you straight home. Your brother was very specific! We don’t have the time to be stopping for every peddler on the street!”

From a top disciple to a mere peddler. Oh, how the mighty fall. Wei Ying couldn’t even dispute it though, he thought to himself. He was a peddler now, wasn’t he? His pride and the rapidly dwindling supplies Jiang-shushu had packed him with was all that was stopping him from going back to begging and fighting for meals with dogs at this point.

“B-But!” the boy started to say but immediately retreated when he saw the driver roll his eyes at him.

Huh. Odd. You’d think that a carriage driver would show more respect to his master. Was this boy truly that easy to bully?

“Young Master Nie, get back in the carriage. We are late as it is,” the driver moaned, frustrated, “Do you want to be caught standing here when your brother comes to look for you?”

The boy pouted but immediately moved to acquiesce, shooting Wei Ying an apologetic smile. Apparently he was that easy. Or perhaps it was the threat of his brother.

Wait.

Did that driver say Nie?

“My brother’s got better things to do. He’s not going to come looking. Don’t be so tense,” the boy said as he started to climb inside.

“Who’s not coming?” a clear, low voice sliced through the bustle of the town as a looming figure descended from the sky. Nie Mingjue’s boots hit the ground with a heavy thud.

And this could only be Nie Mingjue, newly decorated with the paraphernalia that marked him as the teenage leader of Qinghe Nie. Madam Yu was always careful to keep Wei Ying with the other disciples at conferences so he had never met the infamous Nie Mingjue nor his brother in person, but his presence matched everything that Wei Ying had heard about him in the past. So then, that boy was…

“Huaisang, want to explain to me why you broke curfew?”

Ah. Nie Huaisang. His reputation preceded him too, Wei Ying thought as he watched Nie Huaisang cower from his brother’s line of questioning.

“I took a little longer, that’s all…” he squeaked out.

Nie Mingjue scoffed. “A little longer? Is that what you call over three hours of my scouring for you? Do you think I don’t have anything better to do?!”

“Well then, go do them,” Huaisang muttered, defiant for but a few seconds before yelping pathetically when his brother marched forward and grabbed his ear.

“You’re mouthy!” Nie Mingjue growled, “Do you know how many people I have out searching right now? You’ve been gone since this morning! I told you to be back by lunchtime and it’s after dinnertime now! The sun has gone completely down!”

“I get it! It won’t happen again! DaGe, let go of me!” Nie Huaisang whined, batting at his older brother’s hand. Nie Mingjue gave his ear one last hard twist before relinquishing his hold.

“See to it that it doesn’t.”

Then, swiveling around to face the front of the carriage, Nie Mingjue’s face turned even more stern. He opened his mouth, presumably to yell at the driver. That’s when he saw Wei Ying.

“Huaisang, who's the kid?”

“I didn’t have the chance to ask,” Huaisang muttered, pouting as he came up behind his brother. “He’s not from here, that’s all I know.”

“Yeah, I’d say,” Nie Mingjue snapped back, “Yunmeng Jiang’s Clarity Bells aren’t exactly given out on the streets of Qinghe.”

Wei Ying’s hand immediately shot down to cover his bell. Nie Huaisang’s eyes whipped down to it before he could fully hide it from sight. His eyes widened and he stopped rubbing at his sore ear.

“You are a disciple of Yunmeng Jiang?” Nie Huaisang asked, doubt coloring his voice.

“I-I am not,” Wei Ying said. He could see the gears turning in the young master's head upon hearing his answer.

“Then…. Oh.”

Awkward understanding and recognition settled on Nie Huaisang’s face. Wei Ying looked down. He didn’t want to see the pity that would be there. Yu Ziyuan leaving Jiang Fengmian until he tossed out his street rat was the gossip of a lifetime. There’s no way the story hadn’t reached Qinghe Nie.

Suddenly, Nie Mingjue moved forward. In a few long strides, he stood before Wei Ying. He put his hands together into an upright salute.

“Qinghe Nie’s Nie Mingjue greets this young master,” Nie Mingjue said sharply, tone obviously hinting at the two boys to remember their manners.

“O-Oh! Qinghe Nie’s Nie Huaisang greets this young master,” Nie Huasiang greeted, following his brother’s example.

Wei Ying hesitated but even he wouldn’t dare refuse to greet a sect leader, especially after being greeted himself.

“Wei Ying greets Sect Leader Nie and young master Nie.” He sunk into a low salute. He used to be much more lax with them but with the way things were now, he could no longer afford to be so familiar with such high ranking cultivators. He was no longer anyone’s equal.

“You do not claim a sect?” Nie Mingjue rumbled, coking an eyebrow.

“I am… afraid the rumors are true. I am but a lone rogue cultivator now,” Wei Ying replied.

Nie Mingjue’s brow furrowed and he looked Wei Ying over.

“How old are you?”

“Wei Ying turns eleven this year.” The answer only deepened the frown on the young sect leader’s face.

“That’s too young to be a rogue cultivator, is it not?”

Well, everyone else and their moms sure believed it was. Hence why Wei Ying was so down on his cash. Wei Ying bit his tongue and refused to let his bitterness seep out. In truth, they were probably right.

“I am talented enough to be useful, sect leader,” Wei Ying replied. And he was. Youth aside, he already had his golden core mostly formed and he could fly on his sword for short bursts. He had soundly beaten Jiang Cheng in the sword fighting competition during the last discussion conference, taking first in his age group (Madam Yu had been livid and he had wished he hadn’t but the point stands).

“Yes, I remember hearing that about you,” Nie Mingjue affirmed before turning to his brother.

“Do you have an extra coat in there, Huaisang?”

“I do! I’ll get it!” Nie Huaisang said eagerly, scrambling back into the carriage.

“Sect Leader Nie, you’re too kind! I don’t need—” Wei Ying stared to protest, but a heavy hand on his shoulder cut him off. Nie Mingjue’s hand was large and fully covered Wei Ying’s bony shoulder, squeezing lightly. It was… surprisingly nice. And warm.

“Work it off, if you like. I could use talent in my sect right now. Come show me what you can do and I’ll give you the chance to work for the shelter I’ll provide.” Nie Mingjue’s hand tightened on Wei Ying’s shoulder, but it didn’t feel like a threat. Despite the strength behind the grip, Wei Ying was reminded of when his shijie would hold his hand and speak to him gently. It was comforting.

Huaisang rushed out of the carriage with a fur cloak and some gloves. He handed the gloves to his brother so he could drape the cloak around Wei Ying’s shivering form.

“Are you going to come stay with us?” Nie Huaisang asked. He almost looked excited at the prospect. He pulled the cloak tighter around Wei Ying as he spoke and began to do the buttons before Nie Mingjue batted his hands away and told him to let Wei Ying dress himself.

“The disciples my age don’t come to the Unclean Realms to train often so it’d be nice to have a friend! And you must have so many stories from all your travels!” Nie Huaisang chirped, eyes twinkling at the idea of having someone to talk to that wasn’t his brother.

“Well, kid?” Nie Mingjue asked as he handed Wei Ying the gloves.

They were warm.

Wei Ying nodded.

---

tbc

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sunshine304 · 4 years ago

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On to eps 25 + 26, my friends! It’s heating up!

Yang Jin was concerned because he saw Yu Wenzhi’s troups – but he definitely, absolutely was NOT concerned for Li Yan, no no! XD They keep on going together, but only... for 5 min or so? Until Li Yan tells him to go help A-Fei in town, since she can make the rest of the way herself (that worked so well before...). It’s cute how Yang Jin doesn’t want to go, but she makes puppy eyes at him and so he leaves.

I guess in the long run that isn’t such a bad decision to send him to A-Fei’s aid.

Poor Li Yan of course meets an outpost that’s already infiltrated by Disha. At least the man helps her instead of selling her out. And then it turns out that Li Sheng didn’t even include a message, just sending her away from where the attack will happen. Oh Li Sheng... He could have thought about how the outpost might be in Disha’s pockets, though, since it wouldn’t be the first time. Anyway, Li Yan steals a horse and goes to find help.

So much stuff is happening at the same time! Yang Jin asks after the Intinerary Gang who surely will help him (good idea), while Chuchu listens in on the Elders talking about how Li Sheng is very likely dead. She is devastated. T_T

Yu Wenzhi starts distrusting Kou Dan, because she now mentions a rumoured hidden path to the 48 Strongholds. She’s all like, “What, it’s just a rumour.“ and even I side-eye her for that. He wants to set a trap for A-Fei and leaves.

Meanwhile, Xie Yun has already strongly hinted to A-Fei that it would be an advantage if they could get YWZ to distrust at least Kou Dan. A-Fei uses YWZ’s ruse for just that, basically telling Gu Tianxian that this was an assassination attempt lead by Mingfeng Sect.

OMG the kiss by proxy!! I flailed!! Give me moooore! ♥

XY is off to distract GTX while A-Fei looks for YWZ's new hiding spot. But before that she stares into space, thrown by XY's proxy kiss. I swoon along with her. XD

Li Yan meets Li Jinrong, who was on her way back anyway since she missed her husband yet again. The army seems to have some problems, though General Wen is… perhaps downplaying? Anyway, LJR now knows that 48 Strongholds is under attack and hurries home.

Shen Tianshu has waited out the fire, it seems, and is now in front of the main gate to the 48 Strongholds. Also, YWZ’s private army has arrived. All in all, this huge combined army consists of about 30 people; 6 of them leave to find the secret path. I can’t get over the fact that the mean villains only have so few people! You really didn’t have a budget, huh? XD I mean srsly, there are definitely more people hiding at the 48 SH! XD

Look at his smug face! He always squints smugly at everyone, he’s so weird! XD

Love how XY is leading Disha around. Also happy that Wang Yibo could do lots of wirework in that scene, since he likes to do that stuff. XD Meanwhile, YWZ feels super threatened. Rightly so, asshole.

Aww the Elders Zhao and Zhang at the 48 SH want to go fighting! I actually enjoy that this show has many older characters as well.

Aaaand A-Fei has found YWZ! And she fights! And then there’s Yang Jin and the IG to the rescue! I love how they’re all fighting, while YWZ just stands there and watches with Kou Dan protecting him. Kinda. I cheered for the IG just fighting with big sticks and whatever else was at hand against that trained (? I assume) private army with swords – and they win by brute force. XD

A-Fei is all confused and Yang Jin explains, “I met Li Yan on the road and she started crying. She’s so annoying, I can’t say no to her!” He is so whipped. XD

YWZ really is a totally useless fighter. A-Fei reaches him and overpowers him easily. What kind of position does that guy have in the government? Doesn’t seem to be an army position… Since they won they want to get Disha to stop the attack on the 48 SH.

Meanwhile I fucking knew it that Ma Jili would betray them! Did he actually kill that one Elder? Or did they really encounter Disha and the Elder got killed there? Hm.

Anyway, look at Chuchu grabbing a sword! That was cool, you go queen! Though she didn’t get to use it, I’m sure there will be another chance for her to fuck some shit up!

A-Fei is so devastated that Uncle Ma betrayed her. I feel you, A-Fei. And then Uncle Ma feels guilty (or… was also misled by Kou Dan?) and fights KD, which doesn’t end good for him.

That fight between A-Fei and KD was really cool. Loved how they used the end credits song! I’m a sucker for that song! A-Fei gets her revenge and doesn’t even watch KD die.

Seriously, those poor kids will all be so traumatised. Yeah in CQL they all went to war at 19 or so, but they at least all had fighting experience in a real life situation against monsters, fierce corpses and whatnot. The kids from 48 SH grew up sheltered with this kind of fighting just a theoretical exercise.

OH nooo Xie Yun uses the super power needle! O_O He sees that 48 SH will likely lose (how, against only 20 Disha ppl, IDK…) and decides on that, because he can’t lose A-Fei.

Look at his conflicted face!!!

He also throws some exposition in there, that Chuchu’s necklace is the main key for the HTYS which he is looking for. Okay. Whatever, now pls fuck Shen Tianshu up, my man.

He does. He also tells A-Fei that he wants to enjoy himself here. (Meaning he doesn’t have long afterwards anyway and wants to go out with a bang I guess. T_T) STS is shocked because it seems that Xie Yun has some SERIOUS FIGHTING SKILLZ.

This is getting really long... XD

Xie Yun fights and it's pretty cool! A-Fei also keeps fighting, but she gets weaker, and also seems overwhlemed by the situation. I can’t blame her.

And then Li Jinrong signals her arrival and Shen Tianshu kinda panics while A-Fei decides that this is a good moment to faint. She does a lot of fainting in this show.

Have this gif for the drama of it all. XD

Yay, Chuchu has found Li Sheng! She had to wade through some corpses for that at the river bank, but she is a badass and doesn’t care. MVP Chuchu! ♥

Excuuuse me!? STS punches (!!) Li Jinrong's horse. Seriously, asshole?! WTF?! LJR fucks him up anyway, destroys his metal hand (he later has a new one so I guess he just... has a lot of these things lying around?). Disha + YWZ’s troups finally retreat, and Chuchu immediately tells them where Li Sheng is. He is now safe, yay!

Okay this shot of LJR is really cool.

There LJR goes again with her tough mother routine. XD A-Fei is awake and happy to see her; she also aks after Xie Yun, and her mother is like, “Do you know who he is?” and A-Fei conveniently does not mention that she knows he's royalty and just tells her the important stuff like, “He does poetry and songs to make a living.” LJR just dismisses her with, “We'll talk about him later.” Oh oh.

Cute scene with A-Fei and Li Sheng, who tease each other good-naturedly. Li Sheng now can admit that A-Fei is better than him at martial arts, but he doesn't want to give up – perhaps he'll manage to be better than her one day anyway? ;D I like his growth so far.

Xie Yun comes over to flirt and invite himself into A-Fei's bedroom. XD But this time A-Fei flirts back! It's the, “I know I'm good looking, but you have to pay money to stare at me,” and A-Fei answers, “You can stare at me too and we'll call it even,” scene. XY is surprised and delighted. XD

That whole conversation between these two. ♥ T_T A-Fei knows XY so well by know that she sees through his act of putting on a happy face whenever he's worried. She wants to ask so many questions but doesn't because she thinks he won't answer them honestly anyway. T_T And she sincerely asks him if he's alright. T_T He's obviously thrown by all of this, and he talks around some things and yep, he isn't really honest. And then she asks too many questions anyway and he uses her accupoints to knock her out. My God, just talk to her!!

And there's the other ship that's shyly circling each other! Chuchu and Li Sheng have an awkward conversation, because now that it's not live or death they don't know how to act. XD He wants to look for Chuchu's brother and they perhaps could live at the 48 SH? *puppyeyes* I mean seriously, where is that kid?!

Shen Tianshu is pissed, Yu Wenzhi is too. He's going on about how Xie Yun (=Xiao Chuan) should be dead, damnit, since he was poisoned 10 years ago with that super rare and deadly Bone Piercing Blue poison (we remember, the one that 9th Madam Duan also suffered from until Li Zheng helped her). We get STS exposition that a master must've helped XY so that he survived (and the master should've died of it), but now that XY used the power needle his meridians are no longer blocked and the poison is free to circulate again = He only has a few months to live. OH NO! T_T They don't know if he's also looking for the HYTS but want to keep looking anyway; Disha masters are sent out after the two men yet again bitch at each other. XD

Sometimes it's nice to actually get some exposition here...

There's a funeral scene at 48 SH with cool music and all of them swearing their oath again to do their best with a clear conscience before Heaven, Earth, and themselves. That “clear conscience” idiom is really popular I think?

A talk between Xie Yun and Li Jinrong. She thanks him and seems sincere enough, but she also seems wary/distrustful of him (well, he fetched her ill husband to go to war again, sooo...). He yet again circumvents actually answering her questions about his former master (although I assume she at least has a hunch who he is), and he tells her she should perhaps be nicer to her daughter and compliment her from time to time. Well, I guess he's dying anyway and hasn't anything to lose. XD

She comments on his pale complexion, is he perhaps ill? Wow the passive-aggressiveness in this scene from LJR. XD Then she hands him a sigil to pass the guards and basically throws him out. Charming. Good start into that in-laws situation. XD

OMG Li Sheng sends pastries to Chuchu! ♥ And Li Yan is all excited, like, “Yes please fetch your little brother, I always wanted a little brother, that would be awesome!” XD

Xie Yun and A-Fei have a romantic stroll under the not-moonlight. ♥ They are holding hands, be still my heart! ♥ While they are hand holding we also get a MV of their best moments so far.

She tells him she's working on a gift for him, and she wants to help him look for the HYTS since it seems to be a shitty thing and she doesn't want it to fall into Disha's hands. Xie Yun would like to stay at 48 SH and of course doesn't tell A-Fei about his talk wit LRJ nor that he's, you know, dying. It's obvious that he will leave without her because he doesn't want to drag her into this (the trope of “I know what's best for you without giving you a real chance to make a decision yourself” ugh) and also because he's fucking dying. OMG. T_T

We end with A-Fei knocking on his door the next morning (where he very obviously isn't anymore) to give him her gift. Before she can actually see that he isn't there Chuchu intercepts her, so A-Fei tries to give her back the necklace. Chuchu is all like, “Nooo you keep it, it's far saver with you!” so there's that. This will surely be important later. The two girls leave for town to fetch medicine, while Xie Yun sits near the river and sadly plays his flute. T_T

#legend of fei #sabrina watches legend of fei #my posts #my gifs #gifs

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