#also - I know that in canon MY would never argue with NMJ like this

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

All Dreams Were Worth Keeping

Modern 3Zun Sunshot AU

Part 2

[Masterpost][Ao3]

-//-

Someone is going to get murdered.

Meng Yao isn’t entirely sure who, precisely, is going to die by his hand, but it’s whoever is currently on the other side of his front door. 

He cracks one eye open and fights down a staggeringly strong flash of anger at the next pounding knock on the cheap wood that feels like it’s happening inside his skull. Smashing his face under his pillow isn’t going to drown that out, and whoever is out there isn’t leaving, so in the interest of solving the problem once and for all Meng Yao drags himself out of bed, snags the knife from his nightstand, and stalks out into his living room to fling the front door open only to instantly put the tip of the knife up under his visitor’s chin. 

“So you’re not dead, then,” Nie Mingjue snarks, chin tipped up to accommodate the blade beneath it. “Huaisang was worried.”

“Huaisang can choke,” Meng Yao replies, nudging the knife a bit higher to force Nie Mingjue’s head further back. “Why are you beating down my door on a Saturday morning, Nie Mingjue?”

“It’s noon.”

“What the fuck does that matter?! Why. Are you. Here?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, enough with the dramatics, A-Yao!” Nie Mingjue swats the knife away and rights his posture to glare at him. “I just told you - Huaisang was worried. He said he didn’t hear from you at all last night and he’s been trying to call you this morning but it keeps going straight to voicemail.”

“I shut my phone off so I could get some sleep, Mingjue, I have more than earned that right,” Meng Yao snaps. He steps back to let Nie Mingjue follow him inside and around the corner to his tiny kitchen. The space instantly feels crowded with Nie Mingjue’s considerable bulk in the doorway but he thankfully stays out of the kitchen itself to give him room to maneuver as he continues ranting. “A plan which you just thoroughly ruined with all your pounding on my door, so now you owe me a lunch and something else that is equal to or greater than the value of another two or three hours of sleep - I’ll let you decide what that will be. You’d better hope for your sake that you guess correctly.”

“I already took care of the lunch I owe you,” Nie Mingjue retorts, which is a weird part of that statement to fixate on but Meng Yao is watching his coffee maker fill up so he’s willing to consider being generous and humor him for a moment as the luring promise of caffeine soothes some of his raw nerves.

“You definitely didn’t.”

“Yes I did! Yesterday right as Xichen and I were leaving, I told Luo Yi to order food for you to have after the budget meeting!”

Meng Yao can’t help but slap one of his hands against the counter at that and turn his head enough to glare at Nie Mingjue over his shoulder.

“Why did you tell him to do it?! You know he hates me!”

“What, you two argue every so often so that means he can’t follow a simple instruction to order you some lunch when I tell him to?”

“Yes, Mingjue! That’s precisely what that means since he clearly didn’t do a single thing about it.”

“But that’s ridiculous!”

Meng Yao can only gesture emphatically with one hand at that (his ‘you think I don’t fucking know that’ is implicit) as he turns his attention back to the coffee pot. Silence descends but for the drip of it for a few long moments as it begins percolating.

“Where’s Lan Xichen?” Meng Yao finally grumbles when the silence grows uncomfortable - or at least the weight of Nie Mingjue’s glare on his back does.

“Lunch with his brother and uncle. What time did you leave the office last night?”

“Oh Mingjue just drop it,” Meng Yao sighs, scrubbing both hands over his face and grimacing at how grimy he feels. “I left when I was done with everything I needed to do, what does it matter what time it was?”

“You know I’ll just pull the information off your security card if you don’t answer me which will just piss you off more!” Nie Mingjue growls. “You might as well tell me yourself.”

“UGH!” Jin Guangyao retorts as emphatically as he can with his face still buried in his hands. “Get out of my apartment, Mingjue. Go tell your brother to stop blowing up my phone and go gaze dreamily into Lan Xichen’s eyes or whatever it is you two are planning to do with your afternoon. I’m tired.”

“A-Yao -”

“Don’t!” Meng Yao snaps as he straightens and turns to see that, sure enough, Nie Mingjue has stepped into the kitchen far enough to reach for him though he freezes instantly on command. 

“A-Sang said that it was almost midnight by the time he stopped trying to text you. He said it was later than anyone in their right mind would ever work, but I know you,” Nie Mingjue says - it’s almost soft. “Were you really at the office that late?”

“What do you care?” Meng Yao snaps back, but he graciously pretends not to notice Nie Mingjue stepping closer as he turns back to the coffee pot, which has just beeped to let him know it’s ready.

His hands stay steady as he pours himself a large mug of it while Nie Mingjue slides his arms around his waist and tucks himself around him like an enormous muscular koala. 

“You know I don’t like you out alone that late at night,” Nie Mingjue says against the side of his neck, voice pitched lower now that he’s right next to his ear. “Or working that late. Did you get to eat anything at all yesterday besides breakfast?”

“Mingjue - seriously, drop it. It’s over, I just want to rest today.”

“Answer my questions and I’ll drop it.”

Meng Yao tips his head back to let out a heavy sigh. Truly, he deserves some sort of award or promotion or consolation sex or something as a reward for putting up with such doggedness applied to the most useless of subjects.

“Yes I was at the office until it was so late I almost missed the last train, yes I’m going to kill you if you don’t let me go take a nap on my couch, no I didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day until I got home, no I’m not dead, and no I wasn’t threatened by anyone on my commute in the middle of the night!! I’m fine, Mingjue, so do us both a favor and just drop it!”

Nie Mingjue sighs against his neck and mouths at it lazily while Meng Yao glares down into his coffee, mourning that it’s too hot to drink just yet but content to just stare at it until he deems it a safe enough temperature. It helps that he’s doing so in Nie Mingjue’s arms which are, annoyingly, extremely comforting on the rare occasions when he wraps them around him like this - even when Nie Mingjue is the reason he needs comforting in the first place.

“Huaisang thought you might be out hooking up with someone,” Nie Mingjue finally mutters almost petulantly against his skin just as he’s taking his first sip of the coffee, and there, finally, is the root of the problem. Meng Yao gives himself two breaths to close his eyes and try to tamp down the irritation flashing through him at the half-accusation. He doesn’t succeed - he’s tired and pissed off and human, sue him.

“Alright, I see how it is. You want to do this? Fine. What if I was? You of all people have no right to get jealous, not even if you knew for a fact that I had gone out to hook up with somebody! And you certainly don’t have the right to come to my apartment the morning after to see if it’s true or not.”

“Why not?”

Meng Yao sets his mug back down hard enough to slosh coffee onto the countertop before he turns in Nie Mingjue’s arms to glare up at him, jabbing a fingertip into his chest.

“Did I or did I not personally deliver a fucking supermodel of a man to your office yesterday? Did I or did I not take on all your work for the afternoon on top of my own so that you could run off and ‘entertain’ him? If, at the end of a long day of twice my usual amount of work - which I only had to do so that you could run home and fool around with your boyfriend, might I add - if I want to find someone available and willing to fuck me senseless then that is my right, Nie Mingjue!”

“So call me!”

“Oh my god! How many times are you going to make me reiterate that you’re with Lan Xichen this weekend?! Besides, why would I bother? I have no illusions about what I am to you!”

“Tell me what you know, then! What are you to me, A-Yao?”

“Convenient!”

Nie Mingjue physically jerks back from the venom in Meng Yao’s voice as he practically spits the word at him. 

Meng Yao likes to fantasize sometimes that someone with a bit more emotional awareness would be able to see his anger for the hurt that it really is. Of course he knows that someone with more emotional intelligence would never touch him with a ten foot pole, but that’s neither here nor there when dealing with fantasies. He has a great many that will never make sense but that he still can’t help but think about on occasion.

But unfortunately for him, in spite of how high Nie Mingjue’s emotions run at all times, he’s shit at recognizing them in other people, and anger for him always exists at face value. His expression shutters instantly into thunderous and Meng Yao braces himself for more yelling - so he’s not entirely sure what to do with the way that Nie Mingjue backs up a step and turns to storm out of the kitchen without another word. He’s still leaning against the counter, frozen with surprise, when the door to his shoe box of an apartment slams shut hard enough to rattle the dishes in the cupboard.

----

“Hey er-ge,” Nie Huaisang calls lazily from the sofa as Lan Xichen shuts the door to the Nie house behind himself.

“Hello A-Sang. How was your -” Lan Xichen’s question is cut off by a resounding crash from the direction of Nie Mingjue’s side of the house. He turns an alarmed stare on Nie Huaisang, who’s still filing his nails like he didn’t hear anything.

“Da-ge got in another stupid fight with Yaoyao earlier, don’t worry about it,” he sighs gustily, blowing his bangs out of his face to better inspect the nail he’s working on.

“Ah...And who is ‘Yaoyao’?”

“Meng Yao. The really cute guy who picked you up at the airport yesterday?”

“Oh, yes of course. Oh dear. Does this happen often?”

“About as often as da-ge has a lot of feelings but can’t find the right words to talk about it so he ends up making things worse.”

Lan Xichen meets Nie Huaisang’s eyes from across the living room and in unison they chorus, “So, often.”

Lan Xichen sighs and shakes his head with fond exasperation. He truly loves Nie Mingjue but even with having known him for most of their lives he still struggles to parse out what it is Nie Mingjue wants sometimes. He can only imagine how much more difficult it would be without so many years of experience with interpreting him to lean on. 

“I should go talk to him.”

“Er-ge wait!” Nie Huaisang sits up suddenly just as he passes the sofa and Lan Xichen pauses, turns to meet the younger man’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. 

“Only go talk to him right now if you’re prepared to get to know Meng Yao in entirely unprofessional and extremely...personal ways,” he warns, suddenly (and strangely) serious. “Da-ge hasn’t figured out what it is he wants yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it.”

Lan Xichen’s other eyebrow joins the first on its journey towards his hairline but Nie Huaisang just stares him down, practically forces him to truly think about it just with the force of his gaze.

He thinks about Nie Mingjue’s constant praises of Meng Yao, of the way his own heart had skipped a few beats and his mind gone temporarily offline when he had met the man himself in the airport the previous day; their light and easy conversation on the way to the office; the fact that Meng Yao had taken Nie Mingjue’s work on his own shoulders to allow them time to spend together; and the way that seeing him facing off against the Jin Corporation heir and his odious cousin had made him want to tuck Meng Yao under his arm and keep him safe from such unpleasant behavior.

“Don’t forget to trim your cuticles,” Lan Xichen says to Nie Huaisang by way of parting after a long few moments of thought. Nie Huaisang simply snorts and flops back down to his previous position, disappearing from view behind the back cushions to keep working on his manicure. 

Lan Xichen turns and takes a deep breath before he soldiers on through the house until he reaches the former guest room that Nie Mingjue has turned into something of a home gym. He opens the door without bothering to knock and steps inside just in time to find Nie Mingjue righting the life size/life weight sparring dummy he had apparently sent flying across the room. He’s shirtless and sweaty and pissed off and Lan Xichen allows himself precisely five seconds to stare at him with the sole purpose of enjoying. 

“What is it, Xichen?” he grumps, his chest heaving from either exertion or emotion, it’s hard to tell. 

“I just got back from lunch and I heard something go flying so I came to see if you’re alright.” He steps forward to cross the room and place one hand on Nie Mingjue’s back, rubbing his hand up and down one well-defined shoulder as he watches Nie Mingjue close his eyes and huff out an irritated sigh. “Would you like to discuss it?” he prompts gently, punctuating it with a kiss to the highest point of Nie Mingjue’s bare shoulder.

When Lan Xichen looks up it’s to find that Nie Mingjue has opened his eyes again but he won’t look at him directly, instead just glancing at him out of the corner of one eye that looks suspiciously red and damp. 

“Oh Mingjue,” Lan Xichen sighs, tender and gentle. “It’ll be alright,” he adds and slips his hand down to press against the small of his back, uncaring of the rivulets of sweat that have gathered in the dip of it just above the waistband of his sweatpants. 

And just like that he finds himself with an armful of a sweaty, crying Nie Mingjue. Lan Xichen smothers a fond smile as he wraps one arm around Nie Mingjue’s slim waist and reaches up with the other hand to cup against the back of his head. Nie Mingjue curls over him to hide his face in his shoulder and clutch his arms around the upper half of his back.

They stand there like that for a while as Nie Mingjue attempts to get himself back under control enough to tell him what’s wrong. Lan Xichen, for his part, knows that there’s really not much he can do besides stroke his fingertips softly against his skin and murmur things that he hopes are soothing in his ear as he cries, so that’s what he does.

It doesn’t take too long before Nie Mingjue is doing nothing more than sniffling into his shirt and Lan Xichen can feel his pout pressed into the front of his shoulder. He waits patiently for the explanation, still just stroking at his skin that’s going cool as his sweat dries. 

“I fought with A-Yao,” he finally grumbles, voice raspy. 

“Mm, I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask what happened?”

“I...He usually comes over for dinner with me and Huaisang on Fridays and then the pair of them go out for drinks after, but you’re here and I just...I don’t know, I didn’t think he’d want to be here so I didn’t think to invite him but then Huaisang wanted to go with him last night anyway but he couldn’t get in touch with him. He said he didn’t know if A-Yao was maybe...hooking up with someone and that was why he wasn’t answering his phone but then this morning his phone was off and I started to get worried so I went to check on him but..” Nie Mingjue heaves a gusty sigh and burrows further into the shelter of his neck. “He was already mad at me and nothing I said came out right so I made it worse,” he finally adds, mumbling so much that Lan Xichen has a hard time understanding him.

“What was he already upset with you for?”

“I woke him up when I went to check on him. And...last night..He wasn’t answering Huaisang’s texts because he was still at the office until he had to get the last train of the night home.”

“Oh dear, that’s quite late isn’t it? Did he feel the need to work so late because of the extra duties he took on so that you and I could spend the afternoon together?”

Nie Mingjue just nods at that and nuzzles closer. Lan Xichen can’t help but frown then, just a slight thing at the corners of his mouth (though that’s still more than he usually ever allows). He’s not a massive fan of the mental image of Meng Yao being stuck alone at the office until well into the night while Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue had been rather thoroughly enjoying being together in person again.

“We shall have to make it up to him, then, that is a much larger sacrifice than I think either of you had anticipated such an arrangement would be. How did you make the situation worse?”

Nie Mingjue groans and lifts his head to peel himself away from Lan Xichen’s embrace. He won’t meet his eyes but instead turns to the sparring dummy to fiddle with it, his eyes fixed on his own hands. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to answer but Lan Xichen is nothing if not patient, so he waits.

And waits.

And then, finally, “I didn’t like the idea of him finding someone else to hook up with.” It sounds shockingly petulant and Lan Xichen can’t help but blink. “And he said that I, of all people, don’t have a right to be...upset by the idea.”

“Mingjue - were you jealous?” Lan Xichen can’t help but ask, still surprised. He’s quite certain he’s never even seen Nie Mingjue jealous, though it has always been a distinct possibility thanks to the rather open nature of their relationship while they’ve been mostly living so far apart from each other.

“It would be just as easy for him to call me as it would be to find some stranger to fool around with! Maybe even easier!” he snaps with the air of someone who’s been repeating this argument to himself (and possibly, he supposes, to Meng Yao) for the better part of the day. 

“I did not realize the two of you had decided to be exclusive,” Lan Xichen gently prods - he’s well aware from many discussions with Nie Mingjue about his relationship with Meng Yao that they haven’t agreed to anything of the sort. It just seems that Nie Mingjue may have forgotten that detail.

“I..we’re...Well it’s not like either of us has slept with anyone else since we started sleeping with each other,” he protests, though it sounds weak.

“I believe I am in a position to confidently refute that assertion,” Lan Xichen says as he steps closer again to press himself up against Nie Mingjue’s muscular back, one arm slipping around his waist to press his hand flat, fingers splayed wide, against his abs and the other hand slipping down to cup against his ass through his sweatpants. “I distinctly remember that you were sleeping with someone who is not Meng Yao last night - and I believe he is intelligent enough to have understood without being expressly told that you would be thus occupied by the time he would possibly be looking for a partner to spend the evening with.”

“It’s different!”

“Is it?” Lan Xichen replies, tone absently curious as he looks down to watch his own hand as he starts rubbing his fingertips slowly up and down the center back seam of the sweats. “How so? Because it was me? Because we are us? Does he know what we are to each other, have you told him?”

“Well..no.” 

“Mm. So it is entirely possible that he does not yet understand that our devotion to each other is not comparable to the momentary satisfaction one might find in a brief sexual encounter with a stranger, or that our relationship was already well established by the time you began taking him into your bed.”

“It’s...possible.”

“Oh Mingjue,” Lan Xichen sighs with a rueful little chuckle as he slips his hand down from the firm curve of Nie Mingjue’s ass to rub up and down the back of his thigh instead in slow, soothing circuits. “Perhaps he is jealous as well? Upset that the weekly routine the two of you share was interrupted by me - an interloper?”

“You’re not an interloper, Xichen!”

“I am an unfamiliar interruption in the routine of his life, at least in this respect. It is understandable that he could be upset by my presence.”

“He...He said I only see him as a convenience.”

“Hm..” Lan Xichen hums in sympathy as he presses a few lingering kisses to Nie Mingjue’s shoulder. “Did you refute it?”

“I shouldn’t have to! He knows me better than that!”

“People say things they may not truly mean when they speak in hurt or frustration, both of which sound like they were in ample supply during your argument. Have you discussed with him how much he means to you? In direct, plain words like you and I discuss such things?”

Nie Mingjue’s silence in response is just as telling as a direct refusal. Lan Xichen allows him to think on it for a few long moments as he drags his kisses along his shoulder towards his neck where he ducks in to part his lips around the protrusion of the vertebra at the base of it. 

“He deserves to know how you feel,” he murmurs against the salt of his lover’s skin. “Just as I did when you needed to inform me. If you feel for him as you do for me, he deserves to know. And if you do not, it would still be in your best interest to clarify the purely sexual nature of your relationship with him going forward.”

“No! I...I care about him,” Nie Mingjue finally sighs, sounding exhausted. “I do, of course I do. I...What about you?”

“Hm? Turn around and look at me, Mingjue,” Lan Xichen prompts softly, using the grip he has on the other man to turn him so that they’re face to face. Lan Xichen meets Nie Mingjue’s eyes and offers him a smile so tender that Nie Mingjue’s eyes go a bit wet again as he watches. “What about me?”

“You and I..We...What we have, Xichen, I don’t - ”

“We have agreed already on multiple occasions to allow others into our relationship. I have had other sexual partners, and you have frequently been with Meng Yao.”

“Yes but..but yours weren’t..this. What if..I..”

“It’s alright, you can say it,” Lan Xichen offers with a nuzzle of the tip of his nose against Nie Mingjue’s. “Tell me what you want, Mingjue. I want to know.”

“I want both of you. You and A-Yao. Together. With me, with each other, all three of us.”

“Mm. I quite like the sound of it, I am more than willing to try. What will you do if Meng Yao does not wish to accept?”

“I..” Nie Mingjue stops immediately and gets a faraway look in his eyes (which are definitely wet again) and Lan Xichen sighs as he reaches up with both hands to hold the man’s face in his palms. He leans in to press a few kisses against his lips.

“Shhh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you again. That question can be answered at a later date,” he soothes between gentle, chaste presses of their lips. “Perhaps we should begin with an apology for the accidental callousness of our actions yesterday and an attempt to offer our thanks for what he did for us. We could also attempt to have a discussion of the nature of our unique situation and ask what he may want with one or both of us going forward.”

Nie Mingjue nods after a moment and sighs, his eyes slipping shut. Lan Xichen can’t resist leaning in to kiss his forehead and both eyelids in quick succession.

“Good. Now - would you like to come take a shower with me?”

----

Meng Yao finally turns his phone back on later that evening when the itching worry that he’s missing something important finally overwhelms his desire to continue to mope in silence and lick his metaphorical wounds.

There are, as he expected, entirely too many missed calls from Nie Huaisang, a handful of non-urgent emails mixed in with the spam messages that always crowd his inbox, and, at the end of list, from just half an hour ago, an unusually long text from Nie Mingjue.

Mingjue:

Hello Meng Yao, this is Lan Xichen. I apologize for contacting you from Mingjue’s phone but he seemed to feel that it would be more comfortable for you than giving me your number directly without your permission - I hope that is the case. 

He has informed me of the high points of your argument from earlier this afternoon and I would be grateful if you would allow me an opportunity to offer an apology for the difficulties my arrival has put you through in person.

There is also a personal matter that Mingjue and I would like to discuss with you if would allow us to. I have been informed that you spend Sunday mornings with Huaisang - would it be possible tomorrow for you to come to the Nie home afterwards to sit down and talk with us? It will be with the intent to clear the air between the three of us as quickly and painlessly as possible. I have no desire to step between you and Mingjue, and I feel there are things the three of us could discuss to that effect that will be helpful for avoiding future friction.

Meng Yao blinks at that, rereads it a few times, and then looks up to stare blankly at the unadorned wall of his living room across from the couch. Before he can think himself in enough circles to change his own mind, he replies.

Me:

I’ll be there at 1pm.

[PREVIOUS] [NEXT]

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #Nie Mingjue #Lan Xichen #Meng Yao #Nie Huaisang #Modern AU #once again I need to beg forgiveness for my way too liberal use of italics #I just think MY would use a lot of emphasis when he gets heated alright #also - I know that in canon MY would never argue with NMJ like this #but their dynamic in a modern AU (in my opinion) gives MY a bit more freedom to vent his frustration #And oh boy is he frustrated #he's tired and jealous and feels like a spurned lover now that LXC is in the picture he's Done #also - crybaby da-ge rights #I saw littlesmartart's comic about it and I watched fatal journey finally and I am STICKING TO IT

[cqlfeels]

what do u think happens to post-canon nhs?

I'm really not a good person to ask this to because I spend very little time thinking about post-canon - I'm mostly interested in canon, then pre-canon and only then post-canon, and there are only so many hours of the day I can devote to fandom, so I end up getting around to post-canon musings only very rarely. So take my answer with a grain of salt because it's very half-baked!

I don't... See a happy ending? I know it's a popular headcanon that NHS has been Unleashed™️ and now he's gonna Be Awesome and also Do Things, but I don't know about that.

He's burnt every bridge for a revenge that doesn't seem to have given him the satisfaction he hoped it would. (I think in part because literally no one in the room thought "Hey, JGY is a monster! Thank god someone revealed his misdeeds!" but rather everybody is either sympathetic to JGY or, at best, utterly uninterested in the whole thing. I don't think that's what NHS was hoping for.) So he has no friends, and for all that he's good at keeping secrets, he seems to genuinely enjoy people, so that's not ideal. He can't trust the smart people around him to be truly his friends now that they haven't taken his side (he's a Nie. You're loyal to him or you're not, and he won't ever move on from that.) but if he stops hanging with the absolute geniuses of the jianghu to mingle with, say, members of his sect, he's gonna be bored in five minutes. Even at his laziest, NHS has never shown any interest for people who aren't outstanding. I don't think he'd start now.

In terms of motivation.... Well. He already made his brother proud by taking revenge, didn't he? What's left after that, now that he's shaped his whole identity around NMJ? WWX is a good parallel here - after molding himself as the protector of the Jiang, he became a protector of the Wen, and when both of those things failed, he couldn't find anything to live for (especially in CQL, but I'd argue MDZS WWX was pretty depressed too.) NHS has succeeded rather than failed, but is that much better? He's also at loss, it's just that he seems to feel empty rather than depressed.

And the thing about having no moral compass is that you don't know what direction you wanna go if left alone. Characters like XXC know that even if they lose everything, they wanna help people. Characters like XY know that even if they lose everything, they'll keep lashing out at the world. What does NHS wanna do now that he's lost everything? What does he strongly feel about? Imho, nothing. No matter what he does - if he paints fans and bothers no one, or becomes Chief Cultivator and changes the world, it'll still be nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to pass time until..... until what? I don't think he'd know.

This story is a lot about sacrifices, and I think NHS sacrificed his future for his family. (Twin Heroes, anyone?) I think going in, he knew it was possible that he'd spend the rest of his days miserable and aimless, and he thought it was worth it. I don't think NHS quite escapes the Nie curse? In every way but physically, I think he did die pretty young and now he's mostly waiting for his body to catch up.

So those are my extremely cheerful thoughts lol Anyway, I stand by my belief that in the entire Sunshot generation, wangxian are the only people in this story to get a happy ending, and even that is because they've had two tries. Even if I'm wrong about the specifics, I think just by the story logic, I'll always assume NHS doesn't have a bright future ahead of him.

#'i have nothing to say about this' #quoth i #'except by seven paragraphs' #somebody please teach me how to shut up #i give wwx a run for his money

[drwcn]

Not to bring up the distasteful teenager memory of Twilight LMAO, but yall remember that part of the story where it is revealed after Rosalie turns into a vampire she goes and devours every single one of the men who r*ped her.

Fierce Corpse!Qin Su coming for Jin Guangshan’s life.

JIGGY was always looking for ways to make a fierce corpse wasn’t he? Well consider this.

Madam Qin confronts JGY, but it was already too late. Qin Su was already pregnant. JGY, being the dumbest smart person, realized he has fucked up, but what to do? It’s not like he can tell Madam Qin he knocked up his own sister accidentally. Unknowing of this, Madam Qin then went to Qin Su to tell her the truth. Surely even if that degenerate won’t stop this marriage, once Qin Su finds out they are related, she wouldn’t go through with it.

Well, little did Madam Qin expect, once Qin Su finds out, she’s so overcome with disgust she takes her own life (canon compliant, I think? idk what that episode was about to be honest. I always assumed Jiggy drugged her to keep her quiet, but Qin Su was the one to take her own life. Jin Rusong is at best a ball of cells at this stage and abortion is a staple trope of cdrama don’t @ me. I take no criticisms.)

Well shit, now Qin Su is half a step away from death. Jiggy discovers this first, and is like O.O oh feck, but also... opportunity????  He recruits evil gremlin extraordinaire Xue Yang, and beginner’s luck takes them to a successful resurrection.

*cue Mary Shelly shaking her head from beyond the grave or... in the future....technically.*

Qin Su is rightfully like wtf JGY, but Jiggy is like aight sis i know you’re mad, but hey now that everyone knows what’s the deal here, I think we have a common enemy: Jin Guangslut. Should we kill him or should we kill him?

Xue Yang: yo so .... you still gonna get married or what?

Qin Su: if you even think about getting married i swear to god -

JGY: ....okay, how about “fake” marry. Once dear old Dad is dead, we can...idk have an amicable separation. I can even set you up on a date with a guy I know in the fierce corpse community. His sister is still in my basement come to think of it -

QS: what

JGY: what

QS: you are a fucking nutjob, Jiggy, you know that? I can’t believe I was attracted to you.

JGY: first of all that’s hurtful, but... hey at least you didn’t insult my mother.

QS: why would i? our mothers are innocent. *deep sigh* okay fine, how should we kill JGS, I vote for castration. Also *points to the black veins on her paste-y complexion* this is gonna be a problem.

XY: *quirk an eye brow* realllly starting to see the family resemblance now. Don’t worry I got make up to cover that up. Also gotta find you some blush, so you don’t look so ... undead.

~

JGY “so we get prostitutes -”

QS “No. Jiggy, I’m sensing some internalized classism. Let’s just sic Xue Yang on him and be done with it.”

JGY “....you were less bossy before.”

QS “I was also less dead before. Also, Xue Yang doesn’t mind, do you dear?”

XY *eating the candied pastries QS got him* “Nah, not at all, jiejie. I can wear a dress and get dolled up if you want, but I want silk and the dress needs to be tailored. Bespoke. *points to his plate* These are great. Do you have more?”

JGY: *facepalm* what have done.

QS: created a fierce corpse you can’t control. Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it brother?

~

QS “I feel bad for Chifeng-zun. If I had to sit and watch you and Lan Xichen make eyes at each other over the guqin day in and day out....”

JGY “Oi, you’re not even my real wife.”

QS “Doesn’t mean I can’t nag you. Also, you have an issue, you know. You can’t just murder your way to the top.”

JGY “I wasn’t -”

QS “Save it. If you give Xue Yang enough candy, he’ll tell you anything.”

JGY “NMJ is a problem. He disrespects -”

QS “You think maybe the reason he thinks you’re a untrustworthy little shit is because you are...an untrustworthy little shit? Also he’s always violent and aggressive towards you...yeah ‘cause you’ve been playing Terrible Temper Tango on repeat for weeks.”

JGY “.....................” *well sis does have a point, maybe i should re-evaluate my strategy “Then what do you suggest I do?”

QS:  I believe Xue Yang calls it “when it doubt, fuck it out.” 

JGY: ...............................you two need to stop hanging out together. 

~

Jin Guangyao and Qin Su spend many nights in the secret chamber plotting together. Apparently the Jin crazy can both be inherited and developed. Qin Su decides her second life is rather nice, and having power is nice too, but she’d rather have some friends. 

*Jiggy and Qin Su’s Ten Step Plan to Un-Fuck the Cultivation World*

Aka Jiggy’s illegal but necessary emergency U-Turn. 

Step 1: Start playing some nice music ffs, and maybe when NMJ is in a better mood, the venerated Triad can be the venerated Triad. ;) 

Step 2: start treating MXY better. He could be useful as a loyal brother. 

Step 3:  Sic him on Nie Huaisang. They seem like they could do well together. Also, the easiest way to get through to NMJ is through his little brother.  

Step 4:  Make Jin Guangshan disappear.

Step 5: Speaking of little brothers, they’re gonna have to eventually deal with Lan Wangji. Even Qin Su’s 78 year old grandma with cataract can see he’s just a liiiiittle hung up on Wei Wuxian, who is unfortunately....dead. 

”How do you suppose we fix this particular problem?” 

”Isn’t there some cultivator prisoner found guilty punishable by death in your single minded cleansing of your political enemies?” 

"Of course. Go on I’m listening, mei-mei.” 

”So while you were off being shady, I did some research. There is a spell. I think a potential trade off could be made if we bargain right. Their soul, which was forfeit anyway, in exchange for a lifetime of protection and financial stability for their families.” 

“>:) dear sister, where have you been all my life I’ll never know.” 

Qin Sun, “Just make sure they’re not too hard on the eye. Lan Wangji doesn’t seem to be the shallow type but one never knows.” 

Step 5: Jiang Wanyin needs an emotional laxative like... last year. Look into resurrecting Jiang Yanli. Once she’s alive, all that Yunmeng Bullshit will resolve, and you will also have a Lotus Pier forever grateful for Jin Guangyao and Qin Su’s kindness. If that doesn’t work...idk get Jiang Wanyin a dog. 

“Okay, hooow are you going to get a woman to give up her soul to -”

“Can we fierce corpse her? Wei Wuxian had a bunch of undead ladies hanging around right?” 

“........worth looking into.” 

Step 6:  Jin Zixuan. Yikes -

JGY “I didn’t kill Jin Zixuan. Wei Wuxian did.” (note: CQL washed WWX of any responsibility for the deaths of others by making it so that the Song of Turmoil caused him to lose control. This, in fact, is not what is written in book canon. WWX did lose control by himself without external influence. I can cherry pick the plot points I want to keep.) 

QS “..........but you sent him to his death.” 

JGY “..........”

QS *Deep sigh* “Who can we throw under the bus this time for Jin Zixuan’s death, Jigs? Someone that won’t be missed...got it. Su She.” 

JGY “He’s loyal to me, he’s an ally -” 

QS “Listen here, once you resurrect Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian, you will have the eternal gratitude of Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan. Who gives a shit about Su Minshan that simpering turd.” 

JGY: True. *he’s understood by now that he could get rid of those who would talk shit, belittle, and disrespect him...but he could always do more with a couple of important influential people who would spread words of his goodness. Stubborn righteous cultivators like the Jiangs, Nies and Lans.* “Also Jin Zixuan’ll be an undead, not able to inherit. We’re safe.” 

QS: “Exactly.” 

Xue Yang: eating candy......... *eye roll* 

Step 7: Because Step 6 didn’t work out, forget about Jin Zixuan. 

JGY: “you know... maybe Jin Zixuan moved on.” 

QS: “Would explain why we couldn’t call his soul back the way we called back Jiang-gu’niang.” Qin Su glances back at Jiang Yanli’s soul-infused clay body in the process of being reanimated (lifted this idea straight from Inuyasha - ahem- kikyo.) “It’s probably better this way. I don’t like the thought of sharing the control of Lanling Jin with more people.” 

JGY:  “Ah, blood of my blood you are indeed.”

Step 8:  Reveal Jin Guangshan’s evil deeds. Once they kill Dear Ol’ Dad, they can just blame EVERYTHING on him and have him be the disgrace of the entire cultivation world, and them the unfortunate children left to do his bidding and trying the best they could to salvage what they can from his trail of ruins.

Step 9: Reunite Wen Ning and Wen Qing. Lie. Blame it all on Jin Guangshan who is too dead to argue in his own defense. If Jiang Wanyin finds out about Wen Qing...well, information gets around. 

JGY “So about that Date.” 

Qin Su: “Yes I distinctively remember you promising me eligible young men of the Fierce Corpse Community.” 

JGY: >:) I’m here to make good on my words. 

Step 10: Reap the benefits of a world restored. 

#Anonymous #corie replies #qin su #jin guangyao #xue yang #corie fics #cql ideas

[restingdomface]

Okay I can’t believe I’m going there, but, Lan Wangji’s magical healing cock and also mpreg AU:

Okay. So. Instead of Jin Zixuan being a dick to his crush, he genuinly never had a crush on her at all, and in fact, it never came to light until the Sunshit Campaign started, but JZX had a crush on Jiang Cheng all along. Jiang Cheng, who, reluctantly, returns his affections. Wei Wuxian is disgusted. His brother has terrible taste in men wtf.

So. Things went differently this time. What’s the change here? Meng Yao never left Nie Mingjue’s side. Of course, he did the spying thing, but he never betrayed him (this could be a part of my idea where NMJ and MY plan to actually have him be a spy and send him off after a planned execution of a soldier that NMJ decided needed a death sentence more than banishment, or, an AU where MY presented the idea to Wen Rouhan that his coming to WRH’s side was the betrayel itself). Now how does this change things? Because I honestly and truly think that if MY didn’t go to Jin Guangshan’s side afterwards, JGS wouldn’t have had the sway to execute anyone else in the Wen Family, or do anything horrible like that.

TBH he tries to wipe out the rest of the Wens, but it goes so badly and this time MY isn’t on his side (lol you know JGS would have tried tho, imagine how humiliating it would have been to be publicly denied by your own bastard son at the banquet after wow) and so JGS ends up removed from power entirely and JZX gets made sect leader instead.

This means, that since JZX is about to marry JC, they’re going to have to move to LanlingJin instead of both of them arguing over if they’d move to Lotus Pier or not. Cause they would argue over that. This means that Jiang Cheng is going to be the next Young Master Jin and Jiang Yanli is now officially the Jiang Sect Leader. Nice.

So. We’re rid of JGS and everyone’s happy and MY probably isn’t gonna kill anyone cause now he can marry NMJ in peace and not have to deal with anyone else, where does LWJ’s magic healing dick come in? Hold on I’m getting to it. Impatient.

So. The Wens. Of course, before JGS was removed from power, Wei Wuxian was actually running around saving Wen survivors and gathering them in the Burial Mounds, so he actually has to be coaxed into leaving by his siblings and LWJ and even JZX and NMJ (who thinks this is rather like that one time he had to coax Nie Huaisang out from under his bed when he became convinced NMJ’s cat was a demon because it wouldn’t stop attacking his songbird and he couldn’t come out cause she was in the room and she would steal his soul but she’s just sitting on the windowsill and meowing at them and NMJ is just silently planning to feed her more and keep her away from the atrium and tbh plz NHS you’re 16 years old you’re too old for this plz stop crying) and it’s great. It’s just great.

Anyways. WWX is paranoid af. Like so fucking paranoid. Cause they have been attacked. He’s got 12 year old girls talking about what the adult men in the Jin sect did to them. He’s got a traumatized toddler on his hip that screams when he sees Jin robes. He’s got children with branded scarring on their faces and wounds you can’t even imagine to come from anything but torture. He’s paranoid. He’s trying to keep the kiddos safe. They’re healers, and he’s given them the tools to heal, but they’re scared, and he’s paranoid without his Golden Core, and he’s scared, and he’s not putting down the toddler plz stop asking, he’s keeping this one, shut up.

So. What can he do but make a few demands? The Lan sect may have strict rules, but they would never attack innocent civilians, and they have rules about killing even animals in Gusu. He asks them to send all the Lan guards they can to escort them to GusuLan. He doesn’t think they’d hurt them in YunmengJiang either, but he can’t risk it. He was there when Lotus Pier burned. Cloud Recesses didn’t lose nearly as many people, and he’s still too traumatized to spend much time in LP rn.

So they go to Cloud Recesses. This actually, also gives the other sects a lot of time to get some glimpses at everyone that came from the Burial Mounds.

Not a single one of them was a cultivator.

This is a little different than canon. WWX can’t handle the loss of his golden core in this one. Not to say that he shouldn’t have done it, but that the resentful energy is dragging him down to the point where all he can feel is paranoia and fear. He’s almost completely unresponsive at this point. He follows after LWJ when told to, and he holds little A-Yuan in his arms, but he doesn’t pay much attention to anyone.

Wen Qing tells them of the loss of his core, but not how it happened. Lan Qiren doesn’t much like WWX still, but he accepts that a cornered animal will bite, and WWX lost his main weapon right before a major war. Of course he would do all he could to keep himself safe.

Jiang Yanli offers for the Wen Survivors to be integrated into YunmengJiang, since they lost so many people. It could help a lot. They accept, since she’s offering them protection and help.

Of course, Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli used to Spend A Lot Of Time Together in Cloud Recesses, so love is blooming there between the two sect leaders, and by the end of a year, they’re getting married themselves.

WWX doesn’t go back to LP with them. He couldn’t do it. A-Yuan and Granny and Wen Ning stay with him in Cloud Recesses. Granny talks with Wen Qing regularly, and A-Yuan is attached to Lan Wangji enough that Lan Xichen starts mentioning that he could attend classes there when he’s old enough. LXC is a WangXian shipper and is trying to get his brother to adopt the child. Y’all know he would. WWX spends his time arguing (loudly, but in a room with magical wards for sound so they don’t get in trouble) with a Lan mind healer that talks through his bullshit with him, sleeping the day away in one of the rooms of the Jingshi (because LWJ made him move in right away and WWX couldn’t even argue cause A-Yuan loves him too and he can ask LWJ to play Their Song whenever he wants to hear it) and following after A-Yuan as he enchants (and terrifies) all the rabbits in the field. Also getting yelled at (softly) by LQR for breaking rules. LQR and LWJ have been making it their personal mission to find a way to either purify the resentful energy so WWX can go back to his normal cheerful self that doesn’t jump or hide when startled, or to regain a Golden core so the yin and yang energies can balance each other and keep him stable.

Of course, JYL sends him a message that she’s getting married, and WWX pulls himself out of the fog enough that he can ask them to go to the wedding (he’s being polite, he’s going no matter what they say lol,) and LWJ accompanies him to the wedding. His siblings are so happy to see him there.

Anyways. Things get rocky when WWX hears them talking about kids.

Jiang Yanli will carry Jin Zixuan’s children, and they’ll keep the Jin name. They’ll know that all four of them are their parents, but it’s a way to pass on the name.

Wen Qing will carry Jiang Cheng’s children, and they’ll carry the Jiang name. This also helps to keep track of what kids are heir to what sect.

Of course, Wei Wuxian, the master of ‘I know The Most Obscure Bullshit Ever’, asks why they don’t just have their spouses children. There are spells and potions for that.

Well. No one else in the room knew that but him apparently. Well, they’re still going to go with their idea for the first few kids, and then they’ll decide if other means of pregnancy options are viable.

Anyways. Guess who else didn’t know it was possible for men to get pregnant? You guessed it. Lan Wangji. Who was also in the room at the time.

So. Wedding is lovely. They all have an amazing time. WWX is able to pull himself out of bed every day. He was even able to work on some cultivation items that LQR begrudgingly admits are amazing items and very useful to cultivation.

They go back to Cloud Recesses, and Lan Wangji combs through his and his uncle’s notes till he finds a viable solution to a return of a Golden core that they had originally scrapped because WWX wasn’t a girl.

To return a Golden core to a body by means of very careful pregnancy. Of course, such a thing would be considered stealing under normal circumstances, and most mothers would rather die than harm their child in the womb in a way that could kill them. But this was a method made to keep both parent and child from harm. A way to build the slightest lump of core in the parent, enough to stick and allow a base to build off of later.

Of course, without consulting Uncle (because the man would be horrified at the idea, and LWJ would rather be rejected by the man himself thanks very much) he takes the proposal to the man in question.

WWXA has to think about this one for a long time. He thinks about it while helping Wen Ning with zombie stuff so he can maintain a stable body. He thinks about it while writing letters to his siblings. He thinks a LOT about it while tucking their two year old into bed and reading him a story with the funny voices. He thinks about it when he spends a night in the cold springs with LWJ one night, close enough to touch the man, because without a Golden core, the water is too cold for him to survive in on his own.

He asks why LWJ would besmirch his honor like that. Having a child out of wedlock, his uncle would throw a fit. His name would be in tatters.

LWJ blinks, once, and twice. He quietly tells him the offer could involve marriage if WWX thinks it’s of import.

So. They get married. So they can have a child. Another child. Just. Yeah. Let’s get married so we can mate like rabbits.

They’re in love. Of course they are. But they’re also shy idiots. LWJ is a sex fiend like usual, and WWX quickly gets addicted to it, but they’re both too shy to say anything sappy yet. Well. No. Scratch that. LWJ is fully willing to admit his love to the world. But he’s a very quiet person. So he mostly just tells WWX how much he would do anything for him, and even eats his horrible poison cooking. Not even A-Yuan will touch that shit.

A-Yuan is so excited to be a big brother. His favorite place to lay is curled around WWX’s big belly and giving it kisses while A-Die scratches his hair and reads him stories.

A-Yuan finally gets his baby and Wei Wuxian gets the stability that a Golden core provides so he can continue using resentful energy to dodge the many many scrolls Shifu Qiren will throw at him over the years to come. LQR swears that if that man hadn’t given his nephew happiness and also many great nephews-

Anyways. The Lotus Flowers are all gay and all happy send tweet.

#jiang cheng #jiang yanli #a yuan #mdzs #the untamed #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #jin zixuan #meng yao #nieyao #wen qing #jc totally carries at least one of jzxs babies #idk why the whole fandom thinks jzx could never top #let jc be a pushy bottom plz #all the lotus flowers are pillow princesses in this one lol #jc and wwx get pregnant at the same time at one point and theyre both horrible about it #wangxian #chengxuan #mpreg

[ectoplasm-james]

Do feelings about *spins wheel* qin su bc you rly seem to like her and idk if I know the specifics why

*vibrates at glass-shattering frequency*

how i feel about this character

so first what you have to understand about my feelings on qin su is that -

my #1 type with women is “woman in crisis”

my favorite novel is daphne du maurier’s rebecca 

i love overanalyzing minor characters

questionable marriages and poly negotiations are my lifeblood

i find qin su to be a really fascinating character even with (or maybe even because) of what little we know about her. i haven’t read the novel but i’ve snooped about a great deal online since she figures slightly more prominently there, and i find the detail that she was the one who pursued jin guangyao to be really interesting. also the fact that jin rusong was conceived out of wedlock! 

i wonder about her marriage constantly. anyone who’s going to be married to jin guangyao of all people must have a very high threshold for..... A Lot. you’d basically be married to a mirror because most of the time he’s just going to reflect back whatever he thinks you want from him. we’ve talked before about how hard it is to get a handle on jiggy’s personality, and every time i watch qin su’s scenes i’m always curious about how she put up with him.  

and then there’s the whole lan xichen thing, which is its own kettle of worms. apparently in the book jiggy basically doesn’t touch her after jin rusong is born? i think about that a lot--especially because their son was born out of wedlock, which suggests that they were probably at it like rabbits beforehand. so she goes from having a fiancée who can’t get enough of her to a husband who is very polite to her but suddenly isn’t interested anymore and goes on a lot of extended business trips to gusu . i feel like jiggy and lxc are widely understood to be sort of a package deal, given the whole venerated triad thing, so she would probably have known going in that her husband is going to have a husband. but that knowledge probably hit real different a year into celibacy and chill

someone else made a post about this, but i’m also really curious about how her mind immediately jumped to jin rusong’s murder after the big reveal. it’s........ kinda telling.

I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT THAT MARRIAGE WAS LIKE OK

also, when you think about all of this at once, it really makes her suicide and its aftermath so upsetting, bc here’s this woman who people kind of overlook, whose husband can’t bring himself to touch her (to say nothing of, you know, The Big Lie), and then they just blithely abandon her corpse in the treasure room (right alongside nmj’s head: when they talk about jiggy’s body count, they mean body count) and while i know it was because there was a full chase scene, it’s still. so, so shitty. that poor woman. 

also we don’t talk enough about how bicao totally fucked her over

all the people i ship romantically with this character

jiggy. ooh bad, i know, but fuck off, the whole thing just gets more messed up the longer you think about it and if you know anything about me, you know messed up is where i live

given that according to novel canon she’s not getting any in the marriage bed, this opens up a whole bevy of possibilities as to qin su’s sidepiece(s)

[neon demon voice] who’s she fucking? who could she fuck?

tbh tho i read her as being kind of committed to jiggy emotionally? like she’ll fuck before marriage but that’s bc it’s him i suspect 

that being said there’s a qin su/nie mingjue fic and a qin su/mianmian fic in my tabs currently, neither of which i’ve read yet, and those could awaken something in me you never know

my non romantic otp with this character

lan xichen. i saw a post once about the two of them gossiping about jiggy over tea and it lives rent free in my head. this also pairs very nicely with my curiosity regarding lan xichen as the slutty lan and what his feelings might be about essentially being jiggy’s mistress. it’s a friendship with a lot of complicated and messy layers

my unpopular opinion about this character

see there’s really not a lot of content about her to begin with! so one could argue this whole post is one large unpopular opinion lmao

one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character

i wish she’d lived! obviously. but specifically i would have loved to have seen her and lxc deal with the fallout of everything together. every day i think about the parallel of her slapping jiggy in their chambers, and lxc slapping him in guanyin temple. i think they deserve to do that together

#asks #the untamed #qin su #long post

[spockandawe]

So, I was thinking about Nie brother tragedy times, because I didn’t even come CLOSE to getting it out of my system with that fic

(oh dear, this got longer than I expected)

So first, a few snippets on the things Nie Huaisang does and doesn’t value, and how... strained his relationship with Nie Mingjue is when it comes to these things (based on the last quote I’ve copied over for this post, I get the impression that they might have argued over art vs sabers a lot, but that the genuine, intense anger on nie mingjue’s part is a very new, very shocking development for nie huaisang)

First of all, generally setting the scene

One day, the moment [Nie Mingjue] returned to the main hall of the Unclean Realm, he saw about a dozen folding fans, all lined in gold, flattened out one next to the other in front of Nie Huaisang, who was touching them tenderly, mumbling as he compared the inscriptions written on each one. Immediately, veins protruded from Nie Mingjue’s forehead, “Nie Huaisang!”

Nie Huaisang fell at once.

He really did fall to his knees from the terror. He only staggered up after he finished kneeling, “B-b-b-brother.”

Nie Mingjue, “Where is your saber?”

Nie Huaisang cowered, “In… in my room. No, in the school grounds. No, let me… think…”

Wei Wuxian could feel that Nie Mingjue almost wanted to hack him dead right there, “You bring a dozen fans with you wherever you go, yet you don’t even know where your own saber is?!”

Nie Huaisang hurried, “I’ll go find it right now!”

Nie Mingjue, “There’s no need! Even if you find it you won’t get anything out of it. Go burn all of these!”

And then, introducing Jin Guangyao as a brother figure who understands Nie Huaisang in a way that Nie Mingjue doesn’t/can’t, and one who’s happy to indulge Nie Huaisang’s hobbies. In fact, even when Nie Mingjue is already generally pissed at Jin Guangyao, has tried to kill him in the past, and is angry right now, Jin Guangyao is still willing to speak up on behalf of Nie Huaisang.

All of the color drained out of Nie Huaisang’s face. He rushed to pull all of the fans into his arms, pleading, “No, Brother! All of these were given to me!”

Nie Mingjue slammed his palm onto a table, causing it to crack, “Who did? Tell them to scurry out here right now!”

Someone spoke, “I did.”

Jin Guangyao walked in from outside the hall. Nie Huaisang looked as though he saw a knight in shining armor, beaming, “Brother, you’re here!”

In reality, it wasn’t that Jin Guangyao could calm Nie Mingjue’s anger, but that since Jin Guangyao came, all of Nie Mingjue’s anger would be directed at him alone, having no time to scold others. Thus, there was nothing wrong with saying that he was Nie Huaisang’s knight in shining armor. Nie Huaisang was absolutely delighted. He greeted Jin Guangyao again and again as he grabbed the fans in haste. Seeing how his younger brother reacted, Nie Mingjue was so outraged that he almost found it amusing. He turned to Jin Guangyao, “Don’t send him those useless things!”

In a hurry, Nie Huaisang dropped a few fans on the ground. Jin Guangyao picked them up for him and put them into his arms, “Huaisang’s hobbies are quite elegant. He’s dedicated to art and calligraphy, and has no propensity for mischief. How can you say that they’re useless?”

Nie Huaisang nodded as fast as he could, “Yes, Brother is right!”

And then, more of Jin Guangyao being indulgent when it comes to Nie Huaisang.

BUT. Also.

Explicitly bringing up that Jin Guangyao is a pro at figuring out people’s likes and dislikes, and using that to figure out how to ingratiate himself to them.

Jin Guangyao nodded lightly and sat as he had been told, “Brother, if you’re concerned for Huaisang, softer words would do no harm. Why this?”

Nie Mingjue, “Even when a blade’s at his neck he’s still like this. Looks like he’ll always be a good-for-nothing.”

Jin Guangyao, “It isn’t that Huaisang is a good-for-nothing, but that his heart lies somewhere else.”

Nie Mingjue, “Well you’ve really discerned where his heart lies, haven’t you?”

Jin Guangyao smiled, “Of course. Isn’t that what I’m the best at? The only person whom I can’t discern is you, Brother.”

He knew of people’s likes and dislikes so that he could find suitable solutions; he loved running errands and could do twice the work with half the effort. Thus, Jin Guangyao could be said to be quite a talent at analyzing others’ interests. Nie Mingjue was the only person whom Jin Guangyao couldn’t probe out any useful information about.

Now, this is brought up in the context of how Jin Guangyao was never able to get this sort of read on Nie Mingjue, but it comes right at the end of a LONG passage where... yeah, this is exactly the thing he’s been doing with Nie Huaisang. And considering how much he leans into these tactics and how he’s already been established as a skilled spy and double dealer, it’s... telling that when he can’t do this to Nie Mingjue, he’s working his little brother this way instead.

And then, change of pace. One quoted passage about how as time went (and as Jin Guangyao cozied up to Nie Huaisang more, and as Nie Mingjue’s instability built towards that last qi deviation), Nie Huaisang even more clearly saw his brother as an adversary and Jin Guangyao as an ally.

If only Nie Huaisang were like Wei Wuxian and could feel how great Nie Mingjue’s rage was, he wouldn’t grin in such a bold way. He protested, “Brother, the time is up. It’s time to rest!”

Nie Mingjue, “You rested just thirty minutes ago. Keep on going, until you learn it.”

Nie Huaisang was still giddy, “I won’t be able to learn it anyways. I’m done for the day!”

He often said this, but today Nie Mingjue’s reaction was entirely different from his past reaction. He shouted, “A pig would’ve learnt this by now, so why haven’t you?!”

Never expecting Nie Mingjue to burst out so suddenly, Nie Huaisang’s face was blank with shock as he shrunk toward Jin Guangyao.

So, I’m not terribly inclined to regard Nie Huaisang as a chessmaster manipulator type, more someone who’s good at sneakily inciting chaos, while Jin Guangyao relies on having ironclad control. But Nie Huaisang is definitely smart, and had plenty of time to put certain pieces together. I’m fascinated plenty by whatever it was that took him from ^^^ to this

(I love what fatal journey did, and I love the idea of jin guangyao making nie huaisang more actively complicit in his brother’s death, because that is deliciously fucked up, but I am also trying to be careful with any claims as to Absolute Canon, so I’m not going to go into the movie)

What I’m even more interested in... is the aftermath. I’ve read delicious self-recrimination fic from a variety of characters, but it seems like there’s less when it comes to Nie Huaisang, and I think that’s such a shame.

Because this storyline is so tasty! So tragic!! I love the one post I’ve seen a few times, where it contrasts lan wangji’s and nie huaisang’s reactions to New Brothers, where nie huaisang is like ‘new brothers! excellent!! I will expect backdated presents for each of my birthdays, thank you.’ Which, like... that might not be canon, but Jin Guangyao pretty much rolls with that exact idea. He works out what Huaisang likes best in no time flat, and starts bringing him all kinds of fantastic presents. And he starts arguing in favor of Huaisang’s own preferences and strengths to Nie Mingjue’s face.

There’s something that really gets me about the tragedy of a situation where someone doesn’t realize they’re caught between ‘someone who doesn’t understand me, but loves me’ and ‘someone who understands me, and uses that to use me.’

It kills me, because at the very end of Nie Mingjue’s life, Jin Guangyao was definitely using the disconnect between the two brothers as a way to provoke Nie Mingjue. He might not have caused the division, but he was happy to lean into it. He’s capable of mediation, but instead, he wholeheartedly takes Nie Huaisang’s side in these arguments, which looks gr8 to Nie Huaisang, but has the end of effect of infuriating Nie Mingjue, until that last time, when he finally snaps and qi deviates to death.

I just love the tragedy of realizing someone you thought was an ally was actually... probably indifferent to you, and was definitely using you as a tool to hurt someone you love. 

(I don’t necessarily think that the relationship was established just to manipulate nie mingjue, I think jin guangyao tends to establish this kind of relationship with anyone who’s likely to be a power player of any sort, but I do think that when he wasn’t able to ingratiate himself with nie mingjue directly, nie huaisang was the best method available to steer him)

I wish there was more fic getting inside Nie Huaisang’s head as he works this all out, but it’s not like I have much confidence in my ability to write anything so much in his head and emotions myself, haha. My fic scratched some similar itches, but just taking things away from nhs pov dramatically limits how much you can do with this situation. 

Because it really was an internal situation. Who would he have shared it with? Jin Guangyao definitely had spies in Qinghe, Lan Xichen would have been grieving Nie Mingjue and absolutely would have been reluctant to blame Jin Guangyao for anything, and it isn’t like Nie Huaisang ever had proof. The situation is so tragic and so isolating that I keep coming back to it in my head, and while I was writing the nmj fic, I reread the section I quoted above, and was struck by the nature of the relationship that Jin Guangyao established with Nie Huaisang, on this kind of emotional foundation, and how Nie Huaisang had to maintain that relationship, for years, knowing that the relationship was something Jin Guangyao used to hurt his brother.

#nie huaisang #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #the untamed #i do love jin guangyao #but also #my general position is #nie huaisang did nothing wrong :V

[butterflydm]

The Untamed Rewatch (ep 6)

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aka in which WWX as a friend comes with many benefits *winky-face*

Yeah, this is definitely the episode where WWX goes from thinking of LWJ as an uptight person to poke fun at and try to provoke and starts thinking of him as a person with deep emotions hidden under lock and key. This is also the episode when WWX decides he actually wants to be LWJ's friend and starts working towards that goal. He does still provoke LWJ after this, but that's more due to his natural personality rather than intentional poking to get a reaction.

We learn more about schooldays WWX here, as we see that he and Nie Huaisang have a simple knock code for afterhours hangouts. The three bros are hanging out drinking and eating peanuts. They're all fairly drunk, judging their behavior. Jiang Cheng and WWX needle each other about their potential marriage prospects. Jiang Cheng apparently has QUITE a laundry list of requirements for his future marriage partner. Maybe. Jiang Cheng. Babe. Maybe this is why you don't have one in the future. Maybe your standards aren't realistic. So, we've got: beautiful, tender, diligent, can run a household, good family, quiet, frugal, not too high a cultivation level. It does seem like Jiang Cheng wants someone who will run everything behind the scenes but never challenge him — possibly because his parents' marriage is so contentious? 

We don't see many healthy & happy marriages on-screen in the drama overall — Madame Yu and Jiang Fengmian argue in front of their children (among other issues), Jin Guangshan and Madame Jin don't need elaboration, the parents of Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji have a very messed up story even if you look at it as generously as possible, the Mo family don't seem terribly happy either tbh and also raised a bully and continued to cosset him into adulthood, Jin Guangyao and Qin Su, well…

Two of the happy marriages we see end in the early death of both spouses, who leave behind a small child who needs to be raised by others — WWX's parents, and Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. The only real exception is MianMian and her husband, who do appear to be happy and are also still alive by the end of the series, but obviously that can't serve as an example to any of our characters in the flashback episodes. Am I missing any examples of good marriages?

All of which is to say… if Jiang Cheng does have issues with marriage and maybe even sets his standards so high because he's hesitant to get married at all, I can understand why.

Lan Wangji comes in and breaks up the… party, and WWX takes advantage of him turning his back to place a talisman on him that forces him to act under WWX's control, which is definitely not a good thing for WWX to do. WWX does seem surprised that it worked but this ties into one of the main things that the… eh, evil, I suppose, characters do, which is turn other people into puppets to act through. I do think WWX learns his lesson here with this talisman, not because he himself was punished over the event, but because it meant LWJ got punished when he didn't deserve it. WWX, for all his trickster tendencies, does have a strong sense of fair play.

But, imo, the main reason of this choice on the part of the drama is because they need WWX to see through some of LWJ's emotional walls and start to see him as a person rather than a rulebook now, in the flashback, because they want to make sure to establish a mutual bond in the past as well (which I feel is related to their attempts to sidle around censorship rules since they know they won't be able to do the kisses or the "I really wanted to sleep with you back then" type moments). 

It's also about the rule of unintended consequences — WWX wants LWJ to relax and stop being so fussy over the rules, and instead he gets something completely unexpected that throws him for a loop and makes him reconsider who LWJ is as a person. He learns about the importance of the forehead ribbon, and he sees LWJ's loneliness and sadness.

There are a couple of different ways I can take LWJ going "yeah, that's fine" to WWX telling him no woman is gonna want to marry him: first, that he's not attracted to women and he knows and accepts it or, second, that having seen what happened with his parents, the idea of staying single seems more attractive than the idea of being married. Going back up to 'not a lot of examples of happy marriages in CQL' (there might be more in the novel), again, and LWJ would know about even fewer. His only real example of marriage is a set of matched cages, his and hers.

The moment when WWX realizes that LWJ's mom is dead is beautifully-played, I think.

He realizes they have something in common and confides to LWJ. Now, since we know LWJ is a black-out drunk in present-day, he probably doesn't remember anything that happened after WWX had him take a drink (which is why he doesn't already know why WWX is afraid of dogs when they talk again about it in the present-day), but WWX doesn't know that when he tells LWJ about his parents and about living on the street. 

We do also get WWX talking about his bad memory here — he says that he thinks he should be able to remember his parents, but mostly he remembers is the trauma that happened afterwards. From what I've read of people's posts about the novel, WWX's bad memory is used differently there but, in the drama, it seems to be tied to trauma overwhelming other things. And we get the flashback to tiniest bb!WWX with his parents and I die. It's so cute. He confides in LWJ and essentially begins the process of adopting him as a friend.

So, the Lan Qiren & Lan Xichen scene makes me wonder, and this might be answered later but, Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue must already be friends at this point, yeah? They're both young sect leaders and Lan Xichen speaks highly of NMJ's integrity to Meng Yao. It's either implied or said flat-out, I think, that Nie Mingjue has sent Nie Huaisang to Gusu to study for multiple years, so obviously Nie Mingjue thinks highly of Lan sect's teachings as well. So, like, they had this established friendship going on that Jin Guangyao gets in the middle of and ultimately taints in a way by using Lan Xichen's teachings as the way he learns how to kill Nie Mingjue.

That's really sad!

Anyway, the bros (plus poor innocent LWJ) get busted for sneaking alcohol into the Cloud Recesses and other shenanigans and we learn that WWX's mom acted the way same when Lan Qiren knew her. They never talk about it on-screen during the time of the drama, but I like to think at some point, post-canon, WWX is able to weedle stories about his mom about Lan Qiren. Let me have my dreams! I'm not sure if Lan Xichen also met her at some point — he would have been pretty young since she died when WWX was a kidlet and he doesn't say anything about it, so probably not — or he's just amused because he thinks WWX is amusing.

Lan Xichen's face is so shocked when he learns Wangji (apparently) took part in WWX's secret drinking party. Like, he wanted WWX to be friends with his brother and maybe teach him to have fun, but this result was not expected! And since LWJ doesn't tell them what really happened and WWX gets cut off before he can explain, does LXC continue to think that WWX talked his brother into drinking with him or does he assume something more along the lines of what really happened?

So, I'm not sure if I need to say this or not but: I'm not a fan of violent punishments; I don't think they teach anything useful. But since the show doesn't really depict them as successful in that way, I don't necessarily have an issue with them being part of the narrative any more than I have issues with other violent choices by characters, if that makes sense? But just to make my own position on it clear, I guess! I don't think an authority figure hurting someone under their care is justified because that person broke their rules.

Anyway, Lan Xichen obviously doesn't hold WWX's apparent influence over LWJ's actions against him, because he points WWX in the direction of the cold springs, where he already knows his brother is chilling. 

We get the first scene between WWX and LWJ after WWX has decided they shall Now Be Friends. I've gotta say, this scene has the same energy as Darcy's first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice: I'm about to insult you (/your family) and don't realize at all this might be off-putting when I ask for a deeper emotional bond between us. And, much like with Elizabeth, I don't blame LWJ for being… 'no'. Like, WWX literally just said "hey, I thought you were boring but have now decided to give you the honor of being my friend". He's basically trying to neg LWJ into a friendship, it's a terrible approach.

I think we also get our first Gay Panic moment from poor LWJ here as his annoying, arrogant, stubborn-as-hell crush looks like he might strip in front of him. And then talks about the pretty girls back home. Poor LWJ.

They get yoinked into the cave where Lan Yi is holding the Yin Metal. I'm guessing this is all added since the Yin Metal wasn't a plotline in the novel, but it's a fun time (I mean, not really for the boys; they're pretty cold and wet). The show uses it as an excuse to put in some things they probably couldn't have otherwise sneaked in like WWX and LWJ getting tied together with the sacred forehead ribbon, plus it's also used to jumpstart the extra flashback stuff related to the drama-only Yin Metal plot. It's used to give us exposition in a way that's interesting for both us and the characters, plus there are bunnies.

Oh, they mention here that playing Spirit Inquiry is passed down through the family, and I remember I think that Lan Sizhui says that he's been learning it when we get to the future? That's so cute. If my memory is correct, hah.

Meeting Lan Yi and all the stuff with her is great. I understand (from what I've read of them) why some people have issues with the Yin Metal storyline in general. Obviously, as I was watching it without knowing it was drama-only, it did really work for me and it still does so far. WWX is less of an absolute genius, as he doesn't invent the discipline of demonic cultivation, but he does end up being the only person who is able to practice it large-scale without getting eaten up by it (... on his second try, but still). 

Instead, what the drama does is set up several cautionary tales/parallels for WWX. The sects joining forces to destroy the current master of demonic cultivation becomes a reoccuring theme — first with Xue Chonghai in the distant past, then Wen Rouhan in the early/middle flashback sequence, then Wei Wuxian at the end of the flashback sequence. 

Lan Yi was, apparently, the only female head of Lan Sect, but she did invent the cool musical technique that gets passed down from generation to generation. Lan Yi is a very likable character. She's polite and helpful and she raises bunnies and she readily admits to her mistakes of the past. She also has been working hard to try to mitigate the damage caused by her big mistake. She's a good person, but not perfect.

We also see the contrast here between Lan Yi and Lan Qiren — WWX essentially makes the same kind of suggestion here that he does in Lan Qiren's classroom but where LQR got angry and indignant over the idea, Lan Yi is sympathetic because she'd wondered the same thing. And one main difference between them that Lan Yi brings up is that she felt like she needed the edge because of the sexism she had to face as a female sect leader.

The first of our WWX-LWJ relationship parallels pops up here too — Lan Yi's one true friend was Baoshan. Lan Yi was young and aggressive, needed an edge, wouldn't listen to other people telling her that resentful energy was too much to handle, thought she could handle it all on her own. Baoshan was worried that the resentful energy would end up controlling and damaging her instead. It's a fairly blatant parallel. I really like that LWJ's parallel is the teacher of WWX's mom and WWX's parallel is LWJ's ancestor. Much like the other parallels we will run across, the story of Lan Yi and Baoshan ends more sadly than WWX and LWJ will; it's a cautionary tale. But even their endings do echo what happens at the end of the flashbacks — after Baoshan fails to stop Lan Yi from using the Yin Metal, she goes into seclusion and separates herself from the world emotionally, while Lan Yi is wounded and unleashed something dangerous she can't control.

So.... Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji go missing together. For hours. When they get found (in the next episode), obviously Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen find out where they really were but… what exactly does everyone else think happened to them? When they were missing together. For hours. And come back soaking wet with LWJ's sacred forehead ribbon wrapped around their wrists and unharmed (...and shoeless). 

*gazes off into the distance*

*thinks about how all the disciples learn about the forehead ribbon in lessons*

*thinks about Jiang Cheng's reactions in the future when WWX ditches him for LWJ*

*gazes off into the distance again*

In the search scene, we get another moment when Jiang Yanli is Feeling Poorly. I swear, that girl is sick every time we turn around. I want to give her a warm blanket and have someone else feed her soup for a change. Ah, we get Jiang Cheng's first empty threat about breaking someone's legs here (chronologically-speaking). Honestly, Jin Ling is such a reckless kiddo. Despite having literally zero of WWX's genes, I feel like he gives Jiang Cheng WWX flashbacks all the time.

Speaking of Jin Ling, Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan get a classic romantic trope when she slips and he catches her in his arms (a romantic trope that WWX enjoys with LWJ many times in the future, bless). I've been wanting to keep an eye on him and his assumptions and his reactions to her. They do quite a bit of staring before they break away, and it does look like he's feeling something too. But then he immediately flees. It's a miracle he ever managed to marry her.

Next time: Lan Wangji falls in love; Wei Wuxian gets himself kicked out of the Cloud Recesses.

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#mdzs meta #the untamed #wangxian #the untamed | chen qing ling #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian | wei ying #lan wangji | lan zhan #cql rewatch