#I too would risk it all for wang meng

[wang-meng]

Wang Meng text posts

+ liang wan meeting wang meng for the first time

[whomst-art-thou-whomst-whomst]

Texts from the Lost Tomb, part 5.5

Ahhh what fun this mini story was to play around with!

~le epilogue~

Sanity Chat

Wu Erbai: …..

Zhang Rishan: I made a mistake today. Please accept my sincerest apologies.

Wu Erbai: …..

Zhang Rishan: What will it take for your displeasure to cool?

Wu Erbai: Materially, nothing. My nephew has returned safely, apparently with a very valuable souvenir, and I’m confident that today’s events will not be repeated.

Zhang Rishan: They will not.

So.

If not material, then…

Wu Erbai: Tonight. Mario Kart. Three hours. I get Princess Peach.

Zhang Rishan: I accept these terms.

Zhang Rishan: …Liang Wan and I were hoping you’d still join us at the cottage this weekend.

Wu Erbai: Of course.

*(And bc I refuse to let these two not stay besties…)*

Unnamed chat:

Wu Xie: um so hi

Zhang Rishan: Hello, Wu Xie. How are you doing?

Wu Xie: oh I’m good

Trying to type while squashed in a snuggle pile with my idiots

Plus my phone keeps blowing up bc someone leaked the days events to Li Cu (I suspect Wang Meng he’s been very passive aggressive abt the whole thing)

look I know today was awkward

TFW your in-laws abduct you lol

But

It’s not the weirdest or even third weirdest thing to happen to my body in the last decade tbh

I haven’t forgotten everything you did to help me.

Zhang Rishan: You are too kind. Really, it concerns me. But I am grateful for it.

Wu Xie: also sorry about the tea house:/ and the whole murder attempt thing

Zhang Rishan: I should be apologizing, my conduct today put you at risk. Hence the murder attempt.

The property damage was expected, honestly.

Men in Black Chat:

Hei Yangjing: *lifts boombox over my head* 🎶 did you ever know that you’re my heroooo you’re everything I would like to beeee 🎶

Zhang Qiling: Desist.

Hei Yangjing: oooh I’m xiaoge im all angsty and mysterious

doin my dramatic rescue leaps with somehow the stretchiest jeans ever (Seriously tho are they jeggings fess up)

I’m just sooo cool and I got my boyfriend a magical heirloom to protect him oooooh

Zhang Qiling: I’m getting the feeling you are annoyed with me about something.

Hei Yangjing: listen when you were all wandering-sexy-ghostie I looked reliable by comparison and too much convo is better than zero convo right? Right??

Now you’ve raised the standard. Xie Yuchen keeps talking about your little teahouse tantrum and says the necklace shows how extraordinary your devotion is to Wu Xie. Good for you. Asshole. Some of us are broke as shit and on thin ice on a good day.

Zhang Qiling: I seriously doubt you have anything to worry about with Xie Yuchen. If he hasn’t kicked you out yet, he probably won’t. I think he finds your quirks both challenging and charming. Somehow.

Hei Yangjing: what I’m saying is the sooner you put a ring on it the safer I’ll feel

Hey I could totes propose on your behalf???

I’ll just lurk in the shadows and mutter something cryptic then smear blood on him

he’ll def think I’m you

Ok from your lack of response I’m gonna assume that was a “yes great idea you’re so much smarter and hotter than me and you should go right ahead and do it” from your end

Zhang Qiling: Why wouldn’t Wu Xie think to propose to me in this fantasy of yours?

Hei Yangjing: uh maybe cuz Wu Xie is a grown man who despite over a decade of traumatic experiences, happily climbed into a van of strangers this morning and then allowed them to test him for magical properties

Also he didn’t really seem to process you threatening to kill your own family in front of him bc he was like ooh shiny necklace must nerd out over it

Wu Xie is very sweet and very pretty and that’s a good thing because for a mad historian he’s like a total idiot

it’s actually amazing

and yet you pine

Zhang Qiling: …He bought me bunny marshmallows today.

Hei Yangjing: Boy you are in so much trouble.

love that for you.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Lost Tomb Reboot Lewks: Part 13

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for both seasons of The Lost Tomb Reboot and also vaguely for Daomu Biji in general

Look 66 belongs to Ah Ning, who has chosen, for this adaptation, to go with short hair, heavy makeup, and all-black clothes, but with a bit of a club vibe, rather than her more usual tactical vibe. 

The short hair is a weird choice. The whole schtick with DMBJ adaptations is that you have to tell who's who by their costuming and styling, since the associated actors toss roles back and forth faster than Wu Xie and Xiao Ge on a date with Liu Sang. 

Hot guy in a hoodie? Xiao Ge. Slightly dorky but ridiculously charismatic guy who dresses like Joey Ramone? Hei Yanjing. Man who's too old for fluffy bangs and puppy-dog eyes but is working the hell out of them anyway? Wu Xie. Ponytail, gun, and a whole bunch of disposable sidekicks? Ah Ning.

Ah Ning, Lost Tomb 1 version, with her signature ponytail & disregard for human life.

For this look, Ah Ning has gotten rid of her long hair, henchmen, weapons, and the part of her shirt that normally would cover her belly. This is an outfit that says "I am finally ready to fuck Wu Xie." 

Unfortunately she decides to accessorize this outfit with a giant deadly snake. 

This snake, unlike the equivalent snake in uhhhhhmmm a different DMBJ show that Ah Ning might theoretically die in, does not appear to be poisonous or have an unusual instant-kill-you ability. It just squeezes her a little bit, and the boys don't make any attempt to revive her, even though not-breathing is a super survivable condition, if it's corrected quickly. 

This non-poisonous snake accessory is all about killing a woman so that men can feel manpain, and I am kind of offended that this version of Ah Ning went out like that, after being a badass in every other adaptation. 

(more after the cut!) 

The hypothetical other show where a version of this scene perhaps also happens does correct this, by having her talk about her acceptance of the risk of death, and by having the fucking snake be POISONOUS. I am not naming the show because where’s the fun in that? If you watch TLTR first, like I did, you get to be worried about Ah Ning in every other show she’s in, which is exhausting but also kind of fun. (I don’t mind women dying in fiction, as long as their deaths are an important part of their own stories, rather than just being important for the growth of the men around them.)

Thanks to poor accessory choices, Ah Ning and her snake necklace go the same route as Ye Piaopiao and No-Longer-Mute Chick; fortunately Xiao Ge didn't fall for Tattoo Artist Ah Tou or she'd be in the morgue with the rest of them.

Look 67 is young Wu Xie's jungle adventure outfit, featuring a bright white popover jacket with cream color sleeves from Scotch & Soda’s Club Nomade collection. Scotch & Soda have have thoughtfully printed their name on the string so that those of you who share Wu Xie's clothing tastes will know where to shop. You know who you are. 

You would think highly visible bright white would be a bad choice for a jungle adventure, but apparently snakes in these parts are only attracted to goths.

Wu Xie is also wearing wired ear pods, which did not exist whenever this flashback supposedly happened, but if we're cool with sentient crustaceans and clams that can incapacitate a ruthless trained assassin (clams got legs!), we can be cool with ear pods.

The show conveys flashback-Wu-Xie's youth and naiveté by having him smile sweetly, not watch Ah Ning take her clothes off, and not attempt CPR after she gets lightly squeezed by a snake.

Looks 68 and 69 belong to Not Ah Ning, who is played by Liu Yuqi, who also plays Ah Ning. Her makeup is much softer and prettier as this character than as Ah Ning; this character’s job is to be pleasing to men, whereas Ah Ning’s job is to get male underlings killed on the regular, so I guess that makes sense. 

This outfit is an amazing body-hugging soft green jumpsuit with raised quilty detailing on the arms and shoulders. Her jumpsuit perfectly matches the couch she's sprawled on, which is her subtle way of telling Jiang Zisuan that she is a nice comfy place to have a lie down. 

She accessorizes this look with her usual soft wavy brown hair and a scattering of gold finger rings. I think she also accessorizes this with ass pads, because Ah Ning does not appear to be draggin’ this wagon in her scenes. I checked. For science.  

When the first outfit doesn't work, she ditches the subtlety and goes for a Chanel-style suit in black, white, and red, with a with a black leather bustier underneath. 

Unfortunately this is a wasted effort, because the Jiang Zisuan she tries this on is actually Wu Xie in disguise. 

Wu Xie only likes girls if they are 1. secretly manipulating him while acting like a tiny adorable sidekick, 2. trying to kill him repeatedly while adventuring together, 3. planning to kill him as soon as the roads are clear but willing to bone in the meantime, or 4. are a skin effigy with a sentient crustacean in their head.

Sorry, Not Ah Ning; this was a good effort. 

Look 70 features Wu Xie in a white thermal shirt, dark blue jeans, and fake facial hair. This is a good look for sitting with your not-quite girlfriend and wondering how you both managed to have romances with Bai Yu in parallel universes. (OP recently watched Love O2O, which is a trip for fans of DMBJ, Guardian, or feminism)

Fortunately Wu Xie doesn’t know that his second-favorite doctor/Zhan Rishan’s girlfriend also had a romance with Bai Yu or his mind would be entirely blown. 

This is a soft, comfortable look, perfect for torturing someone, with help from your first-favorite doctor, by pretending to poison someone with nicotine, all so you can have a few moments of quality time with a cigarette before said doctor takes them away again. 

Wu Xie's cigs are stored in a buttery-soft leather case that completely covers the brand name of the cigarettes, so apparently cdramas don’t go in for ciggy product placements. 

Wo Xie wears this outfit with a silvery-metal watch with a black leather wrist strap. The watch appears to be round, and it probably tells time. (If you’re new to the Lewks series: I lack watch knowledge and that’s not likely to change.)

Wu Xie finally peels off his fake facial hair so we can see his pretty face again, only to replace the facial hair with an entire fake face. Fortunately, this face, belonging to actor Wu Lipeng, is also pretty. 

Look 71 belongs to Wu Xie, initially (for this outfit) played by Wu Lipeng until his inevitable unmasking. So many actors have played Wu Xie, this whole disguise thing is barely worth blinking at. Wu Lipeng does a nice job changing his mannerisms to play Wu Xie, and this whole schtick eventually gives us Zhu Yilong's delightful performance as Wang Meng, so even though we eventually get way too much of not-Zhu-Yilong in the role, I’m good with it.

This outfit features black jeans, black tactical boots & gloves, and Ah Ning’s coin bracelet, although it’s mostly hard to see the bracelet. The outfit’s main feature is a possibly-leather jacket that’s been molded into a hideous and disturbing voronoi pattern. 

This jacket is probably very expensive and took a lot of work to craft, but it makes him look  like he’s wearing a Glad Force Flex garbage bag. I mean, I guess that's cool. 

This outfit is good for several episodes worth of adventures, including getting tied up and being sassy...

...and underwater cave exploration, which is totally a thing that a person with critically damaged lungs can do.  

This outfit is good for homoerotic wrestling...

...and also for heteroerotic wrestling.

This is also a good outfit for being gently cradled in the arms of your doctor, while you massage your throat in order to swallow what he's putting in your mouth.

The fingerless gloves are useful for helping Xiao Bai get out of not one, but two different situations in which she stepped on a trap without realizing it, requiring Wu Xie to get down on the ground and have a tense encounter with her foot. 

Scenes like this are where costuming really makes a difference. In this shot, we we watch a stunt hand (Zhu Yilong has never had that long of a thumbnail in his life) hold a wire steady, while a stunt foot is pulled out from under it.  

This shot includes a lot of visual texture and interest, from the hatch lines on the palm of the glove to the cross-striping of the boot lace. The complexity of this glove and this boot help to hold our attention when they’re in the frame, allowing the tension of the scene to build, instead of dissipating when the viewer runs out of things to look at.

Bonus Look 1

Carrying all that tragic baggage has given Jiang Zisuan spectacular arm muscles.

Bonus Look 2

Zhu Yilong with not-fake facial hair. 

Daaaaaamn.

[songofclarity]

What do you think would happen if WRH discovered MY was a spy earlier? Would he kill him or would he pretend he has no idea of MY's truth while using him and feeding him information that will give the Wen an advantage against the SSC if leaked?

An excellent question, Anon!

Wen RuoHan would of course be fully justified to kill Meng Yao. While he also had the right to kill Nie MingJue and didn't take it, Meng Yao is betraying the Wen and has the arrogance to spy on them in their own home. I can honestly see it going either way, however, depending on the circumstances and just how Meng Yao pleads his case.

As for using Meng Yao themselves...

For one thing, Wen RuoHan doesn't strike me as conniving. From the guest cultivator to Meng Yao, we see him listening to others and following their lead. When given the opportunity to pave his own path, such as when the Sunshot Campaign is declared and the Wen could stomp on everyone, his response was, basically, for them all to do nothing and wait for the Sunshot Campaign to simply blow over. Wen RuoHan doesn't want the other sects to be destroyed, he wants everything to go back to normal (with the Wen Sect back on top, yay!). By all means then, what Meng Yao's spying would have to win them is peace. That's not something Meng Yao of all people could help them achieve.

For another thing, Meng Yao was, by all means, a terrible spy on purpose. One reason there is not even a hint of any great final battles in the Sunshot Campaign was because Meng Yao did not want this to be a team effort. No one is winning ANY grand battles with Meng Yao behind enemy lines because how do you give credit to an invisible hand? He did not want the sects to win the Sunshot Campaign with or without his information, but he did not want them defeated, either, otherwise his efforts would be wasted. Depending on what was happening at the time and what information he was passing along, it might just look like he was already feeding information to the Sunshot Campaign himself to help the Wen. How loyal he would have appeared!

I haven't seen it talked about before, but let's look at what Meng Yao's spy information actually did and how it would have looked to the Wen.

During the Sunshot Campaign, stories were told about all three of the Venerated Triad. The ones of ChiFeng-Zun were about how he swept over all obstacles, leaving not even a trace of the Wen-dogs after he finished. (ch. 48, ERS)

Whatever information Meng Yao provided Nie MingJue would have been tenuous at best because otherwise Nie MingJue would have swept all the way to Nightless City and won the whole damn thing himself. Give Nie MingJue an opening and he is busting through. Even when critically injured and barely on his feet, he cut through all of Wen cultivators who tried to protect Wen RuoHan in the Sun Palace. Only Wen RuoHan was strong enough to take him down (and did so 2x).

Even before the false information regarding Yangquan, Meng Yao was likely providing information which hindered Nie MingJue and the Nie's advancement toward Nightless City in order to keep Nie MingJue at bay--and keep him alive, which Lan XiChen would appreciate and continue to give faith in Meng Yao. Remember that after Meng Yao betrayed Nie MingJue and the Jin at Langya, there was no way he would be accepted back with open arms. That Nie MingJue's most loyal subordinates are killed and Nie MingJue is dragged out of the Sun Palace owing Meng Yao a life debt is no happy coincidence. Meng Yao played Nie MingJue in the worst way to ensure Nie MingJue would NOT be able to stop Meng Yao's return to Koi Tower. But to let Nie MingJue die would ruin relations with Lan XiChen and the Nie. Nie MingJue had to be defeated to let Meng Yao come out on top, but he had to live so as to not reflect badly on Meng Yao.

If Wen RuoHan and the Wens came across Meng Yao's information to the Nie early on, it might just look like Meng Yao is already feeding bad information to the Sunshot Campaign himself! After all, the only ones who knew what happened in Langya are Meng Yao, Nie MingJue, and Lan XiChen, and none of them are broadcasting it. Therefore Meng Yao could pretend to still be on good terms with Sect Leader Nie, tell Wen RuoHan he is deceiving the Nie for him, and actually look even more loyal to the Wen in the end.

The way Wen RuoHan asks Meng Yao if Nie MingJue is the one who killed Wen Xu followed by Meng Yao's ready confirmation suggests to me that Meng Yao had everything from Yangquan to the Sun Palace planned. He had informed Wen RuoHan of what to expect already: Wen Xu's killer, and thus Wen RuoHan inquires. Meng Yao didn't wait for the Wens to use him and freely gave them what they wanted since it's what he wanted, too.

ZeWu-Jun--Lan XiChen--however, was different from [ChiFeng-Zun]. After the situation of the Gusu area had settled down, Lan QiRen was able to defend it with great tenacity. Thus, Lan XiChen often traveled to aid others, saving lives from danger. In all of the Sunshot Campaign, he had countless times recovered lost territory and assisted narrow escapes. This was why people were ecstatic whenever they heard his name, as though they gained a ray of hope, a powerful trump card. (ch. 48)

Lan XiChen is different because he not a fighter who can win the Sunshot Campaign. I know CQL and the donghua show him fighting in all his fierce glory with Shuoyue in hand, but that is not the kind of person he is in the novel. He is gentle and picks Liebing, who pacifies, over Shuoyue, who slices through, every time until the last scene. He is the only person who could have ever stabbed Jin GuangYao, because he is the only person Jin GuangYao would never suspect harming him since Lan XiChen never harmed anyone.

So to anyone who wonders why Lan XiChen believed so much in Meng Yao being a good person despite Nie MingJue's testimonies: it's because Meng Yao was providing information to Lan XiChen to help regain territory, aid others, and save lives from danger. Any murder and torture Meng Yao did in the Nightless City was thought to be minor compared to all the good his overall spying did for the Sunshot Campaign. Lan XiChen saw firsthand the GOOD that Meng Yao's spying could achieve and thus had faith in Meng Yao being fundamentally a good person. (Sadly, he was misled.)

But Lan XiChen was different from Nie MingJue. Lan XiChen couldn't win the war himself whereas Nie MingJue just might. Lan XiChen got the good information while Nie MingJue got the mediocre and, at the end, the information which threw him to the Wen-dogs.

Compared to Meng Yao's spy information directed to Nie MingJue, the information given to Lan XiChen would look suspect by the Wen. Lan XiChen is undoing whatever advances the Wen are achieving. This is part of why the Sunshot Campaign is in a stalemate for those last ~2 years: it's just back and forth with gains and losses in equal measure. It's what Meng Yao wants until he can ensure all the credit for his efforts go to him and no one else.

If Wen RuoHan and the Wens came across Meng Yao's information to Lan XiChen early on, that would look like Meng Yao is betraying them. This would look like a killing offense! The arrogance to think he could spy on the Wen! The Qishan Wen accepted Meng Yao in good faith when his own father gave him the cold shoulder, and he's still picking that father over Sect Leader Wen!?

But I hesitate to say Wen RuoHan would kill him because when do we ever see or hear about Wen RuoHan killing anyone!? He doesn't kill his enemies and the one ally he killed was that cultivator who was thrown at him in the midst of a fight. Yes, the novel tells us per rumors that Wen RuoHan sometimes enjoys torturing people who offend him, but that still doesn't mean they die in the end.

So I turn our attention to Wen ZhuLiu, our most reliable Wen RuoHan character reference. When deciding whether to follow orders or go completely against them, Wen ZhuLiu makes an interesting observation about what might happen to him:

Yet, there were no worst circumstances, but only worse circumstances...

Yet, in such a situation, the woman [Wang LingJiao] was on the verge of losing her life. If he did nothing, Wen Chao would definitely fly into a rage and refuse to let him go. And if he refused to let him go, then Wen RouHan wouldn't leave the matter at that either. (Ch. 58, ERS)

The worst circumstance is, of course, death. But Wen ZhuLiu reveals that, in this case, betraying Wen Chao, who had given orders to protect Wang LingJiao, does not make him afraid for his life. Acting against the Wen would make a mess of a situation for sure, but he is not afraid that he would end up dead. Life will become worse for him, but not the worst.

Meng Yao would be punished if he were caught, because how could he not, but it's rather unlikely his life was ever in danger. He was already acting as a reverse spy for the Wen of his own accord, so he was not truly at risk of being used or mislead by them.

Also a key aspect of Meng Yao's character is that he does not put his own life on the line. He hides behind others. He does not sacrifice himself for any cause or any person. (I'm sorry CQL lied to everyone by showing him use his body to protect someone else. Nothing could be further from the truth.)

Nie MingJue, "Then why don't you sacrifice yourself? Are you any nobler than them? Are you any different from them?"

Jin GuangYao stared at him. A moment later, as though he had finally either decided on something or given up on something, he replied calmly, "Yes." He looked up. In his expression were some of pride, some of calmness, and some of a faint insanity, "I and they, of course we are different!" (ch. 49)

If being with the Wen or working under Wen RuoHan was ever dangerous to him, personally, Meng Yao would have been gone long ago. If there was any risk that Meng Yao would find himself on the receiving end of his own torture devices, he would have killed Wen RuoHan already and fled out the door immediately. Instead, he stayed until the very end and did as he pleased and got everything he wanted at Wen RuoHan's expense.

I dare say Wen RuoHan is much more like Lan XiChen and Nie MingJue than we all give him credit for. Jumping to murder is actually not the norm. Meng Yao is simply an outlier who does too much murder and should not be counted.

[xcziel]

Between Dusk and Dawn

by @alxina & @xantissa

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationship: Wu Xie/Wang Can

Characters: Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Wang Can (DMBJ Series), Wang Meng (DMBJ Series), Liu Sang (DMBJ Series), Wang Pangzi, Zhang Qiling

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, AU, Undercover, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, First Time, Angst, Humor, Romance, The 10 years when Wu Xie was a mob widow

Summary:

When Wang Can stumbled onto Wu fucking Xie while hiding abroad, he expected everything but being told to play a goddamn honeytrap on the man!

Sex he could deal with, but emotions were not supposed to be a part of this.

-

The low roar of the engine as it made its way through the desert sounded oddly loud in the early dawn. The sand had started picking up the silver from the horizon, widening around him as he stared ahead through the windshield. Wang Can stared at the road stretching ahead, seeming almost limitless in the faint light, and stepped on the gas, the whine of the engine drowning out all of his thoughts.

He was still feeling faintly queasy, so he rolled down his window, letting the cool air hit him in the face, and didn’t roll it back up when he started feeling a little better. The car seemed suddenly small with the windows up. He still wasn’t sure whether it had been the right decision to leave at night instead of waiting for Wu Xie to wake up and then leave in the morning. It had been hard, picking up his clothes from the bed in the dark and getting dressed as quietly as possible, but it would have been even harder if he had had to look at Wu Xie’s expression while he dressed, then still make the decision to leave. No, it was better this way. He wasn’t stealing away like a thief in the night, he was just making… strategic choices. Choices which he could follow through without risking them being waylaid by his own unreliability. Because that was what he was when facing Wu Xie - unreliable. He would have had to leave anyway, there was really no point in dragging this out anymore than he had to.

He shifted a little on the seat, trying to get comfortable despite still being sore from being fucked only hours before, and he clenched his thighs reflexively as he remembered that. There were a few more hours of driving ahead of him, and he tried to focus on that for now.

It was only much later that Wang Can realised that he had left the headlights on even once the sun was up. It frustrated him, and he swept his gaze across the dashboard, checking if there was anything else that had escaped his notice, and saw the pack of wet wipes sitting in a corner where he had obviously forgotten to put it back under his seat. The wipes made him think of Wu Xie, and he reached out with one hand to get at them, trying and failing to reach them, before letting them stay there for the time being.

They had reached the meeting place where Wu Xie’s backup was supposedly waiting. Wang Can was curious as hell, but managed not to ask. He told Wu Xie he was going to leave the next day. He told him he didn’t want to talk. He preferred sex, it so much easier that way, just flesh and sensation.

And he did leave in the morning.

Just… earlier in the morning than he might have implied.

It was easier to focus on what he was doing. On making sure no cars were tailing him, on keeping track of his fuel, or the occasional speed trap.

He stopped for food twice. Once at a gas station to buy a hot dog wannabe, and the second time by a small trailer parked at the edge of a side road leading off the highway towards some sort of small town. There were plenty of other cars - all local - parked on the side of the road, people eating from small plastic bowls while leaning against their cars.

The stew was phenomenal, tasting all the more amazing with half of a fresh baguette. He ate in his car with the AC blasting full force, and tried to ignore the papayas piled on turned over crates beside the trailer and the boy selling quarters of them for a few coins, using a large knife to skilfully cut them open with one whack and scraping the seeds into a bucker by his feet, the breeze carrying the scent towards him and irritating him to no end.

He switched the AC to internal air circulation and was oddly glad for the amount of spice in the stew, which made his nose run and him unable to smell anything.

A few hours later, Wang Can was pulling up in front of the street where Lao Shen lived, and, even as he killed the engine and picked up his bag, he glanced out through the window to see if there was anyone around whom he recognised. Coming here was a risk, but he hoped the information that Wu Xie was alive hadn’t yet reached any of his handlers, and he had to get the documents he had stashed here. Money, equipment, those he could deal without, but the documents would be so very hard to get, and those he had here were acquired through a local freelance contact not exactly Wang sponsored, so, to him, in the situation he was in, they were priceless.

He got out of the car and walked up to the front entrance, feeling the back of his neck tingle from the way two mercenaries whom he hadn’t seen before looked his way as he entered. Of course there would have been a dozen new recruits during the time he was away in the desert, but even still, Wang Can watched them as he made his way through the open hall and towards the stairwell. He walked over to his room, which was at the very end of the corridor, turning the key in the lock and pushing in without making too much noise. It smelled musty inside, and he flicked on the light switch and immediately made his way to the bed, looking around once to check that everything was in its place.

Dropping to a low crouch, Wang Can peered under the bed, running his fingers along the edge, then moved them further inside until he felt the familiar shape of the package underneath. Wang Can ripped off the tape holding it in place and let it drop into his hands. He returned to the desk to open it and see what he could use at the moment. He didn’t want to risk damaging the documents, so he brought out his combat knife and sliced it open at the top, then scattered the items out on the surface of the desk.

“You know, Hans must have liked you, because he actually tried to cover for you when I called.” Lao Shen sounded tired, the characteristic rasp of his voice more pronounced than usual.

Wang Can let his hands drop on the desk as he slowly looked around.

“Don’t move,” Lao Shen said, the distinct sound of a safety being pulled back echoing in the quiet house. “I’m too old to get into a hand to hand altercation with you.”

“Lao Shen,” Wang Can said slowly, watching the man silhouetted in the doorway.

[windlion]

Whumptober!  Let’s see how many of these I can actually do!

Day One: Waking Up Restrained | Shackled | Hanging Fandom: Daomu Biji, somewhere between Tibetan Sea Flower and Sea of Sands

---

He was moving.  He knew that first. 

The world swung from side to side in a way that wasn't violent except for how it sent pain jolting through his arms and back.  Wu Xie considered the rhythmic jangle and creak of metal on metal, the roar of an enormous engine somewhere behind him, and sighed internally.  On a freight train.  At least that was a new one.  Shame he still needed a plane and helicopter to complete the achievement.

The area around him sounded mostly empty, jolts in the track making metallic pings rattle around the car.  No signs of anyone else.  He took the risk and opened his eyes to see where he'd ended up this time.

Dim, with harsh slivers of light seeping in through the seams.  Likely close to noon, then- he'd been out for hours.  At least the dark was easier on his throbbing headache.  Wu Xie grimaced to himself as he scanned over the space.  Empty, except for him.  There were rows of hooks from the ceiling for transporting animal carcasses, one of which supported the chains between his wrists.  Rail car door, likely locked from the outside.  Two slim ventilation grates near the ceiling; he wouldn't be able to fit through them but if he could get up there, he could at least get a view of where he was.

Still wearing the same clothes that he had last night.  Notebook against his chest was a bonus; knives gone, not a surprise. He couldn't check his boot knife to be sure of that one.  No food or water, typical.  His stomach made an unhappy gurgle at the thought, which he ignored with ease of familiarity.

His toes just barely touched the floor of the car, boots sliding on the metal plates as he tried for purchase.  He couldn't do much to relieve the pain in his shoulders, much less steady himself.  Assholes, how tall did they think he was?!

Wu Xie stared into the dark over his head, trying to make out what he could of what held him up. His hands had long since gone numb, so touch was telling him nothing except that they'd wrapped the chains a bit too tight.  The same way he was hung just a centimeter too high.  He scuffed the tips of his boots across the floor and only succeeded in sending himself swinging harder, and he huffed a laugh. This had better not be a short joke.

Swinging at least gave him an idea.  He moved with the sway of the car, throwing his weight into the action, trying to get play in the restraints.  The chains didn't move but it created a hell of a jangle as he swung in increasing arcs.  Almost--on the next swing he could finally kick off the wall, throwing himself backwards.

Like many things he'd done, he abruptly regretted it.

His shoulder popped. He might have bounced off the ceiling, and his short cry echoed harshly in the empty metal car.  Like a goddamned desk toy pendulum, he kept swinging wildly with the momentum, each lurch sending fresh spasms of pain down his arms.  He tried to catch his toes against the floor again to still his movement, panting. 

Shit.  They'd clipped the chain on his wrists to the hook with a carabiner.  And the metal jingling was starting to sound suspiciously familiar.  If those fuckers had put him on a train home secured with his own keys. . .

He stared into nothing as he finally slowed, assessing.  Yeah, that was his left shoulder, dislocated.  He'd probably made a mess of his wrists; it might be a good thing he couldn't feel his hands.  He swore quietly and fluently to himself.  Sadistic assholes; really, he'd been treated better by people who wanted to kill him! 

Then again, people who wanted to kill him usually came equipped to do so.  This was all more of an on the fly set up, an afterthought.  They hadn't really expected him to be the one to show up there.  Obviously at least one too many people knew about that rendezvous.  It had better not have been from his side.  Ahh, how could the Nine clans neglect teaching their members better?

If it was even one of them--  he had his suspicions about who would have interrupted the deal.  Well.  He was still alive, so that was a vote in favor of the Nine Clans.  Someone knew enough that they didn't want to deal with the fallout from killing him, knew they didn't dare keep him, so they just wanted to get him out of the way. No matter where he was now, by the time he got back, the goods would be long gone.

Wu Xie sighed and tried to relax, to keep the tips of his toes in contact with the floor.  That was easier said than done; the train kept lurching unevenly.  They were ascending, but not high enough that he could feel it in his lungs. The train curved one way, then the other to cling to the mountains.  Not many options for an easy exit, then.  If they'd shoved him on a train to Hangzhou to ship him home, tied up with his own keys, he was going to have to kick someone for being a smartass.  Possibly Wang Meng if he was the one who met him at the railyard.

Kan Jian was too polite to say anything about it.  Pangzi would die laughing.  Xiaoge wasn't going to hear about this one later, he'd make sure of it. Heiye. . .

Wu Xie growled under his breath.  He was the one who hurt himself the most just now by struggling.  Being hung up like a side of meat wasn't a kindness.  It felt much more like a lesson.

"Damnit.  Shifu!"

That asshole.  He had better have charged a lot from whoever hired him.  When Wu Xie found out who it was that bought the rings. . .

After all this, he hoped they were fakes.

It felt like hours before the train finally came to a full stop, not just a pause while the engine struggled against gravity.  He was more than half-expecting the roar of the car door sliding open, force almost shaking in its tracks.  A familiar stout shadow blocked the light, clambering easily on board, tsking. "Aiya, aiya.  Tianzhen, I'd never buy you at the butcher.  You'd make a terrible meal.  Look at you, so skinny!"

"I'm the dieter's special." Wu Xie smiled against the glare of light behind Pangzi, silhouetting the man as he waved extravagantly at his own solid form.

"Pfft, cheap, cheap---me, I'm prime beef!"  Pangzi scoffed as he moved in closer, the familiar scruff of beard and leather coat as he leaned in to free the chain holding Wu Xie's wrists from the hook.  Wu Xie tried to pull his feet under him to stand, but Pangzi did more of the work to keep his knees from hitting the metal decking.  If they were still moving, he'd have gone down hard.

Wu Xie just laughed in response through the pain, forcing his legs to straighten and stagger forward towards the open door.  He fell more than jumped out of the railcar onto the gravel, and Pangzi casually hauled him up against his chest, sighing, "Ahhh, now I want hotpot."

Squinting in the proper light of day, looking at the bare semblance of a town around the tracks, ,Wu Xie tried to get his bearings.  He slapped the back of his good hand against Pangzi, chains rattling with the movement.  "Guess it's my turn to treat.  You'll have to lead, though--  this isn't my usual stop."

Pangzi cackled as he led them away from the train before it could start up again, "Ah, we're closer to Beijing!  My home turf!  I know the best restaurants."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

[razberryyum]

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 10, Part 2 of 2

(spoilers for everything MDZS/Untamed)

[covers MDZS chapters 29, 30 and 48…kinda]

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+ 🐰🐰+ 🐰+ 🐰🐰+🐰🐰🐰🐰+🐰

Continued from Part 1:

I love this scene from the episode so much because for me it was absolute proof that Lan Zhan had totally fallen for Wei Ying: he actually SMILES because of him...not once, but TWICE...  

...and then the way he says good-bye to Wei Ying just about murdered me with sweetness. Even though he did smile once before, during the lantern raising moment at Cloud Recesses, one can argue that he was just reacting to the picture of the bunny because he loves bunnies; but here, there is no question whatsoever that he is smiling because of Wei Ying. I think it shows that despite maintaining a generally stoic façade in front of Wei Ying, his heart was already captured by him. Personally, I still don’t think he was actually in love Wei Wuxian yet but definitely crushing hard on him.

When I first time watched this scene, I remember being a downright distressed that Wei Ying was missing all of Lan Zhan’s little signals here because he was too busy getting drunk. At the time it felt like an opportunity lost for another lovely WangXian moment, but now I understand that the purpose of this scene really was to give us a glimpse at Lan Zhan’s feelings. That’s another aspect about The Untamed that I appreciate a lot: the fact that we are getting to see Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s love story from Lan Zhan’s point of view. In the novel, the focus was mostly on Wei Ying‘s point of view, which makes sense of course since Wei Wuxian is the main protagonist of the story, but I think by giving us Lan Zhan’s side of the story and allowing us to see in real time what he was experiencing emotionally actually adds to the poignancy of their story because for me it basically reinforces how helpless Lan Zhan was: in terms of falling in love and then eventually in not being able to do anything to save the person he fell in love with. I felt the tragedy of his situation so much more as a result.  

Odds and Ends

My first impression of Nie Mingjue: damn, he looks like a hardass. I immediately felt bad for Nie Huaisang, it’s no wonder he was so afraid of his older brother. Compared to his novel and donghua counterpart, I think he was pretty well-casted. Even though Wang Yizhou had a relatively limited number of scenes, he had a pretty strong presence so that I couldn’t help but pay attention to him whenever he was on-screen. Word is the second online movie might actually be centered on the Nie brothers, which means we might get to see much more of him and Ji Li’s NHS. Although at first I was just a teeny bit disappointed that we might not be getting more of the Yi City boys’ story instead, the more I think about it, the more I actually like the idea of getting more of the Nie brothers’ story because I actually don’t remember if much was said about them in the novel other than just their basic introduction, so I would love to see more of their past and their relationship. I think it’s fascinating that even though on the surface NHS is utterly afraid of his brother, he obviously intensely loves and respects NMJ at the same time considering the lengths he went through to avenge his death. I hope we get to see NHS’s side of the events in the live action, especially during the 16 years between Wei Ying’s death and resurrection when he realized Jin Guangyao’s true nature and guilt, and then started to put his grand revenge plan into motion. I hope this also means we might get to meet the real Mo Xuanyu before he gave up his body and soul to bring Wei Ying back. It would be so damn cool if Xiao Zhan played him as well! If they are indeed constructing these two specials on scenes they’ve already shot but couldn’t fit into the series due to pacing issues, there might very well be a chance of XZ playing Mo Xuanyu. Holy crap, that means we might get to see Xiao Zhan play a FOURTH personification in the show, since young Wei Ying, his Yiling Patriarch and Wei Ying-Mo Xuanyu are already three distinct personalities! Oh my God, I’m getting excited, but I really shouldn’t yet since it’s all just rumors and my own wishful thinking now. Guess all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that that’s the direction they’re heading for the second special.  

By the way, I just have to mention something about the captions on the show: whoever inserted those captions with the characters’ names was clearly on speed or something because they would appear and disappear so damn quickly there was hardly a chance to even read them. I’m surprised I even got Nie Mingjue’s so clearly in the screenshot because usually half the name would be gone before the rest of it had even finished appearing. It’s a minor technical issue but it did bug me at the beginning because I was trying to read the damn names.

Seeing the Twin Prides of Yunmeng actually acting like twins who are completely in sync (giggling at how NHS is reacting to his big bro) just makes my heart feel so heavy now. They will never be like this again.  Makes me want to cry.  

Lan Zhan’s look was interesting though. Whenever I see him watching Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng, I sometimes wonder if he’s slightly jealous of the bond they share or of the fun they’re having. Or maybe it’s neither and he just enjoys watching him laugh and smile. Honestly with Lan Zhan, it might be a combination of all three.

These three gossiping dorks. I love them. They’re just so adorable when they get together; I love their interactions and I wish this wasn’t the beginning of the end for all the fun between them cuz there’s really not much more time left for any shenanigans after this.

I also love that Xue Yang is like cracking up in the foreground there but it’s not even certain if it’s because he can hear what they’re saying (about Meng Yao/JGY) or if he’s just being his usual psycho self. I really like that even when Xue Yang is not the focus of the scene, Wang Haoxuan (who portrays Xue Yang of course) is still constantly acting and reacting. I’ve seen folks criticize him for doing that, but I think that’s a little unfair since that had to have been the direction given to him. Not to mention, I think it’s entirely reasonable for Xue Yang to be extra like that, all the time.  

I don’t hate Jin Guangyao, similar to how I feel about Xue Yang, I simply can’t hate him, but I do absolutely hate what he did to Wei Ying, especially when I see this scene again and am reminded of how Wei Ying had also treated him with sincerity and respect, just like Big Bro Xichen did. And yet, while JGY was only protective and caring toward LXC, he basically chose to fuck Wei Ying over. I know the difference is in whom he loved, but still, damn him for that. Wei Ying deserved better from him.   

This was an interesting scene because of how great a risk Jin Guangyao was putting himself in. Wen Zhuliu could have totally accidentally killed him. Even though his aim originally was probably just to injure Nie Mingjue, JGY is not as strong as NMJ so a strike that may only injure the other man could have easily been fatal to JGY. So I guess in this instance, JGY’s intent on saving his master was sincere? But that’s still such a HUGE gamble. He is really so fascinating as a character. And his relationship with NMJ is fascinating as well because there were obviously genuine feelings between them as well—NMJ was freaking crying when he was banishing JGY—and yet the way JGY ultimately ended NMJ’s life was so damn brutal. I know there’s a fine line between love and hate but because their lives continued to be intertwined afterwards, I wonder when exactly it was the two of them crossed over to hate completely. I mean, I have an idea, which I will eventually give voice to, but I still feel a little uncertainty because of certain events that happen immediately afterwards.  

I wish we got to see just how Jin Guangyao found and rescued Big Bro Xichen and oh my God would I LOVE to see the time they spent together, presumably alone, in hiding while Lan Xichen was recovering from his wounds. I feel like we were royally deprived of some serious XiYao time by the live drama. Considering the fact that they seem to thoroughly support this ship, I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t use this opportunity to creatively fill in that big blank. I mean, instead of giving us all those unnecessary scenes of Wen Ruohan and his stupid zombies, they should have given us some XiYao-in-hiding scenes instead dammit.  

Questions I Still Have

Why didn’t Wen Zhuliu go for NMJ’s golden core? Especially since he clearly had an opening when NMJ was busy with the injured JGY? Also, how strong is Wen Chao supposed to be that he could even injure NMJ that seriously? I now he was already weakened and Wen Chao did attack from the back like a coward, but still, his cultivation level can’t be higher than NMJ so I’m just a little surprise his hit made any impact at all, especially since he seems mostly weaksauce in all other instances. This whole fight scene was just a little weird to me. And also, damn is JGY a shitty liar at that point. I actually laughed out loud when he full on denied that he was the one who killed that dude (who I thought was a total dick tbh so I kinda don’t blame JGY for killing his ass) even though he was still holding on to the murder weapon which was dripping with the guy’s blood. Guess he still hadn’t perfected his lying skills. 

Overall Episode Rating: 9 Lil Apples out of 10

[izanyas]

and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow (18)

UPDATE

Rating: M Words: 10,300 Warnings: vomiting, Wei Wuxian’s general trauma, you know the drill if you’re still around after everything

[Read from prologue]

and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow Chapter 18

Jiang Yanli's embrace lasted much longer than her brother's did.

Wei Wuxian had never felt as much shyness as he did when he saw her in the middle of the Qinghe encampment. Never so much shyness, never such strange fear at the sight of her back bowed above the bedding of a wounded stranger. She had her hands dipped in the woman's blood and wearing the gauze she intended to put on her. He let her finish her task, not out of concern for the woman who bled out of a deep gash in her shoulder, but because he suddenly thought that perhaps, Jiang Yanli would resent the sight of him.

Jiang Cheng stood ripe with tension and excitement by his side. Wei Wuxian needed not look at his face to know that he burned to call for her and show her that Wei Wuxian was here, was safe; that he wished more than anything else for the three of them to be together again.

Just like before. Just as they had been only months ago, before Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan's blood stained the steps of the Lotus Pier's entrance hall. Even though Wei Wuxian felt not like the child he had been then, but a much different person altogether.

"Shijie," Wei Wuxian called once the woman under Jiang Yanli had been tended to.

He saw her back shudder at the sound of his voice. He heard her gasp, saw before she even turned around the tears that would shine in her eyes. They were no less hard to face, once she did look back at him.

He heard the lovely way she called his name, "A-Xian," and wondered in free-falling relief that he had ever thought she would instead scream it in anger.

The circle of her arms, much more familiar than her brother's, felt like being back home. Wei Wuxian did not cry, though he thought he should, while she sobbed against his shoulder. He left that duty to Jiang Cheng standing by them, who smiled through embarrassed tears and patted both of their backs without fully touching them.

I'm home, he thought, touching her frail neck.

It was all that mattered in the grand scheme of things. Even if part of him had remained by a dying man's side in helpless fury—even if he could barely sleep, even if food made him sick and Zhu Yuansu's silence made him mad—he was home.

Wei Wuxian did not stray from their side until the war ended.

Nie Mingjue had gone a long way in the days Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji had trekked the mountains in search of Wen Chao. His forces sat at the foot of the Nightless City, threatening Wen Ruohan's stronghold a little more each day. The cultivators who came down the mountain to meet them in combat oft came back up wounded, or not at all. Wei Wuxian was welcomed without doubt by the Qinghenie sect leader, as well as Lan Xichen who smiled at the sight of him warmly and expressed his relief that he was alive.

Wei Wuxian had not thought Lan Xichen would even remember him. He had not met him since the archery competition in the Nightless City so long ago, and before that not since his own stay in Gusu which had ended in disaster. The man's eyes were kind, however. His words rang true when he bowed to Wei Wuxian, when he called him young master in as certain a voice as he had when Wei Wuxian was a child wreaking havoc unto his home.

Lan Wangji rarely left his brother's side. He stood dignified and beautiful despite the dust and hunger of the campaign, the unfamiliar white sword he held almost as kind to him as Wei Wuxian remembered Bichen being. He carried with him a guqin made of pale wood, which he called Wangji.

He looked at Wei Wuxian often.

Three weeks before the end of the war, Wei Wuxian climbed up a familiar path through maple trees in the mountains. Zhu Yuansu followed him as always, unwilling to be left alone and in sight of so many. He cried out in fear when they descended into the depths of a cave that Wei Wuxian had visited what felt like eons ago. Although the corpse of the Xuanwu of Slaughter had been carried away, a heavy odor of death and decay remained, and Wei Wuxian was not surprised to see Zhu Yuansu fall to his knees and retch before they could reach the edges of the poisoned pond.

In this cave, Wei Wuxian called to him the sword he remembered holding while Lan Wangji cut off the head of the monster. It rose from the depths of the pool, dark-steeled and gleaming, its cold and viscous shine ricocheting off of the water-smoothed rocks around. Zhu Yuansu had no cultivation to his name to feel just how haunted the air became in its presence, but Wei Wuxian did. Even in the absence of a golden core, his whole body shivered at its somber energy. If he had been hot and not desperately cold, he could perhaps have believed himself fevered again.

Out of this haunted piece of metal, Wei Wuxian built the Stygian Tiger Seal.

Things moved quickly after that. Nie Mingjue became gleeful with the power that Wei Wuxian's undead army granted him; he led more and more assaults onto the gates of the Nightless City, killing all who stood in his way, staining his great saber with blood and guts. All who perished by his hand became part of Wei Wuxian's forces. Wen Xu did so at the highest of summer. His beheaded body fell over the rocks at the entrance of the City, and his blood thickened and hardened in the scorching sun, staining stone forever.

Nie Mingjue disappeared for a day. Lan Xichen did as well. They came back as the sun set holding Wen Ruohan's head, accompanied by a man Wei Wuxian had never seen before: a meek alpha not much older than he, who smelled of weathered wood, whom Lan Xichen looked at with care and Nie Mingjue with distrust.

His name was Meng Yao. He was, according to Lan Xichen, a spy who had spent months in Wen Ruohan's company and risked his own life to carry information to them all. Meng Yao greeted every sect leader in Nie Mingjue's high tent, and when Wei Wuxian's turn came to stand before him, he nodded his head deeply.

"Young master Wei," he said. "I have heard much about you."

His eyes were eager, his tone oddly sweet. He had a face in the shape of a heart, with wide eyes glowing brightly under torchlight, with a quality to him that made him seem a little helpless, a little too kind. He did not once look at Zhu Yuansu cowering behind Wei Wuxian's back and ask about his unlawful presence, or about the rumors which had spread thickly over all allied forces.

Wei Wuxian is opening omega houses. Wei Wuxian is stealing from ravaged villages and sects, and walks around with his loot shamelessly.

Wei Wuxian did not take part in the celebrations that followed.

He took the shaking and resentful Zhu Yuansu with him to the very top of the City. The trek burned in his tired legs and thighs, and he knew that Zhu Yuansu struggled even more, as he had never walked so far in his life before. His body was weak with malnourishment, weak with atrophy. Still, he rejected Wei Wuxian's touch when he was offered an arm as support.

The omega house of the Nightless City had not changed at all since Wei Wuxian had last seen it: made of black, smoked wood, its windows barred, its redwood door even thicker than the one which had held Zhu Yuansu prisoner. The two lone guards before it did not dare block their passage, though their faces were pale with disgust and defeat.

"You're doing it again," Zhu Yuansu whimpered at Wei Wuxian's back. "Oh, you shouldn't do this."

"No one's stopping me," Wei Wuxian replied to him.

For weeks now, Zhu Yuansu had done nothing but follow in Wei Wuxian's shadow and bemoan his actions. He would not take a step by himself, no matter how much Wei Wuxian encouraged him to. He would not see his own freedom as anything less than a curse, no matter how many times Wei Wuxian reminded him that his family had abandoned him to his death.

"I would have deserved it," he had said on the third night.

Wei Wuxian carried those words in him like a wound, seeping pity and anger like blood.

He stood, unmoving, before the Wen sect's omega house. The smell of scorched earth was so unlike any other place he had been; if he closed his eyes, he could almost picture himself being led here by Wang Lingjiao, hearing the door close at his back. Smelling for the very first time the sweetness of one like him.

Fear holed within him. He ordered the two guards, "Open it."

For a second, he thought he might have to come to threats. His fingers brushed the cool length of Chenqing at his waist, thinking of the corpses he could call from below the mountain. Thinking of Wen Ruohan's very corpse, left by his son's side in the sun to be picked at by crows. But the two guards obeyed him in fear, and Wei Wuxian remembered, not for the first time, that he smelled of nothing now.

He was not shown the deference that an alpha would be, but he was not scorned either. These two beta were not the ones who had once locked him here. They had no idea of his name or status.

The heavy door opened, pushed forward by the both of them, to the familiar house within which smelled of sweet candles. Wei Wuxian crossed the threshold with Zhu Yuansu in his steps and looked at the silken couch where he had once spent the night. It was the same as always, crowded with clothes that none of the children here liked to tidy away. There were more drawings pinned to the walls around: birds made more lifelike as the hands creating them wisened, a boar, a squirrel.

He thought then that this would be all; he thought, petrified, of the three other houses he had opened since pulling Zhu Yuansu to freedom, all empty and bereft for years. Where are they? Where are they all?

Married, Zhu Yuansu had said. They left to carry out their duty. His voice had been harsh with envy.

So Wei Wuxian stood frozen by the memory of three children, dug through with fear of their being lost, of their being taken away. His ears rang with the memory of Wen Linfeng's terror as she asked him what fevers were like, as she looked to him for mentorship of a kind. She had been so young still. Immature still. Surely, she couldn't have been sold, not yet, and Wen Yueying and Wen Yiqian were much too young—

But then the door to the bedroom in the back opened; a girl much taller than he remembered her came out, her face sweetened with excitement and joy, and she called their shared name: "A-Ying!"

She tripped on her way to him against the foot of a chair. Wei Wuxian rushed to catch her, stumbling when she threw herself at him with all of her weight.

She had grown so much. Wei Wuxian couldn't tell anymore how many months had passed since a little girl first showed him a way out of her own prison, since he sat by her side and watched her play in the dark. If they had stood, the top of her head would have almost reached his shoulder. As they were both fallen to the floor, she simply clinged to him with all of her tall body, her face pressed to his chest as if she wished to become one with his heart.

She already was. She had been since she first burst out of that bedroom a lifetime ago and hugged him for the first time.

The little boy, Wen Yiqian, had not grown as much as she had. He hid again behind the frame of the bedroom door, looking at Wei Wuxian with the same suspicion as always.

Wen Linfeng stood next to him.

"I knew you'd be back," Wen Yueying said excitedly, looking at him from below with wide and shiny eyes. "You promised you'd come back."

"I did," Wei Wuxian said. He tore his gaze away from Wen Linfeng. "I couldn't break my promise to you, could I?"

Laughter pearled out of Wen Yueying's mouth as if she simply could not contain her happiness at all. She did not release him as he pushed the both of them upright, and she giggled when he patted dust off of her arms and off his own backside.

In the bedroom, Wen Linfeng tensed and shuddered. She said not a word to him when their eyes met again—and Wei Wuxian saw, now, the differences on her; the lightness of her scent belying her immaturity, the thinness in her face, the way that her body had changed in the months he had not seen her. Her lips trembled, her hold on the doorframe grew weak. She stood behind that single line as if her life depended on it, as if he were once more threatening all that she knew with his presence alone.

Perhaps he was.

"Hello, Fengfeng," Wei Wuxian told her.

Her hand fell limply from the wall. Tears spilled out of her eyes and flooded down her face.

She cried loudly, heaving sob after sob, when he wrapped his arms around her. She clinged to the front of his robes helplessly, shaking through all of her body, growing even louder when he shushed her and stroked her hair. Wen Yiqian and Wen Yueying looked at her as they had the first time she had done this—after he had told her, "You look scared to me." Aghast and infinitely childish.

Zhu Yuansu fidgeted near the entrance of the house. Wei Wuxian heard him only through the sighs of the three children around him: Wen Linfeng against his front and Wen Yueying hugging his side and Wen Yiqian, ever-so-shy, sliding a hand in his quietly.

Sunlight set over the Nightless City. Birds grew quiet over the dried lands, except for where their beaks pecked at the flesh of Wen Ruohan and his son. Down the harsh slope of the mountain, Nie Mingjue's forces drank themselves to oblivion, triumphant, victorious.

For Wei Wuxian, the war ended only when Wen Linfeng took her first step out of Qishanwen's omega house.

-

"You won't catch it," said Wen Yiqian.

His voice was always breezy with lack of use. Wei Wuxian had come to learn that it was not for fear of speaking, really; Wen Yiqian simply was a little boy of few words, who would rather be silent and still than roaming the many shores of the Lotus Pier as Wen Yueying liked to.

"Will too," Wen Yueying replied.

"A-Ying is slow."

"I am not!"

While they argued, the round little hen they had been chasing for the last few minutes vanished behind trees.

Wen Yueying cried out in frustration. She rose from her crouch behind a bush and ran into the edge of the forest, exclaiming all the while that she was not slow at all, that the bird was simply too quick and clever. Wen Yiqian stood with much more grace than she had. He patted his knees free of dirt with care, worried as usual that he should stain the Yunmeng robes gifted to him when he arrived, and gave Wei Wuxian a look so full of annoyance that Wei Wuxian could not help but smile.

"Are you not going after her?" he teased the boy. "She'll catch it before you."

"No," Wen Yiqian replied, his nose scrunched cutely. "A-Ying is not very smart."

Next to them, Jiang Yanli laughed.

Wen Yueying did not go far anyway. She joined them again as they walked along the shoreline, between the edge of the river and the young trees bordering the woods, her anger warmed by sunlight and water. Unlike Wen Yiqian, she looked to be unable to simply walk; for days now she had done nothing but run until her entire body tired and Wei Wuxian had to carry her to her room half-slumbering. But she grew stronger every day. Wei Wuxian had no doubt that his help would soon be unneeded—that she would run much farther and longer than he himself could, and not have to ask him to carry her back.

The hen was an excuse like any other for them all to be outside like this, basked in the light of summer's end, picking lotus seeds as they went. Wen Yueying's belt and pockets were so full of them, they fell behind each of her steps like a trail of breadcrumbs. If ever she got lost, it would not be difficult to find her.

He had told her so the night before as they ate dinner. "I'll just follow the seeds," he had said. "Maybe if we let them grow, little A-Yings will push out of the ground."

She had splashed him with soup in answer, to Wen Linfeng's great horror.

"How did that bird even escape?" Jiang Yanli asked Wei Wuxian when they reached one of the many wooden bridges crossing over the river and to an islet in its center.

Wen Yueying hurried over to the other side, yelling for Wen Yiqian to follow her. Her smile was bright enough to make sunshine look dim.

"The cooks said it pecked its way out of the coop last night," he replied. "Smart thing."

"A-Ying must have been delighted when she heard."

"Oh, yes. She wouldn't stop screaming that she'd catch it herself until I told her that she could. Twice."

Jiang Yanli hid her mouth behind her hand to laugh again, and the sight of her so quiet and content made Wei Wuxian's heart feel a little less heavy.

They were far from the buzzing noise of the Jiang clan house, where Jiang Cheng was overseeing reparations and training. For weeks now, carpenters had come from all over the region to help rebuild the ancestral hall and clear away the debris of the fire. Young alpha and beta came as well to seek instruction, aspiring cultivators that they were; and Jiang Cheng accepted most of them in grim silence, his eyes fleeting toward Wei Wuxian, asking for him what his mouth could not.

Wei Wuxian did not like to spend time in the old house anymore. He did not know what he would say, once Jiang Cheng made up his mind to ask him what he wanted to.

He and Jiang Yanli walked together alongshore, their boots wet with the ever-present mud of the riverbed, their ears filled with the whisper of wind in foliage and the sounds of running water. Often the childish cry of Wen Yueying's voice reached them from ahead, as she failed again to catch the hen she had set her mind to return. Wei Wuxian knew just how dearly she wanted to be the one who handed it over to the old cook, after the woman had given her sweet cakes on the day she had visited the kitchen for the first time.

They reached a slope in the ground, a wooden and decrepit fence surrounding a house made out of rough wood. The soil had subsided there over the years, and the house almost looked ready to slide into the water. The river licked its southern edge softly.

Wei Wuxian saw himself there, years ago, drinking from the river in hope of quenching more than simply thirst.

"A-Xian?"

He blinked. Looked away from the house. "Yes," he replied, "sorry, did you say something?"

Jiang Yanli was staring at him; she must have spoken several times already, trying to catch his attention. Her forehead smoothed over when he pushed himself into smiling at her. "I simply wanted to know more about how you met them," she told him. "Those children. They seem to love you very much."

"I told you already how I met them," Wei Wuxian replied in confusion.

He had told her and Jiang Cheng the very night he had come down from the Nightless City with three children in tow, Zhu Yuansu hiding behind them all, crushed by his own shame. Though Jiang Cheng had frowned at the sight of them, though Jiang Yanli had looked sorrowed, they had not asked him any questions then. Jiang Yanli had even welcomed them, establishing herself near-instantly as a figure of adoration for Wen Yueying and Wen Yiqian.

She was so good with children. She learned so quickly to touch them as she did Wei Wuxian, to play with Wen Yueying, to make Wen Linfeng's young face warm with shy blood.

Three weeks had gone since then. Wei Wuxian had brought Zhu Yuansu and the Wen children with him to the Pier when they all headed home, delighting Wen Yueying with tales of the place where he grew, eager to see how she would like it. And she loved it, as he had expected; she ran and ran, muddying her clothes, staining her hands and hair with dirt. She loved everything he had to show, she loved the training clothes she was given and which were so much easier to move in. She loved the room she slept in even more, after learning that it had been Wei Wuxian's.

Wei Wuxian could not live in it anymore without remembering Wen Qing's hands pulling the golden core out of him.

"I met them when we were all in Qishan for indoctrination. You remember this."

"I remember that Wen Chao made you sleep in their omega house, yes," Jiang Yanli replied.

Wei Wuxian's disgust upon hearing the man's name was no lesser now than it had been when he crushed Wen Chao's wrist under his foot. He made himself look at the water, made himself lick his lips to chase sudden dryness away.

"You never told me then what you were doing in that house, however."

"I spent time with them," Wei Wuxian said. "They were all very surprised by me. I think I had to answer at least a thousand questions."

Jiang Yanli chuckled and replied, "Yes, I can imagine."

She could not.

There was no way she could imagine the least of it—the house and the children, Wen Linfeng's terror about the moonless tea, about her own future. But Wei Wuxian could not explain it to her even if he wanted to.

"I'm glad you didn't grow up in there," Jiang Yanli said softly.

A glance her way told him that she was staring at the forlorn house almost dipped into the river, where a man had once grown old and died without ever setting foot outside. Where Wei Wuxian had spent his fevers alone and hungry.

Thankfully, she did not wait for him to answer. He could not think of anything to say. She took him by the arm and led him onto the bridge, saying, "I think I hear A-Ying laughing. She must have caught the bird."

Wen Yueying had, and was only too proud to show her catch to them. She refused to let Wei Wuxian hold the hen for her even when it started pecking at her fingers to try and make her drop it.

They ate in easy companionship that night, together around a wide table of the kitchen, surrounded by the smell of cooked meat. Wei Wuxian had not much appetite, and the vapor coming from the wide copper pots made him feel a little ill, but he feasted on other things. On Wen Yueying's voice when she called Jiang Yanli 'jiejie', on Wen Yiqian's red face as he recalled just how soft the hen's feathers were. On Wen Linfeng, sitting by Jiang Yanli, making shy conversation with her with worship in her eyes.

Zhu Yuansu did not join them. He had been fevered for days and refused to come out of the room Wei Wuxian had given him, not even to eat. Every night, Wei Wuxian knocked on his door. Every night, silence answered, and he left by the foot of it another serving of food that the servants would find untouched the next morning.

"I want a story," Wen Yueying ordered when Wei Wuxian accompanied her to his former bedroom.

She shared it with Wen Yiqian. He had found him a room as well on the first night, but habits were hard to break for children so young. After the third morning in a row had found the both of them sleeping in the same bed, Wei Wuxian had given up.

Wen Linfeng would have probably joined them too, had her own room not been close to Jiang Yanli's. Yanli did not say much about it, but Wei Wuxian saw the way she smiled at the oldest of the three children. He knew they must be spending time together.

"Aren't you too old for this?" Wei Wuxian asked with half a smile.

"I'm not," Wen Yueying replied adamantly.

"And here I thought I heard you call yourself all grown up only yesterday…"

She pouted fiercely. Wei Wuxian could not help but feel something in him give at the sight of it, of her, so loose and free within his home. It tugged at him through the fatigue haunting his steps.

Jiang Yanli came to his rescue. "A-Xian was always very good at telling stories," she told the girl with a smile. "Sometimes he even made up things, and we all believed him like fools until the lie was revealed."

"A-Ying doesn't lie," Wen Yueying replied, deeply offended.

"Oh, you think so, but I have so much to tell you…"

She was so very good at this. So very good at catching their attention, at holding them abreath with words or playing, at plowing them with distractions. Wei Wuxian watched her magic the two children into listening to tales from his childhood, when he would run through the river and steal lotus stems for snacking, when he would chase after a bird for hours in order to catch it with an arrow, until he and Jiang Cheng were lost in the forest and covered in mud from head to toe. Until she had to come fetch them, guided by the sound of their crying.

He could barely remember any of it. All of it felt like another life entirely, like something out of a dream, so vivid in the moment and yet impossible to recall afterward. Gone like a wisp of wind.

"They are both very cute," Jiang Yanli told him.

It was a while later, after Wen Yueying and Wen Yiqian had finally succumbed to sleep, after Jiang Yanli had tucked them into bed and blown out the candles. She had closed the door slowly in order not to make a noise.

"Especially little A-Ying. She's so much like you, I feel like I've gone back in the past."

Her words ached within him. "She's much smarter than I ever was," he replied, and the playfulness he tried for fell flat and lonely.

He didn't know why the thought of being compared to any of these children made him feel so queasy.

But this was Jiang Yanli. It was Jiang Yanli looking at him with worried eyes, her gentle face framed by night-light so that it seemed so much kinder still. Wei Wuxian allowed her to take hold of his arm and lead him away from the bedroom door, and part of him was feverishly glad that he was still permitted her touch.

Part of him cried with relief that this had not been taken from him: the ability to touch her, to have her touch him, without wanting to push her away.

"They love you," she murmured. "It's obvious."

I love them too, he thought, but the words would not come out.

"You're very good with children, A-Xian. Do you think you'd like to have any one day?"

Wei Wuxian pulled his arm out of her hold.

Jiang Yanli's steps halted. She turned to face him fully, her robes only slightly creased by the childish hands which had held it as she narrated Wei Wuxian's childhood. War had not completely vanished from her face; there were bruises under her eyes, and a grieved quality to the way she held herself, to the way she held the sword at her hip that Yu Ziyuan had forged for her. She looked sleepless.

"A-Xian?" she called, surprised.

"Why would you ask me this?" Wei Wuxian blurted out.

They had come near the half-built dining hall, where only weeks ago had the garish Wen clan insignia been taken off of Yunmengjiang's banner. Where a few years ago, Wei Wuxian had sat in silken robes, and watched a man bargain for him to Madam Yu.

He felt still the touch of those light robes, the open collar which had let in cool air and made him shiver. That air was the same as the one in Yiling, when it had slithered between skin and grassy ground as Wen Chao lay over and in him.

"I just," Jiang Yanli said, "I just wondered… We used to talk about this, didn't we? Don't you remember?"

"About what?" he replied foggily.

Her hand came to rest by his elbow. She squeezed it, staring at him, her brow once more marked with worry. "Marriage," she replied. "The future."

He couldn't remember at all.

He stepped backward. He gently pulled away from her touch and smiled at her, feeling hollow all the time, as if rid of his own substance. "Ah, I think I'm tired, shijie," he told her. "I should head to sleep now."

"Of course," Jiang Yanli replied. He could tell by her voice that she was confused and hurt, but the fear within him could not abate enough to make him soothe her. "Have a good night, A-Xian."

He did not sleep at all.

He tossed and turn on the bed of the small room he had picked for himself after giving his away. His body grew sweaty, although the nights were fresh now. His whole skin seemed to burn on him, seemed to want to detach from him, and Wei Wuxian wished that it would. Would that he could pull it off entirely, wash it, and put it on again. Perhaps then it could settle over bones and muscles the right way, instead of feeling to him as though someone had pulled on it and misaligned it from his skeleton.

But he could not, and neither could he go back to the time Jiang Yanli spoke of with such simple nostalgia. So he lay over the bed and sweated the night out, with his off-set skin, with his dream-like memories.

He tried not to think of her question and feel as though his insides were being emptied out.

-

Zhu Yuansu came out of his fever even more frightened than before.

He did not come out of his room again. At the beginning, when Wei Wuxian had taken him to the Pier and shown him around, he could be pulled out by the Wen children. He sometimes shared a meal with them, sometimes exchanged a few words with Wen Linfeng, whom he seemed to consider the most proper out of them all. He never spoke to Jiang Cheng or Jiang Yanli, however, and very little to Wei Wuxian.

After his fever, he picked up the food left by his door every day, but never set a foot outside again.

His behavior filled Wei Wuxian with anger. He would knock on the door of Zhu Yuansu's bedroom each evening and ask to speak with him. He tried to be kind. He tried to make himself quiet and welcoming, so that the frightened man would not think him a threat, but Zhu Yuansu simply did not answer. After a week of such silent treatment had passed, Wei Wuxian stopped trying.

Jiang Cheng found him as he sulked on the edge of a window. It was a cool and overcast evening, and the servants' quarters where Wei Wuxian had hid were rustling with the murmur of conversation. Some said the hearths should be lit so that the halls of the Pier could remain warm that night. Others argued that it was still too soon, and that surely the sun would be back tomorrow to make them all suffocate. Wei Wuxian had sat there with a foot upon the ledge, with his knee raised to his chest. He had hoped that the noise would distract him.

Jiang Cheng's storm-like scent reached him before the sound of his steps could. Still, he did not look away from the river beneath him which the sky had colored green and grey. He spun Chenqing with his fingers in restlessness, waiting until Jiang Cheng's footfalls stopped right behind him.

"Wei Wuxian."

"If you're looking for the weapon master, he's gone to the village to buy wood," Wei Wuxian said. "You just missed him."

"I'm not looking for the weapon master," Jiang Cheng replied, his voice irate.

Wei Wuxian let his leg fall from the window's edge and looked at his shidi.

One could not have painted a more severe difference between Jiang Cheng as he had found him in those woods in Qishan, and Jiang Cheng as he stood now, in full sect leader regalia. His uniform was spotless and richly sewn, thick now to parry the chill of oncoming winter. His face had filled again with good meals and good rest. Sandu hung from his waist, recovered at last from the treasure hall of Qishanwen's Nightless City.

He looked so much like his mother.

"We need to talk," Jiang Cheng told him.

"Then talk," Wei Wuxian retorted. "I'm all ears."

Jiang Cheng's teeth ground together in annoyance. "I need to know," he said, "what you are planning to do with those omega."

"Nothing," Wei Wuxian replied. "Except to feed them and clothe them and protect them from harm. I told you this already."

Jiang Cheng stared at him in silence for a while. Then he pulled out of his sleeve a rolled piece of paper, which he handed him wordlessly.

Its content was nothing Wei Wuxian had not expected: pleasantries from Jin Guangshan, an invitation to Lanling which felt like a summons, thick and convoluted words and imagery, begging the Yunmengjiang sect leader to understand that some trophies of war needed to be returned.

For the first time in days, Wei Wuxian felt sick not with nausea, but with sheer dislike of a man.

"I'm not giving them away," he told Jiang Cheng in no uncertain terms. He resisted the urge to burn the letter right here with a talisman, and instead gave it back to him with one last disgusted look. "They aren't mine to give away."

"I wouldn't fall for the Jin sect's threats anyway," Jiang Cheng retorted.

He was offended too, though for reasons different than Wei Wuxian's.

"Jin Guangshan has very thick skin if he thinks he can just appoint himself a new Wen Ruohan and order us for anything."

"Then I don't see what the problem is," Wei Wuxian said.

"The problem," Jiang Cheng replied, "is that I know you've been looking for more of them. I know you've been going round the neighboring towns, forcing houses open, threatening people with that flute of yours."

Wei Wuxian fell silent.

To Jiang Cheng, this must be as good as a confession. His face lightened with rage, then with exhaustion. Wei Wuxian knew that if the topic had been anything else, Jiang Cheng would have let away all of the ugly words now gathering through his mind—but Jiang Cheng, except for one memorable time, had always been rather shy with this. With Wei Wuxian's status and what it meant for him. He never liked to speak of it if he could avoid it.

"It's one thing when they belong to Wen dogs," Jiang Cheng said. "It is one thing if Jin Guangshan rattles our front door asking for spoils of war. I can refuse him, I can say that Yunmeng was there first and only claimed their due. But I cannot have people under my protection come to me, asking me why a member of my sect threatened to have ghosts eat them alive if they did not give away their omega."

"I couldn't find any," Wei Wuxian said. "They've all gone from the houses, all married. So, you can rest easy. I'll be looking farther ahead now, not from people who answer to Yunmengjiang."

"And what will you do when you find them, Wei Wuxian? Will you bring them all here? Shall we find every single unwedded omega in the country a room in the Lotus Pier?"

It was Wei Wuxian's turn to grind his teeth in frustration. He pushed himself off of the window ledge, standing so that Jiang Cheng had to look him right in the eye. "And what of it?" he asked. "You said it wasn't a problem when I brought them with me, you said you didn't care."

"I said this for four of them, three of whom have no family to claim them anymore," Jiang Cheng replied. "I did not say that you could just go around kidnapping people, or that our sect would be here to fend off angry visitors asking for their omega back."

Wei Wuxian understood, then, why Jiang Cheng looked so distraught with the whole thing.

"Did someone come asking for Zhu Yuansu?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Jiang Cheng spat, red in the face with shame. "Earlier today. They won't leave before they have him back."

So this was why Jiang Cheng had refused Jiang Yanli so harshly when she had asked if he planned to dine with her and the children.

Wei Wuxian remained silent a long while, looking at Jiang Cheng in a daze, watching shadows cover his face as daylight faded behind him.

"They're not of Yunmeng," he said eventually. Each word pulled itself out of him painfully. "You could just refuse them."

And he saw the expression that washed over Jiang Cheng's face. He knew before he even replied that his words would cut deeply.

"If I did," Jiang Cheng declared, "our sect would be nothing more than a thief in the eyes of all others."

Wei Wuxian's jaw ached. Who cares? he wanted to ask him. He wanted to grab his collar and shake him, to ride the emotions flooding him even through the gaping hole that the absence of his core had dug; he wanted to tell Jiang Cheng, Who cares about keeping face now? Why is this more important to you than the rest?

Jiang Cheng had once defended him before the other sects. He had once called Jin Zixuan callous in Gusu after the Jin heir had called Wei Wuxian omega and nothing else. He had claimed Wei Wuxian to be a talented cultivator, a disciple of Yunmeng, in front of Wen Chao.

Why couldn't he show the same bravery for Zhu Yuansu?

"He doesn't even want to stay," Jiang Cheng said, seeing that Wei Wuxian had no words in him to reply with. His tone was not begging, not fully, but not far from it either. "Sister told me all about it, she said he hasn't come out of his room in weeks. She says he doesn't like being outside like you."

"You don't know anything," Wei Wuxian replied.

Jiang Cheng grabbed his shoulder tightly, painfully. "No, I don't," he said. Each of his fingers felt like a blade digging through cloth and skin. "I don't like it, I remember the state he was in when you found him, but he's recovered now. He's healthy again. If he wants to go back, who are you to stop him? His family wants him."

"You don't understand—"

"I will not put our sect in danger again because of you!"

Wei Wuxian's mouth closed.

"You can't take every single one of them, Wei Wuxian," Jiang Cheng said. The edge of despair in his words had thickened—each of them felt like a slap to the face. "You can't protect them all. I don't have the means, I'm sorry, I know that this is important to you. I know this."

"Why are you apologizing," Wei Wuxian said slowly, "if you've already made up your mind?"

Jiang Cheng shuddered. He seemed to realize just how tightly he was holding Wei Wuxian's shoulder; his fingers loosened and left him entirely.

The weight of them remained on Wei Wuxian's skin like ghosts.

"You can't shelter them all," he said. He sounded grieved, which made it all the worse. "It's a fool's dream. I'm doing all I can, I'm trying to rebuilt what father and mother left me, but I can't—"

His voice choked. Despite the strength he had regained, despite the comfort of the war being far behind him, Jiang Cheng looked completely exhausted.

He was overseeing all the repairs of the main house. He was training and recruiting people, finding masters to teach the ways of cultivation in his stead when work buried him alive. He asked Wei Wuxian for no help in this, even though he wished to; even though, for weeks now, he had looked at Wei Wuxian in anger, wondering why Wei Wuxian wasn't offering to teach.

And, in truth, did Wei Wuxian have a right to ask this of him? Did he have a right to populate the sect whose destruction he caused with people he wanted to save, when Jiang Cheng would be the one to deal with the consequences?

"The children can stay," Jiang Cheng said once his emotion had gone way. He stood once again to the full of his height, his chin lifted forward, the way it always was when he made a promise.

The way it was when he had told Wei Wuxian, I'll keep all the dogs away from you.

"Jin Guangshan has no right to ask for them in the first place."

"They are of the Wen sect," Wei Wuxian replied faintly. "I doubt many of the sect leaders will care."

"Even I can put this aside for three children who had never set foot outside of their house before," Jiang Cheng said. "Wei Wuxian, I swear it. I won't let anyone have them, just like I wouldn't let anyone have you."

Coldness spread through Wei Wuxian from fingertips to toes.

He breathed in and out softly. He let his freezing lungs warm with the fire that the servants did light in all the torches of the corridor. When he thought he could speak again without feeling a heavy weight at his back, he pleaded, "Let me try to convince him."

"I've already told Zhu Yuansu that his family is here," Jiang Cheng replied mournfully. "Wei Wuxian—"

Wei Wuxian turned his back to him and walked away.

Only a few seconds seemed to go by as he traversed the Pier toward the quarters where Zhu Yuansu and the children slept—the ones he and Jiang Cheng had slept in, once, before Jiang Cheng took his mother's room in the washed-out pavillion standing above the river; before Wei Wuxian discovered that he could not sleep there without feeling his own heart tear away from him.

He felt no wind upon his skin. He smelled no water and no mud, no flowers, no berries. He hardly seemed to see anything, except for the half-open door of a room which had not allowed anyone in or out for days.

"Zhu Yuansu!" he called.

But there was no answer. The room was empty, the bed made, the candlewax cleaned off of cabinets and tables, as if no one had slept here in days. Wei Wuxian kept calling for the name as he ran through the halls of his home, looking for a sign of the man, for a trace of winescent.

He found it near the stables. Zhu Yuansu had taken the long way toward the main hall, no doubt afraid to cross paths with anyone. He sneaked there between shadows and walls, looking like a thief, a murderer caught red-handed. He had put on again the ragged clothes that he had worn when Wei Wuxian first met him.

"Zhu Yuansu," he called him breathlessly, stepping onto the damp grass.

Zhu Yuansu stilled at the sound of his voice. His achingly sweet scent thickened the air with his fright, and Wei Wuxian was not ready for it to be directed to him, for those eyes to stare at him as if he were not made of the same fabric, but instead someone to resent and fear.

"Young master Wei," Zhu Yuansu said softly. Fearfully.

Wei Wuxian took a step forward. "I told you not to call me that," he said. "You don't need to be formal with me."

"I wouldn't dare," Zhu Yuansu replied.

He bowed until his back was as straight as a ruler.

"Don't bow to me." Wei Wuxian could not stop his own blood from rushing up his neck. "Do not bow to me," he spat out, all of his skin hot to the touch.

"It is what should be done," Zhu Yuansu said stubbornly, "when meeting someone of higher status."

"I am not of higher status."

"Can you prove it?"

"Why would I lie about this?" Wei Wuxian exclaimed, desperate.

He felt torn three ways over, his misshapen skin laid awkwardly upon his bones, his back bowed with anger, his fingers crusted with dirt from grabbing at grass, from trying to pull away.

"Why would I lie to you!?" he howled. "Why would I fucking pretend to be something I'm not, what could I possibly gain from claiming to be omega? You tell me, Zhu Yuansu! You tell me what your status has given you except grief, you tell me what I could possibly envy about being like you!"

"Perhaps," Zhu Yuansu replied, "you would hate yourself a little less if you were."

Wei Wuxian choked. His lungs seared with the pain of it; his belly grew an ache right below his ribs, as if he had run miles without breathing properly.

"What?" he croaked.

Zhu Yuansu stared at him as if he were the one who should be pitied. "You ask me what I was given," he said. "I have a house. I have safety. I have a family—"

"Your family left you alone to starve!"

"They didn't have a choice, young master Wei," Zhu Yuansu exclaimed. "Who was it that made horrible things crawl over the village, who was it that made them all flee? They would have all died if they had not left as quickly as possible."

Wei Wuxian could hardly think. He could hardly blink even with the nightly wind wetting his eyes, so shocked was he by Zhu Yuansu's words.

"Tell me," Zhu Yuansu said to him, "what has your status given you?"

"I'm," Wei Wuxian stuttered. "I'm like you."

"No, you are not," Zhu Yuansi replied, his voice ripe with pity. "You may be omega, but you and I could not be more different."

Wei Wuxian drew back as if the man before him had unsheathed a sword.

"You were raised irresponsibly," Zhu Yuansu went on. His frail voice had grown stronger with every word he said, and it grew stronger now, until he looked to be the one imparting truth upon Wei Wuxian. "It skewed your vision of the world. It hurt you deeply, and I feel sorry for you."

"I was not hurt by freedom," Wei Wuxian snapped.

"Weren't you?"

Wei Wuxian had held his own against so many others in the past. He had spoken back to Lan Wangji and Lan Qiren, to Jin Zixuan, to Wen Chao. Earlier, he had spoken back to Jiang Cheng, in spite of how deeply indebted he was to him and his clan.

Why was it that in front of this man, this near-stranger who should be the one to understand him the most, he could not find a word to say?

"You hate yourself so much," Zhu Yuansu told him, his pitying eyes almost unbearable to meet, his frail and helpless body suddenly become nightmarish. "You hate your status, and you hate me as well. It's not your fault. People decided to expose you to the world without a thought for what would become of you, and it was irresponsible of them."

"You're wrong," Wei Wuxian breathed. "I don't hate you."

"You hate my way to live. Isn't it all the same, young master?"

No, Wei Wuxian wanted to say. He wanted more than anything to yell it at this foolish man, to make him understand that he was the one in the wrong. That Wei Wuxian had never hated him and never would.

Zhu Yuansu's eyes softened. He spoke to him then not as an omega, but as someone older; just as Wei Wuxian had spoken to Wen Linfeng so long ago in Qishan, and made her feel as if the very ground were slipping from beneath her feet.

"You can hardly look at me," he said mercilessly. "You do not like to speak to me, you do not like that I prefer to remain hidden. You wish that I were like those children of yours."

"They are not mine," Wei Wuxian replied, sickened.

Zhu Yuansu shook his head. "No," he said. "I dare say you would make a very poor father to any progeny of yours."

Wei Wuxian swallowed back the bile rising up his throat. He licked away the taste of grass from his lips. "They are happy," he forced out. "Can't you see that?"

"Of course they are. They're children, the eldest isn't even mature yet. They don't know that living like this will break them like it has broken you."

Wen Qing's voice came to him from a faraway memory, from before the emptiness and before the fall: Don't make the mistake of thinking every omega you meet is your friend, Wei Ying.

"So you'll just go back there," he said. "Just go back to that house, to being alone."

"Yes," Zhu Yuansu replied, "I will. I am lucky that they still want me. You should be grateful that your family wants you, too."

He meant that Wei Wuxian should feel lucky to be wanted at all.

Wei Wuxian did not move from his place in the shadows even after Zhu Yuansu walked away. He followed him with his eyes until his thin silhouette vanished behind a wider hall, and even then he looked to be slithering around like someone trying to hide something. Even now, he clung to shade and darkness as if it could fully hide him.

His wine-like scent made Wei Wuxian want to throw up long after he was gone.

Night fell over Yunmeng, clouded and dark, without a star in sight. Moonlight was but a halo through the thinnest of the clouds, and only the torchlight coming from open windows lit the space around Wei Wuxian enough for him to see. He sat on the grass with his head between his raised knees. He clutched his ankles with his hands until his knuckles ached.

It was Jiang Yanli who found him what felt like hours later, her voice soft and hurried, her cool scent like a balm for the nausea in him. "A-Xian?" she called in so kind a voice that the sound alone shivered within his chest. She was a way ahead, stepping slowly in the dark.

"I'm here," he replied.

His voice was as rough as if he had screamed for days.

"Oh, A-Xian," she said once she reached his side.

He must make for a very poor sight indeed, with his miserable face and dirt-stained clothes. Jiang Yanli kneeled by his side, hesitating for all but a second before putting an arm around his hunched shoulders.

"I heard," she whispered. "About young master Zhu. I thought you might be upset about it."

Wei Wuxian unstuck his tongue from his palate and asked, "Is he gone already?"

"Yes. He and his family left a while ago. Perhaps he left a message for you with A-Cheng, to say goodbye?"

Wei Wuxian laughed dryly. He shook her arm off of him with as much kindness as he could and pushed himself to his feet.

He almost fell when he managed to rise fully—his knees felt weak, and the grass and houses around him vanished for a second behind grey and black spots. Jiang Yanli caught his elbow when he swayed, calling his name in worry.

"Sorry," he breathed out. "I'm just… I'm just tired, I think."

"You haven't eaten yet," Jiang Yanli said pressingly. "Come now, follow me, I've left soup on the stove for you."

"You spoil me, shijie," Wei Wuxian replied.

It was enough to make her smile.

He didn't need her help to walk to the kitchen, thankfully. Jiang Yanli remained by his side without needing to support him as they crossed the different halls. The Pier was shrouded in silence at this time of night, most of the torches unlit, most of its inhabitants asleep. Wei Wuxian regretted for a moment not saying good night to Wen Yueying, who would surely pout at him for it the next day. She could hold such a grudge.

"Sit down," Jiang Yanli told him. She went so far as to pull a chair for him at the table and squeeze his shoulder while he sat. "I made lotus rib and pork soup for A-Qian and A-Ying. It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Did they like it?" Wei Wuxian asked eagerly. "Your soup is always so good."

"Yes, they did. A-Qian even asked to be served twice."

Little Wen Yiqian had a fragile stomach, and often pulled faces at the dishes placed before him if he did not like the taste of them. Picturing him asking for more of his shijie's soup made Wei Wuxian feel a little less cold.

Then Jiang Yanli lifted the cover of the pot simmering upon the stove, and Wei Wuxian's smile faded. Gas surged again up his chest, much more potent than before, until he felt the burn of it at the back of his throat.

He rose hurriedly from his chair. It slid away from the table with a loud creak of wood, catching Jiang Yanli's attention before Wei Wuxian could slip away unseen.

"A-Xian?"

Wei Wuxian put a hand over his mouth. It was shaking badly, almost as much as his entrails shook. "Sorry," he forced out, "I need to—"

He only had enough time to cross the length of the kitchen, to push open the small door at its end which led to a vegetable garden, before he fell to his knees in the dirt and retched.

Nausea was common to him now, another symptom he attributed to the loss of his core easily—he couldn't eat without feeling it, couldn't sleep without feeling it, but it was not usually this violent. It had not been this sudden and overwhelming since his days in the Burial Mounds, where the very smell of the air was enough to have him on his knees for hours, his throat burning as he expelled what little he had managed to eat or drink.

He had not eaten today, and so there was nothing to expel but bile. It tore itself out of him like a stab wound through the stomach, making him shake from thigh to shoulder. Jiang Yanli called his name several times as she ran after him, and she was not afraid either to kneel again by him and push away his hair so that it would be spared his vomiting.

Her hands were cool upon his skin. After he was done—after an eternity of digging his own fingers into dirt in order not to fall—Wei Wuxian let himself rest against her side.

She never stopped stroking his clammy forehead.

He could not have told how long he stayed like this until he found the strength to speak. "I'm sorry," he told her. Saliva dripped from his mouth, but he felt too tired to wipe it away.

Jiang Yanli shushed him as if he were still a child. "Do you feel better now?" she asked gently.

"Yes," he lied.

He felt miserable.

It was impossible to tell if she believed him, but either way, she helped him to his feet and walked him to his room. They went the long way around the kitchen rather than traverse it again, for which Wei Wuxian was grateful.

He washed his mouth and hair with weak hands while she prepared tea for him. He could hear her through the door of the little water room, walking hurriedly around his bed, leaving and then coming back a few minutes later.

"I brought you something light to eat," she said once he emerged from the little room. There was a steaming bowl of plain rice on his bedside table, as well as tea in a rust-colored pot. "I know you probably feel sick, but you need something on your stomach, A-Xian."

"Thank you, shijie," he replied.

He ate the rice more for the relief on her face than out of true desire. Even this much rested queasily in his belly. His throat ached still from the minutes of retching.

Jiang Yanli stayed with him until he finished the tea. She sat by his side in a chair as he lay in the small bed and took his hand in hers. Her fingers stroked over the little scars on his knuckles that had gone so white and thin, they were nearly invisible if one did not know they were here.

Zhu Yuansu's accusations rang through him like the aftermath of falling, like hitting ground after tumbling down a cliff: You hate yourself. You hate your status.

"A-Xian," his shijie murmured, her cool hand squeezing his in spite of how sweaty it was. She sounded desolate. "You're not well at all, are you."

"I'm fine," Wei Wuxian mumbled. "I must've caught a cold, walking alone tonight."

"It was rather chilly…"

He could tell that she had more she wanted to ask him.

He would have to be an utter idiot not to notice how much time she had spent with him recently, how careful she was to put food before him when he shared meals with her and the Wen children, how she inquired each day after his sleep, worry wrinkling her forehead. Jiang Yanli had always cared for him in a way no one else did. Not Jiang Cheng, who was proud and awkward. Not Jiang Fengmian, who had feared his wife's reprimands.

Wei Wuxian held Jiang Yanli's hand tightly. "It looks like I'll always need my shijie when I'm sick," he joked feebly. "I feel like I've gone back to being ten years old. A little cold and I need you to tuck me in."

"A-Cheng is just the same," Jiang Yanli smiled at him. "The both of you, I don't know how you'll ever manage on your own."

"You'll just have to always be with us so we don't die of sickness."

She poked his forehead with a finger of her free hand in false anger; then she stroked wet hair out of his face, laying the flat of her palm there as she used to whenever a bout of sickness took him.

Those memories of his childhood did not feel like dreams at all.

"Don't worry about me," Wei Wuxian told her. "I hate when you worry."

"How can I not worry?" she asked, barely louder than a whisper. "A-Xian, you do not eat, you do not sleep… You disappear for hours each day, and we hear such horrible tales from the places you go—do you truly think us so heartless, that we wouldn't worry when we see you like this? Did you think we wouldn't care at all?"

Their linked hands wetted with her tears. Hers was shaking in his grip, now, and he was the one to hold her rather than the other way around.

"I thought at first, surely it is the war," she went on haltingly. "As long as you were alive, I could wait. I thought after everything was over, after we came home, you would tell us what happened to you, but you did not. Where were you? What happened to you? Why do you look so ill all the time?"

Wei Wuxian swallowed and replied, "I can't tell you. It would make you more miserable if I did."

His words only served to make her shake with silent sobs.

He stroked her hand with his cold and clammy fingers. He knew his decision to be sound; he knew how badly she would take to knowing how he had lived in the months before he escaped the Burial Mounds, and he knew that should she learn of it, she would grow sick with guilt herself.

As for the rest, it was as Zhu Yuansu said: Wei Wuxian should feel lucky to have a family at all.

"I'm fine, shijie," he told her as gently as he could.

Her chair groaned against the wooden floor when she left it to kneel by his bed. Wei Wuxian did not protest the arm she spread over his middle despite the nausea still clogging up his chest and throat, and simply let her hold him and dampen his sheets with tears. He stroked her hair with his free hand, breathed in the cool beta-scent of her which always roamed through the halls of the Lotus Pier. She cried silently against him. Never did her hand let go of his.

"I'm just fine."

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[imperceptibility]

清和 (Qinghe) -- by 来自远方 (Lai Zi Yuan Fang) -- ch. 1

~

Author → here

JJWXC → here

Disclaimer & summary → here

Translated by me

Index of characters → here

~

Ming Dynasty, year thirty-one of Hongwu, Beiping-fu

The third month of the year[1] should have been a time when the lakes and rivers were warming up and the flowers began blossoming, but instead, Beiping saw several snowstorms. The frigid wind swept along a skyful of snow. Like a knife scraping the bone, gust by gust, it blew against one’s cheeks until they stung sharply.

Dressed in hemp with his hands stowed in his sleeves, Meng Qinghe was squatting by the door, staring blankly at the patterns on the door bolt.

Half-chi-long icicles hung from the eaves. The northerly wind swirled. The window frames made noises, as if it were knocking upon a person’s heart.

The old cat lying by corner stood up with a meow, stretching and then licking its paw. With a couple of jumps, it reached the surface of the simple and crude table upon which rested some brushes and paper, ink and an inkwell. Leaving behind a few paw prints on the yellowing paper, it shook its whiskers in joyful satisfaction.

In the past, Meng Qinghe would have definitely stepped over to chase it away, but in that moment, he was not in the mood.

“The Ming Dynasty, during the reign of Hongwu, Beiping-fu...good heavens, you’ve got to be kidding me...”

When a person got unlucky, even the water they drank would get stuck in their teeth[2].

He had just been walking down the street, nothing out of the ordinary. Even so he ended up traveling through time — and six hundred years at that!

Just how in the world did he time travel? Was there a problem with the way he walked?

“How great would it be if this were a dream,” Qinghe gave his head a hard scratch, dejected and also helpless.

If he had known, he would rather have sold his body to entertain the masses by grabbing a pole and dancing the hula at his company’s annual dinner than sneaking out early.

What a shame that wishes were wonderful but reality was so often incomparably cruel. Cruel, just as the northerly wind blowing on him through the door crack.

Sigh...

His loose long hair flew. The hemp sack of a robe he was wearing might as well have not even been there.

It was so cold his teeth chattered. Rubbing his arms, Qinghe gritted his teeth. He was already here and his chances of returning to his time were slim to none. Even if he regretted things to the moon and back, it was futile. What he should be thinking about was how to keep living.

He did not require much much: three meals a day, a standalone house, no worries over food or clothing — that’d be enough.

Lacking in ambition? A good man not striving to accomplish things and win all the ladies?

He’d ask such a doubter to open their goddamn eyes. This was the reign of Hongwu. Beiping-fu was the Prince of Yan’s territory. Wanting to overflow with boldness in the presence of the likes of Taizu and Chengzu of Ming? Were they tired of how long their life was lasting?

As for winning all the ladies...sorry, he preferred men.

Undertaking heroic ventures and snatching up a beautiful woman might be a story to capture the imagination, but snatching up a man...well, better to forget about it.

Qinghe wiggled his fingers and pushed at the glasses that no longer rested on the bridge of his nose. As dictated by his profession, no matter what it was that he was going to do, he liked to lay out plans beforehand.

Right then, being a civil servant was a high risk job. The higher the position, the higher the likelihood of one’s head and neck taking their leave. The Hongwu Emperor’s bureaucratic reforms abolished the post of Grand Chancellor as well as the Six Ministries. On top of that, he set the record of ordering the execution of ten zu[3]. Jianwen Emperor, his grandson, was relatively good-natured, only intending to target his uncles. However, as it turned out, Jianwen’s military prowess was lacking and he would be usurped by one such uncle. Very few of the ministers who were adamantly loyal to him met a good end.

Thus, it was abundantly clear that taking the imperial exam to become a government official was not a viable path.

Becoming a merchant was also not a good way forward. For specifics, one could refer to the tycoon Shen Wansan, who loved to help others but who was sent away to Yunnan[4] by the Hongwu Emperor to experience life in the army.

Being a good, poor farmer was undoubtedly relatively safe, the prerequisite being that one did not encounter a year of calamities or run into a local tyrant or nasty member of the gentry with too formidable of a personal background.

Other than that, there was another path: enlisting in the military.

However, taking into account his actual situation, this matter was one that he needed to consider at greater length.

A noise sounded again from behind him. Qinghe turned his head to look at the old cat on his table, his lips cracking apart as he bared his teeth at the animal.

With his hair disheveled and a predatory glint in his eye, his thin face was exceptionally malevolent.

Meow!

The old cat bristled, leaping instantaneously from the table onto the roof beam.

Qinghe gave his hair a sassy flip. A perfect victory.

The satisfaction of a victory lasted all but two seconds before sorrow took its place. Gazing at the old cat that was chasing a mouse up on the roof beam, he was infinitely sad that even a cat was happier than him.

At least the cat could eat meat; he could not.

“Shi’erlang[5].” As he was drowning in the clutches of his sorrow, a quiet, hoarse call came from outside the door.

Qinghe did not respond. After a while, another quiet call came, peppered with coughing. No matter how hard his heart of stone was, he could not go on pretending that he had not heard.

Standing up, he shook out his limbs, an action of necessity due to the fact that he was frozen stiff.

Unbolting the door, he saw three haggard women dressed in hemp[6] standing outside. The one in the middle being supported was his mother. The other two supporting her were his older brothers’ wives.

“Mother, saozi[7].”

Going by the memories in his head, Qinghe bowed in greeting, letting the three of them into the room. When he had first arrived in this time period, the boy who was also named Meng Qinghe had already been gravely ill and soon breathed his last. The odd thing was, the memories of this body’s previous owner had remained in Qinghe’s mind.

“Shi’erlang, your datangbo[8] genuinely does not want us to live!”

His mother Meng-Wang-shi[9] coughed twice for each sentence she spoke. As for his sisters-in-law, Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi, one stroked his mother’s back to ease her breathing while the other was busy consoling her. Their faces were pale and angry and helpless.

Their father-in-law was gone. Their men were also gone. Their xiaoshu[10] Meng Qinghe was only fourteen. What could he really do?

After listening to his mother’s lament, Qinghe’s brows also knotted together.

“What sweet words! ‘Lending a hand’, he says! He’s just scheming to get his hands on our measly family property!” Meng-Wang-shi took Qinghe’s hand in her own, her voice hoarse. “In order to pay for your father and your two brother’s funerals, we barely have anything left anyways! And now, he’s set his sights on even this...”

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. “When your father and your brothers were alive, whenever something came up in the clan, we never denied them anything. To think their graves are not even cold yet and already your datangbo has turned hostile and is pushing us to the point of death! The fields that we sold, whose hands are they in now? And who took our ox that we used to plow the fields? And why did the teacher drive you out of school and back home? We all have Meng as our family name. How can he go so far? Does he not fear divine retribution?”

The more she spoke, the more stirred up her emotions became. Her wan face bloomed with pink and her coughing grew worse.

Before she finished her words, a cough sounded abruptly from outside the door. Qinghe looked over to find a short and stout man dressed in a dust-gray round-collared cotton padded jacket. The man’s face appeared simple and honest but his eyes carried a shred of shrewdness. It was his datangbo, Meng Guangxiao.

“Datangbo.”

Before Meng Guangxiao could open his mouth, Qinghe made his salutations and invited the man inside. After greeting him, Meng-Wang-shi sat to the side without a word. Qinghe’s two sisters-in-law stood behind Meng-Wang-shi with their heads slightly lowered, also keeping silent.

Meng Guangxiao indicated to Qinghe that there was no need to be so courteous. His tone was kind, as if he were genuinely a good-natured elder.

“Your father and brothers are gone. Your mother and sisters-in-law are women. You are still young. Whatever you need help with, I will not say no.” 

Qinghe raised his clasped hands[11] and bowed deeply. “Thank you, datangbo.”

Gestures dictated by the etiquette of the ancients were still awkward when he performed them. Good thing most verbal communication consisted of vernacular language and not filled with archaic expressions. Otherwise, it was bound to induce a headache, no matter who was on the receiving end.

“However,” what Meng Guangxiao was saying took a turn, “Good nephew, you’ve seen the weather at the start of this year. After all these snowstorms, the springtime field-plowing will probably be delayed.”

Qinghe did not pick up the thread of conversation, not that Meng Guangxiao minded. He carried right on speaking. His words were not harsh but the meaning was clear: the weather at the start of the year was poor and everybody was having a hard time. Your family might be facing difficulties but nobody else was well off either. So should you not be repaying the money and food you had borrowed earlier?

“Putting others aside for now, your ertangbo’s family just added an extra member. He has a hard time saying the words so I have to play the part of the bad person,” Meng Guangxiao paused. “You know I have no other options.”

“Indeed,” Qinghe agreed readily, seemingly completely unaware of what Meng Guangxiao was up to. After a moment, a bit of an ashamed blush crept up onto Qinghe’s face, as if he had just recalled that there was no food at home. “Right now, we are truly in quite a predicament. Could I ask for a few more days?”

“Oh?”

“In a few days, I will definitely come up with some way to scrape together the money and the food. I will not make things difficult for you, datangbo.”

Meng Guangxiao eyed the boy suspiciously. He knew how things stood with this family. Ever since he was little, Meng Qinghe had had his nose buried so deep in his studies that he ended up growing into an otherwise clueless fool. After Meng Guangzhi and his two sons died, there was nobody else who could take charge of the household. Three funerals had exhausted pretty much all of their wealth, leaving behind a family of widows and orphans, guarding a big house and several mu of farmland. If it were not for the fact that he had his eyes on those three mu of top quality farmland and this house, Meng Guangxiao would not drop by so often, risking having all this bad luck stick to him for no reason.

It had yet to be twenty-seven days since the funerals. Ordinarily, Meng Guangxiao should have been in the mourning garment xiaogong[12] for his cousin. At worst, he should have been in dressed in sima. No matter how nice his words were, him paying a visit in his gray, cotton padded jacket showed that he placed no importance upon this family of widows and children.

So the saying went: one would be better off looking down on an old man with white hair than a youth in poverty.

One could look with disdain upon the enemy but should not view an opponent lightly.

Meng Guangxiao had committed both errors. To put it bluntly, it was going to serve him right to fall flat on his face at Qinghe’s hands.

“Datangbo, there are still a few mu of farmland and a house in my family’s possession. Once I find an intermediary to evaluate the price and manage to sell them, I should be able to repay some of the debt.”

Qinghe had carefully deliberated the words that made him want to wince and he barely avoided biting his tongue in the process of delivering them. Given that he wanted to dig a hole for Meng Guangxiao to jump into, his “act” had to be convincing. He was an expert at this sort of thing.

Meng Guangxiao barely kept down the rising corners of his mouth, but he was unable to disguise the contempt in his eyes. His oldest son’s earlier concerns were unnecessary after all, concerns about how shi’erlang was extremely intelligent to the point of not appearing so on the surface[13] and to not coerce him, lest it ruin the amicability between both families. As it were, this boy was but a fool.

But it was a good thing that he was a fool!

After sending Meng Guangxiao off, Meng-Wang-shi, who had kept her silence, tugged on Qinghe’s garment, her voice trembling: “Oh son, what has happened to you? How come you...”

What she wanted to say was: ‘Oh son, how come you have lost it? Why fall for the trap in a one-track minded fashion when you clearly know he covets our property? Besides, that bit of paper money that Meng Guangxiao, Meng Guangshun, and the others had lent us has already been taken back by them many fold through the sale of our fields. Moreover, they pocketed a significant amount during the planning of the funerals. Now, they dare to use this as an excuse to coerce us!’

Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi’s expressions also showed confusion and reproach. If the remaining land and house were sold off, what were they, as a family, going to eat? Where were they going to live?

“Mother, do not worry.” Qinghe, on the other hand, was the image of ease. Helping Meng-Wang-shi rise to her feet, he spoke in a resolute tone: “Rest assured that I have a plan.”

They wanted his family’s land? He would give it.

They also wanted his family’s house? He would give that as well.

Them laughing at him for being a fool? Then let him be one.

Being a fool was a good thing. If a fool took things a little too far and acted outside the realm of normal logic, nobody would be able to really take issue with that, right?

Qinghe smiled. Meng-Wang-shi did not notice but Meng-Xu-shi and Meng-Zhang-shi exchanged a look, each with an expression showing the same befuddlement. Did xiaoshu just smile? And an eerie smile at that...

~

Chapter 2  ▶

~

T/N:

[1] This refers to the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which is the month following the spring equinox.

[2] This is a common saying about misfortune.

[3] Warning for violence in this note!!! In ancient times, family members often paid for the crimes of their (sufficiently close) relatives. The harshest punishment before executing ten zu was executing nine zu, considered as the eradication of an offender’s lineage. According to Baidu Baike, these nine included four on the father’s side (one’s family, those of one’s married paternal aunts, those of one’s married sisters, and those of one’s married daughters), three on the mother’s side (that of one’s maternal grandfather, that of one’s maternal grandmother, those of one’s married maternal aunts), and two one the wife’s side (that of one’s father-in-law, that of one’s mother-in-law). The tenth zu was one’s students.

Absolutely gruesome, yes, but that was what it was, the harshest capital punishment meted out. Just explaining this to drive home the point of what Qinghe, as a modern day person, knew of the Hongwu Emperor.

[4] Yunnan province, back then, was considered quite remote for the Han Chinese. And also, as it remains today, Yunnan was home to many ethnic minorities. Read: conflicts.

[5] Shi’erlang is literally “twelfth young man”. Sons were referred to as *insert number* young man, with the number corresponding to their age ranking within the family. In this case, no, Qinghe’s mom did not have twelve boys. It refers to him being the twelfth oldest of his generation within his clan.

[6] This is the second occurrence of the word hemp so I guess I should belatedly explain: white clothes made of hemp were worn in mourning.

[7] Saozi is how one calls one’s older brother’s wife. To note, though it is so in Qinghe’s case, it does not have to be one’s older brother by blood. Nowadays, it doesn’t even have to be legally such a brother’s wife.

[8] Bo is a paternal uncle who is older than one’s father. Tangbo is such an uncle who is a paternal cousin of one’s father. Da indicates this uncle is the oldest of such a generation in the family. Er (2), san (3), si (4), etc would label the subsequent such uncles.

[9] Taking Meng-Wang-shi as an example, this was how married woman were referred to back then, in the format of X-Y-shi, wherein X = the surname of her husband and Y = the surname of her father. They were rarely addressed by first names, as that was considered intimate.

[10] Xiaoshu is how one calls one’s husband’s younger brother.

[11] This was a gesture of respect.

[12] Of the traditional wufu or five mourning garments, whether one wears the zhancui, qicui, dagong/dahong, xiaogong/xiaohong, or sima (in order of coarseness of the fabric) depended upon the closeness of one’s relation to the deceased. Sima had the finest weave and were worn by the most distant of relatives that needed to wear mourning garments.

[13] This is an idiom, one of several of opposites originating from the works of Lao-Tzu. It means that the truly intelligent are so different from the average person that their actions fail to be understood, thus appearing stupid.

[orbemnews]

A Graying China May Have to Put Off Retirement. Workers Aren’t Happy. For Meng Shan, a 48-year-old urban management worker in the Chinese city of Nanchang, retirement can’t come soon enough. Mr. Meng, who is the equivalent of a low-level, unarmed law-enforcement official, often has to chase down unlicensed street vendors, a task he finds physically and emotionally taxing. Pay is low. Retirement, even on a meager government pension, would finally offer a break. So Mr. Meng was dismayed when the Chinese government said it would raise the mandatory retirement age, which is currently 60 for men. He wondered how much longer his body could handle the work, and whether his employer would dump him before he became eligible for a pension. “To tell the truth,” he said of the government’s announcement, “this is extremely unfriendly to us low-level workers.” China said last month that it would “gradually delay the legal retirement age” over the next five years, in an attempt to address one of the country’s most pressing issues. Its rapidly aging population means a shrinking labor force. State pension funds are at risk of running out. And China has some of the lowest retirement ages in the world: 50 for blue-collar female workers, 55 for white-collar female workers, and 60 for most men. The idea, though, is deeply unpopular. The government has yet to release details of its plan, but older workers have already decried being cheated of their promised timelines, while young people worry that competition for jobs, already fierce, will intensify. And workers with blue-collar or physically demanding jobs like Mr. Meng’s, who still make up the majority of China’s labor force, say they’ll be worn down, left unemployed or both. The announcement was made during the annual meeting of the national legislature, and afterward retirement-related topics trended for days on Chinese social media, racking up hundreds of millions of views and critical comments. Around the world, raising the retirement age has emerged as one of the thorniest challenges a government can take on. Russia’s attempt to do so in 2018 led to President Vladimir V. Putin’s lowest approval ratings in years. Mr. Putin eventually pushed the plan through but granted concessions, a rare move for him. A pension reform plan in France prompted a prolonged transportation strike last year, forcing the government to shelve the proposal. The Chinese government itself abandoned a previous effort to raise retirement ages in 2015, in the face of a similar outcry. This time, it seems determined to follow through. But it has also acknowledged the backlash. Officials appear to be treading gingerly, leaving the details vague for now but suggesting that the threshold would be raised by just a few months each year. “They’ve been talking about it for a long time,” said Albert Francis Park, an economics professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who has studied China’s retirement system. “They’ll have to really exercise quite a bit of resolve to push it through.” China has been hurtling toward a retirement age crisis for years. The current standards were set in the 1950s, when the average citizen was expected to live until only his or her early 40s. But as the country has swiftly modernized, life expectancy has reached nearly 77 years, according to World Bank data. Birthrates have also plummeted, leaving China’s population distinctly top-heavy. More than 300 million people, about one-fifth of the population, are expected to be over 60 by 2025, according to the government. The result is what experts call a serious threat to China’s continued economic growth and ability to compete. In Japan and many European nations, residents become eligible for pensions at 65 or later. At a recent news conference, You Jun, the deputy minister of human resources and social security, said China risked a “waste of human resources.” Today in Business Updated  April 26, 2021, 6:10 p.m. ET The backlash has underscored a host of other anxieties in Chinese society about issues such as job security, the social safety net and income inequality. The hypercompetitive environment that defines many white-collar workplaces in China is already grinding on Naomi Chen, a 29-year-old financial analyst in Shanghai. She has often discussed with friends her wish to retire early to escape the pressure, even if it means living more modestly. The government’s announcement only confirmed that desire. China already struggles to provide enough well-paid white-collar jobs for its ballooning ranks of university graduates. With fewer retirees, Ms. Chen worries, she would be left working just as hard but with less prospect of a payoff. “Getting promoted will definitely be slower, because the people above me won’t retire,” she said. In reality, older workers may suffer more. China has modernized so quickly that they tend to be much less skilled or educated than their younger counterparts, making some employers reluctant to retain them, Professor Park said. In several industries, including tech, 35 is seen as the age ceiling for being hired. Delaying retirement also risks undermining another major government priority: encouraging couples to have more children, to slow the aging of the population. In part because of inadequate child-care resources, the vast majority of Chinese rely on grandparents to be the primary caretakers for their children. Now, social media users are asking what will happen if the older generation is still working. Lu Xia, 26, said the prospect of later retirement made it impossible to consider having a second child. More children would eventually mean more grandchildren to care for, even as she was expected to keep working. “With delayed retirement, it’s hard to imagine what we’ll have to face by the time that we are grandparents,” said Ms. Lu, who lives in the city of Yangquan, southwest of Beijing. Unless China increases support for child care, new parents may leave the work force or postpone childbirth until their parents retire, exacerbating the labor shortage, Feng Jin, an economist at Fudan University, told a state-backed labor publication. Still, experts maintain that the cost of inaction would be too high. A 2019 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that the country’s main pension fund would run out by 2035, in part because of the dwindling work force. That has alarmed some young people, who wonder where their own pensions will come from if nothing changes. “I think this is pretty fair,” Wang Guohua, a 29-year-old blogger in Hebei Province, said of pushing back retirement ages. “If people are still alive but there’s no more money, that will affect social stability.” Mr. Wang added that he did not see the appeal of retiring at 60, given how much life expectancy had increased: “You won’t have anything to do.” Indeed, Bian Jianfu, who retired recently from his job as a manager at a state-owned enterprise in Sichuan Province, said he would not have minded working a few years longer. His pension would have increased, too. Mr. Bian receives about $1,000 a month, more than double the average for urban retirees. He praised the government for consistently raising pension payments over the past decade though some experts have acknowledged the strain that doing so has added to the system. “The Chinese government treats retirees very well,” he said. But that security is unevenly distributed, and it is likely to remain so even if the government shores up its pension funds. Mr. Meng, the urban management worker, is paid about $460 a month, one-tenth of which he pays toward pension and basic medical insurance funds. When he finally retires, he expects to draw $120 to $150 a month. He acknowledged that it was barely enough to live on. But he said he could make it work — even if he was now increasingly unsure when the date would come. “All I can do is hold on,” Mr. Meng said. “Keep holding on until I’ve reached the right age.” Source link Orbem News #Arent #China #Graying #Happy #put #retirement #Workers

[rqs902]

.

so i watched the two-part first ep of the coming one super band (gosh darn it was long...) and it made me realize it’s been a while since ive watched a non-idol show LOL. overall it was more interesting to watch than i expected. i didnt have high expectations going in bc its not my usual type of show, but i knew i wanted to at least give it a try bc of ljt. i heard about what happened to hjx prior to this, so that put a damper on my spirits, but i still wanted to see how ljt would do. i did not imagine him in a band before this, but now i kind of can. 

i just cried a little inside when zhou zhennan asked liao juntao if zjy talks like mao buyi... oof 

i find it amusing that they all call ljt liao laoshi and he has lots of fanboys hahah and zzn calls him taotao and seems really close to him still

aw the way zzn specifically asks ljt to sing “don’t talk to me”, a song he hasn’t released yet, means they must keep in close contact and ljt shares his music with him, and zzn takes his songs to heart and truly listens and likes them. 

wow zzn really knows ljt’s guitar skills and rhythmic strengths and additional music styles could be demonstrated through this song and he wanted his friend to promote himself better by showing off a new song that may be more captivating to an audience in this type of setting. it really seemed like he was trying to protect and help ljt with genuine care. it’s been three years and the mrzz friendship still going strong warms my heart

OF COURSE THEY WOULD BRING UP “who” IT’S HIS CLAIM TO FAME SONG. and 3 years later, its still an amazing song. one of my favorites. 

also ljt’s quirky personality was one of my favorite characteristics about him. his talent and music goes without saying, he’s one of my favorite (if not my actual favorite) music makers. but his personality also just seems so fun and slightly strange LOL but like the way he pats his chest after each performance like hes calming his nerves (but you cant tell at all while hes singing) is such a contrast. 

UGH watching the montage from mrzz and then his story all the way through zzn’s crying literally brought me to tears.... lang lang saying how he could tell ljt has been through a lot... oh gosh and then those old clips of liao juntao with zhou zhennan, ma boqian, mao buyi, zhong yixuan UGH it just brought back so many memories and then the flashback to where ljt chose to battle meng zikun instead of wang jingli EVEN THOUGH HE KNEW HE WOULD LOSE AND HE HAD A BETTER CHANCE OF BEATING WJL......... aaaaaaahhhhhhhh because he wanted to protect his friends and let them go on to the next round. and never forget xue zhiqian’s heart-breaking “your choice may force you to struggle for another ten years” because he knew ljt was giving up such a rare opportunity. and mby just breaking down watching his friend commit career suicide basically ugh- that just- ughhh 

and the fact that even as a judge now, zhou zhennan just couldnt stop himself from crying when ljt called him “bro”

can you imagine what it’s like to be so close to success and to live the next three years knowing you had just as much capability and possibility as freaking mao buyi and zhou zhennan but you were still left behind, by such a hugely immense degree. to have lost too early on, even though you definitely had the talent to have at least made it to the next round, but you care too much about your friends to force your way through. 

ljt says he doesnt regret, and that is amazing to me. mao buyi and zhou zhennan are literally both judges on shows like this now. and hes still... a contestant.

lol wait i just had a thought, is ljt to super band what zzn was to produce camp? i really hope so. i feel like its inevitable tencent will favor him bc hes already signed to wjjw???? and hes probably the only one who has somewhat public recognition already? i really want ljt to debut as f-man... i cant imagine him on the sidelines. he deserves and needs to be the center of this eventual 5 person band. if wjjw messes him up again im literally going to question everything. 

ive never gone into a show with such a strong bias and desire for that bias to be center -- ive never dared to ask for that -- but ill say it again, ljt NEEDS AND DESERVES it. i didnt realize i felt so strongly about him until now. 

anyway, i can totally see how ljt and szb would get along, they both seem to have such sad stories (and ugh why is ljt so humble) but also how is tencent gonna deal with not having ljt as an f-man tho LOL

ouch watching the he junxiong part made my heart hurt... i heard about what happened, but watching it actually happen was still jarring. him not saying he wants his music to be commercialized, is that a reaction from what happened to “time of youth” ? It did feel like tencent stole that song from him and didnt credit him enough :\ so maybe he’d rather his music be remembered as in he wants to be remembered for his music? i do agree with zzn that hjx didnt sing the song as well as I expected him to this time though... my impression of he junxiong from produce camp was that he has a really nice voice and is really great at making music. but im surprised how much his attitude has changed. but i can understand it must be hard for him to see zzn sitting in front of him and not giving him his support. i guess from there in contrast, ljt’s humbleness is admirable. man, i wonder if/when we’ll see hjx again. tencent’s gonna hate him now lol.......

random but xu yang visually reminds me of yueyue and zhao ke visually reminds me of mu ziyang LOL also, i respect that hu yutong saw ryp was struggling with public speaking and let him go, but then went over to talk to him privately. he didnt want to make him uncomfortable and did his best to be gentle with his tone. but i agree it will be questionable for someone with such strong ideas like hyt to thrive in a group setting. 

there are a couple of kids besides ljt who im interested in, enough that i think ill keep watching this show for now, but also not enough for me to not be miffed that there are SO MANY extra clips/ shows (YET AGAIN) and i just dont want to / dont have time to watch them all just to look for ljt..... and ljt is still the main reason why id watch, so im gonna have to figure out if theres a way for me to just watch the ljt clips lol.................. 

also side note, seeing them do physically strenuous activities like three legged racing in the previews gave me horror flashbacks to afo and im so scarred from that show that seeing stuff like that just makes me super scared thinking that someone is going to get hurt. ugh its just so unnecessary and such a bad idea.  this was one of the worst parts about afo, the fact that the trainees kept getting injured doing dumb activities. why risk injury when your physical ability to do something as arbitrary as a three legged race should have no impact on your ability to succeed in a music competition???? it just seems so unnecessary and just there to add drama. sure it can build teamwork, but there are safer ways to build teamwork that may not lead to sprained ankles or scraped faces (UGH AFO) 

but anyway, if anyone else is actually watching this show, let me know! I saw a few people on twitter, but i dont think its gaining as much traction as an idol show would, since its a band show. 

[junker-town]

Couldn’t Be Me: Help, I work for an immoral company

Getty Images/iStockphoto

In this week’s advice column: What to do when your employer has lost its moral compass.

Welcome to Couldn’t Be Me, a weekly advice column where I solicit your personal dilemmas and help out as best as I can. Have something I can help you with? Find me @_Zeets.

Too often, one’s moral code clashes with that of the corporation you work for. In a world where profit dictates everything, companies are willing to partner with reprehensible organizations for the right price.

That conflict raises one of the more persistent questions of our time: What responsibility do individuals have in that conflict? To what extent should they risk their own security to stand up against and disassociate with an organization they feel is in the wrong? And how can they take action?

It can be a frustrating to work for a company that has decided that money comes before morality and justice. But there are ways to fight back. This week, we investigate that clash, as well as tackle the old questions of “breaking in” to sports journalism and how to cleanly end a relationship.

A.J:

Hi Zito!

How did you get your start in sports writing?

Any advice for someone trying to transition from something unrelated to sports journalism?

CBM:

I think this question is seeking a replicable path, and that’s difficult. Each person’s path is different, and mine in particular came down to chance more than anything. I went to school for Engineering, played professional soccer, and contributed to a few outlets in the young soccer blogosphere, back when Run of Play, Surreal Football, Twisted Blood, and The Offside were still active. After that, I was just on Twitter fucking around when someone from SB Nation DM’d me asking if I wanted to contribute to the site.

Which I turned down, because I was too cool to do nerdy shit. But they were persistent, and now here I am.

You can of course go through formal education and internships, which provide invaluable learning and connections, and open up certain doors that are much harder to get through as an outsider. Luck plays a big part in breaking into a world that tries to be exclusive, so you will have to be persistent in pitching editors of different outlets. Building an audience on social media is also a good way to showcase your work and grab people’s attention.

My advice beyond that is to remember that there’s no such thing as a proper writing path. As Mo Yan wrote in The Republic of Wine:

“Tolstoy was a military man, Gorki a baker and a dishwasher, Guo Moruo a medical student, and Wang Meng the Deputy Party Secretary of the Beijing branch of the Youth League in China’s new democracy. They all changed careers and became writers, didn’t they?”

The same rule applies to any writing as it does for sportswriting: you should have a sense of wonder about the world that you’re witnessing. Find the things that provoke excitement within you, whether they’re fun things or important moral conflicts, and try to transmit that excitement to the audience. Just show people why you love the things you love.

And please, try to be creative about it.

Tim:

I’ve been dating my partner for more than three years. I work in a pretty sensitive field where splitting up with your spouse would end your career (not guessing at this, it’s very clear), and she recently told me I might need to be ready to change jobs after we get married because she is afraid we might get divorced someday and that would cost me my job.

So ... should I break up with her now or wait until we get back from a vacation we’ve got planned next week?

CBM:

It seems that you’ve already made up your mind that you’re going to break up with her, and so for the sake of her own emotional health, it’s probably better to do so immediately than allow her to be blindsided by the news after a vacation. There’s also a chance that the situation might come up during the vacation which wouldn’t be good for either of you.

John:

Hey Zeets,

What’s an employee of MLS or one of their franchises to do if they disagree with company policy regarding the fan code of conduct and ban on the Iron Front flag?

More generally, what responsibility does an individual have to their corporations ethos when it doesn’t align with their own?

CBM:

There are actually a lot of good examples right now about what individuals can do when met with this conflict: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft workers walking out in protest of their companies’ role in climate change, Wayfair employees protesting their company selling furniture to detention centers, Google employees protesting the company’s bid for an immigration contract, Italian dock workers refusing to load a Saudi weapons vessel in protest of the assault on Yemen.

It comes down to collective action. If you think the company wants to be good, and isn’t just a bad place with a terrible ethos, then there are a number of ways to push back against whatever bad stance they’ve taken, all of which involve getting like-minded individuals together so you can have a bigger voice and more power.

Tech employees have used memos and general statements through email to bring up issues to their higher-ups and prompt conversations, and sometimes reach compromise. Protests are a tried and proven way to force companies to engage and resolve moral conflicts. Fans of certain teams, like the Timbers, have already started protests against their team’s ban on the Iron Front flag, and as expected, those protests have put the team in the awkward position of having to justify their silly position. I expect that the more the team refuses to abandon their stance, the bigger the protests will grow.

If you feel that your company is acting immorally, you have a right to speak up, either in private or in public, which always works better when done as a group. You can hold the company accountable for failing its own ideals, or the ideals that it should have. You also have the right to leave if you have the opportunity to do so.

[ibilenews]

In the absence of sports, what are Chinese sports writers doing?

BEIJING, April 7, 2020 – When Wuhan announced lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Winter Youth Olympics closing ceremony was on going, the Olympic flame was extinguishing, and this is where the dark time of global sports industry began.

As the first country affected by the virus, China suspended all sports matches and events soon after January 23, sports facilities like gyms and ski resorts were closed too.

Those sudden changes broke the routine of sports writers in China firstly. Situation got worse when the COVID-19 virus spread globally during March, leaving a world with no football, basketball, skiing and whatever sports events, affecting sports journalism in all five continents eventually.

Under this situation, sports writers still have work to do as so many unprecedented things happened like the postponement of 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But of course, there are extraordinary changes and challenges of reporting sports in this sport-absence period.

As an international media institution, China’s Xinhua News Agency sends sports writers all over the world. Just like their counterparts, the pandemic has greatly influenced Xinhua sports writers’ working methods.

From sport to what’s beyond sport

“The common sports news are about sports events and athletes, when there’s none, I decided to focus on how the society has changed without sport,” said Liu Yang, a Xinhua Sports writer based in Berlin.

Liu wrote more than 30,000 words during March, the first month that mass sports events paused in Germany, he said he wrote even a little more than his ordinary amount.

There are lots of interesting topics in his article, for example a story about some German lower league football club presell wurst & beer ticket in their online “virtual fans bar” in order to struggle out of financial crisis.

Chinese audience, as well as Liu himself, probably would pay little attention to such lower football leagues if all the top clubs and athletes were on their normal track.

However, with those articles, Chinese audience could understand how important the grassroots football club and fans bar is to the Germans, which truly gives an insight into sports culture.

“COVID-19 paused almost everything in sports, therefore the recovering process is worth recording too,” Liu shared another opinion.

Similar with Liu, Xinhua sports writers based at home have paid a lot of attention to the “recovery” process too.

As the virus is gradually under control in China, recent reports from Shanghai municipality city and Heilongjiang province showed some optimistic signs that basketball courts, badminton gyms and ski resorts are going to be refilled by people.

Those Xinhua sports writers made a field visit to such reopened sports facilities, through which they got deeper understanding of how the virus has hurt to sports industry.

From face-to-face to phone interview

When the whole society is under quarantine, face-to-face interview are extremely difficult, creating a critical difficulty for journalists.

Although journalists can reach sources through phone calls or video chats. However, the basic problem is how to get those phone numbers? Then, how to get trust from the person on the other end of wire?

“Phone interview was always the Plan B for me, for sure you can’t expect it as smooth as the feeling when talking face-to-face, but it’s almost the only option now,” said Xinhua sports writer Lin Deren.

Lin admitted that this method works well when contacting persons that already know him, “but obviously it needs more work for the ‘cold start’.”

“Anyway, I still kept my patience and hope finally it can work out,” said Lin.

Some technical accident may happen during the phone interview too, for example the high failure risk when using the same smart phone to make interview call and voice recording at the same time.

Although there are so many difficulties in phone interview, but for Ji Ye who specialized in Olympic news, the IOC’s recent two tele media conferences provided remarkable opportunities for him.

“Based in Beijing, I couldn’t attend the IOC media conference before, the only way to cover those conferences was by watching videos after it had been held. During this special period, IOC decided to hold media conference by telephone, thus give me chances to truly get involved in it,” said Ji Ye.

It still takes time for him to get familiar with this new form of media conference. In the first conference, approximately 400 journalists were competing for few chances to raise questions to IOC President Thomas Bach, Ji Ye wasn’t get selected.

“The fierce competition was not beyond my estimation and of course I had strong will to ask President Bach, so I kept dialing the ‘*’+‘1’ to request question from the very start. I guess all the journalists from 5 continents were doing the same thing like me.”

Ji Ye said he got smart in the second conference. Prior the conference he sent a question list to Mark Adams, the IOC spokesperson who conducted that meeting.

“Mark knows my name, by sending this email to him, I recalled his impression on me and showed him I have valuable questions, so I got selected.”

Ji Ye also pointed out that with hundreds of journalists from different countries raising questions together, he could better understand the global concern of the Olympics.

“It should be an advantage, which provides me a great variety of reporting angles,” said Ji Ye.

Be Innovative, Keep Studying

During this difficult time, some innovations are happening in Xinhua Sports, one of the remarkable action is the wide collection of Users Generated Content (UGC).

Having estimated the difficulties in producing video content on site due to the nationwide quarantine, Xinhua Sports launched a program to collect some famous athletes’ in-door fitness video, which they shoot by themselves, the program has already expanded to ordinary people recently.

The regular cover of E-games and virtual reality sports competitions has also been added into report routine.

“E-games have barely been influenced by the pandemic, and I can’t ignore some competitions like shooting embracing some virtual reality features during this special period,” said Wang Meng, a Xinhua sports writer who is the major follower of the E-sports field.

The virtual reality reinforced Shooting competition was held on April 2 in different training facilities and live-streamed together by an online broadcasting platform, the athletes’ real time bio-data was provided, thus their stress level could be showed to spectators.

Locked by the global COVID-19 outbreak, it’s a relative leisure time for sports writers who were always on their way to the next interview. Also, it’s a good time for learning something new.

Wang Meng said she resumed learning Japanese recently. For sports writers, one optimistic side of the postponement of Tokyo 2020 is they may get more time to acquire that language.

Remote education methods are also being utilized to share the recent thinking and experience of sports issues.

Lin Deren joined the first AIPS Young Reporters e-College course on April 2, in which the former director of Marketing / Broadcast Rights IOC, Michael Payne, talked about marketing and the future of Tokyo 2020.

“It’s really convenient to do such international group discussing and learning through internet, the remote course is a great attempt to gather our sports writers worldwide in this difficult period,” said Lin.

[fullspectrum-cbd-oil]

Trump Says China Trade Talks ‘Back on Track,’ New Tariffs on Hold

The United States and China agreed on Saturday to restart trade talks after President Donald Trump offered concessions including no new tariffs and an easing of restrictions on tech company Huawei in order to reduce tensions with Beijing.

China agreed to make unspecified new purchases of U.S. farm products and return to the negotiating table, Trump said. No deadline was set for progress on a deal, and the world’s two largest economies remain at odds over significant parts of an agreement.

The last major round of talks collapsed in May.

Financial markets, which have been rattled by the nearly year-long trade war, are likely to cheer the truce. Washington and Beijing have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s imports, stoking fears of a wider global trade war. Those tariffs remain in place while negotiations resume.

“We’re right back on track,” Trump told reporters after an 80-minute meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in Osaka, Japan.

“We’re holding back on tariffs and they’re going to buy farm products,” Trump said, without giving details about the purchases.

Trump tweeted hours later that the meeting with Xi went “far better than expected.”

“The quality of the transaction is far more important to me than speed,” he tweeted. “I am in no hurry, but things look very good!”

The U.S. president had threatened to slap new levies on roughly $300 billion of additional Chinese goods, including popular consumer products, if the meeting in Japan proved unsuccessful. Such a move would have extended existing tariffs to almost all Chinese imports into the United States.

In a lengthy statement on the two-way talks, China’s foreign ministry quoted Xi as telling Trump he hoped the United States could treat Chinese companies fairly.

“China is sincere about continuing negotiations with the United States … but negotiations should be equal and show mutual respect,” the foreign ministry quoted Xi as saying.

Trump offered an olive branch to Xi on Huawei Technologies Co [HWT.UL], the world’s biggest telecom network gear maker. The Trump administration has said the Chinese firm is too close to China’s government and poses a national security risk, and has lobbied U.S. allies to keep Huawei out of next-generation 5G telecommunications infrastructure.

Trump’s Commerce Department has put Huawei on its “entity list,” effectively banning the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.

But Trump said on Saturday he did not think that was fair to U.S. suppliers, who were upset by the move. “We’re allowing that, because that wasn’t national security,” he said.

CHEERS FROM CHIP MAKERS

Trump said the U.S. Commerce Department would study in the next few days whether to take Huawei off the list of firms banned from buying components and technology from U.S. companies without government approval.

China welcomed the step.

“If the U.S. does what it says, then of course, we welcome it,” said Wang Xiaolong, the Chinese foreign ministry’s envoy for G20 affairs.

U.S. microchip makers also applauded the move.

“We are encouraged the talks are restarting and additional tariffs are on hold and we look forward to getting more detail on the president’s remarks on Huawei,” John Neuffer, president of the U.S. Semiconductor Association, said in a statement.

Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, however, tweeted that any agreement to reverse the recent U.S. action against Huawei would be a “catastrophic mistake” and that legislation would be needed to put the restrictions back in place if that turned out to be the case.

Last month, Rubio and Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner urged Trump to not use Huawei as a bargaining chip for trade negotiations.

Huawei has come under mounting scrutiny for over a year, led by U.S. allegations that “back doors” in its routers, switches and other gear could allow China to spy on U.S. communications.

The company has denied its products pose a security threat. It declined to comment on the developments on Saturday.

The problems at Huawei have filtered across to the broader chip industry, with Broadcom Inc <AVGO.O> warning of a broad slowdown in demand and cutting its revenue forecast.

Trump said he and Xi did not discuss the extradition proceedings against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, who was arrested in Canada in December on charges alleging she misled global banks about Huawei’s relationship with a company in Iran.

RELIEF AND SCEPTICISM

Scores of Asia specialists, including former U.S. diplomats and military officers, urged Trump to rethink policies that “treat China as an enemy,” warning that approach could hurt U.S. interests and the global economy, according to a draft open letter reviewed by Reuters on Saturday.

Investors, businesses and financial leaders have for months been warning that an intractable tit-for-tat tariff war between the United States and China could damage global supply chains and push the world economy over a cliff.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Saturday urged G20 policymakers to reduce tariffs and other obstacles to trade, warning that the global economy had hit a “rough patch” due to the trade conflict.

Although analysts cheered a resumption of talks between Washington and Beijing, some questioned whether the two sides would be able to build enough momentum to breach the divide and forge a lasting deal.

“Translating this truce into a durable easing of trade tensions is far from automatic … especially as what’s in play now extends well beyond economics to include delicate national security issues of both immediate- and longer-term nature,” said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.

The United States says China has been stealing American intellectual property for years, forces U.S. firms to share trade secrets as a condition for doing business in China, and subsidizes state-owned firms to dominate industries.

China has said the United States is making unreasonable demands and must also make concessions.

The negotiations hit an impasse in May after Washington accused Beijing of reneging on reform pledges made during months of talks. Trump raised tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods, and China retaliated by raising levies on a list of U.S. imports.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Michael Martina and Chris Gallagher in Osaka; Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in New York, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Leika Kihara in Osaka and Jennifer Ablan in New York; Writing by Linda Sieg, Malcolm Foster, Jeff Mason and Paul Simao; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Himani Sarkar)

from IJR https://ift.tt/2Np7HSw via IFTTT

[bountyofbeads]

The US wants to halt Huawei's global advance. It may be too late

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/tech/huawei-business-global/index.html

The US wants to halt Huawei's global advance. It may be too late

Analysis by Sherisse PHAM |CNN BUSINESS |

Updated Jan 29, 2019 | Posted January 29, 2019 |

Hong Kong (CNN Business) - Huawei's rise as a global tech company is under threat as an increasing number of governments express concern that its technology could be used by Chinese spies.

But the US-led campaign against the Chinese company may do little more than act as a brake on growth, given the dominant position Huawei has already built in fifth generation (5G) wireless technology. It has loyal customers in emerging markets and parts of Europe, and expects to become the world's top smartphone seller by next year.

"This campaign will only slow Huawei's business growth in some countries in European and Asia Pacific markets," said Charlie Dai, an analyst with research firm Forrester based in Beijing. "But I don't think it's going to retreat from any market at all in the foreseeable future."

Huawei's global dominance has raised alarm bells in the United States, which has accused the company of selling products that the Chinese government could use for spying.

The latest move against the company came on Monday, when the US Justice Department filed criminal charges that accuse Huawei of stealing trade secrets, obstruction of justice, bank fraud and evading US sanctions on Iran. Huawei denies the charges.

"Suspicion of Huawei runs deep and there is a bipartisan, whole of government campaign in Washington to take down this company, not just in the United States, but around the world," said Samm Sacks, a cybersecurity policy and China digital economy fellow at the New America think tank.

The assault on Huawei's business reflects the increasingly bitter rivalry between Beijing and Washington over who will control the technologies of the future. There is particular concern about the security of 5G because it will be used to carry vast amounts of data, connecting robots, autonomous vehicles and other sensitive devices.

If the US government decides to escalate the fight still further by preventing Huawei buying US-made parts, as it did with another Chinese tech company ZTE last year, it could inflict substantial damage.

"Huawei is less dependent on US suppliers than ZTE, but without access to US technologies, even it will not survive long," Dan Wang, an analyst at research firm Gavekal wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.

For now, though, the Chinese company remains in a strong position to lead the rollout of 5G networks. Huawei says it has signed 30 contracts for 5G, and is working with more than 50 wireless carriers on commercial tests. It is also one of the top owners of 5G patents.

Huawei has spent decades building a strong presence in scores of markets around the world, helped by reliable hardware and competitive pricing. It is the world's No. 1 telecommunications equipment maker, despite being effectively shut out of the US market, and last year overtook Apple (AAPL) as the second biggest supplier of smartphones. It expects to overtake Samsung by 2020.

The company denies that its products are a risk to national security. It also maintains that it is a privately owned company with no ties to the Chinese government. Its international reputation, however, is taking a beating.

HUAWEI PREPARES FOR TOUGHER TIMES

Polish authorities detained a Huawei executive this month on allegations of spying for the Chinese government. The company fired the employee shortly after the arrest, saying his actions had brought Huawei into "disrepute."

In December, Canada arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of US prosecutors. The United States is seeking her extradition on allegations she helped the company dodge US sanctions on Iran. Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, denies any wrongdoing.

In recent months, Australia and New Zealand have restricted Huawei from providing equipment for 5G networks. Germany and Canada are considering similar measures. Top global mobile carrier Vodafone is pausing the deployment of Huawei equipment in core networks in Europe while it speaks with authorities and the company.

In the United Kingdom, Huawei is already monitored by a government oversight panel that warned last summer of new risks. The company says it's working to address them. But the pressure has gone beyond the telecoms industry, with organizations such as Oxford University saying they will stop accepting money from Huawei. Prominent American universities are also distancing themselves from the company's funding and equipment.

Huawei's leaders accept that the environment is becoming more hostile.

"In the next few years, the overall situation will not be as optimistic as we imagined. We must prepare for hardships," Ren said in November. His comments were posted on a company website this month.

Huawei is unlikely to repeat the breakneck growth it experienced over the last 30 years, and will have to "give up some mediocre employees and lower labor costs," Ren added.

Following the wave of negative headlines, the company is stepping up its PR campaign. Ren, who rarely speaks to the media, gave interviews to two separate groups of reporters in recent weeks.

He said he expects Huawei to bring in $125 billion in revenue this year, an increase of roughly 15% from 2018.

"If we are not allowed to sell our products in certain markets, we would rather scale down a bit," Ren said. "As long as we can feed our employees, I believe there will always be a future for Huawei."

Emerging markets and loyal customers

Huawei reported revenue growth of 16% for 2017. Its major western rivals, Finland's Nokia (NOK) and Sweden's Ericsson (ERIC), both suffered declines in revenue for the same year.

The Chinese company still does brisk business in many emerging markets, which are unlikely to abandon its equipment.

Revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Africa grew by about 5% in 2017 to 164 billion yuan ($25 billion). Growth in the Asia-Pacific region was stronger, with revenue up more than 10%.

Analysts predict customers in those regions will stick with Huawei because of its highly competitive prices and out of a sense of loyalty.

The rollout of 5G wireless networks will be expensive because they require far more base stations than previous generations, according to Kenny Liew, a telecommunications analyst at research firm Fitch Solutions.

Mobile operators "will be keen to slash costs wherever possible, and one way to do so is to opt for cheaper but proven Chinese equipment," he said.

Wireless carriers in India, which have fought a brutal price war in recent years, are likely to favor Huawei as a cheaper option in light of the financial pressures in the industry, Liew added.

And Huawei's early commitment to countries such as Nigeria and South Africa has earned it loyalty.

"There are countries in sub-Saharan Africa where Huawei ... took a risk to invest when other vendors were wary," Liew said.

Huawei could also benefit from the opening of China's market to foreign players such as British carrier BT, which last week became the first foreign telecoms group to obtain a license to sell directly to customers nationwide.

"This move is definitely helpful for Huawei," said Dai, the Forrester analyst. BT may need Huawei's help to better serve the local market, and a closer business relationship could help Huawei outside China.

The decision from Beijing came just weeks after BT said it would not buy Huawei equipment for the core of its 5G network and was stripping Huawei equipment from the heart of its 4G network. BT said it would continue to buy the Chinese company's products for other parts of its networks.

Beyond telecoms equipment, Huawei's smartphone business is thriving. The company sold more than 200 million devices in 2018, up about 30% from the previous year. The spike in sales helped revenue from Huawei's consumer business rise to $52 billion — an increase of more than 40%.

GEOPOLITICAL TIGHTROPE

Political considerations could help Huawei, too.

Nations that have benefited from Chinese investment will be reluctant to impose bans on Huawei equipment because of potential geopolitical repercussions, according to Liew.

Poland and the Czech Republic are already trying to walk a diplomatic tightrope, balancing security ties with the United States with their need for Chinese investment.

Poland is reportedly trying to smooth over tensions with Beiing after arresting the Huawei executive. Poland is China's biggest trading partner in the region, according to the World Bank.

Late last year, the Czech Republic's intelligence agencies issued a public warning about using products from Huawei and its smaller rival ZTE. The Czech prime minister later had to deny a report that he had told Chinese diplomats the warning didn't represent the Czech government's position.

Like Huawei, ZTE denies that its products pose any national security risks.

Chinese officials are also lashing out over the increasing pressure Huawei is facing in Western Europe.

After Vodafone's announcement Friday, Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Zhang Ming blasted the "slander" and "discrimination" that he said Huawei and other Chinese companies are facing in Europe.

Zhang warned that any attempts to restrict the use of Chinese technology in European 5G projects would risk "serious consequences" for global economic and scientific cooperation, according to an interview published Sunday by the Financial Times.

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