#once upon a time nmj and lxc in the garden

[songofclarity]

There is such inherent romanticism with Lan XiChen and Nie MingJue recognizing one another at the garden of the Damsel of Annual Blossoms in Tanzhou. It is the parallel of spirits waiting to be reminded of the one they love and the broken pieces of an abandoned garden where once everything was grand and beautiful.

Lan XiChen is night hunting not far from this garden before the scene takes place. With the hope of running into him, Wangxian and the juniors pick it as a campsite.

The garden was big and majestic yet had no-one to care for it...

In the garden, there was a pavilion and a few fences, a table and a few stools, all made of stone, for people to enjoy the scenery. However, through years of wind and rain, one corner had fallen off the pavilion and two of the stools had toppled over. There were no plants or flowers in the garden, only brittle branches and withered leaves. This garden had been abandoned since a long time ago.

[Ch. 45, Exiled Rebel Translations]

The place is now in a sorry state. Abandoned, beaten, gone to ruin. Where once a few stools stood, just as three sworn brothers once stood, now only one remains. There is no lovely scenery to enjoy any longer, however, and so no one comes here anymore.

And yet it was once “big and majestic” and no doubt beautiful in its prime once the legend surrounding it is shared:

[Lan SiZhui,] "Ten years ago, an endless number of people would come to this garden." [Ch. 45]

Ten years ago is also within the realm of when Nie MingJue died. Both Nie MingJue and the garden had returned to the Earth since then, but that is now and this is then:

[Lan SiZhui,] “The legends have it that the earliest owner of the garden was a poet. He planted these flowers himself and treated them as friends, reciting poetry here everyday.” [Ch. 45]

Lan XiChen who planted the start of friendship. He no doubt desired companionship for himself like he would later desire someone to offer companionship to his little brother. To his new companion Nie MingJue, he played music. And not just any music: Lan XiChen found one of the more obscure and difficult pieces of music in the Lan collection, practiced and perfected it, and played it for Nie MingJue’s sake. He wanted Nie MingJue to live, to thrive, to bloom for years. It is a song like no other. A song played in an act of pure love.

Nie MingJue does not know much about music, just as a flower does not know much about the sun, but he senses the serene love endowed in those notes all the same. It is warm and beautiful and bright.

Consider then the parallel roles to this legend: the poet is Lan XiChen, the poems are music, and the spirit/damsel is Nie MingJue.

[Lan SiZhui,] “Affected by the emotions of the poetry, a spirit crystallized from the flora of the garden and became the Damsel of Annual Blossoms.” [Ch. 45]

Nie MingJue is effected by emotions the most out of anyone. By Baxia's fury, by the Song of Clarity's calm, by the Collection of Turmoil's chaos, by his own desires. As a fierce corpse, his body is animated by his spirit alone, effected solely by emotions. It is resentful energy which drives him now, but that was not always the case.

No one would accuse Nie MingJue of being flower-like, but his realm has always been a garden where he has protected green and growing things. It is no accident that the two most artistic characters with elegant hobbies, Lan XiChen and Nie HuaiSang, are the two people closest to him.

So Nie MingJue is like the Damsel who is not technically a flower, either, despite being in the garden.

Both Nie MingJue and the Damsel have also become spirits who know only how to show love or wrath. There is no middle ground.

[Lan SiZhui,] “When someone came, if their poetry was decent and allowed her to remember the one who planted her, she would be happy and give them a flower.” [Ch. 45]

“Under the moonlight, if one should recite poetry, when she deems it fine, she grants them an annual blossom, the fragrance of which persists for three years.” [Ch. 45]

Poetry that allows the Damsel to remember the poet.

Music that allows Nie MingJue to remember Lan XiChen.

“Under the moonlight,” the legend says, is when this meeting should occur.

Lan XiChen arrives at night and brings his music with him.

[Lan SiZhui,] “If the poetry was wrong or did not sound pleasing, she would emerge from the bushes and hurl a flower onto the person’s face. The one who had been attacked would faint and realize that they had been thrown out of the garden after they woke up.” [Ch. 45]

Both the Damsel and Nie MingJue possess a savage temper. There are no more flowers in this garden for throwing, however, which calls upon other means should the offering not suit. The smashed tree is evidence of that.

Three men approach with music: Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi, and Lan XiChen.

Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian are the first to offer their music to the spirit of Nie MingJue:

Taking out his guqin, [Lan WangJi] looked down and curved his finger, plucking one string. As if it was a formless arrow, the sound whistled as it whipped toward the corpse. The headless corpse slashed with the sword and fractured the note into pieces. Lan WangJi strummed downward. All seven strings vibrated, singing with even greater power. At the same time, Wei WuXian pulled out his bamboo flute and accompanied with an abnormally shrill pitch. It was as though the sharp blades of swords and sabers rained down from the sky!

The headless corpse lunged again. [Ch. 46]

It’s no good. Nie MingJue also wields Bichen at this point so his power is second to none. Their music isn't pleasing to him. It has no effect on him. Their music reminds him of no one. It is aggressive and fierce and battle ready, so he fights back. He moves to strike them down, to knock them out, to cast them out of the garden.

Once Lan XiChen recovers his senses, he offers his music next.

Even after a decade when such memories ought to have blurred and faded, he recognizes Nie MingJue by the shape and movement of his body. Rather than attack, his music is soothing. It is serene. It is kind when Nie MingJue has only known fury.

Nie MingJue is an angry spirit, a corpse standing in the graveyard of a once majestic garden, but Lan XiChen’s music reaches out with a gentle touch because this is the spirit of the one he loves, the companion who was always by his side, the one he had played for everyday when the garden was lush and full and they were together.

Raising Liebing to his lips, [Lan XiChen] started to play as well. Wei WuXian didn’t know if it was only his imagination, but as soon as the soft, serene tone of the xiao appeared, the corpse’s movement paused. For a moment, he seemed to have stood still and listened, then turned around, as though he wanted to see who was the one playing the music. [Ch. 46]

Nie MingJue knows this music. The music, the poem, that reminds him of his musician, his poet. Unlike Wangxian’s music, there is no mention that this music has any special technique. It could very well just be a song.

A song played by Lan XiChen for Nie MingJue.

Nie MingJue, who lacks a head, does not need ears to know this song is as pleasing as it is familiar. Lan XiChen’s music is part of Nie MingJue’s very spirit, a part of his very soul. Lan XiChen had planted a seed deep in Nie MingJue’s heart long ago and it lies there still, forever ready to grow.

And there the musician and his spirit meet again, but not as they once were. The once beautiful garden lies broken in the wake of their absence just as Nie MingJue will in moments lie broken, too, in the absence of Lan XiChen’s music.

Broken but not forgotten. A flower needs sunlight to grow and love cannot thrive on its own, but even abandoned it is not forgotten. This is a garden under Gusu Lan jurisdiction. Lan XiChen night hunts nearby. He will have seen this barren, broken place time and time again. A place for two lovers to sit and enjoy the scenery, to enjoy each other's company, before finally returning home.

And after ten years of the garden lying in wait, ten years after they lay apart, it is in this place that Lan XiChen gets to play for him again, and it is in this place that Nie MingJue's spirit once more falls in love with him.

#nielan #nie mingjue #lan xichen #mdzs quotes #mdzs thoughts #nmj surrounded by flowers: i love to see it #except the flowers are all gone by now #except the one lxc carries in his heart #this kind of went off but #i love my nielan crumbs #the strongest memories are tied to smell #once upon a time nmj and lxc in the garden #and even with the flowers gone lxc still remembers

[xiyao-feels]

@clearancecreedwatersurvival

This was the section that stood out to me-LXC asks him to wait: he wants to look at the corpse first, and he's described as having an "'ashen" complexion. In context, though, both of these things seem to me to be about the likely identity of NMJ's killer, rather than NMJ himself; when LXC says he want to look at the corpse, WWX asks him if he recognizes the corpse, but it's not LXC who replies: "Before Lan XIChen could reply, Lan WangJi already nodded slowly."

I don't agree with the supposition that xichen is ashen and shocked because he's focusing on the identity of nmj's killer, I think this is very clearly grief and shock in response to seeing the headless corpse of his friend. Mind you absolutely agree that there is far far more textual evidence supporting xiyao as a romantic pairing and don't Nielan, but I do think they were friends, and that this is a moment entirely about grieving his dead friend upon being confronted with his body.

Oh, yes, that part!! It's definitely one of the weaker parts of my post, I think, because it's definitely counterintuitive and I don't argue for it much. Originally I had a longer section, but since I was quoting pretty much the whole rest of the chapter for it, I ended up cutting it. Thank you for the excuse to dig into it!

To be clear, I don't think it's impossible that LXC's reaction is about his grief for NMJ!! But I hope I can show why I think that "it's about JGY" is a reading grounded in the text. Broadly, it seems to me that if his expression is about NMJ, then we'd see a lot more of him reacting to NMJ (as a person/his friend/his sworn brother) than we do, even though there are definitely places it would have made sense for him to react that way. On the other hand, he very much does react (and consistently!) to the idea/implication of JGY as the killer. And in terms of psychological plausibility, I do think it's worth noting that NMJ has been dead for more than a decade by this point—he really has had time to grieve.

I, uh, did end up pulling basically the rest of the chapter to take a look at it, here we go:

Only three people were left by the pile of corpse parts. Wei WuXian nodded at Lan XiChen in respect. He squatted down and began to seal the parts inside the Qiankun Pouches again. Just as he was in the middle of stuffing the left hand into a pouch, Lan XiChen spoke up, “Please wait a moment.”

Back then, when Wei WuXian had seen Lan XiChen’s expression, he knew that something was wrong. Sure enough, Lan XiChen’s complexion was ashen as he repeated his words, “Please… wait a moment. Let me see the corpse.”

Wei WuXian stopped, “ZeWu-Jun, do you know who this person is?”

Before Lan XiChen could reply, Lan WangJi already nodded slowly.

Wei WuXian, “Well, then I also know who he is.”

He lowered his voice, “He’s ChiFeng-Zun, right?”

[multiple paragraphs about how WWX recognized him, and as an aside a) how LXC and LWJ recognized him and b) that it's understandable NHS failed to recognize the leg]*

Wei WuXian, “ZeWu-Jun, HanGuang-Jun told you about what we saw during the journey, right? Mo Village, the grave digger, Yi City and all that.”

Lan XiChen nodded. Wei WuXian continued, “Then HanGuang-Jun probably told you this already. The mist-faced man who tried to take the corpse away in the Chang Clan’s cemetery knew the Lan Sect’s sword moves like the back of his hand. There can only be two possibilities. One, he’s from the Lan Sect and has been practicing the Lan Sect’s moves since a young age; two, he’s not from the Lan Sect, but he’s really familiar with your sect’s moves. He either often dueled with the Lan Sect’s people or he’s so intelligent that he can remember the moves as long as he has seen them.”

Lan XiChen remained silent. Wei WuXian added, “He fought for the corpse because he didn’t want others to realize that ChiFeng-Zun had been cut up. If ChiFeng-Zun’s corpse is pieced back together, the situation would be really difficult for him. This is someone who knows of the secrets behind the Nie Sect’s Saber Hall. Someone who’s quite close with the GusuLan Sect. Someone who has a rather complicated history… with ChiFeng-Zun.”

Without having to say who this person most likely was, everyone had understood.

Although Lan XiChen’s expression was solemn, he still replied quickly, “He will not have done such a thing.”

Wei WuXian, “ZeWu-Jun?”

Lan XiChen, “Your incidents of investigating the corpse parts and encountering the gravedigger all happened within the present month. During this month, he has been discussing matters with me every single night. We were planning the Discussion Conference occurring next month at the LanlingJin Sect just a few days ago. He could not have been to anywhere else. The gravedigger could not have been him.”

Wei WuXian, “What if he used a transportation talisman?”

Lan XiChen shook his head. His tone was gentle yet resolute, “One must cultivate the transportation technique in order to use the transportation talisman. It is rather difficult to cultivate. He has never shown signs of cultivating it. Likewise, one must expend large quantities of spiritual powers to use this technique, but we night-hunted together just a few days ago. His performance was excellent. I am certain that he has never used the transportation talisman.”

Lan WangJi, “He did not have to go himself.”

Lan XiChen still shook his head. Wei WuXian continued, “Sect Leader Lan, you know who is the most suspicious person. You’re just refusing to admit it.”

The light of the bonfire casted everchanging shadows over the three faces. All was still in the abandoned garden.

After a while of silence, Lan XiChen replied, “I understand that because of certain reasons, the world holds quite a few misconceptions about him. But… I trust what I have seen throughout all these years. I trust that he is not this sort of person.”

It wasn’t difficult to understand why Lan XiChen defended this person. To be honest, even Wei WuXian himself didn’t have a terrible opinion of the person they were suspicious of. Perhaps because of his background, he had always treated others with kindness and humility. He was the type of person who never offended anyone, the type who could make everyone around him feel comfortable talking to him, let alone ZeWu-Jun, who had been friends with him for years?

The time before Nie MingJue’s death was precisely the peak of the QingheNie Sect’s advances toward the LanlingJin Sect. Who would’ve Nie MingJue’s death benefited the most?

Death by a qi deviation under the public’s eyes… It looked like such a reasonable, unavoidable regret, but was the truth really so simple?

*I've put the paragraphs at the end of the post, so you can confirm they're nothing but what I mentioned, or of course you could consider the whole thing in context at the Exiled Rebels chapter here

So: LXC has an ashen complexion, and he asks to see NMJ's corpse. (It's not central but I do think it's worth noting that he specifically asks to see "the corpse," rather than, say, "him" or "the man"—to me this reads as rather distancing? Which to be clear is definitely not incompatible with his expression being about NMJ! But it seems worth noting.)

When WWX asks LXC if he knows who the corpse is, "Before Lan XiChen could reply, Lan WangJi already nodded slowly." The fact that LWJ is nodding "slowly," and that nodding doesn't really constitute an interruption, suggest to me that LXC was in fact hesitating in his reply. As above, this is definitely not inconsistent with grief! But I don't think that's the only or even (in light of the rest of the scene) the strongest reading, and it also very much makes sense in context of being reluctant to deal with the identity of the killer (especially given WWX's quick inference of the killer's likely identity once NMJ's identity is confirmed).

When WWX finally speaks to identify the corpse ("He’s ChiFeng-Zun, right?"), we're not given any reaction from LXC. To me it seems that if the distancing above were about his grief for NMJ, rather than the implications of it being about NMJ, I feel like you'd kind of expect a reaction here? Like, now, there's no denying it. But we're not given one. Likewise, we're not given any particular reaction from him when WWX talks about how NMJ's body was treated. "He fought for the corpse because he didn’t want others to realize that ChiFeng-Zun had been cut up," says WWX. "If ChiFeng-Zun’s corpse is pieced back together, the situation would be really difficult for him." However LXC reacted, the text just doesn't note it.

On the other hand, we're consistently given his reaction to implications about JGY. When WWX first starts implying it's JGY, "Lan XiChen remained silent." When the implication becomes unmistakable, "Although Lan XiChen’s expression was solemn, he still replied quickly"—in JGY's defense, as he continues to do throughout the scene.

Imho his strongest reaction comes after WWX tells him “Sect Leader Lan, you know who is the most suspicious person. You’re just refusing to admit it.” LXC is silent for a while, and then replies:

“I understand that because of certain reasons, the world holds quite a few misconceptions about him. But… I trust what I have seen throughout all these years. I trust that he is not this sort of person.”

Again—as we see in chapter 64—it's really about knowing, or not knowing, JGY. It seems to me that you could definitely have something more here; "he's not the sort of person to do this to his sworn brother," say, or "he wouldn't have done this to NMJ." But NMJ isn't the focus! Here and later, it's JGY, and his knowledge of JGY, that is the important thing to LXC.

And then we have a few more paragraphs, which I've included mostly to show that there's nothing more, and the chapter ends. (Though I think it's also worth noting that he doesn't ask to see the body again, which also (taken in context with the rest of the scene) suggests to me that the initial asking wasn't about his grief for NMJ.)

So taken all together, although it's certainly possible that his expression/reaction is about his grief for NMJ, I really do think that the idea that it's about JGY is supported by the text.

(Also a side note—in terms of how LXC recognized NMJ/his emotions about this whole thing, it might be worth noting that the last time he saw NMJ making those motions was also the last time he saw NMJ alive, and that was specifically after NMJ kicked open the door of the room he and JGY were talking in and tried to murder JGY on the spot, so that might also have an impact.)

Redacted paragraphs:

When they were “playing hide-and-seek”, the headless corpse kept on repeating the same movement—with a loosely-closed fist, he waved his arm and slashed the air. It looked as though he was brandishing a type of weapon.

At the first idea of a weapon, Wei WuXian thought of a sword. But as someone who used the sword himself and had dueled other swordsmen, he had never seen any sword expert use their sword in such a way. The sword was the “gentleman of all weapons”. Anyone who used the sword would pay attention to an air of grace or dignity. Even the sword of an assassin would need to have some agility amid the cruelty. In the art of swordplay, there were more of “lunge” and “stab”, and less of “hack” and “slice”. However, the headless man’s movements were too heavy. There was an abundance in malice and the slashes of the arm lacked elegance.

But, if he wasn’t holding a sword, but a saber—and a hefty saber with a strong killing intent—then everything would make sense.

The sword and the saber were different in both usage and temperament. The weapon that the man had used before he died was probably a saber. As fierce as the saber was, it valued power instead of style. When he was searching for his head, he was searching for his weapon as well. This was why he kept on repeating the moves of wielding a saber and even grabbed Bichen, using it as though it were his weapon.

Moreover, this corpse didn’t have any special markings such as a birthmark. And now after he had been cut into pieces, it was impossible find out who he was. It was only natural that Nie HuaiSang couldn’t recognize it in the Saber Hall. In fact, even Wei WuXian couldn’t guarantee that if he cut off his own leg and threw it everywhere, he’d be able to recognize whose leg it was. It wasn’t until the torso and the limbs were temporarily pieced into a corpse capable of movement by the resentful energy that Lan XiChen and Lan WangJi finally recognized him.

All quotes taken from the Exiled Rebels translation

#ship negativity cw #that damn bingo post #long meta #the best of men #a gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs #profound philosophical differences