#bringing Jiang Cheng back so they could die as a family and he didn't! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

loosingmoreletters · 9 months

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I saw prompts so I just gotta put in this funny concept that’s been vibing in my head where my dear meow meow Jiang Cheng gaslights himself into believing Wei Wuxian is completely innocent and that everyone else was the problem and now he and Lan Zhan are the members of “Wei Ying did nothing wrong ever” club and making it everyone else’s problem

Oooh, okay let’s see trying to make this work without making JC horribly OOC was a challenge, hope this works!

It is difficult to remain impartial when faced with Jin Guangshan’s wealth. Oh, the man grieved the loss of his son and daughter-in-law.

He grieved it.

Extensively, with women and alcohol and lavish parties celebrating the defeat of the Yiling Patriarch by the Chief Cultivator.

All while Jiang Cheng lost a sister, a friend and—well, he’d lost Wei Wuxian long before his death, but he’d lost him finally now, hadn’t he?

Stupidly, Jiang Cheng had expected that in a couple years perhaps, Wei Wuxian would be free to leave Yiling and the Wen to their own devices, that there’d be a solution, that he’d get his brother back, but now he knew better—

“And?” he heard Jin Guangyao speak.

For a moment, Jiang Cheng considered making himself known. He hadn’t exactly meant to cross half of Koi Tower in his effort to get away from everything, but he’d done it anyway.

“Same as last week,” another voice replies. “The guy won’t fucking move no matter what I do. You have to hand it to the Founder, the Ghost General marched to his tune.”

What.

No! Wen Ning was gone, his ashes scattered, all the reason Wei Wuxian had even gone on a rampage.

“Father is expecting results,” Jin Guangyao said.

Someone clicked with their tongue. “Well, then maybe he shouldn’t have let Wei Wuxian blow himself up. Would have worked out much better if he’d actually allowed the guy to come to the little brat’s celebration, huh?”

But Wei Wuxian had been invited, he’d been supposed to come, only he had to bring Wen Ning and—and—

Lanling Jin was doing exceptional well for a sect who’d just lost its heir. They still had more than enough heir to spare. And hadn’t mother always needled a-Jie to be meaner to survive this snake pit? Arranging her new betrothal had been a nightmare, Jin Guangshan so keen to take all he could and why wouldn’t he keep taking when everyone let him?

Everyone but Wei Wuxian.

Jiang Cheng needed to get Jin Ling out of here. With Jin Guangyao soon marrying, there was no insurance they’d keep the heir they currently had, that a-Ling would be safe here.

And then—then Jiang Cheng needed to figure out what actually happened, why Wen Ning wasn’t ash, why Wei Wuxian had been pushed into a corner. His sister had died trying to save him and what had Jiang Cheng done? Let them both die.

But first he needed to get away from here and figure out the truth. If it was as hinted at, then Jiang Cheng would put his brother’s tablet in the family shrine, would bring him home and burn everyone involved in harming Wei Wuxian—

Jiang Cheng paused, halfway out of the courtyard.

He hadn’t thought back to that night since it occurred, unwilling to remember but…

What exactly had Lan Wangji been doing again? Because it wasn’t fighting Wei Wuxian, not really and, well, the man was still in seclusion.

Maybe, just maybe, Jiang Cheng should ask him just what his goals had been that night.

[TLDR: Jiang Cheng overhears one conversation out of context and jumps to conclusions because life is easier if his sister didn't die for someone actually doing all he's accused off. MDZS but the CQL plot is Jiang Cheng's new headcanon.]

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jing guangyao #xue yang #it's him speaking btw #mdzs #fanfic #mdzs fanfic #ask #anon #prompts

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frankencanon · 1 year

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jiang cheng sees dead people au

after everything, jiang cheng finds himself experiencing frequent minor qi deviations — not that anyone realizes, since most of the time zidian will discharge the excess volatile qi to stop the qi deviation in its tracks before it can get too severe.¹

unfortunately, so many minor qi deviations have had a negative effect on his mental health — specifically, the worst problem would arguably be the hallucinations of his dead family.

it was something that started small but slowly got worse — at first, just whispers of speech that sounded eerily like his parents... eventually, full-on vivid hallucinations of his entire family — his parents, his sister, even his brother...

astonishingly, there actually is a possibility for a cure — it wouldn't be easy, and it wouldn't be quick, but there exists a solid chance...

alas! jiang cheng refuses to even consider it. he knows he should, but he simply cannot bring himself to — not when this is the closest thing to his family that he has left.

and sure, he has jin ling! but jin ling is naught but a baby at this point — he treasures him, of course, its his only sister's son afterall! but as much as it sickens him to admit, he would forfeit that little baby's life in an instant if it would get him his family back... even just one of them.

but time goes by, and jiang cheng grows to love jin ling as a son — as unwilling to give him up as he would be with jiang yanli herself.

but the thing about raising a baby, is that you don't really filter yourself around them. afterall, why would you? it's not like they're going to remember any of this anyway, not when they're still this small.

but. but. the act of not filtering yourself around a specific person... it can be habit forming. you can forget yourself. when alone with them, you can completely forget that you would normally censor these things around other people. afterall! you've never stopped yourself from doing it around them ever before!

this is all to say this: jin ling grows up with an uncle (father) who talks to people who aren't there.

over the years, there's a lot of confusion over it — times when jin ling thought, maybe, that he was talking to their ghosts... until he gets a little older, and actually learns about ghosts and how they work, and realizes that it can't be that...

he never asks his uncle about it, because ever since he was small any time that he would try to mention it or bring it up, his uncle would get angry and defensive; he would lie and insist that jin ling had heard wrong, that he hadn't been talking to anyone, that he had no idea what he was talking about...

eventually jin ling learned to stop asking... but he never stopped wondering. afterall, how could he? when jiang cheng would address those not-ghosts as a-die, a-niang, a-jie, and — most damning of all — wei wuxian.

he got older. his uncle stopped denying it, but would still avoid any questions about what they were...

(jiang cheng didn't want to admit to his nephew that his dear uncle was crazy and saw dead people... didn't want to worry him...)

but as time passed he slowly eased up enough that jin ling could mention it sometimes, offhand and casual-like... say things like, "is grandmother bothering you again?" or "you should listen to mom more!"

(jin ling may not know their personalities first hand, but he can infer things based off of what his uncle would say and how he'd re/act, the faces he'd make...)

time passed by, and he got older. eventually, jin ling learned what was wrong with his uncle. he learned about hallucinations and what they were, how they worked... he understood that the people his uncle saw and spoke to weren't real, they weren't there...

but he didn't do anything. afterall, uncle had always been like this and he seemed fine. some of the hallucinations bothered him, sure (*cough* madame yu *cough*) but others... jin ling can't even imagine trying to take jiang yanli, his mother, away from jiang cheng...

he knew about what caused the hallucinations, too — afterall, how could he not? jiang cheng raised him and would frequently endeavor to spend as much time with him as possible. it's only inevitable that eventually, one day, he would witness his uncle having a qi deviation.

it would either have to be during a time when he wasn't wearing zidian so the spiritual weapon could not ease his qi — perhaps while sleeping or bathing? — or the qi deviation would have to be severe enough that it overpowered zidian's attempts to mitigate it.

during this time, jin ling would finally find out about his uncle's frequent minor qi deviations. maybe it was while he was trying to sleep or bathe, and so when jin ling sees/shows up/happens upon him, jiang cheng has to ask his nephew — through gritted teeth slick with blood — to bring him zidian, quickly.

jin ling would watch as jiang cheng slid zidian on and it immediately started sparking harsher than he'd ever seen it do before. and he would be concerned, of course, that the sparks would hurt his uncle — and so to stop him from ripping it back off, jiang cheng would then have to go through the mortifying ordeal of admitting to your nephew that you secretly suffer from frequent minor qi deviations.

and of course, after that, jin ling would never be able to forget. and so any time he saw zidian going haywire with wild sparks, he would assume (correctly) that his uncle's qi was veering into the danger zone, and so out of fear for his uncle's safety and sanity he would do his absolute best to help his uncle calm down before he hurt himself.

of course, this gets interpreted incorrectly by outsiders — they see sect leader jiang getting pissed off, zidian throwing off sparks, and they see little jin ling frantically trying to calm his uncle down, fear clear in his eyes... it doesn't paint a good picture, suffice to say.

for years and years and years, no one outside of jin ling is aware of jiang cheng's struggles with hallucinations and qi deviations — right up until one day, wei wuxian is raised from the dead.

and, well... it's one thing to try to hide something from strangers — but siblings? they're a lot harder to fool.

(that's not entirely true — jin ling may know the most, and he may be the only one that jiang cheng is even semi-open about it with — but he's far from the only one to ever suspect anything, to notice anything. the closer a disciple is to jiang cheng, the higher up they are, and/or the more they interact with him, the more likely they are to know something is up — to notice the little things jiang cheng does that he thinks no one notices... but they do — they do notice. they just... choose not to say anything. to trust in their sect leader, who has yet to ever lead them astray.

...but they're not the only ones to notice something's up, and unfortunately the next person is a lot less nice... afterall, what with jin ling and all it is only inevitable that jiang cheng will end up spending a fair amount of time with jin guangyao... and, well... let's just say that the scene in the temple goes a lot differently in this au — what with all of the additional secrets jin guangyao has undoubtedly been gathering on jiang cheng...

maybe this is when wei wuxian and et all finally find out. maybe wei wuxian's been suspecting for some time that something's up with jiang cheng but he couldn't put his finger on quite what...

until jin guangyao unflinchingly announces it in front of everyone in the temple, without hesitation. he's been waiting to use this information, this blackmail, for a while now... and finally, the opportunity has arisen.)

---

¹idea for jiang cheng's qi deviations and zidian's effect on them from anonkun's "hating the hand life has dealt us" on ao3 (strongly recommend)

(it's a sort-of crossover fic with svsss about the og shen jiu being reincarnated as jiang cheng except when jiang cheng regains his memories of being shen jiu he flat out rejects them to the point of accidentally developing a sort of dissociative identity disorder where he sees himself and shen jiu as two separate people just inhabiting the same body)

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perpetuallytiredandtired · 9 months

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Hello there! Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I have a question. When do you plan to update your MDZS role reversal au fic? I've been addicted to the role reversal AU lately and I'm so glad you made one! I also really like the concept you came up with where only WWX died while LWJ didn't. Thank you in advance. Have a nice day<33

A Story of Stars and Rivers (6425 words) by TiredAndTired Chapters: 3/? Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 魔道祖师 | Módào Zǔshī (Cartoon), 魔道祖师 | Módào Zǔshī (Audio Drama) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Niè Huáisāng, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Characters: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín, Niè Huáisāng, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Yànlí, Junior Ensemble (Módào Zǔshī), Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī, Lán Jǐngyí, Ōuyáng Zǐzhēn, Jīn Líng | Jīn Rúlán Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Yílíng Lǎozǔ Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Personality Swap, Jiāng Family Feels (Módào Zǔshī), Sect Leader Jiāng Yànlí, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, No beta we die like wei wuxian Summary: Jiang Cheng was many things: a son, a brother, a protector, and a demonic cultivator. Created and Mastered Demonic Cultivation. Fought a war. Won the aforementioned. Protect innocent prisoners of war from unjust punishment because of their shitty relatives. Long story short, he died like the scum that he was. So what makes it confusing is that his school friend (Crush? What could have been?) brings him back from the dead to help him find his dead big brother's body and help him take down the current chief cultivator. All the while avoiding his Sect Leader older sister who will flay him alive when she catches him. And also try to bond with his half-orphaned nephew. Easy right? (Or a role reversal au where the yunmeng siblings switched personalities and roles)

#mdzs #mdzs au #the untamed #assr #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli

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winepresswrath · 3 years

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I remain astonished at people who apparently believe that Madame Yu or JFM, upon watching one of their kids have a sobbing breakdown in front of everyone and Sect Leader Yao, would angrily demand who made them cry and offer cranky comfort(okay JFM might for WWX). Jin Ling is loved unconditionally and knows it! He believes jiujiu arriving in a bad situation will automatically improve things in some way! He's not always right but jiujiu tries his best

In my old age I'm becoming fond of Madame Yu but honestly remember that time Jiang Cheng got down on his knees and begged her not to hurt Wei Wuxian and she had her handmaidens hold him back but he broke through anyway... honey. I don't know! I really cannot imagine Jin "my uncle will hear about this" Ling sadly confiding in anyone that Jiang Cheng doesn't like him and wishes he had a different nephew.

#I'm increasingly fond of Jiang parents out of what I think is mostly contrary spite #ok I am editing this in pursuit of my own don't be a dick goals #I think their coparenting left their kids with some issues to work through #like you can tell that jgy and jc do not have a great relationship but it is also clear that that is not Jin Ling's problem #note how he gleefully plays them against each other #still! Jiang Cheng brokenly sobbing in a field about how much he wants them after they are gone #his fantasy about them being nice and everyone getting along #the eternal Jiang Cheng problem where he just wants four very specific people to love him and will accept no substitutes #honey #:(#oh ok I'm going to be pro Jiang parents again for a second and say I do kind of like how they are ultimately aligned in being selfish #enough to save their children like IMO the ultimate way JFM could have let Madam Yu down is #bringing Jiang Cheng back so they could die as a family and he didn't!

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amedetoiles · 4 years

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i was talking about it with my friend yesterday and we're both of the opinion that while wwx was dead jiang cheng was able to more easily hate him, bc he could hold onto the memories of watching jiang yanli die and the feeling of abandonment, but then suddenly wwx is back and all the repressed love and affection he'd been desperately pretending wasn't there cracks out of the box he'd been storing it in - hence the "why didn't you come back to lotus pier first!" he just wants his brother :(

He does! He so very much does. That’s the thing about love and hate, and about Jiang Cheng especially. They are so closely intwined within him and his complicated feelings about his brother.

Jiang Cheng has loved Wei Wuxian for nearly his entire life, ever since Wei Wuxian showed up at Lotus Pier and called him shidi. He loses his furry companions and gains instead an obnoxiously affectionate and obstinately kindhearted shixiong who became his best friend. One that he thought he would have forever. Until he doesn’t. And for 13/16 years, Jiang Cheng simmers with the knowledge and devastation that Wei Wuxian betrayed him and the Jiang sect. That Wei Wuxian took their kindness, their family, their promises, and threw them all away without a backwards glance. That if Jiang Cheng had loved his brother less, then maybe Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan and his mother and his father would have lived. And maybe Jin Ling would have his parents and his grandparents and his maternal sect instead of an uncle with sharp edges and even sharper words.

But that isn’t the case.

So of course he holds onto that anger. Anger and hatred have always come much easier for him. He is a Yu. His mother’s son, but born to be a Jiang. He has been shaped by neglect, by tragedy, by bitterness. He was taught very early on that to be vulnerable is to be weak, that loving someone who doesn’t love you back inherently leads to constant public ridicule (like, oh, I don’t know, laying dead on the floor of your home while the son of a tyrannical overlord and his mistress laugh at you for bringing this misery onto yourself). He holds onto the anger because it is easier than facing the alternative. That Wei Wuxian walked away because Jiang Cheng wasn’t good enough. That Wei Wuxian stopped loving them, has never loved him, because Jiang Cheng wasn’t good enough. That despite it all, Jiang Cheng misses him every day.

The thing is Jiang Cheng has never learned how to stop loving Wei Wuxian. He’s spent his life chasing after Wei Wuxian, helplessly and resentfully and happily caught in his brother’s pull, and he never, truly, stops. He keeps Chenqing. He never gets any dogs. He searches and searches through every demonic cultivator he comes across, like a punishment, like it’s his only salvation. Jiang Cheng hates him. Loathes him down to his core he doesn’t know isn’t own. But Jiang Cheng also loves him. He misses him. He mourns him. He loves him.

So when Wei Wuxian comes back, when Jiang Cheng screams at him, spits out scathing vitriol, threatens to kill him in a thousand fires, beseeching him with unshed tears – what he is really doing, and has always been doing, is saying, Please. Please. Tell me you didn’t mean it. Tell me you’re sorry. Tell me we meant as much to you as you meant to us.

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shortstoriesatshortandsweet · 4 years

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Wangxian the truth was told what Jin Guangyao did so wei ying name was clear thanks to a rogue cultivator they found out that wei ying didn't die he was saved by baoshan sanren but he is in a coma

Let me start this off by saying that I am so sorry this took me three thousand years to write. I know that this is maybe not the direction that you were expecting this to go in but I really hope you still like it.

_____________________________________________________________ “What do you mean he’s still alive? Lan Wangji and I both saw him go over the cliff at Nevernight,” Jiang Cheng said, shooting an incredulous look at Lan Xichen, avoiding Wangji’s eyes like the plague. The rest of the events from that day hung heavily in the air between them.

“Yes, but his body was never found was it?” said Xichen, picking up his steaming teacup and taking a calm sip. The three of them sat in the hanshi at Cloud Recesses. Jiang Cheng had arrived a day before after receiving Lan Xichen’s letter about Jin Guangyao’s involvement, or more like orchestration, of the whole fiasco that had been the events from sixteen years ago. It was no secret that Jiang Cheng held contempt for his brother, at least publicly and to some degree privately, for how things had played out with their family. However, it was also no secret to Xichen that Jiang Cheng also held crushing guilt in his heart for the hand he’d played in Wuxian’s untimely death.

“You can’t possibly have me believe that my bro-that Wuxian survived the fall. I searched-” Jiang Cheng said, unable to finish his thought. To the untrained ear, he sounded annoyed, but Xichen picked up the slight wobble in his voice. Looking up from his teacup, Xichen heaved a sigh. He knew Wangji would be easy enough to convince, or at the very least hopeful enough about Wuxian’s survival to listen. He should’ve expected that Jiang Cheng, with his complicated feelings surrounding the matter of his brother, would need more than just words. Rising up from his sitting position, Xichen addressed both Jiang Cheng and Wangji.

“Let me take you to him,” he said. There was no mistaking the silent yet sharp inhale of both men nevertheless after a short moment of hesitation both men signaled their agreement.

-------

News broke out about Jin Guangyao over the course of their trip to Baoshan Sanren’s cave. The Yiling Patriarch’s innocence and his rumored survival were the topics of every conversation in each town they stopped at. At the inn’s in which they slept and the teahouses they visited, hushed conversations were always the same. Did you hear that Jin Guangyao was the reason for all those deaths sixteen years ago? Did you hear that the Yiling Patriarch is still alive? Even if Jin Guangyao was responsible for all the murders, didn’t the Yiling Patriarch also take innocent lives?

Wangji was barely holding it together as it was, but the opinions and offhand comments of complete strangers were no help. For sixteen years, he defended Wei Ying tooth and nail. He stopped attending banquets because he couldn’t bear the thought of his Wei Ying, who was righteous and loving and shone brighter than the sun itself being defamed by people who hardly knew him. And there he was traveling across the land with the possibility that Wei Ying was alive and with the confirmation that he was innocent (as Wangji had known all those years ago) and people still had the audacity to doubt him. He could tell that Jiang Cheng wasn’t fairing any better, though Wangji had little sympathy for him.

It was a week before the trio reached Baoshan Sanren’s cave. Wangji had spent the entire journey suspended somewhere between hope and disbelief. Standing at the mouth of the cave he wasn’t sure which he felt more. The details of everything were hazy, even Xichen who was the one to find out about everything wasn’t really sure what had happened all those years ago after Wei Ying had thrown himself off the cliff. None of them knew how or even when Baoshan Sanren had reached Nevernight and taken Wei Ying’s body with her. No one knew how she’d fixed him and how he was alive. But none of that mattered to Wangji. All that mattered was the very real possibility that Wei Ying was alive.

“What are we waiting for?” said Jiang Cheng, snapping Wangji out of his internal monologue, they shot each other annoyed looks but the annoyance was overshadowed by the painfully clear fear and anticipation written in their eyes. With a deep breath, they made their way inside. The inside of the cave was nothing like Wangji expected. It was clean and neat, almost homely. A woman stood in the center expectantly. She had long, pin-straight black hair, pulled back with a simple hairpin and a stern but not unkind look on her face. They bowed respectfully.

“I’ve been expecting you. He’s this way,” she said, cutting straight to the point without any preamble. They followed her further into the cave which turned out to be bigger than it seemed from the outside. Wangji’s heart was beating erratically. He felt sick. His brain was empty of everything except all of the feelings that he had spent years bottling up. He had spent years playing Inquiry in search of any piece of Wei Ying and there had never been an answer because Wei Ying was here in this cave hidden safely away from harm’s way. Wangji was happy beyond belief and hurt because he mourned Wei Ying for sixteen years and he had lived. And he hadn’t come back to Wangji. Jiang Cheng was fidgeting with Zidian beside him.

Toward the end of the cave, there was a makeshift room, blocked off from view with a heavy black cloth. The woman stopped just before the entrance of the room, peering over her shoulder at them. With a heavy sigh, she pulled back the cloth revealing a single makeshift cot in the middle of the room. Beside him, Jiang Cheng took in a single sharp breath before his knees buckled. Wangji barely processed any of his surroundings. His eyes were glued to the cot. Laying there, pale as the winter snow deep in the mountains of Gusu, was Wei Ying. His eyes were closed, his long black lashes brushing softly against his cheeks. He looked peaceful.

Wangji wasn’t sure when he began to move, but before he knew it he was taking hesitant steps toward Wei Ying, and then as if a fire were lit on the ground beneath him he was moving faster and faster until he was standing mere inches away from Wei Ying. In the background, he subconsciously registered Jiang Cheng yelling (whether at the woman or Xichen Wangji couldn’t tell) “I thought you said he was alive,” accusation and devastation clear in his voice. Wangji stood motionless before Wei Ying for what felt like an eternity. He wanted to touch him but the fear of his skin being cold to the touch kept his hands firmly rooted against his thighs.

“He is alive but he is in a coma,” came the woman’s voice. “Wuxian does not have enough spiritual energy to heal on his own, for many years we have worked on building up his body’s strength and restoring his soul,” she continued.

“Will he ever wake up?” Wangji’s voice came out hoarse, any chance he had of masking just how deeply this all affected him was shot to hell. He couldn’t bring himself to care. He was still facing Wei Ying, ignoring the commotion going on behind him. He couldn't take his eyes off of him.

“Yes, though it is unclear when,” came the response.

Wangji was tired. He was tired of waiting and of hurting. He was tired of mourning and of the continuous unfortunate events that his life had taken. Wei Ying had been stolen from his grasp once before. He would die a thousand deaths before he was separated from him again.

“We will bring him back to Gusu with us,” he said, building the courage to finally take Wei Ying’s hand in his with trembling fingers.

#wei ying #wei wuxian #wangji #lan wangji #lan zhan #the untamed #MDZS #one shot #requests are open #wangxian #wuji

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winepresswrath · 3 years

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Maybe a silly question but do you think that Yu Ziyuan could have loved Wei Ying if things had been different? Or was she always going to be awful to him? If JFM had handled bringing him in better (and maybe like actually asking his wife and kids and also adopting the poor boy so he didn't live in this almost family - still a servant abyss) or JFM tried harder with JC? She loves her children and they love WY idk

My controversial opinion is that I think Yu Ziyuan did love Wei Wuxian and was furious about it, and that is why he and not any of the other disciples wound up on the boat with Jiang Cheng. She had two perfectly good bodyguards who had not just had the shit beaten out of them on hand, and they stayed behind to die along with all of her other students. Wei Wuxian is a child who grew up eating at her table. She didn't want or agree to that, but I don't think she was impervious to it.

I do think a significant portion of her anger and rejection is misdirected anger about Jiang Fengmian's behaviour. In universes where he takes her feelings and concerns more seriously and actively tries to manage the rumours/makes it obvious to her that he loves and feels invested in their son I think she feels less threatened and humiliated by Wei Wuxian's position in her household and is consequently less awful towards him, but I also think she's intensely status conscious and objects on principle to the idea of the son of a servant being treated as an equal by her children. I also think they were kind of destined to clash on personality and priority grounds- she is not okay with him running around hunting pheasants and shooting kites, and I think the more invested in him she is the more that annoys her. It's not enough to be the best if you could be even better! Stop setting a terrible example for you shidis and go back to training. He could be cultivating to immortality and she'd still complain that he could do it faster and then turn around and yell at Jiang Cheng for not keeping up. I actually think the best path they have to anything resembling a decent relationship is for Madame Yu to survive long enough for them to develop common enemies. I think she'd have a certain appreciation for his commitment, and it would probably be psychologically helpful to him to be appreciated by her in some way.

#like even in this universe #she calls him a dog but he's her dog and it's an insult to her authority to tell her to beat him #she still does it! probably kind of thinks he had it coming!#but she's not happy about it because she's possessive and she doesn't have to like him for him to belong to her #or for her to care about him in her own Madame Yu way #I genuinely just don't know enough about how adoption works in mdzs to hazard a guess on how she'd feel about it #but I think it comes down to public perception #if it's basically confirmation that jfm had an affair but didn't want to say so she hates it #if it hurts Yanli and Jiang Cheng's standing to have an official brother who is the son of a servant she hates it #if it's a respectable thing to do that demonstrates JFM's magnanimity and loyalty and he actually sits down and talks it over with her #she's a lot less upset

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