miyu-hyperfixates

[miyu-hyperfixates]

MDZS's volume 5 arrived not long ago and I've finally found the time to re-read it. And while doing so, I was struck with something that I had never noticed before. I knew both facts separately but somehow never connected them, which is super weird because it's very obvious. Anyway I was reading the part about LXC telling WWX how LWJ got his whip scars.

So we all know about the whole injuring elders thing, right? How LXC and LQR asked 33 of them to help bring back LWJ and he ended hurting them all. Which makes it a situation where LWJ went up against 35 people to protect WWX but only 2 were left out?

Now does this 33 + 2 pattern sounds familiar? Maybe not in MDZS but in another work of MXTX... like TGCF? Where a certain Ghost King got his fearsome reputation for challenging 35 heavenly officials, 33 of which were utterly obliterated afterwards?

(By the way, I tried to recall if that specific pattern occurred in SVSSS, but nothing really jumped to mind. The only time I could see it happening thematically would be either SQQ's fake trial or if somehow LBH had, offscreen, tracked down all the demons presents during the CQ invasions' arc...)

So yeah I would *have* to re-read SVSSS to be completely certain, but for now let's just say that this a common pattern between only MDZS and TGCF.

Which still sort of struck me as odd, you know, because "If I had a nickel...." and all that, but it also made me wonder if there was a deeper or symbolic meaning to either the number 33 or 35. And so here's a fun fact.

Right, so leaving aside all the western and biblical symbolism of number 33, turns out (according to wikipedia) that the second level of heaven in Buddhism is named Trāyastriṃśa, meaning "of the 33 (gods)". It is apparently the highest level of heaven that still keep a physical connection to the rest of the world.

This article reflects the situation in both MDZS and TGCF so well that I find it kinda hard to believe that it wasn't intentional.

The devas are described as beings that despite being (or reaching) a higher status (Elders that are supposed to be respected within the sect due to seniority, the 33 heavenly officials ascending to divinity) but can't avoid being entangled in worldly affairs.

I think it is very interesting that the specific "worldly affair" mentioned is the conflict with the asuras, beings who used to be devas peers but were expelled and are perceived as malicious beings trying to go back.

Now the situation fit WWX to a T, because he used to be an 'esteemed' cultivator, the head disciple of one the Great Sect, an "hero" from the Sunshot Campaign and all that, but was then exiled from the cultivation world where he was rumored to raise an army in an attempt to conquer the Jianghu and was now even corrupting their precious LWJ. From the Elders (devas) point of view that's definitely asuras materials that needed intervening.

The analogy is two-fold in TGCF in the sense that there are actually two 'asuras': HC and XL.

The most obvious one is of course Hua Cheng, he ascended once (though decided to descent right after) making him the 33 gods' peer (although rather briefly) and is considered as a very dangerous threat to the godly realms. The 33 heavenly officials of course entangled themselves in worldly affairs there by accepting Hua Chang's challenge.

As for Xie Lian.... well... he was literally banished from the Heavenly court (twice) ... and not only did he really literally "plot to get his status" but he also managed to do it twice. So like... check, double-check and triple check on that one, I guess?

The heavenly official of course didn't really perceived him as a threat that needed to be deal with, but they did entangled themselves in worldly affairs and pettiness when they humiliated and bullied him back when he found that great cultivation spot full with potent spiritual energy.

By the way I just find it hilarious that the author of the wikipedia page added that tidbit about marriage quite apropos of nothing. Like yeah "those two types of divine beings are kinda perpetually in conflict with one another but don't worry marriage is still allowed though, because who doesn't need those types of star-crossed lovers amirite? *wink wink* " .... Though they probably added it because the Ruler of the Devas married the daughter of an asura's chief, but that info wasn't mentioned in the wiki page itself so yeah...

So yeah, I don't know if that was what MXTX was referencing with the 33 thing or maybe MXTX just liked that number. (Or if it’s just that 3 is considered a “bad” number in TGCF so double 3 is just doubling the badness factor, I dunno ) *shrug*

I couldn’t find anything on the number 35 though, so if you know anything about it (or if you feel like the significance of the number 33 might refer to something else) do feel free to share! I would love to discuss it!

Also my knowledge relies heavily on wikipedia pages (and we all know how reliable it is) so if something I said was wrong please feel free to correct me! :)

[miyu-hyperfixates]

English TGCF volume 5 cover by a-xin

[miyu-hyperfixates]

It would never stop to be hilarious to me how low-key Shen Yuan’s character setting is compared to all other 5 main characters of MXTX’s works.

Like, we’ve got:

Luo Binghe: half-heavenly demons, ruler of the 3 realms, potentially one of the most powerful being in the whole SVSSS universe

Lan Wangji: Hanguang-Jun, cultivator with a peerless reputation, one of the most poweful cultivator of his generation

Wei Wuxian: Yiling Laozu, certified genius, created a whole new branch of cultivation from scratch

Hua Cheng: 800 years old Ghost King (with only 2 others ghost of equal rank) feared by ghosts and heavenly officials alike

Xie Lian: Crown Prince of Xian Le, 800 years old God who somehow managed to ascend 3 times (while having little to no spiritual energy for the last 2).

And then we have Shen Yuan: that one sassy millennial dude who reads a lot of porns for the plot and world building. (Though to be fair he got an encyclopaedic knowledge of the world that rivalled the Peak Lord of the Scholarly Peak’s and that is better than the actual creator’s of the universe).

[miyu-hyperfixates]

In the end, LQR couldn’t resist LWJ's demands. His nephew is too adorable!🥺💙

[miyu-hyperfixates]

surprise kiss attack 🤍✨

[miyu-hyperfixates]

He Xuan is just such a sympathetic antagonist though in the same way Shi Qingxuan is a fan favourite

It bears remebering that what He Xuan went through in his life was so painful that he emerged as a Calamity level ghost. what shi wudu did was not forgivable and the consequences it had on he xuan, his life, his family and his mind are unquestionably shi wudu's fault and He xuan IS traumatised from his experiences. He gorges on food not because he's a glutton but because he was starved so much that he displays a trauma reponse by eating as much as possible when food is available. His meer desire for vengeance carried him through the viciousness of the kiln; we simply can not imagine the level of loathing he must hold for the shi siblings and simply put, and as much as we may hate it, he was well within his rights to exact his revenge. And xie lian did not disagree.

When xie lian thinks that yin yu is disguised as he xuan, he doesn't throw out accusations of murder and what not at him. His most prominent question is simply where shi qingxuan is now. Because loss is the norm in heaven. Losing your status, your dignity, your titles, everything. It is a fact that needs to be accepted and one that had remained unchallenged— all things fall

Shi qingxuan himself does not hate He xuan for his actions. He was paralysed by his indecision when he found out that his brother was responsible for switching his fate. Shi Qingxuan ends up no longer a part of heaven, disabled, haggard and poor, as was his original fate but he accepts that. There isn't any resentment you can pick up from the text from him and while he definitely can't agree with he xuan killing his brother he certainly understands all too well that it was of shi wudus own making

Xie lian and shi qingxuan uniquely understand what other immortals around them do not, which is that power over others is a cruel and unsustainable desire. Grandness and glory are impermanent and all things can and will fall, it is an inevitability and heaven's status quo balances on the point of a needle

[miyu-hyperfixates]

What I really love about present time Wangxian is how the trope of "us against the world' is such a natural logical and personal growth for both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian character-wise. Wangxian is all about "being there to catch you" vs "letting myself fall", it's all about "being able to be by your side" vs "willingly sharing the burden with you". And I could gush about it for hours.

I know some people complain that post resurrection, we only see LWJ doing things for WWX (doting on him, protecting him, supporting him etc) and not the other way around, that it seems a little one-sided and unbalanced... But that's the point.

Putting aside the fact that LWJ had become so OP that it would take an one-on-one fight against someone on NMJ's or WRH's level for him to be truly in danger.... had he at some point been put in a situation where he was in need of reassurance or protection or being defended, there's no way WWX aka Mr. "I'm putting everyone else safety before my own and take everyone burden into my own body" wouldn't be the very first in line.

But that situation is never shown (or very briefly with WWX getting angry at JC for dissing at LWJ). And not just because this is a danmei and it follows the very stereotypical rules of gong must protect shou. No it's because WWX's personal journey is all about learning that's it's okay to rely on someone, that someone else would willingly and gladly follow him into the night, that it doesn't have to be a single-plank bridge. So it wouldn't make sense to have WWX be once again in the role of the Protector.

The symbolism of "falling/jumping down" and "catching" is used in almost all of WWX significant relationship and the degree of success in catching him represents how well they're able to protect him.

Jiang Yanli

The first time (chronologically) this notion was introduced was of course with JYL. Young WWX found himself stuck at the top of some tree and jumped down with the assurance that JYL would catch him. Of course, at that time JYL was young and not particularly strong so he ended hurting himself.

This is so representative of their future relationship where JYL is trying to protect WWX against the scorn of the Jin (berating publicly Jin Xizun, inviting WWX to JL one month celebration etc.) but ultimately failing.

It's not that WWX doesn't trust JYL to catch him, it's that he knows that she can't "physically" catch him. But he still jumps every time because maybe, just maybe this time she'll be able to and maybe he'll finally stop getting hurt in the process.

But at the same time, JYL is deeply engraved in his heart and mind as someone that he must protect, so even if he jumps he tries not to put the weight on her, he tries not to hurt her in the process. Which is why he never shared with her what he went through in the Burial Mounds and never talked about the golden core transfer.

And speaking about golden core transfer.

Jiang Cheng

The tragedy about JC and WWX dynamics is that just like how JC was the reason WWX decided to climb up that tree in the first place, just like how JC felt guilty and tried to go look for WWX but ultimately ended up hurting himself instead.... JC ended up being the starting point/cause of WWX's fall.

Because JC tried to save WWX from the Wen he ended up getting captured instead and lost his golden core. Prompting WWX to sacrifice his own for him, he metaphorically willingly jumped down from the height of top cultivation to the low bottom of being a "mediocre" ordinary man.... And there was no one to catch him at the bottom, no one to protect him. And it got worse, he was even literally pushed down to the burial mounds and once again no one was there to catch him.

Because the tragedy of it all is that JC, because of circumstances of his own making, was not and would never be in the right place to catch him. ( And he would have done it in a heart beat if WWX stopped hiding things from him to protect him and jumping down to place JC can't reach).

The whole thing with the Wen remnants and WWX's "fall from grace" in the eyes of the cultivation society is another example of JC and WWX dynamics.

"Don't you understand? If you insist on protecting them, then I can't protect you!"

And of course, when WWX kept spiraling downward and went mad, JC was the one at the FIrst Bural Mound Siege, leading to WWX ultimate downfall: his death.

The imagery is played straight in the Untamed: where LWJ is desperately trying to keep WWX from falling and WWX purposefully letting himself fall down to his death from a cliff after JC's arrival.

Which of course naturally leads to our ML.

Lan Wangji

In the Untamed, LWJ holds on WWX's hand and try to prevent him from falling. And he fails. Just like how in the novel he goes against those 33 elders to try to protect WWX and fails because WWX rejects him.

And it actually makes sense.

Because at that point, LWJ failed to understand that the way to save WWX wasn't to pull him away from that single-plank bridge but to actually show him that he was willing to walk that path with him. He failed to understand that WWX didn't want someone to "keep him from falling" but actually needed someone to "catch him" at the bottom. He failed to understand that his actions to WWX would appear like him extending his hand from a "moral high-ground".

LWJ of that time lacked the emotional maturity and the clarity to actually pull it off. Because at that time he was still unsure of his own actions, his own feelings and his own resolution, still questioning himself about what his family rules and mind told him was wrong but what his heart actually felt was right.

JYL knew WWX enough to understand that but didn't have the ability to do so. While LWJ had the strength but lacked the understanding.

And that's why to WWX, LWJ appeared to have changed drastically after those 13 years. Because LWJ needed those 13 years to question, accept and reflects on everything that happened.

And LWJ spent the entire present timeline rectifying what he thought he had done wrong with WWX in the past. And all the while WWX started to rely more and more on LWJ.... (cues all those CQL scenes where LWJ caught a fainting WWX).

WWX saw how LWJ didn't seem to disapprove of his cultivation anymore, how he was willing to be lenient with him about rules breaking, how he seemed so much softer and accepting, how he seemed to worry so much for him when he took on Jin Ling curse mark, how when push come to shove and WWX's identity was revealed he was willing to stand by his side against the whole cultivation world because he trusted him, how he kept and kept protecting and saving WWX even if WWX actually didn't need saving (except from dogs)....

Until it reached that iconic scene:

All of a sudden, an abnormally strong impulse surged into Wei WuXian’s mind. He wanted to fall down again, just like back then. A voice inside of him said, If he catches me, I’ll… At this point where he thought ‘I’ll’, Wei WuXian let go. Seeing that he fell out of the tree without any warning, Lan WangJi’s eyes immediately widened. He shot forward just in time to catch Wei WuXian, or one might say, be caught by Wei WuXian. [...] His voice was hoarse, "Thank you" He wasn’t scared of falling. All these years, he’d fallen many times. But falling on the ground still hurt, after all. If someone was be there to catch him, it’d be more than wonderful. Hearing Wei WuXian thank him, Lan WangJi’s body seemed to freeze for a second. The hand that was about to be laid on Wei WuXian’s back paused before it returned. After a moment of silence, Lan WangJi responded, “You are welcome.” -- Extract from chapter 87, Exiled Rebels Translation

This passage here is so, so significant because this is the moment where WWX truly really conceptualizes and accepts that yes, LWJ will be here for him, and someone is finally there to catch him.

And this is Wangxian at its finest.

And it needed to be this exact same tree that paralleled his complicated relationship with his siblings. Because you need to understand how JYL wanted to stand by WWX but was powerless to do so. You need to understand how JC wanted to stand by WWX but couldn't understand why his shixiong kept distancing himself from him and throwing himself from places he couldn't reach. You need to understand how WWX had always been the protector in order to appreciate how wholesome Wangxian is.

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Recently, I've been thinking about how the narrators of MXTX's books become progressively more unreliable with each new work. And how the more reliable they appear to be at first glance, the more unreliable they turned out to be.

1 - Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Let's start with SVSSS.

Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu is your typical unreliable narrator in several ways.

First, regarding what happened in the original. At the beginning the only thing we knew about PIDW came from Shen Yuan's knowledge and own interpretations of the book. So of course we're taking everything at face value and accept all lot of Facts that OG!SQQ was an unredeemable scum villain (lecher, murderer, abuser, low IQ etc) for example. Though it becomes quite apparent half-way through the story (with the introduction of Airplane and when hints of OG!SQQ are shown) that Shen Yuan might not have been informed of the whole picture behind PIDW. There were a lot of background information and character depths that Shen Yuan weren't aware of (and he is discovering them at the same time as us the readers, but even if we're given hints and can infer about some things, the whole picture would only become apparent in the Extras ).

This is of course due to the fact that Shen Yuan used to be a Reader just like us and wasn't privy on the thoughts and disastrous plotting process of the Author.

Secondly, the narration in SVSSS is heavily influenced by SQQ own thoughts, views and interpretations of what he is living through. We know most of if not all his inner thoughts without much filtering. And it is very obvious right from the beginning that SQQ considers himself (due to his status as a transmigrator) an Omniscient Narrator (spoiler he is so not.)

Now the thing is, SQQ is very genre savy, okay? And say what you want, but he's actually quite observant... and it's not even that he can't identify the tropes when they happened to him (the amount of times he complained to the system from being involved in a wife plots) .... it's just that his internalized homophobia and his previous knowledge of PIDW is preventing him from reaching the right conclusions.

We, as readers, don't have this problem though. And this is why, SVSSS is a comedy, it is playing with the fact that we know SQQ is an unreliable narrator and it only works if we manage to notice what SQQ is missing. SVSSS thrives from SQQ being an unreliable narrator and all the misunderstandings that derive from it. I mean the whole Jinlan arc would read very differently if we were taking things at face value.

So yeah, SY | SQQ is an unreliable narrator and we were meant to notice that he is one right away.

2 - Mo Dao Zu Shi

Let's move on to MDZS and its narrator's, Wei Wuxian.

Now, WWX doesn't appear like an obvious unreliable narrator. His thoughts and feelings do, of course, colored the narrative when describing facts and people (and boy, that man has Opinions) but that is to be expected in any narrator.

Like SQQ before him, WWX is very observant but blind to his own impact on other people's lives. And it was implied thoroughly through the novel that he failed to notice the depth of people's feelings for him. And because of that, since you're seeing the world through WWX's eyes you have to try to read between the lines to understand some people actions. A lot of things are left to (more or less) interpretation, which is why some characters characterization wildly differs from one adaption to the other. (Jiang Cheng is probably the one who suffers the most from this problem, *squinting at the donghua adaptation of JC*).

So while WWX seems like a case of typical slightly unreliable narrator due to chronic obliviousness, you might not feel the need to label him as an unreliable narrator.

Until you realize that WWX tended to downplay a lot of things regarding his own sufferings and most importantly that he deliberately left things out of the narrative. Like... you know the whole thing with his golden core.

... Which is worse than SQQ, because at least SQQ didn't try to hide anything from the readers and you know.... conveniently forgetting a lot of things because he's got a bad memory.

3 - Tian Guan Ci Fu

Oh boy.... where to begin?

Xie Lian's narration, contrarily to both SQQ's and WWX's, appears to be sort of dry, a little matter-of-fact even? He is a lot less transparent with his own thoughts, so much that I've even been reluctant at the beginning to qualify TGCF as being from XL's POV. And more importantly he often doesn't bother to tell us things that he already knows (and he knows a lot of things). Which makes him the worst narrator ever.

I mean, you think the guy 's got a case of "a little bit oblivious" what's with him so half-assingly trying to "check San Lang's status/true identity" or him not realizing that the Middle court officers were obviously his former general in disguise.... But then speed forwarding to the next arc (or several next arcs in the case of Mu Qing and Feng Xin) and you realize that he actually knew all along and just didn't bother to tell us...

And it's super funny because he's like, "What? Do you think you guys were being sneaky or something?"

Another thing that makes him so unreliable is that you see him reading aloud the story of the demise of some general and then ten chapters later you realize that the general was him all along and he didn't even twitch while talking about it.

That of course prompted the running gag that if some random characters appears in the background/past of the current arc relevant character, then that random character had a 90% chance of being Xie Lian.

So yeah Xie Lian is most unreliable narrator of all three MC, because you don't have a clue that he's one until it's hitting you in the face.

4 - ??

So, seeing as how things have progressed so far, doesn't it mean that the 4th MC would be even worse than Xie Lian?

At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if we spent two third of the 4th novel bemoaning on how the MC is so oblivious about the ML's (and his wholeass harem of side-characters) affection for him and then we got a scene like:

4th MC, after witnessing ML drinking vinegar, grinning affectionately: Pfft, we've been married for ten years and he's still being like this.

Readers : ....

Readers: !!! WHAT?! You're married?! Since how long?!

4th MC: Oh did you not know? But we've been holding hands the whole time?!

Readers: You didn't mention any of that!

4th MC, blinking: Oh we've been doing it so often that it just didn't register as something needed to mentioned?!

Readers: What about others things though, like kissing or papapa? Didn't you think it would be worth mentioning?

4th MC: Okay first, it's none of your business what me and my husband are doing behind the scene and secondly... bold of you to assume that I would have enough senses left to narrate anything while being intimate with my husband.

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Journey to Shizun‘s Bed

Summary: In which Shang Qinghua tries his hands at adapting catchy opening songs and Shen Qingqiu is. not. amused.

A spiritual aura sweeps through Cang Qiong Mountain Within the Qing Jing Peak’s disciples, I, The Handsome Junshang with Earth-shaking shattering power, am the most beloved Even the Xuan Su Sword and the Bai Zhan War God have to let me play freely! If I want to show off on Earth, I'll win the Immortal Alliance Conference. If I want to become an emperor, I'll grace the Southern Demon Palace with my presence. If I were to admit that I was wrong, my heart would still be arrogant. Around the Cang Qiong Mountain, the favorite of Qing Jing Peak, Sauntering around with a light slash of Xin Mo, I have explored all of the Demon and Mortal Realm, Using just a drop of my blood to alter my destiny. Fearless in the face of countless challenge, even from the Endless Abyss But what I really fear the most is Shizun disappearing on me! To properly court Shizun, we can't afford to relax at any step, To properly court Shizun, we will be impulsive together. To properly court Shizun, we have to cooperate for Shizun. Gradually achieving spousehood, Where our names will be praised for ten thousand generations, Luo Binghe!

- Journey to Shizun’s bed, song adapted by Shang Qinghua

Shen Qingqiu, back when he used to be called Shen Yuan, had been a Millenial. A male chinese one at that. He grew up in the heyday of Hongkongese TV shows, back when each fighting scenes were authentic pieces of art and special effects were kept at a minimum. So of course he was very familiar with all the classics, okay? Especially Journey to the West.

He used to fawn over the strength, intelligence and arrogance of Sun Wukong, cheering every time the Monkey King would win a fight or outwit an enemy. He used to grimace every time Zhu Bajie was in the general vicinity of any female characters. He used to throw insult at the TV screen every time Tang Sanzang refused to believe his disciple about this or that character being a demon in disguise (even though he fucking knew Sun Wukong had the ability to see through any kind of subterfuges and disguises)... that and getting basically kidnapped and/or nearly eaten every freaking episodes! So. Damn. Infuriating!

Shen Qingqiu wanted to throw something just by thinking about it!

But anyway, back to the matter on hand. Shen Qingqiu knew his classics.

So, of course, he’d immediately recognize it when he overheard Shang Qinghua absently humming the opening song of the Journey to the West, the 1996 one of course (because any other adaption didn’t deserve any recognition - fight him!).

Well, “overhead” might be too big of a word.

Shen Qingqiu had agreed to help Shang Qinghua go through his massive mountain of disorderly paperwork, in exchange for the location of a pair of mythical beasts that had only been mentioned once in Proud Immortal Demon Way, but didn’t appear in any books that Shen Qingqiu had read so far. And after a while Shang Qinghua had just forgotten that his fellow transmigrator was still in the room, hence the humming which had now evolved into full-fledged singing. 

 Now, usually, that would have been the point prompting Shen Qingqiu to snap at him to freaking work in silence, because Shang Qinhua’s taste in music was on par with his literature one’s - that is to say absolutely cringy and of the vulgar variety. And he tended to sing in loops. Absolutely maddening!

But suddenly overcome with a rare sense of nostalgia, Shen Qingqiu decided not to interrupt and actually listen. He was actually impressed that Shang Qinghua remembered the cantonese lyrics, what’s with his usual shitty memory and language proficiency.

So, when it looped back to the beginning of the song, he started to properly pay attention to the lyrics.

A spiritual aura sweeps through Cang Qiong Mountain Within the Qing Jing Peak’s disciples, I, The Handsome Junshang with Earth-shaking shattering power, am the most beloved Even the Xuan Su Sword and the Bai Zhan War God have to let me play freely!

Shen Qingqiu frowned. Wait. That wasn’t right! What’s with those lyrics?!

If I want to show off on Earth, I'll win the Immortal Alliance Conference. If I want to become an emperor, I'll grace the Southern Demon Palace with my presence. If I were to admit that I was wrong, my heart would still be arrogant.

He snorted. So Shang Qinghua had actually adapted the original opening lyrics to make them about Luo Binghe, instead.

Around the Cang Qiong Mountain, the favorite of Qing Jing Peak, Sauntering around with a light slash of Xin Mo, I have explored all of the Demon and Mortal Realm, Using just a drop of my blood to alter my destiny.

Shen Qingqiu was actually impressed? This hack author had only made some minor changes (the locations and powers) but the gist and intent of the original song still remained the same. He’d never noticed how the original could fit so well with this OP protagonist of his. Had Luo Binghe personality been inspired by Sun Wukong? Maybe he would ask Shang Qinghua for a written version of the lyrics... just because he was curious about it, okay! ... and certainly not because he actually started to like this version better than the original! 

Fearless in the face of countless challenge, even from the Endless Abyss But what I really fear the most is Shizun disappearing on me!

Shen Qingqiu winced. Yeah, even that part was similar. What’s with the countless number of wife plots he had been subject to in the past few years. Wait... Did that make him Tang Sanzang?! No way! Nope! He refused!

“To properly court Shizun, we can't afford to relax at any step, To properly court Shizun, we - ACK! Cucumber-bro! W-what, stop hitting me! OUCH!”

Before Shang Qinghua could even finish the verse, Shen Qingqiu had promptly leapt from his seat and lunged at him, with all the ferocity of an indignant swan. He punctuated each of his word with a violent hit of his fan.

“You! Hack! Author! How! Dare! You!”

“W-wait! Wait! I’m sorry! ACK! I’m really sorry! Stop hitting me, please!”

But Shen Qingqiu wasn’t done.

“You! If it weren’t bad enough that you made me into a Tang Sanzang proxy, you actually dared to make me, the Holy Sutras?! How blasphemous can you actually get?!”

Shang Qinghua laughed nervously at that, scratching his cheek, “Well, you have to admit, Cucumber-bro, it does fit surprisingly well with the narra- ACK! Okay! Shutting up, right now! I’ll repent properly for all the wrong I’ve done!”

Shen Qingqiu huffed, “You’d better. And hand over the written lyrics, I’m confiscated it, just to make it won’t get into the wrong hands!”

There was a knowing glint in his eyes as Shang Qinghua went to fetch said lyrics and gave them to him. “Yeah sure, cucumber-bro.”

Just for that Shen Qingqiu hit him, once more.

.

.

.

The thing was... The song was catchy, okay! (And the lyrics were surprisingly good if you ignore the last verse.)

So was it really surprising that Shen Qingqiu found himself singing it without meaning to?

At first, he would be too thin-faced to actually reach the end of the song and would stop right before the last verse. But after singing it countless times, he actually stopped paying attention to the meaning of the words, which happened often enough when you sing in a language that wasn’t your native language, and instintively went through the whole song.

So naturally, his sticky, sticky disciple who should learn not to move so silently, was bound to hear it at some point.

His last remains of hope that Luo Binghe wouldn’t understand the lyrics promptly shattered when he saw him grinning from ear to ear, begging his Shizun to sing it one more time.

(He remembered too late that Airplane had handwaved the language barrier between a Cantonese speaking wife and Mandarin speaking Luo Binghe by stating that apparently everyone in PIDW could understand and speak both, which was utter bullshits that Shen Yuan had ranted about in at least three separate comments.What was the point of making a distinction between the two if everyone and their mothers could speak it?!)  

Face beat red from utter shame, Shen QIngqiu stubbornly refused to sing it again, no matter how many time he was coaxed.

It fucking figured though that Luo Binghe would manage to memorize the song after only hearing it once. 

The next following days, found that cheeky disciple of his happily singing it as swept the floor of the Bamboo Hut. 

.

.

Naturally, at some point, both Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan also heard of it ( which for some reason meant that Sha Hualing also knew about it?) .

... Naturally, the song became the most known song in the Three Realm within a week.

Shen Qingqiu was going to eviscerate Shang Qinghua!!

(About a year later, a book co-written by Lian Su Mian Hua and an unknown author pennamed Sword Shooting Towards the Sky, became widly circulated. It told the epic tale of a peerless cultivator who travelled through the several Realms, with his three rambunctious but powerful disciples, on the head of a giant snake  to search for some holy artifacts.

The first disciple was a half-heavenly demon who was propably singlehandedly the most powerful being in all Three Realms and the only person he was known to bow down to was his Shizun.

The second one was a very powerful cultivator who owed his Shizun his life, he would have been known for both his fighting prowess and his beauty - if he hadn’t been beaten every single time by his Shixiong!

The last disciple, was the one who had known Shizun the longest despite being the last one accepted as a disciple. The reason was that even though he was rumoured to be powerful to the point of even having his Da-shixiong being wary of him, he had been forbbiden from drawing his sword out.

Now the most interesting part of the tale though is that the Shizun was probably the only one really focused on the goal. The three disciples (and the snake?!) actually spent the integrality of the journey trying to get into their master’s bed fighting each other and protecting their masters’s virtue from the dozen other contenders, though the master remained utterly obvious the whole way - under the firm belief that the beings (humans, gods, demons) that kept kidnapping him right, left and center wanted to eat him... which you know, yes, but not that way.

The furious scream from the usually peacefully Qing Jing Peak could be heard all the way to An Ding, Shang Qinghua elected right there to flee have a prolonged stay at his King residence.)

THE END.

.

.

Extra:

Sun Wukong & LBH: I have no fear.

Tang Sanzang & SQQ, exists and keeps getting kidnapped or dying.

Sun Wukong & LBH: I have one (1) fear.

The JTTW (1996) opening used this meme nearly two decades before it was invented and I think it’s freaking hilarious!

---------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:

1) Okay so, I used to watch a lot of Chinese TV shows when I was a kid - I watched them in Vietnamese dub though. Recently, I randomly wanted to watch Journey To the West again, and realized after one episode and a half that I wasn’t nearly as proficient in Vietnamese as I used to be when I was 10.... (which, WTF?!)... or maybe back then,  it didn’t bothered me as much not to understand everything as long as I got the gist of the story.

Well whatever the reason I promptly switched to the original version with English subtitles. And the team subbing the episodes actually went through the effort of translating all the songs as well, which meant I understood the lyrics of the opening for the first time ever (they were kept in Cantonese, even in the dub)  and I was like...

So after my initial amazement of how the opening embodied so well Sun Wukong, I was like “Wait... for some reasons it reminds me of LBH as well.”

And because I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, I actually started writing it!

 2) Mandarin vs Cantonese....

So one of my HCs is that Shen Yuan is proficient in a lot of language:

- Mandarin, which is his native language. - Cantonese, by watching those Hongkongese TV shows as a kid and learning by sheer osmosis... which means he actually knows the outdated way of speaking in Cantonese - English, through school - Japanese - a little bit of Korean 

As for SQH, well to be honest, I needed a reason to explain how he knew Cantonese enough to adapt the lyrics, so for the sake of the story his father is from Macau (Cantonese), while his mother is from Shanghai (Mandarin), which is why he naturally understands and speaks both.  

3) I was shocked to learn that “Marriagehood” wasn’t a word, it sounds so much better than “Spousehood”

4) Here is the original lyrics, if you’re interested

(Credits to the swkfansubs team for the translation!)

A spiritual aura sweeps through Flower Fruit Mountain Within the Water Curtain Cave, I, The Handsome Monkey King Earth-shaking shattering power, am the master Even the Jade Emperor and the Dragon King have to let me play freely! If I want to play on Earth, I'll create a sensation. If I want to become an emperor, I'll grace the Dragon Palace with my presence. If I were to admit that I was wrong, my heart would still be arrogant. Around the Golden Flower Fruit Mountain, the King of Water Curtain Cave, Somersaulting around with light flips, I have explored all of East and West, Using just half a strand of my hair to alter my destiny. Fearless in the face of countless challenge, even from Wind and Fire But what I really fear the most is my master going missing! To retrieve the Holy Sutras, we can't afford to relax at any step, To retrieve the Holy Sutras, we will be impulsive together To retrieve the Holy Sutras, we have to cooperate for the Sutras. Gradually achieving Buddhahood, When our names will be praised for ten thousand generations, Sun Wukong !

5) I need a real JTTW AU like, right now! Someone please make it happens!

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Soooo, it has been… *looks at last post* holy shit, more than one year since I’ve posted anything in here.

Just to give you an idea, since then I have :

fallen back into an anime/manga (a bunch of new ones and the super long ones that I stopped watching/reading like one piece or BNHA)

consumed trillions of related fanfictions/meta

created a wholeass other tumblr about bnha (@fluffyferalkacchan , if anyone is interested)

finally started widening my horizon and started reading manhua/manhwa

realised that some of those aforementioned manhwa were adapted from webnovels

bingeread my way through the knovels’ holy trinity (TCGF, ORV, TSCTIR, exactly in that order)

got my hands on the physical copy of all three of MTXT’s works and started rereading them…

… which made me reread/rewatch all related contents…

… aaaand we’re back full circle again right here!

Which sort of validate for me the theory that you never really lose an hyperfixation, you just lock it away in a corner of your mind behind relatively thick doors until the right boulder comes your way and break them down.

(*Side-eyes the spn “door” shaking and trying to make itself known * : nope not yet)

[miyu-hyperfixates]

About Jin Guangyao & Nie Huaisang

Recently I have been thinking about JGY and NHS’s dynamics and about how JGY never saw NHS coming even though he knew that NHS was smarter than he looked like.

One of the reason is of course arrogance and pride. But, I think that in JGY’s defense NHS might as well be his worst natural enemy. If a blind spot had a form then JGY’d would be distinctively NHS-shaped. And here’s why:

《 Their core personality traits and beliefs 》

While JGY is very familiar with acting weak, vulnerable and so on to manipulate his ennemies (both from a physical and emotional point of view), he had never not even once appeared less smart than he truly was.

I think it never even occurred to him that people would act dumb (in the long term) or incompetent to deceive people because it clashes fundamentally with his whole existence.

Think about it. If JGY had shown less competence than he had, would he have managed to attract the attention of NMJ and be promoted (regardless of how bullied he was)?

If JGY had been anything short of super-competent would he manage to enter the rank of WRH? If he had not managed to prove himself and maintain such level of hyper-competency would he manage to keep playing spy by WRH and staying alive ?

If JGY had not been so convincing would he manage to kill WRH and crawl his way to his father’s grace? And even then, if he had shown the slightest amount of failure or incompetency he probably would have been kicked out of Jinlintai. If he had not maintain that high-competency could he manage to keep his position as chief cultivator?

For JGY incompetency and failure to do his designated jobs doesn’t just mean a small wound to his pride. No most of the time for most of his life it meant death or being kicked out.

So for someone who lived such a high-strung and stressful life, where his next breath, his next warm meal was entirely reliant on how competent he was at his job... how could it ever occur to him that someone could act incompetent on purpose?

Maybe if it had been for a short time then he might have been suspicious and notice but NHS acted this way for 10+ years... who would willingly lower themselves that way for so long, especially if they had the weight of a whole sect on their shoulders?

This is just fundamentally clashing with who he is as a person that it is no matter NHS could sneak on his blind spot. One of JGY biggest mistake was probably not to realize that having no ambition doesn’t mean not having any motivation.

《 JGY’s bias towards the elite 》

I thing JGY had encountered a certain amount of smart/competent/strong people in his life. And while he is naturally weary of physically strong people, he probably view them as less threatening than smart people.

Likewise even among the smart, he probably differentiate between ‘book smart’ and ‘street smart’. Of which JGY stands easily at the top of both. However the kind of smart that’d allow you to survive/thrive is definitely the street kind.

Even if he were aware of the fact that NHS hid his intelligence and cunning, he’d probably expect it to lie within the realm of “book-smartness” and not even the useful kind but the ‘useless’ kind of intelligence directed towards poetry, arts etc.

So of course how could this pampered young master, whose hardest struggle growing up had been on thinking how not to get drag on the training field by his big brother, ever be able to compete with JGY in term of street smartness?   Comparatively WWX and XY, because of their background, make way more of a threat than NHS could ever be in JGY’s mind. And that’s because he grew up prejudiced towards the rich and the elite.

《 NHS & JGY are two different types of masterminds 》

If you’re familiar with TV tropes and especially the Gambit tropes then I’d describe JGY’s plans as strongly lying in the Xanatos Gambit areas (with now and then a hint of Batman Gambit). Basically what it means, is that JGY is the type of mastermind who plays chess. He’ll look at all the outcomes and try to plot things so that no matter what outcome ends up happening he’d still win one way or another.

And while he can more or less improvise when things go sideway, it’s pretty obvious that it is when he has to make hasty decisions that he tends to make a lot of mistakes. 

NHS’s plans are of the  Gambit Roulette kind. In other words, his plans mostly rely on luck and chance occurrence. He had absolutely no way of knowing that MXY would succeed in resurrecting WWX, and even if MXY did, NHS had no way of knowing that WWX would be curious enough to investigate the case of the possessed arm, he had no way of knowing if WWX and LWJ would manage to find all the other body parts and successfully find discriminating facts about JGY... 

So basically what NHS was doing was planning stuff one step at a time. He didn’t need to have a whole plot with thousands of contingencies, he just needed to be nearby where the whole chaos was and try to nudge things in the direction he wanted. Therefore... How could JGY possibly predict NHS’s moves when probably even NHS didn’t know what he would do at that time?

In other words, while JGY is busy analyzing and trying to predict other people’s moves like they were merely pawns on a chessboard...he can’t predict NHS’s move at all because NHS is playing a whole other game altogether.

NHS is basically playing Texas Hold’em Poker, with his two starting cards being WWX and LWJ... Then he’d look at the cards start to appear one by one (calculating the odds, weighing whether he’d be able to get a good combinaison throwing chips here and there to bluff his way out), and hoping that at the end he’d get a better hand than JGY.

So yeah that’s probably why JGY never really stood a chance against NHS.

And while we’re on the game analogy, I’d like to make an aside here to talk about the juniors, who are probably NHS’s natural enemies (just as NHS is JGY’s).... They’re like those wild joker cards that keeps randomly popping for no reasons whatsoever, causing mayhem and chaos ... [especially Jin Ling haha]... And you’re not really sure if they are helping or making everything worse. And so NHS’s approach to dealing with those unknown wild cards was like “If you’re going to cause trouble and pop up anyway, then rather than having you appear out of nowhere and ruin everything, I’ll be the one to lead you there so that you stop surprising me!”

[I hc that this is one of the main reason NHS lured the juniors to Yi City, because he didn’t want to get blindsided by them popping out of nowhere and nearly dying again... like that time at Mo village or in Qinghe... (And he was probably laughing his ass off at JGY, when Jin Ling randomly appeared at the temple and he probably was like “See? That’s why you fail at masterminding! Always expect a dumbass kid with no self-preservation skills whatsoever to appear when you expect it the less!”)]

[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]  

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Water ghouls AU!

[Part 0.5: Meeting Wei Ying]

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

Madam Yu and Madam Jin were in Yiling for a night hunt, where they encounter kid!WWX being chased by a group of dogs. Seeing the kid cornered and trying to protect his very small bun... Both of them couldn’t help but think of their own children in such a position and went to chase the dogs away.

Madam Jin actually brought WWX two other buns.

WWX of course was very grateful towards the two very kind [AN: I think it’s the first time I’m using Madam Yu and kind in the same sentence, pff] aunties... And when he saw that they carried swords his eyes went very wide, before hastily rummaging through the pockets of his dirty clothes. He pulled out a talisman and gave it to Madam Yu, beaming, “Here auntie, a lucky charm for you!” 

Both Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked intrigued by the ‘lucky charm’ that was actually a talisman. But they were unfamiliar with the sigils on it, and considering the slightly childish handwriting, both of them guessed that it might have been the kid’s work. It was more than probable that the kid’s parents were cultivators and he saw them writing talismans and wanted to copy them... Of course, to his small mind the sigils were probably no different from gibberish. And so he thought that he had made a proper “lucky charm” and decided to gave it the kind aunties as thanks.

Even Madam Yu had to admit that the kid was cute and endearing. So she took the talisman, thanks him and shoo him away.   [Because she could be kind from time to time, but not that kind and besides they still have a ferocious beast to hunt down.] She slid the talisman in her sleeves and will probably throw it away later when the kid wasn’t watching.

And well two hours later and the street rat and his talisman were probably the last thing on her mind. ‘Cause the lone ferocious beast that they were supposed to kill turned out to be a pack of six ferocious beasts.

At some point during the quite challenging fight, Madam Yu got momentarily distracted by something and it allowed one of the beast to rush through her defense. Considering how close it was and the direction of its jump, she barely had the time to raise one arm to protect her face. But before it could actually chunk at her arm it suddenly stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible wall. The protective barrier of course collapse barely a few seconds after because the spiritual energy sustaining it was quite low but it gave Madam Yu enough time to take a few step back and counterattack.    

Soon enough after that all the beasts were dealt with and they could finally relaxed. This was when Madam Yu took out the ‘lucky charm’ from her sleeve. It just happened that the arm she had raised to instinctively protect herself had been the one with the talisman within the sleeve. And sure enough, the talisman was still warm and the sigils were slightly bright in some parts and burnt in others. Indicating that it had been activated not so long ago.  

Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked at each other with wide eyes. Turned out what they thought were a child drawing was actually a proper protective talisman!

So of course they had to go and track WWX down again, because a kid who could write talisman that could be activated and properly worked (even if it was for merely a few seconds) was nothing short of a genius. It would be a tremendous waste not to nurture such potential.

They didn’t have any difficulty in finding the kid again, he was actually sleeping in one of the corner of the street where they had met earlier near a small makeshift tent made of dirty quilts.

The kid woke as they came closer and beamed at them, “Aunties, are you finished night hunting? Did the lucky charm help?” Madam Yu: It did. Did you write it yourself? The kid nodded enthusiastically. Madam Yu: Do you want to learn more? WWX: Can I? Madam Yu: I belong to the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. It is one of the Great Sect of the cultivation world. If you come home with me, I’ll take you in as a disciple and teach you. I won’t be kind though, so be prepared. WWX: I’ll come!! I’ll come! Please teach me!     Madam Yu: Very well, then come along. WWX rushed into the makeshift tent to take out his meager belongings (one fourth of a cinnabar, a very decrepit brush and the two buns that Madam Jin brought him earlier) and happily followed the other two. [And that’s how you catch a wild Wei Ying, *clap clap* (and she didn’t even need to bait him with watermelon)]

Because it was quite late at night and because the kid was super dirty, they decided to stay at a nearby inn, where the kid was forced to take a bath and changed clothes (that Madam Jin brought him... it was the clothes of the inn’s owner’s son and weren’t of high quality but it was definitely better than the clothes that WWX had been wearing).

After the kid looked more presentable and way cleaner, they took the opportunity to ask him about his talismans.

Turns out they were right. His parents had been cultivators  - probably rogue cultivators - and it was his mother who taught A-Ying this protective talisman. It was apparently his “job” to help them make it. Because he was “back-up” and it was a “very important job”... And she had made him make a dozens of them until he got it right and could actually activate them.

Thinking about it, the mother’s aim had probably been to provide him with a tool to protect himself just in case.

By the time, he finished talking about it, the kid was starting to nod off so Madam Yu send him to bed. But just when she did so, she suddenly realized that she didn’t actually know his full name. “A-Ying, what is your name?” WWX *sleepily*: A-Ying’s name is Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian. Madam Yu, suddenly filled with dread: Wei? Are your parents Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren? [By the way, at that time, news of the WWX’s parents death had not reach Yunmeng yet, which is why she didn’t make the connection immediately when she heard WWX calling himself A-Ying] WWX: Yes! Auntie, do you know them? Are you friend with them? Madam Yu: We are not friend. But I do know them. WWX: Oh...  

About eight months ago, WWX’s parents had gone to a night hunt in Yiling. And because they thought that this case might be more dangerous than usual, they didn’t take him with them for the actual hunt and made him wait for them back in the street of Yiling [in the exact corner where his makeshift tent is]. They never came back.

Madam Yu, once WWX fell asleep, very bitterly: So she’s dead... And I’m actually taking her kid in. What kind of fate is this? Is she mocking me beyond the grave?

Madam Yu could actually picture with great clarity what was going to happen as soon as WWX will arrive at Lotus Pier. JFM will welcome him with open arms. A son of a servant will be raised way above his station, not only as a mere disciple of the sect but like a son of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. And A-Cheng will probably cease to exist in the eyes of JFM as soon as the son of Cangse Sanren would arrive.

Madam Jin seeing Madam Yu very sour face, tried to reason with her, “You’re not going to leave back in the street, are you? Outside of the fact that he is Cangse Sanren’s son, he didn’t do anything wrong and has a lot of potential.” [Those words are so going to bite her in the ass a few years later when Meng Yao comes into play, haha] Madam Yu: I am not coming back on my words.

Besides she was pretty sure that even if she left him there, as soon as words of their death reached JFM’s ears, he’d go and search the whole word for Cangse Sanren’s son. He wouldn’t give up until he managed to find him and then they’d end up exactly in the same situation (actually it was probably even a worse situation, there was no way rumors wouldn’t fly around with Jiang-zongzhu looking for and adopting the son of the woman he was rumored to be in love with).... The only way to prevent this situation was to straightforwardly kill the kid right now. But Madam Yu had not reach such a low point that she would go and murder innocent young kids no matter how troublesome their parents were.

If she’s going to have to endure the presence of Cangse Sanren’s son either way, then so be it. If she’s going to have to get used to the idea that Cangse Sanren’s son will from now on be an adoptive son of her family, then so be it. But she will make sure that both sons will be treated accordingly, even if this is the last thing that she’ll ever do! 

---------

Status Progress:

>> Wei Ying has been upgraded to adopted!

>> Madam Yu has been upgraded to on her way to become a good mother out of pure spite!

--------------

Author’s note: Right so remember when I said after part 3 that Meng Yao will appear next time? I lied. (Though he does make his entrance in part 4, you get this prequel/backstory first.)

So in canon (please correct me if I’m wrong) WWX’s parents died when he’s about six and he’s only found by JFM when he’s about eight or nine? That’s such a huge gap. And my personal hc to explain it is that actually JFM didn’t know they died for a long time.

I mean both of them were rogue cultivators. If there were no one around when they died how would it be possible for anyone to know that they died? My guess is that they actually send messages/letters to JFM once in a while (like every two or three years to let him know what they’re up to). Stuff like, “If after X times you didn’t get any news, then please consider us dead” or something. If they died in Yiling right after sending one of their letters, informing him of their location, then it would make sense that JFM would only notice that something is wrong a few years later with no new letters. Naturally he’ll go look for them and search at the last place they mentioned first and try to trace back what happened from there. Which is how he found WWX in the street of Yiling.  

Now in this universe Madam Yu stumbles upon WWX by pure accident less than a year after his parents’ death, which means that he actually gets adopted younger than he was in canon. Which means that by the times the event of part 1 happens, he was already living with the Jiang for something like 4 years (which explains why he has so much more lee-way and is so much more comfortable within the family).

Next time: Part 4 - Meeting Meng Yao (for real this time haha)

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Random post-canon MDZS headcanon #2

WWX and NHS’s relationship post-canon is truly weird and complicated. No one quite know if they get along or hate each other guts [not even them]. But whether they are friend or not, at each gathering without exception one of them would seek the other out. [Sometimes they don’t even need gathering, one of them would randomly pop up at each other’s place]

Then will ensue a conversion full of passive aggressiveness where taunts in the forms of veiled flattery would made, where vague barbs and pointed comments would be thrown around, and laughter would also come up at weird instance. In other words the tones and mood of their conversation could change at the drop of the hat. [Sometimes it would even swing widely in the space of less than an incense]. 

That’s because since WWX and LXC got closer to each other once WWX started to live in Cloud Recesses, WWX actually witnesses how depressed LXC is. And he can’t really forgive or forget that NHS was like 66% behind this.

NHS feels really guilty about it, but didn’t have the courage to go see LXC yet.

Another feature of their relationship is that since WWX discovered that NHS had a knack for digging up dirt, any time one of his ducklings happened to need information, WWX would make a point to tell them “Go ask Nie-zongzhu, I am sure he doesn’t know anything about it.”  Cue super confused ducklings. But since they are dutiful they still obeyed and went to ask NHS .

And because NHS still feels like he owes WWX a debt, he would grudgingly give the information. If it’s something that he truly doesn’t know, then he’ll send one of his disciples to do search and dig out the information. [NHS: Wei-xiong, you wouldn’t happen to know why the juniors keep coming to me to ask for information? WWX, *straight face*: No clue. NHS: That’s a shame... I’d really appreciate it though if they stopped doing that. If you out who they are would you pass the message for me? I really hate the extra work. WWX: Sure.... *Five minutes later, after one of the junior wonder about sth very inconsequential like where the fruits they ate come from or where is the best shop to buy whatever* WWX, without hesitation: Go ask Nie-zongzhu .]

 Speaking of the Nie disciples and juniors...      

 Officially there are some of them, but their cultivation level are average at best so no one really pay attention to them.[Like they were there the whole time, even during pre-canon and canon events... they just have a very low presence, think kuroko from KnB]

But… they are everywhere. NHS has started a really complicated and throughout spy networks comprised of orphan kids and street rats that he had trained himself to be as innocuous as possible… Some might know each other, but only NHS really know how many and who they are.

WWX is aware of their existence and that prompted the game of “Catching the Canary”: Just to piss off NHS, he’d start to randomly pick some kids to accompany them on Nigh Hunts… He says it’s a teaching experience for his ducklings to protect the civilian (NHS says freaking bullshit, as eight time out of ten, it is actually one of the NHS spy that is getting picked)

No one knows how WWX does it, but what is actually scarier is LSZ… Somehow he can always pick up the spy… (truth is… Sizhui is just naturally kind and wouldn’t dismiss anyone even very low presence people, but because NHS spies are paranoid they think that he knows… and so they’ll be like “I’ll do better next time” and LSZ thinking that they’re talking about cultivation or something always nods “Good luck, you can do it” and then endeavor to remember them so that he’ll know if their path cross some others time…. (which is the opposite of what they want…) and the other juniors had taken their cues from LSZ so all of them are starting to do it too [with more or less success...]. (WWX thinks it’s hilarious, while NHS is starting to think the juniors are actually his natural enemy or something)  

And because of LSZ reputation of always noticing the NHS juniors, even if LSZ pinpoints a kid that isn’t part of the Nie Sect, the other Nie spies think that the kid is… because well, even they don’t know everyone for safety issues, but if LSZ noticed them then they must be an NHS’s spy… SO they’ll give a report to the random kid… who’ll be super baffled and say “But I don’t know you???” “yeah, yeah and I don’t know you!” “No I really don’t know what you’re talking about!” “Look I’m in a hurry so if you could report back to Zongzhu as quick as possible it would be great!” “O…kay?” “Great” Most of the time, the random kid doesn’t dare to go seek an audience with a sect leader (no matter how bad his reputation as a slacker) just for such a weird thing. But some are actually more brave and dutiful so they’ll actually go and then NHS would look at them and be like “Who?” [He’ll actually take some of them in as disciples, because why the hell not? ]

NHS would complain about it to WWX during one of their Passive Aggressive friendly chat. Like whoa they have refined passive aggressive conversation to a whole new level: sometimes their entire  conversation were made of metaphor, quotes, insinuation and imagery... So much that eavesdroppers would be like “What kind of language is this? Are they cursing each other??”  

It happened to LSZ and LJY, who had gone with WWX to visit NHS…. They were completely baffled with the whole conversation. Though when they related it back to Jin Ling who had pretty much learned the language “Passive Aggressiveness”  through sheer osmosis. [Come on he grew up in Jinlintai, Passive Aggressive might as well be the native language. And he was raised with an uncle who couldn’t talk without seeming passive aggressive or plotting something and another uncle who always default at being at first super aggressively passive and then just outright super aggressive after some time]

He’d just scoff and be like “What are you talking about? They’re obviously having fun.” 

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Train attendant!MDZS AU (part 1)

So I’m currently reading a C novel called Card Room. Which is basically the MC and ML having to go through several survival/puzzle/escape/mystery rooms. And the arc I’m reading right now is about murders occurring on a three-days trip train and the two main characters have to investigate and solve them. In real life, one is a forensic doctor and the other one is a police investigator, so it’s pretty easy for them. In the context of the room though they are impersonating train attendants.

And at some point after discovering the first victim, the forensic doctor rattled a bunch of medical facts and the witnesses around him where like “???” and one of them even went like “Are train attendants really that amazing nowadays? You know medicine?!”

So then a plot bunny emerged in my mind about an universe where aboard a train all staffs are actually hidden (or not so hidden) badasses... Like if you’re familiar with the TV tropes terminology they are all either  Ambiguously Trained or Almighty Janitors.  And because my mind always come back some way or another to MDZS nowadays.

So imagine the MDZS characters... It might be that after canon, all of the characters for some reasons miraculously came back to life and all the cast managed to reach immortality. Or that all of them are actually the reincarnation of the canon characters and remember their past lives (and got the same skills/abilities). Anyway, no matter the reasons, they are all chilling in the modern areas and for some reasons are actually all ‘working’ as staff members of this special train.

Except none of them actually bother to hide their skills or even try to appear normal... Some do try to at least do their jobs but well, with more or less success depending on the person ...So of course pure chaos and mayhem follow!

[Note, this is written in a sort of outsider perspective... So most of the time I use identifiers while referring to characters. The parts in brackets are mostly the thoughts/reactions of the passenger witnessing the general craziness of the MDZS’s characters....

Note 2: Also this is supposed to be pure crack, so please do note take anything seriously. ] 

Coach 1 &16 - the Driver coaches

So one of the thing a passenger on the MDZS Express might notice that the driver carriages are actual very long compared to standard ones. They are like half the length of a passenger carriage, which can usually house up to twenty rows of seats. What does the driver needs such a huge space?  

It is a staff only area so passengers are not allowed to access it. But periodically passengers sitting near the door would able to hear a loud “swooshing” and “thumping” sounds, as if someone was violently swinging a baseball bat in there.

Only few staff members are seen venturing into there. And the driver is hardly seen by anyone.

Most of the time it’s a very handsome man wearing all white clothes with a constant serene smile on his face, who’ll gentle knock on the door carrying foods into the driving carriage. The 1m90 driver will then open the door and welcome the man in, a very soft expression on his usually stern and scary face.

Occasionally a short attendant with a vermilion mark on his forehead, wearing a crisp and sharp uniform (he is probably the only one wearing the proper attendant uniform) and looking very aggravated will knock on the door. Compared as to when the man in white walked in, the atmosphere was definitively full of aggression and tension.

The few times the driver decided to leave his coach, his default expression seemed to be “I’m going to beat someone to death” scowl or something... and the passengers will witness this huge ass man carrying an equally huge ass fake (”It must be fake right? Who’ll allow a driver to carry such a weapon?!”) saber on his back strode down the aisle....the first time it happens all the passengers collectively froze in fear... Random passenger A: terrorist?! Is this a terrorist attack?! Are we all going to die?!

But after a while they got used to it and soon realized that they were always two outcomes to this situation. The terrorist  driver will either disappear for forty to sixty minutes and then come back significantly less tensed. Or he’ll come back less than fifteen minutes later dragging with him a wailing man and muttering something about training. The door will close behind them with a huge slam and then screams of distress could be distinctively heard from inside. (”Is this a murder? Do we need to call the police?!!!”)   

If you’re courageous enough to try to talk to him, when you see him walk by... Don’t ask him for the arrival times, or information about the stations and so on, he’ll just look blankly at you and say “How should I know? Go ask the short bastard.” (Aren’t you the driver of this train?!!!) [By the way if you ask him where the train is going, he’ll answer something like “north”]

Coach 15 - the staff coach

This is also a staff only areas, containing the staff’s offices and beds.

According to some staff members the cabines are soundproof. When asked why they would need such a thing, most of the attendants would shudder violently and mutter something about “everyday”. 

What nearby passengers use to describe this coach is “excessively loud”, “occasionally explosive”, “might cause the entire nearby carriage to shake from the shockwave of whatever is going on in here” and “believe me you don’t want to know”.

So let’s keep it at that. 

Coach 2 -  first-class seat coach

This is actually one of the most low key coach? Apart from being next to the driver carriage (and the drama that comes with it) there isn’t actually much excitement there.

For some reasons this seem to be the less popular coach? Only first-timers (who can afford it) would usually buy those types of tickets.

Recurrent passengers would pick up other coaches, not because it’s too expensive but because this coach is “kinda boring” 

Coach 3&4 - business-class seat coach

Those two coaches are managed by three persons: a married couple and another woman (who seems to be a close friend/sister of the wife?). All of them are wearing Tang dynasty clothes and they looked so classy in it! As if coming straight out of an ancient period drama.

The wife especially is very beautiful, she looks to be in her thirties but she’s actually the mother of the restaurant cook and the scary guy who is always scowling and whose job is unknown, and the adoptive mother of the bartender of the bar. She is also the grandmother of the two young waiters... which made her closer to sixty(”?!” “what is this witchcraft?” “Actually what kind of supreme good genes go through this family?!”)   

By the way... the other female attendant, her close friend? She is the other grandmother of the rich looking waiter in the restaurant car. And of fucking course she looked to be in her mid-thirty. (WTF)

This coach is actually quite popular? One of the reasons is of course because the two beautiful ladies attracted a lot of admirers.

But really like 70% of them are here because they want to witness the show. This coach is known as the scums lashing coach. If anyone dares to do anything improper or is particularly misbehaving, the two kickass ladies will strike them down either with their sharp tongues or with their even sharper martial skills (if the person in question tries to use force) .

It doesn’t matter if the opponent is a 2 meter mountain of muscles, they will knock them down as if it was a troublesome fly.

Regulars with particularly scummy acquaintances  would book this coach tickets hoping that they will act out of hand and be taught a lesson.

Misbehaving and very rude passengers from other coach will also be bumped up or down to the business class by the other attendants. Some of them are probably thinking that they are lucky.... but oh boy are they wrong.     

Meanwhile the husband is just serenely drinking tea in the background... Occasionally he’d ask if they need help getting rid of the trash on the floor.

Coach 5 to 8 - second-class seat coaches

Those coaches’ attendants are probably one of the weirdest combination of personalities.

There’s one man dressed in white who looked super innocent and clueless about basically everything. He is very kind and nice... but don’t try to ask him anything more that the layout of the rows.

Everywhere this man goes, there is always going to be another man looming behind him. This man is dressed completely in black and looks very serious and sorta gloomy. However his face will soften significantly whenever the white dressed man looks at him.

Another attendant from this coach is a blind young girl, carrying a walking stick. She is irreverent sometimes downright rude with a huge potty mouth and for some reasons she’ll always manage to whack the legs of the people making fun of her with her stick. And no assholes she doesn’t care if you want to go complain to her boss. 

And then there’s the psychopath. For some reasons right in the middle of showing you to your seat, or answering one of your question, he’ll randomly take out a knife a play with it, while smiling creepily and staring at you, as if he was picturing how you’ll look with your intestine out of your body.

At this point, the blind girl would smoothly walk over apologize, “I’m sorry he didn’t take his medicine yet.” and out of the blue she’ll whacked him hard in the head with her stick (hard enough that he lost consciousness). “here you go, please enjoy your travel.” Then for good measures she’ll kick him when he’s still down and walk away.

Also because those four coaches house most of the train seats, statistically speaking this is also where the vermilion guy will be. And so, more often than not, you’ll witness the train driver stomping forward and start a fight with the short guy. And whoa is it wild and aggressive. Despite behind a whole head shorter than the driver, he’ll still bite back without fear and words like “strangling to death” or “dismembering” would be throw around.

When it happens the blind attendant would heave a huge exasperated sigh and take out an electronic device before making a general announcement via the train speakers; “To smiley face, meat-head and his royal pain-in-the-ass dimpleness are causing trouble again, please come to couch 5 and deal with them before someone lose their heads because of their bullshits.”

Then less than five minutes later, the man dressed in white would stride in very peacefully, smoothly insert himself between the two fighters and then easily pick them up by the back collar, one in each hand, like particularly misbehaving kitten. (”WTF?!!!! How strong is that guy?!”) He’ll then proceed to walk toward the nearest cupboard and throw them in before locking it and placing a weird looking talisman on the door. (”.........” “Are you exorcising them? What the hell?”)

And for twenty whole minutes no sounds could be heard from the cupboard despite the periodic shockwave on the door as if someone was violently knocking on it.

Two minutes after the ‘knocking’ on the door stopped and then it was cut neatly in half. (”.....”) Allowing the two previously very aggravated people to escape from the cupboard. For some reasons though they looked significantly calmer (”Maybe they fought it out?” “Yeah, sure, that’s what happened”).     

Of course before anyone could react, a youth wearing heavy make-up ran in and wailed, “Nie-zongzhu why do you keep doing this?!! Don’t you know how to use the door? This is the tenth one this week.” The so-called meat-head: Ah... My bad. His royal major pain-in-the-ass dimpleness: Don’t worry, Xuanyu, the cost of the door will be deducted from da-ge’s pay... Though to be honest, considering his destructive track-record... he’ll probably need to be working here for more than three centuries before he’ll actually get any salary. You’d think he’ll learn some restraint after a while. The meat-head: You - Smiley face, smoothly taking both their hands and dragging them away: Okay you two, let’s go eat something. 

The non-specific coaches staff members:

As mentioned before there is exactly one (1) attendants wearing the attendant uniform. He is the most competent and proper staff member (not that it’s very hard, considering who are the competition) and probably the most reliable too (when he is not busy picking fight with huge saber carrying men or being locked up in cupboards). For that reason he is not in charge of a specific coach, but of all the passengers of the trains. His efficient and memory are kinda super scary... If you’re boarding the train in the morning, then rest assured that in the afternoon this attendant will know and remember your name, age, seat numbers, tickets numbers, Id number (from the ID Card that you showed him for like two seconds when he checked your tickets)  and food preference.

The staff member with the serene smile and dressed in white doesn’t seem to have a specific carriage either. The most likely coaches you might find him in are the 2 or 14 coaches (depending on which is closer to the driver), the bar (where he’ll chat with his brother), the coach no.13 where you’ll see him drink tea with his uncle. (This seem to be a huge family business? What’s up with all the kinship between the staffs?! Are they all connected to one another?) Or alternatively you’ll see him accompanying the most perfect employee of the century.

He seems very idle and doesn’t have a specific job? [His official job description entails dealing with NMJ and JGY’s foreplay quarrels and to keep things from turning too R18 rated in the bar... because the bartender and the guqin player are not trusted to keep their wandering hands to themselves in public]  

There is an attendant who is officially in charge of coach 2 or 14 (whichever is further away from the driver) but you’ll never actually see him there. Like he’ll stroll around in every other coaches except the one he is supposed to work in. And because he is dressing very casually you won’t even actually identify him as a staff member. He’ll smoothly insert himself into your passenger group and then happily chat with you. It’s only when the driver will barge in, dragging the attendant out to either “go do your fucking job” or “It’s time to train!” that they’ll realize that the one talking to them was a staff member.

So this attendant will come chat with you and somehow he know private information about you that he shouldn’t possibly know about and casually mention it the conversation, like “Oh, I heard your father got admitted to the hospital, is he better know?” or stuff that even you didn’t know about “Your boyfriend is such a dickhead for shitting on you with your brother.”

Afterwards it will lead to conversation like this: after the attendant had been dragged away “Oh I didn’t know your friend worked on this train!” “My friend? I thought he was yours? I actually never met him.” “Eh? Then how come he knew about your sister going to that concert tomorrow?” “I thought you told him!” “No I didn’t!” “...” “...”  

So scary.

So words spread around about that MDZS Express attendant who seems to know a lot of things and that he can be found in the second-class seat coaches. And so some people specifically book a ticket there to track him down and ask him information.

 But once they managed to corner him, his eyes would get very huge and he’ll frantically shake his head before hiding behind his fan, all the while crying “I don’t know!!! I really don’t know!”

His reaction was so intense that some would actually be taken aback... “Did we get the wrong guy?”

Then the attendant would flee and rush towards another one, “San-ge, please help me!!! Those passengers are bullying me!!!”

He got a very flat look from the ‘San-ge’ in question that seemed to say ‘Are we really still doing this?’, but even though this San-ge showed no sympathy whatsoever he still came to the passenger and told them “We are very sorry for not being able to help you. How about I bump you up to the business class coach as an apology? As a lot of passengers have sneakily tried to enter the business class areas by claiming to being bumped up by our staff members, we have established a password of sort. Once you reach the coach please make sure to find the lady wearing yellow and tell her ‘Don’t you think the dishwasher is an incompetent moron?’... She’ll take care of you. ” 

------------------------------------

Right so this got way longer than expected, so you’ll get the rest of the coaches (restaurants, bar, infirmary, sleeper coaches) in another part.

Like I mentioned above I wrote this in an “outsider” POV so most of the time I didn’t mention any names.... But did you manage to identify all the characters?

Also a lot of characters ‘working’  in the second half of the train have already been mentioned obliquely before. So you know more or less in which coach they are. The only one I didn’t mention is the infirmary... but well I don’t think it’s hard to guess who work there haha.

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Water Ghouls AU!

[Part 3: The Four River Beasts (or WWX’s naming sense, take two)]

(part 1) (part 2)

Because WWX ends up having (accidentally) this big army of water ghouls, he decides to gift the members of his family their own personal water ghoul. And like any good pets, those water ghouls obviously needed good names (he wasn’t going to let Jiang Cheng name anything ever).

Xuánwǔ (漩武 - “whirlpool” “warrior”)

Qīnglóng ( 清龙 - “pure/quiet” “dragon”)

Zhūquè (潴雀 - “pond” “sparrow”)

Báihǔ (白浒 - “blank/empty“ “edge of the water/shore”)

They are of course based on the four symbols/mythological beasts (Xuánwǔ the Black Turtle, Qīnglóng the Azure Dragon, Zhūquè the Vermilion Bird, Báihǔ the White Tiger)   and the names are pronounced exactly the same way. WWX of course thought that it was hilarious so when he told them the name of their pets JC just sort of went “You named your pets water ghouls after the four symbols?! Really? Don’t you have any respect?”

“No, no, it’s not actually the same, look the names are written this way!”

And so he shows the characters he used and they all went “...”

“See? They are not the Four Mythological Beasts, but more like the Four Jiang Mythological Beasts ( 四江神兽 )!!!”  

“WEI WUXIAN!!!!”

[AN: Okay so I was 100% only going to use “Water” because I really liked the sound of ‘Sì shuǐ shén shòu’ and like a dumbass I didn’t thought of the very obvious “River”...  Just a small reminder that Jiang ( 江 ) means “River”, I have no idea if the joke really works in Chinese or not, but it was way too tempting not to use it.]  

In the end, Madam Yu made him change it to Four Water Mythological Beast on the official paper because there was absolutely no way they would go with such a name, it was already bad enough that Wei Wuxian business sounded like “sinking ships” ! But for some reasons the name Four Jiang Mythological Beasts spread around Yunmeng and everyone call them that, regardless of the official name.(And by the time the Sunshot Campaign rolls around, the whole cultivation heard about how the Jiang had four Mythological Beasts and the name sticks.)

As for who gets which pets Water Ghouls:

Whirlpool Warrior/Xuanwu is a Water Ghoul that was trained to attack/defend against threats. It got created with a tremendous amount of spiritual energy and so it possesses a special technique that is akin to what a Waterborne Abyss can do... It creates a whirlpool to sunk in any enemies (thus its name). And well obviously, it would belong to Madam Yu. I mean can you just imagine Madam Yu standing right in the middle of a whirlpool and bringing her full stormy wrath on whoever/whatever dared to piss her off? (At some point Xuanwu figures out how to send whirlpool to the shore, and so Madam Yu starts to bring it with her when she is night-hunting near a body of water... Because whirlpool+Zidian is one of the most devastatingly destructive attack ever)     

Quiet Dragon/Qinglong goes to JFM, it is a very calm and steadfast water ghoul that specializes in boat transportation. It can move in such a way that will not cause ripple in the water at all, most of the times when it is driving the boat, you wouldn’t even notice that the boat is moving unless you’re looking at the shore and see the fast moving landscape. (It also means that if it decided to sink your boat, you’d already be drowning before you even realized something was there)

Pond Sparrow/Zhuque  is a very small water ghoul. It is fast and sneaky and somehow it has eyes everywhere. It is used to monitor the water and the shores for threats. It can produce sharp gurgling noises of various tones that could be compared to a bird song (if the bird was half-way drowning and your ears were somehow non-functional). The song is used to communicate with and alert all the other water ghouls. Somehow Zhuque is very good at locating the best lotus seeds and would regularly bring back some to JYL.

Empty Shore/Baihu is a hunting dog water ghoul. If it got a whiff of a scent or spiritual energy it will be able to track down anyone as soon as they are under a li (~500 meters) of a body of water. It is very, very persistent and will not give up unless it manages to get its prey. Its offensive abilities are like strong current waves to Xuanwu’s whirlpool in terms of destructive ability. It will send a huge wave towards the shore (not unlike a small tsunami) that will, depending on how it is controlling the current, either crash down everything on its way or  drag whatever it wants in the water). It is also very good at tracking down  “wild water ghoul” and dragging them back for WWX to purify. Baihu is naturally for JC.     

And well in case you’re wondering, WWX’s own water ghoul pet (the first one he ‘tamed’ that had nearly drown him) is called Hēi Shuǐ ( 黑水 - “Black Water”) which is more straightforward and isn’t nearly as entertaining as the names he came up with later (ie. with no puns or play on words), but in his defense he had not yet come up with the mythological beasts theme when he named his pet.

[AN: Black Water is a direct reference to Black Water Submerging Boat, one of the Four Calamities and one of the three Supreme Ghosts in TGCF]

Hei Shui, by virtue of being the first (and a total accident), lacks most of its siblings flashy abilities. However what it loses in pure destructive power, it more than makes up with speed, ingenuity and intelligence. All water ghouls were intelligent by nature, but Hei Shui had reached a level that was downright terrifying.

Years later, after getting acquainted with a certain Second Jade of Lan, WWX will gift him  Yù Tù (欲兔- “to wish for, to desire” “rabbit”) , which sounds like “ Yù Tù, Jade Rabbit” (also known as Moon Rabbit) another famous mythical figure... (he got a “Shameless!” with red tainted ears in return once he actually explained that it didn’t actually stand for the Jade Rabbit)...Yu Tu was given the task to act cute (or as cute as a water ghoul could be), transport the occasional letters between WWX and LWJ and rescue any drowning people it might encountered... but really 90% of its job is to act adorable... [Also it might or might not have the lethal ability to completely obliterate anything weaker than a Waterborne Abyss in case of emergency...]     

------------

Status Progress:

>> WWX has been upgraded to naming menace!

>> Water ghouls  have been upgraded to  no longer nameless super badass water beasts!

--------------

Okay there’s no art for this part, cause my drawing skills are utterly unable to reach the level that would allow me to draw what I’ve got in mind for this one. (In case you’re curious, I envision a huge poster like thing divided in four parts. In each parts you get one of the four Jiang with their water ghouls + their respective mythological beasts in the background. Madam Yu would be standing right above a whirlpool, with zidian crackling around her. JC would stand cross-armed above a huge tsunami-like wave. JFM would standing on a boat, looking calm and mysterious. JYL would be on a bridge, looking peaceful as she glanced down at her water ghoul)....

Anyway.... Next part Meng Yao will make an entrance :)     

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Random post-canon MDZS headcanon #1

WWX’s usual trend of interaction with people is that he’ll jump straight to the overly familiar address, and would switch back to formal to let people know that I’m very pissed off right now/shit is about to go down/I am serious!

But, it’s different with LXC.

After WWX and LWJ get married, WWX will still refer to LXC as “Zewu-jun” and likewise LXC will keep calling WWX affectionately “Wei-gongzi”.

It’s not because they don’t get along or anything. On the contrary their relationship is quite good, it’s just because they got used to using Zewu-jun/Wei-gongzi and it’s hard to break habit, so they just keep using it.   

And when they do refer to each other as “dabo” or “Xichen-ge” and “Wuxian” it’s not to distance themselves, on the contrary it’s when they are really upset/serious about sth/trying to comfort and it’s their way of reminding each other “We are family and it is my prerogative to be worried about you! ”... and whichever uses this first, the other one will always switch to this form of address as well to acknowledge it (”yes we are family”).

Likewise with LSZ they keep the “Wei-qianbei”/”Sizhui” but  whenever one of them is upset they would revert back to “Xian-gege”/”A-Yuan”  and the other will systematically follow.

At some point, by virtue of always being around LSZ, LJY basically gets adopted as well... though LJY was very insecure about it as first, with a “I’m not really that close to them, it’s just because I’m friend with Sizhui and really they must think I’m annoying” kind of mentality... But then one days he gets very upset about something, WWX goes to comfort him and in a moment of vulnerability LJY just blurts out “Wuxian-ge” and without missing a beat WWX goes “A-Yi”     

Jin Ling at some point witnessed some of those switching address moments and felt a little bit left out so he wanted to try it as well... So at some point he gathered all his resolve and tried to call WWX “da-jiu” But because he’s an easily embarrassed yellow fluffy little ball of awkwardness it ended being something like “da - WEI WUXIAN!”. And WWX just snorted and called him “xiao-Ling”  “!!! Don’t call me that, I’m not as small little kid, at least use A-Ling! No wait... I mean call me Jin Ling!” “Too late, A-Ling it is.”  

As for Ouyang Zizhen he just came to WWX at some point and asked “Wei-qianbei, Wei-qianbei! Can I call you ‘Xian-qianbei’ from now on?” “Sure!”