#lotus inn au

[omgpurplefattie]

Tell my muse what to do

The World of the Morning After -- Happy!AU for Ye Baiyi and Rong Changqing from Word of Honor / Tian Ya Ke

Ye Baiyi, wandering aimlessly towards his end after the events of 'Word of Honor', wakes up in his bed at an inn after a night of indulgence, with what appears to be Rong Changqing, long-lost love of his life, alive and naked, asleep in his arms.

He promptly freaks out, but only a little bit, as he is still Ye Baiyi...

Three chapters are up, a detailed outline for 15 chapters exists.

Snuggling With Dead Things -- Sequel to Merely a Cat

Five times people tried to protect Snek the cat from the consequences of his actions from his former life, and the one time they didn’t.

5+1 format; part 1 of the 6 is already written. It has three fierce corpses in Cloud Recesses.

RV Lianhua Lou -- Star Trek AU for Mysterious Lotus Casebook.

Premise: Each sect is a ship (from different cultures; Jinyuan Alliance with their lethal promotions are clearly Klingons, Shan Gudao's people are Romulans), and Lotus Lodge is a small independent research vessel (hence the appellation) like the one they go around in in 'Picard' or (different canon, same principle) Serenity from 'Firefly'. We get a planet of the week style format, with the canonical cases adapted into planets the trio visits. Li Lianhua is a doctor and scientist of mysterious origins, Fang Duobing wants to be in Starfleet, Di Feisheng is an unconventional Klingon. Time frame: TOS movies.

Five paragraphs written, otherwise mostly vibes.

Last Rites -- Post-canon ALoN one-shot

After the end of A League of Nobleman (but before the coda), Zhang Ping and Lan Jue mourn what could have been and what never was. Lan Jue tells the complete backstory of his relationship with Shulin, and they finally decide to call each other by more intimate versions of their names.

1000 words written, detailed outline exists.

[cryoculus]

— masterlist ✧

× all of these contain smut unless stated otherwise

× some fics might contain more plot than porn :’)

× completed (❄️ ) on-going (🧺) coming soon (🎐) 

× personal picks (✨) most popular (🌟) 

★ — ARATAKI ITTO

↳ reparations | 🧺 × tags: modern au, flower shop, comedy, mutual pining, slow burn, no smut

running a business in hanamizaka was one thing—but doing so in the turf of the arataki gang was something else entirely. although, as long as you paid rent on time, they assured that you wouldn't run into any trouble. that's until the boss crashed his motorcycle into your shop, inviting all sorts of trouble along the way.

★ — CHILDE

↳ death sentence | 🎐 × tags: childhood friends, unrequited love, unhealthy relationships, angst

losing him once was a warning. losing him twice was punishment. but losing him a third time was pure catharsis.

↳ sin & tonic | 🎐 × tags: threesome, banter, annoying!childe, established fwb!kaeya

all you wanted was to unwind after two stressful weeks on the job. unfortunately for you, childe and kaeya have other plans.

★ — DAINSLEIF

↳ all in a day's work | 🎐 × tags: caretaking, introspection, no smut

your inn is widely famous among a variety of people. from the scholars of sumeru to the merchants of liyue, you've certainly built a good reputation for yourself. when your workers bring in a half-dead outlander, though, you arrive at quite an impasse.

★ — DILUC

↳ happy accidents | 🎐 × tags: friends to lovers, banter

being kindred spirits in solitude, a quiet evening away from the festivities is just what you and your good friend, diluc needed. until you accidentally fell into a lake and made your night ten times worse (read: better).

↳ paradoxical | 🎐 × tags: love triangle, childhood friends, pining, unrequited love, angst

in which you think fleeing to a different city is an acceptable coping mechanism, and how the two most important men in your life prove you wrong in the most convoluted manner possible.

★ — KAEYA

↳ paradoxical | 🎐 × tags: love triangle, childhood friends, pining, unrequited love, angst

in which you think fleeing to a different city is an acceptable coping mechanism, and how the two most important men in your life prove you wrong in the most convoluted manner possible.

↳ sin & tonic | 🎐 × tags: threesome, banter, annoying!childe, established fwb!kaeya

all you wanted was to unwind after two stressful weeks on the job. unfortunately for you, childe and kaeya have other plans.

↳ tangled up | 🎐 × tags: modern au, one night stands, teacher!reader, no smut

the one where you have connections in all the wrong places, and the parties involved aren't exactly making things easier for you.

★ — KAMISATO AYATO

↳ lotus eater | ❄️ × tags: established relationship, fluff, no smut

you’ve been by Ayato’s side 5 out of the 26 years he’s been blessed with today and you intend to stay until the very last one.

↳ thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife | ❄️ × tags: established relationship, resolved sexual tension

thoma was taught to only take what’s reasonably given to him. but what if ayato offers something he can’t refuse?

★ — THOMA

↳ guard dog | ❄️✨ × tags: enemies to lovers, found family, slow burn

you’re a skilled mercenary who takes odd jobs all around inazuma to make ends meet. so when the shogunate hires you to assassinate the lady of the kamisato clan, you don’t think much of it. that’s until you grossly miscalculate how good of a guard dog her chief retainer actually is.

↳ thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife | ❄️ × tags: established relationship, resolved sexual tension

thoma was taught to only take what’s reasonably given to him. but what if ayato offers something he can’t refuse?

★ — XIAO

↳ imagine being loved by me! | ❄️🌟 × tags: childhood friends to lovers, tattoo artist!xiao, angst

the one where your best friend gives you ten tattoos over the next ten years. the problem? you fall deeper in love each time the ink stains your skin.

★ — ZHONGLI

↳ dream a little (dream of me) | ❄️✨ × tags: modern au, office au, succubi & incubi, past lives, angst

you're a modern-day succubus just trying to get by, and your superior, mister zhongli is next on your hit-list. but every time you invade his dreams, he becomes someone else entirely…

© cryoculus | kaientai ✧ all rights reserved. do not repost or translate my work on other platforms without permission.

[i-would-like-some-tea]

The White Lotus Gambit/ 50 years early AU

Atla AU: 50 years into the war, two young Water Tribe women find a boy frozen in an iceberg. A runaway northern noble and the south’s last waterbending master embark on a long and dangerous journey with their new friend who might be the world’s only hope. Hot on their heels is a prince looking for his destiny and running from the reality of his broken family. The Avatar will meet friends old and new and in the shadows grows the White Lotus.

Book 1: Duty

Book 2: Family

Aboard the crown prince’s ship, bound for the Fire Nation, Kuzon plans treason and is approached by his son Piandao, who has figured out his dad is planning something and wants in. He tells him about the White Lotus and that he hoped to one day sway the prince to their side. He believes the boy is a good person at heart but right now he’s still much too unquestioningly loyal and caught up in the Fire Nation’s ideology.

While making port in a colony in the northern Earth Kingdom, Kuzon breaks Aang out of the ship’s hold with his son’s help and they go undercover, making their way towards the abandoned city of Taku, where a friend will be awaiting them.

Meanwhile, in the Northern Water Tribe’s capital, a letter arrives, carrying a message encoded in Pai Sho terms. Yuruk tells his daughter, her friend and his protégé (and sadly no longer future son in law) to take Appa and fly to Taku to meet up with allies.

Before they leave, he gives Pakku a White Lotus tile and tells him the basics about the secret organization without the girls present. Kanna can tell something is being kept from her and it’s driving her crazy.

The Water Tribe crew gets a bit lost in the vast woodlands of Pohuai territory and run into Wu again, this time alone. 

She tells them, she had a fight with her dad - being disgraced nobles from Ba Sing Se, they had started out half a year ago with a substantial amount of money between them that was supposed to get them through for a while but he had managed to burn through it within a few months which is why she had started earning money with parlor tricks and roadside fortune telling. 

After she met them, she wanted to do something to help the Earth Kingdom with the war effort while he tried to convince her to find a well off husband far away from the front lines. A week ago, she just left him at the inn they had been staying at and set off on her own. She joins them.

The groups converge in Taku, or rather at the herbalist institute within the former governor’s palace facing the abandoned city on the opposite side of the valley.

The White Lotus contact they were meeting is Lady Su Ji, cousin to King Bumi of Omashu, who officially holds the title of governor of Taku (which has been under the stewardship of Omashu for centuries but since the city had been abandoned for nearly as long after a series of earthquakes and plagues, it’s really more of a symbolic title…) and has been living there as a hermit only with her plants and cats as company.

When Kanna finally learns about the White Lotus she is furious. Hama has to physically hold her back from strangling Pakku and she challenges him to a game of Pai Sho where she proceeds to kick his ass on the game board

Su Ji/ Crazy Herbalist Lady arranges to smuggle Aang and his friends, now including Piandao and Wu, safely to Omashu where he can start his earthbending training under King Bumi. 

Kuzon will not be going with him, he is going to be busy mobilizing the White Lotus - there is going to be a solar eclipse a year from now, that would be the perfect opportunity to strike a counter offensive against the Fire Nation. 

Pakku decides to go with Kuzon, keen to escape the awkward company of his (still-super-mad-at-him) ex and her maybe?probably-girlfriend…

In Omashu, Aang finally gets to reunite with his old friend Bumi. The next four months are spent in a training montage...

Meanwhile, the Fire Nation is frantically searching for the Avatar and the traitors who helped him escape.

Just a few days after losing Aang, however, Iroh receives devastating news - his mother, Fire Lady Ilah died shortly after giving birth to his baby brother and he is being summoned back to the palace for her funeral.

The official missive is accompanied by unofficial whispers about how the Fire Lord has apparently not been seen in public since her death and the new prince hasn’t been announced to court yet despite almost a month having passed since his birth.

Iroh hurries back home, the Avatar suddenly not his number one priority anymore. The search is delegated to newly promoted General Jeong Jeong.

At home, Iroh finds Fire Lord Azulon grieving and bitter and unable to look at his newborn son whom he blames for Ilah’s death. Iroh, meanwhile, also has to grapple with the betrayal of his mentor and his best friend. He tries to be a good son and older brother but it’s hard.

After a few months back at the palace, his mind starts drifting back to the Avatar and he starts getting an overwhelming feeling of connected destiny. He starts burying himself in research and, thinking about when Aang appeared to him in his astral body, he starts trying to meditate into the spirit world, determined to get the hang of this trick himself.

Meanwhile, rumors of the Avatar’s whereabouts do eventually get out and reach Fire Nation ears. Jeong Jeong mobilizes the troops under his command to lay siege to Omashu.

Bumi gets the Gaang out of the city in time but stays behind, saying that he taught Aang enough that he can keep training by himself for now and his people need him. He recommends that he seek out the sandbenders of the Si Wong desert, learn some of their techniques as well, and start looking into mastering the Avatar State. They should also eventually head to Ba Sing Se to try and recruit the Earth King’s armies to their cause.

In the desert, they are taken in by the Hami tribe, where they meet a young girl named Jia, who turns out to secretly be an airbender. 

They stay with the tribe for a few weeks and Aang learns some sandbending. 

They also get to know Jia a little better: her mother had been part of a small group of surviving eastern Air Nomads hiding in a small town at the edge of the Si Wong desert, her father had been a sandbender of the Hami tribe with airbender ancestry. She had spent her early childhood with her family in the airbender hideout until, one day, they were discovered and the entire village was burned down. Jia had been the only one to survive because she had been on a trade run to a neighboring Oasis with her dad. When he noticed the smoke on their way back, he told her to take their glider and flee into the desert to his tribe while he returned to the village alone to see if there was any hope of saving his wife and the others - that was the last time she saw him and she had to hide her bending from everyone except her uncle ever since. 

She is overjoyed when Aang offers to teach her proper airbending.

There are tales of a massive spirit library hidden away in the desert nearby and Piandao suggests to go looking for it in hope of finding answers on how to control the Avatar state.

They do indeed find the library and are permitted entry after some haggling with the great Wan Shi Tong. They find a scroll written by someone called Guru Sham a couple centuries ago. He talks about reaching spiritual enlightenment through guided meditation and unlocking one’s chakras and mentions having assisted the Avatar of his era in attaining the same. 

The name is somewhat familiar to Jia - she believes one of her Air Nomad aunties mentioned it in one of her stories, he seemed to have been an important figure in the history of the Eastern Air Temple.

They fly east to follow up on that lead. During the trip, Aang starts trying the meditation exercises described by Guru Sham. In the spirit world, he has a run in with Iroh - let operation “forcibly befriend the villain by abducting him on spirit play dates” begin!

The Eastern Air Temple seems abandoned at first, but they can’t shake the feeling of being watched…

Eventually, their little shadow steps out and introduces himself: he’s Arun, a non-bender from what remains of the people who used to live below the Air Temple. When the Fire Nation attacked, they burned much of the forest below but some of the ground dwelling people still managed to escape and settlements further away from the Temple were spared. They took in some airbenders that had managed to flee but when it became apparent that the Fire Nation was still combing the area looking for survivors, most of them left. 

Jia realises that was probably her mother’s group. The only airbenders still hiding out among Arun’s people are two old women, one of which has almost completely lost her bending due to spiritual stagnation. Arun takes them to their temporary village (they move around regularly) and Aang meets Guru Pathik, who welcomes him like he has been expecting his arrival and they begin Aang’s spiritual training.

Meanwhile, after occupying Omashu, Jeong Jeong follows the Gaang’s trail with his Avatar-hunting task force.

Kuzon and Pakku spent the past half year traveling the southern Earth Kingdom on what can only be described as the most awkward buddy comedy road trip of all time (long story short: Pakku gets practically force fed all the respect women juice on Kyoshi Island, gets laughed at by swamp benders for calling himself a master without knowing even the most basic healing and Kuzon repeatedly kicks his ass at Pai Sho, insists on exchanging bending techniques and basically adopts him). 

While at the Misty Palms Oasis to check in with the White Lotus contacts there, they are recognized and ratted out to the Fire Nation.

Kuzon faces them so Pakku can flee and is arrested and sent to the Fire Nation Capital to be tried as a traitor.

Pakku hurries towards the Eastern Air Temple where he was told the Avatar and his friends were last headed to warn them.

He finds them in time and they leave, deciding this would be a good time to head to Ba Sing Se, even though Piandao is distraught at the news of his father being captured. This also leaves Aang without a firebending teacher for now…

[demoniqt]

Remarried Series Part 2: As the West Wind Blows

Note: You can find Part 1 here. I recommend reading that first for context. This Part revolves around the pairing SQQ (SJ) / LQG instead. There’s also warning of attempted non-con in later chapters. So bewarned!

Summary:

AU of the Remarried Empress series. SQQ never met TLJ. Instead, he leaves Yue Manor on his own and contemplates his future. In the meantime, Liu Qingge rushes to offer him a place to be recognised for his own achievements.

Liu Qingge looked up at the inn's nameboard, making sure that he had the correct location.

The cool night wind was making the lanterns that hung from the rafters swing like they were welcoming him. Answering the silent call, he entered the inn and was immediately approached by the keeper.

"My Lord, how can I help you? A room to stay or a room to dine?" asked the inn owner.

"I'm here to find someone," Liu Qingge told him. "Is there a Shen Qingqiu staying here at the moment?"

He already knew that this was where the former First Husband of Yue Qingyuan was staying but was gratified nonetheless when the inn owner nodded quickly.

"Master Shen is staying here," he said. "He's in the gardens right now. Would you like me to lead you there?"

"Yes," he answered, letting the man send a servant to inform the guest first.

"Master Shen is certainly a popular figure," the inn owner commented as they walked down the pathway towards the gardens. "He's only been staying here for the last three days and three nobles have already called on him."

Immediately alert, Liu Qingge asked, "What were their business with Shen Qingqiu?"

"Oh, I don't know," answered the inn owner, looking surprised at his line of question. "I just know that Master Shen has been hosting them in the gardens instead of the meeting rooms."

In a public place instead of a private room? Where anyone can just hear their conversations? Either Shen Qingqiu believed that he had nothing to hide or he did not trust his callers.

Liu Qingge took out a silver tael silently and the innkeeper immediately folded to his unspoken question.

"I heard from my servers that Lord Jin wants to take Master Shen as his First Consort, Lieutenant Colonel Gongyi wants to marry him as well though as his official spouse, while Chancellor Yun wants Master Shen to go to Qishan to negotiate with King Wen over the salt trade," the innkeeper informed him.

Liu Qingge contemplated the information that had been delivered. He knew that Lord Jin Guangshan was a philanderer who coveted beauties and he wasn't surprised at all that the flagrant pervert would target the newly divorced Shen Qingqiu.

Lieutenant Colonel Gongyi Xiao was a surprise though, considering the youth was younger than Shen Qingqiu by nearly a decade and was just gaining fame amongst the military circle. Liu Qingge didn't know what he thought he could gain from marrying a notorious divorcé, especially when it would not bode well for his reputation. The rumours amidst the noble circle often painted Shen Qingqiu as a cunning schemer and even Liu Qingge at one point had been convinced of it.

The information about Chancellor Yun though, was more worrying than the others. Shen Qingqiu would most likely take that offer, since becoming an ambassador of their court was a better choice than any spousal position. However, Liu Qingge also knew that King Wen Ruohan would likely try to keep Shen Qingqiu permanently in Qishan.  

"We're here, Lieutenant General Liu," the innkeeper said, gesturing to the pavilion built over the lotus pond.

Liu Qingge crossed the bridge, coming upon the beautiful garden pavilion without shifting his gaze from the person he came to meet.

"Lieutenant General Liu," Shen Qingqiu greeted him.

Under the glowing moonlight and the glittering stars, Shen Qingqiu, in his pale green robes, looked like an immortal deity that descended upon the lotus pond.

***

Liu Qingge first heard of Shen Qingqiu a few months after Lord Yue's marriage to the commoner.

"I heard he was a servant of Yue Manor and he climbed into the Lord's bed one night and seduced him," whispered a nobleman sitting near him.

Liu Qingge tried to ignore the conversations around him but the susurrus of voices continued abuzz.

"No. No. I heard he's a courtesan from the Red Light district that caught Lord Yue's eye," whispered another gossiper.

"Lord Yue doesn't go to the brothel. Don't be ridiculous," returned another voice. "That Shen Qingqiu is a commoner from the streets. Most likely he used his pretty face to service men in the alley ways."

There was crude laughter and Liu Qingge, disgusted by the talk, left the pavilion to go for a walk elsewhere.

However, the talk of Shen Qingqiu didn't end even months after that.

The next he heard of Yue Qingyuan's husband was when there was an alleged attack on another noble, Lord Jin Guangshan, who claimed that Shen Qingqiu had pushed him into the koi pond when he'd come upon him admiring the colours of the imported fish.

"I only greeted him and he glared at me and pushed me in!"

Apparently, according to rumours, Shen Qingqiu had looked down upon him with contempt and walked away, offering no help nor any explanation on why he had done it.

"Such crude behaviour! No wonder people call him a loathsome commoner!"

"Didn't he also threaten Lady Qin the other day for merely looking at Lord Yue?"

"What a jealous spouse! Poor Lord Yue, stuck with such a disgraceful husband!"

"Hmph, he also tricked Minister Li, didn't he? Made him admit to laundering the funds for the flood relief. Who knows whether its really true or not?"

"Yes, because of that, Lord Yue was bestowed the lands and properties of Minister Li, wasn't he?

"That Shen Qingqiu must have really benefited from that greatly."

What a despicable person, Liu Qingge thought to himself upon hearing the rumours circulating around.

Then he thought no more of the disreputable First Husband of Lord Yue Qingyuan.

Never once did he contemplate the truth beyond the rumours.

At least, not until his father pointed it out for him.

***

The borders keeping out the barbarians were kept in check by several key passes and fortresses which were guarded tightly by the armies of the four generals.

Unfortunately, one of the passes, Yonghu Pass, was attacked one night in an ambush and was summarily seized by the barbarians. It allowed them to cut off access to one of the larger strongholds, which meant that the defense line had been breached.

The Liu army, one of the largest in the empire, was immediately dispatched to wrestle back both the pass and the stronghold. As they travelled, Liu Qingge and his father discussed on the strategies that they could deploy and upon inspection of the map, his father fell silent. He stared at the map for a moment before he pointed at a particular cliff not too far from the fortress.

"This place, its the best place to launch an ambush," Liu Fangzhao said suddenly.

"What do you mean? This is too far from the Yonghu Pass' checkpoint," Liu Qingge commented, frowning at the map himself.

"Before we left the palace, I came across Master Shen Qingqiu, the husband of Lord Yue Qingyuan. He made a comment about how he visited Yonghu Pass once with his husband a few years ago. He mentioned the canyon leading to the pass being an easy ambush point," Liu Fangzhao explained. "I didn't understand what he meant at that time. But seeing the map now, it's clear that he meant cutting off the supply chain and reinforcements from that point will be pivotal to winning back Yonghu Pass."

"Shen Qingqiu," Liu Qingge repeated the name, remembering all the unsavory gossip about the official spouse of Yue Qingyuan. "Is what he said reliable?"

His father studied the map deeper, clearly remembering the terrain in his mind's eye. "Yes, yes. I believe what he said is true."

"Is he trustworthy though?" Liu Qingge questioned again.

Liu Fangzhao gave him a look, "Why would you think that he is untrustworthy?"

"The rumours...," Liu Qingge said hesitantly.

"Are more reliable?" Liu Fangzhao questioned him back. "Even if you do not trust the words of Shen Qingqiu, does the words of your old father reassure you instead?"

"I will gather the men," Liu Qingge said to his father before leaving to do so. He might not trust Shen Qingqiu's words but if his father had confidence in the strategy, he would not question it further.

"Yonghu Pass," his father muttered to himself as he continued to contemplate the map, "What else did he say? An underground river?"

It took two months before the barbarians attempted to break through their front in a bid to escape the stronghold, which was firmly surrounded by their soldiers.

By that point, the Liu army had cut off their supply chain and spiked their water source. The opposing army was starved, thirsty and sickly, with their provisions having run out for over three weeks. They fought like mad men, crazed from hunger and desperation.

They might not have used the most honorable tactics in Liu Qingge's eyes, but it was an easy battle for the Liu army that day.  

***

Liu Qingge finally met Shen Qingqiu for the first time when they returned to the capital to be rewarded for their successful recapture of Yonghu Pass and Tangxi Fortress.

If he had a choice, Liu Qingge would never have gone to the banquet since he didn't like social gatherings that required him to rub elbows with annoying, pompous nobles who had never seen the battlefields. But his father had given him a look when he said that it was compulsory for both of them to be present and Liu Qingge was forced to comply to his father's wishes.

"Master Shen," greeted Liu Fangzhao as they approached a lithe young man dressed in green silk robes embroidered with the pattern of golden bamboo leaves. When Shen Qingqiu turned to them, Liu Qingge could understand why despite all the unsavory gossip, he was still renown foremost as a beauty.  

Shen Qingqiu opened his fan to cover the lower half of his face while inspecting them with sharp jade eyes before recognition set in.  

"General Liu," he greeted Liu Fangzhao, then to Liu Qingge, "Lieutenant General Liu."

He was using the new title that Liu Qingge had just been appointed with, something that the other nobles hadn't even had the courtesy of using. They kept calling him by his old title, Colonel, and commenting on how his youth kept making them forget that they should call him Lieutenant General now. It was an obvious dig at his age and it was only because Liu Qingge did not care for his title that he didn't call them out on their disrespectful behaviour.

"Your comment on the terrain at Yonghu Pass helped us regain the stronghold," Liu Fangzhao said with a smile on his face.

But Shen Qingqiu's expression did not change, as if he was waiting for something else. Nor did he reply to the statement made by Liu Qingge's father.

Liu Fangzhao coughed after a moment of awkward silence, "That is to say, we were only successful thanks to your contribution, Master Shen."

"Oh," Shen Qingqiu said, blinking in surprise. "You're... welcome."

It occurred suddenly to Liu Qingge that maybe Shen Qingqiu wasn't used to being shown gratitude for his advices. Perhaps he had expected Liu Qingge's father to criticise him for commenting on issues beyond his scope of responsibilities. A husband of a lord had no business meddling in the matters of the army general, after all.

As Shen Qingqiu left, Liu Qingge stared after him, noting the way other nobles gave way to him, as if avoiding him like he was diseased.

For some reason, his figure painted a very lonely picture.

***

"Father?"

Liu Fangzhao didn't reply him, so intent on the scroll before him that he didn't even hear his son's call.

"Father?"

"Oh, hm? Qingge," Liu Fangzhao said, looking up from the scroll. "What is it?"

"What are you reading? You didn't even hear me come in," Liu Qingge said as he stepped closer to his father's table.

Liu Fangzhao lifted the scroll and turned it around for him to read the title.

"The Thirty-Two Foreign Formations," Liu Qingge read aloud. "What is this?"

"This is a study of the past military formations usually used by the invaders," his father said. "The formations has changed over time but the root of the arrays can be traced back to these designs. The author has studied the strengths and weaknesses of these formations, emphasising its usage depending on the terrain of the battlefield and the manpower available. It is a fascinating read."

"Indeed," Liu Qingge commented, pulled in by the writing. He briefly glanced at the name of the author and paused.

"Shen Qingqiu?" he read before looking up at his father. "The writer is Shen Qingqiu."

Liu Fangzhao nodded as he sipped his lukewarm tea and made a face.

"From my limited conversations with that child, I surmise that he is very gifted in war strategies and literature. It is a pity that his birthright is so lowly," Liu Fangzhao commented, but without the usual contempt that most nobles adopted. "It has hindered any acknowledgement of his brilliance and hard work in favour of his Lord husband's achievements."

In other words, whatever achievements that Shen Qingqiu had was accredited to Yue Qingyuan. But whatever faults he had was his alone. It hardly seem fair to Liu Qingge, but he didn't say that aloud. Likely, his father shared the same sentiment.

"If he wasn't married to Lord Yue and had taken the Imperial Exams, he could have become an official," Liu Qingge commented.

"Likely," his father agreed. "But without a wealthy patron, he wouldn't have risen very high and it would likely take a long time before he gained any post of significance. His marriage to Lord Yue guarantees a better life in the long run."

Does it though?

Shen Qingqiu hadn't seemed very happy the last few times Liu Qingge had laid eyes on him. His expression was usually cold and he rarely smiled, if he ever did so in Liu Qingge's presence. He was usually alone, even when sitting amongst fellow spouses, and only seemed to get along with foreign dignitaries who was unfamiliar with his reputation in court.

His husband, Lord Yue, was renown as a genial noble, said to be too soft and doting on his infamous spouse. It was said that he seldom punishes Shen Qingqiu for any infractions. Even when his husband pushed Lord Jin into the koi pond, Lord Yue had just apologised on his behalf and presented an ore mine to the other noble as compensation for his misdeed.

Whenever Liu Qingge saw them together, Shen Qingqiu would look at no one else and attended to his Lord husband diligently as a spouse should. In turn, Lord Yue never indicate that he was dissatisfied with his husband in anyway.

Or at least, that was what Liu Qingge had assumed.

***

The next time he met Shen Qingqiu was during the banquet celebrating the peace treaty with Qishan, which had been in turmoil with the empire for the past decade.

King Wen, who was the maternal uncle of Emperor Huang, had finally conceded to peacefully settle their differences and arrived at the palace as a guest of honour.

During the banquet, Shen Qingqiu had performed a solo dance with cherry blossoms scattered beneath his bare feet. It would have been unseemly but his simple, unadorned white silk robes lent him an air of purity and grace. The light green sash he wrapped around his elbows flowed like an undulating river as he twirled on the stage, kicking up petals that filled the hall with a floral scent.

Liu Qingge remembered sitting at the front table with his father, feeling the soft touch of the cherry blossom petals as it rained upon him.

For a moment, Shen Qingqiu looked like a heavenly fairy dancing upon a flower field.

It was much later after the banquet that Liu Qingge found out that, originally, it was supposed to be a joint performance with selected spouses of the nobles. However, the other spouses had singled Shen Qingqiu out, calling him pompous and unwilling to cooperate.

They'd forced him to perform alone in an attempt to humiliate him.

Only, he'd done so well that Emperor Huang had gifted him with a kingfisher hairpin.

Hearing how the other spouses had seethed with jealousy after that made Liu Qingge feel smug on behalf of Shen Qingqiu.

But the Emperor wasn't the only one that had been impressed with the performance.

Liu Qingge had caught sight of King Wen's expression during the performance. The King's face had been filled with rapture and fascination. And even after the performance, when Shen Qingqiu had joined Yue Qingyuan at his table to serve his Lord husband, King Wen had continuously shot covetous glances at Shen Qingqiu.

He was also pretty sure that wily Chancellor Yun knew that King Wen would snatch Shen Qingqiu up immediately if he so much as stepped foot into Qishan.

The court could then kick up a fuss for having their 'ambassador' abducted and demand compensation in the form of the salt trade agreement. And likely, the wealthy King would allow it if he got to keep his prize; Shen Qingqiu as his newest concubine.  

Which was why Liu Qingge couldn't afford to let Shen Qingqiu go to Qishan.

He knew that Shen Qingqiu would never return if he did.

***

"Yue Qingyuan divorced Shen Qingqiu!!?"

Liu Qingge couldn't believe his ears when Yang Yixuan reported it to him. His assistant nodded in confirmation.

"Master Shen left Yue Manor three days ago," the youth confirmed.

"Why? And where is he now?" Liu Qingge questioned, slamming down the documents he was reading.

"Uhm, I heard it's because Second Wife Qi is with child and Lord Yue wanted to legitimise his heir. Oh, I think Master Shen is in Jinyang Inn," his assistant answered. "At least, that was what Ning Yingying told me when I ran across her at the market. She was contemplating leaving Yue Manor too, to continue following Master Shen as his servant."

Without further thought, Liu Qingge left his table, ignoring Yang Yixuan's spluttering protestation. He grabbed his cloak on the way out, the autumn weather was getting too cold even for him.

How could Yue Qingyuan just divorce his husband and throw him out on his own when winter was just approaching? What was that man thinking? Did he not love Shen Qingqiu? Everyone in court had harped on and on about how doting he was towards his husband, even when he had taken on a second spouse. They had said that he practically spoiled Shen Qingqiu, allowing him to act as he pleased.

So how could he do this to his husband of ten years? Just to legitimise a child? When he could have just had Shen Qingqiu adopt the child to give him legitimacy?

Liu Qingge couldn't understand it.

The amount of humiliation that Shen Qingqiu had to go through because of that... he couldn't even imagine it.

Regardless, Liu Qingge was not an ungrateful person. Shen Qingqiu had helped his father and himself multiple times, even if the man never realised it.

He can't let the man go without a patron or protector. Shen Qingqiu was too well-known to be left alone. He was relatively sure that if Shen Qingqiu was left without protection, he would be abducted by unsavory men for objectionable purposes.

By hook or by crook, even if he had to resort to tactics that he didn't like, Liu Qingge had to convince Shen Qingqiu to return home with him.

*****

"I want you to come to the borderlands with us to take a role as our advisor."

To say that Shen Qingqiu was surprised by the offer was an understatement. Liu Qingge was the last person he'd expected to call on him after all, considering their previous interactions.

Shen Qingqiu looked down at the rippling water, feeling a pang of disappointment. He had honestly thought that the man was more honorable than this. Perhaps he had overestimated him. Or perhaps his disappointment with Yue Qingyuan had coloured his interactions with all men now.

Ever since he left Yue Manor, there had been various offers arriving in the form of letters and guests, all hoping to take advantage of his vulnerable state.

Lord Jin Guangshan, who had been the one to come onto him years ago and was subsequently pushed into the koi pond by him, had been the first to come sniffing after him the day after he left Yue Manor. The pompous oaf seriously thought that he was so desperate for protection that he would gladly accept his offer to become his concubine.

As if.

The man had been so shocked when he declined immediately and sent him off without a moment of hesitation. He'd even had the gall to threaten Shen Qingqiu when he left.

"You'd never be able to escape the capital! I'll make sure of it!" the stupid man had shouted as he stormed off.

Shen Qingqiu knew regardless of the threat that he wouldn't be able to leave the capital anyway. Not when Yue Qingyuan still continued to send men to monitor him as well as bombarding him with continuous letters of apology and gifts. That man had always been like that, see sawing between loving Shen Qingqiu and resenting him for being a reminder of their dark past.

It was so unfair. It wasn't as if Shen Qingqiu asked for any of this.

For all their sakes, it would be better for Shen Qingqiu to completely cut ties with Yue Qingyuan.

However, knowing his ex-husband, Yue Qingyuan would probably only last another week before attempting to force him back to Yue Manor in the guise of 'caring' for him. So he had a limited amount of time to make his decision, as the only way he could completely cut ties with his ex-husband was to remarry or to leave the capital with the support of an influential figure.

As such, he had been contemplating Chancellor Yun's offer to become an ambassador when he received a notification that Liu Qingge was requesting for a meeting with him.

"Why are you offering me this role?" Shen Qingqiu asked the lieutenant general.

"Your dissertation on the enemies' formations helped us win quite a few battles," Liu Qingge answered. "Your counsel at the borderlands would greatly assist us in our efforts to protect our country, and if possible, promote our advancement in widening our borders."

When Shen Qingqiu kept quiet, silently pouring tea for the lieutenant general, Liu Qingge continued, "My father spoke highly of you. He said that you would an asset to us if you should choose to follow us into the battlefield. In fact, he would be here himself if he could. As it is, he has already left for the west and I was planning to join him the day after tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow," Shen Qingqiu repeated and Liu Qingge nodded.

"Yes," Liu Qingge confirmed.

"Then that would leave me with very little time to think on this offer," Shen Qingqiu said and Liu Qingge quickly backtracked.

"Please take your time to contemplate my offer," the lieutenant general said hastily, who clearly had not thought things through. Did he think that Shen Qingqiu would give him an immediate answer without thinking on it?

"I was only planning to go the day after tomorrow. If Master Shen requires more time to think, I will gladly wait for your answer," Liu Qingge reassured him.

The change in attitude was certainly surprising and at the same time, gratifying. Shen Qingqiu would have thought that the man would be too arrogant to wait for an answer from a jilted commoner like him. It would be par for the course for some young noble like him after all.

But thinking on it, it was as if Liu Qingge didn't remember their first meeting and what he did...

Shen Qingqiu had just married Yue Qingyuan then and was still getting used to the changes in his life. He'd just transitioned from being a street rat to a noble by marriage, so he'd been a little unused to the priviledges afforded him in his new position.

He was wearing silk robes that day, soft and smooth to the touch and embroidered with his favourite bamboo leaves motives at the edges. It was a little plain for someone his station but Shen Qingqiu preferred simple elegance to ostentatious luxury. He was just making his first visit with Yue Qingyuan to the teahouse commonly visited by nobles.

When Yue Qingyuan had left him to admire the blooming peonies, he came across a group of the young nobles.  

Liu Qingge, who was still a Lieutenant Colonel then, had glanced at him once and dismissed him, like he was a mere servant. The other nobles had eyed him for a moment before telling him to sit down to make them a new pot of tea.

They called him a tea server, even though he was more well-dressed than one of those pretty maidens that served as a tea maker.

Humiliated, Shen Qingqiu had left the teahouse and later, Yue Qingyuan returned alone to gently reprimand him for not informing him of his departure before leaving.

Thinking back, Yue Qingyuan probably meant that Shen Qingqiu shouldn't have left without his permission, even if he didn't word it that way.

Ah, thinking of that man never stopped making his heart throb with pain. Fortunately for him, he had already cried out his eyes the night before in his inn room so there was no chances of him suddenly dissolving into tears in front of Liu Qingge.

Brushing away any further thought of his ex-husband, Shen Qingqiu returned to the conversation at hand.

"I will think on it and give you an answer by tomorrow night," Shen Qingqiu promised. "If you could, please send a contract detailing the description of my responsibilities as your advisor."

Liu Qingge nodded in agreement, "I came out in a rush so I have not prepared anything. For that, I apologise. I will draft out the contract and send it to you as soon as possible."

Huh, that was easier than Shen Qingqiu had expected.

It was as if Liu Qingge really wanted desperately for him to say yes.

***

Liu Qingge had never been an anxious person but he spent the next day feeling antsy, barely able to sit down at his office table for five minutes before feeling the need to stand up and pace.  

He'd finished the contract the night before and sent it early that morning at dawn, hoping to let Shen Qingqiu know how serious he was with his proposition.

"Master," Yang Yixuan called out, handing some letters to him.

Liu Qingge took it and look through them but none of them seemed important. The few personal letters from other nobles, marriage proposals to their daughters or such, were immediately thrown into the fire crackling merrily in the brazier. He never bothered replying them, which was par for the course for him, so the nobles knew not to expect any return letters from him.

Itching to do more, he picked up his sword and headed out into the training grounds.

The physical exercise did help ease his restless mind but as evening approached, he realised how much he stank of sweat and how unpresentable he looked. He made it a point to return home to clean up before he headed to the inn to call on Shen Qingqiu once more.

This time, the innkeeper did not approach him, being preoccupied with a few customers, so Liu Qingge headed towards the gardens on his own. He didn't need anyone to guide him as the moon was shining brightly that night, illuminating the pathways and giving everything a dreamy glow.

It didn't take long before he heard voices in the garden, one of which he recognised as Shen Qingqiu's. The other...

"The cloak you sewn, I've received it. It is beautiful."  

"I'm sure your new wife can do a better job than this," Shen Qingqiu replied in a cold and dismissive tone. "She is the perfect First Wife after all."

As Liu Qingge suspected, it was Yue Qingyuan who was at the garden with Shen Qingqiu. Liu Qingge stopped behind a pillar, watching suspiciously as Yue Qingyuan continued;

"Are you well? You look so pale."

"My health is no longer of your concern," Shen Qingqiu retorted, turning away and looking irritated at the presence of his ex-husband. If Liu Qingge hadn't seen the unshed tears Shen Qingqiu had in his eyes the night before, he too would have been fooled by his act.

"How can you say that? A-Jiu, I still love you. Just come home. You can continue staying in your courtyard. I've already asked the servants to clean and restock the Bamboo courtyard for you," Yue Qingyuan said gently.

"Oh? How generous of you. Previously, you were offering the back courtyard, the one for old, unwanted concubines? What's the change for? That's what I am, isn't it?"

"I've reflected on my words," Yue Qingyuan said in a regretful tone. "I know I was wrong to offer that place to you. I'll make it up to you."

"You always say that, but nothing will change. Well, except my status. Because now I'm not even an official spouse, am I?"

"A-Jiu, I'm sorr-" Yue Qingyuan implored, reaching out for Shen Qingqiu who flinched away.

"It is improper for you to touch me, Lord Yue. We are no longer married."

"I know I am in the wrong, but I swore I would care for you, so just come home," Yue Qingyuan said, almost begging.

"You also swore that you will love no one else, but we both know how that went," Shen Qingqiu answered spitefully.

Liu Qingge stood at the corner of the pathway, watching as Yue Qingyuan tried to take a hold of Shen Qingqiu's hand once more but was rebuffed quickly when latter retreated several steps back. He wasn't sure if he should show himself and run interference, considering this was a matter between the once-married couple.

"I know I'm in the wrong," Yue Qingyuan said beseechingly. "But A-Jiu, where will you go now? Are you really going to marry Lord Jin? You said that he is a philanderer, you pushed him into the pond when he made advances on you. You told me that, I believe you now. Don't marry him, he will not cherish you the way you deserve."

"Cherish me? Like you have?" Shen Qingqiu said with a derisive laugh. "Don't look down on me, Yue Qingyuan. A perverted philanderer is not the only choice I have."

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Yue Qingyuan said quickly.

"I don't care what you meant," Shen Qingqiu returned. His tone was cold and his expression mirrored his words. "You have already given me divorced papers. Our bond is broken and nothing you say can undo what you've done. We are now strangers."

"How can you say that!? We were married for ten years and we've known each other since we were children," Yue Qingyuan implored.

"You should be grateful we had ten years," Shen Qingqiu said mercilessly. "Isn't that what you told me? When you handed me those divorce papers."

Yue Qingyuan's face was full of regret and woe but Liu Qingge felt no sympathy for him, not even pity. The man had sowed his own seeds and should reap what he sowed. Casting aside his husband of ten years just to legitimize his child. All just to satisfy the Qi family.

What nonsense.

Liu Qingge stepped out from behind the pillar and approached the two of them.

"Master Shen, good evening," he called out, acting as if he hadn't eavesdropped on them.

As he expected, his presence effectively put a halt to the illusion of privacy to their surroundings and Yue Qingyuan seem to realise that they were in a public setting. He visibly struggled to regain his composure as Shen Qingqiu made to escape the proximity of his presence by walking towards Liu Qingge.

"Lieutenant General Liu," greeted Shen Qingqiu calmly and Liu Qingge returned the gesture, ignoring the noble behind him. "Good evening."

"Good evening, Young Master Liu," Yue Qingyuan greeted when he composed himself, attempting to assert himself between Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu.

It was such a smooth, practice move that Liu Qingge had never thought twice about it before when Yue Qingyuan used to do that during social gatherings. That was, until now.  

"I am no longer your husband, Lord Yue," Shen Qingqiu reminded. "You do not need to shield me anymore."

Yue Qingyuan faltered for a moment before replying, "I apologise. It is a force of habit."

Shen Qingqiu didn't bother to grace that with an answer, looking away dismissively. Seeing that, Liu Qingge decided to interfere once more.

"Master Shen, may I have a word with you?" Liu Qingge said. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Yue Qingyuan straighten in surprise and suspicion, but he ignored him.

"Yes," Shen Qingqiu said quickly. "Come, I will prepare tea and refreshments for you. Lord Yue, I believe you know how to show yourself out."

"A-Jiu-!"

Shen Qingqiu walked away and Liu Qingge followed after. When he turned for a quick glance at the lone figure of Yue Qingyuan, he saw the man looking forlorn and miserable, as if he had been the one that was jilted and not the other way round.

***

"I was about to send it to your office," Shen Qingqiu said, handing the scroll to him.

"My office?" Liu Qingge parroted, taking the contract and opening it.

"Yes, via a messenger," Shen Qingqiu answered and Liu Qingge's face coloured when he realised that he didn't have to make the journey all the way to the inn to get Shen Qingqiu's answer.

"Ah, I was impatient," Liu Qingge admitted sheepishly, "My apologies if I made you feel rushed."

"No apologies needed," Shen Qingqiu answered. "Your presence was timely."

Liu Qingge smiled at that and looked down at the contract. Much to his disappointment, it was still unsigned.

"Was the offer not enough? We can allocate more for your salary," Liu Qingge said. "I can work something out with my father over the budget."

"I have no qualms on the salary," Shen Qingqiu answered. "It is an appropriate figure for such a position."

"Then, what is the matter?" Liu Qingge asked.

"There are some things that I would like to include before I sign the contract, if possible," Shen Qingqiu said honestly. He took out a parchment and rewrote his additional terms.

Liu Qingge took the offered list and after reading it, answered immediately, no consultation with his father needed, "Yes, to all of this, including the house in the suburbs with a plot of land."

"Do you not need to contemplate my terms?" Shen Qingqiu asked, surprised at the hasty answer. "Or discuss with your general?"

"The Liu family has a branch in the suburbs of Gusu, owning plenty of properties and land there. I'm sure we can allocate a proper manor there for your use," Liu Qingge explained. Shen Qingqiu shook his head.

"No, not a manor. Just a house, enough for one master and a few servants, as well as a land I can live off from," Shen Qingqiu said. "Consider it my retirement incentive."

"Retirement? At this age?" Liu Qingge blurted out.

Shen Qingqiu gave him a dead stare and that was when Liu Qingge finally noticed the dark rings around his eyes, the sunken cheeks and pale lips. He looked sad and tired, fatigued as if he hadn't been sleeping at all. Seeing that, Liu Qingge felt a pang of sympathy for the newly divorced man.  

"I'll make sure all your requests are fulfilled," Liu Qingge promised, unrolling the contract to include the additional clauses before signing it on behalf of his father. Then he turned it around and let Shen Qingqiu look through it. Satisfied with what he had read through, Shen Qingqiu picked up the brush and signed his name on it too.

"I must admit," Liu Qingge said, rolling the scroll up. "I was worried that you would not be pleased with the idea of leaving the capital."

"I thought about it," Shen Qingqiu answered. "It would be the best if I took a post outside of the capital. Staying here... there are too many memories."

And a persistent ex-husband to boot, thought Liu Qingge uncharitably.

"It's best that I leave as soon as I can," Shen Qingqiu said, gesturing to his meager belongings. "As you can see, I have yet to unpack my things, so I will be able to leave with you tomorrow as per your schedule."

Oh, Liu Qingge realised. He gave himself that time limit to not inconvenience me.  

"Tomorrow," Liu Qingge said before swallowing the lump in his throat. "Tomorrow, I will come and fetch you."

Shen Qingqiu nodded and when Liu Qingge got up to leave, Shen Qingqiu followed after to send him out the door courteously.

However, Liu Qingge's departure from the inn was halted when he spied Yue Qingyuan still lurking in the gardens adjacent to Shen Qingqiu's chambers. Without further thought, he turned around and returned to the door he just left. He knocked on the door and waited for Shen Qingqiu to open the door.

"Master Shen, perhaps it would be more convenient if you were to return to Liu Manor with me and we can depart from there at the break of dawn tomorrow," Liu Qingge said and Shen Qingqiu blinked in confusion.

"Why?"

"Convenience," Liu Qingge repeated. But Shen Qingqiu was not convinced. He even changed his stance and tilted his head in defiance. Liu Qingge immediately relented.

"Lord Yue is waiting for you in the gardens," he admitted. "I fear that he might try to force his way into your room."

Shen Qingqiu raised a brow at him, "Are you... worried for me?"

Liu Qingge opened his mouth then closed it, not knowing how to answer that question. Then he settled by saying, "I know that it is none of my concern, but even I can tell that you do not want to speak to him."

"So then, how do you think I can avoid him if I leave with you? We still have to go past him when we leave," Shen Qingqiu pointed out.

"I'm sure there's a backdoor somewhere-"

"There is. But it requires me to leave through the garden gate," Shen Qingqiu said drily. He looked almost amused by Liu Qingge's floundering.

"Then, how do you-"

"I will let him wait there," Shen Qingqiu answered him. "Let him wait all night if he wants to. I am planning to retire and rest before our travels tomorrow anyway."

"Oh," said Liu Qingge awkwardly. "Good idea. Uhm. Well, good night then."

"Yes, good night. Young Master Liu," Shen Qingqiu said, a small smile on his lips as he closed his room door once again.

It occurred to Liu Qingge, as he stalked past the gardens blatantly ignoring Yue Qingyuan's lurking figure, that this was the first time Shen Qingqiu had ever smiled at him.

***

He should have stayed and gotten Shen Qingqiu out with him that night.

***

The next morning, when his platoon reached the inn, there was a contingent of servants waiting at the front door.

"Open up and call Shen Qingqiu out! Our master has waited long enough!" he heard one maid, probably the head servant, shouting and pounding at the front door. "Don't keep people waiting for you! You're not the First Husband anymore!"

Irritated at her rudeness, Liu Qingge gestured for his second-in-command and Liu Bo rode forward.

"What is this!?" Liu Bo asked the servant waiting at the gate. She jumped in surprise and turned around only to catch sight of all the soldiers. The sight of them intimidated her so much, she immediately lost her pompousness and bowed down.  

"Sir, we are from the Yue estate. Our Lord has instructed us to bring Shen- uhm- Master Shen home," the woman answered timidly.

"Master Shen is no longer connected to Yue estate, so stop your shouting," Liu Bo said with a strict tone. "You're disturbing the peace."

"But Lord Yue-"

"Master Shen is no longer the spouse of Lord Yue," Liu Bo repeated, looking down on her from his horse. His look was so ominous that she quailed below him. "He is now an advisor and strategist of Liu Army."

Just as he said this, the door to the inn opened and two servants carrying suitcases came out.

Then, Shen Qingqiu stepped out, dressed in pale green robes with a thick brocade cloak around his shoulder. His hair, once tied up in a high knot to denote his noble standing, was half bound in a low bun held by a single jade hairpin and a sprig of white wintersweet flowers.

Without preamble, Liu Qingge got down from his horse immediately and approached his new advisor.

"We've prepared a horse for you," Liu Qingge said, gesturing for said horse to be brought forward. It was a pure white horse that Liu Qingge himself had chosen for Shen Qingqiu.

Liu Qingge watched as Shen Qingqiu came forward to offer his hand to the horse before gently patting it on the head. He'd never seen the former First Husband look so gentle before and.... it was fascinating, the dichotomy between coldness and gentleness that this man displayed.

"Ning Yingying! Ming Fan! What are you doing here!?" the maid from Yue Manor asked in a hushed but surprised tone.

"Our contracts are still with Master Shen," Ning Yingying answered in a somewhat innocent tone. "We came to ask Master Shen to take us with him."

"How dare you! Without Lord Yue's permission!?"

"Our contracts are with Master Shen," Ming Fan repeated, firmer. Then he ignored the spluttering head maid to put the luggage away in one of the caravans at the back of the contingent.

"What about your grandmother, Ning Yingying!? She's sick! Are you just leaving her behind?" the head maid demanded. "How unfilial!"

Ning Yingying's genial smile dropped and she gave her a cold look, "My grandmother passed away three days ago. Master paid for all her funeral fees and I've already paid my respects. You would have known that have you shown even an ounce of care. But it's clear that the people at Yue manor only cares about themselves."

The head maid face coloured and she spluttered, as if just noticing the white flowers in Ning Yingying and Shen Qingqiu's hair and the white band on Ming Fan's forehead.

All the while, Shen Qingqiu graciously ignored her, like she was beneath his notice and Liu Qingge found himself admiring his poise.

Liu Qingge helped Shen Qingqiu up the horse, making sure that his cloak was settled properly around him and that he was comfortable. He made a mental note to gift his new advisor with a thicker cloak. The west borderland was cold at this time of the year, colder than the capital.

"We move out," Liu Qingge commanded his platoon once he was back on his horse.

The group of Yue servants were left behind, bewildered and frightened, as Liu Qingge led Shen Qingqiu and his soldiers away. For some reason, Liu Qingge felt somewhat smug as they left the street and ultimately, the capital.

There was no way anyone could get their claws on Shen Qingqiu now.

*****

"Are these all for Master Shen?" Liu Bo asked as more carts came into view.

"Yes," Ning Yingying answered, looking at the invoice the merchants had handed her when they delivered the carts. "Everything seems to be in order."

"We will inform you of the destination for the next shipment," she said to the head merchant, passing him a large pouch filled with silver taels.

"Thank you so much," said the head merchant, bowing humbly. "Please thank Master Shen for his business."

"If the quality of the merchandise is up to Master's standards, he will surely write a letter of confirmation for the next shipment," Ning Yingying said.

For some reason, to Liu Bo, even though her tone was chirpy and light, it sounded like a threat. As if she was saying, "You better deliver quality goods to my master or you can kiss any further business from us goodbye."

The merchants, who had delivered over 10 carts of supplies of some sort, bowed enthusiastically before leaving. Now, the unmanned carts had to be delegated to some soldiers in their platoon as their new responsibilities.

Liu Bo sighed, wondering what he can do now. He should report it to his older cousin, Liu Qingge, who was also his commanding officer. But knowing him, LIu Qingge would probably just wave the matter away and tell him to do what was needed.

What would one advisor/strategist need with 10 carts of supplies anyway!??

"We better get going, we are already late, aren't we?" Ming Fan asked once everything was settled and Liu Bo felt the vein at his temple throb.

Seriously, the nerve of these servants!

***

When they arrived at the garrison, instead of coming down from his horse like Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu first looked around the camp. He peripherally noted the high parapet that hosted several large drums, the large tents all around and the smell of sweat, horses and dryness in the air.

"Here."

Shen Qingqiu looked down and Liu Qingge was offering a hand up to him. He wanted to help Shen Qingqiu down from his horse.  

Did the man really think that he was a damsel in constant need of help? He did the same thing too back at the inn when Yue Qingyuan was lurking around waiting for him.

Normally, it would irritate Shen Qingqiu to be thought of as weak and someone to be underestimated. It was presumptuous of Liu Qingge to offer help even when not needed, especially because he was worried that his ex-husband would do him harm when Yue Qingyuan's reputation was a thousand times better than Shen Qingqiu. But it was also... kind, because he was worried for Shen Qingqiu, who was still hurting from being abandoned by his husband.  

Shen Qingqiu wasn't used to this kind of consideration, even from his hus..ex-husband. It certainly wasn't something he had associated with Liu Qingge when he first met him and something that the rumours around court had not mentioned at all.

All the gossips circulating about Liu Qingge emphasized on how the man was courageous, strong and talented in swordsmanship. Of course, there were negative rumours about the man too, like how he was socially inept when it came to the noble circle, often saying blunt truths without thinking of diplomacy and not bothering to answer social calls when he was invited to events.

After meeting him for just a few weeks, Shen Qingqiu understood why he had such a reputation.

Liu Qingge was a simpleton. A talented warrior, but a simpleton nonetheless. Someone with an abundance of physical talent who had no care for social cues. He said what he wanted, when he wanted, without any care of how it impacted others because it was the truth.

Shen Qingqiu smiled, a small tentative thing, and took the hand Liu Qingge offered him.

He'd spent a decade dallying daily in subterfuge and politicking, always having to look over his shoulder in fear of being backstabbed. After so long fighting for his right to stay in the upper echelon of society, somewhere he had only accessed by marrying Yue Qingyuan, this kind of blunt honesty...

...he doesn't hate it.

***

Despite Liu Qingge clearly having taken the liberty to recruit him without his father's permission, General Liu welcomed him without preamble or hesitation at all. Shen Qingqiu would have been surprised by it if he didn't get the impression that the son was exactly like the father, a battle-minded simpleton.

"I always wanted to pick your brain over the battle of Shu Pass and what strategy plan you would have come out with if General Wei hadn't brought down the bridge to stop the Xiongnu tribe from breaching the border," Liu Fangzhao said over a shared dinner.

"I thought that General Wei did the right thing, considering the circumstances," Shen Qingqiu replied. "There were hardly time to shore the defenses and if he didn't react quickly enough, it would have been too late to stop the breach."

"Indeed, indeed," agreed Liu Fangzhao. "If there were more time to plan, he would sure have come up with a better plan."

"Yes, the river at that time of the year would have been flowing quite intensely, collapsing the bridge brought the General enough time to use the fire formation," Shen Qingqiu said, picking at his rice with his chopstick. "It was a sound strategy."

Liu Fangzhao smiled at him before filling his bowl with some meat pieces, "You must eat. It's cold here. Mutton will warm you up."

Shen Qingqiu stared at his bowl, not knowing how to inform the General that he was unused to eating much meat, especially when it dripped of fat and spices.

"Uh, thank you," he said shyly, taking a bite of the mutton. It was juicy and smoky, filled to the brim with spicy marinade.  He coughed, the mutton too spicy for his palate.

"Are you alright?" Liu Qingge asked, passing a cup of tea to him. Shen Qingqiu drank the tea and nearly spit it back out. The silly man didn't seem to realise that the hot tea only served to burn his tongue even further.

He swallowed the tea anyway, not wanting to start a fight with his employer so early during their acquaintance. He couldn't afford to.

"Are the dishes not to your liking?" Liu Fangzhao asked, looking at the plates on the table. "We can have the chef prepare other dishes."

"It's... a little spicy," he admitted, cheeks burning with embarrassment. "I'm used to blander dishes."

"Then we can-"

"Please don't," he stopped the general. "We are at a garrison, not the capital. We must not waste food. So do not cater to me."

Both father and son stared at him, making his cheeks colour even more. What was he saying to these seasoned men!? Of course they weren't going to waste food!

"The food will not go to waste," Liu Qingge promised, looking entirely too serious for the situation.

"It's your first day here, so I called for a spread," Liu Fangzhao explained. "We don't usually have such meat dishes here, unless there is a hunt the day before."

Shen Qingqiu nodded, not wanting to explain that his appetite had always been poor because of his childhood as a street rat and abused slave. He had time to recover from that when he was married to Yue Qingyuan but everything had spiraled once more when Qi Qingqi married into the Yue household. He'd suffered loss of appetite since then and the food 'shortage' did not help.  

Shen Qingqiu picked up his chopsticks and as amendment, pick up a piece of mutton for Liu Qingge and one for Liu Fangzhao.

"Thank you for welcoming me here," he said to them, genuine in his gratefulness.

It was the least he could do for the people who helped him escape the capital with his dignity intact, even if they weren't aware of it.

***

"So his ex-husband tried to drag him back?" Liu Fangzhao said when his son chronicled how he had come to acquire a new strategist after Shen Qingqiu left to retire for the night. .

"Yes, more than once," Liu Qingge said, pouring his father a cup of wine.

"What is that man thinking? Hasn't he humiliated his poor husband enough?" Liu Fangzhao said grumpily, sipping at his wine.

"Ex-husband," Liu Qingge corrected.

Liu Fangzhao ignored it, waving a hand. "It's bad enough that he divorced him merely to satisfy the Qi family. Now he wants to bring his husband back home as what- a concubine!?"

"Ex-husband," Liu Qingge repeated.

Liu Fangzhao peered at his son with a raised brow.

Liu QIngge's face coloured and he looked away, sipping at his own wine. He was going to blame his flaming cheeks on the alcohol if his father said anything.

"Well, it's not a loss for us," Liu Fangzhao commented, letting his son's momentary slip go without a fuss. For now.

"Just make sure that he adjusts well."

***

Shen Qingqiu watched as the men performed their morning drill, noting the differences between squadrons. He had yet to see them practice their formations and he was especially interested in their ability to adapt to different formations and their response time-

"Master Shen."

He looked over his shoulder to see Liu Qingge approach him with a folded cloak that was lined with what Shen Qingqiu could only assume was fox fur.

"It's getting cold," Liu Qingge explained, offering the thick fur cloak to him. "This will serve you better than that brocade cloak. It's made of fire fox fur."

It was true that the cloak that Yue Qingyuan gave him the year before was made for the weather in the capital, which was less cold, and was made for fashion rather than function. The winds here in the west was more intense and bitter than he was used to.  

"Thank you," Shen Qingqiu said, accepting the cloak. He felt a little touched by the gesture though he didn't show it.

He paused.

He often never showed his appreciation for people, even to his hus- ex-husband. Perhaps that was why people always called him cold and apathetic.

He touched the fur stitched to the collar of the cloak. It was soft and warm.

"Do you... still have more fur?" he asked tentatively, looking up at Liu Qingge.

***

"What are these?" Liu Qingge asked Liu Bo, gesturing to the sacks filling up the warehouse.

"These shipments belong to Master Shen," Liu Bo said. "I don't know what they are but his servants said to store them in a dry warehouse for provisions."

Liu Qingge leaned in to sniff at one of the bag and smelled... ginger?

"I'll go ask Master Shen. It is cluttering the warehouse," Liu Qingge said and Liu Bo nearly sighed in relief. He didn't want to be the one to bring it up to the cold-faced advisor. Shen Qingqiu might be a sight to look at, but he could be so expressionless sometimes that it was hard to know what he was thinking. Well, except when he was being sarcastic.

"I ordered them," Shen Qingqiu said when Liu Qingge asked him about it. "Before we left the capital, I had someone order these bags of dried condiments, powdered ginger and rice."

"Why?"

"During winter, chances of soldiers falling sick is high," Shen Qingqiu explained. "Mixing these and making ginger tea(1) will help boost their immune system. The storage for these is simple and it will last for months."

"Show me," Liu Qingge said to him and Shen Qingqiu nodded.

He had his servants open a few of the bags and mixed them in a large pot before pouring hot water into it. The scent that wafted across the camp made the soldiers falter during their practice, stomachs growling hungrily. Ming Fan and Ning Yingying had to recruit a few of the soldiers to help distribute bowls of the ginger tea mix out.

"This warms up my very soul," Liu Bo said, rubbing one hand on his belly with a satisfied sigh. The empty bowl he had been sipping from was still wafting steam.

Liu Qingge couldn't agree more. The ginger tea really did warm him up and the little pieces of dried meat, rice and spices in the concoction filled his belly in a comforting manner.

"Are you not having any?" he asked Shen Qingqiu, who was watching the soldiers happily consume the tea.

Shen Qingqiu shook his head, "I will have it once everyone has their fill. Now then, if that is all, I will take my leave."

Liu Qingge opened his mouth but found no excuse to stop the advisor, so he just watched as Shen Qingqiu returned to his tent.

He was jolted out of his reverie when Liu Bo elbowed him.

"I know he's pretty but don't stare too hard," his cousin joked and Liu Qingge blushed.

"Shut up!" Liu Qingge said snappishly, "If you're done, go do your drills!"

"I already finished them!" Liu Bo wailed.

"Do another ten times!"

"Mean! You're so mean! I'll tell Master Shen you're a bully!" Liu Bo stuck his tongue out and quickly dodged when Liu Qingge grabbed at him.

"You! I'll kill you!"

"Ack!"

***

Liu Qingge strolled through the garrison, keeping an eye out for any abnormalities. He might only be patrolling because he was unable to sleep but that didn't mean he was about to do a subpar job of it.

He came across Shen Qingqiu's tent and paused at the light flickering at the edges of his door.

"Has Master Shen retired yet?" he quietly asked the two guards standing at the door. The two soldiers exchanged looks before answering.

"Master Shen rarely sleeps," one of them said. "He's usually working till late night."

"Do you want us to call on him for you, Lieutenant General?" asked the other.

"No need," Liu Qingge said quickly. "I was just wondering."

"Oh, Lieutenant General?"

Liu Qingge turned around and saw Shen Qingqiu's maid, Ning Yingying, carrying a bowl of soup.  

"Are you here to see Master?" she asked sweetly.

"No, no," Liu Qingge said. "I don't want to bother Master Shen at this late hour."

"Oh, it won't be a bother. Master doesn't sleep much," she said. "That's why I made some hot soup for him."

"He doesn't sleep much?" Liu Qingge questioned as subtly as he could.

"Mn," she nodded, her face adopting a look of sadness. "Master, he doesn't sleep well... especially after..."

Was it because of... he didn't dare to ask. It really wasn't his business to ask about another's relationship, broken or otherwise.

"But keeping busy has helped," Ning Yingying assured him, smiling again to chase away her sorrow at seeing her master suffer because of that ungrateful Lord Yue and the annoying harpy he married.

"Still, he shouldn't work too hard," Liu Qingge said. "He has to take care of his health."

Ning Yingying nodded in agreement before a thought occurred to her and she looked up at the Lieutenant General with renewed eyes. Could it be...?

"Well, I shouldn't take up more of your time," Liu Qingge said, "Best to deliver the soup while it's warm."

"Ah, yes, of course!" she said. realising she's been standing in the cold for far too long. The soup would get cold soon.

She opened the flap to the tent and Liu Qingge caught a glimpse of Shen Qingqiu hunched over a piece of fur, sewing diligently by candlelight. Then he forced himself to turn away, reprimanding himself for his odd behaviour.

Before Ning Yingying stepped into her master's new abode, she turned around and watched as the handsome lieutenant general that saved her master left.

She hoped... well, she didn't want to raise her hopes too high, but...

Oh, she wished her master would open his heart once more.

This time to someone more worthy.

***

Since Shen Qingqiu arrived, the garrison hadn't yet been called to battle so he had time to become accustomed to their battle formations and to improve the pre-existing formations or create new ones.

Ming Fan and Ning Yingying were also able to spend time to integrate amongst the soldiers and the servants, garnering their trust and their intel. It was always essential to have an ear in every channel of communication.

Ming Fan, having learned cultivation from Shen Qingqiu since he was a pre-teen, was able to do drills alongside the soldiers. However, there was a marked difference between a servant of a noble and a soldier dedicated to fighting. The poor boy took months to become used to the grueling drills and to build up muscles to keep up with the others.

However, Shen Qingqiu was pleased to see that Ming Fan was slowly improving physically as well as mentally and emotionally. He made a lot more friends here than at Yue Manor, where most of the servants were older women who liked to criticise him.

As for Ning Yingying, Shen Qingqiu had initially been worried about bringing her to a garrison filled with men but she had taken it in stride and bloomed with the attention from the smitten soldiers.

To be honest, he hadn't wanted to offer her a position as his aide/servant but her grandmother had just passed away and she was all alone, so he had been worried for her well-being at Yue Manor. Furthermore, while he had been contemplating Liu Qingge's offer, she had come to the inn to beg Shen Qingqiu to take her along with him.

Knowing that she was alone like him, Shen Qingqiu just couldn't abandon her at the capital.

He was glad that he didn't though. Despite his worry, Ning Yingying was treated respectfully at the encampment. Shen Qingqiu attributed it to the Liu men's strict moral discipline and couldn't help but be impressed with their conduct. He'd already met too many hypocrites and sycophants, meeting Liu Qingge and his father, and even Liu Bo, was serious a breath of fresh air.

They always said what they mean, when they mean to, with absolutely no hidden motive or meaning. In turn, Shen Qingqiu found himself communicating in straightforward terms, without fear of being accused of having any unsavory intentions.

"I've been living in the capital for too long," he muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Liu Fangzhao asked him, looking up from his own scroll.

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just speaking with myself," Shen Qingqiu answered. "My stay at the capital has made me a very suspicious and negative person. Even more so than when I was a street child."

Liu Fangzhao snorted, "Considering the court is made of mostly hyenas, I don't blame you. That's why none of us like to be there. Only the ladies of the Liu family can tolerate the politics in court. Even then, they prefer to remain neutral."

"Perhaps I should have adopted that mindset when I married-" he cut himself off, reprimanding himself for thinking of that ass-husband of his.

"If you did, then Yue Qingyuan wouldn't have gotten as far as he did," Liu Fangshao said, looking back down on his scroll.

Shen Qingqiu paused and blinked a few times before asking, "What do you mean?"

"What? You think I don't know how you blackmailed Chancellor Yun, upstaged the Princess Liye and her husband, and provoked Madam Jin, among other things, all to increase Yue Qingyuan's influence?" Liu Fangzhao said with one brow raised.

"Then... if you knew about those things... about how I was willing to do anything to help Yue Qingyuan climb the ranks, why did you hire me?" Shen Qingqiu asked, shocked.

"You did it to protect your family. As a family man myself, I find it admirable," Liu Fangzhao said. "Qingge and a few others might find it unsavory, but the truth is that sometimes, you need to be ruthless in order to get things done. Especially when it comes to protecting the ones you love."

Shen Qingqiu looked down, feeling... exposed. Even though he'd done what he did because he felt it necessary to protect his hus- ex-husband and himself, he'd always been told that everything he did was selfish, underhanded and manipulative. Never had he been told that it was... admirable.

But here was a man, who was widely lauded as being righteous and honorable, telling him that what he did to protect his family was...

He felt... understood.

"Thank you," he muttered softly and sincerely.

***

They received the news of the march two days before the Mongol army reached the border, so they had only enough time to dispatch two squadrons to reconvene with the soldier posted at the fortress before the army arrived.

Still, just hours within arrival, Shen Qingqiu was able to set up an array that was capable of capturing the flying creatures sent by the shaman from the opposing army.  

"How did you know that they were going to send those things?" Liu Qingge asked as they watched the deformed condor-like creatures struggle against the barrier array, falling like stones when archers started shooting them down.

"Liu Bo told me that the invaders would sometimes ride flying creatures cast by the shamans into battle," Shen Qingqiu answered him. "This pass is rocky and treacherous. If they wanted to make good time, they would rely on avian creatures."

"This is only the first wave," Liu Qingge noted, unsheathing his sword. "Your barrier will not last long enough."

"Yes, but it would buy us some time to set the second trap for the foot soldiers," Shen Qingqiu said.

"Then, I will go up front and lead the charge while you prepare," Liu Qingge said, trusting the advisor to do what was needed.

Shen Qingqiu stared after the Lieutenant General, surprised at not being questioned about his unspoken plans. If it was anyone else, he would be interrogated about his plans until he snapped.

The amount of trust Liu Qingge was putting on him...

Shen Qingqiu shook his head, reminding himself to focus on his task at hand. The second wave of soldiers should be arriving soon. In time to be ambushed from the sides of the embattlement.

And if they were lucky, they would be able to capture one of those annoying and evasive shamans.

***

"They escaped," Liu Bo reported.

Liu Qingge thinned his lips at that. The two shamans he had spotted standing at the back of the rival army had gotten away before he had even gotten close enough to get a good look at them.

Those shamans had been a thorn to their side for the longest time. Ever since they appeared beside the Mongol Khan's side, their progress in beating back the invaders had been continuously hindered. Their type of foreign magic was still a mystery to them and capturing one of them would greatly unveil many of their secrets.

He kicked the flying creature that had managed to get an attack in on him and was subsequently cut down by him. It flopped over, revealing a hideous countenance and Liu Qingge's lips curled in disgust. It had also, at one point, spouted fire at him. He pointed to the dead creature.

"Take this back," Liu Qingge instructed Liu Bo. "We'll see if we can garner anything from it."

"Yes, sir," his cousin said, picking up the large avian by the legs and dragging it away.

Liu Qingge spotted Shen Qingqiu not too far away, examining the corpses of the barbarians that had attempted to breach their defenses.

"Are you hurt?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth, though he had no idea why. Shen Qingqiu had stayed mostly at the back of the contingent, though he had fought alongside the others with his Xiu Ya sword. He wasn't defenseless, despite his slender appearance.

"I'm unharmed," Shen Qingqiu answered, before spotting something. "You, however, can't say the same."

"What do you- Oh," Liu Qingge noticed the deep scratch on his arm.

"You should have that looked at," Shen Qingqiu advised.

"The physicians will be too busy," Liu Qingge dismissed. "There are others more injured."

"Don't be stubborn," Shen Qingqiu said, grabbing his other arm. "That's your sword arm. You don't want it to be infected."

Liu Qingge thought of protesting but found no excuse to pull away as the advisor led him to the nearest medical room. As he suspected, the medics and physicians there were swamped with patients.

To his surprise though, instead of calling one of the medics, Shen Qignqiu let go of his hand and retrieved some medical supplies. Then he headed to a table, gesturing for Liu Qingge to sit down. Without explaining a single word, Shen Qingqiu ripped the sleeve of his shirt to expose the injury. He meticulously cleaned the wound, then started sewing the cut shut.

"I'm not good with healing techniques, so you will have to heal the common way," Shen Qingqiu said to him. "I'll make sure you don't scar too much. Though, I hear that the ladies find scars quite desirable these days."

Liu Qingge huffed at that, watching intently as Shen Qingqiu meticulously sew tiny stitches onto his torn flesh. Even the medics weren't so precise or meticulous.

"You are very good at this," Liu Qingge commented. By the time Shen Qingqiu was done, the line of thread on his skin would barely be visible and the resulting scars would probably be minimal.

"I'm used to embroidery," Shen Qingqiu answered dismissively, as if any of the wives of the nobles could do what he was doing so easily at the moment. Liu Qingge tried to imagine the spoilt daughter of the Qi family sewing an injury shut and not squealing over the blood and gore. He snorted in disbelief.

Shen Qingqiu frowned at him, obviously wondering why Liu Qingge was laughing at him.

"Just that, I don't think other wives or husband will compare embroidery to emergency stitches," Liu Qingge said.

Shen Qingqiu was silent for a while before he said, almost petulantly; "I know I'm odd, you don't have to rub it in."

"But odd is good," Liu Qingge answered, blinking. "Being unpredictable makes everything interesting."

Shen Qingqiu frowned at him before looking back down at his arm.

"So... odd is good," Liu Qingge repeated, voice trailing off.

Shen Qingqiu gave him a small shy smile though he didn't look back up.

But that was enough to make Liu Qingge's heart jump.

***

"I think there's something wrong with me," he admitted to his father upon returning to the garrison. Liu Fangzhao looked at him with something like pity and no small amount of annoyance.

"And why would you say that?" Liu Fangzhao asked his son.

"I- My heart- It jumps whenever I see Shen Qingqiu," Liu Qingge admitted, his face redder than a baboon's butt, in his father's opinion.

"Really...?" Liu Fangzhao asked mockingly. "What else? Does your heart race when you speak to him? Do you want to see him when he's not in front of you? Do you think of him often without prompting?"

Liu Qingge stared at him for a moment before asking, "How did you know all that?"

Liu Fangzhao returned his stare with a droll look.

"How did I end up with a stupid, clueless child like you?" Liu Fangzhao wondered aloud.

"Father!"

"You like him," Liu Fangzhao answered his unspoken question and Liu Qingge stared at him in disbelief.

"No," he denied, almost reflexively.

Liu Fangzhao didn't even grace him with an answer, smacking him right in the head for his thoughtless answer.

"Stupid boy. Why are you my son? Did all the brain cells go to Mingyan instead?"

"Father!"

Liu Fangzhao sighed, rubbing at his temples.

"Normally, I would advise against pursuing a divorcé," he said and Liu Qingge straightened up to frown at him. Before his son could say anything though, he lifted one hand.

"I'm not saying I won't support you if you choose to pursue him," Liu Fangzhao said. "But that child has been hurt enough. He will be guarded and dismissive of your interest in him. If that happens, whatever camaraderie you have right now will be affected."

Liu Qingge's hands tightened into fists.

"So I suggest you think very carefully on whether you want to pursue him," Liu Fangzhao said.

Liu Qingge thought for a while before nodding.

"...Yes, father."

*****

Liu Qingge didn't have time to mull over his conversation with his father because General Wei sent a message requesting reinforcement up north, so the garrison had to pack up and move.

As they travelled, Liu Qingge begin to notice Shen Qingqiu's constant presence no matter where he was, his awareness of him tingling at his senses even when the advisor said nothing and did nothing to attract his attention.

Shen Qingqiu kept to himself most of the time, examining the terrain that they passed and the weather above head. He would speak when spoken to but rarely initiated conversation. He liked to observe the soldiers and was especially fascinated when they spoke about the shamans and their brand of dark magic. Shen Qingqiu had been the first one to examine the creature that Liu Qingge brought back from the battle field and watched as they dissected it. There was nothing inside beyond blood, hair and melted organs but Shen Qingqiu seemed satisfied with what he learned anyway.

After watching him for months, Liu Qingge could understand why his father called Shen Qingqiu a true intellect, not just a scholar but someone who could think unconventionally and solve crises at the drop of a hat. By looking at the clouds, he could predict the weather to turn the tide of a battle to their favour. By learning about the flying creatures, he knew how to destroy them en-masse with just a single array. There seem to be very little that could confound Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge couldn't help but admire him for that.

In the beginning when he first arrived, the soldier were wary of him but with every victory they achieved, the soldiers begin to rally under his instructions without hesitation, trusting Shen Qingqiu to ensure their survival. It was heartening for Liu Qingge to witness it and it only affirmed Liu Qingge's resolution in bringing Shen Qingqiu here to the border.  

However, sometimes, when he thought that no one was watching, Shen Qingqiu would adopt a look of sadness and loss, a faraway gaze in his eyes as he stared at the full moon.

Seeing it made Liu Qingge angry, remembering what Yue Qingyuan had done to his ex-husband.

Rumour might have painted Shen Qingqiu as the one who was jealous and petty but Liu Qingge knew otherwise. That night, at the inn, Yue Qingyuan had been the one who was jealous. He had thought that Liu Qingge wanted to take Shen Qingqiu as his own husband, like all his other noble visitors. That was why he had been desperate to force Shen Qingqiu to return to the Yue Manor that night and the morning after, despite their divorced status.

Did Yue Qingyuan not understand that his actions reflected an abuse of his power and influence? Shen Qingqiu was no longer his husband, therefore, no longer under his authority to control. Just because he was a noble, it didn't mean he could just force Shen Qingqiu, who was effectively a commoner after the divorce, to return to the Yue Manor.

Liu Qingge couldn't imagine the amount of gossip generated after that fiasco. But it was the result of his brash actions, so Liu Qingge supposed Yue Qingyuan deserved the backlash of mockery that was bound to be circulating in the capital.

"Master Shen," Liu Qingge automatically offered his hand for the advisor and Shen Qingqiu's gloved hand slid into his. "We've arrived at the Wei army garrison."

"Thank you," Shen Qingqiu said after he slid down from his white mare. For a moment, while they were standing so close, Liu Qingge couldn't help but notice how the advisor was now less pale compared to when he first arrived with him to the border, which he attributed to exposure to the sun. Unfortunately, it seem as if the advisor had yet to gain weight, for he still felt light like a hollow-boned bird.

Shen Qingqiu let go of his hand and Liu Qingge found himself momentarily feeling the loss as his fingers curled into a fist.

"Master Shen!"

The both of them turned at the call.

Gongyi Xiao, one of General Wei's adjutant, was approaching them with a wide smile. Liu Qingge felt a spark of annoyance at the way his eyes was trained on Shen Qingqiu and the Vice General stepped forward.

"Lieutenant Colonel," Liu Qingge greeted and Gongyi Xiao saluted him as per protocol.

"Vice General Liu," greeted Gongyi Xiao his smile not faltering. "Thank you for coming."

"Mn," he replied, face impassive. He couldn't help but remember what the inn keeper had told him months ago when he'd approached Shen Qingqiu with the recruitment. Young as he was, Gongyi Xiao was also one of the suitors that had inappropriately approached a newly divorced man grieving his broken marriage.

As such, he was going to keep an eye on this Gongyi Xiao.

***

The intelligence they gathered indicated that the enemy encampment was actually split into two, one in plain sight and the other following the river. They were intending to attack simultaneously and the Wei army would have been overwhelmed if they hadn't discovered this information beforehand.

"Just like they have aerial sight by conjuring those flying creature, so do we. The spirit eagles reported the second army having reached the embankment," General Wei told them. "We need to strike as soon as we can. I was waiting for you to arrive so I can leave for the river first. Since your army has just arrived, you will need to rest and hold up the fort."

"That is sound. Our soldiers needs rest and the Mongol camp is watching the garrison," Shen Qingqiu agreed.

"Your vice general is still recovering from his injury, is he not?" Liu Fangzhao said to General Wei. "Take Qingge with you. He's itching to fight and would be of great help to you."

"I have Gongyi Xiao with me. But if you're sure you can hold the fort without your son-"

"Are you underestimating me!?" Liu Fangzhao demanded, looking offended. "I can still kick your ass in my old age, you know."

Liu Qingge made a face at his father's childish behaviour and from the corner of his eyes he could see Shen Qingqiu turning away while opening his fan to cover his face. Liu Qingge recognise it as a way for the advisor to hide his amusement.

Shen Qingqiu freely displayed his displeasure, disappointment and disgust on his face, much to the devastation of his soldiers whenever the advisor gave them such looks. It served to make them work harder to please their resident beauty. However, Shen Qingqiu also often hid positive emotions like enjoyment behind his fan and sleeves, as if it were a sign of weakness.  

It made Liu Qingge wonder what made Shen Qingqiu so guarded against freely showing his expressions.

***

The morning after they arrived at the Wei army garrison, Liu Qingge was given a fresh horse to set out with General Wei. But before Liu Qingge could get on his horse, Shen Qingqiu stopped him.

"I made something for you," the advisor said, turning to Ning Yingying who offered a scarf to him. It was a thick scarf made from the fur that Shen Qingqiu had acquired from the warehouse.

Liu Qingge didn't have the chance to take the scarf before Shen Qingqiu stepped forward to wrap it around his neck, tucking it neatly into his armour.

"Be careful," Shen Qingqiu said and Liu Qingge nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from the long thin fingers still on his armor.

"Qingge."

Liu Qingge looked over to his father as Shen Qingqiu stepped back and left to speak with General Wei.

"That was sweet," Liu Fangzhao commented and Liu Qingge's cheeks burned terribly at the reminder that everyone had been watching. He did his best to ignore his father as he got up on his horse.

"Qingqiu is really good at making winter clothing," Liu Fangzhao praised and Liu Qingge found himself nodding along. Then, he blinked when the name registered.

"You-"

"Like this vest," Liu Fangzhao boasted, patting his chest proudly, indicating the new cotton-padded vest lined with fur. "Qingqiu gifted it to me this morning. Such meticulous sewing. Ah, I wonder when I can call Qingqiu my son-in-law."

Liu Qingge nearly fell from his horse at that. Shen Qingqiu had sewn a vest for his father!? And he only got a scarf?

Son-in-law!???

"FATHER!"

Liu Fangzhao laughed so hard that even the soldiers at the end of the line could hear him.

Seriously, he had never laughed so hard before in his life. When Shen Qingqiu gave him a look of confusion and concern, he only laughed harder and nearly pulled a stitch at his side.

For his part, Liu Qingge didn't stop blushing until he completely lost sight of the encampment.

***

It was only a split second.

Shen Qingqiu knew that the Mongol shamans were watching the garrison.

He knew that they were aware that the encampment was fully fortified.

So he had no reason to think that they would launch a sudden attack. It was dishonorable and from what he had seen, even the Khan and his generals operated in a code of honour. Of course, he had made the unfortunate assumption that the shamans, coming from the desert lands, would share the same kind of morality.

It was his error.

Shen Qingqiu came out of his tent at the sound of emergency horn, with just his sword and no armour. His hair was unbound due to the late hour and he was barely dressed but he couldn't be concerned with any of that.

The army at their doorstep was what mattered most.

"Qingqiu! Duck!"

Shen Qingqiu was barely able to dodge the first arrow before the second came at a harrowing speed. He managed to cut it down before he dispatched two enemy soldiers, cutting deeply into their flesh and feeling the spray of warm blood on his cheek.

Liu Fangzhao appeared at his side suddenly, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, General, I-"

The third arrow made it's way into the general's back with a meaty slice.

Shen Qingqiu had barely enough time to register what was happening before a cacophony of sounds erupted in his ears.

"General!"

"General Liu!"

"Uncle!"

***

When the news arrived, Liu Qingge and General Wei was just wrapping up their side of the battle.

Without waiting for the messenger to finish, the Lieutenant General jumped on his horse to rush back to the garrison.

"Wait! Qingge! Get a new horse!" General Wei called out. "Yours is too tired out from the battle."

Without a reply, Liu Qingge jumped on his sword instead. He might be running low on qi reserve, but it would be faster by flight. Before General Wei could protest further, he flew off at breakneck speed.

His father was in critical condition and he was unable to be with him. Liu Qingge had never felt more like a useless son than now.

When he finally returned to the garrison, he jumped down and headed straight to his father's tent. Mu Qingfang, the attending physician, was coincidentally just coming out when he reached the entrance.

"Vice General," the physician greeted. "You've returned."

"How's my father?" Liu Qingge asked in lieu of a greeting, though Mu Qingfang did not seem offended by his brusqueness.

"He's doing better now," Mu Qingfang said. "He was in a critical condition when they brought him in but I've managed to stabilise his condition for now. I was a little worried about him the first night but he pulled through."

Liu Qingge felt something in his chest uncoiled at that news and he sighed with relief.

"Vice General, perhaps you can speak with Master Shen," Mu Qingfang said, looking concerned.

"What is it?" Liu Qingge asked, his brows furrowing again.

"He's been sitting with your father for three days straight," Mu Qingfang told him. "He's been attending to his every need since General Liu was injured. He needs to rest."

"He's... been sitting with father all this time?" Liu Qingge repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, he was there when General Liu was injured. According to Master Shen, General Liu was protecting him," Mu Qingfang replied. "It may be guilt Master Shen is feeling but I doubt that General Liu blames him for anything."

He doesn't, Liu Qingge was sure of it. But Shen Qingqiu would surely not listen to him even if he said it out loud.

"I'll speak to him," he promised the healer. When he lifted the flap to his father's tent, he saw Shen Qingqiu sitting by his father's bedside.

Four days ago, when he left with the Wei army to counter the enemy's secondary troop, Shen Qingqiu had smiled at him before his left.

Now, there was nothing on his face except sadness and loss again.

***

The general's condition did not get any better.

Though he pulled through the first night and the subsequent nights, he was still too weak, pale and listless. It wasn't long before Mu Qingfang suspected that he was cursed.

"An arrow cursed by a shaman," Mu Qingfang told them. "We don't know much about their practise so unless we get our hands on one of them, it's hard to undo what have been done."

"Understood," Shen Qingqiu said just as Liu Qingge slammed his fist on the table, frustrated and helpless.

Liu Qingge covered his face with his hands and Shen Qingqiu reached out, then hesitated. Even though he too was worried, he didn't know what he could do about it. It wasn't his place to comfort Liu Qingge and furthermore, it was his fault that General Liu became hurt.

If the general hadn't come looking for him...

If Liu Qingge blamed it on him...

Shen Qingqiu's heart lurched in pain but he told himself that it was alright. He was used to being blamed for unfortunate happenings.

"It isn't your fault."

Shen Qingqiu straightened, snapping out of his self-admonishment.

"My father protected you because he wanted to," Liu Qingge said, looking at him with sharp eyes. Flustered, Shen Qingqiu looked away.

"... he shouldn't have..."

The words were spoken so softly that Liu Qingge almost couldn't catch.

"He wanted to," Liu Qingge insisted. "Because you are his."

Shen Qingqiu blinked at him, surprised. 'His?'

"He considers his soldiers, the garrison, as his family. Including you," Liu Qingge said. "My father always said that our responsibility as general is to protect our family, our loved ones, each other. Otherwise, we are nothing more than mindless killing beasts."  

"So don't blame yourself," Liu Qingge said, looking at him without a single ounce of hesitation. "I don't blame you and neither does my father."

Shen Qingqiu stared at him for a moment with clear eyes.

Then he nodded, keeping those words near to his heart.

***

Shen Qingqiu had assumed that the Mongol army and their shamans would operate with shared values.

He was wrong.

It was not a mistake he would ever make again.

If they were going to resort to unscrupulous tactics like this...

...then Shen Qingqiu would not hold back either.

***

"Vice General! Master Shen has disappeared!"

"What!?" Liu Qingge stood up from his chair as a soldier rushed into the medical tent. Meanwhile, his father continued to slumber despite the noise.

"We were standing guard as usual at the tent but Master Shen didn't come out of his tent this morning to watch the morning drills," the soldier explained. "We didn't think much of it until we realise that even his servants never came to deliver meals. They always do, even when Master Shen doesn't eat. So we went into the tent but Master Shen wasn't there!'

Liu Qingge's mind raced a mile a minute but he couldn't firmly grasp at any thought at all until the words finally sunk in.

"He left this behind," the soldier said, handing him a note.

Liu Qingge read it and frown at the simple words.

Wait for the cue.  

***

Infiltrating the enemy's camp was simultaneously easy and difficult.

It didn't take long for him to get his hands on a servant's robes. Despite his recent lack of practice in thievery, Shen Qingqiu was crafty enough to pull it off even in a heavily guarded camp.

He wandered around for a while, looking for the tent belonging to the shamans, though he was cautious not to capture anyone's attention. However, before he could mentally map out the whole encampment, he was called away.

"Here. Send this to Lord Tudan," said the servant who called him. He handed Shen Qingqiu a tray of fruits and a goblet of water.

"Yes, sir," Shen Qingqiu said, bowing a little in deference. Without a moment of hesitation, he walked towards the general's tent, following the other servants carrying trays of meat. Any dawdling might clue the enemy in on Shen Qingqiu's intentions.

At the entrance, a guard checked his food and patted him down to check for weapons, though he didn't need to. Shen Qingqiu had entered the camp without any weapons, including Xiu Ya.

Sitting on a daybed was the general of the Mongol army. The Khan's right hand man, Lord Tudan, was a large man with brownish red hair. He looked to be double the size of Liu Qingge and appeared to be quite brutish, though his bluish green eyes were sharp and intelligent. Shen Qingqiu suppose that if one were to survive and thrive in the harsh lands of the west amidst bloodthirsty warriors, one would have to be both cunning and robust.

"Your water, my lord," Shen Qingqiu said demurely, kneeling beside the bed to place the goblet and bowl of fruits at the side table.

"I don't want water. I hate water. Bring me wine," the man snapped.

Shen Qingqiu nodded and made to leave but the lord caught his wrist as he was retrieving the tray.

"You're new," Lord Tudan commented with a frown. "Did you come with the new caravan?"

He was testing Shen Qingqiu. Despite his bright eye colour, Shen Qingqiu had more features that revealed him to be a citizen of the empire and not from the west. Furthermore, Shen Qingqiu knew that the enemy's garrison did not receive any new shipment or caravans since they arrived at the borders.

"No, my Lord," he answered, still looking down. "I was... recruited from the last village."

The last village that they plundered, he meant. The Liu army received news that three small villages had been decimated by the Mongol army before they arrived, pillaging any supplies, kidnapping the majority of the villages as slaves and slaughtering those they deemed unnecessary.

"Hm," the general hummed, still looking intently at his face. "Odd that I haven't seen you before."

"I was placed in the kitchens until today," Shen Qingqiu answered as he glanced shyly once at the lord from under his lashes.

"Hm," the general hummed, before pulling him down on the day bed and into his arms, "You'll stay with me tonight."

That quickly? Shen Qingqiu wondered fleetingly. It didn't matter if the lord was suspicious of him or not. All he needed was a second of carelessness and he would succeed in his mission.

"You're so light," Lord Tudan reveled, lifting him up easily by his waist. "Like a bird, like one of those birds of paradise. Lovely and weightless."

Shen Qingqiu folded his legs beneath him so the general could settle him on his lap. The man caressed his sides with large hands, cupping his bottom and leaning in to nuzzle his neck.

"Does it displease you, my lord? That I'm so thin and light," Shen Qingqiu asked, voice soft and meek.

The man hummed, smelling his hair. "No, not displeased at all."

He demonstrated it by reaching for Shen Qingqiu's belt. The sash slid off easily and Tudan threw him down on the day bed. The red head grinned at Shen Qingqiu's surprised gasp.

"Wait," Shen Qingqiu said, before the general could do more than strip off his pants. He smiled as he trailed his bare foot over the general's lap and onto his swollen groin. "Let me please you, my lord?"

"Tease," Lord Tudan rumbled, catching a hold onto his foot and rubbing it against his groin.

Shen Qingqiu had to swallow his disgust before his expression gave anything away. He pressed his foot down, pushing against the thick rod beneath the pants. Tudan groaned, and before he could recover to do more unsavory things to his foot, Shen Qingqiu leaned forward to push Tudan's shoulders down onto the bed. He climbed onto the redhead's lap, sitting directly on his groin.

"Let me please you," Shen Qingqiu repeated, a plea in his tone as he grinded down.

"You minx," groaned the general, grabbing Shen Qingqiu's hips. He could feel the soft skin beneath the loose robes and that only served to increase his anticipation.

"Shhh," Shen Qingqiu whispered, taking his sash and with a coquettish smile, slowly tied the general's wrist overhead. It was loose and the general knew that he could easily break out of it if he so much as exerted a little force. It was ridiculous that such a farce could excite him so much. No other bed partners he'd taken would be so bold like this young man, despite his demure air.

Shen Qingqiu lifted himself up and grinded down, moaning breathlessly to entice his target further. He traced the man's neck, chest, abdomen and up his own. His hands went up as he threw his head back. His hair came tumbling down as he pulled his hairpin off.

But before he could bring the hairpin down onto the general's chest, the man grabbed a hold of his wrist.

"What a pretty assassin," Tudan said, a wry smile on his lips. "Pity you didn't let me finish in you first."

Before Shen Qingqiu could say anything, he felt the world tilt as the Mongol general turned their position around, pinning Shen Qingqiu on the bed.

"But I suppose I can still get what I want," Tudan said, ripping his robes open. Shen Qingqiu glared up at him as the redhaired man grinned at him unrepentantly.

"You really are a beast, aren't you," Shen Qingqiu said, still calm as he counted in his head. Any time now...

"And you are a real beauty," Tudan replied with a grin.

Said grin disappeared when the Mongol general finally realised something was wrong. His tongue went numb, he had momentary double vision and his fingers became sluggish as he slumped forward. The young man he thought was an assassin heaved him onto the bed with a strength belying his lithe stature.  

"Thank you for the compliment," Shen Qingqiu said, flicking his hair over his shoulder haughtily. "But beastly men are not my type."

The red-haired man glared at him with no effect as Shen Qingqiu straighten his robes and hair, binding his hair up with the decoy hairpin. He retrieved the small poisoned needle he'd pricked into the Mongol general's neck and slid it back into his sleeve.

"An eye for an eye," Shen Qingqiu said to the paralysed general, a smirk on his face. "Now, we'll have to negotiate for antidotes, don't we?"

*****

Shen Qingqiu hummed softly as he wrapped the garrote around the Mongol general's neck.

The end of the thin wire was attached to his own wrist, a safety rope so to speak or a leash to a dangerous mutt. The shamans and soldiers might kill him even without the antidote but the obvious threat to their general's life would stay their sword.

"I am not afraid of death," Tudan said, his voice rumbling under Shen Qingqiu's hands.

"Neither am I," Shen Qingqiu agreed easily. "But we both share the same fear, don't we?"

He leaned down to coyly whisper into the general's ear, "The fear of failure."

"Imagine what your Khan will say if you return a paralysed man? Such a disappointment you'd be," Shen Qingqiu mocked. "A great warrior general reduced to nothing but a vegetable. Such a waste."

"I didn't think that the imperial army would resort to hostage taking," Tudan said, his tone almost amused despite his dire situation. If Shen Qingqiu wasn't preserving his life to save General Liu's, then he wouldn't have hesitated at all to cut the man's throat.  

"Oh, honestly" Shen Qingqiu said, taking a seat on his lap comfortably like he was a doted concubine. At least this time, there are no pillars poking into his thigh. "You really didn't see this coming? After all, you were the ones who started this."

He smiled coquettishly. "So I'm the one who will end it."

Tudan looked at him for a moment before he grinned, "You really are fearless."

"I told you. I'm not afraid of death," Shen Qingqiu said with a shrug. "I walked into this camp knowing I might not leave it. But it's a gamble I'm willing to take to protect the people I care about."

"Now then, shall we begin?" Shen Qingqiu said, taking out his silk fan. "Call your shamans."

***

The shamans came along with two guards and none of them reacted to Shen Qingqiu's threat well.

One of the soldiers actually lifted his spear, as if he was about to impale Shen Qingqiu, who was still sitting atop Tudan's lap. If Shen Qingqiu just shifted a little, Tudan would be the one who would be impaled and considering the general's paralysis, it was a sure thing if the idiot did attack first without thinking.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the other soldier stopped the spear-wielding idiot.

"Stop! You will kill the General! Look at what is on his neck!" the soldier shouted, taking the spear away.

"Correct," Shen Qingqiu said with a satisfied smile. "Even if you managed to stab me, all I have to do if channel a small amount of qi into the wire and your great general's head will fall with my body."

"What do you want?" asked the soldier, who was clearly the second-in-command.

"Remove the curse," he replied, turning his gaze to the two shamans.

"We cannot," answered the shaman. "There is no reversing the curse."

"Is that so?" Shen Qingqiu said, opening his fan. "So then, your General can die with my General. I think that would be fair."

"Wait! No!" exclaimed the second-in-command.

"Do it," Tudan said suddenly. Shen Qingqiu could feel minor movements beneath him as the general attempted to move his limbs and surmised that Tudan would be regaining full functionality soon.

He needed to speed things up.

"We cannot do that," the shaman claimed, but Shen Qingqiu heard the short moment of hesitation and saw the twitching in the man's fingers.

Making a quick decision, he threw his fan.

It rotated in a wide arch, spinning around one of the soldiers and before the Mongols could react, the first shaman's throat split open, spilling blood across the floor.

"Then, I'll just kill the both of you," Shen Qingqiu said, retrieving his blood-splattered fan when it spun back to him.

"If you kill us both, you will never find the cure to his curse," the remaining shaman said quickly.

"From your stubbornness, I can garner that you won't tell me how to reverse the curse," Shen Qingqiu said, touching the bloody edge of his silk fan. It was one of his favourite fans, but it wasn't a loss at all, since it was gifted to him by Yue Qingyuan. "Either way my general will still die."

"So I will just make sure that the two of you will accompany him to his grave as tribute," Shen Qingqiu promised, his green eyes shining bright above his red-edged fan.

The shaman swallowed.

"So what will it be? Sure, instant death? Or a possibility of survival?"

There was another moment of hesitation that made Shen Qingqiu sighed with annoyance.

"Now you're just being a pain," he complained. "Very well. Since you want to make things difficult for me. Then I'll just return the headache to you."

Just as he said that, a loud boom outside the tent could be heard.

"FIRE! The armory is on fire!"

"Get water!"

"Oh, don't worry, it's just a little gift to keep your soldiers busy," Shen Qingqiu told Tudan and the other occupants of the tent. Then another two consecutive booms could be heard.

"The food carts are on fire too!" The screaming outside continued.

"FIRE!"

Shen Qingqiu tsked, "So noisy."

He turned back to the shaman, "Well? Should I just kill you?"

"If you kill me, the curse cannot be removed!" said the shaman in a desperate bid to control the situation.  

Shen Qingqiu watched him for a while before he said, "Lie."

The shaman reeled back in surprised, "How did you-?"

"For one thing, when I killed your little friend there, you said nothing of that sort," Shen Qingqiu explained. "If your deaths will not remove the curse and instead ensured its permanency, then you would have boasted about it after his death."

"That's what you Mongols like to do, am I right? My Lord?" Shen Qingqiu asked Tudan with a wry smile. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "And like I said, if my general is to die either way, then at least I'd have avenged him."

Shen Qingqiu waved the fan at the remaining shaman.

"So choose wisely, Shaman. For it might be the last thing you decide."

***

Mu Qingfang and all those keeping vigil at General Liu Fangzhao's side knew immediately the moment the curse ended when the ailing general's paleness and the stench of death emitting from him receded. His complexion became normal again in a matter of seconds and his laboured breath became deeper and calmer.

"Sir?" called Mu Qingfang and the general groaned. "Sir, please answer me."

The general mumbled something that Mu Qingfang and the others couldn't catch.

"What is it, old friend?" General Wei asked, leaning in.

"Voices," Liu Fangzhao moaned. "I heard voices."

"Who, sir?" asked Gongyi Xiao.

"My son's," the general groaned, opening his eyes. "And- Qingqiu? Where's Qingqiu?"

"Where's my advisor?"

***

"Before you go," Tudan said, staring at Shen Qingqiu as he lengthened the wire so that he could make his escape through the doorway. He'd made the soldier and the shaman leave before executing his plan. "What is your name?"

Shen Qingqiu didn't bother to answer him as he finally released his grip on the man's neck. Before the man could grab him, he slid out from his reach and those of the soldiers milling about near the tent. They nearly managed to block his route when a glowing white sword sliced right through between them.

Without missing a beat, Shen Qingqiu jumped on Xiu Ya and weaved across the encampment. He leaned down and grabbed the hand raised up towards him. Ning Yingying, dressed as a maid of the Mongol army, whooped as her master hoisted her up onto his sword behind her. She had been the one to smuggle the sword with her into the encampment, since the soldiers had a tendency to underestimate the female servants. She'd also been the one who planted the explosives and triggered them at the right time to provide distractions to the soldiers.  

"Stop him! He has the antidote!"

Shen Qingqiu took out a package and dispersed its content into the wind with a swing of his fan. The powder caused their skin to burn though there would be no physical damage. If it happened to get into their eyes, it would sting a thousand times over.

Outside the Mongol encampment, sitting on a tree and watching his master fly across the sky, Ming Fan shot a flare into the sky.

***

"That's the signal," Liu Qingge said, looking up at the sky.

He signaled to his soldiers, all dressed in black to travel in the cover in the dark of the night.  

"Let's move out!"

***

"How could you have let them escape!" the shaman shouted at the soldiers.

General Tudan, who was now lying on the daybed, wriggled his fingers and toes, feeling the numbness receding slowly. The paralytic drug has run its course so it was only the poison left that they needed to attend to.  

"General! The imperial army is marching towards us!" one of his soldier burst into the tent.

Tudan sat up in surprise, gritting his teeth when currents went through his limbs at the sudden movement. "What!? Now!? That little minx!"

"They're almost here!"

Tudan grabbed his sabre but collapsed onto the ground as dizziness overtook him. His legs had given out and his insides felt as if it was squirming within him.

"General!"

"My Lord!"

"It must the poison!"

Nearly hurling from the wave of vertigo, Tudan waved at his second-in-command, who turned around and exited the tent. Tudan leaned back on the daybed, anticipating a terrible loss for his army that night.

He laughed to himself, at wit's end.

This was not how he anticipated the night to go when he gave the shamans the order to curse the general.

What was it that the minx said? Turn about is fair play?

"Really," he muttered to himself, letting his head fall back. "I've lost."

***

Three days later, the recovering General Tudan received a missive from the Liu army.

'Drink plenty of water. The paralytic poison should be out of your system by now but the water might help with your halitosis.'

Tudan didn't know whether he should feel insulted or amused by the missive, so he settled with laughing aloud, much to the confusion of his warriors.

There was no bloody poison at all! That minx had used that as a ploy to blackmail him and his shamans! Unbelievable! The gall of that- that minx!

"Shen Qingqiu, huh," he said, taking a sip of water from his goblet. "The advisor of Liu army. How interesting."

He touched his lips, remembering the soft lips and the smell of sandalwood incense.

"I want to see him again."

***

It was afternoon by the time Shen Qingqiu returned to his tent. He was still dressed in the servant clothes he had pilfered from the Mongol camp and his hair was a mess from flying through the night.

The first thing he'd done upon arriving at the camp was to ensure that the curse on General Liu was removed. If it didn't, he would have marched back to the enemy's camp right there and then to kill the other shaman he'd so mercifully spared.

But when he'd arrived at the camp, the older man had berated him for running off without telling anyone of his plans.

"Qingge was the only one who seem to understand what you wrote," complained General Wei. "The moment he read the message you left behind, he immediately called upon his troops and departed in the dark."

"Hmph, of course," Liu Fangzhao boasted, sounding like himself once more. "The two of them have worked together for months. They know each other like the back of their hands."

Those words made Shen Qingqiu feel pleased and at the same time embarrassed, though he couldn't deny what General Liu said.

Liu Qingge had come in time to stop the enemy from pursuing him and Ning Yingying, as well as allow Ming Fan to make his escape. They had not reconvened as Shen Qingqiu headed straight back to the Wei garrison, trusting Liu Qingge to retreat or defeat Tudan's army. Given the condition of the Mongol general, Shen Qingqiu wouldn't be surprised if he sat out this outright attack on his camp. And without the renown general, the Mongol troop in question would be running helter-skelter like a chicken without a head.

With a smirk, Shen Qingqiu threw off the stolen robes and stepped into his tub, sighing as he sunk into the hot water. It was a luxury to have hot baths here in the garrison, but he figured that after that successful mission, he deserved it.

Feeling clean and sleepy after his bath, Shen Qingqiu dressed himself in his inner robes, the fatigue finally seeping into his bones. He hadn't slept well in days and was feeling as if he could drop off into slumber at any moment.

But before he could climb into his bed, the flap to his tent was thrown wide open.

"Shen Qingqiu!"

"Vice Gene-!"

Liu Qingge wrapped his arms around him, enveloping him in a tight embrace. The heat from the vice general made Shen Qingqiu keenly aware of the warmth emanating from the warrior. Liu Qingge always seem to burn hot, whether it was emotionally or physically.

Unbidden, Shen Qingqiu could also feel his cheeks heat up from the embrace, which felt far more intimate than him sitting on Tudan's lap while acting like a coy courtesan.

"I thought you'd never make it back," Liu Qingge admitted, his face buried in Shen Qingqiu's nape, tickling the fine hairs on the back of his neck. "I thought I would be too late."

"Vice- Liu Qingge," Shen Qingqiu whispered, face a bright red as his heart raced within his chest.

"You're so stubborn!" Liu Qingge complained in his ear, not hearing his embarrassed mumble. "Why didn't you tell me what you were planning! I could have helped you!'

"You would have tried to stop me!" Shen Qingqiu snapped back in return. However, Liu Qingge did not let go of him.

"Of course I would!" Liu Qingge shouted. "I wouldn't have let you endanger yourself like that!"

"Let me?" Shen Qingqiu repeated, pushing Liu Qingge's chest to break their embrace. "You don't own me! You don't tell me what to do!"

"Of course not! That's not what I meant and you know it!" Liu Qingge said back to him vehemently. "I just don't want you to endanger yourself just because you think no one cares for you! I care for you! My father cares for you too!"

"So what? That doesn't mean that I belong to you and need your permission to do anything," Shen Qingqiu said, bristling with anger. "You might be my commanding superior but-"

"I'm not saying this because I'm your commanding officer! I'm saying that I care for you!" Liu Qingge said, holding onto his shoulders. "Because I like you!"

Shen Qingqiu stared at him in disbelief, not believing his ears. Did Liu Qingge really just-?

"This-this is inappropriate," he settled with saying instead, unsure how to process his thoughts.

Liu Qingge's frowning face turned completely red when his eyes wandered downwards, finally registering that he'd caught Shen Qingqiu dressed in nothing but his sleeping robes, with his dark unbound hair cascading down his back...

The vice general turned away, swallowing hard. Even his ears had turn bright red and the sight of it made Shen Qingqiu wonder briefly how far the blush went.

"Ahem. I apologise for barging into your tent unannounced," Liu Qingge coughed out, before practically fleeing from Shen Qingqiu's tent.

Shen Qingqiu sighed, putting a hand over his eyes tiredly.

"Fuck this. I need sleep," he said, turning to his bed, determined to ignore this new problem in favor of rest.

***

Unfortunately, sleep evaded him.

Possibly because he was overly tired or... it might be because the words 'I like you!' kept circling in his mind over and over again until it culminated to Shen Qingqiu putting his covers over his face and screaming in frustration (and no small amount of embarrassment).

Why? Why did Liu Qingge tell him this? Why was he so earnest all the damn time!?

Why was he-?

Why was he always... so good to him?

Shen Qingqiu didn't deserve this. His regards. His respect. His kindness.

His love.

Shen Qingqiu knew full well what an undeserving person he was. Wicked. Cruel. Unpleasant.

Unlovable.

Everyone said so. Repeatedly.

Even the person who had known him all his life, who'd sworn to love him for all eternity couldn't love him for more than ten years.

Shen Qingqiu closed his eyes, burying his face into the fur that Liu Qingge had asked Liu Bo to give him to warm his bed. Fur from the brown bear that Liu Qingge himself had hunted and skinned. He swallowed the lump in his throat and reassured himself that it wouldn't last.

It wouldn't take long before Liu Qingge fell out of love with him too.

He was sure of it.

****

Shen Qingqiu was avoiding him.

If someone were to ask his family, they would say that Liu Qingge not the most aware person when it came to romantic pursuits. And sure enough, it took him three days to realise that Shen Qingqiu was actively trying to avoid being alone in the same room with him.

This frustrated Liu Qingge so much that he started going out hunting whenever he couldn't find Shen Qingqiu.

"Can't find Master Shen again, huh?" Liu Bo asked with a sympathetic tone, prompting Liu Qingge to give him a glare. "Uh, maybe I should-"

Before Liu Bo could make a run at the first sign of his bad mood, Liu Qingge grabbed his shoulder and frog-marched his protesting cousin out of the camp.

"We're going hunting!"

"Again!? The warehouse is going to overload with meat and fur soon!"

"Shut up! Move!"

***

It was infuriating to be honest. To be treated like this. Though he tried not to show it, it wasn't always successful.

"Master Shen is really admirable," Gongyi Xiao said, smiling at the advisor during the banquet celebrating General Liu's recovery. "Ever since you came, we've managed to push General Tudan into a retreat."

"Yes, no matter what we do, that man is always fearlessly advancing," General Wei commented. "It's the first time I've ever seen the Khan's right hand man doing something like this."

"Yes, I'm so glad Master Shen didn't settle with just marrying someone," Liu Qingge couldn't help but say snidely. Beside him, Liu Fangzhao snorted tea out of his nose.

Shen Qingqiu turned to give Liu Qingge an odd look before the advisor reached out to pat the coughing Liu Fangzhao on the back.

Liu Qingge turned away, cheeks heating up from his lost of control. He'd never been so... rude before, not like this at any rate, but it's been days since his -ahem- confession about his feelings to Shen Qingqiu and they still haven't addressed it. It felt as if there was a tension between them that filled the air with a toxic miasma. It was making him feel suffocated and uneasy.

It was fine if his father or General Wei was with them, but as soon as they were alone, Shen Qingqiu would find reason to leave the room, leaving Liu Qingge to feel as if he was the only person feeling anxious about their relationship.

Relationship? What relationship?

As far as Shen Qingqiu was concerned, they had no relationship other than a work-related one. Perhaps the divorcé would prefer that but Liu Qingge wasn't one to deny his own heart, nor was he the type to silently pine after Shen Qingqiu.

Liu Qingge was always called abrasive and blunt so it really shouldn't surprise Shen Qingqiu that by the third week of his confession, the vice-general finally couldn't take it anymore. He tried several times to corner the advisor but he proved to be as slippery as an eel. It was no wonder the Mongol general didn't manage to catch Shen Qingqiu even when he had him so close at hand.

Finally, when Shen Qingqiu was returning to his tent one night, Liu Qingge confronted him by barging into his living quarters once more. It was extremely rude of him to do so twice but he opined that it was rude of Shen Qingqiu to keep avoiding him as well.

"If you want to reject me, then just do it. Don't avoid me," Liu Qingge said in lieu of an explanation on why he intruded on Shen Qingqiu's privacy.

"Liu Qingge! Why do you keep coming in without announcing yourself first? Or knocking? Ever heard of knocking? I'm sure your father has taught you that before. General Liu always knocks-"

"Don't change the subject," Liu Qingge interrupted firmly and Shen Qingqiu clammed his mouth shut at the look on the vice-general's face.

"Fine. I don't want to accept your feelings," Shen Qingqiu said decisively. "Crushes like this will fade away eventually. Why engage in it at all if it will lead to nothing but heartache and misery?"

"Heartache..." Liu Qingge stopped, understanding suddenly why Shen Qingqiu was so adamant on ignoring his confession.

"We have a good working relationship. One that is beneficial to both of us. Crossing the line will lead to nothing but trouble," Shen Qingqiu continued, looking away. "Already the air between us has changed."

"I don't regret it."

"What?" Shen Qingqiu involuntarily looked at him, confused.

"I don't regret confessing to you about my feelings," Liu Qingge repeated. "I like you. It's not going to change. I'm not a fickle person."

Shen Qingqiu glared at him, catching the hint of criticism towards his ex-husband.

"I've only ever liked three dishes that my mother cooks for me when I return to the capital. Only those three dishes. All my life. Even though I am not a picky eater," Liu Qingge said, apropos to nothing. "I've only ever favoured one type of weapon, though I've mastered the bow, the scimitar and the halberd. I've only ever like one shirt, worn till it's threadbare and even then, I refused to let my mother throw it away. I've also only ever-"

"What is your point!?" Shen Qingqiu asked, bewildered.

"My point is, even if it will take ten years, twenty years, I will still be firm with my decision," Liu Qingge announced. "I will only ever like you. Because all my life, I have never fallen for anyone, except you."

Shen Qingqiu, known in the capital for having a silver tongue, was completely speechless at the impassioned words. "If you don't believe me, I will prove it to you. Your contract with us is for five years, or until the empire has defeated the Mongols," Liu Qingge said. "Before your term ends, I will dedicate myself in showing you that every word I utter is completely true."

"And how are you going to do that?" Shen Qingqiu questioned.

"Let me court you," Liu Qingge said and before Shen Qingqiu could deny him, he continued. "Let me have the opportunity to prove myself to you. If by the end of your term, you are unsatisfied with me, then I will let you go as per our contract."

Shen Qingqiu stared at him in disbelief. Then he asked, "And if I say no to courtship?"

Liu Qingge looked down, his face falling.

"Then I will leave you be," he promised, already expecting the worse.

When the silence from Shen Qingqiu continued, Liu Qingge looked back up, hopeful.

"Things have already changed between us," Shen Qingqiu lamented. "Whether I say yes or no, things have already changed."

"Yes," Liu Qingge acknowledged. "The moment I started falling for you, I knew that nothing would be the same again."

Shen Qingqiu closed his eyes, feeling the sadness overwhelm him again. If he said no, then Liu Qingge would suffer from his unrequited feelings and Shen Qingqiu would be left with an awkward working relationship with his superior. If he said yes, Shen Qingqiu would be obliged to humour Liu Qingge's attempts at courting his fractured heart. However, at least then Liu Qingge would not be distracted from the war because of his unrequited crush.

"Very well," Shen Qingqiu agreed. "I agree to your terms."

Liu Qingge's face lit up at his answer and he stepped forward. He said, "I promise to do my best to prove my worth."

"However," Shen Qingqiu continued, interrupting the vice-general's heartfelt words. "Once the term ends, I will be free to leave if I so choose to."

"Yes, of course," Liu Qingge said smiling widely. "And I will also personally see to it that all your terms are met. Whether our courtship is successful or not."

"Good," Shen Qingqiu said. "Then I will hold you to that promise, Vice-General Liu."

***

Just like that, Liu Qingge set out to be the most ridiculous (doting) suitor he'd ever seen. Regularly bringing him the choice meats, ensuring that Shen Qingqiu would always have sweet treats by insisting on the import of sugar to their fort or garrison, providing him with furs and silks on a seasonal basis and always setting his tent closest to him and his father for protection.

To make matters worse, Shen Qingqiu discovered that General Liu and Liu Bo was silently (and not so silently) backing (cheering) Liu Qingge on, doing their best to accommodate Liu Qingge's ridiculous demands.

It spiralled so much that at one point Liu Qingge wanted to learn how to make sweet bean pastry for him but ended up wasting a bag of flour because Liu Bo decided to instigate a food fight. The scene was almost comical, with the flour covered Liu Qingge and his second-in-charge sitting down on the ground while Shen Qingqiu scolded them for wasting military resources as General Liu watched on from the sideline with a barely suppressed smile.

And despite it all, Shen Qingqiu didn't have the heart to completely reject the vice-general.

The next day after the incident, the disheartened vice-general returned to his tent after a skirmish to find a plate of sweet bean pastry waiting for him. The silent offering was more than enough to encourage Liu Qingge to try again. Except this time, with less... enthusiasm.

Shen Qingqiu was the type to appreciate less ostentatious gestures of affection anyway. His thin skin wouldn't have it any other way.

So, after some (lengthy) discussion with his father, Liu Qingge set out to be the most attentive suitor he could be. Bringing an extra cloak for Shen Qingqiu when the weather was cold. Making sure that Shen Qingqiu had eaten and was getting enough sleep. He'd regularly ask Ning Yingying to ensure that her master retire early and even gave her pocket money to get whatever she needed to make soup and congee for Shen Qingqiu.

Ning Yingying made sure to report everything back to him and Shen Qingqiu could feel his face heat up every time she did.

That man can be so ridiculous! Shen Qingqiu was an adult! He can take care of himself.

Still, despite all his foolishness, never once did Liu Qingge overstep his boundary or forget that he was the vice-general when the situation called for it. On the battlefield, Liu Qingge never treated him any differently as he did before their courtship begin and Shen Qingqiu wouldn't want it any other way.

As the months passed and the seasons changed, Shen Qingqiu felt his heart slowly but surely thaw towards the eager and sincere gestures, and before long, the whole encampment knew that they were courting.

By the third year of Shen Qingqiu's term at the borders, everyone in the Liu encampment knew that where one of them would be, the other would be present too. And if one wasn't present, the other would surely know where he was.

"Master Shen," called out Liu Bo as he peeked into the advisor's office. "Do you know where my cousin is?"

"He's at the armoury," Shen Qingqiu answered without looking up from his paperwork.

"I already went there. He's not there," Liu Bo replied.

"Then try the second warehouse. He mentioned something about the year-end inventory," Shen Qingqiu said, still not looking up.

"Oh, okay. Thank you, brother-in-law," Liu Bo said before disappearing to find his older cousin.

It took Shen Qingqiu a minute before the title registered in his head.

What!?

***

For a while, everyone in the station wondered when the wedding would take place. Would the couple be tying their nuptials on the battleground? Would they wait for the five year term to end and return to the capital to have an official ceremony?

There was even a (somewhat) illegal betting pool on what would be the catalyst for the marriage to happen and when it would actually take place.

(In the soldiers' defense, there were very little entertainment to be had in the middle of no where. They had to get their kicks from somewhere and it was the first time they had ever seen their no-nonsense Vice-General Liu being so lovesick over someone. Just because they weren't allowed to tease him to his face about it didn't mean that they couldn't derive some entertainment out of it.)

Though he wouldn't admit it even at sword point, Liu Bo himself put a hefty amount in the pool for their wedding to be officialised at the end of their term, mostly because he suspected that Master Shen was too professional to cross their boundaries without fulfilling his contract first.

Sadly for Liu Bo and the majority of the betting pool, they were mistaken.

Probably because none of them expected General Tudan to be the catalyst of their union.

***

After being greatly humiliated by his defeat and the loss of one of the Mongol shamans, General Tudan was severely reprimanded by his Khan and it took a while for him to prove himself worthy to return to the battlefield. When he returned, the battles became fiercer than before, forcing Shen Qingqiu to resort to less than savory tactics.

Once, before the Mongol reinforcement army could reach the borders, Shen Qingqiu sent out a nest of succubi that he'd contracted to lure in the group of warriors. Liu Qingge might have thought to protest when he found out after the fact, but he'd resolutely held back his criticism when none of the survivors actually made it to the battlefront. Though he did not witness it, Liu Qingge was pretty sure that Tudan was hopping mad when he found out that his reinforcement was diverted by a bunch of sexual demons.

Whenever the Mongol general came up with a scheme to divert their army or split their forces, Shen Qingqiu would return the gesture tenfold, throwing the Mongol encampment into a disarray. It came to the point that the Liu army soldiers actually took great pleasure to seeing what their advisor and tactician would resort to in order to teach the Mongol army some humility.

Unfortunately, during a battle between the two armies, General Tudan took the opportunity to capture Shen Qingqiu when Liu Qingge and Liu Fangzhao was distracted by the flying creatures that ambushed them suddenly from behind the cliff shelf.

"Qingqiu!"

The twin shouts permeated the chaotic battlefield and Shen Qingqiu only had time to shout for Liu Qingge before he was taken away. The last thing he saw of his vice-general was the flying creature diving down with its claws extended towards Liu Qingge's back.

"Let go of me! Qingge!" Shen Qingqiu shouted, but the Mongol general fended off the other soldiers easily with his sabre while carrying Shen Qingqiu under his other arm, as if he was just a sack of rice that wasn't struggling as hard as the advisor was. Shen Qingqiu knew that Mongol people were amazing horsemen, but he had to admit that the ease in which Tudan was maneuvering his horse was ridiculous.  

When they returned to the Mongol encampment, Shen Qingqiu made sure to slap the Mongol general across the face for his kidnapping.

Judging from the way Tudan had taken care with capturing him, he wasn't about to kill Shen Qingqiu without cause. And a slap wasn't cause enough for the calculative Mongol general to fold into his more murderous tendencies.

But it did give Shen Qingqiu a little satisfaction though. Even when he was grabbed by the general's henchmen and had his wrists bound with an Immortal Binding Rope, which was probably provided by the (remaining) shaman.

"I know that you are upset that I've interrupted our little repartee on the battlefield," General Tudan said, not bothering to look offended by the slap that left his cheek reddened. Shen Qingqiu hadn't held back and the Mongol general would definitely feel offended if he did.

"But I am at the end of my patience. I want you by my side. If you marry me, I will ensure your safety," Tudan said, gesturing to a slave holding up a tray. On it was an elaborate robes befitting a mongol bride and matching accessories.

Shen Qingqiu glared at him, unmoved.

"So you'd choose death?" Tudan asked, looking unhappy with his reticence. "Very well, I will help you with that."

Another maid came to the forefront, bearing a goblet of wine.

"Poisoned wine," Tudan said. "Choose one of these by the time I return or I will choose for you."

Shen Qingqiu glared at his back venomously as he left the tent. Then he turned his glare to the two maids left behind, daring them to make a move towards him.

***

Liu Qingge had to be held down by his father and cousin as Mu Qingfang stitched his back.

The flying creatures that ambushed them had managed to claw his back open when Liu Qingge caught sight of Tudan capturing Shen Qingqiu. The distraction nearly killed him and after he'd decimated the unholy creatures in his rage, he had been adamant in storming the Mongol encampment even with his copiously bleeding injury.

"Stay still!" his father reprimanded him. "If you want to save Qingqiu, you have to let Healer Mu close your wound first or you'll bleed to death before you reach him."

"Xiu Ya..." Liu Qingge groaned as Mu Qingfang dug the needle into his back again. The injury was too deep to heal and would split open again if he were to attack the Mongol encampment without the security of the stitches.

"We found it," Liu Bo answered him, still holding his legs down. "You really should have taken the painkillers."

"No, will be too groggy," Liu Qingge said, braving through the pain. "Have to go save Qingqiu."

"Don't you worry about him," his father berated him, pushing down on his shoulders firmly. "Qingqiu is a hundred times smarter than you. He'll be fine."

"Qingqiu. Qingqiu," Liu Qingge whispered, out of his mind from pain and heartache.

"He's waiting for me."

***

"Have you decided?"

Shen Qingqiu didn't bother looking towards his direction, sitting on the bed like a statue.

"Shall I choose for you?" Tudan asked, taking off his riding gloves. Behind him, three other servants were preparing to hold down the general's future spouse to change him into the wedding ensemble.  

"Don't bother," Shen Qingqiu answered, turning to the maid with the goblet.

"You-! You'd rather chose death!?" Tudan's second-in-charge shouted in offense but the general raised a hand to halt him.

"Honourable, as always," Tudan said, looking wistful.

"Qingge," Shen Qingqiu whispered before tilting the wine into his mouth.

Rather than another heartache, better to end it all.

***

It wasn't long before the drug took effect and Shen Qingqiu realised what was happening.

Tudan had waited at the door of the tent, waving his men away and sitting opposite of him, as if waiting for him to die. But when the heat rose and his skin prickled at the way Tudan was staring at him, Shen Qingqiu knew immediately that he'd made a mistake.

He'd foolishly believed Tudan when he said that the wine was poisoned.

Rather than poisoned, it was actually drugged.

"You-! You!" Shen Qingqiu swayed, unable to get off the bed without falling to the ground.

"When I captured you today, I promised myself that I would make you mine no matter what," Tudan said, getting up from his chair. He untied his robe, revealing his chest. There was a large scarred over gash going diagonally across it. "My Khan was quite unhappy with me after you murdered one of my shaman. He gave me this."

"Then, kill me," Shen Qingqiu demanded, pushing away when the general came closer to him. He couldn't even walk properly by the time the general caught his waist, pulling him onto his lap as he settled onto the bed.

"Why would I kill someone who can single-handedly bring an entire army to heel?" Tudan asked, undoing Shen Qingqiu's hair gently and letting the glossy locks tumble down his back. "Once I marry you, I will bring you back to my Khan as a gift. Our very own advisor who is a cultivator that is of equal value to our shaman. More even, with your inside knowledge and quick wit, you can succeed where we couldn't for years. Infiltrate the borders into the very heart of the empire."

"Even if you find a way back to your empire, once it is known that you wed a Mongol General, you will never be trusted again," Tudan said, untying Shen Qingqiu belt. "You will be called a traitor. Better if you stay by my side and be my advisor instead."

"I'd rather die," Shen Qingqiu gritted out, feeling his focus float away momentarily as Tudan disrobed him, leaving him only in his underobes. Then the general grabbed the ceremonial garb that was left behind by the maids and wrapped it around his shoulders. Then, he tied the thick elaborate belt around Shen Qingqiu's waist to hold the robes shut.

"As much as I would like to sample you right now, we have to perform the ceremony tonight," Tudan said. "Then we can enjoy our first night as a married couple."

"You-" Shen Qingqiu lisped, held up by the general as his head lolled to the side. His eyes couldn't even focus on the asshole's face, how the Mongol idiot expected him to do the three bows with him was beyond Shen Qingqiu.

Unfortunately for Shen Qingqiu, he failed to account that this was not a normal wedding ceremony, rather a bride-snatching attempt. Tudan put him on a pure white horse, not his own mare but a large muscular beast rather akin to a monstrous beast than an actual horse. The rolling of the muscles beneath him actually made Shen Qingqiu feel nauseous and he had to close his eyes in order not to hurl.

"This is part of my wedding gift to you, Qingqiu," Tudan promised as he led him towards the ceremonial grounds prepared by the shaman. "This one is the king of the wild horses that roam our plains, tamed by the hand of yours truly. I will send an appropriate bride price to the Liu camp once we've consummated our first night."

"Shut-," Shen Qingqiu clammed his mouth shut as another wave of nausea swept through him. Then he gritted out, "Shut up."

Tudan laughed, "Still so fiesty. You know, I never stopped thinking about you since you left my bed. I can't even bed anyone else without thinking about you."

The general reached up and lifted a lock of Shen Qingqiu's hair. He kissed it and rubbed the silky strands on his cheek.

"I missed the smell of your hair, the touch of your smooth skin, your weight on my lap and the caress of your beautiful voice," the obsessed man said, smiling besottedly at Shen Qingqiu.

Shen Qingqiu returned the smile with a snarl, attempting to swipe at the general only to fall into his arms. Tudan took the opportunity to carry his little bound bird the rest of the way to the ceremonial grounds. The shaman had already prepared the wedding wine for the couple and was ready to bind the two enemies together.

"Let go!" Shen Qingqiu was being held upright by two warriors while the shaman attempted to feed him the wedding wine. He struggled fiercely against them, seriously contemplating on vomiting on one of them before his foot connected with the shaman's privates.  

He took advantage of the small window of opportunity to run but General Tudan, the stubborn asshole that he was, grabbed him by his unbound hair and pressed him down on the floor to force the ceremonial wine down his throat. Shen Qingqiu instinctually swallowed, narrowly escaping drowning by wedding wine.

"SHEN QINGQIU!"

"MASTER!"

Following the shouts, several things happened at once.

Fireballs rained down onto the tents, which caught fire at once. In his haze, Shen Qingqiu recognise the skill as something Ming Fan had recently mastered after discovering his affinity with fire and air. Shen Qingqiu, whose affinity was with air and water, had set about teaching the boy how to manipulate air with fire talismans and Ming Fan had caught on after nearly lighting himself on fire, multiple times. He still had a burn on his arm that would scar badly after it healed.

At present, the west wind was blowing, whipping up the fires higher and brighter into the sky.

Shen Qingqiu could feel the heat nipping at his consciousness and it snapped him back from his drugged state. He realised belatedly then that Tudan was trying to pull him back to his tent, away from his rescuers.  

"Go," he gritted out, "TO. HELL!"

Shen Qingqiu swung his bound wrist with all his might towards Tudan's face. But with his cultivation bound, there was very little damage he could do to the larger man. Instead, it was his hands that throbbed with pain.

"Stop resisting!" Tudan said, gripping his shoulders tightly. "You're married to me!"

"You wish!" Shen Qingqiu returned. Even in his drugged state, he'd already noticed something, "YOU didn't consume the wedding wine. You spilled it all on me!"

"I don't need it," Tudan said to him. "You are the one that needed the aphrodisiac."

"Oh, but the ritual isn't complete if both didn't consume it, right?" Shen Qingqiu laughed. "Even in my condition, I heard what the stupid shaman said. Moron."

Before Tudan could say anything to that, a familiar shout sounded across the chaotic encampment.

"TUDAN! COME OUT!"

"Better answer that," Shen Qingqiu drawled. "Or he'll just call you a coward and he'd be right."

"TUDAN! YOU YELLOW-BELLIED COWARD!

Shen Qingqiu giggled and Tudan growled. He pushed Shen Qingqiu towards his second-in-charge.

"Keep him safe," Tudan said, taking out his sabre and heading out to confront Vice-General Liu.

'Oh, but who will keep him safe from me?' Shen Qingqiu thought to himself, slipping out a needle from the sleeve of his underrobe. Tudan had forgotten to remove his needle while dressing him and now that he was more sober, he'd have a small window of time before the aphrodisiac in the wedding wine kicked in.

***

Liu Qingge ignored the throbbing on his back. Mu Qingfang had patched him up as much as possible and healed most of his injuries as well, but the pain was still present as he had refused the painkillers.

He swung his sword and decapitated two of the Mongol warriors he was engaged in before shouting for Tudan again.

"YOU YELLOW-BELLIED COWARD! COME OUT!"

Then he turned around to intercept a familiar looking sabre. On the other side of their crossed blades was the face of that smug Mongol general that kept eyeing Shen Qingqiu whenever they were faced against each other on the battlefield.

"You're interrupting my wedding!" Tudan snarled and Liu Qingge sneered back at him.

"Good! Because Shen Qingqiu definitely deserves better than you!"

Amidst the burning chaos around them, the clashing of their blades actually caused sparks to fly, so fast were their strikes as they engaged in a furious battle to overcome each other.

"He's mine!" Tudan shouted, baring his teeth as he parried each strike from Liu Qingge, who didn't even bother to answer.

The vice-general suddenly ducked, moving into a maneuver that Shen Qingqiu had once resorted to when they were sparring. It was an... unconventional move, unorthodox but it was as effective as when Shen Qingqiu had used it, bringing Tudan down onto his knees as Liu Qingge sunk Cheng Luan into his side.

"Where is he!?" Liu Qingge demanded but Tudan glared at him, keeping mum. He didn't have time to waste on the man. Who knows what these barbarians have done to someone as refined as Shen Qingqiu. With a single swing of his sword, he decapitated the general, bringing an end to the fight.

"Qingqiu!" he shouted, running deeper into the camp. There was nothing but chaos as warriors ran amok, putting out the fires and engaging with the enemy. The vice-general was unhindered as he searched for his advisor, decapitating any Mongol warriors he came across with barely a pause.

It wasn't long before he stumbled across a dead body and the wedding ceremonial garb that matched what Tudan had been wearing before he killed him.

"Qingqiu! Answer me!" he shouted desperately, looking for traces of his missing advisor.

Then, he spotted it. Severed ropes and a bloodied dagger on the ground leading out of the encampment. The dagger matched the empty scabbard belonging to the dead body of the Mongol he'd found previously.

"Qingqiu!" he pulled out his sword, alighting on it and flying low so he could find Shen Qingqiu.

A low moan caught his attention and he quickly jumped down to search behind some large boulders. The glimmer of white between some prickly bushes caught his eyes immediately and he crawled in on all fours.

"Qingqiu!" he reached out but his hands were slapped away.

"No, no," Shen Qingqiu pushed him away weakly. "Qingge~!"

"It's me! It's me, Qingqiu!" Liu Qingge said, pulling off his outer robes to cover the delirious cultivator.

"No! Qingge, help me!" Shen Qingqiu turned away, trying to wedge himself between two rocks.

"Qingqiu!" Liu Qingge tried again, finally pulling the man into his arms and dragging him out from under the bush. In the darkness of the night, Shen Qingqiu couldn't clearly see him so he had to pull him out into the light. He braved through the scratches and the pitiful cries, his heart aching for Shen Qingqiu through it all.  

"Please, please, no," Shen Qingqiu sobbed in his arms and Liu Qingge held him tighter.

"We're going back to the camp, Qingqiu," Liu Qingge said. "Father is waiting for you."

"Father...?" Shen Qingqiu repeated in confusion.

"Yes, General Liu Fangzhao. My father," Liu Qingge confirmed, knowing how doting his father was towards Shen Qingqiu and how fond Shen Qingqiu was towards the general.

The advisor was an orphan, he remembered. He didn't have parents and so, had latched onto the first father-figure that was kind to him. Kind and respectful. It was why he'd infiltrated the Mongol camp with only two servants, to find the solution to the curse afflicted onto Liu Qingge's father, thus gaining the unwanted attention of an obsessed barbarian.

"It's me, Qingqiu," Liu Qingge said again, softer as he held Shen Qingqiu close to him.

"... is it really you...?" Shen Qingqiu asked, voice small and uncertain. "Liu Qingge...?"

"Yes," Liu Qingge answered, heart throbbing at the hurt and fear in Shen Qingqiu's voice.

"I'd rather it be you," Shen Qingqiu whispered, clutching at Liu Qingge's robes desperately. "You, than anyone else."

"Okay, I'll take you home," Liu Qingge promised. But Shen Qingqiu did something he did not expect.

He lifted his head and kissed Liu Qingge, with a desperation that was boiling over with passion and desire.

"Qingqiu?"

"Would rather," Shen Qingqiu moaned. "Would rather marry you."

"Are you sure?" Liu Qingge asked, feeling the heat emanating from Shen Qingqiu's flushed face. Had he been drugged?

"Yes, loyal, good, so very good, kind," Shen Qingqiu said, kissing him with every word. "Gentle. Too good. Too good for Qingqiu."

"No, not good enough for Qingqiu," Liu Qingge disagreed. "But I'll marry no one but you."

"Promise...?" Shen Qingqiu asked plaintively, tears clinging to his lashes.

"Yes," Liu Qingge said. "On my life. On Cheng Luan. On my soul."

Shen Qingqiu sobbed and Liu Qingge wrapped his outer robes on Shen Qingqiu's shoulder again, it having fallen when the other man kissed him.

"You have been drugged. I'll bring you back to Mu Qingfang," Liu Qingge said. "He'll have an antidote for you."

"No. Too late," Shen Qingqiu answered him, pulling his sleeves to halt him from pulling his sword out. "The aphrodisiac is burning my veins."

"Then..."

"If you want to marry me," Shen Qingqiu said, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Then help me now."

"I'll take responsibility," Liu Qingge promised, burying his face in the crook of Shen Qingqiu's neck and breathing in his scent. "Marry you. Immediately. When we get back."

"Yes, yes," Shen Qingqiu agreed, a smile on his face. Then he pulled at Liu Qingge's belt, undoing the tie efficiently despite his drugged state. He seemed to have gained more awareness now that he was sure that it was Liu Qingge with him and not a drug-induced hallucination as he had feared.

Assured that Shen Qingqiu knew what he was doing, Liu Qingge helped the advisor remove his clothes. In between, they shared passionate kisses as if to make up for all the months of slow courtship while denying their desire for each other.

"You smell so good," Liu Qingge groaned, sinking into the tight heat. "Feel so good."

Shen Qingqiu mewled, finally allowing his restrains to fall away. He writhed beneath Liu Qingge, his legs tightening around the warrior's waist. His nails scratched at Liu Qingge's healing back but the pain only served to ground Liu Qingge in the present. Instead of focusing only in his own pleasure, Liu Qingge snaked a hand down and gently rubbed his lover to completion as he continued to thrust in repeatedly.  

"Qingge," Shen Qingqiu whispered as he came, toes curling as he was brought to climax over and over again.

"Come," Liu Qingge said, feeling his own orgasm coming. "Come as many times as you need."

Shen Qingqiu threw his head back and tightened around him so much that Liu Qingge saw nothing but white as he came.

***

"It's late. Father will be worried," Liu Qingge said, looking up at the brightening sky. "We should head back."

Shen Qingqiu said nothing, picking himself up and straightening his robes as primly as he could. From behind, Liu Qingge could see his reddened ears and cheeks, finding his embarrassment oddly charming and cute.

Wordlessly, Liu Qingge picked up his discarded outer robes and draped it around Shen Qingqiu's shoulders again. His new lover did not protest, pulling the sleeves over his arms and pulling close the collars. The way he was acting made Liu Qingge lean in to steal a kiss from an indignant Shen Qingqiu.

"Liu Qingge!"

Liu Qingge grinned, feeling smug at Shen Qingqiu's pout.

"So uncouth," Shen Qingqiu complained, picking leaves and twigs out of his hair. "I can't believe I spent the night rolling around in the bushes like a common hormone-ridden teenager."

"I like it," Liu Qingge said honestly. He couldn't help smiling, now that Shen Qingqiu had agreed to marry him.

"What!? Are you sound of mind? What part of fucking on the hard ground, being poked by sharp rocks and branches in the butt, knees and your privates do you like!?" Shen Qingqiu asked him, looking as if he was sincerely questioning his sanity.  

Liu Qingge laughed as he carried his new bride up, feeling foolishly optimistic in this bright new day.

"I like it because it's with you," Liu Qingge said, completely truthful and unabashed by that fact. He took the time to admire the flush that crept up Shen Qingqiu's face before jumping up on Cheng Luan.

"Liu Qingge! You're a pervert!"

Liu Qingge couldn't help but laugh again as they flew towards their encampment, the sun rising in the horizon as smoke trailed up into the sky behind them.

Epilogue

It was the largest ceremony the Liu family had organised in quite a while. Madam Liu had left nothing unplanned and the banquet hall was bedecked from ceiling to floor to the very last pillar. Gentle and sweet Liu Mingyan had nearly made the chefs cry from her demands for the catering to be perfect. Even the Liu soldiers were roped in to help out with the preparations and security.

Liu Fangzhao was at the entrance to the hall, welcoming the guests as they trickled in. He was in a very good mood as he greeted old and new friends alike. There was nothing that could ruin his mood, even when the Yue family arrived. (To be honest, none of the Liu family members wanted to invite them, knowing how Yue Qingyuan abandoned their Qingqiu, but it couldn't be helped. They couldn't just blatantly ostracize the Lord and his family.)

"Old Liu!" called out his old friend. Liu Fangzhao gladly abandoned his spot beside his wife, neglecting to continue his conversation with Yue Qingyuan as General Wei approached the gate.  

"Congratulations!" General Wei said, patting his shoulder.

"Thank you for coming!" the former general returned happily, smiling so much that his eyes could barely be seen.

"Thank you for inviting me! Where are the main characters?" General Wei asked, looking around the hall.

"Oh, they will be here soon," Liu Fangzhao said, waving a hand.

"Hoho, I was so surprised to get your invitation when I returned to the capital," said the general. "This was rather quick to be honest."

"It's a natural progression of their relationship," Liu Fangzhao insisted. "After all, they've already tied the knot."

"True. True," General Wei agreed, rubbing a hand on his beard. "And with the borders being at peace now..."

"Right. Especially after Qingqiu brokered the peace treaty with the Khan," Liu Fangzhao boasted. "The Liu army haven't lost a single battle ever since my son-in-law joined us, it shouldn't surprise anyone that he was the lynchpin to stopping the Mongols from attempting to invade us."

"His Majesty wasn't particularly happy about sending the Fifth Princess to the west as a bride for the treaty, but the Mongol tribes did send several beauties in return for the ceasefire," General Wei said. "One of them is said to be a mix demon-human and another is a shaman as well."

"Regardless, Qingqiu and Qingge returned from the borders safely and that's what matters most to me," Liu Fangzhao said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I don't care for the expansion of the royal harem. My father always emphasized on the importance of fidelity towards his one and only spouse and it is the same for me and Qingge."

"Yes, yes, the Liu family is well known for not taking concubines and consorts," General Wei agreed.

"Not even a second wife or husband," Liu Fangzhao pointed out. "Qingge is also adamant about that. That's why His Majesty gifted Qingqiu the Treasure Fruit Flower after the treaty was signed."

"And then they immediately made use of it," General Wei said with a laugh. "It's been barely a year since they returned!"

"So what? They were planning to have children as soon as the peace treaty went through anyway!" Liu Fangzhao said haughtily. "They wanted to give my wife and I some grandchildren!'

"Oho, so, you're the reason!" laughed General Wei. "You old coot! I knew it! So you were concerned over your bloodline after all!"

"I'm retired. Of course I'll want a grandchild to spoil. Mingyan is still too young to give me one," Liu Fangzhao replied. "Besides, I was sure a child of Qingqiu and my son will be very talented, intelligent and beautiful. And I was right! Twice over, in fact!"

"Yes, yes," General Wei agreed with a wave of his hand. "If I hear anymore boasting from you about your son-in-law, my ears will fall off."

"You ass. Are you here to celebrate with me, or to complain about me!?" Liu Fangzhao said, grabbing his friend's sleeve when he attempted to run away.

"Father, stop hassling the guests. Did you leave Mother to greet the arrivals alone?"

The retired general and General Wei turned around at the same time to see Liu Qingge carrying a small cooing bundle.

"Is that your son!?" General Wei asked, hopping forward to get a good look at the child. Liu Fangzhao followed, always eager to see his grandson.

Bright green eyes filled with curiosity looked out from the red silk swaddle and the baby smiled toothily at them, making the two elders melt instantly.

"So cute!"

"Didn't I tell you!"

When Shen Qingqiu arrived with his daughter, his father-in-law was carrying his one-month-old son in his arms while his former colleague played with the child. Liu Qingge was no where to be seen, probably having gone to change after his son had burped on him after his feeding.

"Oiyo, so cute," cooed General Wei, shaking a rattle at the babbling boy.  "Oh, Master Shen! You're here!"

"Thank you for coming for the twins' one-month celebration," Shen Qingqiu said, adjusting his hold on his daughter to show the general his other child.

"One Dragon, One Phoenix. Such a good omen," praised the general. "Old Liu, you are so fortunate. First you bag Master Shen as your own in-law, now you get two grandchildren at the same time. I am so jealous. Maybe I should retire as well."

"You should! Then we can play wei qi and watch the children play," Liu Fangzhao laughed, patting his grandson on the back as the baby reached out to pull his beard. "Qingqiu! Sit down. You need the rest. There will be more guests coming."

Shen Qingqiu sat down obediently, contented to watch his father-in-law happily boast about his grandchildren. Ever since the general retired, he'd been roaming about the manor aimlessly, driving his wife insane. But the moment the twins were born, it seemed the happiest person in the house was Liu Fangzhao.

There wasn't a single moment that the former general wasn't hovering over the babies, cooing over them, playing with them and making sure that the servants' care of them was immaculate. And what touched Shen Qingqiu even more was that the former general didn't discriminate over either of the twins. He loved both his grandson and granddaughter equally. No one doted over them more than Liu Fangzhao, even his wife paled in comparison in that regard.

"I'm sorry, Qingqiu," Madam Liu once said to him as they watched the retired general play with the babies while cooing at them. Behind him was a pile of new toys that the elder had bought on a whim while perusing the market. "Your father is going to spoil them rotten."

"I don't mind," Shen Qingqiu had replied honestly. Having grown up never knowing familial love, he wanted only the very best for his children. Seeing them so loved, he couldn't bring himself to protest against a grandfather doting on his grandchildren.  

"Qingqiu."

Shen Qingqiu looked up at Liu Fangzhao, whose face had turned stony for some reason.

"Why don't you go look for Qingge. I'll look after Xiao Lung," Liu Fangzhao said, patting the baby boy gently on the back.

Shen Qingqiu blinked, curious at the sudden change in attitude. Then, he saw it.

Yue Qingyuan was standing close by, watching him with a longing gaze. Beside him was a sour-faced Qi Qingqi and behind her was a young girl... their daughter. She looked more like Qi Qingqi that Yue Qingyuan, perhaps with only a minor resemblance in the curve of his eyes and the tall bridge of his nose. She was staring at the ground, looking bored and resigned.

A hand rested onto his shoulder and Shen Qingqiu looked away.

"Qingqiu, go find your husband," his father-in-law said, obviously having seen the way Shen Qingqiu's former husband was looking at him.

"No need. I'm here," Liu Qingge said, appearing suddenly to take his baby son away from his father. Liu Fangzhao would normally protest against it but it seemed as if the elder was preparing himself to go into battle, squaring his shoulders before intercepting Lord Yue and his family.

Shen Qingqiu looked at his husband, ignoring the prickling stares from the Yue couple. Liu Qingge was dressed in a green ensemble just like him, instead of his usual white on black. Tied at his waist was a jade yaopei matching that of Shen Qingqiu's, as if he'd deliberately dressed to be a match to Shen Qingqiu's usual aesthetics. Knowing him though, Shen Qingqiu surmised that his sister had prepared the robes and accessories to advertise their relationship. Even the twins were sporting the same jade bracelets that had identical carvings to their yaopei, all of which were gifts from Madam Liu and Liu Mingyan.

"Are you alright?" Liu Qingge asked, very obviously concerned for him. Shen Qingqiu didn't know why he would be though. It wasn't as if he hadn't met the Yue couple before after his divorce from Yue Qingyuan. In fact, they had been there when Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu were awarded for their contribution to the peace treaty.

"You're very handsome," Shen Qingqiu said instead, reaching out a hand to touch the lapels of Liu Qingge's robes.

Liu Qingge's brows furrowed in confusion but his attention was diverted by a snuffling noise from Shen Qingqiu's arms.

"Xiao Feng, are you sleepy?" Liu Qingge asked his yawning daughter, touching her chubby cheek with gentle calloused fingers.

Shen Qingqiu patted his daughter gently, rocking her to sleep. His firstborn, Liu Qifeng, was a calm and easy to care for baby, while her younger brother, Liu Qilung, was an excitable and happy baby. Both of them were the apple of their grandparents' eyes and it pleased Shen Qingqiu to see how preciously his children were treated in the Liu family. It didn't matter to him if they don't shared his surname, as long as they were loved like they deserved.

Liu Qingge suddenly leaned in, kissing him on the forehead and Shen Qingqiu blinked at him in surprise.

"What?"

Liu Qingge's handsome face was fond and besotted as he stared at his beautiful husband, arms full of their equally beautiful daughter. In his own arms, his son blinked lethargically.

"It's naptime," Liu Qingge said instead of explaining.

"The guests have just arrived," Shen Qingqiu answered. "I'll put the twins in the cot and let the nanny keep an eye on them while we entertain them."

Liu Qingge hummed in agreement, letting the babies' nursemaid take Qilung from him. Shen Qingqiu left with the nanny, intent of letting their children have their evening nap. Liu Qingge watched his husband walk away before turning to the newcomer that had attempted to approach them when Shen Qingqiu was still with him.

"Lord Yue," Liu Qingge greeted.

"General Liu," Yue Qingyuan returned with a nod. He looked unhappy and his eyes kept swinging towards Shen Qingqiu's back, as if he was tempted to go to his ex-husband. However, Liu Qingge stood his ground, blocking Yue Qingyuan from approaching the front of the hall where the elevated seats and cot were.

"A- Qingqiu looks happy..." Yue Qingyuan trailed off.

"He is," Liu Qingge replied curtly, as if trying to remind Yue Qingyuan of propriety. "And I would like to request that you no longer call him by name."

"...Ah. My... apologies," Yue Qingyuan said, before he was diverted by the arrival of his wife and daughter.

"General Liu," Qi Qingqi greeted with a coy tilt to her lips. She was looking up at him through her lashes but Liu Qingge didn't even bother to look her way.

"Madam Yue, Young Mistress Yue," Liu Qingge greeted back with a nod before shifting his attention back to Yue Qingyuan.

"Thank you for coming to our twins' one-month celebration," he said with no inflection to his voice at all. "I hope you enjoy the banquet."

With that said, he signalled to Liu Bo, who had been watching with narrowed eyes from the sidelines. His cousin quickly made his way over to lead the Yue family to their seats, making an almost obvious gesture of leading them away from Shen Qingqiu, who was still preoccupied with the children.

Having dismissed his husband's (annoying, stalkerish) ex-spouse, Liu Qingge made his way to Shen Qingqiu, who was patting their son to sleep beside his slumbering sister. As he got closer, he could hear his husband singing softly to their cooing child.  

Seeing Shen Qingqiu this way, Liu Qingge couldn't help but think once more that Yue Qingyuan was a fool for neglecting and divorcing someone like him. Someone who loved the people he cared about silently but deeply, with all the potency of the sun, warm and encompassing.

As he stepped forward towards his spouse, Liu Qingge decided that none of that mattered now. Yue Qingyuan was a thing of the past now. No longer of importance.  

As long as Shen Qingqiu was happy with him, that was all that mattered.

End of As the West Wind Blows

[youhideastar]

Given the opportunity for Wen Qing to give Lan Wangji the ancient fantasy China version of The Shovel Talk about Wei Ying in any of your ‘verses that series of events could’ve happened, how do you see that going? 🍿👀

Anon, this is SUCH a good question, I have been thinking about it all week!

There’s actually a very limited window in which such a shovel talk could happen - it has to be after Wen Qing becomes seriously emotionally invested in Wei Wuxian (so let’s say, post-golden-core-transfer) but before she shuffles off this mortal coil. That narrows it down to Sunshot, the WWX Lotus Pier Depression Interregnum, and the Burial Mounds arc. And Wen Qing just flat-out isn’t around Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji during those first two periods. So it’s got to be either a Burial Mounds thing, or take place in an AU.

I’ve already done the “AU” option, sort of, in The Dare - it’s not a shovel talk per se, because there aren’t any threats, but it’s a “Wei Wuxian is precious to me and very vulnerable so you better be fucking serious about this,” which I think is probably close enough. 😂 (Honorable mention to A Sword With No Hilt, in which Wen Qing delivers a shovel talk to Wei Wuxian on Lan Wangji’s behalf.)

As for the Burial Mounds... well, that happens to be my next WIP on deck, which is this one! (cw for sex work, not between the main characters) The fic has a scene that, while not quite a shovel talk, hopefully is close enough to fit the bill, and it’s below. (Note that, if you haven’t read the previous scene, linked in this paragraph, then this new scene will not make any sense.) Hope you enjoy!

As Wen Qing leads him through the settlement, she shows him a house, still in progress; fields and crops with their neat, orderly rows of green. There is not much to show, in truth – the amount of worked land is still small. She conspicuously does not offer to show him the interior of the palace, or any of the caves.

Once she has led him to the edge of the settlement, away from the others—which was clearly her intent all along—she pauses and looks out over the wasted landscape of cinder-grey trees.

“You were invited,” she says.

“Mn.”

She nods. “So you met Wei Wuxian in town. Before you came to the Burial Mounds.”

“Mn.”

Still not looking at him, she says, “Sometimes, Wei Wuxian goes to town in the morning, to buy food, or to take A-Yuan on an outing.”

“Mn.”

“Sometimes, he goes to town in the evening.”

Ah. Wen Qing knows, Wei Ying had said. Still, Lan Wangji says nothing.

“Yesterday, it was the evening,” she remarks.

Lan Wangji makes no response.

“Hanguang-jun met Wei Wuxian at the inn, perhaps.”

Anything Lan Wangji could say would only make this moment even more excruciating. He does not try.

Wen Qing nods, as if his silence is itself an answer. “And you came anyway.”

He is not sure what she means by that. “I came to see Wei Ying.”

“And having seen him,” she says, “you stayed.”

“Yes,” Lan Wangji replies. That was never in question.

Now, finally, she turns to him. A small smile hovers on her lips. “Hm,” she says, and nothing more. But he can tell that she had set him a test, and that he passed it. Good.

[matchacloudz]

Lotus Inn

Daniel Seavey x OC (Kora King)

Requested: No 

word count: 1.8k

Masterlist

 Not my gif

With a final groan, the radio cut and the car had finally given up on us. “I told you we should have gotten it looked at” I said to my best friend sitting in the passenger seat. Knowing I was right, all she could do was glare my way and unbuckle her seatbelt. “Yeah, yeah, now help me push this to the side” she said. I put the car into neutral and got out to help her move the piece of shit to the curb.

“You have your CAA card right?” She asked as we started slowly pushing the car, “mom never lets me leave without it” I said. “Man, why did this have to happen? We’re literally in the middle of our trip” she moaned, trying to push the car with me. “Need I remind you, I told you to check what the engine light was all about” I groaned with her. We were barely making any progress, but after a few minutes we finally got the car to a safe-ish position on the side of the road. “Let’s just call CAA yeah? See if we can’t get ourselves to a motel or some shit” she said, leaning on the boot of the car.

40 or so minutes of waiting in the heatwave, we finally saw the tow truck. “Is there anywhere I can drop you girls off?” The driver said as we grabbed our bags out of the trunk. Ella and I looked at each other, we had reservations at a hotel that we were nowhere close too. “Not unless you’re willing to drive us 4 more hours to our hotel” she joked, earning a laugh from the worker infront of us. “That’s a bit out of my pay range, but I know a place I can take you – always looking for new customers” he said. With no other options in site, we climbed into his car and were soon on our way to the mystery location.

-

“Here you are girls, Lotus inn, best local hotel on this side of the coast.” “Thank you for all your help, we really appreciate it” Ella said handing the man a 50. “No problem, we’ll get back to you on how much the car will be – hopefully you’ll be able to make the rest of your trip with no issues.” We nodded to him in gratitude and with that we went our separate ways.

“This place looks pretty nice” Ella commented, “yeah, let’s hope its in our price range” I tell her.

Surprisingly, we were able to book a room for a while – having enough money and having to splurge some what into the emergency stash we took. “Well, considering we can’t make it to anything else – feel like going to the pool for a while?” I offered once we settled. “Why not, maybe find something to do” she agreed.

The pool was near empty, people were lounging about – sunbathing, drinking and not a single kid in sight. “Did we get lucky?” I asked plopping myself on one of the lounge chairs. The two of us laid in silence, trying to decompress from the day we just had, I on the other hand was just excited to be out of the passenger seat after 5 hours. “Hey, don’t look now but that guy across the pool is totally checking you out” she said, I looked at her – but due to her sun glasses I couldn’t tell if she was bluffing or not. Deciding to investigate for my self, I flipped to my back and looked across the water – sure enough, a group of five guys were across from us and the bleach blonde one was subtly looking in our direction. “What do you think, out of 10?” I say looking at her. She glanced up once more and then back to her book “I give him a solid 9” she said.

I laughed at her response and headed to the bar. “Hey, two cranberry vodkas please” I tell the server, however I was trying to see if the blonde had followed me or not, sure enough – when I looked one more time, he left his friends and started making his way to the bar. Wanting to talk to him, I took a seat, placing my foot on the one next to me.

“This seat taken?” He asked putting his glasses on his head. I couldn’t help but smirk when he came by – totally a ten in my books. “Not at all” I tell him, grabbing my drinks from the bartender. “So I couldn’t help but notice you from across the pool” he told me, placing his arms on the bar in front of himself. “Oh, so you weren’t just checking out my ass?” I tease him, biting my lip. “Couldn’t help it, you caught my eye” he admitted smiling at me. “I’m Kora, my friends Ella” I tell him, “Daniel. I’ll introduce you to my friends later” he says.

Conversation flowed easily between the two of us, that was until Ella came up and interrupted us. “I take it that’s for me?” She asks referring to the second cran vodka sitting between us. “Oh, shit sorry, uh Ella this is Daniel. He’s in a band” I say emphasizing the last fact. She wasn’t surprised however, “and you say you don’t have a type” she mutters nudging my shoulders. “So what brings you two to the Lotus inn?” He asks, including her in the conversation. “Her car broke down, sort of a last-minute kind of thing – you?” I ask looking him in the eyes. “Me and the guys come here a lot, sort of a hidden gem to everyone, great for a get away once in a while” he said. “Hey Daniel, we gotta go” a taller boy with curler hair said coming up to us. “So much for a getaway – hey we’ll see you at the bonfire tonight right?” He asked pointing to a poster hung up behind the bar. I look to my best friend but before she can refuse anything I agree. “Cool, here’s my number by the way.” He writes 10 digits on a napkin before leaving with the curly haired boy.

-

Later that night as we get ready for the bonfire Ella cannot stop with all the questions about Daniel. “What’s he like? You guys were literally there for 40 minutes. Is he sweet? Does he seem like a douche bag?” I can’t help but laugh at her – its been way too long since she’s seen her boyfriend and now she’s living right through me. “He seems really authentic? I guess I can say, I mean, we literally lost track of time. He’s so charming” I say as I finish curling my hair. “Well what are you going to wear? You gotta wow him” she says going through my clothes. “I’m going to wear a this set and we’re going to go” I say pulling my outfit out for myself. “I’m not going to dress up for someone I just met and will probably see ever again” I tell her, “boo, you’re no fun” she said shuffling over to her own bag.

The sun had started to set by time we make it to the bonfire. Everything is in full swing, but I don’t see Daniel anywhere or the guys he was with. “Come on! Let’s grab something to drink!” I turn to Ella and she places a lei on my neck as well as handed me some glowsticks. “Where in the world did you get these already?” I asked sliding them to wear as bracelets “It’s a bonfire! They’re just being handed out!”

Daniel

The guys were taking their sweet time getting ready for the bonfire and I was getting impatient, wanting to get out their and meet up with Kora already. “Dude chill have some pre-drink” Corbyn said handing me a red solo cup. “What are you guys even doing? Let’s just go” I said, chugging the beer.

After some more complaining we finally made our way to the bonfire and I found Kora and Ella dancing in front of the fire almost immediately. I stayed with the boys while they grabbed some drinks. Kora looked over at me and winked, earning a blush – which she would never hear about. “That her?” Zach asked as I handed him a beer, “yeah with the flower necklace on” I tell him. I couldn’t help but just watch her for a while, she looked absolutely perfect swaying her hips to the music playing loudly. I downed my drink and went to grab another one when I felt someone grab my wrist. Looking back I saw Kora with a big smile on her face. “Where do you think you’re going?” She asked bringing me to the dance floor, “just admiring the view” I whisper in her ear. I noticed the shiver roll down her spine. “you keep talking like that and I think we both know how this night is going to end” she said.

Kora handed me her drink as Elle came up to give her a refill and grabbed my free hand. I slowly twirled her around and brought her back to my front, keeping her with me and telling other guys to fuck off. “So mr. Rockstar – I take it I’m yours for the rest of the night?” She whispered in my ears, “I mean, if you’ll take me” I tell her.

Elle and the boys soon crowd around us making a semi circle. I can’t seem to look away from Kora however, the sunset hits her face just perfectly. Her eyes are highlighted by the golden rays and she’s glowing. “It’s getting dark – do you guys want to get out of here?” Zach suggested to everybody. “Yeah, we don’t have anywhere to be in the morning” Ella said for us – clearly smitten with the brunette beside her.

We all take some booze from the party and make it back to our suite. “Shit you guys rich or something?” Ella jokes as Zach takes her hand leading her to the couch. “I mean, Daniel did say they are a band” Kora said, her hand never leaving mine. We all disperse around the living room; Jonah setting up spotify on the tv, Corbyn grabbing some glasses, Zach with Ella, Jack with Corbyn and Kora always by my side. “So, we partying or what?” Jonah asked as the music started playing.

The next few hours are spent with booze flowing, jokes being made and games being played. It was only midnight, and a few more people showed up making the hotel room a little crowded. I had opened the door to let the salty sea air cool us all down, and looked towards Kora.

She made her way to me and grabbed my hand. “Baby, come with me” she said leading me out the doorway.

  To be continued?....

[chilling-seavey]

When Universes Collide - The AU Mini Series

The Lotus Inn is a place we all know well; and a place where all universes collide in a small ripple of the time space continuum. It’s the spot for characters of alternate universes to meet and interact – even those who are from vastly different worlds and timelines. In this one-shot, the characters from the universes of this blog gather for lunch at the Lotus Inn restaurant and discuss their similarities and differences.

Warning: This does contain spoilers to any and all fics on my blog so read with caution if you haven’t read all of them!

A/N This obviously isn’t part of any timeline and is just something I wrote for fun with a bit of help from T-Anon and @randomlimelightxxx​! To tell each Daniel apart, they will be called by their fic name as their formal title…it might be a bit awkward at first but it would be the only way to not confuse the heck out of you since there are five nearly identical looking Daniel’s sitting around one table. (Also, I see this play out like a stage performance in my head which is weird).

A/N2 Let’s see how many times the word ‘Daniel’ is used in this story

The Lotus Inn – 11:54am

A table for five sat empty in the corner of the restaurant. The room was trimmed in purple neon lights and decorated in floral pictures with an old brick wall supporting the large bar along the back. It wasn’t busy as the crowd usually came in for the daily after-dinner partying and the quietness of the restaurant was only filled with the bar tender wiping down the glasses to stock.

The door to the restaurant opened and a stream of bright light pooled into the room from the outside, nearly brightening the space more than what the large paned windows along the from wall allowed. In stepped a young man, his hesitation obvious as he stepped over the threshold and his blue eyes scanned his surroundings. He wore a military uniform that was ironed to perfection, donned in two well dressed medals on his left breast, and he took off his matching cap when he stepped inside, offering a stiff nod in greeting to the bartender.

Passchendaele Daniel

Age 22

He was the first to arrive and he made his way over to the reserved table in the corner, sitting on the chair closest to the door. Habit. Made for an easy getaway if it was ever needed. He held his hands together on his lap, back straight, and his flat expression starting to fall into space.

The restaurant stayed silent. The bartender kept to himself and the few other patrons sat on the far side of the room, minding their own business.

The door opened again and a voice fell inside along with another pool of light.

“She’s a one-year-old, Jack, give her a cookie and sing her a song and she’ll go right to sleep. Ask the other two for help; they’re great with her. I can’t come back now, my meeting has barely even started. I’ll be an hour, tops. I think you can survive that long.”

The slightly older man who just came in had his cellphone pressed to his ear and closed the door calmly behind him. He looked a bit flustered and definitely tired; his dyed blonde hair was faded to mostly its natural brown tones again and he shoved his car keys in his pocket messily as he listened to whatever his friend was saying through the line.

Anything But Mine Daniel

Age 25

His blue eyes landed on the young man already at the table and he paused in spot for a moment before saying much quieter into his cell phone, “I gotta go. I’ll call you after.”

He hung the phone and headed slowly over to the table, holding out his hand to the man in front of him.

“Hey. Nice to meet you. I’m Daniel.”

Passchendaele Daniel glanced up at him and then to his out stretched hand and pulled a tight smile before taking his handshake, “Myself as well.”

They shared soft smiles as Anything But Mine Daniel sat down in the chair on his other side. They fell into a momentary silence, not quite knowing what to say at first. It was a strange situation to be in: staring at yourself from another universe and entirely different timeline.

Gentle music filled the restaurant and the two young men glanced across the room to the jukebox. A third stood in front of it, having just slid in a quarter to select a record, and the gentle voice of Elvis brought liveliness to the restaurant. He turned with a pleasant smile, his hair slicked back in a soft wave, and startled slightly by the older two staring back at him.

Heartbreak Hotel Daniel

Age 18

He offered them a crooked smile and headed over to join them, “Hi.”

They shared their introductions – being easy since they all shared the same name and nearly the same face – and Heartbreak Hotel Daniel took his spot across from Anything But Mine Daniel. He glanced over at the man in his old military uniform beside the oldest but looked away against before he could be caught staring. He adjusted the collar of his button-up shirt and dropped his shy gaze to the wood table top.

“What desserts do you offer here?”

The three men all looked towards the bar where another was stood on the bottom brass foot rest of the bar counter to stand higher, holding himself up on the marble top as he spoke to the bartender. He wore a Georgian style suit, dressed poshly down to the puffed tie in the collar of his pale blue jacket and shiny black shoes, his soft brown hair brushed pristinely over his forehead.

Amoureux Daniel

Age 17

The bartender eyed the young prince for a moment and then simply gestured to the menu hung on the brick wall behind him.

“I’ll just take the lot of it.”

He slid a few paper bills across the counter before heading over to the reserved table. His smile was wide and infectious and he offered firm handshakes around the table.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Prince Daniel of York. Second in line to the British throne.”

“Royalty at our table? That’s unbelievable.” ABM Daniel gaped, eyeing the youngest’s clothes as he plopped himself down in the free chair across from Passchendaele Daniel.

“Forget Royalty. I’m going to be a composer.” Amoureux Daniel tisked as he leaned back and loosened his tie around his neck to let himself breathe before rolling up his sleeves too.

“A composer? I’m in music professionally. What do you play? Piano?” ABM Daniel asked.

“Piano and cello. Piano’s my favourite though.” Amoureux Daniel grinned.

“Mine as well.” Passchendaele Daniel smiled shyly.

“You as well? Oh, splendid.” Amoureux Daniel clapped excitedly. “I was worried you lot would be as lame as my older brother honestly.”

Passchendaele Daniel’s smile fell as fast as it was formed and he dropped his head down. The other three easily saw this change and the youngest two from across the table habitually looked the eldest for guidance. ABM Daniel’s eyes were wide with surprise and he set a gentle hand on Passchendaele Daniel’s shoulder.

He spoke softly, “Are you okay?”

“I…” Passchendaele Daniel took a moment to compose himself before looking up into the friendly eyes of his older counterpart, “I lost my brother in the war. He was my best friend.”

“Shit.” Amoureux Daniel breathed from across from him.

Heartbreak Hotel Daniel slowly pressed his hand to his mouth in shock.

ABM Daniel hesitated a moment but gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze, “I’m really sorry.”

Passchendaele Daniel only shrugged lightly, “It is what it is, I suppose.”

“What war were you in? The First World War or the Second?” Heartbreak Hotel Daniel asked as gently as he could around the obviously traumatised man.

Passchendaele Daniel’s eyes went wide in fear suddenly and he looked between the other three guys, “There is a second?!”

“I didn’t even know there was one in the first place.” Amoureux Daniel said in defence as he reached for one of the desserts before the bartender could even set the plate down at their table.

ABM Daniel and HH Daniel exchanged wide eyed glances before looking back at the frightened soldier. ABM Daniel rubbed his hand over his back soothingly, offering the best reassurance he could, “Not in your time, don’t worry. But I think we need a new topic to talk about now.”

“Please.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled thankfully.

“Isn’t there supposed to be a fifth one of us here too?” HH Daniel asked.

“I thought so too.” ABM Daniel pulled out his cell phone to check the time.

“What is that?” the other three young men asked him at the same time.

ABM Daniel glanced up at them and looked between their mirrored confused expressions like he was sitting at a table with triplets. Different brunette hair styles and different clothing but all with the same light blue eyes and youthful faces. He looked back down at his iPhone and held it up slightly, “This?”

They all nodded.

“It’s my cell phone.”

“It’s a telephone? Where’s the chord?” HH Daniel asked, leaning over the table to lift it up as if to look for the chord that should have somehow attached him to the wall.

“Where is the handset?” Passchendaele Daniel added. “If there is no handset, how do you hear your friends?”

“I have no bloody clue what the hell any of you are talking about.” Amoureux Daniel laughed through a mouthful of cake.

ABM Daniel smiled and looked between the other three, “I guess that’s right since you are all from the past, huh? Well in my time they make telephones that can go in your pocket. They don’t need chords.”

“That’s brilliant.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed. “And you can talk to your friends into that little box?”

“Yeah. Wanna hold it?” ABM Daniel offered.

HH Daniel leaned over the table to get a look as Passchendaele Daniel carefully took the iPhone from ABM Daniel and cradled it in his two hands like it would break if the wind blew too hard. The screen lit up as a text message came through and Passchendaele Daniel gasped in surprise, staring down at the lit-up screen and the little box that read words.

ABM Daniel reached over to swipe away the notification, revealing his lockscreen wallpaper: a photograph of his family from the day his youngest was born, all cuddled up together on the couch.

“Is that your family?” HH Daniel asked, still leaning over the table.

“Yeah. It is.” ABM Daniel smiled widely, taking his phone to set it on the table for all of them to see, “That’s my wife, Florence, and our girls; Clementine, Penelope, and Lucy.”

“That’s so sweet.” Amoureux Daniel said, “I just had a son a few months back.”

“You have a child?” HH Daniel gaped over at him. “How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“You have a kid at seventeen?”

“Yes. Ran off and got married young. He’s just born so no need to have a fit.” Amoureux Daniel snickered teasingly. He picked up the plate of desserts and held it out to him. HH Daniel stared down at the desserts for a beat but then shook his head politely.

“My wife is expecting our first child.” Passchendaele Daniel spoke gently.

“Oh, congratulations!” ABM Daniel said, helping himself to a dessert from the spread.

“Yes, thank you.” Passchendaele Daniel mumbled. “I am a bit frightened; I must admit.”

“Parenthood is a scary thing but it’s also the most amazing thing you could ever experience.” ABM Daniel assured him as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “I am sure you will be a great dad.”

Before anyone else could speak, loud muffled music could be heard from outside the restaurant and they all turned to looked out the large front windows; watching as a shiny white Tesla pulled up to the curb. The music cut off as the drivers side door opened and their fifth guest stepped out. His hair was dyed blonde and hair sprayed to messy perfection and the sunglasses perched on his nose were designer, his whole outfit dripping in expensive pieces, down to his leather pants and black boots and silver chain hung around his neck.

He came inside the restaurant and everyone’s eyes were on him – even the bar tender – as he slid off his sunglasses and offered a cool smile to the room.

Qui Totum Vult Totum Perdit Daniel

Age 23

He caught the glance of the other four young men at the table in the corner and he sauntered over to greet them. He offered a handshake to all of them before sitting at the far head of the table, “Sorry I’m so late. Promo ran later than expected.”

He glanced around the table at the four pairs of wide blue eyes staring back at him. There was a beat of silence.

“Wow, this is sick. It’s like I’m looking in four mirrors.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. He set his sunglasses on the table. The other four pairs of eyes followed the action but they didn’t speak. “You’re right. Need to at least make up for my lateness. Hey, bartender?”

The man looked over to the table as QTVTP Daniel raised his hand up to get his attention, “Pitcher of water, round of beers, and let’s get some appetizers? Give us your top…six sellers. All on my card.”

“You don’t have to pay for all of us.” ABM Daniel said.

“Let me. It’s the least I could do. You come all the way out here to this shabby hotel and I’m thirty minutes late.”

The bartender brought over the pitcher of water, five glasses, and five bottles of beer, setting them all on the table. QTVTP Daniel took out his OffWhite wallet and pulled out his credit card, passing it over to the man with a smooth thanks.

“Let’s drink, boys.” he smiled, rubbing his hands together before reaching for one of the bottles.

“I’m not of age.” HH Daniel mumbled.

“Neither am I.” Amoureux Daniel added.

“I don’t drink anymore.” Passchendaele Daniel said.

“I have to pick up my daughters after this so no alcohol for me either, thanks.” ABM Daniel finished.

QTVTP Daniel looked between the four sitting around him, “Wow. Alright. More for me then.”

ABM Daniel took the initiative to pour the others their glasses of water as he offered a casual question to the late arrival, “What promo were you at?”

“For my record company.”

All four heads snapped back up to look at him.

“You work at a record company?” HH Daniel gaped.

“Own it. Yeah.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled. “My best friend and I have owned our own company for the last…two or so years? We’ve travelled the world together. Made some music. Made a name for ourselves. It’s amazing.”

“Wow. It’s always been my dream to be a signed artist but my parents convinced me to go to university instead.” ABM Daniel said.

“It’s pretty sick.” QTVTP Daniel smirked. “You meet a lot of cool people.”

“Are you well known?” Amoureux Daniel asked. “Do you work with people such as Bach? Or Mozart?”

“Bach or Mozart? Nah. Not yet at least. But we just signed a band that dropped their second album and it went number one worldwide.”

“Good God.” HH Daniel gasped. “You’re like Elvis.”

“I guess.” QTVTP Daniel laughed lightly, taking a sip of his drink as he leaned back in his chair.

“Do you produce too?” ABM Daniel asked.

“Yeah. We do most of the producing but we write and manage too. I have an eye for the industry.”

“That’s so cool. I’m working at a production studio myself. I’d love to run some demos by you…get your professional opinion…bounce some ideas around.”

“Yeah, for sure, bro! That’d be awesome. We can do that later.”

The other three young men stayed in momentary silence, sipping their water with Amoureux Daniel nursing the plate of desserts. He glanced over at HH Daniel on his right, staring at him for a moment, especially the remanence of a bruise that was colouring just under his left eye.

“Did you get in a fight?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.

HH Daniel looked over at him, watching the youngest bite into a truffle, “Yeah. Corbyn beat me up.”

That caught the table’s attention and they all looked at him in surprise.

“Corbyn hit you?” ABM Daniel gaped.

“Mhm.” HH Daniel nodded shyly. “I was trying to stick up for my soulmate and he didn’t like that I was trying to take her from him so he beat me up.”

He stood up and lifted up the bottom of his shirt to show off the fading bruise over his stomach as well. The men groaned pitifully at how obviously it must have hurt.

“My Corbyn is so nice.” Passchendaele Daniel frowned.

“Mine too.” ABM Daniel added.

“Mine’s kind of lame. Everyone in my life is lame.” Amoureux Daniel tisked.

“What? You think you’re better than everyone?” QTVTP Daniel chuckled, taking a sip from his glass bottle.

“Not necessarily. I just don’t want to have to live the same boring life that they think I need to.”

“I’ll drink to that.” QTVTP Daniel agreed.

“Here, here.” Passchendaele Daniel raised his water cup and they all held out their glasses into the middle of the table to cheers through soft laughter.

Their conversation paused a moment as they drank. HH Daniel shifted in his seat slightly, tossing back the rest of his glass of water is he had been deprived for days and set the empty glass back on the table with a loud clunk. QTVTP Daniel slid over a bottle of beer and none of them spoke as they watched him unscrew the cap and take a long sip. The eighteen-year-old grimaced through the drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“You’re really going through it, bro.” QTVTP Daniel stated.

“Yeah, I suppose.” HH Daniel grumbled, pushing a hand through his hair.

“Well obviously since he got punched in the face.” Amoureux Daniel added.

“I just…” HH Daniel sighed, staring at the table top, “We have soulmates in my universe and even though I found mine…she doesn’t want me so I’m suck tasting everything she tastes and it being a constant brutal reminder of her.”

“Why doesn’t she want you?” ABM Daniel frowned.

“I’m a loser? Hell if I know.” HH Daniel scoffed, he took another long sip of the beer no matter how disgusting he thought it tasted. At least it overpowered the taste of tea that was grazing his tongue.

“There’s a girl you’re in love with who has a trashy boyfriend? Well, take it from me who has literally been in your shoes,” ABM Daniel reached across the table to grab the beer from the eighteen-year-old, “You get nowhere from drinking away the pain or hating yourself.”

“You had this happen too?” HH Daniel asked softly, hopefully.

“Yeah; was best friends with this girl I was hopelessly in love with and I had to see her go from boyfriend to boyfriend no matter how often I was there for her.”

“So what happened?”

“She became my wife eventually.” ABM Daniel smiled softly, “Just give it time. Don’t push her because she’ll just feel suffocated. Let her come to you. She’ll see what she’s missing.”

Amoureux Daniel held out the half empty plate of desserts to HH Daniel and he finally took a small pastry as the youngest said, “In addition, you are in a universe where you can taste what she tastes and, from my experience, the way to a woman’s heart – and up her skirt – is through her stomach.”

Passchendaele Daniel choked on his water while laughter rose over the rest of the table.

“What do you know about ‘going up skirts’? You’re, like, barely fifteen.” QTVTP Daniel scoffed through his disbelieving laughter.

“I am seventeen, thank you very much, and I have a baby.” Amoureux Daniel corrected, nearly boastfully. “I know just plenty about going up skirts.”

Of course, that was right when the bartender came over with their food and his confused expression had the five young men smothering back their nervous laughter. ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel cleared a space on the table for the food to be set down and all five of them thanked the man before he headed back behind the bar. With a full spread in front of them, they all dug in and piled up a small plate each to start to eat. It was quiet for a moment as they got settled and started to eat, passing the salt and pepper and various plates to each other when asked. It was comfortable.

“So,” ABM Daniel broke their silence first, directing his question to Amoureux Daniel, “how did you and your wife meet?”

Amoureux Daniel cracked a cheeky smile, “Well, she came to England to marry my older brother, but she liked me better, to be blunt. We would sneak around the castle and a few times at night…you know…”

There were two ‘oo’s from ABM Daniel and QTVTP Daniel, while Passchendaele Daniel looked between them all with wide eyes.

“You…You were involved with her before you were married?” he stammered.

“While she was engaged to my brother too.” Amoureux Daniel hid his smirk behind a bite of a mozzarella stick. “My most thrilling and incredible few months, I must say.”

“Oh my gosh.” Passchendaele Daniel’s cheeks flushed a slight pink and he tugged at the collar of his uniform. “That’s…ahem…”

“Did you not go near your wife before your wedding night?” Amoureux Daniel asked bluntly.

“Let’s not go nosing into everyone’s private business.” ABM Daniel said strongly.

“Wait, I’m still confused. Where did you sneak off to?” HH Daniel asked shyly.

The table chuckled lightly – even Passchendaele Daniel cracked a nervous smile – and HH Daniel looked between all of them, waiting for an answer.

“To bed.” Amoureux Daniel laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “You’ll understand one day.”

“I…you…I-I understand perfectly well.” HH Daniel blushed furiously, turning quickly down to his plate and shoveled a nacho in his mouth to avoid continuing the conversation.

“To answer your question,” Passchendaele Daniel continued, trying to keep himself a bit brave and a bit interesting to the four other men, “No, I did not go to bed with Elizabeth until our wedding night. It did not feel right to deflower her until our union was official.”

“Deflower her.” QTVTP Daniel repeated slowly, biting back his smile as he took a sip of his beer.

“Well that’s what it is, is it not?” Passchendaele Daniel said sternly, narrowing his eyes at him. “I like to think that making love is the most sacred act and shouldn’t be just thrown around to anyone.”

“I agree.” HH Daniel mumbled, earning a thankful smile from the soldier.

“Jeez, then I’m quite the sinner.” QTVTP Daniel chuckled to himself. “I slept with my girlfriend on our first date.”

Passchendaele Daniel huffed softly and turned down to his plate. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel glanced at each other through the awkward tension that seemed to settle.

ABM Daniel cleared his throat, “Let’s maybe change the topic. This isn’t really lunch appropriate.”

“Wow…you are such a dad.” QTVTP Daniel snorted, shaking his head in near disbelief.

“What’s wrong with that?” ABM Daniel frowned at him. He couldn’t get much of an argument out before his phone was ringing in his pocket and he pulled it out, sighing when he read the caller ID, “Sorry, I gotta take this.”

The other four watched him get up from the table and head across the restaurant as he answered the call,

“What is it now, Jack?”

The table fell into a momentary silence.

Passchendaele Daniel broke it first with a mumble of, “Jack in my universe is dead.”

The other three looked between themselves nervously. They didn’t answer, ducking their heads down to their plates to focus on eating their lunches. No one spoke until ABM Daniel returned and he sat back down with a heavy exhale.

“Sorry, being a dad is a job that is never done. What did I miss?”

Amoureux Daniel, HH Daniel, and QTVTP Daniel just looked at him and shook their heads ever so slightly. Passchendaele Daniel sniffled, keeping his head down, and took a sip of his water.

“Everything alright back home?” HH Daniel asked softly over to ABM Daniel.

“Oh, yeah. My youngest just hates when I’m not within arm’s reach so she’s been giving Jack some trouble. She’s only one so…doesn’t know much better.” ABM Daniel smiled at only the mention of his daughters. “I have pictures…if you want to see.”

“Of course.” HH Daniel beamed.

ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up his photos app to swipe through a few and he passed the phone across the table. Amoureux Daniel and HH Daniel shifted closer together to see and QTVTP Daniel leaned over the side of the table to look at the pictures too. QTVTP Daniel took control of the swiping since he was the only one who knew how cell phones worked and they all smiled at the pictures on the screen, ‘awe’ing at the cutest ones.

“The baby looks just like you.” HH Daniel said. “Well…like us, I suppose.”

“Yeah.” ABM Daniel chuckled. “I get that a lot.”

Passchendaele Daniel stayed quiet on his right, eating in silence, and unbothered. He sat as if he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself. ABM Daniel looked over at him as the other three kept scrolling through his pictures and he reached a hand onto the table to gently get his attention. Passchendaele Daniel looked up at him with a flat expression and almost tearful eyes.

“Are you alright?” ABM Daniel asked softly.

“I don’t do well without my Elizabeth.” Passchendaele Daniel whispered for only him to hear. ABM Daniel was always the best listener and the easiest to talk to and it was obvious to the struggling soldier that he was someone he could trust.

“Do you have a picture of her?” ABM Daniel offered, as some way to keep his mind busy but happy.

A small smile perked at the side of Passchendaele Daniel’s lips and he nodded, reaching into his uniform jacket and he pulled out a small sepia photograph and held it out to his new acquaintance. ABM Daniel smiled thankfully at him and took the photograph, looking down at the old fashion photograph of the gentle young blonde woman.

“She’s beautiful.” ABM Daniel said politely.

“She is. I’m the luckiest man in the whole world to have her. She saves my life every day.” Passchendaele Daniel breathed, his gentle smile grazing his lips ever so delicately as if he was in deep thought.

Three teasing exclaims from across the table caught their attention and ABM Daniel quickly reached over to snatch his phone back. The picture they had swiped to was of Florence in nothing but a small towel blow-drying her hair in the bathroom mirror; a simple moment that ABM Daniel couldn’t help but capture with her in all her natural beauty.

“No more of that.” he blushed furiously as he pocketed his phone again.

Passchendaele Daniel offered his photograph of Elizabeth to the table and the three young men on the other side gladly took it. She was effortlessly beautiful and the three youngest at the table stared at her for a bit longer than was honestly necessary. Passchendaele Daniel bit back a proud grin at their obvious interest.

“I don’t have a photograph of Loretta.” HH Daniel mumbled. “If I did, that would be considered extremely creepy on my part.”

The photograph was passed back to Passchendaele Daniel who pocketed it again and HH Daniel reached to grab another serving from the platters in the middle of the table. A small corner of paper poking out under the dish caught his attention and he wiped his hand on his jeans before pulling it out from under the plate. His eyes went wide at the photograph of Loretta that stared back at him from his hand.

“What’s that?” Amoureux Daniel asked, leaning over his shoulder to take a look.

Surprised, HH Daniel couldn’t find his words for a moment, “I-It’s Loretta.”

The Lotus Inn works in almost magical ways through this ripple in the time space continuum. HH Daniel pulled the picture closer, his heart only aching slightly at simply the sight of her.

“She is hot.” QTVTP Daniel broke the momentary silence.

The four other Daniel’s glared at his bluntness and he put his hands up in defence as he sat back in his chair.

“You can’t have her so don’t even try.” HH Daniel scolded softly before turning back to the photograph. 

“I don’t want her. I have my own girlfriend.”

HH Daniel glared warningly at him as he passed the photograph across the table to ABM Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel to take a look at too.

Amoureux Daniel shifted in his chair and reached into his pocket, sure enough to pull out his own picture of Louisa and their brand-new baby son. He stayed perfectly quiet for a moment as he stared at the image himself, disbelieving.

“Oh wow.” he breathed. “It looks so real.”

HH Daniel looked over his shoulder and smiled at the sweet photograph of the young mother holding her baby, “That’s adorable.”

Amoureux Daniel smiled over at him, “That’s my Louisa. And our little prince.”

“Let’s see!” ABM Daniel excitedly held his hand out to take a look at the photograph.

QTVTP Daniel and Passchendaele Daniel glanced over his shoulder with mirrored smiles.

“Damn,” QTVTP Daniel said as he sat down again, “Glad to know we have taste.”

Their pictures were passed around and stories were shared – QTVTP Daniel offering up his phone to show off pictures of his girlfriend and he shared his excited plans to propose to her. 

The five young men seemed to find their comfort with each other. Laughter soon filled their table between words of advice and guidance and comfort and soon the food was gone and the drinks were finished and they were all resting back in their chairs through their conversation.

“Is your hair naturally that colour?” Amoureux Daniel asked QTVTP Daniel.

QTVTP Daniel habitually ran his hand through it, fluffing it up a little at the sides, “No, it’s dyed. I kinda like it like this though so I might keep it.”

“It looks cool. Maybe I should go blonde too. Loretta seems to like blondes better anyway.” HH Daniel said.

“No!” The other three at the table said quickly.

HH Daniel looked between all of them in confusion, “Why not?”

“Florence cried her eyes out when I went blonde.” ABM Daniel said. “I swear she was ready to divorce me. It’s not worth it.”

“You look just fine the way you are.” Passchendaele Daniel agreed. “Don’t change just because her boyfriend looks a certain way.”

“Yeah. You’ll regret that.” ABM Daniel nodded.

“I dunno. I don’t regret it.” QTVTP Daniel said coolly.

“You’re not helping.” ABM Daniel snapped lightly, making the rest of the table laugh.

A momentary silence fell over the group, all of them staring into space with content smiles and full stomachs, most topics of conversation well used. The bartender came over to clear the empty plates and they all thanked him once more. ABM Daniel took out his phone to check the time again.

“Well, it’s been over an hour. Maybe we should say our goodbyes. I have little ones to pick up.”

“Yeah.” HH Daniel sighed, setting his napkin back on the tabletop. “I have to pack for college.”

“I have a meeting...” QTVTP checked his watch, “5 minutes ago. Shit. Jonah’s gonna kill me.”

He got up quickly from the table and put his sunglasses back on before taking one last sip of his beer. They all stood up after him and started to gather their things to go.

“Can we take a selfie before we leave?” ABM Daniel offered.

“A what?” HH Daniel laughed.

“A selfie.” Amoureux Daniel breathed. “That’s a ridiculous word.”

“A picture of yourself.” QTVTP Daniel explained.

“Yeah! Come over here.” ABM Daniel took out his phone again and opened up the camera.

“You can take photographs on your telephone? Incredible…” Passcehndaele Daniel breathed as the group gathered behind ABM Daniel and they all leaned in close.

The picture was taken, framing five exact smiles, five exact pairs of light blue eyes, and yet five slightly different hair styles and fashion choices. All their own individual but yet all one in the same.

They shared handshakes that turned into friendly embraces with pats on the back, well wishes, and final goodbyes as they headed their own ways home to once again be seperated by the division of space and time between alternate universes.

ABM Daniel lingered back in the restaurant for a moment, grazing his finger over the table he stood beside with a calm smile. He approached the bartender and ordered a plate of desserts to go – he didn’t get much since Amoureux Daniel seemed to hog them all for himself – and he wanted to bring home his girls a treat. He paid for the cakes and thanked the bar tender before heading out of the restaurant and into the bright sunlit street. His car was parked farther down and he waited in the drivers seat for Florence.

She came quickly out of the Lotus Inn as well, the heavy wind blowing urging her to hold her jacket closed as she rushed down the sidewalk, her dark blonde hair billowing around her head messily and she helped herself into the passenger seat of their car. With the door closed and the wind kept out, she sighed deeply with a content smile and smoothed her messy hair down.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hi, sweetheart.”

They both leaned in for a quick kiss.

“How was lunch?” she asked.

ABM Daniel thought for a moment as he took the car out of park and pulled out onto the street, “It was strange at first but really nice. How was yours?”

“Super fun.” Florence giggled.

“Great! Oh! We took a selfie. I wanted to show you how similar we all looked.” Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket and blindly passed it over to her as he drove through the streets of their city.

Florence took it and typed in his passcode with an excited smile. She opened up his pictures and tapped the most recent one, her smile falling, “Dani, this is only a picture of you.”

“I know!” Daniel laughed. “We looked like quintuplets or something!”

“No…I mean you are the only person in this picture.”

Daniel stopped the car at a red light and glanced over at his phone in her hand. His smile fell as well as he stared at the selfie he had taken before they all parted ways, only his own face captured in the frame, his four new friends missing as if they never existed in the first place.

[wangxianficrecs]

Fic Finder

These came so fast!  If you don’t see yours on here, they’re queued up for the next Fic Finder post (I try to keep them in order).

~*~

1.  Hello! Do you happen to know a modern AU fic where it is a Professor LWJ on a online class and his students wondering who is the man walking around in his background?

FOUND!   looking through a window by glitteringmoonlight (T, 5k, wangxian)

SIMILAR?   Yearning by Sanguis (T, 9k, wangxian, lingyi)

~*~

2.  There's the slimmest chance you know this but for months I've been trying to find a fic. I don’t remember the plot, only a paragraph that begins something like ‘Once LWJ spent hours listening to WWX laugh’ except it was a waiter in an inn+he stayed all afternoon to listen to it. He also recalled seeing bits of WWX elsewhere-hair here, familiar movements there- but was starting to doubt his memory about WWX really looked/sounded like. Does this ring a bell? It was so evocative I’d love to find it ~ @batinaburnouse​

FOUND!   Love Song In Reverse by timetoboldlygo (T, 159k, wangxian, WIP)

~*~

3.  Hi! Thanks for all your hard work! I'm looking for a fic. The only scene I remember is a banquet type thing, possibly at the end of the Sunshot Campaign. Wei Wuxian is about to be put on blast for denying a duel and not carrying his sword when Yu Ziyuan steps up, assesses his meridians, and determines that he has no core, gave it to Jiang Cheng, and that Wen Qing was the surgeon who performed the procedure. That's it. One scene. Please help me. ~ @chibioniyuri​

FOUND!  ❤️seldom all they seem by Fahye (E, 38k, wangxian, xiyao, 2 works, series in progress, my post)

~*~

4.  Hi mojo! I'm looking for this fic with a particular scene in it. Wwx asks LW not to look at him and then cries on his shoulder for a long time and it's like this big release for everything he's been through. I think it was one of those ones about WWX finding a home in the cloud recesses. But I'm not sure. I think you may have recced it here to someone else so I'm hoping you can help. Thank you!

FOUND!  ...  Hi Mojo! I'm not sure if your ask me anything box is where I should be saying this but I can't see anywhere else to put it, sorry! I asked you the other day if you could help me find a fic where Wei Ying asks Lan Zhan not to look at him and then cries on his shoulder? I just wanted to tell you that I've found it, it's called Vermillion Seeds 《 此物最相思 》 by iskendaris (E, 12k, wangxian, my post). So please don't take time out of your day to look for it. Thank you! I really love your blog :D

~*~

5.  Hey there. There's this fic I was looking for in which lwj and wwx are college roommates and wwx basically worms his way into first becoming lwj's friend and then acting like a boyfriend while lwj's tolerates this (and likes it) but doesn't do anything about it. Then one day wwx suddenly stops. Cue feelings realization and happy ending. It had a very crack treated semi seriously feeling to it.

FOUND!   no certainty of doors between us by betts (T, 7k, wangxian)

~*~

6.  hey!! so glad to see you back i missed you! for your next fic finder can i pitch in: i was reading an a/b/o fic where the wens brought everyone to be indoctrinated but they made wwx marry wen chao (and wen xu wanted to marry nhs) and wwx had a baby but it was lan zhan's and after the wens died wwx married jin zixuan for politica or smth i could swear i had subscribed to it, but i cant find it anywhere

FOUND!   The Lifespan of a Lotus Blossom by Silver_pup (M, 155k, wangxian, one-sided wei wuxian/wen chao, one-sided jin zixuan/wei wuxian, WIP)

~*~

7.  Hi 👋 welcome back! I hope you and yours are all well and feeling well rested? 🥰 I'm looking for a fic (I think it was a modern ABO?) It was omegawwx and alphalwj but the juniors (I *think*) thought wwx was mxy, and they could see that lwj had a thing for him and (bless them) misguidedly started trying to protect mxy-wwx from lwj (I think at some point they were on a bus? Unless I dreamt that part 😅) I think wwx also started getting dramatic when jc attacked him, talking about him being indecent towards him etc.

It may have been a different fic, but I think there was a part where they were a bit funny because there was an age gap between lwj/mxy-wwx. These all may also be different fics so sorry if they are! 😅 thank you! And take care!

FOUND!  Cultivation of the Pack by Midshipsman (E, 55k, wangxian, my post)

~*~

8.  Hey^^ Is this where I ask for ficfinder? I really really need help with this and you're and everyone on this blog is doing such a marvelous job <3 So, I've been searching ages for this fic... it was during their time at Cloud Recesses. WWX's pranks escalate after he shows LWJ porn, so he does small things that are affectionate? (This is where I'm not clear what exactly happened in the fic) and at the end I think it was, I remember WWX buying a red cloth/veil (he thinks it looks like a wedding veil) during a visit to Caiyi with NHS an JC and using it to prank LWJ by sitting on his bed and waiting for him, red veil over his head, greeting him as his 'bride' and LWJ reacts badly (thinking wwx cruel) and starts tearing up and I think at that point wwx realizes he went too far (he was panicking about making LWJ cry) and they communicate and get together. ~ @nocturnalfriend​

~*~

9.  Is this the way to find fics? I hope it is. Cause I’ve been looking for this one fic where wwx and lwj broke up cause lwj moved for work or something (It’s a modern au). He comes back after a couple of years and runs into wwx in a grocery store but wwx has a yuan with him. From there on out they grow closer again and eventually get back together. Help find this fic please! :) thank u so much! @useless-bi-sexual​

FOUND! estuaries by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 34k, wangxian)​

~*~

10.  Hello,i"m looking for an AO3 fic where wangxian are not yet in a established relationship and are in a 'talking stage'. There is a misunderstanding where wwx mentions a Mysterious "a-yuan" throughout there "dates" and lwj mistakes 'a-yaun' to be wwx fiance. at a later point wwx finally makes a move and kisses lwj. lwj pushes him away and calls him disgusting (for being a 'cheater') and wwx thinks hes just rejecting him. lwj later finds out he made a mistake and finds out ayuan is wwx adopted son

FOUND!   breathe in the air, the last of its kind by wereworm (T, 27k, wangxian)

~*~

11.  Hey mojo i tried with other blogs but nobody seems to know this fic ive been searching for a while so maybe i have more luck with you! So its a little of jwy bashing i think, basically jiang cheng liking wwx but wangxian are together and somehow jwy ends up near the jingshi and wangxian is doing it and lwj being the petty man he is ends up realising jwy is there and is fucking wwx while looking at jwy in the eye because lwj has won and nobody will harm wwx anymore, especially not jwy (also it might be postcanon) this is kinda vague but it was also kind of a short fic THANK YOU FOR EXISTING MOJO I LOVE YOU

FOUND!   «The Fault In Jiāng Chéng» by Anonymous (M, 4k, wangxian, jiang cheng & wei wuxian)

This one is no longer on AO3.  I found it on the Wayback Machine here, but as usual, I’m stymied by the fact that you have to ‘proceed’ past adult content, so I can’t access it.  You’re looking for «The fault in JC Stan's» by Anonymous. .....  Nonny adds,  If at first you can’t access a fic through a Wayback Machine link, try *all* available captures—I even occasionally find some with the Download function preserved.

~*~

12.  do you happen to know or have you read this one fanfic that talks about weiying being like a reporter or book editor and he does a video call with lan zha, during a quick break he forgot to mute himself and called him hot/would sleep with him and lan zhan agrees?

FOUND!   Into Every Flower Grown by Carrie25 (E, 28k, wangxian)

~*~

13.  Hey mojo!! I am looking for a fic and I can't seem to find it anywhere. it was a modern au fic. ig it was WIP then. lxc says he wont date until lwj finds a partner. so jgy bets wwx to get lwj to date him so jgy can date lxc. wwx develops feelings for lwj along the way and tries to tell about the bet to lwj but when he's about to say it, they overhear nmj(?) shouting at jgy about the bet and lwj is heartbroken thinking wwx played him. there was a scene wwx kneeling infront of lz's home crying?

FOUND!   10 Things I Hate About Dating at Gusu Academy by KouriArashi (T, 59k, 3zun, wangxian)

FOUND! ❤️ Love wakes me by dea_liberty (E, 46k, wangxian, my post)

~*~

14.  Hi! Thanks you very much for all your work (I was really happy when you come back!). Can I ask about a finder fanfic? It happens while lwj is still secluded and injured, wwx resucited in the body of a tall cultivator that lost all his sect in nightless city battle and he want that wwx suffer and lost everything (his wish was that). Wwx decided to go Cloud Recess where he takes care lwj. His arm injury go worse because he is happy so he decided to go to avoid die, but at the end everything is okay. ~ @dratin-dragonadetinta96​

FOUND!  A Storm of Laughter in the Stillness of the Jingshi by OnlyMeAndMyBones (T, 74k, wangxian)​

~*~

15.  Hi! I need help finding a fic. I'm pretty sure it's from Lan Xichen's POV and it's a modern au. He'd babysitting one of the juniors, I think its Jingyi, and they end up inside the walls. I distinctly remember the kiddo saying the walls were filled with cotton candy? Please help! ~ @huntforachievements​

FOUND!  Xichen Has a Parental Crisis Via a Fiberglass Insulated Crawl Space by lovable_idiot (not rated, 3k, lan jingyi & lan xichen, jin guangyao & lan xichen)​

~*~

16.  Hey i've been searching for a fic, where WY suddenly turned up infront of the jingshi smelling like an omega in heat. Turns out LZ visit in the Burial Mount triggered WY to present as an omega. This is set in an omegaverse where omegas are highly priced and looked up to and due to this LZ with the help of LXC (and maybe LQ) hopes to help WY by changing public's opinion regarding WY. Thanks.

FOUND!  Woven fates by apathyinreverie (T, 10k, wangxian)

~*~

17.  Hi mojo, can you help me find a fic. jmf found wy in the street and took him home turns out something was wrong with his body and wy could only function normally with his golden core. In this fic he has a good with madam yu. I also remember that he has to forge a sword and during his travel he made friends with a royal soldier. That's all that i really remember. I hope you can help me find this fic.

FOUND!  Wei Changsu by MountainRose (G, 29k, 1 work, series in progress, no pairings, child wei wuxian)

~*~

18.  hi! im looking for the author who wrote bamf teacher!wwx in cloud recesses. they dont know he was the yllz and they recently deleted it on dec 10 because theyll publish it instead for a bigbang or even nanowrimo? but im 80% it's for a bigbang, not sure if it was the mdzs or mxtx bigbang but it's for one. i want to remember so i can read it when it eventually releases. the author announced it on twt but i forgot to follow them in ao3/twt smh. thanks for those who'll find them!

AUTHOR FOUND?  Could you be looking for Mamoonde (on Twitter here)

~*~

19.  Hi I’m hoping to do a find it fic post. I’ve been looking for a fic where Wei ting is dead/discombobulated spirit that only a yuan can see. Ayuan is raised at lotus pier and Wei ying spends every class time teaching him and is always there for him. The rest of the time Wwx hangs(eavesdrops) around lotus pier. At his funeral Baoshan santon showed up and said something vague about a yuan. At the end ayuan accidently hits Wwx with zodiac he goes back into his body. I love your blog. Thank you

FOUND!  Something From Nothing by sami (E, 55k, wangxian endgame)

~*~

20.  Hi, I've been looking for this au where basically wei ying from ig middle man age time travels to teen and helps prevent everything. It's hard for me to explain it so ill just mention a few key details. Wangxian meet a yuan when he is baby. Madam yu is nice and helped take care of a yuan when wangxian went to war. I can't remember for sure but I think it might be in this one where with empathy, wei ying shows xichen everything. But if im right, then xichen, wen qing, and Jiang cheng get together ~ @taeyongwifeu127

FOUND!   And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, wangxian, qingxicheng, my post)

~*~

[My ko-fi.]

[rhysiana]

I watched Shang-Chi for the second time in a week last night because M hadn't watched it with me the first time, and I was seized by a great desire for a Jiang family father/son showdown, so here's the CQL Legend of the Ten Rings AU I poured into a friend's DMs.

Jiang Fengmian had been the Master of the Rings for hundreds of years before he met Wei Changze, and to be honest, everything had begun to feel a bit repetitive. Becoming a wandering cultivator with his new friend? What a great vacation!

Things are great for many years. JFM feels alive again even without the use of the Rings! Eventually wandering palls, though, so they decide to establish a sect.

The new Jiang sect rises to prominence quickly, more quickly than seems possible, but their motto is "attempt the impossible" after all, and soon people forget the Jiang hadn't been there all along.

(Jin Guangshan did not forget.)

(Wen Ruohan didn't forget, either, but he'd known JFM when he'd been the fearsome Master of the Ten Rings, and decided it was better for his own plans to just ignore whatever JFM was doing in the hopes he'd return the favor.)

But then WCZ gets married! And he's so happy, he wants his friend to be happy too. So he arranges things with YZY, and JFM goes along with it, because he's still dedicated to trying out all these normal human things (for certain values of normal). WCZ hadn't been wrong before.

Maybe it all would have worked out if WCZ and CSSR hadn't wandered so far and for so long. Instead, the Burial Mounds ate them, so JFM took up the Rings again, because if he hadn't been so carefree and powerless, nothing would have been able to take his friend.

YZY grows to hate him for his distraction in this version, too, but this time it's a more focused distraction: He finds WWX and becomes obsessed with training him to avenge his parents.

Jiang Cheng ends up incidentally trained, too, but only because WWX teaches him everything after his lessons "to review!" (Does this also imply JYL also learns the rope dart in secret? I would like to think so.)

It is from JFM that WWX gets his "energy is energy" ideas and esoteric talisman knowledge, to which he adds his own flair, of course. He is a prodigy! JFM expected no less from the son of his friends. He sends WWX off at 15 to recover his parents' bodies from the Burial Mounds.

WWX does not return.

Jiang Cheng and JYL wait and wait for him, but eventually it becomes clear he's not coming back. JYL decides to let Jin Zixuan court her (because she was a little less demure this time around, so he gets away with being a jerk for a shorter period of time).

Jiang Cheng decides to take off into the jianghu as a wandering cultivator. His father is immortal, after all. There is no pressure on him as heir. (He honestly wishes there was a bit more. At least it would indicate interest.)

He has many adventures, all the while keeping an eye out for the man who had once been his brother. Somewhere along the way, they meet up, complete with dramatic make-up fight. Probably at an inn where WWX is drunk? Obviously there is wire-fu amongst the balconies and then a laughing argument over who has to pay for all the damages. Jiang Cheng offers money; WWX offers talismans. (What WWX was doing in the intervening years is a different tale.)

And then! A magic message appears for them, with a rumor of BSSR's mountain. (It's from JFM, who had just been waiting for Jiang Cheng to find WWX, as he believes only WWX will be able to find the mountain path.)

BBSR's mountain obviously = Ta Lo, the gate, etc. JFM has become convinced his friend is trapped behind it, somehow transported from the Burial Mounds (no body, no proof, after all). He will rescue WCZ and CSSR, and then they and all the children will come back to Lotus Pier, and the sect will finally be the way it was meant to be!

And then everything culminates in Jiang Cheng battling his father for the Rings to prevent him from opening the gate. JFM, anguished: "Wei Changze is back there! I have to save him!" JC, with exhausted, bitter compassion: "I wish that were true."

Just... that tired, resigned confrontation between the two of them, and then JFM actually transferring the Rings to Jiang Cheng to save him. (WWX obviously shoots the important monster-distracting arrow, but JC finishes it off.)

Perhaps they stay on the mountain for a while so WWX can learn more about his mother and her people. Perhaps they have some more adventures on their way back to Lotus Pier. Their future is different now that JFM is no longer eternal. They'll have to figure it out.

[angstymdzsthoughts]

I've been thinking about this particular au in while. An au where Wei Ying went mad (or a bit crazy ) during his childhood in Lotus Pier.

Please forgive my English, it's not my first language (• ▽ •;)

Hope u still enjoy it regardless

Little WY refused to stay at the inn and went with his parents. His parents hid him inside a tree when things started to go south, and told him to wait for them. When they didn't come back for a long time, he tried to search for them. What he found was their corpses and ofc little WY tried to wake them up, shaking their bloodied bodies with his tiny hands while calling their names. Did they left him because he was not a good child? Because he insisted to go with the on their night hunt? He wouldn't know, they would never answer him again.

Soon he decided to give up, lay down near their bodies and just talked to their corpses like when they were alive. Not long after that, he heard wolf howling. Before he could fully realized what was happening, a pack of wolf are already approaching him and his parents bodies. He was scared but tried to fight them, his parents' swords were there, but it was simply to hard for him to use, he only has his tiny hands, to protect what was left of his parents.

He tried but all was futile, as he watched his parents bodies be eaten by those wolf, while his body full of bite marks. Body shaking in a cold night, tears streaming down his face, eyes empty, many emotions clashing inside him as he sat there. Soon the wolves turn their attention to him and WY started running, he didn't where to go, his body just screaming for him to run, even if his mind couldn't quite register what was happening, to shocked to really process anything.

He finally reached a town (probably Yiling I guess?? I'm sorry idk) the wolves lost him already. He the found an alleyway and made it his makeshift living place. The concept of death was still quite strange, his parents were alive then they're not, his little self couldn't quite accept it just yet.

He then tried to make 2 straw dolls (like in the donghua ep 8?? if I'm not wrong, sorry) he called them, A-Niang, and A-Die and just smiled at them. He talked to them, because no one will really talk to him anymore, he missed his mother chattering and his father's soft gaze. Those dolls were his only company, just him and his parents, safe in his memory, full of happiness and maybe, just maybe his parents would consider coming back for him if he kept talking them. And life as a street rat went on (with all that stuff no child should ever went through)

One day, (a wild ) Jiang Fengmian appeared (I'm sorry (￣ヘ￣;))

You know the things that transpired when Jiang Fengmian found WY and brought him back to Lotus Pier. And we start from there.

WY didn't want to leave his 2 dolls behind back then, so he still has them with him and he still talk to them as if they're his parents.

He tries to do his best, and he excelled in all the things he does, even surpassing Jiang Cheng, but WY doesn't realize that. And ofc Madame Yu is not happy.

She begins to punish him, make him kneel for hours at the Ancestral Hall, and she even whips him sometimes.

All those punishment make WY feels out off place in Lotus Pier, why is she so mean to him he just doing what he should be doing right, he hasn't seen anyone get punished as much as him.

He thought he didn't do well enough, so he tries to do better, he doesn't want to get kicked out after all.

And one day Madame Yu snaps, she whips him then leave him in an empty dark room. He's sobbing because of the pain and the dark empty room doesn't help. It only serves to make him more stressed out, it reminds him of that night after the wolves attacked him, the pain, the darkness, the silence, there's only him and his thoughts.

And his thoughts is not really a fun company to be with in situations like this. (he's stuck there for idk 4/5 days? anyway)

And things happen (u get the idea)

This kinda goes on for some times and Little WY kinda snaps. (I mean what do u expect dear Madame Yu )

Wei Ying used to be all alone with his thoughts, started to talk to himself and anything he finds interesting. No person will talk to him anymore (like back then), because who will talk to some madman (still a young teenager technically; 11/12 idk u pick)

He laughs with the blooming lotuses and the rippling water, eyes unseeing, trapped in his personal euphoria inside his mind, oblivious of all the painful things in life.

Madame Yu then locks him in a room far from others to see, like some embarrassment in the Jiang sect she must hide from the outside world. (The room it's not that bad, but still it's very cruel to do so Madame)

I kinda want LWJ to meet WY, imagine

LWJ walking in Lotus Pier (for whatever business he has) then he found a beautiful pond full of bloomed lotuses with a bridge across it ( accidently wander too far) But sitting on that bridge, a person far more beautiful than any of the lotuses in that pond is laughing and seemingly talking to the lotuses there. When he takes a closer look, the person is indeed laughing, but it looks as if they're laughing mindlessly, he also takes note on how pale and frail the person looks. Who's this person might be?

And that's it.

Thank you very much for sticking around!

[dayseternal-blog]

hiii do you have any recommendations for naruhina fics that take place in the naruto/ninja world been wanting mooore after reading nightdreams and white lilies, thank youu!!

:DDD yah.  HEEEERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LONG LIST, not exhaustive, MOST HAVE HAPPY ENDING.  If it has a sad or inconclusive ending, I just think it’s worth reading because the writing’s so good.

Canon Universe NaruHina

hmmm, let’s sort this by plotty, fluffy, and smutty.  There are TONS more canon-compliant and canon-divergent fics that I haven’t listed here, so if anyone sees this, feel free to add on your faves.

Plotty

“A Place in the Sun” by ihaveastorminme - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete Forever. Naruto realizes that he’s not enough to love her.  He’s not enough to save her, either.

“Love and Water” by nineetaaaillled - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. The hardest part isn’t acknowledging that he’s in love, it’s believing that he can be loved.

“The Loving Type” by @peppercornpress - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. “…So you got over that…guy?” Naruto asked.  “Mm-hm.”

“A Trail of Notes” by @mysterious-crimson-lotus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. At his lowest, Naruto can always depend on one person to have his back. Someone who makes him feel like he matters, that he can do it. Trouble is, he has no idea who it is.

“Diagnosis: Needs Ramen” by AngelChaosGuardian - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. There is always a medical explanation for everything. Hinata's problem was no exception.

“The good left undone” by Stars.Are.Metaphors. - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. 'To marry into the Otsutsuki family is to aid the Hyūga,' her father explained solemnly.

“Why would innocent little Hinata be out dressed like that?” (One-shot) and its follow-up “On Any Given Day” (Long One-Shot) by @utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent. Hinata tries to move on from Naruto, right when he realizes he wants to keep her.

“November - Crime AU” from “Still Falling For You” by @chloelapomme​ - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. When Hinata arrives next to Naruto, she looks for Pain. However it seems Konoha's enemy is gone. She then turns towards its hero, excepting to see a smile. But she only sees darkness in his sky blue eyes and she doesn't know where it comes from.

“A MisConception” by @magmawrites - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. Hinata Hyuga was pregnant. Somehow. “But Sakura-chan…it’s impossible. I never even had sex.”

“Because I Love You” by @magmawrites - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. A canon divergent fic in which The Last never happened and Hinata Hyuga was promised to another.

“Master Servant AU” from “Tales of Two Ninjas” by @magmawrites - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Some relationships are forbidden but there are no rules when it comes to love.

“Monster” by Sessakag - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. Naruto, a celebrated war hero, finds himself, once again at the forefront of the fight, but which side is he on this time? Love. Tragedy. Happiness. Heartache. The growing pains of becoming a man, have molded, shaped and brought forth a new Naruto Uzumaki.

“Distorted Minds” by Cheating Death - Rated E for graphic violence, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Her lavender eyes slowly opened, her vision blurry and distorted for a few moments as she tried to look around. It was then that she realized that she was suspended a few inches off the ground, her wrists cuffed in cold, metal shackles that hung from the ceiling.

“secret lovers” by @quirrrky - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, Series of related one-shots. After the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto was gradually falling in love with Hinata and the whole village of Konoha knew it…Well, aside from him.

“The Ring that Binds” by softwind - Rated M, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete.  Naruto and Hinata are married.  So why is Naruto calling “Sakura” in his sleep?

“If You Said You Loved Me” by destiny’s sweet melody - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot.  Naruto begins to realize he took her feelings for granted and now he’s too late.

Fluffy

“The Red Scarf” by @peppercornpress​ - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Just two people who realize how they feel for each other. That's it.

“Tsukuyomi Boyfriend” by @peppercornpresses - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Over a year has passed since the great Shinobi War, and people are finally starting to open up about their Infinite Tsukuyomi Illusions.

“Harbinger of Light” by @mysterious-crimson-lotus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Hinata is his light in the middle of the war.

Untitled by @utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Prompt: True love is one soul residing in two bodies.

Untitled by @utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Prompt: (because it was hot as heck here today) how about NaruHina and bathing suits.

“Something New” by @waterrolls​ - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Can a clueless boy ever figure out romance? Maybe, and definitely not without the help of friends who have the couple's best interests at heart. Or, how Naruto and Hinata got their changes in uniforms.

“Lady Usagi” by @mmmbuttery - Rated G, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. A quiet girl working in an inn meets a noisy young lord, but all is not as it seems.

“A Prior Engagement” by @mmmbuttery - Rated G, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Hinata’s on a blind date – and guess who crashes?

“I Fell In Love With You Two Days Ago” by NotosK - Rated G, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. Hinata is recovering from an injury in Sunagakure, her father summons her back to Konoha after six months so she can finally meet her fiance, a foreign ninja that is thrice her age. the fourth Hokage assigns two elite ANBU to escort her back. Why is the one in the fox mask so familiar to her?

“Oblivious” by PervyNinja - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. After the war, Naruto is not the only one to be approached by admirers - Hinata is oblivious, Kiba, Shino & Akamaru are protective, and Naruto is just so confused.

Smutty

“Shinobi Passions” by HoneyWriter78 - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-Chapter, Incomplete. When a mission takes a surprising turn for the worse, only Naruto can help her through the night…

“A Special Friend” by agitosgirl - Rated E, Canon-divergent AU, One-shot. Yes, quiet, humble, heiress Hinata Hyuga and loudmouth hero Naruto Uzumaki were friends with benefits. (This one inspired my “Nightdreams” fic)

“Secrets of the Hidden Leaf” by Sessakag - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. The author’s summary hints at NaruHinaSasu, but they never got that far in the story. Naruto and Hinata push the boundaries of propriety and decency in a budding relationship of profound love and wild, sexual exploration.

[gusu-emilu]

miscellaneous MDZS/CQL fic recs (AO3)

broken into sections: Character Study (-esque), Wangxian, Jiang Cheng ships, Yi City (or Yi City-adjacent), Humor/Crack, and Other

Character Study (-esque)

Wei Wuxian

my eyes got used to the darkness by @curiosity-killed (M, Sunshot Campaign era, 4.4k): The funny thing, the thing that makes his lips curl in a grin and his hands shake with laughter, is that all these cultivators with their lofty principles and noble ambitions can’t even notice the ghost among them. Sure, they shiver at his presence and flinch from his cold hands, but not one of them puts it together. Lan Wangji chases him with healing music and Nie Mingjue frowns solemnly at his dancing corpses—and he laughs and laughs and laughs because they just don’t get it. Emilu's commentary: CW for mild body horror.

Jiang Cheng

in our respective ways by @veliseraptor (T, Sunshot Campaign era, 5.7k): Jiang Cheng has his golden core back. But he seems to have lost Wei Wuxian.

You Know I've Fallen, but I Know How High by villainais (M, Post-WWX's death, 2.7k): Jiang Cheng loses both of his siblings in Nightless City. Minutes apart. He trudges home to Yunmeng with one body, holds a private funeral with a single coffin, and allows himself to wear his mourning robes for ten days—permits himself not a single day more. He is still too young and inexperienced, an unfledged boy to the cultivation world, and he is rebuilding Lotus Pier on his own. He will not gift the other sect leaders the satisfaction of seeing him vulnerable. Propriety be damned. Hanguang-jun emerges from his seclusion wearing white. He does not stop.

Nie Huaisang

it deepens like a coastal shelf by @wolffyluna (M, Post-WWX's death, 21.6k): When Nie Huaisang meets Mo Xuanyu, he realises two things quickly. One, this kid is so doomed. Two, this kid would be a great unwitting spy in his plans to bring down Jin Guangyao. It would be so easy to get into Mo Xuanyu's confidences, and so easy to get him to tell him anything he needs. ...only thing is, that wouldn't be very good for Mo Xuanyu's life expectancy. But he'll do it anyway, if it helps him avenge his brother. A fic about man handing on misery to man, the parallels and cycles in the relationships between Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu, and the lengths these characters will go to meet their goals and if there are lines they won't cross.

Lan Xichen

an old man in dried mouths by @tenacious-minds (T, Post-Canon, 3.3k): Xichen thinks. The tea had always stained the crockery red. Emilu's commentary: Lan Xichen and Jin Ling talk about Jin Guangyao.

can you be a quiet man? by @basket-of-loquats (Unrated, Post-Canon, 70.7k+) But something inside him snapped at Guanyin Temple-- and Lan Wangji watched it happen, saw the exact moment that Lan Xichen went from broken to shattered, when he buried his sword into Jin Guangyao’s chest, when his sworn brother stared up at him with wide eyes, blood dripping from his mouth, when he pulled himself closer and closer and closer-- When he whispered "Why don’t you die with me?", and Lan Xichen hadn’t argued. Emilu's commentary: Lan Xichen / therapy with a side of Wangxian.

Wen Ning

breathless (but i'll pretend to breathe for you) by swordsainted (T, Burial Mounds Settlement era, 4.1k): Wei Wuxian is silent for a long minute, and then he looks at Wen Ning, something raw and open and hurting behind his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says again, softer this time, and Wen Ning shakes his head, still smiling. “You’ve protected everyone. How could I hate you for that?”

Mo Xuanyu

stand at the pit's mouth by @eldritch-elrics (M, MXY's death, 9.3k): The dreams and regrets of a man on the edge of oblivion. Emilu's commentary: Surrealist/absurdist screenplay.

Wangxian

I would wait for a thousand years by bleuett (T, Immortality Post-Canon, 10.4k): During the worst of winter, a traveler comes to stay at Lan Wangji's inn. He wears a red ribbon in his hair. “Do you see the rabbit?” Wei Ying asks and points at the moon. “That’s the moon rabbit, he helps make Chang’e more immortality elixir. He keeps Chang’e company.” “I do not wish the rabbit for company,” Lan Wangji says tightly. “You are the one I want by my side.” “And I’m here, Lan Zhan. If you go to the moon, I’ll follow you, I’ll always be here now.” Emilu's commentary: Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian centuries later and does not remember the past. There is also an excellent podfic by @forgotten-envies

Look Not With The Eyes by Spodumene (G, Post-Canon, 28.1k): Wei Wuxian returns from his travels to join Lan Wangji on a routine night hunt, but when things take an unexpected turn, Wei Wuxian will have to fight for what he's really looking for. Emilu's commentary: Case fic.

All In A Good Time by bigboobedcanuck (E, Post-Canon, 8k): Lan Zhan is struck by a curse that brings him intense physical pain unless he's being touched. He is stoic and tries to hide his suffering. Wei Wuxian is worried and protective. Perhaps they will finally admit their feelings?

Across a Lake of Glass by Zizzani (E, Figure Skating AU, 92.2k+): Each year, Gusu Skating Club runs a camp for only the most elite athletes of each region. This year brings a new skater from the Yunmeng Club who wears skates lined with red and a smile made for war. He skates like a demon. Figure skating au featuring lots of healthy rivalry, pre and post-competition bonding, and an inexplicable fall from grace through the eyes of the media.

Jiang Cheng Ships

Chengqing

display my heart for you to see by @souridealist (M, Post-Canon Wen Qing Lives AU, 5.5k): Jiang Cheng has his own secrets. Some of them are part of the unburied past; some of them are about how long it's been since anyone has touched him.

while I'm in this body by @souridealist (E, Post-Lotus Pier Massacre, 3.9k): For just a few minutes, alone in her office, Wen Qing allows her self-control to slip enough to cry. It's just her luck that that's when Jiang Cheng comes looking for her. Emilu's commentary: Femdom.

Chengning

it may be that it doesn't matter by @wildehacked (T, Post-Canon, 6.6k) “Are you crying?” Jiang Wanyin asks him, and Wen Ning frowns. Pats his cheek with one hand. “No.” Emilu's commentary: Holy Grail of Chengning.

Whatever It Is by morau (E, Post-Canon, 20.5k): It starts, as with a lot of things, with a very poorly thought out prank, courtesy of Wei Wuxian. Emilu's commentary: A LOT of sex and even more emotions lol

won't run away (we're here to stay) by @qi-ling (T, Post-Canon, 3.5k): "Please don't feel any pressure to accept this, and you can take as much time as you need to think about it." It's a set of robes, in shades of deep purple, complete with leather bracers. Cut in a different style than that of the disciples or household staff, closer to the understated robes Wen Ning typically wears. He reaches out to feel the fabric. His deadened nerves can't sense delicate textures well, but even he can tell it's of a quality on par to Wanyin's own wardrobe. This is startling enough coming from Jiang Wanyin, but then Wen Ning notices the belt. In particular, the silver bell in the shape of a lotus affixed to it. Only recognized members of the Jiang sect may wear the clarity bell. Or, Jiang Cheng has an invitation for Wen Ning.

Zhancheng

By Proxy by @veliseraptor (E, Post-WWX's death, 12k): Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, looking for comfort in all the wrong places. Emilu's commentary: Hate sex that made me cry

Yi City (or Yi City-adjacent)

Songxuexiao

Heaven Has A Road But No One Walks It by @silvysartfulness (M, Post-Yi City arc Canon Divergence, 123k+): One of the most complex spells of demonic cultivation the world has seen is brought to fruition, and Xiao Xingchen draws his first shaking breaths in over seven years. This, it turns out, is only the start of his problems. Emilu's commentary: Pretty sure everyone already knows about Silvy's happy songxuexiao road trip fic but it has to be here.

Xue Yang & Lan Xichen

Hours On Empty series by @lady-of-the-lotus (M to E, Post-Canon, 57.8k+): AU where Wei Wuxian never came to Yi City and Xue Yang is still running around post-canon disguised as Xiao Xingchen. "Fractured Ice" - Xue Yang whisks a nihilistic Lan Xichen off on a murder roadtrip to raise Xiao Xingchen and Meng Yao from the grave. Because that will solve all of their problems, right? "Control" - "Fractured Ice" retold from Xue Yang's pov. "A Thousand Miles In Its Light" - Alternate ending to "Fractured Ice" and "Control"

Songxiao with Xuexiao Flashbacks

Nothing Beside Remains by @eldritch-elrics (T, Post-Yi City arc Canon Divergence, 21.9k): And Xiao Xingchen is dressed in dark clothing that is not his, and his sight is all of a sudden sharp in a way that it has never been before, and Xue Yang is not here. “He wouldn’t,” he breathes. “No, he wouldn’t do that. He’s too—” “He’s too what?” Wei Wuxian steps a foot closer, face hard-set. “Too cruel? Or too kind?” Or: Xue Yang uses the Sacrifice Summon on Xiao Xingchen. Xiao Xingchen lives with the consequences.

Humor/Crack

The Hangover: A pre-wedding Dramedy series by natcat5 (M, Modern AU, 51.6k): It is not a bachelor party. That was made clear on all the invitations. It is a congratulatory get together for Jin Zixuan, attended by his family, the family of the bride, and the young masters of the other two families in their circle. The gathering is not to go later than midnight, everyone must drink in moderation, and no one is allowed to be hungover tomorrow. Wei Wuxian had promised Yanli, three fingers in the air. Jiang Cheng had rolled his eyes, but promised as well. Saturday morning, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng wake up alone in a hotel room, missing shoes, phones, and almost all their memories of what in the world happened last night. Also missing: Wei Wuxian, brother of the bride, Lan Wangji, esteemed guest, Lan Xichen, esteemed guest, Jin Zixun, cousin of the groom, Jin Guangyao, brother and best-man, Jin Zixuan, THE GROOM, who is due at his bride-to-be's house in six hours. That's plenty of time to find everyone...right?

Jiang Cheng Loves Jar Jar Bombad Mui by @lady-of-the-lotus (G, Post-Canon, 1.7k) Jar Jar Binks washes up on the shores of Lotus Pier. Can he win the lonely Jiang Cheng's proud heart? Neb neb answer is yesa. Emilu's commentary: There's also a podfic by @aowyn. Yes, with a Jar Jar voice.

Other

Nie Huaisang & Wen Ning

By Name by nirejseki (G, Post-Canon, 1.3k): After the traumatic events in the now-collapsed temple, Wen Ning lingered behind and unexpectedly saw Nie Huaisang, the undisputed victor of an all-around terrible evening, sitting on the steps of the temple, looking exhausted and miserable, as if he’d won nothing at all. Wen Ning found himself drifting over to him.

Jiang Yanli & Nie Mingjue

utility by magicites (G, Arranged Marriage AU, 2.3k): Jiang Yanli and Nie Mingjue's wedding is a political one — a gesture of unity between their Sects. A way for her parents to finally get some use out of the plain-faced sham of a cultivator they call a daughter. “Jiang-guniang,” Nie Mingjue says, and the formality in such a setting as intimate as their wedding chambers startles her, “I don’t wish to bed you. Or any other woman, for that matter. It isn’t fair for you to live alone because of my own preferences.” She rests her hand on his arm, cool relief flooding her body like water on a summer afternoon. “If it helps, I don’t feel desire for men,” she whispers.

Jin Guangyao / Nie Huaisang

Pulling Strings by @eldritch-elrics (E, Post-WWX's death, 5k): Nie Huaisang, quite drunk, turns up at Jin Guangyao’s door one night with an unexpected request. Emilu's commentary: Nie Huaisang knows Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue. This interaction is more symbolic than anything else...

[stiltonbasket]

Renouncement verse: you said lwj combs wwx hair in the morning, can you write the first time that happens? Maybe wwx gets overwhelmed but lwj won’t let him run away

anon 2: For your arranged marriage au, I would love it if you can do some domestic scenes between them. Basically things like hair brushing and braiding or making dumplings together, etc 🥺

(brief author’s note: please please reblog if you can, since that’s how we get prompts for future chapters!)

On Wei Wuxian’s first day as a married man, he opens his eyes at chen shi to find Lan Zhan still lying in the wedding bed at his side. 

When the two of them prepared for sleep the night before, Wei Wuxian expected Lan Zhan to retire in full dress, since he had done so every time the two of them slept in the same room before their engagement. During the time they spent traveling together, Lan Zhan only ever removed his shoes before going to bed; he even kept his hairpieces on, most of the time, and he only took them off to keep them from stabbing Wei Wuxian in the face on the few occasions where space constraints and over-booked inns required them to rest in the same bed.

On their wedding night, however, Lan Zhan undressed behind a privacy screen (nearly frightening Wei Wuxian back to death, given the context of what he and Lan Zhan are to each other now) before bathing in a wooden tub and emerging with his hair down and his forehead ribbon looped around his wrist. He was wearing a clean set of sleeping robes, loosely embroidered with clouds and white flowers to match the nightwear Wei Wuxian received as one of his many wedding gifts, and then they got under the covers and went to sleep without saying a word to each other. 

But they held each other the whole night through, which is why Wei Wuxian feels so painfully shy when he wakes up in Lan Zhan’s warm embrace with his left ear pressed over his husband’s pounding heart.

“Does being a newlywed excuse me from getting up at five?” he whispers, trying to hide his face in Lan Zhan’s soft gown. “Can I go back to sleep?”

He isn’t actually sleepy, though; the excitement of the wedding has been thoroughly transformed into the nervousness of a new bridegroom, bringing a thousand uncertainties about living in a new place, with a new family, and with new duties to tend to. No one expects him to do anything, he knows, but he has to do something, or—

“Wei Ying.” Lan Zhan leans down and kisses his forehead, calming his fears just enough for Wei Wuxian to decide that getting out of bed might be worth it today. “You may do whatever you like, and no one will think any worse of you for it. But will you eat before going back to sleep, at least? For me?”

They eat breakfast together after that, and Wei Wuxian notices that the meal seems pointedly unsuited to Gusu tastes. There is a little bamboo steamer filled with baozi, with pork and cabbage filling for Wei Wuxian (and possibly a vegetarian filling for Lan Zhan, though none of those end up in Wei Wuxian’s plate) and hot dry noodles coated with peanut sauce and chili oil, just like Jiang-shushu used to make for family breakfasts sometimes—and then a few plates with the usual trappings of a meal served to a bridal bedchamber, like sesame cakes and preserved dried longan fruits, but Wei Wuxian ignores them and sticks to the noodles and sweet millet porridge. After all, he rarely had sesame cakes during his childhood at Lotus Pier, and he likes lotus-seed cakes better, anyway. 

“There will be some for lunch,” Lan Zhan assures him, and Wei Wuxian flushes at the realization that he must have said that last aloud. “Brother sent a butterfly to tell you that Li Shuai intends to spend the next week cooking southern dishes and preserving them for you and Xiao-Yu to eat later on.”

Wei Wuxian feels his heart swell. “Really?” he smiles, finally reaching for one of the sesame cakes and putting it into his mouth. “But she’s supposed to be our guest, Lan Zhan.”

“Yu Zhenhong is with her,” his husband points out. “The pair of them took over the kitchens and drove out all the disciples on cooking duty. I expect that the whole clan will know what hot peppers taste like by tonight.”

Thoroughly cheered up by the mental image of A-Shuai cackling over a Lan kitchen cauldron and forcing it to learn the touch of chili paste for the first time, Wei Wuxian finishes his meal and then returns to the bedroom to dress, since he and Lan Zhan are expected at the hanshi for the auspicious hour to greet Lan Zhan’s family. He decides to dress in his usual colors, with a deep red undergown against his white silk chemise and a blue patterned over-robe on top of it all, and then he spends a few minutes choosing a new hair ornament: but the old wooden guans have been put aside for Xiao-Yu, and all of the silver hairpieces feel strange when he touches them, so Lan Zhan picks up the gold lotus comb and helps Wei Wuxian put it on. 

“You have thicker hair than I thought you did,” he murmurs, as he places the teeth of another comb—white ivory, this time, and part of Wei Wuxian’s wedding dowry—against the crown of Wei Wuxian’s head and smooths the knots out of his hair. “It curls a little, just here.”

Wei Wuxian nods drowsily. “I use hot oil to keep it straight. Jiang Cheng does, too.”

Lan Zhan nods and keeps working with his comb, brushing out every last snarl until Wei Wuxian’s hair is smooth and glossy again. It still falls in waves, since he hasn’t doused it in hot soybean oil since the day he left Yunmeng, but it looks presentable enough; and then they put their shoes on and get ready to leave, though Lan Zhan makes Wei Wuxian put a cloak on to keep the morning breeze off his shoulders.

“A-Yu has not seen you for nearly ten hours,” Lan Zhan reminds him, holding out his hand for Wei Wuxian to take. “Come, Wei Ying. We must fetch our son.”

Our son. 

Oh. 

He and Lan Zhan share two children. 

How on earth had he forgotten that?

We can make this work, he realizes. At least until Lan Zhan finds the person he really wants to marry. 

“All right,” Wei Wuxian laughs, lacing their fingers together. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

[thrillridesz]

all i want for christmas | eric

in part of the deobi secret santa project and dedicated as a gift to @channiewoo​ ✨ ( i hope you like it >< i tried my best! )

➳ pairing: college student!eric x reader ( ft juyeon, kevin, chanhee and sangyeon with jacob mentions! )

➳ genre: fluff, fantasy, time travel!au, time loop!au, christmas!au, university!au, love triangle!au ( ish? )

➳ warnings: n/a (PG13)

➳ word count: 4.6k

➳ inspo: lotus inn by why don’t we

➳ fic playlist: all i want for christmas - big time rush ft miranda cosgrove | lotus inn - why don’t we | christmassy! - the boyz | you belong with me - taylor swift | crush - david archuleta

a/n : this is my christmas secret santa gift to eri @channiewoo​  ^^ also hi, i’m your theb secret santa! thank you for being such a sweet person to talk to throughout this month and honestly you really made my first secret santa here on tumblr pretty memorable! i know we’ve just exchanged a few asks here and there but i genuinely did like talking to you though im not the most frequent secret santa anon out there >< i sincerely hope you can forgive me for that. but anyways, i hope you like your gift!!

+ also unedited for now because i really wanted to post this on christmas day... and tags are still not working but i don’t want to delay this any longer

The Christmas spirit could be felt in all corners of the house that night as the sweet aroma of freshly baked cookies and crackling log fire from the fireplace wafted in the air while party guests swayed to the upbeat  Christmas music playing on the stereo and chatted merrily amongst themselves. Outside, fine white snow was falling and against the black canvas of the night sky, it made the streets seem almost serene and even beautiful. Looking out, one could easily feel the Christmas mood as neighbours held their own christmas parties and family gatherings. Everywhere they looked, they would see beautifully decorated houses adorned with Christmas wreaths and intricate fairy lights. Sometimes, one would even see the occasional snowmans displayed out in the neighbours’ yards, covered in scarves and hats with the ever familiar carrot nose. From a distance a few doors down, one could also hear singing - a telltale sign of the local group of Christmas carolers making their rounds in the neighbourhood like they did every year.

This was what Christmas is all about - enjoying good food with loved ones, receiving amazing gifts, going door to door caroling and feeling at home with the people you appreciate and cherish while the winter snow falls outside. Yet, Eric felt anything but. In fact, his heart was pounding against his chest as he sipped nervously at his mug of hot apple cider. Around him, the party guests were mingling and laughing at the college Christmas party as they shared funny stories from the year they had, feeling particularly merry. Normally, it would have been easy for him to get in the mood but not this time.

“I don’t get what you’re so nervous about.” Kevin said, shaking his head. “Why can’t you just talk to her?”

“I don’t want to make a fool out of myself. What if I mess up?” He replied despondently, his eyes softening as he glanced at you from across the room.

There you were - decked out in a cute Christmas outfit just standing by the fireplace, your hair falling around your face and framing it, looking more beautiful than he had remembered. The smile on your face made his heart flutter ever so slightly and he could feel his face grow warmer despite having a huge mug of apple cider just in front of him. The santa hat you wore added just that little touch of sweetness and adorableness to you and Eric couldn’t help but feel his heart start to pound in his chest. If you weren’t already stunning to him, you were breathtakingly beautiful to him now. Every little smile or shy glance made his heart beat just a little faster and he reached up to clutch softly as his chest.

“It’s better than not trying at all, Eric.” Kevin pointed out, taking a bite out of his gingerbread cookie. “You ought to have a little bit more faith in yourself.”

Eric sighed in resignation. “It’s so much easier talking about it than actually doing it. Everytime I think about doing it, I chicken out. I just can’t seem to stop fearing about possibly screwing it up, Kev.”

Kevin regarded him with a sympathetic look before patting him reassuringly on the shoulder. “I understand. Look man, if you don’t feel ready then you don’t have to force yourself to talk to her.”

“I promised myself that today would be the day.”

“Yeah, I know you did but still, you don’t have to force yourself. Your face is turning pale from the anxiety.” The latter said, concerned.

“It is?” Eric asked, alarmed as he quickly turned to the window beside him, checking out his reflection. He narrowed his eyes as he reached up to ruffle his hair in an attempt to make it look somewhat better though all it did was make it seem more tousled.

Kevin watched him, chuckling softly. Men in love are truly a different breed.

“Hey, Kev! I nearly forgot, do you want to listen to my newly curated Christmas playlist? I’ve been meaning to ask but I couldn’t find you.” Sangyeon suddenly appeared from behind the duo, with a joyous grin on his face. Kevin gave Eric a questioning look which he waved away.

“I’ll be fine.” He smiled.

“Alright… If you need anything, just call me!” Kevin said, casting him a last fleeting glance as he walked away with Sangyeon.

Holding the mug of hot apple cider close to his chest, Eric leaned against the cold glass panel of the window, staring out listlessly despite the steady pounding of his heart. He shot a furtive glance in your direction and quickly looked away, his cheeks reddening. At this rate, it would not be long before he turned as red as Rudolph’s nose.

“Get a grip, Eric. Why are you being such a wimp?” He chided himself. Looking around, Eric couldn’t help but observe his surroundings wistfully.

Everyone was seemingly in their element - snacking on Christmas snacks, dancing and just having fun. By the boombox, he watched as Hyunjae engaged in conversation with a girl who he did not recognise. The way they were laughing and the way she so flirtatiously slapped him on the shoulder, giggling at something Hyunjae said made Eric feel so deeply envious. Even from where he was, the smitten look on her face was undeniable and he wondered why he couldn’t have been more of a ladies’ man like Hyunjae was. Things would have been so much easier for him. Why is it that whenever it came to you he was suddenly the most awkward person to grace the face of this earth? It just didn’t make sense to him.

Sighing, he took another sip of his hot apple cider, feeling the liquid burn at the back of his throat. Suddenly, he frowned, his eyes narrowing. Who was that?

He had one of the most attractive faces Eric had ever seen - with soft, fine dark hair, a strong build and a warm smile that simply lit up the room. There he was, talking to you and you sliding your hand over his shoulder, not in a seductive or flirtatious way but in a friendly way though it was still enough to spark jealousy in Eric’s heart. He watched intently as you leaned in to whisper something in his year, his smile growing wider at your words.

Eric longed to know what the two of you were talking about, his grip on his mug growing tighter and firmer.

“Lost your chance, buddy.”

Swivelling around, Eric nearly spilled his apple cider as he turned to face a pink haired boy with an upturned nose. He didn’t remember seeing him around but there was something odd about him that Eric couldn’t quite put his finger on. Not to mention, that statement really did rub him off the wrong way.

“Excuse me?” His tone was slightly icy as he furrowed his brows together, frowning at the stranger in front of him.

“Didn’t you want to talk to her?” The boy asked, taking a swig of his hot chocolate, seemingly not noticing the confused look Eric was shooting him.

“Do I know you?”

“Oh right! I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. How rude of me… I’m Chanhee but you can call me New. Everyone does,” he smiled warmly, “you’re Eric?”

Eric narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Yes? How do you know my name?”

“I just do. I know everyone,” He waved away his question nonchalantly, “I see you have a Christmas sweetheart.”

He tipped his mug in your direction and Eric felt his face grow hotter, annoyance setting in at the same time.

“How is that any of your business?” He snapped, his tone indignant and confrontational.

“I am here to help so watch your tone around me.” New rolled his eyes, looking at him in disdain though there was a twinkle in his eyes as he continued, “I can help you get the girl.”

Eric cast you a sideway glance before turning back to New with a skeptical expression. Whoever this guy was, he was weird, odd. Yet, the proposal he had proposed was a tempting one and despite himself, he felt inclined to listen. Watching you from afar, Eric’s heart sank just a little deeper as the guy you were talking to suddenly reached up to brush your hair away from your face, the both of you looking into each other’s eyes as he did. The irritation and jealousy he felt came back stronger than ever and before he knew it, the words were out of his mouth before he even knew it.

“How can you help?”

At his words, New grinned, drawing a small crystal vial from his pocket. The vial was filled with a mysterious sparkly, glowy pink liquid and smelled distinctively of roasted chestnuts though Eric was almost a thousand percent sure the liquid was not made of any kind of roasted chestnuts in any shape or form. As New popped open the cap, the scent grew even stronger and Eric shot him an alarmed look.

“What is that? A drug?!” Looking around frantically, it felt like nobody was paying the two of them any attention, being too preoccupied with their own conversations. How is nobody noticing this?

“Calm down and don’t get your panties in a twist.” New scoffed, “It’s a time travel potion. Or a time loop potion if you will.”

This guy is actually crazy. Eric almost wanted to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it all but barely managed to suppress it.

“Okay…?”

“Yup, I made it myself. Took me like half a year to brew it to perfection but it should work now. I followed each step really closely so there should be no problems.”

“Yeah, sure man. Thanks for wasting my time. If you don’t mind, I’ll be leaving. Thanks for the false hope.” Eric grumbled, taking his leave and not even bothering to consider the chagrined look on New’s face. Mayhaps Christmas is not his time either. He wondered how long this would drag on. When Valentine’s Day rolled around, he chickened out and said ‘next time’. When Halloween rolled around, he chickened out yet again and promised to make a move by Thanksgiving yet when Thanksgiving rolled around, he settled for Christmas. Now…

“Maybe it’s just not meant to be. Maybe I’m just too much of a coward.” He whispered to himself, pushing his way through the crowd of people. As he took yet another sip of his hot apple cider, he couldn’t help but keep his eye on you. The way you were now looping your arms over the guy’s neck and the way he had his large hands on your waist made Eric want to leave the party. If only he had a little bit more faith…

“What time is it anyways?” He murmured to himself, wanting more than anything to leave.

9:04pm. Damn. It wouldn’t be until two hours later for the party to end. Sure, he could always leave early but he would hate to be seen as disrespectful to everyone else especially Jacob, the host of this lovely party.

He stared at the mug of hot apple cider he had in his hand, scrunching up his nose at the taste of it.

Was it just him or did it taste slightly… Off?

Eric gazed at it for a moment before he shook his head. I’m overthinking everything, he thought. However as he stood over the snack table, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. It was like having someone slap him at his head before his vision turned blurry. His limbs were beginning to go soft and his mouth dry. What was happening? He blinked rapidly but to no avail. It felt like he was falling in a deep pit…

When he opened his eyes again, everything felt fine. Patting himself lightly on the face, he looked around his surroundings in confusion. Just what was that? Did he imagine all of that? The mug of hot apple cider was still in his hands and the reindeer horns band was still on his head. He was wearing the same clothes and everything had become clear, there were no more blurry visions. The pounding in his head had stopped and it felt like whatever happened earlier was merely a figment of his own imagination.

“Eric…? Eric!”

The voice shook him from his stupor and with a start, he lifted his head to see Kevin regarding him with a questioning look on his face.

“You okay? You zoned out for a minute and I mean, really zoned out.”

“Y-Yeah… Aren’t you supposed to go listen to Sangyeon’s playlist or something?”

Kevin raised an eyebrow.

“What playlist?”

Eric frowned. “Didn’t Sangyeon ask you to listen to his Christmas playlist?”

“Um… No? Even if he has one, he hasn’t asked me yet.”

Eric looked at Kevin with confusion in his eyes. What was going on? Last he remembered, that was exactly what happened. Swivelling around, the confusion got even stronger when he saw you standing all alone at the other corner of the house. Were you not with that guy?

Instantly, he remembered what New had said. “Time travel potion…” He mumbled under his breath, his eyes widening when the realisation dawned upon. No way…

Whipping out his phone, it felt like his heart was about to pound right out of his chest when he saw the time. His throat felt dry and tight as he stared, unable to believe his eyes.

8:46pm.

Eric suddenly recalled the weird taste he had gotten in his cider and instinctively, his hand reached up to cover his mouth. There was no other explanation for this other than the fact that one, that New or was it Kyu guy had not been lying when he spoke of a time travel potion and two, he had slipped him the potion on purpose when he wasn’t looking. He could feel the anger bubble up within him - the nerve of that guy! With pure, unadulterated fury in his eyes, his gaze swept across the room, looking for him. Kevin looked on, thoroughly puzzled.

“...Eric? Are you okay? You’ve got a weird look on your face.” He asked, concerned. “Eric?”

All anger had just dissipated from his being as his sights finally landed on you. There you were, standing all alone at the fireplace with a drink in your hand while your friend danced. The look on your face was one of loneliness and even from a mile away, anyone could tell you looked extremely awkward at having been left alone while she swayed up against Haknyeon, a guy he recognised from his Medieval History module.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the same dark haired guy he had seen approach you ‘earlier’. Following his gaze, Eric could feel his stomach drop as he realised that they were on you. From his body language, it was clear that he was about to make his way over and take his chances with you.

Just then, a voice at the back of his mind whispered softly.

“What are you waiting for?”

Taking a deep breath, Eric squared his shoulders and hurriedly straightened the jacket he was wearing. This is it. This is actually it. He was going to do it. His legs were moving now, one step after another in large strides towards you. The sound of his heart pounding was practically deafening to his ears and he could feel his legs turning into lead, each footstep heavier than the next. Squeezing past the crowd, another voice - this time insistent and panicky - suddenly cried out.

“No, don’t do this! What if you embarrass yourself and make yourself out to be a fool?”

Eric’s face paled. No, this is a mistake. What was he doing?

“Hello?”

Shaking out of his thoughts, Eric almost jumped back in shock at the sight of you just right in front of him. Before he even realised it, he had made his way over. It is now too late to back out. Had he been standing there like an idiot this whole time?

“I-I… Hey!” He squeaked out, his heart almost leaping out of his chest.

“You’re Eric right? Eric Sohn from Professor Kim’s introduction to accounting class?” You asked kindly.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the guy from ‘earlier’ approaching, pushing past the crowd and judging from his demeanour… It seemed like the competition was still in the game.

He needed to pull this off.

“Yeah, I am. Y/n right? It’s a pretty cool party, isn’t it?”

“Mhm! Pretty great so far! My friend is over there dancing but I’m not much of a party dancer so here I am,” you smiled and Eric almost forgot what he was about to say.

“I-”

“Hey, how are you guys enjoying the party?”

Eric looked up and his brows furrowed into an annoyed and anxious ‘v’. The dark haired competition merely grinned back at him though there was a certain glint in his eyes which made Eric clench his jaw tightly. It was the sort of gaze that was long enough to send a goading message - game on.

He smiled and extended a hand towards you, completely ignoring Eric. “I’m Juyeon, roommate of Jacob’s. I saw you from afar and thought I’d come say hi.”

You shook his hand, oblivious to the tension between the two guys. “I’m y/n. It’s nice to meet you.”

Juyeon briefly lifted his gaze to Eric and without anyone’s notice but his, he winked slyly.

“Revolting.” Eric thought angrily.

“I heard they have some really cool peppermint treats at the candy table, wanna come?” Juyeon asked and quickly Eric said, “I heard they have a great log cake at the snack bar though. I’ve heard people raving about it!”

You looked at the both of them, seemingly a little disconcerted. “Uh… I…” Juyeon shot Eric a scathing look which he returned with a smug smile.

“Who doesn’t love a good old log cake?” He asked, to which Juyeon rolled his eyes at.

“I mean… I do love peppermint…” You trailed off and Eric turned to you with wide eyes as big as saucers and Juyeon’s lips lifted into a smug smile.

“Excellent choice! I hear they have so many varieties…” Juyeon chattered on, placing his arm over your shoulder, leaving poor Eric speechless and red faced, watching helplessly as the two of you walked away from him. Turning behind you, you had an apologetic look on your face but said nothing.

“That’s too bad. I was rooting for you, you know?”

Eric swivelled around to find New standing behind him yet again, this time chewing on a piece of toffee. The time on his watch was clear as day as the red, glowing digits stared right back at him - 9:04pm. It had come full circle. He had the chance to turn things around but he had failed. Somehow, the nonchalant look in New’s face irritated him but he tried to remain calm. His gaze drifted down to the bulge in the man’s jacket pocket, tracing the faint outline of the tiny vial that contained the potion from earlier.

“At least we know now that I’m legit, right?” He winked at Eric, smirking as he did though it dropped when he saw the look on the latter’s face.

“Why are you-”

“Please, give me one more chance. Please just let me turn back time this one more time.” He pleaded. Eric was not one to plead but this time, he was feeling particularly desperate.

New looked at him like he had just sprouted an extra head before he burst out laughing.

“How’s that for a turn of the tables, Mr ‘thank you for wasting my time’?” He asked, still giggling. Clearly, he was taking much joy in this new dynamic - something Eric didn’t look too pleased about though he was not about to act on it. After all, it was New’s potion that allowed him this one more chance which he had quite unspectacularly let slip from his grasp.

“Alright, I suppose I could let you try this one more time though I’ll definitely be charging for your next usage.” New sighed, whipping out the vial. “I did want you to succeed after all.”

As Eric gulped down his drink, the familiar feeling of dizziness washed over him yet again, along with the looseness in his limbs and before he knew it, he found himself standing right where he was with you standing where you were previously.

This time, Eric squared his shoulders and ran a hand nervously through his hair. There you were yet again, standing by the fireplace with that drink in your hand.

“No hesitation this time,” he whispered to himself before he made his way over. He barely even paid attention to Juyeon coming in from the side as he struck up a conversation.

“Hey, y/n from professor Kim’s introduction to accounting right?”

You turned to him, looking a little surprised before you smiled warmly at him.

“Yeah! Eric, is it? It’s nice to see you here.”

“How’s things going so far at the party?” He asked, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. His nervousness was getting to him quickly but the thought of messing up yet again reined him back in and his smile stayed on.

You wrinkled your nose as if considering his question before you replied, “Well, it’s going alright so far. I’m not really a party sort of person but I thought I’d make an exception since you know, Jacob’s my friend.”

“I see! I don’t usually mind parties but I do like…” He paused as he saw Juyeon approaching, the gears in his head whirring away and you looked at him curiously.

“Eric…?”

“How about we go get some peppermint? I hear they have a variety here.” He suggested quickly, his eyes darting towards Juyeon’s direction.

You stared at him, looking a little perturbed but then grinned and nodded. “Sure, I love peppermints.”

Before Juyeon could even make his way over, the two of you had walked away, squeezing past the dancing crowd. The bass beat of the music was so resounding throughout the house that it almost seemed as if the walls were vibrating as well. The glitter and lights all around all looked stunning but perhaps a little too stunning as Eric made his way through the crowd with you just right by him. From all sides, people were accidentally bumping into each other and more than once, he almost lost his balance.

As the two of you neared the candy table, Eric realised too late that perhaps pushing past the crowd had been a bad idea and that a smarter way would be to stay out of the dance floor when he felt himself fall forward. Someone’s foot had been there and without looking, he had tripped over and landed with a huge thud on the floor, flat on his belly. His chin collided with the ground and if he had hit it just a little harder, had the impact been just a tad stronger, he might have suffered a serious injury.

Since you were just trailing behind him, his unexpected fall had sent you falling as well. As the both of you crashed against the ground, some members of the crowd audibly gasped as people shuffled out of the way. Though it may have hurt when he fell, Eric’s heart ached much more than the bruise he would no doubt sport on his knees tomorrow. Seeing you sprawled next to him and knowing all of this happened only because of him, he wanted nothing more than to dig a hole right there and then and leap right in.

A few partygoers reached out to help him up and right next to him, Juyeon appeared in front of you, extending a hand with a look of concern. Eric watched as the two of you looked into each other’s eyes and like in a fairytale princess bedtime story, you reached out tentatively to hold onto Juyeon’s hand as his heart fell to the ground with a messy splat.

“Y/n-”

“Are you guys okay?” Juyeon asked though it seemed as if he was only asking you in general.

“Yeah, we’re alright. Thank you.” You said softly, still seemingly a little frazzled.

“Come, let us go get you seated somewhere.”

Eric couldn’t help but simply stand there and look helplessly as the both of you wandered away, his heart feeling like it was about to shatter into pieces. A second chance he was given and he screwed it up and if that wasn’t enough, he was offered yet another shot which went worse than his first. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Maybe no matter how many times he tried, tonight was just not the night. Or perhaps nothing was ever destined to happen between you two. The jolly christmas music was still playing but he no longer was in the Christmassy spirit anymore.

All he wanted for Christmas was you but it seemed that that didn’t seem so possible anymore, if not impossible.

As the partygoers resumed their dancing, all he could do was plop himself down on the nearby couch and do nothing except nurse not just his fallen pride but also his feelings which never had the chance to express themselves before it got completely shut down.

Grabbing a bottle of ginger ale from a nearby pack, he took a swig and felt the ale burn as it ran down his throat. Usually, he would have loved it but tonight, it just left a bitter taste in his mouth. Keeping his head down, Eric exhaled deeply. He ought to just give up completely.

“Hey, Eric.”

At the sound of your voice, his head snapped up and he gazed up at you with wide eyes. There you were, standing before him and looking down at him as he wallowed in his own feelings. How long have you been standing there? Why were you here?

“Y-y/n?”

You gave him a bashful glance as you sat yourself next to him. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I… I… “ He simply stared at you, his mouth gaping like a fish and looking absolutely flummoxed. “Didn’t Juyeon-”

“I couldn’t possibly leave you alone.” You hurried to say and when he didn’t reply, you continued. “Do you… Do you mind if I sit here with you?”

It took Eric a second for it to register in his mind what you had just asked of him before he grew flustered just as the joy in him began to spark.

“Do I mind? No! Of course not! You’re welcomed here! Please, sit with me!”

As he chattered on nervously, you couldn’t help but admire the way his eyes would light up whenever he talked and how charming his smile was. He was in the habit of moving his hands around a lot which though some might find annoying, you only found to be endearing. You could feel your heart beating quickly which always happened whenever you were near him, saw him around class or even just at the mere mention of his name.

As you looked into his eyes, you felt yourself clench on tightly to the couch, the excitement in you simply immeasurable. You couldn’t help but smile as you felt the weight of the vial in your pocket. A worthy bargain indeed from the mysterious pink haired boy.

This was all you wanted for Christmas.

[liziocit]

Love Potion AU Pt.1

A love potion in this Au, causes the person to love the intended one without reason and once it drains away it makes the person lose most of the emotional connections they had to others.

-YZY seeing that JFM was going to ignore her ,even when she married him and had two kids with him, doused him with a love potion. This caused him to lose most of his reason and his love towards other people.

-His friends who came to visit felt it was sus when they realized that YZY was essentially taking over L.P (changing the servants, training, how they conducted themselves). Because Lotus Pier became quite stifled and suffocating for people of lower class and JFM was someone who wouldn't abide by classism.

- When they came, they thought they'd talk with him about how he was doing and kinda investigate what happened. Who would have thought they would be chased away so easily after YZY made a displeased face at them. JFM was readily shooing them away for some woman who forced herself on him.

-While they left L.P, they booked an inn and discussed what happened. They wanted to leave for Yiling because of something occuring there but then they saw with their own eyes that their friend obviously had something happen to them. They couldn't leave without finding out and hopefully curing him. So they started researching, observing JFM from a far, listening to the rumors and comparing each other's knowledge until they formed an idea of what happened.

- They found out that a few weeks ago, JFM started changing, he allowed YZY to do what she wanted in L.P and even spent time with her. He never went against her word, they were in total agreement with each other. Even when he thought of something if YZY disagreed he changed his stance immediately. CSR and WCZ thought this behaviour was quite alarming and worrying. WY, who was with them was bored and sad becos he was promised he'd play with other kids who were always going to be his friends, he doesn't have many because they are always moving.

-When they finished investigating they found out thru CSR's knowledge of ancient and rare things that JFM was doused with a love potion, made of an rare herb. This herb was known for its properties of making a person intensely focus on one thing and losing their emotions after the dosage. It depended on how long the dosage lasted. Because they didn't want JFM to lose his emotions like that, they found out the cure is near the Meishan region.

-So they took off to that region and found the cure, they went back to night hunting and ended up going through Yiling. WCS felt that they were being followed and told CSR who decided that they were going to have to do back up plans in case either of them or both of them died. She doesnt tell WCZ that all students of BSR have the ability to feel when their death is near, her premonition of death feels heightened to an uncomfortable degree.

-She wrote letters and put supplies in a qiankun bag that she gave to WY, making him promise to never take it off. CSR even called a friend of hers, who unfortunately couldn't come they had family drama. She hugged her family more, fed more apples to her precious donkey and wept at night as she continued writing more letters for her A'Ying.

-So they left for a nighthunt one day and CSR's sense of her death almost numbed as she entered the familiar rhythm of fighting with her husband. Then when the difficult yao was vanquished, her premonition heightened very quickly and she saw at least 10 cultivators of the Meishan Yu Sect, all female and all oozing with killing intent. CSR felt a tear escape her eye as she fought for her life but knew with increasing certainty that she would die here. And as she looked at her husband's unwavering but gradually tiring figure she knew he would die with her here. They would die here leaving their little A'Ying behind, will he curse his parents for nighthunting, for attracting the ire of the mistress of lotus pier.

-As she pondered on the two, she couldn't help but curse YZY for trapping her friend in a loveless marriage, for poisoning her husband making him a slave to her needs and wants and for not allowing her husband's friends to cure him of his emotional entrapment. A'Ying and A'Feng, forgive us for leaving you while you still need us. And her last breath leaves her body while her hand is intertwined with her husband's.

-WY ends up in the streets for 5 yrs, he never lets go of the qiankun bag, it's what helps his street life become more tolerable. Before he is picked up by JFM who managed to break free of the love potion but as a result lost some of his emotional connection to others. He can't connect to his aides, his servants and Jiang Cheng, they all remind him of his wife and how deeply she entered his mind, body, emotions.

[sunarntarou]

The Untamed prompt:

wangxian are soulmates but Wei Wuxian keeps dying young in each of his reincarnations after he has met or almost met Lan Zhan in each life. They always somehow find each other throughout decades/centuries (maybe they missed each other a few times too).

Modern Day AU: they finally get a chance to be happy together?

Their souls recognize each other (eventually) each time.

Hey there! Oh my god, thanks for the prompt! This was lovely to write, but I have to say, I did tear up a few times lmao

*

It goes like this: Wei Ying dies.

*

In the three years he is forced into seclusion, Lan Wangji plays Inquiry– first while his back is bleeding and until he’s fingers are raw, then in the sad hours of the night after A-Yuan is asleep and the world is unbearably quiet. The song echoes in the Jingshi unfinished, questions left unanswered, and Wei Ying had always refused to come to Gusu when Lan Wangji asked, didn’t he?

The world goes pale, muted, but Lan Wangji wakes up, walks the earth, and sleeps. He raises A-Yuan into Lan Sizhui and loves him fiercely, loves him for the both of them. In the garden, he builds a lotus pond. When the haunting in Mo Manor grows dangerous, he helps. When the arm points away from Cloud Recesses, he follows. When it all leads to Guanyin Temple, he fights Jin Guangyao in the rain.

All the while, he walks alone, his grief an open wound.

*

It goes like this: the universe is not kind.

Time restarts. Lan Wangji breathes in a new life and meets the most beautiful man in an inn near Yiling. Something cracks open in his chest, aching and tender, and he watches the man tip back his wine, the pale line of his throat.

If he were anyone else, he might have bought the man another drink, asked for a name. He’s not. Lan Wangji asks his brother about their rooms and goes to sleep early, making plans to meditate first thing in the morning. 

By the time they come downstairs the next day, the Yunmeng group is gone, purple washed away by the morning dew.

It’s irrational and unfathomable, but a jarring sense of loss accompanies him like a cloak after this as if something precious has slipped his grasp. 

Later, word comes of a demon wreaking havoc in Yuping, a mess of resentful energy growing stronger with a bellyful of cultivators it has eaten in the past days.

“It must be truly dangerous,” his brother frowns, folding the letter with careful hands, “if Yunmeng is willing to reach out to us.”

The chasm between Cloud Recesses and Lotus Pier is old as the mountains surrounding them, reason forgotten long before Lan Wangji was born. “Hm. I’ll answer.”

His brother looks amused. “Very well. Be careful, they have sent their best and they have all perished under this creature.”

Lan Wangji knows nothing about that man in the inn from months ago, but there’s a deep-seated certainty that he was the best of them, and grief overtakes him in high waves. Should he– 

It does not matter.

He goes to Lotu Pier and slays the demon with a viciousness that means he will later kneel in the courtyard and meditate about his actions. But before that, he sits on the rooftop of one of the destroyed houses and plays his guqin into the night, the notes of Rest turning into Inquiry without his conscious noticing. It rings hesitant in the empty streets, with no name to accompany the question. Spirits answer his command but none of them is the man from the inn, with laughter that sings of sun-kissed afternoons by the lake. 

It’s nearing dawn when Lan Wangji rises, back stiff with phantom pains, and unsheathes his sword to go back to Cloud Recess, leaving Yuping and its strange familiarity behind.

In the distance, he thinks he sees two figures approaching the makeshift shrine people have built for the fallen cultivators, a man and a woman in the deep purple of Yunmeng Jiang. Lan Wangji turns his gaze to the mountains and knows this will not leave him.

*

It goes like this: time is a serpent eating its own tail.

There is an accident with a resentful spirit in the ruins of a temple nearby.

Lan Wangji knows this because Wen Qing has told him so as she had been barging into his office, mouth set into a thin line that means casualties have already arrived in their hospital. This is not uncommon, it’s not the first time and it will certainly not be the last, which is why there is no reason for him to be reacting this way.

“Are you alright?” Wen Qing is asking, and Lan Wangji must truly look awful for her to disregard any attempt to mask her concern. Her eyes are wide as she frowns down at him, “you’re crying– did you know someone there?”

Raising his hand to his own cheeks, he finds he is, indeed, crying. “Everyone I know lives in Gusu,” he tells her instead. 

Wen Qing is still frowning. “Then why– look, I won’t pry, and I would give you time to sort your shit if I could, but there’s a child in bad shape and no time to call the other pediatrician.”

Right. If the Head Surgeon came down here herself, of course it is an emergency. There is no time for this nonsense now, he will meditate on it later. As it is, he follows her through the hallways, ignoring the covered bodies being wheeled to the morgue as they take the shortcuts through the employees-only wings. 

A flash of a red ribbon trailing under white sheet. 

Lan Wangji stumbles, grateful for Wen Qing’s iron grip on his arm.

On the pediatrics wings, a child is wailing, his small voice crying for his Xian-gege, and Lan Wangji’s heart breaks. They will have to tell this boy his Xian-gege is not coming back for him. 

Even Wen Qing, usually stoic in the face of tragedy, softens, hurts for the child.

Xian-gege is gone, Lan Wangji thinks, and nearly weeps for no reason at all.

*

It goes like this: statistically, there has to be a life where they get it right.

“Lan Zhan!”

It is too loud for someone who is merely two rows away from him and approaching fast, but Lan Wangji has never known how not to be endeared by Wei Ying, so he allows it, watching him sit down in the empty seat beside him. “Wei Ying.”

“Lan Zhan, you’ll never believe what just happened,” he says, throwing his bag carelessly on the desk, and turning to Lan Wangji with eyes wide and wild. “I think I almost died, Lan Zhan!”

The world screeches to a halt. “Excuse me?”

“Right?! I was late, which is like, the usual, you know? So I was running to class, and I was texting Wen Ning to save me a seat at the back,” Wei Ying points to somewhere in the back of the classroom where Wen Ning is presumably sitting; Lan Wangji cannot turn to look, too worried about I think I almost died, Lan Zhan! “And okay, that’s my bad, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going, I know, but next thing I know Jiang Cheng is yanking me back by my backpack! Aiya, he didn’t have to pull so hard, though. I ended up sprawled on the sidewalk like a turtle, Lan Zhan! But yeah, that’s how I almost got run over by a bus this morning!”

Lan Wangji’s heart is beating too fast for his chest, fear gripping him in icy fingers, and all he can think is that Wei Ying could have died and Lan Wangji would have been here, sitting in class. Wei Ying could have died. Wei Ying could have died.

“Oh no, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying takes his hands in a panicked rush, “please don’t cry! Nothing happened! I’m fine, see! Just a couple of scrapes! And a deaf ear, probably, from how loud Jiang Cheng yelled after that, so there, you won’t even have to lecture me, he did that already!”

“Wei Ying,” he swallows, a wave of sadness so large, it threatens to spill into the world like rain, “please never do something like that again.”

“I won’t, I promise, Lan Zhan, anything,” Wei Ying says, gripping his hands tight enough to hurt, proof he’s there, solid, alive, “sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you! I just thought it would be a funny story.”

“Not funny,” he frowns, “I love Wei Ying too much.”

A flush rises in his cheeks like clockwork. “Lan Zhan! How can you– you have to warn me before you say stuff like that!” Wei Ying ducks, raising their joined hands to hide his face in. “Oh, shit, Jiejie’s calling.”

He detaches himself from Lan Wangji long enough to take the call, and the sounds of Jiang Yanli worried voice fill the space between them. The next breath he takes comes easier as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulder, a worry he didn’t know was there, eased.

In the end, the professor never shows up, so they go to the library instead, where Lan Wangji studies while Wei Ying teases him, a drawing of him slipped between his books by the time they’re packing up to leave.

*

It goes like this: this time, they live.