#jin ling is about to cry

[stiltonbasket]

very tiny newborn tiger baos? they're fluffy little sweet potatoes! they're meeping! little cone tails! very cuddleable!

They're wrapped in soft blankets and snuggling into their mother's warm fur! Meanwhile, Jin Ling is fielding the older tiger baos because they tend to play rough, even with their youngest siblings.

[yustinamishka]

You know that scene in Turning Red? What if Jin Ling saw that lost and traumatized younger version of Jiang Cheng…

[montysoup]

Sobbing, crying and wailing. The fic I just read has made me feel more than I've ever felt. One moment I'm punched in the gut and the next I'm smiling hysterically.

Genuinely feel like I've been emotionally edged, it's sad enough to punch the feelings into you but happy enough to keep you from tears.

I'm breaking at the fucking seams.

I'm a second away from a breakdown. I'm a second away from painting thanks to the inspiration this fic has given me. I'm a second away from sleeping cause this fic was 180k words and I started it at 10am and just finished it.

This fic is 'Audience of one' by WinterDreams on ao3 for those interested!

[dephoraowo]

Jin Ling: I don't like people using my courtesy name.

Lan Sizhui: Why not?

Jin Ling: Because Wei Wuxian gave it to me! 😡🙄🤬

Lan Sizhui: Really? But I think the name that he gave you is quite beautiful ☺️

Jin Ling: Ew no! I would never use my courtesy name because of that. I can't believe he gave it to me, now I don't feel like using my name anymore!

Lan Sizhui: At least you get to use yours.

[haru-with-mdzs]

Reblog this post and state your favourite mdzs character + reasons in the tags

[travalerray]

this kid is absolutely his jiujiu's nephew

[fionnalovesanimeboysandholo]

Jin Ling crying because of his parents and Wei Wuxian walking up to him and comforting him got me 💔

[i-miss-lotor]

I just wanna say it somewhere so here I am, because Levi got to me again and I hate how much my heart aches for him and I hate it even more that I have an important-ish exam on Sunday but my god, I swear once I'm done with that, I will start rereading the manga and/or rewatching the anime and I will write him such a soft ending with Jiang Cheng in tow (because I already started a fic shipping them so damn right I'm finishing it). I want him to be happy and to love and be loved.

[inkwatersquid]

Like someone said, wwx death haunts Jiang cheng because it's like he choked him to death by his own hands and I think it's somewhat similar to how wwx feels about Jiang yanli death being by "his" hands

Jiang cheng's obsession is a lot similar to Lwj's refusal to burn the paper money or playing the inquiry because it's not that they think he will come back but more that they refuse to believe he is gone for good

I know that because the story takes place after wwx comes back jiang cheng's whole "i don't believe wei wuxian is actually dead i'm gonna keep obsessively looking for him" shtick got retroactively legitimized, but it is pretty important to remember that wei wuxian was in fact super dead the entire time and if it hadn't been for a depressed 20-something doing a suicide ritual, influenced to an unknown degree by a revenge plot that wasn't in play yet at the time of wwx's death, he would never have come back at all. And jiang cheng would've kept going "No! He's still out there I know it" for eternity with absolutely no proof or results.

Jiang Cheng, my man, what the fuck

[randomness-is-my-order]

while reading the books, i remember wei wuxian’s relationship with jin ling hitting me especially hard. i was crying when the whole stabbing thing happened. but i truly adore what becomes of them and do you know why? because jin ling does something the others could never, something miraculous really––he actually unlearns the prejudice he’s been taught to hold against wei wuxian. he meets wwx, full of disdain, slowly learning about who wwx really is and it has nothing to do with wwx’s outward appearance. and when the truth is revealed, the internal warring for jin ling is plainly portrayed and even if he does give in to a hate intermingled with grief that he has internalised towards this one entity (wei wuxian was never a person in his mind, just the ‘killer’ of his parents, a phantom, before the events of the book happened), you can tell his heart has already turned, that it will keep turning and that’s what happens. you have jin ling, an orphaned child, who hated someone whom his mother loved dearly, because that man caused his parents’ death but it is such a commendable thing that wei wuxian was able to create a space in jin ling’s heart and jin ling was able to accept it. it’s the way both jin ling & jiang cheng blame the death of their parents on wwx but only the former was able to see wei wuxian clearly and actually forge a bond of love with him.

it’s the fact that if ANYONE in this story can actually rightfully hold a grudge against wei wuxian, it’s jin ling, but instead this teenager decides that wei wuxian is much too good and that having him as an uncle is lovely, after all.

[sonchop]

yk, I think it's really funny (I'm about to cry) that in the s1 ep11 - s2 ep1, when cheng xiaoshi sees lu guang dying, he keeps his mind clear, fights well with the possessed qiao ling, not letting the red eyes guy harm her at the same time worries about lu guang and, as we later find out, also remembers the info (like he was able to tell the most important moments without hesitation). i mean, lu guang does look pretty dead at this moment, but xiaoshi is still holding up well, wow

meanwhile, lu guang, when he sees qian jin hurting xiaoshi... well, he's not just scared af, he immediately, I would even say, mindlessly rushes at qian jin (not even checking on xiaoshi lol (I think he understands that this shoot will not kill him but still-)

usually lu guang is the one who keeps his mind clear and calm in all situations, when cheng xiaoshi very often acts rashly and thoughtlessly driven by emotions (even if in the season 2 he is a little more rational)

but when danger threatens dear people..

lu guang is the one who will be ready to kill for someone who is dear to his heart, aaand xiaoshi is able to pull himself together and act consistently

I think it might also work with the "go back in time and save a life" thingie, like xiaoshi is able to resist his wish to dive back in time and save his bf, even if it kills him inside and all this because of lu guang's words and his own understanding what his actions may entail

(we don't know what he would do if he saw lu guang's dead body, but the fact is that he cannot allow himself to do something so serious with the flow of time)

while lu guang is ready to become the main hypocrite in the world, make irreparable changes in the flow of time, and take this sin upon himself, if only cheng xiaoshi would live.

so I wonder if this is because lu guang has already witnessed several deaths of cheng xiaoshi or is he initially more protective and emotional, but he's really good at hiding it?

[mxtxfanatic]

More out-of-text evidence that Jiang Cheng and Xue Yang are parallels filling the same niche in their separate personal dramas:

Everyone should know what Jiang Cheng’s keyword is without me saying it. In the beginning, I thought with with XY’s existence, Jiang Cheng’s negative energy would definitely seem skimpy. Who knew he became the ultimate superstar of the comment section?

—MDZS postscript, exr

Male Host: Okay, next question. A reader asked: Does Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian really have a friendly relationship? And was Jiang Cheng's actions really a result of hatred? What is the Jiang Cheng that you envisioned? Some readers dislike Jiang Cheng. MXTX: In my mind, Jiang Cheng does have some fans, and these fans are really vocal about him. So, I think there's a lot of people who like him. They don't treat him as the bad guy. And it's not just a simple friendship with WWX. I think their relationship is complicated, just like Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang....

—this interview

MXTX is constantly comparing Jiang Cheng and Xue Yang, even outside of the actual novel. While they are not the exact same character ("parallel" does not mean "identical," after all), Jiang Cheng and Xue Yang play similar roles in the story to certain characters close to them. There's a reason why this parallel seems to be the go-to on her mind. This comparison is intentional.

Xue Yang and Jiang Cheng are Parallels

I wanted to make sure I covered this in my Yi City arc reread since it became such a hot topic on my blog for a minute. Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang are not parallels; Xue Yang and Jiang Cheng are. Here are two quotes from each individual about their never-ending hatred and perpetual thirst for vengeance paid over and over in blood:

Wei Wuxian retorted, “He’s already a dead man. I’ve also died once. What else do you want?”

Jiang Cheng pointed at him with his whip. “So what? He can die a thousand times, or even ten thousand times, but it’ll never appease the fury in my heart! Since he wasn’t destroyed then, then fine! I’ll personally destroy him today. I’ll go and torch him now, then scatter his ashes in front of you!!”

–Chapter 23: Malevolent Part 1: Running into Gunpoint, taming wangxian

“If you wanted to avenge yourself on Chang Ci’an for breaking your finger, you could have just cut off one of his and been done with it,” Xiao Xingchen said in disbelief. “If you absolutely cannot get over your grudge, then break two, or ten! Or you could have even cut off his arm—even that would have been better! Why did you have to kill his entire family? Don’t tell me you think a single one of your fingers is worth more than fifty lives?”

Surprisingly, Xue Yang pondered this carefully for a while. As though he found Xiao Xingchen’s question very strange, he replied, “Of course. The finger was mine, while those lives were other people’s. No matter how many I killed, it wouldn’t have repaid the debt. It was only fifty or so people—how could it make up for my single finger?”

–Chapt. 41: Flora IX, fanyiyi

Both of them use their trauma to lash out at innocent people who have done nothing wrong to them: Jiang Cheng chasing after Wen Ning (who, in fact, aided the Jiang heir at risk to his own life) despite having already successfully murdered his entire family for the crimes of the long-dead Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao; Xue Yang chasing after the Chang Clan despite Chang Ping being the clan leader and not his father who hurt him.

At the same time, Xue Yang’s response provides a deeper look into why they have this mentality. “The finger was mine, while those lives were other people’s…” he says, “It was only fifty or so people—how could it make up for my single finger?” At the end of the day, Xue Yang and Jiang Cheng consider themselves above everyone and everything else, including laws and morality. In fact, this is their morality. In their world, they are justified in kidnapping and torturing people to death for reminding them of someone they do not like and are validated in annihilating whole clans because they consider an individual to have committed an offense against them. The lives of others mean nothing in their worldview; it is only their lives that hold any and all intrinsic value that must be protected at all costs.

[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

[letteredlettered]

Hi! I would love to read a JC and WWX post and how it is diff from what you’ve seen in western media!

I'd already started writing a JC post, so I wrapped that in to answer your question.

I follow a few JC fans so I see the backlash to the haters more than I see any haters, but apparently there’s some question in some people’s mind about whether Jiang Cheng loves Wei Wuxian, and I find that a little silly. That said, I think that to understand MDZS’s JC at all, you cannot just read the surface, so if you’re not thinking about him as a person or giving him any consideration beyond what other characters say and think of him, you’re not doing him justice. You’re also not going to see that he loves WWX and also loves several other people quite deeply, because a) JC's never going to be affectionate in his dialogue, b) JC's not going to even be affectionate in his body language or minor actions, and c) WWX, the main viewpoint character, is never once going to think about whether JC likes him or loves him.

Lots of posts have outlined better than I will how deeply loves not only WWX, but also his family, in particular JL. The short version is: JC’s his major flaws are all related to him loving his parents and getting shown very little affection in return—none at all from his father and only some in a backhanded way from his mother, usually in comparison to WWX.

As for Jin Ling, JC threatens him all the time, and even shoves him around a bit, but Jin Ling obviously adores JC and feels adored. JC is the one Jin Ling goes to when he's crying; JC is also the one who leaps to JL's side when JL is hurt. JL knows he's in trouble with JC when JL does something unsafe, but JL knows that his own safety is the most important thing in JC's life. Tellingly, JL rarely takes any of JC's threats seriously, and even tells other people said threats are bogus.

Then there’s WWX. Even while JC is berating WWX endlessly for making their clan look bad, he is literally carrying around WWX on his back. He is protecting WWX with everything he has. He sacrifices himself to the Wens to WWX won't get caught. After their falling out, after WWX lied to him for years and got their sister killed, JC still can't even stop himself from protecting WWX when WWX might get hurt by JGY's guqin string.

The guy is willing to throw himself on the fire for anyone he loves. Just heaven forbid he express any of it. But because he does not express love through speech, Wei Wuxian (who I will point out is a talker) doesn't understand this about Jiang Cheng—and this is shown to be a consistent flaw that WWX has. He also does not understand that LWJ is in love with him, despite LWJ defying all of society to follow him around and lift him onto donkeys whenever WWX gets droopy.

But I'd add the pretty much no one, other than Jin Ling, understands this about Jiang Cheng. If the cultivation world had understood JC, they would not have believed that JC and WWX had actually had a falling out. Part of the reason people don't know him is the same reason JC has such a terrible time with everything—WWX steals everyone's attention, praise, and fear wherever they go. No one is really looking at JC to admire his devotion or his loyalty, because WWX is there, doing it better than him, always. Imagine LWJ+WWX hadn’t defeated the Tortoise of Slaughter and had just been holed up in that cave for six days. All anyone would’ve talked about was how deeply JC must love his shixiong to make it back in such record time. It would all be “heroic rescue” this “unflagging loyalty” that. But instead, LWJ+WWX  had to really just steal the limelight.

In fact, the book is partly about the fact that people don't analyze people's actions too deeply. They believe what they hear. They believe what they want to believe. JC really can just say "I reject WWX" and they believe it. JGS can really just say "WWX is evil" and they believe it. Everybody says LWJ is perfect, so they believe he can't be a cut-sleeve who is in love with WWX. And WWX, who knows better than anyone that rumors aren't true, believes it too.

Even after WWX's death, JC's reputation is locked onto WWX. I do think this is JC’s own fault, given that he can’t accept his brother’s death and is obsessed with him but idk. Canon demonstrates that there’s a huge difference between what JC says he’ll do if he finds WWX and what JC actually does, and it’s not because LWJ is in the way. But no one really seems to pay attention to the difference between what JC says and what he actually does when the chips are down, except JL, so it’s no wonder everyone says he has torture dungeons, no matter how ludicrous that is.

I think what makes JC’s love for WWX particularly complex, and particularly incomprehensible in the eyes of the cultivation world, is WWX's position in JC's family. JC thought of WWX as a brother. He loved him like a brother. And yet JC was deeply aware that WWX wasn't his brother. JC's mom made sure that JC was deeply aware of that at all times, and you know what, so did his dad. And then, the rest of the cultivation world constantly talked about the fact that WWX was not a part of the family, that the Jiang Clan raised him like a son but he was really the son of a servant. MXTX expertly shows that this fact gets trotted out whenever WWX does something questionable--when WWX is brilliant, he's a lauded member of the clan, but when he is bad, he is of low-birth and adopted through charity. The truth is, it’s an unusual relationship for a world in which there’s a pretty big different between your clan (blood relatives) and sect.

How can JC hold both of these truths in his head? What makes it bearable for JC is that when they grow up, JC will be the Sect Leader and WWX will be his right-hand man; they will do everything together; they will be brilliant together; they never have to worry about blood or debt then, because then it won't matter whether they're brothers or best friends; the difference won't matter. They can both be the head of a family that they love. Except that doesn't happen.

JC’s parents die, and WWX disappears. I will, at this point in my understanding and credit to Jiang Cheng, say that the part about JC I find hardest to swallow is that he partially blames his parents' death on WWX. Yes, WWX stayed behind in the cave of the Tortoise of Slaughter to save LWJ, and yes, this meant that Wen Chao and WLJ have a particular grudge against him, which they use as partial excuse to attack Lotus Pier, but by god, that's a stretch. Lotus Pier would have been attacked anyway, and the fact that JC even partly blames the attack on WWX has far more to do with what his mom said about WWX showing off for the glory and bringing down the wrath of the Wens than it has to do with reality. YZY is going to say anything she can about how WWX being a hero with the Tortoise of Slaughter was actually a bad thing, because it's so fucking painful for her that WWX is a fucking legend when her son just . . . isn't.

As JGY points out, they were in fact the strongest sect once WWX comes back from the Burial Mounds and fights the Sunshot Campaign with JC. They could have been the power couple of JC’s dreams, but just as YZY pits JC against WWX, the cultivation world after the war pitted WWX against themselves and by extension, JC, and JC buys into it. I find this super understandable, and I think it’s pretty unfair to expect JC to be more understanding of WWX, given that WWX is constantly lying to him. Similarly, I think it’s pretty understandable that he doesn’t understand the plight of the Wens, given that WWX doesn’t explain it to him at all. From JC’s POV, WWX just leaves, at a time when JC really needs him, and he does it on a crusade for unrelated people—as though he never considered himself part of the family in the first place.

And you know what, that may be WWX’s POV too. He loves the Jiang family like his own family, but he’s also deeply aware that he is not blood. MXTX makes it very clear in canon that WWX felt that he owed the Jiang Clan, and not in the way you owe a family. That is—he doesn’t owe them his existence, but he thinks he does owe them his core and his cultivation. And he gives it all to JC.

I outlined above that the relationship between JC and WWX is unusual in the cultivation world given that they each feel like the other is family but are consistently reminded of the fact, and pressured to believe, that they are only sect siblings and that WWX is actually a subordinate. I also haven’t found many relationships like this in other media—though I’ll point out once again that my experience is mainly with western media. I think the closest things I can think of are stories in which the parties are of a different class but are raised together for whatever reason—because they actually are somewhat related but one of them has low class relatives, or because they were not as well-supervised in their youth but  one of them suddenly comes into money and is forced to leave his low-class BFF behind, etc.

Given that this relationship is unusual, you don’t see a lot of situations like WWX’s, in which WWX feels like he owes the Jiang family his golden core and then gives it to him. But there’s another element to this sacrifice that I’ve only seen in one other piece of media, and that’s the fact that WWX knows that JC can’t live without being special, and WWX thinks he can handle it.

There is so much in western media about brothers giving up their lives to protect their brothers (Supernatural), or even just giving up their dreams and ambitions so that their brother can follow his own dreams instead (It’s a Wonderful Life). But these sacrifices are always framed as “I love him so much,” or “It’s my duty” or “I couldn’t live with myself if he didn’t get what he wanted” and sometimes even, “I can handle the suffering and I don’t want him to live with it.” But there’s something about WWX’s “eh it’s not a big deal to me  and it is to him” or his “bro’s kinda petty and can’t get over himself, whatchu gonna do” that feels stupidly singular.

WWX never says it isn’t a big deal. He never said that it didn’t hurt or that he didn’t make a sacrifice. He never said JC was pathetic or a loser or anything that diminishes JC or makes him less than he is. What he says is that JC is always competitive and comparing himself to others, which is true. But the other sacrifices in fiction that come close are a little more “I don’t want you to have to suffer” or even “I’m strong, and you’re weak, so I’ll take on this burden for you.” Meanwhile WWX doesn’t think JC is weak, and while WWX doesn’t want to suffer, he certainly doesn’t want to suffer himself. The sentiment feels closer to “you need to feel special so I’ll make that happen for you,” and there’s something about it that is a little condescending.

I mentioned that I’ve only seen this kind of thing one other time, and it was in a baseball anime called Touch that aired in Japan in the 1980s. Touch is a story about twins, one of whom is smart, talented, and works hard. The other twin, Tatsuya, is good in school and good at baseball, but at first seems like a lazy guy who only cares about joking around and having fun. Then you find out he’s a genius and a one-in-a-lifetime talent, but just never bothered to focus on anything because he’s so stupidly good at everything that he would just show his brother up, and his brother cares about excelling and Tatsuya doesn’t, so he just…was careful to never apply himself to anything.

WWX isn’t Tatsuya, in that when they’re on an even playing field, WWX doesn’t really seem to have any compunctions about showing off. But as soon as the playing field becomes uneven, he also has no compunctions about destroying himself so that JC’s competitive spirit is satisfied. There’s something about it that has a flavor of “I’m better than you,” even if it’s never what WWX meant to communicate. No wonder JC feels like a clown.

Like, in the end, WWX kind of did make a fool of JC, even though WWX did it out of both love and loyalty. I'm not sure I've ever read or seen anything else where such a sacrifice has such ambiguity, and it really makes the WWX+JC relationship one of the most complicated I've seen.

[duohensheng]

@bichenique 💔💔💔 affectionately and carefully!! he is so nurturing!! he listens and cares!! all his peacekeeping is pared back to its roots of emotional intelligence!! he absoLUTELY sat at their level and chatted about what they cared about and soothed every ache and pain, and that’s literally canon (the way JL talks about him to wwx re. getting into fights 🥹 then standing side by side greeting people coming into Jin Lin tai!). everything’s fine nobody touch me

climbs back up on my xiao-shushu rights soapbox to AND ANOTHER THING all of you about cql episode 49: jin guangyao is still! actively worried about jin ling!! even after he's had his arm cut off and is actively bleeding out!!!

evidence: his expressions before and after wen ning manages to regain control of himself

so this is right after he's pushed jin ling to safety, then had his arm hacked off by lan wangji. he hits the ground, understandably disoriented and super fucked up, and su she has gone to him like the loyal henchman he is.

jin guangyao's attention is entirely fixated on wen ning and baxia, however, and is following wen ning as he makes that lunge for jin ling

special guest appearance by some funny facial expressions from jin ling and his jiujiu (who immediately puts himself in between jin ling and wen ning, of course, we love u jiujiu)

(first frame, they can't believe it's not butter, guys)

anyway once wei wuxian snaps wen ning out of it and wen ning literally claws at baxia's blade with his own bare hand to keep the sabre from cleaving jin ling in two, the camera snaps back to su she and jin guangyao. and here is jin guangyao's expression:

bleeding out from a grievous bodily injury and visibly relieved, imo, given how he sags against su she's side and the tension goes out of his eyes and around his mouth. obviously jin ling isn't completely out of danger, because no one will be while baxia is still out and about doing her naughty resentful sabre routine, but the immediate threat to jin ling's life has passed. but jin guangyao is relieved because he cares about jin ling and never wanted to hurt him.

this is not the same as not hurting him, ftr. jin guangyao absolutely did, physically (in cql) and psychologically. but that is what makes this whole sequence hit like a truck imo, because the love that jin guangyao holds for his nephew is real, and it isn't enough to stop any of this from happening. but it was real, and that matters, too.