#like nobody from the lans are allowed to do that? even the kids will be punished?

[llycaons]

I love lqr but he's hardly blameless in how he raised his nephews. its more explicit how strict he was in the novel and how difficult that was for lwj and lxc, but in the drama making lwj kneel with the bamboo for like...two days? with his arms out like that just for visiting wwx is so harsh. like presumably most of the lans, and honestly most of the sects, he's punitive minded and he sees it as the only way to protect people he sees as under his guardianship and correct behavior he sees as unacceptable. but he just causes suffering and in the end he didn't keep lwj away from wwx anyway

[norrizzandpia]

I’ve Got You (LN4)

Summary: In the midst of the FIA determining whether his lap times will be deleted, Y/n finds her boyfriend sitting in front of multiple cameras, but that doesn’t matter, he’s upset and she’s got him.

Warnings: none <3

Note: this is based off when Lando’s quali lap times were deleted and he was just sitting there looking at his hands all sad :(

“Where is he?” Y/n threw the headphones off her head the moment she caught wind of the news.

Andrea approached her softly, a hand up, “He’s doing the post-quali interviews, Y/n.”

She shook her head at him, “So, what? He���s just sitting there as they converse about his lap time? Andrea, you know how he gets with these things. He shouldn’t be alone.”

Andrea stepped in front of her when she tried to maneuver around him, trying to get to Lando, “Y/n, there are too many cameras. We can’t ensure PR.”

She blinked at him, “Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck PR. I don’t care about anything, but getting to him right now. He should not be alone right now. I mean, look at him!” She waved her hand toward the TVs, screens showing Lando picking at his nails as clear embarrassment sunk into his body, “He doesn’t even want to be alone right now.”

Andrea huffed, eyes glancing to the side before landing back on her and nodding, “Fine, but no major PDA.”

She loved Andrea, she truly did, but she gave him a nasty look before rushing off.

—

She weaseled her way through the crowds, tears springing her eyes at the image of Lando sitting idly by himself. A man stopped her when she tried to get passed the barriers, “Miss, you do not have authorization to enter into this area.”

She smiled at him, “I’m his girlfriend.”

That didn’t mean anything in the eyes of security, “Okay.”

A frown found its way onto her face, “Sir, please. I’m trying to comfort someone I love.”

He continued to shake his head, “I understand, but I cannot allow you into this area. I can’t confirm who you are.”

Hands tied, her eyes spotted Oscar and she yelled him over. When his feet landed him feet away from the situation, he didn’t need anytime to realize what was going on. Oscar grabbed Y/n’s arm, “It’s okay. She’s with me.”

The man thought for a moment before allowing her through, a smile on her face as she thanked Oscar. He waved it off, asking her to promise a happier Lando. She would try, she said.

Lando saw her feet first. Her white sneakers that she loved so much aligned in his vision and he stopped picking at his fingers. His gaze slid up her form as she sat down next to him, hand sliding under and around his arm softly. She heard the murmurs, they were incredibly loud, and the camera clicks, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care. She could practically feel the upset melting off Lando. She hurt so much for him.

His body relaxed at the feeling of her warmth and when she laid her head on his shoulder, he laid his on the top of her head.

“I’m sorry, baby.” She whispered. Maybe lip readers would figure out what they said.

His hands went to fidget with the nails on his fingers, but she stopped him, linking their hands and softly rubbing his skin, “It’s okay. I need to work harder. I can’t keep failing like this.”

She squeezed his hand three times, a silent confession of love, “You’re not failing. You haven’t failed, Lan. Everybody is proud of you. Racing is a hard sport and you are one of the most talented drivers here. You’re so so hard on yourself, love.”

Lando chuckled, “Y/n, you have to say these things. You’re my girlfriend.”

She pulled her head back lightly, giving him a moment to get his off her head before looking him in the eyes, “Lan, I don’t have to say anything. When have I ever lied to you? When have I not told you that an outfit looked bad when it did? When have I not told you that a move you did in the race screwed you over when it did? When have I not told you you handled a situation badly when you did? I’ve always been up front with you. This is a hard track. You are not a failure, Lan. Nobody thinks that.”

He was quiet for a moment before pecking her lips, “Even though part of me is still beating myself up over this, knowing you’re proud of me helps it subside a bit.”

She smiled, kissing his cheek whilst still rubbing his hand, “Of course, I’m proud of you. Lan, I will always be proud of you. Even when you don’t give your all, I’m proud of you for being you. Fuck anybody who thinks different, you’ve got this. You have shown time and time again that you’ve got this. I’m sure you’ll give it your all tomorrow and you’ll continue to show just how much you’ve got this.”

His head fell to the side with a soft grin, “You think so?”

She brushed the hair around his face away, “Yes, I do think so. And, hey, even if you don’t, if you DNF, I’ll buy you your favorite ice cream and we’ll watch a sad movie, have a good cry. We can turn anything bad into something good.”

He laughed, “How is crying a good thing?”

She gave him a deadpanned look, “Baby, you love a good cry.”

He leaned into her as he giggled, “You’re right. You know me too well.”

She nodded, “I love you, don’t I?”

“I love you too. Thank you.” He whispered, kissing her lightly in fear of the cameras. He never told her often, but Y/n had the greatest ability to talk him out of his moments of self-doubt. Whether it was small or big, she always knew just the things to say to make him snap out of his anxieties. Her superpower, turning his frown upside down.

He wished he was as good as her at it, but she was Y/n, his favorite person, she did everything better than everybody.

He loved her for it, he lived for it, he continued for it.

He loved her, he lived for her, he continued for her.

And when they told him his lap times had been deleted, the weight didn’t feel as heavy. Her arm wrapped around the side of his body as they walked away and her whispers of reassurance in his ear, the lap time situation began to feel smaller.

He accredited it all to her. Her words worked wonders, but, if he was being honest, a small look sent his way from her would do the trick. He guessed it was how much he felt for her, how much of his happiness lay with her.

Under the Qatar Grand Prix lights, Lando found peace. When the reporters asked him how he was coping with the loss, he had the same response every time.

“Some time spent in the presence of my girlfriend will work wonders.”

[weirdocat83]

obsessed with your tags, talk mdzs at me pls

Uh.

1) thank you, I really just put the random thoughts I have in the tags and/or accidentally steal other people’s tags

2) some thoughts about mdzs below the cut (I have a lot of thoughts about this novel) ye ask any ye shall receive. If you want to hear my thoughts on something specific plz ask :3

• My fav characters in MDZS are Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang. I love how WWX can be very complicated when he wants to be and has many layers and sides to him. Like, the fandom likes to simplify his character to someone self deprecating but always smiling but he is very complex. He acknowledges his faults and has only tried to do what he deemed right at the time even if he regrets what he does in hindsight. He isn’t infallible. He literally tortured a man to death (even if it felt right to do it considering said man orchestrated a massacre and tossed him into a literal pit of suffering to die in) and was a major player in a WAR. He’s probably killed more than he can count. I feel like a lot of people forget that the main cast is a bunch of war heroes that must’ve had insane kill counts. Including LWJ. It’s quite tragic that none of them really had any good authority figures to lead them seeing as the majority of them were at most 20~30ish and cultivators usually live extremely long lives (at least, that’s my assumption) anyhow, WWX is very aware of his faults, especially post-resurrection as he did kinda fuck up when he accidentally killed JZX. He acknowledges that and makes an effort to apologize and atone. That being said, his faults don’t stop him from being confident and above all likable. Yes he can be annoying but he does know how to behave himself probably better than most (unlike what many members of the fandom like to think). He knows his position well and that it is incredibly precarious (in both lives) but still manages to fit in well enough with essentially nobility that he is good competition for the best in his generation. He is a genius and a great leader and that isn’t stressed enough. Though I think one of the small details in his character that I think gets overlooked is how he “parents” A-Yuan in the burial mounds. Because for as immature as he is when he’s burying A-Yuan in the ground, he also knows that he isn’t the only one caring for A-Yuan and therefore is allowed to be silly but when they’re out at the market and A-Yuan asks for a toy he makes the mature decision to save his money (although LWJ spoils the kid immediately after). This reflects a lot on WWX because it shows he can be very mature when he needs to be but when he doesn’t need to be he’ll happily rely on others. It also reflects on his upbringing showing he knows how important money is (in contrast to the lans who are shown on various occasions to not really think about money much) Personally I love his character because he seems like a person I’d get along with if he were real (which, the incredible writing makes his seems very realistic) meanwhile my other favorite, Nie Huaisang, I love because he is misleading. Some of my favorite fictional characters are very misleading because of the masks they put up to fool people to achieve their goals. How a character will know more than they should but not let anyone know until the moment is right. NHS is someone who is easily underestimated because he seems helpless and unintelligent. And yeah, for a majority of his life he really didn’t care to further his education or really practice cultivation but later he takes this preconceived notion that everyone has of him and uses it to his advantage so nobody suspects a thing while he plans JGY’s downfall. It’s a scarily intelligent move and I think the fact that he takes pleasure in looking at art/books really adds to the fact of how intelligent he is. Most people see his art as pointless hobbies but I think it says a lot about the qualities of his character. I think a lot of people take for granted the patience it takes to make good art or the intelligence it takes to appreciate good literature. So when NHS's older brother dies under mysterious circumstances that just so happen to help the Jins? of course he catches on! He proceeds to keep his enemy close for over a decade until he finally gets his moment of revenge. Which, to me? Props, man. plus only one person even realizes what happened. WWX. 

Some things I don’t particularly like about MDZS (some people may yell at me for this and I'm sorry but this is my opinion): 

- how weird the yi city arc felt? It feels very out of place as we go on this whole journey to learn about all these people and what happened to them but after that they are pretty much no longer relevant. I only found out later that the yi city arc was initially intended to be its own story. So that might be why.

- how certain things are just *left* and never touched on again? We hear all this stuff about baoshan sanren but we never see her or really learn much about her at all. Similarly, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s parents? We hear all these things about them but never learn much at all. Which is weird all things considered when you look at it. It feels like a lot of background info for not much payoff. Yes, it gives us a lot of vital information on why things played out the way they did but it doesn’t stop the feeling that there should’ve been more. Part of me appreciated it though because it gives us no more information than the characters really have. Just passing information that is common knowledge but never really looked into just like many actual people have.

- how everything ended off. So we have that whole scene at the temple and then everything just… calms down? They all go home??? It felt anticlimactic. Especially with Nie Huaisang’s character as (in the novel at least) it sets him up to be the next chief cultivator despite being just as, if not more, sneaky than Jin Guangyao. And that’s probably intentional. The chief cultivator position was likely never meant to be a position of absolute good. It’s politics. But it is a bit weird that we never really see what happens to Nie Huaisang after, post revenge and all. 

[evilhasnever]

any mdzs thoughts for previous jobs u have held for an au? (badly worded ask for the specific au ask game)

Private University AU:

Lan Xichen is an art history professor as well as the Dean's nephew, and he relly wanted to be an artist fulltime but his family never allowed him to entertain the possibility. Now he paints and does little solo exhibitions as a side gig, but he does not have nearly enough time to dedicate to them and he is almost... embarrassed about doing art halfheartedly, or so he sees it. Fortunately, he likes people though his feelings on teaching are simply neutral. Also, he can see Meng Yao every day... he tries to stay positive!

Lan Wangji doesn't want to be a professor, and fully expected nobody to sign up for his music theory classes because, for the most part, he does not speak - he puts his slides up on the projector and then plays the music in question. He is both shocked and strangely pleased when students consistently show up - not many, but the same little group every time. He overhears in the corridor that they think he is "the coolest".

Wei Wuxian works at the university cafe. LWJ finds it infuriating that he has no interest in pursuing a PhD, because Wei Ying's thesis on the psychology of music changed his life. (the big reveal is that WWX is still working on his research, just on his own time and using uni credentials to access the library and borrow sources because they never revoked his student account). The university cafe is open to the public as well, and some kids from the nearby elementary school wander in sometimes because WWX gives them whatever pastries are left.

Meng Yao is an assistant language teacher working for a multinational dispatch company. He works part time, but spends pretty much his entire day at uni prepping materials and doing his own research. Lan Xichen makes a point to invite him to eat in the student cafeteria with him every day (the first time he asked, he mentioned taking him to a restaurant right outside campus where he often eats, but Meng Yao looked terrified at the prospect of leaving campus even for 30 minutes, so LXC course corrected!) JGS keeps saying the family visa will come through eventually, but in the meantime he needs to get by on a provisionary work visa which means he literally cannot quit his job at the dispatch company or he will be deported. Lan Xichen doesn't know this, and thank god, because otherwise he would immediately offer to marry him for a spouse visa and things would get even more awkward.

Nie Huaisang has been a student for six years and still hasn't finished his bachelor's degree. In fairness, it's because NMJ chose it for him and would not allow him to switch majors! NHS's idea of passive resistance is to do the bare minimum to stay in uni, but waste as much time (and money) as possible in doing so. He spends all of his time in the cafeteria playing geocaching games and swiping dating apps without doing anything about it. Sometimes he goes to classes that are entirely unrelated to his studies (like Lan Xichen's) just to hide away and people-watch, and because he knows LXC would never rat him out. Also he may be writing rpf of LXC and Meng Yao because he sucks. ;)

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

@cullen-blue23

🧟🛁🍜

It has been many years since Wen Ning last celebrated his birthday. In fact, he doesn't even remember when he actually celebrated it last -who could blame him, with the life he's had? And anyway, with him being technically dead, he isn't sure he even should be celebrating a birthday anymore at all.

But all that stuff doesn't seem to faze the juniors at all - because they've (with master Wei's and Hanguang-Jun's help) prepared him a very thoughtful gift this year: a spa day. Now, Wen Ning has no idea what a spa is, but he figures it's good, because even young master Jin said he has a personal one, and Jinlintai is known for luxury.

First, Wen Ning has received three sets of new, tailor-made robes. They're obviously very high quality and finely embroidered, with a note from young master Jin: "Please wear these so you don't have to look so ratty anymore. You're the Ghost General, you should look the part. Also, this is a thank you for saving me back there in Guanyin Temple. And in Yi City. P.S. I know you're sorry for what happened with my dad. We'll work through it. Happy Birthday!"

If he could still cry, he would have.

Next, A-Yuan - no, Sizhui - has gifted him three new pairs of shoes. "Jingyi and I couldn't decide, so we bought them all. We hope you like them!"

"They're super sturdy so you can still do your cool ghost general stuff wearing them! And we also got you socks!"

Ouyang Zizhen hands him a beautiful black box of hairpins and a handmade comb. "Hair is very important in one's appearance, Wen-gongzi. My mother's clan specializes in carving combs and hair pieces, and I hope you will wear them with pride."

The last gift is collaborative. A massive basket brimming with expensive soaps, bath oils, shampoo and perfume, each with little notes on what they're for and how to use them. Wen Ning can recognize Hanguang-Jun's calligraphy and finds himself touched by the gesture. He has been quite sure Hanguang-Jun did not like him very much, with the way he acted a while ago...

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive last at Wen Ning's little party, with good reason. They've convinced the Lan elders to allow Wen Ning to live in the Cloud Recesses in a spare guest house, and they've been spending the last few days furnishing it.

"I'm going to get very emotional right now," Wei Ying says, taking a deep, shaky breath, "But you and Wen Qing and everyone that's sadly no longer around, you guys have been my home and my family when I had nothing. And I always regretted not being able to do more for you. But now I can and I hope I'll be able to offer you the home you deserve here, in a peaceful, clean place."

Wen Ning shakes with the emotion of everything that's happened and knows to do nothing but pull everyone in a tight ("too tight, Wen-gongzi, we're dying") hug - before he's being taken to visit his new home.

It's modest but nice, and that's more than Wen Ning could ever ask for. His mouth twitches when he notices his bathtub is the same sturdy kind that Wei Wuxian has custom ordered.

"You never know, A-Ning." he says, and winks. "Maybe you'll find someone to break bathtubs with as well!"

"Wei-gongzi!! The children!!"

"It's fine, everyone knows what happens with the bathtubs." Jingyi says, casually. "It's Cloud Recesses lore."

"We should let Wen Ning enjoy his new home and his gifts now." Hanguang-Jun elegantly speaks as he ushers the kids out, and wishes Wen Ning a quiet happy birthday before walking out.

In his little kitchen, Wen Ning finds a bowl of Master Wei's super spicy congee.

At least he doesn't have taste buds anymore.

---

The Cloud Recesses comes alive with gossip the next day, rules be damned - everybody wants to know who the fine young master living in the eastern guest house is! He's so handsome and so polite, finely dressed and smelling of the most expensive perfumes, young ladies and young masters trip over themselves in his presence!

"As they should." Wei Wuxian comments and there is nobody to argue against it.

[jasontoddiefor]

I absolutely adore your Jiang Fengmian and Cangse Sanren just being friends posts so much because my personal theory is that they were great friends and people were weird about platonic-male female relationships and shitty about how a beautiful, renowned women married someone insignificant in their eyes. It’s so nice and refreshing and I’m tired of the whole he’s creepy and obsessed with a dead woman instead of his two best friend died and he’s trying to give their son a good life. Let the man be complex! Is he is a great parent? No, but he was arguably a better dad than attic wifer and lecher, a C level parent and someone who was kind to common folk and let their kids play with his disciples, that making him into this villain character that’s either super creepy and gross or apathetic and completely neglectful and letting Madam Yu do inhumane abuses in front of him without retort is so weird.

Sorry for the tangent, I just love you having a platonic friendship of two souls both a little bit in awe of each other’s worlds. Let him be a lowkey depressed man with his two best friends gone and dead and is now just trying his best to be a good Sect Leader and still failing at times. Let him have some complexity.

Anon you made my day with this ask.

Like, I think the "grieves the idealized version of someone he loved (romantically)" is fine, like, whatever, but it's also kinda basic?

And if they were genuine platonic friends only, it would also add to the narrative IMO? MDZS very much works on a "things left unsaid and left unacknowledged" kind of theme, and a friendship that isn't allowed to be seen as such would fit just right in. From what we see, JFM is a very mild man as well, so of course there'd be questions, misunderstandings and such messy ugly rumors.

And I think the fandom also just generally exaggerates JFM? Like while reading and watching either adaption, I mostly got a sense that this is a man who has resigned himself to living alongside his wife and mostly doesn't know how to parent any of his kids in a way that doesn't infuriate YZY so he decided that being more hands off in general is better. But not this mess of obsessive to neglectful?

Like, thos interpretations can be fun, love me a good dark fic, but that's just not what canon gives me?

But yeah!!! you're right!!! Let him be a lowkey depressed man with his two best friends gone and dead and is now just trying his best to be a good Sect Leader and still failing at times.

Also here take a snippet of friendship bc I couldn't find much on AO§:

Cangse Sanren knocks on his door until Jiang Fengmian drags himself out of bed. He doesn’t know it is her or he wouldn’t have answered the door in his sleeping robes. She doesn’t notice, of course she doesn’t, and Jiang Fengmian is relieved that nobody else is up this early.

If he didn’t know any better, he’d claim Cangse Sanren only got up early to spite Lan Qiren and his expectations of her, but she came with the habit.

“Fengmian, I need you to go shopping with me,” she declares boldly. He knows that her expectation is now, although most shops won’t open for another two hours most likely. She probably wants to go exploring the area early – and ditch the disciples accompanying him, except maybe Wei Changze. She behaves even stranger around him and Jiang Fengmian is glad to have finally found something to tease Wei Changze about.

“And why do I need to go with you?”

“I need someone to tell me when the sellers are ripping me off!”

He knows that she has gotten a much better understanding of average prices now, and doesn’t have the heart to tell her that he knows as little about the prices of average street food stalls as her. Sect heirs, generally speaking, do not go shopping in the places Cangse Sanren finds her most favorite trinkets.

Still, she grins at him and Jiang Fengmian finds himself smiling back. He kicks her out of his room to get dressed, for his sense of propriety more than hers. Cangse Sanren has a rather tolerant view on partial nudity, even to a Yunmeng native. He considers waking another disciple to tell them that it is not last night’s curse that made him disappear, but settles on writing a quick note instead.

“Where are we going?” he asks Cangse Sanren the moment they’re out of the door.

She grins again, tellingly, and takes him by the hand to drag him into a street of craftsmen he’d have never seen without her. She hardly shuts up, praising every piece of art, the food, and Jiang Fengmian whenever he points out a piece of jewelry that would be particularly unpractical for nighthunting. Most of them look like gifts one of Jin Guangshan’s terrible cousins had tried to give her.

He thinks it’s the closest he’ll get to having a sister, but he’ll keep that thought quiet, least of all it betrays something else.

[kinopioa]

Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/kinopioa/723682595929554945/woah-issue-62-was-out-sinxe-the-5th-howd-i-miss?source=share

Continuing on....

So anyway, we have Amy teasing Knux about him being distrusting (I get he stopped being gullible in games after GBA Battle, but really?). Also that first panel, Knux didn't even disagree, smooth job for dialogue

That said, it's refreshing how Amy isn't "boss" personality most of this issue. Wish Ian did this more instead of...eugh

I do also think Amy and Knux is an underrated combo for char interaction that I wish to see more in games. Gens, LW, Forces made me wish it was more focused on. Shame the rest of this issue is derp

Anyway, Amy almost steps into a trap, Knux warns her and the two figure how to place the statue into the relic holder. Which brings me back to how this SA1 ref sadly was the only reason this interaction happened in comics (cuz Gens and LW having Knux chill with Sonic's friends was bad apparently)

They place the statue into the relic, it starts shaking so they fall in, Amy sympathizes how Knux's life on the island sucked before Sonic, and recommends support from friends, but before we see the result of what the relic reveals, we cut to the OCs

Already Lanolin is annoyingly no fun to Tangle, but given what Tangle did last arc, eh. I'll allow it

"How did your old team organize"

"There were literally only 4 of us"

I like how the restoration is admitted to literally only be noted OCs. Screw general civilians in the mall Zavok issue I guess

And then we see how laughably bad security is

Ok but seriously, stop being so strict, Lan. I was partially kidding!

Oh hey, even NotMimic admits that Wispons were distributed everywhere. It's almost like you don't need special powers or wisps to help out

Reminder, the 5th anniversary 4 pager had a literal nobody come back and save Sonic

I cannot stress this enough, for someone so uppity, Lanolin is stupidly trusting for all of this

Oh no, it totally wasn't obvious!

I'd accept this plot twist more if they weren't this stupidly lacking in security

Overall as expected, kinda dumb for OCs. I just didn't expect them to be this braindead for Mimic "sneaking" in

Shame cuz I wanted more Knux and Amy. Or other Game chars

[robininthelabyrinth]

Imagine if Meng Shi begged and bargained and collected favors till she was able to send her A-Yao to education with the Lan Sect, perhaps even become a cultivator with them. Would he take that change? Would he become a rogue cultivator? Would the strict rules help curb his inner muderimpuls or enrage him or teach him to hide better?

A Good Fit - ao3

“The…Lan sect?” Meng Yao said doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

“I am sure,” his mother said, her mouth tight. She looked upset, the way she always did these days when he referenced, intentionally or otherwise, the original plan that she had had to send him to join his father, sect leader of Lanling Jin. She’d raised Meng Yao on a steady diet of stories of what his life would be like when his father finally took him back the way he’d promised her he would, stories that had filled his days and nights for years and years and years, and then just last year she’d suddenly stopped talking about it entirely. It was as if the person who’d told those stories had nothing to do with her.

Meng Yao didn’t know what had happened, but he assumed it must have been pretty bad.

“It'll be a good fit,” she added.

“Then I’ll go to the Lan sect,” he said, and pretended not see the way his mother relaxed a little, relieved that he wasn’t asking too many questions. “I’ve heard they are gentlemen there, righteous but gentle; it will be the best match for my personality, I’m sure.”

A lie, of course. ‘Gentlemen’ were just as likely to come to the brothel as brutes, and they were all the same once they had a cup of wine and a beauty in their arms – Meng Yao tried not to have any illusions.

“Can we afford it?” he asked instead, since that was something he was sure his mother would have thought of, would have expected him to ask. “Gusu is so far away…”

“I have obtained a letter from the local sect recommending you to their sect leader, Lan Qiren,” she said. “He’s the one that teaches the classes – the one that sent out the summons asking the subsidiary sects to look for individuals with raw talent to join his classes and offering them an extra seat for their sects for each nameless orphan they find that lives up to Lan sect standards. Only the Heavens know why he’s doing something like that…I assume they’re trying to expand.”

That seemed like the most reasonable explanation. Meng Yao nodded. “So I’ll be traveling with the local sect?”

“That’s right,” his mother said, and raised her chin a little. “At least this much, your mother was able to do for you.”

She’d begged and bargained and traded favors for it, then, Meng Yao thought, and yet taking him along was to their own benefit: if they were looking for inherited cultivation talent sufficient for the Lan sect, then the bastard son of another Great Sect leader would be a better bet than some random nobody. She’d probably humiliated herself for nothing.

“Will you come with me?” he asked, more concerned with that – it was too easy for women of ill repute to disappear into the depths of the city if they didn’t have someone to watch out for them.

Even someone as young as he was. He wished he was older.

“You can come back to visit me during the Spring Festival,” she said, which meant no. “I’ll be all right, A-Yao.”

Meng Yao wasn’t so sure.

Still, not having him around would at least remove a visible reminder of his mother’s age – she’d been kicked out of the better brothels because of him, because no one wanted a woman who was a mother. Leaving would at least do that for her.

“I’ll write,” he finally said. “I’ll write as often as they let me.”

“And I’ll write back,” she promised him, kissing his cheek. “I promise.”

With that, Meng Yao supposed he had to be satisfied.

-

The Lan sect was both exactly like what Meng Yao expected and absolutely nothing at all like anything he could have dreamt.

For the first, his cynicism was almost immediately confirmed: the boys raised there were snobby as anything, looking down at the rest of them as little better than barbarians, and many of the adults were the same way. It was clear that this whole business of recruiting talented nobodies was a project of the sect leader’s – the interim sect leader, no less, not even the real thing – and nobody else’s; they were only just barely going along with it. Adding to that the fact that there were dozens if not hundreds of rules, and Meng Yao could glumly foresee a future of having his lack of knowledge held over his head as a fault, even with his marvelous memory to act as his backing.

For the second…

Well, there was Lan Xichen, who was – as unbelievable as it seemed – to actually embody all those things that people said about gentlemen, all kindness and gentleness and fierce upright pride, except only for real. There was Lan Wangji, who was basically perfect in every way and kinder than he gave the impression he was, willing to help tutor anyone who asked if only they dared disturb his solitude long enough to do so. There was the boy Meng Yao shared a room with, Su She, who’d punched the boy from the Yunping cultivator clan in the mouth for calling Meng Yao a son of a whore and pretended it was because they weren’t allowed to talk about that sort of thing, when actually it’d been because he hadn’t wanted rumors to get around that might make Meng Yao’s life harder in the future.

There was Lan Qiren, who was strict and a little boring but fair, painfully fair, handing out punishments with an equitable hand no matter that it meant that he was punishing the locals as often if not more often. It’d been his idea to bring people like Meng Yao into the Lan sect, and defending the idea was the only time he truly seemed moved to passion. Now that they’d passed the initial examination and been judged to match Lan sect standards, Lan Qiren announced, as far as he was concerned, they were Lan sect just as if they were born there, as if they’d been children of his own.

And he even seemed to really believe it, too.

Today, Meng Yao’s head was still warm from when the stern Teacher Lan had put his hand there, gentle and approving, and his ears still burning from the murmured “Well done, Meng Yao, as expected.”

“I think I would kill someone for him,” Meng Yao said dreamily to Su She, who snorted.

“You’ve got such father issues,” he said disdainfully, as if he didn’t have entire family issues. That was just Su She’s way, though – he bitched and moaned and complained without end, and he’d probably kill someone for Meng Yao if Meng Yao so much as hinted it was something he’d want. They’d made friends for a reason. “You know the bit about the poor kids being his own children is a lie, right?”

“I know which sect’s leader is my father, thanks,” Meng Yao said, rolling his eyes. “I’m well aware it’s not Teacher Lan. Like he’d ever have kids of his own, anyway.”

“That’d require noticing when someone’s flirting with him,” Su She agreed, all solemn for just a moment, and then he dissolved into sniggering giggles. Meng Yao couldn’t blame him: it was, in fact, extremely funny when women (and sometimes men) tried to flirt with Teacher Lan, mostly because of the way that he very genuinely and completely missed that that was what was happening each and every time.

“Laugh all you like,” Meng Yao said peaceably. “You’d kill for him, too.”

“Probably,” Su She agreed. “But only because of you.”

That was fair enough. After getting the lay of the land, Meng Yao had arranged for them to ‘accidentally’ be overheard by Teacher Lan while talking about the misconduct of one of the teachers who was the most biased against guest disciples, one of the ones that had been harassing Su She in particular for over a year before Meng Yao had arrived, and despite Su She’s initial nervousness about the plan, it had all gone splendidly. Sure, they’d been punished to do five copies of a treatise on upright conduct because they’d breached Talking behind the backs of others is prohibited, but the teacher in question had been sentenced to two hundred strikes with the discipline rod for abusing his position and three months of enforced seclusion to contemplate his misbehavior, and then, Teacher Lan had said, his expression dark and threatening, they could discuss what role would be the best fit in the future.

The other teachers had taken notice and shaped up very quickly, after that.

Comparatively, those five copies made in the nice cool Library Pavilion instead of having to do chores on the hottest days of summer? Practically a pat on the back for bringing it to his attention.

Su She would never have dared to raise anything if it was just him, Meng Yao thought; he had a strange fear of authority figures that combined envy and misery in an explosive combination – he would have just suffered and suffered and suffered until he’d been pushed too far and then it would have all burst out at once. He wasn’t like Meng Yao, who was unwilling to keep to his “proper” place and was more than willing to use his greater-than-average share of brains to get what he wanted, no matter what rules he broke in the process. He was the sort of person who was willing to do whatever it took to obtain his desires – no matter what it took.

Well, maybe not no matter what. He wouldn’t want to disappoint Lan Qiren too much.

(Okay, so maybe Su She was right and he had some unresolved father issues. So what if he did? Whose business was it but his?)

-

It’d taken Meng Yao a while to fully adjust to the Cloud Recesses.

Some parts he’d figured out right away – the way they all flattered themselves as gentlemen even if they were actually little more than hypocrites (Teacher Lan and his personally taught nephews exempted, of course), which of course meant that Meng Yao’s ability to act pitiful at the drop of a hat and cleverly turn black into white made him a teacher’s pet at once. The vegetarian meals were easy enough to adapt to, given that his mother hadn’t had the money for meat all that often, and the training and cultivation and all that wasn’t any challenge for his excellent powers of retention – he had ambitions of becoming one of Teacher Lan’s aides one day, and worked assiduously towards that goal. Even waking and sleeping early, which was practically the opposite of his schedule at home, was something he could adjust to, given time and incentive.

It was his mentality that took some time to adjust.

Meng Yao had perhaps grown up with too many of his mother’s stories, painting an image of a matchless paradise – at the start, he looked at everything around him, serene and elegant but not quite as rich and shining and thought that it would do, for now. When he’d first arrived, he had had every intention of making a good reputation for himself and using that reputation to get his real father’s attention – he’d liked Teacher Lan from the beginning, despite his best attempts to not let his heart be swayed, but he’d reasoned that if a teacher was like this, then a blood-related father would be even better.

And so, for the first half-year, he’d treated his time at the Cloud Recesses…not lightly, no. He was extremely serious about making sure to get the maximum benefit he could. And yet, at the same time, he still was not really committing himself to the place.

This wasn’t where he was going to live his whole life, he reasoned; it was just a stepping stone to a better future. That meant he would exert himself to point out things that made him look good, to eliminate obstacles in his path, to win himself allies, but not bother with those longer-term problems, the ones that really ought to be fixed but which would take a great deal of effort with little reward other than annoying people.

His feeling of superiority and emotional distance lasted right up until the first discussion conference.

From a distance, Jin Guangshan was everything Meng Yao could have imagined – perhaps a little too similar to the clients that his mother often saw, a little dissolute to pull off the air of a refined scholar he affected, but wearing more gold than Meng Yao had ever seen in his life, with a retinue of servants that dwarfed the other sect’s. Each of those servants were dressed more finely than even main clan cultivators in some of the smaller sects, and though Meng Yao’s Lan sect guest disciple clothing was of such quality that he didn’t need to fear their disdain, he couldn’t help but be secretly impressed.

He'd exerted himself more than usual to trade away all of his chores and duties, freeing himself up to take on patrol duty near the Jin sect. He’d perhaps daydreamed about some sort of encounter – nothing active on his part, of course, but he couldn’t quite resist playing through some fantasy of catching someone’s eye by chance, getting called over, a “You have a familiar set to your chin, who’s your father?”, a shy halting admission, recognition, a joyous reunion…

Instead, his father spent the entire night getting drunk and cursing the Lan sect’s hospitality for not providing him with girls to go with his liquor, calling Lan Qiren a miserable prude with a stick up his ass right in front of the Lan sect disciples that clenched their fists in barely concealed rage. He’d seen Meng Yao all right, ordered him to come forward, but it’d only been to mock him in front of all of his servants – and not even for being his bastard son, no, that would involve bothering to pick him out from the crowd or to ask who he was. No, he’d mocked him simply for being one of the poor disciples that Lan Qiren had taken in, all because his accent was marked with the distinct tones of Yunping rather than the sweetness of Gusu.

“Tell me, boy,” he said, breathing fumes into Meng Yao’s face and making him feel suddenly as if he’d never left the brothel – that the Cloud Recesses had all been a vague dream, and now he’d woken up and lost it all. “How does that old fart Qiren expect you to pay him back for all he’s done for you? I heard the Lan sect includes a pretty face as one of its standard requirements…”

Meng Yao put his gaze above his father’s head and pretended to be deaf.

“It seems like rather a lot of effort,” one of his father’s attendants remarked. “Even if Second Master Lan wanted a boy to warm his bed, couldn’t he just buy one like any normal person?”

“Bah, boys,” his father said, and leaned back, waving his hands in dismissal. “Why would anyone bother with a boy when you could have a soft woman instead? Just as long as they’re stupid enough – you know, there’s nothing worse than a woman who’s talented and knows it, too smart, always trying to get above their station…”

“You’re thinking about that whore in Yunping again, aren’t you? The one that interrupted your dinner and made a scene, claiming you’d promised to take in the son she bore you?” the attendant said, laughing. “I told you, you should’ve just killed her for her impudence rather than just having her beaten and thrown out. That way the matter wouldn’t still be bothering you…”

“Go away, boy,” another servant said to Meng Yao, who was frozen stiff in belated terror, nausea churning in his stomach as he realized his mother could’ve gone out one day and never come back, and he would never have known why – or maybe it was that he’d been spending his considerable time and brain on pleasing someone who would have done that, who nearly had done that. “Your accent’s brought back bad memories, don’t you see?”

Meng Yao left.

No, to be more blunt: he fled. He ran away, hot tears filling his eyes until he couldn’t see – belly full of regret and disappointment, crushed dreams feeling like broken shards of glass in his mouth and throat.

He tried to tell himself that it was better to find out now, when they were still distant, before he'd sold his soul for the futile chance to get that horrible man's affection, but he couldn't quite throw off the shame of knowing that if he hadn't heard such a thing up front, he probably would have done that. Would have humiliated himself like that, and for what? A man who regretted not murdering his mother?

He ran right into Lan Wangji, who was also on patrol.

Lan Wangji took one look at him and grabbed his wrist, dragging him away from the main pathway and all the way to his uncle’s rooms.

Lan Qiren was still awake despite the late hour, writing something at his desk, but he set aside his brush at once. “What’s going on?” he asked, frowning. “Wangji – Meng Yao – one of you report.”

“Meng Yao was on patrol by the Jin sect,” Lan Wangji explained as Meng Yao furiously tried to dash away his tears using his sleeve.

“Who permitted that? First year disciples aren’t permitted to patrol during discussion conferences,” Lan Qiren asked, his frown deepening. “It wouldn’t be proper – ah, but no, I recall now. I suppose it was inevitable. Wangji, well done, and thank you. You are dismissed.”

After Lan Wangji left, he turned his eyes on Meng Yao.

“You volunteered, didn’t you?” he asked.

Meng Yao felt his back go cold: Lan Qiren knew, then. It had never been said out loud by anyone as far as he knew, and yet it was clear that Lan Qiren knew who his father was – and probably his mother, too.

He knew that Meng Yao was – that he wasn’t anything more than –

“You are one of my most promising disciples, Meng Yao,” Lan Qiren told him, and poured him a cup of tea from his own pot, pressing it into his hands. It was finer tea than Meng Yao had ever had in his life, full of smoke and flavor. “The rules say Be loyal and filial, but they also praise reciprocity. You have not been recognized, and have not received your forefathers’ grace. You can fulfill your obligations to chivalry through your respect for the parent that raised you.”

Meng Yao stared down at the teacup. Lan Qiren had completely misunderstood the nature of Meng Yao’s concern – he was disappointed in what his father was, not worried about not living up to his obligations of being a filial child. And yet it was a little nice to hear that as far as Lan Qiren was concerned, the rules said that he could tell his father go hang for all he cared…

And that he ought to honor his mother, which was something no one who knew her had ever said to him.

“Even if she –” His voice stuttered. “Even if she’s a…”

He couldn’t say the word.

“Appreciate the good people is not qualified by class or profession,” Lan Qiren said, and his monotone voice was blissfully without emotion, as if this were just another lesson in class, and not the deepest hurt of Meng Yao’s life. “I have never met your mother, Meng Yao, but you are a good child – diligent, organized, sincere, with good judgment, and you clearly adore her. That tells me everything I need to know.”

Meng Yao burst into tears.

-

Meng Yao liked Lan Xichen a lot, but he also had to admit that sometimes, the older boy was, well…

“Dumb as a pile of rocks,” Su She announced.

“Do not criticize other people,” Meng Yao said piously, but then chuckled, shaking his head. “Say, rather, that he’s naïve and sheltered, and overly inclined to believe the best in people.”

“Like I said: dumb as rocks. How many times is going to get himself swindled into being someone’s sword or shield before he figures out that the problem is him?”

“Some people don’t have the capacity to understand the depths of humanity’s foulness –”

“Yeah, dumb ones.”

“Su She, please.” Su She held up his hands in surrendered. “At any rate, if Lan-gongzi is going to keep falling for people’s tricks, it’s beholden on us to help protect him.”

“You just don’t want Teacher Lan to be sad about something serious happening to his nephew,” Su She said knowingly, but he was already nodding. “All right, what are we going to do about it? He outranks us. We can’t exactly tell him to his face that he’s being…”

He paused.

Dumb as rocks went unsaid, but then, it didn’t need to be said out loud for the meaning to be clear.

Meng Yao sighed.

“You can only trick someone so many times,” he said. “If we want to keep him from getting tricked by other people, then we have to trick him first. And better.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lan-gongzi likes to save people,” Meng Yao explained. “He really sees himself as a chivalrous gentleman – he puts chivalry first, even though Teacher Lan says Learning comes first. That’s why he always sides with whoever he perceives to be the underdog in a given situation, no matter how wrong that impression is. That’s how most of the people who’ve been tricking him have gone for it: playing the victim, appealing to his sense of righteousness, pulling the curtains over his eyes to obscure what’s actually happening.”

“Okay. So?”

“So, we’ve both got miserable backstories – you being taken from your family at a young age and then bullied, me with my mother and, even worse, father. If we get him on our side, early on, he’ll side with us over anyone else – that way we can keep him from getting roped into other people’s private grudges.”

Su She frowned. “That seems a little manipulative.”

“It’s for his own good, and that’s what’s important,” Meng Yao said, and smiled faintly. “Wouldn’t you agree, Lan-er-gongzi?”

Su She jumped, turning around just in time to see Lan Wangji, who had been standing in the shadow of a nearby tree, step out.

He had a serious expression, as always, but a thoughtful one.

Meng Yao waited patiently.

“You cannot take advantage,” Lan Wangji finally said, and Meng Yao knew he’d won the most important ally in the battle to save Lan Xichen from himself. “That would change it from a virtuous act to a selfish one.”

“Like we need anything from him,” Su She said haughtily. “Maintain your own discipline.”

“Arrogance is forbidden.”

“It’s not arrogance if it’s justified! It’s just self-confidence!”

“Do not argue with family,” Meng Yao quoted, and was pleased to see both of them drop it at once. “Listen, we all share the same goal, and we have to start somewhere, don’t we? We’re stronger together than apart. Together, we can do anything, even protect Lan-gongzi.”

That and more, he thought as the other boys nodded, following his lead. Lan Xichen is just the start.

-

“The Wen sect will make trouble sooner rather than later,” Meng Yao said thoughtfully, one day. His friends turned to look at him. “Yes, I’m serious.”

Lan Wangji nodded, serious as always, but Su She scoffed.

“You can’t even convince that Wei Wuxian boy to leave poor Lan-er-gongzi alone,” he said snidely. “How exactly are you expecting to bring down the Wen sect?”

“I don’t convince Wei Wuxian to leave Lan-er-gongzi alone because Lan-er-gongzi doesn’t want to be left alone,” Meng Yao said. “Obviously. Isn’t that right?”

“You should call me by name,” Lan Wangji said, which wasn’t answering the question and definitely wasn’t denying anything. “You were saying, about the Wen sect?”

Meng Yao smiled.

-

“What brings one of Teacher Lan’s most promising disciples to the Unclean Realm?” Nie Mingjue said, peering at him thoughtfully. “You’re at the wrong time to be one of the usual messengers.”

Meng Yao smiled at him.

“I think you’ll find that we have similar goals, Sect Leader Nie,” he said. “When it comes to making sure that certain people in our lives don’t get hurt by the bad decisions of others, I mean. In your case, it’s your younger brother, who’s a friend of mine –”

Friend, source of information, it was all about the same thing in the end. Meng Yao didn’t have real friends outside the Lan sect, but he’d been very careful to cultivate good relationships with all his most important peers.

“- and for me, well. A teacher for day, a father for a lifetime. I’m sure Sect Leader Nie can understand the importance of protecting one’s father – right?”

“You don’t need to use any sophistry on me,” Nie Mingjue said, rolling his eyes. “If you have an idea on what we can do to stop the Wen sect before they go and burn someone’s house down, I’m all ears.”

By chance, Meng Yao did.

It was a good plan, too, daring and brave in equal measure. If it worked the way he hoped it would, he’d win enough fame to get Jin Guangshan to beg for him to join the Jin sect – not that he would, of course.

Meng Yao knew what he wanted, and he knew how he was going to get it, too.

-

“This is a lovely house, A-Yao,” Meng Shi said, running her hand along one of the soft tapestries on the wall. “Truly lovely. Whoever you rented it from has good taste.”

Meng Yao bowed. “Thank you for the compliment, Mother. I put a lot of thought into it.”

“You own it?” she asked, surprised. “But don’t you live up the mountain, with the sect?”

“I do. This is for you.”

“For – me? A-Yao! This is too much – how much must it have cost–”

“I saved the Lan sect’s core texts from being destroyed,” Meng Yao said. “I’m an inner sect disciple now – I could ask for a dozen houses like this, and they’d grant them to me without blinking twice. Teacher Lan would insist on it.”

“Teacher Lan,” his mother murmured. “That’s the one you’ve taken to treating as your own father, isn’t it? You’ve spoken so much of him, in your letters…”

“There’s no need to scheme,” he told her. “He wouldn’t notice your flirtations, anyway.”

His mother arched her eyebrows at him.

“He’s really oblivious.”

“Still…”

“Really no need,” Meng Yao said, and couldn’t help but smile at the memory of Lan Qiren pulling him into a hug when he realized that the books – and Lan Xichen – were all safe from the Wen sect’s attempt to burn down the Cloud Recesses, and, later, again, that Wen Ruohan was dead. He may have deliberately schemed for that second hug, and he might or might not have plans for more. “He already takes me as a son.”

His mother relaxed.

“Good,” she said, and smiled herself. “So, A-Yao, was I right, all those years ago? Was the Lan sect a good fit for you?”

“Yes, Mother,” Meng Yao said. “Yes, it was.”

[cqlfeels]

@lansplaining encouraged me to finish this random meta nobody asked for, so let's talk about Meng Yao, Meng Shi, and 孟母三遷 (mèng mǔ sān qiān), a proverb about good parenting.

A warning: this is super long (even for me!) and is less quality meta and more my ADHD brain jumping around a maze of loosely related ideas. Proceed with caution!

Let me start by briefly going through why I decided to write this, because it’s important. In haunting Meng Shi’s tag in my starvation for Meng Shi content, I’ve multiple times come across the idea that Meng Shi pushed Meng Yao too hard, that she should’ve been more careful with teaching him to seek his father’s approval at any cost, and that she was too naïve. I’ve never reblogged this kind of post because 1) I personally think it’s rude to go out of your way to ramble about how much you disagree with someone on their own post and 2) if this was an isolated incident I wouldn't care either way, so I didn’t want to direct this rant at anyone in particular. It’s more to do with a tendency, primarily (as far as I can tell) from fans who haven’t had much contact with Chinese culture, to oversimplify Meng Shi and make her relationship with Meng Yao slightly disturbing, and I think part of it is due to CQL basically cutting out her entire storyline (so fans simply don’t have info about her to assess her fairly) and part is due to misunderstanding what a good parent is supposed to act like in the context of Ancient China.

[Of course, Ancient China is not a very useful historical concept, not any more than “ye olde Europe” - things change a lot based on time and place - but you know. It’s fantasy. Extremely broad trends are okay in this case.]

Anyway, the idea behind the posts I mentioned is, basically, that Meng Shi (usually through no fault of her own) is to blame for Meng Yao’s obsession with power, since his desire for approval was inherited from lessons she taught him. Just to start with, I’d argue that Meng Yao isn’t power-hungry as much as he craves security and respect, but that’s a different meta. Let’s assume that she really did teach him to be Like That. Was she wrong to do so? I’m not looking for “does that make for a happy, well-adjusted childhood?” or “would you raise your own son as Meng Shi did?” - I’m trying to figure out, would she have been considered a bad mother in the context of the society she lived in? I don’t think she would’ve.

It is surprisingly hard to find texts about the obligations of parents in Ancient China. Their main obligation is to raise filial children, but I feel like that’s not very useful: whether or not parents are good parents, children are expected to be filial, so a child being filial really says more about the child than about the parent. Maybe the parent completely missed the mark and society at large was what taught the child to be filial!

We can assume, of course, that parents were to raise good people, and that by learning what a good person looked like, we could figure out whether the parent was successful, but once again, I feel like that’s pinning things on the outcome, not on the process - the best of parents can end up with an awful kid and vice versa.

While thinking about all this, it took me a frankly embarrassing amount of time to remember the story of Mother Meng and Meng Zi, but once I did, it wouldn’t leave my mind - in part because the Meng here is the exact same Meng of Meng Shi and Meng Yao (yay! fun if useless parallel!), and in part because this is a story about how a woman can successfully raise a son by herself.

Okay, so important note: one of the most influential ancient Chinese thinkers is Meng Zi (孟子 Mèng Zǐ), who is known in the West as Mencius. If you've never heard of him - he's perhaps second in importance only to Confucius. When Mencius was still a young child, his father died, so he was raised by his mother, who is usually known only as Mother Meng (in Chinese, 孟母 Mèng Mǔ.)

Mother Meng's story is told in Biographies of Exemplary Women (列女傳 Liènǚ Zhuàn), which for around 2000 years beginning around the 18th century BCE, was the most commonly used book used to educate women. The book is divided into sections, each one showing a different way women could be honorable and good. Mother Meng's story is told in the Maternal Models section (母儀傳 Mǔ Yí Zhuàn.) The story has a few parts, some of which I'll quote, always from Kinney's 2014 translation.

Before I go on to quote it, though, I'd like to establish that Mother Meng's story is so, so famous that even if Meng Shi had never read this particular book, I'm almost certain she would've been familiar with at least the outlines of Mother Meng's story. I'm not cherry picking a suitable chapter from the book, I'm literally going with the most famous story in it because Meng Shi would be most likely to know this one if she knew no other story.

Okay, the first part of the tale takes place when Mencius is a young boy and Mother Meng is a widow raising him.

The mother of Meng Ke of Zou [a different name for Mencius] was called Mother Meng. She lived near a graveyard. During Mencius’ youth, he enjoyed playing among the tombs, romping about pretending to prepare the ground for burials. Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son.” She therefore moved away and settled beside the marketplace. But there he liked to play at displaying and selling wares like a merchant. Again Mother Meng said, “This is not the place to raise my son,” and once more left and settled beside a school. There, however, he played at setting out sacrificial vessels, bowing, yielding, entering, and withdrawing. His mother said, “This, indeed, is where I can raise my son!” and settled there. When Mencius grew up, he studied the Six Arts, and finally became known as a great classicist. A man of discernment would say, “Mother Meng was good at gradual transformation.”

According to the translator's footnote, "gradual transformation" is "a childrearing technique, whereby a child is morally formed through daily exposure to correct models of behavior."

From this story comes the proverb 孟母三遷 (Mèng Mǔ sān qiān) - "Mother Meng moved three times." It's come to mean that a parent - especially the mother of a male child - should spare no efforts to provide an environment that will give their child a good education, paying particular attention to what models are surrounding them.

I'm sure I don't need to say if Meng Shi was at all familiar with this proverb (and she would probably be), she must have been very stressed out over literally raising her son in a brothel. (Here I must mention sex workers in ancient China were often essentially owned by the brothels, so literally "moving three times" wasn't really an option for Meng Shi even if she could miraculously pick up another trade.) Meng Shi did however at least try to surround Meng Yao with the accomplishments appropriate for the son of a cultivator:

Xiao-Meng, are you still learning those things lately? [...] The things your mom wants you to learn, things like calligraphy, etiquette, swordsmanship, meditation… How are those things going? [...] 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.

Meng Yao actually talks a little bit about “those swordsmanship pamphlets” in the only time in canon he directly shares memories about this mother:

Lan XiChen, “Your [guqin] skills are also considered quite fine outside of Gusu. Were they taught by your mother?”

Jin GuangYao, “No. I taught myself by watching others. She never taught me such things. She only taught me reading and writing, and bought a handful of expensive sword and cultivation guides for me to practice.”

Lan XiChen seemed surprised, “Sword and cultivation guides?”

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, you haven’t seen them before, have you? Those small booklets sold by the common folk. First jumbled sketches of human figures, then deliberately mystified captions.”

Lan XiChen shook his head, smiling. Jin GuangYao shook his head as well, “All of them are scams, especially to fool women like my mother and ignorant children. You won’t lose anything by practicing them, but you definitely won’t gain anything either.”

He sighed in a rueful way, “But how could my mother have known this? She bought them no matter how expensive they were, saying that if I returned to see my father in the future, I had to see him with as much competence as possible so that I don’t fall behind. All of the money was spent on this.”

See what’s happening? Meng Shi cannot physically take Meng Yao to cultivators, but she spares no efforts in giving him the closest thing she possibly can -- figuratively, we might say she moved three times.

Of course, these booklets don’t work, but as Meng Yao says, how could she have known this? The cultivation world is very closed off - think of how the entire Mo household gathers to see Lan juniors, and how Wei Wuxian mentions once that “Cultivation families, in the eyes of common folk, are like people favored by God, mysterious yet noble.” Not just noble, but mysterious. That tracks, too - I mean, they live in inaccessible households and mostly leave to night hunt or visit each other, neither of which is an activity that would allow commoners to get much more than an occasional glimpse of them.

Now, if Meng Shi doesn’t even know that a pearl for Jin Guangshan was just a trinket, if she doesn’t know even the wealth of a major sect, how can she read booklets and decide whether that’s genuine cultivation or not? All that she sees is a chance for Meng Yao to be surrounded by the ideas and skills of the people she wants him to emulate - cultivators - and therefore she does everything she can to get him that chance. Mother Meng moved three times.

Okay, but maybe the argument is not “Meng Shi shouldn’t have pushed Meng Yao to cultivation” but rather “she should’ve pushed him, just not too hard." To that, I present another tale from Mencius' childhood:

Once, when Mencius was young, he returned home after finishing his lessons and found his mother spinning. She asked him, “How far did you get in your studies today?” Mencius replied, “I’m in about the same place as I was before.” Mother Meng thereupon took up a knife and cut her weaving. Mencius was alarmed and asked her to explain. Mother Meng said, “Your abandoning your study is like my cutting this weaving. A man of discernment studies in order to establish a name and inquires to become broadly knowledgeable. By this means, when he is at rest, he can maintain tranquility and when he is active, he can keep trouble at a distance. If now you abandon your studies, you will not escape a life of menial servitude and will lack the means to keep yourself from misfortune. How is this different from weaving and spinning to eat? If one abandons these tasks midway, how can one clothe one’s husband and child and avoid being perpetually short of food? If a woman abandons that with which she nourishes others and a man is careless about cultivating his virtue, if they don’t become brigands or thieves, then they will end up as slaves or servants.” Mencius was afraid. Morning and evening he studied hard without ceasing. He served Zisi [a great scholar whose grandfather was Confucius] as his teacher and then became one of the most renowned classicists in the world.

Notice that Mother Meng moved three times to ensure Mencius would have the highest of aspirations - to become a scholar. But just aspiration isn’t enough. Not by any means. Now that Mencius is actually studying, Mother Meng is willing to take an extreme action to ensure he's taking it seriously. Mencius doesn't have a father to smooth his path to success. He has to learn that aspiring to greatness isn't enough. He'll have to put in the effort as if his life depended on it. And if he doesn't persist in his hard work, everything he's done thus far will be useless. Sounds like a lesson imparted on young Meng Yao, doesn’t it?

A lot of fandom rage towards Meng Shi would apply to China's Best Mom Contender, Mother Meng. She gives her son big dreams, and teaches him how to go about achieving them in a society where failing is easier than succeeding. Yes, it's fair to say that Meng Shi taught Meng Yao to refuse to settle for anything less than being “Jin Guangshan's son, a respected cultivator.” Yes, it's also fair to say that she probably didn't allow him much time to play like children his age did. But unfortunately, in the world of MDZS, poor children probably wouldn't get to play anyhow, the difference is that they'd usually be working, not studying. Studying is a privilege! It’s a privilege Meng Yao could not afford but was given to him anyway, through his mother’s many sacrifices. We can even say that while she was alive, Meng Shi was trying to ensure Meng Yao would one day have a better life, at the expense of a fun childhood - and that's very Mother Meng of her, whatever our modern Western sensibilities might have to say about that.

Finally, I’d skip other tales (which show Mother Meng and an adult Mencius) and go straight to the poem that ends the Mother Meng section:

The mother of Mencius

Was able to teach, transform, judge, and discriminate.

With skill she selected a place to raise her son,

Prompting him to accord with the great principles.

When her son’s studies did not advance,

She cut her weaving to illustrate her point.

Her son then perfected his virtue;

His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.

I’d like to focus on the last verse - “His achievements rank as the crowning glory of his generation.” All that Mother Meng wanted was for Mencius to not completely ruin his life, but he became great. You can so very easily see a parallel with how Meng Shi hoped Meng Yao would be a cultivator but he became Jin Guangyao, Chief Cultivator, styled Lianfang-zun, one of the Three Venerable, hero of the Sunshot Campaign.

Of course you can say “Jin Guangyao did many Very Wrong Things to get there, though!” Which, sure, okay, fair point. How many and how wrong depends on which canon we're discussing, and your own interpretation, but there’s no version of the story in which Jin Guangyao is 100% an innocent child uwu. But blaming that on Meng Shi is just... straight up weird? I don’t see anyone going “If Jiang Fengmian hadn’t adopted Wei Wuxian, he’d never have dared become Yiling Laozu!” and that’s pretty much the same logic. Would street kid Wei Wuxian have invented a new type of cultivation if he had never been taken in by the Jiang? Probably not, but raising undead armies is very much not something Jiang Fengmian could’ve predicted. In the same way, how could Meng Shi have predicted that teaching her pre-adolescent son “You are the son of a cultivator, act like one and earn your place in society” would’ve ultimately resulted in innocent deaths? How could she predict “You’re not destined to having the same horrible life I did, you can get something better than this” was a bad thing to teach? I quite honestly don’t know.

Finally, I'd like to point towards a much flimsier evidence that Meng Shi did great as a parent. And that is Meng Yao’s love. Nie Huaisang at some point comments Meng Shi is someone who Meng Yao "cherishes more than his life," and I think his assessment is correct.

Even putting aside the fact he built a whole temple to get his mother to reincarnate into a better life, and even putting aside how he refuses to flee the country without her remains, there's still crystal clear evidence that Meng Shi must've done something right. Because a lifetime of people using his mother to bully him doesn't seem to have made Meng Yao resent her. Had their relationship not have been very strong, odds are he'd feel bitter and/or ashamed of her. That doesn't seem to be the case. He's attached to her even decades after her death.

I want to be very careful with equating mutual affection with good parenting, though. When I was a rather rebellious teenager, my mother (in typical Chinese fashion) used to say that parents and children don't have to love each other as long as they're dutiful to each other, by which she meant that a parent-child relationship isn't informed by warm and fuzzy feelings, but by whether you'd be willing to do anything for each other. Specific to my case, she meant "I don't care if it makes you hate me, you will do as you're told because that's what's best for you." (That may also be the reason why people more familiar with Chinese culture see the Jiang family less as outright abusive and more as #complicated, but that's another meta.)

Whether your kid wants to hug you every time they see you is of no consequence to traditional Chinese thought - raising them to be the best they can is all that matters, because at the end of the day, you won't be around forever, but you can definitely set up your kid's life so that it goes smoothly and virtuously. How that's accomplished varies depending on many factors, but to have the goal be "I want my child to love me" rather than "I want to raise my child right" would've been considered selfish as hell.

So even if all that Meng Shi had given Meng Yao had been stern lessons about the need to go get his birthright, she would've still have been considered a good mother!! In fact, she would've been doing everything she was supposed to do, under extremely difficult conditions! (Remember the importance of environment? That Meng Yao grew up to want to be a cultivator despite having probably never even met one speaks wonders about Meng Shi's childrearing powers!!)

But just based off how over the top Meng Yao's filal dutifulness is, I'd go a step further and say that even as she did the impossible, she was also loving enough to inspire genuine affection. This is complicated because children who have present fathers could expect their mothers to be tender with them. The first century BCE text 禮記 Lǐ Jì or The Classic of Rites says that:

Here now is the affection of a father for his sons - he loves the worthy among them, and places on a lower level those who do not show ability; but that of a mother for them is such, that while she loves the worthy, she pities those who do not show ability - the mother deals with them on the ground of affection and not of showing them honour; the father, on the ground of showing them honour and not of affection.

But when the father figure is lacking for any reason, the mother must abandon her tenderness because someone must guide the child, and without a father, the role falls to the mother. A single or widowed mother had to be very careful to not smother their children with affection and raise useless, spoiled kids, or so it was thought. (The presence of Qingheng-jun and Lan Qiren is why Madame Lan can be so affectionate with the Lan boys, by the way - if she was raising them by herself she would've been expected to be much more practical. AUs where she just gets her kids and runs away could do very cool things with this idea. But I digress!)

Where was I? Oh, okay. Because Meng Yao seems to not just respect, but actively miss her, it seems that Meng Shi somehow managed to deal with her son on the ground of both honor and affection, to paraphrase.

So basically, all things considered, it seems not only would Meng Shi have been considered a great mom (if people could look past her being a prostitute, anyway) but she also went above and beyond the bare minimum. She truly spared no efforts on any front to make sure her son had everything your average gongzi would have - someone to teach him and someone to love him, access to education and confidence in his birthright. That she couldn't actually make him a cultivator, that she couldn't actually raise him in a proper home with no one being cruel to herself or him - that's immaterial. Even Mother Meng couldn't control what her neighbors did, only what she taught her son! The key point is Meng Shi tried. She did everything she could to educate her son right. You couldn't ask more of her, and quite honestly, you should probably be asking less.

Of course we can't err on the other extreme and say she was Perfect. Given MXTX only ever writes flawed characters, we can safely assume that if we'd known more about Meng Shi, we would've seen many flaws. Indeed, just the fact she didn't teach Meng Yao the guqin when he apparently wanted to learn it might point to some conflict we don't know enough to speculate about (maybe she focused too much on cultivation when Meng Yao's interests lay elsewhere? Maybe she wasn't able to sufficiently shelter him and he felt it'd be a burden to ask her to teach him anything? Maybe maybe maybe, go wild with your fics.) Nevertheless, I would never hold a female character to a higher ideal than a male character - if the male cast of MDZS can be a hot mess and still be admirable for what they're trying to do, then so can Meng Shi.

At the end of the day, when I look at Meng Shi - and I've made myself a document with all the references to her in the novel canon so I could easily contemplate her life and character - all I see is a woman every bit as determined and resourceful as her son, willing to do everything it took to raise her little boy into the sophisticated and ambitious man he became.

Finally, here's a fun little parallel that I'm 100% sure was unintentional but I still love. I said Meng Shi couldn't have moved three times. She couldn't, but I think maybe she taught her son he was worth moving three times for. Qinghe Nie. Qishan Wen. Lanling Jin. Isn't that super fun to think about?

Alternatively, tl;dr: Oh My God I Can't Believe We're Blaming Women For The Actions Of Their Adult Children In The Year Of Our Lord 2k21, Meng Shi Was Doing Her Best, Chill!

[wangxianficrecs]

❤️best friends forever by varnes

❤️best friends forever

by varnes

T, 17k, lingyi, wangxian

[podfic] by lanzhanqilai [podfic]  by jellyfishfire

Summary: It happened like this: Jin Ling was a sect leader now, which was, and Jingyi really meant this, fucking hilarious. There were few things funnier, in his honest opinion.

Because he was young, and inexperienced, and also — it had to be said — a real shithead, there was apparently some belief amongst his advisors that the best way forward, to promote the picture of a stable, mature sect leader who absolutely did not cry at the drop of a hat, was for Jin Ling to get married.

-

OR: Jin Ling and Jingyi get engaged.

Things spiral from there.

My comments: Funny and charming. Lan Jingyi POV and that kid is a shit and I adore him. He and JL are all, well, okay, then, why not. But it takes many months for the actual wedding, so they fit together a little more, and learn to partner, and never stop with the teasing and snark, even as JL allows Lan Jingyi to see the more vulnerable parts of himself. (Lan Jingyi realizes how nice his own life has been, because sure he's an orphan like everybody else, but he doesn't have a raft of now-dead, murderous uncles behind him.)

Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen are so sweet and supportive (and stern, after they catch our nuptial couple kissing and drag them apart). Wei Wuxian (another secret uncle!) and Jiang Cheng flitter around the edges, also being supportive and also stirring shit. It's fabulous.

Excerpt: “But who would want to marry you?” he had asked, only half to be a dick. He really didn’t know. Jin Ling was still young, his position insecure, and the Jin clan wasn’t exactly known for being warm and welcoming to outsiders. Besides, by dint of being a sect leader, eligible opportunities were extremely limited, and like, half of them were probably secretly his uncle anyway.

Jin Ling hadn’t even gotten offended. He’d pointed at Jingyi as if to say you see? to his only not-secret uncle, Sect Leader Jiang. “Nobody! They’re all married already, or, or, or like, a hundred years old!”

“Chief Cultivator Lan Wangji is not yet forty,” Sect Leader Jiang said with an absolutely straight face. Jingyi heard himself make a faint sound like all the air was being sucked out of him.

“I can’t marry SIZHUI’S DAD,” Jin Ling shrieked.

“Hanguang-jun is married to Master Wei,” Jingyi said, because Sizhui wasn’t here to do it, and then, as a gesture toward respectability, added, “... Sect Leader Jiang.”

Sect Leader Jiang cut his eyes toward him in a sharp glare. Yikes, in Jingyi’s opinion. “The Jiang sect does not recognize three bows, performed non-sequentially without witnesses or filial blessing, as a wedding,” he said flatly. “Also, who are you again?”

“Lan Jingyi,” said Jingyi.

“Right. Fuck off, Lan Jingyi,” said Sect Leader Jiang, and Jingyi realized with delight that he was probably the bitchiest person that Jingyi had met, ever, in his life.

arranged marriage, lingyi, humor, POV lan jingyi, funny, junior shenanigans, adorable juniors, character study, betrothal, falling in love, friendship, hijinks & shenanigans, family feels, yunmeng sibling reconciliation, found family, weird and murderous jin sect, lan jingyi is secretly competent, so is jin ling, potential poly juniors, podfic available, favorite, @itsvarnes​

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for this author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[ibijau]

Futures Past pt36 / On AO3

The day hadn't started too badly for Lan Xichen, but he knew that couldn't last

Lan Xichen was doing decently well in the competition so far, in spite of the many issues on his mind. The main one was the possibility of Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji drawing the Wens’ ire onto themselves due to their behaviour during the contest. But there was no chance of Lan Wangji giving up halfway while still humiliating Qishan Wen with his impossibly high score, and Lan Xichen had asked his brother to keep a close eye on Wei Wuxian to make sure he behaved himself. Of course that hadn’t stopped Wei Wuxian from still making a scene about allowing Wen Ning to enter the contest, and worse still Nie Huaisang had gotten involved in that, but… but it was Wen Xu who had solved that situation, and so hopefully it was Wen Xu who would be the target of Wen Chao’s hatred.

Still, just in case, Lan Xichen was trying to see if he could find Nie Huaisang and stay with him. Only to make sure nobody caused trouble for him, of course, and not at all because they hadn’t seen each other in weeks. Even if Lan Xichen did find Nie Huaisang, Su She was currently walking with him, so flirtations would have to be kept to a minimum.

Su She had been a little puzzled when Lan Xichen had offered that they stick together, fearing that it would lower Lan Xichen’s chances for a high score. Lan Xichen, with some embarrassment, had explained that it was exactly why he didn’t want to be alone. In the other future he’d become isolated from everyone he knew during the contest and, having nothing else to do, had scored so highly that in retrospect it was no surprise the Wens had taken it as an insult. After all, none of their disciples had gotten into the top four, nor even the top ten. Lan Xichen remembered how happy and proud he’d felt over his success in the other life, how bitterly he’d regretted it when his home had burned as a result.

Besides, something like this was more fun with a companion, and Su She could be rather pleasant when the mood hit him.

As they walked together and shot down the moving targets, Lan Xichen spotted someone nearby, another youth who seemed to have ended up alone and was taking down target after target. If he had been alone, Lan Xichen might have turned around without a word, but Su She noticed the other boy as well and called for him.

“Meng gongzi, I didn’t know you were that good with a bow!”

The other boy turned to look at them, his face just as red as his robes and a grimace on his lips. Su She immediately understood his mistake and went pale before bowing politely, while Lan Xichen relaxed.

“Jin gongzi, I wouldn’t have expected to find you alone,” Lan Xichen noted, walking toward Jin Zixuan.

“Everyone else got eliminated for shooting the wrong targets,” Jin Zixuan explained. “Useless, the lot of them. Well, and Zixun just abandoned me right away because he was worried about Nie gongzi and that Wen kid.”

“At least you’ve made good use of your time,” Lan Xichen said, noticing Jin Zixuan’s quiver was nearly empty. It worried him, because while Qishan Wen got along better with Lanling Jin than with any other sect, Wen Ruohan still saw all his allies as inferiors who shouldn’t outshine him and his sons. If Jin Zixuan were to be in the same position he’d been during that other future… but no, his father would protect him of course.

“Honestly, this competition just isn’t very challenging,” Jin Zixuan replied disdainfully. “I was expecting something more interesting. The only amusing part was seeing all the Wens get eliminated so quickly one after the other. You’d have thought they would have organised a contest that showed their strength more.”

It was a thought Lan Xichen had also had sometimes when anticipating this contest. At the same time, he wasn’t sure that there was anything Wen Chao could claim to be better at than any other young master of their generation. He hadn’t even been particularly good as a jailer, since almost everyone in the indoctrination camp had managed to flee at the first chance they'd had. His slaughter of the Lotus Piers had been a success, but it was difficult to turn something like that into a contest. Perhaps Wen Ruohan should just have continued having children then, since the first two had been such disappointments to him. Of course he had Lan Sizhui now… Or rather, he had Wen Yuan, who Lan Xichen knew to be more full of potential than either his father or his uncle.

“Maybe they were expecting us to know our place,” Lan Xichen said.

“I know my place,” Jin Zixuan retorted. “And that’s why I’m not going to hide my skill to save them face. If they're so eager to dominate the rest of us, they'll have to deserve it.”

Lan Xichen smiled, and found himself thinking he might just like Jin Zixuan if they were given a chance to be around each other.

“Not that I’m not happy chatting with you two,” Jin Zixuan added, taking another arrow from his quiver, “but I really want to get first place, so I have to get back to it. I don’t know how much time is left, and… wait, what’s that?”

He pointed at the sky, where the many targets released into the arena were starting to gather high above, before quickly leaving in the same direction, leaving the contestants with nothing to shoot at.

“That’s odd,” Lan Xichen said. “It’s too early to be over yet, isn’t it?”

All three of them continued staring at the sky a moment more, wondering what this meant. Before very long, an announcement resonated through the entire arena, stating that the contest was over and ordering everyone to immediately head for the nearest exit. This only further puzzled Lan Xichen. He couldn’t remember the exact announcement he’d heard in his other life when the competition had ended, but he was fairly certain that it had been worded very differently.

“Maybe they’ve realised how badly they’re losing and are trying to cut their losses,” Jin Zixuan said, putting away his arrow with a sigh. “I still hope I won. I swear, if Wei Wuxian got first place…”

Although he felt increasingly ill at ease, Lan Xichen managed a polite smile and started chatting with Jin Zixuan and Su She about the way they’d trained for this contest, and what they thought of its difficulty. As they walked toward the exit, more young cultivators started joining them. Most of them seemed either puzzled at this early end, or cheerful about the banquet that would follow, but there was a particularly group of three or four boys from a small sect who looked absolutely terrified and kept whispering between them. When one of them noticed that Jin Zixuan was there, he let out a frightened cry, and started trying to pull his companions as far away as possible. Lan Xichen hesitated only briefly before walking up to them, and asking them if everything was fine.

“It is, it is,” the oldest of the group assured him, though his eyes still darted again and again toward Jin Zixuan. “Everything’s fine. It’s just. Well, it’s fine for us, but your friend is a Jin, right?”

“Yes, that’s Jin gongzi, the son of Jin zongzhu.”

The boys' terror only increased.

“Then Jin Zixun is his relative, isn’t he?”

Hearing his cousin’s name, Jin Zixuan immediately came closer, as did Su She.

“Has something happened to my cousin?” Jin Zixuan asked.

“Yes... No. Well, not yet. It’s more what he’s done… when the Wens catch him, it won’t be pretty.”

“What has that idiot done now?” Su She asked.

The group of boys hesitated, trading ever more worried glances, until one of them muttered that everyone would soon know anyway, and that they needed to know.

“We weren’t there to see it,” the oldest eventually started to explain. “But I think it was pretty recent. You see, we just happened to be passing by when they were removing the body, just before they called for the end of the contest.”

“The body? Whose body?”

“They say it’s Jin Zixun who did it,” the boys went on, checking around as if fearful that someone would hear him sharing that story. “And that Nie Huaisang was there with him. They say they took one of the Wens as a hostage after so they could escape, a kid named Wen Ning.”

“Whose body were people taking away?” Lan Xichen insisted, feeling breathless panic rise inside him.

“It was Wen Chao. The three of them had a fight, and they killed Wen Chao and ran away.”

The news hit Lan Xichen like a slap to the face and he stumbled until he could support himself on one of the walls decorating the arena. In any other circumstances he might have rejoiced at the death of Wen Chao, who had never done anything but brought misery to those around him. But for Nie Huaisang to be involved in this, for him to be accused of taking part in a murder… Lan Xichen remembered the war as it would have been in the other future, he had seen what Wen Ruohan’s torture instrument could do to people, how they could take a person and turn them into something that was only barely human. Of course the murderers of his favourite son would be treated thus.

To imagine Nie Huaisang in such a state was unbearable, and Lan Xichen found himself choking on the horror of it.

“When did you see that body being moved?” Su She quickly asked. “Did you see Jin gongzi and Nie gongzi?”

“No, they were already gone when we got there. We were told not to tell anyone. Don’t say that you heard from us, please, my father’s sect isn’t very powerful, if the Wens turn against us…”

“We won’t say anything,” Jin Zixuan promised. “Just go now, and if anyone asks, you haven’t seen me. If you betray me, you’ll find that Lanling Jin isn’t an enemy you want either.”

The boys promised and scampered off, leaving the three of them behind. Lan Xichen, at the cost of a great effort, managed to regain control of himself, just enough to breathe again. Now wasn’t the time for panic and despair, not when Nie Huaisang was in danger and needed him.

“We need to find him. Them. We need to find them,” Lan Xichen said. “If the Wens get their hands on them…”

“I’ll go looking for them,” Su She offered. “You should go with everyone else and see what happens next, Lan gongzi. It’ll be too noticeable if you’re gone, and Wen zongzhu might start saying that the Lans had a part in this. But if I go… who’d notice me?”

“It’s too dangerous,” Lan Xichen replied. “I cannot ask this of you.”

“You’re not asking anything, I’m offering. Nie gongzi is my friend, I’m not letting those Wens get their hands on him.”

“I’m going with you,” Jin Zixuan said. “My sect is already involved, so it won’t make much of a difference whether I disappear for a while or not. And I don’t think my father will make much effort to protect Zixun unless he knows I’m with him. You just go back, Lan gongzi, and see what you can do from there.”

Unpleasant as it was for Lan Xichen to be left behind, he couldn’t argue that the other two were wrong about his absence being noticeable. There wouldn’t have been time to argue anyway, not when every moment counted while Nie Huaisang and Jin Zixun tried to hide inside enemy territory. Hopefully Wen Ning was their ally more than their hostage and would help them get to safety.

They had to stay safe. If anything happened to Nie Huaisang…

But Lan Xichen couldn’t let his thoughts go down that path. Instead he thanked Su She for being such a dedicated friend, advised both of them to be very careful, and left them behind so he could rejoin the crowd outside the arena.

Everything was in complete chaos there, with junior disciples whispering to one another, sharing gossip and rumours. That someone had died was taken as a certainty by all, and most agreed that it had been a murder, but the identity of the victim was less clear. As he made his way through the crowd, Lan Xichen heard almost ever name possible mentioned, including his own. He didn’t stop to correct others, or to hear what nonsense they might be sharing, gently forcing his way through the assembled young people until he arrived at the foot of the raised platform from which Wen Ruohan and other sect leaders were meant to have been watching the contest.

There, on a low table, Wen Chao’s body had been brought before his father who gazed upon it without displaying any emotion, as if his son were no more to him than a plate of cold meat. Standing next to Wen Ruohan, and looking far more emotional, was Jin Guangshan. Lan Xichen walked to the bottom of the stairs that led to the platform to get a better view, and heard Jin Guangshan trying to save his skin. He would at once to assure Wen Ruohan that Jin Zixun had always been a wild and unreliable child who couldn’t be be turned obedient and was only kept around for the memory of his noble father, while also insisting that the tragic death of Wen Chao could not have been caused by that unruly nephew of his, that someone else must have dealt the fatal blows, or at the very least manipulated poor, weak-minded Jin Zixun into doing it.

Wen Ruohan listened for a while before silencing Jin Guangshan with a single gesture.

“My disciples said your nephew was one of only three people present against my son,” Wen Ruohan calmly stated. “The other two being my own nephew Wen Ning, who is feeble of body and hardly better of mind but above all kin to me and thus loyal, and Nie Huaisang. I am aware that Qinghe Nie bears some unjustified grudges against me, but are you really suggesting that Nie Huaisang of all people could have killed my son?”

The very idea was so ridiculous to Jin Guangshan that even he nervously laughed at the suggestion, before quickly falling silent as he realised that Wen Ruohan might take offence to hearing laughter while his son laid dead next to them.

“If it really is Zixun who did this, then of course I will let Wen zongzhu punish him as he sees fit,” Jin Guangshan hurriedly stated. “As soon as he is found, he will be brought to you.”

“The death of an unloved nephew could not possibly compensate for the loss of my heir,” Wen Ruohan remarked. “I cannot allow any sect to get away with such an attack so easily. And I understand you have a son too, who is here today?”

“Zixuan has nothing to do with this,” Jin Guangshan protested with anger, perhaps the most sincere display of emotion that Lan Xichen had ever witnessed from that man in either of his lives. “Why should he pay for his cousin’s crime? You can have Zixun, and I will pay blood money for your son, that is more than reasonable.”

“Are you saying your son’s life is more valuable than mine?” Wen Ruohan asked, still as calm and dispassionate, yet his voice carried something sharper now that even Jin Guanshan couldn’t miss. “Be glad I don’t ask for your life instead. As I understand, you raised your nephew. His behaviour is to be blamed on the man who failed to educate him. Yes, perhaps I should hold you responsible after all.”

Jin Guangshan flinched, and took a step back. Even though he hadn’t been warned of the war to come, having been deemed untrustworthy due to his close ties to Qishan Wen, he couldn’t have missed the fact that Wen Ruohan had been aggressively trying to extend his influence in recent times. A few small sects had been all but annihilated for resisting that influence, and Jin Guangshan might have been aware that Qishan Wen only needed an excuse to do the same to a Great Sect, and thus send a warning to all the others once and for all.

Lan Xichen could almost pity Jin Guangshan for having been placed in that position, when he was a man who had neither principles nor nobility of character to support him in whatever choice he would have to make.

Suddenly there was a bit of a commotion in the crowd, and two Wen cultivators pierced through the people gathered, dragging with them a teenager in red robes, with his hair in a long ponytail, who was doing his best to resist, though his strength clearly didn’t match theirs. Lan Xichen frowned, worried that if Jin Zixuan had been caught, they might have caught the others as well, that Nie Huaisang might be in even greater danger than before. But then, as the boy was pulled closer and brought to a stop in front of the stairs, barely an arm’s length from Lan Xichen, he noticed the slightly too slender build, the softer curve of the jaw, the missing cinnabar mark. The boy, clearly terrified out of his mind, looked around for any kind of help and his eyes met Lan Xichen, who realised this wasn’t Jin Zixuan.

The Wens had caught Meng Yao instead of his half brother.

Wen Ruohan noticed none of those details, having probably never given Jin Zixuan more than a cursory glance at previous discussion conferences. As for Jin Guangshan, his eyes darted toward the boy down the stairs, but he turned his back to those stairs, making it impossible for Lan Xichen to see if the man knew which of his sons had been brought forward.

“This is ridiculous,” Nie Mingjue then exploded, even though other sect leaders were trying to shush him and begging him to be quiet. “You can’t seriously be doing that, the boy had nothing to do with it!”

Wen Ruohan turned to Nie Mingjue, showing something that could only barely be called a smile.

“I have the right to demand justice for any relative of mine that was cruelly killed,” Wen Ruohan said. “As does everyone else. If others are too frightened to do what’s right to avenge their kin, why should that stop me?”

Nie Mingjue tried to argue back, but through great efforts Lan Qiren managed to talk him out of it, perhaps reminding him that he was lucky Nie Huaisang had been deemed too stupid to have had any active part in Wen Chao’s death. Still, even from where he was, Lan Xichen could see the anger on his friend’s face, making Nie Mingjue more terrifying than he’d ever been before. Yet Wen Ruohan paid it no mind, as if the righteous fury he had just provoked were nothing more than a child’s caprice, and turned his attention once more to Jin Guangshan, who in all that time hadn’t so much as glanced again at his son.

“Well, Jin zongzhu, what is your choice?” Wen Ruohan asked. “I am growing impatient with you, and I fear you are giving a bad example to other leaders of insignificant sects. If that is what you wish, I will make your sect an example, and one that will never be forgotten.”

Jin Guangshan startled, and this time did look again at his son, his expression unreadable.

“Wen zongzhu gives me no other choice,” he said in a trembling voice, looking again at Wen Ruohan. “If that must be the cost of protecting our disciples, I know my son will not shirk before duty. Do what you will with him.”

Wen Ruohan smiled at that answer, sharp as a hunting tiger, while Meng Yao’s legs buckled under him, nearly making him fall, only to be caught and forced to stand straight by the Wen disciples who had brought him. Yet he did not try to correct the wrongful assumption that had been made about his identity, either too terrified to speak, or too desperate to be a dutiful son to that man who would never see himself as his father. 

If Meng Yao did not speak, then someone would have to do it for him.

But from where he was, Jiang Fengmian couldn’t have seen his disciple’s face. Even if he could, he might not have thought it possible that such a mix up could have happened. The Jiang disciples were all too far away as well. Nobody closer could be expected to recognise Meng Yao except perhaps his father, but somehow it seemed unlikely Jin Guangshan had noticed, and even more so that he wouldn’t gladly let his illegitimate son die in Jin Zixuan’s place.

Lan Xichen was the only person who knew this was Meng Yao.

To his utter shame, he briefly thought of saying nothing. Of letting Meng Yao die as punishment for crimes he hadn’t yet committed, crimes he would likely never even have a chance to commit in this life. It would be so easy, and it would ensure Lan Xichen never had to fear his own weakness again, and it quickly made him sick to his core that he even considered that idea. He had closed his eyes to justice too often in that other future, he couldn’t start doing it here too, couldn’t justify the suffering of others the way he’d always found ways to justify Jin Guangyao’s crimes over there.

That wasn’t who he wanted to be, and Meng Yao didn’t deserve to die because of a father who had never deserved his loyalty, in this life or any other.

Lan Xichen schooled his features into an expression of shocked disbelief and, with calculated ingenuity, sprung forward toward the other boy and took his hands.

“But that’s Meng Yao!” he exclaimed, as if only then recognizing the person before him. “That’s not Jin gongzi!”

Meng Yao broke into silent tears, clenching his fingers on Lan Xichen’s hands like a drowning man clinging to his rescuer. Without waiting for anyone else to react, Lan Xichen quickly pulled Meng Yao away from the Wen cultivators who had dragged him there. He then looked around until he met eyes first with Wei Wuxian, and then with Jiang Cheng, who immediately started making their way to them, ready to come rescue their fellow disciple.

On the platform, Wen Ruohan watched all this unfold with the same absence of emotion he had displayed about everything else. At most there was the slightest of frowns on his brow when Wen Xu came closer and whispered something to his father’s ear while pointing at Meng Yao, probably explaining who that person was and how he might have been mistaken for Jin Zixuan. Wen Ruohan nodded shortly, and turned his cold eyes back to Jin Guangshan who started sputtering something to defend himself.

“A bastard’s life is no adequate payment for my son and heir,” Wen Ruohan cut him while making a lazy hand gesture. His sword, reacting to that gesture, immediately unsheathed itself and, after another quick motion from Wen Ruohan, promptly sliced at Jin Guangshan’s throat, so deeply it sent his head rolling down the stairs. “Let this be a lesson to the next man who thinks he can trick me,” Wen Ruohan concluded, before turning to his surviving son. “Find those Jin boys and bring them to me,” was his last order before he walked down the stairs and away from the scene, the crowd hurriedly making way for him.

A heavy silence hung in the air that nobody dared to break, not until Wen Ruohan had disappeared. Lan Xichen himself could only stare at the head of Jin Guangshan, which had rolled not far from his feet. That was a death he was to be blamed for, one that would haunt him even though Jin Guangshan had never done anything to earn his pity. But if the man himself had been deplorable, he had a sect, he had a family, none of whom deserve the chaos about to befall them. 

Lan Xichen, who could do nothing else, had grabbed Meng Yao and forced him to keep his back to the sight of his dead father as soon as he'd understood what had happened. He kept him close until Jiang Cheng joined them, pale and shaking. Lan Xichen and him exchanged a brief look, too shocked for words, and Meng Yao was handed over to Jiang Cheng who lost no time in pulling him further into the crowd where they joined Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

At the same time, Wen Xu announced that the conference would be cut short, his usually monotone voice trembling from emotion as he avoided looking at the corpse before him, at the head down the stairs. He stated that it would be expected every sect should respect a mourning period in memory of Wen Chao, and that anyone hiding Jin Zixun or Jin Zixuan would be severely punished for their complicity in the crime, as would their sect. For the time being, every sect was to have left the Nightless City before the day was over, except for Lanling Jin disciples who would need to be questioned. He then proceeded to call servants to deal with Wen Chao’s corpse, staying near his late brother as he was finally taken away, which was more than his father could have bothered with.

The crowd was only too happy to disperse. Lan Xichen, still standing in the same spot, noticed that a few Jin disciples were taken away by boys from other sects who were helping them wipe the dot on their forehead and this, in the midst of such horror, gave him hope that it wouldn’t take a slaughter like the one of Yunmeng Jiang to start the war this time. That hope was enough to give him new strength and, after quickly begging whatever soul Jin Guangshan had once possessed for forgiveness in his role in the man’s death, Lan Xichen too left to join the other Lan disciples in the room they had been given while staying in the Nightless City.

When he arrived there, everyone had changed out of the red robes and was already half done with packing. The only three beds upon which white Lan robes were still laid, waiting for their owners, were Lan Xichen, Lan Wangji, and Su She’s. At first, Lan Xichen refused to be worried about that, certain that Su She would soon return to them, probably with Nie Huaisang, Jin Zixun, Jin Zixuan, and perhaps even Wen Ning in tow. But Lan Xichen had time to change and pack the few belongings he’d brought, and still there was no sign of Su She. When he asked around, none of the other Lan disciples had seen him since the archery contest ended. Lan Wangji, when he returned to change at last, said that he hadn’t gotten any news either. He then left again, so he could warn the Yunmeng Jiang disciples to keep an eye open, but when he returned for the final time he brought no news of their missing friends.

By then Lan Xichen felt his old breathless panic rise again, and after everything that had happened it was nearly impossible to control it. It took every ounce of willpower he possessed to just put on a smile and leave the room, desperately hoping that he looked calm in spite of how frayed he felt, so that the other Lan boys would not fall prey to fear. It was a small comfort to step outside and see not only Lan Qiren, but also Nie Mingjue waiting in that courtyard, every Nie disciples who had come perfectly lined behind him.

Nearly every Nie disciple. Lan Xichen's eyes scanned the group several times, desperate to catch a glimpse of Nie Huaisang, in vain. He exchanged a look with Lan Qiren and Nie Mingjue. The latter shook his head, but said nothing.

There was nothing to be said.

A sect leader had been murdered in front of the entire cultivation world, after being intimidated into making a choice between seeing his son dead or his sect slaughtered, an undeniable proof that Qishan Wen’s ambitions would spare no one. 

The war they had been anticipating and dreading was upon them at last.

[pbaintthetb]

Fic time

Right, don't’ really know what this is but it gripped me and I wrote so yay? I guess it’s like a modern au of the Guanyin temple but it’s more of a specific scenario I had in mind anyway- some swearing, major character death.

There had been a joke, back at school, or a later thinking puzzle or something, Jiang Cheng can't really remember it. It would have been during registration whatever it was and what Jiang Cheng did in registration was homework and bemoan the fact he was awake. So like, he can't really remember it but he thinks it was something like-

there's a politician and an assassin at a conference or a dinner thing, and who do you sit next to?

And his brother had said the assassin obviously, because politicians sucked and at least the assassin would probably have something cool to say. Lan Xichen had told them to sit in the middle and get them to work it out and Jiang Cheng thinks he’d been joking.

Xue Yang had smiled in a way that made everyone supremely uncomfortable and pretty much said that he was the assassin.

There had been other jokes, answers. Like them working together- another politician was there maybe, about how one would stab you in the back and the other in the front. About how being near an assassin was probably a bad idea. Networking, whatever.

Jiang Cheng can't remember what he'd said, just that Nie Huaisang had disagreed, and looked almost shocked. Jiang Cheng was shocked too, because it was very rare that Nie Huaisang was decided enough on something to voice an opinion, and even rarer to disagree with someone else.

But Huaisang had said- and it feels important what Nie Huaisang had said, but Jiang Cheng had been shoving his only half finished homework into his bag trying to work out where he could scrape time from his day to do it and hadn't listened properly but-

He's still sitting still. Still still, hah. The room isn't still though, everyone's bustling around, voices hushed, feet frantic and-

Lan Xichen's shaking and Jin Guangyao is dead and Jiang Cheng feels utterly, utterly numb.

Yeah it was a wedding, but he has the feeling Lan Wangji and Wuxian wound up with far more red than they were intending.

They've left, or been hurried off. To check on the kid, A-Yuan, Sizhui, whatever. If they wanted Jiang Cheng to remember their kid's name properly they could have talked to him in the past thirteen years before they sent him an invite to their wedding. They're looking after Jin Ling too, because Jiang Cheng isn't allowed to leave this room.

Jiang Cheng half feels that he only got invited because Huaisang was the wedding planner and he could never stop himself from causing chaos. Still, Jiang Cheng was raised better than to decline an invitation.

Nie Huaisang is bawling and Jiang Cheng sort of wishes he'd stop but also nobody is going to comfort him. Because Jin Guangyao is dead and Lan Xichen is shaking and Jiang Cheng isn't certain he actually exists right now.

Jin Guangyao had said to sit next to the politician to make sure you could be there if he got shot. With a smile that was fine but maybe too slow in clarifying it was to help. And not just, like, waiting.

Jiang Cheng can't remember what Lan Wangji said, he probably didn't say anything at all knowing him, and he doesn't really care either. Guy thought he was above it all and didn't want to be involved and now his brother's best friend and fucking bigshot has been fucking shot at his wedding.

Jiang Cheng is grimly amused enough to think that if their parents were still alive Wuxian would be in deep shit right now. So, maybe that's a positive. Maybe.

Nie Mingjue wasn't there then because he was way, way, too old, and busy. And he's not here now because he's dead, unfortunately for Nie Huaisang. Who's asking what happened, like Jiang Cheng fucking knows. He doesn't think Xichen or the police know, and heavens know the happy couple doesn't.

Though, he supposes not knowing isn't novel for Huaisang, it's not being the only one that is.

Jiang Cheng can't remember what he said either. About the politician, not really. He just remembers Huaisang and-

It's not even important, but it's rolling round in his head because Jin Guangyao, mayor for almost ten years is dead and apparently he'd had a threat- but that was stupid and -

It was clearly targeted. Even though if Jiang Cheng was going to kill someone at this wedding it wouldn't have been him it would- not really though, and not appropriate.

He'd like to know what he had said, but what Nie Huaisang had said feels important now and it's-

It would be ironic, if it had been Xue Yang behind the trigger except that creep is long behind bars. Which Jiang Cheng only knows because Huaisang had told him, he'd tried to leave school behind him.

Probably would have been easier if they hadn't all been so weirdly interdependent.

They think the bullet came from- well they don't know. Or, they do. It came from underneath the table- which was a serious oversight and there's no way Nie Huaisang is ever getting a job again, although maybe he likes it that way because considering how much Nie Huaisang has bugged him over the years Jiang Cheng isn't convinced he's worked that many weddings.

But they don't know how it got triggered.

The money was on Xichen cos he was closest, the four of them sitting in a line.

Jin Guangyao, Lan Xichen, Nie Huaisang, Jiang Cheng. No one had sat next to Jin Guangyao's other side. Jiang Cheng was going to, because if he was going to be at the wedding of the brother who had ignored him moslty, and the man who gets on his last fucking nerve he was at least going to network and sit next to their mutual nephew. But no, Nie Huaisang had pouted, and Jiang Cheng had conceded- not that he'd had a choice- that he'd use his brother's wedding to have fun, not work. Nie Huaisang had drawn up the seating plan, told Jiang Cheng he had it all wrong, that next to Nie Huaisang was the place to sit, and that, had been that.

So in the end Lan Xichen had been the only one sitting next to the politician, even though Jiang Cheng vaguely remembers more people wanting to, to play hero or for whatever, or because they were scared and wanted to be far away from the danger.

Jiang Cheng thinks that had been his answer to the puzzle. Sit me wherever, just far away from the heat. Or was it a joke? It feels like a joke in his memories, but then everyone had taken it so seriously and told him his answer wasn't right. Then again, isn't the point of puzzles to not have a right answer?

His mind is spiraling, but it's fine, because they're not asking him any questions yet. Just a lot of talking, and fussing over Lan Xichen and maybe talking to the happy couple and the kids somewhere else.

He thinks the police think it might have been Xichen. Which is kind of stupid, but maybe not as stupid as inviting a married man to be your plus one and then getting a room with one bed. Huaisang had told him the gossip and probably made it sound as salacious as possible.

Then again what does Jiang Cheng know? Two guys can share a bed without it being all about in, out, shake it all about. Or maybe Qin Su is fine with it. And wouldn't the tabloids love that. Maybe that's why Nie Huaisang likes the wedding industry, the gossip. He'd make a good paparazzi in another life, if he could ever  be bothered to get out of bed.

All he remembers, from his perspective, if they ever get around to asking him, is Nie Huaisang being far too drunk for how early it was in the wedding, and that Jiang Cheng was not secretly jealous and kind of wishing he was the same way, while also trying to savour every moment of it for the memory of Yanli.

And then Nie Huaisang had fallen over before Jiang Cheng could grab him. And it had been like dominoes, Xichen, then Jin Guangyao, then a huge bang. Or maybe not in that order.

At first Jiang Cheng had thought it good, that maybe they'd all managed to duck or something- but then he'd gotten the order right and-

Maybe it was a bad idea to sit next to the politician. Lan Xichen's white shirt is speckled with red, and last Jiang Cheng looked at him, before he'd screwed his eyes shut and tried to be somewhere else, was the wide, wide, fear in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to!" he'd gasped, and that had caused drama, because the groom's (well, one of them) own brother committing a murder at his wedding? But it had just been Lan Xichen, overly guilty and self-sacrificing.

And how much had he protected the politician when he'd had the chance?

What had Nie Huaisang said?

Jiang Cheng kind of remembers what he'd said, which was surely the politician and the assassin were the same person, except no one else had found that funny. Probably because he'd said it under his breath, because it wasn't really fitting with his image at school. He thinks Wen Qing might have heard, but she kind of kept to herself and then she was dead so-

He thinks she'd laughed. It didn't matter, he'd followed it up with politician because he was a coward and didn't want to be in the thick of things and wasn't that funny.

It was especially funny, because Nie Huaisang was a coward and yet he'd-

and it's come back to Jiang Cheng now, what the other man, boy, had told him, as they'd shoved bits and bobs and food or whatever into their bags.

"It's obvious," Nie Huaisang had said with an easy grin, like it was all a joke, like it was a joke. Like it wasn't a thing he'd thought about- and which made it worse. "You sit next to the assassin because the politician isn't going to be shooting at them."

He remembers it now, remembering how confused he'd been because- it had- because then they'd gone to maths and Nie Huaisang had spent the hour crying so that he'd have tear tracks on his face in history and he wouldn't have to hand in the essay he had written but had definitely disintegrated just now in his bag. (He didn't know how, of course not.)

"-cheng, Jiang Cheng?" he's being shaken slightly, and the tone is insistent as if someone's trying to get his attention.

"I think we can go now A-Cheng," Nie Huaisang says, like he's been saying it for a while. There's a slight tinge of nerves to his tone, but he seems steadier than the rest of them.

Jiang Cheng stares at him.

"I'm sorry," he's told, "I didn't mean..."

"you were right," Jiang Cheng interjects, only to make it Nie Huaisang's turn to stare blankly at him. He doesn't have the energy or the words to explain, the puzzle, the stupid little joke. He doesn't know if Nie Huaisang would get it. If he'd want him to, or if Jiang Cheng would just be embarrassed.

And then Jiang Cheng's picking himself up.

"I need to get Jin Ling," he explains, and walks off, leaving Nie Huaisang alone.

Jiang Cheng had been joking years ago, but maybe he'd been right and shivers. Or maybe none of them had worked it out and it was best to just not go to the event at all. But that hadn't seemed like an option then- at school then, not getting the invitation then. But wasn't that the point? To think of the answers that didn't seem obvious?

Or maybe Nie Huaisang was right because the shot had gone one way.

"I think you'll be staying at mine," he tells Jin Ling a bit pointlessly, because he's hardly going to go back to the house of a dead man, but he still feels like he should say it.

He kind of wants to ask Jin Ling the same question, he wants to know what he'd say.

An assassin and a politician walk into a wedding... Where do you sit?

It's cruel, he doesn't. He looks at his brother but doesn't say goodbye.

Nie Huaisang is gone when Jiang Cheng walks through the front doors and he's not sure if he's glad about that either.

[madtomedgar]

>_>;

ok so absolutely nobody cares about this but.

in the au i’m never going to write where lxc gets around the issue of lan heirs by cultivating himself into body that would allow him to carry a baby and manages to persuade jgy to have a baby with him. lwj would be so fucking livid. just absolutely incandescently pissed. like the way he would react to seeing jgy would make the way he reacts to seeing jc seem downright friendly. and it would make everything so much worse/fun. because jgy would take this personally in ways that both enhance his guilt here and enhance his anxiety around what the kid’s life is going to be like and how he can’t protect them. and it would cause a rift for the twin jades because like. part of the reason for doing this is so neither of them have to get married to a woman and would wangji really prefer his brother to be stuck in some perfectly appropriate and loveless marriage to some rando? would he like to be the one in that situation? no? then perhaps stop scowling maybe?? and meanwhile lwj is just feeling every bit of bad because like. oh so xiongzhang gets to live out his gross fantasy with one of the people i blame for wei ying’s death meanwhile i must spend the rest of my life alone because no wei ying. oh look jgy is taking his brother away from him even more! oh look lxc is becoming their mother and it’s all jgy’s fault. just. bad times all around for everyone. excellent.

[songofclarity]

I am curious what is your opinion about wen Xu? He is a character we know even less about than wen ruohan in Canon. I think it's strange how wen Xu is the eldest son yet it seems that wen Chao is the one being groomed to become next sect leader (in the discussion conference WC is the one at WRH's side and in charge of the Wen side of the archery competition, also WC is the one in charge of the indoctrination camp and WX is nowhere to be seen) I have a few theories as to why and I wonder what you think about it:

- theory 1: wen Xu is the son of a concubine or mistress while wen Chao is the son of WRH's official wife giving him a higher status even if he's the youngest

- theory 2: WX just wasn't interested in the sect politics and leadership while his brother was, so WC was the one learning to run things while WX was off doing whatever he was interested in

- theory 3: WX didn't get along with the rest of his family and had a strained relationship with WRH and because of that WX was absent often

I think Wen Xu is a very pro-active and loyal member of the Qishan Wen, Anon!

Just to get it out of the way up front: I do not believe Wen Chao was being groomed to be the next sect leader. I think he was being trained for a leadership and management role suiting a child of the Qishan Wen clan. The first time we meet him, he is a junior who is organizing the juniors of the Qishan Wen for an archery event that only allows juniors to participate. When he heads the indoctrination camp, he is a junior who has been given a role of authority over his junior cohort. (It is basically Lord of the Flies and Wen Chao has the conch lol) When he goes to Lotus Pier, we know that he is not the only member of the Qishan Wen to be sent out to establish a supervisory office considering Wen Qing has taken over Yiling.

From what I’ve seen around, a lot of people forget Wen Chao is a junior and thus the popular opinion is that he is coddled and made front-and-center because he is more important than Wen Xu. But that doesn't seem right to me. Babies just get more coddling than older children lol Wen Xu is out in the world taking care of business because he is an adult while Wen Chao stays closer to home under the watchful eye of adults. It’s only when Wen Chao “proves” himself at the indoctrination camp and kills the tortoise of slaughter (who is going to tell Wen RuoHan that he lied? nobody) that he’s sent on his first mission to Lotus Pier, which he messes up immediately and spectacularly by delegating the meet-and-greet to his very vengeful mistress. Wen Xu at least handled Cloud Recesses beautifully (what happens matches with what he reportedly announced he came to do) before finally meeting disaster with the Qinghe Nie.

Theory 1: Wen Xu could be the son of a concubine or mistress! But I don't think who Wen Xu's mother is would make a difference? A child of Wen RuoHan is a child of Sect Leader Wen, and Wen RuoHan is NOT Jin GuangShan (I beg everyone to say that last part with me until it sinks it lol). Wen ZhuLiu shows us that heritage and blood-lines aren't actually all that important to Wen RuoHan when it comes to what makes a family, otherwise he would still be Zhao ZhuLiu. Wen Xu is also plainly identified in canon as Wen RuoHan's eldest son with no other side remark. The rest of the cultivation world freely call them Wen-dogs, so if Wen Xu was anything less than whatever he was supposed to be, I’m sure people would have jumped on it.

More so, that other people in canon talk about how they hope Wen Qing will take over the Wen Sect and how Wen RuoHan does not do things normally actually suggests, to me, that Wen RuoHan wouldn't feel all that contained by which child was born to which wife per tradition. There are work-arounds anyway. Wen Chao has a servant for a mistress, which looks questionable, so how do they fix that? They give Wang LingJiao her own clan and raise her status. Wen Xu is Wen RuoHan's oldest son. By all means he's a loyal and hardworking son, so he's going to be heir as he deserves.

Perhaps if Wen Chao was more competent and his cultivation higher, maybe he could challenge the position for heir? Just like outsiders want Wen Qing to do so? But for now, I don’t see any reason why the heir wouldn’t be Wen Xu.

Theory 2: I disagree. Although if the things Wen Xu was interested in include doing big Wen Sect things and reinforcing Qishan Wen dominance, then I do agree! We don't see Wen Xu at home because he’s the older brother. He has already done all the stuff we see Wen Chao practicing how to do. It's similar to how Lan WangJi was at the Cloud Recesses school while Lan XiChen was off in the Unclean Realm at first, helping Nie MingJue prepare for the discussion conference. Wen Xu isn’t a sect leader yet, so he still has the ability to roam and throw his weight around.

Wen Xu does exactly what he was arguably meant to do at Cloud Recesses and injuring Lan WangJi was because Lan WangJi was getting in the way of his work. Like it’s weird to say, but Wen Xu ordering his men to break Lan WangJi’s leg wasn’t personal. It was strictly business. Wen RuoHan and Wen Xu, of what little we see of them, both possess a composure and maturity that keeps them from going overboard with an excessive use of power. Sadly, Wen Chao lacks that sense and restraint, which is why he shouldn’t have been let lose into the world in the first place...!

Although Wen Xu might actually have been too diligent in his work considering he went to Hejian later. We know that had to have been his own decision considering Wen RuoHan told everyone to, basically, just leave Nie MingJue and the Unclean Realm alone. But Wen Xu ran over there anyway, possibly hoping to take advantage of what the Wens presumed was overconfidence of the Sunshot Campaign. It should have been an easy win in that case, but instead he ended up biting off more than he could chew.

(Maybe he should have listened to his father??)

Theory 3: I’m feeling like a broken record at this point (lol) but I do not believe there is evidence that any Wen had a strained relationship with Wen RuoHan. That is to say no Wen ever accuses Wen RuoHan of being cruel or difficult or threatening or domineering. Wen Qing is proof that Wen RuoHan doesn’t give out unreasonable orders, lest she would have thrown in the towel long ago.

Could Wen Xu have issues with Wen RuoHan for other, personal reasons? Yeah, of course. Look at Lan WangJi who makes Lan QiRen pull his hair out later over breaking the rules. Look at Jiang FengMian, who just neglects what any of his kids wants and makes decisions for them without asking. Considering how Wen RuoHan treats Meng Yao, however, that whole “do as you please” fits perfectly with Wen RuoHan’s personality and the behavior of all the rest of the Wen kids. They are all obedient to the sect but, at the end of the day, they really do as they please--and end up either starting a war or getting their head cut off.

Wen Xu not getting along with the other members of his family is more possible considering how both Wen Qing and Wen ZhuLiu explicitly do not like Wen Chao. Would having an annoying little brother who has an even more annoying mistress keep Wen Xu out of the house? Yes, that's likely! lol

But I do think Wen Xu was simply absent because, as I said, he was off doing Big Important Wen Sect Business out in the world. Like not only did he deal with Cloud Recesses and try to deal with the Qinghe Nie, I suspect Wen Xu might have been our guy who pushed the waterborne abyss towards Caiyi Town, amongst other things. He is in the background keeping the region around Qishan clean and the sects outside of Qishan on their toes.

Nonetheless, I do like him as an antagonist and as a part of the Wen family!

[danmei-trash]

WangXian as Parents Pt 2

A random Jin clan elder: Young Master, the hunt may be dangerous. Do you want more people with you?  JL: No nevermind I can handle this alone  Also JL: Drags his Junior bros and WangXian dads along with him.

LJY once asked WWX to attend the parent teacher’s meeting as his dad

OYZZ and LJY have flaunted their dads in front of all their other friends but they’ll never admit it in front of WangXian

LSZ too has threatened some hard to deal clients using WangXian’s name

LWJ not so indirectly praises all of the Juniors

Random cultivator in a meeting: My kid can kill three demons in one strike! LWJ: My children make friends with the demons The random cultivator: ...  LWJ: try getting on my kids’ level

WWX has paintings of each and every Junior, tucked inside his sleeves and shows those to people every chance he gets.

WWX: *to a waiter in a bar* Yeah the demons are kinda restless nowadays but- *pulling out the paintings*  have you seen how handsome my sons are?

WWX makes funny faces from outside the window during a Lan sect lecture LQR pretends to not notice

LWJ cooks various dishes he has learnt from travelling all around and cooks them for his husband and children

He also allows LJY and JL to eat more than three bowls

LSZ once made a bouquet of flowers for WWX

WWX cried tears of joy on LWJ’s shoulder that night “A-Yuan is so cuttteeeee!!!!! *sobs*”

JL can now tolerate spicy food not to WWX’s level but way more than the others because of his uncle and WWX

LJY and LSZ always feed Lil’ Apple plump and ripe, best quality apples

And because of that, it now never eats what WWX gives it

Lil’ Apple and Fairy are now best of friends

Whenever the Juniors get punished to copy Lan rules, LWJ pretends to not notice that they skipped a few hundred rules

All kids love the classes which are taught by WWX yes LQR allowed it because he’s always making jokes and praising everybody

They also love the classes taught by LWJ because somewhere in the middle of the class he gets lost in WWX’s eyes (who was sitting in the class cause he wanted to see how hot his husband looks while teaching) and that decreases the class duration (also they’re cute as hell so)

LJY and JL once fell asleep on Wen Ning’s shoulder WWX and Wen Ning tried their best not to cry

LJY tried to play WWX’s flute

LQR had to confiscate it WWX had to swear that LJY would never be able to touch it again

The only Junior allowed to touch Chenqing is LSZ because everybody trusts him

LQR allows LSZ to call him grand-uncle

JL used to flaunt that he knew the sword techniques of both Jiang sect and Jin sect but had to shut up because LSZ knows Wen sect, Jiang sect and Lan sect

Seriously LSZ looks like a cinnamon roll but can really kill you in such a way you will regret being born

I mean he is WWX’s son and we all know how he annihilated the Wen clan

LSZ got angry once. Nobody ever wants to get on his bad side now

LJY and JL always fight for the last piece of chicken which LWJ cooks cause that’s the best

And in the mess of the quarrel, WWX manages to eat that piece

LJY and JL didn’t talk to WWX for an entire week until he bought four whole chickens for them to eat alone yes they can eat a lot

WangXian have composed a lullaby to play for the Juniors during night hunts even though they obviously are too old for it (except OYZZ. HE loves it)

OYZZ wants to learn a musical instrument now

They’re the happiest family honestly

Part 1

[ameliarating]

Who would have Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen become if Xue Yang had been taken to Baoshan Sanren’s mountain and Xiao Xingchen had grown up on the streets?

Featuring: a (slightly) more righteous Xue Yang, a (much) more angry Xiao Xingchen, and a long suffering (but much happier) Song Lan who did not sign up for these people in his life.

(an AU brought to you by a conversation I had with @paradife-loft)

So Xue Yang, who was brilliant and resourceful, and possessed of a strong golden core was taken to the mountain and brought up as Baoshan Sanren’s youngest disciple. This does not make him magically and suddenly able to match up the pain and suffering of others with his own. If pressed, he knows that just one of his fingers (of which he has ten!) is worth fifty lives or more, because his fingers are his own and the lives are of others.

But he’s grown up now in a secure environment that fosters and encourages senses of justice and wellbeing. He understands that everyone else in the room has their own sense of self-importance, of being a fully realized person, even if he can’t really get his head around it for others. He also understands that the code by which they live, which values caring for other’s needs and seeing the other as as valuable as the self, (and even to tear down the separations between other and self) has provided him and others with a good, fair life. 

People often thrive on the mountain. He’s thriving. So even though Xue Yang doesn’t really possess an intuitive comprehension of how others have worth and feelings that might even be equal to his own, he can focus on the abstract and philosophical principles that guide him to behave in a manner that suggests he does comprehend it. Even if he doesn’t.

The outwardly imposed sense of ethics takes the place of inner morality.

Now for Xiao Xingchen - he’s not nearly so trusting as he is in canon. He doesn’t possess as bright and clear a sense of right and wrong either. He does try to do what’s right, but it’s more complicated. He absolutely uses his cultivation to steal food and money for himself, to eat and survive. But he also shares more with the other street kids than he can maybe afford.

It marks him out as weak to people who think they can take advantage of him but Xiao Xingchen is naturally strong with a brilliant core (how is he cultivating it? sshhh, it’s pretend) and people don’t tend to think they can take advantage of him more than once. (Especially not since his own hand got run over and many of the people he’d been helping to feed disappeared on him when he needed help. He lost a finger, to the equivalent of the Chang Clan wherever he was, and he stopped being quite as quick to help people.)

At some point as a teenager he’s recruited to be a minor disciple of a cultivation clan, and he took advantage of that to learn and train and he even gets a sword of his own, but it doesn’t take long before he leaves in disgust. He can’t stand the hypocrisy involved. Maybe he even pulls a Mianmian and dramatically removes a sash!

Besides, he’s far less interested in hunts and adventure. He’s more drawn helping spirits and ghosts move on, because he has more of an understanding of why they might be so resentful in the first place. There have been many times in his life where, if he died right then, he would have stuck around to haunt the ones responsible.

Xue Yang is still sharp, is still cruel, is still prone to disproportionate retaliation, but it’s tempered by the philosophy with which he grew up. Xiao Xingchen is still sweet, is still overwhelmingly generous with himself, but he’s much less patient, has more sharp edges.

Xue Yang has a sense of place and security. Not only does he know he matters, but others around him have validated that. They tell him he matters too.

Xiao Xingchen has no place and no security. Even when people in power take an interest in him, he is not just disinterested in politics, he despises it. He feels betrayed by the sects for allowing people to have grown up the way he did. For letting clans like the Chang trample the fingers of disposable children.

So Song Lan has temporarily left Baixue Temple to travel around, to do what he can to help people, to make sure he doesn’t grow used to a state of permanence and place and he runs into Xiao Xingchen who is laying some ghosts to rest with a level of respect and tenderness he doesn’t usually see in cultivators. Especially when they’re the ghosts of nobodies.

He’s taken aback. He impressed. He’s a little smitten.

And he joins in the effort without a word of introduction, and Xiao Xingchen is equally surprised by Song Lan, who is kind and patient and dives into the work that other cultivators don’t bother to do at all. He’s taken aback and impressed and a little smitten as well.

They start traveling together. Song Lan restrains Xiao Xingchen from some of his less legal impulses. He keeps him from making messes of situations that will bring harsh things down on them both. Xiao Xingchen shows Song Lan how so much more of the world works. They introduce each other to new places and new manners of cultivation. They spar together and study together.

Song Lan improves Xiao Xingchen’s literacy and Xiao Xingchen teaches Song Lan how to fight without a sword. They go back to Baixue for a bit and Xiao Xingchen gets some more formal training.

Xue Yang, meanwhile, is bored. There’s a world down there full of things he has only heard about secondhand and he’s a firsthand knowledge kind of guy. Curiosity gets the best of him eventually and he leaves with a beautiful sword (but there’s something just a little off about the sword, not that anyone says anything, Baoshan Sanren gave it to him, after all) and a lot of hunger.

He runs into Xiao Xingchen first. He likes him. He’s angry, and Xue Yang is starting to see that there’s a lot to be angry about. He’s also inherently compassionate and Xue Yang kind of wishes he himself were compassionate person too. 

And Xiao Xingchen is fascinated by Xue Yang. He’s from a completely different world! He still has a cruel streak, and it’s used against everyone, but Xue Yang is traveling around, doing a lot of good, not for himself, not for glory, but just because Xue Yang is convinced that’s what he should be doing in and of itself. It’s what he’s been taught to do. Xiao Xingchen can respect that.

Besides, Xue Yang shares with him a deep disdain for how the world is being run, and between the two of them, there’s an urge to tear that down.

Xue Yang does not like Song Lan. Song Lan is boring, he’s grown up with a far more orthodox interpretation of Daoist philosophy than he has, and he plays by the rules more than Xiao Xingchen does. Worst of all, Xiao Xingchen likes Song Lan too much.

Song Lan does not like Xue Yang. He clocks that cruel streak, he clocks the way he looks at Xiao Xingchen. Xue Yang is cold and doesn’t actually care about the people they’re helping, and sometimes he’s one comment away from hurting the people around them. Hurting them badly. 

Xiao Xingchen likes them both very, very much.

War breaks out, of course. All three of them get out of the way. 

Xue Yang doesn’t care, it’s all a bunch of worldly bullshit. Nothing will change when the next sect rises to power and starts the same cycle of abuse all over again. Baoshan Sanren has warned all her disciples about that.

Xiao Xingchen doesn’t care. All the sects are the same to him and innocent people are getting caught in the middle and that’s the greatest crime. He wouldn’t fight for any of those sects, though sometimes he wants to fight against them all.

Song Lan doesn’t care. It’s not for him to want to change the way the world is run, it’s for him to try and improve upon the lives of as many people as possible in as many small ways as he can. People need him, and he won’t be able to help them if he gets distracted by things like war.

They all get as far away as possible because by this point they’ve all made names for themselves, and many in the sects want them on their side or want them out of the way. They get so far away that they barely notice when the war is over and they start trading dreams about starting their own... something

Song Lan wants to call it a sect.

Xiao Xingchen does not. 

Xue Yang doesn’t have an opinion but he takes Xiao Xingchen’s side because it’s funny what that does to Song Lan.

Whatever it is, their first disciple (not a disciple, she’s a child, she’s a little sister, okay, but we could still call her a disciple, no we could not) is a sharp-tongued girl who they’re all pretty sure isn’t blind? Honestly, it’s hard to say. Xiao Xingchen catches her trying to fleece them. 

She’s going to be the best student ever.