#of an entire sect and family on his shoulders

[tsui-no-sora]

Nooo :(( why do people dislike Jiang Cheng he's literally just a little guy full of problems he and his siblings were born on a sewer underneath a bridge all on their own one lonely night full of storms he's like an injured cat you find on the side of the road he's never done anything wrong

#my Jiang Cheng my Jiang Cheng they just dont understand you like I do #he misses his brother so much but who his brother is has damaged him time and time again #he wishes to go back to a time where everything was more innocent and happy #the world around him has fallen apart and crumbled to dust he was left behind with no place and no people to call home #for over a decade #with all the responsibility to try to live up to expectations he couldn't that everybody told him he couldn't while handling the weight o #of an entire sect and family on his shoulders #he always felt inferior and unloved while loving and looking up to his family members he's unable to properly express his love for those #close to him and lashes out in anger and in worry and in fear and in desperation because hes lost so much already and hes a strong man but #he thinks not strong enough never strong enough #at his core Jiang Cheng is a scared boy whos lost everything he ever loved whos trying to rebuild it while feeling completely incapable #and who cares so much for others that it comes off as fiery passion that's difficult to understand #a person who wants a home back a home he watched go up in flames

[whetstonefires]

A LA MEME. MDZS, Really nice guy who hates only you, hate at first sight?

It was totally inappropriate for a corpse to be popular.

But there it was: the Ghost General was more well-liked every day. He seemed to spend all his time wandering around rescuing maidens from monsters and lifting wagons off of old men. In a few years he'd be a hero of the people.

Even the cultivation world didn't expect harm from him anymore. Most of Jin Ling's peers addressed the corpse as qianbei; Jin Ling didn't, but he seemed to get on with him well enough.

Jiang Cheng hadn't actually said out loud, when he saw Wen Qionglin parting ways with Sect Leader Jin with an exchange of polite salutes, he killed your father, but he'd looked it. Jin Ling, fluent in Jiang Cheng's expressions, sighed.

"It was an accident," he said. "And he's apologized. And, you know, uncle, he was held prisoner by Jin Sect almost my entire life, you can't say he hasn't paid for it. And..."

And they had killed his whole family. And his older sister.

Jiang Cheng looked away. "Huh."

When Jiang Cheng had made his first, clumsy attempt at mending a little of the gruesome breach between himself and Wei Wuxian, the Ghost General had been there, glaring daggers at him from behind the Yiling Laozu.

It had been more disconcerting than it should have been, and Jiang Cheng had stumbled, interrupted himself, and fallen silent enough times that eventually Wei Wuxian had taken pity on him, reached out, patted him on the arm one time, said, "Good talk, Jiang Cheng," and extricated them both from the situation.

Freed from the burden of conversation, he'd returned Wen Qionglin's glare, and lost. Corpses didn't need to blink.

He didn't want the bastard to like him. Which was just as well since it was out of the question. Jiang Cheng had never for a second in his life liked Wen Qionglin; from the first time he'd laid eyes on him when they were youths he'd interpreted him as a pathetic, burdensome coward, and despised him for it.

Owing the man his life had made it worse--he hadn't even wanted to be saved, and it was Wei Wuxian's stupid horrible charm and habit of interfering where he wasn't wanted that had done it, and like hell had he owed anything, when that person's family had murdered his. (I owe him nothing, he'd told himself once, because Wen Qionglin had been the reason he lost Wei Wuxian.)

Another time, he found himself in both their company and drew apart, letting the Yiling Patriarch and the Ghost General play at being mentors to the youth. Neither of you lived to see twenty-five, he wanted to shout. What do you think you have to teach them?

Even Jin Ling...it made him furious. Furious to glance over and see a corpse's stiff face conveying softness.

Furious to look past the crowd and see Lan Wangji's eyes falling on Wen Qionglin with an unmistakable resentment. And to know that it wasn't the stiff propriety of the Lan Wangji of their youths, objecting to the heresy of that fierce corpse's existence; that it was the look of a petty, jealous man resenting the way Wei Wuxian knocked his shoulder together with the Ghost General's and laughed.

"Where do you get off hating Wen Ning?" he asked the next time he found himself alone with Lan Wangji. It was a stupid thing to ask, but if he let himself think about how they were threshing through the underbrush looking for Wei Wuxian, about the last time they had looked for Wei Wuxian together...

Lan Wangji ignored him.

Jiang Cheng snorted. "Okay. So maybe you don't hate him. But he likes you! He's so deferential it makes me want to puke."

Lan Wangji favored him with the merest hint of a sneer, just enough to show he was listening to Jiang Cheng talk.

"You're disgusting," said Jiang Cheng. "Do you really think he shouldn't have anyone but you in his life? That he's your property?"

Lan Wangji's stride broke. It was a triumph, in a way--Jiang Cheng had never thrown him so badly in all the years they'd known each other.

"Each man judges others by his own heart," said Lan Wangji, thick with contempt, and then he was walking ahead with pointed rapidity, determined to separate from Jiang Cheng, until staying together would have meant chasing after him, and Jiang Cheng turned and went the other way, muttering blackly.

In the end, fittingly, neither of them caught up in time to be of use. Wen Ning, with his homing sense for Wei Wuxian, had shown up out of who the fuck knew where and bailed him out.

Jiang Cheng stumbled upon the haunted spring just in time to see a sodden, bedraggled Wei Wuxian launch himself away from his pet Wen's supportive arm and fling himself against the upright form of Hanguang-jun, which bent around him with a reverent murmur.

Jiang Cheng was already turning away in disgust to head back home, hating that he'd let himself be dragged into this, when he heard Lan Wangji say with careful, solemn deliberation: "Thank you, Wen Qionglin. For taking care of him."

Jiang Cheng glanced back against his will to see the Ghost General saluting deeply, wide-eyed, infinitely humble, his murmur that it was nothing special, Hanguang-jun, nearly drowned out by Wei Wuxian's delighted shouting about how good his Lan Zhan was and how much Wen Ning deserved to be appreciated.

Jiang Cheng walked away.

Wen Qionglin wasn't rude to him. Not in any way you could point at. And he knew full well he'd be making an ass of himself if he tried to pick a verbal fight.

After all, they had killed Wen Qionglin's older sister.

The whole cultivation world had done it, but only Jiang Cheng had done it after Wen Qionglin saved his life. He'd told himself he owed no debt for that, and perhaps he hadn't, but the fact remained: of the two of them, one had been brave and virtuous and earned the loyalty of Wei Wuxian.

And one of them had been pathetic, a coward, a burden.

Jiang Cheng could never look at the man without seeing the look in his dead eyes across the length of Suibian.

Jiang Cheng had never been good at lying to himself, especially if the lie was meant to be comforting. He always tried it anyway. Comforting lies used to sound so true, in Wei Wuxian's mouth; he should never have gotten into the habit of relying on that. To letting that person think Jiang Cheng was someone who needed to be swaddled in falsehoods to give him the strength to bear up under his own duties.

Wen Qionglin was a kind, gentle, courageous dead body, shy and courteous and increasingly appreciated for his virtues, in this strange new world created in the wake of Jin Guanyao's disgrace. And whenever his eyes fell on Jiang Cheng they were cold, hard, flat, contemptuous.

Every time he looked at him Jiang Cheng could nearly hear him thinking, like a cold wind against the back of his neck: I should have left you in that heap of corpses with the rest of your family.

What are you worth, Jiang Wanyin, that so many should be spent in saving you? That Wei Wuxian would drag us all into the shadow of death to make you whole, only for you to turn your face aside when it was me lying there, and let him die for us without lifting a finger?

Selfish, whining coward. If only I had left you there to die.

If only, Jiang Cheng imagined spitting back, anger hot and bracing in his throat. If only! I never asked for any of it! How dare you expect me to repay you!

But Wen Qionglin never spoke any of the words out loud. He only looked, cold dead flat black eyes. A frozen river. Sometimes Jiang Cheng thought that if he lashed out hard enough he would break a hole in the ice, and be devoured whole.

#ask #hoc est meum #ramblebrambleamble #jiang cheng is projecting like a drive-in movie theater here to be clear #like he's not wrong that he is wen ning's least favorite living human being #but wen ning also doesn't generally think this hard about it lmao #or like about him at all if he doesn't have to #mdzs #jiang cheng #wen ning #ask game #reverse tropes #really nice guy who hates only you #this is like the opposite energy from my previous fill for the same prompt alkflkj; #writing #my fic #fanfic #realized these 'mini fics' are long enough to need a cut woop

[azu1as]

dumb rotmhs fanfic idea: one hundred years after his death, tang bo reincarnates as the son of a wealthy merchant family in shaolin.

—basically, a tangcheong reincarnation ficlet set during the shaolin tournament arc 👍

»—————————–✄

Part 1 2 3

the zheng family was the leader of a wealthy merchant guild in shaolin. while they were not on the same level as the hwang, they were still influential enough for rumors to run amok.

And rumors always circled their eldest son.

zheng bo was as much of an enigma to his family as he was to those within their village. he had always been a quiet child but, one day, something happened that /changed/ the then five-year old.

the zheng family's son cried tears upon tears. he was absolutely inconsolable. his small body shook, overcome with emotions so heavy that his entire body was painfully heaving.

and when he woke up, eyes bloodshot and distant, it was as if the childhood spark in his eyes disappeared along with his tears the previous night.

off-handedly, his father noted the history book that was dropped haphazardly on the floor. several of its pages were scrunched up terribly.

the zheng partiarch mistook it as his son's desire to learn martial arts, but quickly learned the opposite as his son glared at the instructor with so much vitriol it was poisonous.

no matter how many instructors he sent his son's way, he all turned them back—uncaring whether they were decades-long martial artists, instructors of renowned ones, or teachers from the shaolin sect itself. if anything the latter worsened zheng bo's mood to the nth degree.

ashamedly and with deep regret, both the zheng patriarch and matriarch had to give up on their son as they realized the teaching him how to inherit their merchant guild was a futile endeavor. zheng bo would rather stay cooped up in his room in complete silence.

the zheng family had three more children after their eldest yet none of their births affected the dark veil of mourning that shadowed their eldest brother.

A veil that no one could ever seem to lift.

other families often asked after him, most in hopes of marrying off their daughters, but the zheng matriarch stiffly laughed them off.

they had tried once to set a play date with another merchant family's daughter, but it ended up with her in tears and vomiting with an upset stomach. the same occured with the next and third ones.

they catch zheng bo slip a vial with an unknown substance back into his sleeve and understood the lengths he would go to avoid such a thing from happening again.

many years go by and their second son inherited their family's merchant guild, much to the confusion of many.

it stirred up interest in zheng bo. rumors went around about his inability to perform his duties as the eldest son; some said that he was actually a bastard which was why he was overlooked.

former servants and workers from the zheng family whispered about the eldest son's madness and how his mania could not be cured by even the best of doctors and healers.

but as with all rumors and public interest, it died down when no new information sprung forth.

zheng bo was simply a crazy son who was better kept within the walls of the zheng estate than be let out for fear of what his madness would lead him to do.

when the shaolin tournament began with warriors and fighters from the ten great sects and other notable families, the zheng patriarch tried to urge zheng bo to attend and simply watch the battles with the rest of the family.

zheng bo scoffed at him.

their second son placed a comforting hand on his father's shoulders and suggested that they just let him be, "the winner has already been decided. i'm sure eldest brother would end up bored."

but the world had a funny sense of irony.

mount hua was the competition's dark horse. they were nigh unstoppable, flicking away their opponent's swords with absolute ease and twisiting around them as if they were falling petals themselves. it was an unexpected but amazing start to the competition.

as the finals approached, discussion about the upcoming fight between mount hua's divine dragon and shaolin's hye yeon run rampant outside of shaolin's walls. inside the zheng estate, no one could stop talking about the unexpected showing from what should have been a fallen sect.

tang bo, by chance, overheard the praises heeped on mount hua's divine dragon who had beaten everyone he had faced undeniably and soundly.

a part of him felt guilty that he had been too overwhelmed by his own grief and pain to even step out and check on his family and hyung's sect—especially after what he had learned about the aftermath of the battle against the demonic sect one hundred year ago.

so felt a strong wave of relief at the knowledge that mount hua had regained its footing somehow and that it was doing well enough to receive awed praise.

he felt imensely grateful towards whoever this divine dragon was because he seemed to the center of mount hua's revival.

tang bo idly wondered if chung myung was berating him in the afterlife. he asked him to take care of tang bo's family, but couldn't offer the same for his sect, he imagined that the other man would just exaggeratedly roll his eyes and tell him to start doing better then, you bastard.

and so tang bo, for the first time in a decade, knowingly chose to leave his room and approach his second-life father first.

thirty years was a long enough period to mourn, even if his heart still aches with regret.

but tang bo supposed supporting mount hua's divine dragon in the finals was a start.

#this has a part 2 lol #still unwritten but soon #im always a sucker for reunited tangcheong just !!!!!! <3 <3 <3 #i ended up writing too much exposition again still fun #tangcheong #tang bo #chung myung #rotmhs #rotbb #return of mount hua sect #return of the blossoming blade #return of the blossoming blade fanfiction #dumb rotmhs fanfic ideas #staying true to my og branding with prev tag #tin writes #also i wrote this in one go on twt so sorry for any errors HAHASDLKJSD

[robininthelabyrinth]

A prompt: I'm still in love with Second madam nie. Anything from her POV, maybe including her favourite person, nie mingjue?

ao3

"Send Huaisang to my office. Immediately."

Nie Mingjue’s order went out, and no sooner out than fulfilled, even if Nie Huaisang did show up looking disgruntled and a little disheveled, as if someone strong had hoisted him up over his protests, thrown him over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and whisked him away when he'd much rather be in his room reading or in a shop buying something. This was precisely what had happened, so Nie Huaisang felt entirely justified, even if his brother frowned ominously at his not-befitting-an-heir-of-a-Great-Sect appearance. 

Still, his brother refrained from scolding (for once) and merely said, "Close the door."

Nie Huaisang did, his interest reluctantly piqued. 

"Something political that I'm not supposed to know about?" he asked. "Or...?"

"Or," Nie Mingjue confirmed, and produced a letter. "Your mother wrote to you."

Nie Huaisang couldn't stop himself from wrinkling his nose.

Nie Mingjue noticed. "What's the matter? You don't want to hear from Second Mother?"

Actually, no.

Neither Nie Huaisang nor his mother had ever managed to properly explain to the bull-headed Nie Mingjue that certain types of people simply couldn't abide sharing space with another of their own kind - yes, even their own children, yes, even from a young age - and as a result he worked tirelessly to maintain his little brother's relationship with his long-absent, presumed-dead-by-most-people mother over both their protests. His persistence and earnest insistence that familial relationships were important was a little cute, actually, but it did mean that it was awfully hard to skive off without actually engaging. 

Of course, the same was true on his mother's side. Nie Huaisang had to suppress a snigger at the thought of his brother hunting down and officiously scolding a fox in some forest somewhere with instructions to write more often.

"Are you going to read it?" Nie Mingjue prompted, and the expression on his face suggested that the answer to the question was required to be 'yes' and also 'right now, in this room, while being watched’. Nie Mingjue would never be so rude as to actually interfere with or eavesdrop on Nie Huaisang's correspondence, but previous experience had already shown him that listening to Nie Huaisang's claims of wanting to read it later or in private would only result in the letter not being read at all, whether due to negligence or it "accidentally" being destroyed in a fire or somesuch.

Damn Nie Huaisang's former self for having used up all the good excuses too early!

"Oh, all right," Nie Huaisang grumbled, and settled himself down to read. At least he could be fairly sure that the content would be about a subject of his liking - after all, the only thing Nie Huaisang had in common with his mother, other than a shared bloodline, was a fondness for his older brother.

-

Hey, pigface -

(Rude as always, Mother.)

I would say that I hope you're doing well, but I don't actually care (it's mutual!) and I'm sure that if there was anything wrong with you, my darling pork bun would have already conveyed it to me. (Almost certainly true.) He'd be ever so distressed about it, the poor tasty little lamb, so you'd better keep yourself in one piece for his sake, you hear me? (Like Nie Huaisang was going to get anywhere near danger anyway. She wasn't wrong about how much Nie Mingjue would worry, though, so Nie Huaisang reluctantly agreed with the sentiment - he'd be able to point to that when his brother ever so politely inquired as to what his mother had written. See, a positive interaction! They were capable of it! Mostly!)

As for your delicious older brother...(She'd better not say anything about Nie Huaisang stopping him from getting into danger, because that was impossible; Nie Mingjue and danger were practically best friends) well, I will only say, if he dies, you are to avenge him.

(Obviously.)

Now, I'm equally certain that you don't give one fig for my own state of health (completely correct), so I won't bore you with that. I will say that your cousin in Dongying is doing very well (that was good, Nie Huaisang had liked him, though of course he'd liked the fact that the man lived all the way away in Dongying even better) and his musically inclined partner sends you in particular his regards. (He'd probably mispronounced it.) I'll spare you how he mangled it (called it!) and tell you instead that he is still proficient in that song you taught him (aww, how cute). I enclose some little tricks that you might find useful (please no) assuming you ever endeavor to be useful (never!)  

Now, onto the most important subject (about time) - how is my tender little zongzi doing? (What a stupid question, she literally saw da-ge when she gave him this message.) He seemed fine in person, but you know he doesn't want to burden people with his troubles (sad, but true) and he is especially cautious when there's a chance that the person in question wants to help out (that's because certain people thought the only way to help any situation involved murder and/or eating people). I expect at least four pages of his day-to-day activities (psst, like Nie Huaisang was going to strain himself to do something like that) in exchange of which I will provide a brand new illustrated set of your preferred brand of picture book (...damn her for knowing his weaknesses). 

Stay alive and in your own territory (same to you, Mother), and best wishes to my best little savory dumpling in the world, may he be ever delicious and ready to eat.

(Stop being weird, Mother.)

(Also, he wasn’t hers, he was Nie Huaisang’s.)

-

"No signature, as always," Nie Huaisang observed, and Nie Mingjue snorted.

"Like anyone could mimic how your mother talks."

Nie Huaisang thought about it, then shrugged in agreement. 

"How is she doing?"

Nie Huaisang gave his brother an incredulous look, which (rightfully) made the older man flush. 

"I have no idea how to tell," he defended himself. "I just want to know that she's not facing any difficulties, that's all. She'd never admit it if she was."

Only da-ge, Nie Huaisang thought fondly, and also No wonder she likes him so much.

It was, he had to admit, the one area in which his mother had impeccable taste that completely accorded with his own. 

His da-ge was simply, unquestionably, the best.

#mdzs #my fic #my fics #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #second madame nie #just a silly thing

[weiwuxianismybae]

wei wuxian isn't sin-free either. that's the point. no one in mdzs is. the purity police mentality is why so many in the fandom turned their backs on wangxian. wei wuxian is not a perfect uwu little angel. he committed more atrocities than jin guangyao

???????????????????????????????

How to say you missed the point without saying you missed the point.

Anyway, sorry, I'll stop joking around. Let's take this bit by bit, shall we?

Not sure what you mean by "pure" and "sin". I don't know enough about Buddhism or Chinese culture in general, so I won't speek much on this matter. (Yet, I'm pretty sure the book wasn't written with Christianity in mind🙃). Anyway, making mistakes doesn't make you "bad". Making mistakes is what makes us human and it doesn't make you morally "grey" or "bad" and especially not when you regret them:

He was only stating a simple fact calmly, but the cultivator felt as if he was scorned, fuming, “What do you think we’re talking about here? How could there be bargaining for debts of blood?”

Wei WuXian, “It’s not that I want to bargain about such a thing, but that I don’t want my charges to be doubled just because of some words from another. I won’t shoulder what I didn’t do.”

ExR ch. 79

Note that he said that he won't shoulder what he didn't do, not that he won't shoulder anything at all.

Finally, Wei WuXian spoke up. He said, “Then what do you want me to do?”

Fang MengChen paused in surprise. Wei WuXian, “Then what do you want? Nothing but my miserable death to soothe your own hatred?” He pointed at Yi WeiChun, who lay passed out among the crowd, “He’s missing a leg, while I was cut into pieces; you lost your parents, while my family had long since been gone. I’m a dog who was chased out of its home. I’ve never even seen the ashes of my parents.”

Wei WuXian, “Or do you hate the Wen Sect’s remnants? The Wen Sect remnants that you speak of already died once, thirteen years ago. And right now, just then, for my sake, for your sake, they died once again. This time, they’ve all become ashes.” He continued, “Let me ask you—just what else do you want me to do?”

[...]

Wei WuXian, “Nobody told you to forgive me. The things I did, not only do you remember them, I remember them too. You won’t forget them, and they’ll stay even longer in my mind!”

ExR ch. 82

Wei Wuxian's goodness shouldn't be debated. All his actions were justified. He was never the initiator. Let me repeat myself: Who attacked whom first? Who massacred Wei Wuxian's home? Who send the Wen remnants, who lived peacefully on a small piece of land that was given to them by the winners, to the work camps where they were tortured?

As for the remnants of the Wen Sect, they were herded into a small corner of Qishan, not even a thousandth the territory it onced owned. They were crammed into the place and struggled to live.

ExR ch. 72

Who ambushed whom on Qiongqi path? Who went on offensive because he grew up with his cousin and didn't like Wei Wuxian anyway? Who promised to let the matter go if Wen Qing and Wen Ning turned themselves over? Who went back on that promise? Who gathered 3000 cultivators to kill 50 innocent people? Who killed those innocents?

"He committed more atrocities than Jin Guangyao"

...

...

I recommend you to read the extra Villainous Friends. It's a real eye-opener.

Just then, two disciples from the Jin Clan of Lanling dragged over a cultivator with disheveled hair.

"Weren't you going to refine a new set of fierce corpses?" Jin Guangyao said. "As it happens, I've brought materials for you."

[...]

A young girl and boy, both trussed with rope, kneeled on the ground and shouted miserably to He Su.

"Ge!"

He Su was stunned. His face blanched white as paper. "Jin Guangyao! What do you mean by this?! You can just kill me. Why implicate my entire clan?!"

[...]

Jin Guangyao shot him a glance, then turned back around and said in an even-tempered tone, "You can't say that. The He Clan of Tingshan used the full force of its power to start an uprising and plot to assassinate Sect Leader Jin. All of you were caught red-handed. How can you call this 'no reason'?"

A number of the captives cried out, "Ge! He's lying! We didn't. We really didn't!"

"What a crock of shit!" He Su spat. "Open your damn eyes and take a good look around! There's a nine-year-old child here, and elders who can't even walk! What uprising could they start?! And why would they assassinate your father out of the blue?!"

[...]

However, no one here would listen to his defense. Sitting before him were two vicious villains who already considered him a dead man and were enjoying the sight of his last-ditch struggle. Jin Guangyao leaned back with a smile and waved.

"Gag him. Go on, gag him."

Wei Wuxian never killed his father, brother, son, wife and then pretended that he had no choice. Wei Wuxian didn't slaughter a whole clan just because they were standing in his way and he saw them as annoyance. Wei Wuxian was never besties with other mass murderers (Xue Yang).

I wanted to argue that the only thing that made Jin Guangyao better than Jin Guangshan was that he had never forced himself on women... but then I remembered how Jin Guangshan died...

SiSi, “The middle-aged man wanted to shout and struggle, but his body was weak. The boy who led us inside opened the door again, grinning as he dragged him onto the bed again and tied him up with a rope, stepping on his head. He told us, carry on, don’t stop even when he’s dead. Have any of us been through such a situation before? We were scared half-dead, but we didn’t dare disobey. We had to continue. At the twelfth or eleventh round, that sister suddenly screamed, saying that he really was dead. I went over and checked. He’d indeed kicked the bucket, but the person behind the curtain said, didn’t you hear me? Don’t stop even when he’s dead!”

ExR ch. 85

Don't spoil Wei Wuxian's good name by comparing him to the likes of Jin Guangyao!

+ bonus:

"You little hooligan," Jin Guangyao said with a laugh. "Wreck stalls if that's what you want. You can burn down the entire street, for all I care, as long as you mind two things—don't wear the Sparks Amidst Snow uniform, and keep your face hidden. Don't let anyone find the culprit and put me on the spot."

Btw, the excerpts from Villainous Friends were taken from Seven Seas translation.

#mdzs #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #wei wuxian #jin guangyao #xue yang #anon ask #not sure if i should have responded or not #but uni is boring #might as well start a fight here

[drwcn]

In Untamed only, the Wen Qing rescue by Jiang Cheng could parallel the Lan Furen situation. She could be saved by being taken in by the sect leader, but she would be isolated, her family lost to her. Like, its more meta then textual but Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji have no mention of their mothers family. Lan furen presumably agreed while Wen Qing walked away. Lan furen lived a long time with her children taken away to be raised without her, Wen Qing dies right away with Wen Yuan taken to be raised by those same strangers.

Huh.... I never looked at it that way, but yeah you're right! On some level it is similar!

And then my mind promptly poofed up an alternative scenario if JIang Cheng also did what Qingheng-jun had done.

(tw for noncon? but really there's no noncon, people just think there is)

~~~

Jiang Cheng was audacious only once in his entire life.

When Wen Qing turned to leave that day in Qishan's dungeon, the comb she gave back to him abandoned on the stone bench between them, Jiang Cheng crossed his heart and decided that attempt the impossible meant sometimes one had to act now and beg for forgiveness later.

Whether the forgiveness he sought had to come from his deceased parents, the entire Jiang Clan past and present, or Wen Qing herself...well...he had the rest of his life to figure it out.

His hand came down on her without hesitation, blunt force striking her squarely where her neck met her shoulder, and she dropped bonelessly into his arms, her future forever changed.

↠↠↠

When Jiang Cheng was a boy, before Wei Wuxian arrived, he had heard of a story.

He was very young then, and Madam Lan had been a nebulous figure, a subject of whispers and gossip, about which very few knew anything concrete. When she died, the older servants at Lotus Pier, unaware that listening ears were just around the corner, had tsked and sighed at her short wasted life. Locked away in a house. Separated from her children.

Well at least her husband loved her.

He did, though? How would anyone know.

Or wanted her, at least.

Whatever is wrong with the young masters of this generation and their poorly chosen women! Either loved but locked up or free but miserable nonetheless. What is the state of this world?!

Jiang Cheng didn't understand then.

In time, he would.

↠↠↠

After she was discovered in the dungeon, Wen Qing woke up in Jiang Wanyin's bed, wearing not a stitch but a bandage around her nape, and discovered herself in the middle of Sunshot Campaign's battle camp. From the two female disciples that had brought her new periwinkle uniforms to change into with barely concealed sneers, Wen Qing learned the reason behind her wretched state. About two dozen disciples of various sects had seen Jiang Wanyin carry her in the previous night and emerge the next morning adjusting his robes in a way that required very little explanation.

It was not that she didn't try to escape. She did.

Where do you think you're going, pretty thing? A Jin disciple interscepted her. They all said that Wei Wuxian was shameless, but seems like shamelessness runs in the family. Still, gotta hand it to him, Jiang Wanyin has good taste.

The disciple grabbed her around the middle while a couple of his sect brothers laughed at her struggle. Does he share? Do you know? He should, it's a virture after all.

Their malicious laughter had turned to yelps of pain when Zidian whipped them three feet into the air and back by a yard.

"Don't touch what it isn't yours."

Sandu's gleaming tip tapped the Jin disciple lightly on the shoulder thrice, mockingly polite in its gentleness. The man released her, all too aware of the distance between his jugular and the sword's edge.

More people gathered at the sound of commotion, coming together with shared morbid curiosity and judging eyes.

Nie Mingjue was there. Lan Wangji right behind him, looking ready to draw his sword and uphold justice.

"Your little tart was running away." Scoffed the Jin disciple. "I was just teasing her. No foul, no harm."

"Is that so?"

And then in front everyone, Jiang Wanyin grabbed her by the hair and reeled her in to press his lips against hers, his other hand unfriendly and uninhitibted. Just as quickly, he detached his mouth from her, sneering at the onlookers before chasing the exposed skin of her neck yanked to one side, and bit down hard enough to draw blood.

Of course she screamed.

"A-Cheng, that's enough."

The others parted for his sister to come through. Jiang Yanli gazed blandly at her little brother and the girl thrashing in his arms, offered no words of admonishment, but merely said, "Go inside if that's what you want to do."

Jiang Cheng threw Wen Qing over his shoulder like a sack of grains without further prompts.

It's what she deserves, that wretched little bitch, Wen Ruohan's witch doctor, the whispers followed them like shadows, but no one raised a hand to Wen Qing again.

As the old saying goes: one would have to check with the master, even if it were only to beat a dog.

(Except: "You know what the world will think of you. What she will think of you." "I know, but...thank you for helping me, A-jie." "Don't thank me, didi, not when you're asking me to help you hurt yourself.")

↠↠↠

It's not that Wen Qing didn't try to kill him either. She couldn't.

Her cultivation was sealed. Semi-permanently. That was what was under the bandage. At the base of her nape, he had carved a sealing rune into her skin, and the only way to reverse it is to carve the counter sigil on her sternum.

Later, she would learn that this was a secret Lan technique, given to Jiang Wanyin by Old Man Lan himself. She could only guess what he must've said to convince the pedantic old man to hand over his family's protected secret.

(He had said this: "I love her, Grandmaster Lan, please!" "You are a preposterous boy, Jiang-gongzi." "I love her, as your brother loved your sister-in-law!" "You-" "I've heard of the stories, I don't know how much is true. Only...Wen Qing is innocent! Prideful yes, but innocent! Help me. Please. I will do anything in return.")

After her failed escape and that awful display in front of the whole camp, Jiang Wangyin never showed his face to her again. The Jiangs installed her in her own tent with confinement talismens to prevent her from further attempts. Every night, two disciples came to give her (or force feed her if she refused) a concoction of some sort, which rendered her unconscious within minutes and unrousable until dawn.

She could lie to herself and say she hadn't a clue what happened within those hours, but the fact she always awakened in some state of undress and dishevel the next morning, and the fact that it was undisbutedly known amongst the disciples - Jiang or otherwise - that Jiang Wanyin visited her nightly whenever he wasn't out fighting, narrowed the possibilities down to a singular conclusion.

In the maelstrom of her nightmare, it didn't occur her to wonder why he never came to her during the day.

(The truth was this: Lan Xichen was sympathetic, "Your cultivation is derived from water, hers from fire. A seal fused with your cultivation without some kind of...buffer will inevitably harm her in the long run, erode through her golden core until she is permanently damaged. Give this tonic to her everynight. Without fail.")

(But also this: "Why must we continue this farce, A-Cheng, just tell her the truth! Why must you make her believe that you -" "I own her, but do not love her. I am her master, not her lover. She is damaged goods, worthless even as a leverage. That's the only way the others will leave her alone." "A-Cheng, you don't have to do this -" "I do. I do have to....is there any word on Wen Ning? Have we found him?" )

↠↠↠

Then one morning, about a month in, Wen Qing woke to the sound of thunder and rain and realized she wasn't alone. Even with her cultivation sealed she could feel another presence in the tent. Seconds later, Jiang Wanyin emerged from behind the trifold, hair unbound, barefoot and only in his underclothing.

He froze when he realized she was awake, and stared at her agape as if she'd caught him doing something he shouldn't. As if somehow she didn't know he'd been violating her for weeks.

(Unfortunately: the storm had collapsed many tents in the camp in the early morning, including his and his sister's. Jiang Yanli had been invited to stay with Mianmian, and Jiang Cheng, knowing Wen Qing would be dead to the world, had ducked into her tent to quickly change into dry clothes.)

And if there had been some part of her that wanted to deny it all, that wanted to hang on to the delusion - to hope - that maybe nothing happened while she lost consciousness nightly, in that moment, was dashed and divided until all that was left of her was rage and a desire to inflict revenge.

She sat up, not even bothering to cover her half nude body, and said,

"The golden core in your body is Wei Wuxian's."

↠↠↠

Wen Qing had hoped that she could goat Jiang Wanyin into killing her, to end her misery.

He didn't.

Three days later, Wei Wuxian re-appeared.

↠↠↠

(In his letter to Jiang Wanyin a day before the Siege of Nevernight, Nie Huaisang wrote:

Jiang-xiong,

Hope you're keeping well in the front. I must confess you are a man of gossip and waggling-tongue these days, but I trust in your character to pay them no mind. I write to you without my brother's knowledge to confirm the favour you asked of me is done. Wen Ning has been located and transported to Unclean Realm with the atmost discretion. He recovers daily.

Your friend,

Nie Huaisang

PS: You seriously need to tell me everything after we kick Wen Ruohan's ass. You owe me! )

#cql #chengqing #the untamed #jiang cheng #wen qing #the tragic straight ship of the sad gay show #corie fics #cql ficlet

[clownxian]

jiang cheng antis always acting as if they'd do different in his shoes. as if losing your entire family, sect and home was just something you could brush off and get over. as if there wouldn't be an anger and a need for vengeance, that your entire bloodline wouldn't need avenging and more. they seem to struggle with humanising him and realising that all grief comes in different shapes. jiang cheng simply couldn't curl up in a ditch somewhere and accept his fate, he couldn't put himself in solitude and have someone else take charge — jiang cheng was the only one left to restore the yunmeng jiang sect, he was quite literally the surviving hope for his home and people. there's an immense sense of pressure on his shoulders, combined that with survivors guilt and then followed by the loss of jiang yanli and wei wuxian, jiang cheng really was going through the works.

#my man spent most of the war probably covered by a cloud of his trauma and ptsd and this probably intensified after wwx's death #can sect leader jiang get a break for one moment please #jiang cheng #mdzs #canon jiang cheng #mo dao zu shi

[yunmeng-jiang]

Honestly I think that as much as Wei Wuxian thinks of Jiang Cheng as his little brother... Jiang Cheng also thinks of Wei Wuxian as his little brother? Like, he showed up when Jiang Cheng was, what, 7? and he was this feral little kid who had a severe phobia of something Jiang Cheng wasn't afraid of at all. One parent pampered him like the baby of the family and one parent didn't want him to outshine their kid who was there first. Jiang Cheng has a protective instinct toward him even though Wei Wuxian is technically more talented. Jiang Cheng was brought up to be the leader, while Wei Wuxian was always going to be the second-in-command, the one without the responsibility of the entire sect on his shoulders. Wei Wuxian is older, yeah, but in so many ways Jiang Cheng has the role of older brother to him. I feel like the fact that they both feel like the older sibling is actually the cause of a lot of their strife - they both see themselves as the one who needs to protect the other, the one who's got to have things handled for their little brother's sake. They sacrifice themselves for each other like it's a game of ping-pong. I'm in charge of looking after you because I know the rules and you don't. No I'm in charge of looking after you because I don't want you to get hurt and I'm stronger. No I'm in charge of looking after you because I'm responsible for taking care of you. Back and forth with the older sibling bullshit.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #twin prides #source: i'm an older sibling #i can see so much of myself in both jc and wwx it's not even funny

[piosplayhouse]

My for real controversial mdzs opinion of the week click if you want

There's so much stupid "meta" out there that judges lwj / jc (and oftentimes wwx too but I think that's kind of automatically bs because he doesn't raise a yuan on his own at all??) by their "parenting skills" and completely ignores that . They're not actually parents! Lmfao!! It's a common enough joke in the fandom but when drawn into actual analysis it completely misses that they're not the kids' parents and they're not TRYING TO BE. I mentioned this before but I wish people would acknowledge that part of the reason sizhui turned out so well is because lwj enlisted the help of his entire support system -- it's not like he was a struggling single dad singlehandedly looking after a kid..? And this is completely subverted when talking about jc, who had relatively no support system at the time and was still shouldering a ton of responsibility as sect leader that lwj didn't have to deal with at all! Completely different scenarios!!

Jc is a "shitty parent" because he's not trying to be a parent! He doesn't even want to think of replacing jl's parents so instead he circles around the role while raising him like he probably would if jyl and jzx had lived and filling in the gaps along the way the best he could probably with fear of overstepping.

Idk a lot of my mutuals have mentioned seeing posts surrounding this subject lately and it's just like. Such a weird thing to critique on imo because I feel like it's pretty realistic?? I mean personally if I had to suddenly raise my sibling's newborn baby alone because all of my immediate family had been killed in a single night I daresay I would probably do a worse job than jc but who knows maybe some people out there are built different

[web-novel-polls]

Priest (Author) Character Upper Bracket

*Xi Ping fanart volunteered by @stellarish / used with permission

[“Anti-propaganda” is not allowed. Please only give reasons to vote FOR a character, and please be courteous in the notes.]

Cheng Qian from Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect 

"Now, in Cheng Qian's eyes, there were only two kinds of people in this world: people who are no match for him now, and people who will be no match for him in the future."  - Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect, Chapter 38

No propaganda submitted

Sassy child who cares about his found family/sect SO much

The “meanie” from the description - “A cultivation story about how a declining sect is restored by a narcissist, troublemaker, meanie, idiot, and wimpy kid.”

“No matter how many foes, they cannot bend my will.”  - Cheng Qian, ch.29 

"He believed that when he was alone, he could do anything all by himself. For a lone person, when he reaches the peak of his achievement, he's still alone; when he falls to the depths of the abyss, too, he's still alone. Even if his head were to fall from his shoulders, wouldn't that just be a scar on his body? What was there to fear?" - Ch. 36

Xi Ping from Tai Sui

Submission: He is literally everything to me. Pure chaos condensed into a single person. Everyone loves him, everyone hates him. He does his best, he doesn't try at all, he beats up monsters with a qin, he brought about the destruction of the entire cultivation world…

Additional Propaganda 

#cheng qian #liu yao #xi ping #tai sui #priest #polls #priest upper third place #priest upper bracket #priest character tournament #queue

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Excerpt from my Wei Wixuan Descended From Hualian Fic

"Xingan," Wei Chaoxiang says, aggrieved. "The boy is sixteen. Sixteen, for heaven's sake! And he carries himself like he's been carved out of stone!"

Cao Yinuo purses her lips and presses her fingertips together the way she does when she's trying not to show that she's upset. "We cannot go around adopting the children of random sect leaders, most especially while those sect leaders are still alive," she says, but Wei Chaoxiang knows his wife and hears the reluctance in her voice.

"That's an easy fix." She looks at him like he's an utter fool, which, fair. But still! "Look at that child and tell me he has ever in his life experienced a shred of parental affection."

"... Jin Furen is--"

"Bah!" Wei Chaoxiang does not make a habit of interrupting his wife, and to do it now highlights how fired up he is. "That woman happily betrothed her son to a girl he despised for most of their acquaintance, the fact that he came around in the end means nothing. Even had he not, she would have forced them to marry and damn either of their chances at a happy future."

Cao Yinuo hesitates. Picks uncertainly at her nails.

Wei Chaoxiang pushes onward. "Jiang Fengmian's disgraceful neglect of his children is shameful enough, but at least he doesn't have Jin Guangshan's reputation, which Jin Furen seems entirely too passive about exposing Yanli to. What must it have been like for Zixuan, growing up under that shadow? And more to the point -- we are a reflection of the company we keep! What does it say about Jin Furen's character, that she counts a woman like Yu Ziyuan as her closest friend! She may not take a whip to her own son, but she would surely to someone else's, and that's another weight the boy has to shoulder. At sixteen! He's hardly out of his milkteeth!"

"Our own boy is only a few years older," Cao Yunuo says, though her stony defiance is melting.

"Exactly! They're babies, the both of them! And Zixuan looked ready to burst into tears when I told him he'd done well last night."

His perfect, wonderful, brilliant, ever-loving wife sighs with all the exhaustion of an immortal grown weary with the passage of time, and fixes him with a Look. "So, after so many years of avoiding the Sects entirely, we're now going to just show up and adopt all of their children?"

"... Maybe not all of them."

"Husband."

"Well -- oh, but that Nie Mingjue is hardly into his twenties isn't he? And already carrying so much responsibility. And Xichen, of course, if we're to have Wangji then we simply must have his brother, and it's not like he couldn't do with a kinder hand than Lan Qiren seems willing to give. And of course Wanyin and Yanli, if Jiang Fengmian didn't want me to steal his children from him then he shouldn't have kidnapped my nephew, and they're a-Ying's siblings, we can't just abandon them... Hm."

"The Wen boys."

"The Wen boys! Yes, I'm not fond of the Wen boys, and I'm afraid it's too late for an intervention to matter there. Unfortunate, but that's the way these things turn out some times. So it's not all of the children. Just the ones who need us."

Cao Yinuo looks up at the statue of Granduncle like she's hoping he'll come and rescue her from her foolish husband, but she doesn't actually call out to him. She only raises a hand to rest gentle fingers on the red silk thread, dangling from the statue's own outstretched hand. "... I suppose," she says, softly, "That the family may have -- may have been too distant, since Changze died. Clearly things have gotten out of control without us around to keep watch. If they want to -- if they want to, Chaoxiang, you cannot actually steal these children -- if they want to, then it's not like we don't have space at the table."

"Yes!" Says Wei Chaoxiang, and wraps his arms around his perfect, wonderful, brilliant, ever-loving wife to dip her into a kiss to show his gratitude.

#mdzs #the untamed #Wei Wuxian #not present but tagged for visibility #OCs #WWX's uncle and his wife are like Morticia and Gomez #insofar as they are Constant Adding New Family Members #A child cannot Sniffle within ten meters of them without getting adopted #normally Cao Yinuo is fully on board #its only the sect politics that give her pause

[thebiscuiteternal]

"He doesn't recognize the cruel selfish man that his once-best friend has become now that he's been given free rein to do as he pleases." Between this and Wen Xu dragging him on adventures to try new foods, I'd love to hear more about Wen Xu and Huaisang being once-best friends! Whether there's hints of Wen Xu starting to go down a dark path or not is entirely up to you. ;)

Wen Xu always had a bit of a possessive streak because it's practically genetic in the main branch of the family. As a kid, it didn't come off as a negative because it mostly manifested in protecting his stuff from his destructive brat of a brother and getting a bit bristly if he suspected someone was trying to poach a person he'd taken a liking to. With Nie Huaisang in particular, it manifested at first as protectiveness. He'd heard about the unwanted Nie heir from his father, and once he actually met Huaisang and found he was just as cute and smart and quietly endearing as his father said, he was smitten.

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

Coaxing Sangsang out of his guest room to go down into the city had proven more difficult than usual this visit.

Once they'd reached the edge of the marketplace he'd chosen this time, Wen Xu made a little note in the back of his head to check with the other Wen juniors who'd gone to Qinghe recently as part of the exchanges his father and Nie-zongzhu frequently fostered.

Due to the closeness of their sects, the Nie juniors often didn't bother to guard their words.

And when, not if, Wen Xu found out which of the other boy's distant relatives had provoked this particularly quiet and withdrawn spell, he was not going to be gentle in the slightest, especially if it had been one of the cousins.

The adults were bad enough, but their fellow juniors could be nasty when they knew the most trouble they would get into for it was an admonishment and maybe copying a few lines.

For now, however, he leaned in and gently bumped shoulders with Huaisang. "Hey."

"Hey," Nie Huaisang replied reflexively, but his gaze remained locked on the path under their feet as they walked.

Wen Xu bumped him a little harder, enough to make the other boy have to correct his steps to compensate. "I think you'll like this place. They have a dish that has rabbit cooked in yogurt and spices and then laid over flatbread."

Huaisang finally raised his head and squinted at him. "What's yogurt?" he asked suspiciously.

Wen Xu grinned. "Bitter spoiled cream," he said, just to enjoy the way Huaisang's nose wrinkled at the description. "It's not so bad. You like cheese, right?"

"Right," Huaisang murmured, clearly still wary.

And clearly still depressed.

Wen Xu's hands clenched at his sides, and he had to force himself to open them and relax. Rather than let them close back up again, he took Huaisang's hand and began to pull him through the market faster. "Come on, let's get a good table before the place fills up!"

It was an excuse. There was nowhere in the Nightless City that dared turn away the scion of the Undying Sun, even if they were full to the rafters. But the quicker speed startled Huaisang out of his miserable reverie, if the way his grip on Wen Xu's hand reflexively tightened and his eyes went wide were any indication, and that was what he'd been aiming for.

Distraction, distraction, distraction. It was the one thing he'd learned would always work whenever Huaisang was like this.

He would make sure Huaisang didn't have time to think for the rest of the afternoon, and then send him back to his rooms too tired and full of good food to let those thoughts creep back in before he was asleep.

And while their little bird slept, he would hunt down the boar that dared clip his wings again.

#mdzs #reverse nies #larger age gap nies #wen xu #nie huaisang #xusang #sort of #worldbuilding #fanfic

[ge]

thinking about dangcheong daughter au and her being left behind after the war... because of her skill in cultivation, she's still alive after a hundred years but at the very least she's 70-80 in appearance. think tang jo pyung

the image of cm in his 15-20 year old body putting all the love and effort he can give his elderly daughter for the hundred years he was gone. whenever he holds her wrinkled hands, he tears up thinking abt the sparse joyful moments where as an infant she'd have such a tight grip on his finger...every time she smiles he sees tang bo in her...he feels so so regretful they left her behind

(oh maybe we can have yu iseol as her granddaughter too meaning she's cm's great granddaughter)

OOHHEWWW I JUST PUT MY HEAD IN MY HANDS......i have soooo many tangchung daughter aus bouncing around in my head but one where she lives past the war never came up for some reason omg...

i just cried.. chung myungs last memory of her being a mischievous spunky little brat and he blinks and suddenly shes well over a hundred years, old and frail, and so so so much like tang bo it physically hurts.. i like to think in her youth she was more wild like chung myung but as she got older, she mellows out and is more cordial and polite like tang bo.. with her both of her parents dead and their sect in ruins, someone with a cool head on their shoulders had to build their sect back up..

THINKING ABOUT CHUNG MYUNG COMING BACK AND SEEING HIS LITTLE GIRL.. ALL GROWN UP.. TOO GROWN UP.. SO MANY MOMENTS HES MISSED OUT ON.. HIS DAUGHTER GROWING UP SO SO ALONE AND SHOULDERING THE BURDEN OF REBUILDING MOUNT HUA ALL BY HERSELF.. I CANT... I CANT.. I CANT I CANJT.. i cant live in a world where she dies without knowing at least one of her fathers came back so ill imagine a scenario where chung myung probably says smth to her that only she and her dads would have known and they finally reunite w each other for the first time in a hundred years..like gross sobbing and tears and bone crushing hugs and kissing cheeks and hands and everything IM SICK IM SICK I CANT......

shes not wholly bedridden methinks but despite looking younger than she actually is, shes still rather weak and frail.. maybe she sustained an injury in the war that she never really recovered from.. chung myung visits her every single day and when hes out training by himself or w the disciples, she comes and watches and they both keep each other company.. she also keeps chung myungs identity a secret cuz shes a good filial daughter like that but sometimes she teases him a little in front of the others much to their confusion.. why is this brat acting so familiarly with their most respected elder and daughter of their legendary ancestor..and why is she enabling him..

THANK YOUUUUU FOR YU ISEOL GRANDDAUGHTER SCRAPS RAHHHH pre father grave reveal, chung myung learning that his creepy sago who keeps chasing him around is his great great great granddaughter is so funny but looking closer he probably sees the resemblance of himself and his daughter and even tang bo in her..... eeuuughh.. chung myung reincarnating into the world thinking hes fully and wholly alone but returning to mount hua and realizing hes had entire generations of his family living and thriving after his death.. his very own descendants still walk the stone floors he did as a child.. his dear daughter and granddaughter are still alive and carried the original spirit of mount hua with them when he wasnt there to.. chung myung just wishes tang bo was still alive to see it all..

#*family guy death pose* #you cant come into my inbox talking about tangchung daughter au and expect me to act right...

[quotablefanfiction]

Lan Wangji didn’t have the same philosophy of ‘just try shit out and see what works even if it might be sort of dangerous’ that Wei Wuxian had, and he really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. (Lecture in Lan Wangji’s case meaning the words ‘Wei Ying’ spoken in a particularly scolding tone, but still somehow managing to encompass the meaning of an entire 30 minute lecture on appropriate risk-taking and the value of following protocol.)

Wei Wuxian recognizes his motivations in avoidance (chp. 14)

Cultivating immortality by KizuKatana (AO3) Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed – Mature – Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian #Alternate Universe #Canon Divergence #Canon-Typical Violence #Rogue Cultivator Wei Ying #Mutual Pining #Angst #BAMF Wei Ying #BAMF Lan Wangji #Wei Wuxian low self-esteem #Happy Ending #Hurt/Comfort #Unreliable Narrator #Sect Wars happening #demonic cultivation descriptions in detail #Found family #First Time #Sex

“A weapon is not the same as a spouse, even if that weapon is powerful.” The words had barely left Wei Wuxian’s lips when he found himself slammed against the trunk of the nearest tree, Lan Wangji’s hands gripping painfully tight around his shoulders, practically lifting him from the ground.

“Wei Ying is not a weapon!” Lan Wangji bit out.

Wei Wuxian had said many things that had angered the illustrious Second Jade in the past. When he had been in Cloud Recesses as a youth, it had been Wei Wuxian’s favorite hobby. But he realized had never managed to truly enrage Lan Wangji with anything he had said until this moment.

- - - -

The Lan sect has been putting pressure on Lan Wangji to find a cultivation partner. They don’t like the one he chooses.

#fanfiction #quote #Mo Dao Zu Shi #The Untamed #Wei Wuxian #Wei Ying #Cultivating immortality #KizuKatana

[tavina-writes]

The art of war (it seems fun)

WARVERSE my beloved!

This fic has actually been posted, but it's my Age Swap Nie Bros AU where NHS is Da-ge, things proceed to end up entirely off the rails, and (eventually) the Nie will be at war with the Jin. Also Jiang Fengmian is chief cultivator.

Also sexy Wen Xu and the rest of the disaster polycule is there.

ft:

“There you are,” A-Xu catches him by the shoulder as he passes one of the many corridors leading off into the family wing. “I thought you’d never come out of there and I’d have to send Zhuliu in to fetch you. He’d be so horribly uncomfortable if he had to do that.”  “Keeping the bride waiting on her wedding night?” He hears himself ask, still shockingly bitter for all that he set up this whole relationship to begin with.  “She’s waiting for both of us. I left the premises of drunken debauchery sober, half an hour ago.” A-Xu glances at him, an arm still over his shoulders even as he drags Nie Huaisang off down the hallway. “You, on the other hand, waited for another half hour and got drunk in the meantime. Who’s the fool between the two of us, Sang-ge?”  He hasn’t really the words to argue with that, so he tries a different tactic. “Maybe she’ll have realized this was a stupid idea,” he hears himself say. “After all, everyone knows that you shouldn’t introduce your wife and your mistress to each other.”  “You’re not my mistress.” A-Xu’s grip on his arm tightens. “Sang-ge, what sort of nonsense do you think we occupy? Is it comparable to a rich man’s insistence on having a harem?”  “I would make an excellent concubine,” Nie Huaisang says, feeling more miserable by the second. “I’m a useless good for nothing.”  A-Xu pauses to stare at him for a moment as though he’d grown a second head. “We’ve come too far for you to have cold feet.” 

Basically Da-ge!NHS is always 80% dead of his various health issues, in a polycule with Wen Xu and He Qiao (from the Tingshan He sect, yes, that Tingshan He sect), the Jianghu's most scandalous sect leader (imagine him as a horrible goose), completely shit at politics, and convinced that in his next life he should get to be a spoiled concubine who does nothing ever.

#nie huaisang my beloved #my writing #the art of war

[animanganerd]

Everything Annoys Me And I’m (Too) Hot - Chapter 38

The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi Fanfic

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47881336/chapters/139266202

All chapters: here x

Chapter 38 ❖ Room full of corpses

The first thing Lan Xiaoli did outside was… puke. He clutched the wooden post of the main gates with one hand and let it all out until his stomach was empty.

It wasn’t the fact that he’d seen someone die or the stench of the blood that was all over his face that made him sick. What made his stomach turn was something much, much worse.

Heaving and panting, he looked over his shoulder. When he made sure Mu Chun hadn’t followed him, he angrily wiped the remaining sick off his mouth, stepped over the contents of his stomach and started to run.

He ran until he reached the main path that led back into the city, then ran a bit further. He had no destination in mind, he just wanted to run as far as his legs would carry him.

The more he realised what had just transpired, the weaker his legs became, until they finally buckled and he collapsed under a large oak. 

Mu Chun was an endless well of secrets, and each secret seemed more grave than the last. It was as if for every time he forgave Mu Chun, the next revelation would hurt a hundred times more. 

What stung the most, however, was that he’d been betrayed… again.

Lan Xiaoli was on his knees, bracing himself on his arms over the ground, and dug his fingers into the grass. Only then did he let the tears flow, desperately trying to stifle his sobs.

But it was impossible. He sobbed miserably until he could hardly breathe, unsure whether the tears stemmed from disappointment, anger, frustration, the puking, or all of it combined.

There was nothing left in his stomach to expel, but Lan Xiaoli still felt incredibly sick.

“A-Li.”

Startled, Lan Xiaoli whipped his entire body around. Mu Chun had found him. Lan Xiaoli glared at him with bloodshot eyes, panting harshly.

His face, covered in sweat and tears, looked wretched and his hair was a complete mess. A few loose strands had found their way onto his face, sticking to the snot and tears like it was some kind of glue.

Mu Chun reached out to remove the hair, but Lan Xiaoli slapped his hand away. 

“Do not touch me,” he growled. His face fell at his own statement as he involuntarily remembered all the ways they’d touched before. “I can’t believe I…” 

…kissed you.

The last part of the sentence stuck in his throat, along with a fresh load of vomit. But he was done puking. He swallowed it back down. What remained was the sour taste in his mouth, the burning feeling in his throat.

Mu Chun dropped his hand in resignation and got down on one knee to be at eye level with Lan Xiaoli. “A-Li, I can explain–”

“What’s there to explain?!” Lan Xiaoli snapped. “Being jealous doesn’t give you the right to kill people!”

“Jeal–? Just because I like you doesn’t mean I’d kill out of jealousy.”

“Why else would you have done it?! Sect Leader Lu is not a bad person! We— no, you literally just saved him from being executed!”

“I know. It was all a bit… unfortunate. But I swear there’s a reason.”

“Whatever the reason, it does not justify killing!”

Mu Chun averted his gaze. “You don’t know my circumstances.”

Lan Xiaoli stared at Mu Chun in disbelief until his distress welled up into rage. “Because you never tell me anything!” he shouted. “We are this close already, yet you still have so many secrets! How am I supposed to know?! I opened up to you, poured my heart out to you! You know everything about me: my past, my family, my skills – everything! Why couldn’t you be honest with me?!”

Then, he fell silent. He was struck by a sudden realisation which hit him with such force that it mercilessly shattered his heart into a million pieces. His anger turned to despair. “Maybe…” A short, bitter laugh escaped his throat. “Maybe you kept all these secrets because you never trusted me in the first place.”

“A-Li, listen…”

“No.” Lan Xiaoli got up on two trembling legs, perpetually shaking his head. “No. I will not let you feed me any more lies.”

Mu Chun followed suit and stood as well. “I never lied. I… just withheld some information.”

Lan Xiaoli snorted. “What’s the difference?”

“I didn’t tell what I wasn’t asked, but when I was asked, I always answered truthfully.”

Lan Xiaoli pursed his lips, desperately fighting back the tears in his eyes. “…remember the talk we had?” he asked in a husky voice. “You said you would do anything if I asked you with a smile.”

Mu Chun nodded, his expression incredibly soft. “Of course I remember.”

“Was that not a lie? I asked you not to kill, and yet you did.”

Mu Chun was quiet for a moment, a faint frown etching his features. When he finally replied, his voice was so small it was almost a whisper. “I broke my promise, I am sorry. But I had no choice…”

This didn’t evoke any pity from Lan Xiaoli. His sympathy concerning Mu Chun was spent. He scoffed. “Bullshit. You had a choice. To kill or not to kill. And you chose to kill.”

“A-Li, not everything is as black and white as you make it out to be,” Mu Chun replied emphatically.

“That may be true, but would you not agree that it is a bit hypocritical after you tried to stop me from doing the very same thing? Did you not tell me, because it is secretly a weird hobby of yours and you did not want me to ‘steal’ your prey?”

This remark felt like a punch to Mu Chun’s gut. Indignation flashed across his features. “...Hobby? You think I’m doing this for fun?”

“You certainly looked like you enjoyed it. Not an ounce of shame or regret on your face!”

Mu Chun let out an incredulous laugh. “I am so sorry you never experienced the joy of killing someone. But I didn’t have parents who protected me from the outside world. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now. I would’ve gone mad if I cared!”

With a sigh, he closed his eyes in exasperation and clenched his jaw, the expression on his face of someone who’d lost all patience.

“This is exactly why I’ve never revealed too many details about myself. Because you’re a judgmental asshole. Even if I wanted to, I didn’t dare tell you anything, because I knew you’d just judge me for it. You’ve been doing so since the very first day we met, for no reason. You didn’t even know me!”

Having the truth handed to him like that – raw and ruthless – Lan Xiaoli was at a loss for words.

“I see,” he said at last, his face blank and his tone flat. “If the feeling is mutual, then maybe this was a mistake.” 

Mu Chun nodded in agreement. “Maybe it was.”

Both humphed and turned in opposite directions.

Lan Xiaoli strode away, shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the images of the recent bloodbath, and the hurtful words Mu Chun had hurled at him. But they wouldn’t be shaken off that easily, following him into his dreams as haunting nightmares.

⬩ ❖ ⬩ ❖ ⬩ ❖ ⬩

The next morning, Mu Chun didn’t show up. Maybe he was scared, or figured it was no use. Maybe he was fed up with their constant fighting. Or maybe he’d understood Lan Xiaoli was serious about going separate ways. Whatever the reason, Mu Chun had vanished into thin air. His sudden absence didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

“Where is Mu Chun?” Zhang Chengling wondered as he and Lan Xiaoli prepared the horses for their departure.

“He is gone,” Lan Xiaoli replied, his tone flat.

“Again?”

“This time for good.”

“...” Zhang Chengling remained quiet for a while, but then couldn’t help but remark, “I obviously don’t know what happened, but he’d never do anything to hurt you. He really cares about you, y’know?”

Lan Xiaoli didn’t respond. Even if it was true, it was all over now. They left before Mu Chun dared to turn up, so they’d certainly never see each other again.

With his heart torn to shreds, Lan Xiaoli felt too numb to mourn the loss of his first love.

Linguang wasn’t far from Jiaolong City. Even without Mu Chun’s guidance, it took Lan Xiaoli and the others less than a week to reach the village.

The first thing Lan Xiaoli did when they arrived was to pay Murong Zheng’s residence another visit, only to find that he hadn’t returned yet.

Annoyed, he kicked the ground, stirring up some dust in the process. He planted his hands on his hips as he glared at the building. How much longer was he supposed to wait?!

“He’s probably making obligatory visits to the villages he’s saved.”

The voice had appeared so suddenly beside him that it startled Lan Xiaoli. He felt that all-too-familiar sound stoking the anger inside him. He didn’t bother to hide his displeasure when he turned to face the owner of the voice.

It was none other than Mu Chun.

“Just because you are dead to me does not mean you have to act like a ghost,” Lan Xiaoli said. His gaze swept over Mu Chun from head to toe. “What do you want?”

Mu Chun stood in his elegant robes, hands behind his back, carrying his usual smirk.

“I have to show you something.”

Lan Xiaoli crossed his arms and lightly shook his head, turning away from Mu Chun. “Why should I care? So you can deceive me some more?”

“I didn’t.”

“Of course you did! …You made me believe you were a good person.”

Mu Chun frowned, truly baffled. “How?”

“...” How indeed? The anger in Lan Xiaoli’s heart evaporated, replaced by a sense of wistfulness. “...Because you were good to me,” he said in a soft voice.

“And I have no intention of changing that,” Mu Chun replied. 

As he said this, Mu Chun’s face was utterly earnest. Not a single trace of his usual smugness was to be seen. Even the mischievous glint in his eyes seemed to have been extinguished by his sincerity. It gave Lan Xiaoli goosebumps.

“Come with me, and I’ll show you the truth,” Mu Chun continued.

Lan Xiaoli scoffed. “That is rich, coming from you. Do you even know what that word means?”

“I want to show you that I trust you. And that you can trust me. But for that, you need to see something.”

Looking at Mu Chun, Lan Xiaoli felt that Zhang Chengling might have been right after all. Maybe he’d been a bit too harsh in his assumption that Mu Chun was a bad guy without giving him a chance to explain. In the end, they’d both said hurtful words.

Also, wasn’t the truth all he’d always wanted?

After a moment of contemplation, Lan Xiaoli finally nodded. “I will go get the others.”

“No.”

Lan Xiaoli halted.

Mu Chun’s reaction had been sharp, but he quickly regained his composure. “Just you. I’ll show you that I trust you. And only you.”

Lan Xiaoli was a little dumbfounded. Was he ready to be alone with Mu Chun again? He deliberated for a moment, but eventually decided to give him another chance. “Okay.”

Following Mu Chun’s lead, Lan Xiaoli found himself in front of the Haunted House Memorial.

Murong Zheng’s statue stood on top of a pedestal, unchanged. Lan Xiaoli glared at the statue, clenching his hands into fists until his knuckles cracked. That arrogant, unmoving face looked down on them with such complacency, it fueled Lan Xiaoli’s anger even more. 

Oh, how he wished this was the real one. How he wished, Murong Zheng would finally return, so he could confront him. He wanted to make him suffer for all that he’d done.

“A-Li!”

Lan Xiaoli snapped back to his senses with a start. Mu Chun was holding his wrist in a tight grip.

“You’re bleeding! Are you okay?”

Mu Chun reached with his hand for Lan Xiaoli’s face, but Lan Xiaoli immediately shrank back. Mu Chun’s hand stopped mid-air.

Lan Xiaoli wiped at his own mouth with his fingers, and there indeed was blood.

It seemed the grudge he’d nurtured against his uncle had sent him into one of his sinister dazes.

“I am fine,” Lan Xiaoli said, still avoiding Mu Chun’s gaze. He crossed his arms and vaguely nodded at the statue. “I already know about this.”

Mu Chun was still concerned. While the dark haze that had surrounded Lan Xiaoli had disappeared, his eyes remained dull. It was the same as when they’d inspected the murals of Jian Minghzhi. But since Lan Xiaoli was still wary of him, Mu Chun didn’t pursue the matter.

“I don’t mean the statue,” Mu Chun said as he walked around it. “What I’m about to show you is related to my work.”

Lan Xiaoli finally looked at him with a puzzled expression. Wasn’t he a messenger? Again – what was there to show?

But he didn’t ask out loud. Instead, he just raised an eyebrow and followed Mu Chun, who wrapped his fingers around the sword tassel of the statue and turned it.

With a jolt, the ground beneath them began to shake. Alarmed, Lan Xiaoli reached for the first thing he could grab, which turned out to be Mu Chun’s arm.

The reddish ground behind the memorial, which at first glance seemed perfectly normal, was in fact a hidden entrance. It opened to a staircase that led underground.

Lan Xiaoli was stunned. He cautiously looked to his left and right to check if anyone else happened to be nearby. “What if someone else sees this?”

“People avoid this place like the plague. Being found out is the least of my concerns.”

Once the tremors stopped and Lan Xiaoli realised that there was no real danger, he promptly let go of Mu Chun’s arm. “So you are from here after all. You lied about that too?”

“Well technically, I just didn’t correct Chengling.”

“Same thing.”

“To be fair, if I’d been honest, you wouldn’t have let me join.”

Lan Xiaoli opened his mouth, but closed it again. He had a point.

Mu Chun chuckled and went ahead, walking down the stairs. Lan Xiaoli hesitated.

“Are you going to kill me?”

A few steps down, Mu Chun stopped. He turned around, his expression earnest. “I could never hurt you.”

“It does not have to be painful.”

Mu Chun seemed to realise his mistake and rephrased, “I could never live without you.”

Lan Xiaoli’s heart skipped a beat. Again, so sincere! This side of Mu Chun made Lan Xiaoli shudder. But it was enough to convince him to follow Mu Chun into the unknown.

About a minute later, they reached a dark and narrow hallway. Mu Chun lit the few torches on the wall with a wave of his hand before leading Lan Xiaoli to a dimly lit underground chamber at the end of the  corridor. When they reached the entrance, Lan Xiaoli froze.

Though the chamber looked like a cave, it was clearly man-made. The signs of hard labour to create this hideout were evident. But Lan Xiaoli had no time to appreciate the dedication, for an eerie feeling crept over him.

The walls of the chamber consisted of the same reddish dirt and sand that surrounded the memorial. Illuminated by just a few flickering torches, it looked like they were painted with blood.

Even worse were the stone slabs that had been randomly placed throughout the chamber. Lan Xiaoli paid no regard to the peculiar instruments, which might as well be torture devices, scattered across some of these tables. All his attention was drawn to the bodies lying on the slabs. It took him a moment to find his voice again.

“Who… are these people? What the hell is all this??” he demanded.

Mu Chun had walked further into the room and his face was cast in shadow. Lan Xiaoli couldn’t see his expression clearly. 

Mu Chun let out a deep sigh. “Some powerful people made an offer that these guys declined. My job is to deliver a message: They get a chance to change their mind, else they’re… disposed of. It’s their choice. If they don’t want to cooperate, I am to get rid of them. No matter how.”

Lan Xiaoli glanced at the bodies. “And you store them here?”

“Well, sometimes I keep them to run some experiments.”

“...Experiments?” It all made less and less sense.

Mu Chun nodded. “I was inspired by your dad, to be honest.”

Lan Xiaoli frowned. “My dad? What does he have to do with anything?”

“...He’s the founder of demonic cultivation? The Yiling Laozu?”

“Huh?” Lan Xiaoli’s frown deepened. “He is not. You must be mistaken.”

“...Ah. Perhaps. Anyways,” Mu Chun got a slip of paper out of his lapels and handed it to Lan Xiaoli. “Here, read this.”

Lan Xiaoli unfolded the piece of paper. On it was a list of names. As he read through it, his heart sank at the last three names: Sun Zongxi, Ling Baoxi and Lu Yunli. He gently brushed his thumb over the last two names.

“...Ling Baoxi? You killed… Ling Baoxi?” That hectic, but innocent mayor? What had he done to deserve this? 

And not to mention Lu Yunli… He’d saved his life after all! “They were genuinely kind people, why did you have to kill them?”

Mu Chun did not reply. Instead, he avoided Lan Xiaoli’s reproachful gaze, his face now filled with the remorse he’d been lacking before.

Lan Xiaoli wanted to press him further, but the questions died on his tongue as he began to make sense of it all. It finally dawned on him why Mu Chun had wordlessly vanished a few times during their journey.

“...Is that why you led us to these places and kept disappearing at night? So you could kill people?”

“It was either them or me.”

Lan Xiaoli could only focus on one thing. “So you have been lying all this time?”

“I told you, I did not lie. But as you can see there were a few things I just couldn’t disclose. I had to keep a few things from you to protect myself.”

“From what?”

Mu Chun gestured back and forth between the two. “This exact situation we’re in right now.”

Lan Xiaoli mimicked his gesture, somehow managing to make it look sarcastic in his agitation. “This would not have happened if you had been honest from the start!”

His irritation seemed to be contagious as Mu Chun became more and more exasperated. “Exactly! How would you have reacted if you had known? Would you have let me join? Would we have come this close? What does my background matter if my feelings are genuine?” 

He took a deep breath to calm himself. “You weren’t supposed to find out about the list. It was my mistake to spend every night with you. I should’ve been more patient and finished my job first. Lu Yunli was supposed to be the last one. Then I wanted to stop. For you. For good.”

Lan Xiaoli bit his bottom lip. This was unfair. If Mu Chun had never joined, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now. If Mu Chun had never joined, he wouldn’t have this clash of mind and heart. But all of this was too late now.

“Why do you have to do all this?”

“Revenge,” Mu Chun replied. “Revenge is the reason I’m here. I made a mistake and I fucked up. That’s what I was trying to protect you from.”

Lan Xiaoli raised his eyebrows. That sounded like there was a lot to unpack, but their conversation was suddenly interrupted.

“What is going on here?” a sharp voice cut in.

Both teens started. Lan Xiaoli spun around to the newcomer – it was Zhou Zishu. Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian and Wen Kexing had come as well. Lan Xiaoli turned back to Mu Chun, concern written all over his face.

Although Mu Chun was immediately on guard, he remained unfazed. “We're having a chat.”

Zhou Zishu wasn’t put off that easily. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Mu Chun just shrugged, seemingly nonchalant. “I have to make a living somehow.”

Lan Wangji unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Mu Chun. “Explain.”

Mu Chun let out a heavy sigh. He looked exhausted, but showed no sign of fighting them. “It’s a long story. I’m afraid we don’t have time for that.”

“Tell us or we will fight you,” Zhou Zishu threatened.

Mu Chun’s gaze hardened. “No, you won’t.” His voice had turned harsh and cold.

Lan Xiaoli and Zhou Zishu looked at him in confusion, even Lan Wangji’s composed countenance faltered a bit.

Mu Chun gestured towards the corpses. “Here’s enough bodies for Wei Wuxian to control,” he said, as if this would explain anything.

But it confused the others even more.

Zhou Zishu and Lan Wangji had been so absorbed in trying to make sense of what they were seeing, that they hadn’t noticed that their chatty partners had become awfully quiet.

When they turned around, they were shocked to see Wei Wuxian and Wen Kexing standing rigidly in place, eyes wide, bodies trembling. As soon as Lan Wangji and Zhou Zishu were facing them, the other two charged at them with stiff moves. It was obvious that they were doing this against their will.

While Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu were trading blows, Wei Wuxian jumped away and put his flute to his lips. After the first few tunes sounded, the corpses on the tables reacted. They rose from the stones, forcefully removing the ropes and shackles that restrained them.

Two against two was manageable, but two against an indefinite number could prove to be tricky. Lan Wangji had to stop Wei Wuxian from playing his flute at all costs, or producing any melody for that matter.

“You should be careful. Even though their bodies might not obey them anymore, if you hit them, they will feel it,” Mu Chun warned. His voice was so dark and sinister, that it made the others’ skin crawl.

Lan Xiaoli was horrified. He watched the others fight in dismay and disbelief for a while before woodenly sweeping his gaze over to Mu Chun. He stared at Mu Chun with unblinking eyes. After shaking off his shock, he asked, “What did you…?”

When Mu Chun’s gaze flicked back to Lan Xiaoli, his expression grew softer but not any less serious. “It’s a spell,” he answered honestly.

Lan Xiaoli couldn’t believe this was really happening. He hadn’t even processed what Mu Chun had revealed to him. His head was swimming, his thought entirely a mess. How did things escalate this badly from one moment to the next?

The rims of his eyes grew hot. “…Stop it,” he rasped.

Mu Chun scoffed, “Right, so they can kill me?”

“They will not.”

“Pretty sure they came here to do that.”

Lan Xiaoli knew he was the only one who could put an end to this. But every word and action was crucial in this situation, so he cautiously stepped toward Mu Chun.

As Lan Xiaoli approached Mu Chun, Lan Wangji called out, “Xiaoli!”

Mu Chun was unpredictable. It was impossible to tell what else he might have up his sleeve, but one thing was certain: he was dangerous.

Lan Wangji wanted to stop Lan Xiaoli from taking another step, but he was too occupied with Wei Wuxian.

Lan Xiaoli ignored his father’s call. His eyes fixed on Mu Chun, he kept on moving forward. 

“They will not,” he repeated. Then, with a raised voice, he addressed Lan Wangji and Zhou Zishu, “Am I right?”

As much as Lan Wangji wished to put that insolent culprit named Mu Chun in his place, he couldn’t. Forced to fight their partners, Lan Wangji and Zhou Zishu found themselves in a dilemma.

Even though being out of control made them easy targets, Wei Wuxian and Wen Kexing’s bodies did not lack in skill.

With Wen Kexing, each blow could be fatal. Not wanting to hurt him, Zhou Zishu dodged and blocked his blows rather than actually fighting him.

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji fought off the walking corpses, while trying to seize Wei Wuxian, who nimbly slipped from his grasp over and over again.

This was already enough to keep the two men in check and away from Mu Chun, who watched with hands clasped behind his back, his face unreadable.

Fighting – no, dodging Wei Wuxian and Wen Kexing’s attacks, Lan Wangji and Zhou Zishu weren’t left with much choice but to agree.

“Yes!” they called out in unison.

Lan Xiaoli held Mu Chun’s gaze, not daring to look away for a second. A bead of sweat rolled down Mu Chun’s cheek, but he didn’t respond.

“Do you trust me?” Lan Xiaoli asked.

“I do.”

“Then please let them go.”

“...You know I had no choice. You know they would’ve killed me,” Mu Chun muttered with a smidgen of a plea.

Lan Xiaoli nodded. “I know. I know. But please, stop.”

Mu Chun swallowed hard. He glanced at the fighting men. Releasing Wen Kexing and Wei Wuxian could mean his certain death. Yet, he always expected complete and utter trust from Lan Xiaoli. This was his chance to show that they could trust each other. After brief consideration, he finally deactivated the spell.

From one moment to another, Wen Kexing and Wei Wuxian passed out. As their limp bodies collapsed to the ground, so did the corpses around them. Lan Wangji caught Wei Wuxian mid-air, while Zhou Zishu heaved Wen Kexing from the ground.

To make sure no one got any ideas or suddenly changed their mind, Lan Xiaoli quickly said, “Take dad and Uncle Wen and go.”

“I will not leave you,” Lan Wangji objected, his tone firm and determined.

“He is just doing this to protect himself. You should not have ambushed him like that!” Lan Xiaoli argued. “You do not have to worry about me, I will be fine. First of all, we should make sure that no one gets hurt.”

“Xiaoli!”

“No one,” Lan Xiaoli repeated in a tone that brooked no argument. “This includes Mu Chun.”

The other two stared at him. The atmosphere was fraught with tension.

Lan Xiaoli subconsciously clenched his fists. If they decided to attack, he wouldn’t know what to do. Apart from the fact that he wouldn’t stand a chance, he didn't want to fight them. But he couldn’t stand by and let Mu Chun get hurt either. He still wanted answers that only Mu Chun could provide.

For a long moment, no one moved.

Lan Wangji was the first to respond. He glanced at Mu Chun, then lowered his gaze and gave a subtle nod. With Wei Wuxian in his arms, he headed for the exit, followed by Zhou Zishu.

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