#yes she is from lanling jin sect

[robininthelabyrinth]

Ah, this is invisible_cities from ao3 - dropping off a plot bunny I mentioned in a comment on 'No Complaints' as requested, since you considered it intriguing and didn't want to lose the idea. It went: I keep being haunted by this kernel of an idea, an AU in which LQR&JC -Done Uncles(TM) - have a (political) reason to Swear Brotherhood. Especially if it meant seeing the reactions of LQR's nephews AND LXC's sworn brothers. I think Nie Minjue might actually approve, as you write him.

Convenient Brotherhood - ao3

“You would make a good teacher.”

Jiang Cheng froze, abruptly overcome with a wave of hideous embarrassment, then a moment later with a wave of self-disgust for having felt that embarrassment. It wasn’t as if he were doing anything shameful, after all.

He’d only been showing the newest set of Jiang disciples the basic forms that they would need to know in order to build their foundation in the Jiang sect’s sword style. It was one of the most basic duties of a sect. Although it was normally done by an instructor, rather than the sect leader directly, even Jiang Cheng’s father had occasionally stepped in to show the children how it was done. There was nothing embarrassing about doing what he was doing at all.

It was only – being perceived, he supposed.

He turned and tried to salute, saying, “Teacher Lan –”

Lan Qiren stopped him, catching his arm and pulling him upwards, his hand seeming to Jiang Cheng’s perception to be blazing hot where it touched his skin. “I have already told you to stop with that,” he chided, though quite gently, and that hot feeling spread over the rest of Jiang Cheng’s skin, right up to his neck. “It has already become tiresome, and you can’t keep it up forever, now that I am staying here.”

Yes.

There was – that.

Jiang Cheng didn’t want to think about that. On why Lan Qiren was now residing in the Lotus Pier, the length of his stay indeterminate, lasting until…

Until nothing. Jiang Cheng wasn’t thinking about it.

“How is Jin Ling doing?” he asked instead, because it was easier. Jin Ling was still a baby, in need of tremendous care, and in all honesty Lan Qiren’s presence had been a godsend in that regard – the Jiang sect needed care, too, as needy as an infant going through growing pains as Jiang Cheng tried to help it settle into its rightful position as a Great Sect, and there were only so many hours in a day. He was already being torn to pieces by his obligations. He couldn’t even imagine the damage it might do to him if he were trying to take care of both Jin Ling and his sect, all on his own, unsupported by anyone, least of all –  

Wait, no, he wasn’t thinking about that.

“Quite well. He’s just realized he can wave around his toys on his own,” Lan Qiren said, accepting the change of subject gracefully, just as he always did. “He was quite proud of his great accomplishment.”

Just like his peacock of a father, Jiang Cheng wanted to say, but his throat closed up. It had only been a few months, no more than half a year, since – since Jiang Yanli – since she had…since Jin Ling was orphaned.

By all rights, Jin Ling ought to be right now in Lanling City, being cared for by his paternal relatives, but Jin Zixuan’s death had overturned a hornet’s nest there, and even Madame Jin, for whom Jin Ling was now her sole purpose in life, didn’t think it was a good idea to risk keeping him there. Accordingly to Lanling Jin custom, the child was typically raised by the mother for the first few years of life, then handed over to the father to be educated. So, with Jin Ling lacking both mother and father, Madame Jin had proposed that Jin Ling be temporarily handed over to Jiang Cheng…

She must have been in a very tough position to have asked for such a thing. Jiang Cheng tried not to think about it, because it meant that he got to keep Jin Ling by his side, got not to be alone. Just him and Jin Ling…and Lan Qiren, now.

It had really only been when Lan Qiren had walked in and plucked a sobbing Jin Ling out of Jiang Cheng’s arms, ordering the frantic and under-slept Jiang Cheng to go get some rest, that Jiang Cheng had remembered all those rumors that made out that it was Lan Qiren that had raised his nephews, even since infancy. From the capable fashion in which he tended to Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng was inclined to think the rumors were true.

And since there could be no questioning Lan Qiren’s integrity, he didn’t have to worry about entrusting Jin Ling to him. There could be no fear that Lan Qiren was a secret assassin, or bribed by the Jin sect, or – or whatever Jiang Cheng’s paranoid mind had come up with. Admittedly, it was probably a little offensive to use a respected elder like Lan Qiren as a babysitter, but Lan Qiren had never complained.

“You should consider what I said.”

Jiang Cheng shook himself out of his reverie. “What? What you said when?”

“That you would make a good teacher,” Lan Qiren said. He shook out his sleeves and started heading back inside – had he come all the way out to the training yards just to say that? But no, it was getting to be dinner time. He had come to call Jiang Cheng, another thing that no one had asked him to do but which he did, as meticulous and inexorable as the Lan sect rules in all the things he did.

Having someone who remembered that he needed to be called in, that he forgot things like eating and drinking if he was too distracted…Jiang Cheng really shouldn’t enjoy it as much as he did.

It shouldn’t make him as happy as it did.

Jiang Cheng caught up with Lan Qiren, falling into step by his side. “Is this some sort of hint that you changed your mind and would like to start teaching again?” he asked. “I’m sure we could set something up here for you, if you like.”

It wouldn’t be the same as the Cloud Recesses, though. Nothing was ever the same as home.

Jiang Cheng knew that better than most.

“I meant nothing more than what I said,” Lan Qiren said mildly. “I have not varied from my decision not to teach this year. Perhaps when Jin Ling is older, we can reconsider.”

Because Lan Qiren would probably still be here then, Jiang Cheng’s traitorous mind noted. Jin Ling would grow up, and grow older, and eventually return to Lanling Jin to inherit his patrimony, but Lan Qiren would still be here in the Lotus Pier, far away from home, rotting away in a place he didn’t belong –

Lan Qiren cleared his throat pointedly.

“You are letting his thoughts get away from you again, I think,” he said. He sounded amused, of all things. “Shall I recite the rules regarding the importance of mealtimes once again…?”

“Please don’t,” Jiang Cheng said hastily. He’d made the mistake, in the first few days of Lan Qiren’s tenure when Jiang Cheng had been incredibly bitter about how everything had all gone down, of retorting to one of Lan Qiren’s invocations by reminding him that the Lotus Pier was not the Cloud Recesses and so the Lan sect rules did not apply here. It had been unwontedly cruel of him – reminding a man of the home that he’d lost through the actions of others, actions for which Jiang Cheng was in no small part responsible, whether directly or indirectly through others of his sect for whom he bore responsibility – and he’d been deeply ashamed of himself at once.

Lan Qiren, in contrast, had taken it in stride: he had only mildly responded that the Lan sect rules applied not only to the Cloud Recesses but to any person belonging to the Lan sect, no matter where they were, and furthermore that in any place where humanity gathered there were always rules, even when they were unwritten. He had thereafter devoted much of his free time, insofar as such a thing existed, into compiling a set of rules for the Lotus Pier.

Jiang Cheng had thought the project ridiculous at first, but Lan Qiren was meticulous, in this as with all things, and the first small booklet he had presented to Jiang Cheng had been…

Jiang Cheng hadn’t had any words for how it made him feel, only that he’d urgently needed to excuse himself to hide in his room and cry for a while, but in a good sort of way. The booklet contained not only the first few rules that Lan Qiren proposed, all of which were perfectly in keeping with the Lotus Pier’s tradition and full of good sense besides, but also the basis behind them: the logical arguments both in favor and against, the potential consequences, and most of all the history behind them, gleaned from the dozens of interviews Lan Qiren had conducted among both the few survivors of the Lotus Pier’s massacre and the common people outside their door.

Jiang Cheng treasured each survivor more than gold, but he’d never really known how exactly to ask them, or even what, and he’d never thought about asking the common people at all. To unexpectedly find that they, too, knew the stories of his family, his ancestors, to see the casual anecdotes his father had once, in a rare sharing mood, recited for them over dinner and which Jiang Cheng had nearly forgotten, all written down neatly in a book, something that could be copied and duplicated and remembered into the future…

There were stories in there that even he hadn’t known. Ones his father hadn’t mentioned, or hadn’t had a chance to, stories that his distant cousins, the older ones, recognized with a start that suggested they’d forgotten them, too – even stories about his mother, ones that she’d long ago discarded as embarrassing. Stories that made her appear in his memory, vivid and beautiful and headstrong, simultaneously just as he’d known her and yet also somehow like learning about her for the first time.

There were stories about Jiang Yanli, too. Things Jiang Cheng had never known about her, how she went out among the common people to help them small things within her power, dealing with the little pests and pestilences that accompanied daily life but which would win no one any fame and which most cultivators disdained as a result – even her likes and dislikes, recorded from the mouths of the merchants that had always saved a portion of their wares for her.

Even stories about him –

…anyway, the rules were good. The Jiang sect’s motto might be attempt the impossible, but there was no harm in having some structure. All his new disciples still needed their foundation, after all. 

“Do you really think I’d be a good teacher?” Jiang Cheng asked, settling down beside the table. The Lan sect rules generally prohibited speaking during mealtimes, but they hadn’t started yet – Jin Ling still needed to be brought over by his wet nurse, since Lan Qiren insisted that all meals be taken together and Jiang Cheng, who would have Jin Ling in his sight at all times if he could, didn’t disagree. “I think most of my disciples are afraid of me.”

“If being cantankerous were a disqualifier, no one would ever come to me,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng had to suppress a snort – the other man’s sense of humor was another thing that had come as a surprise. Lan Qiren was in fact quite strict with his students; it was only now that Jiang Cheng had graduated to being one of his peers that Lan Qiren had allowed him to see the more personable aspects of his character. “Your disciples fear your temper, yes, but they respect and adore you. You will be an excellent teacher.”

“The Jiang sect sword style –”

“Not just that.”

“No?”

“Don’t look down on yourself. You have more to give to the world than just your blood and sweat.”

Jiang Cheng’s hand stole, without his permission, to rest on his stomach, on the stolen golden core that glowed inside of him, inescapable reminder of Wei Wuxian’s sacrifice of which he had been completely ignorant until – until it was very nearly too late. So very nearly. “I don’t know about that.”

It wasn’t a denial, though.

It was…hope, Jiang Cheng supposed. Hope that there might be something he could offer the world that wasn’t his bloodline or his endless years of effort, all of which seemed to turn to dust at once upon the revelation that it had been Wei Wuxian’s talent and sacrifice that had made it all possible. Being a teacher didn’t rely on or even require a golden core, especially if he taught the way Lan Qiren meant – not just swordsmanship, but cultivation, whether of one’s power or one’s mind.

It might be nice to have students, rather than soldiers.

“It’s settled, then,” Lan Qiren said. “We’ll plan out a curriculum for next year.”

As if it were that simple…though now that Jiang Cheng thought about it, why couldn’t it be? He was the sect leader here, with no elders to stand on his shoulders and force him to stop, and he had Lan Qiren, whose fame as a teacher was personal to him rather than generalized to his sect. If they let out that he would be teaching again, people from all over the cultivation world would send their children to learn, even if Jiang Cheng were teaching as well.

Maybe, after a while…

It wasn’t like Lan Qiren was going anywhere. He couldn’t.

Or, well, he could, technically. There was nothing wrong with Lan Qiren’s legs or his ability to fly a sword, he could walk out any time. But he wouldn’t – not when his presence in the Lotus Pier was one of the pillars that held together the cultivation world. Not when…

“Didi should stop thinking so much,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng winced the way he always did when Lan Qiren acknowledged the forced sworn brother relationship between them. “It’s not doing you any good.”

Jiang Cheng snorted. That was true enough. “This is when most people say I ought to get a wife.”

“What would be the point? If you wanted one, you’d have one.”

“The matchmakers –”

“Cannot do anything if the person asking them for help is also purposefully sabotaging their attempts. It’s really no surprise that they’ve banned you for wasting their time.”

Jiang Cheng grumbled a bit at that, but didn’t argue – mostly because the wetnurse had finally come, holding Jin Ling (who was, in fact, beaming at the toy clutched in his hand), and the fact that Lotus Pier didn’t have a rule against speaking at mealtimes meant absolutely nothing if the only two options were the silent Lan Qiren and the unintelligible Jin Ling.  

After, Jiang Cheng collected Jin Ling and went with Lan Qiren for a walk through some of the pavilions. They stayed silent for a long while, Lan Qiren picking paths at random – whether he liked after-meal walks for the purposes of digestion or if it was simply another Lan sect habit, Jiang Cheng didn’t know – but then they ended up in front of the empty courtyard that Jiang Cheng had once had built with Wei Wuxian in mind, naively dreaming about the day his right hand would stop with his nonsense and need a place of his own to live, not too far away, so that their children would one day be able to play with each other…

Jiang Cheng turned his face away, his mouth compressing into a hard line as he tried to control himself.

Lan Qiren slowed to a stop as well.

“He’s taken to including notes on the back of Wangji’s letters to me,” he finally said, looking out across the water to avoid eye contact – thoughtful of Jiang Cheng’s dignity, gracious as always. “Since you’re not accepting the ones he writes.”

Jiang Cheng laughed, though the sound of it hurt his throat. “I accept them. I just don’t read them, or reply…what’s the point? Everything that could be said has already been said.”

Lan Qiren frowned, clearly on the verge of disagreeing, but Jiang Cheng got ahead of him for once.

“Aren’t you angry?” The words burst out of his mouth. “Aren’t you – it’s his fault you’re here, instead of at home. At home, with your nephews, with your family…”

“I maintain an extensive correspondence with those members of my family I actually like, and for the first time in my life, I am able to ignore those I do not,” Lan Qiren said, and Jiang Cheng choked on the sheer incongruity of the statement. “I will not deny that it is strange to be here, or to think that I will be here for a long while yet. But my family can visit me, and I them, and things will not remain this way forever.”

“Forever, no. But – still –”

“I do not see it as a burden to be here with you.”

Jiang Cheng’s mouth dropped open. Lan Qiren had hit the heart of the matter like a dagger to the chest.

“I have always liked you,” Lan Qiren continued, straightforward and serious and patient, as if it was the first time he was saying those words instead of it being the thousandth repetition – though Jiang Cheng would hear it a thousand times more if he could. “You were a pleasure to teach, and you have not only attempted but achieved the impossible by resurrecting your sect after such devastation. You accomplished that, not Wei Wuxian, and not Wei Wuxian’s golden core; if strength in cultivation were all that were required to lead a Great Sect, we would not be so few in number. Even though the circumstances were not what any of us might have wished, I am pleased to call you my sworn brother.”

He paused – that was where he usually ended this particular recitation – but this time he seemed as though he had more to say. After a moment, he continued.

“I am only regretful that I am not the one you would have wished I be.”

Jiang Cheng had to turn away again, his eyes and nose hot with viciously suppressed tears that had sprung up out of nowhere. It was true, painfully true: it wasn’t supposed to be Lan Qiren that was living here in the Lotus Pier, it wasn’t Lan Qiren that was meant to be Jiang Cheng’s sworn brother.

It should have been Wei Wuxian.

But after Jin Zixuan died and Jiang Yanli died, it hadn’t been Jiang Cheng who had come to Wei Wuxian’s defense against the cultivation world. He’d led the forces that aimed at the Burial Mounds himself, insensate with grief and convinced that Wei Wuxian must have died or lost his soul long ago to have done such terrible things. He’d had some hazy thoughts of being the one to capture him, somehow knock some sense into him, but if he were being honest with himself he knew that it probably wouldn’t have worked out well for either of them if he and the Jin sect had been the first ones to reach the Burial Mounds.

Only – he hadn’t been.

It’d been Lan Wangji that got there first, Lan Wangji that knocked Wei Wuxian out and stole him away along with the rest of the Wen remnants, hiding them all away where the cultivation world wouldn’t ever think to find them. He’d been the one to declare that he and Wei Wuxian had sworn brotherhood with each other, and that that made Wei Wuxian a member of the Lan sect, all but marrying him in as if he were a woman.

(The way his father had, when it had been his bride who was accused…not that anyone outside the Lan sect, and very select others like Jiang Cheng, knew about that.)

Even that stratagem might not have worked, regardless of the Lan sect’s (reluctant) willingness to stand behind Lan Wangji – the cultivation world had pulled back in its confusion and out of respect for the Lan sect’s standing as a Great Sect, but it wouldn’t have lasted very long, not with how angry they were at Wei Wuxian. Only then Wei Wuxian had somehow used the extra few days that Lan Wangji had bought him to figure out that Wen Ning and Wen Qing were not actually dead the way the Jin sect had said he was, only hidden away, and that the supposed attack in Lanling had in fact been of the Jin sect’s own creation, that they’d intentionally incited Wen Ning in order to have a reason to steal Wei Wuxian’s creation and raid the Burial Mounds for his notes, seeking the source of his powers.

Decrying demonic cultivation with one side of their mouth, pursuing it eagerly with the other: the Jin sect had behaved like hypocrites of the first order, and worse, there were rumors that certain small sects that had recently disappeared had not in fact merely scattered or been absorbed into other sects, but turned into experiment fodder for the Jin sect’s vile experiments.

Jin Guangshan, caught with his pants down, had splutteringly tried to exculpate his sect, and when that didn’t work, he cast all the blame on the newly named Jin Guangyao, the bastard child. He’d even blamed him for inciting Jin Zixun to go lay an ambush at the Qiongqi Path, setting up the initial confrontation with Wei Wuxian, and then sending Jin Zixuan out without proper backing, hoping to use Wei Wuxian as a weapon to eliminate the heir that stood in front of him on his way to Jin sect leadership.

He’d offered to have him executed to appease the cultivation world’s anger.  

No one had entirely bought the idea of it all being Jin Guangyao’s fault, not really, but it wasn’t as though most of them were in any position to object, not with the Jin sect being one of the few that was still strong after the Sunshot Campaign. Jin Guangshan might have been able to get away with it, if it hadn’t been for Nie Mingjue stepping forward and claiming Jin Guangyao as a member of his sect through their sworn brotherhood, based on the very same precedent that Lan Wangji had just established. It had saved Jin Guangyao’s life and freed him to testify against his father, confirming all those deeply unfortunate rumors and even more…

Really, it was no surprise that Madame Jin didn’t want Jin Ling to be in Lanling City right now.

As for Lan Qiren, the situation had been quite simple. With the Jin sect in turmoil and the Nie sect temporarily disgraced for having willingly taken in a potential fratricide, and moreover Wei Wuxian, the founder of demonic cultivation, now firmly in the hands of the Lan sect, the entire order of the cultivation world had been turned on its head, with the Lan sect standing ascendant above them all.

Only the Jiang sect was out in the dark alone.

Lan Xichen was Nie Mingjue’s younger sworn brother as well, providing the Nie sect with security, and the Jin sect was in no position to demand anything for themselves; only Jiang Cheng and his sect were the losers, now lacking both Wei Wuxian and adding in the additional burden of Jin Ling, and it had been Jiang Cheng’s own foolish decisions that had led him to that point. In order to maintain balance, to keep the cultivation world from fearing another war like the last one, it seemed obvious to everyone that the Lan sect needed to turn over a hostage to the Jiang in order to maintain peace.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t liked that as the answer, but…it was his sect.

It was something he had to do.

He would always do what his sect needed him to do.

But the question arose of who the hostage could be. It had to be someone of the main line, someone important and valuable enough that the sect would be deeply invested in getting them back, and obviously it couldn’t be Lan Xichen, the sect leader. And yet it seemed cruel for it to be Lan Wangji, who had done so much for Wei Wuxian, who loved him so desperately and who, rumors said, was loved in return…

Even Jiang Cheng, who resented Lan Wangji to no end simply because of how soul-scaldlingly jealous he was of him, didn’t have the heart to split them up.

They had been trapped in a seemingly impassible dilemma, and it had been only solved when Lan Qiren had volunteered himself for the task, pointing out that his nephews would be committed to his well-being in just the way that was required; he’d then ignored their protests and swore brotherhood with Jiang Cheng, agreeing to go live in the Lotus Pier for as long as it took the cultivation world to grow steady and peaceful once more, which would probably only happen when Jin Ling reached adulthood and took on his father’s sect as his own. Sworn brotherhood was what it was called, but it was only a mockery of the more genuine connections that had come before – Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, who were lovers, and Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao, who were…something, anyway. In reality, though, out of all of them, Lan Qiren was the only one who really was nothing more than a hostage.

Lan Qiren had taken it more philosophically than Jiang Cheng had.

“It’s not that,” Jiang Cheng finally forced out through numb lips. “It’s not – I like having you here.”

The confession was true, but that sometimes felt like the worst of it, the worst betrayal he had yet done. Wei Wuxian had given Jiang Cheng everything, even his golden core, a revelation that only came after everything had all been agreed, Wen Qing furiously angry from her near-death experience and lashing out recklessly with the truth as her only weapon, no matter how much she regretted it later. Wei Wuxian had given it all to him, and here was Jiang Cheng, living happily, letting another person fill Wei Wuxian’s shoes, take his place, forcing the role on a person who didn’t even belong here, and being traitorously happy about it all.

After all, Wei Wuxian wouldn’t have known what to do with Jin Ling, not the way Lan Qiren did, experienced and confident. Wei Wuxian wouldn’t know all the things Jiang Cheng had never learned about sect leadership, wouldn’t be available as a teacher, as a guide, as a mentor. Wei Wuxian…

Wei Wuxian would never have said I do not see it as a burden to be here with you.

“I am glad,” Lan Qiren said simply.

He even meant it, too.

“I – I can’t –”

“Do not strain yourself. A journey takes a step at a time, you don’t need to rush ahead to the end.”

Jiang Cheng nodded, and looked down at Jin Ling, who’d since fallen asleep, sucking his thumb.

“A teacher,” he finally said, once he’d gotten enough control of himself. He let himself imagine it – not just the actual act of teaching, but the joys behind it: grading papers with Lan Qiren, discussing topics, exchanging anecdotes, rolling their eyes at their juvenile tricks. Even the thought of Jin Ling having more children to play with as he grew up, and a reason to come back every year even after he went back to Lanling… “I could get used to that idea.”

Maybe, one day, he could even bring himself to look at Wei Wuxian’s letters.

Maybe, one day, he could write back.

My family can visit me, and I them, and things will not remain this way forever – that was what Lan Qiren had said. If it was true for him, then why not, maybe, for Jiang Cheng as well?

One day.

Not yet –

But one day.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #lan qiren #my fic #my fics #last one of the fourth round of prompts!!! #I can finally close the document! #this one can be read as platonic or shippy as people prefer

[lewiscarrolatemybrain]

The Jin being asked to mediate some sect bullshit, and Jin Zixuan showing up only to escort Jin Guangyao, and when the sect leaders involved try to find a way to say they’d rather chew glass than listen to the son of a whore without like actually saying that out loud, Jin Zixuan just grins his best I’m a Jin and could buy your entire life if I wanted to grin and is like “Obviously my beloved brother’s reputation as an impeccable diplomat, conciliator and intermediary proceeds him. His time is also extremely precious -- a-Yao is responsible for a majority of the extremely important factors that go into running the Jin sect as a whole on top of his personal project with the watchtowers which, as I’m sure you know, has gone flawlessly and already saved hundreds of lives. He is here as a personal favor to me and to you, after all when I heard your problem I knew it would take a man far smarter and more capable than me to solve it, and only the very best would do.” And then he stands there just Dripping with smugness as these shitty awful sect leaders are forced to swallow their pride and bow in gratitude and take council from Jin Guangyao.

Jin Zixuan walking around a banquet with a breathtakingly beautiful maiden on his arm, draped in pearls and gold and silk, her face done up in striking and elegant makeup, and every time some guy comes up and tries to fish for information only to come to a screeching halt when they realize That’s A Whole Entire Man Zixuan and Xuanyu have to take a second to giggle before they can keep making the rounds. Zixuan buying his Xiao-di pretty jewelry and nice perfumes and expensive cosmetics, opening doors and pulling out chairs for him as if Xuanyu really were a maiden just because it makes Xuanyu happy. (and Zixuan has gotten it in his head that he needs to model proper behavior for when Xuanyu decides to look for a husband. Zixuan is setting the standard.) Any time somebody makes the mistake of mentioning the whole cross-dressing cut-sleeve thing Zixuan just bowls right over them with “Yes, isn’t he beautiful? A-yu is the Flower of Lanling! A peony among common wildflowers! As lovely as the spring! Of course my littlest brother is the pride and joy of the Jin sect, how kind of you to point it out, young master.”

I can’t think of a situation in which Qin Su would want to go public with the fact that their siblings and also she’s a refined and dignified young lady from a wealthy sect so I also can’t think of a situation where Jin Zixuan would show her off in a “say something, fucker, I dare you” kind of way but rest assured he’s Waiting for the opportunity. He’s Ready

#MDZS #The Untamed #Jin Zixuan #Jin Guangyao #Meng Yao #Mo Xuanyu #Qin Su #Jin Sibs #Jin Siblings #I think JZX should be super proud of his siblings #and I also think he should be a little shit about it sometimes

[fengshenjunlang]

The Wen Sibling and their family are NOT Prisoner of War.

They were called the Wen remnants, not the war prisoner even in Canon.

MDZS chapter 72 (from exiledrebel):

Wei Wuxian, "You definitely remember him. Last month, when you were night-hunting in the area of Ganquan, you chased an eight-winged bat king to the gathering place or the detention camp of the Wen Sect's remnants and brought a group of the Wen Sect's disciples The one in the lead was him. "

Here, they were not called the Prisoner of War. They were the remnants of the previous Wen Sect, and some of them still have the identity of Wen disciples.

The place they were gathered together may be called a detention camp, but it is not the prison where you must do labor for others. It is further explained here:

After the Sunshot Campaign, the QishanWen Sect was destroyed. The territory that it was expanding was shared among the other sects. The Ganquan area was appointed to the Lanling Jin Sect. As for the remnants of the Wen Sect, they were herded into a small corner of Qishan, not even a thousandth the territory it once owned. They were crammed into the place and struggled to live.

They were driven to live into a small corner of Qishan, and struggled to live , yes. But not being imprisoned and become the prisoner of war.

The proof for their identity is the next explanation:

Wei Wuxian, "Fine, I don't mind explaining it in greater detail. You couldn't catch the bat king and happened to run into a few of the Wen Sect's disciples who were there to investigate the same thing. And so, you threatened them to carry spirit-attraction flags to be your bait. They didn't dare do it. One person stepped out and tried to reason with you That's the Wen Ning I m talking about. After some delay, the bat king got away. You beat up the Wen cultivators, took them away by force, and the group disappeared. Do I need to say any more details? They still haven't returned yet Apart from you, don't know who in the world I could possibly ask.

They are originally not prisoners who were forced to do labor for the winning party.

They are originally still a disciple, a normal cultivators, who could still have the privilege to even nighthunting on their own..... Until they were forcibly captured by Jin Zixun!!

As for the real prisoner of War, they were put in Qiongqi Path from the very end of the war. Look at this passage:

Now that the Lanling Jin Sect had taken over the Qiongqi Path, of course it couldn't let the QishanWen Sects glorious past continue to exist. It was in the middle of reconstruction, meaning that all of the reliefs on both sides would be chiselled down and new ones would be carved. Naturally, in the end, it'd be given a new name that'd emphasize the Lanlinglin Sect's gallantry.

Such a large-scale undertaking would need many laborers for sure. And, as for these laborers, of course there were no better candidates than the Wen Sects prisoners of war, who had become homeless dogs after the Sunshot Campaign.

Wen Qing, Wen Ning and their family branch were not Prisoner of War. They are just the remaining people of the Wen Sect.

They are not homeless but lived in Ganquan, despite the small corner they have.

As for the reason why they didn't get classified as the Prisoner of War. Lan Xichen has said it on MDZS chapter 73:

Lan Xichen responded a moment later, "I have heard of Wen Qing's name a few times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign's crimes."

Here. Lan Xichen as one of the Leaders in the Sunshot Campaign has verified it.

Wen Qing is the leader of her own family branch, when she didn't participated in war crimes, naturally her followers wouldn't.

Not only did LXC verified it, Wen Qing herself has said it on MDZS chapter 60:

Wen Qing cut him off, "What the Wen Sect does doesn't represent what we do. We don't need to be responsible for the Wen Sect's wrongdoing. Wei Ying, there's no need to look at me like that. There's a beginning to all debts. I'm the office leader of Yiling but I was ordered to take the position. I'm a medic, an apothecary, I've never killed anyone, much less touched the blood of the Jiang Sect."

It was true. Nobody had heard of any lives lost by Wen Qing's hands. There were always many cases that people wanted her to take over. It was because Wen Qing was one of the Wen Sect's people whose way of doing thing was actually normal.

At times, she could even put in a few good words for people in front of Wen RuoHan.

Her reputation had always been good!

Here is the verification from both Wen Qing and the narration from MXTX herself.

And it's also to refute what Nie Mingjue said about Wen Qing never trying to speak against Wen RuoHan.

Yes, Wen Qing at times even put in a few good words for people. But obviously not when Wen RuoHan has already decided, determined, and already started long ago, to dominate the other sects.

But anyway, Wen siblings and their family are not Prisoner of War, originally!

#mdzs #mdzs novel #wen siblings #wen qing #wen ning #wen yuan #wei wuxian #mo dao zu shi #chapter analysis #grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[twinclownsoflotuspiers]

On Jiang Cheng and whether what he did was “redeemable” (why is this even an argument?)

DISCLAIMER: While I am cross-posting this from Twitter from when I wrote this in the wake of a discourse there a while back, small note that I DO NOT APPRECIATE MY META TO BE USED FOR FANWARS be it for speculations re “who is better between jc and wwx” OR “jc stan vs wwx stan”. Let’s just have fun conversations like mature people please.

Regarding whether Jiang Cheng is sensitive and an asshole sometimes, yes he is (and I love him for it) but is he only just that and not a compelling character of his own with layers? I’d argue there by saying as “questionable” as a lot of his decisions feel, he actually never went the wrong way or took wrong decisions despite everything. Controversial take? Hardly if you judge it according to the setting and the circumstances.

Was his part in the siege "problematic" and difficult to reconcile with? Yes. Is it difficult to love him for his grudge against the Wens? Maybe so. Did he hurt Wei Wuxian, whether willingly or impulsively? Also yes. Did he hate Wei Wuxian? It's more complex than hate but let's say he did. But did he also love and mourn Wei Wuxian in his own way? Absolutely. There have been several meta in the past on how Jiang Cheng’s hatred of Wei Wuxian is directly proportional to the amount of love he holds for the man so I shall not go into more detail on just how much Jiang Cheng actually loves Wei Wuxian. You guys should get it already.

Not taking into account the "morality" arguments of his actions because that's a discussion for another day, I'd say he had his reasons for what he did. Don’t know why people forget the fact that Yunmeng Jiang was the only sect to have its root clan completely annihilated AND their sect entirely plundered in the Wen attack. He LITERALLY BUILT THE ENTIRE SECT FROM SCRATCH and I'm not talking about the structure alone. I'm talking people, reputation, fighting power, making cultivators out of non cultivators, financial alternatives blah blah. A reminder that Jiang Cheng also mostly did it all alone. 

Jiang Yanli while a Jiang is ultimately a woman (always read a book according to the period it's set in). She will be married into the Jin household and will be called “Jin Furen”. Wei Wuxian during the bulk of that time was stuck in the Mounds & unable to assist in the rebuilding. Jiang Cheng had to rebuild both recruits, gather enough funds to rebuild the sect structure or merely only for enough food for all perhaps, teach them the Jiang martial arts because he is literally the last Jiang standing AND somehow convince the rest of the great sects to allow Yunmeng Jiang into the war. If we look at it from the war perspective, the Sunshot Alliance also had no reason to necessarily trust a recently destroyed sect so easily when Yunmeng Jiang literally had nothing to offer apart from one battered Jiang heir who was determined to fight, one Jiang daughter who wasn't a cultivator and a missing head disciple (more on war politics some other day because I personally love the Sunshot Era and want to discuss it in detail). 

And you'd think Yunmeng Jiang would miraculously suddenly become rich overnight right after the war? No. The Sunshot campaign continued for an approx. 3 years. That means much more resources and manpower used up. More deaths. Which also means the death of even some of the new Jiang recruits because Yunmeng Jiang was the weakest during that time, the only sect with an uneven motley of new recruits - possibly more non cultivators than cultivators because how many people even take up cultivation. Jiang Cheng would have to continue rebuilding and garnering support even after the war for the sake of his people. And Yunmeng Jiang wouldn't be credited majorly for the Campaign either - the main credit went to Gusu Lan, Qinghe Nie and Lanling Jin who ALSO formed an alliance along with the Venerated Triad (there is also geography factors in play here). Yunmeng Jiang was literally left alone and fighting to even exist.

We can have morality based arguments regarding Jiang Cheng’s participation in the Siege, but politically it was the best decision he could have taken because it was either that or waiting for a second annihilation of Yunmeng Jiang. Had he decided to stand by Wei Wuxian and Wei Wuxian chosen not to defect? They would've branded Yunmeng Jiang the next "Wens" and in want for power and crushed them. Jiang Cheng had to make a choice between saving one person and saving the people he looks over and he made his choice as a GOOD leader. And Wei Wuxian understood that, which is why HE also decided to defect on his own accord.

Jiang Cheng spoke, “Wei Wuxian, have you still not realized what the situation at hand is like? Do you really need me to say it out loud? If you insist on protecting them, then I won’t be able to protect you.”

Wei Wuxian, “There’s no need to protect me. Just let go.”

Jiang Cheng’s face twisted.

Wei Wuxian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei Wuxian does, it’d have nothing to do with the Yunmeng Jiang Sect.” [GDC Chapter 73: Recklessness. Cr. ExR]

There is also a bit in the lower paragraphs in the same chapter where Jiang Cheng demands if Wei Wuxian has a savior complex and Wei Wuxian doesn’t answer instead insists on cutting ties so whatever he does wouldn’t affect the Sect which is followed by an inner monologue where Wei Wuxian can’t even guarantee what he himself do. (Very cool foreshadow). TL;DR: Wei Wuxian defected by his own choice because he wanted to PROTECT THE SECT TOO.

Wei Wuxian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the Yunmeng Jiang Sect in the future.”

Or else, he really couldn’t make any guarantees on what he’d do in the future.

DESPITE it all, let me remind you, Jiang Cheng did in fact try to defend at least the Wen siblings.  He didn't have to because that could actually put Yunmeng Jiang into an awkward position yet he did. Jiang Cheng wasn't privy to the core exchange so he didn't know what they'd done and hence had no reason to be grateful to them. The most he knew was, the siblings helped shelter them and got back his parents’ bodies and he does show gratitude for it or at least tries to explain why they owe them a debt but he is cut off before he could even complete saying how and why they owe gratitude. Quoting once again:

“.....I apologize to all of the Sect Leaders. Everyone, I’m afraid you don’t know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei Wuxian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.”

Nie Mingjue, “You owe them gratitude? Isn’t the Qishan Wen Sect the ones who caused the Yunmeng Jiang Sect’s annihilation?” [GDC Chapter 73]

(Small addendum, but I personally believe Jiang Cheng doesn’t have to be grateful for the golden core sacrifice either but that’s a discussion I shall not touch here because MDZS fandom is not capable of nuance regarding this subject at all, and I’d just spark either Wei Wuxian hate or Jiang Cheng hate, neither of which is my goal and both of which I think is absolutely stupid. On to the rest with no more tangents.)

As for the "Jiang Cheng went around killing demonic cultivators", literally the only source is from an INN KEEPER. And MDZS at its core is a novel that talks about how the truth is so often distorted to fit the popular narrative. Did he go around killing demonic cultivators? Who the fuck knows, we headcanon as we like. But the fact remains that IT WAS NEVER CONFIRMED. I have also seen people use in argument the lines from the first Jiang Cheng appearance (I forgot the scene exactly) where there is a small POV shift and Jiang Cheng is thinking to himself “It’s alright, I have done things like this before.” which, okay, valid point and argument but it can also easily allude to atrocities done during the war. I personally find it interesting that Jiang Cheng has to personally soothe and convince himself before capturing a demonic cultivator like this at all. But anyway, my first argument still stands - it was never CONFIRMED. (I’d love to meta, albeit GOOD FAITH, on this subject just saying.)

Whether Jiang Cheng hunted demonic cultivators to find Wei Wuxian in order to "kill" him again, I don't think that's it. Or at least, I don’t think it’s so simple. Grief is multifaceted and different people deal with it differently. Lan Wangji indulged in self-destructive behavior (Branding himself with the Wen brand) in grief before gradually beginning to accept. Jiang Cheng did it in other destructive ways like being in denial of Wei Wuxian's death and masking his grief with hatred when in fact he was mourning too. The reason why he gives Chenqing in the end and the fact that Chenqing is sleek and new and obviously well cared for is symbolic to Jiang Cheng's underlying care and grief that continued to stay despite how much he tried to pretend he absolutely despises Wei Wuxian. And his "giving away" of Chenqing is symbolic to his final acceptance of things as they are. If Jiang Cheng truly hated Wei Wuxian, he would've done everything to expose his identity to the world and get him killed or killed him himself in that inn instead of questioning him about things and telling him to apologize to his parents. Quoting because I think this bit is actually pretty significant:

Jiang Cheng interrupted, “It’s just what? You can’t say it? Don’t worry, you can go back to Lotus Pier and say your excuses while kneeling in front of my parents’ graves.” [GDC Chapter 24. Cr. ExR]

THIS BITCH, FOR ALL HIS DRAMATIC INSISTENCE ON HATING WEI WUXIAN, TELLS THE VERY MAN HE CLAIMS HE HATES THAT HE WANTS EXPLANATIONS FOR WHATEVER HE DID IN THE PAST AND THAT WEI WUXIAN CAN “GO BACK TO LOTUS PIER AND KNEEL” AT THE ANCESTRAL HALL. If that isn’t just the Jiang Cheng way of saying “this is me giving you a chance. Just tell me why you did all that you did” then I don’t fucking know what else is. (He is so pathetic and has such an ironically huge heart I love him)

Jiang Cheng is bad at feelings. He’s bad at being honest with his feelings. I made another meta long back on how Jiang Cheng always addresses the hurt of people close to him but never his own hurt because he is second to even his own self but that’s for another day. It even actually took him until nearly the last chapter (102) to admit verbally he was hurt, so goddamn HURT that Wei Wuxian left him so the above quote IS in fact Jiang Cheng genuinely wanting explanations from Wei Wuxian. Quoting once again on the chapter 102 bit:

He choked, “....You said I’d be the sect leader and you’d be my subordinate, you said you’d help me your whole life, you said you’d never betray the Yunmeng Jiang Sect....you said so yourself.” [GDC Chapter 102. Cr. ExR]

A small tangent because I just think it’s interesting again but in the reveal scene in Jin Guangyao’s basement/secret room, Jiang Cheng was actually given an opportunity to directly expose Wei Wuxian yet again where he is directly addressed but he just teethered and debated with himself because “yes I already knew Wei Wuxian is back” and “I can’t agree with Jin Guangyao or else I will expose my idiot shixiong” AND “I can’t oppose him either because MY IDIOT SHIXIONG JUST PULLED OUT SUIBIAN IN FRONT OF EVERYONE”. See, that particular bit could have just easily stuck to “Jiang Cheng decided to stay silent and hence agree without agreeing outright” or any other vaguer wordings for that matter but the narrative makes it a point to show that he is in fact fucking conflicted because he still wants to protect Wei Wuxian. Quoting:

Jin Ling suddenly shouted, “Wait! Uncle, wait! D-didn’t my uncle hit him with Zidian back at Dafan Mountain? His soul didn’t get whipped out, so it must mean that he didn’t possess this body, right? And so he can’t be Wei Wuxian right?!”

Jiang Cheng’s face looked very dark. He didn’t speak as his hand pressed onto the hilt of his sword, as though he was thinking about what to do. [GDC Chapter 50. Cr. ExR]

This is turning out too long, pardon the tangents. But regarding Shuangjie’s bond, breaking and tale in its entirety, it's way more complex than deciding who is the true villain between them or who is more redeemable between them. Heck their temple talk ENDS at the fact that who should truly apologize when they both hurt & got hurt.

Suddenly, he said, “I’m sorry.”

Wei Wuxian hesitated, “....You don’t need to say sorry.”

At this point, it was impossible to figure out who should apologize to whom. [GDC Chapter 103. Cr. ExR]

To end on whether Jiang Cheng was right or is he “irredeemable” for all he did; Jiang Cheng is as much a victim as is Wei Wuxian. He was hurt as much as Wei Wuxian was. He has as much valid reasons for his actions as Wei Wuxian does. Whether or not Jiang Cheng is a good or bad guy depends on perspectives and your tastes. But I can say with confidence that he isn't irredeemable, nor is he unreasonable. And more importantly he is very deeply human in a very raw and poignant way. And humans are flawed and that's the beauty of them. Besides what is the concept of “redemption” anyway if not an extremely personal one?

Jiang Cheng was right to grieve. He was right to choose to save Yunmeng Jiang. He was right to be hurt and not pretend otherwise. Jiang Cheng is complicated and morally grey but ultimately very much relatable and understandable as a character but if only you choose to look at him without the bias that comes with the narrative perspective.

End meta/rant, OMFG THIS WAS TOO LONG.

#jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #canon jiang cheng #mdzs meta #mdzs

[jaimebluesq]

hiiiii. remember that post we discussed where jin guangyao mistakenly gets the idea nie huaisang is the same kind of libertine as his father and is trying so hard not to let his feelings about it show that he just keeps stressing himself out more? and then it turns out the brothel workers aren't sex partners, they're novel/art collaborators?

(i swear im not asking for a full fic. one little scene is *plenty*.)

Yes! I'm more than happy to oblige :D I hope you enjoy this, and happy birthday!

~ ~ ~

Meng Yao was seriously questioning all of his life choices.

It has seemed a good idea to come to Qinghe Nie after his efforts to join Lanling Jin had been thwarted. At first it had seemed the Nie were just as bad as every other cultivator, judging him for his mother’s profession, until Nie Mingjue had proven to be above such things. Meng Yao had happily taken advantage of the new opportunity presented to him to try and make himself invaluable to his sect leader, hoping that under Nie Mingjue, his hard work would speak for itself. And his life had been going well! Even when he’d been assigned to occasionally wrangle his sect leader’s little brother, what had first seemed to be a punishment became a boon because he soon discovered that very few people were trusted enough to allow close to the Nie brothers. Nie Huaisang had almost immediately adopted Meng Yao as another older brother, despite them being quite similar in age, and Meng Yao came to realize he actually enjoyed doting on him in return.

There had only been one problem: the sweet boy he’d taken a shining to was a Jin Guangshan in the making. At first it had been subtle, him noticing Nie Huaisang’s occasional lustful and lascivious glance toward women and men alike, though his looks were always well-disguised so as not to clue in the object of his affections. Then there had been the spring books – so many spring books – that always seemed to be open to the most lewd images whenever Meng Yao visited his young master’s bedroom. Finally, it had been the brothel visits. That had been the last straw for Meng Yao, the moment he’d truly begun shaking his head at his charge’s future and wondering what he had gotten himself into coming to Qinghe Nie. Had he adopted a ‘didi’ only to watch him become his father? One time, Nie Mingjue had asked him to accompany Nie Huaisang on one of his visits to the Scarlet Veil, but Meng Yao had found an excuse to remain in the Unclean Realm. After Meng Yao had refused two more such requests, Nie Mingjue had stopped asking, which suited him just fine.

Until today. Technically, his sect leader had not asked him to accompany Nie Huaisang to the brothel – because Nie Huaisang was already there, and was late coming home. The disciple that had left with him had returned an hour ago, drunk and reeking of alcohol with no memory of having been accompanied by anyone, let alone his young master. And thus Nie Mingjue had come to Meng Yao and asked him to retrieve his brother because there were few others he trusted to do so while keeping his brother’s reputation intact.

How could Meng Yao refuse?

And now he stood before the brothel’s doors, dreading what he would find when he entered.

He hadn’t been to a brothel since he had left Yunping. They reminded him far too much of his childhood, walking down corridors to hear moans of pleasure and the occasional scream of pain when a client abused the courtesan who had taken them to bed, worrying every day that his mother would meet such a client and she would be taken from him. Fear that he would be forced into the same line of work despite his mother’s efforts to keep him from it. He respected the courtesans who worked such places – their clients were the ones who deserved his derision.

And unfortunately, sweet little Nie Huaisang was one such client.

He took a steeling breath before entering the Scarlet Veil and speaking to one of the ladies, introducing himself as a representative of Nie Mingjue and asking to speak with Nie Huaisang. He expected to be told to wait while they retrieved him – instead, the woman gave him a knowing smirk and waved for him to follow her down the corridor. He kept the disgust from his face as he imagined the worst, of walking in on Nie Huaisang in bed with a courtesan – this was a side of his young charge he did not want to see in person, but if it was what he needed to do to retrieve him, then he would suffer through it.

They approached a door at the end of the corridor and the woman told him that Nie Huaisang was inside, then she turned and left. She didn’t even have the courtesy to stand by as moral support as he entered whatever den of depravity lie beyond this door. He sighed and knocked to advertise his presence.

After several moments, the door was slid open just enough for a head to peek through. “Yes?” the woman asked, looking Meng Yao from head to toe. She was still fully dressed in silky green robes, her hair coiffed to perfection and her makeup immaculate.

“I’m here to retrieve Nie-gongzi,” he said with a smile to mask his displeasure.

“And you would be?”

“This one is Meng Yao.”

“Just a moment.” The door was slid shut and he could hear voices murmuring on the other side, but soon enough it was slid open all the way and the woman gave him a small bow. “Please come in. Nie-gongzi is just on the other side of the screen.”

The door was shut behind him as he moved into the room. The screen was rosewood with paper panels, each painted to portray an erotic act between two or more participants. He closed his eyes a moment as if that could prevent him from seeing whatever was in the room beyond the screen, but he had to open them eventually. He sighed and walked around it-

He froze.

“I know I’m late,” Nie Huaisang called out from a low table on the floor. “But I’m so close to being finished, I didn’t think Da-ge would mind too much.”

Nie Huaisang was kneeling and holding a paint brush, fully dressed in the same clothing he’d worn upon leaving the Unclean Realm. There was a courtesan seated to his left wearing black robes with lavender piping, and she held in her hand an ink stick which she ground in a bowl to produce a silky dark grey ink. Before them stood another courtesan, bare save for a diaphanous sash that was strategically placed to cover certain parts of her body, and she held still as if she had been a dancer caught mid-movement.

This... wasn’t what he’d expected.

He approached Nie Huaisang’s table and looked down to find several pieces of paper, all of which had been painted to show the three courtesans present in various poses and states of undress. The detail was exquisite – he had appreciated Nie Huaisang’s artistic talents before, but nothing Meng Yao had seen compared to what he was currently working on.

“I found the story!” The courtesan who had admitted Meng Yao approached with a sheaf of papers in her hand. “We wrote this one a month ago, and I think it will work perfectly with this set of paintings.”

Nie Huaisang excitedly took the papers from her hand and looked them over, then grinned. “You’re right, this one’s perfect! Do you think we’ll be able to get it finished in time?”

The courtesan nodded and sat to his right. “We promised the publisher a new book before the season was out, and this should satisfy him until we finish some of our more intricate pieces.”

Publisher? Story? Meng Yao’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.

“Ah, where are my manners,” Nie Huaisang muttered, then looked up to Meng Yao. “A-Yao, these are Lady Zhou, Lady Yang, and Lady Wong. Ladies, this is Meng Yao – I’ve mentioned him before.”

The woman who had been grinding ink – Lady Yang – placed the ink stick onto the grinding bowl and wiped off her hands, then she stood up and bowed to him. “It is an honour, Meng Yao. Would you like to sit? We have some tea, if you like.”

Nie Huaisang tsked. “What did I tell you about there being no bows in this room.” He smiled at her affectionately and she giggled, then turned to fetch the tea.

Meng Yao slowly lowered himself to the table opposite Nie Huaisang. “May I ask, Nie-gongzi... what exactly is going on here?”

“What do you mean?” Nie Huaisang asked, pursing his lips as he lifted his brush to make another stroke upon his paper. “You’ve seen my spring books.”

“I’ve seen spring books in your room, yes...”

“Honestly, the first few I acquired were so badly drawn. Limbs out of proportion, bodies in unnatural positions... you would think the artist had never seen a naked woman before.”

“Neither had you, at the time,” Lazy Zhou teased with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, but at least I had the sense to see one before putting ink to paper to draw one.”

“So...” Meng Yao paused, feeling as if he needed to reevaluate his entire worldview. “You’ve been coming to the brothel to paint.”

Nie Huaisang nodded.

“He’s being modest,” Lady Wong said from above – she shifted from where she’d been standing and stretched out her limbs. “He paints and writes most of the stories-”

“The three of you help!” Nie Huaisang protested.

“-and it was his idea to publish our own spring books,” Lady Wong finished.

“Now who’s being modest?” Nie Huaisang returned. “We all know the three of you are the sexual experts here – none of the sex scenes would be remotely legible if it weren’t for your experience.”

Lady Yang returned with the tea set and distributed cups, then patted Nie Huaisang’s head. “We keep telling you we’re more than happy to help you get some experience as well.”

Nie Huaisang’s face turned bright red. He picked up a cup and drank to avoid replying.

“He’s a romantic,” Lady Zhou said in an aside to Meng Yao. “Says he’s waiting for that special someone.”

Meng Yao blinked and looked to his charge. He had greatly misjudged him, and he swallowed down a small ball of guilt in the back of his throat. “And do the profits get back to the Unclean Realm?”

“Only a little,” Nie Huaisang replied, looking thankful for the change in subject. “Some of it pays for my visits here – sadly a courtesan’s time isn’t free, even if there’s no ‘business’ involved. And the rest they split among themselves.”

“Another year,” Lady Wong said with a hopeful smile, “and we might be able to buy our way out of here. We’re saving up, and... I can embroider, Lady Zhou paints fans, and Lady Yang has met a young man that wishes to marry her, but he’s poor and cannot buy out her contract.”

“She won’t let me do it either,” Nie Huaisang pouted and looked to Lady Yang. “But you can’t stop me from buying the fabric for your wedding robes when the time comes.”

Meng Yao looked from one person to another, then settled on Nie Huaisang. “You do know what people think you do here.”

Nie Huaisang nodded, a rare serious look upon his face. “Honestly, I prefer it that way. You know how people look down on me for my painting and for liking poetry and hating training my saber... I can just imagine what they’d think if they knew I’ve been coming here all this time and was still a virgin.”

The three courtesans looked at Meng Yao, and he realized they were protective of Nie Huaisang. They were waiting to see how he would react, to see if he would look down on him for his interests and what he did here, and perhaps for helping them.

Meng Yao took in a deep breath and reached out to take Nie Huaisang’s hand in his, and he could feel the corners of his eyes beginning to grow wet. “I knew your brother was more open-minded than most of his station, and I’m sorry for doubting you were as well. I wish there had been someone like you in Yunping, to help my mother when she needed it most.”

Nie Huaisang’s hand squeezed his back. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I know you’ve never judged me for my interests, but... I guess I’m just used to keeping it to myself. It’s nice to have secrets, sometimes.”

They shared a look, and all was well.

“So,” Meng Yao said, releasing Nie Huaisang’s hand and picking up the ink stick to take over grinding the ink, “what can I do to help?”

(The End!)

#meng yao #nie huaisang #birthday gift

[fluesterscherben]

Headcanons/Thoughts about a Fem!WWX/ Yiling Matriarch AU

If Wei Ying is a woman, then so is Jiang Cheng. I don't make the rules.

That means someone else has to be the heir, so obviously Jiang Yanli is a man in this universe. The dynamic doesn't change much (shige is just as caring and just as good at making soup and parenting his menaces as shijie was, a'Ying is just as chaotic and a free spirit as a'Xian and a'Cheng is still angry and jealous and prickly) but it does a tiny bit, because a male Jiang Yanli has a lot more responsibility on his shoulders and a female Jiang Cheng as a bit less of it, because she isn't the heir (but she's still her mother's daughter, so...only a bit.) Jiang Yanli has eldest daughter syndrome in any universe.

Madam Yu is a tiny bit less hostile than in canon, because yeah, she still thinks that girl is her husband's bastard, but even if she was recognized Wei Ying couldn't be a threat to the position of Madam Yu's son. So she's still pissed, but a tiny bit less.

Jin Zixuan is a woman and has three younger sisters. Why? Because a male heir was needed and her parents had to keep trying. Unfortunatly Jin Guangshan seems incapeable of having legitimate sons. (Meng Yao is still male. And Qin Su is male too, for hilarity's sake. - all of Jin Guangshan's bastards are sons and two of them are older than his eldest legitimate daughter.) That makes Jin Zixun the heir to Lanling Jin.

Nie Mingjue is a woman. She runs the Nie Clan with an iron fist, officially as her brother's regent. A lady of war, brandishing a blade red like the blood it has spilled. (Her brother doesn't want to inherit. He wants to lounge around like a wet blanket and paint dainty things forever! Why couldn't he have been born a younger sister to an older brother, he laments to his friends. Embroidery and accounting and getting married off far away from where he has to do saber practice every day sounds like a dream actually! "Poor a'Sang! You would have been such a good little sister!", Wei Ying coos dramatically. "Suck it up, Huaisang.", Jiang Cheng grumbles, "And don't you dare cry into my robes, that's silk you fucking heathen.")

Lan Xichen is the heir to Gusu Lan. He loves his little sister dearly and would do just about everything to ensure her hapiness. Yes, even argue with the clan elders. Just a tiny bit. His aunt is completely done with his behaviour. (Not that she's any better.)

Acting Sect Leader of the Gusu Lan is Teacher Lan, the Sect Leader's younger sister. Yes, Fem!Lan Qiren. Sue me. It's mostly because the Lan seperate male and female students, and for me that means that there must also be a division between male and female teachers. So to teach Wei Ying and hate her on sight Lan Qiren has to be a woman. Sorry, not sorry.

Lan Zhan is the first daughter and second child of the Lan Clan main family line. Nothing really changes about her other than her adopting a'Yuan causing a much larger scandal (because unmarried woman suddenly has a child is much worse than unmarried man suddenly has a child, duh).

Nie Huaisang befriends the Lotus Pier girls when Wei Ying sneaks into the men's part of the Cloud Recesses one night out of curiosity and runs into him while he's being a tortured artist (read: drawing filthy porn outside by flickering candlelight because his roommates are asleep).

After the destruction of Lotus Pier Jin Guangshan offers the Jiang support - if Jiang Yanli marries into the Jin Clan, effectively making Yunmeng Jiang a part of the Jin sect. The marriage happens, but Jiang Cheng takes over as Leader of Lotus Pier to keep it independent. (Nie Huaisang volunteers to marry into her family and support her because he's turning twenty soon and he really doesn't want to be sect leader. His a'Jie vetoes it.)

Jin Guangshan marries one of his daughters to a male Qin Su, knowing full well that the boy might be his son. The newly named Jin Guangyao is in charge of wedding preparations. He is the one Madam Qin tells to stop the wedding. Obviously he doesn't.

Mo Xuanyu is still a man (very short from malnorishment and with a very feminine face, but still a man) . He apologizes for that fact quite a lot in his notes when he offers his body to the Yiling Matriarch.

The Junior Quartet consists of a Lan boy, a Lan girl who doesn't give a flying fuck about the fact that the rules say she should be on an all girls team, the heir to Lanling Jin and the heir to Baling Ouyang.

#mdzs #mdzs au #genderswap au #headcanons #a lot of unstructured thoughts #ideas #fem!wei wuxian #and a lot of other people also swap #but i'm far too lazy to tag them all #au #fem!jiang cheng is the embodyment of feminine rage #fem!lan quiren is that one old lady teacher everyone was terrified of in highschool #bratty rich girl fem!jin zixuan #at the beginning that is #male jiang yanli is still an angel #fem!nie mingjue is a girlboss #i just love these idiots a lot if you can't tell

[stiltonbasket]

Little shidi lives? Hmm? A tiny preteen child tagging along after the escape from Lotus Pier?

"I don't understand."

Jiang Cheng puts his head in his hands. "What is it that you don't understand? Lanling Jin is the most powerful sect in the jianghu right now, and Wei Wuxian-"

"I understand that," Liu Miaomiao scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't get what that has to do with us. Everyone outside the sect residence is still alive, and da-shixiong will kill anybody who tries to attack Lotus Pier. So what are you so afraid of?"

"Is that any way to speak to your zongzhu?" Jiang Cheng says wearily. "Miaomiao, who has been teaching you to act like this?"

"You. And shixiong. And Jiang-shifu when he was still alive," Miaomiao retorts, scowling harder than ever. "Why do you even care what that Jin-pangzi thinks about us?"

"A-Miao! Wei Wuxian might have been able to defend us, but we have no choice but to keep a good relationship with Lanling. A-Jie is getting married soon, and if I anger Jin Guangshan, she's going to suffer in her wedded home."

Miaomiao furrows his brows.

"So Wen-jiejie and da-shixiong have to suffer because Jiang-shijie wants to get married? Even though Wen-jie took care of us when we were running away?"

Jiang Cheng's jaw drops. Put that way, it does seem somewhat absurd.

"Miaomiao," he coaxes. "It won't last forever. Do you think your da-shixiong will stay away after we take him to see A-Jie in her wedding dress?"

"Yes," Miaomiao says bluntly. "There's a baby at the Burial Mounds, so why would Shixiong leave? if Jiang-shijie wants to live with a stinky father-in-law who tried to seduce er-shijie the minute her body started changing, that's her business."

And then, before Jiang Cheng can speak again, he turns around and flounces off towards the boys' dormitory.

Yu Zhenhong materializes on the threshold a little while later, carrying a plate of snacks and hot water for tea; and when he lays them down on the table, Jiang Cheng lifts his head and asks,

"Is it true?"

Zhenhong blinks at him. "Is what true?"

"That Jin Guangshan tried to seduce Li Shuai."

"I don't think one can say seduce when the maiden is a child of thirteen," Yu Zhenhong mutters. "Jiang-zongzhu was the one who stopped it. He tried to break the betrothal for the first time then, but Yu-furen would not hear of it. And even if it were not true, you are sending me to the Jinlintai as Jiang-shijie's bodyguard, so you must know what Jin Guangshan is well enough."

#fic preview #asks #liu miaomiao

[leatherbookmark]

You ever think about how Qin Su was probably the first young woman to pay A-Yao any kind of attention. Despite him being so pretty he probably never had any girls sighing over him like wwx, lwj, jzx, etc did because of his background. Like he must have been poleaxed 😭

GOD anon it's good that you mentioned all the other lads because it got me thinking about the list of most (insert word) gentlemen and how i always sort of thought it was about the most eligible bachelors, like, marriagebility and so on; later on i've noticed how fans talked about it and realized it was probably about just being handsome. but! the very like, concept of being desirable... i don't think jgy has ever felt it. if anything, someone might have considered him pretty enough to fuck, and he'd hate that -- but when you're considered lower than dirt, disgusting, most probably diseased, gotta be careful with touching the things he touches... (here i am having thoughts that i won't share with the class, but i am having them)

but back to your question -- god! yes!! after years of Living Like This, finally there's a girl -- a young lady from a respectable cultivating family, subsidiary sect to the lanling jin no less -- who not only likes him, not only wouldn't mind marrying, but also she's willing to pursue him and argue with her parents to get to marry him! and like -- it didn't require a genius to figure it out that jgy isn't exactly the new golden child of the golden scale tower, he's not influential and swimming in cash, so it's not like she fell for the prospect of being fancyrich!

i'm just. so fond of them. they should have had a happy ending and in my in-brain au They Did 😤

#answered asks #anonymous

[ssuminshan-official]

Payback~~

Zixuan: *fanning himself*

Yao: *relaxing while Su she groomed his tail*

Jintang: Huangdi.....ehem, two Huangdis. Your tea.

Zixuan: thank you very much.

Yao: thanks.

Yao: Shanshan, you're so amazing. You're doing a good job.

Su she: *bhlush* thank you, Yaoyao.

Xue yang: *chewing on some candy* Jiggybuns.

Yao: yangyang.

Zixuan: excuse me? You have your people calling you by nicknames? And not by Huangdi?

Xue yang: I can call Jiggy however I want!! Peacock!!

Yao: because they're my besties, Zish.

Other than my team dimple, I'm down to earth with everyone.

I think that your attendants should give you a nickname too.

Zixuan: ohh. How does Dearest Huangdi sound?

Yao: *laughs and nods*

Xue yang: Jiggybun what about you and that peacock...... I mean zIxUaN Huangdi's loser good-for-nothing, deadbeat, womanizer dad?

Mo xuanyu: Jin guangshan!

Yao and Zixuan: *bursting out in laughter*

Zixuan: he's renting Jinlintai from us.

Yao: we inherited it, so we thought of letting him rent it out from us.

Extra revenue for our empire.

Mo xuanyu: lol you did what?!!

Yao: remember your extra allowance? That was from guangshan's rent.

Zixuan: oh come on. He gave us childhood trauma. And mistreated our moms, plus other unknown women.

Mo xuanyu: you're so amazing! I'm so blessed to have brothers like you!

Xue yang: ahahaahahhaah. So guangshit is renting from you two!!! Oh gosh!

I wonder how he reacted.

Zixuan: he cursed.

Yao: then cried because he's going to lose money.

But his tears were only soiling up our rugs.

Zixuan: so sadly we had to get it replaced.

Yao: even his clothes belongs to us.

Mo xuanyu: what about madam Jin?

Yao: we did nothing to her.

Su she: and what about Jinling?

Zixuan: He's living with me. And now is Ru Lan Wang zi. He also stays with Jiang cheng. 

Xue yang: like you saved everyone from guangshan.

Zixuan: exactly.

Yao: isn't our gorgeous peacock emperor amazing?

Zixuan: isn't our splendid fox emperor amazing?

Xue yang: you two are divas.

*clapping* but heroes too!

Su she: where's stinky Zixun?

Zixuan: *laughs* he's my gardener.

Yao: what?! That's hilarious.

Zixuan: also he sweeps the steps of Jinlintai on weekends.

Mo xuanyu: oh my.

Yao: lovely.

Zixuan: he bullied my little bro.

I must do something about it right?

Yao: aww.

Yao: anyways, speaking of which. Aren't we supposed to collect money?

Zixuan: *sips tea* ask someone to do it, yaoyao.

Yao: let's visit him in person. *smile* and you know. Make ourselves comfortable.

Zixuan: ooo. Yaoyao. So devious.

Yao: thank you, Zish.

Xue yang: so is guangshit an emperor?

Zixuan: *spits out tea*

Jintang: *wipes mouth*

Yao: he doesn't have an imperial bone in his body, yangyang.

My A-niang was once a hulijing empress, but she was denounced as a prostitute.

Zixuan: and mine, a.k.a. Madam Jin was the peacock spirit empress, but she denounced it when she got married.

Sadly in Lanling, women weren't allowed to work or show strength.

However that has been changed, and now there are more female cultivators.

Poor Mianmian had to struggle though, but unfortunately left.

Xue yang: kind of strange how it happened twice. Lol.

Yao: Yea. Now he's just a clan leader. Well. Was.

Zixuan: when A-ling comes of age, he'll become the Jin sect leader, and I'll gift him a tiny empire of his own.

Mo xuanyu: so is there anything special?! These beings  love to find significance in everything.

Yao: oh yes. The imperial expression.

He's  golden + lineage + qualities.

Zixuan: and he's  dimples + qualities + lineage too.

Xue yang: not the dimples again. Lol.

Yao: *laughs*

Zixuan: I didn't like how he treated my siblings so I planned to protect them, as well as use my potential to build my own empire.

Yao: same!

Zixuan: right. And A-Su lives with me. She's A-li's bestie.

But she has her own mansion.

Yao: that's so good to hear.

Yao: ah, I think we should go now.

We're getting late.

Zixuan: right. Let's go.

Yao: Hou, please arrange a caravan.

Hou: yes Huangdi.

Yao: team dimple, you comin'?

Su she: of course!

Xue yang: I want to see how badass Jiggy is!!!!!

Mo xuanyu: definitely!

Yao: great. Make that two~~

Xue yang: Jiggy, Jiggy, Jiggy. We're not princesses. Not even divas like you two. We'll pull up on our swords!

Yao: hahaha. Fine.

Zixuan: when am I a diva?!

Xue yang: when aren't you a diva.

Zixuan: hmpf!

~~~~

Hulijings: *surrounding the place*

Peacocks: *biting cultivators who try to stop them*

Yao and Zixuan:  *sit on the Jin throne*

Zixuan: why are you shocked? Aren't you going to greet us? Ill mannered! *opens fan furiously*

Yao: should I use my golden strings to punish them?!

Zixuan: that may be the last resort!

Jin sect members: greetings.

Yao: where's guangshan.

*silence*

Yao: xue yang, darling. Can you drag him out?!

Xue yang: yea.

Guangshan:*runs in* landlords, landlords. I'm here!

Ugh bastard child we meet again.

Zixuan, hold on I got your money.

Yao: who are you calling bastard child.

Certainly not your landlord. Who give you a roof over your head.

Zixuan: you must pay both of us, remember. Have you forgotten?

Xue yang: his poor old brain. It slipped him!

Jgs: how dare you let your nasty hulijings run all over my place!!!

Yao: our place.

Ours as in mine and Zixuan's

Jgs: nothing belongs to you! Yao!!

Yao: *saunters, and rests his fan under jgss chin* Huangdi.

Jgs: *deliberately sneezes on Yao*

Yao: agh!!! Ew!! *walks away furiously*

Su she: *wipes him up.* relax, Huangdi, relax.

Zixuan: so much trouble to pay us? So bad.

Jgs: I'm fed up of paying you and that bastard! I can't even remember his name for a second!

Yao: *smiles ominously.*

*pins him on the floor with guqin strings*

Jgs: hey! Untie me!!!

Yao: *sits and opens fan*

Su she: *massaging his arm*

I'll help calm you.

He doesn't know your rage.

Xue yang: *unsheaths sword*

Zixuan: someone, get me some tea.

Jintang: sure Huangdi.

Yao: former sect leader. Do you like perfume?

Jgs: cut the small talk and get out!! I'll push you down the stairs again!

Mo xuanyu: the audacity.

Yao: answer the question.

Xue yang: *glaring mischievously while caressing his Jiangzai*

Jgs: yea. I do like perfume.

Yao: good.

My hulijings.

Hulijing bunch *in their fox form: *gathering up, and waiting anxiously for their leader's instruction*

Yao: fart in his face, and give him some perfume.

With pleasure, Huangdi.

Yao: lovely.

Jgs: what?!!

Yao: you said that you love perfume. So you got perfume.

Jgs: you little lowlife! I knew I shouldn't have let you into the Jin sect. But I just wanted to use you!! I have never accepted you!

Yao: *tightens strings* I realized that I didn't need to be accepted by you!

Jgs: bastard!

Yao: *strings starting to let out steam while his eyes turned a shiny gold* call me that again, and I'll cook you with my strings right in front of everyone!!

Jgs: that's what you are!

Yao: *stops heating up his guqin strings* you can't improve, can you?

I have only stopped because my beloved hulijings may get burnt.

Jgs: you only care about them?

Yao: yes. Have you ever cared about me? Or Xuanyu? Or A-Su

Mo xuanyu: ah, Yao gege. The love of my life.

Jgs: why should I care about outside children!

Zixuan: you better pay us double the amount of money.

Jgs: why?!!

Zixuan: you can't ask an emperor why.

Jgs: *cries* fineeeee. But what if I go bankrupt!

Zixuan: you won't. Because the sect is still running.

Jgs: I'm not thinking of  those pests! I'm thinking about me and my expenses.

Zixuan: how selfish.

Yao: then you'll become a tea leaf farmer. That's all. *smile*

Jgs: what power do you two have?!!

Zixuan: we can fire you.

Yao: we even own your clothes, lol.

Jgs: *crying* oh gosh! I'm done for!

I should have kept it in my pants.

Jgs: and who told me to go around with multiple women! But, but I love women so much......*sobs*

Zixuan: what do you like about them?

Jgs: their shape. And beauty. Nothing elseeeee.

They got to be a little dumb too.

Yao: disgusting!

Xue yang: I won't spare him for nothing.

Zixuan: I'm surprised once again.

Yao: *sighs* well. I'm going to my old room to take a bath. Minshan, come with me.

Su she: sure.

And yes, we have packed extra clothes, just incase you guys spend the night.

Yao: lovely.

Jgs: so you're just going to leave me tied  here?!!!

Yao: yea. Why not?

Yao: maybe. If you say, my marvelous Yao Huangdi, then maybe I'll untie you.

Jgs: never!!!

Yao: well stay tied, eat some floor.

Xue yang: and smell some farts!!!

~~~ Hours after.

Yao: *entering with Su she* I'm back.

Zixuan: finally, yaoyao. I was getting bored.

Yao: oh no.

Jgs: do you think that if you untie me, I'll give you two your rent money.

Zixuan: pardon him for not respecting you.

Yao: alright then. *releases strings*

Zixuan: *sighs* cultivators. They're so hard sometimes.

Jintang: *massaging Zixuan's arm*

Jgs: here you go. Half a million taels each.

Yao: thank you.

Zixuan: would you give any to A-Yu?

Yao: I think you should pay him too.

Jgs: no way.

Zixuan: don't let us throw you out.

Jgs: fine. Half a million for that child too.

Yao: excellent. Tata.

Zixuan: see you next month.

@verycatbluebird

#jin guangyao #jin zixuan #su she #meng yao #mdzs #dimpledlianfang #su minshan #mo dao zu shi #xue yang #mo xuanyu #the huli jing emperor

[dimpledlianfang]

The secret of Team Dimple. ~ part 1.

Within A-yao's harem, him and xichen had been dating for a long while, but he hasen't told his er ge a personal, and somewhat supernatural secret yet. Despite being able to converse about anything due to their closeness, Jin guangyao was still waiting for the right day and time. But what was this secret?!

What is this thing that he's hiding from him? And it's not only Yao, but his besties too.

Jin guangyao is a huli jing, fox spirit~ werefox~~ whatever you may refer it as. This makes his cultivation energy higher, his fighting skills more profound and his Instincts more sharp. Like supernaturally sharp. He can detect things from miles away~ due to scent.

In addition, huli jings can also poison or put people on trances, or make them lose their memory, but A-Yao doesn't use it, well not yet. He might do it on enemies.

And as for his intellectual capacity. His mind is working faster than ever!

Xichen: *meeting him in Lanling, Jinlintai* A-Yao.

Yao: er ge!

Xichen wraps his arms around him, and gives him a kiss. Then Yao quickly tippy toed, and gave Xichen a kiss on his nose.

Yao: Welcome to Jinlintai once again, er ge.

Xichen: thank you. How are you, A-Yao? *caressing his chin*

Yao: *smile* fine for now. But work is hectic as always.

Xichen: I see.

You're truly hardworking, A-Yao.

But don't forget to rest.

Yao: sure. Whatever my er ge says. *smiles and bows*

Xichen: *catches his bow*

Yao: *blush* let's sit and chat, next to the peonies? Or in my room?

Xichen: amongst the peonies is fine. Maybe I can pick some for you.

Yao: *blushing* er ge!

Both: *sitting near a hedge of yellow peonies that were fully bloomed.

Xichen: *adorning him with flowers* A-Yao, it's good that Wangji didn't come today, because this would be awkward.

Yao: does he know that we're dating?

Xichen: yea, but I get shy around you when he's here. Like I wouldn't know what to say.

Yao: aww. How surpising, that the great Zewu Jun is shy to speak to me when others are around.

Xichen: *blushing* it happens.

Yao: *kisses his blushing face*

Xichen: A-Yao, Wangji is busy, as Wei Gongzi's birthday is coming up.

Yao: ah yes. He's in the cloud recesses, with about five chickens and four ducks.

Ah, and emperor's smile.

Xichen: hey how did you know?

Yao: Instincts.

Xichen: do it again.

Yao: well Wei Gongzi is trying to wake up from a hangover, sect leader Jiang is quarreling again. And A-Ling has just gotten bruised on a night hunt with friends.

Oh poor A-ling.

Xichen: this ability is so cool. You're really gifted.

Yao: thank you.

*turning to a peripheral sect member* can you get the clan physician, please? I would appreciate it.

X: sure Zongzhu. Are you sick?

Yao: no. It's for A-Ling.

You know he must of injured himself.

X: you're very very generous, Zongzhu.

Xichen: A-Yao. What's this chew mark on your fan?

Yao: oh that?! Er ge, that's an old mark! A-Ling used to chew on my fans when he was little.

It's true that Jinling would chew on Yao's fan during his early childhood, but these chew marks belonged to Yao.

When he becomes a full fox, he likes to relax while chewing on a fan.

Yao: sometimes he would fall asleep on my lap, with my fan in his mouth.

Xichen: aww that's really adorable.

You're a great xiao shushu, showing love to your nephew.

Yao: yea, er ge.

On the other side, a Misty spell master was partaking in his leisure of messing with Nie huaisang. Su Minshan can teleport wherever he likes, and he would disappear within a split second.   He also has spiritual phantom abilities.

Not to mention that he can also play distorted music!

Su she: *tying Nie huaisang up with a cloth* 

Nie huaisang: are you satisfied?! Now get lost and stop haunting me!

Su she: shhh. I'm not done with my daily run yet.

Nie huaisang: why do you like to mess with me?

Su she: because you're the only one to mess with *grin* and you look nice tied up like this.

*picks up a couple of nhs's fans*

Nie huaisang: don't touch that! Put them down! You fake Lan!

Su she: are there any fans with softer material! That can be chewed on?

Nie huaisang: what?! Why do you need to chew on a fan!

Su she: it's a metaphor, idiot! I was talking about the quality.

Nie huaisang: just leave my fans alone!

Su she: *dissappears with the fan*

Got to go back to the teahouse.

* the teahouse is an abandoned mansion, owned by Yao, who purchased the land that it was built on. It serves as a team dimple secret hideout, where they can act like the gremlins they are.

Nie huaisang: heyy!

Aren't you going to untie me!!

Nie huaisang: Dage! I'm being haunted again.

Can anyone help mee.

This Su she had also ransacked my room.

But........

What teahouse is he talking about?

~~~

📍at the teahouse~~

*mo xuanyu and xue yang, play fighting*

Xue yang: *pushes mo xuanyu against a post.

Mo xuanyu: agh. *runs and puts him in a chokehold.

Xue yang: *smiling while showing off his fangs* I like this kinda thing. But I'm afraid that this young vampire prince is too weak.

Mo xunayu: *kicks him away* and you're too old!

Xue yang: how dare you!

Mo xuanyu: I guess the old vampire prince should do a facial.

Xue yang: I do, xuanyu! With blood.

You don't know anything about me!.

Xue yang: wait, did you just call me old?!

Mo xuanyu: yes. Because you're old.

Xue yang: *bites him on his shoulder*

Mo xuanyu: *bites him on his arm*

We're even!

Xue yang: that's unfair!

You're my chew toy. Not the other way around!

*starting to wrestle*

Xue yang: xuanyu your blood tastes weird, what did you eat?

Mo xuanyu: just some roasted pork.

Xue yang: ugh. That person wasn't a good cook btw.

Mo  xuanyu: I cooked it.

Xue yang: you aren't a good cook.

Mo xuanyu: *rolls eyes*

Su she: *enters* guys I'm back.

Oh gosh they're fighting again.

Lemme wet them real quick.

*wets*

Xue yang: *hiss*

Mo xuanyu: Su she!

Su she: I'm back.

Xue yang: so! Did you bring any candy?

Su she: no.

Xue yang: then go back and get some.

Su she: I just got here, xue yang.

Xue yang: so?

Xue yang: where's Jiggybun!

Su she: maybe talking to that Lan.

Xue yang: as always.

Su she: I don't like how he keeps taking up my Zongzhu's time.

Xue yang: oooo. Is the mighty Ghostface knight jealous of a Lan, for the second time. Omg! *laughing*

Su she: shut up xue yang.

Xue yang: when you're not jealous, then I'll shut up.

* Su she is still a sect leader, yet supernaturally he chose knighthood, to be in service to Jin guangyao.

Mo xuanyu: Yao gege arrive soon.

I also miss him.

Xue yang: I just want to take his candy. And get attention.

Su she: is there a time when you don't do that.

Yao: *sneaks up behind xue yang, and wrapped a guqin string around his neck*

Xue yang: where did you come from?!

Yao: *smile* bullying my ghosty knight? And ramping with A-yu?

Su she and mo xuanyu: *astonished*

Bixia! (your highness)

Yao gege!!

Xue yang: Jiggybun. How hot of you.

Yao: *pulls strings*

Xue yang: *grinning*

Xue yang: now tell me. How did foxy get in?

I didn't hear the front door open.

Yao: there was a little space between the floorboards and the wall. So I went through there.

You can praise my skill later. *laugh*

Su she: *clapping* so talented and flexible!!

Mo xuanyu: that's so cool.

He moved so stealthily.

Xue yang: *escapes his grip, turns around amd bites him on his neck*

(T/n. You can't turn a huli jing or any other supernatural being into a vampire by biting)

Yao: *let's out a little scream*

*makes his fox ears and tail appear*

Su she: looks like the huli jing emperor is going to seek revenge on you.

Mo xuanyu: or maybe Zewu Jun.

Yao: *bites him back on his neck*

Xue yang: aaggh!! now I know where xuanyu got it from.

Jiggybun, your canines are sharp!

Yao: those fangs of yours are also sharp, Chengmei. Also, I wanted to get the pleasure in biting you.

Xue yang: aww. I'm flattered.

Yao: anyways. Here's your candy.

Xue yang: ah, how generous of the fox emperor.

Mo xuanyu: Yao gege, have a seat. And I'll make you some tea.

Yao: that would be lovely. *smiles, then took a seat.

So what mischief did you guys do when I was gone?

Su she: I was haunting nie huaisang.

Bixia look, I brought a fan for you to chew on.

Yao: *grinning excitedly* oh Shanshan. How thoughtful.

Excellent, my Ghostface knight.

Xue yang: why don't you chew on an animal corpse of something?

Yao: no no, I rather fans and pendants instead.

Xue yang: pampered diva.

Su she: he's an emperor, what do you expect.

Xue yang: Jiggy. I strangled a chicken. And sucked it's blood.

Yao: lol you did what?!!

Xue yang: yea Jiggy. I just grabbed a hold of his neck and told him to shut up.

Su she: is xuanyu the chicken?

Xue yang: nooo. It's a real chicken. I broke into someone's chicken pen.

You should have seen when I smacked that chicken in the face!

(Since they're half vampire half cultivator, the sun doesn't bother them as much~ also they have a sunscreen talisman)

Yao: oh Chengmei! Your antics. *laugh*

Mo xuanyu: your tea *smiles*

Yao: so sweet. Thank you, A-Yu.

Mo xuanyu: I didn't go out much, because I was revising demonic cultivation.

Yao: oh nice.

Xue yang: what did you tell Lan lips, Jiggybun. Did you kiss him? Did you bite him?

Yao: *laughs* we were just hanging out, Chengmei.

Xue yang: did you tell him that you're a sexy huli jing yet?

Yao: no.

I'm waiting on the right time.

Xue yang: I can tell him for you. I'll march up to him and say, Lan lips, the Jiggy is not the Jiggy you see him as. He's a very hot and powerful huli jing. Who's also an emperor! Now clean his room, peasant!

Yao: oh please don't.

Su she: but you can call him a peasant. I don't mind.

Yao: er ge is a respected cultivator. Don't call him that lol.

Xue yang: keep taking up for your er ge.

Su she: he put Bixia under a trance, lol.

Xue yang: with those Lan lips.

Mo xuanyu: Lan lips cultivation.

Yao: what do you three have with er ge?

Xue yang: it's the simp club code.

Mo xuanyu: to stop fighting over Yao gege and share him.

Su she: so we decided to exclude the Lan.

Mo xuanyu: Jiang.

Xue yang: and the Nie. However meaty and buff he is!

Yao: *shakes his head* oh goodness. This harem of mine.

Xue yang: we're the original team dimple, Jiggybuns.

Yao: I hear you.

.

.

.

To be continued.

@verycatbluebird

#team dimple #villainous friends au #jin guangyao #dimpledlianfang #meng yao #mdzs #the untamed #mo dao su zhi #foxyao #lianfang zun #mdzs au #huli jing #fox spirit #jin foxyao #cql #fox emperor #fox king #xue yang #su she #mo xuanyu #vampire #ghost #misty spell #nie huaisang #xiyao #lan xichen

[hulijingemperor2]

Mo xuanyu: *giving A-Yao a shoulder massage*

Su she: A-Yao Huangdi. Some of my sect members had sighted a few Yao sect members moving about suspiciously. Especially within districts owned by you.

Yao: oh really? I wonder what they're up to. Keep a close eye on them.

Su she: yes. We're on it, Huangdi.

Xue yang: sect leader yao have sect members?!! I thought that the guy is the only member of his sect.

Mo xuanyu: haha. My same thought.

Su she: apparently he does.

Yao: if you see them again, capture them. I feel like they're up to no good.

Su she: sure. Because my members told me that they overheard them saying that they want to kill quote on quote, pesky fox spirits and invade the empire.

Yao: *raises brow*

Mo xuanyu: is this a challenge.

Xue yang: aren't they afraid of Jiggy. All fox spirits are protected by the empire.

Su she: no shame. And in one of A-Yao's districts too.

Mo xuanyu: Yao gege, I thought that you banned their sect leader from everydistrict within your empire.

They have some gull to step foot again.

Yao: yes I did ban him.

But I feel like sect leader Yao isn't behind this.

Feng: *stopping at the door* Huangdi, team dimple. Please, I need your audience.

Yao: tell me.

Feng: about 10 people from our defence team were brutally stabbed through the heart.

Yao: what?!!!

Feng: we brought them here, so that you can investigate on the case.

Yao: I'm on it.

We're suspecting the Yao Sect.

Yao and team dimple went outside to see a couple of dead hulijings on stretchers.

Yao: oh no.

Feng: they defended the empire till death.

Yao: and they'll be honoured for it of course.

Mo xuanyu: how dare that sect leader Yao.

Yao: surprisingly it isn't him.

It's someone from the Jin Sect.

The shape of the stab wound and their sword techniques are in fact a Jin technique.

Xue yang: how foolish of that person.

Mo xuanyu: is it guangshan?

Yao: does he even know about swordfighting. *rolls eyes*

Su she: he can't even control his man sword, I doubt he can control a normal one

Yao: haha, savage.

Xue yang: I know right.

Mo xuanyu: well it can't be Xuan gege because he has a strong alliance with Yao gege.

Su she: right.

Feng: Huangdi, what if it's Zixun.

Yao: hmm yes. That can be a possibility.

Mo xuanyu: Xuan gege's gardener?

Xue yang: I thought that he would have an army of garden gnomes.

Su she: what a pathetic man child. Challenging Huangdi like that.

Yao: he's already dead.

And Zixuan said that he disappeared suddenly.

Mo xuanyu: so this idiot is partnering with sect leader Yao. Or the other way around.

Yao: I don't care. They both will get a taste of my punishment.

Team D, let's go find Zixun's hideout.

Team Dimple: Sure!

Yao: generals, I want you to protect Jing Manor, A-Song and Jingjing from any attacks.

Let Song'er stay in my room to be safe.

Yes Huangdi!!

Su she: where would we find Zixun's hideout.

Mo xuanyu: would it be in Lanling?

Yao: without a doubt.

Because he's always sucking up to guangshan.

An hour after....

A Su sect member: *enters* Su Zongzhu!!!

Su she: what's up.

Zongzhu, one of our sect members have secretly tracked down Zixun's henchman. He was heading to an inn owned by Zixun in Lanling.

Su she: brilliant work!

Mo xuanyu: let's go!

Yao: you three will go in first then I'll come in after.

Su she: yea Huangdi.

Xue yang: I like your element of surprise, Jiggy.

Thereafter, they set off to Lanling in a lowkey manner.

Xue yang: Jiggy, if you slit Zixun's throat, that will be very hot of you.

Mo xuanyu: agreed.

Yao: *smile*

Su she: no time for flirting.

Xue yang: I know that you're thinking the same, Shanshan.

Mo xuanyu: to be honest, Yao gege looks gorgeous when he weilds Hensheng.

Yao: and don't forget my guqin strings guys.

Xue yang: how can we ever.

Mo xuanyu: we're guqin string fans.

Yao: yes, I'll use that to squeeze you two if you don't stop flirting in this serious situation.

Su she: told you so.

Xue yang: there are many censored things I want you to do to me, Jiggy.

Mo xuanyu: same. Y...You're a super model.

Su she: *blushing, but he wants to be obedient towards his A-Yao*

Yao: *laughing slighly* flattering, you two, flattering.

Su she: *blushes* I, I love you.

Yao: love you too.

Lanling, Zixun's hideout📍

Team dimple hid behind another building that seemed abandoned. However Zixun's Yao sect members had held large groups of fox spirits captive.

One of the yao sect allies, named Yao Zhang: *coming out from inside the hideout.* he said to start executing them!!

Understood!!!

Yao: *made an illusion of himself*

Zhang: that opponent is here!! *points sword*

Hostages: Huangdi!! Huangdi!!

Huangdi came to our rescue.

Zhang: shut up!

Huangdi!!!

Sect members: *wetting them with cold water to shut them up*

Yao: I'll kill the guy, then you three do your thing.

Team D: yea Jiggy.

Illusionary Yao: afraid to stab me?

Zhang: *swishes sword, but the illusion moved and reappeared.

Illusionary Yao: *clapping* well done. But don't miss next time.

Zhang: why aren't you dead?!!!

Illusionary Yao: duh, because you missed.

Zhang: *swishes*

Illusionary Yao: *kicks the sword out of his hands*

Zhang: how are you so fast and flexible!

Illusionary Yao: practiced!

Zhang: *tries to stab*

Illusionary Yao: *leaps and twirls in the air*

*cutting him up with his guqin strings several times.*

Zhang: get that hulijing bastard!!! Agh!

Clan members: *charging against him*

Illusionary Yao: *multiplies*

Clan members: *awestruck by the deep dimples of the Yaos.

Zhang: why are you just standing there!! Kill him.

But they're so many, boss.

Zhang: are...are you hallucinating? There's one bastard there.

Illusionary Yao: *disappears, then reappears.*

*stepping on Zhang's chest*

Zhang: D...don't hurt me....don't hurt me....Huangdi

Yao: *mashes him* keep quiet!

Zhang: *trembling*

Yao: you dare challenge me.

Xue yang: I wonder if I can borrow illusionary Jiggy. I want to challenge him.

Mo xuanyu: yea just imagine different illusionary Yao geges.

Su she: he's so talented and beautiful.

Yao: my illusionary selves are nothing but my essence.

Xue yang: you're right. You 10000 times hotter.

Yao: *raises brow, for team D to leap into action*

Su she: *engulfs the rest of Yao sect members in his mist, then slitting their throats*

Xue yang: *leaps and throws blinding powder in their eyes. Then severed their tongues*

Mo xuanyu: *frees the fox spirits with a talisman.* Run to safety ok!! Run far away from those maniacs.

Illusionary Yao: *looks down at him*.

Zhang: it...it. it was Zixun! That Jin Zixun. I'm just a part of his plan!

Illusionary Yao: ooo. You're his stooge.

*stabs* not impressed.

Yao (tm): *still staying hidden*

~~~

Zixun: what's going on out there?!

Team Dimple: *barging in*

Su she: you piece of sh*t!

Zixun: ah. Team dimple. *folds hands behind his back*

You were the ones who were causing the commotion.

I see you're wild just like your boss.

*locks door and takes a seat behind his desk*

Su she: don't you dare insult him!

Xue yang: oh don't stress, Shanshan, apparently this genius doesn't like his tongue.

Su she: or his life. Pathetic

Mo xuanyu: I thought you were Xuan gege's gardener.

Zixun: working for that wretched emperor?! I could care less! I have my own ambitions, and refuse to slave behind those two evil emperors.

Su she: xuanyu, tie him up before he flees.

Mo xuanyu: mn.

Zixun: I was always second to Zixuan! Then when that bastard son guangyao came along, I was third!! Guangyao didn't even get the appreciation, but he still became sect leader! That's not fair!!

Afterwards, Zixuan and Guangyao became emperors! And what do I get?!!

Xue yang: yea yea, we understand. Life is bad and Karma is a b*tch.

Su she: because of how you treat people! That was your biggest downfall.

You treat people like shit, so you land in shit..

Xue yang: good one.

Su she: oh don't give me a lecture, you mediocre cultivator! You're just like that fraud Lan sect leader Qiren!

And why I have to treat weak cultivators and poor people equally! That's not how the hierarchy works in the Jianghu!

Mo xuanyu: *slaps*

Zixun: I sucked up to Guangshan. Figuratively kissed his feet. But I got nothing! Nothing!

Zixuan got to be Huangdi and Yao became clan leader and Huangdi as well!

Xue yang: ew. Did you just say that you sucked guangshan's feet.

Su she: this dude has a feet fetish.

Mo xuanyu: heard the same.

Zixun: no!! Why don't you take me seriously!!

Mo xuanyu: are his toes salty?

Zixun: SHUT UP!!!!!

Su she: maybe tastes like shit. Or like Zixun's tongue because his mouth is filled with it.

Xue yang: or some type of wax.

Zixun: I told you too shut up!!

Mo xuanyu: unfortunately we don't take orders from anyone else.

Zixun: then where is your bastard emperor!! I don't see him! Is he afraid to see me!

Su she: he has no time to be afraid of a feet sucker like you.

Zixun: then why did he bring his little henchmen instead.

Mo xuanyu: he's busy being a successful Huangdi.

Zixun: that's BS. I knew that that Meng Yao was a fox spirit all along! How can a cunning fox spirit have an empire and I cannot.

Su she: maybe it was inherited.

Xue yang: but all you inherited was a candy wrapper.

Do you want one from me? You'll have two candy wrappers.

Mo xuanyu: what a fortune.

Now.

Team d: *death stare, while smirking slightly*

Su she: anything else you want to say?

Zixun: well. You can tell your Huangdi that I won't hesitate to overthrow him.

I'll take everything from him, and imprison his dear child.

Suddenly a qugin string came from behind, and choked him.

Yao: *smile*

Zixun: *coughing* Yao!

Yao: Zixun.

*pulls* why should they pass the message when I'm right here.

Zixun: *trembling* where did you come from?!!!

Team dimple: *grinning*

Yao: *ties the string around his neck, and sauntered in front of him*

since I'm here. You can tell me directly. *smile*

Zixun: *trembling* Yao you can't do anything to me!!

Yao: *sarcasm* oh. I can't?

*saunters*

Zixun: *trembling*

Yao: *glaring*

*unsheaths sword*

Zixun: *mumbling*

Xue yang: oh poor guy. Cat caught his tongue.

Su she: why are you quiet all of a sudden.

Mo xuanyu: insult him some more.

Yao: *wraps his sword around his waste again* this dude is no fun.

Mo xuanyu: *rests his hand on A-Yao's shoulder* Yao gege, I tied him up.

Yao: excellent. You're such a darling.

Xue yang: the guy says that he sucks guangshan's feet.

Yao: eww!!! *opens fan* but it's true.

Zixun, you shouldn't traumatize team dimple.

Su she: yea!

Mo xuanyu: that's Xichen and Huaisang's job!

Yao: here's some candy, Chengmei.

Xue yang: *grabs it and caresses A-Yao's face* thank you, my gorgeous boss.

Su she: Huangdi, he called me a mediocre cultivator and fraud.

Yao: oh my. Zixun *grabs him behind his head* that isn't nice.

Zixun: you're so passive aggressive! You always speak calmly but your words are still sharp.

Yao: well it took you some time to realise!

Zixun: I don't care! I'll kill all four of you!!

Yao: *slashes his arm* not if I do first.

Zixun: *coughs up blood*

You....sneaky....hulijing.....

Xue yang: why don't you stab him.

Yao: because I want to imprison the guy.

Let him suffer in jail.

Mo xuanyu; are you going yo tell Xuan gege?

Yao: of course! But after his and Yanli's function.

Zixun: what are they having?!

Yao: Minshan, tell him. *opens fan*

Su she: Li Huanghou is pregnant again, so they're having a ptrivate family function to congratulate them.

Zixun: I should go!

Mo xuanyu: does Xuan gege even want to see you.

Yao: sadly you'll be in prison. But I'll pull some strings ok.

Xue yang: guqin strings? Hehe.

Yao; exactly.

Feng and others: *entering*

Yao: he's right there. Capture him.

Feng: understood Huangdi.

Next up~~~ the baby shower/party

#the huli jing emperor #foxyao #dimpledlianfang #jin guangyao #jin zixuan #meng yao #part 2 #su she #the untamed #hulijing emperor 2

[drwcn]

岐山温氏 | Qishan Wen Sect 

温若寒     → Wen Ruohan 金光悦     → Jin Guangyue  赵温逐流 → Zhao Wen Zhuliu

※ cql pre-generation fancast/name. Series: [ Lanling Jin ] 

#cql #the untamed #fytheuntamed #qishan wen #wen zhuliu #wen ruohan #oc: jin guangyue #yes she is from lanling jin sect #hc she's either jgs's sister or close cousin #when i watched cql and saw the wens werent attacking the jins my first thought was this germany and england in wwi all over again #germany hesitated from initially attacking england and specifically london bc the royal families of these two countries were closely related #the fc for wrh is actor chen kun from the rise of the phoenixe #s #the fc actor for wzl is zhang yujian #from an oriental odyssey but you may also know him from nirvana in fire #the actress for madam wen is from bloody romance #actress jill hsu #cql visuals #pre cql au #pre cql fancast

[robininthelabyrinth]

The unlikely duo of Jin Zixun and Su She end up in the past somehow. They end up making a better world completely by accident while arguing with each other and trying to make things better for themselves while sabotaging each other's plans. Double bonus points if they end up in a romantic relationship by the end of everything! V Anon

ao3

“He’s my friend,” Su She growled.

“So you say,” Jin Zixun sniffed. “How am I supposed to know if you’re telling the truth? From what I remember, you barely interacted – surely you don’t think a few polite smiles and a hello or two in public is enough to mean that you’re actually friends?”

Su She’s eye twitched.

“As I already told you,” he said through gritted teeth. “You were already dead by the point that we became good friends. We were friends for twenty years after you died.”

“I have only your word for that,” Jin Zixun pointed out. Quite reasonably, to his mind. “You have no proof. He certainly doesn’t seem to know who you are.”

“That’s because we’ve traveled in time!” Su She shouted. “He is literally fourteen years old! We won’t meet for another ten years! Of course he doesn’t remember me!”

“Well, then, I still think I have the better claim, in that case,” Jin Zixun said, and crossed his arms when Su She glared at him in disbelief. “I’m his cousin, aren’t I? You were only friends with him when you were older, but I’m still his cousin, right this moment.”

Another eye twitch.

Su She probably had a nervous disorder, Jin Zixun decided. It was undoubtedly highly unhealthy and would have probably led to an early death of apoplexy if he hadn’t been murdered first – which, upon questioning, Su She admitted he had been, so – hah! So there!

Jin Zixun wasn’t actually sure what exactly he thought he was winning, but he felt victorious, and that was basically good enough for him. He didn’t exactly have many opportunities for it back at home, not with the way people liked to whisper about him and even the servants who seemed to fawn on him looking at him with strange eyes when they thought he wasn’t looking. And, yes, maybe he took a little too much advantage of it whenever he was in a position of power, but you really couldn’t blame him for that; anyone would do the same if it were them and they were him.

Either way, it wasn’t actually important.

What was important, now that they were back in the past, was getting Jin Guangyao – well, he’d be still called Meng Yao at this point – on his side as soon as possible. Jin Zixun might not have ever liked Jin Guangyao, except maybe in the abstract sense that people were so horrified by the other man’s parentage that they completely forgot about any questions there might be about his own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t recognize how smart the man was. He’d fought his way up from nothing to become acknowledged as a direct heir of Lanling Jin, however far back in the inheritance list; he’d made his way as a spy in the Nightless City until he managed to assassinate Wen Ruohan in the midst of his glory; he’d even somehow managed to trick Chifeng-zun and Zewu-jun into swearing sworn brotherhood with a nobody like him, giving him exceptionally strong backing that was effective even in Lanling City.

He even managed to get both Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun out of the way, based on the last few seconds of memory Jin Zixun had of his former life and what Su She had led slip in this one, and made his way to the very top of the heap, becoming Sect Leader Jin and even Chief Cultivator.

(And then he’d apparently managed to fuck it all right up, but that, Jin Zixun thought, was probably just his inheritance as a Jin – they were all exceptionally good at snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, even if they preferred to pretend that each and every instance of that was just a coincidence.)

Either way, a brain like that?

Jin Zixun wanted it on his side.

Which would be easier if it weren’t for fucking Su She, who was some absolute nobody who’d been picked up as a Lan sect disciple and who’d apparently developed the world’s largest probably one-sided crush on Jin Guangyao.

“You should leave,” he haughtily informed Su She.

“I’m going absolutely nowhere. You think I’m leaving him with an asshole like you?”

“I’m not going to do anything to him!”

“No? Really? You’re not planning on sweeping in and winning his gratitude with some half-assed gesture and then playing on that to use him as your little slave for the rest of his life?”

…huh.

Maybe this Su She guy was also smart.

After all, Jin Guangyao probably didn’t keep dumb lackeys hanging around, and twenty years (supposedly) was a pretty long time to keep someone. Plus, if Jin Guangyao had somehow managed to win Su She’s loyalty, it couldn’t have been hard. What had he done? Smiled at him a few times? Remembered his name? Something dumb like that?

A good lackey was hard to find.

Jin Zixun gave Su She a thoughtful look, which for some reason made Su She look rather alarmed and take a solid two steps back.

“No, don’t go,” he said, and yet for some reason Su She, who just moments ago had declared he wasn’t going anywhere, started looking around as if he wanted to find an escape route. “Wait a moment. Maybe we can work on this together –”

By this, Jin Zixun meant that he would give the orders and Su She would do all the work, and judging from the ugly expression on Su She’s face he knew it, too.

“I have a connection to him that you don’t,” Jin Zixun reminded him. “Plus money and other resources, which you also don’t have. You need me.”

“I don’t need shit from you!”

“No? You’d rather get it from the Lan sect, then?”

Su She grimaced.

Score one point for him, Jin Zixun thought smugly. He might not be good at most things, but he was damn good at figuring out people’s weak spots.

He crossed his arms again and waited, confident in his success.

“Fine,” Su She finally spat after visually struggling with himself for a while. “We can work together for now.”

“Good,” Jin Zixun said. “Now, for our next move –”

“Who said you got to decide that?! I’m the one who knows him!”

“I’m in charge!”

“You are not!”

“Yes I am –”

“Who are you people?!” a miniature version of Jin Guangyao, only with no Jin sect golds and vermilion mark, suddenly shouted out the window, glaring down at them. “And don’t you know it’s the middle of the night?! Even the brothels have closed up already! Get out of here before I get someone to kick you both out!”

#mdzs #su she #jin zixun #my fic #my fics

[shanastoryteller]

Wen Qing says yes because all she can think of is the consequences if she doesn’t.

She probably should have spent some time considering what, exactly, the consequences of saying yes would be.

~

Wei Wuxian wants to go back to the banquet and shake Jin Zixun until the information they need falls out, but Wen Qing knows that’s a terrible idea, knows that he shouldn’t be helping her at all but he definitely shouldn’t stand in front of the whole cultivation world and threaten the Jin family for her. He asks one of the servants instead, something she wouldn’t have thought to do, but he insists that servants know everything and after a hefty bribe he’s telling them what they need to know and even turns a blind eye when they take a horse that’s been left unattended.

She’s skinny on a good day and she hasn’t seen a good day in a long time. Wei Wuxian didn’t used to be this thin, this breakable, but he is now, and she tells herself it’s a good thing because the one horse is easily able to carry both of them. He sits behind her even though he takes the reigns and she leans back into him because she’s been holding herself up for so long and she’s tired and he’s helping her, something no one has been willing to in – ever, really. She thinks she could almost count his ribs against her back and thinks if she’s alive tomorrow she’ll give him a lecture about eating properly without a golden core to nourish him.

They arrive just as a guard is raising a broken flag pole above his head to skewer A-Ning.

Wei Wuxian stops him, using a talisman to bind the man’s wrist to his own and jerking him away from her brother. Who is alive, and whole, and does not have a pole through his stomach. She’s crying when she holds him and Wei Wuxian stands between them and everyone else and looks at the guards and her people and says, “I have an idea. It’s a bad idea.”

“Your ideas usually are,” she says, but she’s still shaking at having her little brother back in her arms so it doesn’t come out as acerbic as she intended.

~

It is a terrible idea. She doesn’t have to agree to it.

She does.

They go to the nearest temple in Lanling because they need witnesses for this. The monks are confused and frightened but bear witness as she bows three times to Wei Wuxian and is bowed to three times in return.

She is exhausted and scared and is still unconvinced that she’ll live to see the sunrise, but Wei Wuxian had helped her when she hadn’t asked and saved her brother and wouldn’t let the guards stop them from leading her family from the work camp, so she marries him.

~

They go back to Koi Tower. It’s terrifying but Jiang disciples meet them and look askance at all the rest of them but don’t hesitate to obey Wei Wuxian. They surround them as they walk and if they have opinions about being told to guard traitorous Wen, they don’t voice them. Maybe the fact that they’re guarding Wei Wuxian too is enough.

They enter the banquet hall and everything is silent. She doesn’t know how to read the look on everyone’s faces and she doesn’t try. Instead she stands by Wei Wuxian’s side and does what she does best – she doesn’t flinch.

“Wei Wuxian!” Jin Guangshan shouts, appalled. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Sect Leader Jin,” he says, offhand, casual, as if having his hall filled with Wen is a perfectly ordinary occurrence. “You’re so good at throwing parties. I was hoping you would throw one for me.”

Jin Guangshan’s eyes narrow. “Why would we throw a party?”

“Well, it is my wedding day,” he says, and holds out his hand. Wen Qing places her hand in his, lets his other hand settle warm and proprietary at the small of her back. “My wife, Wen Qing. We were just married at the temple in Lanling. Feel free to question the monks if you don’t believe me.”

The silence breaks, everyone shouting now, and A-Yuan’s cry cuts through all of them.

She hadn’t known that Wei Wuxian had any experience with children, but he turns automatically, opening his arms, and Granny barely hesitates before placing A-Yuan into them. After all, if they can’t trust Wei Wuxian, they’re all dead anyway.

A-Yuan, astonishingly, quiets instantly as Wei Wuxian bounces him in his arms, settling his head on his shoulder and sticking his thumb in his mouth.

“You,” Wen Qing turns, sees Jiang Cheng looking between them, and she could probably read the look on his face but she doesn’t want to. “He’s your – you have a – was it when we, after Lotus Pier?”

She and Wei Wuxian glance at each other, and maybe this marriage will work out, because that one glance contains a whole conversation of things they can’t say. The timeline almost works. A-Yuan likely was conceived sometime around the fall of Lotus Pier. If there is a child, Wei Wuxian’s actions become more understandable, seem less like an act of war and something closer to what they really are, an act of love.

She could have, she supposes, laid with Wei Wuxian and gotten pregnant and bore a child in the years since they’ve seen each other. She didn’t, but the only ones who know that are either dead or just as desperate as she is for this to work.

Or. Well.

Jiang Yanli’s face is easier to look at, even as it does something complicated then smooths. She was there and awake while they all recovered with her and Wen Ning. She knows that she and Wei Wuxian didn’t have any sort of epic romance, or even a quick tryst, during that time. Wei Wuxian was so obsessively focused on helping his brother that the idea he’d have paused long enough for sex when he hadn’t for sleep or food is ridiculous. But Jiang Yanli meets her gaze then pointedly lowers her eyes and something like relief trickles down Wen Qing’s spine.

Wei Wuxian looks around the hall and if he hesitates over Lan Wangji, that’s a conversation for them to have later, if there is a later.

“Sect Leader Jiang,” Wei Wuxian says quietly, formally, and Jiang Cheng nearly flinches before catching himself. “Meet my son. Wei Yuan.” He lets that echo through the hall and then says, “I could not leave him, nor the woman who bore him, nor the family that raised him when I remained in ignorance.”

She lowers his gaze as if in shame, for having a child out of marriage, for keeping that child from his father, but mostly she can’t stand to see the look at Jiang Cheng’s face any longer.

~

There is intense debate among the clans. The Lan and surprisingly even the Nie vote against the Jin and agree for the Wen to be released to the custody of the Jiang rather than the Jin. What’s the difference between one great clan and the other, after all, and Jiang Cheng fights for this, fights for them, and Wen Qing knows he’s really fighting for Wei Wuxian. Their marriage makes things too complicated, like they’d hoped. A-Yuan makes things too complicated, and everyone in the hall mostly seems to want to go back to drinking. There is some poorly hidden sentiment that if Wei Wuxian wants a war bride he should be entitled to her, for his contribution to the war, perhaps, and Wen Qing hates these people. They do not call her and her family tribute but they imply it easily enough.

If the price of the lives of her family is her pride, that’s fine. She abandoned that a long time ago.

~

“You have been good for him,” Jiang Yanli tells her a month after they’ve moved into Lotus Pier, a month of being the wife to Wei Wuxian and the mother to the now Wei Yuan. She doesn’t do a particularly good job at either of these roles, she thinks, but Wei Wuxian makes a good husband and a good father and it was his idea but she can’t help but feel guilty, can’t help but think she stole for herself and her family what was meant for someone else.

Her sister in law’s words aren’t wrong, however. She doesn’t let Wei Wuxian drink so much anymore and forces him to eat. She’s there in his bed when he gasps awke from nightmares and when he can do nothing more but clutch his chest and weep. She gets the story of the Burial Mounds from him, eventually, and she doesn’t know how to heal that kind of trauma, but she holds him when he cries and thinks even if she can’t be a proper wife, she can do this, and she heals the damage demonic cultivation does to his meridians, and it seems like such little things, comparatively, but it helps.

She’s offers up the excuse that demonic cultivation makes using his sword difficult and people stop asking him to carry it. A-Ning sticks to Wei Wuxian’s side when she can’t, looking faintly sad whenever Wei Wuxian makes an unhealthy choice, which is even more effective than her scolding, although not as effective as getting A-Yuan to place his chubby hand on Wei Wuxian’s cheek and go, “Baba no.”

Without so many nightmares, with having people around he can talk to freely, with no one pestering him about his sword, Wei Wuxian shoulders all the responsibilities of first disciple and brother of the clan leader, something he apparently hadn’t been able to do before.

She knows what the rumors say. Those that had been against her and her family being set free, relatively speaking, are now patting themselves on the back. Clearly the fearsome Yiling Patriarch has been cowed by marriage. His bastard son, who he loved enough at first sight to legitimize, has softened his sharp edges.

Wen Qing knows that’s all bullshit and Jiang Yanli does too, but.

He is better.

Jiang Cheng can’t seem to decide between being relieved and grateful at having his brother back and resentful that it took Wen Qing to bring it about and – whatever his feelings about her are, and her marriage to his brother are, which she doesn’t know because she refuses to acknowledge them.  

“I’m glad,” she says quietly.

Her sister in law squeezes her hand, and Wen Qing squeezes back, and if this isn’t exactly the life she wanted, well. It’s a life. That’s more than she thought she’d have.

She has a loving husband and an adorable son and living, healthy family. There is nothing for her to complain about.

Just because it all feels stolen, just because it all feels like something she never should have been given, doesn’t make it less good, doesn’t make it less hers.

~

Wen Qing knows that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in love with each other because she has two functioning eyes. She’s known that since she was a teenager in Cloud Recesses.

She had not wanted to come between them. She hadn’t planned on it. This all hadn’t even been her idea.

She’s guilty enough about it that she ignores her own feelings.

At first, she doesn’t have any, not really. Then it hadn’t been right.

She’s never felt greedy before. She doesn’t like it but she doesn’t know how to stop it.

~

They’ve been married for over a year the first time Wei Wuxian kisses her.

They’ve been married nearly two years the first time Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji.

Something settles in her then, relief burrowing into her bones. Lan Wangji comes to her after, a combination of desirously happy and mortified, and bows to her and looks her in the eye when he tells her that he’s in love with her husband.

“I know,” she says kindly, “he’s easy to love.” She pauses, then says, “I do not mind. If it’s you.”

His lips part, and she holds the place that should be his, married to Wei Wuxian, but.

She can share, if he can. Even if it can’t be official, on paper, she and Wen Ning can bear witness to him and Wei Wuxian bowing to each other and maybe she’ll finally be able to breath when she can give back some of what she stole.

~

There are rumors about the three of them.

They don’t listen to them.

A-Yuan calls Lan Wangji his father and no one corrects him and that’s good enough for her, really.

It’s a good life, and it’s hers, and she’s glad of it.  

#fandom ficcery #untamed #what the fuck is this #i cannot emphasize enough #how much i didn't intend to write this #meant to write like four sentences just to get the idea out #and instead there's this #i just think wwx an wq would be a good married couple #i guess #i comprise the entirety of the wwx/wq community #i just think they're neat

[sepia-mahogany]

Prompt: hearing about xuanwus defeat, madam jin and jin zixuan come to lotus pier and overhear madam yu saying wei wuxian should have let the 'sect heirs die', lwj who's recovering also overhears, the 3 get first hand experience of jiang household situation and decide fk this and take wwx out of there, its a prompt from vrishchikawrites blog (a wonderful write!) So maybe ask permission?

From the prompt on @vrishchikawrites

Jin Zixuan could not forget the young man, the head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang, who, despite his previous (petty) grievances with, had stepped up when everyone else had been frozen on the spot, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not get his blood stained image out of his mind. Which had led to this discussion.

“What? No! I forbid it.” his father responded when he asked for sending reinforcements to Jiang Sect, while he understood with Cloud Recesses burnt down, and Nie under attack, either Yunmeng Jiang or Lanling Jin were next on the table, and despite having well equipped men, with the best of weapons, his father refused to extend help. 

Refused to stand against those who sought to harm his son, ‘in situations like these, know when to step back’ he had said, and Jin Zixuan could feel shame creeping up under his skin, outnumbered and clearly at losing stakes, he hadn’t hesitated to save him, and what would that make him if he forgot the debt so clearly owed? To live the lavish life of a coward..! He could see his mother fuming from where she stood, and closed his eyes to suppress his bitter thoughts, he wanted to do something, anything to help.

And suddenly, anger melted from her face and that smile crept up her face and he felt a chill down his spine, a sense of foreboding overcame him, he could see his father tense as well. “Of course, the Jin Sect sides with them.” she spoke, venom dripping off her every word. “Nothing wrong if the Sect Leader’s wife wants the marriage renewed?” a pit formed in his stomach, he did not want to marry a woman he barely knew, but using this opportunity, they could, in a sense create a bond, stronger than of just two sworn sisters.

However, “Madam Jin meets up with her sworn sister, Madam of Jiang Sect, just as Qishan Wen begins its attacks?” the war has been declared, how would it seem if the two sect Madams, and the Sect heirs are meeting, with or without the Sect Leader? “The risks are completely unneeded, what do we gain from this?” his mother glared at his father, who pointedly ignored her, Jin Zixuan exhaled, thinking things over.

As much as he disliked the engagement, he knew she would not bring it up, unless the situation, as dire as it was, needed it, this bond could provide future aid to one another should the need arise, so Jin Zixuan kept his disagreements to himself, because he knew she wouldn’t force him, not with the concerns of a  cold loveless marriage like his parents, he knew she was using it as a cover to aid her sworn sister.

An opportunity, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then remembered how the Second Jade, Lan Wangji had stood shoulder to shoulder with him,  and Wei Wuxian, Head Disciple, had stepped up to save them. 

Jin Zixuan exhaled, and made a decision, muttering out a half-hearted excuse, he left them on their own, and later into the night, he approached his mother.

--------

The boat landed steadily, unnoticed in the middle of the night, his mother had won the final say in the matter, of course with the reluctant agreement of remaining disguised as just another trade ship, the serene view would have been calming, had his nerves not have been high strung from adrenaline, small sacrifices, he could of course find a way to break off the engagement in a future of more peaceful times.

Jin Zixuan climbed out the boat first, followed calmly by his mother, the disguises were near perfect, for the disciples around the brightly lit place to look curious, but not alarmed. One, he recognised seeing a few times at Cloud Recesses, came near them with a nervous smile. “We offer you our sincerest apologies but...we’d appreciate it if travellers could avoid an audience with the Sect Leader?” 

The disguises were perfect then, for they had been mistaken as travellers that would go to and fro from Yunmeng Jiang Sect, his mother sniffed and looked at the disciple sternly “We are not here for the Sect Leader, but the Violet Spider, we have an important message for them.” Jin Zixuan had noticed before but now it had become more apparent as the disciples shifted around, something was off, it dampened his enthusiasm and the rush he had felt earlier, instead concern filled him, had something happened to Wei Wuxian?

His mother held out a token, the disciple’s eyes widened and he bowed in respect, “I assume this would be enough?” Madam Jin said curtly, and the disciple nodded, though tensely. “This one will escort you to the guest chambers” 

The curious gazes had not been moved, as they moved inside, step by step, down the corridor they went, as the muffled voices became more distinguishable, all 3 of them froze when they heard, unmistakably the Jiang Sect Heir’s voice. “-You shouldn’t have played the hero and you shouldn’t have cared for such a hell of a thing. If in the beginning you hadn’t….” 

Jin Zixuan felt a cold pit forming in his stomach, surely he must be mistaken, but seeing the expression twisting  on his mothers face, he could assume he was not, in fact, misunderstanding what Jiang Wanyin was implying. 

The disciple bowed quickly, slightly panicked “If you’d follow me-” Madam Jin pointed at him and he immediately shut up, head bowed, just as the Jiang Sect Leader reprimanded “Jiang Cheng.” Silence followed. “Do you know in which ways what you just have said is not appropriate?” was followed by a glum “Yes.”

Even if slightly, Jin Zixuan relaxed, his mother’s expression lightening into a frown, ‘at least someone is self-aware’ Madam Jin thought. “He’s just angry and speaking without care” another voice added, Jin Zixuan perked up, Wei Wuxian! So he was alright, he felt relieved. Madam Jin continued to frown, Wei Wuxian was clearly trying to lessen the pressure off of the Jiang heir. 

Another harsh voice cut through them all “Yes, he doesn’t understand but what does it matter, as long as Wei Ying understands!?” rang out her voice, Madam Jin’s lips pursed into a line, of what her son had just said, that was what she was focusing on?

 “‘To attempt at the impossible’ is exactly how he is, isn’t it? Fooling around even though he knew it’d bring trouble to his sect!?” Jin Zixuan sneaked a look at his mother to see her eyes cold, her fist clenched tightly, he was aware they shouldn’t be hearing this, but this? It wasn’t what they expected at all, he was frozen in place, what in the world was he hearing?

Madam Jin’s thoughts matched her appearance, for once she felt less than charitable towards Yu Ziyuan, and more and more like a fool, here she was, risking her and her son’s safety, her sects safety, for a woman who couldn't care less about her son’s life, but was also wilfully blinding herself to the war right on the horizon, ‘No’ she thought to herself, ‘it was I who was truly blind’

And it was the boy she heard being called ‘Fengmian’s bastard’ or ‘son of a servant’ who had saved her son's life instead, she bit back the bitter chuckle that threatened to escape her, truly, what a fool she was, to be caught in the violet spiders web.

She looked at her son, whose face clouded over the more he heard, she grabbed his arm tightly, if nothing else then to prevent him from barging inside, with Jiang Fengmian’s favor, she was sure that they didn’t need to interfere, until, “My lady, what are you doing here?” she held back her disbelief, her son on the other hand, inhaled sharply.

This was what he was focusing on? Not the insults to his bas- to his ward? To his sect’s entire foundation? It would seem she was truly mistaken, in her and Yu Ziyuan sharing their miseries, entirely wrong about her character, and who was still throwing around callous words for the sake of it, for what else? If not her own cruelty?

"What am I doing here? What a joke that I am asked of such a thing! Sect Leader Jiang, do you still remember that I'm also the leader of Lotus Pier? Do you still remember that every inch of the earth here is my territory? Do you still remember, between the one lying there and the one standing there, which one is your son?" Disbelief and disgust couldn’t even begin to describe what Madam Jin was feeling, the Sect Leader’s response,  however, “I do remember.” Enhanced those to the heights she didn't even know she was capable of feeling.

And so stood the enraged Madam of Jin Sect, the horrified Jin heir and one ashamed disciple whose head could bow no lower, but that was nothing compared to what was said next “You do remember, but there's no use if you simply remember. Wei Ying, he really can't take it unless he stirs up some trouble, can he? If I had known, I would've made him stay in Lotus Pier properly and not go outside. Could Wen Chao really have dared to do anything to the two young masters of the GusuLan Sect and Lanling Jin Sect? Even if he did, it'd mean that they ran out of luck. Since when was it your turn to play the hero?"

Blood roared in Madam Jin’s ears, her nails digging into her palm, she wanted to bite Yu Ziyuan’s head off there and then. ‘Of all the idiotic, foolish, horrid, things she could utter-’ in her cursing, she only realised she had put too much force in her rage filled haze when her son hissed in pain, she immediately let go of his arm, and pinched the bridge of her nose, taking calming breaths.

She was afraid she would do something terrible and irrevocable if she stayed there any longer, listening to a pathetic mockery of- she exhaled and pushed Jin Zixuan towards the open doors. “B-but mother-” he looked back but she gave him that look and he quietened “Later a-Xuan.” while moving outwards, the disciple trailing behind them, they could easily catch some of the words the woman threw at Wei Wuxian.

Madam Jin gritted her teeth in anger, and left without looking back, once she and her son were seated in the boat. “A-Xuan” she began, lightly ruffling his hair “Your marriage is up to you to decide, I will have no say in the matter from here onwards” Her son was not going to be married into that cursed Sect no matter what if she could help it, she moved forward to pull him into a hug, “Mother was wrong.”

 “But mother what about..?” She heard him say, she pulled back and rest one hand on his shoulder, the other caressing his cheek, her son, who by the Jiang’s standards, should’ve been killed, and her blood boiled in her veins. “We came here to make a bond and talk if it were possible, since that wasn’t possible, it can be done some other day.” She lightly patted him, and seeing his thoughts drift off, thought to herself darkly ‘and if the Jiangs are attacked, well, they ran out of luck then.’

Her son hesitantly nodded, “Wei Wuxian...I owe him, for saving me then, if not for him.....” She sniffed, as if indicating what was obvious “Of course,” When the news spread later that Lotus Pier was attacked, with Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian on the run, she hoped for Wei Wuxian’s survival, more so than the Jiang Sect Heir.

And if, perhaps, after a few years her son proposed sworn brotherhood with that Wei Wuxian, well, it wasn’t without her approval.

----------------------------

authors notes i guess?

Okay so writing Madam Yu’s lines legit left me disgusted like wtf was she even saying?? Also like I tried to write Madam Jin similar but a bit less than Madam Yu (ya know madam jin never whipped kids with her spiritual weapons, if she had any, not to our knowledge at least...right?) but ended up venturing straight into slightly dark madam jin heh, also like no engagement, no jin-wei tense relationship, (there’ll be 1-2 parts more probably) also wwx woke up earlier in this one, this’ll serve as catalyst for later years. 

#mdzs fic #jin zixuan #madam jin #jin guangshan #jiang wanyin #jiang fengmian #madam yu #unnamed disciple lol #prompt writing #anon asks #my writing

[lanwangjisnow]

(This the first time that I’m not writing about LWJ for a mdzs scenario)

Lan Qiren was teaching all the students. WWX was sleeping and JC couldn’t concentrate because he was distracted by the new student.

He heard Y/N was a sect leader’s daughter, even though he hadn’t known much about their sect.

“She is beautiful” he thought but then. “no .. no… I should concentrate… but she looks nice”

After the lecture all Jiang Cheng wanted to know was if Y/N had a bf. He could ask WWX but then he didn’t want noisy Wei Wuxian to make fun of him.

He asked his sister without showing much interest.

“I don’t know exactly but I can ask” she said . “What? no! I’m just asking” JC blushed.

Next day, he found WWX was flirting with Y/N and Mianmian. JC interrupted quickly and told that Jiang Yanli was looking for him. He apologized ladies for his brother’s behavior.

When Mianmian, left JC wanted to escort Y/N to the library.

You were delighted to have his company. From the first day at lecture, you were also thinking this man was handsome.

Within few days you two became very close and he even confessed to you. It was not usual for JC to be very clingy like WWX but only for you he was.

However, the happy ending that you wish of engaging to JC became different, when one day Wen Chao showed up.

He has a gf but he was still interested in you.

He confessed to you but you thought he was disgusting and rejected him at once.

“you will regret this” Wen Chao threatened.

You were sacred that he would do something to your family and immediately told this to JC.

JC had a plan on his mind. He told you not to worry about it and that he would personally take care of it.

As you expected, Wen Chao had sent men to destroy your family but they couldn’t find none as JC had already had informed them to them to hide a place close to Lotus Pier.

After Cloud Recesses you told Jiang Cheng that your family has decided to migrate to Lanling Jin Clan and live unknown

JC promised you that no matter where you live that he would find you.

Years passed. You heard stories about the death of Wen Chao, then death of WWX and how Jiang Cheng became a sect leader.

Your parents said that may be JC had forgotten about you and better to marry someone else but you thought never to marry if you wouldn’t marry JC.

One day your father said that you had a visitor waiting for you.

When you went to meet him you found none other than your JC. You ran to him and hugged him.

“Y/N , did you think I forget about you? I was searching you everywhere. So now that I found you, will you please marry me and come to Lotus Pier as my wife?” he asked.

“yes” you were in tears.

JC smiled widely and kissed you while hugging you tightly.

#mdzs fanfiction #mdzs reader insert #mdzs x reader #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #jiang cheng #mdzs jc