#we know nothing about Nie women cultivators

[randomidiocyncrazies]

Help I'm being held hostage by fem!Nie Mingjue AU

[stiltonbasket]

jzx, seeing yanli carrying around baby a-yuan: oh. Oh.

Also, the idea of A-yuan being surprisingly tolerant of jzx while his a-niang and jiang-shushu have never felt more Betrayed™️.

Thank you very much for ur cultivation baby sizhui au i am in love!!!!!!!

As is the way of things when one happens to be the heir to a sect, no one has ever dared to hurt Jin Zixuan's feelings.

Of course, he argued with his mother sometimes; and when he was a child, he tried to quarrel with his father about the women he brought into Koi Tower. Those arguments never turned in Zixuan’s favor, but no one but his father has ever tried to insinuate that he was wrong about something important: and when the first person to do so turns out to be Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan spends the next two weeks in a state of abject shame.

He had misjudged Maiden Jiang, badly. He never knew her to be dishonest in their childhood, and she had never been proud—but Zixuan was flattered by the notion that someone would take the trouble to make him soup on a battlefield, and when he saw the girl who delivered the first bowl, Jiang Yanli seemed weaker and more talentless than ever in comparison. She could not fight, and she was not beautiful; and her pursuit of Jin Zixuan into battle seemed poorly done, when there were other women who had come to fight or elected to remain at home to defend their sect strongholds.

“Do you have anything in that thick skull of yours? Anything at all?” Wei Wuxian had demanded, on the day Zixuan insulted Jiang-guniang for bringing him soup. “She has two brothers at the front, and you think she’s here for you? Do you think you’d even get to see her face if Nie-zongzhu sent me and Jiang Cheng somewhere else?”

Jin Zixuan had been a fool. He considered Jiang Yanli’s affections as his by rights, even when he thought he did not want them; and now that he did, it would be shameless to pursue her considering their broken engagement.

Just the other day, he had seen her walking around camp with Wei Wuxian’s child in her arms, and the picture she made was so devastatingly beautiful that Zixuan wished he could strangle the younger version of himself that thought her plain.

“It’s nobody’s fault but your own,” Mianmian said mercilessly, when Jin Zixuan asked for her advice on the day before they departed for the Nightless City. “No one asked you to treat her coldly when we were children, or insult her at the Cloud Recesses. No one forced you to reject her cooking, either. You’re reaping your own rewards, gongzi, and you won’t get any sympathy from me.”

“I know I don’t deserve your sympathy. I don’t deserve Jiang-guniang’s love, either,” Jin Zixuan pleaded. “But surely—surely I could apologize to her? Her feelings must still be wounded, and I haven’t done anything about it.”

“The time to make apologies was months ago,” she snapped. “Frankly, I don’t see how marrying you could make Jiang-guniang happy now. Let it go.”

So Jin Zixuan let it go, knowing that the bitterness of losing Jiang Yanli was nothing compared to all that she had endured at his hands. But then, a bare twenty-four hours after Wen Ruohan was finally slain, he meets her in the compound of the Sun Palace reserved for recovering cultivators, and stops dead in his tracks; for she has Wei Wuxian’s son tied to her back in a sling, and the baby had seized one of the gold peony chains dangling from Jin Zixuan’s guan as he passed by.

“Oh!” Jiang Yanli exclaims. “Pardon me, Jin-gongzi. Yuanyuan, let go of his hair.”

The baby—Yuanyuan, Jiang-guniang said—does not let go. Instead, he winds his tiny fists around the end of the chain and pulls it towards his mouth.

“Bu!” he shrieks, when Jin Zixuan tries to free himself. Unnerved, Zixuan drops his hand and edges a little closer; he hates listening to babies’ cries, and this baby’s crying kept their regiment from sleep on so many nights that most of the Jin cultivators refuse to go anywhere near him.

Jiang-guniang reaches up and pries Yuanyuan’s left hand open. But the minute she reaches for the right one, the left hand clamps back down on Jin Zixuan’s hair.

“I’ll just give it to him. I’ve got others,” Jin Zixuan squeaks, his face burning. “It won’t take long, Lady Jiang.”

He detaches the guan and its six gold chains from his bun, letting his long dark hair fall free, and then he puts it back up with a spare hairpin and gives his guan to the baby.

“Here,” he says, and then, when she opens her mouth to thank him:

“It was no trouble,” Zixuan blurts out. “It’s just a guan, and he’s only a baby.”

Jiang Yanli gives him a kind smile and steps past him, heading towards the house where Wei Wuxian is convalescing.

But Wei Yuan, apparently unsatisfied with the peony chains now that they were his and not Zixuan’s, wriggles up and hangs the guan over Jiang Yanli’s ear.

“Pitty,” he coos, rubbing his tiny cheek against hers.

In that very moment, the sun emerges from behind a veil of rosy clouds; and when it falls upon Jiang Yanli, the light strikes the golden peony blossoms in her hair, and fills her big eyes with a gentle fire that nearly brings Jin Zixuan to his knees.

“Mianmian,” he gasps, after he staggers back to the Jins’ guest compound and collapses on the floor by his bed. “Mianmian, I need help. I love Jiang-guniang, I do—even if her affections for me have faded. I won’t press her—I could never press her, even if I had not disrespected her so in the past. But if I have the slightest, slimmest chance, then maybe—”

Mianmian looks supremely unimpressed.

“Get up,” she sighs, a little while later. “Very well, I’ll help you.”

Jin Zixuan bolts upright. “Then you think she might accept me?”

“Why do you think I told you to stay away from her?” scolds Mianmian. “If she’d learned her lesson after that business with the soup, I wouldn’t have bothered. I warned you off for her sake, Zixuan, because Jiang-guniang still loves you.”

Jin Zixuan gawks at her, wonderstruck, and bursts into tears.

[phoenixcatch7]

Random mdzs headcanons that I don't think interfere with canon:

Though sufficient cultivation cures this, lwj is short sighted. (this is because of that mxtx interview but if he actually was short sighted he would be wearing glasses in canon.) Similarly, so would lxc and lqr is already halfway there lol.

Wen chao is barely older than the main cast. Like a couple years at most. This is is because it took until his poor wife (who shall forever be unknown, rip) being mentioned for me to go 'that's an ADULT?!'. Everything from the voice to the face to the short sighted immaturity and the lying to adults in charge, there's no way this guy is anything over 20.

Lqr isn't a very strong cultivator for all his technical skill is impeccable. I think this because I thought he was young grandparent age when he's the uncle!! It's too much stress! Major props.

He's also aromantic! We know that nothing will stop a lan in love, much to their detriment, but not only does lqr seem to regard the lot of them as idiots for finding the absolute worst choices ever but I feel if he'd also loved and lost it would have been... Relevant.

Jfm was gay, and his unrequited love was wcz. Alternate sexualities (and queerness as a whole) is one of those things that's still so dangerous in many countries, and I guess ancient fantasy China is one of them! Poor mxy. Anyway that plus arranged marriages plus jfm being an only child (to my knowledge) and needing heirs... Yeah I feel like that's one of those things that happens. It's common all throughout history, forcing people into het relationships for any number of reasons or risk social (or even physical) death. I could so easily trace how that would have affected him through the courtship, marriage, his parents, him genuinely trying to love yzy and maybe deep inside knowing it was doomed to fail, her intelligence picking up on that and trying to figure out how she was unworthy, her feeling hurt and disrespected, getting more and more paranoid and sensitive as it wears on, her being so close to the right answer but correcting her would expose him. Him just trying to settle for mutual respect and teamwork and her never getting what she needs to be fulfilled in life, what she was raised and trained all her life in preparation for. The way he's so unwilling to force his kids to do anything miserable and the way he's so quick to call off the engagement when all he's hearing is disinterest and incompatibility. I could make this a whole post on its own but I fully believe this man lived and died like so many other queer people have in the past - never being able to find out who he truly was, and that he wasn't broken for not being the way he needed to be. Wangxian have an easier time of it, but when there's stories like mxy? People keep their heads down. He raised jc the way he was raised, and he turned out fine. It wasn't their fault he was such a failure of a son.

To cheer things up, I firmly believe that wwx is bisexual af. Just because lwj is his soulmate doesn't mean he's not. Are you an mxtx protag if you're simply, straightforwardly gay? I think not.

Though I do wonder if jc being Banned From Women was 100% an entirely whoopsie daisy accident. Sometimes standards are supposed to be impossible... Now I think about it, the certainty lwj hated wwx, the total lack of any partner, the focus on jl, the constant frustration with wwx's flirting and incomprehension with jyl crushing on jzx... I think the women are the only straight ones in the family, cuz he's sounding the aroace bell! Good for him tbh!!! Break the cycle!!!!

Lsh is the child of either wrh, wc, jgs, or two perfectly lovely normal people who died in war/childbirth. He was 100% a village kid, so thank goodness they all stepped up. I feel like one of the wens would have told wwx his parentage either way, so if he hasn't told anyone else I can't imagine it's great.

Each sect is associated with an element. The wens of course were fire, the nie earth, the lan air, the jin water (koi/carp tower), and the jiang are lightning (given we assume yzy and the jiang territory are compatible (her husband is probably water lol oof)). Years of specialised clan training and select marriages have caused the clan members qi to take on movement (at minimum) matching the respective elements. This is based on the anime, where everyone has nice handy colour coded qi, but the twin jades have the prettiest cloud texture that perfectly matches their crest and wwx has an almost lightning spiky red with just enough smoulder to make he sure he's a fire type. This also!!! Matches their fighting styles, have you noticed?? Idk if they did it on purpose or not but it's so cool!!! Wwx and jc are constantly moving, redirection, bounce and flip around; lwj and lxc are very twirly, lots of attacks from above, lwj often lets his sword fly mid battle, and of course the music! And the nie are very... Brick wall lol. I'd say NHS is air? Maybe? Water?

This one's a bit silly, but I like to imagine csr and bsr are mother and daughter from a distant land where people use their surnames last (gasp) and it wasn't really important to bsr cuz secluded mountain but they did figure it was going to be a problem a touch late. 'oh but phoenix they have different spellings in Chinese' csr got asked 'oh so like the immortal?' panicked and changed it on the spot. Her husband's nicknames all use her 'surname', he's the only one who knows about the mix up.

Spinning in the air helps you change an attack or helps you float. Yes this is based entirely on the anime (donghua?) where even the most serious of characters (lwj) do three full rotations before landing a big attack midair. It might be so he has time to get his guqin out lmao.

Jc is left handed, I'm pretty sure that's anime canon at least. Any good swordsman (or dual sword whip wielder!) can do a little ambidexterousness tho.

Wwx can do decent guqin cuz he's the gentleman prodigy of the arts but he probably whittled a dozen dizi out of roadside bamboo on long journeys to entertain himself which is why chengching was such a fine tuned spiritual tool.

The jiangs were a great sect lead by good people in an ehhhh family. Individually they're all actually decent people but they bring out the worst in each other even as it keeps them all in check.

I firmly believe that yzy was holding back a LOT when made to whip wwx in front of the wen wench. That's a whole entire spiritual weapon and she was going at it wildly in a barely stable environment. Compare that to lwj who took the discipline whip not too many more times (if any) and was rendered bed bound if not house bound for years recovering (and grieving) and over a decade later is still a mass of scar tissue. And that was an orderly and structured punishment using materials designed to NOT kill the victim, not a whole entire LIGHTNING MURDER WEAPON. Wwx was back on his feet minutes later sword fighting, rowing, carrying jc on his back... Lwj is the more realistic result, real whips can be lethal, and very, very dangerous. They are excruciatingly painful and if you make a mistake they can easily flay skin and muscle to crack bone. You're not supposed to strike the same patch of skin twice. Yeah wwx and his stupid pain tolerance but I truly believe him and yzy were in full accord in that moment with the roles they had to play (and jc hated every second). She could at least have apologised... in the middle of heated battle for her home and life though....

Lwjs eyes are gold and sunset and stars' YES ALSO BUT I looked at them and my immediate reaction was 'that's a bird of prey'. They're LITERALLY falcon eyes, they're identical, and I've never once seen that comparison :(. He's already piercing/intense/pinning/scouring, (and his anime eyeliner and dark lashes look like the markings) he's so perfect for the metaphor. Make it that wwx is the rabbit prey, come on.

Why is wwx sun coded but moon aesthetic and lwj moon coded but sun aesthetic like how's that fair why does it always happen.

Stop blaming wwx for Suiban he admits he came up with a zillion good names and it was jfm who didn't pick any and named it as a joke. Ngl if that was my trusted person who went and did that I would have been gutted but hey wwx thrives. I do feel like jfm naming the sword that wwx sacrifices to save jc is grounds for some angst at the very least.

Lxc was definitely in some situation with the other two because he does read as a parallel to lwj. Their romantic lives are basically inversions of each other, you could hold a graph up to a mirror. It's just that lwj was so deeply lucky to get wwx back, and he fell in love with someone true to himself. Lxc just got used and left with the ashes, no matter how much true love was on either side. Wwx chose family, kindness and community with poverty and jgy chose greed and power and wealth for total isolation. It was NHS that inverted their fates, but either brother's love could only come at the cost of the other. Poor qiren...

All those fancy huge ribbons in everyone's hair (again it's the anime donghua) are special and ridiculously sturdy ribbons given by the parents they wear in varying styles to tie it all up and as they grow up so they don't trip on it. This is a silly headcanon but I love it cuz those ribbons are stupid long and literally everyone has it. Maybe it's the mdzs equivalent of the guan ceremony?

Wwx has for sure done cannibalism.

Ooh painful headcanon time - his parents died in yiling right? And all corpses get tossed into the mounds for centuries, right? Nonzero chance wwx's parents bodies broke his fall.

Lwj gets wwx a mule for a birthday/festival cuz those guys are basically the perfect mounts humans are ever going to get, they're just v rare and infertile. They're smart and brave as donkeys and fast and strong like the horse, resulting in an animal that is down for mounted parkour with the right training. And then lwj can ride a horse alongside wwx when they go travelling ^^. Idk I just think it'd be super cute.

Wwx only comes up with good names when he's doing real bad. Names when he's doing good: Suiban, li'l apple, rulan (after his bf). Names when he's doing bad: chengqing, yin iron tally/stygian tiger amulet, compass of evil.

[hamliet]

while i was rereading the grandmaster of demonic cultivation again its about the two woman that came to lotus pear sisi and bi cao, there was something its about the reaction the cultivators had about there stories I was thinking what these two woman represent?

Hi! I've written a meta on Sisi before--she's one of the most important minor characters, I think.

I think her pairing with Bicao exists to make the reader ponder their own questions about what righteousness means and what justice is. After all, Sisi is a prostitute who openly admits to sleeping with married men, is coerced into assaulting someone to death, and is physically scarred. On the surface, she seems like someone society will and does indeed condemn.

But Sisi is the bravest, most righteous character in the entire story. She is not ashamed of what society and life have done to her; it's not like she had a choice in any of the above, after all, and while it's convenient to blame her, she had literally not a shred of freedom her entire life. At least not from whenever she entered the brothel, and we know from Jin Guangyao's comments about Meng Shi that the women there weren't there out of their own free will.

And yet, Sisi comes forward knowing people will condemn her purely to get justice for the other prostitutes who were coerced into this and then murdered. They were the ones not even brothels wanted anymore--too old, too sick, too ugly. The ones every last bit of society threw away, and she came to face scorn solely to get justice for them. She directly says this.

In contrast, Bicao came forward for money.

Now, that's not inherently a bad thing. Bicao is a servant. She's part of society, unlike Sisi, but she's not well respected or anything like that. However, Bicao knew about Qin Su's mother being raped by Jin Guangshan, knew about the Jins being siblings, and said nothing--fair enough. There's nothing wrong with wanting to survive. Where we do get into dubious moral territory is when she directly goes to Qin Su and gives her the letter.

Wei Wuxian himself notes that Qin Su had to have immense trust in Bicao to instantly believe its contents. She emphatically states that Bicao would never lie to her.

But Bicao also knew the likely outcome of her revealing this to Qin Su--that it endangered her, that she would probably be suicidal if not in danger from her husband, and Wei Wuxian directly says this as well. Bicao handed the letter to Qin Su for money knowing it would mean her misery, ostracization from society at best, and death at worst.

Bicao's not a blood relative of Qin Su, of course, and there's a tendency to be like "oh, she's a servant, she owed her nothing." To a degree, sure, but also to another degree we're absolutely supposed to compare and contrast Bicao's treatment of Qin Su with Wei Wuxian's treatment of the Jiang family, and with of course Sisi's treatment of her sisters in the brothels (which we know was always the case from how she protected Meng Shi). Wei Wuxian was derided for his disrespect of the family that took him in despite being the son of a servant, yet gave literally everything, even his golden core, to try to help the Jiangs.

We're also supposed to compare and contrast Bicao and Sisi, both of whom reveal information damning the child they once protected. Bicao did it for money and was aware of what she was doing. Sisi did it for justice and, as far as we know, was not aware that Jin Guangyao was Meng Yao.

This itself of course leads to questioning Nie Huaisang's quest for justice and whether his justice is the same flavor as Sisi's. He freed her because she served his purpose, not out of any desire to free her because she is a human being who doesn't deserve to be locked up forever. He paid Bicao to sacrifice Qin Su, who was completely innocent. Yes, he couldn't have known everything that came from his actions but he definitely knew the likely possibilities (again, Wei Wuxian explicitly says this).

These comparisons invite us to question justice and its link to power, to society, to what we owe one another, and to what it means to be righteous. These are good thematic comparisons wherein the point isn't even "Sisi good" and "Bicao bad" (which can be true even while acknowledging that Sisi is framed much more positively) but instead a multilayered approach designed to provoke questions rather than simple answers.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Ok this is my first time doing this, but we’ve gotten NMJ harem and WWX harem but can we get JYL harem? That woman deserves to get spoiled, preferably by 3 of the highest ranked cultivators (like LXC, NMJ, and sure she can keep JZX)

ao3

“I’ve decided,” Lan Xichen announced. “I’m sorry, Jin-gongzi, but I’m stealing your fiancée.”

“Oh, no,” Jin Zixuan said. His arm was comfortably wrapped around Jiang Yanli’s waist. “Did you hear that, A-Li? You’re going to be kidnapped away by the cultivation world’s number one bachelor.”

“Would that be considered a step up, since you're only number three?” Jiang Yanli asked with a smile. “Good for me, then. Sad for you, though.”

“I’m completely heartbroken,” he assured her. “I’ll cry myself to sleep at night.”

“Who’s crying?” Nie Mingjue asked, opening the door and letting himself in. He looked tired again, as he always had in private since the war started – tired, and angry, and angry about being angry. They worried about him. “Do I need to hit someone?”

He sounded wistful.

“Just me,” Lan Xichen said.

“He’s going to steal my fiancée away. It’s extremely tragic,” Jin Zixuan explained, and Nie Mingjue’s eyes curved in one of his rare smiles. “Are you going to defend my honor?”

“Certainly not,” Nie Mingjue said promptly. “I’ll be joining in. Xichen, will you share?”

“Share? Well, if I have to.”

“A-Li, I’ve been betrayed,” Jin Zixuan said, sending her a mock-mournful look. “They’re conspiring against me.”

Jiang Yanli patted his cheek. “Very tragic. Sorry, my love, I’m afraid the combined offer of the first and seventh rank bachelors by far outweighs your current offer. But if it’s any consolation, I’m sure I’ll be devastatingly happy with them.”

Jin Zixuan had been trying quite hard not to laugh and had, until that point, been succeeding; at that point, he burst out in a peal of laughter. A moment later, Lan Xichen joined in.

Nie Mingjue shook his head in amusement.

“Come sit,” Jiang Yanli told him, pointing to the floor in front of her. “I can see the headache developing.”

“Not developing, developed,” he said, but he obediently sat in front of her. He was tall enough that she could easily put her hands on his temples without needing to reach too far, which meant she could start massaging them from the comfort of where she was sitting on Jin Zixuan’s lap. “Ah, that’s good.”

“I thought I was doing the fiancée stealing,” Lan Xichen remarked. “It seems da-ge has beaten me there.”

Jiang Yanli giggled, and Jin Zixuan shook his head.

He had to admit that this wasn’t something he’d anticipated at any point in his life – neither when he was young and starting to realize to his horror that he was interested in other men, nor when he got older and realized he was also interested in some women as well (with Jiang Yanli being one of the foremost in that category).

He’d known, of course, that Jiang Yanli was older than he was; it had been one of the many faults that his not-friends had pointed out to him when egging him on to reject her – ah, he’d been such a stupid teenager, unable to see that not a single one of them had his best interests at heart! It was a miracle that she’d agreed to put up with him after all that.

Still, despite knowing that she was older, and despite knowing that she was the same age as Lan Xichen, only a few years younger than Nie Mingjue – despite knowing that she would have been forced to all the same boring discussion conferences as he had been, and would have been obligated to socialize with her peers from the other Great Sects – he somehow had never put together that she was friends with them.

Much less…well…

Jin Zixuan reflected that he had really lucked out when he’d finally removed his head from his ass and decided to pursue his soon-to-be-wife with all his heart. He’d been utterly enamored by Jiang Yanli by the time of the Phoenix Mountain hunt, kicking himself for having let her get away, and he’d thought very carefully about whether he would be content with giving up any relationships with other men in exchange for fidelity with her before concluding that he would and embarking on his pursuit of her. He hadn’t wanted to be his father, after all, and he wanted even less than that for her to feel like his mother had felt.

All in all, it had come as an extremely pleasant surprise when she’d taken him aside and explained that she would be happy to accept his offer, but that she felt she ought to disclose certain past-and-present dalliances – ones she assured him she would be willing to cut off in order to ensure that he didn’t feel like his mother had felt.

Possibly the smartest thing he’d ever done in his life was blurt out, “Can’t we share instead?” at that moment in time – even if it was mostly because she’d found it so incredibly funny.

As it was, it was still mostly her connections, not his. Lan Xichen was solely interested in women as a personal matter, although he wasn’t at all adverse to letting Jin Zixuan watch and even participate in the same encounter, while Nie Mingjue, who was a little more flexible in such matters, was still evaluating Jin Zixuan as a person before he would be willing to agree to anything that did not involve Jiang Yanli smoothing the way. But Jin Zixuan found that he was quite happy that way – perhaps it was something from his childhood or the way he watched the wreckage that was his parents’ marriage, but he found that nothing in the world suited him more than having his wife be happy and loved.

And, yes, if she happened to be loved by very attractive men who would let him watch, that was definitely even better.

“I yield to better men,” Jin Zixuan said. “There’s no point in fighting. But one thing.”

“Oh?”

“If you want to steal her, you have to write to all of the wedding guests and explain.”

Jiang Yanli burst into giggles as both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue grimaced.

“Ouch,” Lan Xichen said. “Sorry, A-Li. You’re worth the sun, the moon, and the stars…but maybe not that much paperwork.”

“Not to mention explaining it to your uncle,” Nie Mingjue added.

“…and that.”

“I wonder if I could avoid the bureaucracy if I stole her away like a barbarian,” Nie Mingjue mused. “I could crash the wedding itself – that way they’d all know, and no need for letters.”

“I feel like I’d be obligated to challenge you to a duel if you did that,” Jin Zixuan said. “And then I’d lose and be dead, and poor A-Li would feel just awful about it. I hope.”

Jiang Yanli had buried her face in his shoulder and was shaking with laughter. “Oh yes,” she said gaily. “Very much so. I might even be moved to take my own life in a dramatic twist.”

“And then Wei Wuxian would emerge to take the rest of our lives in revenge, I suspect,” Lan Xichen remarked. “Better not do it, da-ge.”

“Oh, all right. If you insist. What brought on this bout of wife-stealing?”

“Fiancée-stealing, da-ge, please. I have standards.”

“Not when it comes to A-Li you don’t.”

“It comes on him spontaneously sometimes, I think,” Jiang Yanli said. “Like the weather.”

Lan Xichen nodded.

“Speaking of wife-stealing,” Jin Zixuan said, because he’d been waiting for a good moment to get this into the conversation, “the artisans have finally finished crafting our marriage bed.”

“You got an entirely new bed just for your marriage? Really?”

“I’m a Jin. If I’m not spending money outrageously, I’m letting down my sect,” Jin Zixuan pointed out with a shrug. “Anyway, I had them make it extra large.”

That got him interested looks, as he’d expected it would.

“Extra large,” he emphasized. “The artisans promised it could fit four grown men – though I don’t know if I believe them.”

“Well, four grown men might be a stretch,” Nie Mingjue said, already starting to smile. “But I think we could see how well it handles three men and one lady, assuming the lady herself is feeling amenable.”

“I most certainly am,” Jiang Yanli said. “Come on, let’s go break it in.”

[silverflame2724]

Accidental Martial God WWX

That was exacty what I meant actually but I do have a few more povs if you want.

LQRs reaction to a demonic cultivator ascending, JGS and JGY reaction to the Yin Tiger Tally moving completely out of reach, WQ pondering the true requirements for ascension given WWX doesn't have a golden core yet ascended, WWX musing on Godhood and on his new followers both the good and the more disturbing worshipers.

Maybe LWJ protects the Wen Remnants because WWX asked him to in a dream and after he succeeds (13 years later) he ascends and is finally reunited with WWX.

Lan Qiren did not know what to think. Wei Wuxian, his most troublesome student, a demonic cultivator, had ascended. He’d ascended. How was that even possible? Were the Heavens blind? Why would they allow someone like Wei Wuxian to ascend?

From what Lan Qiren had thought, only those who are righteous and followed the correct path in life like the Lan clan’s founder, Lan An, would be worthy of ascending.

Either the qualifications for ascension were lower than he thought or Lan Qiren had been horribly mistaken about Wei Wuxian’s personality and motivations for using demonic cultivation. That last thought made Lan Qiren feel very uncomfortable.

He’d always been harsh on the boy and disregarded him, even - he ashamedly admitted - punishing him harsher and more frequently than others.

He’d thought he was in the right because of how Wei Wuxian was but…..

But if he was wrong then Lan Qiren owed him an apology.

………………….

Jin Guangshan wanted to scream out in frustration seeing Wei Wuxian ascend. That brat had the Stygian Tiger Seal on him - according to his spies - and now that he ascended, the Seal went with him.

He had had so many plans on bribing Wei Wuxian to his side or killing him when he refused - as well as stealing the Seal - and then taking over the cultivation world, lording over it as he was always meant to be.

Now those plans are ruined. He sighed. Hopefully that bastard son of his can finally prove his usefulness and give him countermeasures or he might retract his favor from him.

……………………

Jin Guangyao’s first thought upon seeing Wei Wuxian ascend was: Oh shit. I have to go make up new plans to help Father.

He knew his father wanted Wei Wuxian and the Seal and didn’t really care how he obtained both or either, just as long as no one traced it back to him. He sighed. This was going to be a big headache. But at least the plans on putting his father as Chief Cultivator were going smoothly. He could only imagine what his father would do to him if even this failed.

..............................

Wen Qing had still been in Yiling, making plans to relocate her family, when the news that Wei Wuxian had ascended had reached her.

Her first reaction was, That’s impossible.

Because it was, right? Wen Qing should know. She cut out his core, after all. But to think he was still able to ascend while he was a demonic cultivator made her wonder what the requirements were for ascending. Perhaps it’s an honest heart? Self-sacrificing tendencies? Or is it a sacrifice of some sorts? She paused. What if.....it was a trial? To test a person’s will? What Wei Wuxian had suffered was.....horrible. Could it have all been just a test from the Heavens?

If that was so, the Heavens really are cru--- 

“A’ Jie, we have to go! Some Jin were spotted nearby!”

Wen Qing gritted her teeth. Members of the branch families of Qishan, regardless of whether they were innocent or not, were captured and subsequently tortured to death by the Jin and sometimes the Nie. Because her family was all in Yiling, they were safe.......but only for now. They had to hurry and escape.

Wen Qing sent a quick prayer to Wei Wuxian, hoping for her family’s safety, and tucked the rest of her belongings in her qiankun pouch, remembering to wrap her arms in bandages to hide the needles she might need to paralyze any Jin that came close.

....................................

Wei Wuxian’s first thought when he landed in the Heavens was, What the fuck.

Then he looked around and looked taken aback and wary at the unfamiliar faces around him. Where the fuck am I?

“Hello.” A rather stoic-faced man greeted.

“Hello.” Wei Wuxian parroted back. The person in front of him didn’t seem to be a threat so he felt a little tension loosen from his shoulders. “Um, Xiansheng? I’m afraid I don’t know where I am?”

“You have just ascended.” The man replied, throwing Wei Wuxian aback.

“Are you pulling my leg?” Wei Wuxian asked. “How is that even possible! I don’t even have---” He swallowed. I don’t even have a core.

“I do not lie. Come, we are wasting time. We must get you washed up and dressed for the induction ceremony.” Seeing Wei Wuxian still frozen, the man sighed, signalled for some people to pick Wei Wuxian up and dragged the struggling man to some quarters.

After absentmindedly washing, drying and changing himself, Wei Wuxian noticed some differences in his body. He wasn’t....cold or hurting anymore. And - he touched his back - he could feel his back! After having his muscles and nerves shredded by Zidian, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to sense touch on his back or even move without pain! But now he can!

He heard the urging of some people and grumbled.

“You will become a god of demonic cultivation.” Was the first thing he heard when he stepped out of the room.

Wei Wuxian choked. “Excuse me?!”

“I said what I said. Now then, if you would please concentrate, you should be able to hear the prayers of the people below.”

Wei Wuxian felt like everything was moving a little too fast for him, but nevertheless complied. Immediately after, a flood of prayers hit him at full force.

“Wei Wuxian!” That was Jiang Cheng! “….Have some fun up there.”

“A’ Xian, do be well. Shijie isn’t there to take care of you so do be well.” Wei Wuxian refused to cry.

“Wei-Xiong! I hope there’s someone up there to supply you with you know what *winks*”

How does someone even wink in their prayers? Wei Wuxian thought amusedly.

“Wei Ying.” That was Lan Zhan. “Wei Ying, I will—be well.”

Ah, Lan Zhan. Always concise even in your thoughts.

Wei Wuxian was a little teary. As much as he was glad to not be a part of the cultivation world considering all the rumors, he did regret leaving behind those that cared for him.

That thought was much more cemented upon hearing…….

“Ah, Lord Wei, the pinnacle of evil, the role model of all demonic cultivators!” Wei Wuxian’s eye twitched. “Please hear my plea for more power! I need it, I need it to destroy everyone who harmed me!”

“Wei Wuxian, I wish to gain power over resentful energy so that I may tear my enemies limb by limb!

“Give me money! You’re a god, aren’t you? Be useful for once and give me some gold!”

“Tch. If I’m going to pray for anything, then it’ll have to be the Seal. You’re a god, now, right? So you have no need for the Seal. Just give it up.”

No matter the good or bad, Wei Wuxian heard the wishes and prayers of the people down below and while some were innocent enough, there were those that wished for death, destruction, tools for torture, power, money, women…….you name it.

It made Wei Wuxian feel a little disgusted with humanity. He cut off his focus from the bad and focused on the prayer he received from his friends and family.

“Wei Wuxian, I heard you became a god.” It was Wen Qing. He hadn’t heard her voice in a long time. “I know this might seem shameless of me after all I did to you, but please. Please guarantee the safety of my family. We’re being hunted down and—”

Her prayer was abruptly cut off, before coming back in full force with notes of desperation. Her family had been captured and taken to Qiongqi Path! Wei Wuxian panicked. He didn’t know how to escape from this place and try to go help her.

The…..person who was watching over him evidently knew what he was thinking about and merely stated that gods cannot interfere with the mortal realm. So he was stuck.

But that didn’t mean he was out of options.

It took a few days, but he managed to wheedle out how to help: via dreams. He merely needed to get into the mind of one of his followers and tell them to help. Much like those prophetic dreams Wei Wuxian had read about as a kid.

So he buckled down, thinking of the best candidate to help him.

……………………………

Lan Wangji looked at the landscape around him and concluded that he was dreaming. Though, it was a little odd that he was aware that he was dreaming. Not that he hasn’t realized he was dreaming before - especially in those many fantasies he had of Wei Ying - but to be aware that this is a dream and to see nothing but a flat landscape was pretty out of the ordinary. 

Anyway, he digressed. What was going on?

“Uhh, Lan Zhan? Can you hear me?”

“W-Wei Ying?!” Lan Wangji couldn’t be blamed for stuttering. He wasn’t expecting this!

“Phew. Oh good, you can hear me. Anyway, Lan Zhan, I gotta be quick about this because I’m kinda sorta bending the rules here, but do you think you can go to Qiongqi Path and rescue Wen Qing and her family?”

“Okay.”

“Huh? Just like that? Not even going to ask me for a reason, er-gege?”

Lan Wangji’s ears flushed red at the address. “If Wei Ying wants to save them, you must have a good reason. That’s enough for me.”

“Ah, Hanguang-Jun.” The title was spoken fondly. “Always so good. I’ll tell you anyway. Wen Qing and her family sheltered Jiang Cheng and I after Lotus Pier fell and even brought back Jiang-shushu and Yu-furen’s bodies! That’s a debt I cannot repay.”

“I understand. I will help.”

He couldn’t see Wei Ying, but could practically feel the amusement from him.

“Wei Ying.”

“Yes?”

“Are......Are you well?”

“Of course I am. I’m actually feeling so much better than before.” Wei Ying grumbled, “I’m not even in pain anymore.”

“You were in pain?” Lan Wangji asked worriedly. “Wei Ying, why didn’t you say anything.”

“Lan Zhan, there was nothing you or anyone else could do to alleviate my pain. It doesn’t matter now. I’m okay.”

Lan Wangji was still worried and wanted to speak to him more, but---

“Ah! Looks like my time’s up!” Wei Ying exclaimed cheerfully as the dreamscape wavered. “See you, Lan Zhan!”

Lan Wangji nodded. “See you, Wei Ying.” I’ll catch up to you soon.

.

.

.

And 13 years later, Lan Wangji kept his promise.

___________________

I didn’t edit this so I’m hoping there’s not too many grammatical errors lol. 

[drwcn]

NEW!

《 Without Envy 》 storyboard 11 - concubine/sleeper agent!wwx & prince!lwj

Other snippets and storyboards can be found on [Master List]

Lan Wangji knew his Uncle and the imperial court and the elders of the royal family were never going to be okay with him making Wei Wuxian one of his concubines. The servant status is one thing, but that's not the crux of the issue. The issue is that there's already a rumour circulating about how WWX is a wily fox whose sole purpose in life is to seduce and befuddle the prince. Xue Yang: quite a reputation you've cultivated for yourself. WWX: *kuzo's meme*.........ah yes, everything is all coming together now.

Lan Wangji is a smart boy though. He knows how to get what he wants. As Wei Ying inched towards full recovery from his whipping, the autumn hunt is upon them.

The autumn hunt in the royal hunts ground was a competition. Anyone invited could compete if they chose to, and of Lan Wangji's household, Jin Ziyan, Luo Qingyang and himself were in attendance. Mianmian, being his concubine and a woman, had two escorts/chaperones accompanying her for propriety, but flashed him dazzling smiles of gratitude upon her horse.

"I'm very grateful, dianxia, for your allowing this indulgence." "Of course," replied Lan Wangji from his saddle. "My Luo-furen should have what she wants." "Dianxia, ce-wangfu." Qin Su approached them and curtsied in proper form. "I wish you all best of luck in the hunt." Then to Mianmian, she said quietly, "Be careful, Qingyang." Jin Ziyan paid the two women no mind, but Lan Wangji saw the hand Qin Su had clandestinely wrapped around one of Mianmian's booted ankles. Oh...well, this is certainly a positive development.

The rest of the noble women not participating in the hunt rested in their tented pavilions, with Meng Yao as their hostess. They drank tea and ate sweets and enjoyed their free time to themselves. Meng Yao noted Wei Wuxian's absence from Jiang Yanli's side, as did several other noble women, but Jiang Yanli only smiled and said, "A-Xian has been living at my father's manor for several years and is an excellent marksman. Dianxia thought it a waste if he were kept from participating."

The truth of the matter is like this: when Wei Wuxian cheated and lied his way into Jiang-fu, he'd told Jiang Fengmian and his family that he'd lived most of his life by the charity of a hunter's family, and so had trained to hunt game in the wild. After the hunter's family died of some infectious illness that plagued the region, Wei Wuxian had supposed made his way into the city and found employment as a shop boy. He couldn't reveal that he'd been trained in martial arts, but there is no need to hide his skill as an archer. At first, it was so he could use archery as a common interest to get close to Jiang Fengmian's son Jiang Cheng, but Wei Wuxian soon realized that it could also be used as a way for Lan Wangji to cultivate further interest.

"Lan Zhan..." Wei Wuxian stroked the snout of Lan Wangji's beloved ferghana horse and grinned. "You really want me to ride him?" "Mn." "You...won't be mad then, if I win?" Wei Wuxian's grin turned slightly wicked. "If I beat you?" Lan Wangji's brow twitched with interest, "Not at all. That's rather what I'm counting on." "Yeah? And why is that?" "Because while I can claim victory with the sword -" "- Very modest, you." Wei Wuxian teased, grinning, which earned him a subtle little glare. "- amongst my cousins, my marksmanship is not unrivalled. You may have a greater chance of winning with him. Huangxiong promised that whoever wins today's hunt will be granted one wish." A wish? Wei Wuxian mulled over this information. His own mission turned and circled in his mind. If I could but gain access to... ... Of course, Wei Wuxian glanced at the prince and the saw the light in his eyes. Lan Wangji is probably thinking of something entirely different.

And so it was inevitable that went the count of the hunt came in, Wei Wuxian's name was at the top. Lan Qiren's little mustache just about flew off his face the way he scrunched it up in displeasure.

Gentries, nobles, dukes and princes watched with envy and shock as a servant came forth to accept the Emperor's reward.

"Jiang-xiong," Nie Huaisang leaned close to Jiang Cheng while they watched from the sidelines as Wei Wuxian bowed before the Emperor. "Why do you look so smug?" Jiang Cheng played with the end of an arrow with an air of mock innocence, "I don't know what you're talking about?" Nie Huaisang pulled at the leather of his riding attire in discomfort - this was so not his style - and tsked, "I know you, Jiang-xiong, you're not subtle. What did you do?" "I was the one who told Lan Wangi that Wei Wuxian is an excellent archer when I went to visit Hanguang-fu." Nie Huaisang understood instantly, "Oh....oh I see..." "What? Don't judge me! You know what they did to him. String up like some unruly animal and whipped. I never agreed with my mother's plan to send him along with my sister anyway. Wei Wuxian may be lowborn but..." Jiang Cheng scowled. "He's too good for them. For Lan Wangji. He's clearly not going to do right by Wei Wuxian. I won't stand to see a perfectly good man wasted as some prissy prince's concubine instead of being where he could put his real skills to use." "Shhhhh, ancestors, Jiang-xiong, keep your voice down! Words like that are a great dishonor against bixia, you'll lose your head!" Jiang Cheng shrugged.

Xue Yang *at a later times*: so lemme get this straight, you won the Hunt, and then Lan Xichen asked you what you want as reward - WWX - as a good little servant I said "I want for nothing that wangye and Jiang-zhuzi hasn't already provided me" - XY *rolls his eyes* Right. And then Jiang Wanyin came out of nowhere and said - "陛下，魏婴乃微臣之家生子，是前管家魏长泽 的独子， 因幼年时父母过世一直遗留市井。上天庇佑，几年前父亲将他巡回。魏婴为人端正淳厚，虽未上过学堂，但头脑机智。陛下也看到了，他弓发出众， 是。。。如能加强训练，以后必会为我姑苏所用 - " Bixia, Wei Ying is this subject's home-born servant, the only son of our previous head of staff Wei Changze. Due to the unfortunate passing of his parents in his youth, he has been getting by doing odd jobs in the capital. Heavens be willing, Father was able to find him after these many years and brought him home. Wei Ying is kind and righteous; though never have been taught by scholars, he is sharp of mind. As bixia has seen, he is a great marksmanship, is ... If he could be granted proper training, he would be a great asset for Gusu in the future. - And what a waste it would be if you were left to twindle away within the confines of a harem. I bet Lan Wangji just loved that. The balls on Jiang Wangyin - I do love his style. WWX You're the only one. Jiang-shushu just about had a heart attack when Jiang Cheng dissed Lan Wangji in public. Madam Yu nearly popped a vein too. XY: Yeah well, he's got a point. You may be Jiang Yanli's companion, but you're not Lan Wangji's concubine, you're just a servant with a skill. Honestly why shouldn't they put you to better use than waiting to maybe spread your legs for a prince who might just as easily toss you aside after the newness fades. WWX *slaps him up the head* Rascal! I'm your shixiong. Don't be so rude. Anyways, Lan Zhan, he - he was willing to let me go. I think he loves me you know - XY: He what now - WWX: He said - Lan Wangji came to kneel beside Wei Wuxian and Jiang Wanyin and bowed to his royal brother, "Huangxiong, Wei Ying is the peijia of my Jiang-furen, a servant of my manor. I... I long knew he is an excellent marksman and should have submitted his candidacy for the ranks but -" Lan Wangji looked at him then, eyes huge with something unreadable. "Jiang-xiao-jiangjun is right. Wei Ying is good, his mind is bright. He would be more suited to militia than...than within the walls of the inner court." "Wangye, have you....have you grown tired of Wei Ying -" "Wei Ying, no -" XY: Oh barf. So please tell me you chose to go to bingbu (ministry of war). WWX: Going to bingbu was never the assignment. If yifu wanted me in the ministry of war, I would've infiltrated them from the start. I refused. And it had the intended effect. "No?" Lan Xichen leaned forward curiously. "Joining the ranks will elevate your rank to that of a subject of the imperial government, and if you are truly as skilled and talented as my brother and Jiang-xiao-jiangjun say, you may rise yet to stand in my court as an officer of the imperial military. You will have your own commission, your own manor, marry, have children - all things which will be forbidden to you if you remain as you are now. As you are male, you cannot provide for Hanguang-fu any offspring, and your low-born status has precluded you from the position of consort or even vice-consort. Have you considered your options carefully? " "I understand bixia, and my decision is made. Nothing would please me more than to stay by wangye's side. I regret nothing." XY: >_> And A this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact you're increasingly horny for Lan Wangji? WWX: Of course not. Because of Lan Qiren, I couldn't advance in Hanguang-fu. But now that Lan Xichen had given me his royal decree, I am Lan Wangji's sanctioned mianshou. XY: *insert eye emoji* So...y'all fucked? WWX *wistful, thinking about the night he spent at the autumn palace after the hunt* : We did, you pervert. Ya happy now? *WWX sighed* But I know who we are and what I must do. Yifu needs me by Lan Wangji's side, for what reasons I do not yet know. No matter how he and I are now... one day it will

all end. XY: *stares into the camera like he's on the office*

Note: yifu = Wen Ruohan, WWX's adoptive father.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Jin Guangyao isn't cruel because he is nice sometimes! No... no... just no. He pretends to be a nice, sweet person to get what he wants, it is exactly why he got away with the killings and plannings for the Yin Hu Fu, YEARS AFTER JIN GUANGSHAN IS OUT OF THE PICTURE. He's the only legitimate Jin left old enough to take over the Sect, who the hell was gonna argue that when all relevant Jins were dead and Nie Mingjue was killed by the happy smiling pretty boy?

First example, he was actively friends with Xue Yang, there is no saying he was coerced into that one since he recommended him as a guest disciple and made creepy little jokes with him.

Jin GuangYao sighed, “I only turned around for a second and you stirred up so much trouble for me. I only had to pay for a bowl of dumplings in the beginning, and now I have to pay for his table, chairs, pots and pans, and even bowls.”

Xue Yang, “You’ll miss the couple of coins?”

Jin GuangYao, “No.”

Xue Yang, “Then why are you sighing?”

Jin GuangYao, “I don’t think you’ll miss the couple of coins either. Why can’t you try being a normal customer once in a while?”

Xue Yang, “Back in Kuizhou I never paid for anything I wanted. Just like this.” As he spoke, he casually plucked off a stick of sugared haws off a vendor’s pole. It might be the first time the vendor saw such a shameless person. As he stared open-mouthed, Xue Yang took a bite, “Besides, you can deal with the trouble of me wrecking a tiny stall, can’t you?”

Jin GuangYao smiled, “You little delinquent. Wreck stalls however you want. I wouldn’t even care if you burned down the entire street. Just one thing—don’t wear the Stars Amidst Snow robes and cover up your face. Don’t let anyone know who did it, or it’d be trouble for me.”

He tossed the money to the vendor

A.K.A: haha you're funny and I don't care who you fuck over but be sly and

Next example:

And so, Jin GuangShan sought after all those who imitated Wei WuXian in cultivating the ghostly path and gathered them under his rule. He spent a great amount of money and resources on these people, ordering them to study and analyze the structure of the Tiger Seal in secrecy so that they could replicate and restore it. Among them, not many achieved anything, while the one who walked the furthest was the youngest Xue Yang, recommended by Jin GuangYao alone.

Jin GuangYao was overjoyed. He accepted him as a guest cultivator and gave him high rights and freedom. The corpse training ground was an area of land Jin GuangYao specially requested for Xue Yang for him to research in secrecy, which meant for him to fool around however he wanted to.

He gave a whole torture playground for Xue Yang to use, he specifically asked for this from his own mouth, for Xue Yang to use and he would check in on progress. As for his morals:

Jin GuangYao’s tone was somewhat reproachful, “He Su gongzi is a respected cultivator, after all. How could you refer to him in such a disrespectful way?”

The cultivator laughed coldly, “I’ve already fallen in your hands. What are you keeping up the pretense for?”

Jin GuangYao responded with a kind expression, “You don’t have to look at me like that. I also had no choice. To elect a chief cultivator is an irresistible trend. What was the use of stirring up trouble and seeking arguments everywhere? I’ve already warned you again and again, yet you were determined not to listen to me. Under these circumstances, things are already beyond redemption. From the bottom of my heart, I, too, feel utmost pain and regret.”

He Su, “What was the irresistible trend? What was stirring up trouble? Jin GuangShan wanted to establish the position of chief cultivator only to imitate the QishanWen Sect in being the only one at the top. Do you think all the world is ignorant? You frame me like this only because I spoke the truth!”

Jin GuangYao smiled, saying nothing. He Su continued, “When you really succeed, all of the world of cultivation would see the true face of the LanlingJin Sect. Do you think killing me alone would put you eternally at ease? How wrong you are! We, the TingshanHe Sect, teem with talent. From now on, we’ll unite and never surrender to you Wen-dogs of another skin!”

Hearing this, Jin GuangYao squinted slightly, the corners of his lips curving up. It was the usual kind, gentle expression. Seeing this, He Su felt his heart skip a beat. At the same time, commotion sounded outside the corpse training ground, among it the cries of women and children.

He Su spun around, only to see a group of LanlingJin Sect cultivators drag inside sixty or seventy people all wearing the same uniform. There were men and women, old and young. Every one of them was a cross between shock and fear, while some were already crying. Both tied up, a girl and a boy kneeled on the ground as they wailed at He Su, “Ge!”

He Su was shocked speechless, his face instantly as white as paper, “Jin GuangYao! What are you doing?! It’s enough if you kill me—why drag my entire sect along?!”

Jin GuangYao looked down and fixed his sleeves, still grinning, “Weren’t you yourself the one who reminded me just now? Even if I killed you, I wouldn’t be put eternally at ease. The TingshanHe Sect teems with talent, and from now on, you’d unite and never surrender—I was quite frightened. After much thought, this was the only thing I could come up with.”

Among the group are children. That he did see and stare at gleefully as he lets Xue Yang decide to use all of them for corpse experiments. What does that mean??? Maybe that Jin Guangyao is also not in fact best uncle as he similarly was willing to kill Jin Ling who he "loved" as bait to try running away and is more than willing to use his "friends" for his own rise to power or to run away.

Examples of him enjoying emotionally torturing others as much as Xue Yang as a tactic:

Example 1:

“That’s not the way to go about things, is it? The TingshanHe Sect rebelled and schemed to assassinate Sect Leader Jin with all its forces before it was caught red-handed. How could that be called without a reason?”

The ones overhead cried, “Ge! He’s lying! We didn’t, we didn’t!”

He Su, “Utter nonsense! Open your eyes and fucking look! There are nine-year-old children here! Old men who can’t even walk! How could they rebel against anything?! Why would they assassinate your dad out of nowhere?!”

Jin GuangYao, “Because you made a mistake and committed murder, Young Master He Su, while they refused to accept Koi Tower’s conviction of you, of course.”

He Su finally remembered the accusation for which he was transferred to such a creepy place, “It’s all made up! I never killed a cultivator of the LanlingJin Sect! I’ve never even seen the person who died! I don’t even know if he was really a cultivator from your sect! I… I…”

He stammered for a while before eventually caving in, “I… I don’t even know what happened, I don’t even know!”

Yet, at such a place, nobody would listen to his protests.

Example 2:

Just as he was about to move, Jin GuangYao smiled, “HanGuang-Jun, it’s best if you take five steps back.”

Wei WuXian suddenly felt a small, sharp sting come from his neck. Lan XiChen lowered his voice, “Be careful. Do not move!”

Lan WangJi’s gaze landed on Wei WuXian’s neck. His face paled slightly.

An almost invisible guqin string, light and golden, was tied around Wei WuXian’s neck.

The guqin string was extremely thin. It was covered in special paint as well, making it almost invisible to the eye. Along with how disoriented Wei WuXian was, unable to pay attention to anything else, he didn’t notice it when it wrapped around his throat.

“Lan Zhan, don’t! Don’t back away!”

But Lan WangJi immediately walked five steps back without any hesitation.

Jin GuangYao, “Wonderful. Now, please sheathe Bichen.”

With a clank, Lan WangJi obeyed again. Wei WuXian raged, “Don’t ask for too much!”

Jin GuangYao quipped, “This is already asking for too much? Next, I’m even going to ask HanGuang-Jun to seal away his spiritual powers. What would that be called?”

Wei WuXian seethed, “You…”

Before he could finish, the sharp pain of flesh being lacerated came from his throat. Something dripped down his neck. Lan WangJi’s face was pale. Jin GuangYao said, “How could he not listen to me? Just think about it, Wei gongzi, his life is in my hands.”

Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, “Do. Not. Touch. Him.”

“Then you know what to do, HanGuang-Jun.”

A moment later, Lan WangJi responded, “Yes.”

Lan XiChen sighed. Lan WangJi raised his hands. With two strong taps, he locked his own spiritual powers.

Jin GuangYao smiled, his voice soft, “This really is…”

Lan WangJi’s eyes were locked on them, “Let him go.”

Example 3:

Wei WuXian wouldn’t have had to be responsible for a life as heavy as Jin ZiXuan’s, and the things that happened later wouldn’t have had to happen.

Yet now, he finally realized even the reason behind culprit’s curse wasn’t to frame him. Even the cause didn’t have anything to do with him!

Such a fact was truly difficult to accept.

As he laughed, Wei WuXian’s eyes reddened. He mocked, whether at himself or otherwise, “I can’t believe it’s because of someone like you… because of such a ridiculous reason!”

But Jin GuangYao seemed like he knew what he thought, “Wei gongzi, you really shouldn’t think like this.”

Wei WuXian, “Oh? You know what I think?”

Jin GuangYao, “Of course. It’s quite easy. You’re definitely thinking about how unfortunate you are. In reality, you’re not. Even if Su She didn’t curse Jin ZiXun, Mr. Wei, you’d receive a siege sooner or later, because of some other reason.” He smiled, “Because that’s what kind of a person you are. At best, you’re the untamed hero; at worst, you offend people wherever you go. Unless all those whom you’ve offended lived their lives safely, as soon as something happened to them or someone did something to them, the first person they suspect would be you and the first person they seek revenge on would also you. And this is something you have no control over.”

Somehow, Wei WuXian smiled, “What should I do? For some reason, I think you make a lot of sense.”

Jin GuangYao, “And even if you didn’t lose control at the Qiongqi Path, could you guarantee you didn’t lose control sometime in the rest of your life? Thus, someone like you is destined to have a short life. You see? Doesn’t it feel a lot better if you think about it this way?”

He takes little time in using others hurt or their protective instincts against them, and is just as gleeful to see others in powerless situations in comparison to him as it still gives him a form of control to worm his way out of everything that has caught up to him.

Jin GuangYao, “Ge, every word of what I say is true.”

His tone was more than earnest. Ever since he captured Lan XiChen, he’d indeed been treating him with respect. At this point, Lan XiChen wasn’t able to turn against him yet. He could only sigh, “Sect Leader Jin, I have already said, when you went your own way to scheme such havoc at Burial Mound, that there was no longer any need to call me ‘Brother.’”

Jin GuangYao, “What happened at Burial Mound was an accident, a mistake. But, I can’t go back anymore.”

Lan XiChen, “What do you mean you cannot go back?”

Lan WangJi frowned slightly, his voice cold, “Xiongzhang, do not engage in excessive conversation with him.”

Wei WuXian reminded him as well, “Sect Leader Lan, do you remember what you said to Sect Leader Jiang? Don’t spend too long talking to him.”

Jin GuangYao, “Ge, listen to me. I don’t deny that I did those things…”

Lan XiChen, “How could you deny them? There are both witnesses and proof!”

Jin GuangYao, “And so I said I don’t deny them! But to have killed my father, my wife, my son, ge—if not because I had no other choice, why would I have done those things? Could it be that I’m really so out of my mind in your eyes?!”

"Your… wife…” As though he couldn’t say it, he immediately changed his phrasing, "Your sister, Qin Su, did you really marry her while knowing what blood relationship you had with her?”

Jin GuangYao stared blankly at him. Suddenly, tears rolled down his eyes. He answered with pain, “… Yes.” Lan XiChen took in a deep breath. His face was almost ashen. Jin GuangYao whispered, "But I really had no choice.”

With a sigh, Lan XiChen continued, “Third, do not try to avoid it and answer me—did you plan the death of Jin ZiXuan on purpose?!”

Hearing his father’s name, Jin Ling, who’d been holding Jiang Cheng, widened his eyes.

Lan WangJi raised his voice somewhat, “Xiongzhang, you believe him?”

Lan XiChen’s expression was complicated, “Of course I do not believe that Jin ZiXuan ran into the attack at Qiongqi Path by accident, but… let him speak first.”

Jin GuangYao knew he wouldn’t be believed if he denied it no matter what. He clenched his teeth, “… I indeed didn’t run into Jin ZiXuan by accident.”

Jin Ling immediately clenched his fists.

Jin GuangYao continued, “But I’ve never thought of planning everything that happened afterward either. You don’t have to think of me as so clever and faultless. Many things can’t be controlled at all. How could I have known that he’d definitely die by Wei WuXian’s hands together with Jin ZiXun? How could I have predicted that Wei WuXian would definitely lose control and the Ghost General would definitely run a riot?”

Wei WuXian’s voice was harsh, “And you said you didn’t run into him by accident? Isn’t that self-contradiction?!”

Jin GuangYao, “I don’t deny that I told him about the attack at Qiongqi Path on purpose, but I only thought that he’d encounter some difficulties if he ran into you when you were being troubled by his cousin since he’d never been on good terms with you. How could I have known that you would simply kill everyone present, Wei gongzi?”

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

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

“‘Son? Oh, forget it.’”

Jin GuangYao’s memory was extraordinary. With such a word-by-word repetition, one could even imagine that drunk expression of Jin GuangShan’s when he said these words, “Ge, look, those three words were all that I was worth to my father, ‘Oh, forget it.’ Hahahaha…”

Pain flashed before Lan XiChen’s face, “Even if your father… you…” He still couldn’t find an appropriate comment and gave up, sighing instead, “What is the use of saying all this now?”

Jin GuangYao shrugged as he smiled, “I can’t help it. To seek pity even after doing all these terrible things—that’s the kind of person I am.”

At the word ‘pity’, he suddenly flipped his wrist. A red guqin string wrapped around Jin Ling’s neck.

Tears still hung at the corners of Jin GuangYao’s eyes as he spoke, voice low, “Don’t move!”

"I had no choice", "I couldn't predict anyone would be killed" "He mocked and forgot my mother and I". He uses all of this as a try to convince a kind Lan Xichen to let him go. However,he contradicts his own defenses as he had said Wei Wuxian was always fated to die for his actions and lack of being to keep things under control. This empathy is faked on his end while he makes excuses all while he never extended the same courtesy to those he killed, innocent or not, and underhandedly still tries to get those sympathetic under his manipulations. When they are not working he resorts again to threatening lives. He uses his mother also as a reason for revenge, however his grab for power alone after Jin Guangshan and Nie Mingjue are killed was solely based on his own obsession of status at that point. His mother was no longer a goal to accomplish anything and his continued lies dragged in more than one innocent party to get what he wanted.

He never saw Jin Ling, Lan Xichen, Lan Wangji, or Wei Wuxian as anything but pawns despite his soft words to them that are really just a mockery within Guanyin Temple at that point. He has placed none of them before himself in terms of what he cares for and never had.

TL:DR: Jin Guangyao's "kindness" was always a mask and Nie Mingjue was right that he was irredeemable, genuinely unkind and cruel as a person.

(Edit: Jin Guangyao stans don't even try, I will block you if you dare to reply to this)

[songofclarity]

I love how NMJ haters ignore the fact that I’m the last moments of his life when he realizes JGY is about to wipe out his entire sect, the head of the Tingshan He sect sort of invokes his name as a possible source of protection the lesser sects have against JGY’s tyranny, and the one they could count on to avenge them.

Villainous Friends is such a great extra chapter that I'm kind of insulted on Jin Guangyao's behalf when it's overlooked.

The reaction we get from He Su invoking Nie Mingjue's name is rather interesting:

Hearing him mention Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao raised his brows. Xue Yang laughed so hard he was about to flop over his chair. Jin Guangyao gave him a look before he turned around and replied calmly, "That's not the way to go about things, is it?" (ERS, ch. 118)

Xue Yang is going to bust a lung and Jin Guangyao is, at best, simply surprised. There is no hint of fear or worry here! And then Jin Guangyao proceeds to spin the twisted story that's going to the presses in the morning of how the Young Master tried to assassinate Sect Leader Jin and then the rest of his sect retaliated against Koi Tower's conviction, thus all of them deserving execution.

Jin Guangyao spins a story that even the likes of Nie Mingjue wouldn't be able to argue against, because he's left out crucial details.

He Su, "Utterly nonsense! Open your eyes and fucking look! There are nine-year-old children here! Old men who can't even walk!" (ch. 118)

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Jiang Cheng mocked, "Those sect leaders thought you gathered some leftover forces and crowned yourself king of the hill. So it's only the old, the weak, the women, and the children." (ch. 73)

And we all know the Jin and Jin Guangyao get away with leading both these massacres.

Although a really neat aspect of this scene is how even when Jin Guangyao holds a person's life and death in his hands, he still can't command their respect or fear.

Knowing he'd undoubtedly die, He Su was brimming with dread. Clenching his teeth, he roared, "Jin Guangyao! You'll receive retribution! [Your] dad is gonna die among prostitutes sooner or later, and you wouldn't meet a pleasant end either, you son of a prostitute!!!" (ch. 118)

It's a little like

Sword in his hand, [Meng Yao] stood amid a pool of blood, the corpses of two white-robed cultivators at his feet. He asked, still smiling, "Does anyone else want to say the word?" Nie Mingjue replied coldly, "Wen-dog." He knew that only death awaited him now that he was in Wen Ruohan's hands, which was why he didn't fear anything. If Wei Wuxian were the one in such a situation, he would've also cursed as awfully as he wanted to before doing anything else--he'd die no matter what. Despite this, Meng Yao only smiled, not at all angered. (ch. 49)

And also like

Looking down, Nie Mingjue shouted, "It's no wonder, coming from the son of a prostitute." … [Lan Xichen], "What happened this time?" Jin Guangyao, "Nothing. Brother, thank you for your advice." Nie Mingjue, "Don't hinder me!" Lan Xichen, "Brother, sheath your saber first--your mind is in turmoil!" Nie Mingjue, "I am not. I know what I'm doing. He's beyond hope. If these keeps on going, he'll do the world harm for sure. The earlier he's killed, the earlier we can relax!" (ch. 49)

Which is all rather clearly spoken by someone who is not relaxed and is feeling very threatened by Jin Guangyao.

Jin Guangyao was almost sobbing, "If [Nie Mingjue] could say such a thing when he was angry, then just how does he think of me on a daily basis? Is it that because I couldn't choose my background, because my mother couldn't choose her fate, I'll have to be humiliated by others throughout my whole life? If so, then how is Brother different from the people who look down on me? No matter what I do, in the end, just a sentence and I'm 'the son of a prostitute.'" (ch. 50)

Let's be honest, it's very funny for him to say 'no matter what I do they call me names' when the thing he is doing most often involves manipulating, torturing, threatening, and straight-up murdering people in cold blood.

[He Su] stammered for a while before eventually caving in, "I… I don't even know what happened, I don't even know!" Yet, at such a place, nobody would listen to his protests. Sitting before him were two villains who already treated him as though he were dead. What they enjoyed was precisely his dying struggle. Smiling, Jin Guangyao leaned back, waving his hand, "Hush him up, hush him up." (ch. 118)

Hush him up, hush him up! The only one who deserves to be heard and receive pity is Jin Guangyao, of course! /s

[pumpkinpaix]

Almost every Popular Jiang Cheng ship is a case of Pair the Spares 🍵 (jc/nhs, jc/lxc, etc)

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

alas, despite my intense post-canon xicheng (friendship?) agenda (which you can read about in this post here!), I do think this is often true. i will admit i feel this particularly wrt sangcheng because i just don’t think their relationship is compelling in canon, not even between the lines. it takes A Lot of work to convince me that jc and nhs would be a good or interesting romantic couple, because i just don’t see them connecting deeply outside of their gusu schooldays. their friendship feels largely superficial to me, even during that period, resulting mostly from proximity and chance. it’s not that I think they don’t get along or that they couldn’t have become better friends later! but with the canon trajectory, i don’t buy it. i’d honestly be really happy to read modern aus with them becoming really good friends over time. or just like, with them as established friends! I like that a lot. romantically, though, I don’t think they’re a good fit either.

i think they have very different personalities, and incompatible priorities for a relationship like that. honestly, the one thing in canon that really gets me out regarding sangcheng is the fact that nie huaisang was willing to gamble with the juniors’ lives during the yi city arc. he deliberately lured a group of inexperienced teenagers into a very dangerous situation that could have easily resulted in their collective deaths -- as wei wuxian said, if they all died, that would’ve just been pinned on jin guangyao as well. regardless of whether or not wangxian were able to keep them safe, it’s still a net win for nie huaisang’s revenge plot. that group of juniors included jin ling, and i think that would be deeply unforgivable to jiang cheng. i don’t think they couldn’t have an interesting and friendly relationship as adults post-canon, but I think this is absolutely a line in the sand. nie huaisang treated jin ling as expendable, when jin ling is quite literally the only immediate surviving family member left to jiang cheng, and I do not think that’s an obstacle they can overcome. canonically, I mean.

in terms of personality, I think jiang cheng is much more concerned with propriety and respectability than nie huaisang is, and I think there would probably also be some level of disdain and bitterness within jiang cheng towards nie huaisang’s behavior regarding everything that happens in the present day arc. whether or not it’s justified is another question, but I think it’s easy to see where jiang cheng might find huaisang’s actions pretty out of pocket in proportion to what he suffered. jiang cheng lost nearly everything: most of his sect, his sister, his parents, his brother, ascended before adulthood, fought on the front lines of a vicious, 2.5-year war, and at the end of it all, was left holding a nephew he wasn’t even slightly prepared to raise in the midst of his overwhelming grief. and what did he do? he put his sect back together, he raised his goddamn nephew, and he hunted down demonic cultivators. did he do the best job? probably not, but he did try.

we know huaisang’s father died due to wen ruohan’s actions, but we know pretty much nothing about his mother. is she still alive? maybe. idk. but in terms of casualties of sunshot like, nie huaisang was Not the leader -- for all we know, nie mingjue sent him far away from the front lines because he was a weak cultivator to protect him -- the nie sect remains quite strong post-sunshot, is never ravaged by the wens (mdzs canon okay, don’t fight me on that one), and huaisang HAD a brother longer than jiang cheng even had his childhood. and nie huaisang’s reaction to losing his brother was a complex, fucky revenge plot that put innumerable people in danger and was very much unconcerned about whether or not huaisang was about to inflict the very same pain that prompted his revenge quest on others. imagine if jin ling had actually died. imagine the other juniors’ brothers and family’s devastation if they had died. nie huaisang behaved very cruelly in reaction to his grief, and I think jiang cheng would find that enormously selfish in some ways. like, bro, you still had a sect. you didn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of leadership as a teenager. you were not tortured by the wens. what in the everliving fuck is wrong with you that you thought this was the best course of action in response to losing your brother?

is this a fair judgment to make on huaisang? not really, but it’s the one that I personally feel like jiang cheng would make once he were filled in on some of the details. after all, jiang cheng has never really been known for being particularly fair with his opinions lol. all of that is also not to say that i hate huaisang! I think he’s a really interesting character, and one that’s a Lot of fun. i just don’t think he and jiang cheng are particularly suited to one another.

regarding what nie huaisang thinks of jiang cheng, i admit i don’t think nie huaisang thinks much about jiang cheng at all.

i have also been returning to my aro jiang cheng interpretations, mostly based on like, his list of qualities for a perfect wife, which reads like a laundry list of “qualities people have told me an ideal wife should have and also some qualities i see in my sister” as opposed to anything based in personal taste. jiang cheng is repeatedly shown to not particularly value the opinions or company of women other than his sister (lotus pod extra lol poor jiang cheng really has Zero game), and spends a lot of his time thinking about status and political alliances (see: how he talks about mianmian) as opposed to attraction. and i think that’s also quite an interesting angle on him -- after all, all of his important relationships are shown to be familial/platonic in nature.

anyways, this just became an impromptu meta on like, the nature of jiang cheng’s character, i guess, but one final thought (knife) that I have and have been itching to write into dialogue for like a year -- at some point, post-canon, when jiang cheng’s marriage prospects are really just like. basically nonexistent and he himself finds he’s not even particularly bothered by it, I want him to have a realization when he thinks back on his list just like oh, I see. I never wanted a wife. I just wanted my sister back. I wanted my family.

:’D

(ko-fi)

🍵 ((un)popular) opinions meme

[wei-yiing]

Ohhoho a drabble you say? How about something with cloud recesses summer school time but a matchmaker takes advantage of all the eligible bachelors in one spot and ensuing wangxian? (Stay well, friend!)

[ anon i saw this and sat on it for three days and i could only produce this awful drabble :') i'm still posting it because i love you. :"") ]

"Sect Leader Lan, you don't have any daughters, do you?"

Jin Guangshan's voice dances in the air as he quietly sips his tea, eyes lidded as he maintains his gaze with Lan Qiren.

"No." He grumbles as he restrains the urge to rub his temple. It would be unbecoming to fidget in front of their honoured guest, but Jin Guangshan is making it awfully difficult not to. "No, there are no female cultivators or next of kin within the Cloud Recesses."

"Well then, I'm sure we can figure something out." The man opposite places his teacup down with a smile. The sparks amidst snow covering the fabric of his clothing is somewhat garish to the eyes. Then again, the entirety of Lanling Jin always announce their presence with the loudness of their appearance. "I'm sure the various sect leaders have daughters that would suit your nephews' taste. And with their good looks and well behaved manner, whichever fair maiden we find should count her stars."

Masking a sigh as a contemplative exhale, Lan Qiren brings his own cup of tea to his lips. As much as wishes that were the case, he knows the situation may not be so easy-flowing with his younger nephew. Lan Wangji has been blessed with an attractive face, and he is Lan Qiren's best student, always devoted and adherent to his strict upbringing; but he's lacking in the charming softness that his brother possesses, and as such, has not quite mastered the nuances of courting a lady. In fact, Lan Wangji never even seems to try. Which, in all honesty, Lan Qiren takes no issue with. He would much rather this than the alternative of Lan Wangji frolicking around with women by his side, or worse, some wretched vixen ruining his good name altogether.

He grips the tea cup tighter.

Alas, Lan Wangji's sub-par social skills result in every attraction towards him being purely superficial, and Lan Qiren does not wish for that, either. Lan Xichen will easily find a sweet, mild woman who will accept every facet of him, but where in the world will they find someone who is willing to look past Lan Wangji's cold demeanor? Where in the world will they find someone that Lan Wangji, the ever-disinterested and studious boy that he is, will take a liking to?

Taking advantage of the congregation of disciples from multiple sects all over the land, Jin Guangshan had travelled to speak on this matter to Lan Qiren personally, putting forth his proposal of a mass-arranged marriage agreement between the five major sects to strengthen their bonds. It's a novel concept, with most sects usually choosing to continue their lineage within the clan. But somehow, Jin Guangshan being Jin Guangshan, he had swayed most of their fellow sect leaders already, and decided that while the disciples are familiarising themselves with one other, it would be a good opportunity for families to mingle and arrangements to be written.

His guest seems to have picked up on his silence as a sign of musing. "Ah, Sect Leader Lan, don't worry. We have so many unorthodox children here, but I assure you, they will all definitely find a match. Is it Second Young Master Lan you are concerned about?"

It seems even Jin Guangshan is aware of the situation. "Yes, somewhat. He is a very particular person."

"Indeed." Jin Guangshan openly sighs, his lips upturned. He takes a second to survey his surroundings, listening to the gentle sound of water cascading in the distance. The air is cool, and peaceful. As the Cloud Recesses should always be. He looks back to the table and opens his mouth. "That hot-headed Young Master from Yunmeng Jiang."

"Young Master Jiang?"

"No, the other one. The dogged and flippant one. He seems to get along with Second Young Master Lan, from what I've heard. Perhaps a political marriage would be good for relations between Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan?"

Lan Qiren stares with a furrow in his brow, before the implication sets in and he abruptly slams his teacup down. "You don't mean."

"Young Master Wei Ying, was it?"

-

"Shi-jie deserves so much better than that pompous, smug... brat. He's a brat. There, I said it."

"Wei-xiong, don't be so loud." Nie Huaisang hides his mouth behind his fan as he walks alongside him. "You've already gotten in trouble for fighting with Jin-xiong once. Don't let anyone hear you again."

"He's right. Wei Wuxian, you can't do anything about it now." On the other side of him, Jiang Cheng huffs in annoyance. "They're betrothed. And at least shi-jie seems to like him. Usually in a political marriage, neither person has any strong feelings on the matter."

"But why does she like him in the first place? He's so... ugh. I just don't understand political marriages."

"Heh. Is that so?" An arrogant voice cuts through the air behind him, and he freezes, as do Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng. Nie Huaisang's fan stops fluttering.

Not you, not now...

"Jin Zixuan."

"Wei Wuxian."

Nie Huaisang leans over, whispering into Wei Wuxian's ear behind his fan. "At least address him formally, Wei-xiong!"

He whispers back, though he makes little effort to conceal it. "Why should I bother when he didn't?"

"You were saying something about political marriages? Very timely."

Jiang Cheng inhales intently next to him, but says nothing, knowing Wei Wuxian already has the arrows of his words drawn. "Are you going to tell me more about your arrangement? I don't want to hear about your opinions regarding your betrothal to my shi-jie, Young Master Jin."

"You're far too presumptuous, Young Master Wei. I was going to tell you nothing of the sort. Well, Sect Leader Lan had intended to tell you himself, but I believe he's having a stroke somewhere, and my father told me to come fetch you."

Nie Huaisang snaps his fan shut. His voice is trembling, though less out of concern and more out of entertainment. "E-Excuse me?"

Jin Zixuan crosses his arms, smirking. "Sect Leader Lan is fine, don't worry. He's just processing the arrangement put forward for you, Young Master Wei. I believe Sect Leader Jiang shall be arriving soon to officiate it."

"Wait, huh?" Jiang Cheng sputters before Wei Wuxian has a chance to. "What arrangement?"

Wei Wuxian had been sincerely hoping he wouldn't be swept up in the tumultuous matchmaking scheme that has infested the Cloud Recesses. From the sounds of it, it seems his fate has been decided for him already. Oh, well, as long as the young maiden doesn't mind his love for fine wine and won't ask too much of him in the way of house chores, he's sure it won't end too badly. He'll be a better husband than Jin Zixuan ever could, that's for sure. "Who's the lucky soul that I'm engaging?"

"Unlucky soul, more like." All three of them stare at Jin Zixuan with wide eyes, waiting for his answer. He snorts, looking off to the side. "Oh, what a coincidence, there he is."

Wei Wuxian violently turns his head to see what Jin Zixuan is seeing. Over on he other side of the courtyard, Lan Wangji is standing before his older brother, and staring back at Wei Wuxian with an unreadable expression on his face. "What? But that's just..."

Jin Zixuan's haughty smile grows wider as he looks Wei Wuxian in the eyes. "You're being engaged to Lan Wangji."

[stiltonbasket]

Cultivation baby a-yuan au and like.

I am freaking screaming omg. Its either LQR or LXC and both of them are gonna be so horrified. A baby! In the burial mounds!

Lan Xichen arrives at the Unclean Realm nearly four months after the burning of the Cloud Recesses, and finds the stronghold in the midst of preparing for war.

From what he heard on his way through the villages between Runan and Qinghe, Mingjue-xiong’s forces have already met Wen Xu in battle and defeated him; and when he passes under the stone gate around the Bujingshi, the first thing that greets him is a drying head staked in the main courtyard, with its hair still bound with the gold and red jade commonly worn by high-ranking nobles in the Nightless City.

Oddly enough, Lan Xichen feels no pity at the sight of it. Wen Xu laid waste to the Cloud Recesses and killed the women and children from nine of the ten minor clans accompanying Xichen now, and whatever end Mingjue-xiong devised for him, it could not be any harsher than the ones Wen Xu dealt out himself.

“Xichen!” someone calls, loud and breathless and impossibly close, and then—after so long that it feels like a lifetime of separation—Nie Mingjue takes his hand, leading Lan Xichen down a convenient hallway before pushing him back against the cold stone of the wall.

“Mingjue-xiong?” he whispers, lifting his hands to Mingjue’s shoulders. “Are you well, my friend? Do you need me to play Cleansing for you?”

“Cleansing, he says, when I have had nothing but spies’ messages to know if you were alive or dead since the Cloud Recesses burned,” Mingjue mutters, pressing his nose to Lan Xichen’s brow and breathing in deeply, as if he could draw the proof of his zhiyin’s life into his own body and guard it there, instead of watching his heart walk about outside him in the midst of wartime. “Four months, Lan Huan. If I had to hear news of your passing thus, without ever seeing you again—it would have been the death of me.”

“I am here now,” Xichen soothes him. “I am by your side, and I will not leave you until duty compels me to go. But before we go to your chambers, I have three hundred men from the minor clans around Qishan waiting on your doorstep, and they will need food and rest by tonight. Do you have room for them?”

Nie Mingjue frowns. “I’ll have to ask Huaisang. We have more than enough supplies, but the sleeping space will be tight.”

“That won’t be any trouble. All they need is room to lay their bedrolls, and none of them wish to be parted from each other just now.”

Mingjue nods, stepping a little closer; and then, before Lan Xichen can ask him what the matter is, he finds himself sandwiched between the wall and his friend’s broad chest, with no room to move either forward or backward or sidewise.

“What are you doing?” he ventures, a few minutes later. “Are you ill, A-Jue?”

“If someone were to attack you, right now,” Nie Mingjue says raggedly, “they would have to run me through first. Either that, or raze the whole Bujingshi to the ground before harming a hair on your head.”

Lan Xichen feels himself go weak in the knees. It has been a long trip, he thinks, even for a cultivator as strong as he is, and some rest—preferably a long, sound sleep in Mingjue-xiong’s bed, with Mingjue himself close at hand to keep any nightmares away—if he could only rest for a little while, perhaps then the two of them could—

“A-Jue,” he says, wrapping his arms around Mingjue’s neck. “Mingjue-xiong, I...”

“Am I interrupting something?” a cheerful voice calls, before Xichen can make up his mind about what he was about to do. “I’m sorry, Nie-zongzhu. I thought this wing was empty.”

Mingjue laughs and shields Lan Xichen’s face from the intruder. “No. But what in heaven’s name are you doing down here? Is that little one giving you trouble again?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Wei-gongzi!” Lan Xichen cries, springing out of Nie Mingjue’s arms. “You’re here! Have you seen Wangji?”

Wei Wuxian nods. “I have. He and A-Cheng met up with me in Yiling, and we’ve been riding out to battle together ever since.”

He turns his attention to Mingjue-xiong, explaining something about a Wen camp quartered a few leagues away from Lake Qiandao, but Lan Xichen is no longer listening. Wei Wuxian entered the corridor with a bundle of cloth in his arms, and Xichen assumed he was carrying spare robes, or laundry; but then the grubby bundle moves, and reveals a tiny, curious face that Lan Xichen saw nearly every day during his early childhood.

“Wangji?” he croaks. “Young Master Wei, that child...he looks exactly like my didi. Whose is he?”

Wei Wuxian blanches, staring down at the baby in open shock, and Lan Xichen doesn’t need to look at Mingjue-xiong to know that he must have stopped breathing upon noticing the difference between the little Wangji and the child in Wei Wuxian’s arms.

“He isn’t one of my clan,” he says hastily. “Our children are all accounted for, both dead and living. I was only remarking on the resemblance.”

Young Master Wei shakes his head.

“It doesn’t make any sense for him to look like Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian says at last, looking anxiously up at Lan Xichen as if he feared that someone might try to take the child away from him.

“He can’t look like Lan Zhan, Zewu-jun. He’s mine.”

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 (first part)

(Masterpost)(Episode 05)

Warning: This contains spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Bad Boys Bad Boys What You Gonna Do

Nie Huasang’s brought his nuts, and someone’s brought wine, so the boys are drinking in Wei Wuxian’s guest house. Finally he gets to drink some of the Emperor’s Smile wine that he’s been doing all those product placements for.

Boys, get a bowl or something for your shells, were you raised in a barn?

Wei Wuxian hits on waxes poetic about the wine, and Jiang Cheng tells him to shut up. 

Wang Zhuocheng’s raw-fish-eating face may have failed him, but his drunk faces do not disappoint.

Wei Wuxian teases Jiang Cheng about his list of standards for a chick: She should have natural beauty, be virtuous and caring, from a good family, not too talkative, with a gentle voice, and not too capable. Also she should not spend too much money. Drunken running ensues.

Cue Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

(more behind the cut)

Much of the fandom has decided this list is a good fit for Nie Huaisang himself, and it sorta is. But he is both talkative and unvirtuous, what with all the current sneakiness, and all the eventual murders. 

This also definitely doesn't fit Wen Qing because she's capable as hell.  

This list is, however, a 100% a match for Jiang Yanli. Not in a weird, Jin Guangyao way--a lot of men want to marry a woman like their sister.  In a gender-divided and generation-divided society, a man’s sister might be the only woman he’s ever known well. Jiang Cheng adores Yanli and she’s his ideal model of a woman, as opposed to his mother, who...isnt.  

All these robes and talismans over the door do nothing to stop Lan Wangji from strolling in.  

Okay so - Lan Wangji is the senior disciple of the Lan Clan, yea? There is no way that patrolling the guest area is in any way his job. He is just walking around here at night specifically to see what Wei Wuxian is doing.

I already did a gifpost of the boys and their totally nonsexual horseplay, over here. I’ll just add, for sad factor, that Jiang Cheng is play-choking Wei Wuxian when they’re all on the bed, and later in the running-and-crying episode he is gonna for-real choke him. Foreshadowing! or maybe just coincidence!

One fun thread running through the young-cultivators episodes is that Nie Huaisang is legit terrified of Lan Wangji while also having a major aesthetic crush on him. Look at how flustered he is here, trying to act sober while also checking him out. 

Lan Wangji is shocked and visibly upset - what are you guys doing? This is not his busting face, this is, for a moment, his vulnerable and disillusioned face. He is super not used to what normal people are like. 

Wei Wuxian doesn't lie or otherwise try to get off the hook, which has got to have Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang grinding their teeth in frustration. He invites Lan Wangji to join them for a drink. LWJ cites a the “no drinking on campus” rule and WWX tries to convince him to chill. 

Then we have this lovely coordinated faint by the boys, to get out of going to get punished. Nie Huaisang has been practicing fainting in front of a mirror just in case he ever needs a skill like that in the future. 

Wei Wuxian keeps trying to turn this into a date. Eventually Lan Wangji is so upset he admits he can’t take all three of them by himself. 

Then the boys run away fake-barfing and Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with a talisman. 

Steal His Agency That’s What You’re Gonna Do

What Wei Wuxian does to Lan Wanji here is definitely wrong. But it's not entirely a disaster.  It allows some crucial information to be shared between them, and it results in Wei Wuxian getting the utter shit beat out of him and never doing this again. I mean, he continues to mind-control his enemies and their eventual corpses, but he doesn't intentionally violate a friend or ally's autonomy in the future. Uhh not counting that whole golden core surgery-without-consent situation. And probably some other situations I’ve forgotten. He improves slightly, okay? 

It’s important to note, incidentally, that the Lan rules about drinking and other “vices” should not be viewed through a Christian lens. The Lans are neither puritans nor ascetics (look at their clothes, furniture, and jewelry, for starters). Being drunk is forbidden probably because it’s a loss of self-control. 

Speaking of self-control, mad props to Wang Yibo for being able to have zero physical reaction to fingers snapping in his face.

Drunk Lan Wangji

Under duress, Lan Wangji knocks back a cup of wine and promptly passes most of the way out. 

Wei Wuxian puts Lan Wangji into bed not unkindly, but pretty much like a sack of potatoes. Compare this to how tenderly he handles Lan Wangji the next time he’s drunk. 

WWX tells LWJ to call him Wei Gege, and giggles. Is this a term of endearment in this context? So far the various boys are calling each other -xiong, not -ge or gege.  In Western media, men calling each other “bro” is basically saying “no homo,” but brotherhood and sisterhood in C-Drama is often a way of indicating stronger love than friendship, without saying whether it's sexual or not. 

They finally start to have a conversation, and when Lan Wangji explains that no-one can touch his headband except, etc etc, Wei Wuxian stops trying to touch it. So at least he's not a handsy bastard in addition to all his other faults. 

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that his clan is boring and women won't want to marry him. Lan Wangji says that's fine. On one level this is the show acknowledging that he's gay, but I think he's responding in a gender-neutral way; he doesn't want to marry anyone. Marriage, from his perspective, is the literal worst. 

We don't know how he felt about his father, but he definitely loved his mother deeply, and she had a profoundly unhappy marriage, in which her husband did not provide companionship and her children were taken from her.

A note about all that: The dynamics of heterosexual marriages in The Untamed are not based on contemporary companionate marriage. Sex and reproduction is a wife's job in this world, and giving a gentry woman the option to choose her husband is radical. Wei Wuxian is the only one who dares say that Jiang Yanli should have a choice when Jin Guangshan casually tries to give her to his son in front of everyone.  

OP made this today but will totally reuse it when episode 23 rolls around

So Lan Wangji’s parents' marriage was extremely problematic but not necessarily for the reasons it would be in contemporary terms. Having signed on to marry Lan Dad, Mom would have expected to live together and get laid regularly (important for health, in some traditional views, regardless of love/no love) and to have the company of her children. Instead, she was isolated. Lan Dad wanted to have it both ways and so even though he loved her and apparently hooked up with her sometimes, he didn't do his duty by her. She didn't love him but she did her duty. 

Wei Wuxian continues to not get it, calling Lan Wangji dull and babbling about Lan Wangji’s parents until he realizes that LWJ is an orphan like him. 

A nice shift happens here. Once the penny drops, Wei Wuxian doesn't ask a single additional question - he just sees - by reading Lan Wangji’s face - what the deal is, and shares his own story to show he understands. 

This is the first time Wei Wuxian mentions being chased by dogs, which is kind of a big deal, because why was he left all alone when his parents died? 

Why didn't anyone take him in before Jiang Fengmian found him? How isolated are independent cultivators in this world? 

Tea Time

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen are having tea, and the Lan Clan is so uptight they don't touch each other's teacups. I don't know what this thing is called so I'm going to call it a tea speculum. 

Lan Qiren is back from the cultivation conference and says the red crack plague is happening over in Qinghe where the Nie clan lives.  Lan Xichen fills him in on the water demon, specifically saying Wei Wuxian figured out the connection to the red crack dudes, and explaining who WWX is, as if Lan QIren hadn't already thrown stuff at him and threatened to eventually kill him. 

Fun fact that I just noticed this week so didn't make it into earlier posts: In Episode 46, when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are in the Jiang ancestral hall, WWX says he was often punished to kneel there, and LWJ said that they heard about this in Gusu.  

So when WWX came to Gusu he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Lan brothers were aware of it.   

Busted and Beaten

A Lan snitch comes in to say that Wei Wuxian has successfully corrupted Lan Wangji, which really shouldn’t cause as much surprise as it does.

“Wei Wuxian got drunk”

“Lan Wangji got drunk”

Lan Xichen takes a moment to consider carefully whether Wei Wuxian is a good friend for his little brother and whether perhaps he was too hasty in throwing them together. Ha ha ha no he doesn’t. 

On the punishment porch, Lan Xichen tries to lecture Lan Wangji in a calm way, but Lan Qiren wants to beat him and Lan Wangji wants to get beat. Wei Wuxian can’t understand why Lan Wangji doesn’t let him take the blame for the drinking. 

Lan Qiren goes way the fuck overboard with this punishment because he's angry--losing control and losing his sense of proportion--and Lan Xichen is shocked. The drone camera watching from above is also shocked.  

Lan Qiren has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, but his extreme rigidity and chronic resentment of anyone he perceives as bad are serious problems. His nephews are both struggling with complex moral quandaries as they get older, and he is absolutely no help to them in resolving their conflicts.

This is definitely...a style of parenting & teaching, but you can see how poorly it works, with Lan Wangji straight up saying “fuck it” after many years of conformity.  Lan Xichen is devoted to the middle path and tries to be obedient. But he is actually not walking anywhere near the middle path, as he gets pulled into colluding with a murderer at the same time as getting dragged onto his brother’s carnival ride. These men need parenting that isn’t so, uh, fucking stupid. (Yes, grown adults still need good parenting; watch Go Ahead if you doubt me) 

Wei Wuxian initially yells and falls down when he gets hit, but then he sees Lan Wangji is taking the beating without any reaction and he tries to do the same. 

Aftermath

Jiang Yanli gently lectures the boys, blaming Jiang Cheng for Wei Wuxian's drinking.  Jesus Christ, he's the younger sibling, could you just NOT, Yanli?  

Both boys ask Yanli not to tell their parents. The boys bicker about who's at fault and then Wei Wuxian shifts to baby voice and starts whining to Yanli about the pain. 

Yanli tells him to suck it up, and says after school she'll -- ok and I know this will be a surprise for everyone -- make soup for them. The boys immediately get back on the same team, which is team Please Put Meat In the Soup.

There's a nice character building moment for Wei Wuxian here. When he sees Lan Xichen he initially turns away to avoid running into him, but then he adults-up and goes to face him and greet him, giving him a half of a bow because of the pain, the pain. Rather than complaining about his punishment he meekly asks if he's broken another rule. 

Lan Xichen tells him that he did wrong but that Lan Qiren’s punishment was too harsh, and then in what is one of my favorite Lan Xichen moments, invites Wei Wuxian to use the cold spring to heal, but doesn't invite Jiang Cheng to go with him even though Jiang Cheng also was beaten. Lan Xichen, Matchmaker Auntie Extraordinaire. 

Then he answers Wei Wuxian’s question about his mom by saying she was just like Wei Wuxian and drove Lan Qiran up the wall. Jiang Cheng's reaction to that is really sweet. He does enjoy Wei Wuxian at the same time as being constantly irritated by him. 

Lan Xichen does his patented “breaking off in the middle of saying something and leaving out a chunk of the story” maneuver, although this time he doesn't include a flute solo. 

OP is mildly obsessed with Xuan Lu’s shoulders in this outfit. Also Yanli has an interesting sword, that's got some wood carving similar to Subian, but without the organic look, which OP only noticed because of screen capping Xuan Lu’s shoulders.  

Club Ruohan

Wen Qing continues to be pretty and slightly evil at this stage, sending magic fire notes to her boss using this talisman that is definitely floating in the air and not just hanging from a string. 

Wen Ruohan is in the mosh pit with his zombie groupies while he reads Wen Qing’s extremely vague status update and says "it all makes sense." 

Reach out and touch faith

Soundtrack

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Writing Prompt

How did Wei Wuxian’s parents die?

Admin Notes

I’m going to start spacing out my “first part” and “second part” posts by a few days.  I’ll update this post to link up the second part once I post it, and my masterpost is always up to date. 

Also: if you want more of my original content but don’t want to follow my whole blog (not following is fine!), I keep a pinboard of fun stuff at the top of my blog. I try to post original content at least once a week.

Continued in the second part later this week!

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Ep 23

Seriously, how useless are these two right now? The puppets all dropped dead around them, yet none of them run up to help Wei Wuxian. I think we saw Lan Wangji running, but he just had dramatic close-up shots for the first few minutes as well. Like, stop looking dumbfounded and stop just providing facial reactions to things, and get up there! Act like you're in a war, gdi! They're reacting to seeing Wen Ruohan stabbed, which I chose not to cap for obvious reasons.

So even though I knew the story from the book, I still think this moment is pretty cool when they reveal that it's Jin Guangyao who has stabbed Wen Ruohan literally and figuratively in the back. The last time we saw him, poor Nie Mingjue was getting the crap beat out of him by Jin Guangyao, so seeing this here--like, ooh! Double-double-cross! Triple-cross!! It's fun to see a twist that doesn't make you groan! Because, of course, you want to root for Jin Guangyao because he's a bastard and has always been looked down on everyone. Now you see that he was not a villain at all, and he was actually helping the good guys by double-crossing Wen Ruohan! Of course, we know he really is a villain and all, but most of that really doesn't come until later in the story haha.

I do enjoy the light parallels here between Lan Xichen and his brother. We see both of them willing to give their best friends the benefit of the doubt and protect them from those who are less willing, let's say. And both of them are even willing to stand up to other people they know and trust. Nie Mingjue is one of Lan Xichen's closest friends, and we see Lan Wangji stand up to his own uncle. If you're looking at CQL without the romance angle (which, why would you?), this parallel is a bit more striking. You basically have two sets of bosom friends. Obviously one set crumbles at the end, but there are definitely a lot of parallels and comparisons to make. And sorry, for a show that couldn't have any gay characters, they sure made it seem like Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao had a thing for each other (even though neither of them is gay in the book, mind you). A weird sort of change--I don't even ship them, but their early scenes seemed very shippy. Maybe it's my American lens, I don't know.

But speaking of weird changes, allow me to go on a tangent. Wen Qing's role expansion doesn't bother me, not really. I kind of say it does, but it's not really the expansion that gets to me. It's the fact that she was going to be a love interest for Wei Wuxian that bothers me. Wei Wuxian is gay. He's gay. Lan Wangji is also gay--if not gayer. Her being a love interest for either one of them means they are no longer gay. Bi, maybe, but what that would have done was erase their canon sexuality. It would have also turned their relationship into that horribly tropey brothers-in-arms or whatever name you want to give it--basically JUST FRIENDS who want to defend each other's honor. You can certainly read CQL that way, but if you are, I don't think you're paying attention to Wang Yibo's performance at all. And if you're not paying attention to the second lead, then why are you watching this show at all? So, changing their sexuality changes the whole show (which already is so tropey, from what I understand) into something so derivative, I wouldn't even want to bother watching it. One of the things I think you take away from CQL is Lan Wangji's, frankly, undying love for Wei Wuxian. If he goes and has a fling with Wen Qing at any point, that cheapens his character dramatically in my opinion. Lots of people can say this better than me, and probably have, but I'm very grateful to those passionate fans (and to Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo) for helping to change the script from the original drafts, which were frankly no better than a junky harlequin romance, having Wen Qing passed around like a piece of meat, which is so far from her character in the novel, and definitely a disservice to her.

Not gonna lie, it's adorable to think that Jiang Yanli and Lan Wangji have been talking over the past few days, maybe having tea together, while Wei Wuxian is in a coma. I feel Lan Wangji was a very calming presence for Jiang Yanli, because she was probably very worried and fretful over Wei Wuxian. I like the idea of him playing the guqin for Wei Wuxian, and then having tea and a quiet chat with Jiang Yanli before leaving. Also very cute that Wei Wuxian is half-heartedly trying to badmouth Lan Wangji, by calling him boring and uninteresting, but he can't even get through the sentence without smiling to himself. Obviously he's loving the idea that Lan Wangji has been at his side every day, worrying over him and slowly doing his part to nurse him back to health.

I love his expression here: shock and relief and joy, all mixed together upon seeing that Wei Wuxian has woken up. Obviously he knew he'd wake up eventually, but he didn't expect it so soon and I don't think he expected his heart to be in his throat and to be so indescribably happy to see Wei Wuxian awake.

Wei Wuxian, of course, can't really meet his eyes, and Jiang Yanli makes a swift exit (she knows what's up--these boys need to talk). And Lan Wangji just has love in his eyes: Heart-guang Jun. I mean, imagine how he must be feeling right now. He had just gotten Wei Wuxian back from what seemed like certain death, finally reconciled, and then Wei Wuxian is in a coma! He must have been terrified of losing him again. It's probably all he can do right now to not hug Wei Wuxian.

I seriously love everything about this scene. I love the colors, the cinematography, the longing glances Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji, the way Lan Wangji quietly scolds him while still playing the guqin because he's a professional. But really, I just find this scene very pretty and moving and emotional. I enjoy seeing Lan Wangji getting to take care of him and even more that Wei Wuxian lets him and puts up with it. I think most of us are quick to retort a good old, "I'm fine" when asked how we are, but in this case, Wei Wuxian is not fine, and he has no ground to stand on if he's trying to prove that. It's hard for Wei Wuxian at this point, though, to really lean on anyone, even Lan Wangji who is his best friend. He certainly can't lean on Jiang Cheng for reasons I don't think I need to go into again. He kind of leans on Yanli, but at the same time, he can't (and doesn't wish to) burdon her either. Lan Wangji is really the one person he should be able to lean on and seek comfort from, but he feels awkward and uncomfortable, because of the dark spiritual energy and giving up the sword, and Lan Wangji's crusade to help him.

"Who is good and who is evil?" Wei Wuxian is struggling with a moral dilemma: is it right to round up the Wens and kill them/hold them captive? The Wens did horrible things, after all, and this is the reality of war. Of course, we've just seen Lan Xichen struggling with it as well. Why capture the women and children and elderly, who have nothing to do with the war? He's only met with the fact that it's not just the male cultivators who are dangerous. Still, his mind is only placated by the lie that the people will just be interrogated and sent to a labor camp--then cut to the blood on the floor. So Wei Wuxian is not only struggling with what the Jin Clan and other clans are doing, but he's also thinking about his own deeds--how many people did he kill? How many did he brutally murder in the name of revenge? Because of the things he's done, is he good or evil? Is good and evil so black and white? Does it just depend on whose lens you're viewing it through?

Lan Wangji looks at Wei Wuxian with all of this knowledge and doesn't know what to think. He's afraid of what Wei Wuxian has become, afraid he'll end up like Wen Ruohan--he's afraid of losing him entirely. But the situation is not black and white, and good and evil is not so easily defined. You can only know once you know that person's heart, and Wei Wuxian isn't really letting Lan Wangji in anymore. He's trying to convince him with his words, but that is simply not good enough.

I think if Lan Wangji hadn't stopped him here, Wei Wuxian would have played that flute and tried to end all of the Jin "hunting party" (sorry, that was a little dark). His emotions were already high after the conversation with Lan Wangji on the cliff, and we've already seen him feeling disturbed by how the Wens are being chased and rounded up. I, for one, wouldn't have complained if Jin Zixuan's cousin bit the dust earlier. I think his name is Jin Zixun. Is that it? See, even I don't remember him.

I love how even though they are far apart, this scene still feels very intimate. It's very moving, and the music and the cinematography help to cultivate that feeling. I like how Wei Wuxian perks up when he hears Lan Wangji pluck the first few notes, and Lan Wangji does the same when he hears the sound of Wei Wuxian's flute. I feel like they are spiritually connected here as they play this haunting duet. And I think it's a connection they haven't felt for a long time. There has been so much tension between them for so long, and this scene feels like a big sigh from both of them. While I still feel like there is tension present, there is a bit of a release here--at least, that's how I feel as a viewer.

Ah, yes, the awkward period where Jiang Cheng has become leader of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, wants to control Wei Wuxian, but doesn't know how. He's new at this, so I can't blame him for being a bit awkward as he figures out what he's supposed to be doing. As a young man, he basically nagged Wei Wuxian for doing inappropriate things, but now when Wei Wuxian misbehaves, Jiang Cheng is in part responsible for that behavior. At some point or another, the two of them grew up. Wei Wuxian's misbehavior isn't precocious anymore--it's serious and it has consequences, and just as in Gusu, Jiang Cheng sees that those actions are a reflection of the Jiang Clan. Only now, they aren't just a reflection of the clan, they're also a reflection of Jiang Cheng, himself, and his leadership (or lack thereof).

And speaking of awkward...Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have some...unresolved...stuff to deal with. But God forbid they actually talk right now. How can they? They're at this stuffy banquet that neither one of them want to be at. I feel for them both. Wei Wuxian is hurt because he thinks Lan Wangji doesn't trust him. Lan Wangji feels terrible because he wants to help Wei Wuxian, but the latter won't really let him in and allow him to do so. I feel myself just on pins and needles during these scenes with all these glances, but at the same time, I love it because DRAMA and ANGST! And they're just so in love lolol.

Nie Mingjue has to be that guy that always wants a certain table. The waiter leads him over and says, "Is this table okay?" expecting the answer to be yes, but nope--not Nie Mingjue. He'll request a different table. XD

I love this little conversation--it's like they're both measuring each other up. I think they each have a healthy distrust of the other. Although Wei Wuxian has always been kind to Jin Guangyao, I don't think that discounts the whole demonic cultivation thing in his mind. He knows Wei Wuxian is smart and clever and, most importantly, capable. And as for Wei Wuxian, I don't think the ease in which Jin Guangyao manipulated Wen Ruohan is lost on him.Essentially the downfall of this great cultivator and enemy of all the other clans was due to one man: Jin Guangyao. I think Wei Wuxian is thinking the same thing I am: he's extremely clever, devious, and potentially dangerous if you get on his bad side. His rise to power within the Jin Clan is kind of amazing. His estranged father admits to Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen that Jin Guangyao is his son, his station has improved drastically in a short amount of time. He sure as hell is dangerous.

Jiang Yanli can hardly contain her excitement when Jin Guangshan brings up her former engagement to his son. Just kidding, of course. I'm kind of horrified for her that he's bringing this up now in front of all these people. It feels very much like he's pressuring not only her, but also his son to get engaged again. First of all, Jiang Fengmian and Jin Guangshan agreed at the time to let the children decide whether they wanted to get married or not. Second, if you're going to talk about this, at least do it in private! Third, this is not letting the kids decide. God, this would be humiliating! And I also totally expected Jiang Cheng to speak for his sister here, so I'm glad he didn't do that. It's really none of his business either.

Lol! The weird cutoff here! Who's speaking??? I don't know!!! I mean, obviously, it's Wei Wuxian, but it's like they don't expect us to recognize his voice hahahahaha.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Or just check out the #CQL Rewatch hashtag

[ibijau]

ever since the very brief nhs/jzx in worst engagement, i’ve realized i really like that combination, so... sangxuan, any setting, with “I like watching you. When you laugh, when you smile, when you’re passionately engaged in something you enjoy.” please?

warning for internalised biphobia and homophobia :)

Jin Zixuan isn’t a cut-sleeve because he likes girls, thanks. Sure he doesn’t like his fiancée (she’s plain, she’s boring, her brothers are the most annoying people in the world) but he does like other girls and politely looks at them from a safe distance (because if he got anywhere near a girl who isn’t his fiancée, his mother would have his head). He knows that because of the difficult state of his engagement, and his open disdain for Jiang Yanli, some people like to joke that maybe it’s all girls Jin Zixuan dislikes, but that’s just plain wrong.

Jin Zixuan isn’t a cut-sleeve. He looks at girls.

So it doesn’t matter if he looks at boys too.

It’s just that he isn’t blind. He can tell that the Twin Jades are, indeed, so impossibly handsome that he can’t mind they’re ranked higher than him. And Jiang Cheng might be an annoying brat, but he has very fetching eyes so his place at number five is well deserved.

Wei Wuxian being number four is an aberration, but some people just don’t have taste.

The point being, looking at other boys doesn’t mean anything. Everyone does it. Jin Zixuan has noticed the faint trace of admiration in Lan Wangji’s eyes when Wei Wuxian’s around (again, some people have no taste) and the way Wei Wuxian openly checks out Lan Wangji… and these two don’t even like each other.

And then there’s Nie Huaisang, Grand Purveyor of Porn, who obviously isn’t a cut-sleeve since he has so many prints and books about men and women enthusiastically doing things to each other, and yet is always play-flirting with other boys. 

Nie Huaisang who somehow didn’t make it on that stupid list (possibly because he managed to fail his studies twice already), thus proving again that there’s no accounting for taste because he is so pretty he should be number one.

Nie Huaisang who can befriend anyone, and is on first name basis with a staggering number of Lan juniors, including both of the Twin Jades.

Nie Huaisang who needs to cheat on every single test they’re taking because he can’t memorise a single lesson, but knows entire poetry books by heart and can make near perfect copies of any painting.

Nie Huaisang with his lips so red they look painted, his easy smiles that he generously shares, his eyes always shining with mischief, his delicate hands, the beautiful curve of his neck.

Jin Zixuan might think about Nie Huaisang a little more than he ought to, especially since Nie Huaisang has recently taken a shine to him and won’t leave him alone. It’s probably just because Wei Wuxian was kicked out because of Jin Zixuan, and now Nie Huaisang wants to have someone, anyone, to hang out with (Jiang Cheng is surprisingly studious when he’s alone, Nie Huaisang has complained, and so makes for a poor companion).

It’s fine though. Jin Zixuan likes girls, so he’s not a cut-sleeve, it’s fine that he looks so much at Nie Huaisang, that he can’t get enough of his laugh, that his entire body is burning when Nie Huaisang casually touches him.

Nie Huaisang is a very tactile person.

It’s fine, it’s normal for boys to be grabbing each other’s wrists, or throwing an arm over a friend’s shoulders, or even laying their head on a friend’s lap while studying. It’s normal because Nie Huaisang, who isn’t a cut-sleeve, does it all the time to Jin Zixuan, also not a cut-sleeve.

It’s fine.

It’s normal.

It’s just a friendly thing.

And so today, as Jin Zixuan is sitting on his bed to study, Nie Huaisang laying down with his head on his lap and openly trying to distract him from studying, the two of them completely alone, Jin Zixuan doesn’t harbour any dangerous thoughts.

He doesn’t want to touch Nie Huaisang’s hair to find out if it’s as smooth as it looks.

He doesn’t admire the lighter specks in his friend’s eyes, like stars on an inky sky.

He doesn’t at all, ever, not even for one second, wonder how soft Nie Huaisang’s lips are, what it would feel to kiss them.

Jin Zixuan does allow himself to think that it might be the only way to get Nie Huaisang to shut up thought. It makes him chuckle, which disrupts Nie Huaisang. The other boy glares at him and pouts, as if Jin Zixuan needed the encouragement to be looking at his lips.

“Well, share the joke then?” Nie Huaisang demands.

“It’s nothing,” Jin Zixuan retorts, feeling his cheeks heat up. “Stop bothering me, I’m studying.”

Nie Huaisang looks up at him, his pretty pout turning into a dangerous smile, the one he has when he’s about to make himself particularly annoying.

“No you’re not. You’ve been on the same page the whole time. Are you distracted, Jin-xiong? Is there something on your mind? You can tell me about anything, you know. We’re friends.”

They are friends, even if Jin Zixuan didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

They are friends and friends don’t think like that about each other’s lips.

“There’s nothing,” Jin Zixuan snaps. “Just let me study.”

“Boring,” Nie Huaisang replies. “Ah, I’m really bored, I’ll probably fall asleep like this. You don’t mind if I nap on you, right?”

“You’ll fail your next test again,” Jin Zixuan grumbles, trying not to feel anything at the idea of Nie Huaisang falling asleep on him. It has happened before. It was heaven. It was a torture. “You really need to step up or you’ll fail this year as well.”

“No, I’ve decided I won’t fail,” Nie Huaisang announces, laughing lightly. “It was fun at first to come here again and again. But now I’ve made friends, and I want to be able to go visit them. Can’t do that if I’m stuck in the Cloud Recesses another year. This time, I’ll pass.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“It is if you know how. And I have motivation now, so it’ll be fine.”

Of course Nie Huaisang has motivation. He got along so well with Wei Wuxian, and he gets along with Jiang Cheng also, for all that he complains about him being too serious. He probably has a standing invitation to Lotus Piers already.

Jin Zixuan wishes he could extend an invitation of his own, but he knows better than to do that without his father’s approval, and he knows his father and Nie Mingjue have a… tense relationship, to say the least. Jin Guangshan has always been a little too quick to find excuses for Wen Ruohan’s attitude toward other sects, which may or may not be because there’s so much money to be made from trade between their territories.

Jin Zixuan doubts he’ll get to see Nie Huaisang much after their time in the Cloud Recesses is over.

It’s fine.

Everything is fine.

Jin Zixuan tries to go back to his book. Maybe skillfully passing exams is a thing Nie Huaisang can turn on and off at will, but he’s not so lucky so he needs to focus.

“Hey, Jin-xiong?”

“What now?”

Jin Zixuan’s tone must have been too dry. Nie Huaisang’s eyes widen in surprise, and he pouts again. It’s unfair how pretty he is.

Jin Zixuan isn’t a cut-sleeve, but he’s sure no girl in the world could ever be half as pretty as Nie Huaisang.

“You’re really in a bad mood today!” Nie Huaisang remarks, sitting up.

The ghost of his warmth remains on Jin Zixuan’s legs.

It is a normal thing to note. It doesn’t mean anything.

Nie Huaisang gives him an oddly calculating look though, and Jin Zixuan feels panic rising in his chest, slowly choking him. He knows Nie Huaisang can’t read his mind, can’t see what’s inside his head, least of all when he’s so careful to not even let himself think these things, but if he guesses somehow, if he realises, if he becomes disgusted…

“Jin-xiong, do you dislike me?” Nie Huaisang asks in a weak voice.

“Why would I dislike you?” Jin Zixuan gasps.

Nie Huaisang shrugs, and gathers his knees against his chest, all curled up on himself. It makes Jin Zixuan want to hug him until he stops feeling whatever he’s feeling.

“You didn’t even want to be friends in the first place,” Nie Huaisang mumbles, hiding his face against his knees. He sounds like he might cry. “I had to force you, and you were always complaining, and… and you’re still complaining about it sometimes, even if you put up with it most of the time. Is it… is it really just that? Are you just putting up with me?”

“That’s not it,” Jin Zixuan protests, stunned to hear and see Nie Huaisang in such a state of doubt. He’s usually so confident in himself, wearing even his failure as badges of honour, always the first one to laugh that he’s bad at studying, that he’s been called annoying by a number of people, that he’s the worst cultivator of their generation.

“It’s okay if you don’t like me,” Nie Huaisang insists with a sigh so heartfelt that it nearly takes Jin Zixuan’s breath away. “I’ll stop pestering you from now on.”

“I like it when you pester me!” Jin Zixuan exclaims, which startles Nie Huaisang enough that he raises his head from his knees. His eyes are shining, as if he might really have been on the brink of tears, and the idea does something to Jin Zixuan. Mostly, it seems to fry his brain. “I like when we spend time together,” he continues, even when his every instinct tells him to stop. “I like that you’re the only person who teases me. I like that you want to be around me, and I like being around you as well. And I like… I like watching you. When you laugh, when you smile, when you’re passionately engaged in something you enjoy. I just… I like you a lot, Nie-xiong, so stop worrying about that.”

It’s too much. Nie Huaisang stares at him with eyes so wide they look like marbles, his face colouring quickly in a way it never does, no matter what shameless thing he’s discussing.

It’s too much but it’s true.

“Jin-xiong,” Nie Huaisang breathes, a little awed. “That’s…”

“It’s normal for friends to like each other,” Jin Zixuan hurriedly cuts him, scrambling to save himself. “It’s not like either of us are cut-sleeves, anyway, so it’s fine. We both like girls anyway, so…”

“I mean, I like boys as well,” Nie Huaisang says slowly, his eyes turning calculating again.

Jin Zixuan’s body goes cold.

It never occurred to him that it was possible to like both. It’s not really something that is discussed at home, except to say that cut-sleeves are a plague on their bloodline who disrespect their ancestors by not having children. His father has strong opinions on the matter. His mother too, actually. It’s the one thing on which they can agree.

It’s always been one or the other, in Jin Zixuan’s mind. And since he definitely likes girls, then he’d figured he was safe, he was normal.

He might not be safe.

He’s certainly not normal, not with the way his heart beats so fast when Nie Huaisang smiles again.

“I don’t just like boys in general,” he says, kneeling, scooting closer. Too close. “I like you a lot, Jin-xiong.”

Nie Huaisang leans forward, just a little. Jin Zixuan wants to run away. He stays right where he is, trying not to look at his friend’s lips.

He fails as that.

“As a friend?” Jin Zixuan asks, breathlessly.

“As a friend,” Nie Huaisang agrees. “But not only. Jin-xiong, I like you so much. I also look at you all the time, you know.”

He continues leaning forward, until Jin Zixuan can feel his breath against his lips. He closes his eyes, because if he can see what’s happening, then it’ll be too much, too real.

Nie Huaisang hovers there a moment, as if trying to give him a chance to put a stop to this.

Jin Zixuan doesn’t want it to stop.

He nearly sobs in relief when Nie Huaisang presses their mouth together, gently, just a little hesitant.

Nie Huaisang’s lips are soft but firm, and they are warm and fit perfectly against Jin Zixuan’s, as if they were meant to be like this.

“Is this okay?” Nie Huaisang asks when, all too soon, he pulls away. “Jin-xiong… Zixuan, it’s okay, right?”

It’s not.

Jin Zixuan’s father is going to kill him for this, or kick him out, or at the very least he will demand that Jin Zixuan act normal again and ask that he marry a girl and have children, as is normal, as is right.

It’s wrong to be kissing Nie Huaisang.

It’d be worse still to not be kissing him, now that Jin Zixuan knows what that’s like.

So instead of answering, Jin Zixuan blindly reaches out toward Nie Huaisang, locking his arms around the other boy’s neck to pull him closer and kiss him again.

It’s okay, it’s fine.

It’s worth the trouble that will follow.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Would you write a Jiang Yanli time travel fix-it? I can't help but think somebody not in possession of the full story for once might be interesting?

Jiang Yanli closed her eyes forever, and woke up in her own bedroom, years before.

“I think I’ve heard stories about this,” she said blankly to her ceiling.

She had, too – stories in the marketplace or in travelling shows, told time and again in plays and puppets: the reborn hero, wronged in their first life and able to re-do it in their past to better their destiny. Women who were tricked into bad fates triumphing over those who schemed against them, men who collected all the treasures they had been denied before…

Why was she sent back?

There was saving her parents and sect, of course, and naturally that in turn would avert the terrible fate suffered by Wei Wuxian, who turned to demonic cultivation to save them all and then inexplicably succumbed to it. Saving Wei Wuxian would save her husband, and therefore, she hoped, save her own life.

Only – she didn’t know anything.

Anything.

She hadn’t accompanied her brothers to the Cloud Recesses, she hadn’t been sent to the indoctrination camp, she’d been away visiting her grandmother when the Jiang sect had been attacked, she’d been sent to shelter in safety for the entirety of the Sunshot Campaign and communicated with her brothers on the front line only through letters that could not reveal any details…

Even afterwards, when she married Jin Zixuan and could finally be allowed to learn things about Lanling Jin, she’d become pregnant so quickly that there hadn’t really been much opportunity to do any of the work of being mistress of a sect, especially not with Madame Jin there to worry and fret about the next heir being born healthy and strong.

She didn’t even know what time she’d come back to!

Jiang Yanli stood and lit a candle, trying to examine her body – it was her childhood bedroom, so it was before the fall of the Lotus Pier, but how old, exactly, was she? Not a child, in her teenage years…maybe she should have been vainer in her youth, because she honestly couldn’t quite tell.

It was easier with her boys. She knew every event in Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s lives, every bruise and scrape and growth spurt – if she could see them, she’d be able to figure it out, surely.

She considered her door thoughtfully, but – no. It was late at night, and they would be asleep, surely.

A rumble of thunder came from outside her window, the pitter-patter of rain abruptly beating against the wall, and she sighed and gave it up. Surely there was nothing that she could do tonight that she couldn’t do tomorrow.

Not that she knew exactly what she could do at all. Warn her parents? It wasn’t as though they didn’t know of the threat of the Wen sect already. Give them dates, times, for the few incidents she did know? Why would they believe her? Wouldn’t they just assume she’d had a bad dream?

It was a problem.

She settled down in her bed to consider it.

And so it was, a few shichen later when the pre-dawn light would have started peeking around the horizon if it hadn’t been suppressed by storm clouds, that she was awake when a servant ran over to her room. “Young Mistress!” her maid hissed excitedly outside the door, clearly longing to get her attention but under orders not to wake her up. “Young Mistress, are you awake?”

“I am,” Jiang Yanli said, opening the door. “What’s the matter?”

“Your fiancé is here and demanding to see you! He’s flown all night!”

“My – fiancé?” Jiang Yanli asked blankly, and then realized: this must be before the Cloud Recesses, before the engagement to Jin Zixuan had broken. But if so, why was he here? “I’ll go to meet him.”

“Hurry if you want to make it before your mother wakes up,” the servant advised, and that was a very good point. Such a request was highly inappropriate.

Jiang Yanli rushed to the greeting room, unable to resist a smile when she saw Jin Zixuan standing there: fifteen years old at most, not even wearing a cloak and soaked through to the bone from the rain. He looked like a bedraggled yellow puppy – even the vermillion mark on his forehead, which was made of paint that resisted running, had disappeared.

“Jin-gongzi?” she said, remembering at that last moment that she couldn’t call him A-Xuan.

He turned to look at her, his eyes wide and wild and terribly sad.

“A-Li?” he said, and Jiang Yanli couldn’t help smiling broadly as tears came to her eyes.

“A-Xuan?” she said. “Is it you? Did you…?”

“The last thing I remember is the Qiongqi Path –”

It was him.

Jiang Yanli threw herself forward into his arms with a sob. She was the same height as him was at this point, he’d had a late growth spurt, but it didn’t matter one bit, not to either of them.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said in a rush. “I woke up tonight –”

“Me, too. I was in my room – I came here at once.” He looked at her. “We have to change things. Everything!”

“Of course,” Jiang Yanli said. “But how? I’ve been thinking all night. The Wen sect is still too powerful right now, and who would believe us?”

“The Nie sect would, probably,” Jin Zixuan said. “And I’m sure we could convince A-Yao to help – I don’t remember when he was thrown out of Jinlin Tower, just that it was my birthday some year –”

“We’ll figure it out,” she assured him. “I was thinking –”

“A-Li!” her mother howled from behind her. “What are you doing?!”

“Right,” Jin Zixuan said, going pale. “Step one: survive your mother.”