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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years ago

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I really like your takes on the Nie brothers! Could you maybe do something with NHS being a sneaky little badass (not that he isn't always) and NMJ being all "wait, you thought I was the brother you should be afraid of? I'll be over here laughing while NHS wrecks you in all ways but physically". I know that's not a lot to go off of so I understand if this doesn't click with you

In Here, With Me - ao3 (chapter 3/3)

People never seemed to understand, and Nie Mingjue was honestly tired of trying to explain it to them.

He’d never been especially good with words, or at least he wasn’t on a personal level. He apparently had a talent for speeches, especially wartime speeches made to soldiers in order to buck up their courage and build up their morale; that was easy enough, standing up in front of them and telling them the same sorts of things he’d been telling himself for years whenever the dreary endless sludge of politics and other people’s unwillingness to move themselves even in their own best interest started getting him down. He could use his height to his advantage there, towering over people, and couple that the strength of his voice – he suspected that half the time people didn’t even really listen to him, just looked at him and made conjectures for the rest, and that was just fine by him. Whatever worked.

But when it came to explaining complicated things like his brother…

Yeah, he had nothing.

Nie Huaisang had never been good at the things the Nie sect usually prized – he was a weak cultivator and bad at fighting, and at some point Nie Mingjue had more or less entirely given up on trying to teach him the fundamentals of saber fighting in favor of teaching him a much more narrowly targeted set of skills, designed to help keep him alive in a pinch. Even with that, he’d whined and complained, dragged his feet and resisted…he didn’t even have significant scholarly talents to make up for it, not really. Nie Mingjue had no taste for art, but those who did suggested (in however polite terms they could manage) that Nie Huaisang’s poetry was wretched, his composition barely serviceable, his attempts at philosophy convoluted and contraindicated, and as for his painting skills…

Well, he could draw birds pretty well.

But he could play a mean game of weiqi, even against Nie Mingjue, and he was lively and personable - nobody ever disliked him, assuming they bothered to pay him attention at all. He liked to barter with merchants whenever he went shopping, and shopping was the one thing he really did do with a passion; he could make the most grim-faced cynic on the street break out into a smile, and collected half a dozen or more free treats every time he went to the marketplace despite them all knowing he could afford their wares if he so wished.

Nie Huaisang, in short, was good for nothing, but he was fun to be around.

He was also – and this was the part Nie Mingjue could never explain to people – one of the most persistent and vindictive sonofabitches to have ever been born.

One would think, wrongly, that Nie Huaisang would have learned to be more forgiving on account of his personal weakness, but in fact, it just seemed to make him even more inclined to get vengeance on those who had wronged him. He bore grudges without ever feeling the weight, as immovable as the mountains – there would be times when something would blow up spectacularly in Nie Mingjue’s face and he’d turn around only to find Nie Huaisang there, smiling at him and reminding him of some grievance from years before.

And that was if he were lucky – if he were unlucky, he’d find himself in some blissful situation, given everything he’d ever wanted, and find Nie Huaisang patting himself on the back for arranging it.

When Nie Mingjue had been forced by the Wen sect’s overweening arrogance to send Nie Huaisang to them for reeducation and indoctrination, about nine-tenths of what he’d felt had been terror, thinking about all the things that the Wen sect could do to his weak little brother who had nothing but good humor to defend himself with. The last tenth, though, had been the lingering thought that he’d been unable to fully banish: I don’t think they know what they’re getting themselves into here.

Sure enough, they hadn’t.

Now, Nie Huaisang hadn’t personally delivered any of the finishing blows there, but then, he never did, preferring to use other people to do it for him - even in vengeance and spying, he was lazy as always. Wen Chao, who had mocked him, had been left to the vengeance of Wei Wuxian with his brand new demonic cultivation; it’d been an ugly sort of death. Wen Zhuliu, who’d threatened him, had ‘accidentally’ gotten his hand broken when Nie Huaisang’s saber had temporarily ‘gone out of control’ and pierced the key meridian of his wrist – those few months of forcing Nie Huaisang to take classes on medicine had clearly not gone to waste – and then been executed by Jiang Cheng with his steely-eyed hatred. Wen Ruohan, who had murdered their father and made Nie Mingjue’s life a living hell for years, had seen his sons murdered, his empire destroyed, his war lost, and in the end had been stabbed in the back by a trusted subordinate.

Throughout, no one had paid any attention to poor little Nie Huaisang, preserved only through the Wen sect's desire to humiliate the Nie sect by using him as a clown.

Even Lan Xichen, who ought to know better, had persisted in comforting Nie Mingjue throughout the war regarding Nie Huaisang’s health, as if Baxia wasn’t full up on all the complaints Nie Huaisang could possibly fit in given the size of his saber and the quantity of his qi. Meng Yao knew, Nie Mingjue supposed, but that was because he was himself another object of Nie Huaisang’s vengeance – he’d find himself with everything he’d ever wanted, the poor man, and in Nie Huaisang’s eternal debt to boot.

Poor, poor man.

It was a good thing for everyone, Nie Mingjue reflected, that he was too virtuous to sic Nie Huaisang on people.

Usually.

“You promised me that Jiang Cheng would be made Chief Cultivator instead of me,” he reminded Nie Huaisang, who sighed dramatically. “Huaisang. You promised.”

“I promised I’d try, da-ge!”

Nie Mingjue crossed his arms and glared.

“It’s a work in progress, all right? I’m going to have er-ge suggest it.”

Nie Mingjue’s eyebrows went up. “Xichen? How?”

“As a wedding present to his new in-law –”

Nie Mingjue held up a hand. “Stop right there. Who’s getting married?”

“Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji,” Nie Huaisang said obediently.

Nie Mingjue thought about their respective personalities and started to detect the start of a headache. “Which one are you punishing for some unremembered petty slight, this time?”

“Neither!”

Nie Mingjue gave him a look.

“…Wei-xiong screwed up helping me cheat on a test, and Lan Zhan bit me.”

“He bit you? How old was he, five?”

“Six! Old enough to know better!”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes. “And which one is going to think that they owe you their lives for arranging this?”

“Lan Zhan knows I’m working on it,” Nie Huaisang said promptly, and Nie Mingjue nodded. That made sense: Lan Wangji was honorable and dependable, and would be easy to extract things out of in the future if things went the way he wanted. “Also, Mistress Wen promised to give me anything I want if I can make Wei-xiong stop pining.”

“Mistress Wen? You mean Wen Qing?” Nie Mingjue’s eyes narrowed. “She’s a doctor, isn’t she?”

“Her brother Wen Ning helped poison a whole bunch of Wen sect soldiers one time, very impressive, you’ll like him,” Nie Huaisang said, not answering the question. “It’s the least I can do, really!”

“Huaisang…”

“Listen, if Wei-xiong and Lan Zhan are going to start their own sect up, they’re going to need some support first,” Nie Huaisang said with great dignity. “We’re not taking in the Wen sect, we’ll just be housing them for a little while, that’s all!”

“Huaisang…”

Nie Huaisang grinned at him.

Nie Mingjue threw his hands into the air. There was really no point in worrying any more about Nie Huaisang, he decided – ever since he’d found his talent for spying, and for managing other spies, Nie Huaisang had decided that he was going to rearrange the entire cultivation world to his liking in just the same way he’d rearranged the furniture in his quarters in the Unclean Realm.

No, really, there was no point in worrying for Nie Huaisang.

Now it was time to worry for everyone else.

#mdzs #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #my fic #my fics #in here with me

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scarletjedi · 3 years ago

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Untitled Untamed Time Travel Fixit AU but make it Mingcheng

@piyo-13

Part 1

Part 2A

PART 2B: GUSU UNLEASHED

Nie Huaisang immediately grabs a piece of blank paper to write a message back to Nie Mingjue, leaving Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian staring at each other. “Well,” Wei Wuxian said after a minute. “Aren’t you going to write to him, too?”

Jiang Cheng startled, he’d been too caught up in Huaisang’s words, “He’s alive!”. He had been prepared to go through the process of meeting Nie Mingjue again, of hopefully catching his attention, of watching A-Jue fall for him the way Jiang Cheng had fallen years ago — that his lover was here, alive, and *knew him* had not had time to process.

Trembling, Jiang Cheng moved from his bed, weak limbs pouring him like water until he was sat up against the table, taking the paper that Huaisang handed him. He stared, blankly. What to *say*?

“Tell him you love him,” Wei Wuxian said from his bed.

“Tsk, he knows that,” Jiang Cheng said with little snap.

“Then tell him you want to fuc—”

“Ah, la la la la!” Nie Huaisang said, covering his ears, and Wei Wuxian fell back laughing. Nie Huaisang winked at him. “Be honest,” he said. “But be short,” he looked down at his own missive. “All of this needs to fit on the bird.”

Nodding, Jiang Cheng picked up his brush. After a moment, he put ink to paper, writing in quick, sure strokes. He fanned the paper back and forth a few times to dry the ink faster, and folded the note to hand to Huaisang. Huaisang took it with a grin and ran from the room to send the message back.

“What did you write?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“None of your business.”

Two days later Nie Zonghui would bring the messages to Nie Mingjue, who would open Huaisang’s note, only to have a smaller note fall free. He would pick it up with a small frown before reading Huaisang’s note, smiling — blinking, then reading the note again. “If he put nearly have the effort into studying...” he muttered and Zongui would hide a smile. Then, Mingjue would open the smaller missive, nearly dropping the paper in shock, scrambling to catch it. “Sect Leader?” Zonghui would ask, and when Nie Mingjue looked up, he would be beaming.

Now, Nie Mingjue, who had fought, lead, and won a war, lead a sect, and died a slow, agonizing descent into his greatest fears, finds himself once more at 19, newly made Section Leader, and the clearest minded he’s been in years, without the damage caused by cultivating a war and...well. He wasn’t actually sure *how* Meng Yao managed to kill him, just that he knew he had.

Which was another problem. By this point, Huaisang was safely in Cloud Recesses, but Meng Yao was on his way back to Qinghe. It would take him most of a week to return, traveling on horseback as he was, and Nie Mingjue wasn’t sure what reception Meng Yao should receive.

Meng Yao, long before he was renamed by his father, had acted in ways that were counter to the values of the Nie sect. Even if Nie Mingjue were to overlook the crimes he committed as Jin Guangyao, or the atrocities he participated in as a torturer for Wen Ruohan, his crimes began in Qinghe.

Crimes that, as far as Nie Mingjue was aware, had not yet happened. Even before Meng Yao had used the chaos of an attack to kill the captain of his guardNie, Mingjue was never sure how much Meng Yao spoke was the truth — just knew that at one point he was sure Meng Yao had never lied to him, and then was never sure Meng Yao was not lying.

In his previous life, Nie Mingjue turned most often to Lan Xichen for council, particularly wher Meng— Jin Guangyao was concerned. Then, as years passed, Xichen would turn ever more towards Jin Guangyao first, and Nie Mingjue found himself turning to Jiang Wanyin as their wartime sparring turned to tent-side comfort, to comraderie to courtship.

A-Cheng.

For all that Mingjue had more years of experience leading a sect, Wanyin’s experience was a similar enough trial by fire to grant him insight, and an outsider enough to the triumvirate to offer an outsider’s clarity.

Truly, his love possessed an uncanny wisdom hidden behind brusque words and toothless threats.

He wished for Wanyin’s council now. He wished for his presence. It had already been too long since they had last seen each other before Mingjue made his last, fateful visit to Jinlintai. It would likely be several months, if not years, before their paths would cross once more.

And— he missed his lover as a lover. Wanyin was a beautiful man, strong and proud and fierce and so sweet in private. A joy and a challenge.

Getting Huaisang’s letter was bittersweet because his didi had already suffered so much: even the first time, Mingjue had wanted Hauisang’s youth to be as worry free as possible, to have the freedom to be careless in a way Mingjue never had. And sweet, because it meant that Mingjue wasn’t alone in this.

Getting Wanyin’s message was a blessing and a curse. He had already resigned himself to wait, to reach out to the Jiang Sect in support to save Wanyin his own heartbreak, to court him properly from the beginning. To know that his love was here, and yet still so far out of reach...

Huaisang’s letter boiled down to “plan in motion. Do not engage.” Which...

“Didi,” Nie Mingjue muttered. “What are you doing?”

Because, the thing is, Mingjue would *like* to listen to Huaisang. Mingjue was tired, and doing the right thing was an increasingly difficult and murky task....but Mingjue was also a just and righteous man. Certain actions he would take no matter what...and certain actions he would not.

The facts were thus:

Meng Yao had killed him in a way that was both intensely malicious and duplicitous. (Nie Mingjue was unsure as to his motive. What did Meng Yao gain aside from petty revenge? No, the method was revenge. The act...the act was something different).

Meng Yao had not, as of yet, committed any crime, nor was he currently capable of the technique that had been used to kill Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue could not in good conscience kill a man who had committed no crime, nor could he stand by and allow another to fall off the righteous path when it was within his power to prevent. (Was it within his power?)

So, Nie Mingjue could neither punish Meng Yao for crimes he had not yet committed, nor could was he able to relax in Meng Yao’s presence the way he had the first time around.

...Maybe Huaisang had ideas.

[later] “I can’t believe this!” Huaisang glared at the letter from his brother. Jiang Cheng’s own letter sat in his pocket to be perused later. It felt almost hot, the way his focus continually drifted towards the folded paper, but he knew better than to read his lover’s letter in front of Huaisang. Not if he wanted to keep any pretense to dignity.

“What is it?” he prompted when Huaisang fell silent, re-reading furiously.

“He wants to rehabilitate Meng Yao! His own murderer!”

“Meng Yao didn’t come back with the rest of us,” Jiang Cheng offered. “He’s not the man who killed your brother. Not yet, anyway.”

“You didn’t see—” Huaisang cut himself off, looking away and biting his lip. Jiang Cheng shifted, focusing on the letter to let the heat of its presence chase away the chill of the reminder that when his lover had died, Jiang Cheng wasn’t there.

“A tiger can not change his stripes,” Nie Huaisang muttered, and hid his face behind his fan.

[The discussion over what happens to Meng Yao plays out thusly:

NHS: I don’t want to kill Meng Yao, Da-ge! I just don’t want him alive. Anymore.

NMJ: Didi, no.

NHS: Didi, yes!

Ultimately, NMJ pulls the big brother/sect leader card and says they have time to deal with Meng Yao, and since Meng Yao was currently NMJ’s problem, he would deal with it. NHS threw a tantrum that reminded everyone that yes, NHS is related to NMJ by blood, but finally went: “fine! It’s not like the *whole reason* we came back wasn’t to fuck up all of his shit!” and adjusted his plans again.]

When he goes back to his room, Jiang Cheng finds himself alone. He can bet that Wei Wuxian will be off with Lan Wangji (and no, Jiang Cheng doesn’t know why Wei Wuxian hasn’t just moved in with his boyfriend, considering how often he comes skittering into the room just on the wrong side of curfew, mussed and bruised in a very specific way that Jiang Cheng a) wants to know no more about and b)isn’t jealous of, fuck off.), so he has time to read his letter.

Cheng-er,

We never were a pair for letters, you and I, preferring to steal time for each other like a pair of romantic thieves. I regret, now, not making more time to woo and court you properly then — though I fear I already had all you could give — not desire, you showed me your hunger for me readily enough, matched only by my hunger for you — but hours of the day.

I think very fondly of our nights.

This second chance makes me desire to do better, to build you a place in my life from the start, as I hope you build a place for me. We are young, yet, and have time to hope.

I miss you, Wanyin. Cheng-er. Please write to me. A letter is a poor substitute for your fire, but I will cherish even these scraps above silence.

Yours,

A-Jue

Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure how long he was there, re-reading the letter, when Wei Wuxian tumbled in, only to stop when he caught sight of Jiang Cheng.

“Jiang Cheng! You’re pink!” Wei Wuxian crowed, pointing a finger and laughing at the way Jiang Cheng startled. “Who wrote to you to make you blush? What did he say?”

“None of your business,” Jaing Cheng snapped, tucking the letter away.

A-Jue,

Who gave you the right to write such a letter? Who would believe the NIe Sect leader to be so shameless? You can take a lesson from your brother in poetry if you are planning to continue!

Building a space — as if I did not rebuild my piers with a place for you. As if you had not already crawled into my heart to live.

I lost you once, A-Jue. I will not lose you again.

I await your next letter,

Yours, always,

Cheng-er

Jiang Cheng hands the folded paper to Nie Huaisang, face burning. For once, Nie Huaisang doesn’t tease, doesn’t give him a knowing smirk. Instead, his eyes are kind, and he takes the letter with little fanfare, tucking it neatly into his own missive to be sent off at once.

When the next letter comes, Jiang Cheng doesn’t even bother waiting, taking the letter and retreating to the sound of Nie Huaisang’s laughter.

Cheng-er

You want poetry, do you?...

Jiang Cheng’s eyes skip over the page and he gasps aloud, face burning as he looks around to see that no one else is near. To write such things! Shameless! But...oh, how it lights a fire in him, and he’s breathless with his, dizzy with sudden, frustrated want that he cannot satisfy.

In the end, Nie Mingjue was right. The words are a poor substitute, but Jiang Cheng would not trade this letter for anything.

The next morning, Jiang Cheng approaches Wei Wuxian with an idea for a long-distance communication array, one that could be personally powered and used. The reasons he gives are all to do with military strategy, but he needn’t have bothered. The challenge to create something new has Wei Wuxian distracted immediately, and he wanders off to the library mid-sentence.

The next free afternoon they have in Caiyi, Jiang Cheng purchases a wooden box, cleverly built with locking compartments and false bottoms. It is perfectly sized for folded letters.

Time passes. Now that Jiang Cheng has thirteen years of lived experience - and hard years of war and cuthroat sect politics and rebuilding his sect - the lessons aren’t easier, per say, but they have context that he missed the first time. HIs understanding is more in depth, which quickly makes him a favorite of Lan Qiren to call on — even if his actual answer (usually “threaten them with Zidian”) wasn’t the answer he provided in class. Wei Wuxian was also a calmer presence in class - still questioning, still pushing limits, but when Lan Qiren calls on Wei Wuxian to answer his questions, Wei Wuxian’s answers are thoughtful, inventive, but within the bounds of conventionality. Surprisingly, it’s Lan Wangji who suggests solutions that boarder on the heretical — solutions that Jiang Cheng knows come to pass, such as the spirit attraction flags.

It’s enough to make Lan Qiren change colors, and judging by the tiny smirk on LWJ’s face, it’s absolutely deliberate. (The one class that Lan Xichen sits in on is, actually, hilarious, as he seems consistently torn between laughter and exasperation at his brother’s small rebellion).

Nie Huaisang, however, seems to be *genuinely struggling* with the material. So much so that Jiang Cheng takes pity and drags him (and Wangxian) into the library one afternoon to actually study rather than their usual spot by the river where they would refine their plan to keep everyone alive that they actually cared about keeping alive, and killing those who needed killing as efficently as possible. (“That’s a rather blunt way of thinning about this, Jaing Cheng,” WWX said to him. JC had just shrugged. He didn’t see the reason to couch the truth in political double speak when he didn’t have to”)

After an hour or so, Nie Huaisang slumped forward over the table, thumping his forehead against he lacquered wood. “It’s no use. I’m going to have to repeat this year again, *again*”

“I don’t understand it,” Jiang Cheng said. He knew that Huaisang was smart; he figured out Jin Guangyao’s plot, he successfully modified the time travel array — Jiang Cheng was pretty sure he ran Qinghe’s spy rin duing the war, though that had never been confirmed. “I know you know things.”

“I don’t,” he wailed. “I don’t know anything. Don’t ask me.”

“I don’t mean to alarm anyone,” Wei Wuxian said, leaning in and keeping his voice low. “But we have a spy in our midst.”

“Those rumors were never proven,” Huaisang said, sniffling.

“Not you,” Wei Wuxian said, and angled his head in a way that he only thought was subtle towards where Jin Zixuan was sitting, stiff and imperious, with an exasperated Luo Qingyang. “He’s been doing that a lot,” he said.

Jiang Cheng watched him for a long moment, trying to remember the frustration he felt with a young Jin Zixuan who hadn’t yet unlearned the smug superiority of Jinlintai...but all he could see was little Jin Ling, awkward from growing up alone and desperately lonely (except Jin Ling had picked up Jiang Cheng’s bad habit of expressing any emotion as anger, and it seemed Zixuan had chosen...smug silence.)

“Aw, crap,” Jiang Cheng muttered, because as soon as he realized it, he knew what he had to do. Pushing himself up, he stalked over to Jin Zixuan, ignoring the hissed complaints of Wei Wuxian, and stared down at him, arms crossed.

“What do you want?” Jin Zixuan sneered. Behind him, Luo Qingyang rolled her eyes, and Jiang Cheng huffed.

“Cute. But you got nothing on my mother.” Jin Zixuan blinked, surprise loosening some of the stiffness in his posture. Rolling his eyes, Jiang Cheng snapped. “Look. You’re not subtle. We see you. So do you want to sit with us or not?” He looked between them. “Both of you.”

Jin Zixuan nodded, then blinked as if surprised at himself. Luo Qingyang stood to salute, but Jiang Cheng waved it off.

“Great, come on,” Jiang Cheng said, and turned around, not waiting to see if they. He sat back in his seat, shifting books to make room. He didn’t really want to sit next to Zixuan, but with Nie Huaisang sprawled over his books and Wei Wuxian practically in Lan Wangji’s lap, it was the only safe place for them.

Nie Huaisang sat back, looking at Jiang Cheng over his fan. “What?” He snapped.

“Softie,” Nie Huaisang said softly, and Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes.

“He needs to learn, and Luo Qingyang is the only one at Jinlintai right now that I trust,” he muttered.

Wei Ying squinted at Jiang Cheng, as if trying to figure something out, but when Jin Zixuan and Luo Qingyang appeared, he blinked at her, surprised, and perked up in recognition. “Mianmian!”

Which, of course, was the wrong thing to say. Jin Zixuan puffed up, and Lan Wangji hissed a pained Wei Ying, and Nie Huaisang was being no help. So, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes again and translated.

“No offense meant, Lady Luo,” he said. “My brother’s memory for names is notoriously bad, but he means no disrespect by his over familiarity.”

Thankfully Luo Qingyang smiled. “No offence taken, Young Master Jiang. If your offer is genuine, and we are to be friends, then you may call me Mianmian.”

Jaing Cheng smiled. “Then please join us, Mianmian. I am Jiang Cheng.”

That caused everyone to look at him, and he glared. “What?! I have manners.”

“Jiang-xiong is quite a gentleman,” Nie Huaisang agreed, mildly, and Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. That tone always meant mischief.

“And you’re a pain in my—”

“No excess talking in the library,” Lan Wangji interrupted, staring placidly back when Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng both glared at him. Well, Jiang Cheng glared. Nie Huaisang pouted.

After a moment, Jin Zixuan grunted softly, as if someone had elbowed him in his ribs. He cleared his throat. “What are you working on?” he asked woodenly, as if speaking from a poorly rehearsed script. Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang Cheng saw Mianmian nod encouragingly.

“We’re trying to help Nie-xiong pass the next exam,” Wei Wuxian offered.

“Who’s we?” Jiang Cheng muttered, flipping his book open once more. “Unless sitting in Lan Wangji’s lap is a new study method.”

Nie Huaisang giggled behind his fan as Wei Wuxian squawked, reaching out to smack Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, only to be hauled back with apparent ease by Lan Wangji.

Lan Wangji who, arms wrapped securely around Wei Wuxian, stared square at Jiang Cheng and said. “It is an advanced technique.”

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian protested, going pink in the face, and Nie Huaisang’s giggles turned to outright laughter.

Jin Zixuan leaned into to Jiang Cheng. “Is it always like this?”

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “Pretty much. Those two decided shame was for other people a long time ago.”

“I...have questions,” Jin Zixuan said.

Jiang Cheng turned and looked at him. “You know, so do I. But mine might involve yelling, so the library probably isn’t the best place for them.”

(It takes a while to build up to the conversation, a few weeks until Jin Zixuan is comfortable enough to sit with them without Mianmian as a social buffer. He’s still insufferable, but more and more Jiang Cheng sees the kid he remembers from childhood visits, and even shades of the proud yet just man that he almost had a chance to fully grow into being.)

Meanwhile, something is shifting between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, the simmering tension between them boiling over, and Jiang Cheng is both sure that they’ve actively started fucking and and sure that he wants *absolutely nothing to do with it.* He does not want to hear it, see it, smell it — which makes it difficult when Wei Wuxian proves that he has no filter, and Lan Wangji proves he has no shame.

What had actually happened was Lan Xichen had approached Lan Wangji and said that he was glad LWJ was making friends, and hey, haven’t you been spending an awful lot of time with that Wei Wuxian kid? Don’t worry, little brother, I’ll keep Uncle off your back.” LWJ was unsure if Xichen knew that LWJ and WWX were together, but was unsure how to clarify. Every time he tried, LXC seemed to double down on his interpretation of their relationship as being the same as his with NMJ (and while NMJ thought LXC was pretty, he was more interested in Xichen’s swordplay than his *swordplay*) - and LWJ decided that the best course of action was to kiss Wei Wuxian as much as possible as often as possible.

For the record, Lan Xichen was well aware of his little brother’s inclinations, and was quite enjoying his own spot of harmless rebellion by encouraging Wangji’s shamelessness. Besides, Wei Wuxian was a good match for Wangji, and it was a relief to see Wangji smiling. Perhaps it was time to begin drafting some marital paperwork. It wouldn’t do to be caught unprepared, afterall.

He hoped they married in the spring. He always loved a spring wedding...

Somewhere, Jiang Cheng felt a chill.

NEXT TIME - THE RETURN OF THE MAIN PLOT

#mingcheng #mingcheng notefic #my fic #the untamed

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franniebanana · 3 years ago

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CQL Rewatch - Episode 11

Is anyone else amazed at how quickly this place cleared out? It seems like it was less than an hour ago that they were still trying to kill each other, and now it’s just pristine and empty again. Magic of television! Also, reminder! Jin Guangyao is still mortally wounded and hobbling around.

I love how caring they both are for each other here. They really feel like brothers instead of a master/servant role. Nie Huaisang is worried for Jin Guangyao, and the feeling is mutual. It’s a relationship that I never paid much attention to on the first watch, so it’s nice to go back and see it again, and notice that it exists. You can sense the bond and the closeness between these two, and it’s quite nice—also makes the betrayal sting more.

Ah, and the little shared moment between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao—it’s sweet that he hasn’t forgotten the kindness that Wei Wuxian has shown him—he always treated him with respect, regardless of his background. Also I wonder if Jiang Cheng feels annoyed here, because Jin Guangyao salutes him second….

See? Nie Mingjue was so pissed that he knocked over all his art and stuff. I like that little detail. We see the aftermath, but we didn’t see him actually do it. We didn’t need to—we know he’s upset and feels horrible that he even had to make that decision, let alone carry it out. We don’t know much about their relationship yet, but it’s very clear that they were close and they respected each other a lot, for Nie Mingjue to be this emotional about Jin Guangyao’s actions and banishment.

NMJ: What are you two going to do next?

WWX: Um, I’m going to go rescue my boyfriend.

Okay, so I know how the story goes, and Wei Wuxian does not go to the Cloud Recesses again for a very, very long time. However, they’ve already added so much, why couldn’t they throw that in? Just saying, I wouldn’t have minded more wangxian moments, okay? But this part makes me giggle a little, because Wei Wuxian does, indeed, want to go after Lan Wangji (the guy left, basically without telling him)—Wei Wuxian is worried about Lan Wangji going off alone, especially because of what the Wen Clan is up to. And of course Jiang Cheng has to cock block by saying that they need to go home, because if the Wens are after the Gusu Lan and the Nie Clan, then they are probably going for the Jiangs as well. Okay, okay, it makes sense, Jiang Cheng—but do you not understand how much I want to see more wangxian?

But the important thing there (important meaning the thing that I like the most) is that Wei Wuxian thinks of Lan Wangji first. It’s not the last time either. It’s part of the growing feeling that Lan Wangji becomes more his family than his family does (and I mean, they aren’t his blood relatives, anyway). Yes, Wei Wuxian loves his family at Lotus Pier, but you can’t say that he doesn’t also consider Lan Wangji part of his family. At this point, he’s already willing to risk his life for Lan Wangji. And the reverse is true as well. I’m not going to go off on too much of a tangent, but I love that this story features two people who fit in better with each other than with their actual families.

At this point, even if I didn’t know the story, I’d be thinking, “Okay, how hard are they going to fall?” Lotus Pier is too idyllic, too perfect, the people too friendly, too happy—you know it’s all going to come tumbling down. And this story is so tragic (we know that right off the bat—the first scene is Wei Wuxian dying) that you absolutely know that something horrible is about to happen.

But aside from that, I like in the book how Wei Wuxian basically has a tab open with all the vendors and Jiang Fengmian has to foot the bill. It’s cute that Wei Wuxian has a relationship with all these vendors (or at least that one in particular)—like he’s willing to be amongst the common people. It’s clear here that Jiang Cheng isn’t. They know his face, because he’s the clan leader’s son, but he doesn’t seem to share the same relationships that Wei Wuxian does. And obviously in this scene, he just wants to get home and see if everything is okay. He’s very family-focused.

I’ve been reading a lot of discourse on Jiang Cheng lately, and this scene makes me feel a lot of emotions. It’s true that Jiang Cheng’s character in The Untamed is different from MDZS. A lot of his angry remarks seem to come from a place of caring (at first), because it seems he really does care about Wei Wuxian quite a bit, and I think he considers him family. But at a certain point, his well-meaning, angry remarks start to become old, and I feel bad for Wei Wuxian that he is so eager to take the blame for things that were not his fault. He goes along with Lan Wangji (without permission), and Jiang Cheng says it’s his fault for putting them all in danger, for being punished, for everything—but Jiang Cheng didn’t have to sneak off either. Is he not responsible for his own actions? Had it really only been about his concern over Wei Wuxian, he could have just talked to their father (who knew about it and basically didn’t care, which is whatever). My heart kind of breaks for the rocky relationship these two boys have, and to know that it will completely crumble in just a short amount of time.

But that’s also what I love about it. What I love about Jiang Cheng is that he’s basically horrible. He’s self-centered, he’s unkind, he’s cold, and he can hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever seen. I truly enjoy the fact that he and Wei Wuxian have an irreparably damaged relationship by the end of this.

“In the afterlife, let’s still be brothers,” Wei Wuxian says, and Jiang Cheng pushes Wei Wuxian’s hand off of his shoulder. It’s such a kind of off-hand remark, but it’s so meaningful in this series, since the opposite ends up happening. But I feel like this is their relationship at its core: Wei Wuxian trying to be better and eager to please, while Jiang Cheng is always responding that he’s not good enough, always shrugging him off. No wonder he becomes so close with Lan Wangji, a man who sees Wei Wuxian for what he is, yet loves him anyway.

I’m really inclined to agree with Madam Yu here: Jiang Fengmian is not really prepared for what’s going to happen, and considering in this adaptation, I think he even knows more of what’s going on with the Wen Clan than he did in the book. I believe Wei Wuxian aptly pointed out in episode 10 that this indoctrination is basically to hold the heirs ransom while the Wen Clan tries to take control—it’s to keep the other clans from acting up so they can get what they want (which in The Untamed is the Yin Iron, of course).

But aside from that, this seems like the most unpleasant table to sit at ever, next to these two people who probably very rarely get along. I think in this scene, you find out that Madam Yu thinks that her husband isn’t tough enough or prepared enough for future attacks, that she believes he was cheating on her and in love with Wei Wuxian’s mother, and that Jiang Cheng is unfairly treated between the two of them. That’s a shit-ton of accusations right there!

I actually do wish that we knew more about Jiang Fengmian’s relationship to Wei Wuxian’s mother and why he took him in. They must have been very close. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly and they delve into it a little more later.

But! What I also noticed in this scene is that Jiang Cheng and his mother are wearing matching outfits, while Jiang Yanli matches her dad, wearing purple.

I audibly gasped when I saw this. He’s using one of Wei Wuxian’s talismans!! OMG!!!! But I never noticed that the first time, so I was super excited to see that! How cool is it that Lan Wangji respects Wei Wuxian enough to not only accept one of his talismans, but to also use it? I love that detail! They didn’t have to include a scene to show it, but the fact that they threw it in makes me so happy. And even when they aren’t together, it’s like they’re together! My heart!

And visually, it also looks cool, so I’m always pleased to see some more magic in this series, in particular the talisman magic, which always looks pretty. The butterflies here remind me of the butterfly that Lan Xichen sends Lan Wangji way later.

Oh, it’s also interesting that the characters that come at odds with Lan Wangji always point out his arrogance, but, like, he’s not. They mistake his coldness and his lack of verbosity to being conceited, but I really don’t think that’s the case. There is literally a Lan Clan principle that says not to speak unless you have something important to say. For example, the kind of chattering that Wei Wuxian does is against their rules. Lan Wangji has been brought up in this stark, spartan environment, and he has been a rule follower. Actually looking down on people for the sake of being arrogant is even against their principles—I mean…I don’t expect Wen Chao to know this, but people like Su She certain should.

I like the contrast here between Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen meditating, their incense burning, all the tea cups and knick-knacks sitting just so—and utter death and destruction outside. The Cloud Recesses are literally on fire and you two are sitting in here trying to meditate. I get it. Gusu Lan are probably the most pacifistic of all the clans, so this is totally against everything their clan is about. But really, you’re sending all your red shirts out there to die.

Also I have no idea why Lan Qiren is spitting up blood in this scene. Did he overexert himself…meditating? Maybe I’m being ignorant here. Maybe he’s doing some magic to keep the Wens at bay (even though they’re getting in and all…).

I keep having these moments where I find myself thinking, “I didn’t pay attention to this part at all the first time, but now I see how great it is.” And here’s another one. For starters, I didn’t notice Lan Xichen was crying—I knew he was getting really emotional, but I didn’t see the tears on his face until just now. Here’s a man only a few years older than Lan Wangji, possibly still a teenager at this point (in the book, he was still underage at the start of the Sunshot Campaign if I remember the notes correctly), who has no idea where his younger brother is (who he probably helped raise), pleading with his uncle to take the treasured books in the library and escape.

And then you have Lan Qiren, who also has no idea where one of his nephews is and showing genuine concern that he’s missing (once again), whose other nephew is offering up his own life in order to save his. Lan Qiren practically raised both Wangji and Xichen as if they were his own, so the last thing he wants is for either of them to come to harm. I really love this moment, seeing the Lans’ faces crumble with emotion and show that pain and grief that they are feeling, that they normally keep in check. You get to see that, yes, they are human too. And I think this is especially important with Lan Qiren, who up until this point has just been kind of a hardass. But it’s also great to see Lan Xichen fall apart like this, because he’s been so sage and wise, and so adult up to this point. Now we’re forced to see that no, he’s still young, he’s inexperienced, he can break down too.

I do think it’s kind of ridiculous that the rest of the Gusu Lan Clan is basically useless in a fight, but I will never turn down a boss bitch Lan Wangji entrance (no matter how corny it is). I mean, I guess he doesn’t do all that much. He throws some guqin chords at them and gives them time to hide in the Cold Pond Cave. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because he ends up giving up the Yin Iron shard anyway.

I’m sure he’s feeling like he’s let down at least his entire clan and, at most, the rest of the world who would stand against the Wen Clan. But I think he was faced with the choice of seeing his people completely come to ruin or handing over the Yin Iron—either one is bad, but in the end, he chose people over power. I think that’s very fitting with Lan Wangji in any adaptation: he will do what’s right, he will choose humanity over any kind of power. He’s later willing to give up everything for Wei Wuxian, because in the end, it’s not his reputation or his standing among the clans that matters. I like here that Lan Qiren doesn’t try and stop him either—he understands that the people are most important and allows his nephew to make that choice.

It’s a nice scene overall, plus more Cold Pond Cave looks, which I love (I can’t get over the frost in his eyebrows, it’s just sexy). And anytime Wang Yibo gets to show some emotion on his face is a good time as well—I love what he does with his micro-expressions, but that makes the impact of scenes where he shows a lot on his face even greater. Like, if his eyebrows knit together, you know something big is going down!

It’s super cute that Jiang Yanli is giving them all this food to take along. She can’t go, she can’t help them, and she can’t do anything for them once they leave Lotus Pier, so the only thing she can think of to take care of them is to give them food. It’s such a sweet moment, but there’s a desperation to her actions as well. There is such a tension in the air and it’s affecting the entire family. Also not surprising that Madam Yu isn’t there to see them off. (Wei Wuxian’s cute wave at the end—god, he’s too adorable.)

That’s the look of somebody who’s seeing their close friend after a long time, when they were worried sick about them, when they had written letters that went unanswered, when their first thought upon entering this place was, “Where is the Gusu Lan sect?” Either the director told Xiao Zhan, “You’re in love” or he just did it on his own, because I mean, come on.

Basically, Wei Wuxian’s priority here is Lan Wangji, and I won’t hear any different. He’s not thinking about the mission or his creed or the Yin Iron—he wants to know how Lan Wangji is doing. He heard about what was going on in the Cloud Recesses, and he just wants to know if he’s all right. Even after he stops saying, “Lan Zhan,” which he says several times (I didn’t count), he still continues to look at Lan Wangji.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

#cql #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #lan xichen #lan qiren #jiang yanli #jiang fengmian #madam yu #wwx #lwj #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #cql rewatch

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ouyangzizhensdad · 4 years ago

Note

what’s ur opinion on the whole ancestral hall thing because I’ve seen many takes on how wangxian were in the wrong and how jc was right to be mad but I always thought that his anger during that situation stemmed from a place different to that of what everyone seems to think 😶

Hi anon,

I do not hold all the cultural knowledge to be able to be a definite resource wrt how wangxian’s behaviour would have been perceived “in-universe”. So take my thoughts on the topic with a grain of salt, and please do not mind that I will focus more on what can be found explicitly in the text itself.

My understanding from what others have explained is that bringing to the ancestral hall someone who’s not from the “family”, in this case LWJ, is generally disrespectful. Considering WWX’s inner thoughts, where he’s literally asking JFM and Yu-furen to witness their bows, I think that perhaps WWX was so caught up in the fantasy/idea of LWJ as his future spouse that he might not have registered as much how, in the current situation, LWJ was not family.

It does however make me pause a little that, until JC’s appearance, the narrative does not seem to present the situation in such a manner that we might think that it was extremely presumptuous of LWJ to kneel alongside WWX, and accompany him in burning incense. Considering that LWJ is known to be someone who is very proper, and that WWX is not unaware of the rules of propriety (even if he does not always follow them), I do find it interesting that there is no hesitation from either of them.

To make up for his thoughtless words, he lit up three more sticks of incense. Just as he raised them above his head, still apologizing in his mind, it suddenly got darker beside him. He turned to find that Lan Wangji had also kneeled down beside him.

Now that they were in the ancestral hall, for the sake of courtesy, of course he had to show his respect as well. Lan Wangji also took three sticks of incense and, sweeping his sleeve to the side, and ignited them using one of the red candles. His movements were proper, and his expression was grave. Wei Wuxian tilted his head to look at him, his lips curving upward almost uncontrollably. Lan Wangji glanced at him and reminded, “The ashes.”

The three sticks of incense that Wei Wuxian held had been burning for quite a while. A bit of ashes had already accumulated at the top, close to falling off. However, he still refused to insert them into the tripod, instead saying, “Let’s do it together.”

Lan Wangji didn’t object. And so, each with three sticks of incense, the two of them kneeled among rows of tablets and bowed down to Jiang Fengmian and Yu ZiYuan’s names together.

Once. Twice. The movements were exactly the same. Wei Wuxian, “That’s it.” He finally placed the incense into the tripod.

In the end. Wei Wuxian glanced at Lan Wangji, who’s kneeling as properly as ever beside him. He put his hands together and uttered in his heart, ‘Jiang-shushu, Yu-furen, it’s me again. I’m here to disturb you two again. But I really did want to bring him here and show him to you. Let the two prostrates we just did count as prostrating* to the Heavens and the Earth, and to the Father and the Mother. Please help me reserve the person beside me for now. I’ll owe you the last prostrate for now, and find some chance to make up for it in the future…’

I am not certain as well how WWX having left the Jiang sect affects his “right” to be there. JC does seem to suggest that, as an “outsider” who was, still according to JC, “kicked out of the sect,” WWX doesn’t a have right to be there. I cannot tell whether that is an entirely fair assessment due to my lack of cultural knowledge, since JC demonstrates that he is not above bending the truth to fit his own narrative (ie when he says that WWX was kicked out of the sect when we already know at this point in the narrative that this is not what transpired).

However, it is also important to keep in mind that a character’s anger, just like real people’s, is not always motivated by rational concerns or that these rational concerns might become entangled with other grievances, some of which might not be as motivated. JC’s initial reproaches directly indicate that he considers it a faux-pas at best and an insult at worst that WWX decided to come and take LWJ with him.

“Wei Wuxian, you really don’t take yourself as an outsider, do you? You come and leave whenever you want. You take with you whomever you want. Do you perhaps still remember whose sect this is? Who’s the owner?”

This is reinstated a little bit later:

Wei Wuxian threw him a sideways glance, speaking in a calm voice, “I’m only here to burn some incense. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

Jiang Cheng, “Burn some incense? Wei Wuxian, are you really that dense? It’s been so long since you were kicked out of our sect, and here you are taking unwelcomed people with you to burn incense for my parents?”

That being said, it is interesting to note that WWX calls these remarks “vulgar“ and “obliviously malicious”. Now, the question is, is it because he’s fiercely protective of LWJ that he takes these words so badly or because in this case it is transparent that JC is intentionally overly spiteful?

Oher reproaches levelled against WWX, or the two of them, also have nothing to do with them burning incense in the ancestral hall. Indeed, JC brings up grievances he still hold against them, some of which we know are not exactly fair. As well, his own insecurities and issues fuel his anger, something directly acknowledged in the text.

Jiang Cheng mocked, “Look how forgetful you are. What does unwelcome people mean? Then let me remind you. It was because you played the hero and saved Lan-er-gongzi, who’s standing beside you right now, that the entire Lotus Pier and my parents went down with you. And that wasn’t enough. With the first time, soon comes the second. You even had to save Wen-gaos and drag my sister down with you. What a person you are! What’s more, you’re even so generous as to take the two to Lotus Pier. The Wen-gao’s strolling in front of my sect’s gates; Lan-er-gongzi came here to burn incense. You’re here on purpose to remind me, to remind them.” He continued, “Wei Wuxian, who do you think you are? Who gave you the face to take whomever you want into our sect’s ancestral hall?”

Wei Wuxian knew that Jiang Cheng had to settle this with him no matter what.

For Lotus Pier’s destruction, Jiang Cheng thought not only that Wei Wuxian responsible, but also that Wen Ning and Lan Wangji were responsible too. He wouldn’t give a friendly look to either of the three, let alone when they were walking right in front of his face at the same time inside Lotus Pier. He was probably infuriated.

[...]

“Jiang Cheng, just listen to yourself. What are you saying? Is it appropriate? Don’t forget who you are. After all, you’re a sect leader. Insulting a renowned cultivator in front of Jiang-shushu and Yu-furen’s spirits—where is your discipline?”

His original intention was to remind Jiang Cheng to at least hold some respect for Lan Wangji. However, Jiang Cheng was the most sensitive. From those words, he managed to make out the notion that he was not fit to be a sect leader.

Of import to the context of the scene, JC suggests also that WWX insulted the memory of his parents by “fooling around” with LWJ in Lotus Pier, suggesting that their hug (and romantic feelings) “dirtied their eyes and contaminated their peace”. He spells it out once more, a little bit later.

Jiang Cheng pointed outside, “Mess around outside however you want, whether under a tree or on a boat, hugging or otherwise! Get out of my sect, get out of anywhere my eyes can see!”

Especially so because we get the contextualisation from the narration (one of the few times we are told things that WWX cannot be privy to) that JC had been following them for a while, stewing, until he exploded.

At once, he was almost certain that the two really were in that kind of relationship. He could not turn around and leave, yet he did not want to say a single word to the two, so he continued to hide himself as he followed them. Every single look and movement that passed between them seemed different in his eyes. For a while, the shock, absurdity, and slight disgust that he felt combined to overpower his hatred. It was only after Wei Wuxian brought Lan Wangji into the ancestral hall that the long-suppressed hatred was awakened again, devouring his courtesy and rationality.

I’m too tired to go check the original chinese to see whether the translation conveys well the connotations of the text, but like... “absurdity”, “disgust”, “hatred”, “devouring his courtesy and rationality”: as a writer, if I wanted to show that a character was engaging in a bout of rightful anger, that’s certainly not how I would present their emotional and mental state before they lashed out.

Now, WWX is not blameless for the situation, as he is quick to react both because of his over-protectiveness of LWJ and his own insecurities regarding his feelings toward him, which make him loose his cool and start the escalation that JC is too happy to continue

Wei Wuxian raged, “Hanguang-Jun is only my friend—what do you think we are?! I warn you. Apologize right now—don’t make me beat you up!”

Hearing this, Lan Wangji’s expression froze for an instant. Jiang Cheng laughed, “Well, then I’ve never seen ‘friends’ like that before? You warn me? Warn me against what? If you two had the slightest trace of integrity left, you shouldn’t have come here and…”

Seeing the change in Lan Wangji’s expression, Wei Wuxian thought he felt insulted by Jiang Cheng’s words. He was so angry that his entire body was shaking. He did not dare think about what Lan Wangji would think after being shamed like this. The rage from his heart rushed to his head as he threw out a talisman, “Have you had enough yet?”

The talisman was both fast and powerful. It exploded at Jiang Cheng’s right shoulder, causing him to stagger. Jiang Cheng didn’t expect Wei Wuxian to attack so suddenly. His spiritual powers hadn’t recovered completely yet, either, and so the talisman hit its target. Blood seeped from his shoulder as disbelief flashed across his face. Zidian immediately unravelled from his fingers, lashing out with sizzling light. Lan Wangji unsheathed Bichen to block the attack. The three began to fight inside the ancestral hall.

To me the text seems to suggest, as you did, that JC’s anger and lashing out is not actually about the incense burning in the ancestral hall in itself--that he let his hatred overpower any sense of courtesy and rationality, as the narration suggests. It is easy to ponder whether JC would have been that upset if, when he had gone to look for WWX, he had not found him being happy in LP with an ‘outsider’ like LWJ, but on top of it all, acting like he is in love with a man. Would his reaction have been the same if he had just happened upon them kneeling in the ancestral hall? Would his reaction have been the same if he still did not blame WWX, and so many others, for all the misfortunes that ever befell him and his family? As well, one could also easily wonder how in a similar situation a character who is not as prone to anger and flying off the handle like JC would have reacted to the same actions.

TLDR: I do not have the have the cultural knowledge to tell how much “in the wrong” the characters were, however I think it would be disingenuous to suggest based on what we are presented with in the text that JC’s reaction was 100% motivated and rational, particularly since the text literally includes the line “the long-suppressed hatred was awakened again, devouring his courtesy and rationality.”

#mdzs meta #mdzs #wwx #jc

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ibijau · 4 years ago

Text

Deathbed Wedding pt5

Nie Huaisang and the rest find the monster they came from. Things do not go as planned. (also on AO3)

warning for blood, violence, and minor character death

It was, sadly, Wen Chao who found the cave, and he was predictably insufferable about it, repeating to anyone who would listen that he clearly was the superior cultivator present, since they had all missed it. Nie Huaisang, bravely, sacrificed himself and walked next to Wen Chao as they carefully went down the cave. Nobody else could put up with his boasting for long, and they did need him to stay in somewhat good humour, since he was the only one to really know what they were there for. Even the other Wens appeared a little confused, though like everyone else they trusted Wen Chao to have found some interesting monster once again.

Nie Huaisang was among the few to really worry, along with one or two disciples of other sects who had followed their young masters but did not quite have the level for some of the monsters Wen Chao had found in the past. If Nie Huaisang had so often been wounded in the past few months, it was partly because Wen Chao sometimes didn’t quite get the difference between a challenging creature, and one that could only be handled by masters of the highest level.

As they explored the cave, Nie Huaisang tried to get some information out of Wen Chao. Before very long, he started to suspect that Wen Chao wasn’t withholding information just for the sake of surprise this time, and that instead he just didn’t really know what they’d be up against. It would be big, and it would fight back, and that was more or less all that there was to know.

If it even existed, of course.

The cave went deeper than Nie Huaisang might have expected, and while it seemed at first to contain several paths, most were closed off by fallen rocks, and the rest just quickly circled back to the main entrance, except for one. That tunnel, the only one of any use, eventually led their group deep under the mountain, toward a large chamber containing an underground lake large enough to have a small island in its centre where a few people could have stood comfortably.

What it did not contain was a monster of any sort.

Seeing this, people finally started to complain, mostly grumbling to one another for the time being, but a few kept glancing at Wen Chao and wanting to have a word with him. Nie Huaisang, for his part, sat down on the ground and waited to see how things would go now. He didn’t even care about monsters and glory anymore, he was just tired and enjoying the chance to rest a little.

While Nie Huaisang recuperated from those exhausting last few days of flying, the other boys, at Wen Chao’s suggestions, started exploring the chamber they were in, hoping to find another passage. There had to be one, because Lan Wangji had noticed some leaves in the lake’s water that could not have come from the entrance their group had used.

Knowing he couldn’t help with that, Nie Huaisang allowed himself to close his eyes a moment. A critical mistake, as it turned out, because it meant he didn’t notice that Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan had accidentally started walking toward each other, only to collide. That of course instantly started an argument between the two of them which echoed through the emptiness of the cave. Nie Huaisang sighed and jumped to his feet, rushing between his friends before things could go bad. This Night Hunt was already disappointing, he didn’t want to see these two come to blows again.

It took some pleading, begging, and no small amount of pouting to get Wei Wuxian away from Jin Zixuan, but in the end Nie Huaisang managed. He was even able to send Wei Wuxian to have a look at that odd little island on the lake which no one else had gone to check yet, in case standing there might reveal some secret hidden in that cave. Wei Wuxian was smart enough to guess that Nie Huaisang wanted him out of the way, but too vain to resist a chance to show off, and so he promptly flew to that island, attracting the attention of nearly everyone.

“Show off,” Jin Zixuan hissed. “I don’t know why anyone puts up with him.”

“Bold words coming from you,” Nie Huaisang retorted with a smirk. “He might be the only person to have punched you in the face, but I promise you we’ve all thought about it, even me.”

Hearing this, Jin Zixuan shot him a surprised look. Usually, Nie Huaisang made efforts to be polite with him since he had such a thin face sometimes. But it had been a long day, and Nie Huaisang, still annoyed that the rumours about a possible engagement between Lan Xichen and Jiang Yanli were true, had to blame someone. Since he’d already reached the maximum of anger he could allow himself against Qingheng-Jun, he had to find another target. He figured that Jin Zixuan wasn’t entirely innocent either. If he hadn’t been such a prick about his engagement to Jiang Yanli, then Wei Wuxian wouldn’t have felt the need to defend his shijie, the engagement in question wouldn’t have been cancelled, and Jiang Yanli wouldn’t have been free for a different political match.

“Is this an earthquake?” Wei Wuxian suddenly shouted from the islet, moving his arms around as if to balance himself.

“What earthquake?” Jiang Cheng retorted impatiently. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to scare people with pranks?”

At first they all looked at Wei Wuxian with mild amusement, wondering what bad joke he was trying to make this time. Quickly though, they realised he was completely serious, and the island on which he stood was truly moving. Wei Wuxian jumped on his sword to rejoin the other boys, while behind him the island rose, revealing itself to be the shell of an enormous tortoise. That alone was bad enough, but when the creature’s head emerged from that shell, it was attached to a long neck like that of a snake, and had a mouth full of long, sharp teeth.

Nie Huaisang did not like the look of those teeth.

Others were less impressed by the beast, and instead congratulated Wen Chao on once again finding something interesting for them to fight. When asked how to kill that creature, Wen Chao looked unsure for the briefest moment, before confidently starting to give orders on how to go about it. Even Nie Huaisang, terrified as he was, unsheathed Chiwen and tried to help, hoping to land a blow that would prove he was as competent as the others.

The fight, at first, seemed to be going well. In spite of their youth, several of the juniors present were cultivators of great skill, some even talented enough that even adults could not keep up with them. Wei Wuxian in particular was eager to outstage Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan, and he was relentless in attacking the creature, dealing blow after blow. Yet in spite of all their efforts, few of the blows would leave a wound on the monster’s body, and their repeated attacks only served to make it angrier and angrier until it managed to snatch between its jaws a Wen boy.

The boy screamed in horror, but before anyone could rescue him, the monster’s teeth sank into his body, piercing through flesh and bone alike with a crunching sound that resonated inside the cavern. The Wen junior spasmed, then stopped moving, his limbs suddenly limp.

The monster dropped the body on the edge of the water. Its head roamed around for its next victim, snapping toward anyone close enough, but everyone was running to put themselves out of its reach. It must have still sensed their presence though, and started walking out of the water. It was so heavy that the ground shook with each step it took, making small rocks fall from the ceiling of the cave. Nie Huaisang, immediately, thought of those collapsed tunnels they had seen before. He must not have been the only one because a few people started running out of the chamber and toward the exit. Seeing this, Wen Chao had no choice but to order a retreat, and everyone rushed inside the tunnel that had led them there.

The tunnel in question wasn’t very large, which made it difficult to escape. Before everyone could leave the chamber, another person was snatched by the monster, his head and one of his arms ripped away by sharp teeth, spraying with blood anyone unfortunate enough to have been close by, among which Nie Huaisang. They continued running, screaming with fear until they were all safely inside the tunnel, but the beast tried to pursue them even then. It quickly realised it was too massive though, and in a fit of rage threw itself against the walls of the cave, making the entire place shake.

Rocks, once more, were falling from the ceiling, a few big enough to cause minor injuries among the escaping boys. Before too long, there was a deafening noise coming from further up in the tunnel, and the ground shook once more, harder than before.

Behind them the monster, at last, tired of trying to reach them and retreated to the waters of the lake, taking with it one of its victims. Nie Huaisang almost vomited at the sight of that motionless body being dragged underwater, knowing it could have been him. That second boy hadn’t been standing too far from him, it had only been a matter of luck.

Then, as Nie Huaisang started wiping the blood off his face, him and the other people at the back of the group heard that somewhere up ahead, the tunnel had completely collapsed, trapping them where they were.

For a moment, Nie Huaisang felt a fear beyond anything that he had ever experienced. He nearly fell to his knees, still wanting to puke, or cry, or both at once maybe. Night Hunts were always a little dangerous, he’d been hurt often enough and had seen others be hurt as well, but this was the first time he’d seen anyone actually die like that. It made him want to break down and give up, since there seemed to be no way out.

He would have broken down, if not for the thought of what his brother would think if he gave up that easily, and the realisation that dying there meant he really would never see Lan Xichen again. He’d been a disappointment to both already, he couldn’t die without a fight.

Picking himself up by the collar, Nie Huaisang pushed down the terror that threatened to overcome him and forced his way through the assembled juniors, pushing and shoving until he reached Wen Chao and the other young masters. He saw his friends go pale at the sight of him and almost opened his mouth to assure them that the blood wasn’t his, before realising that it probably wouldn’t be all that comforting to them. Besides, there were more urgent things to worry about.

“Is it true?” Nie Huaisang asked as he came closer. “Is the tunnel really…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, just the thought making him sick. He didn’t need to anyway. The others grimly nodded. Even Wen Chao looked concerned for once.

“We’re lucky it happened there and at that moment,” Jiang Cheng said, glancing ahead. “A little closer, or a little later, and people would have been crushed under the rocks.”

Nie Huaisang shivered, thinking of that first boy the monster had grabbed, of the noise of crushed bones. He wondered if it would have sounded the same.

“So we’re trapped here?” Nie Huaisang asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.

“There were leaves in the lake,” Lan Wangji reminded them. “There must be a passage.”

“It’s not like we can just dive in there!” Wen Chao snapped. “We’ll need to defeat that thing first, to free this exit.”

“That thing is too strong,” Jiang Cheng objected. “If we attack head on, it won’t work. We’d need to distract it with something, and then maybe aim for its weak points. It doesn’t seem to have good vision, it mostly went for people who had flame talismans, so maybe we could…”

“We could use someone as bait,” Nie Huaisang suggested. “You remember those talismans I used that one time?”

The other boys turned to look at him. Most were only curious, but Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian frowned at the mention of those talismans, the only ones he’d found in the Unclean Realm’s library. Even though Nie Huaisang had used those only once a while back, their effect had left a strong impression. It was one of many Night Hunts that Nie Mingjue could never hear about, and although Nie Huaisang hadn’t been particularly hurt that time, that was a sign of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's skill more than his own. He’d been lucky not to be trampled to death by the beast they’d been hunting.

“We’re not doing that,” Jiang Cheng said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“It’d work!” Nie Huaisang insisted. “All its attention would be on me, so you would all be free to attack it without problems. If one talisman isn’t enough, it’s fine, I have several with me, even that beast can’t resist all of them!”

“Wouldn’t it be better if someone a little stronger were the bait?” Wen Chao sneered. “I fear Nie gongzi will not last very long if we do this.”

“Are you volunteering, Wen gongzi?” Nie Huaisang retorted, just for the joy of watching Wen Chao squirm uncomfortably. “Everyone who is good at fighting should be attacking that thing. As for myself, I’m not much of a fighter, but I’m good at avoiding being caught, so this is how I’d be most useful.”

The others considered this for a moment. Before too long, Wen Chao shrugged, and said that if Nie Huaisang wanted to throw his life away like this, then it was his problem. Most of the rest seemed to agree, and looked almost glad that someone else would take the blunt of the monster’s rage for him. Nie Huaisang wasn’t close to these other boys, and since he’d never performed too well at previous Night Hunts, they either had no opinion on him or thought he was a dead weight.

The only ones to look sincerely worried were Jin Zixuan, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, which rather warmed his heart, since they were also the ones he considered his friends. His heart beat hard at the thought that they liked him enough to care about his safety. Or maybe it beat so hard because he was terrified beyond words at the thought of what he had just offered to do.

“Xiongzhang would not want this,” Lan Wangji firmly stated. “This goes too far.”

Nie Huaisang smiled weakly, trying to make himself look more confident than he felt even though his chest and stomach were so tight he was getting nauseous again.

“I’ll be fine,” he managed to say. “This will impress your father, for sure this time! And then I’ll never have to go on another Night Hunt for the rest of my life.”

“Or you’ll die,” Jiang Cheng objected. “Lan gongzi can’t marry a corpse, you know.”

Nie Huaisang elected to ignore him. He was terrified enough already. If he listened to them he would just end up losing his nerves, everyone would call him a coward for the rest of his life, and then Qingheng-Jun would never agree to let him marry Lan Xichen.

He had to do this, or else everything he’d done in recent months would have been for nothing.

#xisang #nie huaisang #lan xichen #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #deathbed wedding au #I had a little too much fun writing this chapter and the next ooops

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imaginaryelle · 4 years ago

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Literally no one asked but I saw this excellent post and just the mention of “The Untamed Temeraire!AU” threw my brain into high gear and I was able to think of nothing else until I wrote some things down and here we are, 1.5 thousand words later. (No Temeraire knowledge required here, I’m totally ignoring like 90% of that canon and 100% of what it says about its in-universe version of China but dragons, okay. Dragons with generational bonds with human partners, I can’t help myself.)

Yingyue is the eldest dragon of the Five Great Sects, and she likes Jiang Cheng well enough, or at least, he’s pretty sure she likes him, and it’s admittedly nice to just lie back and bask in the river without ever wondering if he’s going to float too far away from the dock or be dragged under the surface by a water ghoul because she’s always right there, warm scales under his spine, keeping him afloat. She’s calm when he’s angry, and she’s never once failed to show up and tickle his feet with her whiskers when he’s sitting on the end of the pier alone, and she talks about his family and the river in a way that makes him feel connected to something bigger, and helps him worry a bit less about his mother’s expectations and his father’s love. Yingyue likes him, and that’s pretty much the next best thing to getting the approval of at least three of his ancestors all at once. He does sometimes wish she would leave the water more often. She’s too big for it, too big to really play, the way Mochou plays with Wei Wuxian, and too old, too.

Mochou is younger even than Jiang Cheng himself, hatched a mere eight days after his father brought Wei Wuxian home, and she makes no secret of her favoritism. She’ll take food from Jiang Yanli, and she lets Jiang Cheng oil her scales as she grows, but it’s Wei Wuxian’s shoulders she curls around while she small enough to do so, and Wei Wuxian who she carries higher than any sword could hope to fly once she’s large enough, and Wei Wuxian who knows exactly what kinds of ideas she likes best. Their partnership does nothing to dispell the rumors surrounding Wei Wuxian’s parentage, but it’s fine, it’s fine, because they’re always going to stay at Lotus Pier, and they’ll always play faithful seconds to Jiang Cheng and Yingyue, and it’s all going to be fine.

(The truth is that Yingyue loves Jiang Cheng almost as much as she loves Lotus Pier itself, has loved him ever since he wrapped his chubby toddler fingers around her whiskers and pulled when he was barely a year old, loves him more than his sister, promised away almost before she drew breath, and more than his brother, too wild and fiery to ever understand the ebb and flow of the river, and she’s the one who makes sure he’s safely in Meishan before she returns to save whatever she can from Wen blades and dragonfire. Lotus Pier will not burn, not while she or any of her line still draw breath in the world, but she is not fast enough to stop Jiang Fengmian’s death, cannot protect the heirlooms inside the walls, cannot hope to win by flood and fury against attack from so many dragons, all of them young and fast and with far less to lose. She saves what she can—the buildings, the pier, the eggs she has guarded for nearly fifty years, and she sinks deep into the river mud where none of the brash, hotblooded Wen dragons can hope to follow.

She knows the instant Jiang Cheng again steps foot in her territory, just as she knows that the Wens are still waiting for her. She knows the moment the discipline whip hits his skin.

She leaves the eggs. She fights.

When Mochou and Wei Wuxian come for Jiang Cheng, they find him without a core, and Lotus Pier without a dragon, and they know exactly what they have to do.)

Lan Xichen expects to form a bond with his father’s dragon, who was also his grandfather’s dragon and his great grandfather’s dragon (the line between a human sect leader and a dragon sect leader can be—blurred, sometimes), but instead he finds himself fleeing across the mountainside with as much of the Lan library as he can fit in every qiankun bag he could find and the last egg that still waited in the Cold Pond Cave wrapped in silk and tied carefully to his chest, and he’s already mourning the dragon who was almost a parent, almost a grandparent, and one of the first casualties to fall to the invading Wens. It’s not that he regrets meeting little Xinyi when she hatches, but she’s so young; he’s trying to feed a fledgling dragon on a battlefield and lead his sect without the benefit of hundreds of years experience at his back and it’s—well it’s harder than he thought it would be.

(Xinyi knows she’s not the partner Lan Xichen expected. She reads all of the books he carries, and then all the books in Meng Yao’s tiny shop, and she listens to respected cultivators and dragons alike in her quest for ever-more knowledge, as if she can replace lived experience with vicarious reports. She makes herself useful. She may not remember the battles of her ancestors, but she can still freeze men solid on a clear summer’s night and she draws better maps than any other scout in the Sunshot campaign’s assembled forces, and she guards his dreams with gentle warmth at his side and sharp teeth bared against the night.)

Lan Wangji visits his mother’s dragon once a month every month starting the day his mother dies, but they both know it’s mostly because the Elders hope she’ll choose him as a replacement. She had curled around him, after all, that cold night in the snow on the doorstep of their shared mourning, but really that’s the extent of their relationship: they both mourn the same person. There is nothing else to draw them together. Or at least, there’s nothing else until he misses a meeting, and then two, and then on the last day of the third month he climbs to her windy ridge with a splint on his leg and a Xuanwu’s blood on his robes and Nianzhen finally sees the same fierce fire in his eyes that burns under her scales, and then, then nothing can come between them.

Wei Wuxian emerges from the Burial Mounds with a dragon as dark as a moonless night gliding at his heels and the dead shuffling in his wake. Junshuang has a voice like no dragon ever seen before, a weapon that slips under closed doors and around reinforced fortifications like mist and that turns men and dragons alike, ally fighting ally until none are left alive and the corpses march to new rhythms. He clings to Wei Wuxian like a shadow—ever-present, and growing ever larger as the sun dips lower.

(Mochou does not like Junshuang. She doesn’t like him at all. It’s justice, the world says, that when Wei Wuxian dies under his brother’s blade, so too does his dragon—bloodied and beaten at the end of his old partner’s talons.)

Jin Guangyao spends years courting Jianhong’s approval, years of visits and careful speeches and the most perfect gifts he can find. He spends almost as much time seeing to the dragon’s comfort as he does seeking his father’s favor, but the great bulk of dragon scales never moves, the mouth never opens, the eyes never so much as blink in his direction. It’s only when he tells Jianhong that Jin Guangshan is dead that he finally gets a response. One amber eye opens, and silver-white teeth gleam in reflected lantern light. “Tell me, little serpent,” the dragon hisses, all-too-knowing. “How you achieved it.”

The dragons of the Nie Clan are as short-lived as their partners, as a rule. They shine hot and bright, fierce and strong, and burn themselves out almost faster than the next generation can hatch. But the Nie Clan has never cultivated the same way as the other Sects, and a life lost is not the same as knowledge passed beyond reach.

It’s luck, more than anything, that Nie Huaisang is able to save the pearl between Zhihong’s antlers from the deadly sweep of his brother’s maddened blade. Luck and arrogant assumptions that keep Zhiruo from drawing attention, even with the same pearl settled on her forehead in conference after conference, meeting after meeting, where the two of them watch Jin Guangyao smile, and nod, and lie. “Patience,” she murmurs with the wisdom of unbroken generations stretching out in her memory. “Everyone makes mistakes eventually.”

Send me an AU and I’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it.

#mdzs fic #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan xichen #lan wangji #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #chenqingling #temeraire au #alex writes #aus and fusions are a weakness of mine #character death #mourning

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isabilightwood · 4 years ago

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The Problem with Authority - Chapter 4

Or, Sacrifice Summon! Jiang Yanli is here to make things right, be the ultimate big sister (step 1: bring back her dead brother), and maybe steal the Peacock throne in the process

[AO3][1][2][3]

“A -Su ! I’m so sorry!” Lan Xichen grasped her hands to pull her to her feet. “I wanted to give you a gift, not a bump on the head.”

He was flushed, his eyes bright and manic, his forehead ribbon dangling around his neck. His soft gray geometric patterned outer robe was hanging off one shoulder, revealing the pale blue inner robe beneath. Jiang Yanli felt strangely like she should offer to give him his privacy.

Though they were outside. In the courtyard of her house.

Jiang Yanli felt entirely uninjured, but perhaps she had hit her head after all, and was merely hallucinating the impossibility of a discomposed and rumpled Lan Xichen. “Lan-zongzhu…?”

“Erge, wait!” Jin Guangyao sprinted towards them from the direction of the guest rooms. He stumbled to a halt, doubled over and panting. “You shouldn’t talk to anyone while you’re drunk, remember? Let’s not repeat the Moling incident. Come on, let’s get you to bed.” He grabbed Lan Xichen’s wrist and tugged, but the taller man didn’t budge.

“But I haven’t given A-Su her thank you gift yet.” Lan Xichen looked around, wide eyed and innocent. “Where did the rabbits go?”

Jin Guangyao sighed loudly. “We don’t have rabbits here, Erge. This is Lanling, not the Cloud Recesses.”

“But rabbits are the best gift. Wangji and A-Yuan both think so.” Lan Xichen pouted for a moment, then perked up. “Someone must have rabbits in town.”

Jin Guangyao’s face convulsed.

Lan Xichen nodded decisively. Dropping his sword so it hovered in the air, he tried to climb onto it. Combined with the alcohol, Jin Guangyao pulling on his sleeve was enough to unbalance him, so he fell backwards into his lover’s chest. Jin Guangyao stumbled backwards, but managed to hold him up.

Lan Xichen hummed, tugging on his arms to pull him closer. He seemed to have entirely forgotten his goal, content to remain where he was.

Stymied in his efforts to steal his lover away with minimum embarrassment, Jin Guangyao turned his head towards her. “Erge overindulged by mistake, my apologies. I will get him to his rooms — my rooms, I suppose, shortly.”

“None needed. I was merely startled.” Startled, yes, but also having the time of her life. Doubly so, considering the incoherent gibberish of Qin Su’s thoughts.

“Erge, it’s nearly midnight. You wouldn’t want your uncle to know you stayed up past nine, would you?”

“But Shufu is in the Cloud Recesses. He doesn’t like crowds.” Lan Xichen said as though revealing a great secret. “Wangji is somewhere in Qishan. He doesn’t like crowds either.”

“I could always write him a letter. ‘Lan-Xiansheng, I am sorry to inform you that Lan-zongzhu has taken liberties with the disciplines. Please have him copy the rules with the novices for the next month.’”

“A-Yao, you wouldn’t.” Lan Xichen let his head loll back against Jin Guangyao’s shoulder - somehow without tipping the shorter man over — and stuck out his bottom lip.

“I wouldn’t.” Jin Guangyao confirmed, his expression turning ridiculously sappy. “Please come back with me anyway?”

“But I haven’t thanked A-Su properly yet!” Lan Xichen grasped her hands and squeezed tightly, earnestly shaking them up and down. “Thank you, A-Su! I will take good care of our A-Yao.”

She doubted Lan Xichen would ever have mentioned it, if he wasn’t drunk.

“My deepest apologies for this.” Jin Guangyao grimaced, his cheeks flushed pink. He turned to face Lan Xichen, cupping the back of his neck and stroking the front of his throat with his thumb. “I’ve arranged to have dessert delivered to my room. I’ll feed it to you, if you’re good.”

Lan Xichen perked up, dropping her hands and —thankfully — dragged him away before she and Qin Su could be subjected to anymore unwanted details of their relationship.

As they vanished from sight, headed for a discrete side entrance to Jin Guangyao’s room, Jiang Yanli felt a twinge of guilt. Lan Xichen did not deserve to be shackled to a man who had killed his own son.

But she did not feel as much guilt as she would have liked to.

Because she had told Lan Xichen the truth, and he had chosen to do nothing.

Jiang Yanli had gone to him after she learned what she’d slept through in the aftermath of A-Xian’s defection, after Luo Qingyang left the sect and Lan Wangji slipped away unnoticed. After A-Cheng left for the Burial Mounds without her. “A-Xian did not do this unprovoked. The Wen siblings saved our lives, at great risk to their own.”

He smiled in appeasement. “Be that as it may, he killed the guards, and took away all the prisoners. You must understand what this looks like.”

Jiang Yanli’s patience had been hanging by a thread, and the patronizing you must understand snapped it. “I remember starving, terrified, dirty prisoners dressed in rags being used as target practice.” She laughed, a short, crazed thing too like A-Xian’s. “Oh, but you prefer to forget things that might upset your precious peace. Even if it dooms innocents, or breaks your brother’s heart.”

Lan Xichen stared at her, and Jiang Yanli remembered she was supposed to be the level-headed, soft-spoken one. No matter how little she felt it. “My apologies, that was uncalled for. It is simply that my brother cannot do anything, without your support.

But Lan Xichen only shook his head regretfully. “Both my sworn brothers have sworn to me that only dangerous prisoners were confined to the camp. I’m sorry, Jiang-guniang, but I cannot.”

Lan Xichen had not believed her. And perhaps he had doomed A-Xian. Perhaps it would have changed nothing. But for what she had done — was doing — to Lan Xichen, she clung to her rationalizations.

What just happened? Qin Su asked.

We just experienced the reason why Lans are forbidden to drink. Strange that Lan Xichen would get drunk like that, though. Thanks to A-Xian, she knew the Lan’s rule about alcohol was really because of the main clan’s low tolerance, but —

But I’ve seen him drink before. Qin Su’s confusion was like bubbles popping on surface of her mind.

Jiang Yanli had too. A-Xian once mentioned a trick Zewu-jun used to burn it off, while he was deep in his cups and reminiscing longingly about how cute Lan Wangji looked when drunkenly attempting to straighten his crooked forehead ribbon. Had Nie Huaisang switched their cups by mistake? A prank, perhaps?

Where was Nie Huaisang?

Jiang Yanli pushed open the door to the Fragrance Hall and froze.

That answers that question.

Nie Huaisang swore as a device he was holding up to the mirrored portal to the treasure room rebounded towards his face, using both his hands to force it back to the surface. There was a focused intensity to his expression that Jiang Yanli had never seen before, a far sight from the whining puddle who’d dragged the Chief Cultivator from his own banquet.

But then, she’d never paid him much attention. No one had, save perhaps A-Xian. “Nie-zongzhu. Is there something you need from the treasury?”

Nie Huaisang startled, glaring with a focused intensity that vanished so quickly she might have imagined it, as he threw himself back from the portal. He sprawled inelegantly on the ground, covering half his face with his fan. “Is that what it is? A treasury? I really didn’t know.”

Is it just me or is that bullshit? Qin Su did the mental equivalent of narrowing her eyes.

Jiang Yanli shut the door behind her. “So you didn’t just hide a talisman-engraved device you were using to inspect the wards up your sleeve?”

If Nie Huaisang is competent, I think we can safely say everything I thought was wrong. What will we discover next? Does my father remember my birthday? Has Yao-zongzhu been possessed by a gossip-loving spirit for years?

“I was just curious, I don’t know!”

She supposed he’d never bothered to come up with another line because this one had worked for his entire life. “Let me satisfy your curiosity then.”

He gave an exaggerated wail as she grabbed his wrist. But whatever else Nie Huaisang might be, he was not strong. Jiang Yanli was able to easily pull him through the portal. He stumbled against her, and, as she reached to steady him, bit her hand.

“Ow! What was that for? Are you a dog?” She demanded, wiping off her knuckles on her outer robe.

“You made unfounded accusations and dragged me in here!” He slumped inward, making himself look smaller. “I don’t know why! I felt unsafe.”

Sure he did. “You wanted to see inside. Now you’re inside. Take the chance or leave it.”

He took it. “Well, if you insist. There is some interesting art in here. Is this where the paintings of the Crimson Swan ended up? Tragic. I could help display them properly, if San-ge gave me half a chance. But no, it’s too soon. Half the sects would throw a fit, and Lan-xiansheng would kidnap me for remedial schooling. I can’t go back to the Cloud Recesses! I simply can’t!”

Qin Su snorted. At least some things stay the same. He’s still annoying.

Jiang Yanli watched Nie Huaisang dart around the room, peering at items on shelves and lifting curtains in what seemed to be no particular order, keeping up his narration all the while. “You know, the Wen really had some gems in their collection. This poetry collection is priceless, and yet here it is, tragically gathering dust — Oh, dear.”

His arm knocked into an ornate vase that had been placed too close to the edge of a display.

Jiang Yanli plucked a talisman from her sleeve and threw it, so it hit the vase, freezing it in place tipped halfway off the shelf.

Nie Huaisang turned, squinting at her with an air of smug satisfaction. “You’re not Qin Su.”

Nie Huaisang of all people notices? That’s it, good night. Wake me when things make sense again. Despite her words, Qin Su remained alert and attentive.

Jiang Yanli tamped down on the urge to throw another talisman, this time at him. “That’s quite the accusation.”

“Qin Su would have reached for her sword when I knocked over that vase. You stopped it from falling with a talisman. Also, she never calls me Nie-zongzhu.” He perched on a vase-free table, his hands folded perfectly, but one leg bounced to the rhythm of his thoughts. “The question is, are you possessing her, or are you using one of Xue Yang’s human skin masks?”

“Neither.” She held up Qin Su’s sword, and drew it. “Do you deny that this is Chunsheng?”

“So that is Qin Su’s body, but you say it’s not a possession. Hmm. Did Wei-xiong find a way to permanently inhabit a living body?” Nie Huaisang jumped disturbingly close to the truth with his second guess. “Are you Wei-xiong? But no, Wei-xiong wouldn’t have chosen a nice woman like Qin Su.”

Aww. He thinks I’m nice. So long as he’s just a sneak, I forgive him for the deception.

“I’m definitely not A-Xian.” Jiang Yanli realized her mistake even as it slipped out. She clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening.

“Jiang Yanli!” He cried, delighted. “Oh, I have to know how this happened.”

“I don’t know what —”

“No, don’t protest. You’ve been caught. But don’t worry. I’m certainly not going to tell anyone in Koi Tower about you. What would be the use of that?” Nie Huaisang was positively gleeful, and she didn’t trust him for a second.

Qin Su didn’t disagree, but sighed. Unfortunately, I think you’d better tell him.

“Take a seat.” She hung up a talisman to alert her if anyone approached the portal, and checked under every curtain, just in case. Once she was certain the room was secure, she knelt across from him. “You were correct that it was A-Xian’s work that made this possible, but it was not his doing.”

“Obviously, it was Wei-xiong’s invention. His most powerful imitator is Xue Yang, and he has the creativity of a sea slug.” Nie Huaisang sank gracefully to his knees, balancing his fan across them. Seeing him now, a stranger would never guess his reputation. “Now, who is this mysterious benefactor? Do tell.”

She briefly detailed the mechanics of the array. From his performance in the Cloud Recesses, she would not have expected him to understand it, but he nodded along without interrupting. “Qin Su found the wrong journal at exactly the wrong moment. Now I’m in her body, and she lives in my head.”

Was it the wrong moment? Qin Su wondered, and digressed before Jiang Yanli could contradict her. Insult his fan for me, that’s sloppy work. His mountains still look like Jin Guangyao’s hat.

Dutifully, Jiang Yanli repeated her words.

He gave a startled laugh. “Ah, Qin Su has long been my worst critic. Sadly, this revenge business leaves little time for developing my painting skills.”

“Revenge? Does this have anything to do with why you were trying to break in here?” If so, his grudge could only be against —

“Naturally. Jin Guangyao killed my brother.” Nie Huaisang asserted this claim as though it were common knowledge. “He also set up yours, which seems relevant.”

Jiang Yanli stiffened, lightning racing though her veins. “A-Xian? Didn’t he lose control?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I can’t be sure, I wasn’t there.” He said lightly. Jiang Yanli was beginning to believe he was allergic to acting serious. Dropping this on her as though it didn’t shake her entire worldview. “He is, however, the reason Jin Zixuan went to Qiongqi path that day.”

Jiang Yanli could have sworn she heard a dizi playing as she died, when Chenqing was hanging loose in A-Xian’s grasp. But she had been dying — that memory was not to be trusted. And just how clever would Jin Guangyao have to be to plan all of that? Surely not everything that had gone wrong could be laid at his feet.

Maybe we should consider the possibility anyway. Qin Su, for whom all the greatest cruelties of her life could be laid at the feet of that same man, suggested.

Jiang Yanli was uncertain that knowing would do anything more than make their losses hurt more. She sat in stunned silence for a long moment, and wished for a plum to let her retreat and reset. A reply to Tan-daifu’s latest letter was overdue, she thought hazily.

Tan-daifu would say that the truth helps. Qin Su seized the chance to turn her own nagging about Tan-daifu’s advice back on her, which didn’t seem fair.

But the truth would only help if she was ready to face it. Jiang Yanli still woke every day expecting to see A-Xuan beside her, was thrust back into sepia-tinged memories of afternoons on the Lotus Lakes at the distant sound of adolescent laughter.

She would not be ready until the day she saw A-Xian again.

What day? Yanli-jie? Qin Su asked, but Jiang Yanli was uncertain why she’d thought that. A-Xian was dead. She could not simply trade someone else for him.

“How did you learn this?” She asked, finally.

Nie Huaisang looked up from a book he’d snagged from a nearby shelf while she was lost in her thoughts. “I have my ways.”

“You have spies.”

He picked up his fan to flick it dismissively. “Just a few informants. Mostly, we Nies are simply very good at out-drinking people.”

She had a feeling he was downplaying the extent of his network. “What else have you learned from your spies?”

“I just ask people to keep an eye out, it’s hardly espionage.” He insisted.

“Sure.” She said, seeing this was a hill he would die on.

Mollified, he continued. “Jin Guangyao also killed his father.”

“I’m aware. Shockingly, I’m not actually upset about that one.” Perhaps Nie Huaisang had finally run out of shocking revelations.

But no, he had another left in store. “Who is? No, the interesting part is he left a witness. A little bird told me that somewhere in Koi Tower, there’s a woman trapped in a hidden room.”

Jiang Yanli would never get used to having to sit side by side on the Peacock throne with Jin Guangyao. She had been meant to share it with Zixuan, as not only his wife but his equal.

She hadn’t expected her husband to want her as anything other than the mother of his children. Not until their second engagement, when his earnest, awkward attempts at wooing her had turned to learning each other over the course of honest conversations that slowly grew less stilted. Finally, their words had begun to flow like a mountain stream thawing in spring, and Jiang Yanli knew her heart was right to choose him.

A-Xuan had listened, and confided he needed her help, not only with things like courtesy and public speaking, but in knowing what needed to change.

Jin Guangyao, she thought, was so certain that he was the smartest person in the room, that he didn’t notice his wife-slash-sister was an entirely different person.

Qin Su had nearly always sat in silence during conferences, listening perhaps half the time as she thought about lesson plans and inspected the attendees’ robes and ornaments in case anyone had discovered a talented new artisan. So for the moment, Jiang Yanli did the same, albeit paying the debate her full attention.

No matter the length at which Sect Leader Yao complained about issues that did not remotely involve him (Gusu’s high land tax rates), internal sect matters not on the conference agenda (how a small temple sect and town sect on his lands kept driving yao and gui into each other’s territory), or were entirely out of left field. “See! There’s proof! The Jiang have been hoarding the Yiling Patriarch’s inventions for themselves!”

A-Cheng, who had just reached the point in his status report regarding Yunmeng’s taxes, blinked. Clearly used to Sect Leader Yao, he didn’t even get angry, merely rubbed his knuckles against his forehead. “The Jin have all of Wei Wuxian’s heretical writings. I explained this last conference. And the conference before that.”

Sect Leader Yao continued to prove himself the least astute cultivator in the room. “But you’ve never let anyone into Lotus Pier to check for themselves!”

At that, the flush of anger filled his cheeks. But in an impressive-for-him show of control, A-Cheng only snapped, “What, exactly, are you insinuating, Yao-zongzhu? Would you like to share Xixia’s cultivation techniques with the class?”

“I see that Yunmeng’s recovery is continuing ahead of schedule. Let’s move on to…” Jin Guangyao blanched, as he realized who was next. “Qinghe. A-Sang, if you please.”

Nie Huaisang got to his feet, looking around with what she had to assume were faked nerves, clutching his fan close to his chest. He stuttered through the beginnings of his presentation, before swaying and kicking a bird cage hidden beneath his table into the center of the room. It spoke, in a disturbingly accurate imitation of A-Cheng.

And all right, that was entertaining. But mostly, the conference continued to star Sect Leader Yao.

At least today, A-Ling was perched on the wide throne beside her, making it a little more bearable.

Leaning into her side, his tongue caught between his teeth, A-Ling scribbled on each new sheet of paper. Ostensibly, he was practicing his calligraphy. And he did do a bit of that, with messy strokes, but only when he noticed her looking down. Mostly, he scribbled blobs that he proudly declared were all the dogs he would someday own, when she asked.

Black flecks of ink spattered the front of her robes, but Jiang Yanli could not bring herself to care. She’d missed so much. She’d take every second with her son she could get.

Jiang Yanli’s continued efforts to pay attention were stymied by Qin Su’s running commentary on everything from the tackiness of the gilded everything to the dust bunny that had attached itself unnoticed to Sect Leader Ouyang’s beard, taking the chance to say everything she’d never been able to.

It’s a shame I never tempted Ouyang-zongzhu’s tailor away. He doesn’t deserve her. And oh, look, Su She’s imitating the Lan more obviously than ever. It’s almost like he sold them out to the Wen or something and misses the status. The off-white and teal blue of Su She’s robes were at most a single shade away from Lan colors, and the wave embroidery on his hems was suspiciously cloud-like.

The most notable detail of Su She’s presentation was the way the Lan disciples — save, of course, for a slightly off-color Lan Xichen — pretended not to snicker as he claimed the peasants in his lands were superstitious about musical cultivation.

She’d ensured Sect Leader Ran was next to him, and noted the two of them speaking quietly during one of Sect Leader Yao’s disruptions. This time, he was one insult away from starting a cat fight with Sect Leader Tang, over some minor territorial dispute. Jin Guangyao actually got up and went over to them to smooth ruffled feathers, though his efforts were stymied by A-Cheng’s utter apathy over whether his young, hotheaded vassal stabbed Sect Leader Yao in the eyes with her chopsticks.

It’s not a cultivation conference if no one tries to murder Yao-Zongzhu. Someday, someone will take one for the team and actually do it. Qin Su sighed wistfully.

From the way Jin Guangyao’s dimples twitched when he returned, he’d contemplated it.

During their break for lunch, Sect Leader Ran approached the Peacock throne. As she’d expected, he asked directly for a meeting with Jin Guangyao to negotiate terms for the implementation of watchtowers.

Sect Leader Zhai’s approach was more surprising.

“Xiandu, Jin-furen.” Sect Leader Zhai bowed to each of them. “I would like to request a private meeting with both of you before I leave Lanling. Jin-furen brought up some interesting points yesterday that I would like to discuss further.”

“Both of us?” Jin Guangyao was a man who planned everything himself, who seemed to believe that seeking a second opinion meant smiling and nodding and then explaining why the other person was wrong.

The implication that his here-to-fore apolitical wife had made a better offer appeared to have broken him.

“I think that could be arranged.” Jiang Yanli said. “A-Yao?”

He recovered quickly, gesturing for his assistant to put a note in his schedule. “Yes, of course. I believe tomorrow, immediately after dinner would be an ideal time.”

“Excellent. I look forward to it.” Sect Leader Zhai bowed again and turned away, without waiting for their dismissal.

Tempers frayed in the afternoon, and Jiang Yanli had to pass A-Ling off to his minders for a nap. As Sect Leader Yao rose for his actual turn to report, Nie Huaisang made his move.

He screeched, jumping to his feet as though bitten, and bumped into Sect Leader Yao hard enough to knock them both to the floor. The wine jar in his hand shattered, sharp edges lacerating his palm. He stared at the cuts for a long moment as they began to bleed. And, clutching his wrist, he drew in a deep breath, and howled.

The majority of the room promptly began to find their teacups or the nearest tacky golden peacock drapes utterly fascinating. But his elder brother’s sworn brothers were at his side in an instant.

“A-Sang, please. Let us see.” Jin Guangyao pleaded.

I think Jin Guangyao really does care about Huaisang. He’s never going to see him coming. Qin Su said, and they both winced at a particularly high-pitched cry. Nie Huaisang should have been born to a theatrical troupe.

“Oh, that looks —” Lan Xichen caught only a glimpse of the injured hand before he had to let go to avoid Nie Huaisang’s wildly swinging other arm.

“Ergeeeeeee,” Nie Huaisang wailed. “I’m bleeding out, aren’t I? You can say it.”

“No, no,” As Jin Guangyao finally captured the flailing hand, Lan Xichen pressed down on the wound with his own handkerchief. “You should see a healer, just to clean and bind it properly.”

“Will you take me?” He sniffed, his eyes wide and filling once again with tears as he looked between the two men.

Jin Guangyao exchanged a pained glance with his theoretically secret lover. “I can’t leave right now, can you?”

Lan Xichen shook his head. “I’m scheduled to speak on our findings about suppressing ghosts summoned with spirit flags next.”

“Right. Right.” Jin Guangyao stared into the distance for a moment. Qin Su hoped he was watching his plans for the conference crumble before his eyes. “Huaisang, you’ll have to go with one of your disciples —”

Nie Huaisang sobbed harder.

That was her cue.

“I’ll take him to get patched up.” Jiang Yanli offered, already striding towards them.

Jin Guangyao looked around at the determinedly apathetic audience, then back to Nie Huaisang. He sighed. “Thank you. A-Su will take good care of you, please let her take you to a healer.”

Nie Huaisang kept up his whining until they were out of sight and earshot of the hall, though still under an awning away from the downpour outside. Then, with a glance around to make sure no one was watching, he plucked a vial of salve and a bandage out of his robes. He only asked her to pop open the salve, but she took it and the bandage from him, gesturing for him to hold out his hand.

“I can do it myself.” He insisted, the vapid act vanishing in an instant.

Jiang Yanli rolled her eyes. “Bandages are more secure when someone else wraps them. It’ll help stop the bleeding.” Cultivators were always such babies about receiving help.

“All right.” He gazed at her with wide and uncertain eyes. As though no one had offered to help him without something in return, or a fit of hysterics, in a long time. Yet even as she finished tying of the bandage, that incongruous seriousness took over once again. “We have at least until the end of the evening banquet, though it would be better if you returned for that. The house should be near the kitchens, in what looks like an empty space.”

They walked back and forth past the kitchens several times, but found nothing. The hems of their robs were soaked from the rain, the line between wet and dry creeping higher with every step.

“Right. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.” He pulled one of A-Xian’s Compasses of Evil out of his pocket. “Only Demonic Cultivation could hide a building like this, but it must be shielded somehow, or people would notice a cluster of resentment in the middle of Koi Tower. I wonder… hold this.”

He thrust his umbrella into her chest, expecting her to hold it over his head. Bemused, she did so.

“A lightning talisman, perhaps, to imitate the effects of Zidian.” He mused, sketching in the air with his injured hand as though it didn't pain him. “Yes! It’s this way.”

As they walked, she watched him closely. “I had no idea you were so…”

“That I’m in possession of a working brain? Yes, I prefer it that way.” He said brightly.

Being underestimated had its advantages, but that didn’t stop it from hurting.

“I was going to say that I thought you didn’t cultivate beyond the basics.” Jiang Yanli corrected. “Cultivation has no bearing on intelligence. I would know.”

“Yes, I suppose you would. I’ve always preferred talismans to sword cultivation, much less those horrible life-draining sabers, despite Dage’s wishes. Did you think Wei-xiong was only friends with me for my sense of humor?”

She hadn’t spent much time thinking about their friendship at all, not when she was occupied watching A-Xian fall in love.

What sense of humor? Qin Su said. Teasingly, so Jiang Yanli repeated it, earning an insulted gasp.

But Nie Huaisang’s methods bore fruit, his compass leading them to their destination.

From the outside, the building looked like a shed. One of the many near-identical buildings that housed tools or out of use decorations, albeit with an unusual amount of space on either side. But when she looked closely, Jiang Yanli glimpsed a shimmer of golden energy, mixed with writhing shadows. Wards, and made from a combination of resentful and spiritual energy at that. No wonder neither of them had so much as glimpsed it before.

Jiang Yanli stepped forward to inspect the wards in detail. They looked to be designed to hide the building, and keep someone in. Though the details looked overly complicated for concealing a single person, she and Nie Huaisang agreed. Keeping anyone who knew it was there out would require a level of intricacy that risked collapsing the entire ward every time someone passed through.

Their presence would not be detected.

Still, Nie Huaisang stepped through first, claiming, “I can talk my way out of this, if we’re wrong. You, on the other hand…”

When Jiang Yanli stepped through, there was a wave of disorientation, like stepping onto solid ground after hours on a boat. It passed, and a two-story pavilion of modest size stood before her. Far less elaborate than her own, she thought it might once have been used to house servants, before it was repurposed into a prison.

Keeping out of sight of anyone who might look out, they approached the open windows on either side of the door. Jiang Yanli plastered herself to the wall, and peered inside.

She and Nie Huaisang had agreed that if they found the woman’s prison, they would only scout from the outside.

But what Jiang Yanli saw through that window changed everything.

A young woman in linen servant’s robes knelt at a table, her shoulders hunched over as she methodically ground herbs into powder. A text depicting the anatomy of a human body was open to her left.

The woman looked up, and Jiang Yanli was certain she was seeing a ghost.

#the untamed #cql #wangxian #yanqing #qin su #my fic #the sacrifice summon! JYL fic #where the summoner (qin su) sticks around #this time featuring drunk! LXC #NHS's acting skills #and everyone's desire to kills sect leader yao

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mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess · 2 years ago

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Day 2 of WangXian Christmas Stories!

It was a week or two before December 1st that Wei Ying started noticing things in their city changing. The municipality had already started putting up Christmas lights, workers hanging up snowflakes, stars and stylized angels all along major streets, occasionally blocking traffic.

Then, stores all around changed their autumnal displays with Christmas-themed decorations and merchandise, Santas and Christmas trees quickly replacing Halloween pumpkins and scary monsters. Commercials on TV and online announced new collections and gift ideas, and radio stations began playing Christmas music and talking about holiday cheer.

Even A-Yuan’s school announced an event to mark the holidays - a choir of children would sing a couple carols and holiday songs, and then they would act in a shorter, age-adjusted variant of “A Christmas Carol”. A-Yuan was even assigned to play the part of Tiny Tim - his teacher, Mr. Xiao Xingchen, explained A-Yuan looked “small and fragile enough” for the role and, knowing how sickly he used to be, Wei Ying couldn’t argue with that.

Funnily enough, the role of Ebeneezer Scrooge was assigned to Jin Ling, and Wei Ying had too much fun teasing both Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng about how fitting and how hilarious that was. Almost as hilarious as Lan Jingyi having been assigned the role of Bob Cratchit - as if Jingyi would allow himself to be overworked like that and not cuss anyone out, 7 years old and all. Wei Ying was quite sure Jingyi would let out an f-bomb during the show at least once.

Then, a Secret Santa event was announced at Wei Ying’s workplace. The company had never done that before, but management had explained it would help people bond and make the work environment more pleasant. So, after picking names written on scraps of paper someone threw in a Christmas hat, Wei Ying was stuck having to gift something to Lan Wangji, the company’s vice-president and Wei Ying’s favorite person to get reactions out of.

It was a bit optimistic to say the two were friends, but hell if Wei Ying was anything but an optimist. He liked teasing Lan Zhan and breaking his steely facade that everyone seemed so intimidated by - after all, Lan Zhan was just another person behind all that pompous job title and he was quite funny if you spent enough time around him. And Wei Ying had been assigned a few projects with him so he got the chance to really get to know this seemingly unfeeling piece of jade come to life.

However, that didn’t mean Wei Ying had much idea about what to get the man. For one, he was filthy rich, so he must have had virtually everything one would need. He couldn’t just give the man a cup or something cliche like that either. Second, Wei Ying didn’t have that much information on him - sure, he liked rabbits and knew how to play the guqin... and that was as far as Wei Ying’s knowledge stretched. Lan Zhan was not very open with talking about himself. Also, more importantly, Wei Ying couldn’t afford something too extravagant - he had a child in his care after all, and that asshole landlord had decided to raise rent for some reason, which tightened Wei Ying’s budget considerably.

Still, Wei Ying didn’t lose determination one bit. He would impress Lan Zhan with his gift no matter what.

(And he would pointedly refuse to acknowledge the reason he wanted to impress Lan Zhan in the first place too).

---

The Christmas party went by smoothly, organized by MianMian and her very skilled colleagues, so much so that Wei Ying had almost forgotten how nervous he had been walking into the refurbished meeting room, branding Lan Zhan’s gift in a light blue, carefully wrapped little box. He had wracked his brain about what to get him and settled into some really cute, bunny-shaped, silver-plated cufflinks with transparent crystals for eyes and a matching tie pin.

Wei Ying had seen Lan Zhan brandish such things before and the moment he saw them on that storefront display, they almost screamed Lan Zhan’s name. They just happened to be on sale, too!

After snacks, drinks and casual conversation, the long-awaited moment came and MianMian announced the time to exchange gifts. There was an uproar of voices and murmurs of gratefulness and laughter - and Wei Ying took a big gulp of wine before walking up to Lan Zhan with a smile.

“So, I’m your Secret Santa, Lan Zhan! I really hope you’ll like my gift, I promise it’s nothing indecent this time! Merry Christmas!”

Lan Zhan looked even more surprised than Wei Ying had expected him to as he himself handed Wei Ying a box. They stared in each other’s eyes for a good three seconds before Wei Ying burst into laughter and Lan Zhan smiled, genuine and happy.

“What a coincidence.” he said, the look in his eyes so soft it made Wei Ying blush. “Must be fate.”

He carefully unwrapped the gift from Wei Ying and felt his heart squeeze at the beautiful items carefully laid out in a velvet box. Wei Ying’s expectant expression almost made him chuckle. “They are beautiful, thank you. I will be wearing these at the next important event.”

Wei Ying grinned widely and unexpectedly threw himself in Lan Zhan’s arms for a quick hug. “You don’t know how nervous I was you wouldn’t like them!”

Lan Zhan looked like he wanted to say something else, but settled on letting Wei Ying disentangle from their embrace and reminding him to open his own gift.

“Lan Zhan... this is...”

“A while ago, you said your flute was damaged when you moved out of your old apartment, so I figured you could use a new one. I was told it was named Chenqing by its creator. The history of the flute is quite... mysterious, but it is masterfully carved and I believe you will make good use of it.”

Wei Ying trailed his fingers along the fine instrument, shining black in its elegant encasing, a red tassel hanging on one end, and a little envelope on the other.

“Open it.” Lan Zhan urged, as Wei Ying curiously glanced at the paper. He found an invitation for two at the Christmas concert to be held at the city’s opera house.

With a sigh, Lan Zhan proceeded to explain. “I would like to invite you to accompany me to the concert...” the tops of his cheeks and ears burned, “...as my date.”

Wei Ying sighed and clicked his tongue. “Lan Zhan... now I feel bad, you know?”

“I- please, there is no obligation for you to-”

Wei Ying laughed instead and latched his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck affectionately, the man’s disappointed expression changing into surprise. “You don’t actually think I’m refusing you, right? It’s just that your gifts are so much better than mine that I feel a little lame!”

Lan Zhan sighed a bit too deeply. “Wei Ying... I thought...”

“None of that! I’d love to go on a date with you! And not just one, hopefully, because I really like you and I hope we can do more than date!”

Lan Zhan’s self control snapped then and there and he kissed Wei Ying before he knew what he was doing. Yeah, they would definitely do more than just date.

(In fact, they marry the following year).

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #writing attempts

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restingdomface · 5 years ago

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Not enough Meng Yao/Nie Huaisang content where Nie Mingjue finds Meng Yao as a kid around the same age as NHS (supposedly, they’re the same age in canon, but there’s also a lot of conflicting evidence with specific character’s ages and birthdays in this series and he’s one of them, so he’s one of the characters I feel free to adjust the age to fit whatever fic I’m writing) and NMJ takes him in because NHS won’t stop pouting at him about ‘that pretty boy, forced to work in a brothel cause he doesn’t have anywhere else to go, what do you think he’ll have to do when he’s old enough, DaGe?’ And so NMJ just sighs and tells NHS they can’t take in every stray they find and mentally makes room for the kid in the room next to NHS’s back home.

So anyways. MY likes this nice new place, and since he didn’t make the error of contacting his father yet, he isn’t jaded by that one, and NMJ likely isn’t gonna find out who his dad is anyways, and MY turns out to be super smart and ends up being NMJ’s ‘attendant’ during events (lol he says that MY is a promising student, but didn’t have a good childhood so he’s working with him on a good foundation of society, but really it’s because people blather around children and MY remembers literally everything and NMJ is amused by it, even tho MY is only like 7 and sometimes attaches to the wrong info, it’s always amusing anyways) and NHS is glad that NMJ seems attached too cause he thinks MY is pretty and wants him to stay.

Anyways. They end up going to Cloud Recesses together (but later??? When they’re 15???? Because I can’t possibly imagine MY failing and NHS would pass simply because he doesn’t want to be sent back without his pretty beloved) and MY is doted on by NMJ’s long-time long-distance boyfriend Lan Xichen who thinks they’re both adorable and LXC caught them kissing in the future rabbit field!!!!! (‘Please don’t tell DaGe, he says I’m not allowed to kiss till I’m thirty!’ ‘What??? He told you thirty? Sect Leader Nie told me I’m not allowed to kiss till he’s dead!!’ ‘Well. He may have said something similar to me, but I just assume he won’t live past forty-five.’)

Of course, LXC can’t stop laughing at them and totally tells, mainly because he knows NMJ won’t be upset, and NMJ is just all *deep thankful sigh to the ancestors* ‘oh thank god, neither of you have to move away when you get married, this is perfect’ and the boys are squawking because they just kissed a little and like cuddling, they haven’t talked about future weddings yet!!! And NMJ is all ‘it’s fine, you don’t have to get married for at least five years. No child weddings in this household’ and now they’re engaged but it’s okay cause they’re the only one they wanna do that with anyways.

Also, no War and Drama, and Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian also caught them kissing one day and they were all ‘hey, that looks fun’ and straight up got married in a cave in GusuLan and ended up consummating and causing a fuss so big that YunmengJaing all but threw WWX at them and said ‘he’s your problem now, oh my god’ and Jiang Fengmian And Jiang Yanli are still pouting at the fact that they have to Travel™️ to visit their Best Boy Ever (can you hear Jiang Cheng’s tears? Cause he must not be crying loud enough then. He goes to visit his Shige sometimes tho) and it’s a wild ride fam. A real wild ride.

Meanwhile, MY and NHS are over in the Unclean Realm reading porn to discover the usage of lube and stuff and WangXian is back in GusuLan getting a full fucking sex talk from LXC and NMJ who heard they DONT know what oil would help with and honestly it’s all a mess. It’s lovely.

#nielan #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #mdzs #incorrect untamed quotes #incorrect mdzs #wangxian #lan xichen #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie brothers #meng yao #sangyao

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satonthelotuspier · 4 years ago

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For day 5 of Xichengclipse I offer you:

From The Same Mould

Fate had always been a cruel mistress to Jiang Cheng, but despite the obstacles he's faced, he is content with life, surrounded by a loving family.

Jin Ling visits from Lanling often, and Lan Xichen hates to get in the middle of their usual arguments, when they inevitably rub each other up the wrong way. This time he feels obliged to offer his advice, however.

A short take on another 'what if' Jiang Cheng had to learn to live without a golden core universe.

Jiang Cheng had loved picking up his beautifully-wrought bow as a child. His mother had had the bow specially designed, so he could draw it younger than most with his smaller, childish muscles. He had been an excellent shot, praised by the other disciples, and patted on the head by his sister, and told he was such a good archer.

When Wei Wuxian had arrived everything seemed to change.

His father, always so reticent in Jiang Cheng’s hearing, suddenly became effuse with praise, the young Wei Wuxian, his new shixiong, was the most wonderful shot, was such an accomplished swordsman, could do everything bigger, better, faster than Jiang Cheng, who seemed to run along in his shadow, struggling to be seen, to be heard, to just keep up.

He had run to his mother once, when he was ten, to show her the kite he had hit with his arrows, desperate for even a little congratulation to himself. On reflection as an adult, he realised he might have caught her at the wrong moment, as she had been marching away from his father’s rooms, perhaps they had argued bitterly again; Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Fengmian’s clear preference for him was always such a bone of contention between them, but she had stared at him, demanded to know how many arrows he’d loosed, then scolded him for missing with one.

He had been a child, armed with a vicious temper, inherited from her, and he had gone back to his own rooms and smashed the frame of his bow into pieces, throwing it out of the window.

Of course he had been punished for it, and every time afterwards, that he had refused to lift a bow again.

The pain of the whippings had been so much less than the knowledge he would never be good enough to come under the notice of his own father, or to please his mother.

***

Fate was always a cruel mistress, however. And he had found himself forced by tragic circumstances to pick up a bow again many years later.

The tragedy had begun the day the Wens marched on Lotus Pier. Though Yu-furen had sent he and Wei Wuxian away, it had so happened he was captured days later in Yiling, and taken back into the custody of the Wens, where his cultivational ability was destroyed through the melting of his golden core.

Though he had prayed for death, fate was never a kind mistress to Jiang Cheng, and he had lived; to spite him, to make Wei Wuxian feel better, whatever the reason; Wei Wuxian had spirited him out of there, and escaped.

The Sunshot Campaign, as the uprising against the Wens had been come to be known, had been started in earnest shortly afterwards, and Jiang Cheng, golden core-less and weak, had been told to sit on the sidelines, like a child being told to let the adults work.

Like it hadn’t been his parents slaughtered at Lotus Pier, like it hadn’t been his core melted by Wen Chao’s pet, like it hadn’t been his chest scarred for life by the vindictive beating with a Jiang sect discipline whip, that those foul Wen hands hadn’t been fit to touch.

Jiang Cheng was a stubborn, vengeful man, and those instructions had been anathema to him. So, despite his distaste, he had picked up a bow again.

He may not have a golden core to support the use of qi energy, or to allow him to use spiritual weapons, but swordsmanship and archery were muscle memory, and he became an instantly recognisable sight on the Jianglian front, always fighting far away from his head disciple, Wei Wuxian, for fear of causing him to split his attention trying to protect Jiang Cheng, and putting him in danger.

He had been an excellent shot, if not quite as good as Wei Wuxian, and he had been deadly on the battlefield, and somehow kept the truth of his golden core secret to only a select few. They had questioned why he preferred the bow to the sword, but there had always been some easy excuse, no one looked closely if you presented them with a reasonable explanation.

It had been a long and bloody war, Jiang Cheng’s parents and his sect had only been the beginning of the bloodshed, and it had cost untold lives to finally bring the Wens down.

But in the end it had been accomplished, and they had slowly begun to rebuild the damage the Wens had caused, including to Lotus Pier.

***

Wei Wuxian had stayed by his side longer than he should have, considering the relationship that had developed between Lan Wangji and his former head disciple. He had been fearful at first that the new Yunmeng Jiang sect, rising from the ashes, would be an easy target for the clans jostling for power, if it had been discovered Jiang Cheng was no longer able to use his qi, and therefore he had stayed to be the muscle behind the power.

It had only been once Jiang Cheng had announced his own betrothal to a Lan that Wei Wuxian had finally listened to him.

Who would attack the Sandu Shengshou, sect leader of Yunmeng Jiang and the husband of Zewu-jun, after all?

Zewu-jun had sent him the most beautiful courting gifts, not least the bow with silver snakes curling their tails around the grip, and twisting up and down the limbs, that he had personally designed for Jiang Cheng.

There had been a time he would have rather cut off his own hands that lift a bow, but now, holding that specially wrought wood and silver in his hands had seemed perfectly right.

***

“Your grip is still too tight, A-Ling.” Lan Xichen looked up from the correspondence he was reading, ensconced in the shade of a tree.

He knew where this was heading, but there wasn’t much he could do about it at this stage. Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng were too similar in temperament for it to be possible to avoid the explosion that was about to follow.

“A-Cheng…” he tried anyway, but Jin Ling’s voice drowned his out.

“I’m still hitting the target on every shot,” his sharp jawline notched up, a sure sign he was prepared to argue and rile Jiang Cheng up over the issue.

“You’re standing in front of a stupid bit of hay in a field in the sunlight.” Jiang Cheng snapped, his own chin lifting and his nostrils flaring in annoyance.

It was like looking at a mirror arguing with itself, they looked so similar; in features, in the way they held themselves, and in temper. It made for some interesting battles when Jin Ling visited from Lanling. It wasn’t helped by the fact today was so warm, and they had both been in the sun for a good part of the afternoon, increasing irritability.

“I’ve shot on night hunts too, I’m a good shot.”

“You can be better, if you use your ears, and not just your mouth to give me grief all the time,”

“What, second best wasn’t good enough for you? So you’re going to yell at me because I’m not perfect like you wished you were?”

Jiang Cheng’s mouth opened, then snapped shut, rather like a fish. And then they really began to argue; they even attacked verbally in the same way, not caring what they said to hurt the other, until Jiang Cheng threw his arms up, and with a cry of: “This child,” he stomped off back towards Lotus Pier.

Jin Ling muttered under his breath, marching over to the target to pull the arrows from the bales, snatching them out so hard he snapped one in his temper.

So like his jiujiu it was rather amusing. And annoying.

Lan Xichen sighed, and rose, and Jin Ling seemed to startle at the realisation he was still there. He couldn’t meet Lan Xichen’s eyes, sure he was going to be told off again by the husband of his uncle.

But Lan Xichen had spent years ensuring he didn’t take sides in their verbal battles; he ensured the same when Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian argued too, as did Wangji.

He smiled, “Jin Ling, it would benefit you to listen to Wanyin when he gives you advice, I know he doesn’t always have the best way of teaching…”

Jin Ling didn’t hide his snort at that. He wouldn’t dare to speak ill of his uncle to Lan Xichen, however, even if he would dare to Jiang Cheng’s face.

“...but he is a very fine archer. He has fought on many battlefields and in many night hunts. And you are one of the few people who know how difficult achieving and maintaining that reputation has been for him. His first choice would never have been to pick up a bow ever again.”

Jin Ling had the good grace to look a little ashamed, but then he snapped his chin up again, “I won’t apologise, he’s always so hard on me.”

“He’s showing you he cares, Jin Ling, his manner isn’t the most well-suited or nurturing, but he’s hard on you because he loves you.”

Jin Ling rolled his eyes, but said nothing more, and Lan Xichen nodded a goodbye to him before moving off to find his husband.

***

Jiang Cheng was, as expected, letting off steam in his private pavilion, when Lan Xichen arrived. He had stripped out of the heavier outer robes in acknowledgement of the oppressive heat, and swung viciously through Jiang sect sword forms.

Lan Xichen was generally loathe to approach the other in this mood, but Jin Ling raking over difficult memories worried him a little. Jiang Cheng had put most of the past behind him, and was content with his life, if not completely happy, due to how much he had lost, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still have the power to hurt him.

He paused briefly besides the other’s sword, Sandu, which had been placed with his bow carefully out of the way.

Sandu was the sword Jiang Cheng carried for show only, to maintain the image that the Sandu Shengshou was a sect leader like any other. As far as Lan Xichen knew, it had only been drawn to clean it in the twenty or so years since the razing of Lotus Pier.

Jiang Cheng used a generic sword for moving through his forms, and, upon noticing Lan Xichen, instead of trying to rile him in to sparring as he might normally, finished his movement, sheathed the sword, and stalked over.

Just pleased he hadn’t been goaded into fighting with him, Lan Xichen wasn’t quite expecting to suddenly have his arms full of de-raged husband.

He wrapped them tightly around Jiang Cheng, and held him.

“Little animal,” Jiang Cheng muttered into his shoulder, and Lan Xichen made a soothing sound.

Eventually though, he had to extend the same talking to as he had to Jin Ling.

“You could be a little less abrasive with him, all you end up achieving is stroking each other’s fur the wrong way.”

Jiang Cheng was silent for a while, then; “I know. Every time I do I always think of A-Niang, I know it’s not ideal…”

“But you’re both cut from the same mould as Yu-furen was.”

Jiang Cheng nodded against his chest.

“You should tell him you’re proud of him. He’ll be going home to Lanling soon, and he’d probably like to hear it. Even though he’d never admit it.” Lan Xichen said, and Jiang Cheng nodded again, pulling back a little to look into Lan Xichen’s eyes.

“I’ll try. A-Jie won’t have to send me such a strongly worded letter if I don’t send him back in a foul mood, like last time.” There was a touch of self-mockery around Jiang Cheng’s mouth, and Lan Xichen couldn’t resist the urge to taste the edge of it from the corner of his lips.

It was sweet with just a touch of bitterness, with the underlying taste of Wanyin.

He hmm’ed his appreciation, and went chasing another taste, which Jiang Cheng welcomed, but took control of with a hand in his hair, tangling with the loose strands and tails of his headband both. It sent a jolt through him, Jiang Cheng touching his headband never failed to thrill him, even now, so many years later, the material was such a part of who he was it was always as if the other had touched him, skin against skin.

Eventually, regretfully, Jiang Cheng pulled back, pausing only to meet gazes, his surprisingly unguarded and full of his complex feelings that he rarely ever gave voice to.

“You’re right, I should go and speak to Jin Ling now. This, we continue later, husband.” Jiang Cheng promised, and Lan Xichen nodded his agreement.

#xichengclipse2020 #lan xichen #jiang cheng #xicheng #the untamed fanfic #mo dao zu shi fanfic #mdzs fanfic #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jin ling #Shay's stuff #canon divergence #established relationship #uncle JC

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years ago

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Prompt: anything with Jiang Yanli, I’d love to see more of her PoV

part 2 of whumptober 20 (JYL/LXC field medicine)

ao3 link

It wasn’t that Jiang Yanli never thought about other men.

After all, she was a female cultivator, and her opinion was therefore one of the ones that was rather eagerly solicited when it came to naming the most attractive young masters in the cultivation world; it was only that it had never seemed to matter. After all, she was engaged, and always had been, to her mother’s dearest friend’s only son, and that, it had seemed at the time, was that.

Oh, her father spoke warmly about marrying for love and not for obligation, but Jiang Yanli had never quite understood what he meant. Even if she didn’t love Jin Zixuan, she loved her mother enough to want to respect her wishes, and it was easy enough to dismiss what negative things she’d heard about him – arrogant, self-centered, impetuous, but of course he was still young, and weren’t most teenage boys like that? – and instead daydream about the life she would have in the future.

When she was young, it was mostly daydreams of having some faceless man (she couldn’t imagine little Jin Zixuan, who at three years younger was barely more than a baby) bring her gifts and tease her and kiss her, then say she was the prettiest person he’d ever seen. The way she’d always heard was supposed to be how lovers talked, the way people said that a marriage ought to be like - the way her parents’ marriage had never been.

When she was a bit older, her thoughts drifted away from retreading romantic stories and to the actual work of being married, of being the mistress of Lanling Jin. In the beginning, her duty would be to first and foremost produce an heir and a spare, to remain healthy throughout the process, and to support her husband as he slowly began to take on the duties that would eventually become his, but later on it would get more interesting. A sect leader could not be everywhere, and his wife would often be left in charge when he was not at home – she would have to know everything about the sect, same as him, enough to make decisions in his absence; she would have to answer correspondence, make decisions, negotiate with traders, collect duties, enforce the peace, and she’d also have to manage the sect’s social scene on top of it all.

She probably wouldn’t have much time to cook, Jiang Yanli thought wistfully, thinking about how Lanling women prided themselves on never having to lift a finger for themselves, and threw herself into her favorite hobby now, while she still could. If she was clever about it, she might be able to get good enough at it that her future husband would find some dish of hers that he liked, something that only she could make, and then her cooking would be something done at his request – a charming idiosyncrasy, an indulgence of sweethearts.

When she got older still, and learned about Sect Leader Jin’s philandering and the iron grip of control Madame Jin imposed on Lanling in order to keep her position in the face of all the backstabbing and politics, she thought to herself that that sounded exhausting. But by that point, all of her childhood daydreams had Jin Zixuan’s name on them – although admittedly not his face, for all that he had grown up into one of the most handsome young men of his generation, and certainly not his mannerisms – and it was far too late to raise a fuss now. So Jiang Yanli studied willpower in addition to trade routes, learned how to exploit social norms in addition to how to manage a dinner party, taught herself how to play people just as well as she played the guqin, absorbed the lessons of both murder and mathematics, and above all figured out how to stand up for herself and what she believed in no matter what overwhelming pressure she might face.

Even though Jiang Yanli was pretty sure that Madame Jin wouldn’t appreciate that last part in a daughter-in-law, especially not one reputed to be as easygoing as her father.

(“Let her be upset,” her own mother had snorted when Jiang Yanli had tentatively raised the issue. “Are you supposed to ruin your own future because she’s a bitter old mother-in-law that’d rather not give up control so early? I may have agreed to marry you to her son, A-Li, but she agreed to marry him to my daughter. If she wanted easy and pliable, she should have thought again.”

“But she’s your friend,” Jiang Yanli had said, frowning a little. “Don’t you want her to be happy?”

Her mother had looked tired. “Once, more than anything,” she’d said. “But the chance for that passed long ago.”)

So it wasn’t that she didn’t notice other men. It was just that there was no point in allowing herself to look, and she knew enough of her parents’ marriage, and of Madame Jin’s, to not want to look.

And then, suddenly, there was.

Her engagement was broken. One could say that it happened at her own beloved brothers’ hands, at her father’s blind dislike of arrangements even when it was one his own daughter had long ago accepted and had even learned to long for, but in truth Jin Zixuan was a proper young master, old enough to make decisions for himself, to exercise some control over his own life, and the first bit of control he’d taken into his own hands was to decide that he didn’t want her.

It was – not fine, no. She spent some time crying over it, and yet more time comforting Wei Wuxian who was distraught at having caused her pain, and the most time of all quietly wondering what the point of her existence was now that she was no longer useful as a marriage tool. She’d never been much of a cultivator, never been especially pretty, never been anything more than average – what was the point of her?

Maybe that was when she’d decided to pick up medicine.

Field medicine was womanly enough to satisfy critics, and yet it was something useful in a practical sense: she could save people’s lives, if she only learned enough, and studying she could do.

Sometimes, she even got the chance to save the lives of very attractive people, like when the First Jade of Lan lay crumpled in the cot before her as she patched him up. So this is the one they ranked first, she thought, examining him with her eyes even as she kept her hands busy, and she was forced to admit that the other female cultivators of her generation had good taste. He was devastatingly handsome.

Kind, too, she soon learned; gentle and courteous in his mannerisms. He smiled often, which she appreciated in a person (if one interpreted Jiang Cheng’s scowls as smiles, he smiled nearly as much!), and he seemed to genuinely admire her efforts at medicine, however rudimentary. Over dinner, which he insisted on sharing with her even after he was well on his road to recovery, the conversation between them flowed easily and well: they both had brothers they loved, which was a conversation topic of which neither of them would ever tire, and they both enjoyed art and music. He didn’t know the first thing about cooking, but enjoyed asking questions (especially after she’d made him a meal he particularly enjoyed, which was often), while she enjoyed the way he blushed when she teased him.

She didn’t think much of it, of course. If she couldn’t keep the husband that had been promised to her since before she could walk – if she was too dull, too plain, too weak, too average to be worthy of an untried young man like him – then she definitely had no hope of catching the most attractive and capable young master of their generation, a dashing war hero and sect leader in his own right.

And then, when they were both laughing over an especially hair-brained scheme they’d concocted to try to get Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian to spend more time together – Jiang Yanli had noticed how much Wei Wuxian talked about Lan Wangji once he’d returned to the Lotus Pier, and Lan Xichen swore up and down that Lan Wangji had been no better – he turned to her and said, “If you were in Gusu, your brothers would be sure to come to visit you.”

“Me, in Gusu?” Jiang Yanli was startled into a laugh. “Why would I be in Gusu? As your guest?”

Lan Xichen coughed. “I had been hoping for something – a bit more permanent than that. If that would be something you would be open to.”

It actually took her a moment to understand, and then she had to raise her hands to cover her suddenly burning cheeks.

“You don’t have to say anything now,” he said hastily. “Just something to think about, if you’re interested…and of course, if your heart is elsewhere –”

“It isn’t,” she blurted out, and had to turn away.

“I’d hoped that was the case,” he said quietly, his voice warm. “I’ll take my leave, Mistress Jiang.”

Jiang Yanli had grown up thinking of herself as the future mistress of Lanling Jin, with its riches and its beauty and its poisonous heart, and then she’d assumed she’d be nothing at all, an old maid that helped Jiang Cheng manage his sect until he finally found a wife to suit him.

She’d never thought about being the mistress of Gusu Lan.

Gusu Lan, which was not as wealthy as Lanling Jin but just as complex – with its own trade routes and subordinate sects and business to manage – with its beautiful and serene landscape, its culture that emphasized harmony and unity rather than backstabbing – with no overbearing mother-in-law that would have barely been tolerable even when her own mother would have been there to hold her back, but would have been impossible without such protection –

She hadn’t dreamt of Lan Xichen as a child, or even as a teenager, but when she thought about all those dreams with a faceless man that she’d named Jin Zixuan regardless of any similarity to the real thing…

Lan Xichen fit in much better to the idea in her head than the real Jin Zixuan ever had.

“I won’t live separately,” she told him when he came over the next day, before he could even say a word; it had been just about the only problem she could see with his proposal. “In another house, certainly, but not an entirely different dwelling, and if I have any children, I would want them to live with me regardless of their gender.”

“I wouldn’t dream of having you so far away,” he said, and he was smiling again, broad and bright and – somehow, impossibly – hers. “Might I kiss you?”

“You may,” she said, and he did.

“Mistress Jiang,” Lan Xichen said a moment later, “you’re the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met.”

Remarkable, Jiang Yanli thought to herself, was better than pretty any day.

#mdzs #jiang yanli #lan xichen #field medicine #no. 20 #my fic #my fics #macgyvertape

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queenofmoons67 · 4 years ago

Text

The Yiling Matriarch: Chapter 5

Summary: When A-Cheng tells her that A-Xian has likely been killed by the Wens, Jiang Yanli cannot sit still. Instead, she sets out to find him--and when she does, she remembers her brother's theories.

Inspiration Post / Chapter One / Two / Three / Four

The last few days had been spent with A-Xian coaching Jiang Yanli on how to imbue her music with resentful energy. Now that she was able to do that, though, they had moved on to theorizing about how to use her emotions to channel the energy: to actually use it and lessen her pain, instead of letting the energy just flow back into her body.

Jiang Yanli had been playing the pipa for hours, the weather already turning cool as the day stretched from mid-afternoon to evening, and the instrument had started to dig into where it rested on her thighs. Even A-Xian, resting on a pile of pillows thrust upon him by A-Cheng and Lan Wangji, was beginning to look a little wan.

She was just about to suggest they take a break when shouting rose up around them. Jiang Yanli’s eyes widened, and her playing trailed off with a shriek as her fingers slipped on the strings.

A-Xian struggled to sit up more, then cursed and fell back down.

“Shijie—”

“Stay there, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli said, staring at the entrance to the tent. “We should be safe here; the doctor’s tent is in the middle of camp for a reason.”

“But A-Cheng,” A-Xian started to protest, before falling silent to listen to a particularly-close shout.

Jiang Yanli didn’t say anything in reply. She didn’t know if there was anything to say. A-Xian was right that A-Cheng would be fighting, but it wasn’t like either of them could help him; A-Xian was so injured he would just hold A-Cheng back, and Jiang Yanli herself hadn’t even tried her new cultivation style in a spar yet.

And yet, knowing that didn’t make sitting there any easier.

There was more shouting now, and the clash of swords in the distance was only getting louder. Jiang Yanli glanced back at A-Xian just in time to watch him flinch, wide eyes flitting back and forth between her and the door.

For a moment, Jiang Yanli seriously considered moving from her bed to A-Xian’s, never mind her still healing leg.

The next, she watched as A-Xian’s eyes grew impossibly wider as they focused entirely on the door behind her, and listened with chills to a man bark, laughter in his voice, “Oi! Guess who I found!”

Jiang Yanli whirled to face the door. There was a whole crowd of Wens there—too many to count over the sound of her thundering heart.

The leader grinned. “That’s Wei Wuxian, right? Didn’t Wen Chao say he left him in the Burial Grounds?”

Jiang Yanli’s heart thundered so fast, she was surprised she could even make out his next words.

“Why don’t we finish the job?”

“Shijie.” A pause. Something thumped against her shoulder. “Shijie!”

The voice sounded near tears, and Jiang Yanli forced herself to turn and look at it. A blink—and there was A-Xian, safe and sound on his bed. He had managed to wrestle himself completely upright, and was now leaning so far towards her he was in danger of falling off.

“Be careful, A-Xian,” she cried out, nearly falling out of bed herself as she reached for him. “You can’t—”

One of A-Xian’s pillows thumped to the floor in-between them, and they both looked at it, then at each other.

“You—did you throw a pillow at me?” Jiang Yanli asked, confused.

A-Xian smiled, crinkling his eyes and sending tears trailing down his cheeks. “You wouldn’t snap out of it, Shijie, and I couldn’t reach you. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I wouldn’t snap…out of it…?” Jiang Yanli trailed off, looking around them.

Their attackers lay scattered all around the room, some of them in pieces but all of them either in the middle of bleeding out or long dead, resentful energy swirling around them. Jiang Yanli looked down at her fingertips, bleeding now from where she had plucked at the pipa strings.

“I did this…”

They had threatened A-Xian. They had reached for him—drawn their swords to strike him down—and Jiang Yanli had literally seen red, her heartbeat setting a furious tempo for her pipa to follow.

With her didi coreless and unable to move from bed, it was her job to protect him.

So she had.

“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli whispered, struggling to breathe. I don’t regret it. I would do it again. To keep you safe, I would do it a thousand times. But she didn’t know if she could handle that.

Sandu spun through the air, crashing into the sword of the last cultivator standing between Jiang Cheng and his siblings. He had seen several Wens dart into the doctor’s tent minutes before, but with the battle surging around him in close quarters, it had been impossible for him to get the room or time to simply hop on his sword and fly to his siblings. It had taken him a while to even get this close to them—though, as Bichen and Suihua flashed on either side of him, he reluctantly admitted to himself that it would have taken even longer without the help of Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan.

The instant the other two men had seen him fighting his way to the doctor’s tent, they had understood why and joined him.

“Almost!” Jin Zixuan gasped.

They disarmed their opponents as one.

“Go!” Lan Wangji barked, and they all bolted across the grassy meters to the tent, brushed aside the door flap—and stumbled.

For a moment, they just stared at the scene before them. Then Wei Wuxian lifted his face to reveal red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, and the moment broke, sending the three of them surging forward once more.

Lan Wangji claimed a seat on an empty bed, guqin settling on his lap and Cleansing filtering into the air. Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng sat on either side of Wei Wuxian and A-jie.

A-jie was sat up in her bed, pipa clenched in her hands and resentful energy pulsing around her with every breath. Wei Wuxian had somehow managed to climb onto the bed next to her and pull her into his own arms, uncaring of the way the energy surrounded him, too, or of how much his injuries must have pained him. Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan joining them made them four abreast—a tight fit on just the width of the bed—but for this, they would make it work.

Jiang Cheng’s hands clenched into fists, but he forced one open and rested it on A-jie’s left wrist. Jin Zixuan held her right—and together, they sent careful tendrils of spiritual energy into A-jie’s meridians and pathways. It flowed through her, cleansing enough of the resentful energy that they were able to herd the rest.

“A-jie?” Jiang Cheng asked, squeezing her wrist gently.

Wei Wuxian turned his head from where he had nestled it back down on her shoulder. “She couldn’t hear me earlier. After—after,” he finished lamely, voice low.

“But she could hear you at one point?” Lan Wangji checked.

Wei Wuxian nodded, and cracked a fragile grin. “I threw a pillow at her. It—shocked her, I guess? That’s why I thought hugging her might help.”

“It’s not like it hurt,” Jin Zixuan murmured. Jiang Cheng glanced at him, surprised at the almost reassuring tone, but the other man wasn’t looking at him. He was focused entirely on Jiang Yanli.

Jiang Cheng could worry about the implications of that later.

“A-jie?” he asked again, bringing his other hand up to rub at her shoulder. “A-jie, can you hear me?”

Silence.

“A-jie?”

Nothing—and then Jiang Cheng felt his sister’s core stir, her spiritual energy reaching out. Just small tendrils at first, but then they grew, and he and Jin Zixuan both backed their own energy out as A-jie took control.

“I hear you, A-Cheng,” she whispered. “And I think I’ll be ok now. I just had a bit of a shock.”

“That’s normal,” Jin Zixuan said, letting go of her wrist and standing up. “I would be more worried if you had no reaction after this.”

Jiang Cheng nodded. As much as he hated to agree with the peacock, Jin Zixuan was right—though he did note to himself to try and have at least the bodies cleared out quickly.

“Thank you,” A-jie said, her lips turning up just slightly as she looked at them. “All of you.”

Jiang Cheng huffed and looked away. “Like I’d be anywhere else.”

Someone punched him lightly on the arm, and he shot back around to glare at the culprit.

“Wei Wuxian!”

“A-Cheng!” his brother grinned. It was stiff and forced—and no doubt for their sister’s benefit—but his eyes were only a little pink now.

Jiang Cheng settled for just rolling his eyes in retaliation.

#jiang yanli #wei wuxian #Jiang Cheng #jin zixuan #yunmeng siblings #lan wangji #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #cql #mdzs fanfic #fanfic #mine #My fic #yiling matriarch

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