What I love the most about Story of Kunning Palace is that it uses the unreasonably possessive male lead and pits him against a female heroine who is entirely immune to any and all of his machinations. While Xie Wei's madness is almost instrumental to him ultimately winning Jiang Xuening's heart, the story doesn't shy away from the fact that it was the very same love that had destroyed them both in their first life.
Every attempt Xie Wei makes at trapping Xuening within the ties of societal propriety in their second life also spectacularly fails. For a story about going back in the past to fix one's mistakes, the romance between Xie Wei and Xuening somehow manages to stay above the lazy strings of destiny.
They kiss, they have sex, he does her immense favors - all in poorly veiled attempts to purposefully manipulate her, but she still refuses to be 'his'. Jiang Xuening, not even for a moment, turns away from the duty and love she feels for Yan Lin, Princess Shen Zhiyi or even Zhang Zhe, who is Xie Wei's direct competitor and in many ways the one who 'won' the battle for Xuening's heart in the first life.
In Xie Wei's obsession over Xuening's feelings for Zhange Zhe, he does manage to understand the core of what moves Xuening's heart: sincerity. I think it's pretty undeniable that the day Xuening kills herself in the first life, Xie Wei was there to marry her. I see it as more than just a simple misunderstanding; Xuening did not love Xie Wei and she especially did not vibe with his desire for mutual punishment and destruction.
Even though Xuening desires devotion, she values life above all and not just her own either. She loves her friends more than she loves any of these men romantically and the one person who's given her devotion and sincerity in spades and won hers in return in both lives? You Fangyin. Even though her relationship with Xuening ends her life both times, You Fangyin always dies with her spirit intact. Whereas, Zhang Zhe's devotion to Xuening in their first life destroys the core of Zhang Zhe's being. When Xuening realizes that they're forever unable to escape this particular fate, she gives him up immediately.
Xie Wei's madness, his crazy red flag possessiveness allows him to weather the turmoil of giving her a devotion that surpasses that of even You Fangyin's. And it takes him two lifetimes to figure out how to give it to her without her recoiling in disgust.
Of the three male leads Yan Lin Zhang Zhe and Xie Wei, Xie Wei is indeed the personality that suits Xuening best, he may very well be her ideal man - but that’s not enough! It's a destiny you have to work for and a destiny you have to choose.
Go figure.
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Find someone more suitable. There will be one.
Now, you know me inside and out. You've seen me for who I am without any disguise. What do you think? Are you still afraid of me?
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Jiang Xuening: (manipulates the market and make Lu Xian buy his own stocks)
Xie Wei: (already realizing what's going on) LMAO
Lu Xian: i fckn hate you both T.T
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december reads: xiewei x jiang xuening <from story of kunning palace>
The Fantastic Mr. Zhang by ecorie | G, 2k words, post-canon |
Prime Minister Xie Wei is not above sending Zhang Zhe to prison for his "crimes against humanity". His father-in-law Minister Jiang, near retirement but still in full possession of his faculties and impeccable memory, thinks what goes around comes around. Yan Lin thinks he really need to teach his son not to start family drama.
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because story of kunning palace's tag on ao3 is now officially live, i'd like to shamelessly self-promote my xuening x zhiyi fic again, hehe.
Chapters: 1/1
Words: 3.965
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jiang Xue Ning/Shen Zhi Yi, Background Jiang Xue Ning/Xie Wei
Characters: Jiang Xue Ning, Shen Zhi Yi
Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers, Reincarnation, Future Fic, Fluff and Angst, Self-Aware Jiang Xue Ning, Out and Proud Shen Zhi Yi, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Loose Interpretation of Chinese Philosophy, Mental Health Issues, Modern Era, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, Suicide Attempt
Summary:
After countless lives, Jiang Xuening wakes up in a present-day Qian, only to discover that she's lost the man she loves the most. Lonely and desolate, Xuening wishes to end it all, when a familiar figure comes and saves her life.
Shen Zhiyi.
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