#some cute sides of zhou zishu | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sixteenthshen · 3 years

Photo

the captions are the best part of this special edition of 《快本营业中》 ❤️

some notes behind the cut (regarding the possibily confusing use of more than one nickname for GJ in this post and junzhe nicknames in general)

The nicknames for Gong Jun may be confusing here.

He is both Junjun (俊俊) and Junzi (俊子). I used three different names for him here (GJ, Junjun, Junzi) for "accuracy" purposes. Junjun is what He laoshi and ZZH address him by; the caption used Junzi and subtitles always use the person’s full name.

These are very common ways (Junjun and Junzi) to address someone with a one-worded first name. So if you're into RPS, ZZH calling Gong Jun “Junjun” doesn't really mean anything.

GJ's Nicknames:

laogong (老龚): It's the prefix lao- and his last name, a play on husband (homophone).

Junjun (俊俊): It's his first name x2. It's quite a cute nickname for people with a one-word first name. My nephew's name is Kai; we call him kaikai all the time. This nickname shot up in popularity when Ma Jie (then ZZH) called him this during the pre-Happy Camp livestream. Before that, laogong and junzi were more popuiar.

Junzi (俊子): His first name + Zi (子). "Zi" is only used for males, as it means son. (It can actually be used for women, but not advisable unless you speak Mandarin and can gauge the context better)

"junzi" (菌子): Homophone of Junzi, it means mushroom. Not much meaning behind it; it's just one of the more adorable options (and GJ is adorable!) that come up when you type "junzi" (pinyin input method).

doggy "gougou" (狗狗, 狗勾): Cause GJ likes dogs and kinda has a dog personality in that he's happy, cheery and adorable. He's associated with the doge emoji and ZZH, the cat version. (ZZH doesn't have a cat personality either, he's the cat because GJ said he likes cats - gif #2 calls ZZS a cat)

laopo (wife): Feminising, so this is the only one ion this list that I’ve never used.

(Also, some fans may use other alternatives for laogong, such as the actual husband (老公) and "lao" with the gong from gong/shou (老攻), but the last one is rare.

You won't normally use the above nicknames for someone with a two-worded first name, such as Zhehan. But there's no hard and fast rule. You can still do that, if you like. For example, we don’t normally use the prefix xiao- (小/little) for an adult, especially men, but ZZH's nickname is xiaozhe (小哲). And it’s not a "fan nickname" to sound cute. It's really what some people (e.g. Zhao Wei) call him.

ZZH's nicknames:

laopo (wife): When it was first popularised, I think everyone wanted a wife like Zhou Zishu, but Zhou Zishu is WKX's (wife).

Not feminising*. One of the most famous fan memes is, "although one punch from ZZH can defeat 10 of me, he's still (my/our/everyone’s) wife of destiny".

Fans have been calling their favourites "laopo" for ages, but it doesn't get popular enough to make it out of their small circle due to the feminising aspect of the nickname. ZZH is the first because he isn't feminine. So, no one feels like they're feminising him. Laopo's quite a "powerful" nickname, actually; someone even spread rumours that this nickname was costing him opportunities, so WoH/his fans would stop. ZZH's team had communicated via his official fan club that it's an unfounded rumour, and if there're any changes, his team will update everyone.

Princess (公主): Mostly not feminising. It’s mainly his character that started this nickname, but I have also seen it feminised (side note: I may hate Faceapp? I’ve seen way too many girl!GJ&ZZH). Main reasons for princess:

Firstly, it's his way or the highway. His fans often say, "the princess can do whatever he wants to do", "don't try to teach the Princess what to do" (used by everyone!). He famously deleted his Weibo when some fans tried to teach him what to do, they argued, he got angry and deleted. Many celebs don’t really have the guts to say anything that may seem rude publicly to their fans (especially when they’re not very famous). So if you’re stanning a B/C/D-list Chinese celeb who openly tells their fans off for unreasonable behaviour, you should be very, very proud :)

Also, he is insanely good at sajiao-ing. It just comes naturally to him (see the link for the explanation of sajiao, it can be a few different things. The exact meaning depends on context, but ZZH sajiaos in many ways).

xiaozhe (小哲): Explained above. But don't use it if you're younger than he is.

Han-ge (瀚哥): Han from his name and ge (older brother). Fairly self-explanatory, as with xiaozhe, age-specific rules apply when you're not close.

meimei (妹妹): Little sister. I think it's from ZZH's hairstyle while filming Word of Honor. Fans called it "妹妹头/meimei hair" and his current hairstyle, "寸头/inch-long hair".

“zhehan” (折汉): “Zhe” is bend, “Han” is man. It means he can bend any man. There's more than one interpretation to this, lol. I'm sure you can think of the non-PG explanation. The kid-friendly version is that he sajiaos a lot, and he can get his (very many) male friends to do whatever he wants.

"zhehan" (折菡): "Zhe" is bend, "Han" is a flower. I find this is feminising (based on the limited times I've seen it), so I'm not too fond of it either. But I suppose fans may mean that he can bend any woman (flower?) to his will.

As always with nicknames, the most important thing is whether or not the person you're addressing is alright with it.

If you're interested in how pinyin is transcribed, you can check out this link, like why it's Zhou Zishu, Wen Kexing instead of Zhou Zi Shu & Wen Ke Xing.

Notes:

I tried subbing this first, but it was impossible to read both the subs and captions simultaneously. 😋 So gifs it is!

I use He laoshi (while using GJ and ZZH) because He laoshi deserves all the respect.

*When I say not feminising, I mean for the majority. There will always be some fans who are into feminising male celebs, especially young idols and those who have acted in danmei. I spent longer on ZZH because multiple nicknames may come off as feminising, and I wanted to clarify that most of them aren’t.

#word of honor #gong jun #zhang zhehan #junzhe #happy camp #i dunno the exact english title of this side series #this gifset is SO messy #but i had to keep the captions!#thie nicknames part got away from me #900 words o.o

495 notes · View notes

nancywheelxr · 3 years

Note

Word of Honor prompt where yby is wkx and zzs’s mailman. he and wkx have a feud (god only knows how it started, but neither of them want to back down first), so yby always leaves packages in the most inconvenient places. wkx tries repeatedly to report him to the mailman board or whatever, but they’re always like yby? no one named yby works here. this is unbelievably irritating to wkx because he knows yby has to work there. how tf else would he have their mail??? well turns out there was a mix up with the addresses and wkx and zzs’s mail has been being sent to yby for years. when yby went to drop off their mail the first time wkx assumed he was the mailman. this pissed yby off, so he decided to retaliate by putting their package next to the wheel of wkx’s car in hopes he’d run it over. and thus, the feud started

another galaxy brain idea, i would expect nothing less 😌

“Please,” Zhou Zishu says without looking up from the newspaper, “don’t throw your phone at the wall.”

There’s an angry noise, followed by the loud thud of something being slammed on the table. Better than the wall, he figures. “I wasn’t going to.”

He hums in agreement, adding pleasantly, “of course not.”

Is it mean not to engage like this? Maybe, but in his defense, Zhou Zishu has been forced to listen to increasingly angry phone calls for the past weeks on a daily basis, the same answer drifting from the speakers time and time again, so maybe he’s entitled to some bitchiness.

Also, the way Wen Kexing’s face scrunches up a little, eyebrows furrowing, lips in a pout– he’s cute when he’s annoyed, so what’s Zhou Zishu suppose to do? Not antagonize him?

Case in point: a hand tugs his newspaper down and Wen Kexing comes into view, pouting in a terribly endearing way that Zhou Zishu has never been able to refuse, “A-Xu! Can’t you see I’m in distress? I’m distressed and you’re just sitting here, how heartless!”

“Is that so?” He raises an eyebrow, “I apologize for not coming to save you from the mean lady at the front desk, then. Did her answer change this time? Did someone named Ye Baiyi suddenly appear in their records?”

“No,” Wen Kexing sighs, dropping down on the couch beside him like a puppet with no strings, and Zhou Zishu goes through the motions of huffing exasperatedly, pointedly folding his newspaper, and leaving it on the coffee table. Then, he nudges him closer, a tug at his sleeves and Wen Kexing leans happily into him, face tucked neatly into Zhou Zishu’s shoulder. “I’m going to murder him,” he says.

“No felonies. Have you tried apologizing?”

“Pah,” Wen Kexing tries to sit up in outrage, but Zhou Zishu pulls him down again, hand carding through his hair, “apologize for what? He’s the one not doing his job! A-Xu, it was on the roof this time! On the roof!”

Ah, so they’re not ready for that yet, alright. “Hm. I think both of you need better hobbies.”

“A-Xu, you’re not listening, he’s my arch-nemesis!”

He opens his mouth to remind him it’s the 21st century and people don’t have arch-nemesis, but then, he remembers this is the guy who wakes up at god knows what time to leave their packages in increasingly ridiculous places. “I can’t believe you found the one person who might actually agree with you on this, what the hell.”

“What if we set out traps in the yard?” Wen Kexing muses and Zhou Zishu has a terrible feeling about this– he can foresee trips to the ER in the future and a litany of actually broken packages.

Also: “Have you seen our children? They’ll get caught in them before Ye-qianbei does.”

“A-Xiang wouldn’t,” he says, but he doesn’t sound so sure anymore, so Zhou Zishu counts as it as a win.

“Maybe, but her boyfriend would and you promised her to stop scaring him off.”

The truth is this: a month ago they ordered a new coffee maker. It would take two days to arrive, great price, good quality. Zhou Zishu had even been looking forward to it! In hindsight, that might have been foolish, when has the universe ever made anything easy for him? No, the two days had come and gone, and on the third day, instead of enjoying as many expressos as his heart desired, he had been forced to witness the start of a trainwreck that’s been dragging ever since– Wen Kexing had been outside, gardening in a very broad sense of the word, when a man had approached their house, a package in his hands.

He had squinted at the yellow chrysanthemums Wen Kexing had been drowning with the hose. “That’s the ugliest flower I’ve ever seen.”

“Excuse me?” Wen Kexing had smiled. It had been a terrible smile, full of teeth and no real friendliness, and Zhou Zishu had watched from the window and known with a deep-seated certainty that that would escalate out of proportion.

The mad had scoffed. “Are you deaf besides incompetent? Whatever, just take this so I can stop looking at those flowers.”

“Incompetent?” Wen Kexing’s fingers had tightened around the hose as if he had been calculating the merits of hitting the man with the water spray, “ha! The mailman is late for his delivery and he wants to lecture me on my garden! A-Xu, come listen to this!”

“Mailman,” the man had repeated, face going blank, “the mailman.”

“A-Xu, come tell him my chrysanthemums look just fine!”

Then, he had exploded. “You brat! Who do you think you are? Have you no respect for your elders? Useless child–”

“Elder? Have you taken a look at the mirror? Get off my lawn! Out, out, out! No Old Monsters allowed!”

The man– Ye Baiyi, Zhou Zishu would learn later, after Wen Kexing had gone into his stalking spree trying to find his information to report to his alleged boss– had left. With their coffeemaker. Only to return at some point while they were inside to leave the package just behind the wheel of their car.

One month later and Zhou Zishu is yet to get his goddamn coffeemaker.

“Wen Kexing, you no-good insolent brat!”

The yelling startles him back to the present, followed quickly by the sound of paper being ripped. At his side, Wen Kexing snickers. “I think he found the sign.”

“Sign? Is that what you and Chengling were doing in the garage last night?”

“No Old Monsters permitted,” he recites, smug as a cat in the sun, and presses a kiss to his neck, “wasn’t it a good idea? A-Xu, I’m encouraging our son to improve his artistic skills.”

“Quit distracting me,” Zhou Zishu tugs his hair a little, “Lao Wen, you owe me so many cups of coffee.”

Wen Kexing grins, impossibly bright, ridiculously beautiful. “A-Xu ah, what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine, so how can there be a debt? Don’t be stingy!”

“Hm. Lao Wen is very wise, no debt between us, so he won’t mind making dinner tonight again.”

“A-Xu!” The whine comes out half laughter, and Zhou Zishu loves the sound of it, could never get tired of it, so really, he has no choice but to draw his husband closer and kiss the complaints before they even fall from his lips.

#woh #shl #wenzhou #yby #ye baiyi #wen kexing #zhou zishu #wenzhou fanfic #word of honor #woh tag

83 notes · View notes

whoisthatmovinginthedark · 2 years

Text

Lord Seventh, final chapter (76). A lot happened there. (It was maybe a little rushed even?) I feel like Priest's happy end usually means that there’s an element of 'it's complicated' in there too. Which is something that I really like about her work! This time it feels like there’s even more of ‘it’s complicated’ in this ending for me.

Thoughts now fresh after finishing hidden under “keep reading”. There’s some bad with the good in there, and potentially very unpopular opinions. (In case you want to avoid reading something like that.) But first, I love this novel. I love Priest’s style. I love that her characters more often than not have important goals and dreams that have nothing to do with the character they are romantically involved with. And that it’s usually pointless to try to divide the core group of characters as who is good and who is bad. Or even better or worse. (Unless that’s something you enjoy, and that’s valid if you do.) And I’m happily feeling a little emotional today. Like I always do the next day after I finish something that manages to touch me.

I really enjoyed how in book 3 Jing Qi slowly started to appreciate Wu Xi's company and his cute and enthusiastic way to show his love to him. That day they spent outside the city by the river was beautiful. Wu Xi was able to add to his happiness in a significant way and Jing Qi was nice to him about it. It was slowly going in a good direction. But in the end, I almost feel like saying that Wu Xi maybe would have deserved someone better different. Wu Xi had his own dark moments, but overall he seemed to have a different set of morals, like Jiang Jiuxiao, compared to the rest of the main characters. Which is something that has the potential to get his heart broken (again). But then. Wu Xi himself never seemed to have any illusions about Jing Qi not being able to return his feelings the same way. Literally: “I want him to repay me with his whole life, but when… when is he going to sincerely want to give that to me? If he won’t give it to me, then I’ll go steal it…” (chapter 74). So if that’s what Wu Xi wants, who am I to say no now that he’s got it? (Although that’s kind of dark too, but you know what I mean.)

But the thing that I most would have wanted to see happen between them in the end is some kind of moment, a conversation, that would have made me feel like they truly see and understand each other. Now, in that final scene they were still both wearing masks (so to speak).

Wu Xi was always clear about what he wants, but in the end I still don’t really know what Jing Qi wants. And why he faked his death and left like that. If this was a stand-alone novel, and I wouldn't know how their lives will turn out through WoH, I wouldn’t think Jing Qi was done yet with Great Qing and the people he knew there.

And here’s what I think is my most unpopular opinion of them all: I don’t think that Jing Qi doesn’t love Helian Yi anymore. I think he believes he doesn’t love him. And he certainly doesn’t love him like he used to. But it’s always been complicated between them, during that first lifetime together too. Going by the hints in the novel (and the third extra), their entanglements were full of distrust and suspicion then too, even before Bai Wuchang messed their destiny for them. Yet what it had been was worth it for Jing Qi to spend hundreds of years waiting for another chance. He’s very complicated himself and seems to like his privacy and independence. It’s hard to say what kind of love is able to move him the most.

And there’s just this compatibility between Helian Yi and Jing Qi. And honestly, with both of them and Zhou Zishu too. This gravity that draws them all together, in their first life together and this. Some deep understanding, despite not always getting it right. The way they perceive each other. That something made Jing Qi risk dying for Great Qing with those two by his side in this life too, despite several chances to leave it all behind. They are all bastards the three of them, but I loved their bond.

...

The parts with Feng Xiaoshu in chapter 76 were great. It was easy to picture her there in the battle when described in such detail. The blood on his sabre got washed down by the rain to flow onto her chin. She grit her teeth firmly, the hands clutching her weapon trembling until they were pale and discolored. Good stuff.

And I liked Helian Yi and Wu Xi’s fleeting moment of brushing past each other during the battle.

Zhou Zishu and Liang Jiuxiao, I don’t yet even know what to say about the way it ended for them, but their relationship was one of those things that really stood out to me in this novel.

...

My principle with extras is that I don’t take them as an inseparable part of the main novel / canon. I might accept some and might reject others. Sometimes they are just so far removed from the overall tone of the novel that they feel strange to read. Sometimes the characters don’t feel the same as in the main text. For Qi Ye, at this point, I mostly only resonated with the third one. It had the same tone as the novel, and it was a nice way to bring it back to the first chapter.

...

It’ll probably take a few days until I come down from my Qi Ye feelings, but after that, Faraway Wanderers. I’ve been waiting for that!

#priest novels #priest / qi ye /#qi ye

11 notes · View notes

veliseraptor · 3 years

Note

Hi, lise....now that you finished 'Word of Honor', do you enjoy it overall? What do you think of the characters and the plot?

okay, first off I want to say that I really enjoyed it and I am going to watch it again, because I feel like the rest of this answer is going to come off sounding a lot more critical. so I want to make that clear first.

it’s just always going to be easier for me to articulate things I don’t like about something than things I do. unfortunate.

first of all: I do genuinely and sincerely and completely love the villain4villain thing that wen kexing and zhou zishu have got going on. it is amazing. and I love that they’re both...people with dark and ugly sides to them, sort of at various points along the path of “not evil anymore want to be loved now” (and wen kexing bouncing back to “evil again” a few times. it’s hard! and he’s also just. very sexy when he’s being ghost valley master mode/murder mode in general.)

I love their dynamic, too, where they’re so playful. they tease each other, they joke, and it’s a pleasure especially to watch zhou zishu emerge from his depression over the course of the show, getting drawn out a little at a time, so you see more and more of his sense of humor and his smiles. he has a very cute smile, it’s good.

also: love gu xiang, she captured my heart pretty much right off the bat and never lost it. love how capable she was, love her struggling to figure out her humanity, love her relationship with wen kexing (especially that! so much!) and also her relationship with all the ladies of ghost valley. love all the ladies in general - this was a show with a lot of really cool women in it who were dynamic and interesting and, most excitingly in my opinion, had relationships with each other.

on the other hand, did not love that almost all of them died, bar one, and also was not a fan of gu xiang and cao weining’s romance, even though I did find cao weining endearing at times (and the way it was built as a clear parallel to wen kexing and zhou zishu was very nicely done. love those heterosexual proxies.)

(although like. wow. they really just...went for it, didn’t they.)

on the other hand, I found the plot...frankly borderline incomprehensible for much of the show, and I’m still not sure I get it overall. it was very macguffin, as many people have noted, and just...I was having a very hard time tracking everything. it is likely that things will make more sense on rewatch, but I personally found the plot of this one harder to follow than the plot of cql, and less compelling. I was definitely in this one for the relationship(s) and not the plot otherwise.

I also...I don’t know if this is an ~unpopular opinion~ or what, but I was not a huge fan of the reveal that wen kexing and zhou zishu had met before? I see why they did it, but I would’ve preferred if they’d been strangers prior to meeting at this point in their lives where they were both...at turning points in their (career) paths. I found that more compelling and was a little disappointed by that particular decision (which I understand is a departure from the novel).

the pacing of the last five episodes...definitely suffered, which I am given to understand is probably an effect of their number of episodes getting cut, but still impacted the viewing experience.

and of course I have not mentioned xie’er yet, or the scorpion squad in general, which is very remiss of me. love them. love them very much. love the relationship between da pusa and xie wang, but of course - of course - love even more the deeply, deeply fucked up relationship between xie’er and zhao jing. like. boy is that a mess and boy am I here for it.

(also just like. the way that xie’er lights up when he gets praised for something? adorable. I’m a sucker for characters who will casually kill people like it’s nothing and then get very “!!!!!” when people are happy with them.)

I feel like I have not mentioned chengling and that is because overall he did not make much of an impression on me. I liked him, and I definitely felt bad for him (boy does everyone keep fucking dying on this kid), but I didn’t have any particular emotional attachment.

ye baiyi was also amazing. especially every time he and wen kexing were in the same room together. so, so good. thanks for that, everyone.

I guess to sum up...I feel like this was a show where I liked a lot of elements and I really liked the main relationship, but there were a lot of the surrounding trappings that frustrated me and I didn’t find the overarching plot terribly compelling, which combined with the rushed feeling ending left me feeling...dissatisfied overall, I guess.

like I said, I’m going to rewatch, and I really, really loved a lot of pieces of it! particularly wen kexing, xie’er, and everything about wen kexing and zhou zishu’s dynamic and the way they played off each other.

(also, hoo boy, lots of quality whump material in there. that was nice.)

there were just some places where it felt like it fell a little short of what I wanted from it.

#word of honor blogging #boy that got long #anonymous #conversating

36 notes · View notes

fourseasonsfigs · 9 months

Text

Five Lakes Disguise Zhou Zishu

This twirling cutie has just snuck his way in to see his little disciple!

The inspiration for this undercover figure is of course this little segment in Episode 13:

Side note, I find it hilarious that Zhou Zishu tunes out Chengling while Zhou Zishu is trying to figure out what is going on with Gao Chong, and you just see Chengling talking in the background.

I absolutely love this disguise on Zhou Zishu! I bought it in doll clothes form (which, come to think of it, I should really do a post of) because I just find it so delightful.

Speaking of delightful, this fig is absolutely delightful. I'm going to post pics comment-free so you can get the full effect of his twirling skirt and sweet smile as Shifu spins around to reveal himself!

This fig is absolutely adorable.

You can see the detail here with his pants tucked into his black boots, and also the very cute little pose with the spinning foot.

Unfortunately, this fig was incredibly difficult to get to stand! He won't stand on his own, because the flat boot is slightly raised - I think to accommodate a fig sticker. When I use a fig sticker it's actually perfectly vertical, as you can see in those twirl pictures. However, the fig is slightly off balance, so the fig sticker stretches out over time to the weighted side. I took him off it to glue him, but unfortunately the shorter foot is too short without the fig sticker. I did manage to angle him just right on one foot and having the glue hold him, but I'm still not sure he's exactly vertical anymore.

The loopy hat here is super cute!

The set came with a matching magnet with the artwork. I love getting these magnets...the side of my filing cabinet has never been cuter!

Some beautiful box art. I do really like that all the PVC figs come with box art - it's something I miss when getting tons of plain white resin fig boxes.

Stay tuned for this outfit in doll form, it's just too cute not to show you that too!

Material: PVC

Fig Count: 443

Scene Count: 30

Rating: Shifu is the best surprise!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#word of honor #word of honor merch #zhou zishu #figthusiast #episode 13

24 notes · View notes

demonic-intervention · 3 years

Text

Whumptober 2021 - Day 16

No. 16 - ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS

recovery | scars | aftermath

Word of Honor post-EP36, post-canon, Wenzhou, 1.5K, see tags for more info - AO3 link

Masterpost

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

Being immortal might have meant that Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing would have to live in cold places for the rest of their lives. But it didn't automatically mean that the cold wouldn't be... well, cold. Temperatures on the mountain had only sunken lower since they had made it their home. Although both had found activities to keep them warm - cleaning up the armory for once, cuddling up to each other at night was another thing - the cold was slowly seeping into their bones. Wen Kexing, despite still being a little on the weaker side, did not seem to have any troubles with it. Zhou Zishu, on the other hand, was a different story.

The frosty air had made itself at home in Zhou Zishu's lungs. While it thankfully didn't burn, it was still a heavy weight inside of him. In the morning, he had to shake it out of his bones, suddenly feeling much older than he should and ever had. It went away during the day until the fun began anew the next morning. But all that was okay for Zhou Zishu. He could handle that bit. Except for his scars.

With not much else to do, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu had decided to systematically go through the entire armory. Read what they could find, clean up what could be, rearrange what needed be. Zhou Zishu was currently standing in front of a shelf, going through some books on farming techniques, when searing pain spiked from the scars to his spine. He slammed the book back into the shelf and held onto it as he doubled over in pain. The emitted groan made Wen Kexing turn his head around in alarm. "Ah-Xu? Everything alright?"

Maybe Zhou Zishu had taken a little too long to respond, but before he even knew it Wen Kexing was right beside him, steading him with warm hands touching his shoulders. "It's-," Zhou Zishu stopped himself. He reminded himself that things were different now and he shouldn't brush away any kind of care immediately. "It will pass," he offered instead. Pensively, Wen Kexing hummed. "Ah-Xu, are your scars giving you trouble?" Once again, Zhou Zishu shouldn't be surprised that Wen Kexing was able to put two and two together. They had talked about the cold giving Zhou Zishu a hard time. Yet, it weren't the scars they both expected to hurt.

"Not the nail scars," Zhou Zishu remarked and looked Wen Kexing in the face. As something lit up in his eyes, Wen Kexing seemed to understand. "Allow me to help." Still working on giving up his resolve more easily, Zhou Zishu nodded tentatively. Wen Kexing took that as a yes, leading him away to their bedroom.

*-*-*-*

Wen Kexing sat down first and looked at Zhou Zishu expectantly. The latter tilted his head to the side in question, looking like a cute puppy. "Come, sit down," Wen Kexing explained with a huff and patted the space before him. When Zhou Zishu still seemed to unsure, Wen Kexing took his hand and pulled him in the right spot.

"Relax, Ah-Xu." He moved his hands up and down Zhou Zishu's back like he wanted to feel him up thoroughly. The body under his hands still felt too stiff, so his long arms snaked around the tiny waist until the snake's mouth snapped close. Zhou Zishu let out a little squeal when he was pulled against Wen Kexing's chest. "Lao Wen," he warned him. Yet, Wen Kexing simply smirked and let his hands wander. "Ah-Xu. I told you to relax. You're still so stiff, no wonder the scars hurt." Wen Kexing seductively whispered the words into Zhou Zishu's ear. He shivered. A sneaky hand slipped between the layers of robes and came to a rest on his ribs, just below the heart. Zhou Zishu felt the heat radiating from Lao Wen. Unwilling to admit it, the soft and warm touches really made him more comfortable.

Wen Kexing could feel that too because his other hand curled around the waist just the same and began opening the robes, peeling Zhou Zishu out of them layer for layer. Considering the cold, Wen Kexing didn't ask Zhou Zishu to just get rid of the robes all together, although it would have been more convenient. Instead, he pulled them away until they pooled around his waist. Despite still being half clothed and the closeness to another warm body, Zhou Zishu shivered a little. Instinctively, Wen Kexing wrapped his arms tighter around the freezing body and buried him in his chest. Zhou Zishu sitting between his legs, their bodies fit together perfectly like two puzzle pieces.

"Well, that's actually quite nice," Zhou Zishu broke the silence after a while. And he wouldn't have asked for anything more if he didn't feel that piercing, sadly all too familiar pain again. Involuntarily, he let out a grunt. This reminded Wen Kexing of what he had actually wanted to do. Slowly unwrapping himself, he sat up straight so that he could overlook Zhou Zishu's back well enough. Placing a gentle kiss at the base of Zhou Zishu's neck, he murmured in his ear again. "Let me?" The response was a very faint "Yes."

Wen Kexing began, placing one hand on each scar. Zhou Zishu hadn't specified which scars were troubling him besides the nail scars, yet there were only two big and deep enough who could cause such sensations. For a moment, Wen Kexing just rested his hands on the two spots over the shoulder blades. He wanted the warmth to seep into the skin. Then, after a while, he began by slowly moving up and down the scars, pressing slightly with his palms. So far, Zhou Zishu had neither said something nor showed any signs of pain.

It was a good sign but Wen Kexing knew this wouldn't help Zhou Zishu much. He would have to be a bit more firm. Spreading his hands out like the wings of a butterfly, his thumbs were now resting on the scars. Testing the waters, he pressed down on both sides just above a knot in the tissue. As expected, Zhou Zishu groaned and leaned forward. Wen Kexing hooked his chin over Ah-Xu's shoulder. "Good or bad?" - "Good. Both. Keep going," was Zhou Zishu short response.

So Wen Kexing continued. Working his way up, he stopped over every little knot and massaged it by rubbing tiny circles into the spot. The scar tissues was otherwise quite soft. Although the scars were kind of bulky, they had something beautiful to them. In the cold light of their frozen home, the scars looked like thawing ice. They shimmered like pearls. The skin, almost translucent, let blues and reds from underneath shine through. Wen Kexing lost himself a little in the sight of them.

Nonetheless, Zhou Zishu was having a much harder time appreciating any side to this. For the pain to ease, Wen Kexing had to make it worse first. Halfway through, Zhou Zishu was panting, prompting Wen Kexing to make more breaks in between. Wen Kexing kissed various spots on his back or caressed over the soft spots that didn't hurt quite as much.

"Ah-aah... Lao Wen.. stop," Zhou Zishu suddenly wheezed. Reacting instantly, Wen Kexing stopped and let his hands rest flat on the skin, unmoving. "Ah-Xu?," he asked worriedly. Zhou Zishu was still panting, unable to put the sensations into words. It was less pain and more memory. He might have just shrugged at getting tortured by Duan Pengju, but his body certainly remembered. When Zhou Zishu had asked Wen Kexing to stop, it was because he couldn't handle the amount of images flashing through his mind. Duan Pengju forcing the hooks in. The hooks getting pulled out in a hurry.

Blindly, Zhou Zishu reached behind his back and fished for any of Wen Kexing's limbs to steady himself. His hand landed on a knee, a hand immediately placed over his own. "It felt... it felt just like back then." Wen Kexing gave Zhou Zishu's hand a reassuring squeeze while kissing the spot between his shoulder blades again. "It's alright, Ah-Xu. Those are just memories. I'll be more gentle, okay?" Without turning around, Zhou Zishu nodded and let go of Wen Kexing's hand.

When Wen Kexing was done, he finished it off with going over Zhou Zishu's whole back. Carefully, but firmly, he kneaded Zhou Zishu's neck and shoulders. His hand so huge on that tiny waist, he used his fingers for leverage around it as his thumbs were pressing down next to the spine. In the end, Zhou Zishu went boneless and let himself fall back into Wen Kexing's embrace. "Are you feeling better, Ah-Xu?," Wen Kexing asked a little humored. Eyes closed, Zhou Zishu was already pretty far gone. "Yes. Thank you," Zhou Zishu spoke with a relaxed expression on his face. Seeing that his mission was a success and his Ah-Xu felt better, Wen Kexing let out an amused laugh before he settled down on the bed, pulling Zhou Zishu with him. Zhou Zishu nuzzled closer seeking Lao Wen's warmth. Wen Kexing chuckled and kissed the man's head. "Sleep well, Ah-Xu." They would deal with their tangled robes later.

#whumptober2021 #no.16 #scars #word of honor #fic #trauma #wen kexing #zhou zishu #wenzhou #less whump #more teeth-rotting fluff #it is self-indulgent okay

9 notes · View notes

satan-chillin · 3 years

Text

in this lifetime and the next

Zhou Zishu was no better during waking hours, sparing what he could in reminiscing about what he actually recalled from his random dreams of a faceless little girl. She was dressed in hues of blue, sometimes pink with a touch of red. Effortlessly, he filled out the blanks among her vagueness: dark eyes in the shape of almonds, a button nose, pinchable cheekbones, and bow-shaped lips; altogether, they would crinkle adorably when her face lit up with a beam or when she stuck out her tongue in impertinence.

Albeit on a young girl’s image, those were exactly two of Wen Kexing’s trademark expressions.

(Or, the times Zhou Zishu gets to witness how Wen Kexing handles children and catches extra feelings. ™)

Also available in Ao3

Despite Wen Kexing’s frivolity on matters that had been outside his two-decade revenge plot, in hindsight, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he was good with children.

He raised A-Xiang on his own, in a place where he could have hardly taken care of his own barely adolescent self, and, all things considered, she grew up functional and eventually found a good man who cared and loved her. Soon, she would be a mother who wouldn’t let her children experience the same tough childhood that she had.

Zhou Zishu had seen Wen Kexing take care of the younger disciples, a couple of them orphans who had found their way in the Four Seasons Manor. Some were found by Wen Kexing the same way he had found A-Xiang, and while as the Manor Lord the last say would always be Zhou Zishu’s, there was of course no question of acceptance. He wasn’t heartless to drive away children in need of home and guidance, and he definitely didn’t have the heart to turn his back on what Wen Kexing considered important.

The first time he witnessed him interact with the youngest juniors, Zhou Zishu believed he was seeing a rare sight of Wen Kexing, the one capable of nurturing and caring selflessly for the vulnerable. He took them under his wing and let them follow him like a herd of chicks to his mother hen, instilling the fundamentals of values and discipline yet at the same time wanting to give them a chance in an unfettered childhood. He hadn’t had a proper one himself, he had said in that deceptively casual tone of his when he made a request to him to give the young ones half a day to spend in leisure alone. Zhou Zishu hadn’t been a child who played often—he was an odd kid—but he was a bit hurt that Wen Kexing had to ask this of him when he knew what the answer would be.

So, because he was a little frustrated and overwhelmingly happy at the tenderness and compassion Wen Kexing had for their disciples who might as well be their children at this point, Zhou Zishu flicked his forehead in reproach for needing to ask, before embracing him and inhaling the scent of his hair. They’ve never been good with words, that much was clear, but Zhou Zishu liked to think that they were making progress on that front. He still had a lot of things to learn about Wen Kexing, after all.

And about himself too, apparently, as Zhou Zishu came to realize one evening.

He woke up alone, and after wandering around the manor found Wen Kexing by the gardens carrying their newest unofficial recruit, a boy of almost five who seemed like a toddler given how small he was. Wen Kexing cut an ethereal image with his pale white hair under the moonlight, with a boy sleeping deeply in his arms as he hummed a faint tune.

Zhou Zishu had no idea how long he was standing at a distance, mesmerized at the serenity of the sight and sound. Wen Kexing turned to him with a curve of a smile on his lips, gesturing mildly at his burden. Zhou Zishu approached him as if in a trance, led by an ache that he dared not examine. Not yet, anyway.

“A-Chen can’t get back to sleep,” Wen Kexing murmured once Zhou Zishu was close enough to admire how natural he was with a slumbering child. “Nightmare.”

Zhou Zishu was half-tempted to ask whether he was woken up by similar reasons as well but settled with silence. Any words now would be poor enough to break this moment. He glanced at the boy’s unruly hair and did not resist the urge to smooth it down gingerly. How peculiar that he hardly felt self-conscious the longer Wen Kexing watched him, watched the gesture, that soft, fond smile of his not leaving his face.

He followed as Wen Kexing wordlessly led the way to one of the juniors’ shared quarters. Gently, as if he had done it several times, he laid the boy down and tucked him in without rousing him.

It was a sedate pace, with Wen Kexing’s arm wounded around his, on their trek back. Zhou Zishu had no notion of the late hour, which, while knowing they both would have another early day ahead, he frankly didn’t care about. If he decided to pull him towards the direction of the same garden they came from, Wen Kexing would happily follow him, that he knew. Though with the full moon pleasantly out, Zhou Zishu had no idea who would be leading who, especially when he had the feeling of a man bewitched by an unearthly creature in white.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu whispered, pausing to hold Wen Kexing’s hand to his lips in reverence. “Lao Wen.”

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing whispered in return, none of his usual note of teasing. “A-Xu, let’s go to sleep.”

Gladly, Zhou Zishu let himself get lured away in the night.

...

They were quite known around town at this point; those two young masters from the local manor, as they were generally called, or the Manor Lord and the Second Master from a couple of traders who had dealt with them personally twice or thrice and knew them by their names. To the wizened elderly who lived for years in town and who did know better, they were dearly known as the xīn hūn fū fù.

Wen Kexing thrived in the odd bits of friendships he formed, from the tavern owner to the traveling peddler. He was a novelty, with his striking appearance of long white hair that contrasted against his dark eyebrows, the jut of his cheekbones, the cute button of his nose, and the fullness of his lips that Zhou Zishu had taken the time to familiarize with. A face Wen Kexing deemed once a treasure from the gods.

Zhou Zishu must have amassed a huge amount of good karma in his last life to be the blessed person to see it every day the moment he opened his eyes in the morning and when he closed them at night.

He cleared his throat, hoping he wouldn’t appear shameless to ogle at him in broad daylight among the present light traffic of people. The unhealthy amount Zhou Zishu spent on staring at Wen Kexing recently was a tad concerning, not to mention that he honestly had no idea what brought it on.

“A-Xu?” Rubbing a finger on his wrist, Wen Kexing leaned closer than was appropriate, imploring. “Is there something wrong?”

Whatever excuse Zhou Zishu might have given would fall short. To his luck, Wen Kexing looked past him, his attention abruptly captured.

There was a little girl by the post, hunched into a ball by herself and was close to unnoticeable. Wen Kexing was crouching by her side in an instant, coaxing her to speak with his kind murmurs of encouragement. Zhou Zishu felt useless standing there, not even sure what to do with his hands. In the next minute, short arms were reaching for Wen Kexing, and he obliged with lifting her to his level.

“A-Xu, this little guniang is A-Li,” he introduced. “A-Li, that’s A-Xu. You can call him da-ge instead of uncle because that makes him feel old,” he added cheerfully.

Zhou Zishu rolled his eyes. “Don’t listen to him. I’m not the one with white hair,” he groused. A-Li, with her small fist, reached for a stray lock of Wen Kexing’s hair and held it in wonder, still sniffling. It was incredibly adorable, and as quick as a blink did the memory of that dream-like evening drifted at the forefront of his mind.

Seemingly catching himself, Zhou Zishu gestured silently at the teahouse behind them so A-Li could be seated. Wen Kexing cajoled her into speaking about what happened by cooling the steaming baozi and tea she was fed. It wasn’t long until she was talking about getting separated from her mother around the market that was merely two streets away.

A-Li had taken an immediate liking to Wen Kexing, hardly lacking in questions once her curiosity overtook her shyness. Wen Kexing listened to her patiently, finding the stories of a roughly six-year-old interesting. It helped put her mind at further ease before they went searching for her mother.

Zhou Zishu wished he could say the same, wished he could say that he wasn’t distracted instead by the way Wen Kexing smoothed A-Li’s hair, his slender fingers expertly looping on her braids and rearranging them neatly. Zhou Zishu could imagine him doing the same for A-Xiang all those years ago, perhaps not as deftly from a much younger Wen Kexing who kept tangling her hair on the comb and with A-Xiang protesting when he had pulled too hard.

Unbidden, a different image presented itself in his head—or not so different, he supposed, not when it featured Wen Kexing but this time there was a different little girl in teal whose dark hair he lovingly combed and braided. Once done, she’d smile that familiar impish smile that spelled trouble and… and…

Zhou Zishu blinked, shaken out his reverie by Wen Kexing’s voice that told him they better start looking for A-Li’s mother before sundown. A-Li refused to part from Wen Kexing, hence her tiny hand clutching his as they walked. She was an observant child than expected, however, and had mistaken Zhou Zishu’s lingering stare in their joined hands as something else. She grasped Zhou Zishu’s palm, determinedly keeping him to her opposite side despite her wariness of him.

Touched at her consideration, who was he to deny her? And how could Zhou Zishu deny himself this peculiar but pleasant sensation that wormed in his chest upon realizing that it was something he could get used to?

It would remain in his thoughts, brewing for hours since their successful return to the manor, and by then Zhou Zishu would begin to have a semblance of understanding at the particular sentiment that tended to well up at the idea of Wen Kexing and children.

Later, there would be another silent inquiry on what was preoccupying him in the form of fingers intertwining with his. Zhou Zishu would rather reach from behind Wen Kexing, making a place for himself by his shoulder, against his skin a promise of an answer soon.

...

It was the dreams that caught him off guard, disjointed as they were that Zhou Zishu initially believed they were random images in his head as he slept, until they started to create an outline of a pattern.

There was always a child in his dreams.

The first occurrence could be explained by the recent incident with A-Li, and, sure enough, she was also there, merrily playing with another girl whose back was on him. Zhou Zishu already forgot the randomness of that dream once he awoke.

The second one did not have A-Li anymore, though the unknown girl was around, running across the yard that resembled the one in Four Seasons Manor. She was strangely distant from where he found himself standing, too far for Zhou Zishu to make out her features aside from her bouncing pigtail buns atop her head for every step she took.

When a similar scenario was shown to him for the third time, Zhou Zishu was surprised at the name that was at the tip of his tongue. He did not hear himself uttering it, though it was enough for the unknown girl to run towards him, anticipation building the closer she got. He tried not to be dismayed when he woke abruptly without seeing her face.

He was no better during waking hours, sparing what he could in reminiscing about what he actually recalled from his random dreams of a faceless little girl. She was dressed in hues of blue, sometimes pink with a touch of red. Effortlessly, Zhou Zishu filled out the blanks among her vagueness: dark eyes in the shape of almonds, a button nose, pinchable cheekbones, and bow-shaped lips; altogether, they would crinkle adorably when her face lit up with a beam or when she stuck out her tongue in impertinence. Albeit on a young girl’s image, those were exactly two of Wen Kexing’s trademark expressions.

It became a pastime of a sort, contemplating how Wen Kexing’s physical characteristics would look like on a younger appearance, leading him to remember Zhen Yan with an odd vividness. Ironically though, it wasn’t a memory of Zhen Yan that started to bleed into Zhou Zishu’s sleep—oh, the boy was almost identical to Zhen Yan, alright, but the shade of his eyes and the sternness that belied them were different. Different but familiar, a fact that had Zhou Zishu barely tempering down that powerful surge of clarity.

Both the girl and the boy were the perfect images of what his subconscious thought his and Wen Kexing’s children would look like—and Zhou Zishu yearned, had been for a while. He yearned as strongly as he had yearned for his zhi ji and living a peaceful life with him. He must have been a greedy man, to want more than what was already given to him against all odds.

Zhou Zishu already had his mismatched family with Wen Kexing in the form of Chengling, A-Xiang, and by extension, Weining, and yet he couldn’t help but long for an addition that was purely theirs, impossible it might sound. Zhou Zishu wanted a daughter who would inherit Wen Kexing’s grins and a son who would be as stalwart as Zhou Zishu.

It turned into a wish buried deep down, and lest it threatened to overwhelm him, something he would only allow on the surface during the moments he was around to see Wen Kexing with Chengling, their bond turned comparable to that of a father and son than that of a master and student; or when Zhou Zishu was privy to watch Wen Kexing fuss around a heavily pregnant A-Xiang, not exactly faring better than Weining when it came to keeping A-Xiang on strict bedrest and monitoring her diet with her due date closing in, much to her utter frustration over her husband and older brother.

After A-Xiang bore triplets, Zhou Zishu’s wish stopped being a well-kept secret anymore. It would be forever burned in his mind, perhaps, the picture of Wen Kexing carrying the second of A-Xiang’s babes and lulling him to sleep, awed and adoring like he might cry in happiness.

“A-Xu,” he called for him with a notable giddiness, not even glancing up from the infant. “Look at this baobei. He’s the most well-behaved among his brothers. I think he likes my voice.”

Likely, Zhou Zishu mused. Wen Kexing did have the kind of voice that children find mellifluous. Zhou Zishu idly traced his finger on the babe’s forehead, to his wispy hair, then back to the line of his tiny nose until it was blindly grasped by small fingers.

“A-Xu, try carrying him.”

He was not given a chance to respond before the infant was passed to him. Though alarmed at the sudden transfer, he cradled the babe’s neck at the crook of his elbow with Wen Kexing’s support. Zhou Zishu froze when the baby hiccuped and sniffed, and promptly eased in relief when he did not react to him.

It was a tad difficult to scowl at Wen Kexing when he was looking at him in delight, with a wide grin and a wistful look in his eyes. Zhou Zishu grumbled half-heartedly, though there was a telltale heat creeping up his neck. Sighing, he rocked the babe slightly. He might as well practice knowing A-Xiang and Weining would require all the aid they could get in handling their three newborns.

Weining was the one who was run ragged taking care of his three sons and a recovering A-Xiang who had more complaints of getting distressed over a finicky husband than the three babes she had to feed thrice each. Weining was glad to have Chengling’s eager assistance in bathing and cleaning the three, and with his terrible job at babysitting—or generally keeping the three children entertained, really, else they would wail the house down and, consequently, their own father—the task was up to Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu. Wen Kexing could be quite creative, especially when it involved Senior Ye who had stopped by a week after the birth without knowing of it before coming. Suffice to say, Senior Ye was roped into assigned duties as well and was not able to escape them for another month.

By the end of each day, it would all be the five of them thoroughly exhausted, Chengling and Weining more often than not passed out. Zhou Zishu would also find himself fighting to keep his eyes open late at night before remembering that Sanyu was the one who would wake past midnight and would cry if not rocked in his bassinet.

Tonight, though, he was beaten to it by A-Xiang who stood by their cradles. Her previously wan complexion began to shift into a healthier one these days after several long rests. She hovered by her sons, gracing them with an affectionate smile. She might no longer be the childish young woman Zhou Zishu met years back, though traces of her youth remained, merged with the kind of maturity that was motherhood.

A-Xiang has been around with him for as long as Chengling, and Zhou Zishu couldn’t help but think that one of his children had grown up too fast in front of his eyes. Soon, it would be Chengling, and a part of him knew he would rue when that day came.

“Why are you still awake?” A-Xiang demanded once he caught him by the door. At his startled blink, she pulled him away to close the room behind her. “They’re fine. I made sure Sanyu won’t bother his brothers. And us.” She huffed. “If you say you don’t mind, I’ll kick you.”

“Okay.” Zhou Zishu cracked a smile. “And you? How are you feeling?”

“If A-Ning and gege have to tell me to sleep again, I’ll take my children and run away with them in the mountains.” She harrumphed. “They keep telling me to rest when they need it just as bad!” she exclaimed, her fondness and concern unmistakable. “Old man Ye at least is happy to see me up and about.”

“Yilian peed on Senior Ye once,” Zhou Zishu told her. “With his trauma, he’d rather pass the kid to the mother.”

A-Xiang glowed with pride before eventually bursting into fits of giggles that had him chuckling as well.

“That old man better stick around for a few more decades. I want to see his reaction first to your and gege ’s children!”

Zhou Zishu choked in his own spit, coughing harshly. A-Xiang took pity on him, patting his back somewhat roughly; smacking him, actually—and was that a triumphant smirk?

“What? You think I don’t notice you sighing longingly when gege’s holding a kid? I am very observant, Zhou-ge.” She reveled on his dumbfoundedness, beaming. “Besides, if it wasn’t for me, you two won’t be together.”

Zhou Zishu wouldn’t exactly attribute that to her, but whatever. “You noticed,” he muttered.

“You’re not being subtle anyway,” she said. “So why don’t you?”

“Why don’t I what?”

“Have children! Your silly boy will love brothers and sisters, you know.”

While he recognized A-Xiang as an adult, Zhou Zishu still preferred not to talk about this with her. He thanked whoever deity was out there for the dimness outdoors or he wouldn’t hear the end of it if she noticed his flush.

“It’s… complicated.”

“Is it?” A-Xiang retorted, unconvinced. “Huh. You’d think you two old men already have the babymaking down to an art—”

“A-Xiang!”

“—that it’ll come easier for you two.” In a fit of insightfulness, she asked, “Did gege tell you he doesn’t want them?”

“No. I mean, it’s not a subject we’ve discussed so I don’t know if it’s something he’d like to have or not.” There was a large possibility of Wen Kexing not wanting them, in spite of how he was with children in general. “And in case you missed it, we’re both men.”

“So far, the only problem I see is you’re not communicating with gege.” A-Xiang lifted a finger to his face before he could protest. “Now, about the obvious one, have you already searched for ways?” She must have seen how lost Zhou Zishu was feeling, given the way she stomped down her foot. “You’re telling me you have access to that armory but have not once thought of checking it for answers? Zhou-ge...”

Zhou Zishu raised his hands in surrender. “Alright. Alright, I see your point.” It was beyond seeing her point, in fact; so he was an idiot for not thinking about it before letting himself imagine various scenarios of illogical proportions, what about it? Zhou Zishu’s head was buzzing with possibilities.

A-Xiang tugged on his sleeve. “Talk to gege, okay? Don’t assume what he’ll say. You know him better, but I’ve known him longer. He’ll listen no matter what.”

...

In the end, it was Wen Kexing who sought him first, slipping next to Zhou Zishu in a late afternoon and laying his head to his shoulder. A bit of tilting and Zhou Zishu was nuzzling a head of white hair, his arm wrapping automatically around Wen Kexing’s back.

“A-Xu, do you think we’ll be good parents?”

“Chengling turned out alright, and A-Xiang isn’t so bad.”

Wen Kexing grinned lazily. “Chengling was already a sweet boy before he became our disciple first. A-Xiang… yes, she isn’t so bad.”

Zhou Zishu snorted. “I thought I’d hear a stellar compliment to the person who raised her. You did well with her, Lao Wen, now it’s her turn to do her best to her own children.”

“I did what I could for her then, but this time, if...” Wen Kexing trailed off, inching closer to Zhou Zishu that he was practically on his lap. “If I’m given a chance to raise another child, I'll give my all a thousandfold.”

There was no room in Zhou Zishu for doubt, though it warmed his heart to hear the words aloud. “We’ll have a spoiled kid, won’t we?” he asked lightly.

“That’s a given, of course. No child of ours should lack for something.”

“Ah, they’ll be a menace.”

Wen Kexing pouted. “A-Xu’s a tiger parent so he’ll handle their discipline, but you can’t stop me from pampering them with their father.”

“If they turned out to have your personality, get ready to deal with them. I have practice, but you don’t,” Zhou Zishu pointed out, tucking a lock of Wen Kexing’s hair behind his ear delicately. He paused with a thoughtful frown. “If it’s a girl and she inherits your features, I’m not looking forward to fending off suitors.”

“Who says you’ll fend them off alone? I’ll join you.” He made a grimace. “But if she turns out to be a great beauty because of you, we better prepare against a horde of—ow!”

Zhou Zishu swatted his thigh playfully, settling him comfortably on his lap. “Laying it a bit thick there, but yes. We won’t marry her off until she’s thirty.”

Wen Kexing nodded sagely. “And not until the person who wants her hand has proven their capabilities against the both of us.”

“Individually or together?”

“Both.”

“... She’ll be an old maid, Lao Wen.”

“And she’ll still be our daughter no matter what, A-Xu.” Gratified, Wen Kexing loosely wrapped his arms around Zhou Zishu’s neck. “But we can divide the responsibility equally if she has a protective brother. He’s going to be skilled in martial arts and leadership and beautiful like his father; strict when the situation calls for it but is a perfect gentleman like his other father.”

“Lao Wen.”

“Hmm?”

“You do realize we’ll be fending off nuisances on both fronts?”

In their present proximity, Zhou Zishu could see the manic gleam in Wen Kexing’s eyes at the prospect of, well, not so much of a fight but definitely a challenge. The faint glow of the setting sun reflecting off of Wen Kexing did not help one bit with Zhou Zishu’s overflowing endearment.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing called, touching Zhou Zishu’s forehead with his and leaving a hair’s breadth. “Since I met you again you make me wish for things I used to dare not even think,” he whispered. “So ask me.”

Zhou Zishu readily complied. “Lao Wen, will you have children with me?”

He took Wen Kexing’s smile for the answer that it was and closed the rest of the space between them. Zhou Zishu learned that he was an entranced man, in this lifetime and the next.

...

He could name each flower that bloomed all year in Four Seasons Manor, though at the start of spring there was a single flower in the shade of blue that Zhou Zishu did not recognize.

Soft, fragrant petals met his skin, and the scent lingered even as he threaded his fingers through Wen Kexing’s flowing mane of white.

Later, Zhou Zishu would dream of Wen Kexing surrounded by the very same blossoms, their smell and hues of blue mingling with white, and at a distance, the breeze carried the faint sound of children’s laughter.

#shl fic #shan he ling #tian ya ke #tyk #word of honor #fanfic #fanfiction #zhou zishu #wen kexing #wenzhou #gu xiang #cao weining #zhang chengling #domestic fluff #big wenzhou family

27 notes · View notes

ashenwren · 3 years

Text

10 characters from 10 things

thanks @vishcount for tagging me! this took me a while to get to but I got to it eventually :D ah this got kind of long - I wasn’t expecting for this to end up as an essay but thinking about why I like my favourite characters is just too much fun ^^

Am going to tag @psychic-waffles @palimpsest-mind @jockvillagersonly and anyone who sees this and would like to! I hope you’re all doing well ^^ no pressure to do this as always and no need to write about the characters too - I just like to ramble ^^;

1. Lan Wangji, The Untamed/CQL, MDZS

Lan Zhan, Hanguang-jun! He’s just so morally good and righteous. He goes wherever the chaos is, always helping those in need without any thought of merits or his own reputation. I love his quiet personality and his kindness, and his whole journey about learning the difference between rules and morals. He had so much pressure on him growing up as one of the Twin Jades and as the son of the previously disgraced sect leader Qingheng-jun and I imagine he had a pretty lonely childhood trying to live up to all these expectations.

Other honourable mentions from CQL/MDZS: WWX (of course!), LXC (him closing his eyes and sighing slowly as everything falls apart around him just resonates with me)

2. Zhou Zishu, Word of Honor

Zhou Zishu has just taken over my entire brain lately. I was debating whether to use a gif of him in his “softer” days, but in the end, I chose one from his Tian Chuang days instead. He had the role of sect leader thrust upon him when he himself was still barely a child, and suddenly became responsible for the lives of all his juniors. He tried his best to do some good by founding Tian Chuang, but then realised how utterly futile it was - he was doing more harm than good, and was arguably responsible for the deaths of all his juniors. He just endures so much grief and tragedy during his life and I loved that he was able to escape that life and just live day by day as a nobody, wandering the jianghu. He’s such a prickly kitten but is just so soft on the inside ^^

As he says to WKX, “Life is just about 3 meals a day. Why do we worry about eternal sorrow?”

Other honourable mentions from WoH: Ye Baiyi (I love this snarky grumpy grandpa. He’s just so tired of these kids running around jianghu) and Wen Kexing (so cute, yet so unhinged, and an even more tragic childhood. His relationship with Gu Xiang makes me cry)

3. Wu Xie, DMBJ, The Lost Tomb Reboot (+all the other DMBJ dramas and adaptations)

Wu Xie! Look at his face! I’ve gotten so attached to him as a character, and he was the reason why, after watching the Lost Tomb Reboot, I just inhaled all the other dramas and books! I love his whole story arc so much. He starts off as the naive and innocent Tianzhen, but he’s forced to adapt as he slowly learns more about this whole multi-generation mystery that has entangled the Mystic Nine. His cleverness becomes more cunning, and as we see in Sand Sea, he becomes pretty ruthless in order to see his plan come to fruition. But despite this hard side to him, he’s still good to a fault, always believing the best in others even when he knows they wouldn’t afford him the same mercy. I also love his wit and snark ^^

Other honourable mentions from DMBJ: Zhang Qiling (wow I just realised I like all the tragic characters), Xiao Hua (such an interesting mirror to Wu Xie. I also loved seeing the head of the Xie family side to him in The Lost Tomb 2. Like ZZS, he also had power thrust onto him at a young age, and he had to be cunning to survive the power struggles), Huo Xiuxiu (my favourite DMBJ girl! not that we had too many choices though haha. She’s clever in her own right, and as we see in the books, solved a lot of these mysteries alone before Wu Xie was even aware they existed)

4. Li Changge, The Long Ballad

Technically I haven’t finished The Long Ballad, so I can’t comment about Changge’s character arc, but I love her personality so far! She can fight, but isn’t exactly superhuman in her abilities (one of my pet peeves with how people write female characters is that they tend to equate a “good female character” with one that is physically strong and can defeat all men regardless of relative strength/size. While those characters can be fun, it does get a bit dry after a while). Instead, she’s extremely intelligent and an expert in military strategy and tactics which I found pretty refreshing. She may be set on getting her revenge, but she also genuinely cares for the lives of her people.

5. Shen Wei/ Black-Cloaked Envoy, Guardian

These two characters are technically the same person, but also pretty different? I like how, as the Black-Cloaked Envoy, Shen Wei tries to maintain this fragile peace and order between humans and dixingren. He remains fair and impartial, despite being labelled as a “traitor” by his own people, yet he also has this very compassionate side to him that leads to exceptions to the rules. He doesn’t follow rules blindly and still manages to be both fair and kind in his judgements.

Other honourable mentions from Guardian: Ye Zun (do I just like ZYL’s face? maybe. He is just so crazy and unhinged. I also sometimes think about how differently his life could have turned out if he was never separated from Shen Wei when they were younger), Zhao Yunlan (I envy his easy charisma and people skills ^^; but he is also such an interesting character because he may be so charismatic and smiley on the outside but at the same time, is slow to trust on the inside).

6. Boya, The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity

Boya just has the best costume! The bow and arrows, the sword, the flute and the cape! Okay, but jokes aside, I liked seeing him grow as a character and overcome his prejudice of demons and spirit guardians to the point where he was willing to become one himself. In this <2hrs movie, he basically has his whole worldview turned upside down (his views on demons for one, but also on the princess too, who he thought he knew so well), and he dealt with all these changes admirably.

7. Tang Fan, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty

I just started watching TSOMD and to no one’s surprise, I love Tang Fan already (as Vishie says, I have a type XD) Again, I can’t comment too much on him because I’ve only just started TSOMD, but he’s just such a loveable disaster. He’s so clever but also such a menace and he loves his food way too much. But from what I’ve seen so far, he’s also fair and kind (like when he saves Dong’er or refuses to take bribes). I keep seeing him as Wu Xie in some type of Ming Dynasty AU ^^

Other honourable mentions: Sui Zhou (wow his eyerolls at Tang Fan are legendary), Pe Huai (this guy is insane in the best way. I just watched the episode where he casually chugged bottles of poison just to solve one of the cases, and he still managed to stay conscious while listing his symptoms).

8. Ao Bing, Ne Zha

This was a while ago, but Nezha was my first foray into Chinese films/dramas and when I first realised how pretty chinese historical/fantasy costumes are! Ao Bing is another tragic character with so much responsibility on his shoulders. He’s also a dragon so + points for that!

9. Finrod Felagund, The Silmarillion

Going far back now because I’ve been so fixated on CQL/MDZS and DMBJ that I haven’t really come across any other dramas or characters that i really loved. It’s been almost 2 years since I read The Silmarillion, but its still one of my favourite books. I think it was the first book that genuinely made me cry tears? It was so beautifully tragic and Finrod’s story made me so sad. He was powerful yet so kind, and was one of the first elves to befriend Man and share knowledge. It’s just so tragic that it was his kindness and sense of honour in keeping his promises that ultimately led to his own end D: (Also no picture here sadly because there’s no real official face for him? And I am hesitant to just repost others’ art ^^;)

10. Wei Wuxian, The Untamed, MDZS

Okay okay, I cheated and added the same thing twice, but I can’t not include WWX in one of these character things! He’s the reason I fell in love with The Untamed and all of MDZS in the first place. He’s so kind and righteous and stands up for what’s right even when it leads to so much pain and suffering for himself. I love his character arc so so much, and I just really feel for him.

One of the quotes of his (from the book) that comes to mind is “My mom said you have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free.”

#tag games #wow this got a bit long oops #i have lots of feelings about all these characters #thank you if you managed to get to the end #^^#i tried to keep it short #but well that failed haha

11 notes · View notes

a-yellow-book · 3 years

Text

If you were words on a page, you’d be fine print.

In which Wen Kexing shamelessly courts Zhou Zishu with cheesy pick-up lines instead of beautiful ancient Chinese poetry, and Zishu falls for him anyway. (Alternatively, if Word of Honor was a modern romantic comedy.)

[read on ao3 instead]

Zhou Zishu was not looking forward to his closing shift at the cafe tonight. Thinking about the pile of case studies he still had to read through sent him down a spiral of sadness. It was a Saturday night, for goodness’ sake. He wasn’t gunning for a rowdy night-out at bars. All he wanted was to finish his readings and then to curl up on his cozy couch and snuggle in with his cat to watch a wuxia drama. But alas, Zishu couldn’t say no when his boss called, asking if he could cover A-Ying at the last minute because he’d gone skating and knocked his head on the metal railings, no doubt concussed.

It’s ok! It might be a slow night and I can get some readings done there, Zishu reassured himself. That, and also he needed extra money anyway. Jiuxiou’s surgery was coming up soon and they needed whatever extra funds they could get.

Pushing the cafe’s door open, Zishu greeted Heilan, who barely looked over at him. “Urg, you’re finally here. Took you long enough,” he grumbled.

“Sorry, I missed the bus,” Zishu said, shrugging off Heilan’s rudeness. The kid treated everyone whose parents weren’t millionaires with disdain. He was forced to get a job so his dad would let him keep his (unlimited) credit card. Something about teaching him a lesson. Zishu didn’t think it was working.

Before Zishu even managed to set his bag down in the back room and clock in, Heilan had already gathered his stuff and left. “Tsk, tsk, youths these days,” Zishu shook his head mockingly.

It was already close to five o’clock. There might be a bit of a rush as the office workers and students stop by for a quick pick-me-up after a long day. Zishu put on a new apron around his waist, washed his hands, and headed out to the front counter to take stock of the status of the store. Heilan was notorious for not caring to refill any supplies at the end of his shifts.

The cup racks were almost empty. There were random mixing utensils, cups, and blenders left unwashed, littering around the equipment. Sighing, Zishu rolled up his sleeves to get to work cleaning the mess Heilan left behind.

Just as Zishu put the last bit of clean dishes away, the door’s bell rang, signaling the entrance of the first customers since he clocked in. Turning around, drying his hands on his apron, Zishu greeted, “Welcome to Four Seasons Cafe!” And promptly stopped dead in his tracks when he finally processed what he was looking at.

The person standing in front of Zishu had to be the most stunning man he’d ever seen. His eyes sparkled with mirth, his lips quirked up in a perpetual smirk, and his jawline was as sharp as knives. And his hair! It was a beautiful silver starlight waves cascading down his shoulders. And his beautiful pastel green suit! Ahh! Realizing he was staring, Zishu awkwardly cleared his throat and asked, “What can I get for ya?”

The beautiful man kept looking at Zishu. He definitely noticed the blush that was blooming on Zishu’s cheeks. “I assume you know what’s on the menu?” Zishu was taken a bit off guard by the strange question, but before he could answer, the man continued, “Me ‘n’ u.”

For all the years he’d worked at various restaurants and coffee shops, Zishu had yet to encounter someone so... alluring (?) and shameless (!). “I’m afraid that’s not on our blackboard,” he replied after a short moment spent recovering his wits, and pointed at the said blackboard nailed on the wall behind him.

Undeterred, the stranger smiled and continued, “Oh? Well, that’s a shame - because if I were the alphabet, I would put ‘U’ and ‘I’ together when I write your menu.”

Zishu had to give him points for those cheesy lines only made funnier and cheesier with his dead-ass serious delivery. “If we ever decide to rewrite our boards, I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Zishu said, biting his lips to keep himself from smiling at the ridiculousness of the conversation.

“Hmm, hmm, good, that is reassuring to hear,” the stranger nodded thoughtfully.

“So! Is there anything on our board that I could get for ya?” Zishu asked, clapping his hands together and putting on a chirpy tone. If this guy was flirting with him, he might leave a hefty tip!

“Uhmm,” he paused, pursuing the menu with great care. “I would love to try the ‘you mocha me crazy’ with an extra espresso shot, please.”

Grabbing a cup and marker, Zishu fought against the urge to dig a hole to hide in before asking, “Alrighty! What’s your name?” Internally, he was cursing A-Ying for coming up with the outrageous and horrific punny names for their specials.

“Kexing, Wen Kexing.”

“Great! It’ll be right out!” Zishu said, scribbling the name down on the side of the cup and promptly turned around, about to get started making the drink.

“Uhm, excuse me?” Kexing, the beautiful stranger said, sounding full of suppressed laughter. “Should I pay now?”

“OH!” Zishu immediately turned back around, “Yes, right. Sorry about that!” He quickly ran up the total, accepted the money from the smiling stranger, and repeated, “Great! It’ll be right out!”

There had to be a hole large enough for him to hide in. He could not endure this embarrassment any longer.

“There’s no need to rush!” Kexing, the infuriating stranger said.

“I don’t want to...uhm... delay you...” Zishu said lamely.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

Zishu could feel his cheeks flaming up. He turned all his attention and focused on making the mocha, which he could do in his sleep, to avoid looking at the (shameless!) man. With a flick of his wrist, he drizzled the raspberry syrup around the cup, letting it drip down to make a fancy pattern before pouring in the chocolate syrup, milk, and topping it off with the espresso shots.

Giving the cup a slight shake, Zishu grabbed a bamboo straw and handed both to the (shameless!) man, who hadn’t moved an inch from his spot by the front counter. “Here you go!”

“Thank you,” he said, reaching out with both hands to grab the cup and incidentally caught Zishu’s hand as well. (Zishu was sure it was a deliberate move, considering how shameless the man was.) “I’ve told you my name, but I still don’t know yours,” he said, continuing to hold onto the cup (and Zishu’s hand).

“Oh, uhm,” Zishu wiggled his hand, successfully dislodging it. Before he could think of a fake name to give out, the cafe’s door swung open and A-Ying stepped in.

“A-Xu!” A-Ying greeted, seemingly not noticing the tension between his best friend and the customer. “I’m here!!!!!!!”

Seeing A-Ying all bandaged up standing in the cafe was enough to jerk Zishu out of the staring contest he had unwittingly been engaged in with the stranger. “What are you doing here?!”

“Hi!” A-Ying greeted the stranger, thinking he was just a normal customer. “Sorry - I wanted to come in to help you close! It’s too much work for one person.”

“But you have a concussion! You need to go rest!” Zishu grabbed A-Ying by the shoulders, turned him around and about to march him right the fuck back home.

“No, I’m fine! Just a tiny headache and a scratched forehead,” A-Ying protested.

“But---!”

“Besides, I’ve been taking so many days off recently. I need to make up for that.”

“A-Ying, you’re going to clock in and you’re going to sit in the back, resting,” Zishu declared. “Or else I’d knock you out for real.”

A-Ying raised his hands placatingly, “Ok, ok, ok!”

With A-Ying retreating to the back, Zishu let out a sigh. This kid, always trying to be helpful to others but didn’t know how to take care of himself.

“A-Xu?” It was the stranger who called out to Zishu, “Xu is a beautiful name.”

“I--uhm, thanks. It’s a nickname,” Zishu corrected.

“Oh? Then would it be ok if I call you by A-Xu?” Wen Kexing asked.

“Sure,” Zishu shrugged. He figured the man might not come back anyway.

“It was really nice to meet you, A-Xu!” He said cheerfully before leaving (finally!).

“Who was that?” A-Ying emerged from the back, tying an apron on and looking at the retreating Wen Kexing curiously.

“No one, just a customer,” Zishu might have said that a tad too quickly. Also, he was sure his cheeks were still dusting pink from all the flirting.

“Ooooohhhhh, I’m sensing something else is going on!!!” A-Ying teased. He could read his best friend as easily as an open book. “That guy is so cute! Good for you, A-Xu!”

“If you aren’t already hurt, I will kick you so hard right now,” Zishu threatened without much bite.

“Yea, yea, sureeee.”

The glare Zishu directed at A-Ying was sharp enough to cut steel. “Why did you come out here? Huh? What did I tell you?”

“A-Xu, A-Xu!! I’m just going to sit here and do nothing! Ok!” A-Ying said, waving his hands wildly at the chair propped against the back counter.

Just as Zishu was about to scold A-Ying, the door swung open, and a group of students piled in, talking loudly among themselves. Turning around to A-Ying, Zishu pointed a stern finger and said, “You will not move an inch from that chair. Got it?”

“Got it, boss!” A-Ying said, smiling widely, already thinking of how he was going to stealthily make the drinks anyway.

#word of honor #word of honor fanfic #zhou zishu #wen kexing #cheesy pick up lines #my writings #i just got to the mountain and i am here to stay #wenzhou #wenzhou fanfic

8 notes · View notes