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ashayatreldai · 3 years

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His Face - Fic

Find this on AO3 or read it here.

Among Su She’s effects is found a bundle of sketches of Hanguang Jun, which inspires a lifetime of exchanges between Wei Wuxian and his husband.

***

Wei Wuxian yawned, barely remembering to cover his mouth with the back of his hand. It wasn’t as though Lan Wangji minded; he still marveled at his husband’s calm acceptance of his less than perfect behavior. And it wasn’t as if he were really tired. They’d been back in Cloud Recesses only a handful of days and most of that time Wei Wuxian had been able to rest, to wander the back hill, to play with the rabbits, to tease Sizhui and Jingyi, to play Chenqing to the birds and the rainbows the sun cast in the light mists of Gusu’s waterfalls. No, he supposed. He yawned because he was warm, well-fed, secure and safe, and in the best company a person could desire, let alone have all to himself.

Lan Wangji sat on the other side of the desk, and in spite of the hour was still working through the backlog of mail which had accumulated in his absence.

“What’s this?” A bundle of papers caught Wei Wuxian’s eye, and on impulse he reached and drew them out of the stack.

Lan Wangji looked up. “After the events at Gyanyin Temple, members of the Lan Clan disposed of the bodies, sealed the coffin in which Red Blade Master and Jin Guangyao are buried, and otherwise put the site in order. Among these activities, Su She’s body was searched and his personal effects catalogued. A quiankun pouch was found, containing an assortment of items. This bundle of papers was also in the pouch. I assume it was forwarded to me because I am the subject.”

Wei Wuxian leafed through the pages. It was a collection of sketches in a variety of media, all of Hanguang Jun’s face, mostly sketches of his eyes. They weren’t half bad: the artist had captured the micro-expressions which concealed everything but hid nothing of Hanguang Jun’s thoughts. But as he examined the pile, he experienced an increasing sensation of wrongness.

“I wonder what he was trying to capture. I mean, here’s ice, here’s anger. I think this one is arrogance or being haughty; and this one has to be indifference. And this,” he huffed out with a half smile, “has got to be ‘you are the scum beneath my shoe’.” That was a micro-expression Wei Wuxian had seen often on Lan Wangji’s face when they were young, as he kept poking and prodding until the carefully cultivated mask his friend wore finally slipped. He spread out the pictures, his eyes searching for the clues he knew he’d find. “Why would he want to draw these things and exclude others? I know a lot of people are afraid of you, Lan Zhan, because you look cold and imperturbable. But anyone who knows you and watches closely can see that there’s so much more to you than that.”

“Su She was cast out of the Lan Clan because he betrayed our secrets to Wen Xu. He was known for being desirous of imitating me – poorly. We can only speculate as to his motivations otherwise,” Lan Wangji commented quietly.

“Mmmm,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “He hated you, but he also idolized you. Who’s to say what came first? Whatever,” he said, shaking his head. “The fact he captured your eyes with these strong antagonistic expressions suggests he hated himself, and perhaps wanted to make you the one who hated him in his own mind. It’s easier to hate someone than to live with the pain of feeling rejected or not even noticed.”

“I never hated Su She.”

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever known you to hate anyone, Hanguang Jun.” Wei Wuxian felt a surge of protective affection for this dear man. “Not even those who deserve it. Su She unfairly judged you and didn’t know you at all. Still, when you think about what people say about me, the scary deranged Yiling Patriarch, anything’s possible in terms of what people do to themselves to justify hatred. Blargh!” He made claws with his hands and pulled a terrifying crazy Yiling Laozu face.

“Wei Ying.” There was amusement dancing in Lan Wangji’s eyes. “You do not scare me.”

Sometimes Lan Wangji could abruptly light a fuse in Wei Wuxian and leave him smoking. He laughed and crawled around to Lan Wangji’s side of the table, climbing into his lap to sit with one leg either side of Lan Wangji’s waist. His husband’s hands came up to support his lower back. He put both hands loosely around Lan Wangji’s neck.

Lan Wangi had removed his silver coronet and tendrils of hair that usually were wound up to hold the headpiece in place trailed either side of his face, making him look softer and younger and so much more vulnerable.

For some time they sat simply looking at each other. Wei Wuxian took in the flawless face, reaching one hand to trace Lan Wangi’s eyebrow, feeling the soft hairs brush beneath his fingerpads. He gently followed the line of an eyelash, delighting in the butterfly kiss as his husband blinked. Out over the swell of zygomatic bone, cupping around his perfectly shaped ear – he really was like exquisitely carved jade, warm, living, and here. He cupped Lan Wangji’s cheek, his thumb finding the hollow between nose and lip and the soft breath of life it held. And those lips, now quirked in a loving bow.

He pulled himself up to kiss the forehead ribbon, to plant gentle brushes of his lips over all the places he’d touched. When he came to Lan Wangji’s mouth, he finally let go, giving all his worship as they joined tongues, teeth, desire, losing themselves in each other.

They released the kiss, and held each other, Wei Wuxian’s head on Lan Wangji’s shoulder. Between them energy sizzled – it would be sated later, but it was sufficient for now to enjoy the beatitude of the moment, the closeness, words unnecessary to communicate the depth of heart each held for the other.

***

Wei Wuxian was traveling. His absence itched acutely just under Lan Wangji’s skin, a constant worry. He rued the duty which pinned him in his current dual roles: Chief Cultivator and Acting Sect Leader, keeping him grounded at Cloud Recesses instead of off night hunting with his husband.

It was necessary, he knew, for Wei Wuxian to move; the whole man was a study in movement, in ceaseless energy. He knew the staid and stable pattern of life at Cloud Recesses felt like a box to Wei Ying, and while he could endure for a season, he needed more than what life in Gusu offered, even with rabbits and a back hill to wander for hours.

But oh, he missed him. And he worried too: who would defend him when he had so little sense of self-preservation?

This journey, Wei Wuxian had set off to attempt to mend things with Jiang Cheng before making his way up to Lanling to see Jin Ling. One of the highest values for the Lan was family, and Lan Wangji understood the deep need his husband had for those connections – had encouraged it.

It was just as well Wei Wuxian had mastered the butterfly talisman (and enhanced it). Morning and night he would wait for the silvery wings to alight with Wei Wuxian’s messages of love and thought to whisper through his qi. Sometimes they were profound, poetry. Sometimes playful; sometimes just a kiss. Lan Wangji came to depend on those messages, and on being able to send some back himself: I love you, I miss you, come home soon.

He sighed. This morning had grown tedious. Today was the end of the accounting period for Clan matters, and while there was staff to manage the minutiae of bookkeeping, as Acting Clan Leader LanWangji was examining the records before tomorrow’s visit from the auditor. Not for the first time he lamented his brother’s seclusion, necessary though it was. Dealing with finances was the part of the role that least appealed to Lan Wangji; he felt a headache brewing and was contemplating taking a break when there was a knock on the door.

“Hanguang Jun, mail has arrived,” the disciple said, handing him a bundle.

“Thank you. Please ask the kitchen to send me some lunch,” he requested, taking the pile.

The disciple departed, and he began to sort the items: those about Clan matters, those for the Chief Cultivator. One letter stood out, a simple scroll tied with a red thread. Putting all the other mail aside he carefully opened the scroll and took a breath.

It was an ink painting of his eyes, creased ever so slightly in an expression of amusement. On his brow the forehead ribbon glinted silver, his hair loosely framing his cheeks. He instantly recognized the artist, tracing a finger over the brush strokes as if that touch could unite him with the hand that had made them.

“Wei Ying,” he said, infinite fondness filling him.

Throughout the rest of the day he kept the picture on his desk, glancing at it from time to time. And when it was time to turn his attention to other things, he gently placed the picture in his sleeve to take back to the jingshi.

Every couple of days another picture would arrive. This too became something Lan Wangji expected, an important and significant marker in his day, each picture a symbol that he was one day closer to seeing, holding, touching, tasting Wei Wuxian again.

***

300 years later

Clan Leader Lan Shuoxiao had come to the Forbidden Room in the Library Pavilion seeking a book she’d known had been here years earlier. Back then she’d been a mischievous girl seeking a way to prank Shufu, and she vividly remembered the green cover. Lan filing methods hadn’t changed in hundreds of years, so that wretched book had to be here somewhere.

She moved a pile of dusty scrolls, cursing under her breath when she knocked a stack of bamboo books which went tumbling over the floor. Patience, she told herself strictly. Breathe and control.

Feeling a little more composed, she bent to restore the mess to order. A red cover caught her eye on one of the lower shelves. She’d not seen that before, and she was sure she’d have recognized it if she had. It was quite distinct, a deep red, tied shut with of all things a Clan ribbon.

Intrigued, she opened the volume, carefully untying the ribbon and leafing through the pages. Page after page were pictures of a handsome man’s eyes: crinkled in delight, weeping with sorrow, dancing with affection, on and on they went. Sometimes the whole of the man’s lovely face was shown: in some he wore the elaborate silver coronet her ancestors had favored, in others his long tresses floated around his face, and the artist had clearly captured a treasured, private, and vulnerable moment.

Around half way through the volume the pictures changed: a spritely young man in black, his underrobe a vivid red (the same colour as the cover of the book, as it happened – and she wondered whether it was indeed cut from the same cloth), a red ribbon in his hair, holding a black dizi. This array of pictures had a different hand, a more understated eye which captured the young man’s energetic aura, as well as pensive moments – the youth had clearly been to hell and back, and Lan Shuoxiao could almost feel the immense love with which the person who’d drawn these pictures had made each stroke.

There were so many! Page sized varied: a compendium gathered together of odd scraps. The last page bore an inscription:

In loving memory of my parents, Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji, Hanguang Jun, and Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian, Yiling Laozu. The true faces of both, in their own hands. Love letters sent to dearest him who was, alas, away. Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui, Chief Cultivator.

Clan Leader Lan Shuoxiao’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. Clan records declared Hanguang Jun’s partner’s name to have been Lan Ying, Lan Wuxian. How had they never made the connection before that “Lan Wuxian” was in fact the infamous Yiling Patriarch? Given that the two had Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui’s name inscribed under theirs as offspring, Lan Shuoxiao and many others had assumed Lan Wuxian to be female.

She looked closely again at one of the pictures of the young man in black and red. He didn’t look like the evil dictator of legend. He looked mischievous and full of life, an impression caught in the laughing smile, and so… youthful.

Not that demonic cultivation was these days the issue it had been for her ancestors; these days cultivation was emphasized to be about harnessing the yin of negative energy and the yang of positive energy, holding them in balance and using each appropriately. She doubted the people who had so feared and hated the Yiling Patriarch would be able to recognize as righteous the way all cultivators now practiced as a matter of course.

As for Hanguang Jun… She flicked back to a picture in which his whole upper body had been captured as he played guqin, a study of someone completely caught up and focused on the music, almost in ecstasy. Another private moment revealing something about the essence of the man. He was so beautiful, captivating. And such a contrast from all the other images she’d ever seen of him. Hanguang Jun had a reputation even now, 150 years after he had Ascended, for being cold, somewhat forbidding, distant, just, merciful and benevolent, untouchable, unrivalled in almost all fields. That was how he appeared at the Gate of Gusu, carved of jade, opposite his brother, Zewu Jun, the famous Twin Jades of Gusu Lan now its guardians, their representations inscribed and infused with talismans and ward tethers. Rumor was that no evil could come to Cloud Recesses as long as the Twin Jades stood at the gates. How was anyone to reconcile that formidable image with this? This picture of a very human, vulnerable, gentle man, who was clearly so very much loved by the artist who drew him.

Lan Shuoxiao found herself on the edge of tears. It felt like an injustice, looking at these intimate sketches, that history had forgotten Wei Wuxian as little more than a footnote. And that the righteous Hanguang Jun had been immortalized as a stiff, cold and distant deity rather than someone’s beloved whose heart beat wildly in his chest in longing, and whose blood was warm and red and thrummed with reciprocated affection. She wondered how they had found one another, wondered about the history in which they must have been caught up: how did it affect them? What trials had they passed through before they finally found their way to each other’s arms?

She reverently closed the volume, her original mission in coming here put aside. Thoughtfully, she collected up the scrolls and bamboo books and reordered them, and then closed the Forbidden Room.

***

Several months later a new scene was depicted on the climbing path around the residences of Gusu: a beautiful, crowned Lan sat cross-legged in the back hill meadow, covered in a blanket of rabbits. His loving gaze was fixed on the figure opposite him under a peach tree in full bloom, who was standing and playing a dizi. The legend beneath read: Hanguang Jun and his cultivation partner Yiling Laozu, Lan Wuxian.

FIN

#the untamed #ao3 #mdzs #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan sizhui #myfic

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trilliastra · 3 years

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[much fluff with a dash of angst, but mostly jin ling coping with being a sect leader and his uncles being there for him. jin ling & jiang cheng & wei wuxian.]

Jin Ling has been a Sect Leader for exactly four months and eighteen days when the letter arrives.

Sect Leader Yao wishes to invite you and…

Jin Ling rolls his eyes. It’s always an invitation for dinner or a ‘sumptuous trip to try our most beloved meals’ and it always ends with Jin Ling visiting their crops and listening to hours upon hours of a speech about the advantages of having Sect Leader Yao as ally and biggest business partner.

Jin Ling always leaves with a headache and the certainty that not even the finest crops in the world are worth enduring that old hag’s voice for days.

He’s wondering if he could get away with ‘accidentally’ dropping the letter in the fire when the word ‘marriage’ catches his attention.

Dread spreads through his body. His uncle has warned him about this, lectured Jin Ling about taking his time, being careful around pretty ladies, but he thought he had more time! He’s still sixteen, why would he want to marry anyone right now?

He keeps reading, curiosity getting the best of him, and then he realizes, Sect Leader Yao is proposing an alliance through marriage, but not with Jin Ling.

With his uncle.

Jin Ling does not mention the letter to his uncle. He does not think that would end well for him or Sect Leader Yao, and though Jin Ling would not mind if the old man was accidentally pushed into a pit so deep he could never escape – it would save him so much time and tears of frustration – he does not want his uncle to start a war. One murderous uncle is enough, thank you.

So Jin Ling does the next best thing and throws the letter into the fire, pretends it never happened and leaves Sect Leader Yao to deal with it alone.

That’s not the end of it, though. Of course not. Jin Ling could not be that lucky.

The second letter comes the next week, and by the time the twelfth letter arrives, Jin Ling is just about ready to start a war himself, so when Wei Wuxian shows up unannounced, he cannot be blamed for throwing a whole jar of wine on his head.

Wei Wuxian’s entire bright demeanour is particularly annoying when Jin Ling has been experiencing a headache for the past – what, month?

“You look stressed.” Wei Wuxian points out, wiping the wine off his face with the sleeve of his robe (‘such a waste’, he had said, but instead of leaving as Jin Ling had hoped, he simply collapsed on a chair and grinned, ugh).

“The letter just won’t stop!” He grits out, angry, throwing the closest letter – from Ouyang Zizhen’s father of all people, apparently, he has two daughters that would be just ‘perfect’ for Jin Ling’s uncle – towards Wei Wuxian.

“Oh,” Wei Wuxian laughs hysterically for a good minute while Jin Ling stares, unamused, “I did not think Jiang Cheng would be this disputed.”

Jin Ling tries not to take offense on that, but the words come out of his mouth before he can hold them back, years of having to defend his uncle from other disciples getting the best of him. “He would be a great husband!” Jin Ling argues. “If he wants to!”

Wei Wuxian raises his hands, placating, but he still has that knowing smirk on his face. “I know.” He says, softer this time. “He always liked to pretend to be cold and angry, but we knew-” Jin Ling feels a shiver run down his spine at the mention of his mother so casually. His uncle talked about her, told him stories about his parents, but he never looked at ease while doing it, his eyes always trying to hide the pain, “Jiang Cheng is especially warm inside, he takes criticism to heart and he hurts just as easily, just as deeply. Maybe even more than the rest of us.” Wei Wuxian gets a distracted look on his face, lost in thoughts and memories that Jin Ling knows he will never understand, does not know if he even wants to.

The pain and the heartbreak that molded his uncle while he was growing up, Jin Ling has long understood that it came from years of self-doubt and self-loathing.

‘I am proud of you, it does not matter what happens, who you are, what you do, I am proud of you’, Jin Ling heard those words more than once as he grew up, his uncle wiping his tears of frustration and anger when he failed at hitting the targets with his arrows, lost a fight with one of the older disciples. He did not think much of it at the time, but after the temple, after hearing the pain in his uncle’s voice while arguing with Wei Wuxian, the pain of being left alone – Jin Ling understood that those were words his uncle wishes someone had told him.

“I know.” Jin Ling says, softly, before looking down at the pile of letters still on his desk. He lets out another groan of frustration. “But why me?” He cries out while Wei Wuxian starts giggling again. “They should send these to him!”

“Oh, my dear A-Ling.” Wei Wuxian says, taking deep breaths to control his laughter. “They want your help.”

“No, no.” Jin Ling groans, pacing around the room. Wei Wuxian watches him patiently, drinking from a new jar of wine one of Jin Ling’s servants brought. “I will not be Jiujiu’s matchmaker! I have other things to do! Did you know there are rumours of a ghost terrorizing a village? At least twenty families have arrived to Lanling yesterday, I do not have time to help Sect Leader Yao se – seduce Jiujiu!”

Wei Wuxian – proving to be just as useless as Jin Ling had thought – snorts and reaches out for another jar of wine. “You are pathetic.” Jin Ling points out, rolling his eyes when Wei Wuxian merely shrugs.

“You are the Sect Leader.”

“I know!” Jin Ling cries out, throwing his arms up in frustration. To his horror, he feels himself starting to tear up.

He hates crying, even more in front of others. He knows he does it a lot, he’s always been a crier, but he is, as Wei Wuxian pointed out, a Sect Leader now. He cannot just burst into tears every time he feels tired or sad or—overwhelmed.

“Jin Ling—” Wei Wuxian starts, softly, but a knock on the door stops him.

“Sect Leader,” his secretary calls, sounding panicked, and though Jin Ling wants to tell him to leave, he takes a deep breath and orders him in, “you have a visitor.” He announces.

“Who-” Jin Ling tries to ask, but the door flies open before he can finish and soon enough his uncle is stalking into his office.

If it weren’t for the secretary still watching them, Jin Ling would have dropped everything and ran into his uncle’s arms, crying as if he were five years old again.

“You do not have time to write,” his uncle accuses as soon as the door closes behind Jin Ling’s secretary, “but you have time to chat with him.” The tone is not as cold as it used to be and Wei Wuxian offers him a wave and a teasing grin instead of flinching like he also used to do.

“I did not invite him,” Jin Ling turns around, scrambling to wipe his tears. It has been a rough couple of days, emotion got the best of him, “he just showed up and now he refuses to leave.”

“Not fair!” Wei Wuxian cries out, pretends to be wiping a tear while his eyes shine with mischief. Jin Ling’s uncle rolls his eyes, expression so soft Jin Ling feels himself tearing up again.

His uncle deserves so much more than an arranged marriage.

“A-Ling.” Jin Ling looks up, finds both his uncle and Wei Wuxian looking at him with concern. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing.” He shouts, starts rearranging the papers on his desk as to have something to do with his hands, something to distract him from all these emotions, the tiredness, the overwhelming happiness of having his family with him after all this time where he forced himself to be strong, to deal with everything alone, to—

“A-Ling.” Jin Ling feels a hand on his shoulder, strong and careful and loving.

“Jiujiu,” Jin Ling sniffs, suddenly so exhausted he feels his legs giving out. He is quickly supported by his uncle and Wei Wuxian, “I do not want you to get married to Ouyang Zizhen’s sister.”

“What?” he asks, helping Jin Ling to the chair and kneeling in front of him. He runs a hand through Jin Ling’s hair, touches his cheek softly. “What are you talking about?”

“You should marry for love.” He whispers, weakly, and then – nothing.

When Jin Ling was a child, he used to have nightmares about losing two faceless people, a woman he would call mother and a man he would call father. He’d wake up, shaking, heart beating fast, and immediately run to his uncle’s room.

He would also have dreams where his uncle died, but those never seemed so scary because once Jin Ling woke up, he knew it would never happen. His uncle would never leave him.

That certainty never wavered, not once, even when Jin Ling was in Lanling, even when his uncle got hurt fighting Su She, his uncle would never leave him.

But as soon as Jin Guangyao died, as soon as Jin Ling was pronounced Sect Leader, as soon as his uncle left to Lotus Pier, Jin Ling realized it was time he let his uncle go.

The faceless woman in his dream is different this time. She’s holding one end of a rope while the other end is tied around Jin Ling’s neck and when he tries to run, she holds him back, the knot so tight Jin Ling feels himself suffocating, unable to scream, to call for help.

From afar he sees his uncle burning, fire surrounding him as he shouts, one hand stretched out in front of him, reaching out for Jin Ling while the woman drags him away from his uncle, farther and farther. And while his uncle burns, Jin Ling chokes.

He startles awake, gasping for air as his hands search for the rope around his neck, a rope that isn’t there anymore.

“A-Ling.” His uncle calls. When Jin Ling looks at his worried face, he collapses against his chest, relieved. “Breathe,” he whispers, pulling Jin Ling closer to him, one hand on the back of his neck, comforting, “I am here.”

“Jiujiu,” Jin Ling sobs, holding his uncle’s robes tightly. He should not be acting like this anymore, he should not behave as a child, he is not – he is a Sect Leader now, he needs to be strong. Ashamed, he sobs harder, hides his face in his uncle’s chest, “I am sorry, I should not –”

“Stop.” His uncle orders. “I should be the one apologizing. You were not ready for –”

“You were a year older than me when you became a Sect Leader!” Jin Ling protests. All the things his uncle did when he was younger, the war, the people he lost.

“I was not ready either.” His uncles confesses. Jin Ling pulls back, surprised. “I had no other choice, A-Ling, but you – you have me and your friends and – Wei Wuxian, I suppose,” he adds, rolling his eyes, and Jin Ling, despite himself, smiles.

He notices Wei Wuxian by the door, arms crossed in front of himself, eyes shining with tears, Jin Ling imagines, of regret for years lost, bonds broken.

“I will try to visit more often.” Jin Ling’s uncle promises. “And if you do not write back,” he threatens, “I will drag you back to Lotus Pier and feed you to the water spirits.”

Jin Ling blinks. “I am a Sect Leader.”

“I don’t care. Learn when to ask for help, brat, and answer to your uncle’s letters.”

“My, my, A-Ling,” Wei Wuxian says for the first time, eyes still wet, smile brighter than before, “it seems your uncle was lonely.”

“Wei Wuxian.” Jin Ling’s uncle growls, reaching out for a pillow and throwing at Wei Wuxian’s beaming face. The other man ducks away easily, cackling.

This is how his uncle’s life must have been before. He was not ready to become a Sect Leader then, but most of all, he was not ready to lose his entire family.

“Jiujiu,” Jin Ling takes his hand, “do you wish to get married?”

His uncle furrows his brows, confused. “This again?” He glances at Wei Wuxian, then back at Jin Ling. He sighs. “Maybe one day.” He says. “But that is not important right now.”

“It is important!” Jin Ling argues. “I want you to be happy!”

“Marrying one of the Ouyang girls won’t make him happy.” Wei Wuxian says, pulling a chair to sit on the other side of Jin Ling’s bed.

“You are married to Hanguang-jun!” Jin Ling points out.

“Because I love him.” He answers and Jin Ling is relieved he doesn’t go on a rant about Hanguang-jun’s eyes or something, it has happened before. It was disgusting. “Jiang Cheng should marry someone for love.”

They both turn to look at his uncle and Jin Ling’s eyes widen when he sees him blush. Does that mean–

“Enough with this.” Jin Ling’s uncle says, forcing him to lie back, fluffing the pillows around him. “I will deal with the letters.”

Jin Ling sighs, relived, as his eyes start to drop shut. “Do not start a war.” Both his uncles snort.

“I promise.” He whispers and Jin Ling falls asleep surrounded by his family.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng & jin ling #jiang cheng & jin ling & wei wuxian #mdzs #my fic #did you catch the hint jiang cheng might already have someone he loves?#bc that might become a fic soon #wink wink

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hamliet · 4 years

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Am I My Brother’s Keeper?: Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng

Or, how the two most virulent Wen-haters in the story tragically mirror each other in far more ways than just their issues with the Wens.

I’ve written about MDZS’s use of character trios as a narrative structure before (here and here). In this meta I’m going to talk about the main three and the Venerated Triad. I’ve also written before about how Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao’s relationship (however you interpret it) parallels Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s, with Lan Xichen as a strong Lan Wangji foil (fitting, as they are the “Twin Jades”), and Jin Guangyao as a strong Wei Wuxian foil (as Wei Wuxian himself acknowledges in the story’s final chapter). So let’s talk about the third member of these trios: Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng, who also closely foil each other... in particular, through their respective relationships with Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian.

But wait, you say. Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue, which parallels Jiang Cheng killing Wei Wuxian!

True. There are some parallels between Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao (such as JC killing WWX to avenge JYL, even though she wouldn’t have wanted that, and JGY doing it when NMJ hurts NHS, even though NHS adored NMJ), as well as between Chengxian and Xiyao, but this is not a meta about those specifically.

Nie Mingjue tried to kill Jin Guangyao in life (twice), and actually does do so in the end, and Jiang Cheng helped kill Wei Wuxian even if he did not do it directly. The reason both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng were able to treat their brothers like this was because of their immense privilege, the privilege neither acknowledge until it is time to weaponize it. In those moments, both chose not to empathize but to see their brothers as an “other” instead of as someone they loved (and I do think both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng loved Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian in a realistic, flawed way). In the otherizing of their brothers, both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng put on robes displaying society’s flaws as blatantly as Sect Leader Yao does, but with a lot more humanity than the flat, static Sect Leader Yao. Thus, MXTX tells us we cannot even “other” society as a whole.

If this sounds like I’m hating on either character, I’m really not intending to. They’re great characters and I enjoy both of them (Jiang Cheng’s one of my very favorites), but they’re flawed, and in fact that’s the whole reason I like them. But I do admit this essay will be scathing to an extent; just know it doesn’t touch on my whole opinion of their characters, and isn’t meant to excuse Wei Wuxian (who had a savior complex) and Jin Guangyao (who sought society’s approval to his own doom); I’ve just previously excoriated those two.

I. Defining Justice as Trauma

Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng both lost their fathers to Wen Ruohan (as did the Lan brothers), and both vowed to wipe out the Wens as a result. However, both of them fail to think about the Wens as people, and wind up, well, becoming eerily similar to the worst Wens.

Jiang Cheng has lived through the pain of losing everything (status, family, home) and he not only refuses compassion for the two Wens who saved him so that he could fight to get those things back, but inflicts the same traumas on them. In fact, Jiang Cheng’s reaction to Wen Qing’s predicament post-Sunshot campaign is paralleled explicitly with Nie Mingjue’s:

Jiang Cheng’s brows were knitted. He rubbed the vein that throbbed at his temple and soundlessly took in a deep breath, “… I apologize to all of the Sect Leaders. Everyone, I’m afraid you don’t know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei WuXian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.”

Nie MingJue, “You owe them gratitude? Isn’t the QishanWen Sect the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sect’s annihilation?”

...

Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”

Lan XiChen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie MingJue abhorred Wen-dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil. Lan XiChen didn’t say anything else.

There’s a lot of irony in this. Wen Qing didn’t speak up because she wanted to protect her little brother--something Nie Mingjue should have been able to relate to, considering he sent Huaisang to safety in the Cloud Recesses during the war. Also, I mean, Nie Mingjue, you didn’t exactly rise up against Wen Ruohan until you knew you had the forces to win. He likely spent several years in begrudging deference to him, even sending Nie Huaisang along as tribute when Wen Chao demanded it. Jiang Cheng starts to do the right thing in this scene by speaking honestly about Wen Qing, but then Nie Mingjue reminds him of society and propriety, and Jiang Cheng backs down, crushed under society again. Both of them commit sins of omission, in that they stand back and allow society to belittle and vilify people.

The “sins of omission” is a motif that continues in both Nie Mingjue’s and Jiang Cheng’s arcs. For example, Jiang Cheng stood by to let Mianmian be brutally killed in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter, and even stood by to let Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan die too as they protected her. He goes on to blame Wei Wuxian for the deaths of his family because of Wei Wuxian saving them. Nie Mingjue keeps the truth about the saber spirit from Nie Huaisang, and additionally, the very same conversation about Wen Qing referenced above, Nie Mingjue is directly stated to know Jin Guangyao is lying to help his father, and he says nothing at all even though Wei Wuxian’s life hung in the balance. (It then karmically backfires on Jin Guangyao).

Jin GuangYao came to save the day, exclaiming, “Really? That day, Young Master Wei busted into Koi Tower with such force. He said too many things, one more shocking than the next. Perhaps he said a few things that were along those lines. I can’t remember them either.”

... As soon as he heard it, Nie MingJue knew that he was fibbing on purpose, frowning slightly.

...

One of the sect leaders added, “...Excuse my bluntness, but he’s the son of a servant. How could the son of a servant be so arrogant?”

With him having brought up the ‘son of a servant’, naturally there’d be some who connected it to the ‘son of a prostitute’ standing in the hall. Jin GuangYao clearly noticed the unkind stares.

While Nie Mingjue is quick to accuse Wen Qing for her inaction but languid with his own, this isn’t exactly unique. He also is quick to accuse Jin Guangyao of standing by as Jin Guangshan manipulates to acquit Xue Yang for his crimes against the Chang Clan. (I’m not defending Jin Guangshan or Jin Guangyao in this.) How dare they stand there and not argue for justice?

In spite of Nie MingJue being a junior to Jin GuangShan, he conducted himself in a strict manner and refused to tolerate Xue Yang no matter what. With an angry lecture, Jin GuangShan was left with no words and a great deal of embarrassment. Nie MingJue, as the irritable person he was, unsheathed his saber on the spot with the intention of killing Xue Yang. Even when his sworn younger brother LianFang-Zun, Jin GuangYao, attempted to ease the situation, he ordered him to leave. After a harsh scolding, Jin GuangYao hid behind Lan XiChen, not daring to say anything else. In the end, the LanlingJin Sect could only give in.

But, Nie Mingjue never offers a critique of Jin Guangshan when Jin Guangshan lied to Nie Mingjue’s face about Meng Yao. He discovered that Jin Guangyao’s stepmother is routinely beating him, and Nie Mingjue does nothing. Even if his hands were tied, if he really cared about doing the right thing, why didn’t he intervene somehow, some way, for his brother? If he really cared about holding people responsible for their actions, about making sure justice was served above everything else, why is it that the only person he consistently holds accountable is Jin Guangyao?

Could it be that, much like society, what Nie Mingjue was angry about was not injustice, but actually his hurting self? His hurt pride, his hurt child self still reeling from the cruel way Wen Ruohan betrayed his father and left him to die an agonizing death?

Likewise, Jiang Cheng knows, when he leads the siege at the Burial Mounds against the Wens, that no Wen there is dangerous. They are all elderly or children, not soldiers. He knows even that his sister died saving Wei Wuxian’s life, but chooses to ignore her wishes to satiate his own anger and the inner child inside of him still crying in loneliness. No one had ever chosen Jiang Cheng: his mother viewed him as a disappointment, and his father preferred Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian promised to stick by Jiang Cheng no matter what. When Wei Wuxian breaks this promise, Jiang Cheng never gets over this, and carries out revenge on him for choosing actual justice over staying close to Jiang Cheng (looking back, this adds a symbolic irony to Jiang Cheng refusing to intervene and save Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan in the cave: they are both the people who will be his siblings’ spouses).

But the sad reality is, it’s a false dichotomy. Wei Wuxian did not choose the Wens over Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng, like society, chose society and conformity over Wei Wuxian.

I’ve said it before, but while Jin Guangyao isn’t correct that the siege on the Burial Mounds is “all” Jiang Cheng’s fault, he’s not wrong when he makes this point:

“But what you have to understand is that, for what happened to Young Master Wei in the end, you are responsible too and in fact, you are very much so. Why did so many people crusade against the YiLing Patriarch? Why did they shout their support, no matter if they were involved or not? Why was he one-sidedly condemned by so many? Was it really their sense of justice? Of course not. A part of the reason is you.”

...

“… Back then, the LanlingJin Sect, the QingheNie Sect, and the GusuLan Sect had already finished fighting over the biggest share. The rest could only get some small shrimps. You, on the other hand, had just rebuilt Lotus Pier and behind you was the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, the danger of whom was immeasurable. Do you think the other sects would like to see a young sect leader who was so advantaged? Luckily, you didn’t seem to be on good terms with your shixiong, and since everyone thought there was an opportunity, of course they’d add fuels to your fire if they could. No matter what, to weaken the YunmengJiang Sect was to strengthen themselves. Sect Leader Jiang, if only your attitude towards your shixiong was just a bit better, showing everyone that your bond was too strong to be broken for them to have a chance, or if you exhibited just a bit more tolerance after what happened, things wouldn’t have become what they were. Oh, speaking of it, you were also a main force of the siege at Burial Mound…”

II. Privilege

The main villain of all of MXTX’s novels is privilege (I’ve touched on this here and here and here). Unfortunately, both Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue are heavily infected with it, and it’s partially why they treat others as they do.

Jiang Cheng speaks negatively of Mianmian in chapter 56, noting that she’s probably just the daughter of a servant. When Wei Wuxian challenges this by pointing out he is also the son of a servant, Jiang Cheng expresses that Wei Wuxian is somehow different (and to be fair, he is indeed treated with more respect because of Jiang Fengmian’s background with Wei Wuxian’s mother), but the implication is also classist. Ironically, again, when Jiang Cheng will not speak up for Wei Wuxian or Wen Qing during that same conversation referenced earlier, Mianmian does; though Nie Mingjue expresses admiration of her for doing so, he does not do the same.

Additionally, Jiang Cheng says the following about Jin Guangyao:

Wei WuXian, “Isn’t Jin GuangYao here now? Jin GuangYao seems so much better than him.”

Jiang Cheng... “So what, if he’s better? No matter how much better he is, no matter how clever, he could only be a servant who greets the guests. That’s all there is to his life. He can’t compare with Jin ZiXuan.”

This pretty much sums up how society treats Jin Guangyao, and Jiang Cheng doesn’t think to question it. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, points to Jin Guangyao’s character, which at that point looked decent (even if... later... sigh). Additionally, it’s hard not to see this as a commentary on how people think Wei Wuxian should be acting. Even though Jiang Cheng is, er, wrong about how far Jin Guangyao can rise, he contrasts with Jin Guangyao in how Jin Guangyao builds the lookout towers to provide justice for the common people, while Jiang Cheng encourages Jin Ling’s initially snobbish behavior (leaving common people in traps).

Not only that, but Jiang Cheng routinely commits atrocities under his protection as a sect leader. He’s described as having whipped the flesh off the backs of people accused of demonic cultivation, and supposedly no one arrested for that survived his tortures (ironically, Wen Ruohan is also known for torture). As someone pointed out once, the people who would turn to demonic cultivation are likely those unable to form golden cores (Wei Wuxian), or those taken in as disciples too late/too untalented to do so (Mo Xuanyu); Xue Yang was also taken in late as a disciple, but is noted to be unusually talented. The interesting thing is that all three of these people are from impoverished, humble origins. Thus it’s very likely the people Jiang Cheng was arresting and torturing to death were not wealthy cultivators (not to mention other sects would complain if so), but common folk.

As for Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao goes further than Wei Wuxian and directly attempts to challenge Nie Mingjue to acknowledge his privilege with brutal honesty on his own part, only for it to go... poorly.

Nie MingJue, “There’s no need for explanations. Come back to me with Xue Yang’s head in your hand.”

Jin GuangYao still wanted to speak, but Nie MingJue had already lost all patience, “Meng Yao, don’t speak such pretentious words in front of me. Your whole thing stopped working on me since a long time ago!”

Within a second, a few degrees of unease flashed over Jin GuangYao’s face, as though someone with an unmentionable illness was suddenly exposed in the public. There was nowhere for him to hide.

He spoke, “My whole thing? Which whole thing? Brother, you’ve always yelled at me for calculating people and being too dishonorable. You say that you’re a proud, righteous person, that you aren’t afraid of anything, that propen men shouldn’t need to play with schemes. That’s fine. Your background is noble and your cultivation is high. But what about me? Am I the same as you? First, my cultivation isn’t as firm as yours. Ever since I was born, has anyone taught me? And second, I have no prominent background. Do you think that I’m in a steady position, here at the LanlingJin Sect? Do you think that I can rise into power the moment Jin ZiXuan dies? Jin GuangShan would rather bring another illegitimate child back than want me to succeed him! You think that I should be afraid of nothing? Well I’m afraid of everything, even other people! He whose stomach is full believes not him who is starving.”

Nie MingJue replied coldly, “In the end, all you mean is that you don’t want to kill Xue Yang, that you don’t want your position at the LanlingJin Sect to waver.”

Jin GuangYao, “Of course I don’t!”

He looked up, unknown fires dancing within his eyes, “But, Brother, I have always wanted to ask you something—the lives under your hands are in any regard more than those under mine, so why is it that I only killed a few cultivators out of desperation and you keep on bringing it up, even until now?”

Nie MingJue was so enraged that he began to laugh, “Good! I’ll give you my answer. Countless souls who have fallen under my saber, but I’ve never killed out of my own desires, much less to climb up the ladder!”

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, I understand what you mean. Are you saying that all of the people you killed deserved their deaths?”

With courage gathered from nowhere, he laughed and walked a few steps closer to Nie MingJue. His voice raised as well, asking in an almost aggressive manner, “Then, may I ask, just how do you decide if someone deserves death? Are your standards absolutely correct? If I kill one but save hundreds, would the good outweigh the bad, or would I still deserve death? To do great things, sacrifices must happen.”

Nie MingJue, “Then why don’t you sacrifice yourself? Are you any nobler than them? Are you any different from them?”

Jin GuangYao stared at him. A moment later, as though he had finally either decided on something or given up on something, he replied calmly, “Yes.”

He looked up. In his expression were some of pride, some of calmness, and some of a faint insanity, “I and they, of course we are different!”

Nie MingJue was infuriated by his words and his expression.

He raised his foot. Yet, Jin GuangYao neither avoided nor took defense. The kick landed right on him, and again he rolled like a pebble down Carp Tower.

Nie Mingjue, here, is being compared to two other people: the man who kicked Meng Yao down the stairs at a brothel as the man dragged Meng Shi outside naked to humiliate her, and with Jin Guangshan--the very person Nie Mingjue’s enraged with--by doing the same thing: kicking someone he views as lower than himself down the stairs. Instead of addressing the actual problem (Jin Guangshan), he finds a scapegoat. It’s not a good look. All three of these instances are linked with society standing by and allowing it to happen, with a few exceptions: Sisi intervenes with Meng Shi, and Lan Xichen intervenes to stop Nie Mingjue from killing Jin Guangyao.

Nie Mingjue never had to kill to climb the ladder within his sect. He did have to kill to climb the ladder in the cultivational world--and he actually did so, through killing the Wens. Yes, I know Nie Mingjue killed the Wens because he wanted revenge for his father and protection for himself and his brother, but the problem is... that’s exactly what motivated Jin Guangyao: protection. Jin Guangyao just had more to fear than Nie Mingjue.

The irony of the above scene that Jin Guangyao knows killing is wrong, but it’s how to survive in this world, so he does it anyways. Nie Mingjue thinks the problem of someone thinking they are entitled to kill can be solved by killing the one who says such a thing, because he’s entitled to kill someone who thinks they’re entitled to kill-- You get the point.

That sad thing is that being shoved down the stairs doesn’t even end that scene. Nie Mingjue directly attempts to murder Jin Guangyao:

Just as Nie MingJue unsheathed his saber, Lan XiChen happened to leave the palace to see what was going on, concerned after having waited for long. Seeing the situation before him, he unsheathed Shuoyue as well, “What happened, this time?”

...

Nie MingJue, “... 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!”

This does not at all justifying Jin Guangyao’s subsequent murder of him, but again, Jin Guangyao kills to protect himself, and he’s not without cause for fear of his life (this does not justify, because neither is Nie Mingjue entirely without cause, but people have gotta acknowledge that reality).

III. Reasons to Kill

I often see Nie Mingjue held up as someone who judged people based on their actions and was countercultural in that he was willing to stand up to Jin Guangshan when Jin Guangshan wanted to acquit Xue Yang of slaughtering the Chang Clan. However, this is decidedly not the case. Nie Mingjue is very much acting within society’s principals here (calling someone else out is hardly unique or noble: see, Su She, Jin Zixun, etc.) Nie Mingjue stood up to Jin Guangshan then because the crime was so severe he knew he might actually be able to win; otherwise, he let Jin Guangshan do as he wished.

To illustrate this, I’ll share the piping hot tea a commentator spilled on one of my fics recently, because she says it perfectly:

She isn’t wrong. You can hold Xue Yang--and Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian, for that matter--responsible for their actions and also point out the hypocrisy of a society that holds to ideals of how people behave, yet is constantly making exceptions for themselves. Nie Mingjue does just this by demanding Xue Yang’s head as a price for not killing his own sworn brother. Jiang Cheng does just this by murdering the older, helpless Wens at the Burial Mounds, and turning his back on the Wens who saved Jiang Cheng’s own life.

Why do these characters kill?

Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng killed out of revenge to honor their families and save themselves.

Jin Guangyao killed to get his father to acknowledge him as his son, and then in revenge when he realized he never would, and to save himself.

Wei Wuxian killed out of revenge and then out of despair--really, revenge against the whole cultivational world that had set him up for failure no matter what he did.

Xue Yang killed out of revenge for his little finger.

What do all of these have in common? They reveal what each person prized.

Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue prized the honor of their culture and of society.

Wei Wuxian prized his loved ones.

Jin Guangyao prized himself as his father’s son, a sort of combination of JC/NMJ’s status love and WWX’s wanting to be loved.

Xue Yang prized his body.

Xue Yang seems condemnable on paper, but let’s look at this a little deeper: what else did Xue Yang have? Nie Mingjue inherited a sect and had his beloved little brother, men who would die for him, people who admired him. Wei Wuxian had his loved ones, and then they were gone. Jin Guangyao had his dead mother’s wish for him to be approved for by society, and a famous father. What exactly did Xue Yang have besides his own body? He didn’t have parents, as far as we know. What else was he to value? Why is Nie Mingjue venerated, and Xue Yang condemned? Why is Jiang Cheng allowed to torture the poor under him for so many years, just because they reminded him of his brother, and Xue Yang hunted down?

The only answer is privilege. It’s privilege that allows Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng to decide when and how they want to enforce justice, and if they do at all. It’s privilege that they had families to avenge. It’s privilege that enables them to commit atrocities and get second, third, fourth chances. It’s privilege of his birthright than enables Jiang Cheng to never once die in the novel (Nie Mingjue not so much). But when Nie Mingjue dies, he seeks revenge on his murderer, not justice. He kills countless others in his quest to kill Jin Guangyao, people who had nothing to do with his death, and he could have killed his own brother. Even when he succeeds he ends up battling Jin Guangyao in a coffin sealed for a hundred years--hardly a victory.

So since we’ve brought him up, let’s talk Xue Yang and the Yi City trio now. The “judgy” member of the Yi City Trio is decidedly not privileged (A-Qing, as @thisworldgodonlyknows wrote about her, foils Nie Huaisang, but also she foils Nie Mingjue), and her character reveals these precise flaws in Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng. She is a beggar girl and a thief, but she seeks justice for Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan out of nothing more than love. She herself does not kill, and frankly I’d say she is the moral backbone of the series more than any other character (along with perhaps Mianmian). She was never a part of society, after all.

A-Qing dies young, alone by a river, mutilated. She has no privilege, but her spirit survives as a ghost solely because of her desire to ensure justice for Xiao Xingchen and for Song Lan. Her condemnation of Xue Yang is at first admittedly selfish--she was jealous--but then honestly understandable and easier to swallow, since she came from a similar background. But because of this, and because A-Qing is willing to empathize, she ends up understood and her wishes fulfilled. In the end, Song Lan leaves with the remains of her soul, determined to heal both her and Xiao Xingchen.

As I wrote here, A-Qing is also faced with a dark version of herself in Xue Yang. Similarly, Jiang Cheng is faced with a dark version of himself in both Su She (jealous of Lan Wangji, jealous of Wei Wuxian; he calls out their arrogance) and in Jin Guangyao in the temple, and only then is he able to move forward and grow. Nie Mingjue, unfortunately, did not recognize the dark version of himself in Jin Guangyao, and ends up trapped with him.

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aquadrazi · 3 years

Text

Find Someone to Carry You

Chapter 44

………Qinghe………

Jiang Cheng was greeted by Nie Huaisang as he landed at the Nie Stronghold. “Sect Leader Jiang! I’m glad that you accepted my invitation.” He smiled as he approached and bowed.

Jiang Cheng returned the bow. “Of course I would accept. Though I haven’t forgiven you yet for keeping me in the dark about the fact that my family has been alive all this time.” He grumbled.

“I’m so sorry about that, really I am. It’s just, you are a TERRIBLE actor, and you have a famously bad temper. Can you tell me with a straight face that you would have acted the same, for these past 13 years, had you known the truth?” Nie Huaisang eyed him cautiously. “Could you have promised to keep Jin Ling from his parents for 13 years?”

Jiang Cheng didn’t answer. He knew that Nie Huaisang was correct, and he hated it. His emotions had always seemed to make him the weak link. He just wished that everything didn’t come out as anger. Wei Ying still didn’t want to see him, and he guess he couldn’t blame him. They were in the same room, all those years ago, and he hadn’t even looked close enough to notice. He could have save his brother from years of pain and suffering if he had just LOOKED.

Nie Huaisang was eyeing him over his fan. “He will come around, just give him some more time. He just…well…he avoids people who SAW him when he was like that.”

He wanted to apologize to Wei Ying. He wanted to comfort him and tell him that he is loved, and wanted. But no, Nie Huaisang was right, everything comes out wrong when his emotions are involved. Better to speak through Lan Wangji, who is APPARENTLY Wei Ying’s HUSBAND?! When did THAT happen? Sect Leader Lan had definitely referred to him as his Didi at the conference, and he was wearing a Lan Sect ribbon, even if it was red.

“It was a BIG step for him to come out and say it in front of everyone at the conference.” Nie Huaisang said quietly.

“Could you tell him that I’m proud to have him as a big brother?” Jiang Cheng asked, his voice threatening to break.

“I will pass along the message.” Nie Huaisang nodded.

*****Graphic Torture Incoming, just skip to the next chapter*****

They spent the rest of the walk to the Conversation Room in silence. When then entered the room, Jiang Cheng saw that Lan Wangji was already there.

He had Su She tied to a table, his arms hanging down over the edge and bound to the legs of the table. He was forced into a kowtow position, with his thighs tied to his calves and his ankles tied to the other legs of the table. A rope was wrapped around his neck and another around his hips, and tied under the table, holding him fairly steady. He was naked, and Lan Wangji was slowly shoving a red-hot rod up Su She’s ass as he screamed.

“I see you started without us.” Nie Huaisang said, as if he was talking about lunch, rather than torturing a prisoner.

“Sect Leader Jiang! Oh good. Please, Sect Leader Jiang, you can’t let this happen. I’m on YOUR SIDE!” Sect Leader Yao had a metal ring around his neck that was chained to the wall in the corner.

“MY side?! And what SIDE is that?!” Jiang Cheng spat at him.

“You’ve killed more demonic cultivators in the past 13 years than ANYONE. Please, you can’t let this happen. We were only following YOUR example.” Sect Leader Yao wailed.

“My- MY example?!” Zidian began to crackle around Jiang Cheng’s wrist. “You think that I’m ANYTHING like you? Do you think that I TORTURED people before I killed them? In fact, you didn’t KILL HIM AT ALL. You kept him alive so you could CONTINUE to torture him. MY OWN BROTHER!!” Nie Huaisang had to hold him back.

Lan Wangji had stopped what he was doing and turned to watch. His eyes were dark and he looked like he wasn’t all there anymore.

“You’re right, he had to be put down. He was a rabid dog. But he deserved to be punished first. He killed so many people. He killed your SISTER AND HER HUSBAND! He couldn’t just be ALLOWED to die. He had to feel every ounce of pain possible before he would be allowed to just DIE.” Sect Leader Yao’s face took on an ugly sneer. “Besides, demonic cultivators become so evil that they don’t even FEEL pain anymore. In fact, he LIKED it. He was TURNED ON by it. It was disgusting. If you had seen it you would agree with me Sect Leader Jiang. Please, don’t let Hanguang-Jun punish me for doing something that YOU WOULD HAVE DONE TOO!!”

“Oh, Hanguang-Jun isn’t here. Haven’t you heard? Once his husband was taken prisoner and tortured he became the Ghost of Gusu.” Nie Huaisang informed, with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

Jiang Cheng took a closer look at Lan Wangji. He looked like a dangerous predator, analyzing his prey before he played with it. He also just noticed that he wasn’t wearing his forehead ribbon, which was supposed to be a constant reminder to maintain control and restraint.

“He was turned on by it…?” Lan Wangji asked in a cold, quiet voice, causing a chill to run down Jiang Cheng’s spine.

“Yes, that disgusting brat was turned on by what we did to him. As if the more pain we gave him, the more it turned him on. Even when he screamed he was rock har-“ Sect Leader Yao was cut off by Lan Wangji reaching into his mouth, and grabbing onto his tongue.

“Oh boy, you’ve done it now. You do NOT want to know what happened to the LAST guy, and he only called his husband a whore.” Nie Huaisang informed.

“Sect Leader Jiang, would you be so kind as to unleash Zidian for me?” Lan Wangji said with no emotion.

Jiang Cheng was in shock, but he did as Lan Wangji asked, and walked over to him. Lan Wangji picked up the end, which must have hurt a lot, but if it did, he did not show any signs, as he brought the tip of it up to Sect Leader Yao’s tongue. The Sect Leader screamed and thrashed about as Lan Wangji wrapped the electric whip around his tongue a couple times. He then held the man’s mouth open and watched as Zidian slowly cooked through his tongue.

“You will never speak another word about my husband again.” Lan Wangji said, staring at him as he screamed and thrashed around, noticing that his tongue was starting to come loose. Once it flopped to the floor, Lan Wangji released Sect Leader Yao’s head, and walked over to the table in the corner. He sat down and Nie Huaisang pulled out some medicinal lotion for Lan Wangji’s hands.

“Would Sect Leader Jiang like some tea?” Nie Huaisang offered, gesturing for him to sit at the table with them.

“You-“ Jiang Cheng just stood in shock for a few seconds. Unable to fully process what he had just walked in on and witnessed.

“I’ve found that Lan Wangji has a… need…to punish those that hurt Wei Ying. I’ve found it’s best to just, let him do what he wants to do.” Nie Huaisang explained gently, looking over at Lan Wangji.

“Does Wei Ying KNOW about this?!” Jiang Cheng looked at him with wide eyes.

Nie Huaisang shook his head. “We’ve offered to let him be present, or to dictate a punishment he’d like to see done, but he has stated multiple times that he doesn’t want to know anything. He just wants it to be over.” Nie Huaisang picked up a cup of tea and offered it to Jiang Cheng, prompting him to come sit at the table. “It’s rather funny that he has more mercy towards the people who tortured him than they had for him. And yet HE is supposed to be the evil one.”

“My brother wouldn’t hurt a fly unless it hurt one of us first.” Jiang Cheng said, accepting the cup of tea.

Lan Wangji looked up at him. “That is why I do this, for him. They deserve to be punished.”

“Would you like to have a go while Lan Wangji’s hands heal?” Nie Huaisang offered. He gestured to the table that Su She was bound to, with the rod still poking out of his ass. “He was the one who controlled who got to visit Wei Ying in Koi Tower, once Jin Guangyao had him moved to the private room.” Nie Huaisang then gestured to Sect Leader Yao. “And, as you’ve already heard, HE took great pleasure in torturing Wei Ying as many times as he could, knowing FULL WELL who he was, and that it WAS NOT consensual.”

“Please, have mercy Sect Leader Jiang.” Su She cried. “I was only the gate keeper. I was following Jin Guangyao’s orders. I didn’t DO anything to the slut myself.”

“Oops.” Nie Huaisang all but giggled at the slip.

“What, did you call MY BROTHER?!” Jiang Cheng shot up out of the chair, Zidian snapped to attention, shooting purple sparks.

“Please…please it’s true. He LIKED it. He enjoyed what was happening. He even CAME.” Su She pleaded.

“Flip him over.” Jiang Cheng growled at the guards. “Flat on his back. It seems you need a basic anatomy lesson.”

Su She sobbed as the guards untied him, flipped him onto his back, then retied him, because the rod was bobbing up and down due to the movement, inside his ass.

Jiang Cheng went over to the instrument wall and picked out some twine. He returned to the table and grabbed Su She’s cock. “So you think that this only gets hard when you’re enjoying it? Do you think that this only releases at climax when you’ve been ENJOYING yourself?!” Jiang Cheng nodded and took a deep breath. “Fine, okay. Let’s see how much of a SLUT YOU are.”

Jiang Cheng fisted Su She and began stroking his cock, but not in an efficient way. The more Su She begged and protested, the gentler, and more sensual he was. Once Su She was good and hard Jiang Cheng took out the twine. “I heard that my brother had a ring around the base of his cock, right HERE.” Jiang Cheng tightly grabbed Su She, so he would understand where he was talking about. “Do you know what the purpose of that was?”

Su She just sobbed as Jiang Cheng tightly wrapped the twine around the base of his cock, separating it from the balls and trapping the blood inside. “So let’s see what turns YOU on.” Jiang Cheng said threateningly as he flicked at Su She’s cock. He grabbed hold of the metal rod sticking out of Su She’s ass and started rotating it. Su She screamed and threw his head back and cried as Jiang Cheng slowly fucked him with the rod. “Looks like you LIKE this. You’re still hard and DRIPPING.” Jiang Cheng mocked.

“No, please. It HURTS. Please stop. I DON’T like it. I don’t know WHY I’m still hard. Please!” Su She begged and sobbed.

“You hear that? He doesn’t understand why he’s still so hard when it hurts and he doesn’t like it.” Jiang Cheng said to Nie Huaisang and Lan Wangji, still seated at the table. He took his hand off the rod in Su She’s ass. “You see, the twine at the base of your cock is holding in the blood, keeping you hard. Just like that device that was on my brother’s cock.”

Jiang Cheng started to pump Su She’s cock again, as he twisted and pumped the rod in his ass. He kept going, watching Su She scream and sob and beg. Protesting that he didn’t like it over and over. “You say you don’t like it, but you’re DRIPPING.” Jiang Cheng mocked as he ran his finger through the liquid spilling out of the tip of Su She’s cock. “So either you’re lying, or it IS possible to be physically hard and not enjoy what is happening.”

Jiang Cheng began to slam the rod in harder as Su She got closer to climax, delaying it further and drawing out more powerful screams. When Su She finally climaxed, it was with a powerful shriek because Jiang Cheng slowly pulled the rod out, twisting it as he went.

“See, you even CAME. Guess you’re just a SLUT too.” Jiang Cheng walked back over to the table and sat down. “Sorry Lan Wangji, I don’t know if you wanted to keep that in him.”

“Mn, it is fine. This was good too.” Lan Wangji replied, then took a sip of tea. “Do you still have the bamboo patch out back?” He asked Nie Huaisang.

“We do. They were freshly trimmed and sharpened just this morning.” Nie Huaisang replied as if they were talking about the weather.

“Stretch him over the patch, face down so he can watch them grow. If he manages to live for a week, we’ll see if he deserves to be set free or not.” Lan Wangji told the guards. “Unless, you wanted to go a few more round with him, Sect Leader Jiang.”

Jiang Cheng waived his hand dismissively. “No, I’m done with Su She.”

Intermission

“So what do we do with THAT one?” Nie Huaisang asked, fanning himself. Clearly he was just prodding the others to continue the show.

“Wait.” Lan Wangji said to the guards. He walked over to Sect Leader Yao and unceremoniously untied his robes and threw them open, then shoved his pants down. “Bring him over here.”

When the guards brought Su She over, Lan Wangji compared the size of his cock to Sect Leader Yao’s. “He’s bigger.” He then motioned for the guards to bring Su She to the center of the room. He tied Su She’s wrists together and swung the end of the rope through a hook in the ceiling. Lan Wangji then motioned for the guards to bring over Sect Leader Yao, as he held Su She in place.

He had the guards place Sect Leader Yao on his knees, in front of Su She. Lan Wangji used the rope to adjust Su She’s height, so his cock would line up with Sect Leader Yao’s mouth. He then tied off the rope. “Nie Huaisang, would you help me with something?” Lan Wangji asked, like he was asking for an interpretation on a text he was reading.

Nie Huaisang raised his eyebrows at Jiang Cheng, then got up and walked over to Lan Wangji.

“Would you help me arrange Sect Leader Yao, so that he is in the same condition as how you found my husband?” Lan Wangji asked him. The Sect Leader began struggling and making horrible noises in his throat.

“Certainly.” Nie Huaisang bowed to Lan Wangji, then he went to the instrument wall to pick out what he needed.

Jiang Cheng watched in horror as the two worked. Clothing removed, nipples pierced and weights hung from them, eyes sewn shut, needles shoved under his fingernails, some horrible claw-like contraption shoved in his mouth to keep it open, a thin rod shoved down the slit of his cock, a metal ring attached at the base of the cock, and then a bamboo pole was tied behind his neck, and his wrists tied resting on the pole, fingers exposed.

Lan Wangji walked over to the coals and picked out a thin poker. He walked back over to the Sect Leader and grabbed him roughly by the hair. He tilted the Sect Leader’s head to the side, giving him a good angle at his ear. Slowly, he inserted the poker into the ear, causing the most horrible shrieking sound Jiang Cheng thought he had ever heard. Then, he did it to the other ear.

Jiang Cheng thought he was going go be sick.

THIS is how they found Wei Ying?!

Blind, deaf, mute…

Bound in that horrible position?

Open and exposed for anyone to use…

Not knowing who, or how, or when?

Zidian crackled as Jiang Cheng’s rage flowed through his meridians. Hearing about it was one thing, seeing it that one time out of the corner of his eye wasn’t as bad and being here now, faced with it head on.

“Monsters. They’re all monsters.” Jiang Cheng hissed.

“Wei Ying was only able to identify people by smell and taste. He did not know who it was who was violating him.” Lan Wangji explained in a quiet and cold voice. “He couldn’t distinguish reality from nightmares. It took him…a long time…to realize that here and now is real, and not some fantasy he dreamed up to cope with the torture.”

Jiang Cheng was glad he was sitting, because if he hadn’t been, his knees would have given out. So he just sat there, dumbly, as Lan Wangji finished securing the two prisoners for whatever punishment he had dreamed up for them.

Su She’s cock was inserted into Sect Leader Yao’s mouth, almost to the hilt. He was gagging and drooling and his eyes were watering. Clearly he was trying to figure out how to breathe. Lan Wangji spent some time flicking the needles sticking out of his fingers, causing him to scream around the cock in his throat, the vibrations combined with the gagging was causing Su She to harden.

Lan Wangji walked back over to the instrument table. He picked out two thumb screws and something that looked phallus shaped. He walked over to Su She and tightened first one thumb screw, then the other, on his balls. He screamed and bucked at the pain, involuntarily fucking into Sect Leader Yao’s throat.

“Ohhhhh, I see now…” Nie Huaisang said, sitting back down at the table, a servant had just come with refreshments.

Jiang Cheng felt a tap on his shoulder and he realized it was Nie Huaisang’s fan. He gestured towards the snacks.

He couldn’t eat. He wasn’t hungry. He was in too much shock and rage to think about anything else except that this is what his brother had gone through…for years…

Lan Wangji walked behind Sect Leader Yao, and without warning he shoved the phallus into him, violently. He screamed and bucked at the sudden violation. Lan Wangji proceeded to viciously fuck him with the object. His screams must have been turning Su She on, because he began moaning and rocking his hips forward. Every once in a while Lan Wangji would reach over and flick a needle, causing both the prisoners to scream and buck, one in pain and one in pleasure.

Jiang Cheng watched in fascinated horror as Su She eventually bucked and climaxed, shooting down Sect Leader Yao’s throat. Lan Wangji motioned for a guard to continue fucking Sect Leader Yao, then he walked over and grabbed a paddle. He walked behind Su She and began raining hits down on his ass, the force causing him to slam into Sect Leader Yao’s mouth and down his throat. When another guard started to flick at the needles, it became a grotesque symphony of pained screams mixed with Su She’s pleasured moans.

Tears were freely falling down Jiang Cheng’s face as he watched. He couldn’t look away this time.

THEY did this to him.

How many times?

How many PEOPLE?

Lan Wangji made eye contact with him, and gestured for him to join. He felt himself getting up, and unleashing Zidian. He felt himself walking over to the spectacle. Before he realized what was happening, he had hit Sect Leader Yao across the back with Zidian. Lan Wangji fed the Sect Leader some spiritual energy, then nodded to Jiang Cheng that he could continue.

So they continued like that for a bit. Su She came again while screaming in pain, Sect Leader Yao screaming and writhing in pure agony. Finally something snapped in Jiang Cheng and he rained down an almost constant stream of hits onto Sect Leader Yao’s back. Beating him to death.

Lan Wangji stopped and stared for a bit, breathing heavily due to the exertion of beating Su She. “Okay, you can take him to the bamboo patch now.” He told the guards finally. “I don’t care what you do with this one’s body.”

The guards bowed and took Su She away.

#mdzs fic #the untamed #graphic torture #dark lan zhan

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mihanada · 6 years

Text

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

This chapter was almost the end of me, ok. We have established that I need to get Wei Wuxian to turn me into a fierce corpse to survive the rest of the story.

Chapter 57: Poisons (Part 2)

“All of a sudden, Lan WangJi’s tear-streaked face, reflecting the firelight, flashed within his mind.”

;-;

that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

“We’ve got so many sects. Can’t we join together and…”

Just you wait! It’ll happen! Man, all this foreshadowing...A nice move, actually, because this would be foreshadowing if we had a linear narrative. Too much foreshadowing as you go along the story has a tendency to make the plot look too forced and everything contrived, but in this case it it’s not really foreshadowing since we have known the outcome for ages already.

“Shixiong!!! You’re alive now!!!”

“Wei WuXian, “What do you mean I’m alive now? I’ve never died to begin with!”

This reminds me of that one meme. That “Stop talking about me like I’m dead!” one.

ah, kids. it’s like ‘lol don’t go killing me off!’

The shooting kites day in and day out part gives off a ‘trapped in limbo’ feeling really well I have to say.

“If I went out, Madam Yu’s gonna whip a whole layer of skin off me.”

You’re too good at foreshadowing, Wei Wuxian. Too good.

On the other hand, we can totally see yet again that everyone in this world exaggerates corporeal punishment but you can never be too sure of when they’re actually serious!! how nice.

Ah, more martial problems...please get these two some marriage counseling. and family therapy for the whole group.

“What a shame that our swords don’t have that much spiritual energy yet. If they could sheath themselves, then nobody would be able to use them.”

“Jiang Cheng, “If you cultivate for another eighty years, then maybe it’d be possible.”

UH. THIS IS INTERESTING.

Suibian apparently does this after Wei Wuxian dies which is how Jin Guangyao outs him to everyone. According to Jiang Cheng, this shouldn’t be possible unless you cultivate to a very high level, so it must not be very common.

Wei Wuxian’s sword actually manages to do this though!

“Don’t let them hear anything we say that could be used to hold against us.”

Funny to hear these words coming from you, Wei Wuxian. See, he can be serious! When he was younger, he was especially more impulsive and carefree with his words.

“Wang LingJiao, “Of course. I didn’t have the time to come have a seat inside the last time I came to give out orders. Please.”

I kind of want to know what becomes of this woman. But I also want the satisfaction of reading her death for the first time, if the story tells us outright. Hey, at least we know who survives this conflict or not right?

I don’t know if I could survive a straight through narrative not knowing which of the secondary characters would live and which would die horrible deaths (and which villains made it out or not).

“last time I came to give out orders” though. like, damn. ultra level of disrespect.

“Sure, then, why don’t you go inside?”

I love Madam Yu’s responses. We may not have many ladies in this story, but at least we have badass ones like Madam Yu to make up for it!

“JinZhu and YinZhu stood behind her, both wearing light smirks on their faces.

YinZhu replied, “There is no tea. Get it yourself if you want any.”

And her maids! Awesome battle maids who apparently always wear armor.

I guess there really are no servants in the Jiang clan’s immediate household to serve tea lol. Jinzhu and Yinzhu sure as hell aren’t going to do it, and neither is Wei Wuxian xD that’s all they’ve got. (i’m sure they have others we don’t see. I wonder if this is a thing or they’re just saying this to spite Wang Lingjiao)

“As the person saying this, you’re a servant as well, aren’t you?”

I’m glad we get Wei Wuxian’s commentary still even though he isn’t running his mouth.

“Madam Yu, however, seemed to deeply understand the phrase ‘servants should be what servants ought to be’. Glancing at Wei WuXian, she happened to concur, responding loftily, “That’s right.”

She really does not like him. xD

“Shooting down such a kite is actually implying ‘shooting down the sun’! He wants to shoot down the sun!”

Youngest shidi, you will be immortalized and your sacrifice will not be forgotten!

remember! The war against the Wen sect is called the ‘campaign to shoot down the sun’ aka “Sunshot Campaign”. And the game that the kids in normal villages play is the same shooting down the kite game with the symbol of the sun on the kite, imitating the Sunshot Campaign.

on a more serious note, I know people who draw these wild, conspiracy-theory level conclusions from something very innocuous and it’s actually quite scary. They can’t be reasoned with, either. Just gotta roll with it unfortunately.

“Seeing that such a woman dared to make up stories of Jiang FengMian right in front of them, flames bursted from within Wei WuXian, “You…”

I actually don’t have many reactions to this part because I was just screaming silently at this part and it continues throughout to the end lol.

Ahhh, Wei Wuxian was going to defend him, but then he gets hit.

“Zidian had turned into its whip form, sizzling between her hands of cold jade.”

Remember how just using Zidian around Wei Wuxian’s leg caused a burn in the early chapters? Apparently this damn whip is nothing to scoff at and a really powerful weapon, and he gets hit so many times with it, too!

you understand why she’s doing it. At the same time, you can feel that she’s not 100% reluctant to do it either and it’s kinda scary.

then you also really feel the kids’ panic. Jiang Cheng who can’t do anything to stop it, but also of course really really wants his mom to stop whipping Wei Wuxian! and Wei Wuxian who urges him to get away and not get involved so nothing happens to him, too.

it’s just a really messed up scene and ARGH

“In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded.”

This little bit is important!

But it also doesn’t give a clear answer, which really gives these characters some realism.

Madam Yu, for all her yelling at him, never hurt him badly (this is exactly where Jiang Cheng gets his parenting skills from I’m dead bye). But Wei Wuxian doesn’t have negative or resentful feelings towards her even though she has never accepted him for as long as he has been there, so he is an unreliable narrator.

Then we get this scene where it seems like she has no hesitation in whipping the skin off his back with a really powerful weapon ok. What you can’t tell (since this is from Wei Wuxian’s pov) is the degree to which she means it. She could be a good actress, at the same time she could have been lenient before because of Jiang Fengmian (who always came to let Wei Wuxian out of punishment early). Or she could have been like Jiang Cheng to Jin Ling later and scream about beating him without ever actually meaning it (lol though Jiang Cheng has never hit Jin Ling, still, can you not threaten to break his leg).

We do know that she isn’t cruel enough to enjoy it, though, and there is a limit to what she deems acceptable (cutting off hands is obviously not acceptable)

“Young Master Wen is kind. He wouldn’t do something as cruel as chop off both of his legs. If only his right hand is chopped off, then he wouldn’t ever care about this again.”

see, like, this is why I’m glad we already know the outcome of these events broadly. xD

if you think about it from the characters’ perspectives, this is really fucking scary!

What! Cut off his hand? And if you don’t...? they’ll probably try to wipe out the whole sect or burn it to the ground like the Cloud Recesses!

“Jiang Cheng fought out of the arms of JinZhu and YinZhu. He crashed to his knees, hovering over Wei WuXian, “Mom, Mom, please don’t…”

oh, Jiang Cheng...I have feelings about this guy omg. no wonder he gains an inferiority complex and then as sect leader becomes a ball of Extra and anger issues who won’t stop until he catches Wei Wuxian!

He’s always second best, feels like his father doesn’t love him because of Wei Wuxian yet it’s not like he hates Wei Wuxian either. Then, through neither of their faults, Wei Wuxian is the brave one and Jiang Cheng gets to do the leg work. And when things turn serious, there is nothing he can do at all to save Wei Wuxian who he does obviously care about. for all the ‘you’re going to be the next sect leader, act like one!’ stuff, when it comes down to it there wasn’t anything he could do.

“Fabricking? What’s fabricking? And he suddenly realized, It’s abricating!”

this was nice to lighten the mood a little. only a little though.

“JinZhu, YinZhu, quick, go close the doors. Don’t let the others see the blood.”

see what I mean by ‘you can’t tell if she really means it?’ and the glory of a limited third person narrative done right: based off the description of her actions, it’s difficult to tell.

If it means saving the sect, I think she would absolutely cut off his hand, but only with a greater threat hanging over their heads. Well, this is because she sees him as a servant, of course she would never so readily, no hesitation or lack of composure, do the same to her son.

“Wei WuXian felt fear arise, Don’t tell me that she really is gonna chop off one my my hands?”

One of the times he does show fear!

However, this is where his sacrificial side which is really damn worrying comes in.

“Let it be, then! If it’s in exchange for the peace of the sect… a hand is just a hand. Fuck, if worst comes to worst I’ll just practice the left-handed sword from now on!!!”

It’s probably part of his personality somewhat to be self-sacrificing, or at least be willing to put himself in harm’s way to do good or the right thing. But it’s also highly tied to his upbringing/view of himself. As he states in the last chapter, he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s equal. On this, he agrees with Madam Yu: he sees himself as their servant. A servant who is very close to them, yes, and super casual borderline rude, but he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s brother.

On a subconscious level, this can really mess with you. He values his life and wellbeing, of course, as most people do. But it also allows his sacrificial nature to rear its head and for him to rationalize that it’s okay to allow himself to get hurt but not others.

Of the things that seem to get Madam Yu to stop/snap, mentioning Jiang Fengmian is one (It was all fine until he had mentioned Jiang FengMian.)

The supervision office is another.

And this is the final straw: “But seeing how obediently you followed my orders and how your personality suits my taste, I’ve still decided to give this great honor to…”

Madam Yu is a lady with a lot of pride. She endured it up to this point, kept swallowing her words, but finally she just snaps. It’s an accumulation of all the stuff that happened, not one thing in particular.

“You look at its owner before you hit a dog! You barged into my sect, and you want to punish my person in front of my face?”

Here’s the last part reveals something more about her true feelings here.

So, here we see her pride, which extends to her servants and not just the two that have been with her since she was young. She doesn’t like Wei Wuxian, she always thinks he should be disciplined more (or at least she says she does), but in the end of the day he is her servant and what right do others (especially another servant) have to punish people of her sect?

“Then let me teach you what superiority and inferiority means! I am the superior, you are the inferior!”

but, man, at the end of the day 57 chapters was worth the wait to finally get such a strong female character like Madam Yu.

This damn chapter was such an emotional rollercoaster omg.

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

#gdc aka the liveblog of TEARS

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