#CQL negative

[wutheringskies]

If you sit down to analyze themes from CQL, Lan Zhan's character suffers so greatly.

me writing such a long post in my drafts shitting on cql lan wangji but the overall sentiment is such that:

MDZS! Lan Wangji: Wei Ying, will you allow me to be your husband, your daolu, your lover?

CQL! Lan Wangji: Wei Ying, be my casual, long distance, low commitment girlfriend.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

I know you’ve been in this fandom for a long time, so do you know if the idea that everyone in MDZS is morally grey has always been so popular? If it hasn’t, do you know what made it so popular?

When I first read the books, I was surprised to see so many fans say that the point of the MDZS is that everyone is morally grey. Even though I can see the appeal, I find it really frustrating in discussions when we try to talk about a character’s morality and then people cut in to say everyone is morally grey and that no character is better or worse than the other morality-wise.

Good day anon!

This was always a thing once the novel came around to the western side (especially a very anime base at the time that got into it first) but it really started to be a "Thing" once CQL hit Netflix USA/CAN/UK.

CQL really leaned into simplifying/watering down everyone due to tonal shifts for censorship broadcasting. Being Wei Wuxian, mo dao/gui dao being merged, and the Yin Iron already existing and being sought after as a subplot early on by Wen Ruohan, who is now a mo dao cultivator and Xue Yang is his personal underling. Jin Guangyao also being an underling comes later as he was originally a servant of the Nies that betrays them. It makes it seem as though Jiang Cheng HAD been a loving brother and well intentioned man (romance subplot with Wen Qing) concerned about his family before he became jaded about Wei Wuxian's secrecy.

There's is a lot more about Wei Wuxian struggling with his loss of cultivation and turning to the Yin Iron/mo dao. His actions are vastly more questionable. He takes to alcoholism in his brooding and is said to be doing very little after the war. He uses the Wens as target practice for some reason to then help Wen Qing as he did originally. More emphasis is put on he did this not because he was morally disgusted with the clans hypocrisy but out of personal debt he owed to Wen Qing and gives an emotional speech to Lan Wangji that he would be honored to die by his hands, despite CQL naming Wen Qing's family as "the good Wens". Wen Qing herself also has a moral dilemma of doing dirty spy work for Wen Ruohan (The Wens are basically turned into the mo dao sect alright).

The issue with this all is that the clans themselves are basically absolved of their own corruption and the ramifications of their own classism, hypocrisy and how they weaponize the manipulation of reputations for; everyone is a little bad and has done bad things, even our hero. He cries about it, a lot, so does Lan Wangji.

And if there is one thing we know courtesy of Jin Guangyao, you cry enough and look pitiful enough ya can't be all that bad and there was always reason that makes me look sad and forced to do it!

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Wei Wuxian and Narrative Agency – Part Three

For Xiantober Day Five: Past and Present, in which the author gets very unhinged about what parts of the past are shown and how that’s affected by the present!

(Part One | Part Two | Full version on AO3)

The Power of Agency: Shaping the Narrative

When I've discussed Wei Wuxian's agency previously, I’ve talked about how what’s shown and omitted tells us about a character, and we’ve talked about the character himself. Though this is a niche topic, it’s not necessarily something out of the ordinary to analyse, and we can assume everything up to here has been in some way intentional.

This? Linking structure to a character’s in-universe preferences?

This is where we get unhinged.

Before I start, let’s quickly establish something which will be important later: although Wei Wuxian is the central character, MDZS isn’t strictly from his POV. While omitting events a character doesn’t like to dwell on and concealing things the character wishes to hide is common in books with only one narrator, MDZS has multiple narrators which it switches between relatively quickly. This includes Wei Wuxian, but it also includes nearly every major character that appears in the story, and omniscient narrator as well. As a default, this format doesn’t lead to this deliberate shaping and omission because of one character’s preferences, since we have many other sources of information and events – which is what makes Wei Wuxian’s influence over the narrative and structure so interesting. We could have access to a lot more information, and access to it at different times, than we do (and that’s not an insult, quite the opposite!).

To begin: we’ve established that times such as Wei Wuxian’s time on the streets, his three months in the Burial Mounds and his loss in the Siege aren’t shown because Wei Wuxian has little agency there. But that’s not the only special thing about them. They’re also the three most traumatic times in his life, and so moments Wei Wuxian himself either can’t remember, or doesn’t like to dwell on.

This is why discussing Wei Wuxian’s treatment of tragedy in his life was important. Firstly, it shows he doesn’t focus on the tragedy in his life, so the idea that the narrative not focusing on this tragedy relates to his character has merit; secondly, it affirms that this is not a passive trait, but a choice. Therefore, when the narrative omits events due to this aspect of Wei Wuxian, it’s respecting not only a character detail – which would be cool by itself – but also an active decision. One that shapes the story it’s made in.

In other words, its very structure is respecting Wei Wuxian’s agency!

Now, of course there are flashbacks to other moments of his past he probably wouldn’t like to dwell on, too. But within the structure, they’re only shown when Wei Wuxian is thinking about them (or when he has reason to)!

Wei WuXian hadn’t woken up yet. His eyes were still tightly shut, yet his hand didn’t let go either. He seemed to be dreaming, muttering, “… Don’t… Don’t be angry…” Lan WangJi seemed somewhat surprised. His voice was gentle, “I am not angry.” Wei WuXian, “… Oh.” Hearing this, as though he finally felt assured, his fingers loosened. Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian for a while. Seeing that he was motionless again, he was about to stand up when Wei WuXian grabbed him with his other hand, hugging his arm and refusing to let go. He shouted, “I’ll go with you, quick, take me back to your sect!” Chapter 63, EXR translation

Which, of course, is him dwelling on…

Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, “Go back to Gusu with me.” Hearing this, both Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng were surprised. Quickly afterward, Wei WuXian laughed, “Go back to Gusu with you? To the Cloud Recesses? Why go there?” He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.” Chapter 62, EXR translation

…the painful flashback immediately preceding this. The third set of flashbacks (which are also painful) are a similar case. Look at the contex:

He lifted the bottom of his robe, revealing a prosthetic leg made of wood, “This leg of mine was destroyed by you, that night in the Nightless City (…)” (…) “Wei WuXian, I won’t ask you if you remember or not. Both of my parents died by your hands. You owe too many people. You definitely won’t remember them either. But, I, Fang MengChen, will never forget! And never forgive you!” (…) “In the fight at Qiongqi Path, my son was strangled to death by your dog Wen Ning!” “My shixiong died by poison, his entire body festering due to your cruel curse!” Chapter 68 (immediately preceding the flashbacks), EXR translation

And Wei Wuxian’s own thoughts and words:

Wei WuXian looked at the cultivators before the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. Their expressions were the absolute same as those of the cultivators from the night of the pledge conference, pouring their wine on the ground as they took the pledge to scatter the ashes of the Wen Sect’s remnants and him.  (…) Wei WuXian, “Now it’s time to ask just whom it is that treasures it so much. It’s like Wen Ning. Back then, some certain sects or so were scared to death of the Ghost General. They said they’d kill him on the surface, but behind their backs they hid him for over ten years. How strange. Who was the one that said his ashes had been scattered back then?” Chapter 79 (immediately succeeding the flashbacks), EXR translation 

Once again, Wei Wuxian’s own thoughts relate to the flashbacks we’ve just been shown. And, as I previously mentioned, though all the events which are shown are tragic, they’re also events which Wei Wuxian’s own choices and actions shaped – which he has this to say about:

“The things I did, not only do you remember them, I remember them too. You won’t forget them, and they’ll stay even longer in my mind!” Chapter 82, EXR

Admittedly, this applies more to the third set of flashbacks than the second (which is still fitting as the third set was the most recent), as in the second, although he still had agency within and influence over his circumstances, the majority of the pain was caused by others’ actions (excluding, of course, the Golden Core transfer… which is something we know stays for a long time in his mind, albeit with a caveat we’ll soon discuss). But it’s still important to note – especially considering that otherwise, focusing on this very painful time in his life wouldn’t seem like something very in-character for Wei Wuxian to do.

Of course, this can all just be explained by good writing. It is best to insert flashbacks when they’re relevant to the characters and events in the present day! But it is interesting to compare these to the start of the (not painful) Gusu flashbacks, which open this way:

At a later time, Wei WuXian pondered upon the reason why his relationship with Lan WangJi wasn’t good. Getting to the root of the matter, everything started when he was fifteen, coming to the GusuLan Sect with Jiang Cheng to study for three months. Chapter 13, EXR

Again, considering the circumstances around which these flashbacks take place – returning to the Cloud Recesses for the first time since the lectures, and meeting Lan Wangji once more – it makes complete sense for Wei Wuxian to be thinking about these events*. So it does fit the pattern of Wei Wuxian dwelling on something, thus leading to the narrative dwelling on it, too (and being shaped by his thoughts)… but there’s another layer to this. Importantly, it is the only flashback where Wei Wuxian’s present thoughts don’t lead to this happening, with his thoughts at an unspecified future time leading to it, instead. I like to interpret this as the text saying that, since these events aren’t something Wei Wuxian wouldn’t focus on in normal circumstances, he can dwell on them at any time. Therefore, they’re free to come up in the narrative at any time as well, even if he’s not dwelling on them in the present moment!

So, to summarise: Wei Wuxian’s decision not to focus on the painful times in his life directly influences the narrative to not focus on these times. When painful times are brought up and shown to us, it’s in the context of him thinking about them in the present day, and even then, his most painful moments still aren’t shown to us. His agency in this regard is still respected by the narrative structure.

This is the main way his agency influences the structure of the narrative, but I’d like to talk about the revealing and concealing of information, too. For example, I said I’d talk about the Golden Core transfer – though Wei Wuxian does think about this many times, as evidenced by his internal narration in Chapter 103. But unlike everything we’re shown through the flashbacks, this is something Wei Wuxian is actively trying to hide from others. And the narrative respects this choice (Wei Wuxian’s agency, again), never reveals it even when it would be relevant in the flashbacks, and we find out not through narration, but through a character’s dialogue!

And to clarify – I know these aspects may not be in the book for this exact reason. Showing flashbacks in relevant moments is good writing, concealing an important plot point you want to do a reveal for is necessary writing, and MXTX has said she didn’t want to write about Wei Wuxian’s time in the Burial Mounds, due to not liking to write transformation sequences (and also because it would not be pleasant at all, which likely also applies to Wei Wuxian’s death). That doesn’t prevent it from also being intentional – MXTX’s intelligence is shown in many aspects of this book, and there’s nothing disproving it – but there’s no proof for either option, so I won’t pretend there is. I bring this up because I know this feels like I’m overanalysing, as I feel that way as well.

But, whether it’s intentional or not, it exists in the text, and I adore it – so, regardless, it’s something I’ll explore. Because taking this into account… We aren't just told about Wei Wuxian having agency, we aren’t just shown it in the text, we aren’t even just shown it through which parts of his past are shown and hidden in the structure of the text (as I talked about in Part One). The parts of the past that are shown and hidden also have an in-universe reason for being shown and hidden, this reason being the choices he makes! Agency is the ability of a character to influence the story they’re in, but Wei Wuxian’s agency, as a property of a character who only exists in-universe, shapes the out-of-universe structure as well! That’s how we’re shown its importance! How cool is that?

At The End Of The Road: Summary and Final Thoughts

In this essay, we’ve covered how important Wei Wuxian’s agency is not only to the events of the plot, but to the structure of the narrative as well. The narrative omits periods in which Wei Wuxian has little or no agency, in favour of showing us periods in which he does, even when important events happened in the former. This indicates that who Wei Wuxian is without agency isn’t important enough to be shown to the audience, and therefore that his agency is an integral aspect of his character in MDZS. We’ve discussed how both in-universe and out-of-universe, tragedy does not define him – out-of-universe, the tragic events in Wei Wuxian’s life are used not to build sympathy but rather to show his strength of character and who he still is despite going through them; and in-universe, he chooses not to focus on the negativity and resentment caused by his circumstances or others’ actions, instead staying true to his moral compass and enjoying his life in the present day. Finally, we’ve also explored how this choice is another reason for the omission of certain events from the narrative, resulting in his agency shaping the story in a very literal way – it affects the out-of-universe structure, as well.

It’s quite fitting, for a story whose essence is about defying a conventional narrative – that of righteous clans rising up and defeating a great evil – and about a character who defies many conventional narratives on his own – that of status defining how skilled you could be, that for a golden core being necessary for cultivation and other paths being unavailable, that of a tragic but complete story of someone killed for staying true to their moral code (instead, that character returns to life and has a happy ending) – to have its own narrative play a role in such an important and interesting way.

(Or, if an image would be preferable:)

Thank you for reading!

(Part One | Part Two | Full version on AO3)

--

*This strong relation to the present day circumstances is another reason I love the flashback placement so much (and why I think it’s such a loss both screen adaptions altered it so strongly)! 

[pigfartsviatardis]

Yay my post canon CQL broconciliation fic ‘Jiujiu and Da-jiu’ has cracked 3k hits 💕 I’m fond of this one, mostly cause I love WWX and JC and their bizarre messed up heartbreaking sibling bond (I love JYL too, and she’s very present in this fic despite being… yknow), but also because it’s non-shippy which is unusual for me! Romantic pairings get so much focus, from me too, but honestly I find the yunmeng trio to be the most fascinating and emotional set of relationships in the show.

[wannabe-f-f-friends]

Tell me why boys kissing is too nasty for television, but they keep showing me the Hundred Holes curse and that's just fine not traumatizing at all.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

I am Literally never gonna get why the most popular mdzs side ship is xich*ng. Xiyao is right there with the most compelling doomed romance narrative possible. The sheer tragic drama of the guanyin temple scene? Unparalleled.

JC and LXC have like two polite work conversations over the narrative runtime?? Where’s the drama where’s the pizzazz.

[xiaokuer-schmetterling]

my tags from july 2022 posting bc i'm on mobile app rn:

ONCE AGAIN FUCKING FUCK YOU TUMBLR APP. LET ME EDIT MY OWN GODDAMN POSTS

ETA--2025.04.03--here's the tags i had in the image above:

headcanon accepted, autism and sarcasm might be synonyms lol, i absolutely concur that lwj has autism, i mean especially in ep 8??? when he's vibing with the flower petals?!, (one of my favorite eps btw), and the scripting he does with the scholarly quotes?, and the minimally verbal way he has when experiencing strong emotions?!, yeah i said it, autism, neurodivergent, lwj gender is autism and lwj sexuality is wwx, op said it all

autistic Lan Wangji (aka my projecting autistic ass)

[qiu-yan]

[warnings: concerning, major character death]

[MDZS novel canon, except with the CQL detail that, after wei wuxian was summoned into mo xuanyu's body, mo xuanyu's body changed to resemble wei wuxian's original body.]

part 1:

postcanon, wei wuxian is going out of his way to avoid jiang cheng. jiang cheng had tried, after a long period of yelling, to write wei wuxian a letter expressing his apologies for how things went down in the past, but wei wuxian simply never replied. furthermore, on the rare occasions on which they run into each other on night hunts, wei wuxian avoids eye contact and spends the whole event hiding behind lan wangji.

one day, yunmeng jiang is tasked with hunting down an incredibly dangerous demonic cultivator, who is dangerous specifically because of her (surprisingly successful) research into alternate universes. this research allows her to summon monsters from other dimensions that have never existed in our own; it also allows her to instantly banish her opponents into alternate universes, without the means to return.

during this mission, jiang cheng runs into wang and xian, who also want to take down this demonic cultivator. while things are tense, jiang cheng does his best to bury his negative emotions and focus on the mission at hand.

and then, during the actual fight with the demonic cultivator, things go south. the demonic cultivator sics a demon dog on wei wuxian, and then, while he's distracted, flings one of her banishing talismans at him. this banishing talisman, as the name implies, sends whoever it hits into a random alternate universe with no means of return.

in that moment, jiang cheng panics and instinctively shoves wei wuxian out of the way. so it is jiang cheng, not wei wuxian, who gets hit with the banishing talisman and gets sent to an alternate universe instead.

part 2:

the alternate universe jiang cheng gets dropped into, fortunately, is one quite similar to his home universe. the laws of physical reality, the livability of the earth, the state of human civilization, the natural laws governing cultivation, the language and culture, etc etc are all the same as in jiang cheng's home universe. in fact, jiang cheng finds there are only really 4 differences from his home universe: 1, there is no demonic cultivation in this universe; 2, the yunmeng jiang sect no longer exists; 3, there is no jin ling in this universe; and 4. the jiang cheng of this universe died long ago.

our jiang cheng makes a living as a rogue cultivator. one day, he runs into another rogue cultivator, who recognizes him as jiang cheng: this alternate universe's wei wuxian.

unlike in jiang cheng's home universe, the wei wuxian of this universe (AU wei wuxian) is not a demonic cultivator. furthermore, AU wei wuxian still has his golden core. AU wei wuxian is incredibly happy to see jiang cheng.

from AU wei wuxian, jiang cheng thus finds out how exactly events in the alternate universe diverged from events in his home universe. just as in the home universe, in the alternate universe, after the fall of lotus pier, jiang cheng was captured by a wen patrol. unlike in the home universe, however, jiang cheng died in wen captivity before wen ning could break him out.

because of this change, AU wei wuxian never gave up his core and so never developed demonic cultivation. and, while the sunshot campaign still defeated qishan wen in the end, it took much, much longer and was only made possible by a large faction of wen, led by wen qing, actively betraying wen ruohan and stabbing him in the back. furthermore, because the sunshot campaign took so long, it was far more bloody than the sunshot campaign in the home universe and saw many more people die - including both jin zixuan and jiang yanli.

despite these changes, the jianghu of the alternate universe's present is quite peaceful. AU wei wuxian, the only surviving member of yunmeng jiang, did not have the ability to revive yunmeng jiang; thus, he instead was forced to give up eventually and is now making a living as a rogue cultivator.

jiang cheng and AU wei wuxian start night-hunting together. during this time, AU wei wuxian helps jiang cheng develop an array that will locate jiang cheng's home universe and send him back.

jiang cheng notices that AU wei wuxian seems to be doing his usual thing of pretending to be happy when he actually isn't; however, when jiang cheng prods AU wei wuxian about this, AU wei wuxian denies everything. jiang cheng, however, knows wei wuxian quite well, and soon guesses the source of AU wei wuxian's distress: the next day, he asks AU wei wuxian if AU wei wuxian will go with jiang cheng back to jiang cheng's home universe.

AU wei wuxian accepts.

one year after jiang cheng's arrival in the alternate universe, AU wei wuxian completes the return array. jiang cheng and AU wei wuxian then use it to successfully return to jiang cheng's home universe, in which one year has passed as well. once returned, jiang cheng offers AU wei wuxian a permanent home in lotus pier; AU wei wuxian accepts once more.

part 3:

so now jiang cheng is back. jin ling is overjoyed to have his jiujiu, who he believed to be dead, returned to him.

to go back a bit....from jin ling's pov, here is what happened after jiujiu disappeared:

wei wuxian immediately flipped his shit and went berserk on the demonic cultivator. they just barely managed to stop him from beating her to death. wei wuxian then insisted that they torture a way to retrieve jiujiu from the alternate universe out of the demonic cultivator; when the demonic cultivator said that she did not know of any such method to do so, wei wuxian killed her and then said he'd do it himself.

for the next few months, wei wuxian worked with the full support of yunmeng jiang, lanling jin, and gusu lan on a find-and-return array for jiujiu. however, when wei wuxian then activated the return array, nothing happened.

jin ling and the rest of the cultivation world were thus forced to conclude that jiujiu was dead. whether the return array failed because it could not find him in the multiverse, or because his soul was actually gone - either way, jiujiu was not coming back.

slowly, people moved on. news spread through the jianghu that jiujiu was gone. yunmeng jiang appointed jiujiu's SIC to be the new sect leader jiang. even jin ling, through his haze of grief, found himself burying himself in work as sect leader jin in order to avoid thinking about the loss.

meanwhile, wei wuxian disappeared into the cloud recesses. all communication from him ceased. perhaps jin ling should have kept a closer eye on him, but jin ling was dealing with his own grief. communication from lan sizhui, while frequent at first, abruptly cut off one day as well.

and then, one month ago, jin ling heard through the grapevine that wei wuxian was no longer living in the cloud recesses. he had his people listen for any news on wei wuxian - only for them to find nothing. it was as if wei wuxian had disappeared.

and now jiujiu is back. had survived being thrown into an alternate universe, had spent a year building a return array, had successfully returned from an alternate universe. this AU wei wuxian was the one to help jiujiu return, for which jin ling is eternally grateful. for this reason, jin ling accepts AU wei wuxian's overtures of friendship, even though privately he finds the idea of two different wei wuxians kind of weird.

however....things still aren't quite right. for one, the radio silence from lan sizhui and lan jingyi both has only continued - no appearances during night-hunts, no letters, no anything. at least ouyang zizhen is still communicating regularly - though ouyang zizhen also reports radio silence from their lan friends.

furthermore, this universe's wei wuxian is still missing, which jin ling is quite concerned about. however, when jin ling expresses this concern to jiujiu and asks jiujiu to help him look for this universe's wei wuxian, jiujiu waves off said concern completely. instead, jiujiu says that since this universe's wei wuxian wants to leave the past in the past and cut off all ties so badly, what he does is no longer jiang cheng's concern. in other words, jiujiu no longer cares about this universe's wei wuxian.

and then one day, jin ling finds out just what exactly happened: there hasn't been any communication from lan sizhui because lan sizhui is already dead.

what jin ling digs up is as follows: after the failure of wei wuxian's find-and-return array, wei wuxian disappeared into the cloud recesses. this was because, in the process of his research, wei wuxian had found an ancient book of forbidden techniques, including ones pertaining to alternate universes. thus, even as his orthodox find-and-return array failed, wei wuxian was already planning on combining the techniques in the ancient books with his demonic cultivation in order to try and retrieve jiang cheng again.

lan wangji warned wei wuxian against this path, as, after reading through the ancient book himself, he concluded that the techniques were dangerous. after failing to persuade lan wangji to let him try anyways, wei wuxian agreed to give it up - which was a lie, as wei wuxian simply moved his workshop to a remote location that lan wangji didn't know about.

one day, lan sizhui got suspicious about wei wuxian's long disappearances and followed him to his workshop. unfortunately, this was on the exact day wei wuxian was performing a highly risky experiment with the techniques he had found. just as lan wangji predicted, the techniques were too unstable to be used correctly - and so literally blew up in wei wuxian's face, right as lan sizhui entered wei wuxian's workshop.

wei wuxian survived the explosion; lan sizhui did not.

afterwards, gusu lan found wei wuxian guilty of causing lan sizhui's death through negligence. fearing the negative impact on their reputation, gusu lan thus covered up wei wuxian's activites and lan sizhui's death entirely, and quietly expelled wei wuxian from the cloud recesses. lan wangji did not oppose this move.

after this, wei wuxian's trail is lost. jin ling cannot figure out where wei wuxian went after his expulsion from gusu lan. and then, as we know, we catch up to the present - barely a week after lan sizhui's death and barely two days after wei wuxian's expulsion, jiang cheng returns from the alternate universe with AU wei wuxian.

part 4

meanwhile, in lotus pier - deep in the waters of lotus pier, under the lilypads and the lush pink blossoms, a body decomposes silently at the lake's floor. it is tied up with thick hempen rope and is weighed down with stones. what is left of its hair is gathered into a ponytail, tied with what was once a long red ribbon.

one day, jiang cheng bites into an oversalted pork bun and swears. AU wei wuxian quips that the pork bun has enough salt in it to revitalize yunmeng's economy. this is an old in-joke between the two.

had jiang cheng's memory been better, he would have recalled that the joke was first made by jiang cheng himself after the sunshot campaign, during lotus pier's initial reconstruction. thus, AU wei wuxian should not know about this joke at all, as in his universe his jiang cheng was already dead by that point in time. unfortunately, jiang cheng does not make this connection.

as it turns out, AU wei wuxian is not actually AU wei wuxian. shortly after jiang cheng and AU wei wuxian returned to lotus pier, this universe's wei wuxian came to lotus pier as well. initially, our wei wuxian contented himself with watching jiang cheng and this alternate version of himself from afar. this was fine - he told himself this was fine.

but then, after jiang cheng heard through the grapevine that this universe's wei wuxian - that is, him - was no longer living at the cloud recesses and was now missing, jiang cheng made no move to look for him. instead, jiang cheng still looked content. instead, jiang cheng still looked happy, living in lotus pier day by day with this alternate version of wei wuxian - one who had never failed jiang yanli. one who had never failed jiang cheng. one who had never failed lan sizhui. one who still had his golden core.

and so, in the dead of night, our wei wuxian killed AU wei wuxian, dumped his body into the lakewater surrounding lotus pier, and quietly took his place.

[lemonyinks]

I still have a lot of love in my heart for the adaptations of MDZS, but the book is just...undeniably better.

Especially when it comes to the depiction of the main couple. Of course, this can largely be attributed to censorship, but even still, I feel like the adaptations have a great misunderstanding of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in general. Or at least CQL does. I have not watched the animation in years, meanwhile I recently binged both the live action and the book.

Lan Wangji is...deeply in love and deeply devoted to Wei Wuxian. I often see him depicted in the fandom as a stickler for the rules, someone who tries to force them onto Wei Wuxian at every turn. This might have been who he was when he was a teenager, but adult Lan Wangji - who knows what sticking to those rules so strictly leads to - is not like that. Like. At all.

For all he pretends to stick to the rules - telling Wei Wuxian not to speak while eating, no alcohol, no excessive noise, etc - he doesn't actually give two shits if Wei Wuxian sticks to them or not. It is more force of habit than anything.

He doesn't even care too much about following them himself anymore. In fact, he happily breaks them time and time again. The only thing that Lan Wangji cares about after he finally has the love of his life back is that that same love is happy.

I think this excerpt from the Chapter 116 Banquet Extra perfectly exhibits Lan Wangji's stance on the Lan rules.

(side note; it is unbearably sweet that he went out of his way to make sure his husband didn't have to eat food he didn't like, and also went out and got him something that would satisfy his hunger. He loves him so much).

He would do anything to make him happy. Anything.

I feel like the CQL really fails to express that. Changing the events of the Nightless City and taking away the first Burial Mound Siege causes a lot of problems in the MDZS story telling (maybe more on that in another post because it pisses me off) but I think maybe one of the biggest things it impacts is showing to us Lan Wangji's devotion.

While it is true that he was conflicted, emotionally constipated, and still tied down by the rules he was taught to obey for his entire life during the events pre 13 year time skip, he was still deeply in love with him and he has pretty much always stood by his side.

He spoke up for him, defended him where he could when no one else but Mianmian would (also maybe more on her). And when push came to shove, when it was him against the entire world, he made the active and violent (not said in a negative way) decision to defend him with everything he had.

He hid him away from pursuers for days, desperately trying to nurse him back to health even while he himself was also injured and exhausted. He even chose to hurt his own people in defense of him when it came down to it.

chapter 99

I think the Nightless City, while not his turning point, was what truly cemented it for him. It doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter what rules, Lan Wangji will always, always go against them for Wei Wuxian.

[least-carpet]

5, 7, 18, 20 for chengning (but feel free to ignore any you don't feel like answering)

Hi Pallas! I'm always down to talk about chengning!

5.) What do they need to better themselves as people first?

Haha, I actually think they need to get slightly worse in order to get together post-canon! Wen Ning has to give into his impulsiveness and Jiang Cheng some self-harming tendencies so they can have bad idea hatesex.

Alternately, I guess maybe they could night-hunt with their nephews for long enough that they chilled out and got to know each other. But I think that could take a really long time... and how much time will Jin Ling spend in the field, anyway, now that he's a sect leader? Bad idea hatesex is faster!

7.) Could they have piqued interest in one another without said circumstances?

If they hook up at all, that's totally in spite of their circumstances.

I do think there's a universe (maybe Wen Ruohan choked on a grape and ate it when Wen Ning was a kid?) where Wen Ning got absorbed into Wei Wuxian's wider social circle and then got to know Jiang Cheng that way. I think I've seen this approach in a couple of different modern!au fics, where Wen Ning has the time to get over his crush on Wei Wuxian and then discovers that he likes Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng strikes me as someone who doesn't necessarily like others easily, even as a teenager, and there's one adaptation (CQL) where the Wen sibling he notices is Wen Qing, not Wen Ning. He's someone who I think you need to hang around with for a minute before he warms up to you, plus Wen Ning is very shy. But also I think he'd be a sucker for someone genuinely extending him kindness, so if that happened...maybe!

18.) Do they love the real them or a mask? Both?

I think they hate each other for their mutual history, which is as close to emotional intimacy as either of them have gotten since both their respective sisters died. We make do!

More positively, I do think that starting from rock bottom is the only thing that might compel Wen Ning to be honest, since when he likes someone he doesn't seem to want to express any of his negative feelings around them... and I think he has many more of those than he'd like. And from honesty, sometimes you can get to actual emotional intimacy! Sometimes?

So if they do love each other, it's from a place of real, ugly honesty. One of the things that I find interesting about their dynamic is that Wen Ning is more honest with Jiang Cheng than he is with most other people. He's not, like, nice about it. But he's communicating! Which is more than Jiang Cheng is getting from basically anyone else (cough cough, Wei Wuxian)! Wen Ning gets someone he can be direct with and Jiang Cheng gets someone who isn't going to bother to lie to him. (As always, Jiang Cheng is very miserable.)

20.) What experience do they share only with each other?

Being the unwilling science experiments of Bad Idea Genius Team Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing. Looking at the other with Wei Wuxian and thinking, God, he loves him so much, look what he'll do on his behalf. You know, normal stuff!

[sepia-mahogany]

Please stop intentionally mistagging content.

“Canon Jiang Cheng” tag is for discussion of things he did in the novel, explicitly, that means if you want to talk about how brave he was for saving Wei Wuxian from the guards or about how terrible it was that he made things worse for WWX and WRs. Positive or negative interpretations from the novel source are welcome here. The main “Jiang Cheng” tag is for everything, headcanons, fanart, cql donghua every other adaptation canon than just the novel, gif sets, video edits, fanon content, canon content whatever you wish to do.

It is honestly disappointing that after requests from other Jiang Cheng fans (and also to avoid the mess that was people getting hate over posting the direct novel quotes) we made a separate tag so everyone could curate their content and consume what they wished, only for some people to intentionally mistag content (fanships for example, or cql gifs) as a misguided attempt to “reclaim the tag”.

What exactly are you accomplishing by intentionally mistagging content? All you’re doing is making curating content harder, so please stop intentionally mistagging content when you can just block the tag you wish to not interact with but making it so people don’t have a safe fandom space is beyond being rude.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

I just finished watching through season 3 of the mdzs donghua fully and why do people praise cql for the romantic undertones when the donghua exists and did it much better

Hi there!

I am going to be completely honest here and say it's because a lot of them initially came from American live action media fandoms from 2005-2016 that very much thrived on mean spirited queer content baiting that the fans could transform.

Ironically I came across something from twitter today saying "fanfiction is taking back wonderful characters and worlds from problematic authors", and it made me sad. Because this is how the scape of American media is still like, the "subtext" of not really queer content is put on a pedestal because "I" can make what doesn't exist, better. It can be argued censorship was pushed to a certain limit, but it wasn't due to the writers and producer of CQL in the long run, it only is the bare shadow of the novel due to backlash and the film crew needing to resort to reshooting and edits of what had been a straight washing of the actual gay main characters.

The first season of the donghua, which preceded CQL by a whole year, can be debatably said to be able to get away with more risqué content due to the medium of animation, and tencent animation productions are very notorious with this and had the grace of being an old IP before the massive wave of mainland censorship restrictions regarding overly sexual content.

But the sticking point for me personally, is that even with censors the staff of the donghua hadn't tried to change the core relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji being the most important part of the others life as what the interviews for CQL's head scriptwriter tried to do when she said "it had to be changed to heavy familial ties" and thus the expansion of the Jiangs. It's morbidly word for word the same as a lot of American comi-con panels back in the day that the same fans hated from American productions.

It's taking the same crumbs from 15 years ago and trying to call it more. When the donghua did what CQL didn't by at least keeping Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian together and the others most important and not needing to explicitly say this or animate it by book text. As well as somehow needing to still say that the subtext is more romantic than the overt. Personally, I am tired of that when I have something in a televised form of my favorite romance that doesn't relegate them to the zone of platonic only zhiji who can never be together, and shows them on screen going to a home they made that they can go to when they want together always, and what others say doesn't matter.

I'm tired of taboo love and I think that the donghua understood the "to hell with that" message MXTX constantly made with each of her romances regarding that and what polite society would think about my love.

[accio-victuuri]

January 2024 CPNs 🍭🍬🍪

starting off the year strong with some good old candies that puts a smile on our faces. i have to say that this month has some challenges because tho we have sweets, there were some outside voices that affected some of us in a negative way. being a bxg is a continuous learning process, and i hope all of us get stronger and learn that xz and wyb will always be the priority. we will respect them. we will be kind to them. and i guess that’s the good thing about monthly recaps like this, a reminder that bxgs live the good life! 🫶🏼

now let’s review this lovely month… ⬇️⬇️⬇️

• New year’s eve candy goodness

• Additional NYE clowning, one of the set props for WYB’s stage, is a clock. It’s not set as 10:05 in an obvious way, but if you turn it just right you will see the 10:05. Most likely a coincidence but who knows.

• ZZ & WYB featured in Elle Japan

• 1/2 yibo official weibo video post

• Probably a coincidence but in WYB’s interview he mentioned that one of his favorite Actors is Sean Penn. Understandable. However people are screaming cause “Sean” is also XZ’s first name. lol. Was this an additional point to like the actor? 😂

• 1/4: Yibo cat photo cpns

• XiaoWangZi = Little Prince

• 1/6/23, photos onset of ZZ’s new drama went on HS. to be expected, cause it’s in hengdian and anything related to ZZ’s project is bound to get some paparazzi interested. there was also some talk that the project might have shared it intentionally to stop the malicious rumors that the drama wasn’t actually filming. anyway, the CPN in all this is that a new CP was born 🥹🥹🥹🥹

baili is mostly paired with shiying — who is a favored person to be shipped with xieyun. so it seems like baili doesn’t have his one & only. so maybe zanghai can be that person. and both their stories include court politics so it’s perfect.

• The Boys & their late night city adventures

• ZZ & WYB + Mimi the Cat

• A new/old snippet from their thailand fanmeet rehearsal where they wanted to hear each other’s voice on their earphones

• WYB smiling cause he heard XZ’s sample/demo for the song tomorrow will be better during recording

• 1/11 zsww rumor : cutting their hair

• 1/12 same light and shadow in studio post caption & another wedding outfit

• THEM WITH A KID 🥹🥹🥹 it’s giving suo-er vibes!

• Weibo Night recap & candies

• yibo is seat #23 and then xzs posts their video at 00:23. what a coincidence 👀

• same brand heurueh bits

• In his SINA interview for Weibo night, he was asked who he prefers to go with during vacations and he answers friends. but before saying that he stuttered. you all know how we are with XZ and his stutter, meaning he is changing his answer or is a bit nervous cause the true answer is revealing. Tell us, who do you really wanna go on vacation with? 😏

• The boys being tourism ambassadors of their hometown which led to them being featured in a newspaper

• A fansite posted a series of photos showing how XZ signed the backdrop for Weibo Night. It clearly shows how he looks at WYB’s signature and the decides to sign right next to it. There are videos too that show this much better. I guess this one depends on people’s interpretation. I think those who are anti cpf will see this as a coincidence and say that XZ just signed randomly on the side cause the other spaces already look crowded. But then again, you can’t deny that he saw WYB’s signature. He knows what it looks like. They both spent so much time signing stuff together during CQL promotion so it’s safe to say that he recognized it. If they are sworn enemies like some people love to imply, why would he sign near WYB’s? This is pretty clear to me, it’s his way of being right next to WYB. 🫶🏼

Here is a closer one posted by someone who attended, you can see how close they are.

• an assistant in weibo night who took care of them both & who seems to be their friend

• matching lawsuits of anti fans

• both of them showing up at loreal annual meeting to give their messages

• our boys love to stay hydrated! 💦💦💦

• a video from SDC where the OP said WYB’s reaction was due to their wangxiao headbands. I know there are a lot of toxicity and fanwar that happened because of SDC fan support and there is some narrative from his so/os that WYB hates us. so/os are free to hate on us but i don’t think it’s ever right to project that onto WYB who is like the most accepting person. let the fan wars be between the fans, don’t bring WYB into it and claim stuff that will put him in a negative light.

• mystery tennis photo where people clown that he could be with xz. but i personally think he is just with some friends, but that doesn’t take away the possibility that he plays with xz 🎾

• GQ caption similarities and sexy backs - and i think the biggest takeaway from this whole GQ drama is that fans should remain rational and we should trust the boys and their decision. I have talked about it initially here, but that was more of calling out fan etiquette than the cpn implications. some bxgs really fell into the brainwashing package of solos and i wanna discuss that here cause this fandom is not only about candies but being firm in our belief. you had shrimps saying wyb is the enemy cause he is all cozied up with gq, and some bxgs bought that. they were “disappointed” with wyb and made up stuff about him doing things against his will. then the same people were slapped in the face when yibo continued to work with him for his album which is about as personal as it gets. only a few respected wyb’s decision and trusted in him & xz. motos are saying gq will never work with someone like xz cause he is the enemy, and that’s why wyb is comfortable with rocco and team. which is proven to be wrong now cause he is working with them. who knows, they may even do a full feature for LOCH. this is a lesson to bxgs, do not rely on solo sob stories to make sense of zz and wyb cause they only see one side of the story. they were always okay with GQ. Maybe GG was hurt at some point but he moved on and so should the fans. i just hate the feeling that ZZ & WYB were so happy with the collabs they did with GQ, in the meantime, BXGs who are supposed to understand them the most were nowhere to be found. we should do better next time.

there are serious efforts out there to make us turn against one of them, and use cpfs as anti minions, so we should be more careful.

• BJYX and Tennis 🎾🎾🎾

• Their Ordinary Life - a translation of a post made about their lives as normal people, and riddled with known CPNs.

• the connection between the tod’s strap included in xzs 2024 media gift box and wyb’s alleged gucci strap accessory in SDC 5

• early cpf story

• new clue from a drawing of a cake 🎂

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. Looking for a smut fic I remember reading. WWX was testing an invisibility talisman and ended up in the jingshi in time to watch LWJ masturbating, and rode him after he fell asleep. LWJ woke up and made WWX get rid of the invisibility after a bit. I think it was a roleplay between the two but I'm not fully sure

FOUND! Clinomania by malkinmalkout (E, 6k, wangxian, Voyeurism, Masturbation, Somnophilia, misuse of talismans, PWP, Riding, Oral Sex, binding, Happy Ending, canon typical non-con)

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2. Hi! So I'm looking for this one fic, I remember that it was set in post-canon & Wangxian go to help this village, I remember that the Juniors (all four) followed them without their knowledge & the village had a barrier preventing people from leaving, the village had a curse where they got to see their close-ones negative memories, the juniors learnt of what actually happened to WWX & the villain turns out to be a "god" like on Dafan, it had 4 chapter (I think) & was finished. @i-like-snakes-and-spiders

FOUND? Down comes the night by danegen (E, 67k, wangxian, Alternate Universe, Canon Era, inspired by From, Horror, Sharing a Room, POV LWJ, no jiangs, a whole village of OCs, tiny mention of past wwx/omc, Happy Ending)

FOUND? unhappy stories with happy endings by Last_for_Hell (M, 30k, WangXian, Memories, Memory Fic, Kinda, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, sexual content maybe, References to Torture, PTSD, Characters Watching Their Series, kinda, but not entirely, very light consensual non-consent)

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3. good day! 😊 I read this fic before and I know that I've bookmarked it but I can't find it in the list. So the story is after wwx fell, baoshan sanren and lan yi rescued him, nursed him back to health, and waited for him to wake up. I remember that when he woke up, they also taught him cultivation (he got a new sword). He also hid his face (i think he also wore a different name and different voice(?)). There's a yi city scene where xxc asked them who they were because he cant see, then bssr is also with them at that time. thank yoooooou! 💓💓💓

FOUND! Until The End by abCEE (M, 365k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, war changes people, resulting to OOC, no pinning, Established Relationship, Mpreg, Good Uncle LQR, a little grey LWJ, a bit of JC bashing from LWJ, BAMF JYL, 16 years of yearning, mainly CQL verse but has scenes from the novel as well, LSZ is WangXian's Child, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Canon Rewrite, Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts)

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4. hi, I hope you can help me find this fic I've been looking for, I'm sorry I don't really remember much, just that WWX can cook non-spicy food but he does it on purpose, it might have been because of his time in the streets? or because someone would take his food? (maybe JC???)

~*~

5. I cannot for the life of me remember anything else about the fic but I think it was cql based with lwj as chief cultivator? wwx returned to cloud recesses and the first thing he did was beat someone up for saying horrible things about lwj. I can't remember if it was multichapter or not so it might have been in the middle of a longfic?

FOUND? 🔒make this chaos count by devotedbones (E, 15k, WangXian, Post-Canon, CQL Compliant, canon compliant until the very last scene of episode 50, Getting Together, First Time, First Kiss, Hand Jobs, Chief Cultivator LWJ, a flute used as a melee weapon, Fist Fights, Gossip, Self-Worth Issues, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Mentions of Canonical Abuse, Minor Misunderstandings, [podfic] make this chaos count, by devotedbones by inkpens)

~*~

6. this may as well be an itmf for its general nature, but it's actually a ficfinder! except. i only remember a single detail LMAO, and it's that wwx and lwj consider all four juniors to be their children, blood relation be damned. I'm so sorry i have literally nothing else to go on 😅 i think there's a similar theme in 'tragedy is not the end' specifically with zizhen, but not the exact detail im looking for... thank you for the help!

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7. Hi, first of all I want to thank y'all for the hard work, and I wanted to know if a fic has been deleted or if anyone has it, I don't remember the name but it was a time travel fic where Qishan Wen win the sunshot campaign and asked for war prizes (?) Zewu-Jun goes instead of his brother, Yanli is alive, they all have them captive, Meng Yao betrayed them and ultimately sided with the Wen's who were winning the war, and I think no one remembers Wei Wuxian, something like that, it would be great if someone could help! Thanks so much 🩷🩷

FOUND? The Way It Wasn’t by KouriArashi (T, 72k, WangXian, XiYao, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, (eventually haha), Slow Build, Family Feels, Moral Ambiguity, Eventual Happy Ending)

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8. Hi!!! Its me again!! Thanknyiu so much again!!! This time im looking for a time travel fic with lan qiren as the timentraveller. Pretty sure him and wen ruohan travelled together and MAYBE involved with each other??? Im not so sure but i do know that lan qiren time travelled. Sorry its not much thats all i remember hehe @sirius-bus1ness

might be one of Nirejseki's works. They wrote several on that subject (including in a big anthology work, so finding it might take some time)

FOUND? Cursed Couple by shorimochi (M, 121k, LQR/WRH, CSSR/WCZ, Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Out of Character)

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9. Hello, I am looking for a fic but I only remember a scene from it

It was a fic wwhere wwx died and there was a scene where a-yuan was crying while laying above wwx's grave in the burial mounds. Thank you!

FOUND? To Offer a Heart by WhiteCrane (M, 111k, wangxian, major character death, Sad WWX, Hurt WWX, YLLZ WWX, soft wangxian, Cinnamon Roll WN, WWX Whump, WQ is a good sister, WN is a good brother, everybody loves wwx, yunmeng siblings, Triggers, Suicidal Thoughts, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst with a Happy Ending, Taking care of WWX, Give WWX a break, Canon Divergence, Disturbing Themes, Changing Perspectives, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Grief/Mourning, Temporary Character Death, Getting Together, Redemption, Sibling Bonding, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Brother-Sister Relationships, Parent-Child Relationship, Sad and Sweet, Tragedy, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF JYL, BAMF WQ, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Everyone Needs A Hug, WIP)

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10. Hi Mods (＾◡＾) I really hope that you can help me find some fics I've been looking for! (＾◡＾) if you can't that's ok, if you can then many thanks in advance! y'all are awesome!

A) this one is set during CR studies, and wangxian go on a date? in Caiyi and I think WWX gets emotional about something they are talking about? and I know they hug, and WWX don't want to let go.

B) this one wangxian gets married, WWX marries into the Lan, and there are a lot of rules specifically for married people/how to be in a relationship, I'm pretty sure that is a very big part of the story

10A)

FOUND! 🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 712k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement) The scene described sounds like something that happens pretty early on

10B)

NOT FOUND! Into the Oubliette by Ruixx (M, 124k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, graphic depictions of violence, underage, Growing Up, Fix-It of Sorts, Arranged Marriage, Time Travel, Sibling Bonding, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Canon Divergence, Light BDSM, Breathplay, WWX protection squad, Sunshot Campaign, War, Politics, Hostage JYL, Visions, LXC Redemption, general LWJ, Internal Sect Politics, Good Uncle LQR, Lan OCs, No Golden Core Transfer, Empire Building, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence)

NOT FOUND! seldom all they seem by Fahye (E, 25k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, or rather Arranged Betrothal, followed by Weapons-Grade Thirst)

FOUND? Wouldn't fall for someone I thought couldn't misbehave by failedcharismacheck (M, 15k, WIP, WangXian, Marriage Proposal, Fluff, Protective LWJ, Domestic Fluff, Kissing, POV LWJ, Hair Brushing, Implied Sexual Content, soft horny)

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11. Noncon tw. Looking for a fic where when the wens burn lotus pier, they threaten to rape yanli but Wei Wuxian offers himself instead. So the wen soldiers rape Wei Wuxian in front of the Jiang sect,l. Yanli cries

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12. Looking for a specific fix where Wei Ying is dead and the sects come together to watch through his memories and end up finding out for selfless he was. @aviidaviibiitchboii

FOUND! Misunderstood by Silver_Flame_2724 (M, 250k, WIP, WangXian, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Heavy Angst, Suicidal Thoughts, Canon-Typical Violence, Self-Worth Issues)

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13. Hi, I'm looking for a modern au where Wei Ying is a grad student in an orchestra and A-yuan is dropped off at his door by his cousin Mo Xuanyu. Wei Ying and Lan Zhan get together while caring for A-yuan and end up getting married. A-yuan has a fear of airports in this fic because of his abandonment issues. This was on AO3 but I can't seem to find it. @amindonbreak

FOUND! The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (E, 70k, WangXian, Modern AU, Accidental baby acquisition, Kid fic, Green card marriage (but not really), Slow Burn, Endless Pining, Happy ending, [Podfic of] The Simplest Way Forward by knight_tracer, Translation into Русский: Самый Простой Путь Вперёд (The Simplest Way Forward) by grand_R, Spanish Translation, Turkish translation )

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14. hello! im looking for specific fic, where after burial mounds wwx thinks he's dead. instead of joining sunshot campain he storms nightless city and kills all cultivators without anyone knowing it was him (exept meng yao who survived but is wounded)

he then "haunts" yumeng for a while until he runs into wen quing and takes wens to burrial mounds

eventually ppl find out and together with meng yao they outsmart jgs to pardon all wens @chellsky

I can't find 14, but I do remember reading it; they ended up pretending Wen Qing was the one controling the dead and killing the Wen, and they faked her death

FOUND! can't find a way home by KouriArashi (M, 109k, WangXian, XiYao, XuanLi, ChengQing, Canon Divergence, Angst, Family, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Politics, Family Feels, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Developing Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical political bullshit, Mental Health Issues, Eventual Happy Ending, Descriptions of suicide, (caused by dark magic))

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15. Hello! I'm looking for a fic where Sizhui's bio parents are alive and come to Cloud Recesses looking for him (post-canon, iirc)

Hello! I'm #15 from the latest fic finder. I'm quite sure that the fic was on ao3. It may have been inspired from the angstymdzsthoughts posts but it was a proper fic posted on ao3

NOT FOUND! This Post by angstymdzsthoughts Mad idea, could 15 be from angstymdzsthoughts?

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16. Hi! I was reading a really interesting story about LWJ being cursed and WWX helping him and I lost it! Arg, now I'm so curious to know how it ends, I hope you can help me!

The story is about LWJ being cursed with a change in his private body parts. (The curse changes his p to a v). Then WWX notices this and decide to help LWJ and the way to revert the curse is that LWJ has to have an org@sm.

Can you help me? I'm dying to know how to continues!! 🤗🤗 @wangxiansgirl

FOUND! Coming Back to Yourself by acernor (E, 21k, wangxian, Vaginal Fingering, Cunnilingus, Oral Sex, Pining, Gender or Sex Swap, Vaginal Sex)

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17. Hi! Looking for a fic wherein wangxian married and suddenly Mo Xuanyu woke up again in his body, he fell in love with Lan Wangji but Lan Wangji just ignore or formal with him. Mo Xuanyu heartbroken tried to bring back Wei Wuxian Soul on his body

I feel like this might be in the angstymdzs collection, since I think it's was inspired by one of those asks?

~*~

18. Kind of random, but I’m trying to find a fic I read awhile ago that featured hagfish? My memory of it is kind of vague, it was a college au and wwx was some sort of biology major i think and there were hagfish. Compelled to read it again because of hagfish reasons.

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19. Hello! I'm looking for a specific fic which I've seen in a few people's bookmarks but for some reason neglected to even mark for later. It's a modern AU where LWJ is looking for a pet sitter for his bunnies and is recommended WWX's pet sitting/walking venture (no dogs allowed ofc). Can you help? 🐇 @linderel

FOUND! A Single Note by airinshaw (E, 19k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Kissing, Anal Sex, Fluff and Smut, Light Dom/sub)

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20. I search a fic where Jiang Cheng tries to ask Lan Xichen to marry him and Lan Xichen is super offended by it. Nie Huaisang may have done something to make JC fail even more in his proposal.

FOUND? To Take A Wife- Or Perhaps A Husband by Admiranda (T, 2k, one-sided LXC/JC, one-sided NHS/JC, JC's canonical homophobia, JC's canonical inability to get married, Decides to solve his problems with spite, not JC friendly, We all love NHS in this household, JC's canonical blind spots, Post-Canon, JC's canonical classism)

~*~

[limitbreaker23]

They are not the same picture, I'm devastated. I thought it's the same bedding, but it's negative reverse pillow.

For context, Lan Wangji in cql and Jiang Ci in Love of Nirvana sleep better in this pattern. Try it as well, and if you spot it, send it over, because apparently, I find such stuff amusing.

[incarnadinedreams]

I frequently see people saying that the list of traits Jiang Cheng gave to the matchmaker are "impossible standards", ridiculous, unreasonable, outlandish, absurd, nobody could ever possibly meet them, etc.

Anyway the translation that's up on the wiki is:

His requirements in his partner are: naturally beautiful, graceful and obedient, hard-working and thrifty, coming from a respected family, cultivation level not too high, personality not too strong, not too talkative, voice not too loud and must treat Jin Ling nicely.

First off, the list comes from a random trivia answer MXTX gave in an interview, not the novel canon. So whether you even consider it canon at all is up for grabs to begin with. Though I think there was a scene in CQL with a similar list so it would be canon there, minus the Jin Ling point (due to the point in the story the scene was set)? (So I believe the matchmaker blacklisting point still wouldn't be CQL canon though, just the list?)

But if you do take it all as a Super Serious Canon Thing, well... to be honest I just don't think that list is at all unusual, given the setting? I believe many of the points in the list are just traits considered generally good for ladies of the time period (intentionally vague as that time period may be). (I am absolutely not an expert though so please correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

To me it seems that it's not that they're unusually high or unattainable standards, they're just so generic that they're sort of unhelpful. That he has like no idea what he wants at all outside what he's supposed to want.

The only points that actually seem to have any specificity are things like cultivation level not too high. Which some people could interpret negatively, and fair enough. But personally to me that seemed more like a flashing neon sign of 'please someone not like my mother', given her strength in cultivation was one of her defining traits (and something that he may have felt led to her disappointment in him). Even though Jiang Cheng may carry forward some of her traits himself (for better and for worse; this is not a YZY hate zone but there's... a lot there), he does seem to have at least given some thought to choosing a partner to counter some of the pain points of his own childhood and aim for something different (and we see him trying to do that himself in specific ways as well, like his staunch support of Jin Ling when he was crying after the Second Siege, even if he doesn't always fully succeed).

And, of course, 'must treat Jin Ling nicely'. Which seems obvious and not like a big deal at first, but I think actually could reasonably be a big sticking point in a potential marriage. My understanding is that he was wildly more involved in Jin Ling's life than a maternal uncle would normally be. Including this as a specific requirement seems to send a particular type of statement, as if it was important to him that any potential match would not take offense to him treating an orphaned child that wasn't his with a lot of attention and gifts and favor... hmmm, how could he have possibly decided that could be a problem in a marriage...?

(Obviously, the scenario would be very different than his parents' - none of the salacious rumors and the humiliation that came with them that really drove a deeper wedge between YZY and JFM - but he was obviously going to be doing a lot more for Jin Ling than an average uncle so it makes sense to have that be a specific point upfront.)

I'm ultimately in the 'it was MXTX making a joke and not meant to be taken nearly this seriously' with a side of 'the clan leaders of this generation aren't in a hurry to get married because MXTX just didn't feel like writing their wives in and also it was funny' camp so I think there's a limit to how much insight can be gleaned from this, you know? It is fun to play with it in-universe and explore the implications on the society and political system going forward in the decades post-canon, but I do try to keep myself from taking it too seriously when it's clearly not a well-thought-out plot point or anything, just a fun offhand jokey trivia bit.

But I like the vibes of it all well enough to accept it as 'semi-canon' or 'canon enough' for myself anyway because I think the 'must treat Jin Ling nicely' point is cute and the rest is just standard for the setting and the blacklisted by matchmakers part is funny, and I'm much more willing to subsume random bits from interviews into my brain's blorbo blob if it's something funny.