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#and it is not actually that I think Jiang Cheng is pulling any kind of A grade in parenting
rhysiana · 11 months
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Because I saw a post about how modern AU WWX would probably actually be as tall as LWJ, if not taller, since so many modern AUs don't feature him suffering as much childhood privation as canon, which reminded me of another thought I have had, about how an early life period of interrupted growth can in fact just delay a person's growth spurts rather than eliminating them. Thus: WWX who gets confusingly taller after graduating from college.
3 People Wei Ying Talked to About Suddenly Getting Taller and 1 Person Who Definitely Noticed On His Own
[Now also on AO3]
Wen Ning
Wei Ying looked down at his feet, perplexed. "Wen Ning?" he yelled down the hall. "Did something weird happen to the washing machine that you didn't tell me about?"
Wen Ning popped his head around the door to Wei Ying's room. "No? I don't think so."
"Then why are all my pants suddenly too short?" A new thought occurred to him and he looked up, now delighted. "Wen Ning! Are you actually pulling a prank on me? I know I don't have all that many clothes, but still, this must have taken so much work! I respect the dedication." He held out a fist.
Wen Ning just blinked at him. "I think... maybe you got taller, actually?"
Wei Ying scoffed. "I'm way too old for a growth spurt. Seriously, did Nie Huaisang put you up to this?"
Wen Ning gave up arguing and simply produced a tape measure instead.
~*~
Wen Qing
Wei Ying burst into Wen Qing's lab, which he might have felt worse about if she hadn't been babysitting an experiment while no one else was around. He still received an impressive glare, but he didn't have time to worry about that right now.
"Wen Qing, I need you to test me for every weird kind of chemical exposure you can think of!"
She blinked at him, looking remarkably like her brother for a moment. "Wei Ying, you're in computer science. Exactly when do you come in contact with chemicals?"
"Uh. A leak on the science campus somewhere?"
"What is actually wrong with you? Tell me in the next," she glanced at the clock, "three minutes or leave."
"I apparently grew another inch in the last month without noticing. That can't be natural. I'm 23."
She stared at him for a moment, frowned, and then her expression cleared. "You said once that you had a bad time when you were younger. Stopped growing for a while."
"Why do you even remember that?" Wei Ying asked with an uncomfortable laugh, looking away. He must have been drunk; he didn't usually bring that time of his life up in any detail. It just made people sad.
Wen Qing turned away briskly, ignoring his minor display of emotion, and checked some readouts he was pretty sure hadn't actually changed in any way yet. "Well, that's why. Your growth spurts just got delayed, not erased. It's normal. I'll send you some references tomorrow."
He swept her up in a relieved hug. "Thank you, Qing-jie. Even if this does mean I'm not developing some weird superpower mutation."
She poked him cruelly in the ribs to get him to let go. "Go away, you're distracting me."
~*~
Jiang Cheng
"You what?!" Jiang Cheng demanded at full volume. It'd been a while since they'd managed to get together in person--Wei Ying had nearly forgotten how red with frustration Jiang Cheng could get.
Wei Ying grinned and bounced a little on his toes to really rub it in. "Grew another inch."
"No! This isn't allowed! The universe can't do this to me!"
"What's the problem, little brother?" Wei Ying edged closer so he could prop his elbow on Jiang Cheng's shoulder and really lean on him. "I think I should get jiejie to measure me again and mark it on the door frame. Really make it official."
"Don't you dare!"
"Why don't I ask her now, so she'll be all ready when we see her next weekend?" Wei Ying fished out his phone and then held it up over his head, laughing, as Jiang Cheng lunged for it.
Jiang Cheng's eyes narrowed. "An inch isn't really that much," he growled, and hooked Wei Ying's leg in a takedown they'd both learned when they were 11.
Wei Ying tossed his phone out of wrestling range and turned his full attention to finding a hold that would make Jiang Cheng tap out.
~*~
Lan Zhan
"Wei Ying."
Most people claimed Lan Zhan's voice (and face) didn't have any expression, but Wei Ying could clearly hear the shock underlying his name.
"Lan Zhan!" he returned brightly. "You're back! Did you have a good trip? You've been gone for months and months!"
Wei Ying was used to the intensity of Lan Zhan's regard under normal circumstances--one of the many things he loved about being friends with him--but he didn't think he was imagining that it was particularly intense today.
"It was as I texted you," Lan Zhan said shortly, and then, surprisingly, continued before Wei Ying could get a teasing reply in. "Wei Ying... did you get taller?"
"Oh, that!" Wei Ying felt himself start to blush, for some reason. "Yeah, I did. It was so weird at first, but Qing-jie assures me it's normal, and I've almost gotten used to it now. It was just an inch but I had to go buy all new... pants..." He trailed off as Lan Zhan pushed into his personal space much closer than he ever had without Wei Ying initiating it first, as far as Wei Ying could recall. "Hi?"
They were nearly chest to chest now, and he could see it when Lan Zhan actually had to tilt his chin up just a bit to meet Wei Ying's eyes.
"Hello," Lan Zhan said, grave and low and very, very focused.
Wei Ying wasn't entirely sure what was happening right now, but he was pretty sure he was into it.
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lansplaining · 11 months
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@iri-vail i hope you don’t mind me pulling out these tags from this post: 
#mdzs meta#meta#why i think wwx has to be a little mean to jc in fic to be characterized correctly#like that whole monologue 'ohhh jc is just too weaaak~'#i know thats borne mainly of his own insecurities/attempt to distract himself from his tough decisions#but maaan it goes on for so long its so mean spirited it turns around into funny
bc damn you know
i’ve really never thought about it, but you are so so right. fic is so fixated on jiang cheng being mean to wei wuxian, with good and obvious reason, but wei wuxian is really quite unkind to him in the second life as well? he truly refuses to actually listen to what he’s saying at almost any point, and as you point out, his fundamental perspective on who jiang cheng is and what he’s capable of is not kind! this is not to say i don’t think he loves jiang cheng, but especially by the time you get to the temple confrontation, there is a fundamental dismissiveness and lack of willingness to hear or see him that is self-protective, but also shades into meanness for sure 
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wangxianficfinder · 9 months
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Fic Finder
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1. Can you help me find a fic? It was a poly ship, with I think Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Wei Wuxian. Possibly also Nie Huaisang? LWJ, JC, JZX (+maybe NHS) were divine beasts and WWX was another mythical beast but he hid it. I don’t think they were all romantically involved: WWX was the pivot between the others. It was abo or a fated-soulmate au. I think I might be getting two fics confused though, because I remember there is one where WWX, LWJ, JC, and JZX form some kind of soul bond and they fight through the Sunshot Campaign together and they can read each other’s thoughts and bring each other back to life, but this one is not that one! Can’t remember that one’s name either and it isn’t in my bookmarks. TT
FOUND? I’m pretty sure the one with the fourway soulbond is Quartet series by WithBroomBefore (T, 69k, Platonic Soulbond, Hurt/comfort, Canon   Divergence, No golden core transfer, JC&JZX stay in Xuanwu cave, Fix-it, Temporary character death)
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2. Hello! I am looking for a fic where  Wei Wuxian is a hairstylist. Rich!Lan Wangji keeps coming back even though originally he would only make an appointment with the owner. Likes his scalp massage. I can't remember if the owner is Huaisang or Wen Ning. Thank you for your help! @toopunkrockforshul
FOUND! Delivered in Silence by DeviyudeThoolika (E, 17k, WangXian, Modern AU, Slow Burn, hairstylist!WWX, client!LWJ, Horny WangXian)
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3. For fic finder: An mpreg fic: in the Gusu lectures Jin Zixuan rapes Wei Wuxian, and so Madame Yu pulls WWX out of classes and drags him back to Lotus Pier where he is confined in secret for a year to have the child. The story continues on through the canon storyline with WWX repeatedly clashing with JZX especially over his engagement to Yanli. LWJ realizes that JZX hurt WWX and stands by WWX’s side to face JZX. I think it was a very long fic.(wangxian endgame, not WWX/JZX)
FOUND! secrets for the stars to keep by UchiHime (M, 37k, WangXian, XuanXian, XuanLi, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mpreg, Canon Divergence, not a/b/o, Hurt/Comfort, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Recovery)
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4. Help me please! I am struggling to find a fic due to tumblr’s dumb search system (I know I originally found it due to this blog). The fic involves Lan Zhan slowly turning into jade and Wei Wuxian is asked to help bc he is great at breaking curses! It turns into the two of them basically doing a bucket list for Lan Zhan and it was very cute! @flamboyantly-asexual​
FOUND! A Curse of a Different Color by nickel710 (G, 35k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivation, Curses, Curse Breaking, Asexual polyamory, Repressed LWJ, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Drunk LWJ, Falling In Love, WWX Being an Idiot, Non-explicit vomit, just a tiny reference to it, Anxiety)
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5. Hi! For the fic finder, I vaguely remember reading a summary where lwj turns into a girl and has to have an orgasm in order to get back to being a boy or something along those lines? Sorry, that's the only thing I remember about it but I need it 😭🙏🏼
FOUND! Coming Back to Yourself by acernor (E, 21k, WangXian, Vaginal Fingering, Cunnilingus, Oral Sex, Pining, Gender or Sex Swap, Vaginal Sex)
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6. Hi, I'm looking for a fic, large I believe, where a transmigrator was born as Xichen... Any idea which can be @krysaniar​
FOUND? the eve of dawn by theAbandoned_Grimoire (G,132k, LXC & LWJ, LXC & QHJ & LWJ, LQR & QHJ, NHS & NMJ, future wangxian, canon divergence, dumb LXC au, hurt/comfort, angst & feels, fluff, dysfunctional family, happy ending, implied/referenced character death, minor character death, slow burn)
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7. Hello! I’m looking for a fic I read a while back. My memory is a bit vague, so take with a grain of salt. Plot: Lan Wangji is stressed (forgot if it was just stress or if it was autism related) so Wei Wuxian uses his body as a weighted blanket, just laying on top of LWJ. (I think WWX buys him an actual weighted blanket later on but LWJ prefers WWX as a weighted blanket. Also, I think they get together at end of fic, but I’m not sure.) thanks in advance for your help! It’s greatly appreciated! @dweebdaweeb
FOUND? Happy for Now by ScarlettStorm (E, 79k, Female WangXian, Modern AU, no magic, Rule 63, Cisswap, There Was Only One Bed, romance author au, Adhd wwx, service top LWJ, Pining, Smut, Comedy, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, horny yearning, furtive masturbation, Cunnilingus, Vaginal Fingering, Sex Toys) there was a scene like that in 'Happy for Now' by ScarlettStorm
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8. hi ! i’m looking for a fic set in post canon where i’m pretty sure wangxian we’re tg, they go on a hunt where smth puts everyone to sleep and eventually kills. but rlly the curse tricks you into showing u a horrible nightmare that u think is ur reality so u stay asleep. wei ying sees lan zhan die in front of him and he’s super angry and resentful that lan zhan would leave him, and after the funeral he ends up leaving cloud recesses and suzhui bc he can’t be there without him. eventually he is woken up and finds out it was a dream, but wei ying talks to lan zhan and is like “how did you not resent me i chose to leave you”. i cant find it anywhere !!
FOUND? more damage than a soul should see by Kika988 (M, 12k, WangXian, Heavy Angst, Whump, Post-Canon, Please see notes for specific warnings!)
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9. Hello Mods!
I have two fics I'm looking for, that I have regrettably lost amidst my 53 pages of AO3 subscriptions (yes it is a lot no I will not shrink it I have 20+ fandoms I enjoy I am an unrepentant).
A) 1st is a Golden core reveal fic which also included Wangji telling Wuxian about the marriage ribbon and the two of them serving tea to Jiang Cheng and Yanli after it.
B) 2nd is a modern AU fic where Wuxian is a Hacker? Code writer? for his main job but also is a music teacher I think while Wangji works in hospital? They have a big concert together is what I remember.
Any help finding these two gems is greatly appreciated! (^_^♪)
9B)
FOUND? Come Around and Stay by trippednfell (M, 160k, WangXian, NieLan, Modern AU, Slow Burn, Kid Fic, Found Family, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, PTSD, Blood and Injury, Dissociation, So much trauma, Angst with a Happy Ending, Takes a while to work through it, Musicals, POV Alternating, Baking, Yunmeng reconciliation (eventually), Friend Zoning, Literal Sleeping Together, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks)
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10. I'm looking for a fic where they mention that something that sometimes stops cultivators leaving the sects and going rogue is having to pay the forge prices of their swords. IIRC it was in the context of the Lan sect helping WWX get out from the Jiangs by paying the forge price for him. Please and thank you!
FOUND! Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 64k, JL & WWX, wangxian, post-canon, protective WWX, protective JL, JC & WWX reconciliation, reluctant matchmaker JL, pre-JL/LJY) Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller mentions disciples that leave have to pay to keep their sword, but it's about Luo Qingyang and the Jins
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11. Hi! It has been a while. So there's this ff that I have read before and I cannot remember the title. So it goes like
Wei Ying was going to destroy the Yin Tiger Tally and he knows he's gonna die in process. Jin Ling's 100th day is also coming up so he insists A-Yuan to go there too with someone I cannot remember (but I think it was Song Lan) and he told A-Yuan to find Lan Zhan. I think he also wrote some letters for the people invited there to read. A-Yuan started crying I think and yelling that Gold was bad (he was refering to the Jins because they tortured them on camps before).
Pov to Wen Qing and Wen Ning. They weren't aware that Wei Ying was going to destroy the Yin Tiger. I think Wei Ying told them to buy something or collect something. So while they were out Wei Ying started to destroy the Yin Tiger. Wen Qing senses something was wrong and hurriedly went back to the Burial Mounds. Time skip Wei Ying still dies (?) Wen Qing was trying to revive him until she passes out. Time skip again Lan Zhan Jiang Yanli Jin Zixuan came to the burial mounds, Jin Zixuan got shot by an arrow and was poisoned so Jiang Yanli find Wen Qing and beg at her to save her husband. I don't remember much but at some point they saw Wei Ying's corpse.
Last time I read it, it was still incomplete. I hope you can help me with this. Thank you @hellothere9597​
FOUND? #11 i think its a deleted fic. The title is When I'm Gone by qiankun_pouch . Its fit the description that are mentioned
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12. Hi I'm looking for a fic where Wei ying is obessed with marrying a rich man, so he goes to parties with meng Yao looking for one..Meanwhile Lan Zhan his room mate is rich and hiding it. He detests those who seek money. They have chemistry. But Wei ying never wants to risk being back in poverty. And Lan Zhan he into him a lot but he doesn't want Wei ying to be with him for Money.Wen ning is also a roommate. @imgonnablogtheworldtodeath
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13. Hello!! This is a fic finder request but first I have to let you know that ur all doing gods work and that I appreciate u all sm!!
Ok so im not sure if im doing this correctly but I’m looking for this fic that I lost where lwj almost dies in nightless city saving jyl. Lxc was able to save him by binding their souls together or smth at the last minute and then he hid lwj away in qinghe where he’s basically in a comatose state. Wwx thinks lwj is dead and blames himself and iirc he turns himself in at cr and gets whipped? Also lxc 100% blames wwx for lwj’s near death and pretty much hates him. I also remember that when lwj woke up and wwx saw him he went a little crazy and wouldn’t believe he was real
Again thank you all sm for your hard work!! @kitekichenqin​
FOUND? If I Could Go Back in Time by Runningbarefoot (M, 122k, WangXian, NieLan, Canon Divergence, Role Reversal, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Grief/Mourning, Loss, YLLZ WWX, Eventual Happy Ending, The Twin Jade Brotherhood, Hurt/Comfort, Healing, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Dynamics, Slow Burn)
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14. Hello! I am looking for this fic I read a reaaaaally long time ago. The only thing I remember is that wwx died but not really when he was on his way to jin lings one month celebration (ik it's really vague up till here) and wen ning takes him back and then goes to the banquet and talks with the main characters there privately. Thanks in advance! @la-diabla
FOUND? End Racism in the OTW | The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou (E, 66k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Injury, Injury Recovery, Blood, Respiratory Illness, Major Illness, Fever, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hunger and food scarcity, Surgery, Fix-It of Sorts)  
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15. During Gusu lectures LWJ and WWX spar and something sparks between them like dual cultivation? I think they were already in a relationship at that point, and during the spar they are giddy with the thrill of the fight and, feeling their energy circling, it gets them horny and they, pardon the crassness, jerk each other off in a hallway after they drag each other off the field. @gloriousclotpole
FOUND! 🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 663k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)
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16. hellooooo I've been looking for this fic but I can't find it all I remember is Thant lwj goes back in the past after wwx's death (during the cloud recess study arc) and it ends withe a threesome with him wwx and younger lz. also at the end he goes back to the futur to wait for 'his' wwx can you help ????? thanks for all that you do !!!!!✨✨✨✨✨✨
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17. hii i was looking for this wangxian fic where I think they accidentally end up taking care of a-yuan? the only thing i remember from the fic is that around the end social services or cps take a-yuan away from wangxian for a day or two and then they have to go sign some papers before they can have a-yuan back. that's all i remember sorry 😭 i read it a long time ago maybe 2020/2021? I've been looking for it for ages and i can't find it, please help 🥺
FOUND? All those roads are pointing to you by jiejieaini (E, 81k, WangXian, Modern AU, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Drowning, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bunnies, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Dubious Consent, Dom/sub Undertones, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, WangXian Have a Breeding Kink, Rimming, Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Marriage Proposal)
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18. Zero idea if you still do this, but Im looking for a certain fanfic which is about lwj and wwx moving together i think because he was kicked out by madam yu, because he outed himself and I remember Lan Xichen being very supportive and even going back to the house to retrieve wwx‘s belongings and ofc lwj and wwx fall in love other the time course
FOUND? Found Family by fyredancer (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, Getting Together, POV Outsider, Dysfunctional Family, Coming Out, Bad Parenting, Protective Older Brothers, Protective Siblings)
FOUND? Where is home? by SpicyRamen_10969 (M, 42k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, High School, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Coming Out, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Supportive LQR, Good Sibling LXC, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, JC Being an Asshole, Possible Smut?)
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19. Hello, this is an FicFinder request.
I don't remember much, but it was a rare-pairing of WRH and WWX. I'm not sure if it was a time travel fic. When bunny was 14 or something, a water deity came from the waters of Yunmeng and told him of his powers/potentials. Bunny then was take. To kunlun mountain or smth like that and found out that he controlled the void, darkness, some elements as well. He meditated and became immortal and had lived for more than 200 years in another realm. In Yunmeng, he was still a kid and went to seclusion to complete his meditation or something. He also had a wife/lover in underworld and it was a mix of Greek mythology and others as well. @tinyfoxpeach
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20. I particularly remember that it is a four part series with one fic rewritten. It's basically post burial mounds siege where wwx ascended to immortality, and lwj ascended after his 33 discipline whip punishment. Lwj's injuries were so grave that it carried to his ascension. It's not specified but lwj ends up in wwx's domain and wwx goes batshit after finding out what the lan sect did and confronted them. Mostly fluff and angst. @bananatoffeepie​
FOUND? Deity AU by crypticidentity (M, 5k, wangxian, hurt/comfort, madness, implied/Referenced character death, whipping, angst, protective WWX, BAMF WWX, deity WWX, deity LWJ) check all the tags before reading!
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incarnadinedreams · 2 years
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Jiang Cheng was silent, as though he had finally become calmer. Wei WuXian put his hand on his shoulder again, "In the future, you'll be the sect leader, and I'll be your subordinate, like your father and my father. So what if the GusuLan Sect has its Two Jades? The Yunmeng Jiang Sect will have its Two Prides! So, shut up. Who said that you don't deserve to be the sect leader? Nobody can say this, even you can't either. If you do you're looking for a beating."
Jiang Cheng snorted, "You see how you are right now? Who can you beat up?"
-- Ch. 56, ExR translation
I've seen the take around that Wei Wuxian never broke any promises to Jiang Cheng, because in the 'Twin Heroes of Yunmeng' promise he said they would be like their fathers. Since Wei Changze left Yunmeng, then Wei Wuxian was never intending to actually be Jiang Cheng's right-hand man, and therefore no broken promises. Easy peasy.
And I personally just can't get behind that interpretation. I do think that in a more meta sense the parallel is interesting; that's part of the whole tragic irony of the situation. And that only works if Wei Wuxian didn't mean it that way, but it ended up becoming true anyway, in the most horrible and unpleasant ways. And I do think there can be some interesting exploration of the way promises can mean different things to different people without either of them really being wrong.
But I feel like it's doing a huge disservice to Wei Wuxian's character to run with the take that he actually meant to have some sort of loophole in there. It's very much a miss the forest for the trees kind of thing. Sure, you've successfully gotten him out of one broken promise... but what would that mean, if it were true?
I just don't think the line about their fathers was some sort of tricksy, cunning thing he inserted as a gotcha. He wasn't trying to legalese his way out of it, he wasn't trying to pull one over on Jiang Cheng. Viewing it that way kind of destroys what was, for me, one of the most emotionally poignant moments of the novel. If it were the case, he'd be rather shallow and manipulative for it, and that just doesn't resonate with me. Not to mention it doesn't make much sense to carefully insert a loophole into a promise he never needed to make in the first place.
As a Yunmeng Shuangjie Enjoyer, for me this scene is like the valiant last stand of innocence. Up to this point, our plucky protagonist and friends have escaped every trial largely unscathed. The comically evil villain has been resoundingly humiliated (for now), the big angry turtle of slaughter has been slaughtered, everyone made it home in one piece after a romantic(?) cave interlude, more or less. It was difficult, sure, but our heroes prevailed in the end. A few injuries, some scars, but nothing really bad - yet.
There's drama, there's strife, but at this point it's of a more personal, domestic nature: Jiang Cheng's sadness at what he feels is his father's dislike, his sense of inadequacy and being overlooked, his mother's scolding, the stress and discord within the household regarding rumors and Wei Wuxian's ambiguous role, and the pain of being pulled in between his parents. Painful, to be sure, just very limited in scope compared to what we know is coming.
But in the midst of that turmoil, this scene is Wei Wuxian giving Jiang Cheng hope for a future where he can forge his own path. That they can create something different but wonderful, with Wei Wuxian by his side, where it doesn't matter what rumors are going around or what mistakes their parents have made. It's an 'us against the world' moment; it's an outright declaration of a bond that had been, as far as we know, largely unspoken and assumed up to this point.
Whatever type of bond you read into them having, it solidifies something between them. It's putting into words his confidence in Jiang Cheng's potential when he believes his father doubts him. This is one of the few ways he is allowed to express unwavering support for Jiang Cheng in a sea of ambiguous ties and fraught relationships.
It's supposed to be tragic. It's supposed to be the shining light that gets snuffed out by the darkness and horrors that follow. The tragedy is that promises earnestly made sometimes must be broken, no matter how good the intentions were when they were made. The tragedy is that it's the enormity of their sacrifices for each other that, unknowingly, drive them apart. It's the secrets they keep to spare one another, it's the slow building of a death-spiral of conflicting priorities and duties, it's the very roles the promise was meant to bridge the gap between that makes this promise untenable, impossible to keep.
And I believe that's why we see, so much later, that this promise is the crux of Jiang Cheng's breakdown at Guanyin Temple, even after everything else that had happened.
Jiang Cheng cried soundlessly, but tears had already streaked across his face. To cry in such an unsightly way in front of others was almost impossible for him in the past. But every single moment that passed from now on, as long as the golden core remained in his body, as long as it could still revolve, he'd forever remember this feeling.
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 YunmengJiang Sect... You said so yourself."
"..." After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian replied, "I'm sorry. I broke my promise."
-- Ch. 102
I believe what Jiang Cheng is really grieving is that bright-eyed, optimistic vision of the future they'd shared in that moment, us against the world, together, and there are so few ways they're allowed to express the weight of everything they mean to each other that he can only cling to a promise that represents the distillation of their ties to one another.
And if Wei Wuxian never really meant any of it, if he'd been planning an out from the beginning, if he'd never shared the dream too, that would just be kinda shitty and boring instead of compellingly tragic.
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tbgkaru-woh · 6 months
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I love your Nie Huaisang, he's so pretty!! I love the scheming pretty man so badly. Are there any Huaisang ships you like? I don't necessarily ship Wei Ying and him but I do think they got drunk and made out at least thrice
thank you ♥♥ the usual SangCheng was a ship i really enjoyed alongside chengxuan, jiang cheng has two hands and all that (well, actually i don't really do poly-shipping, it's more that i like those ships for him in different periods of time or scenarios, for someone who doesn't seek or like romance, jiang cheng is BOOKED.) just nhs pulling jc out of his shell, jc begrudgingly following nhs or listening to his wet dreams or something equally ridiculous, nhs being the same loud but compassionate presence that wwx used to be. them getting lcose during gusu days and then parting and then later down the line, with everything that happened, huaisang is still there, still the same, the one stable thing that hasn't change and jc would just kinda fall into his arms for an ounce of comfort, knowing nhs won't tell or make it weird. i really enjoyed wwx and nhs' friendship and they have big fuckbuddy energy before they go in their respective directions (wwx to lwj and nhs just stays free but "occupied" with different partner each time). really enjoy the shameless cockiness of them, i had a fic planned that's basically just big orgy of everyone to "strengthen" the alliance bonds and seeing as there's members like lwj, jzx and jc, wwx and nhs were the ones to brea kthe ice and get it all going :D i had a lot of fun with that idea but sadly it didn't get far as i'm already neck deep in near-done WIPs I can't seem to finish :')
i've never quite gotten into niecest and not because i'm against fictional sibling ships, i don't see the IT factor in the dynamic on a romantic way despite really enjoying them being protective of each other and understanding the visual appeal. I guess I enjoy them more where each of the brothers have their quirk, one is this playful slut (/postiive) and one bagged the forbidden fruit that is lxc, it just makes up for a fun dynamic :'D but i think i may be convinced if someone brings up a good idea
i also like nhs and jgy in their dnyamic BEFORE nhs learned about jgy's schemes, i liked jgy being the only peer for nhs and being gentle with him, even though nhs is this little lordling and jgy is basically their servant of sorts (SORRY IF I MISUNDERSTAND THE CANON DYNAMIC BUT THIS IS THE DYNAMIC I LIKE) and nhs talking to him like peer-to-peer and opening up and them covering for each other from nmj etc. i really enjoy that ;v; nhs needing jgy more than jgy needs nhs but it's fine, jgy is a giver. going from this comfort to how they grew apart, with jgy gone nhs's quarters grew quiet and cold and then jgy not acknowledging him much once he made it into jin's high status, nhs learning of jgy's crimes later on, it's just the good kind of heartbreaking.
my guilty pleasure is also nhs and jzx, not only because i love zixuan, but also because i enjoy the idea of the two lordlings meeting up since childhood for pleasantries and nhs always giving jzx's bad behavior the benefit of the doubt because not only is he not judgmental, but also he can understand where jzx is coming from. nhs trying to loosen jzx up as someone who's his peer and not "beneath" him, be open with him and often poke at his prudish inexperienced side when it comes to relationships :') nhs slowly including jzx into his problem trio (wwx-nhs-jc), him and wwx making jzx do something illegal during their gusu days and then having a laugh riot about it. idk, i feel like nhs is greatly compassionate when it comes to this and also i think he could acknowledge jzx's qualities or his good looks. publicly, in front of his friends, often.
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bloody-bee-tea · 3 months
Text
Gift for me
1) I am not back into Mingcheng, I'm very sorry to disappoint on that. This fic has been ready to go for a year now, and I am kind of happy to finally get it off my desktop XD
2) Happy New Year, may it be filled with love and softness and laughter and happiness for us all
Part 1 (Happy Birthday) Part 2 (Selfish Gift)
It’s the third birthday Nie Mingjue spends with Jiang Cheng right by his side and by now he stopped expecting anything. Jiang Cheng blew him out of the water when he actually cared more about his birthday than about any New Year’s celebration and then a year later he did it again when he asked Nie Mingjue to move in together.
This year—well this year, it’s Nie Mingjue who has a surprise for Jiang Cheng.
He had wanted to give it to him in bed, when they were both still sleep-warm and relaxed but of course Jiang Cheng doesn’t stick to any kind of plan at all and isn’t in bed when Nie Mingjue wakes up.
“A-Cheng,” Nie Mingjue groans out, his hands grasping at already cold sheets and his mood already turning for the worse.
“I’m right here, my heart,” Jiang Cheng says with a smile as he sticks his head into the bedroom but he’s not where he’s supposed to be, which is warm and lazy in Nie Mingjue’s arms.
“What are you doing?” Nie Mingjue demands to know, mustering his best glare even though he knows it’s not much, this soon after waking up.
“We’re getting guests in about half an hour,” Jiang Cheng informs him and Nie Mingjue lets his head drop back with a groan.
“What? No. Why? What happened to spending my birthday in bed together?” he demands to know because this wasn’t the plan.
“But we woke up together all year,” Jiang Cheng gives back and at that Nie Mingjue throws him an outraged look.
“You think waking up together every other day gets you out of waking up together on my birthday?” Nie Mingjue is honestly lost for words how Jiang Cheng could arrive at such a horrendously wrong conclusion but he softens a bit when Jiang Cheng laughs at him.
It is still one of Nie Mingjue’s most cherished sounds.
“Not really,” he admits as he comes closer to sit on Nie Mingjue’s side of the bed. “But you know that Huaisang and Xuanyu are leaving for their holiday early tomorrow morning so we decided to have your birthday celebration a little bit earlier.”
“I preferred it when we celebrated my birthday a week late,” Nie Mingjue grumbles even as he pulls Jiang Cheng in for a kiss.
“Liar,” Jiang Cheng whispers back and kisses Nie Mingjue again. “Happy birthday, my soul.”
“Good morning, my heart,” he gives back, still a bit unhappy with how this day is going but he guesses he has to make the best of it now. “Will we have dinner alone, then?” he asks because so far Jiang Cheng at least made sure to always spend one meal a day with Nie Mingjue alone.
“Yes. I will kick everyone out after cake, don’t worry. We’ll do dinner and a movie on the couch, with all the cuddles you could want.”
It feels a little bit like a consolation prize with how cold the bed was when Nie Mingjue woke up but he will take whatever he can get.
“Fine,” he finally heaves out because what else can he really say and Jiang Cheng laughs at him.
“Don’t even pretend to be a grump, I know you too well,” he teases him and flicks his forehead for good measure too.
“You’ll still have to make it up to me,” Nie Mingjue decides as he gets out of bed and Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow at him in question.
“And how would I do that?” he wants to know and Nie Mingjue gives him a devilish grin as he leans down to give him a much more heated kiss.
“You’ll simply have to wake up in my arms for at least a month straight,” he then tells him and leaves Jiang Cheng right there on the bedside as he walks off to the bathroom to get himself ready for their guests.
And to wrap up his gift in a different way, now that his original plan has been ruined.
Nie Mingjue laughs out loud when he hears Jiang Cheng splutter behind him and he has to admit that this birthday is still good, simply because Jiang Cheng is right there with him.
~*~*~
The day itself is busy. Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu come over for brunch but leave early in the afternoon because they still have some packing to do. Nie Mingjue’s friends arrive shortly before Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu leave but true to his word, Jiang Cheng throws them all out an hour after cake.
Nie Mingjue watches it with a smile but he lets him do it because it is what was promised and Nie Mingjue is now actually looking forward to a relaxing evening with Jiang Cheng.
He loves his family and friends but these celebrations are always a bit too much for him, especially if they are this stretched out.
“Tired?” Jiang Cheng predictably asks when he comes back from kicking the last lingering friend out and finds Nie Mingjue on the couch, his head tilted back and his eyes closed.
“Yes,” Nie Mingjue easily says because admitting to these things is always easy with Jiang Cheng.
“Too much?” Jiang Cheng asks next and stands behind the couch, so he can scratch lightly at Nie Mingjue’s scalp.
“Mh, no, just right,” Nie Mingjue admits. “An hour longer though—” he trails off, trusting Jiang Cheng to understand what he means and when Jiang Cheng laughs, he knows he did.
“And you would have started to murder people, I get it,” he chuckles out and then leans over to press a kiss to Nie Mingjue’s forehead. “But no murder on your birthday. Only relaxing stuff for us now.”
“Are you going to cook?” Nie Mingjue asks, and he reaches up to grab Jiang Cheng by the forearms.
Suddenly the idea that Jiang Cheng will cook in the kitchen and Nie Mingjue is left with nothing to do but watch him seems like the worst idea ever.
“Nope,” Jiang Cheng cheerfully tells him and simply flips over the back of the couch when it becomes apparent that Nie Mingjue is not going to let him go. “I thought we order in today.”
“Good thinking,” Nie Mingjue hums out, leaning over to steal a kiss and then wrangles Jiang Cheng around until he’s arranged to his liking, mainly in Nie Mingjue’s arms and with no way to run off again.
“Clingy much?” Jiang Cheng teases him but Nie Mingjue only hums because Jiang Cheng is fooling no one. He went boneless the moment Nie Mingjue pulled him into his arms and so Nie Mingjue simply presses a kiss to his head.
They doze off like that on the couch for a while, and Nie Mingjue has to admit that this is still good; it’s not waking up with Jiang Cheng in bed levels of good, but it comes close, simply because they get to share this soft moment together.
And even though it has been a year Nie Mingjue hasn’t quite forgotten what happened on his last birthday, so when Jiang Cheng’s stomach grumbles and basically wakes them up, Nie Mingjue laughs.
“You’re so rude,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, pawing at him to try and get away, but Nie Mingjue is not going to let him.
“And you’re so starved,” he teases right back, leaning in for a kiss when Jiang Cheng pouts at him.
“I’ll truly be starved by the time dinner comes around,” he complains and Nie Mingjue shrugs.
“Get some more cake then?” he tells him even though he has no intention of letting Jiang Cheng out of his arms any time soon.
“First let’s order something,” Jiang Cheng decides, fishing for his phone.
He makes quick work of their order and doesn’t even bother to ask what Nie Mingjue would like; they both have their favourites at several different delivery places and Nie Mingjue is content to simply be surprised by dinner tonight.
“Now let go of me, I’ll starve for real,” Jiang Cheng then says as he puts the phone away and he tries to struggle out of Nie Mingjue’s arms whose intentions haven’t changed.
“Nope, you’ll have to live off my love for you for a while,” Nie Mingjue tells him with a laugh that only gets deeper when Jiang Cheng flops around like a fish.
“You’re ridiculous,” Nie Mingjue says when Jiang Cheng finally exhausted himself and Jiang Cheng blinks up at him.
“You love me,” he says and Nie Mingjue will probably never stop marvelling at the fact that Jiang Cheng doesn’t doubt this at all.
It makes Nie Mingjue very proud to know that he loves Jiang Cheng well enough that none of Jiang Cheng’s insecurities can ruin this.
“That I do,” Nie Mingjue immediately says and drops a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s nose.
They get lost in trading kisses until it rings at their door and even the sweet promise of food is almost not enough to lure Jiang Cheng away from Nie Mingjue.
“Weren’t you starving?” he finally asks when Jiang Cheng makes no move to open the door and that finally prompts Jiang Cheng to get up.
“I was living off your love,” he throws over his shoulder even as he goes to retrieve their food and Nie Mingjue takes that little window of opportunity to dart into the bedroom to get his gift.
The gift giving part of the day is already over, but Nie Mingjue didn’t want to do this with everyone else around; this is just for him and Jiang Cheng, at least for today.
He makes a detour through the kitchen to bring supplies to the living-room and when he comes back Jiang Cheng is already unloading their food on the table.
“Do you know what you want to watch?” Jiang Cheng asks him as he works, not sparing a glance for Nie Mingjue.
“Yep,” Nie Mingjue says, even though a movie is very far from his mind right now and when Jiang Cheng expectantly turns around to him, he slips the gift onto Jiang Cheng’s plate.
He’s of course not fast enough to escape Jiang Cheng’s notice, so he immediately turns around to look at what Nie Mingjue just did.
“What the hell is this?” Jiang Cheng demands to know, crossing his arms in front of his chest and Nie Mingjue sits down on the couch, pretending that his heart isn’t about to beat out of his chest.
“What does it look like?” he innocently gives back and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him.
“Like a goddamn present.”
“Then that’s probably what it is,” Nie Mingjue teasingly says and doesn’t shrink back under Jiang Cheng’s glare.
“It’s your birthday. Why the hell am I getting a gift?”
“It is, technically, a gift for me,” Nie Mingjue says and now the glare melts off Jiang Cheng’s face to turn into a confused frown.
“But I’m the one who’s supposed to open it?”
“Yes.”
“Mh,” Jiang Cheng hums out and gingerly picks the wrapped gift up.
He tries to shake it to see if it rattles and he seems surprised when it does.
“Am I going to break it?”
“I don’t know. Are you?” Nie Mingjue laughs out when Jiang Cheng continues to poke at it instead of opening it up but finally he rips the wrapping paper apart.
He is met with a cardboard box Nie Mingjue found lying around in their bedroom this morning and it clearly does nothing to solve his confusion.
“What the hell is this?” he breathes out again, working on getting the box open and Nie Mingjue leans forward in anticipation.
It seems as if Jiang Cheng’s impatience finally won out because he rips the box open the last bit and then he immediately freezes.
And Nie Mingjue slides off the couch, onto one knee.
“My heart,” he starts as he reaches into the box to get the little black box out and it seems as just that is enough to make Jiang Cheng cry.
“Yes,” he gets out, his voice all choked up and Nie Mingjue laughs.
“I didn’t even say anything yet, don’t be so impatient,” he chides him but he catches Jiang Cheng’s hand in his to press a kiss to his fingers.
“My heart,” he repeats. “Will you give me the greatest birthday gift of them all and marry me?” he then asks and flicks the box open to reveal a ring.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Jiang Cheng chants out, tearing his gaze away from the ring and cupping Nie Mingjue’s face in his hands. “I will marry you, my soul,” he whispers and when he leans in to kiss Nie Mingjue the tears spill over.
“Best birthday ever,” Nie Mingjue mumbles when they part and he takes that opportunity to slide the ring on Jiang Cheng’s finger.
“Best birthday ever,” Jiang Cheng agrees, marvelling at the ring now on his hand and Nie Mingjue isn’t sure if he’s ever seen him smiling so much.
But to be fair, he isn’t sure if he’s ever smiled so much in his life before either.
“I love you,” Jiang Cheng tells him, intertwining their fingers and Nie Mingjue feels as if he’s going to melt with all the love he has for this man.
“I love you,” he gives back even though that should be pretty much obvious by now and then he pulls Jiang Cheng in for a kiss.
Their food is—yet again—cold by the time they manage to part enough to remember it but Nie Mingjue thinks if this is the tradition they are going to set for his birthday then he’s not going to mind that much.
Not if being incandescently happy comes right along with that.
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cerusee · 4 months
Text
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both think family means never needing to knock. They are both wrong.
The sun was just beginning to set, outside the western window in the Jiang sect leader’s office, overlooking Lotus Lake. The light bathed Lan Zhan in a golden glow, his white-and-blue robes transmuted into amber and green, like some kind of ethereal sea beast.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, his throat tight. “I’ve missed you.”
Lan Zhan was looking slightly past Wei Wuxian’s head.
“I just realized we’ve been apart a whole day,” Wei Wuxian continued. He was leaning against the sect leader’s desk, his fingers clamped over its edges. “Isn’t that awful?”
“We are often apart,” Lan Zhan said, softly.
“Well, we’re together again now!” Wei Wuxian said. “And I don’t see any reason why we should ever be apart again!”
Lan Zhan didn’t say anything.
“Unless,” Wei Wuxian said, every syllable feeling like he was pulling it out of his mouth, his tongue actually hurting. “There’s some reason why you think we should be?”
Lan Zhan finally looked towards him, and the sunset reflected golden off his eyes, but even now, he felt distant. Then he said, “Our relationship has been a mistake.”
“What?” Wei Wuxian said, panic lancing through him, even though he’d felt like he’d seen this on the horizon for a while now, a light that was shaded wrong somehow. “Lan Zhan, no!”
“It was my error,” Lan Zhan said. He was silent for a long minute, before he said, “I took advantage of your grief. It was wrong.”
“Lan Zhan—”
“Wei Ying. I wanted you, and I was weak to my desires.”
“Lan Zhan, what are you talking about? You didn’t take advantage of me! You didn’t take advantage of anything!”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said, and Wei Wuxian fancied he heard pain in his voice, steady and even though it was. “I remember how you were with Jiang Wanyin when you came to the Cloud Recesses for the lectures. You were together always, inseparable. Doing everything together; always seeking one another’s company.”
“So what? What’s wrong with that?” Wasn’t that just the way of brothers? Lan Zhan followed Lan Xichen around like a duckling followed its mother, didn’t he? He always had. He still did it now!
“At that time, watching you, I was confused. Envious,” Lan Zhan said. He seemed to be struggling with his words, but he must have been thinking about those words all day, because he still found them. “In my heart, I wished Jiang Wanyin would disappear. I imagined myself in his place by your side. Going everywhere with you; always seeking your company. You, always seeking mine.”
This gave Wei Wuxian pause. He said, a little confused, and a little numb, “Lan Zhan…are you saying…you wanted Jiang Cheng gone?”
Lan Zhan said, in a hushed voice, “I wished him no harm.”
“But you—you wished he would be gone,” Wei Wuxian said, wide-eyed. “You wanted my brother to just disappear out of my life. Tell me, Lan Zhan…when you heard the news about Jiang Cheng, about Lotus Pier, were you happy?”
Lan Zhan said, fervently, “Wei Ying, no. Your suffering and your loss could never bring me happiness.” He started to reach out a hand, then withdrew it, in front of Wei Wuxian’s blank stare. “I have witnessed your grief all these years. When I thought I would share it, during Xiongzhang’s injury and illness, I understood that grief even more deeply. I am grateful that you saved my brother. I am grateful now for you that the cause of your grief has been lifted.”
“If you’re so grateful, then what’s the problem?” Wei Wuxian said. “Why does this mean you want to end our relationship? Why do you think we’re a mistake?”
“I took Jiang Wanyin’s place by your side, when it was not mine to take.” Lan Zhan said, starkly.
But wasn’t that place empty, though?
Jiang Cheng…Jiang Cheng hadn’t been there. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng been separated, been torn apart. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli had believed, all this time, that Jiang Cheng was dead and lost to them forever. Nie Mingjue had become a brother to him, yes, but even Nie Mingjue couldn’t replace what Jiang Cheng had been to Wei Wuxian—the daily companion, the one who followed, the one who was always, unfailingly, next to him. Who was always there, always within reach, whenever he needed him.
“Lan Zhan, should I apologize?” Wei Wuxian said, slowly, out loud. “For always needing you there by my side, after I lost him? You saved me. You can’t think I was better off alone!”
“Wei Ying should not be alone,” Lan Zhan said firmly. “But he will not be. Jiang Wanyin is back by your side, as he should be. There is no place for me now.”
“That’s insane. Lan Zhan, you’re being insane. Of course there’s a place for you with me, there always will be!”
“Wei Ying. I saw you together,” Lan Zhan said, now with a brittle edge to his voice. “You walked together with him for hours. You ate together. Swam together.”
Wei Wuxian’s jaw fell open, in shock, as he suddenly grasped the problem. “Lan Zhan…you can’t possibly be jealous of my brother.”
“He slept in the bed you share with me,” Lan Zhan said shortly, and oh yes indeed, that was the sound of petulance.
“You said yourself we’re often apart, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said, suddenly almost as annoyed as he was panicked. “As it happens, I spend most of my nights in that bed alone, because you’re not here!”
“I am here now. I was here last night.”
“Don’t you dare tell me you want to—to call off us because I wanted to spend one night in the company of my brother who we all thought was dead for four years?”
Lan Zhan looked mulish. “Wei Ying did not seek me out.”
“Did I hurt your feelings? I’m sorry. You’re being ridiculous, though, Lan Zhan, about this no room by my side thing. And it’s not fair, that you’re never here, and the one time I was the one who had something more important than us, you’re so mad at me about it you want to break up!”
“I am not angry.”
“You’re making an angry face at me, though! Do you really think I’ll stop wanting your company because my brother is finally back with me? Lan Zhan—I want everyone I care about close to me. Why should that upset you?”
As he said it, Wei Wuxian exhaled hard, an uncomfortable wave of self-awareness hitting him. But I’ve been just as jealous, haven’t I, that Jiang Cheng has another family now. Even though I know he still cares about ours. Even though he came back to be with us…
He took a deep breath, and let it out, trying to let some of the fear go with it.
“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian said softly, and pulled him into an embrace, bringing his wayward moon back to its rightful orbit. Lan Zhan became pliant in his arms, slowly settling his head into Wei Wuxian’s shoulder. Wei Wuxian could feel a faint tremor running through him. Wei Wuxian bit Lan Zhan on the neck, like a cat seizing a kitten, and felt him relax slightly in the grip, before he released him. “You don’t want to end things, I know it,” Wei Wuxian said. “You’re just scared, aren’t you? But it’s all right.”
“Wei Ying…” Lan Zhan breathed, softly, loose in his arms.
“Lan Zhan…” Wei Wuxian pulled back, and met Lan Zhan’s eager mouth with his own. “Come on, Lan Zhan…”
Lan Zhan could never kiss lightly. Wei Wuxian was almost dizzy with desire and also lack of oxygen, several minutes later, when he pulled back and said, “Hey, Lan Zhan…why don’t you let me remind you how your company is special.”
“Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan groaned, as Wei Wuxian sank down onto his knees in front of him. Wei Wuxian rucked up Lan Zhan’s robes, pushing them up for him to hold in his shaking hands, then slid his trousers down his muscular thighs. “This is just for us,” Wei Wuxian breathed, looking up at him, as Lan Zhan trembled under the near heat of his mouth. “Only you and me, Lan Zhan. Only us.”
“Wei Ying, Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan’s voice came, broken, after just a few minutes. He dropped his grip on his robes, and seized Wei Wuxian’s head in his hands, fingers threading through his hair. “Wei Ying! Wei Ying! Wei Ying!”
Wei Wuxian was swallowing, his hands gripped around Lan Zhan’s buttocks, at the exact moment the office door swung open, and Jiang Cheng came in, saying, “Ge, I’ve been looking for you all over to say goodnight—oh my god!”
Jiang Cheng was already gone, the door slammed vehemently behind him, by the time Wei Wuxian managed to get up, wiping his mouth, and Lan Zhan’s eyes were focusing again.
“See,” Wei Wuxian said. “I told you.”
***
To Nie Mingjue, Lotus Town seemed to improve on every visit he made to Yunmeng. The scars of occupation were still there to see, if you knew to look, but the town hadn’t taken nearly the beating that Lotus Pier itself had. The local economy, in the form of the central marketplace, appeared to be thriving on this fine spring morning, as he and Wei Wuxian made their way through rows of farmers and fishmongers, all calling out to advertise their wares laid out on carts, and strolling past a cluster of pungent herbalists’ stalls, before turning into a close side street. Their destination was the first address on the street, a two-story house, larger than he’d expected, enclosed by a wall with a wide iron door.
“Your Wen doctor friend must have a lot of confidence in her skills,” Nie Mingjue said, considering what the rent on a house this close to the town center most likely commanded. The family must have been banking on a physician’s practice paying for it.
“She’s the best,” Wei Wuxian pronounced, with absolute confidence. “Da-ge, I saw a sword go through Jiang Cheng’s heart, but she saved him. Wen Qing is a genius.”
“Wen Qing created the poison that nearly killed Xichen.” Had killed dozens of Lan cultivators, in fact, after one disastrous battle, years before. Lan Xichen and his cousin Lan Daiyu had been the only survivors of that poison, and Nie Mingjue knew that to this day, they both suffered the aftereffects of it.
“At her cousin’s behest, Da-ge, and it wasn’t her hand that wielded that poison in the arrow ambush. Besides, she also created the cure.”
Nie Mingjue grunted. “You’re very certain about this, Wuxian.”
“Wen Qing is the smartest person I’ve ever met, Da-ge,” Wei Wuxian said. “If anyone can help, she can. And she wants to; she offered to!”
But can she be trusted? Nie Mingjue wondered. She’d run off with Jiang Wanyin, it seemed, and taken her beloved brother along with her; abandoned her cousin’s court and his favor, and supposedly lived content with them in anonymity for years. But what did that mean, when it came to loyalty?
And this house was not the house he’d expect a family of fugitives to have the money to rent, in the rebounding municipality that was Lotus Town.
He knocked on the door. There was no answer, and he knocked again. He looked at Wei Wuxian, and said, “Did you tell them we were coming?”
Wei Wuxian shrugged, casually. “We’re all family, Da-ge.” No, then. He scrutinized the door, and then put his hand on the knob, pushing spiritual energy into it; although locked, these doors hadn’t been warded, it seemed. There was a gentle click as a bar slid back, and the doors swung open for them.
“You’re sure about this?” Nie Mingjue said, although he didn’t hesitate to follow Wei Wuxian into the courtyard behind the gate.
“Didn’t I just say it? We’re all family.”
Nie Mingjue casually kicked the gate closed behind them. The front yard was empty, except for a few unpacked boxes, but he could hear noise emanating from somewhere inside the house, an indistinct mix of shouting and laughter. They stepped through the door to the hallway and then into the inner courtyard, and suddenly beheld a scene of semi-controlled chaos.
Wen Qing had a hand over her mouth that was doing nothing to stifle her laughter, as her little daughter Jiang Rong, dressed in just a tunic, ran between her mother and father, shrieking in evident delight. Jiang Wanyin, in an open shirt, sleeves rolled up, and just trousers, also rolled up to his knees, was covered in soap suds, his hand over his eyes and his cheeks reddened with frustration. Wen Qionglin, who was dressed similarly, and also covered in soap bubbles, sat mournfully on his knees, trying to restrain what might have been a truly stupendous mountain dog—likely half the height of a man when standing, Nie Mingjue judged, with a deep black, heavily shaggy coat—had not half its fur been shaved off, starting from the back, while the pathetic animal whined, its blue-black tongue hanging from its massive mouth, as it pawed frantically at the paving stones.
Beside him, Wei Wuxian stopped dead, and turned pale white.
“Dog,” he whispered in absolute horror, before grabbing Nie Mingjue’s arm, and flinging himself behind him, shuddering in terror. “Nie-ge, there’s a dog, there’s a dog!”
“Wuxian? What’s wrong?” Nie Mingjue asked, tense, but without moving.
By now, the family had registered their presence. Jiang Wanyin’s hand slid down from his face, and for some reason he was also going deathly pale, as he realized Wei Wuxian was there.
“Shit!” Jiang Wanyin said. “Fuck—fucking shit—” and he bounded towards him, then past Nie Mingjue, seizing a frozen Wei Wuxian from behind him, and then dragged them both past the border of the courtyard, and out of both sight and earshot.
Wen Qionglin, still holding down the enormous, softly panting, whining, half-shaved dog, blinked up at Nie Mingjue. “Um…were we expecting you?”
***
“Do you know what the hell that was all about?” Nie Mingjue asked his hostess,
“I have a notion,” Wen Qing said, setting a tea tray onto the table between them. “According to my husband, Wei Wuxian was frightened of dogs as a child. It would appear he hasn’t grown out of it.”
“I had no idea,” Nie Mingjue said, wonderingly. “Why were you shaving the poor beast, anyway?”
“Apricot? Oh, that unfortunate animal was built for cooler climates, not for a Yunmeng summer,” Wen Qing said. “A-Cheng made some noises about not bringing him along with us, but Rong’er set up the biggest howl at the thought of leaving her best friend behind with the old house, and he gave in instantly.” She spoke briskly, and yet there was a clear note of fondness in her voice. She poured him a cup of tea, and passed it over to him. “May I ask the reason for this unannounced visit?”
“I did tell Wuxian we should have sent word,” Nie Mingjue said, sipping the tea. It was a variety favored in the southern part of Qinghe, and he wondered if it was stock the family had brought with them. He looked around, noting that if the house was not lavishly furnished, it wasn’t exactly bare-bones, either, and there were more half-unpacked boxes just in this sitting room. Nie Mingjue examined his teacup, simple and unadorned beyond its fine red glaze, but pleasingly shaped, and thought it looked similar to a Qinghe-local style of ceramics Huaisang was fond of collecting. The family might have been living a quiet life, a life in hiding, but not, it seemed as destitute refugees the entire time.
“You’re setting up a medical practice in Yunmeng as you did in Qinghe,” he said, half statement and half guess.
Wen Qing nodded, not refuting the part about having had a practice in Qinghe. “Medicine is how my family supports itself, now that we’re no longer affiliated with any sect,” she said.
Nie Mingjue wondered what Wei Wuxian would make of the implications of that phrasing, but chose to ignore it himself. “I might have a patient for you,” he said. It was an annoyingly indirect way to say it, but he found himself deeply uncomfortable revealing himself this way, wanting to sidle up to the truth, instead of facing it head on.
Wen Qing regarded him gravely over her own cup of tea, through the rising steam, and then she set it down, and rose, then dug in a box until she unearthed a paper packet. She withdrew what he recognized as a noise-dampening talisman, its effects meant for privacy, which she affixed to the door, before settling back into her seat, across the table from him. She asked him, “What seems to be the problem, Nie-zongzhu?”
He could see on her face she was under no illusions about who the patient was, so he didn’t waste anymore of either of their time. “I had a head injury, several years ago.” He touched the back of his head, to indicate where. “A serious one. I was lucky just to survive it. I was blind for a time, afterwards, although I eventually got my eyes back. But since then, sometimes it seems as if my eyes—and ears—play tricks on me. I see things that aren’t there. I hear voices. I—I can’t read. I could read before,” he hastened to say, as if it could have been somehow reasonable for Wen Qing to conclude that a cultivation sect leader might not be literate. “But since I regained my eyes, all written words are just a jumble to me.”
Wen Qing was nodding along to this, and she said, “These are all common side effects of a blow to that part of your head. May I…?” she asked, rising, and Nie Mingjue bowed his head to let her lift his hair away with cool fingers, examining the scars from his once-shattered skull, scars he’d never seen himself, but could feel, every morning, when he dressed his hair. She made a low, neutral noise, assessing, and said, “You must have had good surgeons.”
“I had the best,” Nie Mingjue said.
“Not the best,” Wen Qing told him, her chin tilting up, “I wasn’t there. But good enough to keep you alive, when you ought to be dead already. I commend them.” She sat back down again. “Nie-zongzhu, sometimes, aphasia will reverse itself as the brain heals from whatever injured it in the first place. In your case, if it was going to do so, it would have done so already. There are exercises I’d like to give you, and some medications to take while you do them. It will be a slow process, and require a lot of effort on your part, but you strike me as a man who isn’t afraid of hard work.”
“You’d be correct,” Nie Mingjue said.
“The hallucinations and the paranoia, on the other hand,” she continued. Nie Mingjue, who hadn’t alluded to the paranoia, stiffened. “Those could be another side effect of your head injury, it’s true, but I think it’s more likely they’re being caused by your other affliction. May I check the state of your meridians?”
“Wuxian told you?” Nie Mingjue growled, his body involuntarily tensing, his mind, his traitorous mind, already setting up a furious howl, just like that little girl, Wen Qing’s daughter. Wuxian, I trusted you!
“Did he know? I wondered, when he was so eager for me to offer you help,” Wen Qing said, and then shook her head. “Your sworn brother didn’t whisper even a word of your secret, Nie-zongzhu. I already knew. Or I should say, I suspected, and now I know for sure that you suffer from the same family curse as your father, and your grandfather, and your great-grandfather, and as many generations back as anyone remembers.”
She held out her hand across the table, a challenge and an invitation, and after a moment, Nie Mingjue reluctantly laid his wrist in her grasp.
Wen Qing closed her eyes, assessing carefully, thoughtfully. She briefly winced, before her face smoothed back into a calm, professional veneer. She opened her eyes and released his wrist, then looked down at the table.
“It’s that bad?” Nie Mingjue couldn’t help but ask. Already?
“It isn’t good,” Wen Qing said, raising her eyes. “Are you currently being treated for this at all?”
“Xichen and Wangji have played some cleansing songs for me a few times,” he said. “Wuxian too, when I’ve visited Yunmeng. It helps, a little.”
“Find someone who can do that for you regularly,” Wen Qing instructed him. “Every week, at least. Every day, if you’re using Baxia to channel resentful energy. It won’t cure you, but it will help to mitigate some of the symptoms you’re experiencing.”
“How much do you know?” Nie Mingjue asked her grimly. If she knew about Baxia… “And how do you know it?”
Wen Qing glanced at the privacy talisman on the door, as if to reassure herself it was still there, and he realized this was the reason she’d put it up in the first place; this part of the conversation, that she’d known they would come to eventually. “I know everything your grandfather and your great grandfather knew about the curse,” she said. “The bargain with the ancestral spirit. The saber tomb. The way Nie sabers are primed, and what happens when you shatter one.”
Nie Mingjue stared at her, outraged suspicion mounting.
“As for how I know—I fear if I tell you, you’ll trust me even less than you trust me now, Nie-zongzhu, but I think I must tell you anyway.” There was the slightest waver in her hand as she poured herself a fresh cup of tea, then drained it as if it was wine. “Your grandmother Wen Yueyuang, that pretty lady Wen doctor your mother’s father eloped with, was my grandmother’s sister. She seems to have been well-liked and trusted by her husband’s family, because when your great-grandfather began showing symptoms too severe to conceal, she was brought into his inner circle, in the hopes that she could cure him. I believe that she did her utmost, Nie-zongzhu. But it’s a heavy curse, and when her efforts were less successful than she’d hoped, she…” Wen Qing looked briefly away. “With the best of intentions, Wen Yueyuang wrote in secret to her own family, asking for advice. My grandparents and their other kin consulted discreetly amongst themselves, and sent back medicines and recommended treatments, which I think did help to extend his life. They also kept their own private records, not wishing for the valuable knowledge of this…unique illness to be lost.”
“Popo was a traitor?” Nie Mingjue said, stunned. “But why? The Nie embraced her!”
“The Wen and the Nie were on good terms back then,” Wen Qing reminded him, but there was a hint of discomfort on her face. “I truly think she only meant to do her best for your great-grandfather, who’d made her welcome in her new home, and even helped make peace between her parents and your grandfather’s, after she and your grandfather eloped. But yes. Your grandmother—my great aunt—betrayed your family, when she broke their confidence.”
Nie Mingjue tried to absorb this. His memories of his maternal grandmother weren’t strong—she’d died when he was still young—but they were warm. There had been afternoons of visiting with her, before Huaisang was born, sitting on her lap and being fed slivers of candied ginger from who knew what private store, while she talked with his own mother (the subjects of their conversations long-lost, nothing that was preserved in his own memories). But he knew that his Wen grandmother was still spoken of with respect, in the Unclean Realm, by the elders who’d known her, even after relations between Qinghe Nie and Qishan Wen began to degrade severely. Had those elders known? Had anyone? Had anyone at all suspected Wen Yueyuang’s treachery? Had anyone known—
“What about Wen Ruohan,” Nie Mingjue said, eventually. “Did he know when he plotted to have my father’s saber shattered? Did your family tell him how to do it?”
Wen Qing exhaled, sharply. “As Wen-zongzhu, Wen Ruohan had access to all the medical texts and case histories recorded by the generations of physicians who’d belonged to the Wen Sect,” she said. “Both those in the main library and also those in the closed libraries. It was his right. And if there was one thing my cousin Wen Ruohan never lacked, it was a hunger for knowledge, along with the power that knowledge bestows. No one told him, but when he found that account of your great-grandfather’s illness, he understood what it contained, and how the knowledge he found there could be used as a weapon against another Nie sect leader. Any Nie sect leader, who held that close connection to the ancestral spirit.”
“And how do you know all this?” Nie Mingjue asked, glaring at her calm face, fury surging through him. “Did Wen Ruohan take you into his confidence as well?”
“Oh yes. He boasted of it to me,” Wen Qing said frankly. “Wen Ruohan thought less about his successors than you might imagine, for a man so determined to conquer the world—I think he did imagine he could achieve immortality, perhaps even true immortality, the kind not measured in mere centuries—but I think when he looked at me, he felt he saw some sort of kindred spirit in me. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps. I was very favored with him for years, you know.”
Nie Mingjue threw back his head, and let loose a bark of laughter. “Am I supposed to pity you, woman? That you’re so reduced now?”
Wen Qing actually smiled. “I think I’m the last thing from pitiable! Nie-zongzhu, my cousin is dead. I’m free of him. I have my family, and I’m still the greatest doctor in the whole of the Jianghu. Why should anyone pity me? They should envy me!” But then she sobered. “Nie-zongzhu…I truly would like to help you, if you’ll let me. Let me use my gifts as they were meant to be used.”
“Why? Because you carry your family’s guilt?”
Wen Qing looked down at the table again, tapping her nails against the wood, in a nervous gesture, strangely revealing. “Because I carry my own. My hands aren’t clean. I was barely more than a child when my brother and I went to Nightless City in Wen Ruohan’s service, but I already understood that safety, for both of us, lay in serving him without hesitation. And so, I never hesitated. I wasn’t free there, but I wasn’t—uncooperative, either. I have done terrible things for my cousin, and freedom only came when A-Ning betrayed our family so openly it forced us both into flight. My brother may be sickly, but he’s braver than I am…I can’t undo the harm I’ve done in the past. But I am still a doctor, and my life’s work is—and should always have been—to heal the sick.”
Nie Mingjue considered the woman in front of him. If she’d cried and made excuses, if she’d dared to say none of it was my fault; I had no choice, he would have despised her. What, though, to make of someone who admitted guilt—her family’s guilt, her own—so simply? Evil should be eradicated. But looking at her, he felt somehow that Wen Qing, although touched by evil in the past, was not owned by it now.
“After everything you’ve told me today, how can I trust you?” he asked her plainly. “What can you promise me that my grandmother didn’t promise my great-grandfather, before she broke my family’s confidence?”
Wen Qing didn’t answer immediately, taking her time to think about it. “I don’t think there is anything,” she said, eventually. “It will have to be Nie-zongzhu’s choice whether to trust, or not. Is there anything you’d ask of me?”
“Burn your notes,” Nie Mingjue said. “If you do treat me. No more private Wen records of Nie secrets.”
For the first time, Wen Qing’s face took on a truly pained look. She closed her eyes briefly, and sighed. “Agreed,” she said, though. “If I can find a useful course of treatment, I’ll turn over my notes into your keeping, for you do what you want with them, and I’ll keep none of my own.” She said, “May I ask who else knows about your illness?”
“Certain elders of the sect. My first disciple. My sworn brothers.”
Wen Qing made a hmm noise. “Not your brother?”
“No,” Nie Mingjue said harshly, “and he’s not going to know.”
“He won’t hear about it from me,” Wen Qing said, dipping her head. “But since Jiang Weihu knows, I’d like to consult with him about it.”
“Wuxian? He’s no doctor!”
“But he knows already, and your other doctors don’t,” Wen Qing reminded him. “Jiang Weihu is an unorthodox thinker, and he’s not afraid to try new things. I think that will help me.”
“Fine,” Nie Mingjue said shortly. “Be discreet about it.” He exhaled. “Wen-daifu, do you actually think you can help me?” Is there any hope at all, he almost wanted to beg. He’d been resigned to his own death for a long time. A flicker of other possibilities here, the knowledge of Huaisang’s and Yanli’s incoming baby sparking a deep, selfish, hungry desire to watch that child come into the world and grow up in it there—all that was more painful than simple resignation itself. Hope wasn’t necessarily better.
But what would he leave behind him, if he didn’t even try? He’d sent Huaisang out of the Nie for good, and then made no alternate plans for his successor. Why bring a child of his own into the world to share in his eventual doom, when he’d gone to such trouble to protect his brother? What of any cousin, any senior disciple he chose—or left to be chosen in his absence—to stand in Huaisang’s place, after he himself died? It seems as if all Nie sect leaders are born to die; any who follow me will suffer my same fate if I do nothing.
“I don’t know if I can save you, Nie-zongzhu,” Wen Qing said, bluntly honest. “But I will make every effort. I swear it on my family’s lives.”
This woman, so calm, so cool, so arrogant—but an hour ago he’d seen her laugh with her daughter, at her flustered brother and husband, confounded by a soapy dog. He’d seen the tenderness and joy she had for them. Nie Mingjue thought that in Wen Qing’s mouth, on my family’s lives was an oath that had teeth.
Nie Mingjue put his palm flat on the table. “All right then,” he said. “Let’s give it a try.”
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wuxianxkexing · 1 year
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Not going to lie Jiang Cheng is the perfect ship character. Let me explain.
With Lan Xichen: Xichen is probably the most mentally stable character in the series. He would be the rock that Jiang Cheng needs in his life, one that he has never really had. Xichen is unfortunately too perfect and good for this world, a true cinnamon roll. Jiang Cheng can and will be the asshole for both of them when necessary, but for the most part they would pull each other from the extremes of the spectrum to make them both more balanced people. This ship is for people who just want the best for Jiang Cheng.
With Lan Wangji: Drama, drama, drama, but who doesn't like drama? This ship is enemies hate fucking each other. This ship is staying together only because the sex is that good. They don't actually do each other any good being together besides the prostate orgasms. The only ship that would make Lan Quiren wish it was Wei Wuxian instead. This ship is for people who only care about how hot the characters are, not their romantic compatibility at all.
With Nie Mingjue: Honestly daddy issues Jiang Cheng needs a DILF protector. It would do him good to not have to be the strong one for once. I can't really think of what he could do for Nie Mingjue aside from being a person that Nie Mingjue could lavish with gifts, but you know what? Sometimes Sugar Daddy/Sugar Baby relationships work out. Unfortunately their relationship fights are probably kind of wild with both of their tempers but their dysfunctional asses think that it's "passion" instead of toxicity. This ship is for people who think lowkey toxic relationships are super romantic.
With Nie Huaisang: Another case of Jiang Cheng being the protector/asshole in the relationship but it's not a bad thing. Childhood friends to lovers is always OP romantic pairing and they both compliment each other rather well. Jiang Cheng is the responsible and take charge one, and Nie Huaisang is the fuck around because why not? one. Ideally Jiang Cheng's reliability would rub off on Nie Huaisang and Nie Huaisang's manic pixie dream girl energy would give color to Jiang Cheng's life instead of ruining it once again. This ship is for people who love it when one partner annoys the crap out of the other, grumpier, partner.
With Wen Qing: Could be a perfectly cute couple in an alternate universe. They both have similar thoughts and dedication to family. Wen Qing would teach Jiang Cheng to put his ego aside because she sure as fuck isn't going to. Jiang Cheng might have Zidian but he is the whipped one in this relationship. This ship is for people who like it when the woman dominates.
With Wen Ning: Wen Ning would fall in love with Jiang Cheng after he was nice to him one time. Jiang Cheng probably picked up his pencil or held the door for him once in Cloud Recesses and now Wen Ning simps hard for him. Wen Ning would at some point assume that they were already in a relationship because they spent so much time together and Jiang Cheng was always coming to his rescue but Jiang Cheng would be oblivious. This ship is for people who like slow burns/unobtainable relationships.
With Jin Guangyao: Jiang Cheng would definitely encourage Jin Guangyao to stop being such a brown noser and to live his life more authentically, potentially avoiding all of the problems that came about as a result of Jin Guangyao's extreme desire to fit in. With Lan Xichen's calm and steadfast acceptance and Jiang Cheng's encouragement to give less of a fuck what others think I think Jin Guangyao's life could have been different. After all Jiang Cheng wholly accepted Wei Wuxian as his actual brother despite it not being the case in reality, so I don't think Jiang Cheng is as judgmental about lineage as the average cultivator. As for Jin Guangyao he could've put his political prowess to better use in the Jiang Sect and taught Jiang Cheng how to play politics better. This ship is for people who like fix it ships.
Jiang Cheng can just be shipped with any other character and its fine. Like you can't ship Wei Wuxian with anyone other than Lan Wangji, it is just wrong and illegal because they are soulmates, but Jiang Cheng? Jiang Cheng who got blacklisted by every. single. female. cultivator? (And I think that is the funniest shit ever even though I love him. Like what could he have possibly done?) Who has canonically only been on 3 dates in his entire life? Who is the one character in the series who is all but officially confirmed to be a virgin by mxtx? Ship him with whoever, who cares? Literally any ship is a step up for our man and most of them would make him at least a slightly better person. Except Xue Yang, they'd make each other worse (unless that is your thing).
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slytherinzidian · 1 year
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On the topic of JC trusting WWX
(Please forgive all the terrible grammar etc. this was a rushed twitter thread and as you know twitter has character limits and well I cba to fix it up right now.)
It's funny that some ppl say if only jc had trusted wwx more... when i think the opposite really, if only jc had trusted wwx *less*
Jc truly believed wwx had all the answers and that wwx could make everything better...
Even in the GT we see him putting that faith in wwx... when jgy pulled out that string he's all like i thought u searched him! and ppl will say that indicates lack of trust but i think the very fact that since wwx searched him jc expected there to be no trouble.. says he did still trust wwx..he was shocked at the string being there cuz wait a sec wwx searched you so there shouldn't be any string!
From the beginning to end he had faith in wwx.. he was hurt by him and he was angry with him but really until yanli's death he trusted him, even after as we see in the GT over a decade later, he falls back into the same old habits, trusting wwx to get shit done well when all their lives, including his precious nephew's, was on the line. Notice it was the same as when he was a boy. All those years and all those hurts later and he's still a little boy in front of shixiong, trusting that shixiong will have everything handled because it's wwx so of course he has it handled (ironic since they both found out in the worst way possible that no he does not in fact have things handled...)
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And of course not to mention the whole core thing with wei 'would i lie to you shidi' wuxian and jiang 'shixiong knows best' cheng even that quote that if wwx said to do something jc would do it even with tears in his eyes...
Jc trusted wwx a whole lot... funny cuz it's wwx who didn't actually trust jc with a lot of himself...in a lot of ways they do have that dynamic of the younger looking up to the older, even idolising them in a way, but the older keeping their own counsel etc.
If jc had trusted wwx less then maybe he'd question things a bit more than he did... but it's because he viewed wwx so highly and had such faith and trust in him that he didn't.. and then of course he was left disappointed and hurt in the end.
I think a big thing is that jc actually felt too much when it came to wwx...trust, admiration, loyalty, love (whatever kind u want to call it) and by the end even disappointment, anger and a bit of hatred yes but not ever true hate
Those who say jc just thought of wwx as a servant did not read correctly, you can't have read that book properly if you came out of it with jc only seeing him as a servant and only having jealousy and hatred towards him and nothing else, similarly if u think that wwx only thought of him as a 'master' he owed a debt to
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captain-apostrophe · 4 months
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20 questions for fic writers
How many works do you have on AO3? 56!
What's your total AO3 word count? 866,338
What fandoms do you write for? Just MDZS/The Untamed, though in my misspent youth there was one multivolume handwritten Lord of the Rings fanfic.
What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1. we both know better (maybe we don't) 2. the hand is a voice 3. not mad about it 4. hard to say (it's all for you) 5. alone at christmas?
Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do, though occasionally it takes me a minute to find the juice to do so. I guess it feels nice to acknowledge that I've seen and appreciate the comments people leave!
What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't think there's any contest that Confluence is the tearjerker, though does it count as angstiest if it's technically a positive/bittersweet ending and not actually a sad one? Maybe one of the prompt fics - perhaps Play, where Xue Yang re-enacts a grisly past life's fate.
What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I'm not sure that's really quantifiable when almost everything I've written has more or less had a happy ending. If it's not cheating to choose a WIP, probably WBKB since the eventual epilogue is about everybody involved having their happily ever after.
Do you get hate on fics? Not generally. I did get some anon hate at one point that was stressful but I don't even remember what it was about. Shipping Jiang Cheng with Nie Huaisang when certain unhinged people wanted JC for themselves, possibly.
Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yep. The kind is anything I find hot, I guess. Does this mean is it het? Is it vanilla? Well once it was gay noncon between a guy and a very mean mermaid so... I'd say "all kinds".
Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Nope! I've written a few short fics putting the characters into other media in the place of its characters (Howl's Moving Castle, GBBO, some Shakespeare) but I don't tend to see the appeal of merging two different casts together.
Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of, so... fingers crossed!
Have you ever had a fic translated? Someone did start a translation of Not Mad About It into Russian, but that's all I'm aware of.
Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope, but I also haven't written much that wasn't heavily plotted, planned, polished and generally discussed to death with @megalodont
What's your all-time favorite ship? If we base this on who I've spent the most time writing about it'd be SangCheng, but I wouldn't say I really have one favourite. I like some and not others, and my preference varies.
What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? I don't think I should answer this without my lawyer present (aka I would really love to finish every one of them, and a couple planned sequels too, but unless my mojo comes back from the war with a serious second wind I don't think it's realistic to hold my breath for any of it)
What are your writing strengths? Settings. I love to describe a place, to make it a character.
What are your writing weaknesses? Um lately? Getting words onto the page.
Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? For myself? I would have to rely on machine translation or have someone else do it, both of which have obvious downsides. For people doing it in general? It can be interesting when the intention is for the POV character (and therefore the audience) not to know what's being said, but otherwise it's distracting at best and pulls me completely out of the story.
First fandom you wrote for? Lord of the Rings. It was at the height of my Karl Urban phase so probably revolved around Eomer. I wonder if I still have it in a box somewhere.
Favorite fic you've written? I'm really fond of quite a few of them, and it's always hard to narrow anything down to a single favourite (seriously, people have to stop asking me to choose just one of anything!), but Run might be the one I'm saddest not to get through. The vibe was so fun, I loved the magic system, and I think adding that to the source material really elevated it into something quite special.
Thanks for the tag, @mulberrylotus! I know that nobody ever takes "if you're reading this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged" seriously but I'm pretty out of things at the moment so... if you're reading this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged? I love seeing people fill these out and hate the anxiety around tagging folks so.
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eleanorfenyxwrites · 2 years
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Other Delights
Extra for Tales From Jianghu Shopping Center - Wangxian's date at the record store! (huge thanks to dokidoki_to_kurakura on AO3 who had the galaxy brain take in the comments to make SongXiao the owners of the record store!)
[Masterpost] [AO3]
-/-
Wei Wuxian’s deft fingers flick through a slightly nonsensical collection of records stacked upright into a milk crate, and Lan Wangji wonders with a sort of clinical detachment if it’s normal for his throat to feel like a desert in response. He swallows thickly and regrets not having had more water with his lunch at Lotus Pier (it had been spicy enough by his standards that he’d had to down three glasses just to make it through the meal, but apparently he’s still somehow dehydrated). Wei Wuxian, thankfully, seems blissfully unaware of Lan Wangji’s plight, though unfortunately that also means that he’s apparently unaware of the lethality of his nimble fingers and can therefore see no reason to cut it out.
“Ah Lan Zhan, look at this one!!” Wei Wuxian cries triumphantly, so Lan Wangji lifts his gaze from the other boy’s hands curling around the edges of the vinyl sleeve to see what he’s actually holding - and promptly looks literally anywhere else, startled into embarrassment as Wei Wuxian laughs happily. “ ‘Whipped Cream and Other Delights’,” he muses, far too loudly. “I should get this to take back to Huaisang for his ah…collection.”
Lan Wangji, unwilling and unhappy lifetime friend to Nie Huaisang, knows just how much his friend would appreciate being given any kind of media that features a photo of a naked, well-endowed woman drenched in froths of whipped cream and ostensibly very little else. Which is precisely why he says, “Huaisang does not enjoy jazz.”
Wei Wuxian just laughs because he is one of the handful of people in this world who can tell when he’s actually trying to be funny - and in fact also laughs at him when Lan Wangji has no idea why, though it never feels mean now that he understands that’s simply Wei Wuxian’s character. Wei Wuxian obligingly slots the record back into where he’d pulled it from and Lan Wangji’s ears gradually begin to feel a little bit less like they’re about to catch on fire. 
Lusting after Wei Wuxian’s beautiful hands is one thing, but he absolutely draws the line at suggestive material in public. Or in private. Perhaps Huaisang is correct (which he will never say aloud even under pain of death) and he really should broaden his media horizons. Just a little bit. If that’s the sort of thing Wei Wuxian likes. The thought of asking Nie Huaisang for one of his gay porn magazines is, however, extremely and wildly horrifying, so he shoves the strange impulse as far away from the front of his mind as he can manage while Wei Wuxian shifts down to the next milk crate in this row to begin idly flicking through its contents.
Mountain Temple Records, Books, & More is the perfect place for a date, in Lan Wangji’s (granted, inexperienced) opinion. It might be the sort of place that Jiang Cheng would (and already did) make fun of them for choosing, but Lan Wangji doesn’t care what he thinks. All that matters is the way Wei Wuxian’s eyes had lit up when he’d seen the ramshackle two-story house in the historic section of town, the whole thing listing ever-so-slightly to the left and outwardly unremarkable save for the hand-painted wood sign in the front yard stating the name of the store.
The interior is cozy and overcrowded in the same way Cloud Recesses is, comfortably full of things that say, ‘Someone, somewhere, thought this was important enough to make. To save. To share.’ The fact that he knows the owners of it saved the house from foreclosure and demolition only makes him even more inclined to like it. He glances up from observing Wei Wuxian’s perusing to spot said owners behind the checkout counter, which is really just a short bookcase - topped with a chunky electric cash register - stuffed between two other taller bookcases crammed and overflowing with more secondhand volumes. He meets Song Zichen’s knowing gaze and offers a nod of greeting before he refocuses on the more important task at hand, though his ears are hot again with the strange sensation that he’s been seen through, rather than simply acknowledged.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian suddenly pipes up, a smile in his voice. “Do you know him? Isn’t that one of the owners?”
“Mn.” The affirmative works for both questions so he doesn’t bother to elaborate, instead reaching out for the punk album in Wei Wuxian’s hands now to add it to the wildly varied stack slowly accumulating in his arms since he knows Wei Wuxian will want it.
“Lan Zhaaaan!” Wei Wuxian protests, though whether it’s over his lack of further explanation or from his strange aversion to being spoiled is unclear.
“Wei Ying.”
“You know handsome men other than me? Should I be jealous?”
Lan Wangji wonders if he really needs ears or if it’s better to just cut them off for a bit of a reprieve from their constant burning.
“Song-Daozhang buys incense from us. He also frequents the same sorts of estate and antique sales as Uncle for books.” Lan Wangji gestures towards the bookcase to the right of the checkout counter, full of books that are visibly secondhand even from where they’re standing. “He told me of the grand opening when he was last in.”
“Ahhh I see, I see,” Wei Wuxian hums, matter solved to his satisfaction. “There’s no reason for me to be jealous then?” he teases just a little further with the air of a man testing the depth of a lake before jumping in. 
Lan Wangji fixes him with as serious of a Look as he can muster before he asserts, “No need.” The smug satisfaction he gets out having successfully flustered Wei Wuxian, self-appointed king of shameless behavior, lingers all the way through the vinyl section and halfway through their lazy browsing of the wall of cassettes.
-/-
Mountain Temple Records, Books, & More is maybe not the prettiest record store in the world, but to Xiao Xingchen it’s perfect. He and Zichen, tired of wandering for the time being, had decided to settle down somewhere with a decently-sized Chinese population and see what else - besides each other - life had to offer them. They’d spent the first few weeks in town couch surfing with the help of various kind souls who didn’t mind a couple of drifters hanging around, and then Zichen had stumbled upon a deal that had been too good to pass up.
A ramshackle old house smack in the middle of the ‘historic’ district of town (it’s roughly four square blocks of houses built in the 30’s, but it’s about as historic as town gets, so it counts), destined for demolition and being auctioned off at an absolute steal in a last-ditch attempt by the city to not have to pay for its removal or worry about selling the land. They’d managed to snap it up with barely a cent to their names, the city more than willing to offload the eyesore onto them at a bargain price (covered with a small loan from the city’s main bank), and just like that they’d had a house.
A house that - through months and months of labor and calling in every favor they could in order to renovate it cheaply into something both livable and workable - now pulls double duty as their living space and their store, as of their grand opening just yesterday.
As far as grand openings go, theirs had gone fairly smoothly, even with the heatwave to contend with and all. No one had expected them to have functioning AC in a house this old, and so the presence of several window units blasting air frigid enough that even Xiao Xingchen had been a little chilly had been a welcome enough surprise for so many people that they hadn’t even seemed to mind the close quarters - or the rather haphazard system Xiao Xingchen had developed for actually organizing everything. ‘Organizing’ in the very loosest sense, really, as neither he nor Zichen feel particularly pressed to conform to anything but their own whims in their space.
Things are a little bit quieter today with the initial excitement over and done with, but there are still quite a few people crowding the narrow walkways, chatting and flipping through their crates full of vinyls or scanning the contents of the overstuffed shelves in the back. There are a handful of kids lounging around on the pair of sofas crammed into the only corner they’d fit, and Xiao Xingchen can’t help but smile a little as he looks out over their little domain, their own small safe haven from the rest of the world.
They’d met hitchhiking across the same stretch of Arizona, and between them they’d done enough odd jobs along the way to snag a battered old Jeep from a guy in California. They’d called that car home for a couple of years, and though it doesn’t really run anymore Xiao Xingchen refuses to get rid of it (while Zichen teases him for being a sentimental fool, always with a tiny smile and an extra kiss to take out any possible sting). It’s nice, he thinks now, to have a more permanent home, a place where they’ve put down at least some shallow roots and collected all the sorts of things that make them happy that had been too inconvenient to keep with them when they’d been living out of the Cherokee.
Now, instead of a rotation of 9 or 10 tapes to cycle through until he wants a new one badly enough to discard one of the old, they have an entire wall dedicated to Xiao Xingchen’s favorite picks. Of course if anyone wants to buy them he’ll have to part with them, but the little lounge space doubles for listening if anyone wants to just borrow it, and despite his enjoyment of the cassettes he’s not emotionally attached - he’d rather see them go out into the world in the hands of someone who will listen to them and appreciate them, connect them to him with a little thread of something, anyway. (Zichen teases him for a sentimental fool for that too, but naturally Xiao Xingchen doesn’t mind.)
It’s Zichen who had decided to add a little used book section wherever they could fit it, and so Xiao Xingchen had been more than pleased to see that the books they have tend towards the odd - very much to his partner’s taste. He scours library and yard sales and estate auctions to collect the sort of flotsam they love to browse through in their spare time, always with a discerning eye for things that may be particularly useful (for himself) or whimsical (for Xiao Xingchen). It all crowds the overburdened shelves around the walls and operates on the same system that everything else in the shop does: if someone wants to hang out and read, more welcome they, and if they love anything enough to want to take it home then Xiao Xingchen is happy to sell it to a good home.
It’s after lunch when Xiao Xingchen spots them - two teenagers, about to finish high school if he had to guess, both of them lanky in a way that says they’re not quite finished growing though they’re already quite tall, nearly as tall as him and Zichen. Xiao Xingchen leans a little closer to Zichen sitting beside him behind the counter and his partner leans in to match him automatically even though he’s obviously engrossed in the book in his hands (his ability to socialize with strangers has been maxed out over the last day and a half, so naturally Xiao Xingchen won’t begrudge him a bit of time to himself while Xiao Xingchen actually mans the till).
“Zichen,” he murmurs, eyes still on the boys wandering through the short rows of record crates, the boy dressed head to toe in faded black and red chattering excitedly to the one in white who hasn’t allowed more than roughly six inches of space between them since they stepped through the door. “Zichen, has someone discovered parallel universes yet?” he teases with his usual irrepressible little smile.
“Hm? It’s possible I suppose. Why do you ask?”
“I believe we have encountered our younger selves.”
That gets Zichen’s attention enough to glance up from the paperback cradled in his hands out across the shop. The pair he’s noticed are easy to spot - even if the one in black weren’t so charismatic his companion’s stiff poise and pure white clothes in contrast to his companion would make them stand out easily - and he smiles a little wider when Zichen chuckles once beside him and offers the boy in white a short nod.
“If you say so, but you smile a lot more than that Lan kid, and I’ve never had that Jiang boy’s level of energy in my life.”
“Oh? You know them?” Xiao Xingchen looks away from the pair to look at his partner in delight, unaware that he’d made friends with the local kids in his meanderings around town.
“Sort of. Lan Wangji, the one in white - his uncle comes to a lot of the same estate sales I go to. He owns the antique shop over in the Jianghu Center where I get our incense, and Wangji or his brother will come to the sales when their uncle can’t. And I don’t know his name but the Jiang kid delivers for Lotus Pier with his brother, I see them both out on their bikes around town pretty much every day. Hard workers.”
Xiao Xingchen hums and reaches over below the cover of the counter to squeeze Zichen’s knee gently. “My Zichen, so wise in the ways of the world!” Zichen just offers him a little barely-there smile of his own before he turns back to his book and Xiao Xingchen looks back out over their little domain with a close eye on the pair.
“I think they’re out on a date,” he sighs happily. Zichen hums quietly in acknowledgement but doesn’t comment. “Maybe with their mannerisms aside, they do still remind me so much of us. You used to dote on me just like that Lan boy.”
He watches Lan Wangji carefully watching his companion’s hands as he flicks quickly through the records, the Jiang boy laughing audibly over their (seemingly nonsensical) filing system as he muses over what it could possibly be. Xiao Xingchen likes that he’s already realized that there is a pattern, even if he can’t tell what it is yet - most people have asked them why everything is arranged randomly, but in truth there’s nothing random about it. 
(The records are organized by Zichen’s taste, with his favorites closest to the register and those he doesn’t care as much for nearest to the door. The tapes are arranged in the same way to Xiao Xingchen’s taste, and the books are simply displayed in the order they were purchased. When Zichen brings home a new lot it goes into the next available empty spot on a shelf, simple as that.)
“Ahh Lan Zhan, we have to get this one!” the Jiang boy says excitedly as he pulls a sleeve free of the middle of a crate, eagerly turning to search for his friend only to visibly start when he finds that he’s so close at hand. “Ah?! Lan Zhan, why do you have so many already?!”
Xiao Xingchen, who has watched Lan Wangji carefully retrieve nearly every album his friend has lingered on each time he’s moved on to something else, hides a smile in his hand as he turns to ring up a girl with cloudy, somewhat unfocused eyes and an impressive collection of facial piercings who approaches with a small mountain of rattling cassettes in her hands.
“You got a problem with those boys?” she asks with a pop of her neon pink bubblegum. Xiao Xingchen chuckles quietly while he starts tallying up her total.
“Not at all, I’m simply comparing their behavior to mine and Zichen’s here when we were younger. Do you have a problem with those boys?”
“Nah, they’re cute. Just wanted to make sure you’re cool before I give you my money. I worked hard for this cash, you know!”
“Well that is a relief, as I appreciate knowing that a part of my music collection is going to someone cool like you.” Zichen huffs a little laugh at him through his nose for that, teasing him without words, but the girl just grins at him and sticks her hand out over the counter, clearly pleased.
“I’m A-Qing,” she says when he takes her hand to shake gently, rather amused himself. “You’re nice, which means you’re never getting rid of me now, gege!”
Xiao Xingchen can’t help but shake his head, still smiling gently at her. “Wouldn’t dream of it, A-Qing. Of course you’re welcome back anytime, and for as long as you’d like.”
A-Qing leaves with a jaunty salute, tapes rattling around in the canvas bag slung over her elbow, and Xiao Xingchen pointedly ignores Zichen’s amused, judgemental silence beside him in favor of going back to watching what he’s pretty sure is a first date happening right there in their store.
He watches the Jiang boy blush and preen under Lan Wangji’s obvious and heartfelt doting, and something about it squeezes in his chest. He scoots his stool a little closer to Zichen’s and reaches across the short distance between them to rest a light hand on his partner’s knee, safely hidden behind the checkout counter. Zichen, in response, shifts his grip on his book to drop a hand down to cover his, thumb stroking slowly against the delicate jut of his wrist. Neither of them have to say anything to know that they understand what the other’s feeling; for Xingchen, a soft nostalgia for meeting his first and only love out there in the middle of so much empty sky and endless sand. For Zichen, the early stages of their relationship when he’d devoted everything of himself to Xiao Xingchen to ensure he felt as loved as he possibly could in a world that he hadn’t totally understood yet (still doesn’t, if he’s being honest).
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says, his voice surprisingly low and soft for such a stern-looking boy.
“Hm? What is it, Lan Zhan?”
Rather than replying verbally, Lan Wangji simply slides a tape out of its spot on the shelf to hold it out for the Jiang boy (but he’d called him Wei? Ah well, it’s not as if Xiao Xingchen can question odd family arrangements considering his own) to see. Wei Ying’s resulting delighted exclamation would naturally draw anyone’s eye to him, but Xiao Xingchen keeps watching Lan Wangji so he sees the quiet pleasure that softens his stern face, obviously pleased to have made his friend happy.
“Alright, I see your point,” Zichen murmurs; Xiao Xingchen glances at him, startled to find that he’d looked up to watch as well, and his gaze is heavy and dark as he watches the pair. “They seem like good kids. Add them to your gaggle of strange ducklings,” he adds, finally giving words to the silent teasing he’s been doing. Xiao Xingchen laughs softly and squeezes his knee as Zichen returns to his book.
He’s got a strange knack for collecting friendships among people that society would typically shy away from. He likes to blame it on the fact that he’d been whisked up as a toddler by Aunt Baoshan, along with whatever other motley children she could find and bring into the house for long enough to wrangle them into a family - it just feels natural to collect people he likes for one reason or another, there’s nothing so wrong with it. Besides, it means that should they ever need help for any reason there are people in nearly every state who they could call on, just as there are people everywhere that they would help in return.
Xiao Xingchen forces himself to stop staring and get back to watching the rest of the people hanging out around the store, and by the time he finishes ringing up a couple more people and making small talk with one of the couples who had given them a place to stay when they’d first gotten to town, Lan Wangji is stepping up to the counter with bright red ears and Wei Ying hanging off his arm with a wide grin, a matching bright blush on his cheeks.
“Wangji,” Zichen greets quietly, and Xiao Xingchen is utterly charmed to see the painfully proper boy turn and give Zichen a tiny little bow.
“Song-Daozhang.”
“It’s good to see you. This is my partner Xiao Xingchen.”
Xiao Xingchen’s smile widens when Lan Wangji turns to him to give him a little bow of his very own. Such a gentleman!
“Xiao-Daozhang. This is my…Wei Wuxian.”
“It’s good to meet you both,” Xiao Xingchen says quickly - mostly out of some sort of pity for Wei Wuxian, who looks thoroughly overwhelmed to have been introduced as Lan Wangji’s. Full stop. “Zichen, do we have an extra bag from yesterday to give them?”
Wei Wuxian recovers quickly enough from his surprise and Xiao Xingchen chats away with him happily as he rings the boys up, Zichen quietly settling everything into the tote bag Lan Wangji is holding open on the countertop. When they’ve finished, Lan Wangji pays for everything (he’s surprisingly suave), calm in the face of Wei Wuxian’s whining protests (that he voices around helpless smiles anyway), and then they’re gone again just like that, taking their happy noise and a bit of Xiao Xingchen’s wistful nostalgia for his own early relationship days with them.
“I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of them,” Zichen soothes quietly as he returns to his book, attuned to Xiao Xingchen’s moods as usual. “They don’t seem like the ‘dinner and a movie’ type for dates. They’ll be back.”
“I’m sure you’re right, as usual,” Xiao Xingchen hums, happy all over again at the choices they’ve made that have led them here.
-/-
‘Partners,’ Song Zichen had said. Wei Wuxian turns that word over and over in his head as he walks beside Lan Wangji back down the grass-lined front walk, cicadas humming and buzzing in the trees around them where they hang low over the sidewalk and offer a bit of shelter from the sun.
“Hey Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian manages to force out when they’ve gone perhaps half a block, headed back towards the main square where they’d chained up their bikes outside the ice cream place they’re planning to grab something at before they head back to Jianghu.
“Mn.”
“When Song-Daozhang said Xiao-Daozhang is his ‘partner’ he meant like. Business partners, right?”
Lan Wangji turns to blink at him, beautiful and ethereal as always in the gently dappled sunlight. It’s late enough in the afternoon that the heat has reached its final crescendo before it’ll hopefully begin cooling off as the sun starts to dip down to the west, and the air is still enough that the leaves overhead barely rustle at all. Some stray finger of a breeze gently lifts a strand of Lan Wangji’s hair from where it’s just barely caught against the crook of his neck and gently nudges it behind his shoulder. Wei Wuxian is startled to discover he’s capable of being jealous of the wind for getting to be the one to do that.
“I do not believe so. Not only.”
“Oh?” It comes out a bit more breathless than Wei Wuxian would like but hey, cut the guy some slack, he’s staring at a boy who could be a supermodel and trying not to freak out about the fact that Lan Fucking Wangji, his beautiful best friend and perpetual crush, is apparently cool and fine with talking about gay people. Just like that.
Lan Wangji turns his head just enough to glance over Wei Wuxian’s shoulder in the direction of the house-turned-record store, his face warming up slightly in the way that Wei Wuxian likes best, because it means Lan Wangji is happy.
“The bottom floor of the house was converted for the store. The top floor contains only one bedroom. Song-Daozhang outbid Uncle for the antique queen-size bed frame from the master bedroom at the estate auction when he bought the house. I do not believe they are only business partners.”
Wei Wuxian blinks and lets his brain fly ahead at its usual hundred miles an hour down the train track of that thought, bound for its inevitable, glorious crash of a conclusion into the side of his mountainous crush for the perfect boy in front of him.
“Hey. Hey Lan Zhan. You want to do something like that one day too, right? Have a house, collect and sell the kind of stuff you like, have a…a partner. To do it with. Right?”
Lan Wangi’s gaze is suddenly red-hot against his cheek where Wei Wuxian is refusing to look directly at him, for fear of losing his nerve completely.
“Mn.”
“You know, I think that sounds pretty great too! We could um. We should do that. The house. The shop. Um. Antiques…’Partners’. Hey!” Wei Wuxian yelps as Lan Wangji grabs his wrist so tightly his fingers overlap each other over the bone and he can’t help but laugh through his protests as he’s dragged bodily off the sidewalk and in between two trees so old there’s barely any space at all between their overgrown trunks for the two of them without squeezing close.
Lan Wangji kisses him there, sandwiched between two towering oak trees with the dizzy rush of his pounding pulse and thrumming cicadas in his ears. Wei Wuxian throws his arms around Lan Wangji’s shoulders and kisses him back with all the sloppy enthusiasm to be expected of his first ever kiss, though Lan Wangji doesn’t seem to mind too much judging by the way he’s got Wei Wuxian backed up hard enough against the tree that he’s pretty sure the bark will leave a strawberry pink impression in his skin until dinnertime.
Another faint gasp of a breeze slips between them, cooling fevered cheeks. This time Wei Wuxian gives in and follows its path with his hands, dragging careful fingers through the silken fall of Lan Wangji’s hair to pull it all aside, bunched into a tail in one hand, just so he can make Lan Wangji shiver with the brush of his free hand feather-light against the sweat-damp nape of his neck.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji breathes. It sticks to his smiling lips, tacky and warm from the press of Lan Wangji’s beloved mouth against his.
“Yeah Lan Zhan?”
“Brother and Uncle are at the shop until 8 tonight for inventory...”
Wei Wuxian grins and slides his hand all the way down from Lan Wangji’s neck to skim over his shoulders, stroke down the graceful arch of his spine, only to find its home right in the back pocket of his trousers.
“Oh yeah?” he teases with a shameless grope that makes Lan Wangji glare at him. This close, mouths still brushing, it heats Wei Wuxian up faster than if they’d suddenly stepped right into the late-summer sun beating down on the middle of the street a few yards away. “Wanna take me home, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian lets the question linger for a long moment before he can’t resist nipping at the inviting curve of Lan Wangji’s bottom lip. “Got any whipped cream or other delights?”
Wei Wuxian can’t help but cackle so loudly it bounces back off the houses around them when Lan Wangji flushes a deep red from his ears down his neck and yanks away to pull him back out from between the trees, forcing him to stumble back out onto the sidewalk so they can walk as quickly as possible back to their bikes. Lan Wangji doesn’t answer, but Wei Wuxian just cheerfully tells himself that that means it’s not a ‘no’ either, and he happily bypasses the ice cream shop in favor of going back to the Lan house as quickly as possible.
(The Lans do, surprisingly, have a bright red can of Original Reddi-Wip in their immaculately organized fridge, but apparently no amount of pouting and wheedling will convince Lan Wangji to use it for anything fun. Wei Wuxian doesn’t mind though - making out with his newly-minted boyfriend is plenty fun without it, and he’s confident in his ability to wear down his resolve and get him to try it eventually. They’ve got plenty of time together stretching out ahead of them, after all, and in the sweet heat of summer nothing feels impossible.)
-/-
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(The scandalous cover in question - 10/10 recommend, it's a great album!)
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nixrainewrites · 1 year
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'You Really Are Shameless'
'Cloud Recesses Era'
"And where the hell have you been ALL morning?" Jiang Cheng said.
Wei Wuxian comes prancing out of the Cloud Recesses Forest with 2 bunnies in his hand. He was covered in dirt.
"Nowhere."
Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow "So 'Nowhere' has rabbits now? Where did you even find them? Go put them back!"
"NO! I'm bringing them to someone." Wei Wuxian yelled.
"If by 'someone' you mean Lan Wangji, you can forget it. Don't give him any more reasons to hate you." Jiang Cheng said.
"Hate me? DO YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS? HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?" Wei Wuxian was frantic.
"Jesus Christ calm down, you get so worked up just by the mention of his name. Is this another prank? Why do you want to bother him so badly?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"Well duh, isn't that obvious?" Wei Wuxian answered with another question.
"No, no it's not!" Jiang Cheng barked.
"Because, he's the handsomest man in Gusu! He deserves these little fluff balls. Plus, he seemed to tolerate the last one I gave him! I told him I was gonna eat it! But instead, he took it away and started petting it! I think he kept it as a pet!" Wei Wuxian started to laugh.
"Hasn't he gotten in enough trouble because of you? Stop coming up with ideas to prank him! You're going to make me look bad" Jiang Cheng retorted, crossing his arms.
"But Lan Zhan said-" 
"Go put the rabbits back!"
"Fine..." He let the bunnies go and sits down and looks as though he's thinking really hard.
"You're going to stop pranking him, right?" Jiang Cheng asked a question, but it sounded more like a demand.
"Of course, of course!" Wei Wuxian said sarcastically while sitting on a rock, blowing the hair that was in his face with a humph- Holding his head up with one hand.
"You're already thinking of other ways to prank him, aren't you?" Jiang Cheng regrettably asked.
"Definitely."
"You Bisexual disaster! I'm not going to be pegged as your accomplice and get kicked out of the Cloud Recesses because you can't keep your dick in your pants. Keep your distance from me!" Jiang Cheng barked.
Wei Wuxian had his mouth gaping open in shock. "What? It's been in my pants!!" He huffed loud.
"I'm telling you; he hates you, and when you flirted with that chick yesterday, his eyebrow twitched!! Don't approach him unless you're actually serious." Jiang Cheng said.
"Oh come on I wasn't flirting with her! We were just having a good conversation, that's all." Wei Wuxian was oblivious.
"Yeah well, I don't think HE knows that. You gotta get your shit together." Jiang Cheng said.
Wei Wuxian sees Lan Wangji in the distance, and he jumps up. He gravitated over to Lan Wangji like a magnet, forgetting about what Jiang Cheng just said. 
"Hey!! Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan! Oh wow Lan Zhan, look at you! You look as beautiful as refined Jade! The rarest of kinds!" Wei Wuxian smiled and hopped on his toes.
Lan Wangji flushed red. "Do not flirt with people if you have no intention of being serious." he starts walking away.
Wei Wuxian was taken back "But I was serious." he mumbled to himself as he ran off to trail behind Lan Zhan. He followed him all the way to class.
They attend class normally - mostly normal- except Wei Wuxian is flicking balls of paper at Lan Wangji from behind. Lan Zhan can't see who is doing it, but he's got a good idea. 
"Pssssst. Lan Zhan." Wei Wuxian whispered.
He was ignored.
Lan Qiren actually thinks Lan Wangji is the one making the racket this time- but it's actually Wei Wuxian - of course. Don't know how Wei Wuxian pulled that one over on Lan Qiren.
Lan Wangji has to talk to Lan Qiren after class, probably because he got in trouble in class due to Wei Wuxian- again.
Wei Wuxian slips off to the library pavilion in the meantime. He has finished writing the Lan rules, but he still comes here. Why? Because it's Lan Zhan's quiet place.
But this time - he decided now of all times, it's time to pull another classic prank.
Lan Wangji still hasn't shown up yet, so Wei Wuxian had time.
He carefully wrapped up all of Lan Wangji's desk supplies! Everything was wrapped in paper, and everything was taped down to something- taped to the desk- taped to the floor- things were tapped underneath the desk -taped to anything and everything. Not only that the paper he chose to use as wrapping paper was from a M/M erotica book~ 
Lan Wangji finally shows up and Wei Wuxian is hiding around the corner all he heard was -
"WEI YING!!"
A moment of silence passes, and Wei Wuxian does not come out.
"Wei Wuxian!!"
Ut-oh. Must do this quick.
"Surprise! Everything's a present!" Wei Wuxian jumps out with a failed attempt at a jump scare, arms flailing, laughing hysterically.
Lan Wangji pinches the bridge of his nose and tried to cover up his beating red face. "It's not funny."
Lan Wangji walks out flustered, unsure how to handle Wei Wuxian's chaos that confuses the shit out of him.
"Don't you like your present?!" Wei Wuxian runs after him.
He pestered him until days end asking which illustration was his favorite. 
"If you don't like your present, how about we try out one those fun looking positions? Maybe the one that's wrapping up the stapler currently?" Wei Wuxian teased and flicked under Lan Wangji's chin.
"You Really Are Shameless." Lan Wangji grabbed and kissed Wei Wuxian out of nowhere. 
//END//
You Really Are Shameless - NixRaine - 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Archive of Our Own]
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lansplaining · 1 year
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I see the "Why didn't they just ask for help??" thing directed towards both JGY and WWX all the time and it's so frustrating lol like who were they supposed to ask? The "nice" people at Koi Tower knew what was happening to JGY and did nothing, and LXC was the sect leader of a different sect he couldn't exactly move in 😭 and the most anyone was offering WWX was "abandon the war refugees you've sworn to protect and come with me" which... isn't helpful?? Does nothing to solve his actual problem???
wouldn't it be nice!!!! it just asking for help was the solution to intractable social problems!!!
i mean this is the whole point of the amazing conversation between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, right? "i can help you, but it's conditional." and to be perfectly clear, I don't blame Jiang Cheng for this-- he's right, and Wei Wuxian knows it and is fine with it! he doesn't need to ask for help, he literally gets offered it (as does Wen Qing, in CQL) and says no to the terms attached.
and with JGY... i get it! man, i really get it. LXC doesn't seem like the type of person who could let someone he cares about suffer, so the problem has to be that JGY is hiding things from him. Yanli's entire personality is her kindness and generosity, surely if she knew how JGY was being treated right under her nose, she'd pull a "an insult to my brother is my problem" speech about it.
but LXC knows! he canonically knows what's going on, and tries to hint to NMJ about it (who didn't know but doesn't care). he and JGY have clearly come to a mutual understanding that there is no help LXC can realistically offer except to listen and to privately support him.
and I just... I can't believe Yanli doesn't know that JGY isn't allowed to hold her son. (alternately, she really doesn't, and she and Jin Zixuan are off in a world of their own to a staggering degree, which I also buy.) she grew up in a complex and toxic family dynamic with two boys pitted against each other, she knows what this looks like. and imo she knows that it's a situation she can't touch with a ten-foot pole. what makes her moment with Jin Zixun exciting is that, for her, it's an extraordinary and unprecedented act of social courage. it's not something she had ever managed before, and we don't see any evidence she ever manages it again. if you decide she is unaware (is it really possible she hasn't noticed that someone is doing all un-fun admin leadership work for the sect and it isn't the heir?), that isn't JGY's fault-- that's her and Jin Zixuan's own decision not to pay any attention to the dynamics of the sect they're going to lead someday. and if you decide she is-- well, she might be less right than LXC in thinking that there's nothing she can do-- she's married to someone who arguably could do something if he really tried, but that also really depends on how you imagine JZX and JGS's relationship-- but she also has way less reason to be emotionally invested and to take that risk.
(all of this goes for Jin Zixuan as well, but as empathy and kindness are emphatically not his central character traits, I think the idea of him not quite engaging with the situation mystifies people less)
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jgys-hat · 2 years
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(Disclaimer: This is based on show canon as I haven’t read the book yet!)
I just...think about Nie Huaisang’s character development a lot... Does he ever think about and miss the person he used to be before his brother was killed and he started his years-long revenge plot, when he had people around him who cared for him? Does he resent JGY even more than he already did, for forcing his hand so that he became a cynical manipulator? And then when he kills JGY, that’s the person who effectively raised Jin Ling (alongside Jiang Cheng), who will now end up as leader of his clan before he’s ready, so does he ever think about the fact that he’s now inflicted on this poor kid something quite similar to what was done to him? Does he ever feel guilty about that aspect of it?
And how much more soul-crushing would it be to find out that JGY killed his brother, given that the two even lived under the same roof for some time, and the help JGY gave him after he became clan leader... That would just make you so much angrier. And I think he does have a lot of anger, he just expresses it differently from how his brother did - it’s a smouldering deep-down anger rather than an explosive outburst, but I think it’s still very much there. You’d have to be that angry to persevere for years with that plot, through the Fear that you could be found out at any moment... And he can’t even express it because he’ll end up risking everything he’s worked towards, he has to keep it hidden behind a mask and has nobody he can confide in, and has to spend years acting as the Headshaker when he’s actually been Changed completely.
Like...his quest for revenge ends up with him becoming more like the person he hated - especially as he has to become so adept at hiding his true feelings behind a mask - and it just makes me so sad for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s perfectly aware of this himself, and is bitter about it. And then there’s the fact that after the whole thing, it’s likely the people who know what happened will find it really hard to trust him in the future - there’s always going to be the thought at the back of their minds of: “What if he’s plotting against me right now and I won’t even know it until ten years from now?” I don’t personally think he’d feel inclined to pull something like that again, but I think they would always be wondering... Especially Lan Xichen - you can tell from his face when NHS says “I don’t know” that last time that he’s not sure whether to believe him...
I would just really like to know more about what happens to him post-canon... I love him as a character so much, partly because every single thing about his life gets sadder the more you think about it. I wanted to cheer for him when he pulled off his plan, but at the same time I just think he really needs a hug :((( I want to imagine that eventually he finds some kind of happiness, because he deserves it after everything he goes through, but I think it would take a long time to get there, and there are a lot of things that would never wholly be made Right again. And... I think there would be an element of not quite knowing what to do with himself now he’s succeeded in what he’s set out to do, and no longer has the fear of discovery hanging over his head at all times. I think it would take a while to adjust to that.
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cygnahime · 2 years
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Okay so
LotR AU, but I am way more into Tolkien than MDZS can ever achieve
and the problem is: you want/expect Sam and Frodo to be Wangxian, right? Slow descent into darkness, “I can’t carry it but I can carry you,” et cetera et cetera. However, I’m gonna be honest, LWJ does not have what it takes to be Sam Gamgee. It’s okay! Neither does anyone else! No one in this dramatic romance tragedy has the common sense Eru gave a cabbage! They make great elves! Kind of shitty hobbits!
Depending on what point in their MDZS character development you pull from, it may be WWX who has opinions about potatoes and remembered to bring cookware and a carefully-guarded box of salt, actually. But even if he’s not as blue-blooded as much of the cast, he was still raised a cultivator, and cultivators? Are stupid. They’re just...they’re not good at survival skills. They’re nobility, and they have sword flight and inedia and the magic that keeps the Lan robes white in a battle. But if Frodo and Sam have any of those things, the story stops hitting right, because it’s not the same kind of horrible trudging struggle.
...Honestly I would read a noromo version with Mianmian as Sam, because she’s the repository for 90% of the story’s common sense, and I guess JZX as Frodo because they’re besties. JZX wouldn’t be a half-bad Frodo, to be honest. He doesn’t do any deeds of incredible martial prowess, and that’s good, because that’s not who Frodo is.
...That makes me think of JGY as Gollum, which he doesn’t deserve but also is the only one who could be opposite JZX. Jin Zixun may also be a narrative foil, like-and-yet-not-like, but he wouldn’t have survived 5 minutes with the Ring, so.
Wangxian remind me most of Gimli and Legolas, dynamics-wise, though once again neither of them deserve Gimli. Probably WWX gets to be him, though, because the Lan are just so intensely elven.
Also! In that post! The CONCEPT of Jiang Cheng in the role of Eomer! Is fascinating! Because that puts, of course, Jiang Cheng’s sister in the role of Eowyn. ...which has some problems, like Jiang Yanli being canonically the female character least suited to Eowyn’s plot role. And also, Jiang Yanli has enough problems in her life without the factors that led to Eowyn’s suicidal depression manifesting as a quest for glory.
I don’t have a conclusion, just evidence that I care A Normal Amount about the Lord of the Rings, and also the MDZS cast would fit better in the Silmarillion, where no one makes good choices ever.
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llycaons · 8 months
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more commentary and excerpts from the spy AU!
first of all this is so much better and more interesting and funnier and more coherent and classier and more erotic and better written than the other historical spy fic set in a country where being gay was illegal and they went to the secret clubs. that gomens fic sucked so bad I thought I hated the entire setting and genre. but this rules. I'm on a rollercoaster of emotion. there's intrigue, drama, angst, secrets. and the characterizations are impeccable.
and this setting provides an opportunity for relationship dynamics that mirror canon in effective and believable ways. wwx getting the siblings out after they lose their home echoes their flight after the LP massacre - they ARE old money so fleeing to hk makes sense, and does myu dying in defiance. jyl being terrified of losing wwx, and wwx being ready to cut ties with the jiangs and go his own way is similarly painful to canon, though in this case it's because of the social and legal ramifications of homophobia rather than wwx's involvement in DC the dream sequence was really good! actually felt like a dream, was symbolic but not obnoxiously so, gave the reader new information, and tied back to canon themes and events
jyl and lwj's genuine budding friendship is so special :3 and I think the writer encapsulates how lwj is such an ethical and good person in ways that many other fics struggle to. jc is a doctor though which kind of shocks me I also find it kind of baffling that jc says some really cruel and hurtful things to wwx when they talk about him being gay like wwx is like 'this is none of your business' and jc is like 'you deserve to get caught' and in the end jyl calms him down and then considers it a good thing?? man I don't agree that wwx would have just forgiven that easily, that's a really horrible thing to say to someone
Tired down to his atoms, Wei Ying wonders if life had been easier back in the age of Mencius or some other ancient time. If the moral battles had been simpler, if conclusions on right and wrong were easier to reach. The times they’re living in now feel too complex. Anything he can think to say to Lan Zhan is insultingly insufficient.
the irony of an alternate universe version of wwx wondering if things had been easier when his canon storyline set in the ancient past was so painful and difficult and full of thorny moral considerations, his debt forever pulling him in different directions...
“What is?” They turn as one to see Jiang Cheng, beach bag in hand. “Uhhh…” Huaisang, whose lying ability hasn’t improved one iota in his years away, flails spectacularly.
SITS BOLT UPRIGHT. NHS A SPY??!!!! I guess he can secretly be just a good liar but any fic faithful to canon should have him unveil a few tricks up his sleeve...his true character is hidden the entire story, and it's fun when fic authors show him as he really is too instead of just the facade
It wouldn’t take much to get Yanli to agree to let them live in one of the rooms, and Wei Ying already has it picked out: the eastern-facing one, so Lan Zhan can spend his mornings in the sun... He even adds Zixuan to the fantasy for jiejie’s sake; he can be reading quietly in a corner, looking adoringly at Yanli while staying absolutely silent.
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