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aurora077 · 2 years ago

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The Value of Recognition- Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - The Gift

Shao Jianguo was a good man in life. He’d led a simple existence, helping where he could as a rogue cultivator, until he met his wife and they had their family and settled down. He wanted to help too by joining the Sunshot Campaign but his need for his family to be safe won over his commanders orders to stay with his regiment and as he snuck out to find the Jiang contingency he was caught and killed.

He wanted to see his wife but especially his child one last time and tell them that he was sorry. But he couldn��t find them. And it was too late anyway to provide them with a good life. What he could do was save those other children whose parents left them alone to play without considering the danger they were in– they were at war for crying out loud!-- so he took it upon himself to rescue them. But he was a spirit and one with a lot of regrets, which led to him becoming unwittingly resentful, and though he never harmed the children, he was still a malignant spirit who would not hesitate to harm those who tried to rescue them, who he considered as a danger. This led to him being chased by several cultivators.

And when he was about to be captured by those cultivators, he noticed something strange. There was a profound sense of sadness amongst some of them. While he would normally have been inclined to help, his spirit was bogged down with resentment by that time (which was why he was able to sense the negative feelings within them in the first place). So his idea of helping was to give them a ‘gift’.

But they’d been spread out by that point and he could only choose one at random to receive this gift. The one in blue was in his line of sight as the one in yellow was the one behind him, trapping him in the pouch, so he aimed his wishes specifically at him. He didn’t expect the one in purple to intervene, though he wasn’t unhappy with the outcome. That one was the saddest of all. He could use Shao Jianguo’s gift the most.

“What ‘gift’?” the qin-playing cultivator kept asking, “Mister Shao, please tell me, what was your gift? What was it supposed to do? Is it permanent?”

“Well of course it should be permanent! I meant to reunite you with your family after all,” chuckled the spirit.

Lan Sizhui lost his composure for a moment, letting out a slightly distressed whimper.

“A-Yuan what is it?” said Wei Wuxian, grasping his shoulder tightly. Everyone’s faces had paled at what they assumed was terrible news.

But Lan Sizhui just shook his head and pulled himself together.

“What do you mean reunite me with my family? How would turning me into a child help with that?”

Sect Leader Jiang turning into a toddler did not really seem like it aligned with that goal.

“I was simply going to return you to your family, in the afterlife. Isn’t that why you were sad? All of you had such strong sorrow. I understand it. I too miss my family dearly. I wish I could reunite with them. My greatest gift to you would be to help you return to them. The purple cultivator seemed even more hurt than I could ever imagine. It is a blessing for him to return to his family. Truly I did mean to help you but I am not sorry it was him instead.”

“So in other words, you meant to kill me?” Lan Sizhui asked.

“Well when you put it like that it sounds bad now doesn’t it? I meant to help!”

“If you meant to kill then why has Sect Leader Jiang turned into a child?”

“Who?” “Sect Leader Jiang. The purple cultivator you hit instead of me. The one whose regiment you meant to join before you were killed.”

The spirit was shocked, but his tone turned understanding.

“It was Sect Leader Jiang that I hit? No wonder his emotions were that strong. I am sorry that Lotus Pier has lost their leader again, but isn’t it a kindness? Of all people he should get to be with his family again. They’re all gone you know? The Wens killed them all,” he said sadly. He was a spirit stuck in the past. He was buried, but now that his soul had been released his last memories were his reality, despite the war being long over. The feelings aroused by the massacre of the Jiang Sect were fresh in his mind. The horror and disbelief of hearing that a great sect had been eliminated in one day. Seeing the Wens patrolling, terrorising the citizens of Yunmeng. They were dark days. He felt a little sorry to be ending the Jiang line, but he also felt that it was a kindness for that poor boy who had lost everything except a sister and a shixiong.

“Mr. Shao, you seem to be under the impression that Sect Leader Jiang is dead, but he is not. As I mentioned before, he has merely been turned into a child. Tell me how to reverse it, please.” Lan Sizhui was terribly shaken by what the spirit had been saying but the important thing was to figure out how to help Sect Leader Jiang. He would deal with his feelings later.

But Shao Jianguo had no idea what to do. His ‘gift’ was meant to put the afflicted one into a deep sleep where they would relive their happiest memories with their family and the yearning they would feel to go back would help their soul to pass on to the next world easily while they slept so that they could reunite with them once again.

He really did mean it as a kindness. But he was also a resentful spirit and his idea of kindness was a bit warped. His gift was actually a curse meant to kill. Softly… gently… but kill nonetheless.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A-Cheng was excited to show his new geges his home. Jiejie had shown him a beautiful patch of lotuses just yesterday and they had played with the fishies that came around a particularly huge one. A-Cheng even got to feed the fish while sitting on it!

But why couldn’t he find them?

He saw other lotuses and eagerly pointed them out, but the pretty patch with the very big one that could hold A-Cheng’s weight was nowhere to be found.

“What’s wrong?” Zizhen asked him, noticing his expression that kept intermittently changing to a frown in between his happy chatter.

“A-Cheng can’t find the big lotus,” he said unhappily, “It was here yesterday!”

“Maybe it moved,” suggested Lan Jingyi, at a loss as to how to explain why the lotus wasn’t there.

“Silly gege, lotuses don’t move!” frowned A-Cheng.

Jin Ling shot him a disbelieving look. Really Jingyi? Did you think the lotus got up and walked away?! Isn’t it obvious the reason why the lotus isn’t there?!

Jingyi’s eyes widened. Ah he was such an idiot!

He laughed sheepishly when A-Cheng looked at him oddly, “Ah yes this gege was just being silly.”

“Maybe the kitchen aunties harvested it to make lotus tea,” Jin Ling said, trying to give a more logical explanation.

And it seemed to work, A-Cheng looked contemplative and decided that it made sense.

“Let’s go to the kitchens then! We can ask the kitchen aunties and get them to give us snacks!” he said cheerfully.

“Good idea!” said Lan Jingyi, eager to gloss over his blunder and get free snacks to boot.

A-Cheng wanted to walk like a big boy but he’d been running around for a good while with them to show them the different lakes and the flowers etc. and his little legs were starting to tire, but he was afraid to annoy the gege’s so he valiantly tried to keep up with them on their way to the kitchens.

He was holding Jin Ling’s hand but they weren’t accustomed to having to accommodate for children’s pace and so were unintentionally moving a bit too fast, what with their longer legs and all.

Eventually he tripped up and fell. He wasn’t injured but the shock of it and the fear that he bothered them by not being able to keep up had his eyes welling up again.

He was sniffling and wasn’t very loud but obviously his cries were noticeable.

“Oh no jiujiu!”

Jin Ling picked him up and checked his hands and knees. Seeing the little hands turning red from the impact Jin Ling hastily blew on them as the toddler’s tears fell hotly down his face.

“See, it’s okay, you’re okay!” he said to A-Cheng, “Gege will blow the booboo away!”

He blew on the toddler’s hands a few more times and cuddled him.

Jin Ling didn’t have much experience with kids but that was what Jiang Cheng used to do when he was very small and had accidents. Of course Jiang Cheng also used qi to help heal any real wounds and little Jin Ling thought his jiujiu was the coolest because he could make injuries go away like magic!

But for things like this when he wasn’t really hurt it was just the shock of falling or the pain of impact etc that would cause upset and this was Jiang Cheng’s signature move.

After a few minutes of Jin Ling’s cuddling, when his tears petered out, the little Jiang Cheng said, “Gege knows how to blow away booboos like jiejie!” And he looked at Jin Ling pleasantly surprised.

Oh.

Jin Ling hadn’t known…

Jiang Cheng had never told him that his mother used to do that too. Well, honestly people didn’t talk much about his parents other than how good they both were etc.

Jiang Cheng in a rare mood would tell him stories of when they were younger, but obviously most of them starred Wei Wuxian which was a topic he couldn’t bring up to a young Jin Ling, so it was very limited information that he could share with him growing up anyway.

A bit choked up, Jin Ling said, “Gege learned from his jiujiu.”

“The jiujiu that looks like A-Cheng?”

“That’s right.”

“Flower-gege’s jiujiu must be smart then, like my jiejie!”

“Mm, just like your jiejie.”

Jin Ling felt his eyes sting.

(Ouyang Zizhen shed a tear in the background for him.)

Not wanting mini jiujiu to think it was his fault again for making someone cry he fought off the tears and threw A-Cheng once in the air and caught him again, making him shriek in surprise and delight (as a distraction).

“Now that the booboo is gone let’s go get snacks from the kitchen aunties. Can gege carry you?”

This gege was becoming his favourite so the child quickly agreed to be carried (plus his legs were tired.)

Xoxoxooxoxoxox

When Sizhui relayed the spirit’s words the room became sombre. If the spirit himself didn’t intend for the curse to work this way, then they were really at a loss. It wasn’t designed to do this so they couldn’t know how to fix it. Of course the intention was death so if it had worked like intended then there would be no fixing it at all.

Now there was a chance, but a very small one as they had no idea as to how to go about fixing the problem when they didn’t even know how it truly came about.

Though there was one detail that the spirit had mentioned that might be useful and it was the fact that the curse had been meant specifically for Lan Sizhui. Maybe that was why Sect Leader Jiang had not just died.

“It’s a silver lining,” Wei Wuxian said, his voice strangely hoarse.

“Curses that were meant for specific people can go awry if cast on a different target. In this case Jiang Cheng has a higher cultivation than Sizhui and he interrupted the curse from reaching its target so it malfunctioned. Or at least that’s the best guess I can make at the moment.”

Since the ghost would not be of any more assistance, they sealed him back in the spirit trapping pouch and SIC Pan went on to debrief the sect.

He sent some disciples to River’s end to try and find Shao Jianguo’s remains, and another set went out to Yunping and environs to look for any clue of his family.

Healer Zhang went off to the infirmary to prepare any medication she could think of that they might need in future now that the sect leader was a child with no core.

“Well I guess it’s a good thing that his plans were interrupted,” Wei Wuxian said softly.

They all knew that if that curse had hit Lan Sizhui like it was intended to do, that he more than likely would have been dead. The spirit was an old one and his resentment had been partially directed towards Lan Sizhui’s biological family. It would have been a double whammy.

“I just wish it hadn’t hit Sect Leader Jiang,” Sizhui said, still feeling terribly guilty. Wen Ning squeezed his shoulder lightly as support.

Wei Wuxian shook his head a bit. “Jiang Cheng is strong, he will come back from this…. Even… even if we have to raise him again, he will be okay.”

Nobody mentioned Wei Wuxian’s wobbly voice.

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years ago

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Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng start hooking up post-canon and Wei Wuxian assumes it's part of a scheme on Nie Huaisang's part. Possibly it was actually a scheme but Nie Huaisang got into it anyway. Or if sadness is more your thing, he didn't, and Wei Wuxian is left being like "see Jiang Cheng? I knew he couldn't have been hanging around with you for fun!"

ao3 (short)

“You need to stop,” Wei Wuxian said, his eyes narrow and expression fierce.

It was a lot less effective on Mo Xuanyu’s face than it had been on his original features. No one had yet told him, presumably out of a desire to avoid being murdered by Lan Wangji for making his lover sad.

Nie Huaisang frowned at him. “Stop…what?”

“Whatever it is you’re up to!”

Oh, were they doing this again?

Nie Huaisang opened up a fan and hid his face behind it in a single movement – he’d gotten really good at it over the years – and started idly fanning himself. “Wei-xiong, really, you’ll need to be more specific. I’m up to so many things, don’t you know…?”

Normally Nie Huaisang wouldn’t bother playing along, but he could see Jiang Cheng coming down the hallway at an angle that put him directly in Wei Wuxian’s blind spot – if there was one thing Jinlin Tower was good for, it was not seeing people – and he could already see Jiang Cheng starting to smile at his nonsense, which was obviously far more important than whatever it was that Wei Wuxian thought he’d figured out.

Hmm. Maybe Nie Huaisang was being too hasty in judging Lan Wangji’s rudeness – love really did make you do the stupidest things…

“I meant in relation to Jiang Cheng.”

Nie Huaisang stopped fanning and stared blankly at him. A few steps away from the turn, he saw Jiang Cheng come to a halt as well, already scowling.

“Jiang – Cheng?” he said hesitantly. “What exactly does Wei-xiong think I’m doing with Jiang-xiong?”

Wei Wuxian crossed his arms. “I’m not sure,” he said. “What are you doing?”

Nie Huaisang blinked at him. “But if I knew that, Wei-xiong, I wouldn’t have asked you, would I?”

The main problem Wei Wuxian had with confronting Nie Huaisang about anything, really, was that he genuinely found Nie Huaisang terribly funny. The twitching lips made the glaring more difficult.

(Behind him, Jiang Cheng was rolling his eyes, a full-body production that involved a great deal of heaving of shoulders and clutching at his head at the rampant stupidity on display. Nie Huaisang appreciated his lover's dedication to the art.)

Still – and this part was worrisome – Wei Wuxian’s smile faded away soon enough, replaced by a solemn expression.

“We may not be on the best of terms right now,” he said. “But he’s still very dear to me. I won’t put up with you using him as part of one of your schemes.”

“I don’t actually have any schemes,” Nie Huaisang said, mostly because Jiang Cheng was frowning now and Nie Huaisang did not want Wei Wuxian to mess up his budding relationship. “Really, Wei-xiong! I had one scheme, and it took me over a decade – I’m hardly the shadowy puppet-master mastermind you seem to sometimes seem to take me as. Why would you think that I’m using Jiang-xiong?”

“You’re deceitful,” Wei Wuxian said. “You made Jin Guangyao think that you were weak and dependent on him for years even as you plotted to bring him down. And now you’re pulling the same thing on Jiang Cheng – what am I supposed to think?”

Wei Wuxian must have seen them in the market, Nie Huaisang thought. He’d been carping around, playing up his good-for-nothing self – Jiang Cheng liked it when he did that. Mostly because Nie Huaisang really was a bit of a good-for-nothing, his one scheme claim to fame being firmly in the past; his cultivation was weak, his achievements few, his personality…questionable…

(Jin Ling had, upon discovering them spending time together, told Nie Huaisang that he fit everyone one of the criteria that Jiang Cheng had set out for a wife, right down to the weaker level of cultivation and the proper family background. Nie Huaisang had bought him some candy on the basis that ‘be nice to Jin Ling’ was on the list, and told him to think about the type of mileage he could get out of something like that. Jin Ling had looked appropriately thoughtful, after.

Nie Huaisang was a very good influence – or possibly a bad one, he wasn’t sure.)

At any rate, Jiang Cheng liked indulging him, liked and was reassured by the contrast between them. No one looking at them would ever put Jiang Cheng second – Nie Huaisang wasn’t even prettier! – except maybe in terms of insults, and even Jiang Cheng had to admit that he didn’t really want the privilege of being called the worst Great Sect leader, even if it was a superlative.

Wei Wuxian must have seen.

Wei Wuxian must have totally misunderstood.

“Jiang-xiong was at the Guanyin temple as well,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. “It’s not like er-ge at all.”

Wei Wuxian frowned. “Do you really have the right to call Lan-da-ge that?”

“My brother’s no less my brother because he’s dead, and he kept his oath to the end,” Nie Huaisang pointed out. “Why should the other two be released from the obligations of their oath just because they chose to foreswear their side of it?”

“Stop getting away from the point,” Wei Wuxian said, probably because Nie Huaisang was right. Bitter and mean and resentful, but right. “Whatever you’re scheming that involves Jiang Cheng, stop it.”

“No.”

Wei Wuxian blinked.

“I’m not scheming, but even if I was, the target would be Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang explained. “You don’t understand, Wei-xiong. You see, I like Jiang Cheng.”

“I’m sure you do,” Wei Wuxian said. “But I also think you liked Jin Guangyao, a bit.”

Maybe he had. A bit.

But it wasn’t the same at all!

“I especially won’t tolerate you using him for sex while also –”

“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng bellowed, and Wei Wuxian jumped a chi into the air.

Nie Huaisang fanned himself. “Oh good,” he said. “I was about to be worried that you’d misunderstand, Jiang-xiong, but luckily Wei-xiong decided to take all the awkwardness onto himself.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jiang Cheng snarled at Wei Wuxian, who blanched but scowled back.

“I was just trying to help –”

“By embarrassing me?”

“How is it embarrassing to you?!”

“You think I’d be – what – led around by my dick like some new model Jin Guangshan –”

“Oh, that’s a good insult,” Nie Huaisnag said approvingly. “I’m going to need to use that in the future. What do you think the odds are for Lan Wangji biting me if I said it to him?”

That got both of them to stop fighting and turn to look at him.

“What? Does he only bite people he likes now? He used to bite everybody.”

Blank staring.

“That was back when he was five,” Nie Huaisang allowed. “It’s been a while.”

“You have stories about baby Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian said at once, as one might’ve expected. “I want them. All of them. Now.”

“Weren’t you threatening him a moment ago?!”

“That’s different! That was for you!”

“Right, because you don’t think anyone would actually like me,” Jiang Cheng said.

He sounded hurt.

Unacceptable.

“I’m sure Wei-xiong just meant that you were so unbearably attractive that people would compete for the opportunity to manipulate them into your bed,” Nie Huaisang assured him while Wei Wuxian was still trying to find words. “And since Wei-xiong thinks I’m the best schemer, obviously I won hands down, and secretly eliminated all my love rivals to boot. It's all my fault. Alas! I've been caught red-handed!”

“Are you actually capable of saying a single word that isn’t complete nonsense?” Jiang Cheng asked him, his tone having returned to exasperated and fond, which was worlds better than hurt.

Nie Huaisang considered the question seriously and then shook his head.

“You…! Good-for-nothing!”

Nie Huaisang nodded happily. “Your good-for-nothing,” he said cheerfully. “I’m going to make you do everything for me from now on.”

He was, too.

Wei Wuxian looked between them. “Wait,” he said. “Is this – a thing?”

“If you mean Jiang-xiong and I, yes,” Nie Huaisang said. “He’s been courting me for years, and I refused.”

“Only on the basis of a secret murder plot which you didn’t want to get me involved in.”

“How was I to know that everything would turn out well in the end? I thought there was every chance san-ge would find a way to drag me down with him. I couldn’t let that happen to you, of course.”

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng jeered, but he looked pleased and smug the way he always did when Nie Huaisang admitted to having been won over by the very first day of his courtship, years ago. He liked being successful at things.

“No,” Wei Wuxian said. “Not that. The – good-for-nothing thing. It’s a thing. For you two.”

“Fighting words,” Nie Huaisang remarked, even as Jiang Cheng flushed red. “Coming from the dreadful Yiling Patriarch that needs to be defeated by the mighty and righteous Hanguang-jun and then taken away for a good ravishing –”

“Wei Wuxian!”

“Uh - listen – I can explain – actually, no, I can’t. Nie-xiong, you have my blessing, just don’t break his heart, bye.”

“Come back here you -!”

Yes, Nie Huaisang decided, watching Jiang Cheng chase Wei Wuxian. This was the best possible result.

#mdzs #nie huaisang #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #my fic #my fics #yes it's a thing

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jiangwanyinscatmom · 3 years ago

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This is a bit of a long rambly mess, but I just to vent somewhere! When I was at first getting annoyed at JC’s depictions, I thought fanon JC was painted as similar Mu Qing, right down to JC being given MQ’s secret care for children. But I then realized that even that comparison was inaccurate.

Even MQ apologizes (more than once across the story!), says that XL was right, and says he wants to be his friend. And if JC did that in most fics, that would at least be fine. But fans don’t even do the courtesy of giving JC that arc! Instead, it’s always JC being right -- whether about the GC transfer, or he’s suddenly become a person who’s willing to help the Wens and WWX is just a stupid idiot for doing it on his own -- and WWX has to admit that JC was right.

And where MQ becomes more comfortable with the fact that he used to be a servant, accepting and overcoming the insecurities, JC’s arc in fic could be learning to overcome his insecurities that WWX is better than him at many things even despite their class differences. But no, fanon JC has to be AMAZING at something, or even SEVERAL things, SO much BETTER at them than poor stupid WWX. That’s the BEST solution for Yunmeng bros reconciliation, obviously.

At this point, I honestly wish JC was actually given MQ’s character arc in more fics, because at least he could be said to have one, and not just have always been a perfect person, best brother, best jiujiu, bestest sect leader. Ugh.

It kind of feels like another side of purity culture from the people who should be against it. If JC and WWX reconcile,if JC loves WWX, then JC can’t have ever been a bad brother. Instead, it’s Wei Wuxian who has been the bad brother (the character who’s more easy to change since he a) has already gone through this characterization in all versions of the canon, so his development can be reversed for the fic and brought back up to speed by the end, and b) has actually had character growth, unlike JC, so it’s easier to write that growth). It’s Wei Wuxian who needs to change to match where JC is at. It’s fine if the “bad brother” is the character who tried to do good, but fucked it up because he “doesn’t know how to ask for help!” or “is too stupid to know other people care!” or whatever other excuse. That’s easy to fix! But it’s not fine when it’s the character who never really cared about people outside of his sect and is terribly low on empathy/mercy/compassion/caring. JC has to have been secretly good all along! He loves his brother, so obviously he never did anything terrible to him! Or to other people in the name of hating him! Love cannot be unhealthy or messy or crystalized over by and wrapped up in hate!

(I mean, if we’re comparing characters to JC, Severus Snape also has an unpleasant personality yet was actually revealed to not have been evil all along, and the discourse around him is more interesting than the stuff surrounding JC. It’s still often stupid discourse, but at least it’s based on evidence from the text and not a made up secret narrative where JC hasn’t been a bad person this whole time so fans can just make up whatever characterization they want.)

Instead of dealing with JC’s and WWX’s canon relationship and trying to find a way forward from where they left off in Guanyin Temple (if they’re ignoring the extras in MDZS, or going off CQL), fanon JC is just retroactively made into having always been a good person to justify the ease of their reconciliation.

And as someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting.

"As someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting."

Hello there anon, the above as well as what you said about reversing Wei Wuxian's character to be on par with how awful Jiang Cheng was to him is especially resonating. As a person Jiang Cheng himself for all intents was considered at least above average from the normal cultivators.

Yet his downfall always relied on his hate of Wei Wuxian (as a person, in talent, socially) it is a core part of his character that is woven into the work itself and the catalyst for Wei Wuxian's death itself. Jiang Cheng if anything, is coldly upfront on just why he refuses to help Wei Wuxian out of his predicament as well as framing Wei Wuxian. The text itself says he puts little fight in pretending to even speak for Wei Wuxian's behalf when Jin Guangshan begins to sully him and conspire about him wanting to be a sect leader. He is meant to be the complete contrast in Lan Wangji and Mianmian trying to speak for his good-will, in fact he contradicts this by saying that Wei Wuxian has always been tiresomely reckless and uncontrollable, something that holds little truth as Wei Wuxian worked in trust for Yunmeng Jiang's benefit for years. Their actions simply are not of comparable fault and the end of the work (in the least the novel) makes this message clear. Jiang Cheng, as a character, like MXTX said is a product of following what his environment made him as well as him putting no fight on his end to amend that to be better and learn. Love is very complicatedly explored in this work in all it's ways and that's what is very beautiful about it. It does not shy away from the forms it manifests in. Including Jiang Cheng's who at the base of it, the rivalry there was as much one-sided as Shu She's for Lan Wangji, the layers of irony are the best part of the novel for each of it's characters.

As for fandom. I do think a lot of it is petty stupid discourse (oh and I have never said I am particularly immune to it, I am far too sarcastic for my own good and have a bit of a loud mouth when I see something particularly ridiculous for this fandom and I do not know when to shut up my filter). But, so much of it is coated within personal resonance towards certain characters which leads to feeling personally hurt, especially when the block features exist on this site. Multiple tags have been implemented to block for this exact purpose, yet their comes the takes that you can not use these sarcastic tags that are blockable because "it's not the right ones". Fandom is ever shifting and as such it is curated as much as you want it to be. Being ordered to not use these tags or to avoid posting all together is a moot point as well as demanding others to read how you want them to, even when the work textually supports or does not certain interpretations. As lovely as the thought is that "all interpretations are valid", logically it does not work quite so well when you attempt to push that on so many others with little helpful evidence other than flimsy fanon popularity (Ron the Death Eater And Draco in Leather pants are infamous fandom tropes that are despised for reasons). JC is not a case of questionable good for selfish reasons as in the comparison to Snape, he is simply a show of selfishness who has an ambiguous opening to do better, in terms of those in the future. Too much clout though is put on that idea when the work itself is not shy to say real good, kind, supportive people are hard to come by.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #canon jiang cheng #jiang cheng #I love him but he is very much a trash racoon king #fandom also needs to chill with is elitisism and faux intellectualism

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rueluxprince · 4 years ago

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How Much Shit Could’ve Been Avoided Had Jin Zixuan Been Even A Little Bit Politically Aware. As He Should. Part 1

Jin Guangyao gets recognized back into the family. Now there’s a second son that’s maybe perhaps coming for your inheritance. You can:

a) pretend he doesn’t exist

b) bring him into your fold and ensure his loyalty to you only

c) conduct a conspiracy to have him disposed of as soon as possible

......

Because you are still the one person with some decent fucking morals in your house, you choose B. So:

Jin Zixuan: “BROTHER! I AM SO GLAD TO MEET YOU! I’VE HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT THE YOUNGEST HERO IN THE SUNSHOT CAMPAIGN! NO WONDER YOU’RE FROM THE JIN SECT! OH LITTLE BROTHER TO THINK YOU’VE RECEIVED SO MUCH SUFFERING AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE!”

Jin Guangyao: “... thank you for your kind words brother, please don’t be sad on my behalf.”

Jin Zixuan: “A-YAO DON’T RESTRAIN YOURSELF! KOI TOWER IS YOUR HOME NOW! ANYTHING I HAVE YOU SHOULD HAVE TOO! IF THE SERVANTS DARE TO BULLY YOU JUST TELL ME AND I’LL SETTLE THEM! I’LL GIVE YOU A TOUR!AND YOU CAN CALL ME GEGE!l

Jin Guangyao, seventeen and now visibly moved: “Gege!”

Which turns into:

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! FATHER IS DOING SOMETHING TERRIBLE IN THE DUNGEONS!”

J Zixuan: “I’ll keep an eye on it. Hey have you picked out a spiritual sword yet?”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! FATHER IS DOING SHADY EXPERIMENTS WITH DEMONIC CULTIVATION IN THE DUNGEONS!”

Jin Zixuan: “You friendly with Xue Yang? Yeah alright just tell him to keep as many pieces of evidence as he can. A year worth of Lanling sweets in return? He knows they go bad really quickly right? Wait you’ve never had them before?”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! FATHER WANTS ME TO HELP HIM WITH TORTURING PEOPLE!”

Jin Zixuan: “hey you never went to the Lan Sect’s boring ass boarding school right? Guess what here’s your chance! It’s a proper rite of passage for all proper young masters of cultivation! They’re restarting in a month pack your bags!”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! MY FIANCÉE TURNED OUT TO BE MY SISTER BECAUSE FATHER RAPED HER MOTHER DURING A PARTY YEARS AGO!”

Jin Zixuan: “help me write a script I’ll go talk to Qin Cangye. Hey you think my mother is willing to scheme a bit and break it up for us? And we should probably go apologize to Madam Qin shouldn’t we? Oh and add this to the Terrible Thing Father Did drawer, we might need to use it later. What do you mean the drawer is full?”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! FATHER IS TRYING TO SPREAD RUMORS ABOUT WEI WUXIAN BEING A TERRIBLE PERSON TO GET EVERYONE TO SUPPORT HIS TAKING OF THE STYGIAN TIGER SEAL!”

Jin Zixuan: *kicking down the doors of Lotus Pier* “JIANG WANYIN URGENT BUSINESS LISTEN UP STOP SHOUTING I CAN VISIT WHENEVER I LIKE I’M YOUR BROTHER IN LAW!”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE!”

Jin Zixuan: “Father again?”

Jin Guangyao: “no it’s Zixun. He’s torturing pows and building concentration camps.”

Jin Zixuan: “...”

Jin Zixuan: *kicking down the doors of Lotus Pier* WEI WUXIAN COME GET YOUR PEOPLE STOP SCREAMING THIS IS A TOY POODLE NOT A MONSTER SPIRIT!”

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE! FATHER IS PLANNING AN AMBUSH AT QIONQI PATH! WITH ZIXUN! TO KILL YOUNG MASTER WEI!”

Jin Zixuan: “you know what fuck this shit”

The next day, Jin Guangshan accidentally fell down Koi Tower’s thousand steps after drinking too heavily and hit his head really hard. Mr Jin lost all his memories, and is thus unable to continue as leader of Lanling Jin sect. The position passes onto his eldest son, Jin Zixuan.

(Zixuan recieved about three letters expressing condolences. Sudden parties and celebrations erupted everywhere outside the Lanling area immediately after the news broke. They continued on for about a week.)

Epilogue:

Jin Guangyao: “GEGE!”

Jin Zixuan: “oh my gods what now?!”

Jin Guangyao: “.....I might have... gotten engaged? ...slightly married. With Er-ge. While I was in Cloud Recess... studying. So ah... I wanted to have your blessing...”

Jin Zixuan: “............”

Jin Zixuan: “FUCK PEACE AND HARMONY AND RIGHTEOUSNESS WHERE’S MY SWORD I’M GONNA CHOP THAT BRILLIANT OVERGROWTH’S DICK OFF!”

- more MDZS headcanons under the “my thing” tag

#xiyao #if you want a not evil jgy hes gonna end up married to lxc #jin zixuan #this is an outline #there are logical errors #how would jgy know about the camps if hes off studying in cloud recesses #who the fuck knows #jin guangyao #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #cql #mdzs #jin siblings #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #my thing #au #canon-divergence #writing

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nillegible · 4 years ago

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It wasn't supposed to hurt him. Ouyang Zizhen had used the talisman before, on his sister and his sister's idiot fiance (Now he was her fiance. Before the talisman, he'd just been a shixiong who absolutely refused to confess his feelings to her). In retrospect perhaps it was unkind. A talisman that was meant to force you to confess what you were hiding from the other person? Jiujiu would have smacked him for even thinking about using it.

Jin Ling would punish himself if it would help, would do anything, to snap the talisman, or to get his stupid uncle to just say his stupid secret, because right now?

Right now, his uncle is choking on his secret, literally forcing it down by strength of will alone while Wei Wuxian flutters around desperately, trying to destroy the talisman and Hanguang Jun plays his guqin. The spiritual energy from the Lan musical technique is so heavy that Jin Ling's skin buzzes with every note, and it's even more concentrated on the three older cultivators, visible threads of it sparking over their skin.

Jiujiu still looks like he is in agony, breaths harsh and ragged, choking, his face screwed up, twisted, awful.

"Jiang Cheng please, please, just spit it out, I don't care what you still blame me for, I don't care just say it," Wei Wuxian begs, but it's no use, his uncle shakes his head no, and Jin Ling covers his own mouth to stifle a sob. He hadn't listened when Jin Ling begged, either.

It's such a simple talisman, so terribly simple a compulsion that it's not meant to be fought or broken. Powered by the strength of the secret and the spiritual energy of the person it was affixed to… Jin Ling hadn't known it was possible to even try.

"Jiang Wanyin," says Hanguang Jun. He has to say it again to get his uncle's attention. "Let me help." His uncle stares blearily for a few moments, then nods again. Abruptly, even the gasping choked off noises break off, and Jin Ling rushes closer, but he's okay. He's still okay, slumping a little and leaning onto Wei Wuxian in exhaustion, but alive.

"Wei Ying," says Hanguang Jun, and apparently that means something to his other uncle, because Wei Wuxian immediately turns his attention back to paper he'd been scribbling on, and continues.

It takes Wei Wuxian a full hour more to break the compulsion, for his uncle to collapse sideways like a broken puppet onto him, and cough up mouthfuls of blood while Wei Wuxian rubs his back. "Thank you, Hanguang Jun," says Jiujiu.

Then he looks up at Jin Ling, who is frozen in place, not sure if he should run or fall to his knees and apologize, and holds out a hand. Jin Ling throws himself forward and hugs his uncle sobbing his apologies. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry."

“Stupid,” Jiujiu says, voice hoarse, but he doesn’t let go of Jin Ling until he falls unconscious, and Wei Wuxian disentangles him from the half embrace – Jiujiu’s other arm was clutching Wei Wuxian’s robes, tightly – and lifts him into his arms.

“He’ll be okay, right?” asks Jin Ling, a bit pathetically. This was all his fault, after all.

“Jiang Cheng will be fine,” says Wei Wuxian.

When Jin Ling thinks back to this moment, he will realize that Wei Wuxian sounded oddly broken, not just tired.

It turns out that Jin Ling had actually ruined everything. He’d been sure that his uncles cared for one another, he’d watched the weird way they held each other at arm’s length but seemed desperate for more, and only wanted to help them out. Whatever it is they were keeping a secret couldn’t be worth it right? Wei Wuxian was back from the dead. He was, not Jin Ling’s mom or dad or anyone else. Jin Ling had only wanted them to make the most of it.

Instead, all Jin Ling does is show Wei Wuxian that Jiujiu has some giant terrible secret that he would rather tear his lips bloody trying to suppress than admit to, and Wei Wuxian seems to give up. He’s cautious around Jiujiu after that, He’s polite. And that only makes Jiujiu angrier and frostier in turn.

This is not what had happened to Ouyang Zizhen’s sister and her husband! (They’d gotten married in the spring, Jin Ling had even gone to their wedding.)

Perhaps Jin Ling should have considered what would happen if the secret was a bad one.

“Would you tell me?” asks Jin Ling. He’s treading on dangerous ground here. Jiujiu hasn’t punished him for the stunt ( “You’re a Sect Leader now, brat, you pick your own consequences,” he’d said, and Jin Ling had assigned himself a lot more make sure Jiujiu is recovering okay missions, whenever he could make the time) and he doesn’t want to remind him to.

“Of course not,” he snaps, Zidian sparking in hollow threat on his finger. At least he scowls? When Jiujiu isn’t busy being angry, he’s been strangely melancholy, recently. Jin Ling hates that, too.

It’s Hanguang Jun that Jin Ling approaches in the end. Oddly, he’s the one who’s angriest at him, Wei Wuxian had just waved off his apologies and asked him to introduce him to the maker of the talismans, and never mentioned it again.

“I really am sorry,” Jin Ling tells him. “I want to know how to fix it.”

Hanguang Jun is silent for a long time, and Jin Ling braces himself for dismissal, to be told he can’t, that it was his fault in the first place, he should stay away from Hanguang Jun’s husband.

“It is hard to speak when you are afraid,” Hanguang Jun observes. Which, what? Yes, of course. But why now? Jin Ling nods uncertainly. “Why should Jiang Wanyin be afraid of Wei Ying?”

Oh. Huh? “He’s not, he’s never…” Jin Ling trails off, uncertain. He’d grown up secure in the knowledge that Uncle Jiang would protect him from the evil Yiling Patriarch. That he wasn;t afraid of him. Things were apparently far more complicated than that, but Jiujiu had never been afraid of Wei Wuxian. So why wouldn’t he tell the secret. What did he think his secret would do, that hasn’t happened already? They barely even look at each other anymore! Hanguang Jun just keeps his steady gaze on Jin Ling, waiting for an answer. “Um. He was afraid… to hurt him?” asks Jin Ling.

He gets a slight nod in affirmation.

“You’d think Senior Wei would know all the awful things already,” Jin Ling says, quietly. Wei Wuxian’s life kind of sucked.

“Sometimes, it isn’t the terrible things that hurt,” says Hanguang Jun.

Jin Ling peers at him closely. “Does Hanguang Jun know my uncle’s secret?” he asks.

“No,” he says, and explains nothing further. “And Wei Ying does not.” He looks up then, over Jin Ling’s head, towards the door. “Wei Ying does not need to know, if he trusts Jiang Wanyin.”

Wei Wuxian laughs, lightly. “Who would have thought Lan Zhan would be defending Jiang Cheng some day, hm?”

“He’s right, Wei Qianbei,” Jin Ling hurries to say. “Jiujiu cares for you. He says awful things, he’ll say, ‘You’re a stupid brat, who raised you, I should break your legs’ but he doesn’t mean any of it. Except maybe the stupid part.”

Wei Wuxian laughs again, then drops a hand to Jin Ling’s head. “I know, A-Ling,” he says, the name sounding so fond when he says it. “He’s my brother, and that part of him hasn’t changed.”

“He hasn’t changed,” says Jin Ling, fiercely. Jiujiu is the only constant in Jin Ling’s life, he wouldn’t just become something else.

“He has though,” says Wei Wuxian softly. “He’s all grown up, now. The last time I saw him, he was little older than you. And look at him now, keeping secrets from his shixiong.”

“I don’t believe he ever called you that,” says Jin Ling, because his nose is sour and he doesn’t want to cry.

“No, no, you’re right, he didn’t,” says Wei Wuxian, a little more cheerfully.

They put themselves back together slowly. Wei Wuxian makes an effort to reach out again, far more determined this time. With some pointed nudging from Jin Ling, Jiujiu tries his best to meet him half way.

It’s not easy. There is. There is so much between them that Jin Ling will never understand, broken promises and dead family, and debts that can never be repaid.

It shouldn’t be possible, to put all of that aside and start anew. Especially not for Jiujiu, who held his grudges forever, and didn’t quite believe in second chances.

They had once been the twin prides of Yunmeng though.

They don’t care that it shouldn’t be possible.

They do it anyway.

[Inspired by this post because holy shit I love Yunmeng Pride reconciliation fics so incredibly much, but it’s not always about divulging that secret really, is it? I just wanted to write one which is definitely about that secret but also not if that makes any sense. I’m not sure if I succeeded, if I confused you I apologize.]

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #jin ling #yunmeng shuangjie #yunmeng brothers #yunmeng shuangjie reconciliation

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antebunny · 4 years ago

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Continuation of this based on the Maleficent AU over on @angstymdzsthoughts because I write trash when my life is going terribly.

All his life, Lan Wangji has heard more about his mother than he has actually seen his mother. He and Lan Xichen were taken to see her as many times as they could, but more often than not, it wasn’t safe to be around her. But Lan Wangji heard the other Lans talking about her, sometimes.

“How sad,” the elders would say. “The first not to accept the Grounding.”

On the good days, Lan Wangji’s mother would let him sit on her lap as she combed first Lan Huan’s, and then Lan Wangji’s hair. She would ask about their day, and invariably something Lan Wangji said would make her laugh. But with the good days came the bad days, when Mother flew into a terrible rage and could not be approached by anyone, not even Father, and Father was her fated one. On the bad days, Mother had to be left alone in her house until she calmed down, and no one ever let Lan Wangji go near.

“It’s because of the wings,” Lan Wangji is told. The wings that his mother once had, back when she was a heavenly spirit, the wings that make her want to leave.

“Such a tragic tale,” some of the elders say, shaking their heads. “Such a tragic love the main Lan family faces, generation after generation.”

Mother is never able to accept the binding, and no one knows why. Father performed it correctly, to this everyone swears up and down. Qingheng-jun has always been the pride of Gusu, but he grows increasingly more and more frantic during Lan Wangji’s sixth year, the year that Mother gets sick. Soon, the whole world knows that Madame Lan has a seemingly incurable disease. Before Lan Wangji turns seven, his mother dies. He knows because he never sees his father after that either. He’ll later learn that Father, unable to accept both the loss of his fated one and his own failure, retreated from the world, leaving his sect duties and his children to his younger brother.

“It is the destiny of one of you to find your fated partner in a heavenly being,” Uncle explains to Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen, but he doesn’t say it with the same pride and finality that he explains the other rules of the Lans.

Lan Wangji grows up. And though he’ll never admit it, Lan Wangji privately hopes that this destiny is not his to bear. It’s terribly unfair for both the sect duties and the Grounding to fall to Lan Wangji, and consciously he hopes that his older brother does not have to bear both burdens. But privately, somewhere buried deep where Lan Wangji cannot find it or examine it too closely, he hopes fervently that it is not him.

Then he meets a boy with black wings underneath the moon of the Gusu mountains, and his entire world changes.

Wei Wuxian laughs, and Lan Wangji has never heard anything like it before. His great black wings unfurl like ink from a brush, and they effortlessly lift his feet off the roof.

“I’m technically not in the Cloud Recesses,” he points out, silver eyes sparkling with mirth.

Lan Wangji can feel his ears turn a violent shade of red. He withdraws his sword, then, but a single flap of Wei Wuxian’s wings carries him above Lan Wangji’s head. And even then, in the exhilaration and frustration of their first meeting, Lan Wangji hates those wings for taking Wei Wuxian out of his reach. They’re beautiful, his massive crow wings. Each feather is a soft black that shines purple under the right light. Lan Wangji wants to touch them and see if they’re as soft as they look, but he doesn’t dare.

Wei Ying is magnificent, and Lan Wangji can only despair.

His brother is the first one to notice.

“Wangji,” he says, one day when he finds Lan Wangji with two bunnies and no explanation. “I’ve noticed that you seem to be spending a lot of time with the crow spirit, Wei Wuxian.”

Not by choice, Lan Wangji wants to say, but he knows it isn’t true, and lying is forbidden. But he doesn’t know what the truth is. He’s unsure, because Wei Ying is unsure. Wei Ying teases, Wei Ying smiles at him so sincerely and says not as pretty as Lan Zhan only to finish with I’m only joking, Lan Zhan! What if it’s not Wei Ying? What if Lan Wangji gets it wrong?

So instead, he says nothing.

His uncle is the second person to notice.

He’s frowning and stroking his beard after the day’s lectures have finished, and he stop Lan Wangji to talk after the other students have all left. “Yunmeng’s Head Disciple, and Sect Leader Jiang’s adopted son,” he muses out loud. “His…rambunctious personality makes me cautious, but he is one of the best cultivators of your generation. I am confident that he will recover from the Grounding.”

Lan Wangji tries to picture Wei Ying’s loud personality being confined to a single room for any period of time.

“Wangji,” his uncle says, when he notices Lan Wangji clenching his fists. The word is at once filled with pride, a warning, and gentler reassurance. “What happened to your mother was a tragedy,” he says, echoing the words of countless elders. “It has never happened before. There is no reason why it should happen again.”

There is no reason why it wouldn’t, Lan Wangji thinks. Still, it hardly matters, in the face of generations of tradition, in the face of his own destiny. There is no denying it: he loves Wei Ying. His next course of action is to perform the Grounding, before Wei Ying returns to Lotus Pier. His uncle expects him to. The elders all expect him to. Even his brother doesn’t understand his hesitation. And yet–

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying says. “Come flying with me!”

When Wei Ying takes him flying, he takes him higher than Lan Zhan has ever gone by sword. Together, they soar over the misty mountain tops of Gusu, past pine forests and heavy clouds. Wei Ying is an single black spot in the blue heavens, but he dwarfs the entire sky, and Lan Wangji, in a place he doesn’t stop to think about, has never lived more in a day.

“Wei Ying,” he says at the end, when Wei Ying sets him gently back on the ground. His tongue is lead in his mouth. He knows what he should say–he should ask Wei Ying to take him to the cave in the back of the mountains, and there, where the wings have no power, he should perform the Grounding. But Lan Wangji looks at Wei Ying, framed by his crow wings in the green fields of Gusu, and all he can think is: Wei Ying loves his wings.

Which is why all that comes out of his mouth is: “Will you marry me?”

“Wangji,” Uncle says, and now his name is simply a warning. “You are doing this wrong.”

Lan Wangji bows his head low over the table he is seated by.

“I have left the Grounding to your own prerogatives,” Uncle begins to lecture, further angered by his silence. “I have raised you to be obedient and righteous, but if I must perform the Grounding for you, then I will.”

“No,” Lan Wangji blurts, and his uncle raises an eyebrow. Somehow, he knows that is wrong. His hands are clammy in his lap. “No,” he repeats, in a tone expected from him. “I will perform it. Tomorrow morning.”

“See that you do,” Uncle says. A dismissal.

He almost doesn’t.

Wei Ying is sprawled by his side, fast asleep, but his wings are wrapped around Lan Wangji when he wakes up. He rolls Wei Ying over slowly, carefully pulling his hair away from his back. Lightly, he runs his hands over the wings one last time, wings that were softer than he thought they’d be, and then he withdraws Bichen. His grip hasn’t trembled on his sword in years, but it does now.

In the end, it is very simple: Wei Ying loves his wings, but Wei Ying loves him. Surely that is enough. It has been enough for countless generations of Lans.

In the end, it is too simple. Lan Wangji flicks his wrist, and Bichen tears through Wei Ying’s beautiful wings. Wei Ying does not stir. He sheathes his sword and collects the wings reverently. He steps out of the room, long enough to leave the wings on the table, and returns to a devastating surprise:

Wei Ying is gone.

Naturally, the first person Lan Wangji goes to is Lan Xichen, and together they head to the Jiang disciple quarters. Lan Wangji is distressed the whole way, thinking of a Wei Ying who woke up alone, in the dark, missing his wings. He was supposed to be there to explain it to Wei Ying. He was supposed to be there for him.

But Wei Ying isn’t in the Jiang disciple quarters. None of the Jiang siblings are. The other Jiang disciples are still asleep, but when Lan Wangji makes an exception and wakes them up, they have no idea what’s going on. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen split up, but no one Lan Wangji talks to has seen Wei Ying or the Jiang siblings. And when Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen circle back around to the quarters of the first Jiang disciples they talked to, they’re gone.

By the time the sunrise fades into yet another bright day, all of the disciples from Yunmeng Jiang are gone. None of the other guest disciples have seen them, not even the ones awake at that time. It is as if they simply all vanished back up to the heavens without a word, without a single warning.

And Lan Wangji is left reeling in their wake, stunned at the thought that somehow Wei Ying’s Grounding has gone even worse than his mother’s.

#mdzs #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my writing #writeblr #look im tired #angstymdzsthoughts #antebunny's ficlets

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gffa · 4 years ago

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There was this viral tweet that went around about THE UNTAMED awhile back that was basically the cycle of every fan of the series that I have ever met: 1. Wtf, THIS is the show everyone is losing their minds over? This isn’t even good! 2. Well, I guess it’s not that bad, it’s pretty watchable and fun, it’s all right. 3. I would now die for these characters. So, when I swore this drama wasn’t going to be a big fandom for me, I was just going to watch the show and then fuck off again, I should have known better. Because here I am, crying about feelings about the entire cast and devouring fic and yelling at anyone who will spend even five minutes listening to me about how much I love the OTP, how much I love the Yunmeng Siblings and their Terrible Communications Issues, and the Tragic Sibling Duos and the Tragic Doomed Loves and The Cutest Juniors In The World and how I want to lock ALL OF THEM IN A ROOM until they sort out their feelings! THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - EMOTIONAL CONSTIPATION RUNS IN THE FAMILY - YUNMENG SIBLINGS FIC: ✦ Still in the Water by airgeer, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jin ling & lan sizhui & jiang cheng, 45k A year after Jin Ling’s early succession to the position of Sect Leader, a letter is delivered to him under strange circumstances. A night-hunt follows. ✦ no one lights a candle to remember by asravine, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jiang yanli (& wangxian), 7.9k “Didi,” Wei Wuxian says softly. His thumb on Jiang Cheng’s cheek is calloused and warm and burns of affection. Jiang Cheng barely stops himself from leaning in. “Didi, don’t cry because of me.” ✦ can people untie themselves, uncurling like flowers by annemari, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji, 19.3k Wei Wuxian gets hurt on a night hunt. Jiang Cheng is displeased to find out that he’s been wandering around on his own instead of living with Lan Wangji in Cloud Recesses. He ends up fixing it. ✦ bark, bite by chashmish, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & lan wangji & jin ling (& wangxian), modern au, 3.4k Jin Ling finds a dog and learns some new things about his uncles. ✦ before you stumble by ribena, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji & lan sizhui (& wangxian), 9.8k “Uncle,” Jin Ling says. “Just because Uncle Wei - I mean, Wei Wuxian - just because he’s leading the night-hunt, he’s teaching, he’s not doing anything wrong, he even notified you ahead of time -” ✦ Five Dogs, One Cat by ryfkah, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji & lan sizhui & lan jingyi & nie huaisang, 13.4k If you’ve ever believed me in anything, believe I want what’s best for Jin Ling, the first line of the letter reads. Jiang Cheng has to stop and take a moment before he continues on to the next line: You must come to Carp Tower as soon as you can and lavish praise on the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen. ✦ Life is Very Long by Vamillepudding, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji & lan sizhui & lan jingyi (& wangxian), 12.7k Wei Wuxian is a good for nothing, possibly evil, possibly fake uncle. But he’s Jin Ling’s good for nothing, possibly evil, possibly fake uncle. So it stands to reason that when Jin Ling starts to suspect that Hanguang-jun is mistreating his husband, he immediately recruits Jiang Cheng for a rescue mission. ✦ a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see by paperminds, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji & lan sizhui & lan jingyi & ouyang zizhen, 9.7k For as long as Jin Ling can remember, he has been immune to the majority of supernatural hauntings that plague the cultivation world. Or: what if Jin Ling had received his first-month birthday gift. ✦ plea from a cat named little plum blossom by rolameny, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling, 5.1k Jiang Cheng is trying. Jiang Cheng is having a very trying day. At least the cat likes him. ✦ JC and WWX’s Get Along Sweater by newamsterdam, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan wangji & lan sizhui (& wangxian), 29.6k Convinced Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian will never reconcile of their own accord, Jin Ling takes matters into his own hands by trapping both of his uncles alone, together, without their cultivation. ✦ passed down like folksongs, our love lasts so long by finedae, wei wuxian & jiang cheng (& background wangxian), 6k winning a drinking contest, wei wuxian finds out yunmeng has got new folklore since he’s been gone. those are the stories of the Twin Prides of Yunmeng. naturally, he has to go confront jiang cheng for doing the opposite of talking shit about the dead; this is a confession of love. ✦ sorrow waited by curiositykilled, wei wuxian & jiang cheng, 2.3k No one gets out of the Burial Mounds alive and so Wei Wuxian cannot have been in the Burial Mounds — but sometimes Jiang Cheng starts to think it might be the inverse instead. No one gets out of the Burial Mounds alive and so Wei Wuxian didn’t get out at all. Someone, something, else crawled out. ✦ the trick is to keep breathing by alessandriana, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling, 3.4k Jiang Cheng probably should have anticipated the assassination attempt. He’d spent the last three weeks in Lanling browbeating the more intractable elders into supporting Jin Ling before his nephew’s first discussion conference, and he hadn’t exactly been kind about it. Still, he was a cultivator– if someone was going to try and kill him, he expected swords, or curses. Not poison in his tea. ✦ the road in leaves no step had trodden black by Skadiseven, wei wuxian & jiang cheng & wen ning & wen qing, 1.6k Jiang Cheng gets a little therapy session from Wen Ning, learns to plant potatoes, and decides he’s not giving up on something he wants. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - JUST STRAIGHT UP WANGXIAN OTP FIC: ✦ Fire in the Blood by Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle), lan wangji/wei wuxian, nsfw, 20.7k Wei Ying is traveling, and he gets busy. Lan Wangji knows that sometimes, Wei Ying forgets things. ✦ scapegoat by astrobandit, lan wangji/wei wuxian, 1.3k Four ridiculous things the Yiling Patriarch was blamed for, and one ridiculous thing that was positively his fault. ✦ Content Warning: Romance by Ariaste, lan wangji/wei wuxian, nsfw, 5.9k Wei Wuxian just wants a little warning before Lan Wangji says nice things. Lan Wangji just wants to love on his husband, thanks. ✦ Where the Lonely Ones Go by CSHfic, VSfic, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & cast, 23.9k Accidental (haunted) baby acquisition ✦ devotee by tagteamme, lan wangji/wei wuxian, NSFW, 5.8k Lan Wangji does not control Wei Wuxian. Not in the way many wish he would. But like this— ✦ nothing gold can stay by rikke, lan wangji/wei wuxian & cast, nsfw, 10.3k Before Wen Chao can throw him into Yiling Burial Mounds, Lan Wangji finds Wei Wuxian. ✦ Wait, What? by MarbleGlove, lan wangji/wei wuxian & lan xichen, time travel, 1.5k AKA, that time sixteen-year-old Wei WuXian showed up at Cloud Recesses, took one look at Lan WangJi and declared, “That’s my future husband!” … and Lan WangJi said, “Mm” ✦ Beyond All Reach by airinshaw, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & nie huaisang & lan xichen, NSFW, 27.4k Wei Wuxian heads back to Cloud Recesses to find out more about a curse someone has placed on him, that appears to do nothing. Until he meets back up with Lan Wangji and finds out that what the curse really does is stop them from being able to touch. ✦ Key Differences by pupeez4eva, lan wangji/wei wuxian & cast, 5.6k Wherein Wei Wuxian ends up meeting an alternate version of himself who, much to his horror, never married Lan Wangji. Obviously he has to do something to fix this. ✦ the heart is hard to translate by vespertineflora, lan wangji/wei wuxian, NSFW, rough sex, non-con play, 10.8k The moment comes almost out of the blue when, one relaxed spring afternoon, Lan Wangji decides that he’s ready to offer Wei Wuxian an opportunity to play out that very delicious fantasy about their stolen first kiss. ✦ Pigtail Pulling by protos_metazu_ison, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & nie huaisang & lan xichen, 3.7k Wei Wuxian trips over Jiang Wanyin and sends both of them to the ground in a tangle of limbs and bruises. ✦ The Last Three Feet by etymologyplayground, lan wangji/wei wuxian & lan sizhui & lan wangji, 3.7k A moment of down time in the Cloud Recesses. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - SOMETIMES YUNMENG SIBLINGS FIC, SOMETIMES WANGXIAN FIC: ✦ put your heart where your mouth is by protos_metazu_ison, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng, 19.9k Having lost a month’s worth of memories might have been fine if Wei Wuxian hadn’t managed to forget the part where he and Lan Wangji got engaged. If that was, actually, what happened. He hasn’t figured out that part yet. ✦ Orchids in Lotus Pier by Vamillepudding, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & lan xichen & jiang yanli & jin zixuan & cast, 21.6k Against all odds, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng become friends. It’s just Jiang Cheng’s luck that people think they’re courting. And it’s just Lan Wangji’s luck that regretfully, Wei Wuxian is also People. ✦ Deeper grows my longing by feyburner, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng, 4.4k Jiang Cheng stared at him. “How are you this dense,” he said flatly. “Wei Wuxian. The common people aren’t scared of you, they’re scared of your husband.“ “My what,” said Wei Wuxian. ✦ A Civil Combpaign by Ariaste, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jin ling/lan sizhui & cast, 31k “And,” said one of the pompous ministers, “there’s the matter of a marriage to consider as well!” Jin Ling, who at the beginning of that sentence had expected to slam into the very last wall of his patience and lose his temper entirely, paused. “A what?” ✦ Being Known by dragongirlG, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jin zixuan/jiang yanli & jiang cheng/wen qing & nie huaisang & wen ning & lan xichen & yu ziyuan & lan qiren & cast, 36.3k wip Teenage Lan Wangji drunkenly confesses his lust for Wei Wuxian during the guest disciple lectures at the Cloud Recesses and wakes up betrothed to him by way of forehead ribbon. It all goes from there. ✦ heaven and earth as witness by scheherazade, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & jin ling & lan sizhui, 8.5k Jin Ling has an emotional meltdown involving Lan Sizhui. Lan Wangji predictably overreacts. Somehow, it helps Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian finally have a conversation that they should have had years ago. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - SOMETIMES CASE FIC, SOMETIMES WANGXIAN FIC: ✦ grow by cafecliche, lan wangji/wei wuxian & lan sizhui & the juniors, case fic, de-aged, 14.4k Or: Wei Wuxian is cursed on a night-hunt, and the junior quartet rapidly finds themselves in over their heads. ✦ Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground, lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng & ocs & cast, 39.4k Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find themselves cursed, unable to see or hear each other. They figure things out anyway. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - WHEN I WASN’T LOOKING, I DEVELOPED NIE BROTHERS FEELINGS FIC: ✦ Pushover by nirejseki, nie huaisang & nie mingjue & lan xichen & jin guangyao & cast, 1.9k Every once in a while, not often, people who know them well will say that Nie Mingjue lets Nie Huaisang walk all over him. That isn’t quite right. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - YOUR HONOR, HAVE YOU SEENA-YAO’S PRECIOUS FACE? - LAN XICHEN/JIN GUANGYAO FIC: ✦ half cloak & half dagger by Fahye, lan xichen/jin guangyao (& background wangxian), NSFW, 13.1k Jin Guangyao lifts his head and smiles. "I’m considering a problem.” “Can I be of any assistance with it?” He drops a kiss on Lan Xichen’s chest. With the nail of one finger he lightly traces the characters for irony on Lan Xichen’s side. “Not this one, er-ge.” ✦ Hindsight by clockwork_spider, lan xichen/jin guangyao, ~1k Three years after the incident at the GuanYin temple, Jin GuangYao and Nie MingJue’s coffin was unsealed and their corpses, depleted of resentful energy, were finally laid to rest, their spirits released. In his dream, Lan XiChen is visited by the spectre of his sworn brother. ✦ beyond reasons by welcome_equivocator, lan xichen/jin guangyao & lan wangji, 5.2k “a-yao,” he says, and you are almost surprised to hear it, but he is still facing away from you, “i know about the music.” ✦ Spring Dawn 《花落知多少》 by iskendaris, lan xichen/jin guangyao & nie mingjue, modern au/reincarnation au, 4.5k Meng Yao is given a second chance when he’s reincarnated. He doesn’t want a repeat of the past. However destiny has a way of interfering, and he finds himself working together with student president Lan Xichen?! Really, what is this fate?! ✦ Hold the Baby by Moonsheen, lan xichen/jin guangyao & jin zixuan/jiang yanli & lan wangji/wei wuxian & jiang cheng, 6.4k A collection of shorts: In which a chance encounter and a fussing baby causes a slight change to Jin Guangyao’s MO. ✦ Ornament by syriala, lan xichen/jin guangyao & nie mingue & lan qiren, 1.6k He starts to go into the bow again, and Lan Xichen intercepts his movement, stops him from bowing in a move that he might have learned from Nie Mingjue, and then his brain must short-circuit, because the only thought Lan Xichen has is that Meng Yao has the perfect height for forehead kisses. THE UNTAMED/MO DAO ZU SHI RECS - EVERY OTHER KIND OF FIC: ✦ fierce corpse Jin Zixuan by EHyde, jin zixuan/jiang yanli & jin ling & cast, 10.6k Jin Zixuan died at Qiongqi Path. Then, Wei Wuxian brought him back. But what place does Koi Tower have for a fierce corpse? ✦ The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere by FairestCat, jiang cheng & wen qing & lan sizhui, 2.3k There are rumours going around of a woman – a healer – travelling the countryside alone. Jiang Cheng needs to know if the rumours are true. ✦ If you only knew then (the things I only know now) by Nillegible, jiang fengmian/yu ziyuan & wei wuxian & jiang cheng & nie huaisang & lan wangji & & lan xichen & jin zixuan & cast, time travel (of a sort), 34.7k wip Yu Ziyuan receives a warning, a letter in Jiang Cheng’s handwriting, familiar, though it seems to have evened out over long years of practice. This was from her child, but not. This Jiang Cheng, grown up in ways that it hurt to contemplate, had endured the death of his family, his Sect, and his soul. ✦ partly frozen, partly flowing by astrolesbian, lan wangji & lan xichen & lan qiren (& background wangxian), 4.9k To discourage Lan Wangji from this idea would be to discourage him from loving, and Lan Xichen has always known that to be impossible. All he could do was nod as his brother looked at him, and finished, calmly, “Zewu-jun, I accept any punishment you see fit.” ✦ Delight in Misery by nirejseki, lan wangji & jiang cheng & lan sizhui & jin ling & lan xichen (&background wangxian), 17.4k wip For the first time in his life, Lan Wangji didn’t want to go home. (what if he had another option?) ✦ into the light of a dark black night by dragongirlG, lan wangji & lan xichen & madam lan, 3k On a snowy night in the dead of winter, Wu Yuhua, formerly known as Madam Lan, unexpectedly spends one last night with her sons before escaping from the Cloud Recesses. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE

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crossdressingdeath · 4 years ago

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honestly i feel so bad for jin ling bc the two uncles that he grew up around & had a huge influence on his life (jin guangyao and jiang cheng) really are just terrible fucking people in their own special ways. they were both responsible for wei wuxian’s downfall and death, jin guangyao played a role in jin zixuan’s death, and i’m sure that BOTH of them raised him to hate wei wuxian (we know that jc obviously did and honestly i wouldn’t put it past jgy to talk smack about wwx at ALL). this kid basically spent more than half of his childhood being manipulated by these two men, and jl adored jgy. image the deep rooted trust issues that he must have bc of them! anyways i love the idea that he becomes closer with wwx (and possibly even lwj as well bc technically he’s his uncle too) after that whole fucking dumpster fire that went down with jgy. also love the idea of him coming to really dislike jc 🥴

Eh, I don’t think JGY would’ve raised JL to hate WWX. JGY can be petty, but not “talking shit about his defeated enemies for absolutely no reason” petty. Also I am convinced that while JGY had zero problems with throwing WWX under the bus without a moment’s hesitation to serve his own ends he did at least respect WWX? Or have some sense of kinship with him? I mean if you think about it their circumstances weren’t that different. If nothing else I suspect JGY was painfully aware that what happened to WWX could very easily happen to him as well (and in fact does in the end; while he was guilty of the things he was accused of, I don’t think we should forget the fact that the sects heard three people accuse him of bad things with zero physical evidence and one of them being the “enemy of the cultivation world” who they were literally just trying to kill and they were all like “Yeah this seems like enough to lynch our boss who has done more good than any other Chief Cultivator and arguably any sect leader in the entire novel” after over a decade of watching JC be a serial killer and not saying shit, like I don’t doubt for a second there was a lot of classism involved there even though JGY was ultimately guilty), especially since he knew WWX was largely innocent (while JGY himself very much Is Not Innocent). I can’t see him teaching his nephew to hate someone so similar to him, especially since JGY has zero personal beef with WWX. JGY’s part in WWX’s death was entirely impersonal, and he’s not petty about impersonal stuff. ...Actually I’d argue he’s not petty about personal stuff either; he’s insanely vicious, but I wouldn’t classify it as “petty”. Also I don’t know if he was manipulating JL; he was prepared to use him as bait when it came down to it, yes, but up until that point I can’t think of anything to suggest that his treatment of his nephew before that point was anything but genuine love and affection, although he didn’t always get things right.

Anyway, now that I’m done defending my problematic fave, I am so here for JL bonding with WWX and (entirely by accident on WWX’s part) being slowly drawn away from JC and to the uncle who’s genuinely good to him. Also: JL against his will realizing that actually LWJ is????? great?????? a good uncle?????? LWJ is a sucker for the younger generation, he is going to spoil JL rotten (in his own way).

#mdzs #grapehate #jin guangyao #anon #asks

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silenteyes · 3 years ago

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你的答案 | Your Answer

By 阿冗

Warnings: Spoilers, Angst, Canon-typical Violence (Also it doesn’t follow word-to-word, I put in my own twist because I cannot for the life of me remember all of the scenes and their specific words. I need to remind you all as well, this is an AU! It mostly follows canon but as I said, I put my own twists to it.) ; Other than that, I suppose it’s a happy ending

也许世界就这样我也还在路上

Maybe the world is just like this | But I am still following my path

Wei Ying sighed as he looked back at the Burial Mounds. He continued walking - although he was convinced he might as well be limping, with traces of resentful energy following him.

Sentient he thinks, perhaps a tad bit maniacally.

没有人能诉说

With no one to confide in

“Demonic cultivation harms the mind and body.”

“The Yiling Patriarch is so arrogant, he uses his power to take advantage of everybody!”

“I will not spare Wei Wuxian any mercy.”

Wei Ying laughed hysterically. Sure, no one had the same views as him, and sure, he may be alone. But he could live on without the whole cultivation world watching his every step, waiting for him to break.

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

也许我只能沉默眼泪湿润眼眶

Perhaps I can only remain quiet | Tears glistening my eyes

“Qing-jie...”

Wei Ying had tears threatening to spill as he struggled to move. Wen Qing stared at him with tears in her eyes as well, smoothing out his hair. Wen Ning was watching both of them, and if he wasn’t a fierce corpse at the moment he would’ve burst into tears.

“A-Ying, thank you. And I’m sorry.”

He could only stay silent as the two walked out of the cave, heading towards Lanling.

可又不甘懦弱

Yet not willing to show weakness

He could not, not yet. He will not die before avenging his second family, who all actually cared about him.

To Nie Huaisang, my second brother,

I am sorry. You have helped us a lot, but it seems as though our efforts were in vain. You are not at fault, please do not blame yourself for not being able to help me. We will meet again in another life, as brothers.

With a smile I sign this letter,

Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian.

低着头期待白昼

With my head down | I await for the dawn

He sighed with his head tilted down as he waits for the cultivation world. All those who are greedy, who seek power and fame, and those who seek vengeance are sure to come. He could almost chuckle at the fact his martial brother - no he’s lost right to call him that months ago, Sect Leader Jiang was the on leading the siege.

He hopes A-Yuan won’t be too heartbroken, but maybe A-Yuan might be dead. He actually tears up at the thought.

接受所有的嘲讽

Accepting all of their taunts

“It’s the Yiling Patriarch!”

“Kill him!”

“Monster!”

“You killed Jin Zixuan, spare him no mercy!”

Wei Ying just accepted them with what one may call an exasperated sigh, but if you listen closely it sounded breathy as well. Why should he refute them if they won’t believe him anyways?

向着风拥抱彩虹

Facing the wind | Embrace the rainbow

Nie Huaisang stared in horror at the letter. The Wen remnants... dead? They were clearly just elderly people if you don’t count Lady Wen and Wen Qionglin, but even then they were just doctors!

He begged an begged for his brother to not participate in the siege but to no avail did he succeed.

“Wei-xiong, I’m glad even at the edge of death you still remember me. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in our next life, maybe it would be better than this.”

勇敢的向前走

Bravely walk forward

Wei Ying smiled as he walked towards the edge of the cliff. He took another step and fell.

Oh, the part where they say Sandu Shengshou killed him? He couldn’t really remember much, but he knew it was a lie.

If anyone was going to kill him, he’d rather it be himself.

黎明的那道光会越过黑暗

The light of dawn will always cross the darkness

He closed his eyes as he awaits for death to embrace him. They say death is another adventure, but he hopes it leads to peace.

He’s tired.

打破一切恐惧我能找到答案

Defeat all my fears, I will find the answers

He opened his eyes as he remembered A-Yuan and the others. Qing-jie would’ve used her needles on him, he’d also like to think she may be crying over him. But he wouldn’t want to push his imagination.

QIng-jie crying is one of the last things he wants.

哪怕要逆着光就驱散黑暗

Even if I need to go against the light and disperse the darkness

To defeat the monster, he had to become one himself. He had no other resources to help them defeat Wen Ruohan after all.

Why is it that when they turned their backs on me, I’m not allowed to do the same? Am I supposed to stay defenseless when they choose offense?

丢弃所有的负担不再孤单

Throw away the burdens, no longer alone

He laughs, and he cries. And at last he smiles once more. He feels like his death would be a peaceful one. He’d be able to join Granny, Uncle Four, Qing-jie, A-Ning and all the others soon.

Maybe shijie would also forgive him. He hopes Madam Yu will stay ten feet away from him though.

不再孤单

No longer alone

His eyes widened as fierce corpses surround him. And he screams.

He never wanted to be truly alone after all.

---

黎明的那道光会越过黑暗

The light of dawn will always cross the darkness

“Senior Wei!” Jingyi gawked.

A burst of laughter came from said senior and the juniors’ reactions ranged from eye rolls to small chuckles.

“We almost died!” Zizhen cheered.

“Why the fuck are you so happy?” Jin Ling snapped, panting for air.

“We almost died! We have a cool story to tell to other people now!” A kid from the Ouyang Sect exclaimed. Wei Ying ruffled their hair and it took the juniors a lot to not drink vinegar.

打破一切恐惧我能找到答案

Defeat all my fears, I will find the answers

“Get that beast away from me!” he screamed.

“Da-jiu! Fairy is not a beast! And you have to get over your phobia of dogs!” Jin Ling said in exasperation.

Fairy sat still, ears drooping as she looks at Wei Ying with sad eyes. She might as well be pouting while she’s at it. Even he couldn’t stand the dog looking like that.

“...Fine. Just ONE pat! If it bites me I will not have it be in the same room as me EVER!”

Fairy wagged her tail and looked at Wei Ying. He trembled as his hand got close to her and he closed his eyes. Fairy stared at the hand which hadn’t touched her and she slowly bumped her head into his hand. He jumped and stared at her and she stared back, clearly happy to at least initiate some kind of physical contact with him. He gave her a clearly scared, but small smile.

“There, see. She isn’t that bad.”

She may not be, but as if HE’D ever admit it.

哪怕要逆着光就驱散黑暗

Even if I need to go against the light and disperse the darkness

“Senior Wei!” The juniors all screamed in fear. The Lans may have broken a few rules just by doing that, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Fuck,” Wei Ying swore under his breath. This spirit was not a simple one, and they had fucking minions with them. He would’ve compared them to a mother duck and their ducklings if not for the fact they looked absolutely horrible. He looked back at the juniors and heaved a sigh.

Whistles could be heard as the juniors watched in both fear and awe how Senior Wei was actually communicating with the spirit using resentful energy. They never really saw it in action since he has tried to stop using demonic cultivation, he didn’t want the sects to think he was teaching them things like that.

A few more whistles which sounded eerie and the spirit let out a loud wail and collapsed, before fading.

The juniors all stood still for a few moments - Wei Ying thought they were finally afraid of him, before they all crowded him with stars in their eyes as they admired him.

有一万种的力量淹没孤单

There are ten thousand kinds of power to drown the loneliness

“Wei-xiong!” Nie Huaisang’s voice rang out. Wei Ying froze before he slowly turned to face Nie Huaisang, who looked desperate, as if he couldn’t believe that Wei Wuxian himself was alive again.

“Nie-xiong,” was all he said before the Nie Sect Leader pounced on him, seemingly throwing away his last ounce of dignity. It’s fine, it’s worth it for this.

“Do not EVER die on me again,” Huaisang said in between sobs. Wei Ying chuckled before wrapping his arms around Huaisang tightly, warmly.

“I’ll try, brother,” he murmured, patting the sect leader’s back. “I’ll try.”

不再孤单

No longer alone

“Wei Ying.”

“Lan Zhan.”

In the darkness, two broken lovers could only hold onto each other, ignoring reality.

Right now, in each other’s embrace, the world finally felt whole.

---

Heya~ terribly sorry for being dead. I had no motivation. Hopefully this is good and HOPEFULLY it shows up in the tags.

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meltingheartsandcores · 4 years ago

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I had an idea and thought it was funny so:

This takes place after Cloud Recess but before the Wen stuff, WWX is visiting NHS in the Unclean Realm and they’re gardening. It starts with WWX POV and ends with WWX POV but the middle is mostly NMJ’s POV.

It’s a mix of MDZS Donghua canon and Untamed canon but it doesn’t really matter. The only difference is NMJ is clean shaven here.

It’s mostly one sided Mingxian with WWX talking about how hot NMJ is, so.

Enjoy?

“So, how has Madam Jiang and Jiang-Zhongzhu been?” Huaisang asks as the pair wade around the small pond.

“As good as they ever are.” Wei Wuxian groans, “Ai, sometimes it’s exhausting though. Madam Yu is always so angry with me and Uncle Jiang is always so lenient. Finding common ground sucks.”

“Have you told them this?” Huaisang asks, as if not telling your clan leader when you think they fucked up is foreign to him. Honestly, it probably was, considering Huaisang didn’t mince his words to his brother. Most of the time.

Wei Wuxian snorts, “You can’t just say that sort of stuff. It has to be polite and buried under six compliments and formalities. I mean, you wouldn’t tell Lan-Zhongzhu he’s stuck up, right?”

Huaisang giggles, ”I wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past you though.”

Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes, “Yeah, well, maybe to annoy him. But as a legitimate complaint? Doesn’t happen. You don’t do that. Tell your Clan Leader when you have a problem with their attitude. Or anything that isn’t detrimental to your health. It’s just not done. You can’t speak freely to Sect Leaders.”

“You say that like you didn’t say upon meeting Dage, ‘Insanely hot, is this even possible? How can someONE!’” Huaisang’s imitiation of Wei Wuxian turns into a panicked shout when Wei Wuxian tackles him down into the shallow pond. Huaisang doesn’t stop, “‘How can someone be so hot? What God allowed-‘“ Huaisang trails off into laughter and Wei Wuxian gives him a noogie.

Not far, hidden by some decorative paneling, stood Nie Mingjue who looked onto the pair with amusement. He hadn’t been happy when he found out Huaisang had ditched Saber Training again to play in his garden, but friends were always nice to have.

“Why do you have to bring that up!” Wei Wuxian demands sitting in the pond beside Huaisang, keeping Huaisang’s head above the water as Mingjue’s brother just lays in the pond.

Huaisang laughs and Mingjue has a very bad feeling suddenly, “Because he forgot your name-“ Oh that little! “He couldn’t remember your name for an entire year and just called you,” Huaisang takes a break to laugh before finishing, “just called you Insanely Hot Guy. Obviously in reference to your first words to him, but Zonghui was so confused!”

“Ai, well, I am insanely hot.” Wei Wuxian states with no irony, and gets smacked in the face by Huaisang for his trouble. “Why is there even a pond here? I thought you didn’t have this stuff.”

“We didn’t. I made it!” Huaisang was incredibly proud.

“Why?”

“Because it’s pretty.” Huaisang sits up, but the hand Wei Wuxian had been using to support him follows so the pair end up sitting close together with Wei Wuxian’s hand on the back of Huaisang’s head. If Mingjue didn’t know his brother, he’d assume it was some intimate setting. “And! You always talk of how good Lotus seeds are, and how pretty the flowers are, and we could use some beauty here.”

“What, your brother isn’t enough?”

Huaisang sighs, “Why does everyone think Dage is so hot?”

“Because he’s tall, ripped, and could probably snap me in half without any real effort.” Wei Wuxian says with zero hesitation.

“That’s attractive?” Huaisang asks with clear disbelief. Mingjue was with him. The tall and ripped stuff he knew. The third thing was confusing him.

Wei Wuxian shrugs, “It is to me. Although I also love small scheming men who helped me shave off Lan Qiren’s mustache.”

“Ah! Not so loud!” Huaisang shushes, “Dage will be furious if he finds out I had anything to do with that!” Huaisang vastly overestimates how much Mingjue’s cares. And vastly underestimates how much he loved seeing the esteemed Grandmaster Lan with no facial hair. He’s such a baby.

“Fine fine. What was disturbing about that is that he’s hot. How can someone so hot decide terrible facial hair is the way to go? Huaisang, promise me you’ll never let Chifeng-zun grow terrible facial hair.”

“I’ll shave it off myself.” Huaisang promises. Well. There goes the plans for the mustache. Mingjue has no doubt Huaisang would sneak into his rooms and shave his face in his sleep. Furthermore, Mingjue’s not confident in his ability to say ‘no’ if Huaisang begs him and looks at him pitifully.

Actually, he’s entirely confident he’ll fold like a paper crane if Huaisang does that.

“Good.” Wei Wuxian stands up suddenly, “Now! You said we’re making a Lotus Pond? I can help with that!” Huaisang stands up too fast, looking very eager and happy, and upon trying to grab Wei Wuxian for stability, drags him back down.

Mingjue huffs a laugh at the scene, mostly because Wei Wuxian looks so disappointed in Huaisang, and apparently decides dumping a handful of water over Huaisang is entirely appropriate. Huaisang doesn’t even protest, or try to get back at Wei Wuxian.

Mingjue tenses when he hears familiar footsteps, he peers behind him and sees Elder Qin slowly making her way down the walkway. Thankfully, her sight was worse than Mingjues, so she does not see him. He was not waiting around for her to reach him though. He was avoiding her for a reason. Sucks to be Huaisang.

“Huaisang!” Mingjue yells, walking off the walkway and into the garden.

“Da Ge!” Huaisang calls with a yelp and both boys try to stand up but their legs were entwined from their previous fall and made them fall again.

“If you have time to garden you have time to practice your saber.”

“But Da ge,” Huaisang whines, and Mingjue doesn’t let him get another word in, silently picking Huaisang up by the back of his clothes, he doesn’t hesitate to grab Wei Wuxian by the back of his collar too.

“Uh, Chifeng-zun.” Wei Wuxian starts, clearly confused.

“Time to garden, time to train.” Mingjue repeats and walks away from the pond and Elder Qin.

Huaisang, used to this, had brought his legs up and essentially curled himself into a ball, Wei Wuxian, not so used to it, lets his legs drag a while before pulling them up as well. Normally Wei Wuxian would complain about how uncomfortable it was to be pulled by his collar, like he did with Lan Zhan, but right now, he has bigger problems. Well, not bigger, but more pressing problems he really doesn’t want anyone to notice.

Apparently another thing that made Chifeng-zun hot was his ability to pick Wei Wuxian up with one hand with barely any effort. Who knew?

#Untamed #MDZS #Nie Mingjue #Nie Huaisang #Wei Wuxian #NMJ #NHS #WWX #Mingxian #my writing #mini fic #Also #If anyone cares #my title for this in my files was Arm Strength Kink #Unbeta’d

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aurora077 · 3 years ago

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Securing Sect Leader Jin Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Before securing Sect Leader Jin, you must first secure your shidi/shixiong. Part 2

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13926514/3/Securing-Sect-Leader-Jin

At some point, it had started raining. The sound on the rooftop would normally lull him back to sleep, but the only thing he could hear at the moment was--

I would have done anything for you to live …

Jiang Cheng sucked in a sharp breath.

The words pierced him like Wen Qing’s needles must have.

Wasn’t… wasn’t that his own thought when he’d led the Wens away from Wei Wuxian? It didn’t matter what happened to him, he’d just needed Wei Wuxian to live. He had fully expected to die that day. All he knew was that he wouldn’t.. couldn’t let them take Wei Wuxian. And now… now he couldn’t ever tell him about that. He wouldn’t.

Because it would break Wei Wuxian’s heart.

If he ever found out that he was the reason for Jiang Cheng being tortured and losing his core….

No.

Wei Wuxian would never know. Better to let him think he went back for his parents’ bodies to be filial. He wouldn’t blame himself then. And of all the things Jiang Cheng blamed him for and wanted him to acknowledge and apologise for… that was definitely not one of them.

Stupid he wanted to say. And did you ever think about what you would do afterwards? How would you have explained to me where your cultivation went? If you hadn’t been caught and thrown into the burial mounds, you would have had no demonic cultivation to fall back on. What would you have done then? He wanted to shake Wei Wuxian for his complete lack of thought about himself. It was always this way with him. Playing the hero for everyone, not caring about the consequences. Not caring about himself and what could happen to him.

But how could he? How could he when he did the same? How could he when they felt the same way?

He cradled the back of Wei Wuxian’s head for a second then pulled him away from where he was tucked into Jiang Cheng’s neck to make him face him. His eyes were red and swollen from all the crying, tears still sporadically making their way down his face.

Jiang Cheng exhaled tiredly, leaning his forehead against Wei Wuxian’s and closing his eyes tightly.

“You...” he said weakly. His own eyes were starting to well up.

“I know you’re angry with me,” Wei Wuxian mumbled wetly, “I don’t blame you.”

He wanted to hide his face again but Jiang Cheng’s hand was on his nape, keeping him right where he was.

“I’m not sorry for doing it,” he said in a fit of bravery, “It was the only way I found to help you. But I’m sorry that you didn’t hear about it from me. I just… I didn’t want to hurt you.” “A-Cheng,” he said brokenly, “I’m sorry I hurt you.” He felt Jiang Cheng’s hand tremble and he raised his own hands to cup his shidi’s cheeks, once again wiping tears from it.

His voice was soft and melancholic. “For all the times I hurt you. I’m sorry. It was the last thing I wanted to do. And if you had to find out about the core it should have been from me. It wasn’t Wen Ning’s place to say it. I should have told you myself.”

Jiang Cheng barely contained a whimper. He couldn’t open his eyes to meet Wei Wuxian’s or he would surely break down too. They’d never talked to each other like this before…they’d never even addressed each other so familiarly (both would rather say it to Yanli than to each other’s faces). But it felt necessary. It felt right. After everything they’d been through, didn’t they deserve to have someone to be familiar with? The only one he had left in the world was Jin Ling. And who did Wei Wuxian have? A displaced soul and a donkey? It felt wrong that Wei Wuxian, who’d been the life of every place he’d ever been to, should be left to travel the world all alone.

“A-Xian…” he whispered hoarsely.

At Wei Wuxian’s surprised intake of breath, he finally opened his eyes. Wei Wuxian’s eyes were blown wide and he looked amazed and astounded at the same time.

“A-Xian…” he slowly raised his hand to rest it on top of the one Wei Wuxian still had on his cheek.

“I’m sorry too.”

Wei Wuxian made a strangled noise.

“I should have done more. Something. Anything...” he started, but Wei Wuxian covered his mouth with his free hand and spoke before he could get annoyed.

“No,” Wei Wuxian shook his head, a stern look replacing the previous shock. Removing his hand before Jiang Cheng could pull a teenaged Wei Wuxian’s move of licking the offending limb, he continued, “I never wanted to drag the sect down with me. You couldn’t have done anything to help without ruining everything that you’d worked so hard to build up to that point. You know I’m right.” “A-Cheng, I gave up my core because I wanted to see you succeed. How could I drag the sect through the mud when you were just starting to be acknowledged? You might have been able to protect me but you couldn’t protect them. And I needed to protect them. I owed them for helping me. The sect was in a precarious position. You couldn’t have helped. It was true then and it’s even more so now that we know what the Jins were up to; even if I had gone home with you and abandoned them, it was only a matter of time before they’d have found some pretext to get to me or the sect for the seal anyway. You said...” he paused, sorrow lining his face again, “You said that I should accept that...that… you and shijie chose to… to jump… to p..protect me.” He still couldn’t quite get those words out fully.

“Well I chose to protect the sect in the only way I knew how. By not dragging you down with me. I’ve never blamed you for putting the sect first. It was your duty. I wanted you to do it. I pushed you away so you could focus on the sect.”

Jiang Cheng frowned. “Fine. I won’t apologise for that then. But I... You know I tried to protect you. But you said you didn’t need anyone to speak for you. And you wouldn’t leave them. Now I know why.”

He shifted his gaze to look at a point over Wei Wuxian’s shoulder rather than directly into his eyes. This was too much vulnerability for him already. “So regardless, I’m sorry. I wish I could have protected you.”

Wei Wuxian’s heart swelled with a light feeling. It felt like a weight he didn’t even know he was carrying was being lifted from his chest. He was indeed the one who wanted the Jiang Sect to denounce him so they wouldn’t get the backlash from his actions. He did tell Jiang Cheng he didn’t need him to protect him. But being free of the seal’s influence and in a relatively stable state of mind now…. He was happy that Jiang Cheng wanted to. That he’d tried.

“You said it wasn’t Wen Ning’s place to tell me and it wasn’t. But I needed to know. After the war I thought you didn’t care anymore. You were always drinking and playing around instead of being by my side for meetings or anything else. You idiot, why didn’t you come up with a better lie huh?” He actually grasped Wei Wuxian’s shoulders this time but didn’t quite manage to shake him. His reddened eyes watered and Wei Wuxian was about to apologise again but Jiang Cheng cut him off before he could, in a thin agonised voice. “You could have said that... Why didn’t you at least blame the Core-Melting Hand? It would have made sense. You could have said something...anything! You let me think you were fine and playing the fool. Of all people, don’t you think I would have understood what it was like without one?” His voice had gotten close to a whisper.

Wei Wuxian gave a mirthless laugh. “And if I had, wouldn’t you have wanted to take me back to Baoshan Sanren? And if I’d said it was one chance only to get it restored then wouldn’t you have felt terrible that you used it up? How could I say it to you without hurting you A-Cheng?”

“So what if I would have felt bad!? At least I would have known that you were hurt, you fool!” he burst out, “And when you wanted to pretend to defect, I wouldn’t have stabbed you like that! You always pretend everything is fine up until it very obviously isn’t. But by then it’s often too late to turn back. I didn’t believe Jin Guangshan’s blatant lies about all those supposedly innocent Jin cultivators you had Wen Ning kill in Jinlin Tai. It was fairly obvious after they ambushed you in the first place that it was a set-up. You wouldn’t have done anything like that without a reason.”

“But when A-Jie died... I blamed you. You said you could control the demonic cultivation and then you didn’t. You lost control and A-jie was dead, struck down first by one of your corpses and finished by someone who wanted revenge on you. I was so angry with you. Then some barmy old Sect Leader openly blamed you for A-Die and A-Niang and A-Jie’s deaths right next to that insufferable Sect Leader Yao who didn’t even care that the boy you killed had just murdered A-Jie. Let go of him my ass. If you hadn’t killed him I would have. But then you lost it totally and killed hundreds of people. And the mob looked to me; everyone expected me to go with Jin Guangshan to lead the charge. Who else was wronged by you more than the Jiang and Jin they asked?” his voice cracked, “What was I supposed to do? Tell me. What should I have done?”

And that more than anything reminded him of the last time he saw his friends. He hadn’t had any memory of reaching back to the Demon Slaughtering Cave after he accidentally killed his shijie’s husband… but he distinctly remembers the feeling of pure devastation when he came to himself. What am I supposed to do now? he had cried. And Wen Ning and Wen Qing had answered him by taking the initiative...they’d paralysed him and walked straight to their deaths.

What should I do?

He remembered the feeling well. The hopelessness. The hysteria.

He had gone on to Nightless City and there his shijie had died and the last shred of sanity he’d been clinging to at that point was gone... he had started a massacre because if it was a monster they wanted it was a monster they’d get.

He was so far gone he’d had no idea how he made it out of the battle unscathed (until Zewu-Jun clued him in).

What should I have done? Jiang Cheng was asking him. He knew what Jiang Cheng did do. Or partially at least. Jiang Cheng and the others had stormed into the Burial Mounds… Well he remembered nothing but the pain of being ripped apart. He couldn’t say who killed who though by the end all the Wens were dead, all he knew was that his shidi’s face was the last thing he saw before being engulfed by his own corpses. So what should Jiang Cheng have done other than to go after the man everyone thought responsible for Yunmeng Jiang’s problems? What should he have done as the last Jiang standing?

Nothing. There was nothing he could do but go along the path that destiny set for them. He had to keep his sect safe and avenge his sister. In his grief, what could he really have done? Because what Wei Wuxian did in his grief, he regretted bitterly till this day. And so did Jiang Cheng it seemed, whose tears were being freely shed and who was looking at him with an expression of desolation that pained him to see.

“There was nothing different you could do shidi. But it’s okay,”Wei Wuxian said, “I’ve never blamed you for it. It was my fault.”

“No! It wasn’t!”

“A-Xian. It wasn’t your fault. Not all of it. You certainly didn’t help matters but the blame can’t lie solely on your head. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t shoulder what you didn’t do? So why are you taking responsibility for everything again?”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t believe Jiang Cheng remembered what he’d said at the second siege. (Jiang Cheng would scoff at him if he knew... He was the one with the bad memory. When did Jiang Cheng ever forget things that Wei Wuxian said?)

Jiang Cheng had told him that it was difficult to save someone but there were a thousand ways to hurt them. In the end he was proven right wasn’t he? He wished he wasn’t but he was. Wei Wuxian had never listened to him (though now he understood why he didn’t in this instance). They’d all paid the price.

Jiang Cheng laughed, sounding just on the edge of hysterical, “The cultivation world is always looking for a scapegoat. It just happened to be you then. Now it’s Jin Guangyao… look how quick they were to turn against him. They’re waiting to pounce on anyone who steps out of line again.”

Well that was a conclusion he’d come to himself actually. He hadn’t liked how quick they were to believe the worst of a man they’d lauded up till that point. He had been the one to have to question why the women bothered to come forward only then. They’d been so quick to latch on to tales of Jin Guangyao’s degeneracy. The cultivation world was always just waiting for an opportunity to bring him down. Though Jiang Cheng had spent a long time questioning the women before bringing them to talk to the assembly, so at least his shidi hadn’t just taken their word for it. But then, Jiang Cheng would have been well aware of how insidious rumours were, especially with no proof. The rest of them didn’t care. They hadn’t been affected after all.

Wei Wuxian sighed, “Well, now that Nie Huaisang is Chief Cultivator we can only hope he’ll stop anything like that again before it gets too far. That man’s information network must be amazing.”

Jiang Cheng shook his head and said self-deprecatingly, “I never imagined that Nie Huaisang would be the one to figure out everything. I was so blind. And Jin Ling was in that man’s care for so long. He was close to him. Lianfang-Zun’s betrayal broke his heart.”

“Oh shidi, you couldn’t have known. How would you? He was an expert at manipulation. Even I would never have suspected Jin Guangyao of all of this if it wasn’t for Huaisang’s machinations.”

Jiang Cheng was silent for a moment, his eyes roaming over Wei Wuxian’s face. Wei Wuxian wondered what he was seeing.

“Was…” he raised his hand after a moment and tentatively touched Wei Wuxian’s face, “Do you think he planned for Mo Xuanyu to sacrifice his body to bring you back?” He was running a thumb over that unfamiliar face, knowing that the soul belonged to Wei Wuxian, but wondering about Mo Xuanyu, who had sacrificed his life for it to happen.

Wei Wuxian frowned slightly. “That I don’t know. I can only surmise that Mo Xuanyu found the ritual and planned to do it. Whether Huaisang pushed him into it or simply gave him advice... I can’t say for sure. But what I can say is that Huaisang knew he would do it. Because Nie Mingjue’s arm was let loose on the same night and made its way to Mo Manor. Regardless of whether he had a hand in it or not, he certainly made use of the opportunity.”

“I want to be mad at him,” Jiang Cheng said sadly, “He knew everything yet he let Jin Guangyao get away with it for years. He wanted to completely ruin his reputation rather than just getting rid of him. He let Jin Guangyao get away with many horrible things while plotting his revenge. But…”

“But?”

“But if it wasn’t for him and Mo Xuanyu… you’d probably never have come back,” he said, not meeting Wei Wuxian’s eyes.

“Sh..shidi,” he said, heart suddenly warm, “I thought you didn’t.. Weren’t you hunting demonic cultivators looking for me?”

“Of course I was looking for you, you idiot,” he rolled his eyes, “Do you know how many of them were using your name to do horrible things? And with the way you died, who wouldn’t expect your soul to be building resentment? How could you reincarnate if you were stuck here as a malignant spirit? Someone had to free your soul if it was in fact you.”

“Who else was going to care about releasing the Yiling Patriarch’s spirit? They would have eliminated* you on the spot! People tried to summon you, you know. Nobody could find a trace of your soul. They said… they said it was ripped apart and destroyed,” his voice wobbled slightly.

Wei Wuxian was struck dumb. Everyone said it was because Sandu Shengshou hated the Yiling Patriarch. And he himself believed it. But the first thing Jiang Cheng did when thinking he was possessing Mo Xuanyu was to hit him with Zidian, which would have expelled any malicious spirit. It.. Jiang Cheng was right. He’d been dead. Nobody expected to find him alive. They wouldn’t have been looking for him, they'd be looking for his ghost. And 13 years later only two** parties were still interested in finding his soul… demonic cultivators and Sandu Shengshou (and well apparently the Mo Xuanyu-Nie Huaisang duo but that was a different story…).

“A-Cheng.”

“What?”

“I… I died.”

Jiang Cheng gave him a look that said well yes, that’s been established.

But.. for the first time Wei Wuxian was actually letting that fact sink in.

He had died.

“You’re shaking!”

“A-Cheng.” He really was trembling.

“I was dead,” he looked shattered.

“I died.”

He didn’t cry but his throat seized up and he’d not managed to stifle a grief-stricken whimper.

And it was grief. Grief for the life he’d had and lost. For what could have been as opposed to what was. He hadn’t truly processed what had happened to him, not really. He’d acknowledged it in the vague way that one might simply repeat a fact but he hadn’t let himself feel it before.

For the first time that night, Jiang Cheng initiated an embrace. “I know,” he said somberly, holding Wei Wuxian’s shaking body close.

“Believe me, I know.”

The anguish in his voice had Wei Wuxian clinging tightly to him. Jiang Cheng hugged him just as hard. It was a comfort to them both. Things between them were so complicated, so tied up in knots that he hadn’t had a hope of untangling their relationship. So he hadn’t even tried. He’d resolved to just put everything behind him and move on and he advised Jiang Cheng to do the same. But moving on wasn’t an easy task when you had unresolved trauma. It was more like he was compartmentalising rather than actually healing.

Jiang Cheng just held him silently, making soothing motions on his back until he had sorted out his thoughts and stopped shaking. “You’re back now,” he said looking at Wei Wuxian intently, “Thanks to Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu you have a second chance. And now at least you have a core again so you can cultivate. Jin Ling had said Mo Xuanyu was training in Jinlin Tai before getting kicked out, not so?”

He laughed somewhat shakily, “It’s a small meagre little thing. Mo Xuanyu really was pitiful. It’s certainly not enough to wield Suibian again, which I could do at fifteen.”

“It’s fine if it’s small as long as it’s there,” Jiang Cheng said softly, “It can be grown if you practice. Suibian is waiting for you.”

“Mm ChengCheng, have you been taking good care of my Suibian? Chenqing was shiny and so well tuned, Suibian will get jealous~” he joked.

He snorted and teased, “What do you mean yours? Wen Ning gave it to me, it's mine now. Of course I’ll take good care of it.”

“It wasn’t his! He can’t give it away!” Wei Wuxian pouted, “I’ll be having words with him when he gets back!”

Jiang Cheng’s expression shifted.

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian said softly, sensing the change in mood, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Cheng just shook his head.

“Are you.. Are you upset because he went to Qishan?”

Jiang Cheng sighed and said nothing for a minute, but eventually said, “I can’t be upset with him for that. It’s his duty to his family after all.” “Then what’s wrong? Is it because of that night when he gave you Suibian? He never told me what he said to you...”

Jiang Cheng laughed bitterly, “Don’t worry about that. Other than telling me about the transfer, he didn’t say anything I didn’t hear before. Just that I should have known that I would never have been able to equal you. What’s new there? It isn’t anything my own parents didn’t imply. He was right, I should have known.”

Wei Wuxian’s face went dark. “No he wasn’t! Your parents weren’t right either. And anyway, I’m the one who doesn’t equal you now.” Wei Wuxian hadn’t known what exactly Wen Ning had said but if he had he would’ve definitely had something to say about it. He kept this secret so as not to hurt his shidi and Wen Ning ended up stabbing him where it hurt the most anyway. (Though he knew he had a big part to play in their falling out in the ancestral hall. But he’d have to apologise for that another day. They seemed to be making progress but with all those misunderstandings between them one night certainly wasn’t enough to resolve everything.)

All their life since he’d been at Lotus Pier they’d been compared, Madame Yu scolding Jiang Cheng to do better than him and Uncle Jiang just giving his patented disappointed-in-JC-why-can’t-you-be-like-wei-ying spiel. Jiang Cheng was never that much weaker than him anyway. He had his own strengths and merits. His personality was never the easiest but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be just as good as Wei Ying in cultivation.

Things just came easier to Wei Wuxian, that’s all. He’d tried to make him see that there wasn’t only one way to be a Jiang but what could his words do in the face of a parent’s disapproval? He hated being the reason for Jiang Cheng to be criticised by his parents. And now he had to find out that his friend had gone and done the same thing they did to his shidi; he put Jiang Cheng down because of Wei Wuxian. The exact thing he feared when he thought of Jiang Cheng finding out, had happened...and it wasn't simply brought on by his shidi’s insecurities, it was thrown in his face. Suffice to say, Wei Wuxian was not pleased.

“Oh don’t look like that,” Jiang Cheng said upon seeing Wei Wuxian’s black expression, “You’ll give Mo Xuanyu’s face premature wrinkles; his core isn’t strong enough yet to prevent them.” Jiang Cheng poked at the furrow in between his brows causing him to pout again. “It happened a while ago, I’ve had time to accept it. It wasn’t his place but he did it in his attempt to protect you. Shouting at me was probably a bonus. He has to resent me after all. His family killed mine and then I co-led the siege that killed his. We both have reasons to dislike each other. He had an opportunity to let loose on me and he took it. We both just ignore each other for the most part now. He protected Jin Ling so I’ll let it be. Besides, I’m not surprised he got angry on your behalf and not his own. He always did admire you a lot.” He tried to say it nonchalantly but it was clear that he wasn’t unaffected.

Wei Wuxian sighed, “Fine, I’ll let it go. But if it isn’t that, then what’s bothering you? Don’t say it’s nothing, you got quiet earlier too when I told you about his trip.”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t meet his eyes. “I know what it’s like to be the last one standing,” he said finally, “To have to mourn your family alone.” If Wei Wuxian weren’t so close up in his space, he probably would not have heard him over the still pouring rain.

“To want to lay them to rest but not have a body left to bury,” he continued, as he shot a forlorn look at Wei Wuxian whose heart clenched painfully.

“You identify with him,” he whispered.

Jiang Cheng said nothing but his face reddened slightly.

“Shidi…”

“What?” he snapped, “I’m not heartless. The Wens are gone and though he’s dead he still lingers here. Without anyone. He’s stuck here, unable to enter the reincarnation cycle to be with them. What is he going to do after burying their ashes? Follow Jin Ling around forever or until he assuages his guilt?”

“He’s by himself. He’s the only one left. I know how it feels. If it wasn’t for A-Ling I don’t even know how I would have made it,” he admitted, “I may not particularly care for The Ghost General but he’s lost everything too, including his literal life. And after all this I just wonder if it wouldn’t be kinder to ask him if he’d like to be at rest. What does he have remaining to tie him here? I don’t for a moment doubt that in the future he will realise these things and it will hurt. He might stick around for your sake but loneliness can be a more potent poison than anything else.”

Jiang Cheng didn’t mean the words to be sharp but they cut him nonetheless. After all, they could apply to himself just as easily. His shidi must have seen something in his face because he softened.

“Don’t make that face. You still have places you can go. He can’t fit in so easily. I heard Master Lan punishes the Lan juniors for even associating with him. A-Ling seems to have forgiven him but he certainly can’t show up in Koi Tower even if A-Ling allows him. And if people knew he was frequenting Qishan what do you think they’d say? Maybe the mob will rise up again. He might seem fine now but it’s bound to wear a person down eventually.”

“I never thought I’d see the day that you were concerned for Wen Ning,” Wei Wuxian said wonderingly.

Jiang Cheng sputtered. “Who’s concerned? I’m just saying!”

“Mhm and this has nothing to do with you and Wen Ning spending time together behind those bushes eh?” he snickered.

Jiang Cheng’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “You!” He pounced on him, hooking his arm around Wei Wuxian’s neck and rubbing his knuckles on his head painfully.

“Ahh noo not the noogie!!” Wei Wuxian whined, “Mercy! 🙏 A-Cheeeng.”

“You want mercy but you can never control that mouth of yours,” Jiang Cheng said, letting him go after thoroughly messing up his hair.

Wei Wuxian rubbed his sore head and fixed his hair again, pretending to be insulted.

That just earned him a flick to the forehead and he pouted again.

But after a minute he became serious. “I’m not so different from Wen Ning now,” he admitted, “The whole world’s moved on without me. I don’t have a place here anymore, not really. And you’re not my shidi anymore are you?” He laughed without humor. “You’re Sect Leader Jiang now. I mean obviously you have been since after the war but… I wasn’t really ever there to see it was I?”

“No. You weren’t,” Jiang Cheng agreed solemnly. Wei Wuxian had been too busy drinking his pain away before he saved the remaining Wen cultivators. And then well, it snowballed from there until his death. And Jiang Cheng had had no choice but to grow without him. He wasn’t a naive little boy anymore. He understood now that his shixiong did not in fact have all the answers. That Wei Wuxian could not uphold all the promises he made as a youth. It hurt having to accept it. But he did accept it. He was an old man now, jaded by years of political struggles and grappling with his personal demons. He understood what it was like to be all alone in the world but to have to carry on anyway. And Wei Wuxian had been unceremoniously pulled back from the dead to carry out someone else’s revenge plot then tossed aside when it was complete. It was a little too cruel wasn’t it?

He cleared his throat, “You weren’t there to see it then, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be now.”

Wei Wuxian’s heart raced. Eyes widening he looked up at JC barely daring to hope.

“Jiang Cheng… are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Jiang Cheng grunted, “I’m saying do whatever you want. Go travel with your ugly donkey if that’s what suits you. But there’ll always be a place for you at Lotus Pier. ”

“Hey! No need to insult Lil Apple!” he feigned indignance.

“That’s what you took out of that?” Jiang Cheng said incredulously.

“Well…” fresh tears sprung to his eyes. He never thought he’d be welcome in Lotus Pier again.

“Ahh alright alright, stop that now, your eyeballs will fall out with all this crying,” Jiang Cheng said uncomfortably. His quota for vulnerability was reaching its limit.

Wei Wuxian laughed wetly and finally moved out of his space, propping himself up next to Jiang Cheng again and leaning on his shoulder.

“Jiang Cheng, thank you.”

“Shut up, what are you thanking me for? Just don’t be a stranger…”

“Okay,” he said timidly.

Things seemed to be settled between them, much better than it was before at least. And now he was less worried about Jiang Cheng’s reaction, though a sliver of doubt was still there, but he felt like it needed to be said. Because he was so proud of that little boy he rescued who managed to grow into a fine young adult. He couldn’t help but want to share. But also Jiang Cheng had, in his roundabout way, been concerned about Wen Ning’s own isolation even though he hated him (and Wei Wuxian was pretty sure even though they tolerated each other that it was for Jin Ling’s sake and not because any feelings changed.) So he steeled himself, hoping he was making the right decision.

“Jiang Cheng… Wen Ning he..” he paused.

“What about him? If you’re about to ask for him to come to Lotus Pier too, don’t. I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that.”

“No.,” he shook his head, “It’s just.. He didn’t go to make the memorial alone, you know��”

Jiang Cheng was surprised. “Who would go with him to do that?” It was a very personal journey. And most cultivators did not like going to Qishan if they could help it. And The Ghost General didn’t exactly have friends other than his erstwhile shixiong.

“Do you remember when you first came to talk to me in the Burial Mounds?”

“How could I forget?” he scowled.

He winced, yea okay he deserved that, that wasn’t a conversation that went well.

“Remember there was a baby that grabbed your leg?”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened and his face became downcast. “I.. I’d forgotten about the baby,” he admitted. He felt a twinge of regret. After raising Jin Ling, he’d learned to care more about children than he did before. “I’m sorry,” he said, “Truly I had not even considered the baby. He was the last thing on my mind that day. I’m sorry that he was lost as well. He was an innocent.” Personally, he wouldn’t kill children but he knew there were some people who wouldn’t give it a second thought. Like a certain Jin Guangyao who even killed his own baby to further his goals. And with a bitter taste in his mouth, he remembered Wang Lingjiao, who had it out for their innocent little shidi.

“That’s just it,” Wei Wuxian said, fiddling with his fingers nervously, “He wasn’t.”

“Don’t be stupid, what do you mean he wasn’t? What could a baby possibly have done?”

Wei Wuxian resisted the urge to facepalm. “I meant that he wasn’t lost…”

Jiang Cheng blinked.

“You managed to save him before you….?”

“No. I didn’t even know he was alive until after everything went down with Jin Guangyao...”

“Huh. Did Jin Guangyao save him? He kept the Ghost General around to use him but what use did he have for a Wen baby? Can’t have been that he felt bad...”

“It wasn’t Jin Guangyao. It was Lan Zhan,” he said.

“Lan Wangji? How did Lan Wangji save him? He wasn’t at the siege. I don’t know if you know but he went into seclusion and didn’t come out until three years had passed.”

“I know. But apparently he wanted to see the truth for himself so before he secluded himself he visited the Burial Mounds and just happened to find A-Yuan hidden in a tree with a strong fever. He saved him but A-Yuan lost his memories so he didn’t even know who he was. He remembers only bits and pieces now of living in the Burial Mounds, after he saw ChenQing. Wen Ning… well they reconnected and he went with him to bury their family together.”

Jiang Cheng was silent for a moment. “So the Lans took him in as their own. Lan Yuan is it?”

“Yes. But you may know him as Lan Sizhui,” Wei Wuxian added.

“Lan Sizhui?! The one that goes with A-Ling on all those night hunts?”

He nodded.

“Well no wonder The Ghost General hangs around them like a particularly large fly.”

Wei Wuxian felt brave enough to swat him. “You do too!”

Jiang Cheng elbowed him. “Don’t compare me to him!”

Didn’t you do that yourself earlier, he thought. But he backed down.

Jiang Cheng sighed. “I’m glad,” he said soberly.

“Lan Sizhui is an exemplary Lan disciple. Not like that noisy one who likes to backchat. You’d think he was the one who spent time with you.”

“Hey!”

“I suppose Lan Wangji was good for something.”

“Jiang Cheng!”

“Fine fine I’ll say nothing more about your precious Hanguang-Jun. I did wonder how come they’d been on this hunt without Lan Sizhui. He’s usually glued to the hip with the loud one.”

“Well...now you know.” Secretly he was really glad Jiang Cheng was taking this so well. He’d hoped but he didn’t know what to expect.

“Anyway, Lan Sizhui may have the Ghost General with him, but the rest of those brats don’t. If we want to follow A-Ling back to Jinlin Tai we’ll have to get some sleep.”

Wei Wuxian punctuated his agreement with a loud yawn as they settled back down to try and catch a wink of sleep. Morning would come very soon.

As he was starting to drift off, Jiang Cheng spoke again.

“Do you know the thing I blame you for the most right now, Wei Wuxian? It’s that out of all those people who you managed to kill in Nightless City, Sect Leader Yao remains alive and kicking… You had one job!”

He’d panicked at first but after that declaration he pouted, “But A-Cheeeng I couldn’t help it. He’s like a cockroach. Hard to kill and always underfoot making a nuisance of himself.”

Jiang Cheng snorted. “Sounds about right. Anyway, go to sleep. It’s late.”

“Yes, zongzhu. Whatever you say zongzhu.”

He earned himself another elbow, but he fell asleep with a smile.

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

Notes:

*About wwx's spirit the methods would have been-- First, release the spirit from suffering. Second, suppress it. Third, eliminate it. For the initial approach, use the loving memory of his parents, wife, and children to comprehend his deepest desires and fulfill them. If this fails, move to suppression. But if the crimes are too great and his resentment too bitter to dissipate, eliminate him root and branch; his continued existence must not be permitted. -- MDZS Elegance IV

**LWJ playing inquiry for 13 years is fanon, not (novel) canon. Even if we’re going with this headcanon though, WWX has no idea that LWJ would have been looking for his soul.

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years ago

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Prompt~ hoping you'll like it ♥️

Things between the Nie brothers are not always nice and happy, they fight, just like any other pair of brothers, and sometimes things are said, sometimes these things are heavy and painful. Sometimes they're said in the wrong moment (maybe at the eve of a battle? Sunshot campaign?) and huaisang doesn't know what to do with the broken look his brother gives him before leaving the unclean realm. Because what if he doesn't return? What if the last thing he said to him was how much he hated the man he became?

Labyrinth - ao3

“But I didn’t mean to wish him away!” Nie Huaisang cried out.

“That’s really too bad,” the goblin king said, looking pleasant and humble and charming the way he always did, even in his cape of glittering gold and high-browed hat. “I wish there was something I could do for you, but the rules are the rules. You wished him away, and I took him.”

“Aren’t you supposed to only take babies?” Nie Huaisang demanded.

“Your brother’s enough of a crybaby to count, it’s close enough.”

“It is not!” Nie Huaisang wrung his hands. “You don’t understand, the last thing I said to him was that I hated him! Meng Yao, please!”

“It’s Jin Guangyao,” the goblin king corrected. His smile looked a bit strained. “Listen, do you think I’m happy about this? He’s my sworn brother! I’m only doing what I have to –”

“Oh, save it for Lan Xichen,” Nie Huaisang growled. “Show me the labyrinth already.”

“You’re going to face the labyrinth,” the goblin king said. His voice was very polite, and yet still expressed significant doubt. “You.”

“Yeah, me!”

“You remember that it goes ‘through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered’, right? Not ‘through a nice teacher and a forgiving grading system’?”

“Yeah, well, your father is a fragging aardvark. Let me at the labyrinth already!”

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said thoughtfully. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The life-sized animated puppet blinked at him. “You – don’t want my help?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

“You haven’t even gotten into the labyrinth yet!”

“It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t have a chance to get in,” Nie Huaisang said, patting around his sleeve and pulling out a fan. “So I’m just going to walk over and beat at the wall till something happens.”

The puppet followed him, staring blankly. Quite a change from his original apologetic ‘I’m sorry, I’m busy with my own things, I really can’t help you, also it’s too dangerous and you shouldn’t go’ response.

“You were blackmailing me to help you just a moment ago,” the puppet said after a little. “Don’t you need a guide?”

“Listen, I’m bad at memorizing things and I’m a little useless, but I’m not actually dumb,” Nie Huaisang said, fanning himself. “Jin Guangyao is a demon of the mind above all else, and the labyrinth is supposed to be ‘fair’ – which means, more than likely, that the labyrinth is a reflection of the subconscious, specially tailored to each person’s strengths and weaknesses. And that means that you, who sound exactly like Lan Xichen, are almost certainly a set-up sent by Jin Guangyao to ‘reluctantly’ aid me and then betray me.”

“Uh,” Lan Xichen-the-puppet said. “My name’s Hoggle, actually.”

“Whatever makes you feel better, er-ge…A-ha!” Nie Huaisang beamed at the gates that automatically opened. “Perfect!”

“Oh, don’t go that way,” the worm said. “Never go that way. And are you sure you don’t want to come in for a cup of tea?”

“No time,” Nie Huaisang said. “Thanks a lot – wait.”

The worm blinked at him.

“You’re a pretty attractive worm, in a slimy sort of way,” Nie Huaisang said, frowning at him.

The worm blinked again. “Why, thanks!”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Is your name Su She, by chance?”

“Definitely not!”

“Mm. Oddly vehement of you. Never mind. Just, quick, could you tell me exactly why do I not want to go that way?”

“I don’t suppose straight ahead is an option?”

The hands-faces stared at him.

“I’m just saying, I feel like most of my problems so far have come from the fact that I decided to accept the whole concept of turns. It seems like a mistake.”

“…it’s a labyrinth,” another set of the hands said. “You have to make turns!”

Nie Huaisang shook his head mournfully. “I should’ve brought Baxia or something and just – ZIP. Gone straight through. You know what I mean?”

“I’m dropping you in the oubliette regardless of your decision,” the first set of the hands said. It sounded a bit like Sect Leader Yao. “Just so you know.”

“My life is so hard,” Nie Huaisang sighed. “So hard! Do you know what it’s like to be overlooked by everyone? Do you know how hard I have to work at being this useless?”

“Drop him,” the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Ouyang said, and the set of hands that sounded like Sect Leader Yao said, “Yes. Now!”

Down Nie Huaisang went.

“I can take you back to the beginning of the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen offered.

“What, and waste all that time? I have a time limit, er-ge!”

“It’s better than being stuck in an oubliette. That’s where they put people to forget about them, you know.”

Nie Huaisang’s eyes filled with tears. “You want to forget me, er-ge? You think I’m useless, don’t you? A good-for-nothing, who’ll never amount to anything –”

“Please don’t cry.”

“ER-GE! WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME!”

“Please stop crying!”

“So what’s the point of you?” Nie Huaisang asked the Wise Man with the Talking Hat.

“Not everyone exists to contribute to your storyline,” the Talking Hat snapped at him. “Some of us’ve got our own problems. Now hand over the candy!”

“Don’t be mean,” the Wise Man said. He had a white cloth over his eyes, and was smiling like he found the hat funny.

“Awww, but daozhang…!”

“Different plotline entirely, I guess,” Nie Huaisang decided. “Probably just here as a foil. Shall we keep going, er-ge?”

“I can’t believe you scammed me to get out of the oubliette,” Lan Xichen mumbled. “I can’t believe…”

“Oh, leave him alone, he’s just sensitive!” Nie Huaisang snapped.

“Am not!” the upside-down creature snarled, curled up on itself and trying to hide from all those that had been hitting him. Its fur was a vivid sort of purple. “Go away!”

“Don’t you have some sort of special power to help you here,” Nie Huaisang asked him as he tried to get him down before the goblins came back with weapons. “Rocks, maybe?”

“…lightning?”

“Well then get to it, will you?” Nie Huaisang frowned. “Wait. Lightning, constantly being tormented, terrible at communication, and purple? You’re Jiang Cheng, aren’t you?”

“…maybe.”

“Well then get down faster! I need to copy someone’s notes here!”

“Leave me aloooooooone!” Nie Huaisang howled, running away from the measuring snake.

“Wow,” Lan Xichen said, holding his cheek. “You kissed me.”

“You saved me from the snakes,” Nie Huaisang said. “Can we focus on how we’re in this awful stinking bog?”

“It’s not that bad!” a voice piped up. “I don’t smell anything!”

Nie Huaisang turned to stare, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course you don’t,” he said. “I bet the total absence of a sense of smell helps when you eat spicy food, Wei-xiong.”

“There’s nothing wrong with spicy food!”

“You’re short,” Nie Huaisang informed the small goblin-like creature with the big grin and the red ribbon in its hair. It looked vaguely fox-like, or possibly like certain large breeds of rabbit.

“Why you..!” Wei Wuxian crossed his furry little paws over his chest. “Just for that, I’m not going to help you.”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Huaisang said. “Really. That’s awful…oh no! A dog!”

Wei Wuxian jumped high into the air. “A dog?! Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan! Save me!”

Much to Nie Huaisang’s surprise, a furry dog immediately darted out of nowhere – only Wei Wuxian didn’t seem afraid of it, but rather hid behind it, teeth chattering.

Truly, Nie Huaisang reflected, the eyes of love are blind.

“I think the ‘dog’ is gone now,” he said. “Your brave and noble Lan Wangji must’ve scared him away.”

Wei Wuxian’s head popped out from behind dog-Wangji. “Well, Lan Zhan is really cool…hey. Are you trying to manipulate me?”

“Is it working?”

“No!”

“So you won’t help me?”

“No!”

“Not even if it means you get to figure out a really tricky puzzle?”

“No – wait. A puzzle?”

“I can’t believe this is going to work,” Lan Xichen muttered from behind Nie Huaisang. “I mean, I can. But also…Wangji…I love you, but you could do so much better than this.”

“Ugh,” Nie Huaisang said. “I’m so thirsty.”

“Have some Emperor’s Smile,” Lan Xichen said, offering a jar.

“Amazing,” Nie Huaisang said, accepting it and taking a swing. “I had my doubts, you know, but you’re actually good for something after all, er-ge –”

The golden bird was Nie Huaisang’s favorite.

He’d worked so hard to bring it back to his aviary – it couldn’t be forced, he knew; it would play along at first but in the end it would turn on you and bite you. It had to be coaxed with gentleness and kindness, approached indirectly so as not to spook it, convince it that you really did mean well – that you were harmless, that it had no reason to fear you. It was arrogant, too, proud of its shining feathers and ashamed of the brown plumage of its chick days, which still remained visible on its tender underbelly. Ironically, that was Nie Huaisang’s favorite part of it, the soft and gentle part; it might not be as pretty as the gold, but it felt more genuine.

Nie Huaisang smiled as he brushed the beautiful feathers, and the golden bird allowed him. He felt cherished, treasured. So what if he had to hide all the sharp parts of himself to get this close?

It was fine. He didn’t like to be sharp.

He wanted to be soft. Soft and gentle, careless and free, relaxed and without effort, good for nothing –

Wait.

No!

“It’s all junk,” Nie Huaisang hissed at the pile of burning fans, tears in his eyes. “I want my da-ge!”

“You’re all right!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, helping pulled Nie Huaisang up.

“Huaisang-xiong,” Jiang Cheng said, looking relieved. “You’re back.”

“We have to go to the temple beyond the Goblin City,” Nie Huaisang said, teeth gritted together. “We have to. I won’t let that bastard…we’re going to go there and throw all his damned tricks right in his face!”

“Just us?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I mean, I’m awesome, Lan Zhan is fantastic, and of course Jiang Cheng is great, too, but…uh…there’s a lot of goblins in the city.”

“We’ll sneak in,” Nie Huaisang said. “He thinks he’s sidelined me entirely – he thinks I’m useless. He won’t be expecting me to get this far.”

“I can get help,” Jiang Cheng said. “I have friends.”

“…not to be rude, Jiang-xiong,” Nie Huaisang said. “But – really?”

“You know what,” Nie Huaisang said, eyeing the pile of rocks following Jiang Cheng around, each one painted with a name. One of the names was yellow. Two were in white, with forehead ribbons. “This is fine. I feel like it says something really rude about my empathy for and interest in our junior generation, or lack thereof, but you know what? I don’t care. It’s fine.”

“You saved me,” Nie Huaisang said blankly, looking at Lan Xichen, who shrugged, abashed. The remains of the mechanical temple guard were scattered all over. “Over – him?”

“Huaisang –”

“No,” Nie Huaisang said, holding up his hands. “Don’t. Don’t…I don’t want to hear you talk.”

Lan Xichen’s head dropped down and he looked at the ground. “You knew from the beginning what I was like,” he murmured. “I never tried to hide it –”

“I forgive you for being what you are,” Nie Huaisang told him, and Lan Xichen looked up at him, startled and pleased. “I forgive you for not having the backbone to stand up against Jin Guangyao for me – or for da-ge. For being willfully blind for so long, for needing someone else’s proof of his ill-intentions, for always picking him first, for never trusting me…I forgive you, even if you’d never forgive me for the same.”

He dashed away the angry tears in his eyes.

“I just wish this wasn’t a fucking metaphor.”

Nie Huaisang left the fighting to the people who knew what to do – Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, even the rock-juniors – and went to the temple at the center of the city alone.

Some things, he knew, needed to be done alone, even if it was the type of alone when you were surrounded by other people. Even when those other people stood by his side and made him promise that if he needed them, he would only need to call. Some things…

“I want my da-ge back,” he said to the maze of stairs.

“Then go and find him,” Jin Guangyao replied, looking smug, and Nie Huaisang had to go up and down all those fucking stairs, because Jin Guangyao was nothing if not predictable with his trauma, looking all over, looking for –

Looking for pieces.

“It’s just a metaphor,” he whispered to himself, ignoring how tears were streaming down his face. “It’s just – I need to put him back together, it’s fine. I’m not too late – I’m not too late –”

Jin Guangyao held Nie Mingjue’s head in his hands, blinded and gagged and bound with talismans, pulled out of whatever oubliette he'd shoved it into to forget about what he'd done. “Beware, Huaisang,” he said, still smiling. Always smiling. “I’ve been generous up until now, but I can be cruel.”

Nie Huaisang laughed, scoffing. “Generous? What have you done for me that’s generous?”

“Everything! Everything you’ve wanted, I’ve done – I cared for you, I gave you attention, I got you out of work, doing your schoolwork for you and coming up with excuses to get you out of saber training. I gave you presents, fans and pretty clothing, and when that brute of a brother of yours tried to take them from you, I rescued you. And then I even managed your sect for you, answered all of your questions, any time you had – Huaisang, I’m exhausted trying to live up to your expectations of me. Isn’t that generous?”

Nie Huaisang bared his teeth. “Half of those are burdens that only fell on me because of you. Why should it matter to me that cleaning up your own mess and satisfying your own guilt is hard? Why should I pay such a price when all I wanted was to be your friend? When all da-ge wanted was to be your friend? How dare you, Meng Yao!”

“Huaisang…” Jin Guangyao shook his head mournfully. “Huaisang, the last step here is to say the words to break the spell. But you were never good at memorization, were you?”

Nie Huaisang bit his lip until he drew blood.

“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered,” he said. “I have fought my way here to the temple beyond the goblin city –”

“Huaisang, stop! Look at what you’re risking here. You know how everyone loves me – do you think anyone will forgive you for taking me down, for tricking them all? You’ll be all alone!”

I already am, Nie Huaisang thought.

“My will is as strong as yours,” he said. “And my kingdom is as great…”

His voice trailed off.

“I ask for so little,” Jin Guangyao said beseechingly, convincingly, looking just like he always did, like the man who'd been their friend. “Just let me fool you, and you can have anything you want. No responsibilities, no stress, a life of your own. You can even have Lan Xichen, if that’s what you want…”

What’s the last line, Nie Huaisang thought, hating himself for being such a poor student, for cramming things into his mind without any order, for never being able to retain a single drop of it no matter how hard he tried. What is it? Why can’t I ever remember?

“It’d be so easy,” Jin Guangyao crooned. “Much easier than this. Just fear me, love me, believe me, and I’ll be your slave.”

Sharp teeth in a false smile.

Nie Huaisang shook in terror. He couldn’t – his da-ge needed him – he couldn’t be afraid, couldn’t be a coward, couldn’t be good-for-nothing – couldn’t let Jin Guangyao win – couldn’t let him –

That was it.

Nie Huaisang raised his head until his eyes met his enemy’s.

Sensing something wrong, Jin Guangyao’s eternal smile dimmed, and he began to step forward, reaching out, but it was too late.

“You have no power over me,” Nie Huaisang declared, and the world within a world collapsed.

Nie Huaisang opened his eyes.

Nie Huaisang sat in his desk in the Unclean Realm, trying to amuse himself by trying to figure out what exactly he’d eaten the night before that had given him such bizarre dreams. It was not successful, on account of him being alone.

Alone, just as he had been every night, and every day as well, since the success of his scheme at the Guanyin Temple.

Just as the dream-Jin Guangyao had threatened.

It wasn’t that Nie Huaisang regretted what he had done – the dream was clear enough about that; he’d do it all again in a heartbeat if he had to. But in the dream he’d been working alongside his former friends, with Lan Xichen betraying but then returning to him, with Wei Wuxian dragging Lan Wangji around, with stone-faced Jiang Cheng and the rather interchangeable junior squad behind him…and in his dream, in the end, they’d let him go to take his revenge, telling him that if he needed them for any reason, he could just call.

Just call, and they’d come back to him. Instead of turning from him in disgust, they’d stand by his side…

“Stupid subconscious,” Nie Huaisang mumbled to himself. “What do you expect? That I'd write to them and say ‘for no real reason at all, I find that I rather need you’?”

Silence answered him.

“Well, I do,” he said with a sigh, putting his chin on his hands. “Does that make you happy? I do need you.”

“You do?” Wei Wuxian’s voice rang out, and Nie Huaisang jumped nearly out of his skin. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”

Nie Huaisang turned, staring: it was Wei Wuxian at the door, the human version of him, and of course there was Lan Wangji right before him, and Jiang Cheng, and the (still mostly interchangeable) juniors, and – and even Lan Xichen, who Nie Huaisang was sure had gone into seclusion with no intent to leave.

“What are you doing here?” Nie Huaisang squeaked. And why hadn’t any of his sect disciples warned him?

“We just bullied our way though the door before anyone could stop us,” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully, answering the unspoken question first. “As for the rest – it turns out that I had the strangest dream the other night, really, truly bizarre, and obviously I had to tell Lan Zhan all about it, except it turned out he had a strange dream too.”

Nie Huaisang’s jaw dropped. “But –”

“I felt da-ge’s qi woven into the labyrinth,” Lan Xichen said quietly. “I thought it’d have long ago dissipated or been locked away, but – it was there, in every stone, in every turn. Every obstacle that didn’t really hurt you, every goblin that was more silly than scary…he was there. It was unmistakable.”

Nie Huaisang swallowed. The story of the labyrinth, baby-stealing wish-granting goblin king and all, had been one that Nie Mingjue had told him as a bedtime story, when he'd been a child in need of comfort; he hadn’t thought of it in years before last night. “But…why…?”

“Because Chifeng-zun has a demented sense of humor?” Jiang Cheng suggested, looking irritated.

“Jiujiu means that he hasn’t had that much fun in years, and also that you should throw a party,” Jin Ling said. “You are hosting all three of the sect leaders of all the other Great Sects. Also, why were we rocks?”

“Uh, no idea,” Nie Huaisang said. “Da-ge’s weird sense of humor, no doubt! Anyway, did you say party? I can do a party!”

He rushed out of the room, calling for his servants, calling for them to bring food and wine and tea, and as he did, he looked out of the window – a golden bird was flying away, looking hunted as if something was chasing it, and even as he watched, it crossed the borders of the Unclean Realm and suddenly dissolved into a fizzle of golden dust.

Nie Huaisang put his hand on the stone wall, and felt a familiar echo.

A very familiar echo.

“Oh,” he said, to his servants, feeling somehow simultaneously sheepish and filled with joy. “And while you’re at it, can you bring me my saber? I seem to have – misplaced it…”

#mdzs #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #lan xichen #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #su she #sect leader yao #sect leader ouyang #xiao xingchen #xue yang #my fic #my fics #labyrinth

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jiangwanyinscatmom · 3 years ago

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[1/?] Sorry for venting. I just saw some bad takes that gave me a lot of feelings. Personally, JC stresses me out every time he comes on screen, but I don't mind it when JC fans say fan-typical things like how they like JC because he wears purple, or is grumpy, or they think he's hot, or that they ship x*ch*ng because the cql actors have nice jawlines. They're harmless, fun takes, and while I don't agree with some of them, I see where they're coming from

Hello there anon, vent away as that is what my blog is open for as I love/hate on Jiang Cheng as he is in the plot, as well as all of my beef with what has been done to him for the EN side of the fanbase! I am more than fine listening and engaging with the unsavory "unpopular" discussions of his canon behavior and this goes for anyone of course that needs an open play area. I'll try to engage with what you have sent point by point as succinctly as I can.

[2/?] (some of these are obviously crack, and I am a fan of a few problematic faves). But then there are stans that just have to put other characters down to make JC look good. Like, I think some fans take their freedom of interpretation for granted because most of these takes aren't even labeled 'headcanon,' 'ooc,' or 'crack' anymore. Stans feel that their interpretations are valid, and while they are, valid =/= canon, and they're treating these takes as canon, which becomes popular fanon.

I enjoy Jiang Cheng for what he is, however as I had said it took me another reread to get to my stance of him being the negative mirror to Lan Wangji's positive and my comfort with that for the story once I realized what purpose he served. He is only insofar tragic in regards to his circumstances, but it does not absolve him for what he is at his core (no pun, but I can make a very nice metaphor that even with a piece of Wei Wuxian in him he is still forever unable and unwilling to stand by him equally all while stagnating where as Lan Wangji is able to flourish, grow and mature with nothing of import left from Wei Wuxian in a technical sense). As for ships, I am a little dirty Xicheng whore for fun and can say there is a sense of entertainment for me making it work with two people where one is wildly ignorant and the other wildly rabid. But that is outside of what is established as canon in the work and I always try to keep the two strictly separate due to the skew fanon perpetuates.

3/?] And now, it's not clear what part of the fanon references canon JC or the canon events of mdzs. JC is an asshole; I don't like him as a person, but I do think that he's a complex character motivated by many issues (sup, YeeZY), which makes him fascinating to explore. Unfortunately, erasing his culpability also removes his agency. JC should be allowed to be an asshole character who makes his own decisions even if they're the wrong ones. He has made his own tragedy by constantly casting Wei Wuxian as the villain of his life.

Now thanks to you I will be using YeeZY to forever and now to acknowledge Madam Yu (this is your fault for the new tag). From a standing from storytelling I agree that he is complex in the Jianghu for MDZS. Where in the usual political intrigue of Wuxia, he would be the mustache twirling villain that is outright unforgivable in narration, it is by favor of Wei Wuxian's narration that has an early steeping of empathy for him. And he is not meant to be seen as ultimately sympathetic, the work builds up his hate against Wei Wuxian who tries to rationalize it all several times until he is finally unable to. Jiang Cheng is the antithesis to Lan Wangji and the false bait to get attached to in Wei Wuxian's first life. I will make the note their meeting in Yiling is lukewarm between both as they exchange nothing really in terms of conversation and all pleasantries are left in terms of Jiang Yanli for Wei Wuxian. By this point Wei Wuxian has already switched his yearnings of platonically wanting a part of Jiang Cheng's life, to subconscious romantic inclinations about Lan Wangji and the perceived loss of being in the other's life.

The very point of Jiang Cheng as the deconstruction, is that he has no passion in life despite his apparent exploits because he put a shadow to hang over himself as an excuse to say others think he is not good enough. He has no deeper motivations than pure selfishness by the end of the work and is pure frivolity that he has built up losing the meaning of his sect as a tradition. He had his agency (more than anyone I might add in the work due to his social position) that he used to build his reputation as a passive rich sect leader that has little to do with civilian problems.

4/?] And I think a JC, somehow, that realizes that he did something wrong and is working hard to change for the better and gain self-actualization to become that UWU best jiujiu the stans want him to be, who is ready to talk (not yell at) with WWX, apologize to him, and create a better, healthier relationship with him is a much more powerful reconciliation and happy ending than 'everyone is wrong and mean and they all apologize to JC, which magically gets rid of all his issues'.

He is forced out of culpability in reconciliation because simply put, his audience do not like the reality that relationships fray and dissolve with no further resolution other than we as adults both need to move on for safety and good health. It is not acceptable in real life and fiction is allowed to place that also in it's thematic relationships. He has a small, small spark of recognition at the end of the main story, however he himself seems to choose to ignore it, as change is hard and he has never taken to that well as was foreshadowed with his dogs and the idea of sharing a space with Wei Wuxian. To write this is an awful lot of work into his psyche which is not a nice place, he is a terrible being and downplaying that to make a sugar sweet person does not work instantaneously. He is the one responsible for the entire fallout with Wei Wuxian and he hysterically realizes that even as he tries to continue to blame Wei Wuxian.

The issue that I have with his current stan culture, is that they already view him as something he is not. They play at bicycle with all of the other protagonists that have positive traits that they strip as they see fit; Good affirming loving to children adult Lan Wangji, Self-sacrificing ultimately did it all for love and care Wei Wuxian, Hard exterior but softened to who they consider an annoyance Wen Qing, Loyal as partners in their exploits on the field and always have each others back Wen Ning. They even take Jin Guangyao's persona of playing damsel and using that as a positive to soften up Jiang Cheng into something he has never been for anyone for ships.

[5/5] Also, making WWX/WN/LWJ apologize just makes them look better than JC. Like, stans supposedly love JC, so they ahouldn't be lazy and work hard to give him actual character development. Again, I'm sorry for spamming your ask. It just really baffles me about where they get these 'hot' takes (All I'm going to say is that JC was ungrateful, and WN had a reason verbally dismantle him).

They see this, but, they will spin it in any way to excuse Jiang Cheng due to the story itself showing that he was in the wrong to everyone he flung accusations at and his hate. No one but him is at fault for his spite as he had gotten his revenge on the ones that had ruined Lotus Pier and killed his parents. His own resentment pitted him against good and well meaning people that he refused to help as he mimicked his mother's words about raising their heads higher out of goodness instead of keeping low and staying self-centered. There is the underlying criticism of taking individual arrogance as self-care at the cost of others. Each point that Wen Ning makes is exactly what Jiang Cheng himself knows as he hated Wei Wuxian for being something he could not be or even wanted to be. Jiang Cheng wants kindness but does not understand that kindness to others needs to be selfless and accept the hurt that can come with that in life. He encompasses the fall from the path of buddhist lifestyle, "The Three Poisons" to Wangxian's "Without Envy" at the stories end.

[6/5] P.S. I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it. I think it would be interesting to see what force of nature would push him through a character development because throwing a therapist at him would result in a murder.

"I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it."

They do not think he has to work for it, they say his tragedy is enough, while heaping accusations against Wei Wuxian and saying his own are not enough to absolve him. Something Wei Wuxian has never denied and told all present they are allowed to forever hate him for what he had done in the past, but that they need to find a way to live in a life that is always moving on. He learned that grudges do nothing once they are absolved and it leaves you with hate with nothing else to do with it once that object is gone. In terms of reconciliation, I do not ever think that either want anything other than a distant peaceful out of each other's life set up. Jiang Cheng does not need Wei Wuxian in his life to be satisfied and never has since he used him as the handicap to hide behind to stay angry and miserable. Being without that fallback opens the world far more for him to change than him ever interacting like an old friend with Wei Wuxian ever again, if he ever had the guts to do that.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #yeah I am using that tag block me if it upsets you #pokes this sorry for the length I tried #listen... only i am his trash queen

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