#why did Jin Guangshan make this so complicated-

[kettledemon]

If Mo Xuanyu and Jin Rusong both lived to find out the truth….would Rusong call Xuanyu “JiuJiu” or “ShuShu”……..cause he’s both technically-

#mdzs shitposting #mdzs #jin rusong #jin guangyao #mo xuanyu #mxtx #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #qin su #why did Jin Guangshan make this so complicated-

[veliseraptor]

Remembering my first introduction to Xue Yang and thinking about how methodical he seemed to me vs fanon version that is basically evil Wei Wuxian on speed.

No really you're so right he's normally calm and methodical. Just sometimes the universe tells him he fucked up and he's like "would you say that if I did this? *makes an utterly insane choice*"

ohhh this is something I have Thoughts on for sure. don't get me wrong! I think xue yang does have manic periods and will get into a mode where he's not sleeping for three days because he has a project to work on and sleep is boring, a-yao, leave me alone. but I think the degree to which xue yang is - prior to xiao xingchen's death - actually as unhinged as he's sometimes painted is...it's not pretending but it is playing up an aspect of his personality to make people uncomfortable or nervous or scared, both because it's how he makes damn sure he's not going to be forgotten or ignored (have talked about that elsewhere) and because it's what people expect from him, so why not.

(it also means people underestimate him and while I think xue yang has a kind of complicated relationship with that it is useful sometimes.)

I do think a solid 30% of xue yang's behavior is looking at what people expect from him, going "oh you are like a little baby. watch this" and doing worse. i.e. if people are going to assume he's basically a wild animal then he's going to be the meanest wild animal they've ever seen. I think the fact that he settles relatively easily into playing a role where that's very much not the case, where nobody is looking at him like that (or at least nobody who is in a position to look down on him, qingqing is too short), is somewhat indicative.

he has more control over himself and his behavior than most people realize; I think the perception (both in universe and in fandom) is that he's sort of a creature of id, driven purely by impulse and almost instinctual reaction, and I don't think that's actually accurate to what we see of him most of the time. he's certainly very clever, and good enough at what he does to attract the attention of powerful people. jin guangshan finds him valuable enough to alienate and anger another sect leader about it. give Xue Yang a puzzle and if he's interested he'll sit down and pick at it until he figures it out, unless it's too easy, then it's just boring.

it's also notable to me that when xue yang is angry at someone, he doesn't actually act immediately. he's very willing to wait and plan to figure out how to really twist the knife in someone. the choice to go after song lan's temple, and song lan himself, rather than directly targeting xiao xingchen, might be a practical one, but it's also a very deliberate and targeted attack that's aimed right at xiao xingchen's stated purpose: "you say you're here to protect people? look, you can't even protect your friend and his temple, and now they've suffered because of you." that's not, like, an immediate and explosive reaction, it's a very purposeful act that has thought and planning behind it.

now, does xue yang make impulsive snap decisions, frequently involving violence? sure. but the most notable of those is, I would argue, at the two absolute nadir moments of xue yang's life. the first one being when xiao xingchen finds out who he is and vehemently rejects him - xue yang's reaction there feels like much more of an instinctive lashing out, and it's happening because for the first time in his life since he was very young, someone who actually has the ability to hurt his feelings has hurt his feelings and it feels real bad! doesn't like that! so he reacts to make it stop, and then keeps going and pushing until xiao xingchen breaks, and then after that it's pretty clear to me that he sort of shocks back to reality and spends the next eight years going "no, wait, I take it back." or, well, trying.

and then also when he dies. when wei wuxian goads him about what he did to chang ping and the implications thereof regarding xue yang's own feelings of (unnacknowledged, unrecognized) guilt, xue yang absolutely loses it, gets reckless and careless and ultimately it's that, with a-qing's help, which gets him killed.

oh, wait, one other place I think xue yang loses control of himself and acts without really thinking it through, and that's killing a-qing. I have less textual evidence for this (though I don't think it's completely absent), but it's definitely my headcanon.

outside of those moments, though - aka the ones that get really bad - I don't think xue yang is as off the chain as he sort of...gives off the air of being. I don't know that I'd call him calm, but I would say that he has the ability, most of the time, to exercise at least a modicum of self control.

at least, before xiao xingchen's death. frankly, after that I think he does very much lose his mind a little, but, you know. I think that's understandable, under the circumstances.

#conversating #anonymous #holy shit i wrote a lot for this whoops #been a while since xy feelings essay...? #not that long. again whoops #anyway i just have a lot of feelings #she said to no one's surprise #xue yang #lise does meta #...ish #the sad queer cultivators show

[thatswhatsushesaid]

happy true take tuesday 🎊 here is some stuff that is objectively true:

jin guangyao did the most good for the most people over the longest period of time in the jianghu. evidence:

his time embedded as a spy in wen ruohan's court allowed him to share crucial intelligence with lxc and nmj, and enabled him to maneuver himself into the perfect position to assassinate wrh--the war would not have been won without him;

see the sections of the text where the impact of the watchtower project is revealed to save the lives of common people who would not have been able to afford the protection of cultivators otherwise;

see wwx's own observations about the safety of the jianghu under jgy's tenure as chief cultivator, thus allowing the juniors the privilege of growing up in a peaceful and stable world;

see jin ling's observation that no one in the gentry would dare try to bribe a jin sect disciple while jgy was jin-zongzhu;

whether you think the relationship is romantic in canon is immaterial: lan xichen loved jin guangyao and is mourning his death, not the metaphorical death of his ~worldview~, while he is in seclusion. his feelings for jgy are not just about his sense of obligation, and there is absolutely no evidence in the text suggesting that he ever would have abandoned jgy--because he clearly does not do that even during the final guanyin temple confrontation. evidence:

lxc's worldview is actually pretty intact during and post-guanyin temple confrontation. @xiyao-feels provided one of the most thorough analyses I've read on this point over here, so I won't repeat or try to paraphrase what someone else has already illustrated so eloquently, you can go check it out for yourself;

see the literal years of their friendship that lxc spends calling jgy "a-yao," rather than "meng-gongzi" or "jin-gongzi," or "jin-zongzhu," or "lianfang-zun," or literally any other name/title combination that he could have reached for instead of the affectionate diminutive that indicates the level of emotional intimacy between them. if his feelings for jgy were rooted exclusively in a sense of debts owed, there are so many other forms of address for him to utilize instead;

lxc devotes literal years of his life to supporting jgy in both his efforts to reconcile with nmj (please miss me with the bad faith takes on this, I have already written about how four years is a long-ass time for nmj to spend un-murdered if jgy was always planning to off him for daddy) and in his efforts to distinguish himself as a competent member of the jin sect; the watchtower proposal was something they were working on together while jin guangshan was still jin sect leader, and jgy was risking a lot of his hard won political capital trying to push through an expensive plan that would not make money for jgs. give lxc some credit for god's sake, he's not an idiot, and he would not have supported this proposal if he thought it would do more harm than good;

in nearly every scene jgy and lxc share with each other, they actively gravitate towards each other or seek each other out, to the exclusion of other people around them because--and this may be a little complicated to unpack, so bear with me a moment--they just fucking like each other.

we know what lxc looks like when he has decided to turn his back on someone and isn't interested in what they have to say anymore: he does this to nhs post-guanyin temple when it becomes clear that nhs is going to provide him with neither clear answers nor closure. contrast this against his dogged determination to understand why jgy did the things he did, even when he is furious, even when he is devastated by what he hears. this is not the conduct of someone who has decided they are done with a relationship; this is someone determined to find a way through to the other side.

#mdzs meta #jin guangyao #lan xichen #he did crimes??? good for him 😌 #flute solo 🎶 #today we choose chaos

[youhideastar]

Fit for Purpose Deleted Scenes VII: Grab Bag

The final batch of deleted scenes from Fit for Purpose are scenes that didn't fit any of the previous themes, featuring Jin Guangshan, Xue Yang, and WWX's feelings about being resurrected. Other deleted scenes posts are linked in the masterpost. I hope you enjoy!

This next scene is more of a sketch than a draft. Warning for Jin Guangshan being Jin Guangshan and Madam Yu being Madam Yu.

Jin Guangshan comes to visit.

He tries to talk to WWX alone.

WWX likes sex; likes making people feel good. Even guests, who he usually doesn’t know well. But he doesn’t like Jin Guangshan.

Still, he knows he should say yes – it would be good for Yunmeng Jiang, it would make for better relations with Lanling Jin, and it would especially be good for Jiejie, since she’ll marry into Lanling Jin someday—

Yu-furen interjects. “What do you want to discuss with our Wei Ying, Jin-zongzhu?” she asks, eyes like steel. “I insist on being part of the discussion, so I may share Jin-zongzhu’s insights with Jin-furen. I know she would be interested.”

Jin Guangshan backs off.

“Don’t be so shameless next time,” she tells Wei Ying.

Wei Ying says “yes,” says “sorry, Yu-furen.” He doesn’t know how to say, “I wasn’t.” Doesn’t know how to say, “All I did was be what I am.”

Then we have a little bit from the first encounter with Xue Yang. Again, mostly me getting high on my own worldbuilding—but for real, I didn’t want to make it seem like the mating-related stuff is the only thing that distinguishes betas from alphas and omegas.

“I still don’t get it,” A-Cheng fumes, after Xue Yang is defeated by Xiao Xingchen—Xiao Xingchen! Wei Wuxian’s heart is aflutter—with a little help from Wei Wuxian. “We didn’t smell a thing—”

“Xue Yang is a beta,” Xiao Xingchen says simply. “Stealth is his gift.”

A-Cheng narrows his eyes at Wei Wuxian. “Then why are you always as loud as a herd of water buffalo?” he grumbles under his breath.

“His amorality and viciousness, though, are purely his own,” Xiao Xingchen continues.

Then there was the phase where I felt like I needed to get into detail about WWX’s take on his second life. This was one of those scenes where it was useful for me to write it just to figure out for myself how this version of WWX felt about being resurrected, even though I didn’t use it.

When Wei Wuxian was brought back to life, traded for Mo Xuanyu, he hadn’t seen the point. His entire first life had been a failure – what was he supposed to do with a second one?

But then, there had been Wen Ning: not burned and scattered as he thought, still capable of being saved. There had been Jin Rulan – not a tiny infant who could be protected with charms and spells, but a snotty, insecure teenager who needed something more complicated: a teacher and a mentor, someone who would let him take risks but not let him take himself too seriously. There had been Lan Zhan: not his enemy after all, but his ally and friend, still true to him and to their vow to uphold justice. There had been A-Cheng, even, who learned the most terrible secret left between them and had brought him Chenqing in the end anyway.

And most of all, there was A-Yuan. The Wens’ A-Yuan, Lan Zhan’s Sizhui – grown up so well. Smart and sweet and kind and brave and humble – full of every virtue that the people who raised him had possessed, and yet entirely his own person.

So many people had died at Wei Wuxian’s hands, or by his faults and failings. And yet—A-Yuan had lived. Because of him. For all the things he did wrong, he did this one thing right.

Finally, here’s a second take on WWX’s feelings about being resurrected. I took multiple swings at this because it seemed weird to me, for a while, that I would have all these flashbacks and not have a flashback that deals with basically the most consequential event of the last 15 episodes… but then I figured out that I could do one ex post (with NHS), which would be way faster, and I also nod at these resurrection feelings in the flashback with LWJ on the bridge in the moonlight. So I think we got there in the end, without having to spend a whole flashback with WWX summing up his life so far.

Jiejie is dead. So are Wen Ning and Wen Qing and A-Yuan. Lan Zhan hates him. Jiang Cheng tried to kill him, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t even give him that. Jiejie’s son is an orphan, at Wei Wuxian’s hands—and the first time Wei Wuxian meets him, he taunts him for it, steals his dead father’s sword, and leaves him facedown in the dirt.

He’s a failure of a beta – everyone knows that. But that’s no excuse not to at least try. And his responsibility here is pretty clear.

YU-FUREN QUOTE

So he decides, staring down into the river water, to devote his second life to protecting Jiejie’s son. Sure, there’s a slight snag in that Jin Ling doesn’t know who he is and would probably try to kill him if he found out. And a slightly larger snag in that Jin Ling seems to be hanging around Jiang Cheng a lot, who almost certainly does know who he is and will definitely try to kill him.

Still, he has to do something with this redundant life of his. And if he ends up dying at Jiang Cheng’s hands or for Jiejie’s son, well… second time’s the charm, right?

Only it doesn’t work like that. Wen Ning turns out to be alive; Zidian fails to kill Wei Wuxian; and when he passes out, he wakes up in Cloud Recesses. In, as far as he can tell, Lan Zhan’s bed.

I spent a lot of time trying to get here, sixteen years ago, he thinks, still a little delirious.

And Lan Zhan looks up at him, eyes soft and hair unbound, and Wei Wuxian thinks… that maybe he was wrong. About a lot of things.

Maybe this is what a second chance looks like.

I hope you have enjoyed these deleted scenes! I probably spent just as much time figuring out how not to write this story as I did figuring out how I should write it 🤣 but I’m happy with the end result, and that’s what matters.

#the untamed #my writing #deleted scene #fit for purpose #wangxian #cql

[thebiscuiteternal]

if we can still ask about wips, what's the "sad abdication au" about?

So, I pretty much never got around to actually turning this into a story, it's just a set of notes in docs.

The basic idea was that during the period between Mingjue's death and funeral (you know, the whole time Huaisang's sitting with his body), the elders and senior disciples get together and agree they super don't want Huaisang becoming sect leader.

And obviously Nie Mingjue was about to disinherit him, I mean, look at the bonfire incident! Look how Huaisang wasn't spared from being attacked! Clearly if he had survived that qi deviation, he would have updated the paperwork!

(Is this complete bullshit to justify what they're about to do, or do they sincerely believe it? Huaisang will never know, so neither will we.)

So literally the day after Mingjue's interred, Huaisang is called before the sect's inner council and told that the sect has collectively decided, in accordance with their previous sect leader's (un)official wishes, that he is to get lost.

Exhausted, emotionally shattered, still recovering from his own injuries, and fully willing to believe his brother did die hating him, Huaisang makes no attempts to argue.

With most of what he owned having gone up in smoke, he has very little to pack, and a few of the maids are willing to help find new homes for his birds (except Zhihua, who perches herself on his shoulder and refuses to let go).

And he leaves.

But he doesn't get far before being found by Jin Guangyao, who of course has heard the news before any official announcement has been made because of his spies.

He takes Huaisang back to Koi Tower with him on pretense of keeping him as an assistant, but it's... complicated. Guilt, concern, manipulation, all that.

Anyway, this throws a huge wrench in Jin Guangshan's plans. He'd been banking on the Nie sect having (in his perception) a spineless, pathetic weakling who could be lead around by the nose in charge. The new sect leader is almost as much of a belligerent brute as Nie Mingjue was.

But at least now he has a Nie the sect doesn't give a shit about within reach to take his irritation out on.

(Though once Jin Guangyao finds out about that, it'll be one more reason on his checklist of why his father has to die. Once he's sect leader, nobody will ever be allowed to lay a hand on Huaisang again.)

And without people sneaking behind his grieving brother's back, Nie Mingjue's body doesn't get stolen and he doesn't end up dismembered, so he can eventually reincarnate? And the sect doesn't have to worry about losing its reputation?

But Huaisang is pretty much never going to emotionally recover from his sect's abandonment, Jin Guangshan's abuse, and his own guilt and self-loathing... and also without him finding out the truth, Wei Wuxian's never coming back. So whether it ends up working out any better balance wise is... really up to perception.

Anyway, I really kind of lost where I was going with the idea once I got to that point, so that's why it never got written.

#mdzs #nie sect #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #ideas #writing asks

[whetstonefires]

spiral emoji and umbrella emoji for the ask game?

🌀Post the fic summary for a fic you haven't written/published yet. It can be hypothetical or something you really plan on releasing...

hmmm i have had another segment of that AU where Carrie Kelly is Tim's Robin mostly written for years, I keep fiddling with the ending. it's one of those fics i'm gonna summarize with an excerpt, I'm thinking this one:

Robin almost tripped over herself, stopping so hard, but she sorted her limbs out without actually falling down the roof, and dropped into a defensive stance. “Who are you?” she demanded. The stranger cocked his head. “I’m Batman,” he said. His voice was a little less deep than Tim’s, flatter and throatier, so that instead of making a pronouncement from on high, he came off as stating crushingly obvious fact. Robin glared. “You’re not.” “Am.” “I’m Robin! I know Batman. You’re not him.” This Batman’s mouth twitched with amusement, almost the same way Tim’s did. “Other Batman.”

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

You know this is hard. I don't generally remember ideas existed if I don't write at least 2k of them down immediately ngl. And from my abandoned drafts there's so many....oh!

Okay here's one that I think is super funny but I can tell I'm never gonna finish. I was complaining in the groupchat that I'd just read a fic that asked me to believe modern AU Wei Wuxian dated Jin Zixun, got dumped by him, and was broken up about it. Impossible.

I was like, if you want to use an existing villain as a fuckboi ex, still why pick the guy who never once had the power to do anything to Wei Wuxian except annoy him? There's options! And then like. We've actually seen shitty boyfriend Wen Chao done, usually a coercion situation. Xue Yang is a semi-plausible abusive ex if you make them the same age and shift some other variables around, seen that.

You know what none of us had seen? Su She.

And it's weird people don't use Su She for this! He's pretty capable, he's a hard worker, he has to be decent looking if he was allowed to be a Lan disciple, he's not totally dumb. He's deeply selfish but in a mildly complicated way. He's dollar store option Lan Wangji, that's his whole bag!

If you're going to have wwx settling for shitty guys (which like I think that's really ooc because Wei Wuxian had no particular interest in having a love life before it turned out he was hip-deep in True Love and he's a brutal judge of character, but if that's your plot, maybe he's doing some queer version of comphet where you gotta be with someone or your identity isn't valid idk) Su She should be at the top of the list.

Now, for my money, with my fairly demanding standards wrt character motive, I can't see Su She successfully bagging wwx without being genuinely into him, because Wei Wuxian's nose for bullshit is superhumanly powerful. But that's not hard to set up.

All you need to justify Su She pursuing Wei Wuxian with genuine intent is for Wei Wuxian to validate Su She's feelings at a critical moment when they're young--say, coming across him directly following the Waterborne Abyss arc, when Su She was no doubt given the rough side of Lan Qiren's tongue at the very least, for losing his sword and being ungracious and so forth. And sympathizing with all his intense feelings of being hard-done-by and disrespected and so forth. (We will assume there was not outright treacherous behavior from Su She at this point.)

Su She will demonstrably follow you to the ends of the earth and through a river of blood for making him feel properly valued. I do wonder whether he's an orphan or just has shit parents. (I wonder this about Jin Zixun also lmao. His parents wouldn't actually need to be shitty, if they were just totally overruled by Jin Guangshan.)

A lot of what he admires in Jin Guangyao is also true of wwx; when they met wwx was on top of the world, making him a target of envy and resentment, but you could definitely reshuffle that if you started early and showed Su She the right background cards.

And Wei Wuxian does not usually decide he likes people who turn out not to deserve it, through a combination of strong insight, the fact that his faith in people typically inspires them to return that devotion, and that it's just not that kind of story. But he is strongly biased to keep liking someone once he starts, in a funny ADHD kinda way where he doesn't really think about you if you're not there but treats you like no time has passed when you come back, so if he decided this ridiculous sulky unLanish Lan was his friend it would take a lot to change his mind. Su She would remind him of both Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan, which would help.

The other half of the brainstorming, that had a plot rather than just character setup, was a modern AU fic where (as I've seen done a couple of times) Lan Wangji was dating Mo Xuanyu in the attempt to get over Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian was dating Su She, who unlike Lan Wangji actually like. Said something. Out loud with his mouth words lmao.

And then, probably by watching lwj watch wwx at a party or something, Su She figured out that Lan Wangji was pining for his boyfriend, and because of his intrinsic jealous shithead qualities he was ecstatic because he finally had something Lan Wangji wanted and couldn't have.

So he went out of his way to gloat and flaunt, and kind of lost track of the actual reasons he had sought out this relationship in the first place in favor of his weird Hanguang-jun complex.

And ultimately he destroys both relationships--poor Mo Xuanyu ah?--and fucks himself over, and you get a wangxian endgame.

I actually seriously considered really writing this, from Su She pov mostly, but the thing was the 'scenario for wwx to attract su she's loyalty' was grounded in the canon setup and the dating scenario required a low-homophobia modern setting, and just thinking about doing the worldbuilding to make them match made me tired and bored. I don't like modern AUs and their chief virtue is recontextualization in a familiar context, if I've gotta build some kinda smushworld then where's the value added?

And the idea, while very funny, just isn't my thing enough to dig in and work for. I'm not inspired by dating drama. If anyone wants to adopt it they're welcome!

Here's a bit (set in the smushworld) I wrote that I really liked, where su she and wwx are texting back and forth in their late teens:

>Jiang Cheng would never forgive me if I ran off. >Because he’s counting on you to run his Sect for him. >He absolutely is not. Jiang Cheng will work himself into the ground before he lets me do his job for him. He didn’t admit that of course the Sect Heir was counting on him, but he didn’t disagree, which was basically the same thing. Wei Wuxian worked very hard, for all it looked like he didn't, and was rewarded for it, but Su Minshan knew that even in Jiang the equal opportunity only went so far—he was the Sect Leader’s pet for personal reasons, not just on merit, and even so he could never rise to be the equal of the blood heir. It was infuriating sometimes how that didn’t bother him. Have more ambition! >You’re so lucky, Su Minshan wrote, because he was jealous, he was so so jealous. It was just hard to hate Wei Wuxian. >I am! <3 But let’s see, outside the main family how important can a person get in Lan Sect? You can make a plan. Weeks of effort did not produce any particularly good plans. The most realistic one took forty years to show results. >Maybe I should just kill Lan Wangji and use a spell to disguise myself and take his place, Su Minshan joked. >Haha! Minshan-xiong, I’m sorry, you couldn’t pull off being Lan Zhan. That hurt, an unexpected cold dagger to the ribs. Wei Wuxian was his friend! >Why not! he typed angrily. Was his playing too weak, his swordsmanship, his deportment? Would even Wei Wuxian tell him he was just not good enough? >Because you could never resist saying something bitchy when you had the chance, and he keeps all the bitching inside his head. Su Minshan put his head down and laughed until he thought he might cry.

#ask #hoc est meum #Anonymous #fanfic writing #excerpts #carrie kelley #batman #mdzs #wei wuxian #su she #wwx/sms #oh hey it's wi fi and sms! #they were born to be texting buddies actually #su she missed his calling #ask game #long post

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

One take I have seen most to protect JC from his actions was the "he had to think about his reputation! WWX didn't care, so it is aal his fault!"

Now, the context we have is a hypocritical and aristocrtic like society, and people are confusing MDZS for those "villainess isekai" mangas/manhwas/manhuas, where the MC has somehow has to fit and fight through the political drama with poise and wit (whenever is actually smart or just stupid plot armor MC). Unfortunately, MDZS is not that kind of media. WWX didn't seem interested in fitting nor wanting to involve himself into that world, he is the "stupid commoner borne" who failed because failed to fit, because he had the worst reputation one could fear to have, and yet he "dared" to defy those norms and act how he believed (and was) right to do, but somehow had to fit into the court drama. Dunno if this rant is making any sense BUT STILL-

But people didn't get the point: WWX is not the hero of a rom-com court drama where he has to fake or do whatever complicated scheme, he was straightforward on his actions (reason why I love him so much as a main character), why do people think he was stupid for simply not complying? Wasn't being rebellious against standards and high society something to be praised once? Then why insult him, call him arrogant and too full of himself when he effectively does that? Because they see through him that being the black sheep is not that "cool" or whatever? I dunno.

Hope this rant of mine made sense, I kinda got nervous while typing, so I hope what I said makes sense ^^''

Awww don't be nervous anon! My inbox is there for anyone who needs to rant and vent away at times! I know it can be hard to put such things out there with your name on it and having at least somewhere to have is immensely helpful.

What is interesting is that we do get this line in regards to why Jiang Cheng did as he did without exactly... thinking of what this can do to Wei Wuxian:

These past few years, Jiang Cheng consistently had been working through the day until late dark. That day, just as he decided to rest early, he had to rush to Jinlintai without stop through the night, due to the shocking incident. He'd already been quelling his anger for some time. Yet due to his natural pride, he was even more incensed having to apologize to others. When he heard Nie Mingjue mention the hardship his sect faced before, hatred sprouted within him. That hate was not just for everyone within the room, but also Wei Wuxian.

Jiang Cheng does as he always has, says things he shouldn't and inaction that hurts someone without caring about the consequences that can't be fixed. He is only thinking of the burden that makes him upset and chooses to punish Wei Wuxian, by not really sticking up all that much in his defense and Jin Guangyao and Jin Guangshan manipulate that very easily unfortunately.

As Jiang Fengmian tried to warn him, "A-Cheng, there are some things that can’t be said even if you're dissatisfied... when you say them even now, it means that you still don’t understand the motto of the Jiang Sect, that you still don’t…”

That you still don't realize the blessings that you have towards people that do care and love you, that they don't find it troublesome to want to keep you protected and happy. Do the same for them as well without masking it with cruelty.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #canon jiang cheng

[xiyao-feels]

☕ the watchtowers are an act of philanthropy and the political benefits to the jin are secondary

Absolutely agreed. I think sometimes people seem to think that the watchtowers are solving a problem which doesn't exist, which is strange to me; we're not given any reason to doubt that there are remote places which have difficulty finding cultivation help, and more than that it just makes sense. If I were talking about access to medical help, would it even be in question that this was a real problem? "Problems accessing to important services or support in remote, rural areas" is not some weird, cultivation-specific problem; it's just what you'd expect in the absence of a specific reason to believe otherwise. (A specific reason like, say, coordinated intervention to make it easy to get requests to people who can help, and to pay people who help even if the people who needed it don't have the resources to do so.......) If the text suggested otherwise, that would be one thing, but it doesn't.

Then there's the question of do the watchtowers actually help people. It's not theoretically impossible that they wouldn't, but all the indications in the text are that they do. We see JGY was working on them with LXC well before he became Chief Cultivator—actually working on them, with "blueprints [...] covered in notes of all colors" (Exiled Rebels, ch 49), which a) suggests that the planning was actually a lot of work, which is what you'd expect if this was a real project, and b) since LXC was involved suggests that it was in fact aiming at helping people. Wangxian seem to approve of them (ch 42), and of course we're told that, after various suspicions and difficulties in getting them built, that "after the first lookout towers were built, they received widespread approvals due to their notable effects" (Exiled Rebels, ch 42). Even when the cultivators are gossiping and bringing out all the terrible rumours at Lotus Pier (ch 86), they suggest that he's been stealing from the money for the watchtowers, not that the watchtowers didn't actually help people—mind you that's probably because they care a lot more about the money than about helping people, and it's not like I think this is true either, but seriously: where in the text would you get the idea that the watchtowers don't help people?

(And while it isn't about the watchtowers specifically, Jin Ling's recollection that in his uncle's day, "no disciples of even guest cultivators dared to take bribery so easily" (ER, ch 123) is certainly suggestive of JGY's approach to institutional corruption.)

But beyond all this, I think it's worth noting that, although it does seem reasonable to infer it had some effect of centralizing power, the watchtower project is an enormously difficult and complicated political undertaking. JGS is extremely interested in spreading Jin power, but though JGY initially suggests it while he's alive, he rejects the idea: "it would have cost a great deal and Jin GuangShan wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the idea either" (Exiles Rebels, ch 42). If this is just about power, why wouldn't he go for it? As it is, JGY starts working on the project /after/ he becomes Chief Cultivator—which is to say, after he has already accumulated a substantial amount of power—and the initial response is thoroughly /negative/: "In the beginning, the voices of opposition were deafening" (ER ch 42), again due to suspicion of financial corruption. It then takes JGY five years and every scrap of political capital he can muster to get the project going (ER ch 42):

With a smiling face, Jin GuangYao persisted for five years. During the years, he allied but also fell out with countless people. Using both gentle and forceful methods, he did all that he could and what he wished for was finally completed.

After the first towers are built, as I mentioned above, they receive widespread approval because they're so effective; nevertheless, there are still mutterings against it, and when the next round of watchtowers are built, the narration anticipates that "the cultivation world would definitely be thrown into chaos again" (ER ch 42). If you're just trying to make the Jin stronger, why would you do something that has so much opposition? JGS' reluctance, the widespread political resistance—I'm not saying it doesn't also help Jin power, but the watchtowers simply don't make sense as a project chosen primarily for that purpose. The only reason to choose to try for the watchtowers specifically is, actually, what it looks like on the surface: genuine philanthropic motive.

#jin guangyao #the resistance to the project and the degree to which it clearly happened because JGY was personally invested and worked hard at it #is one of the reasons I suspect it falls apart after JGY's death :///

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic were both JZX and Jiang Yanli are trans? I imagine the engagement would get complicated.

The More Things Change - ao3

“My lady,” the midwife said. “Congratulations. You have a daughter.”

Madame Jin shook her head. “I need a son,” she said.

“My lady –”

“I’m not doing that again,” Madame Jin said, her voice getting stronger. “I need a son.”

“But –”

She looked at her loyal maid, who inclined her head.

A knife flashed.

“Congratulations, my lady,” her maid said, pushing aside the midwife’s body with her foot. “You have a son.”

Madame Jin smiled.

-

“I’m glad you survived the birth of your child,” Madame Yu said to her old childhood friend, wondering why she’d been invited over to visit Lanling City quite so quickly – it hadn’t even been a month. “Were you thinking –”

“I have a son,” her friend said.

“Congratulations.”

“You don’t understand,” her friend said. “There’s a problem.”

-

“A-Li,” Jiang Yanli’s mother said in a strange tone. “Do you like wearing dresses?”

“Uh-huh,” Jiang Yanli said, trying to see if she could stick her fist into her mouth. She’d always worn frocks, the way all children her age did, but at some point soon her mother had been warning her that she’d need to switch over to wearing proper robes for boys. Jiang Yanli had burst into tears, saying she didn’t want to be a boy at all – that she didn’t want to leave her mother’s side, that she didn’t want to join the world of men, she didn’t, she didn’t.

“And you really don’t want to go be a boy? Really, you’re sure?”

Jiang Yanli nodded.

“What if I said you didn’t have to be? You could be a girl, just the way you like.”

“Really?”

“Mm. But you’d have to be a girl forever.”

“Okay,” Jiang Yanli said happily. “I wanna be a girl forever.”

“Good,” her mother said, and picked her up. “Just keep saying that.”

-

“What do you think we are,” Jiang Fengmian asked his wife blankly. “Qinghe Nie?”

His wife glared daggers at him.

“Attempt the impossible,” she said stiffly. “A-Li has been claiming to be a girl consistently for a year. Would you deny her the chance to follow her dreams?”

Well, when she put it that way…

Jiang Fengmian hesitated.

“It does create a problem,” his wife said, and he looked at her. She smiled faintly and leaned forward, showing her curves to their best advantage. “If she’s a girl, she’ll marry out, won’t she? We need a boy.”

Jiang Fengmian swallowed. A boy sounded – nice, he thought vaguely, eyes caught on what he was being offered. A little boy, lively and bright, with a happy smile always on his face…yes, that sounded rather nice.

Wei Changze’s letter upstairs said that his wife had announced that they had conceived, and that she had divined that it would be a son – it was frightfully early to make such predictions, less than a month in, but apparently disciples of the immortal mountain were able to determine such things early. A boy like that, who could be friends with their boy, a reason for them to come to visit and maybe even to stay…

Yes, he thought. That sounded rather good.

“All right,” he said. “A-Li can be a girl, I guess.”

-

Madame Yu and Madame Jin let news of the engagement seep out as rumor for months before telling their husbands. When they did, they took different approaches: Madame Jin pointed out the strategic benefits of an alliance with Yunmeng Jiang and the unlikelihood of Jin Guangshan finding a match for their son that would give him so much more influence in the cultivation world, which had made her husband stop his grumbling and look upon the match with a favorable eye.

Madame Yu stared at her husband, for whom she had just born a son three weeks premature and very nearly died in the process, and said, “What’s your problem?”

“A-Li can’t marry the Jin sect heir! She’s not –” He waved his hands. “The possibility of children –”

“I would have thought that would be a selling point,” Madame Yu said, and he blinked at her. “He’s Guangshan’s son. There will be children enough.”

After some further arguing, Jiang Fengmian begrudgingly backed down.

Madame Yu smiled to herself, and thought of grandchildren.

-

Everyone said that Jin Zixuan was a spoiled brat and incredibly lucky, but he didn’t think he was. Sure, he was rich and legitimate; his father valued him, while his mother loved him and would defend him against any challengers to his position as heir, but privately…

“Why do I have to work so hard?” Jin Zixuan asked, panting. “I’m already cultivating, and my teachers say I’m not bad with the sword –”

“Not bad isn’t good enough,” his mother said sharply. “You have to keep up with all the rest of them, and that means getting ahead now.”

“The rest of who?” he asked. “Do you mean…”

He hesitated, not knowing if he was also included in his mother’s taboo against mentioning the results of his father’s philandering.

“All of the cultivation world’s young gentlemen,” she said, to his surprise. “You have to keep up with them. No, you need to exceed them. You must!”

“But – why?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

-

“Mother,” Jiang Yanli said. She was clutching a book in her hands. “Mother, can we talk?”

Her mother frowned at her, looking disapproving – and then she saw the book.

Jiang Yanli thought she would yell at her, but she didn’t; her mother only gestured for her to come into her room, ordering her maids to close the doors and windows.

“Mother,” Jiang Yanli said. “Mother, the book –”

“How did you get a spring book?” her mother asked. She looked tired. “Surely you’re still too young?”

Jiang Yanli bowed her head.

It was true, she was too young. And yet…

“Mother, the pictures in the book…”

“I know.” Her mother sighed. “All right. Let me explain.”

-

Jin Zixuan stared at his mother. He felt sick.

“But,” he said, and swallowed. “But what about…?”

“I’ve handled it,” she said harshly. “But that is why you must not allow your father to take you to a brothel. Is that understood?”

-

“Who do you think is the best girl? Zixuan-xiong?”

“Oh, don’t ask him! He has a fiancée, so his answer will be her!”

“A fiancée? Really? What sect is she from? She must be extremely talented!”

“Forget it,” Jin Zixuan said.

“What do you mean by that?” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, and suddenly he was getting into his face. “Say that again if you dare!”

Jin Zixuan opened his mouth, hating him – hating the whole situation, being stuck not making any decisions for himself, his whole life mapped out for him by others – but then hesitated.

Jiang Yanli is the only one fit for you, his mother said. Do you understand? The only one.

“I haven’t met her since I was five,” he said instead of what he wanted, rolling his eyes. “So how could I dare to boast about her in your presence? You all want to know about her, ask Jiang-gongzi.”

Wei Wuxian blinked at him, the wind suddenly taken out of his sails.

Jin Zixuan escaped.

He felt like shit, thought. She was his fiancée, and he didn’t know anything about her – he didn’t want to hear about her, think about her. And yet…

The only one.

He went back to his room and wrote her a letter. It was a mess, the worst thing he’d ever written, nothing at all like the polite and careful phrasing, elegant and beautiful, that he’d been trying to put together, something worthy of his name.

He sent it before he could think better of it.

-

Jiang Yanli held the letter to her chest and smiled.

-

They’d exchanged a few dozen letters. Jin Zixuan knew that his intended was smart and witty, empathetic and kind, observant and well-meaning, but he didn’t know that she was beautiful until after they escaped from the indoctrination camp and the cave with the Xuanwu of Slaughter.

He’d just accompanied Jiang Cheng for the entire seven days it took to get to the Lotus Pier, collapsing right alongside him, and while Jiang Cheng had – somehow – gotten back on his feet and immediately led his father and mother out the door to go rescue Wei Wuxian, he’d stayed down on the floor until someone knelt down in front of him and smiled.

“Can I get you something to eat, Jin-gongzi?” Jiang Yanli asked.

“Uh,” Jin Zixuan said, and turned bright red. He could sure think of some things he’d like to eat – living as his father’s son had certainly given him an education (however theoretical) about that.

“Food,” Jiang Yanli clarified, giggling into her sleeve. “Let me get you some food.”

-

This was probably a bad idea, Jiang Yanli thought, looking down at the head tucked against her chest. I probably should’ve just stuck to food. What if he gets with child? What will we do then?

She couldn’t quite bring herself to regret it, though.

“A-Xuan,” she whispered, and Jin Ziuxan stirred a little. “Can we do it again?”

“You’re insatiable.”

That wasn’t a refusal.

-

“A-Li!” Jin Zixuan shouted, rushing forward. “A-Li, A-Li…!”

She collapsed into his arms.

He looked at the retainers from Meishan Yu, stubborn but pale. “It’s all right,” he said. “She’s my fiancée. I can take care of her.”

“The Jin sect walks in the center path,” one of the retainers said. “Never quite committing to the Sunshot Campaign. How do we know this isn’t a trick to get into the Wen sect’s good books?”

Jin Zixuan bit his lip. He’d pushed his father time and time again, and even that had only gotten them to participate half-heartedly in the fight against the Wen sect. What could he say? What worth was his word?

“It’s all right,” Jiang Yanli said. “I trust him.”

-

“You could do so much better, you know,” Wei Wuxian said. “It’s not too late!”

Jiang Yanli smiled down at her wedding outfit, but thinking instead of the panicked expression on Jin Zixuan’s face a week before when he’d unexpectedly thrown up in the morning when he was supposed to be preparing for the Phoenix Mountain hunt.

“Oh, it’s too late,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “On that note, you pick the name.”

“The name…?”

“For our upcoming nephew.”

“Shijie! You didn’t!”

Jiang Yanli’s grin widened.

-

“Wei Wuxian has committed a crime in attacking our camp and taking the Wen remnants,” Jin Zixuan’s father announced. “We should –”

“Let it go, Father.”

“…what?!”

“I’m getting married, and he’s A-Li’s shidi,” Jin Zixuan reminded his father. “It would be inauspicious to start a marriage by breaking such a relationship.”

His father looked like he was planning on ignoring that, so Jin Zixuan used his trump card.

“We can’t afford anything inauspicious right now,” he said. “Not when there’s a child on the way.”

His mother dropped her cup.

-

“I have to go,” Jin Zixuan said. “You don’t understand. I have to.”

Jiang Yanli rubbed his hair. “You’re supposed to be in seclusion,” she reminded him. “As am I.”

“I’ve been throwing up every morning for two months, A-Li,” Jin Zixuan pleaded. “I can order them to clear the kitchen. No one would know we were there!”

Jiang Yanli laughed a little. “The craving’s that bad, huh?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, all right. We’ll give it a shot…”

It would have worked, too, if Jin Guangyao hadn’t noticed that too many people were in the wrong place and taken it upon himself to investigate.

“…Jiang-guniang?” He stared at her flat waist, then turned his eyes slowly towards the roundness at Jin Zixuan’s. “Jin-gongzi…?!”

“It’s all right, it’s A-Yao,” Jin Zixuan said to Jiang Yanli. “He won’t tell anyone. Right?”

Jin Guangyao shook his head mutely.

“Seclusion,” he muttered. “No wonder…everyone said it was bad timing that you went into seclusion right before Mistress Jiang announced her pregnancy. But it wasn’t, was it..?” He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”

“We’re in your debt,” Jin Zixuan said, and thought Jin Guangyao’s eyes upon him were softer than they’d ever been before. “You’ll be a good uncle.”

Jin Guangyao smiled. “Perhaps,” he allowed. “One question, if I may. Who’s the father?”

Jiang Yanli wrapped an arm around Jin Zixuan’s shoulders and beamed.

Jin Guangyao’s jaw dropped again.

-

“Your son needs you,” Jiang Yanli said to Madame Jin. “Go.”

-

“Jin Ling,” Madame Jin said, looking down at the baby in her arms. A son, her grandson…a miracle. “Well. You’re – not what I expected.”

If her husband ever found out…

Well.

She’d just have to make sure he wouldn’t, now, wouldn’t she?

#mdzs #jin zixuan #jiang yanli #madame jin #yu ziyuan #my fic #my fics #the more things change #misaligned

[silenteyes]

If Wei Wuxian Grew Up In Different Sects (or with our lovely Rogue Cultivators)

ft. fanfictions I’ve read for each of them - excluding Yunmeng Jiang Sect

Warnings: Spoilers for MDZS, Canon-typical Yu Ziyuan and her treatment to WWX, a few uncensored cursing

Yunmeng Jiang Sect

Clearly, we know that he and the Jiangs have a- complicated relationship. With Jiang FengMian it’s on a thin line, and though it’s clear he cares for WWX - JFM still sees WWX as just a disciple, not a son because the last words he says to WWX are “A-Ying, A-Cheng... you must look after him.”

With Madam Yu it’s clear that their relationship is unhealthy, she basically abuses him. With Jiang Cheng it’s also unhealthy - as much as I loathe to say it, they will NEVER get the reconciliation we want because WWX has done too much for JC to forgive and JC and his anger issues are not safe for WWX. The only ACTUAL healthy relationship he’s got in the Jiang Sect is with Jiang Yanli. She forgives a lot and it’s clear she loves WWX.

Gusu Lan Sect

Ah - yes, this one. In all honesty, if he WERE to be found by the Lans he would’ve probably be well-behaved since he was just a child and easy to, how do I say it - teach. 

He might still have his playfulness but it would be toned down quite a lot. I also like to think that he would get along with Madam Lan and most probably prevent her death. This may be an unpopular opinion, but he and Lan Xichen would get along well, and LXC would be the one to make him comfortable first. WWX would still grow close with Lan Wangji of course, but if anything happens he would not go to LWJ first.

If they grew up together, I’m sorry - but I can’t imagine that he would date LWJ then. But, you can think the other way around! I don’t boss you and tell you who to ship and who not to ship! 

Fanfiction: ‘Some call it kidnapping. The Lan Clan call it adoption.’ by IceBreeze 

Summary: “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, look!” Wei Ying did a twirl. “I’m the same as you now! Am I pretty? Say Lan Zhan, am I pretty?”

Huan muffled a laugh behind his sleeve as A-Zhan said “Mn,” eyes never once leaving Wei Ying. There was something a little like awe in his stare, like Wei Ying was the only one in the world to him at that moment, and if Huan hadn’t already known that his little brother cared deeply for Wei Ying then that look would have been all the confirmation he needed.

(If A-Zhan knew what marriage and romance was beyond the vague explanations he’d heard then he’d probably already be courting Wei Ying, with all the dogged determination he shows everything he puts his mind to. It’s adorable, and Huan supports it wholeheartedly, no matter what direction it heads in the end).

Or: an AU Wei Wuxian is taken in by the Lan clan instead of the Jiangs.

Qishan Wen Sect

Hm, this one is quite complicated. To be honest, WWX would probably fit in well in the sect, and Wen Ruohan most possibly cares about power, and WWX is powerful so he’d care for him AND Wen Xu. Wen Chao is just there in the background being bullied, I like to think.

WWX would make Wen Qing their head doctor and give her more power, while he would also help Wen Ning with archery. All and all he would be alright in the Wen Sect, but there would still be a couple casualties here and there, because of Wen Chao’s jealousy.

Fanfiction:  ‘ He was brighter than the Sun’ by AncientOceanmelody

Summary:  Wei Wuxian was the head disciple of Yunmengjiang Sect, he was the pride of Yunmeng. Jiang Fengmian see him like a son, everyone (except Madam Yu) love him.

He would do everything for those who were dear to him.

So why do is feel horrible when Uncle Jiang didn't hesitate when he offer himself to the Wens instead of Jiang Cheng?

Why is he crying?

After all, he was just the son of a friend, the son of a servant, is was obvious his Uncle would prefer his Sect over him.

Qinghe Nie Sect

Again, I’m gonna be honest, but this sect would be the BEST one for WWX to grow up in. Nie Mingjue would get along great with WWX (we’re ignoring canon GROWN WWX) and Nie Huaisang has another brother :D

NHS and WWX would use their time to cause mischief and plot stuff while NMJ is like “These are my brothers. They’re annoying. Don’t you fucking dare lay a finger on them.”

Just - THEY WOULD BE THE HEALTHIEST RELATIONSHIP EVER IN ALL THE SECTS! NMJ taking care of WWX and NHS, NHS constantly worrying over WWX and NMJ because they fight (you know- war I mean) and WWX just being the self-sacrificing moron he is and protecting NMJ and NHS

Fanfiction: ‘shades of grey’ by cl410

Summary: This was why he didn’t like to leave the Unclean Realm, Nie Mingjue thought with dismay. Guileless dark eyes blinked up at him, tiny hands clutching at his robes.

Or: Nie Mingjue comes across Wei Wuxian before Jiang Fengmian, and decides Nie Huaisang could use a friend.

Lanling Jin Sect

OH BOY! I just love Jin Zixuan getting along with WWX and being an older brother to him. I would think that if JZX (Not Zixun, I despise him) grew up with WWX they would definitely get along and have a healthier relationship than the Yunmeng Bros. Jin Guangshan would definitely not see the point in having WWX in there, and Madam Jin is much more empathetic and she would be the on to take care of WWX.

You may be wondering - Jin Zixuan is Jin Zixuan. Wouldn’t his pride get in the way of things? He’s not called a peacock for no reason, and yes! I can see why you think that! But look at MianMian! She’s JZX best friend BECAUSE she probably grew up with him, and it’s clear in terms of temperament she’s better than JZX and she might even rival him in swordsmanship. If given the choice to grow up with him, WWX would have an amazing brotherly relationship with JZX, and would most likely accept the fact that WWX is amazing and would be PROUD of him. 

Also JZX’s relationship with Jiang Yanli may improve JUST BECAUSE WWX is there

(I might just be biased, idk)

Fanfiction: ‘Twin Treasures’ by crossdressingdeath

Summary: When Madame Jin happens to come across Cangse Sanren's orphaned son on a trip to Yiling, she can't bring herself to leave him there. Wei Wuxian finds a somewhat different family. Jin Zixuan finds a little brother. The course of history changes accordingly.

(Some things are written in fate, but even fate itself changes.)

Rogue Cultivators - Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen

Let me point out first that Xingchen is ETHEREAL! HE’S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON ON THE PLANET! (Song Jiyang is amazing istg I’ve never watched The Untamed but I’ve SEEN clips of them like 哥你怎样那么美). 

ANYWAYS, BACK TO THE POINT! Xiao Xingchen and Song Zichen would be amazing parents, don’t deny it. SZC would be rocky at taking care of WWX at first but he would get the hang of it and be the most over-protective person on the planet and would KILL ANYONE who hurts his family. Xiao Xingchen on the other hand would be the doting and loving parent. He spoils WWX but not as much as SZC (though he would never admit it). SZC and XXC would be the best if you want WWX to have parental figures.

Fanfiction:  ‘Frost moon's sun’ by RenaFair

Summary: Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan had dreamed of founding a sect together, that is until Xingchen heard what happened to his shijie. The two then decides to put their little dream on hold as they care for a pair of tiny hands between them, protecting the little boy with a sunshine smile as best as they can.

Alternately; Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan adopted Wei Ying after his parents' death.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #wei ying #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #jiang yanli #mdzs #jiang fengmian #yu ziyuan #lan zhan #lan wangji #lan xichen #wen qing #wen ning #wen qionglin #wen ruohan #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #madam jin #jin zixuan #jin guangshan #song lan #song zichen #xiao xingchen #and his ethereal beauty #yunmeng jiang #yunmeng family #yunmeng siblings #gusu lan

[ibijau]

Oh, here's a prompt! Nie Huaisang travels back in time to ensure that Jin Guangyao stays away from the Jin sect. When he gets back, he's disturbed to find that not only is Meng Yao now his stepbrother (or has at least become a very respected disciple of the Nie sect), but is also now engaged to Lan Xichen. Cue screaming and/or fainting. But at least Minjue is still alive, right?

It was surprisingly easy to make it all happen, much to Nie Huaisang's surprise. In stories time travel was always so complicated to orchestrate, with so much to plan for... but Nie Huaisang had just done it, and it seemed to be working well.

His first stop had been to Meng Shi, shortly after the birth of her son. He could have gone back further and prevented her from ever having that son, but... but at the end of the day, he'd been impossibly fond of Meng Yao even if he'd grown to hate Jin Guangyao. The solution, then, had been to visit his mother and make sure she didn't fill her son's head with impossible dreams.

It had taken some money to get Meng Shi out of the brothel for a few days, and she'd been quite suspicious of him at first. But Nie Huaisang had been a gentleman, and she'd warmed up to him a little. She'd even given up on trying to seduce him once he'd explained that while not opposed to feminine charms on occasion, he mostly cut his sleeve. She'd acted quite sorry for him when he'd explained that actually, he'd just gotten out of a long relationship that had ended badly due to some trust issues and a the betrayal of a man they'd believed to be their friend. Meng Shi had shared a few stories as well, some her own, most her colleagues'.

By the time they'd arrived in Lanling, Nie Huaisang had become quite attached to Meng Shi, and decided he might change his plans a little, depending on what would happen in the next few days.

Meng Shi was not happy to meet other women who'd had the dubious pleasure of sharing Jin Guansghan's bed. She was even less happy to talk to them and learn that none of them, not a single one, had ever received money or attention again after he'd left them, not even those who'd had a child. One of them, the servant of a powerful family of merchants, had gone begging at the door of the Jin sect when her three years old daughter had fallen sick with something nobody understood. She'd been sent home under threats of a beating if she ever showed up again, and her daughter had died.

That had been nearly four years earlier. Jin Guangshan hadn't been sect leader yet, but he'd been his father's favourite and most spoiled son, so he would have had the power to do anything he pleased, including sending a doctor to his daughter, or having her brought into Jinlin Tai to make sure no dark spirit was attacking her. He wasn't even engaged to his wife at the time, so it was impossible to use her to excuse his lack of care. And he'd known about the child's sickness, because he'd happened to be passing by when the mother came begging for help. It was he who had ordered she be sent away, annoyed by her crying.

Meng Shi had gone paler and paler as that poor woman told her tale of sorrow, clutching her son tighter against her chest. When Nie Huaisang and her had returned to their inn, she had asked him why he'd wanted her to meet those other women.

“I just don't like what he's doing,” Nie Huaisang replied, a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought she might get curious. It was stupid of him. Meng Yao surely couldn't have gotten his brains from his father after all.

Meng Shi, sitting on her bed, rocked her infant son in her arms in silence for a moment.

“They were all weak,” she said after a while.

“Who?”

“Those other women. They were all weak.”

Nie Huaisang tensed, fearing that she might announce she was cut of another cloth, that she would persevere where they had given up, but Meng Shi only sighed and kissed her son's forehead.

“He picked them so they were young and would have no one to turn to. Servants and prostitutes and unwanted daughters... he picked us so we'd have no one to turn to when he'd abandon us, no one to defend our honour and force him to pay for the children he made us have. Women like us, it's our own fault for getting pregnant in the first place, isn't it?”

Nie Huaisang stared at her, and realised she was right. He'd been so busy collecting names, he hadn't paused to wonder if there had been a pattern to Jin Guangshan's actions.

“Are there any more you want me to meet?” Meng Shi asked.

“No, she was the last one.”

“Then I suppose we'll started heading back to Yunping City tomorrow. I'll have to make new plans for...”

“No, we're not going back,” Nie Huaisang announced, startling her. “It's too unfair if you go back, you deserve better. Both of you deserve better!”

She blinked a few times, and gave him an amused smile, still rocking her baby. She didn't believe him, of course. Nie Huaisang could hardly blame her for that. After her last experience with a cultivator...

But Meng Shi really did deserve better. Nevermind that in a future he hoped to have now prevented, he'd desecrated her body to get back at her son, this was a different thing. Meng Shi was not a bad person. He'd once thought her guilty of ambition at least, but after a couple weeks in her company, he realised she'd just been desperate for a chance to escape her lot in life. He couldn't really hate her for that, even if it had led to such tragedies after her death.

Nie Huaisang liked her now that he'd met her, and he couldn't condemn her and her son to a worse fate than what they'd have known without him.

He needed a plan.

He needed a smart plan.

He had a plan.

“So, I might have lied a little, you're going back to the brothel,” Nie Huaisang said, earning an unimpressed smirk. “But not for long! I'm going to try something but... would you be willing to lie about who sired your son?”

“Why not? At this point, the truth won't get me much.”

“Perfect. Then I'm going to warn my sect that I have fathered a child, and that I'm unable to care for it at the moment. I'll have to write to them but... but I know Nie zongzhu will immediately send for you. He'll probably ask after me, he hasn't seen me in nearly a decade, but I know he won't have forgotten his cousin Nie Xingyu, and he'll do what's right for my son and his mother.”

And there was no risk of the real Nie Xingyu ever returning to ruin that story, Nie Huaisang knew. His father's beloved cousin, who'd become a rogue cultivator after an argument with their grandfather, had actually died a year or two before Nie Mingjue was even born. A Night Hunt accident, one which Nie Huaisang had discovered by chance while investigating some of Jin Guangyao's crimes. But he remembered his father always hoped to see Nie Xingyu return, always speaking so highly of that cousin who had been almost a brother to him.

Nie Huaisang's father would be delighted to meet his cousin's son, and if “Nie Xingyu” asked for it he would buy Meng Shi's contract in a heartbeat. It would only be a matter of convincing sect leader Nie then, and Nie Huaisang wasn't worried about that. His father had kept all the letters his cousin used to send and read them to his sons, so Nie Huaisang was confident he could imitate his prose and handwriting, not to mention he too carried the Nie seal to mark that letter.

At worst, if it didn't work, Nie Huaisang could always find the money somewhere to buy that contract in person and try to find somewhere to leave Meng Shi, but he'd rather know that she and Meng Yao were safe and sound in the Unclean Realm.

Meng Shi, of course, looked unimpressed by his plan. She still thought he was lying, or trying to sell wonders like other men before him so they could share her bed for a reduced fee, or demand more of her than they'd paid for. Nie Huaisang didn't mind. If people's opinions of him mattered, he would have chosen a different way to avenge his brother, wouldn't he?

-

It took nearly a month after Nie Huaisang had brought Meng Shi back to her brother, but one morning, from the room he'd rented across the street, he saw a small group of Nie cultivators go in. His father was among them, and when they excited the building, he was carrying little Meng Yao in his arms and chatting cheerfully with Meng Shi who seemed shocked at this turn of events.

Unseen by her Nie Huaisang smiled, and went to activate the talisman that would take him back to his own time. Hopefully this would have been enough to save Nie Mingjue. And if it hadn't... well, he knew how to travel to the past now.

-

Nie Huaisang opened his eyes. He was in his room, and yet not. This was what used to be his room when he was young, before he became sect leader. A little smaller, a little more private, with a view on a small private garden where he kept his favourite birds. Hisroom, the one he'd always preferred, and had only abandoned in a desperate attempt to be the leader he'd thought his people would need. If he still lived in this room, then it meant Nie Huaisang wasn't sect leader.

Delighted by this apparent victory, Nie Huaisang sprung to his feet and rushed out of the room, only to run head first into someone.

He'd ran into that person enough times that he knew them instantly, even before seeing their face.

“Well someone is in a hurry,” Nie Mingjue said with a laugh.

A laugh.

Nie Mingjue was laughing. Nie Huaisang couldn't even remember the last time he'd heard his brother laugh like this. Not since the Sunshot Campaign, he thought.

“Your cousins haven't arrived yet,” said someone standing just a step behind Nie Mingjue, her voice also full of laughter. “You didn't oversleep, don't worry.”

It took all of Nie Huaisang's willpower to look away from his brother (Nie Mingjue, happy, laughing, healthy) but he managed it, because that other voice was a little too familiar.

It was odd to find Meng Shi in her fifties when just a few hours ago, Nie Huaisang had seen her in her early twenties. Her hair had turned grey, there were wrinkles on her face, and she had exchanged the bold colours she used to wear at the brothel for the muted tones the Nie sect favoured. It suited her. Growing old suited her, if only because she would never have had the chance, had Nie Huaisang not changed her fate.

“I think he's not quite awake yet,” Nie Mingjue teased when Nie Huaisang stared too long, poking his little brother in the shoulder. “But at least I don't have to drag him out of bed. Can I leave the rest to you, auntie?”

Meng Shi smiled, and assured him she'd make sure Nie Huaisang was ready for his cousins' arrival. Nie Mingjue thanked her and left. Nie Huaisang almost ran after him, suddenly needing to touch him, to hug him, to make sure this was real, that he had truly...

“Now it's finally you,” Meng Shi noted, earning a curious glance. “I've realised a few years ago that you looked oddly similar to the man who helped me. Too similar to simply count it as family resemblance. But until today, you didn't look quite right either.”

When Nie Huaisang could only blink at her, she laughed.

“I thought so. I've been wondering for years, but... you did something to change what was meant to happen, didn't you?”

“I did. I wanted... I needed to save certain people.”

“Your brother,” Meng Shi guessed.

Nie Huaisang nodded.

“And my son?”

He nodded again. “Where is he? Is he well? He learned cultivation, right?”

Meng Shi smiled proudly. “He's one of the best in his generation, people keep telling me. He's married now, and living with his husband, but they come visit often. They wanted me to come live with them in the Cloud Recesses, but it's too cold for me over there, and I like the friends I've made here in Qinghe, so I... is something wrong?”

Nie Huaisang nodded, then shook his head. “His husband?”

“A-Yao is married to Lan zongzhu,” she explained. “I would have preferred if he'd married a woman, but Lan zongzhu is a very good husband to him, and they always seem so very happy when they're together. It's all a mother can truly wish for, isn't it? To see her child settled and happy.”

Nie Huaisang said nothing.

He did not run back into his room, didn't hurriedly prepare some ink so he could draw another time travelling talisman and set things right. It was tempting, so tempting. But Nie Huaisang resisted that temptation, and forced himself to smile.

“I'm so happy for them,” he mumbled after a while, and hoped he would learn to mean it.

#Meng Shi #Nie Huaisang #xisang #xiyao #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #this was super fun to write thanks for the prompt!!

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Perhaps you'd like a an ask that's not discourse related? If so, then I wanted to ask you if you know what jin zixuan thought of jin guangyao?

Hi anon,

I appreciate your non-discourse-related ask 😉. Your question made me realise that the novel seems to explicitly avoid giving us any real sense of what Jin Zixuan thought of Jin Guangyao, or how he reacted to the ways other people treated JGY. It seems that JZX remained unaware at the time that Meng Yao came on his birthday--and literally got kicked out. At Phoenix Mountain, JZX stops being mentioned after JGY appears and while his mother mistreats him--he’s only brought back into the narration at the very end to scream at JYL. JZX is also absent the night that WWX goes to Jinlintai to confront the Jins about Qiongqi path and in the direct aftermath. But let’s dig for crumbs and make sense of gaps, and let’s see what we can infer from them.

We know that, originally, Jin Zixuan was the epitome of the proud Jin: “The ways of the Jin Sect were proud, and Jin Zixuan inherited every single drop of this. With his high standards, he had been unsatisfied with this engagement since a long time ago.“ We could wonder if the circumstances of JGY’s birth would have been something JZX would have judged him for. We know that he took offense to WWX’s persona, although it is not spelled out exactly what offended him specifically: “Because of this engagement, Jin Zixuan had no positive impressions of the YunmengJiang Sect, and had frowned upon Wei Wuxian’s behavior since some time ago.“ However, it’s unclear whether the circumstances of WWX’s birth influenced how he perceived his behaviour. All we know for sure is that two other Jin family members--his father and Jin Zixun--never forgot about it and brought it up. We also know that in the past, JZX felt comfortable ignoring people’s good will towards him if he felt he was motivated in his view of them, as he did with JYL in the past:

Jin-furen had brought him to Lotus Pier a couple of times. Neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng liked to play with him; only Jiang Yanli wanted to feed him the food that she made. Jin Zixuan, however, didn’t really like to pay her any attention.

At the same time, we do know that JZX had a sense of righteousness, what with him standing up against Wen Chao at Dusk-Creek Mountain. Likewise, we see with the soup incident that at least when it comes to a low-level cultivator who is a servant, a good deed done towards him without trying to gain his gratitude is enough to earn his respect, and for JZX to take action to raise the standing of that person:

Cleverly, the woman never acknowledged anything, but instead denied it ambiguously, her cheeks flushed, making it sound as though she was the one who did it, but didn’t want Jin Zixuan to know how much trouble she went through. And thus, Jin Zixuan didn’t force her to admit it any longer. However, in action, he had began to respect the cultivator. He began to pay attention to her, even raising her from a servant to a guest cultivator.

JZX even tells JYL: “Don’t think that just because you come from a powerful sect that you can steal and trample other people’s feelings. Some people, even if they come from poor backgrounds, their character are much better than the former’s. Please watch your conduct.” This underlines that, regardless of his upbringing, and perhaps even views that he might have held at some point in his life, at this point JZX seemed to want to judge others based on their character rather than their background. Of course, we can wonder if that reserve of good will would have extended to his half-brother, especially one that could try to take his place as the heir. However, considering the circumstances, from JGY’s birth to JGS’s decision to give him a name that did not align him with the same generation as JZX, we can wonder if anyone ever perceived then JGY as someone who could potentially become the next sect leader, as seen in this exchange between WWX and JC:

Jiang Cheng smirked, “Don’t carry your sword, then. It doesn’t matter. But don’t provoke Jin Zixuan from now on. He’s Jin Guangshan’s only son, after all. The future leader of the LanlingJin Sect will be him. If you beat him up, what should I, the sect leader, do? Beat him up with you? Or punish you?”

Wei Wuxian, “Isn’t Jin Guangyao here now? Jin Guangyao seems so much better than him.”

Jiang Cheng finished wiping his sword. After he scrutinized it for a while, he finally put Sandu back into its sheath, “So what, if he’s better? No matter how much better he is, no matter how clever, he could only be a servant who greets the guests. That’s all there is to his life. He can’t compare with Jin Zixuan.”

At Phoenix Mountain, while we do not see JZX say anything out of line to JGY, he is present while his mother and Jin Zixun disrespect him: and we get no reaction written for him while that takes place--he’s mostly licking his wounded pride. We also know that this disrespect by his family towards JGY was the norm, so we have to assume that JZX would have been a witness to it in other situations. In the context of that specific scene, it’s difficult to to infer something concrete from that silence: is it agreement? complicity? a certain indifference to JGY’s situation? an unwillingness of rock the boat or to seem to publicly challenge his mother? or simply him just being too self-absorbed by his romantic woes?

The next scene that would have made for an interesting case study is the night WWX comes to confront the Jins about the camp at Qiongqi Path. However, JZX is absent that night. Conveniently, or as a means to maintain a sense of ambiguity between him and WWX, we thereby do not know how JZX feels about what happened. He is also absent during the aftermath:  “At midnight, in the Golden Pavilion on JinlinTai sat over fifty sect leaders from sects of all sizes. Jin Guangshan sat in the foremost seat. Jin Zixuan was away [...].” (interesting that CQL added JZX to that scene). Which means he is not there to react to the mistreatment of JGY by others or to react to the way JGY is clearly lying for the purposes of manipulating the general opinion on WWX and save the Jin’s reputation.

We also do not get to witness the conversation that leads JZX to come to Qiongqi Path to try to stop Jin Zixun. All we get is a sentence of dialogue from JZX explaining that he thought JGY looked strange which prompted JZX tp questioned him questions (we of course know that JGY was purposefully acting that way to get JZX to go to Qionqqi Path, so it’s hard to take that as a sign of clear familiarity between them that would have allowed JZX to read hidden emotions from him). Did JZX ask out of specific concern for or suspicions of JGY? We don’t know! It is interesting to note though that, in this scene, Jin Zixun refers to JGY as “A-Yao”, which the narration contextualises by telling us that Jin Zixun started calling him in a more intimate manner despite the original contemps he had held for him. However, when JZX mentions JGY to Jin Zixun, he calls him “Jin Guangyao” (for reference, Jin Zixun calls JZX “Zixuan”).

All in all, we get very little from looking at JZX. However, there is something to be said in the absence of any specific grievances expressed by JGY towards him in terms of framing how JZX may have acted towards him when they were both at Jinlintai. Indeed, when Jin Ling asks JGY why he arranged for his father to go to Qiongqi path, meeting his death, JGY mentions the unfairness of the situation of both sons, but never brings up anything JZX did specifically to him. And we know that JGY has a great memory which allows him to hold grudges.

Suddenly, Jin Ling screamed, “Why?!” He stood up from beside Jiang Cheng. Eyes red, he rushed toward Jin Guangyao as he shouted, “Why did you have to do this?!”

Nie Huaisang hurried to pull back Jin Ling, who seemed as though he wanted to fight with Jin Guangyao. Jin Guangyao returned the question, “Why?” He turned to Jin Ling, “A-Ling, then could you tell me why? Why is it that even if I face everyone with a smile, I might not even receive the lowest form of respect, while even though your father was extremely arrogant, people flocked to him? Could you tell me why we were born from the same person but your father could relax at home with the love of his life playing with his child, while I never even dared be alone for long with my wife, shivering out of fright at first glance of my son? And I was ordered to do such a thing by my father as if it was natural—to kill an extremely dangerous figure who could flip out and conjure up a bloody massacre with his corpses anytime!

“Why is it that even though we were born on the same day, Jin Guangshan could host a grand banquet for one son, and watch with his own eyes how his subordinate kicked his other son down Jinlintai, from the first stair to the last!”

He finally revealed the hatred hidden deep within him. It wasn’t directed at neither Jin Zixuan nor Wei Wuxian, but rather his own father.

As a result, we might infer that, at the very least, JZX never directly acted towards JGY in a way that reflected how JGS or Jin Zixun (at some point) treated him. At the same time, it’s difficult to suggest that he stood up for him when other people disrespected him, and we know that JZX’s mother disrespected JGY in lieu of directing her anger toward the real culprit, her awful husband. Little seems to suggest that they grew intimate after JGY came to Jinlintai. It’s really hard to divine, as a result, what JZX might have thought of JGY.

The most interesting thing to take away from this is that it seems absolutely deliberate on MXTX’s part to show us as little as possible in terms of interactions between JZX and JGY. We can speculate as to why that is: to separate JZX from the machinations of this sect? to avoid giving us more ammunition to guess that JGY was behind JZX’s death? to ensure that WWX remains ambiguous towards JZX? or just as a means to avoid having to figure out how to work this dynamic into already complicated scenes and character relationships? etc.

#mdzs meta #mdzs #jzx #jin zixuan #jgy #jin guangyao

[krispymilkshakegardener]

Out of context things that my brother and I have said while Word of Honor.....

- Sir, stop caressing your nuts plz

-Him nuts

-Sir, you are the complications

-As soon as Ah-xu is in the picture, than it’s just horny

-Could it be gayer??? No, but I could think of several ways, but they wouldn’t even air in the U.S

-Nuts go flyn’

-what...?are you Jesus....?

-So...?is that like a second hand kiss?????  

-Oh I thought that was a human, oh wait...it might be

-He just hit him with meat

-I don’t think a flute is the only thing he can blow...;)

-My god, he is that gay

-He’s like Wei Ying....but some how worse?

-It’s been like three days and they’re co-parenting

-ew. old people again

-K-mart Lan

-Mm, dismemberment 

-How the HELL did THIS of all scenes  get past the Chinese censorship?  

-And there’s the nuts

-Nuts are nothing, especially in this show

- Remember the second Shrek movie?

-This makes me feel emotions previously unknown 

-Oh no....our Ah-xu....he’s broken

-Another one bites the dust

-Sir, plz stop spinning, you look like shag carpet from the 60s

-Yes...he’s lamenting in gay

-And...we’re back to the nuts

-Yeah....that moved like limbs

-’cause he’s doing math

-Did he just THROW a CHILD???????

-From a distance he kinda looks like Michael Jackson   

-Oh god.....I hate is when they describe nuts

-Starting them young are we?..... Turning them gay are we?...

-OH! THAT kind of flirty 

-A nut can do that?????

-I know, drag him into the mouth size argument 

-Oh.....that’s a skull

-The trees have knives......why do the trees have knives?

-What in the Fatal Journey?   

-It imploded

-Can we stop with the Squid Game lookin’ mannequins plz?

-Are we water boarding the 14 year old again??????

-Child got yeeted 

-If there is anything I have learned from this show is to never trust anyone with a mustache

-ummm sir? That’s not how that works…that’s thought your shoulder 

-Could that be concerted a willing kidnapping??????

-  What is it with this show and traumatizing 4 years????????

-He’s doing what I do…running away from problems

-Will someone get that man some therapy????…or some good dick

-Sir…..how are your lungs holding up that well??????

-he need to frolic for a bit

-yeah….I would sacrifice my lungs for that field too

-diet Wei Ying

-Do you need a hauls??

-oh so canabalism…..fun times

-oops, he’s talking about a sex therapist

-he looks like handsome Squidward 

-This show is all about traumatizing children

-I just want to put him in my pocket

-Oh my god, the power of gay does work....he’s awake 

-It’s just going to make his Horner

-I don’t trust Chengling with anything sharper than a pencil let alone cooking 

-He got the Word of Honor version of Jin Guangshan as a father

_He’s like Nie Huaisang with more motivation

-Him I trust in the kitchen, him I don’t 

-Well...at-lest Chengling hasn’t burned the house down yet

-The chicken scene makes more sense now      

-He’s decorative

-Sir, your doors are made out of paper....they can still hear you 

-AH...I knew she was a milf 

-I swear if he gets nuts

-sToP cArEsSiNg It

-oh no, it’s the nuts again

-No, he’s not Lan Wangji......He doesn’t have a choking kink

-  AHHHH, NoT tHe ClOak......

-Speaking of the death cloak

-*dismayed clapping*

-Sometimes teenagers just be hormonal 

-It’s a very bittable neck

-But why is it spicy?

-the fact that he said nothing 

-No, you do not have meat

-How long has it been since we had a nut episode?

-I’m prepared to eat this blanket

-ahhhhh the nut advertisement, even when they’re on the floor

-Alright……I’m gonna go eat the mailbox now

-”This sounds like an Ohio problem

-Death by noodles it is then

#word of honor #lao wen #ah-xu #wen kexing #zhang chengling #ye baiyi #just gay #zhou zishu #I have no idea at this point #why do i keep doing this #the untamed #four seasons manor #I need to find episode 37 #cao wenining #the untamed fanart #mdzs #cdrama #shen shen

[antebunny]

Part 4 of the Maleficent AU. (Part three here).

Lan Wangji meets Mo Xuanyu almost four years after Wei Ying disappeared. He’s Jin Zixuan’s half-brother. One of his half-brothers, anyway. Jin Zixuan is the peacock spirit, but Mo Xuanyu has no wings.

Neither does Wei Ying. Not anymore.

Mo Xuanyu makes his existence known to Lan Wangji on the very day that the guest disciples arrive at the Cloud Recesses. He peeks out from the rows of Jin disciples, and something about his silver eyes looks unsettling contrasted with the bright Jin gold robes. Or perhaps it is just that Lan Wangji does not like someone who looks so much like Wei Ying to be dressed in Jin gold. 

Somehow, Mo Xuanyu is the highest ranked Jin disciple there. Lan Wangji has no idea how this happened; he didn’t think Jin Guangshan cared about his bastard children other than to use them as props. But Jin Zixuan is now married with a two year old son, and every higher ranking Jin disciples has already attended the lectures, which means that Mo Xuanyu is the de facto leader of this year’s Jin disciples.

“Welcome to the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Xichen says. 

He’s still the one to greet the guest disciples, despite now being the official sect leader, because he knows better than to ask Lan Wangji to do it. He barely managed to get Lan Wangji out here at all. Lan Wangji thought he was antisocial before Wei Ying; after Wei Ying, he isn’t sure he’ll manage to talk to anyone, at all, ever again. 

Mo Xuanyu bows back, followed by his fellow disciples. “It is an honor, Sect Leader Lan.” When he straightens, there’s a smile on his face, a smile that invites Lan Xichen in on an untold joke.

Lan Wangji wants to wipe that smile off his face. It doesn’t belong to him. Neither does the bright, easy cadence he speaks with. Or the way his silver eyes crinkle when he smiles. Or the way the Jin disciples follow him like lost ducklings, asking for his advice on sword forms and talismans. Or the way he sometimes skips so high he stumbles upon landing, like he expected to continue going up. Or the way he undeterringly manages to worm his way into a heart that Lan Wangji had sworn belonged to someone else what feels like a lifetime ago. 

But the thing is, no one knows what happened to the Jiangs all those years ago. The Cloud Recesses were the first, but not the last place the Jiangs vanished from. Within a week there were no more Jiangs out on night hunts in the human realm. The Jiangs visiting other sects all disappear overnight, and no one has heard from them since. Most suspect a heavenly war of some sort, but only Lan Wangji and his family know that Wei Ying was the first Jiang to disappear. He doesn’t know why Wei Ying would be at the center of a heavenly war. He can’t imagine what changed the night of Wei Ying’s Grounding that placed him at the epicenter of a heavenly war. He also doesn’t understand why Wei Ying wouldn’t come to him for help, if that was indeed the case. 

Lan Wangji can’t fathom what occurred to make all the Jiangs disappear, and then for Wei Ying to come back in disguise as his brother-in-law’s half-brother, but all evidence points towards that being the case. 

“Lan Zha–Lan Wangji!” Mo Xuanyu spins around gracefully, back to the cave mouth. “What are you doing here?”

This is the third time in one week that Lan Wangji has caught him snooping around the caves at the top of the Gusu mountains. He’s getting more obvious–in terms of getting caught, and in terms of what he’s looking for. The cave that Wei Ying Mo Xuanyu is looking for is higher still, almost at the very top of the mountain. Lan Wangji knows because he goes there once a week. In fact, he was going there now, when he encountered Mo Xuanyu.

“This area is forbidden,” Lan Wangji says instead. 

“Forbidden? I had no idea!” Mo Xuanyu is the very picture of innocence. “Did the Lans add even more rules since–uh, last year?”

“Yes,” Lan Wangji says. “Four.”

Mo Xuanyu makes the same face that Wei Ying an exaggerated face of disbelief. “How is anyone supposed to remember so many rules?”

If this were Wei Ying, Lan Wangji would say “practice,” or maybe “discipline,” and Wei Ying would react like he’d told the funniest joke. Lan Wangji dares to hope, but he does not dare to joke. Instead, he says nothing at all.                             

“Well, I, uh,” Mo Xuanyu says, sidling past Lan Wangji, “I’m just going to go now, if the young master doesn’t mind.” 

Mo Xuanyu takes off running down the mountain. He skips over stones, his feet doing a little extra twist in the air like he doesn’t realize they’re going to come down. He jumps down ledges, runs down valleys and through the Gusu pines. He jumps, and he falls.

And he falls.

-

Wei Wuxian spends three terrible months in the Cloud Recesses before he finds the right cave. Every moment until then is a confusing mess, because the more time he spends with Lan Zhan, the less sure he is of everything. 

But the moment he enters the cave, his world narrows in focus. Row after row of wings line the walls. He recognizes most of them; they come in all sizes and shapes, from heron wings to rosefinch wings. Wei Wuxian wants to take all of them with him, return them to Lotus Pier, but he can’t. Lan Zhan’s been onto him, recently. It’s like every time Wei Wuxian even thinks of sneaking out into the mountains, Lan Zhan is there to remind him that he’s not allowed to. Unfortunately for Lan Zhan, Wei Wuxian is good at adapting! And their cat and mouse game has led Wei Wuxian here, to the cave at the top of the mountains. 

Wei Wuxian can’t even stop to look at the other pairs of wings, because Lan Zhan is probably stalking through the mountains somewhere, trying to find him. He follows the unseen force calling in further in the cave. Almost absently, he flicks one hand out, burning up a talisman that he’s kept on him ever since he came back to the Cloud Recesses. 

And at the very back of the cave he sees them: his wings. They’re not hung up on the wall like the others, but placed on a cloth on the floor. As he approaches, heart hammering in his chest, he sees that they’ve been well cared for. Later the thought of others touching his wings will fill him with revulsion, but for now he’s overwhelmed with happiness at seeing his wings again. 

Footsteps echo from outside the cave, and Wei Wuxian snaps out of his fugue. He reaches for his wings with trembling hands, and they fuse back into place like they were never gone. An electric jolt shoots up Wei Wuxian spine, straightening his back while his mouth falls open at the sudden, familiar weight. 

Wei Wuxian turns around unsteadily, off-balance for the first time in years.  He flexes the long-unused back muscles, and tears spring to his eyes when his wings flex with them, sending a massive rush of wind through the cave. He takes off in a run, skips once, and flaps his wings once. The massive push sends him skimming across the stone floor all the way to the mouth of the cave. 

He’s brimming with exhilaration as he steps outside the cave, which is exactly when he sees Lan Zhan.

Ah, Lan Zhan. Wei Wuxian doesn’t even know where to begin untangling his feelings towards Lan Zhan. He’s had little to do in the past three years but do so, yet all he’s managed to do is confuse himself more. 

Perhaps the worst part of past-Wei Wuxian is that he would’ve given Lan Zhan his wings if only he’d asked. He never had to trick Wei Wuxian into marriage. Wei Wuxian knows what the worst part of present-Wei Wuxian is: he still doesn’t know what Lan Zhan would’ve done after he stole his wings. The question fills him with dread as much as it fills him with hope, and he’s never managed to kill the hope completely. 

“Wei Ying.” Lan Zhan sounds overwrought. His intense gaze drinks Wei Wuxian in like he’s water in the desert.

Wei Wuxian takes a step back. He hates how just the sound of his name makes his boots grind into the ground, like he could just sink away. “Lan Zhan,” he replies, and in the distance he sees flecks of purple in the sky. 

Lan Zhan takes two steps forward. Any closer, and he’ll be within reach of Wei Wuxian, who’s already at the cave entrance. “I do not understand.”

Wei Wuxian draws his wings back until the tips brush against the top of the cave entrance. Then with one powerful thrust, he’s up in the air, one foot above the ground, two feet. The flecks of purple become indistinct blobs. He doesn’t have time to enjoy it, not with the sudden, furious rush of anger. “You don’t understand?”

“Why did you leave?” Lan Zhan asks, so earnestly. 

“Why did I leave?” Wei Wuxian splutters, furious. His feet are at the height of Lan Zhan’s head. “Why did you do this?” One sharp gesture of his hand motions to the wings.

The purple blobs become tiny figures. Then tiny figures with wings.

“I do not understand,” Lan Zhan says again, so plainly that Wei Wuxian wants to cry.

“It’s not that complicated,” Wei Wuxian snarls. “Why did you betray me?”

Lan Zhan’s golden eyes widen. “I would never,” he denies.

“You’d never what?” Wei Wuxian shouts. He can’t believe what he’s hearing. “Betray your fiance? Mutilate your fiance?”

Behind Lan Zhan, hundreds of Jiang disciples swoop down from the skies, wings flared open, swords drawn. At their head are three of the four members of the main Jiang family.

“Fiance,” Madame Yu scoffs. “What a joke.”

Lan Zhan doesn’t turn around, or acknowledge the Jiangs’ presence in any way. “Wei Ying,” he says again, helplessly. Hopelessly.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian says. Slowly, he drifts to the ground, until he’s once more eye to eye with Lan Zhan. He takes two steps forward, and the Jiangs stand back, waiting for him to make a decision. “Why?”

#so i hated writing this #will revisit in the morning but #i don't think i'm doing this again #but i did promise #mdzs #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #my writing #writeblr

[thebiscuiteternal]

Writing jam: can I request more of Huaisangs feelings on how much everyone seems to prefer Mingjue even when they're closer to Huaisangs age bracket?

He sort of... just figures that's the natural order of things. After all, he was such a disappointment that his father went looking to make a replacement without even telling him and the sect has made no secret of preferring a nine-day-old baby over him, so once Mingjue starts getting bigger and stronger and starts gaining even more friends and followers with his can-do attitude (They are both ambiverts by nature, but negative attention has more or less compressed Huaisang into an introvert while positive attention made Mingjue bloom into an extrovert), why wouldn't the rest of the world eventually like him better too? Huaisang can't even be mad about it, he also likes Mingjue a lot better than he likes himself.

It's another one of the list of things that The Betrayal severely fucked up, because before his father was killed, he could rely on the affection of Wen Ruohan and the friendship of Wen Xu, and had Mingjue been brought to the sect with his father still alive and those relationships still in place, his self-esteem might not have cratered quite so much.

On the plus side, while everyone else might think his brother is the obviously superior Nie, Mingjue himself adores his older brother and never hesitates to show it, be it in the withering glares and sharp words he has for anyone putting Huaisang down, or in the fact that he always points out the good things Huaisang manages to get done despite other people being as unhelpful as possible. Sometimes it backfires in an "Aw, he's so good he'll even stand up for his useless brother!" kind of way, which is usually when Huaisang has to gently intervene to keep Mingjue from backing up words with a fist.

The war, as mentioned before, complicates the rather simplistic "Mingjue good, Huaisang bad" narrative that's been built up for eight years. Those involved in logistics and support, both inside the sect and out, get to see how hard Huaisang works, and while Mingjue may want to fight, he's still two years away from even bonding a saber when the war starts. So Huaisang does gain some followers of his own (he's not especially aware of it, other than a sort of vague "Huh, even with a war going, getting work done seems to have gotten easier lately..." feeling).

Post-war, he at least has Jiang Yanli and the newly-minted Jin Guangyao solidly in the "friend" category, with Jin Zixuan and Mianmian in the "becoming friends" category. And while they may not be friends, his unwavering support of Jiang Cheng's effort to rebuild Yunmeng Jiang has won their gratitude and respect.

So, ironically, he comes out of the war more socially well-off than he went into it?

(There will be a downside to this, because Jin Guangshan sadly survives the war, but maybe things won't spiral as badly as they did in canon.)

#mdzs #reverse nies #larger age gap nies #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #and others #worldbuilding

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

This is a bit of a long rambly mess, but I just to vent somewhere! When I was at first getting annoyed at JC’s depictions, I thought fanon JC was painted as similar Mu Qing, right down to JC being given MQ’s secret care for children. But I then realized that even that comparison was inaccurate.

Even MQ apologizes (more than once across the story!), says that XL was right, and says he wants to be his friend. And if JC did that in most fics, that would at least be fine. But fans don’t even do the courtesy of giving JC that arc! Instead, it’s always JC being right -- whether about the GC transfer, or he’s suddenly become a person who’s willing to help the Wens and WWX is just a stupid idiot for doing it on his own -- and WWX has to admit that JC was right.

And where MQ becomes more comfortable with the fact that he used to be a servant, accepting and overcoming the insecurities, JC’s arc in fic could be learning to overcome his insecurities that WWX is better than him at many things even despite their class differences. But no, fanon JC has to be AMAZING at something, or even SEVERAL things, SO much BETTER at them than poor stupid WWX. That’s the BEST solution for Yunmeng bros reconciliation, obviously.

At this point, I honestly wish JC was actually given MQ’s character arc in more fics, because at least he could be said to have one, and not just have always been a perfect person, best brother, best jiujiu, bestest sect leader. Ugh.

It kind of feels like another side of purity culture from the people who should be against it. If JC and WWX reconcile,if JC loves WWX, then JC can’t have ever been a bad brother. Instead, it’s Wei Wuxian who has been the bad brother (the character who’s more easy to change since he a) has already gone through this characterization in all versions of the canon, so his development can be reversed for the fic and brought back up to speed by the end, and b) has actually had character growth, unlike JC, so it’s easier to write that growth). It’s Wei Wuxian who needs to change to match where JC is at. It’s fine if the “bad brother” is the character who tried to do good, but fucked it up because he “doesn’t know how to ask for help!” or “is too stupid to know other people care!” or whatever other excuse. That’s easy to fix! But it’s not fine when it’s the character who never really cared about people outside of his sect and is terribly low on empathy/mercy/compassion/caring. JC has to have been secretly good all along! He loves his brother, so obviously he never did anything terrible to him! Or to other people in the name of hating him! Love cannot be unhealthy or messy or crystalized over by and wrapped up in hate!

(I mean, if we’re comparing characters to JC, Severus Snape also has an unpleasant personality yet was actually revealed to not have been evil all along, and the discourse around him is more interesting than the stuff surrounding JC. It’s still often stupid discourse, but at least it’s based on evidence from the text and not a made up secret narrative where JC hasn’t been a bad person this whole time so fans can just make up whatever characterization they want.)

Instead of dealing with JC’s and WWX’s canon relationship and trying to find a way forward from where they left off in Guanyin Temple (if they’re ignoring the extras in MDZS, or going off CQL), fanon JC is just retroactively made into having always been a good person to justify the ease of their reconciliation.

And as someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting.

"As someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting."

Hello there anon, the above as well as what you said about reversing Wei Wuxian's character to be on par with how awful Jiang Cheng was to him is especially resonating. As a person Jiang Cheng himself for all intents was considered at least above average from the normal cultivators.

Yet his downfall always relied on his hate of Wei Wuxian (as a person, in talent, socially) it is a core part of his character that is woven into the work itself and the catalyst for Wei Wuxian's death itself. Jiang Cheng if anything, is coldly upfront on just why he refuses to help Wei Wuxian out of his predicament as well as framing Wei Wuxian. The text itself says he puts little fight in pretending to even speak for Wei Wuxian's behalf when Jin Guangshan begins to sully him and conspire about him wanting to be a sect leader. He is meant to be the complete contrast in Lan Wangji and Mianmian trying to speak for his good-will, in fact he contradicts this by saying that Wei Wuxian has always been tiresomely reckless and uncontrollable, something that holds little truth as Wei Wuxian worked in trust for Yunmeng Jiang's benefit for years. Their actions simply are not of comparable fault and the end of the work (in the least the novel) makes this message clear. Jiang Cheng, as a character, like MXTX said is a product of following what his environment made him as well as him putting no fight on his end to amend that to be better and learn. Love is very complicatedly explored in this work in all it's ways and that's what is very beautiful about it. It does not shy away from the forms it manifests in. Including Jiang Cheng's who at the base of it, the rivalry there was as much one-sided as Shu She's for Lan Wangji, the layers of irony are the best part of the novel for each of it's characters.

As for fandom. I do think a lot of it is petty stupid discourse (oh and I have never said I am particularly immune to it, I am far too sarcastic for my own good and have a bit of a loud mouth when I see something particularly ridiculous for this fandom and I do not know when to shut up my filter). But, so much of it is coated within personal resonance towards certain characters which leads to feeling personally hurt, especially when the block features exist on this site. Multiple tags have been implemented to block for this exact purpose, yet their comes the takes that you can not use these sarcastic tags that are blockable because "it's not the right ones". Fandom is ever shifting and as such it is curated as much as you want it to be. Being ordered to not use these tags or to avoid posting all together is a moot point as well as demanding others to read how you want them to, even when the work textually supports or does not certain interpretations. As lovely as the thought is that "all interpretations are valid", logically it does not work quite so well when you attempt to push that on so many others with little helpful evidence other than flimsy fanon popularity (Ron the Death Eater And Draco in Leather pants are infamous fandom tropes that are despised for reasons). JC is not a case of questionable good for selfish reasons as in the comparison to Snape, he is simply a show of selfishness who has an ambiguous opening to do better, in terms of those in the future. Too much clout though is put on that idea when the work itself is not shy to say real good, kind, supportive people are hard to come by.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #canon jiang cheng #jiang cheng #I love him but he is very much a trash racoon king #fandom also needs to chill with is elitisism and faux intellectualism