#wwx has no idea where this came from so he tells jl they just eat veggies and nap all day

[stiltonbasket]

modern toddler Jin Ling goes through a phase where he's convinced that he's a hamster? He's eating lots of veggies, at least?

Yanli, hugging two-year-old Jin Ling: I wish I could keep you in my pocket all day like a little hamster. ^_^

Jin Ling, who barely knows what a hamster is: *goes into turbo hamster mode*

[crossdressingdeath]

Seeing your post about how JYL has a 'ranking system' in her head when it comes to WWX and JC hits so hard, but honestly, the more I read into the Jiang family dynamics, the more I agree. JYL obviously loves WWX, but I don't know if she's capable of putting him above JC. And we see her defending him, and she obviously gives her life for him, but she was also reacting in the moment. Not to speak lightly of her sacrifice of course, but I just feel like there are certain limits to how 1/7

far she's actually willing to go for him. I was initially one of JYL's staunch defenders, and always said that, unlike JC, she didn't have the same amount of political power as him, wasn't in a position to do anything about the Wens, ect. But...I'm starting to question if that's really true. JYL may not have had much direct political power herself, but she was the sister of a sect leader, and even if JC was unwilling to help, JYL had just married into the richest and most powerful sect 2/7

at the time. It was a love marriage, JZX adored her and would've done anything for her if she'd just bothered to ask him for it. Madam Jin also cared for her and respected her, and between her and JZX, had JYL actually bothered to tell them anything, I'm sure they would have been able to sort something out. Or she could have had it as a condition of her marriage - I'm not marrying into the sect that's trying to kill my brother unless you tell your father to stop. Had it been reversed and 3/7

The Lans were calling for JYL and JC’s deaths, no way in hell WWX would’ve just married into the sect, regardless of LWJ’s involvement. Instead she just doesn’t really do anything. We see no proof that she ever tried to see WWX after the wedding dress incident, which — god I instantly saw it as a sweet gesture, but now it just bothers me, because your brother is living in squalor, and you decide to show if the expensive dress that you’ll be 4/7

wearing when marrying into the sect that's trying to kill him, you bring along one bowl of soup for him, and don't even try to explain WHY you're marrying into said sect. Beyond that, we don't see a single moment up until her death where JYL actually seems concerned about WWX, puts in effort to try to see him - she doesn't even ask him how he's doing the one time she does come to see him. When we compare that to how WQ treats WN, yeah, she's outwardly not as loving or sweet, but she 5/7

goes to the ends of the earth for her brother, even going as far as to betray her sect and risk WRH's wrath because he asks her to. And now we come back to that ranking system you mentioned before - yeah, it really does seem like JYL places her blood family first, which definitely hurts, but in comparison, despite only knowing him for a shorter amount of time, WQ truly grows to think of WWX as a second brother. And she treats him as such, at an equal level with WN - after JZX dies 6/7

WQ doesn't attack WWX for what happened. She doesn't try to come up with a way to sacrifice WWX instead and let WN survive in his stead. She and WN, two people who have become WWX's family, both give their lives to protect both him and the rest of their remaining family members. And it's just frustrating to think that the one member of WWX's adopted family who we all thought treated him like an actual brother, might not have really been on his side after all. 7/7

Yes! To start with the wedding dress thing, because it drives me nuts when people treat that like some super sweet act of love: JYL shows up in the Burial Mounds with no money, no sign of having tried to talk the sects around, no news outside of her own, no food beyond a couple bowls of soup (one of which she gives to the guy who can’t eat), and doesn’t so much as ask WWX if he’s okay. She literally came all that way to have a family meal, ask WWX to name the future nephew it’s becoming increasingly clear he’ll never meet, and tell him about her impending marriage into the family that’s currently doing everything in its power to destroy WWX’s life. Like, if you think about it that entire visit is such a slap in the face; “Here’s a bowl of soup while the people under your protection are starving, oh by the way I’m going to marry the son of the guy actively trying to get you killed, okay bye”. All you can say in regards to her helping WWX is that she does potentially manage to persuade JZX to invite him to JL’s one month celebration, but if memory serves the novel never actually specifies whose idea that was and it was JZX who decided to go get WWX after JGY told him about seeing JZXun heading in the direction of the Burial Mounds. And even then JZX does the same thing JYL does; sees WWX outnumbered and surrounded and tells him to stand down. At least in JZX’s case you could argue that the actual fighting hadn’t broken out and JZX probably trusted in his authority to be able to sort the situation out so long as WWX wasn’t actually acting aggressive (or defensive, rather), and he’s also physically strong enough that he may well have been able to intervene if the cultivators had attacked. JYL, when she does the same thing, has no authority and no physical power to defend WWX with. And yeah, both JZX and Madam Jin adore JYL, and neither of them seem super fond of JGS (JZX respects his father, but I don’t get the sense he loves him); if JYL had asked them for help it’s entirely possible they would’ve started at least circulating her version of events and demanding a proper investigation into what happened. But there’s no mention of her so much as trying, and she doesn’t offer to ask them when she visits WWX.

And yeah, compare WQ to JYL and it’s... well. WQ is so quick to offer WWX her love and care? She’s harsh, but she loves him and views him and WN on such equal footing that she and WN willingly hand themselves over to the Jins for WWX’s sake without her so much as bringing up the possibility of saving WN instead. There’s no ranking for WQ; WWX and WN are her brothers, and she loves them, and she’d do anything to protect them. When it becomes clear she can’t save WN (like hell the sects would let him live, and by this point it’s pretty clear that WWX won’t be able to protect them forever) she throws her whole weight behind defending the brother she thinks she might still be able to save, even if it means bringing WN with her to die. WQ knows WWX for... a year or two? Maybe? The timeline is a little hazy. Not long compared to JYL, anyway. And yet she’s willing to walk all the way to Lanling to die in the hope of saving him. It’s for her whole family, yes, but she makes a point of including him. Basically, I think this fandom needs more stuff wherein the Jiangs and Wens survive and the Wens are fully like “Our brother now, you don’t deserve him”.

The thing with JYL is... she loves WWX, she genuinely does, but he is never going to be first for her. To the point where she outright enables JC’s abuse, in places; she always expects WWX to be the one to grin and bear it. Hell, one of their first conversations involves JYL cheerily allowing WWX to cover up JC locking him out of his bedroom and scaring him out into the woods by threatening to set dogs on him! Let me rephrase that: she allows a traumatized nine-year-old to hide the fact that the kid her dad expects him to share a room with locked him out of said room on his FIRST NIGHT and threatened him with his LITERALLY WORST FEAR, and as far as we know makes no attempt to tell JFM herself. To keep JC out of trouble. That is such a thing! WWX was scared to the point of running away and JFM expects him to share a room with the person responsible for that and JYL goes along with him promising not to tell JFM so that JC won’t get in trouble! And from that day forwards everything is just “Boys will be boys” to her. Like, let me put it this way. Before LWJ (and arguably the Wens before that, although WWX saw himself more as protector than protected there) JYL was the person WWX trusted to protect and care for and comfort him above all others, yeah? She’s the one he thinks of as having his back? He doesn’t tell her about JC trying to kill him. JC tries to kill WWX three times before JYL’s death, and WWX doesn’t say a word to her about any of them. You could argue that he doesn’t want to involve her, but... JYL pretty clearly takes JC’s side every time JC starts having a go at WWX. When he chases him out of their room, when he starts snapping about how annoying WWX is, when he stabs WWX... She never outright says it, but there really does come a point where by staying neutral you’re siding with the aggressor, and she reaches that point a lot. Hell, the stabbing is one of those aforementioned near-murders! JC stabbed him! According to WWX (who downplays serious injuries, he never exaggerates them) he had to hold his guts in! WWX is talking about a pretty fucking serious injury (and JYL grew up in a cultivation sect, I don’t believe for a second she doesn’t at least know what constitutes a serious injury) while JC whines about a broken arm like it’s worse than having to physically hold your guts in until you can reach a doctor and JYL acts like those are equal! JC could easily have killed WWX and has enough training with the sword to know better than to go for a blow like that in a staged fight and JYL doesn’t even suggest he should apologise.

Honestly? The more I think about JYL the more it pisses me off that she’s treated like WWX’s best sister more than WQ is. Imagine WQ seeing one brother stab the other in the gut and take the former’s side because the latter broke the former’s arm. Imagine WQ so much as considering allowing a child to cover up the kid he’s supposed to share a room with locking him out and scaring him into running away. She wouldn’t! Because WQ sees her brothers as equals. She won’t pick WN over WWX just because they’re blood siblings; she loves them both, and will choose based on who she thinks is in the right. And she wouldn’t just stay neutral to avoid rocking the boat, oh no. If WQ heard WWX say that WN stabbed him and did enough damage that he had to hold his guts in... oh boy would WN have a bad day. The thing with JYL is that she seems like a good sister in comparison to the rest of the Jiangs; stick canon JYL into a family that genuinely loves WWX and sees him as equal to their other children, and she would not look anywhere near as good.

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Random post-canon/backstory MDZS headcanon #3

After spending so much time with LSZ, WWX got a lot of opportunity to learn more about his adoptive son. So he often asks LXC, LJY and LWJ stories about LSZ’s childhood. And so he learned about  the influences of the adults in LSZ’s life and how it affected his personality and behavior.

For example, while his gentle and diplomatic personality obviously came from the influence of his equally diplomatic uncle (no example needed to be mention, it was pretty obvious seeing as LWJ has all but appointed LSZ as his spokesman), one could sometimes still spot here and there the tiny bits of pure stubbornness that were all LWJ. 

During the period where LWJ had been bedridden due to his injuries, LSZ was only allowed to visit him once a month [in an utter bitterly mirror of what happened with Madam Lan]...  Except that LSZ despite not remembering his past had separation issues and was absolutely anxious at the idea of not seeing LWJ often... So in the beginning LQR would panic anytime he lost sight of LSZ who apparently was very good at disappearing on him, only to find him later in the Jingshi, snuggled beside a sleeping LWJ. 

After the tenth times basically LQR gave up on lecturing him and just let him live in the Jingshi. [By the way what LQR didn’t know was that LXC had been purposely helping LSZ sneaking away, because he’s still fucking bitter about their childhood and didn’t want his nephew to grow up like them]  

According to LJY, LSZ was also prone to bouts of mischievousness though it manifested in such a way that most of the time no one ever see it coming and even if they did, they never directly connect it with LSZ (even when LSZ pranked them right in their face). It used to drive LJY crazy when they were kids but now he just finds it hilarious, especially since he realized that LSZ seriously lacked self-awareness on that matter.

Because whenever LSZ planned to prank someone or break the rules, he’d copy the rules two times preemptively. And he thought that the teachers/people in charge were aware of it and so when he inevitably got caught for pranking someone/breaking the rules they won’t add any punishment because LSZ had already punish himself. That’s the argument LSZ gave to LJY whenever the latter mocked LSZ about never getting into trouble even when he wanted to. 

And so, to prove his point, one day when they were something like ten or eleven, LJY had thrown LSZ’s stash of self-punishment right in front of a senior and casually said “Sizhui was the one who gave a small stash extra-candies to the shidis. He disciplined himself accordingly, please verify his work.” And the senior’s reaction was to laugh and shake his head, “You really don’t need to find such excuses to copy rules, we all know Sizhui loves to copy rules on his free time! Sizhui is such a diligent disciple, don’t be ashamed of what you like to do.” LSZ: ...... LJY *laughing his ass off and vindictively pointing at his best friend*: See! It’d probably take befriended demonic cultivators or fierce corpses for anyone to notice you did something wrong and punish you! [Jingyi has super prophetic powers, fight me]

Of course when WWX learned about it he laughed his ass off, patting LSZ on the shoulder and telling him how proud he was. WWX: I was afraid that growing up with the Lans would have make you all mature and all... But I’m so glad there’s still some of that little shit who used to con Lan Zhan into buying him toys in you. LSZ *with a straight face* : Wei-qianbei, if you don’t stop laughing I’ll add a dozen cups of salt in your chili oil... WWX, narrowing his eyes: you’re bluffing. LSZ *smiling serenely*

About like two weeks later, the entire Gusu Lan sect saw WWX making a weird dying noise right after eating a bit of his spicy dish and then coughing and rushing to gulp down a whole barrel of water. All the while cursing, while LSZ just sweetly smiled in the background and LJY patted him on the back. LJY: See, Wei-qianbei, I told you, right in the face, and you still didn’t saw him coming.

What came as a surprise to WWX is that apparently, sometimes seemingly out of the blue [but not really, you just needed to notice the warning signs] LSZ would almost totally forego the “good and sweet diplomatic route” and immediately jump into the “still polite but with a cold and very sharp edge that will stab you one hundred times where it hurt most”.

LSZ has a very distinctive line when it concerns disparaging words or attacks towards his family and whoever he considers his friends and well.... As all of his acquaintances are pretty much badasses, he usually doesn’t really feel the need to intervene, they can pretty much fight their own battle themselves... But if he even feels the slightest hint that his friends/family are unsettled then he’d immediately plant himself like this huge mountain right between whatever threats and his friends/family and then - regardless of whom he’s talking to - he’ll cause a huge scene where he’ll demand a public apology.

LJY used to be bullied when he was a kid because he was too loud and brash and didn’t know how to act like a Lan at all [I hc that LJY’s parents are actually both Lan, coming from two different branches, which technically makes him the most Lan to ever Lan]. And whenever it happened LSZ would come to his rescue, standing right in front of him. Then he’d proceed to list all the rules that the other party had broken before ending with “Please apologize to Jingyi and then go to Hanguang-Jun for discipline.”

After hearing about those, WWX felt a strange pang in his heart without really knowing why... For some reasons, LSZ’s behavior just seemed very familiar.

It’s only when he himself witnessed one of those as LSZ defended JL that it clicked. It was JYL... LSZ was acting like WWX’s shijie.

So it turned out that LWJ had raised LSZ in a way that he thought WWX would have like his son to be raised. And whose values and behaviors better than WWX’s beloved shijie? But the thing is, LWJ didn’t really know much about JYL personally... The few things that he knew was what he heard from WWX: she was gentle, caring, made the best lotus root pork ribs soup ever, loved her brothers very much and that was about it. 

But  LWJ did witness the Phoenix Mountain scene.... and boy did it made a lasting impression in his mind. And that’s what he ended up teaching LSZ too. [ Small LSZ of course didn’t know that the person in LWJ’s story was JYL but he still thrived to emulate that amazing person]