#it got soft at the end because this is a pretty big moment for Xiao!!

[dourpeep]

i’m gonna build on the housing situation with kazuxiaoreader rq

i feel like reader rooms with old friends and it’s a long walk away from the school and even further from their boyfriends. before moving in together, they’d all meet up at school and just go to xiao’s place nearby to hangout

when it gets late, the boyfriends would always walk reader home, so they aren’t all alone. reader felt bad because of how far the walk is back to their place and back to their respective places, so they started planning

having asked xiao ofc, they started bringing an overnight bag so the trio can spend the night together because goodbye’s really hurt. kazuha’s like right down the street and he insists on just walking back and forth (because convenient locations are convenient)

xiao, living alone, has a twin bed (because he didn’t expect anyone over anytime soon). so, the first time kazuha and reader spend the night, they all just look at each other and then back at the bed

thanks to reader, they did attempt to all fit in the bed at least once. all squished together, reader starts sliding off. being dramatic, they pulled xiao along with them who brought kazuha down with him as well

kazuha just settles to sleep on the floor (with blankets and pillows ofc) and the rest agree because they can make as big a bed as they want/need

agshaja they could just have a little nest on the floor and cuddle (′͈∨‵͈♡)

(got sidetracked) their relationship seriously develops and reader keeps bringing overnight clothes, but always forgets to take them back to their place. xiao quickly takes notice and says, “why don’t you bring the rest of your apartment over while you’re at it”

reader, shocked, asks if he’s serious which in turn shocks xiao bc he was being sarcastic

kazuha, just eavesdropping, comes in to add “i think it’d be a great idea, if that’s alright with you, xiao” which snowballs them all moving into xiao’s tiny cozy apartment

- umi (congrats on 700!! you deserve the recognition :) )

uuuuuuu you can tell how old this is because we're at 1.2k now-- SORRY UMI

You got Reader's (your!) situation on the dot!! Remember that cup-themed fic and how Xinyan was so cozy at the trio's apartment?? It's because she's your og roomie and one of your best friends (because I love Xinyan dearly, I'd want to be friends with her-).

In this specific au, you lived back in the campus' dorms where four students live in a block. Each block is made up of a common room and four bedrooms. Definitely fancier than some dorms, but still with the separate shared bathrooms per floor.

Referenced in this, your roomies were Xinyan, Venti, and someone I haven't yet figured out. But it's not related to the story so!!

Speaking of roomies, it was pretty surprising to find out that your gregarious, green-eyed, ukulele-playing roommate was actually friends with Xiao. Quite the unlikely pair, though they met because of a shared music class. Who knew that the moody stick-in-the-mud Venti always prattled on about was him??

But the first time your boyfriends came to your dorm (you'd forgotten something before heading to Xiao's apartment), Venti just about lost it. Dragging you into his room with hands on his hips and demanding an explanation-

When he's satisfied you're finally free to go.

Xiao lives closer to downtown like Kazuha, really only a few blocks away. So every few days the three of you make the journey from campus after your last class of the day and walk to Xiao's apartment. It's not too bad, maybe around 15 minutes if you don't get sidetracked...but even so you try to convince them they don't need to walk you back to the dorms.

Each time, they refuse to relent.

But when Xiao and Kazuha walk together back to their apartments (Xiao's adamant that he walks Kazuha to his despite it being a little further down the road), they can't help but think about how nice it'd be if you didn't have to walk back every time.

The idea doesn't come at first, not until Xiao's drying off his hair and sees one of your sweaters left draped on the couch. Not to mention you'd bought a mug last month and forgot it at his apartment only to just leave it there so you can use it when you come over.

He leans against the arm of the couch, head tilting as he stares at your sweater.

That week, Xiao brings it up in passing conversation, fidgeting his fingers.

"You forgot your sweater last weekend."

When you say you'll take it back home, he mumbles that he'd fixed his closet so that you can bring some spare clothing if you wanted, knowing that'd be easier than having to bring some every time you wanted to sleep over. Really, the closet itself was much bigger than he needed.

So you do, and when you're at your dorm, Xiao can't help but think deeper about it whenever he opens his closet door to grab something.

It's Kazuha who ends up mentioning living together.

At this point, the three of you pretty much live at Xiao's apartment, both you and Kazuha having spare clothes in the closet, even sometimes just staying through the whole week and walking to campus together early.

He even went and purchased (to your and Kazuha's surprise) a bigger bed! Xiao just shrugged and mentions how sleeping on the floor isn't good for your back.

The little nest that you guys made stays in the bedroom's corner, though, to Kazuha's delight.

So cuddled up in bed, the three of you doze off to awake refreshed and ready in the morning (save for Xiao who's still a bit tired in the mornings).

By now, the three of you are settled comfortably.

You can't imagine living without either of them and them with you. It's sweet, really, how the feelings have bloomed into something that you truly believe will last the years. So when Xiao jokes about how you've both basically moved in already, you're quick to suggest it.

"Why don't we?"

Within three days, you're busy moving stuff from your dorm and Kazuha's studio to what now is your apartment.

The change is welcome, leaving Xiao's chest warm. Really, though he did have a well-furnished home, seeing a mix of yours and Kazuha's belongings scattered here and there--your bag set beside the door, one of Kazuha's books on the coffee table...He can't help but smile.

Even though you both need to wait out the end of your leases, it feels as if you're fully moved in.

What really settles it, though, is when you're all out with a few friends one night. A celebration that you've since forgotten what it was for.

"Let's go home now?"

And the realization dawns that, yes, home now has become that apartment on the third floor, just down the hall from the lovely grandma, in the relatively old building downtown. And when the day comes to an end, it's where you, Kazuha, and Xiao are able to return to with tired limbs and sleepy smiles.

And even though it's hardly changed, Xiao can't help but slide in bed between the two of you already asleep, heart full because this place he'd only seen as a place to go between school and work...

Was now home.

[t4rt4gl14]

The most coldest of boys with big egos getting their brains fucked out and their ego splattered out from their dick...?

𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐀 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊 ‘𝐄𝐌 𝐀𝐋𝐋! [ 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 ]

EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD. [ 18+ ]

⌘ [ gn!reader ]. handjob. blowjob. cock can be read as strap. pounding. overstimulation. edging. praise. degradation. belly bulge. dacryphilia. spanking. fingering. ‘stuck in a wall’ with xiao. semi public. toys. nipple play.

⌘ i suck at full fics and do better with drabbles so i done one with fuckable genshin guys as a sub, this is part one, part two coming anw enjoy!! minors dni because dark content ahead !

⌘ childe, zhongli, scaramouche, itto, xiao, kazuha and albedo.

➤ childe.

pounding childe in his own office, pushing his head down onto the papers. he couldn’t up but arch his back when you slid your palm down his abdomen and to his cock, stroking and toying with the tip, the lewd squelching noise only brings him so much closer to his orgasm, nipping and biting his neck whilst the grip on his hair tightens. “m-m’gonna cum! a-ahnn c-cumming!~ a-ANGH!~”, he splatters a pearly white all over your hand as his dick twitches and body spasms and you fill his hole with your cum. your tip constantly prodding at his sweet spot made him even more sensitive. by the end of it, he was completely fucked out and didn’t have the slightest bit of strength to hold himself up. however he did want more, he wanted you to lift his hips up and overstimulate him to the point where he cries. he loves that iconic feeling of being pushed over the limits- just as he was about to whine for more. you sat down with your cock snug inside. he whines and pleads for you to move.

“no..nonono please move!”, childe cries whilst rocking his hips back and forth but yelps and comes to a stop when you spank his ass, “shut up you slut, i’ll move i feel like you’ve deserved it”, honestly now he’s even hornier and turned on even more from the degradation. he’ll be happy n grateful with anything you give him.

➤ zhongli.

was it really appropriate to have an archon in this position, wrists tied above his head, pretty golden eyes blindfolded and legs spread wide open? you sit between them with a bottle of lube at hand, lubing up the fleshlight which you got just for him. zhongli was incredibly silent but also incredibly hard- the mere thought of you gazing upon his naked body turns him so much. you pour some lube onto his cock, smirking when his hips stutter. soft moans falling from his pretty lips as you gently stroke his cock before placing the toy on his tip. once you plunge down, zhonglis back arches and his legs attempt to close, “t-tight..s-so tight m-mm~”, he begins to lose himself in bliss whilst you jerk him off. his hips bucking each time his tip hits the top of the onahole. he warns you on how he’s going to cum and instead of continuing you stop, giggling when zhongli tugs on the ropes binding his wrists. “dearest please..m’so close i-i wanna cum, please let me; h-help me cum.”

to get an archon in this position was absolutely gorgeous, “hmm?~ the great and mighty morax?? begging for his release, aww how cute”, you tease, jerking him off faster and faster just enough for him to reach his orgasm. yet when he cums you don’t stop, he should’ve seen this cumming LMAO. you stop him the moment he pleads for you too stop, “too sensitive? nonsense. you were begging just a few moments ago- now no more whining. you can take it and you will.”

➤ scaramouche.

you’re so deep inside and he’s so sensitive, seriously he’s already came why did you have to keep going. holding scaramouche’s hips whilst you fuck up into him, ploughing his insides- practically rearranging them with how hard you’re going. his whole body bounces slightly with each thrust and he digs his nails into your back from the overload of pleasure, “fuckfuckfuck! cant t-think straight a-ahn~ s-stop! plea-se!~”, you show no remorse and start sucking on his nipples, nibbling on one just to tease him. his hands fly from your arms to your hair. he wants to push you off but it feels so good, clawing at your scalp and tugging on your locks. unknowingly his back arches even more although when he does, his eyes roll back and tongue falls out. that one spot- you’ve finally found it-; the bulge now evident in his skin. his legs opening even wider and the grip on your hair now loosened. he’s submitting his body to you, he wants you to fuck him till he cries and use him like a cheap whore.

he can’t even speak a word, only moan and mumble out gibberish. too fucked out to even think about anything except for your cock, so big n snug inside him. now he’ll act like a brat on purpose. in hopes that you’ll fuck him dumb again like this. “you’ve finally shut up, i tamed you well didnt i? little slut- but you’re my slut aren’t you?”, he nods, “m-m’your sl-slut, o-only y-yours.”

➤ itto.

sucking itto off, his big oni cock barely fitting in your mouth yet you manage to fit it in, bobbing your head up and down whilst you stroke whatever’s left, now itto is extremely sensitive, meaning he can cum with a few strokes. and god when you give him head- he’ll cum even more. he’s almost begging for you to stop sucking or he’ll cum! even though you’ve basically just started, but when he does release, you gulp it down and take out a small vibrator. of course itto doesn’t know what it does yet so he’s confused when you hold it to his tip and take out a tiny remote. with one flick on the switch, his entire body convulses. his slit was so sensitive!!! he can’t take it!! as one hand holds the vibrator in place, the other pumps his length. “nonono! stop! i c-cant cum again!!~ mmnghh oh ohhh~!”, but do you listen? no 😊

“itto quit your whining, you were the begging me to fuck you when we were out, what a whore. you take what i give you and you be grateful.”, he’ll have to admit- seeing this side of you was really fucking hot. his second orgasm catches him by surprise, coating your hand and vibrator in his thick cum. you turn the toy off and allow him to rest as you slurp and lick off the excess cum on your fingers.

➤ xiao.

xiao was peacefully walking to your shared bedroom but when he leaned to place his weapon on the wall, it phased right through it and so did he, he was quick to get up but not in time before the wall was complete solid once again. he twisted and turned but found no avail. his lower half in the room whilst his torso and upwards were outside in the open. the cold wind hitting his skin, he’d wondered when you were going to arrive to help him. when you finally went home and went up to your bedroom. you saw him, “uhh xiao? you okay?”, he sighs and rolls his eyes, “finally there you are! help me get of of this thing!”, although when you reached down for his hips, your palm moved to his clothed dick. rubbing back and forth whilst undressing him- removing his trousers and fingering him. spitting on your cock as makeshift lube, you slide in and roughly fuck him, hands flat against the wall as you rail him- his face shifting into one of pleasure and the force of your thrusts cause his eyes to roll back. except for when—

“umm xiao?”, it was the traveller. completely mortified- he kicks his legs, indirectly pleading for you to stop for just a while yet you do the exact opposite, pumping his cock whilst you give deep and slow thrusts. deep enough to cause him to bounce with each moment, ���fool! begone! i can fix this problem o-on my own! m-mm!~”, aether only takes a step back and hesitates, “you sure? i can help pulling your if y-“, “ANgh! no! just g-go away..”, and with aether gone you continue fuck him until you both are satisfied

➤ kazuha.

were you seriously stuffing him with a monster dildo whilst you were aboard the crux, ofcc it’s only better, it’s cute to see kazuha throwing a hand on his mouth to muffle his moans. the ridges and dents grinding against his walls so perfectly, you could fuck him for days and still never get bored. you started incredibly slow and then picked up the pace, his breathing becomes heavier and moans a lot more audible. the mature and stoic kazuha twitching for more. his dick leaking pre cum. oozing out as you massage his ass before giving it a nice spank. his body jumps and yelps, you wanna see that reaction again~ spanking him again, then again and again and again until his cheeks are a pretty red. skin so irritated however he’s so turned on.

with a few more spanks and thrusts, he cums all over, some dripping onto the floor and some onto your fingers, you lean over to whisper in his ear, “didn’t know you liked getting your ass slapped like a slut huh?”, his face turns completely red, as he looks away from you shyly.

➤ albedo.

you were both currently in albedos lab in dragonspine. you were feeling quite cold so you grabbed a blanket and asked albedo to sit on your lap so you both can cuddle- he didn’t see why not. what he didn’t know was that this was your plan to start touching him all over. you were horny as usual so what better way is there to share the feeling other than toy with albedo. you start off slow, removing his gloves..then his coat then slowly unbuttoning his shirt. nibbling on his neck, softly rubbing the tiny star on his neck. palming his crotch- you felt his cock rock hard, “oh? turned on already huh?”, he blushes and nods slowly. your fingers settled on his chest, rubbing his nipples in slow circles, you were surprised when his legs closed instantly and he moaned out- they were just that sensitive. so you ‘experimented’, going from slow, light circles to twisting them, then to pulling and tugging on them. all these caused his back to arch and his eyes to shut tight, the tight knot in his abdomen so close to snapping.

and he cums with a final cry when you pinch his nipples, the pain and pleasure causes him to instinctively open his legs and buck his hips up as he stains his pants, whining and shaking his head back n forth with he keep twisting them. “you’ve came? awww but we only just started~”.

⌘ @currysrealm @kxisuke @leathernourishingshoepolish @kaepola @stygianoir

[albedoswifehusband]

Fuck it. Best to worst at backrubs. Some mentions of horny ahead but it's not bad.

one more thing from while i was shadowbanned

---

Zhongli - there's absolutely no way he's not the best here.

Thoma - he's good at pretty much everything and this is no exception.

Lisa - she's really good at it but she devolves into horny territory SO fast.

Baizhu - doctor hands. His backrubs aren't going to be where you want exactly though because he focuses on where will be the most beneficial to your muscles in the long run.

Yae - it's a horny backrub almost immediately

Eula - queen shit but she gets flustered

Albedo - good but his hands and wrists get tired fast bc daily overuse. His joints are cracking.

Yoimiya - enthusiastic and good pressure. Focuses right where you ask her to.

Yanfei - she's read stuff so she has great technique but she does need a tiny bit more practice

Sara - good, but who said she'll give u one?

Jean - good but she feels awkward bc performance anxiety

Diluc - great but his hands are a bit too big for precision and he ends up just holding you from behind after like 5 minutes

Beidou - good but a bit too hard just bc she goes off the pressure she herself likes

Amber - she's sweet and enthusiastic. Decent technique but a little too hard on pressure

Kaeya - he's pretty good but he's super sensual about it sooooo. Doesn't last very long.

Ganyu - pretty good but she's so sleepy and the soft repetitive movements are gonna make her just want to nap with you.

Ningguang - she's intimate and soft about it in a good way.

Signora - she's good but like. Good luck finding a good moment, she's busy as hell being the tsaritsas fave

Dottore - I hate his ass he gives me fight or flight but I can't deny he'd be decent. Doctor hands part 2

Gorou - enthusiastic and has great pressure but lacks technique.

Tartaglia - good for half a minute but he does that shit where instead of carefully moving spot to spot he drags his hands along your skin the whole time and it's a bad sensory experience bc the friction rubbing ur skin raw with how firm he is pressure wise. He also devolves into horny.

Rosaria - doesn't care enough to try but is decent

Scaramouche - surprisingly okay but it doesn't happen often.

Keqing - she's trying!!!

Sucrose - bad technique, almost perfect pressure

Mona - mediocre at best

Ayaka - trying her best

Kokomi - she's too busy and when she's not, her hands get tired so fast.

Ei - generally sucks

Itto - he's trying his best but it just isn't great. He's accidentally crunching ur shoulder blades weird and digging his fingers in too sharply

Xiao - starts way to soft. Featherlight. Then when you tell him he can put more pressure he goes so hard it hurts. No in between

Dainsleif - good luck even finding him. Also he's got too much arm pain to give one.

Shenhe - Your back is about to be 10x worse. Get out of there.

[latimeria-fell-from-heaven]

𝙢𝙞𝙙𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩

𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: aeon, bai, loen, mercury, nidhogg, orlando, qin yi, reid, royce, shade, xiao ( no not genshin xiao you simps ), and zhu

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: god you look so damn delicious, and he'll be damned if he doesn't get at least get a taste.

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): sexual content, sub reader, switch reader, established relationship, creampie, office sex, partly-clothed sex, mirror sex, public sex, jealous sex, clothed sex, cumming inside ( breeding kink ), overstimulation, oral sex, daddy/sir kink, hickies, cockwarming, fingering, rough sex, gentle sex, bondage, mouth gag, thigh-fucking, sex toy ( vibrator ), bath sex, sensory deprivation, tummy bulge, size kink, blindfold, mating press

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫: gender neutral

𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠: a seat ー arin ray

yes i have finally written something nsfw for love nikki and shining nikki because i'm a mega hoe, and JESUS i just wanted to write for like 5 but got carried away lmaooo. smut blurbs ahead bc i said so, and spoilers for love nikki/ shining nikki and for those who haven't played the games

also apologizes if i mess up the characters bc they can be complex and also bc some i just wanna fist fight lmao

nsfw below!

𝘼𝙀𝙊𝙉 who has the habit of fucking you against his desk in the lab, his face buried in the crook of your neck as his hips piston into you from behind. All of his research and work has long since been forgotten, now his mind is only focused on the hazy heat that now clouds his mind. He has a bruisingly hard grip on your hips as he thrusts into your tight heat, his once composed and stoic face now nothing more than a memory. you'd think they were two different people entirely just from how much he loses himself in you.

his black sweater easily hides the bites and hickies that are left upon his smooth skin after a session with you. but of course, the reddened skin is obviously tender, and he softly grunts when the fabric brushes against the marks. sometimes when he's alone in his lab, he'll trace the areas gently, and wonders what you're doing at the moment and if you're thinking of him as well. just the thought of you energizes him and brings a foreign but soft smile to his lips.

𝘼𝙀𝙊𝙉 who interlaces his fingers with your own, craving even just a small moment of intimacy with you. especially while he's busy burying his length into your welcoming heat. if he's taking you from behind, he'll press heated kisses to your bare shoulder and even the tips of your cute ears. when he's facing you, he won't stop kissing you, only pulling away to breathe and admire the sight beneath him. if any stray hairs have wandered onto your heated face, he takes the time to brush them away and press a kiss to your forehead afterward.

you can't convince me that this man is absolutely sexually repressed since he tends to coop himself up in his work and maintaining the ark. so when you first pull his cock out of the confines of his pants, he's rather embarrassed by all of the heat that pools in his stomach and how it's making his vision go hazy. it ends up with you having to ride him yourself, doing your best to not collapse from both your muscles being used to their limits and the pleasure of his cock rubbing against your walls in all of the right ways. he ends embracing you tightly close with his face pressed into your chest.

𝘼𝙀𝙊𝙉 who adores seeing you in his dark blue coat, especially after sex when he's pampering you with anything that he can fetch. it's incredibly oversized on you, with the sleeves engulfing your hands and swallowing up your bare body. so it becomes commonplace for him to wrap the big jacket around you while he's fucking up into you, and you look so damn adorable like that, so he ends up hugging you into his chest while his cock plows into you rapidly.

his cock is on the skinny side, and it curves up just a little. but it's really pretty, and isn't too thin nor thick, and gives you just the right stretch when he sinks himself inside of you. it makes everything easier, especially when you suck him off from underneath his desk, gripping his upper thighs as you bob your head dangerously closer to his crotch. he has to bite his lips and clench his fists to keep himself from making any noises because he knows that he's going to start moaning if he lets loose for even a moment.

��𝘼𝙄 who unintentionally pushes your face into the crook of his neck as he fucks you into the mattress, his long silver hair draping flowing down and framing his handsome face as it contorts into one of restrained pleasure. it forces you to wrap your legs around his waist, trapping his fat cock inside your tight and wet walls, and ends with him fisting the sheets in his strained hand from how good you feel around him.

he always tends to be busy, being a regent, a mentor, and the head of his own clanーand having to deal with zhu of course. so it's not really a surprise that he can't spend as much time with you as any other couple in Cloud Empire would. but you've managed to find a loopholeーslipping under his desk and whipping out his thick cock and wrapping your soft lips around the throbbing lengths. his stoic face doesn't give away anything, but if you looked closely, you'd be able to see his neck muscles tensing as he feels himself being shoved completely inside the spasming walls of your throat. once he's either alone or with less work to deal with, he has one hand steady on your head, tangling his thick fingers in your ( hair color ) hair.

𝘽𝘼𝙄 who is so thick and doesn't even know it, to the point of where he has to spend countless moments just fingering you open so you won't feel the stinging discomfort of having your pretty walls wrenched open. even when he has nearly all of his fingers buried deep within your walls, and your adorable cries as he rubs against those spots inside of you that make you unravel, it doesn't prepare you for his thickness as it pushes itself inside.

speaking of his generous size, he's actually incredibly gentle each time he has you bent over your shared bed, blindly grabbing at your hand and motioning for you to loosen your grip on the sheets, replacing them with his fingers instead. when you're facing him, back arched as his fat cock thrusts up into your awaiting hole, he'll press a kiss onto your knuckles, slowing down his thrusts as he does so.

𝘽𝘼𝙄 who tends to leave hickies and bites on the inside of your thighsーhis sort of way of praising you without ever having to use his voice. he has a tender grip on the fat of your thighs as he suckles on the tender skin, the wet noises being mixed in with his deep groans as he becomes entirely intoxicated on you and spreads your thighs as his mouth nears your trembling sex. before long, you can feel his hot breath heaving down, and it's enough to have pre-cum dribble out of your pretty sex in anticipation.

since he's the head of his own clan, and so much responsibility comes with that position, there's quite a lot of silent, but persistent pressure to continue the bloodline, whether it be by natural ways or by adoption. so during the times where he's practically making you see stars, he'll ask in between gruff groans if he can cum inside. he doesn't care if you can't get pregnant due to medical or gender reasons, he still favors cumming inside. especially when he finally tires, and pulls his now limp cock out of your stuffed hole, a perverted sense of satisfaction in watching the thick liquid ooze out and drip down your thighs.

𝙇𝙊𝙀𝙉 who teasingly rubs your inner thighs under the table at the cafe he took you out on a date. he warns you not to make any of your cute sounds aloud for nearby passerby's unless you really want to be caught that badly. he ends up rubbing the flat of his hand against your quivering sex, murmuring about how your underwear has already gotten so soaked, and how you must really enjoy all of this.

honestly, he may be a flirt, but he can get jealous too y'know! he doesn't get mad at you, because he knows that none of it is even your fault. this person just didn't take the hint even though you were very clearly not interested. so he ends up dragging you into the nearest alley, already attacking your neck with a flurry of heated kisses and hickies that are sure to be sore later. next thing you know, he has you facing the wall, hands clutching onto nothing but the rough bricks as he pounds into you from behind. right now, he could care less if that person walks by and sees youーhell, let them. maybe then they'll get the hint that he's the only one who can charm you with teasing words and get you to make those cute noises that he always loves hearing.

𝙇𝙊𝙀𝙉 who will gift you a hoodie that is very clearly too big on you, but he insists you keep it, and you cave in. but dear lord if he catches you wearing the oversized hoodie around him, he will pounce on you and refuse to let you go. it ends up with you sitting on his lap while his hands play with your pebbled nipples and bouncing you up and down his length. he ends up overstimulating your poor hole, his excitement ultimately getting the better of him. he at least does apologize, albeit with a dopey grin and twinkling eyes.

he loves overstimulating you any chance he can get, and won't pull his mouth away no matter how much you try to pry him off. his blonde locks tickle the doughy skin of your thighs as his warm mouth envelops your dripping sex, and he'll let out low hums, the vibrations sending shivers up your spine. even when you finally cum from his ministrations, he continues to lick and slurp away, only pulling his mouth away to wipe away any of your excess cum that dribbles from the corners of his upturned lips.

𝙇𝙊𝙀𝙉 who can absolutely fuck you dumb when he wants to, and it's usually after he's come back from a mission that dragged on for longer than he would have anticipated. being a mercenary is absolutely hard work, and he misses you so much by the time he comes back. so it shouldn't surprise you that he throws you over his shoulder and carries you off to the bedroom, tossing you down onto the bed and slamming his lips onto yours, greedily intertwining his tongue with yours as his hands are busy shedding his clothes. before long, he has your cute ass pressed taut against his crotch, and if you try and move away from his harsh and rapid thrusts, he'll pull you back, relishing in your choked moans as his fat cock is shoved deeper inside, rubbing against your most sensitive spots.

he has absolutely made you cockwarm him, whether it be out at the restaurant he had offhandedly recommended, or just in the cozy confines of your home. either way, he does quite the job at hiding any of his reactions while his cock is sat snug within your velvety walls, and will even hug you from around your stomach, knowing damn well that the added pressure presses your walls tighter around his length. despite your cries and whimpers, he presses kisses to your flushed cheeks.

𝙈𝙀𝙍𝘾𝙐𝙍𝙔 who coldly delivers punishments whenever he catches you touching yourself without permission. he stares you down as he sits down right in front of you, leaning in until his silver-grey locks tickle the supple skin of your cheeks. his gloved hands will torturously and agonizingly slowly rub your heated sex, gradually bringing you to your peak. but just when you're about to cum, he pulls his hands away, a faint smirk present on his lips as he soaks up your whimpers from the loss of stimulation. he won't stop until he feels satisfied that you've learned your lesson.

he may not look like it, but he can get prone to the bubbling feelings of envy, although he tries to push down those burning thoughts as deep as he can. but he ends up pushing you against the nearest surface once you're alone and roughly pushes off your clothes, his gloved hand dipping into your bottoms as he hurriedly prepares your tight hole for what is to come next. what ensues is his fat cock roughly thrusting into your tight hole, countless orgasms forced out of your body as he uses you like a pretty little cocksleeve. he's fucked you so much that you have to lean on him afterward and stumble with each step.

𝙈𝙀𝙍𝘾𝙐𝙍𝙔 who folds your body in half should you decide to become snarky with that smart little mouth of yours. he watches, albeit huffing and hissing at the way that your walls clamp down on his thick cock as he pounds into you like you're his personal cocksleeve. even if you're long since spent, he still continues to pound into you, finally stopping when his stamina has run its course and pulls his now limp cock out of your hole.

he tends to degrade you while he's taking you from behind, taunting you for enjoying something so perverted as this, and how much of a lewd pervert you are for cumming so easily from being entered. if he's feeling much crueler, he'll bring his hand down on the fat on your ass, causing you to yelp loudly and cry out from the stinging sensation and him to hiss as your walls clamp down even tighter on his cock.

𝙈𝙀𝙍𝘾𝙐𝙍𝙔 who ties your hands above with his belt, and keeps them above your head for the remainder of the night with his hand. but he'll either fuck you stupid until your poor brain turns into an overstimulated mess from how rough he was, or he edges you until you cry from the pain and loss of stimulation each time and you end up having to beg like a bitch in heat.

he's one for quickies, since he tends to be busier than most, so if you get called to his side, it's either because he missed you, or he has some pent-up frustration and you just so happen to be the solution to that. he'll either have you, prettily bent over his desk, or on your knees, sloppily sucking him off while his gloved hand tangles itself in your hair. he doesn't let you leave, even after you're spent, keeping you tucked under his chin and he doesn't exactly take kindly to anyone walking in during this time.

𝙉𝙄𝘿𝙃𝙊𝙂𝙂 who holds your face in place when you have your pretty lips wrapped around his thick cock, and the tears that well up in the corner of your eyes only make him want to go harder. he uses your throat like his personal cocksleeve and your poor throat is so sore by the end of it that you can hardly speak without it cracking. it doesn't help that he cums quite a lot, and thrusts faster in a frenzied mess when he reaches his peak.

he absolutely has a sir/daddy kink and you cannot tell me otherwise. if you call him by his name, he sternly reminds you to call him sir while his thick cock is fucking open your walls like it's nothing. he has you refer to him as so during punishments, and demanding you look him right in the eye. but if he's feeling more teasing, he lets you call him daddy, and you bet he's gonna fuck you hard and get you moaning like a bitch in heat. he won't let you out from underneath him until you're just a pretty little fucked out mess.

𝙉𝙄𝘿𝙃𝙊𝙂𝙂 who spanks you when he's hitting it from the back, sadistically relishing in the way you cry out from the stinging sensation. he did it just to keep you from passing out on him, but now he does it just because he loves hearing your pathetically cute moans and cries. and he tends to hit a bit hard since he's so in the moment that he can't control his strength, so it leaves behind stinging red handprints.

definitely has a size kink, but he hides it well under that cold and stern face. he loves watching a small bump rise where his cock is rubbing up against your spasming walls. he's fascinated with the way his fat cock is somehow able to fit inside you since he's so big, and you just squeeze down so damn tightly around him. you sound so cute when you're whimpering as you struggle to accommodate his fat length and the sensation of being stuffed full.

𝙉𝙄𝘿𝙃𝙊𝙂𝙂 who craves to see your fucked out face after he fucked you like a whore, and spilling his thick cum inside of you until it begins to dribble out. he loves seeing the aftermath of your rough sessionsーthe way you feebly try to grip onto the bedsheets as you try and make sense of everything, or the way his cum dribbles out of your spent hole as it tries to desperately close around something to keep the milky liquid inside, but ultimately failing.

he once fucked you in his office and nearly got caught in the process, and now enjoys seating you on his lap, his fat cock pulsing inside of your spasming walls. if you pressed down on your stomach, you'd swear you'd feel the outline of his cock pressing upwards. you can't tell what's worseーthat fact that he looks near unaffected, except for the occasional flexing of his neck muscles or the fact that so many of his subordinates have walked in and assumed he was attempting to be romantic with you for once and not be a distant son of a bitch. oh, how wrong they are.

𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘿𝙊 who gets sucked off until he's milked completely dryーdespite his embarrassed protests all the while, which become more garbled and choked the more your mouth takes. he's so embarrassed with how lewd all of this is, and with how eager his body responds to the wet heat surrounding his throbbing erection. and he's especially embarrassed with how quickly he cums inside your throat, biting his lips to keep his moans in.

it's quite fun holding him down and jerking him off while he lets out a flurry of jumbled words as your fingers wrap tighter around the throbbing erection. you'll push your nipple onto his lips, which he takes the hint of and begins to suck away on the pebbled nub in order to distract himself from the tight feeling of your hand. for a military officer, he sure does lose his composure from getting jerked off huh.

𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘿𝙊 who fucks your thighs in frenzied thrusts, too flustered to actually stick his fat cock in your gummy walls. so he settles for slipping himself in between your soft thighs and busying his mouth with hurried kisses to the shell of your ear and flushed cheeks. he lets out a lot of heavy groans and grunts from how good your thighs feel around his throbbing length and ends up cumming all over them without pulling out.

he really likes it when you cling onto him as he's fucking you since it makes him feel like he's doing a good job. he has his arms wrapped around your back while his cock is sat snug in your tight walls. it also gives him a nice view of your flushed and fucked out face as his fat cock splits you open and rubs against your walls in all of the right ways since he can kiss you gently without having to strain his muscles.

𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘿𝙊 who gets cock-warmed when he's supposed to be working, but instead his forehead is rested against your shoulder while he's breathing quite heavily, trying so hard to not focus on the tight heat that envelops his fat cock. what makes it worse is that you shift your hips every so often, forcing his throbbing erection further inside of your insides. even if he cums, he can't go fetch you anything or do something because the thick liquid would spill out onto his tailored pants, and everyone would know what exactly he was doing.

he sometimes gets rough with you when he gets more stressed or pent up from all of your teasings. so it ends up with him plowing into you relentlessly, leaving you to claw and clamber at his back as you moan and cry out like some bitch. he doesn't stop until he's finally exhausted himself and your pretty hole has gone numb. he does profusely apologize afterward and offers to get you anything, but you just wanna be held by your dorky officer of a boyfriend. so he obliges and gingerly holds you close until you fall asleep and he soon follows suit.

𝙌𝙄𝙉 𝙔𝙄 who keeps his composure even while he's balls deep inside of you, only merely sighing and his hands bruisingly gripping down on your hips and letting out soft and hushed groans whenever he finally cums deep inside of your spasming walls. you'd think he was watching a rather dull play or something like that, but he does let out the occasional pleasured sigh with each squeeze your walls bring around his cock.

he will calmly rehearse his lines for any upcoming dramas he may participate in, reciting any lines he seems to stumble over. then, his silvery eyes turn to face you, where you lay bound on his bed, your moans muffled by a gag and your body trembling as the toy inside of you continues to buzz away. he merely sighs, mumbling something about you being oh so helpless. really, you're just a pervert, aren't you?

𝙌𝙄𝙉 𝙔𝙄 who whispers pure filth into your ears, his porcelain-smooth face unmoving, never giving even an ounce of lecherous reaction that could give away his thoughts. he knows what an effect his smooth and silky voice can have on you, so he uses it heavily to his advantageーtelling you exactly what he's going to do to you, and how you're such a pervert for getting off to some words like this

he leaves behind little kisses that tickle your skinーlike a butterfly's wing fluttering against your bare skin. it can cause a bubble of giggles to arise from your mouth, but it doesn't last for long when he suddenly begins to suck harshing, littering your neck with bruising hickies that throb if you press your fingers down.

𝙌𝙄𝙉 𝙔𝙄 who takes you against the mirror, his hands harshly gripping your hips as his piston into you from behind. while he can't see your face up close, he can still see your reflection and each and every reaction you make. just forcing you to watch your reflection and see all of your fucked out expressions arouses him far more than he lets on.

he holds your hands above your head whenever he's pounding into youーthat way you won't be able to run away from him and the intense pleasure he's giving you. the way you cry and squirm against his hold on you has heat pooling down south, and it only makes him want to fuck you until you can only cling onto him and be a cute little cocksleeve for him.

𝙍𝙀𝙄𝘿 who somehow convinces you to allow him to slip a small vibrator into your gummy walls while he's able to control the intensity of the vibrations from a distance away. he doesn't turn it on for the first few minutes, leading you on to believe that he won't do anything. until you feel a deep vibration inside of you and you near fall to the ground, biting your lip to keep your moans inside. you know you have to keep your composure unless you want everyone to hear you moan like some kind of bitch with your insides being assaulted by a plastic toy.

he enjoys watching you as you unravel beneath him, his cock fucking you open over and over. the way you try to muffle your shameful moans and try to blink back the tears that well up in your doe eyes just rile him up even more and makes him wanna fuck you even harder until your mind near breaks from all of the overwhelming pleasure assaulting your body.

𝙍𝙀𝙄𝘿 who fucks you with your ass pressed taut against his crotch while your head is buried in the silk pillowcase. while not seeing your cute face and adorable reactions to the drag of his cock inside your gummy walls isn't ideal for him, seeing your back arch as he hits your most pleasurable spots satisfies him enough. that and your butt just looks really cute with the way it bounces with each of his thrusts into you from behind.

the amount of times he's had you cockwarm him while he's doing his work has been so numerous that you've just lost count altogether. he doesn't seem a bit unbothered in the slightest with how tightly your walls pulse around him; only pressing kisses to your cheek every so often and telling you how adorable you are. he pretends to stretch out his legs, but in reality, he's only pushing his cock further in your insides and seeing how long it'll take before you start moaning.

𝙍𝙀𝙄𝘿 who fingers you under the table slyly without anyone noticing or picking up on the fact of how your body trembles with each of his fingers movements and how perfectly they rub up against your walls in just the right ways. he does warn you not to stain his tailor-made suit since he doesn't the rather lecherous rumors to swirl about behind his back. so he edges you for as long as he can, denying you your orgasm and building up your tension and frustration for...later use.

he has a daddy kink, but he's more teasing with, especially if you start moaning it by accident and, well, it takes him by surprise but he rolls with it and gives you what you want. tauntingly asking you " what do you want daddy to do, hm? and "speak up for daddy babe" because he knows, that sly bastard, that you're enjoying this far more than him, seeing as how you're chanting it in a lewd mantra, and, well, who is he to deny his baby what they want?

𝙍𝙊𝙔𝘾𝙀 who spoils you a little too much when he's pounding away into you, hugging you into his chest tenderly, or pressing flurry of kisses all over your face and chuckling to himself as you try, but fail, to hide your face from his soft lips. he is quick to bring you back to reality however, with one deep thrust angled perfectly, he has you moaning and reeling back in seconds.

he's such a hopeless romantic in bedーthe bedsheets showered with soft rose petals that sway with each thrust he makes into your hole or the lingering scent that sways in the dim room that leaves your head and vision heated and swirling. even while he's pounding away and rubbing against your walls in all the right ways, he still embraces you close and refuses to let go, even after he's exhausted both you and him.

𝙍𝙊𝙔𝘾𝙀 who would gladly be buried in between that adorable spot in between your legs all day if he could. he treats your cum like it's the sweetest of ambrosia's, drinking it up and getting drunk on your taste alone. he spends so long with his warm mouth attached to your quivering sex that he overstimulates you until you cum just from a swipe of his tongue or several strokes of his long fingers. it's to the point where he just stays there and won't even stick his cock inside unless you remind him.

he really likes 69-ing, and he isn't afraid to initiate it when he's engaging in foreplay with you. not only can he make you feel good with his warm mouth, you can suck him off as well! it ends up becoming a bit intense since he gets so into it that you end up cumming multiple times in a row just from his mouth alone. he doesn't fare much better, making hurried and small thrusts up into your tight throat and cumming down it as well.

𝙍𝙊𝙔𝘾𝙀 who sneaks into the bath with you, hugging you to his chest as he rests his chin on your wet shoulder. it isn't until a few moments after that you feel something hard prodding at your backside. he at least has the courtesy to ask if he can stick it in, his face uncharacteristically flushedーfrom either the warm steam or how aroused he is, you can't tell. all you can tell is that he slides his cock in carefully, but prefers keeping it snug inside your walls, the warm water soothing his nerves and calming him down.

teasing makeout sessions often devolve into heavy and heated sessions of him taking you against his plush loveseat, letting out high-pitched whimpers as your walls spasm around him. he tries to keep in his ever=rising voice by pressing his face into the crook of your neck while his hands fondle the rest of your body. when he feels more desperate, he'll lock his plush lips against yours, melding them together as he rocks his hips against yours.

𝙎𝙃𝘼𝘿𝙀 who buries his face in your shoulder while his hips buck up feverishly to meet yours, the only audible noises coming from him being grunts and groans, and his occasional whispers of sweet nothings. he doesn't verbally say it, but he loves it when you start stroking his messy white locks, softly humming from the pleasant sensations from your hand, and nuzzling up into the comforting warmth. it's such a wholesome contrast from the rather lewd activity you were engaged in moments before.

he has the habit of burying his face in between your legs, much to your embarrassment from how sudden it is. he treats your cum like its handmade ambrosia crafted by the heavens themselves, and he wouldn't exactly let such a delicacy go to waste. due to that, he ends up accidentally overstimulating you, causing you to cum inside of his awaiting mouth and leaving you breathless from how good it all felt. but sometimes he doesn't stop there and keeps going, gripping your hips to keep you in place while you squirm from the intense pleasure of his mouth wrapped around your quivering sex.

𝙎𝙃𝘼𝘿𝙀 who has you ride him because he doesn't want the possibility of accidentally hurting you, and also because he doesn't exactly know what's he doing. ah, don't worry, he won't make you do all the work by yourself, since he'll roll his hips upwards and grip your waist whenever your muscles tire from all the extra exercise. that and he likes sucking on your nipples while he's bucking his hips up into your welcoming heat, the extra stimulation seeming to excite him more.

he surprisingly likes being praised by you, especially when he's fucking you into the sheets, as he noticeably becomes more flushed from the gentle words. whether it be your fingers brushing through his messy white locks while he has his mouth on your dripping sex, or your hushed words as he thrusts up into the spot that makes you see stars, he appreciates and lives for your praises. especially when it's his first time ever pleasing you in such a way.

𝙎𝙃𝘼𝘿𝙀 who leaves behind cute love bites from his failed attempts to keep his noises in. you were too focused on the delicious pleasure of his cock sliding in and out and rubbing against all of your sweet spots that you hardly even notice them to begin with. but he does apologize the morning after, averting his eyes while his cheeks begin to heat up, and awkwardly offers to go fetch you anything. if you weren't so exhausted from last night, you'd have thought this was an entirely different person.

cumming inside of your tight and wet walls is such a treat for this man, since it makes him feel much more connected with you. he especially loves having his lips pressed up against your own, heavily kissing you like his life depends on it. the kiss not only takes your breath away and makes your mind dizzy from how rough it is, but also because his hips begin to thrust up into yours in a frenzied flurry like he's desperately chasing his orgasm.

𝙓𝙄𝘼𝙊 who causes a pretty tummy bulge to appear every time he fucks you cause he's just so damn big. it feels like you're gonna break every time he slides himself inside of you, and you cry from how damn full you feel just from his cock alone. and he doesn't exactly hide his arousalーhe keeps taunting you for each muffled cry and moan you try to suppress, and will slowly drag his fat cock against all of the right spots of your velvety walls.

the type to fuck you into a mating press until you're a fucked out mess. he loves the way you let out garbled moans as his cock reaches your deepest parts and how you try to desperately grab onto the thin sheets. it's to the point where it's becoming more common for him to fuck you like that each time the two of you get heated. you have to ask him to carry you around after because you can barely walk without your knees giving in.

𝙓𝙄𝘼𝙊 who won't stop stuffing you full with his cum each time he reaches his peak. he cums so much each time that it just spurts out whether there's no more room left inside of you, and it ends up dribbling down your legs. when he's about to reach his peak, he pulls you taut against his crotch, ensuring that you'll be stuffed full yet again. even after he's done for the time, you have to deal with the heavy feeling of his cum within the confines of your hole until you can clean out the milky liquid.

he has absolutely no shame in taking you out in semi-public areas where anyone could walk past and see him fucking you against the wall like you're a bitch in heat. you have to hold tightly onto him and lock your legs around him because if not for that, you'd have fallen onto the ground long ago. you end up burying your face in his broad shoulder because you sound like a whore with the way you're moaning each time he thrusts up into you.

𝙓𝙄𝘼𝙊 who facefucks you so rough that you have to pull your sore mouth away just to breathe. his cock is so thick and your jaw stings just from how wide you have to have your mouth when you suck him off. if it weren't for his occasional grunt and muscles straining, you'd think he was getting bored or something. when he cums, he keeps your pretty face taut against his crotch, telling you that you can't go wasting his precious seed now can you?

he is hardly ever gentle, much preferring to fuck your pretty hole until you can't feel your legs anymore and you have to lean against him for support. each time he slams himself inside of your tight walls you have to grip onto something and try and muffle your noises because you know you're going to moan like a bitch in heat if you even so much as open your mouth. he doesn't seem to really care, but on some occasions, he'll force any obstructions away so he can hear those pathetically cute moans of yours.

𝙕𝙃𝙐 who teasingly blows hot puffs of air into your ears as he cups your chin with his smooth hand, while his other busies itself with untying your loose night robes. when he finally loosens them enough, he wastes no time in dipping his hand inside, fondling whatever his hands can reach, especially your nipples, which he pinches and rolls in between his fingers. it's his favorite way of teasing you after being gone for nearly the entire day, and he has quite a lot of pent-up stress and frustration.

he loves how helpless you look when he's tied a silk ribbon around those doe-like eyes of yours, and how you squirm so pathetically underneath his firm grasp. he purposefully takes his timeーslowly savoring each of your reactions and rubbing the rough pads of his fingertips against your most sensitive spots. he slowly builds you up to your orgasm and will continue to push you and hold you down while he does so. he's such a tease, so don't expect to be let go until he's had his fun.

𝙕𝙃𝙐 who gets off to seeing his cum staining your pristine skin, now splattered with the thick milky liquid. while he's thrusting into your tight hole and about to cum, so he'll pull out and purposefully and hurriedly jerk himself off to completion. the way your pretty hole desperately clenches around nothing but air excites him, and he isn't exactly afraid to be vocal about his rather perverse interest. hell, he'll even shove his throbbing erection back inside just after you've cum just to feel your fluttering walls and to hear your adorable cries as you attempt to weakly push him away due to the sheer overstimulation.

he's so sly whenever you have your pretty lips wrapped around his thick length, cooing gently as he strokes your hair. the fact that you gag so much while trying to fully take him down your throat, now having to accommodate to having your throat being fucked open by something so foreign and thick. he actually praises you quite a bit when you're sucking him off, and does so even more if you swallow up all of his cum when he finally reaches his peak. the sight of his cum thinly splattered around the corners of your mouth gets him hard again and ready to go once more.

𝙕𝙃𝙐 who favors fucking you while he's standing up, perfectly capable of holding up your weight and being able to bounce you on his thick length simultaneously. he enjoys the way you desperately claw at his back and cry out as you're unable to run away from the onslaught of pleasure, and the way you cry out as the position allows for the pleasure to be amplified, so each time he fucks up into you, it just turns your brain into mush. that and he just thinks you're so adorable clinging onto him in such a lewd manner.

he near loses it when he feels your fingers tugging on his long coffee-brown locksーthe stinging sensation just has heat pooling down south faster than he can even acknowledge it. it doesn't matter if he has his mouth latched onto your twitching sex, or if he's pounding into you like there's no tomorrow, he will go rougher. you can barely feel your legs afterward, and your vision is so blurry from the countless orgasms he wrenched out of you.

[patt-writes-stuff]

Beach Days with The Genshin Characters!

Wc: 1.7k+

Type: Headcanons

CW: umm nothing except mentions of alcohol and maybe people being creeps? (None of the chars or you tho it’s very brief)

A/N: HI IM BACK FROM THE DEAD! These were supposed to be a lot shorter but I got too excited. If you by any chance wanna see some for your fav character lmk! I know it says request are closed in my bio but since it’s just hcs it’s a lot less (and I really enjoyed writing these so ajdhdhdk)

🔥Diluc:

This man cannot swim. Tell me otherwise, I dare you.

Kaeya tried to jokingly push him off a lil diving cliff area when they were kids.

He almost drowned. Kaeya was in a lot of trouble.

So, good luck getting this man to actually get in the water. The most he’ll do is sit on the shore where it’s very shallow.

He usually prefers to just stay under an umbrella on the sand and keep an eye on you.

Calls you every two hours in advance and helps you reapply sunscreen.

He’s very pale so I feel like he burns pretty easily, meaning he needs to reapply super frequently otherwise he will become a tomato. He brings like three bottles of the good shit. Tch, rich boy.

If you ask him to build a sandcastle, he will pretend to be annoyed but do it anyways. Ends up finding it kind of enjoyable.

He has the maids prepare a nice picnic basket for the two of you!! It’s got all your favorite foods plus grape juice cuz y’know.

If any creepy peeps approach you, don’t worry. He brought his vision and his claymore.

Of course, he won’t have to resort to such violent lengths. Everyone in Mondstadt knows who Diluc is and they probably know you’re his s/o, so they’re usually smart enough to mind their own business.

If they don’t, don’t worry. Diluc’s glare is more than enough to scare them away.

All in all I definitely recommend a beach day with him! I’ll give it a solid 8/10 (-2 for not wearing floaties and getting in the water with you or letting you teach him how to swim.

🖌Albedo:

You guys definitely 100% take Klee out with you on a beach day.

You guys bring snacks, beach toys like buckets and shovels for optimal sandcastle building, a picnic blanket, etc.

Jean definitely packs a lot more stuff for you guys to take with you than you actually need.

It’s only cuz she’s worried for Klee and is nervous about not being able to go with you guys though! It’s very sweet really.

Klee tries to bomb the fish and cause havoc at the beach 😭

I think Albedo is a good swimmer and gets in with you and Klee so that he can help her (which is very cute omfg)

He’s set total workaholic, as we know, so it took a lot of convincing to get him to put down his experiments and accompany you to the beach (however, he’s particularly weak to yours and klee’s puppy dog eyes so he caved eventually)

Though, looking at you and Klee happily building sandcastles and decorating them with pretty seashells of all shapes and colors, he can’t really find it in himself to complain.

He, of course, takes this opportunity to take out his sketchbook and draw the waves, seagulls, you… Of course he won’t let you see the sketch book no sir. He’s a bit embarrassed to be honest, but an artist such as himself recognizes beauty when he sees it so he simply had to draw you. (God I love him so much)

If a creepy person approaches you,- well don’t worry. The sight of a small arsonist child blowing up fish is enough to scare them away 🥰

At the end of the day, all three of you are all ticketed out. Albedo has to carry Klee back to Mondstadt because the poor baby fell asleep the moment you started drying her hair with the beach towel. You’re, of course, carrying back Dodoco and your bags. (You also manage to sneak a peak at Albedo’s sketchbook and find some very pretty drawings of you and Klee with your sandcastle)

At the end of the day, you guys tuck Klee in and read her a bedtime story (she woke up and insisted). Afterwards Albedo takes you back home and thanks you for coming with you and Klee (which you ofc say wasn’t a problem because how could you not???)

All in all? I’ll give it a solid 10/10. You’ve got tasty food, fun times, your boyfriend and his cute kid adoptive sister (yes I am very biased idc)

🦋Xiao:

I think it would take a lot of convincing to get Xiao to go out on a beach date with you.

He’ll probably see it as a distraction getting in the way of his slaying of monsters and demons.

However, he also worships the grounds you walk on (hehe, simp XD), so I don’t think it’ll take that much convincing on your part (especially because it’s is self appointed duty to keep you safe so if you insist on going with or without him, he supposes he’ll have to go)

Is definitely a bit tense at first. He doesn’t know how to let loose and chill so while you’re sun tanning on a beach chair he’s like 🧍‍♂️ahdgshjsjd

Eventually calms down a bit though! You get him to relax and eat some almond tofu you brought along with you. It definitely gets him to perk up.

I don’t think he would mind getting into the water but I do think he’d rather walk along the shore and collect pretty seashells and sea glass.

He later gives the ones he deems pretties to you (he hands them over to you with a blush on his face and pretends it’s not a big deal and he definitely gets all pouty and grouchy when you coo at how adorable he is)

As for creeps, Xiao is both intimidating and well known in Liyue. No one is brave enough (or, let’s be honest, dumb enough) to approach you with any bad intentions.

Sure, Xiao has sworn never to harm a human/citizen of Liyue but that doesn’t mean he can’t scare the absolute shit out of them.

I think Xiao would definitely enjoy a beach day 🥺🥺. He’d find it very relaxing to go out with you and just hear the sound of waves and feel the sand under his feet.

He’d definitely hint at wanting to do it again later. Of course, he won’t tell you. No, that’s a foolish mortal activity and he has much better things to do.

Wait no, don't turn around, yes he will go with you next month.

All in all, I give Xiao a 9/10. It’s a very relaxing day (which he deserves 😤). And you get to see a whole new side of him.

💎Ningguang:

OK SO ORIGINALLY I WASN'T GONNA WRITE ONE FOR HER (at least not in this post) BUT THEN I THOUGHT OF LADY NINGGUANG TAKING YOU TO A WHOLE ASS PRIVATE BEACH

She knows you don’t care about how exclusive the beach you go to is (in fact, the fact that you don’t care about where you are or what you do is one of the things that make her fall more and more madly in love with you) but you deserve the best so she’s gonna go all out.

She’s a busy lady so days like this where the two of you get to go somewhere and be together are few and far between.

She knows it’s hard to be in a relationship with someone who is busy 24/7, so she appreciates how you remain by her side despite all hardships. (Y’all are a whole ass power couple istg)

The two of you spend your day relaxing. Sun bathing, drinking piña coladas, maybe taking a dip in the ocean. It’s all very pleasant!

Ningguang doesn’t quite feel like the type of person who would sit in the sand and make sandcastle, however you’re more than welcome to make some yourself. She finds it endearing <3

If you insist on her helping, she’ll eventually comply. She loves you too much to say no. I feel like she’ll either be terrible at it or like a total architect.

Sand is technically like tiny rocks right? So maybe she can use her vision to help her? If that’s the case, she’s making a replica of the Jade chamber out of sand.

If any creepy person comes up to you don’t worry. Ningguang will buy the whole beach and then use her right of admission as owner to permanently ban them from the beach you’re at.

The only downside to a day at the beach with Ningguang might be that there’s a big chance she’ll be called to tend urgent matters, seeing as she is the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing and all.

If that does happen, she’ll be sure to make it up to you somehow, whether it be rescheduling or taking care of the matter as soon as possible so that the two of you can get back to your day of relaxation and fun.

All in all?? Lady Ningguang will treat you like total royalty and the two of you will have an amazing time! I give her an 11/10 (she would literally buy a whole beach for you to be comfortable I mean c’mon)

🍃Venti:

BEACH DAYS WITH HIM ARE SO FUN!!

Swimming? Yeah, he’d love to! Sunbathing? Sure! He’ll ever conjure up a light breeze for the two of you. Sandcastle building? WELL OF COURSE WHY DO YOU THING HE BROUGHT ALL THESE BUCKETS AND SHOVELS?

No but seriously, he might be the best person out of everyone here to go to the beach with. He’s fun, free spirited, and he’s a traveling bard who’s been alive long enough to know where all the best beaches in Teyvat are. (He also knows a guy- er, well, dragon I suppose- who is willing to fly them to any place).

He’ll play some soft tunes while you doze under the sun.

HE PICKS PRETTY SHELLS AND GIFTS THEM TO YOU!!!

He will bring booze. I’m pretty sure this is a necessity. If you’re a little upset about it, he’ll probably “eheh~” his way out of it. That slick bastard.

If you really insist on him not drinking, he won’t consume much alcohol.

If some creepy person approaches you and tries to ruin you your day of beach time fun, all of their stuff will suddenly be blown away, causing them to scramble back to their spot and (almost embarrassingly) flail around trying to catch everything. What a shame…

At the end of the day, he’d be a little sad to leave. Definitely makes plans about tbe two of you going back soon.

I gotta give him a 10/10 he’s just so fun omg.

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Ch. 109

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Chapter 109: Opening Restrictions

When the two left the bathroom, they headed straight back to the living room and found Xiao Ji, who'd gotten the stethoscope out of the chest the day before.

Yesterday Xiao Ji had opened three chests all in one breath. He was fortunate to not have immediately died. One chest had an item for the humans to use, one had a skill for Hako Onna, and one had been empty.

When Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu found Xiao Ji, Wei Xiude was sitting beside him.

Ruan Nanzhu explained the situation, indicating that the stethoscope could distinguish whether or not the Hako Onna was inside a chest. If they opened the chest after using it, then the risk would be greatly diminished.

Wei Xiude didn't say anything after, but Xiao Ji shot to attention.

"Really? This stethoscope's really that useful? Then we've hit the jackpot, we can just listen our way through."

"There must be a usage limit on this item," Ruan Nanzhu said. "You can go try it on a chest first."

After listening to their conversation, Wei Xiude still didn't speak up, acting as if he was just a bystander. Though he seemed harmless, nobody who made it to their tenth door was easy pickings—everybody was quite clear on this. Plus, all the newbies he'd brought along was telling.

Xiao Ji put on the stethoscope and picked out a random chest in the living room. Putting the stethoscope to the wooden exterior, he gave it a long listen before turning around and saying, "there's no sound inside."

"Try opening it," Ruan Nanzhu said.

"Why don't you do it?" Xiao Ji said. "I'm a bit scared."

He said he was scared, but there wasn't a single touch of fright on his face. Clearly, he just didn't want to shoulder the risk of opening the chest.

Ruan Nanzhu's lips curved up.

"Sure, I can do it, but if I open up an item, who gets to keep it?"

Xiao Ji said, "me, of course. I'm the one who picked this chest."

Ruan Nanzhu, lazily, "as if. I take all the risks and you keep all the benefits?"

Xiao Ji thought about it, and seemed to find Ruan Nanzhu's words logical. He got ready to open the chest himself, but Ruan Nanzhu suddenly thought of something.

"Wait. I want to give the chest a listen."

"Hm?" Xiao Ji was a bit thrown.

Ruan Nanzhu first pressed himself to the chest and listened for a while. And then he waved Lin Qiushi and Liang Miye over. The three listened around the chest for another bit of time, until Ruan Nanzhu finally got up and gave Xiao Ji a wave.

"Okay, open it."

At least Xiao Ji was brave. Among the newbies who'd entered, he wasn't in a bad condition, nor did he show any signs of pending emotional breakdown. After rubbing his palms together, he took hold of the lid of the chest and gave it a hefty lift—

The chest opened with a click, revealing the empty bottom. There was nothing inside.

"Empty." Xiao Ji was disappointed that they hadn't opened up any useful items.

"Come here for a second," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Come with me to the bathroom."

"Ah." Xiao Ji eyed Ruan Nanzhu up and down. "That's…not gonna work, right?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "I said come to the bathroom, not use it. Let's go."

Xiao Ji laughed and followed Ruan Nanzhu to the bathroom.

Lin Qiushi followed and very quickly understood what Ruan Nanzhu wanted to do. He saw Ruan Nanzhu bring Xiao Ji to a certain stall and point at the chest inside.

"Listen to that with your stethoscope."

This chest was the one that used False Answers just now to trick Lin Qiushi into opening it. If there were restrictions on the Hako Onna's motions, then she couldn't have left this chest in such a short amount of time. From the difference between these two chests, they had a lot of information to gain: first was what sounds came out of a chest with the Hako Onna inside, and second was the usage limit for the stethoscope.

Xiao Ji took out the stethoscope and, just like before, pressed the listening end to the wooden chest. Moments later, his expression changed and he swore a low, oh fuck.

"Heard something?" Ruan Nanzhu asked.

"Yes," Xiao Ji said. "There's a kid crying inside…"

He quickly stowed the stethoscope away, clearly unwilling to listen to more.

Ruan Nanzhu approached the chest and gave it a few pats, saying, "seems like she really is inside. If we find any key items, we can actually give them a try."

They had yet to find any items that could be used against the Hako Onna, however.

"Your stethoscope can be used at least twice. If you get a chance tomorrow, you can try using it a third time," Ruan Nanzhu said. "It's a really good item, congratulations."

"Hah, no need for that, I just got lucky," Xiao Ji replied off-handedly.

Wei Xiude had been standing quietly at the side this whole time. It was only now that he smiled and chimed in, "that's right, Xiao Ji's always been lucky. I would never have wanted to help him pass the doors otherwise."

"Thanks, Wei-ge," Xiao Ji answered with his own smile.

Though he was thanking Wei Xiude, there wasn't actually that much gratitude in his eyes. It seemed he wasn't an idiot either. After all, even though they were newbies, the group was at least of average intellect. They had parsed the fact that Wei Xiude had conscripted them as cannon fodder. It was just that they were less lucky this time around, and were encountering a door world beyond the average.

After confirming the stethoscope's usability, Ruan Nanzhu said he wanted to check out the second floor again next, so Xiao Ji and Wei Xiude left.

When they were gone, however, Ruan Nanzhu was still in no hurry to leave the bathroom. He approached the chest again, bending down and pressing his head to it to listen. Then he beckoned Lin Qiushi over.

"What is it?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"You try it," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Who knows if the stethoscope actually has special powers, or if it's just an amplifier. If it's only an amplifier…"

He paused, peeked at Lin Qiushi, and grinned.

"Then don't we have an even better one right here?"

Lin Qiushi laughed. "It can't just be an amplifier, right? Or I could just hear it all, what would the items be for?"

As he spoke, he too pressed his ear to the wooden chest—but the moment he made contact, he really did hear a soft sound…which, upon careful listen, sounded like a young girl crying.

The change in Lin Qiushi's expression gave Ruan Nanzhu his answer.

"What? You really can hear it?"

"I hear it." Lin Qiushi's eyes were wide. "…I really do hear it."

He checked again and again that this wasn't his imagination. He really could hear the sound from inside the chest.

"Fuck, this has gotta be cheating." Liang Miye had also heard their conversation from off to the side. "Then Linlin can tell what's in all the chests?"

"No," Ruan Nanzhu said. "There's a use limit on the stethoscope, so there might be one on Lin Qiushi too. It's still best to be careful. But at least…we have two tries per day."

Lin Qiushi left the chest. He asked, "can we tell when Hakobito are inside?"

"Probably yes, though we don't know what they'll concretely sound like yet," Ruan Nanzhu said. "With Qiushi, our safety factor's much, much higher."

Being sitting ducks was no longer a concern.

Lin Qiushi was quite impressed with Ruan Nanzhu. Who else would've thought to have him try this?

Once they had this confirmation, they headed for the second floor. When they got there though they heard hubbub from the study, as if there were a lot of people crowded inside.

Ruan Nanzhu went to the study to look. He saw some people crouched in front of the strongbox with their heads down, doing something.

"Are they trying passcodes?" Liang Miye asked. "Can that work?"

If they were bent on trying, of course they could do it. There were ten thousand possible combinations—if they counted two seconds per try, ten thousand tries was twenty thousand seconds, which in hours, came out to about five or so. They could get it done in an afternoon.

This was even the worst case scenario; under normal circumstances it would be faster, because it was basically impossible that it would take them the first try all the way to the last.

Ruan Nanzhu spoke slowly, "in their dreams."

The doors would never give them such a big loophole to worm their way through.

He called to the people in the study, "stop that. There's no way there's such an obvious loophole inside the doors."

"How do you know it won't work? Besides, it's pretty standard to try the safe access codes." The people in the crowd thought differently from Ruan Nanzhu. They continued, "and we've been at this for so long already…"

Lin Qiushi was about to take a step forward and get a better look inside the study. Ruan Nanzhu, however, pulled him to a stop.

"Don't go in."

"Why not?" Lin Qiushi asked.

Ruan Nanzhu, "bad feeling."

Practically the moment he finished saying this, there came a holler from inside the safe: "It's open!"

"What??" Liang Miye was stunned. "It opened, just like that? No way, right?"

Ruan Nanzhu's brow furrowed.

Though it seemed highly incredible, they both heard a click and saw the safe open from where they stood outside the door.

The people inside, upon seeing the safe open, even tossed taunting looks at Ruan Nanzhu over their shoulders, as if saying Look, didn't we get it open after all?

"Let's see what's inside."

The person testing the passcodes rubbed his palms together in excitement before pulling open the strongbox door. However, upon seeing what was inside, his expression instantly turned into one of pure terror. With a scream he made to run—but a moment later, a pair of thin, white arms reached out of that safe and caught him in a death grip. In an instant, they'd dragged him inside that small strongbox.

"Aaaaaah—"

The man being pulled in let out a single, dreadful scream before disappearing before everybody's eyes.

What had just been an energetic atmosphere in the study froze instantly, as if a block of ice.

Ruan Nanzhu approached the safe and gave the door a tug. He wasn't surprised at all to find that it had locked once again.

But coming from inside were horrible wails for help. They were coming from the person who'd just been dragged in.

"Help, help me, help me, please please you have to help me…"

As the despairing screams emanated out from within, everybody in the study was turning and running.

The number of Hakobito in the house now was up to three. The situation was getting steadily worse.

Frowning, Ruan Nanzhu said, "this is precisely why I don't like newbies."

Had it been veterans challenging the strongbox just now, they'd likely have stopped the moment he said something… No, veterans would never even have taunted the door's authority to such a degree, and done something like trying to force the safe open.

"Yeah, they've got no sense of deference, and each thinks they're the main character here," Liang Miye sighed, shaking her head. "They keep thinking they'll be the lucky ones, when in reality, they're just bystanders and cannon fodder."

The man dragged into the safe was still wailing. It was spine-chilling to hear.

Due to this incident, by the time Ruan Nanzhu had returned to the foyer the entire house was pretty quiet. The veterans were checking every corner of the mansion, and the newbies were huddled up and trembling like sheep in the living room. Some were even sobbing. Lin Qiushi spotted a man in his thirties inside the group…He seemed like he was reaching the end of his rope as well.

"Let's eat first," Ruan Nanzhu said. There was no point in comforting them at a time like this. "It's twelve."

"I don't have an appetite." There was a pitiful-looking young woman. "What do we do? Are we going to die here?"

Ruan Nanzhu glanced once at her.

"I don't know if you're gonna die here or not, but I do know people will die if they don't eat. Let's go, I'm hungry."

The three of them went to the dining room and found a table of steaming dishes and a group of pale-faced people. These were, for the most part, veterans. Not a single one of them had picked up their chopsticks, and were all silently watching the table of food before them without saying a word.

"What's wrong?" Ruan Nanzhu sensed something wrong in the air, and asked, "why aren't you eating?"

"We can't." Sun Yuanzhou seemed to have a good impression of Ruan Nanzhu, and so replied. "Why don't you give it a try?"

Can't? Hearing this Lin Qiushi blinked. He took a random seat, picked up some chopsticks, and got ready to eat, but then felt some force stop him—he couldn't reach the food in front of him with his chopsticks.

Ruan Nanzhu and Liang Miye too were met with the same situation as Lin Qiushi. It was as if some sort of wall had been put up in front of them, preventing them from accessing the food.

"No way…" Liang Miye's face had begun to go pale; she'd clearly surmised a very unfortunate possibility. "Tell me it's not what I think it is."

"The world of the doors indeed," Ruan Nanzhu sighed. "As if we'd get so lucky."

He'd thought they had plenty of time, but in reality, the door was nowhere as lenient as they'd imagined.

Ruan Nanzhu got up.

"Let's confirm it first."

He went to the living room and called for Xiao Ji.

Xiao Ji said, "but I'm not hungry yet."

"Just come take a quick bite," Ruan Nanzhu said.

Xiao Ji was confused, but still followed Ruan Nanzhu. He too sensed that something was wrong inside the dining room—when he sat down and picked up a mouthful of vegetables with his chopsticks, he saw the instant change in everybody's gazes, and jumped.

"Fuck, what are you all staring at me for?" He glanced at his chopstick, and immediately dropped the food. "There's poison in it?"

"No doubt about it, our guess is right," Ruan Nanzhu sighed.

The air in the dining room was deadly silent.

A bit on-edge from all the people staring at him, Xiao Ji let out a humorless laugh.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Can the food be shared?" Sun Yuanzhou asked. "Xiao Ji, feed me a bite."

"Ah??" Spooked by Sun Yuanzhou sitting right next to him, Xiao Ji jumped to his feet. "Man, don't be like that, I'm not interested in men."

Sun Yuanzhou gnashed his teeth.

"I'm also not interested in men! We can't eat the food, and you're the only one who can even use the chopsticks—"

Seeing that Xiao Ji was still clueless, Sun Yuanzhou picked up his chopsticks and decided to give Xiao Ji a practical demonstration.

At first Xiao Ji thought that Sun Yuanzhou was joking, because surely it was too absurd. But when he saw that everybody else's expressions were deadly serious, he realized this wasn't a joke.

"You guys mean that if you don't open a chest, you can't eat?"

"Yes," Ruan Nanzhu said.

"So why could we eat breakfast?" Xiao Ji asked.

Liang Miye made a joke that wasn't funny at all: "Maybe they were worried we'd have low blood sugar?"

"Hurry up and try to see if you can feed me or not." Sun Yuanzhou was a bit impatient. "I'm starving."

Xiao Ji, "…can I try on somebody else?"

His glance slid toward Ruan Nanzhu. Feeding a beautiful young lady, after all, was a far more joyous affair than feeding a rough and tumble old guy.

Sun Yuanzhou sneered, "you sure got a lot of shit to say."

Xiao Ji, "…"

Under the force of Sun Yuanzhou's glower, Xiao Ji unwillingly compromised. He picked up a bite of food in his chopsticks and began delivering it into Sun Yuanzhou's mouth. But before it could get there, Xiao Ji felt a blockage around the chopsticks in his hands. It should have been within easy reach, but he simply couldn't put the food into Sun Yuanzhou's mouth.

"Great." Seeing this, the group had irrefutable evidence to the truth of the hypothesis. Someone at the table blew a fuse, swearing in dialect: "This dick shite of a door, son of a cunt."

Lin Qiushi kind of wanted to laugh at his words, but it didn't feel appropriate. So he covered his mouth with a hand.

"What do we do?" Liang Miye was crumbling a bit. "If we want to eat we have to open the chests…Dammit, I knew there had to be a time limit."

And they'd thought the door was showing them mercy for once. Who'd have thought it had been lying in wait right here?

There was indeed a bug in this game. If players didn't open any chests, then the Hako Onna couldn't make her moves. With enough time, they could use one item on every single chest. They could even amass a lot of useful items.

For the Hako Onna to kill, after all, there was the necessary condition.

But the door was blockading off that potential path right now. It was also giving them a multiple choice problem: they could either get grabbed by the Hako Onna, or they could starve to death inside the mansion.

Xiao Ji had also understood his own peculiar position. He grabbed a bowl in a hurry and shoveled in a few mouthfuls of rice, mumbling, "I'm gonna eat first then, if you guys don't mind…"

Everybody's eyes on him were like they couldn't wait to eat him alive.

Liang Miye let out one long exhale before looking at Ruan Nanzhu.

"What do we do, Zhu Meng?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "what can we do? We're not eating then." Dropping the chopsticks, he got to his feet. "Let's go."

Lin Qiushi and Lin Qiushi followed him out the dining room. The other veterans gradually left as well. Somberness painted everybody's faces.

Xiao Ji also knew he was just begging to be resented, so after scarfing down all the rice in his bowl, he also quickly took off.

Lin Qiushi's group returned to their room. The three sat down in intense quiet.

"We don't eat today," Ruan Nanzhu spoke placidly. "We wait until Linlin gives some chests a listen tomorrow, and then eat."

Starving for one day wouldn't kill you, but opening up just one wrong box could mean your life.

"Didn't think there'd be this kind of limitation," Liang Miye said. "It's practically forcing us to suicide."

In the tabletop, there was no such issue of forcing players to open chests. It was only a game, after all, and to win the game, players would certainly go looking for and opening chests.

But it was different now that the game had become reality. What they would lose wasn't that tiny unimportant character role, but their own lives. If they had the option, who would put their own lives on the line? They'd all rather stay in the mansion for longer than take this kind of risk.

Now, however, with such a restriction, the door was forcing the players into activity.

All the veteran readily accepted this reality, but to the newbies, this was too cruel of a development.

Even on the second floor, Lin Qiushi could hear their wailing from the first. In between the wails were terrible cries: "I don't want to open the chests, I don't want to open them—I want to leave, let me out!!"

Somebody began to batter at the door, trying to escape from the mansion.

"Wei Xiude, Wei Xiude! You said you'd protect us!" Someone else had gone to find Wei Xiude, and spoke with a shaky voice. "What are we meant to do now!"

Wei Xiude calmed them down with some superficial comfort, saying things like there would definitely be a solution. As for what that solution could be, he wasn't likely to know himself.

But Lin Qiushi could tell he indeed wasn't in a rush. Xiao Ji was in his group and was in possession of a key item. They could open two chests per day, so he and Xiao Ji at least were saved.

This sudden rule plunged the entire mansion into chaos. By the time the dust settled, it was already evening.

Sun Yuanzhou gathered everyone on the first floor and called for a group meeting.

Everybody sat in dead silence around the table, listening to Sun Yuanzhou speak. "We've already come to this point. Does everybody understand now that this is a team effort?"

He slammed his hand onto the table.

"We have to work together, or we're all dying inside this door!"

Afte a long beat of silence, somebody spoke: "How do we work together?"

"We'll start by opening chests," Sun Yuanzhou said. "I won't force you. You can starve to death if you'd like."

But, after opening a chest, please stick a slip of paper on the chest to prevent repeats. They should also write what they found inside the chests on the paper.

"Okay," Ruan Nanzhu agreed, hands on his elbows. "But what happens if somebody lies?"

"Then we kick the liar out of the group," Sun Yuanzhou answered coldly. "The Hako Onna is annoying enough, we don't have the energy for infighting. I hope every single one of us can be dead clear on this point."

Translator’s Note:

I’ve always been on the liberal side when it comes to translating curses, but if someone who knows—is it Chongqing? Sichuan?—dialect wants to give me an English equivalent for “撒子錘子門哦，寶批龍胎的” I’d love to know it ("This dick shite of a door, son of a cunt"). It’s just vibes rn skdjfnkds

[Ch. 108] | [Ch. 110]

[smylealong]

The Tragedy of Song Huai'en

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a Liu Duan Duan fangirl. Unapologetically so. This is a spoiler filled post, so reader discretion is advised. (Written with some inputs from @terribleteej)

When we first meet Song Huai’en, we don’t see him. The focus is fully on Xiao Qi (a brilliant Zhou Ye Wei), like it should be, because he is the male lead. And this was his introduction scene. I, of course noticed him because I started this show forLiu Duan Duan. At this point, he is just a background figure – standing half a step behind Xiao Qi, a lieutenant bellowing his General’s orders.

When we next meet him, we learn that he is Xiao Qi’s right-hand man. Walking behind him, following his orders, fiercely loyal and protective of his General.

Decked in all black, he lurks in the shadows. In fact, he is Xiao Qi’s shadow – something that both becomes the cause of his meteoric rise and terrible downfall. But more on that later.

As the episodes go, we see him as this loveable dork, who likes to playfully banter with his friends. We see him gently tease Xiao Qi, and sportingly let people tease him. One cannot help but love this sweet man. The fact that he looks super pretty is just a bonus. But up until this point, he is, as the poster would have us believe, a side character.

In fact, based on that poster, I assumed that Zitan was the second lead. Huai’en did not even feature much during A’Wu’s abduction and subsequent rescue. A brief, flash in the pan appearance follows when A’Wu and Xiao Qi are attacked, but here, we do see that this man can be very intimidating, something that comes to play later.

However, a discerning viewer might notice that in the small appearances that the character is making, his eyes seem to be trailing A’Wu. He is very quietly crushing on her and at this juncture of the show, we cannot really blame him. A’Wu is stunning and as a young man, he was attracted. Understandable and even innocent.

It is only when we get to Huizhou that we see Song Huai’en in his element. He is leading the army, defending the city, working with A’Wu, Pang Gui, and Mou Lian to make sure that Huishou does not fall. This is the brave General who shines like a bright star, earning A’Wu’s trust and respect, and Yu Xiu’s undying devotion in the process.

At this point in the series, to the viewers at least, Huai’en’s crush on A’Wu becomes obvious in the little queries, the shy smiles, and the feeble excuses to see her. Before he can introspect on his reasons for wanting to see A’Wu, Ma Zi Lu goes tyrannical and Huai’en has to put aside his personal jumble of feelings to focus on the chaos that Zi Lu has unleashed. In trying to do so, he is tortured, believes that he failed in doing the task that A’Wu assigned him and in doing so, falls in his own eyes. One thing that I would like to point out is that here is where he also sustains a significant injury to his head.

Why am I talking about this scene? I mean, it was just whumping, and Pang Gui got massively whumped, so why the focus on Huai’en’s whump? Because unlike Pan Gui, Huai’en suffered a cranial injury. An injury to the head is not something to be brushed off easily. Even a tiny clot in the brain can change a person drastically. And Huai’en does change. He pretty much splits into two – Song Huai’en and Su Yi Bo. I believe that some of it was his inherent fragility, exacerbated by an injury to head that was never addressed. He comes back, all guns blazing, and shoots his arrow to put an end to Ma Zi Lu’s reign of terror.

The chaos reined in, he settles back to his comfortable familiarity and all seems normal. However, with Xiao Qi’s presence at the Yuzhang Manor, things are not what they were before. Huia’en too, is no longer who he was before. The cracks are hairline at this point, so no one notices it. But change is there. He starts to pull back from Xiao Qi and by extension, A’Wu.

On some level, he too understands that his desire for A’Wu is not right, so he holds himself back. The scene below is a perfect example of it.

He comes in with medicines and a plant. A plant that A’Wu had asked him to take care of. Clearly, he wanted to show her that he did what she had asked him to do, but then, when A-Xue jumps to the conclusion that the plant was for Yu Xiu, like the medicines, Huai’en quietly surrenders, knowing that it would be improper for him to harbor any kind of feelings for A’Wu. A theme we see repeated in his terrified reaction to his dream.

Granted it happened after Xiao Qi called him out on his frequent visits to A’Wu, but here is a man who understands he’s crossed a line he shouldn’t have. This is a critical juncture for his character. This is where we first realize that not everything is copacetic with Song Huai’en. Suddenly, his little rueful dialogues early on about Xiao Qi selling away his material possessions take whole different meaning. This is where we learn that this brave soldier from a humble background is dazzled by the material possessions and wealth that is in abundance in the capital. This is where we see that Huai’en is not a mini-Xiao Qi. That in comparison to Xiao Qi, he fails.

Here, I would like to call attention to Xiao Qi’s personality. Xiao Qi is, simply put, larger than life. He is a brilliant General, a loving husband, an adept politician, with iron control on his desires. In some ways, he practically has no vices. If he has a flaw, it is that he is perhaps a tad too patient. What I’m getting at here is that Xiao Qi is like a saint. He is a standard that is almost impossible to achieve.

Huai’en, being his shadow and arguably his best friend, understands that. He is keenlyaware that he is not Xiao Qi and as people start comparing him, his bravery, and his valor to Xiao Qi, it begins to grate on him. If you have ever had a sibling who outshines you in every aspect, you would understand how that slowly chips away at your confidence. All your merits are recognized, but they are perennially the lesser than that of the golden child. This is the crux of Huai’en’s problems. He is eternally the second best.

Wang Lin later states that Huai’en has an inferiority complex, and he is absolutely right. At this stage, Huai’en begins to realize just how wide the chasm that separates him, and Xiao Qi is. And that starts eating at him. The laughing, joking, shy Huai’en slowly starts to retreat into his shell. Both as a scared reaction and as a punishment to himself, he latches on to Yu Xiu.

Why Yu Xiu, though, one might ask. To some, it may look like him trapping her in a loveless marriage. I, however, saw it as him deciding to do the right thing and step away from A’Wu. It was also a bit of if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you are with. He chose a woman he liked enough to give himself a chance to love someone else other than the one forbidden to him.

And love her, he does. But if you are looking for the extravagant flair and loud actions declaring his love, like Xiao Qi does for A’Wu (the second marriage, for example), you won’t find it. Why? Because the entire arc of Song Huai’en is that he is not Xiao Qi.

With A'Wu and Xiao Qi, they have the same love language. But as someone who's been married for 13+ years, I can say that is rare. Most cases, the love languages of couples are different and it takes some time for each to fully understand the language the other is speaking. Time that the two did not get. Yu Xiu never hid her feelings for him. She was upfront with it. So, what was the language that Song Huai’en speaking?

Yu Xiu says he treats her well. Gives her gifts, medicines, clothes, jewelry. Having grown up poor and struggling, money is a big deal to Song Huai’en. Every human being shows their love to their partners with the one thing about themselves that they value the most. For some, it’s food. Some singing. Huai’en is a battle-hardened killer. That’s what he is good at. That can’t be the language of love. So, what else can he do? He showers her with gifts. That is his love language. Yu Xiu wanted more, but Huai’en is not one for big declarations.

Carrying her in his arms is the biggest declaration he would ever make. His love shows in the softness of the tone that he speaks to her in. His love shows in his reaction to her tears. In the soft smiles he gives her. In his horrified reaction when he sees her at the city gates. The battle-hardened Duke is suddenly reduced to a terrified, trembling man. He tells her to go away, repeatedly.

Huai’en is not Zitan. He is not delusional. He knows that there’s a good chance that he would end up dead or worse. He did not want Yu Xiu to witness that. As their conversation proceeds, you see his heart breaking in his eyes.

(Man, Liu Duan Duan spoke VOLUMES through his eyes. Somebody give this man an award already!). And then, he shoots an arrow at her. Only, it misses her. Or does it? An archer of Song Huai’en’s caliber would never miss a shot that easy. This was his way of scaring her into going away, because Yu Xiu was not listening to his words. This was also his way of trying to show the world that she was not his weakness. Only, this backfires and Yu Xiu, in a desperate attempt to make him see reason, jumps from there. The moment she fell, Song Huai’en broke. Shattered.

But he did not weep. Did not seem to mourn her loss. He just moved on. Because, again, Song Huai’en is not one to show big emotions. Not so publicly. Look at his eyes instead. Listen to his gasp of horror and pain. If he had lived through the coup, Huai’en would have mourned Yu Xiu in solitude. But not while thousands of eyes were on him.

But what of the scene where he pushes Yu Xiu and orders her to stay home? He did try to be gentle. He did try, as lovingly as he could, to tell her to stay away from it, but she refused. She dug her heels in. And with so many people watching, and the clock ticking, he snapped. We have all said and done things to the people we love that we should not have. That’s human. I will not crucify him for this one event.

An argument can be made against my theory of him not willing to show his pain in public – that he wept in that carriage with Wang Su when he learned of the Empress Dowager wanting to kill him and the news of Xiao Qi’s death reached him. Yes, he cried. He cried because with Wang Su, was private and safe to show the emotions. (He didn’t know of the assassins waiting outside). Something that the city gates most certainly were not. At the city gate, he lets the soldier in him take over. But in the carriage, he is still Song Huai’en.

Which brings me to Wang Su and by extension Wang Lin. Wang Lin, being the snake that he is, tells Huai’en exactly what he wants to hear. Wang Lin is a master manipulator; he’s made his entire career out of being the devil on people’s shoulders. Huai’en was just not equipped to shut out that insidious voice. It had been previously established that Huai’en did not understand court politics as well as Xiao Qi did, so the puppet did not see the strings till it was very late.

Wang Lin, however, for all his tricks, forgot a crucial thing. That Song Huai’en is a Ningshou General. The army that has, on more than one occasion, changed the course of history with their blades. And that Huai’en is a soldier through and through. Something Wang Lin should have realized with Maidservant Xu’s stabbing, but he didn’t. He missed just how easy it is for Huai’en to switch from a human to a killing machine. He did not realize that it was Su Yi Bo that he was talking to when he told Huai’en that he could not let Xu Gu Gu see him. When she does see him, he instantly goes into the soldier following orders mode. It was a crucial bit that Wang Lin missed. It was a mistake that ultimately cost him his life.

That cold blooded killer is the one that resurfaces with the killing of Hu Yao. Yet again, I have seen people rage at him for killing her and yes, it was not pleasant to see, but guess what? They were at war. They were both fulfilling the role of a soldier. One died, one moved on. It hurt him to watch his comrade fall under his own blade, you can see it on his face, but the soldier marched on.

By now, Su Yi Bo, the Edward Hyde to Song Huai’en’s Henry Jekyll, is fighting Huai’en for control. He’s at war, both inside and out. But he still doesn’t show it. He puts his game face on and goes on to fulfill the one dream that both the viewers and Huai’en himself have nurtured for a very long time – he flings Zitan out of the throne. (Man, that was glorious!). Allows Wang Lin to sit on it, only to stab him in the back, both literally and metaphorically.

When Wang Lin turned his back on Huai'en, the real soldier --a General of NIngzhou-- stepped out and killed the opposition leader, and thus did as he has been trained to do all his life. Fight and conquer and take from the enemy. He knewWang Lin was the enemy in the end and he rose to the surface long enough to do what he has been trained to do all his life. But immediately after that, Su Yi Bo takes over.

And then, and only then, does he speak of his real feelings. Feelings that he has buried deep in his heart. Feelings of inadequacy and neglect. Feelings of being the second best. The silent fight he fought all his life. The one thing he wanted to do – get out of Xiao Qi’s shadow. That was his motivating factor. By this point, his proposition to A’Wu is more of a snub to Xiao Qi than a love declaration for A’Wu. He knows very well she would not accept him. And at this point, he no longer cares. He is broken beyond repair. He is unstable, switching between Song Huai’en and Su Yi Bo.

Song Huai’en is the one that killed Wang Lin and threw Zitan away. Su Yi Bo is the one that killed Hu Yao and propositioned A’Wu. Su Yi Bo is the one who gets shot by the arrow, but Huai’en is the one that pleads with Xiao Qi to take him back to Ningshou with his dying breath. And then, Xiao weeps.

Xiao Qi weeps at the loss of his best friend. His brother. Arguably the one he loved the most after A’Wu. Xiao Qi is the first to see the crack in Huai’en. Upon discovering the evidence of pilfering, Xiao Qi hopes that his veiled insinuation and gentle nudges will put Huai’en in the right path and for a time, it does. But then, the Empress Dowager pulls them apart by sending Huai’en as flood relief. By the time Xiao Qi meets Huai’en again, he is aware of what the court is doing. By then, Xiao Qi has already been framed for Zilong’s murder, has lost a chunk of his soldiers and has been labeled a traitor.

When Huai’en and Xiao Qi meet at the gate, Wang Lin’s claws are already deep into Huai’en. When Xiao Qi addresses him as Su Yi Bo, he has already realized that his best friend and brother is lost. Cracked. Xiao Qi mourns the loss of his trusted General and yet, holds on to the hope that Huai’en will pull through. But as a more than a month passes and Huai’en doesn’t come to visit them, Xiao Qi has to accept that things will never go back to being the way they were.

Yet, it is Xiao Qi’s love for his brother-in-arms that makes him adopt Huai’en and Yu Xiu’s son. It is of note that Huai’en did not name his son. It may not the sign of neglect that it is perceived to be. I know that in some parts of the world, there was a custom to not give a baby a name for he first six months of its life for the simple reason that infant mortality was very high. Once the baby was relatively safe, the parents would name them. I don’t know if this was a thing in ancient China, but it might be. By the time the child became old enough to be named, Huai’en is already splitting, being pulled in a hundred different directions. He never got a chance because of the Roaring Tornado of chaos in the capital that kept him too busy to be able to focus on his home. He did not name his child. He should have, but he didn’t.

He was undoubtedly the most tragic character in the end. He broke and he did some things that are very hard to forgive, but those were done in the throes of insanity. Not bitter hatefulness. Zitan was hateful, Zi Lu was hateful. Wang Lin was consumed with hate. Wanru and Jin’er fed the hate in their heart, enjoyed it even. The Empress Dowager hated the whole world. Huai’en, however, was just tragic.

At the end of the day, I guess what I’m saying is that Song Huai’en is not a villain. He is human. A fallible, flawed, foolish one, but human, nonetheless. Conflicted, controlled, corrupted, confused, cracked, and compromised. And he is not, as the poster would have us believe, a support character. He was the second lead of this story and that is a hill I will plant my stake on.

[killerandhealerqueen]

So, Master, Wait a Moment.  A really good drama and a happy ending!  A happy ending?  From MangoTV?  The same fuckers who gave us Ep. 37 from Killer and Healer?  Yeah!  I know right?  I was shook too. 

But anyways.  About the drama.  It’s a really good drama and though it says comedy, while it is funny, there are some like...really touching and heartfelt scenes that are pretty fucking angsty?  Not Killer and Healer angsty, but just enough to tug on your heartstrings.  The cases are pretty interesting because while they seem individual at first, you don’t realize that they’re somehow all connected to this big overarching case, which in and of itself is pretty interesting.

As for the characters, I really liked them, save for one.  If you’ve been following me through this whole little liveblogging experience, then you know that I absolutely hate, with the passion of a thousand burning suns, Tang Zhixin.  She brought absolutely fucking nothing to the table.  She was only there as a love interest and she didn’t even do a good job with that.  Her romance with Dayu was so unbelievable it was ridiculous.  They would have been better off remaining friends but no.  Honestly, the only reason she was there was because of her dad and even then, we didn’t even really need her for that.  Anyways, she was just a poorly written character and I wish they had left her out but you know...fucking censorship (she didn’t end up in like the last few minutes of the drama and I’m fucking okay with that because the police family is more important anyways). 

Now, for the others.  Xiao Dong and Xiao Qi, while their roles were small, were really fucking good.  Xiao Qi especially.  She was a well written female character and I’m glad the writers did good with her.  Yifei too.  She was another well written character and even though she claimed to be Wushuang’s “girlfriend”, she really acted more as a friend and honestly, I vibe with that so much harder.  She was really good and she could read both Dayu and Wushuang really well and was able to help them with their....problems. 

As for the police dads, Bureau Leader Yuan and Team Leader Xing, I love them.  They’re like the older gossip and they really care about their team.  Basically, they’re like Xu Wushuang’s dads and I’m fucking here for it.  And Team Leader Xing is always checking up on Wushuang and Dayu like a dad and I’m just like...fuck I’m soft.

Now Wushuang and Dayu...fucking enemies to acquaintances to friends to boyfriends to acquaintances to partners to fucking husbands.  Like they go through all fucking stages of a relationship and it was an absolute joy to watch.  They also have the dynamic of like a very grumpy black cat and a fucking golden retriever.  I fucking love that dynamic, okay?  That shit gets me every fucking time and I’m here for it.  And it was also really nice to watch Wushuang sort of soften as he spent more time with Dayu and like...learned to act less stand offish and watch them grow to care for each other.  Like, I love it.  Yes there was some challenges, like their two fucking breakups that hurt to watch, but after their break they came back so much stronger like yes bitch, good for you.  You really did that.  Also, the looks these two share and the fucking nape caresses that Wushuang does to Dayu...as well as the minute Dayu’s in trouble, Wushuang’s fucking there kicking ass and taking names.  Also, Dayu got to call Wushuang fucking “師父”?!  I’m fucking deceased.

I just...I love them okay?  I love these characters a lot

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Episode 3

I just love their outfits here, and since I didn’t comment on that in the last episode, I wanted to say it here. I love the whole color palette they used for Lotus Pier. The donghua goes heavy on the purple and black, but I really love how they incorporate lavender and teal and other blues. It’s just very pretty and soft and relaxing. Such a nice place. I keep having a debate with myself about where I’d rather live. I think I’d be more comfortable in the Cloud Recesses, but I’d never be able to deal with all those rules!

Ah, yes, everyone’s favorite peacock. He played this part so perfectly: just this pillar of grace and poise, except when he’s around Jiang Yanli, and he just becomes butter hahaha. I like his son a lot better than him, but he and Wei Wuxian have some great scenes together, and it’s fun to see him grow alongside everyone else. He’s not just a mindless clan member who does everything he’s supposed to. He’ll stand up and fight for justice too.

It’s easy to forget (myself included in this) that Jiang Yanli is the oldest of the three of them, especially in this show. She’s so much smaller, so soft-spoken; she isn’t going to be the next leader, because that’s Jiang Cheng, being the male heir. But this is one of those scenes where she really is the big sister. Wei Wuxian is fighting with her fiancé’s retinue, Jiang Cheng is just trying to stay out of it and be polite, so she has to step in and put an end to it. I love when Jiang Yanli gets some screen time and lines, and isn’t serving soup. Don’t get me wrong—I like seeing her take care of them, but it’s more mothering than being a big sister. I think the moments when she’s standing up for her brothers and for herself are really special. You can’t blame Jiang Cheng or Wei Wuxian for loving their shijie so much.

Gotta love Wei Wuxian taking every opportunity to throw some shade at Jin Zixuan. I love all of it, and I eat it up—I am the target audience for snarky Wei Wuxian. And at this point, Jin Zixuan just ignores him—good on him. He keeps that up for all of a few days.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

YOU FORGOT THE INVITATION!

Sorry, but the first time I watched this, I wondered why there was this big close-up of something with “Lan Clan of Gusu” written on it. I’m a dummy, okay?

Omg they translated ge-ge as “buddy.”

Okay, but here we go! Shut out of the Cloud Recesses. Also, where did they change? I kept thinking they changed at the tavern, but when they left, they were wearing their same Jiang Clan clothes. So, somewhere along the way, they put on their pretty white robes. I’ve got nothing else to say here, because we’re about to see another great entrance from Lan Wangji.

I love how his entrance is accompanied by the guqin. His presence is so ethereal, so otherworldly, yet he’s so grounded as a character. He turns everyone’s heads, including Wei Wuxian’s. I love that Wang Yibo is in reality shorter than Xiao Zhan, so they gave him platform boots to make them more even. But the height and stature gives the relationship a whole different dynamic.

Anyone who knows me knows I love my yaoi/BL. I could go on and on about my favorites, but I won’t do that here. There’s one thing I don’t like about it, and it’s that you can always tell who the top and bottom is just by how they look (sometimes artists subvert this, which I love!). The donghua for MDZS does this (I haven’t read the manhua, but I have seen some screenshots, and I think it also does)—Lan Wangji is so much bigger than Wei Wuxian. And while it’s aesthetically pleasing, it just bugs me, okay? I like the idea of Wangxian being roughly the same size and height—I don’t really know why, I just do. Also I definitely headcanon them both as switches at this point.

I don’t think Lan Wangji would have given Wei Wuxian the time of day if he hadn’t heard this. He’s already impressed that Wei Wuxian picked up on the weird stuff/wicked sorcery going on—he’s made a mental note of him. I’m sure he’s a little disappointed that Wei Wuxian immediately gets on his nerves, but he still pauses before leaving.

Lan Wangji is never going to be a fast friend—he’s not going to be anyone’s best friend right away. You need to gain his trust and that does not happen overnight. Though the setting is anything but realistic, their relationship and the steps it goes through are incredibly realistic. They grow together—they grow on each other (it’s not as if Wei Wuxian really cares about Lan Wangji at first either—think of how many times he calls him a fuddy-duddy. I think his main goal for quite some time is to get on Lan Wangji’s nerves and tease him. Wei Wuxian is used to charming his way in and out of things, but he can’t do that with Lan Wangji).

Yibo’s piercings! That’s it. That’s why I took this screenshot. But, weirdly, I always look at stuff like that.

He has such a swagger here, going up the steps, but I think it’s really just Xiao Zhan trying to climb the stairs without tripping on his costume. XD

It’s funny how surprised Wei Wuxian is to have the silencing spell used on him, even though he had been put under it earlier that day. Frankly, I don’t blame Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian hit him with a bit of a sucker punch there, implying that the girls only liked him for how he looks and that they’d be disappointed by his demeanor.

It’s such a popular trope (enemies to lovers), but I don’t think that makes it inherently bad or less effective as a storytelling device. On the contrary, when done well, it can make or break a story. As I said earlier, their relationship is very realistic, yet has enough fiction to make it fun. I watch these early scenes with a big old grin on my face, and I’ve seen this one probably around four times now, maybe more (I keep watching the Special Edition for all that wangxian goodness).

Okay, let’s watch as Wei Wuxian digs his hole deeper and deeper. The look on Lan Qiren’s face this entire time is priceless. Like, who is this miscreant who just barged in here, telling me how he is breaking all the rules and expecting me to feel bad for him? Meanwhile, Lan Xichen, with a smile: I won’t blame you for breaking the rules, but let my brother who hates you decided your punishment, okay? Thanks!

Peak comedy before it gets all serious again.

She’s so gorgeous!

But I’ll be frank with you all, I don’t like that they expanded Wen Qing’s role in this way. She was one of my favorites in the book, but shoehorning her and Wen Ning into the Cloud Recesses kind of drives me nuts. And then the stuff with Jiang Cheng, while kind of cute, just doesn’t really hit right with me, and I don’t think it was executed well at all after a certain point—but I’ll babble about that when the time comes. So, while I appreciate expanding female roles, I didn’t really care for this bit in the Cloud Recesses. I would have been fine with them adding scenes of what she was up to with the Wen Clan—that would have been really cool, actually, because we don’t get to see much of anything other than the Nightless City. And maybe I’m biased because I quite enjoyed the archery contest stuff in the book that they kind of piecemealed in the show.

It sounds like I’m just whining about this show, but I actually really enjoy it.

I like this moment between the twin jades. We don’t get a ton of these and this one is particularly quiet and peaceful. The contrast between them and Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian is so stark—the twin jades are so formal and a little stiff, while the twin prides are off the wall, hitting and teasing each other—but this doesn’t make either one less caring than the other. What’s obvious from this scene is how much both of them care about each other: Lan Wangji wants to do what he can to help, because he knows how much pressure is on Xichen, and Xichen is just worried about his younger brother. Even though you don’t find this out until later, you can tell that the two boys had to grow up very fast. Neither one had much of a childhood, and I think Lan Xichen does take on a bit of a father role to Lan Wangji as well.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 |

[theleakypen]

OYZZ/A-Qing, AU where they meet while she's alive, kiss meme?

(uhhh so this accidentally turned into a full-on fic. Unfortunately, it's only a fix-it for A Jing, not for Songxiao 😭; I’m going entirely by book canon here, except my brain has settled on CQL aesthetics for OYZZ and A Jing, hence the “burgundy robes.”)

Kissing prompt

"Excuse me, are there any powerful people around here? Powerful people who cultivate?" Ā Jing swallowed hard as yet another passerby shook her off. She wouldn't cry! Her dàozhǎng needed vengeance and so did Song dàozhǎng; she had to keep trying to find someone.

"Excuse me, gūniang," came a voice from behind her—a young voice, a boy about her age. "I'm a cultivator. Perhaps I can be of service?"

--

It took some doing to convince first the boy — Ouyang Zizhen — and then his father that Xue Yang was indeed in Yi City and not dead as he should have been these last many years, but in the end Sect Master Ouyang had reached out to his patron, the master of the Jiang sect, who was known for his hatred of demonic cultivators, and the full might of both Baling Ouyang and Yunmeng Jiang was brought to bear against Xue Yang. Ā Jing insisted on being allowed to accompany them — she had to see this through.

Ouyang Zizhen seemed to have decided that she was his responsibility and he stuck close to her while his seniors prepared for and then fought the battle. "I'm not allowed to night hunt unsupervised, anyway, so I will be your protector, Jing gūniang!"

Ā Jing wasn't going to say no to protection. Ever since she saw her dàozhǎng killing people under Xue Yang's guidance she had felt an overwhelming terror. It was lessened now that she had an entire army between her and Xue Yang, including this strangely earnest boy, but until she saw Xue Yang's dead body with her own eyes, she wouldn't feel able to truly rest.

--

She took one look at the dead bodies laid out in a row, the two Daoist priests and their murderer, and flung herself weeping into Ouyang Zizhen's arms. He stroked her back, while she shook and wet his burgundy silk robes with her tears, and murmured soothingly in her ear. She liked that he called her "Jing gūniang," as if she really was somebody, and not just an urchin with no family name to speak of.

"What will you do, now that it's over?" he asked, when they were all seated in an inn, waiting for food to be delivered to their table. He kept his arm around her and seemed to be daring his seniors to say anything. Ā Jing was still feeling shaky and uncertain, so she wasn't going to complain. She clutched the little pouch that the cultivators said held Xiao Xingchen’s soul close to her chest, afraid to let it out of her sight even for a moment. They said his soul was shattered into little bits, but that it might heal with time. The least she could do was take care of it until it did. Every time she thought about her poor dàozhǎng, shattering himself to pieces because of his horror at what Xue Yang had made him do, she felt fresh tears prickling her eyes.

"I don't know," she said. "I was traveling with Xiao dàozhǎng so long, I don't think I know how to travel alone anymore." This was probably not true, but all these people knew that she was sighted — she had to play up her helplessness somehow!

"You can come with us to Baling," Ouyang Zizhen suggested. "You could learn to be a cultivator, like us."

"Aren't I too old?" she asked, looking at him sidelong.

"You'll probably never be exceptional," he agreed, "but that doesn't mean you can't learn to use a sword the way we do."

It sounded appealing. It sounded like a lot of work. Well, if she didn't like it, she could always leave. Traveling alone in Baling couldn't be any different from traveling alone in Shudong.

--

Baling was nice. They let her call herself Xiao Jing, to keep her dàozhǎng's name alive, even if he was now dead. They gave her a room and nice clothes and they didn’t try to take away the two bags that held everything that mattered to her in this world — the wallet she had stolen from Xiao Xingchen, and the Spirit Capture Pouch that held his soul. They added her to the rolls of junior disciples. She had to practice next to seven year olds, and it was hard work, but she never had to worry about her next meal and Ouyang Zizhen came by all the time to see how she was settling in. One time a couple of his big sisters came by and told her to tell them if he was bothering her.

"We'll beat him up for you, don't worry," said the second young mistress of Baling Ouyang. Xiao Jing thought that maybe that was backwards — shouldn't they be threatening her on his behalf? After all, she was a swindler and a thief. But, then, they didn't know that part of her past.

Everyone knew she was a tragic orphan, victimized by the horrible Xue Yang, and she'd played that up as much as possible. Pity was good — people mostly didn't want to hurt you if they pitied you. Mostly people were patient with her uneducated speech and her inability to read and that she picked up cultivation concepts slowly, except the physical ones. The exercises came easily — she'd had to be deft to steal without people noticing, and that came in handy now.

"He's not a bother," she said aloud. "I like Ouyang gōngzǐ."

"Oh?" The fifth young mistress pounced on that, smiling like a cat. "And in what way do you like xiǎodì?"

Xiao Jing blushed at that, and did her best to deflect.

--

"Your sisters came to see me today," Xiao Jing told Ouyang Zizhen. She pulled a couple of sweets from the wallet she still kept close by, the one she stole from Xiao Xingchen all those years ago, and offered one to him. Their fingers tangled briefly as he accepted the sweet and she flashed back to Ouyang Ruoyin's question. In what way do you like our little brother? She shook herself, willing her cheeks to stop blushing. Back to doing the teasing; that was way better than being teased. "They said they'll beat you up if you keep bothering me."

"They told me the same thing," Ouyang Zizhen laughed. "Am I bothering you, Jing gūniang?"

"Obviously not," Xiao Jing retorted. "I don't give sweets to people who bother me."

"Well, that's a relief, then," he said, smiling at her as he popped the sweet in question into his mouth. He had a very nice smile, distractingly nice. She realized she was staring at his lips, which was definitely inappropriate, and dragged her gaze up to his eyes, which were crinkled in that same smile. Hell.

“Jing gūniang, I—” he began, before she cut him off. Oh well, it wasn’t as though she hadn’t been impulsive before.

“Ouyang gōngzǐ, do you like me?”

Now it was his turn to blush and stammer, which filled her with an obscure satisfaction. “I— yes, I— yeah?” he said. His voice steadied as he took up his thread. “I like you a lot. Your courage in the face of extreme adversity, your devotion to your dàozhǎng, the way your eyes flash in the sun when you train—”

“Okay, okay,” Xiao Jing cut him off again. There was no stopping Ouyang Zizhen when he got poetic. She wasn’t anticipating the danger of letting him get poetic about her, the way it made her skin feel hot and prickly all over. “I get it, you think I’m admirable. Do— Would—” She swallowed hard. Get it together, Ā Jing. “Would you like to try kissing?” she asked, the words coming out all in a rush.

Ouyang Zizhen stared at her, mouth falling open in a pretty silly-looking way. Xiao Jing almost laughed at it, except for how her stomach was turning somersaults. Did she misread things? Ouyang Zizhen did get poetic about all sorts of things, but she did think he showed her particular attention! She scuffed her foot on the floor of the pavilion. “I only meant...” She looked down. “I like you, too, and I thought...”

“Yeah.” His voice was breathless and Xiao Jing looked up with new hope. He was still blushing, and his eyes seemed almost to sparkle as he stepped nearer to her. “Yeah, can I kiss you?”

Xiao Jing smiled and took one of his hands and tilted her face up to his. She’d hit a growth spurt recently—probably all that good Baling food—but he was still taller than her. He tilted his head consideringly, and then lowered his face until their lips met. She felt his nose brushing her cheek and the little sigh of his breath on her mouth. His lips were soft on hers and just the slightest bit sticky. He tasted a little of the candy they’d both just eaten. His hand tightened its grip on her hand, even as his other hand came up to cup her cheek, and she felt that same heat and prickle on her skin as she did when he had been complimenting her.

When they parted, Xiao Jing stepped forward and buried her face in his collar, hiding her flushed cheeks. Ouyang Zizhen wrapped his arms around her almost automatically. “That was nice,” he whispered into her hair.

She nodded and then murmured, “Yeah,” in case he couldn’t tell what her movement meant.

“Do you... want to do it again?” he asked.

“Give me a minute,” she said.

He chuckled quietly; she felt the wind of his breath ruffling her hair. “As long you need,” he said.

[lanonima]

This ended up being slightly later than intended but anyway, my review for Nan Chan:

Romantic - Fucky is not how risque a work is but rather my opinion of the attitude/quality of the main relationship, the way the characters interact with respect to one another. I like a lot of stuff in fiction but if you’re easily made uncomfortable, stay towards the top half.

Easy reading - Plot-heavy is how I personally consider the plot’s intricacy and successful implementation, regardless of the author’s intention.

Nan Chan

Author: Tang Jiuqing

Quality: 8

Enjoyment: 6

Comments: This one is kind of weird because it's definitely competent, it's well-written and has a fairly in-depth plot, but I just didn't really enjoy it all that much? I never got emotionally attached to any of the characters, and I didn't even really get the relationship buildup. I understand what the author is going for with it of course, but it didn't necessarily make a lot of sense… Or rather it seems like some bits in the middle were just missing, there's good buildup in the beginning and in the end but how they got from point A to point B was kind of not explored to my satisfaction. I did really like the flashback to the past, I thought that storyline was all pretty interesting. The big bad was kind of disappointing to me as well though. In general, I think this is a really good book with a lot of skill behind it but it's just not really my thing.

Would I read it again: No.

The reviews of things I previously read are below the cut.

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Author: MXTX

Quality: 9.5

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: I have a huge emotional connection to this novel. There are some weak parts, the tension isn’t quite even, she’s pretty terrible at erotic scenes and not great at fight scenes…but that being said, I love the characters and some of the plot points really ripped my heart out. This is a novel that’s really driven by the characters so if you’re a character-focused person like me, definitely look into it (as if we all don’t already know it lmao). I really, really love this story. Every single adaptation of it has also been great, but the novel is still my favorite. It was my introduction to xianxia novels too, so you can say it changed my life!

Would I read it again: I’ve already read it twice, and consumed every adaptation (sometimes also multiple times)

Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Author: MXTX

Quality: 6

Enjoyment: 5

Comments: I’m not much of one for comedy and, as I discovered, not really into system novels either. Clearly weaker than MXTX’s later work, many of the characters are somewhat bland, she hasn’t quite found her groove yet. It’s not my style but the fandom is hilarious and the fans constantly produce content that I actually do find entertaining so overall I still have some fond feelings for this one, even if not for the source material.

Would I read it again: I found a different translation and am willing to try again in the future, I’m also willing to watch the donghua. But I can’t guarantee I’ll like it any more than previously.

Tian Guan Ci Fu

Author: MXTX

Quality: 10

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: I love this book…but not as much as I love Mo Dao Zu Shi. I think the plot is somewhat typical, however the characters are great once again (though maybe slightly less deep than MDZS), and her use of thematic repetition and foreshadowing are killer. Actually, I liked this book more the second time around because it just hits differently. Definitely the best of MXTX’s couples, they are so soft and sweet. Very long, but worth it.

Would I read it again: I already have, was personally translating the manhua before I hurt my arms, and am eagerly awaiting the donghua this fall!

The Villain’s White Lotus Halo

Author: A Big Roll of Toilet Paper

Quality: 10

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: Fuck, I love this one so much…..even though it’s also a system novel. But that part is in it so rarely that it reads more like pure fantasy. I love the characters, I love the plot, I love the way the relationship is developing. Oh yeah, the translation isn’t even complete but I already purchased not only the original from JJWXC but also the print edition. I’ve even drawn fanart for it, which is so unlike me. Every time a chapter comes out, I’m ruined for the rest of the day, I can’t think about anything else. Good fight scenes, which is uncommon. My favorite danmei novel so far.

Would I read it again: I fully intend to once the translation is complete, and also plan to read it in Chinese later (I’ve already read certain parts in Chinese hahaha but not the whole thing)

2Ha (Husky and his White Cat Shizun)

Author: Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat

Quality: 8

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: 2Ha is not for the faint of heart, it’s very horny, and violent, and has a lot of questionable content. However I love it so much. The story and characters are great, Meatbun really has me by the heart. The writing is a little more on the casual side but it hardly matters because the story is so great. Good fight scenes. Chu Wanning is like, the ultimate Me™ character, I hate how much I adore him. If you read this, just go into it knowing that it’s a long emotional journey, the characters are very dynamic and there’s a lot of character development.

Would I read it again: Same as the above, I plan a reread when the translation is done and have read parts in Chinese and might read the whole thing again later. Cautiously eager about the up-coming live action and donghua.

Di Wang Gong Lue

Author: Yu Xiao Lanshan

Quality: 2

Enjoyment: 9

Comments: This is one of the most terribly written things I’ve ever read, but I’m a character girl and the characters and ways they interact fucking kill me. I’m constantly entertained….although I don’t think this is actually supposed to be a comedy. If I were going to treat myself and like, take a bubble bath and read something that made me laugh, this is exactly the sort of trashy romance I would want to read. Technically a political intrigue story but it’s so abrupt and full of holes, are any of us reading it for the actual plot? The donghua is on Youtube, I watched it first and recommend others to do the same. If you can handle that, you can handle the book because it’s exactly the same in quality, just gayer. I do love the main couple a lot, the set-up surrounding the relationship is great, and the side characters are also really fun.

Would I read it again: Probably not, but I’m still having fun with it. I watched the donghua and read a bit of the manhua as well, which has very cute art and is probably my favorite version of the story.

Liu Yao

Author: Priest

Quality: 6

Enjoyment: 7.5

Comments: I really struggled getting into this one, it took me about 25 chapters to get invested. Initially I had rated it a 6 in enjoyment but after careful thought, I realized that even though it was so hard for me, it probably is my favorite Priest novel and I really do love the main couple so much. Her side characters also seem to be slightly stronger than usual in this one. Decent plot, not too much or too little. It seems really chill to me, doesn’t provoke much of an emotional reaction but I do think it’s very sweet, which is nice sometimes too.

Would I read it again: No, but I think (?) it’s supposed to get some kind of tv adaptation (drama or donghua, not sure), and if that happens, I’ll watch it.

Didn’t Know the General was Female

Author: Rong Qing

Quality: 4

Enjoyment: 6

Comments: Not the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but cute. It’s short, and a little lesbian fluff is never a bad thing. Writing is a bit weak and the plot is basic, but the characters are enjoyable and I liked it overall.

Would I read it again: No.

Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader

Author: Yi Zhi Dayan

Quality: 4

Enjoyment: 7

Comments: Again, not the greatest in writing or plot, it’s a bit shallow. But I found the idea of it to be entertaining, and actually liked it more than I would have assumed. It’s fairly short and cute, like a good summer beach read.

Would I read it again: Probably not, but possibly, if the stars align.

Female General and Eldest Princess

Author: Please Don’t Laugh

Quality: 7

Enjoyment: 6

Comments: A very good first effort, but the writing is a bit weak. It’s slow to start and I don’t think the political plotline is spectacularly strong. Some things were left unexplained, and her sense of battle tactics and fight-writing were very confusing, definitely room for improvement. I don’t think it’s as good as people say, but she writes with the air of someone who will continue to improve. And also, a lesbian author writing lesbian stories so that’s a plus. Overall I enjoyed the experience, this story is definitely worth a read.

Would I read it again: Maybe, but probably not.

Sha Po Lang

Author: Priest

Quality: 7

Enjoyment: 7

Comments: Originally I rated this one higher, but on later thought I realized that I actually enjoyed Liu Yao more. I personally have issues with the way Priest writes, and this book showed a lot of them. Characters were okay, I did like the main couple, but side characters were weak as usual. The plot is pretty good, though not great, and I think some of the pacing is off. Some descriptions were confusing, but that could be a translation issue. Overall, still a pretty good political drama, but I would say that of the three I read, this was the Priest novel with the least impact on me.

Would I read it again: No. But I will watch the live action if it ever gets made.

Guardian

Author: Priest

Quality: 6

Enjoyment: 5

Comments: I love Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan, thought the plot was interesting, and there were some enjoyable moments. But it has all the problems I usually have with Priest in addition to some choices that offend me as a queer reader. I spent about 75% of the time reading while pissed off. And actually the fact that it had a happy ending kinda bummed me out because I love a good tragedy. Overall, I can only give it an average score. If you like Priest, you’ll like this one too. I’m not a tv person but I binged the hell out of the live action, I really loved it, so I was sort of disappointed that the source material didn’t seem as strong as I had assumed.

Would I read it again: No, but I will happily watch the live action again some day.

Jing Wei Qing Shang

Author: Please Don’t Laugh

Quality: 9.8

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: I have to start off by saying: damn girl. The improvement evident in this book is absolutely insane. A few minor issues prevent me from giving it a 10 out of 10 – her transitions are still extremely abrupt, the ending is slightly weak and some plot points remain unresolved, and her use of narrative repetition is too heavy-handed for my taste. Other than that, this book leaves me almost speechless. Very similar to Female General and Eldest Princess, there are many similar themes and events. But while I thought FGEP was fairly cute, I like this one way better. If you like angst, political intrigue, and lesbians, you should definitely read this book. I have no doubt that Please Don’t Laugh will continue to improve in the future, and I really look forward to following her career.

Would I read it again: 100%, I absolutely intend to read this again sometime in the future. It’s very long and very dense but delightful and ultimately worth it.

Fox Demon Cultivation Manual

Author: Feng Ge Qie Xing

Quality: 8

Enjoyment: 10

Comments: This was a delightful romp. I had expected it to be somewhat silly and was pleasantly surprised. It was heavy enough to be engaging but light enough to be an easy read, with multiple spots that made me literally laugh out loud which does not happen often. This is apparently just one book in a series of same universe novels, and a lighter-hearted one at that. I would be interested to read the others because I found the world pretty engaging, and I do want to know what became of the other characters. Overall I found it very fun and very cute, I read it in four days so that says something. On the downside, the link for chapter 9 is broken. But skipping a chapter doesn’t seem to have affected the experience of the novel as a whole.

Would I read it again: Yeah I think I would be willing to read this again someday. If it gets adapted I would also consume adaptations, in addition to being interested in the other connected works.

Golden Stage

Author: Cang Wu Bin Bai

Quality: 6

Enjoyment: 7

Comments: This one has some Sha Po Lang vibes, but the characters have more depth and chemistry. The word ‘more’ here is extremely relative because it’s still pretty shallow. I honestly liked them both, I liked the relationship and the psuedo-rude way that they flirt entertained me. As for the plot…ehhhh. It tried. There were things that worked, but in general the plot seemed disjointed from the characters and there were a few things that had no business being there and just muddied the waters. It’s not bad necessarily, it’s just not very smooth. There are better political intrigues to read if that’s what you want. But if you just want some sugar-sweet fluff with a backdrop of drama, then this one is perfect. My favorite scene was probably the flashback to the first few times they met, absolutely fantastic.

Would I read it again: Nah.

[dourpeep]

Omfg I hate burning my tongue. I made some cookies recently, and got impatient… I’m sure you know what happens next

BRO THAT ALBEDO FANART HNNNNNNNNGH honestly, soft dudes with a more alternative/grunge-y style are honestly my weakness (despite wearing very bright and cute clothes—think decora kei but not as hardcore). But dammit tattoo artist!Bedo brainrot

Just, you go to his shop, wanting to just inform yourself and so on, but you leave with an entire tat on your ankle because the artist’s lil sis told you that “big bro makes reaaaaaally pretty pictures! And he’s so nice, you will love him!” And oh boy, we’re you enamored, and not only with the quick sketch he presented you when you told him what you had in mind.

You needed a mini job anyways, and ask whether you can help out around the shop since 1. The atmosphere is nice and the place is close to yours and 2. Hello? Cute ass colleague? However, your small aesthetic crush morphed into full on pining after seeing Albedo being so soft around his sis, and creating beautiful designs inspired by every customers liking 24/7.

Nonetheless, you were getting confused by him. Was he into you, or why did he buy you a coffee when you came in that morning, with the sweetest note attached to it? Why did he go out of his way to quell all your curiosities (big brain = hot)? Why does he gaze at you with those soft teal orbs, when you haven’t been close for this long yet?

His acquaintances muse that he’s generally a clueless guy when it comes to relationships, whether they are platonic or romantic, and he does tend to give off wrong signals because of that. So far, he rejected everyone who came at him with a gentle smile, apologizing for his tactlessness.

And yet, you could feel that there’s more to it in your case… but you didn’t wanna stick your head in the clouds and get the wrong idea. However, Klee is right there to tell you just how much he’s been talking about you! She ends up asking him whether you can go home with them, because she really wants you to bake for her (one of the single skills that Albedo was not blessed with), and there, as you three stand in the kitchen….

“I’ve never heard big bro talk so much about anyone before… I’m glad big bro likes you soooo much! I really want a big sis!”

Hehe, this is so cute, fuck. I want a bf now :(((

I agree anon, I too long for a significant other-

Kinda.

I think it'd be nice to have someone to cuddle and smooch, though.

And I agree--I'm so weak for soft dudes with grungy vibes Xiao. Like...seeming tough?? Being tough?? But also having a gentle and sweet personality? Please, sign me up.

I personally dress in comfy sweaters + skirts or grunge (but pretty loosely so). There's no in-between.

Wait also might I have a cookie?

I love the idea of Klee basically just hanging out at the shop too hahaha, leave it to Albedo to have both a very steady hand and be responsible enough to take care of an active little girl while working. Props to him, that's for sure. It'd also be cute if the customers can have her pick their tattoo-

Dodoco would unintentionally become a 'thing' at the shop.

That being said, Albedo as your boss (but, as always, please just call him Albedo. You're around the same age anyway and this is a small family-owned place, after all)? He'd be attentive and rather sweet.

Considering that he already does hold a soft spot towards people and their little habits, the seemingly small moments of joy that spark and the smiles that refuse to leave his customer's faces when they see the nearly finished product--it's not entirely surprising. It's hard to miss the smile on his own face.

Albedo would often give you longer breaks, too. While the tattoo parlor is popular, the foot traffic is low, so there's only ever a customer or two getting worked on at a time along with a few curious peeks now and then.

Not to mention, the artist is also quite the skilled chef. The breakfast sandwich he brought in for breakfast? He made himself.

Of course the coffee he bought on his way in.

Because he usually goes right to sketching and prepping the workspace, he'll always leave the tasty morsels and coffee (or whatever beverage you prefer, to your specifications) right on the counter in the front so you can see it when you walk in for the day.

And as always, there's his name signed with his signature 'solar isotoma' (it's what he calls it, at least) detailing that he took care of breakfast for you and that he hopes you enjoy the simple meal he's prepped this time around.

Things go pretty well for the first few weeks of working!

Lots of satisfied customers, playing with Klee in the shop's downtime, conversing with Albedo, or just sitting in silence. You've noticed that he asks quite a bit about your likes and dislikes. Though...you just assume it's because he's not the best conversationalist.

After all, while he's incredibly attractive and his charm is undeniable, the man struggles to strike conversations with his clients and opts for encouraging them to take the reins.

Not to mention the cute blush on his cheeks and gently worded declinations he's had to do often--

You wonder if he's already seeing someone.

Honestly, standing in the kitchen in his apartment should've made you realize how dense you are yourself.

Especially when Albedo is right besides you, elbows nearly touching as you walk through the steps of making a cake with him. His hands are covered in various amounts of flour and batter after a little mishap and Klee is eagerly peeking over the countertop.

Though he's dressed down in a plain tee and sweatpants, his hair down and much longer than you expected, you can still sense the way he's so very concentrated on the task at hand. Like he doesn't want to mess it up. It's cute.

When the cake is finally in the oven, Klee speaks up with her face and hands pressed against the viewing window.

"Big brother likes you soooooo much!"

And suddenly, when your eyes meet wide teal ones, it clicks.

His sweet notes and breakfast on him, the several careful sketches of you placed alongside the ones he does of his clients, how he often invites you over to his apartment over the weekends and after work.

Albedo finds himself shyly looking away for the first time.

When the cake is done, the three of you have indulged in the deliciously sweet snack, you help him clean up while Klee goes off to watch a show on the tv.

He's hesitant, visibly so.

"Would you..." Shutting off the water, he pats his wet hands on the front of his shirt. Under the bright florescent of the overhead lights, his eyes seem to shine. "Perhaps like to join me tomorrow on a date?"

[delicatejisung]

𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐧𝐜𝐭 & 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐯

HYUNG LINE:

[yanna calls them “hyung” because she’s uncomfortable with calling people “oppa” since she didn’t grow up with an older brother]

♡ 𝓉𝒶𝑒𝒾𝓁 [yanil] :

- both shy around each other when with the other members but have had very deep talks about life and whatnot

- never fails to tease him abt how cute he is even though he’s the oldest

- taeil once laughed so hard because of yanna, he started crying

- often ruffles her hair when they see her practice

- yanna sees him as an older brother but claims she calls him “uncle” even though she never does

- taeil believes in yanna’s vocals the most and claims she’s just as good as him

- nctzens’ favorite moment: they once did a vlive where they just sang for a whole hour and did duets that czennies have always requested. it was really cute because when yanna was singing, taeil looked at her with the proudest look.

♡𝒿𝑜𝒽𝓃𝓃𝓎 [yanny/johnna]:

- literally her brother

- “no, yanna. i don’t think that’s a good idea.”

- he literally thinks he raised her

- except when she seems like she understands a dirty joke, then he yEeTs and goes “who raised you?”

- hypes her up!!

- always reminisces about their trainee days and how small yanna was

- “you were always just too big, hyung” “YOU WERE A DWARF”

- ships yanna with mark for some reason no one understands

- “mark, why are you suddenly talking about yanna?” “you literally JUST asked about her”

- johnny took yanna to watch “hamilton” and she started crying about how much she loves johnny

- nctzens’ favorite moment: during the “a cup of coffee” vlive, yanna tried so hard not to laugh at ten’s “john’s banana” joke she ended up spitting out her smoothie unto johnny and he stuffed her mouth with tissue for getting the joke.

♡ 𝓉𝒶𝑒𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑔 [yanyong/yongna] :

- taeyong once said that his family has adopted yanna, but it was often passed around as a joke so no one knows if it’s true

- helps her out a lot!!

- she always says taeyong is very similar to her mom

- loves ruby and was once asked by ty to take her for a walk

- always says taeyong is her bias

- freaks out when he’s shirtless in an mv

- “oioioioioioioi taeyong-hyung, isn’t that too much skin?”

- but taeyong also freaks out when yanna gets way too much inkigayo sandwiches with numbers (yes, hyuck ratted it out to them)

- basically mother & daughter

- nctzens’ favorite moment: during an ot19 vlive, taeyong was busy counting the members and kept on repeating because he could only count 18. he asked the members if someone was missing and they all said they were complete, yanna then said “you forgot to count yourself again” which made the members giggle at taeyong’s “ah, you’re right”.

♡ 𝓎𝓊𝓉𝒶 [yunna] :

- japanese lessons !!

- “what’s an ikemen?” “me”

- yuta always has his hand on yanna’s head when they’re together

- backhugs

- would fight over winwin (but winwin chooses her all the time)

- very protective of yanna

- once pushed a “fan” for inappropriately touching her

- never leaves yanna’s side when they’re together in airports and whatnot

- yuta once promised her that they’d go to japan together and he’d give her a tour

- nctzens’ favorite moment: yanna slipped during black on black and yuta carried her the whole time after.

♡𝓀𝓊𝓃 [kunna/yankun] :

- yanna is kun’s #1 hype man

- they literally love each other so much

- kun babies her all the time

- yanna cried when wayv debuted

- of course, she sometimes calls him “kun mama” for meme purposes

- they facetime every week

- “do you really like talking to me or you just want to see xiao-“ “KUN GE”

- ships yanna with xiaojun because he can

- nctzen’s favorite moment: wayv was doing a live once and yanna entered the room, unaware of what was going on, she was behind the camera so the viewers were surprised when kun suddenly ran. the members could only laugh as yanna yelled out “I CAN’T BREATHE” and the viewers finally got it.

♡ 𝒹𝑜𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔 [yando/nado] :

- doyoung finds jeno the cutest but yanna is a close second

- ALWAYS buys her ice cream

- a huge fan of vocal!yanna and claims he taught her how to sing

- always calls her “ae-cha” instead of yanna

- a sasaeng calls yanna’s phone? trust doyoung to yell at him/her.

- very very very very protective of yanna

- she’s always very proud of doyoung and always sings his parts in nct u songs randomly

- nctzens’ favorite moment: there’s a clip of doyoung yelling in pain because jeno and yanna both decided to sit on his lap at the same time.

♡ 𝓉𝑒𝓃 [tenna/yen] :

- sassy duo, to be honest

- act like they hate each other for 20 seconds before laughing and hugging each other

- yanna can never take ten seriously

- but she respects his dancing the most

- ten respects how strong yanna is

- they have the best english conversations

- ��you’re not sassy, i’m sassy” “you’re not sassy, hyung. you’re sexy.” “OH?”

- [ten’s part on any wayv music video] *cue yanna laughing just because*

- nctzens’ favorite moment: while everyone were hyping ten up for his dance break in BOB, yanna mocked him and ten was quick to chase her.

♡ 𝒿𝒶𝑒𝒽𝓎𝓊𝓃 [yanhyun/jaenna] :

- jaehyun loves pinching her cheeks

- she loves punching his arm

- jaehyun’s sweaters? nope, hers now!

- his arm is always around her shoulders and hers around his back

- have hinted a thousand times to sm that they want to sing together but NOBODY LISTENS

- picks her up like a sack when she has fights with hyuck

- “he started it!” “and i’m ending it.”

- claims she’s jaehyun’s daughter

- nctzens’ favorite moment: when she reacted to “Kick It”, she literally looked away as soon as she saw Jaehyun shirtless and almost broke her neck from turning away too quickly. It kept happening and she got tired so she just said “JAEHYUN-HYUNG, YOUR DAUGHTER IS WATCHING.”

♡ 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝓌𝒾𝓃 [yanwin] :

- she’s also whipped for winwin

- misses him everytime and suddenly goes “ah, winwin-hyung...” and smiles

- winwin also has a soft spot for her

- pretty sure he also ships her with xiaojun but doesn’t like annoying her with it

- they bonded over the amount of lines they used to get

- pinching is their thing, no one knows why

- nctzens’ favorite moment: during the china line vlive (chenle, renjun, winwin, kun & lucas), winwin said that yanna should be there but chenle explained that her nationality isn’t chinese. all 5 of them were discussing for a whole 5 minutes until winwin just pouted, still not getting why she wasn’t there with them. after a few minutes, she entered with jaemin and jungwoo but winwin wouldn’t let her leave so she just joined the whole thing.

♡ 𝒿𝓊𝓃𝑔𝓌𝑜𝑜 [yanwoo] :

- “jungwoo-hyung looks like ice bear” - yanna huang, 2k19

- cuddles for dayssssss

- jungwoo said it was yanna who originally taught him “idkwtd”

- she finds anything he does cute and vice versa

- squishes each other’s cheeks ALL THE TIME

- yanna said that jungwoo made “boss” legendary and he cried

- nctzens’ favorite moment: there was a whole vlive where jungwoo and yanna were hugging the whole time while the others talked.

[spockandawe]

1, 2, 3!

Ooh, let’s see!

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Okay, so I have tabs open for several likely wips where inspiration might strike at any time, but my big focus right now is in the fic I refer to interchangeably as ‘diet bingge’ or ‘bingge lite’. I hit a wall for a little while, but I’m trying to get back into it. This is (one of) my svsss feynite-inspired aus of aus situations. And it’s basically here, because I love all the svsss characters a LOT, and it is remarkably hard to keep them all alive and happy, not in the least because one of my biggest faves (shen jiu) technically dies before he ever appears. Also, I multiship like whoa, and the scope of a jianghu setting intimidates me, so the iwywmh dreamer-in-the-spring-boudoir-based harem setting.... it is a good fit for me.

So! My initial impulse. In the iwywmh “canon” setting, shen qingqiu gets killed by luo binghe, kinda... accidentally. An ‘I didn’t realize my own strength’ situation, after they’ve had a horrible falling out and shen qingqiu’s marriage has been effectively destroyed. My initial impulse was ‘but what if he.... didn’t die, though’

It opens up a really interesting story is what happens!!!

Because, okay. I’m not going to rehash all of the original story’s backstory, because it’s So Much, feynite’s fics and comments are packed full of solid gold. But in this situation, Shen Qingqiu has watched his marriage dissolve out from under him, and he’s heartbroken and furious, and just got framed (partly by binghe) for the death of his husband’s baby-in-progress (with another man). He’s lost everything he valued most. He no longer has a will to live. Binghe, on the other hand, is kinda horrified at what he just almost did, because he hates his shizun, definitely, but also.... shizun is the most important person to him. So with that tweak, I’ve saddled him with a Shen Qingqiu who he just almost killed, who has no will of his own to keep going, and he’s trying to make his way in the world.

Also liu qingge is there, and also shen sha yuan eventually, and they’re all important, but the shen jiu + binghe dynamic is the core of this story for me. Because what happens is that they kind of despise each other, but also.... Shen Jiu accidentally makes Binghe a much, much better person. He’s not nearly as soft as the Binghe of the original fic, but he’s not the Bingge of the original fic either, not by a long shot. And the emotional balance is fraught for some time, and is slow to get more healthy, but my boy gets there! And it’s kind of a situation like the last svsss verse I posted, where I was like ‘wow, I have no idea who will be willing to take this trip with me, but I tripped into a concept I find fascinating, and I hope people will join me’

This is the first story I’ve written in a long time where I’m letting myself diverge sharply from a flowing narrative with the minimum number of povs. I actually have to take like 20k of wip out of second person, because I’ve got like four major povs I need to bounce between constantly (binghe, shen jiu, liu qingge, shen yuan) and one or two side povs I need to flush out other bits of story (shang qinghua and maybe mobei-jun) (outside chance of liu mingyan too, goddd). I just made the decision a few days ago to split this into chapters, so I’d be able to post something soonish, but I did stall out for a while, because the scope is pretty overwhelming. And in the end, I’m not even sure it will work as A Narrative, because I don’t even know how it concludes, but I’m working on making my peace with that XD I’ve got close to 30k in a document, and still ages to go, so I badly want to pull it into a shape I can share, but.... it’s so much story, hahaha XDD

(my document with working notes for this is ‘SHIZUN GET BACK HERE AND GRADE MY FINAL PROJECT’, which also lives in my head rent-free as a working fic title. actually titling this fic is going to be a bear)

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Oh, hmm. I think... If I’m sticking to projects where I actually can picture the scenes in question, I think I’ll have to go with the xuexiao wip that I’m going to return to any day, I swear, where I get into the actual dialog of the humiliation kink. It’s going to be a really interesting emotional balance, which is part of why I’ve been putting it off (I need to be in just the right mood, y’know?), but I’ll be in Xue Yang’s head, and I want to roll around in the way he gets to let loose with his crueler impulses, and the satisfaction that comes with it... plus a side serving of emotional self-harm, because he’s got extremely mixed feelings about making Xiao Xingchen hurt, and this is showing him all the ways he could dig the knife in deeper, which is theoretically what Xiao Xingchen agreed to, but is Xue Yang even enjoying this anymore??? Anyways, I love a good excuse to write top drop. Some of the top drop is written so far, but I’ll have to edit it based on how the scene itself plays out

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Oh my god, I want to write the whole peak lord liu mingyan au, but it’s another one where I don’t have a narrative so much as a whole bunch of sequential moments in a story. But I am COMPLETELY committed to giving Shen Jiu a happier life, and if that means flipping the liu siblings around so that Liu Qingge is Luo Binghe’s peer (and drags him up the hill to Bai Zhan Peak instead of Qing Jing), and they are both shamelessly corrupting Shen Qingqiu’s favorite disciple, Shen Yuan, then... I’ll....... try to do it. Eventually :X If I had to pick a single scene, it would probablyyyy be the aftermath of this version of the abyss (the focus is the shen jiu + liu mingyan frenemyship, but the background is bingliushen)

But also, I want to write the canon version, where people accuse Shen Jiu of creeping on women for violently unfair reasons, and where he’s unfairly blamed for Peak Lord Liu Mingyan’s death in the Lingxi Caves, but now there’s an additional flavor of ‘well I bet she rejected him, and he took his anger out on her’ and he very bitterly doesn’t even try to defend himself, because nobody will believe him anyways. And I want to write the fic itself, where her natural big sister energies are exactly what he needs and can never never never admit out loud, and where she’s a comforting presence that he would never admit to needing. 

I have no idea what this fic would even look like, physically! None at all I want it to just Exist, but it’s looking like I have to write it, which means I need to figure out how to write it, and none of this is fair :’)

[timextoxhajima]

NCT One Shot Collection

Member: Kun

Genre: Friendship, a teaspoon of mean girls

Word Count: 3.2k

Qian Kun had his fingers in his hair, his usual cheerful smile completely wiped off his face despite how loud and boisterous his friends at the table were.

You were at your table with your own female friends, who were all too busy scrolling on Instagram or Tumblr, looking up gifs of their favourite idols.

"y/n?" The one sitting next to you nudged your shoulder.

"She's been calling you a few times now, are you alright?" Another friend sitting opposite you put her phone down and studied your distressed expression. She watched your eyes fixate on a distant table behind her at the loudest table in the canteen hall and followed your line of vision. She turned back and sighed, looking at you with eyes of exasperation.

"If you're so worried about him, maybe you should talk to him. I've been hearing all those things about how his girlfriend is treating him too. It's not any of our business, but we know you've been friends with him longer than any of us, and since none of his friends seem to giving any shits, maybe you should," Whatever she said got the attention of the third friend at the table, sitting diagonally across you.

"I know, but have you forgotten what she did the last time I tried to step in and help him?" You shook your head, finally peeling your eyes away from him and looking down at your unfinished fruit salad.

It was only 2 weeks ago when you tried to talk to your friend of 5 years about his girlfriend, which you found was the worst possible thing that could happen to him. Qian Kun was sweet, gentle, loving. Him being a cook and being such an understanding man were just bonus points. But the downside was that it had attracted the wrong butterfly to his flame. 

Instead of a butterfly, it was more like a moth. A disgusting, brown colored, hairy moth. 

*flashback

You were at a party his friends Lucas and Ten had thrown, and the younger ones of Qian Kun's social circle, Yang Yang, De Jun and Hendery had begun telling you the stories of how horrible his new girlfriend was treating him: always expecting him to cook for her like he didn't have his own grades to worry about, wanting him to buy her expensive bags and clothes, even refusing to call him for days on edge when he shows any bit of frustration with her. 

You couldn't blame Qian Kun, because half the time the girl wasn't even around to keep him company. She would be at a club, drinking her life away and probably sucking other guys off when she had a perfect specimen of a man waiting for her. Out of goodwill and pity, you approached Qian Kun during the party, trying your best not to seem like an intruder into his toxic relationship. Yet, it was as if she had some CCTV installed in the house, because the moment you sat down next to him and began talking, she appeared before the two of you. She flashed you the most flirtatious smile you had seen on a woman, and the way she pushed back her wavy brown locks before proceeding to sit on Qian Kun's lap made you want to hurl your dinner out onto her shiny hair.

"Who's this, K?" She gleefully raised a brow at him, throwing one of her arms around his neck. Qian Kun forced out a smile, eyeing you from the corner of his eyes. You know he hated when people called him K.

"She was my partner on a big project in the school we were in before. I was in my final year and you were in year 1, right? We've been friends for more than 4 years...?" Qian Kun looked at you directly, his eyes softening, very unlike the way he looked at his own girlfriend.

"5 years this autumn," You nodded, trying your best not to look at his girlfriend.

"Aww, cute," She cooed. There was an awkward silence wafting in the air between the three of you despite how explosive the music was. "Anyhoo, K, baby, I have a thing tomorrow and we gotta cancel that lunch date we've got," She pouted, flitting her long, fake lashes at him. Qian Kun's eyes were dim and dull for a moment, like a moment of disappointment, but he recovered in a second, putting on his soft, pretty smile and nodding.

"Okay, is dinner still on?" He questioned. She paused and hummed to herself, now twirling a bunch of her hair on her fingers. "I'll update you?" She looked at him with those disgusting "please" eyes again. The amount of effort it took you to stop yourself from rolling your eyes and throwing up was enough to get you straight As for the semester.

"Alright then," Qian Kun pressed his lips together, still trying his best to smile. She grinned like a snake, or a wasp, before you watched her wrap her fingers around his chin and finger pads press into his cheeks, pulling his face upwards to kiss her.

You were completely grossed out. You didn't have feelings for Kun, so this move was just trash. What was she trying to prove? She wasn't even cherishing him the way a normal girlfriend would cherish her boyfriend, why keep him with her?

You turn away, knowing very well that she was only doing this to spite you. She was probably forcing her tongue down the poor man's throat and biting his lips into some bleeding oblivion. After a good half a minute, she finally pulled away, satisfied.

"Hey, I'll get you a drink, wait here?" She suddenly looked to you and asked. You were about to reject the snake's offer, when she just hopped off Qian Kun's lap and patted your shoulder like you were friends with her.

Once she walked into the kitchen and out of sight, you turn to Qian Kun who was busy drinking water, washing away the poison she had left in his mouth and throat.

"Why are you still with her?" You blurted out, frowning at him the way your parents would if they ever found out about such a woman. Qian Kun remained silent despite hearing your question crystal clear above the loud sound.

"Here you go, sweetie," Her horrid voice sounded from behind you. She placed a can of Sprite into your palms, walking over to Qian Kun again and now sitting on top of him, her legs spread out on his sides as she got ready to eat his face again.

"God, help you," You mouth to Qian Kun as you got off the couch.

The drink had been expired for a year, and it caused you to miss school for half a week of the most important part of the semester - pre-examination period.

*now

"Right," Your friend nodded, then shook her head at how despicable Qian Kun's girlfriend was. "Does he know?"

You shook your head, highly doubtful that he noticed you weren't in biology lecture when he was busy keeping his girlfriend awake the entire hour. Break passed relatively quickly, your friends starting an online game that entertained all four of you until the bell rang. You went off for Psychology, sitting at the end of the line you and your three friends always sat in during lectures. Strolling into the theatre was De Jun, Lucas and Hendery, who were your age. You were friends with De Jun, the most soft-spoken one of the three, so it wasn't surprising that he decided to sit next to you and the other two next to him.

Without a word, De Jun took out a piece of paper and dropped it on your lecture table, halting your writing and motivating you to look at him with curiosity.

"Is this a confession letter, Xiao De Jun?" You teased. De Jun snorted softly and rolled his eyes.

"Just because we are both Chinese doesn't mean I have to like you."

"That's racist," You gasped playfully.

"To our own race, so it hurts a little less," De Jun said as-a-matter-of-factly. You blew out through your mouth, giving De Jun a slightly more annoyed look. You open the folded piece of paper he had given you, and in it was a short letter, written in Chinese.

I wanted to apologise in person but never got the chance or the courage to. I know what Xin Han did to you, I hope you're alright now. - Qian Kun

"I thought he didn't know," You whisper to yourself. De Jun looked over at you, knowing that he wasn't supposed to hear that.

"Just so you know, we don't like her either," De Jun said softly without looking at you, so the lecturer wouldn't catch the two of you talking. "She's been messing around with him so much, he isn't the person we know anymore."

"Haven't you tried persuading him to dump her? Why hasn't he anyway?" You shook your head in dismay, folding the piece of paper back up and stuffing it into your pencil case.

"The man doesn't want to break her heart, or seem like an asshole for breaking up with one of the prettiest girls in school," De Jun began copying some notes off the screen.

"What? 'Break her heart'? The entire school knows she's Satan's spawn, if it's any heart that's breaking, it's Qian Kun's. And for the record, she's not even that pretty,"

De Jun laughed.

-

You were at the bus stop waiting for your bus to come, when you suddenly remembered what De Jun told you earlier today. You wished you could do something for Kun, but the man was too kind and too nice to break up with anything. He would totally wait for Xin Han to dump him first just so that he wouldn't hurt her. You pull out your phone, searching for Kun's contact before you heard some snake call out your name. You look up to see Chen Xin Han walking towards you in her excessive outfit that shouldn't even be allowed to be worn in a university campus. Crop top, black leggings, boots, hoops on her ears that could fit a dolphin. You took a deep breath, silently praying to God to give you all the patience and tolerance in the world in case Chen Xin Han was in the mood to mess with you.

"I heard what happened about your absence from school recently, what was it about?" She smirked, quietly but obviously scanning you from your head to your toes. While she was dressed like a college hooker, you were in a simple long-sleeved top and ripped jeans with ankle boots.

"I think you would know better, don't you?" You reply without looking at her.

"Oh my! Was it the drink I gave you? I would never," Xin Han pressed a palm to her chest, her eyebrows tilting backwards near the edges of her eyes. She actually looked remorseful for a moment.

"Why hold on to him?" You asked, choosing to ignore what she had done to you two weeks ago.

"What?" Her tone flipped like a table. She went from fake-sweet, to downright hateful and detestable.

"Qian Kun. You don't love him. Why not let him go?" You finally look at her straight in her blue-contacts covered irises. Her hair today was straightened, long enough to touch her belly where her skin was exposed.

"You don't know..." She smirked, eyeing you cautiously.

"What? Don't know what?" You frowned for the umpteenth time today.

"He was offered training from SM Entertainment, you didn't know?"

You turn away, even more pissed off. So what if Kun was offered to train at SM? It doesn't give her an excuse to stay with him. Is she now only with him because of his very likely bright future?

"What the Hell, Xin Han? So, the sole reason why you're with him is because he might become a celebrity? That's it?" Your voice was now louder than usual, other students at the bus stop turning and watching you get angry about something Satan's spawn had said to you. She gave out a sharp, short laugh, folding her arms across her chest, eyeing you precariously.

"Maybe, maybe not. He's not your boyfriend, so why should you bother?" She took a step towards you, glaring at you straight in the eye, almost like she was daring you to challenge her.

"At least I'm more of a friend to him than you are a girlfriend, bitch," You spat, watching her shut her eyes as she felt some small drops of saliva land on her perfect cheekbones. Her demure, perfect stance was broken down immediately, and almost instantly, she was nearly clawing your eyes out. She was pulling your hair and grabbing on your clothes, the students around either taking out their phones or moving away uncomfortably.

"What the--" De Jun nearly yelled out, noticing the commotion at the bus stop right outside school. Lucas and De Jun sped towards the commotion as if their life depended on it, and when De Jun realised you were being attacked by Xin Han, he pulled you away. Lucas grabbed onto Xin Han and held her wrists together.

"Get off me!" She screamed, writhing herself free from Lucas's grasp. Yang Yang, Ten, Hendery and Qian Kun caught up. De Jun was brushing your hair aside, studying your face and arms, noticing that you had scratches on your forearms from Xin Han's long nails.

"Kunnie!" Xin Han gasped and threw herself at Kun, her hair in a slight mess and her shirt a little out of place. "Let's go. We don't hang out with low-lives," She linked arms with him and practically dragged him away. Qian Kun looked back at you, his eyes filled with remorse and regret.

"Are you okay? Jesus," De Jun had his palm on your shoulder, his eyes unable to tear away from the scratches on your arms.

"I'm alright," You shook your head. You were more bothered by the truth of Kun and Xin Han's relationship than the scratches on your arm.

"Come on, let's get you some Disney plasters," Lucas laughed, nodding his head back towards the school.

De Jun sat by you, checking the scratches on your arms as it started to bleed a little while Lucas received a first aid box from one of the office ladies.

"Did you know that he was offered training in SM?" You asked quietly, watching De Jun carefully wiped the scratches and cleaned the blood away before pasting the blue Frozen plasters on the more serious cuts. De Jun looked up at you through his fringe, taking in a deep breath and then releasing it in the most exasperated manner possible. Lucas must've heard the question, since he immediately got quiet and stood awkwardly in a corner, staring at his feet.

"Xin Han told him that if he broke up with her, she would send in horrible remarks about him. Though they might take it under investigation but it's not a risk Kun is willing to take," De Jun pressed on the plaster, pulling back once he was done.

"What? Are you for real? That's awful! Can't Kun just get a lawyer or something? He has nothing to be afraid of!" You were on the brim of punching someone, but you held back because the only person you wanted to punch wasn't in the room.

"I mean, people did film you and Xin Han fight just now, you didn't attack her but you have a ton of scratches on your arm. We could actually get a restraint order on her," Hendery strolled into the room, his hands behind his back as if he had figured out some big truth of the universe.

"Right, they did," You remembered all the cameras pointing at you. "We could... and Qian Kun could file for a restraint order too if we get evidence of sexual assault on him."

"Oh, that's not a problem," Hendery rolled his eyes. "Remember that party at our place two weeks back? We have cameras installed in the house. I'm pretty sure Xin Han giving you that can of expired drink is on that hard drive somewhere."

De Jun's eyes were gleaming when he looked at you. Finally, you could help Kun get free of Satan's spawn, but first, you chose to give her one last chance for redemption.

Xin Han had her eyes shooting darts and lasers through you and the boys behind you. They decided to come for protection and to deter Xin Han from picking a fight with you. Though she was popular in school, the boys’ reputation was of no match.

"We have evidence of you sexually assaulting Qian Kun, and assaulting me at the bus stop three days ago. I have the diagnosis of my food poisoning from the expired drink, we have the video tape of you shoving your disgusting tongue down Kun's throat at the party, and a billion versions of the fight at the bus stop, followed by physical injuries suffered by me."

Xin Han was in disbelief. You could see the blood boil through her eyes and her veins, her chest heaving up and down more obviously than before. You heard De Jun hush Hendery, knowing that he was trying his best not to laugh.

"You either get a restraining order or you leave Kun on your own accord, let's see which way you prefer," You folded your arms across your chest, watching her Satanic soul spiral out of control on the inside, the hate she had for you spilling through her eyes and through her lips.

Later that day, De Jun set up for Qian Kun to meet you face to face to share the great news. You had a voice recording of your confrontation with Xin Han on your phone. De Jun was sitting nearby while Hendery and Lucas were standing around, busy ruffling each other's necks.

"Hey, you called-- What are all of you doing here?" Qian Kun frowned, noticing that his own group of friends were standing around.

"She has something for you," De Jun smiled widely.

-

You and your three friends were busy playing the same game as you did with them a week back. Only with a much more occupied game room.

"Dude, stop firing!" Your first friend yelled.

"I'll die if I don't fire!" Lucas screamed back.

"Shut up, oh my God!" Another friend shouted.

"Back me up!" Hendery urged.

"Gonna hurl a molotov!" Your third friend announced.

You were in the game too, but you were too busy to notice how Qian Kun's eyes were fixated on you, only looking away once every while. You looked up from your phone after the game ended, finally connecting eyes with him. He was the happiest he had been in… forever, and seeing him happy made your heart feel full.

"Thank you," He mouthed.

[notthatiwilleverwriteit]

i feel like jian yi uses emotion to influence zhan zheng xi's decision. when he talks about his sexuality he is either crying or on the verge of crying which i think softens zhan zhengxi's attitude towards him. i don't get people that are saying zhan zheng xi is demisexual and not interested in girls at all and when his only encounter with girls is xiao hui? who is his stalker. it is very natural for zhan zheng xi to dislike her. i feel like jian yi is very manipulative.

Good evening, dear anon-san!

Before we get any further, I got your another ask that it’s okay if I won’t answer your question. I’m not sure why you felt that way but you had gone through the big trouble of writing your thoughts, so I want to try and give you mine. Also, I don’t talk about Zhanyi too often, so I don’t want to pass chances when people give me a nudge to do so. Anyway, I hope you won’t mind I decided to answer your ask.

You had a lot of things to talk about, so I thought I would give my thoughts some structure by picking up some overall themes.

A bit of a TL;DR: I imagine your interpretation of Jian Yi’s character is very much of an unpopular opinion. And I’m afraid I won’t be agreeing with it very much because I have always read him and his relationship with Zhan Zheng Xi quite differently. That being said, though, I do want to applaud your courage to share your views with us. It makes me feel privileged that you feel comfortable enough with me to be open about your opinions.

Zhan Zheng Xi and Xiao Hui

Let’s start this with perhaps the easiest topic: XH having a crush on ZZX. It’s true she didn’t really hide her feelings for ZZX. She tried to muster up enough courage to deliver her confession letter many times and also approached him directly. However, it was clear ZZX was bothered and felt uncomfortable by her affections. (ch. 51, 52, 98, 99. 102, and 156)

She was quite persistent and forward, but I don’t think she deserves to be called a stalker. Not even close. I think we’re forgetting that middle school is that awkward time in life when it’s starting to be noticeable that girls develop faster than boys. Girls of that age can actually be very open about their crushes while boys feel embarrassed, bothered, and annoyed by them. Nor are boys really interested quite yet. I think that’s very much apparent in ZZX and XH’s case.

A short storytime. When I was in middle school (about 12-13 years old) I had the most intense crush on this boy in my class. My very soul was consumed by how much in love I was with him. And I had no problem being open about it, either; I gave him birthday and Christmas cards publically, forced him to write on my friends book, and overall was quite pushy with him. He never returned my passionate feelings but was rather annoyed, embarrassed and disgusted by them. After two years, my feelings passed. Was I a stalker, though? I don’t think so.

So, yes, it was very understandable and realistic for ZZX to be bothered by XH’s advances but I wouldn’t brand her as a “stalker” and make too direct conclusions about their relationship. Rather I think that’s how it usually goes in that age.

Jian Yi and Xiao Hui’s letter

Overall, JY was in a very difficult position when he found out about XH’s feelings for ZZX. On one hand, he was very much in love with ZZX, and it had been his most precious secret that he’s both wanted to confess and hide. Worst case scenario, his romantic feelings might end their childhood friendship or put them in a position where others could easily discriminate and bash them. On the other hand, XH’s advances put pressure on JY and painfully remind him that it’s not as simple for him to confess and be open about his crush. I have always sympathized with him because being in that position can be very painful and conflicting. (100, 101)

I mean, imagine someone asked you to deliver a confession letter to the person you have been in love with for years. Can you imagine how crushing that would feel? A big part of me, at least, would certainly think my crush was doomed. And it was obvious JY struggle between doing the right thing and doing what his heart wanted to.

When JY agreed to give ZZX her letter on the condition that she won’t come near him, I think that was the most manipulative JY got in that whole story (ch. 100):

And I don’t think even that was very successful. He told her to stay away but... what was the endgame? Was JY’s plan to make her believe he had given ZZX the letter and prevent her from finding out the truth by telling her to keep her distance? But at some point, she would have grown anxious and approached ZZX again, right? The truth would certainly have come out eventually.

I think he hadn’t thought it through at all but rather that “don’t come near him” plan was a desperate attempt to buy some time. I don’t see that as JY trying to isolate ZZX in a toxic way at all but rather him trying to prolong the inevitable. His feelings for ZZX never had the same promise of a future as XH’s feelings - and straight love, in general.

Also, let’s not forget that JY did end up giving ZZX the letter despite his own difficult position (ch. 102):

What ZZX said made him realize it wouldn’t be right for JY to decide things for him. He couldn’t advance his own goals that way and feel good about it. But at the same time, giving ZZX that letter put JY’s feelings at a big risk. Basically, JY came close to watching the person he loved returning someone else’s feelings. I’m not sure I could have done the same if I had been JY, and I bet many of us would have struggled to make up our minds, too. Would that make us toxic manipulators, though?

Xiao Hui’s letter exposed

XH’s confession letter being exposed to everybody was a messy situation for all parties. It exposed so many private and vulnerable feelings for anyone to see and make fun of. And usually, the more we want to protect something inside us, the stronger we react when it’s either exposed or poked at.

Even if I don’t really see JY worrying about ZZX’s reputation as a bad thing or something problematic, I have always wondered about that part (ch. 158):

It always seemed like an odd thing to worry about in that situation to me. But I suppose he just didn’t want ZZX to become the center of gossiping. People were making fun of the letter and both its writer and who it was addressed to. Again, romance is quite a tender topic at that age, especially publically. To be involved in those kinds of things - even involuntarily - would most probably put you in the kind of awkward position that you can never quite live down. So, yeah, even if my center of worries wouldn’t probably be protecting ZZX’s reputation, I still get where JY was coming from.

I also suppose JY didn’t want XH’s crush to be public knowledge because it made his situation that more difficult and an uphill battle. The rumors and gossips would stoke and contribute to the overall rhetoric that ZZX has a girlfriend or that he’s popular among girls. But again, I don’t really see that line of thinking as manipulative. I don’t think he was pretending to be sad or trying to provoke XH to make her look bad in ZZX’s eyes. I’m sure I would have felt somewhat the same in his situation, actually.

However, I do agree that readers (if that’s what you meant by “people”) were too eager to brand XH as a problematic homophobe and hate her guts. What she said was wrong and hurtful but still not that surprising (ch. 158):

She had been publically humiliated and her feelings had been made of by everyone. She was hurt and embarrassed, and when JY blamed her she lashed out and threw the easiest and most obvious insult she could think of. I don’t think it’s fair to judge her whole character based on one moment when she was so vulnerable and humiliated.

What comes to ZZX, I don’t think it was a case of him conveniently walking in when JY had been bashed by XH and him judging the situation wrongly (JY as the victim and XH the villain). The way ZZX handled the situation tells us that he could see behind the emotional escalation and recognized the pain both JY and XH were suffering (ch. 158 and 159):

He understood XH had poked a very vulnerable spot with her “disgusting gay” remark and why JY had gotten upset. Not long ago before the letter incident, he had seen how insecure JY was about his feelings for someone of the same sex and how scared he was of being rejected because of it. It was the last thing JY wanted people to talk about out loud but also where you could hurt him the most.

But ZZX also realized the situation XH was in and why she had lashed out. He was very gentle with her and treated her feelings with respect despite turning them down. He saw his own little sister in her, not a villain or a bad person. I’m sure his reaction would have been vastly different if he had thought XH was out to deliberately hurt JY.

Jian Yi’s orientation and manipulation

I can’t say I see JY using emotions to knowingly influence and manipulate ZZX’s decisions but I do think ZZX has an obvious soft spot for his best friend. It goes all the way back to their childhood when ZZX promised to protect him, and later JY’s special place in ZZX’s eyes is represented by the rhetoric of lifelong promises between them (ch. 97, 127, 159, 161, 169, 285):

To me, that’s pretty much the essence of ZZX’s character. He’s loyal, protective, and surprisingly comfortable being so caring. We can see him treat his little sister very similarly to how he treats JY. So, when he sees his best friend crying and thinking there’s something wrong with him because he’s different from others, it’s his second nature to comfort and reassure JY.

Overall, JY has talked about his orientation or feelings for ZZX three times in the comic so far in a way that has changed the course of the story. (If you wish to read more about how I see the Zhanyi storyline go check out my other earlier answer.) The most shocking and dramatic turning point for both of them was probably when JY’s feelings came to light for the first time (ch. 143):

I really can’t see JY being emotionally manipulative at that moment. I would say his reaction is more than understandable and realistic instead. I don’t know if you have ever had to come out to anyone about your sexual orientation, dear anon-san, but it’s always a nerve-wracking experience. I’ve told about my own bisexuality to my parents and best friend and it was insanely scary both times even if I was confident they wouldn’t have a problem with it. Despite everything, there’s always that little “what if” rattling in your head.

Now, multiply that by XXX and put yourself in JY’s raincoat. He was a teenage boy who had just kissed his lifelong best friend and couldn’t play it off as a joke. The more he tried to run and hide, the more the feelings he had buried for years poured out in a mess of tears and fragmented thoughts. I mean, we had read about how deep their friendship ran for 100+ chapters by then but I’m sure many of us were still nervous and unsure about how ZZX would react.

However, ZZX isn’t unable to set his limits even when offering comfort. I think that was apparent the second time JY’s feeling were addressed when JY was drunk and looking for something ZZX wasn’t ready to give him yet (ch. 165):

JY was genuinely very emotional and in a vulnerable place but ZZX had to reject him. I actually talked about that moment in one of my earlier answers because I have always found it interesting and complicated. JY was so insecure and afraid of ZZX rejecting him that he wanted to push the limits to find out how ZZX felt about him (both being in love with him and someone of the same sex). It almost seemed like he was tired of being anxious and kind of wanted to get it over with. But ZZX wasn’t quite there yet. He had expressed his support when it came to JY liking men but wasn’t ready for what JY was really feeling. Unfortunately, that meant he had to hurt the already vulnerable JY but the bottom line is, he did reject him. He might have a lot of affection for JY but he’s also very in tune with what he wants and isn’t ready for. That’s also a part of him being honest and loyal. If he had allowed JY to have his way, ZZX wouldn’t have been true to JY or himself.

The third and last time was when JY finally, officially confessed and - according to my interpretation - ZZX returned his feelings. Again, I don’t see JY being emotionally manipulative but there is one aspect that has always caught my attention (ch. 209):

JY says he likes ZZX so much he’s about to explode and whether it’s about their past or future, it’s always been and will always be about ZZX. This time JY’s fear of rejection manifests itself a bit differently, though. He kind of rejects his feelings himself before ZZX even says a word. He already knows ZZX isn’t happy about being loved by another guy and his best friend at that, so there’s no need for ZZX turn him down. Also, by seemingly shifting the goal of his confession (you won’t feel the same way but at least I finally said it) JY is protecting himself.

Could that behavior be taken as manipulation? I guess on some level, but I think it’s also a very natural and realistic reaction. It can be used to influence someone’s decisions but it’s also a defense mechanism. One that I - and I’m sure many others - can personally relate to very much. And I don’t see JY saying those things in that situation as a way to try and make ZZX feel sorry for him and return his feelings that way. This was the first time he was completely open and honest about his love for ZZX - confessing while looking straight into his eyes - so it’s no surprise he behaved defensively like that.

Also, I believe ZZX had already made up his mind about what his answer would be before he even asked the question. He had reached his resolve and was comfortable with it. All he needed was for JY to say the words out loud.

Jian Yi, Mo Guan Shan, and He Tian’s money

Okay, the last topics! This was something you only briefly mentioned but I felt like they supported your view on JY that already differed quite a lot from mine, so I thought I would give my two cents about these, too.

I think JY is exactly the kind of friend Mo Guan Shan desperately needed when he was falsely accused of assaulting that girl. In fact, JY is the kind of friend all of us should have: someone who won’t hesitate to stand up for us. Because I don’t think “anyone would have done the same thing” for MGS. Actually, that’s why She Li picked him as the scapegoat in the first place (ch. 178, 186, and 184):

Not only did SL take advantage of knowing MGS was a social outcast at school and people were prejudiced against him so no one would even doubt the things said about him but he also knew MGS didn’t have the kind of friends who would step in. He Tian most certainly was one of them, but so was JY the way he didn’t hesitate to barge into the office and loudly demand justice for MGS (ch. 185):

Let’s remember, when the assault case was going on HT, JY and ZZX were the only ones defending MGS. Not even the teachers seemed to think “innocent until proven guilty” or even entertain the thought that MGS might not have done it.

What comes to JY talking about HT having a lot of money (or being rich or poor in general), I think it’s just a part of him being cheeky and the kind of humor 19 Days has. JY’s character has this obliviously and unapologetically immature side that can be a bit annoying at first but soon becomes one of his most lovable features. I never took this side of him as an offense but rather him just being a 15-year-old boy among other teenage boys that will fire back just the same (ch. 258, 296, 298, 301, and 310):

JY doesn’t really have a filter and he likes to brag a little when, for once, he’s in that kind of position, but there’s no true malice in his words.

A few quick notes that I won’t get into deeper than this:

I don’t know about ZZX being demisexual but overall BL does seem to have this trend of making male protagonists fall in love with each other without identifying as LGBT. BL has been criticized for this because it’s a way to avoid talking about the fact that men who are attracted to other men are, in fact, gay (or bi). In many BL stories, the protagonists are portrayed as straight and them falling for a guy is just special circumstances and they’re gay for just that one guy. And while I don’t personally have a major problem with it, I can’t deny it feels a bit of a cop-out. Does Zhanyi fall into that category? On some level, I guess, but it’s also too early to say. The boys are just figuring out who they are as individuals, so JY, for example, identifying as gay might be said out loud one day. Don’t think that will ever happen in ZZX’s case, though.

I also don’t think JY is trying to isolate ZZX from other people. Now that he’s more secure regarding ZZX’s feelings for himself and their relationship, he’s even included XH to their group.

Phew!

Was that all? I think that was at least the most of it, if not all. If you think I skipped something or would like me to elaborate on something, let me know!

As I warned you in the beginning, I ended up disagreeing with the majority of your interpretation. Hopefully, I wasn’t too harsh with my wording or ways of putting things. Even if our views were pretty much the opposite to each other, your thoughts prompted me to look at JY’s character and Zhanyi from a new perspective. And that’s always a good thing. Thank you again for that opportunity and for sharing your interpretations with us, dear anon-san!