#for one thing what's JGY going to do about this? he's not strong enough to fight you off especially since he's been poisoned

[daily-suyao]

[lansplaining]

So we have JGY dying early before Chiefing is concluded as Bad. We have him living a long life and that is Good. But a third possible divergence: What if JGY had died just before WWX was resurrected in a suitably martyrdomy way? Say Xue Yang snapped and started a zombie apocalypse, or Wen Ruhoan got resurrected by a deranged demonic cultivator, or some Kaiju got awakened by some dumbass Jiang disciple and rampaged up the Yunmeng River, and JGY died heroically stopping said threat in front of countless people. Jin Ling is now in charge of the Jin Clan, supported by an aunt Qin Su, and backed by Jiang Cheng and Su She, all of them terribly grieving. None of them are in the mood to hear anything bad about their beloved dead yao yao, along with Xichen. How will Huasiang try and ruin his name now?

I think there is one question that determines whether or not Nie Huaisang even can: does Jin Guangyao have clean-up plans in place? And knowing him, how could he not? So let’s imagine that Su She spends the days/weeks/months after JGY’s death enacting their pre-planned “do not make these things Jin Ling’s problem” list and frees SiSi, attempts to kill Xue Yang, and clears out the treasure room. If we assume NHS knew for sure where he was leading WWX and LWJ, and I don’t see how he possibly could have, key pieces both of evidence and the puzzle of ruining his name are now gone. I don’t think there’s any hope of definitely proving JGY killed NMJ and JGS, much less of persuading anyone else, nor do I think that NHS could assemble enough proof of the incest (and why would Bicao and Mme Qin EVER tell now? the problem is solved!), and he doesn’t have the fake assault on the Burial Mounds to have everyone already primed against him.

If for some reason JGY’s clean-up contingency plans don’t work, and we’ve got a head and some evil music in the treasure room and SiSi locked away somewhere and Xue Yang wandering Yi City… well, then it’s a question of who gets to it first. It’s probably Jin Ling, but he also almost certainly isn’t alone… and the thing is, whether he’s accompanied by some Jin advisors or by Jiang Cheng, there’s… not a strong motivation on either part to undermine Jin Ling’s position and the clan as a whole by not just getting rid of the evidence and pretending it never happened. Jiang Cheng, documented “it’s fine if my family does it” believer is not going to go on some righteous quest that will ruin Jin Ling’s life. Even if Xue Yang pops back up and for some reason starts making claims about all the work he did with/for JGY, it will be easy to make him sound like an insane killer who’s bitter that he had a cushy life at Koi Tower until righteous JGY came to power and kicked him out. Once again, NHS wouldn’t have the accumulated pressure and suspicion needed to make the accusations really stick.

NHS doesn’t actually have a lot of evidence. He doesn’t even know where the head is, and that’s a smoking gun that no one but Wei Wuxian even sees. What he relies on in the end is the accumulation of suspicious actions taken in panic, and then carefully deployed rumors that have nothing to do with exposing the actual crime he cares about and are only about tearing JGY down. But without that initial foundation of hasty choices, even with SiSi and Xue Yang and the evil music, I don’t think NHS can make the smear campaign stick.

[hannigramislife]

#4 Scene of my Random Mdzs Fanfiction

Prompt: What if 3zun reincarnated in modern au?

Scene: Lan Xichen remembers the past, and tears both Nmj and Jgy a new one.

Walking towards Nie Mingjue’s office, Jin Guangyao had a sinking feeling of dread settled in his gut, and it was growing by the second. He hadn’t heard from Lan Xichen in over a week, all his texts and calls having gone unanswered, which was unusual, as Lan Xichen took only a couple of minutes to reply. Jin Guangyao thought he had been grateful for the opportunity to have Lan Xichen back in his life, but now that he didn’t wake up to good morning texts, and didn’t receive random pictures during the day with Lan Xichen’s humorous captions, Jin Guangyao realized he hadn’t appreciated them enough. Only a week, and he felt Lan Xichen’s absence like a limb. If something had happened to him, Jin Guangyao would never forgive himself.

Going to Nie Mingjue for help had been something of a last resort; Jin Guangyao didn’t trust the man, wouldn’t turn his back on him if the gang leader had both his arms broken and tied behind his back. He was much more volatile than Jin Guangyao remembered him to be, and he could no longer be trusted not to go too fucking far. Lan Xichen was a bleeding heart with a strong sense of justice; how long until he got in Nie Mingjue’s way. How sure could Jin Guangyao be that this Nie Mingjue wouldn’t harm him?

If Nie Mingjue had something to do with his disappearance, Jin Guangyao would kill him, no questions asked. Even if it was the last thing he did in this life, he’d kill him.

If not, then he’d made the right choice in going to him, and if Jin Guangyao had to beg Nie Mingjue on his knees to help him find Lan Xichen, then so be it.

Lan Xichen was worth it. He had always been worth it.

Once he neared the man’s office, Jin Guangyao heard faint voices coming from the small room, its door ajar. Curious and immediately on edge, he made his steps as light as possible, pressing close to the wall.

“…alm down for fuck’s sake, so we can tal-“

“Calm down?!”

Jin Guangyao almost felt his heart stop at hearing Lan Xichen’s enraged voice echo through the room.

“You want me to calm down, da-ge? You want to talk to me now, don’t you? Well, what shall we talk about first? Wanna talk to me about what the Jins are doing? Want to talk to me about how I had to wait for hours to talk to you 3 days ago because you were busy bleeding out in a hospital bed? Or, my personal favorite; when were you going to tell me I was regularly having coffee with the man who killed you, hm?”

Jin Guangyao felt like a bucket of ice cold water was dumped on him. His heart thumped wildly in his chest as his mind processed the words Lan Xichen had screamed. Too many emotions whirled inside him for him to make sense of them all; shock, joy, sadness, fear, anger, regret— and stronger than them all, desperation.

Desperation to prove to Lan Xichen that he wasn’t the same person, that he wanted nothing more than to be a man that could stand by Lan Xichen’s side proudly. He wanted to beg for a second chance, an opportunity to be better. Other people could do it easily, why couldn’t Jin Guangyao?

It took a moment for Jin Guangyao to realize that Nie Mingjue had gone suspiciously quiet.

He only had time to blink, and lean back slightly, before the door was flung open, and Jin Guangyao found himself facing a very tall, very intimidating, very shirtless-while-wrapped-up-in-bandages Nie Mingjue.

“It seems this conversation is no longer private.” He said as he stared down at Jin Guangyao, crossing his arms in disapproval, shifting the suit jacket he had thrown over his shoulder.

No. Bad brain. Not the time.

Jin Guangyao swallowed painfully, keeping his eyes on Nie Mingjue, if only so he didn’t have to face Lan Xichen. “For a private conversation, you sure are loud. And the door is open.”

The gang leader snorted, before pulling Jin Guangyao in.

Jin Guangyao stumbled in as Nie Mingjue closed the door firmly; with his only exit closed, Jin Guangyao had little to do but face his friend, his former sworn brother. Hesitantly, he locked gazes with Lan Xichen, and was taken aback by the emotions he saw in them. The shock he had anticipated, once Lan Xichen remembered, the heartbroken pain, too, because Lan Xichen had always been so honest in his feelings, but the anger- the anger was new.

Lan Xichen was facing them both, eyes shifting from Jin Guangyao’s curled in figure, to Nie Mingjue standing tall behind him.

Lan Xichen was indeed angry. More than that, he was furious.

“Er-ge,” Jin Guangyao started, for once unable to find the right words to say.

Apparently, that wasn’t important, as Lan Xichen wasn’t planning to let him talk. “Was it fun?” The man cut him off, voice shaking from a kind of emotion he had never seen in him. “Tell me, was it fun? Leading me around by the nose again, pretending to be my friend?”

Jin Guangyao wished Lan Xichen had just punched him instead; it would have hurt less.

“No, no, Er-ge, it wasn’t like that—“

“Was it amusing for you, seeing me fall for the same act twice? What was your plan this time, A-Yao, were you waiting for my memories to return, or was a nice, dramatic reveal what you had planned?”

There was a time Jin Guangyao had seen, and caused, many lives to be destroyed, many suffering in people, even those who had been closest to him, and he’d done so without so much as batting an eyelash. And yet, Lan Xichen’s cruel words were enough to make him want to sob— and Jin Guangyao had heard his fair share of cruel words.

“I wouldn’t— I woudn’t do that to you, Er-ge. I would never hurt you like that.” Jin Guangyao said desperately, wanting Lan Xichen to believe that, if nothing else.

“You wouldn’t do what, Jin Guangyao. Wouldn’t do exactly what you did last time?” Lan Xichen was trembling with badly concealed rage, though he never raised his voice.

Jin Guangyao’s mouth clamped up, his words failing him. Lan Xichen wasn’t listening, he didn’t look like he planned to listen anytime soon, and there was nothing Jin Guangyao could say that wouldn’t come off as fake, manipulative.

In their few weeks of ignorant bliss they’d shared together, Jin Guangyao had forgotten what the events in Guanyin temple had reduced him to in the eyes of his Er-ge. Every word was now open to doubt and suspicion, every smile was fake and planned, every touch meant to draw out trust.

Lan Xichen had no naivety left to give Jin Guangyao, this time.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. Besides him, Nie Mingjue tensed, and Jin Guangyao didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. “I’m sorry, Er-ge.”

Lan Xichen blinked in disbelief, before letting out a slight scoff; another thing Jin Guangyao had never seen him do. He had the uncomfortable realization that, like Nie Mingjue, like himself, this Lan Xichen was also different.

“You’re sorry,” Lan Xichen repeated, voice hard as steel. “Isn’t that a bit too little, too late, A-Yao? A couple of centuries, maybe? What am I supposed to forgive you for? You didn’t hurt me, after all. No, that’s the one line you wouldn’t cross.”

Lan Xichen was, indeed, much different. His words cut deeper than his sword ever did. It had been foolish to hold onto a man that hadn’t existed in centuries.

Or maybe, his mind whispered, this is the same Lan Xichen, and that’s just what he would have always thought about you, had he known the truth.

Sometimes, A-Yao didn’t like his own mind.

"That's not what I'm talking about," Jin Guangyao said, struggling to keep his voice even. "I meant this life, our friendship. I didn't mean to hurt you by getting close to you. I assumed you would not remember."

Lan Xichen took a deep breath. "How is it," he said, "that the only way you can be close to me is when you keep me blind?"

[leatherbookmark]

Thinking, and like. all previous nie sect leaders qi deviated to death, because that's how the saber cultivation worked: it gradually fucked up their qi and tempers on top of that. and jgy playing the song of turmoil didn't cause nmj's death, it just sped it up. so... what if that's what happened with wrh and nmj's father?

the facts we have (from chapter 49):

wrh called nmj's father, said his saber was quite cool indeed, patted it a couple of times and that was it.

after nmj's father went back, he Was Not Pleased, rather annoyed that wrh called him just for a second then sent him back.

however, nothing was "out of the ordinary".

during a night hunt, his saber suddenly shattered, and in result, he couldn't defend himself against the beast who then injured him heavily.

after nmj took him back to the unclean realm, he couldn't accept this/couldn't get over it/怎么也咽不下这口气/腹に据えかね、悔しさに満ちていた (he was full of anger and frustration)

and his wounds didn't heal.

half a year later, he passed away. "it wasn't clear whether the cause was rage or illness".

later, when wrh and nmj fight, there's this neat little sentence:

愤怒使他陡然之间力大无穷, or, 湧き上げる憤怒が一瞬にして彼に限りなき力を与えた (rage welled up in his chest and immediately gave him a surge of unlimited boundless power)

i don't know much about how powers work in xianxia novels, let alone xianxia-based webnovels, but this sounds to me a bit like the qinghe nie cultivation method kind of uh, fucking sucked.

saber cultivation requires resentful energy of beasts and monsters.

the blade requires more strength and an aggressive fighting style than a regular "honest" sword.

unfortunately, in the process, the sabers start demanding more sacrifice, more anger and more blood -- this is why after their owners' deaths, they still need to be contained.

the more one uses such a saber, the more their qi and temper gets out of control.

it's like an ouroboros. the saber needs 😡 to work. but using saber makes one 😡 as well. both the saber and the user get more powerful thanks to 😡, but by getting more 😡, they get more 😡 (<-- this is not good).

idk, again, i don't know shit, but this looks like demonic cultivation... with one's own self... while alive? 😬

another two things, from chapters 49 and 50: one, nmj doesn't seem to notice that anything is out of order with his behaviour; when lxc points out his mind is in turmoil, he says "no it's not, i know what i'm doing". two: nmj still "hasn't told nhs about the saber spirit". it could mean "about the fact that sabers fuck you up, yknow, that it's a thing", or "that baxia's saber spirit in particular is being rowdy", but if nhs knew about the saber spirits being a thing, he would've done the math, i think. so, i think it's safe to assume that nhs did not know about the saber illness.

i'm talking about this because... they just don't know, huh. nmj's father must have been at least thirtysomething when he died, which means that a, even without a war going on, he's practiced rageloop turbo 3000 for more than half of his life and that probably shows, and b, his sons haven't seen his calmer, non-saberbrained self, because he must have been like 20 when he had them. the nie are just fiery-tempered! the sabers like a fiery-tempered warrior. which, okay, but could nmj tell that his father was, over the years, steadily getting quicker to anger? he has more duties, and besides, having wrh for a neighbour is stressing... no, he couldn't.

and wrh is power-thirsty and unstable, but also clever. he did work it out that the nie cultivators are strictly bonded with their sabers, so like a cat pushing something off the table, he couldn't help himself. he literally patted the blade a couple of times -- i'm assuming it wasn't just that, and that he infused his touch with something -- but it was enough to send this bond spiralling, enough for the saber to shatter. was the beast nmj's father was fighting so strong that its horn stopped his body's regeneration abilities? or was it the damage done to the saber that fucked up his qi and his body's regeneration abilities? LOTS TO THINK ABOUT.

again, my problem is that i don't really know how it all works -- but iirc, while jc doesn't have his sword, he's able to use zidian just fine, meaning that a proper, righteous cultivator's qi isn't tied to their sword. the nie cultivation seems to me like one big clan of people with targets carefully painted on their backs, of time bombs about to explode. there's no way out of this one!

and also like. something something, jgy trying to rise from his place as a sex worker's son -- he can't do it like a normal, high-born cultivator, so he has to use means other deem undignified, cheating, unfair. something something the nie sect founder trying to rise from his place as a butcher... i'm not saying they're the same, jgy honorary nie etc, but -- if you have no resources, then even if you somehow get them... jgy is paranoid, he feels he can't fully trust even the man he considers his closest friend, he's trapped in the way he's perceived by the society. meanwhile, the nie clan is trapped in their own way of cultivation that they can't abandon because you don't just abandon the way of your ancestors, even if you're literally cultivating yourself to death.

cool!!!

anyway

nmj 🤝 nhs : losing yourself in rage and revenge on the person that murdered your family member, except that family member would have died either way, except you realized way way wayyyyy too late, and by the time the murderer is dead you don;t really have anything to be happy about

[truly-morgan]

[Possessive & jealouse LXC, feat. Wen brothers]

XiCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 29-08-2021

[#xicheng, modern cultivation, possessive and jealous lxc]

Set where Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng have been turning around each other for a certain time now (believing they are discreet when everyone knows about it). It takes months before they finally start officially courting (of course two sect heir cannot just start dating like that without following traditions! Who do you think they are?)

things are going great, his courting goes smoothly and it is even close to an end! They can soon start an "official" relationship! But then jc is sent to one of the lectures given in qishan, where he will stay for at least three months. This makes lxc a bit sad because it will make it hard for them to meet, but jc does sound rather excited to go study over in qishan so he will support his choice to do so. ("The wens might have enormous egos and be arrogant, but they are still strong, plus they are not as bad as centuries ago," jc told him).

Plus! He will go with nhs, wwx and lwj, he knows he will be in good hands anyway. He is a bit nervous because it is the first time in months that they won't really be able to meet as often as they did (although they can still Facetime, call and text each other.) and well even if the wen are not as bad as they were in the past, jfm didn't have the best of relationship with wrh in the latest years. He simply hopes everything will go alright for his boyfriend.

The three months session starts, and everything goes well, jc let him know how everything is going and he is reassured. Then he notices nhs socmed post. He knows the young man is rather active on them (contrary to lwj and jc), so he isn't surprised to see him post about what happens (he is even happy to see jc happy with his friends.) but then he notices that wrh boys are often around in the latest updates. He is a bit surprised and curious because he knows wc can be a bit to handle sometimes.

"Wen heir showing us around Nightless City, this boy is not as bad as we first thought 😜 even my best friend agrees for once"

accompanied to the post is a picture of the group at a restaurant, nhs and wwx making peace signs to the camera, lwj drinking tea on the side while wx seems to be showing something on the menu to jc. They are rather close, even for the small booth they have, although he tries to let anything bad come from it.

"A-cheng is having a good time trying qishan specialities, it alright," he tells himself. after all, who's better to suggest good qishan dishes other than someone who grew up there?

He thought it would be a one-time thing, yet as the days go by, more and more posts made by nhs include either or both of wrh sons. and the more it goes, the closest they seem to be to jc too.

He tries not to care, not to let that possessiveness in him make him fly all the way to qishan so he can kidnap his boyfriend. "I think you need to stop stalking a-sang account" jgy suggest when he met up wth his best friends, "I doubt jc will suddenly decide to marry one of the wen".

"All I see is nhs not studying enough" nmj mentioned (although he takes note to ask his didi not to post as much maybe, it would be bad to have to deal with lxc if he loses it fully because of his post).

yet, after that dinner, nhs seems to post even more!?

"Training is nearly as strict as back home 😩😭 though chengcheng seems happy to train with wen xu"

added to this a video of jc and wx fighting "Finally the weekend, out with our new friend for good food and drinks😋🫕"

added to this is a group picture, jc sitting between wc and nhs while wc has an arm around jc.

(Also are they letting a-cheng drink?!?)

"poor wen, believing they had a chance against chengcheng in a swimming competition 🤭"

added is a video of them swimming showing jc win, joined soon after by wx and wc who mess around a bit with him in the water and it goes on and on like this, where he sees his boyfriend slowly getting closer and closer to wrh sons. Even when jc talks about his days it drives him crazy how much they seem to be around him so suddenly (obviously this is all internally, he couldn't force jc to stop hanging out with friends because of his own issue).

but the more it goes, the harder he can channel out this jealousy and possessiveness. things are going great with jc, but he wishes he could share all these more /with/ jc too. He doubts any of the wen would even try to get jc after the news of their courtship went around the cultivation world.

but the three months are coming to a close soon and lxc suggests being the one to go get lwj (lqr doesn't object as he assumed it will give him a small break from lxc acting weird all the time). So he goes to go get lwj, although the first person he goes looking for is jc. He finds him walking outside the wen residence with wx helping him carry his bags.

he doesn't hesitate when he walked quickly to him, calling out to him so jc will turn in his direction, hugging him and lifting him. he is happy that his arms quickly reciprocates the hug and to hear jc calling to him happily surprised. when he finally puts him back down he keeps an arm around his waist, keeping his boyfriend close to him (he missed that so much).

he doesn't miss the smirk on wx lips, as though the young man knows what he is doing.

lxc is quick to fully kidnap jc, helping him with his bags. he won't leave jc side for a good while for now. He catches up with jc, the man happily telling him how the last days went by (also lots of kissing, which jc is happy to give).

they do eventually join wwx and lwj, ready to take jc back home with him even after wwx protest (thankfully jc agrees to it so the head disciple cannot say anything 😌).

jc somewhat already know why lxc seems so needy suddenly and he will happily indulge in erasing all his jealousy and possessiveness by letting lxc do everything with him too as he stays a bit in cloud recess.

also, a 100% nhs was trying to tease lxc to see if the man would run back to his beloved after seeing all this (he is impressed by lxc self-control).

also, a 100% wx was in it and was a bit more touchy on camera than he would be normally, just to annoy the lan heir

I don't why, I just like the idea of the wen boys not being /that/ bad and friendly once you get past all the arrogance and ego they might have.

Original

[runespoor7]

Re: chengxian cis!girl au, what do you think would change socially/politically/ect if Jiang Cheng was afab!guy ?

It would really depend on how/when the social transition happened! And how you decide the Jianghu is wrt trans guys. I largely err on the side of “idk, I don't feel like it would change much provided JC doesn't come out/transition socially while JGS is running the show.”

Still not really what you asked for, but here's a couple things I think this would mean for JC and his self image and his relationship with WWX:

In a world where the Jiang parents hide JC’s sex at birth (maybe YZY had a hard enough pregnancy etc that another try isn't an option, and they already think JYL will be unfit as a sect leader, so they decide to announce JC is a boy and raise him as such), it doesn't change much of anything on that scale. JC has a very bad time when sequestered in LP and WQ promptly doses him with abortives, but that’s largely it.

If JC doesn't transition as a child, I think a good moment for it would be Sunshot. It’s a messy, chaotic time, the jianghu is in upheaval, JC is the Jiang authority, I don't think anyone’s going to find the time and energy to police too strenuously his claim that where the younger Jiang daughter died a Jiang son lives. (You know, it'd be cool if one of the reasons why WWX defaults to calling him JC in that world is bc JC doesn't like his courtesy name.)

I don't thiiiiiink WWX would necessarily be super cool with coming back and finding JC recognized as a dude even if he’s known for years that JC’s a dude. This is mostly because post-being-thrown-in-the-BM WWX is horribly not okay. Everything that’s different from what it was before grates. Also, this specific thing, I think it hits WWX right in the toxic masculinity/cultivationship/sth-sth: it’s like JC decided to be his own protector, it’s like– it’s like an acknowledgement or an announcement that WWX isn't there anymore, that the brilliant head disciple of the Jiang is no more. WWX isn't enough. And WWX feels it like that because that’s what’s going on, he is no longer the person he was and he can't fulfill his duty to JC like he was meant to and he will never again be able to. (I wonder. Would this WWX look for WQ at some point. Would he try to convince her to give him a core, any core. He fantasizes about it, that's for sure.)

If JC doesn't transition socially during Sunshot, I think he’s stuck being understood to be a woman for a good while. Maybe he can transition at some point after JGS’s death but before WWX’s return? Would he, though? He’s not exactly someone who loves to rock the boat.

Wouldn't it be something if when WWX returns JC is out as a man, though. Wouldn't that occupy WWX’s thoughts a lot! (Maybe would fuel his unavowed resentment. Oh, so JC can fight against social norms after all.) I'm not sure when/how it works but WWX being flummoxed would make it a good fic.

Or maybe he transitions after canon. The other two great sects are in disarray, the Nie are… whatever’s going there, people have decided to blame JGY instead of WWX, up is down, might as well. Now's a good time. Now is the time. JC is no longer a frightened youth, he's a powerful adult that no-one wants to have angry at them. (And, as well: WWX and LWJ have confessed their love and have married. Is it such a reach that JC would take advantage of that?)

In both last two cases I’m not sure WWX knew about JC being a guy; I don't think JC did. JC didn't conceptualize it that way. It took him a long time to arrange the pieces.

In both cases - JC being a guy after WWX’s death - I think it reframes his relationship to WWX in his mind. Surely that was the root of both his resentment and his love. He loved WWX because he was a girl and he resented WWX because he wanted to be WWX (cool and strong and a boy). He’s not actually in love with WWX.

WWX’s confession to LWJ is also a lot here. (let JC tell himself that men can't like men like that, WWX!!)

[jaimebluesq]

For sangchengsu: Do A and B have a stronger bond with each other? Or do C and B or C and A have a stronger bond? Or are A, B, and C close together [equally]? Also, who proposes?

Yay! Thank you for the ask and giving me the opportunity to indulge in some SangChengSu headcanons :D Mine are all canon universe where they get together to take JGY down (I love you JGY but you killed Da-ge).

As for bonds, I don't think any one bond is stronger than the others, but they are all *different*. JC & NHS have the "we were school friends before the world went to shit and they're one of the only people left alive who remembers how I was when I didn't have the weight of the world on my shoulders" thing. JC & QS are linked by Jin Ling and their love and co-parenting of him. And QS and NHS have a bond through their love of JGY and torn feelings about someone they loved being the instrument of a loved one's demise - and even after JGY is dead, they commiserate on how they hate that they still love him after everything because the feelings don't go away, and nobody else really understands that.

As for proposing, etc, here is my post-JGY's death scenario. QS becomes regent of Lanling Jin while Jin Ling grows up, NHS remains Nie-zongzhu but begins to tire of it, and JC is where he belongs in Lotus Pier. When he comes of age and sworn in as sect leader, Jin Ling will be the one to look at his aunt and say "so when will you and Jiujiu get married?" because he knows at the very least about their affection for one another (don't know whether he'd know about the poly things with NHS). Marriage had never really been in any of their conversations before because their lives were in three separate places, but with Jin Ling now as sect leader and his position strong, QS now has the luxury to do something else with her life. It prompts her and JC to have a talk and they find they're not opposed to the idea - in fact it starts to grow on them - but they don't make a proper decision until they talk to NHS. NHS is thrilled for them, of course, and is enthusiastic every step of the way - but there are moments when JC or QS see a shadow over his expression, but when asked about it, NHS waves off their concern and kisses them to distract them.

So after QS is married to JC, and since she's not regent any longer, she has more free time, and she decides to regularly share time between Lotus Pier and the Unclean Realm. She begins to see how being sect leader wears on NHS more and more, and one night she catches him at a vulnerable moment, and he admits his heart isn't in it, but it's the only thing he has left of his brother and the only home he's ever known, so what else could he do or be? She plants the idea in his ear of at least finding an heir to take over for him one day - at the very least, someone needs to be next in line in case of an assassin or a disastrous night hunt or food poisoning. Then she returns home to JC and tells him about everything.

So JC shows up in Qinghe, follows NHS to his room, and when the door closes, NHS assumes he's there for some 'private time' and tries to kiss him. JC holds him back and then starts a long, long tirade about how he's worrying JC Qin Su by not taking care of himself, and why is he so miserable, etc etc. They get into a huge fight that an unknowing person might think would come to blows, but they've fought like this before and it never has. In the end NHS breaks down and says something about this being him paying his dues because he should have known something was up, he shouldn't have trusted JGY or allowed him to play for Da-ge without NHS knowing more about it and if only he'd known something, done something, then his brother would still be alive. JC calls him an idiot and holds him long past when he stops crying. Before he leaves from the visit, JC tells NHs he's enough, he'll always be enough, and that if he ever decides to make a change, there will always be a place for him in Lotus Pier.

So NHS thinks about it, and as the days pass he finds he looks out the window more and more with his eyes looking to the south, and then he just hits a moment where he just can't do it anymore. He quietly gets his replacement ready and talks to the elders and makes all the arrangements, and just as quietly they make the official change of leadership. NHS packs his things and takes one copy of the official announcement of the new sect leader - that will not be sent out for a week - and flies down to Lotus Pier. JC and QS are overjoyed to see him, thinking he's just there for a visit, and when the three of them are alone, he takes out the announcement and gives it to them. They look up in shock once the weight of what they've read hits them, and NHS asks if that place for him in Lotus Pier is still available, because it seems he no longer has a sect to run. And the three of them hug and cry and laugh in turn.

NHS eventually takes on the 'official' title of advisor to Jiang-zongzhu, and only those close to any of them know that the three of them share a bed and a life together(though they each have their own rooms because sometimes you just need your own space, or have a bad night and want to sleep alone). Eventually QS has a child, and then another, and none of them know who was the official 'father' but none of them care because they love them to bits. And JC's stress goes down by leaps and bounds with not one but 2 people dedicated to making sure he delegates responsibilities and relaxes from time to time - because it IS the job of two people lol.

So, um, yeah, I may have a thought or two on the subject >.<

[stiricidewrites]

All the Things We’ll Leave Behind: ch 33, pt 12

Previously

~

lwj eyed up the group challenge lqy had chosen. As far as he could see, it was the main group challenge on the water—although there were several challenges further off that he was unsure of the details of. He thought another had flags indicating it was a group challenge, but he couldn’t be sure from this far out. This particular challenge had an element of physical interaction that would likely make it more difficult for a woman, their smaller size and lesser strength generally leaving them at a disadvantage against male alphas, but if he was going to have to do it anyways…

He sighed, long strokes bringing him quickly to one of three platforms for each team of three. lqy smiled down at him from where she was sitting lazily on the edge, her feet swishing aimlessly through the water. Behind her, jzxuan was chatting amicably with the challenge’s attendant—a powerful looking young alpha. Several of the more common challenges, including this one, were known to become… violent, according to nmj, who had even broken his nose during this one once. Hadn’t slowed him down, of course, but he had left a trail of blood over each subsequent challenge.

According to jgy, nmj suffering serious injuries during these events hadn’t been uncommon. Both lwj and jzxuan had been curious what kind of injuries that monstrously large and strong alpha had endured, but lxc had cut off nmj’s bragging. Instead of hearing war stories, they had been forced to listen to the omega scold him for bragging about being injured in such a ridiculous event.

Apparently, his brother didn’t share his mates’ interest and admiration in the—allegedly—more fun and enjoyable version of this event.

The attendant smiled mildly at lwj as he pulled himself onto the platform. The man, likely a few years older than lwj and jzxuan, slowly eyed him up—assessing how much of a pain in the ass he was going to be as a competitor, perhaps—as he explained some of the rules to jzxuan, although he had learned the rules just as well as lwj had from their brother-in-law. Occasionally, the attendant slipped in a piece of advice for them, though, seemingly taking jzxuan’s friendly banter as reason to give them tips and tricks.

“Watch for teams who are stupid enough to leave their cache unattended—or worse, who leave their weakest player there. A lot of groups try to finish in three goes, when even the pros take four or five to finish,” the man was saying. “People forget that this challenge is about stealing what you can, especially as the game goes on and tension rises.”

nmj had given them bits of advice on many of the challenges, but with so little time to prepare and so many potential challenges that Madam Yu and the event coordinators could have chosen from, his advice had been more wide-ranging and less specific to all but the most common of challenges.

[jin-zixun]

I mean it's pretty much just (hilariously) canon that Su She is the most OP character in the series. He's just nerfed hard by being incredibly unlucky, making bad choices, and falling for stupid tricks. He's not the smartest guy, not even close. He's not the strongest guy either, tbh.

But like if you're just describing this dude, like even just from the novel... Ok here's a guy who can do demonic cultivation. He can cut off the cultivation from like hundreds of people without them noticing. This dude can teleport like that's a pretty big thing that he can do. No one else teleports, but this guy. This guy teleports. He's proficient in curses, he's proficient in musical cultivation, he's proficient in sword techniques. He's 'not as good as Lan Wangji' but again literally no reason why he *couldn't* just teleport into his room in the middle of the night and kill him before he realized what was happening. It's strongly implied he's the guy *making* these Turmoil remixes, at least alongside Jin Guangyao. In the 'present day' scenes of the book, there's always, always reasons why Su She is never "at full power", especially in Guanyin Temple, like he's drained from transportation, he's wounded, his sword is broken, and he's been beat up and like he still has enough energy to shatter another sword? Oh! And his cultivation is permanently damaged from the hundred holes blowback.

The first time they meet Gravedigger!SMS, Wei Wuxian is even like "huh I wonder if that guy was Lan Xichen?" So like, he's not as strong as Lan Wangji (who like is the strongest guy), but Lan Xichen? Yeah he's about on par with Lan Xichen I guess that's fine.

And I mean you have to consider, Jin Guangyao's a pretty reasonable guy, who looked at the entire cultivation world turning against him, with the esteemed Twin Jades and resurrected Yiling Patriarch leading the charge and he's apparently like... 'oh yeah. Minshan can handle that'. Like I'd call myself a Su She stan, but I'd be getting the boat ready way sooner than JGY here! Like we'd be leaving immediately! He might just be taken in by the power of positive thinking but I think, Jin Guangyao is actually like number one Su She stan! And he's very nearly correct? If those Wens didn't show up and stop the Second Siege? That's absurd. There's no reason why 'Su She vs. The Entire Cultivation World' should have ended up being such a near miss.

((And of course he finds it personally fulfilling to be JGY's devoted henchman, JGY is the one who believes in him and his abilities and encourages him. Evidently he's not even bs-ing it, he really believes Su She is talented and capable, so Su She becomes talented and capable for him! Sorry for the conjecture, but, I think Su she has to know he's not going to do anywhere near as good a job in politics as Jin Guangyao, and supporting Jin Guangyao is probably genuinely a fulfilling role for him. He's very pro-Jin Guangyao.))

The Second Flautist remains the stupidest but also funniest adaptation choice. Su Minshan, heretofore portrayed as a cringefail loser who needed Wangxian and Wen Ning to save his ass from the Waterborne Abyss, overrides Wei Wuxian’s demonic cultivation abilities TWICE. Not only does he seize control of Wen Ning, but he manipulates the resentment summoned by Wei Wuxian to attack people and turn them into puppets at Nightless City SO EFFECTIVELY that Wei Wuxian cannot regain control of them even on an individual basis with the Yin Tiger Tally helping him.

Su Minshan, true Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, is the most overpowered character in the entire series, and we must therefore conclude that he chooses to be Jin Guangyao’s devoted henchman rather than seizing any power for himself because he finds it personally fulfilling.

[whetstonefires]

Okay so having finished The Untamed--

spoilers now but also, I haven't read the book yet so pls don't get into it with me about it if it's super different--

one thing that's really sticking with me is the parallels between Jin Guangyao and Jin Guangshan's deaths.

Specifically, the way Nie Huaisang's choice of final blow resembles what Jin Guangyao did with his father, and how deeply that underlines the way nhs chose to become his enemy in order to defeat him. In a way the plot-level scheming doesn't really achieve that comparison.

Because, see, the thing about Jin Guangshan's death, about Meng Yao bringing in those women to stage a weird noncon death orgy is--that was just theater. For an audience of basically the two of them, since he killed off most of the witnesses afterward.

Jin Guangyao bought and spent a bunch of women's lives to kill his father in a poetically fitting, humiliating way. A way that only worked because the man was already dying!

Meng Yao had good reasons to kill his father. Arguably his being quicker off the mark and more proactive about it would have made things better for everyone. But no. He waited all that time, until he could have just smothered the man with a pillow and gotten away with it, and then launched this elaborate punishment death for him.

For a man whose treatment of sex workers as disposable was one of the main crimes Meng Yao held against him.

The main irony is not at the old man's expense here dude, what are you doing.

All his other crimes were in service of something! Even if it was something fucked-up and/or lame and awful and clearly not worth it, he had a goal he was working toward and in some cases probably really was telling himself he had no choice--I don't think that's an excuse you'd proffer quite that incessantly if you hadn't been using it internally.

But killing Jin Guangshan like that--that was just for his own satisfaction. Using those women up so he could pointlessly enjoy it.

So then when Nie Huaisang chooses to kill Meng Yao by abusing Lan Xichen's trust--equally, he didn't have to do that.

Meng Yao was exposed and injured and outnumbered and alone. Even if they'd all walked away right then he was likely to die, from blood loss or infection or being caught by the cultivation world and strung up like Mussolini.

Of course, after all this trouble Nie Huaisang would want to be sure. That's why he inserted himself into the scene at all, I'm sure; he probably wanted to see it play out but he definitely wanted to make sure the revenge landed. Of course he wasn't going to risk handing his target over to justice and risking him talking his way out after all, or slipping away and moving to Japan. (Side note: I think it's very funny jgy suggested 'I'll move to Japan' as an acceptable alternative to 'I'll die.')

Nie Huaisang isn't a strong fighter, but Jin Guangyao isn't all that powerful either, as these things go, and he's down an arm and demoralized. Nie Huaisang could definitely have insisted on having him tied up, if he thought he needed the extra edge, created a distraction, and choked his enemy to death with his bare hands, if he'd wanted to. He could have sent an assassin into his cell if the man was sentenced to imprisonment.

He had a lot of options, is my point.

But he didn't do those things. Instead, he used Lan Xichen.

He used Lan Xichen exactly the same way Jin Guangyao had, abused his trust and love to manipulate him into being the instrument of killing his own sworn brother. If Lan Xichen wasn't broken already, Nie Huaisang ensured it, and he damn well knew what he was doing.

A friend of mine argues he did it because it would hurt Lan Xichen as well, as vengeance on him for being the instrument of Jin Guangyao's plot to kill Nie Mingjue. Idk if this is like, something that's outright stated in the text or just A Reasonable Interpretation, but it's not better that way--it's less careless, but it just even more emphasizes that he knew.

He knew who he was emulating.

And that's part of the point of interest to me because it's very clear that Huaisang does know who he's imitating, whose game he's choosing to play back at him. What he's choosing to become.

It's not so blatant in their both using Wei Wuxian because, firstly, he's the main character so we expect him to be at the center of things; secondly, everyone wants to use Wei Wuxian; thirdly, Nie Huaisang's schemes are comparatively beneficial to him.

Wei Wuxian himself has a marked tendency to reduce himself to his utility; it's easy to let it go, as a trespass against him, especially when it literally gives him another chance at life.

When you look at how they both reduced Lan Xichen to a piece in the game, though, leveraged his affection and his trust to make him into a murder weapon--then it stands out.

Obviously they're both schemers but that's just an archetype. Spy-versus-spy beat-them-at-their-own-game isn't inherently intimate like this, even when it's vengeance. Even when it's revenge on someone you used to trust.

And Nie Huaisang knows. I don't think Jin Guangyao ever did. I think he lies to himself a lot and in the end that's a significant element in his downfall, but also he just--doesn't perceive himself with any of the detachment he's able to turn on most of the world. I don't think he ever in his life noticed the ways he'd become his father.

But Huaisang sure as fuck knew what he'd decided to become.

Which is why that endscene tying up his plot thread focuses on his not wanting to be Chief Cultivator--he didn't do all this to get Jin Guangyao out of the way and replace him. He doesn't want to become the new metaplot villain, the way jgy replaced jgs who replaced wen ruohan.

So maybe things will be okay.

This relationship between Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao and how nhs' self-awareness of how he's committed to a form of villainy and chooses to restrain himself, which is what promises an end to the abuse cycle on the political stage, ties in really interestingly to some of the other stuff mxtx does with the concept of villainy but this post is already long enough.

[vrishchikawrites]

Reverse transmigration wangxian where LWJ who cultivates to immortality found an old summoning array where mxy fails to summon wwx but the whole thing with JGY still got revealed. LWJ in his grief summons WWX in our modern world, and the rest is up to you :) Maybe get WWX some therapy and loving family and how different modern days people are

This one is a bit angsty and has vague descriptions of sex. Modern AU.

“The Tragedy of Wei Wuxian - The Man Behind the Legend”

Lan Wangji caresses the title of the book with a thumb, eyes tracing a name he has always held close to heart but hasn’t heard for a long time.

“We all know of Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian as Yiling Laozu. He’s one of the first to cultivate successfully with ‘resentful’ energy. His theories and papers helped us develop a greater understanding of yin energy, Qi deviation, and resentful spirits. He was a visionary, a man ahead of his time, someone who thought outside the box and looked for solutions instead of sticking to the norm. He’s also the first known person to donate his Golden Core.”

Wangji looks away for a moment, remembering Wen Ning’s snarling face and Jiang Wanyin’s rage, denial, and guilt.

“But we don’t talk about what brought that great visionary down. Society, as it did with many great thinkers, turned against him. In his youth, Wei Wuxian was one of the most accomplished cultivators of his generation. No one knows exactly what happened for him to develop the so-called ‘Ghostly Path’. His loss of the Golden Core may have been a factor, but the actual circumstances are shrouded in mystery.

What follows after the War of the Five Great Clans, known as the Sunshot Campaign, is nothing short of a tragedy. Wei Wuxian saw injustice happening and decided to fight against it. Society tore him up for it. At that time, all actions against him were justified and considered righteous. Those actions don’t stand up to scrutiny under the modern lens. Like all great and radical thinkers, Wei Wuxian ideals made him the enemy and that led to this tragic death, along with the murder of innocent war prisoners he sought to protect. There are unconfirmed reports of there being a child among the Wens.”

Wangji’s eyes flicker over to a picture frame sitting on his desk, an image of Sizhui and Jingyi smiling up at him through the glossy image. They’re well, he knows. Last he heard from them, they were in South Korea and having a great time.

Sizhui must not know of this book or he would’ve called immediately, always so concerned about his a’die.

“It was later revealed that hunger for power and political maneuvering led to his death. When we study the historical records, it is obvious that the man was pushed into the corner and was forced to retaliate. Unfortunately, no one cared about his fate-”

“I did,” Wangji whispered to himself, thinking back on silver eyes in an indistinct face. He loved - still loves Wei Ying - but the physical aspects of him have long since faded from his memory. He sometimes remembers Wei Ying’s laugh. Sometimes, he dreams of his smile. He doesn’t recall what Wei Ying sounded like, only remembering his tone when he said ‘Lan Zhan.’

And yet, Lan Wangji hasn’t forgotten love.

He reads the book in silence, going through all 375 pages of it without pausing to eat or sleep. It tells the story of Wei Ying in stark, blunt terms. There are a few facts missing or erroneous. He wasn’t the adopted child of the Jiangs. There was certainly no unrequited love between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli.

There’s very little mention of him. According to this book, Lan Wangji is a mere footnote in Wei Wuxian’s life; a childhood acquaintance, a disapproving comrade, and later a man who unraveled the truth because he pursued justice.

“He was just 23 years old when he died,” Wangji lingers over that statement, “23-year-olds are barely adults. They hold the promise of a bright future. They have so much potential inside of them. At 23, some people graduate from college, some take up their first serious job. At 23, young people fall in love and maybe form a life-long bond. Wei Wuxian became a key player in a big conflict at 17, he donated his core at 17. At 17, we still have children in high school. Our seventeen-year-olds aren’t even allowed to drink or drive. Our seventeen-year-olds are still protected and sheltered by their parents.

That is perhaps the biggest tragedy of Wei Wuxian’s life. He was only allowed to live a carefree life for seven years, from the day he was taken off the streets to the day the YunmengJiang Sect was attacked. After that and until his death, his life was marked by war, strife, betrayal, and persecution.

A visionary, a hero, a brilliant mind, dead by what most would consider suicide.” Wangji’s breath hitches and he takes a moment to collect himself, the sentence ringing in his head.

“He deserved better.”

---

He deserved better, Wangji thinks as he walks sedately towards his library.

There had been a glimmer of hope, all those years ago when Mo Xuanyu attempted to resurrect Wei Ying, but when he failed to do so, Wangji felt something shatter in him.

Whatever Wei Ying had done had completely destroyed his soul. His precious, noble soul. One that was formed for justice and kindness.

He deserved better.

He knows what he must do.

---

An immortal’s Golden Core has immeasurable power. It is the result of several hundred years of Cultivation and diligence. Wangji is more powerful than most, having survived through war, strife, grief, and loss.

An immortal’s Golden Core can also be an ingredient.

‘Draw the talismans shown below in the blood of your heart. Pin them in eight directions, north, northwest, west, southwest, south, southeast, east, and northeast. Sit in the exact center of this circle and sacrifice half of your cultivation to the being you wish to summon.’’

Wangji’s heart and hands are steady as he draws the talismans from blood drawn directly from the artery. He pins them in all eight directions and sits down in the middle, his hands moving elegantly to summon his Qi. He breathes in and breathes out, sinking into meditation with habitual ease.

It will work.

It has to.

The room floods with Resentful Energy.

---

He deserves better.

Wangji feels torn apart in ways he has never experienced before. The ritual summoning carves something out of his chest and drags it away. His mouth floods with blood and his body weakens alarmingly.

But it doesn’t matter.

Wei Ying.

---

Wei Ying is more beautiful than Wangji remembers. He is bloodsoaked, covered in cuts and bruises, saturated with Resentful Energy, but he’s alive.

And he’s beautiful.

Wangji stumbles to his feet, shakily walking into the bathroom to fetch some warm water. He walks back, his arms feeling the weight of the bucket like they have never carried such weight before. With every step that he takes towards Wei Ying, his heartbeat spikes up a little. He doesn’t know if he chose the right time. He doesn’t know if Wei Ying’s spirit had shattered before his death and dying had just been the aftermath.

Maybe Wei Ying’s body is here and not his soul.

Wangji cannot bear thinking about it.

With weak, shaking hands and the taste of blood lingering in his mouth, he slowly reaches forward. Layer by layer, he removes Wei Ying’s clothes, his fingertips tingling because his beloved’s body is warm.

He deserves better.

With aching tenderness, he wipes Wei Ying clean, removes all blood, grime, and mud from his body.

Wei Ying doesn’t stir.

---

There’s a gentle touch against his cheek. It is strange enough to wake him up because few people dare touch Lan Wangji. Slender fingers tap once, twice, almost playfully and Wangji knows who it is even before he opens his eyes.

Like a sun emerging from the horizon, Wei Ying appears before him, his smile bright and questioning.

“Wei Ying,” He breathes and Wei Ying nods, eyes a sparkling silver. There is so much beauty in that face that he can’t help but reach forward. Ignoring Wei Ying’s surprise, he cups his face and leans forward pressing his forehead against his beloved’s.

Wei Ying is still for a long moment, but he moves eventually, setting hands on Wangji’s shoulder. He doesn’t push him away, just huffing in soft amusement.

“Wei Ying,” He whispers, closing his stinging eyes, “Forgive Wangji for his selfishness.” He says, “I summoned you.” I summoned you without asking, knowing you wouldn’t desire it.

Wei Ying huffs again and that’s when it strikes him.

He pulls back and looks at his beloved in concern, scanning his eyes, face, neck, and chest quickly, his heart racing.

Why wasn’t Wei Ying speaking?

---

“You’re right in suspecting that his spirit sustained some sort of injury even before he was… killed.” Lan Jingyi says softly, pulling away from the sleeping Wei Ying, “There’s nothing physically wrong with him, Hanguang-jun, please don’t worry! His spirit just needs a little bit of time to recover.”

Wangji nods gratefully as he watches Sizhui lean over Wei Ying, his expression full of wonder and desperate happiness. As Sizhui’s cultivation grew, he started remembering more things from his childhood. They have never spoken on the matter of Wei Ying, but Wangji knows his son remembers more than he did when he was a child.

“Now, please let me check you.”

He levels a sharp look at the younger man but Lan Jingyi is no longer the adoring and naive student Wangji taught all those years ago. He’s a strong, accomplished cultivator and an avid researcher.

Lan Jingyi ignores him cheerfully and checks his core, stepping into Wangji's personal space without a care.

He narrows his eyes at the steely glint in the boy's eyes.

"I know you love him, Hanguang-jun," Lan Jingyi says, "And love is worth a life." They're immortals, life has little meaning for people who have lived for centuries, "But I wonder if the Wei Wuxian that you so adore will be happy about you risking your life for him."

Wangji's eyes flicker towards Wei Ying, who looks exhausted even in his sleep. "He deserved better."

Lan Jingyi is silent for a moment before he speaks, "Sizhui and I read the book on our flight back. Everything was horrible, I'm not surprised that his spirit sustained so much damage. But it is almost entirely intact now. It shows how much he wants to live, Hanguang-jun."

It's a relief.

---

Wei Ying can't speak but his presence is still loud. He rests for a few weeks to recover from his injuries. During that time, Wangji spends most of his days moving from Wei Ying's bedside to the library and back again.

His beloved has an insatiable hunger for knowledge. He wants to know everything about the modern world.

Every morning, Wangji is confronted with a bright face with sparkling eyes waving a book or a scroll in his direction.

Wangji hasn't experienced such liveliness in centuries. The very air of his home glows with Wei Ying's vitality. Wei Ying's body recovers quickly and soon the man is out of bed and following Wangji around.

His heart feels too big for his chest.

By all appearances, Wei Ying is perfectly content. He walks around Cloud Recesses, visits Caiyi Town, and is happy to watch the sunset with Wangji every evening.

That had been Wangji's wish when he performed that summoning.

He wanted Wei Ying to have another chance to live free and happy.

Looking at him now, Wangji wants to reach out, cup that cheerful face, and pepper kisses all over it. He wants to kiss those fluttering eyelids, smooth cheeks, sharp jawline-

That soft, smiling mouth.

Wangji is an immortal. He has endless patience. He can wait for Wei Ying to come to him.

He must wait.

---

The modern world fascinates Wei Ying. His beloved looks at everything from tall buildings to food stalls with wide, stunned eyes. Cloud Recesses and Caiyi Town are still relatively untouched by the passage of time, but Wei Ying has free access to the internet and has learned how to use it within two months of his arrival.

Wangji doesn't restrain him.

He just watches as Wei Ying, his brilliant and enthusiastic love, learns to thrive in his new world.

His voice has still not returned but that doesn't seem to bother Wei Ying. He is delighted to learn that there's a way to communicate nonetheless.

He starts learning sign language and Lan Wangji, with patient and steady hands, practices with him.

---

Lan Sizhui follows Wei Ying around with quiet affection and aching tenderness. He's much older than Wei Ying now, but he remains their son in spirit. He treats Wei Ying like a senior, with respect and adoration.

His Wei Ying notices, of course. At first, he finds the situation quite strange but Wei Ying isn't stupid.

'Lan Zhan,' He asks, 'Who is Sizhui?'

Wangji brings his fingers up and replies, 'He's your a-Yuan. I went looking for you but found him instead.'

Wei Ying's eyes widen and he spins around, running out of the room to seek Sizhui.

Wangji follows sedately and when he finds his love and his son, they're embracing while crying tears of joy.

---

'Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!'

Wangji huffs under his breath and carefully sets his brush down, tucking the scroll away before turning to meet bright silver eyes.

Wei Ying leans forward with an eager expression, 'Do you know where Suibian is?'

Wangji nods, 'In storage. I was able to retrieve it from the Jin Clan.'

'Can I have it?'

Wangji rises smoothly to his feet and leads Wei Ying to storage where both Suibian and Chenqing.

Wei Ying only glances at Chenqing for a moment before reaching for Suibian with a desperate expression.

Suibian, a blade that has remained sealed since Jiang Wanyin unsheathed it once, easily reveals itself again.

Wei Ying spins around eagerly and looks at him with pleading eyes.

As Wangji is able to deny Wei Ying nothing, he reaches for Bichen and they immediately head for the training grounds.

It has been a long time since Wangji has really used Bichen to its full capacity. With half of his core pulsing within Wei Ying, they're almost evenly matched.

Wangji has not fought in ages but Wei Ying is still a Cultivator. The spar is fast-paced and thrilling. Wangji acquaints himself with Wei Ying as his love becomes reacquainted with his sword.

Wei Wuxian had been one of the best swordsmen of his generation. He has lost none of his elegance and skill. Wangji presses him and Wei Ying laughs soundlessly, twirling around him in white GusuLan robes, bright and joyful.

He breaks Wangji's heart and mends it at the same time.

---

Wangji has missed Wei Ying for hundreds of years.

He can't resist the urge to touch. He keeps it chaste and respectful but his hands have a mind of their own in Wei Ying's vicinity.

When they're out and about, Wangji guides Wei Ying with a hand on his back. It becomes natural to grasp his love's elbow if he wants Wei Ying's attention.

His touches can easily be dismissed as gestures of friendship by most. But Wei Ying knows him.

'er-gege,' Wei Ying's smile is sweet, 'Wei Ying is cold.'

Wangji's eyes flicker over to the lit fire briefly before landing on his love, 'Are you feeling well?' He asks in concern, reaching forward to place the back of his hand on Wei Ying's forehead.

His beloved laughs and nods, leaning into the touch with a sly smile, 'I'm well, just cold.'

Wangji feels a stir in his chest at the intent look in Wei Ying's eyes. Hesitantly, he cups Wei Ying's cheek in silent question.

Wei Ying nuzzles his palm, his eyelids fluttering close gently.

Desperation and elation flood him and Wangji sucks in a sharp breath. He moves in a blur, lifting Wei Ying off his seat and placing him on his lap.

Wei Ying gasps and giggles, his tall, strong body seeming to almost shrink as he cuddles close. Wangji wraps both arms around his love and squeezes him tight, rocking them gently as he is assaulted with painful love.

"Wei Ying, Wei Ying, Wei Ying," He chants in Wei Ying's hair, holding him so close, it feels like there's no part of him not touching his love.

When Wei Ying turns to him with a smile in his eyes, Wangji doesn't hesitate to lean forward, bringing their lips together in a long-awaited kiss.

He presses Wei Ying back against the crook of his elbow and tastes his silent laugh on his tongue.

Wangji has never felt so blissful and complete.

---

Jingyi convinces Wei Ying to go to therapy.

Eager to learn and curious, Wei Ying agrees.

He returns from every session with a thoughtful expression.

Months pass but his voice is still lost.

---

They make love and Wei Ying mouths the words he wants to speak. He smiles, sobs, laughs, and pouts as Wangji takes him apart bit by bit.

Wangji has never known such pleasure. He loses himself, drowning in Wei Ying's scent and finding heaven in his body.

He enjoys feeling smooth skin. He sinks his fingers into Wei Ying's silken hair. He tastes the sharp edge of his jaw. He bites. He drives in and takes ownership of Wei Ying's pleasure.

He presses his mischievous sprite into their bed and doesn't hold back, centuries of love pouring out of him.

---

A combination of therapy and Wei Ying's natural approach to life makes his recovery quick. Within a year, he's well-adjusted and happy.

He laughs at almost everything. The first time they fly, the first time they visit an amusement park, the first time they go to an aquarium.

He laughs and Wangji starts noticing the color of his voice returning to it.

Wangji is grateful for what he has. He's grateful that Wei Ying is back, safe, and happy. He is grateful that Wei Ying is unharmed.

But he cannot lie to himself. He misses Wei Ying's voice.

---

"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,"

Wangji almost misses it, as engrossed as he is. He presses in deep and feels a shiver of pleasure race down his spine. Wei Ying's fingers curl around Wangji's nape and his lips caress his ear.

"Lan Zhan,"

He stills.

Wangji takes a deep, bracing breath and pulls back a little, balancing on his arms to peer down at his lover.

Wei Ying is a vision. His cheeks flushed, his eyes wide and dark with passion, his lips bitten red from Wangji's kisses. His long hair is scattered and wild, a tangle of glossy strands across Wangji's pillow.

"Lan Zhan,"

Wei Ying's lips move and a voice accompanies that movement. It is slightly hoarse, somewhat weak, but it is still the voice he barely remembers.

Heat flares in him and he sinks deeper, pulling a sharp gasp from Wei Ying.

He spends the entire night filling their room with that precious voice.

---

Wei Ying doesn't ask questions. He doesn't ask why Wangji did what he did. He doesn't ask how he did it. His beloved has always been perspective and he understood Wangji's desperation from the moment he woke.

He reads the book that triggered it all and laughs, "Aiya, they make me out to be some sort of martyr for justice." He says fondly, for he is very fond of the modern world.

Sizhui is sitting at his feet, eyes closed in bliss as Wei Ying gently combs his hair, styling it into an intricate braid.

"They're not wrong, though." Jingyi can never sit straight and he has forgotten all of his Lan teachings over the years. He has his legs thrown over the arm of his chair and his head is dangling over another arm, his hair sweeping the floor as he nods.

Ridiculous.

"I never asked to be glorified in such a way." Wei Ying protests with a chuckle.

"Baba should be grateful no one knows about his resurrection." Sizhui pipes up, "At least, you don't have to deal with modern stans."

Wangji arches a brow at the word and Wei Ying laughs, already more accustomed to the Internet language than Wangji is. "Oh, heaven forbid!"

"But listen, you and Hanguang-jun have the greatest love story ever, you could write a book about it, Wei-quanbei!"

Wei Ying tilts his head to the side and Wangji urges him to consider it with a subtle nod. Wei Ying is happy but he's never content to be idle. The modern world doesn't need cultivation, but perhaps it can benefit from their stories.

---

‘Once you summon successfully, you belong to this being for all eternity as payment for the one wish they may grant. Half of your core will live within them. If they die, you die. If they live, you live. If they hurt, you hurt. If they become corrupt, you become corrupt.

You will sacrifice immortality, but not the eternal bond. Every time you are reincarnated into this world, you will be tethered to the being.

Beware.

Wangji tucks the scroll away, sealing it so that it is never discovered again.

He has no regrets.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Same universe as the one where LXC kills JGY on a boat to not-Japan. JRS-centric as he grows up in the Nie clan and deals with his reputation as an inbred son of a traitorous bastard.

so I don't think I've ever written a fic in which LXC kills JGY on a boat, and definitely not one where JRS is a character? I mean, I've written a lot of fics, so possibly I did and I forgot, but I'm pretty sure about this one.

That being said, I don't think I've gotten any Jin Rusong prompts before so I'm reinterpreting this to be a prompt for a fic about JRS growing up in the Nie clan. Fic below!

ao3

-

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Nie Huaisang reminded himself. Risk is proportionate with reward. Your spine should be made of steel, just as your saber is.

He licked his lips, thought of his brother who had loved him, and threw himself forward with tears in his eyes.

“Oh, gongzi!” he blubbered. “Can you help me? I’ve gotten completelylost, I don’t even know where to begin –”

Xue Yang blinked at him, the lids of his eyes moving slowly like a reptile.

“Maybe you know where my san-ge is? Lianfeng-zun?”

The feeling of immediate threat lessened. It seemed he’d gambled right, and the rabid dog that was Xue Yang could still be controlled by reference to Jin Guangyao.

“I’d really appreciate it if you could just give me some guidance on where to find him,” Nie Huaisang said, lowering his voice confidentially. “I’d be sure to pay you back! If there’s anything you want –”

“Do you have any snacks?” Xue Yang asked.

Nie Huaisang, who had come prepared based on the rumors he’d painstakingly collected, produced some dragons’ beard candy.

“Not bad,” Xue Yang said. “Okay, sure.”

Nie Huaisang smiled, and even meant it.

-

“Hey, good-for-nothing,” Xue Yang said, and Nie Huaisang turned to look at his least favorite but nevertheless highly useful source of information in Lanling Jin. The fact that Xue Yang had no idea that he was functioning as such just made it more satisfactory. “You like kids, right?”

Nie Huaisang blinked. “Yes?” he hazarded, not so much because he actually did – he’d never had strong feelings about children one way or the other, though perhaps he was being presumptuous in thinking that the reference did not involve goats – but because that seemed to be the answer Xue Yang was looking for.

Xue Yang wrinkled his nose in distaste, though not, Nie Huaisang thought, at him.

“Theoretically,” he said, and he wouldn’t know ‘theoretical’ if it hit him in the face, “if there were, I don’t know, a whole bunch of them hanging around somewhere without parents, you’d be able to do something about that, right? Especially if they had a talent for cultivation?”

It took only a moment to piece together what must have happened to lead to such a question, given the ruthlessness of the cultivation world and of Jin Guangyao in particular, and Nie Huaisang marveled briefly at the idea that Xue Yang might draw a moral line in the sand over something. Presumably he felt some kinship to the children, being similarly utterly infantile, amoral, and fond of sweet things.

“Oh sure!” he said, playing up the brainless idiot who didn’t know to ask questions. “My sect is always recruiting, you know. We took some losses in the war and, well, I feel like adult cultivators aren’t really all that interestedin joining ever since I took over…”

“Because you’re a waste of space,” Xue Yang said, and Nie Huaisang pouted at him. “Whatever, the important thing is that you have space for kids. Orphans. Think, like, a whole orphanage getting shut down or whatever – anyway, not important. You’d take them back to Qinghe, right?”

“Oh, that would be so wonderful!” Nie Huaisang clapped. “That would suit everyone, wouldn’t it? They don’t have to worry about the children, and we get new disciples. I should tell san-ge – no, on second thought, he might be too busy –”

“Definitely too busy,” Xue Yang said quickly. “Wouldn’t it be nice to accomplish something yourself? You could casually show him that your numbers went up at the end of the month instead so he gives you the credit, without explaining that it’s kids making up the increase.”

“That’s a great idea! He’ll be much more impressed by that, I should definitely do that. Where is the orphanage?”

“…uh, in the forest. The back forest.”

You couldn’t come up with a better lie?

“You already brought them here?” Nie Huaisang asked, batting his eyelashes. “You’re so nice, Xue-xiong! I’ll go tell my second in command to go deal with it right away!”

-

It was in the fifth round of kids getting picked up – small cultivation clans being massacred and there was nothing Nie Huaisang could do about it, because there was either no evidence or else Jin Guangyao had come up with some motive to justify his actions and, inevitably, Lan Xichen would be there behind him, soothing over tempers and providing explanations because he believed him, every time – that something unusual happened.

“Sect Leader Nie,” one of his most trusted subordinates murmured into his ear. “There’s a problem.”

Nie Huaisang found a reason to leave the party early, a reason to go to the rendezvous point, and, once there, found the reason for the problem.

“Oh, hey there,” he said with a smile fixed onto his face by sheer force of willpower, crouching down to make himself seem less intimidating. Not that he was ever particularly intimidating, though given the rage coursing through his veins right now, he thought he might be able to pull it off if he tried. “What a lucky chance! It’s so funny, finding you here, Songsong. How are you?”

Jin Rusong wiped his eyes and looked tearily at him, recognized that the person asking was his Little Uncle Nie, and threw himself into Nie Huaisang’s arms with a howl.

This was pretty typical – Jin Rusong wasn’t much of a crier, but when he did he definitely took Nie Huaisang as his model, something all the other adults in the cultivation world had a tendency to give Nie Huaisang dirty looks over.

The only problem here, of course, was that Jin Rusong was dead.

Or, rather…he was supposed to be dead.

And if Jin Rusong was here – here, in the rendezvous point where Xue Yang put those of his prospective victims that happened to be a little too young for even him to stomach killing, at least without the personal grudge that had driven him to slaughter the Chang clan in its entirety – that meant only one thing.

Jin Guangyao had ordered his own son to be murdered.

Through demonic cultivation, no less, which was a pretty nasty way to go. There was a reason everyone implicitly countenanced Jiang Cheng’s vendetta against demonic cultivators no matter where they were, even when he ignored all territory lines and forgot to not ask for permission – the things a demonic cultivator gone bad could do were just so much worse than what anyone else could that they couldn’t risk any delay in dealing with the problem.

Well, shit, Nie Huaisang thought, even as he comforted Jin Rusong, petting the toddler’s back to try to get him to calm down. What do I do now?

-

“There has to be a reason,” Nie Huaisang insisted. “He’s not rabid. Songsong was his son!”

“Sect Leader Nie, we can’t find anything that might explain it.”

“Look harder. I don’t care how minor it is, I want to know everythingto do with Songsong. Every little detail – every person who saw him – every medical report, every compliment, every good grade –”

“He placed last in one of his classes,” one of his spies volunteered.

“What?”

“He placed last in one of his classes. About two months before his ‘assassination’, and shortly before his father started collecting evidence against the other sects that were in his way, which he later used to ‘prove’ that they had been involved in the alleged murder.”

“He wouldn’t kill his son for failing a class,” one of the others objected. “The kid’s barely more than a baby. What’s he expecting, genius from birth?”

“He’s a genius himself. Why not?”

“If everyone inherited everything directly from their parents, he’d be a whore.”

“He’d be a Jin. They’ve all got that nose, every one of them…”

“I heard he’s having the other Jin bastards killed. All of them, even the women…”

Something snapped in Nie Huaisang’s hands.

They all turned to look at him.

“Investigate Qin Su,” he said, looking down at the mess of wood and paper that had once been a fan. “Come to think of it, she has a Jin nose, too.”

-

“I don’t want to go!”

“I don’t want you to go, either,” Nie Huaisang said, feeling tired and also much more in sympathy with his poor older brother than he’d ever been while Nie Mingjue had been alive. “But you disobeyed me, and that means we don’t have a choice. You have to go.”

Nie Songsong looked down at the ground, his lip quivering. “I didn’t mean to…”

“You did,” Nie Huaisang said. “You have to own your decisions, Songsong. You can’t take them back once they’re done, no matter what the consequences. Not even if you feel bad, but definitely not because you feel bad for having to pay for what you did.”

“But…”

“No, Songsong. You cannot be in the Unclean Realm when – when he’s here.”

Nie Songsong hung his head.

“He’s not your father anymore,” Nie Huaisang said. “You know that, right?”

Nie Songsong nodded.

Nie Huaisang sighed and held out his hands, and his arms were full of a teary-eyed child a moment later.

“He loved you once,” Nie Huaisang murmured into his child’s hair. “I love you now. I wish I could give you more than that – I wish I could give you an answer, tell you why he didn’t love you enough to keep from doing what he did. But I can’t. All I can do…”

Is what I’m already doing.

“You’re enough, er-ge,” Nie Songsong whispered back. “You’re enough. I promise.”

-

“When will I get to go night-hunting?”

“You go night-hunting all the time,” Nie Huaisang grumbled. “You’re a fraction my age, and already my height, my weight, yet you wield a saber like my brother was around to raise you properly. You’re ruining my reputation, you know; now no one will believe that my incompetence comes from how short I am…”

“Not night-hunting with the rest of the sect, er-ge,” Nie Songsong said, rolling his eyes. “With other juniors!”

“Not long now,” Nie Huaisang said, looking down at the paper beneath his hands. It was all finally coming together. “Not long now. Just give er-ge a little more time to finish taking care of matters for da-ge, and you’ll be able to go night-hunting with anyone you like.”

-

“Er-ge! Are you all right? You look so pale…”

“I’m sorry,” Nie Huaisang whispered. “Songsong – I’m sorry. I’m so sorry –”

“What happened? Are you injured?” Nie Songsong demanded, already starting to pat him over, looking for wounds. “Er-ge, what’s wrong –”

“Your mother’s dead.”

Nie Songsong’s hands stilled.

“I told her about your heritage,” Nie Huaisang said, his lips numb. He’d never tried to hide it from Nie Songsong, although he’d introduced the subject very gradually and only once he thought that he’d be able to handle the revelation. “About your father – your grandfather. What they did. I wanted her to be angry at him, to turn against him, to distract him…instead, she killed herself.”

“Er-ge…”

“I shouldn’t have told her. If I knew –”

“Er-ge.”

“I should have brought her in earlier – told her about you surviving – I kept her from you for years –”

“Er-ge!”

Nie Huaisang looked at the child he had raised as a little brother the way his older brother had raised him, a father in everything but name, and who he had the constant feeling of having failed.

He wondered, as he always did, whether his brother had felt the same about him.

“Er-ge, it’s all right,” his little brother, his adopted son, said, and took his hands in his. “It’s all right. You tried, remember? Time after time, you tried to talk to her, but every single time you concluded that she would’ve told her husband instead of trusting you. She would’ve ruined everything. If she did that, I’d be dead all over again, and you with me.”

That had been what Nie Huaisang had concluded. That was why he’d never told her.

But…

“She’s your mother.”

“And you’re my er-ge. As long as you don’t die on me, too, it’ll be all right. Okay? It’ll be all right. It’ll be worth it in the end.”

Nie Huaisang shook his head. He’d already done so much, caused so much chaos and strife, and yet this moment – this was the step too far.

This was the first time he realized that he wasn’t sure he believed that it would be worth it anymore.

But by now…what else was left to do? There were no ways out of the plan he’d made himself; he’d designed it that way on purpose, because he’d known that if there was a way out, that snake would find a way to slither through it. He just hadn’t thought that he would be the one looking for it.

It didn’t matter.

He had to keep going.

His older brother deserved it, even if the younger one didn’t.

-

“I represent the Nie sect,” the young man – just about their age, though shorter than either of them – said with a smile. He seemed kind, gentle and polite, easy-going, but Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui looked at each other, and then at Jin Ling, who just scowled. “Can I come in?”

“Were you even invited?” Jin Ling asked in bitten off words. He was still bitter about some of the things that had happened in the Guayin Temple a month before, and of all them the one he was most bitter about was his second uncle’s retreat into seclusion – they were all upset about that.

“But it’s a discussion conference,” the young man said, blinking in confusion. “We’re a Great Sect. Why wouldn’t we be invited?”

In the face of such profound ignorance, there really wasn’t very much they could say, and eventually Lan Sizhui stepped forward with a smile, welcoming the young man – Nie Songsong, he introduced himself – into the Cloud Recesses.

Everything seemed fine for a little while. Lan Sizhui was able to talk to the people in charge of arranging juniors into finding another place for Nie Songsong to stay, although it would be a little delayed – Nie Songsong assured them that there was no issue – and as recompense they even showed him, at his request, a few of the main landmarks.

And then they turned around and their guest had disappeared.

“I knew he was up to no good!” Jin Ling exclaimed.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Lan Sizhui told him.

“I’m with Jin Ling,” Lan Jingyi said. “He seemed so nice and understated – just like you know –”

“Don’t talk about my little uncle,” Jin Ling hissed at him. “I know it’s true, but just – don’t, okay?”

“We should find where he went,” Lan Sizhui decided.

It took them a while, but in the end they found him in the most unexpected place: in the rooms their sect leader had chosen for his seclusion, sitting on the bed with Lan Xichen’s head on his shoulder, sobbing as if his heart had been broken.

“What are you doing?” Lan Sizhui exclaimed, unnerved even out of his own habitual politeness.

“I came to greet my uncle,” Nie Songsong said, his manner just as gentle and polite as it had been from the beginning, although it was now evident that he was as stubborn as a rock and not easy-going at all.

“Your uncle?” Lan Jingyi gaped. “How can he be your uncle?”

“You’re Sect Leader Nie’s son!” Jin Ling accused.

“I’m Sect Leader Nie’s little brother by adoption,” Nie Songsong corrected. “It’s through my father that he’s my uncle – and you my cousin, I suppose.”

“Your – father?”

“Oh, yes. My birth name, you see,” Nie Songsong said, “was Jin Rusong.”

-

“Why did you choose to reveal yourself?” Lan Sizhui asked. “Given that everyone knows – well –”

Nie Songsong finished the character he was writing and put down his brush. “Wondering if you should let it be known that you were born with the surname Wen?”

Lan Sizhui jerked in surprise, then flushed. “How did you – that didn’t come out in Guanyin Temple.”

“No, I knew it before,” Nie Songsong said. “My er-ge is very clever, you know.”

“Yes, I suppose I do...why do you call him brother? Shouldn’t he be uncle, or – or –”

“Uncle is probably right,” Nie Songsong said. “But he raised me like a son, just as his brother did for him.”

Lan Sizhui looked down at his hands.

“Why did he publicly reveal your background, knowing that you were still around?” he asked again. “Everyone will know. Who your father was, all those terrible things he did, his relationship with your mother –”

“Why shouldn’t he? He did do all those things, and he did have that relationship with my mother.”

“But what about you? What about your reputation –”

“Are you planning on sweeping Wen Ruohan’s grave?”

Lan Sizhui stared at him.

“He’s your grandfather, isn’t he?” Nie Songsong looked calmly back at him. “Who he was, all those terrible things he did –”

“That’s nothing to do with me!”

“And the crimes of my father are nothing to do with me. My er-ge gave me his surname, just as Hanguang-jun gave you his, and for the same reason – to cut us off from the sins of our original family.”

“I suppose that’s true. But – no one knew about you, just as no one knew about me until I told them, and I only told them because they were my friends. Why’d you tell us? Aren’t you worried we’d tell more people?”

“Of course I am,” Nie Songsong said. “I hope you don’t, of course, but you would’ve found out regardless – second uncle wasn’t exactly subtle in his grief. And I had to tell him.”

“Why? To bring him out of seclusion?” Lan Sizhui hesitated. “Do you care so much for him?”

“Of course not. The last time I met him, I was a small child, and my father was just about to order me murdered; that’s not much of a basis to build a relationship. But having him lock himself away like that, as if he were in mourning…it hurt er-ge. And I won’t let anything hurt my er-ge. Anything, or anyone.”

They looked at each other for a long moment.

“I understand,” Lan Sizhui said.

“I’m glad you do,” Nie Songsong said, and then smiled. “I would’ve had to escalate to threats next, and I’m given to understand that I’m too short to really pull them off properly.”

Lan Sizhui snorted. “I think we’ve all learned that that’snot true.”

-

“Should we talk about this?” Jin Ling asked, arms crossed over his chest and glaring.

“What do you want to talk about?” Nie Songsong replied.

“How about the fact that your father tried to kill me?”

“Sure. Can we talk about the fact that you got all of his affection for years and years after he tried to kill me?”

Jin Ling blanched.

“I wonder if he would’ve gotten me a dog, too,” Nie Songsong mused. “I was too young for that when he ordered his demonic cultivator to feed me to fierce corpses and have my body ravaged until it was barely recognizable…but sure, let’s talk about how he tried to kill you.”

“I was talking about Sect Leader Nie!”

“Well, then, you should have been more specific. Sect Leader Nie’s my brother, not my father.”

“He’s a whole generation older than you!”

“My little uncle, then.”

Jin Ling flinched. “That’s worse. Go back to calling him your brother.”

Nie Songsong shrugged. “Would it help if we fought?”

“…what?”

“It makes me feel better, sometimes. Besides, I may be short, but I’m pretty good with the saber. I bet I could match your sword…maybe not your arrows. But I’ve always wanted to try.”

Jin Ling looked at him suspiciously for a long moment.

“Okay,” he finally said. “Sure. Why not?”

-

“I really hate that you’re kind of cool,” Lan Jingyi told him.

“I am so cool,” Nie Songsong said, and passed him another jar of wine. “Want to see my spring book collection?”

“…yes please.”

-

“Thank you for taking care of him,” Lan Xichen said to Nie Huaisang, who shrugged. “I’m sorry that you couldn’t trust me to help.”

“It’s only what I should have done,” Nie Huaisang said, not for the first time. He’d said it so often these past few days that it felt like a new refrain, an alternative to the old I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. He preferred the original. “I was his little uncle, remember? I held him on his first month party. How could I do any less?”

He did not say that Lan Xichen, who could be classified as Jin Rusong’s older uncle, had done much less, but from Lan Xichen’s expression, he’d taken it that way anyway.

“You never…” Lan Xichen hesitated. “Did you ever have any – concerns?”

“That he’d turn out an idiot? No. I figured he’d be in good company, with me.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Oh, you meant whether I was worried that he’d grow up longing for his blood family over his adopted family and turn against me in favor of his real father?” Nie Huaisang asked mildly. “No, not really. The memory of your father ordering you to be mauled by fierce corpses and to make sure your face is destroyed so that there’s a reason to refuse to let your mother see the body, as it would only upset her, is a fairly effective panacea against things like that.”

“No,” Lan Xichen said, though he looked sick all over again at the reminder of how considerate Jin Guangyao could be when it came to those he thought of as people, and how monstrous he was towards those he didn’t. “No, just – your brother always took such a hard line against the Wen sect…”

“Because they were raised with the philosophy that they were superior to the rest of us and my brother purposefully made himself into the symbol of their fallibility, thereby making himself and all the rest of us the primary target for their traumatic realization that they’re just as weak and vulnerable as everyone else,” Nie Huaisang said, rolling his eyes. “Our Nie sect cultivators were always especially targeted whenever we were captured – our survival rate as prisoners of war was less than half all the other sects, and it wasn’t just because we were usually more injured when we got caught. Even the civilians surnamed Wen would pull out knives and try to stab us in the back if they had half a chance! We were in a blood feud with them, er-ge. You don’t put down blood feuds just like that, not even if you want to. That’s not how it works.”

Lan Xichen nodded slowly, thoughtful.

“Anyway, Songsong is mine now,” Nie Huaisang said. “Just as Lan Sizhui is your brother’s, and Jin Ling Jiang Cheng’s. Can’t we all just agree to not care about the rest?”

“I suppose we have to,” Lan Xichen said, bowing his head. “Huaisang…did you ever think about what happens now? I mean – what should we do next?”

“I don’t know,” Nie Huaisang said, and smiled humorlessly when Lan Xichen looked at him. “I’m not joking. I didn’t know what to do when I got Songsong for the first time, er-ge, and I don’t know what to do now, either. I just wanted to see justice done for my da-ge, and I did, and for the rest – I don’t know.”

“That’s fine,” Lan Xichen said. “I don’t know, either.”

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Nie Huaisang thought. Spine as steel as your saber.

“Would you like to come visit the Unclean Realm sometime?” he asked, pretending to be casual. “Perhaps we can figure out what we don’t know together. If you like.”

“…perhaps I will,” Lan Xichen said.

[hannigramislife]

#5 Scene from my Random Mdzs Fanfiction

Prompt: What if 3zun reincarnated in modern au?

Scene: Frustrated with Lxc for warming up to Jgy in this life, and angry at himself for feeling upset at them in the first place, Nmj picks a fight. Does not go well.

"Why are you so mad?" Lan Xichen was confused at his friend's attitude.

"I'm not mad," Nie Mingjue gritted his teeth. "Leave it alone."

"No, let's talk about it." Lan Xichen insisted. "I don't want you to bottle anything up. Tell me."

"What do you care?" Nie Mingjue snapped back.

Lan Xichen blinked, genuinely shocked. "Why wouldn't I care?"

"One would think you're used to it." Nie Mingjue said bitterly, and he hated it. He didn't want to be angry at Lan Xichen, he didn't want to raise his voice either, but he couldn't help it.

Lan Xichen froze. "Da-ge...say what you mean. Used to– what, not...not caring?" He was confused, having never had Nie Mingjue talk to him so harshly. Even in their past lives, the elder had always been gentle with Lan Xichen, as if his mere presence softened his edges.

Nie Mingjue's gaze was scathing. "You did just fine last time, didn't you?"

Lan Xichen was speechless, which spurned the other on.

"It didn't take much for you to get over my death. As long as you had Jin Guangyao by your side, you were fine, right? So I think you'll survive me keeping my distance just as fine."

Nie Minjgjue could have slapped him, struck him with his heavy hand that has broken countless bones without breaking a sweat, and it would have hurt less than his accusation.

"Fine," Lan Xichen repeated, voice wavering, his family teachings the only thing holding his composure together. "You think I was fine? You think you died and I didn't care?"

"It sure as hell seemed that way!" Nie Mingjue snapped back. "Didn't seem like you were that eager to help me rest in peace either."

"I thought you were at peace!" Lan Xichen defended himself. "You- We always knew there was a chance you'd die young. I thought you'd made your peace with that. I-I didn't know. I didn't think-

That appeared to be the wrong thing to say, as Nie Mingjue just grew angrier. "God, you really were so blind, weren't you? The most capable cultivator of the time, letting a murder happen right under his nose, basically handing Jin Guangyao a step-by-step tutorial on how to get rid of me."

Lan Xichen's heart shuddered in his chest, shame and guilt churning up his insides. No, not this- not this again.

Those thoughts had managed to haunt him across lifetimes, apparently. Nothing hurt Lan Xichen more than thinking about his naivety, his gullible nature, and how much it had cost his friend. How could he have been so accepting of Nie Mingjue's death? He didn't even think of foul play being a possibility, not even from the man who had reason to want Nie Mingjue dead.

Nie Mingjue took his silence for hesitation, and hated it.

"Did you really never doubt him despite my warnings?" He asked. "Or did you just want to keep him so badly you could have forgiven my murder?"

Lan Xichen wondered, in the back of his mind, how A-Yao had been able to shoulder Nie Mingjue’s anger for as long as he had; surely, it had similarly crushed him, to hear such hurtful words from your closest friend? Vicious words falling from the other half of your soul, dipped in poison? Is that how his love had turned into hatred strong enough to push Jin Guangyao into taking his life?

Did Nie Mingjue feel similarly about Lan Xichen? Was his crime of association so grave that Nie Mingjue resented him?

Privately, the self-destructive part of his brain thought he did. He must have. It was Lan Xichen's carelessness that led to his death. His actions that resulted in his qi-deviation. And it was because of his foolish heart that Nie Huaisang - gentle, carefree Huaisang, who was never interested in anything other than arts and poetry and life itself - had to discard everything in order to avenge his brother.

And Lan Xichen? Where was he, then?

Holding his sworn brother's murderer in his arms. Comforting him, telling him everything was okay, they had each other, they would be fine.

And who was there for Nie Mingjue? For his little brother, who had to play at adoring the man who took his da-ge from him?

Lan Xichen felt sick.

Nie Mingjue stared at him as Lan Xichen wiped the overflowing tears from his face. He felt uncomfortable, not knowing how to help Lan Xichen, how to make him feel better, how to keep his fiery anger down. That had never been his forte; that was what Jin Guangyao was for. It was in Guangyao that could always put an end to Lan Xichen’s unceasing worry, who could reign in Nie Mingjue’s temper, even when he was smack in the middle of it.

It had worked, for a while, the three of them. Lan Xichen had wanted them to be happy.

It could have never lasted.

“I wish,” Nie Mingjue said slowly. “That I had done it, back in Nightless City.”

“Done what?” Lan Xichen asked, almost automatically, his eyes downcast.

“Killed him,” the elder said, making Lan Xichen freeze. “Then myself, too. So many lives could have been spared. You would have mourned him, but found love again. At least, then, maybe you could have been happy.” Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao had been each other’s doom; there was no version of their story where they ended up happy. At the very least, they could have chosen not to drag Lan Xichen down with them.

Lan Xichen, if possible, looked even more devastated.

“How can you say that to me?” Lan Xichen whispered, thoroughly broken-hearted. “How can you tell me I would have been happy without the two of you? How can you say I wouldn’t have mourned your death until my eyes bled salt?”

“Lan Xichen-“

But Lan Xichen wasn’t listening, his wide eyes welled up with tears and hands trembling as he fell to his knees. “Have I failed you so much, Da-ge? Was my love so weak, so useless you can’t even see what you both meant to me?” Lan Xichen allowed himself to sob, a familiar and soothing voice in his mind reminding him it was okay to cry. “Forgive this one, Da-ge, please, for his stupidity, for his weak heart. You deserved better.”

[veliseraptor]

Absolutely ascending at the thought of the total farce when both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue are visiting and JGY's desperately trying to conceal Su She and Xue Yang.

I have thought about this a lot. And the thing is that Jin Guangyao is going to try to hide Su Minshan, he doesn't deserve that and he's not going to treat him like some kind of dirty secret. What he will do is try to carefully arrange everything so that he and Lan Xichen interact with each other as little as possible while Jin Guangyao pays enough attention to both of them that they don't get unhappy.

and meanwhile there's Nie Mingjue who hates Jin Guangyao, with whom he has to interact for professional reasons as though everything is fine, though keeping that to a minimum, and meanwhile there is Xue Yang somewhere in Jinlintai and Jin Guangyao told him to just stay. put. for the duration but also he knows that's only about 50% likely to work, if that. and there's a distinct possibility that Xue Yang will get bored and try to play chicken with how close he can get to Nie Mingjue without Nie Mingjue noticing, and this game is only more fun if Nie Mingjue doesn't notice but Jin Guangyao does because what's funnier than seeing your friend/supervisor on the verge of a panic attack in public, amirite.

I feel like there's a distinct possibility when it comes to Xue Yang specifically in these instances that Jin Guangyao just fuckin like. makes up a project for him. sends him off somewhere to do...something, he'll think of it on the spot if he has to, just to put as much space between him and Nie Mingjue - and Lan Xichen - as possible. it's just safer that way.

(on the other hand also when Jin Guangyao doesn't know where Xue Yang is, at least approximately, for long periods of time, that also starts to be concerning. Xue Yang loves surprises, specifically when it is him doing the surprising of other people.)

so. trying to keep an eye out for Xue Yang to make sure he's nowhere in the vicinity, choreographing everything to keep Su She and Lan Xichen separated by at least six people at all times and never within direct eyesight of each other, acting polite and normal with everyone while knowing they hate his guts and pretending things are totally fine with da-ge even though they are very much not and there's the constant distinct possibility of Xue Yang throwing a wrench in that just because he can. like! probably not because he has some self-preservation instincts but sometimes his 'wouldn't it be funny if' instincts seem to be pretty damn strong

and trying to make all of this look perfectly natural and non-stressful with a smile on his face. :) :)

he's doing great!!!!!

(it's sort of like those zoo tycoon games where you're trying to take care of the zebras and then the lions get unhappy so you go to look after the lions and the zebras are unhappy again, and then the fence on the wolf enclosure has broken down and there are wolves running around eating your guests. Jin Guangyao has never played one of these games, obviously, but I feel like he would find it vaguely familiar.)

[truly-morgan]

[Monster & the beast]

NieYao | Mo Dao Zu Shi Cross-Over AU idea 25-06-2021

[#mingyao monster & the beast AU]

nmj is a demon/monster living somewhat peacefully in his forest. He's what most humans would call scary and ugly, hence why they always run away from him since he's very big and menacing compared to them (also why some try to come to hunt him only to back off when they realised just how large and strong he actually is).

Otherwise, it is peaceful in the forest, most other creature leaves him alone and he can easily find food around the forest.

There's no one else like him (maybe nhs got taken away because he looked somehow human enough, so someone "saved" him from the monster in the forest and nmj was never able to find him back, hopefully, he was treated well).

He did feel lonely at times, but he also knew all he would get from trying to reach out to people would be fear. Then one day, as he wanders around the forest to pass the time, he stumbles on a group of people surrounding and overpowering a man. He feels like he shouldn't get involved in the situation, but hearing the man making pained noises he can't help but act, saving him.

jgy is a man travelling around, finding and selling valuable herbs and treasures. He may or may not be running from trouble of his past, but despite being somewhat pursued he still lives life easily and without trouble, he simply doesn't attach himself to anyone.

then one day he needs some help to cross this dense forest, where it could take a long time without someone to shoot the shortcuts, so he does accept the help of these fellows who generously suggested their help (not without a piece obviously).

and then jgy realises they might /not/ be taking him where he really wants to go, each of them casually flashing weapons and how strong they are, taking great interest in the things he carries (which could get a lot of money too) This is how he ends up with them finally making their move, although jgy does try to fight back, they are a bit too much for him to handles correctly.

This is when nmj enters the game. saving him.

jgy isn't scared by him (to nmj surprise) and is instead rather friendly with him, treating him as if he was any other human. He ends up explaining his situation as he prepares to try and find his way through the forest (wouldn't be the first time he got lost somewhere).

but nmj ends up stopping him, actually guiding him on his journey to the town he's trying to reach.

It's refreshing and nice, to have someone who so casually talks to him, as if nothing was wrong. nmj ends up growing pretty fond of jgy on their couple of days of travelling.

When they finally reach the town, nmj wants to keep going with him, yet jgy says he should stay in his forest, where it is safe and no one (or nearly no one) will bother him. Plus, it would be hard for him to travel with him without being noticed.

But then nmj says he can hide in shadows! So he could always hide in jgy shadow if needed!

jgy ends up accepting since it is actually pleasing to travel with nmj (and teasing him by flirting is really funny, it so easy to fluster the large monster). and so they travel some more like this, going from place to place, never staying for long at the same place.

nmj is slowly falling in love with jgy, something he never did. While jgy suspects he might be getting too attached to nmj, something he never allowed himself.

but how could he not when he enjoys nmj company so much?

Eventually, things about what jgy did in the past do reach him, which he did think nmj would leave him ("I am sure jgy did what he did because of reason" he is told). I don't have any really built plot for that part, I just want monster!NMJ and traveller!JGY to travel around the world and fall in love with each other lajnfkjh

maybe jgy had to do some criminal stuff and fled, and now it pursuing him. Maybe he's not fully human himself. who knows

Original

[gloriousmonsters]

tbh I see a fair few other jgy fans (most recently @henshengs got me thinking about it) saying that from their point of view jgy doesn’t think he’s better than other people and it’s made me realize that to me an integral part of his character is that he does, but it looks fundamentally different from how jgy haters tend to characterize it

Like it’s not ‘mehehehe everyone is my foolish pawn, i am the sole mastermind, only I deserve good things’ it’s like... just this quiet underlying assumption that he is right in his beliefs and decisions and that he is, on the general, smarter than everyone he’s surrounded by.

like, I can’t really talk about this without saying I resonate heavily with jgy as An NPD. which is a fascinating and messy PD when it intersects with societal bullshit! like, sure you might have a baseline ‘inflated’ sense of self-importance, but it came about in response to the world telling you you weren’t worth shit, so it doesn’t manifest necessarily as being an asshole who throws your weight around/thinks you’re the only one who deserves stuff--it manifests as a belief in your own worth strong enough to withstand that pressure, which can get a little screwy and overcompensated. you’re ‘manipulative’ (talk to me about how ‘manipulative behavior’ is a whole morass of grayness and variables) but like, fucking duh you’re manipulative, you’ve needed to stay on top of situations in whatever way you can to survive, and why stop doing it when things are ‘better’? it’s what works, and it helps keep you safe, and it’s just... what you do naturally, at this point. and yeah you think you’re smarter and have got things together better than other people, who’s doing it like you? who’s clawed up from the places you came from?

(xy and sms, to very different extents! talk to me about how the murder trio is just across the board the ‘something is wrong with you because you think you’re worth something (which is good, but it got a wee bit skewed)’ crew. i love it, but this post is long enough w/o going into a breakdown of jgy’s relationships)

and I don’t think jgy even concretely thinks ‘yes i am smarter/better at  x than other people’ most of the time (his ‘yes! i am different from  them’ has the air to me of something slipping out when you’re in a  heated argument that you wouldn’t have articulated under normal  circumstances) it’s just there, underneath. it’s value neutral, if I  need to say that, by itself. imo it informs as many of his good actions  as his bad ones (those that can be so neatly divided lol).   but it’s there! and while I’m obviously not asking anyone to change their opinion, I appreciate a lot of different takes on jgy, I wanted to throw my interpretation kinda into the ring because despite the number of people who sling around ‘narcissistic’ in regards to him casually, i’ve yet to see a good-faith interpretation of jgy as a narcissist character. Shockingly 🙄

tl; dr: me holding taking a hater’s sign that’s like ‘jgy is manipulative and narcissistic’ and adding ‘AND HE SHOULD BE AND THAT BELIES NONE OF HIS GOOD TRAITS’ in large letters after it