#jin ling and his xiao-shushu

[add1ctedt0you]

Jin Ling, protecting his uncles

[least-carpet]

I wonder if Jin Guangyao ever had the strange feeling he was parenting a small Jiang Cheng. Probably not when Jin Ling was happy—when would he have spent any time with a happy Jiang Cheng?—but imagine Jin Guangyao watching Jin Ling try food he's unsure about and the deeply suspicious expression is exactly like Jiang Cheng listening to Sect Leader Yao at the last conference. Jin Ling's big childhood feelings, his outbursts of temper and sulking, his desire to do well and prove himself (to his terrible cousins) all make Jiang Cheng's behaviour (though more publicly contained) increasingly familiar. Something something unwanted diagonal intimacies. Somehow even this leads to divorce (Guanyin Temple).

[thatswhatsushesaid]

[thatswhatsushesaid]

I mean.... there's canon precedent for some of this imo 👀

(sorry for all the markups, my copy of the ER translation is a hot mess of highlights and scribbles)

anyway, jin ling pitching a temper tantrum loud enough to shake the heavens is canon and it isn't a stretch for me to imagine jiang cheng not responding with quite the same level of beatific grace in the face of a toddler's insensate fury as xiao shushu does here.

the rumors about jiang cheng torturing people are 100% false. what is 100% true, however, is that he once tried to give fairy, who’s a husky, a bath without silencing talismans

[dani-in-the-daniverse]

After guanyin temple, jin ling goes back to lotus pier with jiang cheng. He spends the day in a haze. He takes a bath to wash all the dirt and grime and grief off him, then dresses in purple yunmeng jiang disciple robes, because he didn’t have any spare jin clothes.

He has dinner with jiujiu without saying a word, then they say good night and jin ling goes to his lotus pier bedroom. He’s exhausted, but he can’t sleep. Fairy is curled up next to him and he pets her soft fur to try and calm himself down, but he can’t. He hasn’t cried. Not yet. But he can feel it coming as the events of the previous night crash over him. His xiao-shushu threatening him, taking him hostage. Then zewu-jun stabbing xiao-shushu’s heart. Jin ling didn’t know whether to grieve his death, or hate him for what he did. He couldn’t breathe.

He gets up from bed and exits the room, fairy quick to follow him despite the fact that she was dozing off. He stops right in front of jiujiu’s room and knocks on the door.

“LEAVE”, roars a voice inside.

“Jiujiu…” jin ling hates how weak his voice sounds, “jiujiu, it’s me.”

The door opens. Jiujiu is in his sleeping clothes, with his hair undone… and wet streaks on his cheeks, that shine silver from the weak moonlight coming through the windows.

Jin ling throws his arms around him and crashes into his chest, sobbing. Jiujiu returns the hug and cradles jin ling protectively, like he always did. But jin ling can feel him shaking, and there’s some moisture on the side of his head, where jiujiu’s cheek is. Jin ling cries harder. He feels his legs not holding him up anymore and they both slide to the floor, uncle and nephew crying in each other’s arms. Fairy lays down next to them, and lets out a soft whine, as if she’s sharing their pain.

[nevertheless-moving]

Considering the amount of emotional and moral nuance he managed to muster up immediately post Guanyin temple (despite having a terrible week and zero good role models) AND considering his front row seat to the dissection of Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian’s downfall, I think that in a time travel fix-it, Jin Ling would actually be pretty successful at brute forcing yunmeng family therapy.

I mean he'd probably cry, but even that would be good! Because 1) modeling negative male emotions beside anger, and 2) Oh shit that’s shije’s kid we made Shije’s son cry, fuck, fuck! Bam! Instant high ground! Also he has the most authority of any second gen character by virtue of the fact that he could pull “DO YOU WANT MY MOM TO DIE??? BECAUSE YOU TWO ACTING LIKE MORONS IS WHAT GOT MY MOM KILLED! NOW SIT DOWN AND SPIT OUT ALL YOUR FUCKING SECRETS OR MY MOM WILL DIE AND I’LL BREAK YOUR LEGS!!” It would work! Tell me it wouldn't work!

Not to mention once he gets a few sect leader years under his belt, he might be the best person to manage a fix-it, in general. He's got perspective. He's got political training. Others might get too caught up on the specifics of the Wen remnants or the Ying Tiger Tally or Vengeance against One Person or Another — Jin Ling is critiquing the basic structure of how Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are living their lives and he's getting away with it.

He would even be good at dealing with Jin Guangyao, the slipperiest motherfucker in the timeline. Jin Ling's got as good a handle as anyone on his motivations, and he has sincere (if messy) affection for him, which would hit Guangyao right in his weak spot. Depending on your headcanons it may or may not be in vain, but he's got a real chance of getting the man to set some more modest and less destructive life goals.

Similarly, I think he'd do a pretty decent job at a harsh-but-fair critique of Xichen's neutrality and Mingue's rigidity and Huissang's delibrate uselessness, though getting them to listen would be more of a crapshoot.

All of this makes it especially funny how badly he would handle Wangxian.

For context: Wei Ying and Hunguang-jun are not just the gayest people Jin Ling has ever met, they are the gayest people he's ever HEARD of.

He wouldn't want to bring it up. He wouldn't mean to. He doesn't want to talk about it. But when he inevitably calls Wei Ying a slur only to be met with genuine bafflement? Jin Ling would completely lose his shit.

Because I don't think Wei Ying is going to get offended, or defensive, or have a response that his nephew could coherently mock. Wei Wuxian thinks 'hey these time traveling guys are actually pretty funny!' Him and Whom? Not even a serious topic of contention. You got me for a second, haha.

Jin Ling would break. Wei Ying eventually says something the effect of "I'm straight? Obviously?" and Jin Ling would nod once, start screaming, then climb across the table to strangle him.

It's — look. How do you fucking explain that all of the worst moments of your life were, in someway or another, characterized by Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanjii being FLAMBOYANTLY into one another.

The man who saved his life also killed his father and Jin Ling stabs him but it feels awful and — ok Lan Wanjii is cradling Wei Wuxian tenderly. Ok they're just going to go. They're leaving like that. Hunguang Jun was — is — was the Yiling Patriarch's widow, so that's another layer to add onto everything else. Hunguang-Jun is visibly expressing emotions with his face and voice and Jin Ling is going to go throw up now

Jin Ling's kidnapped at the burial mounds and everyone’s lost their spiritual energy and all his friends and family are going to die and — those two are smiling at eachother. They're telling inside jokes. They're holding hands.

Jin disciples (his own clans disciples) just shot at him and and Xiao-shushu really is what people sa— WEI YING SHOUTS ABOUT WANTING TO FUCK LAN WANJII

THEY ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF BEING KIDNAPPED AND HE DOES THIS

Jujiu is bleeding from the stomach and crying he's bleeding and crying his jujiu is doing that and Xiao-shushu caused it and his whole life is a lie and Hunguang Jun and the Yiling Patriarch are visibly groping in a corner.

And then they never stop groping again. Forever.

So yeah, I'm quite confident that if Jin Ling had to be even peripherally involved with coaching Wei Wuxian through a bisexual awakening and homoerotic courtship, he would explode. He would black out with rage. He'd make an honest and embarrassingly unsuccessful attempt at killing Lan Zhan. He would walk into a lotus pond and stay there until he drowned. He'd start heavy drinking. He'd punch a random passerby in the dick.

In conclusion, Need More Jin Ling Time Travel Fics

[qiu-yan]

shenshen = qin su

[bichenique]

why am i seeing jc anti and jgy anti in my feed.

so far the most ridiculous take is jin ling being abused by jc. this is some white ppl shit.

as an asian, a-ling has vv lenient and affectionate parental figures. wdym his jiujiu let him cry? wdym his xiao shushu gave him a dog when he was upset?

having someone you are comfy crying in front w, especially a family member, means that yall are close and you don't feel judged.

[whumpbby]

One funny scenario that came to my mind is that when Jin Ling finally becomes a full-fledged sect leader, and gains some self-confidence and pulls the Jin out of the swamp Menu Yao pushed it in...

And then he has to deal with Huanguang-Jun as the Chief Cultivator. Fuck that.

Others may respect the man and his "righteousness" but Jin Ling knows what sort of a petty gremlin the man is. Can still be. And he knows that Lan Wangji has the political acumen of a footstool. And still has it out for anyone who ever slighted his idiot husband.

Jin Ling has no time and patience to deal with that. He cannot make waves or go against the man, his position is barely stable after all, but Jiujiu raised no bitch and Xiao-shushu raised no idiot.

Thus, when Huanguang-Jun pisses him off to much, Jin Sect Leader sends a polite letter to the Lan Sect Leader requesting the return of all the loans the Jin has issued to Gusu Lan since the war. After all, they were marked as "loans" in the official paperwork and the understanding they don't have to be returned only existed between Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, the terrible criminal. One could say that the money was, gasp, mishandled by the man, as none of the sect elders signed off these loans.

That was really a lot of money, and Jin Rulan had a project in mind to build some orphanages and needed liquid funds. Urgently.

Say what you will about Jin Guangyao, but his bookkeeping was impeccable, and Jin Ling had bunches of receipts at the ready.

Also, there were these 200 spirit nets Huanguang-Jun destroyed five years ago. These weren't cheap. As they were Jiang Sect's personal gift to him, Jin Rulan would like to be reimbursed for the loss. As soon as possible.

Yes, he was aware that Gus Lan didn't have such amounts just laying around and trying to organise them may as well bankrupt the sect. Isn't that a pity. He feels for them, truly. But money is money and one needs to keep an eye on their assets.

Of course, he'd be amendable to forgetting some of these debts if properly motivated.

Say, Jin Rulan would be willing to let the matter go if, for example, the Chief Cultivator kindly fucked off.

[lilapplesheadcannons]

We know Jin Ling ran to his xiao shushu any time he got in trouble. And HuaiSang ran to his San-ge anytime he got overwhelmed.

Imagine Jin Ling started a beef with HuaiSang, and they both got into trouble! Poor Jin GuangYao trying to console his precious nephew and calm HuaiSang's theatrics down and placate a raging MingJue while trying his best not to throw a cup at a sarcastic Jiang Cheng! All before he had his morning coffee!

Edited to add: Jiang Cheng and Nie MingJue are full on passive-aggressive parents who scream at their own kids while not so subtly implying that the fault lies with the other child's upbringing.

[symphonyofsilence]

Jin Ling & his Xiao Shushu appreciation, 'cause I don't see enough of it.

Remember that Jin Ling avoided LWJ like plague 'cause he was scared of him shitless, to the point that when WWX fake called Hanguang-Jun he ran without even looking back literally seconds after WWX pulled the same trick on him with JC 'cause he didn't want to risk looking back just in case it was actually HGJ, but he stood against Hanguang-Jun AND sect leader Lan when he thought they were invading his Xiao Shushu's room? Only Jiggy's own intervention made him back down.

& IDK maybe the reason Jin Ling was there at that time was that it was the family section. But since Fairy wasn't with him, maybe he was visiting his uncle. & I find it hard to imagine, like, say, WWX visiting Jiang Fengmian or Lan Sizhui visiting Zewu-Jun or the Lan brothers visiting Lan Qiren in the middle of the night in their private chambers unless something very important has happened. I think according to the standards of their time, they must have been very close for this visit to happen.

Running to Xiao Shushu 'cause JiuJiu is angry with him & adorably hiding behind him 'cause Xiao Shushu spoils him.

Defending Xiao Shushu and having a firm belief that whatever he says is for Jin Ling's own good even in the face of his cool uncle after the rush of winning a fight against a group of his all-time bullies.

Still using the affectionate term "Xiao Shushu"even when confronting him about why would he kill his father, begging him to "say something". Give him anything to make it a little bit less painful.

Jiggy wanting to comfort Jin Ling even when he's crying because he just realized that Jiggy has killed his father.

Jin Ling looking so hurt when Jiggy says that JGS didn't let him hold Jin Ling as though he can't imagine a world in which his uncle is not allowed to hold him. Not being allowed to hold JL being a notable part of JGY's villain origin story.

Jiggy pushing Jin Ling out of danger.

Jin Ling screaming for Jiggy to run even after Jiggy took him hostage. And all the other shit.

(It's worth mentioning that in the books, Jiggy doesn't push JL out of danger and JL still screams for him to run, and he still calls him uncle instead of Sect Leader as he does in the show. It's also worth mentioning that the show made some stunning choices in the Guaniyn temple scene regardimg JGY & JL. As half of the things I'm saying about that scene here only happened in the show.)

Jiggy looking so worried as Wen Ning goes towards JL even though he himself has lost an arm and is bleeding to death. And only looking relieved when Wen Ning holds the blade.

Jin Ling being scarred for life here. Oh my poor, poor baby.

With much difficulty, he coughed up some blood. Everyone present heard a crack that was abnormally clear and brutal.

A whimper of a last breath left Jin GuangYao's throat.

Jin Ling's shoulders shivered. He shut his eyes and covered his ears, too afraid to keep watching and listening.

And my favorite scene that emotionally crushed me: Jin Ling remembering when his uncle gave him little Fairy & mourning his uncle & becoming the hero of the nation who finally told Sect Leader Yao to kindly go fuck himself. 'Cause he told him that his uncle was not worth his tears. Jin Ling thinking that they wouldn't dare to tell him such bullshits if his uncle were still alive. Baby Jin Ling feeling so comfortable around the sect leader and the Chief Cultivator that he could break things beside his feet and scream at him, and his uncle just understanding that he needs to leave him alone at that moment, his Xiao Shushu being the only one who could comfort him and make him happy at that point, his Xiao Shushu giving him his spiritual dog & one of his rare actual, geniune smiles that was so warm & kind that Jin Ling remembers to that day, this happy memory being the one that Jin Ling remembers Jiggy with after all the things he learnt in the span of two days. Him acknowledging that Jiggy's love for him was geniune and real & still choosing to continiue to love his uncle despite everything. Him learning that he can't really resent JGY, WWX or WN 'cause though they gave him reasons for that, they also gave him reasons against that. They gave him reasons to love them. And why choose hate when you can...not choose that. Him breaking a cycle of hate that few of the adults of the story did not drown in. And it must mostly be Jiang Yanli's legacy, but it also proves that Jiang Cheng & Jin Guangyao, despite their own numerous issues did something right raising such a child. He feels so secure in their love. And he's right in that feeling.

[add1ctedt0you]

What warms my heart about chengyao, is that these two broken men looked at their nephew and decided that they would love the shit out of him, giving him what they couldn't have

[otgo-brooklyn]

Jin Ling when it's his Xiao-ShuShu who wakes him up instead of his beloved JiuJiu

[thatswhatsushesaid]

- from the exiled rebels translation of the novel

[touchlikethesun]

jin ling is so young oh my god he's so young this baby has been pulled every which way, literally by being kidnapped and trapped in a cave for days but also emotionally, he's had his entire life flipped upside down, everyone's saying his xiao shushu is now evil and the two people he was raised (borderline indoctrinated) thinking were evil and responsible for everything wrong in his life are now just fine ??? no one has an issue with them anymore ??? they're friends with his friends and no one has stopped to explain how we got here or given him any time to process, and he's been running himself so thin trying to keep up with all the adults, but he's even a little kid compared to the other juniors he's at most 15. god he's so young i want to give him a hug

[sillygoofyqueer]

Caught up on losing hope and Four? You asshole (affectionate)?? You made me cry for several reasons?? (I’m only half exaggerating but tbh you got me pretty damn close) wwx being taken care of and getting emotional abt it?? Running away and having a panic attack??? HUALIAN CAMEO?!?? Tbh it’d be a little funny if they became consistent cameo characters who give advice to the disaster that is wangxian. Also you spoil me with all this good writing istg. Like, what else do I read?? It’s hard to find well written fics Four >:/! Also Jin ling crying over Wu Ming??? I was in my room yelling “you would help him escape but he doesn’t want you to because he thinks you’ll hate him!! :(!! (And you actually might…)”. Also jgy catching on?? Hello??? What’s he gonna do with that? Idk whether to hope he does nothing with it and brushes it off or that he’s an evil little asshole and uses it against both of them. I am a bit curious as to what Jiang cheng is going to think about all this. Same with Lan Xichen because in canon he denies it but he can’t really do that here because there’s PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. Or maybe he will deny it because jgy is a good liar. But yea. As per usual I wish I could give you more kudos and please remember to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF :/

Wrestling you into the biggest hug ever right now, aight?? BIGGEST hug ever. You can't cry, 'cause then I'll cry and I won't be able to work on Losing Hope 😨😨, and nobody wants that. Hey, there's so much going on, maybe Hualian do just randomly pop up throughout the fic and are like, "don't forget, communication is key!" or "always wear red if you want to look badass" and then just vanish, leaving everyone like "???" I'm going to think about this so much now... You are so sweet oh my golly gosh, PLEAASE THERE ARE OTHER FICS THAT ARE BETTER THAN MINE (I've been reading them instead of working on losing hope, but you can't prove that)- ((my current favourite is Grimoire)). You flatter me, now I'm violently sobbing. AGAIN. This really can't be good for me, I can't cry this much. Jin Ling just wants his Wu Ming to come back! He surely could have helped his friend escape, because he cares about his friend more than anything Xiao-Shushu could say about him! No matter what he had done, there has to be a reason for it, or else he would have scared Jin Ling off, right? I think the real question is, how could he recognise Wu Ming if he were to see him on the streets? I think that is one of the biggest fears for Jin Ling, and I can't WAIT to get into that. Jin Guangyao catching on about possible communication between Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian could not be a good thing. I wonder what on earth he could do with all of this information...nothing bad, right? He's too good for that, right? :] Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are definitely in an interesting situation in all of this, because Jiang Cheng has no idea what's going on - why on earth is Jin Ling crying? He simply has to do something about this, he has to fucking find who has made his nephew cry and kill them chat to them about why they think it's a good idea to insult Jin Ling. My favourite thing about this AU (of sorts) is that while Lan Xichen does know that Lan Wangji is madly in love with Wei Wuxian (due to being told by his brother, they can talk about these things because ✨communication✨), he doesn't know HOW madly in love with Wei Wuxian his brother actually is, because there was no confrontation after the Nightless City Massacre. For all Lan Xichen knows, Lan Wangji has moved on from Wei Wuxian because he has no idea how down bad Lan Wangji is for this chaotic controversial man of the cultivation world. This is a little ramble away from what you actually pointed out, but I think it genuinely actually helps out with it. As you've said, there's physical evidence of how Wei Wuxian's been treated by Jin Guangyao and the Jin Clan. PLUS!! Lan Xichen in canon could be seen as biased AWAY from Wei Wuxian because of how he's treated his brother (this is just me rambling at this point), meaning he would be less likely to feel sympathy and want to help Wei Wuxian even for his brother. In this world, there isn't this bias away from Wei Wuxian! Could that help with convincing him of what Jin Guangyao has done? We'll damn well see, or my name isn't Four.