#A’Fei

[lilianhuas]

“Where to hide? The most dangerous place is also the most safest place - the marriage chamber.” - Mysterious Lotus Casebook Behind The Scenes Shenanigans.

[bettercostume]

difang fic bit:

difang post canon, li lianhua has gone into seclusion and the two of them figure out what happens next

Di Feisheng chose a long route back to his enclave, one that would take them up through high ridges and plummeting valleys that he had never dared visit. Now free of compulsion, he could travel as close to Di Fortress’s territory as he wanted.   Fang Duobing, unaware of the meaning behind this route, bitched tirelessly about it.

“There’s a trade route that follows the coast, you know. It’s funded by the transportation bureau and everything, so the road is smooth and there are checkpoints with whole taverns attached.”

Di Feisheng said nothing.

“That means there are inns! And breweries! And people!”

“I don’t care for any of those things,” Di Feisheng said, stomping up through a drift of red pine needles. 

“That’s a lie,” Fang Doubing said. “A’Fei! I know you like to travel well! I met you in that hot springs town just months ago!” 

He had. In the time spent without Li Lianhua, when they split to follow their own leads, Di Feisheng had expected a clean severing of ties only ever to be rebuilt by the reappearance of their one connection. This had not been what happened.

He himself had intended to measure out his time in between scraps of sightings, whispers of Li Lianhua, in venting his anger by smothering the remnants of disobedience amongst his followers. Traveling alone would be simple enough. But after about a week he had realized he slept poorly and lacked patience in his dealings; that he was, unbeknownst even to him, waiting for something. Wuyan began to volunteer information about his erstwhile companion during his check-ins: Fang Doubing meant to topple the indentured servant tradition of Xuanfeng Mansion. Fang Doubing had succeeded, after two days undercover as a traveling musician.  Fang Doubing now had to rehome twelve children. Fang Doubing wanted to know, did Di Feisheng have any ideas? 

“Give them to an abbey,” Di Feisheng immediately wrote him. “Otherwise you will have twelve more mouths to feed at Tianji Hall, and your mother will lash you to the front gate with leg irons.”

“Wonderful news! I have accepted twelve promising souls into our care at Tianji Hall,” came the cheerful reply.  

And so on. It finally came to be that Di Feisheng had the choice, after an evening spent strangling members of the Iron Fang sect in a drippy town that smelled like squid, to either ride on to an inn further up the coast or camp in the nearby woods and wait for any stragglers to appear, and strangle them as well. Di Feisheng stood under the overhang of a dismally appointed, and now vacant, shack and whistled.

“Have you seen any movement?”

“None, my lord,” Wuyan said.

Di Feisheng looked off in the distance, towards the town.

“Young master Fang is in residence in the Mountain Spring Inn,” Wuyan offered, casually. 

“Really,” Di Feisheng said.

The hot springs were sulphurous but the inn was sublime. Di Feisheng entered through the window to Fang Doubing’s sumptuous rooms, which he must have blown through all of his allowance to rent. 

“A’Fei! Use the door!”

Di Feisheng sat at his table. 

“Congratulations on your twelve children,” he said. Fang Doubing, who would need to be beaten into a stupor to erase his etiquette muscle memory, was already pouring him tea.

[exitvelocities]

written for @yletylyf for the @cdrama-action event!

“Oh, meat buns,” he says, the vendor down the street catching his attention. He pulls A’Fei along by the hand, ignoring the perplexed look he gets in response. This is science! He orders two, biting into his own while A’Fei is still examining the one in his hands like it might grow legs and run off. So suspicious! “Eat, eat,” Li Lianhua urges, chewing. It’s good. The meat is fragrant, spiced just enough to bring out the flavor, and the dough is tender without being so soft that it falls apart in the hand. “If we eat enough here,” he says, “I won’t have to make dinner.” That does it.

Fandom: Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Rating: G

Relationship: Di Feisheng/Li Lianhua

[howdaretrashships]

weekend WIP exposure club

Rules: post 7 sentences/a snippet of an unfinished work

Tagged by: @exitvelocities ❤️ Thanks for the tag!

A lot of the stuff I've worked on for my Prince/Bodyguard AU is too spoilery recently, but here's a quiet moment before the storm:

Now A’Fei pulls the xiaoguan out of its box and turns it back and forth in the light. Perhaps the height of his palm in the front, the fine gold filigree shines and glitters, and the two dragons on either side almost look alive – caught in a roar as if to defend their wearer. In the center sits a thumb-sized oval of red jade polished smooth, and two more small pieces above and below it. Xiangyi pulls it from his hand and gets it settled into place around the bun, then uses the matching gold and red jade hairpin to secure it in place. “Xiangyi,” A’Fei murmurs as he smooths out the tails of the ribbon. “What are you doing?” This time there’s no amusement in his voice – only confusion. The prince has to swallow a few times before he can answer. “I’m staking my claim,” he says, trying to inject his usual arrogance into the words. “I know you said that you don’t even belong to yourself – and I don’t understand how that can be true… But you do belong to me.” Their eyes meet in the bronze mirror. “You’re mine. …If you want,” he finishes as he looks away, lowering his gaze to the floor, and stepping back. Di Feisheng turns on the stool and grabs one of his hands to pull him back. He waits in silence until Xiangyi finally lifts his head and their eyes meet once again. “Thank you,” he says softly, emphatically. “But you didn’t have to.” “I wanted to,” the prince answers just as softly. Di Feisheng huffs, the corner of his mouth ticking up.

Tagging: @bbcphile, @nutcasewithaknife, @thesilversun. No pressure!

[murderedbyhomework]

「李蓮花，我終於找到你了。」

In which they really do find Li Lianhua on that beach, and not even censorship can stop Di Feisheng from dressing up for a proposal.

@difeisheng forgive me if you didn’t want to be tagged, but here’s A’Fei in a corset with a bonus beach reunion

[scarlettohairdye]

A'Fei's out here asking the big questions in the Legend of Fei demon-summoning AU I'm working on that still doesn't have a title

“Okay, but if I come up with a demand, or give you a—a task, and you fulfill it, you’ll be able to go home?” Xie Yun wants to be very sure he understands all the angles they might be able to work, because he doesn’t want to have to spend another six months researching an array he won’t even get paid for. “That’s how it’s supposed to work.” A’Fei shrugs and takes another swig of baijiu. (She doesn’t seem even a little drunk. Maybe demons just drink alcohol like water.) Hm. Hm. Xie Yun finishes the last of his sake and considers. “How large of a task does it have to be?” A’Fei shrugs again. She’s very helpful that way. “If I ask you to do something for me,” Xie Yun starts carefully, very aware of exactly how weird and gross this could get, “would you be willing to do it to see if that ends the binding and you can leave?” “It’s worth a shot.” A’Fei sets the bottle aside and squares her shoulders before she meets his gaze. “What do you want?”

[utterlyhooked]

A kiss on the ramparts

Socially inept but damn, Ling Buyi can flirt!

Actually, I take that back, I do not think he is flirting. It’s more like an instictive action to his emotion and affection.

Her reaction later when she arrived home I thought was on point. Can’t quite contain herself, so excited but can’t really say anything, imagining, can’t sleep. You know, you remember how it was like!

And then I wondered, what was it like for him, and as usual, A’Fie and A’Qi are the ones that feeds us! hahahaha

A’Fei: Young master walked under the moonlight until the wee hours last night. I didn’t sleep a wink because I was accompanying him. I’m so sleepy now.

A’Qi: Isn’t this Young Master’s first time kissing a lady? He was swept away by it.

Their form of showing affection is encircling their arms on the other and resting their hands on the small of their backs. A recurring scene throughout the series. Here, it’s the first time shown but only on his part. She’s not there yet although, this was the start!

Kiss on the forehead, nice and sweet. More or less predictable, but we fall for it anyway like the ejeets that we are! LOL

[gingersnapwolves]

Kouri watches Love Like the Galaxy, episodes 11-12

NN, be nicer to the cute puppy!

He’s so earnest and she’s so confused lol

Third uncle: maybe if I set her up with Lou Yao she’ll stop physically getting between me and my wife

YSJ over here like ‘never look up an old flame once they’re married’ and he’s right

LY I know you don’t get the girl but I’m 100% rooting for you to get a happy ending

Personally I’d be worried that the hunting house was the bandit’s hideout but okay

I always hate when horses get hurt in battle scenes! Sound strategy and all but poor horsies

Wow fuck these guys

Why are they burning the city down? Weren’t they going to lay in wait here and set a trap for the Emperor? I feel like he’ll notice if the city is on fire

LBY: fuck you in particular

LBY going absolutely apeshit to save NN despite having only had two conversations with her is the content we deserve

Gotta say, if a guy rescued me like that, grabbed me like that, and said ‘don’t be afraid, I’m here’ while looking deeply into my eyes, no one would be able to stop me from marrying him

LBY there is a difference between A’Fei’s flesh wound to the arm and your chest puncture from an arrow, you lovestruck moron

Are you asking if she’s single while she is performing surgery???

Does it hurt???? NN please you just pulled an arrow through his whole chest

‘I’ll kill them’ she’s such a badass I love her

Just a man and his handkerchief

[lilianhuas]

Xiao Shunyao’s second look for iqiyi scream night 2023

[momosandlemonsoda]

WIP Wednesday

Today has been... not great... but I'm coming in hot with some rock star au words. Have Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng taking their date to its natural conclusion.

“We need to go,” Li Lianhua gasps, and A’Fei bites harder for a moment, teeth digging in enough that he groans, loud in the space between them. Finally, A’Fei draws back. “Yeah,” he says, reluctant. He pushes a helmet at Li Lianhua, pulls on his own. “We’re going to my house,” he says, as he mounts his bike. Li Lianhua stares for a moment at the picture he makes, poised on his motorcycle, ready to go. Then he fumbles with the straps of his helmet, finally getting it fastened and climbing on behind. He snugs up behind A’Fei, feeling hard thighs between his own, pressed against A’Fei’s fine backside, which is not making his cock any less hard. Resting his hands flat against A’Fei’s belly, he lets them drift down below his waist at the red lights, a reminder for both of them of where this is going and what will happen when they get there. A’Fei drives fast—too fast—but it’s exhilarating, he finds, to trust in A’Fei’s skill, to trust that he’ll get them there in the end. They turn into the alley behind Di Feisheng’s rental, past a row of little fenced back gardens, then pull into a fenced area. A light clicks on, too bright, at the motion. A’Fei barely lets him get free of the motorcycle, pull off his helmet, before he’s on him. Hands catch his back, his hip, then slide ‘round to grab his ass as a mouth lands on his. “Fuck,” he gasps into A’Fei’s mouth.

And a tiny snippet from the next morning because it cracks me up. This is usually how I end up writing a scene--just dialogue at first, and then filling in everything else.

DFS: You’re wearing my sweatshirt. LLH: Yeah. DFS: Why are you wearing my sweatshirt? LLH: You jizzed on my sweater and it’s disgusting. DFS: Mn. LLH: You could apologize. DFS: I could. LLH: Ugh. Get dressed.

[sunshine304]

It's been forever, I'm very sorry, I know I said fifty times that this post would happen soon, soo uhhh...

Let’s go! - So, the eunuch Chu Tianyu (yes, I yet again had to look up his name) has killed Huo Lintao and is now fighting with my beloved Mu Xiaoqiao. Even though Mu Xiaoqiao is a swishy king, eunuch still manages to steal the seal from him, boooo! >:-( But what we learn is that MXQ’s fighting style is detrimental to his health.

- Chen Zichen is useless as always and has to be rescued by A’Fei and Xie Yun. *heavysigh* But Zichen at least has good taste and makes heart eyes at her. XY is not impressed.

Yin Pei is there?!?! Chuchu recognizes him but he doesn’t do anything about it, he only wants to find Ding Kui. Okay then.

Chu Tianyu now confronts A’Fei and Xie Yun and blabs about the Bone Piercing Blue, because of course he does. He loves to gloat. That actor sure is good at being smarmy. And of course Chen Zichen arrives too… OMG that kid is so superfluous most of the time…

Anyway, fighting ensues! The editing in this ep is really really bad. Half the time I don't even know where the people they seem to be fighting are coming from because they sure as hell weren't there in the wide shot we just saw etc. Oh boy.

Aw fuck, XY unlocks his internal force to help A’Fei which, as we all know, is very very bad for him.

But then Ying Hecong arrives to finally take revenge on Disha and he poisons Chu Tianyu. Muahahaha good riddance! But couldn’t you have arrived a bit earlier for fuck’s sake?

Soooo .. we don’t get to see the fight between Ding Kui and Madam Nichang nor between Ding Kui and Yin Pei. That just happened off screen I guess? ding Kui is now dead? I guess? Oooookay…

Ying Hecong is unfortunately not very helpful while XY is yet again dying. :( Wang Yibo sure has a lot of suffering scenes to do in this drama when he’s not smirking or flirting. XD

Oh no we now have a reverse piggyback scene with A’Fei carrying XY and it’s very sad. T_T It also lasts for an eternity.

- XY has lots of feelings rn. T_T It’s all very very sad as he tells A’Fei that he doesn’t want to be emperor, that he just wants to return with her to 48 Strongholds and be at her side because she has his heart. T_T

- He’s also talking about his fate being pre-determined but A’Fei is angry and isn’t having it. She’s refusing to accept that he’s dying on her. - In his head, XY promises her that though they are parting now, he’ll come back to her in 20 years. T_T A’Fei is exhausted and can’t carry him anymore as he slips off and is, I presume, dead? Or very close to it? It is very very sad. T_T

- Hard scene cut and A’Fei wakes up on a boat steered by an old Buddhist master, Tongming. He talks to her, trying to give her direction in her despair, and reminds her why she practices martial arts in the first place. She decides that she wants to return home and he reveals to her that he’s also got XY on his boat, who is after all not yet dead? I guess, because A’Fei is happy that XY is there and seems to have some hope again.

- Tongming reveals that he used to be XY’s master after all that drama/war went down. Convenient that he showed up there when XY was dying, huh. Anyway, we learn that Xie Yun’s courtesy name is Anzhi (I think we learn it here, I don’t remember if this has been mentioned before, it felt like a big reveal).

- Flashback time! Child!XY doesn’t want to be a prince, he instead wants to be a waiter, a worker, basically anything else. XD Tongming explains to him that these people have to deal with their own hardships, though they are different from those of a prince, and that these people want to be born a prince, so XY, what can we learn from that? A bit of a downer episode I guess. XD Also, the worst editing of fight scenes yet; everything still at the Huo Fort is so disjointed, IDK what happened during the editing process here. Very weird.

[princesswithabraidedcrown]

A’Fei is bonding with Vermillion Bird Master! A’Fei is acquiring another red clothed...family member? A’Fei shall rule the world by banking on the affection these grown-ups have for her and her chronically ill smart mouth of a boyfriend!

[howdaretrashships]

Writing Patterns

List the first sentence of your last 10 AO3 works.

Thanks for the tag @bbcphile!

These are from various fandoms and the oldest is from 11 years ago. (I also didn't write/post works between 2014 and 2022 so there's a significant gap as well.)

Going from most to least recent:

Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: The 5+1 Yingzhu Armor fic

It’s three days until Di Feisheng is able to get Li Xiangyi alone again.

2. Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: My Past Has Tasted Bitter for Years Now aka Part 8 of my Prince/Bodyguard AU (which hasn't actually been posted yet, but is finished)

He is ten years old, and he’s already lost count of the lives he’s taken.

3. Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: I'll Be Good, I'll Be Good aka Part 1 of the Prince/Bodyguard AU

“Ah, Di Feisheng.”

4. Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: Which Moment is the One I am Most Reluctant to Part With? aka the non-linear story

He wakes slowly to the sensation of gentle fingers stroking down his spine.

5. Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: Reunion

He hears the two horses galloping on the sand behind him and wonders at the fact that despite them coming from different directions, they are here at the same time.

6. Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Feihua: Change in Perspective

“So possessive, A’Fei.”

7. KinnPorsche, Kinn/Porsche: My Entire Life is a Lie

Sometime around 3am, Kinn sees Porsche start to droop from the corner of his eye.

8. KinnPorsche, Kinn/Porsche: Play Along to Get Ahead of the Scheme

Kinn forces himself not to rush forward when he sees Vegas next to Porsche.

9. Sherlock&James Bond crossover, 00Q&Johnlock: Cutting the Strings (Incomplete, has been basically abandoned and is Part 2 of my Twin!Holmes series)

Sherlock arrived back in London on a private jet at 3:28 am, courtesy of Q.

10. Teen Wolf, Sterek: The Boy Who Didn't Know Enough (Part 4 of a series based in Season 3)

Stiles could only stare out the broken glass of what had once been a window.

Now for the patterns:

I tend to start with either an action or description of the setting. Most of the time it's something happening to the character, or them making an observation. It also tends to include detail so that you understand the mood right away. Occasionally, I do start with dialogue but it goes right into description right after that. I definitely like to Set the Scene.

I find it kind of funny because I tend to be better at imagining and writing out dialogue, and my exposition is what is usually lacking/that I struggle to get out onto the page.

I also could have made this even longer, given that the 5+1, non-linear story, and chaptered fic all have sections I could have pulled 'first sentences' from. But that would have been too much. (For me and this post.)

Not really sure who to tag, so I won't. Anyone I can think of has either already done it, or was already tagged by someone else. But I'll go ahead and say if you weren't tagged and you want to do it this is your sign.

[jockvillagersonly]

Chuchu has very “first lesbian crush” energy in every interaction with Zhou Fei and you know it’s true

[scarlettohairdye]

Hello! It's WIP Wednesday! I barely wrote last week between installing a kitchen backsplash, performing in a burlesque show, going to a lesbian wedding on a boat, and re-grouting the backsplash, but now I'm BACK AT IT with some more of the YunFei demon-summoning AU!

There's Only One Bed, but Xie Yun's not sharing 😂

Part of Xie Yun thinks that the only thing to do, as a gracious host to someone he accidentally kidnapped, would be to offer her the bed and take the futon. The rest of Xie Yun has a chronic illness that requires he maintain a regular and effective sleep schedule so he doesn’t flirt with a flareup, and his regular and effective sleep schedule absolutely cannot occur on the futon. It’s a pretty comfortable futon, but every time he forgets his body’s clear and specific needs in order to nap on it (or if he stays up too late watching ridiculous c-dramas and falls asleep on it instead of going to bed) he wakes up cursing his own hubris. His ability to support an involuntary roommate with a good appetite requires that he keep up with work, which requires that he keep himself in the best physical condition possible, which requires that he sleep in his own bed. “How many pillows would you like?” he asks while he’s digging out a spare set of sheets, having resolved to make A’Fei’s stay on his futon as pleasant as possible, given that her staying on the futon is the only option. (He’s not about to offer to share the bed. How’s he supposed to claim he didn’t summon her for sex purposes if he offers to share the bed? It makes no sense.) “One is fine,” she says from immediately behind his shoulder. Xie Yun is not above admitting that he yelps and throws the sheets in the air. She was in the living room! He didn’t hear her move! He’s allowed to be startled! “Tian ah,” he gasps, hand clutching his racing heart and what feels like a pillowcase draped over his head. “Warn a man, would you? What are you, a cat?” A’Fei blinks at him once, slowly, giving a certain credence to the cat theory.

[kdramacrybaby]

Episode 26 just casually ripping my heart out like IT MEANS NOTHING BUT I’M CRYING