#since the Qin and the Jin sects are so close

[peculiardollart]

Some hairstyles for the Jin ladies Jin Men's hairstyles

Nie Men and Nie Women

Jiang Men and Women

#MDZS #The Untamed #Jin Sect #Lanling Jin #gonna tag the jins for visibility reasons #Jin Ling #Jin Zixuan #Jin Guangyao #Jin Guangshan #obviously these aren't actually supposed to be any of the Jins #though I could see #Qin Su #doing her hair in a similar fashion #since the Qin and the Jin sects are so close #worldbuilding #culture building #MDZS Worldbuilding Project

[nillegible]

(Part 7 of Stay, the MY time travel fic. Well, Chronologically follows Part 3, But you can read them any which way! Read the others using: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7)

“I can take a hint, you know,” says Qin Su a few days later. “I’m not going to keep chasing you if you’re not interested, you didn’t have to tell my father to interfere.”

“I. I did not do such a thing, Qin-guniang,” says Meng Yao.

She glares at him as if to divine how truthful he was being. An interesting precaution but ultimately futile. She wouldn’t ever be able to see through him if he chose to deceive her. “I suppose I’ll believe you,” she says. “Meng-shidi should know that I had the most uncomfortable discussion with my father today. Since it’s your fault – regardless of what you told anyone – you owe me!”

“This Meng Yao has little to offer, but is yours to command regardless,” he says, sweetly.

“Then call me Su-shjie. If you’re part of my sect, you should act like it.”

“Alright, shijie,” says Meng Yao with a smile, hoping that she’ll accept it.

“Better,” she says approvingly. Then, lighter, “It is hard to stay angry, Meng-shidi’spractically weaponized those dimples.” It startles a genuine laugh out of him. She really was the loveliest person; proof that Jin Guangshan’s seed was not all rotten.

“This Meng Yao will find Su-shijie to continue our conversation later? I’m to help demonstrate muffling talismans for the junior disciples today.”

“Of course, go on! I’ll see you later!” The last is a promise, she obviously intends to see it through.

It hurts a little less when he nods and agrees, before hurrying to the class he was meant to help with. They could be friends, this time.

This time, Meng Yao wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

(This time, he wouldn’t hurt her.)

---

If everyone else is also strangely kind to him for a few weeks after, then Meng Yao doesn’t really notice, nor make the connection, until he’s following Su-shijie and two of her friends on a trip to the market. He’s being used mostly to hold packages; the girls had picked up quite a lot of novels; more than fit into the few qiankun bags they had brought with them.

“Apologies to Meng-shidi, we didn’t think we’d be stopping here,” they’d said, or something along those lines, at four different places already.

Aside from the packages, he was only occasionally consulted over the appearance or worth of some small trinkets – one of the youngest disciples had recently received a sword, and they wished to give her gifts for the occasion – but as Meng Yao’s being treated to snacks as an apology for every hour the trip extends, he barely minds. He is free for the day and it’s almost fun.

Li Feilong finds a green ribbon, almost exactly of a shade to match with official Nie robes. Huaisang would like that, he thinks, just as she says, “Oh, doesn’t this look lovely?” holding it out. She wraps it around her wrist to observe the colour.

“Feilong-shimei’s partiality is showing again,” ribs Qin Su, eyeing the other wares, and picking a midnight-blue one for herself.

“Shijie,” Li Feilong huffs, before releasing the ribbon, saying under her breath, “But he is handsome, I don’t know how he’s only ranked seventh on that blasted list.”

“We’ve all heard it before, Feilong-shijie,” laughs Lin Biao. “Well, I suppose Meng-shidi hasn’t.”

“Meng-shidi!” says, Li Feilong suddenly, whirling towards him. “You used to be Sect Leader Nie’s deputy, were you not? Come, tell me if this colour truly matches his robes,” she says, and Meng Yao steps closer even though he’s sure it is close enough.

“It would be hard to tell them apart,” he says. “Though such a light silk would be more Nie-gongzi’s style than Nie-zongzhu’s. He doesn’t know if it’s because Nie Mingjue’s cultivation was so advanced that he could not tell the weight of his robes, but his silks were heavy.

“That doesn’t matter, thanks, shidi! Auntie, may I have three lengths of this, please?”

“Three lengths, Shimei?”

“Hush, Shijie. I’ll wear it to the hunt on Phoenix mountain, next season! I can edge my cuffs with it, to match.”

The three women pick out other ribbons as well, a pretty pale periwinkle, a few yellows and roses, and some Qin-sect blues. Meng Yao finds his eyes being drawn to the green ribbon again and again. He can’t really believe that he thought that, so what if Huaisang would like it? There was no shortage of green silk in Qinghe, and Meng Yao is no longer... no longer beholden to him.

Some habits were clearly hard to break, that is all, and ‘Huaisang would like that,’ is a decade long habit, that led to him buying multiple pretty things for him. Fans yes, for birthdays, but he’d spoiled him with other things, too.

Meng Yao had always treated him like a child, and somehow missed what was right in front of his face.

It doesn’t stop Meng Yao from buying a length of it before they leave, as well as some colours of thread to go with it. He slips it all into his sleeve, and pretends not to notice the curious looks that he gets form his three companions.

“Shall we return then?” he asks.

“Just a few boxes of tanghulu for mother, and then we can go,” Qin Su decides, and they nod, trailing after her.

On the way back, Qin Su asks, voice mild enough that he’s instantly on guard, “Will Yao-shidi be wearing a green ribbon to the hunt as well?”

Wait, what? When on earth had he given her that impression?

“This shidi will of course be in Sect colours,” he says, while he frantically tries to pick out how this misunderstanding had come about. “The ribbon is for a gift.”

“Oh, of course,” says Qin Su.

“At least agree with me that Nie-zongzhu should be ranked higher, Meng-shidi,” says Li Feilong, from behind them. Meng Yao had assumed they were not listening, and when he quickly glances behind them, Lin Biao is elbowing her, trying to shut her up.

Oh?

Too startled by the byplay and its potential implications, he demurs politely, “I have no opinion on the matter, Feilong-shijie.” Then he smirks, “But I do know why the ranking is in the order that it is!”

Lin Biao gasps, and bounds closer. “You know who makes the rankings?” Conversation neatly diverted, Meng Yao spends the rest of the walk back coyly refusing to reveal his source – not that a drunk Huaisang in the future, confessing to ranking Jin Zixuan above Wei Wuxian just to see Wei Wuxian’s face, and putting his brother seventh because he had to be somewhere is much of a source – and the three ladies graciously allow for the change in topic.

If he returns to his room and skips dinner that night, well, he had been treated to a lot of snacks that afternoon. And it gives him time to try to figure out how exactly he’d convinced Sect Leader Qin that he was a cutsleeve. (He pretends that this is pressing enough that he doesn’t need to think about the green ribbon he’d bought so impulsively, and shoves it beneath his simple sewing kit.)

---

Meng Yao very very cautiously observes his disciple-siblings over the course of the next few weeks, but except for two offhand comments – quickly shushed – no one comments on his supposed inclination for cutting his sleeve. He’s a little bemused but after some thought and delicate probing, he works out the evidence for their “deduction”. In addition to his unexpected rejection of Qin Su, there was the matter of his apparent fear of Jin Guangshan; who was well known for his intolerance for such “deviancy” within his sect.

It's so absurdly sensible a conclusion to draw from the limited evidence available that Meng Yao has no defence to offer. Surely it made more sense than Meng Yao having returned from the future.

And most importantly: no one cared. They were trying to be kind.

If he didn't know better he would think he had developed a second golden core; so warm is the feeling that fills him up and settles in.

#meng yao #jgy time travel verse #nie huaisang #time travel fix it #qin su is a good sister #my accidentally convinces everyone he's gay?

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Thoughts on the Sect Leader Wen Sizhui AU

The Sunshot campaign fails. Meng Yao and Wen Qing together manage to convince Wen Ruohan not to kill the various sect leaders and instead to subjugate them. Some are allowed to keep leading their sects as vassal sects to the Wen. Others are completely absorbed into the Wen. All are forced to share any secret knowledge or techniques they may have.

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan marry, but are kept in Qishan to be used as hostages to ensure to good behavior of Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jin Guangshan.

(Jin Guangshan thinks he has Wen Ruohan’s good graces because he barely took part in the war and immediately surrendered, but actually Wen Ruohan is fond of Meng Yao and, as a result, thinks Jin Guangshan is trash.)

Nie Huiasang is kept to ensure the good behavior of Nie Mingjue. Lan Wangji is kept to ensure the good behavior of Lan Xichen.

With both Wen Chao and Wen Xu dead, Wen Ruohan has only one living heir: His grandson, Wen Xu’s only child, Wen Yuan.

Once again Meng Yao and Wen Qing manage to convince Wen Ruohan that the hostages could be valuable as teachers -- they’re all members of the gentry who are either skilled cultivators or (in Jiang Yangli’s case) talented administrators, and all of them have knowledge that will be useful for the heir of... basically the entire world.

They’re all always being watched by Wen disciples, but nonetheless a-Yuan becomes close to his various teachers. As he grows older, he starts to notice their fear and the way they’re all treated, and decides he doesn’t like that.

It takes years of careful maneuvering, but eventually basically all of the guards around Wen Yuan and the sect leaders are the ones who follow Wen Ning and Wen Qing, which allows everybody to have a little bit more freedom of movement.

When Wen Yuan gets a little bit older, Wen Ruohan demands all of the sect heirs his age be sent to Qishan to be raised as his personal attendants.

Junior Quartet are the main squad obviously but there are other kids too.

Sizhui is still named Sizhui but this time it’s in honor of his father and uncle, since I stan Family Man Wen Ruohan

Sizhui does not want to kill his grandfather! Wen Ruohan is good to him! But.

Wen Sizhui, his teachers, his servants, and the Wen disciples under Wen Ning, all ultimately collaborate to stage a coup. In the process, Wangxian get together, Yunmeng siblings reconcile, Jin brothers become besties, and the Junior Quartet go full poly.

Sizhui works to help the other sects re-establish themselves, but by now there’s so much weirdness that a lot of them just... kind of merge. Lan Wangji is the second young master of the Lan Sect but he’s also an honored teacher and the defacto father figure of the Wen Sect Leader so his Lan robes have little gold fire decals alongside the silver clouds. Wei Wuxian is Jiang but he’s also kind of Wen. The Jin and Ouyang remain vassal sects to the Wen so that Jin Ling and Zizhen can marry Sizhui. Lan Xichen ends up having his own kid (3zun endgame?) so Jingyi isn’t the heir anymore and he can also live with his husbands.

Wen Qing opens an all-sect medical school.

Wen Ning marries Qin Su and they have half a dozen little doe-eyed babies that have their Wei-Shushu and their Lan-Shushu wrapped around their little fingers.

#MDZS #The Untamed #Wen Yuan #Lan Sizhui #I'm not tagging everyone or every ship #just. Here. Have this. #Feel free to use this as a prompt and run with it in whatever direction you want #lord knows I'm unlikely to ever actually write it

[aline-the-cat]

1 2

Is the first time Wen Qing receives a petitioner, the Dafan Wen have been living in the Burial Mounds for almost a year now, along with all the other refugees and rogue cultivators that have arrived at the place, there are enough people in the community to actually be called a sect, so she, Meng Yao, and their Yiling Laozu have been working together to formalize it. Is good that Wei Wuxian has such a reputation as a granting wishes demon since most of their first night-hunts requests came that way, so after dealing with a certain number of fierce corpses, vengeful ghosts, and restless souls, the town of Yiling started to acknowledge them as cultivators, and their time as a proper sect began. Is also thanks to that, that Wen Qing and her family were able to start working as healers in town (giving the chance to the old one to finally retire)

Among the multiple hours of paperwork, organization, farming, and healing, the Yiling Laozu keeps granting wishes. It’s really not as divine or demonic as it may seem, is just Wei Wuxian having or inventing a talisman or array for almost everything and accepting any stray that comes wandering to their dark, foggy gates; every now and then others from the sect will let them in Wei Ying’s place, like a few months ago when Meng Yao came in with a young woman and another of Jin Guangshan’s bastards in tow. So it’s not unusual for their members to find someone near the Burial Mound’s shrine, waiting to have an audience with the Yiling Patriarch… like now.

Wen Qing sees a kneeling figure by the entrance of the Burial Mounds, she sighs as she readjusts her weekly purchases, as she comes close though her eyes widen. She wasn’t inside Wen Ruohan's inner circle for long, but it was enough for her to attend several discussion conferences as her uncle’s head physician, which was sufficient to collect information about every sect leader, their families, and head disciples, and enough to identify Madam Qin despite the cheaper-looking robes. Wen Qing sighs heavily again

“Excuse me” she calls suddenly, the Laoling's Sect Leader’s Wife doesn’t flinch out of pure grace, even so, Wen Qing notices a paleness to her skin that cannot be healthy… but what the hell is doing someone like her so far away from her home? “I’m sorry, may I help you with something?” she tries to channel her inner Meng Yao to assist the older lady (he is so charming when he wants to be, the fucker)

The woman looks at her for a while before also recognizing her

“Young Lady Wen” she whispers as she bows “We thought Wen Ruohan killed you and your branch” Wen Qing bows back as much as she can

“I was afraid he would, so we left” she answers honestly “Madam Qin, I wasn’t expecting to see you today” or never actually “Is there anything I can do for you?” the woman seems to straighten up

“I have a request for the Yiling Patriarch”

"I see..." Wen Qing nods “Follow me, please” she says as she opens the intricate wards Wei Wuxian put around the Burial Mounds years ago

Inside the 'village', she gives the purchases to her younger brother and guides the woman to the Demon Slaughtering Palace, specifically to Wei Wuxian’s office, she knocks three times, the exact amount to indicate she comes with an outsider. The door opens and the Yiling Patriarch is in full get-up, resentful veil and all

“Yiling Laozu” Madam Qin bows “I humbly ask for your aid”

Wei Wuxian exchanges a look with the healer. Granting wishes for years made him develop a weird sixth sense to figure out what people might ask of him, and now he suspects this wish in particular, might be one of those... sensitive content ones

“I hope you don't mind if Wen Qing stays?" he asks, his tone soft despite the slight changes thanks to his camouflage spell "Depending on the request I may need her expertise”

Madam Qin tightens her jaw but nods

“I wish to protect my daughter” she says and proceeds to tell her story. Wen Qing is horrified and more so at the fact that it doesn’t surprise her, god knows how many stories like that she heard and treat during her stay in Wen Ruohan’s court at the hands of Wen Chao and Wen Xu, and yet, apparently, Jin Guangshan’s past acts aren’t the worst part “My daughter is 15 years old,” the Madam’s voice trembles “is his daughter, even if he doesn’t know and he-“ her fists are practically white as she takes a deep breath to control herself “He always has this look with her recently in every conference, a predator looking at his prey, I should know since I was subject to that same look fifteen years ago”

Wei Wuxian frowns, anger barely contained to avoid overwhelming the ladies with waves of resentful and spiritual energy. He takes a deep breath

"This is a sanctuary," he explains the Madam "if you or your daughter are in need of help, the Burial Mounds will always be open for you..." he then lets a smirk take over his face even if it's hiding behind the veil "But I do have some things that could protect your daughter and have a little of payback, it won't restore what has been done to you neither bring justice but it can avoid future... incidents, now it's just about how much you are willing to pay" it has always been interesting to Wei Wuxian, what people is ready to give for their desires, it's something Wen Qing always scold him for, but that Meng Yao understandably shares with him

Madam Qin's expression turns stony

"To protect my daughter? Not even all the Jin's wealth would be enough" she declares "Name your price Yiling Laozu and I shall deliver... whatever it takes"

Sensing her determination, and with several flashbacks of Meng Shi and Mo Ning, Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian exchanged a slightly terrified thought: 'Mothers are scary'

#Yiling Wei Sect AU #wei wuxian #wen qing #mo dao zu shi au #mo dao zu shi #yiling burial mounds #yiling laozu #wei ying #madam qin #happy mothers day #mdzs fic #mdzs au

[jaimebluesq]

For sangchengsu: Do A and B have a stronger bond with each other? Or do C and B or C and A have a stronger bond? Or are A, B, and C close together [equally]? Also, who proposes?

Yay! Thank you for the ask and giving me the opportunity to indulge in some SangChengSu headcanons :D Mine are all canon universe where they get together to take JGY down (I love you JGY but you killed Da-ge).

As for bonds, I don't think any one bond is stronger than the others, but they are all *different*. JC & NHS have the "we were school friends before the world went to shit and they're one of the only people left alive who remembers how I was when I didn't have the weight of the world on my shoulders" thing. JC & QS are linked by Jin Ling and their love and co-parenting of him. And QS and NHS have a bond through their love of JGY and torn feelings about someone they loved being the instrument of a loved one's demise - and even after JGY is dead, they commiserate on how they hate that they still love him after everything because the feelings don't go away, and nobody else really understands that.

As for proposing, etc, here is my post-JGY's death scenario. QS becomes regent of Lanling Jin while Jin Ling grows up, NHS remains Nie-zongzhu but begins to tire of it, and JC is where he belongs in Lotus Pier. When he comes of age and sworn in as sect leader, Jin Ling will be the one to look at his aunt and say "so when will you and Jiujiu get married?" because he knows at the very least about their affection for one another (don't know whether he'd know about the poly things with NHS). Marriage had never really been in any of their conversations before because their lives were in three separate places, but with Jin Ling now as sect leader and his position strong, QS now has the luxury to do something else with her life. It prompts her and JC to have a talk and they find they're not opposed to the idea - in fact it starts to grow on them - but they don't make a proper decision until they talk to NHS. NHS is thrilled for them, of course, and is enthusiastic every step of the way - but there are moments when JC or QS see a shadow over his expression, but when asked about it, NHS waves off their concern and kisses them to distract them.

So after QS is married to JC, and since she's not regent any longer, she has more free time, and she decides to regularly share time between Lotus Pier and the Unclean Realm. She begins to see how being sect leader wears on NHS more and more, and one night she catches him at a vulnerable moment, and he admits his heart isn't in it, but it's the only thing he has left of his brother and the only home he's ever known, so what else could he do or be? She plants the idea in his ear of at least finding an heir to take over for him one day - at the very least, someone needs to be next in line in case of an assassin or a disastrous night hunt or food poisoning. Then she returns home to JC and tells him about everything.

So JC shows up in Qinghe, follows NHS to his room, and when the door closes, NHS assumes he's there for some 'private time' and tries to kiss him. JC holds him back and then starts a long, long tirade about how he's worrying JC Qin Su by not taking care of himself, and why is he so miserable, etc etc. They get into a huge fight that an unknowing person might think would come to blows, but they've fought like this before and it never has. In the end NHS breaks down and says something about this being him paying his dues because he should have known something was up, he shouldn't have trusted JGY or allowed him to play for Da-ge without NHS knowing more about it and if only he'd known something, done something, then his brother would still be alive. JC calls him an idiot and holds him long past when he stops crying. Before he leaves from the visit, JC tells NHs he's enough, he'll always be enough, and that if he ever decides to make a change, there will always be a place for him in Lotus Pier.

So NHS thinks about it, and as the days pass he finds he looks out the window more and more with his eyes looking to the south, and then he just hits a moment where he just can't do it anymore. He quietly gets his replacement ready and talks to the elders and makes all the arrangements, and just as quietly they make the official change of leadership. NHS packs his things and takes one copy of the official announcement of the new sect leader - that will not be sent out for a week - and flies down to Lotus Pier. JC and QS are overjoyed to see him, thinking he's just there for a visit, and when the three of them are alone, he takes out the announcement and gives it to them. They look up in shock once the weight of what they've read hits them, and NHS asks if that place for him in Lotus Pier is still available, because it seems he no longer has a sect to run. And the three of them hug and cry and laugh in turn.

NHS eventually takes on the 'official' title of advisor to Jiang-zongzhu, and only those close to any of them know that the three of them share a bed and a life together(though they each have their own rooms because sometimes you just need your own space, or have a bad night and want to sleep alone). Eventually QS has a child, and then another, and none of them know who was the official 'father' but none of them care because they love them to bits. And JC's stress goes down by leaps and bounds with not one but 2 people dedicated to making sure he delegates responsibilities and relaxes from time to time - because it IS the job of two people lol.

So, um, yeah, I may have a thought or two on the subject >.<

#sangchengsu

[thedarkone121]

Mo Dao Zu Shi OC: Jiang Zhengya

This took way too long, you guys. But I am so happy it’s done and I love how the posing turned out. Everyone, Jin Yuehua — courtesy name Jiang Zhengya — has her official design! Wooo!

For more background information on her, check out this post when she was still in her early draft. But took make a long story short; she’s Jin Ling’s younger twin sister and because Jin Guangshan is a jerk, she’s the Official Heir to Yunmeng Jiang. While not physically strong, she is a master of poisons and hides all of her venom behind a lady-like smile.

You got that? Great! Now, time to move onto what her role in canon would be like. And boy, do I have some ideas.

Now, having Jiang Zhengya around is bound to change some things. With her being the official sect heir to Yunmeng Jiang, I would imagine she would be raised solely by Jiang Cheng since she no longer has any relation to Jin other than by blood — unlike her brother who had to go back to the Jin Clan when they were seven since his possible position as the Jin Sect Leader.

I bring this up because I wanted a large part of her character to be unable to connect with her father’s side of the family. She’s been given way to the Jiang, she has been raised the Yunmeng Jiang way, she will have to one day lead the Jiang Clan. Jiang Zhengya was not raised Jin and in return, she doesn’t understand a lot of the thought process behind this golden snake pit.

She and Jin Ling were very close when they were younger and lived in Lotus Pier together. They would wrestle with each other, call each other names, push the other into the water, and equally cause Jiang Cheng so many heart attacks. But, they began to drift apart when Jin Ling had to go back to the Koi Tower and her remaining in Lotus Pier.

I headcanon that Jin Ling didn’t really suffer from the orphan stigma until he stayed at Koi Tower, where he was bullied by a lot of his peers for having no parents. He couldn’t fit in so I figured he developed a really haughty attitude to make it seem like he doesn’t need his peers and become great without them, so they can see what they’re missing out.

Jiang Zhengya, who knows her brother — or thought she did —, thought he was putting up an act and would still treat him the same informal way she always does. It isn’t until that Jin Ling — in a fit of rage and embarrassment — insulted her to her face, in front of all of their peers, that Jiang Zhengya felt like she didn’t know her brother anymore.

Speaking of the bullies, Jin Guangyao is a relative she didn’t know how to connect. He is very different from Jiang Cheng — someone who tries to be attentive even to the people that insult their family, meanwhile Jiang Cheng has been very open of his disdain for people who insult his niece and nephew. Jin Guangyao’s lack of action towards Jiang Zhengya’s bullies and his lecture of her not being “lady-like” when she fights back as caused Jiang Zhengya to keep her distance from him.

She gets along with Qin Su well, however. While she does love Jiang Cheng, he doesn’t always let her used his face as a test subject for her makeup skills. Qin Su has happily offered lessons and lets her be one of Jiang Zhengya’s other test subjects.

Who is her other test subject, you may ask? Mo Xuanyu.

And here we come to the thing that made me consider her role in the Timeskip. Since a few people lovely people have pointed out, Jiang Cheng is an antagonist in Wei Wuxian’s journey to solve the mystery of the cursed arm. I’m someone who likes to go outside of the box when designing characters, so I made Jiang Zhengya be an antagonist for Wei Wuxian as well. Why is she an antagonist for him? Because she knew Mo Xuanyu before he became known as “the lunatic,” so she’s someone who can easily call him out on his act.

She met Mo Xuanyu while she was being spurned by her brother again when she offered to paint his face in makeup — something she used to do all the time to make her family “look pretty”. The poor man just happened to be walking by and noticed the sad little girl holding a brush as her brother stormed away. He offered to let her paint his face and the rest is history, as one may say.

I think, for her own journey as well, I want her to uncover what happened to Mo Xuanyu. She never believed the reason for why he was kicked out of Koi Tower and she had just convinced Jiang Cheng to allow her to bring him into the Jiang Sect before Wei Wuxian was summoned. She spent most of the events trying to rescue her Little Uncle, only to realized she was too late to save him and the knowledge destroyed her.

Phew! That was a lot! That’s the general idea I had for Jiang Zhengya’s role in the canon-verse. Will I write about it one day? Maybe.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #mdzs oc #jin yuehua #jiang zhengya #Jiang Cheng #jin ling #darky draws #Darky Talks #my art #jin ling twin sister au

[miles-of-heart]

Dig Two Graves

Qin Su was out of time. Her heart pounded as she swept through the dark halls of Jinlintai, qiankun pouch clutched tightly to her chest beneath her cloak. Qin Su's slippered feet glided soundlessly over the stone floors, and she thanked the gods that her years of etiquette lessons were finally good for something. She darted a glance over her shoulder past her draping hood; her skittish, searching eyes saw danger in every shadowed corner, heard threats in every unidentified noise.

Had anyone seen the letter being delivered to her earlier this week? Had they noticed Qin Su acting suspiciously since then, lurking around parts of Jinlintai she had no business being without her fiancé?

The atmosphere was heavy with the promise of a storm and the oppressive, cloying perfume of the courtyard peony gardens. Periodic paper lanterns sent long, reaching shadows across her path, and the stirring wind snatched at the corners of her cloak.

How long would it take him to figure out she had snuck into the hidden treasure room behind the bronze mirror? Would he be able to tell she had rifled through his collection of the Yiling Laozu manuscripts? Would he notice a single weapon missing from his collection?

Lightning flashed, startling her into clenching her fists, crushing the qiankun pouch whose contents she had risked so much for. But the brief illumination was enough to confirm she was alone in the empty halls, and the pouch protected its contents.  Moments later, the thunder rumbled, and she tripped, falling to her hands and knees, qiankun pouch still gripped tight, before scrambling to her feet and running faster.

Her ears strained for any hint of someone following after her, anyone who might grow curious about why the future daughter-in-law of Sect Leader Jin was rushing through the tower in the middle of the night. What would she do if someone tried to stop her? It was too late to turn back now.

Jin Guangyao would be back tomorrow. He would take one look at her face and would know she knew.

A scraping noise sounded to her left, and she nearly jumped out of her skin before realizing it was the wind blowing a tree branch against the courtyard wall. She turned a corner and kept running.

Jin Guangyao. She had let that snake touch her. Had he already known then, when they had…? Another wave of nausea hit her, and she slapped a hand over her mouth, willing the rising bile back down. She could not afford a weak stomach now. Not with what was coming next.

It had to be tonight.

Jin Guangyao should never have risked using Qin Su. Fury pulsed through her veins at the depths of grief the Jin Clan had caused her family. She had one last chance to protect the people she loved.

Maybe she wasn't powerful enough or cunning enough to face Jin Guangyao on her own - but she knew of someone who was. And one particularly notorious wandering spirit was all she needed.

Arriving finally at her rooms, she entered silently, sliding the door closed behind her. She was ready. Qin Su set her jaw, took a breath with grim satisfaction. She would dig her own grave tonight, knowing her sacrifice would condemn Jin Guangyao to his.

#miles is writing again #qin su's revenge #qin su #mdzs fanfiction #dailyuntamed

[joylinda-hawks]

Chang Ling. Do you really want me to be your master? WOH, episode 11, part 3. ZZS drinks wine and after a while he gets up and asks ZCL if he wants him to be his master. ZCL is surprised and agrees without hesitation. ZZS claims that he and ZZS hardly know each other, and yet the boy trusts him completely. He adds that in such a situation, the only thing he can do is to sincerely repay ZCL. WKX looks up, sits and listens carefully. ZZS says that first he should tell who he really is, and then the boy will make a decision. ZZS claims that his real name is Zhou Zi Shu and that he is the current and last leader of Siji Manor. Saying this, ZZS moves forward and looks neither at the boy nor at WKX. ZZS claims that previous leader Qin Huai Zhang was its beloved master. He says that their clan was widely known for the flowers that bloomed in all seasons and for the knowledge of everything in the world, but there are few left in Jianghu who remember Siji Manor. He regrets that it was all because of his one mistake and helplessness. ZZS continues the story, he says that when he was sixteen, his master died suddenly. He, as a boy, was not strong enough to save Siji Manor's reputation from collapse, so he and the sect's disciples followed the military governor of Jin, whom the Zhou family had served for generations, and the ZZS founded Tian Chuang. He did not expect then that all his companions from Siji Manor would become slaves of power. One by one, eighty-one of Siji Manor's disciples died, and in the end, he was the only one left. WKX states that "Commander Zhou" means the leader of Tian Chuang. ZZS confirms this and adds that thanks to this, Scorpion knows him and where their base is. ZCL asks ZZS what Scorpion is. ZZS explains that it is an organization of assassins, they come from Jiangnan, and its members are very sophisticated and deeply conspiratorial. He adds that the Four Assassins who kidnapped ZCL are one of Scorpion's strengths, he also has one much greater strength, in the past, Tian Chuang wanted to expand his activities to Jiangnan and had several conflicts with Scorpion. ZZS calmly explains that Scorpion's strength in Jianghan is no less than Tian Chuang's in the northwest. ZCL asks if Tian Chuang, who created ZZS, is an assassination organization, ZZS replies that it is no longer his Tian Chuang and is now an ordinary person. ZZS spent half his life in solitude, doing many things against his will and killing people he did not want to kill. He wanted to wander the world until his death. At that moment, ZZS realized that it seemed like the heavens had another plan for his fate. ZZS asks if, now that ZCL knows who ZZS is, he still wants him to be his master. ZCL agrees, saying that whether ZZS accepts him or not, he has long considered ZZS as a champion. WKX stands up and says that since ZCL knows that he has become an apprentice, he will order him to complete the ritual. ZCL bows to ZZS. ZZS says ZCL belongs to the clan and is the first sixth generation disciple and with such a great disciple, ZZS will rebuild the legacy of Siji Manor, ZZS says he is happy, ZCL also says he is happy. WKX is watching them both closely. Finally, a scene where WKX confirms his suspicions. ZZS reveals its true identity. WKX knows he didn't make a mistake and is happy, although he doesn't show it outwardly. ZZS travels back in time once again and tells the boy about Siji Manor. These memories are the most painful part of ZZS's life. However, he is happy that despite everything he has a chance to rebuild his clan. He doesn't want to remember that he doesn't have much life left, he wants to capture this fleeting moment and enjoy it. ZZH is painfully honest and dignified here. His beauty, behavior and acting show us the wonderful side of ZZS. Viewers feel and experience what ZZS experiences. ZZH played this character perfectly, he gave this character everything that was best in him, his beauty, stubborn character and the pain that accompanied him while playing the scenes.+

#zhang zhehan #zhou zishu #word of honor #wenzhou #wen kexing #gong jun

[sonderwrit]

C116: Rest

I Have to Be a Great Villain - Masterpost

Author's Weibo post:

Translation: Brothers and sisters! Success at the speed of life and death! More is out, oh yeah! Here are two handsome photos, this world isn't short! There are plenty of chapters to play in~ Saw some mistakes in the update before 00:20 (accidentally updated a later mini-theater [with the chapter], so it's normal if you didn't understand it, in the future updates will come bit by bit~)

Chapter 116 translation below the cut (note: as the author mentioned, this chapter is extra long, yay!)

---

Qin Xian: As long as we do everything in this book once.

QX: We'll find the answer.

Wang Yi: This book?

QX: Right.

WY: Hm, the first part isn't hard; it's just minor stuff like practicing and sleeping together. (It'll take several years to lay the groundwork.)

WY: But I'm having trouble understanding after flipping to the end.

WY: What's this disciple and master pair doing?

*Epilogue of the story*

QX: Hm. He should be sitting on his master's knees to rest. [<- originally had low EQ, now it's worse]

WY: So it's like that, but it feels kinda strange. [<- losing his memories = losing his humanity]

QX: Where is it strange?

WY: I'm not sure. 

WY: Maybe my level isn't high enough to understand the mysteries in it.

#There are no XXX enlightenment books on the mountain, so these two cultivation "geniuses" are being beaten down by their own self-study#

WY: Uuf…well, all we can do is try.

WY: (A voice in my heart keeps telling me to trust Master, weird…)

WY: Although I can't see the connection between "re-enacting the contents of the book" and "understanding what 'like' means," since Master says to do so, Master must have his reasons.

[Upright] [Upright #2]

QX: Mm.

WY: Then let's start with the first chapter. There's a while before we reach the parts we don't understand, so maybe we'll get it by the time we reach there.

—

S-0: *yawns* (It's about time, the stupidity medicine should've fully taken effect by now.) [It'll make someone dumb without affecting their intelligence, so it's very convenient.]

S-0: (Although I feel sorry for Qin, he's probably too dumbed down to understand what I did by now.)

S-0: (Let's take a look.) *squeeze*

S-0: (Hm? So quiet, is it already bedtime?)

S-0: (But Nascent Soul level cultivators need very little sleep.) [This better not be a negative side-effect of the medicine.]

S-0: (I'll use my authority to check his physical condition…)

S-0: (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)

S-0: (Why are they—sleeping in one bed?!)

QX: Who's there.

S-0: MreEEEOOOOoowwww~

WY: Uh…Master.

WY: What's wrong…?

QX: Nothing. Go to sleep.

WY: All right…Master should sleep too.

—

S-0: ……

S-0: (Aish. Did it turn into this kind of relationship again.]

S-0: (The original novel's Sword Saint Qin was a cultivator who utterly doted on his disciples.)

QX: "Seeing my disciple is equivalent to seeing myself."

S-0: (So it's very normal to see this scene of filial piety between Master and disciple.)

Cultivator*: "Daoist Qin, we have enough seating mats for this meeting. (You're a bad influence hugging and clinging to each other!)

*Judging by panel below, this is probably the sect leader Wu Jin

S-0: (But…though not as intimate as Yunshan Sect's master [Wu Jin] or Demon Abyss Master [Ren Shukuang], Qin Xian does get close to the male protagonist later on in the plot.)

S-0: (However, after interacting with the protagonist shou, he gradually discovered that the latter's venomous senior brother* was ruthless, tyrannical, and of mixed blood, so he stopped caring for him as much. In the latter half of the story, when the Daoist and Demonic forces fight, he'll realize the good points of the protagonist shou and truly fall in love with him.)

*Wang Yi's character

QX: "I don't care that you like others, I just wanted to tell you, my heart is yours."

S-0: (He became the last member of the harem—)

S-0: (And the so-called vicious senior brother who betrayed the immortal sect naturally had a bad ending…)

S-0: (His immortal bones were destroyed and he was left to fend for himself in the mountain cliffs.)

S-0: (Can they really reach that ending with their current clingy status…)

S-0: (Forget it.)

S-0: (Worry about the future when the future comes.)

S-0: (There's still time before the main mission. The Main System might even leave before long.) …meow~

WY: Master, I can walk on my own.

QX: Master feels cold, so I need you to warm me up.

S-0: (Moreover…this seems to be the first time these two interacted without either of them knowing about their "fate.")

QX: (The book was right, disciple's hair is indeed very soft.)

S-0: (No more pressure from the mission.)

S-0: (No more worrying about being separated.)

S-0: (Let S-0 take care of everything.)

S-0: (Of course, you need to pay this cat for overtime work.)

S-0: (Hmph hmph~ That reward will be—)

[Wang Yi: 17 years old, Qi-Refining Stage]

S-0: (Let S-0 see what sort of scene will happen—)

WY: Why did Master get so dirty again.

S-0: (When the blank paper System Y meets an equally blank Mr. Qin.)

WY: Bring your face here,

WY: I'll wipe it for you.

S-0: (It's really great~~~~)

QX: That's right, disciple's cultivation has already reached the zenith of Qi-Refining Stage. You can breakthrough anytime, right?

WY: Yes. I can build my foundation immediately.

QX: Mm, Master will protect you.

WY: Thank you, Master.

[Specification: In the cultivation world the levels are: Qi-Refining > Foundation Building > Golden Core > Nascent Soul > Immortal Ascension > Overcoming tribulation and becoming a god]

—

WY: Urk–

WY: ?!

*fades into past Y and X flashback*

System Y: ?!

Qin Xian: Ah.

QX: What's this?

QX: It's not the invading army.

#i have to be a great villain #manhua translations #villain 116 #this time i tried including a few minor screenshots

[randomleafoflove]

While I’m supposed to be studying for law school entrance exams, I keep getting ideas for an other MDZS SI/OC story, this time as a Jin.

Jin Xushào is Jin Zixuan’s twin sister (give JZX some close sibling bonds!). Since the yellow/gold is already there, she adds black and makes bees her personal motif. At first it’s ridiculed (bees visiting flowers symbolism would be more appropriate for JGS), until she proves that the previously thought feng-wang (bee-king) was actually feng-niangniang (bee-queen).

Since LanlingJin is, without a doubt, the most dangerous place for a young woman (I don’t doubt that the disciples very much followed JGS’s example in how to treat women), she very much attempts to arrange a marriage for herself to either NMJ or LXC (since JZX is betrothed to JYL, there’s no need to entertain the thought of marrying JC, and like hell would she marry a Wen, and she can’t be sure any of the young masters of the smaller sects under Jin aegis isn’t her half-brother, like Qin Su).

Here’s the first rough draft of the beginning.

I looked around Yiling, my nose scrunched in slight disgust.

It wasn't even that the village was dirty, exactly. It just wasn't what I was used to in Jinlintai.

The places I was allowed in Jinlintai were never anything less than sparkling, and Yiling was showing some wear and tear.

Why the Wen sect insisted the sect leaders' bring their families for the barrier renewal, I'll never understand, or why grandfather brought me and my brother along at all. We were six, it's not like we were going to be of help with the barrier renewal.

We weren't the only kids there, of course. All the major sects had brought their young heirs, from the fourteen-year-old Wen Xu to the four-year-old Nie Huaisang. It was like the most uncomfortable family reunion: meeting all those second- or third cousins that your parents expect you to get along with and then remember.

Let me give you some advice: do not leave your spoiled little brats under the supervision of just their nannies, who have already been browbeaten into submission by their little monster charges.

The elder boys had immediately started goading each other into demonstrating feats of strength, but given that the Wen was at least a few years older, he had won every challenge thus far, annoying the Nie. The younger Wen had immediately identified the younger Nie as a prime target and had started poking the four-year-old. My brother and the Jiang heir had gotten into and argument right away, which the older Lan and the older Jiang tried to mediate, and the younger Lan had become so overwhelmed that he'd resorted to biting anyone but his brother who came within biting distance.

I would have been surprised if the cacophony was not heard all the way back in Lanling.

I had walked out of what I'd dubbed the ”kiddie courtyard”, my nanny and my guard following behind. They would not reduce me to acting like a little barbarian, I'd vowed to myself.

Instead, I'd demanded to see Yiling, the first place other than Lanling that I'd visited.

And there wasn't much to it.

The residents had obviously tried their best. It wasn't like they had hundreds of cultivators visiting them all that often, spending their money whenever they stepped outside the large, barely maintained but usually abandoned estate* on the skirts of the town. Yiling wasn't a place with a thriving tourism, nor did they really have anything in particular to sell, so they must try to milk us cultivators for all that we have while we're here.

We stopped by one of the toy vendors to look at the rattle drums (A-Hòu would be insufferable if I came back without something for him). The vendor engaged my nanny in conversation, intuiting that while I'd have to like the toys, she was the one in control of the money.

Bored, I kicked the unseasonably early snow. This was a game I'd gotten lost in during my first childhood, if it can be called that. Pack the snow together with your feet, then stomp on it, and repeat ad nauseam.

I managed to scrape a respectable amount of trampled, wet snow when I caught movement from the alley behind the vendor.

It was a child dressed in rags, doing what I'd done, and laughing as he stomped on his own snow mound.

The child had no shoes.

His feet were red, but not bleeding.

That he was still alive, when it was just past freezing, and capable of playing... his potential as a cultivator must've been immense.

The quick calculations that went through my mind weren't really suitable for a child my age, but that's what you get for sticking a too smart child to a place like Jinlintai.

I made my way over to the child. ”Aren't you cold?”

The child looked startled, but then smiled. It was... it could not be a real smile, but I had trouble identifying what made it fake. ”Yes, but A-Ying can ignore it!”

”Does A-Ying like being cold?” I asked, frowning.

”No, silly! Who likes being cold? A-Ying said A-Ying can ignore it! Just breathe like-” he took a deep breath and probably did some cultivation, and let the air whoosh out of his lungs. ”-like that! Then you're all warm again! Mama taught A-Ying!” He grinned proudly.

”Where is your mama? Or baba?” I had to ascertain he was alone.

A-Ying shrugged. ”They left for a  night hunt a long time ago and didn't come back. The lady at the inn kicked me out not long after.”

“Do you want to come home with me? I live all the way in Lanling. You could join my sect and be a cultivator,” I offered. Not the most eloquent offer I'll admit, but for a street rat? It'd do.

A-Ying thought about it for a moment. “Would I have food? And shoes?”

“Mn. Yes. And new clothes.” I went over what “pro-work” talking points I remembered. “My Lady mother would probably also say dignity in proper work, but since you're so little still, I think we can waive that.”

“I can work!” A-Ying stomped his foot indignantly. “I'll be the best worker you've ever seen!”

Inwardly, my smile widened. Hook, line and sinker. “We'll see,” I soothed. “What's you're name?”

“Wei Ying!”

“Do you know the characters?”

Wei Ying shook his head. “Nuh huh. Baba was teaching me, I think, but I can't remember.”

“That's okay,” I comforted him. “Then you'll be Yīng, as in sleet.” I held out my arm for the heavy, wet snow to land on. “This kind of snow is the best to play with.” And the easiest to mold. “I'll have to think about the last name. Or we could ask around if the inn lady knew the characters.”

#mo dao zu shi #grand master of demonic cultivation #fanfic #jin si/oc

[fannish-karmiya]

Wei Wuxian’s Position in the Jiang Household

Fandom tends to mischaracterise Wei Wuxian’s position in the Jiang family greatly. A lot of people project more modern ideas about adoption onto his relationship with the Jiang siblings, and write as if he really is their sibling and only Yu Ziyuan’s abusive nature gets in the way of their bond.

This strikes me as a bit misguided. While adoption was practised in ancient China, it was mainly for the purpose of obtaining a male heir in the absence of one, or obtaining more daughters to marry off for alliances. Jiang Fengmian had no reason to adopt Wei Wuxian into the main family, and he didn’t. Wei Wuxian’s position in the household is far more nebulous than that, and honestly it’s hard to find an exact corollary, in Chinese history or in any culture, precisely because it was so messy and ill-defined.

A Companion to Upper Class Children

Wei Wuxian is the son of a servant of Yunmeng Jiang; it’s notable that Wei Changze is always referred to this way, rather than as a disciple. Wei Changze wound up leaving the sect in order to marry Cangse Sanren, and Jiang Fengmian considered them dear enough friends that when he heard they passed away, he spent years searching for their orphaned son. He wound up finding Wei Wuxian on the streets of Yiling and brought him home as his ward.

Wei WuXian was taken home by Jiang FengMian when he was nine.

Most memories from back then were already blurred. Yet, Jin Ling’s mother, Jiang YanLi, remembered all of them, and even told him quite a few.

She said that, after his father heard of the news that his parents both died in battle, he had always dedicated himself to finding the child that these past friends had left behind. After searching for a while, he finally found the child in Yiling.

(Chapter 24, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s clear from the start that beyond this sense of obligation to his old friends, Jiang Fengmian also had a role set out for Wei Wuxian: he wanted him to be a companion to his children, and Jiang Cheng in particular.

He encourages a friendship between them, insisting on a sleepover between the two a week into Wei Wuxian’s stay.

On the second day, Jiang Cheng’s puppies were given to someone else.

This angered Jiang Cheng so much that he threw a big tantrum. No matter how much Jiang FengMian comforted him gently, telling him that they should ‘be good friends’, he refused to talk to Wei WuXian. Quite a few days later, Jiang Cheng’s attitude softened. Jiang FengMian wanted to strike while the iron was still hot, so he told Wei WuXian to sleep in the same room as him, hoping that they’d grow fonder of each other.

[...]

That night, Jiang Cheng locked Wei WuXian outside his room, refusing to let him in.

[...]

Wei WuXian waited outside for a long time. When the door opened, before the joy could spread onto his face, he was bombarded with a pile of things being thrown out. The door banged shut again.

Jiang Cheng told him from inside, “Go sleep somewhere else! This is my room! You’re even gonna steal my room?!”

[...]

Standing outside, as Wei WuXian heard that dogs would come bite him, fear immediately bubbled within him. Twisting his fingers, he hurried, “I’ll go, I’ll go. Don’t call the dogs!”

Dragging behind him the sheets and blanket that were thrown outside, he ran out the hall. Having only arrived at Lotus Pier for a short period of time, he didn’t dare jump around yet. Every day, he obediently holed up in the places that Jiang FengMian told him to stay at. He didn’t even know where his room was, much less have the courage to knock on other people’s doors, scared that it’d disturb someone’s dreams.

(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)

After Jiang Cheng is worried about getting in trouble, he goes to Jiang Yanli for help, and she searches for Wei Wuxian.

But this was the first pair of shoes that Jiang FengMian bought him. Wei WuXian was too embarrassed to make him go out of his way to buy another pair, and so he said that they weren’t too big. Jiang YanLi helped him into his shoe and pressed the hollow tip, “It is a bit big. I’ll fix it for you when we get back.”

Hearing this, Wei WuXian felt somewhat uneasy, as if he did something wrong again.

Living in other people’s homes, the worst that could happen was to make trouble for the hosts.

Jiang YanLi put him onto her back and began to walk back, wobbling in her steps as she spoke, “A-Ying, no matter what A-Cheng said to you, don’t bother about him. He doesn’t have a good temper, so he’s always home playing with himself. Those puppies were his favorites. Dad sent them away, and so he’s feeling upset. He’s actually really happy that somebody’s here to be with him.”

(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)

Later, Wei Wuxian offers to cover for him, saying simply that he ran outside by himself because he was scared. In this one case it feels like a genuine instance of children showing solidarity and covering for each other’s little misbehaviours. But it also follows a pattern of Wei Wuxian doing this and making excuses, time and time again, for Jiang Cheng. I wonder if on some level, he already knew that his role in the household was in part to be a companion-servant to Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian normally never puts up with people treating him poorly or being arrogant; he constantly bites his tongue when Jiang Cheng does so around him. While they study at Cloud Recesses, Jiang Cheng frequently insults Wei Wuxian, who always just smiles and laughs it off.

Jiang Cheng humphed, “Him? He wakes at nine in the morning and sleeps at one during the night. When he wakes up, he doesn’t practice his sword or meditate; he goes boating, swims around, picks lotus seedpods, and hunts for pheasants.”

Wei WuXian replied, “No matter how much pheasants I hunt, I’m still number one.”

(Chapter 13, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jiang Cheng scolded with a darkened expression, “What are you proud of?! What is there to be proud of with this?! Do you think that it’s a glorious thing to be told by someone to get lost? You bring so much shame upon our sect!”

(Chapter 16, Exiled Rebels translation)

We never see Wei Wuxian excusing this sort of behaviour from any other character; he has no problem scolding Jin Ling for his arrogant attitude and telling him that he shouldn’t be imitating his uncle, after all! It’s only where Jiang Cheng is concerned that he does this, and honestly, even then he seems to be quite aware that Jiang Cheng’s behaviour is wrong; he simply accepts on some level that it’s his role in the household to put up with it.

He actually does, very gently, try to guide Jiang Cheng at times. In Lotus Seed Pods, for example, he tries to give Jiang Cheng advice on how to flirt with some of the maidens in Yunmeng and make friends:

Wei WuXian threw the seed pods toward the shore. It was a far distance, but they landed lightly in the women’s hands. He grabbed a few more and stuffed them into Jiang Cheng’s arms, shoving, “What are you doing, just standing there? Hurry up.”

After a few shoves, Jiang Cheng could only accept them, “Hurry up and do what?”

Wei WuXian, “You ate the watermelon too, so you also have to return the gift, don’t you? Here, here, don’t be embarrassed. Start throwing, start throwing.”

Jiang Cheng snorted again, “You must be joking. What’s there to be embarrassed about?” Whatever he said, however, even after all of the shidi began to throw seed pods, he still didn’t start to move. Wei WuXian urged, “Then throw some! If you throw some this time, next time you can ask them if the seed pods tasted good, and you’ll be able to make conversation again!”

[...]

Jiang Cheng was just about to throw one when he realized how shameless it was the moment he heard it. He peeled a seed pod and ate it by himself.

[...]

After a while of laughter, he turned around and looked at Jiang Cheng, who was sitting at the front of the boat eating seed pods with a long face. His smile gradually disappeared as he sighed, “Well, what an unteachable child.”

Jiang Cheng fumed, “So what if I want to eat alone?”

Wei WuXian, “Look at you, Jiang Cheng. Nevermind. You’re hopeless. Just wait to eat alone your whole life!”

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

He even sighs rather disappointedly when Jiang Cheng refuses to take the hint; he knows that Jiang Cheng’s sullen behaviour is going to make him miserable down the line, but all of his gentle efforts to nudge him in a better direction have failed.

He also speaks with great awareness of Jiang Cheng’s flaws after the fight in the ancestral hall:

Wei WuXian reached out with one hand and massaged his chest, as if trying to break up the pent-up feeling inside his heart. A moment later, he blurted, “I knew Jiang Cheng wouldn’t have let us go so easily. That brat… How could this be?!”

[...]

Wei WuXian’s eyelids throbbed, “Every one of them. The brat’s been like this ever since he was young.He’ll say anything when he’s angry, no matter how bad it is. He gives up on all grace and discipline whatsoever. As long as it’d annoy whomever he’s against, he’d say it no matter what terrible insults he uses. After all these years, he hasn’t gotten better at all. Please don’t take it to heart.”

(Chapter 90, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is so interesting to me, because it really makes it clear that Wei Wuxian has always been aware of these flaws of Jiang Cheng’s. He hasn’t been viewing him through rose-coloured lenses or making excuses for him because he’s ‘family’. He puts up with Jiang Cheng’s behaviour because being his companion is one of his duties in the Jiang household. It may never have been directly stated, but there seems to be some unspoken understanding to this effect.

I honestly don’t know if there is any official role in history (in any culture, not just China) which perfectly correlates to this. In China a lady’s maid was expected to also be a close friend and companion to her mistress (in canon, see Bicao to Qin-furen and Yinzhu and Jinzhu to Yu-furen). In Europe an upper class woman would hire a lady’s companion, a woman from the lower fringes of the gentry who would serve as her companion in exchange for financial support.

I don’t know of any version of this role which involves two men. In general, this sort of role existed because upper class women were confined to the household by and large, and had very limited social spheres. Men, meanwhile, had much greater ability to meet with their peers and make friends. I almost feel like Wei Wuxian wound up being shoved into this role simply because even as a child Jiang Cheng was so unsociable that Jiang Fengmian didn’t know what else to do!

Wei Wuxian also at least once steps in and starts a fight in place of Jiang Cheng (essentially taking the fall for him). He does this when Jin Zixuan speaks disparagingly of Jiang Yanli at Cloud Recesses:

Jin ZiXuan asked in reply, “Why don’t you ask me how on Earth can I be satisfied with her?”

Jiang Cheng instantly stood up.

Pushing him to the side, Wei WuXian walked in front of him and sneered, “You sure think that you’re pretty satisfying, don’t you? Where did you get the guts to be all choosy here?”

[...]

Wei WuXian sighed, “… It’d be nice if shijie came. It’s fortunate that you didn’t hit him.”

Jiang Cheng, “I was going to. If you didn’t push me, the other side of Jin ZiXuan’s face would also be ruined.”

(Chapter 18, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s also very notable that Wei Wuxian is never shown having friends outside of Jiang Cheng’s social circle, despite what an outgoing and friendly person he is. Any time he expresses interest in someone for himself, as with Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng tries to nip it in the bud. Being unable to deter Wei Wuxian from Lan Wangji directly, Jiang Cheng instead tries to drive a wedge between them, constantly telling Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji hates him.

“Yeah,” Nie HuaiSang spoke, “It looks like he really hates you, Wei-xiong. Lan WangJi usually… No, he never does something so impolite.”

Wei WuXian, “He hates me already? I wanted to apologize to him.”

Jiang Cheng sneered, “Apologizing now? Too late! Like his uncle, he surely thinks that you are evil and unruly to the core, and didn’t bother to pay you any attention.”

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jiang Cheng pulled him even closer, “It’s not as if you’re familiar with him! Don’t you see how much he hates you? You’re going to carry him? He probably doesn’t even want you a step closer to him.”

(Chapter 52, Exiled Rebels translation)

He even directly orders Wei Wuxian not to invite Lan Wangji to come visit him at Lotus Pier during the Lotus Seed Pod extra.

Wei WuXian, “Why are you so upset? My watermelon almost flew away! I was just being polite. Of course he wouldn’t come. Have you ever heard of him go anywhere by himself to have fun?”

Jiang Cheng had on a stern expression, “Let’s make this clear. I don’t want him to come, anyhow. Don’t invite him.”

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s not only Lan Wangji he tries to steer Wei Wuxian away from; he also interrupts his conversation with Wen Ning at the archery competition:

Wen QiongLin was probably one of Wen Clan’s disciples furthest in bloodline. His status was neither high nor low, yet his personality was timid. He didn’t dare do anything and even his speech stuttered. Through much practice, he had finally conjured up the courage to enter the competition, but he blew it because he was too nervous. If he didn’t receive the right guidance, perhaps the boy would hide his true self more and more from now on and never dare to perform in front of other people again. Wei WuXian encouraged him a couple of times and touched on a few areas of growth, correcting some miniscule problems that he had when he was shooting in the garden. Wen QiongLin listened so attentively that he didn’t even turn his eyes away, nodding uncontrollably.

Jiang Cheng, “Where did you find so much nonsense? The competition is starting soon. Get into the arena right now!”

Wei WuXian spoke to Wen QiongLin in a serious tone, “I’ll be off to the competition now. Later, you can see how I shoot when I’m in the arena…”

Jiang Cheng dragged him away, short of patience. He spat as he dragged, “See how you shoot? Do you think that you’re a model or something?!”

(Chapter 59, Exiled Rebels translation)

Even when it comes to Wei Wuxian’s friendly flirtation with Mianmian, Jiang Cheng has something to say and tries to deter him from her:

Jiang Cheng, “The one that MianMian gave you? I didn’t.”

Wei WuXian exclaimed his regret, “I’ll find her for another one later.”

Jiang Cheng frowned, “You’re at it again. You don’t really like her, do you? The girl does look fine, but it’s obvious that she doesn’t have much background. Maybe she isn’t even a disciple. She seems like the daughter of a servant.”

Wei WuXian, “What’s wrong with servants? I’m also the son of a servant, aren’t I?”

Jiang Cheng, “How can you compare to her? Whose servant is like you, having your master peel lotus seeds for you and boil you soup. I didn’t even get to have some!”

(Chapter 56, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jiang Cheng really does seem to view Wei Wuxian in a very proprietary light; he’s not allowed to have any friendships which don’t exist under Jiang Cheng’s direct control.

The idea that Wei Wuxian was meant to be Jiang Cheng’s servant-friend is reinforced at its darkest when Lotus Pier falls: both Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian’s last words to Wei Wuxian are an instruction to protect Jiang Cheng.

One hand holding him, Madam Yu grabbed Wei WuXian’s lapels with her other hand as though to strangle him to death. She spoke through clenched teeth, “… You damn little brat! I hate you! I hate you more than anything else! Look at what our sect has gone through for your sake!”

[...]

Madam Yu, “Don’t make such a fuss. It’ll loosen up when you’re somewhere safe. If anyone attacks you on the journey, it’ll protect you as well. Don’t come back. Go to Meishan straight away and find your sister!”

After she finished, she turned to Wei WuXian and pointed at him, “Wei Ying! Listen to me! Protect Jiang Cheng, protect him even if you die, do you understand?!”

[...]

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

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

Jiang FengMian turned his eyes to him, “A-Ying, A-Cheng… you must look after him.”

(Chapter 58, Exiled Rebels translation)

Even Jiang Fengmian, who supposedly favoured Wei Wuxian, only gives him instructions as pertains to his own son; he doesn’t spare a single last word for Wei Wuxian himself.

A Lower Status Family Member

It wasn’t uncommon throughout human history, across many cultures, for wealthy families to take in relatives who were orphaned or had otherwise fallen on hard times. They tended to have a lower status than the main family; they lived with them and were still a part of their social sphere, but were not quite equal, either. The English term for this is ‘poor relation’.

Obviously, Wei Wuxian isn’t actually a blood relative at all. But his position in the Jiang household definitely has some similarities. He lives in the main house, eats meals with the family, attends school with the son... He is even on some conditional levels accepted into the gentry of cultivation society. But he isn’t a full equal member of the family, either.

The fact that he’s Jiang Fengmian’s ward, not a blood relative or adopted into the main family, puts him at even more of a disadvantage. It seems that Jiang Fengmian paid for all of Wei Wuxian’s expenses:

Wei WuXian took a bite, “Back then, I didn’t even have to pay when I ate at the dock. I grabbed whatever I wanted, ate whatever I wanted; ran after I grabbed, walked as I ate. A month later, the vendor would get the reimbursement from Uncle Jiang.”

(Chapter 86, Exiled Rebels translation)

While this is a bit of conjecture, I gather that he was given access to family money as if he was part of the clan, and could just charge Yunmeng Jiang whenever he shopped in Lotus Pier. Which is great so long as Wei Wuxian is accepted in Yunmeng Jiang...but as we see during the Burial Mounds settlement period, the moment that acceptance fades, Wei Wuxian is left out in the cold without a single coin. And because he isn’t a member of the family, it’s a far easier matter for him to be thrown aside, as he was when Jiang Cheng grew angry with him over his decision to protect the Wens.

Of course, Chinese families traditionally did share their wealth, and still do nowadays. Ideally, in a loving family, this is a positive and means they all support each other; but when that isn’t the case, it leaves the victims of abuse vulnerable.

In Wei Wuxian’s case, he has some of the benefits of being a member of the Jiang clan, without ever actually being a member. He can be cast aside at any time, and he is never afforded the same respect by wider cultivation society which an inner clan member would have.

I don’t believe the novel ever directly addresses Wei Wuxian’s acceptance into the guest lectures at Cloud Recesses in this light, but the donghua actually has a very interesting little exchange about it which takes place between Nie Huaisang and a relative of his:

“Wei-xiong is just a disciple from Yunmeng. Why could he come to Gusu to study?”

“Wei-xiong is the son of Jiang-zongzhu’s old friend. He has been treated as their own son.”

“Oh, I see. That explains why they don’t look like master and servant, they seem like brothers.”

(MDZS Donghua, Episode 3, Guodong Subs)

Wei Wuxian was only allowed to attend these lectures, which seem to mainly be for sect heirs and inner clan members, on the grace of being Jiang Fengmian’s ward (and probably to accompany Jiang Cheng). While this exchange is not from the book, we never do see or hear about any of the other students being outer disciples rather than members of the main clan. Here’s what the novel had to say about it:

In that year, aside from the YunmengJiang Sect, there were also the young masters from other clans, sent to study here from parents who heard of the reputation. The young masters were all around fifteen or sixteen. Because the sects all knew the others, although they weren’t close, they had seen others’ faces before. It was widely known that, although Wei WuXian’s surname was not Jiang, he was the leading disciple of the sect leader of the YunmengJiang Sect—Jiang FengMian, and also the son of his friend who had passed away. In fact, the sect leader regarded him as his own child. This, along with how youths were not as concerned with status and ancestry as elders, they were soon friends. Only a few sentences passed, and everyone started to call others older brothers or younger brothers.

(Chapter 13, Exiled Rebels translation)

And Wei Wuxian isn’t treated as an equal at school, either; when he and his friends get up to mischief, he’s frequently the only one punished. Nie Huaisang even notes that Lan Qiren seems to be far harder on him than the other students:

Nie HuaiSang spoke, “Why does it seem like old man Lan is especially strict towards you? He always directs his scoldings at you.”

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

And we see Wei Wuxian being the sole one punished out of a group taken for granted by his friends multiple times:

As a result of cheating notes flying everywhere in the air, Lan WangJi suddenly attacked during the test, and caught a few initiators of the commotion. Lan QiRen exploded with anger, writing letters to the prominent clans to tell on them. He loathed Wei WuXian—in the beginning, although these disciples could hardly sit still, at least nobody started anything, and their buttocks were able to stick to their legs. However, now that Wei Ying came, the originally spineless brats were influenced by his encouragement, venturing out at night and drinking alcohol however they pleased. The unhealthy practices grew greater and greater. As he had expected, Wei Ying was one of the biggest threats to humanity!

Jiang FengMian replied, “Ying has always been like this. Please take care to discipline him, Mr. Lan.”

And so, Wei WuXian was punished again.

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

The boys were all cheating, but Wei Wuxian is the one punished most severely. This happens when he's caught sneaking alcohol, too (though to be fair to Lan Wangji, he probably was only punishing him, and himself alongside him, for being outside after curfew when he threw them off the wall).

Of course, Jiang Cheng didn’t dare to say that Wei WuXian was at fault. Thinking back, it was them who urged Wei WuXian to buy liquor. Each and every one of them should have been punished. He could only speak in a vague way, “It’s fine, it’s fine; it’s not that serious! He can walk. Wei WuXian, why are you still up there?!”

(Chapter 18, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s not entirely unreasonable for the one who gets caught to take the punishment (what’s he going to do, rat his friends out?) but their ready acceptance of this does fit into a pattern.

Jiang Cheng’s top was tied at his waist. Hearing his mother’s chastise, he hastily put it over his head. Madam Yu scolded again, “And you boys! Can’t you see that A-Li’s here? Who taught you brats to dress like this in front of a girl!?”

Of course, it was needless to think who led the group. Thus, Madam Yu’s next sentence, as usual, was “Wei Ying! Do you want to die!?”

[...]

He could still feel some pain in his back, so he tossed the paddles to someone else, sat down, and felt the stinging piece of flesh, “How unfair. Nobody else was wearing anything, but why was I the only one who got scolded and beaten up?”

Jiang Cheng, “Because you hurt the eye the most with no clothes on, for sure.”

[...]

Everyone nodded. Wei WuXian, “Thanks for the praise, you guys. I’m even starting to feel some goose bumps.”

The shidi, “You’re welcome, Da-Shixiong. You protect us every single time. You deserve even more!”

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

While we know that Yu Ziyuan is an abusive person in general, she abuses Wei Wuxian far more harshly than anyone else, even the outer disciples. It’s made clear to us in Lotus Seed Pods that she whips him regularly over minor infractions:

Madam Yu was even angrier, “How dare you run! Come back right now and kneel!” As she spoke, she let loose her whip with a flip of her wrist. Wei WuXian felt a searing pain slash across his back. He loudly exclaimed, “Ow!” And almost tripped on the ground.

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

And that his back is heavily scarred from it:

He felt his back, covered in scars both old and new, and still couldn’t hold back the question he’d be thinking about, “How awfully unfair. Why is it that I’m the only one who gets beaten up, whenever something happens?”

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

Rumours about this even made it outside of Lotus Pier; during their visit to the ancestral hall years later, Lan Wangji even states that he heard about some of it:

Lan WangJi had on an expression of understanding, “Kneeling as punishment?”

Wei WuXian mused, “How did you know? That’s right. Madam Yu punished me almost every day.”

Lan WangJi nodded, “I have heard of a few things.”

Wei WuXian, “It’s so famous that even people outside Yunmeng, even you Gusu people know—how could it be ‘a few things’? But, to be honest, in all these years, I’ve never seen a second woman whose temper was as bad as Madam Yu’s. She told me to go to the ancestral hall and kneel no matter how small the matter was. Hahaha…”

(Chapter 87, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian’s lower social standing is definitely a part of why Yu Ziyuan is able to abuse him so terribly and receive little to no censure for it. Everyone at Lotus Pier simply takes it for granted, with the exception of Jiang Yanli who at least does try to deflect her mother when she is angry with Wei Wuxian:

Yet, all of a sudden, someone’s quiet voice drifted by Madam Yu’s ear, “Mom, do you want to eat some watermelon…”

[...]

Jiang YanLi almost cried from her mother’s pinching, mumbling, “Mom, A-Xian and the others were hiding here to relieve the heat and I came here on my own. Don’t blame them… Do… Do you want some watermelon… I don’t know who gave them to us, but it’s really sweet. Eating watermelon in the summer is great for cooling down and quenching thirst. I’ll cut them for you…”

(Chapter 125, Lotus Seed Pod, Exiled Rebels translation)

She both tries to deflect her mother from her anger, and also outright states that Wei Wuxian and the other boys weren’t at fault. Jiang Yanli seems to be the only one at Lotus Pier who ever does this.

After the war, Wei Wuxian attends social events at Jiang Cheng’s side but is never quite treated as an equal, either. See how at the Flower Banquet, Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue greet Jiang Cheng but not him:

Suddenly, a voice spoke, “Sect Leader Nie, Sect Leader Lan.”

Hearing the familiar voice, Wei WuXian’s heart jumped. Nie MingJue turned around again. Jiang Cheng came over, dressed in purple, hand on his sword.

And the person standing beside Jiang Cheng was none other than Wei WuXian himself.

He saw himself walk with hands behind his back, wearing all black. A flute in the shade of ink stuck to his waist, hanging down with crimson colored tassels. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Jiang Cheng, he nodded in this direction to show respect. Attitude slightly arrogant, he took on a profound, disdainful appearance. As Wei WuXian saw the stance of his younger self, the root of his teeth even cringed in soreness. He felt that he really was pretentious, and itched to just beat the hell out of himself.

Lan WangJi also saw Wei WuXian, who stood beside Jiang Cheng. The tip of his brows twitched ever so slightly. Soon afterward, his light-colored eyes returned to where they were, still looking forward in that composed way. Jiang Cheng and Nie MingJue nodded at each other with grave faces. Neither had anything unnecessary to say. After a hasty greeting, the two walked their separate ways. Wei WuXian saw his black-clothed self glance around as he finally saw Lan WangJi. He looked as if he was about to speak before Jiang Cheng came over and stood to his side.

(Chapter 49, Exiled Rebels translation)

They then proceed to talk about him and his lack of a sword behind his back, never having said a word to Wei Wuxian himself:

Nie MingJue’s gaze turned over again, “Why does Wei Ying not carry his sword?”

Carrying one’s sword was like wearing formal attire. In such gatherings, it was a non-negligible indication of etiquette. Those from prominent sects saw it as especially important. Lan WangJi responded in a lukewarm tone, “He had probably forgotten.”

Ning MingJue raised a brow, “He can even forget something like this?”

(Chapter 49, Exiled Rebels translation)

At Phoenix Mountain it also seems that Wei Wuxian is conditionally a member of the gentry, but not treated like an equal. Sometimes there are these more cheerful interactions:

Holding the flower, Lan WangJi seemed to be quite cold. His tone seemed cold as well, “Was it you?”

Wei WuXian immediately denied it, “No, it wasn’t.”

The maidens beside him spoke at once, “Don’t believe him. It was him!”

Wei WuXian, “How could you treat a good person like this? I’m getting angry!”

Giggling, the maidens pulled their reins and went to the formations of their own sects. Lan WangJi lowered the hand that he held the flower with and shook his head. Jiang Cheng spoke, “ZeWu-Jun, HanGuang-Jun, apologies. Don’t pay attention to him.”

Lan XiChen smiled, “That is fine. I will thank Young Master Wei’s kindness behind the flower in place of WangJi.”

(Chapter 69, Exiled Rebels translation)

But then he will be publicly disparaged and it is readily accepted by others. Jin Zixun first starts an argument with him by criticising Wei Wuxian for fighting Jin Zixuan, then turns the topic to Wei Wuxian’s having taken a third of the prey in the hunt.

Jin ZiXun, “Wei, just what what do you mean by going against ZiXuan so many times?”

[...]

Jin ZiXun sneered, “How is it presumptuous? How is any part of you not presumptuous? Today, in such an important hunt involving all of the sects, you really showed off your abilities, didn’t you? One third of the prey have been taken by you. You sure feel pleased, don’t you?”

[...]

He mocked, “But it’s only natural that you don’t think you’re in the wrong. It’s not the first time that Young Master Wei has disregarded the rules. You didn’t wear your sword in both last time’s flower banquet and this time’s hunt. It’s such a grand event, and you care nothing for courtesy. In what regard to you hold us, the people who are present with you?”

[...]

No disciple had ever dared say such lofty words in front of so many people. A moment later, as Jin ZiXun finally regained his composure, he yelled, “Wei WuXian! You’re only the son of a servant—how dare you be so bold!!!”

(Chapters 69-70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Naturally, Jin Zixun is able to weasel out of giving an apology, even though Jiang Yanli demands one. And guess who also takes a third of the prey, but this time without any censure?

Jin GuangYao, “In reality, not only did Young Master Wei keep a third of the prey to himself, our eldest brother has eliminated over half of the fays and the monsters as well.”

Hearing this, Lan XiChen laughed, “That is how Brother is like, after all.”

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Never a Brother

As I’ve already mentioned, Wei Wuxian was never adopted by Jiang Fengmian, or adopted into the clan in general in even a distant way. And this nebulous ‘we’re letting you live with the main family as a charity, but you aren’t really one of us’ attitude also reflects in his relationship with Jiang Yanli.

I’ve already discussed how Wei Wuxian was more like a companion servant to Jiang Cheng than a brother. It’s also worth noting quickly that neither of them ever refers to the other as a brother. Wei Wuxian refers to Jiang Cheng as his shidi a few times, and Jiang Cheng never even refers to him as his shixiong (because Jiang Cheng views him as his servant, not as even a martial brother, I’d argue).

Only one member of the Jiang family ever does use familial terms to refer to Wei Wuxian: his shijie, Jiang Yanli. At Phoenix Mountain, when Wei Wuxian is being insulted by Jin Zixun, Jiang Yanli stands up and defends him, and states clearly that she considers Wei Wuxian a little brother:

The people who gathered around Jin ZiXun had on the same dark faces as he did. Yet, taking into consideration Jiang YanLi’s background, they didn’t dare talk back to her directly.

Jiang YanLi added, “Besides, hunting is hunting, so why bring the matter of discipline to the table? A-Xian is a disciple of the YunmengJiang Sect. He grew up with my brother and I, and so he’s as close as a brother is to me. Calling him the ‘son of a servant’—I’m sorry, but I won’t accept this. And thus…”

She straightened her back and raised her voice, “I hope that Young Master Jin ZiXun would apologize to Wei WuXian of the YunmengJiang Sect!”

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

It doesn’t come through in the Exiled Rebels translation, but she actually refers to Wei Wuxian as her didi in this scene, not her shidi. She’s trying to draw a line and state that Wei Wuxian is a part of the family. However, no one takes her seriously, and shortly afterwards we see Jin-furen insisting that Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian shouldn’t be walking alone together because it would be inappropriate.

Jiang YanLi whispered, “That’s not necessary. I’d like to have a few words with A-Xian. He can walk me back.”

Madam Jin raised her brows, looking Wei WuXian up and down. Her gaze was somewhat cautious, as if she was feeling displeased, “A young man and a young woman—you two can’t stick together all the time if nobody else is present.”

Jiang YanLi, “A-Xian is my younger brother.”

[...]

Wei WuXian lowered his head, “Excuse my absence, Madam Jin.”

He and Jiang YanLi bowed at the same time. As they turned around to leave, Madam Jin grabbed Jiang YanLi’s hand and refused to let her leave.

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jin Zixuan also never treats Wei Wuxian the way one might a brother who is still angered with him over his past dismissive treatment of his sister. For example, see their argument at the Flower Banquet:

Before he could see how Lan WangJi reacted, a series of clamor suddenly came from the other end of the base. Wei WuXian heard his own raging shout, “Jin ZiXuan! Don’t you forget about what things you said and what things you did? What do you mean by this, now?!”

Wei WuXian remembered. So it was this time!

On the other side, Jin ZiXuan also fumed, “I was asking Sect Leader Jiang, not you! The one I was asking about was also Maiden Jiang. How is that related to you?!”

[...]

Jin ZiXuan, “Sect Leader Jiang—this is our sect’s flower banquet, and this is your sect’s person! Are you going to look after him or not?!”

[...]

...Jiang Cheng’s voice came, “Wei WuXian, you can just shut your mouth. Young Master Jin, I’m sorry. My sister is doing quite well. Thank you for your concern. We can talk about this next time.”

Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “Next time? There is no next time! Whether or not she’s doing well isn’t any of his business, either! Who does he think he is?”

He turned around and started to leave. Jiang Cheng shouted, “Get back here! Where are you going?”

Wei WuXian waved his hands, “Anywhere is fine! Just don’t let me see that face of his. I never wanted to come, anyway. You can deal with whatever’s here yourself.”

Having been abandoned by Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng’s face immediately clouded over.

[...]

Jiang Cheng stowed away the clouds on his face, “Don’t mind him. Look at how impolite he is. He’s used to such rude behavior at home.”

He then began to converse with Jin ZiXuan.

(Chapter 49, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jiang Cheng also quietly dismisses the notion of Wei Wuxian as a brother in relation to Jiang Yanli; when they visit to show him her wedding dress and she asks for a courtesy name, Jiang Cheng specifically says:

Jiang Cheng, “The courtesy name of my unborn nephew.”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Not our nephew, mine.

Even the disastrous invitation to Jin Ling’s one month celebration is framed as a favour to an old shidi, not a family member:

Jin ZiXun, “Since you’ve heard it from him already, you should know that I can’t wait. Don’t tell me that you’ll disregard your brother’s life for the sake of Sister-in-Law’s shidi?!”

Jin ZiXuan, “You clearly know that I’m not that kind of person! He might not necessarily be the one who cursed you with Hundred Holes either. Why are you so rash? I was the one who invited Wei WuXian to A-Ling’s full-month celebration anyways. If this is the way you do things, where does that leave me? Where does it leave my wife?”

Jin ZiXun raised his voice, “It’s best if he doesn’t attend! What does Wei WuXian think he is—does he deserve to attend our sect’s banquet? Whoever touches him gets nothing but a splash of black! ZiXuan, when you invited him, weren’t you worried that you, Sister-in-Law and A-Ling would receive an irremovable stain for the rest of your lives?!”

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s clear that not only does wider society not consider Wei Wuxian and the Jiangs siblings...they themselves don’t, either. Wei Wuxian, after all, readily accepts that his relationship with them is over after he leaves the sect:

Before they parted, Jiang Cheng spoke, “We won’t see you off. It wouldn’t be good if someone saw us.”

Wei WuXian nodded. He understood that it wasn’t easy for the Jiang siblings to have come out here. If someone else saw them, all those things they did for the public to believe would be wasted. He spoke, “We’ll go first.”

[...]

He turned around, knowing that it’d be a long time before he’d get to see the people he was familiar with again.

But… right now, wasn’t he on his way to seeing people he was familiar with as well?

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Cast Aside

The way cultivation society treats Wei Wuxian when he is not with the Jiangs is also very revealing. Any level of respect he is given is contingent on his position in the Jiang household, and when they aren’t around that minimal respect fades away. Look at how disrespectfully he is treated when he approaches Jin Zixun to ask for Wen Ning’s location.

Wei WuXian didn’t make small talk either, getting straight to the point, “No thanks. I don’t.” He nodded slightly at Jin ZiXun, “Young Master Jin, could I please have a word with you?”

Jin ZiXun, “If you have anything to say, come after our banquet is over.”

In reality, he didn’t want to talk to Wei WuXian at all. Wei WuXian could see this as well, “How long do I have to wait?”

Jin ZiXun, “Probably around six to eight hours. Or maybe ten to twelve. Or until tomorrow.”

Wei WuXian, “I’m afraid I can’t wait for that long.”

Jin ZiXun’s voice was arrogant, “You’ll have to wait even if you can’t.”

Jin GuangYao, “Young Master Wei, what do you need ZiXun for? Is it a pressing matter?”

Wei WuXian, “Pressing indeed. It allows for no delay.”

[...]

Jin ZiXun, “Wei WuXian, what do you mean? You came for him? You aren’t standing up for a Wen-dog, are you?”

Wei WuXian wore a broad grin, “Since when is it your business whether I’d like to stand up for him or cut his head off? Just give him to me!”

At the last sentence, the grin on his face vanished. His tone turned cold as well. It was clear that he had lost his patience. Many of the people within Glamor Hal shivered in fear. Jin ZiXun felt his scalp tingle as well. Yet, his anger soon soared. He shouted, “Wei WuXian, you are too bold! Did the LanlingJin Sect invite you today? And you dare run wild here. Do you really think that you’re invincible, that nobody has the courage to confront you? Do you want to overturn the Heavens?”

Wei WuXian smiled, “You’re comparing yourself to the Heavens? Excuse my language, but your face is a little too thick, isn’t it?”

[...]

Just as he was about to rebut, sitting on the foremost seat, Jin GuangShan spoke up.

His voice seemed kind, “It’s not anything too important anyways. You youngsters, why lose your tempers over such a thing? However, Young Master Wei, let me be fair here. Barging in when the LanlingJin Sect is holding a private banquet is indeed inappropriate.”

To say that Jin GuangShan didn’t mind what happened at Phoenix Mountain would be impossible. This was also why he only smiled when Jin ZiXun bickered with Wei WuXian but didn’t stop them, and only spoke up when Jin ZiXun was at the disadvantage.

Wei WuXian nodded, “Sect Leader Jin, it was never my intention to disturb your private banquet. My apologies. However, the whereabouts of the people whom Young Master Jin took are still unclear. Just a moment of delay, and it might be too late. One of the group had once saved me before. I will definitely not sit back and watch. Please do not feel pressured. I will make amends for this at a later date.”

[...]

After a few laughs, he continued, “Sect Leader Jin, let me ask you something else. Do you think that, because the QishanWen Sect is gone, the LanlingJin Sect has all right to replace it?”

All was silent within Glamor Hall.

Wei WuXian added, “Everything has to be given to you? Everyone has to listen to you? Looking at how the LanlingJin Sect does things, I almost thought that it was the QishanWen Sect’s empire all over again.”

[...]

A guest cultivator on his right shouted, “Wei WuXian! Watch your words!”

Wei WuXian, “Did I say something wrong? Forcing living people to be bait and beating them up whenever they refused to obey—is this any different from what the QishanWen Sect does?”

Another guest cultivator stood up, “Of course it’s different. The Wen-dogs did all kinds of evil. To arrive at such an end is only karma for them. We only avenged a tooth for a tooth, letting them taste the fruit that they themselves had sown. What’s wrong with this?”

Wei WuXian, “Take revenge on the ones who bite you. Wen Ning’s branch doesn’t have much blood on their hands. Don’t tell me that you find them guilty by association?”

Another person spoke, “Young Master Wei, is it that they don’t have much blood on their hands just because you say so? These are only your one-sided words. Where’s the evidence?”

[...]

Jin GuangShan stood up as well, his face a mixture of shock, anger, fear, and hatred, “Wei WuXian! Just because… Sect Leader Jiang isn’t here doesn’t mean you can be so reckless!”

Wei WuXian’s voice was harsh, “Do you think that I wouldn’t be reckless if he were here? If I wanted to kill someone, who could stop me, and who would dare stop me?!”

[...]

“Young Master Wei really is too impulsive. How could he speak in such a way in front of so many sects?”

Lan WangJi spoke coldly, “Was he wrong?”

Jin GuangYao paused almost unnoticeably. He immediately laughed, “Haha. Yes, he’s right. But it’s because he’s right that he can’t say it in front of them, correct?”

Lan XiChen seemed as if he was deep in thought, “Young Master Wei’s heart really has changed.”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

The only person at this banquet who speaks to Wei Wuxian respectfully is Jin Guangyao, a consummate manipulator who is also of a lower social status. Everyone else speaks to him dismissively, refusing to respect his request for Wen Ning’s location even though he states that Wen Ning helped him during the war. Wei Wuxian is extremely polite at the beginning of this conversation, and only slowly begins to lose his temper when Jin Zixun speaks rudely and Jin Guangshan decides to bring up the matter of the Yinhufu (Wei Wuxian is right in suspecting him of wanting to replace Qishan Wen, of course, and that it’s very bold of them to think they have the right to a spiritual tool of his just because...they’re rich?).

When the sects meet at Koi Tower to discuss the breakout at Qiongqi Path, no one considers Wei Wuxian as an independent agent who they might actually want to meet and negotiate with themselves. He is a wayward servant of Yunmeng Jiang who the sect leader has failed to keep in hand.

Jiang Cheng only spoke after a few moments, “What he did was indeed a bit too much. Sect Leader Jin, I apologize to you in place of him. If there’s any way at all to help the situation, please let me know. I’ll definitely compensate for things however I can.”

[...]

Jin GuangShan, “Sect Leader Jiang, Wei Ying is your right-hand man. You value him a lot. All of us know this. However, on the other hand, it’s hard to tell whether or not he actually respects you. In any case, I’ve been a sect leader for so many years and I’ve never seen the servant of any sect dare be so arrogant, so proud. Have you heard what they say outside? Things like how during the Sunshot Campaign the victories of the YunmengJiang Sect were all because of Wei WuXian alone—what nonsense!”

[...]

Lan WangJi sat with his back straight, speaking in a tone of absolute tranquility, “I did not hear Wei Ying say this. I did not hear him express the slightest disrespect towards Sect Leader Jiang either.”

[...]

The good thing was that, not long after he felt awkward, Jin GuangYao came to save the day, exclaiming, “Really? That day, Young Master Wei busted into Koi Tower with such force. He said too many things, one more shocking than the next. Perhaps he said a few things that were along those lines. I can’t remember them either.”

[...]

Jin GuangShan followed the transition, “That’s right. Anyhow, his attitude has always been arrogant.”

One of the sect leaders added, “To be honest, I’ve wanted to say this since a long time ago. Although Wei WuXian did a few things during the Sunshot Campaign, there are many guest cultivators who did more than him. I’ve never seen anyone as full of themselves as him. Excuse my bluntness, but he’s the son of a servant. How could the son of a servant be so arrogant?”

[...]

“In the beginning, Sect Leader Jin asked Wei Ying for the Tiger Seal with nothing but good intentions, worried that he wouldn’t be able to control it and lead to a disaster. He, however, used his own yardstick to measure another’s intents. Did he think that everyone is after his treasure? What a joke. In terms of treasures, is there any sect that doesn’t hold a few treasures?”

“I knew that something would eventually happen if he continued on the ghostly path—look! His killing intents are being revealed already. Killing indiscriminately those from our side just because of a few Wen-dogs…”

[...]

Jin GuangShan continued, “Sect Leader Jiang, you’re not like your father. It’s just been a couple of years since the reestablishment of the YunmengJiang Sect, precisely when you should be displaying your power. And he doesn’t even know to avoid suspicions. What would the Jiang Sect’s new disciples think if they saw him? Don’t tell me you’d let them see him as their role model and look down on you?”

He spoke one sentence after another, striking the iron while it was still hot. Jiang Cheng spoke slowly, “Sect Leader Jin, that’s enough. I’ll go to Burial Mound and deal with this.”

Jin GuangShan felt satisfied, speaking in a sincere tone, “That’s the spirit. Sect Leader Jiang, there are some things, some people that you shouldn’t put up with.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is very reminiscent of the way that Jin Zixuan would often turn around and say, ‘Why aren’t you controlling your servant?’ to Jiang Cheng whenever he had a dispute with Wei Wuxian over his treatment of Jiang Yanli.

When Jiang Cheng goes to the Burial Mounds and Wei Wuxian defects from Yunmeng Jiang in order to help the sect save face, Jiang Cheng treats this as a personal betrayal. He not only challenges Wei Wuxian to a duel but then announces that Wei Wuxian has betrayed Yunmeng Jiang and declared himself the enemy of cultivation society:

After the fight, Jiang Cheng told the outside that Wei WuXian defected from the sect and was an enemy to the entire cultivation world. The YunmengJiang Sect had already cast him out. From then on, no ties remained between them—a clear line was drawn. Henceforth, no matter what he did, they’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect!

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

“Wei Wuxian has betrayed the sect, and publicly regards all cultivation sects as enemy! Yunmeng Jiang Sect hereby expels him, breaking all ties with him and drawing a clear line between us. Henceforth, no matter what this person does, it will have nothing to do with Yunmeng Jiang Sect!”

(Modao Zushi Radio Drama, Season 3 Episode 5, Suibian Subs)

Naturally, no one ever questions this or wants to hear Wei Wuxian’s side of the story. Jiang Cheng is a sect leader and Wei Wuxian his servant, and that is all cultivation society needs to know.

In Conclusion

Wei Wuxian was never really part of the Jiang family. The wider social view was that he was a servant who was lucky to be taken in by the family and allowed to live in the main house alongside the sect leader’s children. He’s accepted into cultivation society conditionally, but only as someone who remains a rank below everyone else.

This attitude isn’t just the wider social view which the family themselves disregard; they all play into it. Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Cheng both actively enforce it, Jiang Fengmian passively enforces it, and Jiang Yanli tries but fails to break through the social barriers between them.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #modao zushi

[angstymdzsthoughts]

I love your posts!! I just gotta ask tho, can you do something about JC and Qin Su? Unrequited love from both sides? Qin Su shows everything that matches JC's list in a marriage partner, and JC would be Qin Su's ideal man, realising so after a year of marriage to JGY. So lots of pining! I was watching episode 40 of the Untamed, the banquet at Koi Tower (Carp Tower??) and when Qin Su first makes her appearance, I thought I saw some pining between the two!! Love your stuff!!

Qin Su hasn't been touched by her husband since their wedding night. At first he said he didn't want to risk losing the baby and she was understanding. Then he said he wanted her to recover from child birth and she was grateful. Then he expressed a lack of attraction due to the marks on her skin and her gained weight and she was hurt. Then her sweet baby was gone and her husband gave dozens of reasons why he couldn't give her another child and she was numb to all of it.

She stopped asking him to come to her bed at night. She focused on her duties as Madam Jin and when her heart could bare it, she played with sweet little Jin Ling. It led to her spending more time with sect leader Jiang.

The man was handsome, even with his ever present scowl. He didn't treat her like she was broken and he respected her. He told her she was strong and to never forget it. He was gentle and attentive to Jin Ling in a way she had wished A-Yao had been with A-Song.

Whenever she was the one to bring A-Ling to Lotus Pier he would offer to let her and her guards stay for a few weeks to rest. Those days in Lotus Pier may have been the happiest she had in years.

Jiang Wanyin would invite her to share meals with him and Jin Ling. She would help Jiang Wanyin get A-Ling to bed by telling stories and tucking him in. Sometimes, she would bring sweets and tea into Jiang Wanyin's study when he was still working hard late into the night and they would talk.

All of it was scandalously domestic. It was the kind of life she had dreamed of as a girl. She wasn't surprised when she realized just how deep her feelings for Jiang Wanyin had grown.

She was certain that A-Yao knew, but she never heard any rumors of an affair or improper feelings between her and Jiang Wanyin. He never stopped her from writing to Jiang Wanyin under the guise of checking in on he and A-Ling's health and he never stopped her from escorting A-Ling to and from Lotus Pier even when he was old enough to travel on his own. She wasn't sure if it was her husband trying to apologize by allowing it or if he just didn't care because he knew nothing would ever happen between them.

She was not so foolish as to believe her feelings for Jiang Wanyin would ever go anywhere. Even if he returned her feelings what could be done about it? She didn’t know how her husband would react if her stomach swelled with the results of an affair, but can’t imagine it going well. Divorcing A-Yao and remarrying Jiang Wanyin would reflect badly on all parties involved and everyone’s reputation would suffer for it. All she could do was hold her feelings close to her chest and hidden away, dreading the day that Jiang Wanyin found a wife who would never be good enough.

#Reply #Here take some pinning #Qin Su #Jiang Cheng #Jin Guangyao #MDZS #unrequited love

[robininthelabyrinth]

Nie Mingjue/Jiang Yanli/Qin Su - either woman/woman's family approaching him about a possible match

ao3

“I’m sorry,” Nie Mingjue said blankly. “What?”

“Marriage,” Jiang Yanli said, as if the only reason for his reaction was because he hadn’t heard them.

“With us,” Qin Su said, nodding, as if she agreed.

Nie Mingjue had actually heard them just fine the first time, actually.

“You’re already married,” he said.

“My husband is dead,” Jiang Yanli said.

This was true.

“My husband is my brother,” Qin Su said.

“You mean he’s my brother,” Nie Mingjue corrected her. “Sworn brother, that is.”

“No,” she said. “That’s not what I mean.”

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth to ask her what she did mean, then abruptly thought Jin bastards and blanched. “Does he – know?”

“Yes.”

Awkward, Nie Mingjue thought, especially with her belly heavy with what must be their child. Still, she wasn’t wrong that a revelation of incest would automatically nullify her marriage.

Wait, no. He was not considering this.

“Why me?” he asked instead of refusing outright, and cursed himself in his thoughts.

“Our children are Sect Leader Jin’s grandchildren,” Jiang Yanli said, and Nie Mingjue thought of Jin Ling as he’d last seen him, small and red-faced like all babies. “He won’t let me return to my brother’s home – he’s told me that much already – and Qin Su…he wouldn’t react well if he knew.”

No. No, he wouldn’t.

He’d probably just have both her and the child killed.

“You’re the only sect leader who can stand up to him,” Qin Su said.

“I can’t just steal you away,” Nie Mingjue protested, even though, well, he could.

The Jin sect had the money and they wanted power, but they didn’t have it, not yet. Nie Mingjue, though…everyone knew who’d won the Sunshot Campaign, and it wasn’t Wei Wuxian with his demonic cultivation or Lan Xichen descending from unexpected corners wielding his flute and sword, and it wasn’t even the now-dubbed Jin Guangyao who had given Wen Ruohan the final blow.

(There were rumors going around that that was a lie that Nie Mingjue had concocted for Meng Yao’s benefit, giving him the credit of the final kill so that his former deputy could win a place in Lanling Jin, since after all there was no one to say otherwise. He’d rebutted those rumors as harshly as he could, because they weren’t true, and had even tried to be as harsh to him in public as possible - not hard, given his mixed feelings about him - to suggest a lack of collusion, but he wasn’t good at that sort of thing, and the whispers persisted despite everything.)

No, Nie Mingjue was the one everyone respected. His was a reputation as bright and clear and unbreakable as diamond – he could probably murder a man in broad daylight and everyone would automatically assume the man had deserved it.

There was a reason he mostly tried to stay home these days.

“There’s a tradition in the Jiang sect of bride stealing,” Jiang Yanli murmured. “Especially when a debt is owed.”

It was a Jin sect tradition, too – they’d always been close, the Jin and Jiang, similar to the way that the Nie and Lan automatically cleaved together. Their ties together dated back to the days of their ancestors, before they were gentry, the days they both liked to forget when the Jiang were water pirates and the Jin the merchants that sold their stolen goods; they’d developed all sorts of traditions together, and just like the Lan and their unchanging rules, carved into stone, those traditions, while out of favor, had never been officially revoked.

There wouldn’t be much of a life in Lanling for Jiang Yanli, the widow of the heir that was no longer present – little more than a living memory of the son Jin Guangshan had treasured in the palm of his hand, and worse, the woman who had defended as her brother the man that killed him. And for Qin Sun, it was, if anything, even worse; she had willingly married the son Jin Guangshan despised, and there wouldn’t be much life for her once she was known to have committed incest, even inadvertent.

If she was known.

Nie Mingjue didn’t like lying, but surely Jin Guangyao, now that he knew about the relationship, would be desperate to find a way out of his predicament in a way that did not hurt the woman Nie Mingjue was sure that he loved – after all, he couldn’t stay married to her, not knowing what he knew, but divorcing her and sending her back to her father’s home with his son in her belly would be cruel; she would never be able to marry again, and the child would be reviled as a bastard.

(Jin Guangyao knew, and he was ruthless like his father, but he hadn’t killed Qin Su in favor of another, better, cleaner bride, not even upon discovering the truth. Surely that meant he wasn’t as bad as Nie Mingjue sometimes feared he was..?)

They were right. There was no life for them in Lanling, but they had Jin Guangshan’s grandsons, and so he would never willingly let them go even as they suffered.

Nie Mingjue – did not like to see people suffer.

Fuck.

“Qinghe doesn’t have that tradition,” he said, because he was too stubborn to just give in.

“We will make it clear that we encouraged it,” Qin Su said. “That we came to you for shelter.”

That would help, he supposed – he didn’t especially want to get known for stealing his sworn brother’s bride, although he suspected, helplessly, that most people wouldn’t blame him or her and would in fact praise Qin Su for trading upwards. But they could concoct some sort of story: some private tragedy that meant that she could no longer live with Jin Guangyao, that he in his desperation had asked his sworn brother to take her in rather than send her to her father’s house…most ‘bride stealing’ was really that sort of rough trade, women being shuttled around as appropriate to avoid trouble or increase gain.

“I could give you shelter without marrying you.”

“Us, but not our children,” Jiang Yanli said simply, and fuck everything, she was right. “Without you as their adopted father, they would fall back to Sect Leader Jin. We know what we’re asking of you, Sect Leader Nie. If you had someone else in mind, we would be fine marrying in as secondary wives –”

“I don’t,” he said, cutting her off. “I don’t have anyone in mind. My sect will go to my brother after me.”

They both seemed surprised by that, which was fairly normal. Most people were.

“Even if I have children,” he clarified, because that was always the next question people asked: whether he’d suffered some sort of embarrassing accident that made children impossible, which of course he hadn’t. He wanted his brother to inherit. “I would be happy to take your sons as my own and – give you more, if you wished. But they would be a branch family at most, not the direct heirs of Qinghe Nie.”

“That’s fine,” Qin Su said, and Jiang Yanli nodded.

“I know that marrying you might cause Sect Leader Jin to disinherit my son from Lanling Jin,” she said. “I do not mind it. Jin Ling...my son deserves to grow up happy and loved, and that is more important to me than all the gold in the world.”

Nie Mingjue couldn’t disagree with that.

“Very well,” he said, then frowned. “What about Wei Wuxian? After your husband’s death, Sect Leader Jin has been calling for his head, though I understand he agreed to compromise by only giving up the Ghost General and his sister…”

The two women exchanged looks, as if there was something they were holding back, unwilling to say.

Nie Mingjue felt the start of a headache. “None of that,” he said firmly. “Do you want to marry me or do you want to use me? Give me at least enough respect not to keep secrets right before my face.”

Another exchange of looks, but more surprised and even, he thought, pleased.

“Very well,” Qin Su said, and smiled at him – they both smiled at him. “About that – we have some concerns…”

#mdzs #nie mingjue #qin su #jiang yanli #my fic #my fics

[drwcn]

ok but for fem!wwx au does lan zhan believe the rumours? and if so what does that mean for the whole 'i birthed him with my own body!' cause lan zhan did the maths and was like 'no it was just the once and this child is too old' but if he thinks he was just one in a line does he go back to bm after nightless city to rescue a kid he thinks is wei ying's but with another man? does he spend the three years in seclusion cursing every jin whose name he remembers as cowards only to step out, take one look at sizhui, and have an 'oh. i know why wei ying was so determined to save wen qionglin' moment???

Answer:  Haha, nah, Lan Wangji was fairly sure Sizhui wasn’t Wei Ying’s, for several reasons. One, Wen Yuan was born before the wen remnants even went to the Burial Mount. Lan Wangji saw the small child amongst the escape party that rainy night at the  concentration camp. Also, Wen Ning was several years younger than them, which would make it kind of weird if he were the dad. Before Wen Ning became the Ghost General, everyone just knew him as Wen Qing’s kid brother.  Lan Wangji, however, absolutely believed Jiang Yan to be Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s child even before Wei Wuxian was resurrected... 

《the midnight sun》 — 

[original], snippets [x] [x] [x] [x], other posts found under #lanyan or #midnight sun

midnight sun [snippet 7]

When Yan’er turned ten, Jiang Cheng decided it was time for her to accompany him to Cultivation Conferences. Most sect heirs began their training this way; Jiang Cheng still remembered his first time, trailing nervously in Jiang Fengmian’s wake. 

Heiresses, in comparison, were few and far between. Even head disciples were rarely girls. Jiang Wanyin had no children. His head disciple was his heiress, and his heiress was Jiang Yueqian (江月千). 

长烟一空 - when the smoke clears; 皓月千里 - the moon casts a thousand miles of light 浮光跃金 - which dances upon the water, golden 静影沉壁 - the shadow of the moon itself like jade underwater*

A jade underwater indeed.

“Shifu.”

Speaking of the devil, here she comes, walking measuredly down the long stairs of Jinlintai towards Jiang Cheng, the epitome of an obedient, filial disciple. It had only been a day and Jiang Yan already had the world fooled. Only Jiang Cheng knew how impossibly obstinate and utterly uncontrollable she was when her mind was fixed.

"Ah, Jiang-zongzhu, this is..." Spotting her, Lan Xichen glanced beyond his shoulder, the question dangling in the sentence he did not deem necessary to finish.

Unbeknownst to Lan Xichen, the child that made her way over was his niece by blood. Jiang Cheng was acutely aware that Yan'er actually resembled Lan Wangji a great deal, and despite having weighed the risks and gains against each other repeatedly before deciding to bring Jiang Yan along, now he was no longer so certain in his calculations. Lan Xichen was not a simple peasant; what if he detected a trace or a hint of her heritage between the furrow of her brows or the curve of her eyes? What if...

Jiang Cheng turned, raising an arm towards Jiang Yan, an introduction ready, but whatever words he had prepared in advance died on on his tongue when he laid eyes on the girl. Suddenly, he was no longer worried that others would suspect her to be Lan Wangji's child.

There was a red ribbon in her hair.

Yan'er stopped at a polite distance from the two older men and bowed in perfect form.

Jiang Cheng's heart stuttered violently in his chest at the sight of that red ribbon falling sideway over her small shoulder. If souls could travel, his would have left him in an instant. He stood in disincorporated panic, wrestling with the nauseating sensation of being ripped from his reality and tossed so far into the distant past that he felt whole again.

"Shifu, Lan-zongzhu." Yan'er greeted.

Shifu. Lan-zongzhu. In another world, another life, she would not need to be so formal. She could easily bound up to them, carefree, cooing jiujiu and bobo and ask to be bailed out from whatever trouble she caused.

Instead, he was only her shifu, and Lan Xichen, a stranger in her life. It would be laughable, if fate had not dealt them each such a wretched hand.

Jiang Cheng stepped towards her. “Where did you get this?” 

Jiang Yan looked up in surprise, her hand reaching up and making an aborted motion to touch the red ribbon in her hair.

“Qin-shenshen gave it to me. Is it not nice?” 

Qin Su. Jiang swallowed down a sigh of relief. Earlier, the Jin servants had sent word that Jin-fu'ren had baked treats for Jin Ling, and the boy had wasted no time dragging his favourite person - his Yan'er jiejie - to his aunt's place with him. Clearly, Qin Su had seized the opportunity to dote on the girl in place of the daughter she never had. Qin Su meant well. She couldn't have known. She's never even met Wei Wuxian.

In this state, Jiang Cheng could barely bring himself to look at his disciple, but he forced himself nonetheless to kneel and tuck an errant strand of baby hair behind her ear. “Very pretty.” 

Yan'er smiled.

Jiang Cheng could cry.

They'd been lucky thus far. Yunmeng's Jiang-xiao-guniang was born a taciturn girl who did not like to smile or laugh, not even when she was expected to for polite society. Whether she was happy or sad, one would be hard pressed to tell. Only in front of her master Jiang Cheng or her Jin Ling-didi did she elect to reveal the full expanse of her emotions. Yet, whenever Jiang Cheng bore witness to that smile as warm and incandescent as sunlight, he could not help but shudder somewhere deep. Recalling the radiant days of years gone by, he could still see - every time he closed his eyes - his er-shijie smiling at him in the very same fashion.

Aiyo, Jiang Cheng ~

So...they'd been very lucky thus far, that Yan'er was not so like her mother in that way, not so free and generous with her smiles. Or else this devastating secret —Wei Wuxian's only wish — would not be able to withstand the test of time.

"Very pretty, Yan'er." He reaffirmed. "Did you thank Jin-furen?"

"I did."

Jiang Cheng stood and turned back to face Lan Xichen, and realized they were being joined by two others: Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji. The latter of two stared directly down at Jiang Yan, visibly stricken and unblinking, as though he'd just seen a ghost. After all, he had often been on the receiving end of that signature smile once upon a time. It was probably not a smile he'd ever expected to see again in this life.

In hindsight, perhaps Jiang Cheng should have made Yan'er wear her uniform like all the other disciples instead of her favourite indigo robes.

“Ah, Wangji, shufu -” Lan Xichen was quick to react, sensing animosity brewing in the disquiet that stretched taut between his younger brother and his fellow sect master. "Jiang-zongzhu, perhaps you would introduce us?"

The First Jade smiled kindly down at Yan'er. She returned his kindness with a polite nod.

Lan Wangji finally dragged his gaze up to meet Jiang Cheng's, a rarity since their violent parting at Nevernight. The venerated Hanguang-jun had developed a habit of pretending that Jiang Wanyin of Lotus Pier did not exist at all. He probably preferred, dreamed of it even, if Jiang Cheng had been one to fall of the cliff that day. He probably hated himself for not shoving him into the molten abyss when he could to avenge the love of his life.

Love. What did Lan Wangji know of love? Jiang Cheng sneered inwardly. One did not compromise one's love and abandon her, ill and with child, to bleed out alone in a cave tainted by demonic spirits.

One did not watch idly as one's love and her people are reduced to ashes for the power and greed of men either....

Jiang Cheng buried the offending thought, too familiar with Wen Qing's ghost that still haunted him in his moments of weakness. Without breaking gaze, he laid a hand on the crown of Jiang Yan's head and said, "This is my first disciple, Jiang Yan, Jiang Yueqian."

"Yueqian greets Zewu-jun, Lan-lao-xiansheng, Hanguang-jun."

Jiang Cheng watched as the icy fire within Lan Wangji's eyes flicker, fizzle, and extinguish entirely. Jiang Cheng's vague silence had allowed him the space to make his assumptions, and he had assumed the most insane explanation.

Is it so difficult for you, wondered Jiang Cheng. To believe that she could be yours? So impossible, that you would choose to doubt Wei Wuxian instead?

Fine.

Hanguang-jun. The venerated Second Jade of Gusu. That's all you'll ever be. Yan'er will never call you Father.

Jiang Cheng decided he had spent enough time today making nice. "Zewu-jun, it's getting late. If nothing else, I will be taking my leave. The conference continues tomorrow. I will see you then. Yan'er, come."

Yan'er bowed again to the senior cultivators, perfectly well-mannered. A dash of surprise crossed those bright eyes, however, when Jiang Cheng took her hand to lead her away. She followed wordlessly, trusting him, and did not look back once at the Lans she left behind.

Now that Yan'er was out in society, there would surely be rumours. No matter. Rumours were nothing Jiang Wanyin could not withstand. How ironic, indeed, that this was to be his lot in life.

For the first time, Jiang Cheng felt he could understand his father.

Note:

The poem is from the Song dynasty, by poet 范仲淹 from his work 《岳阳楼记》

Jiang Cheng of course is also working off a lot of assumptions about Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's relationship. He has his reasons for hating and blaming Lan Wangji, but not all the blame is deserved.

#Anonymous #corie replies #cql #the untamed #lanyan #midnight sun #corie fics #cql ficlet #yes jiang cheng stringed enough brain cells together to come up with a half decent name #ly7

[ibijau]

Jin Rusong Lives pt 14 / On AO3

today was suspiciously quiet at work, so I managed to finish this chapter, and the epilogue which I’ll post tomorrow /o/

“You’re bad and you killed mommy and daddy,” Jin Rusong shouted, causing Nie Huaisang to freeze on the spot, breathless from horror.

He had known that the secret couldn’t be kept for ever, but Nie Huaisang had hoped that he would get a chance to explain this to Jin Rusong with all the gentleness he could muster. Judging by the terror on the child’s face, there must have been little gentleness when the Qins had revealed the truth to him, and they might have purposefully made a traumatic experience worse, just so Jin Rusong would be more cooperative.

Just behind Nie Huaisang, Jin Rulan was less heartbroken by the fact that Jin Rusong had found out the truth about his parents’ death, and more annoyed that the Qin sect wasn’t even trying to hide that they had the child with them. He walked up to Qin Cangye, a man who could easily have been his grand-father, and started scolding him for kidnapping his little cousin in such a manner.

“Rusong is my grandson,” Qin Cangye cut him, “and that gives me more right over him than a mere cousin, and far more so when that cousin sends him to live with a liar and a murderer.”

Jin Rulan must have protested something, which in turn forced Qin Cangye to continue arguing and start threatening to have them thrown out, so Jin Rulan made a few threats of his own. In some distant way, Nie Huaisang was aware that he should have intervened, but he could think of nothing except the terrified anger on Jin Rusong’s young face. 

It really had been a mistake to let Jiang Cheng trust that child in his care. How could it ever have gone any other way than this?

In spite of Jin Rulan’s protests, they were forced to leave the Qin sect’s home, which closed its doors to their faces and immediately put up every protection it had against intruders. Jin Rulan was ever more furious at Qin Cangye for his behaviour, and since his anger needed a target, he started scolding Nie Huaisang for not helping him.

“Maybe you really are useless after all,” he grumbled. “You were so scary back in the Unclean Realm, but now you’re just going to let Qin zongzhu get away with this?”

“What do you want me to say? He does have a better claim to Rusong than either of us.”

“But he’s not really his grandfather! And you said the rest of Qin zongzhu’s family might try to hurt A-Song! What, A-Song is angry at you, so suddenly you don’t care enough to protect him anymore?”

The remark had Nie Huaisang glaring at Jin Rulan.

“His safety is my priority!” he snapped. “He has every right to hate me, and it doesn’t change the fact I care about him.”

“Good. Then think of something to get him out of here,” Jin Rulan ordered. “Isn’t that what you’re good at? Scheming and making plans?”

Part of Nie Huaisang wanted to reply that his last bit of scheming had taken him a decade to prepare, and had nearly failed a few times. He refrained from making such a comment though, because they were still right at the door of the Qin Sect’s home, and only a fool would have admitted to being powerless within earshot of his enemies.

Besides, this time Nie Huaisang had two things he’d lacked last time: a reputation, and allies.

-

Jin Rulan and Nie Huaisang ended up taking rooms at an inn of Laoling, where both of them tried to rest as well as they could. Late that night, as they were discussing different plans over dinner, they were joined by Jiang Cheng and some of his disciples. Without waiting to be invited, Jiang Cheng sat with them and sent one of his disciples to order more food and wine.

“I can’t believe you’re not even capable of looking after a child,” Jiang Cheng then told Nie Huaisang.

“I can’t believe you didn’t do a background check on Jin Yixin,” Nie Huaisang retorted. “And that you didn’t consult Qin zongzhu at all about his own grandson.”

“I can’t stand the man,” Jiang Cheng said. “Pompous, self-important prick who always thinks he’s right. He’d have demanded to have the child, but Jin Rusong hardly knows him and he’d been crying for you the whole time. I made the most logical choice.”

“So instead, you left him no choice but to kidnap his grandson,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Or he could have just contacted any of us,” Jin Rulan pointed out. “He didn’t have to jump straight away to kidnapping.”

“Entitled asshole,” Jiang Cheng agreed. “And his sons are even worse. The only decent person in that family was Qin Su, and that says more about her temper than her education. We’re getting that kid back.”

It would be best for Jin Rusong to be away from his grandfather, Nie Huaisang thought as he drank some wine. But he doubted that was the only thing at play there. He suspected that for Jiang Cheng and Qin Cangye both, this affair was about more than Jin Ruson’s wellbeing. After all, Lanling Jin was still fragile, Jin Rulan’s grasp on his own sect was shaky at best. If old allies were to turn against him, it might end badly for the Jin sect. Laoling Qin wasn’t the largest of sects, but its sphere of influence would increase instantly if Lanling Jin were to disintegrate due to internal conflicts, and more so if Qin Cangye could be the one to have provoked that fall. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng of course wanted to protect his nephew’s situation, even if he probably had little love for the rest of Lanling Jin, so he had to get involved and prevent any sort of attack against that sect.

It annoyed Nie Huaisang to be forcibly brought into that sort of petty disputes when Qinghe Nie had finally reached a certain balance in that regard, when he’d tried to make it clear after the death of Jin Guangyao that he wouldn’t involve himself in such things again. It annoyed him even more to see Jin Rusong be used as a pawn when the poor child had already suffered so much.

If the only way to protect Jin Rusong was to get involved in politics, then so be it. Nie Huaisang would do what it took.

-

There was something quite enjoyable about being on the right side of things when Jiang Cheng got angry, Nie Huaisang decided as he watched the door of the Qin sect open for them. The way Jiang Cheng refused to take no for an answer and forced others to bend to his will… some might have called him a bully, and he probably was one, but Nie Huaisang was also reminded of his brother, who cared more about doing the right thing than coddling people’s pride.

The resemblance was only superficial of course, because while Nie Mingjue had just acted as his nature pushed him to do, Nie Huaisang knew Jiang Cheng enough to guess he was just pretending not to notice others’ wounded egos. If he hadn’t known who he could offend without risk, Jiang Cheng and his once fragile sect would long ago have become Jin Guangyao’s next target. It would be interesting to see what Jiang Cheng might do, now that he too was free from that threat.

For now, what Jiang Cheng did was to demand and obtain a meeting with Qin Cangye to discuss the future of Jin Rusong. Qin Cangye wasn’t happy to deal with so much interference when he insisted that it was only his right to be raising his own grandson, but Nie Huaisang noticed that his two oldest sons appeared more conflicted about Jiang Cheng’s intervention. It wasn’t to their advantage to keep around a child that threatened their own children’s inheritance, but they had too much pride to want some other sects to order them around. Nie Huaisang couldn’t quite blame them for that, but placing oneself between Jiang Cheng and something he’d decided he wanted was about as likely as hoping to stop a charging bull. Some people might manage it, but it took far greater skill than anyone within the Qin sect had ever shown.

So for most of the day, an intense conversation went on which only barely didn’t explode into an actual argument because Qin Cangye had manners, at least when he wasn’t kidnapping children. Those manners sadly turned against him when Jiang Cheng bullied the man into hosting all three of them for the night if he didn’t want the entire cultivation world to know that Qin Cangye treated his guests with less courtesy than a mere peasant would have shown. At that point Nie Huaisang nearly objected that he wasn’t particularly interested in spending the night in this place, but eventually kept silent to avoid undermining Jiang Cheng.

It really was impressive how that man always got his way. Someday, if they ever reconciled, Nie Huaisang would have to ask Wei Wuxian how he managed to ignore Jiang Cheng’s demands.

For now, after a reluctantly offered dinner that Nie Huaisang only nibbled at to satisfy both Qin Cangye and Jiang Cheng’s egos, they were led to bedrooms where Nie Huaisang quickly realised he wouldn’t manage to sleep. If he struggled to sleep at home, it was far worse away from it, and near impossible when in the house of enemies. Whenever he had to spend the night in Jinlin Tai during Jin Guangyao’s reign, Nie Huaisang usually either wandered in the gardens or made a nuisance of himself to pass the time. Here the second option wasn’t to be considered at the moment. The first, while unwise, could be managed. Nie Huaisang’s carefully crafted bad reputation still allowed him to get away with odd behaviour, while his rank meant that any Qin disciple finding him walking around at night should remember to ask questions before attacking.

Loaling Qin did not have gardens nearly as splendid as Lanling Jin did, but Nie Huaisang wasn’t in a mood to be picky and still enjoyed walking there for a bit. He even found it almost amusing to avoid patrolling disciples, being reminded of easier days in his youth, in the Cloud Recesses. Unlike Wei Wuxian, he’d never been caught by Lan Wangji or anyone else. Then, once the garden had lost what appeal it had, Nie Huaisang walked back toward the main courtyard, thinking it might be interesting to study how it had been decorated and see if he could borrow some ideas. The style of architecture were quite different, but Nie Huaisang liked how certain things had been arranged. It was almost as practical as in his own home, but with a veneer of refinement he hadn’t yet despaired of imposing on the Unclean Realm.

Nie Huaisang hadn’t been in that courtyard for very long when he sensed another person nearby, watching him. He took a second to ground himself and turned to watch the newcomer, ready to play a comedy of some sort to excuse his presence in that place at such a late hour.

Instead, he saw Jin Rusong, watching him with a conflicted expression.

Staring back, Nie Huaisang found himself at a loss for words. Qin Cangye had been careful to keep his grandson away from his unwanted visitor, and Nie Huaisang hadn’t expected to see the child again until his fate had been decided by them, which he thought would take several days. Part of him had expected he might never see Jin Rusong again at all, in fact. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Qin Cangye only agreed to let others raise the little boy if he was promised that Nie Huaisang, the man who had caused his daughter to die, never approached her child again. A price Nie Huaisang would pay, if it was the only way to ensure Jin Rusong could grow somewhere safe.

“I can’t sleep,” Jin Rusong announced after a while.

Nie Huaisang nodded. Without thinking he sat on a nearby bench and opened his arms, silently offering to hug Jin Rusong, the way he would have done just days earlier. But too much had changed in those few days. Jin Rusong’s expression became concerned and Nie Huaisang awkwardly dropped his arms to his side.

“Should we go get someone to take you back to your room?” Nie Huaisang asked, vainly trying to smile. “It is very late for little boys to be up.”

“I don’t like my room. I don’t like sleeping alone, but Jin Yixin says I’m too old to sleep with her, and I can’t sleep with grandpa, and I don’t know anyone else here.”

It had taken so long for Jin Rusong to stop climbing into Nie Huaisang or Lan Xichen’s bed every night, for him to feel comfortable enough to sleep alone. It upset Nie Huaisang to see all that progress lost.

“Then what can I do to help you, SongSong?”

The little boy hesitated, tilting his head to the side. Jin Rusong took a step forward, then stopped for a moment before hesitantly walking closer to Nie Huaisang. He stopped for good just out of reach, and stared at his uncle with determination.

“Did you really do all those bad things?”

Nie Huaisang hesitated and lowered his eyes. He’d never so desperately wanted to lie before, nor been so aware that lying would be the worst thing he could do.

“I don’t know what your grandfather told you, so I can’t say that everything he told you was true,” he explained. “But yes, I’ve done many bad things in my life. For some of them, I still think I was right. For others, I was just angry and wanted to hurt people because someone had hurt me. You know what it’s like to be angry like that, right? So angry it feels like you will explode if you don’t do something.”

Jin Rusong slowly nodded.

“But my Songsong is a good boy,” Nie Huaisang continued with a weak smile. “Even when you’re so angry, you don’t hurt people. You cry and maybe shout a bit, but you’re very good and you’re always careful with others. And even when if you were to hurt someone, I know you would apologise after. Uncle Nie isn’t nearly as good, and so I’ve done many bad things.”

“You killed mommy.”

Nie Huaisang closed his eyes, but that just meant he could see the cold rage on Qin Su’s face, her blood spraying from her neck when she sliced it. He already hadn’t been happy with that when it had happened because she could have testified against her husband, but now, knowing that he’d done this not just to Qin Su but to Jin Rusong as well…

He reopened his eyes but, unable to meet Jin Rusong’s gaze, stared at the ground instead.

“Your mother died because I just wanted to hurt as many people as I could,” he said, “and didn’t think how upset she would get. For this, I’m very sorry. I shouldn’t have put her in a position like that. Your mommy was a very good person, and she didn’t deserve to be hurt.”

“And daddy?”

Nie Huaisang fell silent for a moment. No matter the love he felt for Jin Rusong, the idea of having to apologize for arranging the death of Jin Guangyao made him furious. This he did not feel sorry for, this he refused to ever regret. They could all hate him for it, Lan Xichen and Jin Rusong and all the others could turn against him and demand his blood if they pleased, but it had only been right that Jin Guangyao should die and nothing would change his mind.

It took some effort for Nie Huaisang to calm down after the moment of red hot rage that spiked through him, but he managed.

“We’ve told you before that your daddy did some bad things too,” he said, his voice colder now, even when he desperately didn’t want to upset Jin Rusong. “One of those bad things is that he killed my brother, who I loved very, very much, and he did it in a manner that was very cruel. He hurt my brother a lot before killing him, and when I realised that, I decided to do the same to him. It’s what people call revenge: someone hurt you, so you decide to hurt them.”

“Grandfather says that I’ll want revenge on you someday,” Jin Rusong whispered. “Does it mean I have to hurt you too?”

“If you want to. I wouldn’t stop you.”

Jin Rusong cried out in horror, and started crying.

“I don’t want to hurt uncle Nie! I don’t want to do revenge! I don’t want, I don’t want!”

Upset to see him crying, Nie Huaisang instinctively reached out toward Jin Rusong to comfort him, but the little boy shook his head and stepped away.

“Hm. SongSong is a good boy like that," Nie Huaisang wistfully whispered instead, almost remembering what it was like to feel like that. There had been a time when he would have thought himself incapable of hatred. Even Wen Ruohan he had never despised the way he eventually did Jin Guangyao. "But maybe it will change as you grow, especially if you stay here with your grandfather. Is that something you want? To stay here?”

“I don’t know!” Jin Rusong sobbed. “Grandfather is nice, but I miss my friends from the Unclean Realm. Here, the other children don’t want to play with me. I also miss you, and uncle Lan. I wish I could be with grandfather and you and uncle Lan, and also with LingLing. Is it spoiled to want that?”

“SongSong isn’t spoiled, but he wants difficult things,” Nie Huaisang sighed. “Your grandfather and I… I don’t think we can ever get along. But maybe you could go live with Uncle Lan, and then it’d be easier for everyone who loves you to come visit you.”

It really would be the best solution at that point. Qin Cangye had argued against it when it was mentioned that afternoon, but he had a pretty decent relationship with Lan Qiren, whose father he’d known well, so that might play in their favour. Gusu was near enough Lanling that Jin Rulan could visit his cousin more easily than in Qinghe. It would be a more neutral place for Jin Rusong to live, until he was old enough to decide for himself. And Lan Xichen, who sadly couldn’t stay forever in the Unclean Realm, would benefit from having the little boy around as he resumed his function as sect leader and continued to recover.

If Qin Cangye could only be convinced, it would satisfy everyone.

“I don’t want to go live in a new place again,” Jin Rusong sniffled. “I don’t want, it’s scary.”

“I know it’s scary,” Nie Huaisang replied, this time resisting the impulse to reach out. “You know, one time when I was older than you, but still not very old, I also had to go live for a time in the place where uncle Lan lives. And I cried about it a lot, too. I was a much bigger boy than you, but I was very scared and I begged my brother to let me stay with him. I thought I was going to die if I had to be in a place I didn’t know, with new people. It made me so afraid I felt very sick, so I understand how you feel.”

“Were you forced to go?” Jin Rusong asked, blinking away his tears. 

“My brother thought it was good for me, so I had to go. And even though I was so very scared, in the end it wasn’t so bad. I made many friends in that new place, like uncle Lan, or uncle Jiang. And even LingLing’s daddy was there, and we all had great fun. Sometimes, we are scared of things that are actually very good, that’s why it’s important to be brave.”

Jin Rusong shook his head, and started crying once more. 

“I don’t want to be brave. I want my mommy.”

“I know, SongSong. I can’t bring back your mommy. I wish I could. I think she would be so happy to see that you’re not sick anymore.”

“I want my mommy.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I want daddy, too.”

To this, Nie Huaisang had nothing to say that wouldn’t be cruel or a lie.

“I want mommy and daddy, and I want a hug, and I don’t like being brave.”

“I can’t help with the rest,” Nie Huaisang said. “But I can give you a hug, if you still want one from me.”

Jin Rusong hesitated, frowning through his tears, but in the end he nodded and ran onto Nie Huaisang’s lap before he really had time to open his arms. The sobbing child pressed his face against Nie Huaisang’s chest, holding his neck uncomfortably tight and getting tears and snot everywhere. Nie Huaisang held him back with all the gentleness he was still capable of, petting and kissing the little boy’s hair to calm him.

They’d all asked so much of that poor child, Nie Huaisang thought as he rocked him slowly, the way he remembered his brother doing for him so long ago. It made him angry at Wei Wuxian for playing with things he didn’t understand and bringing back Jin Rusong among the living, without ever pausing to wonder what impact it would have on a child so young who had lost everything while he slept. But that particular anger didn’t last. It never did, when he could hold that little boy he loved so much, who was so brave even when he didn’t want to be.

It was easier, then, for Nie Huaisang to allow himself to hate Jin Guangyao with renewed strength. Even if he hadn’t been a monstrous father killing his own son to hide the result of incest, he had still put everyone who loved the child through the agony of thinking they had lost him. He could have said that Jin Rusong was sick, he could have said his son needed to be treated for that illness, that Jin Rusong would need to be in stasis until the cure was found, but instead he’d just forced them all to suffer, and used their pain to push his political agenda.

It was easy to hate Jin Guangyao for the situation they were in.

Nie Huaisang wondered if Jin Rusong would one day find it just as easy to hate him for what he’d done.

But for now, the little boy seemed to carry little hate and resentment. After being held and rocked tenderly for a long while, Jin Rusong fell asleep in Nie Huaisang’s arms, showing the same blind trust he’d had before knowing that his uncle Nie had murdered his parents. And Nie Huaisang, knowing he should have looked for someone to take the little boy back to his bed, just sat there and basked in that undeserved trust. 

Just a little longer, he told himself, gently smoothing the child’s hair. Just a few more moments of pretending that this could be salvaged, that he wouldn’t lose the closest thing to a son he was ever likely to have. Just a little longer.

A little longer turned into most of the night without Nie Huaisang really noticing. At some point he had removed his outer robe to wrap it around Jin Rusong, so he would stay warm and safe even if the night was fairly mild. It wasn’t until dawn started colouring the sky that Nie Huaisang truly realised just how long he’d been sitting there on that bench, holding a child he’d made an orphan. He was starting to accept that he really needed to return the little boy to someone from the Qin sect when Qin Cangye ran into that courtyard, looking half panicked until he spotted Nie Huaisang and his grandson.

An array of emotion flashed across Qin Cangye’s face, from surprise to fear, eventually settling for anger. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep speaking, but Nie Huaisang was struck by the certainty that Qin Cangye truly cared about Jin Rusong, that he wasn’t arguing to have him just for the sake of politics or revenge, but because he still thought of the little boy as his grandson, no matter what others might say about his wife and daughter. He, too, had loved that child, and he too had mourned him when Jin Guangyao deceived them all.

Nie Huaisang wasn’t sure he’d ever like Qin Cangye, but he might at least respect him, which didn’t come to him easily these days.

“He was wandering last night, saying he couldn’t sleep,” Nie Huaisang explained, keeping his voice low to avoid waking Jin Rusong. “I’m sorry if you were worried.”

“We just realised now that he was gone,” Qin Cangye said dryly, but his eyes softened when he gazed at his grandson. “He hasn’t been sleeping well so far. I suppose I should be glad he managed with you.”

“I’m not sure I can take much credit. He asked me about his parents, and… well, a few tears were spilled. Many tears. I think he was just exhausted.”

“What did you tell him about his parents?”

“Nothing more than what I thought he could understand. I wish I hadn’t arranged for this story about your wife and Jin Guangshan to be revealed. It’s going to make things harder for him in the future.”

“And that’s a great concern of yours, his future, " Qin Cangye scoffed. 

“It is," Nie Huaisang replied, his eyes falling to the child sleeping in his arms. "I care about him. I know you don’t believe me, but I care about him.”

“Then let me have him. I’m his family, I’m his grandfather. Let me have him. He belongs here.”

“I think you mean that," Nie Huaisang condeded, blaming this sudden sentimentality on the lack of sleep. "If it were only you and him, I’d let you and Jin Rulan come up with something together. But you know he’s hardly safer here than in Jinlin Tai. If something were to happen to you, do you think your children would hesitate to use his parentage to get rid of him and ensure he cannot inherit anything?”

“I’ll take measures so he’s protected even after my death,” Qin Cangye retorted, and Nie Huaisang thought maybe he could like that man after all, just because he was realistic enough to not say some boring lie about his family being actually very kind and united. “I won’t let him go back with you without a fight, Nie zongzhu.”

“And I won’t leave him somewhere he might be in danger. I want Rusong to be happy, Qin zongzhu, and I want him to be safe.”

“Then we have at least one thing in common,” Qin Cangye said with a disgusted expression, as if it were the worst thing in the world to share anything with a man like Nie Huaisang.

Nie Huaisang smiled in spite of himself and carefully stood up, mindful not to wake the child in his arms. Jin Rusong, always a light sleeper, protested upon being handed to his grandfather, but quickly fell back to sleep.

Nie Huaisang loved that child so much, and hoped it would be enough to make up for everything he’d made him suffer through.

It probably wouldn’t be but… but Nie Huaisang wanted to try. He wanted to be part of Jin Rusong’s life, until the day the boy himself decided that he’d put up with his parents’ murderer too long already.

Nie Huaisang wanted Jin Rusong in his life just as fiercely as he wanted Lan Xichen in it, and he was ready to make the efforts necessary to keep both of them.

Qin Cangye could be a reasonable man, at the end of the day, and surely they’d figure out a way to handle this, if they all tried their best.

#nie huaisang #jiang cheng #jin rusong #jin rusong lives #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #one less wip yay

[skyflyinginaction]

MDSZ Name Meaning Explanations

Wow MDSZ has intricate naming: there are a lot of interesting meanings that fit very well with the characters!

One thing I realized when I researched names is that Chinese names, like Japanese names, are filled with a lot of nuances that have to do with the characters themselves and their role in the story. The character’s names subtly explain their roles and personality in the story.

These are the characters I noticed are the ones that don’t have a lot of posts about their names. I decided I am going to do a post on the characters whose name meanings are not much talked about in the fandom.

This post is heavily inspired by thisworldgodonlyknows who made a post explaining the meaning of the names from one of MXTX  works and what it has to do with corresponding with the characters.

MXTX’s names for her characters in her works seem to be chosen intuitively. This makes sense because the names she chooses have a lot to do with both the characters and their arc in the story.

I won’t be doing any explanations on Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yanli

because they already had more than enough metas on them. I’m not a Chinese speaker, so although I will explain my research to the best of my ability in this post, take it with a grain of salt.

Mo Xuanyu (莫玄羽)

Mo Xuanyu’s entire name is a subtle reference to his background in the story.

His surname Mò/莫 means "do not, is not, can not" or "there is none who -“

The character in his surname is used to refer to saying something that is puzzling, baffling or impossible to explain in the Chinese language.

This would make sense when talking about Mo Xuanyu since all we know about him is that he's one of Jin Guangshan’s many illegitimate children. Once a disciple of the Jin Clan until his expulsion due to his homosexuality and harassment of the Jin sect leader Jin Guangyao, his expulsion resulted in more abuse at the hands of his family. The abuse he suffered caused his mind to mentally deteriorate, producing a vengeful side of his personality which led him to take up demonic cultivation leading him to perform the body offering ritual to bring Wei Wuxian back to get revenge on his family for the abuse he suffered from.

We don’t know an awful lot about him or his personality other than his background so this makes him come off as very mysterious.

The character in his given name is Xuán/玄 means "black/mysterious”

The character Xuán/玄 is another character to refer to the color black in a specific context in Chinese but when this character is used it also has negative connotations. The symbolism that black is associated within Chinese culture is destruction, evil, disasters, sadness, and suffering; it is considered an unfortunate color. The symbolism for the color black goes very well with Xuanyu as a Character in his role. The bad fortune aspect could reference how he was expelled from the Jin sect, his suffering under the abuse of the Mo family, and wishing for revenge on them for the abuse he suffered under wishing destruction on them. Black the color of evil this can refer to his interest in demonic cultivation and his connection to Wei Wuxian who practiced demonic cultivation donned black clothes and was called evil by the cultivation world.

Black is another way to refer to yin because yin has the color black. Wei Wuxian’s birth name Wei Ying comes from yin as in yin and yang the character Ying (嬰) from Wei Wuxian birth name comes from Ying ling or infant spirit in Chinese used to refer to the spirits of dead fetuses Which is a possible nod to his demonic cultivation. Ying means infant it can also come from yin as in ghost, death, and evil a subtle reference to he brings Wei Wuxian back through the body offering ritual.

The second character in his given name yǔ/羽 means “feather" (羽) is the character is used for “immortal" or "ascending" this can be considered to be an irony to him similar to how someone who didn’t ascend in cultivation is equivalent to someone who cannot fly. Mo Xuanyu is someone who didn’t ascend in cultivation hence his weak cultivation. (羽) when the language is used in a negative connection meaning “ascend" or "passed away” in Chinese this is given insight into how he died mysteriously with the body offering ritual. His entire given name can refer to how he vanished without a trace, mysteriously and without a sound, like a feather.

Qin Su (秦愫)

Her surname doesn’t mean anything in Chinese; it is just a surname  Her given name Sù/愫 means “guileless and sincere” in Chinese this can refer to what was described in the novel as appearance and personality-wise someone innocent and naive.

If you look closely her entire name is a homophone to Qingsu (情愫 qíng sù sentiment feeling) a phrase that is used to describe feelings in Chinese.

Qin Su is an emotional character, guided by her own emotions. This makes her different from other characters who are corrupt and squash their sentimentality for ambition or revenge since the emotional aspect makes her name sound like a sentiment feeling.

Qin Su is guided by her emotions which give her strength An example of this is noted in her backstory. Is when JGY saved her during the sunshot campaign gave her the will to pursue him. The most prominent scene of an emotional outburst where she openly lambasts her husband/brother for his deception and murder of her son her feelings of rage and betrayal gave her the strength to actively resist JGY as he attempts to coax her into giving out the name of who gave her the letter.

An innocent emotional character compared to the corrupt cultivators who died horribly who was too innocent to survive in the corrupt world of cultivators and could not handle knowing the dark truths.

Yu Ziyuan (虞紫鸢)

The character in her surname Yú/虞 means "be anxious or worry." If you dive deeper into her character it speaks to one of her major concerns to how her husband perceives herself and their son in comparison to Wei Ying. Her surname references her major insecurities.

Zǐ/紫 means “purple" her signature color and yuān/鸢 means "kite (bird)” the kite is a type of bird of prey this speaks to her aggressive and fierce personality and strong cultivation.

Zǐyuān (紫鸢) is also another way to refer to the Chinese wall iris; purple is the color of the iris, so this again references to her signature color. Iris has noble connotations that speak to her noble status and a fact that she is a graceful and elegant woman even with her bad temper. Purple flowers are tied to royalty represent dignity and pride both speak to her tremendous pride and noble status.

Luo Qingyang (罗青羊)

Next is Mian Mian

Luō/罗 means “silk” in Chinese; this can invoke the trope "silk hiding under steel.” Underneath her delicate appearance is a tough backbone; she is not afraid to stand up to her own beliefs and the people she cares for.

The character in her given name Qīng/青 means “green" but when used in classical Chinese Qīng is another way to refer to “black”.

yáng/羊 means “sheep.” Sheep are considered innocent in Chinese; the sheep symbolism could emphasize her initial appearance as a frail damsel in distress who needs to be saved. A woman who is considered weak and dumb as a sheep by the sexist men of society.

Also, in ancient Chinese symbolism, sheep represent justice, which goes hand in hand with her tough backbone who is not afraid to stand up to her own beliefs for what’s right and wrong.

So, her given name together means “black sheep.” She would be considered the black sheep in the world of cultivator being born a servant and a woman and easily dismissed.

The black sheep part can refer to how someone who chooses to outcast herself from mainstream cultivation society in favor of pouring her own life as a rough cultivator on its outskirts with her family.

Her nickname MianMian comes from Chinese sheep wool which is called mian yang (绵羊).

Jin Rusong (金如松)

The character of his first name Rú/如 has the same character and meaning as Jin Ling birth name Rúlán/如兰

This refers to how he is the same generation as Jin Ling.

The second character sōng/松 means "pine tree.”

If you put the characters of his given name together means "to be like a pine tree” this Sounds like the phrase "to make like a tree and leave” This can note his one-time appearance in the story. Pine trees symbolize longevity and long life; this is ironic for him because his fate of dying young.

Jinzhu and Yinzhu (金珠 &. 银珠)

Another two minorish characters are Jīnzhū/金珠 and Yínzhū/银珠 their names mean “silver pearl and gold pearl” this doesn't mean much on the surface since the meaning of their names is obvious.

In Chinese pearls, gold and silver are connected to wealth, money, and status. They are meant to say something about Madam Yu’s status as a noble and to emphasize their relationship between master and servant.Gold and silver are valuable and prized this empathizes them being Madam Yu’s prized servants, but this can also indicate something about them as people: they are both known for being extremely skilled cultivators. Their fancy names highlight how prized they are personally to Madam Yu as her right/left-hand women.

Jin Zixuan (金子轩)

Zi/子 means (child), Zi/子 is a generational character that is used in the Jin clan by Guangshan to name his children this can Zixuan is the only legitimate child of the sect leader of his father.

The second character xuān/轩 means "a tall pavilion.” The character  xuān/轩 is used to mean “dignified as a king.” His entire name can refer to his position as the inheritor of the Jin clan with all their wealth and estate prestige as well as his lofty attitude.

Jin Ling (金凌)

There was already a meta on Jin Ling birth name Jin Rulan,

His courtesy name Líng/凌 means "rise above.” The e name it goes with the statement "I’ll rise above others;” he wants people to think differently about him due to their prejudice for having no parents and rise above the people’s perceptions of him.

This can mean  his character development  that he’ll rise above the adults of society and escape the prejudice they eat up through his growing acceptance of Wei Wuxian and maturity at the end when he takes over as a sect leader.

Wen Ning (温 宁)

Wen Ning’s given name Níng/宁 means “peace"

His name notes his kind nature in contrast to his cruel, power-hungry relatives and his peaceful nature even when turned into fierce corpses.

His courtesy name Qiónglín/琼林 means “beautiful forest;” this notes his timid personality who hides behind others who is seen hiding behind his sister when first introduced and his low confidence in himself. Forests are used to hide outlaws. This can refer to how he had to hide from society since it deemed him dangerous since he was restructured by Wei Wuxian.

Wen Qing (温情)

Wen Qing’s entire name (Wēn Qíng,温情) when put together means “tenderness” it shares the same character(情) as Qin Su’s name.

She does have a kind-sounding name. At first glance she seems harsh and aggressive but she’s shown to be very kind as shown by her willingness to continuously save WWX and her care for her relatives especially Wen Yuan, and her tenderness and love feelings for her younger brother.

She is also the one who tells WWX “thank you” and “I’m sorry” important arc words that exemplify humility and empathy which WWX then passes onto Jin Ling.

Lan Qiren (蓝启仁)

I found Lan Qiren’s name ironic because the character in his name rén /仁 means “benevolence,” the same one used for kindness and humanity.

I find this ironic in the way he treats his nephews prizing them on the surface as gentlemen but not as individual people.

I find the Qǐ/启  “open" part ironic as well because he doesn’t hold an open mind with Wei Wuxian’s antics considering him a “corrupting influence” on his nephew and disapproved of his use of demonic cultivation. Reluctance to accept him and Lan Wangji’s marriage, scolding Lan Xichen for showing grief over his best friend’s death despite his feelings and life in danger. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like he actually holds any kindness but when examined the character rén /仁 it fits his personality well.

The character rén /仁 came from Confucianism. Ren is the fundamental virtue in Confucian that represents the moral qualities that govern man and his relationship with others. It’s considered the perfect virtue or can be categorized as the ren of virtue and ren of affection. Ren of affection is considered compassion and empathy for others as well as altruism for another human being. Ren of virtue symbolizes the perfect virtue of moral perfection and human excellence, to become a morally perfect individual to nurture morally upright individuals that are grounded in moral values.

When I looked deeper into rén /仁 it says a lot about him as a character which is that he cares about the rules of the Lan sect and gets angry at any perceived misconduct. Though he lacks the kindness and humility of ren he has the rules of ren Qiren have more of the ren or virtue is seen how he treats his nephews characterized them as perfect moral gentlemen first than people the second build on his high standards to his nephews, to be honest, righteous and immaculate raise them to be model students.

This can reference his status as a teacher in how he teaches both his nephew and students to be upright and moral citizens of society. the meaning in his given name "Open benevolence” can be on how he preaches the rules to others in short openly preaches the ren in Confucianism the character rén /仁 suits someone who cares about the rules not the compassion of ren.

Lan Jingyi (蓝景仪)

Jǐng/景 means “scenery"

Jingyi’s second character yí/仪 contains the meaning "courtesy, etiquette, manners" and comes from Yi which is something that is used in etiquette and ceremonial.

His name can be a reference to him being in the Lan sect and his and Qiren’s names are made to represent the Lan sect principles.

When you look at Lan Jingyi he doesn’t seem to fit the traditional standards of a Lan sect disciple with being both brash and outspoken, but he is the Laniest of the Lan sect disciples there is. He does care about the Lan sect rules and gets angry at anyone who breaks them this is shown with the way he gets annoyed at Wei Wuxian in Cloud Recess for breaking the rules and how he embodies the Lan sect motto is when he speaks up for Wei Wuxian against the cultivators during the second segue of the burial mounds. He shows to be different in the way he follows the rules and discipline, not in a quiet, stiff way but a very loud outspoken way.

Jin Guangyao (金光瑶)

His name is a cruel irony to his character and symbolic of his relationship with him and his father.

His birth name is Meng Yao. Meng/孟 means " eldest amongst brothers” this can mean being the only son of his mother.  Yáo/瑶 means "jade, precious stone” this can infer how he is beloved by his mother.

But his name Yáo can likely be a reference to the pearl button Jin Guangshan gave Meng Shi. The pearl button is symbolic of his relationship to Meng Shi and Guangyao.

Another is seen in his courtesy name Guangyao is that he lacked the generational name Zi like the rest of his father’s children. There’s a reason for that.Him not sharing the generational character means that Jin Guangyao is acknowledged as part of the family but not as a son. This showed that Guangshan accepted him due to his accomplishment only to further his ambitions for the Jin clan and insulted him by saying he was not in the same status as his sons denying him from an equal standing among them. He was never acknowledged as having equal standing with them because of his status as the prostitute’s son.

His courtesy name Guang/光 carries the same characters in Guangshan’s name this can apply his desperation to get his fathers love and approval to how he does anything to gain it.

Only to realize that he never thought much of him and was like the prostitutes in the brothel he uses then discards when he’s done with them just like how his father did with his mother. he doesn’t actually think much of Guangyao and Meng Shi only being valued Meng Shi for giving him personal amusement and pleasure but not value as a person and GuangYao for his accomplishments for his political goals, not the person himself he’s someone of little value to his father as the pearl button had.

Nie Mingjue (聂明玦)

Second, of the Venerated Triad Nie Mingjue. If you split the name character apart Míng/明 means “clear, bright” and jué玦 means "a penannular jade.” His name is read as "bright penannular jade"

Jué玦 comes from Yujue/ 玉玦 which is a jade pendant that is often used as a symbol of separation or resolution for homophony reasons reference as someone who has their mind made up and won’t change it; this notes his relationship with Guangyao and NMJ’s personality.  The separation and resolution note his tragic broken bond with Jin Guang Yao whose rigid view of morality and sense of justice and Guangyao’s desperation for approval worsened their relationship over time.

His name goes well with his rigid views of justice and black and white mortality he displays. He is someone who never listens to the views and opinions of others and never empathizes with them; he is someone who is deadset and rigid in their views who won’t listen to someone’s opinions regarding his own rigid black and white morality and harsh pursuit of justice.

Lan Xichen(蓝曦臣)

Lan Xichen name xīchén/曦臣 means “Chancellor of the morning sun”, the chen/臣 part of his given name notes his warm, friendly temperament in contrast to his younger brothers frosty cold exterior the morning sun next to his brother’s stoic face. Chancellor refers to his high position in the cultivation society of the venerate triad members of the Lan clan.

His birth name huàn/ 涣 means to “dissolve” which could mean the dissolution of his innocence as he grows more aware of the corruption that lies around him even those he trusts the most at the end of the story he’s left in turmoil he has to deal with the fact that he factored into the deaths of his two friends. His doubts towards Nie Hanshang could imply that he would go back to the optimistic naive man he once was.

Nie Huaisang  (聂怀桑)

Last but not least the character whose meaning I am going to talk about is Nie Huaishang  His entire name Huáisāng/怀桑  means “to hold mulberry leaves”.

In China, mulberry trees are planted because they are a staple food of silkworms to make silk

growing mulberries suggest wealth and security.  This meaning suits Huaisang perfectly. He's someone who enjoys simple luxuries like keeping fans and hates to work hard love to live a comfortable life.

But there another aspect of his personality that of being a chess master who watches his plans go into fruition all the while watching comfortably at the side he manipulates and plans the events that take place in the story his process is like he’s spinning silk from behind the scenes. someone who sits comfortably in the background but spins the silk to manipulate the events in place.

This is only my interpretation of what the name means for the characters if you feel that this isn’t the case feel free to add or change. I am not an expert Chinese speaker so I apologize if I translated something wrong. I want to give a huge shout out to thisworldgodonlyknows who helped me create this post a huge thank you for helping me elaborate on the character’s names.

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