#wen sibs
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Wen Qing is just So Much. She's a leader doing her damned best to protect her people. She's a sister desperately trying to protect her brother. She never managed to kill her heart, risking it all over and over out of kindness. She is so impossibly kind. She is so horribly guilty. She cannot bear to ask for help. She can't do anything but ask for help to save her people, her brother. She can never forgive herself for letting wwx throw himself into the whole mess. She can barely live with the knowledge of what she turned her brother into out of a selfish desire to have him by her side. She is helpless and detests it. She's the best doctor in the land. She takes Jiang Cheng’s comb and keeps it till she thinks she's lost the heart and hope it gave her forever. She understands only too well what it means to give everything to protect those you're in charge of. She looks at the brother she gained, whose home she plucked out of him along with his core, and understands only too well what it means to give everything to protect those you're in charge of. She still loathes what she let him do, what she did for them; instead of culling her guilt, it only increased it tenfold. She is so tired of fighting, because the cost is no longer her; everyone who tries to pull her out gets sucked in as well. Her hope is so tattered at the end that she walks towards death with her people following and her brother's hand in hers. She smiles at the end, still fighting, still hoping that she can protect at least one of the people she cared for. How can one person carry all that and not buckle under its weight? Just. She!!!
#im rotating her in the blorbo microwave all the time nowadays help#wen qing#the untamed#cql#meta#wen sibs#burial mounds#wei wuxian#wen ning#jiang cheng#mdzs
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If you're still doing the fake fic meme?
post-canon, it's not necrophilia if the fierce corpse consents, developing relationship, jc has two h--
Oooh, anon, if Jiang Cheng has two hands, he can h*ld h*nds with both Wen siblings at the same time!!
While subduing the Jin Elders at Jinlintai, Jiang Cheng finds Wen Qing stashed in a little room, but, unfortunately, this time she's kind of dead—the Jin did actually execute her. But they also gave her body to Xue Yang for experimentation, and so there's now one more sentient fierce corpse wandering the earth. She's very unhappy about the situation but she's had a lot of time to think about how to fix it, and, yep, once again, it's dual cultivation. Jiang-zongzhu has a very strong core and a vested interest in Wen Qing reducing the number of fierce corpses. They can make this work.
Of course, this creates a new problem for Jiang Cheng, because he can't fuck without catching feelings, and if it doesn't work in a year's time, Wen Qing has made him promise to put her to rest. And if it does, she wants her brother to be taken care of, too...
#personally I wouldn't want to share my bf with a sibling but I feel like wen qing is a little insane about wen ning being ok#see the whole fierce corpse situation in the first place#and wen ning is a repressed people pleaser who's used to jiejie telling him what to do#this plus jiang cheng's problems with saying no to his loved ones and I think we can make this v-shaped situation happen#[marie kondo voice] I love mess!#anon asks#asks#fake fic ask game#jiang cheng#wen qing#wen ning#chengqing#ningcheng#chengning#wen sibs#mdzs +#least-carpet thoughts
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Oh man there's like at least 5 sets of these in Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed. More if you include backstories.
People should make more doomed by narratives siblings relationship.
Like with lovers you can just sever it and not have it related to you ever again but with siblings how could you?
You grow up with them you raise them or they raised you you both know how unforgiving the world is to both of you? You would die for them but will hate them for doing the same and yet none of you would regret it and both of you know it. They could be the person you loath the most and miss the most cause you still remember how they sneaked a candy into your hands. You can sever the tie but you can never look away at what you've lost, at whom you've lost because fate doesn't allow you to be together, eating dinners in quiet peace, if only there's another life, another time, where i can make you another plate of pancakes i would im sorry im sorry im sorry —
#yunmeng sibs#twin jades#nie bros#wen sibs#whatever the fuck is going on with the four Jin kids#mdzs#the untamed
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from this poll
#closeness has nothing to do with depth of affection!!! don't come at me about the Nie Bros.!!#they love each other SO MUCH but boy oh boy do they misunderstand each other until it's too late!#meanwhile (not unlike NMJ) WQ has posited herself so firmly in the position of WN's protector that he can't fully know her#I debated the entire day about the placements for the Wen sibs + Lan sibs + Nie sibs#but went with these bc LXC and LWJ are at least fully aware of each other's close personal relationships#whereas WN has no idea about WQ and the comb (and very possibly no idea about how WRH uses him to keep WQ in line)#and NHS and NMJ keep hella secrets from each other even after their heart-to-heart in Fatal Journey#(in case it wasn't obvious: this is for CQL canon specifically do NOT bring novel canon into my home at this time)
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You're Gonna Go Far, Kid | The Offspring
another concept that has lived in my mind rent-free for so long that I've finally gotten around to creating! these boys are just such [clenches fist] incredible narrative foils. I am truly team #morallygreybisexualtwink.
#wei wuxian#jin guangyao#meng yao#nie huaisang#the untamed#also oh my god I've spent the last three years so hung up on 3zun + their sibs#that I completely fucking forgot what a horrifying fucked up little dude the PROTAGONIST is! can you BELIEVE?#rewatching him killing all those wens like o_o ah. yeah. forgot he was a cold-blooded sadistic serial killer. lmao I guess.
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Wen Ning came back wrong.
He was still gentle. He was still sweet and shy. Wen Qing’s soft-spoken little brother, with his big, dark eyes. Shy and awkward around people he didn’t know. Too shy and too awkward to get to know almost anybody. Ever-eager to help, ever-willing to offer kindness to anyone willing to take it. The same as he’d always been.
But Wen Ning came back wrong.
He’d been frail and fragile when he was younger, and timid and spineless when he’d grown. He’d needed Wen Qing to protect him, helpless and weak as he was. She’d tried to bully him into standing up for himself, but mostly she’d tried to shield him from the harshness of the world. He was so naive, so idealistic, so oblivious to the darkness in other people. Her brother, always so afraid. Her brother, who did as he was told, who trusted her to make decisions for him. Her brother, who never ever talked back.
His defiance started with Wei Wuxian, but it didn’t stop with him. Wen Ning had been apologetic and guilty before, when he went against her orders. He’d at least had the shame to wait until she turned her head before he broke her rules. Since his resurrection she hasn’t been able to get him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. He doesn’t even pretend to listen to her. He refuses her, now, quietly but unquestionably, and no amount of arguing will convince him to stay where she can see him, where she can take care of him, where she can keep him safe. He goes where he pleases, and she cannot hold him.
Which means Wen Ning came back wrong.
He used to waste so much time with his bow, hours and hours shooting targets when he should have been helping her brew medicine. Now he spends his time testing his new and terrible strength. He tears ancient trees from the ground root and all. Shreds the training dummies Wei Wuxian builds for him into kindling, and when Wei Wuxian makes them sturdier Wen Ning hits them harder. She stands on the edge of the wards surrounding the Burial Mounds and watches Wei Wuxian layer talismans around the boulder they’re using as the target’s head, chattering about the strength of helmets and the density of the human skull, how much pressure it takes to deal lethal amounts of damage through armor. Wen Ning reaches out and, almost casual, crushes the boulder into so many chunks of debris. Wei Wuxian sputters and laughs. Her frail little brother flexes his pale, clawed, deadly fingers, looking oh so very pleased with himself.
He hunts. He patrols their settlement with a lethal kind of control in his movements, coiled-tight and waiting. He rips resentful creatures apart with his hands. Wei Wuxian asks if he’s ever killed a human before, during the war or the camps, before his death. Wen Qing wants to say of course not, because Wen Ning is her brother and her brother was not a killer, could not be. Only Wen Ning had tilted his head to the side, bird-like. Kneaded his fingers against the edge of the table like he was finding his grip on a weapon. Asked why Wei-Gongzi wanted to know, and nodded earnestly when Wei Wuxian mentioned needing a bodyguard for his trip to Lanling.
Wen Ning came back wrong.
Wen Qing can’t figure out how. Can’t describe it, exactly. No one else seems to notice or care. Their sweet a-Ning, their gentle, kind, soft-spoken a-Ning. He’s still here. He’s still right here.
But Wen Ning came back wrong.
He came back wrong.
He had to have come back wrong.
Because if he didn’t… then Wen Qing never really knew her brother at all, did she?
#mdzs#the untamed#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#wen ning#wen qionglin#wen qing#wei wuxian#I HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE WEN SIBS OKAY#Wen Qing loved him she wanted to protect him she tried to keep him safe#but god if she wasnt good at making him feel small and helpless#The greatest injustice Wen Qing did to her brother was not having him brought back#as a horrible not-dead thing#Wen Ning is also Ride Or Die To The Point Of Madness okay he gets it#he also would have torn life and death asunder if it had taken her from him#no the worst thing Wen Qing ever did to Wen Ning was her refusal to let him grow up#to see him for who he really was#because the truth is that Wen Ning was never fragile. He was never helpless.#And he would have fought back earlier if she hadn't had him under such a chokehold#would it have done any good? Who knows! Maybe it would have gotten him killed sooner.#but that's not what's important. Not really. Because he would have gone down fighting.#He went down fighting. Every time he died Wen Ning went down fighting.#It isn't fair he had to die to be allowed to fight#it isnt fair
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#ship-wise there is liberal subtext about every variation of wwx-wq-lwj-jc #it is extremely probable that wwx leaves lotus pier after due to being entirely unable to deal with jc being stronger than him #and jc and lwj (and maybe possibly wq) fuck about it #maybe the jin demonic cultivators bring back wn's soul and lock it in a jar that they sew up into a fresh corpse or something idk (OP's tags)
For the ask meme, au where wwx kills lxc at qiangpi path instead of jzx.
Or gender swap jc au.
Ok, so it took me a while to think this over, because there’s a lot here, and then talking it over with @demoiselledefortune I realized there’s even more than I thought! (still thinking about the genderswap jc one)
Also, poor, poor LWJ. 🙁 (LQR doesn't bear thinking about. That poor, poor man. I don't talk about LQR under the cut because it's too sad for me to contemplate.)
1) So the thing is, this isn’t a noticeably better accidental killing for WWX, because while the Lans may be less the powerhouse than the Jins, JGS will definitely try and use LXC’s death to turn against WWX. And it’s going to be stupidly easy, because LXC was a sect leader and the sworn brother of his son.
(I assume LXC was there because he was invited to JL’s 100 days ceremony and his passing there was a coincidence, while in canon he was already at Jinlintai. So maybe JZX is still in Jinlintai here, the confrontation happening earlier and thus before JZX departed; or JZX is here as well as he was in canon, and LXC was the one running late - in which case, JZX is alive and a witness and might speak up on WWX’s behalf at least to his wife and his BIL, at least to tell them that it seemed an accident. This turns out not to have much of an impact on the grand scale of things OR on JYL and JC’s understanding of what happened, bc they already trust WWX so much, but it does have an impact on JZX’s view of the world and himself. This is less about WWX than it is about politics in general and his father in specific. In that version he’s much more in-the-middle of things, much more aware of being personally dismissed. In that version there’s a chance he and JYL go live in LP.)
Besides the Jins, there’s also NMJ, who is a big fan of his sworn brothers not getting killed and of not shielding people from the consequences of their actions. Just putting it out there where we can see it. On the other hand, they’re not LXC’s most direct family. LWJ and the Lans are, so NMJ lets LWJ take point.
(There's a version of this prompt where NMJ qi-deviates when he hears about LXC's death. In that timeline should WWX get killed NHS' plans never feature bringing him back.)
2) Know for whom LXC dying instead of JZX changes things a lot, though? WQ and WN. When they decide to surrender themselves, they go to Cloud Recesses, not Jinlintai. LWJ and his sect I feel wouldn't punish WQ for LXC’s death. She wasn't there.
(WN, otoh, is very done for. There is no way GSL pulls a Jin to keep him around. He's a fierce corpse and the one who killed their sect leader at that. They execute him/lay his soul to rest. There's no further desacration of WN and that's probably the bitterest comfort WQ could hope for. WQ does try to shield WN when she realizes the Lans aren't planning on executing her, but she doesn't get that.)
WQ would easily get a promise of safety from LWJ for at least A-Yuan, probably Granny, maybe the others - on the sterner end of the scale for the adult cultivators. This is somewhat dependent on what JGS (and NMJ) are clamoring for but JGS wants the Stygian Seal more than he does the Wens and NMJ would be satisfied with the Lans supervising the fate of the Wen remnants. Besides, the most high-profile of the Wen remnants is WQ and she just surrendered herself. WN would say WWX isn’t responsible for LXC’s death, it was a freak resentful energy accident–
3) I think what LWJ does demand about WWX is... that WWX be given over to Gusu Lan. They can lock him up. And purify him of the resentful energy.
LWJ is in a frankly abysmal mental space - it’s only because his cultivation is so orthodox that he doesn't qi deviate. It’s all tearing him up, LXC’s death because of the guy LWJ has a crush on, LWJ’s want for WWX and LWJ’s wish that he could (imitate his father) bring someone back to CR and lock them up and LWJ suddenly being in the horrendous situation where he is imitating his father. The memory of the kiss is now a nightmare. It was always a mixed memory (how shameful, to lose control of himself thus - to take advantage of the one he loved - to lack even the courage to simply ask, either for the kiss, or at least for forgiveness) but now it makes him retch.
It's all twisted in the fact that LXC is dead, because of WWX. There can be nothing between LWJ and WWX now. Simply wishing there could be would be the worst betrayal.
(LWJ remembers the days of their youth, LXC’s delight and gentle teasing at LWJ’s inexplicable liking of WWX. The Water Abyss. And now LXC is dead, because of the boy he was so happy LWJ wanted for a friend. LXC always wanted LWJ to have friends, something akin to his own friendship with NMJ.)
0) (the Problem. The Problem is that I cannot see WWX staying in the Cloud Recesses if he's imprisoned there. If he wouldn't rather die at first, he will afterwards. LWJ thinks of his mother. If WWX dies LWJ would enter seclusion like his father once did. This isn’t something LWJ tells himself consciously.)
4) JC and JYL visit WWX in the Cloud Recesses while he's imprisoned there. JC hates LWJ for it, but I think he's self-aware enough to think “what if it had been Jiejie.” It’s hard to hate LWJ wholeheartedly.
5) WQ is in Cloud Recesses, too. She’ll never live outside the Cloud Recesses again, but it could have been far worse. She’s allowed time with A-Yuan (she is not in forced seclusion and neither is she A-Yuan’s mother but LWJ cannot let himself see them together, or else he starts to think of how she isn’t allowed to raise her kin herself.)
When it comes out *pretty damn early* that WWX doesn’t have a core, she’s the one who implies WZL got him.
(JC is in LWJ’s office clamoring, begging for WWX to be released into the care of YMJ in a hot minute after he finds out - which takes at least one or two visits, because no-one wrote to tell him, and it takes him asking a question about how getting WWX rid of resentful energy and not letting go when the answer’s too cagey to his taste for him to know. If it were just LWJ– but LWJ has elders. plus there’s also LXC’s sworn brothers to contend with; LWJ isn’t thinking of that, and JC will think of it later, after LWJ has refused to return WWX to YMJ.) JC is so so so angry at everyone involved - WWX for *lying to him*, why didn’t you *tell me*, I would have *helped* - WQ for hiding it from him AND not telling him when she told the Lans (to which she retorts that she isn’t exactly allowed a free correspondence. Hmph. Okay. JC allows that. WQ has negative scruples about lying to him about the core rn.) - LWJ for keeping WWX a prisoner here even though WWX is, is, WWX isn’t a cultivator anymore he’s a normal person let YMJ watch over him, let JC - even JYL for having something else in her life that she loves, that isn’t WWX locked up in another sect.
WQ is also the one who sees when WWX is seriously at risk of his life just fading away, and this time she tells JC: if WWX doesn’t get out, he will die.
The fic ends with WQ and JC breaking WWX out of the Cloud Recesses (it’s implied LWJ is looking the other way). WQ stays in CR, of course, but JC is taking WWX to Lotus Pier. There’s no plan for “later”.
#ue ue ue (sound of crying)#(through tears) good thoughts OP#wei wuxian#lan wangji#lan xichen#wen qing#wen ning#jiang yanli#jiang cheng#lan sizhui#granny wen#gusu shuangbi#yunmeng trio#yunmeng siblings#yunmeng shuangjie#wen sibs#zhanchengqingxian#zhancheng#chengqing#chengxian#zhanqing#wangxian#qingxian#mdzs +#fanfic
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this might not be the right time since i have thesis stuff to do, but im entering a bit of a writing rut despite the desire to write, so..... if you guys have writing prompt ideas for little drabbles either for mdzs or svsss, send them my way
#can't guarantee i'll write them quickly#but i need to work on Something and my current wips aren't going the way i'd like#and i want to get a better feel for writing scum villain stuff#since i haven't really written them but i love the characters so much#but yeah my character preferences for writing are probably pretty obvious#that being yunmeng sibs and/or wen qing#though i'd also love to write the juniors i love the juniors so much#and for scum villain i love bingqiu and i love cumplane#but also i'd be willing to stretch my wings for different characters if the prompt was compelling
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Which moment of "Wen Ning lost it" did you have in mind when you made the poll? About Jin Zixuan or Jiang Cheng? Which version of "lost it" are we talking about?
At some point after he goes to Carp Tower to turn himself in with Wen Qing he snaps and kills a bunch of people. JGS uses it as an excuse to attack the burial mounds after previously promising that so long as Wen Qing and Wen Ning turn themselves in he'd leave them alone.
#in cql all the wens go except a-yuan but in the novel it's just the wen sibs#i don't remember what the donghua does
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I forgot that wen chao knows that wen ning is the one that drugged the wine??? how does this plot line resolve itself
#I literally do not remember#is it just the wen sibs getting locked in the dungeons or whatever?? that happens at some point#but I feel like theres a lot of time between now and then 😭#ghost posts#text#wc#wn#cqltober lb
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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jiāng Yànlí/Niè Míngjué/Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī) Characters: Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī), Jiāng Yànlí, Niè Míngjué, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, POV Wēn Qíng (Módào Zǔshī), Polyamory, Established Relationship, Foursome - F/F/M/M, Kissing, Cunnilingus, Nipple Play, Light BDSM, Fluff and Smut Series: Part 3 of we four and our bodies Summary:
"So much fuss!" Wen Qing protests, only half meaning it, as they take turns kissing her. Mingjue shuts the bedroom door with a click before taking his turn; Xichen moves away, presumably to unmake the bed; it’s almost like they’ve choreographed the dance.
"We missed you," Yanli says and moves in to kiss her as soon as Mingjue steps aside.
--
Wen Qing comes home from a conference and gets quite the welcome back.
This is my contribution to the wonderful MDZS Women Flash Exchange! Frostferox’s prompts went perfectly with my “let Wen Qing be spoiled” agenda :3
#the untamed#陈情令#mo dao zu shi#魔道祖师#puck writes#fanfic#big sibs ot4#jiang yanli#江厌离#lan huan#lan xichen#蓝涣#蓝曦臣#wen qing#温情#nie mingjue#聂明玦
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Chapter 1 of Wen Ning Gets a Life is up!
OK, I looked at the poll results and it seems like the consensus is "just fucking post it," so without further ado: Chapter 1 of Wen Ning Gets a Life is up. Let's get that fierce corpse (disappointingly) laid! (You will need an AO3 account to read it.)
Title: Wen Ning Gets a Life
Rating: E
Pairings: Wen Ning/Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (background)
Summary:
Sometime after the events of the novel, Wen Ning receives a series of good surprises: 1. Wen Qing is alive. 2. She has a plan to make him alive, too. 3. That plan involves sex with Wei Wuxian, his best friend and long-time crush. (And Lan Wangji.) Unfortunately, nothing has ever gone according to plan in Wen Ning's entire life, and it looks like his unlife won't be any different—especially once Jiang Cheng gets involved.
#jiang cheng#wen ning#wen qing#wei wuxian#ningcheng#wangningxian#wen sibs#mdzs +#fanfic#my fanfic#least-carpet thoughts#how do I tag the weird yunmeng shuangjie/chengxian vibes. they never touch. for most of the fic they are not in the same room#wwx only makes it weird near the end so I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it#jc makes it weird the whole time but not in a sex way so maybe it's not relevant
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Why is this ENTIRE EPISODE about Wangxian killing the owl. I am reasonably certain that they devote more screentime to Wangxian trying to kill the owl than they give to Qin Su in her entirety.
#masala necromancy wizard hour#also WHY are they calling it an owl when it looks and sounds like a hawk#I used to figure that was just Netflix being clueless but no#same for the ‘twenty years’ timestamp for Dafan Mountain that would put the Wen sibs as both 25+ lol
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aaaaand because I love you guys, you can have some runner up art too - jin sibs!
so a while back @justkeeptrekkin and I were discussing potential ideas for what a sequel to their amazing xiyao spy AU Beg, Bite, Kiss might look like, and since it's unlikely to get written now I thought I'd share some... I guess you could call it concept art!
essentially, the three eldest Jin sibs would team up to rescue their newly-discovered little brother Xuanyu from the clutches of the remains of the Wen corporation, who want to use his DNA to access the dangerous experimental tech in the Jin vault! it's very much a "retired spies come back for one last job and this time it's personal" situation.
#jin sibs#qin su and the boys#meng yao#jin guangyao#jin zixuan#qin su#mo xuanyu#tumodernau#the untamed
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@demoiselledefortune's tags
hm hm.
This isn't really new or anything but the more I reread random passages the more convinced I am that there's something very unique about the way Jiang Cheng reacts to Wen Ning and it's just so interesting!
I'm convinced it's more than just being angry. It's more than just hating him, or blaming him for Jin Zixuan's death or his sister's life. It's more than being a Wen, and it comes long before so many of those tragedies unfold anyway.
There's a sort of urgent, visceral reaction to Wen Ning's presence that just has this different feeling to it than how he reacts to any of the other characters. Even characters he has strong emotional responses to, it's never with the same panic or recklessness. It's not the same as the whole "vengeful wrath, fathomless hatred, or raving ecstasy" situation he's got going on with Wei Wuxian (sexy as that might be).
When it's Wei Wuxian, it's all "...well, well. So you're back?" and "Haven't you got anything to say to me?" Even when he's not being very nice, even when he's throwing teacups and furious at Wei Wuxian, there's still an edge of calmness in the way he lashes out. He's fucking mad but he's had more than a decade to think about this and he's got things to say and he's trying so hard to get a reaction from Wei Wuxian that he just won't give him.
But he can't tolerate having Wen Ning anywhere near him. Much of the time he instantly lashes out, physically, in ways to create space between them. He's mean to Wen Ning, but he doesn't really have much to say to him; he just wants to get away from him.
It really stuck out to me how instinctive and instantaneous and emotional that reaction is when I was reading this passage from chapter 81 (ExR translation since I've got it on hand in digital text form), when Jin Ling returns Zidian and rushes back into the fray during the Second Siege:
When Jiang Cheng was unaware, he stuffed Zidian's ring back into his hand and sprinted toward the crowd, all the way up to the most dangerous area before the mouth of the cave. Jiang Cheng was about to chase after him when he managed to slice a few corpses, staggering. He felt that Sandu was no lighter than hundreds of pounds. Two female corpses threw themselves at him from both directions.
Jiang Cheng cursed. As he lifted his sword again, another pair of hands tore the two corpses into pieces, "Sect Leader..."
Jiang Cheng lost his temper as soon as he heard the voice. He kicked Wen Ning away and cursed, "Get the fuck away from me!"
Obviously that is not very nice and poor Wen Ning didn't deserve a kick for being legitimately helpful there, but the point is that not only does he lash out - the reaction happens even when he's clearly got higher priorities going on in a chaotic situation. Throughout that entire event he reacts in a somewhat more even-keeled way to almost everything except Wen Ning being in his vicinity.
And it's not just after Wen Ning's death, not just after he became Wei Wuxian's greatest weapon, not just after he was forced to kill Jin Zixuan - it's specifically a pattern established from the moment he woke up in the Supervisory Office without a core:
Before he could say anything, those sun robes reflected against Jiang Cheng's eyes. His pupils suddenly shrunk.
Jiang Cheng kicked Wen Ning, toppling over the bowl of medicine. The black liquid all spilled onto Wen Ning. Wei WuXian wanted to take the bowl of medicine. He pulled up Wen Ning as well, who had been shocked speechless. Jiang Cheng roared at him, "What's wrong with you?!"
At this point he doesn't even know how he was rescued, since he was unconscious for all of that, and thinks they're in a Wen trap and likely going to die (or worse). But there's so many echoes of that interaction again, and again, and again between them.
And combined with Wen Ning's remarks during the scene just before this, where he tells Wei Wuxian about the discipline whip injuries and how Jiang Cheng 'should have other injuries as well', the way the narrative is so deliberately ambiguous on what exactly occurred, it all makes me want to crawl up the walls and gnaw on the light fixtures wailing WHAT DID YOU SEE, WEN NING?! WHAT DID YOU SEE?
At a minimum, Jiang Cheng knows that Wen Ning was there at Lotus Pier prior to his capture by the Wen guards, because they'd both seen Wen Ning examining Jiang corpses on the training field before they fled for Meishan.
But everything after that is only implication and subtext and suppositions and speculation, not directly stated in the text. But based on his reaction, you can pry my headcanon from my cold dead hands that that Wen Ning probably witnessed all or much of what happened to Jiang Cheng after he was captured, and Jiang Cheng knows it.
I've also posted before how I think there's an at least nonzero chance that Jiang Cheng was never directly told that Wen Ning wasn't actually there with Wen Chao when they saw him early on, but came later to try to help (because when Wen Ning gives Wei Wuxian that information Jiang Cheng isn't conscious, and nobody tells Jiang Cheng anything. I don't think that headcanon changes much either way, but there is a slight difference, at least emotionally, between 'I helped you while I was there to slaughter your clan and destroy your life' and 'I came when I heard my crazy cousin was slaughtering your clan and tried to help you' and I think it's a juicy thing to add to the pile of misunderstandings they each have of the other's motivations and actions).
Which, if I go with these two ideas together, really drives home what a bespoke and specific nightmare the way the Golden Core reveal played out - not only the substance of the reveal, but the fact it was Wen Ning who revealed it.
He was already furious that they were even there at Lotus Pier, particularly Wen Ning. But the way it all happens it feels like it's not just echoes of the amplified emotions of the confrontation with Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian in the Ancestral Hall, it's not just Wen Ning being a Wen, or even Jin Zixuan's death, the way the narration calls out. It feels like there are deeper layers to it.
I also feel a bit stupid for not noticing before this probably extremely obvious to literally everyone else who isn't a dumbass like me parallel of Wen Ning getting a gruesome scorching whip mark across his chest at Lotus Pier in the course of saving Wei Wuxian (more or less, sort of - we know as readers Jiang Cheng was intentionally trying not to hurt them with Zidian, but I don't think Wen Ning knew that when he jumped in).
Jiang Cheng looked to find that the uninvited guest was Wen Ning. Immediately, he raged, "Who let you inside Lotus Pier?! How dare you!"
He could manage to tolerate others, but definitely not Wen Ning, the Wen-dog who put his hand through Jin ZiXuan's heart and ended both his sister's happiness and her life. Just a look, and he felt the urge to kill him right there. How dare he step foot on the earth of Lotus Pier—he really was looking for his death!
Because of the two lives and many other reasons, Wen Ning had always felt guilty, and so he'd always been somewhat scared of Jiang Cheng, consciously avoiding him all the time. Right now, however, he blocked Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi as he faced him, taking the hard lash. A gruesome scorch climbed across his chest, but still he didn't flinch.
I don't know that it actually means anything but it's making me FEEL THINGS incoherently at this specific moment, so. Also I find it legitimately sad that Wen Ning has to live with guilt over things that happened when he was controlled by someone else, though the scene before the Ancestral Hall when Jin Ling starts crying on the boat is probably a better example of that. Anyway.
It's just there's so, so many layers to how uniquely horrible it is for Jiang Cheng that he not only finds out about the Golden Core transfer this way, but also that Wen Ning, specifically, directly witnessed this life-shatteringly huge deception and sacrifice too - while Jiang Cheng was unconscious, no less.
And, well, we know how everything got capped off in that scene...
Obviously the shock of the information was going to get a huge reaction no matter what, no matter who or how he found out. Even without the Wen Ning element, it already hits every one of his deepest weaknesses and insecurities and fears.
But to come from the guy who'd witnessed his family being slaughtered, who'd witnessed who-knows-what humiliations heaped on him (who also happens to be the same fucking guy that Wei Wuxian thought it was worth leaving Yunmeng Jiang for, breaking his promise for...), the guy he blames for his sister's tragic fate (whether that blame is misplaced or not), the guy he exhibits a panic response towards even decades later, and goddamn.
There are just so many layers to this perfect little nightmare reveal on so many different levels aren't there?
There's just SO much meaty stuff for these two to dig into post-canon and all we get is an extra with a 'oh yeah sometimes Jiang Cheng yells on night hunts and Wen Ning is there' about it?!
I should probably just shut up and go read some Jiang Cheng and Wen Ning focused fics or something (whether romantic or platonic that's probably an area I really haven't explored enough vs. the amount of sheer interesting hints and material the novel gives to work with! If by some miracle anyone made it to the end of this beast feel free to drop any recs that explore them, especially that 'what did Wen Ning see?!' aspect of the whole situation because that is the current little brain worm haunting me right now).
#mdzs#humming sounds#ningcheng#meta#something very interesting about WN having witnessed things about JC that he doesn't tell WWX about#because it would hurt WWX wouldn't it?#and WQ pulling the same playing-the-hero bullshit on WWX that WWX understands other people hate#both Wen sibs giving WWX a taste of his own medicine#and it's very interesting when WN is also the one who broke the secret about the core#could there be someone breaking the secret about what WN saw to WWX (WWX would hate it.)?#there's only JC#and both we and WN know how much his pride is important to JC#so the question is: how ready to bite his nose off to spite his face is JC?#how willing to break something in the relationship between WWX and WN if the cost is telling WWX about what happened in WC's hands?
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hey do you know that one plotline in violet evergarden where the dying mom leaves letters to her kid spanning the kid's birthdays for the next 50 hears ?
work with me here.
in another AU, yllz!wei wuxian knows he's not really going to make it. the others know too. theyre all running on borrowed time. but they all agree that a-yuan should at least live. so all of them (wwx, wen qing, all the wen remnants) got together one night and write letters to a-yuan for him to open on his birthdays for the next 50 years in case they never do make it.
they hand the qiankun pouch with all the letters to wen ning. their plan in case all goes to shit is to give a-yuan to wen ning and for the two of them to escape as far as possible while wwx sets himself up as one final bait. wen ning doesnt like this last resort. no one does. but theyre all running out of time.
in this AU, things go a little differently. there is no ambush at qiongqi pass because there is no yllz traveling to give jin ling his gift. instead, wwx got lwj to hand the gift over to jin ling to avoid bringing chaos to such an auspicious event. jzx and jyl live.
there is no nightless city massacre because wwx isnt there to get the wen siblings because the wen siblings havent given themselves up. everyone is far too busy preparing a-yuan's escape.
that doesnt stop the sects from besieging the burial mounds though. they want the yllz gone, you best believe they will find other reasons to justify the siege.
a miracle happens though. by some stroke of luck, wen qing survives with a-yuan and she gets to escape with him and wen ning. wwx still dies but his death is enough to give the wen sibs and a-yuan time to escape.
so a-yuan grows up in some obscure fishing village so far removed from the great sect territories that not even lwj has passed by the place. all three of them are under new names. they make a living as the village's only healers. nobody talks about wen ning being a fierce corpse because he really isnt any danger to them. in fact, he's the favourite grandchild of all the elders (after a-yuan of course)
a-yuan grows up with just his qing-jiejie and ning-gege physically, but he has a stack of letters from his departed loved ones waiting for him for each of his birthdays, each of his milestones. his favourites are always from his xian-gege, pages upon pages of wwx rambling to him every birthday. maybe wwx snuck in some cultivation tips and tricks there. maybe there are a couple of sketches and drawings too. sketches of their family, sketches of their old home. one sketch of lwj.
a-yuan's family may have been shaved down to just the three of them but the others' spirits remain with them always.
a-yuan grows well. he's a healer, but he's also a cultivator. one wandering cultivator (maybe another incognito baoshan sanren disicple?) had given him a sword and a couple of manuals.
"you're a promising one, kid. unfortunate that you're so far away from the nearest cultivation centers, but these should be of help"
so thats their life now. quiet, peaceful.
theyre so far away from the great sect's world that they dont even hear about anything happening over there until months have passed since.
until one day, something compels wen ning to travel as fast as he can to a certain direction.
#mdzs#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#mo dao zu shi#wen yuan#wen ning#wen qing#wen qionglin#wei wuxian#wei ying#mine : au#mine : cloud rambles
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