#and wwx made it very clear that he did not want lwj involved in it

[layzeal]

wei wuxian opening up to lan wangji at the foot of the burial mounds about why he can't simply stop cultivating the ghost path was his cat equivalent of rolling on his back and exposing his stomach while trusting lwj would not touch it

[grewlikefancyflowers]

Hi, i absolutely love your metas on mdzs. So as someone who trusts your interpretation of mdzs text. I wanted to know about this particular part of MXTX Interview on mdzs. While i do know the fact that wwx's loss of control is realted to his mental health. But what can we infer from MXTX's answer for that part??

Thank you, it really makes me happy when people say they like my metas 🥰

So, I'm assuming this question is in relation to the interpretation that JZX's death and WWX's loss of control can be attributed to his mental state (and not guidao), and therefore (along with JZX actually being the one to attack first) WWX can't be considered entirely responsible for it. This is not exactly an opinion that I have—I do not believe WWX's cultivation is completely harmless.

To discuss this I think it would be helpful to first look at another translation by Gggg_Zhan of this interview excerpt, and also consider the context of MXTX's answer.

When MXTX says he in the one responsible for the death of JZX, it is specifically in relation to the interviewer asking if there was someone else behind it (such as CQL's second flautist), so when she says he is responsible, I do not think she is denying that there are mitigating factors (mental state/guidao, self defense), she is just specifically saying that that was no other person involved.

As well as that, it is pretty clear from Zhan's translation of this interview that MXTX outright said WWX's mental state did play a role in his loss of control, as well as his long-term use of guidao.

And actually, even back during the SSC, WWX was aware his cultivation was having some effect on him, this was in fact why he decided to forge the yin hufu.

'When Wei Wuxian first forged it, he didn’t deliberate too much over it. As he had to use his very own life essence [6] to control zombies and evil spirits, there were times where he was bound to feel tired.' (ch.30, tmwx)

Tangent about 'life essence' — the footnote tmwx gave for this is: '[6] 元神 (yuán shén) – Can be translated as “life essence” or “primordial spirit”. In Taoism, it is defined as a level of existence that can be cultivated, surpassing that of physical existence, capable of existing independently in the form of a soul.' Back when I first read this, I was curious about how WWX's cultivation worked and what exactly this meant in the context of MDZS, so I searched for instances of 元神 in the chinese version. In many instances it was translated to soul (for example MXY's 元神 was destroyed in the ritual), in ch.64 it is mentioned that the songs in the collection of turmoil will disturb one's 元神.

他心中高興，拍的這一下險些震倒了書案上的紙燈，藍忘機眼疾手快地將它扶了起來。魏無羨道：「藍宗主，這本《亂魄抄》裡面，有沒有一支曲子，能擾人心神、使人元神激蕩、氣血翻騰、暴躁易怒之類的？」 exr's translation: Wei WuXian spoke, “Sect Leader Lan, within the The Collection of Turmoil, is there any that can disturb a person’s composure, making them irritated, agitated, violent, easily-angered?” 7S translation: Sect Leader Lan, is there a song in the Collection of Spirit Turmoil that can disturb someone's mind, agitate their primordial spirit, unsettle their vital energy, and make them easily prone to anger? So I think when it says WWX's use of his life essence/soul/元神 to control corpses made him tired, it is maybe not as simple as just feeling tired, but rather more of a spiritual or mental fatigue. Additionally, in the original draft of MDZS, WWX told LWJ and JC in the supervisory office that he uses his 元神 to control corpses, this seems to confirm to LWJ that WWX's cultivation is harmful and prompts him to inquire a few times specifically about his temperament which was also removed in the edits.

It's also clear from the Nightless city battle that WWX's control over his corpses is tied to his control over his emotions

The more Wei WuXian panicked, the less control he had. [...] He took up Chenqing, placed it by his lips, and began to play. He only managed to steady his mind with great effort. This time, the corpses finally stopped ignoring his commands.

In chapter 7 we are told WWX's cultivation is harmful: 'Wei Wuxian’s method of cultivation might have been denounced by the rest of the cultivation world, and would also affect the practitioner’s constitution in the long run. However, one could achieve results quickly, as this form of cultivation was not restricted by spiritual powers or innate talent.' (tmwx)

When looking at all of these things together, we can make some assumptions about exactly why WWX's cultivation is harmful.

As we know, WWX can only use corpses that are already resentful. In order to control them he must control their resentment, stir it up, direct, and calm it as he requires. Since WWX's control of them is tied to his control over his own emotions, it would require constant mental and emotional effort — this is part of the reason why not just anyone can control corpses like WWX does, WWX is extremely skilled at rationalising, suppressing or letting go of his feelings, so I believe he applies that to his cultivation too.

However, 'though Wei Wuxian thought that his heart was like a stone, in the end, he was still human, not some emotionless grass or plant.'

What human could keep up such strenuous control over themselves forever? Who could take on the resentful energy of others and manage it every day without it wearing down on their mental state? We see WWX become more short-tempered, sometimes cold, sometimes angry after he starts using guidao, until it culminates in him losing losing control entirely. I think WWX's mental state and WWX's cultivation are far too intertwined to draw any sort of line between them, the two are compounding.

So it seems WWX's cultivation can harm his mind. I think we should also consider if resentful energy can harm him more directly. There is canonical evidence it can, such as how the strong resentment of NMJ's arm caused all the (high-level) Lan cultivators to qi deviate to the point of passing out. WWX seems wholly unaffected by it, probably he is more than used to it, after being around such energy day after day for many years of his life. But is he immune to it? Probably not.

Now onto the morality of this — is WWX's cultivation wrong because it can be harmful? No. I find this idea very silly. Should sports, such as figure skating, be considered morally wrong because of risk of harm? Obviously not. As well as that, regular cultivation in MDZS carries a risk of harm too — cultivators can die from qi deviation, its not even considered that unusual.

So, could WWX's cultivation be considered wrong because there is a risk of losing control, and therefore harming others? Also no... but within reason.

WWX had never lost control over his cultivation before, so I don't think it is fair to say he should have seen it coming or consider his loss of control a moral failing on his part. It was an accident that he couldn't have predicted. Post-canon, he's in a very different position to his first life, he no longer needs to use guidao constantly every day (remember that it is only over the long-term that it can be harmful). Mentally & emotionally he is in a much better state and is definitely not at risk of losing control over himself as he had before. Plus, now that he has LWJ by his side, he will definitely always be okay no matter what.

[admirableadmiranda]

I remember Dee (aka Vrishchika talked about this before) and I referenced it loosely below because she touched upon it perfectly.

A relationship is a work-in-progress that eventually becomes a habit, requiring effort and dedication from whoever is involved.

With fanfiction, you can ship anyone with anyone, depending on the story and how you plot it. Fanfictions aren't canon. Metas aren't canon, just discussions and extrapolations. Canon is the raw text in the novel. In the raw text of the novel, WWX says there is no one he wants aside from LWJ. The guy hasn't even kissed anyone but LWJ.

As someone who's new to MXTX, I think there's a lot of conflation of compatability with choice. Choice is a central theme too in the story in terms of actions, right?

As Dee said, it's not that either WWX or LWJ can't be happy with anyone else because I don't think any human is really built for a lifetime of solitude. However, they choose each other everytime. With the MXTX couples, they're whole and happy on their own, however they choose to be happy with each other. They never even consider anyone else romantically I would say they're like stars orbiting each other with their collision being inevitable regardless of time and obstacles.

You can ship any characters for xyz reason and you might no want it to be canon or maybe you want it to be. But I don't see as to why fanon becomes this overarching single truth as if what MXTX wrote wasn't written intentionally. I don't know if you remember the last bit of discourse a while back by some artist (soursoppi or smth like that) about how MXTX wrote these characters when was younger, so she made mistakes. I think that's what she said, but please correct me because I feel like I'm missing something. I don't know why MXTX's works in particular attract this kind of attention as if she didn't deliberately write these characters and their romance intentionally with little details connecting from the beginning to the end.

People are allowed to play and experiment, but if you're unable to characterize these characters in a way that actually lends to them, that's just poor writing lol

Sorry for the rant, Sangsang! Sending you a big hug, tea and some cookies 😘❤

Awww, I remember that too. It was a long time ago, but the words she said then were fantastic, so thanks for bringing them back to me.

You are absolutely right that MXTX is very big on choice in themes and actions. You can especially see it in how the villains try to protest that they had no choice but to do the terrible things they did and how very clear it was that they actually did. It was their choice to follow through and do it anyway. Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian also have a lot on choice regarding that making the choices they did may have led them into misery at times, but they still consider it worth it and don't regret those choices even though they may have still ended badly.

I feel like for MXTX's protagonists, it's basically the 1 in a million principle, only they're working with much smaller numbers than we are today. But also they really aren't alone even if they don't have a lover. Lan Wangji has his family and his ducklings; Shen Qingqiu has his peak sect martial siblings and his students, Xie Lian makes connections with people everywhere he goes. Just because there's not necessarily someone sharing their bed does not mean they are alone.

Hahaha, you reminded me of my Wangxian are as inevitable as colliding stars line there, anon! Thank you. <3

Fanon is a strange beast because in a way I think it sustains due to how communal it is. Fanon rarely is born out of one person keeping it going a little while ago, but many people coming together to tell stories about these stories and characters they like together and I can get how that's a compelling bond. If you like this same interpretation I do, maybe we could be friends! So that's why it seems to have so much odd staying power even when it's really odd ooc fanon.

I definitely remember the Soursoppi discourse. One of my friends was right at the center of that because she pointed out that Soursoppi was lying about the Ancestral Hall scene in order to misrepresent Wangxian because Jiang Cheng is in the wrong the entire time and in revenge, Soursoppi decided to try and make up a really stupid, flimsy lie that because MXTX had created Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang back in high school, it meant that MDZS was actually fanfiction. This is...this is not how it works. MXTX is so very deliberate and careful and I think where the real tripping points are is that there's not many holes for fanon to go into but people try to make it anyway because they're used to being in fandoms with more holes than fabric and also that there are a lot of very relevant cultural and societal details as well as MDZS being a deconstruction of regular Xianxia that especially western fans tend to ignore even though they are incredibly relevant to the story itself. I've read some more Xianxia and Wuxia now and holy hell is she deconstructing the fuck out of common tropes there.

"If you're unable to characterize these characters in a way that actually lends to them, that's just poor writing" Anon you are speaking my language and I love you.

The rant was lovely, it made me tear up with happiness! Thank you for such kind words on this wintry day, the big hug, tea and cookies are perfect for my snowy weather!

Thank you very much for stopping by today, anon.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: what if jc was lxc's age (and jyl maybe 2 or 3 years older) and wwx was lwj's/nhs' age when he was brought to lotus pier? (Or anything that involves a much bigger age gap bw the jiang sibs and wwx - where wwx is babey)

Untamed

“You know what,” Jiang Cheng said to his sister, who looked at him. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not marrying a woman.”

Jiang Yanli’s lips started twitching uncontrollably and she hid her smile behind her sleeve. “Oh?”

“Nope. I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun.”

“On the basis of…?”

“If you take two adult men in charge of two Great Sects,” Jiang Cheng said, doing his utmost best to keep a straight face, “with all the power we can generate between us, we might – maybe – have a chance at disciplining our baby brothers.”

Jiang Yanli burst out laughing.

“There, there. It’s all right,” he said, grinning, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder. “You can join us if you’d like. There’s enough room in Qinghe for two wives.”

“We are not both running away to Qinghe,” she said, giggling. “A-Cheng!”

“What? I think it’s a great idea. If our parents want us back, they can negotiate with Chifeng-zun for it – may they have more luck than they had with the whole medicinal herb debacle.”

“A-Cheng, I am officially tabling this idea,” Jiang Yanli said, still snorting. “Older sibling privilege.”

“I let you out of the womb first as a matter of courtesy,” Jiang Cheng sniffed. “And now you use it against me? A-Li, how could you?”

“Call me jiejie! It doesn’t matter how much older, a few shichen or a few years, older is still older.”

“You probably elbowed me with those sharp pointy things you have on your arms. Weapons of war.”

“Older is older!” she sang. “Now tell me, what did A-Xian do this time?”

“Would you like it in chronological order, or in order of severity? I can also group it by theme, if you prefer.”

“Oh no,” Jiang Yanli said, covering her eyes. “Oh no.”

“And the chief-most theme,” Jiang Cheng said, continuing anyway, “is still called Lan Wangji.”

“Oh no!”

“He has the worst crush,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head with endless amusement. “And he just – refuses to admit it. ‘Nooooo, shixiong, we’re just friends, he can’t even stand me most of the time, he’s always trying to get me in trouble, but sometimes he lets me sit next to him and spend time with him and he’s so handsome and I really just want to make him laugh –’”

“We have,” Jiang Yanli said thoughtfully, “raised an idiot.”

“He was fine when we got him,” Jiang Cheng disagreed. “We have spoiled an idiot.”

“This is true. Maybe we should go form a mutual complaining society with Chifeng-zun; isn’t his little brother also an idiot?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Jiang Cheng said. “Worse: they’ve teamed up. Nie Huaisang buys Wei Wuxian porn now.”

“Oh no…”

“In return for help cheating on his tests!”

“Oh no!”

“So that’s why I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun,” Jiang Cheng concluded. “Our parents may be disappointed by my decision, but with our powers combined, we might be able to save the world from our respective younger idiots.”

“Maybe,” she said, and shook her head. “A-Cheng – about our parents…”

Jiang Cheng shook his head as well, echoing her action but more in denial. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that she took after their father and he took after their mother, that she was born a shichen prior to midnight and he a shichen after and their personalities completely different as a result; it was no one’s fault that their parents didn’t get along, with their mother disdaining what she perceived as Jiang Yanli’s passiveness and lack of passion and their father despising Jiang Cheng’ prickly temper and difficulty communicating his affection without scolding.

It certainly wasn’t Wei Wuxian’s fault for being younger and more brilliant, talented at everything he did and with just the sort of personality their father liked best – the combination of his former best friend and the girl he’d once thought of marrying – and that he’d always made that preference very clear to everyone, even to their mother who often worried that her husband would dispossess her children in favor of his foundling and who lashed out at everyone in response.

That had hurt – hurt a lot, even, and Jiang Cheng was soft and sensitive underneath all his defensive layers, but any time he got angry over it he would look at Wei Wuxian, their little A-Xian, baby Xianxian, who adored his older siblings more than anything and was adored in return, and he forced himself to get over it. He was old enough, by the time Wei Wuxian arrived, to know to whom the blame really belonged.

“I spoke with Nie Huaisang while I was at the Cloud Recesses,” Jiang Cheng said in an undertone, one reserved just for his sister. “He’s asked me to pass along a message to his brother, the next time I go night-hunting, about the whole debacle – he’s so terribly apologetic, you understand, he couldn’t wait for the post – if we get to Qinghe by tomorrow, Chifeng-zun will be able to get to Gusu in time to intervene before our father does something wretched like cancel your engagement and take A-Xian home early from his studies.”

“The engagement I wouldn’t mind,” she remarked. “If Jin Zixuan feels so strongly about it that he’d get into a fistfight with A-Xian, it’s better not to marry, no matter what our mother might think. But on no account is A-Xian to be sent home early! He needs his education!”

Unsaid was everything else he needed, things he could get better at the Cloud Recesses than anywhere else.

“Then we go?”

“We go,” she agreed. Between the two of them, Jiang Cheng had more talent at cultivation, but she was steadier, even in her overall mediocrity: when the two of them flew on a sword together, they could make it much further and faster than anyone expected.

Qinghe wasn’t really close enough for a quick jaunt – they flew all night without stopping – but Chifeng-zun was amendable to their scheme, jumping at once onto his saber and making his way straight to Gusu. A waste of spiritual energy all around, really, but far faster than their father would move, with his Sect Leader’s dignity and retinue, rushing to the Cloud Recesses to save his precious little Wei Wuxian from having any connections in life that weren’t to the Jiang sect, and the Jiang sect alone. 

And never mind how much he needed those connections: needed to have friends his own age, needed to have more time with that crush of his, needed independence and freedom and everything the Jiang sect supposedly stood for - needed for them to support him and act as the foundation beneath his feet, rather than the chains tying him down to earth.

Chifeng-zun – who was only a few years older than they were – was really a very understanding person, getting the problem at once and immediately agreeing with their view on things. Perhaps there really was something to be said about the difference in generations…

“Let me show you to rooms where you can rest,” Chifeng-zun’s aide said, a slender young man with a polite smile on his face as he saluted. “I’ll arrange for refreshments as well.”

“We hate to trouble you, but in all honesty you are a lifesaver,” Jiang Yanli said to him warmly, and he unexpectedly flushed red at the cheeks. “A-Cheng, let’s follow this handsome young man and rest a while before we return to the Lotus Pier.”

The young man was blushing.

“What’s your name?” Jiang Cheng asked, and the blush faded away at once as the man paled a little: it would be one he expected them to recognize, then, and not in a good way.

“This one is Meng Yao,” he said, and saluted again even though he’d already saluted once before, and Jiang Yanli’s eyes flickered to Jiang Cheng’s very briefly before she caught his arms and raised him up.

“I’ve heard of you. Smart and talented enough to get Chifeng-zun’s attention, even so far as becoming his personal deputy - you must be brilliant. Truly, you deserve a better father,” she told him, and he stared up at her, dumbstruck.

“Don’t mind her,” Jiang Cheng said. “She’s trying out this new thing in which she says everything she feels without thinking first.”

She elbowed him. “And isn’t it your fault?” she asked snappishly. “You’re the one who needs to speak your mind more; I’m just modeling good behavior!”

If she’d been older than him – really older, rather than just a few shichen – maybe she would have held her tongue more and played the role of the peacekeeper, trying to protect him from his father’s indifference the way she had tried to when they were both younger, just as he had tried to distract his mother from her with his hard-fought accomplishments. It wasn’t until they had little Wei Wuxian to spoil and care for, a joint task that required both of their attention, that they realized that splitting their forces like that was pointless and self-defeating: it wasn’t actually helping that Jiang Yanli suppressed so much of her spirit until she felt like little more than a reflective mirror with no content, nor that Jiang Cheng nearly worked himself to death trying to prove that he was worthy of his father’s love and respect that he would never receive, and it never would.

So they stopped.

They were trying very hard to stop, anyway.

“You’re very kind,” Meng Yao murmured, and led them to their rooms.

The moment he closed the door behind him, Jiang Yanli turned to Jiang Cheng and said, “I’ve changed my mind about your plan – we can run away to Qinghe. You marry Chifeng-zun, and I’ll marry that charming boy out there.”

There was an audible thudding sound from the corridor outside, as if someone had accidentally walked into a wall, and they both grinned at each other.

“Mother would kill you,” he warned her in an undertone.

“And being married to someone who disdains me enough to fight over my worthlessness in public wouldn’t?” she retorted, smiling even though her expression was tinged with pain: if she had one ambition in life, it was to never become their mother. “The marriage agreement might have been forged by our mothers, but the text of it says ‘the Jin sect leader’s son to the Jiang sect leader’s daughter’. Why can’t I marry him?”

“He hasn’t been acknowledged.”

“Only technically. Everyone knows he’s the real deal, or else his father wouldn’t have made such a fuss about it.”

“But –”

“Anyway, he must be a good man, or Chifeng-zun wouldn’t have promoted him.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Chifeng-zun doesn’t have the sense of self-preservation the heavens bestowed on a lemming.”

There was a vaguely audible snort from outside their door. It seemed Meng Yao, at least, had the good sense not to leave guests in his house unattended, and no discrimination against the very useful business of listening at doors.

He also had a sense of humor, which was good given Jiang Yanli’s newfound ambitions in his regard.

“Yes, well, I wasn’t saying I’d elope with him tomorrow or anything,” she sniffed, eyes dancing. “Give him some time to prove himself to me.”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but smile back. “That’s true,” he said, raising his voice a little. “At Chifeng-zun’s side, he’ll be able to make a name for himself until the whispers all say that his father was an idiot for keeping him away.”

“And if even that doesn’t work, I’ll marry him in and make him help me run the Jiang sect,” she said cheerfully. “Who needs Lanling Jin?”

“Wait, since when are you inheriting the Jiang sect?”

“I’m older! And anyway, aren’t you marrying Chifeng-zun? That means you’ll be away helping run his sect, and that leaves an opening at home for me.”

“…huh. Good point.”

“Maybe you can just swap places with Meng Yao,” she said, starting to giggle again. “And we can all see how long it takes anyone to notice…”

“Our parents might not,” Jiang Cheng said dryly. “But Chifeng-zun would. If only because I have my sights set on his bed, and I don’t think Meng Yao does.”

“You don’t know that; everyone wants Chifeng-zun. Maybe you have competition.”

“Better to have competition than be oblivious. Do you want to hear the whole story about A-Xian and Lan Wangji’s tragic mutual pining disaster? Xichen-xiong told me all the details he’s been leaving out of his letters.”

“Tell me everything!”

[withinsnow]

Short reflection on the gusulan rules, lwj's struggles and the fickle nature of justice.

I've read so many wonderful metas on the wall of discipline and lwj's relationship to it, and it's a never-ending source of fascination to me. I wanted to share my own little reflection on it, and while I did read a piece on the rules just recently this isn't a response to that. It did inspire me to write it though, so I did. The rules I refer to are taken from the wiki, so I may get them wrong due to me not knowing the original phrasing in chinese. Anyways, here it is.

One consensus is that the rules themselves are imperfect, and while I think this is true, I don't think we can isolate this from the idea that people are imperfect. The individual has to judge the situation at hand with bias on which rules to prioritize. Given the sheer number of rules, and the multifaceted nature of moral dilemmas, it's nearly given that several rules will stand in opposition to one another.

I also think the way we define the rules will change depending on the rules in question and their context. In many ways they are guidelines: "do not drink alcohol.", "do not rise after 5" etc. Their intention is clear, and the enforcement of them relies less on individual interpretation and more on what importance you regard them with, if exceptions can be made, and so on.

However if we move away from the clear-cut rules and over to the less so, we'll find that they cease to be guidelines at all. When I use the term "guidelines", my definition is "an answer to which choice you should make in a given situation". For example: "do not drink alcohol" is a guideline, but "uphold the value of justice" is not, since upholding justice is not an action in itself, but the result of one: by holding the wrongdoer accountable you uphold justice. Let's not forget there's layers to this too. Sure they should be held accountable, but what does that mean? Punishment? Repentance? If punishment then what punishment? And so on.

Due to this I personally won't put lwj "distancing" himself from the rules as the core of his character development, or that his inner journey revolves around realizing that the rules are imperfect. Instead, I think his struggle stems from facing situations in which his previous approach is no longer enough to judge what the right choice is, if there even is one at all. That's not to say lwj had an overly simplistic world-view in the beginning. He knew about the fate of his parents after all, but one thing is knowing situations can be complex and answers hard to define, another is to find yourself in those situations. The problem isn't the rules, because the rules aren't the answer. Sometimes they're guidelines, sometimes they are values, ideas. By their very nature they cannot give you the answer, because the answer in this context relies on bias.

Let's look at the nightless city aftermath. Lwj is faced with the dilemma of helping wwx or standing with his sect. What was justice in that situation? Wwx killed jzx. He did not intend to, but the responsibility of the action is his. The great sects in turn says that the wen siblings turning themselves in will absolve wwx of any guilt. This is a lie, and while wn was involved in the incident, wq wasn't. To uphold justice wwx needs to be held accountable for the act, but what does accountability mean? Who decides this? The people who lied and targeted the innocent? For that act they should be held accountable. Then who shall cast the first stone? Was it right of wwx to unleash the bloodbath? They attacked him first, but who are they? Were everybody there complicit? Even lwj? Is wwx's attack on the sects justice, self-defense or revenge, and does the motivation behind it change its nature?

This isn't meant as an example of a situation with no answer. I'm sure many will have their own thoughts on who was right, who was wrong, and what the right course of action would be. My point is this: to get to a conclusion you'll have to apply bias. To uphold justice we'll first have to define what that is, and if it's the core on which we should base our judgement. In the end lwj didn't land on a clear conclusion, but he made his choice regardless.

"(...) he could not say with certainty whether what you did was right or wrong, but no matter what, he was willing to be responsible for all of the consequences alongside you."

- From exiled rebels, chapter 99.

So I don't think it was a struggle to do the right thing and the rules being something that blocked his way. I think it was a struggle to live up to those values, yet not knowing how to do so. How do you stay righteous in a situation where you can't properly discern right from wrong? It's paralyzing, but inaction could be the worse choice in the end, so even if you don't have the answer you'll do what you think is right. That's the most important thing.

The reason why I prefer this perspective is because it's a dilemma we'll all face eventually. Perhaps we don't have the 3000 rules, but we do have moral guidelines and social rules. "Don't cut in line", "pick up after your dog"- guidelines. "Be kind", "help those in need"- values. As we move through life we'll see situations in which the answer is not as clear-cut as we'd like. How do we uphold justice then? In the end it all comes down to our own judgement, and to quote wwx's words of wisdom:

"(...) let the self judge the right and wrong, let others decide to praise or to blame, let gains and losses remain uncommented on. I, too, know what I should and shouldn't do."

- Exiled rebels, chapter 75

[plan-d-to-i]

Hot take I never really see in the fandom, but Lan Jingyi is a bigger supporter of Wangxian than Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen just wants Lan Wangji to be happy whether that involves Wei Wuxian or not. He literally calls Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji's biggest mistake. Of course that's protective big brother mode being activated, but still seems like there is some resentment against Wei Wuxian. Lan Xichen also denounces Wei Wuxian at Nightless City. He tells Lan Wangji that Wei Wuxian essentially committed unforgiveable crimes and that Wei Wuxian is wrong like right after he finds out about Lan Wangji being in with Wei Wuxian. It's never stated if he was at the siege or not, but if he was after knowing Lan Wangji's feelings that's not exactly supportive. He'll always be civil to Wei Wuxian because he's like that with everyone, even people he hates. Also it would greatly upset Lan Wangji if his brother hated his husband. I don't think Lan Xichen hates Wei Wuxian, but that doesn't mean he likes him either.

Totally agree about JingYi!!! I love him so much.

LXC was not at the siege LQR was.

I honestly never gave that much thought to what LXC said to WWX by the temple pre fandom because he didn't let it affect his actions. To me clearly LXC's devotion is firstly to LWJ's safety, wellbeing and happiness. I've seen people say: how come LXC isn't blamed as much for what happened to WWX as jc hypocrites >:-/... LOL because LXC didn't grow up together with WWX?! LXC had JGY pouring poison into his ear about WWX's heart changing AND jc- the guy who was supposed to be closest to WWX- visits the Burial Mounds and comes back saying he's a traitor to the Clan, the YunmengJiang Clan will have nothing to do w him and he's the enemy of the entire cultivation world? What was he supposed to think? LXC spoke up for the Wens more than jc did and his home was burned down by them, his father died, and he was never helped by WQ and WN??!!? He didn't try to ban LWJ from bringing WWX into the Cloud Recessed to be healed in his second life, even after his identity was revealed; or from sheltering him and helping him and leaving with him. The guy has just gone through some harrowing days. He's found out his sworn brother killed his other sworn brother and made him into a jigsaw puzzle and did all this other terrible stuff. Now he's sealed his power and taken him as hostage. His little brother's boyfriend shows up and acts like he doesn't even know he's his little brother's boyfriend! LXC is holding on by a thread. Now none of this would be an excuse if he'd truly acted heinously BUT the reason I find his anger forgivable is that he didn't shut down communication. He doesn't tell WWX to go to hell and die or try to hit him etc. He actually explains everything and lays it out for him so WWX can finally understand what's happening. He calls him LWJ's only mistake, which may not be the nicest thing to hear but it makes sense in the context of LWJ protecting him ended in 33 strikes of the whip that kept him injured for three years...

"ZeWu-Jun had always been an image of grace and carried himself with a mild temperament, but when it came to his younger brother’s affairs, he could not help but lose his calm. Yet, upon closer inspection of Wei Wuxian’s reaction, his anger dissipated slightly, and asked again, “Was your memory…damaged?” (chapter 98)

I think people don't quite realize how impressive it is to still retain one's logic and relative calm in a situation like this. LXC is upset over something so personal: the wellbeing of his little brother. He could have so easily prioritized making himself feel better by just venting out all his frustrations and anger of these many years on WWX but instead he holds his anger in check and prioritizes his little brother's happiness by trying to clarify things and untangle any misunderstandings between WangXian:

Lan Xichen replied, “Whatever Wangji did then, if you can’t remember it yourself, then I’m afraid he would never bring it up in this lifetime, and you wouldn’t ask him either... Very well then, I shall tell you on his behalf.”

I don't get why fandom thinks he was so brutal?! He's not shown being mean again to WWX after things are finally settled between him and LWJ. He seemed to like and approve of WWX in his time studying in the cloud recesses. Now that the misunderstandings have been cleared up I can't see why it wouldn't revert to that. When the two bunnies are playing around him and LWJ, LXC says it's not bad to be boisterous, etc. Like jc's most heinous actions are perpetually excused w "omg it's sibling love" -EW no and LXC who actually shows a nice example of protectiveness and love gets dragged.

[meltingheartsandcores]

This is just something that came from a different story I’m writing, so, it’s just a one shot. And it’s not really editted (sorry). 

 This is A/B/O, with Omega wwx and Alpha lwj, but honestly it doesn’t really show up much, like it’s not a focal point of the story for the most part, it’s just kind of, there. There’s minor NieLan, and past wangxian with hopeful future wangxian (hopeful future IMO), and it’s modern non cultivation!

 Other than that, enjoy? And if you have questions feel free to hop into my inbox.

It had been years.

Five, to be exact.

Wei Wuxian wouldn't lie and say Lan Wangji never entered his mind, he did almost constantly. But he had long accepted he would never see the Alpha again. Lan Qiren had made it rather clear he was to never contact Lan Wangji again.

That hadn't been a pleasant conversation. Well. Argument.

For once Wei Wuxian was glad he was no longer in contact with the Jiangs, even if it wasn’t for long, he'd hate for them to have been involved. He's not entirely sure who's side Madam Yu would've been on, but he hoped she would've been on his. Although, if she was, he's not entirely confident Lan Qiren would still be walking around. Lan Qiren might be a hard ass, but he had nothing on Madam Yu.

He should write Nie Huaisang. See how the Jiang's are doing.

"Are you alright?"

Wei Wuxian blinks, brought back to the present, silently filing the idea to write Nie Huaisang for later, and looks up at Lan Xichen. Who he had just run into. Literally.

Wei Wuxian ignores the hand and stands on his own, "Perfectly. Just distracted. Sorry to bother you." Wei Wuxian says, nodding and turning, deciding he could get A-Yuan's candy later, after the milk. He had made it a few steps before Lan Xichen grabbed his arm. Wei Wuxian tenses, snapping around with a glare on his face before he registers that Lan Xichen isn't going to attack him. Not physically at least. So he lets the glare fall. "Sorry."

Lan Xichen drops his hand, "No, I should not have grabbed you. I apologize." An apology from a Lan. Maybe he died.

A-Yuan would be heartbroken. A-Yu probably doesn't know what Death is and probably wouldn't understand for a few years.

Lan Xichen was talking. Wei Wuxian should be listening, not thinking of his death. Lan Xichen smiles, as he normally does, "You were not listening."

"Sorry. My brain drifts, it pissed your uncle off to end, remember?" Wei Wuxian says, shrugging.

Lan Xichen nods, "Uncle seemed to anger easily around you, yes. I was wondering if you had the time, we could talk. Perhaps over tea?"

He can't ask for alcohol instead. For one, Lans don't drink. For two, he has to pick A-Yu and A-Yuan up in half an hour.

"I have a half hour, I guess we could finish up shopping and go to the Starbucks down the block." Lan Xichen's eyes tighten at the mention of Starbucks, which makes Wei Wuxian remember the heavily disturbed and deer-in-headlight look Lan Wangji had when Wei Wuxian dragged him there. Repeatedly.

Lan Wangji never seemed to get used to Starbucks.

None of the Lans seem to like it either.

Lan Xichen nods though, so Wei Wuxian does a U-turn to grab the candy he promised A-Yuan and then made a bee-line for the two other things he was missing. He loses Lan Xichen at some point, but when he gets to the check out, Lan Xichen is waiting by the door with a bag.

Wei Wuxian smiles at the Cashier, Mingyu, who seemed slightly concerned for him. But Wei Wuxian waves off the concern, even when Mingyu decides to ask, "Is he a friend or should I call security?"

Wei Wuxian considers this, Lan Xichen isn't a friend, but security isn't necessary. Wei Wuxian grins when he comes to a response, that's both honest and fun, "He's Daiyu's uncle." Wei Wuxian informs, finishing with his payment and taking his items. "See you in a week Mingyu!" Wei Wuxian calls as the other man is clearly trying to figure out how he hasn't met this uncle until now.

"A friend?" Lan Xichen asks as they walk down the road.

"Eh, more I'm a regular." Wei Wuxian shrugs. He only talks to Mingyu when he buys groceries. Not much other reason to talk to the teenager.

Especially since he tends to remind Wei Wuxian that, uh, he is only twenty-two.

That's not something he particularly likes to remember. Especially when he's on his way to pick up his kids. He looks older enough that none of the other parents comment on him being A-Yu and A-Yuan's brother, and none of them comment on the utter shame of having a child at seventeen. And presumably fourteen if A-Yuan was actually birthed from him. As he so often jokes, especially after A-Yuan learnt where babies came from.

A-Yuan thinks it's funny.

Wen Qing thinks it's stupid.

But it's meant to entertain the eight year old so it's not a problem.

"So you live around here." Lan Xichen comments, more to himself than to Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian has to mentally curse himself. For five years, no Lan has known where he lived. No one from that life knew where he was except Nie Huaisang. And for all he can be a coward, Wei Wuxian knows he wouldn't have given away his location to anyone.

But he just confirmed to Lan Xichen that he lived in this town.

Fuck.

"What're you doing here?" Wei Wuxian asks, opening the door for Lan Xichen and gesturing for the man to enter the Starbucks. Lan Xichen gives him a tight smile and enters, clearly not liking being inside the store.

Tough. Wei Wuxian doesn't want to be having this conversation, neither of them get to be comfortable. Wei Wuxian follows Lan Xichen in, walking up to the register and ordering a drink with a smile before turning to Lan Xichen for his order. Which he gives with a tense smile. The barista nods, repeats the order back and then Lan Xichen pays, because this was his idea and Wei Wuxian would much rather be at home right now.

They amble over to a table to wait for their drinks to be made. Well. Lan Xichen got his at the till since it was just a Green Tea, but they have to wait for Wei Wuxian's. Might as well get this chat over with.

"The Nie have a lakehouse a mile out of town." Oh right. Oh fuck. "Mingjue and I are having a little vacation." Lan Xichen says in response to his earlier question.

"And you came to get some groceries."

"Just a little. Mingjue will be back for the rest." Lan Xichen winces when he sips at his tea, clearly not liking it. He sets his cup aside, "You know, Huaisang seemed very against us going to this partical vacation house."

Oh for fucks sake. "Huaisang's specialty isn't subtly." Wei Wuxian says with a shrug, then stands and gets his drink when the barista calls out his name.

Lan Xichen waits for him to sit back down. "No, it isn't. Might I ask, why Huaisang knows where you are when no one else does?"

"I don't like the Jin. I don't want to burden the Jiang. The Lan want nothing to do with me." Wei Wuxian shrugs, "Nie Huaisang is the only friend I have left." Outside of the friends he now lives with. Wei Wuxian sips at his flat white.

Lan Xichen's brows twitch in a furrow before smoothing out, "What do you mean we want nothing to do with you.

Wei Wuxian raises an eyebrow, "Was there a part of Lan Qiren's order that was unclear?"

Wei Wuxian's response only seems to confuse him further. "I believe, there has been some miscommunication." Lan Xichen suggests politely.

"Not really." Wei Wuxian refutes. "Lan Qiren told me to get the fuck out and never contact any of you again. Not much room for miscommunication."

"He said what?" Lan Xichen asks, sounding light and a little confused. But Wei Wuxian had spent enough time around Lan Wangji, and hence Lan Xichen since Lan Xichen was Lan Wangji's favoured company, to know he was getting very pissed off.

Huh.

Wei Wuxian shrugs, too little too late, in his opinion. It's been five years. "It was shortly after I left the Jiang, I went to stay with Lan- Wangji." Wei Wuxian catches himself before using the familiar address. Lan Xichen seemed to catch the slip up too. "Just for the night. The departure went a little more explosively than I meant for it to, I came to spend the night. Lan Qiren told me to leave and never return, that Lan Wangji wanted nothing more to do with me. Not to contact anyone in the family. Obviously I argued, but I had already argued with Madam Yu and Uncle Jiang that night, so, he won. I left. And then a week later he sent me two hundred thousand Yuan." That wasn't a pleasant night to remember. It wasn't a pleasant week. He found out he was pregnant, then the Wen shit happened, and he was moving across the country with Wen Ning and his family. Wei Wuxian shrugs again, drinking his flat white.

Lan Xichen's brow furrows slowly, and he shakes his head, "I'm sorry, Uncle told us nothing about this. All Wangji and I have known is that you left the Jiang and disappeared. Wangji certainly didn't say anything about not wanting your company anymore." Lan Xichen seemed offended at the very idea.

Oh.

Huh.

Lan Wangji doesn't hate him.

Oh fuck.

Lan Wangji doesn't hate him.

But he probably will. When he tells him about A-Yu.

Fuck.

"Is everything okay?" Lan Xichen asks, making clear that Wei Wuxian's panic is clear on his face.

"Um." Wei Wuxian swallows, twisting the paper cup in his hands, "In theory. If, uh, when I left, I had been uh," No. Nope. He can't think of a good way to say this. He checks the time. "Uh, do you have twenty minutes?"

"I'm supposed to meet with Mingjue in ten."

"Great. Uh. Meet me at the park with the giant octopus sculpture in fifteen, bring Da ge, I need to drop my groceries off at my house." Wei Wuxian doesn't wait for Lan Xichen to agree, picking up his groceries and hurrying out.

When he gets home, he dumps the groceries on the counter, giving Wen Qing a quick, "Lan Xichen's in town and he's metting A-Yu and A-Yuan, see you in fiften minutes. Thanks bye!" before running back out, not responding to her shout of 'what' that followed.

When he gets to the octopus sculpture, he doesn't have to wait long fo Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue to show up, thankfully. He bounces over to them, the nervous energy coursing through him a little too much to keep still. "Hi Dage."

"Wuxian." Nie Mingjue greets, as if Wei Wuxian hasn't been off the grid for five years and was still popping into his house every other weekend to do weird shit with Nie Huaisang.

Nice to know somethings don't change.

"What is it you wanted to show us?" Lan Xichen asks politely.

"Um, this way." Wei Wuxian takes them to the school, which was only a few minutes away.

"A school." Nie Mingjue deadpans.

Wei Wuxian looks at the other parents waiting, a few of them looking back at the group with furrowed brows. One of the mothers makes a very harsh 'come here' gesture, so Wei Wuxian turns to Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen, "Uh, I'll be right back. Don't move." He was clearly confusing the pair, but they nod so he rushes off to Mrs. Yang.

"Is that Daiyu's father? Other father?" Mrs. Yang demands, almost glaring at Lan Xichen.

"It's his older brother." Wei Wuxian corrects with a tight smile. "Please don't go yell at him."

"Oh, his family decides it's okay for you to raise a child for five years on your own, and I shouldn't yell?" Mrs. Yang demands, already gearing up to go.

"Uh, I'm, about to tell him Daiyu exists."

Mrs. Yang blinks, clearly taken aback. "Wei Wuxian." Wei Wuxian flinches at her tone, oh no. He's in trouble. "Did you not tell the Alpha family you were pregnant?"

"In my defence," because he needed one if he wanted to survive, "their uncle had already told me their family wanted nothing to do with me before he found out I had gotten pregnant. I don't think that opinion would've been changed in my favour. Given we were seventeen, and unmated."

Mrs. Yang hmphs, but nods. "Fine. But if he seems anything less than overjoyed, I'll be having words."

"Yes Mrs. Yang. Thank you." Wei Wuxian says, nodding. He meant it. Mrs. Yang was one of the more supportive parents. Like Granny Wen she had more or less started treating him like family.

It probably helped that her eldest was only two years younger than Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian smiles and then hurries back to Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue as the elder grades started to be let out.

"I'm sorry, do you babysit?" Lan Xichen asks, clearly very confused. Nie Mingjue doesn't seem to be much better.

"Uh. Sometimes." Wei Wuxian shrugs, "Not today." His answer only served further confusion, but he wasn't paying much attention to the pair. Instead to his incoming missile.

"Xian-gege!" Wen Yuan yells, and Wei Wuxian picks up the eight-year old as the boy had launched himself at Wei Wuxian.

"A-Yuan! My, I think you've grown!"

Wen Yuan pouts, "You saw me this morning gege! I haven't grown at all!"

Wei Wuxian shakes his head, "Hmm, nope! You've grown a full inch! I know it."

"No! A-Yuan hasn't grown at all!" Wen Yuan counters, pouting more deeply. Ah, not in the mood to be teased today. Okay.

"Ah, ah yes. A-Yuan is correct." Wei Wuxian agrees, and puts A-Yuan down. "A-Yuan, this is Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. They're old friends." Wei Wuxian introduces.

Wen Yuan was half through a bored wave when he actually looked at Nie Mingjue and his eyes utterly lit up. "You're so tall!"

Nie Mingjue barely blinked, very used to this reaction, but he seemed delighted at A-Yuan's very prescence. "Yes." Seeing as A-Yuan was practically vibrating, Wei Wuxian gently encourages him, and really that was all that was necessary before A-Yuan was attached to Nie Mingjue's leg and asking a million questions a minute.

Nie Mingjue seemed amused, and politely answered every question he caught.

With A-Yuan distracted, Wei Wuxian looks around the schoolyard for his other charge. Normally Daiyu would be attached to his leg by now. He finally spots her hiding by a tree, or, behind a tree. Her eyes widen when they meet his, and he waves her over. She hesitates, but eventually decides to come over. She walks, and then runs the last little bit, entirely hiding behind Wei Wuxian's legs, peeking a little to look at Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue.

Lan Xichen had frozen.

As expected, given Daiyu's golden eyes.

"Daiyu, this is Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen is your Bobo." Daiyu seemed very doubtful of that, making almost the exact same expression Lan Wangji did when Wei Wuxian had tried to convince him necromancy was a perfectly viable career path. Wei Wuxian would like to be offended. "I'm telling the truth."

"I thought Baba's family didn't want anything to do with us." Daiyu counters, doubt clear.

Ai. Who told her that? They didn't but still. "Who told you that?"

"Qing-jie."

...Ok. Wei Wuxian wasn't going to yell at Wen Qing for telling Daiyu that. Even if he wanted to. He was going to call her a liar.

"Well, she's wrong." Wei Wuxian crouches, turning to pick Daiyu up before standing straight. "It's complicated, and something I'll talk to you about in private. But Lan Xichen hasn't been able to be around until now."

Daiyu narrows her eyes but shrugs, "Fine." She didn't sound fine. But Wei Wuxian was not about to argue with a five year old. Not in public.

"Ok. Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, this is Wei Daiyu."

"Hi."

"Hello."

Daiyu looks at Wei Wuxian before responding, "Hello."

Well. This was awkward. And Lan Xichen looked like he was about to faint. "Why don't we go to the park?" A-Yuan seemed all for that idea. A-Yu looked like she'd rather not but when Wei Wuxian put her down she ran with A-Yuan toward the park. Wei Wuxian lead the adults in following after them.

While the kids played at the Octopus park, Wei Wuxian and Lan Xichen sat down at a bench, as Wen Yuan had dragged Nie Mingjue into their game.

"You were pregnant."

Wei Wuxian nods. "Lan Qiren didn't know. I, didn't know, until a week after that argument." Wei Wuxian shrugs, "I took Lan Qiren's words to heart, and didn't contact Lan Zhan about her."

"But you told Huaisang." Lan Xichen states.

Wei Wuxian blinks, "Huaisang doesn't know. I only talk to Huaisang for updates on the Jiang." And other things, but, mostly the Jiang. Once or twice Lan Wangji, but not all that often. He probably wouldn't take it well if Nie Huaisang sent back that Lan Wangji had gotten married.

"You, didn't tell anyone?"

"Nope. You're the first person outside of this town that knows." Wei Wuxian shrugs, and Lan Xichen just, stops. Wei Wuxian worries he's broken him, but soon enough Lan Xichen shakes his head.

"I can't- Apologies, this is a lot to process."

"How do you think Lan Zhan will react?" He's expecting anger. That's what some of the other omegan parents tell him to expect, whenever he considers sending Lan Wangji a message about Daiyu. No Alpha ever takes a pup being kept from them well. That's what they always say.

Lan Xichen's eyes widen, then he winces slightly, "I imagine, you are the not the one to worry about Wangji's reaction." Eh? "I'm sure he'll be happy. Saddened to have missed her first few years, but happy none the less."

Wei Wuxian opens and closes his mouth, trying to figure how to phrase his question before giving up and just asking, "Is he with anyone?"

Lan Xichen blinks and turns to look at Wei Wuxian, confused for a moment before understand dawns and he shakes his head slightly, "No. Uncle has tried for arrangements, but Wangji refuses them all. but I'm certain if you contact him, he'll be happy to see you." (Lan Xichen does not mention that he's rather confident Lan Wangji will immediately run to Wei Wuxian's side and help in raising Daiyu if Wei Wuxian even hints that that is what he wants. That seems a little much for right now.)

Wei Wuxian nods, not entirely believing that, but not willing to argue. "Now I just have to get Daiyu to come around." He did not expect his daughter to be the stickler here. Then again, Wen Qing had made her opinion on Lan Qiren years ago and wasn't quiet about it.

"She's aware of what Uncle said?" Lan Xichen asks.

Wei Wuxian shakes his head, "Uh, my friend, Wen Qing, yeah, that Wen Qing, I'm living with her family, long story, anyways, Wen Qing knows, and she holds very unfavourable opinions about it and she's not quiet about them. So, even if Daiyu doesn't know the full story, Wen Qing has given her enough to go on that she's formed her own, unfavourable opinion." Wei Wuxian shrugs, he couldn't really argue against it. Up until half an hour ago, he was rather confident the Lan's hated him and wanted nothing to do with him.

Now he has to explain a five year misunderstanding to his daughter.

Fun.

“I have to tell Wangji what you just told me.” Lan Xichen states, clearly not looking forward to that conversation.

Wei Wuxian shrugs, “It’s Lan Zhan, he’ll make a displeased face and not talk for a week.” It wasn’t that big of deal. Lan Wangji doesn’t do grudges, not really. At least, he didn’t five years ago.

Lan Xichen’s face was pure pity, which Wei Wuxian didn’t understand but it was gone before Wei Wuxian could formulate a question. “Do you want us around or shall we leave you alone?”

Oh. Wei Wuxian hadn’t considered that. “Um, maybe leave us alone for tomorrow? I guess I can give you my number and, if A-Yu is agreeable you guys can hang around. If it won’t mess up your vacation.” Because, who wants to spend their vacation with their little brother’s ex and daughter?

“That would be wonderful.” Lan Xichen says, pulling out his own phone and letting Wei Wuxian type in his number. Wei Wuxian then texts himself so he’d have the number on his phone too. “We should be getting back, I believe Mingjue wanted to stop by the butcher and they close at five.”

“Yes, they do. Because he needs to eat supper and spend time with his kids.” He kne Changpu, he was nice. Stodgy, but nice.

Lan Xichen nods and stands up, walking over to the playing trio and speaking quietly to Mingjue, he bids goodbye to the children, before the pair start walking away, they wave goodbye to Wei Wuxian, which he returns, and then they disappear.

Then, Daiyu runs up to him, “A-Niang, does that mean A-Die doesn’t hate us? Will he come live with us? Will we see Xi-bo a lot? Are they going to live with us? Like Granny and Uncle Four?”

Fuck.

Upon returning to the cabin, Lan Xichen’s day wasn’t going any better. Nie Mingjue was cooking supper, so Lan Xichen was alone with the decision to call Lan Wangji about Wei Wuxian. Obviously, he would. How much to say though?

Wangji, as it turns out, would make that decision for him.

After exchanging greetings, Lan Xichen barely got out, “So I ran into Wei Wuxian today in the city near where Mingjue and I are vacationing.” Before the call was dropped. Lan Xichen blinked, staring at his phone where it said ‘Call Ended’, meaning Wangji hung up on him. Lan Wangji hung up without a word. Without letting Lan Xichen finish. He was never so rude. He normally at least made a sound to indicate a goodbye. Nie Mingjue laughed at him when Lan Xichen explained why he was so flabbergasted.

Lan Wangji showed up the next morning.

[crossdressingdeath]

I went to reread the Soup Incident (chapter 69, a flashback in a flashback near the Phoenix Mountain kiss). There were several things I had forgotten!

-

In the middle of the Sunshot Campaign, the YunmengJiang Sect had been to the Langya area to assist the LanlingJin Sect. Because they were short of hands, Jiang YanLi went to the battlefield along with them.She knew that her cultivation wasn’t high, so she did what she could, busying herself with the meals of the cultivators. In the beginning, neither Wei WuXian nor Jiang Cheng agreed, but Jiang YanLi had always been adept at cooking. [....]Although he really enjoyed the soup and felt grateful for the cook’s intentions, Jiang YanLi had never left her name. Nobody knew that another low level female cultivator had seen all of this. The cultivator was a servant of the LanlingJin Sect. Since her cultivation wasn’t high, she did the same job as Jiang YanLi did. She had fair looks and knew to take opportunities. Out of curiosity, she followed Jiang YanLi for a few times before she was able to guess what was going on. Keeping her composure, she loitered outside of Jin ZiXuan’s house after Jiang YanLi brought the soup, purposely letting Jiang ZiXuan see her shadow.Jin ZiXuan had finally managed to catch the person, so of course he was going to ask questions. Cleverly, the woman never acknowledged anything, but instead denied it ambiguously, her cheeks flushed, making it sound as though she was the one who did it, but didn’t want Jin ZiXuan to know how much trouble she went through. And thus, Jin ZiXuan didn’t force her to admit it any longer. However, in action, he had began to respect the cultivator. He began to pay attention to her, even raising her from a servant to a guest cultivator.For a long time, Jiang YanLi didn’t realize that something was wrong. This went on until one day, after Jiang YanLi brought the soup, she ran into Jin ZiXuan, temporarily there to pick up a letter. Naturally, Jin ZiXuan was going to ask what Jiang YanLi was doing in his room. Jiang YanLi didn’t dare say it in the beginning. However, hearing that his tone sounded more and more doubtful, no matter how anxious, she had to tell him the truth.Yet, somebody had used this reason already.One could easily guess what Jin ZiXuan’s reaction was after he heard this.And so, right then and right there, he ‘exposed’ Jiang YanLi’s ‘lie’. Jiang YanLi hadn’t expected something like this to happen at all. She had never been the type of person to show off; not even many people knew that she was a daughter of the YunmengJiang Sect. In the short amount of time, she couldn’t find any strong evidence. She tried to protest, but the more she did, the more she felt cold at heart. In the end, stiffly, Jin ZiXuan told her, “Don’t think that just because you come from a powerful sect that you can steal and trample other people’s feelings. Some people, even if they come from poor backgrounds, their character are much better than the former’s. Please watch your conduct.”Jiang YanLi could finally tell a few things from Jin ZiXuan’s words.From the beginning, Jin ZiXuan had never believed that a maiden like her, born from a noble sect but had low cultivation, could do anything on the battlefield or help with anything at all. To put it simply, he thought that she just wanted to find a reason to approach him, that she was just here to add to the trouble. Jin ZiXuan had never understood her, and hadn’t ever wanted to understand her either. Due to this, of course he wouldn’t believe her.[....]Afterward, although Jiang YanLi continued to work at Langya, she only did her own things. Not only did she stop bringing Jin ZiXuan soup, she wouldn’t even give him a proper look.

-

(At the end of the flashback is the measuring snakes. JYL doesn't want to hang out with him, and he goes to grab her when she leaves. WWX hits him in the chest and JZX pulls his SWORD? and attacks, which ends up being blocked by LWJ.

So she does seem to have an actual job in the camp, and one that a servant cultivator does as well. The unnamed woman and JZX are apparently... not worried about poison?! Either being implicated as potentially poisoning, or worried about being poisoned. JZX enjoys the soup and even thinks positively of the maker's intent. (How did you survive this long in Koi Tower JZX? THAT COULD HAVE BEEN POISONED!?) Since JYL is not even widely known as being YMJ's remaining clan how much extra privilege would she really get at camp, beyond whatever was involved with making the soup? I do think that recent fic rec and what you have posted are very interesting points and much of it makes sense but not all of it fits what the text actually says.

...Ah, yes. I had forgotten that JZX is somehow naive enough to eat soup that someone has apparently just left in his room. Which is. creepy as hell, by the way, I thought she'd been leaving it outside but apparently it was in his room? What the hell was she doing in his room? They're not friends, they barely know each other, if she got caught they'd both be in trouble despite him not wanting her there and having no knowledge of her presence, and he never gave her permission to be in there. That is insanely fucking creepy. I believe this is another one of those things that everyone would find incredibly off-putting if JYL was a guy and JZX was a girl but apparently is fine when it's the other way around.

Anyway. First off, just because not many of the soldiers knew she was the only daughter of the Jiang sect doesn't mean it wasn't known. Everyone of high enough rank to offer any sort of benefit would also be of high enough rank that they would for sure know who she was. The rank and file not knowing a noble on sight doesn't mean people didn't know she was a noble! Also, so... JYL was doing a servant's job? When the sects would've brought plenty of servants? Note that the woman taking credit and doing the same job was a servant until JZX chose to raise her to guest cultivator status. And servants would be doing things other than preparing meals as well. So... JYL came along to do a job that other people could do just fine and that those other people would be doing as well as other things and also almost certainly was stealing food from the camp to give extra to her personal favourites and was breaking into a sect heir's room on a regular basis. Sounds like a waste of resources that would be better spent feeding and housing another servant, honestly. Or, since she's making extra food for her brothers and JZX, four extra servants. Also I love how that last bit is phrased like her in a way punishing JZX by refusing to even look at him when... yeah, that's what he wanted the whole time? All he wanted from her was for her to leave him alone. Nice of her to finally get the memo! Only took her a decade or so!

I also find it hard to feel anything for JYL when JZX stops her from leaving at Phoenix Mountain so he can talk to her, because like... you have been being a massive creep about this guy probably since you were children, you can deal with being kept in place so he can talk to you one time. JZX shouldn't have drawn his sword, but like. I do find it hard to feel bad for her regarding the slight discomfort of a man who has never shown any desire to hurt a woman in any way beyond "get the fuck away from me I want nothing to do with you" (which she then ignored) not immediately allowing her to leave when she wants to so that he can explain and apologize for his actions and give her what she always wanted. Like... oh dear! Did someone ignore your clear discomfort and insist on staying around you when you made it clear that you didn't want him there? Well, maybe you'll think twice before inflicting that on him again!

[restingdomface]

Lan Wangji makes extremely deadpan videos of his daily life with Wei Wuxian and their kids and nephews (and nieces if JC and JYL had more). This would include:

*shows a video of LWJ staring out the window for a solid thirty seconds, face entirely unchanged and somewhat disappointed, turns camera around to show Wei Wuxian and the kiddos putting mentos in soda bottles and trying to chuck them at each other, camera pans back to his face, still entirely devoid of emotion*

That one time Jin Ling got stuck up a tree and Wei Wuxian tried to get him down and also got stuck up there and now the other kids are looking for a ladder while LWJ just watches them from the patio, drinking tea. The kids finally give up and shamefully come to LWJ and ask him for help, he gets his husband and nephew down without a word.

The one where he buried 5yo A-Yuan in a pile of bunnies and got scolded by Lan Xichen for it because they might bite him if they get annoyed with him.

There is an entire compilation of rabbits that won’t leave him alone. Climb into his lap. Follow him with every step. Get excited when he comes outside. Hear a guqin and start looking for him. Just. He’s the rabbit whisperer. One of the black ones is just about always with him.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in any capacity is going to involve a lot of hitting each other and pushing each other over. Only-child kids think they hate each other, but people with siblings are all ‘no no, siblings are just Like That’. People think Yanli is all innocent till they realize she def only tells them to stop when she thinks they might actually get on each other’s nerves. She’s in the ‘boys will rough house and probably only have one collective braincell’ category.

People won’t stop asking him if he speaks so he vaguely makes mentions of having extremely low verbility. They ask if he does sign and he’s not really sure how (lol cause words hard) to explain to them that sign doesn’t really help when the issue is more of him not having much to say tbh. This is apparently the wrong thing to say because then people start being all ‘yeah I get you, I’m pretty dumb too, at least you’re pretty’ and he’s just sorta sitting there with this smacked fish look on his face while WWX can’t stop laughing next to him at the very idea of someone calling his husband slow. Wow. LWJ just sorta finally gets out that he has like two degrees and teaches giqun lessons and it’s amazing. The kids find out about it and can’t stop laughing for hours.

“Hey, why did you name your son ‘sorrow and longing’?” *commense 10 minute video of that time Wei Wuxian got arrested for something to do with a satanic ritual and that’s when LWJ ended up with custody of his adopted son for the next three years and he was in a really angsty mood tbh so it just kinda happened* not a single commenter expected that, even less so when he mentions that they weren’t even together at that point

Films what the viewers think is a prank at first, where he pours a dangerous amount of chili powder into a mug of hot chocolate (with a completely straight face) and then brings it to WWX who takes a drink and makes a dreamy little sigh and goes ‘you always know how to make it just like I want it’ and no one is sure how to react to this video. It’s like watching someone peel and eat a lemon.

You know that video of the girl with the deadpan voice saying she went downstairs to take a shower and there was something brown in the bottom of the tub but it turned out to be potatoes and she’s all ‘not a problem I was expecting, but a problem I can handle’? Okay so that’s how he talks in every video. WWX hands him a baby and he talks to them exactly like that. People ask if he’s good with kids and WWX is all ‘yeah, he’s not just a rabbit whisperer, he’s a baby whisperer too, he’s super great with kids’ *shows LWJ talking to a baby in That Voice while the baby looks at him in utter adoration*

“What’s it like growing up gay? Do you ever get shit for it?” LWJ.exe has stopped working, he has only met one straight couple the same age as him and they’re his sister in law. His brother has three boyfriends, one of which is his brother-in-law. He doesn’t know what a het-er-o-sexual is and he doesn’t want to. Pretty sure his uncle is acearo and hasn’t seen his parents in like 20 years.

LWJ: ‘I apologize for being so emotional in my last video.’ *viewers scrambled to find what video he meant because they ain’t ever seen that man emotional before but end up finding a video where Sizhui told him he loved him and called him papa and gave him a hug while WWX filmed, you can barely see LWJ’s left eye twitching and he pets Sizhui’s head for a moment* viewers are very confused on how this constitutes emotionalism.

Viewers ask to see his brother ‘you know, the one who apparently has three boyfriends’ and LWJ posts a video of LXC passed out on a couch with like three fully grown men all in various states of sliding off onto the floor while the teens play a game of ‘who can stack the most random objects on uncle’s bodies without them waking’ because apparently LWJ and WWX were gone for a weekend and the uncles were supposed to watch the kids (like, all ten of them probably, there’s probably a lot of kids) and it’s Sizhui filming the whole thing cause he’s the ‘good one’ and never does bad things. But he’s also like Auntie Yanli and is totally gonna egg them on from the sidelines.

WWX hands LWJ literally any food and LWJ will eat it all with a completely straight face but as soon as WWX is turned around LWJ is chugging a glass of milk with a look of death on his face. The kiddos straight up can’t stomach his cooking.

😭 someone asks why their hair is all so long and LWJ puts up a video of chatty adorable Sizhui braiding WWX’s hair while he tells him about his day at school. It’s. Too. Cute.

The never ending debate on if LWJ’s deadpan personality/speech is acting or not. No matter how much everyone assures them he’s really just Like That people just aren’t convinced.

Someone points out several times that in their house they have a room with a satanic symbol on the door. That’s just WWX’s home office it’s all good. This is treated as ‘lol WWX is so dramatic’ for like four whole weeks before LWJ posts a video of Sizhui standing outside the office looking nervous. ‘What’s wrong?’ He says. ‘Dad called me into his office.’ Sizhui replies. ‘WWX must be a very strict father,’ the viewers think. That’s not it. That’s not it at all tbh. That video got flagged on like four different platforms and kept getting removed for graphic images and half their viewers don’t. Want. To know. What happened. In that office. (WWX doesn’t even see what the big deal was, that goat was dead when he bought it shut up.)

The others do videos sometimes too lol. Videos include

Jin Ling’s compilation of ‘Mom, what’s for dinner’ and the answer is Always Lotus root and pork rib soup. Someone asks ‘lol she must make that often’ and JL is all ‘lol often, fairly sure she got same-food syndrome, it’s always soup’.

Lan Sizhui at like 17 years old: The one true secret I’ve never told my dads? My most shameful lie? Rabbits aren’t my favorite. My favorite is butterflies. *proceeds to cuddle a bun* I’m sorry Mister Bun, but you just aren’t nearly as pretty as butterflies.

Shaky video of someone sitting on the couch, pointed at NMJ: Brother, while you’re away on vacation with your boyfriends, I don’t plan on leaving this spot for even a minute. NMJ: Oh yeah? What’ll you do when you have to use the bathroom? NHS: Listen, I found a guy on Craig’s List who’s exact fetish is lazy young men who refuse to move and also diapers exist and he’ll be my slave for the week if I let him change me. NMJ: ...I’m taking you with me on vacation. NHS: Yay! NMJ: I’m also taking your phone away. NHS: -wait, no- NMJ: Too late.

Jin Ling: JiuJiu, I spilt soda on your Valentino white belt. Jiang Cheng: *incomprehensible sputtering* -soda on my Valentino white belt-!

Sizhui: *brings Jingyi a bowl of food* Here. Jingyi: Thank you! *takes a bite, face falls in terror, gives Sizhui a betrayed look* Sizhui: Dad’s worried I’m getting sick, he said this would clear my chest cold up. He didn’t consider what horrible things it would do to my bowels instead. Please eat it, he gets sad when I don’t finish what he makes. Jingyi: *glaring* Just dump it down the garbage disposal! Sizhui: *def has a fever if he didn’t think of that* Oh. Good idea.

LWJ: *swaying in place* WWX: This bitch drunk as hell. LWJ: I’m. Gonna comit. A crime. WWX: *crying a little* I love drunk hubby times. A full shot of vodka and he’s not gonna remember any of this. Hey kids, I’m taking Papa on a walk! Sizhui’s in charge!

Zizhen: *sitting quietly on the couch while LSZ, LJY and JL all argue behind him somewhere, covering his mouth with a slightly horrified look* Jingyi: I mean, that’s not fair at all! Who HASNT made out with their cousin at one point or another? Ling: ... Sizhui: You said you’d never bring that up again please shut up. Ling: ...!!!!!! Zizhen: Amazing.

That one time the kiddos hypnotized Jin Ling into thinking he was a kitten. The adults all thought it was really weird that he was finally going through the whole ‘pretending to be an animal’ phase at like ten, but then the kiddos fessed up to learning how to hypnotize and they aren’t sure how to fix it. WWX instigated a rule that no brainwashing is allowed outside his office from now on.

People ask how WWX and LWJ met and it’s told from the POV of Lan Qiren who progressively getting drunker as he tells the story of the terrible high school romance that he had to watch between bad boy WWX and his precious baby angel nephew that made him consider quitting and how no one believed them when they insisted they didn’t get together till after WWX got out of jail for the cow incident.

[ouyangzizhensdad]

I wonder sometimes where the fandom perception of/jokes about Lan Xichen being wangxian’s biggest fan/supporter came from. Because, based only on the events of the novel (disregarding all the potential impact of fan interpretations of cql becoming general fanon applied to the novel), we are shown very clearly that lxc is ambivalent toward their romantic relationship: not against it, but wary of wwx due to his actions in general and, more importantly, how he perceives wwx has acted towards his little brother.

“wasn’t he encouraging their relationship when he invited wwx to come along (waterborn abyss )?”: lxc  had no idea of the depth of lwj’s feelings at the time . He saw that lwj was partial to wwx, and it was his wish that his little brother make friends his age and just open up to others more generally. In fact, up until the moment lwj fights off the 33 elders, we can infer that every time lxc encourages their interactions, it is not because he means to encourage his little brother’s crush/love. A proof within the narrative is that, when they have the conversation about lwj wanting to bring “someone” back to the Cloud Recesses, lxc doesn’t know who he’s talking about--if he knew of lwj’s feelings for wwx, the answer would have been crystal clear.

“but that still means lxc thought lwj being around wwx was a good idea”: but that was before everything that happened during and after buyetian. lxc clearly resents (to a degree--i mean, he’s still lxc!) and holds wwx responsible for lwj hurting his clan members and getting punished. 

Wei Wuxian, “Whip scars?!” He grabbed Lan Xichen again, “Lan-zongzhu, I really don’t know. Please tell me, just how did he get those injuries? How could they possibly be related to me?!?”

Anger could be seen on Lan Xichen’s face, “If it were not related to you, could he have done those to himself without a reason?!” Zewu-jun had always been an extremely patient person, but now that Lan Wangji was involved, he was truly angered. ”

“lxc allowed lwj to bring wwx back to the Cloud Recesses after the whole ordeal at jinlintai bc he was rooting for them”: But he did it not (only) because he wants his little brother to be happy and safe, but because of his own sense of righteousness and justice. He does not know whether wwx is truly guilty or if he’s being framed--but it’s important to note that he’s not just taking wwx at his words, he’s simply offering him an opportunity to prove his claims.

Lan Xichen nodded, “Wei-gongzi, no need to worry. Before the truth is entirely revealed, I will not be partial to either side or reveal your whereabouts. Or else, I would not have allowed Wangji to take you to my Hanshi or helped with your injuries.”

Wei Wuxian, “Lan-zhongzhu, I’m grateful that you gave me this opportunity. The fact that Chifeng-zun’s head is inside of Jin Guangyao’s secret chamber is nothing but true. Not only have I seen it, I’ve seen some other things due to having been affected by its energy of resentment. Maybe this could offer some proof?”

Lan Xichen replied calmly, “Wei-gongzi, perhaps you have seen some things indeed. However, you cannot prove that you saw those things within the secret chamber of Jinlintai.”

“lxc tells wwx about his mother and about how steadfast lwj is!”: Yeah, and if that’s not a “stop messing around with his little brother and please take his feelings seriously” speech, i don’t know what is! He’s also literally telling him: “my understanding of my parents’ relationship is that my dad’s love for my mom, who didn’t love him back, ruined his life and hers”--let’s wonder why he thought that that was a relevant thing to point out to wwx at this moment in the narrative. lxc is not against the idea of lwj and wwx getting together--he’s ambivalent. The same way he is ambivalent about the memory of his mother. 

“My shufu… has always had a frank personality to begin with. Because of how my mother caused my father to destroy his own life, he began to hate those who behaved improperly even more.” 

[...]

“He was still too young to understand what ‘gone’ means. No matter how much others comforted him, how much Shufu scolded him, he would continue to come back here every single month, sit down in the hallway, and wait for someone to open the door for him. When he grew older, he understood that Mother would not come back anymore, that nobody would open the door for him, but he kept on coming here.” 

 Lan Xichen stood up. His dark eyes looked into Wei Wuxian’s, “Wangji has been this stubborn ever since he was young.”

[...]

He spoke, “Lan-furen must’ve been a very gentle woman.” 

Lan Xichen, “In my memories, Mother had indeed been so. I do not know why she did such a thing back then. And, in truth, I…” He took in a deep breath before confessing, “Do not want to know either.” 

After a few moments of silence, Lan Xichen closed his eyes. He took out Liebing. A gust of night wind suddenly sent forth a sobbing note of the xiao. The sound was deep, like a sigh. Wei Wuxian had heard Lan Xichen play Liebing before. Its timbre was just like Lan Xichen himself, as warm and graceful as the breeze and the rain of spring. Yet, now, although his technique was as excellent as ever, the tone evoked a strange mixture of feelings.

“but the whole speech in guanyin temple is about lxc helping wangxian get together”: Is it? Talking of the events after butyetien, he ends up calling wwx the “only mistake” lwj has ever made in his life. I would like to think that means he’s not going to be starting the wangxian fanclub anytime soon. 

“With the ways in which he looked and talked to you when he saved you and hid you in that cave, even someone who was blind or deaf could perceive his feelings, which was why Shufu was in such anger. Wangji was a model for the disciples when he was young, and a prominent cultivator when he grew up. In his whole life he had been honest and righteous and immaculate—you were the only mistake he made!”

but perhaps more importantly, lxc is not saying these things to wwx so that he can make sure wangxian gets together. He’s saying these things because he wants wwx to stop hurting lwj. From his pov, wwx knows of lwj’s feelings, and simplu keep using them to jerk him around

“And you say… And you say you do not know. Wei-gongzi, after you returned in your body, how did you pester him and confess to him? Every night… Every night, you had to… And you say you do not know? If you did not know, why did you do such things?”

TLDR: Lan Xichen is not trying to get wangxian together; he wants his little brother to be happy, and sometimes that means he is wary of wwx and their relationship, and other times that he is open to seeing that their relationship is what lwj wants and makes him happy. His ambivalent understanding of his parents’ relationship further colours the ways in which he is able to contextualize lwj’s and wwx’s actions until they officially become a couple. 

[many-gay-magpies]

@honeyseungz @loabivey so that uh. that mini au that you had like a very small rb thread about yesterday (well over a few days ago now that im posting this). well uh. um . actually you know what im just gonna let you read it yourselves

so. heeseung, jay, and sunoo are all brothers. wether its actual brothers or just "brothers" by blood bond or whatever idk. but, regardless, they're brothers. im thinking that like, at first they aren't vampires, theyre just regular dudes yknow? (and just a forewarning, a lot of this isnt gonna be as compliant with the enhaverse theorizing we've done so far, it's just a little brain worm i wanted to play around with, throwing a little bit of enhaverse crumbs in here and there)

but anyway. they're not vampires, im thinking theyre just like... adopted/found family brothers, probably orphans or something. regardless they love each other a lot and its great. personality-wise everything is super different, but just for plot conveniences, heeseung, jay, and sunoo are the yunmeng trio (heeseung as wwx, jay as jc, and sunoo as jyl respectively), and jungwon is lwj.

the three brothers meet jungwon, probably brought together by this Big Fantasy Evil, maybe something involving the vampire queen as a character? idk. there's some big evil shit going down, and the three brothers somehow end up with jungwon and HIS big bro, who im imagining is jake (basically the lan xichen in this situation—very soft, kind, gentle; the vibes are right). both of them are vampires, not that our three orphan bois know that. they get caught up in the danger, and vampire bros jake and jungwon coms to the rescue.

now, a little bit of personality-mapping here: jay is outwardly very loud, fun, temperamental, and sarcastic, generally very much like he is irl; but inside, he's intensely loyal, protective, and loving, with a HUGE soft spot for the people closest to him. sunoo is very sweet, sensitive, and kind—the walking hug of the three brothers, who is certainly not without his bite and wont hesitate to talk back to anyone who hurts them. aggressively and without mercy. also he makes them soup for comfort and is generally best boy. heeseung is very goofy, playful, free-spirited, and bright, but insecure and sensitive underneath it all; generally a loud annoying mess of a boy. pure chaotic neutral and a gremlin if there ever was one. jungwon, on the other hand, is... not. he's nervous, quiet, cautious to a fault and intensely righteous, always standing up for what's right and refusing to waver from his chosen path. very lawful good vibes. he, naturally, is more than a little put off when jay, sunoo, and heeseung's chaotic ass come crashing into he and his brother jake's once-peaceful (ish) lives. and it doesn't help that heeseung is a... huge flirt, and apparently deadset on making jungwon his friend. fuck.

jungwon... doesn't know what to do. and it would all be so much easier if heeseung were dumb or stupid or unattractive or just a total asshole—but he isnt any of those things. he's beautiful, smart, insanely witty with a brain faster than any jungwon's ever seen—he can't help but admire him. but on top of that, he's wreckless as hell, unpredictable, and pushy, and gives jungwon heart attacks way too much for his liking. he doesn't even have a heartbeat. he's fucking dead.

it eventually comes out that jake and jungwon are vampires; the brothers are surprisingly cool with it. not the craziest thing that's happened to them.

the five boys get closer, staying together as they fight their foe (which im becoming increasingly inclined to make the werewolves), and through a series of convoluted events, jungwon learns that heeseung is not only gorgeous, smart, talented, and funny as all get-out, but also sensitive, caring, insecure, and thoughtful... and heeseung, who's only goal had been to break through the nervous and straightforward outer shell of his young dongsaeng, does just that. and jungwon, naturally, starts to fall in love.

somewhere along the line, though, things go wrong—as they were bound to do in an au loosely based off of the untamed. something happens to heeseung; he's fatally wounded after saving jay's life, and disappears, nowhere to be found. his brothers eventually assume the worse; that he's gone forever. but the queen finds him, takes care of him, nurses him back to health. turns him.

when he comes back, nothing's the same. the war is still going, and his brothers thought he was dead—but he isn't. but he's... different. jungwon and jake are quick to realize that he's been turned, how, they dont know—but they talk to him, teach him, try to help him, jungwon especially. of course he does; he's in love. heeseung, of course, is dismissive; doesn't take it seriously. ill be fine, whats so bad about this? or, perhaps, he doesn't let on just how hard he's taking it; fearing vulnerability more than he fears being a vampire.

inevitably, though, heeseung's wrecklessness leads to doom—he lets his bloodlust overtake him, relishes in it, no matter how much jungwon had warned him against it, pleaded with him to take caution. he says it's usefull—says he can help them take out enemies, help them win this war. jungwon warns him that he could end up getting more than he bargained for. heeseung doesn't listen.

heeseung helps them win the war; practically wins it for them. hes happy, bitterly, until he isnt. he's happy, until he sees his brother—sees sunoo. blood-covered, pale-skinned, drained.

no.

heeseung is broken. jay even moreso. jay yells at him; yells and yells and yells and yells. curses him out, tells him he hates him, tells him he's nothing but cruel evil—he doesn't mean it, of course, but no one knows it then, not even him. now he is only angry; so, so angry. heeseung, wrought with guilt and shame and grief, flees—hides himself somewhere secluded, does the closest thing a vampire can possibly do to death, the equivalent of a thousand-year hibernation. none can find him, he's made sure of that. in his guilt and shame and anger he stews, asleep, for hundreds, thousands of years.

after the anger passes, jay is more than anything in mourning—for heeseung as well as for sunoo. he has a realization, that being that, when, inevitably, heeseung comes back, he doesn't want him to be alone: even if he'll have jungwon and jake, it won't be the same as having his brother. so jay pleads, cries, begs for jungwon to turn him—so that they can search for heeseung together, so that when heeseung comes back, he'll have jay waiting for him, too. so, reluctantly, jungwon gives in and turns jay—after which he helps him deal with his newfound immortality and vampiric status—helping him handle his bloodlust and helping him learn how to feed. over the centuries that heeseung is gone, jay, jungwon, and jake grow even closer (j line eyyy), inseparable as they search for heeseung and even outside of that. jungwon and jay are the closest, jay growing a colossal soft spot for the boy and not hesitating to take him under his wing and protect him with all he has (initially, sort of as a replacement for protecting heeseung, but eventually jay's affection for jungwon grows into something all it's own). to be clear, no love triangle bullshit here, only sickening-sweet platonic soulmates jaywon and a jungwon that is still achingly in love with heeseung.

(okay for anyone thats actually watched cql/read mdzs, yes i KNOW lwj and jc did not get along at all and kind of hated each other but. this is my au i do what i want, and if i want to add soft jaywon into the mix then im fucking going to, goddamnit)

OKAY TIME FOR SOME WACKY SIDE-PLOT MADNESS

so. sunghoon. how does he fit into all this? how does he end up being the one to trigger heeseung's "resurrection"? how does heeseung GET resurrected in the first place? well, not to worry, you're about to find out! and i am too because i'm just figuring this out as i go along baybyyyy

sunghoon, im thinking, is a friend of jake's (lets throw some jakehoon in here too bcs why not), either from before everything went to shit and heeseung went and isolated himself, or sometime during the numerous centuries jakewon spent looking for heeseung with jay. either way, sunghoon is this boy who jake is friends with and cares about a lot, and is also maybe kind of in love with. while jaywon spend most of their time looking for heeseung, jake spends his with sunghoon—finding himself often alone, now that his little bother is going off on his own adventures.

in a situation quite similar to heeseung's, sunghoon probably gets fatally injured somehow and is near death, but jake, not wanting him to die, decides to turn him instead. niki is also involved, and it's a sort of package deal, because before meeting jakewon, heeseung, and everyone, they were their own little thing; not unlike jay, heeseung, and sunoo's brother's triad. they were both probably orphans, niki being the much younger one, and as such sunghoon took him under his wing and never looked back. when jake turned sunghoon, niki was basically like "m8 what the fuck" and demanded he be turned too, not wanting his sunghoon-hyung to live on forever while he grew old and died. jake, also having a soft spot for niki, was like "fine alright" and turned him too. so, now their little vampire coven numbered five, and all was (moderately) well.

or not.

the thing was, jake hadn't anticipated how powerful sunghoon would be—there's nothing in life that anyone's found yet that would indicate a person's level of power once turned, so jake had... pretty much no way to see this coming. but, anyway, sunghoon was... really, really powerful. like, insanely powerful. all the abilities vampires were said to have in legends, the likes of which were previously reserved for just legends, he had them; flawless teleportation, mind control, shape-shifting, the whole bit. and on top of that, he was controlled—insanely good at monitoring himself and keeping tabs on his own instincts. one of the most self-sufficient, well-mannered vampires jake had ever seen. it was... frankly insane.

the problem? the queen. this is where she comes in, because she's played a part in all the boys' transformations, albeit indirectly—when jake and jungwon first turned, it was she who turned them. she could sense sunghoon's power, and she wanted it for herself. jake and jungwon had done well at avoiding her, even forgetting about her for a while; but what she wanted, she took, and take she did. it was sunghoon she took: luring him to her in small increments and then all at once, taking control of him, turning him into a mindless puppet. sunghoon had always prided himself in control, and without it, havoc wreaked: bodies dropping left and right, people being killed seemingly at random, their only purpose being to instill fear and paranoia.

now, niki had heard tales, before, from his hyungs but also from regular townspeople to whom the legend had gotten passed down, of heeseung, and how great and terrible he was. heeseung, the townspeoples' folktales said, had been insane, unstoppable: a mad genius far too gone for redemption. niki also knew from his hyungs' fond stories that heeseung, more than evil, was kind and caring; he was loyal, and powerful in his loyalty, and niki thought that if anyone could save his sunghoon-hyung, it was heeseung.

so niki went on a journey. without telling jaywon or anyone else (and thus causing quite the panic), he spent years searching for heeseung, everywhere jaywon had thought to look and everywhere they hadn't, and twice more for good measure. and, by some stroke of luck, either due to his own sheer force of will of something else entirely, niki found him: locked away in an old castle that never quite seemed to stay put, constantly phasing in between realities. it made sense why no one had found him before then—he didn't want to be found. desperately, in fact.

but niki, too, was desperate. he enacted a ritual that was said (by jake, so of course it was to be trusted) to wake any vampire that had gone into hibernation, and, miracles continuing to work for the bitter young boy, it worked. heeseung awoke—startled to find himself staring into the face of a very teary, very angry (visibly) sixteen-year-old.

confusion passed, things and motives were explained, and heeseung (although bitter at having been woken up, and still riddled with enough guilt to last 1500 lifetimes) attempted to patiently tell niki that he had no fucking idea how to help sunghoon whatsoever. niki pretty much said "well you better fucking find a way because you're not going back to sleep now, the world's about to fucking end. also jay and jungwon-hyung have been looking for you for literal centuries, do you know how pissed theyd be if i went out looking for you, found you, then came back empty-handed? really fucking pissed is how much. also sad. did i mention sad?" and heeseung, notoriously weak and also kind of (read: very) in love, is just like "...jungwon? jay?"

so niki brings heeseung back to the others, the return journey taking a long enough time that the two become significantly close to each other, heeseung's long-forgotten big brother instincts (tm) kicking in around the younger vampire. niki has to basically drag heeseung out of the castle by his teeth, because as much as he misses his brother and jungwon, he's still so incredibly guilty, and completely convinced that he isnt worth love or life whatsoever and that jay still hates his guts. and, jungwon... he doesn't even want to think about jungwon. how he failed him. how he let him down. but, niki slowly works through the insecurities, bit by bit: assuring heeseung that, no, even though jay will definitely rip him a new one once he sees him again, he'll also cry and hug him for at least 24 hours because he misses him like hell and heeseungie hyung you have no idea.

they weather a lot together. storms, mental breakdowns, bouts of blood-starvation so severe heeseung thinks he'll lose it again: but they're there for each other. they hunt, talk, keep each other warm, and in it, form an unbreakable bond. niki had heard tales of the legendary lee heeseung, who wiped out entire armies in two seconds flat and comforted his friends when they were sad and annoyed jay to the very ends of the earth: but what he's faced with is a man with more insecurities than niki has hairs on his head—and he has a lot of hairs on his head.

by the time they make it back to the coven's home, heeseung has grown sufficiently attached to the enigma that is niki, and has almost completely but it out of his mind that he's here for his old friends, too. he's only doing this for niki: it's a fact he's comfortable with. so when they reach the front steps he just... freezes.

i have a very clear image of it in my head—jungwon, jay, and jake sense niki's presence, in some weird vampire-y way. it's been around 10, 15 years since he left at this point, so of course they rush out to greet him, ready with scoldings and lashings about how stupid he had been (after, of course, making sure he's unharmed and alright)—but it all dies on their tongues as soon as they see who's with him.

frozen. everything is frozen.

i imagine it's a lot like lulu and artzyy's post. jungwon is the first to move, stepping forward and whimpering out a broken "hyung", and all heeseung's guilt and avoidance is forgotten in favor of cradling jungwon to his chest, holding him close and whispering reassurances into the crown of his head, wonnie, im so sorry, hyung's so sorry; i didn't mean to leave you for so long, i'm here now, its okay. and of course then jay comes in, crying and screaming about how the fuck is it okay, how can it ever be okay, how could you just not mean to leave us alone for 1500 years?! how the fuck do you just expect to waltz back into our lives like nothing ever happened and pretend its all okay?!? and then he hits him, and hurts him, tries to make him feel even an inkling of the hurt he was made to feel for the past fifteen hundred years—but then punching him turns into fisting hands into the back of his shirt and sobbing into his neck and holding him so tight he wouldn't be able to breath if he had the need to and please, please don't leave, why would you leave, you asshole, why did you leave?

so yeah. things happen. reunions are had, tears are shed. some indirect heewon love confessions probably happen later on in the form of very intense devotions of life and self and all that. "walking on the single-log bridge in the dark really isnt so bad" you know the whole shbang. meanwhile jay salty in the background just like "cant you just say you love each other like normal human beings jesus fucking christ"

jayseung's relationship (or the reigniting of it) is, well, rocky. they're both conflicted—jay even more than heeseung. because, the thing is, heeseung killed sunoo. as regretful as he is, that doesn't make it any easier to forget. but he's back, and alive, and in one piece, and he isn't leaving, and jay knows it wasn't really his fault, he wasn't in control—but he killed him. he killed their brother. and it WAS his own stupid fault for losing control in the first place, for not listening to jungwon, so what the hell is jay supposed to think? he flip-flops between being intensely grateful that heeseung is back and okay and finally with them again, and then remembering what he's done, giving him the cold shoulder and not speaking to him for hours on end. and all the while, heeseung is riddled with guilt, and shame, and grief he'd suppressed for far too long; niki's stubbornness combined with jungwon's unwavering support being the only things keeping him from bolting into oblivion all over again. all in all, it's a difficult time—but they get there. eventually.

naturally, they save sunghoon. what else is there to do? they defeat the queen, break her control over their friend—and then jakehoon have their own teary reunion, not unlike heewon's, and sungki have theirs, not unlike jayseung's (although with a... considerable decrease in cursing and conflicted emotions, and a lot more immediate sobbing). they're a mess—sunghoon is traumatized, heeseung is traumatized, jay and niki are traumatized, they're all just fucking traumatized. jayseung will probably take a long time to get back to the way they once were, if it's even possible—there'll always be an empty space there, something gone, something missing, and it's one that can't be filled. jungwon barely lets heeseung out of sight or touch alike, and heeseung isn't much better off. jay's always been the more touchy one out of the three of them; but after years of missing, of longing, there's plenty of time to be made up, and heeseung is just... so, so soft, and warm, and being held by him is the loveliest thing jungwon's ever known.

AND NOW A SUNOO THING, BECAUSE THE IDEA OF ENHA LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER AS OT6 WITH SUNOO JUST FUCKING DEAD DOES. NOT WORK FOR ME

so like. sunoo isn't dead, or he doesn't stay dead, or not the soulless-unmoving kind of dead anyway. you know how necromancy and fierce corpses exist in donghua and shit? well they exist here too because fuck you and also i said so. i made myself sad and now im making it happy again goddamnit.

anyway. after he dies, sunoo gets found by the queen, too, and because she's all-powerful and whatnot she fucking necromances him—figures he'll be useful later. as he is, though, he's basically nothing more than a puppet; like wen ning and song lan were when they were being controlled. his soul isn't... gone exactly, just imprisoned, prevented from being able to come forward and command his body.

so. sunoo is still partially alive, and the boys (jay, jake, jungwon, sunghoon, niki, and whatnot)... don't know that. i imagine that for pretty much the entirety of the centuries that heeseung is gone, sunoo's status as a necromanced fierce corpse goes entirely unknown to them, and it's only after heeseung is brought back by niki that he starts to resurface. i imagine they realize it in a sort of tense, action-filled scenario: the boys have gone to investigate another attack, thinking it's sunghoon, but as it turns out the queen has had TWO undead corpses running around doing her dirty work instead of one. and one of them is sunoo.

heeseung and jay, of course, are stunned. they cant believe it's real; it isn't real, it can't be—and yet.

a lot of angsty plot stuff happens—i dont have the energy or enough shits to give to figure out what. the thing is, the queen only kept sunoo this long and brought him out as a tactic to lure heeseung, make him weaker; and it probably worked. in the midst of both fighting against sunghoon and fighting to SAVE sunghoon, heeseung is bent on saving sunoo as well, and there's probably a lot of very angsty talk wherein there are disagreements about who's life, really, is more important in this situation, and if heeseung is just trying to make up for what he did to sunoo. regardless, heeseung ends up saving sunoo and bringing his soul back to the surface. what he doesn't expect is for sunoo to forgive him—fully and wholeheartedly. and it feels wrong, because no, you should be angry with me, you should hate me and want to hurt me like i hurt you; but sunoo is just... happy. happy that he's back, happy that heeseung is back, happy that they're all together again. and its conflicting, to say the least. even moreso because sunoo isnt stupid—he didnt just act like heeseung was an innocent who did no wrong; he knew he had been wreckless, knew he was at fault, and he forgave him still. loved him still. that was something heeseung... hadn't been prepared for.

like i said in the last part, they save sunghoon; how, im not sure, but they save him, probably with a fair bit of sunoo's help, and they're together again. only the tiny difference here is that sunoo is with them too. sunoo is back, and the gang has yet another undead bestie to teach the ropes of being a vampire to. things are awkward, obviously, especially between the original brother's trio of heeseung, sunoo, and jay; because sunoo is his usual sweet and kind self while jay believes that he should be more angry at heeseung for killing him, heeseung agrees, and jay has some very conflicted feelings about how self-depricating his hyung is being (because like... yeah you killed sunoo and im supposed to hate you but you're not supposed to hate yourself, you idiot, what the fuck?)

(also like. if we're gonna take some more crumbs from cql canon here im gonna go ahead and say sunoo's death was at least somewhat self-sacrificial, even if it was heeseung that ended up causing it in the end)

(i kind of love how jiang cheng-y i made enhaverse jay here to be honest)

(okay this has been in my drafts WAY too long because ive been waiting for some miraculous Other Detail i need to add to pop up in my mind, but honestly i can just add anything else i think of in a reblog afterwards, this bitch just needs to see the light of day)

[grewlikefancyflowers]

JC’s deeply rooted resentment of WWX, JFM’s parenting, and the inevitability of the falling out of the ‘Yunmeng bros’.

In discussion of the breakdown of JC and WWX’s relationship, their falling out is often regarded as a mutual failing on both sides to properly communicate and maintain their relationship. I’m making the case here that their falling out was a foregone conclusion from the start, and in no part due to the actions of Wei Wuxian.

This is because YZY has instilled in JC the idea that JFM dislikes him, something he believes before WWX arrives in Lotus Pier, JC already feels inferior, thus as soon as potential competition for JFM’s attention comes along in the form of WWX, JC resents him, believes JFM prefers him, and looks for reasons to justify this. 

Summarising their very first interactions - from chapter 71 - WWX arrives at LP, sees JC with his puppies and is so terrified that he refuses to come down from JFM’s arms the entire day. The second day, JFM gives JC’s puppies away.

Now, I would like to think that no one seriously believes that this is an act of favouritism, but I have seen this case being made so I just want to make clear that WWX is obviously traumatised by his previous interactions with dogs. After trying for a whole day to comfort WWX, with no success, JFM does not exactly have any other choice than to give the puppies away, WWX cannot be expected to live in constant terror in the place that is supposed to be his home.

Consequently, ‘This angered Jiang Cheng so much that he threw a big tantrum. No matter how much Jiang FengMian comforted him gently, telling him that they should ‘be good friends’, he refused to talk to Wei WuXian.’

JC’s reaction is fairly understandable for an 8 year old. JFM comforts JC, and does not treat him callously or dismiss him, however it takes several days until JC will even talk to WWX.

When JC does start to warm up to him, JFM thinks it’d be a good idea for them to have a sleepover, JC is on the ‘verge of agreeing’ to this, which JFM is overjoyed by - so much so that he picks WWX up.

This is not an example of favouritism, JFM doesn't repeatedly give affection to WWX and not JC, he holds him twice - the first instance being purely because WWX was too terrified to leave his arms, the second being this one. These are the only two times where JFM is described as being affectionate towards WWX, JC is still in the lead on this count. But JC interprets this as JFM preferring WWX.

This results in the JC shutting WWX out at night.

At that time, Wei WuXian didn’t know what Jiang Cheng was mad about at all. After a pause, he replied, “I didn’t steal anything. It’s Uncle Jiang who told me to sleep with you.”

Hearing that he was still bringing up his father, almost as if he was purposely showing off, Jiang Cheng’s eyes reddened as he yelled, “Go away! If I see you again, I’ll call a bunch of dogs to bite you!”

This is the important part - JC sees WWX in the worst possible light, and rarely thinks of WWX as a person outside of how he directly impacts JC - he concludes that WWX is purposefully antagonising him, this is a trend that continues well into adulthood.

Then, when WWX flees LP after JC threatens him with dogs, JYL tells JC to find people to help search for him. However,

‘If any other disciple or servant learned about this and told Jiang FengMian, after Jiang FengMian knew how he threw Wei WuXian’s sheets out and made him hurt his leg, Jiang FengMian would definitely dislike him even more. This was also why he only dared chase after them alone and didn’t get anyone else.’

JC has obviously behaved wrongly here, and JFM would be right to scold him for it, but JC interprets this as JFM disliking him. We haven’t seen anything to suggest that JFM actually dislikes JC, he always treats him quite gently, actually. But JC is already at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, and twists events to suit this - if his dad scolds him for misbehaving, it’s because he dislikes him. This pattern repeats after the Xuanwu Cave arc too.

This is because Madam Yu has ingrained into him the idea that JFM dislikes him, because he’s her son. This has nothing to do with WWX - because both her and JC already believe that JFM dislikes JC prior to WWX’s arrival -  she only sees him as additional fuel to use.

The only other person who mentions JFM supposedly treating WWX better than JC is JZX. I’m sure it's a coincidence that he’s the son of YZY’s best friend.

‘“Doesn’t he treat you better than treating his own child or something?”’

Note the ‘or something’, - JZX doesn’t seem to know this with certainty - he’s repeating what others have said, despite having visited Lotus Pier several times (as stated in ch.69), JZX hasn’t seen evidence for himself that JFM prefers WWX.

‘“Maybe I should’ve let you hit him, while I stand aside and watch. This way, Uncle Jiang might not need to come. Oh well, I really couldn’t hold back!”’

We know that WWX doesn’t see JFM as favouring him - so what does he mean by this? Well, LQR has had it out for WWX from the moment they met, and has already sent a letter to JFM complaining of his behaviour - at this point WWX doesn’t know that this results in them breaking the JZX/JYL engagement either, so he’s probably purely thinking that LQR summoned JFM to CR to discuss WWX’s repeated offenses. JC hasn’t done anything to invoke LQR’s ire (or rather, he’s gotten away with everything he has done), so WWX thinks that if JC fought JZX, it would not have been treated so seriously, compared to WWX, who has repeatedly misbehaved.

Contrary to fanon interpretation, WWX is not oblivious to other people’s feelings, he’s very empathetic, and additionally understands JC very well. He doesn’t see how JC is feeling here, because JC’s feelings are just so illogical...

‘Although it was only Wei WuXian’s casual words, he held mixed feelings, because he knew that this wasn’t a lie.

Jiang FengMian had never hurried to another sect in one day for anything related to him, no matter if the issue was good or bad, large or small.

Never.’

Once again, JC’s at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, he twists events to support this. He’s looking at this scenario very strangely - JFM didn’t rush to CR because he likes WWX, he was called there by LQR, to discuss JYL’s engagement with JZX. Secondly, we’re never given any examples of scenarios where JC does anything to warrant JFM rushing over. As far as we know, they never even stay with other sects. Knowing JC’s personality, his dislike of doing anything to rock the boat, it’s extremely unlikely that he’s ever done anything to warrant JFM rushing over like this. Moreover, it’s a bizarre thing to be jealous of, WWX is in trouble, he’s not on the receiving end of positive attention from JFM. 

JC’s flawed reasoning is once again illustrated after the Xuanwu Cave arc...

‘Jiang Cheng’s expression was complicated after he had finished listening.’

This is Jiang Cheng’s reaction after WWX credits LWJ with killing the tortoise of slaughter - this is before JFM congratulates him. Before JFM says anything, JC is purely resentful about WWX having done something heroic, more so, resentful that WWX is willingly to let LWJ take most of the credit - he’s annoyed about this, most likely feeling that WWX is rubbing in his face that he doesn’t need the recognition that JC so desperately craves.

‘Jiang FengMian nodded and said, “You did well.”

Killing a giant 400-year-old beast at only 17 was way beyond what one would call ‘doing well.’’

JFM knows about JC’s… issues, he knows how he’ll react to WWX’s receiving recognition, he likely purposefully downplays his praise to avoid upsetting him. (Who’s really being favouritised? Lol)

But, even to this, JC reacts badly, he lashes out at WWX, once more interpreting him in the worst possible way.

‘Jiang Cheng hissed, “Too fucking bad, then. You shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn and you shouldn’t have cared so damn much about such a trivial thing. If you’d never moved in the first place –”’

JC’s response is to basically tell him the entire incident was his fault. Which is objectively not true - WWX only gets involved in the conflict after it has already started, and then he acts deliberately to try to end it, rather than impulsively fighting. He also starts to say that WWX should have left their allies - LWJ and JZX - to die. This is where JFM cuts him off, and tells him it’s not appropriate to say such things - he’s not scolding him harshly, JC is not being unfairly treated here, he’s done wrong, and JFM is trying to teach him why, you know, parenting. But JC, and YZY, take this to mean JFM dislikes JC.

JFM tries to teach JC about the Jiang sect’s motto once more - this is of course, not just about the motto, but about the values that JFM wants to instill in him, as a parent.

This is where Madam Yu arrives.

“Yes, he doesn’t understand, but what does it matter, as long as Wei Ying understands?!”

Of course, what she says is nonsensical, it does matter to JFM that JC understands the motto, that’s why he’s trying to teach him. If he did not care, he would have given in already.

This is further supported...

‘Jiang Cheng’s appearance and temperament all resembled his mother’s. Jiang FengMian guided him from childhood, but no matter how much he tried, he still couldn’t change his son’s nature. As such, it always seemed like he disliked his son.’

JFM has never been dismissive of JC just because he’s YZY’s son, he’s always tried to teach him, but JC always had his mother’s nature - YZY’s nature being harsh, standoffish, foul tempered, with no care for others - Note that is says it ‘seems’ like he dislikes his son, solely because he’s trying to teach him to be a better person. He has good reason for doing so - as a kid, JC never had friends, he doesn’t seem to as an adult either, he only has Jin Ling, whom he pushes away with his foul temper. JFM was just trying to raise JC to being an even-tempered person, capable of functioning in society, which is kind of what parents are supposed to do. But once more, this is taken as dislike.

Note that during JC’s outburst, every single thing JC claims about what JFM thinks of him, he’s parroting what YZY has said, none of these points have any actual evidence.

The next point to consider is how JC blames WWX for the fall of LP, despite it objectively not being his fault - JC knows this too.

‘In his heart, Jiang Cheng knew clearly that back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter at Dusk-Creek Mountain, even if Wei WuXian hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, the Wen Sect would have found some reason to come over sooner or later’

Even if WWX’s actions did prompt the Wens to act sooner than they otherwise might have - coming sooner or later would have made no difference at all because YZY outright stated she had no intention of preparing for an attack, even after WWX suggests they should, and JFM was still going to the Wens asking for their swords back - they were still uselessly trying to suck up to the Wens, thinking it would save them.

Despite knowing deep down that WWX was not to blame - he still uses it to fuel his resentment of WWX, because the resentment was there from the beginning, the only uncertainty is the means he uses to justify it.

During the ancestral hall confrontation - he uses this excuse again.

‘Jiang Cheng responded contemptuously, “You really are forgetful. What’s called a shameful person? Let me remind you. Just because you decided to be a hero and save this Second Young Master Lan, the entire Lotus Pier including my father and mother was buried. If this wasn’t enough, after the first time, you still want a second time, even wanting to save Wen-dogs and implicating my sister and her husband, how noble of you. Even nobler, you are so magnanimous to bring these two to Lotus Pier. Allowing the Wen-dog to stand at the front of my gates and letting Second Young Master Lan offer joss sticks, purely trying to antagonize me.’

Obviously, WWX did none of these things to antagonise JC, in fact he was going through a complex emotional journey of realising that he has feelings for LWJ, and that LWJ probably has feelings for him too, he doesn’t go to the ancestral shrine to mess around - he’s ‘introducing’ LWJ to JFM, YZY, and JYL, because he’s thinking about marrying him.

The problem is, JC never really sees WWX as a person, WWX has always been more of a concept - someone to compare himself to, the reason his father doesn’t like him, the reason his mother uses to berate him. It doesn’t occur to JC that WWX is a person outside of what he is to JC, and he is therefore incapable of empathising with what WWX might be feeling right now, instead the only possible conclusion is that he’s antagonising JC.

He follows the same line of thinking when WWX defects with the Wens. JC knows what he and WWX owe them, in fact JC owes them, far, far more than what WWX does - it was his parents whose bodies Wen Ning retrieved, and it was him who WN had to rescue from LP. But JC thinks, he can get away with not paying this debt, so why should he? JC is selfish, he doesn’t understand why WWX would want to help others when he doesn’t have to, so JC concludes, this is WWX showing off, ‘playing the hero’. 

Because from the moment they met, JC has never tried to know WWX for who he is, whatever WWX does, JC interprets in a negative light - when WWX tries to get LWJ’s attention, (despite it being painstakingly obvious that WWX has a crush on him) JC concludes that WWX is messing around foolishly, without reason (parroting the untrue things YZY says about WWX always seeking trouble). When WWX wants to help people, he’s playing the hero, one upping JC. JC only ever thinks of WWX in relation to himself - when WWX disappears for three months, JC’s immediate complaint is that WWX kept him waiting, that he’s put JC out by making him search for him. You could argue that JC was just worried about WWX, and not able to express it - and on some level that’s true. But there’s a very intentional contrast between how LWJ and JC react to WWX’s return - LWJ is worried about WWX, about how his cultivation method is affecting him, moreover, WWX is very clearly not himself. JC, however, does not care for that - he only sees WWX, and modao, as a tool for killing Wens.

It takes almost nothing for JGS to manipulate JC into turning against WWX in ch.73 - he readily believes every negative thing JGS says about WWX, despite being called out directly for lying by LWJ. JGS talks as if he is a servant who has forgotten his place, unlike JYL, JC does not defend him. He refuses to speak up for him - he claims that no one will - yet LWJ and MianMian did. JC didn’t turn on WWX because it was impossible for him to speak up - he was living proof that WQ and WN did not support the Wen sect in the war, he drops him the moment he can because he’s resented him from the beginning.

Another interesting tidbit about JC just fundamentally not understanding who WWX is as a person, is that he only blames LWJ for the Xuanwu Cave incident - not JZX, despite him behaving no differently to how LWJ does. This is probably because he realises WWX’s fixation on LWJ, and supposes that this is the reason that WWX got involved in the conflict. But of course, WWX would have done something whether it was solely JZX, or just a random person.

Taking all this into account, it seems almost inevitable that WWX and JC would fall out eventually, because JC was, from the start, looking for reasons to dislike WWX, he turns against him at the first opportunity he got. For the ‘Yunmeng bros’ to have a healthy relationship, JC would simply have to fix his entire personality.

JC is unable to see WWX as a person, right up until the very end of the novel - when he recalls how he impulsively put himself at risk in order to save WWX. Finally, for the first time, JC is able to understand why WWX stood up for others in Xuanwu Cave, why he helped the Wens, because JC did the same thing, put himself on the line for WWX, probably the only time JC has ever acted so selflessly. And this is why he lets him go, he lets go of the things he blamed WWX for. For the first time, he is able to empathise with WWX, he understands that WWX was never ‘playing the hero’, seeking praise or recognition, he understands that WWX helps people purely because he feels in the moment that it’s the right thing to do. This is what enables him to finally let go of WWX.

I’m always a bit baffled when people claim mxtx never gave JC a happy ending, because this is his happy ending - him being able to realise that WWX never wronged him - when he finally lets go of this, he can live freely. 

[veliseraptor]

Post- Xuanwu Cave whump and rescue. Plot optional. I think there's a lot of potential in that missing scene. One minute WWX is passing out to LWJ telling him he wrote and named a song for him and the next LWJ is gone (and still injured), WWX rescued (and still holding that sword(!) why? someone pls take that away), JC is kind of pretending not to care, LXC is missing/presumed dead. LWJ and JC must have interacted during the rescue! Thx for all you write!

punctuated on all sides

[READ ON AO3]

Good thing you said plot optional because it isn’t here! instead have 4,000 words of Jiang Cheng fretting, also featuring a very awkward Jin Zixuan and a Lan Wangji disinclined to explain himself, thank you. Thanks to @ameliarating​ as usual for the betaing job. She’s very tolerant and we’re all (I’m all) grateful.

Wei Wuxian did not emerge from the tunnel behind him.

Jiang Cheng insisted on waiting, for hours, pacing back and forth and staring into the pool of water they’d surfaced from, but nothing came through.

“They’re not coming,” one of the Yao disciples said bluntly. “They’re probably dead,” and Jiang Cheng rounded on him.

“Shut up,” he snapped. “I’m going to go back-”

“No,” Jin Zixuan said. He looked a lot less peacock-like with his hair and fine Jin robes drenched. It was sort of funny, or it would have been, but Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but think that Wei Wuxian would find it hilarious and satisfying and Wei Wuxian wasn’t here.

(Or Lan Wangji, but Jiang Cheng cared a lot less about that.)

“What do you mean, no,” Jiang Cheng said.

Jin Zixuan shook his head. “You’ll just get yourself killed. We need to get away from here.”

“That’s right,” said one of the Jin disciples. “What if Wen Chao comes back?”

“He won’t,” Jiang Cheng said. “He’s a coward.” He stripped off his outer robe and glared directly at Jin Zixuan. “Go ahead and run away if you want. I’m not leaving without him.”

He dove in before anyone else could try to argue, and swam down.

The tunnel was blocked. Some kind of rockfall triggered during the fight? Or maybe that creature was smarter than it’d looked and had done it on purpose. It didn’t really matter. The fact was: Wei Wuxian wasn’t coming out this way.

Jiang Cheng had known. He’d known, Wei Wuxian had said I’ll be right behind you but then he’d also said bring back help for us and of course, of course he pulled this kind of stunt, had to stay back and be the hero-

His distracting that thing was the only reason the rest of you got out.

(You should’ve stayed back with him.)

Jiang Cheng swam back and climbed out of the pool.

“The tunnel’s collapsed,” he said shortly. “There’s no getting back in that way.”

Jin Zixuan’s expression flickered and Jiang Cheng wanted to punch him. If he said anything like sorry he thought he probably would. Fortunately, he didn’t. Instead after a moment he just said, “Jinlintai is closer than anywhere else. Let’s go there and bring back help to rescue Lan-er-gongzi and Wei Wuxian. My father will have to step in after this outrage.”

Someone - Jiang Cheng didn’t see who - squawked loudly. “What? Come back? Don’t be ridiculous. That’ll be days and by then they’ll be dead for sure.”

Jiang Cheng glared even as his stomach lurched up into his throat. No, he thought violently. No. That’s not going to happen.

“Yes,” he made himself grind out. “That would - thank you, Jin-gongzi.”

Jin Zixuan looked away. “You’re welcome, Jiang-gongzi,” he said stiffly. “Let’s go, then. Sooner better than later.” He seemed to be ignoring the objection as though it hadn’t been made, which was probably the best way to deal with it, really.

“What about the rest of us?” someone else asked.

“You’re welcome to stay here and wait around,” Mianmian said, her voice just skirting the edge of snappish. “Or try to make it back to your families on your own. That’s up to you.”

Jiang Cheng glanced back at the pool one last time before they left. The surface was still, utterly undisturbed. Somewhere down there Wei Wuxian was trapped with a monster.

He’d be fine, Jiang Cheng told himself. His shixiong was strong and frustratingly capable. Lan Wangji’s cultivation was high. Wei Wuxian wouldn’t try anything stupid like trying to take on that thing with just the two of them, without their swords.

Wei Wuxian would absolutely try something stupid exactly like that.

Jiang Cheng shoved all of that aside and made himself turn and start walking. Wei Wuxian would be fine. And when he dug him out of there he was going to punch him for trying to be a big hero and getting himself stuck in the first place.

Yes, he told himself firmly. That was exactly how it was going to be.

**

Without their swords, they had to walk to Jinlintai. And it was a long way to Jinlintai.

Jiang Cheng was beginning to have some sympathy for ordinary people who had to do this all the time.

He would have liked to move faster - too acutely aware of time passing, of how long it had been since they’d left the cave behind, how long it would take to cover the rest of the distance that was left. But there was only so fast they could go.

He expected Jin Zixuan to be a pain in the ass the whole way. He braced himself for bitching and moaning or at least arrogant and disdainful silence, but while he didn’t talk much, he was significantly less intolerable than Jiang Cheng had expected and he didn’t complain.

His respect for Jin-gongzi crept up one or two notches. Barely.

The third night, only another half-day’s journey from Jinlintai (finally, and please let Jin-zongzhu be willing to help, then they could get back to the cave and open it up and he’d drag Wei Wuxian back to Lotus Pier and beat him within an inch of his life for being such an idiot), and Jin Zixuan walked over to the fire he and the Jiang Sect disciples were huddled around. Then he proceeded to just stand there in silence.

“What,” Jiang Cheng said, when he got tired of waiting.

Jin Zixuan glanced at the Jiang disciples and cleared his throat. “I,” he said, and then stopped. He frowned, and then said, even more stiffly than usual, “I’d like a word with you, Jiang-gongzi.”

Jiang Cheng pressed his lips together and stared at him for several seconds, then jerked his head in a nod and stood up. “All right,” he said. “What about?”

Jin Zixuan turned and walked a little away from the fire, clearly expecting Jiang Cheng to follow. He scowled at his back but after a moment did.

“What is it,” he said when Jin Zixuan stopped, out of earshot of the others.

“We’ll reach Jinlintai tomorrow,” Jin Zixuan said after a long silence.

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said. “I know.”

Jin Zixuan wasn’t quite looking straight at him, hands tucked behind his back. “My father may be...reluctant to get involved,” he said. Jiang Cheng squinted at him, feeling as though a bucket of water had been dumped on his head.

“What?”

“He doesn’t want a quarrel with Qishan Wen.”

“Doesn’t want - Qishan Wen was using us all as hostages!” Jiang Cheng burst out, his voice rising. “Wen Chao would’ve had us be monster bait and shut us all up in a cave without our weapons! The Wens attacked Cloud Recesses and burned it down, and attacked the Unclean Realm as well-”

“I know,” Jin Zixuan said, looking briefly alarmed but still not directly at Jiang Cheng. “I am just - saying.”

Jiang Cheng tried not to grind his teeth. “You’re saying he might not want to send help back to Dusk Creek Mountain for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.”

“It’s...possible.” Was that shame on Jin Zixuan’s face? It looked weird on him. Jiang Cheng’s chest rose and fell rapidly and he thought you’re telling me this could all have been a waste of time, that you Jins are just going to sit back and do nothing, gutless, chicken-hearted-

Jiang Cheng’s hands balled into fists. “Right,” he said through his teeth. “Well. If he doesn’t want to send anyone-”

He choked on saying I’ll go back and do it myself. What was he going to do alone?

Dread sunk into his stomach like a rock.

“I’ll try to convince him that we can’t let this disgrace stand,” Jin Zixuan said. And then, “I will convince him.”

You’d better, Jiang Cheng thought. Or I’ll, but there wasn’t much he could do, was there? Wasn’t like he could fight Jin-zongzhu. He couldn’t do anything. Just - helpless. Useless.

He could hear that in a-niang’s voice.

“The Wen Sect is just going to keep pushing forward until someone stops them,” Jiang Cheng said. “After what happened to Lan Sect, and Qinghe Nie…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Jin Zixuan said, and his voice was suddenly much harder. “Mianmian says-” He stopped. And looked embarrassed again. He cleared his throat. “I know what the situation is.”

Jiang Cheng wondered what Mianmian said, but he doubted asking was going to get him anywhere.

Jin Zixuan said nothing for several very long moments, and then said, “Wei Wuxian.”

Jiang Cheng tensed. “What about him,” he said tightly, because there were a lot of ways that conversations starting with Wei Wuxian could go, and given previous interactions between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan, it seemed unlikely it would be good.

Jin Zixuan’s pause was even longer this time. He seemed to be struggling with something. “The way you treat him,” he said. “It’s very…”

Jiang Cheng glared at him, hackles continuing to rise.

“...familiar,” Jin Zixuan said.

“How should I treat him,” Jiang Cheng said aggressively. Jin Zixuan looked like he was beginning to regret starting this conversation. He shook his head.

“Never mind.”

“I don’t think,” Jiang Cheng said icily, “that Wei Wuxian’s place in Jiang Sect is a matter for Jin Sect to concern themselves with.”

Jin Zixuan flushed. Then turned on his heel and marched back over to the Jin disciples. Jiang Cheng glared at his back, then huffed and went back to the other Jiang disciples, taking a stick and poking at the fire.

It’s not that hard to understand, he wanted to snap at Jin Zixuan. He’s basically my brother.

And I left him behind.

Jiang Cheng shoved that away. It wasn’t his fault. And he was going back. He was not going back to Jiang Yanli without her a-Xian in tow.

And Jin Zixuan could shove his opinions where the sun didn’t shine.

**

Jin Zixuan had been right. Jin Guangyao did not want to get involved.

Not that anyone said as much. They were all welcomed, of course, provided food and water and guest rooms and sympathy, but no one said anything about the Wens, let alone going back to Dusk Creek Mountain.

“What are we going to do,” Jia Zian asked. “Should we just go back to Lotus Pier?”

Jiang Cheng clenched his jaw and shook his head. It’d take too long. By the time they got there and back - even if the monster hadn’t killed Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, starvation or thirst would. Time was short and running out.

He went looking for Jin Zixuan, and found him lurking outside Fragrant Palace looking disgruntled.

“Jin-gongzi,” he said loudly. He turned toward Jiang Cheng, the disgruntled look wiped off his face between one moment and the next. Jiang Cheng sort of wondered how he managed to give off that air of looking down his nose even when he wasn’t.

“Jiang-gongzi,” Jin Zixuan said stiffly.

“What has Jin-zongzhu said he’s going to do about all of this?”

Jin Zixuan’s expression pinched like he’d smelled something bad. “He is considering the matter.”

Jiang Cheng was briefly overwhelmed with the temptation to grab Jin Zixuan by the shoulders and shake him. “Considering?” he said. “How long is he going to be considering for?”

He knew he was being rude, but his head was full of the words my brother is dying. My brother might already be dead. He wasn’t going to say it.

“He didn’t say,” Jin Zixuan said. “It is - a grave matter. We’d be rebelling against the Chief Cultivator. He has to consider the welfare of the sect.” He didn’t sound happy about it, at least. Jiang Cheng’s right hand clenched into a fist and he wished, badly, that he had Sandu with him. It wouldn’t fix anything, or wouldn’t fix much, but he thought he might feel at least a little better.

“I know,” he managed, grudgingly. “I was just - wondering.”

Jin Zixuan gave him a sideways look and then said, “I asked if he would be willing to send a small group to Wang Feng to investigate.”

Jiang Cheng tried not to look too surprised. “And?”

Jin Zixuan looked away with a flick of his sleeves and said nothing, which Jiang Cheng supposed was answer enough. Maybe he was supposed to give him credit for asking. He did, sort of. But that still didn’t get them any closer to returning to that cave and getting Wei Wuxian out of it.

“I’m going to ask him again,” Jin Zixuan said abruptly. He turned his gaze more directly to Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng had the feeling that he was attempting to communicate something, but he had no idea what.

“All right,” he said after a few beats of silence. “You...do that.”

And left him to it, his mind in turmoil, the horrible feeling of helplessness knocking against him like an unwelcome guest on a door, again, again, again.

**

Jiang Cheng had no idea what changed Jin-zongzhu’s mind. He knew it was a good thing for many reasons, that the Wen Sect was going too far and needed to be stopped, that they’d attacked Nie Sect and Lan Sect and definitely wouldn’t stop there, but his first thought was, shamefully, thank the heavens, now we can go back for my brother.

To his mild surprise, Jin Zixuan joined him. Jiang Cheng was willing to acknowledge that he was not, perhaps, entirely without redeeming qualities. He’d shown some integrity in the cave, and now-

Well, he was actually being helpful. The Jin Sect disciples wouldn’t have listened to him, but they listened to Jin Zixuan - of course. When they reached the cave, they immediately started clearing the boulders that Wen Chao and his lackeys had used to close it up.

Jiang Cheng sidled up to him and said, grudgingly, “thank you.” Jin Zixuan turned in his direction and Jiang Cheng briefly identified his expression as ‘startled.’

Then it cleared and he just nodded, folding his hands behind his back. Jiang Cheng examined him, wondering again what a-jie possibly saw in him. Maybe he was more decent than hitherto believed, but husband material he was not.

“You’ll be going back to Lotus Pier after this,” Jin Zixuan said after a few moments. Jiang Cheng nodded, his eyes on the thinning barrier of boulders between him and that damned cave. The second he saw an opening big enough…

He probably shouldn’t just run in alone. He still didn’t have Sandu. And he’d need a rope to get down safely.

Didn’t mean he didn’t want to.

Jin Zixuan cleared his throat. “Before...your shixiong was brave,” he said. Jiang Cheng’s hackles went up and what he thought was he still is, but he realized somewhat quickly that wasn’t what Jin Zixuan meant. It just sounded too much like - the kind of thing someone might say offering condolences.

His next thought was he’s a reckless idiot, is what he is, but he had too much loyalty to say that to this peacock, even still. “Wei Wuxian is the head disciple of Jiang Sect,” he said. The glance in his direction seemed almost wary.

“I’d thought,” he began, and then stopped.

Thought he was an irresponsible jackass with no sense of decorum? You wouldn’t be wrong, Jiang Cheng thought, but he kept his mouth shut and just fixed a long stare on Jin Zixuan, who coughed delicately and turned his eyes forward again.

“I hope that he and Lan-er-gongzi are all right,” he said.

They’d better be.

A shout went up; the cave was open. Jiang Cheng took a step forward, his stomach swooping. He was counting back days, calculating time, remembering Wei Wuxian shouting at him to bring back help-

Once he went in there, there’d be no turning back. Until he saw - there was some very stupid part of him that kept thinking if he didn’t know Wei Wuxian was dead, if he didn’t see him, then he’d still be alive. Which of course was not how that worked. And he wasn’t dead, anyway. Couldn’t be.

“Jiang Wanyin,” Jin Zixuan said, or started to say.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Cheng said flatly, gritting his teeth and starting forward back into the cave.

**

Jiang Cheng saw the dead monster first. It stank, the smell of rotting meat and blood thick enough that he felt like he would choke on it. Dead, he thought. It’s dead. They killed it?

Next to him, Jin Zixuan was staring, arm covering his nose and mouth. “That,” he said. And then, “how…”

Jiang Cheng shook himself. “Wei Wuxian!” he shouted, walking forward, looking around the cavern, scanning the surface of the water. “Wei Wuxian!” After a moment he added, “Lan Wangji!”

Other voices joined him, calling their names. Jiang Cheng’s heart was pounding in his ears. The monster was dead, he told himself. For it to be dead, someone had to have killed it. Someone had to have been alive to kill it.

(That doesn’t mean they’re alive now.)

“Wei Wuxian!” he shouted, louder.

“Here,” he heard. Quiet. Not Wei Wuxian’s voice.

Finally he saw it: a crevice in the rocks, a small opening, just big enough for people to get through but not that thing in the water. He stumbled toward it, shoved his way through, a chorus in his head going please please please.

He saw Lan Wangji first, practically glowing in his whites, leaning up against the rock wall. There were bloodstains on his robes, and he looked pale and exhausted, but his eyes were open and he was plainly alive. With him-

With him, lying limply half in Lan Wangji’s lap, was Wei Wuxian. His skin was ashy and drained of color, and Jiang Cheng’s eyes widened.

He ran, crashed to his knees next to them, and said, his voice too high, “is he-?”

“He is sick,” Lan Wangji said. His expression was pinched like he was annoyed. With Wei Wuxian, for collapsing on him? Ass. Now that he was closer, Jiang Cheng could see him breathing, shallowly. He was clutching the ugliest sword Jiang Cheng had ever seen to his chest.

“What’s that,” he said, and then shook himself and said, “never mind. Let me take him.” He moved to haul Wei Wuxian off Lan Wangji, to get him out of this filthy cave and then back to Lotus Pier, to a-jie who would be so relieved to see them both.

“No need,” Lan Wangji said, and gathered Wei Wuxian into his arms like he was weightless, standing and turning away from Jiang Cheng to walk out - limp out - in silence. Jiang Cheng gaped after him.

He managed to recover himself pretty quickly and walk out after him, face burning.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the dead monster once more on the way out. It really was an awful-looking thing. Truly horrifying, and he’d seen how fearsome it was. How had Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian managed to kill it, just the two of them, alone?

By any measurement it was an impressive feat, but they’d done it. Wei Wuxian once again showing his merit.

The moment he thought it Jiang Cheng wanted to slap himself. Jealous? Really? When he’s been starving in here for days, half-dead and feverish and wounded. And you’re going to make it about yourself. Very good.

He grimaced and kept walking, climbing out of the cave and immediately searching for Lan Wangji - and how had he gotten out that fast, the shape he was in? (Cultivation’s just that high, he thought irritably. Lan-er-gongzi, what a pillar of might and skill.

He was doing it again.

For a wild moment when he didn’t see him he thought he’d walked off with Wei Wuxian, but then he did see a figure in white kneeling by a tree, bent over a limp body in black.

Jiang Cheng strode over in a hurry. Lan Wangji’s head turned as he approached, his face now blank and expressionless. Do you have some kind of problem with me or just with people in general, he wanted to snap, but only briefly, his attention zeroing back in on Wei Wuxian, dead to the world.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Lan Wangji blinked slowly. “Infection,” he said, finally. “And…” he paused, seemingly considering something, and went on, “it was a difficult battle.”

Jiang Cheng thought that was probably an understatement. His eyes dropped to the sword he was holding, and his hackles went up. It was a nasty looking thing, stained with red that looked like old blood. “What’s that,” he said, pointing.

Lan Wangji turned his eyes back to Wei Wuxian’s face. “A sword,” he said. Jiang Cheng resisted the powerful urge to snarl.

“I got that,” he snapped, and crouched down to pry it away. He’d give it back later, but it was making his skin crawl and he had the intense urge to get it as far away from Wei Wuxian as possible.

His fingers barely touched the blade and it - bit him.

That was the only way he had to describe it. It stung, like the bite of a snake, and for a moment he could’ve sworn he heard voices screaming, for a moment he wanted to get himself as far from the thing as possible-

The feeling passed and it was just a sword again. A very strange sword that had attacked when he tried to remove it. He could feel Lan Wangji watching him.

“You already tried, didn’t you,” he said.

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said.

“You could’ve said something,” Jiang Cheng said, but he looked away and focused back on Wei Wuxian, reaching out to lay the back of his hand against his forehead, then taking his hand to channel some spiritual energy into him. Lan Wangji watched like a hawk, like he thought Jiang Cheng was going to do it wrong, somehow.

Then, very abruptly, he stood up and turned away. Jiang Cheng started to rise as well, realized he was still holding Wei Wuxian’s hand, and stopped. “What’re you doing?”

“Leaving,” Lan Wangji said. Jiang Cheng took a deep breath through his nose.

“You’re - what? Now?” On the tip of his tongue was before he wakes up? but he decided he didn’t want to touch that.

“Yes,” Lan Wangji said.

“But,” Jiang Cheng started. He didn’t actually have any reasonable objections, though. There was no reason Lan Wangji needed to stay. As soon as Wei Wuxian woke up, they were just going to go back to Lotus Pier. And it wasn’t like Lan Wangji could do anything to help him now that Jiang Cheng couldn’t do.

It still seemed like - Wei Wuxian had gone out of his way more than once to help Lan Wangji, and here Lan Wangji was just - leaving while he was still like this.

And yet he’d carried him out here. He’d been holding Wei Wuxian, practically in his lap.

“Jiang-gongzi,” Lan Wangji said, and turned again, arm folded behind his back, striding smoothly away. Jiang Cheng watched him go, scowling and perplexed, but not for long before he looked back down at Wei Wuxian.

Still dead unconscious. Emphasis on the dead.

But he’d be fine. He was still breathing, and seemed to have stabilized, more or less. Soon he’d wake up and they’d head home together. The important thing was that Jiang Cheng had made it here in time.

And Wei Wuxian was going to be fine. Maybe he’d even learn his lesson about being a goddamn hero. Probably not, though.

His eyes fell again on the sword Wei Wuxian was clutching to his chest, and his skin crawled. That thing, he thought. He really didn’t like it.

Didn’t matter. Wei Wuxian would wake up soon, and they’d go home to a-jie, the Wens would be dealt with, and life could go back to normal before the end of the year.

Yes, he told himself again. That. That was how it was going to be.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Can you please write a second to your NMJ/WWX betrothal please, thirsty bi!WWX is best WWX (also how LWJ can enter into the dynamic) I love your writing so much 💕

part 1, part 2, part 3

“We should spar,” Nie Mingjue said one day.

That was a most unfortunate request, especially since Wei Wuxian was still crusading for him to seriously consider the three of them together –

Not together like that.

Just, you know, politically speaking, matrimonially speaking, it really all made perfect sense! 

Sure, it may have started as an impulse, but Wei Wuxian has belatedly come up with some very good reasons to justify it: he would have the backing of the Nie sect’s power and the Lan sect’s respectability, no one would be able to suggest that Nie Mingjue had married Wei Wuxian merely to gain access to his power, Lan Wangji would finally get to be with his (apparently!) childhood crush and Wei Wuxian would get to tease him forever, though maybe that was less of a benefit for Lan Wangji than it was for Wei Wuxian – 

Still, it would certainly obligate Wei Wuxian to protect and support the Cloud Recesses. Maybe it would be helpful for the ever-polite, ever-restrained Lan sect to have an ally with a bit more teeth and a reputation for being a little less than perfectly moral.

That’s all he meant.

…it was possible that he also meant the other way. That way.

He hadn’t, at first, really! It had just seemed like such a good idea: Nie Mingjue, who he admired so much, who had agreed to marry him and save both Wei Wuxian and the Jiang sect when he didn’t have to, and Lan Wangji, who Wei Wuxian had always liked so very much, who was always calm except when he wasn’t – he hadn’t thought of anything but how nice it would be if they were all living together.

Of course, he’d then realized he’d just proposed marriage, and that came with certain – connotations.

He still wasn’t entirely sure what was involved in being together in that way, but they all had hands, didn’t they? Hands and mouths and bodies, and the thought of all the ways those various pieces could join together made him blush just to think about.

It certainly didn’t make him feel repulsed, that was for sure.

It hadn’t been something he’d ever thought about before, especially not when it came to other men, but…well, he was proposing marriage. It was his job to study up on what might be required.

Especially since it seemed like Lan Wangji might actually be interested in – some of that.

Jiang Cheng had promised to get him a book with some cutsleeve art to help him prepare for the possibility of a wedding night – they’d both been red as a guests trying to eat chili peppers the entire time they’d had the conversation, since Jiang Cheng had been trying to apologize about the fact that he wasn’t sure if Nie MIngjue would give up on his rights as a husband and Wei Wuxian had had to explain that he was starting to think that he might not mind all that much if he did enforce them, ideally at length and on a regular basis, the whole thing had been excruciating and they’d both mutually decided to stop talking about it and get very, very intoxicated immediately afterwards – but it was taking him more time than expected, since he’d been trying to find one that didn’t come from Nie Huaisang.

For obvious reasons.

Still, long story short: Wei Wuxian was very much trying to stay on Nie Mingjue’s good side (not that all of his sides didn’t look good – the view from the back was as good as the front, and the sides weren’t bad either) so that he could talk him into it, and a spar, well, that made things awkward.

Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure about the best way to politely turn Nie Mingjue down and/or ask about whether he could pick fierce corpses as his weapon of choice, and he was still considering his response when Lan Wangji said, “It would be an honor” and Wei Wuxian abruptly realized that Nie Mingjue hadn’t been talking to him at all.

That put a totally different spin on things.

There wasn’t, strictly speaking, a training area in the Burial Mounds, only some flat space Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning had worked together to quickly clear of trees and other disturbances once they’d realized Nie Mingjue would be coming to visit, but it worked well enough even if the overhanging cliff to one side did occasionally drip mud on the unwary shortly after a rainstorm.

(Given that such an event generally required the removal of clothing, Wei Wuxian had decided that was one of the area’s good features rather than a problem that required fixing.)

Wei Wuxian shamelessly followed the two of them as they walked over to the area, perfectly prepared to insist that they needed a referee if they asked, but primarily just to watch the two of them. They were so different: Lan Wangji’s posture was perfectly correct, his pace slow and unhurried at every moment, while Nie Mingjue was upright by nature, his stride purposeful and determined, and yet they walked side-by-side without either one fall behind or going ahead.

They were both – very beautiful.

There were very few people that could make Lan Wangji look small, even delicate, but Nie Mingjue was one of them: he was tall and broad-shouldered, with big wide hands and an intensity that made the air around him almost feel like it was boiling, and then there was Lan Wangji, a statute carved out of ice, a refreshing breath of fresh air, perfectly calm and controlled in the fury of Nie Mingjue’s storm of a personality.

A perfect match.

Plus him, of course!

Wei Wuxian settled down eagerly. He couldn’t wait to watch this.

Nie Mingjue took one side of the field, drawing Baxia in all her might; Lan Wangji took out Bichen, a gentleman’s weapon if there ever was one.

There was a pause, a breath of time when they just looked at each other – and then they moved.

Steel against steel, Lan Wangji moving in a cloud of white to avoid the downward swings, using his own not-considerable strength to try to drive Nie Mingjue back – they each fought for the center, the position of strength, and it slipped back and forth between them, the advantage elusive.

Nie Mingjue swiped at Lan Wangji’s legs; Lan Wangji leapt up and struck at his head – Nie Mingjue caught his hand and threw him overhead – Lan Wangji landed as agile as a cat and immediately lunged forward try to take advantage – Nie Mingjue had already turned, his saber at the ready –

Wei Wuxian’s jaw was gaping open like a fish and he didn’t even care.

He’d been good at sword-fighting before – he’d been good at everything before, really – and it would be a lie to say that he didn’t miss it desperately, but this, oh, this! It was very nearly as good, watching two masters of the art: the swift sword and the fierce saber, their motions fluid and decisive, forceful, well-timed, their bodies perfectly in time with their weapons – their bodies becoming weapons, deadly and beautiful.

Lan Wangji was faster, Nie Mingjue more powerful; they were about equally matched in technique, each one pulling out the exact move that would counter the other. Their breathing began to come faster as the fight raged on, sweat appearing on their foreheads, their muscles straining –

In the end, Nie Mingjue lifted his saber high as if to bring it down in a unstoppable swipe; Lan Wangji side-stepped, only to find that it had been a feint and Nie Mingjue was already coming in close for a lock – he stepped back, but Nie Mingjue’s foot had already found the back of his ankle –

They both hit the ground.

Lan Wangji was on his back, his hands pinned above his head, Nie Mingjue having caught them as he tumbled them to the ground; their weapons were tangled together. Nie Mingjue had a leg on each side of Lan Wangji’s body, his own pressed down low to maintain balance, their chests almost touching – their faces, only inches away from each other – they were still breathing hard, their faces flushed with exertion, their eyes locked on each other –

“Yield,” Nie Mingjue said, his voice low and heavy and hot. They were so close that Wei Wuxian could almost see his breath on Lan Wangji’s cheek as he stared up, defiant. “Yield. The battle is mine.”

Lan Wangji looked up at him for another moment, considering his options, whether to continue to struggle –

“I yield,” he said, and his whole body relaxed in surrender, his shoulders easing and his head rolling back a little to expose his throat, as if Nie Mingjue might decide to lean down and bite –

“Good fight,” Nie Mingjue said, and stood up, offering Lan Wangji a hand, his gaze lingering.

“Yes,” Lan Wangji said, taking the hand and standing; his ears were red and his gaze fixed firmly on the ground. “A good fight.”

“Very good,” Wei Wuxian said, and his voice cracked into a squeak about halfway through. He stayed very, very still: if he so much as moved, he might disturb the way he’d piled up his clothing onto his lap to hide his current predicament.

He wanted to be in Lan Wangji’s place – he wanted to be between them both, wanted them to both look at him with those intense expressions that they’d turned on each other – why hadn’t he agreed to join the spar? He could have been in the middle there. Or maybe he could have teamed up with one of them to bring down the other one, to climb on top of them and hold them down while he himself was also…

He cleared his throat. “Maybe you should consider cleaning up? After all, you both got all – sweaty.”

Lan Wangji’s blush was moving steadily past his ears and towards his cheeks.

“That’s a good idea,” Nie Mingjue said, looking up at the sky. “It’s getting late, and it’s a hot day – Wei Wuxian, do you have a pool we can soak in? You’re welcome to join us, of course.”

“Uh,” Wei Wuxian said. His brain may have stopped working. Did he have a pool? He should have a pool. No, not a pool – a hot spring. Everyone would have to undress to use it, he’d insist on it as a matter of hygiene; the only thing that would conceal them would be the billowing clouds of humid heat that came up from the warm water, the tempting glimpses of skin in between…

“Unfortunately, I believe Wei Ying has reserved the use of his pool for experimental purposes,” Lan Wangji said, and that’s fine, Wei Wuxian would be happy to experiment as much as they liked – “It’s currently full of blood.”

…right.

Fuck.

His past self was an idiot.

“A pity,” Nie Mingjue said. “A regular wash will be fine, of course…though you might enjoy the pools we have in Qinghe.”

“My brother speaks highly of them,” Lan Wangji said. “Both hot and cold.”

“I like that combination,” Wei Wuxian said, finally getting enough control over himself enough that he could stand up and walk with them like a regular person rather than some sort of lecher. “I like it a lot.”

“Yes,” Nie Mingjue said. “I do too.” He paused for a moment, apparently considering something, and then nodded as if he’d made a decision. “We should talk about that.”

Wei Wuxian had the feeling they weren’t talking about bathing any more.

[mistakenvilliany]

Episode 7

This and episode 6 are a the first of several times where I just went on a binge in my first watch (probably watched like 8 in a row?). BUT you kinda have to them together, and I was already so invested that I said "what is time anyway?" Anyway, details below! These get long, and they only promise to get longer, just remember, I did warn you.

• Lan Yi's been in Cold Pond Cave long enough that her girlfriend raised kids, who've had kids. She's so pleased but also sad. She's probably done the "what is time" thing too. I hope those bunnies have been half as entertaining as this show

• And she somehow knows of Baoshan Sanren's seclusion? But didn't seek her out for shame? She's trapped in the cave, this makes total sense. No, no it doesn't. I have questions! How is this done? Who is capable? It's one freaking line, and I'm already wondering on the implications

• Lan Yi: "nope, didn't bring you here, I guess someone else is fucking around with the other Yin Iron pieces, sorry" Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian (teenagers): "We will fix this! We are completely qualified!"

• Here's where you can really tell that this plot point got shoehorned in, the Yin Iron is the "spirit of heaven and earth, which can't be eradicated" and yet later after the defeat of Wen Rohan, those pieces are suddenly gone. "Nothing to see here folks! We destroyed/suppressed them more successfully than our ancestors even though we know less about them!"

• I love that we hear Wei Wuxian shouting before he and Lan Wangji fall through a cliff face. What was WWX doing that made LWJ mad this time? Winding that ribbon closer? That's my guess anyway.

• "We've been gone how long?!? Oh what a long story to tell, it would be so boring! Of course, here are some minor distracting details - it was cold! Well! Let's all head back shall we?" I feel like everyone should know that Wei Wuxian is lying here, or at least leaving something out. Wen Qing gets that something is missing, but the person that should absolutely know better, Jiang Cheng, just decides - brother re-aquired, return to sister.

• I have to laugh so hard at this - we're in a private lesson essentially that bad things are happening because of this piece of "universe" and our probable enemy has one too. WWX response is that "we use that one to find all the others!" And LWJ thinks that it's a GOOD IDEA! These are just over eager children.

• Jiang Cheng is such a petulant little brother! "Now you're close with Lan Wangji, stay here I don't care" I'm not really sure how close they actually are in age, but Jiang Cheng really knows how to be the baby. As a certified youngest sibling myself I can attest that it is his God given right to be dramatic.

• My baby! Don't worry, wwx isn't rejecting you, he just doesn't think he could follow all the rules, and he really really can't. It will be okay.

• Xue Yang is so happy to get permission to murder people. I get it, I too would like to smite my enemies. My only concern is - dude why are you waiting for the okay to do so? He doesn't actually do what Wen Rohan wants him to anyway, so ?? Kid's got issues.

• Oh Wen Chao, what to do with you? Wen Rohan who is the current Cheif Cultivator, and currently acquiring more power through dubious means of Yin Iron, has a separate chamber to put you in rather than face you to speak to you, and your response is "I'll do what I want, there will be no consequences to that" such arrogance, I am so happy you die.

• WWX so happy: "you smiled" LWJ's immediate reaction (internally): uh oh, I smiled and he he saw! Now I must kill him it's the only reasonable response

• I feel bad for Nie Huaisang's lantern getting burned, they are finally doing something that he's good at and he doesn't get to show it off. Also - "it cost so much, you'll never be able to replace it" is amazing! Jiang clan obviously has money, but WWX must always be running out.

• Then Nie Huaisang's wish is to finally pass, please please let me pass! Such a slacker wish. Kid, I love you, but just study.

• Upon hearing the succinct wish of Wei Wuxian's only ambitions in life, Lan Wangji can't help it - falls in love even more. And his immediate reaction is of course "and I will do this Yin Iron quest by myself to see that WWX has a world where he can live his dreams"

• The fight between Jin Zixuan and Wei Wuxian must have gone on for awhile and obviously Jin Zixuan got the worse end of it, my baby is a powerful cultivator and probably also fights a bit dirty. I can't say that I blame him for it, with the nature of dynastic marriages it had to be a huge insult to the Jiangs that Jin Zixuan publicly declared he didn't want to marry (my beloved treasure) Jiang Yanli.

• My baby was really initiating conversation!! I'm so proud of you! Okay, so Wei Wuxian isn't actually crying or anything, but! No baby! Don't storm off! Shoot.

• And we learn for 100% positive that the only way that Wei Wuxian knows how to interact with things he finds cute is to poke at it. LWJ could have learned something if he just stuck around. (And oh lord! I have to leave the comments of on his knees alone, there's way too much there)

• Jin Guangshan walks in - yuck

• Jiang Fengmian - "Wei Wuxian is at fault, so I take responsibility" Jin Guangshan - "no, no, my son is at fault, so I take responsibility" Lan Qiren - "Don't worry I have already punished them appropriately"

• Again we have a dynastic marriage problem, Jiang Fengmian isn't really a great politician here, he doesn't want his daughter with someone who won't respect here but his response should have been something else to tie the clans closer together, not as good as marriage, but really the assurance of "how could it?" is not reassuring

• I am not exactly clear on what upsets Jiang Cheng. His sister will be sad? The political situation is not good for them? His mother will be angry? Running to spill to WWX is a certified little sibling move. And then Wei Wuxian runs off to check on Jiang Yanli, and finds her basically setting down all her hopes and dreams for the life she was going to have.

• Lans meeting with Jiang Fengmian: Don't mind us! Just a very visible silencing ward, nothing is the matter, don't pay any attention. We're definitely not discussing taboo Yin Iron topics or speculating on the Wen involvement, nope just having tea.

• LQR just gets finished telling Jiang Fengmian to be stricter with WWX, and then he just shakes his head at WWX's and JC's antics later. He barely even tries to stop them

• I love how it is severely implied that Wei Wuxian went and saved the rabbits and now doesn't know what to do. It's the establishment of a pattern for my baby. And it's only then that he figures out that LWJ is leaving him behind! Baby, honey - you just gave him a head start.

[mollyringle]

My husband watches The Untamed, vol. 22, episodes 41-42

Episode 41: The action is ramping up, people! Into Nie Mingjue’s very angry memories we go.

When NMJ and Jin Guangyao are having their shouting match at Carp Tower, and JGY starts getting that satisfied little smile at NMJ’s rage, husband said in Darth Vader voice, “YES. Use your hate.”

He was actually laughing sometimes at how INTENSELY ANGRY AND LOUD Mingjue gets. But then, that’s the point of the mangled music, not to mention the genetic rage-sword problem.

Husband said “Yes!” in triumph when NMJ kicks JGY down the stairs. Although he was disappointed the hat didn’t come off in the fall.

Xue Yang looks so happy when ordered to kill NMJ. Like, “Yay! I love doing that!” As the meme about him says, “the thing to remember about a murder is to have fun and be yourself.”

We laughed at how WWX, LWJ, and LXC all come to a halt and look awkward when Jin Ling stops them at Fragrance Hall. “Uh…not sure what we tell the teenager.”

Then when JGY strolls in, all sweet murder dimples, husband said, “Doh! He moved everything already. He’s sneaky.”

And when Su She shows up: “Oh! Oh, that’s—he’s the one—he let them in—and so he’s the—okay.” So I guess he’s put together the pieces regarding Su She.

After the episode, I remarked that when you look back on the whole Jin family, Jin Zixuan really wasn’t so bad, considering. Me: “He was half okay.” Husband: “Yeah, but…he was SO BAD at it.” [At being nice to Yanli.] Me: “It WAS kind of like Pride and Prejudice. ‘Despite your family being embarrassing and awful, I do like you and want to marry you…’” Husband: “He was so bad at it.”

Also, later, he looked at our dog, who is a corgi with reddish-orange and white fur, and started laughing, and said, “He’s Red Bork Master! Anytime something alarms him, he just starts borking loudly.” That is, same way Nie Mingjue gets loud and shouty anytime he’s alarmed.

Romantic impromptu wedding on the steps of Carp Tower in the next episode! My heart sings in anticipation.

Episode 42:

And we lose yet another woman. Poor Qin Su. I’ve got to hand it to Jin Guangyao; he plays the “grieving and innocent” thing pretty well.

Also got to hand it to Nie Huaisang: he plays the “what, the Yiling Patriarch is ALIVE?” thing pretty well. ;)

I read in some article that the censorship extends to not letting our boys hold hands, which is why they’re always holding each other’s wrists instead, and now I keep noticing all the wrist-holding/not-quite-handholding.

The romantic public declaration on the stairs: husband laughed and said, “We’re going to do this now? Um. Swords! All around!” Meanwhile the look on Lan Xichen’s face, people! His ship is happening IRL and he can’t even breathe.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t even say anything, but you can feel his deep conflict going on. I actually feel bad for him in the aftermath of this episode. He doesn’t even know for a while if his brother’s dead (again) or not, and it’s clear he does care but can’t admit it.

When Lan Wangji does the emergency blue-light healing on Wei Wuxian in the rain, then stops and “puts away” his magic with that little twist motion at his chest, my husband called it “putting the lid back on.” It does rather look like twisting the cap back onto a pill bottle.

I managed not to make any remarks about stroking swords together in bed (and husband didn’t say anything about it either), but I WAS THINKING IT.

I did note that it must’ve been quite comfortable for Xiao Zhan to not have to wear the many-layered robes for this one scene; just a comfy shirt (“Lan Zhan’s underwear”) and pants.

OK, so, there’s a scene in the Mel Brooks movie ‘Young Frankenstein’ involving a revolving bookcase, and when they show the similar one in the Library Pavilion, my husband said (quoting that film), “Put—the candle—back!” That’s for all three of you who’ll get that…

Lan Wangji: “This is the Forbidden Chamber.” My husband: “He [WWX] spends all his time in forbidden places.” Me: “True. Forbidden caves, forbidden rooms, forbidden Burial Mounds…” Husband: “Forbidden sofa, forbidden chaise longue, forbidden ottoman…”

At the mention of the library’s section of “strange music,” we made several jokes along the lines of “that one experimental album of Sting’s is here” and “the solo Beatles albums during the drug years” and so forth.

Also, at The Collection of Turmoil (“great album name!”): “You don’t even have to play it backward to hear the devil’s voice.” Kids these days and their SATANIC MUSIC, you guys!