#pei sijing x wen xiao

[mengyan]

re: that scene in the illusion where pei sijing was fighting zhen mei, i thought it was important for jingxiao nation (me and three other people) to know what exactly pushed pei sijing to keep going—

(illusion) from the hand where pei sijing grabbed the blade, blood flowed. zhen mei was caught off-guard. pei sijing: i will...... kill you! zhen mei: you actually... firmly, pei sijing said: i said so before... i can do it. (flashback) wen xiao: and you, pei-daren... are irreplaceable... (end of flashback) grabbing the blade, pei sijing gritted her teeth and stood. taking advantage of zhen mei's loosened guard from his shock, she snatched the dagger back and attacked him once more. zhen mei countered her. this time, pei sijing began to have the upper hand.

pei sijing is a force in her own right, a pillar of strength, a whirlwind— but even the strongest of warriors need support, and someone, something, who will remind them what they fight for.

yes, pei sijing is only a mortal, but still wen xiao sees her as more than that, she always has. she tells her that she is irreplaceable. there is no one else in the realms like her, and pei sijing will make sure to live up to that.

[zhoufeis]

The day breaks. Thank you for turning my dark night into dawn.

大梦归离 FANGS OF FORTUNE dir. Edward Guo, Luo Luo, Wei Nan China, 2024.

[usertoxicyaoi]

oh the way these 2 in veil of shadows are GIVING my journey to you yun weishan x shangguan qian vibes !!!!

[terapsina]

I'm so happy you're watching Fangs of Fortune. It totally has both big found family!vibes AND a looot of queer subtext, and I figured that was in your alley, hah! Been meaning to nudge you to this drama, but never got around to it :P

Not to paraphrase Joey Tribbiani but...

i went in because I was intrigued by a few gifsets of Wen Xiao and Pei Sijing I saw around. I know Significant Pining camera shots when I see them.

But it took me like... half an episode to realize OH they're pulling Significant Pining camera shots on...

...everyone.

Everyone everyone! (RIP, you flew before you could walk babes)

Everyone everyone everyone!

Everyone everyone everyone everyone!

Okay, that's all the everyones I've gotten to so far...

BUT... I already contain suspicions that this dude is included in everyone.

(also totally here for the found family, I'm just in relatively early days and though I feel the slow-burn they're taking that on too gradually for me to be able to comment on it yet).

[morweneledhwen]

While I'm still processing the finale I'm sitting here once again, head in my hands and staring at the wall, wondering how the hell this drama passed censorship. – Especially after all the things that happened in the last few episodes.

So my theories for why the three biggest queer coded relationships in Fangs of Fortune got through censorship are these:

- Zhao Yuanzhou x Zhou Yichen: was accepted because of Wen Xiao, whose existence seemingly made this look like a love-triangle, in which two guys are competing for one girl (everyone who has seen the drama knows this is not what actually happened, of course)

- Zhao Yuanzhou x Li Lun: was accepted because, well, Li Lun is obviously the bad guy of this drama, so how could there be love between them? (again, not my personal opinion, I'm just trying to guess what the reasoning here was)

- Wen Xiao x Pei Sijing: was accepted because they didn't have as many scenes in which they were close as the others ... and also, physical and emotional closeness between women is often seen and treated differently by society than that between men, let's be real

This just leaves Ying Lei.

Because we need to talk about Ying Lei and the entirely non-platonic crush he has on his best friend.

So I've read on MyDramaList that Bai Jiu was supposed to be older in this, but since the team was afraid that the relationship between Ying Lei and him wouldn't pass censorship, they made him much younger.

I don't know if this is actually true, but it would explain so much of Ying Lei's behavior towards him. I mean, of course you can interpret their relationship to be strictly friends-only, but in a drama as queer as this one I think it's only fair to consider all the options here.

Remember the 'cutting sleeves' comment when they parted for the first time on Mount Kunlun? By now it has become shorthand for gay love in Chinese media.

Bai Jiu refuses him in that scene, but that doesn't change Ying Lei's love for him. He can't help the silent jealousy when Bai Jiu prefers the company of other people to his, nor can he stop being there for him, preparing gifts for him and repeatedly sacrificing himself to protect him – and, finally, getting him back.

The way they had to pry Bai Jiu from Ying Lei's iron grip after he was saved in episode 30 really cemented that one-sided love for me.

So there could have been so much more to this relationship but since Bai Jiu is a kid in this, all the things he says and does to Ying Lei have been put in a completely different and much more innocent context.

But for Ying Lei, these feelings are still very much there, and I found it completely impossible to deny their existence.

[randomingoftherandomness]

Hello, a fic on pretty Zhuyan in Pretty Dress with jealous zyc and other members being protective fending off people ? 😅💖

A/N: I’m waiting for my meds to kick in so there may be some typos and shit here, but I thought I would take a stab at this while trying to calm my allergies ✌🏼 Thanks for the prompt Nonnie! Hope you enjoy this x

—

There was no way they were letting Xiao Jiu be the bait. Not when he had blinked so sweetly and tilted his head to ask them, “What’s a gentlemen’s club?”

Ying Lei was also out of the question because… Well. There’s no fooling anyone with that mane of his.

Herself and Pei Sijing are the wrong genders for this task, which left the toss up between Zhao Yuanzhou and Xiao Zhuo. Something that the demon quickly ended with a smile that was very much all-knowing and a curious sparkle in his eyes that never broke when he looked at Xiao Zhuo as he took the pile of clothes, and winked at the blushing commander of the Demon Hunting Bureau.

If Wen Xiao didn’t know better, she’d have thought that the great demon had some trick up his sleeve.

And when he finally emerged from the room all dressed up, the thought had stuck in the backs of her teeth. Even if the first thing that slipped off her lips was an awed, “Are you sure you weren’t born a succubus?”

Zhao Yuanzhou tittered at that.

Wen Xiao was sure that she had seen it all when it come to this strange mating dance between her old friend and the great demon — the little trinkets the demon likes to leave for Xiao Zhuo, the small teasings that were just as earnest as the quiet promises, or the lingering touches in battle that Wen Xiao isn’t even sure they both were aware they were doing.

All that and more, yet none of it could prepare her for the way Xiao Zhuo stood absolutely stock still at the sight of Zhao Yuanzhou veiled and dressed in the finest courtesan silk they could procure at such short notice. Pale fabric trails behind him as he walks right up to Xiao Zhuo and the in the weak autumn sunlight, Zhao Yuanzhou peers up with smiling eyes.

"Do I look pretty, Xiao Zhuo-daren?"

It takes a strong woman to resist the temptation to smack her brow when Xiao Zhuo promptly blushed a distinct shade of red at the way Zhao Yuanzhou eased his body against his own.

Certainly, even Wen Xiao herself isn't immune to pretty things, but the very obvious way that Xiao Zhuo is gawking and sputtering at the great demon proves that he is the right man for the job.

"If the two of you are very much done trying to commit acts of indecency in front of a child, let's get this show on the road." Wen Xiao delicately coughs into her hand, shaking her head at how Ying Lei's efforts to cover Xiao Jiu's eyes are met with the boy-genius whining that he has seen much worse than two people flirting, why thank you very much.

Taking Pei-daren by the hand, she leads their merry band of misfits out to the waiting carriage. But not before spying on the gentle softening of Zhao Yuanzhou's gaze and Xiao Zhuo's answering tilt of his head. There's a quick touch from the demon to Xiao Zhuo's wrist. Barely there before he is walking ahead and Xiao Zhuo is following behind with pursed lips and a determined grip to his sword.

Wen Xiao calculates the risk that there'll be some lecherous fool losing a finger or two tonight if they get too handsy with a certain commander's demon. Internally strategizing, she factors in the need to keep their Xiao Zhuo-daren calm and as un-murderous as possible when Zhao Yuanzhou inevitably flirts his way too close to the sun.

Honestly.

Was the great demon part nine-tailed fox or something?

[dearmyloveleys]

Idek what else to say at this point: the relationships (platonic/romantic) in fangs of fortune are SO GOOD

I’ll start off with my fave: baijiu x zhuo yichen. There is something so tragically beautiful about how zhuo yichen lost his older brother and got a younger brother in baijiu. He looked up to his older brother, and baijiu looks up to him. He is slowly learning how to be that older brother that was taken away from him

zhuo yichen x zhuyan: supposedly sworn blood enemies with a blood feud but exudes an immensely enemy to lovers 100k fic vibe. the bickering?? The fighting?? Lowk flirting?? They CONSTANTLY PICK ON EACH OTHER. don’t get me started on how zhuo yichen will have to kill zhuyan later on because of that blood feud.

lilun x zhuyan: ??? lilun is literally that bitter ex??? Jokes aside, the downfall of their relationship makes me cry. Their story is so lovers to enemies coded. It’s the never ending hounding from lilun, and zhuyan doesn’t help because he knows everything that has to do with lilun

pei sijing x wen xiao: why are they so cute together! cold grumpy & quiet x sweet warm & plucky,, they deserve more screen time! All their scenes with each other are so heartwarming tbh. No one talks about the scene where wen xiao writes on sijing’s palm to calm her down.

baijiu x yinglei: the brothers we never knew we needed. They’re so mischievous together I LOVE THEM

ofc wen xiao x zhuyan: are they besties?? a couple of besties??? Idek. If this drama is trying to pass off as het, this main cp isn’t too convincing for me but they’re cute! Would rather them be besties

zhuo yichen x wen xiao: literally the best protective younger brother and older sister duo

zhuyan x baijiu: nothing like a 30000 year old demon scaring the shit out of a 13 year old while also clearly harbouring good intentions, gentleness and care toward him.

And I really love qing geng x fei! I bawled my eyes out at their story

[mengyan]

call me crazy but the way one of wen xiao’s flowers made it into pei sijing’s arrow-filled waters… she really planted herself amongst those thorns and made a home out of them…

[mengyan]

mentally i am Always Here. btw

[mengyan]

i had been made into an archer, the shadows suiting me best; you were a sun-bright girl forced into immortality, eternal servitude to chosen sacrifice for the people.

i think the first thing you taught me was absurdity. no one that knew me ever dared— through these years i’d become as much of a man as the rest, and it was rare for someone to think of wanting me. not that you did— did you? did you want me, wen xiao, or did you not think so much and just trusted that i would catch you?

sleep was always restless when it came. the heartbreak in a-heng’s new-blue eyes always marked the end of my dreams, because i was too afraid back then to turn around and see the rest of him. one month was enough to grow sick of my chambers, and i retired only when i could no longer keep my eyes open.

but then: a forest, a sea. fog cleared and the ink of you kissed my palm, calling me awake.

xiao, for daybreak, but if i allowed my tongue to loosen just the slightest— xiao, for you.

was it then that i became unable to see much else? was it then when i started seeking you first in every room, your voice in every pitch, your hands, arms, fingers touching mine— and me racing to reach you before you changed your mind? was it then that my heart wavered, and i thought, perhaps, that the dark wasn’t so lonely after all?

i never intended to keep you. i knew your eyes strayed elsewhere— i always noticed you first, but so did he, and him, and everyone that has ever met you. the fate of a goddess, maybe, to be beloved by all, to spill her love as floods to the people— but i knew you had long found your home in the soul of one. bloodbound by contract, kindred through heart and mind— how often i’d find myself rushing to stand before you only for him to already be there. 

the place by your side was never meant to be filled by me. but wen xiao, i’m no less absurd than you taught me to be. i would pray to a false god if it would make you safer; i would shoot even at the heavens if they tried to take you. flesh and blood is all i can offer you— is it too much to let me shield you with it?

later the worst of winter stole away your beloved, your closest friend, but kept me. still alive, rosy-cheeked and frostbitten on my knees in front of you, but the snow might as well have buried me too. live with me, die with them— and you picked up the dagger.

what does that mean, wen xiao? what am i supposed to do about what that means? you pulled me from the abyss, but am i not worthy enough to do the same for you?

the cold began to cling to me. one by one we lost the best and bravest of us, and i could do nothing to stop it. i thought myself useless, a drag, but you took my hand and said, so earnest, so warm, so thawing— i need you. you wouldn’t lie to me, but how badly i wish it were the truth.

it had been at least four fortnights since i’d ceased being afraid, since the fears in my heart stopped festering. they never disappeared, but i could stare at them head-on now, knowing that what a mortal lacks is only the difference of a body. you said that you thought of me as irreplaceable, and so i believed that’s what i was.

a fool’s tenacity is, perhaps, the strongest of all.

i woke to everyone but three gone, your tears pouring from the skies. he left to him white streaks in his hair, horseback roaming, world seeking; he left to you an age-old vow on paper, in jade, an impermanent parting, a once-more isolation.

and you left to me not even a farewell.

how is it that the demon hunting bureau is fuller than ever yet so grave with silence? how is that what i guard is no longer home to anyone that used to live in it?

i must be going mad, sometimes, to hear bells that no longer ring, bickering that never ends, idioms i’ll never be able to correct; to smell food i’ll never taste again, wine i’ll never get to drink, sulfur from cases unsolved; to see golden eyes, the rustle of notebook pages, the swoop of a brush— and feel the lilt of you, so willing for me to stay.

and so, absurdly, ridiculously, stupidly— i’m still here, wen xiao, and this is how i’ll remain. come and see me just once, and ask me what i asked you. three hundred years in a sundial: was it hard? the rest of my life with only your memory to keep me company— i’ll answer you the same.

don’t you want to know what my big-as-him secret is? i’ll give you a hint: if you see him in the rain, i see you in stone. just as pillars hold up these roofs, this city— the cliff i hung from was too-steep, yet you held me by the soles of my feet, dug yourself into my palms, and said look up, pei-jiejie. dawn has come.

the morning will always return after night. but wen xiao, when will you?

[mengyan]

they are so important to me 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[mengyan]