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#the only thing we actually know for sure seems to be what Wei Ying knows
wangxianficrecs · 4 months
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💙 The Sun Will Rise by vespertineflora
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💙 The Sun Will Rise
by vespertineflora (@vespertineflora)
E, Series, WIP, 129k, Wangxian
Summary: For centuries, the villagers surrounding the Qianlian Forest have been beholden to a fearsome creature. A once loved Prince was long ago cursed into a monstrous form, and ever since has required the sacrifice of maidens to ensure the safety of the forest and the people living around it. This forlorn tradition might have continued for centuries longer... but when it comes time for Lotus Pier to send a maiden as tribute, Jiang Yanli is chosen, and Wei Wuxian won't stand for it. His plan is simple; he'll send Jiang Yanli off to live the long life she deserves with her fiancé, and offer himself as a sacrifice to the Prince instead. Kay's comments: Series is marked as incomplete, but feels complete! Part one is the main story and part two is an additional kinky scene added as an extra. This story is incredibly hot and not gonna lie started reading it for the smut, stayed for the plot, because not only are the explicit scenes perfect, but the story is also very compelling and I loved the slowly unravelling mystery aspect of it. I first read this story when it came out and could hardly wait for the next chapter, because I was just so hooked. Here we have Wei Wuxian being sacrified to a mysterious creature in place of Jiang Yanli, only turns out the mysterious creature is plant-tentacle-creature Lan Wangji, known as the Prince, who's not interested in killing Wei Wuxian, but will still make a meal out of him. Slowly but surely, the two of them become closer and Wei Wuxian can't help but want to figure out, what happened to Lan Wangji for him to have turned into this form. Excerpt: Wei Wuxian’s brow furrowed, finding that particularly strange, but just as he was about to kneel down and try to loosen the vine from around his foot, he felt something curl and tighten suddenly around his wrist, directly against the skin--his eyes darted down, just barely registering another vine that had grabbed onto him when-- A question seemed to spill into his his mind. He felt... strangely breathless at the unfamiliar sensation of impression, at the way he could almost feel the echo of words that hadn’t been spoken inside of his head, and at the inexplicable sense of familiarity he was left with. He didn’t actually hear anything, there weren't even really words, so much as just sensation... but he somehow knew what he was being asked all the same. It... this... whatever it was that reaching out to him... wanted to know who he was. “Wei Ying,” he gasped out, his words stumbling slightly as he tried to cope with the intimacy of having something pressing a thought directly into his head like this, before realizing what he’d said. “Ah... Wei Wuxian. I came from Lotus Pier. Are you... are you the Prince?” He... he had to be, didn’t he? Or if the legends were wrong, this was at least whatever entity that everyone called the Prince. It felt like a bit too much of a coincidence to expect one spiritual being at a certain location and run into a completely different one instead. There was a hesitation, something almost unsure, before Wei Wuxian felt the flicker of affirmation in his head. “Well, I... know you’re used to something a little different, but... I’m your offering this time,” Wei Wuxian continued explaining, because he knew this thing wanted him to. His heart was already racing again, the fears that had settled in the lull since his arrival immediately reviving, his thoughts spinning as he was immediately left confronting his mortality once more. “Is that... is that acceptable? Will I work for that?”
pov wei wuxian, canon era, alternate universe, fairy tale elements, human/monster romance, fantasy, tentacle monsters, monster lan wangji, tentacles, human wei wuxian, plants, vines, top lan wangji/bottom wei wuxian, eventual romance, slow burn, strangers to lovers, angst with a happy ending, mystery, bamf wei wuxian, homesickness, falling in love, bdsm, reincarnation
~*~
(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)
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youhideastar · 6 months
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Fit for Purpose Deleted Scenes II: Alternate Version, Second Half
Yesterday I posted the first batch of deleted scenes from Fit for Purpose: the first half of a backstory chapter that I ultimately deep-sixed as a distraction. For more explanation, please read that first-half post! Today I'm sharing the second half of that backstory chapter. Again, I'm going to try to keep my commentary on the scenes to a minimum so as not to make this post longer. Other deleted scenes posts are linked in the masterpost. I hope you enjoy!
We pick up during the Sunshot Campaign, with a scene that I've always found perplexing in canon - WWX promising to let LWJ help him with the demonic cultivation. It's not clear in canon whether he ever actually does that. Here, I decided he would.
On another rooftop in the moonlight, eyes dark and urgent, Lan Zhan says, “Wei Ying. You are trying to snatch grain from a roaring fire.”
Because without that grain, I’ll starve, thinks Wei Wuxian. For a moment, he imagines telling Lan Zhan about his core. It’s a wild thought, quickly smothered.
“Wei Ying. Let me help.”
Wei Wuxian knows what he should do: call him “Lan Wangji” again. Smile like a knife. Shove him away.
But the end of the war is coming, and Wei Wuxian knows he’s unlikely to survive it. A few months doesn’t seem like too long a time to pretend that he can be fixed—that what he’s missing is something Lan Zhan can give him.
He says yes. Lets Lan Zhan play pretty songs for him. Spiritually, they do nothing for him.
But the lie makes Lan Zhan feel better.
They’re at war. Lan Zhan could be hurt or killed at any time. Wei Wuxian doesn’t want the last thing he said to him to be cruel. That’s all.
*
In the end, they win. He wins.
The other sects make the omega Meng Yao—Jin Guangyao, now—the hero. What he did, they understand. One short, sharp thrust.
It makes A-Cheng and Lan Zhan angry on Wei Wuxian’s behalf; for his part, Wei Wuxian couldn’t care less. He did what he needed to do. He fulfilled his purpose. He didn’t do it for the glory.
They go back to Lotus Pier.
A-Cheng and Jiejie want everything to go back to the way it used to be. They treat him like Yunmeng Jiang’s head disciple.
So he tries to act like it.
But there’s a hole inside of him. And so, there are things he can’t do. Things he can’t give, because he gave them already, and there’s no getting them back.
He can’t teach sword cultivation—can’t even draw his sword. And no one wants to hear about his talismans; the ones he writes in blood. The ones that draw evil in, rather than repelling it. Any of a half-dozen others would be a better head disciple than he would.
There’s only one part of his job he can really do anymore. And even that is… harder than it used to be. They want to touch and be touched, but his skin still crawls with the touch of the dead. And he doesn’t want to put his mouth on them. He never wants human flesh in his mouth again.
He’d thought he’d be dead for this part.
He was supposed to be dead for this part.
Maybe he is.
A-Cheng lays into him for failing in his duty. For not giving enough. Wei Wuxian places his hand over his incision scar and keeps his silence. He knows it’s true. No matter how much he gives, it could never be enough.
That previous scene is probably the one that hurt the most to cut. I really liked it. But DAMN did it bring down the vibe of the fic. It's so bleak in tone that it really could not coexist with the cute banter in the Jingshi.
Next is my first crack at the Baifeng Mountain scene.
Come to Gusu with me, he says. Let me play for you, let me help you, he says. I am the one who knows you, he says. Better than you know yourself.
For a moment, he imagines it. Going to Gusu with Lan Zhan. Letting Lan Zhan take care of him, letting Lan Zhan imprison him—he can’t tell anymore what it is that Lan Zhan wants to do with him, but he’s not sure he cares. At least he’d be with Lan Zhan. At least Lan Zhan understands that he’s changed. At least Lan Zhan isn’t expecting him to pretend he’s still the laughing boy on the rooftop.
Ah, but it’s a selfish, selfish thought.
Yu-furen saw it in him all along.
For him to cling to Lan Zhan—brilliant, perfect, unparalleled Lan Zhan, who has never needed or wanted anything from Wei Wuxian, not even his body—is just another symptom of his weakness.
No. Wei Wuxian knows what he is. What he is meant for. He is meant to be of use. That is what he was made for. That is why he was saved from starvation on the streets – so he could be of use. To Jiang Cheng, and to Jiejie.
He ignores the voice murmuring in his head, But what use are you to them, really? Except as a mascot, and a whore.
But that didn't really address what I consider the main point of the Baifeng Mountain sequence in this AU, and an incredibly overlooked moment in canon, imo: Jin-furen's assertion that people are starting to believe that WWX and JYL are sexually involved. To me, this is THE turning point of this arc for WWX. The only way he'd ever leave Lotus Pier is if he thought it was better for JC and JYL if he did. I think by this point in canon, he's long ago decided JC would be better off with a different head disciple, but JYL is keeping him hanging on. He doesn't feel like he's failing her. Until this moment, when Jin-furen supplies him with a reason to believe that his presence is hurting JYL, too. At that point, he feels he has to leave. I think if he hadn't found Wen Qing in the street, he might have just wandered out of Lanling and noped out of the whole cultivation world at that point.
None of Yu-furen’s lectures or Jiang-shushu’s stories or A-Cheng’s threats taught him what to do when the very people he’s supposed to live for are better off without him.
He’s a useless head disciple to Yunmeng Jiang Sect. Everything he does makes A-Cheng angry. Whenever Jiejie sees him, she looks worried. Even Lan Zhan—according to Lan Xichen—is working himself to the bone in a futile quest to purify Wei Wuxian’s nonexistent core and bring him back to the sword path.
Then, on Baifeng Mountain, he learns that it’s so much worse than he thought.
“You shouldn’t be alone with him, A-Li,” Jin-furen says firmly.
Jiejie flinches. “A-Xian is my didi. There’s nothing improper—”
“With your mother gone, there is no one who will tell you what you need to hear,” Jin-furen interrupts. When she looks at Jiejie, her face is kind; the look she flicks at Wei Wuxian is like a knife. “But I will. A-Li, didi or no, people are talking. An unmarried omega who turned down an advantageous match to a powerful alpha to stay with her brother…”
“Yes,” Jiejie says, cheeks pale. “My brother, Jin-furen. Will you tell me to stay away from A-Cheng, too?”
Jin-furen waves her fan. “Of course not. That’s different. A-Li.” She barely bothers to drop her voice when she says, “You know what betas do. You know what they’re for.”
Wei Wuxian doesn’t know what Jiejie says to that. He doesn’t stay to find out. And he doesn’t plan to come back.
If he drinks himself to death, it’ll reflect poorly on Yunmeng Jiang. But if he flashes enough gold in the right parts of Lanling City, he thinks he can probably get himself knifed pretty easily, and bleed out fast enough that no one will wonder why his core didn’t save him.
Then A-Cheng can find a better head disciple, and Jiejie’s reputation will be safe.
And Lan Zhan—
Well. Lan Zhan will be fine. He won’t have to try to save Wei Wuxian anymore. Once the first shock is past, it’ll probably be a relief.
*
But in Lanling City, Wei Wuxian doesn’t find a knife in the dark.
He finds a woman in a red cloak, starving and bruised, searching for her beloved brother.
And some part of him that he thought was dead roars back to life, like a new-fed flame.
He remembers standing side-by-side with Lan Zhan, remembers the vows they made. He can’t be a good brother or a good beta. He can’t be head disciple, or cultivate the sword path.
But he can stand with justice. He can defend the weak. He can live with a clear conscience.
For the first time since his body was shattered against the death-soaked earth of the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian feels alive.
*
Lan Zhan doesn’t see it that way. Lan Zhan, sheltered under his pretty umbrella, tries to call Wei Wuxian back to the path of orthodoxy.
But Wei Wuxian has just walked away from a valley of corpses. He has seen what the path of orthodoxy is paved with. His hands are shaking. Behind him are those few he managed to save – cold, dirty, half-drowned, frightened, sick. He cannot walk away from them. He cannot believe Lan Zhan would ask him to.
PISSED-OFF AND INCREDULOUS. “We promised we would devote our lives to fighting the wicked and defending the weak!” he shouts, while the thunder rolls. His eyes sting as rain drips down his face. “You tell me, Lan Zhan: who is strong, and who is weak? Who is right, and who is wrong?”
Lan Zhan has no answer.
It rises in Wei Wuxian, then: the same smooth-polished calm that came upon him in the Xuanwu Cave, when he thought the moment had come for him to die for A-Cheng. A quiet but powerful peace.
Yes. He could die here. Now. Not knifed in an alley by some thief, trying to slip unnoticed from a world where he was no longer needed, but in battle against the mighty Hanguang-jun, defending the innocent. That would be worthy. That would be right.
As he raises Chenqing between them, Wei Wuxian can feel himself smiling. His belly churns with joy and sorrow, fear and anticipation.
“If there has to be a fight,” he says, very steady, “then let me fight to the death with you. If I have to die, then let it be at the hands of Hanguang-jun. It would be no injustice.”
But in the end, Lan Zhan steps away.
So Wei Wuxian rides forward. To Yiling, where Jiang-shushu rescued him all those years ago. To Yiling, where he dragged his body back from broken death.
He’s been reborn in Yiling twice. Maybe he can do it one more time. He can only try.
Here is an alternate version of WWX's decision to go with Wen Qing. I'm ultimately not sure which one I like better.
It would be monstrous of him to follow her. To turn his back on his family. His purpose.
You live for them. Die for them, if you have to. Don’t you dare keep anything for yourself that could go to them.
A perversion; a rebellion against nature, from which there could be no return and no redemption.
He thinks about the prisoners shuffled out in chains before the targets. Thinks about the screaming of the women, at Nightless City, as the blood ran from under the doors. Of the old men shot down from behind by golden arrows as they fled on the road, sobbing.
*
Three.
Two.
*
He swore, once, to live with a clean conscience.
He should never have made that vow—his conscience, like the rest of him, belonged to Yunmeng Jiang. It was not his to dispose of.
But he did. He did make that promise.
And even though it makes him ungrateful, and unfilial—even though he knows there will be no coming back from this—he finds he can’t break it.
This one thing, in the end, is his.
Either way, we pick up with this bit covering WWX's second stay in the Burial Mounds. Honestly, this is mostly me getting high on my own worldbuilding.
In the Burial Mounds, every moment reminds him of his time in hell. Resentful energy courses through his veins. His stomach growls with hunger. He wakes every morning with the knowledge that he has turned his back on the whole reason for his existence; that he is an ungrateful, unfilial disgrace.
And still, it is easier to breathe here than it was in Lotus Pier.
The things the Wen refugees need from him are things he can actually give: protection, and they don’t care that he uses methods other than the sword; labor, and for the first time since Wen Qing cut him open, he is not the weakest of the group; and money.
Most prostitutes are claimed omegas; safe enough, since a person can only be claimed once, but clients complain about the smell of a foreign claim, vinegary-sharp and off-putting.
A beta, then, can command a high price – even a skinny, dirty one, who can only ply his trade in alleys and teahouses, rather than silk-sheeted brothel beds.
Wei Wuxian doesn’t mind it. After all, it’s not like it’s so different.
This is what he was made for. People have always told him that. It’s just that, now, they give him money when they say it.
Then there's the "LWJ visits Yiling" section, which made it into the finished fic. We pick up with:
After Lan Zhan leaves, Wei Wuxian doesn’t expect to see anyone from his old life ever again, unless it’s at swordpoint.
But he’s always been loved too well – loved more than he deserves.
“Jiejie,” he whispers, eyes full of tears, as she stands before him resplendent in red.
“I wanted you to see me in my wedding clothes,” she says gently. “Do you like them?”
“You look magnificent,” he tells her, throat tight.
It’s almost more than he can bear, to sit around a table with Jiejie and A-Cheng eating pork rib and lotus root soup, being asked—at A-Cheng’s urging, how?—to give a courtesy name to Jiejie’s firstborn. He thought this was gone for good, and now, it’s—
It isn’t like he never left. It doesn’t feel that way. Wen Ning is waiting outside; the rest of the Wens up on the mountain; his stomach is growling despite the soup, because it’s all he’s eaten all day; black curls of resentful energy fill the ugly hole where his core used to be.
But it feels like, maybe, he could find a new way of belonging. Like, maybe, he could have both: be true to his family and his sect and be true to the vow he made with Lan Zhan.
*
He’s so stupid. He never learns.
And every time he falls into the delusion, people die.
*
But when he gets Lan Zhan’s invitation to Jin Rulan’s 100-days celebration, it seems like a sign from the heavens. Confirmation. He can have both, and the proof is right here, in his nephew’s name written in Lan Zhan’s perfect calligraphy.
He works in a frenzy on his gift for the baby. Night and day, applying new protections, refining those that are already there. Every mo, yao, gui and guai he can think of will be repelled. Curses, too – every curse he ever learned about, and some he invented himself.
This is how he’ll make up for it – how he’ll pay the Jiangs back for what he owes them. Every disappointment, every time he wasn’t there for Jiang Cheng or Jiejie when they needed him, will be made right. He pours his time, his ingenuity, his expertise, and his literal blood into these beads.
They’re not fine jade or lustrous gold. Probably a kid raised as the heir to Lanling Jin won’t want to wear it. But Jiejie can make him, when he’s little. And when he’s older, he can carry it with him in a bag or in his sleeve – that will be enough. Wei Wuxian takes care to make the protections strong enough for that. He doesn’t want to overlook anything. It has to be perfect. This is his chance.
You do anything your jie needs, Yu-furen’s voice echoes, every time Wei Wuxian’s eyes start to close under the weight of his exhaustion. And her children, someday.
I will, Yu-furen, he promises silently, rubbing his eyes and returning to his work. I swear it. I will.
*
And then, there is the ambush.
The box falls from his sleeve.
Jin Zixun closes his hand and—
Wei Wuxian doesn’t completely remember what happens after that.
The dust that used to be lotus-seed beads, pouring from Jin Zixun’s fist like sand through an hourglass – he remembers that very well. It replays in his mind, again and again.
But afterward. That’s when he loses the thread. Loses control.
Loses—
*
Jin Zixuan.
Wen Qing and Wen Ning.
A-Yuan.
Wen-popo. Fourth Uncle. All of the Wens he fought so hard and gave so much to save.
Lan Zhan – his enemy now.
Jiejie, widowed and grieving. Jiejie, wounded. Then—
*
“Jiejie!”
*
There’s no point, after that.
Lan Zhan takes his hand, holds on, won’t let go when Wei Wuxian tells him to. He looks at Wei Wuxian like he sees something worth saving.
But then A-Cheng is there; Wei Wuxian smiles. Good. This is how it should be. His life is A-Cheng’s to take. It always has been.
Everything happens very quickly, then.
And then there’s nothing at all.
Okay, that's all very depressing... future deleted scenes posts won't be so bleak, I promise! Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment.
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Excerpt from my Wei Wixuan Descended From Hualian Fic
"Xingan," Wei Chaoxiang says, aggrieved. "The boy is sixteen. Sixteen, for heaven's sake! And he carries himself like he's been carved out of stone!"
Cao Yinuo purses her lips and presses her fingertips together the way she does when she's trying not to show that she's upset. "We cannot go around adopting the children of random sect leaders, most especially while those sect leaders are still alive," she says, but Wei Chaoxiang knows his wife and hears the reluctance in her voice.
"That's an easy fix." She looks at him like he's an utter fool, which, fair. But still! "Look at that child and tell me he has ever in his life experienced a shred of parental affection."
"... Jin Furen is--"
"Bah!" Wei Chaoxiang does not make a habit of interrupting his wife, and to do it now highlights how fired up he is. "That woman happily betrothed her son to a girl he despised for most of their acquaintance, the fact that he came around in the end means nothing. Even had he not, she would have forced them to marry and damn either of their chances at a happy future."
Cao Yinuo hesitates. Picks uncertainly at her nails.
Wei Chaoxiang pushes onward. "Jiang Fengmian's disgraceful neglect of his children is shameful enough, but at least he doesn't have Jin Guangshan's reputation, which Jin Furen seems entirely too passive about exposing Yanli to. What must it have been like for Zixuan, growing up under that shadow? And more to the point -- we are a reflection of the company we keep! What does it say about Jin Furen's character, that she counts a woman like Yu Ziyuan as her closest friend! She may not take a whip to her own son, but she would surely to someone else's, and that's another weight the boy has to shoulder. At sixteen! He's hardly out of his milkteeth!"
"Our own boy is only a few years older," Cao Yunuo says, though her stony defiance is melting.
"Exactly! They're babies, the both of them! And Zixuan looked ready to burst into tears when I told him he'd done well last night."
His perfect, wonderful, brilliant, ever-loving wife sighs with all the exhaustion of an immortal grown weary with the passage of time, and fixes him with a Look. "So, after so many years of avoiding the Sects entirely, we're now going to just show up and adopt all of their children?"
"... Maybe not all of them."
"Husband."
"Well -- oh, but that Nie Mingjue is hardly into his twenties isn't he? And already carrying so much responsibility. And Xichen, of course, if we're to have Wangji then we simply must have his brother, and it's not like he couldn't do with a kinder hand than Lan Qiren seems willing to give. And of course Wanyin and Yanli, if Jiang Fengmian didn't want me to steal his children from him then he shouldn't have kidnapped my nephew, and they're a-Ying's siblings, we can't just abandon them... Hm."
"The Wen boys."
"The Wen boys! Yes, I'm not fond of the Wen boys, and I'm afraid it's too late for an intervention to matter there. Unfortunate, but that's the way these things turn out some times. So it's not all of the children. Just the ones who need us."
Cao Yinuo looks up at the statue of Granduncle like she's hoping he'll come and rescue her from her foolish husband, but she doesn't actually call out to him. She only raises a hand to rest gentle fingers on the red silk thread, dangling from the statue's own outstretched hand. "... I suppose," she says, softly, "That the family may have -- may have been too distant, since Changze died. Clearly things have gotten out of control without us around to keep watch. If they want to -- if they want to, Chaoxiang, you cannot actually steal these children -- if they want to, then it's not like we don't have space at the table."
"Yes!" Says Wei Chaoxiang, and wraps his arms around his perfect, wonderful, brilliant, ever-loving wife to dip her into a kiss to show his gratitude.
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truly-morgan · 7 months
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[Deaged WWX and JC, feat. cuckji (w.i.p)]
ChengXian | Mo Dao Zu Shi 17-07-2021
[#xiancheng, deaged + cuckji I think?]
What if on some random night hunt, both wwx and jc get deaged to somewhere probably around the CR studies.
It is seriously troubling for everyone, especially the boy who still have their adult bodies. jc can tell this core isn't his. It being stronger was indeed a bit worrying when he wasn't explained what happened, but he somehow also could tell it /wasn't his/.
wwx on the other side saw his reflection in sandu and was shocked when he couldn't recognise himself but also felt much weaker than what he remembered "of the day before".
It takes a lot of calming down from the juniors and attempts at explaining who they are today (leaving the trauma on the side for now).
The thing is, they are still in the middle of solving some problems and the two "young" cultivators are more than happy to help despite being so troubled ("I trust we can fix it later" wwx said as jc rolled his eyes at his lack of care).
And this is how the juniors see for the first time what the duo was like before everything was shattered. They are so close to one another, fighting rather well despite the balance now being messed up (they somehow still manage to balance it well enough).
Back to the inn, everyone is surprised by how jc acts (even jl, who has only known jiujiu post-I-lost-everything-but-you). This is such a contrast from the fierce and severs looking sect leader they know (even tho the quartet has learned to know he can be nice and loving too).
wwx isn't 100% out of character, although he might be a bit less drunk than usual and a whole lot flirty with jc (which does make the juniors a bit unsure of what is happening.) of course, the ymj sect was immediately warned of what happened, so no one would be surprised of seeing their dear sect leader like this.
of course, lwj is also warned of the situation (as if they could let hgj in the dark about his husband). So while they all have that fun at the inn, you have ymj SIC and lwj on their way to them to make sure their respective reason of worries is alright.
meanwhile, the juniors are still stuck to deal with a wwx who is somehow more mischievous than before and a jc who is actually ready to /follow him/ in these ideas.
It is a strange evening for the juniors than to deal with these men who they look up to but are now basically around their age. But as no one has reached them yet for help, they decide that staying at the inn would be better. After all, it is close to where everything happened and they actually have yet to fully deal with what has been causing problems to this village.
They were going to take three rooms (thankfully to jl money, the juniors could share the biggest room here), but wwx asked why three when he and jc can share one. It takes a bit of arguing, only for jl to give in because he cannot argue against jiujiu telling him it would be stupid to spend on a room that isn't even needed.
So they now have two rooms and the juniors are a bit nervous about it.
What if they suddenly get back to normal in the middle of the night? Would they be alright in the same room?
"But don't you think senior way and sect leader jiang are strangely... very close to one another?" oyz ends up asking after a while.
Sure, they all had heard about how close the two had been in the past, but they felt like people had forgotten to tell them about how they seemed to flirt together?! This isn't right, especially since now, wwx is married to hgj!!
little did they know that wwx and jc had actually been pining for /years/ in the past.
it was Jiang "I am not enough he can find better" Cheng and Wei "I know jc doesn't see me as a servant but I still cannot be his for this reason" Ying being an absolute idiot. They had experienced together, mostly because they trusted each other in trying those, hiding behind it only being experiments and everyone does that yes, it wasn't because they were in love with each other.
These are the same idiots who most likely still had romantic love for each other, but had too much baggage at this point to go on with it.
But now you have them away from anything that could have been a cause of worries and a reminder of why they "couldn't". Sure, in their mind, it was only yesterday that yzy would have wiped wwx at the thought of his sleeping with her son, or that jfm was always putting wwx first.
But they also understood that now, no one would do such a thing. Now they would probably be side by side (and the role was probably reversed in the public eyes).
Now they were away and could a bit more easily indulge. especially in an inn.
They were happy to finally be in their room after checking out. Despite technically being the youngest of the group now, the juniors were still looking up for their opinions and also making sure they were alright. the duo was more than happy to finally be alone.
the moment they were in, wwx slapped a silencing talisman on the door, turning to jc with a grin, starting to tease him again about how he has been acting since earlier with the kids.
it ends up with them playfully arguing until jc finally pushes wwx to the bed and pins him down on it. It surprises them a bit all the ease it took jc to do it, after all, to them it wasn't so long ago that they were to the same strength, both physically and in cultivation. wwx laugh at this, since he was usually the one to pin jc down on a bed "A-cheng has gotten so strong" he praised with a grin.
jc shut him up with a kiss, wwx more than happy to indulge, pulling him closer.
It is a bit weird, since this is jc older body, while wwx simply did not have his at all. Yet it was as if they didn't care for any of it, as long as it was them it would always be alright (plus jc would lie if he said this body wasn't attractive too, even if differently).
(🌸NSFW-ISH to come)
hands soon start to roam over unfamiliar skin, slowly taking robes away so they can have direct access to the skin. fingers run over scares for which they do not know the history (and honestly they don't want to know right now).
After a while wwx ends up flipping them over, grinning when he is finally atop jc, kissing along his neck down his chest (giving some love to those harsh scars on his chest, feeling like he has an idea where they come from, yet he pushes it far away).
wwx in this body isn't as strong as jc, yet he lets him take over, letting wwx do as he wishes, more than happy that they can finally have this moment for them, knowing he will have all the time he wants to do whatever he wants with wwx too.
the night goes on like this, wwx taking all he wants and gladly letting jc take all he wants too.
To say the least, they didn't sleep much that night (which these older bodies do not seem to agree with).
when they meet again with the juniors, the group of young
(🌸 end)
man tries not to stare in disbelief and disapproval at the mark they may or may not have left visible on each other's neck (they might have gone a bit overboard with the knowledge of no one here to scold them). the lan juniors are a bit conflicted because they do not want for hgj to be destroyed by this (but lsz can easily see how happy this makes senior wei).
jl is in a way worried this will only end up hurting his jiujiu /again/. it is good to see him so happy, but what will it be like when they get back to normal? Will he be alone again?
and on the side oyz look about to go crazy over this new development.
it is so easy to catch on for the juniors, so of course, once they join the ymj SIC and lwj who are having tea downstairs at the inn while waiting for them, of course, they would notice it too (especially lwj, because he /knows/ he's not the one who put those mark here).
They know that both men had been deaged, but neither would have actually expected for something like this to happen. Sure, wwx and jc had a history of being really close, but none of them would have expected it to turn out like this. How could lwj have missed it in their youth?
it doesn't take long before the ymj SIC comes up to his sect leader, politely saluting him while presenting himself (he knows jc must have no idea who he is).
jc is a bit surprised by the action, still not used to the idea he was indeed a sect leader now (but also he had no memory of this man, had he been newer to LP?).
wwx give the man a glance, a bit unsure why /he/ wasn't the sic by jc sides (the juniors did tell them some of the history, but it never told him why he wasn't by jc sides anymore). then they looked at lwj who had approached wwx so suddenly, actually making him back off a little bit, not expecting for the man to come up to him so suddenly.
lwj clearly looks hurt for a moment, hand retracting as his eyes lingered on wwx neck and a couple of exposed marks. he looks displeased for a moment, yet no comments come and he goes back to his usual unexpressive face.
This does trouble wwx, looking back at the juniors who are greeting hgj politely. they have to explain again what happened the day before, saying they didn't have too much time to find out what happened since they had more pressing matters that they still hadn't fully taken care of yet.
"We are enough today that we can split, can't we?" jc asked. They were now 8, which included 2 that were actually older and more experimented now that they were both deaged.
"We could keep investigating here while you two go back to where everything happened" ljy suggested.
Every juniors agreed, not interested to be stuck in the weird and awkward situation that would happen once jc and wwx would go back to being close while lwj couldn't really do anything because this wasn't really the wwx he married (from what he understood, this wwx
was from a time when they barely even knew each other, he couldn't exactly expect wwx to accept so easily that they are husband now, doesn't stop from hurting when he sees what he sees).
[poll to see what the continuation should be]
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c-is-for-circinate · 2 years
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More of the Untamed modern AU D&D thing! (Oh lord there's so much D&D in this one. This might actually be easier to follow if you don't know the Untamed than if you don't at least a little bit know D&D.) (On the other hand, if you know zero things about D&D, you are at least in the same boat as Lan Zhan, so there's that. Poor, poor Lan Zhan.)
Pre-Wangxian, starring the Yunmeng Trio knowing each other very very well, Jin Zixuan being an awkward disaster, and Nie Huaisang not getting paid nearly enough to play therapist at the D&D table, plus bonus Lan Zhan refusing to have a panic attack about not knowing what a tiefling is.
-------------------------
"So," Nie Huaisang says, folding his hands over his source manual and smiling in the friendly, cheerful way that he knows only strikes terror into the hearts of his veteran players, so far. "Let's talk about your character concept."
.
Lan Zhan had read the full Lord of the Rings trilogy, once, in high school, ceeding to the argument that it seemed to be a Western cultural touchstone that would elucidate the bulk of the modern Western fantasy genre. It meant that he had slightly more than no context whatsoever, which he supposed was better than nothing.
"And so last you heard, the increasing giant attacks were being kept at bay in the northwest by the mysterious sorcerers controlled by the Meishan Dynasty, nobody has heard from the northern centaurs of the Tianma Dynasty in the past two years, and as far as anyone knows, the empty streets of Nevernight City still lie undisturbed by any living thing, waiting for the rise of the next emperor to try and claim dominion over all fifteen dynasties," Nie Huaisang finished. Lan Zhan...did not know what to do, as it turned out, with that many mismatched and inexplicable references to Chinese history and mythology, mixed in with that many poorly-jumbled bits of Western fantasy and things he didn't recognize.
"So!" Nie Huaisang said. "Now that we all know what's going on in the campaign, what do you two want to play?"
Lan Zhan did not begin to know how to express just how much of an overstatement that sentence was.
"We need a healer," Jiang Cheng said flatly, fixing Jin Zixuan with a gimlet stare. "You can fill in and play healer for us, right?"
"I -- I mean, I can--" Jin Zixuan stuttered slightly, and Lan Zhan would be full of sympathy if he weren't currently hyperfocused both on the fact that Wei Ying's arm was approximately six millimeters away from his own on the table, and his creeping, gut-sinking panic over not having any idea what a "tiefling" was.
"Of course he can," Wei Ying said, grinning in a way that showed all of his teeth but did not, somehow, seem to be friendly at all. "Otherwise Huaisang will have to go easy on us to make up for us not having a healer, and we don't want to need Huaisang to go easy on us, do we?"
"No?"
"I mean, I don't know if I could go easy on you..."
Lan Zhan cleared his throat. 'Healer' at least seemed like a self-explanatory group role, surely. If he had a specific task then maybe this would start to make sense. "I could play healer."
"Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying's attention was entirely on him again. Lan Zhan had no idea why he'd invited that hell back onto himself. He was going to do it again and again. "You don't have to do that, it's your first time playing! You should get to play whatever class you want."
"I..." do not know what I want, but he couldn't say that, or want to be safe in my dorm room right now, or want you to keep looking at me like that. I want to play whatever won't make you look at me like you were looking at Jin Zixuan just now. I don't know how to pick the thing that won't disappoint you. I... "am unfamiliar with the options."
"A-Ying, you should slow down," Jiang Yanli scolded. "You remember when you were brand new. We haven't even explained what the classes are yet."
"Right!" Wei Ying said, and leaned even further into the space of Lan Zhan's body to reach for one of the colorful hardcover books in front of Nie Huaisang on the other side of the table. Lan Zhan tried not to breathe, and also not to have an aneurysm. "So okay, every character in D&D has a race and a class, and a race is what you are and a class is what you do, basically--"
.
"Oh, just what we said at session zero," Yanli says, brushing it off with a one-handed gesture. "I want to be a very large barbarian who's very good at chopping things in half, and never relied upon to make decisions."
"Oh that's relatable," Huaisang agrees. "Except for wanting to be good at chopping things in half part, if I ever said something like that where my da-ge could hear he'd start trying to make me go to the gym with him again, and eughhhhh." He shudders in dramatic horror, and Yanli giggles, which is perfect.
"But Yanli-jie," he whines, laying it on just a little thicker. "You know I can't make a good story out of nothing but 'tall and good at chopping things in half'. You all like it so much when I make a good story for you, but I can't do it if you don't tell me what you want! You have to give me something, Yanli-jie, please."
"You're very good at this, you know," Yanli says. "You're much better at it than me."
"Who, me?" Huaisang flutters. "No, no, no--"
"Mmm, you know, a-Cheng and a-Ying have been telling me about your games since Freshman year," she says. "All the wonderful stories you tell. I worked very, very hard when they were younger, and they're very kind and they love me very much, but a-Ying has always been cleverer than me, and a-Cheng is much more stubborn about wanting to win."
"They love your games," Huaisang protests, although he's starting to see where this is going now. "They always say so."
"Yes, they do," Yanli says. "They're very good, very kind brothers, and I worked very hard at making games for them that were good enough for them to love." She smiles at him, still very sweetly, like a sugar coating over steel. "I don't want to have to work that hard this semester, Huaisang."
"I understand completely," Huaisang says. "It can be so exhausting!"
"Always having to be nice?" Yanli confirms. She nods, very, very sweet. "I'd like to go apeshit, please."
"Good character concept!" Huaisang says, making a mental note to never, ever give Jiang Yanli a reason to dismember his body and cook him into delicious soup. "Let's make sure you get that proficiency in intimidation."
.
"There's about a million races now, plus the whole Tasha's custom lineage rules, which is really cool because it means you can be anything," Wei Ying grinned. "What does Lan-er-gege want to be? An angelically perfect aasimar? A beautiful immortal ageless elf?" Obviously Lan Zhan would be great at anything he wanted to play, because Lan Zhan was good at everything except maybe having fun, and obviously he was here to actually try to do that which meant that Wei Ying could help him learn, finally, so obviously he was going to be awesome. It was hard to envision him as a short beardy dwarf, though, or anything like that. Or a tiefling, really, no matter how much Lan Zhan obviously deserved that charisma bonus. Lan Zhan was too good to be a tiefling. "Ooh, maybe a pretty Persian tabaxi?"
"What do you recommend?" Jin Zixuan was asking Jiejie with way too much cow-eyed sincerity. Ugh, like he could just peacock his way into everybody's good graces by being a doormat. Wei Ying was trying to help his actual friend here.
"Oh, I like playing all sorts of things," Jiejie said, and ugh, why was she smiling at him like that??? "A-Cheng knows all of the different mechanics, you could ask him?"
Jin Zixuan looked at Jiang Cheng, and then apparently decided to be a pussy and turned back to Jiejie instead. "I could just be a human?" he suggested, and Wei Ying groaned almost as loudly as is brother.
"You're not being a human," Jiang Cheng informed him. "You've got eight other PHB races, twelve options from Volo's, four things from Eberron if you don't even count the re-statted orc, all that shit from Ravnica, the Tasha's custom rules, and bare minimum two different subraces for at least half of them. Pick something else."
"He should be a halfling," Wei Ying suggested, because bullying Jin Zixuan into being an adorable round-cheeked halfling cleric with hairy feet sounded like exactly the sort of plan he could get Jiang Cheng on board with. Plus, if Jiejie was a goliath, their characters probably couldn't hook up in-game. "Halflings make good clerics, right Jiang Cheng?"
"Hmmph," Jiang Cheng said, which probably meant he was thinking about Halfling Luck and the inability to torture the peacock over every embarrassing nat 1, which was fair. Still: tiny, chubby-cheeked halfling.
Also, they knew what Huaisang was like as a DM. He might look like a small innocent man fastidiously checking his nails while his players argued about character creation, but inside was the heart of a cold, manipulative evil genius. It was awesome. If the peacock didn't remember to invoke his halfling luck himself, Huaisang wasn't going to remind him, and Wei Ying was pretty sure they could get some more than decent mileage out of that.
"Yeah," Jiang Cheng said. "Be a halfling."
Wei Ying looked back at Lan Zhan, because forcing him to take his eyes away from that perfection in order to glare was just one more of the peacock's many crimes. Lan Zhan looked a little wide-eyed, which was saying a lot for somebody with that few facial expressions. Wei Ying bumped his shoulder against Lan Zhan's encouragingly before he remembered that, oh right, Lan Zhan still didn't like to be touched.
"Lan Zhan, don't worry," he promised. "I'll help you pick the perfect thing."
.
"You know, you don't have to play a halfling Life domain cleric," Huaisang offers, and Jin Zixuan winces.
"No, I...I should," he says. "I will. I want to be a good sport."
"I mean, if that's what you want to do, of course you can!" Huaisang says, although he has his doubts about Jin Zixuan managing to win over either of Yanli's brothers simply by 'being a good sport'. Ah well, so long as he keeps the game going. "You and me are really here to talk about backstory."
"Backstory?" Jin Zixuan asks, looking trapped. "I need a backstory?"
"Everyone gets a backstory!" Huaisang declares. "You can pick a background to help decide what it should be. You could be from a noble family, or an acolyte raised by a church, or--"
"I want to be a poor farmer setting out to prove myself," Jin Zixuan cuts in. "I want to seek my fortune and show that I'm capable of being a hero."
Huaisang winces, just a little. "Okay, okay, we can find a way to do that," he says. "You get skills and tool proficiencies from your background, though, and there's no poor farmer background, so we'll have to figure it out...are you sure you don't want to be an artisan? Or a fisherman? Or a rich landowner?"
"A farmer," Zixuan says definitively. "A poor lotus farmer. Someone who worked his father's lotus fields for years before setting out on his own to make his own destiny."
"Right, yes, okay," Huaisang says, thinking frantically about where on his map he could fit lotus farming. Maybe in the Sheng River floodplain? "We can work with that, we can adapt the fisherman background for foraging for water plants." It'll be fine. At least Jin Zixuan has a character concept. Huaisang can make the world work around it.
"Okay!" Huaisang says. "So that's your backstory. Do you know what god you want to follow? How did you find them?"
Zixuan looks blank. "A god?"
Oh no. "You're...a cleric?" Huaisang tries.
Zixuan fidgets. He's starting to look trapped again. "Does that...mean I need a god?"
.
"See, there's lots of different things you can do, and Huaisang's a pretty good DM so he'll let you do more of whatever thing you most like," a-Ying explained to his friend. Yanli and a-Cheng had heard a great deal about this Lan Zhan last spring -- a-Cheng, she suspected, even more than her, since he and a-Ying had been living together at the time and she was still out of state completing her gap year internship. A-Ying clearly hadn't noticed his brother rolling his eyes just yet, but Yanli hoped Lan Zhan didn't take offense.
At least a-Ying was distracted enough that he wasn't as focused on making poor Zixuan's session zero miserable. Yanli held back a sigh. She did want this to work, sooner or later, and once they all got to actually playing she was sure they'd all start getting along at least a little better.
She'd promised herself, though, that she wasn't going to spend the whole game managing other people's behavior. She was going to let it go.
(And maybe she didn't mind, if her brothers made Zixuan work a little harder to win their approval. Just a little. Just for a while.)
"See, I like puzzles, and talking to NPCs, and solving problems, and finding new ways to do stuff," a-Ying said, in his version of a summary. Well, how else did you briefly cover everything from 'engineering a complex chain reaction to take down a CR 15 boss with a magic item, three skill checks, and a single second-level spell' to 'doggedly chasing down one passing comment a DM had made for the sake of worldbuilding, derailing an entire plot and somehow creating a completely different one'? Yes, Nie Huaisang was a much better DM for her brothers than Yanli had ever been.
"Jiang Cheng likes Winning At D&D," and Yanli could hear the capital letters, "and jiejie likes exploring and finding cool things."
It wasn't untrue. Yanli was, perhaps, still trying to decide what she liked best. Last semester, Nie Huaisang had promised to help her try.
"I didn't know this was a game you could win," Zixuan said, and she knew it was a question because she knew Zixuan, but Yanli was also familiar enough with her brothers to realize exactly how much they would take it as a challenge. She held back another sigh.
"It's not," Yanli cut in, breaking her rules just a little. "A-Cheng's just a little competitive sometimes."
"How?" Lan Zhan asked, looking up from where he was staring intently at his still-blank character sheet, apparently to avoid looking at a-Ying at all. Oh dear. "Do you win?" he added, when nobody seemed to know how to answer his question.
"You convince Huaisang to let you do point buy for stats and then try to minmax a half-elf hexadin that can oneshot a god," a-Ying grinned.
"And now we can't do point buy any more," a-Cheng grumbled.
"Jiang Cheng, you can't do that to me again, my poor skills can't keep up!" Nie Huaisang protested. Yanli wasn't sure exactly how much of it was an act, but she'd been behind that DM screen, so she had some suspicions.
Lan Zhan looked even more lost than Zixuan -- somebody was really going to need to make sure that a-Ying's scattered, enthusiastic attempts to explain an entire manual's worth of rules in twenty minutes didn't confuse him even more, poor thing -- and a-Ying laughed.
"Jiang Cheng played himself," he agreed cheerfully. "So how are you going to win beastmaster ranger, then?"
"Variant human, dex-based ranged attacker, using beast companion alongside additional summons to grant advantage and rack up damage in melee and aid skill checks out of combat," a-Cheng rattled off promptly, because of course he could. Oh, a-Cheng. Yanli loved her silly little brothers so very much.
"Wait," Zixuan said, and oh dear, now he did look annoyed. "You said I couldn't be a human."
A-Cheng snorted. Oh no.
"Jiang Cheng has been playing since he was twelve," a-Ying cut in, expression darkening dangerously. "He knows what his other options are."
That at least cut a-Cheng's glare away from Zixuan for a moment to give his brother a withering look of I can fight my own battles, but then he swung right back, and oh dear.
"I'm playing variant human because I get +2 dex, +1 wis, and a bonus feat at first level that I can turn into a power build which'll have me regularly doing consistent damage to AC 16 to 18 targets at level one with a class and subclass that's generally considered middle of the pack at best," a-Cheng said, scathing enough to make the insult clear even if Zixuan didn't understand all the language yet. "You wanted to play a human because you think you're too good for D&D."
Zixuan bristled. A-Ying shifted. Nie Huaisang, at the head of the table, raised his hands and fluttered, trying to call back attention.
Yanli had promised herself she wasn't going to spend her gaming time managing her little brothers and her possibly maybe would-be boyfriend.
Oh dear.
.
"Piercer feat, obviously, I'll pick up Sharpshooter at level 4 and bump wis at 8." Jiang Cheng has a written list. Huaisang is familiar with Jiang Cheng's lists, and more than a little scared of them.
"Jiang Cheng, you know you're much better with all the mechanics than me," Huaisang flutters, about 40% flattery. He could learn all the ins and outs of every powergaming build that Jiang Cheng tried to bring to his table, but that would take so much time that he could spend drawing maps, or painting backgrounds or minis, or doing his actual homework for his scientific illustration course. It might be the only class he ever takes in his life with 'science' in the name where he gets above a C+! Surely that's more important than trying to memorize every single mechanic Jiang Cheng might try to game and abuse before he even uses it. "You know I just need to see your finished character sheet unless you want to change something from the way it was written."
"I want to reskin a background from Eberron," Jiang Cheng says, shifting gears slightly. "House Agent, it gives me two tool proficiencies, persuasion, investigation, plus I'm taking stealth, survival, perception from the ranger list and acrobatics as a variant human, so--"
"Jiang Cheng! I need to know your backstory to let you do that, you know I do," he interrupts.
Jiang Cheng always has excellent, detailed, and thought-out character backstories. Always! It's just like pulling teeth, sometimes, to get him to admit it, and Nie Huaisang really doesn't know why, he just doesn't.
(That's a lie. He's been DMing for Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying for two and a half years, and there's enough therapy involved in that job that he knows much, much more about what it was like in the Jiang household growing up than anyone who wasn't part of their family really should. But he'll never tell.)
Jiang Cheng sighs. He glares, just slightly, at the paper in his hands.
"We're definitely for sure using the Fifteen Dynasties setting from last year?" he demands. "With the same political aftermath of what we did last time?"
"I have so many maps, Jiang Cheng! You have to let me use my maps again," he says. Jiang Cheng sighs again, even more put-upon.
"I'm the eldest son of the most powerful clan of humans living in the Twilight Forest province. I was charged by my clan to go out looking for allies, weapons, or whatever power I could find. I'm going to return and help my family overthrow the wood elves of the Peng dynasty, so our clan can ascend as rulers of the Twilight Forest," he says flatly. "I have two younger sisters and an older cousin who'll probably inherit leadership of the clan if I die while I'm off adventuring. My mother is a level fifteen ranger, either beastmaster or gloomstalker, who keeps our clan's whole area of the Twilight Forest safe for humans and anything else living there." His glare sharpens again. "If you say anything about my mother..."
"You'll break my kneecaps, I know, I would never, Jiang Cheng!" Nie Huaisang is a good unofficial therapist, thank you very much. He believes in DM-player confidentiality.
"It's what makes sense for the character," Jiang Cheng says grumpily, and Nie Huaisang absolutely does not grin.
.
"So what do you think, Lan Zhan?" Wei Ying asked, because Jiang Cheng's brother was an absolute fucking disaster. "Did anything there sound good? Tabaxi monk? Aasimar paladin? Kalashtar? Warforged? Half-elf? Elf?"
Lan Zhan didn't have much of a facial expression. He hadn't had much of a facial expression since he walked in here, because Jiang Cheng's brother apparently had the world's most embarrassing crush on a literal block of wood, but in the guy's defense, Jiang Cheng had known Wei Ying long enough to recognize completely overwhelmed by a literal fucking hurricane of personality when he saw it.
"Elf?" he said, as much question as answer. Wei Ying latched onto it like it wasn't screamingly obvious that it was just literally the only thing on his list of insane babble that Lan Zhan recognized.
"Of course Lan-er-gege would be an elf," he said, and Jiang Cheng groaned out loud before the whole table could be treated to another five minutes on how pristine and perfect and carved out of literal fucking jade Lan-er-gege was.
"Okay, great, we've got goliath, human, halfling, elf, and whatever you're going to be," he said, moving things along. Huaisang was a perfectly competent DM, but he was way too ready to let the party wander off into inane shenanigans without reining them in. Luckily, Jiang Cheng had about fifteen years of experience with that on his side.
"Levistus tiefling," Wei Ying said promptly. "I get cool horns and cool bonus spells." Jiang Cheng was absolutely not going to acknowledge the pun. Nobody at this table, except possibly Huaisang, would know off the top of their heads that Levistus bloodline tieflings got Ray of Frost as a free cantrip at level one. Wei Ying was baiting him for attention and also probably so he could call Jiang Cheng a nerd again, and Jiang Cheng was not going to give in to it. "She's going to be super chill." Goddamnit.
"She?" Jin Zixuan asked, and great, a whole new thing to deal with. Jiejie made them promise not to start any real fights, but if the asshole started getting homophobic Jiang Cheng was going to have to punch him probably unless Wei Ying did it first, and maybe jiejie would take that as a sign that she deserved better and move on. Huh. Maybe that was something to hope for.
"Peacock, peacock, playing a girl in D&D is great," Wei Ying taunted, clearly already thinking the same thing. "You get to actually be creative playing at being something you're not, and I'm keeping the party dynamics from turning into total gross cliche since jiejie's playing a guy." He fixed Zixuan with the kind of terrifyingly dark look that Jiang Cheng really wished he'd stop giving people, except it was an effective glare so maybe not just yet. "It's fine that jiejie's playing a guy, right?"
"O--of course," Jin Zixuan stuttered. Well. Good.
"Good," Wei Ying agreed, holding that slightly serial killer stare for five more seconds before sinking back in his chair what his usual bright grin like nothing had happened. "Plus I get to be super hot and flirt with all the NPCs," he added, like he wouldn't have just done that anyway no matter what class or gender he was playing. He flirted for an entire campaign as a hobgoblin artificer with -1 charisma. "What do you say, Lan Zhan, want to play a girl with me?"
Lan Zhan flicked a glance at the rest of the table, and ugh, now Jiang Cheng was going to have to step in just so his weird brother's weird real-life flirting didn't completely derail their game before it even started. Except then Lan Zhan said, "Okay."
Fucking hell, this semester was going to be a nightmare.
.
"Oh you know I have so many ideas." Wei Ying grins, and Huaisang grins back because does he ever know about Wei Ying's ideas. He can't wait to hear what tops the kenku College of Spirits bard.
"Tell me about your lady," he says. "Tiefling warlock? Isn't that too basic for you?"
"Not if she's a celestial warlock," Wei Ying fires back, and okay, yes, good, this is a great start. "And here's the catch, I need you to work with me here, Huaisang, I don't want the rest of the party to know."
"But Ying-ge, aren't they going to notice?" Character-building with Wei Ying is always so fun. He has an answer to everything, and it's always so incredibly weird.
"Hey, not if you don't tell them." Wei Ying winks. "I'll goth it up, tell everyone my patron's a fiend, and fake it. You'll let me make sleight of hand checks to give them a couple of hit points when I signal at you, right? I'll even let you roll the dice so you know I'm not cheating..."
"Won't they wonder where the hit points are coming from?" Huaisang asks, and Wei Ying fixes him with an unimpressed, knowing look.
"A-Sang, are you telling me you can't let me text you under the table to give a party full of distracted PCs a couple of random bonus hit points without them noticing too much? I expected more from you."
"Okay, okay, fine, for you, I'll do it." Oh this is going to be so much fun. "But why do you want to secretly be a celestial warlock?"
"Okay, get this." Wei Ying leans forwards, one foot half tucked up under him, leaning half on the table and half on his own knee, twisted up like he doesn't even realize he's sort of a pretzel. Huaisang still doesn't know if that's the Extreme (recently self-diagnosed) ADHD or the Extreme (also recently self-diagnosed) Bisexuality, but it's always really impressive to watch. "Folk hero for a small town she can't go back to because they think she caused the thing she saved them from."
Oh, here they go. "Tiefling prejudice?"
"Yeah, yeah, tiefling prejudice, but also she's kind of a slutty goth mess," Wei Ying waves off. "So some bad thing happened, I don't know what, that's up to you, I trust you, a-Sang--" which is gratifying to hear, and Huaisang's head is already buzzing through options, "and it wasn't her fault, but she goes out to the woods or wherever and prays because she doesn't know what else to do, and there's this qilin who agrees to save the town if she agrees to go out and save other people and never go home again."
It's very cool, and very Wei Ying. It's also absolutely not the whole story. "But why can't she just admit she saved the town? I don't understand," Huaisang pushes.
"Oh, because there's like five hundred stories going around about this mythic visiting hero who rained down divine aid or vengeance or whatever on this town, and nobody would ever believe it was her," Wei Ying says, like it's obvious. "It was all some old laozu. Also probably the people from her village still think whatever bad thing was her fault and might try to kill her if they heard she was around again, especially if she was trying to take credit for saving them."
On the whole it makes no sense, of course. If a bunch of villagers heard about a traveling tiefling warlock who made a deal with a fiend, or they heard about one who'd made a deal with a qilin and went around healing people, the one they were probably going to want to chase down for vengeance was the one working for the fiend. Huaisang's pretty sure he's got it, though. It makes no sense the exact same way a lot of Wei Ying's characters' weirdly self-sacrificing internal logic makes no sense. Huaisang knows just what to do with it.
"Why this character?" Huaisang asks. "Why do you want to be a celestial warlock in the first place?"
"Huaisang, you know I think warlocks are super cool," Wei Ying says, and looks distractedly at some other cluster of students chattering on the other side of the common room, and doesn't answer the question.
"But why a celestial warlock?" Huaisang persists. He's going to need Wei Ying to say it out loud, probably, even if he does already think he might know the answer.
"It's just really nice, right? Going around to do good deeds because someone else tells you what they are, plus they're not a god and you don't have to bow down and worship them and convince other people to worship them too?" Wei Ying says, toying with the end of his shoelace. "You were willing to trade your life away because you needed power or whatever, but it turns out now your life's being run by someone who only wants to use it to do good stuff."
Fuck, Huaisang isn't getting paid enough for this. He's not getting paid at all. Who said it was his job to give his friends and players this much therapy?
.
Dungeons and Dragons, as far as Lan Zhan could tell, was a game about pretending to be something other than yourself.
He was not good at that, Lan Zhan would absolutely under no circumstances ever describe himself as good at that. But. Maybe, if he tried to pretend hard enough, to be somebody different enough, with rules and numbers to tell him how to do it--maybe he could pretend to be good at pretending. Just enough. Just for a little while.
"A female elf," he said, and didn't think about Wei Ying's promise -- his threat -- to flirt with everyone in the game. Playing a female character seemed safer on that front too. "I still need a class."
"We've got melee, tank, ranged, support, blaster caster, party face, stealth, and general skill check coverage for strength, dex, wis, and charisma," Jiang Cheng rattled off. "We need knowledge checks, battlefield control, and a secondary caster for when that one runs out of spell slots five times a day." That one seemed to indicate Wei Ying, but Lan Zhan didn't care to even try to guess why.
"Which means?" Lan Zhan asked, a bit more sharply than he'd meant to. Jiang Cheng was looking at him with challenge in the set of his shoulders, which were easier to look at than whatever that expression was in Wei Ying's eyes. He didn't know what battlefield control meant, but anything with control in the name sounded appealing.
"It's your first time playing," Jiang Cheng said. "Think you can handle a massive pile of spells well enough to play a wizard?"
"Um, yeah he can," Wei Ying insisted instantly, pulling Lan Zhan's attention back, as though Lan Zhan's attention had ever left. "Obviously Lan Zhan's a genius who can figure out all those lists and tables and play anything."
He was always saying things like that. Lan Zhan didn't know why.
"Don't be pushy," Jiang Yanli scolded her brothers. "Of course he can play anything."
"It's fine," said Lan Zhan, who didn't know nearly enough about the game to make a different choice anyway. That was fine. He knew how to stick to a choice, whether he'd known what it meant when he was making it or not.
"Elven wizard. Female. Battlefield control," he said. He looked at Nie Huaisang. "I trust that's acceptable?"
.
"I know very little about this game," Lan Zhan admits, like Huaisang couldn't have told that from the first moment he walked in for session zero. "What else is there to discuss?"
"All sorts of things!" Huaisang tells him. "We should talk about what your character can do, I can lend you books and recommend some youtube channels, but first we should decide who they are. Where did she come from? Why is she studying magic? What does she want out of life? Why is she on an adventure with these other weird people?"
Lan Zhan doesn't have a lot of facial expressions. Huaisang really hopes that the one he's wearing now doesn't actually mean, 'I will light you on fire with my mind, here, in the real world, for daring to think I would care about D&D.'
"You don't have to play, of course," Huaisang hurries to assure him. "I know Jin Zixuan asked you, and Wei Ying is sort of pushy -- but he means well! -- but if you don't want to play, it's okay. And if you ever change your mind and want to leave, that's okay too, just...text me? Send me an email?"
"I'll play," Lan Zhan says. Shit, Huaisang is going to have to get better at reading him, he can't tell at all what's going on in his head. "I don't know how to answer your questions."
"Well, let's start at the beginning," Huaisang says, trying to figure out just where the beginning even is here. "Why did you want to play a girl elf wizard?"
Lan Zhan hesitates. He's very quiet, Huaisang's noticed, when he's not making simple declarative statements or asking questions that sound like them. Hmm. Doesn't like to put himself in the position of looking like he doesn't know exactly what's going on?
"A 'girl elf wizard,'" he says, and Huaisang can hear the air quotes, even if he can't imagine Lan Zhan making the gesture in a million years, "is. Not like me." He hesitates again, and then adds, "I hear that's the point of the game."
Aw, fuck, he's shy.
Shy and scared and has absolutely no idea what he's doing. He's going to have an even harder time at this than Jin Zixuan. Also he might get even more into it than Wei Ying, once he figures out what it even is, which is going to be a whole different thing to deal with.
"Can I make a suggestion?" Nie Huaisang asks, pulling up his map of the continent. "There's a city of elves with a big school for magic, law, and philosophy, out here on the edge of the old empire, not run by any particular dynasty. Cloud Recesses. It used to be where all the legislators and court officials and lawyers and imperial scholars all got trained, it's a really easy place to learn to be a wizard, it's already full of elves, it would make sense..." He trails off under Lan Zhan's steady stare.
"A scholar at a college for legislators and politicians?" Lan Zhan asks. Right, Wei Ying had mentioned he's a polisci major.
"I know, I know it sounds like you and that's just what you said you don't want!" Huaisang hurries. "But there's a good reason, I promise!"
He waits to be given the go-ahead. Lan Zhan waits, apparently expecting him to continue. Good enough. Huaisang forges on.
"You already said it, right, a female elf wizard who's probably at least a hundred years old and can throw fire around and magically turn things into other things already isn't like you," he babbles quickly. "No matter what you do, of course it'll be different! But sometimes it's easier if you start somewhere sort of familiar, so you know how she's different already." Either he's not saying this right, or Lan Zhan understands completely and just doesn't make facial expressions. "You didn't leave school to go on a study-abroad adventure where you have to kill goblins and monsters and giant spiders, right? So that's why she's different, because she did!"
Huaisang pauses, hoping for something in return. Something to tell him whether he's on any kind of right track. Maybe he's got it completely backwards, maybe Lan Zhan needs a character who grew up raised by pirates on the south coast and learned magic in bits and pieces from scrolls she looted off of downed ships --
"Why..." Lan Zhan starts, almost quietly, then clears his throat and tries again. "Why would she leave?"
He sounds so hesitant. Oh god. Huaisang is going to have to do so much therapy in this one. His friends are so lucky that he's a nosy intrusive bitch that has fun figuring out their deepest malfunctions and coaxing them out in an RP setting. He could do so much damage with this.
"We can figure it out!" Huaisang chirps. "Maybe somebody sent her on a quest. I'm the DM, I can help you decide on that. We can figure this out." He offers what is hopefully his most winning grin. "Want to try?"
Lan Zhan takes a deep breath. Oh, this semester is going to be something. "Yes," he says. "I'd like to try."
.
So.
A goliath barbarian played by a girl who wants to stop feeling like she has to fix everything, who stepped in to chide or nudge or correct her brothers half a dozen times during Session Zero today before Huaisang could even open his mouth.
A halfling cleric played by a rich kid who doesn't know how to let go of his pride, who bit back awkward fumbles and defensive snapping every other time he spoke today, but wants to live out the fantasy of leaving his family entirely behind to forge out his own destiny.
A human ranger played by a business heir who also doesn't know how to let go of his pride, who's tried to build a character who's good enough to win in every game Huaisang's ever run for him, who wants to live out the fantasy of living up to his family, making them proud.
A tiefling warlock played by a genius foster kid who spent literally the entire afternoon begging for whatever positive or negative attention he could get, who wants the freedom and restriction of being forced to do good in private while everyone around him assumes he's at least slightly evil.
And an elf wizard played by a terrified shy boy with a resting bitch face that could kill a man at a dozen paces who doesn't even realize how much he wants to pretend to leave his whole life behind to do something chaotic and exciting. Probably because he hasn't played pretend since about the age of four. If then.
Huaisang sits in his room thinking about it, sketching out scenes of a secluded school in the mountains, a tiny hamlet on the edge of the rocky hills, a manor house deep amid thick woods, a farm full of flowers astride a river, a sandy fighting pit out behind a shitty tavern. He thinks, and he slides pieces together, and the shape of a campaign begins to take form.
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tulu-xuanwu · 2 years
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youtube
As promised, here are some stories that I really enjoyed. This is not meant to be a full list of all my favourite stories, but rather just a few of my favourites that came to mind while I was doing the video.
(If any of the authors would rather not be included in this list, please let me know and I’ll remove them)
Lan Wanji/Wei Wuxian
spider lilies to sunflowers by cicer
"Ah! I know!" Wei Ying pointed at the pretty young master. "If I agree to help you in the fight against Wen Ruohan, then you have to give me your firstborn child."
The young man's eyes grew wide. For a moment, he seemed wholly taken aback. Then his expression hardened and he nodded.
"I cannot create life by myself. If the Yiling Patriarch wishes to claim my child, he must first help me conceive."
(In which the "terrifying" Yiling Patriarch strikes a bargain, and winds up in over his head.)
love, in fire and blood by cicer
"You want Wen Ruohan dead," the Patriarch continued idly. "You want his corpse puppets eliminated. You want his halls burned to the ground and his soldiers disemboweled and begging for mercy. Have I about covered it?"
He gave another knife-edged smile.
"But what will you give me in return?"
"We would be willing to offer quite a bit in return for Wen Ruohan's defeat," Lan Xichen admitted. "But I'm afraid we don't know what an immortal such as yourself desires. Please advise us."
The Patriarch waved at hand at the front of the tent. "I want Second Young Master Lan."
(In which the Sunshot Campaign ends through an arranged marriage to the Yiling Patriarch, and Lan Wangji suffers the mortifying ordeal of falling in love with his own husband.)
so take my hand (take my whole life too) by cicer
When the doorbell rings, Wei Ying lunges for it and triumphantly throws open the front door. He looks down, expecting to see a package. But there's no package on the front stoop. Instead, there's a baby.
A real actual live baby, nestled within a car seat. It blinks at Wei Ying, and he blinks back.
Then he opens his mouth and screams.
(In which A-Yuan is dumped off on Wei Ying's doorstep. He and Lan Zhan raise the baby while falling in love.
...Yeah, it's one of THOSE stories.)
[Now that I'm putting all these stories together I'm realising how much I enjoy cicer's work, so I'll recommend to just go and check them out]
Strange Magic by Sabinasan
Lan Wangji’s life is turned upside down with the appearance of a tiny dragon—one that is rather insistent to stay by his side.
Two Weddings and a Family Reunion by scifigeek14
Lan Wangji has a plan to make sure that Wei Wuxian is able to attend his Shiji'e wedding and it requires another wedding first.
Aka: LWJ and WWX get married to protect WWX and the Wens politically.
when you're doing all the leaving (then it's never your love lost) by tardigradeschool
Wei Wuxian barely makes a sound when Jin Zixun’s sword goes through his chest. A tiny noise is punched out of him — half gasp, half sigh. Jin Zixun, wearing that smirk that Lan Wangji has always hated, moves to pull the sword out.
This won’t do; Lan Wangji knows enough about battlefield medicine to understand the principle of keeping the weapon in the wound until a medic arrives. So he does the only thing that occurs to him in the moment, letting the momentum of flight be the force behind the swing; he cuts off Jin Zixun’s hand.
-
Lan Wangji goes with Wei Wuxian to his nephew's one-month celebration instead of Wen Ning. They still don't make it to the party.
When A-Yuan gets sick and Wen Qing doesn't have the supplies she needs to properly treat him, Wei Wuxian can only think of one place to go for help.
living in my memory/living in my mouth by tardigradeschool
Wei Wuxian dies at twenty-two and doesn’t come back. Lan Wangji dies in an “unfortunate accident” in a temple in Yunping at thirty-seven. The world moves on.
Thousands of years later, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan have a senior thesis in cultivation to co-write on the Yiling Patriarch. It doesn’t go exactly how they were expecting. - “I still do not understand why you were able to read the journal in the first place,” Lan Zhan says.
Wei Ying grins. “You’ll laugh,” he says. He won’t, of course. Lan Zhan doesn’t laugh. But maybe he can swing a smile. “It’s because of the name thing. He wrote his name into the scrambling talisman. So it says that no one can undo the lock but Wei Ying.” He hooks a thumb at himself.
Everyone’s always said his name is unlucky. This is the first time it’s worked out in his favor. It’s not a coincidence either; apparently his mother thought it would be funny. Mrs. Yu had told him that with a curl in her lip, as if it didn’t make him wish he knew his parents even more.
the kite string and the anchor rope by fleurdeliser
When A-Yuan gets sick and Wen Qing doesn't have the supplies she needs to properly treat him, Wei Wuxian can only think of one place to go for help.
Letters to My Partner in Crime by pupeez4eva
Jin Zixuan is hoping that his engagement to Jiang Yanli will be cancelled after his fight with Wei Wuxian. Instead, much to his frustration, he finds himself being forced to exchange regular letters with her.
He is expecting little from this correspondence. The last thing he expects is to be dragged into a matchmaking scheme to pair Wei Wuxian up with Lan Wangji of all people.
i carry your heart with me by lulu_kitty
“Wei-qianbei, I don’t understand. What sort of curse is this?” Lan Jingyi whispers shakily.
He moves aside to reveal a small figure huddled in his husband's robes. A young child, no older than five or six, looking around in both confusion and fear.
Wei Wuxian can’t breathe.
Because the little boy has a Lan clan ribbon dangling loosely around his neck.
"...Lan Zhan?"
Or, Lan Wangji is temporarily cursed back into his six year old self. Wei Wuxian and his family must reconcile with the unexpected feelings that it brings.
To have and to hold by Moominmammashandbag
Madam Yu comes to Cloud Recesses. Lan Xichen is woken to be told worrying news. Lan WangJi does not break someone's arm. It was dislocated.
Jiang Yanli/Nie Mingjue
when the war is over by in_seclusion
Following the massacre at Lotus Pier, Jiang Yanli finds herself a refugee in Qinghe and Yunmeng Jiang finds itself with no alliances or resources to rebuild. At the suggestion of Nie Huaisang, Jiang Yanli marries Nie Mingjue to secure an alliance with Qinghe Nie. The cost? Her happiness. The bargain? Power for Yunmeng Jiang, and possibly Wei Wuxian's life.
Jiang Yanli fully expected a quiet life devoid of warmth and love, but what if she finds both love and herself anyway?
Initiative by nirejseki
Depending on how one looked at it, Nie Mingjue either should have gotten married years ago or didn’t need to marry at all.
Especially not to Jiang Yanli.
Still, when, after the war, she made the suggestion, however circumspectly, Nie Mingjue did not refuse immediately, but agreed to consider the matter.
Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue
soaring, carried aloft on the wind by Skadiseven
“Xiongzhang,” Wangji choked out, sliding to the ground in front of Xichen. “I love him. He is the other half of my soul.”
Oh. No. Oh, no.  
The Beifeng, that mighty empire of the north, invaded more than a year ago, moving inexorably south and east, toppling the cities of Qinghe and Qishan, and now wait, camped outside of Lanling.
In order to buy peace, the chief of the Lan clan has given the Beifeng warlord a gift, his second oldest son in marriage.
However, he did not consult his oldest son, and when Xichen finds out that his brother has been given away, as though he was no more than a vase or painting, he makes a plan. He, too, can give a gift, and he will not regret it.
What he finds with the Beifeng, with the warlord, with the people he meets, and within himself, is not at all what he expects.
[Look, I'm definitely not doing justice to this ship. There are so many good stories for them! But right at this moment, this is the only one that comes to mind. Also, the only story including Nie Huaisang/Meng Yao that I've actually enjoyed]
Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan
Relentless by nirejseki 
“Why are we even here?” Wen Xu groused.
“Yeah! That’s right! Why are we here?” Wen Chao immediately chimed, very obviously taking his cues from his elder brother – much to the latter’s irritation, judging by his immediate scowl.
Lan Qiren knew that he needed to pick his next words very carefully. With recalcitrant students, a teacher only had a few opportunities to really connect with them. If he allowed them to dismiss him or categorize him as an enemy at this early stage, it would be an incredibly uphill battle to gain enough respect in order to teach them anything, and in this case, given the strength of their background and the fact that this little teaching session was both likely to be short and definitely completely unauthorized, it would quite possibly make it completely impossible to ever get through to them.
“You are here,” Lan Qiren said solemnly, each word slow and thoughtful, “because your father is an ass.”
(a story of kidnapping and falling in love, reluctantly)
[There are a few more, but I can't seem to find them at the moment. However, nirejseki has a few Lan Qiren-centered stories that are really fun]
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rosethornewrites · 2 years
Text
Tuesday-Friday NR, E, & M reading
The usual
Finished
Not Rated:
Parenting is Not for the Faint of Heart, by enbysaurus_rex
Jiang Cheng is raising Jin Ling. Jin Ling really should take karate classes, but learning from your parents isn't something JC wants for Jin Ling. Wen Ning comes with glowing recommendations, and Jin Ling loves him. So does Jiang Cheng, actually.
Explicit:
To Be Loved, by scarecrowstories
Because Mo Xuanyu hadn't been born a man, Wei Wuxian finds himself struggling to feel at home in his new body. Lan Wangji helps him move past some of his insecurities.
A Lifetime of Study, by Tepre
Wei Wuxian said, voice hushed, “Have you never been kissed?”
Lan Wangji didn’t move, didn’t flinch, didn’t indicate that he even heard the question. He had only one memory of lips to his skin: his mother, before she’d died. It was a faint memory. The smell of jasmine, earrings like drops of blood. She’d kissed his forehead, called him her little rabbit. Told him to be good, to go back to the main house.
“By a lover,” Wei Wuxian added, as though he’d followed the exact path of Lan Wangji’s thoughts. He said, “On the mouth.”
--
Or, wwx finds out lwj has never made out and is like "lol let me teach you tho WHAT COULD GO WRONG" & then like everything goes wrong
a photo speaks a hundred words (but don't ask where that album has been), by frostferox & WulfInTheForest
“I am happy, I’m the happiest,” Wei Ying promises, grabbing Lan Zhan’s hands with his own. “I’m so happy with you, gege, I’m looking forward to today so much! I have so many things I wanna do with you!”
Lan Zhan’s mouth quirks up in a little grin, and Wei Ying finds himself talking just to keep that expression right there, thoughts spilling out of his mouth without his control.
Shenanigans ensue.
With Intent, by KizuKatana (2 chapters)
Lan Wangji had known that Wei Wuxian would not react to him they way he used to: with his whole face lighting up and shouting out "Lan Zhan!" even if they were an entire auditorium apart from each other. But he was still not fully braced for the total lack of reaction from Wei Wuxian other than a temporary stillness and the arching of an eyebrow.
Wei Wuxian did not look away as Lan Wangji approached. Nor did he stand to greet him, much less bow on ceremony. If anything, the man sprawled even more negligently in his seat, watching with quicksilver, unreadable eyes as Lan Wangji approached.
Whoever Wei Wuxian used to be eight years ago, it was clear that Lan Wangji did not know this harder, older version of him.
“Hanguang-Jun,” Wei Wuxian drawled in a greeting that held neither surprise nor warmth. “Surely you must be lost. This isn’t the kind of place for someone as pristine as the illustrious Second Jade of Lan. Especially not at such a late hour.”
---
The Burial Mounds is a nightclub in the Cultivation Underworld, run by Wei Wuxian, who has been banished from the mainstream cultivation world. After 8 years of separation, Lan Wangji arrives on a mission and their relationship rekindles.
Mature:
To Cherish You, by Mollshka (CaptainAmelia22)
Finally, after 8 years of trying, Wei Wuxian finds out he's pregnant. And everyone in Gusu becomes Extremely Invested in the baby.
Marked For You, by InTheGreySpaces
Wei Ying knew Lan Zhan loved him. He just didn't know how much. Or for how long.
Unfinished
Not Rated:
You took my face in both your hands, and looked me in the eye, by enbysaurus_rex (2nd in a series)
The follow up to "But to be loved like a song you remember, Even when you've changed" in which we watch them fumble their way around the logistics of building a new domesticity while they solve this case
The Oubliette, by Ruixx
Wei Wuxian never thought being a spouse could be a valid career path. Now married to to the mysterious, quiet Second Jade of Lan he has to learn to navigate through the notoriously strict Gusu Lan clan and make himself home. Unfortunately war looms on the horizon and his enigma of a husband doesn’t seem to have much of a plan other than screwing him senseless. He’s not complaining, really.
The smell of Sandalwood, by sanlangsteponme
Wei Ying can only climb into Dage's lap and let's the alpha scent him. It feels so safe. Like he's being held by family, a brother. He falls asleep before a-sang is back home.
"What happened dage!? Is he okay?"
" He's fine now a-sang. Those Jiang's are still after him it seems. Wei Ying is exhausted. His state of being scares me a-sang."
Nie Huaisang only gritted his teeth and went to prepare a-ying's bed. He'll deal with those bastards later.
Or
Wei Ying gets kicked out after his first heat and the Nie brothers look after him.
Lan Zhan is drinking vinegar in the corner.
Why a notebook slightly hidden under the bed?, by lilpuffs3 (formatting issue the author will hopefully clear up)
Lan Xichen had always believed that his brother had a great life.
He was the second in command of connected and firm enterprise, and had a long good life ahead of him.
Of course, he knew that his brother did feel lonely, and tried again and again to introduce him to people he could like, but it seemed like Lan Wangji simply wasn't interested.
So, what was a highschool notebook, that clearly wasn't Wangji's, under his brother's bed?!
Aka, the one where Lan Zhan and Wei Ying go to the same highschool but loose contact when Wei Ying is disowned by the Jiangs. So, Lan Zhan keeps his notebook, and maybe also his feelings for him.
The Untamed: To Walk in One's Shoes, by YenGirl
It turns out that that old adage of 'To walk a mile in someone's shoes' proves to be the most effective way for three siblings to understand one another. Too bad there's a wedding involved.
Explicit:
A Narrow Bridge, by FrameofMind & Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle)
Once, Lan Wangji made a choice to step aside. Ten years after Wei Ying’s death, he finds a way back to choose again.
Heart of the Beast, by WaitForTheSnitch
“Wei Ying?” Nie Mingjue prompted him gently. “Where are your parents?”
“They went on a night hunt,” Wei Ying said, a bit evasively.
“Your parents are cultivators?” Da-ge asked in surprise. “Did they leave you here while they hunted? When did they go on their night hunt?”
“Four summers ago,” Wei Ying said a bit uncomfortable.
“Four summers ago,” Nie Mingjue repeated. “What are your parents’ names?”
“My mama is Cangse Sanren and my baba is Wei Changze,” Wei Ying told him, and recognition registered in Nie Mingjue’s eyes.
“Wei Ying,” Nie Mingjue said, sounding a bit regretful, “Your parents aren’t coming back.”
Or, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang run into Wei Ying while in Yiling and decide to bring him home. And it changes everything.
Imbalance, by blueingaround
In hindsight, Wei Wuxian should probably have known something like this would happen. But he was the first person to really invest so much in demonic cultivation and the only way to find out more about how things worked was to simply try them out. The thing about having to deal with ghosts and often harvesting their anger for power is that you can’t really choose which ones are the best fit, especially when you’re desperate and need all the help you can get.
aka Wei Wuxian has an imbalance of yin energy and can't deal with it on his own bc he doesn't have a golden core anymore, he needs to dual cultivate with someone, but in the middle of a war, he has no time and trusts no one, things escalate from there
The Communication Effect, by draechaeli
If only there was more communication, or the right kind then everything would be all right. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi might be bad when it comes to talking to each other about the important things, but they are still leagues better then the older generation that use communication like swords: concealing, revealing, and striking as they please for their own gain. From apologies, to misunderstandings, to sieges, to rumours and gossip, to cold wars, to lies, to civil wars, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi navigate the world together once their brothers make sure they’re engaged before the classes at Cloud Recesses are finished.
This fic is finished at 186k in 37 chapters + 3 extras
within the silence, by cherishedpeony (StaySunny)
“I never thought I’d be getting married before I even go on a date.”
Jiang Cheng does nothing to hide his eye rolling and gives Wei Wuxian a healthy shove into the bathroom. “Shut up and stop being so dramatic. It’s not even a wedding. It’s an engagement.”
“How is that any different?” Wei Wuxian looks morosely into the mirror, taking in his reflection in his messy bathroom. “Either way, I’m getting married, before I’ve ever even been on a date! With anyone, at all! Not even Lan—Lan… What’s his name again?”
Jiang Cheng closes his eyes and mouths ‘kill me right now’ before opening them again, an angry look on his face. Really, Jiang Yanli would have been better suited for readying Wei Wuxian for his engagement party but, alas, she’s nine months pregnant and unable to fly into the city. “Lan Wangji. And please, for the love of fuck, don’t forget your fiancé’s name!”
**
Or, an modern day arranged marriage au featuring pining, jealous Lan Zhan, oblivious Wei Ying, accidental baby acquisition, and a So Done Jiang Cheng
Mature:
Say my name and his in the same breath, by ataratah
Wei Wuxian is used to making a space for himself in places where he is not wanted. It should not surprise him that Cloud Recesses is the same, even if his soulmate is one of the twin jades.
Get it right (this time), by AmiraAlzilu
Death would be a fate too kind for Wei Wuxian. He should pay for every sin he committed.
At least that’s the only explanation he has for this impossible situation. After falling from the cliff he woke up in his 15 year old body, just before his months of study at Cloud Recesses.
So, thinking it was for the best, he decides to disappear when he was supposed to be searching for their lost invitation.
Little does he know someone else came back in time with him.
Break my heart myself, by Sesugi
Lan wangji would not be like his father he had thought. No. Never.
So he let Wei Ying go.
He watched with his heart clenching painfully as Wei Ying, his Wei Ying, walked away. Farther and farther away. Till he and Little Apple became all but tiny smudges of black on the rolling green landscape, before disappearing completely.
"WEI-GONGZI WAS FOUND STABBED WITH A ROPE AROUND HIS NECK HANGING FROM A TREE"
The Jingshi's colours swirled in his vision as Lan Wangji's vision went black, he thought he heard his name being called by a frantic voice. But it hardly mattered.
Nothing mattered now. Nothing at all.
If Plan A won't work, there's a Plan B!, by SplitGirl28
Since discovering the truth about his Dage's death, Nie Huaisang was pissed and dug into Jinlintai considering his brother's unusual hatred of Jin Guangyao that warranted investigation. He discovered schemes that also led to a former classmate's death, his best friend's cornering and murder via weaponized stupid idiots by the Jins...all to have access to Demonic Cultivation in Jin Guangshan's bid for power.
It was then he discovered through his spies that Mo Xuanyu, a boy who resembles Wei Wuxian except for eye shape befitting a Jin, and a rounder face, was yet another of Jin Guangshan's spawn. Taken to Jinlintai a year after his best friend's murder and made to research Demonic Cultivation as he had no aptitude for orthodoxy yet very proficient with it. He spent years befriending the boy on the sly...and made plans.
One won't give him his brother back even if he gets revenge...the second plan will get him what he wants at a huge cost. And this young boy will help him!
An Almost Lan, by shinigami2174
Becoming a widow a couple of weeks shy of her fortieth birthday had never been Yu Ziyuan's plan. It had been so unexpected that she had yet to process that her life and her children's lives had changed for good. Little she knew how their lives would be changed for good.
Or
Madam Yu became a widow, in charge of three young children. Their inheritance is in danger and Jin Guangshan wants to take advantage of the situation. Her best friend presented her with a solution, she needs to get married again with the right candidate. She even found the right candidate for Madam Yu but he doesn't come alone, he is in charge of children too.
Or
Madam Yu marries Lan Qiren and the Lans, the Jiangs and Wei Ying grow up together as siblings.
This is a WangXian story, don't be fooled by the summary ( I suck at them!).
The fault in my core, by luckymoonly
Blood was seeping out of Wei Wuxian’s wound steadily as Wen Qing was finally about to try to extract his golden core without killing him.
Until she saw it. It wasn’t only the pain medication that was altering his core after all.
Bloodsport, by SkullFeather3063
Before Jiang Fengmian could find him an orphaned Wei Wuxian was rescued by Baoshan Sanren. He was raised up in the celestial mountains by people who loved and adored him, looking forward to the day he got to descend and follow in his mother's footsteps.
Confident in his abilities but lost in his knowledge of this new world, Wei Wuxian decided to attend the educational event at Cloud Recesses to integrate himself into the Cultivation World.
Here was where his story began, where love first blossomed, and a new world was forged for the two youths.
This is a story about love and what people will do to get a taste of it...
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sun-no-sleep · 3 years
Text
Not to sound extreme here, but Wei Ying did not know he’d end up in the burial mounds right? So he really chose to take a calculated risk that he might 50/50 die. (This is only about the core incidents btw, I’m not here to actually pass moral judgement or something on anyone. MDZS is a book where half of the characters belong to a war generation and it has heavy and complex characters)
I see some people keep treating it as a big sacrifice that gives him some moral ground or some good brother points over Jiang Cheng. But when Jiang Cheng lost his core he did it: 1 instinctually, he basically made up his mind on the spot. 2 with no pressure to fulfill any ‘debts’ ie pressures like Wei Ying got from the Jiang parents. 3 with little to no chance of getting out alive.
He went up against armed cultivators without his sword, while on the run. To distract them. He knew Wen Zhuliu and Wen Chao was at lotus pier and he would likely be given over to them. He probably knew that that was a situation he would likely not get out of alive and despite pleading against it while it happened he probably knew fully well that he wouldn’t get his core back. The Wens had just killed their parents and the entire Jiang clan except for his siblings.
So Jiang Cheng was low-key ready to die for his brother in a heart beat. Aka he pulled a Yanli. The Jiang siblings absolutely Love Wei Ying your honour.
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robininthelabyrinth · 2 years
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I'm absolutely delighted your prompts are open! Your writing is amazing and always makes me smile, it's the best way to start the day along with a cup of coffee!
Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are given another chance at raising a child after a family is killed leaving only a young child behind. Lan Sizhui is delighted to have a baby sibling. Though everyone is more or less nervous about it (mostly be Wei Ying is a gremlin) but also there isn't any other options.
ao3
“It’ll be fine,” Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “Hanguang-jun raised Lan Sizhui, didn’t he? And he turned out fine.”
“I did,” Lan Sizhui said agreeably, then frowned. “I think I did, anyway.”
“Not to be a spoilsport, but, realistically speaking, how much raising did Hanguang-jun actually do with you?” Jin Ling asked, and held up his hands when Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi both glared at him. “I don’t mean any offense or anything! I’m serious. We know he was in seclusion those first few years, right? Who raised you then?”
Lan Sizhui thought about it. “Back in the beginning? Well…that was mostly Teacher Lan, I guess.”
“Teacher Lan’s the best,” Lan Jingyi said loyally, then added, “Well, other than that fondness he has for surprise quizzes. But that’s not applicable to parenting, is it?”
Lan Sizhui made a face that suggested that maybe it was, in some weird way, shape, or form.
“Teacher Lan, really?” Jiang Cheng asked, clearly getting drawn in despite his best intentions – as was often the case. There was a reason their little group swung by the Lotus Pier nearly as often as they did the Cloud Recesses and Jinlin Tower, despite Jin Ling not living there part of the year any longer. “Wasn’t he mostly in recovery for those injuries he got during the war? I would’ve figured Zewu-jun would’ve been more involved, wouldn’t he?”
“He was around sometimes, but no, it was mostly Teacher Lan,” Lan Sizhui said. “Zewu-jun was often busy – he was rebuilding the Lan sect –”
“I was rebuilding the Jiang sect! So what? I still raised Jin Ling, and he wasn’t even supposed to be here – I had to fight the Jin sect for months just to get the opportunity – ”
“Yes, jiujiu, we know!” Jin Ling said hastily. “You don’t have to tell that story again! You didn’t have to tell everyone that story in the first place!”
Jiang Cheng huffed. He was probably going to tell the story again whether they liked it or not.
“I think I see what you’re saying, Jin Ling,” Ouyang Zizhen put in, always a good fellow for throwing himself on a conversational sacrificial sword. “If Lan Sizhui was already a few years old when he was adopted, and then Teacher Lan raised him for the next three years, then he would’ve been old enough to be entered into the Cloud Recesses’ official junior classes by the time Hanguang-jun took charge of his education, right?”
“Yes, that’s what I meant, that’s it exactly!”
“What does it matter?” Lan Sizhui asked.
“Yeah! Hanguang-jun still raised him the rest of the way,” Lan Jingyi put in, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring. “Gave him lessons and tips and all that!”
“Isn’t that something he does as a sect senior anyway?”
“Well, yes, but it’s different for Sizhui, okay?”
“I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, the person who teaches the most is the same as the parent, and being the person raising them is what matters no matter when they’re adopted,” Jin Ling said, with an eye on Jiang Cheng, who looked begrudgingly pleased. He looked begrudging all the time, though, so it was probably just pleased. “But my point is – once you were part of the lessons, even if he was raising you the rest of the time, you still already mostly had your personality down by then, right? We’ve never seen what someone raised entirely by Hanguang-jun from birth would be like.”
They all stopped to consider that.
“More than that,” Jin Ling continued. “This kid’ll be raised not just by Hanguang-jun, but by Hanguang-jun as he is now – after he and Senior Wei got together. You know?”
They did know.
“And of course, that’s all putting aside that the kid will be raised by Senior Wei himself, too…”
“Maybe we should start investing in defense talismans,” Jiang Cheng mused. “Because everything is going to explode. Everything.”
-
“Everything will not explode,” Lan Wangji said calmly.
“Are you sure?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Because I’m not sure, and I’m more likely to be involved in these hypothetical explosions than you are.”
“Mm. I’m certain.”
“But…”
“Wei Ying will be an excellent father,” Lan Wangji said, and his voice left no room for doubt.
“It’s easy for you to say,” Wei Wuxian whined, though he was smiling now. “You already have the experience of it! They say that it’s easier the second time, when you know what to expect…”
“Do not tell lies,” Lan Qiren said mildly. He was looking over some of Wei Wuxian’s notes – he’d insisted on any new inventions passing through a sanctioned approval process before they were put into practice and had volunteered himself to review them, a matter that had caused Wei Wuxian no end of stress until he realized that Lan Qiren really did intend to approve anything that met his standards and, moreover, understood musical cultivation enough to understand what he was driving at with most of them, even the esoteric ones, at which point Wei Wuxian gotten extremely enthusiastic about the whole thing.
This didn’t mean that they were friends or anything, but they’d at least formed some sort of tentative truce.
Most of the time, anyway.
Wei Wuxian squinted at his old teacher suspiciously. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying that it’s not easier the second time?”
“I am only saying that I have experience in raising a child not my own,” Lan Qiren pointed out, and Wei Wuxian nodded, slightly abashed; he knew that the old man had basically raised Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen, of course, although sometimes he forgot. “The first child I raised was Xichen and his personality as a child was much as it was as an adult: gentle, amiable, friendly, obedient.”
That made sense. Wei Wuxian nodded.
“The second child I raised was Wangji,” Lan Qiren said. “He bit people.”
Wei Wuxian burst out laughing.
Lan Wangj virtuously ignored them both, continuing to write a letter without the slightest hint of embarrassment – even his ears hadn’t turned red. What a shame!
“I can testify to that myself,” Wei Wuxian giggled, leering at his husband in the hopes of getting a rise out of him. “He’s still a biter – for certain lucky people.”
“He was a lot less discriminating when he was younger,” Lan Qiren said, and Wei Wuxian winced, abruptly remembering that Lan Wangji’s uncle was, in fact, still in the room. Luckily it was pretty easy to flirt around Lan Qiren, who didn’t seem to notice most of the time, but it was still a bit awkward. “And I once succumbed to temptation and gave him mixed messages, which I believe made it worse.”
That sounded like a story.
“He gave me a candy after I bit Sect Leader Jin,” Lan Wangji clarified, which made Wei Wuxian start laughing again. “He did not expect me to remember. I remembered. Nor did I allow him to forget about it.”
“It is easy to make mistakes while raising a child,” Lan Qiren said, ignoring Wei Wuxian’s cackling. “But if one means well, and tries hard to do the right thing, children are very forgiving – usually.”
Despite his best efforts to remain neutral, Lan Wangji’s eyes curved slightly in a smile. Wei Wuxian felt his heart go all warm and melty all over again.
“This is true regardless of whether it is the first or second child,” Lan Qiren added. “I have confidence that you will both do fine.”
“We will,” Wei Wuxian proclaimed. “With parents like me and Lan Zhan, how could the kid go wrong? And we’ll even try to avoid too many explosions!”
“Please do. One Lan Jingyi is enough for the Cloud Recesses.”
“You know, I was wondering – how did you end up with him being quite so…hmm…”
“Oh?” Lan Qiren said, and Wei Wuxian noted to his amusement that Lan Wangji straightened in back in sudden alarm despite Lan Qiren’s extremely nonchalant tone. “Have you not met Lan Yueheng yet? I must introduce you when he returns –”
“Perhaps not,” Lan Wangji said, sounding a little worried.
Worried, in this case, meant fun.
“No, I think I definitely need to meet this person – Lan Zhan, stop batting at me! I know exactly what I’m doing…”
-
Wen Ning looked down at the baby with which he had been entrusted.
“I don’t have any idea what I’m doing,” he confessed.
The baby gurgled.
“I think Wei-gongzi may have been thinking more about ‘babysitter that doesn’t need to sleep and has inexhaustible energy’ and less about ‘is this person qualified to take care of a baby’.”
More gurgling.
“I just wanted to apologize in advance.”
The baby yawned.
“…right then.” Wen Ning straightened up. Someone was going to have to raise this child, and based on how distractable Wei Wuxian was when he was around Lan Wangji and visa versa, it looked like it was going to have to be him. “Let’s do this.”
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jadedbirch · 3 years
Text
The more I watch other things, the more I come back to The Untamed and how it's just generally Superior. Is it perfect? Nope. Do I love it with every fiber of my gay heart? Oh heck yeah. I really wanted to hurt myself again the other day, so I watched Wei Ying's death scene, both versions of it, back to back, for peak pain and Romance. And honestly, I blew my own mind. 
In the Grand Opera of The Untamed, Wei Ying's death is a leitmotif. In fact, it uses a leitmotif - Lin Hai’s Death Theme music “Ye Ben” - which swells into being at different points during the two times we are blessed to watch this scene.  (As an aside, I was so fascinated by this piece of music, that I decided to hurt myself even more by watching EVERYONE’s death scene, just so I could confirm that we also hear Ye Ben when the Jiangs, Wen Ning, and Shijie die.  Jin Zixuan is special and got his own, very haunting, death music.)
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Wei Ying's death scene is climactic and transformational, presented to us in bookended repetition, but each time from a different perspective. 
When I first saw the scene in episode 1, I was mistakenly thinking it was all an outsider's perspective. The way Wei Wuxian is shot (from the side, from the back, close up of just his fist, cast in darkness), had originally fooled me. It's only now that I realize that we're actually inside Wei Wuxian's mind, which at the moment is also somewhat outside his body. Lan Wangji is a disembodied arm, a trickle of blood that paints over Wei Wuxian as he is suspended from the precipice. It's dark, lurid, and evokes the imagery of guilt.
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Jiang Cheng's features are contorted in rage and hatred as he strikes out. Wei Wuxian falls, and once again we're removed from it, distanced, it isn't personal. We watch Jiang Cheng saunter away, seemingly without a care and looking complacent, before we are left in the darkness, with Lan Wangji looking down from the cliff, as Wei Wuxian falls. 
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When we return to this moment in episode 33, everything has changed, including our perspective. We now get to watch Wei Ying’s final moments through Lan Zhan's eyes. His and our attention is so focused on Wei Ying, he barely notices his own wound. The light changes, and now Wei Ying is lit almost with a halo as he steps towards the edge of the cliff. He is Lan Zhan's light and that light is receding - Lan Zhan must follow it. "Wei Ying, come back." (I don't need to tell you how many tears I've shed over that line alone, I'm owed restitution!)
We now get to experience the full frontal Wang Yibo, which is honestly A LOT on any day, but in that scene, really he does everything he can with his face and so much more. #Acting. It's murderous. He's terrified, he's agonized, I actually BELIEVE he can fly. When Lan Zhan catches Wei Ying, his body slamming into that cliffside, I feel physical pain.
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Even though the focus is now on Lan Zhan's face instead of his bloody arm dripping over Wei Ying, or perhaps because of it, we can feel the full weight of his anguish. He's holding Wei Ying with his hurt arm, and he's GOT him, he's NOT going to let go, even as Wei Ying begs him to.  For a moment, his hair fans out and he’s illuminated with a semi-divine glow, allowing us to catch Wei Ying’s perspective again, if only for a moment.
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(Listen, it's been a million years and I'm NOT okay)
One of my favorite (i.e. masochistic) bits of rewatching these scenes is Jiang Cheng. He seems so righteous, so sure of his rage in episode 1, but as he approaches the cliff in episode 33, we see he's just a grieving boy. 
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We see his trembling arm and his broken heart. We see the joy and resignation in Wei Wuxian's face as he hopes that his shidi will release him. It's a stark contrast to the blank look of episode 1. (Don't get me started on Xiao Zhan and how his face is illegal in 6 countries. I mean, who looks this good covered in blood and tears?)
Of course, as much as Jiang Cheng at this moment hates Wei Wuxian, he also loves him. Or he wouldn't hate him so much if the love wasn't there. He strikes, and lodges the sword in the side of that fateful cliff. Which, of course, allows Wei Wuxian the opportunity to do what any foolish romantic would do in his place - sacrifice himself before the entire thing comes tumbling down, taking the two idiots he loves with him. We focus on Wei Wuxian falling, eyes closing.  The final thing he sees is the two last men in the world he might have cared for, alive and safe, even if he believes they hate him. His lips fold into a Mona Lisa smile.
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Thinking back to episode 1 and how detached Wei Wuxian is from his own experience, and knowing the canonical dumbass that he is (I love that dumbass to death, don't get me wrong), his actions are instinctual and he doesn't give them much thought. I think that actually makes it even more romantic. His death at that moment is a protective instinct, an involuntary bodily function, it's like breathing. It's all the more cruel and operatic an image to leave Lan Wangji with as he falls, because Lan Wangji understands exactly what happened (and will not forget or forgive for the next 16 angsty years) even if Wei Wuxian doesn't.
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It's exquisite and fucked up of them to leave us with the same overhead shot from episode 1 again, only this time with the wistful voiceover of "Wei Ying…" which shatters me as the last notes of Ye Ben fade out.
GOD, I love this show, it knows how to come right for my gay life! It hurts so good! There are other shows out there that do great romance with similar tropes, but I don't know, The Untamed just hits different ❤️.
(Eternal gratitude to @significanceofmoths​ for helping to illustrate my pain. Please check out her blog.)
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JC’s deeply rooted resentment of WWX, JFM’s parenting, and the inevitability of the falling out of the ‘Yunmeng bros’.
In discussion of the breakdown of JC and WWX’s relationship, their falling out is often regarded as a mutual failing on both sides to properly communicate and maintain their relationship. I’m making the case here that their falling out was a foregone conclusion from the start, and in no part due to the actions of Wei Wuxian.
This is because YZY has instilled in JC the idea that JFM dislikes him, something he believes before WWX arrives in Lotus Pier, JC already feels inferior, thus as soon as potential competition for JFM’s attention comes along in the form of WWX, JC resents him, believes JFM prefers him, and looks for reasons to justify this. 
Summarising their very first interactions - from chapter 71 - WWX arrives at LP, sees JC with his puppies and is so terrified that he refuses to come down from JFM’s arms the entire day. The second day, JFM gives JC’s puppies away.
Now, I would like to think that no one seriously believes that this is an act of favouritism, but I have seen this case being made so I just want to make clear that WWX is obviously traumatised by his previous interactions with dogs. After trying for a whole day to comfort WWX, with no success, JFM does not exactly have any other choice than to give the puppies away, WWX cannot be expected to live in constant terror in the place that is supposed to be his home.
Consequently, ‘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.’
JC’s reaction is fairly understandable for an 8 year old. JFM comforts JC, and does not treat him callously or dismiss him, however it takes several days until JC will even talk to WWX.
When JC does start to warm up to him, JFM thinks it’d be a good idea for them to have a sleepover, JC is on the ‘verge of agreeing’ to this, which JFM is overjoyed by - so much so that he picks WWX up.
This is not an example of favouritism, JFM doesn't repeatedly give affection to WWX and not JC, he holds him twice - the first instance being purely because WWX was too terrified to leave his arms, the second being this one. These are the only two times where JFM is described as being affectionate towards WWX, JC is still in the lead on this count. But JC interprets this as JFM preferring WWX.
This results in the JC shutting WWX out at night.
At that time, Wei WuXian didn’t know what Jiang Cheng was mad about at all. After a pause, he replied, “I didn’t steal anything. It’s Uncle Jiang who told me to sleep with you.”
Hearing that he was still bringing up his father, almost as if he was purposely showing off, Jiang Cheng’s eyes reddened as he yelled, “Go away! If I see you again, I’ll call a bunch of dogs to bite you!”
This is the important part - JC sees WWX in the worst possible light, and rarely thinks of WWX as a person outside of how he directly impacts JC - he concludes that WWX is purposefully antagonising him, this is a trend that continues well into adulthood.
Then, when WWX flees LP after JC threatens him with dogs, JYL tells JC to find people to help search for him. However,
‘If any other disciple or servant learned about this and told Jiang FengMian, after Jiang FengMian knew how he threw Wei WuXian’s sheets out and made him hurt his leg, Jiang FengMian would definitely dislike him even more. This was also why he only dared chase after them alone and didn’t get anyone else.’
JC has obviously behaved wrongly here, and JFM would be right to scold him for it, but JC interprets this as JFM disliking him. We haven’t seen anything to suggest that JFM actually dislikes JC, he always treats him quite gently, actually. But JC is already at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, and twists events to suit this - if his dad scolds him for misbehaving, it’s because he dislikes him. This pattern repeats after the Xuanwu Cave arc too.
This is because Madam Yu has ingrained into him the idea that JFM dislikes him, because he’s her son. This has nothing to do with WWX - because both her and JC already believe that JFM dislikes JC prior to WWX’s arrival -  she only sees him as additional fuel to use.
The only other person who mentions JFM supposedly treating WWX better than JC is JZX. I’m sure it's a coincidence that he’s the son of YZY’s best friend.
‘“Doesn’t he treat you better than treating his own child or something?”’
Note the ‘or something’, - JZX doesn’t seem to know this with certainty - he’s repeating what others have said, despite having visited Lotus Pier several times (as stated in ch.69), JZX hasn’t seen evidence for himself that JFM prefers WWX.
‘“Maybe I should’ve let you hit him, while I stand aside and watch. This way, Uncle Jiang might not need to come. Oh well, I really couldn’t hold back!”’
We know that WWX doesn’t see JFM as favouring him - so what does he mean by this? Well, LQR has had it out for WWX from the moment they met, and has already sent a letter to JFM complaining of his behaviour - at this point WWX doesn’t know that this results in them breaking the JZX/JYL engagement either, so he’s probably purely thinking that LQR summoned JFM to CR to discuss WWX’s repeated offenses. JC hasn’t done anything to invoke LQR’s ire (or rather, he’s gotten away with everything he has done), so WWX thinks that if JC fought JZX, it would not have been treated so seriously, compared to WWX, who has repeatedly misbehaved.
Contrary to fanon interpretation, WWX is not oblivious to other people’s feelings, he’s very empathetic, and additionally understands JC very well. He doesn’t see how JC is feeling here, because JC’s feelings are just so illogical...
‘Although it was only Wei WuXian’s casual words, he held mixed feelings, because he knew that this wasn’t a lie.
Jiang FengMian had never hurried to another sect in one day for anything related to him, no matter if the issue was good or bad, large or small.
Never.’
Once again, JC’s at the conclusion that JFM dislikes him, he twists events to support this. He’s looking at this scenario very strangely - JFM didn’t rush to CR because he likes WWX, he was called there by LQR, to discuss JYL’s engagement with JZX. Secondly, we’re never given any examples of scenarios where JC does anything to warrant JFM rushing over. As far as we know, they never even stay with other sects. Knowing JC’s personality, his dislike of doing anything to rock the boat, it’s extremely unlikely that he’s ever done anything to warrant JFM rushing over like this. Moreover, it’s a bizarre thing to be jealous of, WWX is in trouble, he’s not on the receiving end of positive attention from JFM. 
JC’s flawed reasoning is once again illustrated after the Xuanwu Cave arc...
‘Jiang Cheng’s expression was complicated after he had finished listening.’
This is Jiang Cheng’s reaction after WWX credits LWJ with killing the tortoise of slaughter - this is before JFM congratulates him. Before JFM says anything, JC is purely resentful about WWX having done something heroic, more so, resentful that WWX is willingly to let LWJ take most of the credit - he’s annoyed about this, most likely feeling that WWX is rubbing in his face that he doesn’t need the recognition that JC so desperately craves.
‘Jiang FengMian nodded and said, “You did well.”
Killing a giant 400-year-old beast at only 17 was way beyond what one would call ‘doing well.’’
JFM knows about JC’s… issues, he knows how he’ll react to WWX’s receiving recognition, he likely purposefully downplays his praise to avoid upsetting him. (Who’s really being favouritised? Lol)
But, even to this, JC reacts badly, he lashes out at WWX, once more interpreting him in the worst possible way.
‘Jiang Cheng hissed, “Too fucking bad, then. You shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn and you shouldn’t have cared so damn much about such a trivial thing. If you’d never moved in the first place –”’
JC’s response is to basically tell him the entire incident was his fault. Which is objectively not true - WWX only gets involved in the conflict after it has already started, and then he acts deliberately to try to end it, rather than impulsively fighting. He also starts to say that WWX should have left their allies - LWJ and JZX - to die. This is where JFM cuts him off, and tells him it’s not appropriate to say such things - he’s not scolding him harshly, JC is not being unfairly treated here, he’s done wrong, and JFM is trying to teach him why, you know, parenting. But JC, and YZY, take this to mean JFM dislikes JC.
JFM tries to teach JC about the Jiang sect’s motto once more - this is of course, not just about the motto, but about the values that JFM wants to instill in him, as a parent.
This is where Madam Yu arrives.
“Yes, he doesn’t understand, but what does it matter, as long as Wei Ying understands?!”
Of course, what she says is nonsensical, it does matter to JFM that JC understands the motto, that’s why he’s trying to teach him. If he did not care, he would have given in already.
This is further supported...
‘Jiang Cheng’s appearance and temperament all resembled his mother’s. Jiang FengMian guided him from childhood, but no matter how much he tried, he still couldn’t change his son’s nature. As such, it always seemed like he disliked his son.’
JFM has never been dismissive of JC just because he’s YZY’s son, he’s always tried to teach him, but JC always had his mother’s nature - YZY’s nature being harsh, standoffish, foul tempered, with no care for others - Note that is says it ‘seems’ like he dislikes his son, solely because he’s trying to teach him to be a better person. He has good reason for doing so - as a kid, JC never had friends, he doesn’t seem to as an adult either, he only has Jin Ling, whom he pushes away with his foul temper. JFM was just trying to raise JC to being an even-tempered person, capable of functioning in society, which is kind of what parents are supposed to do. But once more, this is taken as dislike.
Note that during JC’s outburst, every single thing JC claims about what JFM thinks of him, he’s parroting what YZY has said, none of these points have any actual evidence.
The next point to consider is how JC blames WWX for the fall of LP, despite it objectively not being his fault - JC knows this too.
‘In his heart, Jiang Cheng knew clearly that back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter at Dusk-Creek Mountain, even if Wei WuXian hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, the Wen Sect would have found some reason to come over sooner or later’
Even if WWX’s actions did prompt the Wens to act sooner than they otherwise might have - coming sooner or later would have made no difference at all because YZY outright stated she had no intention of preparing for an attack, even after WWX suggests they should, and JFM was still going to the Wens asking for their swords back - they were still uselessly trying to suck up to the Wens, thinking it would save them.
Despite knowing deep down that WWX was not to blame - he still uses it to fuel his resentment of WWX, because the resentment was there from the beginning, the only uncertainty is the means he uses to justify it.
During the ancestral hall confrontation - he uses this excuse again.
‘Jiang Cheng responded contemptuously, “You really are forgetful. What’s called a shameful person? Let me remind you. Just because you decided to be a hero and save this Second Young Master Lan, the entire Lotus Pier including my father and mother was buried. If this wasn’t enough, after the first time, you still want a second time, even wanting to save Wen-dogs and implicating my sister and her husband, how noble of you. Even nobler, you are so magnanimous to bring these two to Lotus Pier. Allowing the Wen-dog to stand at the front of my gates and letting Second Young Master Lan offer joss sticks, purely trying to antagonize me.’
Obviously, WWX did none of these things to antagonise JC, in fact he was going through a complex emotional journey of realising that he has feelings for LWJ, and that LWJ probably has feelings for him too, he doesn’t go to the ancestral shrine to mess around - he’s ‘introducing’ LWJ to JFM, YZY, and JYL, because he’s thinking about marrying him.
The problem is, JC never really sees WWX as a person, WWX has always been more of a concept - someone to compare himself to, the reason his father doesn’t like him, the reason his mother uses to berate him. It doesn’t occur to JC that WWX is a person outside of what he is to JC, and he is therefore incapable of empathising with what WWX might be feeling right now, instead the only possible conclusion is that he’s antagonising JC.
He follows the same line of thinking when WWX defects with the Wens. JC knows what he and WWX owe them, in fact JC owes them, far, far more than what WWX does - it was his parents whose bodies Wen Ning retrieved, and it was him who WN had to rescue from LP. But JC thinks, he can get away with not paying this debt, so why should he? JC is selfish, he doesn’t understand why WWX would want to help others when he doesn’t have to, so JC concludes, this is WWX showing off, ‘playing the hero’. 
Because from the moment they met, JC has never tried to know WWX for who he is, whatever WWX does, JC interprets in a negative light - when WWX tries to get LWJ’s attention, (despite it being painstakingly obvious that WWX has a crush on him) JC concludes that WWX is messing around foolishly, without reason (parroting the untrue things YZY says about WWX always seeking trouble). When WWX wants to help people, he’s playing the hero, one upping JC. JC only ever thinks of WWX in relation to himself - when WWX disappears for three months, JC’s immediate complaint is that WWX kept him waiting, that he’s put JC out by making him search for him. You could argue that JC was just worried about WWX, and not able to express it - and on some level that’s true. But there’s a very intentional contrast between how LWJ and JC react to WWX’s return - LWJ is worried about WWX, about how his cultivation method is affecting him, moreover, WWX is very clearly not himself. JC, however, does not care for that - he only sees WWX, and modao, as a tool for killing Wens.
It takes almost nothing for JGS to manipulate JC into turning against WWX in ch.73 - he readily believes every negative thing JGS says about WWX, despite being called out directly for lying by LWJ. JGS talks as if he is a servant who has forgotten his place, unlike JYL, JC does not defend him. He refuses to speak up for him - he claims that no one will - yet LWJ and MianMian did. JC didn’t turn on WWX because it was impossible for him to speak up - he was living proof that WQ and WN did not support the Wen sect in the war, he drops him the moment he can because he’s resented him from the beginning.
Another interesting tidbit about JC just fundamentally not understanding who WWX is as a person, is that he only blames LWJ for the Xuanwu Cave incident - not JZX, despite him behaving no differently to how LWJ does. This is probably because he realises WWX’s fixation on LWJ, and supposes that this is the reason that WWX got involved in the conflict. But of course, WWX would have done something whether it was solely JZX, or just a random person.
Taking all this into account, it seems almost inevitable that WWX and JC would fall out eventually, because JC was, from the start, looking for reasons to dislike WWX, he turns against him at the first opportunity he got. For the ‘Yunmeng bros’ to have a healthy relationship, JC would simply have to fix his entire personality.
JC is unable to see WWX as a person, right up until the very end of the novel - when he recalls how he impulsively put himself at risk in order to save WWX. Finally, for the first time, JC is able to understand why WWX stood up for others in Xuanwu Cave, why he helped the Wens, because JC did the same thing, put himself on the line for WWX, probably the only time JC has ever acted so selflessly. And this is why he lets him go, he lets go of the things he blamed WWX for. For the first time, he is able to empathise with WWX, he understands that WWX was never ‘playing the hero’, seeking praise or recognition, he understands that WWX helps people purely because he feels in the moment that it’s the right thing to do. This is what enables him to finally let go of WWX.
I’m always a bit baffled when people claim mxtx never gave JC a happy ending, because this is his happy ending - him being able to realise that WWX never wronged him - when he finally lets go of this, he can live freely. 
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linghxr · 3 years
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A Guide to Taiwanese Name Romanization
Have you ever wondered why there are so many Changs when the surname 常 is not actually that common? Have you ever struggled to figure out what sound “hs” is? Well don’t worry! Today we are going to go over some common practices in transliterating names from Taiwan. 
With some recent discussion I’ve seen about writing names from the Shang-Chi movie, I thought this was the perfect time to publishe this post. Please note that this information has been compiled from my observations--I’m sure it’s not completely extensive. And if you see any errors, please let me know!
According to Wikipedia, “the romanized name for most locations, persons and other proper nouns in Taiwan is based on the Wade–Giles derived romanized form, for example Kaohsiung, the Matsu Islands and Chiang Ching-kuo.” Wade-Giles differs from pinyin quite a bit, and to make things even more complicated, transliterated names don’t necessarily follow exact Wade-Giles conventions.
Well, Wikipedia mentioned Kaohsiung, so let’s start with some large cities you already know of!
[1] B → P 台北 Taibei → Taipei [2] G → K [3] D → T In pinyin, we have the “b”, “g”, and “d” set (voiceless, unaspirated) and the “p”, “k”, and “t” set (voiceless, aspirated). But in Wade-Giles, these sets of sounds are distinguished by using a following apostrophe for the aspirated sounds. However, in real life the apostrophe is often not used.
We need some more conventions to understand Kaohsiung. [4] ong → ung (sometimes) [5] X → Hs or Sh 高雄 Gaoxiong → Kaohsiung I wrote “sometimes” for rule #4 because I am pretty sure I have seen instances where it is not followed. This could be due to personal preference, historical reasons, or influence from other romanization styles.
Now some names you are equipped to read: 王心凌 Wang Xinling → Wang Hsin-ling 徐熙娣 Xu Xidi → Shu/Hsu Hsi-ti (I have seen both) 黄鸿升 Huang Hongsheng → Huang Hung-sheng 龙应台 Long Yingtai → Lung Ying-tai 宋芸樺 Song Yunhua → Sung Yun-hua
You might have learned pinyin “x” along with its friends “j” and “q”, so let’s look at them more closely. [6] J → Ch [7] Q → Ch 范玮琪 Fan Weiqi → Fan Wei-chi 江美琪 Jiang Meiqi → Chiang Mei-chi 郭静 Guo Jing → Kuo Ching 邓丽君 Deng Lijun → Teng Li-chun This is similar to the case for the first few conventions, where an apostrophe would distinguish the unaspirated sound (pinyin “j”) from the aspirated sound (pinyin “q”). But in practice these ultimately both end up as “ch”. I have some disappointing news.
[8] Zh → Ch Once again, the “zh” sound is the unaspirated correspondent of the “ch” sound. That’s right, the pinyin “zh”, “j”, and “q” sounds all end up being written as “ch”. This can lead to some...confusion. 卓文萱 Zhuo Wenxuan → Chuo Wen-hsuan 陈绮贞 Chen Qizhen → Chen Chi-chen 张信哲 Zhang Xinzhe → Chang Shin-che At least now you finally know where there are so many Changs. Chances are, if you meet a Chang, their surname is actually 张, not 常.
Time for our next set of rules. [10] C → Ts [11] Z → Ts [12] Si → Szu [13] Ci, Zi → Tzu Again we have the situation where “c” is aspirated and “z” is unaspirated, so the sounds end up being written the same. 曾沛慈 Zeng Peici → Tseng Pei-tzu 侯佩岑 Hou Peicen → Hou Pei-tsen 周子瑜 Zhou Ziyu → Chou Tzu-yu 黄路梓茵 Huang Lu Ziyin → Huang Lu Tzu-yin 王思平 Wang Siping → Wang Szu-ping
Fortunately this next convention can help clear up some of the confusion from above. [14] i → ih (zhi, chi, shi) [15] e → eh (-ie, ye, -ue, yue) Sometimes an “h” will be added at the end. So this could help distinguish some sounds. Like you have qi → chi vs. zhi → chih. There could be other instances of adding “h”--these are just the ones I was able to identify. 曾之乔 Zeng Zhiqiao → Tseng Chih-chiao 施柏宇 Shi Boyu → Shih Po-yu 谢金燕 Xie Jinyan → Hsieh Jin-yan 叶舒华 Ye Shuhua → Yeh Shu-hua 吕雪凤 Lü Xuefeng → Lü Hsueh-feng
Continuing on, a lot of the conventions below are not as consistently used in my experience, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless, it is useful to be familiar with these conventions when you do encounter them.
[16] R → J (sometimes) Seeing “j” instead of “r” definitely confused me at first. Sometimes names will still use “r” though, so I guess it is up to one’s personal preferences. 任贤齐 Ren Xianqi → Jen Hsien-chi 任家萱 Ren Jiaxuan → Jen Chia-hsüan 张轩睿 Zhang Xuanrui → Chang Hsuan-jui
[17] e → o (ke, he, ge) I can see how it would easily lead to confusion between ke-kou, ge-gou, and he-hou, so it’s important to know. I’ve never seen this convention for pinyin syllables like “te” or “se” personally. 柯震东 Ke Zhendong → Ko Chen-tung 葛仲珊 Ge Zhongshan→ Ko Chung-shan
[18] ian → ien [19] Yan → Yen I’ve observed that rule 18 seems more common than 19 because I see “yan” used instead of “yen” a fair amount. I’m not really sure why this is. 柯佳嬿 Ke Jiayan → Ko Chia-yen 田馥甄 Tian Fuzhen → Tien Fu-chen 陈建州 Chen Jianzhou → Chen Chien-chou 吴宗宪 Wu Zongxian → Wu Tsung-hsien
[20] Yi → I (sometimes) I have seen this convention not followed pretty frequently, but two very famous names are often in line with it. 蔡英文 Cai Yingwen → Tsai Ing-wen 蔡依林 Cai Yilin → Tsai I-lin
[21] ui → uei I have seen this convention used a couple times, but “ui” seems to be much more common. 蔡立慧 Cai Lihui → Tsai Li-huei
[22] hua → hwa This is yet another convention that I don’t always see followed. But I know “hwa” is often used for 华 as in 中华, so it’s important to know. 霍建华 Huo Jianhua → Huo Chien-hwa
[23] uo → o This is another example of where one might get confused between the syllables luo vs. lou or ruo vs. rou. So be careful! 罗志祥 Luo Zhixiang → Lo Chih-hsiang 刘若英 Liu Ruoying → Liu Jo-ying 徐若瑄 Xu Ruoxuan → Hsu Jo-hsuan
[24] eng → ong (feng, meng) I think this rule is kinda cute because some people with Taiwanese accents pronounce meng and feng more like mong and fong :) 权怡凤 Quan Yifeng → Quan Yi-fong
[25] Qing → Tsing I am not familiar with the reasoning behind this spelling, but 国立清华大学 in English is National Tsing Hua University, so this spelling definitely has precedence. But I also see Ching too for this syllable. 吴青峰 Wu Qingfeng→ Wu Tsing-fong
[26] Li → Lee Nowadays a Chinese person from the Mainland would probably using the Li spelling, but in other areas, Lee remains more common. 李千那 Li Qianna → Lee Chien-na
[27] Qi → Chyi I have noticed this exception. However, I’ve only personally noticed it for this surname, so maybe it’s just a convention for 齐. 齐秦 Qi Qin → Chyi Chin 齐豫 Qi Yu → Chyi Yu
[28] in ←→ ing In Taiwanese Mandarin, these sounds can be merged, so sometimes I have noticed ling and lin, ping and pin, etc. being used in place of each other. I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect this is why singer A-Lin is not A-Ling (her Chinese name is 黄丽玲/Huang Liling).
[29] you → yu I personally haven’t noticed these with other syllables ending in “ou,” only with the “you” syllable. 刘冠佑 Liu Guanyou → Liu Kuan-yu 曹佑宁 Cao Youning → Tsao Yu-ning
There is a lot of variation with these transliterated names. There are generally exceptions galore, so keep in mind that all this is general! Everyone has their own personal preferences. If you just look up some famous Taiwanese politicians, you will see a million spellings that don’t fit the 28 conventions above. Sometimes people might even mix Mandarin and another Chinese language while transliterating their name.
Anyway, if any of you know why 李安 is romanized as Ang Lee, please let me know because it’s driving me crazy.
Note: The romanized names I looked while writing this post at were split between two formats, capitalizing the syllable after the hyphen and not capitalizing this syllable. I chose to not capitalize for all the names for the sake of consistency. I’m guessing it’s a matter of preference.
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fannish-karmiya · 3 years
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Is Wei Wuxian's Cultivation Actually Harmful to Him?
Throughout Wei Wuxian’s first life, he frequently argues with Lan Wangji over his cultivation. Lan Wangji believes that his cultivation will harm him and eventually destroy him, while Wei Wuxian insists that he has everything under control. Many readers take Lan Wangji’s warnings at face value, leading to the common fandom perception that demonic cultivation (more accurately, the ghost path) is inherently harmful to Wei Wuxian and that he should indeed give it up.
But does the text actually back that up, when we examine Wei Wuxian’s use of his cultivation? While Wei Wuxian does experience a few losses of control, I would argue that they are far more due to circumstances than anything else, and not a sign that the cultivating with resentful energy is inherently harmful to a cultivator’s body or that loss of control is an inevitable conclusion.
Preconceptions
Lan Wangji is the character who most often tries to tell Wei Wuxian that his cultivation is harmful. Immediately when Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds and meets Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji again while torturing Wen Chao, Lan Wangji expresses concern:
One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off. He gazed at Wei WuXian, “Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.”
Wei WuXian, “I can pay.”
Seeing how unconcerned he seemed to be, Lan WangJi lowered his voice, “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well.”
(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)
Now, Wei Wuxian’s path (guidao, the ghost path) is brand new. He invented it, being the first person to ever successfully cultivate using yuanqi, or the resentful energy of dead humans. So why does Lan Wangji speak so assuredly of the harm it can cause?
The term ‘cultivating an evil path’ is telling. Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is a new path, but there are other dark paths of cultivation which exist. The Nie sect’s sabres are an example; they absorb the killing intent and evil energy of the yao and guai they kill, and over time their sabres become more and more powerful but also lead the wielder closer and closer to an inevitable qi deviation.
Of course, Lan Wangji is not aware of the Nie sect’s technique, which is a strictly kept secret, at this point. Nie Mingjue only seems to have told Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao because they were his sworn brothers. But there are surely other paths like this which are publicly known.
We know about other dark rituals which are not part of Wei Wuxian’s ghost path, after all, and ‘backlash’ is a frequent risk, either due to making the user vulnerable or failing to fulfil the contract one agreed to.
The body sacrificing ritual which Mo Xuanyu uses, for example, will cause backlash if you fail to keep up your end of the deal.
It was an ancient, forbidden technique. Compared to an array, it resembled a curse more. The caster of the array injures themselves by creating incisions on their body, and draws the array and writes the incantations using their own blood, finishing by sitting in the center of the array. They can then summon an extremely villainous ghoul and ask for it to complete their wish. The price to pay was to offer their body to the evil spirit, with their own soul returning back to Earth.
This was the forbidden technique opposite to stealing another’s body—offering one’s body.
[...]
The difficult part was that, as soon as the evil spirit has taken over the body of the caster, the contract is sealed by default. The evil spirit must grant their wish, or else the curse will cause a backlash. The spirit in possession of the body will be completely annihilated, never to be born again!
(Chapter 2, Exiled Rebels translation)
Interestingly, the harm here is to the ‘evil spirit’ if they fail to keep up their end of the contract. Well, also the caster who gives up his or her life in exchange. At any rate, this sort of thing seems to be a frequent risk of dark cultivation techniques. The paperman technique is also quite risky:
The good thing was that Wei WuXian had once learnt a certain technique of the dark arts—the paper metamorphosis.
Although it was indeed useful, it had a number of restrictions as well. Not only was the time strictly limited, the paperman must also return as it were, after it had been released. There mustn’t even be a single scratch on it. If, on its way, it was torn apart or broken in any way, the soul would receive the same degree of harm—from a year of unconsciousness to a whole lifetime of lunacy. Thus, one must be extremely careful.
(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)
This seems to be a frequent concern with any dark technique, which probably is what led Lan Wangji to believe that Wei Wuxian’s new path would be similarly dangerous. It’s also very worth noting that he grew up in Gusu Lan, which is known for being even more judgmental towards dark cultivation than other sects.
He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.”
Jiang Cheng stared at Lan WangJi, cautious, “Second Young Master Lan, all of us understand the Lan Sect’s ways.
[...]
Wei WuXian had been angered as well, “Lan WangJi! Do you really have to make this difficult at such a point in time? You want me to go to the Cloud Recesses for the GusuLan Sect’s confinement punishment? Who do you think you are, what do you think the GusuLan Sect is?! You really think that I won’t resist?!”
(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)
While many people speak negatively of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, Lan Qiren is particularly virulent when Wei Wuxian first proposes the theory as a teen:
Everyone in the room was stunned. Lan QiRen sprang to his feet, “The essence of exorcising demons and annihilating ghosts is to liberate! You do not study the methods of liberation, and even think about increasing their energy of resentment! You reverse the natural order, and ignore ethics and morality!”
[...]
Another book came flying from Lan QiRen. He spoke harshly, “Then, let me ask you again! How do you make sure that the resentful energy only listens to you and does not harm others?”
Wei WuXian ducked while speaking, “I haven’t thought of it yet!”
Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world would not allow your existence! Get out!”
(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)
Due to their father’s seclusion and their mother’s imprisonment, Lan Wangji and his brother were raised by Lan Qiren. With his uncle having such a black and white view of such matters, it’s understandable that Lan Wangji would absorb that and struggle to reconcile the Wei Wuxian he knows and loves with the man who is cultivating an ‘evil’ path.
With his own sect and family so negatively inclined towards Wei Wuxian’s cultivation, I think Lan Wangji was primed to see every behaviour of Wei Wuxian’s through this lens. Similarly, the audience hears the younger Lan Wangji repeat these warnings so many times that I think many readers wind up believing him, too.
Confirmation Bias
However, I think much of this is actually a case of confirmation bias. Lan Wangji is predisposed to see Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as harmful, and is actively looking for signs that it is; he winds up correlating all sorts of things to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as a result.
He does so when he visits Wei Wuxian in Yunmeng:
Lan WangJi, “Last time, during the hunt on Phoenix Mountain, have you noticed certain signs?”
Wei WuXian, “What signs?”
Lan WangJi, “The loss of control.”
Wei WuXian, “You mean me almost getting into a fight with Jin ZiXuan? I think you got something wrong. I want to fight with Jin ZiXuan whenever I see him.”
(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)
Which is true! Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan just do not get on at all. And if we go back to Phoenix Mountain, it’s clear that this was a perfectly ordinary fight:
However, Jiang YanLi didn’t turn around. Jin ZiXuan was even more enraged. He caught up to her in just three strides and was about to grab her hand when a shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes. Before he could see who it was, he received a blow on his chest. Jin ZiXuan swung his sword across and backed away.
When he finally could see, he raged, “Wei WuXian, why is it you again?!”
Wei WuXian blocked Jiang YanLi behind him, raging as well, “I haven’t fucking said it yet—why is it you again?!”
Jin ZiXuan, “Attacking because of nothing have you gone mad?!”
Wei WuXian struck with his palm, “That’s exactly what I’m doing! What do you mean because of nothing? What are you doing trying to grab my shijie just because of how ashamed you are?!”
Jin ZiXuan dodged to the side and returned to him a sword attack, “If I don’t grab her should I let her walk randomly around the mountain alone?!”
(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)
Jin Zixuan is described as being ‘enraged’ and tries to grab Jiang Yanli. He’s clearly being very hotheaded here himself. What brother wouldn’t be enraged after this, especially given Jin Zixuan’s pattern of speaking of Jiang Yanli derisively?
Earlier, Lan Wangji had forcibly kissed Wei Wuxian while he was blindfolded, and yet he didn’t display any loss of control or temper problems then.
(I also think this ties into how people tend to judge Wei Wuxian more harshly due to his lower social class; he’s often no more brash and arrogant than his peers, but because he’s the son of a servant only he is judged for it. Look at Jin Zixuan pulling his sword on a man who no longer carries a sword! He isn’t criticised for that. But I digress.)
Lan Wangji also believes that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is doing him spiritual harm, using evidence such as Wei Wuxian’s unwillingness to carry his sword or receive spiritual energy to help him heal:
Suddenly, he felt an itch at his throat. Blood began to rise up his chest. Trying to restrain it, Wei WuXian coughed a couple of times. Seeing that Lan WangJi was going to grab his hand again, Wei WuXian dodged, “What are you doing?”
Lan WangJi, “Your injuries.”
Wei WuXian, “No need. Why use spiritual energy for such a small wound? It’ll get better after some sitting around.”
Lan WangJi didn’t waste any words with him, grabbing for his hand again. At this point, two people came from outside of the cave. Wen Qing’s voice sounded, “Get better after some sitting around? Did you think I’m dead?”
(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)
He observes this back when he visited the Burial Mounds in the day, and many years later tells Wen Ning that this was the conclusion he drew:
Wen Ning turned around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Young Master Lan, you don’t seem too surprised about this. Did you… Did you know about this as well?”
“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”
But to think this was the truth.
(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)
Working with incomplete information (since he doesn’t know that Wei Wuxian has no golden core, he instead assumes that he is being harmed spiritually by his cultivation) and a pre-existing bias against demonic cultivation, Lan Wangji viewed Wei Wuxian as someone who was bound to lose control at some point, and everything became evidence to prove what he already believed.
Loss of Control
However, I think it’s arguable that the instances where Wei Wuxian loses control are not an inevitability of his cultivation path. Instead, they occur in extremely dangerous combat situations where Wei Wuxian has no allies and is being besieged by hundreds or thousands of enemies.
I want to go over three instances where things go sideways for Wei Wuxian with his cultivation in his first life: Wen Ning’s awakening, the ambush at Qiongqi Path, and the battle at Nightless City.
Now, I wouldn’t even describe Wen Ning’s revival as a loss of control. Wei Wuxian had spent months trying to revive Wen Ning, and in the end he wound up waking up while Wei Wuxian was down in Yiling, not at the Burial Mounds to keep the situation under control. It’s like an unwatched pot boiling over.
Wei WuXian, “Didn’t I say not to touch the talismans on him?!”
Wen Qing didn’t even have the spare seconds to be surprised that Lan WangJi was here. She answered, “Nobody touched them! Not a single person went into the Cave! He tore them off on his own when he suddenly went on a rampage. Not only the ones on himself, he destroyed the restriction seals at the blood pool and the Cave as well! All of the fierce corpses in the blood pool got out. Wei WuXian, go save Granny and the others. They won’t be able to hold up much longer!!!”
(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)
Honestly, it’s hard to know based on this what caused Wen Ning to wake up or to return to consciousness. My suspicion is that Wei Wuxian’s efforts had worked, and he woke up with a lot of excess resentful energy he needed to work off; hence going to beat up all the other fierce corpses in the Blood Pool.
After this, Wei Wuxian takes measures to ensure that Wen Ning doesn’t lose consciousness again. For the next year until the ambush at Qiongqi Path, there are absolutely no incidents, and Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian go on night hunts together frequently.
Things only go wrong during the ambush.
Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “You’re seeking your own death!”
As he finished, Wen Ning raised his hand and tore off the red string that hung a talisman at his neck.
After the string snapped, his body wavered, and the muscles on his face began to twist. Marks that resembled black cracks crawled up his neck to his cheeks. He suddenly lifted his head, letting out a long, inhuman roar!
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
So Wen Ning wears a talisman which presumably suppresses his resentful energy, and which he must remove in order to fight at full strength. After Jin Zixuan shows up and completely fails to de-escalate the situation at all, Wen Ning kills him:
Wei WuXian was suppressing a blazing flame of hatred. His voice was cold, “Jin ZiXuan, move away right now. I won’t touch you, but you’re not going to provoke me either.”
Seeing that he still refused to yield, Jin ZiXuan suddenly lunged forward, as if trying to hold him down, “Why can’t you just back off for once?! A-Li is still…”
Just as he reached toward Wei WuXian, he heard a strange, heavy noise.
The noise was almost a bit too near. Jin ZiXuan paused in surprise. He looked down and finally saw the hand that pierced his chest.
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
It’s pretty clear that Wen Ning saw Jin Zixuan lunging towards Wei Wuxian and interpreted him as a threat. As objective observers, we can see that this is actually quite understandable, if tragic, and realistically could have happened similarly in a mundane setting with no magic. But Wei Wuxian of course would start to feel doubt when something so terrible happens:
He was clearly controlling Wen Ning properly.
Even though he activated Wen Ning’s rampage mode, he should still be able to control him.
He’d clearly always been able to control him perfectly.
He didn’t want to kill Jin ZiXuan at all.
He never had the intention to kill Jin ZiXuan at all! It was just that moment. He didn’t know why, but all of a sudden he wasn’t able to control it… He had suddenly lost control!
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
Wei Wuxian had always been able to control Wen Ning perfectly before. Honestly, it’s not a surprise that his control was looser in a situation like this; he’s in the midst of an ambush where 300 people are trying to kill him! Realistically, Jin Zixuan bears some responsibility in his own death, too. When you’re trying to negotiate a ceasefire, you don’t fail to give the target of the attack any assurance of his safety and then lunge for him threateningly! Of course Wen Ning saw him as a threat and acted to defend Wei Wuxian.
Later, Wei Wuxian observes that during his ‘rampage’ state, Wen Ning draws his guidance from Wei Wuxian’s impressions of people:
Listening to him stutter as he apologized over and over again, all of a sudden, Wei WuXian felt extremely ridiculous.
It wasn’t Wen Ning’s fault at all.
It was his own fault.
When on a rampage, Wen Ning was nothing more than a weapon. The person who created the weapon was him. The things it listens to were his orders as well.
At that time, with all the tension and the killing intent on top of how Wei WuXian had never hesitated to show enmity toward Jin ZiXuan in front of Wen Ning, when he was unconscious, Wen Ning recognized Jin ZiXuan as an ‘enemy’ when he attacked, carrying out the order of ‘exterminate’ without a second thought.
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
I actually think that if Wen Ning had killed, say, Jin Zixun, Wei Wuxian would simply have seen it as a case of self-defence and accepted it as that. It’s the fact that Jin Zixuan is the husband of his foster sister (and the one person there he didn’t actually want dead) which turns this into such a tragedy.
The intensely stressful situation in the aftermath of Jin Zixuan’s death is the only time we ever see Wei Wuxian express doubt in his own abilities or regret choosing the ghost path:
With the child’s cries coming to his ears from afar and the scared siblings who were at a complete loss as to what to do in his eyes, Wei WuXian felt his heart sink lower into darkness. He asked himself, Just why have I been locking myself up on Burial Mound all these years? Why do I have to go through all this? Why did I choose to walk this path in the beginning? Why did I make myself like this? What do others see me as? Just what have I gained? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad?!
If only he didn’t choose this path in the beginning.
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
I think that during this period, Wei Wuxian was under an immense amount of stress. He was the sole protector of 50 people who the world wanted dead, and he had to be strong and confident for them at all times. Only during his initial panic after Jin Zixuan’s death does that confident front break down and show us just how much the stress must have been wearing on him:
As he thought and thought about it, Wei WuXian suddenly broke into tears.
His voice was submerged in a deep helplessness, “… Can someone tell me… what I’m supposed to do now?”
(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)
I honestly think that if Wei Wuxian had had someone to lean on and share responsibility with during this time, it would have helped him so much.
In the past, there were only others who asked him what to do. Now, though, he was the one asking others what he should do, and nobody was able to give him an answer.
[...]
Wei WuXian raged, “You can shut the fuck up! It’s already pandemonium the way things are right now! You two can stop adding more trouble onto my platter. Give yourselves in my ass. Did I tell you to do this? Take it out!”
(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)
Later on, at Nightless City, Wei Wuxian’s loss of control is directly tied by the narrator to his worsening mental state:
The more Wei WuXian panicked, the less control he had. The corpse ignored his command and instead lifted the sword in its hand, slashing it down at Jiang YanLi!
Wei WuXian had lost it, dashing as he shouted, “Stop it, stop it, right now, stop it!”
(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)
He manages to calm himself down and get back under control:
Jiang YanLi sighed, “A-Xian, you… you should stop first. Don’t, don’t…”
Wei WuXian hurried, “Yes, I’ll stop.”
He took up Chenqing, placed it by his lips, and began to play. He only managed to steady his mind with great effort. This time, the corpses finally stopped ignoring his commands. One after another, strange gurgles echoed in their throats as if they were complaining. Slowly, they bent down.
(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)
Only when Jiang Yanli is killed by a cultivator aiming for Wei Wuxian does he decide, in his grief and rage, to put the Yinhufu together again:
Yet, no matter the criticism, the blame, Wei WuXian could no longer hear any of them. As if governed by another soul, he reached out and took two objects from within his sleeves. Before everyone’s eyes, he put them together. One half on top and the other below, the two objects snapped into one, letting out a resonating clang.
Wei WuXian placed it on his palm and raised it high into the air.
It was the Stygian Tiger Seal!
(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)
We know that after the Bloodbath of Nightless City, as this battle comes to be known, Lan Wangji takes Wei Wuxian back to Yiling. However, Wei Wuxian is in a very poor mental state (most likely due to stress, exhaustion, and trauma), and only regains awareness a few days later at the Burial Mounds.
This is when he decides that the Yinhufu is a weapon which he should never have created, and determines to destroy it.
After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill happened, and it had since then been beyond his capabilities.
(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)
So Wei Wuxian was actually able to successfully destroy one half of the seal, and start work on the second, in the three months between Nightless City and the First Siege.
Toward his own creation, Wei WuXian was confident to say that even if the sect that got hold of it, made a temple for it, and offered it incense every single day, the remaining half of the Tiger Seal was just a piece of scrap iron. However, Lan WangJi told him something shocking—it appeared that Xue Yang could rebuild the other half of the seal!
Although Xue Yang was young, he was also quite clever, a bizarre eccentric. The LanlingJin Sect discovered that he could use the remaining half of the seal to roughly piece together the other half. Even though the recreated version wasn’t as powerful and couldn’t be used for as long, it could already result in terrible catastrophes.
(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)
I gather that the first half, he completely neutralised. The second half had not been fully drained of power when the First Siege happened. We never see the First Siege, but I think we can hazard a guess that once the Wens were massacred, Wei Wuxian knew that it was all over, and decided to destroy the second half of the Yinhufu so that no one there could get their hands on it. It is likely the backlash from improperly destroying/neutralising the Yinhufu which led to his corpses turning on him and ripping him apart.
Wei Wuxian does confirm that some sort of backlash killed him:
Wen Ning whispered, “Sect Leader Jiang, Jiang Cheng, brought a siege upon the Burial Mounds. And he killed you.”
Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I died from a backfire.”
(Chapter 43, Exiled Rebels translation)
“That’s merely hearsay. Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei WuXian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.”
“Hahahaha… That’s karma! The ghost soldiers that he created are like unleashed dogs, biting everyone that they come across. It serves him right to be chewed to death!”
(Chapter 1, Exiled Rebels translation)
While the vast majority of information in the prologue is revealed later to be lies, Wei Wuxian does confirm this. Strictly, the ‘ghost soldiers’ were probably his fierce corpses. ‘Ghost’ or ‘Gui’ is used in Modao Zushi’s magic system as a catch-all phrase for dead humans, whether they’re actual ghosts (incorporeal spirits) or reanimated corpses. We know that Wei Wuxian was using huge numbers of fierce corpses to act as guards at the entrance to the Burial Mounds and protect the Wens, after all.
Wei Wuxian’s Second Life
So the risk of backlash is confirmed as a threat when using guidao and other dark cultivation techniques. However, it seems that they either have a clear contract which has to be fulfilled (like in the body sacrifice ritual), or a clearly defined risk which can be mitigated or prevented entirely through careful use.
It’s notable that Wei Wuxian is in control of his cultivation far more often than not, and in his second life we see absolutely no losses of control from him. This is probably down to a few things, one of them being greater experience. He also is no longer working alone; Lan Wangji is nearly always at his side or very nearby, which removes the intense stress of trying to fight against the entire world alone.
Honestly, I can’t even pull up any instances of Wei Wuxian struggling to control his cultivation in his second life or being even mildly harmed by it; there are absolutely none. We only ever see him dealing with mundane exhaustion, stress, and physical injuries.
He recovers very quickly from performing Empathy with Nie Mingjue:
Hearing this, Wei WuXian instantly pulled himself out!
He was still the thin paperman, stuck to the helmet that sealed Nie MingJue’s head. He had tugged loose the knot that tied the iron shells over Nie MingJue’s eyes, revealing a bloodshot eye, opened wide with anger.
[...]
There wasn’t much time left. He must return to his corporal body immediately!
Paperman WuXian flapped his sleeves, flying out as though he were a butterfly.
[...]
A while later, once his soul had returned successfully, Wei WuXian immediately took a deep breath. He raised his head, opened his eyes, and suddenly stood up. Yet, having not expected his body to still be disoriented, he felt dizzy and leaned forward. Seeing this, Lan WangJi caught him in his arms. Wei WuXian lifted his head once more, and the top of his head collided with Lan WangJi’s chin. With a thud, both of them grunted in pain. Wei WuXian rubbed his head with one hand and felt Lan WangJi’s chin with the other, “Ugh! I’m sorry. Lan Zhan, you alright?”
His chin having been stroked a couple of times, Lan WangJi lightly took Wei WuXian’s hand away before shaking his head. Wei WuXian tugged him, “Let’s go!”
(Chapter 50, Exiled Rebels translation)
After this, he is stabbed by Jin Ling and winds up spending four days unconscious in Cloud Recesses. I’ve seen it suggested that his short bout of hallucinating after he wakes up is due to harm from his cultivation, but I firmly disagree. He’d been unconscious for four days after being stabbed!
He immediately let go, almost wanting to roll away. His movement was so large that it hurt the wound at his stomach. He exclaimed an ‘ah’ as he scrunched his brows, finally remembering that he was still injured. Amid the stars before his eyes, Jing Ling, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, Jiang FengMian, Madam Yu… Many faces spun around in a large circle.
[...]
Only having ensured that his injuries were indeed fine did Lan WangJi finally let him go, “Four days.”
Jin Ling’s sword stabbed right through. The wound hadn’t been shallow at all. How it healed within four days without even leaving a scar behind meant that high level medicine of the GusuLan Sect had to have been necessary. Wei WuXian thanked him, mocking himself along the way, “I’ve reincarnated but somehow I’ve become even weaker. I couldn’t keep going after just a single stab.”
(Chapter 63, Exiled Rebels translation)
After being a bit muddled upon first waking up, he’s fine. He was also dreaming about his past while unconscious, which is why he’s described as seeing all these faces ‘amid the stars before his eyes’. The flashbacks in Refinement and Poisons-Evil are both framed as Wei Wuxian sleeping and dreaming about the past, and he’s thinking about them as a result; he’s not portrayed as actually hallucinating and thinking they’re really there.
Wei Wuxian is very drained by the events of the Second Siege and faints twice afterwards. However, it’s worth noting that during the Second Siege, he didn’t really use resentful energy (he couldn’t, as all the corpses there were under the control of the Yinhufu); he used talismans, which only require a small amount of spiritual energy.
Wei Wuxian even specifically states that Mo Xuanyu’s body is very weak, refusing to use Suibian before the Second Siege:
He wore it by his waist and didn’t seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan WangJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, “I haven’t used a sword in so many years. I’m not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, “Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there’s a high level sword, it won’t be able to make the best use of it. And so, it’ll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”
(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)
Wei Wuxian collapses due to exhaustion on the boat ride to Lotus Pier:
OuYang ZiZhen, “HanGuang-Jun, why did Senior Wei collapse?”
Lan WangJi, “Fatigue.”
Lan JingYi was amazed, “I thought that Senior Wei would never get tired!”
(Chapter 84, Exiled Rebels translation)
He collapses again during the fight at the Jiang ancestral hall:
Lan WangJi, “Wei Ying?!” His low voice rang within Wei WuXian’s ears, echoing endlessly.
Wei WuXian was starting doubt if something happened to his ears, “What’s wrong?”
He felt something streak down his face, but reached up only to retrieve a handful of scarlet. Accompanied by throbs of dizziness, blood continued to drip down his nose and his mouth, onto the ground.
[...]
Having come to the conclusion that Wei WuXian was only in a temporary state of unconsciousness due to extreme fatigue and anger, Lan WangJi finally tore his gaze away.
(Chapter 88, Exiled Rebels translation)
When he wakes up in Chapter 90, he feels unwell but recovers fairly quickly:
For a long while, he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Only when he saw the splatters of blood on Lan WangJi’s left sleeve, like a string of plum blossoms resting on snow, did he finally recall what happened before he passed out from anger. His expression twisted at once as he suddenly sat upright. Lan WangJi went to help him, but the ringing in Wei WuXian’s ears hadn’t stopped yet.
[...]
Lan WangJi knew that he wasn’t feeling well. Silent, he didn’t ask anything. He lay one hand on his back, sending him a warm thread of spiritual energy.
[...]
Looking around, Wei WuXian suddenly exclaimed, “I’m hungry.”
Lan WangJi looked up. Of course, Wei WuXian wasn’t hungry at all. He had just eaten three pies at the vendor in front of Lotus Pier’s gates. Lan WangJi only ate one, however, and it was the only thing he’d eaten in the past two days. The matter was on Wei WuXian’s mind.
(Chapter 90, Exiled Rebels translation)
The narrative again directly links it to exhaustion, not to anything more ominous than that:
In the fight at Burial Mound, Wei WuXian exerted too much energy and stamina. Both his mind and his body were strained for too long. A few hours earlier, Jiang Cheng angered him so much that he almost bled from his qiqiao.
He only recovered after a long time of rest. Although he didn’t feel too bad right now, if there was something he missed and he pushed himself all the way to Lanling, it was hard to tell whether or not an accident would happen at a critical moment. On top of that, he wasn’t the only one straining his mind and body in the past few days. Lan WangJi didn’t rest for a second either.
(Chapter 91, Exiled Rebels translation)
As said, there simply isn’t any proof, based on Wei Wuxian’s second life, that his cultivation is doing him harm, nor does he ever lose control of it.
This definitely indicates to me that Wei Wuxian’s losses of control in his first life were related to the circumstances and not an inevitable risk of his cultivation path.
In Conclusion
I actually suspect that Lan Wangji himself came to the same conclusion; he only ever gently warns Wei Wuxian to be careful when using dark techniques during his second life:
Lan WangJi let the paperman wriggle on his ribbon for some time. Just as he reached out to take it down, the paperman slid its way down as fast as it could. No matter intentionally or not, it bumped its head once against his lips.
Lan WangJi’s movements paused for a moment. Using two of his fingers, he finally caught it, “Do not fool around.”
Softly, the paperman rolled its body over his slender finger.
Lan WangJi, “You must be careful.”
The paperman nodded and flapped its wings. Clinging flat onto the ground, it climbed through the door slit and snuck out of the guest room.
(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)
He still does have some level of distaste for Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, I would argue, due to the way he instantly latches onto the idea that Wei Wuxian would never have turned to the ghost path if not for his lost golden core:
“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”
But to think this was the truth.
Wen Ning, “If not because of this…”
If not because there really wasn’t a second path to walk on.
(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)
But the discussion of Wei Wuxian’s feelings on his cultivation is one for another day.
At any rate, I doubt that Lan Wangji is only holding back his feelings on the ghost path due to wanting to avoid any more fights with Wei Wuxian. After all, he spent 13 years mourning him. If he still believed that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation was going to eventually kill him, I doubt he would accept it so much more readily now.
I think the lesson he learnt, after looking back and thinking on the past a great deal, was indeed that Wei Wuxian would not have suffered such losses of control if he had had anyone to rely on in his past life. So now Lan Wangji always stands by his side and ensures that he will never reach such a state of desperation again.
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mzdsanalysis · 3 years
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Wei Wuxian’s Actions and Morality:
I am kind of confused on some parts, and i would really appreciate it if someone is willing to discuss it with me. It’s regarding Wei Wuxian, and his exact involvement in the events at the Accident at Qiongqi Path and Bloodbath of Nightless City.
Now, at the accident at Quiongqi path, Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning were just going to Koi tower for the full month celebration to which they had been invited to. Jin Zixun ambushes and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t remove the hundred hole curse. Wei wuxian tries to explain that he didn’t cast the curse and isn’t guilty (admittedly he could have done it in a better way). Jin zixun doesn’t believe him and continues to threaten him. Jin Zixuan appears, tries to diffuse the tension, but still insists that wei wuxian comes along to answer the accusations. Wei wuxian doesn’t believe him (he isn’t wrong to. Guys show up with a whole gang, accuse him of something he didn’t do, and then ask him willingly to come along to “resolve” the issue, though they had spent the past year slandering him and wanting to murder the people he is trying to protect. Just getting into his perspective of things.) Wei wuxian gets angry and accuses Jin zixuan of being on the whole thing, and is agitated and afraid. Which is when he loses control of the resentful energy, which extends to his control of wen ning, and that’s how wen ning, not currently being in control of his body, punches a hole into Jin Zixuan and kills him. Now, automatically, I am going to absolve Wen Ning of any guilt. He is literally NOT in control of his own body. He did that due to the Wei wuxian controlling him with resentful energy. But Wei wuxian also isn’t completely guilty. He was upset, confused, and to some extent scared. But not even subconsciously was he planning or intending to kill Jin zixuan. He lost control over the resentful energy. He put wen ning is a specific state, and then lost control over him, due to not being able to regulate his own emotions during the whole chaos. An accident. An accident that led to someone innocent being killed, but an accident none the less.
Now, I expect different peoples take on this is going to deviate somewhat and that’s fine. I am cool with it. In my opinion, he isn’t completely guilty, but is still responsible. He did not have the intention to kill Jin zixuan, but he DID kill him. It was because of the resentful energy that he was still learning about and how to control it. But if you are going to use a knife after everyone telling you it’s dangerous – although they are doing it just because they don’t want you to have the knife, they want themselves having the knife, while at the same time threating to kill your friends, so you don’t exactly have a choice, but use a freaking knife to, you know, NOT DIE – when you accidently stab someone, it’s still somewhat on you. Lan Zhan had warned him that it could end up badly if he did loose control over the resentful energy and wen ning, and wei wuxian dismissed it. But it was still something he was experimenting with and researching, and hadn’t completely figured out. So it’s not like he didn’t care or was dismissing that it was a bad thing, just that he genuinely didn’t think it would happen. He has been controlling it so far, and everything has been fine, and since he doesn’t exactly have any other options, he will have to continue using it, despite the arguments on the dangers of it.
Now, the bloodbath at Nightless City. Wei wuxian already knows at this point that wen ning and wen qing are dead, and he heads there to atleast collect their ashes and bring them back. When he arrives at the pledge conference, all the sects attending, all 3000, are collected together, and Jin Guangshan makes his speech. He announced that both wens are dead, and then spreads the ashes, the ones Wei ying had come to collect. Then announces that they were going on next day to kill the rest of wens anyway, along with wei ying, to loud applause from the crowd in attendance. Its only then wei wuxian makes his presence known. Before that, he was just listening on. Jin Guangshan makes some more accusations: at Qiongqi Path wei wuxian killed Lanlingjin sect members, the ones jin zixun brought to ambush him, and that wei ying is the one who made wen ning go in a rampage at koi tower (a lie. While jin zixuan’s death at wen ning – actually wei wuxian’s – was an accident, the rampage at koi tower, as we know for a fact, wasn’t an accident (confirmed by MXTX’s interview.) I am not sure if it was mentioned in the book, but from what I can recall, it was xue yang. I might be wrong, but it was still done on Jin Guangshan’s orders. So the deaths of members of the other sect’s members, Lan and Nie, and the others, lie not at wei wuxian’s feet but Jin Guangshan’s. Wei wuxian doesn’t take the accusations silently, and argues back: he was the one who was ambushed, who almost got killed. He has every right to defend himself against the men Jin Zixun brought to attack and kill him. The crowd says he shouldn’t have been so heartless, and in wei wuxian’s own words: no matter what the other sects throw at him, no matter how hard they try to harm and kill him, he is not allowed to touch them, harm their members, defend himself or fight back even if it cost him his life. The sects throw in their final arguments in:
Even if he was fighting back, it doesn’t account for the 130 people who died at koi tower at hands of wen ning.
He shouldn’t defend the wens. They are horrible and evil and guilty and deserve to die.
He is only doing it for his pride, and to prove himself a hero.
He laid the curse on Jin zixun.
Each of them are easily nullified.
Wei wuxian didn’t cause wen’s ning rampage. Jin Guangshan did. The 130 lives are on his own hands, not wei wuxians.
People aren’t guilty by association, especially by family relation. None of the wen remnants have any blood on their hands. They are from wen qing’s branch and are non-combatants, thus they were not involved in any of the Wen Ruhon’s actions. Nor were they involved in at the accident at Qiongqi Path or Koi tower. They are innocent.
The argument about his pride came from their attitude towards him from before his defection. They had admired his powers and were intimated by it, but didn’t like that he belonged to Jiang sect, and wasn’t willing to change his loyalties to belong to them instead. He also dared being defiant and outspoken, and powerful while being a servant’s son, and that’s a crime of it’s own in their eyes. Is wei wuxian’s slightly arrogant? Yes. Is he wrong to be? No, he is very powerful and is aware of what he is capable of. Is that a reason to hate him enough to want to kill him? No! wth
He laid the curse on Jin Zixun. He didn’t. Su she did. Jin Guangshan and Guangyo were aware of that, and still sent zixun to ambush wei ying anyway.
None of their accusation hold any weight to them. Admittedly, we know that because we read the book and these characters aren’t exactly able to do that. The only people here who know about it are Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao, who planned the whole thing in the first place. So, I am not going to paint these people as all evil. Some of the sect’s members did die. Some of these people have actually the right to be angry at what happened, though the anger is pointed in the wrong direction.
But the rest of the people are there because of the mob mentality. Because someone is guilty, someone needs to be punished. Here its 50 people and wei ying, one of their own ex members. But because they are not worth the effort, none of it needs to be investigated, to be proven. They have an available party to hold guilty, and it’s far too comfortable for them to put it on their heads rather than find the actually accountable people.
To an extent, it really does seem, by the proofs handfed to them by Jin Guangshan, the wei ying is guilty, That he actually did it. But don’t they owe to the 50 wen members who are about to be slaughtered like cattle, for no other reason than being associated with Wen sect and Wei wuxian, for atleast one of them to look a bit harder, to try a bit harder? I would say so. Wei ying would too. I don’t think the other sects would agree with us, but it’s ancient china society, and modern war ethics and laws aren’t exactly in place to prevent them from doing so.
Back to Wei ying, he gets shot at by a disciple. It actually pierces him, just by luck not in a fatal place but only by a fluke. It was aimed at the heart. The intention to kill was there.  He fires the arrow back, kills back the guy who tried to kill him. I don’t know exactly how anyone could hold him completely in the wrong here. We might not like it, but wei ying is not some pure white angel, nor a pacifist by any means. He is a soldier, a fighter, and he is amidst people who are literally moving to kill him by any means, and he just got an almost kill-shot. He has every right to defend himself, fight back, and honestly, kill back anyone who is trying to kill him. Eye for an eye, punch for a punch. It’s ruthlessly fair, despite sounding harsh. Honestly, it is harsh, but it’s not wrong, wither we like it or not.
He calls forth his dead, the battle begins. Lan Wangji tries to get him to stop, but it doesn’t work. There are definite tones of a sort of deliriousness. I am not exactly sure to how severe it was, but it shows he wasn’t exactly in an emotional and mental fit state. It’s definitely obvious when he tries to make his way to Yanli, and is too worked up to control the corpses crowding around, and the one standing behind Jiang Yanli. He is only able to do it when yanli asks him to stop it all so that she could tell him what she had wanted to tell him. He forces himself to calm down, and is only then able to control the corpses. (I am not saying the deliriousness was severe enough to absolve him of any responsibility he does hold in the event; I am merely acknowledging it’s presence.)
Then Jiang Yanli gets killed by the bow guy’s brother, and that when thing’s go from going downhill to just jumping right off the cliff. But unfortunately, MXTXs writing doesn’t exactly let us to be a witness to the scene, so the curtains close, and we are only allowed to make our assumptions on what happened, who/how/how many exactly died.
The point of this bloody essay is to determine the exactly how much of the event was Wei wuxian involved and responsibly for, so I can examine wei wuxian’s morality with all facts present.
If we go according to the book, wei ying:
Used some pretty grotesque methods to kill in the sunshot campaign
Allowed/ made Wen Ning kill his killers at Qiongqi Path
Accidentally killed Jin Zixuan
Kill Jin Zixun and his men after their ambush
Got in a fight on the way to the pledge conference with a group of cultivators: he broke one’s nose, kicked out his teeth, and made another fall and break his legs (not a severe injury according to lan wangji)
Fought in Bloodbath at Nightless city (after they had made the announcement, they were going ahead with the attack on the wen remnants and wen ying)
I am only including actions that me, anyone else (or the character’s) could possibly hold against him and question his morality with.
Here is where my confusion comes in. Now, I made the mistake of reading the novel only after finishing the tv show. As we know, the tv show took some liberties with the plotline and altered a few things. I honestly like a lot of the changes. Usually when tv shows make changes like that, it doesn’t always work out and it kind of depletes the essence of the story, but they actually managed it quite well. But one of the key changes were the plotlines around the Qiongqi Path accident and nightless city.
Divergences in the tv show:
At Qiongqi Path, Su she’s flute is what makes Wen Ning kill Jin Zixuan (+ Jin Zixun) rather than wei wuxian loosing control due to his emotions.
At the bloodbath, Su She playing the flute is what stopped wei wuxian from halting the battle and loose control of the fierce corpses.
(+ by the time of the battle, the wen remnants were already dead, so wei wuxian’s fight becomes more about revenge and grief rather than to protect them)
Basically, they abbreviated a lot of his action to other people. Which I understand, I guess. You are less in the character’s head while watching the tv show rather than when you are reading the book, and for the audience to develop a better and more empathetic relationship with a lead character, liberties needed to be taken to make him more sympathetic.
My debate on his morality, hence, is more focused on the book character rather the tv show (honestly, since even his only 2 serious offences are not even his fault in the show.) but in the book, they kind of are. He did kill Jin Zixuan: accidentally. He had no intention whatsoever of him doing it; not subconsciously or consciously. He was just feeling agitated and angry and viewed Jin Zixuan as a threat, and Wen Ning, who was in his fierce corpse state, interpreted as a need to kill jin Zixuan.
The only way you could put this against him is if you hold him responsible of using such an unstable and dangerous form of cultivation/magic. But he already gave an answer for that, which none of us can argue against: he didn’t have choice. He never did with demonic cultivation.
He started using it in the Burial mounds to survive and make it out.
He used it to seek justice for his sects massacre (go ahead and debate the need for that if you need to. I don’t)
He used it to fight in the Sunshot campaign, and he was a MAJOR force in the campaign, and a enormous contributor to it’s success. Could they still have won if he hadn’t been with them? Maybe, sure. But if there was any risk to loosing them, and wen sect remained undefeated, Jiang chen and yanli and wei wuxian were as good as dead. No way they or the other sects who had raised arms against wen sect would have been allowed to live or survive.
He used it to save Wen Ning and other wen remnants: war prisoners who were undergoing severe abuse and were basically being killed off. For no reason than being wens. Yes, I know it was common in ancient china to kill off the whole family. But it’s not right. Wei wuxian doesn’t think so. And neither do i.
He used it to bring back Wen Ning for Wen qing.
-  I don’t know where I read it that he brought him back for protection or as a weapon. He didn’t. He was pissed at what they did to him, and brought him to allow him to tell wei ying who had kill him then allowed him to get his revenge. He than made him sentient because he had promise wen qing & the other wen members that he could bring him back. He promised his sister that he could bring her brother back. That’s why.
He used it to protect burial mounds and the wen remnants: A bunch of non-combatant members that he had grown to love and care about as family. As you can see here:
“ He turned around, knowing that it’d be a long time before he’s 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?”
He used it to fight back during the ambush. He doesn’t have a gold core; He literally cant wield a sword to defend himself. So he uses it to summon corpses to fight against Jin Zixun’s men.
·       He uses it to fight in the Bloodbath of Nightless City, after Jin Guangshan announced that they were going ahead with killing the rest of the wens and wei ying, and the attending crowd voiced out their excitement over the prospect.
 Second, the bloodbath at nightless city. Yes, it was a very brutal battle with many casualties. But these people were planning to kill him and the wens. They had decided it by the time he spoke up. It was a definite thing that was going to happen.
 Now you can argue against the use of violence, and need of it. But while I am very anti-war myself, I still hold to the belief that there are some fights that are worth fighting for, that need to be fought for. The wen remnants were innocent, and no one, NO ONE, had the right to decide they needed to die just because they were wens. They were innocent people. They had not actively killed or participated in the massacre that the main wen sect had conducted, and being blood relations to the actual guilty party is not an indication of being guilty too.
You could also argue the value of 3000 lives against 50. I have seen people do it, and write metas about. But whats the value of 1 life or 10 or 50? How are we supposed to decide who deserve to live more? How is that anyway moral?
Wei wuxian didn’t act to choose one group of lives over the other. He did it to protect himself and the people he cared about, and that meant fighting against anyone who was actively intending to kill and harm them, and was an acting threat. As human being who, like any other being, has the right to defend himself, to protect himself, to survive and be able to live. 3000 people wanting to kill him, and wens doesn’t take away his right to do that. There isn’t a rule that if enough people want you dead and murdered, rightly or not, you should just let them go ahead with it and turn your belly up. That…just doesn’t make sense?
I am in acceptance that he is a grey character, with his flaws and his merits. What I am confused about is exactly how much black and white went into making his grey. Maybe because I watched tv show and read the novel at the about same time, I feel like I am missing something. Did I miss anything? Did he do anything else? Am I wrong? What do other people think? Where do you guys lie on your judgment of wei wuxian as person and on his moral stance?
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no--envies · 3 years
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It’s hard to tell how much WWX was actually affected by his demonic cultivation during his first life. He's still the same person as he was before practicing it and the differences in his temper could be easily attributed to circumstances. I think it's important for the themes of the novel, because MDZS is not a story about someone corrupted by his powers; the point of everything that happened isn't that WWX's cultivation method was harmful and he shouldn't practice it anymore. This is clearly not what the novel is trying to tell us.
Part of WWX’s character arc is about facing his limits and accepting that despite being incredibly talented and skilled, there are things beyond his control. The loss of control of his demonic cultivation is connected to that theme.
He was the one who couldn’t control such a weapon. He was the one who grew too confident in his own abilities. He was also the one who ignored all of the ominous indications that had happened up to now, with the belief that he could suppress any loss of control.
(Chapter 76)
WWX himself admits that he “ignored all the ominous indications” because he felt sure that he could suppress any loss of control. This doesn't necessarily mean there's something inherently harmful about demonic cultivation, but using it as much as WWX did, especially in stressful situations, is not a good idea since it's clearly affected by the state of mind of the person practicing it. The problem isn't that WWX was so arrogant that he thought nothing could go wrong, but that he didn't really have another choice. Instead of worrying, he chose to keep an optimistic mindset and put his trust in his own abilities, as he always does.
I don’t actually consider what happened at Qiongqi Path his fault, since JZXun really pushed him beyond what anyone could reasonably stand, but WWX's thoughts indicate the loss of control wasn't something that happened suddenly. There had been signs before. Other than being plausible, this is important for the themes of the novel: this is a moment where WWX is faced with his own limits. Despite being a prodigy, he's still a fallible human being. He can get tired, stressed out, make mistakes and fail.
Taking all this into account, the signs mentioned by LWJ when they met in Yunmeng were probably real and he hadn’t imagined them. I don’t think LWJ would have been so worried otherwise.
Lan WangJi, “Last time, during the hunt on Phoenix Mountain, have you noticed certain signs?”
Wei WuXian, “What signs?”
Lan WangJi, “The loss of control.”
Wei WuXian, “You mean me almost getting into a fight with Jin ZiXuan? I think you got something wrong. I want to fight with Jin ZiXuan whenever I see him.”
Lan WangJi, “And the things you said afterwards.”
Wei WuXian, “What things? I say so many things every day. I’ve long since forgotten about the things I said two months ago.”
[...]
Lan WangJi, “It is not too late yet. In the future, even if you regret…”
Without waiting for him to finish talking, Wei WuXian’s expression changed. He suddenly stood up, “Lan Zhan!”
Behind him, red light had begun to glow within the eyes of the girls. Wei WuXian, “Stop it.”
Thus, the girls lowered their heads and retreated, but still they stared unwaveringly at Lan WangJi. Wei WuXian turned to him, “What can I say? Even though I don’t think that I’ll regret it, I don’t like it when people take guesses at how I’m going to be in the future, either.”
After a while of silence, Lan WangJi replied, “I am the one who was out of line.”
(Chapter 71)
LWJ’s way of approaching the issue could have definitely been better and it was a source of misunderstandings between them, but he did have a point. I think it's telling that WWX got very defensive every time LWJ brought up the subject. Although part of it was understandable irritation for feeling always judged by LWJ, I think he himself had probably already noticed the signs, but since he couldn’t really do anything about it (it’s not like he could go back to cultivating with spiritual energy) he chose to ignore them and believe in his own ability to suppress any possible loss of control. Having LWJ constantly reminding him that something could go wrong - especially without offering any feasible solution - only irritated him more.
After WWX came back, LWJ stopped being so insistent about the potentially detrimental effects of demonic cultivation, because he understood that his own attitude during WWX’s first life hadn’t helped at all and had only caused the rift between them to become worse, to the point that before he died WWX believed even LWJ hated him like everyone else:
Wei WuXian spun around to dodge the attack and laughed, “Fine, fine. I knew since the start that we’d have to fight a real fight like this one sooner or later. You’ve always found me disagreeable no matter what. Come on!”
Hearing this, Lan WangJi’s movements paused, “Wei Ying!”
(Chapter 78)
After losing WWX, LWJ had a lot of time to reflect on his mistakes and come to terms with his regrets. We see the result of this in all of LWJ’s actions during WWX's second life. LWJ is done with being still and waiting: this time he’ll actually do everything in his power to support WWX and keep him safe. As long as WWX seems unaffected by demonic cultivation, LWJ will never bring it up again. LWJ probably realizes WWX must have his reasons to cultivate that path (we learn in chapter 89 that LWJ had his suspicions and thought WWX’s spiritual powers were somehow impaired), so this time he chooses to just trust WWX’s judgement. LWJ’s own character development also made him become a lot more tolerant in general and less rigid about some things, so he doesn't care about traditions as much as he did when he was younger.
In conclusion, WWX's loss of control might have been due to inherent effects of his cultivation method, but it’s not meant to portray demonic cultivation as something that should be avoided no matter what: it's part of larger themes like facing one's limits and coming to terms with one's failures. I think it's highly unlikely that WWX will lose control again in the future: we see him using his powers with more moderation in his second life and, more importantly, his current state of mind is a lot better than when he was in the middle of very stressful situations. As much as WWX is mentally strong, he spent years isolated from the world, with a group of people under his protection and without knowing when someone would decide to attack him. Having to shoulder all of this alone would put a toll on anyone, so it's no wonder he lost control in the end. Now he has LWJ by his side, so he doesn't need to do everything by himself anymore.
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kurowrites · 3 years
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Five Times Lan Zhan (Kind Of) Proposed to Wei Ying
Find the earlier posts here. 
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V: The Fifth Time (Or, A Complete Failure)
“Ooookay,” Wei Ying said, nonplussed, when Lan Zhan suddenly appeared in front of him and proceeded to curl up in Wei Ying’s lap determinedly.
Wei Ying naturally opened his arms and held onto Lan Zhan so that he wouldn’t fall off the sofa, but he was also a multitasker, so he could glare at the people surrounding him at the same time.
“So, who got Lan Zhan drunk this time?” he asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Wen Ning shifted nervously, but Wen Ning shifted nervously all the time, so that didn’t count. Wei Ying ignored him.
Mianmian, on the other hand, simply shrugged when Wei Ying trained his gaze on her.
“I think he confused the jello shots with dessert,” she said, far too nonchalantly for Wei Ying’s tastes.
“And you let him eat them?” he cried.
Mianmian rolled her eyes.
“I wasn’t watching what he was doing at all times. I’m not his custodian. That’s your job, really.”
“Oooh my god, Mianmian,” Wei Ying sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “I think I’m pretty close to getting murdered by Lan Huan in a dark alleyway or something. This can’t keep happening.”
“Maybe it would help if you had an actual conversation with your boytoy,” Mianmian suggested, looking like she didn’t really care either way. “I’ve got to say, things are getting pretty ridiculous by now. I saw what happened during Wen Qing’s birthday.”
“Excuse me?” Wei Ying cried. “Lan Zhan is not a boytoy!”
He ignored the part about Wen Qing’s birthday, because nothing had happened during Wen Qing’s birthday. No one had been there when Lan Zhan had promised him to get him a better bow than the one he’d already given him, so no one knew about that one. And know one knew that Wei Ying had kept that bow, even thought it had been a pain to get off.
Mianmian rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Boyfriend, husband, loverboy. Tell him to check in with you before he eats or drinks anything at parties.”
“He’s not a child, you know,” Wei Ying insisted, pouting. “He can take care of himself.”
Mianmian sent a distinctly judgemental look towards Lan Zhan, who was firmly snuggled into Wei Ying’s lap.
“I can see that.”
“Naysayers everywhere!” Wei Ying complained loudly and insistently, but if he were honest, he had already given up. Lan Zhan was clearly done for the night, and Wei Ying couldn’t keep sitting with him draped over his lap indefinitely.
He gently wriggled his legs to see what kind of reaction would come from Lan Zhan.
The response was a noise not unlike one a grouchy old cat would make. Clearly the noise of someone who didn’t want to be moved.
“Come on, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, trying to sound encouraging. “I’m going to take you home, you’ll feel much better then. Your bed is missing you.”
Lan Zhan made another noise that communicated his displeasure, but he partly removed himself from Wei Ying’s lap and blinked up at Wei Ying with tired eyes.
“Aw, those shots did a number on you, huh,” Wei Ying cooed. “C’mon, let’s get you home before you fall asleep here. That sofa is too dirty for you to sleep on.”
Wei Ying managed to get Lan Zhan to get off him and the sofa, and Lan Zhan ended up following him out of the room with only little encouragement. To make his point, Wei Ying made sure to stick his tongue out at Mianmian as a parting shot.
“Go take care of your loverboy!” Mianmian shouted after him, but it was hardly audible through the music of the party, so Wei Ying elected to ignore it.
He breathed a sigh of relief once they were out the door and on their way to Lan Zhan’s dorm.
“Hey, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, taking hold of Lan Zhan’s arm to steer him into the right direction. “I think you need to be a little more careful. Getting drunk at these parties is certainly not doing you any favours.”
In all honestly, Wei Ying didn’t believe that Lan Zhan was enjoying these parties very much. He didn’t enjoy noise, he didn’t enjoy the chaos and the crush of unfamiliar people, and on top of that he would wake up with a hangover and no memory every time. Lan Zhan had told him once that he went to these parties because Wei Ying was there, but that alone couldn’t make up for the fact that Lan Zhan didn’t enjoy a single bit of the evening.
In addition, Wei Ying would stay over at Lan Zhan’s every time Lan Zhan got drunk, and Lan Zhan would feel obliged to provide Wei Ying with breakfast after staying over because he was a good host.
Wei Ying did generally enjoy the breakfasts (there was absolutely nothing to complain about the combination of Lan Zhan and tasty food), but delicious food was not a good enough reason to keep this thing going. Not when it came with Lan Zhan getting drunk. Wei Ying needed to put an end to it, he knew that. Especially before Lan Huan got involved.
“Okay,” Wei Ying said to himself as he steered Lan Zhan through the door of his room and to his bed. “This is the last time I’m doing this. No more getting drunk at parties from now on, Lan Zhan. Your wild days are over.”
He poured Lan Zhan onto the bed, and Lan Zhan looked up at him with tired eyes and a distinct pout on his lips.
“Hey little bunny,” Wei Ying said with a teasing smile, and poked his cute little nose. (He had to take his chances when they presented themselves. Poking a fully conscious Lan Zhan was unfathomable.) “What do you have to be pouty about?”
“I am a burden to Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said morosely.
“Aw, noooo,” Wei Ying cooed, poking Lan Zhan again, this time in his cheek. “I’m just worrying because it’s not like you to get drunk so often. And as funny as it is to see you get all drunk and snuggly, I think I prefer sober Lan Zhan.”
Drunk Lan Zhan didn’t seem to be satisfied with that answer, his pout still prominent on his face.
“Sleep,” Wei Ying cajoled him. “And then tomorrow, as much as I don’t want to, we can talk about it once you’re actually sober.”
Lan Zhan tried to sit up, probably to protest, but Wei Ying had already put the cover over him and tucked him in, so he only ended up wriggling a little.
“I wanted to give Wei Ying a present,” he pouted (again).
“It’s not my birthday, I don’t need any presents,” Wei Ying assured him. “Also, you already gave me a present. The bow, you remember? I still have it. But if you really want to give me a present, you can give it to me tomorrow, okay?”
He was pretty sure that Lan Zhan would have forgotten all about any presents by tomorrow anyway, so it was a safe promise to make.
“Hn,” Lan Zhan agreed, and finally settled into his blankets.
“So obedient!” Wei Ying exclaimed, laughing. “Night night, Lan Zhan.”
“Good night, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan murmured. “Will show you tomorrow.”
Wei Ying smiled down at Lan Zhan, and watched him fall asleep.
How many repetitions of the same scene did this make now? Wei Ying bringing Lan Zhan to bed and watching over him as he fell asleep?
At least this time, Lan Zhan hadn’t suggested he was planning to marry Wei Ying in order to get frisky with him. What would it need anyway for Lan Zhan to get frisky with anyone? It was difficult to imagine something like that. Lan Zhan was always so stoic, it was hard imagining him madly in love with anyone.  
Wei Ying sat on the edge of the bed for a while, watching over Lan Zhan until he was sure that Lan Zhan was asleep. Then he snatched Lan Zhan’s little plush rabbit off the nightstand.
Wei Ying had given it to him as a joke, because it had reminded him of Lan Zhan for some reason, but Lan Zhan, far from throwing it away, seemed to treasure the little toy.
“Ah, little rabbit,” he sighed, squeezing the plushie gently. “What are we going to do about Lan Zhan? Your master is a bit of a wild child recently.”
The plush rabbit, predictably, only looked back at him with solemn black eyes.
“I’m a little worried about him,” Wei Ying confessed. “He seems to have a lot on his mind right now. And I’m just one lowly Wei Ying, I don’t really know what to do with him.”
Again, the plush rabbit was silent.
“I mean, he barely acknowledges that we’re friends, so I guess it’s not really my place to meddle.”
He laughed to himself.
“But Lan Zhan is so fun to meddle with, so I can’t help it.”
Wei Ying put the plush toy back and made himself a nest on the overly comfy light blue sofa in Lan Zhan’s dorm room (Lan Zhan had the money for a sofa in a dorm room, damn him). Before he wrapped himself in the blanket and fell asleep, he thought about Mianmian and the others who must still be at the party, but he felt zero impulse to return there. He could always go to another party, after all. And he was determined to talk to Lan Zhan tomorrow morning, as much as he didn’t want to have this discussion at all.
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