#wwx was dead but she didn’t

[labyrynth]

thinking about trying to make an ace attorney-style investigation/trial game based on mdzs

theoretically would follow plot from wwx’s resurrection, but slightly canon divergent* to get a phoenix wright style emphasis on “no, what’s the whole truth?” …which is to say that jgy actually gets a chance to plead his case

*why is this canon divergent, you ask? because we’re pretending that wwx and lwj actually care about the concept of justice (and not just when it makes them feel nice) and try to keep jgy from dying instead of going “don’t listen to him/he should be silenced”

tbh mdzs actually fits the AA formula pretty well? featuring huaisang as the “twist villain” (not specifically as a Villain but as The Witness whose testimony winds up being highly suspicious and/or full of holes, where it later comes out that they have ulterior motives, and wind up getting the “true face revealed” moment—you know how AA does it) and like six different cases from years ago that all wind up being relevant

i kind of want wwx to play defense (maybe with jin ling as assistant?) but this leaves the question of who the theoretical prosecution would be…lwj i guess? cough jc JUST to play off of franziska’s whip animations

some things would have to be modified slightly to fit the format, and i would probably stick mostly to canon, though i might flesh some things out if canon doesn’t contradict it and if there’s fair reasoning to lead to that conclusion (e.g. nmj broke out of his tomb, jgy did not break in; jgy claims to have killed individuals that were clearly not killed by him, ergo this is a feeling of responsibility, not a confession to any particular action)

in any case: i know that renpy exists, though i’ve never used it…but i imagine the first thing that would need to happen anyway is mapping out events, interactions, and evidence.

if anyone has thoughts or wants to make suggestions or just talk at me about like an AA/mdzs mishmash, go for it 👀👀 (please do, actually)

[rosethornewrites]

Mom, who has only seen The Untamed, didn’t understand why Wei Wuxian was so feared.

I had to explain that he dug up cemeteries to get the bodies of their enemies’ ancestors to march against them, that Wen Ruohan was a megalomaniac but not into demonic cultivation, that every Wen soldier that was cut down was potentially another corpse wwx could raise to fight for him (but did he also raise allies?), that the very idea of him was so terrifying that he became the folk culture boogie man very easily with a few well-placed rumors. Children thought if they were naughty he would come for them in the night. Wei Wuxian was a living nightmare.

She was surprised none of that got into The Untamed, where it is made to seem like wwx just disrupts Wen Ruohan’s control and wwx is never shown controlling a fierce corpse—only Wen Ning, who isn’t technically dead in The Untamed, more like in between life and death. They couldn’t show it because then wwx would be morally grey and that’s not allowed. They can’t show shambling corpses, only living puppets, unless the controlling cultivator is absolutely evil. What is black, what is white?

Specifically she didn’t get why Jiang Cheng was so angry at Lan Wangji, and it’s like, mom, he spent 13 years angry with wwx and raising his nephew and grieving his sister and other family, and right in his salad Lan Wangji is parading around in mourning clothes for far too long to be considered appropriate, clearly acting like a grieving spouse, mooning over and, in going to where the chaos is to fulfill his promise with wwx, appears to jc to be searching for him instead. Shows up randomly where demonic cultivators mimicking wwx are causing trouble like he hopes wwx is back. Not that Jiang Cheng isn’t low-key doing the same thing. And so it becomes wrapped into the grief and anger.

She really wants to read the novels now.

Sorry, rambles here.

[bafvkun]

I’ll never shut up about how much I respect MXDX as a writer, she’s just THAT amazing and writes beautifully. She’s so good at writing different kind of character developments depending on the age and it’s particularly flagrant in MDZS.

Im just so found of how in the present of the story all the adults, the ones that were old enough during the whole Wei Wuxian ascension, Burial Mounds etc etc, have such deep rooted opinions. They lived through what WWX did and will never forget, they’ll teach the younger generations how dangerous and bad him and his cultivation were and that if he ever came back around the world needs to reunite to beat him again.

But ! Some juniors (and I’m mainly talking about Sizhui, Jingyi and Jin Ling since they’re the main ones) have been in direct contact with Wei Wuxian for a fairly good amount of time. They didn’t know it was him, either not suspecting it could be him at all or just not believing it could be WWX in Mo Xuanyu’s body.

They’re still so very young, just about 15, and they are still capable to build their own opinions and views on things. Despite their educations young people tend to trust what they see since they don’t have experience, what they’re seeing right now is what will be considered and experience and proof when they grow up. As for the adults they only believe what they saw in the past, what was their own experiences when they were young themselves.

Sizhui never doubted Wei Wuxian. When they all got kidnapped and WWX, Lan Zhan and Wen Ning came to save them he knew deep in his heart that Wei Wuxian would have never done it. He saw with his own eyes how he took care of them, how he saved them time and time again, how he put himself in danger for them. He’s still young and not yet entirely influenced by the elders, he still has a mind of his own and now that he witnessed the good, caring and mischievous side of WWX he has his own strong opinion (seeing Lan Zhan trust him so utterly must have helped a lot too).

Jin Ling is in a very dire position compared to the Lan Juniors. His parents are dead because of Wei Wuxian and his uncle hates him more than anyone. He grew up seeing the hatred that Jiang Cheng has for WWX, he was educated to brandish his sword to him if he ever came across him. But just like Sizhui and Jingyi he saw Wei Wuxian with his own two eyes, he saw him tease him and take care of him, he witnessed how despite what terrible thing he did in the past he still has a good heart deep within him and that guilt and grief are still driving him.

He is torn between what he was taught to believe, what his family taught him about someone that he should consider as the devil himself and what his heart itself learned and believes, that in the end he is the one that saved him and took care of him when his own uncle would have threatened to beat the shit out of him.

Wei Wuxian is a good mentor, as mischievous as he can be he also knows how to teach (surprisingly). He makes experiences into lessons in a very endearing way for the juniors, he teaches them through life itself and not through oh so boring lessons.

The juniors, no matter how much they mock him and insult him, appreciate him. He’s a good person, he’s social and nice to have around, he makes everything more bearable for everyone. They were able through their own experiences with him to build their own judgment. Either it will align with their mentor/family or it will not, but no matter what they’ll never fully hate Wei Wuxian the way the elders do.

[jasontoddiefor]

For your writing prompt, I am begging for some more of that beautiful gender mdzs fic of yours. Or even just mdzs, I beg

No need to start begging, anon, I’m glad for any and all mdzs prompts!

Prompt context: trans woman WWX nopes out of canon and NHS does his scheme on his own.

Lan Jingyi’s had a rough couple months. Sure, admittedly, Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling had it worse as they’d both gained a dead uncle – in the former’s case of a very nice corpse and in the latter’s as a very stabbed to death Jin Guangyao – but it’s been rough for Lan Jingyi too, okay?

Now he had to share Lan Sizhui with Jin Ling because they were somehow cousins of a sort in a way nobody was allowed to ask the Real Adults about, which was also kind of insulting. Lan Jingyi did not nearly die in the Burial Mounds to be left uninformed about the Yiling Patriarch’s scandalous affairs that gained Lan Jingyi a standing invitation to Lotus Pier now.

Well, he wasn’t invited, but Lan Sizhui was and if he was visiting Sect Leader Jiang then Jin Ling was also bound to be there and Lan Jingyi wasn’t going to be left out.

On the bright side, they did a lot more night hunting together, which most definitely was a bonus. One of those night hunts saw them victorious over a group of vicious guai whose defeat just had to be celebrated in an inn. It was in that establishment that they met Lady Mo. She was plain sort of pretty but her playing was wonderful enough that Jin Ling boasted of the Yunmeng songs entertaining them for the night. So of course Jingyi had to request something from Gusu and somehow that led to Lan Sizhui of all people inviting her to Gusu.

Over the course of the next week traveling home, Lan Jingyi discovered a few things about Lady Mo. Namely that she didn’t have a lunatic as a brother, so any similarities to Mo Xuanyu were just coincidence, but she did have a hothead as a younger brother. He was apparently in charge of the family business back home somewhere in Yunmeng and doing very well. She’d nearly started crying at that so Lan Sizhui had quickly distracted her with stories of their past night hunts.

Lan Jingyi also learned that Lady Mo was also not really that much of a proper Lady, for all that the address delighted her.

She traveled on her own, which was scandalous enough, and also didn’t mind sleeping rough. Her explanation for the latter was that busking didn’t earn her that much money, but Lan Jingyi thought it was her frankly speaking terrifying competence with talismans.

“You didn’t tell us you were a cultivator!” Lan Jingyi accused, pointing at the remains of the corpse she’d blasted away.

Lady Mo snorted, another one of her not very ladylike gestures. “Was I supposed to?”

“If you can do that, yeah!”

She laughed, bright and loud, and firmly cemented her position as the weirdest woman Lan Jingyi had ever met. Lady Mo was just odd, and that unapologetically so, which kind of was its own charm. She said whatever she wanted and forgot all senses of propriety unless they suited her or she derived some kind of joy in dressing up in their inn of the night, face painted artfully, and playing a steadily growing supply of Gusu songs they were funneling her on their journey.

And somehow, despite knowing all her oddities — including the strange way she seemed out of the loop on what exactly was going on in the sects — Lan Jingyi was incredibly unprepared for their arrival at the Cloud Recesses.

[mxtxfanatic]

Alright, finished Yu Wu, so now we have our character breakdowns!

Our Main Cast:

Murong Lian: I am so serious when I say that a sad (not even tragic, just fucking “sucks I guess, dude” sad!) backstory and working with the MCs towards a mutually beneficial goal IS NOT A REDEMPTION ARC.

Yue Chenqing: a lesson in why ignorance is NOT bliss and you should NOT blindly follow whatever your elders say. (Especially if your “respectable elder” is a known rapist with children he don’t even know about under his own roof falling in love with each other 😬). I expected that he’d experience some traumatic bullshit, but holy shit?

Jiang Yexue: I knew there was something off about him, but holy shit????? Hope he rots in hell, but also, he was obviously tainted by that dark cultivation he took in to save his brother’s life, so maybe the real villain who needs to rot in hell is their rapist daddy 💁🏽‍♀️

Murong Chuyi: I knew he liked Yue Chenqing deep down and that something must have happened to make him turn on Jiang Yexue, but holy shit???? Anyways, hope he gets to beat that fool’s AND his rapist daddy’s asses in the afterlife before reincarnating into the most peaceful next life. (On another note, wtf is up with meatbun and jumping into blood pools????)

The emperor: I CALLED IT! A MOTHERFUCKING SNAKE AND A COWARD 🗣🗣🗣 IF YOU TRUSTED HIM AT ANY POINT, DON’T TALK TO ME 🗣🗣🗣

Guoshi of Liao/Hua Po’an: everyone is afraid of this super ultra powerful, seemingly invincible guoshi and ain’t none of y’all stopped to think, “wow, this is suspicious; wonder if that one villain IN ALL OUR STORIES maybe didn’t die, especially since we keep seeing hints that the one who “killed” him and died with him is ALSO not dead!” What foolishness… Anyways, man had plans on plans and still couldn’t predict human kindness, what a tool lmao

Princess Mengze: everyone was playing 3D chess with politics but bitch was on 4D; I was shook 😳

Gu Mang: MY BOY! Wwx if he was written into a trauma porn novel. Stuck. To. His. Convictions!!! Every reveal of his was a whammy on top of a whammy 😭😭😭 Thought he was out here being Naruto-level foolish without the protagonist halo, but he was really out here playing 4D chess on human morality with the best of them! GIVE HIM HIS FLOWERS 💐 💐💐

Mo Xi: love how he loves Gu Mang. Hate how goddamn naive he is. At some points, instead of feeling emotionally overwhelmed, I was just getting secondhand embarrassment. Would obviously NOT survive a political intrigue novel.

Honorable mentions:

Lu Zhanxing: his death fucking suuuuuucked, but he was a real one.

Li Wei: standing up to the emperor’s men to protect your lord, LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO

Lan’er (Changfeng-jun’s daughter): they didn’t have to do her like that… (also, is she still alive???? We just kinda drop her and never check back in????)

Madam Jiang/Su Yurou: wish I could be this unbothered in the face of conflict, while having the balls to defy the most terrifying not-quite-human in the known world 😭 glad she survived 💙

Jiang Fuli: fuck, I’m glad HE survived! He deserves it!

Hong Shao: she walked into death bravely and heartbrokenly, and I wish she didn’t have to. I hope she and Li Qingqian reincarnate into a better life where they grow to be the old man and hag together, like she dreamed…

Li Qingqian: the way he found out that in attempting to save Hong Shao, he had actually killed his love AND that her murderer “was” the man who saved him? I’m glad Su Yurou got to tell him the truth, and I hope he was able to reunite with Hong Shao in the afterlife

[akirahilar]

Jiang Cheng isn’t antagonist

While the protagonist is the main character, with whom our audience must empathize, the antagonist represents the opposite force that prevents him from reaching his goal.

Literally, they choice like antagonist the one character that couldn't to stoped to the protagonist. The one character that try to protect him in infinity situacions, despite he didn't know all the context and why WWX to act like this. The one character that was a victim the protagonist's actions, because for hi believed in the protagonist and in the finish to pay the price.

Exist Jin GuangYao, Jin GuangShan, Wen RouHan, Su She and Xue Yang, but the character more despreciate for this persons is Jiang Cheng. And convert him in the antagonist! No, they need to learn about what is an antagonist and what is his role in the novel, for understand that Jiang Cheng is a secundary character that is the counterbalance for the protagonist for demostrate that his vision is more honorable and heroic. But in the finish, Jiang Cheng had the reason, because every decition the Wei Wuxian like protagonist to led him to dead.

[maria-taiwin]

Thinking about the power of miscommunication and its dramatic consequence in MDZS, not just romantic (wangxian), but also between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan.

Let's talking about Jin Zixuan's tragic death: Zixuan arrives in the middle of the conflict, he tries to calm things down as the best he can by arguing with his cousin and put some sense in his head (impossible), and then zixun destroys wwx's gift for jin ling and wwx tries to attack zixun out of anger. And then we have Zixuan being confused by that act and trying to stop wwx, thinking he got crazy "out of nowhere", because he didn’t know what the box is and why wwx was so angry! Since Zixuan failed with his imbecile cousin, he tries to calm wwx down.

And the miscommunication continues. Wwx thought Zixuan is involved too in that ambush and he's trying to play tricks with him by asking to go to Jin Lintai. Actually Zixuan was just trying to settle the situation down and taking wwx to his wife, Jiang Yanli, wwx's sister. Again wwx thinks it's a trap but while Zixuan is not the most intelligent person, he offers this plan out of good faith. When wwx will explain with calm how he's not involved in zixun's curse, everything will be fine. Little he knows how his family is fucked up and wanted to murder wwx since the beginning. They just wanted an excuse.

Wwx knows the truth too, he knows if he goes to Jin Lintai under these circumstances, we'll be super dead. But what he misjudged is zixuan not wanting him dead! At the same time Zixuan misjudged the situation and thinking that if wwx will stop wen ning by being a super weapon, then the archers will stop too and the attacks from both fronts will cease. He wasn't there at the beginning and he didn’t know the archers attacked wwx out of nowhere and with no provocation by wwx. Actually he saw himself wwx attacking zixun first "out of nowhere". Both these characters have prejudices against each other (zixuan thinking wwx is crazy and too stubborn to search a non mortal solution; wwx thinking he can't trust zixuan) for their past hate, and both failed to see each other's true intentions.

Mix of consequences and factors caused zixuan's death (no mistake, wwx is definitely the responsible in the novel), but damn the miscommunication (worsened by wwx's bad mental state), played hard on that conflict.

It was a predictable and tragic incident, though wwx didn’t trust zixuan or never liked him (and vice versa) he never intended to harm him!

But of course no one understood that, because wwx threatened to kill zixuan in the past, so of course he really wanted to kill him this time. But he didn’t. Again misunderstandings (on purpose or not). The only one wwx hasn't miscommunication with is Yanli. Yeah she was in deep mourning for her husband's death, but she didn’t blame wwx, never did (these would have been her final words, if only...), because she knows wwx never intended to do an intentional harm to zixuan! Tragically wwx died thinking yanli would have blamed him too. Not saying that he didn’t think of himself being guilty over that killing, he does, he knows he's the responsable one, because wen ning was HIS weapon, and never excused it. (Wwx always attacked people who attacked him first. Fair enough. Zixuan's death was the only unfair one, because none of them intended harm.)

End of my point. Now going back to fanfics where everybody lives

[leatherbookmark]

no, but

seriously WHERE do people get it from that either 1/ nmj cared about meng yao so much, or 2/ they both cared so much about each other. where. was it the (added in cql) scene of banishment? in which nmj cried and didn’t execute my on the spot, so the obvious conclusion is that he’s just the biggest, smooshiest softie with the marshmallowiest heart, said heart softly plopped in the palm of my’s hand?

cql, why.

(my suspicion is that if they made nmj anything like his novel self, people would actually know and understand why jgy shanked him, and the villain wouldn’t be villainous at all lmao.)

no, but really -- “gave him a new life”? “few people cared more about jgy than nmj”? yeah i guess you could say few people cared more about wwx than lqr, going by this standard. i feel like people saw nmj defend my and immediately assumed it was because he deeply cared about his wellbeing and was sensitive to the plights of the underprivileged, which. was obviously not the case? it was IN THE TEXT that he was bein insensitive and only ensuring the soldiers would give meng yao even more shit for that? he didn’t even wait for my to actually tell him about the situation, he just said ‘follow me’! the hell would he have done if the soldiers weren’t shit-talking meng yao?! given them a goddamn stern talking to, thus making meng yao even more obviously look like a snitch!?

and then later during sunshot he once again doesn’t even consider meng yao’s actual wishes, just writes him a letter of recommendation and sends him off to the jin. like, sure, perhaps if he hadn’t done that jgy would’ve never gone off to become a spy, since he says he betrayed wen ruohan for his father, but like. the fact that he meant well doesn’t excuse the disservice! not when he has all the power to tell meng yao what to do, and meng yao has none of the power to tell him no. not to mention that in that moment, nmj is -- and he WILL do that again! -- eavesdropping on a conversation between my and lxc. NOT A GOOD LOOK, BRO

taking these incidents into consideration, imo it’s not that nmj feels particularly strongly about the fate and wellbeing of one meng yao, or even the Underprivileged layer. rather, he’s ~righteous~ -- he does what he thinks is the right thing, the morally correct thing. but he does so blindly; he doesn’t consider that a common soldier, or a poor, weak son of a sex worker might have different principles than he does. he thinks everyone is “equal”, but in a sense that they should all adhere to the same rules, not that they all deserve the same kind treatment and respect.

and then meng yao tricks him, and nmj Instantly enters the kill mode. he says he’s going to kill him the next time they meet, he constantly either finds faults in everything jgy does or tries to kill him -- how is that the behavior of someone who cares about jgy as a person? if i had to compare it to anything, i’d say he’s like a parent who had all those expectations of their child, and when said child turns out not to be daddy/mommy’s perfect little plaything, they turn to mistreatment and abuse. except nmj isn’t even jgy’s dad, he’s his PAST employer and then a sworn brother who’s supposed to help and not terrorize him.

this is not comparable to, say, jiang cheng, who’s an asshole and would rather eat his shoes than say something nice, but sacrifices himself to the wen for wwx, smuggles jyl and suggests she let wwx name her future child and gives wwx his flute back. aside from the aforementioned well-intentioned disservices, nmj doesn’t really do anything that would show that he cares for jgy as a person, that he wants jgy the person to live well rather than meng yao, the vice-envoy he’s put so many hopes in.

and it’s not like jgy was attached to him either and tried with all his might to mend their severed bond. he realized nmj doesn’t like him at best and actively wants him dead at worst, and if lxc didn’t insist on swearing brotherhood he would’ve spent the rest of his days carefully avoiding him. like yes, he felt grateful and indebted for nmj’s clumsy kindness, and because jgy was jgy, he probably didn’t necessarily want him to die even after all the times his da-ge nmj exhibited un-da-ge-like behaviors, but it wasn’t as deeply personal as people think it was. like he didn’t go from “oh, my dearest da-ge, however else can i help you” to “fuck that guy in particular” in the moment when nmj kicked him down the jinlintai stairs. he knew the relationship was unsalvageable before; that incident was just a concrete proof of it as well as proof that nmj was too far gone.

like. ugh

[yiifu]

compilation of mdzs fridge moments over the past few weeks:

1) all 3 characters who dabbled with demonic cultivation in some way (wwx, xy, jgy) all died and each one of them was in some sort of friendship/relationship/companionship (whether platonic or romantic or enemies) with a tall graceful dude, like look at this: wwx & lwj (lovers), xy & xxc (enemies), jgy & lxc (friends till the bitter end to enemies ????) idk it’s just something something the other r/ships are parallels or dark AUs of wangxian and maybe what could have happened to them if wwx hadn’t gotten lucky with mxy & nhs bringing him back from the dead. u know like how some ppl say jgy and xy are foils or mirrors to wwx yeah i think the r/ships they form are foils or mirrors to wangxian too ;-;

2) i’m so stupid dude like i’m so used to eating lotus root soup every saturday that when i saw yanli’s lotus pork rib soup in mdzs i was just like ‘oh cute i eat that too it’s good stuff’ and im only just realizing that she’s making this soup cos they literally live in lotus pier, like, they’re surrounded by the stuff ofc she would have had lots of chances to make it 

3) reading a bunch of fanfic (fix it, alt-timeline) and i started to sympathise so much more with jgy (i mean i alrdy did without reading ff but now i like him a lot more idk) and also the juniors trio ships are literally so cute, whether it’s platonic/romantic ships their dynamics are really good. sizhui and jingyi? the sweet guy and the sassy guy (blue oni red oni), childhood friends to field partners/lovers. sizhui and jin ling? angry brat and sassy brat, enemies/rivals to friends/lovers. sizhui and jin ling? blue oni red oni acquaintances to friends/lovers. love them so much.

4) ALSO there was this reddit thread that was like ‘what single event could have prevented most of the shit in mdzs from happening’ and it was so eye-opening i loved all the answers and wish there was more. but what i got out of it was that essentially jin and wen clans were to blame for their greed. jin guangshan/wen ruohan/wen chao dying would have fixed most of it. jin guangshan dead = no jgy. also depends on how early he died. but then again jgy’s descent into villainy also came about because of the wens and the war and also what they did to wwx to cause him to invent demonic cultivation. so like everything is so interconnected. all i know is that the three yunmeng siblings could have actually lived a pretty okay life at lotus pier post-sunshot campaign if the jins had treated the wen remnants better and didn’t trying to frame wwx as the public enemy. remember that jiang cheng and wwx didn’t fall out until it came to the issue of the wen remnants. jiang yanli’s death was the straw that broke the camel’s back and put a nail in the coffin of their r/ship. 

like, wwx could have just continued to study or practice demonic cultivation while living in yunmengjiang, jiang cheng as sect leader with his two siblings by his side would have helped him deal with the sudden huge responsibility a lot better, mentally and emotionally at least, and yanli would have probably married out anyway but she and zixuan wouldn’t be dead, and they’d probably be ok bringing jin ling to lotus pier to visit once in a while. and hey, maybe over time wwx and jiang cheng and jin zixuan could even warm up to each other slowly as they all mature and get over the past. even for wangxian - without the desperation of having to protect the wen remnants, wwx wouldn’t have been so adamant on demonic cultivation and so convinced that lwj hated him. lwj could probably have talked him out of it - stuff like, hey, the war is over and you don’t have to use this anymore. wwx could have just used it from time to time to solve little issues with the dead, like he does in post-canon mdzs. they’d have had a lot more time to spend with each other in wwx’s first life.

not that i’m saying that mdzs was unsatisfactory - in fact it’s probably the only story i’ve ever read where i love all the characters and all the story arcs - it’s just so fun to think about what could have been.

[llycaons]

this fic is so insane. will not be recommending because of the weird junior shipping implications but like. okay at nightless lwj is badly injured trying to protect wwx and wwx in trying to save his life is misread by lxc as wwx trying to kill lwj, so lxc stabs wwx and then they think lwj is dead so wwx throws himself off the cliff, JIANG CHENG is the one who catches him and wwx tells HIM to let him go, while lxc takes on canon jc’s role and tells him he deserves worse than death and stabs the cliff, wwx falls like in canon but survives it, but ALSO 13 years later it’s revealed that WEN QING was smuggled out of koi tower by jyl and she’s been secretly living in LP the entire time (and maybe is in a relationship with her??) but didn’t tell lsz who she was or who he was even tho jyl and lwj are apparently single-parent friends and they visit LP all the time. uhh also there’s two kids because a-yuan had a twin brother and wwx and lwj each raised one etc. etc. but that setup wasn’t nearly as wild as the conclusion where xy and jgy kidnap wwx and the person who takes out jgy while he’s holding wwx hostage is JYL with a needle wq taught her how to use for her insomnia treatment like WHAT

[rosethornewrites]

NR, E, & M reading since 4/19

Finished

Not Rated:

Wen Chao kills WWX, by nirejseki

Prompt: Wen Chao kills Wei Wuxian at the Wen Indoctrination camp to intimidate the heirs of the clans.

WRH/CSSR/WCZ, by nirejseki

Prompt: So I really liked your pairing of LQR/WRH/Lao Nie and after seeing wwx's parents in the last episode of the donghua it got me thinking, How about WRH/WCZ/CSSR? WRH maybe saves them in yiling and they end up hitting it off (WRH might do it in the beginning just spite jfm by stealing his former best friend and crush) and the Wei family settles in nightless city, wwx grows up with the Wen heirs and wen Qing and wen Ning and that affects the events of Canon

Explicit:

something left to save, by androids_fighting93 (9 chapters)

"It’s going to be okay,” he murmurs in A-Yuan’s ear. Balanced on Wei Wuxian’s hip, A-Yuan watches his home disappear behind them, and starts to cry. Wei Wuxian looks again — away from the lands he knows, a world with no place for him. “We’ll take care of each other, won’t we?”

After the Wen remnants turn themselves in, Wei Wuxian disappears with the last living member of the Wen Clan. Lan Wangji follows.

one of those evenings, by westiec

“Ask for what you want, A-Cheng,” she instructs.

Intimacy between them has been… interesting to figure out. Neither of them had much space to become practiced at tenderness, and both of them have known their own bodies first as raw material to be shaped, cultivated into the right tool, the right weapon, something with which to do what needed to be done with as little friction as possible. Learning pleasure as husband and wife has been a negotiation, a dance, and—somewhat to both their surprise—a delight.

“I’d like to make you feel good,” he says, still adorably red in the face but undeterred. “To undress my wife and properly appreciate her beauty.”

T4T Chengqing enjoying a very sexy evening in Lotus Pier

Mature:

Heart of hearts, by apathyinreverie (🔒)

It won't be until several days later that Wangji will know to be grateful for Jiang Wanyin’s insistence to split up in their search.

(Or, JC and LWJ spend those months searching separately and LWJ ends up finding Wei Ying a little earlier. Wei Ying who doesn’t remember anything beyond his own name. So, LWJ takes his chance and takes Wei Ying home. To Gusu.)

justice, by thelastdboy

When Lan Wangji’s punishment had been decided, everyone at the Cloud Recesses had been aware that it had been a death sentence. Thirty-three lashes with a discipline whip weren’t something anyone had expected or even wanted him to survive.

And yet, he lived.

And now everyone needed to learn how to live with that.

Unfinished

Not Rated:

The worth of a life with no regrets, by SnowdropsAndDreams

It was hopeless. Utterly hopeless.

The night hunt had gone disastrously wrong and Wei Wuxian's tiny pebble of a core isn't enough to save him. But Jiang Cheng will be damned before he watches another sibling die in his arms, especially one that miraculously came back from the dead.

"I'm going to die here, Jiang Cheng. We both know it. But unlike last time, I'm going to make it meaningful."

"I know of a forbidden array that can turn back time."

"Didi, do you want to come with me?"

Or, a time travel fix-it fic where Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng work together as brothers.

Delight in Misery, by nirejseki

When Lan Wangji ran away from the jingshi to look for himself, his back still raw, and on Yiling he found only a small child, feverish but still capable of a little bit of babbling, still able to tell the story of what had happened – when he found the traces of blood on the ground, Wei Wuxian’s from when his power had backlashed on him – when he saw the bodies in the blood pool, already rotting –

For the first time in his life, Lan Wangji didn’t want to go home.

(what if he had another option?)

Explicit:

The Second Hand Unwinds, by trulywicked (🔒)

Sent back in time without his husband after a night hunt gone wrong, Lan Wangji is determined to ensure that Wei Wuxian’s safety and in the process hopefully mitigate, if not prevent, the war.

Through marriage among other things.

Heart of the Beast, by WaitForTheSnitch

“Wei Ying?” Nie Mingjue prompted him gently. “Where are your parents?”

“They went on a night hunt,” Wei Ying said, a bit evasively.

“Your parents are cultivators?” Da-ge asked in surprise. “Did they leave you here while they hunted? When did they go on their night hunt?”

“Four summers ago,” Wei Ying said a bit uncomfortable.

“Four summers ago,” Nie Mingjue repeated. “What are your parents’ names?”

“My mama is Cangse Sanren and my baba is Wei Changze,” Wei Ying told him, and recognition registered in Nie Mingjue’s eyes.

“Wei Ying,” Nie Mingjue said, sounding a bit regretful, “Your parents aren’t coming back.”

Or, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang run into Wei Ying while in Yiling and decide to bring him home. And it changes everything.

Mature:

Vow of Remembrance, by eightapart

It starts when he’s four and he whispers to Lan Huan that he’s lived his own death. His brother waves him off and tells him to go back to sleep, but it happens, again and again, until Lan Huan has no choice but to bring it up to their uncle.

After a series of trips to a child psychologist, Lan Zhan learns to stop dreaming.

or: Lan Zhan has memories of a past life with Wei Ying where they had a tragic ending.

At heart, by apathyinreverie (🔒, 2nd in a series)

“I feel like I might have known you,” Wei Ying murmurs against Wangji’s throat the next morning, air rushing past them as Bichen carries them speedily towards Gusu.

Or, LWJ finds WWX a little earlier after the Burial Mounds. WWX who doesn’t remember anything beyond his own name. So, LWJ takes his chance and takes WWX home. To Gusu.

(Continuation of Heart of hearts.)

(Un)Hidden truth, by Sarah_R

After watching his husband; his son; nephew; brother and little radishes dying in front of him one by one because of a source of resentful energy; Wei WuXian dies too as he destroys it.

But instead of darkness; he finds himself back in the past when he had just gotten kicked out of the cloud recess and everything looks so peaceful he can’t stand it. No…no no no he really can’t go through this hell again. Not again. Not after everything was supposed to be over.

Not knowing that Lan WangJi has been thrown back in time as well; he tries; and fails at taking his own life by slitting his throat open in the middle of lotus pier and so; he decides to show everyone the future.

If he’s going to live this hell again; he’s going to change it and if these people are suddenly so determined to keep him alive; then he’s not going to let them die either.

It doesn’t matter if they end up hating him just as much as he hates himself.

(Or; another time travel fix-it which happens to be a watching the show fic as well! With our favorite baby boy and his husband; all their ducklings and their very much alive family and friends from the past.)

[pixiesnooze]

“if madam yu wanted wwx dead he would have died she didn’t put her full spiritual power when whipping him” ok???? idgaf

[seethefakemuses]

the way mxtx had sooo many opportunities to break cx up and write wx moments pre-revival but they stayed together despite yzy and jfm’s marriage problems, literally lotus pier burning and sacrificing for each other, cx had their had a promise moment after xuanwu cave instead of cute wx bonding wwx literally says lwj u r boring i wish jc was here instead even the defection was literally staged and they were on good terms up until jzx and jyl died the odds were soo stacked against them but they stayed together through soo much and mxtx could’ve killed jc off to transition to wx but she doesn’t and gives us the mf golden core transplant i just… it’s such a what happened to the original plot of the movie wwx gets a second chance and gets w lwj like jc is right there you even get a bogo free nephew UGH i think mxtx learned her lesson cause tgcf is remixed mdzs god edition and jc was split into fx and mq who can fuck each other instead of xl who gets to fuck the guy who waited 700 years (it makes lwj’s 16 years pale in comparison lol)

literallyyyy mxtx had so many chances where she could have delved into wangxian’s relationship or reduced chengxian’s emotional impact but she just didn’t ever do it. she gave chengxian so much and wrote wangxian with subzero sexual tension, like miss girl i think you might be subconsciously shipping chengxian too.

lmao tgcf is kind of remixed mdzs, i guess mxtx really liked the theme. imo i didn’t find fx or mq to be that similar to jc, beyond superficial aspects. it is funny to think that mxtx saw the reception jc was getting and went hm i don’t like that he’s such a strong competitor and so made two ppl to be the mc’s childhood companions turned enemies.

[layzeal]

hhhh something about how two of the greatest losses in lwj’s life happened away from him.

both for madam lan and wei wuxian, he wasn’t there to see it, he wasn’t there to hear their last words, to ensure they would move on in peace. they were dead and gone and lan wangji would have been none the wiser if a third party hadn’t told him of it

[stiltonbasket]

Can we get some fem!wwx being a badass :3c ? Its what she deserves!

"What do you mean, he wouldn't light the lantern with Shijie?" Wei Wuxian says coldly. "I saw them fastening the wires together. What happened when it came to launching it?"

Mianmian wishes she were anywhere else—on the other side of the world, perhaps, or even back in the den of snakes called the Jinlintai. If asked at any point before now, she would have been the first to say that Wei Wuxian was a good-tempered girl, slow to anger and quick to forgive; but the Mianmian of half an hour ago had not yet thought of informing Young Mistress Wei that Jin Zixuan prevented Jiang-guniang from lighting their Qixi lantern with him, and now she knows better. Wei Wuxian is out for blood, and Mianmian doubts that the younger girl will be content until she spills it.

“Jin-gongzi heard our shimei talking about the wedding plans for next spring, and—well,” Mianmian sighs. “He didn’t like being reminded of the engagement, so he told Jiang-guniang to let him light the lantern alone.”

“Oh, did he?” mutters Wei Wuxian. “Thanks, Mianmian.”

And with that, she hitches up her skirts and runs off into the forest, after the departing Jin shixiongdi and regrettably, Jin Zixuan.

Mianmian puts her face in her hands for a moment before following. Naturally, she would like to prevent any unpleasantness (or, heaven forbid, a fight) between Wei-guniang and Jin Zixuan, but a part of her dearly wants to hide somewhere in the trees nearby and wait to see what happens.

Succumbing to the impulse, she did exactly that, and what happened next defied all expectation.

Wei Wuxian thrashed Jin Zixuan soundly when he insinuated that Jiang Fengmian preferred her over his own son and daughter, and then he went on to say that Lan Wangji was the most unfortunate young master of their generation because of his engagement to her.

“I stand by what I said,” Jin Zixuan spat through bleeding lips, after Wei-guniang wrestled Suihua away from him and threw it a hundred yards down the mountain. “I might be unsatisfied with Jiang-guniang, but at least your uncle didn’t see fit to betroth me to you, even if you really are his daughter.”

Wei Wuxian turned her nose up and sneered. “I have my own parents, peacock,” she said. “My father and mother were honorable people, and I was the only child they had. No one really believes I’m Jiang-shushu’s daughter, but you—that fine Fuqin you think so much of doesn’t even know how many children he’s got. Better you have your way and never marry my shijie—forget having a husband who loves her, she would have to spend the rest of her life guarding against her own father-in-law!”

Jin Zixuan went very still. Mianmian winced; everyone in the Jinlintai did their part towards keeping Jin Guangshan’s indiscretions from his son, and while Jin-gongzi knows that his father has a weakness for prostitutes and dancing girls—which many wealthy men do, both within the ranks of the jianghu and outside it—no one has dared to mention the encounters with gentry women. In all likelihood, Jin Zixuan knows nothing about them, and to find out like this—

And it was finding out, because Wei Wuxian had meant what she said. Mianmian knew it, the gaggle of shixiongdi knew it, and so did Jin Zixuan.

“Lan Wangji is the most unfortunate man I have ever known,” he said quietly, looking as if he might faint. “He must be, being saddled with you for his future bride. There will be nothing awaiting him at your side but misery.”

Wei Wuxian took no notice. She turned on her heel, ready to depart; and that was when Lan Wangji sailed out of the darkness and punched Jin Zixuan squarely on the nose, sending him sprawling into a pile of dead leaves over six feet away.

“Apologize to Wei Ying this instant,” he threatened, “or I will hit you again.”

Jin Zixuan refused to apologize, and Lan Wangji refused to renege on his threat: so now, both boys and Wei Wuxian are kneeling in Lan Qiren’s office, looking mutinously at the worn blue carpet while Mianmian explains how their Qixi night had gone from bad to worse.

“I expected better of you, Wangji,” Lan Qiren says at last. “You could have defended Wei-guniang’s honor without resorting to violence.”

“He said that I was unfortunate for being betrothed to Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji bites out, tilting his face up to the ceiling; if Mianmian didn’t know better, she might have thought that there were tears in his eyes. “That marrying her would bring me nothing but misery.”

He sounds painfully young as he repeats Jin Zixuan’s words, young and bewildered and lost. Something changes in Lan Qiren’s bearing when Lan Wangji falls silent again, as if there was some kind of meaning in the insult that none but the two of them knew; and then, without any further remonstrance, Lan Qiren sinks into a chair and sends Wei-guniang from the room.

“Escort her back to the ladies’ compound, Wangji,” he sighs. “Luo-guniang, accompany Young Master Jin to the healing ward and see that he gets something for his nose. I expect his father and Jiang-zongzhu to be here by the day after tomorrow.”

Jin Zixuan twitches. “Why?”

“Because I wrote to them,” Lan Qiren tells him. “You will not be disciplined, Jin-gongzi. Regardless of your harsh words to Wei-guniang and my nephew, neither of them were hurt, so they will face the appropriate consequences for fighting without permission, but the matter between you and Maiden Jiang should be settled between your families.”

He hesitates for a moment, and then:

“If I know Jiang-zongzhu at all, he will ask your father to break off the betrothal. The Yunmeng Jiang do not usually make arranged marriages, and there is no reason for you and Jiang-guniang to go forward with this one if you are so badly opposed to it. Good night to you both, and do try to get some rest before tomorrow morning. Neither broken noses nor sleepless nights will excuse you from lessons.”

And with that, Mianmian and Zixuan are dismissed.

“You should have stopped Wei-guniang,” Jin Zixuan says hollowly, after one of the medics patches him up and sends him back to the disciples’ compound. “If I hadn’t said all those things, Lan-xiansheng wouldn’t have had to write to Father.”

“Well, you meant them,” Mianmian points out. “And if Jiang-zongzhu really does call off the engagement, you’ll be free to marry someone you like. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

Zixuan purses his lips. “Mother will be furious,” he mutters. “She keeps saying I’ll never find anyone better than Jiang Yanli, and...Mianmian?”

“Hm?”

“Was Wei-guniang telling the truth? About father?”

“Yes, she was,” Mianmian replies, after a beat of silence. “Your mother keeps him off the disciple girls as best she can, but...a couple of years ago, he thought he could try his luck with Li Shuai. Jiang-zongzhu showed up before he could do anything, but he tried.”

“You’re lying,” Jin Zixuan says, his voice trembling. “Li Shuai is sixteen. Two years ago, she would have been—”

“The youngest child Furen knows about is around four, shixiong. His mother is only twenty.”

Jin Zixuan gulps. “A prostitute?”

“No, the second daughter of a wealthy village head. Jin-zongzhu hasn’t stopped visiting her or bringing her gifts, so she and her family must think he’ll be taking her in as a concubine. He never stays with the girls past their early twenties, and of course he never takes them in, but there it is.

“I don’t think Wei-guniang was wrong when she mentioned Lady Jiang guarding against your father. You don’t like Jiang Yanli, so there would be no protection from you. And I’ve seen the way Zongzhu looks at her when Jiang-zongzhu and Furen aren’t there.”

They stand together without speaking for almost a quarter-hour after that, and then Jin Zixuan bids her good night and goes back to his room. Mianmian retires to her own quarters with her heart pounding in her chest; and once there, she finds herself remembering the way Lan Wangji fought for Wei Wuxian’s honor, as if even the thought of Zixuan speaking badly of her was more than he could bear.

Will Mianmian’s future husband do the same for her, one day?

He had better be willing to defend me from the rest of the world, or I won’t accept his suit, she giggles to herself. But if I ever get the chance, I think I’d like to be the one defending him!

[labyrynth]

ok i know that it might come off sometimes that i dislike nie huaisang but i do not!! i do quite like that little stinky bastard of a man!!

i just think it’s very important to acknowledge that he is, in fact, a member of the Bitches With Dubious Methods Club (the other members being wwx and jgy), and that his motivations, as compared to wwx and jgy, were entirely selfish.

and also that his scheme seems to have fucked over a LOT more people than it helped

dead directly bc huaisang started stirring shit up: mo xuanyu & mo family, qin su, jin guangyao, su she, many miscellaneous monks, possibly many more; unknown (honorable mention: meng shi’s soul, as we have no idea what huaisang did with her body)

otherwise screwed: lan xichen (lan sect to a lesser extent thanks to lan qiren, but lwj certainly isn’t helping), jin ling & jin sect, moling su, the collective jianghu in the absence of an incredibly competent powerhouse of a leader, the common folks when jgy’s watchtowers are inevitably decommissioned in an attempt to erase his legacy (honorable mention: nie huaisang, who personally got the guy more or less keeping his sect afloat killed)

helped: nmj’s soul (but also not really bc his ass is NOT resting) and…sisi? wwx indirectly, bc he’s Alive again, and now everyone blames jgy for shit wwx actually did do? so also lwj by extension i guess but nhs didn’t really give a shit about that. bicao got a nice bracelet out of it, i guess.

so yeah just to clarify, huaisang is a conniving little bitch (affectionate)