#mxtx side characters masterpost

[web-novel-polls]

MXTX Side Characters Masterpost (Completed)

Type: Double-Elimination Tournament

Submissions 

All Brackets

Tag: #mxtx side characters tournament 

Posting Time: 12 pm CST

Completed

Upper 

Round 1: Side A & B 

Round 2: Side A 

Round 2: Side B

Round 3

Semifinals 

Finals - Winner: Jiang Cheng

Lower

Round 1: Side A & B

Round 2: Side A 

Round 2: Side B 

Round 3 

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Semifinals

Finals - Winner: Shang Qinghua

Grand Finals - Winner: Jiang Cheng

Character List under the cut

Jin Ling from MDZS

Submission 1: He may be a brat, but he has a good heart and a friendly dog. He thinks he's the main character of a much less intense story which keeps almost getting him killed 

Submission 2: Bestest boy in the whole world. He's got a dog! A helicopter uncle! His dad's sword! Yeah he can be a little brat but he's SIXTEEN okay (or thirteen, or whatever, MXTX HELP) and he's got an incredible capacity for forgiveness. He's so good! 

Daoist nuns triplets from SVSSS

Submission: Authors of "Song of BingQiu" and the true culprits behind the ass wine extra. Stop crediting Liu Mingyan with their hard work! 

Jiang Yanli from MDZS

“Madam Jin. A-Xian is my younger brother. A humiliation to him is not something trivial to me.” - Drama

Elder Sister Syndrome in its highest form who is just trying to protect her loved ones despite having little talent in cultivation. 

Wiki Link

Xue Yang from MDZS

Submission: It's not that he's evil. He lacks empathy and he goes into a disassociative state and commits atrocities. 

Additional Propaganda

Yin Yu from TGCF

Submission: The guy of all time. The most average god ever. Someone give him a break. His face is so average that Xie Lian thought it was fake 

Xiao Xingchen from MDZS

No propaganda submitted

Originally a disciple of Baoshan Sanren, Xiao Xingchen left his home knowing he wouldn’t ever be allowed to return in the sole hopes of saving and helping others. He meets and befriends Song Lan, who later loses his eyes and home to Xue Yang. Xiao Xingchen begs Baoshan Sanren to give Song Lan his eyes, choosing to wander the world blind. Due to sacrificing his eyes, he’s unable to recognize Xue Yang, who tricks him into killing innocent people and later, Song Lan, the person he wanted to save the most. 

Wiki Link

Qin Wanyue from SVSSS

Submission: Scum Villain's wettest and most pathetic loser! Of course, she's so pathetic that she's constantly overshadowed by more bombastically pathetic characters, but I think she deserves her chance at recognition. 

Wiki Link

Bai Jing / Brocade Immortal from TGCF

Submission: no 1 ling wen simp (just like me fr)

Wiki Link

A-Qing from MDZS

Submission: She's so smart. She tricked so many people into thinking she was blind for so long. Also, she was really kind and considerate. Like she didn't have to save all of those people from Xue Yang. Oh and she's an excellent judge of character and super brave. Really hope she wins, she's such a fun little genius girl 

Mu Qingfang from SVSSS

Submission: Ppl tend to completely forget he has a mad scientist side (see Jinlan arc) and if he gets into the tournament I'll have a reason to bring it up. 

Additional Propaganda

Ling Wen from TGCF

Submission: Girlboss. Did nothing wrong

One of the Three Tumors - three Heavenly Officials that have some of the worst reputations after Xie Lian (“the laughing stock of the three realms”) - and was accused of, like, killing a dude or smth but was accepted back into Heaven on the sole basis that she’s the only administratively competent god

Pei Ming from TGCF

One of the Three Tumors - three Heavenly Officials that have some of the worst reputations after Xie Lian (“the laughing stock of the three realms”) - due to his EXTENSIVE manwhore ways. Like, when the ghost mother of a fetus spirit claims her child is/was the child of a Heavenly Official, EVERYONE thinks it’s him. What can he say, his reputation precedes him 

Additional Propaganda 1

Shang Qinghua / Airplane from SVSSS

Submission: He's a sidekick and he's so sidelined that despite creating the universe he's treated as an afterthought - doubly a side character! But also? So relateable. He would absolutely have been on tumblr in his first life, he gets so excited about his blorbo who treats him terribly (until they finally get a happy ending in the extras - also! he has to wait for the extras to get his happy ending! very side-character of him). He holds the fascinating position of being mostly irrelevant to the story and yet without him the themes would totally fail. He deserves a win on something for once, okay? 

Wen Qing from MDZS

Submission 1: Doctor, mad scientist, war criminal, protective big sister... she has the range!!

Submission 2: Wen Qing my beloved!! She did surgery on a grape. Mad genius for real. Also a loving sister with a very sharp tongue and maybe no sense of how far is too far. Can't wait for them to find her alive in a Koi Tower basement!

Submission 3: Justice for my girl!!!! 

Submission 4: She's bitchy and pragmatic and cares deeply and did an unprecedented operation (experimental and nonconsensual!), what's not to love? Also she deserved better. 

Bichen from MDZS

Lan Wangji’s sword

Submission: this sword has been through a lot…

Wiki Link 

Fairy from MDZS

Jin Ling’s dog that was gifted to him by Jin Guangyao 

Submission: The cutest, smartest, and goodest doggo! She's the one who led WangXian to the Nie sword tomb to save Jin Ling! and led Jiang Cheng to Guanyin Temple to save Jin Ling! and led Lan cultivators to the temple to help Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen (and Jin Ling!)

Wiki Link

Ning Yingying from SVSSS 

Submission: Her glow-up in the SVSSS timeline is real! Instead of becoming Luo Binghe's childhood sweetheart, she roasts him for referring to her too familiarly. Love this for her. 

Su Xiyan from SVSSS

Wiki Link

Mobei-jun from SVSSS

Submission: He's a demon tsundere who doesn't realize his human boyfriend is scared and easily squishable. Got demoted from king to cabinet minister during a hostile takeover but is pretty chill about it. Huge boobs. 

Zhuzhi-lang from SVSSS

Submission 1: Snake boy my beloved

Submission 2: I love him

LBH’s Harem from SVSSS

Submission: Binghe's harem the whole collection all of them together an amalgamation of all the wives 

Known Members: Little Palace Mistress, Liu Mingyan, Ning Yingying, Qin Wanrong, Qin Wanyue, Qiu Haitang, Sha Hualing 

Jiang Cheng from MDZS

Submission 1: Extremely traumatized yet also somehow the most normal and functional by the end. Huge bitch but I (and at least one of the other characters) think he deserves to be even worse after everything he's been through

Submission 2: Simultaneously badass and the most cringefail man. Extremely funny and stylish but still manages to be very uncool. Cries a lot. Also he's lost a lot of tumblr polls—let's give him another shot! We definitely love him more than his dad did!

Submission 3: He's got mommy issues AND daddy issues. He loves his sister and his shige so much. He's traumatised and incredibly competent. He rebuilt his whole sect! He's an asshole (affectionate). He's purple! He's got the coolest weapon ever conceived. I'm so worried about his blood pressure basically all the time. 

Su Minshan / Su She from from MDZS

Submission 1: Idk I just kinda like him

Submission 2: Look at him having his own life and grudges and friendships and priorities completely unrelated to the main characters! He was so right to curse Jin Zixun 

Additional Propaganda

Tianlang-jun from SVSSS

Submission: Incredible character who does it like him 

#bro tlj read porn abt his son and his teacher and just assumed thats what happened #and then tried to hook his nephew up with said teacher #he also is introduced lounging in a coffin #oh and he is a sugar baby #its true no one does it like him (via @galsjustwannahavefun)

Additional Propaganda 1

Quan Yizhen from TGCF

Submission: He's a good boi and thinking about him makes me cry a lil'.

Literally only ascended to Heaven to follow his shixiong, hated it, and then his shixiong was cast out for trying to kill him. Also, the “revered-martial-artist-who-beats-up-his-supporters/subordinates-and-is-still-loved” trope

Song Lan from MDZS

No propaganda submitted 

Died to the one person he desperately wanted to apologize to (Xiao Xingchen), and when Xiao Xingchen, unable to recognize him due to giving Song Lan his eyes, killed him, Song Lan chose not to use his sword, knowing Xiao Xingchen would recognize it 

Wiki Link

Lan Xichen from MDZS

Submission: Pay your respects to the captain of the WangXian ship! Those idiots would keep pining for another 13282627 years if it weren't for him! 

Additional Propaganda 1

Additional Propaganda 2

Additional Propaganda 3

Sha Hualing from SVSSS

Submission: Her cringefail losergirl swag has captivated me 

Wiki Link

Wen Ning from MDZS

Submission emitted for potential character hate

Chose kindness again and again - sheltering Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng from the other Wens, sacrificing himself with his sister to save Wei Wuxian and the Wen Remnants - only to inadvertently/paritally cause Wei Wuxian’s downfall & the seige on the Burial Mounds with his own hands by killing Jin Zixuan (not of his own will, btw). Another tragic character who sacrificed and put himself at risk to protect people who died anyway 

Additional Propaganda 

Gongyi Xiao from SVSSS

Submission: He is such a Good Person who didn't deserve his fate :( 

Mianmian / Luo Qingyang from MDZS

Highly principled and strong-willed. Immediately left her clan after they mocked her for supposedly having feelings for Wei Wuxian when she literally just mentioned he didn't kill indiscriminately. Now living her best life as a rogue cultivator with her husband and child.

She saw the injustice of her own clan firsthand and decided, “I'm not going to be a part of this. You're not listening to me, so fuck y'all.” And honestly, based. 

Wiki Link

Six Balls from SVSSS

Submission: When he was born he weighed as much as six balls. Current ball number unknown.

Liu Qingge from SVSSS

#great sect brother! Dependable reliable and most of the time sorta sane #Great big brother to his younger sister #Stablest person around by a lot (still pretty off the rails) #Fought someone better than him every day for five years to get his best friend's body back for a burial #Got rescued from the plot for the specific purpose of saving someone back #and then had to watch that someone repeatedly not let him save them (via @rights-for-redshirts)

Shen Jiu from SVSSS

Submission: 

He is a tragedy incarnate. He's got a tragic backstory, lives a tragic life, and meets a tragic end. Yeah, he's a child abuser and kind of a piece of shit, and being horrifically traumatized doesn't excuse that, but have you considered: He's my baby boy.

I just think he needs some kindness and deserves some nice things happening to him for once :'(

Also Airplane did him dirty

[nyerus]

A Masterpost for the Revised Version of TGCF

Due to the amount and frequency of misinformation about the revised version of TGCF, I wanted to make a post to serve as a resource for those who are confused about it, while also helping to debunk some of the sensationalist rumors floating around.

This post will be edited to include new things as needed.

⚠️Spoiler Warning: if you have not finished reading the original novel, or want to experience the new scenes from the revised naturally/fresh, please proceed with caution! I've intentionally kept things as vague as possible, but some spoilers are unavoidable!⚠️

✨ PART ONE: Frequently Asked Questions ✨

🔹What is the "revised" version of TGCF?

MXTX had been working on a revised version of TGCF since completing the original, as mentioned this in her postscript/afterword, and in an online interview (Q.27) done years ago just as she competed TGCF. That's all that was known for several years.

In early 2023, TGCF was finally released in print format in mainland China — and this was revealed to be the revised version! Due to regulations, this was a censored edition. However, in early 2024, the uncensored edition was uploaded to JJWXC (the site where all of MXTX's webnovels were originally published)! It's currently fully available to read in Simplified Chinese.

If you want a more in-depth explanation about the revised, please see my post about that here.

🔹What does the revised change compared to the original?

Several scenes have been added, some removed, others expanded upon. Overall, MXTX reportedly wrote 100k characters (words) of new content. While the overarching plot of each arc and the novel as a whole remains the same, it's a more cohesive and polished story. Pacing in each part of the story has been adjusted to flow better, especially in arcs notorious for feeling slow or disjointed.

Some segments have had fairly significant changes — namely the Bloody Banquet/Fang Xin Guoshi arc. (Though it still plays out much the same way.) Most others have smaller changes.

A new extra was also added, called "the Ghost King Dressed Down," which has been translated by Scarabsi on twitter.

🔹How does the revised version effect characters?

Apart from certain minor characters — such as the child Lang Ying who was removed entirely — there haven't been many drastic changes. The biggest thing was side characters like Lang Qianqiu and Ling Wen being given notably more backstory to further flesh them out. Their characterization itself hasn't changed, however.

🔹Which version is canon, then?

Whichever you want, and you can mix-and-match! MXTX has given fans her blessings and encouragement!

🔹How do I read the revised version in English?

Currently, there are no official or unofficial English translations of the whole revised version. Nor are there any plans to do so for the near future.

However, there are English fan translations of a few notable chapters, which you can read here. There's also instructions on that site on how to read the rest of the updated webnovel in English, using a browser extension.

Additionally, the audio drama is adapting the uncensored revised version, and has been doing an amazing job! Check out how to listen to that with English subs here.

✨PART TWO: Debunking Rumors & Clearing up Misinformation✨

Note that all chapter numbers given will be referencing the webnovel's. The old chapters are also available towards the bottom of the page as "serialized versions."

(Translated screenshots provided are janky because it's just basic google MTL!)

🔸"Mentions of Mu Qing's mother was removed from the revised!"

Not at all! Both his parents are still mentioned, along with how Mu Qing is the primary breadwinner due to his mom's failing eyesight. (Ch. 57)

🔸"The earring scene isn't there anymore!"

The earring scene is still very much there! Not actually sure why this is a rumor at all, when the whole earring thing spans several chapters. Here's the conclusion of it (Ch. 59):

🔸"Characters have been butchered in general, with Mu Qing especially getting scenes cut!"

No character (who didn't straight-up get deleted) has been butchered. Nor has any character been singled out for having their scenes deleted/changed, because that's happened to every character — yes, including Xie Lian and Hua Cheng! — and they also have new scenes added!

E.g. the scene where Mu Qing picks the cherries is removed, because that whole section was changed. (However, it's still mentioned that others are prejudiced against him due to his background, and so on.) Meanwhile, there's a brand-new scene that shows Mu Qing's aptitude in treating wounds, as well as he and Feng Xin having new hijinks as "junior officials" with Xie Lian, and more.

Despite the rumors, characters haven't been flattened to make them more one-dimensional compared to Hualian. Perhaps the idea of certain scenes being cut sounds scary for characterization, but a lot of the original has been retained one way or another. In many cases, MXTX just condensed things, or moved them around. The revised is meant to be looked at as a whole, after all.

🔸"Mu Qing now leaves for no reason in Book/Arc 4, instead of for his mother!"

Mu Qing clearly states in the revised that he wants to leave in order to find a way to improve their situation, since they anyways cannot agree amongst themselves. Just like in the original, he was frustrated and felt there was no point in continuing along the same path. (Ch 152)

And yes, he does not bring up his mother in the revised scene. For context: there is a three year gap between the end of Book/Arc 2 and the start of 4. Which means in the original, Mu Qing didn't mention his mother for those three years. Given the events leading to his departure, and what follows, this causes several inconsistencies.

That is a whole topic unto itself, however. But it's not surprising the revised did it a bit differently.

🔸"Feng Xin isn't as funny anymore!"

Feng Xin is actually one of the least changed characters! This rumor likely stems from the scene where Xie Lian reveals his password, to Feng Xin, who no longer rolls on the floor while laughing. Or maybe it's a miscommunication based on the printed revised, which censored some of his (and Qi Rong's) cursing. But that was only for the printed!

🔸"Ling Wen's character isn't as interesting because of the changes!"

People will really say anything on the internet. She's been given more depth and complexity, if anything. There's new scenes that expand on her background and early days in heaven, and her relationship with Bai Jing has been given a lot of extra attention. Her motivations and actions remain the same, but if the subtext was missed in the original, it could have led to some readers thinking of Ling Wen as certain way. Like a ruthless girlboss.

The revised reiterating that this isn't the case doesn't change or detract from her, as that was one of the points of her story to begin with. Plus, the revised arc gives Bai Jing much-needed characterization.

🔸"Ling Wen's ascension is now due to Jing Wen/not on her own merit/etc!"

Frankly, this rumor might be due to people not properly understanding how ascension works in TGCF, and thinking the revised is adding something that they forgot was already in the original. The revised didn't change anything about the manner in which Ling Wen ascended.

You can actually check out the revised Brocade Immortal arc here for yourself, as it's been fan translated!

🔸"The dynamic between Hualian is different in the revised!"

Their dynamic is exactly the same as before, only reinforced if anything. If the new additions are enough to destroy someone’s image of Hualian or turn it on its head, that’s definitely not a fault with either novel version!

🔸"The scene where Hua Cheng is disguised as Lang Ying and accidentally catches Xie Lian bathing is removed!"

Unfortunately, yes, the bathing scene is gone. However, Hua Cheng in disguise is still there — he's a village kid instead.

🔸"MXTX made changes to side characters/ships because she felt threatened by their popularity compared to her main couple!"

This one just doesn't really make sense, because several side characters were given *more* content — including their relationships.

Lang Qianqiu finally feels like an actual character. Quan Yizhen and Yin Yu have new stuff about them. Shi Wudu has some clever little cameos. Pei Ming’s feelings about Yushi Huang are brought up. Pei Xiu’s backstory is even more heartbreaking. Qi Rong has new scenes that make him feel genuinely menacing. Xiao Ying’s been completely revamped. These are just to name a few, and excluding things already talked about above.

It seems unlikely that MXTX would go through the trouble of adding to her side characters if she didn’t care about them, felt they weren’t important, or thought they were getting undeserved attention. Besides, popular characters like Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan had no cuts to their arc!

Looking at the actual metrics… MXTX has no need to feel threatened by her side ships vs her main ships.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 38 part one

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)  

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!  

OK But Why?

This tale-within-a-tale is excruciating, yeah? So let's start off by considering why it even exists. Yi City feels like, if not a fully separate story, a pretty complete arc that can play as its own little movie. And it's incredibly sad, in every direction. While it may have begun life, in its originally-written form, as a different story exploring some of the same themes, MXTX placed it in the novel deliberately, and the producers of CQL included it deliberately. Why? Other than the, you know, catharsis of a well-wrought tragedy?

I think the answer is that it tells a set of parallel stories, alternate versions of the stories our main characters inhabit, with different outcomes driven by the character's choices. There's an obvious parallel between Lan Wangji's grief and Song Lan's, and another clear one between Wei Wuxian's core donation and Xiao Xingchen's eyeball donation. 

And there's an important comparison to be made between Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian, two demonic cultivators. They share some formative experiences, but have followed radically different paths, shaped, at a key moment, by another person's choice. 

Overall, the Yi City story illustrates how choices made in a moment affect not just an individual life, but ripple outward into other lives. So be prepared for me to point out parallels even more than usual, as we go through these episodes.

Empathy

We start off learning about Empathy and how it’s sooper dangerous, which means of course Wei Wuxian is totally down for it and probably invented it.  He gathers the kids around and assigns Jin Ling to be the person in charge of supervising and deciding when to pull him out of the matrix link. 

Jin Ling is surprised and reluctant so teacher’s pet Sizhui jumps forward and volunteers. 

Wei Wuxian asks Jin Ling for his Jiang clarity bell, which is on a tassel that used to be Jiang Yanli’s. 

(more behind the cut!)

Once the bell/tassel is out of Jin Ling’s hand, however, he changes his mind and snatches it, and the responsibility, back. 

It seems like Sizhui might recognize this tassel? 

It’s like the one Jiang Yanli gave Wei Wuxian when they met up before her wedding, which means Wei Wuxian would have had it with him during their year in the burial mounds. 

Jingyi disapproves of Jin Ling’s mind-changing, which is a little unfair since JL didn’t actually say “no” prior to Sizhui putting in his oar. (Sizhui is entirely loveable, but he is also a pushy brown-noser just like Lan Wangji was at his age. He just does it so sweetly that nobody minds.)

Sizhui, also like his Lan dad, has made it his life’s mission to manage a loudmouth hothead’s temper for him. 

Heading into empathy with A-Qing, we get flashes of bits of the story that we're about to see in depth. Then we jump to "ten years ago" which, given the way this series does math, probably means seven years ago.

Side note: A-Qing has managed to keep her hair looking pretty cute despite being 90% dead. 

Splish Splash

This particular section of the Wuxia River of Sadness is reserved for people who are contemplating the total mess they have made of their lives (gifset here), but A-Qing didn't get that memo, so she's having a nice time splashing joyfully without a care in the world.

A-Qing isn't about drama or being depressed, even when things are pretty difficult. She has found a big rock to sit on and is having a nice day hanging out on it.  

Then she goes skipping along singing "la la la la" (which is the same sound in Chinese as we make in English when we're singing and don't know the words, incidentally). Ok, show, we get it, she's happy and carefree. I sure hope she doesn't get involved in any weird relationships.

Grifting

She sees a couple of women walking on the path and she starts pretending to be blind. In the book, this pretense was facilitated by her having completely white eyes, but in the show she has normal brown eyes, until she actually is blinded by Xue Yang. So her entire pretense of being blind is to unfocus her eyes a bit and wave her hands around...

...with frequent intervals where she thinks no-one is watching her, and she acts 100% like she can see. Somehow she is almost never busted for this. 

The ladies give her a steamed bun and whisper loudly to each other about how pitiful she is. 

Then she heads into town for a little grifting, picking a wealthy douchebag as a mark. She bumps into him and steals his money bag, which he doesn't notice because he's too busy creeping on her. 

She's annoyed and disappointed that he doesn't have a lot of money.

Hey Pretty, Don’t You Want To Take a Ride With Me

Next she bumps into (and robs) Xiao Xingchen, who is actually blind, so he doesn’t notice her noticing how extremely pretty he is. 

He does notice that she has robbed him, however. 

Did you know if you have your eyes removed or even just damaged so you can't see any more, your eye sockets and/or tear ducts will bleed pretty much forever? Yeah, me neither. 

Xiao Xingchen immediately takes charge of A-Qing, telling her to walk more slowly and then telling her - kindly - to return his money purse. Before she can answer him, the rich douchebag comes back to yell at her and try to hit her. Xiao Xingchen stops him and smooths over the situation, and then lectures Ah Qing about stealing and how it's bad. But he tells her to keep his money, so - mixed messages, bro. 

She calls him gege and says that since he's blind and she's blind, she's going to follow him forever. He’s like, okey dokey, and they walk off together. Is she really the first person (since Song Lan) who’s had this idea about him? He is *very* pretty, after all.

It's unclear to me if she's calling him gege in the sense of “orphan girl who wants a family,” or in the sense of “mostly-grown-up woman who would like to Hit That.” Xiao Xingchen appears to take it as the former; he is too gay virtuous for the other option.

Two seconds after they decide to stay together, they encounter Xue Yang lying injured by the side of the road. A-Qing pretends she didn’t see him, and almost successfully wangles a piggyback ride out of Xiao Xingchen. 

But then he hears Xue Yang and immediately decides to rescue him, like the do-gooder Xue Yang despises him for being.

Xue Yang gets the romance-tropey piggyback ride that A-Qing was hoping for. Girl, the time to stop trying to seduce your gay male friend is 5 minutes before you started, ok?  

So...why was Xue Yang lying by the side of the road with a stab wound? Who gave it to him? If Jin Guangyao was sick of him, he would have stabbed him 100% fatally, and he wouldn't have let him hang on to Tiger Seal 2.0. And presumably Xue Yang wouldn’t think of him as a friend any more. It’s a mystery.

The new throuple decide to go to the creepiest abandoned walled city that has ever existed, and head past all the regular houses to set up camp in the morgue, for some reason. Not even inside one of the buildings; just out in the courtyard with a bunch of possibly-occupied coffins. Xiao Xingchen is so fucking weird. 

Each Unhappy Family is Unhappy in its Own Way

Xiao Xingchen gets to work patching Xue Yang up, and Xue Yang wakes up and recognizes him. A-Qing explains that they are blind and tells him not to be rude about it.

Xue Yang takes a second to process the situation, and then decided he’s going to hide his identity and make nice with Xiao Xingchen. Proving that found family can also have hideous toxic dynamics.

Xue Yang is very careful to keep XXC from touching his hand, since that would give away his identity. He has a...prosthetic finger? He wears a black glove and keeps his pinky finger straight so we know it's a replacement, or injured, or something. 

I think this is a concession to Wang Haoxuan having ten functional fingers and the show having a limited CGI budget. In a real sword-based society, missing a finger is probably not particularly uncommon, and he would probably just rock the nine-fingered look without having a special glove.

At this point, the complex interactions of the trio get rolling. Xiao Xingchen is honestly kind, Xue Yang is fake-kind, A-Qing is fake-unaware with Xue Yang and is unable to make Xiao Xingchen understand the problem, and Xiao Xingchen is genuinely unaware of everything. 

We spend a fairly large amount of time with Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen playing happy families. As part of his false persona, Xue Yang adopts a coy and whiny tone when talking to his pet white-clad cultivator, remarkably like another demonic cultivator we know.

I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian has never managed to cop a feel while his sweetie climbs up a ladder, however. 

Then again, neither Lan Wangji nor Wei Wuxian has ever needed a ladder to get onto a roof, so maybe it’s just a lack of opportunity. 

This relationship, on the surface, is cute and sweet, which just makes the reality of it more disturbing. It’s super uncomfortable to watch, but there’s more than manipulation happening in these interactions. As Xue Yang flits around doing domestic tasks like patching the roof of the crappy outdoor shelter that they absolutely do not need to be using, he tells Xiao Xingchen various true things about his early life, and we begin to see what shaped him. 

Xue Yang (like OP) is obsessed with candy. In Xue Yang’s case, he was a hungry street kid who loved candy but couldn’t usually have it because of poverty. We learn that he has skills in patching up inadequate housing because he did it growing up. 

And we learn that he was beaten a lot. 

So he and Wei Wuxian have these things in common - except now Wei Wuxian gets his sugar from alcohol, not from candy. And Wei Wuxian’s handyman skills are used to make a home for his former enemies in the burial grounds, while Xue Yang’s are used - also in a cemetery, of sorts - to manipulate and trap his enemy. 

I Want Candy

In classic predator form, Xue Yang uses candy to lure A-Qing into coming within stabbing range, because he thinks she’s faking her blindness and wants to test her.  

I find him super attractive right here in spite of his evilness. I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s offering candy. (OP goes and gets a jolly rancher out of her purse). 

After calling her over, he draws his sword with a super-loud "sshshk" noise that she inexplicably doesn't notice, and she bravely walks up to, and nearly on to, the point of the sword. 

This shocks him and convinces him that she's really blind. He sits her down with apparently sincere gentleness, and gives her candy, while quizzing her about her hot gege.

A-Qing tries to warn Xiao Xingchen about Xue Yang being a bad guy, pointing out that he's a cultivator and won't tell them his name. (She can’t say “also he tried to stab me” because she’d have to come clean about being able to see.) Xiao Xingchen, because he is a condescending prick--albeit a very sweet one--pats her on the fucking head and laughs off her extremely useful warning. 

Xiao Xingchen came out into the wider world with a set of ideals that he lives by, apparently without examining them. He’s humble, kind, frugal, and wants to eradicate evil. He also believes that the majority of people are good like him, and that detecting evil is simple--as simple as following his sword toward it. He doesn’t allow A-Qing, who is experienced in the wider world, to teach him anything, preferring to keep his ideals untarnished.

Contrast this with Lan Wangji, who also starts his journey into the wider world with a set of ideals (codified as rules), but does not make the mistake of assuming that other people shares his beliefs. Once he’s away from the Cloud Recesses, he follows Wei Wuxian’s lead when dealing with new people, rather than insisting on doing things the way he did back home. In general, he is open to having his beliefs challenged, even when it makes him upset or uncomfortable. As a result, he grows into a righteous man, not a naïve one, and he’s fully capable of identifying enemies even when they appear to be friends.

Bonus: 

In this brief long-distance shot we learn that A-Qing sleeps in a coffin, which is some next level goth girl shit. 

Soundtrack: 1. Hey Pretty by Poe 2. I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow 3. Cheap Thrills by Sia

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

After Each Midnight Begins A New Day

Extra #13 - Mo Xuanyu and Lan Jingyi

[Listen, real question: What do I start calling these things that I write in this universe that aren't actually extras for the main fic? I call them all extras because that's what I started out writing alongside the main fic, but this is just straight up a different fic in the same universe, only very tangentially related to the main work. Is it still an extra? What is this??]

[P.S. This is completely self-indulgent fluff and Gender Feelings that I started writing last spring but never actually posted. Am I projecting so hard on Mo Xuanyu I essentially created a brand new character? Lol yeah, and many thanks to MXTX for not fleshing him out much at all in canon. He's free real estate.]

[Masterpost]

-/-

Jinlintai is about as gaudy as Jingyi had expected it to be, just judging based on Jin Ling’s usual wardrobe and his haughty attitude that he still hasn’t managed to drop around them completely even after years of friendship.

He climbs the stairs of the tower with Zizhen and Sizhui making suitably impressed noises on either side of him. He nearly breaks their act when he meets Zizhen’s eyes and starts snickering at the disbelieving look he finds there (‘oh gods it’s even worse than we pictured’ his eyes scream and Jingyi knows his are screaming back ‘I know I know I know!!!’) but thankfully they’re saved by Sizhui stepping neatly on his foot with that serene smile of his still on his lips.

“Be kind,” Sizhui murmurs under his breath, too low for Jin Ling to overhear, and Jingyi shares an eyeroll with Zizhen. The day those two admit that they like each other is going to be the day all four of their lives get so much easier, honestly.

Thankfully when they reach the top they’re quickly swept into a receiving pavilion to be officially greeted by Jin Zongzhu and Madam Jin, the two of them clearly happy to have the three of them visiting. It’s a lovely welcome, and the moment the official greetings are over Jin Ling’s siblings are just as clingy and wild as their friend had warned them. It’s funny though, and the children are clearly happy so Jingyi doesn’t mind one bit. Jin Fei, at least, is clearly looking forward to having other people close to his age to hang out with besides Jin Ling, and Lan Jingyi suspects the twins are going to be equally as interested in spending time with them as new sparring partners if nothing else.

Jingyi is a little embarrassed when it takes him a few days to realize that there’s one member of the family who’s notoriously absent any time they’re all gathered in the same place.

“Hey-“ he finally says a few days into the visit, “Where’s your weird uncle you’re always whining about?”

“Yu-shushu? He’s uh…He’s busy,” Jin Ling deflects very poorly. Really, they’ll need to work on sharpening up his lying skills but for now it’s more fun to torment him, which is how he finds an excuse to grab Zizhen so they can both sit on their stupid best friend while Wen Sizhui laughs at their antics. 

-/-

For all his teasing and cajoling when Jin Ling had said he was inviting his friends to Jinlintai for a few weeks, Mo Xuanyu is actually really happy for his nephew. Of course Jin Ling and his siblings are all fond of each other, and their enormous but ridiculously close family is pretty much a built-in friend group, but Mo Xuanyu is still proud of Jin Ling for going out into the world and making successful and fulfilling connections in the other sects.

And he knows Jin Ling probably didn’t really mean anything by asking Mo Xuanyu to hold off on meeting them. He’s much like Jin Zixuan in that way, back when he had been younger - talking first and only thinking about implications once the words are already out. Mo Xuanyu is as willing to be generous with Jin Ling as he was with Jin Zixuan so many years ago, fumbling his way through trying to comfort him, trying to be a good brother, trying to show him he cared about him.

He’s willing to give Jin Ling the benefit of the doubt and assume that his request has more to do with him not wanting Mo Xuanyu’s feelings to be hurt by his friends’ potentially negative reactions to meeting him, rather than embarrassment at having his friends see him related to someone like Mo Xuanyu.

Probably.

Maybe.

He knows he’s eccentric, is the thing. And that it’s perfectly fine and normal as long as it’s just the family around, or when Jin Zixuan lets him tell off asshole sect leaders who think they have a right to dictate how he acts in his own home because he makes them uncomfortable.

But Jin Ling is easily embarrassed, easily flustered, and Mo Xuanyu is pretty sure he wants to impress his guests (mostly because he’s pretty sure Jin Ling has a crush on at least one of these new friends of his, judging by how often the name ‘Wen Sizhui’ gets dropped). 

Well, he amends, they’re not really new. Jin Ling had first met them years ago in Cloud Recesses when it was his turn for the summer lectures, but this is the first time any of them are coming here to Jinlintai rather than just meeting each other out on their night hunts or whenever Jin Ling travels with Jin Zixuan for sect business. So: new to seeing Jinlintai, new to meeting the family - new to meeting him, and he knows he’s a lot to take in.

He doesn’t judge Jin Ling for asking him to hide for a little bit, at least until his friends are more settled and they don’t have to worry about the boys becoming..overwhelmed by the force of his personality.

In the end, though, when he does meet them it’s entirely by accident and not his fault, Jin Ling, get over it.

He’s busy doing his favorite thing to keep himself entertained when everyone else is busy : he’s escorting little Jin Ye through Jinlintai wherever she wants to go and treating her like a princess. She’s the only one of her siblings still young enough not to be annoyed by his antics, to still find him absolutely delightful like her siblings once had, and he loves spending time with her in return, knowing that she’ll always appreciate it. He knows his family and the servants appreciate it too, that he keeps her out of trouble and in doing so keeps himself out from under their feet as well. Everybody wins that way, and Mo Xuanyu, for all the noise he makes about not wanting children of his own (which is true), loves spoiling his youngest niece as much as humanly possible.

This afternoon, he’s kneeling with her in one of the public peony gardens intently watching her watch a bug crawling across one of the closed buds of a Sparks Amidst Snow. They’ve been here for a while, which means his lap is already full of some of the choicest early blooms - according to Jin Ye’s impeccable taste - to take back to Jiang Yanli whenever it’s time to return inside.

He looks up from Jin Ye’s concentrated little face - reluctantly - at the sound of a burst of laughter and he smiles to see Jin Ling horsing around with his friends. They’re easy to identify even just based on what he knows of their names and the clothing standards of their clans, and so he knows when it’s Lan Jingyi in his soft blues and distinctive headband who gives Jin Ling a rough shove that almost sends him toppling into the flowers, and when Wen Sizhui in his red and white is the one who rescues him at the last moment with a hand under his elbow while Jin Ling splutters his indignation. It’s Ouyang Zizhen, in his deep jewel blues and purples, who spots Mo Xuanyu first, kneeling there amongst the flowers with a hand on Jin Ye’s back to steady her as she totters to her feet to follow the bug from one flower to the next. He offers a nod and an uncertain smile, wary of Jin Ling’s desire that he not meet his friends too soon, and is prepared to duck his head again and continue with his own business when the Ouyang boy calls out to him.

“Stop it you idiots! We apologize for the disruption, guniang,” Ouyang Zizhen calls and Mo Xuanyu blinks in surprise when he looks up and realizes the boy is bowing to him, and then his face splits into a delighted grin at being addressed as such even as Jin Ling coughs on a laugh and tries poorly to hide it.

“What’s the matter with you?” Lan Jingyi snaps and Mo Xuanyu muffles a laugh of his own into his sleeve at the sharpness in his voice that’s so biting he wonders for a second if he got the names wrong in his head - he’s never heard a Lan talk like that, and he’s met plenty of them over the years.

“Yu-shushu,” Jin Ling calls wearily with a pained look on his face. Calling out to him is no doubt more of a correction of Ouyang Zizhen’s assumption of his title and status rather than any actual desire to address him in this particular moment, and Mo Xuanyu has the pleasure of watching three comically identical looks of surprise cross his friends’ faces. Ouyang Zizhen looks particularly stricken, and so it’s to him that Mo Xuanyu directs a reassuring nod.

“Hello,” he calls with a wave - and then, because he can’t help being a little shit sometimes, he adds, “Hi LingLing, long time no see. Can I finally have the honor of meeting your boyfriends?” just to see his nephew splutter and his friends blush so brightly it makes him laugh all over again.

“What are you doing out here?” Jin Ling snaps. Mo Xuanyu waves a lazy hand in his direction, dismissive as he turns his attention back to Jin Ye.

“I can go anywhere I want to, A-Ling. And my favorite person in this entire world is very determinedly chasing a bug, so I’m watching with rapt attention to make sure I don’t miss a moment of the action.”

“You’re so weird, Yu-shushu,” Jin Ling grumbles with a huff as he straightens his robes and flicks his sleeves behind his back in a gesture he absolutely learned from Jin Zixuan - Mo Xuanyu makes a mental note to tease his brother about it at the next opportunity.

“Someone in this family needs to be. I’m hoping if I spend enough time with Xiao-Ye at this age I can corrupt her into being the next black sheep to carry on my legacy,” he laughs as Jin Ye darts up and runs to another patch of the flower beds to point excitedly at a peony in full bloom.

“Shushu!!” she cries and he smiles as he gets smoothly to his feet, the cut flowers she’s already chosen clutched carefully in his hand in a loose bouquet.

“A beautiful choice yet again, Xiao-Ye, your mother will love it,” he praises as he bends to snip the stem with a small knife from his sleeve and add the flower to his handful. When he straightens again and turns around he’s nonplussed to find Jin Ling and his friends still standing there - normally Jin Ling storms off at the first opportunity when Mo Xuanyu has irritated him. “Oh. Yes?” he prompts, confused.

“You said you wanted to meet them so come over here and meet them!” Jin Ling snaps and Mo Xuanyu slowly raises a darkened eyebrow at him. He doesn’t often pull rank on Jin Ling, not seriously, but honestly...after a week and a half of being mostly shepherded to the private areas of Jinlintai to make things easier on his nephew and his friends, and then having his afternoon with his niece interrupted by their presence anyway, he’s not really in the mood to get ordered around, he doesn’t care if Jin Ling is embarrassed. And for all that they were once classmates before Mo Xuanyu decided not to seriously pursue cultivation, he is still older, both in years and generation, technically speaking. And they have company - important company.

Jin Ling at least has the good sense to look abashed and, perhaps, a touch guilty. It’s for that reason alone that Mo Xuanyu decides not to point out that he had wanted to meet Jin Ling’s friends along with the rest of the family when the boys had arrived over a week ago, not as an afterthought, as an accident, caught by surprise in the gardens when their visit is already well underway. Like he’s not as important as the rest of the family. Like he doesn’t deserve the same respect, eccentric or not.

“Come on Xiao-Ye, let’s go tell LingLing how horrible his manners are,” Mo Xuanyu ‘whispers’ plenty loudly enough to be heard by their audience as he holds his free hand out for the toddler to take. He carefully helps her pick her way through the flowers to the path and then he measures his steps to make sure he doesn’t outpace her before he comes to a stop in front of the quartet to offer a perfectly executed curtsy in response to the three visitors’ bows. He watches Jin Ling’s face go red but he thankfully has enough tact not to comment.

The thing is, Jin Ling isn’t ever really there on the extremely rare occasions when Mo Xuanyu pulls out his real manners. The manners and etiquette he had shyly asked Qin Su to teach him once she had come to Jinlintai, just as he was beginning to accept that he wasn’t going to be like the rest of the boys his age. He knows how to bow properly, his sword in his hands. He knows how to walk through the world like he owns it, like the rest of the Jin men do. But he also knows how to own it the way his sisters do - how to be soft and proper but with steel in his eyes. How to be a walking contradiction for the world to rail against every single day of his life, and do it with his head held high. His decision to act like he doesn’t know it most days is just that - a decision, a choice. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t actually know how.

(He frequently teases Jin Ling about his youth in comparison to his own age, and while it is usually a joke, he still hopes that one day Jin Ling will be able to look back on it through the lens of experience and realize that, for Mo Xuanyu, the gaps in their experiences and the way he’s been forced to grow up ahead of his time where Jin Ling has not have been blindingly obvious since the first day they met.)

“Mo-gongzi,” Jin Ling’s friends chorus and he offers them all a wide grin.

“So respectful! Let me take guesses with your names, I’m sure I can get them right,” he says with a playful hum, ignoring Jin Ling’s impatient shuffling. “Ouyang-gongzi,” he starts with Ouyang Zizhen, offering him a polite curtsy that the boy is apparently still too embarrassed to acknowledge. “Wen-gongzi,” to Wen Sizhui with another curtsy (Wen Sizhui offers him the sweetest smile Mo Xuanyu has ever seen on someone who’s not either of his sisters and his heart melts a little - if anyone can soften Jin Ling’s too-sharp edges, it’s going to be that boy). “Lan-gongzi,” he finishes with one more curtsy for Lan Jingyi, who’s just staring at him, wide-eyed with blatant curiosity even as he returns the curtsy with a quick sketch of a bow.

Well. Curiosity is better than the outright disdain he tends to get from the older generations.

He glances down when there’s a tug on the skirts of his robes and he laughs in delight to see Jin Ye pouting up at him imperiously. He instantly turns to her and offers her the deepest curtsy he can, bowing so low she can reach up to tap her fingers at the ornaments tinkling softly in his hair.

“And of course, this humble one could never forget! The beloved Xiao-Ye, the little treasure of Lanling,” he says with a dramatic flourish that makes her giggle as he straightens up again, her hand finding his instantly when he reaches down to her.

“Mo-gongzi, we were just on our way to spar with Jin-er-gongzi, Jin-guniang, and Jin-er-guniang,” Wen Sizhui supplies when he faces them again and Mo Xuanyu is unsurprised to find his voice is as soft as his smile. “Would you like to join us?”

“Oh that’s very sweet of you to ask,” Mo Xuanyu laughs as Jin Ling makes a sound like a dying animal. “Hush, LingLing, your friends are being nice to your poor Yu-shushu, let me enjoy it! You never invite me to watch your sparring.”

“Because you show up anyway if you want to!”

“That’s neither here nor there - it’s nice to be asked sometimes,” he sniffs. “But as it happens I have to take Jin Ye into the nursery for her nap and then I have letters I’d like to write, so I’ll have to join you some other time. I’m interested to see your different clan styles though, so I will definitely watch one day during your stay here.”

“Do you have training with a sword too?” Lan Jingyi suddenly pipes up in a rush and Mo Xuanyu tips his head a bit to the side as he looks at him with a playful smirk on his rouged lips.

“I’ve had lots of different types of training,” he teases. “Today I’m practicing my flower arranging for the Little Treasure. Tomorrow maybe I’ll remember my old sword forms. Ask me again at the afternoon meal and I may agree to participate. If you’ll excuse me.”

He offers another curtsy and then he turns to head back inside, pausing only to bend and lift Jin Ye onto his hip with careful hands so he can walk as quickly as he wants to. He hears conversation break out behind him before he’s even inside, but he doesn’t listen. Let them talk.

He delivers Jin Ye to the servants in the nursery with a kiss to her forehead and an extracted promise that she’ll be good and then he goes to find Jiang Yanli, flowers in hand.

“Ah, Li-jie, here you are,” he says happily when he finds her a few minutes later on the path that leads to the main part of the tower from the family residences.

“A-Yu,” she greets warmly, instantly reaching out for his arm, which he loops through hers easily, both of them folding their hands demurely over their sternums. “How is your day?”

“Wonderful. Xiao-Ye has been showing me that her taste in flowers is still unmatched,” he smiles as he holds the flowers out to Jiang Yanli with a flourish for her to take with her free hand. “She wants you to put them on your writing desk.”

“Oh I’ll be happy to! They’re beautiful, thank you.”

They walk in silence for a few long moments before he gathers up the courage to say, “While I was in the gardens I met A-Ling and his friends,”  though it still comes out with a hint of hesitation. Jiang Yanli’s arm goes stiff in his for a moment before she relaxes with what seems like an effort.

“Were they kind?”

“The young masters are very polite, it was a pleasure to finally meet them.”

“Was A-Ling?”

Mo Xuanyu clears his throat and doesn’t answer, but that’s answer enough. He hears Jiang Yanli take a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly.

“I don’t understand this new problem,” she admits as they turn a corner to walk slowly along the perimeter of a shady, currently unused courtyard, empty but for someone sweeping the stone clean on the other side. “You’ve been a part of the children’s lives since you were a child yourself, he’s never had this issue before.”

“I embarrass him.”

“A-Ling is so much like A-Cheng - his pride is easily turned against him and that means plenty of things embarrass him. That’s no excuse for him to treat you like this.”

“Li-jie…” he starts, his voice quiet, timid in a way it almost never is anymore. “Do you think the children respect me? I mean..truly respect me as their uncle, the way they respect Yao-ge, or Su-jie as their aunt?”

Jiang Yanli stops in her tracks to turn to him and Mo Xuanyu unlinks his arm from hers to face her as well, to meet her scrutinizing gaze with a vulnerable one of his own.

“Why do you ask?”

“I know I bother them,” he starts, his chest feeling fluttery and hollow in a way that doesn’t bode well. “I know..none of the rest of them are quite ready to have to make their peace with the way I’m thought of in the public eye just yet but..but A-Fei and A-Yan and A-Yu are nearly ready; A-Fei has already gone to Cloud Recesses for his lectures, and the twins will be ready for the next lecture season if they want to go. They’ll all make friends from other sects just like A-Ling has, they’ll bring them here as guests eventually. What if none of the children want their friends to know I’m related to them? What if they’re all ashamed of me like A-Ling is?”

“Oh A-Yu...” Jiang Yanli murmurs sympathetically and somehow that’s what pushes the feeling in his chest outward, the shiver of it turning into a trembling in his hands and stinging in his eyes that he furiously blinks away.

“The children may love me, Li-jie, but sometimes...I don’t think they like me very much. I’m just..I’m so different.”

“Shhh it’s okay, come here,” she soothes, pulling him in for a hug and he collapses gratefully into her arms with trembling and quiet sniffles that he’s trying to stifle.

When he had first come to Jinlintai - actually, when he had first met Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli back in Mo village - he had immediately been drawn to his sister-in-law. She’s steady and warm like his mother had been while she had been alive. She had loved him with her whole heart from the moment he was brought to Jinlintai, even when he got comfortable enough to be himself and the other children became wary of him and his wild nature, the way he grinned too widely, laughed too loudly, raised chaos everywhere he could simply for the hell of it. He’s calmed down in recent years somewhat, become marginally more acceptable, but Jiang Yanli had loved him from the instant they had met and he had been a young boy afraid of disappointing his mother, and she had been the young Madam of a Great Sect and a pregnant mother of four, doing her best to fulfill her roles with grace and poise.

He had always yearned for a big sister, and he had found everything he had ever dreamt of in Jiang Yanli’s soothing presence. Of all of his family, she - along with Qin Su, later - has never once made him feel like he was too much to handle, too strange to love, or to like. He’s older now, more assured in himself (usually), but he knows that he wouldn’t be at this point if not for her constant, gentle nature, the way she had nurtured his behaviors, his choices, to help lead him to who he is now.

Her support as a sister has been an invaluable part of his life, and he’s reminded of it for the millionth time now as she hugs him tightly and rubs his back in slow, soothing circles like she had when he had been a boy and he’d just lost his mother to a swift fever that had swept through their village.

“Hush, A-Yu, shh. The children love you,” she murmurs quietly. “I love you, as does A-Su, and A-Xuan, and A-Yao, and all of our extended family too. Our family wouldn’t be complete without you in it, A-Yu. You belong with us, we wouldn’t have you be anywhere or anyone else.”

Mo Xuanyu huddles closer and squeezes his eyes shut as tears drip from his lashes - he’s careful not to let them drip onto Jiang Yanli’s clothes, stained black as the tears are with the kohl painted around his eyes and dusted in his lashes. Her robes are a pale gold-trimmed lavender today, his tears would only ruin them.

“The children -”

“Know their Yu-shushu adores them,” Jiang Yanli cuts him off to soothe. “Children go through phases where they’re beginning to learn and think for themselves, and sometimes they lose their way while they test their new boundaries. I can talk to them if you’d like me to, make sure they know that the casual way you show your love for them isn’t an invitation to disrespect you.”

Mo Xuanyu considers telling her not to worry about it, but..he can’t escape the mental image of being pushed to the background as the children grow, shunted aside because he doesn’t fit their idea of what they want their family to look like to people they want to impress. Even little Xiao-Ye will one day be old enough to possibly push him away like that no matter how much they adore each other now, and the thought breaks his heart. His family is all he has in the world - he doesn’t want to lose them because they’re ashamed to know him.

“Please,” he says instead, then. The children always listen to Jiang Yanli - as they should, she’s a wonderful mother. If she tells them to respect him, they will. If she tells them to be gentle with him for a while as he finds his feet again after this newest blow to his confidence, they will. He can trust her.

“Alright,” she hums, as easily as if they had just agreed that clouds are white. “I’ll talk to them, and I’ll begin with A-Ling. Do you want to help me decide how he should make this up to you?”

“No! No, that’s okay,” he protests as he finally straightens up to wipe at his cheeks. Jiang Yanli tuts and pulls a handkerchief from her sleeve to dab gently under his eyes, cleaning the smears of his makeup. “I...I trust you and A-Xuan to take care of it.”

“Okay. Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up, hm? You’ve smudged your kohl.”

He nods and follows along at her side as they turn back to the family pavilions and his nerves settle further as he realizes they’re heading for Qin Su’s rooms. She opens the door just as they reach the steps and Mo Xuanyu offers her a watery smile.

“Su-jie,” he wheedles with a pout to see her smile. “Mean boys have ruined my makeup again.”

“Oh dear,” she says gently, playing along - unfortunately his makeup getting ruined was a common occurrence when he began wearing it, and he had frequently come to Qin Su both for comfort and for her help in reapplying. “Come inside, come on. We’ll make you even more beautiful than before.”

[mihanada]

Heaven Official’s Blessing Liveblog

As promised, a liveblog of Heaven Official’s Blessing! I am treating this as my first read through past Chapter 21. I do know a lot of the major plot lines, but I will try my best to keep any spoilers out of the entire thing since this cannot be considered a re-read.

This novel is long, so it may be the case that I liveblog more than one chapter at a time in the future!

Chapter 1: Heaven Official’s Blessing

I really, truly think the first chapter is both unnecessarily dense and suitable for the type of story this grand tale will turn out to be. The scope of the first chapter is huge and treated like both a fairytale and a historical account, which is TGCF in a nutshell. It may suit the story to come, but it also means that I dropped this novel twice without making it past the first chapter. It’s worse than Scum Villain because it isn’t confusing really: it’s somewhat of a dry read. A lot happens that I knew I wouldn’t remember if and when it became relevant again, which makes this novel good to reread, but hard to pick up.

[“I want to save the common folks!”]

A kind-hearted and earnest crown prince may not be my favorite main character archetype, but it has truly been so long since I’ve seen it in western fantasy (not to say there still aren’t novels with this character archetype, but none of the ones I’ve read or seen circulating have one as the MC) that I am much more open to seeing one now. Although the first section of this chapter is a glowing review of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the “famous laughing stock” of the three realms sets you up to say “alright, now how is this about to all go horribly wrong”, so there’s that.

Actually, MXTX’s other two novels had a similar thing going on. The first chapter already reveals, to some extent, that the main character has made mistakes in his life and a good part of the story is seeing the nature of those mistakes. I think this is what made me intrigued enough to continue reading her works, or at least go back to it in TGCF’s case.

So, we have a naive and earnest crown prince and the next section relates a story of him performing a ritual to earn good luck for the country. Considering the ancient setting and the xianxia setting, you can understand why the officials flip out when their crown prince derps off to save a child in the middle of it. I wonder if someone dying in the middle of such a ceremony wouldn’t also be ominous? In their perspective perhaps it’s not as bad a thing, but to our crown prince, this isn’t a question at all.

Someone was in trouble, so naturally he should save that child if it’s in his power to do so.

The first interesting point is his stubbornness. Unwilling to commit himself to something untrue (apologizing for saving a child when he isn’t sorry at all), he doesn’t even think of the consequences if the heavens decide to smite him. The officials even tell him that he doesn’t have to fully commit to the apology, just a “gesture” will suffice. Although this makes it seem like the apology really isn’t a big deal, the responsible thing to do as the next ruler of the country would be to just face the wall for a bit and leave it at that - but it’s against his principles, so he won’t.

Even if we weren’t told his age, it’s easy to guess by his words: [“How could the heavens fault me because I did the right thing? Then the heavens would be the ones who are in the wrong. Why should the people who are right apologize to the ones who are wrong?”]

There are so many characters in this novel that it becomes extra important for the dialogue to carry details like this - which not all writers are good at.

[He had never encountered anything he wasn’t able to accomplish, and he had also never met anyone who didn’t love him. He was always right, and he was the heart of the world.] And there is the root of the problem. But I might get back to this later, or else my inner psychology nerd will come out.

(Side note: Out of MXTX’s three MCs, it’s Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian who don’t believe in saving face - and it brings them all sorts of external troubles from society. On the flip side, Shen Qingqiu is so careful about maintaining his image that his personal relationships get neglected and misunderstandings form, which then leads to a good chunk of society willing to shoot him down.)

Next story is a ghost terrorizing a bridge - great symbolism there, and also a trial for our crown prince.

[“This child’s future is limitless, impossible to measure.”] AND YET IT IS ALL GOING TO GO SO WRONG.

[The things he wanted, there was nothing he could not obtain. The things he wanted to do, there was nothing that was impossible for him to accomplish. And when he wanted to ascend into godhood, he really ascended into godhood at age seventeen.] Again, significant to understand his mentality as a 17-year-old. Once you’ve ascended to godhood, a feat some cannot accomplish even after devoting their lives to it, truly the word impossible should not even exist...right?

[...heaven’s godly officials could not meddle according to their wishes. Unless it was a result of demons and ghouls overstepping or violating their boundaries, what happened must be allowed to happen.] Interesting and very important rules. Practical, too. The duties, limitations, and roles that heavenly officials play as gods to the mortal realm are actually quite intriguing, but I think it’ll take a while for it all to reveal itself. For now, it’s removing themselves from two important duties they had in life - loyalty and devotion to one’s country and ancestors/relatives.

And in this section, we read about how it all went wrong - meddling in the war didn’t save his country, and the people ended up resenting him.

[From then on, a martial god known for protection and peace faded away, and a demonic god who attracted disasters was born. 

When people said you were a god, then you were a god. If they said you were shit, then you were shit. Whatever the people said you were, that was what you became.] 

MXTX likes to write about society, particularly these aspects of society. It bears keeping in mind as we progress through the story. It’s all about perspective.

[“Body in the abyss, but heart in paradise.”

Because the one who personally said the phrase had already proved that when his body was in the abyss, his heart was not in paradise.] 

I’ll come back to these lines at some point. But, yeah. A person who has never failed before in his life finally does so, and it’s possibly the most catastrophic of consequences. Looking back at those naive words, though they can be seen as profound, I can also see how they’re somewhat pretentious and at one’s absolute lowest, may seem impossible to live up to.

[Now that he was banished twice, would he become a demon and retaliate by abusing the common people?] Luckily for heaven and earth, our MC did not go down that route. And everyone kept a close eye on him for a while after that second ascension and banishment, which - kinda creepy, ok. Then they lost track of him because he obviously wasn’t about to wreak glorious havoc against them again, so why bother?

And, finally, we come to the last section and his final ascension! This is why I gave up twice before finally powering through. This whole chapter is basically a history book and it was difficult to get through before knowing anything about the characters, or why the reader should care. But, well, I made it. Eventually. And I’m excited to get past Chapter 21 at last, lol.

(masterpost)

onward →

[curapicas]

Okay this is for like, 3 people

Please check it out in the phone, my layout is shit to read but it’s been 12 years since I’ve changed any of my blog settings and I no longer have energy to relearn how to do it

I promised (umprompted, on my own) to make a Scum Villain review, so here it goes:

in short, I liked it (aaaand there’s where the 3 people I wrote for get all the information they actually wanted, but whatever. You girls don’t get a say)

Obviously it’s hard to not compare it to mdzs, and they do feel like they were written by the same person, at least. The style of story, I mean. The writing style is completely different - because the main character is a millenial internet dudebro, and his thoughts are always there to remind us of this. In fact, I’m very curious to know how the original is written, since this genre tends to be written a bit more composed than THAT, right? XD (mxtx herself was worried that people wouldn’t like mdzs because it is very different of this 1st work of hers)

Anyway, it’s far more satirical than mdzs, and funnier than sadder. I still think mdzs is better overall, but that’s not to say Scum Villain dissapoints. In fact, I knew a bunch of mini spoilers, and still everything was a wild ride. I could hardly predict the turn of events. In fact, I predicted nothing. Thrice I made stupid faces in the subway to try and contain my laughter, so if nothing else, it’ll be fun. But remember, it’s still mxtx!

If there’s one thing that was annoying was the sheer volume of footnotes each chapter has. Shen Qingqiu, Why So Many References. But it’s cool that I had to read chapters of different translators, unlike mdzs, and compare their styles of translations, sometimes even with a chapter translated in two different sites, hah

Also... there’s a fine line between mxtx’s naming sense and the in-universe’s authors naming sense. Whenever you see a ridiculous name, mxtx is probably getting a kick out of it. In fact, the whole novel makes some remarks about webnovel publishing, fans and anti-fans receptions, not to mention an author deciding to give in to demands instead of writing a good story.

And have I mentioned the protag is an internet dudebro? A lot of the novel comes through his pov, so expect a more gendered language. tbh I don’t know what’s more surprising, that he was quick to accept Luo Binghe’s feelings once everything was said and done, or that he had been kissed in his previous life. You’re not gonna hear anything much about his previous life either btw, which is a bummer but maybe it’s the point. He was still pretty fun and engaging to me, maybe because like him I tend to think more than feel, have a terribly dry humor and value being practical. He’s still a kind person and a surprisingly loved father figure, LOL. (is it a spoiler if I say that we have an entire cast of scum villains, protag aside?)

Please, don’t skip the extras. They’re not easy to find but they’re all great

Also... the main pairing is otp alright, but unlike mdzs, I can see the appeal of a bunch of side pairings for the main character, too... There’s a lot of people romantically interested in the main characters too, which didn’t really happen in mdzs and ruka will probably find this as fun as I did

Now, I feel obliged to give the usual warnings of what one would find, which is like... mxtx being mxtx. Gore, blood, terrible deaths, characters having horrible fates, understandable but disastrous misunderstandings, house arrests happen (?), implied rape, dub-con (non-con?) - and this one isn’t their kink, so it’s for real. Aaaand painful sex. Painful, honest-to-god bloody sex. This one is a squick of mine, so when I read this chapter I was mentally screaming AAAAAAAAA all the time. This one time is written in a very un-sexy way, me thinks

One last thing: Holy Shit, Luo Binghe exists to suffer

since visuals are everything:

And for self-organization, might as well put the links here

UNEDITED version, up to ch40: https://cnoveluv.wordpress.com/projects/the-scum-villains-self-saving-system/

bcnovel’s version: http://bcnovels.com/the-scum-villains-self-saving-system/

succubi extra: https://faelicy.tumblr.com/post/180154270882/a-memory-fighting-succubi-with-great-master-liu

Luo Binghe turns into a child extra, Shen Jiu’s backstory, and others: https://pizziccato.tumblr.com/post/180786497951/translation-masterpost

EDITED version, ongoing: https://faelicy.tumblr.com/post/185035206852/scum-villain-table-of-contents

eh, I feel like I’m still leaving something out.

[web-novel-polls]

MXTX Side Characters Lower Bracket FINALS

[Photo ID - part of a bracket showing three rounds labeled: losers round 6, losers round 7, and losers finals. Round 6 has two match ups: Wen Ning vs. Liu Qingge and Bye: Mobei-jun. Round 7 has one match-up: Liu Qingge vs. Mobei-jun. The finals has one match-up: Shang Qinghua vs. Liu Qingge. /End ID]

The finals of the lower bracket will start Thursday, February 8th, 2024, at noon CST and will last for 1 week.

Shang Qinghua vs. Liu Qingge

Tag: #mxtx side characters lower finals

Tournament Masterpost

(The winner of the lower bracket will compete with Jiang Cheng, the victor of the winner's bracket for the whole tournament)

[web-novel-polls]

2/16/24 Announcements

This blog will be inactive February 18th-25th, 2024. This includes 24 hour reminders for polls and what not. All polls are linked to the tournament masterposts in the pinned post.

Web Novel Weapon Tournament Submissions close February 29th & the tournament itself is expected to start March 6th

The MXTX Side Characters Tournament Grand Finals between Jiang Cheng and Shang Qinghua starts Monday, February 26th, and the tournament will be completed on March 4th.

Priest (Author) Tournament Submissions close March 11th & the tournament is expected to start March 16th

If you are under 18 years old, please block the #nsft tag.

Time Slots

8 AM - Miscellaneous Administrative Polls & Mini-Polls (by me)

10 AM - Silliest Pre-Isekai Death (Ends March 13th) -> WN Animal Tournament (starts April 1st)

12 PM - MXTX Side Characters (Ends March 4th) -> WN Weapon (starts March 6th)

1 PM - Five Love Languages of Danmei: Flirting, Biting, Boner, and Meal Brackets (Ends March 29th) -> Five Love Languages of Danmei Grand Tournament (Starts April 2nd)

5 PM - Five Love Languages: Pining Bracket (Ends March 13th) -> Priest (Author) Tournament (Starts March 16th)

[web-novel-polls]

2/6/24 Announcements

MXTX Side Characters Lower Finals between Shang Qinghua and Liu Qingge start February 8th. After the Grand Finals, this tournament will be complete!

All 102 polls for five brackets of the Five Love Languages of Danmei Tournament have been posted/queued. Feel free to continue submitting propaganda & check the bracket masterposts for the current standings

The last bracket poll of the Five Love Languages Tournament ends March 29th, and the tournament between the victors of each bracket will compete against each other

The Silliest Pre-Isekai Death Tournament will begin shortly after the administrative poll determining the type of tournament is completed

If you are under 18 years old, please block the #nsft tag. The Boner Bracket will have text not suitable for minors

[web-novel-polls]

MXTX Side Characters Tournament Lower Round 6

Tag: #mxtx side characters lower round 6

Tournament Masterpost

Wen Ning vs. Liu Qingge

Bye: Mobei-jun

Polls will open Sunday, January 21st, 2024, at noon CST and will remain open for 1 week.

[web-novel-polls]

MXTX Side Characters Tournament Lower Round 5

Tag: #mxtx side characters lower round 5

Full Tournament Masterpost

Ling Wen vs. Liu Qingge

Mobei-jun vs. Jiang Yanli

Polls will open Friday, January 12th, 2024, at noon CST and will remain open for 1 week.

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

I have a backlog a mile long...

But yes, we are back to this point in the story!

Chapter 31: Dew (Part 4)

I remember being kind of worried when Lan Wangji showed up, too, haha. After all, it’s difficult to get a read on his character in the beginning when you lack a lot of context for all of his actions.

“Wei WuXian had never seen him with such an obviously displeased expression on his face before.”

This is saying something given that Lan Wangji had been genuinely pissed at him for various things throughout the years.

“He touched his chin and, for some reason, felt exceptionally guilty.”

I like this little moments where Wei Wuxian is self-conscious. They are brief and the narrative doesn’t linger on them, but they help build an image of him as not as completely and utterly shameless as he is otherwise made out to be at times.

Also adds something to his character that he can’t identify the reason why, just that he does feel guilt. He has awareness of his own emotions, but the reason is not always clear.

“Oh no. Don’t tell me that Lan Zhan really pretended to be drunk so that he could kill Wen Ning after I summon him. Of course. Nobody actually gets drunk after just a bowl.”

lool Wei Wuxian’s worries. Don’t worry, that is totally not his intention. Very reasonable conclusion to make considering he is walking over with his sword, though.

“With a loud smack, Lan WangJi hit Wen Ning.”

now you can laugh

“As if he didn’t think one smack was enough to express his rage, Lan WangJi pushed Wen Ning to about thirty feet away.

He spoke to Wen Ning in an annoyed voice, “Go away.”

And again.

lol Lan Wangji you are so childish when you’re drunk.

“He was even more serious, proper, flawless than usual...But, as he looked down, he found that Lan WangJi’s boots were put on the wrong feet.”

I don’t know how Wei Wuxian didn’t die laughing. I guess he was more freaked out about why the heck Lan Wangji was like this, but it’s pretty hilarious. The proper and formal Lan Wangji...put his boots on the wrong feet.

He’d be a weird sleepwalker, I guarantee it.

“With one on the left and one on the right, he solemnly wrapped his hands around both of Wei WuXian’s fingers.

With a clang, Bichen fell to the ground due to its master’s negligence.”

I guess I’d be freaked out too. Did someone possess Hanguang-jun!? or something like that.

Poor Bichen, you are abused so much in this novel. I couldn’t believe he just dropped it to grab Wei Wuxian’s fingers. The great part is that he does it solemnly, totally serious despite how random this act seems.

Then he totally denies being drunk...

...See, Lan Wangji can lie! When drunk.

“Lan WangJi attentively maintained his gesture of how he grasped Wei WuXian’s fingers, with both of his hands in loose fists.”

I thought this was funny when I first read it, but now it’s sort of sad and adorable all at once.

“Some wailed loudly, others giggled idiotically, some flounced about, others collapsed immediately, some were determined in taking their own lives, others whimpered, “Why are you leaving me?”

The last one of these is a reference to MXTX’s other work, The Scum Villain’s Self Saving System. xD

“Lan WangJi whirled around and angrily smacked him once more.”

Chill, Lan Wangji, stop smacking the poor guy.

“Lan WangJi repeated angrily, “Do not play for him!”

your ugly side is showing, Lan Wangji. haha this is actually the first time he’s been really overt about this jealous side of him in the story, I think. There are various signs littered throughout, but it only becomes really clear when he’s drunk.

“Seeing that Lan WangJi had never been too fond of demonic techniques, he might have not liked how he used his flute to control Wen Ning.”

A totally reasonable assumption. You can’t blame Wei Wuxian for not connecting the dots.

“Anyway, he had to pet him in the direction of his fur, of course, “Alright. I’m only going to play for you, okay?”

Its adorable how patient and accommodating Wei Wuxian is, though like he said, the best thing to do is just go with the flow.

“Yet, unexpectedly, after Lan WangJi heard this, he reached out, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him into his arms.”

are you sure you’re not possessed, hanguang-jun.

“Lan WangJi, “The face doesn’t show anything. Listen to the heartbeats.”

This is just hilarious in an odd way.

Wei Wuxian hasn’t noticed yet that this is really, really unusual. Lan Wangji dislikes people touching him, yet grabs your hands and shoves your head against his chest? hmmm...

“...it would’ve been impossible for Wei WuXian to treat him with respect and not play any tricks.”

Just can’t help himself, as usual, when it comes to Lan Wangji.

"Having heard no answer from behind him, he turned around only to see Lan WangJi holding the basin in his hands, his face already buried inside.”

loool whhy Lan Wangji why

Wei Wuxian is surprisingly (or not) good at taking care of people though.

“… Did he drink the water or did he not?”

lool his concern. like, oh god he d r a n k the water meant for your face! please don’t let him remember this

I have to admit, I was quite surprised by some of the answers when I first read his little interrogation.

I was like: then why did he have those jars of Emperor’s Smile?? I thought he took up drinking after Wei Wuxian died, but if so why did he not drink the ones in his room?

“Do you like rabbits?” “Yes.”

HA. he does like the rabbits. who can resist them. Though, the Cloud Recesses probably has a bit of an overpopulation problem...how are they not overrun by bunnies?

“Have you ever liked anyone?” “Yes.”

haha

hahaha...

Since Wei Wuxian next asks if he likes Jiang Cheng, then Wen Ning, he meant this in a general term, not a romantic/physical attraction thing. But Lan Wangji answers “Mine.” when he asks about himself.

don’t you think this is a suspicious answer??

“He took Bichen off his back, thinking to himself, When I pointed at myself, Lan Zhan probably thought that “this one” meant Bichen.”

NO. WHY. You asked him what he thought of YOU. arrgghh. why would it make sense for you to ask if he likes his sword? Granted, he figured that his train of thought derailed since he was drunk, but nooo. He doesn’t mean his sword...you see how he treats that poor thing? XD

ALSO:

Jiang Cheng receives a negative response: a frown

Wen Ning receives an indifferent response

haha poor Jiang Cheng.

“Wei WuXian knew that Lan WangJi was desperately drunk, that it wasn’t directed at him, yet those three words still crashed into him, taking away the strength in his arms and legs.”

just think of what he’ll do when it IS directed at him and he finally realizes it

“Bichen was thrown onto the ground by its master again.”

see

“After pausing for a moment, Lan WangJi’s hand came over and, after fumbling around in the blanket for a while, started to slowly untie the ribbons holding his clothes together. Wei WuXian exclaimed, “Okay! Enough! I didn’t mean for you to remove it in this sense!!! Alright!!! Sure! I’m lying down and I’m sleeping!!!”

lool Lan Wangji is a little shit with selective hearing when he’s drunk.

“It seemed that, ever since he came back, whenever he decided to tease Lan WangJi like how he did in the past, he always suffered from his own actions.”

It’s called karma. xD this is what you get for bullying him all those years ago.

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →