#iron meng to the rescue!!

[randomlazystuff]

Here is another drawing of my OC! Thought im to lazy to shade it. Anyway! I drew something for my friend!

Bought a new sketch book so im still getting used to the different papper type. Also i just realized the jawline is croocked... darn it!

Eh whatever...

That all, buh bye!!

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Chapter 7

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

A new day a new chapter! Today we get into the Water Prison. The real question: will Shen Qingqiu actually make it out?

No Charlie pics today, I have been abandoned at my reading/writing station, but I do have tea! Tea today is a blueberry jasmine.

Let's get into it!!!!

What the fuck?! Is this an acid lake? p89

Dang it really is crazy how after two accusations with zero evidence or proof that Shen Qingqiu actually did anything, he get's locked up in maximum security prison. p89

Right now I'm having war flashbacks from MDZS -> another protagonist out here doing their best with the rest of the world just making shit up about them for fun. RE: Little Palace mistress and her delusions of what SQQ did. She literally even says- he didnt say you did anything but I have a vibe. Like what? p91

We are gathered here today to all witness how Shen Qingqiu is once again refusing to acknowledge that he is indeed the Love Interest. Honestly, does anyone ever tell him? I live for the day the system changes his classification from villain to Love interest and actually tells him this. Idk if it happens, but now I need it to happen. Re: "what fit even less was the fact, in the original work, the Little Palace Mistress's refined iron whip had only been used for attacking love rivals" p93

Luo Binghe to the rescue!! p94 just catching that whip

Okay but when SQQ states that something is wrong with the script- is he actually on the path to understanding? or still clueless? I hope he sort of realizes what's happening, because dang this guy has 0 idea Luo Binghe would kill for him p95

OOP. "There is no need for Shizun to be so wary. If I wished to do something to you, I wouldn't need to touch you at all" p96

Re: point above about "is he understanding?" *deep sigh * SQQ has not learned at all and refuses to actively listen. He is still trying to follow the old script p.97. Okay but I do love how this guy is accidentally getting himself (in a weird way) romanced.

I honestly am pretty sure this is a dating sim XD "*to the system* Do you think we're playing a dating sim?!" p99

omg torture via demon blood is horrible. Like this is a worst nightmare, having little bugs in your organs NO THANKS. p101

I'm crying LOOOOOL two options; 1. the fake jade guanyin. 2. [Activate Small Scene Pusher] and gets his CLOTHES ripped off. Bro is now the lead in a period bodice ripper XD p102

*face palm* "Does it just take advantage of Luo Binghe's physiological disgust upon seeing a man's half-naked body?" p104. no my man, it is not disgust

oh no, giving him his outer robe made it more scandalous p104

RIP confirmed that that is the previous canon's sex robe p106

literally everyone has a feeling about what's up. Gongyi Xiao is eyeing SQQ, see's the robe and does indeed assume things about SQQ and Luo Binghe. How stupid is SQQ??? p107

Re: the note from Shang Qinghua to SQQ. Shang Qinghua is also an idiot, this guy had 1 job and that was to not fuck up the mushrooms. he goofed this exponentially. RIP those mushrooms. p109

Welp. Gongyi Xiao is realizing that Luo BInghe may not be as pure of heart as he thought p112

it's so much worse though- he really thinks that Luo Binghe assaulted SQQ and is now helping SQQ escape. p113

meanwhile SQQ is living in his own universe LOL no idea these are the assumptions. Also, IDK what's going to happen when Luo Binghe inevitably see's SQQ in Gongyi Xiao's robe. RIP GYX p115

Okay but SQQ I too would freak the fuck out if I had a walking/wake dream. Meng Mo's realm is no joke. p120-121

Dang Luo Binghe has become so strong. This dreamscape is insane. pp 124-126

again with the clothes ripping. I hope one day they enjoy this consensually. p127 (blessed be this canon for the fanfics)

in which SQQ does not realize that the fight in the dreamscape is indeed not a fight- it is most definitely foreplay. p128

I fucking KNEW IT Luo Binghe was NOT pleased with SQQ wearing Gongyi Xiao's robe. LOOOL. p130

but also I don't know what became of GYX but let's take a moment to remember him, I am sure he did not make it.

oh gosh more tragic SQQ backstory :( p132

I am glad I clocked it in the last chapter. Something was so fishy about the family that took him in and his "betrothal" my heart for SQQ :( :( :( p134

Okay get it Ning YinYing!!!! Re: her talking shit to and about Little Palace Mistress to her face! p138

yes she got slapped but still she did a pretty good job! and her sect siblings have her back.

That is it for today!!

Oh god. ofc we leave on a cliffhanger with a shady guy ready to super saiyan AND the next chapter is ominously titled "Death". I am not prepared for this!

[warningsine]

Chinese miners trapped for nearly a week after a tunnel collapsed told today how they survived by eating a leather belt and pieces of paper.

The 11 men were rescued yesterday from an iron and gold mine in Chengde, north of Beijing, where they had been trapped since last Monday. All were said to be in stable condition and were able to walk out with the aid of rescuers.

The first miner to be rescued, Wu Pengyong, 33, said the group had drunk dirty mine water and ate paper and orange peels as they waited in the dark, the daily Beijing News reported.

"Later, we got really hungry and it was lucky I had a leather belt. I boiled it but it wouldn't cook, so I divided the half-cooked belt and gave it to everyone to eat," Wu was quoted as saying.

When they had given up hope of rescue, the miners said they heard a digging machine outside.

The mine owner apparently delayed reporting the accident to local authorities for three days. Mine owners in China routinely attempt to hide accidents from authorities to avoid being fined or shut down.

A similar delay is being blamed for the high death toll at a mine in northern China last week, which killed 105 miners. The mine operators waited more than five hours before calling in outside rescuers.

China, which is dependent on coal for about 70% of the country's energy, has the world's worst mine safety record.

Last year 2,845 accidents left 4,746 miners dead - 75% of the world total. Fires, explosions, floods and tunnel collapses kill 13 miners a day.

Chinese mine owners have huge financial incentives to ramp up production but, despite concerns about safety, the government's first priority is fuel for the fast-growing economy.

The latest accident and rescue follows a similar case in August when two brothers, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou, clawed their way to the surface after six days trapped in a collapsed coal mine.

The two survived by living on a diet of coal nuggets, urine and jokes about who their wives would marry if they failed to make it out alive.

Posting it for the "Yellowjackets" people on my notes wondering about belt soups.

[queenannatsui]

NAME: An Na Tsui

PRONOUNS: She/Her

FACECLAIM: Michelle Yeoh

AGE: 1300+

SPECIES: Vampire

RANK: Queen

OCCUPATION: Chairman and CEO of Night Time Shipping and Receiving

BIOGRAPHY:

It was only by pure happenstance that Cui Yi Meng caught the attention of the emperor that warm summer day. She had been out picking some herbs when the royal procession happened to cross her path, but even through a bowed head, the Tang Emperor could see what a beauty she was. Yi Meng had been a simple girl, the daughter of a lowly imperial physician, wanting for nothing more than a simple life, but fate had different plans for her.

She had barely had time to discuss her run in with her father when the Emperor had already demanded she enter his harem, forced to compete with dozens of other ladies all yearning for his affections. While many would have considered the Emperor’s immediate infatuation with her a blessing, Yi Meng would have preferred to be left alone. Nevertheless, the Emperor grew on her and by the time he was at his death bed, his gui fei was at his side, holding his hand as he took his last breath.

And with his last breath, he had taken Yi Meng’s safety with him.

No matter how high she had risen by his side, she was not his Empress, his official wife, and her sons were second to hers in the line of succession. The Emperor’s body was barely in the ground before the now Empress Dowager demanded the removal of all her previous competitors for the Emperor’s attention, especially his most beloved gui fei. It was only through her loyal sons, now Princes of their own principalities, that she was able to escape, hiding away and content to spend the rest of her days at monasteries and living her life as a nun.

Still, that wasn’t enough for the Empress Dowager and she continued her hunt, only satisfied when news of Cui Gui Fei having been chased off a cliff hit her ears. Yi Meng had done exactly that, not sure that she would survive the jump. A stranger happened upon her body and like that fateful day all those summers ago, her life changed once again. The stranger nursed her back to health and took pity on her plight, offering her a second chance at life–one outside the restricted palace walls and endless court politics. Yi Meng accepted, abandoning everything from her previous life with faith that her children had learned enough from her to thrive.

For over a thousand years, Yi Meng travelled the earth, learning everything she could about the world. All she saw was endless cruelty and the same mistakes being repeated again and again. From her place in the shadows, she couldn’t do much, but she did something. She rescued the few people she believed deserved a second chance and built another family, the motherly side of her never quite leaving even after death.

When she decided to settle down, she chose the New World, hoping that it wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, even with a chance to start over, humans never seemed to learn and after seeing the atrocities they were further capable of, Yi Meng abandoned her former name and with it, all the sympathy she had left for the inferior race. If she and her children were going to survive, they had to do it by force. She built her own empire off of the blood of those below her and her only care now is to leave a peaceful world for her own children, one they would never live in fear of.

To everyone Anna Tsui is a ruthless Queen, ruling the Vampire underworld of New York City with an iron fist. She is decisive and doesn’t hesitate to do what is necessary to ensure her people’s survival. Nevertheless, she is a fair and wise leader, earning the respect of even those who despise her. At over a thousand years, she is one of the oldest vampires still living and has no plans on slowing down–not until she can find a successor she trusts enough to take over everything she’s built, however long that might take.

[adportashq]

NAME: An Na Tsui

PRONOUNS: She/Her

FACECLAIM: Michelle Yeoh

AGE: 1300+

SPECIES: Vampire

RANK: Queen

OCCUPATION: Chairman and CEO of Night Time Shipping and Receiving

BIOGRAPHY:

It was only by pure happenstance that Cui Yi Meng caught the attention of the emperor that warm summer day. She had been out picking some herbs when the royal procession happened to cross her path, but even through a bowed head, the Tang Emperor could see what a beauty she was. Yi Meng had been a simple girl, the daughter of a lowly imperial physician, wanting for nothing more than a simple life, but fate had different plans for her.

She had barely had time to discuss her run in with her father when the Emperor had already demanded she enter his harem, forced to compete with dozens of other ladies all yearning for his affections. While many would have considered the Emperor's immediate infatuation with her a blessing, Yi Meng would have preferred to be left alone. Nevertheless, the Emperor grew on her and by the time he was at his death bed, his gui fei was at his side, holding his hand as he took his last breath.

And with his last breath, he had taken Yi Meng's safety with him.

No matter how high she had risen by his side, she was not his Empress, his official wife, and her sons were second to hers in the line of succession. The Emperor's body was barely in the ground before the now Empress Dowager demanded the removal of all her previous competitors for the Emperor's attention, especially his most beloved gui fei. It was only through her loyal sons, now Princes of their own principalities, that she was able to escape, hiding away and content to spend the rest of her days at monasteries and living her life as a nun.

Still, that wasn't enough for the Empress Dowager and she continued her hunt, only satisfied when news of Cui Gui Fei having been chased off a cliff hit her ears. Yi Meng had done exactly that, not sure that she would survive the jump. A stranger happened upon her body and like that fateful day all those summers ago, her life changed once again. The stranger nursed her back to health and took pity on her plight, offering her a second chance at life--one outside the restricted palace walls and endless court politics. Yi Meng accepted, abandoning everything from her previous life with faith that her children had learned enough from her to thrive.

For over a thousand years, Yi Meng travelled the earth, learning everything she could about the world. All she saw was endless cruelty and the same mistakes being repeated again and again. From her place in the shadows, she couldn't do much, but she did something. She rescued the few people she believed deserved a second chance and built another family, the motherly side of her never quite leaving even after death.

When she decided to settle down, she chose the New World, hoping that it wouldn't repeat the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, even with a chance to start over, humans never seemed to learn and after seeing the atrocities they were further capable of, Yi Meng abandoned her former name and with it, all the sympathy she had left for the inferior race. If she and her children were going to survive, they had to do it by force. She built her own empire off of the blood of those below her and her only care now is to leave a peaceful world for her own children, one they would never live in fear of.

To everyone Anna Tsui is a ruthless Queen, ruling the Vampire underworld of New York City with an iron fist. She is decisive and doesn't hesitate to do what is necessary to ensure her people's survival. Nevertheless, she is a fair and wise leader, earning the respect of even those who despise her. At over a thousand years, she is one of the oldest vampires still living and has no plans on slowing down--not until she can find a successor she trusts enough to take over everything she's built, however long that might take.

[drwcn]

《WITHOUT ENVY》 STORYBOARD 16

AU: concubine/sleeper agent!wwx & prince!lwj Plotlines are explained in chronological storyboards and snippets are detailed scenes which I felt more inclined to explore. All can be found in the masterlist here.

Nie Huaisang appeared unexpectedly at Nevernight. No sooner than Meng Yao's secret message arrived inquiring the identity of the spy did Wei Wuxian himself receive an unlikely visitor, Emperor Zewu's brother-in-law, Nie Huaisang. Wei Wuxian had met the young man several times during his time in Gusu, accompanying Lan Wangji to various functions. The Young Master Nie was famous for lacking in ambition and motivation to take up any gainful employment, the very antithesis of the accomplished general and consort his late brother had been. But the man that appeared at the tavern late one evening was not the lazy rich-boy Wei Wuxian remembered. Though he carried an air of ease and cavalier, his eyes were shrewd and sharp and knowing.

WWX: Meng Yao really keeps his cards close to his chest does'nt he? Wen Ruohan has no idea what he's up against.

NHS: Ah, Wei-xiong, don't be so surprised. A spy network is not a spy network without its secrets. Now, we don't have a lot of time. What I am about tell you is of the highest order.

WWX: I know about the spy. I don't know who it is. Wen Ruohan has me kept away from working fronts that would interact with Lan Zhan's forces. He trusts me but…I suppose he fears I may still have lingering sentiments. Truly I do not know the spy's identity, which is why I have decided to go -

NHS: That is all well and good, but the developments of frontline cannot be explained via missives, which is why I'm here, to ensure this information is passed only between you and I and no one else. About a month ago, Marshal Yin and the Iron Calvary had drawn Hanguang-wang's forces into the northern valleys and then simply vanished from pursuit. When Hanguang-wang realized the situation was suspicious and doubled back it was already too late. Not only were they not able to pursue the Iron Calvary, but Wen Xu's batalions have cut him off at the mouth of the valley.

WWX: A month ago, you say. He's been stranded this entire time...

NHS: Hanguang-wang's forces are strong but with that spy in their midst every battle has been a struggle. The winter dredges on, but their supplies run low. We do believe Wen Xu means to starve them in the valley. Lan Wangji's last communication was that he believed there to be a traitor in his camp. A rider managed to take it out of the valley in time, but since then all communications have ceased.

Nie Huaisang seemed to hesitate, but then continued: There are no missive stations in the valley. My ravens and doves do not know the lay of the land in that region and therefore have yielded nothing. The men we have planted inside Hanguang-wang's army to help and protect him cannot communicate with us. If we cannot rescue them, all of them will die there.

WWX: What do you need me to do?

NHS: Right now the biggest problem is we have no idea where they are, but Wen Ruohan must know the location of his armies. Do you think you can obtain Wen Xu's location in the north as well as the defence plan of his camp?

WWX: I can and I will.

Wei Wuxian obtained the information smoothly and safely. With this intel, NHS's small team of agents already close to the region was able to break into Wen Xu's camp and set fire to his storage supplies and tents, injurying some of his men. Thus Wen Xu required urgent reinforcement, giving Wei Wuxian the opportunity he needed to go to the front.

WWX: WRH will give this assignment to me, I am sure of it. Though he would prefer if I were not involved in any direct confrontation with Lan Zhan, he has no other choice now. I may not be a general, but of the remaining men left in the capital, I am the one with the most experience and familiarity with the northern terrain. And besides, I will provide him with absolute reassurance that I will return.

NHS: And how would you do that?

WWX: There is a poison, a drug, that will kill me within 21 days if I am not given the antidote. It is what us spies take when we're sent on important short term missions. There are no other poison of its kind. It is developed by the Wens - they were a clan of alchemists and healers before they were lords and kings.

Wei Wuxian took the reinforcement and supplies to the front. Along the way, he discovered via his own communication with Wen Xu that the means through which Wen Xu and his spy passed intel was trained snow owls that were indigenous to that region. As agreed upon, Nie Huaisang's small team of recon agents trailed behind Wei Wuxian's squadron until they reached Wen Xu's camp. Though they knew there was a spy amongst the Wen squandron escorting the supplies, they did not know who, since NHS was the only one with direct contact with WWX. From there on WWX managed to send out a missive to NHS, telling them of Wen Xu's plans to launch a full scale attack on Lan Wangji's army now that their reinforcements/supplies have arrived. Wen Xu relied on the information he received from his spy in Lan Wangji's army to formulate his plan of attack, but Wei Wuxian was able to intercept the snow owl before one of its timely deliveries and switched out Lan Wangji's true plan with a forged one. The forged plan of course would mislead Wen Xu to make ruinous tactical decisions that would see his army fall on the battle field.

The night before the battle, Wei Wuxian implored Wen Xu, "Your Highness, I have but one request."

"Request?"

"Tomorrow when you win your victory against Lan Wangji, perhaps you will see your way to…spare his life."

"You mean to plead on his behalf?" Wen Xu raised a quizzical brow.

"Not on his behalf." Wei Wuxian chuckled. "Lan Wangji, as a man, is somewhat of a… rare specimen, one might say. I was his plaything once. Once we conquer Gusu, I don't think yifu would object to me keeping a souvenir - a trophy, if you will - as a personal reward for my contribution."

Wen Xu rolled his eyes. "Oh, that's what your getting at. And here I thought only my little brother was the hedonistic one. Very well then."

"I thank Your Highness for your generosity. Now, I really must take my leave of you. Bixia is still expecting me in the capital."

"Why the rush? Join me tomorrow and secure your prize for yourself, unless…ah, I see. Father really is careful. How many days do you have left?"

"Still a fortnight."

"Plenty of time then. Stay until the battle's won, Wei Wuxian, and perhaps you'll get to personally escort the illustrious Hanguang-wang back to Nevernight collared and chained."

Dawn came, but the crimson sun upon Qishan Wen's banners fell in the morning light. Wen Xu, though smarter than Wen Chao, was not a natural tactician. Without the spy's information, he was no match for Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian's interference ensured Wen Xu's capture by Gusu's forces.

Wei Wuxian's original plan was rejected by Nie Huaisang.

NHS: "Do not be a fool. Wen Ruohan will never have enough reason to order a rescue mission for you. Besides, you've ingested the poison. He only needs to do nothing and you will be dead anyways. It is far more to our advantage to capture someone Wen Ruohan cannot allow to die - his eldest son perhaps. In such case, the mole in Hanguang-wang's camp will definitely be mobilized to save his prince."

WWX: "Then I will remain on the battlefield to ensure Wen Xu's capture. With Wen Xu gone, the mole will surely reach out using the snow owls to ask for further direction. Depending on which of the Wen colonels and generals are remaining...I only need to volunteer myself for the rescue mission in order to sniff out the mole."

NHS: "Preciously. And we need Wen Xu alive. If he's dead, it will be deemed your failure and you will be unable to return to Nevernight. Without the antidote, you will be dead in 14 days."

WWX: "I understand."

NHS: "After the battle, I must depart. I've been away too long and there are matters which require my attention. You will be on your own, Wei Wuxian. Hanguang-wang is no fool. He will see this opportunity for what it is and will be prepared to unearth the mole. I have confidence that the spy will reveal himself, but whether any of you will emerge from this alive...that is up to you. None of my men within Lan Wangji's camp knows of your identity. To them you are and have always been the enemy."

WWX: "I am prepared. Best case scenario is the mole reveals himself to Lan Zhan during the rescue, but still allowing time for Wen Xu and I to escape. If Lan Zhan does not discover the mole, after I make contact, I will report his identity via the usual channels. Worst case scenario, the mole is discovered but the rescue fails and we are all captured..."

NHS: Lets hope it does not come to that. If it does -

WWX: You need not worry yourself. Let me handle it.

The plan worked. The spy's cover was made, and Wei Wuxian learned that his name was Xue Chonghai, a mole planted in Gusu for the last ten years by Marshal Yin himself. Together, they were able to orchestrate Wen Xu's rescue, but during their escape, they were quickly surrounded by Lan Wangji's soldiers. Swords were drawn, blood was spilled. Wei Wuxian was forced to kill many of Lan Wangji's best men, knowing that there was a bigger game at play. He must return to Nevernight to continue being Gusu's source of intel. For that, he must act the part of a Wen loyalist in front of Lan Wangji and Wen Xu.

Lan Wangji watched him slay Gusu's men, and Wei Wuxian knew that any lingering love that may have dwelled inside Lan Wangji's heart, in that moment, was completely reduced to ash. Of those who fell under Suibian, two were Lan Wangji's personal lieutenants, young men who once served the prince in his manor, and whom Wei Wuxian once thought of as friends. Still...it was not until he heard Lan Wangji cry out - "xiao-Yu!" - that Wei Wuxian realized the young man whose belly he had just pierced through with his sword was the prince's mianshou, the once frail and timid Mo Xuanyu. Wei Wuxian did not know that at the onset of war, Mo Xuanyu had requested to enlist in Lan Wangji's army, to do his duty to his country instead of hiding behind the walls of the harem. The shock of it all gave Wei Wuxian, Wen Xu and Xue Chonghai the opportunity to finally break free and make their escape, but the memory of Lan Wangij dropping to his knees in the blood-stained snow and cradling a dying Mo Xuanyu in his arms would be forever burned into Wei Wuxian's memory. There was no doubt in his mind that should their paths cross again, Lan Wangji would not hesitate to kill him with his own hands.

Upon his return to Nevernight, Wei Wuxian was hailed as a hero who saved Qishan's prince and heir. Even Wen Xu had grown warmer over the course of their life-and-death adventure. Wen Ruohan praised Wei Wuxian for his undying loyalty and from then on allowed him to participate in all aspects of the war, privy to any and all of Wen Ruohan's plans. During the day, Wei Wuxian accompanied him in the war room, and at night, he yielded before him beneath the canopy. Soon everyone knew that there was no one the mad Wen Ruohan trusted more than his ward Wei Wuxian.

Wen Ruohan didn't know it, but the more he trusted Wei Wuxian, the closer the war was drawing to its end.

[add1ctedt0you]

Everyone in mdzs plays an important role for the plot. Anyway, it seems to me that we know very little about most of the cast and what we know is filtered by the narrator's prospective or is narrated trough rumors. Now I am thinking about the Nie Brothers and in particular about Nie Mingjue. He is the fierce corpe whose mystery drives a huge part of the plot. But, what we know about Nie Mingjue? (disclaimer : these are English translations so a lot is lost from the original text. And these are only my opinions about this character based on some passage)

Someone can suggest this passage to figure nmj out:

As such, the ability to discern people's desires was truly Jin Guangyao's forte. The only person he could never seem to pry any useful information out of was Nie Mingjue.

Wei Wuxian had seen this firsthand, back when Meng Yao had worked under Nie Mingjue's command. The man never laid his hands on women, alcohol, or material wealth; paintings, calligraphy and antiques were all piles of ink and mud in his eyes. Top-grade premium tea tasted the same to him as dregs from a roadside stall. Meng Yao had racked his brain and still failed to identify anything Nie Mingjue might have a taste for, other than training with his saber every day and killing Wen dogs. He was truly an iron bastion, with no weaknesses to exploit.

Volume 2, Page 319

I think that this passage says less about nmj and more about wwx. (I personally think, but maybe I am wrong, that the second passage is from wwx's pov, so I am thinking according to that)

For wwx, based on his observations, nmj hasn't any weaknesses or any hobby because he doesn't like :

Women

Alcohol

Material wealth

Painting/calligraphy/antiques

Tea

For wwx nmj only likes :

To train with his saber

To kill wen dogs

Not even considering that this knowledge comes from wartime, where people, and in particular sect leaders, have to fight against their enemies, I am inclined to interpret this passage in two ways:

Wwx is judging nmj based on what he thinks ordinary sect leaders like best

Wwx is judging nmj based on what he likes best

I don't know what one of them is more appropriate but, again, for me this passage doesn't give any insight on nmj.

In fact I find more interesting this passage:

"... I apologize to all of the Sect Leaders. Everyone, I am afraid you don't know that the Wen Cultivator whom Wei Wuxuan wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign"

Nie Mingjue, "You owe them gratitude? Isn't the QishanWen the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sect's annihilation?"

[...]

Lan Xichen responded a moment later, "I have heard of Wen Qing's name a few of times. I don't remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign's crimes"

Nie Mingjue, "But she's never stopped them either"

Lan Xichen, "Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHuan's most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?"

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

Lan Xichen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie Mingjue abhorred Wen dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil. Lan Xichen didn't say anything else.

Chapter 73

They are discussing about what to do with wwx who has killed jin and other's sects cultivators and has rescued the wen captives.

When jc tries to defend wwx, saying that them owe the wen siblings, nmj immediately intervenes remembering him about what the wen have done to his sect, asking what kind of gratitude they could ever have.

Then, when lxc tries to defend wq, nmj intervenes again saying that she has to take responsibility for her actions. Her silence is indifference, so, why shouldn't she have to suffer the consequences of the Sect she benefits from?

All of this, in my opinions, suggests that nmj is an extremely idealistic person. That doesn't mean that he has a black/white view of the world, only that he has strong principles for which he is ready to fight, even trying to impose himself.

That doesn't make him bad or good. He believes he is right but he respects people who fight for their principles even if these same ideals are opposed to his own.

Nie Mingjue, "The woman has much more backbone than the mob of her sect"

Nmj is talking about MianMian, someone who has tried to speak for wwx. She is mocked for that by other cultivators, because she is a servant woman, because her voice isn't important enough. MianMian stands for her own opinions but understanding that other people aren't really open minded towards dialogue, ("Fine! Your voice are louder! Fine! You are the rational ones!" that's what she says) she leaves her sect. A servant girl, now disciple, is leaving one of the four great sect, after standing her ground! Nmj shows admiration for her, despite she is in his opposite side, saying that she has more backbone than the mob (people who are mocking her but are on nmj's side).

In my view, Nmj has strong principles that he would try to impose but not mocking and demeaning his opponents, who he genuinely can admire.

Plus:

Lan Xichen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie Mingjue abhorred Wen dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil.

Nmj is intolerable toward evil, but in this one, my guess is that his past trauma also plays a huge role. Nmj watched in horror as his father's saber broke battling a beast, which then gored him with its horn. He was forced to see his only still alive parental figure being killed indirectly by wrh's hand (wrh has sabotaged his father's saber), and then he was forced to become a young sect leader. The age isn't clear, but he was a teenager. Anyway, I think his trauma plays a huge role on his decisions and that, again, doesn't make him good or bad. We are in a world where people are ready to take their revenge taking down also innocent people: nhs is ready to put in danger innocent Junior's life to take his revenge, wwx kills at least one hundred innocent disciples who are at the siege because it's their role as disciples, because he is emotionally destroyed by his sister's death.

But I am cautious about this last passage because it's from lxc's pov. It's not nmj who says that his past trauma and his principles are driving his decisions, but it's lxc. Maybe this passage says more about lxc who, understanding his friend's motivation, backs off. Ugh.

Anyway, in my view, Nie Mingjue is a man who suffered a lot, who was forced to take huge responsibilities at a young age. He admires other people who fight for their ideals and thinks that everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions.

[robininthelabyrinth]

I am *endlessly* curious about how Wei Wuxian ended up at the Cloud Recess, and very satisfied my internal suspicion that the Lan and the Jiang were busy rebuilding their power/plotting a coup was right. Though I'm now curious about their reaction to 'Meng Yao is being kept around, and as Empress at that'.

spontaneous fic extra for Good Help - ao3 link

-

Good news! one of Nie Huaisang’s letters started, which was never good news. My brother has finally become gainfully employed! He will no longer be a burden on society, a good-for-nothing that does nothing but idle his days away, bringing shame upon our family name.

Wei Wuxian blinked down at the letter. “Jiang Cheng,” he said. “Did I manage to hit my head and wake up in a world where Nie Mingjue is not the Empress?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng said, looking bored. He was officially there on Jin sect business, though everyone politely pretended that he wasn’t very clearly there to see Wei Wuxian or, for those not in the know, sent by his husband, who had virtually no cutsleeve tendencies at all, to get him somewhere that wasn’t Lanling. It was an excuse they used rather a lot to get Jiang Cheng to where he needed to be. “He’s definitely still the Empress. Keep reading.”

Wei Wuxian kept reading.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said a second later. “Someone mistook him for a guard? How?!”

“I mean, it’s not as ridiculous as you might think. No one’s seen him in years,” Jiang Cheng said, finally breaking his mask of boredom in favor of a grin. “He’s always behind all those veils – I’m pretty sure his fashion sense as Empress is ‘how much can I look like the curtain I’m trying to hide behind’.”

“But he’s so –” Wei Wuxian moved his hands around in an attempt to encompass very broad shoulders, a narrow waist, muscles, and also height. “Notable!”

“It’s been a while since you’ve been to court, hasn’t it? He’s always up on that platform far away from everyone else – you know how Wen Ruohan likes to look down on everyone – and everything around him has been resized for him; he looks more proportional that way. And if you didn’t know, and there’s no reason that this Meng Yao fellow would know…”

“Still!”

“No, really, it’s not that strange! You know how Wen Ruohan’s guards of the inner hall are dressed, all fancy Wen sect robes, and that’s all Nie Mingjue has other than his Empress get-up, which obviously isn’t appropriate for when he wants to go outside to train Baxia. He would’ve been wearing the right clothes and walking in the right place, and he is what you’d expect a guard to look like…if you bumped into him at random, as happened here, it’s a reasonable mistake to make.”

“He hired him as his secretary,” Wei Wuxian marveled. “Just – wow. Wow. Mingjue-xiong is going to break him in half, the first time he tries anything.”

“Maybe,” Jiang Cheng said. “Maybe not.”

-

Someone needs to go assassinate this Meng Yao person right away, Nie Huaisang’s next letter – nominally addressed to Lan Wangji this time – said. I think my brother might actually like him. A upstart Jin bastard that worked his way up through the Fire Palace – do you think all these years with Wen Ruohan has rotted da-ge’s sense of taste?

“He doesn’t actually mean that we should assassinate him,” Wei Wuxian told Lan Wangji, who nodded in agreement. “We still need the viceroy to remain in his place as the target. He’s just being dramatic.”

If Nie Huaisang actually wanted Wei Wuxian to assassinate someone, he had other ways of asking.

That was a fair portion of what Wei Wuxian did these days, actually, other than work on his ideas for demonic cultivation and warm Lan Wangji’s bed. Ironically enough, of the three, the last was his actual job: after Wen Chao had his golden core destroyed as punishment for having dared fight back when the Wen sect invaded the Lotus Pier – a temper tantrum at not being allowed to do the same to Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian suspected, since Wen Ruohan had even then already planned to sell the heirs of the Jiang sect to the highest bidder – Lan Wangji had, after quietly rescuing him at Jiang Cheng’s frantic instigation and with Nie Huaisang’s connivance, announced that he was keeping him as a personal pet.  

Wen Ruohan had been pressuring the Lan sect to adopt some vices, simply because he knew it would make them uncomfortable – Lan Qiren had been a particular target – and he’d been satisfied by the notion of one of Lan Qiren’s precious nephews, the Jades of Lan, deciding to keep a whore, even if he’d insisted on having Wei Wuxian inspected to make sure he’d been thoroughly used.

(Proving it had not been a hardship, not when Wei Wuxian had a lover as thorough and tireless as Lan Wangji. Joke’s on you, Wen Ruohan!)

Still, even as Wei Wuxian did (in his opinion) some of his best work on his back and puzzled his way through demonic cultivation as the only possible route for him now – Lan Qiren helped him with some of the musical cultivation bits, and also in arguing to the Lan sect elders that some type of cultivation was better than nothing, and anyway there was a limit to how much trouble he could cause while under close supervision – he had also started up a sideline in taking out their political enemies on account of being the one of them that people would least suspect. No one even remembered his name anymore!

“Maybe we should go to court and check him out,” Wei Wuxian added thoughtfully. “See what he’s like, make sure he’s not leading Nie Mingjue down the wrong path, that sort of thing.”

They could pass along some of Nie Huaisang’s messages, too.

There was that whole coup they were planning, even if it was far less interesting than Nie Mingjue actually making a friend for the first time in over a decade…

“Mm,” Lan Wangji agreed. “Wei Ying has good judgment.”

“I do! If he’s nice – though there’s no chance he’ll be nice, he’s from the Fire Palace – I’ll tell Nie Huaisang that I approve,” Wei Wuxian decided. “If he’s awful, I’ll send a ghost to haunt him until he can’t sleep. If he’s a little awful but seems salvageable, I’ll…I don’t know…I’ll set some dogs on him!”

Lan Wangji’s eyebrows went up.

“You’ll set some dogs on him!”

The eyebrows went down.

“Rude, Lan Zhan. Very rude.”

-

“So having now seen Meng Yao and my da-ge interact with my own two eyes, I’ve decided that they’re going to get married,” Nie Huaisang announced.

“Is that wise?” Wei Wuxian asked, even though he actually thought Meng Yao was pretty cool. He was so good at being nice to people that he disliked, so incredibly efficient, so thoughtful, and best of all only very rarely followed up on the occasional murder-eyes he liked to shoot people when he thought no one was looking; it had actually been the fact that he and Lan Wangji had both vouched for him that had convinced Nie Huaisang to change his plans to account for his brother’s preferences. “Making him the Empress? He’ll be bossing your brother around in no time.”

“He’s already bossing my brother around, and that’s the way my brother likes it,” Nie Huaisang said. “Making Meng Yao the mother of the Empire – above ten thousand, below one – is the ideal way to sate his hunger for power in a way that makes him feel confident that he won’t be so easily replaced the way a viceroy or prime minister would be, and therefore unlikely to betray us. Also, it will make Jin Guangshan have an aneurysm, and that will be hilarious.”

“I like that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Also, didn’t we agree that you were going to be the prime minister?”

“No,” Nie Huaisang said patiently. “You are going to be prime minster, and I’m going to be your empty-headed but pretty former Imperial Consort wife.”

“I’m pretty sure ‘former Imperial Consort’ isn’t usually a thing.”

“Yes, well, it’s a coup, we make the rules. It’d be such a shame not to use this nice bureaucracy that Wen Ruohan set up for us…Wei-xiong, what about you?”

“What about me? I’m very happy as Lan Zhan’s whore.”

Jiang Cheng tried to hit him, but Wei Wuxian dodged, cackling. “Maybe I’ll start spending his money on fancy clothing and living it up now that I’m his official mistress,” he said. “I have Wang Lingjiao’s example to look up to, don’t I..?”

“I would like to marry Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji opined, and Wei Wuxian suddenly felt all gooey inside.

“I meant what will we do with him in the government,” Nie Huaisang said, long-suffering. “You’re all useless – though not as useless as me, of course.”

Jiang Cheng pressed a kiss to his cheek. “No one’s as useless as you, my little good-for-nothing.”

“And don’t any of you forget it!” Nie Huasiang exclaimed, then elbowed Jiang Cheng in the ribs. “Don’t touch me, you married man. Get a proper divorce before you try making your way into my bed; what sort of girl do you think I am?”

“You can’t be serious!” Jiang Cheng spluttered. “Jin Zixuan is drawing up the papers right now –”

“I feel like I deserve a proper wedding, don’t you?” Nie Huaisang asked Wei Wuxian, who started laughing. “I didn’t get a proper one the last time around –”

“We’ve been sleeping together for years!”

“We were having a thrilling affair under the nose of an evil tyrannical dictator. Who’s to say that the spark’s still there?”

“Oh you want spark,” Jiang Cheng said. “I’ll give you spark –”

[rosethornewrites]

Monday & Tuesday NR, E, & M reading

The usual

Finished

Not Rated:

Dear Fellow Traveler, by Netrixie

“Good morning, Wei Ying.”

Wei Ying groaned at the words, pulled the thin blanket over his head and pretended to still be asleep. Lan Zhan’s soft chuckle was easily heard through the material and Wei Ying peered out from beneath the sheet, his breath catching at the sight of Lan Zhan’s serene smile.

“Is it not?” Lan Zhan asked, standing and making his way towards Wei Ying. He held his hand out and lifted a brow — Wei Ying sighed heavily, though he stretched his own arm out and accepted the help.

“No mornings are good mornings,” Wei Ying said, yawning as he braced himself upright, Lan Zhan’s hand still wrapped around his own. “The only good mornings are the ones that have made it to noon.”

Explicit:

Captured courtesan!lwj, by @jingyismom

Lan Wangji getting kidnapped during the Yin Iron quest by Wen Xu, who decides to humiliate Lan Wangji by messing with his memory.

what makes a house a home, by dragonji

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan move into a new flat. They decide to break it in.

Get Lucky, by fyredancer

Lan Zhan does not believe in luck, good or bad, but finds himself in a position where he’s wanting to turn a bad streak around. On the sidelines of a difficult situation, he has to untangle whether reason or his unwanted feelings will prevail—but is it fortune, or fate?

Mature:

with hungry hands, by crocodile

Lan Zhan inhales four, exhales eight. The air scrapes down his throat and burns in his lungs. And he thinks: Wei Ying is alive, prismatic in it, beautiful and sharp-edged and full of song. What is Lan Zhan’s hunger in the shadow of something holy? What is his clawing desire in the face of a miracle? Who is he to ask for more, when Wei Ying has been handed back to him at the price of a house full of blood?

“I’m fine,” Lan Zhan lies, and reaches for a wine cup.

Unfinished

Not Rated:

Rise of the Peacock, by JustAWanderingBabbit

Killed at Qiongqi Pass, Jin Zixuan wakes to find himself in an old and familiar scenario; the day he and Wei Wuxian fought in Gusu Lan. The day his betrothal to Jiang Yanli came to an end.

Unsure whether or not he's dreaming, Jin Zixuan decides to seize the chance and change the future. But for that he'll need help from his bastard brother, Meng Yao.

Explicit:

Call me Cherry cause I'm about to make your life better by being on top... (Or so he thought.), by Chiaroscuro555

Wei Wuxian was fulfilling his lifelong dream as a romance author, when his editor told him that his romance book sucked big time.

Since he was a virgin, his editor helped him by giving him a sex advice column to handle for a month before he got back to write his epic novel.

Wei Wuxian enjoyed giving people sex tips-which he only read from adult romance novels-and yet his column flourished with people who wanted romance in this modern day era.

Until one day he met someone with username Hanguang Jun, who had unrequited love for his neighbor, and he fell desperately in love with the person, knowing that he loved another person.

Mature:

Bloodsport, by SkullFeather3063

Before Jiang Fengmian could find him an orphaned Wei Wuxian was rescued by Baoshan Sanren. He was raised up in the celestial mountains by people who loved and adored him, looking forward to the day he got to descend and follow in his mother's footsteps.

Confident in his abilities but lost in his knowledge of this new world, Wei Wuxian decided to attend the educational event at Cloud Recesses to integrate himself into the Cultivation World.

Here was where his story began, where love first blossomed, and a new world was forged for the two youths.

This is a story about love and what people will do to get a taste of it...

[festivelotus]

CQL spoilers early on

As of Episode 11 of The Untamed, lz has fallen in love with wwx but resists in ALL THE WAYS (panic).  Wwx has fallen in love with lz but is still mostly oblivious to that and just thinks he’s still flirting for fun.  JC has followed his brother to rescue him and entangled himself in the search for the yin iron pieces. Xue Yang has slaughtered SO MANY PEOPLE just to (?) get a piece of the yin iron and/or draw out xxc.  Meng Yao has literally said “it wasn’t me [who you just saw stab this guy with a sword]” and Madam Yu has demonstrated that she is SO frustrated that her husband seems to favor wwx over her children. And yet she doesn’t verbally support them herself, either.  But also, we see that sibling relationships are AMAZING (if flawed), despite all of their terrible parents.  LX is so kind and loves lz so much.  The Yungmeng trio love and support one another in every way.  NHS loves and admires NMJ, while NMJ will protect NHS in all the ways he can.  And of course, Wen Qing will do literally anything to protect Wen Ning.  Gah, I love this show.

[whomst-art-thou-whomst-whomst]

Love Languages, as defined by this article and as seen in Ultimate Note’s Iron Triangle

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Words of Affirmation:

“In simple terms, the words of affirmation love language is about expressing affection through spoken words, praise, or appreciation. When this is someone's primary love language, they enjoy kind words and encouragement.”

Words are generally not so much Zhang “I told you with my eyes” Qiling’s thing, unless we count that great moment during the sword gifting scene—which we will discuss further under gifts—when he shuts down any fear Wu Xie has that they could potentially destroy each other with a simple and vehement “No.” His love is shown, not spoken, but I imagine that if Xiao Ge were more vocal, the “no” would be spelled out as “Even if I know almost nothing of my past and don’t even really know myself, I know this much: you are safe with me, and I am safe with you.”

Wu Xie is, as Hei Yangjing notes in another series, honey-tongued; kiddo is good with words and enjoys complimenting and verbally supporting people. This is a very earnest Wu Xie, he means what he says when he makes promises and checks in on his friends. He charms people easily in part because he is willing to express himself openly.

Pangzi is the biggest talker of the three, and interestingly the best at talking a lot to say nothing, getting his friends out of trouble. He manipulates words to suit a situation, complimenting someone easily even if it’s clear to the audience that he can’t stand them. His real words of affirmation are affectionate even when angry—I wrote earlier somewhere that “Tianzhen” is as much a curse as a pet name—and during any matchup of the awesome Pangzi and Xiao Ge, it’s Pangzi who does the talking for them.

Quality Time:

“Love and affection are expressed through this love language when someone gives someone else their undivided attention…People with this love language are looking for quality over quantity. So, when you get together, they feel loved if you are present and focused on them.”

One of my favorite things I found in watching/rewatching some of the series was how Pangzi brings out Xiao Ge’s playful side. I think he really starts to loosen up because these are safe people who are good to him plus already mess around with each other and he loves hearing their laughter.

Some of the best moments between Pangzi and Wu Xie are when they have fun together—my introduction to any Lost Tomb series was the first episode of Sound of the Providence (so boy oh boy was I fucking lost and confused) but those two are what hooked me. The banter, the lightsaber duel, the domesticity. They are quality time personified.

Xiao Ge and Wu Xie *clenches fist* don’t get as much time together as they should, but when Xiao Ge is there he is THERE. If you look up “undivided attention” in the dictionary there will be a picture of a solemn Xiao Ge who is only looking at the camera because Wu Xie is the one taking the picture.

Physical Touch:

“A person with this love language feels loved through physical affection. Aside from sex, those who have physical touch as their primary love language feel loved when their partner shows physical affection in some way like holding their hand, touching their arm, or giving them a massage at the end of the day.”

I have a headcanon that the first time the squad is reunited in Wushanju after the jade meteorite and hospitalization, the amnesiac Xiao Ge only recognizes Wu Xie because Wu Xie gently cups his face in his hands while questioning him.

Also, as others have pointed out, how many people other than Pangzi and Wu Xie are able to get close to/generally manhandle Xiao Ge? There is a great post I cannot currently find (please link if you know what I’m talking about!) about Xiao Ge letting Wu Xie move him during their argument by the van, but there’s also that sweet post-tomb let’s-get-the-fuck-out-of-here situation where the trio could not be sitting any closer, wounded Xiao Ge is basically in Wu Xie’s lap and later tucked in against Pangzi.

(Also there’s that hilarious scene of #pingxiepriorities where Xiao Ge is like “alright I’m here to rescue my soulma—uh, my tomb raiding bestie—and I guess since Xiao Hua is also lying here all pathetic and pink he can come too, but this ain’t about him so Wu Xie will be carefully draped over my back and Xiao Hua will be lucky not to get sand in the wrong places”)

Pangzi is all about the cuddles with Wu Xie; I also have a headcanon (and I haven’t read the books, I swear I’ll get there) that Pangzi’s physical affection towards Wu Xie, which seems to come incredibly easy, is really much harder earned than Wu Xie ever knew. I don���t know much about Pangzi’s past, but given their line of work there’s a lot of what my grandmother would refer to as “rough characters” in the biz. It’s all well and good to act friendly and affectionate for a mark, but to truly give/take authentic affection would mean letting down your guard.

Acts of Service:

“When someone's primary love language is acts of service, they feel loved and appreciated when people do nice things for them.”

For Wu Xie, Pangzi basically keeps him alive in ordinary day-to-day scenarios and Xiao Ge rescues him during their uh work trips.

Wu Xie takes Acts of Service to an extreme—like, “I’m going to serve you by spending the next ten years of my life making your life easier and safeguarding your future xoxo”

If we consider Acts of Service to mean exactly the definition, then as with undivided attention, Xiao Ge wrote the book on the subject (a very short book, few words but thoughtful). Entire fanvids have been constructed (yes I lost a day to this) around the number of times he has rescued Wu Xie (*cough* plus the Bronze Gate).

Xiao Ge also rescues Pangzi now and again; easy to forget there, mainly because between him and Wu Xie, Pangzi is definitely the better fighter and doesn’t seem to awaken as many corpses to be rescued from (side eyes Wu Xie) but he gets the Xiao Ge Protection Package and he even seems to agree that Wu Xie needs the deluxe deal. Xiao Ge’s devotion to his friends is so well-known, Ning literally weaponizes it to ensure her survival (*winces* for the time being) by sticking with Wu Xie, as the superhuman cavalry will only be coming for him.

Receiving Gifts:

“To a person whose love language is receiving gifts, gift-giving is symbolic of love and affection in their mind. They treasure not only the gift itself but also the time and effort the gift giver put into it.”

Pangzi is willing to basically go bankrupt to help fund Wu Xie in LT2 (you just know that if Wang Meng started a GoFundMe for “pls help Wu Xie he’s a mess and I haven’t been paid since october 2008” that fund would break the website).

Now, although Xiao Ge definitely has the vibe of a cat that would bring decapitated mice to the door of Wushanju for Wu Xie to be proud of and for Pangzi to step on by accident (see: playfulness), Wu Xie is the big gift giver in this group, I think. The sword scene, aka how to propose to warriorbae with a love token that he will 💯 always keep on his person. It’s a utility gift—it’s useful—but it’s also a statement. This is Xiao Ge’s defense system and trademark (I suspect he’s purchased some super nice hoodies too) that Wu Xie is providing here, and engraving it with something personal between them? Beautiful.

And I just spent another morning reveling in this world’s meta. Time well spent.

[gingersnapwolves]

The Untamed, a brief summary [Part 3/6]

Part One: Sword Wizard School

Part Two:  The Search for the Yin Iron and the World’s Worst Summer Camp

Part Three: The Fall of Lotus Pier and the Sunshot Campaign

Here’s where it starts to get dark, folks. 

Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng get back, and Wei Wuxian promptly collapses because they were in the cave for a week and then he walked all the way back to Yunmeng. He sleeps for three days. When he wakes up, Jiang Yanli gives him soup. Jiang Fengmian comes in to congratulate him for killing the evil CGI turtle snake. Wei Wuxian tries to say it wasn’t a big deal. Jiang Cheng tells him he only got it done because he was playing the hero, and Jiang Fengmian reprimands him for being a jerk.

Yu Ziyuan comes in and the two get in a big fight over how Jiang Fengmian treats the kids. Yu Ziyuan says people think Wei Wuxian is actually Jiang Fengmian’s son, and Jiang Fengmian gets pissy about it (which is fair since it insults both his friends). The two of them storm off. Jiang Cheng is upset because his father doesn’t even like him. Wei Wuxian tells him not to be so hard on himself and says he’ll beat up anyone who’s mean to Jiang Cheng, that he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s anyone’s son but his parents, and that he’ll always be Jiang Cheng’s right hand man. It’s super sweet honestly.

ENTER A USELESS MESS

Meet Sect Leader Yao. He’s super annoying and shows up occasionally to require exposition and give the characters an excuse to explain things to the audience. His sect just got attacked by the Wens and most of his people are dead.

This obviously ain’t cool so Jiang Fengmian goes to talk to the leader of the Lanling Jin about joining up to fight Wen Ruohan. He brings Jiang Yanli with him for some reason.

While he’s gone, Jiaojiao shows up to demand Wei Wuxian be punished for all the shit he did in Qishan. Yu Ziyuan is enraged at Wei Wuxian for upsetting the Wens, or possibly just at Wei Wuxian existing in general. She whips him with her cool lightning weapon and injures him badly, while Jiang Cheng begs her to stop. Jiaojiao says this isn’t good enough and demands they cut off Wei Wuxian’s hand.

It looks like Yu Ziyuan is going to do it, but then Jiaojiao pisses her off by telling her that once the Wen have taken over Yunmeng, Yu Ziyuan can help out by being their governor or whatever. Yu Ziyuan gets pissed and starts beating the shit out of Jiaojiao. It’s really satisfying.

Wen Zhuliu shows up. He clearly has some history with Yu Ziyuan, because he calls her ‘Violet Spider’ and she calls him ‘Core-Melting Hand’. A rarepair is born.

All hell breaks loose. Jiaojiao signals their troops. Yu Ziyuan takes both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and throws them in a boat, and then ties them up with her lightning whip. She tells Wei Wuxian to protect Jiang Cheng with his life, which he would undoubtedly do anyway, blames him for everything that’s happened, and tells him she hates him. Then she starts the boat going down the river.

They’re still struggling to get free when they run into Jiang Fengmian coming back. Rather than release them, he ties Jiang Yanli in with them and goes to the defense of Lotus Pier. He also tells Wei Wuxian to protect Jiang Cheng with his life. They really want to drive this point home.

Int, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]

Yu Ziyuan has killed like a hundred guys all by herself. It’s awesome. Jiang Fengmian shows up and charges to her rescue and promptly gets killed. Great job, Jiang Fengmian. Yu Ziyuan sees that they’ve lost and kills herself rather than be taken prisoner.

Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng have gotten back to find that their parents are dead along with most of their sect members. It sucks. They run away, which is honestly the most sensible thing to do.

Int, an inn [Yunmeng]

Jiang Yanli is sick. Jiang Cheng is shell-shocked. Wei Wuxian goes to get them food and medicine. When he returns, Jiang Cheng is gone. He gives the medicine to Jiang Yanli and tells her to stay there until he can get Jiang Cheng and get back.

Int, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]

Wei Wuxian is looking for Jiang Cheng. He grabs a random Wen and starts to choke them to steal their uniform, only to realize it’s Wen Ning. He asks Wen Ning if he was involved and Wen Ning says no, he heard that Wei Wuxian was in trouble and decided to commit a little light treason. He offers to get Jiang Cheng out.

Ext, Lotus Pier [Yunmeng]

Wen Ning puts a bunch of drugs in the party punch. Wen Zhuliu sniffs it and clearly detects shenanigans. Wen Chao tells him to stop being a pussy and drink. Wen Zhuliu decides that if his boss wants him to pass out on company time that’s okay by him, so he drinks.

Wei Wuxian is waiting in a boat. Wen Ning comes back with Jiang Cheng, who is badly injured, and the magic lightning whip. He offers to take them to his sister’s house in Yiling so they can lay low.

Ext, Yiling Supervisory House [Yiling]

Wen Qing is understandably a little miffed that her brother decided to commit treason without checking with her first. But in for a penny, in for a pound, she patches Jiang Cheng up and hides them in her living room or something.

Jiang Cheng wakes up the next day and is basically a shell of a person. Wen Zhuliu, it turns out, has the ability to crush someone’s golden core, which is where they keep their spiritual power, so they can’t cultivate any longer. Think of it like cutting off a Jedi’s connection to the force. He’s lost his will to live and lies there like a dead thing for like two full episodes. No judgment.

Wei Wuxian starts reading every book Wen Qing owns in an effort to find a way to cure Jiang Cheng, despite this being said to be impossible. He finds one. She tells him not to do it because of the sacrifice that’s involved. He remains committed.

For some reason, Song Lan shows up. (Batman from earlier.) Xue Yang attacked his temple. He was blinded and has been wandering. Xiao Xingchen took him to see Baoshan Sanren, a famous cultivator in the mountains. She does not run a sect but will occasionally take on students. Xiao Xingchen was one and so was Wei Wuxian’s mother. Song Lan’s eyes are getting better.

Wei Wuxian tells Jiang Cheng that they’re going to go see Baoshan Sanren, who he knows because of her connection to his mother, and that she’ll restore his golden core. They ask Song Lan to take Jiang Yanli to Koi Tower (Lanling) so the Jin sect can keep her safe. He agrees.

 Ext, a random mountain [Yiling]

Jiang Cheng goes up the mountain blindfolded. Wei Wuxian tells him to say his name is Wei Wuxian and ask Baoshan Sanren to restore his golden core.

Ext, a random town [Yiling]

Look, I’m gonna be honest with y’all. What happened between these two scenes is something that I figured out as it was happening, and I was never aware it was supposed to be a ~big reveal~ later. My wife likewise figured it out and treated it as fact. When it’s revealed later it’s a big deal to Jiang Cheng, but it wasn’t a big deal to us. However I’ve seen some people talking about how they didn’t figure it out until then, so I thought maybe I shouldn’t say what happened. But then I thought, this is just a summary, if you cared about spoilers you wouldn’t be reading this, and it’s much easier to explain what happens going forward if you know.

So, on that note, Wei Wuxian cut out his own golden core and gave it to Jiang Cheng. Or actually Wen Qing did the procedure. So now he has no golden core and can’t cultivate. Which sucks because he immediately gets captured by the Wens. He taunts Wen Chao, who decides not to kill him because he might become an angry ghost. Instead, they throw him into the Burial Mounds.

Ext, The Burial Mounds [Yiling]

A big battle happened here and it’s full of dead bodies and restless spirits. Cultivators have tried over the centuries to clean it up, but nobody who goes in ever comes out. Wei Wuxian lands in the middle of this mess and it sucks.

The creepy sword he’s been carrying in a spirit pouch asks if he wants revenge. Turns out he does. It’s super hot.

Ext, everywhere [everywhere]

Everyone is hella pissed that Lotus Pier was sacked. (I guess it was fine when it was Cloud Recesses for some reason.) The four great sects (or what remains of them) band together to fight Wen Ruohan. We see shots of lots of people looking badass. The mission to overthrow Wen Ruohan is dubbed The Sunshot Campaign.

Ext, the Indoctrination Bureau [Qishan]

It’s been three months. A bunch of nobodies are yukking it up that Wen Chao killed Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji comes out of nowhere and forces them all to kneel. It’s super hot. They admit to him and Jiang Cheng that Wei Wuxian was thrown into the Burial Mounds. Obviously this makes him very unhappy.

But on the plus side, they get their swords back. Yay! The disciple offers Wei Wuxian’s sword to Lan Wangji even though Jiang Cheng, who is Wei Wuxian’s brother and sect leader, is literally standing right there, so clearly everyone knows they’re married.

Ext, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]

Everyone’s coming to Qinghe to discuss the final campaign. Wen Xu is now dead despite having never made another appearance, killed by Nie Mingjue.

Jiang Cheng reunites with Jiang Yanli, who has been in Lanling this whole time. She didn’t even know Wei Wuxian was missing and she’s pretty upset to hear about it.

They have a battle strategy meeting. Lan Wangji asks if he can go kick some ass in Yiling, and Nie Mingjue tells him and Jiang Cheng to go ahead.

Nie Mingjue asks Jin Zixuan how Meng Yao is doing in Lanling, having assumed (for some reason) (actually the reason is from book canon but didn’t translate to the show very well) that Meng Yao would have gone there. Jin Zixuan tells Nie Mingjue that Meng Yao didn’t go to Lanling, and that even if he did, his father would not have welcomed him. Nie Mingjue appears upset, possibly regretting that he exiled Meng Yao over one measly murder.

Ext, Yiling Supervisory House [Yiling]

Wen Chao and Jiaojiao are having a great time until a mysterious man dressed all in black shows up and uses a mysterious flute to drive everyone there insane and kill most of them. Wen Chao only escapes because Wen Zhuliu rescues him.

The next day, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng show up, view the carnage, and say ‘well that ain’t good’.

Jiang Cheng finds Wen Qing imprisoned in the basement. She doesn’t know where Wen Ning was taken. She thanks him for the rescue and says they’re even now. He gives her the comb he bought for her back in the first arc. Or actually he just sets it on the table because he’s bad at romance. We don’t see whether or not she takes it.

Int, an inn [Yiling]

Wen Chao is totally nuts and freaking the fuck out. Wen Zhuliu is trying to get him to calm down long enough to treat his injuries, while mentally updating his resume again.

A mysterious man in black shows up with a flute and summons a demon or three.

Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng, who have been tracking Wen Chao, show up in time to hop up to the roof and look through a convenient window to see what’s happening. It’s revealed that the mysterious man in black is *drum roll please* Wei Wuxian! He is super hot.

Wei Wuxian is doing absolutely fine with the murdering but Jiang Cheng jumps in anyway, using the lightning whip to kill Wen Zhuliu, which, props to Jiang Cheng. Wen Chao cowers in a corner.

Jiang Cheng asks Wei Wuxian where the hell he’s been, returns his sword, and hugs him, and your tears are ‘what the hell I thought this was a silly show about sword wizards’. Wei Wuxian has clearly forgotten what hugs are. It’s sad.

Lan Wangji ruins the moment by demanding why Wei Wuxian is using seriously evil magic to kill people. Wei Wuxian says ‘you can’t tell me what to do, mom’, which does not help the situation at all. He and Jiang Cheng murder Wen Chao while Lan Wangji stands outside looking messed up about it.

  Ext, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]

Wei Wuxian is reunited with Jiang Yanli and shit I’m crying again.

Jiang Yanli’s worried about the evil magic. She talks to Lan Wangji, who tells her that it sure is evil and Wei Wuxian shouldn’t be doing it because it will corrupt his mind and temperament.

Everyone wants to know why Wei Wuxian isn’t carrying his sword. He blows them off. (It’s because he can’t use it, since he’s not a cultivator anymore.)

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian manage to use their words for exactly one (1) scene. Lan Wangji says ‘let me help you’ and Wei Wuxian says ‘okay’ and then promptly spends the next ten episodes not letting Lan Wangji help him.

Int, the Unclean Realm [Qinghe]

There’s another battle strategy meeting. They discuss the fact that they need something that can counter Wen Ruohan’s yin iron. Wei Wuxian says ‘I’m working on it’ and then refuses to give them any details and leaves, which is super rude, my dude.

Lan Xichen is getting information from a mole in Wen Ruohan’s troops. Nie Mingjue asks where it’s coming from and Lan Xichen beats around the bush.

Wei Wuxian wanders off to have a PTSD breakdown.

  Ext, somewhere I don’t remember

Jin Zixuan is a jerk to Jiang Yanli. It’s about soup. It’s as stupid as it sounds. Wei Wuxian loses his temper even though it’s stupid and nearly evil magics Jin Zixuan and a bunch of guys to death. Lan Wangji tells him to chill.

Ext, Nightless City [Qishan]

They’ve fought their way to Nightless City! Now all they have to deal with is that Wen Ruohan has like a zillion zombie puppets. It goes as badly as you would expect.

Int, Nightless City [Qishan]

Somewhere along the way, Nie Mingjue had the brilliant plan to sneak in and assassinate Wen Ruohan during the chaos of the battle, despite the fact that Nie Mingjue is akin to a rhinoceros and does not sneak. He is immediately captured along with a bunch of his guys.

Meng Yao is here! He has big ‘look how much better I’ve been doing after the divorce’ energy. He kills a few of Nie Mingjue’s guys and then taunts him about how much he sucks.

Ext, Nightless City [Qishan]

Despite the fact that it took Wei Wuxian three seconds to summon evil spirits over his sister’s hurt feelings, he stands around for like twenty minutes watching every non-main-character get murdered before he’s like “oh, right, the creepy sword I have was yin iron all along” and he’s made it into an amulet which enhances his power. He seizes control of Wen Ruohan’s zombies and makes them all kill each other. He is super hot.

Wen Ruohan stops murdering Nie Mingjue when he realizes this is happening and goes out to see what’s going on. He and Wei Wuxian, who is still super hot, have a brief exchange before Meng Yao fucking stabs Wen Ruohan in the back like a badass motherfucker.

Wei Wuxian passes out which seems reasonable.

Int, Nightless City [Qishan]

Nie Mingjue is pissed. Lan Xichen quickly explains that Meng Yao is the one who was undercover and was passing information back to him the whole time. Nie Mingjue points out that Meng Yao killed his men. Lan Xichen points out that Meng Yao had to, because he didn’t want to blow his cover. Nie Mingjue begrudgingly accepts this explanation.

Turns out that when Lan Xichen was fleeing the Wen sect burning down Cloud Recesses, he ran into Meng Yao, who headed to Gusu after leaving Qinghe because Wen Chao told them that Wen Xu was going to attack it. Meng Yao saved Lan Xichen’s life, and with this paragraph, a hundred fanfics were born.

  ~end part 3~

[aliasblack73]

Plot bunny for an Untamed AU (canon era? modern?) adapted from an episode of a tv show I was watching. Please feel free to use all or part of the idea for a story, as long as you let me know so I can read it!  

WWX is an indentured servant that has been promised by Wen Chao he’ll be set free of his contract (which has many years left on it) if he obtains the yin iron from LWJ (doesn’t have to be yin iron, could be anything, it’s a macguffin).  WWX tries seduction at first, but that goes over as expected. He continues to pester LWJ and eventually gets him to soften towards him enough for them to spend time together.  WWX falls in love with LWJ, and doesn’t want to betray him, but doing so would ensure his freedom and allow him to go back to the Jiangs, who he hasn’t seen for years since he’d become indentured.  

WWX drags it out for so long that Wen Chao ups the stakes by threatening to invade Lotus Pier. Reluctantly WWX goes through with the plan and triggers a talisman that will lull LWJ into a deep sleep.  He finds the yin iron and then arranges to meet Wen Chao to hand it over. At the last minute, he can’t bring himself to turn it over - it’s dangerous, and LWJ’s rep will be ruined if it gets out that he couldn’t keep it safe and it fell into the wrong hands. He runs away and the Wen sibs agree to hide him.

LWJ wakes up and is confused by WWX’s disappearance. Wen Chao appears at his doorstep and tells him that WWX has been lying to him to get the yin iron, and has now run away with it. He shows LWJ the indenture contract and says that WWX betrayed him as well by skipping out, and suggests they work together to find him.

LWJ pretends to agree, but quickly ditches him to go find someone who can help him find WWX.  His brother and Nie Mingjue agree to help. They ask around, and Su She (a rat in every universe) buckles under the sheer threatening bulk of NMJ and coughs up where the Wen sibs live. They head off to the location, but unbeknownst to them Wen Chao had stuck a talisman on LWJ that worked as a listening device and dispatched Wen Zhuliu to get to WWX first.

Now that Wen Chao has both WWX and the yin iron, they have to bring out the big guns: Meng Yao.  He arranges a meeting with Wen Chao to discuss business.  JGY uses clever words to manipulate the idiot into giving up WWX’s location.  LWJ, listening nearby, takes off to rescue him.  Having secured the yin iron once again and made sure that WWX is safe, LWJ is all set to ask him to come back to Gusu with him.

EXCEPT! There’s the issue of WWX’s contract. Wen Chao kicks up a fuss at the rescue and the matter is brought before Jin Guangshan, the Chief Cultivator, who everyone knows is in Wen Ruohan’s pocket. He determines that the contract is still binding. Wen Chao hasn’t been proven to have done anything wrong. The stealing of the yin iron was done by WWX, not him, and no one is going to believe a servant saying it was done on Wen Chao’s orders. And Wen Chao forcefully taking WWX back after he ran off was well within his rights.  

Meng Yao quickly spins some more of his crafty words to get Wen Chao to agree to sell his contract to someone else if the money is good, convincing him that WWX is more trouble than he’s worth. Wen Chao gleefully adds a condition that whoever buys the contract can’t render it null and void. WWX has to serve them for the full term.  

LWJ badly wants to buy the contract, but he hesitates for too long, stricken by the memory of his mother being bound to the Lans against her will.  Before he can overcome his reservations, Xiao Xingchen speaks up on behalf of Baoshan Sanren and offers to buy the contract. He believes that WWX has the potential to become a great cultivator, with a bright kernel of a golden core that has not been allowed to develop as a servant of the Wens. It will require going to her hidden sanctuary and staying there for the remainder of the contract. He can’t have any visitors during that time.

LWJ knows that this is a wonderful opportunity for WWX, even as his heart breaks over the prospect of not seeing WWX again for many years.  He forces himself to stay calm as WWX comes to say goodbye. WWX interprets his stoic façade as residual anger over WWX’s deception and theft from him. 

Many years later, WWX comes back from the sanctuary a highly skilled cultivator.  He goes to visit the Jiangs and the reunion is fraught. Jiang Cheng is still angry at the fact that WWX indentured himself in the first place (Madame Yu guilted him into it) and ‘abandoned’ the family. WWX works hard to mend fences with him and Yanli.  

After they’ve had time to heal and grow closer, WWX mentions that he wants to go visit the Wen sibs and A-Yuan, but JC says they’ve gone to ground. No one knows what happened to them. They either ran afoul of Wen Chao or they’re hiding from him.  WWX plots to find them, but JC gets him to agree to at least attend the Phoenix Hunt before he hares off to parts unknown.

At the Phoenix Hunt, WWX encounters LWJ with some Lan juniors. He starts to run the other way, thinking that LWJ still hates him, but the junior who was standing next him suddenly calls out, “Xian-gege?”  WWX is frozen in amazement as the young man tells him that he’s A-Yuan, now Lan Sizhui.  LWJ explains that after WWX left, Wen Chao vowed to take the loss of his servant out on the Wen Sibs and their young cousin.  The 3Zun made a plan to protect them, but it involved splitting them up to more easily hide them.  

A-Yuan has been raised by LWJ in Cloud Recesses. Wen Qing has been in the Unclean Realm helping NMJ avoid qi deviation. Wen Ning has been in the Mo clan banding together with MXY against his awful family, both under the watchful eye of Meng Yao. (you may think it’s mean to put Wen Ning with the horrible Mos, but it was discovered that his meek attitude suddenly disappears when he sees others being bullied, and he turns into a scary fighting machine. It’s really the Mos you should feel sorry for. Except we don’t)

Eventually Wen Chao does land his ass in jail, and mysteriously gets eaten by a giant dog or something, I don’t know. The Wen remnants are able to reunite. LWJ and WWX confess their feelings and go off to fight ghosties and demons together. JGS chokes on a grape that was being fed to him by one of his prostitutes (or it was poisoned, who can say) and kicks the bucket. The Chief Cultivator position goes to someone deserving, who knows who that is. 

[theuntamednarrator]

Thank you @mika--82​ for the question! I’m sorry it took so long but since I really enjoyed plotting out my Cangse Sanren lives au, and I think a lot about the women in The Untamed who didn't get to see their children grow up, strap in for round two of TB Revives the Mothers of the Untamed. This week's episode: Save Mama Lan by killing Lan Qiren \^.^/

(Many thanks to @drwcn​ for letting me borrow her hc names for Mama Lan (Qui Baiti) and Papa Lan (Lan Cenrong). You can read more about them on her blog here and here.)

(Warning for an unsuccessful suicide attempt)

QBT has been isolated in the Jingshi for a decade. She only sees her sons once a month, she isn’t allowed her sword, and her spiritual power is kept sealed

But LWJ inherited his stubbornness from his mum and she's determined to escape, one way or another

LQR is walking by the Jingshi when he feels a massive surge of energy and breaks his first ever Discipline (no running in Cloud Recesses)

He wrenches the Jingshi door open and sees an array that wouldn't look out of place two decades in the future in an alternate universe in a dingy shed behind Mo Manor

LQR breaks his second Discipline in as many minutes (do not make excessive noise) when he screams for his brother before he grabs QBT and drags her out of the array

LQR didn't have time to think, let alone study what the effects of that might be, all he knew was that it was killing her, and that her death would kill the brother he loves more than anything else

The backlash strikes him and he keels over

QBT gathers him up, sobbing and asking why he did it, she wanted to die, why did you do it Lan-er-gongzi? what were you thinking? Your brother loves you

LQR meets his brother’s eyes as he appears over her shoulder, the terrified disciples flanking him a white blur

He smiles and says I know

Curtains on LQR

(alternatively, we can just kill JGS again because ngl that was real satisfying the first time around)

Now the Elders are in a pickle because this may have been an accident but QBT has now been responsible for the deaths of an Elder and Second Young Master Lan

It's decided that the only option is exile

QBT is forbidden from setting foot in Cloud Recesses and the territories of Gusu Lan for ten year and forbidden from speaking to any Lan disciple during that time

She bows, accepts back the plain sword she had yielded when she came through the gates to be married, and is gone before the dawn. LCR watches her leave and then goes to wake their sons

Now, QBT was a wandering cultivator long before she was Lan-furen and actually really enjoys returning to life on the road

I wandered once! I can do it again!

Five years later she meets XXC battling a ferocious demon snake and together they defeat it

QBT definitely doesn’t feel her heart beat a little faster at the youthful face, white robes, and elegant jade-and-silver sword

She answers XXC's graceful bow with one of her own and the two spend a week clearing out the fierce nests of demons on the mountain

The next time their wandering brings them together she is introduced to my good friend Song Lan and hides her smile in her sleeve

Meanwhile in Cloud Recesses without LQR to pick up the slack LCR is forced to step out of seclusion and actually run his sect and parent his children

He does a very good job

QBT has to fight back proud tears every time she hears Twin Jades of Lan spoken of with awe

Ten years to the day of her exile QBT is grinning as she climbs the long flights of stairs towards the gates of Cloud Recesses

Part of that might be the entertaining company she walks with

A young man clutching two bottles of Emperor's Smile and talking so fast she’s only half listening while she tries to figure out if he’s actually taken a breath since introducing himself

Talking at breakneck speed of the young master who had been so strict with him at the gates, aiya Auntie! He was so cold! you should have seen his stony face

QBT only grins harder as WWX climbs the wall, is challenged, and blades flash over tiles (it might bring back fond memories of her own youth)

She slips over the wall while they are distracted and once WWX is silenced she reaches out her hand

You handle your sword beautifully, may I?

LWJ can't even say why - it's too dark to see her face and the voice is roughened after 10 years on the road - but he hands Bichen over without a second thought

She sighs as she runs a finger over the blade and the steel glows, lighting up her face (solely because I think glowy Bichen is very sexy and we should have had more of it in the drama honestly)

Bichen suits you better than it ever suited me, ZhanZhan 

LWJ is emoting all over the place (so embarrassing)

(luckily his back is to WWX because if baby disaster bi WWX saw that smile he would've died on the spot)

WWX of course is still a troublemaking rule breaker and LWJ is still charged with overseeing his punishment

QBT and LXC are united in their LWJ should make friends agenda and LXC inherited his sense of humour and delight for teasing LWJ from QBT

Between the two of them LWJ soon has more friends than he knows what to do with

QBT and LXC co-captain the good ship Wangxian

Of course plot stuff still happens including accidental-marriage-before-a-Quest-Ghost

XXC and SL meet them in Yueyang and when LWJ introduces himself they're thrilled because hey we know your mum! she’s real cool!

They don't trust the clans and they might've heard of NMJ but they know Qui-jiejie and they trust her and so they decide XY will go to Cloud Recesses for judgement

N-wow the twin jades are really deserving of their reputations-HS insists on a Qinghe representative going too

oh me? no no Wei-xiong this has been quite enough adventure for me. Meng Yao you'll go won't you? Dage trusts you and Lan-gongzi admired your *delicate cough* capability *innocent smile*

my.blush.com/embarrassed/yearning agrees

QBT is delighted to see XXC and SL again and happily introduces them to her elder son

SL and LXC almost immediately get into a heated debate over ahistorical fantasy chinese philosophy and/or politics and are instantly bonded

QBT may or may not have instigated said debate with a well-timed quote from a well-known (re: divisive) text

Basically QBT shares my get LXC more friends agenda

SL is, again, the first person (apart from LXC and his parents) to laugh at LWJ's jokes

WWX still refuses to believe this actually happened (the joke and SL laughing) (XXC swears it’s true)

XY is locked in the back hills and eventually a) dies trying to use his hidden piece of the yin iron to break the seals OR b) is rehabilitated by the power of bunnies and become an outer disciple (reader's choice!)

XXC and SL accompany WWX and JC part of the way to Lotus Pier

Cloud Recesses is attacked, QBT and LCR send LXC and MY away with the sacred texts, MY promising he knows somewhere safe to hide

LWJ refuses to leave his parents. The losses are not as bad as in canon, the Wen are beaten back, but LCR and LWJ are both injured

No Good Very Bad Summer Camp with World's Worst Head Counselor WC

No Good Very Bad Turtle Cave of Love

WWX wakes post-rescue with LWJ still there

(Because his parents are holding Cloud Recesses and he knows LXC is safe so he doesn't need to rush off)

JZX, JC, LWJ, and WWX spend a day planning before they split up

(this is hilarious and JC says "fuck" not less than 219 times)

(WWX only almost punches JZX and it only happens twice honestly people should be grateful! he was so restrained!!)

They all return home, LWJ promising to bring reinforcements from Cloud Recesses to Lotus Pier (because it's the most obvious next target. no other reason. just. strategically it makes sense)

WQ sends WN to Lotus Pier to warn WWX when WZL's forces are on their way

When the Wen attack, they're met with a prepared force of 1) YZY and the Jiang Disciples 2) QBT, LWJ, and a contingent of Lan Disciples AND 3) JC and WWX and a gaggle of archers (seriously why tf show the Jiang being so good and then only give us two archery fight scene moments and it’s heart breaking sixth young master jiang dying and some rando ouyang disciple shooting WWX?)

Things get a little hairy but between YZY and QBT they defeat WZL and the rest of the Wen quickly surrender

JFM and JYL arrive just as the battle is ending, escorted by Madam Jin, JZX, LQY, and all the Jin Disciples who were at Cloud Recesses

(WWX: MianMian you came you must have been so worried about me! LQY, ignoring him: Lan-er-gongzi are you okay? WWX: ah Lan Zhan you MianMian really likes you! that’s lucky! LWJ, screaming internally: mn)

(JGS was furious when JZX announced he was joining the campaign but what could he possibly say in front of his battle ready wife without looking like the utter coward of a wet biscuit he is)

Once again WWX is left with a screaming sword, too much curiosity, and too much time on his hands (due to his adopted family being not-dead)

But worse he has now also access to a woman who created an array powerful enough to kill even with her spiritual power sealed

Poor WRH doesn't stand a chance, even without MY spying for the Sunshot Campaign

After the battle QBT&LCR and YZY&JFM shut JGS's bullshit power grab down real quick and JGS sulks like the baby he is (probably in a brothel) while Madam Jin and JZX take over Lanling Jin

JZX hears about MY and the way he helped LXC and NMJ sends a letter of support and JZX is already quite jealous of all these sibling bonds and welcomes Ziyao with open arms

(All of which goes slightly to waste when JZY marries out to the Lan clan slightly less than a year later but hey, at least it's a good alliance.)

WQ takes over the Wen Clan but tears down Nightless City and relocates the capital to Dafan

(WQ: have you been to Nightless City? It’s built on an active volcano. Do you know how bad sulfur ash is for open wounds? Do you know what medical herbs grow in lava slurry? None is the answer. My family are all fucking morons)

(WQ: Not you a-Ning you’re a delight and we’re thrilled you’re here)

Rumour has it a certain immortal was so impressed with the stories of the medical techniques of Dafan Wen that she paid WQ a visit

(Disciples are so reckless after all! One never knows when one might need to be capable of transplanting vital organs!)

Each year WWX and LWJ spend 3 months at Gusu, 3 months at Lotus Pier, and 6 months wandering with XXC and SL

They get "fake married" no less than four times in three years (for the investigation xiongzhang! absolutely no other reason shishu! no other reason at all!) before LXC, MY, XXC, and SL get fed up and barricade them in their room until they talk to each other dammit

(LXC is very grateful MY has gotten so handy with the silencing talismans because the 'conversation' gets uncomfortably loud real quick)

Side note to say Clarity works very well to avert a qi deviation when it's not being actively corrupted, thanks very much, and NMJ lives many, many, many years which would be entirely happy if only NHS would pick up his saber once in a while

He would tell NHS this if he could ever find him

Happy ending!³

[pastthevaulteddoors]

It’s not Wednesday... but I don’t care. Here’s a little bit of If-WWX-was-raised-by-the-Wens story.

“I still find it hard to believe that you stood up to your father like that.”

The Unclean Realm had nothing on Lotus Pier’s scenery or Cloud Recesses’ serenity, but it definitely gave Wei Wuxian a sense of security with its sturdy walls and many guards posted along the parapets. Although he felt that if he started flashing his unorthodox talismans those many blades would turn inwards on him.

Jin Zixuan shook his head, shame clear on his face. “It was the only decision I could make,” he began. “I couldn’t sit back and watch Qishan Wen tear apart our livelihood.”

Nie Mingjue sat at the head of the hall, his blade safely kept to his side. Wei Wuxian noticed how Meng Yao moved from his usual right hand post to stand at Sect Leader Nie’s left, closer to where his brother sat. Jiang Cheng’s fists were clenched tightly over his knees and Nie Huaisang looked among his friends with wide, worried eyes.

“Thus far, the Wens have been unable to establish their supervisory offices within Qinghe’s territory. We can spare a few troops to assist you in Langya,” Nie Mingjue stated.

“That would make a world of difference,” Jin Zixuan said. “Qin Changye is wavering on his jurisdiction and continues to cower under my father’s influence. Laoling Qin Sect might not stand for much longer, if they haven’t already fled to Carp Tower.”

Sect Leader Nie slammed his fist on top of his table, rage clear in his brown eyes. “Lanling Jin Sect is sitting, waiting to see who wins before they pick a side. Are they going to sit in their tower and watch the rest of us burn?!”

Jin Zixuan frowned. “Qin Changye’s daughter, Qin Su, was a helpful voice on pushing the sect to fight, but her cultivation is low and has already gone into hiding with her mother. Assuming they join in with Lanling Jin Sect, we might have a voice among the populace.”

“This is ridiculous!” Jiang Cheng scowled. “The Wens are slaughtering our people and raising them again for their corpse army. They’re not even sacrificing their people to devour our freedom, but using bodies as puppets and shields.”

Wei Wuxian looked down at his full tea cup. It was difficult to get him down, but he couldn’t escape his hand in this disaster. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” he said eventually. “It was… they were supposed to overwhelm the sects into submission, not murder everyone.”

“You’re young and not a war strategist. It’s not at all surprising for you to be deceived by human nature’s darker side,” Meng Yao said diplomatically.

“What you can do now is use your skills to undo the mess your talents created,” Nie Mingjue followed up to Meng Yao’s comment, although he did not sound as soothing as his Vice Envoy.

“Don’t blame this all on him,” Jiang Cheng said. “Qishan Wen would have attacked regardless. Wen Qing warned us of a pending plot.”

Wei Wuxian had to admire Jiang Cheng’s bravery to talk back to Sect Leader Nie and not back down to the glower directed his way. He certainly didn’t get his balls for his dad!

“What’s done is done,” Jin Zixuan injected. “What we need to do now is figure out how to disable Wen Rouhan’s power.”

“The Unclean Realm is not out of hot water yet,” Wei Wuxian said. “Do you know about the Yin Irons?”

A flash of confusion crossed Nie Mingjue’s eyes. “No.”

“I’m not surprised,” Wei Wuxian went on. “Each major sect has housed a Yin Iron for several centuries and the information was forcefully buried to hide them. It provides a subtle pulse of protection and growth of cultivation, which is why the five have been able to remain firmly stable for as long as they have.”

Nei MingJue frowned at him but did not interrupt. Wei Wuxian stood then, and stretched with his new spotlight. “Do you really think your warriors are strong from blade cultivation alone? No, of course not!”

“Wei Wuxian, do not insult our practices!”

“Not insulting, but I’m coming around to a point!” Wei Wuxian began to pace. “The Yin Irons used to be one, and so Wen Rouhan has been gathering them to bend resentful energy of core-hosted corpses. They’re stronger than resentful corpses, if you haven’t noticed.”

He suddenly turned and held up a hand. “He already has two. His own from Qishan and,” he lowered his fingers as he counted them off. “The Yunmeng’s Iron is likely in his possession now. I had a moment of it’s control, but…” he lowered his counting hand and gave a short look to Jiang Cheng.

“Then where are the other?” Nie Huaisang asked.

“One is here, somewhere,” Wei Wuxian waved a hand wide. “And one is in Lanling, likely controlled by the Jin Sect. But with how close Sect Leader Wen and Sect Leader Jin are, I doubt I is a buried secret and being used as a negotiation tool.”

“I have not heard of any Yin Iron in Lanling,” Jin Zixuan stated.

“You weren’t supposed to. No one really was,” Wei Wuxian scratched his cheek with in index finger, looking to play this off as a poor joke. “I may have found it through my research, then confirmed such things at Cloud Recesses.”

Nei Mingjue didn’t look pleased. Who would with new information? “And what would you have us do about it? We’re fighting a war. We don’t have time to play detective and puzzle this out.”

“That’s… ah, kind of important to the puzzle of winning,” Wei Wuxian stopped pacing. “I don’t know the details, but I know the gathering of the Yin Iron will result in a weapon. No one will be safe.”

“What weapon? What does it do? What defenses can we put into place.”

“That’s… just it. I… don’t know,” Wie Wuxian winced at Nie Mingjue’s terrifying expression.

“Then what use are your assumptions?” Sect Leader Nie’s voice boomed through the hall and felt like a hard punch to the stomach. “We can’t rely on these magic artifacts that we don’t even know if they exist. What we need to do,” Nie Mingjue slammed his fist once more against the table and a cracking sound could be heard. Baxia shivered with murderous glee in her stand. “Is start pushing them back and raze all the Wens until they are nothing but a bad memory.”

“If I just had a little time to research—”

“We don’t have time!” Nie Mingjue hollered, and somewhere in the ringing of his voice, Nie Huasang pleaded with, “Brother.”

“Wei Wuxian, he’s right,” Jiang Cheng spoke up finally. His chest was out, feeling the comradery to agree with a sect leader in his father’s place. “We have to act now. Every day they kill and raise our cultivators while losing none of their own if only through their resurrection. We need to focus on the fight.”

“But if we could find the Iron we could disable his ability,” Wei Wuxian began.

Nie Mingjue looked ready to bellow yet again and another of Nie Huasang’s pleas were lost when the chamber door shyly pushed open.

“We’re in the middle of a meeting!” Sect Leader Nie finally did bellow, making the courier shiver in fright.

“A- apologies, Sect Leader, but there’s urgent news.” The courier didn’t dare enter further than the threshold. Luckily, Meng Yao sprang into action and swept through the hall to accept the poor bowing man’s missive. “Thank you,” he said softly and dismissed him.

When Meng Yao turned he held two scroll with a darkened expression. “It’s from First Young Master Lan,” he said the name formally before he rushed back to the dais. A collected intake of breath came from the room of young men. No one had heard from Lan Xichen in months. It was a horrible oversight to not look in on one’s allies, but they never called out for help, nor did they stand down. All anyone knew was that the Wens burned the mountain and was followed by an eerie, frightening silence.

Nie Mingjue unrolled one of the scrolls given to him by his Vice Envoy, the second, Meng Yao unrolled himself. The two read in silence for a few minutes with matching stoic and pained expressions, then slowly resolve.

Meng Yao couldn’t seem to shake himself from the words, but when Nie Mingjue set the missive down, appearing grave. “Xichen is the now Sect Leader Lan after the death of his father,” he informed the group. Wei Wuxian didn’t realize he was wavering on his feet until a hand reached out and pulled him down by the wrist. Nie Huasang shuffled so they could share a cushion.

“And the others?” Jin Zuxian barked.

“When the Wens attacked, the surviving Lan Sect was forced into hiding in the back mountains. Some magically protected barrier is there,” Meng Yao spoke when Nie Mingjue did not continue. There was a catch in his voice as he tried hard to reign in his emotions. “But they were smoked out this past month.”

“And Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but interrupt, his nerves on edge for news of the man he.. he…

“Taken by the Wens as compensation for the delay of handing over their Yin Iron,” Meng Yao said tightly. “Which is also now in their possession. Cloud Recesses, or what remains, has been forcefully turned into Gusu’s first cultivation office.”

Jiang Cheng cussed under his breath, and Jin Zuxian smacked a fist onto his low table. Wei Wuxian felt dizzy, and if Nie Huasang had not put his hands on him he surely would have fallen over.

Wei Wuxian never felt so guilty for what he had aimed the Wen Sect to do until this very moment. Once, he was giddy with the thought of inviting Lan Wangji to his Sect, to show off the patchy hills where he and Wen Ning went hunting, or showed him all his projects and experiments in his workshop. Surely he would have been able to impress the peerless Lan Wangji with his intelligence and cunning, but not like this. Not as a prisoner.

Suddenly filled with adrenaline, Wei Wuxian jumped to his feet, throwing off his friend, and bowed very low. “Sect Leader Nie,” he began in an impassioned rush. “Let me return to Qinghe. Sect Leader Wen might not know of my defection, he might not know what I did at Lotus Pier. Please, let me try to get the Irons out of his grip and rescue Lan Zhan.”

“Out of the question,” Nei Mingjue’s answer was swift as a butcher’s knife. “You can’t go gallivanting across the countryside to rescue your schoolyard crush when we need you here to paint your arrays.”

Jin Zuxian was next on his feet, bowing as well. “With all due respect, he is our friend and we should not abandon him.”

“Sect Leader Nie,” Jaing Cheng was up next, bowing for permission. “We need strong forces, and Lan Wangji is as strong as they get.”

Nie Huasang was next to his feet. “Brother, I—”

“Not another word!” Nie Mingjue slammed his fist onto the table. It finally cracked down the middle but did not break entirely. “Listen to yourself! You are heirs to your sects. We have people to protect. Your responsibilities lie with them. One man will never rise above the strength of your sects.

“In an hour we’ll begin a new campaign. Jiang Cheng, Jin Zuxian, I expect you to be there was heads of your sects while your fathers are unable to represent them. Wei Wuxian,” he pointed an angry finger at the boy. “Resume working on your arrays.”

“Brother—”

“Huasang, make sure the Jins are hosted properly,” Nie Mingjue stood suddenly, concluding the end of their discussion. “No more talk of a rescue mission.”

[wandering-bitch]

Fic Annotation: Gilded Iron

gilded iron is my qin su/wen qing fic that i wrote for the mxtx flash fic exchange: lady edition. It was supposed to be short, which of course means i wrote a (bare bones) plot. As such, I don’t have a good handle on what it’s Secretly About, but on a surface level it’s about escaping and solidarity.

Notes on writing + fic lore below the cut

the title is completely bullshit. i needed something, i thought about qin su’s gilded cage vs wen qing’s iron one

if i hadn’t been writing this on a deadline, i would have gone more into qin su’s life at jinlintai, and how being the wife of head cultivator (a head cultivator who you now know is monstrous) is its own kind of prison. but i was on a deadline, so that’s uh. largely forgotten.

wen qing gets to be feral in jail because jail is terrible and also wen qing deserves to be feral whenever she wants. 

qin su is a prison abolitionist /s //s

god i do wish i had spent more time documenting how qin su earned wen qing’s trust, but again, i was trying to write something in the 350-1000 range

there’s a lot of overlap, thematically, between this work and I Have Always Loved The Door, in that we’re starting at roughly the same point in Wen Qing’s life in both 

which means wen qing is gonna be flat and matter-of-fact and cynical

jin guangyao does actually love his wife and son. there’s no room to talk about it here but he does worry about qin su when she’s “ill” and he is good to a-song

(this does not excuse the fact that he’s willing to murder his kid to hide his mistakes)

when i wrote the “loving complicated powerful men and watching them change in front of you” conversation, i was thinking mostly about wen ruohan, because i love the implication in the book that she had a somewhat positive relationship with him b4 he decided Imperialism. but it works just as well if wen qing is talking about wwx, and honestly, thinking about that makes me hurt

im using “monstrous path” instead of “demonic cultivation” bc of @pumpkinpaix. Sometimes I think the translation works exceedingly well, adding a menace and level of clarity that “demonic cultivation” doesn’t. other times i think i’m just not figuring out how to say it right. 

“perhaps the expression was confusion, not anger” not for nothing wen qing but maybe glare less???? 

nevermind, queen, you do you

saying “be careful” is wen qing’s love language tbh

TIME TO SUFFER, WEN QING

“viewpoint character informing the audience that they are not having a feeling, while very definitely having a feeling” is one of my favorite writing tropes, apparently. i just. love lying.

so is “character’s heart cracks/breaks open” apparently but like. u ever go from being very guarded and still to overwhelmed with love??? it’s a very specific sensation that happens 2 me all the time bc i’ll be depressed and then my cat will move and my grinch-heart will grow three sizes

as always, i love writing meng yao/jin guangyao. i didn’t bother with triple meanings in this fic, bc 1. short on writing time and 2. he’s only performing a little bit

the “guest” is sect leader he. jin guangyao invited him over for a polite conversation about the towers, and then kidnapped + tortured him to find out why he hurt qin su + exactly what poison he used.

originally, in the world where this was much longer, wen qing accepted jgy’s terms + healed sect leader he. jgy gave her food on the regular, so she regained some health + didn’t have to hide the effects of qin su’s help. (but she did have to hide her actions from qin su)

but like. that would have been another 1k, and exhausting, and im just a small bird.

girls!!! holding!! hands!!!!

in case it wasn’t clear: jin guangyao sent qin su to the cloud recesses to keep her safe/out of the way while he moved against sect leader he.

“be careful” is wen qing’s love language

the qing of yao qing is written differently than wen qing. to be clear. 

soft epilogue soft epilogue soft epilogue!!!!

a-song does have a developmental disability, not bc his parents were related but bc sometimes that just happens!!! but qin su and wen qing aren’t fucking eugenicists!!! they just love their son!!!

i used to own chickens but i did not have names for them, there were 20, and they all were rhode island reds, so i could not tell them apart. a-song is better than me.

they have a v small vegetable garden but exactly 0 potatoes or radishes. qin su never asks.

what family name do they give a-song? don’t know don’t care

the thing about wen qing grabbing qin su’s hand all the time was just me making fun of myself for this cute romance fic that hinges mostly on holding hands. 

i never decided what the ladies do for a living. Wen Qing doesn’t practice medicine yet, bc she’s Afraid, but she might work as an apothecary/pharmacist. qin su might be a gynecologist, helping people terminate or healthily carry their pregnancies. but also that would involve more writing, and it wasn’t relevant to the Happy Ending, so i dropped it. maybe they just farm. maybe qin su takes on extremely small night hunts. 

old zhao + his husband are dumb references to zhao yunlan + shen wei from guardian. shen wei + wen qing become fast friends as soon as they see each others’ “i am not going to yell at my beloved right now but i am going to think extremely stern thoughts” face. zhao yunlan adores a-song and keeps offering to babysit. 

i didn’t get to say this but qin su 100% still rescues injured animals, much to wen qing’s frustration. “don’t you know how many diseases wolves carry?” “yes, i do, which is why i need you to hold a-song while I remove the trap from this little one’s leg.” “this little one is taller than you.”