#wen who has never been flirted with before: what's this guy's deal what is his face doing | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

likeshipsonthesea · 4 years ago

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mianmian gets to the lan sect lectures, discovers very quickly that every one of her peers has decided to use this time to figure out how quickly they can get into bed with someone of the opposite sex, and decides almost immediately that she has to pick a suitably unattainable guy to have a crush on.

the thing is, mianmian is lanling jin’s head disciple. she is capable, intelligent, and very very gay. the last of these things she isn’t exactly keen on telling people yet for a variety of reasons up to and including jin zixuan will be so awkward and stubbornly supportive about it and she doesn’t know how to deal with that yet

so when her friends giggle over the other young masters and finally turn to mianmian-- who’s trying to memorize at least some of the fifty-thousand rules before their quiz tomorrow--and they ask her, “who do you like, mianmian?” she says the name that she carefully picked out of a handful of options.

“lan-er-gongzi,” she says, without looking up from her textbook, and she assumes that will be the end of it.

lan wangji is both incredibly attractive and unrelentingly resistant to all attempts to flirt with him. she, like half the other female cultivators, can moon over him (or pretend to moon over him) all they want and nothing will come of it. it’s perfect. she’s a genius. the worst she’ll have to do now is pretend to be infatuated with him when her friends start gossiping. it’s fool proof.

spoiler: it’s not

it’s not, no, because her friends are horrible and immediately start gossiping about it to everyone, and usually mianmian wouldn’t care but then jin zixuan finds out. jin zixuan, whose marriage complex is being brought to center stage with the forced proximity to his bride-to-be. jin zixuan, who for some reason decided he has to live his stolen crush-addled youth vicariously through his only real friend that isn’t related to him. jin zixuan, who for some godforsaken reason takes it upon himself to contrive situations for mianmian and lan wangji to be alone together incessantly.

it unfortunately takes mianmian longer than she would like to figure out what’s happening. she’d give herself a break for it-- she was being responsible and studying, thank you very much-- but she doesn’t have much sympathy for her own stupidity seeing as she’s currently locked in a section of the lan library with the second jade of lan

and suddenly, suddenly she’s just so fucking tired. of studying, yeah, the tests here are brutal and there’s no one to bribe to make sure she doesn’t lose points on stupid things, but also tired of lying to the people she loves and tired of training this hard and being an amazing cultivator only for people to care more about her eventual marriage-- to a man of all things!-- and also, let’s be real here, she’s been in lectures with beautiful capable intelligent women for like months and she’s losing her gay ass mind

and so maybe, possibly, as she’s locked in a library with a clearly confused and annoyed second jade of lan she kind of, momentarily, loses it and rants all of this at his steadily widening eyes

at the end of it, she realizes with no small amount of panic that she’s just confessed not only her attraction to women but the fact that she’s been letting wen qing’s ears of all things distract her from her studies. if anything, she’s sure lan wangji will fault her for inattention

but the second jade of lan, after a drawn-out moment filled only with mianmian’s labored breathing and rising panic, simply says, “i understand.”

mianmian stops. she squints. she tilts her head. she squints some more. lan wangji’s ears go pink and just like that she realizes -- “you’re a cut-sleeve.”

lan wangji’s ears go even pinker. he doesn’t nod, or agree, or outwardly react in any way, but mianmian is a capable, intelligent cultivator, and she’s sure of it.

mianmian sighs with a relief she didn’t know she could feel. “thank the gods.”

lan wangji doesn’t seem to know what to make of this response, or mianmian’s increasingly frequent trips to the library following their conversation, or mianmian’s staunch determination to befriend the guy, but that’s alright. mianmian is old hat at befriending awkward sect heirs by this point.

it’s not like lan wangji expressed any desire for her friendship, but the prospect of not being the only one with absolutely no interest in the straight shenanigans happening at gusu lan summer camp is enough to let mianmian ignore his obvious confusion. lan wangji is a great listener and only sometimes blushes when mianmian waxes poetic about the beautiful women she’s forced to surround herself with every day

“no but you don’t understand,” mianmian insists, alone in the library with lan wangji, “jiang-guniang asked me to help her with a sword form. i put my hands on her waist. i said something idiotic bc she was so pretty and right there and then she laughed. lan wangji. i’m in love.”

“yesterday you were in love with wen-guniang,” lan wangji says as he impassively turns a page in his book. “has this changed?”

“no, i’m in love with both of them. all of them. lan wangji. they’re all so pretty all the time. it’s horrible.”

lan wangji presses his lips into a firmer line, which mianmian’s come to understand means he’s repressing a smile. “i’m sorry to hear it brings luo-guniang such trouble.”

mianmian groans, fairly undignified, but that’s a lost cause with lan wangji at this point anyway. “i swear, if jin zixuan says one more bad thing about her i’m going to punch him and marry her myself.”

lan wangji says, “mn,” which mianmian takes to mean that he supports her in this line of thinking, which she finds both quite sweet and ridiculously funny.

grinning, she teases, “lan-er-gongzi, if i do end up marrying jiang-guniang, will you bear witness to our elopement?”

lan wangji’s lips press again, this time in the way that means he’s repressing a frown. “jiang-guniang’s brothers wouldn’t allow for an elopement,” he says.

mianmian huffs. “as if yunmeng or lanling will deign to host our wedding.”

lan wangji appears to ponder this for a moment before he says, “gusu will host it,” and it’s at that moment that mianmian realizes she’s actually gone and fucking befriended the second jade of lan.

what is her life.

of course, it’s not long after that that she goes to find jin zixuan and explain that she can’t make their weekly sparring match today because she has plans with lan wangji (jiang yanli tenderly brushed some of mianmian’s hair away from her forehead while they were working on sword forms and if mianmian doesn’t tell someone about it she’s literally going to explode) and she’s trying to be as polite as possible only for jin zixuan to scoff and pout (”i don’t pout”) and say, “i never took you for one of those women who throw themselves so wantonly at a man”

it’s only for having been friends with this absolutely horrible communicator for most of her life that she doesn’t immediately punch him in the face. “what did you just say to me,” she demands, but jin zixuan just sets his jaw and looks away, flushing down his neck in the way his mother describes as unbecoming and--

and mianmian suddenly realizes that her ridiculous best friend is jealous of lan wangji.

(in a friend way, of course, he’s like her brother, the one time his mother implied that he ought not get too close to women in case it jeopardizes his betrothal to jiang yanli, he insisted he didn’t have any female friends repeatedly as his mother delicately danced around outright saying mianmian’s name until finally she broke and jin zixuan was basically like huh?? mianmian doesn’t count?? she made me eat dirt like six times when we were kids)

the sheer ridiculousness of jin zixuan, to set her up with a guy and then get jealous when she spends all her time with him

and fuck her, but she loves her stupid awkward ridiculous sect heir best friend and she doesn’t want him to think she’s gone and left him for someone else (gods know jin zixuan’s loyalty complex rivals his marriage one (on second thought the two might be connected)) and so, after making a few quick decisions, mianmian grabs her stupid best friend by the wrist and pulls him to the library

he protests all the way there, but he’s been letting her drag him wherever she wants since they were five and it isn’t as if he’s going to break the pattern now. she drags him to the library and sits him down across a startled lan wangji and then finally breaks and gushes about jiang-guniang’s fingertips brushing her forehead and doesn’t look at jin zixuan once the whole time

lan wangji, on the other hand, sends jin zixuan frequent glances, as if worried on mianmian’s behalf, which is super sweet and also how the fuck did mianmian get two awkward sect heirs to care about her platonically wtf. she spares a thought for her poor auntie, who would’ve loved to have a sect heir care about her niece in much less platonic ways.

at the end of mianmian’s rant, jin zixuan is blinking quite a lot. “you like women?” he asks. he’s always been a bit slow on the uptake. mianmian nods. “you like jiang-guniang?”

mianmian shrugs. “more or less. she’s just really pretty and i’m dying about it. it’s fine.”

lan wangji says, “mn,” sympathetically and jin zixuan continues to gape.

mianmian winces. “you’re not going to be weird about this, are you?”

jin zixuan shakes his head quickly. “no, no-- of course not, i--you know that i--you’re my best friend, i don’t care--what does it matter to me, who you want to--to touch your hair.”

it’s probably the most awkward sentence he’s said to her in years, but possibly more articulate than she’d been expecting. it makes her tear up regardless and she punches him in the shoulder to hide it, and that’s basically how the three of them start hanging out in the library nearly every day after lecture.

sometimes they go to the sparring ground, bc who’s better sparring practice than the second jade of lan? and sometimes (once or twice) mianmian manages to convince lan wangji to join her and jin zixuan for lunch in caiyi town when they don’t have lecture, but mostly they meet in a secluded part of the library where mianmian can rant about how pretty all the women at lectures are, jin zixuan can turn pink whenever she mentions jiang-guniang, and lan wangji can “mn” and nod sympathetically at all the right parts

and mianmian thinks that’s going to be the end of it, they’re just going to be friends now and everything else will move on as usual, bc by some ridiculous trick of fate lan wangji and jin zixuan seem to like each other. which makes sense in hindsight bc they’re both awkward sect heirs who care about cultivation and people a lot even if they’re not great at showing it

(and he’d never say it but mianmian thinks jin zixuan’s easy acceptance of her liking women is probably the first time lan wangji’s ever seen someone accept that kind of thing before (maybe, possibly, other than his brother, lan xichen seems really cool, even if he does smile kind of intensely at mianmian whenever he happens upon her hanging out with his little brother.))

so they’re friends, they’re unexpected friends, and sometimes lan wangji even makes jokes in that dry deadpan way of his and sometimes jin zixuan doesn’t completely trip over his own words and manages to act like a normal human being and mianmian gets two idiots to care about and a perfect place to vent her womanly frustrations, and she thinks that’s the end of it and then wei wuxian accosts her after lectures one day

“do you like lan zhan?” he asks accusingly, eyes narrowed to slits. “what am i even asking, of course you like lan zhan, but do you like-like him?”

mianmian thinks sadly to herself that she’s much too into women to be dealing with all these men’s emotional problems. “lan wangji is my friend,” she says, carefully sidestepping wei wuxian, who continues to squint at her suspiciously. really, he’d been amusing when he flirted with her, but this? this is just ridiculous.

“does he know that?” wei wuxian asks. “because if he doesn’t, that’s just leading him on, and it’s really not nice to--”

“lan wangji knows we’re friends,” she says, trying to enunciate to get her point across clearly. “you can ask him, if you don’t believe me.”

wei wuxian squints a moment longer before he turns and flounces off. mianmian thinks this is the end of it until she’s accosted again after dinner with, “he said you were friends!”

for some reason, wei wuxian seems even more troubled by this than earlier. mianmian tries to suppress her eyeroll. “i told you he would?”

“but how,” wei wuxian says, suddenly whining. “i’ve been trying to be his friend for months and he refuses to acknowledge me.”

oh, mianmian realizes with a quickly dawning horror. she and lan wangji are not the only cut-sleeves at cloud recesses this summer. (she has suspicions, of course, but no confirmations on any of the others, but this. wow.)

she also realizes, decides really, that she has enough repressed sect heirs in her life and she cannot deal with wei wuxian’s cut-sleeve crisis or his evidently large attachment to lan wangji right now. she turns decisively and walks the fuck away. not her problem.

the lectures end eventually, of course, and mianmian and jin zixuan return to lanling with a horde of golden robed disciples, freshly deflowered and not all together more learned. it’s what, she thinks grimly, their sect leader would want.

the first few weeks go by and she realizes that she’s missed unloading about her frequent and fast falling-in-loves. jin zixuan just doesn’t sympathize right, bless him, and so mianmian takes to writing letters. she sends two without receiving a reply and just starts to write the third when a letter with the gusu symbol is delivered to her room.

she’s almost expecting to find a single mn written on the page-- she would’ve been delighted with just that, actually, the sheer hilarity of such a thing-- but instead she finds several pages filled with lan wangji’s perfect calligraphy.

it’s more than he’s ever spoken out loud, but it seems that propriety dictated that he return mianmian’s extensive letter with one of his own and he’s done so admirably. he responds to the events mianmian detailed in her letters-- most succinctly summarized as, woman are gorgeous and i’m dying-- and then writes about his own life in cloud recesses. apparently, he went on a little night hunt with wei wuxian and also nie huaisang and jiang cheng were involved? seriously, mianmian misses out on all the fun.

he’s also apparently taken in some rabbits, which mianmian immediately decides she needs to see. lan wangji, sitting prim and proper, with a bunch of rabbits in his lap? amazing. wei wuxian would die on sight, she’s sure of it.

he also ends his letter with a warning about qishan wen that has mianmian frowning. she takes it to jin zixuan who reads the paragraph and frowns. “i’ll talk to my father about it,” he says, which she can tell by his hunched shoulders he doesn’t expect to do much.

“talk to your father’s general too,” she suggests, because that man at least thinks with his head and not his dick.

jin zixuan nods but doesn’t hand back the letter. he skims it instead with a barely concealed surprise at lan wangji’s previously hidden expansive vocabulary. mianmian snorts and grabs the letter back. “you can write to him yourself, you know.”

jin zixuan flushes down his neck. “i know!” he insists and then turns and runs away because he’s a coward. mianmian shakes her head, smiling. what an idiot.

still, another week goes by and a letter arrives from gusu and, when mianmian takes it, assuming it’s for her, she finds it addressed to jin zixuan in lan wangji’s impeccable calligraphy and she grins to herself like an idiot. look at jin zixuan, making friends

(she suddenly understands why lan xichen gave her all those intense smiles during the lan lectures)

they go on in this way, writing letters to lan wangji from lanling. sometimes mianmian steals jin zixuan’s letters before he sends them so she can squeeze in some ranting in the post script without wasting a whole second thing of paper, and lan wangji replies dutifully, more verbose than he ever was in person, and it’s nice okay, like. she and jin zixuan have been best friends since they were kids but neither of them has ever been any good at listening and lan wangji is just so honest and earnest in everything, like they didn’t realize that people outside of lanling were actually not always plotting your downfall??? who woulda thunk

and then of course the wens go and ruin everything. they go to the wen lectures bc jin guangshan doesn’t want to “anger our trading partner” like the guy isn’t obviously going to burn carp tower to the ground the first chance he gets, and mostly mianmian and jin zixuan are just vaguely annoyed and put out about it

then lan wangji shows up with a broken leg and a burned sect and they are ready to murder some dudes

after years of breaking in and out of carp tower she and jin zixuan are old hats at this breaking and entering stuff and they manage to sneak into lan wangji’s guest quarters and tend to his wounds, ignoring all his silent glares and ranting furiously about how they’re going to murder wen chao by making him choke on his own dick (mianmian) and how they’re going to war with the wen sect even if he has to threaten his father with acknowledging all of his bastards as proper siblings in public to do it (jin zixuan)

lan wangji just says “mn” and makes various muted, distressed expressions, but mianmian thinks he’s touched.

“are your brother and uncle alright?” she asks, when she’s set his broken leg and forced pain medication down his throat.

“brother escaped with our sacred texts,” lan wangji says. “uncle is... unwell.”

mianmian knows lan wangji hates touch but the way he says it, with this horrible little frown, emoting more than she’s ever seen him, his barely suppressed anger and grief literally making his hands shake into fists, mianmian can’t help it, she hugs him. “we’ll make them pay,” she swears into his shoulder, ruining the lines of his robes with how she clutches at them. “i promise you.”

jin zixuan awkwardly pats lan wangji’s shoulder, which is a lot for him and mianmian spares a moment to be proud of his growth.

unfortunately, wen chao seems to delight in torturing lan wangji on his injured leg and lan wangji refuses to show weakness, which both impresses mianmian and pisses her the fuck off. she approaches wen qing (and her still gorgeous ears, sigh) and asks her to tend to lan wangji, since she’s like actually a doctor. wen qing does bc she’s beautiful, intelligent, and kind and mianmian spends most of that night sighing deeply as she relates this to a significantly drugged lan wangji

the cave of the xuanwu goes about the same as you’d expect. wei wuxian saving her from getting her face branded off is pretty rad of him, though he could’ve just like knocked the brand away instead of throwing himself in front of it but whatever, you do you boo. when lan wangji gets left behind the two of them don’t even have to wait for jiang cheng to grumble and ask for their help, they’re already on their way to carp tower for an army, thank you very much

when they rescue wei wuxian and lan wangji and lan wangji immediately turns to walk back to cloud recesses on a broken leg mianmian says, “fuck no, that’s not happening, you’re getting medical attention and then someone will fly you back home, okay, wtf wangji, sit down.”

and lan wangji is a stubborn bitch so obvs he’s like no but he’s also severely starved, dehydrated, and injured, so it’s not like he can just shake off mianmian holding him down and this goes on long enough for wei wuxian to wake up and see mianmian touching lan wangji, and something in his poor little brain just like breaks and he demands says, “lan zhan, come back to lotus pier with us.”

his argument, as he explains it, is that lotus pier is closer (it’s not; they’re just as close to carp tower as lotus pier) and that it’s closer to gusu for when lan wangji has to return home (it’s not; same deal) but then jiang cheng starts yelling, possibly in support possibly not mianmian’s not sure, and jin zixuan starts getting awkward, probably about the whole golden army behind him bc he’s a nerd and hates being overdressed at functions (this is basically the same thing), and mianmian looks at lan wangji and she sees--

something. she isn’t sure what exactly, but lan wangji looks at wei wuxian as he argues with his brother and he presses his lips into a thin line in the way that means he wants to smile and mianmian thinks, oh. maybe wei wuxian isn’t completely unrequited in his lan wangji obsession.

growing up in lanling, she knows how to use information to her advantage, so she immediately says, “young masters wei and jiang, what a great idea. lanling’s disciples would be pleased to accompany you and second young master lan to lotus pier to ensure everyone’s safe arrival.”

everyone splutters, indignant, confused, awkward (jiang cheng, wei wuxian, and jin zixuan, respectively) but lan wangji narrows his eyes at mianmian and doesn’t try to convince her to let him walk to gusu again, so she counts it as a win.

sect leader jiang and his wife seem surprised and annoyed, respectively, to be taking in so many guests, but sect leader jiang merely smiles pleasantly and directs them to some guest quarters and mianmian and wei wuxian ask, simultaneously, for doctors to tend to lan wangji and wei wuxian makes a face at her and mianmian sighs to herself that she really is too gay to be in the middle of his thing with lan wangji.

turns out, walking a lot and fighting a cannibalistic turtle on a broken leg doesn’t do wonders for healing. lan wangji is also the worst patient ever, he keeps trying to sneak out and get up even though word came from his brother that he’s safe and alright and that cloud recesses is starting to rebuild after qinghe nie and lanling jin came to its aid and pushed out the wen

but with the combined efforts of mianmian, jin zixuan, and wei wuxian (and even jiang yanli at one point, bc who could say no to her soup??) they manage to get lan wangji to just rest for a fucking second, really which results in the jin disciples and lan wangji staying in lotus pier for longer than anyone could’ve expected

mianmian spends most of her time (when she isn’t forcing lan wangji to just fucking stay in bed) working with the jiang disciples, practicing archery, sword forms, and mooning after all the beautiful women here.

(”lan wangji, i know she’s scary, but have you seen madam yu? she could whip me with zidian and i’d thank her” “luo-guniang, please don’t ask madam yu to whip you” OR “lan wangji, i’m almost positive madam yu’s maids are a thing, do you think they’d let me join them just like once” “luo-guniang, could you please pass me my sword?” “why” “i’d like to put myself out of this misery” OR “she made me soup. lan wangji. lan wangji, i know you’re not sleeping, wake up, you have to listen to me, this soup”)

they end up staying so long that when wang lingjiao shows up threatening a child about a kite while sect leader jiang is away, she has a lot more to deal with than madam yu. since none of this had been a “sanctioned visit” no one actually knew that there was nearly an entire troop of jin disciples staying at lotus pier, so when the wens attack they are sorely unprepared for what they’re going to face.

(and ofc lan wangji breaks out of bed heroically and keeps madam yu from whipping wei wuxian, which means they aren’t down one of their most powerful fighters and mianmian has to suffer through the moon eyes they’re making at one another in the middle of a battle no less, she knew wei wuxian had no shame but she’d been hoping lan wangji would have some)

after the wen attack (and defeat) on lotus pier and the jin’s inarguable part in it, the war starts in earnest. lan wangji, after his long rest, heals fine and goes back to gusu to help rebuild his sect and plan for war, and mianmian and jin zixuan return to carp tower to plan as well, ignoring jin guangshan and focusing instead on his general to ensure lanling supplies necessary aid in the war effort

and war is always shitty, of course, and mianmian hates watching her sect family die on the battlefield, hates waiting for updates after every battle to see who’s still alive, hates the politics and jin guangshan trying to wheedle his way out of fighting when there’s fucking lives on the line

(and she could never know, how much easier it is, with yunmeng jiang at its full strength, with one of the brightest minds of their generation there to plot and help, with two of the best fighters not out searching for someone and instead focused on the front)

they reach nightless city after months of fighting and mianmian is ready to just fucking stab wen ruohan herself when they’re suddenly trapped. blocked in on all sides by puppets, their fallen soldiers rising again to turn on them, and it--it looks like they’re gonna die.

“this sucks,” she says to lan wangji, stifling her fear and choking it down. “i never even got to kiss a girl.”

lan wangji just says “mn.”

jin zixuan, beside them, says, “i was an idiot about jiang-guniang.”

lan wangji just says, “mn.”

then wei wuxian pulls out a fucking flute and a-- floating piece of metal? the army of puppets and corpses stops advancing, held in place by-- music, apparently? and wen ruohan emerges from his lair, black energy falling off him in waves, wei wuxian the idiot flies forward to meet him, gets wen ruohan’s hand around his throat for his trouble.

lan wangji yells, “wei ying!” and mianmian thinks, really not fair that lan wangji is gonna get a boyfriend before i get a girlfriend

and then wen ruohan gets stabbed by jin zixuan’s half brother of all people. wen ruohan, along with his puppets and wei wuxian, fall to the ground. lan wangji rushes forward to catch wei wuxian, mianmian runs after him, finds herself in company with jin zixuan and jiang cheng. when they get there, wei wuxian is barely conscious but he’s-- he’s fucking grinning up at lan wangji from the cradle of lan wangji’s arms

“lan zhan,” he says, “you caught me.”

lan wangji nods, says, “mn,” which is basically his equivalent of i’ll always catch you, wei ying.

“really,” mianmian says aloud, “it’s so unfair.”

the aftermath of the war is more annoying than the war itself, what with all the politics and in-fighting and jin guangshan trying to be the biggest dick there ever was. jin guangshan tries to name himself chief cultivator in wen ruohan’s stead but nie mingjue suggests jiang fengmian instead and the lan sect backs him. jin guangshan tries to demonize the wens but at wei wuxian’s loud rebuttal and sect leader jiang’s backing (which is then backed by both gusu lan and qinghe nie) he’s once again shouted down. and then jin guangshan tries to propose to jiang-guniang for his son and the poor woman just seems so awkward and her father doesn’t seem to know what to say and--

mianmian elbows jin zixuan whose eyes widen ridiculously but, after another, harder hit, he suddenly stands. all eyes go to him, which mianmian knows he hates, but he bows to his father, then jiang yanli, and says, “jiang-guniang, forgive my father’s impertinence. this is not the time or place to be making such an offer, but he--” jin zixuan winces visibly. “--he knows of my feelings and wishes to make his foolish son happy. please, do not feel the need to respond.”

then he promptly sits down, flushing down to his neck, and mianmian shares a disbelieving glance with lan wangji from across the horrible nightless city palace room.

she’d really only meant for him to suggest jiang yanli answer privately, at a later time, but wow, jin zixuan really went for it. also no way jin guangshan knows his son has fallen in love with jiang yanli, so nice save face there. maybe he has been paying attention in all of their etiquette and political espionage classes.

jiang yanli flushes way prettier than jin zixuan and nods politely, stands and bows and thanks the jin clan for being considerate in this time of turmoil, perhaps they can discuss this matter at a later date (jin zixuan looks like he nearly faints at this, and mianmian feels vindicated in all her forlorn ranting. overreacting her ass)

when everything has been settled, wen qing has been appointed the new sect leader of qishan wen with promises to return land to those who lost it and pay reparations to the hurt civilians, as well as have the yin iron destroyed for good. during the final ceremony where all the sects have tea and pledge to be loyal to one another (until the next great war, of course) mianmian leans close to lan wangji and sighs, “her ears look even lovelier with her hair tied back by her new sect leader hairpiece.”

lan wangji says “mn” because he’s a cut sleeve in love with wei wuxian and has nothing even closely resembling taste.

mianmian, on her own, decides to make them both happy. before the jin clan departs from nightless city, she goes up to wei wuxian and asks for a moment of his time. wei wuxian seems confused but follows and, once they’re alone, he says, “mianmian, are you about to get me into bed, because i must tell you that i am a respectable young cultivator and you’ll need to marry me before--”

mianmian gives him her best unimpressed look (she’s had much practice with it, thank you jin zixuan) and cuts him off with, “i like women.”

wei wuxian’s eyes go wide. “but you and lan zhan--”

she cuts him off again before he can say something so stupid she has to stop talking to him to refrain from breaking all laws of propriety. “look,” she says, “you’re friends with wen qing. now that she’s sect leader, your brother can’t go after her. i, on the other hand, very much can. if you promise to figure out a way for me and her to get close, i’ll tell you a secret you’ll like very much.”

wei wuxian seems hesitant for all of half a second before he breaks. “tell me.”

“do you promise?”

wei wuxian raises three fingers. “promise.”

“on your sister’s life?”

begrudgingly, wei wuxian nods.

“on her soup?”

“just get on with it!”

mianmian smirks, pushes onto her tiptoes, and whispers the secret into wei wuxian’s ear. with that, she returns to the pavilion where all the sects mingle as they wait to depart, wei wuxian trailing behind her in a daze, his mouth hanging open.

lan wangji, who had been watching since mianmian asked wei wuxian for a moment to talk, frowns nearly imperceptibly. mianmian grins at him and his frown grows.

ah, whatever. she walks over to him, unbothered by the quickly growing alarm in his eyes. once next to him, she turns around to see wei wuxian staring unabashedly. her smile only widens.

“you’re going to thank me for this,” she says.

wei wuxian shakes himself, his eyes focusing, and immediately starts walking towards them.

lan wangji, voice flat but wavering, asks, “luo-guniang, what did you do?”

mianmian laughs, says, “i get to give a speech at your wedding,” and walks away just as wei wuxian reaches them.

(she does, actually, give a speech at their wedding. she may or may not be drunk during it, jin zixuan gets embarrassed for her, and she starts tearing up and has to hide it in the shoulder of her wife’s lovely well-tailored robes. it’s alright, though, wen qing doesn’t mind)

EDIT: now on AO3 with a real fic version from lwj’s pov!

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antebunny · 4 years ago

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April 25: ribbons

A Swan Maiden Fairy Tale Fusion

Lan Wangji is a huntsman who happens upon a pond in the woods. He sees this epic coat thing made from raven feathers on the banks and goes “wow this is so cool and so pretty i should give it to my brother” and picks it up. Then he sees this guy on the shore and freaks out wondering if he’s dead, but he’s not, he’s just unconscious & naked. So Lan Wangji wraps him up and brings him home, because he’s nice. Then the guy wakes up, introduces himself as “wei ying, courtesy wuxian”, sees the feather cloak and says “nice…cloak you got there”

“it is a gift for my brother”

“ah. Right…when’s ur brother getting here?”

“i will visit him when the snow melts”

“k. Cool. guess im staying here until then”

“can you not go home?”

Wei Wuxian eyes crinkle like he’s sharing a private joke: “Not until the snow melts”

Lan Wangji is a good host and doesn’t know how he feels about this guy just declaring that he’ll live with him for the next several months but…okay.

Lan Wangji finds out very quickly that Wei Wuxian isn’t normal, and it doesn't take him long after that to guess that Wei Wuxian also isn’t entirely human. He’s a very bad houseguest, he just sits, doesn’t know how to cook or anything really, and talks at Lan Wangji while Lan Wangji makes them breakfast. He follows Lan Wangji everywhere he goes with no explanation, just invites himself along. He talks while Lan Wangji is trying to hunt but somehow that doesn’t scare away the game. He flinched the first time Lan Wangji’s arrow found a mark, and insisted on honoring the fallen bird before returning. He passes time whistling and carves himself a flute, they play duets and Lan Wangji finds himself composing something on his guqin in the early morning while Wei Wuxian is still asleep on the floor. Wei Wuxian introduces him to spice, which he hates, but watching Wei Wuxian’s face light up isn’t something he thinks he can ever get tired of.

Wei Wuxian talks a lot about his home and his family, which is apparently a port by a river delta, which is how Lan Wangji learns that Wei Wuxian a very good swimmer, like everyone else there, and that he and his brother are constantly pushing each other in the lake, that he goes out to the pier to drink at night, that he has the best big sister who makes lotus and pork rib soup and stops Wei Wuxian from fighting with his brother, who is an angery smol one but also the best little brother ever (how this is possible, Lan Wangji doesn’t know, it’s clear Wei Wuxian loves his brother even if he spends most of the time making fun of him)

Lan Wangji doesn’t understand why Wei Wuxian can’t return to this home he’s heard so much about, doesn’t know why he found Wei Wuxian abandoned & naked by the side of the pond, but decides that Wei Wuxian is magic and it’s a magic pond, and if his family would leave him in that state, they don’t deserve him. He works up the courage to ask “wei ying. When the snow melts. Stay with me.” and Wei Wuxian is Conflicted bc he likes Lan Wangji and would like to stay but hates that he has to and maybe won’t see his family ever again. In the end all he says is “okay” and Lan Wangji is Very Happy. He also sees Wei Wuxian eyeing the feather cloak often but he already said he’d give it to his brother and doesn’t know how to offer it to Wei Wuxian. But then Wei Wuxian says “guess you’re not giving it to your brother now” which is basically how Lan Wangji thinks Wei Wuxian asks for things so he just nods vaguely.

Wei Wuxian guesses pretty early that Lan Wangji doesn’t know the full extent of what he’s done, and he clearly doesn’t know who Wei Wuxian is, but that’s not surprising. He decides not to tell him, because why would he? On the off-chance that Lan Wangji will just...give it back to him? Wei Wuxian has heard the Swan Maiden tale, he's has seen the worst parts of humanity; he can’t trust that.

It’s been raining a lot recently, which means Lan Wangji has less opportunity to hunt, and it’s harder to hunt after rain. He goes to the nearest town to trade when his supplies get too low (Wei Wuxian comes with obviously) and there the gossip is that some villagers swear up and down that they saw purple lightning (Wei Wuxian isn’t surprised, just sighs and says “of course”) which means that Sandu Shengshou is angry! And that the Lady of Lotus Blossoms, who usually blesses typical goddess things like matchmaking and fertility/childbirth, has 1) stopped and 2) started leaving white lotus blossoms behind, which means that she’s mourning which is sad and terrible! (Wei Wuxian agrees that her being sad is terrible and gets misty-eyed. Lan Wangji wasn’t aware that Wei Wuxian held her in such high regard).

In town, Wei Wuxian gets Lan Wangji better deals, flirts with some girls which makes Lan Wangji sad for unknown reasons, gets harassed by some guys which is how Lan Wangji confirms that Wei Wuxian is not human/magic bc in the dark & rainy night his eyes looked red and his teeth in the moonlight looked too long and too sharp, and no one heard from Wen Chao again. Lan Wangji also buys him clothes

The snow melts. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian set off to visit Lan Xichen. Wei Wuxian isn’t wearing the cloak and Lan Wangji doesn’t understand why? But doesn’t ask because he never does. They get to the lake where Lan Wangji found Wei Wuxian and wait for Lan Xichen to meet them there, meanwhile Wei Wuxian hisses at a peacock and talks to a sparrow (Lan Wangji doesn’t question it. He never does), then Lan Xichen arrives and at the same time purple lightning flashes and a young man descends from the sky dressed in rich purple silks followed by a lady dressed in lavender and rose pink. they’re easily recognizable as Sandu Shengshou, the Lord of the heavenly Lotus Pier, and the Lady of Lotus Blossoms, his sister and the Lady of Lotus Pier. Lan Xichen is like “wangji wtf is going on” meanwhile Jiang Cheng accuses Lan Wangji of kidnapping his brother, and Jiang Yanli is like “we’re willing to bargain for our brother back. what do you want?”

Lan Wangji: "If he’s ur brother why did you abANDON him"

Jiang Cheng: "how DARE we’ve been searching for him for MONTHS ever since you TOOK him"

"i found him abandoned so i took him home to PROTECT him"

"that’s a fancy way of saying you decided to keep him like an exotic pet"

"i did no such thing"

"then why did you keep that!?" Jiang Cheng points at the feather cloak and everyone looks

Lan Xichen: "oh no"

Lan Wangji: "what"

Lan Xichen: "wangji. the swan maiden"

Lan Wangji: *remembers the story about the swan maiden who left her swan feathers by the side of the pond while she bathed and the huntsman who took her feathers and thus took her, forced her to marry him and bear him three children, before she found her feathers, after which she yeeted outta there with her three children and never left the heavens again, leaving huntsman to die of a broken heart.*

Lan Wangji hadn’t even considered it, maybe because Wei Wuxian was sleeping and therefore didn’t beg for the feather cloak back, maybe bc he made a weak joke instead of flat-out asking Lan Wangji what he planned to do, maybe because his wasn’t pure and white but rather made of raven feathers and pitch black

Also Wei Wuxian got roaring drunk that’s how he ended up there. Jiang Cheng is like “just bc my brother is the stupidest dumb person to ever idiot–” “hey!” “does not mean you can just taKE ADVANTAGE of him”

Anyway Lan Wangji freaks tf out and practically throws the feather cloak back at Wei Wuxian, who hasn’t been meeting his eyes and not saying anything this whole time and tries to apologize. Jiang Yanli grabs it and her brother and walks into the lake, pink and cream lotus blossoms blooming under her feet; she doesn’t sink under the surface. She stands in the middle and they both go under. Then Wei Wuxian arises in his full black-and-red glory, Jiang Cheng shoots Lan Wangji one last glare and then the three of them promptly disappear into the heavens

Lan Xichen holds Lan Wangji for the first time in years while he cries. He stutters his way through an explanation of what happened the past three months, saying again and again that he didn’t know, he noticed that Wei Wuxian wasn’t human and a little bit magic but he didn’t expect this and he didn’t realize that he was preventing Wei Wuxian from leaving. Lan Xichen says things like “i believe you” and “you’re not a terrible person, you just made a terrible mistake”

Eventually Lan Wangji stops hyperventilating, and that’s when a flock of crows leaves their roosts, the wind shrieks, and Wei Wuxian descends again. Lan Wangji doesn’t understand how Wei Wuxian could possibly forgive him, or how someone like Wei Wuxian could possibly take interest in a lonely huntsman like Lan Wangji, but Wei Wuxian holds his hand out and says that he promised to take Lan Wangji on a tour of his home (lotus pier!!), and his eyes do that thing and he says “well? Are you coming?” and how can Lan Wangji say no?

#antebunny's april prompts #spring fest 2021 #mdzs #wangxian #fairy tale au #fic outline #if you ask what this has to do with ribbons i will Smite you

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gingersnapwolves · 4 years ago

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The Untamed, a brief summary [Part 1/6]

Okay my friends, I have heard your calls. Here’s my play-by-play version of The Untamed.

Note the first: I’m dividing it up into sections because it is, after all, a 50 episode series and I doubt anyone will want to wade through it all in one go.

Note the second: I am going to try to be as unbiased as possible. There are different ways to interpret some of the characters’ actions, especially later in the show when things get morally complex. You can find oceans of meta on this stuff, so I will try not to pick a side when at all possible.

Note the third: I’m going to keep the tone pretty light and humorous. This show gets *dark* in the middle but y’all are reading a summary and I don’t want it to get too dry or too depressing. Please pardon me if I am flippant from time to time.

Part One: Sword Wizard School

I thought about doing a character guide but decided it would be easier to introduce you to characters as we meet them, because there are a LOT of characters. However, I am going to give you a brief primer on the important families/places.

Actually, let me back up a little further. The Untamed is a xianxia drama, so it’s about people trying to become immortal celestial beings. They fight monsters and do a lot of magic, and they live in clans/sects. A clan is a family. A sect is a cultivation style/school. The terms are often used interchangeably (even I’m guilty) but they are not exactly the same. Members of a clan will belong to that sect, but the sect will also take in outsiders to train, who are sect members but not clan members.

There are five Great Sects:

Province: Yunmeng; sect: Jiang, home: Lotus Pier

Province: Gusu, sect: Lan, home: Cloud Recesses

Province: Lanling, sect: Jin, home: Koi/Carp Tower

Province: Qinghe, sect: Nie, home: The Unclean Realm (this is not to say it is dirty, it’s from Buddhism and might also translate to ‘The Worldly Realm’)

Province: Qishan, sect: Wen, home: Nightless City/Nevernight (depending on translation)

Here’s a map I made for my fic reference which shows roughly where these provinces are in relation to each other. I may have pretended they were cities in America so I could calculate mileage. Yes I am the world’s biggest nerd, thanks.

H’okay! The show is not in chronological order but I am going in chronological order because the point is to make this simple for you. I’ll admit that I may not get everything 100% correct because it’s been a while since I watched parts of it but I’ll try.

Setting: Caiyi Town, [Gusu]

ENTER A GREMLIN.

Meet Wei Wuxian. He is a 16 year old chaos gremlin with ADHD. He does not look 16 but actors in American dramas pretending to be teenagers also do not look 16 so we’ll let that go. He is with his adopted brother (also 16ish, but younger than Wei Wuxian) Jiang Cheng, and his adopted older sister, Jiang Yanli (probably about 6 years older).

Oh, right. Names. Most characters have two names, a birth name and a ‘courtesy’ name which is a fancy name they get when they’re old enough to get their swords and stuff. They also have titles. For the sake of not driving y’all crazy, I will choose the most commonly used name for the character and stick with it, and then give you a chart at the end so you’ll understand fanfiction.

Wei Wuxian and his siblings are headed to Sword Wizard School in Gusu, hosted by the Lan sect. Wei Wuxian is clearly planning to Be Himself during these lectures, and Jiang Cheng does Not Approve. Jiang Cheng is obviously very serious and concerned with appearances, which makes sense because he is the sect heir. As an adopted son, Wei Wuxian can goof off; Jiang Cheng does not have that luxury. (Wei Wuxian is the son of two of Jiang Cheng’s father’s friends, who died when he was young. More on this later.) Jiang Cheng reminds Wei Wuxian and the other disciples that are with them that they are representing the Jiang sect and they should make a good impression.

They don’t think they can get to Cloud Recesses before dark so they get rooms at an inn.

ENTER A SNOB.

Jin Zixuan is the next fun character you’ll meet. He’s also 16 or thereabouts despite looking 24 at minimum. He is a sect heir to the Lanling Jin and he does not like being near or interacting with strangers. He pays the innkeeper to rent the whole inn and throw any other guests out. Is this a dick move? I’m trying to be unbiased here, so yes. Yes it is.

Wei Wuxian tries to flirt with a couple of Jin Zixuan’s retainers to get them to allow the Yunmeng siblings to stay, but Jin Zixuan decides to be a big jerk about it. Fun fact! Jin Zixuan is betrothed to Jiang Yanli! He is literally throwing his betrothed out of an inn so he doesn’t have to share a building with people. Wei Wuxian gets pissy and picks a fight with him but Jiang Yanli convinces him that he’s not worth it (although she is much nicer about it than any of us would be in her shoes), and they decide to head up to Cloud Recesses despite the time.

But alas! In their haste, they leave their invitation behind.

ENTER AN ICE PRINCE

As the Yunmeng trio try to talk their way past the gate, Lan Wangji arrives. Also 16, he is your classic stoic, repressed gay, and is the younger brother of the Lan Sect leader. With him are a bunch of Lan cultivators and a guy on a stretcher who is clearly in rough shape. The Lan cultivators carry him inside.

Wei Wuxian, pure of heart and dumb of ass, decides that this is a great time to try to talk his way through the gate, figuring that Lan Wangji, being an important person, can let them in. Lan Wangji reacts about how you would expect a stoic repressed gay would to a cute boy flirting with him for the first time: uses a silencing spell on him, tells him he’s absolutely not admitted without their invitation, and locks them out.

Jiang Cheng, who has spent the last 3 minutes desperately trying to get his brother to shut up before he gets them all in trouble, sends him back to town to find the invitation.

Int. Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

ENTER A SOFT MAN AND HIS EXTREMELY STARCHED UNCLE

Lan Xichen, the head of the Lan sect and Lan Wangji’s older brother, is studying the guy they brought in, with his uncle. Lan Xichen is young for a sect leader (he’s only 19 in the book but probably 24-25ish in the show) and his uncle advises him a lot of the time. The guy they brought is kind of dead but also kind of not. They say a bunch of stuff you won’t understand if you have not seen xianxia dramas before. It’s not really important.

Ext. Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

RE-ENTER THE GREMLIN

Wei Wuxian has come back with the invitation to find the rest of his sect no longer waiting outside and all of Cloud Recesses sealed by wards. “Wards are made to be broken,” he says, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of their purpose. It’s a good thing he’s here for school.

He breaks in, carrying a couple jars of liquor, only to find Lan Wangji standing guard. Lan Wangji reprimands him for breaking important Lan sect rules like a) not breaking and entering, b) not coming in after dark, and c) bringing alcohol, which is forbidden. Wei Wuxian offers him one of the jars because he is 16 and stupid and for some reason thought a bribe was what this situation needed. Lan Wangji pulls a sword on him, which is definitely a reasonable response and not because he has his first boner and he’s angry about it.

They have a sword fight, basically to a draw. Lan Wangji drags him in to see Lan Xichen, who clearly thinks this is hilarious. Wei Wuxian blames everything on Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji. He also says intelligent things about the not-a-corpse they’re examining, because the writers wanted us to know that he’s not a whole dumbass. Lan Xichen basically slaps him on the wrist, tells him to behave himself and sends him off to the guest house his siblings were given, and then teases Lan Wangji about Baby’s First Crush.

Ext, Nightless City [Qishan]

ENTER AN OVER THE TOP VILLAIN AND HIS HENCHMEN

Nightless City isn’t actually nightless. It’s just never dark there because it’s on top of a volcano, because that’s where all the cool villains live.

This is the home of the Qishan Wen, who are Obviously Evil from the Black Outfits, Volcano Lair, and Shuffling Zombies. Their leader is Wen Ruohan. His personality is that he is evil. He’s saying a bunch of stuff you won’t understand yet and then sends his Obnoxious Son Wen Chao off to look for something. He also sends Wen Qing, who is related to him somehow, presumably. She asks if she can bring her brother, Wen Ning, and Wen Ruohan says sure because all he cares about is Being Evil in his Zombie Volcano Lair.

Int, Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

ENTER A SLACKER and his friend, EVERY RETAIL EMPLOYEE DEALING WITH A KAREN YOU’VE EVER MET.

They’re all at the first lecture, and there’s a ceremony where each visiting sect presents a gift to Lan Qiren (the uncle/teacher). I think we might see what the Jin give him but I don’t care. Right now we’re talking about Nie Huaisang, the younger brother of the sect leader of the Nie sect. He is baby. He has brought a bird to class for no reason other than that he caught it and thinks it’s cool. Presenting to the dour and stern Lan Qiren makes him nervous.

With him is Meng Yao. Unlike everyone else you’ve met so far, Meng Yao is not a member of the gentry. He is the son of the Jin sect leader and a prostitute. (Yes, this makes him Jin ‘I can’t breathe the same air as commoners’ Zixuan’s younger brother.) When he was old enough to do Sword Magic he went to the Jin sect and asked for admittance, and his father had him thrown down a set of 200 steps because his father is an Enormous Douche. (That’s not biased. Hating this dude is one of the few things everyone agrees on.) Then he went to the Nie sect, and they said, “Sure, you can come in, but you’re not really a disciple, mmkay?” and he said sure. But he has worked his way up to being the assistant to the sect leader which is a pretty important position for someone with his background.

Naturally, because Meng Yao is Not Like the Others, a few people take this opportunity to gossip and talk smack about him. Meng Yao is upset but tries not to look it. Lan Xichen takes a moment to reassure him, saying that the Nie sect leader had written to him about what a helpful and awesome assistant he had now, and that Meng Yao obviously lived up to it. Meng Yao immediately develops the world’s Most Obvious Crush Don’t @ Me You Would Too.

ENTER MR. OBNOXIOUS, AN IRON MAIDEN, and A PUPPY. Fortunately these are the last characters you’ll meet for a while.

The Wen sect shows up at the gates of Cloud Recesses like ‘what up, I got a big attitude and fuck you’. The gate dude tells them they can’t come in without an invitation, and Wen Chao attacks him because he was raised in a volcano and they go in anyway. With Wen Chao are Wen Qing and her brother, Wen Ning. They are actually pretty awesome, you just don’t know it yet.

Wen Chao busts in on the Saluting Ceremony just as Jiang Cheng is trying to present their gift, and immediately begins insulting everyone there. You should count yourself fortunate that you’re only reading this because Wen Chao is literally the most obnoxious character in this show. Anyway, Wei Wuxian decides to pick a fight with him even though this is *obviously* a stupid thing to do. (I love Wei Wuxian with my whole heart but he is so stupid at 16 lmao.) He calls Wen Chao out on interrupting Jiang Cheng. Wen Chao reacts completely rationally and calmly BAHAHA who am I kidding, he pulls his sword out. Everyone else pulls their swords out. Wen Qing looks like she has the world’s worst migraine.

Lan Xichen takes out his flute and plays eight seconds of music that makes everyone’s swords go flying into the ceiling. Had I mentioned how awesome Lan Xichen is? Because he is Awesome.

Wen Chao gets even more pissy but Wen Qing shuts him down, saying she and her brother are there for Sword Wizard School and she’s sorry her cousin is such an asshole. Lan Xichen tells them to ‘try to come on time’ tomorrow. Had I mentioned how awesome Lan Xichen is? It bears repeating.

Ext, Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

Wei Wuxian is making fast friends with Nie Huaisang. They decide to go fishing in one of the streams. He sees Wen Qing sneaking around and asks what she’s doing there. She blows him off.

Meng Yao stops Lan Xichen and says goodbye to him. Lan Xichen asks why he’s leaving so soon, and Meng Yao says that he can’t actually stay for the lectures, since he’s only an assistant to the Nie sect, not a disciple. Lan Xichen tells him that Nie Mingjue (the head of the Nie sect) is just and honorable and will surely reward him for working so hard. They make heart eyes at each other for like a solid thirty seconds before Meng Yao manages to leave. I’m sorry, I’m trying to be unbiased. They gaze at each other longingly – no, shit, that’s still biased. They, uh, regard each other with mutual respect for thirty solid seconds and then Meng Yao leaves.

Meanwhile Jiang Cheng is Fretting about the fact that Wei Wuxian is Making a Bad Impression. He ain’t seen nothing yet. Jiang Yanli calms him down.

Wen Qing talks to her brother Wen Ning and is sad because he’s sick. She promises him that someday they’ll be able to leave Nightless City.

Int, Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

Lan Qiren is lecturing. Wei Wuxian proposes some casual heresy. Lan Qiren gets mad and tells him to copy the Chapter of Conduct a thousand times, and throws him out of class. Jiang Cheng tries to crawl under his desk.

Instead of going to copy lines, Wei Wuxian wanders off and meets A PUPPY, ie Wen Ning. He is practicing his archery. Wei Wuxian proceeds to help him with his stance and Wen Ning looks like he just discovered his bisexuality. Wen Qing sees them together and is clearly not thrilled. Wei Wuxian asks her why she’s always wandering around the back hills of Cloud Recesses and asks if she’s looking for something. She tells him not to be stupid and leaves with her brother.

Lan Wangji drags Wei Wuxian back to the library for his punishment. Wei Wuxian proceeds to spend the next few hours doing Everything That Is Not That, which culminates in him exchanging Lan Wangji’s book for some porn when he’s not looking. Lan Wangji tears the porn up and tells him to piss off.

~romance~

Jiang Cheng: I hope you’re proud of yourself.

Wei Wuxian: I absolutely am.

They go back to their guest house. Wen Qing is there. She’s a doctor! Told you she was awesome. Jiang Yanli wasn’t feeling well and Wen Qing gave her some medicine. They talk about the fact that there aren’t lectures for a few days because Lan Qiren is off doing Official Stuff.

But there’s still fun to be had! There’s a water demon attacking people in the nearby town. Lan Xichen is worried that it’s serious and he’s going to go himself. Lan Wangji goes with him. Wei Wuxian asks if he and Jiang Cheng can go ‘get some practice’ as they fight lots of water demons in Yunmeng. Lan Xichen, remembering his brother’s obvious crush, says sure. Wen Ning wants to go too. So does Wen Qing. Lan Xichen suddenly feels like a chaperone on a field trip but says fine because he’s the cool older brother.

Wei Wuxian takes the opportunity to ask questions about the not-a-corpse from earlier. Lan Xichen politely tells him that’s it handled and not to worry about it. Wei Wuxian thinks there’s something he’s not telling him, and he mentions that to Lan Wangji, who agrees but won’t say so. Wei Wuxian can tell anyway because he’s learning to read Lan Wangji’s microexpressions.

They fight a water demon. Jiang Cheng gets injured and Wen Qing patches him up. He looks at her with puppy eyes. Some dumbass loses his sword in the water. Wen Ning tries to help him despite being uniquely unqualified to do so, and passes out. Wei Wuxian tries to rescue both of them, and Lan Wangji ends up rescuing all three of them despite clearly wanting to let the water demon eat them. Jiang Cheng buys a comb to give to Wen Qing but chickens out and doesn’t give it to her. Wei Wuxian deduces that Wen Ning’s illness is because of a previous bad experience with ghostly spirits or something, and gives Wen Qing a talisman to give to her brother that will help protect him from monsters. He says that no matter what she’s looking for at Cloud Recesses, he hopes the talisman will help Wen Ning.

Then he tries to buy Lan Wangji some fruit as a gift. Lan Wangji refuses to look at him. Lan Xichen starts mentally writing wedding invitations.

Ext. Nightless City [Qishan]

ENTER AN EDGELORD (sorry I forgot about him, in fact I think this happened earlier but the timing isn’t really important)

Meet Xue Yang. You have no idea who he is. Wen Ruohan is demanding he hand over something called yin iron. Xue Yang’s response to this is basically ‘choke me harder, Daddy’ and you’re left feeling vaguely disturbed.

Int. Cloud Recesses [Gusu]

It’s party time! Wei Wuxian smuggled some liquor back with him. He, Jiang Cheng, and Nie Huaisang get drunk. They give Jiang Cheng a hard time about his high standards for women.

Lan Wangji comes in like the hall monitor you hated in high school to break it up. Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang run away. Wei Wuxian uses a talisman on Lan Wangji to keep him from reporting them and make him take a drink of the alcohol. We all remind ourselves very firmly that he is only 16 and will do stupid shit, despite wanting to slap him. Lan Wangji has never had alcohol before and one drink makes him blackout drunk. Wei Wuxian has to babysit him for the rest of the night. Serves him right.

The next day, they’re all in trouble, even Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian tries to tell Lan Qiren that it’s not Lan Wangji’s fault, but Lan Wangji accepts his punishment anyway. They get hit with a stick a bunch of times.

Lan Wangji goes to recuperate in the cold springs. Lan Xichen, the world’s biggest troll, sends Wei Wuxian to do the same. Lan Wangji nearly has an aneurysm when Wei Wuxian tries to start taking his clothes off.

ENTER THE PLOT

They get pulled underwater and end up in a cave. It’s a magic cave where only members of the Lan clan are allowed to be. To keep the cave from killing him, Lan Wangji wraps his Magic Forehead Ribbon around Wei Wuxian’s wrist. This is the same magic forehead ribbon he told Wei Wuxian ten episode minutes ago that only parents, spouses, and children are allowed to touch. Draw what conclusions you will.

There’s a ghostly lady in the cave who is Lan Wangji’s ancestor. She tells them Evil Is Abroad. A long time ago a dude named Xue Chonghai took a bunch of pieces of metal and filled them full of evil energy. Everyone banded together and killed him, but the metal couldn’t be completely destroyed, so it was split into ‘the cardinal directions’ and then sealed and hidden. Ah ha! This is what Wen Ruohan is looking for! It’s called Evil MacGuffin yin iron.

Wei Wuxian says if it’s so powerful, why don’t they use it to fight back? Ghost lady says she tried that but it’s too evil and it doesn’t work. She gives them the piece that was sealed in the cave and tells them to go fight evil together. Lan Wangji is glad it’s too cold to have a boner.

Except then she throws them out of the cave and onto dry land and Wei Wuxian lands on top of him and he definitely gets one from that. Sorry, Lan Wangji, I don’t make the rules.

They’ve been missing for two days and everyone is really upset, especially Jiang Cheng, who thinks Wei Wuxian was just goofing off.

Lan Xichen takes the piece of yin iron they got in the cave and seals it in a pouch. They discuss the fact that Wen Ruohan is clearly collecting the pieces of yin iron and this is Bad News Bears. The yin iron will respond to other pieces of yin iron so they decide they should use the piece they have to locate the other pieces.

But first, classes are over! Despite the fact that each of these events has led seamlessly into the next and it seems like they’ve been there a week, they’ve actually been there six months. If you dealt with the Teen Wolf ‘timeline’ I assume you can deal with that lmao.

There’s a lantern-lighting ceremony to celebrate. Wei Wuxian paints a rabbit on his lantern because there were a bunch of rabbits in the cave and Lan Wangji clearly likes rabbits. This makes Lan Wangji smile for the first time. They all light their lanterns and make a wish.

Wei Wuxian wishes he can stand with justice and live without regrets. Lan Wangji looks at him like he’s about to propose. Wen Qing wishes she could protect her little brother and that he’ll always be safe. Jiang Cheng looks at her like he’s about to propose. Nie Huaisang wishes he can pass his classes and get the hell out of high school. Truly, the most relatable.

But the moment is ruined because people start teasing Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli, asking why they didn’t light a lantern together and wish for a happy marriage. Jin Zixuan, the paragon of reacting reasonably to things, storms off. He tells his sect members he doesn’t want to hear about the marriage and they should stop bringing it up. Wei Wuxian overhears and they get into a fight. Jiang Yanli manages to get Wei Wuxian to back off.

The next day, Wei Wuxian is being punished for punching a jerk in the face. He is kneeling on the rocks of the courtyard. But he’s already gotten distracted because there’s an anthill and he has ADHD. Lan Wangji calls him ‘unteachable’ and stomps off, clearly mad at his boner like usual.

Because this is kind of important, the two sect leaders have showed up to hash it out. Jiang Yanli’s dad says ‘listen, if your son doesn’t want to marry my daughter, we shouldn’t force him’. Jin Zixuan’s dad says, ‘kids are stupid and they don’t know what they want’. Jiang Yanli’s dad says, ‘well I absolutely agree your son is stupid but he’s being a jerk to my daughter so why don’t we politely call this off before something happens that makes one of us impolitely call it off’, and Jin Zixuan’s dad agrees. Jiang Yanli is upset, although why she actually wanted to marry Jin Zixuan is beyond everyone involved, including the audience. Then again it can’t be easy to hear that some dude who has barely even met you has decided you’re not good enough for him.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian sees Lan Xichen telling Lan Wangji ‘be careful’ and correctly deduces that Lan Wangji is leaving with the yin iron to try to find the other pieces, while Lan Xichen stays behind to protect Cloud Recesses since the Wen sect thinks it’s still there. He leaves a note that says ‘gone monster hunting, meet you back at home!’ Jiang Cheng nearly has an aneurysm, especially when his dad is like ‘lmao that kid is such a dumbass’.

~end Sword Wizard School~

okay, guys, what did you think? was this helpful? could you follow it? was it at least vaguely entertaining? should I keep going?

#the untamed #liveblog #of a sort

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morifinwes · 4 years ago

Note

Lauraa I finished all the fics, apart from decay (currently reading that now) and I love it sm! Especially the lip gloss one lmao the whole thing was so hilarious to me XD but also like the concept of lwj wearing lipgloss is >>> -yibobibo

@yibobibo then i'm going to rec you some more!! the lip gloss one was !!!!! ajsksks yes!! lwj wearing lipgloss is just so!! good!!

modern

this one is the painful one i talked about:

visitations by var_abelasan (12K, wip, divorced wangxian, post divorce, most of this is angst, uhm lowkey don't but also do want wangxian to end up together, it's messy, the jiangs & lans are shitty, wwx was in prison (brief mentions of that but it's kind of a major plot point), mxy & xy are the little brothers he never wanted but wwx picked them up anyways)

"Wei Ying-" Lan Zhan says, stutters, "I'm sorry."

And now Wei Wuxian sees it, the red rimming Lan Zhan's eyes, the rumpled edges of his blazer. There is an old, familiar urge for him to reach over, to hold Lan Zhan's hand and smooth his hair, to tell him that everything will be fine.

"We're all a bit sorry about this, I think," he says instead, and finds that he means it. For Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji and everyone else in that Guanyin temple, the pain must be unbearably fresh, like skin just flayed open. But Wei Wuxian's chest had been cracked open a long time ago, his wounds licked and cauterized and sewn shut over five long years - Ever hurting, but a dull, constant ache, "It's really alright, Lan Zhan."

Five years after being accused of corporate espionage and losing everything, the Guanyin Scandal breaks open and Wei Wuxian finds a familiar face at his door.

please don't let me be misunderstood by sysrae (3K, partly deaf!wwx, lwj notices, nobody else does though, idk wwx is like made out of fucking steel or some shit)

Lan Wangji has known Wei Ying for a fortnight, the first time he sees him get hit by a car.

light by redkosmos (10K, blind!lwj, which causes angst, but they manage it, best friends to lovers, fluff, lwj being insecure and feeling like a burden, college au kind of? but it doesn't matter too much)

The realization slowly dawns on him.

He can never again see the brightness of Wei Ying's eyes, the way they crescent when he smiles, never again see the rich black of his hair, the mess of it in the early mornings, never again see the beautiful tan of his skin, the beauty of the scars and marks adorned on it, how he wears his clothes, how it hugs his frame beautifully, how he looks like he's adorably swimming in cloth when he wears Lan Zhan's, and-

(Lan Zhan loses his vision in a car accident and learns to cope with it.)

don't leave me by trippinonskies (19K, brief very brief mention of lwj cheating, he doesn't but wwx is afraid lwj is cheating on him or just wants to break up with him, (he doesn't), marriage proposal, lwj acting distant = wwx's insecurities show up, fluff, angst and comfort)

Lan Zhan! Where are you lost today?” Wei Wuxian finally asks, at the end of his patience.

Lan Zhan looks a little guilty as he looks at Wei Wuxian, “Sorry, just a lot of work to deal with.”

Lie.

If there is one thing Lan Zhan can’t do, it’s lying. Especially to Wei Wuxian. But he doesn’t question Lan Zhan. He just accepts the reply, too scared to know that he is right. Too scared to know the truth.

// or where Lan Zhan is too hung up in planning the perfect proposal and ends up accidently ignoring Wei Wuxian making the other think that he wants to break up //

want you closer by xiaobucephalus ((3K, HORSES, only in the background tho, but wwx is an equestrian vet, which is so fucking valid bro, the lans own horses, a sick bunny, lwj the bunny parent!, super cute, dark bay throughoutbred chenqing is honestly so valid)

“Thank you,” Lan Zhan said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Don’t thank me, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying laughed again, his voice warming the chill of fear that had settled in his chest. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to get into your hutch for a while anyway.”

safe in your thoughts by anonymous (20K, it's a cherry magic au???? (i haven't watched it, but you have i think?), horny lwj but only for wwx (always for wwx))

Wei Wuxian learns three very important things on the night of his twenty-seventh birthday.

One, that Lan Wangji is ridiculously funny, which Wei Wuxian had known before but what Wei Wuxain hadn’t expected was Lan Wangji to be funny at his brother’s expense.

Two, that Wei Wuxian had finally gone mad, absolutely mental at the ripe age of twenty seven because nothing else would explain the third thing he had learnt.

Third, and the most unbelievable of the lot, that Lan Wangji wants to fuck him.

iura by yoo_im_finally_writing (1K, only added bcs op is right and wwx would've the cutest german accent, it's more fun if you understand german so hit me up if you want translations for the german sentences)

Wei Ying calls in the middle of the night to talk about German law, and Lan Zhan tries very hard not to fall asleep. Or at least, not to let Wei Ying notice he's falling asleep. (As best friends do.)

breathe in the air, the last of its kind by wereworm / @neverdoingmuch (27K, getting together, jealous!lwj, but also kind of supportive, brief mention of cheating bcs of miscommunication, no actual cheating tho, college au, lwj pov)

Following Wei Ying’s line of sight, Lan Wangji can barely prevent a smile from crossing his lips when he sees the short row of rabbit statuettes placed at the front of the display. Silver, with bright gems for eyes, they look elegant yet lively and animated.

“A-Yuan would love one of those,” Wei Ying murmurs, almost as if to himself.

Lan Wangji frowns; the rabbits, while cute, don’t seem like a suitable gift for Wei Ying’s A-Yuan.

...

It’s only when he glances back at the rabbits and notices what has been placed on display behind them, that the pieces fall into place. They’re engagement rings, there’s no doubt about it. Lan Wangji feels his heart sink – Wei Ying isn’t just dating A-Yuan, he wants to propose to him.

Or: the five times Lan Wangji thinks that A-Yuan is Wei Ying’s boyfriend and the one time he learns the truth.

paint smears on sunny days by snowshadowao3 / @angstsexual (53K, getting together, art teacher!wwx, single parent!lwj, they're rich if i remember right, wwx & lwj are both good with kids!!!, this is so good actually, fluff)

To say that he runs to his car would be incorrect, as he is a Lan, and running is both undignified and unnecessary unless in immediate danger. Nor does he slam his key into the ignition, or aggressively swerve around the cars on the freeway, or have a mild panic attack at the fact he is picking A-Yuan up late from school for the first time ever.

He comes close, though.

By the time he arrives, it’s 4:35PM, and he has imagined about fifty different worse-case scenarios. The door is partly open when he gets to it, a messy label of 104B—Art Room scrawled with chalk on a placard next to the faded wood. As he opens it fully, he expects to see a wailing, terrified child, or perhaps a scene of utter misery and betrayal.

What he finds is his son, hands covered in paint, being sung to by a beautiful, dark-haired stranger.

“Ducks live in the pond, yellow ducks, happy ducks!”

Lan Wangji stops in his tracks.

(Or: Falling in love with your son’s art teacher, in five parts)

no bunny compares by gusucloudbunny (4K, god this is cute, fluff)

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian cornered his friend one week before his birthday. “If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?”

Lan Wangji furrowed his brow at Wei Wuxian, not exactly sure how to answer that question in a truthful manner that didn’t involve confessing his undying love for his best friend.

Wei Wuxian is on a mission to get Lan Wangji the perfect gift for his birthday. What Wei Wuxian doesn't know is that the only thing Lan Wangji truly wants is him.

wei wuxian's week of realizing things by photojenny (12K, i have read this multiple times, i always forget what happens, idk why but my notes say it's good, the tags say drunkji makes an appearance and i'm always up for that)

"Lan Zhan, do you like Mianmian?" asked Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji blinked, and stared. It was not the first time Lan Wangji had questioned the perceptiveness of the boy he had a crush on. Wei Wuxian had been smart in the class they had taken together. Yet time and time again, Wei Wuxian had tested the old wisdom that there are no stupid questions.

---

Lan Wangji must figure out how to confess when Wei Wuxian is the most oblivious person he's ever met.

are you my wisdom tooth? because i'd like to take you out by yellowcarnations (1K, crack, fluff, lwj stop flirting with a stranger, even if he is your husband, drunkji but make it to max level)

Lan Zhan wakes up and he has no idea where he is.

There are bright lights and his jaw hurts, he doesn't who this man next to his bed is but oh he might be in love, maybe, probably, definitely.

–

based off that guy-forgets-who-his-wife-is-and-hits-on-her vid but its wangxian.

beep! goes his heart by wearing_tearing (3K, fluff, lwj is like "he, he likes me right? he likes me" and everyone is like "yes, yes he does")

“Wei Ying’s heart monitor,” Lan Wangji starts.

Wen Qing blinks at him. “Yes?”

“It beeps.”

“That’s… what they generally do, yes.”

“The beeps change,” Lan Wangji continues, “when others are around.”

Wei Ying’s heart only sings for Lan Wangji.

canon

obedient and bellicose by thunderwear (19K, lwj is cursed by the lan elders, they notice too late, fix-it fic kind of?, lqr being a good uncle and lxc is a good brother, wwx accidentally uses the curse but he doesn't know about it)

It took Lan Wangji a long time to realize he was cursed. Too long really, anyone else would have noticed so much sooner. The problem was, he liked following the rules.

Ella Enchanted AU that no one needed but I wanted.

hello my old heart, how have you been? by ravenditefairylights (10K, amnesia, fluff, wwx taking care of lwj, so much fluff and softness, angst too but not that much)

The issue is, Lan Wangji brings his thoughts back before they stray too far, that it is impossible for someone to be in his bed, unless Lan Wangji himself invited them. He has not. He would remember doing so, and besides, all his night clothes are still on and there is no headache to imply that he was inebriated last night. No, the situation is simple.

There is someone in Lan Wangji’s bed. It is impossible for anyone to be in Lan Wangji’s bed, and yet that doesn’t seem to have stopped the stranger.

or lan wangji wakes up, and wei ying is there. he doesn't understand how or why, and he can understand even less why his hallucination of wei ying is so insistent on bathing him, and braiding his hair, on holding him and fixing his clothes. why the hallucination of wei ying seems so happy to see him.

teach me the way by likeafox (58K, rogue cultivator!wwx, horny wangxian, lwj wants wwx to teach him how to be a good lover, ....wwx is a virgin, the porn is the plot, but there's less of it than i thought)

"I do not wish to leave my future spouse… dissatisfied with my intimate knowledge,” Lan Zhan says, very seriously. “I am hoping to find an instructor, to better prepare myself for such matters."

Wei Ying feels his mouth drop open. He's pretty sure the Second Jade of Lan just told him he's a virgin who wants to learn how to do sex good.

Rogue Cultivator Wei Wuxian is the stuff of local legends. Some of those legends are even true! The ones about his tremendous experience in bed, on the other hand, are not so true. Which becomes a problem when Lan Wangji, on the verge of an arranged marriage and worried he won’t know how to please his future spouse, enlists Wei Ying's help to teach him the art of love-making. Wei Ying's great at improvisation, though, and is pretty sure he's got this sex mentor thing under control. What could possibly go wrong

other aus

of god: my love unholy by tunnelodfawn (3K, tw blood / war, dark!lwj, god!wwx, kind of poetry)

Lan Zhan takes everything as a sign from his god. The blood staining his fingertips—a holy anointment. He sanctifies himself through blood. The strings of his guqin gleam red in the sun—a divine blessing. This is an instrument of destruction. A single note—a cry of power—and in this note the voice of his god unravels the earthly threads tethering man to earth.

The Yiling Patriarch blesses Lan Zhan with war. Wei Wuxian blesses Lan Zhan with agility. Wei Ying blesses Lan Zhan with love.

The base of the Yiling Patriarch’s shrine is the home of Lan Zhan’s knees. He worships. There is something of the blasphemous and the unholy in his prayers. He prays not for victory but for the sight of Wei Ying. Bless me with your presence, he begs.

Or, wherein, Lan Zhan bridges the gap between the mortal and the divine—the worshipper and the god—with blood.

the river and the sea by sasamelons / @sasamelons (7K, soulmate au, arranged marriage (wangxian with each other), they're both kind of dumb but i love it)

Lan Wangji gritted his teeth, wishing to just be left alone. "I am looking for my soulmate," he ground out.

"Oh."

It took Lan Wangji a few moments to realize that Wei Wuxian had stopped following him. When he looked back, the other boy seemed to be frozen to the spot, eyes wide and lips still parted. He quickly looked away when he saw Lan Wangji looking back. "I see. Well, have a good trip!"

At six years old, Lan Zhan met his soulmate on the streets of Yiling and promptly lost him again.

At sixteen years old, Lan Wangji met his betrothed and was determined not to like him.

#so...i realized i forgot to check the things i already listed but? i tried to avoid listing fics twice?#yes i've mostly been reading oneshots these past few weeks idk why but i can't seem to find any long fics #or at least not ones that i like #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #wangxian fics #mdzs #mdzs fic #cql fic #the untamed #aamna tag #we're almost through the rec list now? i have so much open but idk why i add so few #i'm just really picky when it comes to which ones to write down and which ones not #and then this became a kind of comfort list?#idk?#but also ANGST #not Angst but ANGST #fun fact: Angst means fear in german

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teamsarawatshusband · 4 years ago

Text

Word Of Honor - 1st watch insta thoughts - Episode 7

Here's my name overview, in case you're new to this: Zhou Zi Shu = Baby Zi Shu/ Zhou Xu lord guy/alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy; Wen Ke Xing = Smirky Xing/Smirky fan guy/Kissy Xing Gu Xiang = Purple Girl/my Purple Love/my Purple Queen Smirklord is my personal ship name for Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing.

Also, here are the previous episodes.

Before we get started, just FYI, I went back to have a look at the red masked ghost guys gang scene with nuts guy in episode 1, and it’s finally confirmed that it's 100% Kissy Xing, because, now that i've been hearing his laughter for some eps, I can't not recognize it. Actually, he’s not just part of the ghost gang, he’s their boss. :O

Okay, so that is settled.

Let’s move on to episode 7:

Luo Mansion. What is that? Where is that? Who are these people? There's one with a joker grin, and several with weirdly upturned eyebrows and darkened lips. Are they from the ghost gang?

And why is everything red, is this a wedding?

There's a white haired woman with long golden fingernails and she's referred to as tragicomic ghost.

Oh it IS a wedding. Something tells me this might not be a voluntary one... Maybe it's the amount of gagged people in cages who don't look joyful.

Is the gagged guy who's gonna get married unconscious magenta leader guy from when that other ghost lady dropped her face?

He's getting married to a memorial tablet? What?

Ah, back to more familiar people in familiar circumstances. Baby Zi Shu is drinking alcohol. Now this I recognize.

But he can't get more because somebody bought all the remaining bottles. Should I say that this has Kissy Xing written all over it?

Ooooh, the kid is there!!! With a-hole-uncle Shen and uncle Zhao. And the kid notices Baby Zi Shu right away, and thinks it's his master. He's better at recognizing people than I am, but he's mislead by Baby Zi Shu's lack of tan and scar. That's a shame. But he clearly misses his daaaaads! Awwwww.

Side note: I cannot stress enough how much I need to focus on not misspelling Baby Zi Shu’s name. I’ve typed Zi Shi, Zu Shi, Zu Shu, Zhu Si, Zhi Shu already... and now I almost typed “Baby Sushi”, because my brain is WEIRD. In case it happens in the future and I miss it, you have been warned. Maybe I should just go with Baby Sushi, because that one would be easiest to remember. I should also change my tumblr handle to “face-blind-and-name-stupid”.

Meh, back to the ghost gang wedding ceremony.

Whoever speaks dies. That would have been a good rule to know in advance, I guess.

So what's this list of the unfaithful? Is it like Santa's naughty and nice list?

Everybody who is unfaithful gets killed by white haired gold finger girl. Got it. Everybody who speaks gets killed too. This seems like such a shady set of rules, I bet more people get killed just for fun.

Ooooh, it's celebrity death match. But with friends of the groom.

I feel like this guy who says that the ghost folks never break a promise, while being a jerk, might be telling the truth.

:O WTH? Did a-hole-uncle Shen just seriously call our kid useless??? He just assumes that our kid is a liar??? The audacity!!! I feel so outraged on the entire fandom’s behalf.

Huh, the kid is eavesdropping on all of it. I feel so bad for him to having to hear this, but at the same time, I feel so proud of his spying nature. He's already picked up some of his adopted dads' talents.

Back to the wedding deathmatch. A red wedding indeed. Everybody's dead.

Two guys talking at Youyang sect, alright, whoever that is, I forgot. But, they have nice dragon decor. Ah the younger guy is the leader of Window of Heaven while the older guy with the mustache is the 5 lakes final boss. Top boss, I mean. I might be playing too many computer games, sorry. Anyway, so Youyang is 5 lakes, also confirmed by the pleated skirt soldiers around. K, k.

So, pretty heaven's window leader guy wants to get the scoop on the glazed armor situation.

Whoa, did mustache final boss guy just really say glazed armor is just a rumor? Does he think people are stupid? Even I know that it's not. Tsk. He makes Window of Heaven sound like a super power spy agency.

Everybody is after our poor kid. Ooooooooh, Baby Sushi is following the uncles plus kid through the bamboo woods. Nice. He won't let the kid get harmed, I'm sure.

There's a girl kid who looks kind of like TopTap (if you're familiar with Thai TV shows).

She seems nice, but... looks like they're just trying to get our kid out of the way to discuss stuff. Pfff, they always complain about him not knowing stuff, but how is he supposed to when he's constantly left out?

"The martial arts world won't be peaceful anymore" LOL, whut? It hasn't been peaceful from the start of the series. What is 5 lakes final boss guy even trying to say?

:O what? Baby Sushi wants to genuinely leave the kid there and thinks he's safe there?

Oh, he's onto the spy situation and Window of Heaven being involved. Cool, cool.

Aaaaand spontaneously kills a spy guy, k.

Wheeeeeeee Kissy Xing is back. Has also been following around. Nice nice.

Ah, the dead guy was from the scorpion gang. And both Baby Sushi and Kissy Xing know. Oh, so Window of Heaven is an assassin organization. Alright, the more you know. Okay!

He's so daring, talking about how everybody is after the glazed armor while wearing a piece of it openly over his clothes. And he keeps hinting at how much he knows about Baby Sushi but never outright says it.

It's always the same with those two. Kissy Xing points out how good a person he is and then flirts with Baby Sushi who then gives him the cold shoulder.

LOL, I love how the subtitles really translate EVERYTHING. A random note of Tofu Pudding, not plot relevant at all, but BAM in your FACE!

(joking aside: I am so grateful for all the subs and translations. Whoever is doing this stuff, you guys will always be my heroes. <3 )

Oh, somebody looked at them, and Baby Sushi recognized him? And Kissy Xing is like a marching band, stomping onto the scene, parading around with banners that say "Look at this glazed armor!" lol.

Ooooooh, Kissy Xing is in cahoots with the merchant lady. He's planned something. This is exciting. Seems like he's trying to set all parties up against each other: 5 lakes, scorpions, window of heaven and whoever else wants to participate.

Okay, so he let that spy guy steal his piece of glass on purpose, right? And it must be one of the fakes, I assume.

Oh, the heroes conference... I remember the name, but what was that again? Was it a 5 lakes thing? Anyway, Baby Sushi and Kissy Xing are gonna be there on uncle Zhao's invitation, alright.

See, when Kissy Xing calls the kid dumb, it kinda doesn't feel offensive to me. I don't know. It just doesn't. It's like somebody affectionately calling their pet dumb or something.

Waaah, there's another beautiful tree. Please don't burn it down this time.

There's some morse code thing going on with lots of people that I don't know. Everybody's drumming on stuff and passing along messages.

:O my Purple Queen. The love of my life. There she is. ahhhhhhhh. <3

She's also drumming on stuff, but I'm not sure it's code with her, might also just be frustration, lol.

There's a bunch of drunk guys and they're requesting the traditional DJ guy to put on some song that probably has explicit content or something, because he doesn't wanna play it.

:O they snatched his daughter from DJ guy! Right under the eyes of my Purple Queen. Ooooh, she's gonna clean up that place, lol.

Yup.

Yeah you show them! Heh.

Oh, she's got herself a fanboy. Who is he?

She still keeps drumming away on the dishes with her chopsticks. Hmm, maybe it is a code after all.

LOL, they're having this awkward conversation about double standards for guys and girls, and my Purple Queen is not having it. She is the best.

Not gonna lie, every time the series cuts back to smirklord, I get all excited.

Ok, Baby Sushi places some... nut or whatever on his chopsticks obviously some code, Kissy Xing watches and looks confused. Oh, and he almost gave away that he doesn't understand the code.

LOL, what is happening? Kissy Xing looks so pissed at my Purple Queen making friends with her fanboy.

Seriously, does he have some sort of beef with fanboy guy? LOL, won't even let the poor guy finish his meal. A+ in cockblocking.

Awwwww, and my Queen still gets it. Pinpointing smirklord in one sentence. Baby Sushi brings out Kissy Xing's humanity. And now he looks sad. It must be true.

Ahaha, "I will pay. A Xu, where is your wallet?" Comedic genius.

Oh, what a clever way to bring the subject to the "thief" guy. Man, Kissy Xing is GOOOOOOD at this. And Baby Sushi is so amused that he admits to knowing thief guy too.

My queen doesn't recognize Baby Sushi. Whaaaaat? I would have expected her to feel the sparks. Oh, wait, no, she does get it. Hehe. And Kissy Xing instantly has to praise his crush's appearance and beauty. Everything's alright again in the world.

LOL, the way she goes right in to touch him. No inhibition. No etiquette. And Baby Sushi is so surprised that he lets her, lol.

Ahaha, Kissy Xing has to stop her from touching his baby. Awww

XD, I can't deal with this. He even flat out asks why he's not allowed to touch.

And Baby Sushi replies with a compliment to my Queen and a rebuff for Kissy Xing. It's funny, but I do feel a little bad for Kissy Xing. He did not deserve that.

LOL, waiter guy wins quote of the day, "Can you all pay first? Then you can touch whomever you want, however you want." This episode is gold, man. Also, I'm all for the touching. Yes, touch each other. Go go.

Heh, nice. Baby Sushi threatens that the money is a loan and he'll expect interest. And Kissy Xing does not seem sad about owing him at all but goes and buys even more food. After all, owing Baby Sushi gives him reason to stay in touch, doesn't it?

Aww, why do they always end on smirklord scenes? I want more. :(

Okay, this was a really nice episode. I can't wait to continue.

What I learned: The ghost gang enjoys torturing people. Kissy Xing is definitely nuts guy (well not learned from this episode, but I still learned it). I need the kid to return to his dads because I miss their interaction, as does he. There's a famous thief wandering around and he stole Kissy Xing's fake Glazed Armor. The Heroes Conference is coming up.

Goals for future epsidoes: still to figure out how Kissy Xing and Baby Sushi know each other, understand the purpose and connections of the ghost gang and why Kissy Xing is part of them. Also, just generally, get to watch more smirklord interactions. ;)

#word of honor #1st watch insta thoughts #word of honor ep 07 #smirklord

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ibijau · 4 years ago

Note

i would give my left arm for a continuation of your sangyao “why do i remember kissing you” scene. PLEASE let meng yao be happy or i’ll cry ;-;

a continuation of this

“That’s the most stupid idea you’ve ever had,” Jiang Cheng said, which is a little harsh, but Nie Huaisang nods and puts the bottle back on the ray.

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes hard from where he’s leaning on the shopping cart.

“No, grab the fucking vodka, you idiot. I’m not going sober through a party where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are there. But you plan, about Meng Yao? That’s stupid even by your standards.”

Nie Huaisang shudders at the idea of Wei Wuxian flirting with everyone to grab Lan Wangji’s attention, as if he doesn’t have it already, and of Lan Wangji’s cold anger making the temperature drop. When he’s done hooking up with Meng Yao, Nie Huaisang is so taking care of these two, if only so they’ll stop ruining every party.

He grabs two bottles of vodka, and some whiskey too before motioning for them to move to the sodas.

“My plan is excellent, you’re just jealous ChengCheng.”

“It’s terrible,” Jiang Cheng insists, dropping some coke in the cart. “Can’t you just say you like him, like a normal person, ask him out on a date… you know, something normal?”

Trying to decide between two flavours of likely repulsing energy drinks, Nie Huaisang shrugs.

“What would you know about normal.”

“Rude. I’ve probably tried to understand that bullshit more than any of you,” Jiang Cheng snaps, pushing him aside to pick one of the energy drink packs. “And I can tell you this: being straightforward is the best way to go. Or else, you’ll just end up like Wei Wuxian and his walking ice-cube. Talk to Meng Yao, tell him you like his butt or… whatever it is you like about him anyway.”

“The dimples,” Nie Huaisang mutters. “And the fact that he’s my only friend with a brain.”

“Again, fucking rude.”

Nie Huaisang shrugs. He’s aware that actually, most of his friends are probably near geniuses. Wei Wuxian has three degrees and is working on a fourth while also doing volunteer work. Lan Wangji is a music prodigy who’s been doing concerts since he was six along with his brother. Even Jiang Cheng, always accused by his parents of underperforming when they were alive, managed to finish his degree with honours while taking over their business after their untimely death. If anything, Nie Huaisang himself, who’s been lingering in art school and is in no hurry to graduate, is the idiot of the group so he probably shouldn’t make judgements.

But there’s just something about Meng Yao’s sharp mind that sets him aside from everyone else. It’s a practical sort of cleverness which the others lack. Meng Yao always knows how to get the best price on things, he knows which bars are safe and which aren’t at a glance, how to defuse a fight (or start one without getting involved), what to wear on any occasion. It’s like Meng Yao could be thrown into absolutely any situation and always land on his feet, looking like he belongs there and knows exactly what to do.

He’s also normal smart on top of that, which is nice. Nie Huaisang has never found anyone else as excited as him to chat about the pre-raphaelites, not until meeting his brother’s roommate.

“I can’t just tell him I like him,” Nie Huaisang sighs, pushing the cart toward the queue for the cashier. “What if he doesn’t like me back?”

“He does,” Jiang Cheng retorts. “And even if he doesn’t, at least then you’d know and be able to move on. What’s your stupid plan of making out with him for a stupid bet even going to accomplish, uh?”

“It gives me an exit,” Nie Huaisang explains, as if it’s obvious. It certainly is to him. “I get to kiss him, and then if he seems to be having regrets after, I can just say that hey, guess what? It’s fine, it was all fake for money, we can stay friends! It’s a foolproof plan.”

Jiang Cheng considers that for a moment, and grimaces.

“I still think it’s stupid. Just tell him that you like him. If he likes you back, good. If he doesn’t, we have vodka. If he doesn’t like you back and he’s an asshole about it, then he was never worth your attention and I’m sure Lan Wangji will gladly break his nose for making you cry.”

“Not taking romantic advice from the aro guy,” Nie Huaisang replies with a pout. “Just… are you going to place the bet for me or not?”

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes, and grumbles, and makes a whole damn show of expressing how much he hates the idea, in case it wasn’t clear enough yet, but… of course he agrees to help. That’s just how he is. For all of his advice about just saying things, Jiang Cheng can’t do anything without pretending that he’s forced to act against his better judgement.

A number of hours later, Nie Huaisang is standing in his brother’s bathroom, numbly trying to brush his teeth and wondering if Jiang Cheng didn’t have a point yesterday about how stupid his plan is.

Well, no. The plan was great. Nie Huaisang got to make out with the guy of his dreams, first where everyone could see them so he’d get some sweet extra cash, and then after in Meng Yao’s bedroom until they kind of fell asleep. That part of the plan went great.

No, the problem is that Nie Huaisang panicked this morning when Meng Yao asked why they kissed last night. It’s just. It’s just that Meng Yao seemed so shocked by the idea, as if it’s something he’d never have considered while sober, and Nie Huaisang was still a little out of it because he too drank too much and slept too little, so he tried to play it cool, and…

Heavens but the expression on Meng Yao’s face when he said it was just for a bet, the tone of his voice when he asked if he should expect his share of money, that was…

Nie Huaisang sighs, and presses his forehead against the bathroom’s mirror. The glass feels almost too cold against his skin, but that’s nice, that’s grounding.

Jiang Cheng was right, he should have just told Meng Yao that he likes him instead of trying to be clever. He’s ruined everything now. Whatever Meng Yao felt before, he surely hates him now because if there’s one thing he hates, it’s feeling used by other people. With how many times Meng Yao complained about that aspect of his old friendship with the Wens, back before he moved in with Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang should have known not to pull this sort of bullshit, but…

Well. He’s the idiot in their group of friends, isn’t he?

In the bedroom next door, Nie Huaisang hears movement. Meng Yao seems to be getting up from his bed. Nie Huaisang tenses, fearing that the other man will come talk to him and tell him to get out of the flat… but he doesn’t. Instead, he hears footsteps going toward the kitchen, ignoring him entirely. Maybe it’s worse than being kicked out.

It takes Nie Huaisang a while to calm down, but eventually he makes it to the kitchen too. He’s hoping to grab some water before being ordered to leave. He was supposed to help Meng Yao clean the flat before Nie Mingjue’s return, that was the deal, but he’s not sure Meng Yao will want his company after this. He’s not sure what Meng Yao will want in general.

When Nie Huaisang steps into the kitchen, he finds that what Meng Yao wants, apparently, is breakfast. He’s put water to boil, bread in the toaster, and he’s looking in the fridge for something to put on it.

“Strawberry or apricot?” He asks without turning to look at Nie Huaisang.

“What?”

“Jam, for the toasts. Strawberry or apricot? It’s all we have.”

“Whichever one has no mold on it,” Nie Huaisang mumbles, because he’s been at his brother’s flat for breakfast before, thanks.

Meng Yao checks both containers, and grimaces.

“Strawberry it is. Sit down, it’ll be ready in a moment.”

Nie Huaisang obeys on sheer instinct, carefully watching Meng Yao as he rummages through a cupboard for their box of tea.

“I thought you’d be wanting me gone,” Nie Huaisang says, because he’s really an idiot and can’t keep his mouth shut.

Meng Yao drops the box of tea on the table, and turns away to check on the toasts.

“Not until this flat is clean. I’m not dealing with this mess alone.”

That does sound fair. Nie Huaisang promised to help after all, and he probably deserves to do it as punishment or something.

They have breakfast in silence, and then get to cleaning, still in silence. After a while, Nie Huaisang starts wishing they had music at least. Not two seconds later, Meng Yao turns on the radio. It’s that classical music station Nie Mingjue likes, because he’s such an old man that he still has a radio and really does listen to that kind of music. They’ve both teased him about it, and as they hear some Bach ring into the quiet flat, Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang can’t help trading a brief smile.

It gives Nie Huaisang some hope. He ruined something last night and this morning, but he didn’t ruin everything.

It takes some hours for the flat to return to its normal state (parties with Wei Wuxian are always a mess) but they manage anyway. When they’re done, Nie Huaisang feels a little calmer. Sure he fucked up, but Meng Yao seems less upset about it now, so they’re probably fine. They can pretend this never happened, and go on with being friends as long as they never talk about this again.

That’d be a good plan.

Instead, Nie Huaisang looks around the now clean flat, and like the complete idiot he is, lets his mouth say words without having his brain check them first.

“So, any chance we might make out again someday?” he asks.

The way Meng Yao tenses instantly and scowls at him is just awful. So much for not ruining everything.

“What, do you need more material for that bet?” Meng Yao snaps. “Is there money on the line if we last more than one night? I’ll want fifty percent of profits then.”

Nie Huaisang winces.

“I’m not asking for that, I swear! It’s…”

He takes a deep breath, wondering how to explain the situation, and then…

Ah.

He can’t believe he’s about to take the advice Jiang Cheng gave him yesterday. But at this point, he really has nothing left to lose, right?

“A-Yao, I like you a lot,” he sighs. “I really do. I have for a while. The bet was just a good excuse, I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while. I think you’re really handsome and clever and I want to go on dates and stuff, I just wasn’t sure you’d want that too so I thought I’d… test the waters, you know?”

The intensity of Meng Yao’s stare is such that Nie Huaisang has to look down. Or maybe it’s just that he’s too embarrassed by his own words to bear to look at Meng Yao’s reaction. Nie Huaisang is never one to be direct if there’s a chance to make things convoluted, and to open up like this and just say things, with his words, that’s just…

“You’re an idiot,” Meng Yao says, his tone so flat it’s impossible to judge how he feels.

“Yeah, I know. Listen, it’s… it’s fine, don’t worry, I’ll show myself out and I won’t bother you again and…”

“I think it’s best if you leave, yes,” Meng Yao agrees. “But be back at six.”

Nie Huaisang’s head snaps up to look at his friend. He didn’t remember that they had plans for that night.

“You’re taking me on a date,” Meng Yao announces. “Somewhere nice, to apologise for being so stupid.”

Nie Huaisang blinks a few times, while Meng Yao smirks.

“Buy me flowers too. Maybe chocolate as well.”

“You’ve watched too many rom-coms,” Nie Huaisang retorts, feeling a smile creep on his face. “You really want to go on a date with me?”

“I never say anything I don’t mean,” Meng Yao says, which is an awful lie as they both know, but Nie Huaisang is willing to pretend, just this once. “Now fuck off, I need to take a nap and shower and get ready for my date.”

Nie Huaisang grins, and almost runs out of the door. It’s almost two, he’s only got a few hours to plan the best date Meng Yao has ever had.

#sangyao #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jc is at least aro and probably ace too but he's still figuring out that bit #nhs is just very stupid #I feel very weird writing modern aus and also I don't know anything about alcohol and I've never been to a party in my life :)#jau writes #semicryptid

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haosvteen · 4 years ago

Text

Shy | wen junhui

a/n: this truly transported me back to going to frat parties oh goodness. i hope you enjoy this!! it was fun to write, i need this junnie in my life tbh :) let me know your thoughts, if you’d like!! <3

college!fratboy!jun x reader

~ - fluff

word count: 2.9k

masterlist

tw: brief mentions of alcohol / instance of wrist grabbed

“Hey, Jun, I submitted our presentation,” you chime as you pass by the group of boys turned every which way in their desks, chatting loudly before class starts. The tall boy turns his body around in his seat to face you, a blush creeping up on his cheeks as he raises his hand slightly to offer a wave of thanks. His frat bros around him start the typical banter of “Ooooo, Junnieeee”.

Rolling your eyes, you stop and turn around, a sharp rebuttal on the tip of your tongue. Opening your mouth to come back to the boys with some witty remark that would hopefully sting them, your brain takes over your actions and you’re reminded how useless it would be to even entertain their jokes. You settle on another slight eye roll. Before you whip back around to make your way to your seat, Jun catches your eye and a clearly apologetic look is plastered onto his face.

Sliding into your seat towards the back of the class, you wonder why Jun hangs out with those boys? Why did he even join the fraternity in the first place? You’ve known Jun since the first semester of freshman year of university from being placed in the same orientation group and when you found out he joined a fraternity, you were honestly a little shocked. Shy Jun from orientation? In one of the frats known for the craziest parties? It didn’t sound like the Jun you met and have come to know over the years. The memory of your first meeting plays so clearly in your mind, as if it happened yesterday:

“Hey, do you know where we’re supposed to meet?” you ask, jogging up to the tall boy looking around campus just as you. Stopping in front of him, you greet him with a smile and you’re met with the tall boy’s wide eyes and stuttering mouth.

“I just noticed we have the same color tag,” you explain, picking up your lanyard to emphasize your point. “It said the south quad? I’m thinking it’s maybe down that way by the dining hall? I’m not sure.”

Looking up at him, raising your hand to block the sun from your eyes, you see him struggling to find the words, “I uh, yeah I um...I think it’s that way too.”

“Okay, cool,” you enthusiastically respond, heading down the pathway to where you had pointed. Realizing the boy was not next to you, you turn around, “You coming?”

“Yeah! Yeah,” he says as he slightly jogs to catch up with you.

“I’m Y/N by the way,” you tell him once he is by your side.

“Jun,” he replies.

From your walk to the south quad and freshman orientation, you could tell that Jun wasn’t much of a talker. He kept to himself. Even after orientation was over, you still saw him often due to having the same major and almost identical class schedules, but you never really spoke. You’d offer a smile whenever you saw him and he always returned it, however there wasn’t really much speaking. You don’t even know if you’ve had a proper conversation with him. When you’ve been paired for group projects, you mainly communicate through email. He’s shy, that’s okay.

Ripped from your reminiscent thoughts by your phone vibrating in your hand, you look down to see what the notification was.

are you ready for tonight?? i heard tchi is having a ceos and office hoes party👀

Sighing, you take a moment to think about the text your roommate just sent. You have a huge essay due in a few days that you’ve barely even started on...you really should work on that tonight instead of going to this frat party. But it’s a TChi party...and that’s the frat Jun is in...you’ll just wake up extra early the next couple of days to make up for the lost time.

i’m in, let’s goooo

Time could not pass any slower as you waited for the professor to wrap up class. “Now this marketing strategy is useful when blah blah blah”, you were just ready to head back to your apartment and plan your outfit for the party tonight. You’d never admit it, not even to yourself...but maybe you wanted to look good because Jun would be there? Is that that reason you’re so excited? No, you’re excited to go out and have a good time with your roommate...right?

Finally, after an agonizingly long hour and fifteen minutes, class is over and you can go home. You quickly gather your belongings, stuffing them into your backpack and walking towards the door. As you pass Jun and his fraternity brothers, you hear a voice call out, “Hey, Y/N, will I be seeing you at the party tonight?”

Turning around, to identify who was speaking to you, there are six pairs of eyes glued on you. Assuming the boy with the cocky grin on his face is the culprit, you narrow your eyes and retort, “Wouldn’t you like to know” and continue to walk out of the classroom. You weren’t 100% sure, but you think you saw Jun stifle a laugh as you exited.

You and your roommate decide to go check the local thrift stores for some button up shirts to complete your “office hoes” look for the part (how anyone comes up with these ideas is beyond you) and grab a light bite to eat. The rest of the evening is spent perfecting your outfits, listening to bad music on the Spotify frat party playlists, and pregaming with shots on shots on shots.

By the time it’s 10:00pm and the DD arrived, you’re already a little tipsy. You and your roommate are a giggling mess as you hurry out to the DD’s car, swinging open the door and plopping in. The short ride consists of the young DD trying to flirt with you both (awfully, might I add) and your roommate going along with his attempts just for the fun of it. Before you know it, he stops the car in the middle of the narrow street and you two shout your thanks as you slide out of the car, preparing yourself for whatever scene you were about to meet when you walked into the house.

Passing a few groups of people who already had friends who are blacked out and vomiting in the yard, you make your way to the backdoor to enter the house booming with music. Twisting the doorknob, you are met with a gust of hot air and the strong smell of a concoction of various alcohols & kool aid packets. Your roommate grabs hold of your hand and begins the trek through the large crowd in the kitchen, making a pit stop at the island to grab a cup of whatever the strong drink was that everyone had.

The entire time you’re walking through, you can’t help but search the room for Jun. Why? You’re not sure. As you continue your way through the intoxicated bodies to the stairs leading down to the basement where the music was coming from, your eyes meet with the same boy from class earlier with the cocky grin. You groan and bring the cup up to your lips, downing the sour beverage. You try your best to ignore him as you pass, however, he places a hand on your waist and says, “I’ll find you later, okay?”.

Looking at him with the most disgusted look you can muster, you shove his hand off of you and follow your roommate down the staircase and into the basement where you’re greeted by the image of numerous frat boys grinding with scantily clad girls. Aaand this is why you typically like to stay in. Was the reason you came out tonight to see Jun? No...absolutely not...deny till you die, baby.

Your roommate grabs your other hand, dragging you out to the middle of the dance floor and you begin to move with the music. You don’t even know how long you were dancing for when you noticed your cup was empty. “Hey! I’m gonna go get another cup!” you shout over the music to your roommate.

“Okay! I’m gonna go over there and talk to some of my friends from class!”, they yell back to you, motioning over to a group of people talking in the corner. You nod and part ways. Making your way out of the sea of bodies dancing, you trip over someone’s stray leg and feel an arm on your waist catch you. Looking up, unfortunately, it’s cocky grin guy from class. You don’t even know his name, that’s how little you’re interested in him.

Rolling your eyes for what felt like the millionth time today (at this point you were sure they would get stuck in the back of our head), you try to push him off of you. “Hey now, I told you I was going to find you later, didn’t I?” he says, the pungent smell of beer rolling out of his mouth and into your face.

“Ugh, gosh, get away from me,” you say, finally pushing him hard enough that he stumbles backward a little bit, allowing you time to start walking away from him. As you reach out for the railing of the staircase, you feel a strong grip on your wrist. Turning around, there is again. What does this guy not get? Can he not leave you alone? What is his deal?

“What are you walking away from me for, huh?” he slurs out, clearly extremely drunk.

“I’m not interested,” you sternly respond, attempting to tug your wrist out of his hand. His grip tightens and your heartbeat starts to quicken, your tipsy mind becoming clearer due to the danger you felt. He continues inching closer towards you, his nasty breath growing closer and closer to your face.

“Dude, she said she’s not interested,” a voice says as a tall body stands next to you and easily removes the boy’s hand from you. You retract your wrist into your chest, rubbing at the bruise that will inevitably be there tomorrow.

“What do you care? Is she your girlfriend or something?” the drunken frat boy responds, clearly trying to pick a fight.

“It doesn’t matter if she has a boyfriend or not. You don’t just grab girls like that whenever you please,” finally you look up to see Jun glaring down at the much shorter boy. “You shouldn’t back off just because a girl has a boyfriend. You should back off because she said no. Now, get a DD to take you home. You’re way too drunk to be here.”

The drunken boy shrugs past Jun and stomps up the stairs, clearly angry. You watch him stumble past people coming down into the basement as Jun gently touches your wrist. All of your attention is immediate back on him.

“Come on, let’s go up and get you some ice,” he says, giving you a soft smile and placing his hand on your shoulder and arm to help guide you up the stairs. Once in the kitchen, he opens the freezer and wraps some cubes of ice into a random kitchen towel he found in a tucked away drawer.

“Do you want to go to my room? It’s upstairs, so it’ll be quieter and you’ll be able to take a minute,” he offered, motioning over to where you presume the stairs are. You nod and his hands resume their places on your shoulder and arm, continuing your journey through the sweaty crowd of people. He moves the large piece of wood that covers the staircase so no random party goers can go up to the bedrooms, then you really get to see how nice the house was. You never would have expected this from a frat house, but it was actually well kept.

Jun leads you to the second to last door on the right, twisting the doorknob, and opening the door for you. You can’t help but notice the stuffed animal laying on his bed of a cat as you try to subdue your smile. Of course Jun is the type to have a cat stuffed animal, you wouldn’t expect anything less.

You sit on the edge of his well made bed as he closes the door and comes down to sit next to you. He tenderly lifts your wrist from your lap and places the ice onto it.

“Sorry about him,” he says, breaking the silence.

“It’s okay,” you respond, not sure what to say. You honestly were just in shock because this was not the quiet boy you were used to. He responds with a short, breathy laugh and a grin, the previous silence returning.

“I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk,” you comment, looking from your wrist up to him. You could swear you saw his cheeks start to become red.

“Maybe it’s because I’m a little tipsy,” he says with a smile, resituating the ice pack on your wrist.

“I like hearing your voice...you should be tipsy more often,” you reply before you even have a chance to think about it. Maybe you’re tipsy, as well.

The silence returns for a moment before Jun begins, “You know the reason I never really talk around you is because I have a crush on you?”

Your heart drops as you search his face for any sort of emotion, but you couldn’t tell. He just kept holding your hand and situating the ice pack.

“It makes me feel like a dumb kid again, but...that first day we met, the reason I stuttered and stammered and made a fool out of myself is because...I don’t know I’d just never seen anyone like you before. Someone who’s willing to walk right up to a stranger and immediately try to become their friend. I’d never met anyone so genuinely kind like you,” he continues.

Your mind was blank. You had no clue what to say. All this time? Jun had...liked you? Had a crush on you? Has a crush on you?? All this time while you’d been wondering why he was so shy...it was because he...likes you?

“Plus you’re insanely beautiful...but that’s besides the point,” he adds on with a smirk. At that, you can’t help but giggle. You never would’ve expected the shy boy you met to be so flirty.

“Why would you be nervous around me, though?? I literally am so un-intimidating,” you respond, not entirely sure what to say.

“Come on, look at you...how could I not be?” he says, looking up at you, your face inches away from each other. Your heart races in your chest and you’re 99% sure you might be about to have a heart attack in this boy’s bedroom right now. Your eyes flick down to his lips as you start to slowly move in closer to him, lips mere centimeters away.

BOOM BOOM BOOM. “Hey, Jun! You in there man?? There’s someone out here looking for a Y/n? I don’t know who that is, but someone said she came up here with you,” a voice shouts from the hallway. Jun closes his eyes and lets his head drop down onto your knee. With a groan of annoyance, he gets up from the bed and swings his door open, revealing the image of a boy with a beer can in hand and your roommate with tears streaming down their cheeks. You immediately shoot up from the bed and make your way to them.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” you ask, concern fills your voice. After several choked out sobs, they finally tell you that their ex texted them and of course it has become a complete ordeal. As they sob in your arms, you look up and Jun and mouth a “sorry” to him.

“I’ll get you guys a DD to take you home,” he says as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. After several minutes of your roommate sitting on the floor in Jun's room crying and ranting to the two of you, the DD finally arrives.

Jun follows you both outside, ensuring that you make it to the car safely and helps you get your friend into the vehicle.

“Hey, hold on, give me your phone real quick,” he says and takes your phone from your extended hand. He quickly types something in and gives it back. “There’s my number, text me when you get home safely.”

You can’t help the butterflies that flutter throughout your body. You slide into the car with your friend and Jun closes the door after you.

He leans down into the open window, “Do you wanna maybe get breakfast tomorrow? I think we may have a lot of talking to do,” he says with a cheeky smile.

You laugh and shake your head as you look up at him, “Sounds like a date.”

One of the widest smiles you’ve ever seen is painted on his face as he pushes off from the car and backs away. As the car drives off, you turn around looking at the back window seeing Jun doing a little celebratory dance in the street. Looks like he isn’t that shy kid you met freshman year anymore.

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neverdoingmuch · 4 years ago

Note

I just really love Two Person Love Triangles and Identity Porn. So, maybe a You've Got Mail AU? Or a superhero AU when one of them falls for both the masked hero and the secret identity?

because i love both of these aus i’ve written both!! but they’re pretty long bc i wouldn’t be me if i didn’t plot out an entire fic so the superhero au is here.

as for the you’ve got mail au, i went off and watched the movie for the first time and i am delighted by your taste anon,,, the au works so well!!

(okay for some reason tumblr won’t let me indent my bullets so idk how to fix that so big rip)

so we have lan & sons books, a company that prides itself on providing cheap books for everyone to read. think less evil corporation and more we wanted to provide easily accessible books for all people and ended up getting really rich off it

mr lan dadman was meant to be in charge but he ran off and lqr stepped up until lxc was old enough to take over and now lqr just kinda assists lxc when he needs help and does some other work

lqr is definitely the old guy who had a letter thing with this one woman who was enchanting but instead he was chatting to cssr and she was shameless

anyway lwj works as *random high up job that joe fox has* and his best work friend (and real friend) is jin zixuan

jin zixuan is the heir to some coffee franchise and the two families have a deal which is why you have the cafe inside the bookstores

we gonna give lwj some friends

as for wwx, his mother owned a bookstore, the burial mounds (why did she name it that?? idk she probably told bssr that she wanted to call it that as a joke and bssr tried to call her bluff so she ended up having to call it that a la suibian)

anyway he grew up with his mother and grandmother and they left the store to him (idk what happened to them?? maybe they just retired and are now travelling the world while wwx gets to have the bookstore)

now for the actual plot!!

lwj and wwx met on omegle an instant messaging site and now exchange emails. wwx goes by yiling patriarch and lwj goes by hanguang-jun bc we want that flavour

so they’ve been emailing for years and they never share any personal information - wwx knows that hgj has a pet rabbit but not hgj’s name or his job

as for the significant others?? idk let’s pretend they don’t exist.

wwx’s best friend nhs, who writes a column for so-and-so, always just comes over to his place and now he’s semi moved in and wwx isnt really sure why he’s here but he is.

lwj just vibes bc i can’t see him putting up with a patricia unless his uncle forced him to. even then he’d probably just be ~mysteriously~ gone while she’s home

maybe he has a really annoying pa who thinks its his job to come over and like make him breakfast. it’s su she,, it has to be

so wwx goes into work one morning and wen ning is waiting outside as he always is, ready for him to open and then like ten minutes later wen qing comes in and lastly granny wen comes in

why do they work together?? idk?? granny wen and bssr were close and so the wens and wwx kinda grew up as siblings? yeah i like that let’s go with that

so when cssr decided to go travelling wwx gets left with her store and he kinda knows how to run it but also he doesn’t have enough staff so he ends up hiring the wens (except granny who’s mostly there just to hang out with her family)

bonus: a-yuan always come to the shop after school and wwx gets to recreate the childhood he had with his mother with a-yuan. when the store closes wwx and a-yuan just twirl and twirl until they get too dizzy to stand up and then they lay on the floor and discuss their favourite book they’ve read this week. it’s very sweet

okay so the next day lwj gets to babysit his cousin/uncle/nephew/idk-how-they’re-related-person lan jingyi who is like eight or something?

they go out and hang at a festival and lwj does not buy him a goldfish bc i was very stressed by the way they treated the goldfish in the movie but he does get him balloons and a stuffed toy and plays all the games with him

eventually they’re walking back and see that the small bookstore near the new lan bookstore is hosting a story time so they go inside

lwj walks in and he’s immediately taken by the atmosphere of the store bc that place was absolutely beautiful and then he hears this voice and follows it around to the back of the store to see the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen in his life sitting on a kinda too small chair with a princess hat? cone? thing on top of his head

he’d planned to stay for like one story and then take jingyi home but he ends up staying for the entire book and it’s definitely not because the guy reading the book smiled at him once or twice

after the story time ends, lwj is reluctant to leave so he ends up letting jingyi pick a bunch of books and looks at a few fancy first edition books with wen qing

and maybe his mother used to love collecting books - the old ones with the yellowed pages and beautiful pictures - and that’s why lwj helps out with his family business,, bc he wants everyone to be able to have books like that (never mind that all their books are like mass produced and lack any sentimentality & the staff dont actually care about the books)

anyway he sees wwx help jingyi pick out books and lets him borrow his handkerchief when he sneezes and lwj’s like oh nooo he’s good with kids too so now he has to talk to him

so he goes up to buy the books and wwx’s telling jingyi about how much he likes daisies and lwj just blurts out “can i ask what your name is?” and wwx blinks but then smiles and is like i’m wei wuxian, but you can call me wei ying, and i own this store. what about you? and lwj is like wangji, you can call me wangji

wen qing takes one look at lwj and the way he’s staring at wwx and goes you’re going to come back aren’t you and lwj is trying so hard not to just run away so he just ignores her but then she mentions something about lan books and he’s Panicking and jingyi almost says that he’s a lan and lwj just kinda guides him over to a table and then goes back to flirt talk with wwx

anyway wwx ends up going on this big tangent about books and what they mean to people and the whole when you read a book as a child it becomes a part of your identity and who you’re going to become the way nothing else does (and lwj remembers his mother and her books) and then he apologises for going on and lwj is mentally going marry me, but he ends up calling wwx and his mother shameless

but it’s okay!! wwx & cssr are proud of it!

and then yada yada lwj buys the kinda expensive books and ends up awkwardly shepherding jingyi out of the store

cut to the next day when the lan book store opens properly and lwj ends up telling lqr about how he met wwx and lqr is like >:/ the son of that shameless woman,, how terrible,, it’s okay he won’t be a problem for long bc they’ll be driven out of business. which isn’t the response lwj wanted but lxc seems supportive enough if a bit concerned about how it would work with them as business enemies

business is already bad for wwx and it’s barely been a week since the lan store opened and he’s pretty bummed out but hopeful that maybe it’s a fluke

then nhs invites him to some fancy dinner with him bc wei-xiong they’re all so boring and smart and have opinions, please don’t make me have opinions so wwx gets dragged along

he ends up talking to lwj at the bar bc how could he not talk to the man who’s standing in front of all that fancy alcohol and getting some fruit juice. (he’d get water but lwj has had to put up with su she all evening so he needs something stronger)

anyway they chat and it’s pleasant but then after wwx gets approached by someone who’s like wow im surprised you’re talking to lan wangji and wwx is like lan?!

cue their passive aggressive argument around the food table complete with caviar and a turkey knife.

now bc it’s lan wangji,, instead of making scathing comebacks he just makes like factual and to-the-point statements that end up being really bitchy (or does he intend them to be that way? it’s a mix of both of them tbh but in this case he’s definitely being bitchy on purpose) and wwx is spluttering bc that boy does not stand up well against hot and mad people

nhs ends up coming over and defusing the situation but wwx makes a point of stealing the rest of the caviar off lwj’s plate before leaving

lwj ends up ducking out early as well to avoid su she and emails wwx that night at like 9:45 bc the guilt of being so rude kept him up late and yllz is like oh no that’s so sad ): but impressive! i wish i could zing people,, my brain just turns off the second i need to make a comeback

creative liberties,, wwx is good at teasing but not being genuinely mean? lets go with that

anyway now we get the delightful montage of wwx hiding behind cheese displays and lwj walking out of coffee stores with a newspaper covering his face as they try to avoid each other

when wwx gets in the wrong line at the supermarket lwj comes over and kinda glares the checkout woman into submission and gets her to let wwx use his card which wwx is really conflicted about bc why would he help me?? and once again angry lwj = hot lwj

a few weeks later wwx ends up asking hgj for help bc business isn’t getting any better but refuses to give any details and i refuse to have lwj watch the godfather so lwj just straight up messages him and is like tear that bitch apart

and so wwx decides to tear that bitch apart and asks nhs for help. nhs, fan of the arts and small businesses and local culture, is 100% down for it and writes a scathing article about lan books and how they’re destroying all the aforementioned things nhs cares about

it ends up getting a lot of traction and people show up to protest and wwx even goes on television

lwj ends up seeing the news coverage on the matter while he’s at the gym with jzx

jzx is 100% the guy who goes to the gym just to apathetically walk on the treadmill while lwj jogs

he sees the interview with wwx and lwj is like he’s not this nice in real life and jzx is like you met him?? and lwj is like mn. then jzx is like i bet he’s not as hot and lwj is completely silent but his ears are bright red and that’s how jzx knows that wwx is just that hot

also?? lwj goes on tv and says like three words and he’s kinda annoyed how the news decided to spin that but he also said like three words so what did he expect?

but, despite all the publicity, sales don’t get any better so wwx is like fine can we meet in person and lwj is like sure

he brings jzx along bc he doesn’t know the way there, it’s not because he’s nervous and kind of in love with yllz, it’s because he doesn’t know how to get to the cafe. (it’s two blocks from his apartment)

anyway jzx is like oof man it’s seems like yllz is wwx but he is that hot so not all is lost and lwj is like yikes no not happening im not going in but he also feels bad about standing wwx up so he ends up going in and sitting down in front of wwx

and lwj is like wei wuxian, all this publicity will do nothing to save your business and wwx is like lan wangji who do you think you are (or however that scene goes) but instead of lwj being asked to leave wwx decides he’s not gonna chicken out first so they end up spending like two hours having the most aggressive cup of coffee and chat he’s ever had

lwj is exhausted but he also refuses to give up

but then wwx spits something about how lwj is some cold, heartless suit who doesn’t actually care about or appreciate books so how can he possibly dare to think that he’s better than wwx and that hurts bc lwj had thought that he’d been doing exactly that so he leaves

anyway the next morning wwx is moping around the bookstore bc he didn’t get stood up, he swears. am i not cute enough he moans to wen qing and she’s like your hgj doesn’t know what you look like. but what about my personality? is that cute enough? and wen qing eventually manages to grit out that yes it is cute enough

wen ning comes in and is like are you okay? you got stood up? that’s good! your date might have been the rooftop killer xue yang! he got caught last night! and wwx is like i wish, i just got stood up like a chump

so they ignore each other for a few weeks bc wwx is very hurt and lwj doesn’t know what he’s going to say but wwx ends up caving and emails hgj about how guilty he feels and how even though wwx probably means nothing to lwj, he’s worried that maybe he did hurt lwj and also please hgj i still want to talk to you

now hgj never says a lot, he’s always really succinct and direct but this time he takes the time to write a proper apology. it’s not an explanation bc he doesn’t want to give this up, even if the yllz he thinks he loves is the wwx that he hates, but it is an apology

the next day wwx goes to lunch with granny wen and finally dares to ask her whether it would be okay to shut the store down. he doesn’t want, of course he doesn’t want to, but he doesn’t think he can afford to keep it open. granny just tells him that it’s okay and that if the time has come, the time has come

we don’t have to worry about wwx breaking up with anyone, so he just goes home and asks nhs if he can have some space and nhs quickly packs his stuff and goes home. as he stands in the doorway with his last box of stuff he tells wwx that he’s sorry and wishes he could help more and wwx sends him this tremulous smile but manages to hold it together until nhs leaves and then he cries and cries

the next day he goes back to work and tries to stay bubbly and cheery even as he sees all of his shelves slowly being emptied and people who haven’t stepped foot in his store in six months are telling him what a shame it is and how they wish it didnt have to come to this and wwx is internally screaming

he manages to stave off any actual screaming but when he closes up that day he ends up going to the children’s section of lan bookstore and just as he had thought, none of the staff care about the books, none of them know any books and he ends up recommending a series to some young mother

lwj, who’d spotted wwx and come over to see if whether he was here to pick a fight, comes to the awful realisation that maybe wwx is right about his store lacking heart

he goes home that night and su she tags along even though lwj just wants space and the elevator breaks. he’s sitting there on the ground listening to his neighbour talk about reconnecting with family and the elevator button pressing dude talks about getting engaged and su she is just there whining about his job and the inconvenience and lwj goes fuck this. when the elevator starts working again he grabs his rabbit and goes back down to the ground floor, ignores su she’s shouts, and goes back to his childhood home

wwx gets stuck closing his store down. he looks around at the shelves and tables he’d grown up with and sees his childhood and a-yuan’s and countless moments he’s had with people he’s loved and realises he’s going to lose it all forever. he grabs the bell, the last thing he has left of the store and closes up for the very last time

in the meantime, lwj is living the high life. he hangs out with his bunny, gets to read pride and prejudice for fun and actually manages to get all the way through it and then his brother comes to visit

apparently he’d broken up with jgy bc he was gold digger-esque and had decided to run off with someone richer and lwj is like oh thats so sad ): anyway nmj is right there and he fills your heart with joy and lxc is like have you ever had someone like that? and lwj immediately thinks of wwx and is like fuck

his first order of business is to buy wwx’s shop bc it broke my heart that she didn’t get it back in the og movie and he starts filling it with books again. he buys ten copies of his mother’s favourite books and places them on the shelf by the door and then he sees a book that reminds him of jingyi so gets some of them and he sees a book covered in daisies and thinks of wwx. and slowly, slowly he’s building up his own library, his own store, and this time every single book means something and for once lwj looks out across the floor with pride and satisfaction

his second order of business is to apologise to wwx for being a dick. he buys some daisies and goes to his place and comes in and cooks soup for wwx. lwj apologises and tells him it wasn’t personal and wwx is like that’s not true, it was personal to me and it’s personal to a lot of people and lwj understands that now. he remembers the way he’d filled wwx’s store and left his own touch and bared his heart through each of those books and he understands. he doesn’t actually say this and just tells wwx that he wants to be friends

lwj considers coming clean about being hgj but he knows now that he definitely loves wwx and knows that wwx currently hates him but damn is it hard not to say anything when wwx is telling him how much he loves hgj

anyway he’s like organise a meeting again with hgj

i’d say it’s ooc for lwj not to come clean but this is the man who pined for x decades and just didnt tell wwx that his son was alive so like not ooc at all

so lwj decides he’s going to woo wwx as best as he can and organises to meet up with yllz and then goes and meets with wwx and they end up going to hang out and for some strange reason, even though wwx keeps getting stood up, he doesn’t seem to care too much. he keeps agreeing to meet hgj and when he doesn’t show is more than happy to spend the rest of his day with lwj

and slowly, they start to get closer. wwx takes a sip of lwj’s coffee and lwj buys him daisies. wwx brings him an interesting book and lwj tells him about his mother. they chat freely about hgj and lwj is happy for the first time in a long time

eventually lwj organises the final meeting. wwx is really confused about the place he picked but he’s hopeful that maybe this time hgj will show. after wwx and lwj’s farmers market date ends, lwj ends up asking wwx if he could love lwj and wwx is like you put me in such an uncomfortable situation. ie stammering and blushing and eventually going oh no ill be late and running off

anyway a couple hours later wwx finds himself standing outside his old bookstore and he refuses to look at it bc he doesn’t want to see what it’s become but then, through the open door of the store, a bunny hops out and over to wwx

lwj comes running out after it calling out its name (bichen?? flopsy?? rabbit?? one of them) and wwx looks up and is like oh,, it’s you, i’d hoped it was you and he’s all teary and lwj has a handkerchief that he’d embroidered himself (with gentians of course) and he’s like dont cry yllz and then they kiss and it’s beautiful

bonus: lwj takes wwx inside the store and shows him everything and explains the meaning behind every book that they’ve picked and then wwx does cry for real bc there is definitely an entire two walls dedicated just to wwx

do they open the store as a bookstore again and work together? does wwx end up writing books?? idk up to you. i like the idea that they open the store for story time and sell children’s books but lwj still works with lan & sons to get some heart in their stores and wwx works on his own books in his spare time

#Anonymous #mdzs #modao zushi #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #cql #the untamed #asks #thank you so much for the ask i had a lot of fun making this!#let me know if you'd like anything else!!

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farmerlan · 5 years ago

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Farmer Lan’s Rewatch Guide to The Untamed - Episode 13

And then I said I wasn’t flirting. You know, like a liar.

episode masterlist here

SPOILER WARNING!

[Wei Wuxian asks, again, if Lan Wangji’s leg is fine, and doesn’t take no for an answer. He offers to piggyback Lan Wangji, but is brusquely declined. He sends a message to Wen Qing to ask for a break - Wen Qing grants his wish, but Wen Chao cottons on and warns Wen Qing about her intentions.

Wang Lingjiao orders the cultivators to find the cave, and we also learn a little more about her background. They find the Xuanwu cave due to Wei Wuxian’s talisman. While walking inside, Mianmian slips and is caught by Jin Zixuan. Wen Chao lashes out at them with his whip, but Jin Zixuan blocks it for Mianmian. Wen Chao reminds them all of his superiority and then proceeds to kick Wei Wuxian down a cliff edge. He is helped up by Lan Wangji and the rest of the gang follow (lol Jin Zixuan says he’d rather be down here than watching the ‘mean couple insult us’ <- Netflix subs but mean is such a softer way of translating what he actually calls them, which is pretty close to ‘bastard couple’)]

Differences from the novel:

The novel went way faster on this part of the story because it was focused on the later wangxian part haha.

As discussed in Episode 12, Wei Wuxian never actually offers to piggyback Lan Wangji because he never got the chance to. :(

Wen Qing doesn’t appear in the Xuanwu arc at all.

Guys, guys, guys, listen. I know baby Wei Wuxian is a pro at using the talisman but - some rando found the cave entrance in the novel.

The Wen Chao scenes here don’t happen. Mianmian doesn’t slip, Wen Chao doesn’t go on a deranged rant, doesn’t whip or kick anyone (wow, he is almost pleasant in the novel). Jin Zixuan actually volunteers to go first, and they all reach the pond without any incident.

[They arrive at the Xuanwu pond and Wang Lingjiao volunteers Mianmian to be the human bait - Jin Zixuan stands up for her, but Wen Chao insists that he delivers Mianmian to him. When he hesitates, some Jin disciples attempt to make a move, but are foiled by Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan. A fight breaks out and Wei Wuxian recites Wen Mao’s teachings back to Wen Chao, who doesn’t recognize it at all and is made a fool by Wei Wuxian. They fight but right as Wen Zhuliu is about to come to his rescue, Wei Wuxian takes Wen Chao hostage with a sword to his neck.]

Differences from the novel:

This scene plays fairly close to the novel, including Wei Wuxian’s badass recitation of the Wen sect teachings back to Wen Chao. Some minor differences:

Both Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji initially stand up to protect Mianmian upon hearing Wen Chao’s intention to capture her and use her as human bait.

It’s actually Su She who attempts to capture Mianmian but he is foiled by Lan Wangji. Although he doesn’t actually say anything, his eyes clearly convey his anger on behalf of the Lan sect for having such a traitorous disciple. For shame, Su She! You immoral scum!

[Right at that moment, the xuanwu appears, disturbed by the movements on his carapice. Wen Chao, dumbassTM that he is, causes a disturbance and everyone’s attention is turned to fighting the monster. In the meantime, Wang Lingjiao attempts to brand Mianmian’s face with the Wen sect’s branding iron, but is saved by Wei Wuxian. The Wen sect makes their escape and cuts off all of the ropes and blocks the exit.

As the cultivators try to figure out an alternative plan, Wei Wuxian hurries to comfort Mianmian, who is feeling guilty for causing Wei Wuxian’s injury. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji astutely observes that there must be another entrance, due to the presence of maple leaves in the cave without any maple trees.]

Differences from the novel:

Honestly, not a whole lot! The drama pretty much depicts what happens in the novel.

[They distract the tortoise to give Jiang Cheng a chance to investigate the underwater exit, and everyone proceeds to escape - but Mianmian trips and the scent of her blood agitates the tortoise. Lan Wangji decides to stay back to help Wei Wuxian distract it, but his leg is bitten in the process. They run into a small tunnel to hide until the tortoise loses interest.]

Differences from the novel:

Mianmian doesn’t trip, but the tortoise does get agitated by the scent of blood. In the novel, Su She attempts to shoot an arrow at the tortoise as he retreats, but misses and strikes Wei Wuxian’s arm instead (BRAVO!). Wei Wuxian doesn’t think before pulling out the arrow, but then immediately realizes what he has done as the scent of his blood fills the air. Lan Wangji pushes him aside right as the tortoise lunges for him and ends up getting severely bitten in the leg.

The tortoise then attempts to swallow Lan Wangji whole. Wei Wuxian stops this by literally clutching on to its teeth and forcing its jaws apart. As Lan Wangji falls into the water, so does Wei Wuxian, and he immediately carries Lan Wangji to shore and into the tunnels - so he does get to piggyback Lan Wangji after all! Hilariously, their dialogue at this point goes:

Lan Wangji: You?! (somewhat surprised that Wei Wuxian was able to manage all of that while being injured)

Wei Wuxian: Of course it’s me - are you pleasantly surprised?! :))))

Lan Wangji: What is pleasant about this? Put me down!

[Wei Wuxian rips off the sect ribbon from Lan Wangji’s forehead and uses it to make a tourniquet for him. He then proceeds to strip (and also attempts to strip Lan Wangji) as a tactic to shock Lan Wangji into spitting out the stale blood within his body. Upon realizing what he was trying to do, Lan Wangji thanks him, and then proceeds to press some of the medicine into Wei Wuxian’s own chest wound from the iron and tells him off for being brash.

Wei Wuxian plays it cool and says it’s fine for a man to have some scars, especially if it was for protecting a girl - a girl who will likely remember him forever. Lan Wangji says that since he knows she’ll remember him, then he should not go around teasing people he’s not serious about. Wei Wuxian accuses him of liking...Mianmian (WRONG target dude) and Lan Wangji’s like ...why am I stuck here talking to you.

Wei Wuxian plans their exit strategy, but Lan Wangji says there won’t be anyone from his sect coming since the Cloud Recesses went up in flames. Wei Wuxian is stunned into silence and asks after his family. Lan Wangji reveals that Lan Qiren is heavily injured and Lan Xichen has gone missing. Wei Wuxian offers him his outer robe, but sees that he is already asleep, and secretly worries about Jiang Cheng and Yunmeng.]

Differences from the novel:

This scene in particular plays out in greater detail in the novel. In general, Lan Wangji talks/interacts a LOT more in this scene in the novel. In the drama, he’s visibly emotional, but still fairly reserved. In the novel, even Wei Wuxian notices that he is in an unusually foul mood, and way more easily provoked than usual - he eventually finds out why.

The PUSHING. After the stripping and the blood vomiting happens, Wei Wuxian uses the herbs in Mianmian’s medicinal sachet instead of what he obtained from Wen Ning for Lan Wangji’s wounds. They have the conversation around Wei Wuxian’s general flirtatious attitude like they do in the drama, but Lan Wangji gets really mad as he exclaims “So you know that you’ll remain on her mind forever!” and literally shoves Wei Wuxian, who falls onto the ground.

The BANTER. In the novel, it’s gotten to the point where he is straight up squabbling with Wei Wuxian. Just look at this exchange right before he bites Wei Wuxian.

LWJ: Don’t tease other people if you aren’t serious about their feelings. Your casual words and actions may mean nothing to you, but it riles up others!

WWX: It’s not like I’m teasing you, so why are you getting riled up? Unless…

LWJ: Unless what?

WWX: Unless you like Mianmian!

-pause-

LWJ *coldly*: Please stop spouting nonsense.

WWX: Fine, I’ll start spouting onesense instead. (It’s a pun on the Chinese idiom, 胡说八道, which LWJ just used.)

LWJ: Is this entertaining for you, this kind of wordplay?

WWX: Super entertaining. Also, not only am I quick with words, I’m quick with my abilities too.

LWJ: ...Why am I sitting here talking crap with you???

The BITING. Upon concluding the above dialogue, Lan Wangji straight up sinks his teeth into the crook of Wei Wuxian elbow and refuses to let go. Like a dog. In fact, Wei Wuxian scolds him for acting like a dog and runs to the other side of the cave HA. And then he follows this up...by thanking Wei Wuxian, who at this point is just straight out flabbergasted at what is going on.

The CRYING. I mentioned previously in Ch 12 - Lan Wangji’s father was still alive and the sect leader at this time, and Lan Wangji reveals that he is fighting to stay alive. At this point, Wei Wuxian freezes, because although he knew Qingheng-Jun was injured, he wasn’t aware that it was that serious, so this was new information, and he finally understands why Lan Wangji has been acting out this whole time. When he turns to look at Lan Wangji again, he sees tear streaks on his face - and instantly feels afraid and powerless. He internally narrates that with men like Lan Wangji, they would probably only ever cry a handful of times in their lifetime, yet he didn’t know how to comfort him given the situation. So he just calls Lan Wangji’s name, but Lan Wangji tells him to shut up - and then adds, “Wei Ying, you really are an annoying person.” Ouch. Wei Wuxian feels infinitely worse that Lan Wangji has to deal with his presence on top of all this grief, and so only stays far away from him after offering him his undergarments to keep warm.(1)

Overall thoughts:

(1) This is his set of inner robes, the layer that goes against his skin. He thought about giving Lan Wangji his outer robes, but decided against it because it was filthy and he knew the Lan sect emphasized cleanliness. But also, nobody is missing the subtext here...

All in all, this is the definitive scene that we can all point to as the time when Lan Wangji.exe stopped functioning. I was re-reading the Xuanwu arc for the purpose of recapping Episode 13 and this realization hit me that like, holy shit, if I were to put my bets on when Lan Wangji started having/realizing his feelings for Wei Wuxian, this would be it.

Specifically, this is when Lan Wangji loses control. We all know how important control is to Lan Wangji - it’s part of the asceticism and self-governance expected of him as a Lan sect disciple, and he embodies this even more so than anyone else. Never a hair out of place, never a word that comes out of his mouth that hasn’t already been thought through. To allow himself to be provoked to this extent, to let someone see him so completely vulnerable - I know he was in a fragile state, but I don’t think he would have displayed this side of him to just anyone. After all, he gritted his teeth through the entire time he was at the Wen sect. So, I don’t know, Lan Zhan, why are you sitting around bullshitting with Wei Ying? Hmmmm?

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sunshine304 · 4 years ago

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I’m sorry, it’s been a bit slow going because of ~Reasons but I’ve at least managed eps 13 + 14!

Awww Li Sheng has “read some books”. Good for you! XD But seriously, what else was there to do at 48 Strongholds except sword training and book reading? Anyway, the bad guy in Li Sheng’s current arc is smirk king Feng Wuyan (Wuyuan?), and it seems that Li Sheng is actually making some kind of progress.

Yin Pei is still jumping between shouting and crying, gets called “A-Pei” by Ji Yunchen. That’s... awfully familiar. Hmmm.

General Wen wants Xie Yun to come back (to court?) but XY is... conflicted I guess. So it’s backstory time! He’s actually Xiao Chuan (or Zhuang? the wikis are not clear here), born to the prince of the former dynasty (so his grandpa was the emperor?) and then there was rebellion or sth, everyone’s dead, but that nice eunuch rescued little infant XY. And then General Wen brought him back... someday because they wanted to get that family back as emperor I guess, then there was a hostage exchange with the neighbour like, “please let’s not fight again yeah?” and then there was another rebellion, and now there’s the new dynasty where Chen Zichen is now a prince. I guess. Well I guess I’m close enough in recapping this.

Yet again, I love Chuchu! Everyone’s just sending her from one place to the next like, “Deal with it”, and now she puts her foot down! “I only trust A-Fei, I’m not an object, so please don’t pass me around like one.” ♥

OMG Xie Yun whining at A-Fei’s door and begging! XD Also, then he’s sad because Zhou Fei is.. well, not exactly winning at empathy. XD

Great how Zheng Luosheng (the Azure Dragon Master, and really, those 4 Mountain Masters have really cool names) is like “Nah we’ll not fight” at first and then sees two hot young women and is like, “Hm changed my mind, let’s fight, I want them.” Wow. *eyeroll*

XY: “Yay I’m eloping with a pretty girl!” ZF: “Is it forbidden to hit the emperor?” (asking for a friend) XD

Oookay there is slowly some backstory emerging for Yin Pei. Thank you but I feel it would have more impact if we’d known him before. He’s crying all the time so it’s all very sad, I’m sure. He’s the descendant of Yin Wenlan, who is another cool awesome super swordmaster!

WTF Zheng Luosheng has... a mouse?! Seriously? (And thanks again for telling us that this obvious CGI mouse isn’t real.) Also, I guess the inn owner (who was also some important master) sacrifices himself? Seems like it anyway.

I love how XY simply always knows everything about anyone and anything! XD King of exposition and then acting innocent as if he never said anything at all. XD

Also, Yin Pei is super annoyed by all the flirting. XD I’m not sure if I should like him or be irritated by him. We’ll see. But I think he is one of the main cast so he will be there for quite a while.

What I noticed at times: You can see the actors breath in some of the outdoor scenes. I looked it up and they shot from Sept 2019 till April 2020 with a break in there. Well, seems that it was at times really cold.

Ep 14 brings us backstory on Yin Pei and Ji Yunchen (finally!). So Ji Yunchen was an arrogant youth (as ... almost everyone seems to be in this show if they aren’t cute) whose master Guan Feng (the Blade of the North - to Li Zheng’s Blade of the South) had warned him to cross the border to the south but JYC went anyway. He also challenged pretty much anyone he met and killed them because he was just that awesome and skilled and arrogant. He hears some people gossip about how awesomely awesome Yin Wenlan is and goes to challenge him. As you do.

Interlude for A-Fei feeling insecure and inferior because all the great masters she knows (her mother, 9th Madam Duan, Ji Yunchen) did cool shit when they were her age and what does she do? Yeah right nothing, she thinks. XY notices immediately that A-Fei is sad. ♥

Anyway back to tragic backstory. It seems Yin Wenlan fought Guan Feng back in the day and bested him which Ji Yunchen can’t let slide; he wants revenge for his master’s humiliation. So he kidnaps YWL’s son (as you fucking do) who just so happens to be Yin Pei. YWL shows up, they fight, he bests JYC even though he was already heavily injured from a fight with Disha shortly before, and then someone tells him that his whole clan just got attacked. I have to wonder about this timing, seriously. And I assume this was not a coincidence. XY definitely implies that there’s sth fishy about it. When Ji Yunchen brings Yin Pei back to his family the whole clan is indeed slaughtered including YWL. Very sad. :( So JYC becomes Yin Pei’s foster father and feels very bad about it all. Then Yin Pei finds out about the circumstances (how?) and joins Azure Dragon Master.

XY says some good and kind stuff, but JYC wants to keep wallowing and YP is a bitch. Ah well. There’s some flirting with A-Fei until she notices that she has been nice to XY for about 10 minutes and steps on his foot. “I get mad just looking at you.”

Uhuh.

I just love how Zhou Fei is always, always in “Fight me!” mode. XD

Azure Dragon Master with those loud gongs. This is not actually a stealthy way to stalk someone. XD

Excuuuuuse me, the “fragrance smelling mouse”?!?! What is this shit?! And thank you, A-Fei, for voicing my thoughts. He could’ve mentioned that!

XY does what he does best: Talk. XD And you can never know for sure if he’s serious or not. But I think the stuff with the sword is true and he just backtracks later on. Also he’s like, “Yep I’m royalty” but never wants to elaborate and ppl just accept it. XD

Anyway, for anyone who wants to ship it (I don’t see it so far but who knows):

Ahhh and there’s the bit with XY going, “Why is A-Fei covering for us! Does she want to kill off my future offspring?!” XD In his imagination they’ve been married for a while, have a house, he cooks for her and combs her hair and dotes on his beautiful heroine of a wife feeding her grapes or something. XD

At least A-Fei now notices that there’s something going on between them, too. Well, kinda. “I trust him. Is it because of his good-looking face?” Hmmm IDK A-Fei, is it? XD

So okay Yin Pei seems to have his own agenda and they’re confronting him about it. In the cool cave that is definitely totally trustworthy and not dangerous at all I guess. XD

#legend of fei #sabrina watches legend of fei #my posts

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a-very-fond-farewell · 5 years ago

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The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 10/?

Single Dad AU (not the one you expect): “Water my Bones”

[Pushing Daisies meets florist!au]

First it was the beekeeper suit. Then the astronaut one. THEN the Darth Vader costume. Every time a different attire. Lan Zhan is starting to think he better be changing grocery shop soon if he wants to fill his cart in peace without stumbling upon that weirdo during his weekly visit at the store.

Things he knows about said man: 1) he is competitive af, 2) he seems around his age, thirty five at most, 3) he has a flower shop in town, 4) he has a son.

The last thing, he knows because the child is always perched on the man’s cart when they shop. The third thing, he knows because his brother Lan Huan is the owner of the building where said man works. The second, he noticed once in passing, as they both waited in line to pay at the express line. And the first, he got to realize since day fucking one, when they entered the shop together and noticed they were following a similar path and unconsciously started rushing their way through their respective lists as fast as possible to win over the other.

It’s been four weeks already and Lan Zhan regrets moving to that part of town big time. The day he discovers something new, however, is when the florist decides to wear a simple black mask over the lower half of his face instead a full on costume. So even the usual lady clients cannot flirt with him asking if it’s yet another laundry day. The lot of them surprised to see him dressed normally for once. If wearing a black mask, black latex gloves and a black turtleneck in August can even be considered normal to begin with. The fact that he also looks unbelievably hot dressed in such a manner goes without saying. Not that Lan Zhan’s looking, of course.

Yet, it’s one thing to dress to impress and another to be affectionate towards your own child without taking your mask and gloves off not even to kiss him on the cheek or to check if one of his baby teeth is really falling off or not. So, when one of the ladies jokes about it, nobody expects the child to plainly say what Lan Zhan ends up hearing that day.

“If Dad touches my skin I’m going to die.”

The fact that said dad also conveniently runs away and forgets to take most of their bagged groceries with him right afterwards is also telling. But for the life of his Lan Zhan doesn’t know what such a dramatic exit can possibly mean.

[under the cut for details]

initially I thought to let Mo XuanYu be the baby, but then I kept A-Yuan/SiZhui. Also he is not Wei Ying’s actual son, but more on that later. ALSO he’s a savage child with snark for ages and channels every ounce of his adoptive father’s mischievous spirit.

Just like in “Pushing Daisies”, Wei Ying can revive the dead for a minute or two just by touching them [from Wikipedia: “If something is revived for more than one minute, a similar "life value" in the vicinity drops dead as a form of balance. If he touches the revived person or thing a second time, they die permanently.”]

But in this AU, ever since he was young, Wei Ying has revived a bunch of people, in the beginning without worrying too much of the consequences, not knowing someone of the same value (someone close to the revived dead person) must die if not given back to the realm of death after those two minutes.

His family used to take care of the needs of mourning families by running a funeral home. As a child he would simply touch the dead and go his merry way, happy to make others happy. But the dead would always run away, fearing their families would never take them back or not believe them to have been actually revived. Unaware of this, with bodies disappearing left and right, Wei Ying’s parents are accused of smuggling organs and corpses and are taken to prison before being put in house arrest for the rest of their sentence.

(In the meantime Wei Ying has been looked after by a new family, but after coming of age he decided to wait until the end of his parents’ sentence and buy them a house where they could live together again. In fact, he lives with them and his son) -> a perfectly rational choice bc I wanted to give them a chance to look after each other, okay? Also because a family trying to keep a common secret is fun and fresh and the exact opposite of the movie “Keeping Mum”, which is highly recommend btw.

He never experimented with the double-touch until (at fifteen) accidentally reviving a corpse of a dog, getting scared of it, and consequently smacking its tail in a (hilarious) fit of frustration bc “oh damn it... not again/go back to sleep I cannot deal with you/dogs are scary” and so on. The poor guy plopped down as if nothing had happened afterwards.

After that he learned his lesson and knew he could never touch a revived person again. Also dogs, especially dogs. They bite >:(

The first time Wei Ying actually understood something was wrong was when he was 21 and revived his stepsister YanLi, but her mother died as a consequence. He has brought his stepbrother Jiang Cheng back to life, but his own father was taken in his place. Before that time he had never considered the damage he had caused, because the consequences never involved his close ones but mere strangers up until then. So he vowed to never use his powers again afterwards.

The only exception being A-Yuan/SiZhui: the child was found in a dumpster, abandoned at three months old. Wei Ying revived him and didn’t want to wonder who might have died in the baby’s place... nor did he care. So he asked his parents to help. They’ve been raising the child together for five years, but Wei Ying has never directly touched him, always wearing gloves and masks around him.

He has also never hugged his step-siblings either since reviving them from their car accident from fourteen years back, but neither YanLi or Jiang Cheng knows the reason why. The only thing they know is that at the time, right after seeing them waking up from their “coma” and attending their parents’ funeral, Wei Ying has distanced himself from them, never to return.

(Insert shenanigans with Wei Ying trying his best not to run into his siblings, before they actually discover the truth along the way and bundle him up in quilts and coats just to be able to hug the hell out of him)

Lan Zhan is a detective and thanks to Wei Ying’s powers they solve crimes together. THEY REVIVE THE DEAD FOR TWO MINUTES and ask them what they remember before dying (which is basically the whole point of “Inquiry”, right?) and then Wei Ying touches them back and they drop dead for good.

Wei Ying knows his limits now and doesn’t play with empathy (got it? got it??)

Jin Ling has BOTH of his parents (can you imagine??) and he’s best friend with Lan Zhan and Lan Huan’s younge cousin, JingYi. And they SNOOP like nobody’s business bc they know there’s something fishy about “Uncle Wei”. But also they love to play with the other baby even if they pretend to be tough. They’re also friends with Wen Ning, who will teache them archery for their after-school activities as soon as they start elementary school and they are thrilled.

Wen Ning was actually one of the few corpses Wei Ying has revived in childhood that made it back home and was believed by others. (Wen Ning was still a child himself when he died, so he went straight back home and nobody questioned it, too happy to care......... which is basically canon)

His sister Wen Qing is the only friend Wei Ying has that knows about his secret and she’s the one suggesting Lan Zhan to..........wait a minute or two before leaving the morgue where she works at.

“You might never know what the dead could be able to say after you switch off the lights. You get me?”

He doesn’t get it. Not at first.

But! He grows interested in Wei Ying and the fact that he cannot touch his own child. Is it an allergy? Is it an illness? Lan Zhan has questions and he needs to find out the truth by himself.

Wei Ying’s child needs to be properly held by a parent at least once in his life tho... and Lan Zhan is made by very fine, very expensive husband material.

(I wanted him to meet Wei Ying’s parents. Sue me.)

Also I thought Wei Ying would like to make things grow (hence the florist!au you never asked for) bc he might feel guilty about the things he has done + his trust issues about getting attached to someone and then seeing them die AND THEN HAVING TO ACTUALLY LET THEM GO FOR REAL.

I’m sad now.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql #wangxian #the untamed #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #mdzs/au: single dad #mdzs/au: florist #mdzs/au: pushing daisies

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shijiujun · 5 years ago

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[ENG] History3: Trapped Novel - Chapter Seven (Finally!!)

~6,800 words (translated by @weilongfu proofread by @stebeee)

Translation Masterpost can be found here

Disclaimer: Translations are entirely mine and Wei’s - these are not official translations and some phrases have been changed for better English interpretation so you’ll definitely see better/different translations elsewhere. Also keeping in mind when we translated this we aren’t exactly thinking about the style of writing and this translation is as close to the novel as we can make it XD So yes, some parts may be a little awkward to read. And yes some teeny weeny details and words may not turn up in the translation because the Chi to Eng mind acrobatics didn’t work out. If you see asterisks, scroll all the way to the bottom for notes!

***Note: Also I just wanted to explain why Chapter 7 took so long - When I first started this project, Wei offered to help me out even though he’s not fluent in Chinese, and he’s been working so hard at learning AS HE TRANSLATES and that’s mindblowing! So it took a while longer than usual, but it’s amazing that Wei managed to translate a full chapter by himself knowing minimal Chinese, and that’s why I don’t mind waiting for the chapters to be completed. I can safely say after learning a gazillion languages over the years that I CANNOT translate any other language just like that. So you guys have Chapter Seven today because of him!!! And that being said, we’ll try to get the chapters up faster next time! Thanks for waiting guys!!!***

Full chapter below the cut

Meng Shao Fei’s house

Just stepping into the house via the entrance, Tang Yi could already see the side of the wall filled with relevant information on Xing Tian Meng’s boss and related individuals, and also a personally hand-drawn wanted poster, with the height clearly marked.

“Tang Yi, 28 years old, height 182 cm, but… am I that ugly?”

He points at the hand-drawn wanted poster and laughs.

“Yes!”

Shao Fei, who stepped into his house just a moment too late, rushes over quickly as he tries to block the picture and all the information about Tang Yi with his body.

“What are you so nervous for? But…”

Tang Yi deliberately leans in close to the panicking man trying to hide the board and whispers in his ear, “You really do know me.”

All the basic details of height, weight, his dominant right hand, frequently visited places, people he was in contact with, even details he never noticed before were on Shao Fei’s board.

“Don’t change the subject, what did you just say downstairs? Say it again.”

Unafraid of the imposing eyes of the other, Shao Fei looks at the man who just kissed him in the hospital earlier.

Tang Yi takes off his suit jacket and drapes it over his wrist, repeating the words he said earlier, “I said that I’m not sure of your feelings, but we can try.”

“Hey, just now at the hospital everyone found out, and now you come and say you’re not sure? Are you trying to mess with my feelings?”

“It’s because I don’t want to mess with you that I want to make it clear.”

He puts his warm palm gently to Shao Fei’s face, saying seriously, “After all, I’ve never had anyone like you, someone that I care so much about.”

Tang Yi thought he had insulated his life from feelings, that it was impossible to find his rib like Boss Tang had said, but still this person was now put into the most important place in his heart.

He cares, and he is interested in Shao Fei.

“Sure enough, the person who falls in love with the other first loses the most. Forget it. Anyway, the fact that I like you is my business, whether you can like me or not is up to you.”

Shao Fei waves him off in a dismissive gesture and tips his chin up to look at Tang Yi confidently. “But I am really handsome, it’ll be difficult for you to not fall in love with me.”

“Oh really?” Tang Yi smiles, opening his arms after taking a step back and says, “How about, I’ll give you a chance to seduce me.”

“Don’t, don’t think that I won’t dare to do it, I’m afraid you can’t stand it,” Shao Fei retorts, puffing his chest out and showing no signs of weakness.

He didn’t expect the topic to suddenly turn so suggestive and sensual.

“Oh? Come try.”

“Try me, who’s afraid, huh? Anyway, we’re both men so why do we need to talk so much? Let’s just do it.”

“You’re right, then I... ...”

As he speaks, Tang Yi unexpectedly moves forward and puts his arm around Shao Fei’s waist, turning them around and pressing Shao Fei against the wall. He removes Shao Fei’s jacket and unbuttons his own shirt, revealing strong chest muscles.

“Nervous?”

Shao Fei lifts his chin and stutters, “No, no, I’m actually enjoying this, continue, continue!”

He did not know how red his cheeks are and soon, his ears would be too.

Tang Yi’s slender fingers are pressed to Shao Fei’s chest. As he slowly unbuttons Shao Fei’s shirt, one button at a time, he smiles, enjoying the way Shao Fei’s breathing quickens up because of what he’s doing.

"One button left.”

He speaks with a tone filled with want and lust, the words gently drifting into Shao Fei’s ear.

As he just said, although he is not sure what he feels about Shao Fei, there is one thing he is very sure about, and that is, he longs for this person -- he wants Shao Fei.

Tang Yi puts his dry lips to Shao Fei’s already red ears and bites down on the soft earlobes.

“Hurts!”

Before Shao Fei can even protest at that, the bitten area is licked by a moist tongue tip as Tang Yi licks the bitten area and Shao Fei’s wrinkled brow becomes wrinkled for another reason.

"Tang… Tang Yi…”

"Hm?”

The man focused on the ear responds lazily. He then slides down, sniffing at Shao Fei and smelling the faint disinfectant from the hospital. Tang Yi then kisses Shao Fei’s neck.

“Ha… Haaa… Ha…”

The temperature rises.

Tang Yi stares intently at Shao Fei's strong chest muscles and touches with his palms. The two people standing so close to each other and listening to each other's accelerating heartbeat fall into the rhythm of exploring lust.

Suddenly, all the movements stop instantly.

“....”

Tang Yi crouches low to the ground, looking at the wound covered heavily with gauze, and his heart hurts so much that his brows furrow.

Shao Fei also notices the man's gaze, intent on his left abdomen. He says reassuringly, “Don't worry, it doesn't look so serious, it’s the shady doctor. He really went overboard with the dressing.”

“...”

Tang Yi kneels on the ground, then suddenly removes the gauze to reveal the scar left from blocking the bullet for Zuo Hong Ye. First, he touches it carefully with his fingertips, then kisses the wound that almost caused him to lose this person in front of him.

“What are you doing? Hey…”

The still healing wound will ache even if it is touched gently, but because it is Tang Yi’s lips that are on his skin now, so aside from the faint tingle of pain, Shao Fei is also filled with an indescribable sensation.

“This can’t happen a second time, I’ll go crazy.”

The words Tang Yi said on the hospital roof earlier, once again reaches Shao Fei’s ears.

"I... I’m going to the bathroom.”

The burning gaze rakes over Shao Fei’s hot body. Just now, Shao Fei arrogantly asked who was afraid, but now in panic, it is Shao Fei who pushes Tang Yi aside, entering the bathroom, and locking the door after him.

“Fuck! That guy can fucking flirt.”

Gasping as he pulls down his jeans, Shao Fei lowers his head and looks at the already quite stiff lower part of his body, then slaps his forehead. Red-faced, he says, “Meng Shao Fei, you are still too inexperienced.”

Pushed backwards and sitting down on the floor, Tang Yi sits stunned for a few seconds in confusion before returning to himself. He braces himself on his knee and stands up slowly. Chuckling, he looks at the door his host has locked and licks the dry corners of his rough lips.

…

“You can cook?”

“Boss Tang taught me.”

Tang Yi gives Shao Fei the chopsticks he was holding. The two sit at opposite sides of the dining table and dig into the freshly made home-cooked food.

“You should return to Investigation Team Three. It’s safer than being here with me.”

Shao Fei stops and puts down his chopsticks, wondering why Tang Yi would say this suddenly. “Why?”

“The enemy’s target is me.”

Tang Yi opens a can of cola and pours it into their glasses. If he had to say which parts of his life changed the most after getting to know Shao Fei better, then aside from his feelings towards the man, Tang Yi would say that his eating habits have changed the most.

“So do you know who did it?”

The man sitting opposite Tang Yi picks up his cup of cola and drinks a few mouthfuls as he asks.

“You don’t need to deal with this, I will handle it.”

“Shooting at a police officer is a serious crime. How can I possibly ignore that and let you handle this secretly?”

“...”

Tang Yi continues to eat the food in his bowl, and does not answer him.

“Tang Yi, tell me, are there any other issues between you and Chen Wen Hao?”

No matter how much he thinks about it, he just can’t comprehend it. The reforming of Tang Yi’s businesses has been ongoing for years. Why would he suddenly want to turn around and cut off the Cambodian drug lord’s drug routes?

For money?

If it was for money, then continuing to traffick drugs would be the most profitable route.

To contend for territory?

Cambodia and Taiwan are two separate territories. Even if Xing Tian Meng really took over Chen Wen Hao’s Cambodian territory, who would be given that territory to manage and take charge of is another question.

If it isn’t for these two reasons, then there is only one explanation.

Chen Wen Hao and what happened four years ago are connected!

“Promise me that you won’t have anything to do with this anymore and I’ll tell you, otherwise don’t ask questions.”

Shao Fei is dumbfounded as he looks at Tang Yi’s expression, which is telling him that this matter is non-negotiable. He sighs.

“What really happened four years ago for you to have to hide it like this?”

Tang Yi puts down his bowl and chopsticks, and looks at the young police officer who is already aware of all the clues. Unlike before when all he felt was irritation and anger when Shao Fei hounded him with questions, he now responds slowly, his voice soft.

“Have you ever been alone, without anyone in the world to care about you?”

“...”

Shao Fei calmly looks at the man sitting opposite him, waiting since Tang Yi has not finished speaking.

“My childhood passed like this. Nobody loved me. Nobody cared about me. I was like an invisible person who couldn’t be seen. Even if I passed in front of my adoptive father, I couldn’t get any response from him. Until I met Boss Tang.”

“Boss Tang made me realise that someone loved me, but on that day, four years ago, he fell in front of me, fell in a pool of his own blood…”

Tang Yi’s voice is so calm that it’s as if he’s talking about something that happened to someone else. Bit by bit, his voice begins to rise, filling with murderous intent.

“If someone ruined the things that someone else finally attained after so much difficulty, Shao Fei, you tell me, does that person deserve to die?”

Tang Yi says that very last sentence through gritted teeth.

Shao Fei takes a deep breath and after a moment of silence, holds Tang Yi’s tightly held fist on the table and asks, “So these four years, you were unwilling to reveal any clues about the murder case, all because you want to take revenge yourself?”

“That’s all I can say about this. Everything else, I have no comments..”

“But Tang Yi, the best revenge isn’t punishing him illegally, but to bring the murderer to justice.”

“No!”

Tang Yi removes Shao Fei’s hold, pushes back his chair, and suddenly stands up.

“I will not give him to anyone.”

A silence hangs in the air between them.

With reddened eyes, Shao Fei stands up and looks straight at the young Xing Tian Meng leader determined on revenge.

“But, Tang Yi… If you persist in doing this yourself, as a police officer, I can only act according to the law.”

“You do what you have to do. And I will do what I should do,” Tang Yi says, taking his bowl and chopsticks from the table and heads towards the kitchen counter with his back faced to Shao Fei.

Zhao Zi’s House

“You didn’t have to escort me home.”

“How will I have an excuse to come in if I don’t escort you home?”

Jack enters the house behind Zhao Zi, carrying a bag and together they walk through the house door.

“If you want to come over, just tell me directly. Anyway, Ah Fei and the rest often come here to stay.”

Without thinking of the meaning of Jack’s words, Zhao Zi continues the conversation.

He then takes the bag from Jack’s hand and picks out the dirty clothes from inside, moving to stand before the washing machine and dumping all the garments in.

“Lousy Ah Fei, he actually gave me his dirty clothes to wash,” mumbles Zhao Zi.

Jack smiles a little as he watches Zhao Zi grumble as he works and then asks, “Since you don’t want to do it, why didn’t you refuse?”

“But he’s injured! What do we do if he pulls open his wound? Who asked me to be his good brother, so I suppose I just have to help him wash his clothes!”

“Don’t you think you’re very contradictory?”

“Contradictory? How so?”

“Your mind.”

Zhao Zi turns and glares at Jack, while Jack continues to smile and shrugs his shoulders. He asks, “Shorty, what do you think about the relationship between my boss and your bro?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean they are both men, but they have fallen in love with someone of the same gender, so…”

“Are you looking down on my bro?”

Once Zhao Zi hears these words, he stops loading the washing machine and looks at Jack the way he would look at an enemy. If Jack dares to show even the slightest bit of dislike or disgust, then Zhao Zi will kick him out immediately.

“No matter who Ah Fei likes, I will stand by his side and support him. If you look down on him, then you aren’t my friend.”

Not expecting that the ordinarily gentle rabbit also has times when he will display such a fit of rage, Jack suddenly reaches out and grips at Zhao Zi’s wrists, holding them over his head against the wall next to the bathroom.

After sticking Zhao Zi’s entire body against the wall, Jack looks at the small police officer who has been constantly making him experience new emotions since the day they met with heated eyes.

“I’m hungry. Can I eat?”

“Huh?”

Unable to comprehend what is going on, Zhao Zi stares at Jack with wide eyes, absolutely dumbfounded.

“If y-you are hungry, there’s instant noodles in the kitchen, you can eat…”

“But what I want to eat is you.”

This time, even someone as slow as Zhao Zi finally understands what he means.

“Y-you, what do you want to do?”

With a roguish smile, Jack shamelessly says, “Didn’t you say you support Meng Shao Fei liking men? Since you support him, you should also support me. Who asked you to attract me to you like this? So. You. Have. To. Take. Responsibility!”

“I do support him, but I never said I would support myself!”

Zhao Zi pushes at the man who has trapped him between the wall and his chest muscles, and runs away from the lustful gaze eyeing his ass.

“Damn!”

Jack pulls the corners of his mouth into a bitter smile, then chases after the fleeing shorty with quick steps.

A few minutes later, Jack successfully catches Zhao Zi, throwing him over his shoulder and carrying him back to the bedroom. After finally catching his prey, Jack throws Zhao Zi down onto the bed and presses his own body over Zhao Zi’s. He does not stop kissing Zhao Zi until he gasps for air and only when Zhao Zi has no more strength to resist does Jack carry the weak-kneed host back downstairs. Jack cooks him a sumptuous dinner, and after, he will continue to “feed” his shorty.

High-class restaurant

“Mr. Zhao, as expected, you are young and full of promise. No wonder Ah Yi praises you.”

Zuo Hong Ye lifts her wine glass and smiles as she looks at the thirty-one year old boss of Peng Cheng Construction, Zhao Ren Guang.

At the other table, Gu Dao Yi takes a sip of coffee as he pays attention to the ongoing situation.

“You don’t need to worry about him. Uncle Dao Yi is only here with me as my bodyguard, nothing more.”

Ren Guang nods his head and says, “Actually, I arranged this dinner with CEO Zuo not only to talk about business, but also to get to know you better.”

“Is that so?”

Hong Ye bright red lips curve up as she smiles.

“As a matter of fact, I admire how resolute and decisive CEO Zuo is in business. Prior to this, I ran into Mr. Tang opportunely at a cocktail party and shamelessly talked to him. I told him that if given the opportunity, I would love to have a meal with you.”

“It sounds like you really like me. But, most men, once they hear about my background, they tend to stay away. Zhao Ren Guang, aren’t you afraid?”

Hearing Hong Ye directly say his name, Ren Guang resolves to immediately explain his feelings and confess to Hong Ye.

“Hong Ye, I like you. I hope to date you under the premise of marriage.”

This confession not only caused the person being confessed to some surprise, and even Dao Yi immediately raises his head at the next table to look at Hong Ye.

Hong Ye lifts the wine glass in her hand, taps it against Ren Guang’s, and boldly answers, “Good! I like straightforward men, I agree with you, let’s date with the intent of marriage.”

Later, after the dinner and on her way back to the company, Hong Ye sits in the back of the car, looking out the window at the scenery with an expressionless face.

“Miss, don’t be impulsive in your decision.” Dao Yi looks at Hong Ye through the rear view mirror and finally breaks his silence to speak.

“I’m just making the best choice for Shi Hai Corporation. Besides, Zhao Ren Guang is also about the same age as me, and he’s so successful. Most importantly, he likes me.”

“But… You don’t love him…”

“What about it? Rather than being so thick-skinned and shameless, pestering a man that will not fall in love with me, I’d rather take it easy, and choose someone who actually likes me. So give me your blessing, Uncle Dao Yi.”

“...”

From the beginning to the end, Hong Ye’s gaze does not turn to Dao Yi.

Dao Yi’s state of mind is complicated. As he looks at the road ahead, he does not know what he should say.

…

Team 3’s office, busy as always.

“I’m going out for a bit.”

Zhou Guan Zhi picks up something wrapped in a brown paper bag and moves around his other coworkers who are currently busy discussing other matters. Two of them reply after with, “Be safe!” before continuing from where they left their conversation.

Under the complete cover and protection of his safety helmet, Ah Zhi rides his motorcycle through the streets and small alleys. As if he is looking for something, he frequently looks around, seemingly looking at every possible surveillance camera’s location as if afraid the cameras would capture his whereabouts, until he is sure there is no one following him. Guan Zhi parks his bike in a parking spot next to a multi-storied building. He removes his helmet, gets up, and tugs on his t-shirt and hat, then enters the building.

Inside the building, in front of a row of storage lockers and after making sure no one has followed him, he then puts the brown paper bag inside a locker and puts in two 10 yuan coins to lock it. Guan Zhi takes the key and puts it into an envelope he prepared beforehand and walks away.

A few hours later, a male with a large build comes to the locked locker and inserts the key from inside an envelope into the keyhole. He takes out a brown paper bag from inside the locker and hides it inside his jacket, then turns to leave.

“Hn.”

A red-haired man comes out from the corner he was hiding in and sends the photo he took of the transaction to a certain someone.

Tang Residence

“Happy birthday,” Shao Fei says to Tang Yi the birthday star who is looking over old memories, while carrying in cake as he enters the study.

Singing off key but very seriously, Shao Fei sings the happy birthday song once in Chinese and once again in English. Then he lights the cake’s six candles and puts it on the table.

Shao Fei picks up his cellphone and continues to read the horoscope description of the person born on this day from the internet, then ridicules.

“Don’t be so touched. No matter what, I did chase you for four years, of course I know today is your birthday. October 21st, Libra. The person born on this day, regardless of personality or opinion, is different from ordinary people, and especially when it comes to your personal affairs, your attitude becomes even more stubborn and difficult to deal with. How true! Accurate!”

“...”

Tang Yi looks at the person in front of him. His eyes tear up.

When Shao Fei entered the room earlier, he didn’t really notice, but Tang Yi has a box placed right in front of him, and inside there’s a birthday hat, cookbook, model airplane, and also a distinctly modeled music box.

Shao Fei points at the music box inside the box and says, “Li Zhen Jie also has a similar music box, what a coincidence!”

“Is it? This is the only thing my mother gave me.”

“...”

Cursing himself in his head for being so insensitive, Shao Fei hastily changes the topic, grabbing two birthday hats. Shao Fei puts one on his head and the other he gives to Tang Yi.

“Come on, put it on, put it on!”

Tang Yi looks at the child sized birthday hat in his hand and says with a bitter laugh, “I wore this when I was little.”

“Wear it and let me see! Just once every year, that’s all!”

Ordinarily, the serious Tang Yi would resist, but at his lover’s request, Tang Yi obliges and places the childish hat on his head. Then he turns to the cake candles, closes his eyes, and makes a wish.

“Tang Yi.”

“Hm?”

“Can I have a wish?”

“Sure.”

Tang Yi opens his eyes to look at the man who suddenly put forth this request. After clasping his hands together, Shao Fei looks at the jumping candle flames and says, “I hope from now on I will be by your side for every birthday. With me around, you’ll never be alone again.”

Then he bends his waist and blows out the candles.

“Meng Shao Fei…”

With red-rimmed eyes, Tang Yi softly calls out Shao Fei’s name.

“What do you want-… hm… hng…”

In this room lit only by a single lamp, Tang Yi’s hands reach for Shao Fei’s waist as he breathes in and then passionately kisses Shao Fei.

“Today… You don’t… Haaa… You, this way… I will…”

“Will what?”

Letting go of his red and swollen lips, Tang Yi looks into Shao Fei’s eyes and ask, even though he already knows the answer.

“I’ll get hard! Idiot!”

He is a normal man, so faced with so much passion from the person he likes, how could there be no physiological reaction? Tang Yi breathes in deeply, then says, “Did Jiang Jin Tang say when you could remove your stitches?”

If it wasn’t because Tang Yi was worried about Shao Fei’s still recovering wound, the two of them would have already taken the next step in their relationship.

“Next month.”

“After your stitches are removed, don’t think about running away again,” Tang Yi says, the sentence phrased almost as a demand, as he tries to repress his lustful gaze on the other man’s face, flushed red due to the increase in body temperature between them.

“Nnn.”

Shao Fei nods and the corners of his mouth curve upwards. Then, he takes the initiative and kisses the birthday boy.

“...”

Standing downstairs is Li Zhi De. He sees the reflection of two shadows on the window curtain, hatefully tightening his fist.

… (WARNING, Attempted sexual assault ahead) ...

Li Zhi De sits in the driver’s seat, constantly watching Tang Yi’s movements through the rearview mirror. Several times, he narrowly escapes being caught by Tang Yi, his gaze moving aside anxiously.

Tang Yi, who’s been busy with work all morning, finally puts down the tablet in his hands and takes a bottle of mineral water from inside the backseat chest. Ah De grips the steering wheel with both hands tightly.

The traffic light changes in his distraction, and it is only when the cars behind them start to impatiently honk that Ah De’s tears his eyes away from the rearview mirror, stepping on the accelerator and continuing the drive.

Tang Yi puts down the water bottle, his eyes narrowing as he looks at Ah De’s back.

After picking up his cell phone and sending a text, he suddenly says, “I want to go to the office, I still have things to do. Turn around and head for the office.”

“Yes.”

A few minutes later, Ah De who has been looking at Tang Yi seated in the back through the rearview mirror, watches as his boss closes his eyes in sleep. With a dark look, Zhi De turns the car around, in a direction bringing them away from the office.

“Boss? Boss?”

Zhi De pulls the car to a stop at the side of a remote street. He goes over to the back seat and gets inside. He grabs Tang Yi’s arm and softly shakes it until he is certain Tang Yi is under the influence of the drugs he put in the mineral water.

Finally, he picks up the courage to caress at Tang Yi’s lips and pours out his intentions.

“I’ve been by your side for so many years… Finally… I can be this close to you, so close that there is no space between us.”

Ah De loves this man. Loves him so painfully. Loves him so bitterly.

On-call practically 24 hours, not only out of obligation as a bodyguard, but more importantly, because he is willing. In the beginning, Ah De and other young Xing Tian Meng members were all the same, reluctant to accept Tang Yi as their new leader. Why was this person so important to Boss Tang? However, the more time they spent together, the more he began to think that Tang Yi should be in this position -- because he is strong enough!

Hence, Ah De’s feelings for Tang Yi gradually went from simple admiration and loyalty as a brother to feelings he could not speak of. Yet, all he could do was to suppress and repress, locking up his true feelings in his heart.

“At first, I thought you only like women, but you also like men.”

Ah De tears away Tang Yi’s necktie and throws it outside the car. He pulls apart Tang Yi’s suit and starts unbuttoning the shirt. Suddenly, a cell phone ringtone plays from inside the suit pocket. Ah De takes out the cell phone and looks at the screen and sees it is a text from Jack. He moodily hangs up the call then leans on Tang Yi’s chest and kisses his neck over and over.

“But why is it Meng Shao Fei? Why isn’t it me? Why?” Ah De asks desperately, crying out and his gaze coloured with madness.

For this man, he has done so many things. He should be the right person for Tang Yi, to stand at Tang Yi’s side and not the damn police officer who never sacrificed as much as Ah De did, but was still so easily able to obtain all of Tang Yi’s affections.

“Why should it be you?”

Ah De freezes immediately at the cold, low tone. Stunned, he looks at the Xing Tian Meng leader who should, in theory be out cold for eight hours, but here he is, glaring at him with contempt.

“I love you so much, in what ways can I not compare with Meng Shao Fei?” Ah De shouts as his hands go to Tang Yi’s neck, tightening his grip.

He pounces on the lips he has yearned for day and night, but Tang Yi pulls his left leg back and strikes at Ah De’s crotch fiercely with his knee. The pain forces Ah De to loosen his grip on Tang Yi’s neck.

“Ah!”

“Li Zhi De! You’re crazy!”

“Yes! I am crazy! I’ve been crazy since the day I found out I was in love with you!”

Enduring the terrible pain from his crotch, Ah De throws himself on Tang Yi again. Although Tang Yi realized there was a problem with the mineral water earlier and was only pretending to be unconscious, he did drink a few sips anyway and before the drugs began to work, Tang Yi pulls on the rear left seatbelt, and winds it around Ah De’s neck, choking him until his face turns purple.

Only then does Tang Yi loosen his hold on the seatbelt and kicks the man who was almost choked to death out of the car.

Tang Yi’s phone lights up with Jack’s caller ID again. After all, Ah De has been at Tang Yi’s side the longest, so he is well aware that the red-haired man is definitely somewhere nearby. Quickly, he unwinds the seat belt from around his neck and flees.

Tang Residence

Eight hours later, Xing Tian Meng brothers escort Li Zhi De back to Tang Yi’s house with his face beaten and covered in fresh blood. He sits securely tied up in the same chair that the man who shot at Shao Fei and Hong Ye once sat at.

“You’re quite bold. Not only did you continue to sell drugs behind my back and send people to assassinate me, you even worked with outsiders to ambush the police.”

Ah De looks away and with trembling lips, says “I… I didn’t! I didn’t…”

Knock knock!

Knocks on the door come unexpectedly.

“Come in.”

The guard in charge of guarding the room on the outside opens the door and lets Jack into the room, in his hands another man. Jack smiles after a quick sweep of his eyes over Ah De and says, “Boss, this man works for He Hang. Not only did he help He Hang get the goods, he is also the person who brought men to attack Officer Meng and Hong Ye.”

“...”

Ah De looks at the person who was caught, and his heart grows cold. Indeed, this man works for He Hang and it is also through him that information on Xing Tian Meng’s key members, as well as both legal and illegal transaction details, were given to Chen Wen Hao through He Hang.

“Li Zhi De, it really was you leaking my whereabouts.”

Following the kidnapping the other day in the mountains, Tang Yi began to suspect that someone close to him was a traitor. So he gave Jack the task to investigate, but he didn’t expect the person closest to him to be the traitor.

“No! I wouldn’t have let He Hang attack you! Don’t you know I love you? Everything I did was for you, was for Xing Tian Meng!”

“Enough!”

Tang Yi angrily interrupts the self-centered explanation. He walks over to the front of the chair, pulling Ah De up by the collar and roaring, “I kept giving you chances, but the more mistakes you make, the more outrageous you get. Li Zhi De, in your eyes, do you still see me as your boss?”

“Boss…”

Ah De lifts his blood-caked face and painfully says, “I know that in order to fulfil Boss Tang’s last wishes, you have to slowly cut off drug distribution and supply. But do you know you have many brothers rely on this to make a living? I wanted to help you soothe the others, but was also worried you would face retaliation from the members. Have you ever considered how I feel?

“Yes, I wanted to kill Meng Shao Fei, but I never wanted to hurt you. I just can’t accept… Just can’t accept that I do so much silently but do not even have the slightest place in your heart.”

“...”

Shao Fei quietly stands in the open doorway, his feelings complicated as he stares at the person tied to the chair. Ah De also sees him observing him from the side, and uses all his strength to struggle and yell, “MENG! SHAO! FEI! Why is it you! If you disappeared, someday Boss would accept me! WOULD ACCEPT ME!”

Seeing Tang Yi attempting to hit Ah De again, Shao Fei immediately steps forward to stop him.

“Tang Yi, let’s hand them over to the police!”

He did not expect Tang Yi to furiously push him away and charge at Ah De, hurling punch after punch, each more vicious than the last, wiishing to kill the traitor who would dare to harm Hong Ye and Shao Fei.

“Tang Yi! Tang Yi!”

In haste, Shao Fei can only desperately hold on to Tang Yi, who is now fully blinded by anger, and drag him out of the room.

“Why did you stop me!”

Outside of the holding room, Tang Yi throws off Shao Fei’s hold and roars at the person he cares for the most.

“Because I’m a police officer, I cannot watch you torture him yourself!”

“This is Xing Tian Meng’s business! It has nothing to do with the police!”

“Sss….”

In the heat of their argument, Shao Fei suddenly bends over, his hand covering the left side of his belly. In the afternoon, because of the attack on Shao Fei, and because he just exerted himself to stop Tang Yi, the aggressive motions is pulling at his still-recovering wound.

Discovering Shao Fei’s condition, Tang Yi’s mind clears instantly.

“Are you okay? Did your wound open?”

He immediately kneels in front of Shao Fei and pulls his shirt up to examine him. Shao Fei inhales and presses the palms of his hands against Tang Yi’s face.

In a soothing tone, he says, “I’m fine. Promise me you’ll give those two men to me to deal with.”

“...”

Tang Yi lifts his head to look at the obvious victim who still persists in upholding the law and remains silent.

Shi Hai Corporations, Underground Parking Lot

Li Zhi De’s actions have allowed the conflict between people for and against Xing Tian Meng’s reforms to come to the surface. In order to protect Hong Ye’s and ensure her safety, Tang Yi makes the decision to let her leave Taiwan temporarily and go abroad.

Knowing that no matter how she argues, Hong Ye cannot change Ah Yi’s mind, and so she agrees to leave Taiwan and proceeds to take up Zhao Ren Guang’s invitation to go to Helsinki with him.

“Just get one ticket to Helinski. I can go over by myself.”

Hong Ye walks out of the elevator, heading for the spot where she parked her car.

“Miss, but I promised Boss Tang that I would be just like your father, and accompany and take care of Miss.”

Dao Yi stopped in his footsteps, startled, staring as he then took a few more steps, then stopped again, turning around to look at Hong Ye.

“I’m not a little girl anymore, so I will go alone. You stay here and help Ah Yi with other things.”

Always a mature man whose emotions never show on his face, Dao Yi agitatedly walks to where Hong Ye stands and firmly says, “I won’t leave you.”

SLAP!

“What do you want me to do?”

Heavily swinging her palm across Dao Yi’s cheek, Hong Ye’s eyes are red with fury as she angrily yells at the man standing in front of her.

“I confess to you, you say these feelings are not real. I finally let go and start to date someone else, but you say you can’t leave me. Gu Dao Yi, why do you give me hope every time I let go? Do you know how cruel you are, to do this to me? Do you that you being like this is painful for me? Do you know that at all?”

“...”

Dao Yi closes his eyes and furrows his brows. Regardless of past or present, her tears always make his heart hurt.

Hong Ye sniffs and says in a self-mocking tone, “Forget it. No matter what, I’ll always be a little girl in your eyes, and not a woman that will ever earn your affections.”

“Gu Dao Yi, from today I release you. I won’t confess and bother you again. So please I’m asking you to let go. Let me choose someone who can give me happiness and not embrace something destined to fail and disappoint me every time.”

Hong Ye turns back and barely takes half a step before she is hugged tightly by Dao Yi.

“I’m sorry. I thought I could watch you be together with a better man. I thought I could accept just being your protector… but I was wrong. I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to watch you leave me. I don’t want to let you say you like someone who isn’t me… Hong Ye, I love you. I’ve alwaysm always loved you.”

“...”

Unable to control her tears, they fall down Hong Ye’s face. She struggles to get out of Dao Yi’s arms, then turns around to look at this man who’s finally accepted and faced his own feelings for her. Pulling at his collar, Hong Ye says, fierce, “Gu Dao Yi! If you mess with me again this time, I will definitely kill you! I definitely will!”

The warm and patient man does not answer, only gently wiping away Hong Ye’s tears with his fingertips. And as a man, no longer as a protector, Dao Yi kisses Hong Ye.

Team Three

Shao Fei sits in the office looking over records in the archives again. From the prison visiting records, he can see Chen Wen Hao and Tang Guo Dong had a deep friendship. If not, the leader of Xing Tian Meng would not have visited Chen Wen Hao regularly every week. But the meetings suddenly stopped in the second year. Afterwards, Tang Guo Dong’s name never appears on the prison visiting records signature section again.

Even stranger, later in the year 1990, the records unexpectedly show Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong’s names at the same time, and the person they both applied to meet was Chen Wen Hao?

“This really is Li Zhen Jie’s handwriting.”

Shao Fei repeatedly checks the handwriting on the records, and he is very sure it is Li Zhen’s signature.

“Are the rumors true?”

The rumors about Li Zhen working together with Xing Tian Meng to traffic drugs have not stopped; however, no one has brought forth clear evidence either. On the other hand, despite his belief and trust in Li Zhen Jie, Shao Fei doesn’t have any evidence in her favour either.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, Shao Fei remembers that there is still someone who might know what happened that year. He then jumps out of his chair and charges straight into the men’s toilet.

“Chief!”

“Fuck! What are you yelling for? My urine has gone back in because of you.”

Captain Shi shivers once in fright while facing the urinal before turning around to curse at Shao Fei.

Shao Fei immediately walks to the captain’s side, grabs his arm, and asks, “Captain, I have a question for you. Did Li Zhen-Jie know Chen Wen Hao?”

“Chen Wen Hao?”

“Chief, think back carefully. Did Li Zhen Jie and Chen Wen Hao ever meet?”

Captain Shi thinks a bit and then says, “When Li Zhen joined Team 3, Chen Wen Hao was already in jail. I don’t think they know each other.”

“But the prison center visiting records have her signature. I verified it. It really is Li Zhen-Jie’s handwriting and she and Tang Guo Dong visited Chen Wen Hao together.”

“Wait, when did this happen?”

“1990.”

Captain Shi pulls the chain, walks over to the sink, and washes his hands. From the mirror, he looks at Shao Fei’s gaze and realises that he looks different, as if he’s testing to see what he really knows.

Unaware of this, Shao Fei furrows his brows and continues, “Chief, do you also think it’s strange? These three people unexpectedly know each other? Could this be related to the case from four years ago?”

In a panic, Captain Shi evades Shao Fei’s interrogating gaze. He flicks the water off his hands and pretending to be calm, he asks, “What else did you find?”

“Nothing else.”

“If you find anything else or some evidence, remember to report to me.”

“Nnn!”

Shao Fei nods and leaves. Captain Shi stands at the sink and looks at his retreating figure, and tightly wrinkles his brows, lost in thought.

#history 3: 圈套 #history3圈套 #history3: trapped #history3: trap #history3 novel #CHAPTER SEVEN FINALLY <3 #HEHEHEHE #history3 #translations

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luckycheesefoodie321 · 5 years ago

Text

Prince of Tennis (2019) meme

I was tagged by @hardworkingprocrastinator aka @rupru-russiaxprussia whom I do believe I ranted with about the Imperial Pair ship, and the unexpected potential of Si Yang x Qi Ying… so thanking you kindly for another excuse to rave about ChinaPuri… sooo uhhh time for some fun times!!

Tagging: I have 0 idea who to tag because we a smaller fandom

Warning: I have not watched or read the original manga/anime soooooo I’m in an even smaller subset of the fandom babeyyyy!!! It has also been a couple months since I watched the show, so there is a strong chance I’ll have forgotten names and situations, and just general thoughts I have... BUT WHATEVER time to rant to the thirteen people who’ve watched ChinaPuri!!!

Questions:

1. Favorite character(s)? 2. Favorite school team(s)? 3. Favorite coach(es)? 4. Favorite supporting cast member(s)? (characters who aren’t regulars, aren’t on tennis teams etc.) 5. Favorite original character(s) in the adaptation? 6. Who do you think enacted their role best? 7. Favorite singles match? 8. Favorite doubles match? 9. Favorite story arc? 10. Most amusing tenipuri scene(s)/moment(s)/running joke(s)? 11. What did you like most about the adaptation? 12. What do you think the adaptation could have improved on? 13. Any other thoughts you want to share?

Answers: THIS ISH GETS LONGGGGG SO CUT OFF NOW

1. Favorite character(s)?

MU SI YANG BABEYYYYY!!! I already love a stoic glasses boi, but Mu Si Yang (again not TeniPuri Tezuka, just ChinaPuri Si Yang) may be one of my favourite takes on the stoic glasses boi… like I don’t often enjoy live action versions of anime, especially because the acting is never the best (and granted this one too, had some okay performances) but the guy who plays Mu Si Yang melted my heart… he was the stony-faced serious captain, who could deliver a subtle joke that left you snickering… but he was also the determined, earnest, crazy talented leader with his own hidden struggles who just wanted to take his team and friends as far as they go into competition… which is an essential part of any good sports drama… and he captured it so perfectly… and I love him.. he’s so beautiful too… I would fall in love with him in a heartbeat, and I don’t often say that about characters (like I love them but never in love ya dig?)

Zhou Zhi was a close favourite…basically I just love the two genius senpais…

2. Favorite school team(s)?

Oh god… Yu Feng maybe? We spend the most time with them, they have the most screen time of all the other teams…we have a whole training arc where they’re continuously winning against the struggling to evolve Yu Qing…very reminiscent of the Karasuno-Nekoma rivalry in that they help each other get better… I would’ve loved to see the rivalry/camaraderie develop even more so that when Si Yang leaves, the relief at having this network of tennis friends would’ve been that much more powerful…

Also I really enjoy Xu Ziping’s hustle… I love the story of Yu Feng…they had a shitty coach and had to make a deal to keep winning in order to even remain an official team… and when Yu Qing faced Yu Feng, I really couldn’t tell who I wanted to root for because I knew there was real weight behind every loss for Yu Feng…

After that, maybe No. 6… they’re so chill, they’re not straining for each win and just enjoying their time on the court…and the Old Coach dude was a great character to introduce...

3. Favorite coach(es)?

Maybe No. 6’s coach… I legit can’t remember his name but he oozes skill and experience without all the stress of younger coaches who bend over backwards for success… and while, again, the circumstances surrounding his appearance was a bit waffle-y in execution (which is about par for live action adaptations), I love that he serves as a sage outsider who can assess in three seconds what kind of player Lu Xia is, and what he needs to do to improve… I love me a good wise character who still knows how to inspire people in a fun way but you never, for a second, doubt that what they’re saying is legit advice, even if their mannerisms are goofy…

4. Favorite supporting cast member(s)? (characters who aren’t regulars, aren’t on tennis teams etc.)

Oh I mean…Stretcher Bros for life amirite? They were great…they were just hanging out, trying out.. Huang Jing is kinda jerk-ish, but he’s the starting antagonist who turns out to have a pure heart and a genuine love of the sport (kinda like Tsukishima Kei from Haikyuu!! or the GoMs from Kuroko no Basuke)… and Xiu Wen is such a soft boi who wants to shower in peace without girls being in the locker room…

Put these two besties together forever…and I just love how cuddly they are with each other…no hesitation to hold hands or hug…it’s gooood

5. Favorite original character(s) in the adaptation?

Um…idk who’s an original character??? Again never watched the original anime/read the manga!

SO IMMA CHANGE THIS TO FAVOURITE SHIP!

5.5. Favourite ship? (Get ready my friendsss issa long one)

Si Yang x Qi Ying my friendssss… a super unexpected pairing that came outta nowhere!!! Because the trailer clearly shows (or maybe it doesn’t and I forgot) that Lu Xia and Qi Ying are gonna be THE THING but then we get hit with the surprise senpai-kouhai/team manager ship and I’m like uhhh were you planning this or am I reading into it too much???

Like y’all they were flirting right in the beginning… that whole bit where she stands outside the change rooms and Si Yang confronts her, and she begs him to add Lu Xia to the team (even tho he already did) and he was weirdly teasing her about the roster when he had no reason to, and she was kinda bantering back with him and she fully called him out later on… i was like, umm this is a vibe

They just kept getting thrown together in weird ways…aside from Lu Xia, she’s probably had the most interactions with Si Yang of all the other team members… she’s the only one he calls Xiao~ like the boys in the tennis club have their nicknames like Dachi, Ah Mu, Ah Yan, but only Qi Ying is Xiao Ying!! he’s not a nickname guy… and maybe if it were a girl/cheerleader thing, you’d think he’d call Peng Xiang, Xiao Xiang BUT NO… only Qi Ying gets called Xiao Ying!!!

AND ANOTHER THING: other than Lu Xia, he’s the only one concerned for Qi Yang, despite what he says, when she gets caught in the rain and gets sick… he fully visits her in her room, and receives the call about her health after they send her to the hospital… he says everyones worried BUT YO they’re straight up just bored and end up having a pillow fight…sooooo can’t be that worried…

AND ONE MORE THING: Qi Ying, I get she’s this weird mascot/team manager figure on their team (even tho she’s meant to be a cheerleader but they never invite Peng Xiang to any of their team dinners or their training camp) BUT WHEN SI YANG RETURNS HOME, THEY SEND IN QI YING TO GREET HIM and they have this whole charming convo where she teases him...and they were chatting as if they always had this banter going on but they’d only talked like 3 or 4 times on screen before then, so there’s this whole relationship she has with the tennis team (not just Lu Xia) that is implied but we don’t really see it! And when she teasingly calls him Captain Si Yang after he returns to China, he had the softest smileeee!!! HE TOTALLY DOES HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR HER!! He didn’t want her to think he wasn’t happy to see her... and then she leads him to their surprise party in the club room and he just keeps saying Xiao Ying… like damn you keep trying to establish the Lu Xia x Qi Ying ship (and it is a decently strong ship) but Si Yang x Qi Ying is soooo good!

After this Rival Pair, and then Golden Pair - our resident married couple

(POST Here: all the gay faves they didn’t even try to hide)

(POST Here: almost confirmed ships by the end)

6. Who do you think enacted their role best?

I…I think this is obvious… NEXT

Jk… other than Si Yang, I really enjoyed the guy who plays Lu Xia - Peng Yu Chang… he played the typical “stoic, super talented/genius sports idiot” type prolific in sports anime (like Furuya from Daiya no A, Kageyama from Haikyuu!!, Midorima from KnB)… but he was never too stuck in his head, and he was never mean… too often there’ll be a moment where this type of character is played too seriously, gets stuck in their own head, and lashes out at anyone they deem getting in their way, especially when they feel they’re stuck in a rut… which Lu Xia is in, for essentially the entirety of the show, in one form or another…

But PYC played Lu Xia as this mildly cocky, but still incredibly enthusiastic young genius who is looking for the next big challenge so as to further himself, but is so obsessed with this one opponent (his dad), that he can’t see the bigger picture and realise his entire way of playing is a mirror of the very opponent he’s trying to overcome… but even at the height of his stagnation, he’s never mean to Qi Ying, who tries her best to support and encourage him… while he does distance himself from the team, it’s not an active dismissal of their assistance or support… he can play a straight faced comic when embarrassed/discombobulated (like Si Yang when faced with Yan Juice), but also always participates in most of the weird antics his team is up to… and it never feels OOC and thats clearly a result of Peng Yu Chang’s subtle acting…

ALSO PENG YU CHANG IS IN OUR SHINING DAYS, A SUPER UNDERRATED CHINESE FILM THAT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL TO BE ADAPTED INTO LIKE, A ONE SEASON SHOW AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT

7. Favorite singles match?

Oh pfft… please… PLEASE IS THERE EVEN A QUESTION it was arguably the best match of the whole show, it was what we were all waiting for, a super tension filled, super hyped up match because it features my favourite character, who has simultaneously been promoted as THE BEST PLAYER ON THE TEAM but also super injured and avoiding over-exertion… MU SI YANG…against his personal rival, whom had never tasted defeat before, and subsequently trained like crazy, throwing all of the money at professional players, FOR A YEAR, in order to be ready to face him… JI JING WU

That’s right baby, its the Imperial Pair Match (I do hope I’m using all these nicknames correctly..I just tried to pick them up from the anime/manga to save time writing out their names XD)…

This match is everything you ever want in a match…it’s a gritty, no-holds-barred, all-out, clash-of-titans-style face-off between probably the two most talented players in that whole (province? Prefecture? Idk China regional names) BUT YEAH THESE TWO ARE CLEARLY TOP TIER PLAYERS WHO FINALLY GO HEAD TO HEAD… it’s a year in the making, Ji Jing Wu is in peak physical condition, but Si Yang is not…and yet we see Si Yang powering through the literal agony of an arm injury that threatens complete destruction of not only his tennis career, but his general usage of that arm… and for glory and to bring his team to the national stage, Si Yang lays it all on the line… and he still gives Ji Jing Wu a run for his goddamn money… he matches him hit for hit, and at one point he was even WINNING…and had it not been for his arm, I swear up and down that he would’ve beaten Jingwu…

BUT THAT’S NOT EVEN THE BEST PART… i mean, all sports anime and just shounen anime in general have those moments where the characters are down and out and summoning the power of friendship and determination to their side to go above and beyond the physical limitations of their bodies… NO THE ACTUAL BEST PART WAS JI JINGWU’S RESPONSE TO THE WHOLE SITUATION

The goddamn respect he gave Si Yang.. this is his rival, the only person he’s ever viewed as equal and even superior to his own skills (at least as far as people the same age as him go)… Jingwu wants to beat him so bad… and he’s heard the rumours about Si Yang’s injury, and he even sees for himself how bad the injury is… but as a skilled player who recognises skill himself, he does not do Si Yang the disrespect of going easy on him… what kind of arrogant prick has that kind of nerve to give less than their best to someone who is giving them 120% effort… no, Ji Jingwu doesn’t hesitate to hit back full power, even as he’s yelling at Si Yang to stop before his arm is utterly destroyed… because the last thing any person of talent would want, is to see another person lose such an incredible gift… but even worse than that, have that person realise someone was going easy on them... it was so goddamn beautiful… and when Jingwu grips Si Yang’s hand and raises it high because he and everyone there knows who the real winner of that match is…they all know that they just witnessed something incredible, and he wants everyone in the stands to not only acknowledge it… but remember it…

And then he proceeds to fund Si Yang’s surgery, his flight, his meals, his rehabilitation, AS WELL AS take care of his team… and if that isn’t love, idk what is… like they don’t even disguise the hard core DEDICATION AND LOVE... Jingwu has obsessed over Si Yang for a year and it goddamn shows

Honourable Mention: I really enjoyed Zhou Zi versus the demon child whose eyes go red…we finally get to see Zhou Zi stretch his legs and push himself and I LOVED THAT… like he’s actually trying his best and that’s dope… also the match against the captain of the team his little brother his on… he basically led this cocky motherfucker by the nose for 5 games, pretends to be losing, and then destroys him in the following 7…

OH AND I GOTTA SHOUT OUT MY OTHER GLASSES BOI YAN ZHIMING VERSUS HIS BEST GUY FRIEND FROM YOUTH… that was a beautiful evolution of Ah Yan transcending but also evolving his data tennis against his childhood friend and it feels good ya know?

8. Favorite doubles match?

Oh pfft anything with the Rival Pair… they bicker like cat and dog, but then you put them on the court together, and suddenly their chemistry is through the roof… also Baiyang and Qiao Chen are a stronger couple than Qiao Chen and Yu Xing Zi and that’s the damn tea

(Same two posts for why that tea)

9. Favorite story arc?

Oh man… ummm training arc with Yu Feng was fun but it was definitely beaten out by the “village raises a child” arc when Si Yang leaves, so literally all their previous opponents step up to encourage, train, or otherwise intimidate Yu Qing into giving it their all, improving, and ultimately winning the finals… plus this arc gave so much depth to the network of teams who all have the same aspirations, in the end, and want to push forward the people who beat them to not let their loss be in vain…and that’s pure…

10. Most amusing tenipuri scene(s)/moment(s)/running joke(s)?

Yan Juice... especially the first time NEXT

Honourable Mentions: When Lu Xia gets stood up by Xinglong Lu Xia running interference on Qi Ying’s admirer in the final ep When Zhou Bros run into Lu Xia in the dressing rooms Stretcher Bros trying to become Painter Bros

11. What did you like most about the adaptation?

It captured the essence of a good sports anime: power of friendship, ridiculous action sequences of outrageous moves that would never be allowed in real life, determination and guts is all you need to succeed, that all-or-nothing mentality of high schoolers who suddenly have tunnel vision and no future thinking whatsoever, and decide to risk life and limb for one match… plus it kept a charming and comedic beat running throughout, really endeared you to the characters, and their struggles... AND NO ONE WAS MEAN... well I mean Ya Jiuxin was an angry bitter jerk for a hot second, but he ended up being endeared towards the lil fluffball kouhai of his, and we all know he loves Xinglong in his heart of hearts... other characters like Jingwu, or demon child, or Zhou Yu’s captain were cocky or arrogant, but they were never mean to each other, and respected each other’s game play even if they were defeated.. a couple were poor losers, but they didn’t throw a fit or try to get revenge or anything like that... everyone, in general, had some decency to them, and in fact all of Yu Qing was a super nice...sometimes too nice and self-deprecating that you wanted to smack them...

12. What do you think the adaptation could have improved on?

This is mostly just a consequence of live action adaptations of sports anime where they have to condense a whole lot of story that is already condensed from the manga into a palatable show that anyone, not necessarily pre-existing fans of the original source, can enjoy… the story around the characters seemed waffle-y and disjointed… sometimes things would happen but wouldn’t connect smoothly to the next thing that happens… there was this whole implied close relationship between Qi Ying and the team that just was never shown… I would’ve preferred they made her an official manager, so it would make sense that she’d be so close to the team, when for whatever reason, Peng Xiang wasn’t…even tho they’re both cheer captains…

The match sequences were cut down a little too much (tho I get why)… I would have loved that final training arc to be extended, to fully flesh out how discombobulated Yu Qing was when Si Yang had to leave, and how forcefully the other teams picked them up and got them better… so to develop the dynamic between the teams before this would’ve been good, but obviously they can only got the core actors of each team at a time… hence that barbecue scene… but if they’d pulled off something like the Haikyuu!! Tokyo training arc, or even something like in KnB where the teams were thrown together in wacky hijinks or impromptu match situations to develop their camaraderie (and they sorta tried to but nothing really came of the interactions), it would’ve made the final training arc THAT MUCH MORE heartwarming and I would have cried..

13. Any other thoughts you want to share?

I’ve already said enough. The end.

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trishmilburn · 5 years ago

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An Exploration of The Untamed’s Romance & Mystery, Episode 5

Disclaimer: This post and others in this series will be filled with loads of spoilers if you haven’t seen The Untamed, the Chinese drama based on Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). My chief interest in doing this series as I re-watch the drama is to chronicle the development of the romance between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, but I also highlight the progression of the mystery that helps bring them together. Keep in mind that I’m writing these posts with the knowledge of what’s going to happen throughout the series and having read the novel. If you’d like to read my examinations of previous episodes, links are provided at the end of this post.

On to Episode 5…

We pick up where we left off at the end of Episode 4, with Wei Ying and Lan Zhan fighting at the back of the Cloud Recesses. Wei Ying tells Lan Zhan he thought he heard something and thinks someone might have snuck in. Lan Zhan grabs him and hauls him off to the library to serve out his punishment for being a bad boy.

Once in the library, we see bad boy Wei Ying copying the oh so many Lan Clan rules, and being very bored while doing it, so he starts to watch good boy Lan Zhan as he reads a book. Of course, “WangXian” is playing on the soundtrack and Wei Ying, even unknown to himself, looks smitten. But honestly, who wouldn’t be? Have you seen Wang Yibo as Lan Zhan? But I digress.

When Wei Ying compliments Lan Zhan’s calligraphy, he gets no response. After saying “Lan Wangji” a couple of times, he says “Lan Zhan” louder and finally draws his future love’s attention. But when he asks why Lan Zhan finds him so annoying, he once again gets no answer. (Here, I’ll answer for Lan Zhan: It’s because he’s drawn to you, and it annoys the fire out of him because you’re so not his type – or so he thinks.) Though Wei Ying apologizes for everything he’s done wrong so far, he points out that it’s not all his fault. After all, Lan Zhan hit him first the night Wei Ying snuck into the Cloud Recesses, bringing alcohol with him. He then gives us some more foreshadowing for when the story turns darker by saying, “I’m that kind of person who wouldn’t raise his hand against others unless they strike first.”

He asks Lan Zhan if he’ll give him the honor of looking at him (yes, this is totally a bro thing to ask), but Lan Zhan just tells him to copy the rules one more time because although Wei Ying has apologized, he feels no remorse. And then he uses the muting spell on Wei Ying yet again.

Next we see the brother-sister duo of Wen Ning and Wen Qing talking, and we get another reference to there being something wrong with Wen Ning. Wen Qing laments that though their family has practiced medicine for generations, she can’t even treat her own brother beyond the medicine he already takes. Then she promises him that she’ll take him away from Heavenly Nightless soon. We get another clue that he’s in danger there, that he’s being used or abused so that Wen Qing will do what Wen Ruohan wants her to.

Now back to the library, where this time it’s Lan Zhan looking up from his book to glance at Wei Ying working. But Wei Ying isn’t actually copying rules; he’s drawing Lan Zhan because, again, that’s totally a bro thing to do. No, Wei Ying is totally crushing on Lan Zhan but is just too dense to realize it yet. All those stares and grins and need to get closer to Lan Zhan, ostensibly to be the friend of this guy who isn’t giving him the time of day, are giving it away to anyone with a single clue. But, to give Wei Ying a bit of an out, who would have expected him to crush at first sight and on a guy when he’s always flirted with girls? When Wei Ying shows Lan Zhan the picture he’s drawn of him, Lan Zhan pronounces him “extremely childish.” What I think is really going on here is that Lan Zhan is wondering why someone would want to draw him. Perhaps he’s even touched somewhere deep inside, but he’s not self-aware enough to acknowledge that. But when he re-opens his book, any goodwill toward Wei Ying that might have been beginning to flicker is doused when he sees not the text he expects but a pornographic drawing. And that brings about the biggest expression change in Lan Zhan so far. His eyes go wide, and he leaps to his feet with an indignant “Wei Ying!” This all amuses Wei Ying mightily, and he tells Lan Zhan that he doesn’t believe he’s never seen anything like that before. Lan Zhan responds by telling him to get out of the library so they can fight, but Wei Ying says that fighting is prohibited in the Cloud Recesses, which just makes Lan Zhan angrier. So angry that he shreds the naughty book, much to Wei Ying’s anguish.

Next we see Wei Ying by the creek telling Nie Huiasang and Jiang Cheng about what happened in the library and how he thinks it calls for a celebration that he was the first one to cause Lan Zhan to lose control that way. Jiang Cheng, predictably, says that it’s nothing to be proud of and, “Our family’s reputation is gone because of you.” Wei Ying tells him that he already apologized to Lan Zhan but that he didn’t accept it and muted him. “What’s wrong with me teasing him?” Nothing, sweetie.

They suddenly become aware that something odd is in the nearby trees, and Wei Ying throws a paper talisman that direction. One of the Wens’ spying birds, which looks like it’s made up of black smoke, takes flight. They wonder why it’s there. Nothing good, that’s for sure.

Lan Zhan is telling Xichen that the energy barrier at the back of the mountain keeps getting disturbed. Xichen asks if he’s been able to determine who has been back there, and after a telling hesitation he admits it’s Wei Ying. Again we see one of those knowing grins from big brother Lan when he sees how much this information bothers little brother Lan. I think Xichen has been shipping WangXian since he first saw those two in the same room together. Lan Zhan asks if he should strengthen the barrier, but Xichen says it was set up by their ancestors and should be fine as long as “she” doesn’t go there. Lan Zhan asks, “She?” But Xichen says they’ll talk about that later. The she is a big reveal later down the road.

A Lan disciple, Su She (hate that guy, you’ll understand why later), shows up and tells the Lan brothers that a villager from Colorful Robes Town (also known as Caiyi) reported evil water spirits causing trouble in a nearby lake.

Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng go to see Yanli at her lodgings but are surprised when Wen Qing is the one who opens the door. You can tell Jiang Cheng is harboring a crush of his own when he grins like a fool upon seeing her. I don’t blame him. She’s beautiful. This crush makes me sad though because I know what lies ahead for them – sacrifice for her and betrayal for him. Despite the fact that I’m eventually going to want to knock Jiang Cheng into next week for being such a damn, self-centered fool, even fully hating him for a while, there’s this other part that harbors the fantasy that if things had just gone a different way he and Wen Qing might have found happiness and made beautiful babies together.

They learn that Wen Qing is there because Yanli hasn’t been feeling well. When Wen Qing sees the close, affectionate bond between Yanli and Wei Ying, it reminds her of her own bond with Wen Ning.

Next we see Wei Ying, Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing catching up with the Lan brothers, asking to go along with them to deal with the water monsters for the experience since they don’t have classes for the next few days. Lan Zhan says no, that it’s against the rules and there’s no need, but Xichen overrules him to Lan Zhan’s well-contained but obvious surprise. (Shippers gotta do what shippers gotta do.) When Wen Ning shows up, wanting to go as well, Wen Qing tries to get him to go back and rest like she told him to, but Wei Ying speaks up for his archery skill and that he should be allowed to come along. Xichen agrees to let him accompany them as well.

While on the road to Caiyi, Lan Zhan asks Xichen why he’s allowing the others to go with them. Xichen replies he could tell Lan Zhan wanted the two young lords of the Jiang Clan to come along. He asks his little brother, “Isn’t that so?” Lan Zhan says nothing in reply. The fact that he doesn’t disagree with his brother shows that Xichen can read what he’s thinking despite what he says.

When we see Lan Zhan and Wei Ying shown to their room at an inn along the way, I wondered why exactly these two are sharing a room. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to share with their brothers? But maybe Xichen and Jiang Cheng get private rooms since Xichen is his clan leader and Jiang Cheng is next in line to be his. It won’t be the last time – or the most memorable one – that Lan Zhan and Wei Ying share a room at an inn. (This is an even truer statement when referring to the book, which includes a scene that had to be left out of the drama unless they wanted to be shut down by the government censors immediately and perhaps even locked up.) They are shown to their present room by perhaps the laziest innkeeper ever. Despite the fact that he says they’re the first guests he’s had since the lake started eating people, and thus he’s had plenty of time to clean the room, he hasn’t done so and tells them to do it themselves. Rude!

Meanwhile, another fisherman is taken under by the mysterious lake monster. Dude, why are you night fishing on a lake that’s eating people?! I guess Nessie was hungry.

The next day, Wei Ying asks Xichen if he thinks the evil water spirits and the spiritual absorption issues are connected, but he doesn’t really get a satisfactory answer. So after offering Lan Zhan a drink while Xichen walks ahead, he asks Lan Zhan if there’s been any progress with the spiritual absorption issue. Lan Zhan responds simply, “None.” Oh, Lan Zhan, man of few words. Wei Ying says he feels as if Xichen knows something that he’s keeping from them, and he sees something in Lan Zhan’s expression that says he thinks the same. But when he presses Lan Zhan on this point, Lan Zhan simply takes his jug of wine and pours it out on the road, saying, “Drinking alcohol is prohibited when monster hunting.”

They arrive at Blue Spiritual Lake and board boats, typically one or two people per boat. Xichen is in the front, and there are four people in his boat, Su She among them. But I had to laugh at the last boat filled with seven people. I imagined the director saying, “Okay, all you unnamed Lan extras, in this boat.” I wouldn’t have been surprised if they ended up being eaten, the redshirts of Gusu.

So we’re on a foggy lake looking for man-eating monsters, and still Wei Ying looks over at Lan Zhan wearing that “I like him” smile. Then he notices Lan Zhan’s boat is displacing too much water, meaning that one of the monsters is hanging onto the bottom. So that the creature doesn’t catch on and either get away or endanger Lan Zhan, Wei Ying pretends to goof off by using his paddle to fling water at Lan Zhan. As soon as Lan Zhan leaps from his boat toward Wei Ying’s, the creature flips his boat. Wei Ying walks forward to be next to Lan Zhan and says that he wasn’t purposefully splashing water at him and that they can be even now. Lan Zhan moves away and says for Wei Ying to stay farther away from him. Xichen’s little knowing grin comes out again at this interchange. It really is like Wei Ying is flirting and Lan Zhan is determined not to return his feelings. This distance he puts between them is more evidence that Lan Zhan deliberately puts up a barrier around himself, physically and emotionally.

After Wei Ying kills one of the monsters, which I have to say looks like sentient seaweed, with his sword, Lan Zhan looks reluctantly impressed and asks him the name of his sword. When Wei Ying replies that it’s Subian (translated as “Whatever”), he has to explain that it is indeed the sword’s name, not that he’s just saying, “Whatever” in a flippant way.

One of the weedy monsters attacks and injures Jiang Cheng’s leg, and Wen Qing leaps over to his boat to treat him. Cue more crushing by Jiang Cheng. Pretty cultivator girl has healing skills. What’s not to like, right? Well, other than her kinfolk back at Heavenly Nightless.

When the creatures start gathering together, trying to lead all the boats to the middle of the lake, Lan Zhan says all the cultivators should immediately return to shore. Then Wei Ying figures out that the creatures are forming a waterborne abyss that will suck all the boats under, so Lan Zhan says they should abandon the boats and ride their swords. Everyone leaps up into the air to board their swords except Su She, who sends his sword into the abyss, trying to kill the creatures. (Oh, why couldn’t he have gone with that sword?) When he’s unable to recall his sword to escape, Wen Ning moves forward to help him. Seeing this, Wei Ying dives down to save Wen Ning. But when Wen Ning turns around and his eyes are completely white right before he faints, this shocks Wei Ying. Lan Zhan realizes the danger all three men are in and dives down to bring them all up into the air. That Lan Zhan, he’s handy to have around. But Wei Ying, being Wei Ying, has to tease a bit and asks why Lan Zhan is holding him by his collar when he can hold his hand instead. But Lan Zhan replies, “I don’t like touching strangers.” Well, that’s nonsense, Wei Ying basically says because they are well-acquainted. However, Lan Zhan disagrees.

Xichen plays his magical xiao and sends a spell toward the abyss. Right after, we see another of those freaky Wen smoke birds flying away. Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all.

Back at the inn later, Wen Ning is still unconscious and Wei Ying is checking his eyes, which are back to normal. When Wen Qing enters the room, he asks if Wen Ning had any past experiences that make him so easily affected by evil spirits. When she doesn’t answer, he figures he’s hit close to the truth. He gives her a protective amulet for Wen Ning and leaves.

Jiang Cheng is walking through the village when he passes a vendor hawking hair accessories. When she tells him hairbrushes symbolize yearning, he pauses. He’s certainly been yearning. We’re going to see the comb he buys again.

Once Wen Ning is awake, they all go out on boats in the canal that runs through the town. The way they don’t have to paddle and the slow pace at which they are moving reminds me of the It’s a Small World ride at Disney World. Wei Ying is reclining eating loquats like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Xichen, who is in the boat in front of Wei Ying’s along with Lan Zhan, asks his brother what he’s thinking about. Lan Zhan replies the waterborne abyss. Xichen wears another one of those tiny knowing smiles right before Lan Zhan admits that what Wei Ying said about there possibly being a connection between the lake monsters and the spirit absorption isn’t unreasonable. He asks Xichen if there are any clues about a connection, and his brother replies that he isn’t sure but hopes there isn’t. Because if it’s what he thinks then it’s possible they might not be able to stop it.

Meanwhile, Wei Ying gets that flirty mischief in his eyes again and calls out to Lan Zhan, who is standing ramrod straight (as opposed to Wei Ying’s reclining), to have a loquat and tosses it at him. Lan Zhan catches it, says no thanks, and tosses it back, all without looking at Wei Ying. Xichen says that if Lan Zhan wants a loquat, he can buy a basket full. Lan Zhan says he doesn’t want it. Yeah, I feel like we’re talking about more than fruit here.

The parting shot is Wei Ying grabbing a couple of jugs of Emperor’s Smile and tossing down payment as he passes. Considering the fact that Lan Zhan poured out the wine he had earlier in their trip and the Lans are right in front of him, I can imagine the look of mischief, sneaky satisfaction and barely contained laughter on his face as he does this. It’s also both sad and sweet when I think about how much Lan Zhan’s view of Wei Ying’s love for this particular alcohol will change as the story progresses. But for now, we’ll just enjoy the gradual development of their feelings for each other.

Previous posts in this series:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

#the untamed #wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #lan wangji #wangxian #lan xichen #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wen ning #wen qing

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jejublr · 7 years ago

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Flower boy!Jeonghan

A/N: It’s been 84 years.... This is for the anon who requested Flower Boy!Jeonghan. I hope you’re still alive..somewhere. I’M SO SORRY BUT PLEASE ENJOY! Thank you for requesting!!! <3

So there’s a new café that just opened called Pledis café

This cafe was unlike any other café; it’s a flower boy cafe

People were pretty sceptical when the café came out with the concept, but Pledis proved them wrong because now, the place was almost always packed on Friday nights and/or the weekends

People thought it was going to be weird at first?

But they later found it’s just good fun! And a good eye wash

The café was really creative actually!!

The boys acted like butlers in a way

SUPER HOT CUTE BUTLERS

Super polite, gentlemanly and curtious, who wouldn’t want to go back for more, amirite?

Capitalism at its finest

The people frequenting the flower boy café would typically be teenage schoolgirls

Other times it was awkward (and jealous) boyfriends who got dragged to the cafe for the sake of their curious girlfriends lol

At first, Jeonghan never really had any intention to work in a café, let alone a flower boy café

But his friend Seungcheol became one and the pay didn't seem so bad so he applied

And a few weeks into the job, he’s sold

To him, it doesn’t even feel like working?

Because being beautiful is his forté lmaoo

People who visited the café was pretty amazed by the visuals the boys serve but Jeonghan? Snatched.

But people aren't sure if he does anything other than leaning on the booth and sending flirty looks at girls?

Or was it sleepy looks? lmao nobody knows

Like, yea we get it, ur pretty, Jeonghan but table fifteen needs you now, shoo

He's a really great host, though

Like, in the café, it’s normal to have some of the boys linger at tables to talk to the customers

They’d explain the menu and they’ll entertain you for a bit as you wait for your order to come out

It’s just like one of those Japanese maid cafés, only the waitresses are guys

By all means, Jeonghan seemed to attract a lot of people and he ended up getting flirted to a lot

Jeonghan wasn’t usually the type to flirt back

unlike some people *cough*Choi Seungcheol and Wen Junhui and Xu Minghao*cough*

seriously though, Minghao’s been wildin’ these days

But it’s his job so

But he really does love his job and entertaining people

Which brings us to this point

You've heard of the hype of Pledis café

And while you enjoy checking out hip cafés around the city, you never had the initiative to check the cafe

You just don’t get the hype, okay?

Bc you find it so weird??? Like, a flower boy café?? Who came up with the idea???? Isn't this considered human exploitation???

So you definitely weren't very thrilled when your friends proposed to the idea of giving it a visit after school/work that day

Some friends you have bc they practically dragged you to the café despite your protest

'Just once,’ they say.

'It'll be fun,’ they say.

While your other friends are squealing over how cute the decor and boys are (especially the boys) and having the time of their lives, you looked like you’re ready to bust outta there

Because the amount of admittedly cute boys here is amazing

There's literally so many of them here

Tbh you felt a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of attractive boys you see bustling around the café, serving cakes and entertaining customers

You've never seen so many cute guys concentrated in one place before lol

How did they find them? Cute guys are like rare Pokémons nowadays

But you had to admit it was a nice change of scenery ( ͡ ° ͜ ʖ ͡ ° )

Especially that one guy you saw on your way in

And you almost got knocked off your socks because wOW IS THAT AN ANGEL?

No, but seriously, though, he’s wearing an halo headband

But you couldn't help but feel your cheeks heating up when he flashed a smile at you

You thought ‘Wow okay this isn't so bad, maybe I can get used to this.’

But then you saw a couple of girls came up to him to get pictures with him and he was all flirty so you're like, lol nevermind

That man is a playaaa~

I mean, you understand that it’s his job but still, you’re not a big fan of flirts

Your friends waved to indicate they’re ready to order and it just so happens that your server is the angel you just thought about

“Hello, welcome to Seventeen Café~ I’m Jeonghan and I will be your server for today.”

And all your friends took turn ordering till you’re the only one left

"And what can I get for the lovely lady?" he asked as he sent a wink at you

Tbh you don't know whether to stay silent or to throw the glass of water at him

The latter seemed more appealing at the moment

You rolled your eyes and ended up ordering whatever your favorite drink was and the waiter scurried away, but not without flashing you with another God-send smile eyyy

The moment he was out of earshot, your friends went cRAZY

“Y/N, what the f*** you know him?”

“Did you see how he looked at you?! He was totally flirting on you!!!”

Hahaha yeah and if he does it one more time you’ll be sure to let him know you’re not interested

And you and your friends actually had a great time chatting at least when they’re not too distracted by the boys

But you didn’t miss the glances Jeonghan stole at you

Like, he usually loves teasing and joking around with his client but there’s just something about you that made him want to provoke you even more

Wow, what angel were we talking about, again?

Maybe it’s the way you roll your eyes indignantly or your blatant dislike towards the café

Also maybe because you’re kinda cute

Really cute

And it’s only natural that Jeonghan wants to get a reaction out of you

So then he brought out a cupcake and set it on your table and everyone’s like ‘We didn’t order this???’

And Jeonghan’s like

“Don’t worry, it’s on the house. For the pretty lady.”

AND THEN HE HAD THE AUDACITY TO WINK AT YOU FOR THE SECOND TIME THAT DAY BEFORE HE WHISKED OFF TO ANOTHER TABLE FFF

First of all: how dare he?

Second of all: how dare he?

So while your friends are looking at the cupcake as if it was an engagement ring and as if Jeonghan just confessed his love to you, you were silent bc you don’t know what to do tbh?

Because a handsome man just tried to pick you up??

What a flirt.

You still ate the cafe, though

After all, a cupcake is a cupcake

There was a part when some of the boys had to do aegyo and oh my god

There was this other guy named Woozy? Woozi?? and you thought he was adorable

But Jeonghan was on a whole other level

He kept running his hand through his luscious locks, bitting his lips and pouting oh my god

Uhm, you kinda wanna slap him? But also it’s kinda cute? But you’re never going to admit that ofc

And you thought you’ve never been happier when your friends decided to call it a day and asked for the bill bc you don’t think you would survive anymore second breathing in aegyo and finger hearts

But Jeonghan’s kinda bummed???

Bc you’re actually really fun to tease

So he made Wonwoo the cashier give you guys free membership cars bc he wants you to come back lol

“Why should I do that?”

“I’LL BUY YOU ALL THE BURGER YOU WANT, WON.”

“Ok, deal.”

Capitalists, I tell you

It was unfortunate for you bc your friends are now completely in love with the café and they vowed to visit it every other week

And they made you come with them every single time bc now they got the member card, too lmao

You’re not really complaining bc the food there was amazing, the ambiance (despite being a little crowded), was great and everything good except for...

“Hello, my name is Jeonghan and I’ll be your server today.”

him.

You see, he wouldn’t leave you be from day one, and you know it amused him to see you cringe at the constant aegyo and cheesy lines thrown around

And another fact that made you angrier is the fact that Jeonghan looks so! darn! attractive! and so! smooth! doing it all uGH

You keep getting heart palpitations whenever he smiled

And you don’t even have insurance for God’s sake

Honestly, it’s enough cardio to last you a lifetime

But you didn’t know what happened behind the scenes bc back in the kitchen, Jeonghan would always smile to himself and sometime giggle occasionally?

Chan got scared once when they were on a shift together and Jeonghan started giggling to himself

Chan thought he got possessed and it scared the s*** outta the kid

And it was always entertaining to watch you bicker back and forth as your friends sip on their drinks

“Don’t you have anywhere else to go to?”

“Well, you see, I work here.”

The little s***

At least it’s a show for other customers to watch when you guys start bickering like old married couples

They started to ship you guys, too

Bc Jeonghan seemed to be more open and relaxed around you?

As if the flirting is genuine it is

And you may act like it’s annoying but deep inside, you kinda enjoy the attention he’s giving you?

BUT HE’S STILL ANNOYING

But also cute

The playfulness started to shift to something different one day

It was a particularly relaxed day, not many people were in the café

So you were sitting alone in the café, sipping on your drink and waiting for your friends when you suddenly got a text message from one of your friends

["Y/N I'm so sorry! I don't think we can make it to the café today! Something really important came up!!"]

And you let out a long sigh because 'Now what do I do,,,'

Jeonghan at the counter noticed your crestfallen face and decided to swoop in like Prince Charming

"wELL, hELLo."

Oh no

"Ugh what do you want >:("

'I want to take you out' he wanted to say but he saw the cup hot tea in front of you and he didn't wanna risk it lmao

In case you decide to fling it at him

“You look sad. Is everything okay?” he asked

And honestly, the stress from work/school has been piling up and you had the strongest urge to just spill everything to Jeonghan bc he seemed genuinely concerned

But you held yourself back and instead gave him a tight-lipped smile

“It’s okay.”

Except it’s not okay bc the smile you flashed him didn’t quite reach your eyes

You packed up your things but then you realized that it’s raining :(

Of course you had forgotten to bring your umbrella

And you could feel the sudden weight of your emotions and you feel the telltales of tears that threatened to escape when a soft hand slipped into yours

“Here, let me walk you to the bus stop,” you hear his soft voice and and looked down to see his other hand gripping a floral umbrella

You almost smiled at the image of the man holding a pretty umbrella with daisies on it

You wanted to decline but who knows how long the rain would last?

So you reluctantly agreed to let him walk you

The walk was not like what you had expected

Jeonghan was more quite, more composed, his gait noticeably more sluggish than what you had accustomed to seeing in the café

But he let you have your peace for once and you were grateful for that

It wasn’t until later that he spoke up as he slipped a piece of paper with a series of numbers on it

“If you need anything.. Don’t hesitate to call me okay?”

F***ing smooth

You couldn’t help the small smile that made its way on your face

“Okay.”

It was then that the bus decided to come and you had to go

You felt a little regretful that you have to say good bye

Jeonghan slipped the umbrella into your hand

“Take it. The rain isn’t going to stop soon.”

You looked at him weird

“But you’ll get drenched!”

He smiled “It’s okay, I got extra back in the cafe.”

And honestly, you were so touched??? You felt your heart grew a little tender for him

Maybe he isn’t so bad

“Thank you.”

And Jeonghan was a little taken aback because this was the first time that you actually smiled at him?

He doesn’t think he’d ever get enough of it

The two of you went home with a little smile that day and he didn’t leave your mind until the moment you fell asleep

You didn’t visit the cafe for a while after that

It’s not that you didn’t want to

It’s just that life got in the way

You were busy and didn’t have the time to make visit and you were too shy to actually text him

And Jeonghan still worked everyday, hoping that it was you everytime another customer came in and got disappointed when it wasn’t

The others are also a little curious?? Bc did something happen??

Jeonghan himself felt a little hurt bc did he make the wrong move the last time he saw you? You never called him or texted him and he thought there was something there

‘I guess, I’m wrong’ the thought kept playing in his head

He didn’t know that you were actually looking forward to meet him again

I mean, you got to give back his umbrella right?

It wasn’t until a few weeks later that you managed to find the time to come

And when you came in, the others were like

“You’re back!!! Where have you been???”

You explained and they told you how Jeonghan seemed a bit down lately and that he’s actually taking the day off today

So you just passed the umbrella to the boys along with a note and left the café a little disappointed

“Looking for me?”

You looked to the side to see

“Jeonghan?”

He had the widest smile on his face and you wondered what made him look so happy

And he was happy because there you were, standing in front of him under the sunlight looking all beautiful and he felt his heart grew bc he saw you exiting the cafe and he just knew that you were looking for him

“Where have you been??” he asked

“Well, I have a life aside from being constantly dragged to a flower boy cafe, you know.”

“Touche.”

There was a brief silence until he spoke up

“Look, I’m so sorry if I annoyed you a lot. It’s just that..I like you.” he confessed

What is he, a kindergartener?

“And I was wondering if you wanna go out. On a date.”

You almost sputtered bc what?

Wow he finally got the balls to ask you out for reals, eh

“A date? At the cafe?”

“F*** no, anywhere but there.”

You both laughed at that

And you looked at him in the eyes and said

“Okay.”

And you could distinctively hear the boys’s howls and whistles from inside the cafe, all of them squished to the windows making heart gestures at you two

“Shalalalalalalalala~”

“Oh my god.”

You could only laugh as Jeonghan shook his head in shame

Yeah, he’s not bad. Not bad at all.

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