#lwj: no.....wei ying youre going to hurt yourself....stop this.....

[tiabwwtws-art]

Support your brother while he's going through his emo phase

#lwj: no.....wei ying youre going to hurt yourself....stop this..... #jc: 🎉🎉 go king do a murder! #mdzs #mdzs jc #mdzs wwx #mdzs fanart #mdzs meme #mo dao zu shi #mo dao zu shi fanart #the untamed #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #wei wuxian fanart #mxtx #mo xiang tong xiu #wei ying #lan wangji #mdzs lan zhan #twin prides of yunmeng #yunmeng bros #wangxian #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the founder of diabolism #founder of diabolism #founder of demonic cultivation

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

@evilteddybear requested: I always love a LWJ/WWX fic where the sect leaders, especially Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, and Lan Qiren, come to the Burial Mounds and see what it's like before attacking, try to negotiate.

Thanks for the request (and your patience in seeing it filled), hope you like it!

[Masterpost] [Ao3]

--

“Xiongzhang.”

“Wangji. I don’t like it any more than you do but it’s going to be the best solution for everyone.”

The weight of his brother’s glare is nearly a physical blow but Lan Xichen is used to it and stands firm. It helps that he can distract himself from the heat of it by focusing on the long trek down to the bottom of the staircase of Jinlintai. With Jin Guangyao busy for the afternoon Lan Xichen had offered to take Lan Wangji into the city for the day, though now he’s wondering just why he had though that would be a good idea in the first place. Now at least, he supposes, they have the excuse of going off to purchase paper fine enough to be suitable for an invitation for Wei Wuxian to attend his nephew’s one-month celebration.

“I will take him the letter myself,” Lan Wangji states, voice pitched low and steady. Though it’s an obstinate, unmovable tone that Lan Xichen has heard far too many times before, he can’t help but feel that it’s his duty to put up at least something of a token argument. He can never seem to argue with anyone but Lan Wangji, but even then he almost always ends up bowing out as gracefully as he can under the strength of his headstrong brother’s will.

“Wangji, it’s not safe…”

“Wei Ying will not hurt me.”

“I didn’t say that he would.”

“The Wens are not a threat.”

Lan Xichen sighs heavily and pauses as they reach a landing to close his eyes against the inevitability of his little brother getting to have his way. He always has until the day Wei Wuxian left with his band of Wens, and Lan Wangji has been doggedly pursuing him – whether Wei Wuxian is aware of it or not – ever since. He’s never done well with not getting precisely what he wants when he wants it, and Lan Xichen adores his brother and the fact that he’s grown up being given what few things he has wanted without much thought. However in this moment, for this situation, he can’t help but privately wish deep down that his brother knew how to practice the same sacrifice that Lan Xichen himself makes when it comes to those he wishes to protect.

“If you doubt me you may come with me.”

“Wangji-“ Lan Xichen cuts off with another sigh as his brother simply walks away, his piece said and his interest in the conversation clearly exhausted. They both know very well that he’ll do what he wants, and Lan Xichen will allow it. Which is why, in the end, it’s no surprise at all that Lan Wangji makes his way to Yiling with his invitation tucked safely in a qiankun pouch, nor is it particularly surprising that Lan Xichen has accepted Lan Wangji’s sort-of-bluff of an invitation to go with him. What isa surprise is that Nie Mingjue had elected to join them when he’d caught wind of where they were going and why.

“Mingjue,” Lan Xichen attempts to soothe now as the man in question paces back and forth in the confines of their room. In the interest of keeping the peace he had taken it upon himself to make sure that Lan Wangji got to have his own space, but any notions that Lan Xichen may have had about utilizing the relative privacy this arrangement affords to Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue have so far borne no fruit whatsoever. “I warned you that this would be a matter of patience, you didn’t have to come with us.”

“What? And let you both walk into the lion’s den? Of course I had to come.”

“Wangji and I are far from helpless, Mingjue, and he is certain that Wei Wuxian won’t harm us.”

“He’s the only one.”

“He’s not, I-“

“Xichen I will walk all the way back to Qinghe right now if you can honestly tell me that you’re completely and utterly certain that Wei Wuxian won’t hurt anybody!”

Xichen lets out an uncharacteristically audible sigh at that and fixes Nie Mingjue with one of his Looks that always make the man cave. “Even if I could meet those terms I wouldn’t want you to go back to Qinghe. It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other.”

“Can we stay on task here?”

“We are. We are waiting for someone to leave the Burial Mounds so that we may approach them in town rather than appearing threatening by attempting to infiltrate their settlement on the mountain. There is nothing to do now but be patient. What about our current activities are not on task?”

“We need to use this time to strategize. Plan. Things may go wrong. We may need to protect Wangji, he may need to protect either of us. We don’t know what we’re in for.”

“Mingjue.”

“Xichen.”

“This is not a battle, nor a war. We are approaching a young man – a young man Wangji trusts - who hasn’t done anything dangerous in a year so that we may invite him to a family event. Please sit down and relax.”

Nie Mingjue finally stops his pacing to turn a betrayed glare on Lan Xichen, but as with Lan Wangji he’s well used to absorbing Nie Mingjue’s frustration and neutralizing it with the soft, reassuring lines of his smile. Nie Mingjue has never been able to stay angry with him – or even near him – for longer than a few heartbeats anyway, and Lan Xichen watches the tension bleed from his broad shoulders with his next blustering exhale.

“Wangji believes that our presence may alarm the inhabitants of the Burial Mounds should we be allowed to enter their wards. You will need to remain calm in such a case so that we can show that we bear them no ill will.”

“Speak for yourself,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and Lan Xichen’s heart aches a bit for Nie Mingjue, so level-headed when it matters but so hot-headed when it shouldn’t. Nie Mingjue meets his gaze and then groans, covering his face with both hands and tipping his head back a bit as he says, slightly muffled, “Don’t give me that look, Xichen, that’s not fair. How do you always know how to get your way?!”

“It would be significantly harder to have my way if you didn’t know in your heart that I’m right. This is a delicate situation, Mingjue, we can’t let past anger cloud our judgement now. Wangji has been here before and he says that what’s going on here isn’t what everyone says it is. We’re only here to keep him safe on his errand and see things for ourselves, alright? Now is not the time to declare the continuation of Jin Guangshan’s blood feud with the Wens.”

“Yes, fine, fine! I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”

“And no glaring.”

“Xichen!” Nie Mingjue manages an affronted look for only a scant moment before it too fades into grumbling acquiescence as he resumes his pacing. “Fine. As little glaring as I can manage.”

“Thank you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I love you.”

“Xichen!” Lan Xichen laughs softly to see Nie Mingjue’s blush overtakes his handsome features, turning his entire face a lovely shade of red as he splutters his way through returning the infrequently-expressed sentiment and accepts kisses that thoroughly distract him from any lingering anger.

It takes two full days of waiting before Wangji suddenly stands and strides off right in the middle of their morning meal. The behavior is so unusual that Lan Xichen is instantly worried, though as he stands to follow – with Nie Mingjue hot on their heels – he relaxes ever so slightly to see that Lan Wangji is heading straight for a young man Lan Xichen recognizes dimly as Wen Qionglin. He reaches out instinctively to rest a restraining hand on Nie Mingjue’s arm when he feels the man tense next to him, but though the Ghost General looks a little wary upon spotting Lan Wangji he doesn’t look hostile. In fact, he looks as timid and soft-spoken as he had when Lan Xichen had seen him during the lectures in Cloud Recesses. The only hint that he can see that something is different than it was then is the pallor to his skin and, just barely visible through the curtain of his mostly-unbound hair, thin spiderwebs of black cracks on his neck that creep up towards the underside of his jaw.

It takes some convincing from Lan Wangji before Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue are allowed to approach, and then further convincing from Lan Xichen before Wen Ning agrees to let them all come up the mountain. He takes the invitation Lan Wangji presents with gentle, steady hands and holds it as gingerly as one would expect someone to hold little Jin Ling himself, and once again Lan Xichen finds his heart aching – this time for the cruelty of the world that always seems to touch the gentlest of souls.

The trek up the mountain is slow and hot, but the further they get from the town the colder things get. The sensation of the sun on his skin is still there, but it somehow brings him no warmth. The shade cast by the twisting, barren limbs of the trees seems wan and thin, and yet the chill he feels in their shadows reaches into his bones with clawed fingers of dread. The soil becomes loose and dusty under their feet and before too much longer he can feel resentful energy crawling along his skin, seeking weakness. That sensation, at least, passes almost as soon as he notices it and he realizes they must have passed through the wards. Things grow, if possible, even more gray and sere from then onwards, though by the time he can begin to hear sounds besides the wind through dead, hollow trees there are a few with some life in them. A few gnarled leaves on some of the branches in the underbrush, a few trees bearing small fruits.

They pass the first field for planting before they see anyone to till it, though the next field has a figure bent to their task. They sit up straight to watch them pass and Wen Ning offers a little wave to the figure who nods back, wariness etched into every line of their posture. Lan Xichen chances a glance at Lan Wangji to find him facing staunchly ahead, fist held behind his back and his eyes glued to the invitation in Wen Ning’s hand.

“Wei-gongzi should be tending to his field this time of day,” Wen Ning says in his typical soft stammer as they approach what seems to be the heart of the settlement. There are more people around now, all going about various agrarian tasks with varying degrees of vigor. Lan Xichen is about to ask what he means by field when he looks ahead again and spots it, shocking in the gray landscape around them – a bright green space dotted with soft pink petals, and a man in shades of black and grey bent over it with his trousers rolled up to the knee.

It’s clear that Lan Wangji is aching to go to him but they’re stopped before they can go any further by a small young woman suddenly in their way, her feet planted and her arms crossed over her chest.

“Wen-guniang,” Lan Wangji greets with a salute as Wen Ning offers a quiet, “Jie..”

“A-Ning. What are they doing here?”

There’s a beat of silence that Lan Xichen abruptly realizes it’s his responsibility to fill, despite this being Lan Wangji’s errand.

“Wen-guniang,” he greets with a salute of his own that Nie Mingjue copies at his side a beat later. “Wangji has an invitation to extend to Wei Wuxian, and Nie-zongzhu and I agreed to accompany him.”

“An invitation?” At her prompting, Wen Ning hurries to hold out the document itself for her to take, which she does with another skeptical glance at the three of them before she opens it to read the contents. Lan Xichen watches her face for some sort of reaction to the news that Wei Wuxian is invited to Jinlintai, but if she has any sort of feeling about it she does an admirable job of hiding it.

“Wei Wuxian!” she calls without looking away from them. Lan Wangji’s spine stiffens and goes miraculously straighter, as if Wei Wuxian’s name alone is enough to electrify. The man in question waves a mud-stained hand in their general direction without turning around.

“What is it, Wen Qing? A-Yuan is playing with Popo right now.”

Lan Xichen glances up at Nie Mingjue at that with a question in his expression though he knows Nie Mingjue likely doesn’t understand that any better than he does. Nie Mingjue isn’t even looking at him anyway, as it turns out. Instead he’s looking around what they can see from where they are – a crumbling stone structure built into the side of the mountain. Crude wooden huts made from the subpar lumber available in the twisting dead forest around them. Tired farmers in clothes that look one hard winter away from falling apart. And over it all the pall of death and decay that’s inescapable in the midst of a field that had once been, as the name suggests, nothing but a hill of bones and restless spirits.

“You have…guests.”

Lan Xichen looks ahead again in time to catch Wei Wuxian whipping around so quickly he nearly falls off his perch at the edge of his ‘field’ of lotuses, thriving right there in the middle of the Burial Mounds, against all odds.

“Lan Zhan!” he squeaks, looking utterly shocked to see Lan Wangji, let alone him or Nie Mingjue. “What are you-“

“Rich-gege!!!” A tiny voice suddenly cries and Lan Xichen is startled to see a small blur come running from the direction of one of the other fields to plaster itself against Lan Wangji’s leg.

“Hello A-Yuan,” he says softly, almost too softly for Lan Xichen to hear, and he drops his hand down from behind his back to pet the top of the boy’s head, smoothing flyaway hairs back from his little face.

“A child, Mingjue,” he whispers, though the volume can’t hide his horror. This is the ‘band of Wen rebels’ the Jin Sect is so afraid of? This is who remains as the target of their revenge and hatred?

“I see him,” Mingjue replies quietly, jaw working with a little flutter of the muscles in his cheek. “I see them.”

“Rich-gege Xian-gege said you wouldn’t come back but you did!! Pick up, please!”

Lan Xichen wonders if it’s possible for his eyes to go any wider as Lan Wangji reaches down without hesitation to curl his hands under A-Yuan’s reaching arms and, heft him up onto his hip where the boy promptly clings and lays his head down, seemingly content to hug and be held.

“Lan Zhan what are you – what are you all doing here?” Wei Wuxian tries again as he stumbles out of the mud of his pond to traipse across the space between them, cleaning his hands rather ineffectually on his robes hiked up around his hips. When he draws level with Wen Qing she holds the invitation out to him with a look in her eyes that Lan Xichen can’t quite decipher. It’s the first time she’s taken her eyes off of them since she had intercepted them, and Lan Xichen is a little embarrassed to realize he’s relieved to no longer be the subject of her sharp attention.

“They brought you this. You can go see your sister.”

“What?!” Wei Wuxian scrambles to open the letter, eyes flying across the page as he reads whatever it was Lan Wangji had written – knowing him it’s probably as bare-bones as possible, conveying only the necessary information and nothing else. It doesn’t take him long at all to look back up from the page with suspiciously shining eyes. “Is this real?”

“Mn. It was agreed upon.”

“Jiang Cheng agreed to this? And Jin Zixuan?”

“Mn.”

For an alarming moment Wei Wuxian looks like he’s in desperate need of a place to sit, but he rallies quickly and all of a sudden his smile is absolutely blinding, the way it had been once when he’d been a younger, much more carefree teenager coming to study in Gusu. When his smiles had turned Lan Wangji’s ears red and made him glare daggers through whatever poor wall or floor or passing disciple happened to be in his line of sight.

“Oh. Oh wait come in, come in, you’re making everybody nervous out here,” he says with a laugh that doesn’t sound..entirely genuine, but another glance around the settlement proves that he’s got a point. The Wens are all watching them now, tasks forgotten in the need to watch for approaching danger. “Lan Zhan sorry about A-Yuan, he probably won’t be willing to let go for a while.”

“No need.”

“Aiyah. Fine, fine. Come in. Wen Qing and Wen Ning, you too. Come on, let’s go,” he says and just like that Lan Xichen realizes with amusement that they’re all being shepherded into…a cave. It’s a spacious cave, the dilapidated remains of the palace built into the mountain, but it is still effectively a cave. There are tables set up in what’s clearly a communal dining area and Wei Wuxian bustles ahead of them to swipe some accumulated dirt from a couple of the benches before gesturing for them to sit.

“Ah Zewu-Jun, Chifeng-Zun, apologies for my manners,” Wei Wuxian says with a salute for both of them that Lan Xichen is quick to smile away. “We’re not exactly ah…equipped for visitors such as yourselves, I’m sure you understand.”

Lan Xichen takes a seat at the table between Nie Mingjue and Lan Wangji, who has now transferred the child clinging to him to his lap where the boy sits looking at the two strangers to him with wide, curious eyes.

“Xian-gege, Rich-gege brought friends this time,” he observes and earns himself an affectionate ruffle of his hair from Wei Wuxian.

“He did! And they’re very important friends so behave for Rich-gege, alright?”

“A-Yuan is better behaved than you are, Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing retorts in what Lan Xichen is sure is meant to be their usual banter, though it comes out flat and, if he’s not mistaken, too stressed for the joke to properly land. Wei Wuxian doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does then he is still adept at charging through any sort of tension with his usual charm.

“So rude, Wen Qing, we have guests,” he says with a little flourish as he finally takes his robes down from where they’re hitched up and pats them into place where they belong. It becomes even more apparent how threadbare they are with the full length of them on display. He sits down quickly enough and the Wen siblings move to stand behind him, arms crossed protectively over their chests though rather than looking intimidating, as he’s sure other people would find them, to Lan Xichen they just look…afraid.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says softly, and though Lan Xichen knows his brother well enough to know that there’s a whole thought tucked into those two words, he doesn’t know them well enough to know what those thoughts are. And that is strangely disconcerting, to realize that there’s an entire facet of his brother that he doesn’t understand anymore.

“Lan Zhan, not that I’m not pleased to see you, of course you know I am. But why are you here?” Lan Wangji flicks his gaze towards the invitation now stowed safely in the front of Wei Wuxian’s robes and the man rests a hand gently over it, though his resolved expression doesn’t waver. “This could have been delivered by post, or by messenger. The townspeople know Wen Ning, they would have gotten it to him if you had left it for us. Why did you come here in person? And - no offense Zewu-Jun, Chifeng-Zun, but..why are you part of this too?”

“Wei-gongzi,” Wen Ning speaks up softly, surprising everyone else in the room. “I don’t think you’ll be safe in Jinlintai.” It’s something of a non-sequitur but somehow the thoughts must be connected, and Wei Wuxian muster understand how they are judging by the way his entire demeanor changes into something much more alert.

Lan Xichen sighs softly as Wei Wuxian’s sharp gaze fixes on them, but it’s Nie Mingjue who speaks up first.

“Jin Guangshan wants your amulet.” It’s bold and barefaced in the way that Nies tend to be and though Lan Xichen is used to it, it still makes him feel a bit squirmy and anxious in the pit of his stomach to hear something so unpleasant laid out so plainly. Not that he’ll ever let it show, of course.

“Well he can’t have it. Next.”

“He thinks the Wens here are dangerous.”

“Clearly we’re not. Wen Qing, Wen Ning, and I are the only cultivators here. Besides, we’re barely feeding ourselves, let alone preparing to take on the Jins. Next.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji cuts in, and this agonized tone, at least, Lan Xichen recognizes.

He interrupts before they can begin any sort of argument. “Wei-gongzi. During the discussion of whether or not you should be present for Jin Ling’s celebration, Jin Guangshan presented concerns about both the amulet and Wen-gongzi. You can’t deny that these are valid concerns for those whom you consider to be enemies.”

“I don’t have enemies unless they make themselves my enemy,” Wei Wuxian shoots back, all trace of boyish excitement gone from his face now. “None of you were there that night in Qiongqi Pass. Did any of you even visit the work camps Jin Guangshan put the Wens in? Did you see, with your own eyes, the field of corpses they created because they knew that the cultivation world would turn a blind eye?” There’s ringing silence for a moment before he repeats his demand. “Did you?!”

“Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing warns, low and quiet.

“If Jin Guangshan is so bored of watching over Lanling and sending his cultivators to protect the interests of his own Sect then by all means, create an enemy of me. I knew what I was doing when I took these people away and brought them here. I know what people say of me, and of the Wens, do you think I don’t? Words are nothing. Fear is nothing. But if someone acts against me and those I’m sworn to protect, can I not defend myself? Can I not defend them?!”

Lan Xichen curls his hands into slow fists on his knees under the edge of the table as Wei Wuxian makes a wild gesture in the general direction of the rest of the settlement, beginning to look desperate as he works himself up.

“You saw them with your own eyes. They’re just farmers, they’re just regular people, the kind that we’re supposed to protect! Popo plays with A-Yuan to keep him occupied while we work in the fields and Fourth Uncle makes wine from the fruit that grows here and everyone here is just trying to survive, yet you would rather see them all dead for the sin of having once been related to a man who has already been killed for his crimes?”

“Xian-gege,” A-Yuan says softly from his perch in Lan Wangji’s lap. Lan Xichen turns an agonized glance on him to find him reaching out for Wei Wuxian with one chubby little hand, his eyes still wide though now it’s with something like concern rather than the curiosity of before.

“A-Ning, take A-Yuan back to Popo,” Wen Qing instructs. Her brother obeys with a nod, reaching down for A-Yuan even as the boy tries to cling to Lan Wangji.

“Want to stay with Rich-gege!”

“I will come find you soon, A-Yuan,” Lan Wangji promises with something fierce and immovable in his eyes. “Go with Wen Ning.”

There’s a quick flutter of activity as the child allows himself to be carried away, and as Lan Wangji shifts his weight to get comfortable again Lan Xichen doesn’t miss the way he subtly positions himself a little closer to Wei Wuxian. It’s hardly noticeable, but it puts him on the same half of the table as Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing still standing behind his shoulder, and when Lan Xichen meets his brother’s eyes he knows precisely whose side he will stand on should it come to that.

He desperately hopes that it won’t.

“This invitation to Jin Ling’s celebration is a trap, isn’t it?” Wei Wuxian asks and unlike the boyish cheerfulness of before, or the anger of mere moments ago, his tone is now as cold and blank as the stones outside.

“No,” Lan Xichen protests, though it’s undercut significantly by Lan Wangji replying with a simultaneous (and much more convincing), “Yes.”

“Lan Zhan?”

“Jin Guangshan wants the amulet. He knows you will not miss a chance to see your family. He will demand you hand over your amulet and Wen Ning to show that you are no longer a threat to him, and if you refuse I do not know what he will do.”

“He just wants to destroy the amulet and the…weapon,” Nie Mingjue cuts in, gruff and clearly unhappy with the way things are going but it is, surprisingly, Wen Qing who rises to meet him.

“You can’t seriously tell me you buy that? That a man like Jin Guangshan can be handed something powerful and decide, out of the goodness of his heart, to get rid of it,” she snaps, eyes once again cutting and her hands clutched in her sleeves where her arms are crossed. “And that ‘weapon’ is my brother, who, in case you haven’t seen, is in full control of himself and his thoughts. He counts as one of us, and destroying him now would be to finish the murder that those guards at the work camp didn’t finish.”

An uncomfortable silence drops in the wake of her anger and in it Wei Wuxian rises slowly from the table to stand next to Wen Qing, his arms crossed over his chest as well. Lan Xichen can’t help but flick a cautious glance at the hand closest to the flute tucked into his belt but at least for the moment it doesn’t seem like he’ll be reaching for it.

“If you’ve come as nothing more than Jin Guangshan’s messengers then I’m taking you right back down the mountain, one way or another. I’m protecting these people, and that is not up for negotiation. You can tell Jin Guangshan that yourself.”

“Wei Ying-“

“Lan Zhan this isn’t directed at you. It’s them.”

Lan Xichen blinks slowly as he realizes that Lan Wangji’s subtle positioning hadn’t gone unnoticed by Wei Wuxian after all. Or, he supposes, it’s equally likely that Wei Wuxian simply trusts Lan Wangji. Despite their differences, their arguments, it’s possible that Wei Wuxian sees now how ardently Lan Wangji wants him to be safe. How far it seems he’s willing to go to ensure it.

“So what’s the deal, if we leave you keep Wangji here as leverage?” Nie Mingjue barks. Lan Xichen’s eyes go wide as he abruptly realizes he’s lost all control of this conversation and it is heading in a dangerous direction much more quickly than he could have expected.

“Lan Zhan is free to come and go as he pleases, he won’t hurt us. He allowed you to come here with him this time so I assume he trusts you to do the same. But if seeing the truth is going to do absolutely nothing to change what you want and what you’ll help Jin Guangshan accomplish in wiping the Wens off the face of the earth then we’re done here, and you will not be welcome back.”

Lan Xichen can’t deny the dread settling thick and heavy in the pit of his stomach, and only a small portion of it has to do with the resentful energy in the air. Wei Wuxian has proven himself time and time again as a formidable opponent, and while Lan Xichen doesn’t think that it’s necessary to see him as an enemy he knows that the majority of the cultivation world would disagree. It’s plain to see, though, that even should that be the case there’s no force on earth that could turn him aside from the path he’s on. He said it himself – his purpose now is to protect the Wens, and if the cultivation world sees that as a reason for him to die alongside them then he will.

“We’ll help you,” he promises. Rash, perhaps. Uncharacteristically sudden of him, perhaps. But it’s actually not really, in the end. Lan Wangji has been worried about Wei Wuxian ever since that banquet in Jinlintai and his disappearance with the Wens later the same night, and so Lan Xichen has been worried about his brother since the same moment. And not only that, but he still remembers Wei Wuxian as he had once been. Where now it seems everyone wants to paint him as a devil, as an evil mastermind, as a cruel and power-hungry tyrant amassing an army of the dead, all Lan Xichen can see is a young man whose heart has always been kind, who cultivates with evil things he can’t understand but who’s using it to keep a group of helpless people safe. It is not such a sudden change of heart for him to wish to see everyone around him treated well and fairly.

“Xichen,” Nie Mingjue says, startled by his declaration, but Lan Xichen puts a hand on his knee beneath the table, a silent promise to explain himself later.

“We’ll help you. The Lan Sect. What do you need?”

Wei Wuxian is staring at him, mouth hanging open rather comically, and so it’s Wen Qing who speaks up after a moment though Lan Xichen can see in her eyes that she doesn’t trust him yet.

“Food. Blankets for A-Yuan and for the elderly at least. And we want to be left alone.”

“These are the only demands you have?”

“What else could you possibly offer us, Zewu-Jun?”

“Fertile land,” Lan Wangji supplies, eyes beginning to alight with the first dangerous edges of hope. “Protection. Homes.”

“In Gusu?” Wei Wuxian cuts in to ask. There’s weight behind that question, a hostility, but when Lan Wangji looks at him all Lan Xichen can see is his desperation.

I want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses, his brother’s voice echoes softly in the back of his mind. Bring him there and keep him safe.

“It would not have to be permanent, necessarily,” Lan Xichen supplies, hand tensing a little more on Nie Mingjue’s knee when he feels the man shift restlessly beside him. “But it could be. None of this should have happened to you and your family, Wen-guniang. Will you allow the Gusu Lan to begin attempting to make reparations?”

Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing look at each other but whatever passes between them in their glances is beyond Lan Xichen’s comprehension.

“I will think about it,” she replies after a moment and Wei Wuxian turns on his heel to put his back to the rest of them, effectively hiding whatever expression he makes in response. “Come back in three days.”

It’s a clear dismissal and so Lan Xichen stands, Nie Mingjue at his side. Lan Wangji doesn’t move, his eyes fixed firmly on Wei Wuxian’s back, but he doesn’t seem to be included in the dismissal anyway. Wen Qing simply leads them to the doorway again where Wen Ning is standing patiently on the steps outside, likely to keep any eavesdroppers away.

“We’re escorting Zewu-Jun and Chifeng-Zun back to town,” she informs him and he falls in quickly at her side.

“Where is Lan-er-gongzi?” Wen Ning asks with a concerned glance over his shoulder. “Is he alright?”

“He’s fine. He and Wei Wuxian might finally be ready to stop acting like they don’t want to be together,” she replies so flippantly that Lan Xichen is suddenly grateful for Nie Mingjue’s hand at his elbow as he stumbles ever so slightly on the uneven terrain in response.

“O-oh,” Wen Ning stammers out and Lan Xichen is abruptly sure that if it were still possible he would be blushing. “Well that’s nice I suppose. Is Wei-gongzi going to go to Jin Ling’s one-month and see his sister?”

Wen Qing glances back at them at that, though what she’s measuring them for Lan Xichen isn’t exactly sure. “Whose idea was it to have him there?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Wangji’s.”

“Oh yes then I daresay he’ll go no matter if it’s a trap or not,” she remarks so dryly that she actually gets a chuckle out of Nie Mingjue, which is startling to say the least. Lan Xichen looks at him, trying to gauge what he’s thinking, but he’s got his expression carefully locked into stern, unreadable lines. They continue on in silence down the mountain and back to their inn in the town. Only when the Wen siblings have departed and he and Nie Mingjue have retired to their rooms does he unbend enough for Lan Xichen to see that he’s deep in thought.

“Do you think Jin Guangshan truly means to destroy the amulet?” Nie Mingjue finally asks when Lan Xichen has waited him out long enough for him to speak his mind.

“In all honesty no, I do not. At least not right away, and power corrupts. We already know he is a man of vices, it’s no secret that power is one of them.”

“Can you really offer the Wens land and protection without consulting anyone else? The elders, your uncle?”

“It will have to go through more official channels I suppose to actually begin the movement – we’ll need to send resources to keep them clothed and fed while travelling and cultivators to keep them safe, after all. But yes, that is something I can offer them. I will make my case to the elders with what we saw here today, Wangji is my witness, and you could be too. They’re nothing but humble citizens who simply bear the curse of an unfortunate name through no fault of their own. So many Wens have already paid the ultimate price for what Wen Ruohan has done. There’s nothing and nobody in this last remaining group to be so afraid of that they must be eliminated. The only part that should worry the rest of the sects is that Wei Wuxian is at the helm, but their fear of him is slightly misguided as well. I believe once Uncle and the rest of the elders know the truth they will allow such peaceful people to live and work in Gusu.”

“Hm. Well alright then, the Nie will support you.”

That pulls Lan Xichen up short and he stares at Nie Mingjue with undisguised shock. Nie Mingjue at first only raises an eyebrow at him, but after another moment he exhales sharply and shakes his head as if bedeviled by a fly.

“I still don’t like the Wens but I can’t in good conscience lead them to the slaughter. If you want to protect them, then protect them. And I’ll protect you. Maybe we can finally take Jin Guangshan down a notch or two in the process, I definitely won’t be opposed. Nor do I think Jiang Wanyin will take much issue with it either, not if it can get him his brother back. And we already know Jiang Yanli will support anything that repairs Wei Wuxian’s reputation, and Jin Zixuan will support anything that makes Jiang Yanli happy. I’d say the winds are in our favor if we act too quickly for Jin Guangshan to counter it.”

Lan Xichen can still only blink as Nie Mingjue finally cracks his expression to smile ever so slightly and offer him a wink.

“You should have agreed to strategize with me days ago, none of this would have been so surprising, I thought it may become an option. Now it’s just up to Wangji to talk Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing into agreeing.”

“I believe he will find it in himself to be persuasive, and Wen Qing at least is quite sensible. I believe she understands their position well and knows that it is not sustainable for much longer. Or that even if it were, it would be better if their people could get the care and treatment they need to thrive, not just to survive. I believe they’ll agree.”

“Well we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Lan Wangji doesn’t return once during the three days Wen Qing asked for them to wait. On the morning of the fourth day Wen Ning returns for them to bring them back up the mountain where they find Lan Wangji kneeling in the dirt with A-Yuan perched happily in his lap chattering away to Wei Wuxian, who is sitting far closer than necessary to listen as the rest of the Wens bustle around them, hurrying from field to field at a much quicker pace than mere days ago. Wen Qing meets them again at the entrance to the main clearing, arms once again crossed over her chest as she eyes them up like a hawk studying its prey.

“We accept. We’ll all come to Gusu with everything we can carry to start things anew.”

And just like that Lan Xichen gains a new branch of his family in the most unlikely of places.

#the untamed fanfic #Wangxian #Nielan #Lan Xichen #Lan Wangji #Nie Mingjue #Wei Wuxian #Wen Qing #Wen Ning #Prompt fill #I hope this works! #@ everyone who's sent in a request over the last couple of weeks: #I see the requests I promise and I'm trying to come up with stuff to write haha #It's been a busy couple of weeks

[drwcn]

CQL!AU: Everyone is an orphan except Wei Wuxian, and the Twin Jades are dark practitioners. Needless to say, that changes things. (canon what canon) 

Master Post

~

[1-3]

[1] Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan were the ones who died early. Wei Changze returned to Lotus Pier to become the guardian and regent of his best friend’s son and heir. 

Lotus Pier was black and white. Lifeless. 

That was the first thought that crossed Cangse Sanren’s mind when she and Wei Changze docked at the port, swords in hand, and their little son in toll. 

The people mourned. Posts were temporarily closed, the market suspended. Windows and doors of their bustling riverside town were firmly shut, with white and black drapes hanging from its sills and fluttering in the wind. 

Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan were dead. Two young cultivators, parents, taken from this world too young, gone before their time. 

“A-Ying, come child,” Cangse extended a hand to the boy who glanced around at the unfamiliar place with timid curiosity. 

“A-niang, what’s going on?” 

“No questions. You must behave yourself today.” Cangse brought her son closer to her, watching her husband’s usually smiling, gentle face pull taut into a mask that betrayed none of the grief he felt underneath. He held himself taller today, shoulders pulled back, spine rod-straight and jaws clenched. She’d forgotten, after all these wonderful years of travelling the world with their family, that this place was once his home. 

“Er’shixiong,” a man greeted them at the pier, flanked by a party of younger Jiang disciples, all appropriately garbed with white sashes around their waist. “Cangse-daozhang.” 

They had spoken in depth about returning. Cangse knew there was nothing she could do to stop him; Changze’s devotion to Jiang Fengmian ran deeper than she understood. It was never herself that Yu Ziyuan should’ve resented; though however misplaced Madam Yu’s jealousy had been, it was a moot point now.  

Chang’ge, I will not ask you to choose between your love for him and your promise to me. If Lotus Pier is where you wish to go, I will go with you. I cannot promise however that I will always stay. That — is not my nature. 

Thank you, Wumei*. I understand. 

They found Jiang Wanyin, the little lord, and his sister Jiang Yanli, in their mourning robes, kneeling and crying before their parents’ funeral altar.  

Wei Changze sunk to his knees beside them, and folded his body until his forehead hit the ground. “Shixiong,” he spoke to the spirits. “I’ve come back.” 

“Who are you?!” The boy Jiang Cheng, five-years-old and hurting, blurted out rudely through his tears. His sister held him from behind and gave a trembling nod of deference to the older man. 

“Wei-shishu.”  

Beside her, clinging to her skirt, Wei Ying looked up and asked quietly, “A-niang, are we going to stay?” 

Cangse Sanren, the favoured fifth pupil of Baoshan Sanren herself, smiled down quietly at her only child and smoothed back his hair. “Yes, A-Ying we will. Lotus Pier is home now.” 

(JC 5 yro; WWX 5 yro; JYL 8 yro)

[2] When Qingheng-jun’s respected mentor died - murdered - he made a very different choice. He turned his back on his clan and his responsibilities, and escaped into the wild with the woman he loved. They were just an ordinary family, living away from the chaos in a paradise of their own. But even Eden eventually falls, and nothing gold ever stays... 

Take A-Huan and A-Zhan and go! Do not stop until you are safe. Do not turn around. Do not come back. 

Shijie! You’re injured! Let me help you - 

Zhao Ming! Zhao Zhuliu, you listen to me: their names, Lan Xichen for the older, and Lan Wangji for the younger. It’s what their father and I wanted for them. 

Shijie - jiejie - 

Now go! Go! 

A-Niang, come with us! A-Niang, don’t go!! A-Niang!!! 

The forest burned like the autumn sun at dusk descending from the sky, red and golden and glorious. A single figure stood amongst the flames, corpses littered at her feet. Bichen fell from her grip, barely making a sound as it landed against dampened earth, soaked with Lan blood.  Those who fought her were dead, but she feared that she did not have long either.

“Rong-gege,” Qiu Baiti collapsed onto her hands and dragged her body towards the man who lay still amongst the carnage, arrows piercing his front, his sword Shuoyue still clutched tight in his left hand. 

Lifeless eyes remained open, as though he could not rest. 

“Rong-gege,” Baiti called helplessly, crawling to him and laying her head down against his chest. There used to be a heartbeat there, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost hear it again. “Wait, don’t go without me...” 

She was so tired and bled from so many places. It was not until a sharp cry and a familiar face descended from the sky that Qiu Baiti realized the inferno which surrounded her was not yet hell. 

"Qiu-jiejie!" Cangse rushed forth, almost tripping over the corpse of a dead Lan disciple in her haste. “Lan-da’ge, he -” A horrified gasp drowned the rest of her words. 

“Cangse...you’re here...” 

Cangse gathered her bosom sister into her arms and immediately drew upon a torrent of spiritual energy from her core, channeling them into her fingertips to heal her friend. She could tell that whatever combat Qiu Baiti had been through, it had already taken the little life inside her, and now hers was following it to the other side.   

“Hold on, I can save you - hold on -”

“Cangse - Cang - stop, it’s too late.” Qiu Baiti lay limp there.  

Death, it drew near, but she was ready. She closed her eyes as a slip of tear escaped beneath her lashes. "I did this to him, to all of them... if I hadn't...it’s all my fault. I was the one they wanted; he was just trying to protect me. A-Huan, A-Zhan...."

Trembling and in near hysterics, Cangse sobbed, “No, don’t say that! Where are the boys?” 

“Safe. A-Ming has them...you mustn’t tell anyone. Not anyone, promise me. Not even Lan Qiren. Especially Lan Qiren... Rong-gege trusts his brother, but I - I - promise me - promise -” Qiu Baiti gasped for breath, gurgling blood in her throat with each laboured attempt. 

“Qiu-jiejie, please - don’t - I - I promise.” 

“Good...Cangse...” Qiu Baiti clutched her hand and smiled, a crimson wound cutting across her pale, beautiful face. “Good.” 

And then she died, with the red of the forest flames still in her eyes. 

Cangse held her friend - dear, damned, dead - and allowed a scream to tear through herself. From the depth of her grief, she released a pulse of unrestrained spiritual energy that rippled through the dense woods as though the storm of her anguish could not be contained. And like a measly candle-light assaulted by the winter wind, the forest fire was extinguished in an instant. 

The sun was gone, and the night was dark.  All was quiet, but there was no peace to be found. 

 Cangse buried Lan Cenrong and Qiu Baiti in two unmarked graves side by side beneath a tall oak tree. She sifted through the bodies and the grime and collected the spiritual weapons they left behind — Shuoyue, Bichen, Liebing (cracked in two places) and the strings of Qiu Baiti’s shattered guqin — and stored them away in her qiankun pouch. She hoped one day that she would find Zhao Zhuliu and the sons Lan Cenrong and Qiu Baiti had left behind, and return these items to their rightful owners. 

It was not until three years later, not too far from her shifu Baoshan’s sacred temple nestled in the snowy mountain peak, where Jiang Yanli had been brought to strengthen her health and train as Cangse’s direct disciple, that Cangse perchance came across Zhao Ming again. 

He was accompanied by two youngsters, two beautiful jade-like children who called him jiufu. Cangse was not surprised in the least to find that both of them have learned the technique for which their mother and jiujiu were hunted: the core-melting hand. 

(LXC 9, LWJ 6 -> LXC 12, LWJ 9 ) 

[3] They called her “The Little Queen”. Wen Qing never wanted to be Sect Master, or Deputy Sect Master, or Regent Sect Master. She just wanted to live quietly with A-Ning and Wen-popo and study the art of healing that her parents practiced. But alas, life had other plans. 

Wen Qing was a month short of her tenth birthday when her life changed forever. 

Wen Ruohan, her father’s older cousin, who’d always been close with her family, had come to visit Dafan. Wen-bobo didn’t have siblings, and her father Wen Ruotian was as close as a brother to him, more than any other Wen descendent of their time. 

Wen Qing liked Wen Ruohan well. He was doting and found her intelligent. Her parents chose the simple village life, but they often spent New Years and holy days at Nevernight at Sect Master Wen’s behest and invitation.  

When Wen Ruohan came to Dafan and told her folks that there was a piece of the Yin Iron inside the Stone Fairy, her father had been eager to help, though weary he was of those powers he could not understand. 

He’d been right to be afraid. 

The extraction had gone horribly wrong, and the rebound of dark energy had eviscerated all those near by, her mother, her father, and Wen Ruohan himself. It was by the skin of her teeth that Wen Qing managed to yank her baby brother Wen Ning out of the way. Then, without thinking, she caught the vile, wretched thing as it sailed through the air. It landed in the palm of her hands, and there she stood, regarded with fear and bewonderment from all those in witness as the cursed item, which burned the life out of cultivators much older and seasoned than her, quieted in her small hands. 

The Elders said she had...a nature affinity. For what, they could not say. 

Wen Qing was brought back to Nevernight and given the name Yuefan: to exceed mortality. Within days, the heavy crown of Sect Master of Qishan Wen was placed on her head. 

It was then that she learned that her Wen-bobo, with no inclination to marry and bind himself to another, did not leave behind a legitimate heir. His young sons, 4-year old Wen Xu and 2 year-old Wen Chao were born to him by women of ill repute.  They were kind, good boys, but they were infantile and illegitimate. Wen Qing felt for them, but she could not change their fate. So for the time being, she accepted what she had to. 

The adults did what they could for her, but there was no one in the cold, vast palace of Nevernight to mind her or nurture her. She stood alone upon the towers where the eternal flames, fuelled by Qishan Wen’s combined spiritual energy, burned in their iron brazier, and watched over the lush volcanic mountain range that was hers to govern and protect. Those beneath her - servants, disciples - feared her and her unknown powers. Those advising her - Elders, mentors - had their own agendas. In any case, they stopped seeing her as a child the minute she held the Yin Iron in her hands and lived to tell the tale. 

It was a secret, they told her. She must guard it well. 

The Chief Cultivator Jin Guangshan sent his ambassadors to congratulate her succession. Gusu’s Lan Qiren and Qinghe’s Nie Heqiu both arrived consecutively to pay their respects to their ten-year-old colleague and fellow Sect Master. 

There was a momentary rumble amongst the Wen Elders about whether Nie Heqiu’s older son Nie Mingjue would be a good match for her someday, but as he too was set to inherit, the idea was put aside as quickly as it was brought up. 

Then came Yunmeng’s regent Wei Changze, bringing along an entourage of Jiang disciples and a boy one year her junior, the son he conceived with the revered Cangse Sanren. 

Wei Wuxian. 

Wen Qing liked him enough. He was spontaneous, agreeable, and clever, and he found her aloofness fun to provoke. They would’ve both been satisfied with the arrangement had she not met Yunmeng Jiang’s young Jiang-zongzhu some years later, and had he not crossed paths with the vengeful and infamous Lan Wangji. 

But life, as the gods have planned it, must have its mysteries. 

(WQ 10, WWX 9) 

TBH?  

Note: 

Wumei - fifth sister, Wei Changze’s nickname for Cangse. 

Details of Cangse and Wei Changze’s name as well as Qingheng-jun and Madam Lan’s name can be found here .

jiufu 舅父 - maternal uncle, formal.  

#cql #the untamed #wei changze #cangse sanren #qingheng-jun #madam lan #wen qing #cql ficlet #It’s Sunday and I worked about 60 hours this week #and i say the jades are evil #and so evil they will be #i do recommend listening to gloria regali when reading this #or like the GoT soundtrack lmao #obviously some deaging of wen chao and wen xu #im literally imagining young queen amidala for wen qing lol #maybe i'lld write more if ppl wnat to see more of this disaster au #corie fics #carbon in the steel

[stiltonbasket]

Arranged marriage au! Experiment gone wrong lwj ends up turning into a large affectionate rabbit

(brief author's note: please please reblog if you can, since that's how we get prompts for future ficlets!)

Wei Wuxian hadn’t meant to leave the door to his workroom unlocked. He hadn’t meant to skip lunch, either, but the fur clippings he was using in his latest protective talisman proved more promising than he hoped they would, and he wasn’t really hungry anyway, so he decided to stay in the jishi and work until the talismans were finished. 

But Lan Zhan, dutiful husband that he is, decided to bring his lunch to him--and Wei Wuxian was so flustered by the sound of Lan Zhan’s voice that he knocked over a pair of shelves, which knocked over a few buckets of spirit water, and then the spirit water splashed onto his desk and activated all the talismans at once. 

Things escalated. And there was rabbit fur in the guarding talismans, which is probably why Lan Zhan seems to be a rabbit now.

“Your uncle is going to kill me,” Wei Wuxian says dolefully, after he finishes screaming himself hoarse. “Lan Zhan, he’s really going to kill me this time, and I’ll deserve it. You’re a rabbit.”

Lan Zhan seems to dislike that idea for some reason, probably because Wei Wuxian is still his best friend even if he did turn him into a rabbit. Or maybe Lan Zhan thinks that Wei Wuxian might deserve to die just a little this time, but there’s no way to tell for sure because Wei Wuxian can’t speak rabbit, even if the insistent thumping of Lan Zhan’s hind legs is supposed to mean something. It probably does, since the rabbits on the back mountain sometimes make the same gesture, but Wei Wuxian never thought to ask Lan Zhan why.

His zhiji’s practice in rabbit-rearing would be very useful in a situation like this, Wei Wuxian laments. But his aforementioned zhiji is the rabbit here, so Wei Wuxian is going to have to figure this out on his own. 

“At least I know what rabbits eat,” he tells his husband. “You haven’t had lunch yet, have you? Stay here and don’t touch anything, and I’ll get some carrot tops for you.”

He tries to move towards the door, but then Lan Zhan makes a heart-breaking crying sound and launches himself right at him, landing in Wei Wuxian’s fumbling arms only just in time. “Lan Zhan!” he scolds, as his husband pushes his fluffy head up under Wei Wuxian’s chin. “Lan Zhan, you can’t jump around like that! You’re a rabbit, not an immortal master--you could have hurt yourself! What if you’d broken your neck, ah? What would have happened then?”

Lan Zhan only whimpers again and twitches his long ears at him. He absolutely refuses to get down, even when Wei Wuxian promises to come back with some food and a bowl of water so Lan Zhan can eat, and then he curls into a fat white ball and cries pitifully until Wei Wuxian carries him back to the jingshi. And after that, he cries some more while Wei Wuxian wraps him up in a blanket and cuddles him, petting the soft silvery fur between his ears until they go back against his little head in pure bliss--which is when Lan Zhan finally falls asleep with his nose tucked into the crook of Wei Wuxian’s elbow, and stops making his heart ache with his sad rabbit noises.

“Good boy,” Wei Wuxian whispers, looking around the room for something to put Lan Zhan in. Xiao-Yu’s pillow-basket is just the right size, since Lan Zhan is rather a large rabbit, but Wei Wuxian never gets to put him in it because Lan Zhan starts crying again the moment he lets go of him. 

“Oh, Lan Zhan,” he sighs, his lips quivering a little as he peppers kisses all over his husband’s furry face to quiet him. “Don’t cry, sweetheart! Your Wei Ying will take a nap with you, and then I’ll feed you all the nice vegetables you want, and then we’ll go bring Xiao-Yu back from the hanshi and figure this out, ah? I promise.”

Lan Zhan gives a tiny nod and nestles a little closer, and then proceeds to cry again every time Wei Wuxian even thinks about getting out of bed.

“You’re a horrible rabbit, my Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian tells him, hugging him even tighter. “I’m never going to let you forget this when you turn back, you know.”

---

When Wei Wuxian opens his eyes again, Lan Zhan is still asleep on top of him, just as sticky he was earlier that afternoon--but he is decidedly human this time, which is why Wei Wuxian nearly faints when Lan Zhan sighs into his throat and presses a soft, damp kiss to the curve between his neck and shoulder.

“Lan Zhan!” he gasps, nearly fainting on the spot as his zhiji kisses him two more times in quick succession before stroking Wei Wuxian’s cheek. “Lan Zhan, wake up! You’ve changed back, so you can get up now, right?!”

This is torture, he thinks, blushing like a sunset as Lan Zhan wraps his arms around him and grumbles into his ear. My heart isn’t ready for this yet! You’re going to kill me, Lan Zhan!

#wangxian #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #renouncement verse #wangxian arranged marriage au #my fic

[sarah-yyy]

Sarah!! *slides in* Lan Yuning torn from letting LWJ loose in front of the court when LWJ found out about WWX being Yiling Junwang and stopping him from opening his wounds *slides out* After all those moments when LWJ couldn't say what he wants to say, we ought to have a LWJ whose emotions are just bursting now. Imagine the heartbreak in LQR's face and the fact that he read his nephew all wrong and he caused this heartbreak.

[straight from here]

“I have to go,” Lan Wangji says, struggling in Lan Yuning’s hold, and oh. 

Now that Lan Yuning is less upset, now that he’s had a moment to think about it, he doesn’t know how he could’ve thought that Lan Wangji agreed to let Wei Wuxian marry to Qinghe. 

“Er-dianxia,” Lan Yuning says gently, propping Lan Wangji up. “Wangji,” he tries, when Lan Wangji doesn’t stop struggling, “please. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“I have to go!” Lan Wangji cries. “I can’t- I have to bring Wei Ying back.” His chest heaves with the effort it’s taking him to draw breath, and he must’ve pulled his stitchings because blood is starting to soak through his bandages. “Yuning-ge,” he says, voice small and miserable, “I have to bring Wei Ying back.”

Lan Yuning’s heart breaks for Lan Wangji. “I’ll bring Wen-daifu to check on your wounds.”

“No, I-”

“We’ll tend to your wounds first,” Lan Yuning says firmly. “Once that’s done, I’ll take you to the Elders. I’ll carry you there myself if I have to.” 

(more rebuttable presumption)

#rebuttable presumption verse #hc #mild sads #asks #Anonymous

[carolyncaves]

It’s been three days since I posted a ficlet, but that’s because my hand Really slipped this time and I wrote a canon divergence ‘post-Burial Mounds Wei Wuxian actually goes to Gusu’ fic. I’ll call this Day 19: Journey, but it also includes days 17 and 18 Rest and Breath for bonus points. 3680 words, WWX, LXC, LWJ, JC. Alcohol, vague mental illness (it’s post-burial-mounds wwx), strong undercurrent of wangxian (it’s lwj), angst, tenderness, golden core reveal.

also on ao3

“You do not necessarily need to take up the sword at once,” Lan Xichen called after Wei Wuxian, perhaps too desperately, but it mercifully stopped him in his tracks. “You can come to Cloud Recesses and simply consider it further there.”

“So instead of agreeing to take up the sword, Zewu Jun would like me to agree to agree to it in time. A grand distinction.” Wei Wuxian tipped his head back and drained the rest of the jar of baijiu. When he drew it down and looked at it, the rigid arrogance etched into his profile was mixed very briefly with a desperate despondence. Lan Xichen might not have noticed it, were it not for his conversation with Wangji.

Wei Wuxian had been somewhere terrible for three months, and he was not well. Wei Wuxian needed help. Wangji was forbidden to come, so Lan Xichen had to do this in his place, and please, Xiongzhang, you must get him to agree to come to Gusu, whatever it takes.

After what he’d seen so far of Wei Wuxian’s state, Lan Xichen was not sure it would be within his power. But Wangji had placed his trust in him.

“You will not be required to do anything, if only you will come.”

“I do not recall when Zewu Jun gained the authority to require things of me.”

That hostility could bring them to failure. Lan Xichen needed to shift to his reserve approach. He thought, given the circumstances, Wangji would consent. “To speak even more plainly, it would please Wangji very much to see you. You were correct when you said so yourself. He has been anxious since the close of Sunshot, and lonely at Cloud Recesses. I am asking you for this favor, as his closest confidant, for the sake of my brother’s happiness – so I will not be easily discouraged.” Those words were all true; it had become clear Wangji’s happiness depended very much on Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian’s expression softened once again, this time toward affection. Lan Xichen gave his words time to sink in, and then followed them with a wager: “It will be an opportunity for you to rest.” Despite Wei Wuxian’s bright smile and earnest greeting when they’d met on the street, Lan Xichen had sensed underneath it that Wei Wuxian was haggard and worn.

Wei Wuxian finally turned and looked at him again, and his agitation had fully melted back away. Lan Xichen felt the gentle lift of hope.

“I’m a member of the Jiang sect, aren’t I?” Wei Wuxian asked. “My brother has been named Sect Leader, and needs me now more than ever in his life. How can I go to Gusu with you?”

“Please allow me to ask him,” Lan Xichen said immediately. “On my own behalf, please give me your leave to request of him that you come visit us.” He did not mention, and only barely allowed himself to think, that if Wei Wuxian was here in town drinking baijiu in the middle of the day, he was probably not giving his brother the support he needed regardless.

Wei Wuxian stared at the floor for a very long time. He gave a hollow laugh. “All right. If Jiang Cheng gives you his blessing, I’ll go to Gusu with you.”

Lan Xichen had swayed one immovable stone, only to find another in its shadow.

/

Jiang Cheng received him almost immediately in Lotus Pier’s Sword Hall. He sat on the carved lotus seat, looking every inch a Sect Leader despite his youthful face. Wei Wuxian stood slightly to one side, looking carefully at the opposite wall instead of either of them.

“Take Wei Wuxian to Cloud Recesses?” Jiang Cheng kept his voice even and respectful, for now, but his features clearly displayed his incredulous irritation. “And you want to go, I suppose,” he added, much more acidly, to Wei Wuxian. “You’d like to run off and see Hanguang Jun, nevermind Yunmeng Jiang.”

“Zewu Jun has asked it of me,” Wei Wuxian said lowly. “Should I just refuse him out of hand?”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes narrowed, and Lan Xichen could almost hear his rejoinder – So you make me do it instead? “Have you been drinking? I needed you today. Look at you.”

“Sect Leader Jiang, I am asking this of you as a personal favor,” Zewu Jun said, hoping to coerce Jiang Cheng into discussing it with him instead. “I’m hopeful spending a measure of time together at Cloud Recesses will be beneficial for both my brother and yours.”

“Hanguang Jun is more than welcome to come to Yunmeng,” Jiang Cheng countered.

“Currently Wangji has sect matters he is required to attend to,” Zewu Jun answered, before immediately wincing.

“And Wei Wuxian doesn’t?” Jiang Cheng snapped. He looked incensed with a fire more furious than this one conversation would ignite, implying Wei Wuxian’s truancy today was not an isolated incident; this request was precisely the fuel to grow a smolder into a blaze. “Not that he’s been doing them. Are you planning to stand by my side and help me at any point, Wei Wuxian? Have you no sense of responsibility?”

Lan Xichen saw those words hit Wei Wuxian like a blow, but he was surprised when Jiang Cheng flinched as well. Perhaps he had not intended the second meaning – the implication of blame, as well as duty.

Jiang Cheng took a breath to recover, and apparently that gave him the time he needed to reconsider.

“Forget the thing I just said. You should go with him.”

Wei Wuxian looked right at him, then, for the first time in that conversation, and his face was masked with slow confusion and hurt. “Jiang Cheng …”

“Don’t argue with me! Go cheer up Lan Wangji and yourself, and come back. You’ve been impossible and stubborn since you got back from wherever on earth you were, and I need you to get your head back on straight.” Wei Wuxian’s face had gone blank again during that tirade. Jiang Cheng snorted in exasperation and added, “Don’t forget to take your sword with you, and see if you can come back riding it.”

Wei Wuxian stiffened, and Lan Xichen was briefly terrified the situation would collapse mere inches from success. He stepped forward, clamped a hand down hard on Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, and said, “We will bring the sword with us.” He hoped Wei Wuxian would remember the assurances Lan Xichen had given him, so he wouldn’t have to repeat them in front of Jiang Cheng. “Where is it, Wei-gongzi?”

/

Lan Xichen escorted Wei Wuxian to collect the sword and some personal effects from his room – thankfully, Jiang Cheng remained behind. Suibian was tucked behind a chest of drawers, where Wei Wuxian would not see it as he went about his daily life. Wei Wuxian retrieved it and stared at it like it was alien in his own hand, in contrast to the dark flute he held as at his side as an extension of himself in the other.

He thrust his arm toward Lan Xichen.

This disturbed Lan Xichen, the way Wei Wuxian seemed actively averse to the sword’s presence, but he said nothing; he was on the verge of achieving his mission. All this could be discussed in the fullness of time once Wei Wuxian was safely at Cloud Recesses. He took Suibian in his own hand, for the time being. He would bear this person and his sword to Wangji.

Wei Wuxian was slow and lethargic in his movements, some combination of mood and intoxication. It took all of Lan Xichen’s discipline not to rush him. It felt as if every moment that elapsed could bring some unforeseen stimulus that would knock Wei Wuxian off this vital and fragile course. Eventually he was ready, and as soon as they had sky over their heads, Lan Xichen took him on Shuoyue and maneuvered them into the air.

Lan Xichen relaxed, since they were now underway, which seemed a significant milestone in making this more difficult to stop. Wei Wuxian clung to him in strange desperation with the arm that wasn’t holding Chenqing. He stared down and around and out, face wide and wild as they climbed into the dusky sky, and as the minutes passed he began to shake. Did he feel unsafe relying on someone else to maneuver the sword? Had something happened that had instilled in him a fear of heights?

“Hide your eyes, if you would be more at ease,” Lan Xichen told him. “I assure you, Wei-gongzi, I will deliver you safely.”

Wei Wuxian’s fingers tightened ever so slightly in Lan Xichen’s robes, like he was hesitating, fighting a silent battle. Finally, his head collapsed onto Lan Xichen’s shoulder, his face angled into the side of his neck. Otherwise he said nothing, and did nothing. It was so far distant from the buoyant young man who had come to Gusu for lectures and even the sharp, bright, terrible one he’d seen glimpses of during Sunshot. Wangji had been correct. Wei Wuxian was deeply not well. Lan Xichen had been moderately convinced by the end of their conversation at the inn; now he was beyond certain.

The flight was long, but at the end of it, the patch of garden in front of Wangji’s jingshi came up to meet them, and Lan Xichen set them safely down. Wei Wuxian had made the journey.

///

Lan Wangji heard a sound he quickly placed as Xichen maneuvering Shuoyue, and he was out the door of the jingshi as quickly as he could physically manage it. First, because Xichen would not maneuver the sword within Cloud Recesses if he were not on some urgent mission, and second, because Lan Wangji would not have been able to hear him if he were alone and unburdened.

Sure enough, he was met with the sight of Xichen ushering a rigid Wei Ying from the steel onto the grass. A relief so intense it threatened to send him to his knees expanded through Lan Wangji.

“Wei Ying,” he said reflexively, closing the space between them.

Wei Ying turned to him with glazed, hazy eyes.

“He may still be intoxicated,” Xichen said, “and he has been harrowed by the flight.”

Lan Wangji stopped just before he touched Wei Ying, remembering him step away from him at Yiling Supervisory Office, turn away at the cliffs at Nightless City. This time, Wei Ying let him slowly move in and take him by one wrist. It was hope, and forgiveness, and a plea.

“Let’s get him inside,” Xichen said, which meant Lan Wangji had to release him. He followed as Xichen escorted Wei Ying up the walk. By the time they reached the open doorway, Wei Ying had recovered some of his senses, and he pulled himself out of Xichen’s hold.

“You don’t have to … you didn’t have to,” Wei Ying said coldly. “I shouldn’t be here. I should go back.”

Lan Wangji’s stomach sank, but Xichen just said, “Wei-gongzi, surely you aren’t suggesting I fly you back to Lotus Pier by sword this very moment.”

Wei Ying flinched, even as he scowled at himself for it.

“You must at least take dinner with us, and stay the night,” Xichen continued. “We can discuss it further in the morning if you like. You’re no prisoner here, just a welcome guest.” Xichen extended his arm, gesturing for Wei Ying to continue into the jingshi.

At length, he did.

Wei Ying stopped in the center of the room, standing aimlessly as Xichen and Lan Wangji came in around him. “I’ll go have someone prepare us a meal,” Xichen said. He held out Suibian, which for the first time Lan Wangji noticed he was carrying.

Wei Ying stared at him. He made no move to take it.

Xichen smiled sadly and went to set the sword at one of the places at the table.

Lan Wangji said stepped forward and took Suibian from his hand. “Xiongzhang,” he said, bowing formally with Wei Ying’s sword clasped in his hands, “thank you for bringing Wei Ying here. Now I will speak with him.”

Xichen briefly looked taken aback. Then his gaze floated from Lan Wangji to Wei Ying before returning. “I told Wei-gongzi we would not force him to take up his sword if he came here. That we would not require anything of him if he was unwilling.”

Lan Wangji imagined how the conversation must have gone, for Xichen to make that assurance. “Thank you,” he said again, and he hoped Xichen understood him.

Xichen nodded. “I will have the meal sent over for you.” Xichen acknowledged Wei Ying and left, surrendering Wei Ying into Lan Wangji’s custody.

Wei Ying was here. He had come to Gusu, however tensely. Lan Wangji was not helpless any longer. He could do something. He looked at the sword in his hand. Wei Ying’s wild Suibian. “I will play Clarity for you until the dinner comes,” he said.

“Lan Zhan, you can’t help me.”

“You said you would allow me,” Lan Wangji pushed back, pacing around Wei Ying to face him. “You came here.”

“No, Lan Zhan. You can’t help me.” Wei Ying looked up at him, expression gaunt. He was still thin, from wherever he’d been when he was away. If he was intoxicated, it was the morose kind. “You can play Clarity for me until your fingers bleed. I still won’t take up the sword again.”

“Why not?” Lan Wangji bit out, clenching Suibian in his grip. “What happened, Wei Ying?”

Wei Ying’s gaze was heavy on the sword in Lan Wangji’s hand. He thought for a great, long silence. “You have to believe me this time,” he said, swaying a little on his feet. “If I tell you, you have to believe me.”

Lan Wangji had not believed him when he spun a tall tale about a book and a cave with a dark, haughty grin. He had been afraid to believe him when he mentioned the Burial Mounds with a smile. Now, with Wei Ying standing empty in the jingshi, a silent tear rolling down his face, having relented and left his home so Lan Wangji could help him, Lan Wangji was prepared to believe anything he had to say. Lan Wangji nodded.

“It’s a secret,” Wei Ying pressed instantly, and more tears followed the first. “You need to swear to me you’ll keep it a secret. From Zewu Jun, from your uncle, from everyone. I would die rather than have it be known. Do you understand, Lan Zhan? It’s a secret I was going to die to keep.”

That image, the one of Wei Ying dead, frightened Lan Wangji more than anything had previously in his life. A year ago, it would have seemed impossible – his overloud, overfamiliar other, taken by death. Now, it seemed possible. Now, Wei Ying was barely held together by resentful energy and thin wire.

Lan Wangji raised his head, decided. He crossed the room, to the sword stand where his own Bichen stood. He put Suibian to rest alongside it. Then he turned. Wei Ying had turned to watch him.

Lan Wangji held out his hand, palm up. “Then tell me. We will keep it together.”

Wei Ying looked at his hand like a man going to his death. He looked at it like a man who wanted to be saved. He barely took his eyes off it as he took the three steps sideways necessary to walk over and place Chenqing on the corner of the table. Then he took the three steps back – toward Lan Wangji – and Lan Wangji’s hand in his own.

He drew it toward him and pressed it against his lower abdomen.

It took Lan Wangji a second to process this strange action, and another to follow its implication. He controlled his spiritual energy, reached in to touch Wei Ying’s spiritual core.

Nothing.

Lan Wangji’s hand clenched, pulling in a handful of Wei Ying’s clothes. He could feel his own breath begin to accelerate. Wei Ying’s cultivation was a match for Lan Wangji’s own. How could Wei Ying lack a golden core?

Wei Ying had bit his lip so hard he bled. Lan Wangji raised his other hand instinctively, to wipe the blood and tears away.

“Hanguang Jun,” came a voice from outside, and the door slid open.

The junior disciple holding the tray with their dinner froze on the threshold. Fortunately, Wei Ying was facing away from the door, so the tears on his face would not be visible. Lan Wangji could not begin to imagine what his own showed.

The disciple opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“Place it quickly and go,” Lan Wangji said, his voice harsh even in his own ears. The disciple leapt forward to obey, practically diving across the room and setting the tray on the table. Her sleeve brushed against Chenqing as she withdrew, sending it clattering to the floor. She winced and reached for it.

“Leave it,” Lan Wangji commanded. The disciple gave the quickest bow he had ever seen and fled the jingshi, banging the door closed behind her.

Wei Ying gave a wet laugh. Lan Wangji’s hand was still on his face. “Lan Zhan, that disciple surely thought you were in the middle of ravishing me. By morning, every junior in the Lan sect will be talking about Hanguang Jun and his secret lover.”

Lan Wangji drew Wei Ying into the circle of his arms and crushed him to his chest.

“Wei Ying,” he said into the side of his head. He clutched at him, dug one hand into his hair. “Wei Ying.”

“It’s all right, Lan Zhan, really,” Wei Ying said, voice hollow. “It’s not so terribly bad. I’m practically used to it at this point. But you see why I can’t take up the sword anymore.” Wei Ying was still babbling. “Do you see, Lan Zhan?”

“Enough talking,” Lan Wangji said. His mind was beginning to seek causes and effects. “Wen Zhuliu?”

“I thought you said enough talking,” Wei Ying deflected.

The Wen soldiers had said things that hadn’t made sense to Lan Wangji. They’d said the heir to the Jiang sect had been burned down into a mediocre person. The pieces rearranged themselves, and Lan Wangji spat, “Jiang Cheng. Wen Zhuliu, and Jiang Cheng.”

“Enough talking,” Wei Ying whispered, but his hands finally came up and wrapped around him. He finally took hold of Lan Wangji. And he began to cry. It was quiet. Listless. Unlike everything Wei Ying was.

Lan Wangji held him until he stopped.

He didn’t realize tears were on his own face until they dampened Wei Ying’s shoulder and he felt the coolness.

When eventually they pulled back, Wei Ying was barely on his feet. Lan Wangji walked him over to the table. He food had gone cold, but he needed to eat. Wei Ying picked up Chenqing and placed it back on the corner of the table with a shaking hand. Lan Wangji sat beside him instead of across from him, an arm still wrapped around his waist. He did not know when he would be willing to let go of Wei Ying again.

When Wei Ying finished eating, he realized he would have to.

“I will play Clarity for you,” Lan Wangji said, though it came out more stifled than he intended.

Wei Ying shook his head ruefully. “I’ve taken you too off-guard, Lan Zhan. I’m sure you could if my life depended on it, but you don’t need to play it tonight.”

Perhaps that was best. Lan Wangji did not feel even remotely clear himself. He shifted so he could draw Wei Ying back against him, back pressed against Lan Wangji’s chest. As if it were possible to hold him close enough to make this all right.

“Ah, Lan Zhan, I didn’t know you were going to be quite so possessive of my spiritual power,” Wei Ying said – joking even now, joking already. He tipped his head back on Lan Zhan’s shoulder, showing his exhaustion. “Ah, well, now you know the truth. You can send me back to Lotus Pier tomorrow with a clear conscience.”

Lan Wangji shook his head. Slowly, several times. How could Wei Ying say such false things, even in jest? Lang Wangji cupped a hand under his chin, angling his face up slightly.

Wei Ying stared up at him. “Lan Zhan …”

Lan Wangji leaned down and kissed him.

It was brief and light. Lan Wangji could taste the whisper of baijiu on his breath. Then it was over.

Wei Ying stared up at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, lips hanging ever so slightly agape.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said. “You said you would allow me to help you.”

“Oh,” he said, as if he were truly surprised. His chin drifted back down, and he stared across the jingshi unseeing in thought. Then he took one of Lan Wangji’s hands in both of his own and raised the back of it to his lips. “Thank you, Lan Zhan.”

It was barely seven thirty, long before even the Lan sect’s curfew, but soon Wei Ying was starting to drowse in his arms. Lan Wangji wanted to continue to hold him, but he had been exhausted even when he stepped off Shuoyue. He needed to rest.

Lan Wangji might have carried him to the bed, but he woke and was already pulling himself up before Lan Wangji could arrange it. Instead, he walked at his side, supporting him.

Wei Ying slept the sleep of the bone-weary. Lan Wangji sat beside him and watched. This was worse than anything he’d imagined. But now he understood, and he could stop wasting energy on the false problem and help Wei Ying with the true one.

Wei Ying had dark circles under his eyes and alcohol in his blood and no golden core, but he was safe in Lan Wangji’s bed at Cloud Recesses. As long as that was true, hope was not gone.

part two

#untamed spring fest #the untamed #cql #mdzs #fanfiction #i struggled to figure out what lxc and lwj would call everyone in their internal narration #i decided not to have lxc think 'wei-gongzi' every other sentence and only used it in dialogue #that was hurdle one #then i got to lwj's pov which i've apparently never written before #and i'm like does he think 'xiongzhang' every time he things of his brother? i'm not used to reading that and it seems awkward #so that one went dialogue-only too #then there was 'wei ying' #i've been having wwx think 'lan zhan' when i write his pov bc they're close and that's just how he thinks of him #so 'wei ying' got narration status #is that at all sensical? we just don't know #more whimsically i decided lxc was the kind of guy who would think in semicolons #so i sprinkled in a few #as a treat #anyway the overbearing concept behind this fic was that the main stumbling block in canon #is wwx (feels like he) can't tell anyone why he's put down his sword and picked up demonic cultivation #bc wwx is a mental illness/depression mood #so i wanted to take an 'accepting help when you're struggling' crack at it #long fic long tags that's enough rambling #my fic #wwx #lwj #wangxian #lxc #jc

[besanii]

okay so no pressure at all to write this but consider: wwx leaving his cave bc lwj got slightly hurt or smth (not on purpose!) but rly lwj is just taking this opportunity to bully wwx into seeing and taking care of him? sorry haha but your double happiness fics made me continue to watch pillowbook so im dying bc fluff and sass 😂

Extra 13: 桃花蜜 (Peach blossom honey) | previous parts here

Wei Wuxian shuffles guiltily into the room, wringing his hands in front of him and chewing on his bottom lip. He hovers in the archway separating the private quarters from the main chamber, watching as Lan Wangji sits up in bed with a wince, one hand pressed over his right shoulder.

“I’m sorry!” he blurts out. Lan Wangji looks at him with a raised eyebrow and doesn’t respond, which makes him panic even more. “I didn’t mean to stab you for real. I only meant to—”

Still, Lan Wangji doesn’t speak. Guilt gnaws away at his gut, twisting and churning at his insides, and he sidles closer to the bed with his most apologetic expression.

“Lan Zhan…” he says, reaching out to pinch the edge of Lan Wangji’s sleeve between his fingers and giving it a quick tug. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

He pouts for good measure. He really hadn’t meant to stab Lan Wangji with the knife. They had been sparring, and Lan Wangji had knocked Suibian from his hand, so Wei Wuxian had whipped out his knife as a substitute. There was no way he could have predicted that Lan Wangji would lose his footing and not be able to block his attack! He’d dropped the knife as soon as he realised what had happened, but it had already been too late.

But Lan Wangji still doesn’t acknowledge him, and Wei Wuxian is at a loss about what to do. He tugs a little harder at his sleeve.

“Lan Zhan,” he whines. “Tell me what I can do to fix it?”

Lan Wangji glances over at the bowl of medicine sitting on the table.

“The medicine,” he says.

Wei Wuxian leaps to obey, eager to do something as long as it means Lan Wangji doesn’t blame him for what happened. He perches on the edge of the bed and holds the bowl out to him. Lan Wangji looks down at it, then back up at Wei Wuxian.

“My shoulder is injured,” he says. 

Wei Wuxian gapes.

“You want me to—” He looks down at the bowl, cheeks flushing indignantly. “I’m not your maid!”

Lan Wangji grunts, pressing his hand more firmly against his shoulder where he had been stabbed, and fixes Wei Wuxian with a pointed look as if to say 'this is your fault, take responsibility'. Which, okay, yes, he has a point. Wei Wuxian sighs and picks up the spoon reluctantly.

“You should consider yourself lucky,” he grumbles. “No one else has ever had the good fortune to be fed medicine by me personally.”

“You stabbed me,” Lan Wangji reminds him, leaning forward and sipping from the spoon in Wei Wuxian’s hand. He pulls back as soon as his lips touch the spoon. “It’s too hot.”

“You—!” Wei Wuxian splutters. “You’re a dragon! You control water!”

Lan Wangji coughs delicately and touches his shoulder again. Wei Wuxian grinds his teeth, takes a deep breath to calm himself down, and glares. And the bastard—the bastard has the audacity to sit there looking expectantly at him, waiting for him to cool down his medicine to an acceptable drinking temperature! He’s the Crown Prince of Qing Qiu, not some common nursemaid for Lan Wangji to boss around! 

The fingers holding the spoon shake as he brings to closer to his own mouth and blows gently over the medicine to cool it. He briefly entertains the idea of heating the medicine instead of cooling it—it would only take a tiny spark of power—but decides against it. Who knows what Lan Wangji would make him do in retaliation. It wouldn’t be worth it.

He holds out the spoon to Lan Wangji, who drinks the medicine with a pleased little crinkle at the corner of his eyes. 

“Mm, much better,” he says. He waits patiently for Wei Wuxian to bring the next spoonful to his mouth and drinks that too. Then he frowns. “It’s very bitter though.”

“Good medicine always is,” Wei Wuxian tells him shortly. 

Lan Wangji turns away from the next spoonful with a put-upon expression and a tiny downturn of his lips.

“Some peach blossom honey would help,” he says, almost wistfully. And then he looks at Wei Wuxian out of the corner of his eye.

How did he—? 

“No, it won’t,” Wei Wuxian bites out through his clenched jaws. “Don’t be a baby.”

Lan Wangji sighs and sits back against the bedframe, his hand still clutching his injured shoulder.

“You can take the medicine away,” he says.

“You—!” Wei Wuxian exclaims in dismay. “How old are you, Lan Wangji? Wanting sweets with your medicine!”

But Lan Wangji stubbornly refuses the next spoonful that’s brought to his mouth. Wei Wuxian groans.

“What do you want from me?” he complains. “What will it take to get you to finish this medicine?”

He knows he’s made a mistake when he sees the glint in Lan Wangji’s eyes. He resigns himself to surrendering his personal stash of peach blossom honey, the one Xiao Xingchen had specially developed for him as a kit to take with his own medicine. How Lan Wangji even knew that he carries a vial with him at all times is beyond him—

“Feed it to me,” Lan Wangji tells him.

“I am!” 

Lan Wangji shakes his head. 

“Not with the spoon,” he says. His eyes fall to Wei Wuxian’s lips.

“W-What?” Wei Wuxian cries, flushing to the roots of his hair, his heart racing at the thought despite his indignation. “No way! That’s—”

Shameless. Indecent. How could Lan Wangji suggest such a thing when they weren’t—!

“We’re engaged,” Lan Wangji reminds him. “It would not be inappropriate.”

"Fake engaged,” Wei Wuxian retorts. He fishes in his sleeve for the vial of peach blossom honey. “Here. Take it. You can have the whole thing with your stupid medicine. I hope you get cavities.”

He shoves it at Lan Wangji’s chest, only for his hand to be batted away.

“I don’t want it anymore,” Lan Wangji says. “I want you to feed me.”

“Lan Wangji! Don’t push your luck,” Wei Wuxian warns. He sets the bowl down on the bedside table with a clang and gets to his feet in a huff. “You have another hand, use it!”

A hand shoots out to grab his wrist as he turns to leave, and he’s yanked back down onto the bed with more force than any injured person should rightfully have, immortal or no. He finds himself on his back, splayed over Lan Wangji’s legs, looking up into his amber eyes, now darkened to the colour of rich honey. His heart is doing an impressive acrobatic routine in his chest and you could probably fry an egg on his face with the heat that rushes to it when he takes in their current position. A hand on his chest prevents him from getting up again.

“Wei Ying.” He shivers at the way Lan Wangji almost purrs his name. “Where are you going?”

“N-Nowhere,” he squeaks. Lan Wangji hums, pleased.

“Good boy.” The hand on his chest lightens enough so he can sit up, moving down to rest on his thigh instead. Wei Wuxian gulps. “The medicine, please.”

Wei Wuxian wishes he’d stabbed him a couple more times when he’d had the chance. Why stop at one, when he could riddle this lecherous bastard with holes? It would be infinitely more satisfying.

He picks up the bowl of medicine and looks at its murky brown contents with revulsion. He can’t believe he’s about to do this for Lan Wangji when he can barely stomach drinking medicine for himself. But when he goes to drink it, Lan Wangji grabs his hand and brings the bowl to his own mouth, downing the contents in one smooth swallow. Wei Wuxian stares at him, dumbstruck.

What the fuck?

The bowl is taken from him and something else is pressed into his hands while he’s still frozen. He looks down to see the vial of peach blossom honey and then back up into Lan Wangji’s expectant gaze, still feeling a little off-kilter. There isn’t a spare spoon. How does he—?

He removes the stopper from the vial and dips a finger inside, scooping out a dollop of rich, golden syrup. He stares at it, lost. What now?

Lan Wangji takes matters into his own hands and takes Wei Wuxian’s finger into his mouth. Heat flares through Wei Wuxian at the sensation of Lan Wangji’s tongue against his skin, running up the length of his arm and straight down into his belly. He gasps, high and breathy in the back of his throat, and whimpers when Lan Wangji chuckles, the vibrations tingling along every nerve in his finger. Then the heat is gone and air is cold against the residual wetness on his finger.

Lan Wangji hums.

“It’s delicious,” he says, pleased as punch. “Thank you, Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian jumps to his feet with a gasp and runs out of the room, his hands pressed against his burning cheeks. Lan Wangji lets him leave without protest, stoppering the vial of peach blossom honey and turning it over in his hand with a satisfied smile.

// buy me a ko-fi //

#mdzs #wangxian #double happiness verse #雙喜臨門 #my writing #fox prince!wwx #dragon!lwj #THE RETURN OF SMUGJI #this ask has been sitting in my drafts for idk how long now #i forgot i had it #but here you go #this is BEFORE the feelings reveal ofc #wwx wishes he had stabbed him more #LWJ is very 得寸进尺 #rip wwx's last braincell #feat. 桃花蜜 #hey nonny nonny #asks

[tanoraqui]

Grave dirt baby... 🥺✨

me, procrastinating my actual fic? no... GRAVE DIRT BABY A-YUAN

HEY TUMBLR FUCKED UP ALL MY BULLET POINTS ON THIS THE SECOND I HIT POST BUT IT’S 4AM SO I’M LEAVING IT UP ANYWAY. STUPID GODDAMN WEBSITE.

Wei Wuxian has been in the Burial Mounds for like 2.5 months out of what he doesn’t yet know will be about 3. He’s not even sure he’s going to survive yet. But he has managed to manifest an evil sword - the evil sword - out of the aether/ambient resentful energy/an attunement set with an unwise touch in the belly of an evil turtle

and he does know that he’s not going to survive if he doesn’t get the power of the Burial Mounds under some sort of control

so he cuts his arm and with blood running down the blade, draws something adjacent to the first demon-summoning flag but as an array in the dirt. He stands in the middle and - keep in mind that he more or less hasn’t slept in 2.5 months - plunges the sword into the center, still coated in his blood, and draws in all the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds

was it supposed to go into the sword? Into himself? Into just the single 4ft diameter array area, a column of bound death? who knows, not Wei Wuxian! it’s pure gut instinct

u know what else works on gut instinct, thought? Fairy tales.

And in a fairy tale, why, clay of the earth plus iron enough for a blade plus still-warm blood to show the way...

There’s an implosion and Wei Wuxian is standing - somehow still standing - in a small crater where the array used to be, and his evil sword is plunged into the belly of a baby

He yanks it out in horrified reflex, and realizes a moment later that the baby seems unfazed by this. If there was even a wound, it closes before his eyes, and the glimpse he had showed something more bloody clay than flesh beneath the skin

the iron sword crumbles as he pulls it away, as though rusted a thousand years. the baby turns its head from the iron shavings that falls on it, but then reaches up for Wei Wuxian with a cheerfully demanding cry

he picks it up, of course. (he’d think he was hallucinating if he wasn’t absolutely and utterly aware that he’s not)

it is, as far as he can tell, with physical and spiritual resentful inspection, an absolutely normal baby

oh, except when he looks really closely. Then he can sense the neutron star–dense knot of resentful energy where a golden core might (but will definitely not have room to) form. Also, it can command the dead, and when he holds it, so can he. He’s not sure if it’s a proximity-based power share or if he’s passing his desires through the baby, but even Wei Wuxian, at about 3 months with no food save the rage of the dead and no rest save the promise of final release, has to stop investigating at some point. He has things to do!

specifically, he has Wens to kill

so instead of the iconic shot of the dark flautist in the moonlight, we get the dark, uh...man singing a very spooky lullaby to his baby in the moonlight. It is still deeply creepy. It’s a making-it-up-as-he-goes tune based on a Yunmengi lullaby that he certainly learned from neither of his foster parents, and the lyrics are along the lines of, “let them remember what they did, sweet little potato, let them remember why they’re dying”

yeah he’s been calling this child “Little Potato” for 2 weeks 

why

is that not how you name a child

sometimes when he’s more annoyed at it, he calls it “Little Radish”, or even less appetizing root vegetables

by the time he walks in, the baby is asleep in his arms and he’s not singing anymore, just letting the dead do his will. This is what Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji see. The subsequent conversation, Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu at their feet, goes like this:

LWJ: Wei Ying. You have a baby.

WWX: Oh, uh...

PLAY DUMB!

WWX: What baby?

NOT THAT DUMB!

WWX: Oh, this baby! Haha yeah. I...found it.

JC: What the fuck

WWX: Yeah, weird, right? Right near the, uh...

LWJ: They said you were in the Burial Mounds

WWX: Yyyyup. Yes that is. I found this baby by the side of the road after I walked out of the Burial Mounds.

JC, briefly too morbidly fascinated to think about either the demonic cultivation they just watched or the fact that he wants to hug his brother like he’s never wanted to hug another being in his life: What did you name it?

WWX: ....

JC, desire to hug intensifying together with exasperation: oh my god

Sometime in the next couple days - after sleeping a bit, maybe - it occurs to Wei Wuxian that his raw instincts were right and things will go very badly for little A-Yuan (his siblings insisted he name it) if anyone finds out that he’s a not-yet-walking, not-yet-talking little neuron star of resentful energy. So he takes the iron shavings that are all that remain of the Stygian Turtle Sword and forges them into a Tiger-shaped Seal. He also carves a bamboo flute, like he’d been thinking about before the whole...baby thing. He loudly proclaims both to be dark and terrible weapons

(it really is helpful. The sword was...kind of A-Yuan’s other parent, after all, in addition to their third partner, the Burial Mounds. Chenqing gives him finer control of whatever stray resentful energy he chooses to pick up, and the Stygian Seal lets him channel A-Yuan’s power at need, even when not touching him. Which is good - a battlefield is no place for a baby)

even if that baby thinks ghosts and ghouls exist to pick him up and rock him or toss him around (babies like to be tossed)

Wei Wuxian puts so many goddamn spirit-repelling charms on that child, and lets it be marked down to the paranoia of a survivor

using whatever resentful energy he picks up is generally more effective, actually. Less strong, but it quickly becomes clear that the way this works does, in fact, involve Wei Wuxian communicating his desires through A-Yuan, or at least A-Yuan has to put up with the loan of power. There’s nothing quite like abruptly losing control of a field of corpses because the baby got abruptly uncooperative with anything that wasn’t barfing

the baby does eat, for the record. As far as Wei Wuxian can tell, he doesn’t actually need to, but once WWX fed him once, when they first left the Mounds, he wanted it all the time

he still takes A-Yuan with him when he can. That is the paranoia of a survivor. A-Yuan is...

“A battlefield is no place for a baby, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says gently, as he sets out from Carp Tower after another stolen visit, another failed attempt to convince Jin Guangshan off his ass. “And you are...so busy. LanlingJin takes in orphans, you know...”

“A-Yuan...he’s my blood,” Wei Wuxian says quietly. He’s never been good at lying to his shijie

Whatwherewhenhowwho, he’d see on her face if he was looking at it. But he isn’t. It’s not shame, though, she can see (it really never is, with Wei Wuxian). Fear of disappointing her, slight resignation...but mostly acceptance. Determination. Something almost like contentment.

(When Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangj first took him back to whatever resembled a base camp - somewhere in Qinghe, probably, or maybe Lanling - he had to let a trained healer look at A-Yuan, physical and spiritual examination, and he held his breath and calculated how many people he’d have to kill to get out of here, how fast he’d have to move to not hurt his brother or any particular friends; thought, oh, he’s mine, in a way he hadn’t before - as a child, a son, not just a very strange weapon - 

“He’s quite healthy,” said the doctor, mildly surprised, bouncing A-Yuan on one knee. A-Yuan gurgled happily. “About three months old?”

the longer Wei Wuxian took to answer, the more disapproving her stare got. But that did make sense)

Then all else can be dealt with later. “You should still leave him here,” Jiang Yanli says firmly. “You need to look after yourself and A-Cheng out there. I can look after A-Yuan.”

It takes a bit under two years to win back the lost and burnt territories, scour the Wens out of every crevice, corner Wen Ruohan in his precious Nightless City and bring it tumbling down. Nobody will know the timing but A-Yuan sleeps through the final battle, smiling at dreams that would make a grown man weep in horror. Somewhere, his father is playing a lullaby

About a week later, Jiang Cheng stalks into Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, which he shares with A-Yuan. One of the first rooms rebuilt in the new Lotus Pier. A-Yuan is there, too, playing with blocks while Wei Wuxian idly drafts talismans

“A-jie said the kid is yours,” he says, crossed arms. “Like, yours-yours. When the fuck did you do that?”

(Wei Wuxian has thought about this, by now; gone over the pros and cons of every possibility, the politics and potentials and maybe even the giddy possibility of telling something like the truth)

(the guiding principle is: he has no interest in drawing on the “Stygian Tiger Seal” ever again. The Sunshot Campaign is over. His loved ones are safe, and he sees no reason why they shouldn’t all live long, happy, normal lives)

(also/though, he will burn Jin Sect, Carp Tower, and all of Lanling to the ground before the new Chief Cultivator should touch his son)

“In Caiyi,” he lies. “Right before I got kicked out. I, uh, snuck out a lot more often than you noticed.”

His brother squints at him suspiciously. But Wei Wuxian can also watch him do the math in his head and reluctantly admit that it works.

“So are you claiming him or what?” he challenges. “’Wei Yuan’? You have a courtesy name - wait, no, you are not naming that kid again. You’re going to make his courtesy name be Carrothead or something.” 

“Should I let you pick it, oh wise and noble shidi - no, shushu?!” Wei Wuxian teases, as A-Yuan gets tired of his blocks and starts climbing up him like a jungle gym

Jiang Cheng sighs like the north wind - gusting long and hard, with just the faintest chill to suggest that the skies will be weeping, soon

But...

Despite some evidence to the contrary, Wei Wuxian is generally fully aware of when he’s about to cross a line that cannot be backtracked over. So he meets Wen Qing in the city, and before going to Lanling, he nips into Lotus Pier and picks up A-Yuan

He might leave A-Yuan with Wen Qing in the city when he goes to Glamour Hall, but Qiongqi Pass happens with a toddler watching silently from Wei Wuxian’s hip. Does Wei Wuxian tell him to look away, bury his face in baba’s shirt, or does he not bother, knowing the sort of song that makes up A-Yuan’s sweet dreams?

The Wens become the second through 51st or so people who learn what A-Yuan is. Wei Wuxian briefly considers trying to hide it, but, honestly, there are dead things everywhere on the Burial Mounds, and despite his genuine efforts, he cannot convince A-Yuan that a fierce corpse is anything but the ideal patty-cake companion. (They’ll play with him for hours! It’s a two-nearly-three-year-old’s dream!)

(he doesn’t want to convince him, not really. The last thing he wants to do ever is give A-Yuan anything to be scared of)

nor could he possibly wish that A-Yuan not be...obviously hale and hearty, running rosy-cheeked and strong around these hills of death that slowly seep the energy from any humans, animals, or even sturdy root crops

“So, uh, this is actually my demon baby,” said Wei Wuxian as they all settled in

“this day has been so weird already, this might as well goddamn happen”, said the Wens collectively

“You created a living child out of dead earth, so I’m going to take that as a yes that you can bring my brother back,” said Wen Qing specifically

“...fuck. I mean, yes. I mean - fuck,” said Wei Wuxian. “I- of course I will.”

(it doesn’t work like that, though)

The 52nd person to find out what A-Yuan is is Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian very much does not tell him. They have a pleasant toy-shopping trip and lunch in town, and then the alarm talisman goes off and Wei Wuxian grabs A-Yuan and Lan Wangji tugs them both onto Bichen and when they arrive, Wen Ning is roaring. Lan Wangji knows what’s important; he takes A-Yuan so Wei Wuxian’s hands are free and he doesn’t have to worry about his son

except Wen Ning, black-eyed with rage, throws Wei Wuxian into a tree hard enough to crack a rib, and even as Lan Wangji raises Bichen, A-Yuan shouts,

“Uncle Ning, stop!”

and Wen Ning stops

(as a rule, Wei Wuxian can’t take over with himself and Chenqing anything A-Yuan is controlling, unless A-Yuan lets him, and vice versa. To eliminate variables, Wei Wuxian had made sure that any reins on Wen Ning were his (Wei Wuxian’s) alone. But in that moment, before Wen Ning came fully back to himself, his reins were swinging free - and they were back within the bounds of the Burial Mounds, where A-Yuan was always strong)

and Lan Wangji puts several pieces together at once and prays to every single god in heaven and every ancestor he’s disappointing right now that this was a miracle of love and a very cute child piercing through a fierce corpse’s mindless rampage. That he simply...hallucinated the burst of resentful energy he just felt from the child in his arms

but he’s absolutely, utterly aware that he didn’t

Wei Wuxian explains, stilted and awkward at the bottom of the hill. Challenging and terrified. Holding on to A-Yuan. 

Lan Wangji promises to keep the secret. 

Wei Wuxian takes Hanguang-jun’s word

Remember, oh, remember, that Wei Wuxian walks A-Yuan back up the hill until A-Yuan gets tired and Wei Wuxian picks him up, on their one-and-a-half–man plank bridge through the dark. Remember remember remember that before he can finish speaking that line, there is light - the clearing is lit with lanterns and secret-keepers 2 through 51, and I suppose 53 now that Wen Ning is awake, are waiting with dinner and warmth and welcome. Reader, remember this.

But then...

Aunt Qing and Uncle Ning had gone, and then, with a terrible expression on his face, so had A-Yuan’s baba. Now his baba’s anger and sadness is so strong that the weight of it makes A-Yuan cry from hundreds of miles away, and he curls into Granny’s arms and sends his baba everything he can. Will everything be okay, then? Will everyone come home; will they be able to smile again?

(oh, A-Yuan...)

(No.)

A-Yuan - Wei Yuan, Little Potato (when he’s good for baba or bad for Aunt Qing) or Little Radish (inverse); one day to be Lan Yuan, Lan Sizhui - was born in the good old fairy tale way of earth and iron and blood. It’s a hard thing for any child to lose even a single parent - in one day, in one minute, A-Yuan loses two of three, as the father of his blood burns away in hand the last shreds of Stygian iron, and promptly loses control of his own resentful energy

(the Tiger Seal does nothing like explode, in this world. It was never more than a prop - but a vital one. the benefit of proving it destroyed would be worth the loss of a parent, if only a second didn’t follow on its heels)

A-Yuan has been a dead thing (or close enough) come to life all his life, and both dead and living have been his friends and family. But he’s never felt the transition the other way: from life to death

It’s no wonder, really, that he can’t remember it afterward. No wonder that even on the land that was the last part of him, he was feverish and barely conscious when Lan Wangji stumbled, bleeding, off of Bichen, and took in his arms. No wonder that he remembered very little at all, including the dead. 

But he would be okay. Under physical and spiritual inspection, he’s a perfectly normal boy. He may not be able to form a golden core (there's something in the way), but there are...workarounds. He’ll grow up in one of the most heavily spiritually warded enclaves in the world, safe and loved as he relearns (mostly in secret) what he can do

(For the sake of this story, and A-Yuan’s survival as something close to canon, let’s say there are some truly dark things in the forbidden section of the Lan Library, that could only be used for nefarious purposes - though, I suppose we already knew that. Let’s say there are talismans that will disguise the very nature of qi, so resentful energy may appear spiritual. Let’s say, Lan Xichen becomes the 53rd to know the truth, because his brother needs help - and it’s Wei Wuxian’s child, okay? It’s just Wei Wuxian’s child, quiet and unsure rather than laughing as he always was. If you were in the inner circle of leaders of the Sunshot Campaign, you have absolutely met this child, probably held him and bounced him on one knee)

(What keeps Lan Xichen up at night isn’t the concealing amulet he helped his brother make, which Lan Yuan wears at all times around his neck. It’s the silence he keeps every time he meets Jiang Wanyin’s eyes over a diplomatic table. If anyone had the right to know Wei Yuan survived... But Sandu Sengshou killed Wei Wuxian, everyone knows that, and now he hunts demonic cultivators - what might his pride drive him to do to his nephew, if he ever learned the truth? (Selfishly, Lan Xichen know that if Lan Wangji lost A-Yuan, even just to living at Lotus Pier, Lan Xichen might lose his brother. That fear ebbs with time passing, but the the longer he hasn’t spoken, the worse it would be to do so...))

They don’t restrict Lan Yuan to the Cloud Recesses, no more than any other novice. For memory of their mother, neither of them could bear that. Jiang Cheng does eventually see him at a conference, and stops dead. Years have passed, but that is an entire goddamn nephew, right there. But - how? No, it can’t be. That’s...everyone knows Lan Wangji hated Wei Wuxian. It’s just...and someone would have told him. The Lans value propriety above all, after all.

Anything that can be done with spiritual cultivation can be done with demonic cultivation, save heal. Lan Sizhui makes up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of undead and monsters, and a prodigal talent for Inquiry

On their first night hunt, the young juniors face ghosts. Unfortunately, this is when Lan Jingyi learns that he’s terrified of ghosts. He’s hiding behind Lan Sizhui and panic is contagious, and the senior accompanying them is in a different room of the abandoned house, and Lan Sizhui forgets that he’s holding a sword and just shouts, “Stop! Go away!” 

the ghost, of course, obeys

Lan Jingyi peeks out form behind him. “Did- did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lan Sizhui admits (except that he’s absolutely sure he did)

There’s another flicker of movement, just the wind blowing ashes but Jingyi whips around with wild eyes. “Can you do it again?”

[friendship. my point is, he’s a demon baby but he has family and friends who love and accept him.]

And one day, some absolute fucking morons are going to bring him back home, where he can never be anything but strong, and threaten his friends and family? And the threat is an army of his old playmates, commanded by an attempt at recreating some combination of Chenqing and the Tiger Seal? He couldn’t manage it in Yi City, but now A-Yuan, Wei Yuan, Lan Sizhui stands on earth that has never stopped being part of him, or maybe he’s never stopped being part of it. If he closed his eyes he could feel every foot on it, living and restless dead. And they’re threatening his baba - who he remembers, as the earth remembers its old partner, even though the blood is changed - and his father Hanguang-jun, and his extended family and friends?

No.

#lyratalus #mdzs #the untamed #ficlet #lan sizhui #wei wuxian #uh who else is here #must i tag them all? don't wanna #my fic #hmm need the speaker for the dead variant to get more childhood stuff; they're similar there

[sheadre]

The Rogue Cultivator Part 2 (WWX x Reader x LWJ)

Summary: You’re a rogue cultivator who ran away from her home when they accused you of killing someone. You found yourself in Burial Mounds and accidentally in the Yiling Patriarch’s bed. After Wei Ying’s death, Lan Wangji took you to Gusu. What happens next?

Word count: 2577

Warnings: angst, sad ending

Lan Wangji sat across from you at the small table, his brown eyes piercing into your (e/c) ones. You wore your own hanfu, the last reminder of your clan as you sat. He was handsome, his delicate features stoic but held no malevolence. It took you a week to recover from your injuries. You were grateful that none of the sects knew anything about you but you were aware that once your brother arrives, you will have to run again until you’re far from civilisation. You didn’t want innocent people getting between you and your brother.

“Tell me” he said patiently. You could tell that he was barely keeping it together. Not that you were any better… yet you had to keep it together because your journey wasn’t ending here.

“I came from Guihai (L/N) shi, my brother, Haishen is the sect leader. He took a young maiden as his wife against her will, taking her away from her wedding when it was already arranged. He simply stated that he has the right as sect leader. He does as he pleases.” you sighed. “I ran away because his wife committed suicide when I was present. My brother accused me of killing her and I ran.”

“How did you meet?” he questioned his eyes boring into you, pressing you to answer. You could feel his coldness and you felt bad.

“I found myself at Burial Mounds after months of wandering… I thought that I could rest there for a while, that it is a place where no one goes to. That’s how he found me. I have no idea why he took me in… I was a stranger but he did. Wen Qing took care of my wounds… and they let me stay. Gave me shelter.” you smiled sadly.

“What was going on between you?” his question had an edge to it, his tone clipping like he was angry. No… he was jealous. You averted your gaze both out of embarrassment and out of guilt. It wasn’t hard for you to notice his feelings for your husband those months ago but this morning was confirmation.

“I became his wife” you replied firmly. You regretted nothing, Wei Ying was nothing but loving and he promised you his heart. He showed you his love on many occasions but there was always a place for Lan Wangji. Yet you never felt jealous… for why or how, you had no idea. You should’ve been jealous but you weren’t.

You lifted your gaze back up to meet Lan Wangji’s hurt expression. It was hard to read him but it was obvious now. He was in pain and you had no idea how to comfort him or if you should. He was at the verge of crying and your heart clenched in pain.

“I regret nothing… but I could never replace you” you reached out for his hand. At the sudden contact his hand twitched but your firm grip on his slender fingers kept him from pulling away. “He always loved you even when he was with me. I could never replace you, Hanguang-Jun.”

You sat there patiently, holding his hand, watching his handsome face show his emotions. He was beautiful, you couldn’t blame Wei Wuxian falling for him. You knew you wouldn’t be far behind if you let yourself. Wei Ying often talked about their time together at Gusu. He told you about every mischief he made, how Lan Zhan scolded him. Your favourite tale was when Lan Wangji got drunk. It must’ve been hilarious.

“I wish I could hate you” he said quietly after a long while. Lan Wangji pulled his hand away from yours and left you alone in a hurricane of white robes. You sighed heavily, tears rolling down your cheeks. You missed Wei Wuxian but you had to be strong. You couldn’t break down.

Later ~

A few hours later when the sun left the peak of the sky you leaned back with your hands on your hips. Your lips in a satisfied smirk. Your small hand made backpack was packed with your remaining things. Your sword was the last thing you needed to buckle on your side before you parted. You looked over the house with a sad and fond smile.

Lan Wangji was more than generous with only just taking you in and healing you. You couldn’t stay and be a nuisance. His coldness was easily noticed by anyone, yet he kept taking care of you and gave you food, even ate with you. Your eyes landed on the letter you left for him. Goodbyes were never your strength.

You hauled the backpack onto your shoulder and left the house quietly. You couldn’t help but admire the scenery. Back at Guihai you only had fortresses with grey stone walls everywhere. It was a labyrinth and meanwhile you found your way through the streets, other people tended to get lost in the city one too many times. You didn’t miss your supposed-to-be home. Once before you would’ve called it your home as a child even with your parents abusing you and your brother belittling you.

“(L/N) guniang” the gentle voice startled you making you jump a little in your place earning a chuckle from the Gusu Lan sect leader. You turned to Lan Xichen and bowed deeply in respect.

“Sect leader” you greeted.

“Where are you going?” he asked as he bobbed his head towards your backpack. You shot him a gentle but sad smile.

“It is time I depart” you started. “I cannot depend on Hanguang-Jun and cannot take advantage of his kindness. I am already in debt for he took care of my wounds and gave me shelter.”

“He took you to Cloud Recesses as his guest, (L/N) guniang” Zewu-Jun gave you a knowing smile. “He would be devastated if you left without him knowing.”

“It is not only because I wish not to overstep my boundaries but because my brother is coming after me and I would not want anyone to get caught in our fights.” you looked away with your heart heavy. You didn’t want anyone to get hurt when your brother would find you. No one deserved to die because of you. You must’ve wronged your family for them to treat you the way they always have done.

“Still… I have to ask you to think of my brother’s feelings… Wei Wuxian’s death took its toll on him” Lan Xichen looked sad for his brother making your heart clench in pain. Maybe there was a way for you to stay… maybe you would be able to be the shoulder Lan Wangji needed. You had no heart to leave him alone in these times. You heard rustling coming from your right side snapping your head to the sounds, you spotted Hanguang-Jun. His eyes widened when he noticed the backpack on your shoulder, his handsome face hardening as he quickly fled the scene.

“Excuse me, Zewu-Jun” you bowed to the older Lan brother before taking off after Lan Wangji calling out to him loudly so he would stop.

Five years later~

Your brother never came. No one knew you which meant rumours never spread about you. Therefore, your brother never found you because you changed your name and became Lady Qin, the wife of Hanguang-Jun. During the years you spent in Gusu, hiding, the two of you grew closer. At first, you had to be patient with Lan Zhan. He was mourning for years in seclusion. No one dared to bother him but you. You took his meals to his quarters, fetched warm water, took him to bed when he was drunk which happened at times and took care of his bunnies. The small rodents grew close to you and you often found yourself in the middle of the bunch of animals ranting about your problems to them.

One night, when you had enough of Lan Wangji moping about, you went out to the bunnies to clear your mind. The moon was full and shined brightly above you, lighting up the path in front of you. Your white robes brushed against the bushes, rustling the leaves as you took step by step. You sat down amongst the bunnies and opened up the basket full of vegetables feeding them carefully.

“I’m worried for Lan Zhan, you know?” you petted one of them with a sad smile. “He’s been mourning Wei Ying since years… I loved him too… more than I thought I could possibly love anyone. His heart was at the right place… and refused to stand in line with the monsters. Those people were kind to me… no one ever were kind to me back at Guihai. They were my family more than my real family ever was.”

You paused giving the bunnies from the large salad. You listened to them munching on it with a smile on your lips. You looked completely different from the way you did before. Your hair grew even longer and you untied the braids you had in it. Those braids once indicated your place in (L/N) clan but now you were nothing to them and they were nothing to you.

“And then… Hanguang-Jun took me in… I have no idea why… but I will always be grateful to him” you chuckled with a sob contorting it. Tears rolled down your cheeks. “He took me in and gave me a shoulder I could lean on when he needed it even more than I did.”

“I took you with me and A-Yuan because I needed you” his voice broke the silence of the night. Your heart skipped a beat as your head snapped up in surprise. You quickly wiped at your cheeks as he came closer. His steps were quiet but you felt him get closer. “You felt like a piece of Wei Ying… I felt like there was a piece of him lingering with you.”

“You hated me, didn’t you?” you chuckled as you kept your eyes on the horizon. You dared not to look at him.

“I did…” he admitted after a long silence. “But I learnt why he fell in love with you.”

“I never knew why he chose me when he could’ve chosen you” you chuckled brokenheartedly. You pulled your legs up so you could rest your chin on your knees, hugging them close to your chest. You didn’t care if it wasn’t appropriate for a lady to sit like that. It was just you and Lan Zhan. Nothing else mattered.

“He didn’t choose, A-(Name)” Lan Wangji sat down next to you as gracefully as a person can. No matter what he was doing, he was like a prince. His voice was gentle even when it sounded lost. “You were there when I couldn’t…”

“Nothing is impossible, Lan Zhan” you smiled as you turned to him. Your heart skipped a beat at the sight. His deep brown eyes bore into you as the moonlight turned his porcelain skin glistening like an ethereal creature’s.

That night was the first step for the two of you to grow closer. Each moment you shared brought you closer until one night, Hanguang-Jun kissed you. The night was dark that time, cold wind was blowing as it was about to turn winter. Lan Zhan asked you to stay with him and you did without a question. He should’ve been to bed already but he couldn’t sleep. You sat on his bedside pouring some calming tea when he kissed you. His lips felt so soft and sweet. Lan Wangji confessed to you his love and you agreed to be his bride.

The winter wedding was beautiful. Lan Qiren was the happiest even if he didn’t let it show. To your request, only few people were invited and those who attended agreed to spread the rumour that you were a young maiden from the village. Odes were singing about how the two of you looked like a god and a goddess. A prince and his princess in white. People expected you to be like Lan Wangji’s mother, to stay secluded in your own house. You had to make them disappointed. You followed Lan Zhan to nighthunts, travelled with him everywhere and when in Gusu, you taught the young female disciplines of cultivation.

Your first-born child conceived on a nighthunt. In Gusu, the two of you had no time for each other, but out there, in the inn, you only had time for each other. Your hand ran down his bare chest as your lips left a mark behind his ear. His slender fingers loosened your robes and the soft fabric fell down your shoulders to pool around your hips as you sat in his lap. You were a mess but Lan Zhan wasn’t far behind. His headband loosened by your hand and it slipped down his forehead.

“I miss him” you breathed against his skin as you rested your head on his chest. The morning sun was shining through the blinds but today was a lazy day.

“Every minute” Hanguang-Jun nodded as he pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

“Thank you” you smiled sadly up at him. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion making you chuckle. “That you’re so good to me.”

“You say that like it is a goodbye” he rumbled as his arm tightened around you. You just shook your head and closed your eyes.

Oh, but it was a goodbye. You always knew that your brother wouldn’t give up. His hatred was too deep to just let you go.

Lan Zhan,

I wish that I could give you more to reciprocate all the happiness you gave me. I wish there were words I could write down that express my gratitude and love for you. You gave me two beautiful children and gave me a third one in Sizhui. You gave me a new life, a new purpose. You saved me more than one way. I know that it is hard but it was time for me to meet my fate.

When you find Wei Ying, tell him that I never ceased to love him. I wish I could be there to greet him, to hold him. And when the time comes, I will be there to greet you. And we will never have to separate again.

With undying love ~

(Name)

Lan Wangji found her letter on his desk one morning. Almost ten years passed since he took her with him from Burial Mounds. Lan Zhan knew that her brother was getting closer and closer. The man even sent a letter to (Name) to warn her. Lan Wangji stood in the middle of the room with the letter hanging from his fingers before it limply fell onto the ground. His heart was broken all over again.

Time skip~

Wei Ying was holding the letter in his hands as tears rolled down his cheeks. His A-(Name) died because Jin Guangyao told her brother where she was and how to find her. Jin Guangyao feared her powers because she was strong and so she had to die. He remembered how bright her smile was, how beautiful she looked in the moonlight. He always wished that the three of them could be together.

Lan Wangji pulled him back into his chest, arms tightening around his waist as he pressed a soft kiss to his bare shoulder.

“We’ll see her again… when the time comes, Wei Ying”

#romance #angst #sad ending #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan zhan #reader-insert

[wangxianfics]

Are there any stories where we find out what actually happened to Wei Wuxian during his three months in the Burial Grounds?

Here’s some What Happened in the Burial Mounds fics for you, nonny:

ghosts do not speak of lies and truth by LunaChi_KuroShihone (6K, Teen)

(What Happened in the Burial Mounds, Body Horror, Demon!WWX, Horror, Ghosts, Cannibalism, Yiling Laozu!WWX, Hurt!WWX, Supportive!LWJ)

"No." It was a silent hiss, barely heard over the wind, but Lan Wangji glanced over to Sizhui, their A-Yuan, looking positively murderous as he was leaning on his guqin in exhaustion, a shallow cut on his forehead still bleeding slightly and staining his ribbon red. "Respect, senior, but you will not go after Senior Wei."

--

Wei Wuxian was no man any more.

He had stopped being a man the moment he'd fallen to his death at Wen Chao's hand, down, down, down into the Burial Mounds where the screams of the dead echoed through the river of corpses. The impact of his fall had well and truly killed him then, shattering his bones and breaking his body apart as he lay there, empty eyes staring at the clouded sky. Something inside of him had snapped then, as raindrops fell onto cool skin in red droplets, his head lolling to the side and coming face-to-face with the mangled remains of some black-clad cultivator, and Wei Wuxian had broken down and started sobbing, his ribcage protesting as his lungs were being hacked up, and then he'd started laughing relentlessly when the pain had gotten too much.

He hated, hated, hated Wen Chao -!

in the crush of the dark by seularen (6K, Explicit)

(Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, What Happened in the Burial Mounds, Flashbacks, Case Fic, Yiling Laozu!WWX, Suicidal Thoughts, Dismemberment, Chronic Pain, Hurt & Comfort, Established Relationship)

“New plan,” Wei Wuxian said. “Lan Zhan, wait for my signal.” Without waiting for a reply, he ran over to the phantom attraction flag and slapped it on his chest. Instantly, the corpses turned toward him. He heard his name called in the background by many voices, but did not care for their concern. He took out Chenqing and began to play.

Or: after falling into the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian's broken body is "repaired." He discovers the secret to demonic cultivation, and the answer to Lan Qiren's question. Years later, on a night hunt, he reflects on his learning.

The Flower that Blooms Alone by caesteves  (7K, No Rated)

(Post-Canon, Case Fic, Night Hunts, Time Travel, Hurt!WWX, Hurt &Comfort, What Happened in the Burial Mounds, Demonic Cultivation)

A second later, his thoughts were cut off by a terrible loud noise. The noise of something - or someone - hitting the ground with an incredible force. Lan Wangji freeze for a second, the familiarity of the place suddenly making sense in his head. That awful sound that he had imagined so many times could only have happened in two occasions, the Nightless City, or… Burial Mounds.

(Or, on a night hunt, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji go back to the past, on the three months that Wei Wuxian went missing, and Lan Wangji see what truly happened in the Burial Mounds.)

Crouching Bunny, Hidden Rabbit by skepwith  (20K, Explicit)

(Post Canon, Canon Divergence, What Happened in the Burial Mounds, Hair Grooming, First Time, Getting Together)

“Lan Zhan, you’re too soft on me!” scolded Wuxian, trying to keep his face from turning red for some reason. “If I come back to Gusu, you have to promise to tell me if I’m cramping your style.”

“Very well,” agreed Lan Zhan, with (Oh be still my heart, thought Wuxian) an actual, honest-to-goodness smile. “I too have a condition before I take you home.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” he said, twirling his flute and trying to pretend his heart hadn’t skipped a beat at take you home. Lan Zhan was still holding his arm.

“You won’t force yourself to stay one moment beyond your inclination.”

Wuxian laughed, feeling giddy. “As if I would! No, Lan Zhan, you’ll be dying to get rid of me long before it comes to that.”

“Hm,” disagreed Lan Zhan.

Wei Ying goes back to Gusu with Lan Zhan instead of going walkabout, much to Lan Qiren’s dismay. But will they ever act on their hidden mutual attraction? Does a bunny poop in the woods?

A Lone Ghost Child Stands In For The Lake of Lotuses by Storyboradinventor (26K, Mature)

(Canon Divergence, What Happened in the Burial Mounds, Yiling Laozu!WWX, WWX is the only one that survives the burning of Lotus PierYP!WWX but it's a secret that only LWJ knows, Angst With a Happy Ending)

Lan Wangji looks at Wei Wuxian’s side profile, and just admiring him. He’s still shocked, even after eighteen years of marriage, that he gets to sit here, that he gets to sleep next to him, that he’s his comfort. However, that last one, that last one came with a bloody price of Wei Wuxian being the only survivor of the Lotus Pier Massacre that opened up the way to the Sunshot Campaign. 

#Anonymous #masterpost #burialmounds #whathappenedintheburialmounds

[nillegible]

Jiang Cheng leads the spirit into his private quarters, powers the silencing arrays inlaid into the room’s walls, and then demands, “What are you doing here, Hanguang Jun?”

Instead of responding as usual, the flame grows, unfurling into the shape of Lan Wangji, as tall and imposing as he had been in life, though a bit transparent and luminous. He’s the brightest thing in the room.

Unlike when he was alive, he looks furious, gold eyes promising death or worse, as he asks, “What did you do to Wei Ying?”

“I didn’t do anything to him! He died!” says Jiang Cheng .

The spirit stalks closer, “Do not lie to me. Sect Leader Jiang defeated the Yiling Patriarch. They sing it in the streets.”

“Well I didn’t,” says Jiang Cheng . “How dare you enter my home, and make such accusations?” he demands, and tugs Zidian into whip form. And then Lan Wangji is in his face, Jiang Cheng flinches, backs away reflexively, but that just brings him up against the wall, and a strange ghostly hand presses his wrist, somehow holding it and Zidian to the wall. His other hand lies threateningly on Jiang Cheng ’s chest.

“Jiang Wanyin,” says Lan Wangji , and it’s like an inhuman fury that fills his voice, that burns in his eyes. “What did you do to Wei Ying?”

“I didn’t–” he breaks off with a sharp inhale as the not-solid hand on his chest presses, presses through cloth, and flesh, and bone, and it’s cold, freezing, and he can’t breathe. He’s staring horrified into angry gold eyes, before a wildly sparking Zidian drops from his nerveless fingers; wrist freezing cold and his hand unresponsive.

Stupid. So stupid. Killed by a crazy Lan ghost in his own bedroom, how could he have been so stupid?

The ghostly cold curls around the warm pulsing core of him, his second one – No, no please, don’t take it from me. Please, I can’t – and he can feel it tremble. JC would scream in pain, in fear, in rage, if he only had the breath for it, as Lan Wangji’s ghostly fingers tighten coldly around his golden core.

“This doesn’t belong to you,” says Lan Wangji .

He’s right, this isn’t the core that Jiang Cheng carefully built up with years of careful effort. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t his now. It was given to me. Does that not make it mine? Jiang Cheng would ask, if he could. He can feel warm wetness on his cheeks, doesn’t know when he started to cry but he wants LWJ to let go, wants him to back off, wants to live, wants to keep his golden core, the precious blessing of a second chance that he’d been granted, and can’t bear to lose like this. Not so soon. (Not ever. It had been so empty, so frighteningly, painfully, empty without it.)

Then suddenly Lan Wangji is pulled away from him, those cold fingers withdraw from within his chest, and Jiang Cheng inhales with a desperate gasp and pushes both his hands to his chest, it’s still there, it’s there, he has his golden core, it hasn’t been plucked right out of him. Hasn’t disintegrated into powerless flecks within him, shattered. Jiang Cheng falls to his knees, and folds over, curling in on himself.

He can’t stop the tears, the hitching of his breath. Jiang Cheng should stand. Should hold Sandu to the spirit’s throat and demand answers, should use Zidian to dispel him forcefully from this plane. It takes him a few minutes of helpless weeping before he can even sit up again. When he looks up, Lan Wangji has been restrained by Zidian of its own accord, wrapped around him tightly like it had once held him and Wei Wuxian while Lotus Pier was destroyed. Unlike them, Lan Wangji does not struggle, only stares down at him coldly from within the sparking violet binds.

There’s a small curl of anger within him, a sliver of how dare you, Lan Wangji, and JC focuses on it, lets the rising fury lend him the strength to stand up again and look him in the eye. His sword is not with him, but Zidian is enough to keep Lan Wangji away. “This core,” says Jiang Cheng , “Was given to me by Baoshan Sanren. After Wen Zhuliu destroyed my first,” says Jiang Cheng .

“You would claim,” says Lan Wangji, “That Baoshan Sanren gave you Wei Ying’s golden core?”

No.

No.

“It’s not his. It’s not.” It can’t be.

But Lan Wangji’s spirit had sought him out, had called him Wei Ying, had been so confused when Jiang Cheng insisted upon his own identity.

Wei Wuxian, no. Please.

It really had been such a flimsy story. If Jiang Cheng hadn’t been half mad with grief he wouldn’t have believed it (sometimes he still can’t believe it, dreams of being cold and empty and powerless and wakes up gasping, his hand over his chest, feeling the warmth of the qi within his core). Never would have believed that story if not for the warm golden core pulsing within him, right now, that gave irrefutable proof to the bizarre claim.

You blindfolded me, and sent me up alone.

You vanished after.

You never. Oh god, Wei Wuxian.

You never used your sword again.

That had been the last time; flying them both to the base of the mountain, where he’d told him what to do and sent him on his way…

It can’t be true. You didn’t.

(How dare you?)

That’s not what I wanted, how could you?

I wanted to save you.

(I’ve always wanted to save you.)

Jiang Cheng wants to tear it out of his chest as badly as he wants to seal it into him so that no one can ever take it away. He never wants to give someone a chance to take it from him, but he can’t bear it – Wei Wuxian how could you do this to me.

“Jiang Wanyin, release me,” says Lan Wangji.

“I didn’t know. I was blindfolded… someone knocked me unconscious. He never said… he was already missing when I…” says Jiang Cheng, and with a gesture Zidian returns to him, warm and familiar in his hand. He doesn’t fold it back into a ring, wary that Lan Wangji would try to attack again. “He never told me that… his own core… The voice. Wen Qing…” and then Jiang Cheng is sliding down the wall, no longer able to keep himself up, crying again.

Did it hurt? Were you always so cold?

How did you survive it for years?

“Wei Wuxian…”

How could you bear to take it out yourself?

I wasn’t worth it, Wei Wuxian.

I’ve never been worth that, but after.

I was so ungrateful to you, afterwards.

“Wei Wuxian, how could you…”

(Did you regret it until you died?)

“…just die, and leave me with this?”

#ghost!LWJ fic excerpt #jiang cheng #lan zhan #wei ying #yunmeng bros #jc #lwj #wwx #golden core #jc finds out early

[trensu]

Episode 46: The One with All the Yunmeng Bros Angst

gross, ouyang and yao are talking. let’s ignore them!

blah blah plot plot blah

ooh thank god, wwx is now the one talking

being all detective-y and asking relevant questions

I LOVE MY SUNSHINE BOY WHEN HE'S BEING CLEVER

wwx makes some Plot Relevant Point and yao is like I DISAGREE bc ofc he fucking does

LOL WWX'S FACE WHEN YAO INTERRUPTS LIKE THAT

IT'S LIKE HE'S BITING DOWN ON HIS TONGUE TO NOT SNAP SOMETHING BACK

kudos to him on his self-control tbh but it's wasted on yao. 

wwx is all asking things like why are you ladies fessing up now, oh and btw that's a real neat bracelet you got there...

and then nhs is like, gee i wonder what kind of person would've sent these ladies here today

LOLOLOL NHS IS SUCH A TROLL OMG

and yao is like DETAILS DON'T MATTER, WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ANYWAY LET'S GO MURDER FOR JUSTICE AGAIN

and everyone else is like, HEY, THIS LOUD GUY HAS A POINT LET'S GO MURDER

okay, they don't actually say anything about murder but they're harping about "justice" 

The last time they did that, it resulted in murder so i'm gonna go ahead and assume this time isn't any different

lwj: many skeptical points remain

THANK YOU, LWJ, FOR BEING SENSIBLE

oh, and i would like to point out that the crowd had been getting rowdy 

but the minute lwj interjected there they all fell silent

My guy didn't even raise his voice and was able to shut up a whole room full of people.

I LOVE YOU HANGUANG JUN

lqr: what are they?

wwx: SO MANY. 

wwx makes some Points and is like so we got some witnesses now but where's the HARD EVIDENCE GUYS??

and yao is like, whatever, we'll find it sooner or later now that we know THE TRUTH

and wwx's reaction lolol

it's like oh my god how stupid is this guy, that's not how it works, that's not how ANY of this works

I FEEL YOUR PAIN, WWX, I FEEL IT IN MY SOUL

ppl are blabbering Plot Stuff

i'm just gonna enjoy the occasional shots of wwx and lwj's beautiful faces

blah blah blah plot plot plot blah

gosh, my boys are so pretty

LOOK AT THEM BEING PRETTY, I LOVE THEM

(i say as the crowd devolves into vicious mob mentality)

wwx's had enough of this and turns to leave bc angry mobs are old news at this point

And we all know how he ended up last time there was an angry mob

but yao and some rando interrupt his exit as if they have ANY RIGHT to speak to my sunshine boy at all

Eventually we DO escape sword hall and the mob of stupid people and our boys are alone together wandering lotus pier!!!

they're reviewing Plot Info and bouncing ideas off each other and IT'S BEAUTIFUL, THEY'RE SO SMART AND IN LOVE

They determine that they don't have enough clues to say who the mysterious 3rd party is

but they def have enough evidence showing jgy murdered nmj and is generally an evil conniving bastard.

lwj mentions that he's going to send word to his brother to be careful since jgy is EVIL FOR SURE NOW.

oooh, our boys just came upon the jiang clan's ancestral shrine

wwx freezes, eyes red-rimmed and shiny, MY POOR SUNSHINE BOY

lwj: what's wrong?

ALL OF HIS ATTENTION IS GLUED TO WWX'S EVERY MOVE ALL THE TIME, ISN'T IT??

SEE HOW INTENTLY HE LOOKS AT WWX??

me too, lan zhan, me too

wwx: nothing. it's the ancestral hall of the jiang clan

he says this softly, like it hurts to acknowledge it or smth

lwj: do you want to enter?

wwx: no

WHICH IS A BLATANT LIE

EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM IS SCREAMING HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO GO IN THERE

they make to turn away and pause for a moment, during which wwx looks back at the shrine longingly

cut to the next scene where we see wwx burning some incense sticks in the shrine

AND OUR BOYS BOW TOGETHER  3x TO M-YU, JFM, AND JYL

wwx greets his deceased loved ones solemnly

wwx: it's me. i'm here to disturb you again.

idk about m-yu and jfm, BUT JYL WOULD NEVER THINK WWX'S PRESENCE WAS A DISTURBANCE

now wwx is telling lwj about how he used to spend a ton of time in that shrine bc m-yu would punish him by sending him there to, idk, reflect on his sins before the ancestors or smth

and lwj is like, yeah, i heard about that

then wwx comments on how he's never met a woman as irritable as m-yu, and how she punished him for trifles all the time

then he laughs bashfully and says "my fault, my fault" and bows another 3x bc omg wwx you can't speak ill of the dead, especially not at their shrine

this is a nice moment between them so far, actually. 

it's nice to hear wwx reminisce in a way that's not 100% painful

and the fact that he's sharing these little bits of inconsequential info with lwj, his soulmate, is just very sweet to me

lwj: won't you tell jc?

wwx: idk. at least not yet

lwj: after all, you two are sworn brothers

it's nice of lwj to acknowledge that, without any sort of rancor in his tone, considering how much he does not care for jc (to put it mildly)

wwx: since the misunderstanding between us is so deep, it's not that easy to solve

HE SOUNDS SO RESIGNED, AND THE LITTLE SMILE THAT FLASHED BRIEFLY THERE WAS JUST SO SAD

and then he's like, besides, I created Plot Device 2, regardless of whether or not jgy ended up using it to make Plot Device 3

UH OH, HERE COMES JC

jc: wei wuxian

OH GOD, CAN HE PACK ANY MORE BITTERNESS AND VENOM INTO THAT NAME??

wwx stands immediately when he hears jc call, he doesn't look at him tho

lwj stands a beat after as jc enters the shrine

jc: you still take yourself as one of the jiang clan? come and go at any time you like, then bring people here when you wish. Do you remember whose house this is? who's the owner?

YIKES

THAT ONE HURT.

and wwx just takes it

wwx: i didnt take hanguang jun to any confidential places in Lotus Pier. i just brought him here to offer some incense to clan leader jiang and madam yu.

he's so submissive here and not even in a fun way

it’s in his posture and tone of voice, even in how he still doesn't look directly at jc...it makes me sad

wwx: we're leaving

He tries to retreat bc he def doesn't want this this confrontation to happen 

jc: you really should kneel down to them, for coming to their presence to destroy the view and ruin their quiet.

DOUBLE YIKES. 

that one hurt EVEN MORE

and lwj, who had been following wwx's lead and staying quiet, intervenes

lwj: clan leader jiang, pay attention to your words

oh boy if looks could kill, jc would be dead as a doornail

he's like HURT MY SOULMATE AGAIN, I DARE YOU. JUST GIVE ME A REASON AND I WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN

which is pretty gutsy since jc is higher ranked than him, technically, as clan leader. 

AND they're both in jc's domain rn!

jc: what did you say? i think someone else needs to watch his behavior

he's glaring at wwx's back and he's got a mean twist to his mouth that would be a smile if it weren't so cruel

jc: you have already been kicked out of our family. how dare you enter and face my parents and my sister?

STOP HURTING MY SUNSHINE BOY

wwx is just accepting this. he's just accepting all these cruel things with his eyes downcast and submissive

BC IT HURTS AND HE BELIEVES HE DESERVES IT

lwj: jiang wanyin

HOLY SHIT

lwj fucking HISSED that name

and he took a VERY MENACING step towards jc

MY GUY

MY GUY, YOU CAN'T ATTACK A CLAN LEADER

ESPECIALLY NOT IN HIS OWN HOME

LIKE, I TOTALLY GET WHY YOU'D WANT TO RN, AND, Y'KNOW, I'M NOT THE MOST POLITICALLY SAVVY PERSON AROUND

BUT THIS JUST SEEMS LIKE A BAD IDEA ALL AROUND

thank god wwx is there

wwx stops him, pressing the palm of his hand into lwj's torso (!!!!!)

wwx: lan zhan. lan zhan, let's go

he practically whispers this, head bent down, AGAIN SUPER SUBSERVIENT

but jc is looking for a fight and he's not letting go until he gets one, apparently

jc: go as far as you can. i don't want to see you AWFUL PEOPLE again before my dead family

wwx just halts in his steps.

he had been all prepared to go after taking that tongue lashing that he thinks he's earned, but at that he takes a deep, fortifying breath bc jc crossed a line

he purses his lips a moment before turning to finally face jc head on

wwx: jc, scold me as you like but not the others (aka LWJ)

oooh, but that was the wrong thing to say to jc right now bc jc goes off on a VERY PAINFUL rant

he's like, oh, i should be nice to lwj? don't you remember that MY PARENTS WERE KILLED AND LOTUS PIER FELL bc you just HAD to play hero and save lwj?? and it wasn't enough! you HAD to play hero and SAVE THE WENS too, which killed my sister!!

oh he's getting really mean here

he's like, how generous you are wwx! letting wn wander the entrance of lotus pier and letting lwj offer incense!!

the minute jc started his rant, wwx cast his eyes to the side, again just enduring everything jc is throwing at him

oh but now jc starts in on lwj again

he's like, lwj, the great second jade, ignoring his reputation to side with wwx, your brother and uncle must be so proud

wwx: JIANG WANYIN!

wwx shouts at him

he's shaky and almost panting here.

wwx: apologize this instant.

jc: apologize? why should i? bc i insulted your great friendship?

THIS WHOLE ENCOUNTER IS A SHIT SHOW AND IT HURTS.

wwx just loses it here and grabs jc by the collar of his robes and gives him a shake

wwx: ARE YOU DONE?

and jc is still the little brother, you know, so obvs he does not back down here, he's not intimidated at all

jc: LET'S FIGHT THEN. should i be afraid of you two?

wwx's breath is all shaky and he's trembling and he would've given into jc's demands for a fight anyway but then he sees jyl's nameplate

and he must remember how upset jyl would get every time they fought

ME TOO, JYL, ME TOO. I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, MAKE IT STOP

so he lets go of jc and stumbles back. he's looking very weak right now AND I’M VERY CONCERNED

lwj, obvs, catches him by the arm when he stumbles

lwj: wei ying

wwx: lan zhan, let's go

lwj agrees and the two of them turn and leave the shrine, lwj still gripping wwx's arm and providing support bc wwx is NOT looking good what’s happening to my sunshine boy, somebody fix this RIGHT NOW

BUT JC IS LIKE A DOG WITH A BONE BC HE JUST STORMS AFTER THEM, HE WANTS HIS FIGHT

he freaking leaps across the little lotus pond and lands before them, blocking off their exit

he starts antagonizing wwx, and he grabs wwx by the collar now, and again, wwx just takes it BUT LWJ DOESN'T

lwj slams his hand around jc's wrist (the one that's grabbing wwx), WRAPPING HIS FINGERS AROUND JC'S ZIDIAN, EVEN

lwj: let him go

holy crap. Stone Cold. LWJ'S STARE IS STONE COLD, AND HE TIGHTENS HIS GRIP ON JC'S WRIST

god damn, if lwj ever looked at me like that, i'd drop to the ground and beg for forgiveness. i'd be scared witless

when jc makes no move to let go of wwx, lwj releases his wrist and hooks his arm under jc's forearm and shoves upward to FINALLY break jc's hold on wwx

wwx stumbles at the force of it and his nose starts to bleed

MY POOR PRECIOUS SUNSHINE BOY LOOKS SO WEAK AND OUT OF IT!!

lwj looks at him, eyes wide with worry

lwj: wei ying!

even jc looks concerned (i would even say scared, tbh)

wwx reaches up and wipes his nose; he's not steady on his feet AT ALL

wwx: lan zhan, let's go.

lwj: okay

and he immediately starts to leave, practically dragging wwx with him bc wwx is barely able to stand at this point

lol, lwj shoulder checks jc as they walk past him

but jc is a stubborn bastard and brings out zidian and whips at their retreating backs

brief moment here to admire how FREAKING COOL THE ZIDIAN IS OMG,  

*GRABBY HANDS* I WANT ONE OF MY OWN SO SO BAD. 

IT'S A SNAKE BRACELET!! 

THAT TURNS INTO A WHIP!! 

A PURPLE WHIP!!! OF LIGHTNING!!!!!! 

LITERALLY NO ASPECT OF THIS WEAPON IS UN-BADASS

so jc whips purple lightning at them but the hit never lands bc lwj swings his still-sheathed bichen and bats that attack away like nothing

but as he does that, wwx starts to fall

lwj spins around and AUDIBLY GASPS, eyes wide with worry again, as he watches wwx lose consciousness. 

he dives forward and catches his soulmate in his arms and cradles him gently

jc doesn't see this happen and swings right back with another lash but wn swoops in out of nowhere to take the hit instead. 

AND HERE WE'RE GONNA GET THE BIG REVEAL OH GOD I'M NOT READY

jc is all who let you in, how dare you?? and whips wn again

BUT WN WILL NOT STAY DOWN, NO SIR

HE'S GOT STUFF TO SAY AND BY GOD, HE'S GONNA SAY IT

he offers up suibian to jc but jc whips him and sends him flying again

Wn gets right back up goes back to offering the sword to jc, DEMANDING HE UNSHEATHE IT

AND IN A FIT OF FURY JC PULLS AT THE HANDLE AND SUIBIAN COMES FREE

SHOCK, UTTER SHOCK ON HIS AND LWJ'S FACES

(also YIKES jc nearly sliced out wn's eyes with the force of his unsheathing of siubian. he obvs didn't expect anything to come of him pulling at the handle)

GOLDEN CORE TRANSFER REVEAL!!

FLASHBACK to wn's part of the story

we see wn holding an unconscious jc and wq is telling wwx to come out from where he was hiding behind a convenient boulder

and we see wwx give the go ahead to start the golden core transfer

back to the present, jc looks like his whole world is a lie 

bc it kinda is

I'm still kinda mad that wwx never told him anything.

like, i get why he didn't and i sympathize but informed consent in medicine and surgery is kind of a big deal!

and then omg, we got a close up shot of lwj's face

his eyes are wide and shiny and his jaw is dropped open just a bit. HE IS SHAKEN TO THE CORE 

HAHAHA GET IT? THAT THING WWX DOESN’T HAVE ANYMORE?? Oh god i’m sorry that was AWFUL

he turns his gaze back to wwx, who is still resting gently in crook of his arm

i love the camera angle here btw

the scene is at a slant, with the white of bichen's handle, and the white of the flowering tree behind them filling all of the right side of the screen

it makes the dark bundle of wwx and the dark flow of lwj's hair more stark

the slant of it really emphasizes how the whole of lwj's attention is on the man in his arms

And how his whole world is off its axis at this revelation

god lwj is really just letting his whole heart pour out of his eyes as he watches wwx

jc and wn are arguing loudly in the background but lwj makes NO INDICATION of hearing ANY of it

now we get to watch the emotional confrontation between jc and wn

lwj finally looks back at them when wn starts reciting details that no one outside of jc would have known unless they were there themselves

another flashback as wn describes everything in excruciating detail

oh this line gets me every time

wn: the reason you thought it was repaired was because of my sister, the best doctor in the wen clan of qishan, Wen Qing

WN LOVES HIS SISTER SO MUCH. HE WAS SO PROUD OF HER 

AND HE LOST HER. HE DOESN'T HAVE HER ANYMORE

GOD DAMN IT, SHOW, LET THESE BOYS KEEP THEIR SISTERS

and now we go back to lwj, gazing soulfully at wwx and a single tear rolls down his cheek as it really hits him what exactly wwx did, what wwx gave up

wn is going off on jc, like, didn't he ever wonder why wwx never picked up the sword again?

wn looks hardcore here tbh. 

we cut back to lwj, who is now holding bichen tightly, and boy, he's got his jaw clenched so hard.

at least until he looks back down at wwx, and his mouth softens as more tears drip down his face

flashback to when jc first found wwx after the burial mounds, and a series of flashbacks of every time jc brought up wwx's lack of suibian and wwx brushing off his questions

THEY SHOULD'VE JUST TALKED IT OUT, MY GOD, THEY COULD’VE SPARED ME ALL THIS PAIN IF THEY JUST TALKED 

another flashback to that time that jc pushed wwx and wwx fell hard to the ground and jc thought he was just drunk

I AM DONE WITH THESE FLASHBACKS, THX. CAN WE NOT, ANYMORE? IT'S HURTING TOO MUCH

and we also keep getting shots of lwj's face, STREAKED WITH TEARS

HE'S GOT A TEARDROP ON THE TIP OF HIS NOSE

ALL OF THIS IS PAINFUL

PLEASE STOP

oooh, lwj's mouth twists into a firm scowl and he slams bichen on the ground with a loud CLANG

this is too much for him too! he's furious, he's had enough of hearing how wwx suffered for jc

so he scoops up wwx, carrying almost all of his weight, as he walks the both of them outta there

wn leaves suibian with jc and tells him to have anyone else try to unsheathe it if he doesn't believe him

jc doesn't want it. he doesn't want it at all.

he desperately wants it to be untrue

AND I CRY A RIVER FOR MY YUNMENG BROS

WE'RE ON A BOAT NOW

UNCONSCIOUS WWX SPREAD BACK, HELD LOVINGLY IN LWJ'S ARMS

Now we get some lwj & wn bonding time where they discuss a-yuan! (after lwj promises not to tattle on wn to wwx)

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!! WE'RE GETTING A FLASHBACK FROM LWJ

LWJ IS ENTERING WWX'S LAB CAVE THING, ALONE, FRANTICALLY SEARCHING FOR WWX

lwj: on that day, when the wen clan were captured and killed, i went to the burial mounds to seek wei ying but discovered a-yuan instead

we see him find a-yuan, who is unconscious and clammy. 

lwj immediately drops to his knees beside him and checks his wrist, then presses the back of his hand to a-yuan's forehead

oh, lwj's hand is all roughened with dirt. That’s very striking, for some reason.

he purses his lips making a split-second decision, and scoops a-yuan up 

lwj: he was hiding there for so long that he had a fever and was severely ill

wn figures out that the fever is probs why lsz doesn't remember anything, and hasn’t mentioned wn at all. lwj looks surprised

lwj: didn't you tell him?

wn: about his birth origin? he's happy now. knowing too much about the past and remembering something heavy, would make him less happy than now

HE'S SUCH A GOOD PERSON

WHY DO THE BEST OF THEM HAVE TO SUFFER SO?

lwj: sooner or later, he will know

and wn doesn't deny it. he's like, yeah, sooner or later. just like master wei and jc with the golden core transfer.

at this lwj looks back down at wwx

lwj: is it painful?

the way lwj's throat bobs before he asks tho.

like he's forcing himself to ask, bc he needs to know even if he already suspects the answer. 

He needs to know even tho knowing will hurt. he's steeling himself against the pain already.

wn: what?

lwj: taking out the core, is it painful?

wn: you won't believe me if i say it's not, right?

lwj: i thought wq might have some method

he sounds desperate, hoping against all odds that it didn't hurt wwx as much as he suspects it did

and here wn explains that wq wanted to ease the process, make it less painful, but due to the nature of the procedure, she couldn't use any anesthetics

wn: the one who donates the core has to be awake the whole time

THE WHOLE DAMN TIME

HE HAS TO BE CONSCIOUS TO WATCH IT GET CUT OUT OF HIM AND EXPERIENCE THAT CONNECTION SLOWLY BE SEVERED OTHERWISE IT DOESN'T WORK

HOW MESSED UP IS THAT OMG, HOW MUCH TRAUMA MUST THEY PUT MY POOR SUNSHINE BOY THROUGH

lwj: awake?

HE SOUNDS HOARSE AS HE SAYS THAT

wn: two nights and one day. he has to be awake

MY SUNSHINE BOY, MY BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE BOY SUFFERED SO MUCH

lwj's lips purse briefly. he's staring at his wei ying

lwj: at the time, what were the chances

wn: fifty percent

lwj looks at wn here with horrified disbelief

lwj: fifty percent?

wn proceeds to explain how wq didn't want to do it but wwx kept insisting that the odds were worth 

AND OH MY GOD LWJ FLASHES BACK TO THEIR FIRST CONFRONTATION AFTER THE BURIAL MOUNDS, WHEN THEY FINALLY FOUND WWX AFTER 3 MONTHS OF SEARCHING

IT HURTS JUST AS MUCH AS THE FIRST TIME AROUND

Wwx must have some sort of sixth sense for knowing when Emotional Discussions are Done, bc he regains consciousness only AFTER wn & lwj finish bonding lol

he sits up, head aching, and pulls himself from lwj's embrace

I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY, BC LWJ OBVS DIDN'T MIND HAVING HIM THAT CLOSE

IN FACT even as he helps wwx sit up, you can see his hand trail up wwx's arm, grip loosening and tightening sporadically

He's def trying to prolong contact here, very reluctant to let go of his wei ying

wwx: lan zhan, how did we get out?

lwj: we had a fight

AND ~THEIR SONG~ STARTS PLAYING

wwx: i knew that jiang cheng wouldn't let me go that easily. so unreasonable.

and then he looks at lwj and hurries to assure him that jc didn't mean all those cutting remarks. that that's just how he gets when he's upset.

lwj looks off to the side, pressing his lips closed bc he couldn't care less about jc or jc's words. THEY MEAN NOTHING TO HIM

wwx covers lwj's hand with his own and very earnestly says: so don't take it seriously

BC HE HASN'T YET REALIZED THAT LWJ DOESN'T ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT JC'S ENTIRE EXISTENCE

lwj doesn't look him in the eye as he's told this, and his lips are still pressed together in a firm line. 

he probably doesn't actually want wwx to realize just how little jc means to him.

wwx notices they're on a boat on a lake now lol

wwx: i often played here with jyl when we were children

AND HERE HE HALLUCINATES HIS PRECIOUS BEAUTIFUL KIND AMAZING SISTER JYL

Jyl: a-xian come have some lotus seeds

WWX'S EYES REDDEN WITH TEARS AND HE CALLS OUT FOR HIS SISTER

AND I'M FIGHTING BACK SOBS

WHILE JYL'S SWEET GENTLE MUSIC PLAYS AND JYL SMILES WARMLY AT HER LITTLE BROTHER

wn snaps wwx out of it

ONLY FOR WWX TO FLASHBACK TO JYL CRYING AND SAYING THAT THEY'RE THE CLOSEST THREE IN THE WORLD

WWX LEANS HIS HEAD ON HER KNEE AND SULKS ADORABLY ABOUT HOW HE'S HUNGRY 

AND I WANNA DIE FROM ALL THE FEELINGS I'M HAVING

back on the boat, wwx eyes are still filled with tears and it's awful

wn is all, wwx what's wrong? and wwx shakes it off and just says he's hungry

so he yanks out some lotus pods from the lake and gives one to lwj and one to wn and one for himself

HE'S SMILING NOW, THANK GOD

wwx: it's perfect timing to be here now!

and he's happily tearing into the pod

I LOVE SEEING HIM HAPPY AND SMILING

SUCH LITTLE JOYS AND HE REVELS IN IT

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

HE SHOULD ALWAYS BE HAPPY AND SMILING. 

NOTHING SHOULD EVER BE ALLOWED TO MAKE HIM SAD. NOTHING

lwj: wei ying

wwx: what

lwj: does this lake belong to someone?

LOL, HE GAVE THE POD A SUSPICIOUS LOOK BEFORE ASKING THAT AND HAS NOT TRIED GETTING ANY SEEDS OUT YET

wwx: of course not

HE SAYS IN A COMPLETELY NOT BELIEVABLE WAY

YOU CAN TELL BY HOW HE DOESN'T LOOK LWJ IN THE EYE AS HE RESPONDED AND KEEPS MUNCHING AWAY ON THE SEEDS AS A DISTRACTION

Lwj is watching like, yeah, i’m not buying it.

lwj: i heard that lakes here all have owners.

lolol wwx pauses in his chewing for a second and looks around guiltily for a bit before letting out a nervous laugh

wwx: hanguang jun, you really hear much, don't you? i didn't even know that.

he's looking at him all innocently and LWJ LOOKS BACK STILL NOT BUYING IT LOLOLOL

wwx looks away and then looks back, relenting

wwx: fine. 

HE'S ALL POUTY, IT'S ADORABLE, I LOVE HIM

he sulkily tells wn to get them moving

and sulkily tosses his lotus pod at the bottom of the boat

HE'S JUST HAVING A SULK-FEST RN AND IT'S SUPER CUTE, I'M ENJOYING IT A LOT

wn starts to get the paddles to get the boat going, when lwj suddenly leans over the side of the boat and snaps up a lotus pod

he very seriously offers it to his wei ying, who is watching him wide-eyed and surprised

lwj: only for today  

bc i just found out about your traumatic golden core transfer for your awful ungrateful little brother and i feel horrible that you suffered alone, he doesn’t say

bc i wish i could have done something to help but i couldn't so now i'm gonna steal you a lotus pod bc that's literally all i can do right now, he also doesn’t say

LOL

THE WAY THE CAMERA CUTS TO WN HERE CRACKS ME UP

WN IS JUST PASSIVELY MUNCHING ON A SEED AND WATCHING THAT EXCHANGE HAPPEN WITH HIS BIG BROWN EYES TAKING IT IN, WITH A VAGUE, "HUH, THAT'S INTERESTING" MANNER

wwx looks at the pod and then back at lwj before taking the pod with a nervous laugh

I am convinced that he had WAR-FLASHBACKS to that time drunk!lwj gave him roosters

He’s probably frantically trying to remember if lwj drank ANY alcohol earlier

TRYING TO CALCULATE THE CHANCES OF SOMEONE SLIPPING SOME ALCOHOL TO LWJ BETWEEN THEIR FIGHT WITH JC TO THIS BOAT ESCAPE LOLOLOLOL

he clutches that pod with both hands and gives lwj a pained smile 

The exact pained smile he had when he accepted the roosters that time

LMAO WWX TURNS TO LOOK AT WN, HIS BROWS ALL FURROWED IN CONFUSION LIKE, WN WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING, EXPLAIN WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

but wn just smiles cheerfully at him

cut to the next moment where we see the boat's floor is now littered with a bunch of lotus pods and wwx is happily munching on seeds, all smiley

BUT OF COURSE I'M NOT ALLOWED TO ENJOY HAPPY PEACEFUL MOMENTS EVER

SO A GLOWY GLITTERY MESSENGER BUTTERFLY APPEARS AND LANDS ON LWJ'S OUTSTRETCHED PALM

I mean, wwx giggled happily there for a moment there!!!!! WHY CAN'T THEY LET ME BASK IN THAT FOR ONE MINUTE, GOD.

anyway, the butterfly

wwx: the paper butterfly messenger from the jin clan?

(side note to say that the butterfly messenger is actually very pretty. i like it a lot)

wwx pats lwj on the knee after the butterfly flies away

wwx: what happened? what did it say?

Lwj’s like, jgy is in yunmeng now and my brother hasn’t responded to my message...

wwx: you worry jgy would harm him when desperate?

bc wwx can tell right away when lwj is worried. BC THEY'RE SOULMATES AND THEY KNOW EACH OTHER SO WELL

And then bc my sunshine boy is a GENIUS, he remembers the deed jgy had hidden away in the secret chamber, for Yunping City in Yunmeng

he excitedly tells lwj that this is where jgy will be

lol he was so excited he tipped himself over a bit and jostled the boat so lwj had to reach out to steady him

we cut to the next scene we see people dying fabrics and our boys wander through 

Wwx confirms with some random worker lady that they’re in the right place and tells lwj they should explore the city as a date for Plot Investigation Reasons

lwj nods in agreement and then wwx turns back to look at the lady and gives her THE SWEETEST SMILE, THE ONE THAT SQUINCHES HIS EYES CLOSED AND MAKES ME SWOON

BUT LOL LWJ SEES HIM SMILE AT THE LADY LIKE THAT AND IT NOT AMUSED BY IT AT ALL

oh god, just the way his eyes flick from wwx to the lady and how his lips firm up before he stalks off in a snit cracks me up

GREEN IS NOT YOUR COLOR, LAN ZHAN, I'M JUST SAYING

LET THE GUY SMILE AT ME, I MEAN AT PEOPLE. IT'S NOT A CRIME

wwx is confused by the reaction but hurries off after him

oh wwx, you dense idiot. you're lucky i love you so

now we see come random guys bully wn for no reason 😞

wwx tells them to back off but they don't listen and lwj very nonchalantly pulls out a talisman from his sleeve and offers it to wwx

wwx looks at the talisman and then back at lwj with SUCH A PLEASED SMILE

OMG I WOULD DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING FOR HIM TO SMILE AT ME LIKE THAT

wwx: lan zhan, you even kept it until now?

AHHHHHH SO CUTE, I LOVE HIM

lwj doesn't respond but it doesn’t matter bc wwx does that squinchy-eyed smile AGAIN AND I DIE, I DIE

wwx activates the talisman which releases a whole bunch of glittery butterflies that distract the guys and allow wn to escape. 

omg guys, this is the same trick lwj used to distract wen chao and wen zhuliu to escape ages and ages ago WHICH MEANS LWJ HAS BEEN CARRYING A PIECE OF WWX WITH HIM ALL THESE YEARS AHHHHHHHHH

And after that wonderful, touching revelation, the episode ends.

SO, we had lots of depressing Yunmeng Bros Feelings that made me wanna die 

BUT we also at the end here get rewarded with MULTIPLE squinchy-eyed smiles from my most precious darling sunshine boy that made me wanna die but, like, in a good way

I WOULD ENDURE SO MUCH MORE FOR THOSE SMILE, NGL

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed #cql

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Episode 10 - Tywin Lannister called, he wants the Rains of Castamere back & once again, Foxglove cheers when someone gets shanked

Hiiiii! Welcome to episode 10 commentary! I’m doing this one right after episode 9 because for once in my life I started on this early enough in the day I can get more than one single episode in. Hope you enjoy!

Before I descend into several “wtf is wrong with this guy” rants, let me point a funny to y’all. The corpse that WWX checks for pupillary changes is not only breathing, you can see his carotid pulse jumping on his neck.

Ok done.

WHAT THE FUCK THAT’S A LITTLE GIRL WHAT THE FUCK.

Fuck this creeper oh my god. I know he’s supposed to have a tragic past and be cute and charismatic but I just want to shush him every time he opens his mouth.

(XXC truly looks like an elven prince doesn’t he)

Aaaaaand WWX gives zero fucks about your dramatic exit stage right.

He also gives zero fucks about the fight to the death happening right in front of him, I mean, why would he when he can flirt with LWJ instead?

Speaking of said fight, I really hope they sped up the footage of them spinning through the air, because if whatever machine and harnesses they used truly spun them so fast I feel for the actors/body doubles.

Hey XXC that’s your boyfriend right there!

Today is really not XY’s day is it.

(That disgusted face WWX makes is pretty much a visual representation of what I feel when XY tries to be cute. Seriously)

SHUT UP XY MY BOY IS HAVING A FANBOY MOMENT.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but he’s got a point. Not in this case, because these five are actually good people but the rich and powerful are indeed a bunch of hypocrites. *Softly plays Eat the Rich*

LWJ is a hairsbreadth away from slapping XY out of his faux-innocent act and I can’t say I fault him tbh. And WWX is fucking smug because he is the king of being a little shit and this amateur got nothing on him.

Is Zhu Zanjin wearing eyeliner or are his eyelashes actually that incredible?

I’m making pained noises because I keep wondering what would’ve happened if WWX had asked XXC for help after people mounted a witch hunt against him and why do I keep doing this to myself?

WWX: *talks about his boyfriend*

JC: *eyeroll*

Oh my god this bit is so painful. You can see how starved WWX is about finding the smallest connection with his mum and my soul hurts.

And LWJ’s face watching them go. He’s probably just realised this was a dream you could have, and there it is, walking away. I’m gonna go make myself some tea and eat some cake or something, I deserve it after all this emotional turmoil.

(Aaaaaaand there goes XY being a fucking creep again)

LOOK AT MY TWO LIL CUPCAKES BEING FUCKING ADORABLE WHEN THEY GET PRAISED. LOOK AT THEM.

We’ve already established that I have the survival instincts of a concussed lemming but NMJ is a dude I want to get into a shouting match with. I don’t dislike him or anything and he’s badass, but watching this is obvious a five year old with an attitude can push his buttons. And he’s both a political leader and has a whole baby brother to take care off, you can’t allow yourself to get so angry you contemplate murder in your living room my dude. Furthermore, I know his way of cultivation makes him even more unstable and prone to Qi deviation; but instead of finding a way to work around that this idiot is ok with dying young and leaving everyone who loves him fucking devastated. Because why? It’s the way of his clan? It’s traditional? It’s honourable? Fuck that, no wonder NHS dislikes sword fighting so much if that’s going to eventually kill his big brother.

NMJ: I am a just and frank man, I fear nothing in presence of sinners like you.

Me, with a megaphone: HUBRIS IS A BITCH

The One Braincell Trio being MY fanboys gives me life *insert another million canon-divergences in which they befriend MY and everything is less Lannister red as a result*

THIS ASSHOLE IS2G SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING LIKE THAT ABOUT MY MUM AND NO ONE WILL FIND THE BODY.

Ok, NMJ called Lan Yi “the great talented leader of the Lan”, I want to pick a less violent fight with him now.

Wei “let me be damn sexy while drinking” Wuxian back at it again.

WUJI IS ON! MOONLIGHT! ROOFTOPS!

WWX: Lan Zhan I’ll sleep on your roof tonight

LWJ: Wei Ying I have to go

WWX: Lan Zhan I’ll sleep on your roof tonight

LWJ: Wei Ying, there’s room in my bed if we snuggle.

There, I fixed it. (Here I come again, joking to hide the pain. Parting is such sweet sorrow and all that)

... oh hey I’d never noticed how big Wang YiBo’s hands are and now I’m in trouble. Which is funny, cause LWJ is v much not my type, but Wang YiBo apparently is now? I mean, I’ve reblogged stuff about him because he’s ridiculously beautiful but...

*falls down a google images rabbit hole*

...

Yeah I can safely say I’m into Wang YiBo’s badboy-prettyboy-coolboy-gremlinboy attitude.

Anyway back to the show:

That was a fucking great sword throw and I love the little smirk MY’s wearing.

... what did I just see?

I don’t know how to describe it, but when WZL sticks the tip of his sword into the flat of NMJ’s sabre and drives him back and you see then go through the frame in front of WC? That’s like the most ridiculous anthropomorphic version of a train dragging a car along the tracks. All that’s missing is the “nyooooom” sound.

Speaking of WZL that’s one coolheaded dude.

Ok, I’m going to go down a Meng Yao rabbit hole again. Brace yoselves.

At risk of sounding like NHS I really don’t know why MY would’ve set XY free. I mean, if he gets XY and the Yin Iron back to WRH he’s got the chief cultivator’s favour... but everyone and their mum wants WRH out of the scene, including as far as he knows Daddy Dearest. He’s clever enough to realise there’s going to be a war, so he might’ve though that if he put himself up as a spy this soon it would’ve benefited the, yet nonexistent, SunShot Campaign. In the book he also murders his bully of a superior right before “defecting” and becoming a spy, and much like in here, NMJ catches him and stabbing happens. Do I think he, like the Jins, was playing both sides during the war? Yeah, but in this instance if I were him I wouldn’t trust in the benevolence of a man who makes puppets out humans for funsies, especially seeing how much he gets bullied.

Now if we go the other direction, of wrong place wrong time, MY doesn’t seem displeased with the Nies. I mean, NMJ and NHS like and respect him as far we’ve seen, NMJ even follows his advise. Why would he want to risk his fucking neck against NMJ just to get a potential in (that again depends on WRH liking him) to spy in a potential war? Call me a hufflepuff, but I’d stay put. Right before NMJ finds MY murdering someone we hear the voice of he asshole captain who loves to mess with MY, same captain that wasn’t present when confronting WC and that was really fucking drunk last night. I’m not saying this man works for the Wens, but hangovers make you sluggish and tired, who’s to say XY didn’t actually break tf out if this yahoo was the one guarding him (back again to the bit when MY asked the captain to post extra guards and the captain told him where to stick it, we don’t know if he actually doubled the guard) and MY walked in on it. Now this asshole has the perfect scapegoat! The *insert his preferred MY slur* did it! He saw it! And MY either panics or snaps and gets stabby.

Listen, it’s murder either way, and I won’t pretend MY doesn’t have a whole alphabet of plans for every situation, but damn I cheered.

Shut the fuck up WC.

My one track mind is shrieking because MY has a stab wound in his chest and he’s just... chilling? (Like a villain lol)

Did y’all see the fan smacking the hand bit? Now that I’ve seen the whole thing is evident, but that’s pretty much the same exact show as at the beginning with the “mysterious man”. Ooooohhhh I love the hints!

HOLY FUCK NMJ IS CRYING (my 3zun ship is sailing y’all can’t stop me).

Speaking of 3zun if y’all could point me to nice fics where everything doesn’t go up in flames for these three idiots I’d appreciate it.

And that’s all for this episode. Thanks for reading.

#cql #the untamed #mdzs live action #mdzs #foxglove watches cql #foxglove watches the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang wanyin #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #meng yao #jin guanyao #3zun #Foxglove cheers when someone gets shanked #again #foxglove babbles

[theislehoney]

radio snow (wwx/lwj, modern au)

[1. purple nights] [2. roots]

In the harsh light of Lan Zhan’s bathroom mirror, Wei Ying looks himself over and thinks, I look like shit. Too much black, makeup worn uneven, and the awful jewels they’d glued beneath his eyes. He admits, he’d liked them when the makeup artist had put them on, liked the glimmer of surreality they gave him and the way they turned the grey of his eyes to silver. He had been sure he looked slightly magical, and the thought of Lan Zhan seeing him was too much to resist, and he’d left. 

Now he just looks like he’s melted.

Almost twenty hours later, the little gems are starting to come unstuck and itch. He wants to claw at them, except he thinks he’d probably scratch the skin beneath his eyes and make himself bleed, and what would Lan Zhan say if he came out of the bathroom with blood coming out of his eyes? His concealer has worn in some places and gathered in others, so that his forehead looks pale and cakey, while his nose is slightly red and there is an unpleasant sheen across his cheekbones. 

Wei Ying laughs. What a wreck. Halfway through cleaning his face, he grabs a washcloth from beneath the sink and soaks it in warm water. It loosen whatever glue the girl had used on the jewels and they come off one-by-one. He lays them on the side of the sink and washes his face properly, the simple pleasure of clean skin enough for him. 

He is beyond tired, in the way that only someone who has been awake for thirty-five hours, three layovers, and the stress of running away from everything you’ve spent the last four years building can understand. He buzzes with exhaustion, feels it like a live thing moving beneath his skin.

But the truth is, Wei Ying has been tired for a very long time, and only now that he’s back beside Lan Zhan does he feel the knot at the base of his spine begin to unwind. 

He strips off his clothes and kicks them into the corner of the bathroom, then turns on the water and steps into the shower. Lan Zhan’s soap smell of something woodsy. It settles into Wei Ying and soothes away the aches of the past few days. 

By the time he emerges, swaying with the need to lay down, there is a new towel and pair of pajamas folded neatly on top of the toilet. Wei Ying dries off and pulls them on; they are plain cotton, the kind Lan Zhan favors, and underneath the fresh scent of detergent, they smell like him. Wei Ying spends a moment swaying in place before he can gather his thoughts enough to dress and leave the bathroom. 

Lan Zhan waits for him in the living room, sitting on the sofa that has been shoved against the wall under the windows, a book balanced on his knee and a cup of tea at his side. He has turned the radio on, low enough that the music is a whisper. The tone of the piece is stranger and wandering, from what Wei Ying can hear. It is midnight music, odd and looping in rhythm, and the shape of it pulls at Wei Ying so that he sways in the doorway, drawn into the room and toward Lan Zhan. 

He looks up at Wei Ying and folds the corner of his page, closing the book and setting it aside.

"Ying."

Lan Zhan speaks his name like no one else. It tugs at something deep within Wei Ying, who hardly ever hears his real name any more. It is always Wei Wuxian this, or Yiling Laozu that; to hear Ying, and from those lips, is enough to send him reeling. 

He stumbles toward Lan Zhan and onto the sofa. The cushions are soft and worn, and very familiar. He remembers this couch, bought the summer after their grad school days, when Lan Zhan was still searching for a job and Wei Ying was getting everything settled to leave for China. 

Looking back on those days, and how hopeful he’d been, he feels like a fool. That, or stupid with pride. He feels like he’d been so young. He hadn’t really known what he was asking for. 

The sofa has worn well; the house, less so. Wei Ying rolls over and looks up at the ceiling, cracks running through it in the corners, paint turning off-white and peeling. He doesn’t know why Lan Zhan hasn’t moved out, after all these years. He knows Lan Zhan gets money from his family to help support himself, but he never touches it. Instead he lives off two salaries, and barely, only able to afford rent and groceries for the month by keeping a careful budget. He has never once complained about it, but Wei Ying knows that it must be exhausting. He knows that were Lan Zhan any different, any less strict with himself and his promise, he would not be the man that Wei Ying loves. 

Even after all these years.  

Wei Ying rolls toward Lan Zhan, who looks down at him in turn. He pulls his legs up onto the cushions and tucks his feet beneath him. He drinks in the sight of Lan Zhan. He wants nothing more than to lay here forever, and never move an inch.

“I’m sorry,” he says. 

The slightest furrow appears between Lan Zhan’s brows. 

“I wanted to…” —he waves his hand, the word fuck seemingly suddenly too crass for what he and Lan Zhan do— “but I don’t think I can, tonight. I’m really tired, Lan Zhan.”

It feels so much better to be so close to Lan Zhan’s warmth, anyway. It feels safe. 

Lan Zhan takes Wei Ying’s hand. His fingers are warm, and Wei Ying fights a shiver. His fingers move across Wei Ying’s palm. Wei Ying feels a spark of guilt. 

Wei Ying tries to conjure some of his cheerfulness. “You know, in the morning we can always—”

“Do not.”

He blinks in surprise, words forgotten so easily. “What?”

“Do not force yourself. You need the rest. We have time.”

“Yeah.” Wei Ying cannot explain the way he suddenly wants to be sick, the way dizziness comes over him. “Lots and lots of time.” He leans back into the sofa cushions so that his sudden weakness isn’t so obvious. 

Lan Zhan seems content with the quiet. He runs a finger across Wei Ying’s palm. He strokes the lines there, turns it over and traces the carefully shaped ovals of Wei Ying’s nails. He presses against the bones on the back of his hand and Wei Ying shivers. He stops there, touch warm and soothing. 

“Do you ever think about that summer?” Wei Ying asks suddenly. 

There can only be one summer; both of them know this. After grad school, when Lan Zhan had moved out of campus housing at last and bought this sofa. He had bought the duplex he still lives in, too, in the very last use of his family’s money that Wei Ying knows of. It was a summer of unbelievable heat, so hot they couldn’t stand to touch each other; and of many long calls to China—Lan Zhan arguing with his uncle over his choice to stay, Wei Ying negotiating with agents to find a way to go back. It was a summer of stasis, both of them caught between one moment and the next, neither able to speak about it. They had spent the summer in silence, mostly, in different corners of the same room, until it had come time to drive Wei Ying to the airport, and Wei Ying had wanted to weep. 

“Mn,” Lan Zhan admits. 

Wei Ying shifts closer. He cannot live without Lan Zhan’s heat tonight; back then it had seemed like a smothering thing, and he had choked on it. He presses his shoulder into Lan Zhan’s side, digging in until Lan Zhan wraps his arm around him and ships him, so that he is nearly in Lan Zhan’s lap. 

“I’m sorry,” Wei Ying says. His fingers move carefully over the seam of Lan Zhan’s pajama pants. His voice cracks. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

Lan Zhan’s fingers still. “Done what?”

Wei Ying cannot look up. “I wish…” He feels like a child, and he hates it, but at the same time: “I wish we were young again.”

“We are still young.”

His laugh hurts his throat. “Not young like then. Back then, I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought...  I don't know what I wanted, you know. I thought that being an idol would be the best thing I could do, to—"

His throat seizes up and he chokes on his regrets. He knows that Lan Zhan understands, even if he can’t force the words out. He knows how it is, to feel the crushing desire to please your family, to do whatever it takes to make them proud of you. Lan Zhan had long since found that he could not stand to live within the strictures of his family. He had cut himself off from them years ago. Wei Ying hadn’t wanted to cut himself off; he had thought that if he could just go back home, if he could go back and show that that he was enough—

“I’m sorry, Zhan.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I shouldn’t have-- This is so stupid, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m so tired and it’s been a long day--”

“Ying.” 

He shudders, once and hard, and sags down into Lan Zhan, curling so that he shoulder rests on Lan Zhan’s lap. His thighs are warm and steady. The fabric of his pajamas is old and worn. Wei Ying closes his eyes.

The drive home had turned the world inside out, the lights of town sliding away and vanishing into the darkness of the forest that bent over the road. Lan Zhan drove like a diver in a cave system Wei Ying had never bothered to map. They had slipped through the darkness, Lan Zhan lit only by the red lights of the dashboard and the sweeping headlights of the oncoming cars that passed less and less frequently. Wei Ying had pulled his knees up to his chest, swaying into the movement of the car, the sweet purr of the engine, and let himself dream of nothing until they pulled into the driveway beside Lan Zhan’s duplex and Lan Zhan had leaned over, whispering, Ying, and reeled Wei Ying back up and out of the darkness. 

“I can’t do it anymore,” Wei Ying whispers, curled on Lan Zhan’s sofa and dressed in Lan Zhan’s clothes. He wonders where he left all the other pieces of himself, if he can even remember where to start looking. “I can’t be that person—an idol. I was so young, and so stupid. I thought that it would make me happy to be an idol, can you believe it? I thought the fans would be no big deal, that I could control them. I mean, I knew how awful it could get but I thought… I didn't know. I was just... you can’t know until you’ve lived like that. All those fans, watching my every move and constantly judging me, and the shit they said, it felt like they'd eat me alive. I couldn't…."

His breath comes hard and fast. Lan Zhan wraps his arms around him. Wei Ying’s heart feel s as if it will break through his skin. 

“I just…” Wei Ying whispers, turning to press his face to Lan Zhan’s leg, “I don’t know what to do. I signed all these contracts, and I think Jiang Cheng is starting to not hate me, even though he totally should, and I think I have to go back. I don’t want to go, but it’s too late for me. I’m too old to do anything else. I’ve just… grown into place. This is my life now. I have to go back, but I don’t want to.” 

He feels petulant and terrible, but once the words are out, his mind settles. Yes, he thinks, that’s exactly it. 

He will think the words over later, parse all the awful and depressing feelings they contain. But for now, he is content. He had found the right words for something that has been weighing on him for months, if not longer. 

Lan Zhan’s hand presses into his shoulder. Wei Ying lets the pressure guide him down. The edges of his thoughts fray, peeling apart like the wings of a moth flown into the flickering flame, and the smoky smell of something woodsy, of Lan Zhan, wraps around him and draws him into a sleep so deep he remembers nothing of his dreams. 

—

He wakes once, bleary, early enough that the day has not yet begun. His neck aches and his shoulder burns with pain. Lan Zhan sits in the same position, legs beneath him and book balanced on the sofa’s arm. The light from the windows is peacock-colored, mottled pinks and purple like the most beautiful kind of bruise in the world. 

Wei Ying lays there and watches Lan Zhan read, until his eyes cannot stay open any longer, and he drifts back to sleep. 

This time he remembers: he dreams of swimming, with strong strokes, through ocean waters as warm and salty as tears, toward a grey and distant horizon.

--

[song inso: solitary daughter]   

#cql #mdzs #fanfic #mine #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #non-explicit #bad language #poor choices #wei ying regrets everything #series: the long weekend home #no courtesy names #domestic #wei ying is an idol #lan zhan works in a bookstore #still set in my hometown #but really just outside of town #and this is all about making life choices #and then questioning them #and having a crisis of confidence #and being exhausted #if you're a certain age you won't get this one #it's practically the story of silence #because nothing really happens #and yet everything happens #there's a dawning here #and it's a good thing #this is part 3! #so that means i need to post to ao3 now!

[noirbriar]

MDZS AU Headcanon dump: Stay (8)

(Part 1 here)  (Part 2 here)  (Part 3 here)  (Part 4 here)  (Part 5 here)  (Part 6 here)  (Part 7 here)

“Ze Wu Jun.What are you talking about-”

“Wei Wuxian, this I’m afraid would be a family matter.I would like to ask you to kindly leave.” LQR is not having any of it and JC knows his brother, quickly holds him back, eyes urging him to stand down. LWJ knelt before his elders.

“Wei Ying...Its fine.” This was coming anyway.

WWX being WWX he breaks away from JC, telling him to close the doors behind him. JC breathes heavily and rolls his eyes, he chooses to not deal with WWX’s whims now for his own sake and does as asked.

Amongst the crowd of white robed cultivators, the Grandmaster’s inky garbs stands out in stark contrast. Before he makes his way and kneels together with LWJ.

(Its almost a bastardised ceremony of acceptance but thats getting ahead of themselves.) 

”Since I’m Lan Zhan’s partner, and I’m the reason why he is to be punished then all the more I must stay no?”

”YOU-”

”Uncle, calm down please.”

”THIS-!” Some younger disciples quickly tries to calm LQR down, who is on the verge of choking on his own blood ( “Cangse Sanren you and yours-!” ) LXC taking this moment to proceed.

”Wangji.”

”...”

“Your punishment has been decided.You have a choice.”

“Seclusion within the caves in the depths of Cloud Recesses.In solitary isolation for 3 years.”

“Or we will strip part of your cultivation and be banished from the Lan Sect.”

Neither were ideal options. GusuLan has never killed unless in the worst scenarios.Like during the Sunshot Campaign.As a peace seeking clan, they seek enlightenment, and reform the mind, the body, the soul.But the caves...they are Spirit caves where they hone their cultivation. However, when one stay in the labyrinth long enough, they forget worldly desires. Their attachments.Their feelings. Themselves. As the immortals do. He knows what the caves can do...Afterall, it was where he spent as a child after his mother’s death. It is why he can barely remember her now, if not for his brother and back then he was too young to decide against the elders who no longer remained once his brother has taken leadership.

LWJ knows that they know.

They have given him an ultimatum. Have your way and lose your home, your status.Or come home, and re-cultivate yourself as a Lan. If 3 years your heart remains, they will not anything either after that.They can’t.

LWJ is ready to choose when WWX stops him. LWJ has given up much in staying beside him, he won’t let him sacrifice more for his sake. They are LWJ’s only family and WWX knows how important that is.

But you are important too.

“3 years Lan Zhan.Besides I have to deal with the Burial Mounds and the Stygian Tiger Seal during this time.By the time you are out, my obligations would also be finished.It’s not as if we’ll be apart 13 years right?” (hahahahhahahaha please dont hurt me)

“The process is dangerous, all the more I need to s-”

“Lan Zhan,trust me.”

Just as I trust you.

The following days, preparations were made. The Wens will be under surveillance, moving down into Yiling now they no longer need to stay in the mountains. WWX will move to Lotus Pier so the 3 sects can work with him better ( read: control ). LWJ will follow the Lans back to Gusu with a-Yuan. They told him he was going to board with a respected sect, he can learn and become like his Zhan gege. He will change his surname from Wen to Lan only because of his unique status as a ward of the Lan clan.LXC makes a promise to let them reunite on Lunar New Year.The only kindness he can give to the Wens.

WWX and LWJ were kept busy themselves, both with their new obligations, and the only time that have alone were the nights after.( “Lan Zhan, how long do you plan to not tell me?””?””About you and Wen Qing plotting behind my back.Feeding me all those horrible, disgusting medicine and meditation with you?””....You knew?””Its my body.I told you I know what is going on with it when I started demonic cultivation.So?So?Was it long?””...””Ahhh look at you Lan Zhan.Do I have to feed you wine to get the truth out of you again?””What?””Ah.Nothing.Nothing.Ahhhh-Lan er gege Wha-Noooo! Forgive Xian Xian!I’m sorry!””Asking for it.””But honestly Lan Zhan now that I can start cultivating again...should we try double cultivating?As cultivation partners?””Shameless.””Ahhh I knew you would say that-Wait.Lan Er gege what are you doing?Why are you peeling my robes-!””Double cultivation.””I DIDN’T SAY NOW!AH!” )

The morning before the departure from the Burial Mounds, they had a ceremony for a-Yuan at their home for the last time, where he thanks his family and his grandmother for their care before he leaves for another.WWX laughs to himself, watching the tiny child struggling in the stiff new robes.Almost bittersweet as he thinks about the child’s fate and purpose. At the end, a-Yuan instead, waddles over and pulls WWX and LWJ to the seats, face in a huffy determination only a way a child could have.

”A-Yuan wants to thank Xian gege and Zhan gege too.”

A tea, and a bow.

”Thank you for your care and love for a-Yuan.”

If WWX has cried, nobody makes mention of it.Even as he held the tiny boy, the innocence he had chosen to protect against the world.

It was worth it.

As the Sects leave Yiling, WWX following the Jiangs back to Lotus Pier and LWJ to Gusu, the pair stood beside each other, steps heavy in their wake.Finally, as they could not let the couple delay their plans further, a cough here and a nudge there.Its goddamn time.

WWX makes the first step, throwing his arms around LWJ. Poise and image be damned.Let them look.They were already talking at Koi Tower anyway.LWJ thinks as he returns the embrace, hoping to remember this man before the long years they have to spend apart.He feels WWX’s warmth, his breath at his neck before the demonic cultivator leans nearer to his ear, whispering words that he never dreamed he would hear.

“This time, I’ll come find you. I’ll come to Gusu.”

And WWX reaches up, tugs his forehead ribbon off,wrapping it around his wrist, giving LWJ a smirk before sauntering off to a stoned JC and a smug Wen family.

(Somewhere behind, LXC is smiling widely before scrambling to assist LQR who is resembling one experiencing a qi deviation.JC has a jaw on the ground, thoughts escaping him.The Wens are glad and relieved, because goddman it finally.If you had to live with the 2 you would be too.)

“I’ll be taking this Hanguang Jun! You can have it back in 3 years!”

“Mn.”

As they share one last parting glance, they turn away with much difficulty, parting after a long while.

LWJ has waited this long.He can endure this.

Just 3 years.

-----

On the way to Lotus Pier-

“Why...do I feel like I’m missing something here.”

“Ahhh a single dog won’t get it.”

“I dare you say it again you ass.”

“Single dog.”

“Hahaha.Let’s go Jiang Cheng.I’m a guest of Lotus Pier now, aren’t I? Have your disciples carry my things properly now. And I want to drink Shijie’s soup.”

“You and your shamelessness.Which part of guest do you not understand?!”

(Part 9 here)

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #headcanonAU #StayAU #if lan wangji stayed #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan qiren #lan xichen #jiang cheng #we get yunmengjiang duo here #and jiang siblings with wwx and jin ling being family #ooc af don't say i didnt warn you #hah.3years. #hahaha #what can happen in 3 years?

[besanii]

omg you made me love lan guoyan even tho we haven't even met him officially yet!! i know you said it won't be on brand with SM but it would be amazing to read about them but of course no pressure ^_^

“Oh, Ji-xiong, you’re here.”

The corner of the restaurant Lan Guoyan has chosen to meet is dark, hidden away from view of prying eyes by a large partition, with the only source of light being the candles on the table. It’s far enough away from the rest of the restaurant that the noise of the crowd is only a low hum, best for private conversations—which suits Lan Wangji’s purposes just fine. He takes the seat opposite his already slightly tipsy cousin with a carefully blank expression.

“Don’t call me that,” he says.

Lan Guoyan grins.  

“Don’t call you what?” he teases. “Ji-xiong? Why not? We’re cousins. You’re only older than me by a month or two. Don’t tell me you want to start with the formalities now.”

“It is not appropriate,” Lan Wangji replies stiffly.

The table is already laden with a mixture of half-eaten dishes, most of them appetisers to line the stomach while enjoying the establishment’s famous Emperor’s Smile, of which Lan Wangji counts three jugs. He notes with distaste that the provided cups have not been touched and instead Lan Guoyan’s fingers are wrapped around the neck of the jug itself, bringing the entire thing to his lips for a drink, followed by a loud, gusty sigh. It is an inelegant and crude display, completely inappropriate for a member of the Imperial Family.  

His annoyance must show on his face, because Lan Guoyan chuckles and points at him with the wine jug.

“You’re out of sorts today, Ji-xiong,” he says, waggling his eyebrows playfully as if he were not the cause of Lan Wangji’s displeasure. “Who dares anger our Er-dianxia, hmm?”

Lan Wangji does not have the patience for his games.

“You were aware of my feelings for Wei Ying,” he says, fists clenched in his lap. “You knew of my intentions to court him.”

“What?” Lan Guoyan looks surprised. “You have feelings for Xiao Wei? Now that I really didn’t know. You’ve hidden it so well, Ji-xiong, I don’t think anyone knew.”

“You knew,” Lan Wangji repeats accusingly. “And yet you went and proposed to him anyway. Why?”

Hearing himself say those words aloud ground him, brings him back from the haze of disbelief and hurt he had been adrift in since his brother had brought him the news this afternoon.

Lan Guoyan has submitted a formal petition to the court for Wei Wuxian’s hand in marriage.

He had spent the rest of the afternoon tearing about the palace looking for Wei Wuxian; he needed to see him, to talk to him, to hear from him directly if this was true. Until then, he would not believe a word of it, even if the Imperial edict were to fall directly into his hands. Wei Wuxian would not accept it. He refused to believe he would. But Wei Wuxian had not been in the palace, or in his quarters, or anywhere else Lan Wangji could think of to find him.  

Lan Guoyan shrugs.

“I like him,” he says, simple and honest. “And I want to marry him. That’s all.”

“Be serious.”

“Who says I’m not?” Lan Guoyan retorts, all traces of his usual congeniality vanishing as he forward to fix Lan Wangji with a stare. “I like Xiao Wei. I have feelings for him. I want to marry him. So, I proposed.”

He makes it sound so simple. But Lan Wangji knows marriage is never truly that simple for a member of the Imperial Family. He stares right back.

“How do you know he will accept?” He wouldn’t. He won’t.

“Who says he hasn’t?”

Something shatters as Lan Wangji surges to his feet, the blood roaring in his ears.

“He wouldn’t,” he says, his own voice sounding distant and foreign to his ears. “You're lying.”

Lan Guoyan tips the rest of the wine into his mouth in a single swallow before setting the jug back down on the table with a loud thunk.

“You can go ask him yourself,” he says calmly. “Then you’ll know if I’m lying.”

Lan Wangji takes a deep, shuddering breath and turns to leave. He doesn’t make it two steps before his cousin’s voice calls out from behind him.

“A word of advice, Ji-xiong,” he says. “The next time you have feelings for someone, save everyone the trouble and just be honest with yourself. Not everyone is willing to put their lives on hold and wait for you to get your shit together and stop lying to yourself.”

Lan Wangji walks away to the sound of Lan Guoyan cracking the seal on another jug of wine, his heart clenching painfully in his chest.

He wouldn’t, he tells himself as he all but flies down the stairs. He won’t.

Notes:

Lan Guoyan calls LWJ Ji-xiong (机兄, Older Brother Ji), in part cos they grew up together but also because it’s a homophone of 鸡胸, which means “chicken breast” and he’s a little shit.

// buy me a ko-fi //

Master Post is here

#mdzs #wangxian #shattered mirrors au #shattered mirrors fic #王爷机 X 花魁羡 #my writing #🔪🔪 #hey i'm using the knife system #anyway you guys asked for some Lan Guoyan content #so the first thing you see is him making LWJ very upset #i swear he's not a bad guy #but this particular scene got stuck in my head #it's also inspired by that scene in Story of Ming Lan when Qi Heng confronts Gu Tingye about proposing to Ming Lan #i love the scene that comes after it #which i might decide to write #hmmm #hey nonny nonny #asks