#to be fair jiang cheng is also pretty hard to match

[sunderwight]

Thinking about Jiang Cheng being banned by the matchmakers.

Y'know one of the reasons why matchmakers would avoid taking on a client, even or perhaps especially a very high-profile one, was if they thought this person was pretty much guaranteed to fail at marriage. Matchmakers earned prestige via association, if they helped arrange good matches then they would earn credit and be able to hang their hat on it, but if the matches failed or earned bad notoriety then their reputations would similarly tank.

So now I'm thinking about the matchmaker whose career was salted and burned by the infamous pairing of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. Like with a ton of political matches before and after, the matchmaker's role would have largely been minimal since it was more of a politically arranged one than an open search. She'd just have to agree that of course the young man and young lady seemed suited, their backgrounds were both exceptional, they'd surely balance one another's temperaments in the long run, etc etc, then okay here's a list of good dates for them to get married on and here's the bill for the consultation.

But with such a high profile couple having such a notoriously unhappy marriage, that stamp of approval probably ruined the matchmaker's career in the long run. Even more if -- and this is certainly possible -- she was a high-profile matchmaker herself, and also helped to arrange Jin Guangshan's marriage to Madam Jin. Can you imagine? You go from being one of the top matchmakers in the region, affiliated with the Yu clan, rubbing elbows with high-level cultivators and probably also a lot of rich people and nobles from the secular end of things, only to have your reputation plummet and your livelihood destroyed within like ten years of people watching Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan's relationship.

This woman is probably a cautionary tale among other matchmakers. Like, if you can't be reasonably confident that this couple won't rip each other to shreds, just decline the job. Stick to safe clients, like that courteous Jin Guangyao and the demure Qin Su, don't take risky jobs like that odious new Jiang sect leader (takes after his mother, you know) or the bad luck Lans (they're always fixated on someone, and it's never a respectable match!).

[antebunny]

family dinner

Modern AU Jin siblings vs. Jin Guangshan (crossposted on Ao3):

Jin Zixuan leans against the side of his yellow Audi and checks his Rolex Daytona watch. Behind his car are the massive white gates of the Jin mansion, a massive complex with no less than four houses, two gardens, one lotus pond, a garage for the rest of his car collection, and a private movie theater in the basement. Normally, he would open the gates and let himself through, but tonight, Jin Zixuan has no intention of going down the lonely, two-lane road to the main house alone.  

The time is 7:18. He has only twelve minutes left, and no one is here. Jin Zixuan shifts nervously in his Stuart Hughes suit (Diamond Edition) and represses the urge to check his watch again. Instead of checking it, he worries until his heart is thump-thumping in his chest and all he can feel is the bitter cold air on his bare fingers. 

He’s twenty-seven years old, with a two year old son, and he’s still nervous about the coming dinner. He would be less nervous if his mother was coming, but she hasn’t been back to the Jin family home since she divorced his father almost a decade ago–long enough to see Jin Zixuan through high school–and he was not about to ask. Instead, he’d asked the rest of his family.

He’s musing on the meaning of family and obligation when the first car pulls up. It’s a white Rolls-Royce, and it carries a single passenger: Jin Zixuan’s younger brother, Jin Guangyao. His half-brother wears a crisp dark cream-colored Brioni suit, and he adjusts the small osmanthus flower tucked into the pocket when he straightens. 

“No one else is here yet?” Jin Guangyao questions, like he can’t see it with his own eyes.

“Not yet,” Jin Zixuan says shortly.

His brother continues smiling despite his terse tone. Jin Guangyao has never been anything but friendly to Jin Zixuan since he came into his life several years ago, which is why Jin Zixuan is half-terrified of him. The other half of him wants to intervene everytime his father so much as looks in Jin Guangyao’s direction, and half of the time he does, so needless to say, they have a rather complicated relationship. 

“I’m sure they’ll be here,” Jin Guangyao offers, still smiling sweetly.

Jin Zixuan isn’t so sure. Realistically, there’s no reason for all of them to come just to support him. The only reason Jin Zixuan is going, beyond the convention of his father’s annual dinners, is because Jin Zixuan is in fact aware of his skills in life. As of the moment, Jin Zixuan is the sole inheritor of his father’s fortune. Despite the number of half-siblings that Jin Zixuan apparently has, or perhaps because of it, he is confident that he will always be the sole inheritor. That is, unless Jin Guangshan decides to withhold the inheritance to remind Jin Zixuan that he is the only way Jin Zixuan can provide for his family. So Jin Zixuan needs the inheritance, no matter what A-Li says.

Which is why he’s standing here, on his twenty-seventh birthday, trying not to look too nervous as his brother calmly locks his car door. 

“Thank you for coming, A-Yao,” Jin Zixuan finally says, forced but sincere. 

Realistically Jin Guangyao knows that he can expect better treatment from his half-brother than he can with Jin Guangshan as the CEO of Jin Industries, but naively Jin Zixuan still hopes that Jin Guangyao has some room for frivolous things like brotherly affection and genuine kindness. 

Jin Guangyao puts his keys in his pocket and walks around his car to the gate. He’s not a moment too soon: a silver car rolls in after Jin Guangyao’s Rolls-Royce, and parks just a little too close for comfort. 

The first out of the silver car is Qin Su, from the driver’s seat. The gold trim and white hem of her floor-length evening gown trails over the edge of the car as she exits, and as she stands up Jin Zixuan realizes that she really went all-out. She’s dressed in white and gold, complete with a pink peony flower, and her hair and face indicates that she spent at least two hours getting ready. From the way she walks up to him in her white high-heels, Jin Zixuan knows that she knows that she’s stunning. If she wasn’t his daughter, Jin Guangshan would probably make a comment about it. He might anyway. 

“The new style suits you, A-Su,” Jin Guangyao says politely.

“Thank you,” Qin Su says, her pretty eyes flashing. “It’s what my mother wore.”

She doesn’t specify when, but Jin Zixuan winces anyway. “I didn’t think you would come,” he says helplessly. 

“And miss a chance to ruin your father’s evening?” Qin Su retorts, and smiles beatifically. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The last sibling emerges from the copilot seat. “It’s your birthday celebration, isn’t it?” Mo Xuanyu points out. 

He’s wearing ripped jeans, a tank top, and heavy black eyeliner and eyeshadow. Jin Zixuan wisely does not comment. Mo Xuanyu pulls on a black puffer jacket as he speaks, which makes him the only one with adequate protection from the chilly February temperature. He’s also the youngest here; Qin Su picked him up from his university on the way here. 

“Technically,” Jin Zixuan says instead. 

Mo Xuanyu shrugs and jams his hands into his pockets. “Then what are we waiting for?”

Jin Zixuan checks his Rolex again, and the golden watch hands proclaim the time to be 7:24. “We’re still waiting on a few more people who said they’d show up.”

 “Who?” Mo Xuanyu asks curiously, and it’s at that moment that a flaming red and black sports car comes roaring down the road, and Mo Xuanyu’s face lights up. 

The door is kicked open, and Jin Zixuan’s brother-in-law flings himself out. Wei Wuxian emerges in a black Armani suit, now the tallest person in their smallest gathering, and grins. 

“I didn’t know you were coming,” Mo Xuanyu squeaks, and Jin Zixuan holds back a wince. His youngest brother has the most embarrassing idol crush on Wei Wuxian, which is only embarrassing because–

“Mn.” Out of nowhere, Jin Zixuan’s brother-in-law (-in-law?) places himself in front of Wei Wuxian, straightening his white suit coat like it’s even a millimeter out of place. He glares Mo Xuanyu down, and Jin Zixuan goes from feeling embarrassed for his brother to feeling sorry for him. 

“You brought him?” Jin Zixuan complains to Wei Wuxian before he can stop himself.

“Where I go, Lan Zhan goes,” Wei Wuxian retorts. They’re already holding hands. Jin Zixuan hates this. 

Wei Wuxian’s husband levels his icy glare on Jin Zixuan, and suddenly Jin Zixuan is imagining that glare leveled at his father when Jin Guangshan inevitably tries to get world-renown bioengineer Wei Wuxian to work for Jin Industries again. Perhaps bringing him along isn’t such a bad idea after all. 

“It’s lovely to see you,” Qin Su offers, and the glare is gone, just like that. 

“But not as lovely as you are tonight,” Wei Wuxian says smoothly, and the glare is back.

Jin Zixuan pinches the bridge of his nose with two fingers and sighs. He’s so busy sighing that he almost misses the arrival of the last car, a violently purple Jaguar that for once is not racing around at nearly illegal speeds. 

“You’re late,” Jin Zixuan snaps, when the driver’s door opens. 

“I was helping my sister get ready, asshole,” Jiang Cheng snaps right back, slamming his door closed. He straightens the cuffs of his dark purple suit before opening the copilot door for said sister. 

Jiang Yanli ducks gracefully out of the car, and Jin Zixuan’s heart immediately goes gooey in his chest. He’s afraid that his face does, as well, because Wei Wuxian makes a disgusted face at him. 

She wears a layered dress of lavender and rose pink, and the skirts skim over the ground as she steps out of the car. In her arms, she carries a precious little bundle that Jin Zixuan loves with all his heart, and now he knows that his face has gone all gooey with emotions because his wife smiles at him, which really doesn’t help with the emotions. 

Jin Zixuan holds out his arms, and Jiang Yanli places their tiny baby bun in his arms. 

“I’ve finally got him sleeping,” Jiang Yanli says in a hushed voice, and for a moment there’s silence as everyone welcomes the newest, sleepiest, cutest little dumpling to their growing party. 

Jin Ling’s little face is puckered up even in his sleep like he’s thinking hard. Jin Zixuan’s small, sweet bao of a son is dressed in a matching pair of a white jacket and snowpants, complete with a white yarn hat that’s the size of his entire head. 

“It’s good to see you, A-Li,” Qin Su says finally, once the moment of silence has passed.

Jiang Yanli smiles. “You too, A-Su,” she says. “We should get the group back together one of these days.”

Jin Zixuan isn’t sure whether he’s terrified or pleased. Jiang Yanli’s friends from college are a force of nature, and given that they’ve gone on to become a rising neurosurgeon, an environmental scientist, an urban planner, and in Jiang Yanli’s case, a child psychiatrist, they’d be even more a force of nature now. 

“I wanna hold him,” Wei Wuxian says in a stage whisper.

Jin Zixuan directs his best glare at him, holds his sweet little dumpling closer, and prays that his wife won’t cave to Wei Wuxian’s puppy dog eyes. 

“I believe it’s time,” Jin Guangyao intervenes smoothly, swooping in before a fight can break out. 

Jin Zixuan shoots him a grateful look, even though he’s mostly sure that Jin Guangyao didn’t intervene just so that he wouldn’t have to turn his darling baby son over to his brother-in-law. 

“It is 7:30,” Qin Su agrees.

Mo Xuanyu cracks his fingers, grins wickedly, and then puts on a pair of black shades, just to match his black puffer jacket. “Let’s go ruin Dad’s night.”

“Can we not get him to call the cops on us?” Jin Zixuan asks, one step short of begging. 

“My dad is on speed dial in case anyone needs a ride,” Qin Su says, tucking her phone into her purse. 

Of course. The CEO of Qin Industries on speed dial. Though Jin Zixuan supposes that that move is fair, considering that Qin Cangye knows his daughter is going to Jin Guangshan’s house. 

“I think we have enough cars,” Jin Guangyao says.

“But let’s not burn the house down?” Jin Zixuan pleads. It’s true that he asked all of them to come, but please come, I don’t want to be alone with A-Li is not the same as please, I want to pay for damages. 

“No promises.” Wei Wuxian smirks. 

“Nothing that can be proven,” Jiang Cheng adds. Jin Zixuan belatedly remembers that he’d invited them because he knew they would defend A-Li if his father even looked at her funny. Which he might. God, Jin Zixuan hated his family.

“What else is family for?” Wei Wuxian retorts. 

Oh no. Jin Zixuan’s heart is going all gooey again, and this time it isn’t from the adorable sleepy bun in his arms. He furiously tries to force down a blush that heats his cheeks in the cold winter air. 

Jiang Yanli notices, because of course she does, and she steps closer to pat his arm. “He won’t burn the house down,” she says reassuringly. 

Jin Zixuan is privately still dubious, but he doesn’t argue. He turns to the grand white gates. Jin Guangyao stands on his left and half a head shorter, and Jiang Yanli stands to his right. His two other siblings and three in-laws gather behind him. 

Then, with his family dressed to the nines and ready for war, Jin Zixuan unlocks the white gates and sets forth to ruin his dad’s night. 

[melatovnik]

i wanted to make this quick wangxian fic rec post just so they don’t get lost. i asked for cute/funny fics and @manhasetardis​​ delivered. thanks teresa! ❤

housed by your warmth by scifi | rated E | 2K words

wei wuxian may never grow to enjoy mornings but he enjoys this, he really enjoys this – stolen time together, bodies reuniting, waking up before the world.

rainy season by scifi | rated T | 3K words

even rabbits deserve to stay dry (in which lan zhan brings all the rabbits to the jingshi during a summer storm and wei ying is pleasantly surprised)

The Thing Is by sunlightrefrain | rated T | 8K words

“What the fuck, dude.” Jin Zixun sounds mad. Oh, he sounds very mad. “Are you out of your fucking mind? I’ll get you fucking expelled.”

Lan Zhan, who doesn’t give even an ounce of a shit, only grits out, “Please, by all means.” Which, for Lan Zhan, is more or less the verbal equivalent of a fuck you and your ancestral home too. Wei Ying blanches.

Or; Wei Ying meets Lan Zhan when he’s seven. Nearly two decades later, Lan Zhan punches Jin Zixun.

Far Away You Are by cqlorphan | rated E | 17K words

Suddenly, it snaps into place. The weary way Lan Zhan has been holding himself is suddenly cast in a new, much more distressing light. Somebody is responsible for it, a real live, horrible, blind, stupid person. The combination of guilt, sadness, and anger that sets in all at once is hard to contain. Lingering wisps of resentment that remain from the night-hunt flock to him, like calling to like.

All four boys stare at him with wide eyes.

“Wei-qianbei,” Sizhui says. “You look...um…”

“Scary,” Zizhen breathes, beaming.

“Who has rejected Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asks.

Or; during one of his visits to the Cloud Recesses, the juniors strike a blow to Wei Wuxian's certainty that his feelings for Lan Wangji are one-sided.

Swipe Right by Bowandtie | rated T | 30K words

How not to use Chinese Tinder, a cautionary tale. (Or not, if you're looking at the end result.)

WWX made his life's mission to be matched with every weird people with hilariously bad profile pic on Tantan.

thoroughly in earnest by stiltonbasket | rated G | 3K words

The first time someone addresses him as something other than "Honored Master Wei" during an assembly, Wei Wuxian barely registers it.

He's never been one for titles, after all.

Ten years after his wedding, Wei Wuxian ascends as Chief Cultivator.

Somehow, he's the last one to know about it.

the And They Were Married And Had a Son series by yellowcarnations | rated G | 9K words total

Xiu Mei can see the gobsmacked faces of her classmates on the screen, some of them even have their mouth hanging open comically. She doesn't doubt that she is in a similar state herself.

Not only is Professor Lan is apparently married, he's married to Professor Wei, and they also have a kid together. Literally no one could've seen that coming.

neck deep with no way out by ericacea & SugarMilkTea | rated T | 29K words

There's a hickey on Lan Zhan's neck, and Wei Ying didn't put it there. Wei Ying's Plan For Gaining Lan Zhan's Affections™️ had not accounted for this. He sets out to discover who exactly has had their mouth on his friend's neck—and figure out how to get his plan back on track.

Friendly Fields, Open Roads by queensmooting | not rated | 12K words

She smiles. She scrunches up her nose. She sneezes a monstrous cloud of dark smoke in Wei Wuxian's face.

"Lan Zhan," he says lightly. "I think something's wrong with your baby."

Nothing But Trouble by brooklinegirl | rated E | 60K words

"I don't want to really date anyone. It's so stupid, I just need to pretend date someone until Jiang Cheng gets his act together, then go back to my own life." He stares at his empty coffee cup.

"Date me," Lan Zhan says. Then he looks at Wei Ying's empty cup. "Would you like another cup of coffee?"

"Always," Wei Ying says automatically. "But wait, what."

"I'll get you another cup." Lan Zhan rises smoothly from the table.

"No, wait, hang on." Wei Ying grabs his wrist before he can take the cup and Lan Zhan freezes up, staring down at where Wei Ying is hanging on to him. "Fuck, sorry, I'll—" Wei Ying hastily lets go of his wrist. "Sorry, I—what did you mean?"

"I can pretend to date you," Lan Zhan says. "You take it with cream and sugar, correct?"

like, comment, share & subscribe by detectorist | rated T | 22K words

“Come on, A-Cheng!” Wei Ying says. “Think of all the hapless youths who are watching hanguang_jun’s channel and being duped into thinking that’s what university is like! It’s not fair on the kids!”

Jiang Cheng appears to be entirely unmoved by this highly logical argument.

—

Lan Zhan runs a popular studytuber YouTube channel. Wei Ying decides to parody his videos. Things escalate from there.

play your love songs all night long by AlfAlfAlfAlfAlf & tardigradeschool | rated E | 2K words

Look, sometimes you meet a guy in college and become best friends. Sometimes the two of you spend a day babysitting objectively the best baby on earth, and that baby needs parents. Sometimes you get married to the guy (platonically!) and spend thirteen years raising the best baby on earth into the best teenager on earth. Also you share a bed. Also you're in love with him.

Wei Ying is pretty sure all that is normal. Lan Zhan agrees. Sizhui is... dubious.

like blue flame over my fingertips by tangerinechar | rated T | 37K words

Lan Wangji’s roommate is brash, noisy, messy, annoying, and — absolutely terrible at feeding himself properly.

(Or: food as a metaphor for love, featuring Lan Wangji’s A++ cooking skills, five times Lan Wangji cooked for Wei Wuxian, and one time Wei Wuxian reciprocated.)

and bonus fic rec from @themanfromnantucket​ (thank you! ^^):

Just say yes by edenwolfie | rated T | 10K words

Lan Qiren had never had a student he couldn’t improve, and Wei Wuxian would not be the exception, especially not now that his nephew was in love with the troublemaker. He would not allow history to repeat itself.

plus one more fic rec from me since i read this recently and loved it:

and there was only one tent by detectorist | rated E | 21K words

Lan Zhan gets into the front and Wei Ying hands him a paddle before getting in the back. The canoe rocks a little as they settle themselves.

“Comfortable?” Wei Ying says. Lan Zhan looks over his shoulder and nods. Wei Ying decides, abruptly, that this is probably the one of the best views he’s ever going to get in his life: Lan Zhan in the front of the canoe, wearing his baby blue baseball cap, bathed in sunlight, with the sparkling expanse of water all around them and the lush sugar maples in the background.

—

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan go camping.

[gusu-emilu]

To Sit Outside Your Door

Ship: Jiang Cheng / Wen Ning

Rated M, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Non-Explicit Sex, Feelings of Inadequacy, Demisexual Jiang Cheng

read on AO3 or on Tumblr below

* * *

The progress of Jiang Cheng and Wen Ning's relationship has been slow.

Too slow, Jiang Cheng is afraid.

Despite the time that has passed, everything still feels new. Jiang Cheng still feels uncertain of himself every time he sees Wen Ning, still struggles to believe that despite the mistakes he made in the past, Wen Ning actually...cares about him.

And although nearly everyone knows Wen Ning is living near in Lotus Pier and has been gifted his own personal garden, Jiang Cheng and Wen Ning have made no public display of their status. Jiang Cheng would feel less guilty about that if he could just manage to be more affectionate privately.

It seems like Wen Ning is always the one initiating, and it eats at him.

Wen Ning will slip into Jiang Cheng's quarters while he is standing at his bookshelf sifting through the titles, and Wen Ning will give him that look that means he's waiting for approval. So Jiang Cheng will blush and nod, and Wen Ning will wrap his arms around him, rest his head on Jiang Cheng's shoulder and smile smugly while Jiang Cheng tries and fails to continue sorting through his bookshelf.

On walks together at night, when they stop to look out at the lake and no one is around, Wen Ning will give another of those looks, and Jiang Cheng will let him intertwine their hands. Suddenly it'll be hard for him to start a new conversation, so Wen Ning will just mumble softly about what he's done during the day.

Even when they sleep together, it's always Wen Ning who comes to his room, always Wen Ning who asks, always Wen Ning who is the first to slide off a layer of clothing or lean over to kiss or huddle close for them to rest in each other's arms.

And despite all of Wen Ning's asking, spoken or unspoken, he seems to know not to ask to have sex.

After all, Jiang Cheng can barely initiate the small things. He just...freezes up. Gets nervous. Wen Ning must know not to push him.

But it's not like Jiang Cheng isn't trying. And he does get better at it eventually. The first time he is the one to suddenly lean in and kiss Wen Ning during a lull in the conversation, and Wen Ning is so surprised he can barely stammer out a response, Jiang Cheng swells with pride and warmth and, dang, maybe he's been missing out. He could get used to this. Normally it's Wen Ning making him speechless and then gently teasing him about it. It's...kind of nice to be on the other end. Not easier. But nice.

They progress a bit more, privately and publicly, and now sometimes when they go to the night market in the town near Lotus Pier, the villagers will see them with their shoulders touching, or see Wen Ning place his hand on Jiang Cheng's arm (one time it was the small of his back, and Jiang Cheng blushed so hard and shot him such a look of panic that Wen Ning had to hold in his laughter and decided not to try that in public again).

So, although it's going slow, Jiang Cheng thinks he's getting better at this whole...relationship thing. He still feels utterly inadequate, but maybe a bit less than before. And Wen Ning doesn't seem to mind the slow pace. In fact, he insists that he doesn't mind, says that he never expected to have a relationship like this because of what he is now (and then Jiang Cheng grumpily reminds Wen Ning that he is a who, not a what), so Wen Ning is already beyond satisfied with anything Jiang Cheng has to offer.

Of course, that doesn't stop the nagging voice of inadequacy.

In fact, Jiang Cheng is growing frustrated with himself recently. He's started having thoughts he hasn't had about anyone before. Urges, even. He is sure Wen Ning has them too, but Wen Ning has not asked to do anything more than sleep together half-naked, and Jiang Cheng is still not at the point where he can ask for even that much, despite wanting it every time anyway.

More days pass, and finally Jiang Cheng feels like he might be ready. He wants Wen Ning in a way that is more than just someone to talk to about sect politics and nephews and childhood stories, or someone to kiss in a boat on the lotus lake, or someone to curl up next to at night. For once, he will be the one to ask for a new step in the relationship.

He just needs to work up the courage.

Surprisingly, he gets it from the juniors, of all people.

It happens on a night hunt when he overhears one of their conversations. Jin Ling is absent, as he has some clan business to deal with, and Wen Ning is off visiting Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, so Jiang Cheng is left by himself to watch over the remaining three juniors. (After all, Lan Sizhui is now just as much Jiang Cheng's kid as Jin Ling is, although Jiang Cheng would never admit that beyond a few words.)

From what he overhears, apparently Lan Jingyi has a girl he is interested in and is looking for relationship advice. Why he is asking about something so frivolous on a night hunt, Jiang Cheng has no idea, but the hunt has been boring enough that he lets it slide. Besides, he's not supposed to be hearing this anyway.

Ouyang Zizhen immediately goes into romantic mode (he read a poem about this exact situation!) and tells Lan Jingyi that he should find out what the girl likes and ask her on a date full of things that will make her happy.

"But what if I get it wrong?" Lan Jingyi complains. "It's all just guesswork!"

"If she returns your feelings," Lan Sizhui tells him, "she'll appreciate your effort, no matter whether the date is perfect or not. If the relationship is meant to happen, it will be you she truly cares about, not what happens on the date. She would be happy that you've decided to come forward with your feelings."

Upon hearing that, Jiang Cheng just...sinks farther into the underbrush and tucks the words away for later, furiously denying to himself that he is taking advice from children.

The next day, Jiang Cheng finds some time in between his work to do a bit of...ahem...research. This isn't something he's thought about before. But if he is going to do this, then goddammit he's going to do it well. By the time he's finished his surreptitious research session, his palms are a bit sweaty and his face is a bit pink, but he might have a handle on how this is all supposed to go.

Then he sees Wen Ning carrying cargo for a villager and looking incredibly sexy while doing it (he's just carrying crates, why does he look like that?), and Jiang Cheng is sent hurtling back to square one.

Didn't Wen Ning used to be awkward and nervous when he was younger? Why does he always seem so steady and sure of himself?

Jiang Cheng decides to focus on what he knows he can do right. He knows which stories from his childhood make Wen Ning laugh (he's an awful storyteller—they always come out stilted and unembellished, but for some reason Wen Ning likes them), he knows which candles Wen Ning thinks are pretty (those stupid ones shaped like flowers), he knows which of his night robes Wen Ning thinks look best (he wishes he didn't, but Wen Ning is a bit too bold about sharing the little things he enjoys and it drives him insane).

He also knows that he can catch Wen Ning at sunset in his garden where he usually checks on the plants before going inside, and that if he follows Wen Ning to his quarters and hesitates in the hallway before letting him close the door...he will definitely come to Jiang Cheng's room later that night.

So Jiang Cheng gets all of those things ready.

And sure enough, Wen Ning shows up at his room. A bit earlier than usual.

What Jiang Cheng doesn't know is how to stop his nerves from jumping at every movement, but Wen Ning is nothing if not a calming presence (when he wants to be), so it's...okay. So far.

Wen Ning is in the middle of telling an animated story about a ghost sighting during his visit with Wei Wuxian, and there is one part that is apparently so important that Wen Ning needs to stand up and act it out. He's in the center of Jiang Cheng's room, smiling and making stiff, oversized gestures, and it's such a bizarre combination of endearing and awkward and attractive that Jiang Cheng can't focus on the story anymore.

Suddenly Jiang Cheng realizes that he's on his feet. Wen Ning stops and blinks at him questioningly.

And Jiang Cheng just...stands there. Staring at Wen Ning. Heart racing. He looks like an idiot, he's sure of it.

By some grace of the gods, Wen Ning doesn't seem to find it weird. Instead he steps forward and wraps his arms around Jiang Cheng and gives him a kiss that is much too short. "You interrupted me," Wen Ning says.

"...I know that." Wen Ning gives him a smirk that is just barely teasing, and it ignites something inside Jiang Cheng. "Got a problem with it?"

Wen Ning grips him tighter. "I do." He gives one of those looks, waiting for approval, and once he finds it he kisses Jiang Cheng again. This kiss is much longer, soon becomes much rougher. Jiang Cheng matches it, and suddenly everything feels a lot easier. This is like he has something to fight. He knows how to fight.

They kiss until Jiang Cheng is short of breath—which isn't fair, because Wen Ning never gets short of breath—and soon they wind up on the bed, Jiang Cheng on his back and Wen Ning straddling him.

Once Wen Ning pulls away and looks down, his hair slightly messy and falling onto Jiang Cheng's chest, where his hands are now wandering and sending shivers through Jiang Cheng's body, suddenly everything feels a lot more difficult again.

The farthest they usually go after this is to take off some of their robes and kiss longer and eventually settle down to cuddle.

How can he ask for more?

Can he even give more?

Wen Ning leans down and kisses him again, this time soft and slow and gentle, like he has a secret he is passing through Jiang Cheng's lips. When he pulls away, his expression becomes hazy, as if he is lost. His eyes focus on Jiang Cheng's lips.

He cups the side of Jiang Cheng's face, the pressure from his fingers unsettlingly light, sending a tingle all the way down Jiang Cheng's neck. Slowly, he traces his thumb over Jiang Cheng's lips.

By the time he lifts his thumb, Jiang Cheng wants to melt into the mattress and disappear. Or maybe jump up and run away.

Actually, he wants Wen Ning to do it again.

And Wen Ning does, gently brushing his lips a second time. Heat surges through Jiang Cheng, and he catches Wen Ning's thumb between his teeth.

Wen Ning's eyes widen. He freezes.

This is—this is—holy shit why did he do this Wen Ning's fucking thumb is in his mouth—

In a split second, Jiang Cheng's mind functions enough for him to realize he has two choices: let go, or do something more. It does not seem like he is going to be able to rely on Wen Ning to take the next step this time, because Wen Ning actually looks broken. He's staring down at Jiang Cheng with a mixture of terror and amazement, his lips twitching, his free hand pressing firmer into Jiang Cheng's chest, his fingers starting to dig into Jiang Cheng's robes.

A voice at the back of Jiang Cheng's mind tells him that this next move might very well get him killed—if not by Wen Ning, then definitely by his own heart malfunctioning—but he can't stop himself. He runs his tongue over the pad of Wen Ning's thumb.

A short gasp escapes Wen Ning. "Don't do that," he whispers.

Maybe the months of Wen Ning's gentle teasing has finally gotten to Jiang Cheng, or maybe he has a death wish, or maybe he is just possessed, but he runs his tongue over a longer path this time.

Wen Ning jerks his hand away. Jiang Cheng's heart is pounding. This feels like the calm before the storm, as Wen Ning glances back and forth between his hand and Jiang Cheng, his expression beginning to harden.

"I said not to do that." Wen Ning's voice is shaking.

Jiang Cheng swallows.

A sharp jolt as Jiang Cheng's back is shoved deeper into the mattress. Wen Ning has him pinned by the shoulders. "Tell me to stop."

Jiang Cheng bites his lower lip in as he stares up at Wen Ning, their gazes locked. There is a hunger in Wen Ning's eyes he has never seen before. He doesn't know if he is enough to satisfy it.

"Tell me to stop now."

"I'll decide when you stop," Jiang Cheng says through his teeth.

Wen Ning's eyes round, and suddenly his expression softens, the pressure on Jiang Cheng's shoulders lightened. "You...you will?"

Jiang Cheng's gut sinks. This is the part he didn't want to get to.

A strained tension returns to Wen Ning's face as he grips Jiang Cheng's shoulders tighter. "Then...then ask me start."

"Do I look like a beggar to you?" Jiang Cheng's nerves are at the point of snapping, adrenaline coursing through him. He would rather try to strangle Wen Ning than ask for this.

Wen Ning leans farther over him. His voice is stern. "If you don't tell me to start, I won't do anything."

Jiang Cheng was already hard before this point. Now his cock is throbbing. His breath is heavy. "Fuck you."

The curtain of silky black hair slowly falls on Jiang Cheng's chest and neck as Wen Ning lowers, drawing close to the side of Jiang Cheng's face. His lips just barely brush in front of Jiang Cheng's ear, softly stroking his cheek as if Wen Ning is mouthing words, but no sound comes out.

Finally, his voice a tangled breath, he whispers into Jiang Cheng's skin, "What does that mean?"

There is no way out. No alternative. He knows how stubborn Wen Ning can be.

He shuts his eyes tight. "...Fuck me."

With a sudden force, Wen Ning grabs Jiang Cheng's wrists and pins them to the bed, then buries his face in Jiang Cheng's neck, scrapes his teeth all the way down to his collarbone. Climbs back up to Jiang Cheng's lips and kisses him while fumbling with his robes, beginning to open them.

They've barely started, and Jiang Cheng is already overwhelmed, each touch sending a rush through him. Wen Ning seems to want to do everything at the same time, and Jiang Cheng feels a pang of guilt as he wonders how long Wen Ning waited for this.

That thought is wiped away when Wen Ning lifts up from Jiang Cheng and begins carefully untying his robes, glancing into Jiang Cheng's eyes once in a while as if to check that he can continue. Meanwhile Jiang Cheng does his best to avoid Wen Ning's eyes.

Once Jiang Cheng is fully naked, his already-obvious erection plain to see, while Wen Ning is still clothed, he realizes that this really was a death wish. His entire body is burning.

Wen Ning strokes his cheek, trails his hand all the way down his torso, comes to a pause. "I'll be right back." He hesitates, then gets up from the bed and disappears.

The wait is agonizing. If Jiang Cheng's body was on fire before, now he feels like he is slowly freezing into ice as he lies on his back, alone, mind racing.

When Wen Ning returns, there is a small bottle in his hand, and his robes are...gone.

Well, fuck.

It's not like Jiang Cheng hasn't seen Wen Ning shirtless before. He has.

But now he can see how the black veins stretch over his lower abdominals, over his hips, like dark trails begging Jiang Cheng to dig his fingers into them, and he can see how Wen Ning is bigger than he expected...

The rest goes surprisingly smoothly. Wen Ning tells Jiang Cheng exactly what to do (which sends Jiang Cheng's thoughts wild with the implication that Wen Ning might have experience?), and Jiang Cheng manages some garbled noise of assent at each step.

The one problem is that they're facing each other, and Jiang Cheng doesn't know if he can handle being this seen for much longer.

"You feel so good," Wen Ning murmurs.

Jiang Cheng's breath gets stuck in his throat, and he makes a noise that definitely does not sound like a sect leader.

Wen Ning runs his hands along Jiang Cheng's sides, his chest, his hips. There is a deepness in his eyes, and Jiang Cheng feels like he is being pulled into it. "I...I like how you feel."

He sounds so sincere that it sends a rush of warmth from Jiang Cheng's face to his fingertips to his cock and nearly sends him over the edge.

He instantly flushes with embarrassment. He can't come already, they've barely even started—

Wen Ning slows his movements, almost pausing, and opens his mouth as if he is going to say something else.

"Shut up," Jiang Cheng snaps.

"You're—"

"Shut up."

"You're so perfect—"

Jiang Cheng's cock throbs. His face is on fire. "Shut up and get on with it!"

Wen Ning does not get on with it. Instead, he just stares at Jiang Cheng, the corners of his lips turning up into a smirk.

"Don't fucking smile at me!" Wen Ning's smirk grows wider, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Jiang Cheng can't take it. He hides his face in his hands. "Goddammit, Wen Ning!"

He feels Wen Ning dotting kisses over his stomach. He presses his hands harder against his face and shuts his eyes tight.

The rest is...fucking good. Sometimes Wen Ning says a few more things that make him want to go hide at the bottom of the lake, but thankfully he only uses them sparingly, and at last both of them are spent.

They lie on their sides facing each other, long-held tension released from Jiang Cheng's muscles and his eyes beginning to close with the lingering weight of release. Wen Ning tucks a strand of hair behind Jiang Cheng's ear. "I like seeing you this way, when you're tired. Relaxed."

"Stop looking at me."

A soft laugh. "Okay." He scooches closer and places his hand behind Jiang Cheng's head, gently guiding him forward to curl up in Wen Ning's arms.

"...That was...nice."

"I think so too." Wen Ning hugs him tighter. "I'm glad we could share this."

Jiang Cheng melts farther into his embrace and closes his eyes.

"You know...I'm happy whether we do this or not."

Jiang Cheng pulls away to meet his eyes.

"Really." Wen Ning's gaze is gentle. "Even if we never did, I'd still be happy."

A smile tugs at Jiang Cheng's lips. He buries his face in Wen Ning's chest to hide it. "We...could do it again. Maybe. Sometime."

"Only if you want to," Wen Ning says softly. "Just holding you is more than enough already."

He pulls Wen Ning closer.

Enough.

He might not feel this way tomorrow, but right now...he might believe it.

* * *

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this story, you can be a supportive sibling like Jiang Yanli by visiting me on AO3!

[ibijau]

a prompt (a/b/o, bc i like how you write it): the sunshot campaign has just ended, and nie huaisang is looking forward to a future in which he can devote himself to wooing lan xichen. the match would be a little scandalous—it’s rare for an alpha to marry in, as nie huaisang intends to—but alpha-beta pairs are perfectly normal, and lan qiren is certainly more accepting of his first nephew’s crush than of lan wangji’s. less than three weeks into peacetime, however, nie huaisang’s plans hit a massive snag: jin zixuan has presented as an omega, removing him from the jin line of succession (and nie huaisang cannot help but be a little offended by that, on da-ge’s behalf—omegas can lead just as well as anyone else! the jin succession tradition is just stupid). but that’s the way things are in the jin sect, and so madame jin is scrambling to put together a marriage to get her son out of lanling before the worst happens... and the top two candidates on her list just so happen to be lan xichen and nie huaisang himself.

hello and welcome to: I like that prompt a little too much and got carried away, so now it’s 8K long. Also on AO3

warning for some mentions of rape toward the end of the story

Nie Huaisang’s plan starts when, at the tender age of eleven, he is introduced to the boy who doesn’t yet go by the name of Lan Xichen and is about to become his brother’s closest friend. Nie Huaisang, young as he is, decides that this is his true love, and of course he must ensure Lan Huan and him have the most perfect future possible together. He learns about Gusu Lan, reads as many books as he can, educates himself in the four arts, and even makes a vague effort to somewhat improve his cultivation, all so he can be the perfect spouse for a future sect leader.

A little after turning fourteen, Lan Xichen presents as a beta. It is a small deviation from Nie Huaisang’s plan, who was firmly expecting his beloved to be an alpha, but that is no big problem. Lan Xichen is Lan Xichen, he is the most perfect person in the world. Details don’t matter too much.

Another deviation from Nie Huaisang’s plan occurs when, a few days short of his own fourteenth birthday, he presents as an alpha. That, of course, is an absolute disaster. Nie Huaisang doesn’t want to be an alpha. Qinghe Nie is full of those, and he isn’t too impressed with them. He is on the brink of a complete meltdown when he figures that if his brother can be an omega who has all the qualities of an alpha, then surely he can be an alpha living the easy going life of an omega, including marrying into another sect. 

Of course Nie Mingjue isn’t very happy that Nie Huaisang refuses to behave like a proper alpha, like a proper Nie, but he can hardly make an arguments against that choice without undermining his own position, so it doesn’t matter. Nie Huaisang cheerfully goes back to planning his happy future, researching cases of an alpha marrying into another sect. There are more of those than he would have expected to find, and though it is mostly alpha marrying other alphas, Nie Huaisang now knows he can rest on a precedent to argue his case.

With all this settled, the hardest part of his plan begins: seducing Lan Xichen.

It is easy enough to be sent to the Cloud Recesses to study there. A little too easy, really. Nie Huaisang suspects that his brother wanted him to go there anyway just to have some peace, and in hopes Lan Qiren might straighten him out a bit. Nie Huaisang doesn’t mind though, since it gives him a chance to be close to the love of his life. He also doesn’t mind his dreadful grades which give him a good excuse to spend time with Lan Xichen, begging him to help. Lan Xichen, generous and kind and patient and perfect in nearly every aspect, as well as eager to be a good friend to Nie Mingjue, even by proxy, of course agrees and allows Nie Huaisang to spend far more time in his room than is probably reasonable.

It would be a little scandalous really, but when Lan Qiren once tries to raise the issue in front of his nephew, Lan Xichen just laughs gently.

“Huaisang is nothing more than a little brother to me,” he says. “How could anyone think any different?”

It is a hard blow to Nie Huaisang’s fragile teenage ego, and a new setback to his perfect plan. At the same time, he has been in the Cloud Recesses for almost half a year by now, and has already guessed that this is how Lan Xichen sees him. Two years of difference won’t mean much once they are adults and married, but right now it is a pretty big gap.

Having accepted this, Nie Huaisang changes his plan again, but not his goal. If all Lan Xichen needs from him at the moment is a less stuck up little brother than the real one, Nie Huaisang will be happy to provide. He likes making Lan Xichen laugh anyway, and it’s obvious that Lan Xichen enjoys having someone to guide and teach in a way Lan Wangji won’t allow.

He can be patient, when he needs to be.

He can also be exactly as stupid as the situation calls for. It’s easy as anything to completely fail his exams. Lan Qiren almost has a qi deviation on the spot after reading Nie Huaisang’s final test, and Nie Mingjue is furious, but he can deal with that just fine, as long as he gets to come back another year in the Cloud Recesses and make sure nobody else can seduce the love of his life before puberty fully hits and gives him his fair chance.

-

That second year in the Cloud Recesses proves to be a test of Nie Huaisang’s determination in ways he hadn’t expected.

In his defence, the world has many more pretty boys than he ever realised.

Lan Wangji, heinous little bitch that he is, got hit hard by puberty in the short time that Nie Huaisang went home. He’s suddenly a head taller than Nie Huaisang, and looking every bit the alpha that he is even though he’s a year younger. Nie Huaisang is devoured with envy because just two months ago, Lan Wangji was just a baby, but suddenly he is very, very handsome.

Then, there’s the other guest disciples as well. Most are pretty decent looking, but some stand out from the crowd. Jiang Cheng has a bone structure to kill for, sharp eyes, and his rare smile is as radiant as sunshine on the lingering snows of spring. And everywhere he goes, Wei Wuxian follows, tall and more graceful than any boy of fifteen has any right to be. They make a stunning pair of alphas, really, to the point that it worries Nie Huaisang when the three of them strike a friendship of sorts. First, because there’s a few times when he finds himself wondering what it’d be like to kiss one of them, which is an awful betrayal of his one true love Lan Xichen. Second, because his looks are already inadequate to begin with, so hanging out with those two only makes him look even plainer by contrast.

What Nie Huaisang needs, he decides after a few weeks, is someone less pretty than him to spend time with, so he’ll look somewhat handsome next to them. And so, after some brief consideration, his great plan changes again to adapt to this new situation.

Nie Huaisang becomes friends with Jin Zixuan.

Well, saying they’re friends might be pushing it. Instead, Nie Huaisang forcibly spends time with Jin Zixuan, when Wei Wuxian is being punished by Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng is studying, and Lan Xichen is too busy as well. It’s rather clear that Jin Zixuan isn’t very enthusiastic to have company. Quite frankly, Nie Huaisang wouldn’t have picked him as a companion either, if he’d had a choice. Jin Zixuan is haughty, has no conversation, no humour, a bad personality, and is just all around boring. He is also tragically baby faced, hasn’t even presented yet, and has nothing to recommend him except for the fact that his father is sect leader. It is practically a charity case. Indeed, when Lan Xichen hears that Nie Huaisang has been trying to become friends with Jin Zixuan, he congratulates him on it.

“I think he is a rather lonely person, isn’t he?” Lan Xichen remarks. “I’m glad you’re trying to help him. Hopefully you’ll help him relax a little.”

“Like I do with you, Xichen-gege?” Nie Huaisang boldly asks.

Lan Xichen laughs a little awkwardly, and Nie Huaisang could swear there’s a spot of colour on the older boy’s cheeks.

“I suppose I do relax when I’m with you. Are you thinking of replacing me, now that you’ve found a friend more your age?”

“Of course not,” Nie Huaisang earnestly promises. “Xichen-gege will always be the most important person for me!”

Lan Xichen smiles gently at him. “You are a good boy, and I’m sure your brother will be proud of you. I know I am.”

Hearing this, Nie Huaisang nearly faints from happiness. Just for this, it’s worth it to put up with Jin Zixuan.

But in fairness, as weeks pass, Nie Huaisang finds it a little easier to be around Jin Zixuan. The other boy mellows a bit, like a wild beast being slowly tamed. And once Wei Wuxian leaves, Jin Zixuan suddenly isn’t so prickly anymore, now that nobody is constantly taunting him and picking fights with him. He even has a sense of humour, when you know how to spot it. The first time Nie Huaisang bursts out laughing over a muttered remark Jin Zixuan made, it’s hard to say who is most surprised.

Besides, Jin Zixuan is one of the few people Nie Huaisang has met who doesn’t judge him for not striving to be a perfect alpha. Just like Lan Xichen, Jin Zixuan is surprisingly accepting of Nie Huaisang’s peculiarities.

“I prefer someone like you over some alphas who act right in public, then do everything wrong in private,” Jin Zixuan says with open disdain one day, as they walk in a garden of the Cloud Recesses.

It is a beautiful summer day, and the school year is almost over, which makes Nie Huaisang rather sad. He had planned to stay another year, still to make sure that nobody else makes a move on Lan Xichen, but he’s starting to think it will be lonely without the other friends he’s made.

“Well, I’m hardly much of an alpha in private too,” Nie Huaisang argues.

Jin Zixuan shrugs. “Not in the typical way. But you’re very protective of the people you care about, right? And you like to make people feel included. Like me and Lan gongzi… even Lan er-gongzi, when he lets you. You really don’t like when people seem lonely, do you?”

A little embarrassed to have such kind motives assigned to his actions, Nie Huaisang doesn’t reply right away. He pretends to inspect some gentians near Jin Zixuan’s feet, admiring how the deep blue of the petals contrasts rather beautifully against the gold of Jin robes.

He can’t explain that he’s always around Lan Xichen because he’s madly in love with this perfect boy, or that if he’s nice to Lan Wangji, it’s mostly just because they’re going to be in-laws someday. Above all else, he absolutely can’t tell Jin Zixuan why he decided to start spending time with him, mostly because he’s changed his mind so much since then. Jin Zixuan really isn’t boring after all, and he’s not quite so plain after all. Even if his face is still a little too round and soft for his age, there are signs here and there of what a handsome alpha he will be one day. Out of everyone he's met this year, Jin Zixuan is Nie Huaisang's favourite new friend.

“Jin-gongzi is giving me too much credit,” Nie Huaisang says at last. “I just wanted a friend less annoying than Wei-xiong, and you happened to be there.”

“Is that why you only call me gongzi, when you’re never this formal with others?” Jin Zixuan asks, sounding… not quite hurt, he has too much self control for that, but still…

Well, still a little bit hurt, actually.

“I know how your sect likes formality,” Nie Huaisang explains. “I just don’t want to disrespect you.”

“The Lan too are very formal, but you call Lan Xichen ‘gege’ all the time.”

“Oh that’s different, that’s just because he’s my da-ge’s friend!” Nie Huaisang lies. “We’re close enough the two of us, so it’s fine to call him like that.” An idea hits him, and he leans toward Jin Zixuan with a wicked grin. “If you’re so jealous though, I can call you Jin-didi. Would that work for you?”

In an instant, Jin Zixuan’s face turns a bright red and he splutters in anger. Nie Huaisang can’t help laughing at that cute reaction.

“Who says I’m jealous?” Jin Zixuan explodes. “What’s there to be jealous about?”

Nie Huaisang pokes him in the ribs, still laughing. “Jin-didi, it’s fine to have a crush on an older boy, it’s normal! I understand, I really do! Thank you, Jin-didi, for entrusting your heart to me!”

“Stop calling me that!” Jin Zixuan shouts, so mortified that he’s nearly crying.

“Jin-didi! Don’t worry, this Nie-gege doesn’t mind at all. It happens, it’s because you’re probably going to present as an alpha soon, and so you’re looking for role models around you. I am so flattered, Jin-didi. It will pass though, everyone grows out of it, don’t worry.”

Jin Zixuan’s face is so red that he looks sunburned, and the dot of cinnabar on his forehead looks almost pale compared to his face.

“You’re so stupid,” Jin Zixuan hisses, shoving Nie Huaisang to the side and stomping away. “I don’t know why I even put up with you, you’re even more annoying than Wei Wuxian!”

Nie Huaisang is too breathless from laughter to stop him from leaving. It’s for the best anyway, Jin Zixuan looked like he might pick up a fight with him for offending his dignity like this, and Nie Huaisang doesn’t feel like being punched in the face.

Still, from that day on, he makes sure to call Jin Zixuan ‘didi’ every chance he gets, just because he makes such funny faces.

-

Nie Huaisang passes his exams at the end of the year, because Lan Xichen told him that Nie Mingjue really doesn’t want him to be away from home this long again, not when the Wens have been acting up lately. For a second, Lan Xichen seems a little sad when Nie Huaisang promises to do his best, but it must just have been a trick of the light. When Nie Huaisang blinks, Lan Xichen’s expression is warm and polite and slightly impersonal, as always.

It’s fine anyway, Nie Huaisang figures. They’re sure to meet again soon. And when they’re married, Nie Huaisang will be able to stay in the Cloud Recesses for good, and they’ll be happy, and Nie Mingjue’s paranoia won’t ruin all his plans anymore.

-

It turns out that Nie Mingjue’s paranoia was, in fact, justified all along.

That’s not such a big surprise, Nie Huaisang must admit. Others tend to think his brother is stupid, but he knows better. Nie Mingjue might be a big brute, but he’s a clever one who understands politics better than anyone would suspect. He doesn’t care to play the game, but he knows the rules and he watches the moves made by others. For years and years he’s tried to warn others of the troubles he’s guessed were coming, but no one listened.

Well, they’re going to listen now, Nie Huaisang figures as he makes his way to Nightless City to serve as hostage with other disciples of Qinghe Nie. It’s kind of hard to ignore when every young master or mistress from every sect in the country is being held and re-educated by Wen Ruohan’s minions.

The whole time they’re there, Nie Huaisang tries to play it cool, like none of this affects him. He’s somewhat lucky because the Wen don’t seem to realise that he’s an alpha, and so they barely pay attention to him, while they endlessly bother Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and even poor Jin Zixuan who hasn’t even presented yet. These four get harassed daily about this and that. Their attitude is too rebellious, or too tame for proper alphas. They try too hard, or not hard enough. They’re too skilled and clever, or else they’re playing stupid and clearly trying to mock Qishan Wen.

In fairness, all of these accusations are absolutely true when it comes to Wei Wuxian. But even if he were to behave properly, Nie Huaisang suspects the Wen would find some fault with him.

Nie Huaisang watches all that and tries to stay out of it. The most he can do, anyway, is to offer the medicine he secretly brought with him (his brother insisted, and he was right as always) and to share his portion of food with his friends whenever they’re denied a meal. At least, when they accept. Jiang Cheng does sometimes, unless his pride gets in his way. Wei Wuxian usually refuses and boasts that he’s been wanting to practice inedia for a while anyway. Lan Wangji isn’t so loud about it, but does the same. Poor Jin Zixuan, though… even when he’s given his own portion of food he always seems hungry, so the days when he must do without are particularly hard on him. He still tries to refuse when Nie Huaisang wants to share, but in his case, Nie Huaisang doesn’t hesitate to insist.

“You’re going to present soon, aren’t you?” he whispers, pushing his bowl of bland, watery congee toward Jin Zixuan who nods miserably. Nie Huaisang remembers the horrible hunger he felt for a few weeks before presenting, when his body was hard at work preparing for the big changes that were coming. Even with all the food he could ask for he’d been starving, so he can’t imagine how much Jin Zixuan must be suffering. “You have to eat, Jin-didi,” he orders. “Please, eat something, or else your Nie-gege will be sad.”

It says a lot about Jin Zixuan’s state that he doesn’t even object to being called this way. Nie Huaisang lets Jin Zixuan have both of his meals that day, explaining that he actually has snacks hidden along with his medicine.

It’s not his best lie, but it does the trick that time, and the following ones as well.

After a week of this, Nie Huaisang is starting to feel a little unwell. His golden core just isn’t very strong, and cannot sustain him through inedia the way it would for others. He’s always known this, there’s just something not quite right with his meridian which means cultivation doesn’t come easy for him. Usually it doesn’t bother him, but after eating so little for several days, of course there’s side effects… but someone has to take care of Jin Zixuan, right?

It’s almost a relief when they’re told one morning that everyone is going on a Night Hunt. It’s not the first one Wen Chao took them on, and while it’s unpleasant to fight creatures without weapons, at least they’ve always been given better rations.

In the end, good rations feel like a poor trade for what happens on that Night Hunt. Nie Huaisang has never been so terrified in his life, except when he was eleven and his father lost his mind… although this is worse, so much worse. His father wounded some people, but he didn’t kill anyone the way that false Xuanwu does, slaughtering anyone it can grab before they manage a daring escape, thanks to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian. Nie Huaisang, who is a fairly decent swimmer, ends up helping Jin Zixuan through the underwater passage, since the other boy is starting to look really unwell. He hasn’t been hurt, thankfully, but it’s clear he’s close to presenting. He must have only a few days left at best, or more likely a few hours.

Maybe that’s why even after they’re safely out of the cave, Jin Zixuan won’t let go of Nie Huaisang’s hand, why he leans so heavily against his side. Nie Huaisang allows it all. He probably should hand Jin Zixuan over to the Jin disciples present, but if they were trustworthy, Jin Zixuan would already have gone to them for comfort, wouldn’t he?

“It’s okay, Jin-didi,” Nie Huaisang tells the other boy while putting his free hand on Jin Zixuan’s forehead. He’s burning, and this is really the worst time and the worst place to be presenting, but it’s going to happen anyway. “I’m here with you. We’re going to get you home, and then you’ll be safe, right?”

Jin Zixuan nods weakly. “Thank you, Nie-gege,” he whispers, and Nie Huaisang’s heart does somersaults in his chest at being called that. It makes him want to keep Jin Zixuan close, to really protect him from anyone that might hurt him.

It’s a stupid idea, of course. Jin Zixuan is about to present, and when that’s over, when he’s an alpha, he’s never going to need anyone’s protection again. What’s happening here won’t last very long.

Nie Huaisang figures it’s fine to enjoy this while it’s there. He’s sure Lan Xichen, if he’s still alive, will understand that even an alpha as weak and pathetic as him needs to feel protective here and there.

-

It takes a long, long while to go home on foot. By the time Nie Huaisang and the other Nie disciples reach Qinghe, a war has been declared against the Wen because they’ve attacked the Lotus Piers and annihilated the entirety of Yunmeng Jiang. Nie Huaisang cries upon hearing this, because Jiang Cheng was fine when he last saw him, because it’s unfair that Wei Wuxian was rescued from that cave only to die like this anyway.

He cries also because Nie Mingjue is going to risk his life, because there’s still no news from Lan Xichen.

He cries because he won’t even be able to help his brother, and is to be sent to the Cloud Recesses where he’s less likely to be captured and used as a hostage again.

He cries because that’s all he’s good for, apparently.

-

Lan Xichen is alive.

Nie Huaisang cries when Lan Qiren tells him, and then doesn’t shed a single tear again and sets to work to be of some use in this war they’re fighting. The husband of a sect leader must be a useful person after all. Lan Xichen will have to deal with so many responsibilities, much earlier than he ever should have to, so Nie Huaisang needs to step up his game and become someone worthy of his future husband. He might be lazy, and spoiled, and a little useless, but Nie Huaisang is also very stubborn when he wants something, and what he wants is Lan Xichen, the most perfect person in the world.

Lan Xichen who smiles with the warmth of a tender spring afternoon, who is always calm and collected, who smells of gentian and pine trees. Lan Xichen who never has a hair out of place. Lan Xichen who always knows what to do, what to say, no matter the situation.

Lan Xichen who looks utterly broken when he comes to visit the Cloud Recesses, three months into the war.

Perhaps to others he doesn’t look so bad. The Lan disciples who are with Nie Huaisang when Lan Xichen arrives don’t comment on it. But Nie Huaisang has been observing Lan Xichen for years at this point, and he can instantly tell that something is wrong. It shows in the way the beta carries himself, how his eyes glance over things as if he cannot see what’s around him, the slight twitch at the corner of his lips when he smiles. Nie Huaisang’s heart aches to see his beloved in such a state. He hates the Wen more than ever, if such a thing is possible, for having hurt Lan Xichen this way.

Because there is so much to do, because Lan Xichen has so many responsibilities now, it seems at first that Nie Huaisang won’t have a moment alone with him. He tries to be fine with that. A sect leader’s husband must know that sometimes he comes second to the sect in question. But the hollowness in Lan Xichen’s eyes haunts him too much. That night, close to the hour for curfew, Nie Huaisang decides that he must offer some distraction to the love of his life, perhaps even some comfort, should Lan Xichen be inclined to allow it.

It’s risky to be out and about at that hour. Even at such a time, the Lan are strict with their rules, and Nie Huaisang knows he will be scolded, or even punished, if he is caught. To avoid that he doesn’t knock on the front door of Lan Qiren’s house, where he knows Lan Xichen is also living for the time being, and instead comes in through the back. He will be in so much trouble if he’s spotted, but love comes before rules. Soon enough he’s inside a private garden, knocking on the door of the only room where a candle still burns.

To Nie Huaisang’s relief, it is indeed Lan Xichen who opens that door for him.

To his horror, Lan Xichen looks even worse than before, his eyes red from crying.

“Huaisang, what are you doing here?” Lan Xichen asks, trying to quickly regain his composure.

“I thought I’d come see you, Xichen-gege. You looked like you might need a friend.”

Lan Xichen takes in a sharp breath, like he’s trying not to sob. He manages to keep his face impassive, but two tears still drop on his cheeks, leaving a shiny trail behind. If Nie Huaisang didn’t have such excellent manners, he would lunge forward to kiss away those tears.

“I’m not sure I’m fit for company,” Lan Xichen says in a voice that trembles a little. “I find myself in a rather emotional state at the moment.”

“Then you definitely need a friend,” Nie Huaisang replied. “I offer myself, if you’ll have me.”

A few more tears escape Lan Xichen’s reddened eyes, which he tries to wipe away quickly, like a child just starting to learn he’s not supposed to cry in public. Nie Huaisang braces himself for rejection, but Lan Xichen instead pinches the hem of his sleeve and pulls him inside.

“You’ll be in trouble if someone sees you,” he explains. “How unreasonable, Huaisang… didn’t you realise that people might talk, seeing an alpha roaming around at night?”

Of all the things Nie Huaisang has thought about before coming here, that particular detail hasn’t occurred to him. People often forget he’s an alpha, and so does he, most of the time. Outside of his ruts, he might as well be a beta, and he’s convinced people who meet him must think that’s the case. But of course the Lans know better.

“Xichen-gege, I don’t want to cause you trouble or start gossip against you,” Nie Huaisang says. “I wanted to see if I could make you smile, that’s all. If you think I should leave, just say so and I’ll stop bothering you.”

“That might be…” Lan Xichen starts, before choking on his words. “Maybe you should… This is… it is…”

More tears drop on Lan Xichen's cheeks and he gasps in an alarming fashion, trying to stop himself from breaking down into sobs. Nie Huaisang’s heart clenches painfully at the sight. He takes one of Lan Xichen’s hands in his, trying to offer him comfort. Immediately Lan Xichen starts crying in earnest, falling to his knees. Nie Huaisang follows him, sitting on the floor near him, patting his hand, his shoulder even when the sobs get too heavy.

They stay like this a long while, sitting on the floor of that bare room which doesn’t really belong to Lan Xichen and only serves as a reminder of everything that he has lost. Nie Huaisang can’t find any words of comfort to offer, because he knows how empty those would feel. All he has to give is his presence, and his patience.

It is well past curfew when Lan Xichen finally calms down enough to sit a little straighter.

“How disappointed you must be, seeing me so weak,” Lan Xichen says, quickly drying his tears with the fabric of his inner robes. “I’m not the person you think I am, in the end.”

“You are that person and more,” Nie Huaisang sincerely replies. He squeezes Lan Xichen’s hand in his, barely refraining the impulse to kiss it. Seeing Lan Xichen like this, imperfect, angry and hurt, only makes Nie Huaisang love him more. How could he not, when Lan Xichen is giving him this trust? “Xichen-gege, I like everything about you, the good and the bad. I like you when you are calm in front of everything, and I like you when you can’t be strong anymore.”

Lan Xichen sighs and tilts his head, trying to smile but not quite managing it. “Huaisang…”

“I do, I really do!” Nie Huaisang insists. “I just wish I could help you more. I wish I could give you strength when yours runs out. I wish I had the power to protect you against those who would harm you. You make me wish I could be more than I am, so I could stand at your side and be of use to you.”

Lan Xichen smiles, and brings his trembling free hand to touch the alpha’s cheek.

“And I’m glad you are exactly the way you are,” Lan Xichen says with unbearable tenderness. “You are as I want you to be, as I want to see you at my side.”

Nie Huaisang’s heart is racing at those words, and he feels his face flush.

“Xichen-gege, I don’t think you and I mean quite the same thing here.”

“I think we do. I wasn’t sure what to think of this,” Lan Xichen admits, gently cupping the side of Nie Huaisang’s head, who must resist the impulse to close his eyes and lean into that touch. “I thought you only liked the image I try to give, and that you would be disappointed when you’d learn who I really am. But you’re seeing me now, and… you still like me?”

“More than ever,” Nie Huaisang whispers.

Lan Xichen smiles at him, beautiful like dawn after a cold and dark winter night.

“Then when this is over, let’s see how we can deal with this,” Lan Xichen says. “I know there’s precedent for such situations, though it will be unconventional. I fear you’ll have to marry into Gusu Lan, if this is to happen. Could you bear with that?”

Nie Huaisang nods, laughing and crying at once, delighted beyond words to realise that Lan Xichen too has made plans. He knew they were well suited for each other, he knew it all along, and finally he’s proven right.

Finally, he’s going to be happy.

-

The Sunshot Campaign ends, and sooner than everyone expected. Wei Wuxian’s new techniques are to thank for that… or to blame, depending who’s talking. Not everybody is fond of what Wei Wuxian has done during the war. Still, he’s a hero, one of many. Of the young masters of great sects in their generation, only Nie Huaisang and Jin Zixuan haven’t gained a title for their glorious deeds.

In fact, when Nie Huaisang asks around, it appears that Jin Zixuan didn’t contribute at all to the war, in any way. He wasn’t among those who fought, which isn’t such a surprise when Jin Guangshan barely wanted his sect involved at all. But Jin Zixuan wasn’t on the back front either, and that’s strange. Nie Huaisang knows his friend isn't a coward like him, and must have wanted to contribute in some fashion. Jin Guanshan will have tried to stop him, but Jin Zixuan is exactly the sort of person who would run away and join another sect's troupes to do his part in fighting the Wen. 

Nie Huaisang becomes truly concerned when he learns that while Jin Zixuan has been absent from the war, one of Jin Guangshan's bastards has seen his status elevated and been given a title. Jin Ziyao, Lianfang-zun, is the first out of many bastards that Jin Guangshan has ever seen fit to legitimise. 

Suddenly, Nie Huaisang becomes terrified for his friend. Jin Zixuan looked so unwell that day after they escaped the cave. If his group stumbled upon the Wen, if he was wounded or worse… 

Jin Zixuan is absent from the banquet held in Jinlin Tai to celebrate the end of the war. It is noticed and gossiped about, especially since Jin Guangshan brought not only Jin Ziyao, but also another of his bastards, a mere child who rumour says he might legitimise as well. Worse still, Madam Jin is somewhat polite to both of her husband's bastards, when she's been known to never even allow anyone to mention his infidelities before her. 

Sick with worry, Nie Huaisang cannot eat or drink anything and quickly excuses himself from the celebration. He takes refuge on a platform that overhangs above elegant gardens, leaning over a railing to admire the sight. He hoped that being alone would give him a chance to calm down, but it only makes things worse. Jin Zixuan used to say he'd make Nie Huaisang visit the gardens of Jinlin Tai someday and show the peacocks from up close, but that might never happen now, because he might be… 

Nie Huaisang bursts into tears. 

He shouldn't have let Jin Zixuan go with the Jin that day, he should have kept him close and protected him, so nothing could happen to him. There is no safer place in the world than with a group of Nie, and Nie Huaisang knows even a pitiful alpha like him would have sprung into action if the situation called for it. 

He knows that for Jin Zixuan's sake, he would have easily torn Wen Chao's throat with his bare teeth, if it had come to that. 

Nie Huaisang is still crying when Lan Xichen finds him and silently wraps his arms around him. It helps a bit, if only because it reminds Nie Huaisang that things aren't entirely awful, that even if something happened to Jin Zixuan, he won’t have to face his grief alone. They’ve talked to Nie Mingjue who grumbled mightily against his brother leaving Qinghe Nie, but that was never an argument he could have won, not when Nie Huaisang has prepared for it half his life. Once Lan Xichen’s mourning period is over, they will be married, exactly as Nie Huaisang planned.

“What has you so upset?” Lan Xichen asks, pulling his fiancé closer, enveloping him into the long layers of his robes until Nie Huaisang feels like a chick under its brooding mother.

“I’m worried about Zixuan. Nobody has seen him since the start of the war, nobody knows anything, and he isn’t here tonight…”

Lan Xichen stiffens somewhat, and for a brief moment he loses control of himself enough that Nie Huaisang can smell him, the scent of gentians and pine lingering even after Lan Xichen returns to his usual restraint.

“You’ve become very close to him, haven’t you?” Lan Xichen asks. “I don’t think you’ve asked about anyone else as much as him during the whole campaign.”

“I got news from the others all the time,” Nie Huaisang says. “But Zixuan… and he was in a concerning state last I saw him. I just feel like I should have done more for him. What if he’s…”

“He’s not dead. Ziyao would know, and he would have told me. I’ve asked on your behalf.”

Nie Huaisang smiles, and snuggles closer to the beta.

“Thank you. But what’s the matter with him then?”

Lan Xichen shrugs slightly. “Ziyao doesn’t know,” he admits. “Nobody in Jinlin Tai seems to know, except for Jin zongzhu and Jin furen. She’s the only one who gets to see him, along with a handful of servants loyal to her. Ziyao has heard that his brother might have been cursed, or fell sick somehow, but in the end he’s not really sure.”

“Poor Zixuan, he must be so bored,” Nie Huaisang sighs. He knows his friend is used to a certain isolation, but that’s different from being truly alone. He knows also that Jin Zixuan, when given the chance, isn’t someone who enjoys being on his own anyway, and that he’s an active person who likes to practice martial arts, go on Night Hunts, or even just walk around town and check shops. This situation must be a torture for him. “Do you think they’d let me see him if I asked? Or at least write to him maybe? I’m just so worried...”

Lan Xichen tenses, his scent flaring once again. Before Nie Huaisang can ask about that, he hears approaching footsteps. Since it is highly inappropriate for them to be in such an intimate position in public, and when they’re not even formally engaged, they quickly pull apart to look at the newcomer. Nie Huaisang expected his brother, or Lan Wangji perhaps.

Instead, they find themselves in front of Madam Jin. They promptly bow to her, and exchange a worried glance. She isn’t exactly known for looking kindly at couples who misbehave in her home, and her expression can best be described as cold and angry.

“Do you really wish to see my son, Nie gongzi?” she asks, startling Nie Huaisang who can only nod in answer. “Then follow me. He’ll be glad to have a visit. Lan gongzi may come as well. This might concern him as well.”

Again, the two young men trade glances, surprised by that sudden invitation. Neither of them protests, least of all Nie Huaisang who is only too happy to follow her. Lan Xichen, after some hesitation, does the same. All three of them walk in silence in the labyrinth that is Jinlin Tai until they reach a rather isolated house guarded by two fierce looking betas who have their hands on their swords as soon as they see someone approaching, and don’t let go until they recognise Madam Jin.

“Keep an eye out,” she orders the guards as the three of them go inside. “He’s been drinking, and his rut is coming close.”

The guards nod, and firmly close the door behind Madam Jin and her guests. Nie Huaisang, initially delighted to see his friend again, starts getting worried.

“Is there something wrong with Zi… with Jin gongzi?” he asks. “Why are you locking him up this way? Is he dangerous?”

“There is danger in Jinling Tai,” Madam Jin replies, leading them ahead. She knocks on a door, using an odd rhythm. “Until a better solution can be found, this is the only way I can protect my son.”

The door opens, revealing Jin Zixuan, sword in hand. Only, there’s something off about him, something that Nie Huaisang can’t quite put his finger on. Maybe it’s his clothes, which hang a little oddly and aren’t quite the cut and fabric one would expect on an alpha. Or it is the slight fear in his eyes when he opens the door, quickly replaced by defiance when he sees who is there with his mother, as if he expects Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen to say something unpleasant. And then there’s a smell in the air, fear mixed with notes of flowers.

“Oh,” Lan Xichen says, before pinching his lips so he keeps his realisation for himself.

Jin Zixuan glares at him, then at his mother.

“I told you not to do it!” he says.

“What choice do I have?” Madam Jin replies, pushing her way into her son’s room. “This is the only way.”

After some hesitation, Nie Huaisang follows her inside. Lan Xichen does the same with a certain reluctance, and when they all sit, he does so a little closer to Nie Huaisang than is probably proper, but Nie Huaisang is too stunned by the situation to think much of it.

“I have brought you here to make a request,” Madam Jin announces, while her mortified son hides his face in his hands. “I need help in protecting my son, and after long consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the two of you are the best possible choice.”

“Mother, please, don’t!” Jin Zixuan begs, only for his mother to silence him with a gesture.

“At the start of the war, my son presented,” Madam Jin continues, ignoring the interruption. “Sadly for everyone involved, he presented as an omega.”

Nie Huaisang gasps, and stares at Jin Zixuan who looks like he might start crying. It puzzles Nie Huaisang at first, because there’s nothing bad about being an omega… or at least, not when in Qinghe Nie. Other sects have their own opinions on that, of course. He’s heard people here and there say that it is shameful and unnatural that Qinghe Nie’s leader is an omega, even one that looks and acts like an alpha, but that’s just because people are jealous of Nie Mingjue. All those petty, self-satisfied alpha just can’t stand that someone of a gender they think inferior can be so much better than they will ever be.

Of course, there’s also the fact that in most sects, only an alpha can become sect leader. Even Lan Xichen isn’t nearly as respected as he deserves to be after his brave actions during the war, and that’s not just a matter of age. Still, at least he’s a beta, and from a somewhat reasonable sect. Lanling Jin isn’t so open minded. In fact, everyone says that part of the problem between Jin Guangshan and his wife is that she’s also an alpha, when he is of the opinion that same gender couples shouldn’t be allowed to exist. He was forced into that union by his own father, everyone knows it, and only because Madam Jin's parents paid a high dowry to have her married into such a glorious sect.

"As an omega, my son cannot inherit his father's title," Madam Jin confirms. "He also wasn't allowed to take part in the war, since it would have been improper for him to be in mixed company. Alphas cannot be trusted on a battlefield… Or outside of it, as the case might be." She glances at Jin Zixuan, who looks ready to faint from sheer humiliation, then continues. "To be quite blunt, I have come to feel that Jinlin Tai is not a safe place for my son, and now that the war is over, I am seeking a way to protect him from harm."

"You want to marry him off," Lan Xichen says, his voice oddly cold in spite of his polite smile. "And I suppose you already have something in mind?" 

"If I could, I would have sent him to Yunmeng Jiang," Madam Jin says. "But he has never gotten along with Jiang Wanyin, and my husband won't allow him to marry another omega as that would be improper, so Jiang Yanli is out of the question. So is Nie Mingjue, for the same reason. My husband doesn't want Zixuan to be sent to a sect too small, as he would find it humiliating. I do not want to send my son to a spouse too much older than him, as I fear for his safety. That leaves me very little choice."

Nie Huaisang frowns. He knows Jin Zixuan is more than capable of gutting even an older cultivator if they try to force him into something he doesn't want. He isn't ranked third on that list of bachelors just for his looks. Being an omega doesn't change how competent Jin Zixuan is, and Nie Huaisang has half a mind to say so. 

He doesn't, but only because it suddenly hits him why Lan Xichen and him have been brought here. 

"You want one of us to marry him?" he asks, while next to him Lan Xichen stiffens. 

"You are the best choices," Madam Jin confirms. "My husband would probably prefer Lan zongzhu, but I personally hope you will consider this, Nie gongzi. After all, my son and you are already friends, so it would make things easier." 

"Mother, stop this!" Jin Zixuan hisses between clenched teeth. "This is too… This is unnecessary."

Unsure what to think, Nie Huaisang looks up to Lan Xichen, hoping he will be the one to explain the situation. But Lan Xichen, his face pale and tight, won't look at him, or at the Jin for that matter. It falls to Nie Huaisang to handle this. 

"Jin Furen, I am honoured you would think of me, and I am sure Lan zongzhu feels the same," he says. "But the fact is… Well, the truth is…" 

"They're in love," Jin Zixuan hisses. "I told you it wouldn't work, mother."

Nie Huaisang looks at his friend in surprise, but Jin Zixuan refuses to look at him. More than ever, he seems ready to cry. Madam Jin, for her part, isn't impressed by this new information. 

"Love is nice and well," she says, "but there are other things to consider. Your family would certainly prefer this strong political alliance." 

"My brother and his uncle have already given their blessing," Nie Huaisang admits. "It's not a bad match either, politically speaking." 

"But you won't have children," Madam Jin points out.

"There is a precedent for this," Lan Xichen coldly says. "Although Gusu Lan favours fidelity to one's spouse, it can be allowed to take a concubine in specific cases, such as the impossibility of having children."

"Then why not take my son as your second spouse? Or as the first one even, and have each other's company on the side? Zixuan will allow it."

Both Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen stare at Madam Jin, shocked that she would say such a thing. Her stance on her husband's affairs is well known, and she is merciless toward adulterous couples. Nie Huaisang wants to ask her why she doesn't ask for her husband's help if she's so desperate to protect her son against threats to his virtue.

He keeps that question to himself, because the answer occurs to him, and he doesn't like it. 

It is well known that Jin Guangshan is an alpha of great sexual appetite even in a normal state. It is rumoured, also, that he becomes terrifying when in rut, willing to take any omega or woman who crosses his path, willing or not. People say he might have fathered Jin Zixun with his own cousin, though since the poor omega was recently married, Jin Guangshan never had to recognise the child. 

Jinlin Tai is not a good place to raise an omega these days, as Jin Zixuan knows. He told Nie Huaisang as much, back when they were studying in Gusu. 

And perhaps there’s more alpha in Nie Huaisang than he realised, because the idea of Jin Zixuan being in such danger, in the place where he should be safest, fills him with a rage like nothing he’s rarely felt before. The only thing that can compare is the burning wrath that overcame him when he first heard that the Cloud Recesses had been burned, that Lan Xichen was missing. If he could, Nie Huaisang would grab Jin Zixuan this instant and fly with him to QInghe, were nobody will care that he’s an omega, where he’ll live free of fear because the rules of Qinghe Nie are very clear on how to deal with a rapist, regardless of sex, gender, and rank. It is tempting to accept Madam Jin’s demand, just to protect her son, except…

Except Lan Xichen is sitting right next to Nie Huaisang, and while his face is showing nothing, the smell of his anger is getting stronger with each passing moment. If the Lan rarely have a second spouse, let alone concubines of any sorts, Lan Xichen once explained, it is because their cultivation method tends to make them more possessive toward their cultivation partner. That’s the reason they are so careful in choosing such a partner, Lan Xichen confided when they started talking about getting married.

At that time, Nie Huaisang had easily promised that he would remain faithful no matter what, happy to finally have the affection of his favourite person in the world, happy to know that his love and patience would be rewarded, confident that there is nobody else in the world he could ever want.

Now though, he isn’t so sure what to do anymore. Marrying Lan Xichen is all he’s wanted for years and years, the culmination of a carefully crafted plan to ensure both of their happiness. But to abandon Jin Zixuan to his fate would be a crime, something against which his very soul rebels.

Between his dearest friend and the love of his life, Nie Huaisang has to choose, and risk losing someone either way. 

[tangledinmdzs]

are you gonna be my best friend? - wen siblings hcs

best friend hcs with our wens!

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Wen Qing

you meet Wen Qing during your residency, a time when you don’t think you’re going to be making any friends at all

it’s the battle of the fittest

survival of the best

there’s no times for friends!

but you can’t deny Wen Qing’s skills the first time you meet her

and really, you’ve always been more of a team player than a competitor

and also, you know when its good to have someone as an ally

so you call on all your socialite experience and befriend Wen Qing

[...] but [...]

it hadn’t been easy

the first time you try to talk to her, is when you find out that you finish your hospital rounds at the same time

and you had both in the changing room, getting out of your scrubs

and you had said, as an opening line, 

“wow did you see when the patient in room 43B snorted applesauce out of his nose from laughing at Wei Wuxian’s joke?”

 you don’t get a response, let alone any acknowledgement before Wen Qing has silently changed out of her clothes and walked off, away and out of the changing room like she wasn’t even there

but luckily you are persistent

and you continue to befriend her in that way of yours (the only way, sadly that you felt wouldn’t come off as creepy)

it’s a few awkward commentary on the day’s rounds or what you thought was interesting from lab work and class

and yes, the beginning was quiet between you both

but you learn that maybe it’s not that the things you say aren’t interesting,

perhaps its more because Wen Qing is just...shy

you don’t believe it the first time you found out,

but it’s true

you find this out in the middle of your afternoon rounds

when you end up walking into Wen Qing’s back where she’s stood a bit awkwardly in the middle of the hallway, staring at something a little ways down

you turn to follow her gaze, and you’re surprised to see someone you don’t know very well

he doesn’t seem to be in any scrubs or anything, so he can’t be a student at the teaching hospital-

“oi my little bro” none other than Wei Wuxian’s boisterous voice rings out the from the opposite side of the hallway

and it takes you only half a second to put two and two together

you wished that it took you half a second to study for your medical exams too, but alas we can’t have everything

“you like him” you assert and Wen Qing whips around to look at you as if you had chosen death

but you’re undeterred, smiling when you realize that you’ve hit the nail on the head

“you totally like him!” you squeal and Wen Qing pulls you away and around the corner just as the two brothers turn their heads down the hall

she hushes you, but her silence and new company with you isn’t a denial

and from that you two steadily become friends,

or at least, you are the person that helps play a matchmaking role between her and Jiang Cheng

it’s not easy

not when you both don’t want to ask his brother for help

no offense, but Wei Wuxian was a bit  of a blabber mouth

and also because Jiang Cheng wasn’t in the department at all,

he only comes once a twice a week to pick his brother up on his motor cycle

“his motorcycle,” you hear Wen Qing swoon for the first time as you’re having lunch with her, sat farther away from the rest of the other students

everyone has their own niches by now

but you’re glad you’re with Wen Qing

and also happy that you’ve discovered this girlish side hidden behind her cold doctor persona

“yeah, and i’m gonna make sure you’re gonna ride that,” you tell Wen Qing with a wink and she nearly chokes on her sandwich

once she gets her breath back she stares at you, the ‘look’ on your face

it’s the sarcastic look that you’ve gotten better at reading since you’ve spent more time with her

“but trust me, if there’s anything i’m good at, it’s matchmaking” you promise her and she just shakes her head at you as you guys move on to talk about the lab work and other portions of the lab

besides, if there’s anything that you’ve learned in your friendship Wen Qing, it’s that she trusts you a lot more than she says she does

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Wen Ning

you meet Wen Ning when Wen Qing invites you over her apartment to help her pick out an outfit for her !first date! with Jiang Cheng, courtesy of your hard work of course

and Wei Wuxian’s too, when he found out about your matchmaking plans

but that’s a story for another time (^_-)—☆

anyways

when you first meet, Wen Ning comes off with the same quietness as his older sister, if only for the meekness of his posture

but he’s nice and quiet, falling to the background as you and Wen Qing end up staying in her room and you dazzling her up for a night of fun and romance

Wen Ning is actually so quiet, that you forget his presence almost entirely

you’re too preoccupied ransacking her entire closet to find a 

“casual but still high class outfit, it’s a dinner date” you tell her, when she wanted to go for a simple summer dress

to doing her hair and make up

“no you cannot just put your hair in a ponytail and call it a day,” you tell her when she tries to ruin your hard work with a scrunchie

and finding the perfect shoes to match with everything

you’ve dolled your friend up pretty well and only await her little brother’s thoughts when she has 30 minutes left until her date

when Wen NIng sees his older sister, he simply smiles then turns back to the show that he’s got on TV 

he really is such a boy, you think to yourself at his reaction 

and you wonder if Wen Qing is underwhelmed

but, when you look at Wen Qing, she seems more worried than offended by the lack of reaction

it’s not the worry about the date, you know that

it’s the look of worry that she has whenever she has to study for an exam, basically a deeper worry

and only an extra second of looking at her that you can pinpoint what’s wrong

she doesn’t want to leave her little brother alone

“i know, he’s 19 now, he’s not a little kid,” Wen Qing tells you when you’re both standing outside of her apartment

“but he hasn’t ever gone outside or done much since he was a kid and sometimes, i wish that i could put more time to be there for him... i...”

“don’t feel guilty about doing something for yourself,” you immediately tell Wen Qing, when you see her giving you that look

the look of just staying home, 

she cares so much for Wen Ning that she really forgets about her own happiness

“i’ll stay around for another hour or something; besides, someone has to fix up the thunderstorm we made of your closet,” you tell her with a smile

and Wen Qing looks like she’s about to tear up

but you stop her right away,

“keep it in, for the eyeliner” you remind her

when you re-enter the Wen apartment, closing the door behind you, you’re happy that you are able to help Wen Qing go on her date at ease

Wen Ning looks up from the couch at the noise, surprised at your return

“hope you don’t mind if i stay around for a little bit?” you ask him, as you slip off your slippers and walk into the living room

Wen Ning stares at you then into his lap

when you don’t hear a response, you turn away awkwardly to go and fix the clothes in Wen Qing’s room

“if Jie asked you to stay here for me, you don’t have to. i’m fine being alone,” 

the words stop you in your tracts

and you turn around to look at him

he’s not looking at you,

but the TV is turned off

the apartment is quiet

“well... it’s more so because i’m a medical student and need to destress. plus i think my friend’s little brother isn’t too bad of a choice for company” you find yourself saying

Wen Ning stares at you, 

you can’t read the expression on his face quite well

“would you mind keeping me company?” you ask

and somehow you’re holding your breath

but after a second, he nods and you smile at him

“just let me go take care of your sister’s closet first, i promised her i would clean the mess i made” you excuse yourself 

once you’re in Wen Qing’s bedroom, you get to work on organizing the pile of clothes you both threw onto her bed as best as you can

but it still takes you a good hour until you emerge from the bedroom

when you come back out to the living room, you’re more than surprised at the set up you see

snacks and drinks on the coffee table

the throw pillows on the floor

and...

“Woah! is that a wii controller??” you ask excitedly

you hadn’t seen one of those since... since you started this medical school journey

study, study studying 24/7

“well, whenever i’m stressed, i always think games are a good way to relax,” Wen Ning explains in his quiet voice

and you couldn’t agree more

“definitely; but i’m going to let you know now that i’m probably the most competitive person you’ve ever met,” you warn Wen Ning

“can’t be worse than my sister,” Wen Ning says, surprising you

and you let out a laugh, hopping straight into the game

it’s been so long since you’ve played

but with each round your fingers and joints loosen and relax, reminding yourself of the time when you were good at these kinds of things

it’s so easy to play with Wen Ning, who’s quiet and cheerful in his own subdued way

and actually has quite a lot of zest despite his calmer, softer temperament

you get along with him so well, that you don’t realize all the time that has passed until you both hear a voice from behind

“you’re still here?”

you turn around to look at Wen Qing, looking the picture of surprised at your presence

Wen Ning uses your momentary distraction to seal the win, and his cart crosses the finish line before yours for the umpteenth time

“no fair! Wen Qing came!” you shout 

and Wen Ning just smiles at you an easy “you can try again,” on his lips like he’s said for the past 5 hours

you laugh at his words, but pull yourself to your feet, sighing happily

“i wish, but i think i have to go now,” you tell Wen Ning 

and you almost laugh at the pout that instantly shows on his face

“but don’t worry, i’m settling the score with you the next time i’m free, or whenever you sister invites me over again” you tell him and send a wink at Wen Qing

when you turn back to meet his eyes, Wen Ning looks at you with eyes that hold you to your word

“next time, i’m playing too” Wen Qing pipes up as you gather your belongings to leave

that gets a laugh out of everyone

[tanoraqui]

I am a huge sucker for one character being chill about a situation while everyone else is freaking out, so if you’re up to it would you tell us about This Is Normal?

@tolrais​ asked: Sizhui genii locorum!

okay so i must disappoint bc that wasn’t actually a jesting “This Is Normal” - let’s talk genii locorum, known more commonly in the singular: genius loci, the “intellects of [the] place”. In this case: what if it was perfectly common that if cultivation was practiced in roughly the same way in roughly the exact same place, by roughly the same bloodline, for long enough, power built up in the land itself? Power and something resembling thought, in the slow way of geography? (That’s why it tends to attach to a bloodline - individual humans, even cultivators, disappear so fast on a geological scale.) 

Say that each generation, the land picks a favorite to bestow its power to - one person, one generation, at a time, only. Others of the blood may access it, but to a far lesser degree. Petty effects. More if the land is partial to them. The true wielder of the land is, of course, traditionally the sect leader - and if they’re not at first, they’re probably gonna be appointed as such.

Say the powers are elemental, roughly, Say their personalities are shaped by the land itself - lakes or mountains, hills or plains - and the continuous philosophy of those who cultivate (upon) them. They choose their favorites based on who most matches what they are, and the strongest sect leaders are those with the greatest affinity for their land.

Or, lemme put it like this: 

Lan Wangji was always GusuLan’s favorite, unwavering and fastidious, aloof and righteous and eternal as the cool mountain peaks. Its cool shrouded him; its ice turned Bichen’s edge even sharper. Even though he was far away in a land of fire, it flowed to him like a high-speed glacier when his father died - and he, panicking and desperate, denied it. 

It wasn’t the refusal that turned it away - though it’s true, one must actively accept a land’s power; it cannot be forced upon a person. But usually, in such a dispute, the wouldn’t-be recipient dies - in a fight between one human and an entire countryside over that human’s soul, it is acceptance or destruction. Instead, it was...well, the fact of refusal. The fact that he broke, that his gut instinct - resolute as ever - was the shirking of responsibility. That, GusuLan could not tolerate. It didn’t press the issue to destruction, because Lan Wangji wasn’t its chosen after all.

There was nothing, to be clear, wrong with Lan Xichen. He was a little warmer, but still beautiful and distant. He would bend, but his core was upright and unfaltering. He followed the rules to the letter. He was even closer, physically - and in that little cabin in which he was sleeping, hidden, he woke sharply from a restless sleep as the air around him turned to welcome ice.

Or like this:

Jiang Cheng was never YunmengJiang’s first choice. He wasn’t even its second choice. The lakes of YunmengJiang - bright and warm with sunlight, loud with the chatter of market crowds, sweet and beautiful with lotus seeds and petals, all over drowning-dark depths...how could they not fall in love with the boy their Jiang Fengmian bought home? How could the water not leap to follow his every gesture, whenever he went out upon it?

(Except that when he first felt it pressing at him with not just curiosity but love, he thought of Madam Yu’s clenched fist and Jiang Cheng’s yearning gaze, and he shoved it away as hard and fast as he could.)

Failing that, how could they not adore their eldest daughter, sweet and kind and welcoming to all, and protective enough to wield words like deadly blades? Once the land is cultivated to its own sentience, it doesn’t need to be a cultivator who bears its power...

(Except it does still need to be someone whose heart the doctors don’t worry over every time she does something more spiritually strenuous than meditate. And she cannot stay, she’ll explain one day, weeping, on a boat she’s rowed out to the middle of the lake herself. If it was just a matter of love - but they also need the alliance, or Lotus Pier, Yunmeng, YunmengJiang itself might be lost - )

So. Jiang Cheng wears all his deadliness on the surface and all his joy and welcome deep beneath, and YunmengJiang is the opposite. But at least he stays. Land moves on a geological time, and YunmengJiang more than most loves all its people, not just a select family. It can leap readily to the will of someone who stays and looks after them.

Or:

Agreement was universal that Nie Mingjue was a perfect bearer of QingheNie, mighty and stern and stubborn as the mountain granite. As tall, too, some would joke. It’s traditional for a Sect Leader to wear at all times a symbol of their land’s blessing - Lan Xichen’s headdresses always sparkle with a thin coating of ice; a lightly jeweled hip flask has been passed from Jiang to Jiang in which to hold lakewater. Upon taking title and land from his father, Nie Mingjue wears a circlet of rock on his brow, hard stone crafted with his own hands as though molding clay. 

Agreement was equally universal that Nie Huaisang was possibly the worst bearer of QingheNie in the clan’s entire history. Flighty where he should be staunch and stern, barely able (much less willing) to lift a blade, as flappable as one of his fans...as Sect Leader, he set a chunk of granite into the base of each one of those silly fans, but it was a public secret that the stone had been carved and smoothed by a stoneworker, not the Headshaker.

The mountains of Qinghe shook with grief on the day Nie Mingjue died, as they had for his father; grief and rage. The Unclean Realm itself shifted and nearly collapsed in several places - some of its famous defensibility came from being set into the mountainside itself, the back halls giving way to twisting tunnels running through the rock. Can you imagine how long one fighter with a saber can hold a single slim tunnel? Hidden ways, their secrets known only to the inhabitants; the deeper an enemy goes, the less likely they are to come out...

A single chip of granite launched across the room with fury can drive through a man’s eye and into his brain, killing him instantly, even with a fan trailing behind. Fortunately, it never needed to come to anything that gauche.

(It would have preferred Nie Mingjue, it really would, but even more than GusuLan, the last thing QingheNie has ever done is falter.)

So...

If the Burial Mounds had once been cultivated to a benevolent sentience and their power then corrupted, it’s been forgotten. But resentful and spiritual energy are two sides of the same coin, and the Burial Mounds yearn for company, for lives to call their own, just like any other land...but what sort of person has enough rage, vengeance, heartache, and loss to match them? Who could have enough strength of spirit to bear the touch of a land whose elemental power is death itself?

Trick question, we all know the answer to that. 

Good thing we got him, too, because defeating Wen Ruohan at the heart of the volcano he commands is a bitch and a half. (He wears a jagged crown of obsidian glass and Nie Mingjue will walk away with a burn on his face from the man’s touch.)

LanlingJin’s power is invested in light. Their Sect Leaders - or in Jin Ling’s case, Sect Heirs - carry a lantern at one hip, representative more than anything (one cannot cage light.) Or, you know, they just lowkey glow all the time - but that’s not convenient on a night hunt; you need something coverable. Jin Ling would have inherited it from his father, but instead it came directly from - you know, I so, so want to say his grandmother? But I don’t think Meng Yao, Jin Guangyao, would turn out quite the same were Jin Guangshan not exactly as Sect Leader as he in canon, and I’m loath to say Jin Sect is, like, particularly sexist or something to let both be true. So, grandfather it is, unfortunately. 

Jin Guangyao is jealous, but Jin Guangyao has too many secrets for bright LanlingJin. Maybe it would twist to suit him, with another couple generations dark and poisoned beneath the pretty lights, but not yet. Not even with how easily it’s gift can flow into illusions. Fortunately, LanlingJin is also the most gentle of the Great Sect Lands - perhaps weak, with how its family has been failing it, recently, in their stated intent. So Jin Ling can withstand its sudden flood even at the ripe age of two and a half.

It makes up for a little, for Jin Ling to have no memory of a time when he didn’t have the fierce, warm, bright affection of a coastal tower, busy city, and sun-drenched skies curled possessively around his soul. YunmengJiang bristles at the intrusion and mourns another loss (oh, YunmengJiang...at least it’s in accord with Jiang Cheng); and LanlingJin doesn’t like that its favorite so often strays so far. But family is important, both lands can reluctantly agree (in the manner of circling tigers, wary and territorial, thoughts not quite human.) They both want him loved.

...oh yeah, I was supposed to talk about Lan Sizhui, wasn’t I.

GusuLan would love that boy. It does love him, in its cold, discreet way. But it’s...complicated. It’s not Lan Sizhui’s fault. (Of the three, this is very much the AU least about Lan Sizhui.)

It’s the second battle of the Burial Mounds, as the second horde of corpses approaches. Wei Wuxian paces, mutters to Lan Wangji, "If I still had the land...but I don't know where it is. I can't hear it at all. I don't understand it."

This is not how Lan Wangji wanted to do this - though in fairness, he had no idea what would be a non-awkward way. He still doesn’t. Just a little louder than to be an answer to Wei Wuxian, he says, "Lan Sizhui."

"Yes, Huangang-jun?" The boy is at his elbow in an instant

Lan Wangji turns a little to include him in the conversation. He'd be gesturing if he was a man who made unnecessary motions. "Lan Yuan."

"Yes?" he repeats. 

Wei Wuxian stares at the both blankly.

"A-Yuan," Lan Wangji clarifies. He draws his guqin but he can't quite make eye contact with either of them.

Wei Wuxian gasps. He cups Lan Sizhui's very baffled cheeks (except something is a little familiar...) and peers at his face, turning it this way and that to check for familiar features. He peers deeper in a way that would be stunningly rude in anyone else (it’s still stunningly rude; they’ve all just come to expect that of Wei Wuxian) and likely impossible if there wasn't a shared affinity for what he seeks - but the bond is distant, so distant. Buried, smothered, bound.

(Lan Yuan, now Sizhui, has always felt like there was something he was missing, something he couldn't remember that was just out of reach. He thought it was the concept of parents or something like that, or maybe just a natural ennui that everyone had and didn’t speak of for propriety’s sake. He discarded it, because of course he had everything he could ever want.)

"A-Yuan..." Wei Wuxian looks at Lan Wangji, wondering, smoldering with love - and just the tiniest bit of reproach.

Lan Wangji looks away. It's a terrible thing to block someone off from their spiritual power, and it's a worse thing yet to block them off from the any power of a land they may bear. One is an insult to an individual, the other to the earth itself, almost as heretical as demonic cultivation. Su She, of course, has done both today, but only temporarily...and that’s a low bar to which to be compared.

But there was too much roiling in Wen Yuan when Lan Wangji found him, death and -

(You know what, I can’t decide: Did QishanWen’s smoldering lava pass to Wen Qing when no one closer was available, ceaseless fire matching ceaseless fire? Or were the Dafan Wens sufficiently distinct for long enough, far enough, that she was already taken? Is there DafanWen in its own right, high hills with the power of growth, from dainty flowers to ancient trees, twisting vines to healing herbs? 

...yes, I think so. 

But I also think they were close enough in blood, had spent enough time in the heart of the Nightless City, for some inheritance. So the reason no one stepped forward, at the Yiling Patriarch’s demand, to admit to killing Wen Ning was that...Wen Ning knew he was too weak, insufficiently greedy/ambitious for things to burn and build anew; he knew QishanWen was too quenched and dormant after its defeat to the Sunshot Alliance, and he was too far away and it was literally raining. He knew that to fight back would only bring pain down on more of their people. But even so, there was no one to step forward, because the man who dealt the killing blow burned screaming to ashes.

There were sparks left in the souls of each member of the blood left alive, but not enough to burst to flame. With that last death, QishanWen lay...dormant.)

(Until, maybe, almost all the rest of them were killed in the space of about 10 minutes. That must’ve sent a couple sparks flying.,,)

- so there was too much roiling in Wen Yuan when Lan Wangji found him. Verdant DafanWen was barely settled, still reeling from the loss of its favored daughter, the best healer in three generations. QishanWen sparked with new loss and ire, driving a fever. And the Burial Mounds, whose touch was death...

It is possible, for two lands to share a host. Boundaries are a human invention; the Earth is all one thing. Pride and territorialism are taught. And even if those have set in, they can certainly fight, in the infinite space of a human soul.

And the Burial Mounds loved that child. He wasn’t raging, he wasn’t mourning (except he was just starting to, now); but he wasn’t scared of them. Why would be be? The dead things that roamed it belonged to his Xian-gege; the living were his family; this land was his home.

But the Burial Mounds’ was the power of death itself, and A-Yuan wasn’t a teenager filled with enough determination to burn down the sun, he was three years old and scared. The extremely forbidden hasty ritual to (not cut it off, to late for that) hide it, bind it, bury it - this wasn't just for concealment. It saved his life.

Back in the present day, Lan Wangji says this with reluctantly raised eyes, and Wei Wuxian nods. Because oh boy does he know about that roiling spirit of death.

There's a horde of corpses approaching; they don't have time to be tender. 

"A-Yuan," says Wei Wuxian, swiping a thumb over his cheek as though to clear away a tear, and then dropping his hand. "Lan Sizhui, you trust us, right?"

"Of course?" Lan Sizhui glances uncertainly at Lan Wangji, head aching with memories about to surface.

Lan Wangji nods imperceptibly and starts to play - and it only takes a few strong chords, precisely chosen. It's always easier to break a wall than build it.

It's in QishanWen's nature to erupt but it's weak, dormant; it hasn't been home in over a decade and this boy has been trained to ice, not fire. It’s in DafanWen’s nature to flourish but it, too, is far from the earth of its body, and this is a place of death, not life. 

They are in the Burial Mounds, fifty steps from the blood pool that may as well be its heart. So the volcano stays dormant the grassy hills are quiet as ever, and the raging, too-long-stifled spirit of the Burial Mounds pours forth in whirling shadows that double Lan Sizhui's height. He gasps a scream at the weight of the sudden flood, at the tearing sensation in his soul (tearing open in a way that is right - last child of a dead clan remembering; lost child of a dead land coming home.) Several other people scream and point at the family meeting that had previously gone mostly unnoticed, in a corner of a Demon Suppression Cave. What is the Yiling Patriarch doing to that Lan disciple?!

The Burial Mounds are starting to turn on their only-just-realized child, whether they mean it or not, because their nature is death to all they touch. The Yiling Patriarch is standing forth, spreading his arms, and shouting, "Hey, jackass! Get back in here, we have more vengeance to wreak!"

The cultivation world watches (Lan Wangji catches a staggering Lan Sizhui) as with a sound like the rushing wind, shifting earth, screaming dead, it pours back into Wei Wuxian.

It’s just like before. It’s rage and pain and loss and vengeance and heartache. It’s Madam Yu’s hard eyes and the way Jiang Fengmian’s face shuttered when he heard the Core-Melting Hand was in Lotus Pier, before he even shoved them back in the boat; it’s Wen Ning’s broken form and Jin Zixuan’s, not fifty feet and ten months apart; it’s Wen Qing’s soft, I’m sorry, and thank you, and Jiang Yanli’s blood dripping down his arm. It’s the crack as the Tiger Seal shattered in his hand, or was that his own neck...

Wei Wuxian might be laughing, as he greets death like an old friend. But when he opens his eyes, it’s to a soft, “Wei Ying,” on the lips of his...Lan Zhan. Mourning whites sullied with the Burial Mounds’ (Wei Wuxian’s) dirt and blood. He’s holding up Lan Sizhui - A-Yuan, their son - and maybe Wei Wuxian is closer to a land spirit than human right now, or maybe he’s just hallucinating, but he swears he can see leaves uncurling behind the boy’s wide eyes. Wen Qing would be proud - if they get out of here alive, he’ll grow the most amazing things.

[dramas-vs-novels]

How do you choose quotes to make edits for (like do you have a list that you choose from or is it whenever you see something good) and how do you choose which characters/scenes etc to gif to go with them - like for example the last set you did with the ‘carry you with me’ quote. How did you choose which scenes to use and pair together with the quote (sorry if you’ve answered something similar before)

I’ve done some live edits in the past to kind of show my process with making very specific edits

(Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link)

But those are like, specific to each edit, so I’ll also give a general answer. I’m putting it below a “Keep Reading” because it’s a very long answer :)

How do you choose quotes to make edits for?

My other fandom page, @Rhysand-vs-Fenrys , has endured weekly reminders to watch The Untamed for like... 8-9 months now (Friday at 9am, usually an aesthetic GIFset I reblog from someone and add links to the bottom to the different platforms to view it on).

To be fair to them, I decided most of my edits would be done with quotes from the Rhysand-vs-Fenrys fandom (Sarah J Maas book series). Some quotes are very famous within that fandom and came to mind immediately, and I went through the Goodreads quotes lists for it.

As for other quotes, some I knew off the top of my head (the Carmina Burana, Aeneid, and LOTR ones) and some I just did a general google search for quotes with different themes like power or fate or love and saved the ones that kind of sparked my interest.

As I feel like doing an edit I’ll just look through the list until something snags on my eye and go with that. Most quotes gave me immediate ideas and I saved a little bulleted point beneath it saying what I thought of when I read it.

How do you choose which characters/scenes etc to gif to go with them?

I have some rules for what I look at for edits:

1. Once I have the quote divided into how many GIFs I’d like it to be, the first line of text is the theme and the last line of text is the tone. This is explained further lower down

2. First GIF has to be the star of the quote or, if it’s a group one, a high profile character.

3. NO LITERAL GIFS. Know if something is literal, I hate it and I only used it because I had no other choice. For example, in the “carry you with me” edit there is one that is “Walking in the light”. Originally it just worked out that the GIF of Wangji walking would have fallen there, with Jiang Cheng and Wangji as “the words that dance between people” and the final GIF in the edit (’Remembering being alive together’) being the teahouse. I rearranged and redesigned the entire edit just so Lan Wangji would not be walking in a GIF that had the word “walking”.

There are a few others, but those are more nit-picky. Those three above are the main ones, and they apply to every GIFset.

I’ll make my example the “Carry You” GIFset you referenced, which feeds into your final question---

...the last set you did with the ‘carry you with me’ quote. How did you choose which scenes to use and pair together with the quote (sorry if you’ve answered something similar before)

First off, here is the “Carry You” edit for anyone who wants to look at the thing I’m talking about

I almost didn’t even consider this quote because I immediately knew it’d be about Wuxian and Wangji, and that I would want to exclusively rely on the period where Wangji thought Wuxian was dead, which equates to A VERY NARROW SELECTION OF SCENES AND SHOTS OMG.

--- Wangji looking at the sky

--- Mo Manor

--- On Dafan Mountain

--- Tea with Jiang Cheng

--- Flashback to Burial Mounds burning

--- Flashback to saving A-Yuan

--- Flashback to being whipped

--- Flashback to Cold Pond Cave

That was enough to populate a 6 GIF edit if I really picked at the bones, so next I look at the first line of the quote: “I carry you with me into the world”. That became the theme of the entire edit. The final line is the tone- “Remembering being alive together”.

So every single GIF from the first to the last and anything in between had to have a direct line to ‘Remembering being alive together’ and an overall feeling of wangji ‘carrying (wuxian) with me into the world’. So what does that mean? Living your life in the spirit of that person. Chosing actions to honor their memory, either in behaving as they would or changing something bout yourself that was in conflict to them.

The original plan for that edit was as follows (these are direct quotes from my edit plan written in my shorthand):

“I carry you with me into the world”  ➜  Ep 1 looking at sky (no Wuxian scene selected)

“Into the smell of rain”  ➜  whipped alone, w/wuxian

“and the words that dance between people”  ➜  Ep 2, JC in woods (no Wuxian scene selected)

“and for me, it will always be this way”  ➜  Ep 1, holding sword, wuxian burning (my shorthand for when he gets smokey)

“walking in the light”  ➜  Ep 1 with ducklings, in burial mounds with A-Yuan

“remembering being alive together”  ➜  Ep 2 tea w/Yiling meal

I was just going to throw those shots side-by-side, but then I thought about how cool it would look if I could actually put Wuxian across the table from Wangji in that last one. I was still in the planning phase, which is why I never came up with a Wuxian for the first 2 GIFs.

At that point I started thinking about how it would fit the tone and theme so much better if I could make all of them that way. So at this point I abandoned the written plan and as I kind of thought about and processed what i wanted to do, I went through Episodes 1, 2, 44 & 46 and grabbed Wangji’s shots alone.

I decided- no reason just felt like it- that I wanted to step into this edit, rather than begin it already in process. I tried making a few GIFs of Wangxian for that “I carry you with me into the world” and just didn’t like them. I really wanted it to shine through that this was a theme and not tie it to specific scenes. Then I saw that slow pan of Bichen’s hilt that you see in episode 1 and was like “I bet I can find a Chenqing from the right angle to match that...”

**at this point I should say my rule for this edit was that every single shot of Wuxian had to be a scene Wangji was also in.

I decided to break that rule for the first edit, because Wuxian never holds Chenqing up against Wangji at the right fucking angle unless it’s pitch black in a thunderstorm and the tassel isn’t red in that shot so what’s even the point. So that shot is from Wuxian raising it against YANLI in Episode 21(?), rotated, horizontal flipped, cropped, spotlight on the tassel, selective color enhance, and a motion tracking filter just to smooth it out. 

Once I decide on the GIF itself, I look through the effects editor just to kind of throw everything at it and see what helps me achieve my mental picture, so it was a lot of dicking around to see if that would even work.

After that, focus went to *Wangji*. Pick WANGJI’s shot, and then look for a Wuxian moment from the right angle to match Wangji and ghost into the shot (which was hard as all FUCK. That last shot of Wuxian with the alcohol was a last ditch attempt to find a shot). As I said, I rearranged three GIFs just so I wouldn’t have Wangji walking during a GIF with the word “walking” in it. 

This edit was easier than others in that the first and last lines- “I carry you with me into the world/ remembering being alive together”- are really the only thing you need. Every line contributes directly to that theme, so the GIFs themselves are pretty interchangeable. 

I wanted JC there for “The words that dance between people”, which is why Wuxian has such attitude in that GIF- like he’s reacting to nasty words being exchanged (I decided it still worked in its new home of “walking in the light”). I decided I *loved* “the words that dance between people” being Wangji sitting alone at the table, not speaking at all. It has a sense of longing and regret that really suits the overall themes and tones.

I hope that made sense and answered your question? Sorry it was a long response, I wasn’t sure how much you were interested in hearing. But yeah, I do my edits live if I’m pretty confident in the game plan, so if you keep an eye on the page I’ll try to be better about scheduling those and not making them last minute.

I chose not to do this one live because I knew it was going to be really complicated and I wasn’t confident in the scenes. When I’m doing it live I feel pressured to make decisions very quickly so people aren’t bored and in the past have made GIFs I am not happy with just because I felt bad about waffling on shots. I wanted this one to really fit what I was imagining and to do that I had to be able to be indecisive. 

[tinyavenuesailor]

Another Sangcheng Oneshot

Not Beta’d - read at your own risk grammar Nazi’s

This was a request from Ao3 to have Jiang Cheng try to impress Nie Mingjue. Hope you guys enjoy and don’t be afraid to send me requests

‘Is he really going to do this?’ Nie Huaisang watched Jiang Cheng spar with his brother for the fifth time today. The fifth time. Although he admits Jiang Cheng was getting better at receiving his brother’s heavy blows, far better than anything he could achieve in his lifetime. It was quite an achievement for a young disciple like him. The audience growing around them to watch the match was quite impressed with the young heir of the Jiang clan but Jiang Cheng didn’t care for their approval. He wasn’t seeking Nie Huaisang’s either. Jiang Cheng was solely focused on receiving praise from Nie Minjue, his elder brother.

It may seem odd for the heir of the Jiang Sect to be seeking approval from the Sect Leader of the Nie Sect but all made sense when Jiang Cheng’s and Nie Huaisang’s secret meeting came to light. Hiding the fact you were dating an heir of one of the four prominent sects really was difficult when you had an overbearing brother like him. Everyone just thought that Jiang Cheng was just a brave disciple who asked for a chance to be personally trained by the great Nie Mingjue, master of the sword, well-known for his fighting skills. Nie Huaisang heard the real reason himself.

‘If I don’t gain his approval, he’ll never give me your hand in marriage!’ His words continued to echo in Nie Huaisang’s head. Honestly, he felt his heart jump for joy. Marriage was a goal for Jiang Cheng; he could rest easy knowing his love wasn’t in vain. The only problem was that Jiang Cheng wouldn’t propose until he was certain that he proved his worth to his elder brother.

If that’s the case they were never going to get married.

He wasn’t going to tell Jiang Cheng that, it was better for his kind of stubborn to just learn. Nie Huaisang would rather just sit back in the shade and watch his brave knight fight for his hand in marriage. Quite a romantic gesture, was it not?

The sword was knocked out of Jiang Cheng’s hand making it his fifth lost. Nie Mingjue straightened his back and sheathed his sword. “Your form gets sloppy when you’re indecisive. Those mistakes can be the deciding factor of the battle.”

“Thank you for the advice, Sect Leader Nie,” Jiang Cheng saluted him. 

“Retrieve your sword, we’ll go again.” Jiang Cheng didn’t hesitate to call back his sword. Nie Huaisang could imagine all those thoughts running through his head.

Is there nothing else to say?

Did I do everything wrong?!

Is there a single thing I did right?!

What does it take to impress you?!!!

Nie Huaisang hid his smile behind his fan. If he was caught laughing there would be horrible consequences from both his brother and hopefully future husband. Maybe he was being too mean. He felt it was well-deserved seeing that Jiang Cheng decided to spend most of this rare meeting between Sects, trying to impress his brother and training. He needed his fair amount of attention to before he got jealous.

Another loud clash of swords and that was the sixth win for his brother. Jiang Cheng snapped his head towards Nie Huaisang, a hot fire burning in his eyes. Nie Huaisang snapped his fan shut and waved it at Jiang Cheng, as sweet and innocent as he could. Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and called back Sandu to his hands before returning his attention to Nie Mingjue. Throughout the entire cultivator’s meeting, Jiang Cheng has tried to stand out, speak up in meetings, show off his skills and now even challenge his brother and while there were a number of other cultivators who marvelled at the young heir’s skills he had yet to catch the interest of his Nie Mingjue.

The Nie cultivators of this generation were mentally stronger than the previous ones. They could feel nothing with any judgement or critique of their skills because their Sect Leader has mercilessly pointed out every flaw possible in their skills. Praise wasn’t necessary, being good was expected, improvements could always be made, were the principles Nie Mingjue lived by. But seeing Jiang Cheng trying so hard, it was just too cute! Nie Huaisang had to control himself before his laughter left the perimeters outside his fan.

But truly if this kept up, no matter how enjoyable the show was he was going to have to wait many more years before getting engaged as he just witnessed his brother’s seventh victory.

He was going to have to take matters into his own hands.

“It’s rare for you to want to spend time with me,” Nie Mingjue eyed his younger brother suspiciously. 

“Can’t I enjoy your company Brother?” Nie Huaisang gave him back a small smile. Nie Mingjue hummed with no real meaning and sipped his tea.

“Shouldn’t you be happy that your brother is willing to spend time with you?” Jin Guangyao raised an eyebrow at his sworn brother.

Lan Xichen nodded in agreement, “Lan Wangji doesn’t have much time for his elder brother now that he has a wife to entertain.” Lan Xichen sighed and placed down his cup, “You need to enjoy their attention while you have it.”

Nie Mingjue scoffed and placed down his cup. It took him quite a while but Nie Huaisang to corner his brother. He had made up his mind to go through with this if he kept painting Jiang Cheng in a good light hopefully his brother would feel some need to acknowledge him. Hopefully... He wasn’t so confident when facing his brother straight on but maybe he had a chance with Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen backing him up.

“Brother, you must be tired spending the entire day sparring with Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang poured his brother another cup of tea.

“The Young Master Jiang surely didn’t relent today,” Lan Xichen chuckled.

Nie Mingjue shook his head “I’m fine, it was a good exercise I feel so energized.” Brother, please never say that around Jiang Cheng. “I never expected him to challenge me to a duel. He has some guts for a young disciple.”

Nie Huaisang could see Jin Guangyao’s eyebrow twitch. He held up his forever gentle smile but he could tell what he was thinking because it mirrored his own and Nie Huaisang dared for him to say it on his behalf

Are you even human? Jiang Cheng only walked out to maintain his dignity but he must have collapsed the minute he entered his quarters. Nie Mingjue used a fair amount of cultivation too, did he really feel nothing. Did he digest a miracle fruit? They kept both their true words to themselves.

“Young Master Jiang must have wanted to challenge such an exceptional cultivator such as yourself Da-ge,” Jin Guangyao spoke through a weary smile.

“He’s always been very driven in improving himself,” Nie Huaisang cupped his hands around the teacup and took a sip. “He takes his duties seriously and is devoted to his studies.”

“He is one of the leading cultivators of his generation,” Jin Guangyao nodded.

Lan Xichen also agreed and said, “His cultivation is quite good for his age.” Nie Huaisang patted himself on the back. He may not be the greatest cultivator but he knew how to use his words better than most realized.

“As I would expect from the young heir of such a prominent sect.”And as Nie Huaisang expected, his brother was difficult to please. 

“Even though he’s so talented he still works so hard on cultivating, I admire him for it,” a few drops of softness slipped out in those last words. An action that did not slip by Jin Guangyao.

“I would prefer if you would work on your own cultivation skills rather than wasting your time admiring other cultivators,” Nie Mingjue gritted his teeth. Bad move. Anything leading to the conversation of his poor cultivation was a bad move.

“Admiration usually leads to inspiration, this could be good for Nie Huaisang’s studies.” Lan Xichen a guardian angel as always.

Jin Guangyao cleared his throat, “You studied together with Jiang Cheng in Gusu right?”

“Yes, he and Wei Wuxian would help me with my studies.” He ignored the hard glare from his brother.

“I remember seeing you three together a lot,” Lan Xichen could vividly recall how they moved together in a group. Although Wei Wuxian would often leave the two in favour of bothering Lan Wangji.

“I’m quite surprised hearing the rumours of that temper of his,” Jin Guangyao continued.

“He does have a temper but,” Nie Huaisang looked down into his cup and a gentle smile spread across his face, “he’s always been really kind.” A light flicked on in Lan Xichen’s head. He and Jin Guangyao both exchanged amused smiles and continued their attention on Nie Huaisang.

“You really respect Young Master Jiang, Nie Huaisang,” Lan Xichen leaned in with his brother.

“Yes, Jiang Cheng is...” Nie Huaisang stopped his words when he saw the excitement in Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen’s eyes. There was no second-guessing that look, he got careless. He picked up his cup of tea and started drinking.

“What’s wrong why did you stop?” Jin Guangyao tipped his head innocently.

“The tea was getting cold.”

“Well, if you don’t mind finishing your sentence.”

“What was I about to say?”

“Something about Young Mater Jiang.” Nie Huaisang felt betrayed, Lan Xichen was supposed to be the guardian angel but instead, he’s teamed up with Jin Guangyao.

“Jiang Cheng is a very admirable cultivator,” Nie Huaisang managed to put together.

Jin Guangyao hummed, “You know I heard he’s rated the fifth best-looking out of all young male cultivators.” 

“Is-s that so,” Nie Huaisang had his own thoughts and preferences on the ranking, to be honest. 

“If someone had a crush on him I would recommend them to trap him quickly,” Jin Guangyao chuckled behind his sleeve.

“I have no idea what you guys are talking about?” Nie MInjue furrowed his eyebrows at all of them. They had for a brief moment forgot his presence. Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen looked at their thick-headed brother with eyes of shock and hopelessness. “If you have something to say just say it; don’t beat around the bush!” Nie MIngjue was fed up with the pretty words being thrown around.

“Uhh, B-Brother.” His brother wouldn’t dare force him to say it.

“Come on out with it!”

“B-Butt” Nie Huaisang jumped when Nie Minngjue narrowed his eyes down on him.

“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss such things at the moment,” Jin Guangyao urged. 

“I won’t know until he says it,” Nie Mingjue kept his ground.

“But Da-ge...” Lan Xichen trailed off.

“Nie Huaisang!”

His brother is really going to make him do this. “I uhh I mean Jiang Cheng...”

“What about the heir of the Jiang Clan?” Nie Mingjue grew more impatient.

Nie Huaisang felt his cheeks heat up and stretch across his face and down his neck, “I uh I...”

“Out with it already!”

“I’m in love with Jiang Cheng!” He actually said it, in one big swoop. Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao sat there in shock. Nie Huaisang was surprised the words left his mouth himself.

“Oh,” Nie Mingjue folded his arms, “is that it?”

This would be the first time Nie Huaisang would have seen Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, the two legendary men known for their calm auras and gentle smiles with such horrified expressions. He was lost in the swirling feeling inside his stomach.

Is that it?

Is that it?

Is that it?

“Brother,” Nie Huaisang started with a slow steady beat. “You’re an idiot!” Nie Huaisang flung his fan into his elder brother’s face and ran out with tears streaming down his face.

“W-What was that for?!” Nie Mingjue squinted his eyes at the door his younger brother just ran out of, not bothered by the blow of the fan on his face.

“Seriously, Da-ge you have no tact whatsoever,” Jin Guangyao deadpanned. “I’ll be impressed is Nie Huaisang ever looks at you again.”

“There was the worst way to handle the situation,” Lan Xichen sighed. “And then to just disregard his feeling after Nie Huaisang got the courage to confess them.”

“It’s perfectly normal for him to like someone.” There was no hope for a monster like him at least that’s what Jin Guangyao concluded. Nie Mingjue thought, ‘If it’s that Jiang Cheng then I can approve. I liked that stubborn determined fire in his eyes. It would be good for Nie Huaisang to be with such an impressive youngster.’

Nie Huaisang later found out that his brother’s way of an apology for brushing off his feelings was setting up an engagement agreement between him and Jiang Cheng. Normally, Nie Huaisang would be baffled at his brother’s thinking but for this round, he could thank his brother from the bottom of his heart.

“Don’t pout,” Nie Huaisang poked Jiang Cheng’s cheek. His boyfriend scowl went even deeper at the mention of him pouting. “Come on, it's great. We don’t have to hide anymore.”

Jiang Cheng’s face relaxed and he grabbed Nie Huaisang’s hand, “It is nice not having to hide.” Nie Huaisang leaned into the muscular body and let his head rest on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “But, I wanted to officially ask for your hand.” So cute! Nie Huaisang couldn’t get over how pouty Jiang Cheng was because Nie Mingjue beat him to the marriage proposal. Another point for his brother.

 Nie Huaisang wrapped himself around Jiang Cheng’s arm and placed a kiss on his cheek, “We’re getting married, isn’t that enough?”

The corners of Jiang Cheng’s mouth softened into a smile. He took Nie Huaisang’s chin and tipped it to place a kiss on his forehead, “Yes, it's more than enough.”

Someone behind them cleared their throat and Nie Huaisand and Jiang Cheng split apart.

“Sect Leader Nie,” Jiang Cheng saluted as soon as he realized Nie Mingjue’s presence. 

“Young Master Jiang,” Nie Mingjue acknowledged his presence. His eyes followed down to his little brother. “I’m glad to see you two are getting along so well.”

“Jiang Cheng is very polite and accommodating of me,” Nie Huaisang smiled at his brother.

“It’s really nothing for my fiance,” Jiang Cheng mostly addressed Nie Mingjue. He wanted to make it clear that he had every intention to treat Nie Huaisang well.

“Good,” Nie Mingjue nodded at Jiang Cheng. “I was just about to head over to the training grounds. Would you like to join me for a spar?”

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng immediately answered. “I would be honoured.”

“I’ll meet you there then.” Nie Mingjue headed off first and left the couple behind. Nie Huaisang opened his fan with a flick of the wrist and fanned himself. “You know we are engaged right?”

“I’m going to get your brother approval one way or another before we get married,” Jiang Cheng tightened his grip on Sandu.

“Is that so?” Nie Huaisang pursed his lips. “As your fiance, I believe in you then.” No way is it ever going to happen but it's better for stubborn people to figure it out for themselves. Nie Huaisang could just sit back watch his game continue.

His brother still has the lead. 

[hamliet]

The Soul Eater: Dafan Mountain’s Dancing Goddess

Ah, the Dafan Mountain arc--or, a crash course in MDZS’s themes. 

In the anime, Dafan Mountain is a scene that lasts one episode; in the novel, it’s several chapters and our first significant look at many of the characters. Besides changing Wen Chao’s death, Dafan Mountain was probably the scene most changed in adapting the novel into the donghua. In the donghua, the ghost hand was behind the stone goddess's possession, and L’il Apple the donkey is the creature caught in the nets; in the novel, both of these are changed: the goddess is something else entirely, and the nets accidentally catch people. 

In my opinion (as with the Wen Chao change), it’s a good adaptation decision for the donghua to have made--the arc in the novel serves as a sounding point to symbolically summarize the whole story, but it doesn't work very well in a truncated visual medium which anime/donghua, by its nature, is. The donghua’s beginning was already disorienting (deliberately so, because we mimic Wei WuXian's experience being disoriented after being reborn in a new body, but perhaps a bit too much so), so having the previously established mysterious ghost hand play a role in the Dafan Mountain scene makes the story more succinct and easy to follow for viewers, as does having us fear for L’Il Apple whom we’re already attached to, as opposed to characters we don’t have time to get to know. 

That being said, you do lose some of the beautiful symbolism of those chapters that is present in the novel. As a warning, what follows will have spoilers from the novel as translated by exiledrebelscans. 

Dafan Mountain was an arc I appreciated more when I reread the novel, because I like missed a lot the first time around. It basically foreshadows the novel's major twists and turns, and also introduces the story’s major themes--society creating monsters, the sins of the fathers passing on to the children, and the butterfly effect/unintended consequences--quite explicitly. 

Let’s begin by looking at the worldbuilding background and setting in which the goddess goes on her rampage. The story brings up classism pretty much right away, noting that the there is a small cultivation clan that plans to night-hunt on Dafan Mountain, and that:

Society asks people to earn respect, but sets them up to fail by providing incredibly difficult/near impossible stakes for them to be able to earn the kind of respect the more “highbrow, affluent” clans (yes, it uses those words) enjoy. The idea of society setting impossible standards is something this arc and the story as a whole deconstructs. Because what happens next is that Jiang Cheng, the leader of the YunmengJiang Sect (one of those highbrow affluent sects) refuses to allow the smaller sect to night-hunt. The people complain, noting that it’s not really fair, but at the same time, they have no power by which to oppose him. 

In addition to keeping the smaller sects from interfering with Jiang Cheng’s plan to have his nephew, Jin Ling, earn glory in Dafan Mountain, he buys him hundreds of deity-binding nets that are noted to be extremely expensive--and the nets also catch some of the people in the smaller sects by mistake. It’s significant symbolically that nets that are noted to be an extreme show of wealth are what catch poorer people up, and trap them. Society traps them. 

Not only does society trap them, it gives those with power all the power to free them, or not. It’s not really on the poorer sects to try and earn approval; they almost certainly can’t earn approval. It’s up to the larger sects to decide to give them respect or not, and they don’t. Jin Ling doesn’t treat them as though they matter--he doesn’t even set them free. He views them as an inconvenience because society offers him no reason to respect them (and he’s a bratty teenager) 

Aaaand enter Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling’s uncle who set all of the nets up. He teaches Jin Ling this attitude, of people having to earn respect but not giving them much actual chance to do so, on a far more personal level, thereby showing that society’s rot is far more insidious and also nuanced than just “wealthy people suck.”

Also of note: the story will later show us that Jiang Cheng is literally reenacting his greatest pain onto his beloved nephew. He was never able to earn his father’s approval, nor his mother’s, and noted as much to his favored adopted brother Wei WuXian that his father “just doesn’t like me. He doesn’t like my mother, so he doesn’t like me.” Still, Jiang Cheng repeatedly drives himself to extremes trying to earn his father’s approval--and he never gets it. By ordering Jin Ling to succeed and earn his respect or else (even if it’s a more empty threat than not) he’s passing down the sin his father passed onto him. 

Jiang Cheng is also not considering the consequences of his own words. He loves his nephew and just rescued him, so the audience likely knows this is an empty threat--but words still have consequences. Every action, and speaking is an action, has an effect and sometimes we can’t control what the effect is. Jin Ling will later almost lose his soul in the battle with the goddess, purely because he wants to prove himself and chooses to fight the goddess on his own instead of sending up a signal to ask for help. And Jin Ling even directly tells (a frantic) Jiang Cheng that this was his fault: 

Next, let’s look at the goddess herself and her symbolism. The goddess was originally just a hunk of rock that happened to look like a dancing woman. And yet years and years of worship turned the slab of rock into an actual monster. 

The story isn’t condemning of the people, though--it’s not surprising nor wrong for people to want to find meaning and beauty around them. The problem is that things get out of hand, and people lose control of what they’ve created, and lose what the truth is as stories spread and spread. What society teaches is unreliable, in other words, and rumors and truth aren’t easily distinguished. It’s also worth noting that the dancing goddess’s myth is passed on through several generations, so again, it’s the stories of the parents passing onto their children (and later harming them). Once you start something, you can’t control it--it has unintended effects. The goddess is a symbol for society itself: people decide it has value and by doing so they create a monster that eventually consumes the desperate people praying to it. The rich trap the poor, the ‘righteous’ thing it do changes depending on who society has determined the villain is, and either way it consumes innocent victims (lots of innocent people will die in the wars in MDZS--whether it’s the Sunshot Campaign, the aftermath, the Nightless City Massacre, the Siege of the Burial Mounds, or the corpses that attack a cave). 

If you’ve finished the novel (or most of it) you’ve probably realized where this is going symbolically.

To return to the concept of empathy for the people in the mountain, who could not have known what would happen, it’s also worth noting that the soul-consuming begins with the goddess consuming the soul of a scared man seeking refuge from a storm, a man who desperately wants to matter:

The entirety of MDZS rests on two men who were scared and desperately wanted to matter: Wei WuXian, and Jin GuangYao. The people on Dafan Mountain who lose their souls to the goddess symbolize both of them (since they are foils) in that they didn’t consider the consequences of their actions and wound up losing themselves. Wei WuXian goes half-mad at the Nightless City and is later literally torn apart by his own creations....

... which for what it’s worth are noted at the beginning of the Dafan Mountain arc to still be in use, yet they are not working against the goddess, because for all Wei WuXian’s inventions, he could not control everything, and in the end lost control of himself as well. But of course Wei WuXian had a helping hand in that, because Jin GuangYao is the only character who throughout the story knows exactly what society is--a monster--and manipulates it to steal away what he needs it to steal away in order to maintain power. By the end of the story, his own crimes--the dead body of the sworn brother he killed--is what kills him. He thought he could control it, but he couldn’t. Yet Jin GuangYao is a victim too, and the story repeatedly emphasizes this (and does a fantastic job at it--he’s very hard to hate). 

The parallels and foreshadowing for both Wei WuXian and Jin GuangYao’s stories continue with a description of how the other people lost their souls: 

As we later find out, a marriage that is not what it seems later is a major twist in the story. Jin GuangYao found himself trapped in a wedding to a wife he found out just before his wedding was his sister--and whom he’d already gotten pregnant. The father who had scorned and hated him was tolerant of him and approved the match, his bride’s mother told him it was a rape and she didn’t want her husband to know his daughter wasn’t his daughter, and honestly, he was too scared to rock the boat and it’s hard to fault him. As a result he winds up losing himself even more, killing his son and later his wife. This description is symbolic of Jin GuangYao trapping himself in a wedding that would really just lead to ruin and death, not what he meant at all. And it winds up hurting the people who genuinely cared for him--his innocent son, his wife/sister, Nie MingJue, Lan XiChen. 

Wei WuXian, too, in his desire to help Jiang Cheng get revenge on the Wens, will later wind up hurting and almost destroying the Jiang Sect despite that never being his intention, when he loses control. And there’s direct foreshadowing of that here as well: 

The father's sacrifice parallels Wei WuXian’s sacrifice of his golden core for Jiang Cheng, and also Xiao XingChen’s sacrifice of his eyes for Song Lan (but Yi City will be its own meta). All of these sacrifices are noted to have drastically unintended consequences that actually wind up harming the relationships they attempted to maintain, though none of the sacrifices could be called anything but beautiful love. Xiao XingChen’s blindness is exactly what enables him to be tricked into killing his best friend, and Wei WuXian’s inability to tell Jiang Cheng for fear of offending him only leads Jiang Cheng to believe he is motivated to cultivate demonically because of arrogance. As a result Jiang Cheng starts to lose himself to pettiness and revenge, and Wei WuXian to his worser instincts as well--isolation (he’s always felt lonely) and to his martyr complex. Greed and the need to keep getting stronger are things that destroy Wei WuXian in the end (before he gets a second chance), but also are still destroying Jiang Cheng. 

And with that, let’s transition to the resolution and aftermath of the battle with the demon goddess. 

The goddess is provoked into attacking by Jin Ling, and it’s fairly karmic as well. Jin Ling expresses how hurt he was by Wei WuXian (who did not know who he was) taunting him for not having a mother, how hurt he was by a careless, ignorant word. And it’s Jin Ling’s careless, ignorant words that lead to one of his fellow disciples losing their soul. 

Society repeats its mistakes and does not learn (the fact that society is still using Wei WuXian’s creations is certainly a sign of this--though like everything it’s nuanced). And Jin Ling himself almost loses his soul as a result of trying to prove himself, but Jin Ling and the other disciples are repeatedly examples of hope in the story, hope that the novel’s conclusion will emphasize in its message that while society repeats itself, there is progress, and we are able to see Jin Ling and the others moving on from the hatred and prejudices that consumed the older generations. (We also see Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng, Lan WangJi, etc. moving on, but the younger generation is even less encumbered by society’s poison). Society might not learn, but Jin Ling does. 

But who saves Jin Ling in the novel from losing his soul and in the donghua from losing his life is also massively important thematically, and for foreshadowing: the Ghost General, Wen Ning.

Wen Ning uses the chains he has been kept in for thirteen years to tear apart the goddess/society. The chains we will later learn were put on him by Jin GuangYao, a person turned monstrous thanks to the cruelty of society, who kept him imprisoned for years and years. Wen Ning is loathed by society his entire life: firstly, when the Wen Sect is in power, for being weak and a stutterer, then for being a Wen even though he helped the opposite side (which directly foils him with Jin GuangYao as well, since both were more or less moles), then as a monstrous fierce corpse who was used to kill people. 

But he saves Jin Ling--and all of them--by destroying the goddess. And Wen Ning will later save Jin Ling again in the novel’s climactic scene, at a temple to another goddess.

And, of course, there’s Lan WangJi, who plays an important role in unraveling the hell of Dafan Mountain, because his later canon romance with Wei WuXian is incredibly thematic in how it provokes characters to change their perceptions of society, and its his love for Wei WuXian that encourages both of them to grow to a place where they’re able to dismantle society’s presumptions. 

From the very beginning of the Dafan Mountain scene, we find out it’s Lan WangJi who destroys the deity-binding nets and sets the trapped people free.

When Wei WuXian uses his signature flute-playing to summon Wen Ning and save them all, Lan WangJi sees him for who he is. He doesn’t recognize Wei WuXian because of his technique, though--as Wei WuXian notes, hundreds use his techniques--but because of the song he plays, a song Lan WangJi wrote and--unbeknownst to Wei WuXian--only ever shared with Wei WuXian. It’s through seeing a moment of his own vulnerability, through love, that he recognizes the person he loves has come back to life. The song is aptly named “WangXian” in canon, because their relationship is key to the story’s themes. Lan WangJi, so stringent and too by-the-rules, is encouraged to break from society repeatedly for Wei WuXian, and Wei WuXian is encouraged to think more about consequences through his relationship with Lan WangJi. 

It’s also interesting that Jiang Cheng similarly recognizes Wei WuXian, but because of his technique and tries to force him to reveal himself via whipping his soul out with Zidian--but it doesn’t work, so he can’t confirm it until later. And what gets Jiang Cheng to release Wei WuXian to Lan WangJi is a topic the story does address head-on: the fact that the relationship between them is gay. 

Homophobia is something bystanders brings up when Jiang Cheng is certain Mo XuanYu’s body is inhabited, as it is, by Wei WuXian, and it’s something Wei WuXian seeks to use to get both Jiang Cheng and Lan WangJi (whom he hasn’t realized recognizes him) to release him by teasing him that he’s not attracted to Jiang Cheng but is attracted to Lan WangJi. Wei WuXian would rather depart from society all together, but that’s not what the story aims for even as it does take down society. Connection is important, connection keeps us going, and isolating himself has always been a flaw of Wei WuXian’s. 

Of course, Lan WangJi is in love with Wei WuXian, though no one but his family knows this--but it’s when Lan WangJi slowly stops caring what people think about that aspect of him that he and Wei WuXian are able to get together, and so begins the first aspect of Lan WangJi breaking with societal expectations for the person he loves. He also offers some words of wisdom fitting for the events that have just happened: mark your words. Watch what you say. It actually does matter. And for MDZS, that a significant factor of what helps topple some of society’s rules and encourages people to grow towards empathy is WangXian--a gay couple who marry each other--really does matter.