#but the way jiang cheng looks down always kills me

[mxtxfanatic]

Gossip Following the First Siege (and Where They Are Directly Debunked)

1st Lie:

“Rejoice, rejoice! Say, which hero dealt the finishing blow to the Yiling Laozu?”

“Who else could it be? His shidi, Chief Jiang Cheng of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan!

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

“But that’s not what I heard. I thought one of his evil tricks backfired and he was shredded to pieces by those ghosts of his. Some say that they bit and tore at him so viciously that by the end of it, his body was no more than a slurry of flesh and bone dust.”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

“Jiang Cheng, Clan Chief Jiang, brought people to encircle and besiege the Burial Mounds. He killed you, sir.”

“I have to clarify this. He didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.”

–Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

2nd Lie:

“Exactly! He thoroughly deserved it! If the Jiang Clan hadn’t taken him in and raised him, that Wei Ying would have spent his whole life as a worthless vagrant. What else is there to say? The old Chief Jiang raised him like his own son, yet he betrayed them and made an enemy of everyone. Not only did he humiliate the Jiang Sect, he killed nearly all of the Jiang Clan! He’s the definition of an ungrateful, treacherous bastard!”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

Wei Wuxian was the son of a servant of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, Wei Changze, and a wandering cultivator, Cangse Sanren. Jiang Fengmian and his wife were both close acquaintances of his mother and father, but Jiang Fengmian had never reminisced about his old friend in front of Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Fengmian’s wife, Yu Ziyuan, had never been interested in having a conversation with him at all. If she didn’t whip him a few times and tell him to get out, kneel at the ancestral shrine, and keep far away from Jiang Cheng, he already considered that pretty good.

–Chapt. 29: Morning Dew II, fanyiyi

Jiang Fengmian nodded, “Well done.”

[Wei Wuxian] was able to kill a four-hundred-year-old beast at the mere age of seventeen. It was much more than a ‘well-done’.

–Chapt. 56: Poisons, exr

Jiang FengMian stared into his eyes. Suddenly, he reached out. Only after pausing in the air did he finally touch Jiang Cheng’s head, slowly, “A-Cheng, be well.”

Wei WuXian, “Uncle Jiang, if anything happens to you, he won’t be well.”

Jiang FengMian turned his eyes to him, “A-Ying, A-Cheng... you must look after him.” ... In his heart, Jiang Cheng knew clearly that back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter at Dusk-Creek Mountain, even if Wei WuXian hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, the Wen Sect would have found some reason to come over sooner or later. But he had always felt that, if the whole thing with Wei WuXian didn’t happen, maybe it wouldn’t have been so soon, maybe there would’ve been some way to turn things around.

—Chapt. 58: Poisons, exr

3rd Lie:

“Not only that, Jiang Cheng tolerated that arrogant, up-jumped servant for ages... Even if you grew up with them and loved them like a brother, you can’t show people like him any mercy. ”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

Chapter 13: Elegance III – Chapter 18: Elegance VIII, fanyiyi (no I will NOT be writing down every instance of storm cloud Jiang Cheng appearing to darken Wei Wuxian’s mood in the Cloud Recesses arc. Too many quotes; you gotta read it yourself)

Gradually, [Wei Wuxian] grew deathly frightened of all manner of dogs, big or small, and had endured no small amount of Jiang Cheng’s mockery for it.

–Chapt. 20: Sunshine II, fanyiyi

Not a single lenient or merciful word left Jiang Cheng’s mouth if he could help it, nor was he ever willing to offer charity and kindness.

–Chapt. 23: Malice I, fanyiyi 

4th Lie:

“...Don’t you remember when he annihilated more than 3,000 high level cultivators?”

“Wasn’t it 5,000?”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked: here

5th Lie:

“It just goes to show that cultivators have to stay on the proper path. Taking up demonic cultivation, ‘free spirit,’ pah! Sounds to me like he was arrogant and egomaniacal. Heh, and what was the result?”...

...“But it wasn’t only demonic cultivation that killed him. At the end of the day, it was also his horrible personality and rotten character...”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

“Aye, this Wei Wuxian...back in the day he was a promising cultivator from a good background, and not without high merits. When he was young—what a glorious, free spirit! ...”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

In [Wei Wuxian’s] previous life, because he couldn’t let people chatter on about how he hadn’t been brought up properly, there were certain limits on how far he could take his mischief.

–Chapt. 3: Feral II, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian had always considered himself protective and caring of women, so seeing her state, he moved to create space for her and went to bother the donkey.

–Chapt. 6: Pride I, fanyiyi

Even if the Yiling Laozu’s reputation was bad, people had to admit that prior to Wei Wuxian’s defection from the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, he had been famous far and wide for being a gorgeous man, cultured, sophisticated, and proficient in all the arts of a gentleman. Among the young masters of all the clans of cultivation, his appearance and personality were considered the fourth best, and he was described as “bright, clever, and full of life”...

–Chapt. 10: Pride V, fanyiyi

#human reads mdzs: take 2 #don’t know why i never posted this

[ninjakk]

Who were the ghosts that attacked Wen Chao and Wang LingJiao?

The torture and murder of WC and WLJ are some of the most gruesome scenes in MDZS. To me, they are particularly harrowing. Not only because of the implied violence and gore, but the heartbreaking revelation of WWXs mental state after escaping the Burial Mounds.

The contrast between WWX's sudden paled appearance and cold demeanor, against the vivacious and warm WWX we all know and love, always makes me incredibly emotional. Obviously this is because he has been through an extremely distressful experience and is tremendously traumatised. It's quite obvious his thirst for revenge is one of the things that kept him going during his time in the Burial Mounds. Which is why, when he finally emerges from the awful hellhole he was trapped in, his attacks are particularly brutal. I'm currently working on a post about WWX's trauma, which is taking me some time, as it's quite an emotional ride - so we won't go into that too much here. Instead, I want to take a look at something that stood out to me on my first read and even more so on a re-read.

When reading the scenes mentioned above, I noticed a few things with regards to the ghosts WWX used to torture and kill WC and WLJ. Personally, I think MXTX hints that the female and child ghosts used to attack WC and WLJ, have some form of connection to the two in some way.

Wen Chao cried sharply in pain. It sounded especially jarring in the empty courier station. Jiang Cheng asked, “Why is his voice so sharp?” Wei WuXian, “Of course it’d be with a certain thing gone.” Jiang Cheng was disgusted, “You’re the one who did it?” Wei WuXian, “It’s nasty if you think about it that way. Of course, I wasn’t the one who cut it off. It was bitten off when his woman went mad.”

Chapter 62 ExR

When I first read the above scene, I had a sudden realisation that WLJ couldn't possibly be the "woman" that WWX was referring to. Prior to WC being attacked, WLJ stuffed a broken stool leg down her throat, while under the influence of an unseen ghost - perhaps even possessed at that moment in time.

On the ground, Wang LingJiao had already picked up one leg of the stool, frantically stuffing it into her mouth, laughing as she did, “Fine, fine, I’ll eat it, I’ll eat it! Haha, I’ll eat it!” An entire chunk of the leg had been stuffed down by her!

Chapter 61

Not long after the above scene, JC and LWJ find her in the same horrific position with the stool leg firmly in her mouth.

The doors to Wen Chao’s room were wide open. Only one female corpse remained in the room. The corpse wore light clothes. Half of the leg of a stool had been stuffed down her throat. She had killed herself by forcing herself to swallow the stool leg into her stomach.

Chapter 61

With this in mind, it couldn't have been WLJ who attacked WC. She was already dead or dying while choking on the stool leg. You could argue that she might have taken it out of her mouth, after she had turned into a corpse that WWX could control to attack WC, swallowing the stool leg again once she had finished. But that doesn't really make much sense. MXTX purposefully drew attention to the fact the stool leg was still in her mouth when JC and LWJ found her. There is even a rather grotesque point where JC attempts to shove the stool leg into her mouth further, when he is kneeling by her corpse. This scene is used not only to emphasise JCs hatred and character, but to draw further attention to the stool leg still being in WLJs mouth. If this scene was purely to show JC's hunger for revenge, MXTX could have had JC slap her corpse - just as JC overheard WLJ state she wanted to slap Madam Yu's corpse after the massacre at Lotus Pier.

I have seen some people in the fandom claim that because of the above contradictions, WWX must be lying. As WLJ, "his woman" was already dead. As such, people insinuate WWX must have bitten off WCs private part himself! Which is ludicrous! He might not be acting himself at this moment in time due to the mass amount of trauma he's endured, but he's not going to do that! Especially if he has others under his control, that are so eager to attack WC in his place.

When WWX said "his woman", I think he was referring to the ghost woman in the room with them at that moment in time. Not WJL as some people assume, but the one who was currently there to torment and kill WC. To me, WWXs words pretty much confirm that he is using one of WCs dead mistresses to torture him to death.

As he spoke, the blue-faced woman crawled toward him using both her arms and her legs. When she had been fighting, her face was almost hideous, but now, with her dark face against Wei WuXian’s lap, she somehow seemed to be a charming concubine, obediently pleasing her master.

Chapter 62

The ghost is even described as a seemingly charming concubine, which could be a hint to her past relationship with WC. Given WCs character, and the fact we know he is a huge unscrupulous lech who treats women as objects - it's not much of a jump to assume this ghost was one of his many mistresses or a "sexual conquest" from the past.

Wen ZhuLiu grabbed the child’s head with his left hand, as though to put so much force on the small, cold head that it exploded. The blue-faced woman threw the bloodstained bandages on the ground and, like a four-limbed creature, she crawled to Wen ZhuLiu’s side almost instantly. A swing of her arm and there were ten lines of blood. The two dark beings, one large and one small, wrangled with him incessantly.

Chapter 62

Of course, there is also the ghost child. The two appear to be working together and the ghost woman seems protective of the child - as we can see from the above. I think this is insinuating that the child might be the ghost woman's offspring and possibly even WCs illegitimate child. It would make more sense then WWX having summoned a random ghost child. If the ghosts already had strong resentment towards the WC and WLJ, (especially if they caused their death in some way) it would also help strengthen WWXs attacks on them both.

A long-haired woman in red clothes, her face blue, fell heavily onto him. The dark face, bright red clothes, and black hair created a chilling contrast. Her fingers wrapped around the bandages around Wen Chao’s head and tore!

Chapter 62

The two scenes above are even somewhat reminiscent to the chapter where the corpses of the Mo family were working together to attack the ghost hand that killed them at the start of the novel. I think the parallels between this scene and the scene at Mo Village are quite deliberate and are intended to help suggest that something very similar is happening with the two unknown ghosts in the scenes in question.

Aside from being unable to defy Wei WuXian’s command, the family also loathed the creature that killed them, and let out their anger on the ghost hand.

...

The three corpses and the hand were in the middle of a tough battle, when Mo ZiYuan abruptly moved out of the way. His abdomen area was attacked by the hand, causing a few chunks of his intestines to spill out. As Madame Mo saw this, she screamed incessantly and shielded her son behind herself.

Chapter 5

Not only do we see a mother protecting her child, but we see WWX use the resentment they have towards the hand that killed them, in order to attack it. Which could be exactly what is happening in the chapters with the ghost woman and child.

Wei WuXian took his hand away after patting on the white ghoul child’s sparse-haired head. Holding what he had fed it in its mouth, it turned around and sat down. Hugging his leg, it chewed fiercely as it glowered at Wen ZhuLiu with cold, glistening eyes. What he was chewing were two human fingers. Needless to say—they must be Wen Chao’s fingers!

Chapter 62

Chewing on WCs fingers has a particularly gruesome, yet disturbingly poetic irony to it all if the theory of the ghost being his illegitimate child is true. The ghost child is literally biting the hand that (possibly) should have fed him!

There are a number of hints that could support the theory that WC and WLJ know the ghosts who are attacking them and that they might have had a hand in their demise. If we piece together the little hints that have been left for us, there seems to be an undercurrent of something more sinister being alluded to within the subtext.

She had been following Wen Chao for almost half a year. Half a year was the most time that Wen Chao could spend on a woman, from loving her to becoming tired of her. She had thought that she was different, that she was the one who could stay until the end. However, Wen Chao’s growing irritation during the past few days had told her already. She was no different from the other women.

Chapter 61

The above confirms that WC tires of his mistresses quite easily, usually within six months. From earlier chapters, the reader is already aware WC was married, but still openly flaunted his mistresses and promiscuity. Obviously I'm sure he usually just casts them aside rather than murdering them! Otherwise, there would be a pretty big body count from the sounds of it! But if we consider the fact WC usually tires of his latest conquest within six months, we can assume he dumped this particular mistress way before she'd given birth to the child, more than likely way before she even knew she was pregnant. Perhaps after giving birth she thought presenting him with his child would help her situation, similar to JGY and MXYs mothers holding out hope on JGS taking an interest in his illegitimate children. WC is a cold-hearted, self-centred, greasy, vain psychopath who doesn't care for anyone but himself. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for him to decide to get rid of a mistress and his illegitimate child, because it was an inconvenience to him.

Obviously all we can do is speculate, as there is no solid evidence in the text around the child being WCs. Though the child definitely has a mass amount of resentment towards him and seems connected to the ghost woman in some way - so it is definitely plausible. That being said, I do think we can see MXTX drawing a connection to the ghosts and the two being attacked if we look closely enough.

The chest held all of the valuables and weapons that she had managed to hoard during the half-year of staying by Wen Chao’s side. Valuables she could spend, weapons she could protect herself with. Although she didn’t want it to, the day had finally come.

Chapter 61

So we can see WLJ had a contingency plan for if or when WC got bored of her - as it's apparently something WC does often. She already had an idea that if WC lost interest in her, she would need to leave in a hurry. What is rather interesting from the above, is that WLJ had been stashing weapons away to protect herself with as well. Now I am aware that at present, the cultivation world is at the beginning of a war, so this could be overlooked as her trying to protect herself against the enemy, if all of her current privileges and protection were taken away. But the Wen sect really didn't take the war seriously until very recently, possibly even just in the past few days - as we can see from the below.

Everyone who stood on the Wen Sect’s side took the Sunshot Campaign as a joke. However, three months later, the circumstances didn’t turn out the way they expected them to at all!

Chapter 61

As such, I think WLJ hiding weapons is more of a means to protect herself against a more imminent threat - WC and those under his command, if he decides she is no longer of use to him. We have already witnessed how cold hearted and ruthless WC and WLJ are. They were quite ready to murder or seriously injure MianMian back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter - so killing and physically harming others isn't something out of character for either of them. I think the above scene shows the reader that WC might be accustomed to getting rid of mistresses who become troublesome, and that WJL knows this. WLJ may have even participated in such things to gain her current position by his side, after all she was particularly ruthless to poor MianMian, so she's definitely capable of such cruelty.

As we've seen, WLJ has an extremely jealous streak, which caused her to pick MianMian as the person to be hung up as bait for the Xuanwu of Slaughter. So it's not really much of a stretch to think WLJ might have had a hand in bumping off her rival and her poor child as well. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she'd jealousy helped permanently get rid of a mistress who had given birth to WCs child and become too much trouble for him.

From a psychological point of view, looking at what happened to WLJ when she was attacked, we can see a number of things that could support the above even more so.

The woman’s features were all distorted, as though they had been smashed and then pieced together again. The two of her eyes were looking in different directions, the left upward and the right downward. Her entire face was hideously twisted. Wen Chao tried with much effort before he could finally manage to recognize her from her rather revealing robe. This was Wang LingJiao!

Chapter 61

The fact WLJ's face is hideously disfigured is very telling. Whoever attacked her, did so in a very distinctive way. They made her look hideous, they attacked her where it hurts her the most - her beauty. We know the ghost child from later scenes made an appearance in WLJs room, so it's safe to assume that the woman is nearby as well. If the ghost woman was a former mistress who WLJ had a hand in getting rid of, it's definitely something a scorned woman would do to get revenge. Making someone's face look horrifically deformed, sounds very personal to me.

Wang LingJiao staggered before kneeling down and collapsing onto the ground, as though she was kowtowing someone, mumbling, “… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Let me go, let me go, let me go…”

Chapter 61

WJL is currently being controlled or manipulated by an unseen force. Earlier WJL put a talisman that unbeknownst to her, had been reversed and therefore attracted rather than repelled evil. She also admits that her cultivation is extremely low. With all of that in mind, it's possible that she was possessed by the ghost woman from later scenes, at that moment in time. WLJ is currently half mad and very frightened. She's talking to someone who only she can hear - again possibly alluding to her being possessed by the ghost woman. This makes her words very interesting. Most might assume she is saying sorry to WWX, but he's not actually made an appearance yet - he's outside watching and waiting. To me, WJL is apologising to the ghost woman. Because she's the one who is possessing her, and she is the one who WLJ might have wronged.

On the ground, Wang LingJiao had already picked up one leg of the stool, frantically stuffing it into her mouth, laughing as she did, “Fine, fine, I’ll eat it, I’ll eat it! Haha, I’ll eat it!” An entire chunk of the leg had been stuffed down by her!

Chapter 61

Back to this grotesque scene again! It's quite apparent that the stool leg is suggestive of the scene we now know must follow. The above could even be seen as a metaphor for what happens to WC off page. As I've already explained above, I don't think MXTX intended for us to think WLJ attacked WC. The stool leg is very phallic and the horrendous act seems very personal once again. It's an extremely sexually violent act and not something I think WWX would be capable of thinking of himself. To me it's perhaps something a murdered or scorned mistress would do to her rival in order to exact extreme revenge. Perhaps even a previous mistress who WLJ had a hand in getting rid of, in order to appease WC.

There seems to be two viable options that I can theorise, as to how WWX acquired the two spirits we are later introduced to. One option is the talismans WWX had reversed all around the supervision office that WC and WLJ were occupying. As we know, reverse talismans attract ghosts and corpses within a certain area. So if the poor woman and child met their end nearby and were waiting around for vengeance, they would have been attracted to the area now the talismans were reversed. Or there is the slightly more sinister option that WWX actually met their ghosts along with many others, during his time in the Burial Mounds and brought them along with him when he left. I find the latter option quite interesting, because there is something that stood out to me in chapters 60 and 61, that could support this theory as well.

Wen Chao continued, “Burial Mound is right in Yiling. You Yunmeng people have probably heard of its name as well. It’s a mountain of corpses, an old battleground. If you find a spot wherever on the mountain and dig your shovel into it, you’ll be able to dig out a corpse. Any nameless corpses would be tossed here as well, wrapped in a mat only.”

Chapter 60

Wen Chao immediately refuted her, “It’s impossible even if he’s dead! The people who died in Burial Mound, all of their souls would be shackled there.

Chapter 61

WC seems to know just how convenient the Burial Mounds is if you want to get rid of someone, keeping their soul trapped there in the process. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if WC had used this place as a personal dumping ground for anyone that displeased him.

Apparently MXTX mentioned somewhere in her author's notes that certain things had to be edited or removed due to censorship issues. Perhaps she originally intended for WLJ to attack WC in the above scenes, but decided to rewrite it. Some claim this scene might have been censored and this is MXTX's attempt at working around it. But personally I think that if MXTX wanted to insinuate WLJ was "his woman" without showing such extreme sexual violence, she would have had the reader notice the stool leg was no longer in her mouth in later scenes. Allowing the reader to notice it was still in her mouth, not once but twice, seems very deliberate to me. With that in mind, I think that even if this was MXTX working around censorship, she most likely still intended for the ghost woman to be the one who committed the violent act and had to do so off page and hint as such instead. It definitely ties in with the rest of the evidence in the text and is even reminiscent of the first time we see WWX using his cultivation technique at the start of the novel. It also somewhat echoes his theorising at the Cloud Recesses, where he first talks about arousing resentful energy and using it as a weapon.

Personally I think once you accept WWX is talking about WCs "woman" being the ghost woman, there seems to be hints to an even darker subplot just under the surface. The fact WLJ has a contingency plan for if when WC tires of her and that the plan involves weapons to protect herself with, is in my opinion rather telling. The fact WWX is known for harnessing the resentful energy that an entity under his control has for others, as a way to enhance his attacks is also a compelling argument that strengthens the above theory as well. I certainly think this is a credible theory and even helps explain a part of the plot that some have found a little confusing, due to what may come across as inconsistencies in the chapters in question.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs novel #wei wuxian #wen chao #wang lingjiao #mdzs theories #mdzs meta #long post

[lizzieonka]

Just saw someone say that Jiang Cheng held no love for Jin Ling and that's why Jin Ling's favorite uncle is Wei Wuxian

I want to fucking kill someone

ARE WE READING THE SAME NOVEL???

Jiang Cheng fucking spoils Jin Ling.

Just because he doesn't show his love like how the cool and funny uncle does, doesn't mean he loves Jin Ling less WTF

It's been years since I read the novel, but I still remember that when we were introduced to Jin Ling, he was on a night hunt with his uncle Jiang Cheng practically babysitting him

Yes, Jiang Cheng sounds harsh. But he was raised the same way, so it's the only way he knows to show that he cares. In spite of his harsh words on that night hunt, dude literally spent Jiang clan fortune to set traps for Jin Ling all over the mountain just to make it easier and safer for Jin Ling, so much so he got into an argument with other clans because it made the hunt unfair

And how could he not love Jin Ling??? That's literally his only family left!!!

He was enraged with Wei Wuxian for telling Jin Ling how he doesn't have a mother to teach him manners because it was partly WWX's fault why Jin Ling doesn't even have a mother in the first place!!!

And when Jin Ling is bullied, he'd threaten the other person that he'd call his Uncle Jiang.

And at the end of the novel, when Jin Ling became the head of the Jin clan, many people opposed to it. It was Jiang Cheng who shut them all up with zidian.

Jiang Cheng wants to help Jin Ling more with the clan, but Jin Ling refused because he cares about his uncle too! It would look bad if a Jiang kept meddling in the affairs of the Jin clan

These two love each other. Jin Ling may not get along with Jiang Cheng like how he would with his cool and funny uncle, but he definitely loves and respects Jiang Cheng just as much. Denying that just to put down Jiang Cheng and elevate Wei Wuxian makes me sick.

God, this is why I barely interact with the MDZS fandom. A lot of you treat the characters and their relationships as black and white. I love Wei Wuxian, but you guys are always hailing him as a saint while treating Jiang Cheng as some kind of unforgivable evil. God fucking fandom with no reading comprehension

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #jin ling #mxtx #danmei #mdzs spoilers #danmei spoilers #vent #miyamiwu.src

[nutcasewithaknife]

Controversial take time! Wei Wuxian knew that his siblings always loved him, but believed that they were making a mistake in doing so.

(This got too long, it's is under the cut!)

Hear me out. I don't think that Wei Wuxian didn't know he was loved unconditionally. He knew!! For a whole year or so after the war, he was at Yunmeng doing less that the bare minimum to help rebuild, and his brother is mad about it. But he still tries to stand up for Wei Wuxian in front of the rest of Jianghu! The have the stupid soup conversation! Yanli goes off at Jin Zixun in front of half the Jianghu bigshots for insulting him, runs into a battlefield for him after he's killed her husband!! He's never truly afraid of meeting Jiang Cheng post-resurrection, not surprised at all at being asked why he didn't come home. He's just trying to avoid the inevitable mess of feelings that the meeting would entail. Afterall, when it came down to it, Jiang Cheng shut his eyes and stabbed a rock in the end, not him, not even after he'd killed their sister.

Now for the argument. Look, the sibling trio has some complex dynamics, but they survived that household on a mutual understanding that they love each other. That's why Wei Wuxian leaving is the point that casts everything into doubt - they have always been together, and that was an immutable fact until it suddenly wasn't. I don't thing Jiang Yanli or Jiang Cheng ever understood how much Wei Wuxian took their mother to heart - he truly believed any love he deserved was to be earned, because was was a servant. Unconditional love was for family only!

It hit me only while watching the best scene aka Yanli ripping into Jin Zixun at the hunt. She defends him, basically declares him as part of her family, and Wei Wuxian? He's watching his sister having to defend him when it should be the other way round, getting flak for sticking up for him too. He's in agonies the entire time! He's not even happy about jzx getting verbally eviscerated in public!

Most obvious between Sunshot and leaving with the Wens, there's a pattern. Wei Wuxian may not be stepping in as First Disciple to rebuild, but he's still useful - nobody will dare harm the Yunmeng Jiang while he is part of it and holds the power of the Stygian Tiger Amulet. And then, slowly but surely, he sees his brother and and sister standing up for him, deescalating political situations caused by others vying for the very power he possessed and wanted to use to protect the sect. It was actually harming them, in a way that couldn't be solved by its brute force. He is the opposite of useful, now - he's the root of a brewing threat to the sect. This is a huge part of why he leaves! He's pushing away the people he can no longer help but only harm, and he's going to those who he can still be useful to.

Yes, it's about keeping them safe because he loves them, and about protecting lives, but also because he thinks his brother and sister had it wrong all along - they saw him as family when he was just a servant, and therefore acceptable as collateral damage. He cannot allow them to protect him, because that's his job even if they refuse to acknowledge that, isn't it? He left because he thought he was useless, a danger, he didn't deserve their love after they had to defend him at the cost of harm to the sect and themselves. It really fits into his habit of deciding for others once he's made up his mind, doesn't it?

The crux of it is, I think, that he eventually learns that he can have a family. That's why Lan Wangji is important. He doesn't have a fragile, struggling sect of people to protect above everything else, unlike Jiang Cheng. He doesn't die while trying to stick to Wei Wuxian's side, unlike Yanli. He doesn't die for Wei Wuxian either, like Wen Qing. Lan Wangji is able to stay by his side and survives it long enough for him to realise that maybe, just maybe, having him as family is worth breaking rules for, and won't get people killed by default.

#wei wuxian #meta #cql #mdzs #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #lan wangji #Wangxian #yunmeng siblings #the untamed meta #wwx #lwj #jc #jyl #he has sooo many issues. I adore him

[rayan12sworld]

💠💙the universe would turn to a mighty stranger

By:RavenclawLoki

Summary:

“I understand many of you may not be taking this indoctrination to heart.” Wen Chao pompous voice rang through, finally breaking the silence. If Wei Ying was next to him, he would roll his eyes so dramatically that Lan Wangji would be able to hear it - the thought comforts him. “Which pains me; submitting to the rules will makes this a much more pleasant experience. This is supposed to be educational for all of us. So, in case any of you aren’t taking this seriously still…” He eyes traveled to his side where two guards holding something lifeless by either arm, walking towards Wen Chao and the teens following his gaze.

Nie Huaisang stiffened next to him.

Jiang Wanyin screamed his brother’s name.

Jin Zixuan’s inhaled sharply.

But all Lan Wangji saw was Wei Ying.

Chapter:1/1

Words:11,282

Status:Completed

“Get away from him!” Lan Wangji’s fingers tightened around Wei Ying’s face and he wants to cover Wei Ying with his body, hide him from sight, can’t let – won’t let – will never let them touch him again. It was going to be fine; Wei Ying had been trying to protect him, keeping him from the wrath of Jiang Wanyin and lastly Wen Chao. Lan Wangji would protect him now, like he should have – like he should have when Wen Chao took him away and forced Wei Ying in the dungeons; but it was going to be okay now because he would help Wei Ying now. Fingers tightly wrap around Lan Wangji’s arm and he is roughly hauled up. His hold on Wei Ying breaks and he wants to snarl, bare his teeth and rage at who dares to pull him away from Wei Ying until he faces who is grabbing him by both arms, tears streaming down their face as Lan Wangji is being shaken back and forth slightly. “You let them take him away!” Jiang Wanyin’s voice trembles though his grip doesn’t. “I wasn’t there. I wasn’t there – but you were! You could have done something! You don’t get to touch him!” With a heavy shove, Lan Wangji is pushed down to the ground, shock still piercing through him enough that he can’t even be thankful for landing on his unbroken leg. Lan Wangji can only watch as Jiang Wanyin falls to the ground and pulls Wei Ying into his arms, his nose and lips pressed on the top of Wei Ying’s hair. He rocks his brother in his hold, mumbles under his breath with broken whispers. ~~

Jiang Wanyin was holding Wei Ying too tightly, he was going to hurt him - Wei Ying should be teasing his brother about it, Lan Wangji can hear his voice so clearly “I knew you cared, A-Cheng!” but he doesn’t –wrongwrongwrongwrong - He wants to pull Wei Ying into his arms and take him away to - Gusu? Lotus Pier? Did it even matter? As long as it was away from here, somewhere Wei Ying could poke fun at him, sling an arm around his shoulders like he belongs by Lan Wangji’s side (he does he does, he always has), sneak alcohol in; all of that would be fine. It would be fine – Wei Ying just needs to get up. Okay Wei Ying? If you get up, I won’t tell Uncle about any of the rules you break, and if he find out, I’ll do the copying lines for you, okay? I'll take care of you. Please, just get up ~~

Was your little mission worth Wei Wuxian’s life?” If Jiang Wanyin’s voice cracked at the question, who was going to judge? Lan Wangji stiffened. No. Of course not, how could he – how dare he? “No,” Lan Wangji snarled. A small part of him knew that Jiang Wanyin was grieving in his own way, anger and resentment outweighing his grief and despair; Lan Wangji should keep silent, let him rage…but fury was overwhelming him. Nothing was worth Wei Ying’s pain. Jiang Wanyin scoffed bitterly. "I thought it was against your precious sect rules to lie.” Lan Wangji eyes narrowed dangerously. “It is.” “Oh look, he does have emotions,” Jiang Wanyin’s scathing laugh of worthy of Wen Chao’s. “It only took getting someone killed. How sweet.” ~~

It’s nice to know the pristine jade has some feelings for my brother even if it’s a little,” Jiang Wanyin emphasized “my” as he continued to push at Lan Wangji. “he always said you gave a damn about him, though you always were unworthy of his attention, his time, his affection – all of it.” Lan Wangji snapped his head back, glaring at the other. What was he even talking about? Jiang Wanyin looked at him with confusion before his eyes widened the slightest bit. “I can’t believe it,” he shook his head with disgust. “After everything, after walking around you like a lovesick idiot, after following you on a stupid mission, protecting you from being tossed in the dungeons with him- I figured you would have suspected it.” “What are you saying?” Lan Wangji couldn’t understand what Jiang Wanyin was getting at, because it was starting to sound like…like Wei Ying looked at him the same way he looked at Wei Ying, and that was impossible. Jiang Wanyin shook his head indignantly, positioning his body away from Lan Wangji. “He was in love with a moron.” He whispers in disgust. Lan Wangji snapped his head towards the other teen. His heart stops at once. What? “What?” Jiang Wanyin doesn’t gift him with a reply, merely shakes his head ruefully before hunching over himself as he turns away from Lan Wangji’s sight. Wei Ying…wanted him? He l…he loved him? For how long? All this time? Wei Ying loved him back – But what did it matter? He failed Wei Ying. Maybe this was a fit punishment; to know Wei Ying loved him in return and not be able to do a thing about it. He let Wei Ying die, alone, scared, knowing that no one was coming for him.

Okay, guys don't start crying it's definitely happy ending, I have cried enough

#wangxian #wangxian recommendations #mdzs #mxtx mdzs #wangxian fanfic #ao3 recs #the untamed #mdzs fanfic rec #mdzs lwj #lwj x wwx #lwj #mdzs wwx #wwx #wangxian fic rec #the universe would turn to a mighty stranger

[wutheringskies]

S3 EP 5: Lan Wangji visits Yiling CN Audio Drama + Inspired Meta about Mistakes

My heart feels so heavy. The episode starts with Jiang Cheng denouncing Wei Wuxian. There are a thousand rumours about him, instantly squashed by his own appearance. There is then Lan Wangji, who is cautious and hesitating. There's poor, good, Wen Ning, who wonders if he offended Lan Wangji in any way. There's the tsundere Wen Qing. There's A-yuan painting his happy picture with rich-gege, poor-gege, granny, qing-jiejie, granny, ning-gege, fourth uncle, wen bing bing etc, etc. There's Wei Wuxian saying it doesn't matter if Lan Wangji walks a broad-lit path, as he will continue to walk down the narrow path. There's Wei Wuxian saying Lan Wangji has plenty of stuff on his hands with his sect duties, and that he will probably never visit again, and his sad laugh. There's the nervous Wens, the knowledge that Wei Wuxian either goes out everywhere or locks himself into his cave, there is Wei Wuxian getting introduced to all the Wens, there is the Wens saying that they'll walk through fire and rain for him, there's a toast to him, there's him saying the road is not dark after all.

This makes the scene at the second siege all the more important.

"There is something I wish to do. Will you do it with me?"

"I will."

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have always shared the same sort of beliefs, yet walked different paths, bound by filial duty. Now, they finally walk the same paths.

But the thing that struck me the most is that Wei Wuxian, despite wishing to be closer to Lan Wangji, refuses to leave behind the path he must walk on. He'd rather say farewell to Lan Wangji than place him above his duty. I find this aspect of their relationship so necessary, the fact they are clingy but not dependent. They're both individually strong-willed people, who accept the loss and separation in life with grace, who accept defeat and humiliation and punishment with grace, and come out of desolation a better version of themselves.

Lan Wangji himself was certain that the unorthodox path would cause one to 'lose control,' cause damage to the heart, to the body, and Wei Wuxian does eventually 'lose control.' Yet, Lan Wangji never has an 'I told you so,' moment, despite being the one who had scolded him the most, as he looks deeper into the tangles and nets that Wei Wuxian was caught in than just the dark nature of his cultivation, his lair, and the surnames of the people he was protecting. He comes to terms with the cultivation world. Bound by filial duty towards his sect, he cannot help Wei Wuxian. Yet, he chooses to disregard this filial duty and picks his morals in an integral moment - which is what Wei Wuxian did, a year or two earlier. Despite being the one to pester him endlessly to come back to Gusu, Lan Wangji fights against his Gusu elders, thus disregards the orthodoxy, and drops Wei Wuxian back into the Burial Mounds - on his own chosen path.

Similarly, Wei Wuxian still apologizes to Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji still goes back to take his punishment for betraying their filial duty - Lan Wangji more so, since he's the literal heir of the sect. But neither of them apologizes for choosing their moral duty.

Similarly, when Wei Wuxian came out of the Burial Mounds when he was seventeen, he killed the Wens in a blood-thirsty manner, digging up the graves of their ancestors, making the Wen soldiers face their own dead family, etc. These actions were justified in the war, praised by the cultivators, and accepted as an act of revenge.

Yet, these actions went against Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's personal moral codes. Lan Wangji, since the age of eighteen, felt it was excessive and cruel, and could only blame Wei Wuxian's new cultivation path for darkening his heart. Once Wei Wuxian is in a better mental state, he too feels it was too much and regrets those applauded actions.

Thus, both of them have made mistakes, have been hurt and retaliated, and realized certain things too late. They are not perfect but they aren't meant to be, as they are still humans - children, to young adults, in highly stressful, unprecedented situations with no major support systems to rely upon.

Yet, instead of being burdened by the shame and their own failures, they come out stronger.

Lan Wangji

Disregarding his filial duty to his sect -> Accepts punishment and seclusion, teaches the new generation of Lans, night-hunts, and marries Wei Wuxian, and comes back to the Lan sect.

Leans heavily into the generalisation that dark methods are evil: The Lan juniors taught by him argue that Wei Wuxian may not necessarily have created the 'dark methods' to create harm, shows his gratitude to Mo Xuanyu and his sect implements the said dark methods in their orthodox night hunting.

Unable to understand his feelings, pushes Wei Wuxian away -> Regardless of his feelings, stays by Wei Wuxian's side, enduring all of his teasing. Even after their biggest misunderstanding in the Yunping inn, he tells Wei Wuxian they'll continue on the same path the next day.

Fails to protect the Wens: Rescues Wen Yuan, does literally anything to get him accepted into the Lan blood line and have that protection, lets Wen Ning stay (when he is sober and not jealous), bows to the Wen remnants, never attends Jin banquets, never speaks to Jiang Cheng, publicly showing his disapproval while being perhaps the most revered cultivator for the common people.

Fails to protect Wei Ying: He's always there to catch him now, sword out, on Wei Ying's side, against the entire cultivation world. But perhaps, more importantly, willing to sheathe his sword for Wei Ying. Staying by his side if he is hurt, standing up for him, silencing those who speak against him. Hugging him when he sees dogs. Keeping his memory alive.

Fails to prevent Jiang Yanli's death: How many times has Jin Ling been saved now.

Wei Wuxian

Creating the Stygian Tiger Seal: Destroys one-half rendering it useless. Yet, once it is recovered, he still takes responsibility and protects those who are harmed by it. Eventually, he doesn't take the seal, and lets it be sealed with JGY and NMJ, abandoning it.

Digging up the Wen ancestral graves to take revenge: Though, it was justified in the war, so it isn't a wrong. Yet, character development is being regrettable about it. He can't undo those actions.

The Nightless City and demanding righteousness: Once again, as the ceremony in Nightless City was an oath to lay siege on the Burial Mounds, going against their promise to him of 'letting the matter go,' Wei Wuxian was justified in his actions. But character development is learning self-preservations and running away rather than protesting, when faced with those who are more powerful than you (I would also like to inform the readers that if not at Nightless City, then maybe a month later, or two months later, this would have eventually happened anyway) but Wei Wuxian learns.

"Betraying" his promise to Jiang Cheng: He apologizes for breaking the promise of staying by his side in the future. Despite everything, the fact he chooses to do this is just admirable.

Trusting the Jiangs after their ways had already parted: Includes not drawing up clear boundaries, having Jiang Cheng know his weakness, going to Jiang Yanli's son's anniversary etc. Fixes this by firmly parting ways with Jiang Cheng. His relationship with Jin Ling is now just his own!

His so-called arrogance: This is also regretted and wishes to beat up his pretentious younger self are made.

Saying everything that is on his mind: Holding his tongue and recognizing that people are simply unrighteous at heart, and choosing to leave rather than fight, and have fun with his husband who shares similar beliefs.

Downplaying his pain: Admitting that it hurt when he fell, plus other scenes. All he needed was a safe space, someone who can be stronger than he is, and didn't treat him like an option.

Breaking every Gusu Rule and teasing Lan Wangji: ----

Thus, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji really go through multiple challenges and come out stronger. The path of righteousness is bitter, coupled with losses, and lonely yet these two walk it alone, and leave behind strong people who follow the same. On one side, unrighteous acts lead to many deaths and losses, to be righteous may be to add to those losses, yet it was due to righteous acts like people like Mianmian and Lan Sizhui, who are also very righteous are. Thus, the road may be lonely at first, but the numbers of the travelers will only increase.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #my meta #canon jiang cheng #mdzs meta #my thoughts #my essays #MDZS audio drama #wen remnants #burial mounds settlement days

[robininthelabyrinth]

Wei Wuxian as a healer

“Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian skittered to a stop in front of Lan Wangji. “You have to help me!”

Lan Wangji looked on the verge of turning on his heel and stalking away, only restraining himself on account of how utterly rude it would be – but of course, that was why Wei Wuxian had done it this way.

“I’m serious,” he insisted. “I need your help! It’s dire!”

Lan Wangji was a good person at heart. Even if it was someone who he (quite obviously) found as incredibly irritating as Wei Wuxian, he wouldn’t turn down a sincere request.

Sure enough, Lan Wangji, although still stiff and tense, didn’t run away the way he had the last few times they’d met, and instead looked at him questioningly.

Taking that as permission, Wei Wuxian proceeded to pour out his heart: “My dad wants to arrange a marriage between me and Wen Qing!”

“I am aware.”

Wei Wuxian huffed. “Everyone’s aware. My mom is the biggest blabbermouth in the cultivation world, bigger even than me; sometimes I think that’s what she’s really famous for rather than being an immortal’s disciple…anyway, not the point. The point is, he thinks we’ll be happy together because we argue all the time.”

“You also write to her often,” Lan Wangji pointed out. “You are always by her side at every conference.”

A pause.

“…do you – not want to marry her?”

“No! Of course not!” Wei Wuxian waved his hands. “She’s the only other person our age that wants to be a healer like me – she’s a study buddy. A fellow doctor-in-arms! A work rival! We only talk as much at conferences as we do because the Wen sect reads each other’s mail and we don’t want our ideas to get stolen – it doesn’t mean I want to marry her, or that she wants to marry me. In fact, if we got married, we would kill each other!”

“I see,” Lan Wangji said, and for whatever reason the pale, withdrawn look that he’d had so often recently – possibly due to some illness he wouldn’t allow Wei Wuxian to try to diagnose? – seemed to fade away. “I will assist. What can I do?”

“You’re the best,” Wei Wuxian said, rubbing his hands together in glee. “All right, now, my parents are dyed-in-the-wool romantics, so the best way to get them to leave me alone would be to appear already taken. That’s where you come in –”

Jiang Cheng had nearly choked to death when he’d told him about his brilliant plan, but what did he know? Wei Wuxian didn’t see any flaws in this idea.

None at all.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons

[youhideastar]

Fit for Purpose Deleted Scenes VI: Wangxian

Today's deleted scenes from Fit for Purpose are all Wangxian, all the time, including their happy ever after! Other deleted scenes posts are linked in the masterpost. I hope you enjoy!

There aren’t very many deleted Wangxian scenes specifically, because the way I pared down this fic was to delete all the stuff that wasn’t Wangxian. 🤣 But when I was planning to cover the backstory in more detail, I did write this version of their first meeting:

The first time Wei Wuxian meets Lan Wangji, the Second Jade of Gusu Lan, they almost come to blows. Wei Wuxian can’t let a-Cheng and Jiejie—especially Jiejie, with her health—spend the night in the woods, and if Lan-er-gongzi were at all reasonable, he would just let them in… but no. Wei Wuxian tries reasoned argument. He tries indicating—delicately, of course—that he’d be very grateful if Lan-er-gongzi made an exception.

It’s like talking to a wall.

How can someone so beautiful be so obnoxious?

The second time they meet, after Wei Wuxian has flown all the way back to Caiyi for the invitation, they do come to blows.

I also enjoy this little snippet of teenage WWX not at all understanding his own attraction to LWJ:

It’s a little bit of an odd feeling, because Wei Wuxian has never tried to get someone to fuck him before. Alphas and omegas come to him. Not the other way around. And of course, he can’t ask – he can only offer, and tease, and provoke, and make absolutely sure that Lan Wangji knows Wei Wuxian is… available.

But he just can’t stop thinking about it. About how good he could make it for Lan Wangji. About what it would be like to take him to bed.

He can’t shake the feeling, despite how rigid and boring and pedantic Lan Wangji is, that sharing his bed would be fun. Lan Wangji is so fun to tease and banter with and prod for a reaction – wouldn’t that hold true in bed? That’s the conclusion Wei Wuxian comes to, anyway, when he thinks about it. Which is often.

Then there are a few snippets from the “present-day” timeline.

Sometimes, at the oddest times, he remembers Lan Zhan saying, What would Wei Ying do, if someone were in love with him?

It’s—he can’t even imagine. Obviously. Or—he can start to imagine, but of course, it never goes anywhere.

After all, if he’d been an omega (and he never thinks about why his mind always goes there and not if I’d been an alpha), then he’d never have come home with Jiang-shushu from Yiling. Meaning he’d have been mauled by dogs or starved to death or sold to a procurer and that would have been the end of it. He’d never even have met Lan Zhan.

That’s enough to shut up the Lan Zhan in his head. For a while, anyway.

We could all use a Lan Zhan in our heads, no?

This next conversation turned out not to be necessary, but a line from it became the “I do not want to be to Wei Ying what others have been” line that is, to me, the core of the present-day storyline.

Wei Wuxian works up his courage. “Lan Zhan, was it—bad? The time before?”

Lan Zhan looks quizzical.

“The… when I helped you out, you know.” Still no comprehension. “When you kissed me,” he tries, and yes, the light goes on.

“It was not bad,” Lan Zhan says swiftly. So that’s something, anyway.

“But did I do something wrong? To make you—not want it again?”

Lan Zhan shakes his head. He kisses Wei Wuxian’s forehead. “Wei Ying did nothing wrong,” he murmurs. Beat. “I understand that others have been interested in being… serviced. I am not.”

“Oh.” That still sounds like he didn’t like it. But maybe that’s for reasons that don’t have to do with Wei Wuxian.

Finally, this next bit is so cute and it killed me to cut it, but there just wasn’t a place for it. Just imagine that this scene takes place after the fic ends, okay? This is their happy ever after. ❤️

Lan Zhan smiles every time he comes in the door of the Jingshi and finds Wei Wuxian there.

Wei Wuxian asks him, one day. “Why are you smiling, ah?”

“Wei Ying is here.”

“That can’t be all,” Wei Wuxian says, rolling his eyes.

Beat.

“For sixteen years. I walked through this door, and Wei Ying was not here.” Beat. “Now, he is.” Beat. “That is all.”

I hope you enjoyed! Tomorrow, the final batch of deleted scenes will be a grab bag of stuff that didn't fit any particular theme, featuring Jin Guangshan, Xue Yang, and WWX's feelings about his resurrection.

#the untamed #my writing #wangxian #deleted scene #cql fic #fit for purpose

[admirableadmiranda]

Something that annoys me about this “if you say this character is evil, you’re reading MDZS wrong” is that MXTX didn’t actually mean to write this “oh we’re all grey” story. She openly dislikes JGY, and she thought of JC as WWX’s crazy ex shidi with deep problems. Like, they aren’t there for you to justify their actions (god knows they did it a lot of times already) or to try to make them look good by putting them in the same bag as the protagonists just because “they’re all well fleshed and complex characters that are morally grey and flawed”.

What a way to miss MDZS’s actual message. It saddens me because WWX’s hero journey is as tragic as it is beautiful. I wish I was as brave as him, to oppose injustice even if I am alone against the world.

Yeah I totally get you anon! I’m not sure why it’s so hard for people especially in MDZS to figure out (though I have seen it for her other two works too, but not to the same extent), but she’s actually pretty clear in her work on who’s admirable and who’s not. Even when she’s deliberately using framing to get you to question what you’re hearing versus what you’re seeing, it’s pretty clear who you’re supposed to doubt the narrative about and who you’re not. Jin Guangyao is revealed as the main villain less than halfway through the book, after all!

There are works where that would be an appropriate reaction. Sometimes the heroes can too, be deeply flawed, negative people. But that’s not where MXTX is writing from and from what danmei/xianxia I’ve consumed so far, she has some of the least morally gray characters scattered through her works. She’s clearly very big on the idea that people can and will choose to do good if they want, and also that while it certainly doesn’t exempt them from flaws, that also flaws do not have to be hero killers.

Wei Wuxian is killed not because he is occasionally a little tactless and also keeps people at a distance because it is a very slow journey to trust them enough, but because his morals and willingness to stand up for them are inconvenient to the people in power. He is a flawed, well rounded character, but that’s not why he was hated or why he died. Similarly Jiang Cheng having sympathetic backstory and losses does not exempt him from being a shitty person because as we see in the novel, he’s not the only person who loses everything in his life, but he’s the one who decided to stew in it.

MXTX is so big on your choices define who you are, not your position or history. What matters most is what you do in the shadows and the light. That’s why Wei Wuxian is so heroic, he is always willing to stand by his morals even to the bitter end. It is tragic, but also it’s so full of hope, even! Look at what he has in the end of the story, it is so solidified that his choices and sacrifices did make a difference! Lan Sizhui is alive, well raised and cared for, because Wei Wuxian made that sacrifice for him. Mianmian is out living her best life with Mr. Mianmian and Mini Mianmian because she chose to follow Wei Wuxian’s bravery and has never regretted it. Jin Ling is blossoming under his patient guidance into a wonderful young man who can hold his head high with pride. It may be tragic, but so much good came from it too even if in the immediate moment it was hard to see.

And you know what, anon? We can be that too. Maybe not as far as he goes, but we can still shine bright and make the choices that have positive impacts down the road. We can be Mianmian, inspired by him to do the same that he did on the scales that we can.

The world may be a big thing to save, but we can always save little pieces of it here and there and the more of us that there are, the more powerful it becomes.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #wei wuxian is our guiding light #canon jiang cheng #asks #anon #anon asks #morally gray is a useless term in this fandom

[bloody-bee-tea]

Never what you expect

The woods are a dangerous place, everyone knows that. It’s one of the first things parents teach their children; keep out of the woods, and if you do end up in one for whatever reason, don’t step into anything that looks like a circle, don’t eat any food that you find and if you should meet someone, never speak your name and run as fast as you can.

Every child knows the woods are the most dangerous place to be, that there are creatures that take you away if you’re not careful, that take you and never allow you to come back.

And yet the woods is exactly where Jiang Cheng is running to now.

His eyes are still blurry and his cheek throbs with his mother’s handprint and it only spurs him on faster.

Jiang Cheng has never been in the woods; he has always honoured his parent’s warnings about them, always listened when they told him what not to do.

He didn’t really expect to one day do exactly what he’s not supposed to but he guesses with how his world is crumbling little by little around him this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“A circle, I need a circle,” he mutters under his breath as he makes his way through the underbrush, keeping his eyes open for anything that even remotely looks like a circle.

Jiang Cheng thought it would be easier to find; the stories certainly make it sound like you take one step into the woods and you’re basically in a circle already, but by the time he comes across a clearing with a circle made out of mushrooms the sun is already setting.

Jiang Cheng knows that the Nie’s are a very real danger—they lost several disciples to them and a local goes missing every other month—but there are other dangers out here too.

Dangers that would want to eat Jiang Cheng if he’s not careful and so he hurriedly steps into the circle.

Better the Nie’s than a wild animal, Jiang Cheng is sure of that. A wild animal promises a painful death. The Nie’s are rumoured to be more cunning. He might have a chance with them.

“Please, please, please,” he whispers as he spins around in the circle, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that seems out of the ordinary but there is nothing.

No glow, no strange wind, nothing.

Until he blinks and suddenly there are two men standing in front of him.

Fae are supposed to be graceful and thin, inhumanly beautiful and pale but the two in front of him are barely anything like that.

The inhumanly beautiful part Jiang Cheng will give them, and while one of them is a bit on the smaller side, they both have sun-kissed skin and dark hair. And the tall one especially doesn’t fit the graceful and thin description.

“Pretty,” the smaller one says, his eyes fixed on Jiang Cheng.

“A filthy human,” the taller one hisses out and Jiang Cheng takes a step back in fear before he remembers himself.

This is what he wants.

“Mh,” the smaller one thoughtfully hums and starts to circle around Jiang Cheng.

“Huaisang, what are you doing?”

“He stepped into our ring, and he doesn’t seem afraid. Do you think it was deliberate?”

“Humans are stupid. How deliberate could it have been. Look at him, he’s afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” Jiang Cheng tells them. “I’m just not stupid. I know you can kill me in seconds if you wish.”

“Good,” Huaisang drawls at him, coming uncomfortably close.

It doesn’t seem as if he’s blinking at all.

“What do you want?”

“Da-ge,” Huaisang complaints, and glares at his brother. “You need to be more polite. Look,” he says and turns back to Jiang Cheng.

He smiles at him and a cold shudder runs down Jiang Cheng’s back. It only barely has to do with the sharp teeth Huaisang shows. The smile is cold and dangerous and promises him a world of regret, but Jiang Cheng is not going to go back.

He will not. If he has to die here, then that’s still better than what his parents want him to do.

“My name is Nie Huaisang,” he introduces himself. “And this is Nie Mingjue.”

Jiang Cheng relaxes when he realizes what Nie Huaisang is after and he even dares to give him a smile in return.

“And my name is Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Cheng,” he gives back with a slight bow but he still sees the triumphant look on Nie Huaisang’s face.

“That was stupid, little human,” Nie Mingjue tells him, though he doesn’t seem displeased. “Now you can’t get away.”

“Good,” Jiang Cheng says and meets Nie Mingjue’s gaze. “If you have something to eat for me, I would gladly take that as well.”

“You did not come here on accident,” Nie Huaisang mutters as he circles Jiang Cheng again and his gaze gets caught on his cheek.

Jiang Cheng guesses the handprint must still be there, bright and red.

“Who did that?”

“My mother,” Jiang Cheng replies and watches how Nie Mingjue narrows his eyes at him.

“So what? She slaps you one time and you run away?” he sneers and Jiang Cheng shouldn’t care what this fae thinks of him but the thought that he’s disappointed with Jiang Cheng cuts him deep.

“No,” he tells them. “This is just—this is nothing,” Jiang Cheng says, raising his fingers to touch his cheek. “They want to marry me off to Wen Xu.”

“The Wens,” Nie Mingjue hisses and suddenly he doesn’t look human anymore.

It’s as if his form contorts into something outside what Jiang Cheng’s brain can comprehend and all that’s left is a bone-chilling sense of danger.

“You’re with the Wens.”

Not even his voice sounds human anymore and Jiang Cheng can’t stop himself from taking a fearful step back.

“No, I’m not,” he still forces himself to say but it’s only when Nie Huaisang steps between them that he feels somewhat safe.

“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang warningly says and it seems to be enough because Nie Mingjue turns back into something that Jiang Cheng can actually look at.

“Get out of our woods. We don’t want your kind here,” Nie Mingjue says, already turning around as if he’s going to walk away and Jiang Cheng doesn’t know what possesses him but he rushes forward and reaches out for Nie Mingjue’s sleeve.

“No, please, you can’t make me go back there, please,” he pleads but it’s not Nie Mingjue who answers him.

“Why not? You should feel honoured, no? The Wens are like royalty in your world, are they not?” Nie Huaisang asks, his head tilted in an entirely unhuman way.

Jiang Cheng feels as if he’s being pinned by the gaze of a predator and he thinks that thought is probably not that far off the truth.

“They are—something about them is strange. Something is not right with them,” Jiang Cheng admits and he shivers just remembering the way Wen Xu had looked at him as if he was delicious treat.

And not even in the sexy way.

It’s probably stupid, but Jiang Cheng had been more afraid of Wen Xu than he is of Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang right now even though they pose a real danger to him.

“Mh,” Nie Huaisang hums again and looks meaningfully at Nie Mingjue.

“We’re not taking him with us. You know what the Jiang’s did,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng feels all his hope running through his fingers.

“No, please, you have to take me. You know my name, that means you have to, right?” he desperately asks, tightening his grip on Nie Mingjue’s sleeve. “Please. Don’t send me back there, I can’t—”

Jiang Cheng cuts himself off with a sob because he truly doesn’t know what he’s going to do if he has to go back.

His mother promised him a punishment worse than the single slap. His father basically sold him off to the Wens, in an attempt to make Wei Wuxian heir to the clan and get rid of Jiang Cheng in one move.

And if Jiang Cheng doesn’t manage to get Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang to take him with them then he will have succeeded.

“You know what the Jiang’s did, right. You’re no innocent either,” Nie Mingjue almost spits out and Jiang Cheng nods.

“I know, they’ve been pushing back the woods for ages, cutting trees down where they could. My parents—I think they want to please the Wens. I—I was supposed to be Sect Leader one day. I would have made them stop but now—”

“Now you can’t even do that,” Nie Mingjue sneers at him and Jiang Cheng forces himself to meet his gaze.

“I can’t even do that,” he agrees. “But if you want to take back the parts that you lost, I can help you, I promise. If you take me with you, I’d be on your side.”

“You humans are all liars,” Nie Mingjue says and Jiang Cheng blinks at him.

“Strange,” he wonders. “That is what everyone says about you, too.”

That gets a reaction out of Nie Mingjue, who visibly bristles at his words.

“How dare you! We stand by our word, always!” Nie Mingjue says just as Nie Huaisang chuckles in Jiang Cheng’s back.

“Come on, da-ge, you have to admit that he has spirit. And you must be partial to him otherwise he’d be without his hand by now,” he adds with a teasing tone and Jiang Cheng drops his eyes to his hand that is still clutched around Nie Mingjue’s sleeve.

“Oh, sorry,” Jiang Cheng rushes out as he takes his hand back. “I didn’t mean to—I just wanted to—sorry,” he trails off, overly aware of how his face heats under Nie Mingjue’s piercing gaze.

“Don’t do it again,” Nie Mingjue gruffly says and Nie Huaisang snickers again. “And you shut up,” Nie Mingjue snaps at him, which of course only makes Nie Huaisang laugh more.

“Will you take me with you?” Jiang Cheng asks Nie Mingjue again, emboldened by Nie Huaisang’s words, but his heart drops when Nie Mingjue shakes his head.

“No.”

Jiang Cheng grinds his teeth, desperately trying to think of a solution.

“If I consume something of fae-origin then you’ll have to, right?” Jiang Cheng asks, an idea forming in his head.

It might get him killed, but it’s worth a try. He’s not going back.

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang says. “But there’s nothing here,” he goes on, but when Jiang Cheng looks at him he can see an excited glint in his eyes.

Maybe Nie Huaisang already caught on to what he is going to do.

“You’re wrong,” Jiang Cheng says and then reaches for Nie Mingjue’s head, getting his hand onto his neck and pulling him down just as he’s rising up on his toes.

The kiss is not a particularly nice one, mostly because Nie Mingjue seems slack with surprise and Jiang Cheng is too desperate to pry his mouth open with his own tongue, but it gets better when Nie Mingjue starts to react.

He kisses back for one glorious second, turning the kiss into something hot and toe-curling, before he pushes Jiang Cheng away.

“What the—”

“That counts, right?” Jiang Cheng asks, and it has to, it simply has to, because he can still taste Nie Mingjue on his lips.

“It does,” Nie Huaisang giggles out, hiding behind a newly procured fan.  “Now we have to take him, da-ge.”

“Huaisang!” Nie Mingjue bellows and Jiang Cheng was not prepared to see him go red in the face.

It’s entirely too endearing.

“Now that you’ll officially belong to us, you better bow to your new king,” Nie Huaisang says, while Nie Mingjue is rubbing a hand over his face, clearly embarrassed.

Jiang Cheng turns a questioning gaze on Nie Mingjue but he shakes his head and points at Nie Huaisang.

“Him. Don’t look at me like that. Do I look like I can sweet-talk and deceive people into doing what I want?” Nie Mingjue asks and Jiang Cheng blinks.

He feels a bit unsteady as he turns back around to Nie Huaisang.

“You came out personally to deal with me?” he whispers, even as he falls into a bow that he hopes is appropriately deep enough.

“I was bored,” Nie Huaisang says and immediately lifts Jiang Cheng out of it again. “Enough, that’s enough, welcome to the family!”

“I’m—what now?” Jiang Cheng asks, feeling completely overwhelmed.

“It’s not often that da-ge takes a liking to someone, of course you’re family now.”

“Takes a liking to someone?” Jiang Cheng repeats, turning around to Nie Mingjue. “To me?”

“You’re not the first one to try that trick,” Nie Huaisang whispers into his ear as Nie Mingjue avoids his eyes. “You’re just the first one da-ge allowed to succeed.”

“Huaisang,” Nie Mingjue sighs out but Jiang Cheng can still see the faint blush on his face.

“Why me?”

“Seriously?” Nie Mingjue wants to know and scrubs a hand over his face when Jiang Cheng nods. “You come in here, all daring and demanding and you think that’s not going to impress, especially when you don’t back down for anything? Besides, not many people can sense that something is off with the Wens.”

“You’re also cute, that helps too, I guess,” Nie Huaisang offhandedly says and now it’s Jiang Cheng’s turn to blush. “But you already had him when you revealed that it was your mother who hit you.”

“Family is not supposed to turn on each other. That’s unacceptable.”

Jiang Cheng’s mind rapidly goes through all the people who have gone missing over the last year or so, and his eyes go big when he sees the pattern.

“You took them all in? All the people who came here before?”

“Most of them,” Nie Huaisang shrugs. “We are not the monsters in this story, Wanyin.”

“So the Wens—”

“That is a conversation for another time,” Nie Huaisang decides and pushes Jiang Cheng closer to Nie Mingjue. “Let’s go home first, we can have the hard conversations over some good food.”

“He’s right, you know,” Nie Mingjue says and carefully puts a hand to Jiang Cheng’s hip. “Let’s get you to your new home.”

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng agrees, leaning into the contact and watching a slight smile tug on Nie Mingjue’s lips.

Jiang Cheng came into these woods to be a prisoner at best and dead at worst. He did not expect to find a new home and family and maybe even more with Nie Mingjue.

Link to my ko-fi

#bt writes #the untamed #mingcheng #mdzs #pre-relationship #fae #hurt/comfort #threats #humor #this is not at all like in my brain #but it's what came out of my fingers #so we all have to deal

[veliseraptor]

Top 5 fucked up siblings

worried that i always answer this one with the same five, because i'm p sure i've answered this before. but oh well here goes

1. Richard & Lymond (Lymond Chronicles). Somebody just posted an excerpt about them on my dash recently and got me thinking about them again. I love how pretty much every book has Lymond dragging Richard on a rollercoaster of emotion but The Game of Kings remains prime territory in that regard. Just Lymond inflicting emotional terrorism on his older brother. They're not quite as codependent as pretty much everyone else on this list (but that's a high bar); still fucked up. Lymond running away from Richard for a solid few years because a prophecy convinced him that their reuniting would kill Richard is another highlight.

2. Felix & Mildmay (Doctrine of Labyrinths). Speaking of codependent! I feel like the fact that I also put these two on the "fucked up but soft" list speaks for itself here, and also I feel like one could somewhat reasonably pitch Doctrine of Labyrinths as "fucked up siblings in secondary world fantasy: the series." it wouldn't be very informative but it would be accurate.

3. Jiang Cheng & Jiang Yanli & Wei Wuxian (MDZS/The Untamed). And I say again: speaking of codependent! I know Wei Wuxian is not actually "sibling" yes but the weird in-between role he takes is also part of what makes this dynamic so good. And what I love about these three is that you look at them together and you're like "awww they're so cute it's so tragic how they fall apart" and then you scratch a little and you're like "oh no. oh dear. you guys are a mess and your relationship dynamics are a disaster that ain't good" and then you scratch a little more and go "awww. they're so cute in their incredibly messed up codependence triangle" again. they're so tangled up in each other in this messy cobbled together structure, and none of them can walk away from each other, not really. not outside of death, certainly, and not really even then.

love that for them.

4. Ianthe & Coronabeth. Hope we get more of these two in Alecto. I support women's wrongs. Can't wait to see what happens here because I suspect it will be (a) not good and (b) fun to watch.

5. Shi Qingxuan & Shi Wudu. I wavered for a while on this one, thought about going for my old Thor and Loki standby, but decided since I feel like I've talked less about these two...I just find their relationship fascinating. Shi Wudu's overbearing paternalistic attitude toward Shi Qingxuan, particularly toward her favor of her female form but also just in general his...base assumption that he knows what's best for her and is just making sure she's taken care of. All the way down to stealing and swapping fates, which he specifically, deliberately, keeps Shi Qingxuan from knowing about. Which makes sense! because when Shi Qingxuan - fair-minded Shi Qingxuan who was so adamant about Pei Su getting a trial and not getting off lightly just because he's Pei Ming's protege - finds out what happened, she immediately rejects it. She's desperate to throw away her godhood, actively fighting her brother's attempts to "help." She's disgusted by the knowledge of how she ascended.

I figure Shi Wudu would've had some sense of how Shi Qingxuan would feel about it, but he needed to save his baby brother's life and he overturned the world to do so. Which would be sweet and touching in a world where it didn't come so horribly at the expense of someone else's life - but of course it had to.

And at the same time, for all Shi Qingxuan rolls her eyes and expresses exasperation and frustration with her brother and his behavior, she also doesn't hesitate to go to him when he's in need. Or, well, she does hesitate, but ultimately she can't stand back. For all her anger with him for what he's done, and in her name, she still loves him so much, and tries so, so hard to save him, to save them both.

And the fact, too, that Shi Wudu actively provokes He Xuan into ripping his head off rather than choose an option that will cause Shi Qingxuan inevitable suffering (though what he thought would happen afterward, I don't know)...yikes, dude, but also I'm kinda impressed.

I would not necessarily say that I like Shi Wudu most of the time. But I do find him, and the way he interacts with Shi Qingxuan in particular, very interesting. And I love thinking about how Shi Qingxuan wrestles with his death post-canon. (I wonder if Shi Qingxuan feels like she's responsible for both Scholar He's death and her brother's.)

#conversating #anonymous #top five meme #doctrine of labyrinths #the sad queer cultivators show #lymond chronicles #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks

[llycaons]

by request of my esteemed mutual @monky I've collected a choice selection of bad porn tidbits from this exhaustively long, 80% smut get-together series Everyday and Always by alliterationhor. I don't know how to emphasize how purple this prose is. expect way too many adjectives, a lot of passive voice, and a lot of repetition. it's decently characterized and the language flows uniquely so it's not all bad. enjoy

Wei Wuxian supposed that it should not come as a surprise that Lan Wangji was just as quiet in bed as he was otherwise. But that did make it difficult to determine whether or not Lan Wangji liked what he was doing. Perhaps it was necessary to take a different approach to acquire more precise information.

this made me laugh. it's exactly what I would imagine novel wwx doing, maybe in a better series

...

“Ridiculous.” “Ha ha ha ha ha!” Wei Wuxian threw his head back as laughter burst from his mouth.

this isn't terrible, just awkward

The sight was so obscene and so beautiful and Lan Wangji was absolutely captivated by the wanton rise and fall of those hips fucking his cock into Lan Wangji’s hand.

see there's a lot of telling in this, rather than showing. there's a fair amount of showing too, tbh, and I actually kind of liked ch1 because they really did nail the atmosphere and their character dynamic. but the longer the series went on, the more generic and bland the scenes got. and there really is so much of this language. like oh tell me again how it felt so good and they're so happy 🙄

“Yes, Lan Zhan …” The words flowed from his mouth with a deep moan. “… more …”

passive voice, very common in this fic

Wei Wuxian panted as he looked at the ceiling, feeling limp and exhausted and absolutely amazed and brimming with such an unbelievable sense of satisfaction.

...

and the intense heat where their skins touched felt so impossibly amazing it was difficult to believe it was real.

see above. sometimes just telling us is fine but it's not the same as using creative or interesting language

But soon the kisses deepened into a deliciously decadent connection of open mouths and slippery tongues and heavy breaths

no comment. just look at that adjective use

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian’s voice was dark and deadly. “Who was it?” “Who? What do you mean?” “This isn’t your fist time, right?” he accused, the words brimming with a furious jealousy. “Tell me who it was because they have to die.” Lan Wangji shook his head, not understanding the abrupt lunacy of the topic. “What are—?” Wei Wuxian’s insides erupted into a panic. Lan Wangji was still fond of this person? Protecting this person? Oh no, what if Jiang Cheng was right and it was Mo Xuanyu? He couldn’t kill Mo Xuanyu, Mo Xuanyu was already dead!

well-characterized except for this, maybe

A wide, warm grin curved the crimson coloured shape of Wei Wuxian’s lips

THIS. I've wanted to mention this line for ages. bc like...what?

Soft kisses continued to fall on Wei Wuxian’s skin as an erotic symphony of moans rose from his mouth and rippled through the air around them.

see here we are again with the passive voice. it makes the scene awkward and feel disconnected from the actual characters. saying 'that skin' or 'those lips' have the same effect

“… tell me, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian murmured, his voice a compelling current of the purest desire.

...

Both nipples received soft, wet kisses and a few teasing licks until they became hard points under the amorous attention.

passive voice AND overuse of heavyhanded adjectives

His eyes fluttered closed as those sinful lips dropped slow kisses down the muscled plane of his stomach, and a quiet groan left his mouth when those lustful lips kissed along the length of his erection above the fabric of the trousers

all the same issues + repetitive

Soft kisses fell like raindrops on that succulent skin,

I just think skin should not be described as 'succulent'

The erotic words plucked with precision at Lan Wangji’s nerves

...some alliteration, I guess?

He silenced that beautiful, vulgar mouth with his own and pushed that beautiful, wicked body down onto the bed beneath his own.

both too much repetition and not enough. awkward

“Yes …!” Wei Wuxian whimpered, as he felt the hot splash of Lan Wangji’s semen against his insides.

this was a terrible mental image. I have read a lot of porn at this point and a lot of it has been bad, but little as been as unappealing as this line. also don't call it semen 😭

While they kissed and kissed, the moans pouring from Wei Wuxian’s mouth grew louder... Wei Wuxian gave a muffled cry of pleasure into Lan Wangji’s devoted mouth.

...

When he confessed, Lan Wangji had thought that if he was somehow fortunate enough for Wei Wuxian to accept his feelings and allow Lan Wangji to remain by his side, then perhaps Wei Wuxian would also accept his touch and his kisses, in carefully measured amounts

no grammar issues, but another characterization problem. lwj would not expect wwx to tolerate his kisses if wwx does't feel the same way, and lwj wouldn't want that anyway. this kind of goes against the plot of ch1, but there's no way lwj would pursue intimacy with wwx unless he KNEW wwx felt the same way as he did. he's too all-or-nothing to be comfortable just taking scraps if wwx wasn't as devoted as him

“You are not too sore?” Lan Wangji questioned in a quiet voice, keeping the touch of his fingers light as they circled the still-squishy hole

'questioned' is repetitive and unnecessary. also don't call it squishy 😭

“I want you inside me, Er-gege,” he continued, biting his lips on a seductive smile as he stared into the dark brown depths of Lan Wangji’s eyes. “… please, I want you to fuck me with your magnificent cock!”

this was a little embarrassing to read

The deep groan of delight that rose from the back of Lan Wangji’s throat as Wei Wuxian’s hand began to stroke his cock was a divinely debauched sound that made Wei Wuxian ache for more.

adding 'divinely debauched' to my daily vocabulary

his body had no trouble relaxing into the subtle sting of being penetrated by the large length of this cock.

...

a wicked grin curving the red shape of his mouth

...

felt the hot splash of semen against his insides

😨 AGAIN???

Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian teased, pouting sweetly. “At a time like this, shouldn’t you call me something else?”

of the handful of words this author uses way too much, 'sweetly' is one of them

“Mn,” Lan Wangji answered, gently stroking the skin under his hands. “Dangerous.”

another nitpick. whose skin? obviously it's wwx's, but since it's so rarely specified there's constant mental images of the characters we know in this scene with a plethora of disembodies lips, skin, cheeks, faces, necks, backs, etc.

a soft kiss anointed the crimson-coloured shape of Lan Wangji’s mouth.

this author and the crismon shape of people's mouths...

a golden light gilded the edge of the window frame.

this is just a nitpick but if something is being gilded then by definition the thing doing the gilding is golden. repetitive

and finally, the original posted line

he loved Lan Wangji’s angelic face gazing up at him as if he was some kind of angel.

well I suppose it got the message across

#thank god I can finally delete this #ch1 may have had some good lines but nothing was worth that slog #ficblogging

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

Jiang/Jin-Centric Ideas, Part One

That trope where "this is the only thing that can kill me and I trust only you to have it" where Zidian has become so bound to Jiang Cheng that he can only pass it to someone he thinks would be able to use it against him if necessary. 

Even after All of That, faced with an impending qi deviation that he knows is going to end in violence against anyone around him, he sends it to Wei Wuxian. 

The core had been kept "obedient" out of force of will. As long as he believed it was part of his body, it behaved as such. Once he was made aware that it wasn't his, it started rebelling against his control. 

He hasn't moved from the ancestral hall in days. In fact he hasn't moved at all. Kneeling, hunched over, blood and ichor dripping down his face as the disciples desperately try to hold what's coming at bay. 

It's a losing battle and they know it, especially once the physician and head disciple see Zidian missing from his hand. 

They're aware that, consciously or not, he's sent the summons to his executioner. 

And then when Wei Wuxian arrives, husband in tow as always, and practically throws Zidian at the head disciple as he demands to know what kind of sick joke this is, the man can only laugh. 

"Of course it'd be you."

----------

An AU based on The Final Girls where Yu-furen made it huge as the villain in a magic-horror film when she was young, got typecast and hated it, and retired to submit to an arranged marriage because fuck it, she doesn't care anymore. And then after she dies, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, and their friend Wei Wuxian get sucked into the movie that made her famous and, through meeting her character and meeting her, get the closure they never got in real life. 

----------

Unhappy YaoLi forced marriage where after Jin Zixuan is killed, Jin Guangshan is absolutely not going to lose his hold on the Jiang sect, so he announces that Jiang Yanli will now be re-married to the new heir.

This is met with mutual looks of horror because they don't think of each other that way! They love other people! Not only that, this is a huge insult to both of them by basically treating Jin Guangyao as a game piece that can just be slotted in where his brother was!

Holy shit, neither of them wants to go through with this. But do they really have a choice?

No... at least not as long as Jin Guangshan is throwing his political and monetary weight around.

So they make a deal with each other.

----------

The core transfer fails. Jiang Cheng's body refuses to form the proper bonds, and Wen Qing is forced to return it to Wei Wuxian before it can shatter from the stress. 

Wei Wuxian, half delirious and in agony, does not handle this well and lashes out, and Wen Qing, deciding she's more than had enough of this, grabs her brother with the intent of leaving-

-and that's when they're all caught because the screaming fight drew too much attention. 

Dumped in the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian has no idea what's happened to the Wen siblings and by the time he manages to escape, he's so clogged with resentment and rage that he doesn't particularly care anymore. All that matters is keeping a still-coreless and now even more injured Jiang Cheng alive. 

Months later, when Wen outposts start being decimated by some unknown force, there are whispers that whoever the mysterious attacker is, he's stealing cores. 

Not melting, stealing, ripping them from the bodies of every cultivator wearing the red sun. 

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian is increasingly growing more and more maddened and desperate. Jiang Cheng has not died, but he can't be described as living either, because the gaping wound where a core should have been implanted refuses to heal, only kept from bleeding out by the continuous efforts to bind a new one. 

None of them work. Strong, weak, it doesn't matter. Jiang Cheng's body rejects every single core. 

In his fractured mind, Wei Wuxian begins to wonder… maybe the problem has something to do with compatibility. Wen Qing, that traitor, had mentioned once that most *normal* transplants had to be done between family members, didn't she? 

But Jiang Cheng doesn't have any- 

-no, that's not right. He has one person of close blood left who still has a core. A weak one, true, but perhaps a compatible one. 

The tiny bit of his rational self screams in rage and disgust, but it's become so easy these days to squash that voice in the back of his head. After all, once Jiang Yanli hears what has happened, she'll agree with him on what must be done. 

He's sure of that.

----------

Little Jin Ling who doesn't like his weird uncle and thinks Nie-gongzi is annoying but gets super ultra jealous that Mo Xuanyu is being given art lessons away from all the bullies in classes and is getting so much better because of it. He wants to draw good too! Better than that stupid jerk Jin Chan and all his jerk friends!

Somewhat exasperated with this new form of tantrum, Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng each ask Nie Huaisang if he'd be willing to take on another student. After consulting with Mo Xuanyu to make sure he's okay with having Jin Ling around, he agrees.

Nie Huaisang's teaching style is so weird compared to the Jin sect instructors. He doesn't make them copy him exactly, he encourages them to ask questions when they get stuck, and instead of rumpling up mistakes, he shows them how to salvage them into something else.

And Jin Ling can't help but notice how different Mo Xuanyu is during the lessons. He's not a cringing, mumbling wreck like he is around everyone else. He's... relaxed. Happy, even, beaming whenever he's praised and not flinching every time Nie Huaisang moves.

Jin Ling doesn't get to enjoy the lessons for long. When his yeye finds out that an outsider has been teaching him, his shushu is violently scolded and he's sent back to the regular classes with everyone else.

He hates it. The other kids start picking on him almost immediately and the instructors are cold and rude. He tries complaining, but it doesn't get him much. Shushu won't go against yeye's demands, and while jiujiu manages to convince Nie Huaisang to teach him in Lotus Pier, it's not as fun because Nie Huaisang can't visit as often as he had in Lanling and Mo Xuanyu can’t join them because he isn't allowed to leave Koi Tower at all.

But he is learning to take what he can get. 

#mdzs #jin guangyao #jin guangshan #jin ling #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #mo xuanyu #ideas

[jayktoralldaylong]

Some mdzs spoilers

No good deed goes unpunished seems to be one of the major themes in all the MXTX stories. Really a master at making you question the meaning of morality because everyone's sure they've figured it out but I ain't got no clue what being good even means at this point anymore.

Back when Mo Dao Zu Shi only had a season one, I would ponder over and over on the Jiang clan incident and my final conclusion is that Wei Wuxian sincerely did nothing wrong. Why did he get punished for saving a life? Why was it a bad thing to protect someone? Why did it become something that he might think back on with hesitation? Everyone seemed to pay for doing something kind. Wei Wuxian's biggest fatal flaw turned out to be that he can't watch people suffer. He will always step up and defend them. In anime, this is usually a good thing. This is where the power of friendship starts. Instead of having an army ready to rally behind him no matter what the foe, he instead amassed a society of enemies who would do anything to tear him down. They hated him, they feared him, they had no reason to. He would never go out of his way to hurt anyone. Yet they kept hurting his family, making him doubt his good deeds. Why was helping people wrong? It didn't make sense, and is a huge part of his tragedy.

It wasn't even unique to him!

Xiao Xingchen saved a life - a good deed! Guess what? He died for doing that. He saved the wrong life. But it's not like the wrong life has "wrong life" plastered on his forehead!

Lan Xichen trusted his best friend. I don't care what anyone says. People are always complaining that people in movies believe any shit about their supposedly closest friend way too fast. Lan Xichen stood by his friend, that wasn't something wrong. It wasn't like said best friend was killing people in front of him. Jin Guangyao did everything in his power to keep Lan Xichen in the dark. He was not a bad person for trusting and loving his best friend, and it is NOT his fault that his best friend turned out to be trash. He did not make Jin Guangyao into who he is. He got used, and he's the one living with regret simply because he's the one who lived and because he's nice like that. The only thing stopping him from Xiao Xingchen-ing his life is the duty and responsibility he has to his brother (Not his clan. Fuck his clan. They didn't do shit for his life).

And it just kept happening. Jiang Cheng saved Wei Wuxian and paid for it. Wei Wuxian saved Jiang Cheng and paid for it. Jiang Yanli tried to save her family and paid for it, so did her husband. There were people paying for their crimes but there were way more people paying for their good deeds. It's like MXTX was trying to say "The world ain't nice like that. Just pray that you're lucky or you will pay with your life." Nie Mingjue showed mercy and died for it.

And it's not unique to mdzs. I haven't gotten far with the other stories (No spoilers I'm begging you. On my knees and EVERYTHING). But so far, it's not looking good.

Xie Lian stood up for what he believed in when he chose to defend his kingdom and wowee did he pay for it. His entire life was wrecked for it. He got punishment that I think was way too much because wtf? He was 17. They could have done him a favour and just not make him a diety if this is the life they hand to him.

In SVSSS Donghua, no one in particular is paying for their good deeds just yet. SQQ did get a sting jumping in to protect Binghe. Now he's got poisoned for someone with plot armour. (SVSSS will never fail to crack me up. I'm glad MXTX wrote that story. Even if I know the depression is incoming. It's nice to have something to laugh about after all the pain and agony. How did her angst skills get even more intense? Heaven's Official Blessing is the latest book? That story is land mined with pain!!!!)

#mxtx #mxtx stories #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zhu shi #mdzs #scum villain #scum villian self saving system #svsss system #svsss #heaven's official blessing #tian guan ci fu #tgcf #mxtx thoughts #pain and misery #angst everywhere #what's even the point #of doing good in the mxtx world when you're just gonna suffer for it #with barely any compensation #mdzs spoilers

[projcpropaganda]

They Both Cried

Jiang Cheng shook his hand away, “Don’t go back there?! Are you serious? You’re telling me not to go back there? My parents’ bodies are still in Lotus Pier—could I leave just like this? Where could I go if I don’t go back?!

”Wei WuXian’s grip tightened, “What could you do if you go back now? They’ve killed even Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu. All that’s waiting for you is death!”

Jiang Cheng shouted, “Death it is, then! If you’re scared of death then get lost—don’t block my path!”

Wei WuXian lunged for him, “Revenge is never too late. We must bring back the bodies but not now!”

Jiang Cheng dodged to the side before attacking, “When does not now mean? I’ve had enough of you—get lost right now!”

Wei WuXian shouted, “Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu said for me to look after you, for you to be well!”

“Shut up!” Jiang Cheng shoved him hard, roaring, “Why?!”

Wei WuXian was pushed into the bushes. Jiang Cheng threw himself over. He grabbed Wei WuXian’s collar and shook, “Why?! Why?! Just why?! Are you happy?! Are you satisfied?!”

He clenched Wei WuXian’s neck, eyes bloodshot, “Why did you save Lan WangJi?!”

Under the grief and the fury, Jiang Cheng had lost his mind. He couldn’t control the strength that he used at all. Wei WuXian pulled at his wrist, “Jiang Cheng…”

Holding him on the ground, Jiang Cheng continued to roar, “Why did you save Lan WangJi?! Why did you have to speak up?! How many times have I told you not to stir up trouble! Not to strike! Do you really want to play the hero so much?! Have you seen what happened when you played the hero?! Huh?! Are you happy now?!

“Lan WangJi and Jin ZiXuan and those people can just die! Just let them die! What’s their deaths got to do with us?! To do with our sect?! Why did this have to happen?! Why?!

“Go die, go die, go die! Everyone!!!”

Wei WuXian’s face had turned red. He shouted, “Jiang Cheng!!!”

The hand around his neck suddenly loosened.

Jiang Cheng glowered at him. Tears rolled down his cheeks. The depths of his throat let out a cry of dying man, a painful sob.

He spoke through tears, “… I want my parents, my parents…”

He was asking Wei WuXian for his father and his mother. Yet, no matter whom he asked, he wouldn’t be able to have them back again.

Wei WuXian was crying as well. The two of them sat collapsed amid the bushes of grass, watching each other bawl.

In his heart, Jiang Cheng knew clearly that back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter at Dusk-Creek Mountain, even if Wei WuXian hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, the Wen Sect would have found some reason to come over sooner or later. But he had always felt that, if the whole thing with Wei WuXian didn’t happen, maybe it wouldn’t have been so soon, maybe there would’ve been some way to turn things around.

It was this torturing thought that filled his heart with hatred and wrath. Unable to be let out, they cut up his innards.

When the day began to light up, Jiang Cheng had almost numbed.

Throughout the night, he had somehow managed to sleep a couple of times. The first reason was that, having been too tired from crying himself weak, he couldn’t help from passing out. The second reason was that he still had the hope that this might be a nightmare. He couldn’t wait to wake up after some rest and open his eyes to find himself lying inside of his room back in Lotus Pier. His father would be wiping his sword in the main hall. His mother would be angry again and complaining, scolding Wei WuXian who winked in a funny way. His sister would be in the kitchen, thinking as hard as she could about what to make today. His shidi would be refusing to do their morning lessons properly and jumping around.

Not to wake up in a bush of weeds with his head almost bursting apart, having been through an entire night of cold wind, and discovering that he was still curled up behind a barren little hill.

The first to move was Wei WuXian.

-- ExR Chap 59

#jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng #mdzs #exr translation

[themagicmistress]

When the sun sets in Lotus Pier, the lotus that dot the lake disappear and when Jiang Cheng is little he thinks this means they must be dead. He runs every night to the edge of the docks to say goodbye and then worriedly peers out the windows in the morning. How much must it hurt, to die every time the dark so much as touches you, he wonders. The sea turning its black face to the sky, swallowing the lotus leaves.

Jiang Cheng thinks, the lotus bloom to the sun again because they know he wants them there. This is the conceit of a child, to think the world bends to you, but then, that is what Jiang Cheng is. A child watching a glistening dark that tinges the lotus petals violet. Darkening. Dying.

He learns. The lotus die every night. They come to life in the morning. He wakes and the lotus are in the lakebed again. The way of the world, these simple truths.

See, A-jie says to him. Still there, A-Cheng. Still here.

Come back soon, he tells them fervently and she laughs.

~

Jiang Cheng finds Wei Wuxian slinking back to the Main House. He squares his feet and his shoulders and when Wei Wuxian sees him, he goes still.

“Where were you,” he says. This is the only question he’s asked his brother since they left their childhood home behind them, burning.

Where were you, Jiang Cheng says. Not, why weren’t you here? Or, I want you to be beside me. He doesn’t know the words that fit these wants, too big, too frightening to put to words. Not the right ones. Instead, he demands, accuses.

“Did you know they don’t sell Scorch Seeds anymore?” Wei Wuxian says, and then smiles. Small, cajoling. “Ah, I hope the vendor is doing well. His daughter was supposed to take over the business, you know.” When Jiang Cheng stares at him in disbelief, the smile drops. Good. This isn’t a joke.

“Seeds? What the hell are you talking about?” he snaps. “We had a meeting. Where were you?”

Jin Zixun glanced over Wei Wuxian’s empty chair like it confirmed all his sneaking suspicions about him. If it was just that idiot, it wouldn’t bother Jiang Cheng so much. But it wasn’t. Unfit, lazy, drunk idiot, their faces and lilting, polite words said. Unstable, some of them whispered. Those ones scared Jiang Cheng most. And still, still his brother refused to protect himself, throwing aside his sword as though it meant nothing. How can he protect his brother when Wei Wuxian refuses to protect himself? Jiang Cheng could shake him.

Wei Wuxian shrugs. He smells like wine, sweet and cheap. “You guys talked? Solved the issue without me. I figured I’d stay out of your way.”

“You’re head disciple,” Jiang Cheng hisses at him, shoves forward and gets up close as Wei Wuxian’s expression flickers. “That means you show up. Do the work,” he sneers.

Attempt the impossible. He wants so badly for Wei Wuxian to do just that. Get back on his feet. Pull himself together and punch Jiang Cheng in the shoulder, be an eager, flitting presence at Jiang Cheng’s side the way he always has. Not this withdrawn, scarce creature who looks at Jiang Cheng like he doesn’t know he loves him.

Sometimes, Jiang Cheng thinks he dragged a corpse back to Lotus Pier that day. Or that Wei Wuxian has forgotten they’re brothers and something in the Burial Mounds killed his love of Jiang Cheng. Maybe Jiang Cheng killed it himself.

“Head disciple,” Wei Wuxian murmurs and Jiang Cheng doesn’t recognize the look on his face. “Is that me?”

“Are you drunk?” He demands. “Can’t you save it for the night? All I need you to do is show your face before you go off trying to forget what your name is.”

“Aiya, but you know I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached these days, Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian shrugs but his shoulders don’t come down. “And who wants to see my face these days? You should bring in one of the others.”

“You have to be there,” Jiang Cheng says, voice rising. “No one else is head disciple. Wei Wuxian, that’s you, do you understand?”

Wei Wuxian shakes his head, lightly. His face is distantly pitying like Jiang Cheng is a child misunderstanding a very simple concept. It makes him look extremely punchable.

“Exactly. Don’t you think someone else should be there for these very important things?” Wei Wuxian reasons and Jiang Cheng’s heart thumps mutedly up his throat.

Where are you, Jiang Cheng wants to scream at him.

“I want the words coming out of your mouth to start making sense,” he growls, and Zidian flickers over his hand without him meaning it (so volatile, so willing to hurt and hurt and scar) and Wei Wuxian winces.

“Just,” he cocks his head, casual in a way that cuts Jiang Cheng. “Maybe someone else should be head disciple for a while. And,” Wei Wuxian adds, quickly, like that makes this any better, “if you want to give it back to me, you can, but. For now. Someone else?”

“What?” Jiang Cheng says, cold all over.

“I mean–” Wei Wuxian laughs, and maybe there’s a tint of nervousness to it, but maybe Wei Wuxian hasn’t thought of them as brothers in a long time also, “really? All that responsibility for me? You said, Jiang Cheng, you said, where have you been?”

And before he can continue Jiang Cheng grabs him by his outer robes, a purple one shade from black and Wei Wuxian’s eyes go wide.

“Be where you’re supposed to,” he snaps. “You wear Jiang sect colours, do you understand? If you’re going to wear these colours, act like they’re worth something to you! Act like you belong, or don’t wear them at all.”

The last part slips in and Jiang Cheng closes his eyes. His tongue is a thorn and he can almost taste the blood it draws from Wei Wuxian. He doesn’t take it back.

Wei Wuxian looks stricken. “Right,” he laughs, a weak thing. “You’re right.”

Jiang Cheng lets go, cautiously. But Wei Wuxian doesn’t look like Jiang Cheng just told him he’s part of the sect, that he belongs here, with A-jie and Jiang Cheng.

He scowls. “You’ll be there next week, right?”

Wei Wuxian nods, a dip of his chin that lets them both know he won’t be. Jiang Cheng doesn’t protest this. He’s tired. The war is only beginning but Lotus Pier still needs to be rebuilt. He keeps reaching for his brother only to grasp at empty air and he’s so tired of stumbling in the dark.

“Okay,” Jiang Cheng says simply and Wei Wuxian’s shoulders slope in relief at the clear end of the conversation. Jiang Cheng watches him go and wonders when Wei Wuxian became gladder to go from him than to come to him.

 ~

 Within a year, Wei Wuxian insults the Jin to Jin Guangshan’s face, runs away with the Wen camp prisoners, and all but starts another war. Jiang Cheng never sees him in purple again. This is, he thinks, as the sects scream for his death and the Stygian Tiger Amulet burns at the heart of his brother and the lake water swells up over the dock boards, a disownment, in the end.

When Wei Wuxian plays his dizi, his hair drifts around him like he’s been set afloat in water, the hems of his robes gliding in the air, darkly graceful. Black as night drawing itself over an opaque lake. The lotus leaves stained. Swallowed up whole. Jiang Cheng waiting for the water to recede, wondering, where are you? Where are you?

 ~

 He rebuilds Lotus Pier after it all. Which is to say, Jiang Cheng goes home, finally, and finds the ruins of the place he once loved. He starts sending out letters, more diplomatically worded than he’s managed in his entire life, asking for assistance from branch clans, the Meishan Yu.

What Jiang Cheng wants to do is clamber over Wei Wuxian at the kitchen door as A-jie makes soup, wants to present his mother with the treaty of alliance the sects made before Nightless City and for her to smooth back his hair, wants to watch his father become Gung Gung as he holds Jin Ling and the corners of his eyes go soft in a way they never did for Jiang Cheng.

This is a tragedy in two parts, he thinks, and they sound like the halves of his name. Which one was it again? Jiang Cheng. A-Cheng. Leader. Brother.

Jiang Cheng wants. He waits for the lotus to split apart the water, breaking up, breaking open. In the mornings, the lakebed is still and empty and Jiang Cheng does not, cannot have what he wants. He rolls his sleeves up, refills the clan’s coffers and then empties it for new disciple’s uniforms, distributes their meager food stores and then does it all again when they get new shipments in from the surrounding farms.

Jin Ling’s first words are, Mama? Mama? It sounds like a question and his face reddens in alarm when Jiang Cheng starts crying.

I don’t know, he tells him. Gone away, he says around the leaves splitting up his throat.

Where, Jin Ling asks, barely old enough to toddle after Jiang Cheng on fat baby legs. Old enough to break Jiang Cheng’s heart again and again.

Away from here.

Is she coming back?

No, he snaps, and then when his nephew bursts into tears out of surprise, Hey. Hey, I’m here. Still here.

Jiang Cheng was never supposed to do this alone. When he dreamed of the future, it was a picture in three parts, golden and setting. A brother and a brother and a sister. The sun coming up and up again and sharp lotus petals peeking up with it. He dreams of the same things now. These dreams which cannot come true and will not come true, which we call wishes. His wish, choking silently, is that he wasn’t alone.

But all Jiang Cheng has is an infant in the hands that murdered his brother and a grave which he is expected to make a home. He does his best, considering–

Well. Considering.

 ~

 A-jie, in his arms, blood pooling beneath her the way seaweed makes silhouettes beneath the water. A-jie, smiling at him, at them, and he needs someone to tell him things are going to be okay. At the end of the story, there were his siblings instead of A-jie’s torn mouth and Wei Wuxian’s laugh which splits and splits.

In the morning, the lotus always come to life again. Jiang Cheng’s getting too old for happy endings. He isn’t three anymore, he’s twenty-two with his tongue in his hands, ready to draw blood. The air is viscous and thick and Wei Wuxian smiles from the wound in the center of him while Jiang Cheng draws him in red one last time.

A wound the colour of–

His siblings die smiling. 

 ~

In this story, is Wei Wuxian the lotus or the water? Choking or choked? Dying and not dying and leaving and staying and leaving and leaving and Jiang Cheng was never supposed to do this alone.

The lotus, which comes back to life but in order to do so must leave first. Which breaks open. Just: things burgeoning, things breaking apart, the shoreline speckled with closed buds like fists in wait. This is a hand outstretched. 

This is where you come back in the late nights and dawn-struck mornings. Where time suspends itself. The water, drawing itself up, the reason you hold your breath at all. Which goes on and on in the night, uninterrupted. Which suffocates and kills and is lived in.

Anytime anyone tries to put Wei Wuxian in a single, definable category, he delights in splintering apart the category between his fingers–the definitions too. Breaking through or just breaking? He loves to defy expectation, that Yiling Patriarch, head disciple, A-xian, who, once, was Jiang Cheng’s brother too.

Life is not a story and so, refuses absolutes. Which is to say: there will be no happy ending.

At the end of the day, this: Wei Wuxian is better than anyone at destroying himself.

Also: Jiang Cheng is always watching. Waiting for the lotus to die. For them to come back. Watching, watching. He has never known how to stop a death than to ask, where are you?

So again. Where are you? This is a curse, but only in so far as it is a plea.

 ~

“You spend all your time here?” He insists in the Jingshi, aware how much he, Jiang Cheng, jarrs against the white walls, white ceiling, light wooden boarding. “What do you even do?”

“I keep myself busy,” Wei Wuxian defends and hops over to his working desk before shoving a talisman in Jiang Cheng’s face. “See! The wards here are so bad, Jiang Cheng. So bad, you would think they’d get better in thirteen years, but no,” he shakes his head grimly.

“I’m sure the Lan appreciate it.”

“Ah, well, they will! Once I’m done.” Wei Wuxian scratches at his nose. “I figure, you can’t really get mad if someone desecrates your sacred barriers by making them better, right?”

Jiang Cheng snorts. That’s the kind of attitude Wei Wuxian thrived on in Lotus Pier, which thrived on him in return. He can’t quite see Cloud Recesses appreciating it as much, but then, it’s not like he’s been around here much in the past two decades either.

“And really, it’s a net positive if everyone benefits from new wards.” Wei Wuxian says, like if he just keeps talking about barriers and wards and new cultivation techniques they can avoid saying anything personal about themselves at all. “Lan Zhan will approve anyway. Maybe he could convince Lan Qiren?”

“I’m sure the Lan will bend back over themselves to make their Chief Cultivator happy,” Jiang Cheng says.

“They should! But you know, Lan Zhan really deserves it.” And here they are at Wei Wuxian’s favourite topic of conversation. “He’s too good, really, Jiang Cheng. Ah, I’m pretty sure I break at least five rules every time I so much as take a step outside but he doesn’t even mind!”

“You’re a walking violation, of course,” Jiang Cheng says. It escapes him before he can think better of it.

But Wei Wuxian just grins. “I’m Lan Zhan’s walking violation now. I think he likes it. Shameful!” he crows, delighted at the thought. “He makes too many exceptions for me.”

“See which rules need to be broken,” Jiang Cheng says. Nods. “Which can be put away. That’s you.”

Wei Wuxian blinks. “Oh,” he says and then grins like he’s only just realized ‘troublemaker’s’ a compliment from Jiang Cheng.

He scowls. Of course it is. That’s how he meant it in the first place.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what,” Wei Wuxian says, still doing it. “Smile?”

Stand there. Be there. Let the dawn light catch the spread of your hair like a slow-seeping violet. Jiang Cheng gestures at him wordlessly.

Wei Wuxian keeps grinning anyway. “Jiang Cheng, you know I can’t help it. Oh, but I must be the greatest nuisance Great Sect Leader Jiang ever dealt with.”

“Deals with,” Jiang Cheng corrects. Wei Wuxian, for once, gets it. He stops talking, a quiet, trembling hope in the corner of his mouth.

What does it take, he thinks, to say words that get where you want them, the shredded flesh of a heart bearing itself up on a palm. Oh, just a brother and a still water lake. Thirteen years and names enough to bury.

“Old man Sim came back,” says Jiang Cheng. “Well. He died a few years ago, but his daughter took over the business.”

“That’s good,” Wei Wuxian starts, blinking, wondering how this punch line ends with him.

Jiang Cheng scowls. “Her Scorch Seeds are even better than his. She uses more spices.”

His brother’s eyes light up with recognition. “I’ll have to come back to Lotus Pier sometime. Try them out, if there’s a nighthunt in the area.”

Fuck it. Jiang Cheng’s spent too many years crying over his parent’s grave, tracing A-jie and Wei Wuxian’s steps through the halls of a new Lotus Pier to deal with all this again.

“You should come,” he says. “If there isn’t. If there is. I don’t care. But don’t you dare stay at an inn.” He clears his throat, Wei Wuxian’s eyes shining. “If I so much as hear you were in Yunmeng and you don’t come to see Jin Ling, I’ll break your legs.” 

Never mind Jin Ling isn’t at Lotus Pier so much these days, that there’s no real reason for Wei Wuxian to disrupt his life but Jiang Cheng.

“I’ll come for the Scorch Seeds,” Wei Wuxian agrees, weakly.

Jiang Cheng nods and before he can think twice about it, throws him his clarity bell. Wei Wuxian catches it at his chest before blinking fast at the little charm, the thick purple tassel Jiang Cheng tied to it.

“This is yours,” he says.

“I– Jiang Cheng, you can’t,” Wei Wuxian sputters, nearly dropping it. “You don’t want to give this to me.”

A peal of metal rings through the air. Despite Wei Wuxian’s words, his fingers are white around the bell. Only Jiang disciples get the bell. To have one is to be considered good as Jiang. He’d forced one on Jin Ling for his birthday years ago.

“Don’t tell me what I want to do,” he snaps. And then, just to get it through his brother’s thick head, “if you want to get rid of it so bad, give it back to me later.”

Jiang Cheng thinks, at some point he forgot to tell his brother he loves him without wounding them. But then, maybe Wei Wuxian forgot how to listen, too.

He flits away on Sandu before Lan Wangji can get there and doesn’t look back this time. He feels hopeful eyes following him around the bend of the hills as he does, a muted chime ringing between his ears.

 ~

Life is not a story. This has been said. So, there are no happy endings. But for this to be said, it must also be mentioned that there are no tragedies either. No absolutes.

The story, instead, goes a little like this: Water in the lotus beds. Lotus beds in the water. Maybe the lotus die every night or maybe this is more a question of why Jiang Cheng thought they went anywhere in the first place. 

There is a little boy in the dark, wondering where his parents went, and Jiang Cheng holding his hand. Watching him. Watching. When Jiang Cheng wakes up, he’s there. Always. The water recedes from Wei Wuxian’s dead-boy face.

A two-part tragedy, Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian comes home to Lotus Pier, for a time, and hasn’t he learned yet that this story has more than two parts? Some of the best things come in threes. At first, there was him, and A-jie, and Wei Wuxian. And though it’s true this isn’t a story. The night slips away from the sea, the lotus breaching, blooming like fists uncurling. Palms up. Palms up. Jiang Cheng, you will never be given anything if you aren’t poised to receive it.

A story’s genre is decided by its third act.

See, A-jie says. See, A-Cheng? Still here.

They came back, he tells her.

 ~

The first thing Wei Wuxian does when he comes to Lotus Pier is gape at the lotus blossoms.

(He didn’t tell Jiang Cheng he’s coming. Next time, Jiang Cheng’s going to yell at him to write ahead so he can actually send a boat and receive him properly at the official’s pier.)

“Jiang Cheng,” he gapes and leans so far over Jiang Cheng thinks he’s going to fall in too. “You put them back! You have no idea how much I missed them.”

He’s going to say something about how, if he missed them so much, why he didn’t come back sooner. Jiang Cheng doesn’t.

He says, “I planted half of them myself. We couldn’t have all these lotus on our robes and swords if they weren’t anywhere else.” Parts of him swell with pride. “All that water and nothing in it. Looks better,” he sniffs.

“Lucky, with the water. I tried in the Burial Mounds, but there wasn’t enough,” Wei Wuxian tilts his head. “This place is a thousand times better than I ever could have made it, Jiang Cheng. Everywhere I look, a good amount of lotus, a good amount of water.”

“It needed to be done,” Jiang Cheng says, uncomfortable. “And don’t say it’s perfect. I made the carpenters put in the wrong amount of space between some of the boards on the outer docks. Watch your feet around them.”

“How can anything be wrong when the lotus are so beautiful?” Wei Wuxian leans toward him, just shy of knocking their shoulders together.

He wants to reach out. He wants to pull back.

Jiang Cheng goes, “No, really. If you don’t watch your step, you’ll put a foot through. And a single wet leg isn’t a good look on anyone.” He says, “And if the wind pushes the water, the lotus roots pull up.”

“So?"

“What do you mean, ‘so,’” Jiang Cheng crosses his arms. “It’s bad during storms. Water comes up the boards. And if we plant the lotus too far into the water, they’re pulled away.”

“You’ve been struggling,” Wei Wuxian says, joking. Not joking at all.

“You were dead a few months ago,” he snorts. “Like I need concern from you. Talk to me when your fatality rate is the same as mine.”

“You’ll still want to talk to me by then?” Wei Wuxian grins. “No take-backs, Jiang Cheng, you’re stuck with me in the next life.”

“I’m going to break your legs. And then, then I’ll throw you in the lake.”

Wei Wuxian coughs into his arm like it does anything to hide the sharp edge of his smile peeking out.

“I just mean,” his brother goes, “the water takes the lotus. But if there are too many lotus, they choke out the lake.”

Jiang Cheng blinks. “Well,” he says. “It’s a good thing there’s a whole lake, then.”

“Lots of room for both,” Wei Wuxian agrees. “Ah, everything’s so nice here. Except your scowling face Jiang Cheng. You make all this and still scowl like that? You know what I want to see in Lotus Pier? A-Cheng making any other expression for once in his life.”

He grimaces harder at that, which makes Wei Wuxian grin.

“How can I when you give me so much reason to frown,” Jiang Cheng tells him. “Lan Wangji moderating sect meetings and sighing every minute like we don’t all know you were being disgusting right outside like teenagers.”

“I’ll make sure to do it where you can see next time, then.” The face he makes at that is wholely appropriate, he thinks.

“Shut up. Shut up, gross.” He wrinkles his nose. “Why are you like this? I bet your new body doesn’t have your old one’s tolerance. Let’s go shovel so much spicy food down your throat your tongue swells up.”

“Then I’ll figure out how to talk and eat at the same time. Just for you, Jiang Cheng.”

There’s something splitting through Jiang Cheng, light streaming through the water, refracting into a million strains. The edge of light meeting the lakebed. Between the bloody sun, a violet sunset. 

He thinks, he thinks, he might do something to Wei Wuxian one of these days. To himself. This wound we call a bearing of self, an offering. Maybe not tomorrow or the day after it. One of these days, a smile.

“So,” the water says, the lotus risen up, the lotus to the water. “Where have you been?”

[A03]

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs fic #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #mo dao zu shi fanfic #mdzs fanfiction #the untamed #mxtx #mxtx fanfic #untamed fic #look i know i said id never do another but actually #i wrote that last thing two weeks ago! #so. herego #My fic #mypost #pls tell me if i got any customs or other things wrong