#sometimes he gets angry that huaisang doesn't understand he's clearly just trying to help

[thebiscuiteternal]

Oh do share more about this reverse nies AU with Wen Ruohan if you so wish 👀💕

Okay, so. As usual with my assorted takes on Wen Ruohan's relationship to the Nies: It's complicated.

Wen Ruohan was already an adult and advanced enough in his cultivation to stop showing his age at the time he met the brothers' father.

His perception of time was also starting to become slightly warped by that point too.

This is the reason his temper is so unpredictable; he genuinely doesn't always remember that he's known someone for x days or x years most of the time and so he might see someone as a friend or a mere acquaintance or an enemy all within the span of a couple of days. For reasons no one's really been able to decipher, because mere affection doesn't seem to be a defining factor, the only people who have been able to break through that difficulty are:

His sons (and they have trouble sometimes, especially since Wen Ruohan has forgotten their mother completely)

Wen Qing and Wen Ning's parents (his closest friends within his own family) and to a much lesser degree Wen Qing herself

Nie Haoran (my Papa Nie)

Lan Qiren

And much to everyone's surprise, little Huaisang

He sees the potential for a brilliant political manipulator in this shy, sickly, frequently overlooked child and decides to make nurturing that into his little hobby. If you were to ask him why he finds this so interesting, he probably couldn't give you a reason, he just does.

He encourages Huaisang in scholarly efforts, encourages the friendship with his own firstborn son, always has a gift for him, always makes sure to be someone safe for the boy. He even entertains the thought of, and jokes with Haoran about, stealing Huaisang away to flourish in the Wen sect (in what role? Well, he doesn't really have an answer for that either. Besides, it's just kidding around.... right?)

And then just a month or so after Huaisang's thirteenth birthday, something goes horribly wrong with Wen Ruohan's latest cultivation breakthrough. He starts having even more trouble properly perceiving time, his mood swings start becoming more violent and unpredictable, and he starts growing more paranoid that everyone is conspiring against him, even his oldest living friends like Nie Haoran.

With his deteriorating sanity, perhaps the incident with Nie Haoran's saber was an inevitability. In his fully lucid moments, he regrets the impulsive murder. He didn't mean for things to get so out of hand! And now one of his oldest friends is gone, and now the boy he invested so much time and affection in fears and hates him, as does the rest of the sect that now pretends to follow the boy.

Perhaps things wouldn't have fallen apart into outright war if there had been anyone capable of reining him in. But his sons and many others in his sect are perfectly happy to go along with his ambitious delusions for their own power-hungry reasons, those like his cousins and Wen Qing don't particularly care whom outside the sect get hurt as long as they're safe, the majority of the rank and file in the sect are terrified of him, and none of the other sect leaders have the power to stand up to him.

Least of all the boy leader constantly being undermined by his own supposed disciples and ignored when he tries to warn everyone else of the danger they're in.

Poor thing. He'll just have to remove all the liars, the conspirators, the traitors, the ungrateful- and once all of the other sects have been brought to heel, the jianghu will be safe for bright little neglected sparks.