#either way Meng Yao is so attracted to both of them

[lilnasxvevo]

Thought of nieyao modern AU where Meng Yao is Huaisang’s babysitter/nanny and I was like well why the fuck hasn’t anyone written THAT yet (maybe they have, I admit I haven’t looked super hard) and then I had to drive for half an hour and just kept thinking about it and by the time I had gotten to my destination I had shifted to “Meng Yao as Huaisang’s babysitter and also working for Jin Guangshan as a corporate spy trying to get sensitive information about Nie Mingjue’s business” and then shifted again to “what If instead of corporate spies they were regular spies”

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Ambitious

Out of all the things Mo Xuanyu could have been ambitious about, he just had to choose his crushes. Not his studies, not his hobbies, not a career - he was fine being mediocre in those (average, his friend Nie Huaisang often corrected him - "negative self talk ruins your self esteem, A-Yu, and you already have your aunt to do that for you!") but he just had to go out there and harbor a major double crush on the two most attractive and most intelligent and most wanted and most definitely taken (by each other, no less) Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

("It's a sign of good taste, Xuanyu!" MianMian had told him once when he bared his soul to her 3 beers in on a Tuesday night after a long string of hard classes. "Everyone's had a crush at least on one of them at some point in their lives. Even I did. It's like a rite of passage or something.")

Except Mo Xuanyu didn't know how to move on from these crushes.

First, because they were perfect. God's gift to Earth, in fact - or at least that was what Xuanyu thought. They were the opposite ends of the hotness spectrum: one charismatic and sociable and mischevious, the other cold, calculated and mysterious. Both of them unbearably attractive.

And second - because Mo Xuanyu had somehow become close friends with both of them. He didn't know how, genuinely! They simply clicked with each other when a professor grouped them up for a project and things progressed from there. And it was great!

Except for the fact that Mo Xuanyu felt like the entire butterfly collection he used to have at home (that his bitch of a cousin had thrown out in a fit of idiocy) had come alive inside his stomach every time he was around either of his two friends (or both, actually, which was most often).

And it wasn't fair at all! They were good, kind people and they opened up Mo Xuanyu's social circle a lot, they helped him come out of his shell and introduced him to so many fun opportunities - and there he was, ungrateful, imagining all sorts of things with the both of them, ranging from sweet afternoons baking to... less wholesome situations, all while knowing the two were happy and in love with one another (and definitely not with anyone else, much less someone the likes of Mo Xuanyu, negative self talk be damned).

Regardless, what Mo Xuanyu hadn't considered was the possibility of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan having been so nice to him also because they liked him - romantically. That wasn't in the realm of possibility for him, not even as Xue Yang, his self-proclaimed best friend, had insinuated it (well, maybe insinuation was a bit too elegant of a word, Xue Yang had straight up told Mo Xuanyu the two probably wanted a threeway with him).

Regardless, it was much to Mo Xuanyu's surprise to be taken out to dinner at a fancy local restaurant he could only dream of, at most, bartending at - and asked if he would be willing to try polyamory.

"I know this must seem out of the blue," Wei Ying said and it took all Mo Xuanyu had not to respond with 'no, shit!', "and you don't have to give an answer right now, just think about this and if you'd be willing to try it."

"Have you? Before, I mean..."

"Ah no, Lan Zhan's way too possessive." And the man hummed in acknowledgement as he daintily ate some kind of dish Mo Xuanyu couldn't even be bothered to pronounce correctly.

"But," Wei Ying continued, "we both like you and we have a really good dynamic so far, so we thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, you know?"

"Do not feel pressured." Lan Zhan finally spoke. "If this is not something you would enjoy, it is fine. We can continue our friendship regardless."

"Exactly! So whatever you decide, we are perfectly fine with it, we just want you to be comfortable with it and with us."

"What about..." their families? Their friends? Their reputations? It wasn't just the lifestyle that was still controversial for some, but Mo Xuanyu himself. There had been some scandals ("the devil works hard but Meng Yao works harder" in the wise words of a drunk Nie Huaisang) and people sometimes still looked weirdly towards Mo Xuanyu and whoever associated with him. Last thing he wanted was Wei Ying and Lan Zhan to go through that kind of thing.

"Do not worry about such things." Lan Zhan said, as if reading Xuanyu's mind.

"It's not like we're the kind of people that care what others think. And we know the truth anyway, so it doesn't matter."

That was true, Xuanyu conceded.

"But anyway, it's up to you, and what you want."

And that had been probably the first time Mo Xuanyu had been allowed to choose for himself.

He would make it count.

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

SangYao Fluff and Stuff Ideas, Part Two

Endgame sangyao that starts off pretty bad. Huaisang has a crush on Meng Yao, his tutor, but his confession gets shot down. (Meng Yao tries to be gentle about it, but a series of related miscommunications result in Huaisang being pretty crushed and he stops going to the extra lessons at all.)

They end up avoiding each other long enough that Meng Yao graduates and moves on (I have no idea what time period this is in, but it has, like, actual school classes whenever it is).

They lose touch for years and when they cross paths again, Huaisang is in really bad shape (either his health has taken a turn for the worse or he ran away from home... or both... or something else. Whatever it is, Mingjue is still alive and trying to sort out the mess but having a hard time with it).

Immediately concerned by Huaisang's condition, Meng Yao coaxes him into accepting care.

And he starts finding that the more this broken, exhausted, miserable Huaisang depends on him, the more he... kind of likes it.

So he has to deal with what kind of person it makes him that he wasn't interested in a relationship at all when they were both on somewhat even footing, but he's interested now that Huaisang needs him.

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

Reincarnated Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao keep gravitating to immortal Nie Huaisang. Lifetime after lifetime, they always find him eventually, and no matter how it starts out, it always ends horribly. Eventually Nie Huaisang decides the problem isn't them, it's him. So in an attempt to give them happy lives, he leaves.

It's incredibly lonely halfway around the world, but he tells himself it's for the best.

For approx three more lifetimes, nothing happens.

Good. Great. He's fine with this. Really.

And then one day two all-too-familiar faces enter his shop, one tugging a surprisingly familiar little brother behind him.

That's... he didn't see that coming.

Maybe...

No. He can't let himself hope. 

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

Not-Quite-Isekai where Nie Huaisang gets stuck in a cursed novel, but he's lucky enough to be a character who only shows up for one scene, giving him almost total freedom of movement.

Unfortunately, acting on said freedom attracts the attention of the story's yandere villain who looks oddly like JGY. NHS is understandably really creeped out by this at first, but wait, if the villain's focused on him instead of the main couple, that means neither of them will die. They wouldn't have to wait for reincarnation to get their happy ending. So he figures he can just endure until either the story is changed or he's rescued, whichever comes first.

But then the happy ending is achieved and he's still trapped. Realizing that no one will ever come for him and he's just going to have to live out his life in this new world, he breaks down and tells the villain everything in the self-destructive hope that he'll abandon him too.

But it doesn't work out that way. 

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

Due to mutations in cultivation style, the sects literally cannot communicate with each other, because even outer disciples become too entrenched within a few weeks and lose their ability to understand common language.

For some reason related to his mother's heritage, Nie Huaisang is the only one who can speak/read/write all of the sect languages, and thus has had the important but frustrating job of acting as the universal translator. to keep down accusations of bias, he's had to give up his position in his home sect and continually travels as a neutral party.

It's a bitterly lonely position, until he happens to cross paths with a recently-rejected Jin bastard. Who, interestingly, shares his ability.

"If you have any sense, you won't let anyone know you can read that."

Meng Yao manages to keep himself from jumping in surprise, then very carefully closes the -stolen- text and looks over at his temporary travel companion. "And why would that be?" he asks, keeping his tone neutral enough to admit to nothing.

The stranger looks unimpressed by his acting. "I know you're of Jin blood, and that's a Jiang book."

Meng Yao frowns. "Why is that a problem? Is it illegal to learn even the most basic tenets of another sect?"

The stranger blinks. "You… Wow. You really weren't raised in the cultivation world at all, were you?"

Meng Yao bristles, but before he can snap back, his travel companion reaches out and taps the book in his lap.

"Major or Minor, none of the sects speak or write in the same language. It's tied to the very core of each sect's cultivation style. This should be nothing but useless scratches to you, but evidently, it's not."

"And you? Can you read it?"

"I can read anything," the stranger says. "And if people find out you're like me, you'll end up like me."

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

(Macross AU) Meng Yao's mother was a famous idol singer for the war effort against the Zentradi until her career was ruined when she got pregnant. She never blamed him for it, but he could always tell how much she missed the stage and resolved to one day do her proud by launching a career of his own.

There's just one problem. While he can handle audiences and cameras just fine while speaking, singing is another matter.

Eventually he has to grudgingly admit he'd be much better at managing and PR for another singer's career, and he gets an extremely weird chance to showcase those talents when he's hired as the manager/assistant for the world's first fully-AI idol, Sang.

He's extremely uncomfortable with it at first, because while Sang is sweet and cuddly and a little spoiled, he was programmed to be that way, and it's bizarre.

But, gradually, he finds himself being drawn in by the AI's charm, and they bond.

They become close enough that one night Sang lets him in on a horrifying secret: he's not a program created from scratch, he's an uploaded mind.

And he's been using the data streams of his concerts to search for a missing brother right under the noses of his owners, who may have been the ones to make his brother go missing.

[Will you help me, Yao-ge?]

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

Meng Shi was a huli jing, but never got beyond her first tail because of a curse. 

After her death, little fox child Meng Yao sets off in search of his father using what clues she left behind. 

Thanks to some severe bad luck, he instead winds up getting caught by a hunting party led by not-yet-dead Papa Nie.

 Fully expecting to be killed, because he's heard about the Nie Sect's animosity to monsters, he's more than a little surprised when Papa Nie is like "Hm, you're a sharp kid and you can sprout fur. You'll make an excellent companion for my younger son who almost gets killed by the cold every winter." 

Nie Mingue is understandably suspicious of dear old dad bringing home a fox child, but Nie Huaisang, already falling under the weather as the temperature drops, loves him on sight.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Curse-breaker (Chapter 4/4)

- ao3 -

“You know him, right?” Jiang Cheng asked Lan Xichen. He was trying not to appear as nervous as he felt in asking, but he was pretty sure he was failing. “Nie-gongzi?”

Lan Xichen smiled. “I do. And thank you for calling him that, he prefers it.”

There were those that had started calling him Curse-breaker, as if it were a proper title; Jiang Cheng had heard it said a few times, and while he didn’t personally disagree with the moniker, which seemed appropriate, he also knew better than to just drop it into a conversation.

Luckily. He was trying to make a good impression here.

“What’s he like?” Jiang Cheng blurted out, then immediately wanted to kick himself. “I mean – it’s just – I didn’t see him much when he visited the Lotus Pier –”

He was making it worse.

It was only that he’d never quite met anyone with so much presence as Nie Mingjue: taller even than Jiang Cheng’s father, with that strange eye that seemed to see everything and anything. His features were generally set in a neutral expression that made him seem almost unworldly, like some god untouched by human concerns, but which sometimes softened a little when he approved of something – or someone.

Jiang Cheng could feel his cheeks going red, and tried to suppress it.

“Mingjue-xiong liked you,” Lan Xichen said, and Jiang Cheng lost the battle at once, his whole face heating up until it felt unbearably hot. This was worse than the time that Nie Mingjue had come to the Lotus Pier and told his parents to value Jiang Cheng more or else, and then his father had come in with a smirk and a snarl and somehow made them do it. “He said so.”

“He did?”

“Oh, yes. He said you were talented and faithful, with a good heart, and that we’d see great things from you.”

Jiang Cheng was going to die.

“That’s nice,” he said, with an effort. “I thought very highly of him, too. He’s…great.”

Wow. ‘Great’. Was that really the best he could do?

Lan Xichen studied him for a moment, then nodded. “He really is,” he said, and sighed. “I had the same reaction, you know. He’s…a lot.”

Jiang Cheng felt seen. “I know,” he said effusively. “He’s just – you know?”

“I do,” Lan Xichen said. “Just –”

He waved his hand in the air. Not even making some sort of gesture, just a meaningless sort of wave, but for some reason Jiang Cheng understood him completely.

There really just weren’t words sometimes, when you wanted to describe things or people that inspired feelings that went beyond the merely describable. Nie Mingjue was one of those – Jiang Cheng had known that Lan Xichen would understand, and sure enough, he did.

And to think that Wei Wuxian liked Lan Wangji better!

Really, his shixiong might be more talented than Jiang Cheng in many ways, ways that were often a matter of jealousy, but Jiang Cheng clearly had better taste.

“Oh, there you are,” a voice said, and Jiang Cheng tensed and turned to look – but it was only Wen Qing, so that was fine. “Lan-gongzi, Jiang-gongzi, I was sent to spend some time with you.”

She probably meant that she was sent away so that the adults would have time to talk about issues they thought were too sensitive to involve the younger generation, or else they just wanted to start drinking earlier in the afternoon than usual and didn’t want her judging them from a medical standpoint. Either might be true – Wen Qing was widely acclaimed as one of the most talented in their generation, as terrifying with her needles as other people might be with their sword, from more or less the first moment she’d finally been allowed to join the rest of them on equal grounds.

They greeted her, trying to stand up to be polite, but she waved them down irritably and took a seat instead. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nie Mingjue,” Lan Xichen said, and Jiang Cheng nodded. “We were just commenting on his many admirable qualities.”

Jiang Cheng nodded a second time, even more emphatically.

Wen Qing looked at them both with that critical eye of hers for a long moment.

Then she sighed in a huff. “He’s really all that and more, isn’t he?” she said.

“He is,” Lan Xichen said.

“He’s just –” Jiang Cheng tried the same gesture as Lan Xichen earlier, and was gratified when Wen Qing started nodding herself in total agreement. “Right?”

“Right.”

-

Nie Mingjue was aware that many people liked to stare at them, but they had assumed it was because of how unusual they were – even putting aside the eye, which was their most obviously not-normal feature, their behavior was not always in line with regular people’s. They didn’t show their emotions on their face as easily, being more naturally inclined towards sternness, and their manner was both sharp and incisive, straightforward and blunt; they had missed critical years of social development while lost in what amounted to seclusion, too busy solidifying their sense of self, consolidating their we into an I.

(They were still trying to figure out gender, a process complicated by the fact that it hadn’t made much sense to either of them to begin with. They were starting to suspect it would be better to just give up on it entirely.)

It turned out, according to Nie Huaisang, that that was not why all those people were staring.

“When you say they like me…”

“Sexually or romantically attracted, usually both,” Nie Huaisang said. “You have a lot of would-be suitors. Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Jiang Yanli –”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to use their names directly like that,” Nie Mingjue said, though they weren’t sure about that. They’d forgotten more etiquette than they’d ever learned. “Also, isn’t Jiang Yanli getting married to Jin Zixuan?”

“He’s another of your admirers. As is Meng Yao…no, sorry, Jin Ziyao. You know he secretly thinks that you killed Jin Guangshan for him, right?”

They’d killed Jin Guangshan because he was rotten through and through, and he didn’t even have a qi deviation or a tormenting heart demon to blame for it. He just thought of people as things, even the ones he supposedly liked, and acted accordingly…they hadn’t really thought through the consequences of killing him when they’d done it, having long ago forgotten the concept of political considerations, but it was really amazing what could be covered up or excused if multiple sect leaders put their minds to it while the rest just breathed a sigh of relief that Jin Guangshan was gone.

“That seems like too many people,” they said. “They can’t all be my…admirers.”

“You think that’s it? I haven’t even gotten to Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian – both at once, if that’s your preferred flavor – and even that feral child Jin Ziyao found in Kuizhou…you know just the other week, he loudly declared that you were better than sweets and the entire room sighed all at once in agreement?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not. There are even rumors that say that Sect Leader Wen might be interested…”

They shrugged.

Nie Huaisang squinted at them. “Da-ge. Did you know about that one?”

“Sect Leader Wen is not subtle,” they said dryly. “But if it makes you feel better, his interest is purely a matter of cultivation, and also our father has already hit him for even making the suggestion.”

Nie Huaisang didn’t look impressed. “Are you sure it’s purely a matter of cultivation? Would you be able to tell if it wasn’t?”

Nie Mingjue considered how little they’d recognized any of the other people who were purportedly interested in them. “No,” they admitted.

“Hmm. What about Teacher Lan?”

“What about Teacher Lan?” they asked, suspicious.

“Nothing, nothing. Just something I read somewhere…”

Probably one of those spring books that he was always sneaking around, they concluded.

“Though…you have been going out of your way to meet up with Teacher Lan more often recently…”

“He’s helping me figure out some of the bureaucratic intricacies of changing succession,” they said. “He’s had the most experience, having to do it twice – once to get his brother out of the line of succession, and another to get him back in. He’s a good teacher.”

He was, too. For all of Nie Huaisang’s tall tales about Lan Qiren’s strictness and overly-rigid insistence on orthodoxy, the man himself had a very calming presence, still and tranquil. It made them think of a musical instrument and, using the Nie cultivation method as a base, start to think strange thoughts…

Though not the sorts of thoughts Nie Huaisang had in mind.

“I mean, I guess. Even I learned eventually, and – wait. Why do you need to know about how to change succession? You’re already the heir.”

“That’s the problem,” Nie Mingjue said. “I need to figure out how to abdicate my position in your favor.”

Nie Huaisang gaped at him.

“No, I’m not joking,” they said, because they knew their little brother. “I’m not suited for politics. I don’t think I ever was, and after everything that happened, I’m even less suited.”

They really weren’t. Too blunt, too sharp, too concerned with justice, too inhuman – they were good at fighting, in the sense that they knew how to be a saber as well as a human and could wield sharpness in the same way, a slash from their fingers being enough to cleave a man in half, but that wasn’t what being a sect leader was about.

No, Nie Huaisang would be much better at it.

“Da-ge, you can’t do this to me!” Nie Huaisang wailed. “Do you know how much work it’d be? Anyway, you can’t – our father’s already promised all of Qinghe Nie to your future spouse! So there!”

“Then I just won’t ever get married.”

“What?!” Nie Huaisang waved his hands wildly. “You can’t do that! You – you – do you know how many hearts you’d be breaking?!”

“So you’ve informed me,” Nie Mingjue said dryly. “It’s all right, Huaisang. I rather like the life Teacher Lan has made for himself, traveling all around and coming back every few seasons to teach something. I want to fight evil, and there’s a lot more evil out there than there is in here.”

Or, at minimum, there was more evil of the sort they were allowed to just stab. That was apparently frowned upon, in politics – there was a reason they said they weren’t suited for it.

“You’re not suited for fighting evil with a blade,” they added while Nie Huaisang was still spluttering. “But you can do wonders with people, if you’re given enough time to plan it. Being sect leader will put you in the position that will let you fight evil best, in your own way.”

“Not everything is about fighting evil, da-ge!”

“Isn’t it?”

Nie Huaisang didn’t seem to have a good answer to that.

After a while, he finally said, “…you really think I’d be good at it?”

Nie Mingjue pulled their younger brother in for a hug.

“You’ll be magnificent,” they promised.

-

They liked travel, just as they’d suspected they would.

People always recognized them – the eye was very distinctive, and they were also very tall – and immediately rushed over to share all their problems. They were very happy to help. Some of them they could fix personally, generally the ones that were stabbable, while they had a wide enough set of acquaintances to deal with many of the others: those who needed healing to go to the Lan sect or Wen sect, depending on whether problem was mental or physical; those that needed advancement to the Jin sect or Jiang sect; mysteries to be solved to the newly established Wei sect over in Yiling; and anyone with anything more abstruse than that over to Nie Huaisang personally to sort of.

Their little brother liked a good puzzle.

As for Nie Mingjue’s part, they liked fighting evil, and they liked helping people, too, if they could manage it, so it all worked out quite well. The road could be a little lonely at times, all alone with no one around, but it wasn’t really that bad. They were welcome at just about every cultivation sect and most of the other places they’d passed by, so it wasn’t like they were lacking for company if they wanted it.

It was only sometimes that they wished that there was someone else who might want to share this type of life with them.

It was a difficult life, always roving and never satisfied, intent on fighting evil for an eternity and prizing the doing of it over normal things, everyday things; they knew that they couldn’t ask someone else to take on a mission so absurd as stamping out all evil in the world, and so they didn’t. Who would be so foolish as that? Not everyone could leave behind all their responsibilities and ties to the world the way they did, passing instead through their beloved one’s lives by chance like a leaf tossed in the wind – nor should they, if those ties gave them joy.

Take their current mission, for example. One of Nie Mingjue’s earlier trips had taken them from Yiling to the Baixue Temple, with the highly unorthodox Wei sect’s equally unorthodox head disciple, Xue Yang, tagging along with them so that they could – in Wei Wuxian’s words – beat some sense into his head, and it had been on that trip that they had met Song Lan, who was thoroughly charmed by the idea of a sect established on principles of brotherhood rather than blood.

He'd also been rather charmed, they thought, by Xue Yang himself, and the interest had been mutual.

(They were getting better at recognizing that sort of thing.)

So Song Lan had gone off with them, with Nie Mingjue dropping both him and Xue Yang back in Yiling, and when he’d gone back again another time they had seemed very happy. But Song Lan had been thinking about his master and martial brothers back at home, and he’d asked if Nie Mingjue would be willing to carry along some letters that he didn’t dare trust to the post.

Nie Mingjue, suspecting a request regarding marriage was involved, had readily agreed. Sure enough, once they’d dropped it off, the entire Baixue Temple had all but exploded in excitement – they’d barely managed to make it out of there in time to avoid being dragged into all the fuss.

And now they were wandering around nearby, shaking their head in amusement at all the noise they’d left behind, looking for something more interesting to do. Some evil to fight, or something like that.

They found both.

“Well, that was exhilarating,” they commended to the cultivator in white that had worked together with them to defeat a rather astounding number of evil creatures in an effort to save some rogue cultivators who’d gotten in over their heads. Nie Mingjue’s reputation was already ridiculous, and was only going to get worse, they knew, but really this was a lot even for them. They wouldn’t have been able to manage it without help.

“It was,” the cultivator said, and smiled at them. “My name is Xiao Xingchen, disciple of Baoshan Sanren. Who are you?”

“Nie Mingjue,” they said. They thought they’d heard of Baoshan Sanren before, but they weren’t entirely sure – they had a tendency to forget things that weren’t that important to them. They thought it might be something to do with Wei Wuxian’s mother –something to do with the immortal mountain, and a doom that fell on those who descended from it…?

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did those rogue cultivators call you Curse-breaker?” Xiao Xingchen asked.

They thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

Xiao Xingchen laughed.

It was a warm sound.

“Where are you going?” Nie Mingjue asked. “I can escort you, if you like.”

“Don’t you have things of your own to be doing?”

“Not really,” Nie Mingjue said. “I want to eradicate all evil in this world, a task that’ll take me a lifetime – and evil can be found anywhere. Why not with you?”

Xiao Xingchen ducked his head. “I don’t have a destination either,” he admitted. “I came down from the mountain because I wanted to help save all the people in the world.”

Nie Mingjue blinked. That was nearly as stupidly idealistic a goal as theirs.

“Well, then,” they said, and smiled. “In that case, why don’t we go together?”

It would be nice to have company, unrestrained by any obligations tied to the mortal world, and in return they could show Xiao Xingchen everything there was to see – introduce him to all the people, eat all the food, fight all the battles. And if in the end it turned out that that doom people talked about in regards to the mountain really was a thing…

Well, they’d see about that.

After all, Nie Mingjue had a bit of experience with curses like that.

[guqin-and-flute]

nieyao or 3zun + prompt 64 with cat!baxia

64. “I think your cat wants to kill me.” [This got way away from me WHOOPS]

“So. This date is going fantastically. Do I make top 10?”

Meng Yao huffed a short, polite laugh through his nose at Mingjue’s rueful question. “Being nursed back to health by a handsome man is certainly adding back points lost in the cat attack,” he replied, and some of the frustrated dread bled from the ball in Mingjue’s chest. “I really could do this myself, you know,” he added.  

Mingjue sighed. “Yeah, well, since it was my cat attack, I feel like I need to make reparations. I’ve also taken First Aid more times than I can count and cat scratches can get really nasty.” 

If this were a one of the sappy romcoms Huaisang loved so much, standing at the sink together as he tended to the 2 gashes scoring down Meng Yao’s forearm with several antiseptic soaked cotton balls had the potential to be romantic. Except Mingjue had never liked those movies and he just felt like a fucking asshole who owned an unruly animal.

He had met Meng Yao at the grocery store. Mingjue had looked up from his phone at the sound of a sharp voice--a middle aged business man was snapping at a young man in front of him in line; "Fucking Christ, you're going to hold up everyone."

"You can go ahead of me if you'd like--"

"There's a whole line of people here! We all have places to go!"

The man being yelled at--(the very attractive man with round, dark eyes, he noted)--had grimaced placatingly, as the cashier was saying, "We can hold his groceries while he goes out, sir, you won't have to wait."

A the business man threw his hands into the air in disgust, Mingjue had slid his phone into his back pocket and interrupted in his 'is this guy bothering you' voice; "What's the problem?"

3 pairs of eyes had darted to him immediately and gone wide. The very good looking man had tensed completely, eyes darting to the door in a way that looked involuntary--and well, Mingjue had been struck by the completely overwhelming urge to tuck him back behind him and make this asshole between them shit his pants in fear. And anyone else that made him look that scared, for that matter. "I'm sorry," the scared, attractive, adorable, fragile-looking, harassed young man had said a tight smile, "I forgot my wallet in my car, we can just--"

"Here," Mingjue slid out his credit card handed it--pointedly--over Mr. Business-Asshole's head to the cashier. "I'll cover it. You know what," he had added, fixing the quickly wilting dickhead with his best 'I-can-bench-press-you-and-then-feed-you-your-own-esophagus-no-problem' stare, "Why don't you get the nice lady behind me, too. Once this guy is done running for the biggest jackass award. I'll wait."

And, you know, weirdly enough, Mr. Asshole had actually left the line, red faced and without his shitty little protein shakes. As the cashier bit back a grin and rung up the card, the harassed young man--who was even prettier up close, holy hell, it made his lower back sweat--had tried to insist that it wasn't necessary, that really, he had the money, he could just go get it, he appreciated it but didn't need Mingjue to put himself out. Mingjue had just shrugged and held out his hand. "It's the principle of the thing. Nie Mingjue."

The man had opened his mouth, looked down at his hand; then, he had smiled and holy goddamn fucking shitballs he had dimples. Shaking it firmly in a hand that was soft and cool and slim, he had said, "Then...thank you. Meng Yao. I'll have to pay you back. Do you have a cash app?"

"Don't bother."

"I insist."

"You can buy me dinner sometime, then," Mingjue's mouth had decided to say without permission, but luckily he agreed with the idea and so had been quite pleased to see Meng Yao's ears go pink.

"...That sounds fair," he replied, finally, those lovely dimples returning.

The cashier had cleared their throat, brightly. "Do you by chance have our loyalty card?"

They agreed on a first date in a public restaurant where they could verify that the other wasn’t some sort of serial killer. It had even been a nice one that Meng Yao had insisted on where they had also shared a bottle of wine and interesting conversation. Meng Yao was exceedingly smart and easy to talk to--the perfect conversational partner with a knack for solving many of the problems that Mingjue hadn't even realized he complained about. In return, he had made his attraction quite clear and Meng Yao had ducked his head.

"I'll have you know that I don't go home with anyone on the first date," he had said carefully, eyes on his fingertip as he ran it around the rim of his wineglass. "It's a personal rule of mine. I wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression."

"That's fine with me," Mingjue shrugged. "If you're up for it, I'll wait for as many dates outlasts your rule, 'cause I grill a mean steak."

Those dimples came back and he had sat back in his chair, voice light as he asked, "Oh? Won't you get bored?"

Mingjue had snorted and finished off his glass. "Just because I'd like to sleep with you doesn't mean I don't also want to get to know you, you know."

Mingjue was just getting to know the guy, so he couldn't be sure, but that answer seemed to please him.

The night of the cat disaster was the 4th on their run of dates--Mingjue had shooed Huaisang over to Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng’s house for the night and invited Meng Yao over via text for dinner and a movie and also the option of sex, if he wanted. 

Apparently, the bluntness had made Meng Yao laugh. Mingjue had texted back that he preferred honesty in all things and could handle a ‘no, thanks’ with plenty maturity. Meng Yao had replied, ‘I’m sure you can,’ which, he had very keenly noticed, was not a ‘no, thanks.’

Dinner had gone great--homemade meals always seemed to impress--and they had been preparing to split a chocolate lava cake in front of a shitty action movie they had both agreed on with the understanding that neither of them minded missing anything if they decided fooling around was more interesting.

But now, there was blood everywhere--on the dishes in the sink, on the towel they had hastily staunched it with, on the countertop and the mood was ruined because his giant, grumpy ass cat had decided to savage his date as they were cleaning up the table. Baxia had sniffed his leg suspiciously when he first came in, flinching away as he knelt down to offer his fingers. Then, she had fixed him with a glare, hissed, and turned around and stalked away, fluffy gray tail held high--which, for her, was practically a warm welcome. She had her boys--Huaisang and Mingjue--and hated pretty much everyone else (except for Wei Wuxian's older sister Jiang Yanli when she had dropped him off to hang out with Huaisang when his license got suspended. Which had happened a few times, now).

Everything had been fine with her while they ate--she had even spent it under the table, rubbing up against Mingjue's legs, staring up at Meng Yao without making so much as a peep. It was when they had risen that disaster struck. She had hopped up onto Meng Yao's chair and decided to take personal offense to his existence with absolutely no warning at all when he passed by with his hands full of silverware.

Now, Meng Yao’s long fingers curled into a fist as the cotton passed over a particularly deep part of the slice, though his face remained calm, so Mingjue winced for him. "Sorry. I swear, she's never done this before, I don't know what the hell her problem is."

Meng Yao shook his head, smile pressed and polite as he said, "Really, it's fine." He shifted on his feet to lean his hip against the cupboards and, immediately, Mingjue seized his elbows. 

“Are you dizzy?”

The other man had stiffened at the sudden movement, staring up at him. Then, he blinked and smiled, shaking his head. “No, I'm alright.”

Mingjue eyed him suspiciously. “You’re sure?”

He laughed. “I’m not going into shock, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ve had much worse, trust me. I’m not going to pass out.”

Mingjue remained unconvinced. Instead of arguing further, he simply lifted him by the waist to sit on the island across from the sink for lack of a chair. Meng Yao let out the beginning of a squeak, hands automatically flashing up to bunch in the front of his shirt for balance. He blinked down at Mingjue, then the ground, then back at him, eyes wide and nostrils flared. Mingjue couldn't tell if it was annoyance, horniness, or a combination of both--and that was all well and good except that he was still bleeding and he knew from experience what a bitch blood was to get out of clothing. So he just pulled Meng Yao's arm out again and went back to work, asking, "So what was the 'much worse'?"

"Pardon?"

"You said you knew you're not going to pass out because you've had 'much worse'. What's the story there?"

"Ah. No story. I broke my arm. Compound fracture. I stayed awake the whole time, so a cat scratch is fairly minor, in comparison."

Mingjue hissed in through his teeth reflexively in sympathy and scanned him. Either he healed fantastically or the scar was higher up on his arms, under the soft cream sweater sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows--luckily, they had been rolled up before the attack and had escaped blood thus far. "Fuck. How'd that happen?"

"Fell down some stairs."

Mingjue raised an eyebrow at the stark explanation. "Well, maybe you shouldn't fall down stairs. Ever thought of that?"

Meng Yao smiled thinly down at him, dark eyes glinting in the fluorescent lights. "Mm. I'll have to keep that in mind." The dimples he searched for avidly were there, faintly, and Mingjue found himself wanting to nibble on them.

They hadn't done much else besides a kiss goodnight in the shadows near the entrance to the parking garages of their dates, because Mingjue was being good and keeping his hands above the belt. And he should probably figure out whether or not this date was going to have the eject button pressed, first. There was blood everywhere, still.

"Why all the First Aid classes?" Meng Yao asked suddenly, keeping his arm extended out even as Mingjue released him to rummage for the antibacterial spray. "Was it because your demon cat kept attacking people?"

Mingjue barked out a laugh and sprayed down his arm--Meng Yao didn't flinch. "At first, it was for lifeguarding, every summer since I was 16 until I graduated college. Now, I take refresher courses because I run a martial arts studio and shit can get real real fast, especially with newbies who try to fuck around." Tearing open the packet of sterilized gauze with his teeth so he could still hold his arm, he situated it and held it with a gentle thumb. "Tape or gauze wrap?"

Meng Yao shrugged. "I have no preference. Surprise me."

Gauze wrap it was. It would hurt less than pulling tape off his arm later. Meng Yao watched him finish up quietly, ankles linked, posture straight and proper even sitting on a kitchen counter. On impulse, Mingjue lifted his now bandaged arm and kissed the skin of his wrist, just below where the gauze stopped and got a slight shiver for his trouble. He looked up at him, then, an angle he was not used to but was definitely enjoying. "This has been a piss poor date. I really am sorry."

"The dinner was lovely before it ended in bloodshed, I promise," Meng Yao assured him, smiling. Then, it grew a little sly and he leaned in, slowly, stretching his arms out over Mingjue's shoulders to link behind his neck. "Although, you could always kiss it better."

Well, there was no possible way to misinterpret that particular invitation and he heartily took it, snugging Meng Yao up against him with hands on his hips and devouring him just as indulgently as he would the forgotten lava cake cooling on the stove top. He hummed in appreciation as Meng Yao's arms wrapped tighter, his thighs squeezing around his hips as he kissed back with just as much enthusiasm. He tasted like the dry wine they had finished the meal with.

All at once, though, Meng Yao froze, hands stilling in his hair. Before Mingjue had time to be confused, he whispered against his mouth, "I think your cat wants to kill me," eyes fixed on something over Mingjue's shoulder.

Mingjue craned his neck around to find Baxia perched on the counter next to the sink, tail swishing, gaze locked with Meng Yao, ears flicked out to the sides. She let out a low, quiet growl.

"Oh, for fucks sake," Mingjue growled back. "That's it. You're going in Huaisang's room for the night."

[no--envies]

I think Jin Guangyao’s backstory makes him a really compelling antagonist. The first few times his name appears in the novel, he’s presented as the current leader of the Jin Sect, “the only illegitimate son whom Jin GuangShan approved of” (chapter 11) and whose merits allowed him to become Chief Cultivator, the highest position of power in the cultivation world. The more we learn about him, the more we realize the situation wasn’t that simple.

As we’re repeatedly shown through Empathy, Meng Yao’s life wasn’t easy at all. When he was young, he was scorned by everyone for his lowly background no matter what he did. Even the other prostitutes in the brothel where he grew up made fun of his mother's delusion that one day Jin Guangshan would give her and her son a better life. Even Mo Xuanyu, another illegitimate son, was treated better than him by Jin Guangshan, because his mother came from a good family. “At least Jin GuangShan still remembered that he had such a son and brought him back to Koi Tower” (chapter 48), while Meng Yao and his mother were completely abandoned.

After his mother died, Meng Yao went to find his father, but of course he wasn’t received. Instead, he was kicked down the stairs of Koi Tower and rolled down the steps from top to bottom. How did he react to this affront?

Allegedly, he didn’t say anything after he got up. Wiping away the blood on his forehead, then dusting off the dirt that got onto his clothes, he picked up his belongings and walked away.

(Chapter 48)

We always see him react like this against adversity. He never gets angry, never yells, never vents his frustration in any way. We don’t know what kind of feelings he harbors in his heart. This is much more terrifying than Nie Mingjue’s volatile temper.

After this, Meng Yao didn’t give up at all. If anything, this experience gave him more determination to see his and his mother’s dream fulfilled. He didn’t have strong spiritual powers because he had started cultivating too late, but he was gifted with a keen mind and a lot of resourcefulness. He was refused by the Jin Sect, so he went to the Nie. He managed to attract Nie Mingjue’s attention by doing the things he knew Nie Mingjue would approve of, like helping civilians during the war. We don’t know how much of it was due to his own concern for the well-being of the common people. On one hand, Jin Guangyao built the watchtowers to help people in the most remote areas, despite meeting a lot of opposition for it, both from his father and the other sects. On the other hand, he used innocent prostitutes to murder his father and then killed them, so he doesn’t seem to actually care about the common people. I think most of his actions while he was in the Nie Sect were calculated to make the sect leader notice him.

Nie Mingjue’s righteousness made him stand up for Meng Yao when he heard people bad-mouthing him. Nie Mingjue had his flaws and a black-and-white morality, but he was fair to his subordinates and gave credit where it was due. He showed his appreciation for Meng Yao’s hard work and attitude by appointing him as his deputy. Meng Yao’s situation in the Nie Sect of course wasn’t ideal and he struggled to be accepted (the scene with the cultivators refusing to drink from the teacups served by the “son of a prostitute” was telling), but being the sect leader’s deputy was the highest position he could have achieved only through his merits. I believe that if he had decided to stop there and be satisfied with what he already had - a good position, two sect leaders who supported him - his life would have been much happier.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Meng Yao’s past, coupled with his habit of bottling up his emotions and remembering every affront he received, had made him accumulate years of pent-up resentment. Nie Mingjue offered him the opportunity to go where he wanted instead of using Meng Yao’s debt of gratitude to keep him by his side. He even wrote him a letter of recommendation to give to Jin Guangshan so that he could be appointed to a good position in the Jin Sect. However, Jin Guangshan didn’t even meet Meng Yao. He completely ignored his presence and even feigned ignorance when Nie Mingjue went to inquire about him. In that kind of environment, even Meng Yao’s superiors could get away with taking credit for Meng Yao’s achievements. When Nie Mingjue went to look for him, he caught him precisely while he was taking revenge.

What Meng Yao did that time was definitely questionable. Even in a world like MDZS where revenge is completely justified, Meng Yao went too far by murdering his superior for stealing his credit. The problem is that in the Jin Sect, Meng Yao didn’t have anyone he could complain to for his superior’s wrongdoings. His father couldn’t care less about him and everyone else secretly rejoiced to see him struggling: in a society where birthright was everything, the son of a prostitute was lower than them even though his father was a sect leader. Nie Mingjue told him to confess his crime and accept the punishment the Jin Sect would give him, but that was like sealing his fate. There was no way Jin Guangshan would judge him fairly. The mere son of a prostitute daring to murder a respected member of the Jin Sect? Meng Yao would have been lucky if they didn’t execute him on the spot. Nie Mingjue didn’t consider all of this because his rigid mentality prevented him from seeing the nuance in Meng Yao’s situation. He thought that if Meng Yao truly had his reasons for killing his superior, the Jin Sect would acknowledge it. He didn’t take classism into consideration because he couldn’t see past his own privilege.

Nie Mingjue’s mentality was too black-and-white, but he wasn’t completely wrong, either. In that moment he caught a glimpse of Meng Yao’s true nature: that of a schemer and a manipulator. From that moment on, Nie Mingjue could never trust Meng Yao again like he had done in the past. He didn’t completely give up on him, though: after the end of the Sunshot Campaign, when Meng Yao was finally recognized by his father and became Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue accepted to become sworn brothers with him because he wanted to bring him back to the right path.

At the time Meng Yao had apparently achieved his goal: his father had recognized him and given him a place in Koi Tower, finally acknowledging his merits. However, that was far from the truth. Jin Guangshan had no intention whatsoever of making Jin Guangyao his heir; he gave him the tasks of a servant and made him do the things he wouldn’t dirty his precious heir’s hands with. He ordered Jin Guangyao to get rid of all the obstacles that prevented him from reaching the position of Chief Cultivator, and Jin Guangyao did. Despite this, his father never cared for him and never really accepted him. On top of that, Madam Jin didn’t show an ounce of compassion for the illegitimate son of her husband: she kept venting her frustrations on him as if Jin Guangyao was at fault for her husband’s vices.

Jin Guangyao was mostly isolated in Koi Tower, but somehow he kept believing that someday his father would actually recognize him. What made him lose faith completely was what Jin Guangshan said about his mother:

“Why was a sect leader who spent money like water unwilling to do the smallest favor and buy my mother’s freedom? Simple—it was too much trouble. My mother waited for so many years, weaving together so many difficult circumstances when she talked to me, imagining for his sake so many hardships. And the real reason was only a single word: trouble.

“This is what he said, ‘It’s especially women who’ve read some books who think they’re a level higher than other women. They’re the most troublesome, with so many demands and unrealistic thoughts. If I bought her freedom and took her back to Lanling, who knows how much fuss she’d make. It was best that I let her stay where she was just like that. With her conditions, she’d probably be popular for a few more years. She wouldn’t have to worry about her spendings for the rest of her life.’

“‘Son? Oh, forget it.’”

(Chapter 106)

Jin Guangyao did a lot of despicable things in his life. He had the chance to stop and be happy with what he had so many times, but he never did. He kept obeying his horrible father’s wishes and sacrificing innocent people for the sake of his own ambition. He had a lot of talents and skills he could have used to do good, but he wasn’t a good person.

His backstory does an excellent job at explaining his behavior and motivations. It makes him a complex character, far from one-dimensional, and I think it’s great that the ultimate villain of the story is a character like him. Jin Guangyao’s evil deeds weren’t justified in the least, but spoke of a resentment born from real struggles and the desire to climb the social ladder to prove that even someone like him - the son of a prostitute, scorned and ridiculed by everyone - could reach the top of the cultivation world.

[xianyao-villainousquartet]

My Ship in Five minutes +

Middle column: 

First to confess their feelings to the other: Wei Wuxian. 

- Explained in this post at #18.

First to apologize after a fight: Meng Yao. 

- Wei Wuxian isn’t the type to apologize unless told to by certain people like Yanli. He just lets the issue either escalate or dissipate with time because what’s done is done and they just have to move along. Meng Yao, however, does do apologies and expect apologies because it helps start a proper conversation to fix their issues. 

The more popular/charismatic: Wei Wuxian.

- Wei Wuxian befriends anyone while Meng Yao is more picky of who he allows in his social circle.

The best caregiver when the other is sick: Meng Yao.

Does the cooking: Meng Yao.

- Because he knows how to cook, automatically makes him the better caregiver.

Does the housework: Both.

Does most of the speaking: Both.

- It really depends on the subject. If it’s casual, Wei Wuxian will speak the most. If it’s professional/political, Meng Yao will speak the most. And it’s honestly what attracts them to each other the most. Wei Wuxian is basically trivia and story-telling for Meng Yao while Meng Yao is like an encyclopedia or the news but explained in an engaging way.

The overprotective one: Wei Wuxian.

Designated Driver: Meng Yao. 

Has good penmanship: Meng Yao.

Has more experience with relationships: Meng Yao. 

- I chose Meng Yao for this particular one because Wei Wuxian is indeed a flirt, but he’s like all anime protagonist that is all about adventure than they are about romance. Meng Yao on the other hand is an office worker/high school protagonist who is about their career/studies and has side plot boyfriends.

Sensitive to subtle changes in their partner: Both.

- They’re both really observant people so they’ll both catch on to any change. For how they’ll react, Wei Wuxian won’t pay too much attention to it at first, but if it really bothers him a few hours down the line or comes up spontaneously, he’ll ask about it. Meng Yao on the other hand will file it in his brain and not make a comment unless it happens twice and then will get to the bottom of it. 

The one who proposes: Wei Wuxian.

- Given how both grew up, marriage would hold such a negative stigma that neither would really consider it. Meng Yao would see the financial benefits to being married, but of course with marriage comes with being legally bound to become an in-law of the Jins, and Meng Yao would not want that for his boyfriend. So it’s really up to Wei Wuxian if he wants to get into that messy family, and I can see him doing it when he actually takes a moment to think of the future after watching a hospital drama episode, and will want to make sure he is able to protect what is Meng Yao’s against the Jins if anything were to happen to Meng Yao. So not so much out of romance but more out of legal protection.

The one who dies protecting the other: Wei Wuxian.

It’s not because Meng Yao loves Wei Wuxian less, but that the demonic cultivator is impulsive. So like if a car was about to hit the other person, Meng Yao would’ve pulled Wei Wuxian out of the way, but Wei Wuxian would hurl himself to push Meng Yao and get hit instead. 

Left Column:

How it happens: It’s definitely a slow burn love for both of them because on the surface, they don’t seem compatible, but the moment they talk to each other, that’s when it clicks, and the more they talk to each other, the more and more their interest builds until they can’t stop thinking about the other and in almost every situation they wonder what the other would say about it. 

Handling conflict: Meng Yao doesn’t start any arguments, but when caught in one, it really depends on how severe and personal the argument is to determine whether an apology should be served or not. As for Wei Wuxian, he doesn’t necessarily start arguments. He mostly gets dragged into them and when it comes to forgiveness, again, he’s not big about apologies. He’ll either forget or even the score, but with Meng Yao, he’ll feel guilty, bothered or disassociated from the issue until Meng Yao tells him it’s okay to talk. 

Relationship Attitude: They’re both extremely dedicated to the relationship since falling in love isn’t an easy thing to accomplish for the both of them, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t mind PDA and Meng Yao also doesn’t mind it as long as it’s kept to a minimum. No making out but pecks and hand holding are fine. 

Right Column:

Showing Affection: They both take initiation to show their affection whether it’s verbal or non-verbal. They both like to playfully flirt with each other, and Wei Wuxian likes to build stuff for Meng Yao while Meng Yao likes to spoil him as the sugar daddy.

Dealing with jealousy: They do get jealous when they see someone flirting with the other, but they’re not tasting too much vinegar because they trust their partner. Wei Wuxian will definitely need a lot of attention because jealousy easily comes with insecurity despite Wei Wuxian’s ego. Meng Yao on the other hand does have confidence, but his pride will make him step away to cool down first before he starts giving signals for attention. And they’re both amused that the other is jealous because “Really? Them?” and cuddle the other person.

Attachment: With the dedication and initiation they show each other, there’s a lot of room for independence where they strive in their own worlds, but love being in their own little world, too. Wei Wuxian though can be overprotective because Meng Yao is an easier target for harassment. 

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 04 (second part)

(Masterpost) (Episode 04, first part) (Episode 05, first part)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Continued from the first half of this very long post! 

Lets Go! Gusu

Wen Qing is lovingly exploring the magical wards of Gusu. She tries a little digital penetration on the ward at the waterfall, but gets the hard nope.

Note: Here at Canary3d we don’t ship Wen Qing with any cultivator ladies because we’re too busy shipping her with modern-day infosec-pro ladies, if you get what I’m saying and/or have read my bio.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian is fishing with Nie Huaisang, using the method of sneaking up and grabbing fish with his bare hands. This actually works, because he is good at literally everything.  His “I’ll be the prodigy” speech to Lan Xichen, isn’t actually arrogant. 

Aw, Look at Xiao Zhan pretending this fish isn’t already dead.

Nosy Parker Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian goes to chat up Wen Qing and none of his crap works on her.

If I want to admire a pretty face I’ll go look in the mirror

His interactions with Wen Qing help to mature Wei Wuxian quite a bit over the months and years. Initially she’s a mystery to him, and he wants her attention and esteem. And can’t get either.

Look how stunned he is to encounter a boundary when she won’t let him touch her needle. “Wards are made to be broken” but she’s not going to let him past any of hers. 

Jiang Cheng, Insecurest Boi

Oh you beautiful sad angry boy. 

(More after the cut!)

Jiang Cheng is angrily waving the laundry around practicing his angry sword moves without a sparring partner, which is noteworthy partly because it shows how dedicated he is, but also because it shows how much he depends on Wei Wuxian for social interaction and cultivation practice. There must be 40 or 50 kids he could go practice with, but he’s by himself.

Camera Operator: Why you gotta take it out on me?

When he bitches to Yanli about his Dad preferring Wei Wuxian, she gaslights him.

Yanli is so gentle and kind, and she’s been the real mother for both of these boys when she didn’t have to be. But she ain’t perfect.

Yanli found this soup recipe on youtube. The ingredients are: water

Jiang Cheng has such a complex about Wei Wuxian he won't take the fish from him directly. He just looks hungry until Yanli grabs a stick and passes it to him.

Look, Jiang Cheng, we know you have reasons to be upset, but you need to get the fuck over yourself.

Aw, look at Xiao Zhan pretending this fish is cooked/palatable. (note: it is not)

Xiao Zhan deserves multiple awards for this performance. With bonus points for gratuitously eye-fucking Wang Zhoucheng into next week.

Wang Zhuocheng is an amazing actor who plays an incredible range of emotions, but selling the “delicious fish” lie exceeds his abilities. Look how he steels himself before he opens his mouth.

Yanli tells Wei Wuxian to be good starting tomorrow, and WWX gives her his patented lying-motherfucker salute.

This one has 4 fingers, unlike the 3-fingered boy scout salute he gave Lan Wangji on the roof in the previous episode. The extra finger is for extra lying.

Lan Lecture: Goofing off

Wei Wuxian is bored and spends the lecture time goofing off or sleeping like any other smart kid with ADHD.

Eventually he draws a bunny while Nie Huasang tosses him a nut wrapped in paper and he eats it. It’s the same kind of nut he eats at the beginning of his second life, when he remarks that they tasted better 16 years ago.

Don’t mind me, just putting Nie-Xiong’s nuts in my mouth

It’s cute how WWX and NHS are so vaguely gay for each other without bothering to be seriously gay for each other.

Several of the rules that are read out during this part of the lecture are things that Wei Wuxian is doing during this part of the lecture, or will become known for doing in the near future.

sitting improperly

causing noise

teasing others

ignoring others and being undisciplined

borrowing money

being late

Lan Lecture: Showing off

The question & answer part of the lecture arrives, which is when Wei Wuxian gets to show off his gifts. 

He is that classic kid who already knows the essence of the material, does not need stuff explained, and is super bored at rote learning.

Lan Qiren makes Lan Wangji show off his skills to the whole class, which would guarantee an after-school ass kicking for the teacher's pet except that LWJ is basically the most aggressive person in the entire Lan clan (thanks Mom for those "I'm going to kill you now" genes!) and is unbeatable. 

Lan Lecture: Going off

Next, Wei Wuxian introduces an idea for sustainable energy.

He starts off challenging Lan Qiren's hypothetical scenario, and as Lan Qiren draws breath to answer him, Lan Wangji starts speaking. LWJ has been listening very carefully and is speaking out of turn instead of letting the master speak, which is...probably not how he usually conducts himself?

From Wei Wuxian’s perspective, this is just the run-up to his next outrageous suggestion, but for Lan Wangji, this has to be an enormous moment. This boy who is unexpectedly a good sparring partner with swords and words is also an intellectual sparring partner - someone who can give Lan Wangji an actual chance to debate something.  

Wei Wuxian’s answer "it's such a waste" is directed to Lan Wangji, not to the class as a whole. Lan Wangji, Gusu’s loneliest boy, is suddenly in a relationship with an equal. The relationship is adversarial, but it's EQUAL.

Wei Wuxian carries on explaining his idea: How about digging up and desecrating corpses? No no no Not for fun, but in order to have massive, unthinkable power? 

Seems like a waste to just leave the dead to their rest when you could be using them for something. 

Lan Qiren: I can see we are going to have to kill you eventually, aren't we

Jiang Cheng: oh my god Wei Wuxian you can't just ask about decapitating corpses

Jiang Yanli: perhaps my unwavering loyalty to Dad's methods with my baby brother should be reexamined

Nie Huasang: my dude, conceal don’t feel, seriously

Lan Wangji: hmmm he’s not exactly wrong

Lan Wangji was a LOT more horrified at Wei Wuxian sticking a note on Lan Qiren’s ass than he is at this whole demonic cultivation thing. Lan Wangji is really really attracted to Wei Wuxian’s talent and intelligence, even when it's completely heterodox. You can see it much later when Wen Ning gets his personality back; Lan Wangji is impressed and congratulatory, unlike literally everyone else in the cultivation world.

Punishment

When Wei Wuxian gets sent to copy a chapter 1000 times, Jiang Cheng and Yanli are both horrified, whereas Wei Wuxian’s reaction is totally chill. 

Basically he knows that he has reached the part of the classroom discussion where he is inevitably sent for punishment, because he is totally used to that being how things go in his education.

Similarly, kneeling doesn't bother him because Madame Yu made him kneel for everything.  Wei Wuxian is the mascot for too-smart bored kids everywhere.

On his way out, Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with this troubled look of yearning. In this moment where Wei Wuxian is sparking Lan Wangji’s interest and tentatively seeking a path toward Lan Wangji’s heart, he is also mapping out the unorthodox path he will follow away from him as they grow up.  

Lan Qiren in his rage does the dumbest and, frankly, most irresponsible thing the parent of a teenager can do in this situation; he sends Lan Wangji to supervise Wei Wuxian’s punishment. 

"This terrible WWX is a one-man bad crowd. Let me send my deeply conflicted, stubborn, intensely private, teetotling, abstinent and abstemious newphew to spend several days in a private location with him, being bored together."

Lan Wangji responds to this order with 100% calmness, not even an eyebrow furrow.

I'm sure no cussing, pornography, romantic portraits, flirty ink grinding, or changes in forms of address will happen.

Lan Lecture: Blowing off

Wei Wuxian meanwhile has fucked off to go make more friends, and is hanging out with Wen Ning. Wen Ning demonstrates his archery by hitting the worlds slowest falling rock in midair and Wei Wuxian earnestly praises him and offers to trade skill pointers.

I love how sweet and kind WWX is to this younger kid who is obviously a little different.

When Wen Qing shows up, Wei Wuxian takes another opportunity to get into her business, but he skips the charm this time. He also 100% correctly deduces what she is up to.

Swords by the Waterfall

Then comes another sexy sword fight as Lan Wangji sneaks up on Wei Wuxian and almost get his face sliced open as a reward.

Now that the swords are out it’s time for...homework, sigh. Summer school is the worst.

Outro

Writing Prompt: Lan Xichen’s letter to Nie Mingjue after meeting Meng Yao

Episode 05 Restless Rewatch is over here!

[hamaon]

JGY or WWX?

I feel like a fair disclaimer to give before getting to Wei Wuxian is that I watched the Untamed despite, not because of, wangxian! I originally checked out the beginning of the animated series because someone I followed was getting into it, but I already had an inkling that the main romantic relationship in this romance wouldn’t be my cup of tea. The Untamed followed, more than half a year later, really only because I had hit the gorgeous soundtrack on youtube.

How I feel about this character Part of the reason I presumed I wouldn’t be into wangxian was because neither of the main players really spoke to me, and on this account I am happy to have been proven wrong! When I finished the show, Wei Wuxian was probably my favorite character. There's something very satisfying about a surface-level heroic main character hitting his absolute lowest points and starting to be actively harmful to himself and others. “This is all I’ve ever wanted for the class clown type of character”, I think I said at some point. Let it all burn.

I go back and forth on whether I find the flightier parts of his personality charming or annoying, but it’s a spectrum. The Untamed version is my favorite, character-wise.

All the people I ship romantically with this character Nie Huaisang, in the sense that, what with their roles in the plot, it would be fascinating to see how things would play out if this was the main romance, instead. Especially because romance would not be Nie Huaisang’s priority. What would the relationship trajectory even be, teenage sweethearts, ending with a definitive breakup by the finale? I've never sat down with the idea long enough to do anything with it, but sometimes it comes back to me. The main reason I'm into it is because hey, it's the main character & the main driving force behind the story! this is an intellectual puzzle to work out!, but they also had nice, easy chemistry when they were young and seemed to enjoy each other's company, which was something that was... not present in the actual main ship as far as I could see, and apparently my only kink is obvious mutual interest and stability in a relationship. I don't think they really had romantic/sexual chemistry in particular, but hey.

Wen Ning. I just think ningxian is cute. Also has lots of potential for difficult and uncomfortable exploration re: consent and autonomy.

But I think at the end of the day, the only relationship he has that just by the actual shape of it would be something I'd be interested in seeing turn into a romantic and/or sexual relationship is with Wen Qing, which, uh. Yeah. The fond push-and-pull, the two leaders, it’s good stuff. Just a physical relationship during their hunkering together time would be fun, too.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Jiang Cheng. I remember originally being pretty peeved about the fact that the romance (censored or not) is treated as the main focus when the Yunmeng duo is, to me, the real heart of the story. Let Lan Wangji be a supporting character.

I'm not sure if I really want a reconciliation between them, personally, but I want to note that it’s not because I think it would be fundamentally impossible, or because one or both of the characters is genuinely better off without the other. I think it would be very good for them if they managed some sort of genuine healing together!

I don’t want a reconciliation because thinking about their complete and total failure to communicate and consequently never making up makes me experience genuine agony in a very satisfying way. I have in the past gone into people's tags for the two of them and managed to work myself into a sobbing mess within five minutes. It is extremely cathartic.

My unpopular opinion about this character That time when he walks into a Jin party and starts throwing threats 3-2-1, part of me is going “fuck yeah” and part of me is looking at all the collateral damage servants trying to stay out of the way in the background, who never asked to be terrorized by this very powerful man. It’s not something that makes me dislike the character in any way or form, as stated before if anything it just makes him more interesting to me, I just don’t think that it was an uncomplicatedly ‘cool’ moment.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon The man should be actually responsible for his own misdeeds. I’ve heard people say that this was a censorship thing, but I have no sources on that.

And A-Yao gets to go under a read more.

How I feel about this character Continuing down the nostalgia lane, my initial reactions were “this man smiles very deliberately” and, towards the end, “man, fuck the gentry, you should get to win”.

I, hm. It feels sometimes like there are two kinds of opinions that fans have, and I don’t connect with either of them! There’s the “this character is an unrepentant asshole and I’m proud of that, you don’t need to make up sympathetic motivations for villains” which, while I agree that he can justify a lot to himself, just doesn’t ring true to me. I think that many of his actions were either forced by the circumstances, or understandable, or sympathetic and made with decent intentions, or not particularly bad compared to shit that other characters and their society as a whole gets to.

Obviously there are all these breakdowns about the specific acts of altruism that he does that in-universe are rare from someone that high up in power, and those are great, but even without all of that, he was a stable, peaceful, competent ruler who wasn’t doing any large-scale nasty shit after a series of complete nightmares on the throne, and upsetting that long-standing balance should bring about repercussions for several social classes that does more harm than anything he was individually doing at any point.

As for the other take, there’s the “oh no he’s so small and so cute and should be pampered so much” which I don’t... get, emotionally, and additionally it is reaaal hard for me to see the character as someone who either wants or would even particularly enjoy being the one being taken care of. Usually my response is-

There’s that part during Nie Mingjue’s capture in Empathy where he’s just, running the whole show? Like, on one hand it is very important that he’s probably the weakest person in the room, and might lose in a direct confrontation against even the random soldiers standing to the sides, and if he plays his cards wrong or even sub-optimally one of the two big strong cultivators in his vicinity is going to pulverize him, and also aware of all of this at all times and living in low-key terror. But also -- he pulled it off.

If I’m working myself toward some emotional response with “A-Yao small” it doesn’t end with “someone should hold him 🥺” but with “and doesn’t that just make it all the sweeter that he sat on that throne”. (I have two kinks, and the other one is power reversal.)

All the people I ship romantically with this character Only Lan Xichen, really, but there are some tentative side paths to take!

Qin Su, in that the initial attraction would be fun to explore, and then it becomes less about the relationship dynamic and more about the underlying horror.

Nie Huaisang, in a not-particularly-serious, one-sided, never-happened-and-now-it-never-will kind of way. The ideal would be Jin Guangyao thinking of Nie Huaisang as a tiring but cute little brother figure (he doesn't have those, all of his family relationships sans mom take a weird turn at some point! this one sure is about to!), while Nie Huaisang has a lil crush, and then it goes all the way to hell. ...And I know that I set “won’t happen” as a precondition, but I guess if there was a character who keeps the (fierce or not) corpse of the late Chief Cultivator close in an effort to feel alive post-canon, Nie Huaisang is the one I’d want for that role.

Jiang Cheng, because that family unit is so under-explored in canon, and because out of a handful of favorite characters these two are usually my number one, so watching them interact with each other can be fun just because of that. But in my heart of hearts I want Jiang Cheng to stay forever single by choice, and really I'm just here for platonic family shenanigans with Jin Ling. (I've written some of this, but out of everything it's probably the least likely to ever see the light of day.)

But really only Lan Xichen. When I was watching the early episodes and didn't remember the characters well and in my head these two were only “the disturbingly handsome older brother” and “a bit part soldier (lol) from some other sect” I really imprinted on that goodbye scene, like damn, look at these characters who are friendly with each other and showing obvious interest. It's only the circumstances that are getting in the way! If I were to ever read fic from this show, it would be these two. (This was all a counter-reaction to early wangxian haha.) But increasingly it goes to show that what I'm really into is people having mutual and mutually recognized affection for each other, the negotiated part in the relationship being less about whether it'll happen and more about how to go about it. More romances that start with getting together instead of ending there.

I am laughing at my past self here though, after actually finishing the show my thoughts on xiyao were that it was nice that it was both there and stable (until, you know) and unknowable, whatever the shape of their relationship in private they are aware of it and have made their peace with it, and that's all I need to know, and now I'm sitting here with several WIPs, wondering if this is what finally pushes me to start publishing fanfiction.

My non-romantic OTP for this character Lan Xichen. No, I’m not interested in a non-romantic* read on their relationship, yes, I just want him here, too.

Also, the only other relationships of note here are with Meng Shi, Jin Ling and Qin Su, and using ‘non-romantic OTP’ for any of those feels off to me. Meng Shi and Jin Ling are at too much of an uneven level, Qin Su doesn’t reach OTP levels even if the romantic filter is off. Su Minshan and Xue Yang might be a better fit, but again, OTP level is too high. Early-canon Nie Huaisang... maybe.

*non-sexual is fine. never officially getting together w/mutual acknowledgement is fine.

My unpopular opinion about this character I think I already went off, so. The hat is fine, and the hate sounds performative and weirdly ignorant at times. I don't love the Untamed version, but it’s fine and the ones in other adaptations are fantastic, even. The warm yellow-brown combination looks really nice. More of the characters should wear hats, actually! Which I realize is an opinion influenced by historical Japanese and Korean dramas, which are of a different genre altogether (also not Chinese, but hats in official settings are a constant in all of these cultures). Nevertheless.

I wish it was used only post-timeskip in the Untamed, too, though, for more variety in costuming and to further differentiate the pre- and post-timeskip versions of the character.

...................................and a specific xiyao pet peeve also: I am becoming increasingly wary of the... either super common or I just happen to keep finding these, take where he’s some sort of unwilling/particularly hesitant participant in this relationship. Like I went back to watch parts of episode 4 (to figure out why it was that I was so sure Meng Yao would be swinging a sword around in future episodes and my conclusion is: because everyone else was swinging theirs) and even the initial interactions in the goodbye scene are like-

Meng Yao literally runs up to a guy waaay out of his league like “Hello I am bringing myself Forth because I have the audacity to assume you might Personally Want to Know that I am leaving and here are some pretty personal reasons why (gosh you really are lovely)”

Reactions I’ve seen to this: look at the little dude running away from his emotions

Me: w h a t

And then the natural conclusion here is that Lan Xichen is there to love him (with his dick and/or sunny personality) until he’s forced to accept it [serene face emoji] and it makes me. Not enjoy it much.

Ofc this doesn’t include normal human hesitations one might have about... anything and everything in life, really, but when it’s treated like this automatic character/relationship hurdle I’m just hhhh

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon I'm pretty satisfied with things as they stand? Just like the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian makes me feel cathartic agony, Jin Guangyao's fate makes me feel cathartic rage. Look at the low-born bastard child go down the stairs of life, one last time!

......Sometimes I have my weak moments and do wish he had gotten away in the end, though.

[imaginaryelle]

Would you do anything with Wei Ying and the 4 main Juniors like either a fic or just how they interact in the show compared to the older generations

(Many thanks to @miyuki4s for the awesome beta work!)

*

It’s a banquet. A banquet Wei Wuxian was not, technically, invited to, but which he is attending nevertheless because no one in charge figured out he wasn’t supposed to be there until he’d already been offered food.

Such kind servants the Yao Sect has. Such a contrast to their sour Sect Leader, who keeps staring into his wine as if it’s turned to vinegar on his lips.

Wei Wuxian decides not to test his welcome too long—yes, he had been rather useful on the night hunt this afternoon, and yes, his role in Jin Guangyao’s downfall and the known fact of the Chief Cultivator’s favor do buy him a certain amount of social standing with the major Sects, but he’s not going to sit in a man’s hall all night mocking him with his very presence.

Well, he might.

Okay, he definitely would, except the wine is merely decent and the conversation is stilted and, frankly, boring. It would be bearable if he was getting to watch Lan Wangji endure it as well, but alas, the Chief Cultivator has pressing business in Yunmeng, apparently, which must be quite pressing indeed for Jiang Cheng to ask for him and which Wei Wuxian is certain would only be made more difficult by his own presence, even if he does still worry about Jiang Cheng, somewhere in a not-so-secret corner of his heart. So instead of making small talk or setting off into the night he takes his wine and bows out of the hall to Sect Leader Yao’s disgruntled nod of acknowledgment and goes in search of better entertainment.

He finds it just around the side of the disciples’ dormitories, behind a stand of magnolia trees.

Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen and several other vaguely familiar young members of various clans are sitting in what looks to be a small garden, huddled around what is quite probably either illicitly procured food or, more probably, wine. There’s a flash of gold near the center, and Wei Wuxian is able to answer the slightly-nagging question of where his nephew disappeared to halfway through the feast. Fairy, thankfully, is nowhere in sight. He wonders, for just a moment, whether they purposefully left Lan Sizhui’s reasonable voice out of this clearly ill-advised venture before he catches sight of him half-hidden behind Lan Jingyi’s shoulder, a look of fond exasperation on his face.

Wei Wuxian takes a drink of his own wine and prepares to keep walking—there’s probably a rooftop somewhere with a good view of both the garden and the waning moon to keep him entertained without disturbing anyone else’s fun.

“Ah! Wei-qianbei!” It’s one of the ones Wei Wuxian doesn’t quite remember who greets him, which is a little embarrassing, but the boy’s wearing Yao sect robes and looks like he lost a fight with a thorn bush—ah. Young master Liang Fai, who got a little too up close and personal with a malevolent spirit this afternoon. He beckons Wei Wuxian closer, either ignoring or not noticing those of his companions who freeze in place—Lan Jingyi and two other Lans try valiantly to look as if they have not touched alcohol and Lan Sizhui offers up a slightly chagrined smile—or those who are making only mildly obvious efforts to stop him. Jin Ling looks for a moment as if he might bolt through a nearby bush. “Wei-qianbei, can you teach us that talisman you used today? The one that banished the mist.”

A few of the others actually do look interested in that, even Jin Ling, at least until Wei Wuxian shakes his head.

“You can achieve the same effect with a basic spirit-repelling talisman,” he informs them. Blood is stronger than ink, of course, but he remembers their eagerness in Yi City. Best not to mention that. “It’s nothing special.”

“What about your ward-breaker then?” Lan Jingyi asks. Wei Wuxian arches an eyebrow at him.

“Hanguang-jun did a lecture on it,” Lan Sizhui puts in, soft-spoken and reasonable as ever. “On your inventions, like spirit-attraction flags. He said you had a ward-breaker talisman.”

“I might,” Wei Wuxian allows, though it was never really a secret. “How good’s your brushwork?”

The next half hour is a delightful rush of fresh ink, waving paper and bright enthusiasm. Enthusiasm, of course, is key in the creation of this particular talisman. Enthusiasm, focus, and delicate control of a brush. A few of them can produce a handful of sparks in their first tries. Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui each manage one butterfly, to their evident glee and Wei Wuxian’s lavish praise. Ouyang Zizhen manages a quietly smug three, to general acclaim. They finish the wine, and someone steals more, and an hour goes by and the moon rises higher and then Jin Ling, a little flushed but entirely determined, asks:

“Can you tell us about the Sunshot Campaign?”

Everyone goes quiet. Wei Wuxian laughs, too loud in the long shadows. He is burningly aware that Lan Sizhui—Wen Yuan—is sitting somewhere on his left.

“Surely you’ve learned all about that already,” he says. His smile feels stretched too-thin across his face.

“Not really.” Jin Ling frowns. Wei Wuxian can’t decide if the expression makes him look more like Jin Zixuan or Jiang Cheng, but it’s familiar frustration either way. “Jiujiu won’t tell me anything and—” he stops, lips pressing tight together.

“There are a few stories,” Ouyang Zizhen says in a sort of hushed whisper that makes everyone lean in closer. “but it’s strange, they’re always—”

“It’s always the same stories,” Liang Fai says. “No matter who you ask. It’s always about how awful Wen Ruohan and his sons were, and then the Yin Iron, and the razing of Cloud Recesses and Lotus Pier. Then the Sects rise and Lian—and Meng Yao goes undercover, and Chifeng-zun lays siege to Nightless City.”

“My father always says the Wens reached too far,” Ouyang Zizhen adds. “That they were arrogant and thought they held the authority of the Heavens themselves. But when I ask what happened before the war, or why they attacked Cloud Recesses, he just talks in circles. Sometimes I’m not even sure he knows the answer at all.”

“There’s not much detail,” says Lan Jingyi. “Honestly, I’ve gotten more out of merchants and kids playing in the street than most cultivators. There are more stories about you, really. After. When you were at the Burial Mounds.”

Wei Wuxian sighs. Of course there are. Just as now, when there are so many stories of Jin Guangyao, once more Meng Yao to the vindictive and impressionable, and how people always knew he was up to something. Even at the time, when the events were fresh in everyone’s mind, no one had wanted to remember who the Wens were before the war. If they had, Wei Wuxian might not have been the only one standing by the survivors.

He finds Lan Sizhui’s eyes in the dim moonlight, but Lan Sizhui only stares back at him, as calm and composed as if he’s waiting for a lecture in Cloud Recesses. All the young faces around him are intent and watchful. Waiting. Waiting for him to prove, as he has so many times before, that he’s different from their parents. Because he is, just—maybe not as different as they think.

“It was a war,” he says. “There are better things to talk about. Like—oh, the clouds, the clouds are very nice tonight.”

The clouds are nice. For the record. Worthy of poetry even. But of course these are determined young cultivators. They aren’t just going to let this go.

“It’s when most of them earned their titles,” Jin Ling says. Insists. “And they weren’t—you weren’t—that much older than we are. Not really. What’s so bad that we can’t know it?”

Wei Wuxian remembers a sudden flash of sky, of grass scraping at his scalp and cheek as his brother’s hands closed around his neck. He remembers his sister’s hands, raw and swollen from scrubbing and boiling cloth for bandages. The way Lan Wangji had turned away when he’d asked, and your brother? Your uncle? in the Xuanwu cave. The taste of corpse-dirt in the back of his throat.

There are many, many things that no one should ever have to know. And yet … Jin Ling asks so little of him, in the usual way of things. And not every memory is a weakness their elders will resent.

“What do you know about the Yin Iron?” he asks. It’s a safe enough subject—for one thing, he’s something of an expert, and that’s something he made his peace with long ago. For another, it doesn’t reach too deep into the scars lurking under his skin, and he knows that it has to be part of what Jiang Cheng doesn’t talk about: watching his new recruits, cultivators who trusted and believed in him, become mindless foes with the same face. These young cultivators have seen corpse puppets, but they’ve never seen someone turn before their eyes. Someone they knew and fought alongside. Someone they called brother or sister. He can’t imagine Lan Wangji or anyone else from that time talking about it either.

“It can be used to control corpses,” Lan Jingyi says promptly. “To make them stronger. And used too long, the Yin energy can be damaging to the spirit.”

Wei Wuxian snorts. Of course the Lans would teach that second part. He wonders if they also teach of Lan Yi’s sacrifice, these days. He picks up his brush again and sketches an incomplete array—unbalanced and open ended. Energy ever re-directed against its source.

“Have you thought about what control of corpses means, on a battlefield without Yin Iron of your own? Where every fallen ally can become an enemy?”

The sudden stillness around him would indicate that no, they haven’t. More than one looks like his wine is not agreeing with him.

Wei Wuxian picks up another piece of paper and starts a new talisman—fire, to burn away impurities. “There’s a lot I really don’t remember.” He laughs a little and lights the paper with a twist of his fingers. “My memory has always been bad.”

There is quiet as the paper burns to ash and the night breeze sweeps even that away. Wei Wuxian reaches for the wine and pours himself another drink, and that seems to break the moment at least a little. Jin Ling looks particularly disappointed, and Wei Wuxian is debating telling the one or two actually decent stories he has of Jin Zixuan when someone else speaks first.

“But, Wei-qianbei …” Ouyang Zizhen looks around at his friends and Sect brothers, and then back to Wei Wuxian, determination hardening his features. “If we don’t know how it happened, how will we know how to stop it happening again?”

There are nods around the circle, and Wei Wuxian takes another drink to swallow back the tightness rising in his throat. “I’m really not the right person to ask,” he says.  It’s a very noble sentiment they’re nurturing of course, but the world had turned on him much the same way it had on the Wens, and —ahah. He gestures at Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui, triumphant.

“Hanguang-jun,” he says. They stare at him.

“Hanguang-jun doesn’t talk about the war either.” Lan Sizhui’s gaze doesn’t waver, trained on Wei Wuxian.

“There are innumerable things our esteemed Chief Cultivator never puts into words,” Wei Wuxian agrees with a languid wave of his hand, “but does that really mean you don’t know what he thinks?”

Lan Sizhui blinks, then smiles at him.

“The seminars,” says Jin Ling. “He’s setting up—I don’t know, really, lectures and trainings and things, in Gusu and Caiyi, inviting people to speak or visit from all over. Jiujiu says he’ll probably be pushing the rest of us to do that too, soon.”

Ouyang Zizhen nods. “The watchtowers were Jin Guangyao’s project after the war, right? My father says Hanguang-jun wants something better than watchtowers. That he’s working on a new talisman, like the Jin Clan’s butterfly messengers.”

Jin Ling frowns, his hands tightening around his sword. “He hasn’t mentioned the butterfly messengers to me.”

“It’s Hanguang-jun. I don’t think he said anything about it to anyone, Father just saw him writing talismans that turn into pigeons after that conference focused on the towers.”

“Sect Leader Yao doesn’t like how he’s treating the smaller sects.” Liang Fai turns his helmet between his hands, his expression thoughtful. “He says the Chief Cultivator will recognize even just two people as a new sect, if they own so much as a single house to train out of. It’s making the bigger sects nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” says Jin Ling, scowling at him. “And neither is the Jiang Sect.”

“Ah, ah!” Wei Wuxian interrupts before tensions can draw any higher and waves his hands in the space between Jin Ling and Liang Fai. “Let’s talk about something else. Right?”

Jin Ling looks away, but the conversation doesn’t change. 

“He’s worried about communication and response time,” says Lan Jingyi. “He’s always said it’s a cultivator’s job to go where the need is.”

“If more people can identify a problem, or know the right techniques, it won’t get out of hand,” Ouyang Zizhen agrees. “And with more sects, there are more cultivators in more places. It makes sense.”

“He travels.” All eyes shift to Lan Sizhui, who looks only at Wei Wuxian. “That’s part of what you mean, isn’t it? When Lianfang-zun was Chief Cultivator, everyone went to Lanling to speak with him. To the home of the Jin Sect. But Hanguang-jun doesn’t accept as many visiting parties. Most of the time, he goes to them.”

Lan Jingyi’s face scrunches up, doubtful. “I thought that was because he didn’t want to host so many banquets.”

“He still has to attend just as many,” Lan Sizhui points out. “Maybe more, even.”

“He’s staying neutral,” Jin Ling says, sudden and with an expression like he’s even surprising himself. “He can’t speak for Gusu Lan. That’s why Grandmaster Qiren is still at every conference. Because he’s Chief Cultivator, but not Sect Leader.”

That seems to be some sort of breaking point—several people start talking at once, and Wei Wuxian slowly eases himself out of the circle; he’s not needed anymore, and he should probably see himself out before Sect Leader Yao feels forced to offer him a place to sleep. Also, he’s out of wine.

Lan Sizhui meets him at the gates.

“Tell him we’re happy to help, with anything.”

Wei Wuxian frowns at him, confused. “Tell who?”

“Hanguang-jun. When you see him.” Lan Sizhui smiles and pets Little Apple’s nose. “Tell him we want to help. Even Jin Ling, though he might grumble about it.”

Wei Wuxian feels a sudden pang of homesickness—for the familiar walls of Lotus Pier, and for Lan Wangji’s steady presence at his side. But traveling to Yunmeng is no better an idea now that it was this afternoon.

“Ah, A-Yuan,” he says, “you can tell him yourself. You’ll probably see him before I do.” 

Lan Sizhui looks doubtful, but he doesn’t argue. He seems to hesitate a moment, and then he sort of lunges into Wei Wuxian’s side and hugs him. 

“What—”

“Thank you,” Lan Sizhui says as Wei Wuxian tries to figure out what to do with his hands. They’ve only done this a few times, still, and he’s not entirely sure what’s allowed when, and he’s desperately anxious to not mess it up.

“For what?” he asks, settling his free hand on Lan Sizhui’s back. 

“For helping us,” Lan Sizhui says, almost at a whisper, and Wei Wuxian is sure they’re not talking about the gaggle of young cultivators in the garden anymore. He tightens the curl of his arm.

“You don’t need to thank me, A-Yuan. I—”

“Ning-shushu told me a little,” Lan Sizhui interrupts him, the words half-muffled in his collar. “And I’ve heard—I know all the same stories as the rest of them. I mean it. Thank you.”

Wei Wuxian shakes his head, but he doesn’t protest aloud again. Instead he wraps his other arm around Lan Sizhui as well, and tucks his chin over Lan Sizhui’s white-clad shoulder. He watches the gauzy clouds drift slowly across the brightness of the moon and makes a silent promise: 

This time, they’ll do better.

[llycaons]

I said I was alert but I was in such a fuzzy headspace just now. regardless, my thoughts. episode 10

I always forget how the characters sound. their voices are translated in my head so I’m only half-listening to the actual dialogue. xxc has a much deeper voice than I remember

I don’t have a lot of thoughts about them? they’re relatively undeveloped characters. they don’t make me sad til later

the whole xy situation in yi city is still really upsetting to me so I’m going to just say he had weird vibes. borderline flirting but also extremely creepy

!!!! WEI WUXIAN!!!“When it comes to shamlessness, if I’m not first nobody would dare be second!!! KING!!! that phrase is so neatly worded, I love translations. it’s almost exactly the same at the netflix one.

so personally my preferred interpretation of the censorship is that gay people are so widely accepted that it’s not really worth specifically mentioning but obviously that doesn’t really explain everything or work in all situations. like maybe it depends on the clan, or the region or the person. and even people who want to be supportive end up making assumptions (like yanli telling wwx he’d marry a pretty girl after he’d met lwj. lol)

and the fact that so much is unspoken as the relationship develops kind of points to how bad the situation is and how neither of them are able to get into a relationship in that kind of environment

I know it’s due to censorship but honest to god when paired with their actions and arcs it ends up making them both look just really respectful and careful of each other’s boundaries (lwj not wanting to emulate his father while wwx doesn’t want to step over any lines with someone who isn’t ready for that) which is an interpretation I really really love

anyway the fact that xy is so heavily implied to be mlm makes me so mad. I would have rather he was homophobic in all honesty yi city is a nightmare. also he’s not attractive? the actor is fine but ppl who think he as a character is hot weird me out

oh! SL walks with his hand behind his back like lwj does! parallels, they continue

jc sees wwx visibly emotional about not getting to meet BSSR and looks...conflicted? upset for him? he doesn’t end up saying anything, because he’s jiang cheng and will openly communicate worry to wwx exactly twice in this entire show, poorly and much to his own regret. but I saw it. we see you, jc

on the other hand, literally every interaction with wwx he has he’s such a dick. would it kill you to be nice for once

nie mingjue intro!!!! hello sir!!!!! he’s so kind to say nice things about wwx and jc, they look so happy awww

I think it’s a fun hc that wwx thinks nmj was hot but I don’t talk about it because people will get weird with it. there’s an age gap there, please don’t make me write it all out, etc.

also nmj calling lwj “wangji” is so cute! that’s lwj’s pseudo big brother! he must have known lwj since he was little

I’ve seen a post that says lwj only bows a few times and to people not usually given respect, and that post is just not accurate. he bowed to the Jiang assembly in ep3, he bowed to xxc and SL, and he’s bowing to nmj

ah, roof-sleeping scene :) I do wonder if the fighting hadn’t started right then, would they have gotten together around now? I think it’s too early still tbh. wwx isn’t ready to deal with how serious his feelings are and lwj can’t even talk about them. but then I’ll see fics where they don’t say anything about it for 10+ years and im like this ain’t it either

wen chao shows up and more importantly so does wen zuliu!!! his first appearance!!

wzl is sexy in a bitter and exhausted divorced middle-aged man kind of way. would have been the funniest villain if xy’s actor wasn’t so committed to his character being absolutely unhinged

oof I just saw donghua wzl. yikes. ugly.

meng yao’s acting here is extraordinary. I know exactly what happens, I saw him kill that dude, and I’m still like “well maybe it wasn’t him :(’ this is not only because I am gullible and weak in the face of crying but also because he’s an extremely manipulative and slippery person who will do anything to survive, etc.

nmj is crying at the end of the episode. I think not only because his trust in MY has been betrayed and his clan is being ground under the heel of the wens but because he must have known that commanding officer personally. that was probably one of his brothers. I’m sure some of those tears were grief.

that being said, he kind of had it coming :/ he was an asshole

[pangzi]

14 minghui

14. “Just please be my best friend right now, not the guy I just confessed my love to.”

Nie Mingjue didn’t have many friends. Having become a sect leader at such a young age, many of his childhood friends had been left behind for the sake of his sect. Leaving him with only his brother and Lan Xichen as people he really felt close to. It wasn’t that he didn’t try to become friends with anyone. It was just hard. There was always a distance between him and his disciples. Except for Lan Xichen, other sect leaders didn’t do friendship with other sects, the only friendships they knew were bound by contracts and easily broken. 

It wasn’t that Nie Mingjue felt lonely or anything. He didn’t really mind only having Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen. But it would be nice to have someone who was always around and he could talk to about anything. That’s where Nie Zonghui comes into the equation. 

After Meng Yao left, Zonghui quickly stepped up as Mingjue’s right-hand man. Zonghui was one of Mingjue’s most loyal and talented disciples. He impressed Mingjue over and over again with his great tactical skills and swordsmanship. But it wasn’t just his skills that made Mingjue value Zonghui as much as he does. The distance between Mingjue and Zonghui didn’t feel as big as it did with other disciples. They could share laughs and stories without either of them feeling uncomfortable. Maybe it was because Zonghui was already close with Huaisang, or maybe Zonghui was just different. 

Zonghui would stay behind after meetings, listing off everything that was decided. At first Mingjue found it odd, not sure if Zonghui did it for himself or to make sure Mingjue remembers all that is said. But he also found that it didn’t matter, it soothed him. Mingjue had the habit of getting worked up during these meetings, and going over all that was discussed afterwards helped him get his thoughts in order again. Often these talks would even lead to a bit of mockery. Mingjue would usually start it, whenever something reminded him of something dumb that one of the elders had said. Zonghui easily joined in on it, with spot on impressions and reactions. It was hard not to call one of the few people that make you smile, a friend.

Mingjue might even dare to call Zonghui his best friend. Zonghui was that friend he had been looking for. Someone who lives nearby, someone who he can talk to about almost anything, someone who isn’t intimidated by him and respects Huaisang. 

Maybe Zonghui was even more than just a best friend, not that Mingjue was ready to admit that to himself. He could admit to himself thought, that Zonghui was definitely attractive. Very attractive. He could also admit that maybe, sometimes, Zonghui made him feel things. Especially when he proved once again that he paid attention to Mingjue in ways that others have never done. When he wordlessly brought Mingjue food, when Mingjue once again got lost in training or work. Or when he’d sit with Mingjue in silence whenever Mingjue seemed agitated, waiting for Mingjue to be ready to vent but never pushing him to. Maybe it even made Mingjue’s heart ache a bit whenever he saw Zonghui and Huaisang have a good time together.

Tonight was one of those evenings where Mingjue was agitated. Zonghui just sat at the table in Mingjue’s chambers, sipping his tea quietly while Mingjue put some things away.

‘Marriage,’ Mingjue muttered to himself, ‘an heir! I don’t have time for any of that.’

Zonghui laughed softly and poured Mingjue a drink as he sat down. Mingjue drowned his cup at once and poured himself another one immediately. 

‘You’d think they would know that Chifeng-zun has no interest in women by now’, Zonghui said.

Mingjue almost panicked for a moment, but of course it Zonghui didn’t mean it like that. It was the one thing everyone seemed to know about Nie Mingjue. Most people knew him as Chifeng-zun who had no interest in women or the fine arts, only saber work really interested him. Mingjue guesses it’s true… Women and fine arts do not interest him. He likes saberwork, that’s true too. But, Mingjue is interested in more things than that, he is interested in keeping his brother and sect safe and happy. He is interested in learning new things. He is interested in… Zonghui. 

Not knowing what to reply, Mingjue just huffed.

‘Mingjue-xiong, can I ask why?’ Zonghui asked.

‘Why what?’

‘Why are you not interested in love?’

‘Who says I’m not? I said I don’t have time for it’

Zonghui shook his head and laughed. They sat in silence for a while until Zonghui spoke up again.

‘Has there ever been anyone who caught your eye?’ He asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Mingjue wasn’t sure what to reply to this. Of course there have been. Mingjue cannot deny that he used to have a thing for Lan Xichen, nobody can blame him for it either. But saying it out loud to Zonghui didn’t feel right at this moment.

‘Why is that important?’ Mingjue asked, trying to evade the question. 

‘So there has been someone?’ Zonghui asked with a smirk. Mingjue knew that smirk better than anything. It was the same way Huaisang always looked when he was on to some juicy gossip. ‘Or… Is there someone right now?’ 

Mingjue almost regrets being having a friendship this close with Zonghui. Anxious, he drowns his cup another time without thinking about it but he soon realises he should stop drinking. What if he accidentally slips up? 

‘Zonghui’, Mingjue warns, ‘drop it.’ 

This only seems to ignite the fire in Zonghui’s eyes, but thankfully Zonghui changes the subject, knowing he won’t get anything from Mingjue like this. While Zonghui chattered about something the disciples did during training today, Mingjue’s brain wandered. Only with this conversation, Mingjue truly realised how close his relationship with Zonghui was. Had anyone else, except for maybe Huaisang or Xichen, tried to talk to him like this, he probably would’ve gotten angry and yeeted them out. With that his mind really started going places. Did this mean Zonghui feels as comfortable around Mingjue as he feels around Zonghui? Does this mean Zonghui might see Mingjue as his best friend too? And why was Zonghui so interested in who Mingjue likes? Is Zonghui interested in Mingjue, or has he just spent too much time with Huaisang to become as bratty as him? 

‘Mingjue-xiong’, Zonghui asked, startling Mingjue out of his thoughts. 

‘Excuse me for not paying attention, I got caught up in my thoughts’ 

‘Thinking about that person you like, huh?’ Zonghui joked. 

‘Why would I be thinking about the person I like when he’s right here!’ Mingjue growled.

Realising what he just said, Mingjue was mortified. He didn’t know why he said that. He could blame it on the alcohol but he knows he hasn’t drunk nearly enough for that. Zonghui looked just as shocked as he was. But his shocked expression quickly made place for something else Mingjue couldn’t quite place, and that scared him. 

‘Please, Zonghui’, Mingjue begged, ‘just please be my best friend right now, not the guy I just confessed my love to.’

‘I’m your best friend?’ Zonghui exclaimed, seemingly more shocked about that than Mingjue’s love confession. 

‘I didn’t think you thought of me that way, chifeng-zun’, he added in a playful tone that made Mingjue wonder what exactly he was referring to. 

Zonghui leaned forward and toying with the cup in his hands. Mingjue’s felt sick to his stomach, that’s how nervous this entire situation made him. Mingjue doesn’t even remember when was the last time he was this nervous. 

‘What if’, Zonghui said, ‘I want to be both?’ 

‘Why would you want that?’ 

‘So that as your best friend I can say to stop worrying about what you just said, and as the person you confessed your love to I could lean over the table right now and kiss you’, Zonghui said, staring at Mingjue intently. 

‘Oh’, Mingjue mumbled after just staring at him for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly Zonghui was telling him.

‘So?’, Zonghui asked, ‘what do you say? Can I be both?’

‘I say… What are you waiting for?’

[sleepymarmot]

A couple of thoughts about Meng Shi and Meng Yao inspired by the article linked in the previous post. (Yes, I understand that the article is about a later period than the ones the fantasy world of MDZS seems to be based on.)

1) Both in the book and the show, Jin Guangshan talks with contempt about the idea of an educated woman -- in general, and Meng Shi specifically. And in the book’s brothel flashback, Meng Shi’s fellow prostitutes speak of her ambitions in the same way:

AnXin, “The things your mom wants you to learn, things like calligraphy, etiquette, swordsmanship, meditation… How are those things going?”

Before she even finished, the clients began to chuckle as if they found something to be funny. AnXin turned around, “Don’t laugh, I’m telling the truth here. His mom’s raising him as a young master of a wealthy family. She taught him how to read and write, bought him all those swordsmanship pamphlets, and even wants to send him to school.” (...)

AnXin switched up a grin, “She sure did. She was set on bearing a child. Could a woman keep up her looks after she gives birth? If not because she could manage to live off her past name of being ‘talented’, there might not be any who comes to her. I say it’s all because of the books.”

A client showed his deep understanding, “Of course. Those who’ve touched ink always have that inexplicable pride with them. They don’t want to give up the notion.”

AnXin, “If she could feed herself with the books she’s read, then I wouldn’t be saying anything, but it’s just a gimmick to attract men after all. I’m gonna be blunt here—we’re all bitches, and you’re better just because you’ve read some books? What’s the pride for? Not only do the people outside look down on her, do you think our other sisters here like her either? The clients here sometimes choose to see a young maiden keep up her modesty as a change of pace but who’d pay for an old, ugly one? It’s long since her fame dwindled. Everyone knows, and she’s the only one who doesn’t understand…”

(Chapter 105)

So, both worlds judge Meng Shi for acting above her station: a common prostitute trying to act like a courtesan, or even like a woman with a high position in society. And then, when her son manages to enter the cultivation society, people judge him for exactly the same thing.

2) Would JGY’s reaction to the insult “prostitute’s son” be considered indicative of filial piety or the lack thereof? Is he being a good son by taking it seriously when people refer to his mother as an insult -- or a bad son by being ashamed of her? I wonder if any of the collections of stories about filial piety contained examples of children of prostitutes or other marginalized members of society, and if so, what the model behavior for them looked like.

3) The statue of Guanyin bears Meng Shi’s likeness. Here’s how the book comments on it:

As one sect leader saw the features of the Guanyin statue, he first paused in surprise, then pointed at it for others to see as though he found something new and interesting, “Look at its face! Doesn’t it look like Jin GuangYao?”

Everyone mused after they looked, “It’s his face indeed! Why would Jin GuangYao make such a thing?”

Sect Leader Yao, “To declare himself a god with wild arrogance, of course.”

“Arrogant indeed, then, hahaha.”

Wei WuXian thought to himself, No, not necessarily.

Jin GuangYao’s mother was seen as the lowest prostitutes, so he decided to carve a Guanyin statue with his mother’s appearance, receiving the worship of tens of thousands.

(Chapter 110)

The wiki retells this as “he built an entire temple in his mother's image so that she would receive the praise of thousands, allowing her to reincarnate into a better life”. And while that’s true, I think Sect Leader Yao’s interpretation also makes sense (o horror!)... he just didn’t know whom JGY was declaring a god. Guanyin is a bodhisattva usually associated with mercy and compassion, who in stories may appear before humans in various disguises to help them. By depicting Guanyin with the face of his mother who loved and supported him, doesn’t JGY imply that Meng Shi herself was a manifestation of Guanyin, or, less metaphorically, someone who embodied her qualities?

[robininthelabyrinth]

the nie sect is known for strong, angry sect leaders and strong, angry women; nie mingjue is just the first to be both. she refuses to let this burden fall on her little brother, who is far too young for it (he's barely old enough to understand that their father is dead, and still sucks his thumb at night)--she can swing a saber like the best of them, and, well... it's not like there are many nie elders to object anyway

also on ao3

The stories said that Nie Mingjue’s mother was a goddess.

They said she descended down from the mountains, crisp as a winter breeze and tall as a temple statute; they said Lao Nie fell in love with her the first moment he saw her and married her the next; they said that the heavens were jealous of their love and summoned her to return –

It was a little nicer than saying that Nie Mingjue’s mother was a rogue cultivator that lingered in Qinghe just long enough for a marriage ceremony and a baby before remembering that she preferred living alone.

Still, as Nie Mingjue grew up – and she did grow up, up and up and up – people started passing around the old story more and more. Lao Nie rolled his eyes but didn’t stop the rumors, which Nie Mingjue interpreted to mean that he thought they were useful somehow, though she never quite figured out the reasoning there. What difference did it make if she were the child of a goddess or a mortal woman?

Either way, she was still a girl.

Oh, Qinghe was famous for its indifference to such things: in Qinghe they don’t care if you’re a man or woman, the story went, as long as you can swing a saber, and it was even mostly true. No one would raise an eyebrow if you shared your bed with a man one night and a woman the next, no one cared if you said you were one for a week and the other for a month…

Still, for all of Qinghe’s indifference, the Nie sect had never had a female sect leader.

At least, not officially – there were a number of sect leader’s wives who were terrifying enough to have deserved the title – and officially was what mattered, in this case. The sect leader was the fulcrum on which the sect turned, the core of their fearsome cultivation: if water ran downhill, then evil flowed up, and the sect leader’s saber spirit was always by far the fiercest in the sect.

That was why Nie Mingjue’s ancestors died so much more quickly than her cousins – why she had plenty of great-uncles and great-aunts, and a family consisting of only her father, herself, and her younger brother.

“Do you not want me to be sect leader?” she asked her father once, because he had deliberately gone out and gotten himself a new wife to have a child with, showing great relief when it turned out to be a boy. “Is it something I’ve done, or haven’t done?”

“It’s not that,” her father had said at once, with such surety that her fears of inadequacy had been relieved. “It’s only – there are sacrifices that must be made, if the sect leader is a woman. A saber spirit powerful enough to support the sect cannot be allowed to escape.”

She hadn’t understood it at the time, being too young, but then she got a little older and started bleeding, and an old auntie came and told her why the bleeding mattered.

The sect leader’s saber was too strong, too fierce, too alive: full of resentful energy, almost like a ghost, hateful and vicious, and their bond with their master was too close. Normal swords could be used by anyone; only the powerful refused any hand but their masters – the powerful, and the Nie sabers.

A sect leader who was a woman could never have a child, lest that child’s soul be stolen away in the womb and replaced with something else.

“So I won’t have children,” Nie Mingjue said, when her father died before his time. “Easy enough.”

There were elders enough in her sect, those that had been lucky enough not to be part of the main clan line and to escape the burden of being sect leader; they looked at each other with concern.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t about to let them put the title of sect leader on Huaisang, then only a child of seven, not when there was her father to avenge, and so she reached up behind her back and brought Baxia down on the table in front of them, cleaving the old wooden table in half.

“I have the bloodline, and my saber’s strong enough to bear the strain,” she said while they stared: that table had survived more than a few of her father and grandfather’s strikes, only to yield to hers as if it were nothing. “If you want to protest, challenge me now.”

In the end, they didn’t.

And so she became sect leader.

The sacrifice of any future children turned out to be the easy part.

Jin Guangshan stared at her breasts whenever she sat across from him, and tried to stumble into her to take advantage of the fact that the top of his head only reached her chin; she made sure never to accept any invitation to ever be alone with him, especially when he was drunk. His wife glared at her as if it were her fault that her chest and hips had grown proportionate with the rest of her, giving her curves that were relatively rare among her countrymen.

Jiang Fengmian might have been all right, she supposed, if his wife hadn’t hated her nearly as much: Madame Yu had been childhood friends with Madame Jin, Nie Mingjue vaguely recalled, but she suspected the real reason was the Jiang sect’s inclination to keep women away from politics no matter how high their cultivation.

“How are you supposed to ‘attempt the impossible’ if you refuse to let half of your population even try?” she asked Jiang Fengmian once, and he just shook his head and tried to pat her head (she glared death at him until he retracted the offending limb before it could be chopped off), and said she wouldn’t understand, that Qinghe was too idiosyncratic, too indiscriminate, that other places were different.

(His daughter gave Nie Mingjue a flower after that meeting, blushing red to her ears, and followed it up with a bowl of soup, and to this day Nie Mingjue still didn’t know if it was because of what she’d said or if everyone in Yunmeng was just as indiscriminate as Qinghe and they just didn’t admit it to themselves.)

Even the ever-polite Lan sect wasn’t friendly.

The irritating part was that she was sure they would have gotten on well if she had been born a man, or at least presented as one, as she would have if she’d been a misaligned reincarnation; alas, she wasn’t, she was a woman, and the Lan sect rules dictated that men and women could not grow too close or intimate. Lan Qiren guarded his nephews against her as if they were treasures, and it took quite a while before she finally met Lan Xichen face to face.

“Wow,” he said, blinking at her. “They weren’t kidding when they said you were a goddess.”

“No, that’s my mother,” Nie Mingjue said automatically.

Lan Xichen smiled, his eyes turning into crescents. “No,” he said. “I’m sure I meant what I said.”

Nie Mingjue felt something jump in her chest, which had never happened before. But she had fought long and hard to be taken seriously as a sect leader despite her youth and her gender, and she wasn’t willing to give that up by falling, like every other female cultivator her age, for the man ranked first on the list of most attractive young masters.

(Nie Mingjue was ranked seventh. She’s not even sure how she got on the list, but apparently there were plenty of female cultivators who were happy to vote for her no matter her gender.)

Besides, even if her heart did beat a little faster whenever Lan Xichen smiled at her, and even if he indicated through some hints that he might be inclined to feel the same, it didn’t matter. She knew, even if he didn’t, that she wouldn’t bear children in this life – she loved Baxia dearly, she did, but her willful, vicious saber would make a terrible child – and she couldn’t impose that on anyone else.

Anyway, she’d figured out pretty quickly that Lan Xichen’s younger brother was a cutsleeve – whatever Lan Qiren might think, pornography was a perfectly reasonable gift for a teenager, especially given how successful Nie Huaisang’s side business was – and that meant Lan Xichen had to be the one to have descendants.

Nie Mingjue had heard all the stories about what happens when a man marries one woman who can’t give him children and another who can, and she wasn’t interested in that.

So they were friends.

She wasn’t sure if it got easier or harder when she met Meng Yao, who was small and delicate and scheming in a way that she found ridiculously endearing.

He wasn’t expecting her to be a woman, she thought: he’d set himself up on a mountain path, buckets of water at his side and a pitiful expression on his face as he chewed on hard bread without even taking a sip of the water right beside him to wet his throat, and when she’d stopped right in front of him to ask him about it he’d looked up at her and his eyes had gotten to be half the size of his face.

Nie Mingjue might’ve fallen for the gambit if it wasn’t for the way she could almost see the way he was rapidly reevaluating his entire strategy in real time – it almost made her nostalgic about listening to her cousins teach each other the warning signs of a white lotus seductress selling misery and purity.

Still, in the end it didn’t really matter if he was deliberately exaggerating his misery to sell it to her – the responsibility for good behavior was on the bully, not the victim, so she went and scolded the people inside the cave.

Afterwards, she took him out to walk with her.

“I’d already spoken with some people about you; it seems like you’ve established your merits in the battlefield and off,” she told him. “You don’t also need to be pitiful to get my attention.”

Meng Yao smiled self-depreciatingly. “I find that men have a soft spot for people they think need them.”

“Well, I’m not a man, am I?” she pointed out in return. She thought about it for a moment, then decided, as always, to be blunt. “I might spend most of my time now with men, but I spent my childhood with women; a woman’s tricks don’t work that well on me. What is it that you want?”

He looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Do you want to be my deputy? I’m willing, since you seem competent enough,” she said. “But if your goal is to get back into your father’s good graces by reporting on me, don’t bother. He has spies enough for that – he doesn’t need a son to do it.”

“Perhaps I just want to show him what I’m capable of,” Meng Yao said.

Nie Mingjue laughed. “At my side? If you’d like to try, I’m not going to stop you, but I’ll tell you now that the merits that Jin Guangshan values may not be to your taste.”

She made him her deputy, and he lived up to her expectations – he was efficient, capable, competent. He was good at understanding people, which she wasn’t, and he could figure out within moments what any given person wanted.  Just as importantly, he lived up to the principles she prized, valuing the lives of the common folk as well as Nie cultivators; he did what she asked of him, and he did it well.

It would be a shame to lose him, she thought, but she still brought him with her to a wartime meeting with the Jin sect.

Afterwards, she made her excuses to leave early, as she always did, and when Meng Yao showed up later that evening to drop off the usual round of spies’ reports, Nie Mingjue could smell blood from where his nails had pierced his palms.

“He asked you if you were fucking me,” she said, accepting the papers. It wasn’t a guess. “You can tell him that you are, if you think it would help your standing with him.”

Meng Yao seemed repulsed by her suggestion, which amused her.

“Don’t you mind that half the camp thinks I got my position by climbing into your bed?” he asked her, a wrinkle in his brow suggesting that the question mattered to him. “Most of them can’t decide if I’m your boy-toy or merely stupid enough not to notice that I’m deliberately seducing you for my own ends, but either way the implication is highly unflattering. Don’t you care?”

“…not really?” Nie Mingjue said. “I’ve been sect leader since I was fifteen and more than half the sect leaders that currently report to me have been treating me like I’m a walking collection of fuckable female body parts since then; they get extremely irritable any time I open my mouth and remind them I’m not. Keeping a boy-toy is positively tame compared to the rest of it…you must have heard the one that says that I’m a frigid bitch that can only be satisfied by fucking my saber? That one’s a perennial.”

Meng Yao’s expression suggested he had, in fact, heard that one.

“My father always told me that the more people talk behind your back, the harder you have to work to leave them with nothing to say,” Nie Mingjue continued. “But I’ve found that they’ll find something to say, and if there isn’t anything, they’ll make something up. There’s no way to stop gossip.”

Meng Yao was frowning. “That seems unduly pessimistic. Not to borrow our enemies’ words, but if you shine like a sun in the heavens –”

“I’m the sect leader of one of the Great Sects,” Nie Mingjue said. “I’m a war hero. I have a reputation as a upright and righteous person. And yet between me and Wen Ruohan, who’s to say whose name is dragged through the mud more? They curse at him as the man who ordered the rape of their wives in one breath and talk eagerly about how much they’d like to rape me the next…Meng Yao, don’t take insult when I say this, but you could be as wise as a sage, as powerful as a landslide, as beneficent as a buddha and they’d still ask each other behind their sleeves what you learned from being a whore’s son.”

His expression was rather ugly – nothing at all like his usual calm smile.

“I usually get over it by associating myself with better people,” she added. “Have you met Lan Xichen yet?”

It turned out he had, and that they were rather fond of each other, too. Very fond, to judge by Meng Yao’s starry-eyed expression, and wouldn’t it be just her luck if the two men she was attracted to – and which she’d refused on the basis of not wanting to cut off their family lines – ended up pairing up together, which would also cut off their family lines?

Of course, Meng Yao was off limits for other reasons as well…

One day she overheard them talking about Meng Yao possibly leaving, probably intentionally on Meng Yao’s part, and she walked inside rolling her eyes already. “If you want to go, go,” she said. “I’ll write you a recommendation letter, for whatever it’s worth – he’s got a thick enough face that it might not do you any good, but he’s already noticed you, so hopefully that’ll be something.”

“Sect Leader Nie –”

“I didn’t promote you out of a sense of gratitude,” she said impatiently. “You’ve always wanted to get back to him, for whatever reason; I’m not going to hold you back.”

He smiled at that, and Lan Xichen smiled with him.

Really, there were limits to the sort of things you could expect a person to resist, even with willpower like hers.

“Have you decided that you will go?” she asked Meng Yao. “Is it your final decision? Let me know now.”

“It is.”

“Good,” she said. “You’re fired as my deputy. Also, I’d like to take the two of you to bed, if you’re similarly inclined.”

They gaped at her.

“What?” she said, crossing her arms. “He’s not my deputy anymore, there’s nothing immoral about it. Besides, nobody will get any stupid ideas about marriage if there’s three of us involved. It is only if you’re interested, though; I won’t be offended if you say no –”

Lan Xichen was kissing her before she even finished the sentence, so she assumed the answer was not, in fact, no, and Meng Yao’s reaction was equally enthusiastic – though perhaps equally wasn’t the right word, given how both she and Meng Yao ended up tied up in Lan Xichen’s forehead ribbon before the night was done.

“I knew it was a kink,” Meng Yao said, inspecting it with an expression of satisfaction, as if he hadn’t just demonstrated a fair share of his own. “Something so prominently displayed, Xichen-gege, for shame…”

Lan Xichen didn’t show so much as a hint of shame about it. “We’ll have to do this again,” he said. “I’m not even a fourth of the way down my list.”

“There’s a list?” Nie Mingjue asked, stretching out her legs to see how they felt after all that tossing around. “Tell me this is written down somewhere – no, tell me your uncle found it.”

Lan Xichen shuddered. “Thank you, da-jie. I didn’t need that mental image – it’d be like the time you gave Wangji pornography, only worse.”

Meng Yao decided the best way to muffle his laughter was in Nie Mingjue’s shoulder. With his teeth.

Nie Mingjue gave him a half-hearted shove. “Get off,” she grumbled. “I need to go drink some medicine to prevent contraception before we encounter disaster – this wasn’t planned, you know. I was intending on dying a virgin.”

“Da-jie, for you to die a virgin, that would mean – uh – that would – you were…? Mingjue!”

Nie Mingjue gave them both a glare. “Don’t tell me you two listened to those stupid rumors. I don’t take just anyone to my bed.”

“And you decided on two of us?” Meng Yao said, blinking at her. “Da-jie is very ambitious.”

“Not as much as you,” she said, rolling her eyes and pushing away their grasping hands. “What’s your real plan, anyway? You know Jin Guangshan won’t accept you as a son just because you show up and volunteer.”

“I don’t need to be his son, I just need to wear his colors,” Meng Yao said. “It’ll make for a better story when I defect to the Wen sect – as a spy, don’t look at me like that. You know I’d be good at it. And if I get close enough to Wen Ruohan, I can kill him. I’ll give you his head as a present, da-jie.”

“Unfair, A-Yao! I can’t compete with that,” Lan Xichen complained. “You have to let me help.”

‘Help’ turned out to be Lan Xichen allowing himself to be captured and Meng Yao stabbing Wen Ruohan in the back when he was about to start torturing the First Jade of Lan – Nie Mingjue had a headache and a strong desire to kill them both.

Even if they did bring her Wen Ruohan’s head.

“Stop looking so pleased with yourselves,” she scolded them – both Lan Xichen and Meng Yao, now officially Jin Guangyao (thanks to a bit of pointed haggling over which clan got what war merits and how that applied to the division of the spoils of war), looked positively smug. “What if you’d died?”

“But we didn’t,” Lan Xichen pointed out. “And now we’re here to claim our reward from our goddess.”

“Did I promise you a reward?”

Two sets of puppy dog eyes…and they did help her avenge her father.

“Fine. What do you want? If I can give it to you, it’s yours.”

They looked at each other, and Nie Mingjue immediately started to worry: they’d had time to think about it. That was dangerous.

“We want to marry you,” Lan Xichen said.

“Both of us,” Jin Guangyao said. “To avoid any jealousy.”

“That’s…not how that works,” Nie Mingjue said blankly. Men married multiple wives, not women multiple men: they had words for women who did that, none of them complimentary. Or legal, for that matter. “And anyway, I’ve already told you, I can’t have children. Huaisang’s my heir, and he always will be – you deserve to continue your family lines. Both of you.”

They exchanged looks again.

“That’s fine by me,” Jin Guangyao said. “Jin Zixuan’s the heir anyway.”

“I have plenty of cousins,” Lan Xichen said. “Can we go to bed now? I was injured in the line of duty –” He had a scraped knee and exactly three bruises, she’d counted. “– and I need some care and attention.”

“And an agreement of marriage from da-jie,” Jin Guangyao said, because he had a lawyer’s eye for such things.

This was almost certain to cause some sort of political disaster.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t settle for sworn brothers or something?” she tried.

They wouldn’t.

(The stories said that the leader of the Nie sect was a goddess – a war goddess, a goddess of the blade, sharp as the saber she carried and tall as a temple statute; they said that her two lovers fell in love with her the first moment they saw her and fought a war that upturned the entire cultivation world just to win the right to claim her hand; they said that they served as her right and left hands, and that when the three of them were together, the venerated triad, they could never be defeated.)

[wangxianrabbit]

Wangxian Week Day 5

Past | Future | Mythology AU

Title: The Birth of a God

Author: wangxian rabbit

Rating: T

Warnings: character death

Summary: When a hero who helped the gods fight the tyrant fire god is turned on and killed by the same gods he helped, the moon god will do anything to save his beloved.

Among all the gods, there was one that not many people knew about. Even the other gods didn’t interact with this god. This god was known to take in young orphaned mortal children and train them to become great heroes. Her name was Baoshan Sanren. One of her most famous disciples was a woman named Cangse Sanren. This woman was well known for breaking rules and getting into trouble. She was very much the definition of a free spirit. She attracted many suitors, even gods, but in the end she married an ordinary mortal man. With him, she had a son, Wei Wuxian.

One day, while helping a small village with its demon problem, she was killed, along with her husband, leaving their young son alone. For a few years, their son struggled to get by, stealing food when he had to. Then one day, a rich looking man in purple robes appeared before him. The man claimed to have known his mother and wished to help him. The man took him to the temple of the water god, Jiang Fengmian, and he told the boy that he’d visit often and bring him food, clothes, and anything else he’d need.

Years had passed and the boy was now fifteen. Over the years, the man he’d started to call ‘uncle’ had taught him how to hunt and fight. His daughter and son had stopped by when they could over the years as well and they all grew quite close. They considered each other siblings at that point. 

One day, while out hunting in the forest near the temple, he ran into a young man in white robes. The man was so handsome, otherworldly so. The man seemed to radiate light. His golden eyes seemed to glow. When the young man noticed him staring, he started to walk away. Wei Wuxian tried to follow him, but the man turned around a tree and vanished. Wei Wuxian believed he’d just seen a ghost.

Soon enough, the fire god started a war against the other gods, trying to become the ruler of everything. He burned down temples, killed many mortals, and even killed a few gods. Wei Wuxian, having grown up hearing stories of his mother and other heroes as well as being a prodigy when it came to fighting, chose to fight on the side of the other gods.

There were many gods, demigods, and even some mortals who fought the fire god, Wen Ruohan. Everything became truly serious to the gods when he attacked the home of the sky god, Cloud Recesses. In the attack, the Cloud Recesses was burned, the sun god disappeared, plunging the world into constant darkness, the moon god became seriously injured, and the sky god himself became fatally wounded, dying soon after.

Hearing this, Wei Wuxian decided to do something that nobody else would dare to do, scared of what the consequences would be. He attacked the fire god’s temple, burning it to ashes. This infuriated the fire god. Not only had he attacked his temple, but doing so with his own element, what a bold move. The fire god started hunting Wei Wuxian down. When the fire god’s second son, Wen Chao, was close to finding him, the water god stepped in. Wei Wuxian was confused when his uncle appeared to him. 

“We haven’t got much time. Quickly now,” his uncle urged him. He held his hand out to Wei Wuxian and once he took it, they teleported somewhere he’d never been before. The place was beautiful. They were in a palace surrounded by a huge lake full of lotus flowers. 

“What’s going on?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“I guess it’s time I properly introduced myself. My name is Jiang Fengmian,” his uncle smiled.

“Wait, you’re the water god?” Wei Wuxian asked in disbelief.

“Yes, I knew your mother many years ago. When she married your father and had you, I promised her that if anything happened to them, I’d look after you. I’ll admit, it took me a while to track you down, but I did eventually. I raised you so that you could choose what you wanted for your life. I never imagined you’d burn down a god’s temple though.”

Before Wei Wuxian could respond, a woman marched into the room. The woman demanded angrily why Jiang Fengmian would bring this troublemaking boy into their home, claiming that all he’d do is bring them problems. Jiang Fengmian argued with his wife and tried to diffuse the situation, but his wife just stormed off.

Sadly, the lightning goddess had been right. Once Wen Ruohan found out that Jiang Fengmian brought Wei Wuxian into his home, he attacked Lotus Pier and burned it to the ground. Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan were both killed in the attack when they were protecting their children and Wei Wuxian’s retreat.

Afterwards, they took refuge where the other gods set up camp. This is where he finally met the man from the woods. The young man was introduced as Lan Wangji, the moon god. Wei Wuxian instantly took an interest in the god and stuck to him whenever possible. At first, Lan Wangji hated being around him, but throughout the course of the war, they became closer. 

Soon enough, the sun returned and the world was once again bright. It was revealed that the sun god, Lan Xichen, had been told by his uncle to take what he could from their library and flee. Lan Xichen hadn’t wanted to leave them, but did as his uncle ordered. He had taken refuge in the mortal world with a young demigod son of Jin Guangshan, the god of riches.

The war ended when the sun and war gods were directly fighting Wen Ruohan and the demigod son of Jin Guangshan, Meng Yao, had stabbed the fire god in the back with a heavenly weapon. The fire god had perished and order was once again restored. A leader of a branch family who had acted as a medic throughout the war, Wen Qing, took the place and title of the fire goddess. Jiang Cheng had taken up his mother’s title as the new lightning god while his sister became the new water goddess. The two siblings rebuilt Lotus Pier as well as helping the other gods where they could. Since Meng Yao had killed Wen Ruohan himself, he was granted godhood and renamed ‘Jin Guangyao’.

In the following years, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had become so close that they were believed to be lovers by the other gods. The two were oblivious of the other’s feelings though, so no intimate relationship actually occurred. They just remained close friends. In the meantime, Jin Guangyao had started scheming for a way to take the throne of the gods for himself and he needed someone to be his scapegoat. He saw the close relationship that Wei Wuxian, a mere human, had with the moon god and decided that he was the perfect one to cast the blame on.

In the end, the gods turned on the hero that had helped them so long ago except for his siblings and Lan Wangji. The moon god tried to defend and protect him, but it was no use. Wei Wuxian ended up being killed and Lan Wangji was left to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart. 

Lan Wangji decided that he would bring Wei Wuxian back no matter what and set out for the Underworld soon after. Once there, he met with the god of the dead, Mo Xuanyu, and asked him to return Wei Wuxian to him. At first, Mo Xuanyu denied his request, saying that once someone died, they couldn’t be brought back. Lan Wangji continued to press him and eventually Mo Xuanyu granted him permission to see Wei Wuxian, but still told him that Wei Wuxian couldn’t leave since he was dead.

Wei Wuxian was summoned to the palace of the dead to see Lan Wangji. “Why are you here?” Wei Wuxian asked him.

“Come to bring you back,” Lan Wangji explained.

“You can’t. I’m dead. The dead can never leave the Underworld.” Wei Wuxian seemed confused by Lan Wangji.

“There’s a way.”

“What? How do you expect to do that? Anyways, what could I do if you somehow brought me back. The other gods would just kill me again. Dying once was enough for me, thank you.”

Lan Wangji didn’t say anything, instead reaching into his chest and pulling a ball of light out. Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened when he saw it, “Is that... is that your heavenly core? What do you plan to do with that?”

As a reply, Lan Wangji tore it in half. He placed half back within himself and pushed the other into Wei Wuxian’s chest. Lan Wangji had just given up some of his godly essence to turn Wei Wuxian into a god. “Now you can leave.”

“Lan Zhan! No! I can’t take this! Take it back, take it back please! This is too much!” Wei Wuxian pleaded. 

Lan Wangji shook his head.

“I’ll still be hated and killed! I don’t want you to waste your core on me!”

“Not a waste.”

“But-”

“Return to Gusu with me.”

“What, I can’t possibly. I’ll only damage your reputation.”

“It’s fine. Return with me.”

“I can’t. You know this.”

“You were framed.”

“What?” Wei Wuxian couldn’t believe what was being said.

“You were framed,” Lan Wangji repeated. “We will find the culprit and clear your name.”

“Even if I was framed, what makes you believe that we can find the culprit? It won’t end well for either of us if I leave here.”

“Love Wei Ying.”

“What? What did you just say?” Wei Wuxian had to ask. He must’ve heard him wrong. There was no way that Lan Wangji felt the same way.

“Love Wei Ying. Return with me. Please.” Lan Wangji looked so serious that Wei Wuxian believed him.

“You really won’t take no for an answer, will you? Fine then. You’ve already given me part of your core to save me. I guess I owe it to you then,” Wei Wuxian finally accepted reluctantly. “By the way,” he whispered into Lan Wangji’s ear, “I love you too.”

Lan Wangji’s ears burned a bright red, but a smile could be seen on his face.

[carolyncaves]

Day 12 is Rebirth (I went with ‘reborn’, I figure that’s Close Enough), and this is a sort of Lan Xichen emerging from seclusion thing. It features Nie Huaisang and my OC Zhang Meihua, but tbh I’m still working out my thinking about the dynamic between LXC and NHS post-canon, so some of that is glossed over. It’s mostly about LXC. Precedes this one.

1459 words, Lan Xichen, Nie Huaisang/OC. Technically pre-relationship in the context of the whole au, but it’s not really a feature of this ficlet. Mental health issues (vaguely)

“If Zewu Jun receives anyone – disciples, servants – could they please let him know we’re here and would be pleased to speak with him, however informally.”

Nie Huaisang had assumed he would not accept. Why would he? The junior disciple who showed them to their pavilion informed them Lan Xichen was still in his seclusion and had not seen any outsiders since entering it. Surely the first person he agreed to see would not be Nie Huaisang. He and Meihua had come to make the offer. They would drink tea, walk the peaceful paths of Cloud Recesses, spend the night, and return home.

The tea had not been delivered five minutes when the door slid open again, and Nie Huaisang looked up to inform whatever servant was checking on them they were more than satisfied with the hospitality of Gusu. His voice died in his throat.

Zewu Jun had the dazed, beleaguered look of a person who’d thought ‘certainly, I’ll simply walk down to the compound, it’s a simple thing I used to do without thought countless times a day’, only to discover that having been secluded on the back mountain for nearly two years, it wasn’t really so simple any longer. Nie Huaisang felt a bit chagrinned. He had chosen not to offer for them to visit Lan Xichen wherever he was secluded, because it had seemed like a ridiculous intrusion to even suggest, but now he thought maybe it would have been the kinder thing to do. Zewu Jun’s hair was low and only pulled back loosely – clean, but far from the well-maintained luster Nie Huaisang remembered him with. His clothes were simple as well. He blinked at them as if he had just been born – or perhaps more appropriately, reborn. Someone whose eyes were adjusting to the light of a new world he had not been a part of for a very long time.

For Nie Huaisang, his long agony was over that day two years ago in Guanyin. For Zewu Jun, that was the day his began.

“I was told … you desired to see me. Informally, if necessary.” He seemed almost defensive, or perhaps wounded. Maybe he was afraid they were laughing at him – had summoned him here (as much as a Sect Leader could be summoned by anyone in his own demesne) so they could see and make mockery of his state of deterioration.

“We simply wanted to convey that we would be pleased and honored to see you at all, Zewu Jun, knowing you have been in seclusion,” Meihua said.

Nie Huaisang had planned to let her do all the talking, but something sick in his belly at the sight of Zewu Jun like this thought that wasn’t enough. “We were truly just trying not to inconvenience you, Zewu Jun, because we know your mind is burdened. I am a visiting Sect Leader, technically, but I really don’t know anything, so I wouldn’t be deserving of any special consideration on your part.”

There was a long pause as Lan Xichen regarded him, a glaze in his knowing eyes. Nie Huaisang hoped Lan Xichen wouldn’t miss his meaning. We both know I had a hand in making you like this. If anyone should be ashamed here, it isn’t you.

It must have gotten through clearly, or else Lan Xichen decided to receive them anyway, because he came forward across the room. He didn’t even call for a separate setting of his own, which would be most formal. He sank down at the tea table with them, that the three of them would share it. As if he were receiving friends personally, instead of a colleague he resented.

“Congratulations on your marriage,” Lan Xichen said to Meihua. “I hope you will forgive me for not attending your wedding – please know it was not a personal slight.”

“Of course. I tried to make sure it was clear in your invitation we would not be offended if you remained away,” Meihua said. “We would have been happy to have you, but we knew you were in seclusion and would never have expected you to break it on our accounts.”

Lan Xichen looked significantly at them, then gestured down at himself, clearly meaning his current state. His lip curled slightly in a wry smile, so it seemed a rebuttal of amusement rather than indignation or anger.

“I said we would never expect you to,” Meihua pointed out. “Not that we wouldn’t ask.”

“Why would you have come all this way now, if you didn’t expect me to?” Lan Xichen replied, as if he were catching them out on a misplaced detail.

“You deserve the journey, Zewu Jun,” Zhang Meihua said, “even only for the attempt.”

Lan Xichen’s head rocked back at that, as if it were really something unbelievable. His gaze travelled to Nie Huaisang’s face, as if searching it for confirmation. Nie Huaisang hid a little behind his fan, but he didn’t let himself look away.

Nie Huaisang owed Zewu Jun for the role he’d made him play. That had become apparent as his seclusion stretched on. Nie Huaisang wanted to repay this debt as well as he’d done Meng Yao’s – and it seemed Zewu Jun was going to let him try.

///

Lan Xichen was beginning to get the impression this was some sort of apology, or at least the overture to one, which he had not expected at all.

When he had been given word of their visitors’ request, he had for some reason acquiesced. People had stopped asking for him early on in the first year, so perhaps it was the novelty. Perhaps the void at his center had claimed enough ground that he no longer cared enough to resist. Perhaps it was because, after everything, he still wanted something from Huaisang – and his weary heart had jumped at the chance he might get it, even though rationally he knew it was something that didn’t exist. So Lan Xichen had risen and gone to receive them.

It wasn’t until he was in the middle of Cloud Recesses, attracting the stares of every servant and disciple in his vicinity, that it occurred to him to think about his physical state. Unpolished and inelegant. It was then that he felt the urge to withdraw, the rise of fear. How could they not think poorly of him? In fact, that might have been their goal all along, to coax their way into a glimpse of the First Jade of Lan now that he had lost his luster. To take his trusting goodwill and turn it against him. Lan Xichen could not turn around and leave (he could, of course, because he was Sect Leader, but it seemed to him doing so would display a sickening weakness), but by the time he’d reached to door to their guests’ pavilion, he was immersed in an insecurity and defensiveness that bordered on resentment.

It was a relief to find himself in error. It would not be later, as he reflected on having once again failed to judge correctly, but now, he was weary and empty, and he found a strange, easy warmth in these two people who treated him like he owed them nothing and the world less. Lan Xichen surrendered to it, to the guidance of someone other than himself, and sat down with them to take tea.

They carried most of the conversation, but they didn’t seem to mind it – they were both suited to it individually, and together they had a pleasant and apparently indefatigable chemistry. Apology aside, he assumed they hoped for something from him, information or a favor, so he gave them ample time to reveal it. After tea, the three of them went for a walk along the mountain paths. After the walk, he took dinner in their pavilion with them. After eating, they sat further, he drinking water, them drinking wine, until time began to brush against the Lan sect curfew. When he excused himself and rose, they rose with him, and they walked him to the gently-lit edges of the central compound. It was then, finally, that they exchanged a glance and evidently determined their ulterior motive should be revealed.

They wanted to invite him to come to Qinghe.

“To visit or to stay,” Zhang Meihua explained. “Whatever you like.”

“In case a venue away from your usual places seems easier,” Huaisang added. “You could keep to yourself. We aren’t bothered with propriety, neither of us, so you wouldn’t need to be either.”

Instead of simply thanking them for the offer, Lan Xichen told them he would think on it – not because he was because he had relaxed his determination to speak only the truth, but because he thought he probably would.