#mianmian gets to join the lotus pier chaos family!
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I know jc got dunked numerous times, but does lwj ever get dunked? and if so, who's brave enough to do it?
THESE QUESTIONS just *chef kiss* so so good! Sorry for the delay with this, it ended up over twice as long as I expected (almost 3k). I had a ton of fun with it, I hope you enjoy it! Very much a “let Lan Wangji have friends agenda”. (link to series on ao3)
The alternate title: Four People Who Can, Would, and Have Dunked Lan Wangji
| 1. Wei Wuxian |
“Would you spar with me?” Lan Wangji found that the word burst forth. He had wanted to ask them for a while and just hadn’t found the right time.
Wei Ying tensed from where he sat, fiddling with some brilliant talisman design or other. An unhappy frown pinched his face, which was very much not the expression Lan Wangji wanted. Wei Wing sighed and said in a tired tone, “I won’t use my sword.”
Ah, that was the issue. Lan Wangji quickly clarified, “I was thinking I had not practiced hand to hand combat in too long.”
Wei Ying’s expression changed instantly, a knowing smile and reflection of the heat that curled in Lan Wangji’s gut. He set aside what he was working on and came to stand at Lan Wangji’s side, leaning forward into his space. “My husband has such good ideas, I know just the place!”
Wei Ying led him a ways away from Lotus Pier, around a bend in the river where there was a shore of soft sand. It was an ideal and private training ground and Lan Wangji was planning on telling Wei Ying this, but when he looked over, words failed him. Wei Ying was taking off his outer robes and layers until he was just in his underclothes.
He grinned when he caught Lan Wangji staring. “Lan Zhan, you can’t tell me we’re going to do this fully clothed.”
Lan Wangji swallowed and nodded, moving to do the same. He carefully folded his own and set them on the rock next to Wei Ying’s, pausing a moment to straighten out and fold his husband’s clothes as well, so they wouldn’t sit in a ball.
He turned to find Wei Ying watching him intently.
“Do not grow distracted,” Lan Wangji scolded in a tone probably only Wei Ying knew was teasing, fully aware of the hypocrisy in his words as he approached Wei Ying.
“And here I was thinking distraction is really what this is all about.” Wei Ying settled into a strong form, arms up, and grin wide. “My apologies, husband. I’ll focus.”
They both made what Lan Wangji later decided was a valiant effort to focus on sparring correctly. The familiar zing that had existed since their first swordfight tugged at them and Lan Wangji reveled in it. He wanted to be better than Wei Ying. He wanted to be closer to Wei Ying.
He wanted.
Any focus broke when Wei Ying used some of Lan Wangji’s distraction to pin him to the ground. They breathed together and Lan Wangji took a moment to study his husband’s face - his beautiful dark eyes, the little freckle near his bottom lip. The familiar weight of him, now heavier, healthier under the watchful eye of those who cared for him.
“Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying’s voice was almost a whisper. “Focus.”
He must have visibly frowned, because Wei Ying started to laugh, shaking them both. Lan Wangji wanted to taste the sound and moved to flip them.
The change only made Wei Ying laugh harder. “Is that how this is going to be?” Wei Ying worked to flip them back so he was laying on Lan Wangji again. They managed to do this a few more times, becoming more tangled with each one until Lan Wangji decided he preferred to feel Wei Ying’s weight on him.
Lan Wangji ran his hands up and down Wei Ying’s side before huffing in annoyance.
“What is it?” Wei Ying asked, their faces so close together now.
“Sandy,” Lan Wangji managed, trying to brush some of the roughness from Wei Ying’s clothes and his own hands.
“Hmm, a good point,” Wei Ying pulled back a bit and it was all Lan Wangji could do to stop himself from tugging his husband back close. “Shall we relocate our... sparring?”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji thought that was a very good idea. His husband was very wise.
Wei Ying stood up, pulling Lan Wangji with him. But instead of going to gather their clothes and head back home, Wei Ying tugged him towards the water.
“No,” Lan Wangji said, panting his feet. His husband was very stupid.
“No, no, I know, but we need to get at least some of the sand off,” Wei Ying assured. “Then we can go home and have a bath.”
He took it all back, of course, his husband was a genius. “Alright,” he agreed and Lan Wangji let himself be led into the cool water.
Wei Ying splashed him. The grin hadn’t left his face and Lan Wangji could distract himself from other emotions by feeling content with this fact. It also meant Lan Wangji spotted when it turned mischievous as Wei Ying said, “Lan Zhan, do you think you could catch me?”
“Yes, always.” That should be obvious.
“Aw, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying protested, covering his face briefly. “You say such kind things. Now I almost feel bad for doing this.”
“Doing what?” Lan Wangji’s tipped his head to one side.
Wei Ying didn’t answer, just backed up a bit before taking a running jump towards him.
Lan Wangji did indeed catch him, but they both tumbled backward into the water with a splash and Wei Ying’s bright laughter. When they surfaced, Wei Ying apologized by peppering Lan Wangji’s face with kisses, so Lan Wangji decided not to take revenge.
This time.
| 2. Wen Qing |
Wen Qing cornered on him at the edge of a pier, eyes stormy. Lan Wangji glanced to see if she had her needles out only to find, just as alarmingly, she was gripping her sword. She was dressed mostly in purples to help her blend in with the Jiang sect, looking just as intimidating as in her Wen red.
Lan Wangji normally got along very well with her and had thought they were friends. This behavior was odd. He wanted to back up some more to get some space from her but worried he might slip right into the water. “How may I help you?” He tried asking instead.
“We need to have a talk,” Wen Qing said, back straight and looking him dead in the eye.
Lan Wangji didn’t like this eye contact. It added a feeling as if she was looking down at him despite his greater height. “Alright. We are talking.”
She pointed her sword hilt at him. “Don’t get smart with me. This is serious.”
“I am becoming aware of this.” Lan Wangji tried to keep his own grip on Bichen relaxed as he could.
“You better not hurt Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing said, still staring him down when he focused back on her face.
Lan Wangji had a flashback to his first week on Lotus Pier. Jiang Wanyin had done something very similar to this - an obvious threat of harm if anything happened to Wei Ying. Jiang Wanyin had not liked when Lan Wangji had pointed out that it was, in fact, he who had arranged Lan Wangji’s marriage to Wei Ying.
Lan Wangji focused on the matter at hand. “I will not, would never, do something to hurt Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said and it was a promise. He had made it before and he would make it again. “Wei Ying is my equal and my partner.”
Wen Qing nodded and began to look a little less intimidating. “I trust that you will. But I wanted you to know what will happen if you don’t.”
“I am well aware,” Lan Wangji said, and even gave a little smile. “Wei Ying is very loved.” As he should be.
“Good, but don’t get cocky,” she said and then moved quickly.
Lan Wangji had lowered his guard enough that he couldn’t dodge her in time. He had enough forethought to toss Bichen on the pier before he splashed back first into the water. When he surfaced he found Wen Qing was already walking away, apparently deciding Lan Wangji had fully gotten the message.
This was certainly a different outcome to his conversation with Jiang Wanyin.
| 3. Jiang Yanli |
Besides his husband and a-Yuan, Jiang Yanli was the person Lan Wangji spent the most time with. He had found a close friend in his sister-in-law, and appreciated the times when she translated some of the behavior of her brothers.
She, along with Granny Wen, had both begun to teach Lan Wangji how to cook. It was an activity Lan Wangji found relaxing and enjoyable. Lan Wangji found that what he could do and who he could be was something he had more control over as a (married in) member of the Jiang sect than the second young master of the Gusu Lan. This was a thrilling and terrifying fact.
Jiang Yanli was one of the few people who had asked Lan Wangji, “What do you want?”
He wished to repay her kindness and tried to at every turn. During one of the afternoons they spent in quiet, shared company, Lan Wangji noticed she seemed unhappy and unable to sit still. He put away his guqin and moved across the room to her side.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked, offering his hand to help her up. Jiang Yanli gave a small smile, that Lan Wangji knew her well enough to tell was false. It was a falsehood she didn’t want pushed on though - sometimes she reminded Lan Wangji of Xichen. He was pulled from any feeling of homesickness by Jiang Yanli’s small hand briefly on his own.
“A walk sounds lovely,” Jiang Yanli murmured. “I need to clear out my thoughts.”
Together they moved from her rooms. Wei Ying was somewhere checking on vegetable growth and checking up on the Wen refugees. Sometimes Lan Wangji would go with him, other days, like today, he would go off with one or both of the Wen siblings. That was when he visited Wen refugees (no doubt cultivators) that he didn’t want Lan Wangji to have to lie to his brother about.
“Summer is going to come to a close before we know it,” Jiang Yanli commented. “I think you will like the lotus harvest.”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, glancing over at her. She seemed to relax as they walked. “Do you want to talk?”
Jiang Yanli sighed, though she didn’t seem upset by his question. “It’s complicated.”
Lan Wangji assumed as much. He also was pretty sure this was a matter Jiang Yanli would not wish to talk about with either of her brothers. “Is it about the letter you received from Lanling?”
Jiang Yanli almost winced. “You noticed it?”
“I did not mean to pry,” Lan Wangji assured. “But the paper and seal are similar to what my brother used to receive.”
“Ah,” was all she said for a long time.
They continued to walk, moving from the pier and past the training grounds. There were paths throughout the nearby forest, intended for training and hunting but worked well to get some space.
“I don’t think Jin Zixuan had anything to do with the cruelty against the Wen civilians.” The words were frustrated, not in Jiang Yanli’s usually calm and thoughtful manner.
Lan Wangji could sympathize with the frustration of knowing the one you loved wasn’t being understood. “I do not believe he did either.”
Jiang Yanli grabbed his arm, looking up at him with wide eyes. She quickly let go but stayed close, halting their progress. “You don’t?”
Lan Wangji nodded, not sure what else to do to assure her. “When I was younger, often at cultivation conferences we would... both stay out of the way. I got to know him a little bit. I did not engage in many conversations, but from what I have observed, I have seen no cruelty from Jin Zixuan.” Pride and disdain, yes, but Lan Wangji had experienced the same faults.
“That’s a relief to hear,” Jiang Yanli smiled again, small but real this time. She turned back to continue walking and Lan Wangji matched her pace. “I trust your judgment.”
“I am flattered.”
“You saw a-Xian for who he is,” Jiang Yanli said. “That certainly says something to me.”
They walked for some steps more in silence. “What do you want to do?” Lan Wangji asked.
Jiang Yanli focused on the ground ahead of her. “I don’t know...”
“Do you care for Jin Zixuan?”
“Yes, but I care more for my family and the work we are doing here,” Jiang Yanli sighed again. “It doesn't seem like these two things line up.”
“You could let Jin Zixuan know that there is a space for him here,” Lan Wangji suggested. “Give him the choice.” Not making his offer for Wei Ying to come back to Gusu sound like a choice seemed to be what backfired on him. Lan Wangji could pass along what he had learned.
Jiang Yanli nodded. “That’s a good idea...”
“I am sure there would be a place for him,” Lan Wangji encouraged. “...I could talk to Wei Ying if Jin Zixuan accepts.”
Jiang Yanli laughed at that, as they turned to walk back towards home. “Yes, maybe if you broke the news to him, he’d behave.”
“He just wants you to be happy,” Lan Wangji said, though he didn’t really need to defend Wei Ying to her. “It is a sentiment shared.”
“Thank you,” Jiang Yanli said. “I’m glad to have you as a brother-in-law.”
Lan Wangji wasn’t sure what to say to that. But it warmed him to have Jiang Yanli as a friend. As a part of his family.
They spent the rest of the walk back in companionable silence until they reached where ground turned back to pier. Jiang Yanli paused then and turned to him with a smile. “You’ve become something of another brother to me,” she said.
Lan Wangji inclined his head. “I am honored.”
“Now there is something of a right of passage to being my brother, I hope you don’t mind terribly. Just a matter of formality.” Her smile had some mischief to it. “See as the eldest, I get to push you into the river.”
Lan Wangji couldn’t come up with a response fast enough to that before he was indeed pushed into the water.
| 4. Luo Qingyang |
Lotus Pier had been rebuilt larger, to accommodate the number of people who had come to call it home. Lan Wangji and Wei Ying shared rooms to one side, and nearby Granny Wen had been settled with her son, who just insisted everyone call him Uncle. A-Yuan now had a bedroom in each and seemed happy to call the entirety of the Pier home.
On the opposite side, Jiang Yanli had her rooms, with an open and airy living space that had become a communal gathering area. Near her but more towards the back were the Wen siblings.
Lan Wangji might never fully understand the man, but he had to acknowledge that Jiang Wanyin took good care of his siblings and those his siblings deemed important. Lan Wangji was sure the sect leader was trying to figure out where to put the newest addition.
Luo Qingyang had shown up ten days ago and seemed to be in no hurry to leave. She had been traveling on her own, assisting in small night hunts, since she had left the Jins. But she wanted to take a break and had “heard that Yunmeng was the place to be.”
Lan Wangji couldn’t say how true that was, but it had certainly endeared her to Jiang Wanyin. In fact, Luo Qingyang, or “Mianmian” as Wei Ying insisted on calling her, made fast friends with everyone on Lotus Pier from Granny Wen, to the new Jiang disciples, to a-Yuan.
Lan Wangji certainly found her pleasant company and someone it was easy for him to talk with.
They were walking back from the training field when she asked, “I watched Jiang Cheng toss your husband in the water this morning,”
“Mn.” Lan Wangji had been showing a-Yuan how he played the guqin, so he hadn’t witnessed this particular event. “It is usually a form of affection.”
“That’s how they show affection? By pushing people in the water?” Luo Qingyang sounded confused but intrigued. Lan Wangji could understand this feeling.
“Yes. Though it can also be a form of punishment,” Lan Wangji explained. “It can be hard to tell which it is being used as.”
She laughed. “Of course, of course. This is making me wish the rules were written down like in your sect.”
Lan Wangji understood that feeling at an almost painful level. “All rules are unwritten and flexible. Except for the one against insulting someone’s soup.” This was mostly a joke.
Luo Qingyang shook her head, chuckling some more. “Noted. So shoving someone into the water could be seen as a declaration of friendship?”
“Yes, I suppose-” That was all the warning he got before he found himself falling with a splash.
He surfaced to find Luo Qingyang laughing, nearly doubled over. It wasn’t a mean laugh... it was actually nice. She thought him a friend, not someone intimidating or cold. She peeked over at him and said, “Sorry, sorry. Here, let me help you up.”
Lan Wangji gripped her offered hand and raised his brows. Luo Qingyang realized her mistake a moment too late and let out a yelping laugh as Lan Wangji tugged her into the water as well.
#lan wangji#wei wuxian#wangxian#wen qing#jiang yanli#luo qingyang#find other parts of this au under this tag:#lwj on lotus pier#my fic#mianmian#thank you so so much for sending this in just GENIOUS galaxy brain!!!! of course lwj gets dunked...#i really had the best time writing this akjshoaiwhroaw wangxian tried to get the whole fic distracted#mianmian gets to join the lotus pier chaos family!#don't mind me sprinkling little world building of this au in...#does this au make sense? probably not#granny wen accidently adopts everyone on lotus pier... she like scold jc to go to bed#scolds*#headcanonning uncle four is her son so he helps her around the house and stuff#some of the wen cultivators that survived probably become jiang disciples or their kids do#what's going on with the jin in this au? nothing good. probably internal power struggle#don't tempt me or i will add little mxy to the lotus pier family oh don't tempt me...#i will make it a fluffy family story because the characters deserve it#even if the au basis is shaky if i start actually building it out#a talks
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ok ur top faves wangxian fic recs pls
wangxian has a looooot of good fics - here are my bookmarks 😅
im only going to post some of them
a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke (M, 180k)
canon divergence, wangxian arranged marriage, 1st fic i’ve read after binge-watching cql in less than 5 days
love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k)
lwj enters an arranged marriage with yiling patriarch bc wwx helped get rid of wrh
Wrong Turn, Right Place by diamondbruise (E, 71k)
modern!wwx ends up in cultivation world in gusu and meets lwj
spider lilies to sunflowers by cicer (E, 33k)
omegaverse mpreg where lwj must give wwx his firstborn for helping with killing wrh
The Golden Cutsleeve by syrus_jones (E, 77k)
wwx experiments with a uhh fleshlight
Teach Me The Ways by likeafox (E, 58k)
lwj asks wwx for help with sex stuff etc but wwx is a virgin
The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (E, 70k)
modern au, wwx suddenly has baby a-yuan
every love story is a ghost story by aisthuu (M, 59k)
ghost wwx that haunts lwj’s new guqin from ebay
asymptotic by chinxe (Teen and Up, 26k)
lwj falls in love with ghost wwx
Two Weddings and a Family Reunion by scifigeek14 (Teen and Up, 36k)
wangxian has shotgun wedding so wwx can attend his shijie's wedding
myself through someone else’s eyes (series) by thunderwear (59k)
lan xichen permanently turns himself into a baby post-canon and wangxian rises him
My Leaves Reach Ever for the Sun by nonplussed (Teen and Up, 26k)
wwx fakes being lwj’s wife to attend shije’s wedding
Wei Wuxian, Who's That? by bumbledees (Teen and Up, 48k)
canon divergence where they make wwx into jiang xiaolian aka lwj’s new wife
Lynchpin by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 103k)
jc timetravels and fixes everything
Like Rabbits by Setari (Teen and Up, 41k)
mpreg, how many children can wangxian have during canon events
your problem as a mountain. by crowry (E, 30k)
nhs and wwx are writing letters, and nhs “accidently” sends wwx’s letters about lwj to lwj
Lan Yuan's War by BurningTea (Gen, 159k)
ongoing; lwj timetravels with lan sizhui to the beginning of the sunshot campaign aka kinda 18 y.o. single dad au
The Third Young Master of the Qishan Wen by KouriArashi (Teen and Up, 138k)
wwx was adopted by dafan wens instead of jiangs
what builds a home by Stratisphyre (Teen and Up, 45k)
meng yao’s mom adopts little wwx
Brilliance in the Moonlight by rosweldrmr (E, 97k)
soulmates but its connected to golden cores… also lwj/oc in one chapter
I Started From the Bottom/And Now I’m Rich by x_los (E, 57k)
black widow wwx, marries sect leaders and kills them while lwj suffers in the bg
Regrets by antebunny (Gen, 37k)
lwj accidentally kills wwx during nightless city and then time travels
nothing you confess by PorcupineGirl (Teen and Up, 31k)
wangxian are soulmates but dont realise, lan zhan can FEEL wei ying getting his golden core taken out of his body and bc of the golden core hes like ????? when he meets jiang cheng
Pebble in the Deep by catchmeifyoucreon (E, 183k)
mo xuanyu and lwj spend the night together before mx sacrificed himself to bring back wwx, he’s brought back after for ex. yi city arc
picking up the pieces by KouriArashi (M, 111k)
jc dies at Nightless City instead of jiang yanli, she and lwj became friends while waiting for wwx to come back
to swim through the fires by littledust (M, 36k)
lwj is bethroted to jiang yanli
Just as the Snow Melts by draechaeli (Teen and Up, 66k)
one day wwx brings a-yuan to yiling to play by the river and some women ask him to watch over their children, he starts to teach them how to write and opens up a school etc
while covered in mud by merthurlin (Teen and Up, 12k)
nhs joins wens and wwx in burial mounds
box your errors by mellowflicker (Teen and Up, 42k)
dad-ji and little a-yuan vs human disaster wwx
Help, My Dad Is Fucking Someone My Age!! by sweetlolixo (Teen and Up, 3k)
lan sizhui pov about lwj suddenly taking a twink (wwx as mo xuanyu) back to gusu
shout it from the rooftops (tell them all I know) by arypls (Teen and Up, 12k)
lwj is trying to cope with his crush on wwx, he wrote his name in his notes without realizing etc,,,
make this chaos count by devotedbones (E, 15k)
when u (wwx) defend ur bros (lwj) dignity and everyone tells you that you should have fucked him more so he wouldn't be so strict lmao
mianmian the disaster lesbian saves the cultivation world by i_kinda_like_writing (Teen and Up, 27k)
mianmians pov about the wlw mlm solidarity she has with lwj,,, just “give lwj friends” a fic
Lead Me On Through by mrsronweasley (E, 54k)
everyone is in arranged marriages but they dont know the spouse until the wedding day
Lovelocked by Vamillepudding (Gen, 18k)
wangxian meets in paris and clown wwx makes lwj kiss him in front of famous sights for insta pics
不忘 | Don't Forget by dragongirlG (E, 50k)
wwx was thrown into burial mounds but he time travelled to modern times
Aftermath by KouriArashi (Teen and Up, 57k)
jiang yanli has had enough and kills jin guangshan
Keep Holding On by abCEE (M, 38k)
ongoing BUT demonic cultivator jiang yanli
in your skin by darkredloveknot (enheduane) (E, 10k)
wwx gets possessed by a skin-stealer
Double Dare by malkinmalkout (Teen and Up, 11k)
cloud recesses study era; jc dares nhs to pretend to have a crush on lwj to piss wwx off
it's just (aah) a little crush (crush!) by sweetlolixo (Teen and Up, 9k)
cloud recesses study era; wwx panics and says he has a crush on lwj
Bet Your Heart by Vamillepudding (Gen, 14k)
cloud recesses study era; wwx gets a bet to kiss lan xichen
Losing My Mind by pupeez4eva (Teen and Up, 6k)
cloud recesses study era; jc hears lwj's horny thoughts bc of a potion he drank
with you, I am home by tellthemstories (M, 47k)
canon, wwx has to return to lotus pier for marriage proposals, so he and lwj fake date to avoid that
Nothing But Trouble by brooklinegirl (E, 60k)
modern wangxian fake dates
Orchids in Lotus Pier by Vamillepudding (Gen, 21k)
jc and lwj are friends and people (including wwx) think they are dating
Blossom by triedunture (E, 26k)
cherry magic au during canon wwx's death
paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 (E, 53k)
dadji and a-yuan’s art teacher wwx
in a river you wade by bleuett (M, 20k)
Mpreg where WWX died, leaving pregnant LWJ and A-Yuan; deals with postpartum depression, being a single father spoilers but my fav quotes 🥺
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Hi! Can you give a brief spoilery summary of the Untamed? I just read [the pretties from your posts] died? Oh no. I tried getting information through google but it’s confusing for someone who doesn’t know the characters.
oh lord. there are all kinds of ‘brief summaries of the Untamed’ out there but I’ve always found them vaguely irritating so...I guess that means it’s time for my comeuppance in the form of having to do it myself? I’ll do my best.
I didn’t know how detailed you wanted me to get so I decided to get pretty detailed, since you did ask for spoilery. so this is like. entirely spoilers. spoilers for everything.
also, you can use, if it’s helpful, my brief character overview (‘brief’) which includes some plot information, and could be useful as cross reference also. I’m playing pretty fast and loose with a lot of terminology for the sake of intelligibility, because otherwise this would get even longer and have a lot more links.
also, because you asked me specifically for this, it’s going to have some bias. I tried to keep my interpretive commentary to a relative minimum? but. uh. yeah.
the briefest basic plot overview is (going off The Untamed canon, which you will also see abbreviated as CQL from the pinyin transliteration of the Chinese title (Chen Qing Ling)):
Wei Wuxian, a cultivation (think, loosely, magic) prodigy and creator of his own particular style of cultivation, dies reviled by most of the known world. Sixteen years later he’s raised from the dead by Mo Xuanyu, an outcast and the bastard son of one of the leaders of the main sects of the cultivation world, in order to take revenge on Mo Xuanyu’s enemies (specifically his abusive family and ~an unknown person~).
And here is where we get into the details.
Pretty much immediately upon Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, people start dying at Mo Manor, before Wei Wuxian has even done anything, because of (it turns out) a very angry spirit of a semi-sentient weapon. Wei Wuxian books it out of town after his old best friend/crush Lan Wangji shows up to help the Lan ducklings he’s shepherding (including most notably Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, the only named characters of that bunch), only to wind up running into him again on the road - and not only him, but his orphaned nephew (shorthand, go with it) Jin Ling (Wei Wuxian was responsible for his parents’ deaths) and Jiang Cheng, his martial brother who (at least according to rumor) killed him sixteen years ago and still bears a hell of a grudge. In order to save Jin Ling, Wei Wuxian summons the “Ghost General” Wen Ning, who was supposed to be destroyed and whose presence confirms his identity to a very pissed off Jiang Cheng. Lan Wangji recognizes Wei Wuxian as well. Wei Wuxian passes out.
followed any of that? no? that’s fine, because now we’re heading into a thirty episode flashback that’ll clarify some things. (but not before you forget a whole bunch of things from the first two episodes.)
I’m going to split this into arcs. I’m also going to put this under a read more, because...yeah, this came out to just a little over 10,500 words. I’m...sorry.
have fun?
Cloud Recesses Summer School Arc
The time card says “sixteen years earlier” but it isn’t sixteen years earlier because that would make no sense, but it’s better to give up on timeline now or you’ll just drive yourself nuts.
This is the part of the show where you meet the main characters, some of whom you saw earlier (notably Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian’s younger sort-of brother), and some of whom you only know from reference (Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian’s older sort-of sister) and some of whom are significantly important (Lan Wangji). You also meet Jin Zixuan, the snotty heir to the Jin Sect, who will be important later. Jiang Yanli is clearly into him and he seems to very much not return the feelings.
At this point, there are five main sects that the characters belong to. They are (with the characters you’ve met from them so far: the Jiang Sect (Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli), the Nie Sect (Nie Huaisang, a flighty and sort of feckless fellow), the Jin Sect (Jin Zixuan, his social skills translator Mianmian), the Lan Sect (Lan Wangji, his brother Lan Xichen) as well as the Wen Sect (more on them in a moment). Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian meet and immediately...something. Wei Wuxian wants to make friends, and Lan Wangji seems to emphatically Not.
You also meet Meng Yao, who is Nie Huaisang’s brother Nie Mingjue’s right hand man, and also the bastard son of Jin Guangshan (the leader of Jin Sect). He is also the son of (using the words of literally everyone) a prostitute, which people remind him of at every possible moment, in case he was in danger of forgetting, or something. He and Lan Xichen have kind of a moment.
Later on, members of the Wen Sect, led by Wen Chao storm in, posturing disrespectfully, and drop off Wen Qing to “learn” (but secretly she has a mission looking for the Yin Iron/Metal). The Wen are ascendant in power and seem to be flexing their muscle looking for trouble.
Wen Qing comes as a set with her brother Wen Ning - the pair of them are from sort of...a secondary branch of the main Wen family, and she’s being coerced into supporting Wen Ruohan despite being not thrilled about it. Wei Wuxian bonds with Wen Qing’s younger brother Wen Ning, who has a weird situation that makes him vulnerable to possession (this is important later).
At one point Wei Wuxian proposes - in response to a question! He’s just being innovative! - to put it simply, necromancy, which is, to say the least, not a hit. Remember that for later!
Eventually, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian end up falling by accident into some ice caves, where they learn from one of Lan Wangji’s ancestors (Lan Yi, she’s cool) about the Yin Iron, of which she has a piece. It is an spiritually corrupted metal that can’t be destroyed so it was broken into pieces and hidden in different places. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji resolve jointly to find the other pieces.
Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, and Jiang Cheng (henceforth “the Yunmeng siblings”) are picked up early by Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng’s dad (Jiang Fengmian) because Wei Wuxian causes problems both on purpose and not. Wei Wuxian, however, puts together that Lan Wangji is going off on his own chasing the Yin Iron, and ditches the rest of his family to go help.
Yin Iron Hunt Arc
Wei Wuxian meets up with Lan Wangji, who is not thrilled to see him (at least, apparently). They run into Nie Huaisang, who joins them. They come to a town where everyone seems to have vanished and there is nothing fishy going on in the cave with the statue that looks like a dancing lady at all. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng leaves home to go track down Wei Wuxian and bring him back.
The statue comes to life, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji fight together to defeat it, and then a bunch of...undead villagers (sort of, they get better) attack them, only to be lured away by Wen Qing playing a flute (this ability will never be brought up again). Jiang Cheng reveals himself as having been hanging out watching this go down. Ultimately, by killing the Stygian Pigeon that belongs to Wen Chao, the villagers are freed and they move on.
After a brief stopover in a village, they hear some rumors about a haunted house and take off to go check it out. When they get there, everyone is dead and Xue Yang is on the roof just kind of vibing. Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan manage to get him pinned down and taken captive. This is important and not just because I said so.
Nie Huaisang, who Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji ditched in town, arrives here with Meng Yao, who proposes bringing Xue Yang to Nie Mingjue for justice purposes (which when I write it like that sounds...um. moving right along), which is where everyone heads next, less Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan who have their own things to do. Wei Wuxian realizes that Xiao Xingchen had the same master as his mother, and gets really excited about it; it’s adorable.
They go to Nie Mingjue, who is talked out of executing Xue Yang because they’re trying to find out where he put the Yin Iron (which they figure he has, because reasons. there are reasons, I just don’t feel like going into it.) Lan Wangji leaves in the night without saying goodbye, and then Wen Chao arrives. He is accompanied by Wen Zhuliu, who is called the Core-Melting Hand for reasons that will be important later. There’s a fight, Xue Yang gets loose, and Nie Mingjue finds Meng Yao in a very compromising position (killing a captain of the guard and among a bunch of other dead bodies). He kicks Meng Yao out of the Nie Sect.
Meanwhile, the Wens attack Cloud Recesses. Lan Xichen’s uncle makes him leave to preserve himself and the most important texts. Everyone retreats to a cave that’s hidden and walled off; Su She (who was introduced briefly earlier) caves to threats to his life and tells the Wens how to get into the Lan’s cave sanctuary. Lan Wangji returns with Lan Yi’s Yin Iron and gives it and himself up to Wen Chao’s older brother Wen Xu to spare everyone else.
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian leave for home (Lotus Pier). We witness family dynamics, which are terrible. The Wens want everyone to send their kids, specifically their heirs, to be reeducated in Wen territory, but they’re not hostages, we swear. No, really.
Reeducation Camp Arc
To reeducation camp with the Wens we go! Where Lan Wangji is not looking so hot, and Wei Wuxian rapidly causes problems on purpose to try to get to talk to him, but mostly just ends up getting himself tossed in a dungeon where he gets attacked by a very bad puppet of a dog. Wen Qing has told Wen Ning not to associate with Wei Wuxian because they’re on thin ice with their boss (Wen Ruohan), but Wen Ning sneaks him some medicine against Wen Qing’s orders anyway.
They go on a hunt, with the non-Wens featuring as bait. Here is where you meet Wen Chao’s main squeeze Wang Lingjiao, who was formerly a servant. Everyone ends up in a cave that contains a creature whose name is unfortunately translated as “Tortoise of Slaughter.” we’ll go with “Xuanwu of Slaughter” instead, it feels better. Wen Chao and his accompanying entourage make a run for it and ditch everyone else in the cave; they manage to sneak out but Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji end up trapped with no way out. They team up and kill the Xuanwu, partially because Wei Wuxian acquires a very cursed sword. Afterward, he is feverish and asks Lan Wangji to sing - enter Wuji! their theme. You see Lan Wangji mouth that it is called “Wangxian” before Wei Wuxian passes out. (Yes, he did name his composition after their ship name. Aww.)
I’ve skated through that very fast but it is important because it’s like...the point where they seriously bond in a major way and it’s all very...like, there was only one bed only they’re trapped in a cave and injured and forced to rely on each other. So not actually really like that.
Wei Wuxian comes around outside of the cave with Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan, who brought help to rescue him and Lan Wangji; Lan Wangji, however, is gone.
Oh Shit Things Went Downhill Fast Arc
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian go back to Lotus Pier, where Wei Wuxian is in big trouble with Jiang Cheng’s mother (Yu Ziyuan, seen later emotionally terrorizing all her children), who already doesn’t like him and accuses him of bringing trouble down on them by defying the Wens. Jiang Cheng’s dad is terrible, Wei Wuxian reaffirms that he and Jiang Cheng will be Together Forever, you, the viewer, know that is absolutely not how that’s going to go.
Word comes that the Wen have attacked one of the smaller sects, and Jiang Cheng’s dad (Jiang Fengmian) goes with Jiang Yanli to talk to Jin Guangshan about how to deal with the Wens.
Then Wang Lingjiao arrives with word that they’re gonna be in big trouble if they don’t punish Wei Wuxian right now. Yu Ziyuan uses her lightning whip to beat the shit out of Wei Wuxian, but Wang Lingjiao wants her to cut off his hand. Then she makes the mistake of saying that they’ll be making Lotus Pier a supervisory office of the Wens, thank you.
Yu Ziyuan reacts...poorly, Wang Lingjiao calls on her backup Wen Zhuliu (and everyone else); seeing the writing on the wall Yu Ziyuan grabs Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, puts them on a boat, and sends them away, bequeathing her sick-ass lightning whip (Zidian) to Jiang Cheng. They run into Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli; Jiang Fengmian adds Jiang Yanli to the boat full of crying children and goes to sail back to Lotus Pier.
Lotus Pier falls, everybody dies, Jiang Cheng goes semi-catatonic and then disappears, having been captured by the Wens after going back for his parents’ bodies. (Which is more important than it probably sounds, from a Western perspective.) Wei Wuxian follows him and finds Wen Ning, who smuggles Jiang Cheng out and takes him, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli to Wen Qing for safekeeping.
Jiang Cheng wakes up; his golden core (the...thing that lets him do superpowered things, let’s go with that) was destroyed by Wen Zhuliu. Melted, if you will. And it’s not the kind of thing you can just, you know, fix. He descends into absolute despair as Wei Wuxian looks frantically for a way to fix it - and finds one! Though Wen Qing is not happy about it, she still agrees.
at this point we see the return of an old friend! Song Lan, who has a bloody bandage over his eyes, but has eyes that work, despite the fact that he was blinded by Xue Yang who also killed his entire temple. He explains that Xiao Xingchen said that he was taking Song Lan to his master Baoshan Sanren, the immortal who can cure anything, and doesn’t remember anything else.
Wei Wuxian takes Jiang Cheng to Baoshan Sanren to get his core back. Psych! It’s a lie that he totally made up to explain the fact that he’s actually getting his own core transplanted into Jiang Cheng in a highly experimental procedure. Importantly, Wei Wuxian does not tell Jiang Cheng this.
Post-surgery, rather battered Wei Wuxian gets caught by Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao, who torture him and then throw him into a place called the Burial Mounds, which is more or less what it sounds like, is Very Cursed, and from which no one has emerged alive. Then this happens:
(I want you to appreciate how hard I’ve tried to not put any screencaps in here. but I had to do this one. I just had to.)
and you go oh shit and also well that’s sexy.
Jiang Cheng, delighted to have his core back, descends the mountain only to find that Wei Wuxian is...not there.
Cool! That seems fine.
Sunshot Campaign Arc
Timeskip to three months later! The rest of the sects have allied together to take down the Wen Sect (this is what ‘Sunshot Campaign’ refers to, because the symbol of the Wens is a sun). Things aren’t looking good for the Wens, including Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao. Wang Lingjiao hallucinates to the sound of a flute and ends up killing herself. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng have teamed up to look for Wei Wuxian. On their way, they start finding piles of Wen bodies killed in a mysterious and grotesque manner involving an unfamiliar method of cultivation.
(Side note: around now is where Jiang Cheng frees Wen Qing from where she was imprisoned by the Wens for being a dirty traitor during the war and gives her the comb of pining he bought way back in the Cloud Recesses arc, telling her that he will help her if she asks. This isn’t...exactly important, except I wanted to note it.)
Eventually, they find a house where Wen Chao has holed up with Wen Zhuliu, and watch as it’s revealed that he has gone through some nasty shit, is terrified and traumatized and badly injured. Ominous signs: begin to happen! Flames going out: happen! Shots of someone climbing slowly and menacingly up stairs: happen!
Yeah, it’s Wei Wuxian. New and improved, darker and meaner and very sexy about it, and with a new sick-ass flute. He starts attacking Wen Chao, and when Wen Zhuliu moves to attack Wei Wuxian Jiang Cheng jumps down and hangs Wen Zhuliu with Zidian. Lan Wangji confronts Wei Wuxian about this darker and meaner version and Wei Wuxian breaks up with him; Lan Wangji leaves Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to kill Wen Chao because the family that murders together stays together!
(They won’t, but.)
The war goes on, but the tides have turned, and the Wens are losing. Both of Wen Ruohan’s sons are dead. Soup drama happens here, which I don’t need to explain fully but it is clear that Wei Wuxian is extremely emotionally unstable, and also will no longer carry his sword despite everyone telling him he needs to carry his sword. All is not well with the Wei Wuxian! But nobody knows why. Lan Wangji’s repeated “LET ME FIX YOU” overtures are not well received. Lan Wangji also has a nice conversation about how the Lan rules did not prepare him for moral complexity.
Eventually Nie Mingjue proposes going to attack Wen Ruohan on his own while the others move on the Wen stronghold at Nightless City (at this point, they have received a map of Wen defenses from a ~mysterious spy~). Nie Mingjue is captured, and it is revealed that Meng Yao decided that after getting kicked out of Qinghe he could find a better boss somewhere else. Outside, an undead army shows up to kick everyone else’s ass. Things don’t look good for our heroes!
Wei Wuxian brings out his secret weapon the Yin Tiger Seal and...takes over the undead army. This is very troubling to everyone involved, but it does bring Wen Ruohan out to see what the deal is. Wei Wuxian delivers one of the sickest lines in the entire show:
(i’m restraining myself! trust me! i am!)
so yeah, that’s a normal and reassuring thing to say.
And then Meng Yao stabs Wen Ruohan in the back. And that’s it for Wen Ruohan! Our major antagonist is dead! Surely everything will be fine now.
Well We Won the War, Now What Arc
[cracks knuckles] and here’s where the politics starts.
Ready and totally psyched to step into the power vacuum left by the fall of the Wens is Jin Guangshan! Leader of the Jin Sect, least impacted by the war by vitue of joining up late. He recognizes Meng Yao as his son now that he’s, like, someone that is valuable to him politically, and Meng Yao gets a commensurate name change > Jin Guangyao. Pretty much immediately Jin Guangshan starts manuevering to consolidate power - pushing to marry Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, pushing to get access to Wei Wuxian’s Yin Tiger Seal, subtly undermining everyone else...the works.
Jin Guangshan is the worst, is what I’m saying here.
Meanwhile, Nie Mingjue is very unhappy about the whole “Meng Yao helping the Wens and fucking with him when he’s captured” thing, but then Lan Xichen (remember, Lan Wangji’s older brother) steps in and reveals that Jin Guangyao was a spy delivering information, actually, and also saved his life when he was on the run from the Wens, so don’t hurt him please. Nie Mingjue is still very suspicious, but he backs off. Subsequently, after agreeing to place the Wen (civilian) captives in a holding camp, Jin Guangyao has them killed (impliedly at the order of his father).
We are given cues that Jin Guangyao is bad news. Like, heavy cues. If you are me this makes you love him.
This is also where Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, and Jin Guangyao become sworn brothers, which is a big deal.
Meanwhile, back in Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian is...not doing so hot! He’s drinking heavily, shirking his responsibilities in a way that is making Jiang Cheng particularly very upset with him, generally being weird and traumatized but nobody knows how to deal with that, or him. Then Jin Zixuan arrives to invite everyone to a special hunt being hosted by his father including Jiang Yanli because he, he means his mom, really wants her to be there.
The hunt goes great! By that I mean Jin Zixuan is a spectacular failure at expressing his feelings to Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian almost starts a fight with Jin Zixuan, Jin Zixuan’s enormous asshole cousin gets nasty until Jiang Yanli makes him apologize, in a seriously badass moment. The whole thing comes off with Wei Wuxian really not looking good, including his decision to ditch the celebratory banquet. But also Jiang Yanli getting a liiiiittle closer to something she wants (i.e. Jin Zixuan). Jiang Cheng is like “dude what the fuck” at Wei Wuxian and gets zero percent explanation. Meanwhile everyone in the vicinity pokes at his massive insecurities, because the cultivation world’s favorite activity is actually gossip.
Things only get worse at the very bad after party. This is where we meet Su She again, who has gone and founded his own sect! Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji are sort of bitchy about it. But the real issue comes when Zixun peer pressures Lan Xichen into drinking despite the fact that it’s pretty solidly against the rules of the Lan Sect. Lan Xichen does it with a very “fuck you” smile, despite Jin Guangyao’s attempts to forestall the situation.
(I feel like I have not expressed the relationship between Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen? It’s a whole thing. Let’s just say that it’s a fairly popular ship for a reason.)
Lan Wangji, however, is not as diplomatic as his brother.
And then Wei Wuxian arrives! To ruin another party. Because he found Wen Qing wandering around in the streets and turns out that Wen Ning was taken prisoner by Jin Zixun and friends and removed to whereabouts unknown. Wei Wuxian proceeds to give the sexiest countdown ever to annihilating Jin Zixun if he doesn’t tell him where Wen Ning is.
Wen Ning, unfortunately, is in a pile of bodies. Because the Jin have been...well, experimenting on Wen prisoners, basically. Wen Ning is...not dead in this universe because censorship, but everything makes more sense if you just say “he’s basically dead and Wei Wuxian resurrects him to fuck up everyone in the vicinity who was responsible for his death, which is...everyone other than the other Wens. Eventually Wei Wuxian stops him by yelling his second (courtesy) name that no one else has used for him in speech up to this point (Wen Qionglin), because love is stored in the name. Wei Wuxian gathers up the survivors and takes off only to run into Lan Wangji standing in his way.
They have a point of no return moment. Wei Wuxian basically says “let me go or you have to kill me” only it’s better than that because what he actually says is like “if I’m going to be killed I should be killed by you, then I would know it was right” and it’s a whole fucking thing and anyway Lan Wangji steps aside and lets them all go and it is quite literally “I’m not crying, it’s just raining on my face” except he is also crying.
So...fuck.
Burial Mounds Arc
Wei Wuxian takes the Wens to the one place nobody’s probably going to follow them: namely, the Burial Mounds. Home sweet home!
Outside in the main world, rumors are flying about the army Wei Wuxian is building and the sect he’s planning to found and how ambitious he is and how he’s disrespecting Jiang Cheng and actually Jiang Cheng he probably never loved you anyway and is better and stronger and what are you good for, but I’m saying this out of concern and to be helpful (paraphrased from Jin Guangshan).
Accordingly, Jiang Cheng agrees to go and check things out and see what’s going on in Chez Burial Mounds. What is going on is basically a bunch of civilians eking out a very depressing living. There is also a child, a-Yuan, who is adorable. This will also be important later.
(are you keeping track of all this?)
Jiang Cheng also goes to see Wen Ning, who is...recovering from being dead/undead and Wei Wuxian is working on fixing him. Jiang Cheng says he has to die, and Wei Wuxian has to come home, and things are really bad, man, so stop worrying about these losers and avoid the entire cultivation world being really pissed with you, maybe?
Wei Wuxian isn’t going for it, and tells Jiang Cheng to cut him out of Jiang Sect in order to protect Jiang Sect’s reputation. It’s upsetting. They stage a very dramatic duel and Jiang Cheng announces that friendship ended with Wei Wuxian, he has no new friend actually.
This is also where Wen Qing significantly returns the comb of pining that Jiang Cheng gave her way back (remember that?) and is like. so you wouldn’t’ve helped me and Wen Ning actually, would you. And that is the end of Chengqing as a sidebar ship that never really sailed. Well done, you two.
Meanwhile, Jin Zixuan gets his shit together and proposes to Jiang Yanli by way of making her a lotus pond at Jinlintai. So that’s nice!
A bit later Lan Wangji comes to visit! Only it’s totally coincidental, he was just passing through, that’s all. He and Wei Wuxian hang out for a little while, pretending things are sort of normal, but they have to rush back to the Burial Mounds because the Wen Ning is out. They manage to get him under control and awaken him to proper consciousness again, though! Great! Things are looking up. :)
Lan Wangji does not stay for dinner, though. :(
In my notes I have written “meanwhile...political shitshow” and that is basically a summation of what’s up in places that aren’t the Burial Mounds. Specifically, Jin Guangshan, who seems to have deputized Jin Guangyao to do his dirty work generally, is making noises about how something needs to be done about that Wei Wuxian, and what about that Yin Tiger Seal anyway, doesn’t it seem Yin Iron-like, shouldn’t something like that not be in the hands of a random person? Probably it should be in someone else’s hands instead. Someone responsible with no ulterior motives. You know.
Also in here...somewhere, Mianmian tries to stand up for Wei Wuxian being maybe right about some things, gets shouted down, and decides to leave the Jin Sect entirely. Like...just walks out. Several people look at her like ‘you can do that?’, Lan Wangji is jealous, it is a total boss move. Mianmian hasn’t been a major character but this is important enough and cool enough that I had to mention it.
Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng come to Yiling (by the Burial Mounds) for a very secret rendezvous where Wei Wuxian gets to see Jiang Yanli’s beautiful wedding dress and eat some of her famous soup and it is very sweet and nice and Jiang Cheng is like “so do you have a plan for if everyone attacks you” and Wei Wuxian is like “absolutely. I will kill everyone is my plan.”
also possibly Jiang Yanli is already pregnant at this point??? she and Jiang Cheng are certainly exchanging a lot of conspiratorial smiles when she tells Wei Wuxian to give her future son a courtesy name.
She is for sure pregnant later, because there is a baby named Jin Ling who shows up! (Remember that name? No? He was the bratty teenager from episode 2.) Jin Guangshan does not allow Jin Guangyao to hold the baby, for which he deserves what he gets. For Jin Ling’s 100 day/three month (again! timelines, fuck em) celebration, Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Lan Wangji tag team to get Wei Wuxian invited, where he will come and it will be nice and everyone will discuss this Yin Tiger Seal issue like civilized people.
An invitation is sent for Wei Wuxian to come to the celebration! Wonderful! This is in no way going to go horribly wrong.
Oh Shit, Things Went Downhill Fast (Take Two) Arc
It goes horribly wrong.
On the way to Jinlintai to greet his new baby nephew, accompanied by Wen Ning, Wei Wuxian is confronted by - surprise! - Jin Zixun, accusing Wei Wuxian of putting a curse on him. Wei Wuxian denies it, naturally, since he didn’t. Jin Zixun decides the best way to deal with this situation is to kill Wei Wuxian, which will definitely break the curse that Wei Wuxian definitely cast on him.
He attacks, and Wen Ning goes Ghost General on everyone’s ass, and Wei Wuxian brings out his flute. Things are looking pretty hairy when Jin Zixuan shows up to call off the fight, trying to get Wei Wuxian to back down; he does not back down, because that would just mean getting shot full of arrows.
Wen Ning, who seems to have completely lost his mind, fists Jin Zixuan. Through the chest. This does, in fact, kill him.
His dying words are to say that Jiang Yanli is still waiting for Wei Wuxian to show up, just to make everything worse. Wen Ning kills Jin Zixun as well. This is not actually what Wei Wuxian wanted to happen.
Back at the Burial Mounds! In the wake of Jin Zixuan’s death, an ultimatum has been issued to give up the Wen siblings or else. This is pretty clearly (in my opinion) a pretext that doesn’t mean anything, but Wen Qing and Wen Ning have already decided to sacrifice themselves. Maybe they’re hoping it’ll work? Or at least that it’ll give Wei Wuxian some time? Wen Qing knocks Wei Wuxian out so he can’t stop them. The whole thing is really fucking heartbreaking.
Wei Wuxian comes around and goes to Jinlintai, where he sees Jiang Yanli, who is mourning her dead husband who got killed by her baby brother! Cool! She sees Wei Wuxian but he runs before she can say anything, partly because guards have been sicced on him. He is pretty clearly having a mental breakdown, hallucinations and all!
Cut to a gathering of...pretty much everyone important and all their followers at Nightless City, for a combination commemorating the dead/affirming the deaths of Wen Ning and Wen Qing/gearing up to kill Wei Wuxian.
Who spares them the effort of coming to find him by showing up on the roof! He proceeds to sic dark magic on everyone there except, conspicuously, for the Jiang Sect. Lan Wangji arrives to defuse the situation and fails to defuse the situation until Wei Wuxian hears Jiang Yanli calling for him.
Because she’s arrived on an active battlefield! Not her best idea but it’s not like I can actually blame her considering the week she’s having.
Wei Wuxian goes to look for her, as does Jiang Cheng who also heard her, and...suddenly loses control of his dark magic. Cool! One of the...undead? people there wounds Jiang Yanli. Even better! Jiang Cheng pleads with Wei Wuxian to get things under control, which he can’t! They have a moment while a lot of people around them are dying but you know what, they deserve it.
because like literally a second later Jiang Yanli pushes Wei Wuxian out of the way of a sword meant to stab him in the back and instead takes it herself. And dies.
So. Yeah.
Wei Wuxian loses the last threads of his sanity and destroys the Yin Tiger Seal. While everybody is fighting over it, he goes over to the edge of a cliff, and now we’re back here where we started! With Lan Wangji clinging to Wei Wuxian’s hand as he dangles over the edge of a cliff and tells him to let go.
Jiang Cheng arrives to defuse the situation, by which I mean “he tells Wei Wuxian to go die and stabs down.” He only hits rock; Wei Wuxian breaks himself loose of Lan Wangji’s grip and falls. You are left on the image of Lan Wangji’s absolutely devastated face.
nice! great. well, that brings us up to speed for the flashforward to the future, where you have probably completely forgotten what happened in the first two episodes.
For instance: remember how we saw Wen Ning despite the fact that he’s supposed to be ashes? Yeah.
And We’re Back in the Present Now Arc (Good Times in Qinghe Arc)
For some reason this is the part of the show where I remember the least and it all kind of blurs together with the exception of one scene? so I had to go look at Wikipedia episode summaries to make sure I was putting things in the right order.
Back in the present at the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji discover that the very angry sword spirit last seen killing people at Mo Manor (remember that?) is pointing them in the direction of Qinghe (the Nie Sect territory). They leave to go there and run into Jin Ling, who semi-accidentally terrorizes Wei Wuxian by way of dog.
By asking around, they also learn that there are rumors of a man-eating fortress in the woods, and that it hasn’t been dealt with because the leader of the Nie Sect is absolutely useless. The leader of the Nie Sect who is now - hey, been a while! - Nie Huaisang, since his older brother disappeared under mysterious circumstances after losing his mind years ago.
The dynamic duo go off to investigate the man-eating fortress, naturally, and what they find is a tomb full of swords and a wall full of skeletons, and also Jin Ling.
They remove Jin Ling from the wall, Lan Wangji goes chasing a mysterious attacker, and Wei Wuxian takes Jin Ling to safety only to end up running into - oh boy! - Jiang Cheng.
They have a calm talk about their feelings and address their dysfunction in a reasonable manner.
Nope! Jiang Cheng corners Wei Wuxian with Jin Ling’s dog, throws a cup of tea at a wall, and yells at Wei Wuxian about how he both didn’t come home right away and also how he should die ten million times (no, like, actually). Fortunately, Jin Ling arrives, lies out his ass about how he saw Wen Ning to get Jiang Cheng to leave, and lets Wei Wuxian go.
Back to that mysterious figure Lan Wangji went running after! Turns out it was none other than Nie Huaisang, who confesses - reluctantly - that the man-eating fortress belongs to his family and is a safe home for bloodthirsty swords after their owners die, which is a normal thing to get as a family heirloom. This is also where it becomes increasingly clear that (a) the sword spirit is Baxia, Nie Mingjue’s sword, and (b) Nie Mingjue is most likely hella dead, specifically murdered.
With this new information, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian move on, tracking the directions of the angry sword spirit. They overhear some very depressing story about Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang, specifically how things turned out horribly for them (though without details), which drives Lan Wangji to drink.
Lan Wangji cannot hold his liquor, at all. Wei Wuxian takes his unconsciousness as an opportunity to flute Wen Ning to him again, and removes a massive metal needle from his skull, which fixes the whole “unconscious zombie” issue. Unfortunately, Wen Ning remembers nothing about what happened to him between going to Jinlintai with Wen Qing and when he heard Wei Wuxian calling by way of flute.
And now we have Drunkji, who is the most adorable, hilarious thing ever. He gives Wei Wuxian chickens, with utmost sincerity. They are wedding chickens. It is very important that Wei Wuxian have these chickens.
This interlude is not important to the plot but it is hilarious. There is also a not hilarious interlude of Lan Wangji being very sad about how he didn’t help Wei Wuxian before, and also admitting that he likes rabbits. Again: not plot important. It is adorable.
Wei Wuxian herds Drunkji back to the inn, where a mysterious masked man attempts to steal the pouch holding the angry sword spirit, but is driven off and teleports away. Remember this guy! He’s important.
The next morning, they set off and hit the road for a place called Yi City, which if you’ve spent any time on this blog you know is deeply important in my heart if not, like, in terms of show space.
Yi City Arc Yi City Arc Yi City Arc
yes this is three episodes but this is my summary post so I get to give it its own section if I want to.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at Yi City, which is empty, and very spooky. They run into the pack of juniors (Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, sassmaster Lan Jingyi and consummate romantic Ouyang Zizhen are the named ones), and shortly thereafter into a whole bunch of undead. They also run into a ghost (???) girl who is blind and has no tongue. They also also run into Xiao Xingchen, severely wounded.
Psych! It’s Xue Yang in disguise and he has an undead Song Lan under his control. what a fun twist this is! and he wants one thing specifically: for Wei Wuxian to help him bring someone back to life. Problem is that their soul is in need of some serious super glue and super glue doesn’t work on souls.
Xue Yang informs Wei Wuxian that his consent is optional and he will be participating in Xue Yang’s necromancy experiment fantasies whether he likes it or not. Lan Wangji objects strenuously to this idea. While Lan Wangji is fighting Xue Yang and Wen Ning is fighting Song Lan (corpse fight! corpse fight!) Wei Wuxian herds the juniors into a safe courtyard where the corpses won’t go, led by the aforementioned ghost girl, who shows them a coffin.
the coffin has Xiao Xingchen in it. The actual real one. There’s a bandage over his eyes, because he doesn’t have any.
Wei Wuxian goes into the ghost girl’s memories in order to find out what happened using a technique called Empathy, and the next chunk of things I’m just going to tell in full chronologically even though there’s a break where you don’t see all of it until an episode later.
The ghost girl, a-Qing, is a con artist who pretends to be blind; she runs into Xiao Xingchen (who is actually blind) when she steals his money, and he just gives it to her after stopping someone else whose money she stole from beating him up. A-Qing decides they’re friends now. They’ve been traveling together for...some amount of time when they stumble on a badly injured man on the side of the road. Xiao Xingchen picks him up and takes him home with him (to an abandoned coffin house in Yi City). You get one guess who he’s rescued and who is totally psyched to discover that his life has been saved by Xiao Xingchen, who doesn’t know who he is, because he’s blind.
So you know, everything is coming up Xue Yang.
What follows is three years of domestic bliss, including hits like “entire villages dying by Xiao Xingchen under sort of suspicious circumstances” and “threatening grocers.” And then who should show up but Song Lan! Looking for Xiao Xingchen and he’s so happy to have finally found him.
Only he notices Xue Yang first.
A fight ensues, in which Xue Yang...sort of talks Song Lan to death by digging into the fact that Xiao Xingchen is blind because he gave his eyes to Song Lan, actually, and Song Lan hurt him so bad when they broke up, and because Xiao Xingchen is blind Xue Yang has been able to trick him into killing living people when he thinks he’s killing undead ones, and oooh do you feel bad now, well, guess what, you’re gonna feel worse when I poison you into becoming undead and cut out your tongue. :D
And even worse when this means that Xiao Xingchen stabs him because, you know, undead monster.
Cool! Things are going great.
Or they would be only a-Qing saw everything, reveals it to Xiao Xingchen, who puts it together and greets XueYang coming back from grocery shopping with a sword (rude). They break up, and by “break up” I mean “Xue Yang reveals his tragic backstory, Xiao Xingchen is not convinced that his tragic backstory means all the murder was justified, Xue Yang decides it’s time to make this all go nuclear.” So tells Xiao Xingchen about how he’s been killing people actually! And guess what, bonus, one of those people was your BFF/life partner/whatever, Song Lan. isn’t that amazing, Xiao Xingchen, isn’t that so cool--
Xiao Xingchen kills himself and this is, it turns out, Not What Xue Yang Wanted. So guess who’s in the pouch Xue Yang was hoping to resurrect? Yeah.
Back in the present, with help from a-Qing directing Lan Wangji, Xue Yang gets...hella stabbed, but not before he kills a-Qing. Song Lan, freed from Xue Yang’s control, kills Xue Yang.
Oh yeah, and then we see Xiao Xingchen tenderly laying pieces of candy on a bed, which is symbolically important, and also Xue Yang dies looking at the last piece of candy Xiao Xingchen gave him, and now I’m going to cry. anyway Yi City Arc, you’re welcome. Where the only person who survives did not, in fact, survive!
Oh, yeah, I guess it’s also important that there’s a headless body buried here and it gets...pretty conclusively identified as Nie Mingjue because the sword spirit (remember that?) takes the shape of his very distinctive large sword (Baxia). Also Xue Yang recreated the Yin Tiger Seal but it gets snatched away by the masked man from earlier. There’s also a bunch of stuff about the Yin Iron plot but you can ignore it, it doesn’t actually really matter that much.
Honestly at that point I was crying too much to pay a whole lot of attention to the whole point of them being in Yi City to begin with. So sue me.
The Plot Thickens, and Secrets Are Revealed Arc
Exeunt Yi City, rendezvous with Lan Xichen to discuss, obliquely, who could be responsible for Nie Mingjue’s death. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji delicately imply that maybe it was Jin Guangyao; Lan Xichen is unconvinced and informs us that there are no curse marks indicating that he’d teleported on Jin Guangyao’s body, he would know, and also they’ve been together every night so he wouldn’t have time to get up to shenanigans anyway.
Hm.
Still, they go ahead together to ruin another party/investigate at Jinlintai, with Wei Wuxian safely in disguise (barely), unfortunately as Mo Xuanyu, who is not exactly welcome in the Jin Sect because he got kicked out of it earlier. Mo Xuanyu is a whole...thing that I’m not really going into here because the show doesn’t really get into it either.
Wei Wuxian ducks out to investigate, and in the form of an animated paper man, to the tune of music we have never heard before in this show and will never hear again (look, it’s just weird to me), goes sneaking into Jin Guangyao’s rooms to do some poking around. His investigations are interrupted when Jin Guangyao’s wife Qin Su, in a state of severe distress, returns, followed shortly by Jin Guangyao. They argue about an unknown revelation in a letter Qin Su received that has resulted in her being disgusted by...something, we don’t know what, and angry with Jin Guangyao. She accuses him of killing their kid.
Eventually he paralyzes her and removes her to a secret room through a mirror, which is a thing everyone has, especially one with a bunch of torture instruments and a body sized table with dried blood on it. Normal!
Remember how the body in Yi City was headless? Yeah, we found the head now.
And it’s time for another Empathy flashback!
Empathy Flashback feat. Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao’s Bad Relationship Mini Arc
This time with Nie Mingjue (and Jin Guangyao). We see Jin Guangyao very quickly elevated from a servant who is spat upon by the other Nie cultivators to Nie Mingjue’s right hand man, like, literally in two seconds. Flash forward to episode 10 - remember that? - where Jin Guangyao has just been caught in a compromising murder position. Nie Mingjue accuses Jin Guangyao plotting all along and is a conniving little snake who was in league with Xue Yang (which is a thing that does not make sense, actually), and kicks him out.
We next see Nie Mingjue in Nightless City, having been captured and currently being taunted by a very sexy Meng Yao, who kills some other Nie cultivators and threatens to fuck up Nie Mingjue by shattering his sword (which would be catastrophic and is, we are informed, how Nie Mingjue’s dad died). Nie Mingjue is understandably rather displeased by this to the point of probable murder, though Lan Xichen reminds him (as he did in the previous scene) that Meng Yao was acting as a spy and Meng Yao argues that he needed to play his part.
The relationship between the two of them continues to deteriorate as Nie Mingjue becomes more unstable (something that just happens to the Nies by virtue of their cultivation style). That deterioration is being delayed by healing music from Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen teaches Jin Guangyao the healing music. Jin Guangyao seems to be possibly doing something not healing with the healing music.
This all escalates into a confrontation at the top of the stairs of Jinlintai, where Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao argue about class politics and justifiable violence (no, really) until Nie Mingjue explodes and kicks Jin Guangyao down the stairs.
And then proceeds to, as Jin Guangyao looks on, have a qi deviation, which is...well, let’s just call it both a physical and a mental breakdown. Nie Huaisang arrives to see this happening, and while we saw this before and it looked like Nie Mingjue was threatening Nie Huaisang because he didn’t recognize him, this time it is more apparent that he’s directing it at Jin Guangyao.
Next we see, Nie Mingjue is chained to that body sized table in the secret room. Xue Yang is there, and uses Nie Mingjue’s sword to behead Nie Mingjue. He’s psyched as hell about it. If you’re me this is adorable.
And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming Arc
Flashback ends! And we are back in Jinlintai. Wei Wuxian goes to get Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen to storm Jin Guangyao’s bedroom, to which Su She objects, but Jin Guangyao eventually allows. They all file together into the secret room and look around, but there is no longer any severed head where Wei Wuxian left it. Whoops.
Then Qin Su kills herself, Jiang Cheng arrives to defuse the situation while Jin Guangyao pleads innocent, and Wei Wuxian, by way of drawing his sword that nobody else could draw before now, reveals that he is, in fact, Wei Wuxian. Everyone in this room actually already knew this information except for Jin Ling, who is not thrilled to discover that his cool uncle is the guy who murdered his parents. Nobody else does a very good job of faking surprise.
Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian make a run for it only to be cornered on the stairs. Extreme romance ensues where Lan Wangji announces his intent to stand by Wei Wuxian forever against the world.
This is where the “I was like, SCREAMS” meme kicks in.
Anyway, after that love confession (look, they can’t say ‘I love you’ but basically) in front of everyone, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian fight their way out together and are well on the way to freedom when Jin Ling stabs Wei Wuxian.
Nobody is happy about this, including Jin Ling.
Wei Wuxian is okay overall, though he does faint and have to get swept off to the Cloud Recesses and undressed and redressed in Lan Wangji’s underwear. Don’t worry about it. And now it’s time to talk to Lan Xichen, who is currently feeling very “what the hell is going on, you have no proof and are accusing a person I trust completely of something horrible without any proof.”
They still don’t have any proof, but Wei Wuxian reveals that in the flashback he heard Jin Guangyao playing the soothing music but different, and it comes out that there is evil Japanese music that can kill people and be used to poison someone slowly over time. It’s literally this post:
Lan Xichen is not entirely convinced but agrees to investigate; Jin Guangyao comes to Cloud Recesses and has an absolutely heartbreaking conversation with Lan Xichen about how is our friendship over, Zewu--jun :( while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji eavesdrop.
That conversation isn’t plot important either, I just personally find it very upsetting.
The Burial Mounds, Take Two Arc
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave the Cloud Recesses, heading toward the Burial Mounds because Jin Guangyao mentioned something being up there. But they end up meeting - surprise! - Mianmian, who is living her best life. This is mostly important because she is literally the only female character who makes it out of this show alive.
She mentions that there’s been some trouble around the Burial Mounds, so they head in that direction, running into Wen Ning along the way, who has been following them around because he loves Wei Wuxian. The Burial Mounds are indeed full of active undead and they fight their way up to the old farming commune location, which is less empty than expected because there are a bunch of kids tied up in Wei Wuxian’s old lair/cave/house. Like, all of them. Including Jin Ling, who really is having a terrible time lately, and I just feel the need to note that sometimes.
As they free the children and start to leave, everyone else arrives with the plan of killing Wei Wuxian again, because once wasn’t enough and obviously he’s Up To No Good, where else would these corpses be coming from, huh?
Speaking of corpses.
A small army of them shows up! All the cultivators who aren’t children lose their powers! Everyone has to retreat back into the lair/cave/house where they’ll be safe! So this is all...going well.
Fortunately, everyone being stuck in one place gives Wei Wuxian the opportunity to get his Hercule Poirot on and walk everyone through a series of deductions to get them to a place of realizing that (a) they were poisoned by evil music, (b) the evil music came from Su She, (c) Su She is working for Jin Guangyao who (d) planned all of this whole ‘everyone is going to the Burial Mounds to get killed’ thing.
Su She panics, inadvertently reveals that he alone still has his powers, and teleports out. Wei Wuxian decides that a reasonable solution to all these problems is to make himself bait for all the undead so everyone else can make a run for it, because Wei Wuxian is kind of like that.
It’s okay, though, he and Lan Wangji make a spectacular battle couple.
(Oh, yeah. Throughout here it is becoming increasingly clear that Lan Sizhui’s identity is Significant and actually we Might Have Seen Him Before.)
Back to Lotus Pier Arc, or Jin Ling Has a Very Bad Day, Continued Arc
Safely out of the Burial Mounds thanks to Wei Wuxian, everybody goes ahead and invites themselves back to Jiang Cheng’s house. To be fair, it is closest.
My notes here say “Wen Ning figures out that Lan Sizhui is a-Yuan, Jin Ling has an emotional breakdown” which is a more or less accurate summation of the situation. Honestly, though, I feel so bad for Jin Ling at this point, he’s had an absolute nightmare of a month and then today happened and like. I feel for him.
But Wen Ning reuniting with the last remaining member of his family! Though he doesn’t...actally tell Lan Sizhui this, and Lan Sizhui doesn’t have any memories of his early years.
Jiang Cheng reluctantly allows Wei Wuxian inside. Wen Ning has to stay on the porch, but Lan Sizhui stays with him to keep him company, because he is a good boy.
This next part...hoo boy. It’s a lot of exposition featuring two ladies who appear to relate their stories about Jin Guangyao, featuring the part where he murdered his father by using a bunch of sex workers (who then were murdered in turn, except for one), also involving necrophilia, and the one where Qin Su was Jin Guangyao’s sister, actually, and he knew it and still married her. Sect Leader Bad Takes says that’s probably why Jin Guangyao killed their kid, because children of incest inevitably have developmental problems? Yeah, sure, buddy.
Anyway, everyone starts shouting for Jin Guangyao’s head, which is very familiar to Wei Wuxian, who leaves in some disgust. While wandering with Lan Wangji, they wind up going to the family shrine (which is, to be clear, a pretty sacred place). Which is where Jiang Cheng finds them! And once again they have a reasonable and emotionally steady conversation.
Nope. Jiang Cheng talks shit trying to provoke a fight that Wei Wuxian won’t have. As he and Lan Wangji attempt to leave, Jiang Cheng pursues because he’s not done yelling dammit, lashing out with Zidian. Wei Wuxian faints, and Wen Ning arrives to stand in between him and Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng, holding Wei Wuxian’s sheathed sword (remember, the one nobody other than Wei Wuxian can draw). Wen Ning proceeds to initiate one of the single best devastating beatdowns of the show without laying a hand on Jiang Cheng, specifically by shoving the sword at Jiang Cheng and telling him to draw it, because hey you can do that now! Wonder why that is? Wouldn’t you like to know what’s going on there, Jiang Wanyin?
Remember way back when Jiang Cheng lost his core and got it back because Wei Wuxian gave him his core? Yeah, this is when he finds out about that. Psych! Your brother loves you and also the only reason you got to be as strong as you are is because he sacrificed himself for you! Which is also the reason why he took up demonic cultivation in the first place!
Seriously, it’s so good, I love this scene. Probably one of my favorites in the whole show.
Jiang Cheng runs away; Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have a moment on a lake where Lan Wangji indulges Wei Wuxian by eating stolen lotuses with him. It’s sweeter than it sounds when I put it like that.
Guanyin Temple Arc
oh god, how do I. how do I describe Guanyin Temple. partially this is hard because by virtue of censorship about dead bodies, among probably other things, there are huge gaps that make portions of it make no sense so I’m gonna go ahead and...fill in some of those that are intelligible pretty much only with some knowledge of book plot, imo.
Wen Ning, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian go to a place called Yunping because Jin Guangyao bought some land there for some reason. There they find a slightly suspicious temple (Guanyin Temple). They come back at night, leaving Wen Ning to stand guard, and spy on the courtyard, where a bunch of conspicuously armed monks are there, along with Lan Xichen aaaaand...Jin Guangyao.
Jin Ling arrives! And decides it’s a good idea to climb over the wall. Wei Wuxian blocks someone from shooting him by using the bamboo flute he’s been using this whole time, so he now functionally has no weapon, and also he and Lan Wangji have been exposed, so now the two of them and also Jin Ling are in the courtyard. Lan Xichen admits he was tricked and doesn’t have any of his powers. Jin Guangyao threatens Lan Wangji into sealing his by threatening Wei Wuxian with a wire. It’s sexy.
Everybody goes inside the temple, where several monks are digging up something ??? under the floor. This is never explained and that is because it is supposed to be Jin Guangyao’s mother’s body, and there are very strict rules I understand about what can be done with dead bodies in dramas like this one. Anyway, Jin Guangyao loved his mom very much and built a temple where she was buried where the statue has her face. He is exhuming her so he can take her body with him when he flees the country, which is what he was planning here. Of course, now he has a bunch of unwanted hostages (and one wanted hostage), which was not actually part of the plan.
The next person to join the party is an unconscious Nie Huaisang, brought in by Su She, who basically says “I have no idea what he was doing here but...here he is” and Jin Guangyao is like. Well, guess he’s here now.
Next to show up is Jiang Cheng! Making an excellent and extremely dramatic entrance. Unfortunately, he still gets injured and taken down as Jin Guangyao starts poking at his very obvious emotional weak spots, including revealing that Jiang Cheng knows about the golden core thing. Wei Wuxian, who did not know that secret came out because he was unconscious at the time, goes “wait, what?” and thus ensues the epic emotional catharsis crying and yelling conversation I was waiting for for 47 episodes. Seriously, it’s really good. They end up in a place where all is not solved but things are...maybe a little better?
Of course, they’re still hostages.
Meanwhile, back at the dig site, something gets unearthed that is not Jin Guangyao’s mother’s body but is in fact a coffin with Nie Mingjue’s body, now complete with head, in it. The reveal also drops here that Su She has the marks that indicate he cast the curse on Jin Zixun that Jin Zixun accused Wei Wuxian of casting.
A very ugly argument ensues where everyone is poking at everyone else’s things that they’re sensitive about, until finally Lan Xichen recovers his powers and turns the tables on Jin Guangyao by putting a sword to his neck.
The next part is basically...explaining how all the bad things that happened were Jin Guangyao’s fault? Or at least that’s the explanation given. I find it personally very frustrating as a narrative choice and sort of unnecessary, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, Jin Guangyao is pleading for mercy from Lan Xichen, saying he’ll leave and never return, the whole thing is very emotional.
We also find out that Jin Guangshan kicked Jin Guangyao down the stairs. People really need to stop doing that.
And now Wen Ning arrives! Punting Lan Sizhui in ahead of him. He is possessed by a very angry sword spirit (namely, Baxia). Lan Wangji cuts off Jin Guangyao’s right arm, because Lan Wangji likes doing that, apparently. Baxia-possessed Wen Ning then targets Jin Ling because Jin Ling has Jin Guangyao’s blood on him - only for Wen Ning to stop the blade with his bare hand and save Jin Ling’s life, because Wen Ning is both a badass and very good.
Jiang Cheng throws Wei Wuxian his old flute, which he apparently has just been keeping under his bed or something for sixteen years, which is a thing that I will always never be over, and Wei Wuxian flutes the very angry sword into the Nie Mingjue-holding coffin.
Which would be fine, only then Nie Huaisang starts yelling about how Su She totally stabbed him, no, really, look, he’s bleeding. Baxia kills Su She. Then Wei Wuxian manages to put the sword back in the coffin, as well as the Yin Tiger Seal, and locks both away.
Whew.
Everybody’s sitting down and recovering a little as Lan Xichen tends Jin Guangyao’s wounds. He turns around to get medicine from Nie Huaisang, who tells him to look out because Jin Guangyao is attacking you!!!
Lan Xichen runs Jin Guangyao through.
Oh boy.
Jin Guangyao is a little impressed about Nie Huaisang having been plotting this all along. Because he was. He absolutely was. He’s absolutely been planning this for years. Everybody needs a hobby.
But it’s Lan Xichen who he really addresses here, telling him that he’d never hurt him. The actual line really hurts but I’m trying to not reproduce lines here, except I am going to say that he drags Lan Xichen - still with a sword through him! - deeper into the temple and says “stay and die with me” as the temple starts to collapse. Lan Xichen, who was about to strike and presumably push himself away, lowers his hand, and Jin Guangyao abruptly pushes him away and out of the collapsing building.
Romance!
(No, but seriously, it’s a lot.)
Thus ends Jin Guangyao.
Outside in the courtyard, everyone’s taking a breather. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian stare longingly at each other across the room and say nothing. Jiang Cheng walks away and we learn that - surprise! - the reason Jiang Cheng was caught by the Wens way back when is because he was keeping the Wens from catching Wei Wuxian instead.
Everybody in this family in just a big circle of self sacrifice. In the words of Wen Qing:
(Who misses Wen Qing? I do!)
Anyway, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian leave with each other, only to be caught on the road by Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning - Lan Sizhui, who has remembered that he was a-Yuan and finally someone tells Wei Wuxian this, and ahhhh, okay, I know what I said about limiting screencaps but I can’t not:
Now that’s what I call a hug!
They part ways again, Lan Sizhui leaving with Wen Ning for some family time and for Wen Ning to find his own way. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian...seem like they’re going in different directions, but then they’re at Cloud Recesses together, playing music, hanging out, vibing. They talk to Nie Huaisang, but don’t directly confront him about his scheming. Mostly just making sure he’s not, you know, gonna do anything else.
Then Wei Wuxian leaves to go on a roadtrip to find himself. People really do not like this, but I personally really do like this, especially because the last shots of the show are Wei Wuxian playing his and Lan Wangji’s theme song (the one that Lan Wangji wrote, remember, from the cave? It’s come up a lot, I just haven’t mentioned it here), and when he finishes Lan Wangji’s voice says “Wei Ying” and he turns around and just like. Smiles. It’s scrunchy and happy and perfect.
Like this:
aaaaaaand scene! fifty episodes later your life has been ruined and you will never be the same.
and the thing is that this is leaving out, like. a lot, and probably is biased because I focus on different things than another person would, &c &c, but at least it might be a starting point for...the entire plot.
and also congratulations if you made it this far, I am impressed. have a screenshot of wei wuxian as a reward, whose mental breakdown does make him look sexy
you’re welcome.
#anonymous#conversating#HOLY SHIT THAT WENT SOMEWHERE#anon if this isn't what you wanted....i'm very sorry send me another ask and i can link you to someone else's summary#but i started going and then i couldn't stop#and now here we are#the sad queer cultivators show#you know what i am going to tag this because it was kind of a lot of work#the untamed#cql#thanks for reading this and making sure it made any kind of sense james#lise does meta#i guess??????
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To celebrate the absolute insanity that is this little blog reaching a follower milestone of over 1,000 followers (honestly, how did that even happen?) I have decided that I would like to say a huge thank you by providing you all with the (very long time promised) list of some of favourite fanfictions!
Be warned. This is quite the long list. We’re sitting at 60+ fic recs here, and I’ve done my best with adding the most applicable tags for each. Some I’m sure will be old favourites to many in the fandom, but there’s also a few here which could potentially become one of your new favourites too.
There are just so many amazingly talented writers within this fandom, and this is really just the tiniest slice of some of the fantastic stories out there in the wild. Thank you to all the many fic writers out there that provide such incredible content simply for both the love of the characters and the love of writing in general! 💖 I appreciate you for providing so many wonderful escapes and new journeys that we can once again join our beloved characters on.
And finally, thank you, to all my lovely followers. This list is for you.
Favourites
grow → cafecliche
post canon. age regression. fluff.
(our friendship) up against the ropes → daltoneering
modern au. friends with benefits. mutual pining. oblivious!wei ying. dom/sub undertones + other tags.
The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts → aubreyli
post canon. junior shenanigans. fluff.
where the chaos is → darkredloveknot
post!drama canon. reunions. first kiss. first time. domestic.
Not rage but grief → dezemberzarin
jealousy. established relationship. light angst.
tell some storm → qurbat
post canon. hurt/comfort. fluff.
Sometimes the Shadow → northofallmusic
rough sex. kink negotiation. breathplay.
your persuasions → phnelt
modern au. size kink. pwp.
Cut Through The Clouds → phnelt
modern au. pilot!lan wangji. flight attendant!wei wuxian.
Mo Money, Mo Problems → x_los
canon divergence. confessions. getting together.
I’m Going Out (Gonna Make A Name For Me And You) → cosmicmilktea
post canon. slow burn.
As You Like It → cosmicmilktea
post canon. light angst. fluff.
Deeper grows my longing → feyburner
post canon. getting together. first kiss.
one good thing → Yuu_chi
modern au. ghost!wei wuxian. angst with a happy ending.
Sex, Science, and True Love: A Rigid Analysis of the Practical Applications of Dual Cultivation → aubreyli
canon divergence. taoist sexual practices. still in progress.
there’s no promised goodbye here → anonymous
modern au. post break-up. roommates. getting back together. angst and fluff.
Saw My Life in a Stranger’s Face → timetoboldlygo
post canon. established relationship. light angst. domestic fluff.
How to Keep Your Diplomatic Asset Close (and Your Wei Ying Closer) by His Excellency → misscam
cql!verse. getting together. fluff. smut. humour.
i don’t wanna lose you (i hope this never ends) → annemari
post canon. sick fic. getting together.
I Don’t Want To Know → kuro
modern au. post break-up. pining. angst and fluff.
wuxian → livsn
fixing relationships (lan xichen and wei wuxian reconciliation)
paint smears on sunny days → SnowshadowAO3
single dad!lan wangji. art teacher!wei wuxian. a-yuan!. mutual pining. fluff and smut.
made of sunlight → retts
body horror. body dysmorphia (wei wuxian over mo xuanyu’s body not being his original). angst and fluff. hurt/comfort. nightmares.
Love wakes me → dea_liberty
modern au. famous!lan wangji. coffee shop owner!wei wuxian. found families (wei wuxian and the wens). reunions. angst. happy ending.
you’ve ruined my life (by not being mine) → cicer
modern au. slow burn. awkward flirting. fluff.
Take Root, Come Home → piecrust
post canon. angst and fluff. established relationship.
your heartbeat, across the grass → fakeplasticlily
modern au. footballer/soccer player!lan wangji. a-yuan!. oblivious wei wuxian. mutual pining. fluff. childhood friends.
the recluse at the end of the moonlit path → b_ofdale
modern setting. immortal!lan wangji. reunions. asexual character. mutual pining.
between the lines → jywait
modern au. gaming. mutual pining. fluff.
Silver & Gold → beeswaxing
post canon. canon divergence. established relationship. age regression. angst and fluff. romance. mutual pining.
These Things Stay the Same → notevenyou
modern au. accidents. minor character death. parents!wei wuxian and lan wangji. angst with a happy ending.
i’ll have you and you’ll have me → sundiscus
modern au. established relationship. marriage proposal. fluff.
Martial Claims → yeolinski
modern au. lawyers!lan wangji and wei wuxian. established relationship. juniors as interns. fluff and comedy.
r/relationships → vespertineflora
modern au. viral reddit post. love confessions. oblivious wei wuxian. fluff.
nothing gold can stay → rikke
canon divergence. golden core reveal. angst and fluff.
Tears of Pearl ‘verse → FleetofShippyShips
rebuttable presumption ‘verse → sarah-yyy
long way home series → idrilka
Twelve Moons and a Fortnight ‘verse → stiltonbasket
More Amazing Reads
yeah they’re just bros thanks for asking → victortor
modern au. established relationship. aromantic wei wuxian. intimacy. fluff.
promise me the universe → somersaulter
post canon. confessions. drunk wei wuxian. wen ning pov.
it goes like this → moonsteps
modern au. soulmates. oblivious wei wuxian. humour. fluff.
The Guests of Cloud Recesses → cafecliche
post canon. fluff. light angst. grief and mourning.
总有一天; a place to hide (can’t find one near) → yiqie
modern au. hurt/comfort. getting together. depression. happy ending. ⚠️ suicide attempt through overdose.
The Way It Wasn’t → KouriArashi
canon divergence. fix-it fic. angst. family.
Standing Engagement → x_los
sunshot campaign. golden core reveal. misunderstandings. accidental engagement.
your touch in the dark (your voice in the silence) → b_ofdale
modern au. buskier!wei wuxian. musician!lan wangji. mutual pining. friends with benefits. asexual!wei wuxian.
Orchids in Lotus Pier → Vamillepudding
canon divergence. misunderstandings. friends to lovers. lan wangji and jiang cheng are friends.
Two Unlucky Guys → saved
modern au. pwp. first time. miscommunication. fluff and angst.
梅花开放 | the plum blossoms bloom → doubletan
post canon. sickfic. hurt/comfort. angst. established relationship. ⚠️ major character death.
Charming → WangXianPatriarch
post canon. jealousy. fluff. teasing.
Cave Survival (or: how the Xuanwu cave could have gone) → cerbykerby
pining. oblivious wei wuxian. humour. fluff.
it’s you, it’s you, it’s always you → Fleetling
modern au. friends to lovers. slow burn. fluff.
Closer Than Eternity → Netrixie
modern au. reincarnation. immortal!lan wangji. angst with a happy ending.
How to propose to the love of your life in one simple step → CloudyInk
royalty au. prince!lan wangji. general!wei wuxian.
Crazy, Rich Cultivators → ShanaStoryteller
modern au. misunderstandings. established relationship.
a stone to break your soul, a song to save it → rikke
canon divergence. arranged marriage.
This Time With Lanterns → ChaoticAndrogynous
post novel canon. fluff. light angst. established relationship. wedding.
a single fire bright → magpie_fngrl
canon divergence. fix-it fic. pining.
Hello IT. Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again? → overmountainandmeadow
modern au. IT director!lan wangji. graphic designer!wei wuxian. single dad!lan wangji. fluff. slow burn.
Walk the Circle in the Other Direction → notevenyou
modern au. oblivious wei wuxian. bisexual!wei wuxian. childhood friends. fluff. coming out. brief wei wuxian/mianmian.
and in the spring i shed my skin → wvlfqveen
modern/magical au. fluff. love confessions. shapeshifter!lan wangji. necromancer!wei wuxian.
the yungmeng accords series → cafecliche
misunderstood ‘verse → sysrae
Shameless Self-Plugging
Snowfall
canon divergence. getting together. pwp.
A Brothers’ Love
post canon. established relationship. fluff. gentle exposure therapy (wei wuxian working on his phobia of dogs).
Afternoon Retreat
post canon. established relationship. fluff.
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MDZS/CQL RPG mechanics
I was inspired by this awesome post from @wangxian-patriarch with additions by @moonwaif. Go check it out! And assume all those clever details and mechanics mentioned there.
This would work SO WELL for a late 90s PS1-style RPG, where graphics were improving and storylines/character arcs were becoming crazy complex but it was still kind of the Wild West/anything goes/take all the risks you want. And the best games (IMO) are those that mix genres in an episodic fashion and MDZS/CQL totally fits the bill for that! CQL even does it, itself.
This got so long that I hated to clog up their post with a reblog. Bear with me here. Batshit crazy thoughts coming at a million miles per hour. In addition to all the above wonderful stuff: picture this structured like a 75%/25% split of MDZS/CQL (because I think the interspersed flashbacks work better for a game where you get to see your past choices affect the present in chunks) but with 75% of the character expansions from CQL. AKA, more Shijie, meet WQ and WN in Cloud Recesses, interact with them at the Wen Indoctrination. Your choices determine at what pace the relationship with LWJ proceeds (see below)? The POV is always WWX.
Intro/tutorial: Mo Manor. WWX is your main character, obv. The main present story arc is a mostly linear action/adventure RPG. Mo Manor is your tutorial/training ground where you’re introduced to the main game mechanics, learn a bit about the world via NPC interaction and MXY’s notes, and get handed the first mystery/what appears to be the main game goal: who did MXY want you to get revenge on? Melodies keeps popping into WWX’s head. Begin mini game where you are introduced to the game’s musical mechanics as WWX tries to remember melodies. Most are eerie and harsh, but there is one WWX finds “strangely soothing” even though he can’t remember where it is from. Remember these songs, especially that soothing one, because it’s going to be important soon! Introduction of basic sword-based cultivation battle mechanics via an impromptu party forming with the ducklings against the corpse arm (WWX can join in with talismans or something relatively innocuous for now). Eventually WWX goes secret solo battle using flute-less demonic cultivation battle mechanics. Can you remember how to play some of those tunes to summon fierce corpses? Then LWJ appears and it’s time for you to get the Hell out of Dodge before there are questions about what you just did. Cue short sequence of getting out of Mo Village before you’re caught. Begin Little Apple game mechanics.
Dafan Mountain Quest. First big mission. Gather info and piece together the mystery while avoiding too much attention from the Jiang sect cultivators or Game Over. Solve the mystery and begin the first boss fight alongside the ducklings! But talismans and whistling isn’t cutting it any longer. Flute-based demonic cultivation mechanics activate! Remember those songs WWX has had going through his head. You’re going to need all of them now. Game Over if Jin Ling is killed by the goddess! Also: surprise! the goddess can only be defeated by a finishing move which requires summoning a high level fierce corpse. Which song is it? Succeed and summon Wen Ning, but oh no! he’s in berserk mode. Hmmm, what about that soothing song? Better remember how to play it fast or Wen Ning will kill the other cultivators and Game Over.
FLASHBACK: Cloud Recesses. I need this to somehow incorporate and deconstruct the school dating sim genre. I don’t know how, but I need that. Sharing loquats and Emperor’s Smile and causing trouble will sure make you popular. The rooftop fight seems like a standard fighting setup. Is there a way to mix those two genres? A fighting mini game inside a dating sim? Because there needs to be! Is Biling Lake a mini action-platformer segment? Also agree: Jiang Cheng interaction and combo learning here—sneak out to explore the back hill and learn pair fighting dynamics. Use WWX’s original sword-based cultivation skills. Rabbit-catching mini game. Decide what colors you want to gift to increasingly grumpy Lan Zhan. Get to know Mianmian and she’ll be more active in helping you later. Befriend NHS and change dialog trees with him in present arc.
Present day Cloud Recesses: your home base. Sandbox. Your actions in the flashback effect the present day Cloud Recesses. Did you hide some Emperor’s smile somewhere 16 years ago? Home of rabbit-raising mini game and various troublemaking side quests. You get points for every Lan Clan rule you break (and how deeply you corrupt the ducklings). The challenge is in figuring out how to break them. Break enough rules and gain early access to the library’s restricted section where you can learn all kinds of new unorthodox cultivation techniques. Break all of them and get a super awesome power-up. Up to a certain point you can return here with LWJ on Bichen once he joins your party. Duckling night hunts are initiated here?
Lan WangJi Joins the Party. The main body of the game commences as you begin the quest to solve the Mo Manor mystery and figure out who MXY wanted you to get revenge on. Your choices/skill in the flashbacks as they occur will alter (somewhat) the events of this, the game’s main “spine.” Each town/city encountered on the road trip has its own aesthetic and NPC populace from which you have to collect clues and learn what your next moves should be. Lots of immersive qualities and learning about the current political/social situation. Fierce corpse and ghost fights along the way. Collect (offensively inaccurate) YLLZ and Sunshot memorabilia. Slowly grow your affinity with LWJ in battle and use the skills for pair fighting you learned with Jiang Cheng to build towards those awesome battle-couple combos. LWJ will remain in your party for the rest of the main game (excluding flashbacks) except for short bits like Yi City. You can play WWX’s dizi along the road for practice and to up your skill level. Depending on how often and in what circumstances you play Wangxian and how you interact with LWJ you’ll start to get different (but still evasive) answers if you ask him how he knew it was you. Remember to play Rest so NMJ’s pieces don’t get out of hand.
Because this is long: more below the cut
The Man-eating castle. Logic puzzle dungeon. Try to outclever NHS in dialog trees to get him to spill information.
Chang Manor. Mystery dungeon with final grave robber boss fight. Learn about the story of XXC, SL, and XY as you explore Chang manor, looking for clues as to what happened. Avoid traps set by XY.
Yi City. I mean: THE FOG. It’s Silent Hill. It’s Fatal Frame. It’s a survival horror dungeon. How long and involved should the Empathy section be? How does the gameplay change there?
Explore Jin Lin Tai. Stealth dungeon. Sneak around Jin Lin Tai as first “MXY” and later as Paperman WWX (AH! Sudden scale/mechanics change), gathering clues and looking for NMJ’s head. Empathy cutscenes.
Escape Jin Lin Tai. Action segment/beat em up. A place to really show off those growing battle-couple mechanics with LWJ.
FLASHBACK: Happy Times at Lotus Pier. The closest we’ve been to the light-hearted gameplay of the first Cloud Recesses flashback. WWX. JC, and JYL involved in shenanigans at Lotus Pier. Maybe we even get the Lotus Seed Pod Extra content of stealing lotuses from the old man. Get a chance to use those Jiang Cheng combos you learned in the CR flashback. Last chance to use those sword cultivation techniques. Nostalgia galore.
FLASHBACK (cont): Indoctrination/Xuanwu Cave. WWX/JC party using non-sword techniques. Eventually morphs into a WWX/LWJ party. This would be the first time chronologically that they would have fought together.
FLASHBACK (cont): Lotus Pier Attack and Escape. I totally agree with the above that this will ultimately work out to stealth escort missions as you work to get JC to safety with WN’s help.
FLASHBACK (cont): Thrown into Burial Mounds. This could be super expressionistic. Wandering through Burial Mounds trying to stay alive, but with crazy nightmare-like elements. Think of the way Eternal Darkness messed with player perceptions and even broke the 4th wall when it came to game mechanics. Maybe this even bleeds seamlessly into the supervisory office deaths and Wen Chao’s chase and death.
Return to Cloud Recesses. More areas to explore are unlocked. Dialog trees with LWJ. Feelings.
Journey to Burial Mounds. This is your chance to really grind and refine those battle couple combos. Side-quests? How far has word spread that the YLLZ is back? How will that effect the way you can or can’t interact with NPCs. I also like the idea of interspersing the flashbacks from Sunshot and up through the building of the Burial Mounds settlement in here, so as to have the player get to interact with and design the settlement in the past before the ruins of it are seen in the present.
FLASHBACK: Sunshot. mashup of beat em up/strategy tactics using demonic cultivation with chenqing and the tiger seal to clear a path for the army of cultivators. WWX is a party of one for this.
FLASHBACK (cont): Post Sunshot. More deconstructed social sim mechanics. Use chenqing to help JC bag prey on Phoenix Mountain. Social decision trees at that really uncomfortable conference scene. Qiongqi Path rescue of the Wen Refugees. The LWJ in the rain confrontation either does or does not happen (or happens somewhat differently) depending on how your relationship has progressed thus far in the past.
FLASHBACK (cont): Building Burial Mounds Settlement. Settlement/Survival Sim elements. Choose where and how to build and what to grow. Play with and protect a-Yuan. Work to revive WN. Make demonic cultivation tools. Whatever you make will still exist in future and can be gathered/used for the Second Siege battle. JC duel (ouch, there’s those moves you learned together being used against you). Play around in YiLing with LWJ and a-Yuan. Spend the day as a family. Feelings.
Arrive at Burial Mounds. Explore the ruins of the place you built. Feelings. Gather items. Release the Juniors. Fight with the Cultivators.
FLASHBACK: Death of JZX/Nightless City. Beat em up using Wen Ning at Qiongqi Path. At Nightless City this time you’re solo sending hordes towards the cultivators. Heart breaking solo battle against LWJ, as with JC, he now knows and can anticipate your moves based on your previous flashback interactions. HORRIBLE TRAGEDY AND MASSIVE DEATH.
Second Seige of Burial Mounds. Massive beat em up where you finally get to utilize the full extent of your battle-couple skills along with Wen Ning in a series of brawls to end all brawls, eventually the ducklings join your party for brawl wave 3. You know that really big battle that happens near the turning point of video games that’s inevitably the second or third biggest battle of the game (and sometimes more difficult than the actual final boss battles)? That’s this one.
Return to Lotus Pier. Here’s where you get memories of WWX’s first night at Lotus Pier and YanLi saving him from the tree are interspersed as you explore the heartbreakingly different present day Lotus Pier. As with the other locations that you experience in both past and present, some choices in the past effect the location in the present. FEELINGS.
YunPing City: Final major location. Explore and gather info. Prep for the final battle. Drunk LWJ mini game shenanigans. (Sexy time? I mean, Indigo Prophecy did it...) Stealth your way into Guanyin Temple.
Guanyin Temple Climax: Dialog trees with JGY determine how difficult he is to defeat here in battle. Final boss fight against NMJ’s fierce corpse: poignant party/combo with both JC and LWJ.
Denouement. Maybe the Sizhui revelation happens differently depending on how you interact with him throughout the game. Obv NOT getting the revelation is considered the BAD ending.
Ultimately, how the relationship between WWX and LWJ unfolds in CQL and MDZS is influenced by the plot structure (or at least is better served in each medium by how it makes use of the plot structure). The character of that relashionship journey is so different between the mediums, but each has wonderful aspects. How that plays out here is kind of up in the air without nailing more things down. Is it possible your actions could determine the timing and expression of the ship such that you end up with something more distinctly MDZS or something more distinctly CQL? (And by that I don’t mean one is overtly sexual and one isn’t, but rather whether the revelation of their feelings comes all at once near the end or rather more gradually, shifting in intensity and character as the plot goes along). That would be quite a thing to pull off without breaking the central narrative. I don’t even want to think about how complex that decision tree would be, but it could potentially be kind of amazing!
#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#cql#the untamed#chen qing ling#this is A LOT but i don’t care i am having a great time#i’ve only dipped my toes into game design previously but man this makes me wish I had done more#Because this is so fun#game design#rpgs#mdzs rpg?
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I really do think mianmian and lwj deserve to be like, close friends. from their meeting in the show it doesn’t seem like they ever saw each other after jinlintai and i have no idea when they would’ve gotten the chance, but just afterwards, you know?
yes, I think they definitely deserve to be friends! One of things I always found troubling about these novel based xianxia dramas is the lack of sustainable friendship beyond the main romance line. I guess in order to create angst and emotional investment for the audiences, a lot of times, friendship get sidelined or destroyed when characters die or betray each other. As well, most non-romance relationships that we see lasting to the end of the story are family relations and sometimes servitude (aka a lackey that hangs on until the end). Real friendships where both parties are roughly on equal footing and station rarely last in these epic adventure dramas. You couldn’t even say Wen Ning is Wei Wuxian’s friend of equal station, not when Wen Ning doesn’t call Wei Wuxian by his name, just “young master”. Perhaps this is to isolate the main character, who knows. Even so, friendship between men is portrayed more frequently than friendship between women, or men and women.
So with your prompt, it inspired me to write a little something Luo Qingyang centric, ft our Hanguang-jun and juniors.
~~~
Lanling Jin’s entourage stood by the gates of Cloud Recesses, patiently waiting for their admission. What seemed like a life time ago, Luo Qingyang had been on these same steps with Jin Zixuan. She���d been a girl then, barely bloomed, barely grown. Life had been simple, and she had thought she knew what the future would hold.
So much had come to pass, yet these grand arches, white granite stone pulsing with spiritual aura, never seemed to age.
She glanced down at her Jin Clan robes, the pale yellow and white, embroidered with peonies and a strip of blue accentuating the lapel edge. She never thought she’d wear these colours again. Her mother had been a Jin, first cousin of Jin Guangshan. Once upon time, she’d been proud to be one of them, to be part of a powerful and wealthy clan. Then the war came and went, like the debriding of a wound upon their world that revealed the flesh underneath had caseated to the bone. She’d been so disillusioned, so aggrieved by her elders and disappointed by her peers.
Even Zixuan.
He had been a good man, her cousin. But he wasn’t strong of heart nor clever of mind. She was sorry to know he had died, but she wasn’t surprised. If he could not see the game his father had been playing, then there had never been any hope for him.
Luo Qingyang glanced towards the youth in front of her just slightly to the right. From the view of his back, she could almost picture his father, standing there with Suihua in his clutch, a proud son of the house of Jin. Time seemed to fluctuate, the eighteen years between then and now barely a drop in the ocean. If she breathed deeply enough and closed her eyes, she could almost be Mianmian again, could almost see Zixuan again.
This was the first time Jin Ling had come to Cloud Recesses without his jiujiu. The boy was rightfully nervous, but this push towards independence was necessary. Sooner or later, baby bird had to learn how to fly. Like his father, Jin Rulan had a kind nature, even if he was awful at expressing his feelings. He was young, but the burden on his shoulders were heavy. For the mess that was the Jin Clan post Jin Guangyao's demise to fall into Jin Ling's lap was the best and worst case scenario. If he hadn’t risen to occasion, the subsidiary sects - vultures circling a carcass- would’ve torn Lanling apart.
Perhaps that was why Luo Qingyang had agreed to return to her mother clan.
Wei Wuxian had arrived at her doorsteps one day some months after the incident at Guanyin Temple. Even on the outskirts of Yiling where she had lived, she had received news of what had happened. Wei Wuxian explained he’d been travelling, but between his subtle hints and unsubtle nudges, she had understood his intentions.
Jin Ling had no one to help him man the helm. Jiang Cheng could only do so much without the other sects accusing him of overreaching into businesses beyond Yunmeng’s jurisdiction. Jin Ling was Jinlintai’s heir, not Lotus Pier’s, a fact that most people had slowly forgotten over the last decade. Childless, Jiang Cheng’s seat would one day go to his prime disciple, but not to his nephew.
“Lan Zhan had written a decree for you, in case you encounter trouble going back. It’s a lot to ask for, I know. You’ve got such a lovely home here. But...you are needed, Mianmian, if you could forgive them.”
Forgive them? Luo Qingyang sighed. What’s there to forgive? She had left of her own volition, married well, and had a wonderful family. Her husband grumbled a bit about moving to the big city, but in the end he followed her back to her clan, just like he did to her night hunts. Her husband had been a merchant once, and she had no doubt he would thrive in Lanling. So far, she had not been proven wrong.
“I am Jin Rulan’s biao’gu*. He is as much your nephew as he is mine. Tell His Excellency that I will return to Jinlintai shortly. He can be assured Sect Leader Jin will not be alone.”
Lan Sizhui, Gusu Lan’s Head Disciple greeted them at the gates with a deep bow. Like his de-facto cousin, Sizhui had grown taller and more mature.
“Welcome, Jin-zongzhu, Luo-zhangshi*, and honored guests. Cloud Recesses thank you for your patience. Please, come with me.”
He gave Jin Ling a private smile, and the latter perked up immediately. “Lan-gongzi, you’re too kind. It’s been some time since we last spoke. I trust His Excellency is of good health and spirit?”
“Hanguang-jun is very well, thank you Jin-zongzhu.” In a lower tone, Sizhui commented. “I would’ve visited Lotus Pier with Wei-qianbei last harvest, but I was sent to Qinghe for sect business.”
Boys playing at being men.
Luo Qingyang hid a smile, slowing down her steps to give the youngsters some privacy from the party that followed them.
Such innocence. How lovely it was. The boys she’d known were forced to grow up amidst fire and chaos, and did so in such brutal, unimaginable ways. So many had died, and those who had lived would never get to experience their ‘what-could’ve-been’s.
~
After, when the official businesses were settled and the disciples were dismissed, Luo Qingyang and Lan Wangji sat together in a quiet pavilion. Sizhui and A-Ling were some distances away down the lang, standing a reasonable distance apart and conversing politely. Though, it was more than obvious that they were itching to shed their gentlemanly exterior and scurry off to whatever shenanigans boys their age got up to when their guardians weren't looking.
Lou Qingyang observed the man sitting across from her and found some irony in the fact that they were strangely similar. Though talented in cultivation, Lan Wangji was not the type she would’ve imagined being Chief Cultivator, and certainly she herself could’ve never imagined that one day she would be chief of staff of Lanling Jin.
Life dealt them both a funny set of cards and all they could do was keep playing.
“I know Wei Ying had delivered my message, but I want to thank you properly in person, Luo-zhangshi, for agreeing to come back. Those early days after Jin Guangyao’s death was...precariously to say the least. The situation at Jinlintai is much better now thanks to your efforts.”
“Hanguang-jun, we’ve known each other for a long time. Your husband has a scar on his chest from saving me from a Wen branding iron, and my daughter has received lucky money from the both of you. I think you can call me Miamian, if you’re comfortable with that.” She smiled, taking a sip of her tea. The scent of jasmine was calming after such a long, arduous morning.
Lan Wangji nodded, turning to his own cup. “We used to be classmates, now we are colleagues. Perhaps you are right. Formality in private is unnecessary.”
“As for coming back, it is my duty. Jin Ling is bright and kind. With the right guidance, Lanling Jin Sect will recover. I knew him, Jin Guangyao. He was... nice to me, most of the time anyways. Whether that niceness had any truth behind it, I don’t know, but even then he’d been so unreadable. I only wish I’d seen through it all sooner. So you see, there is no need for thanks, Wangji-xiong. We Jins have done enough wrong against your family. Pray, how is Zewu-jun?”
“Brother is still in seclusion, but he is no danger to himself. He is better now. Time heals all wounds. Though...”
Though knowing Lan Xichen, knowing what Lans were like when faced with tragic love, Lan Wangji wasn’t sure what his brother’s future would hold.
Luo Qingyang nodded, understanding. Suddenly, their tranquility was interrupted by a disciple rounding the corner, footsteps heavy and voice decidedly too loud.
“Sizhui, did you meet up with Young Mis -”
Lan Jingyi’s holler aborted immediately when he saw who was sitting in the pavilion. “Erm... Hanguang-jun, Luo-zhangshi...” Smiling sheepishly, he bowed.
“Sizhui.” Lan Wangji gave his son a pointed look, which the youth instantly understood.
“Ah, Jin-zongzhu. Perhaps you would like for Jingyi and myself to you show around? Cloud Recesses’ scenery is really one of a kind this time of year.”
“Yes, yes!" Jin Ling leaped to his feet from where he was sitting on the bench. He paused, casting a cautious glance towards his aunt, before clearing his throat and continuing in his most ‘adult’ voice. “Yes, I would like that. Lan-gongzi, Jingyi-xiong, if you wouldn't mind leading the way.”
Luo Qingyang and Lan Wangji focused their attention back to their tea cups, both turning a blind eye to the way Sizhui and Rulan all but ran to join up with Lan Jingyi.
They were out of sight in a heartbeat.
“Do you know who they remind me of?” Luo Qingyang tilted her head as a sense of deja-vu washed over her.
“Mn?”
“Wei-gongzi, Nie-zongzhu, and Jiang-zongzhu, during our guest disciple days.”
Our long summer.
“Mn.”
“Remember when they got drunk on Emperor’s Smile? They really were audacious even then.” Luo Qingyang reminisced with a fond chuckle.
“Yes. Uncle was furious.” The corner of Lan Wangji’s lips tilted upwards.
Was that amusement she detected?!
Mianman blinked, suddenly realizing, “Oh but you were amongst them too, if I recall correctly.” She gave him a sly smile. “The girls said you were discovered in a drunken coma in Wei-gongzi’s room the next morning. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
Oh the scandal! “How did they rope you into it?”
“I was willing,” confessed the venerated Hanguang-jun without so much as a blush. The shameless scoundrel!
Luo Qingyang laughed, the sound ringing like a clear bell that cut through Cloud Recesses’ tranquility.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore; he’s your husband now. For the record, we all saw it coming.”
Lan Wangji raised a quizzical brow. “Oh? I did not think it was obvious.”
“Well, not to the male disciples perhaps, but the female disciples, we all knew.” Luo Qingyang took a deep breath and sighed. “Sometimes I miss those days. Simpler times.”
“Mn.”
“My daughter has started cultivation lessons with the other children at Jinlintai. Someday she may visit here as guest disciple, as I once was. I hope her future will be a better one.”
She met his gaze steadily, and the understanding in between had no need for further words.
Lan Wangji smiled.
“That is my wish as well.”
~
biao’gu 表姑 = a type of aunt, a distant female cousin of one’s parent that’s in the same generation as them.
zhang’shi 长史= an antiquated government position that’s akin to Secretary General.
#cql#the untamed#luo qingyang#lan wangji#corie replies#i love ouyang zizhen#he's just not in this one#don't worry they're all friends#cql ficlet#corie fics
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Oh my god, pleeeeaaaseee tell us about your Wen Sibs AU!! It's always such a highlight when I see something about it on my dash!!
ok yes I am always looking for an excuse to talk about Wen Sibs AU!! It is, unlike GTRT, very feel good and fluffy (mostly. can’t have all fluff without a good dose of angst. @paradoxspaceheater is once again my partner in crime and softness) but the basic premise is this: Wen Ruohan’s distant-ish cousin, current leader of the healer branch and top doctor in Qishan, soon to be proud mother of Wen Qing and Wen Ning, manages to gain partial custody of Wen Xu (and Wen Chao when he comes along.)
(for context, my version of wq and wn’s mom is named Wen Ying, courtesy name Luanyi, and in canon she and her husband die early when Wen Ruohan has them “”“accidentally”““ killed on a night hunt bc he decides they’re too much of a threat to him)
Anyway, Wen Ying and her husband raise Wen Xu, Wen Qing, Wen Chao, and Wen Ning (listed in order of age) as siblings basically, all while attempting to instill morals and healthy coping mechanisms in these kids while also not catching Wen Ruohan’s eye and being murdered.
The Sunshot Campaign happens but the only major casualty is Wen Ruohan (there are some executions afterwards though but like nobody else’s parents die,) the Wen family adopts Meng Yao and it goes really well for everybody except Jin Guangshan, Xue Yang gets therapy because he may be a mass murderer but he’s also fifteen, and Jin Zixun gets told off for being a massive dick!!
Highlights include (under a cut bc it will probably get long lmao):
- Nightless City politics, which are stressful for everybody involved
- sibling bonding!!!! so much sibling bonding!!!!!
- Wen Ruohan being fuckin terrifying as usual + explorations of how the Wen brothers got to be Like That in canon and how they avoid becoming Like That in the au (spoiler alert: good parenting and support)
- the Wen siblings (mostly Wen Chao) befriending the Yunmeng trio (mostly Wei Wuxian)
- Wen Qing going to Gusu School and experiencing Tension because it’s the year that Sect Leader Nie died and people aren’t feeling too good about the Wens, plus Nie Mingjue was supposed to come and now cannot for obvious reasons...
- Wen Xu going to Cloud Recesses and trying his absolute best not to burn everything down— this ends with Lan Xichen disappearing, unharmed (but nobody KNOWS he’s unharmed) and Qingheng-jun coming out of seclusion! it’s very tense, especially for Lan Qiren.
- Wen Chao running the indoctrination camp but he’s trying his best to not be evil and everyone is REALLY confused (also he gets to fight the xuanwu of slaughter with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji :D)
- Wen Chao showing up in Lotus Pier and going “hey, my dad wants me to murder everyone and I really don’t want to murder everyone, so please help me”
- Meng Yao getting his opportunity to get into Nightless City by being sent on a rescue mission to extract Wen Xu and his wife (they’re both aro and they play strategy games together for fun) from the Citadel
- The Sunshot Campaign being considerably less harrowing because the allied sects have gained such helpful people as: Wen Ying, her husband, all four of her kids, half the healers of the Wen sect, Wen Zhuliu, the Jiang parents, and Qingheng-jun
- Wen Xu and Nie Mingjue getting captured together and having an extremely harrowing time with Wen Ruohan before Meng Yao stabs him and they all, understandably, go “what the fuck” before spending the next three or so days attempting to subdue an entire city with Meng Yao’s intelligence, Nie Mingjue’s strength and about five of his surviving soldiers, and Wen Xu’s boundless drive, charisma, and refusal to stop and rest for this entire period despite serious wounds and trauma. Wen Xu honey please
- Meng Yao getting an invitation to join the Wen sect as they get back on their feet because they all hate Jin Guangshan and are absolutely certain that if Meng Yao goes with him everything will be bad
- ...and accepting said invitation, after a hot second.
- Wen Ying becoming the new sect leader and basically overhauling the entire Wen sect because MAN they have issues and also everybody hates Wen Ruohan’s aesthetic sense and excessive staircases
- Wen Xu, Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen, and Meng Yao becoming sworn brothers
- Nie Huaisang and Wen Ning, as the chronically overlooked baby brothers of the family, deciding to fuck shit up with the occasional help of Wen Xu’s wife (Yang Mingzhu) and pranking Jin Guangshan until they accidentally find evidence of serious crimes and get him deposed via anonymous letters and an absolute masterpiece of a public scandal
- Meng Yao and Jin Zixuan striking up a tentative friendship in the wake of their father’s downfall
- Meng Yao getting to hold Jin Ling!!!!!
- (oh, and Qin Su and Meng Yao managed to sort their shit out and Qin Su is now dating Mianmian.)
- Jin Zixun refusing to stop being a dick to people including but not limited to Meng Yao, Su She, and Lan Xichen, and getting his ass kicked repeatedly by Wen Chao before eventually managing to offend Qingheng-jun of all people. This is a bad idea because Meng Yao is currently locked in an obnoxiously soft slow-burn romance with Lan Xichen, and Qingheng-jun, in addition to being mad at Jin Zixun for other reasons, really deeply hates it when people insult his sons or his sons’ boyfriends.
- Jin Zixun getting dragged up Koi Tower’s steps by an incredibly pissed Sect Leader Lan and dropped in front of Jin Zixuan, who is honestly super relieved to finally have a reason to snap at Jin Zixun
- Wen Zhuliu traveling around on his own before he apprehends Xue Yang and brings him to Qishan to face justice, which would be execution if any of the other sects were in charge but Wen Ying is like “what no he’s a teenager give him to me”
- Lan Qiren getting to relax for once
and other things!!!! but there’s so much that if I really expanded on any of this this post would go on literally forever so feel free to ask about any of the above points/how any particular character is doing lmao
#wen sibs au#blazie .txt#mdzs#ask#doubledexterity#i love the wen sibs au so dearly.... it starts out kind of dark and then gets happy and somft#also there's a lot of gapfiller ocs that just. exist in this timeline lmao
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MXTX Ladies Week: MDZS
I did Scum Villain’s awesome female cast last night, and now it is time for my favorite of MXTX’s novels, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
In MDZS, my main critique is that, while all of the female characters do get fantastic arcs, the vast majority of them die (though, granted, their deaths aren’t usually done just for the male characters’ sadness, but often do make sense for their own arcs. So that’s. Something. Still grumbly about it though). “The woman dies” is a similar trope to “bury your gays” and it’s... tiring. That said, I did find all the characters’ arcs incredibly well done. No one is fanservice; they are all complex and human.
I want to talk about the characters whom I haven’t talked about as much before, so that means less on SiSi and MianMian, as well as less on Madame Lan. See here for my meta on SiSi and MianMian, as well as here for my meta on Madame Lan. Throughout all of their arcs, there’s a common thread about calling out sexism. MianMian calls it out directly:
The person replied, “You’re...calling white black no matter how irrational it is. Ha, women will always be women.”
MianMian fumed, “Irrational? Calling white black? I’m just being considerate it as it stands. What does it have to do with the fact that I’m a woman? You can’t be rational with me so you’re attacking me with other things?”...
Holding in her tears, she shouted a moment later, “Fine! Your voices are louder! Fine! You’re the rational ones!”
She clenched her teeth and took off the crested robe she wore with force, slamming it onto the table with a loud bang. Even the sect leaders in the front rows, who weren’t paying attention to this side, turned around to see what happened. The ones beside her were indeed surprised. What she did meant that she was ‘leaving the sect’?
Soon, some began to agree, “Women will always be women. They quit just after you say a few harsh words. She’ll definitely come back on her own, a couple of days later.”
“There’s no doubt. After all, she finally managed to turn from the daughter of a servant to a disciple, haha…”
MianMian is looked down upon by the social hierarchy for being a woman and for being the daughter of a servant. Her lack of power against a sexist world is eventually countered by the fact that she’s one of the women who survive the novel, with a husband who follows her in night-hunting. As I said in my past meta, she steps outside a corrupt society.
Mistreated Wives Mistreating Children: Madame Jin and Madame Yu
Madame Yu is probably one of the most complex characters in the entire novel, which says a lot since she’s a minor character. But she and Madame Jin are said to be best friends who arrange the marriage of their children, and the two women are also foils.
Both of them are mistreated by their husbands in a sense. Madame Jin has to deal with Jin GuangShan sleeping around and impregnating numerous other women, while Yu ZiYuan has to deal with the fact that Jiang FengMian clearly was in love with CanSe SanRen, not with her, and brought back CangSe SanRen’s child after Wei WuXian was orphaned. To be completely fair, Madame Yu’s dislike of and lack of respect for her husband is completely valid over this. However, what isn’t valid is her taking it out on all three of the kids at Lotus Pier. She abuses Wei WuXian and mentally abuses Jiang Cheng as well, and isn’t exactly awesome towards Jiang YanLi either. She constantly reminds Jiang Cheng that he can’t live up to Wei WuXian (projecting her own bitterness at not being enough to be loved like CangSe SanRen in her husband’s eyes), whom she despises for whom his mother was, and thereby exacerbates Jiang Cheng’s already deep insecurity issues (granted Jiang FengMian is responsible for this as well). But, she ultimately dies to save both Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian, refusing to cut off his hand when she knows he is innocent. It doesn’t erase how she treated them while they lived, but it does add a level of complexity and tragedy: she knew Wei WuXian was powerless in these circumstances, as she had always felt, and she saves the kids before dying to defend Lotus Pier--with her husband, whom, it’s implied, did care about her but sucked at showing it. Almost like that’s a Jiang family trait.
Madame Jin is no better towards Jin GuangYao when he shows up. She did not object towards a child being kicked down the stairs on the basis of something he could not help, and Lan XiChen notes that she has him beaten regularly after he is accepted in the Jinlintai. Yes, she told off her husband for his arrogance, but she was trapped in her marriage with him and projected her pain onto someone who was not responsible for it (regardless of what Jin GuangYao did, she was abusing him).
The point of both women isn’t that they’re horrible or that one is redeemed; it’s once again calling out the double standards and corrupt power structures at play. Jin GuangYao and Madame Jin are actually foils in that both abuse the power they have to target children who can’t help who their parents are (A-Song), because neither of them are able to truly demand justice from the person who is actually responsible: Jin GuangShan.
The Bad Girls: Meng Shi, CangSe SanRen, and Madame Lan
Or the women whom no one cared about enough to hear their stories. Madame Lan was a murderer and a parallel to Jin GuangYao and Wei WuXian as a result; the only way to save her life was to marry Lan WangJi and XiChen’s father. She’s noted to have been playful and fun, but she was only allowed to see her sons once a month, and she was confined her entire life, which is basically symbolic of how the cultivational society treats people: it traps them and isolates them.
CangSe SanRen is not described in much detail besides that, like Xiao XingChen, she left BaoShan SanRen to join cultivational society. Yet she still continued to flout its rules--cutting off Lan QiRen’s beard and marrying a servant instead of marrying a sect leader and gaining power. Rumors about her--that she had an affair with Jiang FengMian despite no evidence--and that she flouted society are then projected onto her son (symbolic of society’s unwillingness to change its corruption and power system)...
...which is just like how Meng Shi’s having been a prostitute is projected onto Jin GuangYao. People won’t even accept tea from him, believing his skin dirty on the basis of whom his mother was. However, everything we know about Meng Shi suggests she cared deeply for her son and chose to have him despite knowing what it would do to her popularity as a prostitute. Even when the other prostitutes comment about how she was a fool who kept hoping he would return, she still cared for her son and he repaid her by carving her face into the GuanYin temple’s idol. Jin GuangYao also expressly says that his father “wouldn’t buy [her] freedom,” implying that she did not have much of a choice about her lifestyle. Good job, society. Not.
The Mean Girl: JiaoJiao
Okay, she’s kind of loathsome in personalty, petty and cruel and having an affair with an even crueler prince. Yet in a story that comments so much on privilege, it’s hard not to see her as a victim of circumstance as well; however, her proximity with the (then) pinnacle of corruption in Wen Chao and Wen RouHan means that she too misuses her power once she has it. She hurts innocents in Lotus Pier, she tries to kill MianMian just for being pretty, etc.
However, keep in mind that JiaoJiao’s prettiness is said to be what attracted Wen Chao to her, and it’s said that her family then received favors, such as the creating of their own sect. Her name is also noted by translators to be comparatively unsophisticated, implying that she likely came from a family that wasn’t exactly high up in society. None of this excuses her, but what exactly makes her fear of someone else being prettier than her and thus losing all the power she has (which she knew would happen eventually), and potentially her family suffering for it as well, all that much different than Jiang Cheng’s bitterness towards people more powerful in cultivation than him? Jiang Cheng had ShiJie and Wei WuXian and others to show him love and help him not become as cruel of a person (until she dies and then he does, indeed, torture people), but we know nothing about whether JiaoJiao had that.
Desperate people cling to what they have. JiaoJiao, Wei WuXian, Jin GuangYao, and Jiang Cheng all show us this. It doesn’t excuse them, but neither does it mean they’re demons.
Integrity and the Limits of Sacrifice: Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi
Jiang YanLi and Wen Qing are in many ways the opposite of JiaoJiao: both are brave, kind women, and wonderful older sisters, even if Jiang YanLi is unassuming and Wen Qing bold. Both are inhibited by their power, though: Jiang YanLi’s talents are not cultivational in nature, and Wen Qing may be talented and brilliant as a doctor, but she is limited by her role all the same:
Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”
Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”
Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”
Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”
The thing is: she did try to stop some of them, helping Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t speak up for her. Sigh.
Both of them are also foils in how they both ultimately sacrifice their lives to save Wei WuXian... and it turns out that their sacrifice doesn’t protect Wei WuXian. Wen Qing tells Wei WuXian the story’s catchphrase “thank you, and I’m sorry” before turning herself in for execution with her brother, but all this winds up in is the BurialMounds being seiged anyways, all her relatives except Wen Yuan being killed, and Wei WuXian still dying. Wen Ning, too, is not killed but is made a weapon. Jiang YanLi, despite Wei WuXian having led to the death of her husband, pushes him out of the way of a soldier looking to kill him, and gets killed instead. But this only results in Jiang Cheng becoming enraged and helping kill Wei WuXian, and Jin Ling being left an orphan.
However, because MDZS has a pretty nuanced view on sacrifice, it’s neither pointless nor to be admired. Wei WuXian is both Wen Qing and Jiang YanLi’s foil in this: he, too, is self-sacrificial to a fault. The novel pretty clearly implies that self-sacrifice can be a form of self-harm, as it is for all three of them. Yet, all three of them have a defining trait of deep love that ultimately enables them to have legacies that continue: Wen Yuan, Jin Ling, even Wen Ning survive, and Wei WuXian is given a second chance at life. It’s not that their sacrifices were ultimately selfish and didn’t matter or shouldn’t have happened; it’s that, without an unjust society, they should not have had to happen. Wen Qing should not have been condemned on the basis of her name. Jiang YanLi should not have been killed because Wei WuXian should never have been seiged. And Wei WuXian should never have had to feel like he had to prove his worth (keep in mind Yu ZiYuan’s last words to him are literally that he should protect Jiang Cheng with his life).
The Victims: Qin Su, Mo XuanYu’s Mother, and Madame Qin
In this house we stan Qin Su.
Talk about a woman who goes after what she wants. She is said to have pursued Jin GuangYao after he saved her during the Sunshot Campaign, rather than the other way around.
However, during the sunshot campaign, Qin Su had been saved by Jin GuangYao. She fell in love with him and never gave up, insisting that she wanted to be his wife. In the end, they finally drew the period on such a romantic story. Jin GuangYao didn’t let her down either. Even though he held the important position of Chief Cultivator, his behavior was drastically different from his father’s. He never took in any concubines, much less had a relationship with any other woman. This was indeed something that many wives of sect leaders envied.
And yet, again, because of circumstances beyond her control and because of the abuse of power, she can’t have happiness. Jin GuangShan raped her mother (seriously, he’s the very symbol of power abuse in relation to sexism in this novel), who is too ashamed to tell her husband that his best friend assaulted her. We can’t fault Madame Qin for staying silent, and with Qin Su already pregnant, it’s difficult not to empathize with Jin GuangYao for feeling trapped and marrying her anyways--though it is his fault for not telling her, and for killing their son, as Qin Su basically states that the dividing line for her is because Jin GuangYao killed A-Song, not because of their blood relation.
After a moment of silence, Jin GuangYao answered, “I know that you won’t believe me, no matter what I say, but it was sincere, back then.”
Qin Su sobbed, “… You’re still speaking such blandishments!”
Jin GuangYao, “I’m speaking the truth. I’ve always remembered that you have never said anything about my background or my mother. I’m grateful for you until the end of my life, and I want to respect you, cherish you, love you. But, you have to know that even if A-Song hadn’t been killed, he had to die. He could only die. If we let him grow up, you and I…”
With the mention of her son, Qin Su couldn’t bear it any longer. With a raise of her hand, she slapped him on the face, “Then who’s the one that did all this?! Just what can’t you do for this position?!”
In some ways Qin Su and Madame Qin could be seen as a potential foil for Madame Jin and Madame Yu, in that they both loved children who were forced upon them, who would have been scorned in the world’s eyes, and defend their wellbeing and life.
Mo XuanYu’s mother was sixteen when Jin GuangShan found her, and she was noted to herself be the illegitimate daughter of a servant--but her father was not scorned for this, yet she was scorned for having a son outside of wedlock.
the elder one was the daughter of his principal wife, looking for a husband to marry into the family, while the younger one was the daughter of a servant. The Mo family originally wanted to hastily give her to someone, but an adventure awaited her. When she was sixteen, the leader of a well-known cultivation family was passing by the area, and fell in love with her at first sight.
...In the beginning, the people of Mo Village regarded the topic with contempt, but because the Sect Leader* often helped out, the Mo family received plenty of advantages. And so, the direction of the discussions changed, and the Mo family took pride in the matter, while everyone else also envied the opportunity.
She was respected only for the value she could bring a poor village. And then when Mo XuanYu was cast out of the Jin Sect, it’s noted that:
After he went back home dejectedly, he was bombarded with ridicule. The situation seemed like it was beyond redemption, and the second-lady of Mo was not able to withstand the blow, shortly choking to death because of the trauma.
Considering Mo XuanYu’s makeup is of a hanged ghost and the mention of how she died, it’s pretty likely that she hung herself.
Mo XuanYu’s mother, just like Qin Su, commits suicide in the end to avoid a cruel society that would not respond to plights that were in no way their fault with anything but cruelty. Jin GuangYao notes that Qin Su would be the “laughingstock of the world” and soon after she grabs a dagger in which her soul would be trapped forever--a dagger originally owned by again The Symbol of Abuse of Power in Wen RouHan--and kills herself in a chamber of secrets (literally, a secret treasure vault, because she could not survive these secrets coming to light not keeping them silent). Just like Madame Qin, neither of them have anywhere to turn to for justice or for compassion. In the cultivational world, they are already disadvantaged for being women, and their tragic ends show again how disgusting the society in MDZS is.
Hope and Bravery: A-Qing
Of course it’s not the righteous cultivator and it’s not the strongest in cultivation who is the hero who finally gets justice in Yi City. It’s the beggar girl who pretends to be blind, the thief, with no cultivation. A-Qing’s ghost may be blind and mute, but she sees and speaks more than any of them. Her empathy enables the heroes to figure out what happened in Yi City, and she is mourned and lauded for her bravery for it.
She has little power in the world, so she lies to get the money she can. But what she does have is love and loyalty that foils Lan WangJi’s (though I don’t believe in any way that it’s remotely implied this love for Xiao XingChen is romantic!) Even after Xiao XingChen’s death, even after her own physical dismemberment and death, she continues to look for justice for him, and this eventually pays off.
Further Hope: MianMian
I addressed this a bit in my meta with her, but MianMian’s happy ending comes outside of society, and includes her marrying a man who respects her autonomy and wishes:
Luo QingYang gazed at her husband, smiling, “My husband isn’t of the cultivating world. He used to be a merchant. But, he’s willing to go night-hunting with me…”
It was both rare and admirable that an ordinary person, and a man at that, would be willing to give up his originally stable life and dare travel the world with his wife, unafraid of danger and wander. Wei WuXian couldn’t help feeling respect for him.
And MianMian still has a keen observation: that society in the world hasn’t changed (which Wei WuXian will also note in the last chapter when they find a new scapegoat villain in Jin GuangYao):
Luo Qing Yang sighed, “Oh, these people…” She seemed as if she remembered something, shaking her head, “They’re the same everywhere.”
But as long as there are people willing to be empathetic, to believe in justice and be brave, who can combine these--like A-Qing, Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian, and more--there is hope for healing, even if it takes thirteen years.
#mdzs#mdzs meta#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#founder of diabolism#jiang yanli#wen qing#a-qing#yu ziyuan#madame jin#madame qin#qin su#mo xuanyu's mother#mianmian#luo qingyang#madame lan#wangxian#mxtx ladies week#mxtx meta#jiaojiao#meng shi#cangse sanren#wen rouhan
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