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canary3d-obsessed · 10 months

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 38 part one

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

OK But Why?

This tale-within-a-tale is excruciating, yeah? So let's start off by considering why it even exists. Yi City feels like, if not a fully separate story, a pretty complete arc that can play as its own little movie. And it's incredibly sad, in every direction. While it may have begun life, in its originally-written form, as a different story exploring some of the same themes, MXTX placed it in the novel deliberately, and the producers of CQL included it deliberately. Why? Other than the, you know, catharsis of a well-wrought tragedy?

I think the answer is that it tells a set of parallel stories, alternate versions of the stories our main characters inhabit, with different outcomes driven by the character's choices. There's an obvious parallel between Lan Wangji's grief and Song Lan's, and another clear one between Wei Wuxian's core donation and Xiao Xingchen's eyeball donation.

And there's an important comparison to be made between Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian, two demonic cultivators. They share some formative experiences, but have followed radically different paths, shaped, at a key moment, by another person's choice.

Overall, the Yi City story illustrates how choices made in a moment affect not just an individual life, but ripple outward into other lives. So be prepared for me to point out parallels even more than usual, as we go through these episodes.

Empathy

We start off learning about Empathy and how it’s sooper dangerous, which means of course Wei Wuxian is totally down for it and probably invented it. He gathers the kids around and assigns Jin Ling to be the person in charge of supervising and deciding when to pull him out of the matrix link.

Jin Ling is surprised and reluctant so teacher’s pet Sizhui jumps forward and volunteers.

Wei Wuxian asks Jin Ling for his Jiang clarity bell, which is on a tassel that used to be Jiang Yanli’s.

(more behind the cut!)

Once the bell/tassel is out of Jin Ling’s hand, however, he changes his mind and snatches it, and the responsibility, back.

It seems like Sizhui might recognize this tassel?

It’s like the one Jiang Yanli gave Wei Wuxian when they met up before her wedding, which means Wei Wuxian would have had it with him during their year in the burial mounds.

Jingyi disapproves of Jin Ling’s mind-changing, which is a little unfair since JL didn’t actually say “no” prior to Sizhui putting in his oar. (Sizhui is entirely loveable, but he is also a pushy brown-noser just like Lan Wangji was at his age. He just does it so sweetly that nobody minds.)

Sizhui, also like his Lan dad, has made it his life’s mission to manage a loudmouth hothead’s temper for him.

Heading into empathy with A-Qing, we get flashes of bits of the story that we're about to see in depth. Then we jump to "ten years ago" which, given the way this series does math, probably means seven years ago.

Side note: A-Qing has managed to keep her hair looking pretty cute despite being 90% dead.

Splish Splash

This particular section of the Wuxia River of Sadness is reserved for people who are contemplating the total mess they have made of their lives (gifset here), but A-Qing didn't get that memo, so she's having a nice time splashing joyfully without a care in the world.

A-Qing isn't about drama or being depressed, even when things are pretty difficult. She has found a big rock to sit on and is having a nice day hanging out on it.

Then she goes skipping along singing "la la la la" (which is the same sound in Chinese as we make in English when we're singing and don't know the words, incidentally). Ok, show, we get it, she's happy and carefree. I sure hope she doesn't get involved in any weird relationships.

Grifting

She sees a couple of women walking on the path and she starts pretending to be blind. In the book, this pretense was facilitated by her having completely white eyes, but in the show she has normal brown eyes, until she actually is blinded by Xue Yang. So her entire pretense of being blind is to unfocus her eyes a bit and wave her hands around...

...with frequent intervals where she thinks no-one is watching her, and she acts 100% like she can see. Somehow she is almost never busted for this.

The ladies give her a steamed bun and whisper loudly to each other about how pitiful she is.

Then she heads into town for a little grifting, picking a wealthy douchebag as a mark. She bumps into him and steals his money bag, which he doesn't notice because he's too busy creeping on her.

She's annoyed and disappointed that he doesn't have a lot of money.

Hey Pretty, Don’t You Want To Take a Ride With Me

Next she bumps into (and robs) Xiao Xingchen, who is actually blind, so he doesn’t notice her noticing how extremely pretty he is.

He does notice that she has robbed him, however.

Did you know if you have your eyes removed or even just damaged so you can't see any more, your eye sockets and/or tear ducts will bleed pretty much forever? Yeah, me neither.

Xiao Xingchen immediately takes charge of A-Qing, telling her to walk more slowly and then telling her - kindly - to return his money purse. Before she can answer him, the rich douchebag comes back to yell at her and try to hit her. Xiao Xingchen stops him and smooths over the situation, and then lectures Ah Qing about stealing and how it's bad. But he tells her to keep his money, so - mixed messages, bro.

She calls him gege and says that since he's blind and she's blind, she's going to follow him forever. He’s like, okey dokey, and they walk off together. Is she really the first person (since Song Lan) who’s had this idea about him? He is *very* pretty, after all.

It's unclear to me if she's calling him gege in the sense of “orphan girl who wants a family,” or in the sense of “mostly-grown-up woman who would like to Hit That.” Xiao Xingchen appears to take it as the former; he is too gay virtuous for the other option.

Two seconds after they decide to stay together, they encounter Xue Yang lying injured by the side of the road. A-Qing pretends she didn’t see him, and almost successfully wangles a piggyback ride out of Xiao Xingchen.

But then he hears Xue Yang and immediately decides to rescue him, like the do-gooder Xue Yang despises him for being.

Xue Yang gets the romance-tropey piggyback ride that A-Qing was hoping for. Girl, the time to stop trying to seduce your gay male friend is 5 minutes before you started, ok?

So...why was Xue Yang lying by the side of the road with a stab wound? Who gave it to him? If Jin Guangyao was sick of him, he would have stabbed him 100% fatally, and he wouldn't have let him hang on to Tiger Seal 2.0. And presumably Xue Yang wouldn’t think of him as a friend any more. It’s a mystery.

The new throuple decide to go to the creepiest abandoned walled city that has ever existed, and head past all the regular houses to set up camp in the morgue, for some reason. Not even inside one of the buildings; just out in the courtyard with a bunch of possibly-occupied coffins. Xiao Xingchen is so fucking weird.

Each Unhappy Family is Unhappy in its Own Way

Xiao Xingchen gets to work patching Xue Yang up, and Xue Yang wakes up and recognizes him. A-Qing explains that they are blind and tells him not to be rude about it.

Xue Yang takes a second to process the situation, and then decided he’s going to hide his identity and make nice with Xiao Xingchen. Proving that found family can also have hideous toxic dynamics.

Xue Yang is very careful to keep XXC from touching his hand, since that would give away his identity. He has a...prosthetic finger? He wears a black glove and keeps his pinky finger straight so we know it's a replacement, or injured, or something.

I think this is a concession to Wang Haoxuan having ten functional fingers and the show having a limited CGI budget. In a real sword-based society, missing a finger is probably not particularly uncommon, and he would probably just rock the nine-fingered look without having a special glove.

At this point, the complex interactions of the trio get rolling. Xiao Xingchen is honestly kind, Xue Yang is fake-kind, A-Qing is fake-unaware with Xue Yang and is unable to make Xiao Xingchen understand the problem, and Xiao Xingchen is genuinely unaware of everything.

We spend a fairly large amount of time with Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen playing happy families. As part of his false persona, Xue Yang adopts a coy and whiny tone when talking to his pet white-clad cultivator, remarkably like another demonic cultivator we know.

I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian has never managed to cop a feel while his sweetie climbs up a ladder, however.

Then again, neither Lan Wangji nor Wei Wuxian has ever needed a ladder to get onto a roof, so maybe it’s just a lack of opportunity.

This relationship, on the surface, is cute and sweet, which just makes the reality of it more disturbing. It’s super uncomfortable to watch, but there’s more than manipulation happening in these interactions. As Xue Yang flits around doing domestic tasks like patching the roof of the crappy outdoor shelter that they absolutely do not need to be using, he tells Xiao Xingchen various true things about his early life, and we begin to see what shaped him.

Xue Yang (like OP) is obsessed with candy. In Xue Yang’s case, he was a hungry street kid who loved candy but couldn’t usually have it because of poverty. We learn that he has skills in patching up inadequate housing because he did it growing up.

And we learn that he was beaten a lot.

So he and Wei Wuxian have these things in common - except now Wei Wuxian gets his sugar from alcohol, not from candy. And Wei Wuxian’s handyman skills are used to make a home for his former enemies in the burial grounds, while Xue Yang’s are used - also in a cemetery, of sorts - to manipulate and trap his enemy.

I Want Candy

In classic predator form, Xue Yang uses candy to lure A-Qing into coming within stabbing range, because he thinks she’s faking her blindness and wants to test her.

I find him super attractive right here in spite of his evilness. I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s offering candy. (OP goes and gets a jolly rancher out of her purse).

After calling her over, he draws his sword with a super-loud "sshshk" noise that she inexplicably doesn't notice, and she bravely walks up to, and nearly on to, the point of the sword.

This shocks him and convinces him that she's really blind. He sits her down with apparently sincere gentleness, and gives her candy, while quizzing her about her hot gege.

A-Qing tries to warn Xiao Xingchen about Xue Yang being a bad guy, pointing out that he's a cultivator and won't tell them his name. (She can’t say “also he tried to stab me” because she’d have to come clean about being able to see.) Xiao Xingchen, because he is a condescending prick--albeit a very sweet one--pats her on the fucking head and laughs off her extremely useful warning.

Xiao Xingchen came out into the wider world with a set of ideals that he lives by, apparently without examining them. He’s humble, kind, frugal, and wants to eradicate evil. He also believes that the majority of people are good like him, and that detecting evil is simple--as simple as following his sword toward it. He doesn’t allow A-Qing, who is experienced in the wider world, to teach him anything, preferring to keep his ideals untarnished.

Contrast this with Lan Wangji, who also starts his journey into the wider world with a set of ideals (codified as rules), but does not make the mistake of assuming that other people shares his beliefs. Once he’s away from the Cloud Recesses, he follows Wei Wuxian’s lead when dealing with new people, rather than insisting on doing things the way he did back home. In general, he is open to having his beliefs challenged, even when it makes him upset or uncomfortable. As a result, he grows into a righteous man, not a naïve one, and he’s fully capable of identifying enemies even when they appear to be friends.

Bonus:

In this brief long-distance shot we learn that A-Qing sleeps in a coffin, which is some next level goth girl shit.

Soundtrack: 1. Hey Pretty by Poe 2. I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow 3. Cheap Thrills by Sia

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #yi city #yi city trio #canary3d-original #ep 38

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ibijau · 3 years

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How to Woo a Lan pt 4 / Also on AO3

Jin Ling explains why he fell in love, gets some advice, and tries to give advice of his own in return

Clearly expecting that the conversation would take a while, Nie Huaisang put away his work and called for servants to bring everything needed to serve tea. Once they were alone waiting for that tea to arrive, Jin Ling started explaining how he had fallen in love with the most perfect person in the entire world, how beautiful Lan Sizhui was (this earned him an unimpressed stare from Nie Huaisang), how elegant (more staring), how nice (a roll of the eyes).

“So he is polite, and you find that impressive,” Nie Huaisang noted, hiding a yawn behind his fan. “I suppose someone living in Jinlin Tai and the Lotus Pier wouldn’t be used to it. And of course he’s handsome, he’s a Lan. I think it’s something in the water of the Cloud Recesses.” Jin Ling frowned at the dismissal of Lan Sizhui’s quality, while Nie Huaisang yawned again, this time without bothering to hide it. “Is that why you love him? He’s capable of more basic decency than most people you’ve met in your life -a very low bar, might I add-, he’s somewhat good-looking, and that’s it?”

“Of course that’s not all!” Jin Ling exploded, but he couldn’t explain the rest right away as the servants returned then.

Nie Huaisang, who could act like a good host when he felt like it, prepared tea with slow, measured movements and poured it for both of them when the servants left again. With unexpected elegance, he gave one glass of tea to Jin Ling before making a gesture to order him to resume speaking.

“He really is kind, and I won’t let you treat it like something that doesn’t matter,” Jin Ling said, before taking a sip of tea.

It was nice, if a little plain. Having accompanied both his uncles to conferences in Qinghe before, he knew this blend was considered the better sort of tea available in the Unclean Realm, which comforted him. He had no doubt Nie Huaisang wouldn’t have hesitated to serve him bad tea if he’d really been annoyed about being half blackmailed into helping.

“I know people from Gusu Lan are polite, but it’s not the same as kind,” Jin Ling pointed out, and he could have sworn Nie Huaisang’s mouth twitched in an almost-smile. “When we were in Yi City, he really was nice to everyone, checked those that had gotten poisoned, and encouraged them to eat some congee even if it tasted awful. If it had been me, I’d just have scolded them into eating it! And some of the others with us were scolding their poisoned friends, because we were all worried, but he took time to reassure others, even if he had to be worried too. I mean, his dad was out there fighting stuff, of course he was worried!”

Nie Huaisang made a face at the mention of Yi City, and quickly opened his fan to hide behind. Jin Ling only remembered then that if he and his friends had almost died in that place, it might have been because of this man sitting across from him. It was a really odd thing to think, and if Wei Wuxian in person hadn’t made the accusation, if Jiang Cheng hadn’t later told Jin Ling that the whole thing made sense… how could Nie Huaisang have had the guts to do that, when he was too much of a coward to meet Jin Ling’s eyes when he mentioned this?

“I suppose he’s been raised a little better than most boys his age,” Nie Huaisang conceded,fanning himself just a little too quickly. “An effect of growing up around Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen, both excellent role models, except for their taste in friends. So you love a beautiful young man who is kind to everyone, hm?”

“Well…”

It was Jin Ling’s turn to avert his eyes, his cheeks flushing a little in embarrassment.

“Well, it’s also that he’s not always sweet,” he muttered, before quickly emptying his tea to give himself a countenance.

“How so?” Nie Huaisang asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. He even closed his fan, as if to better focus on what Jin Ling had to say.

“Well. Well, you see, after that whole thing in Jinlin Tai, when Wei Wuxian accused my uncle of murder, and my aunt died, and then me and a bunch of juniors were kidnapped, right?” Jin Ling asked. Nie Huaisang grimaced again. Right, this too was kind of his fault, wasn’t it? “And even then Sizhui was so nice when we were held in that cave, and trying to comfort everyone! But also… Well. I have this very annoying cousin, you see? And he was acting awful, and Sizhui had been patient and patient and patient, but in the end… well, in the end he snapped, and I think if he hadn’t been tied up, he would have slapped Jin Chan in the face.”

Even after this long, the memory of Lan Sizhui’s righteous fury still made Jin Ling’s heart beat a little faster. That it had happened because his cousin had been pestering him was just a nice bonus.

“And also, he tries to hide it, but he’s a little proud,” Jin Ling added. “He really, really likes being praised. His face completely lights up when Hanguang-Jun says he’s done good, and he’s almost glowing whenever Wei Wuxian compliments him and says he’s a good boy and all that. And then when someone says something mean to him, his face does that thing…”

Jin Ling tried to scrunch his own face into an approximation of Lan Sizhui’s expression. He didn’t have a great talent for impressions, but it was still good enough for Nie Huaisang to let out a snort. He then tried to cover it by coughing a few times, but Jin Ling knew what he’d heard.

“It’s never for very long,” Jin Ling resumed, “but I noticed it and it’s just. I guess he wouldn’t like me to call it that, but it’s really cute. I just wish I didn’t keep saying the wrong thing to make him make that face, you know? I want to watch it, not cause it.”

“At least you have self awareness,” Nie Huaisang said, rolling his eyes. “That’s more than several members of your family could ever have said. You’ll just have to learn how to turn a weakness into a strength. Now, tell me, what have you tried to make Lan Sizhui aware of your interest in him?”

Jin Ling, suddenly, desperately wished he had some tea left in his glass, just so he could pretend to drink it instead of facing that question. He ended up turning the empty glass between his hands and staring down at the table, feeling Nie Huaisang’s silence get more and more judgemental the longer it took Jin Ling to answer.

“I see,” Nie Huaisang said after a while.

“You don’t see anything! I just want us to be good friends first, and then…”

Jin Ling trailed off, and toyed some more with his empty glass.

“Fine, then what have you done to become his friend then?” Nie Huaisang insisted, amusement piercing through his voice.

“Well, he hasn’t been around much those last few months,” Jin Ling muttered. “But, well, I went with him on Night Hunts twice before someone killed my uncle, so there’s that. And then he came home not too long ago, and we went on another Night Hunt with everyone! And then…” He sighed, deeply. “And then I said something wrong, and I think I accidentally insulted him, and I haven’t seen him since then and I can’t see him until I figure out how to do things right!”

Nie Huaisang hummed, but didn’t say anything right away. When Jin Ling risked a glance, he found the older man looking at him the way one might inspect a horse before buying it. Jin Ling didn’t particularly care for that. It felt so wrong for Nie Huaisang to have such an intense, calculating expression on his face, making him look miles away from the blundering fool who had bothered Jin Ling’s uncle for years and years.

When Nie Huaisang looked like that, it became too easy that he had done all those terrible things Wei Wuxian had accused him of.

“It’s true that you have a certain gift for saying exactly what people don’t want to hear,” Nie Huaisang stated, fanning himself slowly. “You’re impulsive, that’s your problem, and your uncles both failed you in that regard. It’d be hard to go against your own nature in the best of case, but they've done nothing to help you understand your own temper. I suppose we’ll have to work with it. Have you ever considered taking up a correspondence with Lan Sizhui?”

Jin Ling shook his head. “It’s… isn’t it risky? My uncles have always told me if I start liking someone, I shouldn’t leave traces. There’s always a risk of blackmail, if the other person doesn’t feel the same. Not that Sizhui would ever do that! But, well… Letters can fall into the wrong hands, and because of my grandfather I know people watch me more than other boys my age in case... well...”

“I’m not telling you to write him erotic letters,” Nie Huaisang said with a mocking sneer. “Not yet anyway, and I could teach you a trick or two about keeping those secrets. But simple, polite letters... it’s a good way to stay in touch with a friend, and it would let you think more carefully about what you’re saying, and how you’re saying it.”

“Oh.”

That did sound wise. Even Jiang Cheng was a little less abrasive when writing than in person, and Jin Ling was fairly sure he wasn’t as bad as his uncle. That might be worth trying.

“Another piece of advice,” Nie Huaisang continued, fanning himself with slow, nearly hypnotic movements. “Own up to your faults. Admit to your little friend that you’re aware your mouth goes faster than your brain, and that you often realise too late you said something bad. You could even tell him that you’d appreciate his guidance in correcting this. Gusu Lan disciples love that sort of things, they’re all raised to become teachers. Offer yourself as a student and the fight is half won already.”

“You’re sure?”

“How do you think I even got Lan Xichen to notice me? ‘Please Xichen-gege, please tutor me’,” Nie Huaisang whined in a high pitched voice, his bottom lip trembling for a moment, before his pathetic pout turned into a disgusted grimace as he closed his fan with a sharp gesture. “I think the Lan like a desperate case, so you should have your chance.”

That was a very rude thing to say, but Jin Ling could hardly disagree. Nie Huaisang was a complete mess, that much was clear. And as for Wei Wuxian, the less said, the better. Yet those two absolute disasters had, apparently, managed to seduce the two top cultivators of Gusu Lan, nay, of the entire cultivation world, who surely could have had their pick of competent and emotionally capable partners of any gender.

Jin Ling hated that it did make him feel a little more hopeful.

“Well, that’s all my advice for today,” Nie Huaisang announced, before glancing with disgust at the pile of paperwork he’d set aside earlier. “I have to do my own work these days and it takes a while, so I’d appreciate it if you left. I know etiquette dictates I should invite you to spend the night here,” he added, “but I really don’t feel like it, and I don’t suppose you’d enjoy it either. Who could say if I wouldn’t change my mind and murder you in your sleep, right?”

Nie Huaisang laughed at his own joke, earning an unimpressed stare from Jin Ling for his poor taste in humour.

It probably was a joke.

Right?

Just to be a pest, Jin Ling considered forcing the issue and demanding to be given a room. But Nie Huaisang had guessed right in suspecting that Jin Ling didn’t quite trust him enough to make himself vulnerable in his domain. Not only that, but if he stayed, poor Ouyang Zizhen might start worrying about him, and either try to storm the Unclean Realm on his own, or worse fly toward the Lotus Piers and get Jiang Cheng to storm the Unclean Realm, by far the worst possible option because then Jin Ling would have two other sect leaders furious at him.

“I’ll leave,” he conceded, which made Nie Huaisang smirk. “But can I come back tomorrow, and show you my letter? Just to make sure I’m not writing anything too awful.”

“I would say no,” Nie Huaisang sighed, “but I have a feeling you’ll just do as you please anyway, so I might as well pretend I have any control over this. Yes, come back tomorrow, why not. It’s not like I have anything better to do. Try to be here at the same hour as today, and I should be able to make time for you.”

Jin Ling promised. Nie Huaisang then called for a servant to bring Jin Ling back to the gate so he wouldn’t get lost. The distrust, apparently, was mutual.

Once out of the Unclean Realm, Jin Ling lost no time in returning to Qinghe proper, and there he headed straight for the inn where Ouyang Zizhen awaited his return with much anxiety. The poor boy nearly cried of relief when he saw Jin Ling enter the inn. In fairness though, he was just that sort of a person so Jin Ling told himself he hadn’t caused his friend any actual worry. Still, he made sure to buy the best food the inn had to offer, and some wine as well, just to thank Ouyang Zizhen for having come along.

While they had lunch in the privacy of their room, Jin Ling reported his success, and shared the advice given to him. Jin Ling had told Ouyang Zizhen that he’d gone to Nie Huaisang in particular because he used to be friends with Lan Xichen and thus knew Lan Sizhui, an explanation that seemed to be accepted without further questions.

Jin Ling couldn’t help thinking that Lan Sizhui would have asked for more details about that. He was curious and observant, surely he might have picked up on something wrong with Jin Ling’s lie. Then again, with gossip forbidden, he might not have said anything.

Someday, Jin Ling wouldn’t have to speculate. Lan Sizhui and him would be married, and happy, and they would share everything, unlike some people, so Lan Sizhui wouldn’t even have to pick up clues to know things.

With this goal in mind, Jin Ling started drafting a letter as soon as he was done eating. His first attempt was predictably awful, but to Jin Ling’s surprise, he actually realised that on his own, even before Ouyang Zizhen could check it. Maybe Nie Huaisang had been on to something about it being easier to deal with his temper and lack of social skills on paper. So Jin Ling drafted a second letter, and then a third, while Ouyang Zizhen sat by, reading over his shoulder and occasionally offering his opinion.

By the fifth draft, Jin Ling felt he was starting to get the hang of this.

“I just can’t believe you got him to agree,” Ouyang Zizhen said while glancing at his letter again. “I mean, Nie zongzhu! You’ve said that Wei Wuxian said that he’s the one who got your uncle killed, right? So… are you really sure it’s not a trap?”

Jin Ling chewed on the end of his brush, trying to remember how to write a certain character, and shrugged.

“I’m not sure it isn’t. A trap, I mean.”

“And you’re still going back tomorrow?” Ouyang Zizhen gasped. “He’s given you advice, and good one at that, isn’t it enough?”

Jin Ling shrugged again, and wrote down another sentence.

His friend wasn’t wrong to find him unwise. Nie Huaisang was dangerous, there was no denying it, and he certainly wasn’t nice, that was certain as well. But if Nie Huaisang had been as awful as he pretended to be, he wouldn’t have listened to Jin Ling at all, wouldn’t have talked so fondly about Jin Zixuan, wouldn’t have gotten so upset at the thought of Lan Xichen’s reputation being ruined any further.

Nie Huaisang wasn’t nice, but he probably wasn’t that bad either. No more than other people in Jin Ling’s life, anyway, and at least he didn't shout as much as Jiang Cheng did.

“If I don’t go back, he’ll think I’m scared,” Jin Ling claimed.

“Well, aren’t you?”

“Even if I were, I wouldn’t want him to know that. Anyway, I think I’m done, can you read it?”

Ouyang Zizhen obeyed, and agreed it was about as good as it could get without getting too awkward. It didn’t need to be perfect, anyway. Jin Ling had a feeling that Nie Huaisang would enjoy having something to criticize. So he put away his letter, and went out to explore Qinghe with Ouyang Zizhen, forgetting his love troubles for a little while. They had great fun, and Jin Ling only wished a few times that he could have been doing this with Lan Sizhui instead.

Soon, he would.

Come morning, Jin Ling dutiful returned to the gate of the Unclean Realm. Just like before the disciples guarding the entrance stared him down in disapproval, but this time they let him in almost immediately, and Jin Ling was again led by Qinghe Nie’s first disciple toward Nie Huaisang’s office. This time there was already tea waiting for him when he got there, and the pile of paperwork on Nie Huaisang’s desk looked a good deal smaller and neater. Either he had worked hard to free some time, or he had hidden away anything sensitive to make sure Jin Ling wouldn’t get too curious. Jin Ling figured he would have done the same, and decided to take no offence.

Instead, he put a small pouch of candies on the desk, by the teapot. Nie Huaisang threw him a sharp look for that but pinched his lips so he wouldn't ask any questions. Jin Ling sat down and shrugged.

“You used to bring those to Jinlin Tai when I was little, even if nobody but you would eat them. I figured you had to like them, and since you’re helping me and all…”

“I see good memory runs in the family,” Nie Huaisang noted, glaring at the candies yet making no movement to take one. As if Jin Ling would have poisoned him. It was a coward’s method of murder, Jiang Cheng always said, and Jin Ling was no coward. “Did you write a letter, Jin zongzhu?”

“I did,” Jin Ling confirmed, digging into his sleeve for the latest draft which he handed to Nie Huaisang. “I think it’s pretty good.”

In answer Nie Huaisang just rolled his eyes, and started reading. Jin Ling realised he was getting nervous, as if that odd man’s approval actually mattered in any way. To distract himself he drank some tea, and helped himself to a few candies. They were pretty much nothing but sugar, which made his teeth ache. How could anyone enjoy something like that? Maybe Nie Huaisang had just wanted to be a pest back then, bothering everyone with shitty candies.

“It’s acceptable,” Nie Huaisang said at last, returning the letter to Jin Ling. “Not great, but a clear improvement over the things you tend to say in person.”

“I can rewrite it again,” Jin Ling muttered, disappointed that all his efforts got him so little praise. “If you show me what to change…”

“No, the imperfections are necessary,” Nie Huaisang explained, opening his fan. “If it is too polished, it will be obvious that you’re not writing alone. It really isn’t so bad, anyway. Better than when your father… well, nevermind that. You’re not doing so bad. And inviting him to a Night Hunt is smart, I’m surprised you thought of it.”

“You don’t think it’s too bold?” Jin Ling asked.

“He’s a Lan, they don’t see Night Hunts as a prelude to flirtation,” Nie Huaisang said, before grimacing. “I wish I’d known that when I was young, actually. So don’t hope for anything more than a pleasant moment with a friend. Well, pleasant if you enjoy Night Hunting, which apparently some people do.”

Jin Ling huffed. Of course he liked Night Hunting. Any decent cultivator did. But of course, Nie Huaisang was hardly a decent cultivator, no matter how you looked at it, and his dislike of Night Hunts was no big secret. He only showed up if he had absolutely no choice, Jin Guangyao used to complain, and then he was such a hindrance that everyone would have been better off without him, especially poor Lan Xichen who’d had to rescue him more than once.

But still Nie Huaisang would go and try, Jin Ling remembered. He didn’t enjoy it, but he tried, at least if Lan Xichen was also present. And Lan Xichen did look happy about that, whenever it happened. Really happy, instead of just polite.

It really was too bad that these two had fallen out like that, because they’d seemed to have a good influence on each other, aside from the one murder. Not that any of this was Jin Ling’s business, of course, and he presently held little affection for either man.

And yet...

“Since we’re on the topic of letters. Have you ever thought of writing to Zewu-Jun?” Jin Ling asked, because if it were him having such a huge argument with someone he loved, maybe he would want someone to butt in and help. He wouldn’t like it, but he’d want it. “Because maybe…”

“I have written to Gusu Lan a few times on official business,” Nie Huaisang coldly cut him, closing his fan with a snap. “Aside from this, I have no reason to correspond with anyone there.”

“But maybe you could…”

“I have nothing to say to Lan Xichen,” Nie Huaisang explained, reopening his fan with an impatient flourish. “You see, I am not sorry for what I’ve done,” he said with a cruel smile. “Your uncle deserved to die. He was an awful man, who did awful things, and if I’d truly had my way, he would have died an awful death.”

Jin Ling, who’d thought that losing an arm, being stabbed by his closest friend, and then having his neck snapped by the enraged fierce corpse of one of his victims only to be trapped with said fierce corpse for a century to suffer untold torment had been a pretty awful way to die already, couldn’t help a frown.

He made a decision to never ask Nie Huaisang what he would have preferred to see happen to Jin Guangyao.

“I know what Lan Xichen wants to hear from me,” Nie Huaisang continued, fanning himself. “He most likely wants me to say that I’m sorry. And I could say it. I’m a very good liar, if I do say so myself. So I could lie to him, say exactly what he wants to hear, be exactly the man he wants me to be…” He paused and grimaced in disgust. “But in that case, I would just have turned into another Jin Guangyao.”

“And you don’t want to become like him.”

“I am like him,” Nie Huaisang snapped with such rage that Jin Ling jumped on his seat. “I can’t change that now. I am a good liar, but I’ve decided long ago I wouldn’t lie to myself, and I know what I am. As for Lan Xichen, in spite of his blindness, in spite of his errors, he deserves better than to fall prey to another liar. And that’s why I cannot…”

“You really should write to him,” Jin Ling insisted. “And tell him all that stuff. I mean, since you don’t have regrets and you know you're an asshole, then it’s no big deal telling him things as they are, right? And then at least he gets to know the full truth. You old people really should be more honest instead of making everything complicated all the time.”

Nie Huaisang glared at him, as cold and angry as he’d been the day before, but Jin Ling realised it was already starting to lose its effect on him. It wasn’t so different from when Jiang Cheng threatened to break his legs over every single little annoyance.

Well, it was a little different in that Jin Ling still wasn’t sure Nie Huaisang wouldn’t murder him if he was certain to get away with it, but it was still the same general sentiment.

Jin Ling didn’t even mind that Nie Huaisang impatiently ordered him to leave, grumbling about disrespectful children, time wasted on educating idiotic youths, and how he refused to be involved in this any further. This, too, Jin Ling had heard before from his uncle, and he’d learned to ignore it all.

If the letter and the Night Hunt didn’t work, Jin Ling knew for sure he could come and ask for Nie Huaisang’s help again.

#xisang #zhuiling #lingzhui #jin ling #nie huaisang #mdzs #operation woo a lan #jau writes

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restingdomface · 4 years

Text

On a similar note of Lan Sizhui hugging Wei Wuxian’s legs when upset, consider: the first time he does it in front of a group of cultivators. They’re all on a night hunt and it’s not quite dangerous, but none of them wanted to run into each other and so everyone is fighting and Jiang Cheng is shockingly quiet while not arguing with them (he’s sorta reluctant to be nice to his brother, but he’s not exactly mean now days, he’s just sorta spacing out rn while him and WWX have flashbacks and of being kids and listening to JFM and YZY fighting all the time) and other sect cultivators seem to be bitchy about everything and finally LSZ just. Cannot take this arguing anymore. He’s frustrated. Covered in dirt (not exactly something he personally objects to, but he’s supposed to look clean and presentable to other cultivators). Hasn’t eaten in far too long. Frustrated and maybe a few bruises. And the juniors all seem to be arguing too so he can’t hide with them and watch.

He’s just. Not having a good night. So he stomps over to where WWX is spacing out next to a bored looking LWJ, plops down on the ground, and wraps his arms around WWX’s leg, burying his wittle frustrated face in A-Die’s thigh. It doesn’t get rid of the sound, but it helps a little.

“A-Yuan? A-Yuan, what’s wrong?”

Someone tries to touch Lan Sizhui’s back, and while he’s fairly sure it’s one of the other juniors, he can’t handle this right now, he pulls away, pushing further into A-Die until he has to lean into Baba for support, both of them focused entirely on him now, and made an angry little growl.

Shufu Xichen said he growled like one of Baba’s rabbits, but his fathers seemed to think it was cute.

There was more yelling, and Sizhui was half sure he could hear the unfurling of Zidian, before Wei Wuxian’s Hans cupped the back of his head, gently shushing his whimpers.

“You idiots can take your stupid arguments somewhere else, you’re upsetting the juniors.”

The rest of the cultivators would be stupid to ignore that, and most beat a hasty retreat, leaving the juniors with the teachers who had brought them out here in the first place. Sect leader Jiang stuck himself to Jin Ling’s side, pretending he was just there for the teen, but Sizhui knew he was always reluctant to leave when he ran into his brother.

He knew, because Sizhui was always reluctant to leave his A-Die. Always.

“Is the kid okay? Sizhui, right?”

Wei Wuxian made a little cooing noise as he finally got A-Yuan’s skinny (strong though, so very strong) little arms from around his left thigh, and knelt down next to him. After a few quick checks, he deemed the teen okay. His voice was still soft, softer than most people thought he could do.

People thought that Wei Wuxian would never have a soft voice. That Lan Wangji and Lan Sizhui were going to have to aclimate to him, not the other way around. Wei Wuxian was always so gentle with them when they spoke lower than normal. He didn’t want to hurt them.

“He’s find, Shidi. He got upset with all that arguing.”

He gently pulled the teen in, pressing A-Yuan’s head into his neck, rocking them a little till Lan Wangji’s hand settled on their heads, petting a head of waves and another head of wild hair that couldn’t be tamed.

Jiang Cheng gave up pretense of staying for Jin Ling, and came over to the three of them, letting the juniors to their own gossip, all of them politely staying away from the topic of Sizhui’s frustration for now.

“He’s the one who’s always been at Lan Wangji’s side, since he was old enough for it. What is he, a cousin? He’s next in line to be a sect leader for the next generation, right?”

Wei Wuxian froze for a second, before slowly turning back to look at his husband, giving him a slow frown. “You really never told anyone? I thought it would have been common knowledge?”

Lan Wangji took a moment to find the words, his face turning into a maue of pure distaste, maybe a little shame. “The elders... they always refused his legitimacy until he proved himself. They always questioned where he came from.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes slid shut for a moment, and he used that time to pull himself together. Getting rid of those old fucks was going to be harder than expected. The way they treated the rule book like they could add in anything that upset him, the way they treated the children, the way they separated them all. He just hated them. What they did to his husband... and the apology he never received when it turned out he was right all along...

So, when he turned back to Jiang Cheng, the look on his face might have been more of a glare than his didi deserved. “He’s our son. I adopted him when we were in the burial mounds. Lan Wangji came back to find him where id left him in the hopes none of those fools would kill him. Like they did his family, I’m sure you remember.”

The look on Jiang Cheng’s face was like he’d been struck, but he nodded, looking away after a moment. “Of course. I remember.”

Lan Sizhui was starting to calm down, and Wei Wuxian went back to the rocking and cooing, gently stroking over the boy’s white ribbon around his forehead, now adorned with the same clouds his father wore.

He gently pulled back from the embrace, reluctant to leave his A-Die as always, only really pulling back enough to ask, “are we going home now?”

They were quite a ways away from Cloud Recesses, and would have to get an Inn for the night, but before he could say so, Jiang Cheng gave an awkward little cough. “We’re much closer to Lotus Pier, it’d probably be best for all of you to stay there for a night before beginning the travel back.”

It wasn’t much, to some. But it was everything.

And A-Yuan was fine, as long as they didn’t have to travel there by boat again.

#the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #mdzs #wangxian #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #lan sizhui #a yuan #little lan sizhui #sort of #overstimulation #poor baby just needed a quiet place to hide in A-Dies arms

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bloody-bee-tea · 4 years

Text

Don’t stop being rude

Me: I don’t know what to write.

@chilassa: Write about dehydration

Me: Oh, I guess I can do that in under 1k

Also me, but 2.5k later: 🤡 🤡 🤡

Jiang Cheng is just about to retire to bed when someone knocks at his door.

Usually his fight instinct would kick in immediately because if someone knocks at his door at this time of night, then that means trouble. But he is in the Cloud Recesses for some Sect business and so he doesn’t worry as much.

He still worries, because it’s long past the Lan’s bedtime and his disciples know better than to disturb him for nothing, but he is able to keep it mostly in check and not storm out with Sandu already unsheathed in his hand.

Instead, he walks up to the door in a very controlled manner.

“What?” he barks as soon as he opens it and then frowns when he sees one of Jin Ling’s friends on the other side.

Not Wei Wuxian’s kid, but the loud-mouthed one. Lan Jingyi, if Jiang Cheng remembers correctly.

He’s wringing his hands in front of his body and he’s barely meeting Jiang Cheng’s eyes, so he misses the truly spectacular roll of his eyes.

“What?” Jiang Cheng asks again, a little bit softer this time, because the boy already seems stressed enough.

“My apologies for disturbing you, Sandu Shengshou,” Lan Jingyi starts and Jiang Cheng cuts him off immediately.

“Stop that,” he orders him. “Just say what it is you want to say, no need for formalities. I’m guessing it must be serious if you’re still up and out at this hour.”

“Oh gods, please don’t tell Teacher Lan I’m still up, he’s going to punish me,” Lan Jingyi rushes out and Jiang Cheng has to bite back a smile.

Seems like Lan Qiren is still instilling the fear of punishment into every unsuspecting student.

“Alright, I won’t,” Jiang Cheng reassures him, because Lan Jingyi seems worried out of his mind, going by how his eyes keep darting around. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“So, I know I shouldn’t bother you with this, but Hanguang-Jun and Master Wei are better not disturbed at this hour,” Lan Jingyi says and Jiang Cheng doesn’t even want to know what the poor kid has seen.

“And what is this?” Jiang Cheng asks, much more patient than he actually feels.

“It’s Zewu-Jun,” Lan Jingyi says and Jiang Cheng frowns.

“Isn’t he still in seclusion?” he wants to know, because Jiang Cheng has been in the Cloud Recesses for a few days now and he didn’t see even a single hair of Zewu-Jun.

He only dealt with Lan Wangji or Lan Qiren and naturally assumed that Lan Xichen is still recovering in seclusion.

“Partial-seclusion,” Lan Jingyi gives back and only elaborates when Jiang Cheng raises an eyebrow at him in question. “It means he’s technically Sect Leader again, and deals with all the paperwork and decisions that come with it, but he isn’t meeting people. He leaves the Hanshi every now and then, but mostly to speak or spend time with family. And to visit the rabbits.”

The rabbits, of course. Jiang Cheng will never understand how the rabbits managed to worm their way into Lan Qiren’s heart, so that he would allow the pets to stay. But then again, they are very fluffy and cute.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jiang Cheng asks, shaking every thought of the adorable rodents off.

“He’s taking on too much today,” Lan Jingyi whispers. “I’m in charge of bringing him food and preparing the tea for him, but he didn’t consume either today. I’m really worried. He’s not in the best health after what happened at the temple and I’m afraid he’ll only get worse if he doesn’t eat or drink anything.”

Jiang Cheng clicks his tongue because how can a grown-ass man neglect himself like that, but then he sighs.

He wasn’t much better for many years after he became Sect Leader after all, so maybe he shouldn’t judge too harshly.

“Alright. I guess you want me to talk some sense into him?”

“If it wouldn’t be too much of a bother,” Lan Jingyi says with a deep bow and Jiang Cheng nudges him.

“Stop that already,” he grumbles, but motions for Lan Jingyi to lead the way anyway.

“Thank you,” he whispers and Jiang Cheng can tell that he is really worried about Lan Xichen.

“You two seem close,” Jiang Cheng says as he follows Lan Jingyi down the paths to the Hanshi and Lan Jingyi shrugs.

“He’s my distant cousin, but he always put in a good word with Teacher Lan for me when he was about to punish me again. He’s the only father figure I know.”

“I see,” Jiang Cheng says and then falls quiet.

A lot of orphans came out of the war, and while most of them where somehow adopted into the Sects it’s kind of unusual to give one of them more attention than the others, even if he is distant family.

Jiang Cheng guesses he and Lan Xichen have much more in common than he thought, soft spots for kids included.

“The Hanshi,” Lan Jingyi suddenly says, effectively jolting Jiang Cheng out of his thoughts, and bowing again. “Please talk some sense into him.”

“Oh, that I will,” Jiang Cheng promises and when a tiny spark of fear enters Lan Jingyi’s eyes, he gives him his sweetest smile before he walks off.

“Oh gods, what have I done,” he hears Lan Jingyi mutter behind him, but he doesn’t try to stop him.

Clever boy.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t bother with knocking at the door; he simply marches in. Politeness is for people who are not dumbasses, so Lan Xichen is disqualified.

Jiang Cheng finds Lan Xichen bowed over some letters, reading in candlelight and Jiang Cheng knows from experience that this is neither good for his back nor for his eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snaps out, when it becomes apparent that Lan Xichen didn’t even notice him enter.

Lan Xichen startles badly enough to almost send the letter flying and Jiang Cheng has no qualms laughing at him.

“How did you get in here?” Lan Xichen demands to know once he got his bearings back and Jiang Cheng motions towards the door.

“I’m in seclusion!”

“Partial-seclusion, a little birdy told me. I would think you’d make time for a fellow Sect Leader,” Jiang Cheng gives back as he walks over to Lan Xichen.

“Lan Jingyi,” Lan Xichen breathes out. “That boy makes so much trouble.”

“He’s worried,” Jiang Cheng chimes in, and Lan Xichen turns big eyes on him.

“Why would he be worried?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” Jiang Cheng says with a very pointed look at the untouched dishes of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“Oh,” Lan Xichen weakly says. “Is it already that late?”

“Long past your bedtime,” Jiang Cheng agrees and nudges a bowl of congee closer to Lan Xichen.

It won’t be as good anymore, even if he reheats it, but Lan Xichen needs to eat at least something.

“I’m not hungry,” Lan Xichen dismissively says and turns back to the letter in his hand.

“Absolutely not,” Jiang Cheng hisses and snatches the letter right out of Lan Xichen’s hand. “You’re going to eat and drink something and then you’re going to bed.”

“You can’t just order me around,” Lan Xichen says, though he doesn’t seem angry enough for Jiang Cheng’s liking. “I’m a fellow Sect Leader, you owe me respect.”

“Fellow is right,” Jiang Cheng gives back, totally uncaring of how Lan Xichen tries to take the letter back out of his hands. “You owe me just as much respect, but you don’t see me standing on ceremony here. Let’s just agree that between two Sect Leaders we’re also just two humans, alright?” Jiang Cheng wants to know and he only looks up when Lan Xichen doesn’t say anything to that.

“What?” he gruffly asks when Lan Xichen’s stare becomes unbearable for Jiang Cheng.

“You’re being rude,” Lan Xichen whispers and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“And you’re being dumb,” he shoots back, but Lan Xichen shakes his head.

“No, I mean—so far everyone has treated me with kid gloves or the utmost respect. There’s no in between.”

“And that really sucks, doesn’t it?” Jiang Cheng asks, not at all surprised when Lan Xichen nods.

“It grates, after a while,” Lan Xichen mutters and understanding finally dawns on Jiang Cheng.

“Is that why you’re slaving away over this paperwork? To make them stop treating you with kid gloves and to feel like you deserve their respect?” he asks and when Lan Xichen flinches, he knows he hit the nail on the head.

“What do you know about this?” Lan Xichen hisses out and Jiang Cheng thinks this is the first time he has ever seen Lan Xichen being visibly angry.

“A lot more than I would like,” Jiang Cheng admits and then sighs as he puts the letter down on the table. “It’s easier to throw yourself into work than to think about why they would act like you could shatter at any moment,” he says, very deliberately not looking at Lan Xichen. “So you work and work and work, until eventually that becomes all you do. By then everyone expects this of you, so you can’t even slow down, because then they would think you’re slacking off or breaking under the pressure. It’s not a situation you can win, once you’re in it.”

There’s a long silence after he stops speaking and then Lan Xichen very lowly asks “How did you get out of it?”

“I collapsed,” Jiang Cheng freely admits. “Too little to eat and drink, too much work. I didn’t even sleep properly and one day I simply collapsed from dehydration. My healer beat some sense into me, and my closest disciples offered to help with the workload. They practically forced me to delegate and I thank them every day for it.”

“Other people have done my work for too long,” Lan Xichen mutters and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes.

“So they can do it a little bit longer. Give yourself some time to ease back into things. There’s no need for you to run yourself into the ground like this.”

“But,” Lan Xichen tries but when Jiang Cheng slams his hand down on the table he falls silent.

“No but,” he tells him. “You’re helping no one if you collapse or ruin your eyesight forever.”

“I practiced inedia,” Lan Xichen argues and Jiang Cheng snorts out a laugh.

“Congratulations, that doesn’t help lesson the stress you’re putting your body under.”

“You really are rude,” Lan Xichen says, but he doesn’t seem too displeased by that.

“Better than overly polite, isn’t it?” Jiang Cheng asks and nudges the bowl of congee again. “Eat,” he orders Lan Xichen, who shakes his head.

“I’m not hungry.”

More like long past the point of hunger, Jiang Cheng guesses.

“Drink, then,” he tries next and pushes the by now cold tea towards Lan Xichen. “You’ll dehydrate much quicker than you’ll starve.”

Lan Xichen doesn’t even look down at the cup but keeps his gaze on Jiang Cheng.

“What?” Jiang Cheng bites out when Lan Xichen doesn’t move to look away, and he’s startled to find a small smile on his face.

“Did anyone tell you you’re really annoying?” Lan Xichen wants to know, but his voice is soft and the smile is still playing around his mouth, so Jiang Cheng guesses he can’t be too annoyed.

“Jin Ling, ever other week,” Jiang Cheng freely admits and counts it as win when Lan Xichen huffs out a small laugh. “Drink,” Jiang Cheng orders again and this time Lan Xichen takes the cup.

He makes a face after the first sip, but dutifully drinks until it’s empty.

“Gross?” Jiang Cheng asks and Lan Xichen nods enthusiastically.

“Very,” he agrees.

“Maybe you should get up and make a new pot then,” Jiang Cheng advises him and smiles when Lan Xichen levels him with a look.

“If you want new tea, why don’t you make it?”

“Zewu-Jun, is that any way to treat an honoured guest?” Jiang Cheng asks with mock outrage and leans back more comfortably. “I think your hospitality needs some work.”

“Hospitality, my ass,” Lan Xichen grumbles under his breath, but he does get up and starts working on a new pot of tea. “You’re a menace and nothing more.”

“And I have found that works best when dealing with stubborn and stupid fellow Sect Leaders,” Jiang Cheng innocently gives back.

Lan Xichen busies himself with the tea instead of replying to that, and it’s only when he comes back to the table with the new and hot pot of tea that he speaks again.

“I’m not coming out of seclusion,” he lowly says and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes as he takes the pot out of Lan Xichen’s hands to pour both of them a new cup.

“And I’m not asking you to. In fact, no one is asking you to before you don’t feel ready. I’m just asking you to not be a massive idiot and to take care of your own health.”

“And you couldn’t have done that in a nicer way?” Lan Xichen wants to know but he accepts the cup when Jiang Cheng offers it to him.

“Would it have worked?” Jiang Cheng shoots back and is not at all surprised when Lan Xichen shakes his head.

“And that’s why I didn’t,” Jiang Cheng says and then takes a sip from his tea, practically daring Lan Xichen to do the same.

“Are you going to bully me into self-care every day you’re here now?” Lan Xichen wants to know after he drained his cup.

“If you continue being stupid, then yes,” Jiang Cheng easily gives back and feels very accomplished when Lan Xichen chuckles at that.

“Fine. I expect you back here tomorrow then,” Lan Xichen decides. “I might be very against lunch, you see.”

“I see,” Jiang Cheng replies and mentally pats himself on the shoulder.

He’ll get Lan Xichen to take care of himself sooner or later, he’s sure of that. But he also knows he can’t stay forever, so someone else will have to take his place.

“I’m unavailable for dinner, though,” Jiang Cheng says, even though it’s not at all true. “But I think Lan Jingyi would love to bully you into eating.”

Lan Xichen huffs out a laugh at that.

“He would,” he agrees and pours himself a new cup.

It seems his thirst is hitting him hard now.

“I’ll see if he’s available,” Lan Xichen then says, and Jiang Cheng knows that even if he shouldn’t be, Lan Jingyi will make himself available.

“Good,” Jiang Cheng says and expectantly holds out his cup for Lan Xichen.

“Rude and helpless, I see,” Lan Xichen murmurs, but he dutifully pours Jiang Cheng a new cup.

“And hopefully the first one will rub off on you,” Jiang Cheng mutters. “You could stand to be a little bit more rude.”

“And you could stand to be a little bit more polite,” Lan Xichen shoots back.

“I guess we should make sure to teach the other then,” Jiang Cheng immediately says and Lan Xichen agrees with a small nod.

“I guess,” he also says and then falls silent.

Jiang Cheng guesses it will be a lot of work to make Lan Xichen even a little bit rude, but he’s more than ready to take that challenge on.

Everyone needs some rudeness in their life, after all.

{Buy me a kofi}

#bt writes #the untamed #mdzs #xicheng #pre-relationship #jiang cheng #lan xichen #lan jingyi #seclusion #lxc is being a massive dumbass #humor #jc is his own rude self #and it works

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untamedficrecs · 3 years

Note

hello! do you know if there are any fic abt jin ling's one month birthday where wwx turns up in koi tower like a fairy godmother or smth instead of being stopped on the way? or any like... politics heavy fic? idk why but I have a craving lol thank you for the hard work!

Hi! Wanna say sorry this took me so long to get too, I was planning on answering this sooner but some things came up. I tried my best to find something close to what you were looking for but I apologize in advance if they are not exactly it! I haven’t read all of these fics personally, so some of them might not have personal comments (and they might not actually be what you’re looking for ;;~;;), but here we go!! (sorry for how long this is gonna be!)

cradle by dragonesque

Rating: Teen & up | Canon Divergence | Status: Ongoing | Chapters: 32 | Word Count: 195979 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

☆ warning: graphic depictions of violence

Author’s Summary: After barely surviving the assassination attempt at QiongQi Path, Wei WuXian and the Wen Sect remnants are left to figure out how to protect themselves and their new lives. Meanwhile, the Jiang siblings and an unharmed Jin ZiXuan try to figure out who's bright idea was that stupid ambush. In Gusu, Lan Wangji panics at the idea of Wei WuXian's near death and tries to figure out whether to insist to stay by the Yiling Patriarch's side or hang back in the Cloud Recesses.

And Wei WuXian struggles with the idea of whether becoming a teacher, teaching demonic cultivation and setting up his own sect might not be a bad idea after all...

☆ personal comments: this is honestly one of my favorite fics...while it doesnt fit exactly the first thing you’re looking for (with him showing up/not being stopped...i mean he does show up...but he’s gotta plan some things out and recover before he shows up at koi tower); anyways there is definitely a lot of politics involved in this fic (from trying to form a new sect and an investigation going on with the wen remnants). i think you would enjoy it (or at least hope you will). I hope the author updates soon cause it has been a while, but its def long and will give you something to work through!

birthday party by waffles_4_breakfast

Rating: Explicit | Canon Divergence | Status: Ongoing | Chapters: 8 | Word Count: 25857 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

☆ warning: graphic depictions of violence

Author’s Summary: What if Jin Zixun didn't attack Wei Wuxian at Qiongqi Path and waited until the party to attack?

A fix-it fic where Wei Wuxian gets to attend the party and an entirely different cascade of events follow.

☆ personal comments: I definitely think this fic has a lot of potential with how it’s going. It’s pretty good so far, not really heavy on politics...I would say just a lot of sect drama almost?? (maybe that could still count as politics...but ya know) anyways def would recommend!

can you read the signs? by quiet_crash

Rating: Teen & up | Canon Divergence | One Shot | Status: Complete | Word Count: 5890 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Author’s Summary: At Qiongqi Path, Wei Wuxian loses his patience. What he doesn't lose is Jin Ling's present. After all, he's going to meet his little nephew and no force in the world or beyond is going to stop him.

☆ personal comments: hmmm this one is probably the closest to the first part of your ask!! wwx does in fact show up to koi tower having not been attacked (or well he was attacked but it was de-escalated before bad things could happen!). its set up in kinda like little snapshots of his life almost so yeah, its pretty good!

after a thousand crisis, you still remain innocent by lil_apple (sugafree_agustd)

Rating: General | Canon Divergence | Status: Complete | Chapters: 3 | Word Count: 10583 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Author’s Summary: Every tale has a start. Whether it was for better or worse.

Lan WangJi saved Wei WuXian from Qiongqi path, resulting Jin ZiXuan being alive and the cultivation world being aware of Jin Guangshan's lies. Wei WuXian witnessed Lan WangJi's punishment and went into seclusion with him.

This is the start of great redemption.

☆ personal comments: i really enjoy this fic...its more...hurt/comfort almost than anything else with sweet moments doused in there. politics are there but its not super heavy...but i figured i would recommend it just in case.

confessions of a drunkard by wei_ying

Rating: General | Canon Divergence | One Shot | Status: Complete | Word Count: 736 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Author’s Summary: the yiling laozu is very drunk at a-ling's one month celebration. hilarity ensues.

☆ personal comments: this is just a super short cracky fic i feel like...it’s not really what you’re looking for but I figured I would drop it in here just cause. c:

twelve moons and a fortnight by stiltonbasket

Rating: General | Post Canon | Status: Ongoing | Chapters: 40 | Word Count: 207079 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Author’s Summary: "Let me get this straight. You really want me to stand in for you while you help Jin Ling settle in at Koi Tower?"

"Who else do I have?" Jiang Cheng snaps, ears turning scarlet as Jin Ling tries to pretend he isn't listening. "Father trained you to serve as my deputy, didn't he? And don't say you don't remember, or I'll break your legs."

"Well, yes," Wei Wuxian manages. "Uh. I'll just let Lan Zhan know I'll be at Lotus Pier until you're back at home, then."

In which Wei Wuxian spends the year before his wedding as Yunmeng Jiang's acting sect leader, and the cultivation world's greatest love story finds its happy ending with the help of three juniors, a teenage romance, and one very involved (and exasperated) younger brother.

☆ comments: i haven’t read this fic yet, but i’m recommending it due to the tags...it’s not going to fit into your first category but i feel like it should fit into the politics heavy category...maybe...anyways this is on my own list to read so yeah

end of the bridge by shinocchi

Rating: Mature | Canon Divergence | Status: Ongoing | Chapters: 22 | Word Count: 170542 Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Author’s Summary: Wei Wuxian was ready to walk his dark single-planked bridge all by himself until when that very resolution was shattered by Lan Wangji, who found out he'd lost his core, when they were in the midst of Sunshot Campaign.

☆ comments: ^^ same comments as the one above

magical marriage ribbons by starandrea

Series: 8 works | Word Count: 293,578 | Pairing: Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian

Description: Wei Ying and Lan Zhan somehow find time to be student sweethearts at Cloud Recesses, and it changes the course of the war. Mashup of novel, donghua, and drama, with a little manhua as a treat. Anything that wasn’t AU before Cloud Recesses is certainly AU after.

Happy fix-it with a little plot and a lot of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying being super cute together. Also some babies and animal transformation as the series goes on.

☆ personal comments: i haven’t read all of these works but there are some works in there that have a focus on politics (not heavily focused). they’re really fun to read so i figure i would recommend them anyways.

aftermath by kouriarashi

Rating: Teen & up | Canon Divergence | Status: Complete | Chapters: 12 | Word Count: 57682 Pairing(s): Jiang Yanli x Jin Zixuan, Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian, Lan Xichen x Meng Yao

Author’s Summary: Jiang Yanli lifted her eyes up to Madam Jin and said, calmly, as if from a hundred miles away, “I am a daughter of the Yu sect. Did he think my mother only taught me how to pour tea?”

Or: the AU in which Jin Guangshan targets Jiang Yanli and she kills him before he can ruin everything.

☆ comments: sooo this is another fic on my list to read...i read the first chapter tho...and it looks pretty good...again like the other 2 fics that i haven’t read personally i’m recommending this purely on the tags and hoping that it will fit what you want! i figured i would throw in something that wasn’t just wangxian focused...i mean a yanli focused fic seems pretty interesting so i’m excited to read it!

leave no hatred behind by joythea

Rating: Teen & up | Fix-it fic | Status: Complete | Chapters: 23 | Word Count: 121459

Author’s Summary: Jiang Yanli knows she was raised to be a wife and a good mother. But she knew she didn't need her cultivation to find and stop the man responsible for her precious disciple brother’s death and robbing her son of a father.

☆ comments: ^^ same comments as above

#answered #fic recs #mdzs #mdzs fic rec #wangxian fic rec #jiang yanli fic rec #there are def more politics heavy fics out there...i myself just haven't read them...or its been a while and id really have to dig #anyways if you would like anymore recs just let me know!!#a lot of these are long fics soo hopefully this will give you something to read for a while #also if anyone has any fics that might fit in the categories let me know please!!

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project-paranoia · 3 years

Text

Live Watch: Guardian Episode One, Part One

It's Guardian! The show that got me interested in this genre! I love spooky things and I love mysteries and fantasy! I simply adore it so much! When I can't sleep I just put on a playlist of Guardian in the background. I was aware of censorship before - every country has some version of it, but to some degree this was my first deep dive into how it might effect a piece of media. Guardian is exceptionally acted and incredibly written, as well as suffering from obvious dubs where the dubbing voice actor sounds nothing like the previous actor and odd cuts that are disrupted. In some ways it's the little drama that could fighting its way past their studio going bankrupt while they were filming, reshoots, and being taken down and altered several times.

In some ways Guardian's struggle fits the spirit and aesthetic of the show. Worn in like an old pair of jeans but still making an effort. Putting emphasis where things count and hoping the kindness of the universe will make allowances for the rest. Attention to detail where the story really matters. It has the charm of a community production put on out of love with actors and crew who would not be anywhere else in the world for any amount of money. That feeling of love comes through, and whether or not I'm barely literate I have so many words to share.

Part of why I love it as well is it has that feeling of 80s and 90s fantasy, like Moomin, Xena or Condor Heroes. Everything feels lived in, nothing's been spit shined except for Shen Wei's suits. It's an old city street of a show, it has history and character built in.

*After all that I don't know that I have a tonne to say about the intro. It's very good but it's also full of spoilers. I think having the intro song be in English does make a difference in making it appealing to English speaking audiences as well as standing out as different and interesting, which the show is. Speaking of Spoilers! Spoilers below!

* The obligatory beginning narration is beautifully animated, I have another post that will be done some time before the heat-death of the universe talking about the fascinating world building options. Unlike some Make It SciFi plots, this one has legs and implications.

* Remakes rarely are able to meet the original on equal ground - and I struggle to believe the actors would Fit as well - but part of me really wants to have a chance to have the Dixingren worldbuilding really leaned into. The writing is good enough we get implication but no real follow through. I want fifty episodes of how Dixing functions, give me more pseudo-science behind the mutations, what are the biological differences. I'm hungry for more!

* I love the cameos of later characters, and the way there was some effort to be discrete with spoilers.

* It's Ya Boy! I love Shen Wei. With that music cue and that sinister turn around they really set him up as dubious. I wish they went with something a little different with the intro so his character wasn't spoiled. The writing, directing, and acting was so good and spoiling who Shen Wei is kind of took the teeth out of that.

* Also cheers to the costume designer who outfitted Zhu Yilong so well and made him look jacked with the fit of those clothes.

* Also you can tell this is a real university because the staff has to sit in tiny student chairs. I'm not joking, please be warned if you're going into academia. Unless you have tenure life is An Adventure - and even then.

* Also shout out to Shen Wei's Prized Cabbage and the Queen of our hearts, Li Qian. Why is this actress not in more things? She has such an expressive and lovely face and she really goes all the way in with her acting. I respect an artist that acts from their chest. Also that windbreaker, white skirt combo is chic and fun all at once, it draws the eye and makes her melt into the background all at once - perfect for the character. I love her so much.

* Here's another one of Shen Wei's coats, it's a lovely color for him but it also is so thin that it looks like it crinkled up just from being worn.

* I'm being distracted by details and missing plot stuff.

* Story of my life.

* I love Li Qian hovering along behind Shen Wei like a duckling following their mother. A) Mood and B) it quietly informs their dynamic. Shen Wei has like one person he can trust but no one he can really confide in and it's the same for Li Qian. A ship will find a port in a storm and Shen Wei has Big Da-ge Energy. My fanfic heart hopes they found comfort in the pseudo familial relationship with each other while it lasted.

* Even in episode one we receive foreshadowing, we love and respect some excellent writing. For those of you who missed it - Professor Ouyang is talking about Lin Jing who I love partially because he's so outrageous large but has the total opposite of intimidating energy.

* What did they feed you Lin Jing? He is so tall and wide, but they do a lot with camera work to try to make him not quite as big. Side note, I would really love to see the actor who plays Lin Jing (Liu Minting) both in more dramas but more specifically in a role where he was like a minister or scholar - someone intellectual. I think the combination of being such a big gentleman and also someone who like plots or plans would be really dynamic if it was written well.

* Also I like the exchange where without a word Professor Ouyang indicates he has one last thing to say, it's private and that he would like Shen Wei to ask Li Qian to leave. That's What You Can Do With Good Actors!

* Li Qian is just so pretty and the actress emotes so well!

* Shen Wei totally understanding what's going on with this shady research immediately and wanting to stay as far away as possible. We see one of the first examples of him being aggressively polite to remove himself from a situation.

* "i'M jUST aN oRDINARY sCHOLAR." No one buys it Shen Wei.

* Angy Thinking Face

* One thing the show is really good at is using establishing shots really well so you always know where everything is and everything is going

* Guo Changcheng, all around good boy and angel. We stan a nervous legend

* Zhou Yunlan Arriving. Why is everyone on this show an Absolute Legend

* Guo Changcheng protecting himself with his certificate is too cute. This young man is trying his best and I support him.

* Also that coat is Young, Pure, Stylish; I love it

* Zhao Yunlan, what's wrong with you? You are amazing!

* His irreverent style and disregard of usual policy makes him fit in really well with his band of misfits and special cases

* Guo Changcheng's OO face is too good, elastic face

* Da Qing my love!

* Jin Ling, I think he has an all seeing eye on his hoodie thing. Illuminati Confirmed.

* Also they filmed the shots so well, so you always know where everyone is in relation to everyone else

* Our Prized Cabbage! I love her!

* Great handheld work: shaky and unhinged, but not migraine inducing

* Foreshadowing in the form of a shadow and reaching for the necklace

* Da Qing's cat behaviours. I really want behind the scenes of the actor discussing how cat was he going to cat

* We get our first real example of how Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel safe emoting negatively and so he uses a super sunny mask to hide his feelings, except with Da Qing who he lets his anger show with because he trusts him.

* I'm not even halfway through and I've written so much, peace and blessings to the readers of this.

* Zhao Yunlan's swagger, after his childhood having a little power must feel comforting and good

* I love how Da Qing is talking as a cat less than a meter from the medical examiner. Does the examiner not care or does he know? Is he deaf?

* Harassing Guo Changcheng is the new team sport

* Zhao Yunlan Realises Something Music

* Also, Lollipop Measurement

* It's nice to see Zhao Yunlan just being himself with Da Qing, he's able to really be honest and genuine with him

* Slow Look Moment

* This moment is so fascinating! Shen Wei doesn't know what's going on yet. He just sees an old friend who winces when he sees him and disappears. We mostly see things from Zhao Yunlan's point of view, but from Shen Wei's perspective this is a first part of just some Odd and Confusing Happenings

* This cat though! I love him!

* The delicate way they’re both feeling each other out. This must be so confusing and startling for Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan is trying to figure out if this teacher is going to bust him or what.

* He forgot to let go, way to set off Zhao Yunlan’s suspicions

* “Mark Stewart” Is he though? Who picked out that English name?

* Li Qian! I love her and I love that striped blouse. Fashion. Got to look good when you’re resisting a mental break. *Also she hears a meow and looks around at eye level, I love that for her.

* Zhao Yunlan! You can’t take pictures of young ladies without their permission. What is wrong with you!

* I love Da Qing’s very cat attitude of I Will Have Vengeance for These Wrongs

* Two for one! Shen Wei meets two faces from his past.

* Also, I get a little frustrated about people making a big deal about the 10,000 years versus 1,000 years age thing with Da Qing. a) He has amnesia and b) the thousand years refers to the amount of time needed to cultivate to a certain stage in Chinese mythology - usually by absorbing energy from the sun, moon, or depending on the animal other sources.

* I feel so bad for Shen Wei, who knows what he thinks. Were his friends brainwashed? Did they forget? Can they not say for some reason? What is happening?

This review is getting a little long, so join in tomorrow for Part Two~~!

#Guardian #watchthrough

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luhanvirus · 4 years

Text

Fanfiction gray blue eyes

Jin Ling noticed that he was spending a lot of time with Ouyang Zizhen when he was walking his dog and a pretty boy whistled him loudly.

N/A: Idk what I’m doing, I just saw memes about Jin Ling x Lan Jingyi and I fell in love with the ship haha. A-Yuan is a Wen in this AU.

For the #CultivaTober2020, sorry if my English sucks.

Day 21: Calamity .

Jin Ling noticed he was spending a lot of time with Ouyang Zizhen when he was walking the dog in the nearest park, his uncle Jiang Cheng was sick of viewing him all day in bed just because his only friend isn't in the city for the weekend.

"Get out the house and do something!" he yelled at him after the lunch.

A fucking winter Sunday’s afternoon.

What the hell?

Jin Ling was considerating go the weekends to uncle Jin Guangyao's house. Uncle Cheng has been his favorite uncle since he has memory, but sometimes the man is too intense for someone like him and uncle Yao was more chill than him. He wouldn't judge him because he wanted to stay in his room because he was bored without his best friend around.

After all, Ouyang Zizhen is his childhood friend. So every time he isn’t here annoying Jin Ling with his fanfics or fandom wars, Jin Ling has nothing better to do.

Pathetic, he knows.

But who cares?

Jin Ling never was good doing friends in first place, but he liked Zizhen kind personality when they met in Rusong's birthday and when his uncle Yao encouraged him to befriend with the other boy they became inseparable.

At first, it made happy his uncle Chen, who was delighted with the idea that his nephew would have a good friend after his parents death.

Now, Jin Ling didn't know if his uncle Cheng was annoyed that Zizhen was his only friend or what.

Rusong doesn't count as a friend, he is family. His only cousin.

Perhaps he should talk to this guy who lives the next block and ignore his uncle Cheng advice to not talk with that neightboors, he liked his black leather bomber jacket and quiet personality. Plus they go to the same school, they shares English, History and Sports classes. Even Teacher Lan Qiren loved the guy.

Well, Teacher Lan Qiren liked everyone but Jin Chan.

Jin Ling was pondering about this match when he noticed that Fairy destroyed the lotus pond in garden again. Crap.

Uncle Cheng will kill him.

"Sometimes I don't know if you love me or you hate me." Mumbled Jin Ling as he takes Fairy with him, looking around before to go outside the house.

Unfortunatelly, Wen Yuan wasn’t at home when he passed out of his house.

You could notice this because the house was silent as a crypt, usually when Wen Yuan or his Dad were in the house someone played the flute and other instruments all day. Jin Ling swears he could hear them from his room sometimes.

Geez the man was musician or something like that.

However, he decided to go to the park. Hoping the snow could cover Fairy’s calamity before his uncle Cheng noticed anything. His uncle would love dogs dearly, but it was his lotus pond.

Uncle Cheng loved that lotus pond.

Jin Ling sigh, suspecting that the park was less crowded at this hour.

He wasn’t a fan of winter, neither the snow. Cold was burning his cheeks and Fairy paws, but Jin Ling take the route to the south where were stablished places for dogs. Yet the dog-friendly drinking fountains were already frozen, he knew this place was beautiful in Spring, but now were just the trees and the snow. Not fragrant flowers around.

Yunmeng was so different in winter, thought Jin Ling. Lost in thoughts when someone whistles at him loudly.

Jin Ling twitched.

He looked over at the sound, a part of him was offended while the other really liked what he saw. A pretty boy wearing running at him, wearing white clothes and blue headphones hanging in the neck. Gods, the boy had the most glossy black hair that Jin Ling has ever seen in his life. He just couldn’t stop noticing the perfect way than an hair bangs framed his handsome features and those fanfiction gray blue eyes… Damn Zizhen! Fucking fanfics he read all day!

Nevermind. He was rude.

“Excuse me?"

The pretty boy frowned, blushing when he noticed the misunderstanding and said "Sorry, I didn't wanted to... that was for your dog!"

What?

Jin Ling looked at Fairy and cocked an eyebrow.

Well, people liked huskies a lot. Since his uncle Yao give him a dog for his birthday, he always get stopped by people who wanted to pet Fairy when he go to walk his dog.

“Really?”

"Yeah." The pretty boy said as a beautiful smile rested easily on his lips when he whistled again at Fairy and the dog just wagged the tail friendly.

Fuck, even Fairy liked him.

“Maybe it could be rude from me, but would you let me pet your dog?” He asked, using all his charms when he looked right into Jin Ling's eyes.

Jin Ling tried to control his heart, but he couldn't.

Why is my heart racing? He wondered. He couldn't fall in love at first sight, right?

“You don’t have to do if you don’t want it.” Added the boy, noticing his uncomfortable behavior.

”I don’t mind, go ahead."

The pretty boy didn't hesitate to bent and stroke Fairy's ears, enjoying the fluffy fur. "She is so fluffy. What's her name?"

"Fairy."

"That's a cute name for a dog, did you chose it?"

If Jin Ling didn't fell already for his fanfiction grey blue eyes, he fell in that moment. "Actually, it was my uncle idea."

"Seems like your uncle has an original way to name dogs."

Jin Ling grinned.

He was going to say something more when a voice interrumpted them, breaking the spell.

“A-Yi, we are leaving!”

“Ugh, that's my Dad. See you next time!” He said as he got up and runned to the other side of the park, but Jin Ling wasn't sure if he was talking to him or his dog.

The pretty boy waved bye into distance, smiling.

But Jin Ling don’t waved bye back, he was this skilled with people.

Specially with the people that he liked.

. 　 · ✦

His phone beeps that night.

Zizhen was bored, he knew that. Zizhen didn’t get along with the sons of his father’s friends in the parties.

Jin Ling read the message, raising an eyebrow.

Zizhen:

Missing your grumbling ass ︶︿︶

. 　 · ✦

For wednesday, Jin Ling can’t stop thinking about those fanfiction gray blue eyes or the kissable lips. He had this awful feeling like a hundred of golden butterflies were flying in his stomach every time he thought about the pretty boy in the park.

Gods, he became this such of weirdo.

Sure Zizhen will have a good laugh at his expense when he noticed that his friend had a big fat crush on a pretty boy named A-Yi.

Well, it wasn’t a name. But it was something.

His crush was so overwhelming that he decided went to Wen Yuan house without knowing what he could talk with the guy, they barely knew each other. Maybe Jin Ling didn’t wanted to talk much and just needed Wen Yuan’s Dad loud music so he can’t hear his own thoughts about how that pretty boy made him feel.

When he went inside the house, Wen Yuan’s Dad looked surprised that his boy take a someone at home. He even stopped drinking alcohol before to talk.

He introduced himself with a bright smile “Wei Wuxian. Wine?”

“Dad, please no.”

“A-Yuan, your friend needs it more than me”, Wei Wuxian pointed his face. “Look at him! He seems too devastated to be that young.”

Jin Ling frowned, understanding why his uncle Cheng told him to no talk with the neighbour in first place.

He was so gross.

“Okay, okay. Your old man wouldn’t shaming you in front of your boyfriend.”

“Oh my God, Dad. Why are you like this??” Yuan blushed, really ashamed while his father seemed to have a good laugh at his own son expense.

“Forgive your old man, little radish. Old habits never dies.”

Yuan put a hand to his face. “Sorry, Jin Ling. I swears he’s not like that all the time.”

“I'm going to pretend that I don't hear it.” Jin Ling mumbled, without knowing if he was going to regret coming to Wen Yuan house or not.

“I got the feeling that your face was familiar, are you A-Cheng’s boy?”

The question caught Jin Ling off guard.

“Do you know my uncle?”

“He never talked about me?? What a friend!” He complained, taking another sip of wine “We were childhood friends, best friends actually.”

Jin Ling doubted, seriously.

However, later Wei Wuxian show him an old photo where a younger version of himself was here with Jin Ling's mother and uncle. It were just the three of them, smiling at the camera in Jin Ling's grandparents house.

Jin Ling looked at the photo, admiring how pretty was his mom at that age.

The three of them seemed so happy that Jin Ling wondered what happened, why he didn’t knew this man and why his uncle Cheng told him never speak a word with him.

And for a moment, his mind stop thinking about some fanfiction gray blue eyes.

Well, until monday when he went to school and the Teacher Lan Qiren introduced a new student. The pretty boy, Lan Jingyi.

Fuck, he had a crush on Lan Qiren grandson.

He was really fucked.

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afternoonteawithme · 4 years

Text

The Distance Between

Fandom: MZDS / Pairing: WangXian / Rating: T / WC: 2352

(read it on AO3)

Lan Zhan woke alone in bed.

For a moment, he lay quietly, listening to the sounds of the hotel around him. He’d been in so many over the years, since his first tour with his brother and uncle as a child, that sometimes when he first woke they’d all blend together and he’d have to trace back through his memory to remind himself of where he was.

It was New York, today. And despite the fact that he knew outside the early morning traffic would already be snarling through the streets, inside the insulated walls of the hotel there was only the ever-present hum of air conditioning.

Breathing in deeply, Lan Zhan closed his eyes.

It was time to get up. He’d scheduled an extra technical rehearsal later in the morning that he needed to prepare for, and he had to fit in his own daily practice before that. He wasn’t entirely happy with the way his guqin had been sounding lately, so wanted to take the time to restring it himself before this afternoon’s dress rehearsal, and his manager had been making loud and persistent noises about him having to handle at least a few of the media interviews in person instead of handing off the duty to one of the other soloists. So he really needed to pull himself together, get up, and get to work.

He had duties, responsibilities. Some he’d been given, others he’d taken on, signed up for on his own. He’d always felt they were important, even necessary, and that he was honored to be able to do the work he did.

But right now, more than anything, he wanted to be home instead of in a hotel half the world away.

On the nightstand beside him, his phone buzzed. He stretched over to pick it up and found his lips curving even before he’d swiped a finger across the screen.

“Daddy! Good morning.”

“Good morning, A-Yuan.”

The phone must have been propped on a kitchen counter, as his son beamed back at him framed by piles of dirty mixing bowls and spoons, with a streak of what Lan Zhan thought was likely flour on one cheek. He was probably standing on the stepstool they’d gotten him, since his tiny shoulders were visible over the counter edge, the bright yellow ribbons of the apron Lan Zhan had bought him on his last tour tied in a bow at his neck.

“Daddy, Daddy, we’re making breakfast!”

“I see that. Isn’t it dinnertime there?”

“Uh-huh. We’re making breakfast food for dinner so we can have breakfast when you do. We made pancakes!”

“Pancakes?”

“Uh-huh. Because Dad said that’s what you’d be having.”

“I see.” Since the idea felt like a warm bubble in his chest, both lovely and a little painful, Lan Zhan took a moment to push himself up in the bed, moving back against the headboard before continuing. “That’s nice, A-Yuan. Who’s cooking?”

A-Yuan threw his hands up in the air. “Me! But dad’s helping.”

An adult sized torso wearing a matching apron, this one trimmed with red ribbons, appeared on the screen behind A-Yuan and a hand reached out to adjust the phone’s angle until Lan Zhan’s husband’s face was smiling back at him.

“We didn’t wake you, did we?” Wei Ying asked.

“Of course not. It’s past five.”

“Yes, yes. How could I doubt you and your unnatural alarm clock. How it works even on the other side of the planet is beyond me.”

“It would be.”

Wrinkling his nose at Lan Zhan, Wei Ying picked up A-Yuan, hoisting him up onto his hip so Lan Zhan could see both of their faces. “I’ll have you know this son of ours has had me up before seven every day this past week.”

“Seven?” Lan Zhan shifted his gaze to A-Yuan, who smiled back at him.

“Uncle Huan said it’s easier to get your way if you start out by compromising.”

“Huh.” Wei Ying looked down at him. “Lan Huan said that? Out loud?”

A-Yuan nodded, very seriously. “Every day I wake you up a little earlier. Uncle Huan said it was the best way to get you on a regular schedule before Daddy gets back.”

“Well.” Wei Ying turned wide eyes back to Lan Zhan. “I think you need to come back quickly. Someone is clearly corrupting your brother, and I want to know who.”

“Wei Ying, we’ve discussed this. My brother’s relationships are not our business.”

“They are too.”

“Wei Ying.”

“Well we can discuss that more when you get home.” Wei Ying grinned at Lan Zhan. “Did A-Yuan tell you we’re having breakfast with you today?”

“Mmm. He said you’re making pancakes.”

“We are. A-Yuan did most of the work, he’s so good at it. He’s going to have to be a chef when he grows up so he can feed me every day.”

A-Yuan tilted his head, blinking up at Wei Ying. “But yesterday you said I should be a singer so I can sing you to sleep every night.”

“Hmm. Maybe both?” Wei Ying nodded decisively. “Both. I’ll tell your teacher on Monday and she can start getting your college applications ready.”

“I’m going to be a doctor, like Aunt Qing. She said then I’d get to boss you around.”

Wei Ying shook his head, even as he lifted a hand to stroke A-Yuan’s hair back from his face. “No, no. That doesn’t sound good to me. I think a chef is a good choice. Or maybe a baker?”

Giggling, A-Yuan nestled into Wei Ying’s side. “Whatever you say, Dad.”

Lips curving, Lan Zhan let his back rest against the headboard. For a moment, he truly felt as if he could just step out of his room and into that messy kitchen, as though his family really was only a screen’s distance away. “You have time to decide, A-Yuan. Don’t let Wei Ying bully you into anything.”

A-Yuan smiled at him. “It’s okay, Daddy. Uncle Huaisang said if it’s something really important and Dad’s being silly, I should just agree with everything he says and then do what I want.”

Both parents stared at A-Yuan. Lan Zhan was the first to speak. “Nie Huaisang told you to do that?”

“Oh, not to you, Daddy. He said to do whatever you said, because you were always right. And Dad’s usually right but sometimes he gets strange ideas, so I have to learn to use my judgment.”

“A-Yuan.” Wei Ying placed a finger under A-Yuan’s chin, turning it up so he could meet his eyes. “I’m going to have a little talk with your aunt and uncles when they come over tonight. You should stop listening to any of them.”

A-Yuan grinned up at him. “Okay, Dad.”

“Uh-huh.” Wei Ying huffed out a breath, then kissed to top of his head. “Food’s almost done, I’ll set the table. You go wash up so we can eat before everyone gets here.”

“Okay. Love you Daddy.” A-Yuan blew a kiss at Lan Zhan as Wei Ying leaned down to set him on the floor, and Lan Zhan saw the top of his head as he raced out of the room.

“He’s at the age where he’s like a sponge. Maybe I should tell them all to stay away for a few years.” On the screen, Wei Ying smiled after A-Yuan, then reached out to pick up the phone. The background behind him blurred as he turned, leaning against the counter.

He shot a grin at Lan Zhan. “So tell me again, why do you get to be daddy and I have to be boring old ‘dad’?”

“We agreed to go along with whatever A-Yuan seemed to prefer.”

“I know, I know, but dad isn’t anywhere near as cute as daddy. I tried to bribe him into calling me ‘papa’ but he just said that wasn’t my name.”

“Mmm.” A little more of the tension that had been living in Lan Zhan’s chest started to ease as he watched the shifting expressions on Wei Ying’s face.

“At least I’m not ‘uncle’. Or worse, father.” As he spoke, Wei Ying leaned over and grabbed something off the counter. It was blurry, but Lan Zhan caught a glimpse of a slim tube with a bright red lid.

“Not too much spice. Remember it’s not good for Wen Yuan when he’s this young.”

“I know, I know. I was careful. This is for me.” Wei Ying turned again, and Lan Zhan saw the mess in the kitchen extended to the other counters too.

“How many pancakes did you make?”

“Don’t fuss. We’ll clean it all up before you get back.”

The phone in Lan Zhan’s hand buzzed, and he saw a notification come in from his manager.

Wei Ying must have caught the shift of his eyes as he went still, studied Lan Zhan. “Is someone trying to get ahold of you?”

“It’s fine, for now.” Lan Zhan stifled the urge to shove his hair back from his face, fighting irritation as he felt all the strain that had started to ease slip back into place. “You said you have people coming this evening?”

“Yes, we’re having a Monopoly rematch. Jiang Cheng is bringing Jin Ling over to stay the night, so the boys will watch a movie until they fall asleep, and then the Wens and Nie Huaisang are coming over later.”

“Poor Wen Ning.”

Wei Ying laughed. “He’s already told me he’s going to camp out with the kids for the evening. And we’re giving Nie Huaisang a handicap.”

“He’ll still win.”

Wei Ying scowled. “He will not. Not this time.”

“Mmm.”

“Look, he can’t always win. And we’ve won before when we both play, so why shouldn’t I be able to beat him on my own?”

“Mmm.”

Wei Ying sighed. “You need to hurry home so we can destroy him together.”

“Okay.” Lan Zhan’s lips curved, then firmed again when another notification appeared on his phone.

Wei Ying caught the change in his expression. “Your manager? Do you have to go?”

“Soon.” Taking a deep breath, Lan Zhan tried to shake off the weight building in his chest. He didn’t want anything to ruin these last moments, before he had to say goodbye to Wei Ying and face the day ahead of him. “It will keep.”

“Good.” Wei Ying smiled at him. “You��ll be home soon. Just a few more weeks.”

“Yes. I-” Lan Zhan’s phone buzzed again, cutting him off, and he stared down at the notification, fighting the surge of something that wanted to burst out of his mouth.

The silence between them stretched out for a long moment, as he fought to bring himself under control.

“Lan Zhan, what’s wrong?”

Unable to calm himself, Lan Zhan looked at Wei Ying and saw the concern in his eyes. So, for the moment, he let himself speak from his heart. “I’m tired. I miss being home. I miss you.”

Wei Ying made an odd sort of ‘urk’ noise, and clutched at his chest.

“What’s wrong?” Forgetting everything, Lan Zhan straightened in the bed, forehead creasing in concern.

“You can’t say things like that on a video call, Lan Zhan. Your voice is bad enough, but add in that expression on your pretty, pretty face.” Wei Ying thumped his chest, as though starting his heart. “I can’t take it.”

Relaxing, Lan Zhan shook his head at him. “Stop being ridiculous, Wei Ying.”

“I’m not being ridiculous. You have to at least give me a warning first.” He grinned at Lan Zhan, and brought the phone a little closer to his face. “You, know, like I have to warn you when I say things like our bed is too cold and big without you in it, and I’m getting far too used to all these full nights of undisturbed sleep. You’ll have to fix that.”

Whatever that unknown thing building in him had been, it slipped away, unable to stand in the face of Wei Ying. Lan Zhan felt his lips curve. “Be careful what you ask for.”

“Not my style.” Wei Ying grinned at him, then his smile faded, and he studied Lan Zhan in all seriousness. “When you come back this time, let’s take some time off, alright? A-Yuan can miss school for a week, I’ll take vacation time. We’ll go be a boring, ordinary family for a little while.”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Wei Ying’s lips curved. “It’ll be your reward for not killing your manager.”

Lan Zhan closed his eyes, took a deep breath. “Two more cities. Ten days.”

“You can make it. We’ll be at the airport to bring you home. I can’t wait to wake up to you in the kitchen.”

“In the kitchen?”

“Yes, well, I’m not waking up with you, especially once you start keeping me up at night. You get the early kid shift as soon as you get back.”

“I thought you liked spending the morning all together?”

Wei Ying scowled at him. “You sound like A-Yuan. Whenever I complain about getting up so early he gets this ridiculously sad look on his face and says things like ‘don’t you want to spend time with me?’. I’m not sure which uncle he learned that trick from.”

“You.”

“What?”

“He learned that trick from you.”

Genuinely taken aback, Wei Ying stared at him in shock. “No.”

“Yes, Wei Ying. He absolutely learned that from you.” There was another buzz on Lan Zhan’s phone, and he sighed as he looked at the notification. “I’d better get ready.”

“Alright. Don’t give your manager too hard a time. I love you.”

Lan Zhan studied the warm look in Wei Ying’s eyes.

“I love you too.”

They watched each other, and both smiled.

After he hung up, Lan Zhan gazed for a moment down at the background photo on his phone, of his husband and son grinning back at him, and realized he felt more at peace than he had in weeks. The tired weight he’d been carrying simply wasn’t anymore.

And so he got out of bed, ready to face the day.

#MOSTLY FLUFF I WARN YOU #plus a little tiny tiny tiny angst #mdzs #the untamed #wangxian #mdzs fanfiction #my fanfiction #elliemoran #this is so dialogue heavy by nature #i had a little trouble with the structure and format #plus LAN WANGJI #IS HARD TO WRITE WHEN HE'S NOT MOVING #I DID NOT REALIZE THIS #UNTIL I GOT HOOKED ON THIS FIC IDEA #AND NOW I KNOW

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

Text

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 24/?

CLAMP AU n.3 [chengyu? yucheng? (JC/MXY) edition. don’t...question my taste bruh]: “Somewhere, sometime.”

[tw eating disorders mentioned + tw suicide mention (body sacrifice)]

[ok fam. ok. I get it. I would basically ship JC with a rock if it meant I could play with my crack AUs. but I have solid evidence for this one. I promise you.]

[so, “Kobato” from CLAMP is possibly my favorite series from them. it’s 6 volumes long, roughly 40 chapters (and I only recently found out there was an epilogue...even though it was not there in my published version of the series. bc your local cryptid did in fact buy the entire thing in the flesh, that’s how much I love it)]

[in this AU I’ll change some things for the sake of consistency, but I suggest you read it bc the hurt/comfort and pining is enjoyable...so...if you read my silly AU I’m afraid I will spoil the plot for u :( and that’s the last thing I want to do...I understand if you decide to go read the manga and skip my prompt. it’s ok, I’m fine, go and have fun ;-;]

[if you kept reading, hi :D]

[now. am I uncomfortable with certain common tropes in CLAMP’s work in general? yes. especially the age gaps between some of the characters, some of which are not adults. hence the reason behind the changes in this AU. but! the aesthetics fam. the beautiful drawings. the cute outfits. (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

do you see these?? how cute would Mo XuanYu look in these fam?? I honestly hc him enjoying skirts and feminine outfits a whole lot, but you can imagine him with pants and they would be just as cute. my favorite one is the second from the left btw.]

(imagine Mo XuanYu like this btw and check out the fancomic by the same op! an anon suggested it to me a while ago and now I’m hooked!)

[other mangacaps bc you need visuals:

yeah. angry boy meets bby with a mission to accomplish, bonding over their inferiority complex. yep. I only love the nicest things in life. that’s me.

also look at my baby girl ;-; so cuTe]

[the title is from the ost from the anime series, “Itsuka dokoka de” (check it out!). the anime feels more cohesive than the original manga, possibly bc the pacing is handled a little bit better (since the manga was cut short and the end felt a bit sloppy, but the emotional engagement was still good). and I remember being 17 and crying like a baby when this song came in. if you don’t have time for the manga binge the anime instead! there are plot holes in both of them and the stories are different but still both very enjoyable if you like soft things and angsty vibes.]

[enjoy!]

When YanLi saw him for the first time in front of her door, at the beginning of spring, she thought XuanYu was too pretty and too young for his own good. Sitting across her on the floor, a tea set between them as he politely answered her questions, the boy couldn’t have looked older than sixteen yet he assured her he was of age and well into adulthood. Which seemed pretty difficult to assess, not with the way he dressed: cute button down, beret slightly askew on top of his pretty head and an old-looking suitcases in hand. She didn’t mention the stuffed black rabbit poking out from the front pocket of his luggage, which seemed more of a comfort thing than a reliable source of company.

Moreover, Jin Ling seemed transfixed by him, toddling his way towards their guest asking for cuddles... something her son had never done in front of strangers.

XuanYu refused to give his last name, nor did he have an ID he could show her, nor did he seem worried about how strange that was. And YanLi knew ZiXuan would have been against it, but she couldn’t leave the kid looking all over Lanling for a place to stay... so she gave him the only available room in their rundown pension.

She only hoped Jiang Cheng would be a nice neighbor and leave the kid alone. Who knew what horrors XuanYu was running away from, after all.

When XiChen heard from YanLi of her new tenant, he would have never guessed the kid to look so naive. Not in a bad way, mind you. But his smiles, for how genuine they seemed to be, looked a little bit too big. A little bit too strained not to be a distraction tactic from his part. Or maybe XiChen had lived too long surrounded by fake smiles and closed off people to not worry.

That’s probably why he gave XuanYu a job when YanLi asked him to look over the kid. More to prove himself there were still trustworthy people in the world than to give the younger man a chance. He couldn’t even pay him a full salary, not with the debt collectors breathing on his neck as he tried to run his late mother’s kindergarten.

But maybe that would have been enough for now. A starting point for something better, something new.

A-Yuan had always known the kindergarten used to be an orphanage back in the days, but now he had reached an age where doubts stuck to his head instead of being forgotten with the passing of time. Wen Qing and A-Ning were always busy -be it in the hospital or in university- and A-Yuan didn’t know if they loved him enough to keep him. Ever since granny had passed away he had wondered, day after day, when his cousins would have left him behind for good.

He was thinking about such things when he first met XuanYu, on the man’s first day on the job as a teaching assistant. A-Yuan was mulling over his sadness when XuanYu had come to his rescue, asking him what was wrong... before enthusiastically praising his cousins for working so hard after hearing they were late to take A-Yuan home. XuanYu stayed with him and they played on the swings as they waited for A-Ning to come pick him up, apologizing profusely.

On the way home, his cousin held him close and kissed his forehead as he asked him if he had had fun with the new teacher. And A-Yuan felt less doubtful afterwards.

After hearing the story from her brother, Wen Qing had made it her job to look into XuanYu and his weird approach to life in general. She took every opportunity she could grasp to spy on the younger man, lunch breaks be damned. She needed to confirm if the kid was a trust worthy person or a runaway child pretending to be older than what he actually was. Well, maybe tailing an unsuspecting young man on the streets of Lanling in scrubs and sunglasses would be considered a bit much, she could admit as much. But it was the thought that counted, no?

Her friend MianMian told her to knock it off and talk to the kid like a normal human being, but the truth was that... well, XuanYu was really too weird to be considered normal. He seldom put himself in dangerous situations without much care, such as picking up a random (and still lit) cigarette from the ground just to give it back to the person who had “accidentally dropped it”. Other times he would cross a road without looking left and right first, risking to be run over by cars at every corner. He never, never, fumbled with a phone and he frequently talked to himself... sometimes even directing his words to that creepy stuffed rabbit of his.

No thank you, Wen Qing felt safer behind light poles and crumpled newspapers held upside down. Even if that made her look sketchy as fuck.

Wen Ning made sure to arrive on time to pick A-Yuan up after that time, often chatting with XuanYu as they waited for his baby cousin to retrieve his backpack and raincoat. It was refreshing to speak with the younger man, no matter how weird he acted sometimes. Like that time A-Yuan asked him to tie his shoe-laces for him and XuanYu didn’t know how to do it. Or that time they caught the man taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the school hall. Or that time XiChen had ordered a cake for one of the kids’ birthday and XuanYu didn’t seem to know how to sing the birthday song.

Wen Ning had no place to judge, after all. But XuanYu’s smiles felt like balm on his heart. And if his sweet voice followed Wen Ning home as he bounced A-Yuan in his arms, well. Nobody needed to know that.

The last thing Meng Yao would have expected to hear that summer day when he called the kindergarten was a voice so different from XiChen’s. Startled, he had confusedly asked if the kid worked there and how so, given that the school definitely couldn’t afford to hire anyone. He ought to know. He was the debt collector.

But the kid apologized, introduced himself, and then explained XiChen had offered him a part-time job out of kindness more than out of need. The idiot. XiChen should have remembered who his money belonged to instead of taking charity cases left and right.

But when Meng Yao said as much to naive XuanYu, the other vehemently protested, surprising the debt collector with strong opinions on how he shouldn’t underestimate other people’s intelligence and kindness in the first place.

Meng Yao laughed out at that, genuinely so.

There was more to that kid XuanYu than what one would have expected.

Nie HuaiSang caught a first glimpse of the mystery man only in late summer, when XuanYu stepped into his cake shop to look at the display. His coworker MianMian seemed to recognize the younger man immediately, greeting him by saying they had a friend in common, namely Wen Qing. The kid merely tilted his head and answered he had never formerly met “Miss. Wen” and that he only knew who she was from what the woman’s younger brother had told him about her.

MianMian shrugged and smiled at him.

To which HuaiSang asked him what they could do for him and XuanYu... just... stopped working. Saying that he had wondered if he could do something for them instead. Apparently, Wen Ning had let it slip they were currently understaffed and needed a hand to deliver their sweets.

Delighted, MianMian set him to work, no matter how many times HuaiSang assured her they didn’t need to force the kid to help them... also because they didn’t actually have the means to pay him in kind. But XuanYu refused money altogether, simply asking them to let him help.

To their amusement (and horror) XuanYu didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, so he insisted on covering the deliveries by foot in the neighborhood instead.

HuaiSang called XiChen on the phone that same evening, asking him to give the kid some slack the following day. And maybe buy him some balm for blisters as well.

Jin Ling was young but he wasn’t stupid. Turning three had made him wiser, he knew as much. So he knew XuanYu was magical. He just did.

His pretty-gege talked with stuffed animals, always wore nice things, and kept in his satchel bag a vial filling up with magical candies every time he did something nice for others. A-Ling had seen it with his own eyes, that time XuanYu had put a plaster on his scrapped knee and blew on it to make the pain go away: the golden candy had appeared in the bottle out of nowhere and XuanYu had asked him to keep the secret.

And A-Ling may have been young, but he wasn’t a snitch.

No sir.

ZiXuan eventually stumbled upon their new tenant even though YanLi had tried everything in her power to prevent it. He was very displeased with her: taking a scrawny kid in, cutting his rent in half merely because he couldn’t afford to pay the room in full. Utter nonsense.

No matter how much this kid XuanYu praised A-Ling’s personality or YanLi’s cooking, no matter how much he smiled and made himself look accommodating and unthreatening. ZiXuan didn’t work pro bono even at the firm, let alone for his wife’s business.

Yet, when he asked to be let inside the kid’s room to formally discuss the terms of his contract (and tell him to pack his things and leave at the end of summer), ZiXuan was left speechless. There was no bed, no table or chairs. The fridge wasn’t humming and the AC wasn’t working. The only things he could see were the younger man’s clothes neatly folded in his open suitcase or hanging by the window to dry. No books, no snacks, no nothing.

Usually tenants brought their things in right off the bat, their stuff mailed in within a week after moving in. YanLi was very particular about it, she would have not overlooked something like that. But maybe she had been too busy with A-Ling these past few months and hadn’t noticed the kid was actually too poor to even breathe.

And now that he looked at him, XuanYu looked suspiciously skinny.

Was he sleeping on the floor? Didn’t he have covers for the colder season? Was his fridge broken, empty, or -gods forbid- purposely left with no power because the kid couldn’t afford the electricity bill?

“Do you actually live like this?”

XuanYu didn’t answer to that, but smiled anyway. It looked sinister in a way ZiXuan couldn’t explain, afraid of the things such a young man may or may not have endured in the past. And was maybe still enduring now.

The following day ZiXuan gave the kid their spare futon they bought in Japan on their honeymoon. They never had guests anyway and they could afford to pay for a tenant’s electricity bill every now and then, they weren’t poor.

Certainly YanLi would have agreed with him on the matter.

JinGy saw it. He did! He wasn’t lying! Xuan-ge was there, surrounded by darkness and shadows, looking over the children during their nap time, only a sliver of light coming from the door left ajar... casting shadows on half of his pretty face.

And he saw him reviving that stuffed black rabbit he always had on him.

The rabbit just rose on his hind legs and turned his head up and started whispering things to Xuan-ge, who nodded every now and then in deep though.

JinGyi had read about how paper-man talismans had been stuff of legends in the past. His books spoke of ancient times in which even corpses could be brought back to life. How even animals could turn into godly beasts if enough resentful energy polluted them. But he would have never thought magic could actually be real and so easy to play with.

And Xuan-ge had looked nothing but beautiful as he was talking to the stuffed animal, humming softly under his breath.

When Jiang Cheng dropped out of university for the second time, YanLi didn’t say anything and instead welcomed him back in his old room. So much for enrolling in law school at twenty-three, uh? ZiXuan would have been disappointed in him like the first time that had happened in his bachelor anyway, no point in avoiding the man. It was autumn anyway: it was either going back to the apartment complex or look for a new flatmate. But the school housing had rightfully kicked him out after dropping out in the middle of the academic year, so there would have been little hope for him to find a new place anytime soon.

What he did not expect to find was a new tenant living next door.

Sleeping in front of the door, clutching a satchel bag and a fucking stuffed animal on his lap.

Jiang Cheng jolted him awake and took in the sight of his shoulder length hair, his long lashes and sleepy eyes and thought he looked ridiculous. Wearing a silly hat and moccasins, purple shadows under his eyes, a confused expression on his worn out face. When asked what the hell he was doing there, sleeping out of his room instead of inside of it, the younger man said he had forgotten his keys inside that morning.

He was clearly an idiot, so Jiang Cheng walked away and returned to his room after more than a year away. If someone asked him who had rung YanLi to bring the spare keys to help the idiot he would have shrugged at them and shut the door in their face.

He didn’t have time for that, he had to think how to ask XiChen to let him back to work at the school the following day.

A-Qing had seen many things in life, met many horrible people, dealt with the scum of the scum... but she had yet to meet XuanYu.

A menace. A hurricane. A fool. The amount of times she had had to scoop him up from the ground after he had clumsily slipped on invisible bananas and such should have earned her a honorary title for outstanding citizen. It’s been months since his arrival and the kids had already learned to make way whenever they saw him. He inspired fear even in their tiny heads, honestly. What a fellow teaching assistant, really.

She was just there to score brownie points for his electives and internship program to become a social service worker, that was true. But she cared about the kids enough to know she had to do something about that. The children loved XuanYu and they were this fucking close to either worship him like a small deity or criminal and something ought to be done.

The last thing she would have expected to see, however, was Jiang Cheng coming back so soon. Crawling back from university to ask to work there, wagging his tail like the lovesick dog he was. She could easily imagine what the older student would have said to XiChen, something on the line of “you know goddamn well I’m not doing it for the money. I grew up here, I don’t want to see this place crumbling down. I’m definitely not doing it because I’m in love with you and seeing you sad makes me want to gag.”

Well, maybe the last part could be considered artistic license from her part, but judging by what she could overhear behind XiChen’s office door... yep. She had definitely nailed the part about being fond of the ex-orphanage and for the rest... the sentiment was there. The pining bastard.

“Do you need anything, A-Qing?”, XuanYu asked her out of no-fucking-where, startling her as she pretended to dust off the floor very close to a door. Cheek-plastered-on-it kind of close.

“Nothing. Mind your business,” she answered, flustered as fuck.

XuanYu couldn’t be that naive, he knew what he was fucking doing. His creepy little smile so similar to the one the debt collect always had on his face. No wonder XiChen had fallen for such a tricky bitch.

“Then will you help me find JinGyi? He doesn’t want me to help him with his project for the festival and went into hiding again.”

There, that smile and knowing gaze. Judging poser. He looked much older than his alleged twenty years. He knew what he was fucking doi...

“You?!”

Jiang Cheng’s honest-to-gods screech pulled A-Qing out of her thoughts. She turned and had to witness XiChen amiably patting Jiang Cheng on the head as their boss explained him how XuanYu worked there.

“It’s been almost six months now, he’s a very valuable kid and helped out around here while you were studying.”

Jiang Cheng was both livid and red with longing, because his touch-starved ass was all over that hand patting him platonically on the head. He was also angry, which was default for him... but there was something else underneath. Something promising in the way he stared XuanYu down.

Maybe A-Qing could win some candy by betting with the kids about such unexpected turn of events.

ZiZhen believed A-Yi. If his friend had told him the new teacher assistant was a witch then he was right. So they had started researching witches at the school, but only found a couple of colored books on the matter, mostly useless. All but one, telling the story of a nanny called Mary Poppins... some western thing.

But everything checked for the most part. The hat was there, every day a different one, but ultimately never leaving XuanYu’s head. The umbrella was not, but both him and A-Yuan had seen their gege with a parasol once and that was enough. His satchel contained infinite amount of things, from sweets to possessed stuffed animals, like a qiankun bag from the legends! He talked with things as if he could control them.

Well, even the teacher sometimes tried to convince the printer to work with sweet words, gently coaxing it back to life... maybe that was just how adults functioned. Even his dad would ask the fridge where his favorite cake had disappeared sometimes. Adults were weird.

Fuck Lanling. Rain day and night, autumn planning everyone’s demise by flooding every bloody year. Xue Yang was over it.

He took a random umbrella from the rack by the door of the convenience store and left without a second thought, already wondering what he could say to convince XingChen to offer him dinner somewhere new. The man wasn’t married anymore after all, so Xue Yang could technically have his way with him now, right?

“Excuse me!”

Xue Yang was not in the mood for people calling him out on his bullshit that night, but he turned anyway and saw the weirdest thing. A young man roughly his age, maybe a year or so younger, drenched from head to toe after rushing to him. He was panting, clutching a plastic bag full of cleaning supplies from the convenience store Xue Yang had just left.

“I believe you mistakenly took my umbrella,” the other said, pretty face framed by wet hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks.

Amused, Xue Yang shut the clear plastic umbrella he had “mistakenly taken” and held it at arm’s length by the handle, directing the pointy edge to the other like a sword. Hell if he was going to get wet himself, he needed to prove something to the idiot. He could handle a bit of rain for the sake of being dramatic.

“You want it back?” Xue Yang asked, rising his chin and arching an eyebrow at the other. The man nodded, holding his now wet beret in place on top of his head as if he was more worried about it falling on the ground than keeping his crown dry.

“I knew it was someone else’s when I took it.”

“But...?”

“And what’ll you give me back for it? What are you gonna do about it?”

This should have taught him not to mess with him: he didn’t even have to use his business tone to make the other take a step back. Meng Yao, the bastard, had taught him smiles went a long way in dealing with stupid people after all.

“Right, if I take it from you... you won’t have one to go back home with.”

Uh?

“Wait here. I’ll go buy you one at the convenience store. I’ll be back.”

Uh??

The idiot actually run back to the store and purchased him a fucking umbrella. And Xue Yang was twice as stupid because he waited for him to come back, startled as he was. The idiot was smiling megawatt bright when he came back as well, what the fuck?

The sick bastard extended the clear plastic umbrella to him like Xue Yang had done earlier, but he held it by the middle, as if surrendering his weapon. It was fairly similar to the one Xue Yang had stolen anyway, why bother asking for his umbrella back?

“Did your dead mother give this particular one to you or something?”

The bite in his words only mildly deterred the other man, who pressed his lips together before forcing an even bigger smile on his face.

“No. It’s pretty cheap. But it’s mine. It’s the first thing I bought with my money.”

Xue Yang left after that. With the stolen umbrella. Because he was still a scumbag and not a sentimental asshole. But he was very quiet that evening when XingChen treated him to some fancy takeout on his couch while lovingly drying Xue Yang’s hair with a towel.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Qin Su worried over Jiang Cheng. He was her best worker, but she knew for a fact that he had a million part-time jobs in town and she didn’t want to overwork him. She also knew he would give all of his hard-earned money to XiChen anyway. All to pay a stupid debt. The huge lovesick idiot.

Was he the fastest delivery driver? Yes. Was he the most well behaved of his staff? Not even close. But he was respectful enough to work over his issues and she trusted him with doing his job at the end of the day.

So when she found a young man in a frilly outfit waiting for her on the lobby of her shop asking for Jiang Cheng... well, she was pleasantly surprised.

He introduced himself as XuanYu and held a lunch box in his hands, saying Jiang Cheng had forgotten it at home. Which left A-Su properly impressed. How could a man as angry as Jiang Cheng secure himself such a lovely person was beyond her comprehension, honestly.

He was adorable and she wanted to be his sister like, yesterday.

But when Jiang Cheng came back from a delivery, entering the dumpling shop with his helmet still on, he stared XuanYu down and told him off right off the bat.

“Not you again,” he said, to A-Su’s utter confusion, “Can’t you take a fucking hint? I’m already avoiding you at work. I don’t want to be your friend.”

Something akin to hurt painted XuanYu’s feature for a fraction of a second before he could retrieve his smile and point at the lunch box.

“Your sister asked me to give this to you on my way out. A-Ling helped making rice cakes this time and wanted to hear from you if you liked them or not.”

Qin Su could have easily missed the change in XuanYu’s voice at that, that’s how much of a good actor he was. But Jiang Cheng had no face even to feel ashamed for lashing out at the kid like that. How much older could he be from XuanYu, three years? Two? Had nobody taught him some respect?

“XuanYu, if he bullies you again you come here. Am I understood?”

Like hell she was gonna let this gem of a child slip away from Jiang Cheng’s hands.

Not in a million years.

Song Lan breathed in and out. In and out. The clear morning air surrounded him like an old friend, hugging him closely as he clutched the papers for his divorce.

XingChen had signed them in the end. Five years together were now in the past for him.

Maybe they had been too young back then, when they had taken the chance to get married the moment the government announced the change in the law for people like them. How old have they been, twenty-three? Twenty-four? Another lifetime. An existence away.

He wished he could cry. It would have been easier.

But, as he turned a corner, someone stumbled into him and sent the papers scattering on the sidewalk. Song Lan tried to save them from being dirtied on a puddle but was unsuccessful. He didn’t know why he bothered anymore. It felt like the last piece of his lover had left and Song Lan couldn’t even prevent something as simple as that. XingChen’s signature dirtied in a pool, but not enough to be washed away. What a joke.

The young man in front him bowed down, apologizing profusely, trying to save the documents at the best of his abilities. He even suggested finding a public toilet to dry the sheets under the hot air blowing machine, the silly man.

Song Lan smiled instead, reassuring him it was fine.

He was fine.

But the kid accidentally read the first few lines of the agreement before looking up at Song Lan. And where he would have expected pity, Song Lan only saw consternation instead on his pale face. It was so startling to see it, that he had to crouch back down on the ground next to the kid and reassure him everything was fine. It was just paper, it wasn’t important, he didn’t have to feel so guilty about...

“It is important. Your life is important.”

Such a dramatic sentence, uttered so vehemently, should have sounded weird to Song Lan. Especially because he disapproved of such antics in the first place. But it sounded so sincere, so earnest that he felt touched for a moment.

So he helped the kid up on his feet and asked him to walk a bit with him, to keep him company. Reserved as he was, he would have never thought possible opening up to a stranger the way he did that day. But there was something calming about the kid, almost as if he had been put on earth to soothe other people’s existence.

So he told him how his husband had fallen in love with someone else, someone much younger than them. How this had strained their marriage even if Song Lan had known all along his husband had the ability to fall in love with more than one person at a time. But Song Lan was monogamous and would have never justified forcing his lover to suppress his feelings just to please him. So it had been Song Lan himself to call it quits and wish him all the luck in the world.

The kid had started crying at some point, without Song Lan even noticing at first.

“Why are you crying? Please no, I didn’t wan to upset you.”

“So much love. In different ways but... it’s too much. There’s so much of it, of course I’m crying for you and your loved one.”

Song Lan was many things. Too stern, too rigid, too peculiar about who could touch him or not, too cold in expressing his emotions. But he felt warm then, in front of a kid crying for him in the middle of the street, one day of late autumn.

“Thank you.”

***

XuanYu let it slip once with Mrs. Jin how little he remembered of his past.

It wasn’t a lie, he really didn’t remember what it had been of him before he had met her, asking for a room. But the kind woman just assumed he was talking about his past or youth, so he didn’t correct her on the matter.

Knowing the truth would have scared her, after all.

But he still let himself trust her that day as they sat in front of a pot of tea and he pretended to drink and eat the pastries on the low table. He didn’t need to eat or drink. He wasn’t even sure he had a digestive system.

“I only remember... a song.”

“A song?”

“Yes. Someone singing every night before falling asleep. I don’t think it was meant for me to hear... but my body remembers the shivers. The feeling of being loved.”

“The body remembers the weirdest things, XuanYu. You should trust it more.”

He smiled at that, wriggling his hands on the handkerchief where he had hidden the pastries from sight.

“I’m pretty sure that song wasn’t for me. My body was merely there to listen.”

YanLi looked uncomfortable at that, something scary painting her features.

“Maybe I was eavesdropping,” he reassured her with a self-deprecating joke, not sure if that would have made her feel more at ease or not, “Maybe I was listening in, hoping such lovely words could be directed at me for once.”

Mrs. Jin sipped her tea for a long while afterwards, before finding the resolution to look up and stare him down with a serious expression.

“Unrequited feelings hurt, don’t they?”

XuanYu didn’t know what she meant by that, but he nodded anyway.

He heard something rustling in his bag and hid the sweets inside of it the moment YanLi turned to clear the table. If A-Ling heard someone munching their protests away from inside of the bag, he didn’t snitch on XuanYu and retrieved playing with Fairy on the carpeted floor next to him instead.

Lan Zhan was disappointed in him, XuanYu knew that much. They were admiring the sunset from the small balcony in their room, folding laundry.

XuanYu always wondered why Lan Zhan assumed the form of a black stuffed rabbit, of all things, but he didn’t want to pry. He didn’t even know his real name. The other had told him he used to be a human in his past life and that he hadn’t technically reincarnated in this lifetime. That his current form was just a mean to a goal, that he could use it to guide XuanYu and help him better that way without expending much spiritual energy.

He told him someone dear to him taught him how to manipulate paper-man talismans in his previous life. How similar the process had been to move around in a stuffed animal’s body. How convenient.

XuanYu believed he secretly loved it, even if Lan Zhan would have never said as much. He already talked very little to begin with.

“You told her you don’t remember your past.”

“That I did.”

“Don’t do it again”

XuanYu folded the last towel on his lap and then let Lan Zhan take a nap on it. He felt silly having to take showers and pretend to be a normal human being. He hated inconveniencing the Jins with him, accepting their bedding and paid kitchen appliances and so on. But if he wanted to accomplish his mission he had to make an effort to look normal... instead of spirited away from another world or maybe simply another era.

“I won’t do it again, don’t worry Lan Zhan.”

Lan Zhan was disappointed, but he was also patient to a fault.

Sure, it would have been much appreciated if Mo XuanYu didn’t lose him around every other day. This time the younger man had forgotten to pick him up from the floor where he had been reading stories to the children at the kindergarten.

But Lan Zhan was also a stuffed animal now, so it wasn’t like he could move around and risk being seeing by normal humans. His body was a vessel and any damage would have had repercussions on his soul as well.

What to do.

He tried not to panic when he felt someone picking him up from the floor after an hour or so. He silently prayed for them not to be A-Qing: even in this life she was too smart for her own good and he couldn’t risk being found out so soon. Mo XuanYu wasn’t even halfway to complete his mission and Lan Zhan couldn’t...

“I’m sure A-Yu is looking for you, little guy. What are doing all the way back here?”

It was always difficult to hear his older brother’s voice in this life. To see his face, to notice how sad he was even in this new reincarnation of his.

Lan Zhan didn’t move a single muscle as XiChen dusted him off and put him in his apron front pocket as he looked for “A-Yu”.

In order to give a second chance to Mo XuanYu, Lan Zhan had sacrificed any possibility to ever reincarnate until his mission was accomplished. So XiChen didn’t have a younger brother in this lifetime and he would have not had one for a while. Lan Zhan missed him, but they had to wait for a bit more.

They still had three months to fill the bottle the King of Hell had entrusted Mo XuanYu with. Then he would have entered the list for reincarnation once more and everything will have been fine in the end.

Lan Zhan owed the kid his life, so he trusted him.

No matter what.

XuanYu remembered the boy who had stolen his umbrella. He remembered him well enough to recognize him when he found him crawling on the floor, a stab wound in his belly, one winter night.

Panicked, he asked Lan Zhan what they could do as he instinctively pressed the wound with his bare hands. Lan Zhan didn’t dare move not to attract attention on himself. The other man snarled out at XuanYu, asking him why did he even bother, seemingly recognizing him.

“I took your fucking umbrella. Hate me and leave me alone.”

“Ridiculous.”

Lan Zhan would have been proud of him for that remark, but XuanYu was too scared to think about it. He didn’t have a phone and he didn’t even know the number for emergencies. He wasn’t even qualified to be a teacher. How had he survived until then. He was useless and stupid and...

“What the fuck?” Jiang Cheng’s voice came in a whisper behind him.

What a sorry view the older man had to take in that night: a pool of blood staining otherwise clean clothes, a moaning boy on the ground in restless pain, a crying mess of a sad excuse of a human pressing on a throbbing wound next to him.

Jiang Cheng muttered something about the boy being one of Meng Yao’s men, that they should leave him there to die for all he cared.

The man under XuanYu barked back, telling him he had tried to “convince the idiot of the same”. But XuanYu was horrified by what he had just heard.

“People die for nothing. People die for fucking nothing. You don’t leave someone behind just because you fucking hate them.”

XuanYu has never cursed in this brief, borrowed life of his. Maybe spending so much time with Jiang Cheng had rubbed some of his habits off on him in the end.

Startled, Jiang Cheng seemed to agree with him because he fished out his phone and called an ambulance right away.

The stabbed man laughed at that.

Lan Zhan was clutched in XuanYu’s hands as they waited in the corridor of a badly lit hospital. The kid was crying, hard. He must have remembered how his family in Mo Manor had mistreated him in the past, how easily his own relatives had starved him off just out of spite. How already impossibly emaciated he had been when he had sacrificed his body for Wei Ying, to bring him back in a weakened vessel just to seek revenge. Just to let his hatred run free.

Such cruelty had earned him nothing but distrust from the hell judges, who sentenced him to never be reincarnated again. Only when Lan Zhan had ascended to heaven -many centuries after reaching immortality- he had been able to make them relent.

If Mo XuanYu could prove to be a good human being during a trial time of one year on planet earth, filling a vial with good actions in the form of golden gems, then they would have considered Lan Zhan’s proposal. Mo XuanYu would have atoned his sin and be granted a new life, a clean record, and a second chance at happiness.

Seeing someone almost die in front of him must have awaken something ugly in him. His stained hands, the iron stench in the air. All that blood... like the last thing he had most probably seen in his previous life before his body sacrifice. A scarlet array under his feet, another soul replacing his in his own body.

Lan Zhan let himself be held tightly in Mo XuanYu’s hands that night at the hospital.

And hugged back without anyone else noticing.

Xiao XingChen. That was the name of the man showing up at the kindergarten one week later. XuanYu had never seen him before, but the man hugged him in front of the kids, alerting both XiChen and Jiang Cheng.

“Thank you,” the tall man said in between tears, holding him tight.

“I don’t understand. I...”

“You saved A-Yang. Thank you.”

XuanYu pressed his lips together tightly at that, so overwhelmed he didn’t know what to say. His fingertips hurting with sometimes akin to electricity the more he let himself be held so fiercely by the other man.

He started crying in earnest only after the man had left, surrounded by the children who worried and fussed over him. He fell asleep with them during nap time and when he woke up he found Jiang Cheng placing a quilt over him.

Caught red handed, the older man feigned disinterest in the beginning... but then he sat down next to him. Just like he had done in the hospital one week ago.

“Did you see someone die before?” Jiang Cheng asked then, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, “You had such a strong... reaction to my words. It was insensitive of me. I apologize for angering you. I’ll better myself.”

XuanYu didn’t answer at that.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to sacrifice yourself to hatred and revenge. How much it had scarred him to be brought back to life, but only as a worn out set of robes on top of someone else’s soul. How distant he had felt when the Yiling Patriarch had inhabited his body and had let himself be touched by someone else.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to be touched in the flesh but be utterly unreachable as a soul. Or how much it hurt to become an empty body filled by someone foreign and new. Someone who could wear his skin better than him.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood. And thank all the gods for that.

So XuanYu... Mo XuanYu kept quiet and smiled instead.

Lan Zhan didn’t trust Jiang Cheng. He hadn’t in the past and he wasn’t gonna start now. Wei Ying would have been so disappointed in him for thinking badly of his baby brother, but there was little Lan Zhan could do about that.

Wei Ying wasn’t there to judge him for it.

Mo XuanYu would wake up every morning and wash himself, get dressed and tidy up the room before leaving. He would fix his appearance in a mirror Young Lady Jiang had gifted him in autumn, making sure his hat was still in place.

“What would happen if I were to...?”

“You must keep your hat on... even when you sleep. You know this much.”

“I wear a headband to bed.”

“And what of it?”

“It’s... silly.”

“Nobody can see you in your sleep. Why the sudden worry?”

Mo XuanYu said nothing in response to that, but Lan Zhan knew. The kid had never worried too much about his appearance aside from looking proper and well dressed. He had never fussed over his features, but recently he had taken the habit to walk dangerously close to makeup stores and check various displays at the convenience store close by. Lan Zhan knew Mo XuanYu had remembered his past... how he had quickly realized he was already an adult. With needs and desires.

But now a brand new reincarnation of Jiang WanYin would wait for him every morning to walk to work together. Now Jiang Cheng acted pleasantly enough to be considered kind and doting to someone starved of affection like Mo XuanYu had always been. Which wasn’t planned, it had never been.

Lan Zhan didn’t like where this was going.

He didn’t like it at all.

Nie HuaiSang came to bring a cake for XuanYu one day or so before the end of the year, snow sticking to his hair and flushed cheeks.

“I don’t know when your birthday is... so I’m pretty sure I’m late to the game. But I wanted to thank you for helping me and MianMian that one time. So I made a cake for you. I hope you like strawberries.”

Mo XuanYu had no idea if he liked them or not. He couldn’t even eat.

He started crying in the middle of his room, where HuaiSang had placed the boxed cake on top of his low table.

Panicked, HuaiSang jumped up and out of the room to alert Jiang Cheng next door. But upon seeing the other man’s worried expression XuanYu cried even harder.

“What did you do to him, you bastard?”

“I’m not the one who used to prank people all the time. Grow up!”

“You clearly did something horrible to him for...”

“A-Cheng we’re not twelve anymore. Who do you take me for?”

XuanYu took his chance to stuff his face with cake, gulping it down bit by bit even if he knew he didn’t have the necessary organs to process it without vomiting it all out in an hour or so. He had tried many times to hold food down to no avail. His body rejecting it as if it was poisonous and dangerous.

He had tried so many times... to practice. To be able to appreciate YanLi’s generous cooking, to help A-Ling and the children at school prep their lunches and maybe... maybe to eat with Jiang Cheng every now and then.

Nie HuaiSang hugged him and patted his head, confused but too scared to ask for an explanation. Mo XuanYu smiled at him and lied, saying his cake was the best he had ever eaten. It wasn’t the best. It was simply the first.

He had no way to compare it with anything else, really.

Wen Ning had heard about his “stomachache” from XiChen, who had known all about it from YanLi and Jiang Cheng. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for XuanYu when he saw the older boy in front of his apartment complex the last day of the year.

But it was a surprise.

“Can we talk for a bit?” Wen Ning asked, holding his umbrella up for XuanYu to walk beside him, protecting him from the icy snow.

They walked to the nearest park, sitting under the gazebo to watch the snow falling down. Their heavy coats keeping them warm, despite the cold.

They used to take long walks back from the kindergarten with A-Yuan after school, since the Wens lived close to XuanYu. Before Jiang Cheng came back anyway.

Wen Ning looked uncomfortable, fidgeting with his fingers as he tried to find the right words. He surprised XuanYu by telling him how, in the past, he had suffered from an eating disorder and had been hospitalized for a while in his teens. How worried his sister and their grandma had been for him, how much they helped him in his recovery. How alone he had felt for years still, no matter how loved he was.

“A-Yuan told me he never saw you eat. So I was wondering if you needed help.”

It wasn’t the case, but XuanYu knew he meant well. Telling him everything was fine would have only worried him more, so he tried to explain an half-truth that could satisfy him. Saying it was difficult for him to process food, that in the past he had suffered from malnutrition and now he had digestive issues.

He was talking about his past life, but he figured that could work as well.

When they parted ways in front of the apartment complex, Wen Ning asked to hold XuanYu’s hands for a bit. He cradled them carefully, as if they were precious. His slender fingers cupping XuanYu’s smaller palms almost reverently.

“I know you don’t feel the same about me. But I’ll ask you to look after yourself anyway. Not out of obligation for me... but out of respect for yourself, if nothing else.”

The moment Wen Ning let go of his hands, Jiang Cheng stepped out of the front door of the building and saw them.

He said nothing and walked away after stepping out of the gate.

Lan Zhan would have very much liked to flip a finger at Jiang WanYin’s forehead. Hard. Wei Ying would have done the same, he was sure.

Wei Ying would have also smacked some sense in his baby brother, forcing him to face his feelings and take responsibility for what he was doing to poor Mo XuanYu.

Who was currently waiting for the other man’s return like a dog by his room balcony, surveying the front courtyard like a bird of prey from above.

Lan Zhan tried to coax the kid inside, reminding him snow was still falling down and that his beanie was slipping away. He tried to be gentle about it, knowing how much XuanYu had grown resentful of the hats he had to constantly wear.

But the younger man simply shrugged, saying he wanted to wait for another five minutes. Just one more. Just to make sure.

Jiang Cheng didn’t come back that night.

And Mo XuanYu cried in his sleep clutching the half-empty vial to his chest.

Lan Zhan spent the night watching over him, singing to him the song he had written for Wei Ying. He snuggled close to XuanYu and made sure his wide headband was covering the crown of his head, before pressing himself to the other’s forehead.

He never stopped singing.

Wishing he could take all the pain away.

YanLi, A-Yuan and even ZiXuan knocked on his door to greet him into the new year, despite how XuanYu should have been the one to pay his respects to his landlords.

But they asked him to visit the funeral home with them instead, to say their thanks to YanLi’s parents with offers and flowers.

He dressed in his best clothes, having never been in what seemed to be a modern version of the ancestral halls of his childhood in a past life. The establishment was fairly sterile, with shelves filled with plaques and pictures instead of wooden inscriptions on an altar. The lot of them bowed and said their thanks, chatting with the late Jiangs almost as if they had never left. YanLi apologized to her mother for Jiang Cheng’s absence that year like any other year, while ZiXuan told his father-in-law how they would have visited the Jin ancestors during Chūnjié to make it fair.

XuanYu looked at them and barely kept himself from crying.

On their way back, YanLi explained her parents had died when she was still twelve and Jiang Cheng was merely six. How they had lived in the orphanage run by XiChen’s mother and made friends with the boy, who was YanLi’s classmate. How the siblings stayed there until YanLi came of age and got custody of her baby brother. ZiXuan’s family of lawyers had helped her pro bono and that was how she had met the man and fallen in love with him. Even if it had taken a while for ZiXuan to notice her at first, preoccupied with university and law school as he had been at the time. But the Jins helped her with the inheritance left by the late Madame Yu: the apartment complex where they currently lived.

Watching them explaining their past in such detail moved XuanYu deeply. Feeling as if they wanted to make him part of their family by filling in the gaps for him.

That was still his older brother after all and those were still his sister-in-law and his beloved nephew and he... he loved them. He had missed them so, so much.

And he was about to leave them again soon.

Wen Qing finally showed herself up one day at the park, when Mo XuanYu was taking Fairy out for an evening walk. She approached him by telling the younger man she had assisted in the surgery Xue Yang had undergone some time back.

Lan Zhan (hiding in the kid’s coat pocket) could see how startled the kid was at the mention of the criminal, but he decided to trust this version of Lady Wen as he would have done in the past.

Wei Ying cared deeply for her, after all.

Whatever truths she was about to entrust Mo XuanYu with, Lan Zhan knew the kid could take it.

He hoped as much, at least.

Jiang Cheng came back only for Chinese New Year. Saying he had stayed at XiChen’s since the winter break allowed them to take it easy and figure some stuff out for the following school year.

It hurt to know where he had been all along, but XuanYu braved a smile anyway. He knew how much Jiang Cheng cared for the older man, how much he wanted to save the school from the debt collector. How much he didn’t love XuanYu back.

So he let himself cry one last time before waking up one morning and deciding he had had enough.

He talked with Lan Zhan, asking him to tell him all about Wei WuXian and their love. If XuanYu’s sacrifice had allowed them to be happy as they deserved in the end. If Lan Zhan hated him now, for forcing him away from his loved one, who was currently waiting for him to come back to heaven.

Mo XuanYu knew the couple had sacrificed their chance at reincarnation to allow him to seek a second lifetime for himself. He knew Wei Ying watched over them from up above, waiting for Lan Zhan to secure a new life for the kid.

They talked all day and then well into the night.

By dawn Mo XuanYu had decided what to do.

XuanYu properly met Meng Yao one day of early spring, when flowers weren’t yet brave enough to poke their way out and greet the sun. The man was dressed in black, his hair cut short, a sigarette between his lips as he waited patiently for the kindergarten to open.

It was XuanYu’s duty to open that morning, so he was the one to greet the man.

Upon hearing his voice, Meng Yao immediately recognized him.

“There you are. I was waiting for you.”

“Me?”

“You’re the kid who answered the phone. And the one who helped my subordinate back in winter, right?”

His dimples were so deep, his face so pleasant.

Mo XuanYu remembered him from another lifetime. He remembered how much he had cared for his older brother Jin GuangYao. How hurt he had felt when the other had lied and accused him of harassment just to get rid of him.

But this was a new life and Meng Yao was just a man.

Who happened to have been married with XiChen for a while before turning to a life filled with crime and gang violence.

Wen Qing had told him Meng Yao had initially tried to live far away from his adoptive father Wen RuoHan. All for the sake of marrying XiChen and keep him safe. But XiChen’s mother still had had a debt to pay for the construction of the orphanage, a price too high for her to pay with her poor health and delicate disposition. A debt that XiChen had inherited from her when she had died.

That was why Meng Yao had left him: to go back to his father and ask him to handle the debt himself, supplicating him to overlook such small issue and let him dry XiChen out of every penny and cent instead.

Wen Qing may have learned this only from the gossiping running in her family, with the Wen Clan being as big as it was, but she was pretty sure of what she had told XuanYu. That Meng Yao had simply faked having fallen out of love with XiChen to protect him from his adoptive father and his cruelty. That XiChen still loved him and was waiting for him to fight alongside him instead.

Mo XuanYu knew all of this.

So now he could act and fulfill his mission.

“I want to pay the debt XiChen owes you.”

“You are full of surprises, XuanYu. And how do you plan to do that?”

“I can do many things.”

“You’re very pretty, you can make good money out of it.”

XuanYu considered his words before shaking his head.

“It’s not something I can do.”

“Then what can you do?”

“I’ll solve everything.”

“I’m all ears.”

“But you’ll have to stop making XiChen worry so much.”

“That’s not how business work...”

“Lie to me. Give your word and I’ll... I will solve everything.”

Meng Yao humored him and nodded.

Then and only then, Mo XuanYu took his hat off.

Lan Zhan had watched the entire scene unfold before his eyes without intervening, trusting Mo XuanYu with such an important choice. He took in the sight of the beautiful spiritual light shining brightly on top of XuanYu’s head like a crown.

His soul in full display, its energy so raw it had slowed down time all around them.

Lan Zhan turned around and looked at XiChen, who had just turned a corner and had been walking towards XuanYu to greet him good morning. Frozen in time, his older brother’s face still looked peaceful... simply because he had had no time to notice Meng Yao’s presence quite yet.

Lan Zhan turned once more and saw Jiang WanYin making his way in a rush towards them, surely to protect XuanYu from Meng Yao. When did he arrive? His features trapped in a perpetual frown, scared for the one he truly loved in this lifetime.

Then, Lan Zhan looked up at Mo XuanYu and saw him taking the bottle only half filled with gold... which symbolized his goodwill and generous spirit.

“Will this be enough to grant a wish, Lan Zhan?”

When XuanYu said his name like that he sounded so much like his Wei Ying, full of hope and love.

“It depends on the wish, A-Yu.”

“I reckon it’s not enough for a new reincarnation, eh?”

“It’s enough to save a life... but not yours.”

XuanYu looked crestfallen, but he persevered still.

The bottle transformed into a bag filled with money and XuanYu made his way to XiChen and left it at his feet before smiling up at his mentor and employer.

“I cannot rewrite the past, but maybe I can plan a better future for you.”

Still smiling, XuanYu slowly walked over to Jiang Cheng and said his farewells.

Then he crouched down and took Lan Zhan in his hands, kissing him goodbye on the head affectionately.

“Erase me well, Lan Zhan,” he whispered then.

Before disappearing into thin air.

***

Wei Ying had agreed with him, suggesting the idea himself.

In the end the King of Hell had granted Lan Zhan’s request and offered Mo XuanYu a second chance anyway. Since this new self-sacrifice had been fueled by positive emotions instead of anger and despair, the hell judges had considered the atonement fulfilled and put the kid’s name back on the reincarnation list.

Twenty years had past and many things had changed.

For starters, the kid’s last name wasn’t Mo anymore, but Nie. The boy had, in fact, born into Nie MingJue’s family and had lived overseas in Japan for a while before moving back to Lanling when XuanYu turned twenty. Nie HuaiSang had met him many times during summer vacations and other festivities, visiting his brother and his wife every chance he had gotten to dote on his cute nephew XuanYu.

Nie MingJue had done a remarkable job in protecting him from harm. So, by the time their little family had decided to move close to HuaiSang, XuanYu had become a well adjusted adult with a brilliant future ahead of him.

Nobody remembered him.

Or so Lan Zhan had thought.

Apparently, he had forgotten to wipe Jin Ling’s memories thoroughly. So, when The Nie family had come to greet HuaiSang’s friends YanLi and ZiXuan, A-Ling almost had a stroke out of incredulity and happiness for being reunited with his “A-Yu”. Even if Jin Ling was now older than the pretty-gege from his memories. Even if he had spent years trying to figure out why nobody seemed to remember the weird uncle living next door to his Jiujiu years back.

XiChen and Meng Yao had solved their problems and had started running the school together right after Wen RuoHan sudden and mysterious disappearance. The man had many enemies after all.

A-Yuan had grown up into a fine young man, someone Wei Ying would have certainly been proud of, working with his cousin Wen Ning at the local botanical garden while his friends still studied in university.

Nie HuaiSang had married Qin Su and opened a restaurant with her.

MianMian and Wen Qing had decided to live together and adopt a bunch of dogs just because.

Xiao XingChen and Xue Yang still lived together while Song Lan had found his way back to them after talking it out with the couple.

A-Qing was probably running some sketchy business in social services to protect kids from horrible families.

Lan Zhan was still, unfortunately, a stuffed rabbit. Following XuanYu in his new life in the most unexpected of ways. In the form of the first present the boy’s uncle had gifted him in childhood. If Wei Ying had pulled a string or two from heaven to make that happen, well, Lan Zhan himself was none the wiser. The only thing he knew was that XuanYu had always taken him with him in all his travels even if he didn’t know he could speak. Lan Zhan had preferred not to reveal his nature and let the kid have a normal childhood. Especially since he had no memories of his past as a tenant in Jiang YanLi’s house. Nor of his life as a cultivator.

Wei Ying had agreed they could wait to be reunited again. The both of them wanting to look over XuanYu for a little longer before getting their own chance at reincarnation. They had all eternity to be together again... they could definitely wait a bit more for the kid.

All was well.

Aside from the other person whose mind Lan Zhan had conveniently forgot to wipe clean of any memory of XuanYu.

In his defense, Lan Zhan had tried to make Jiang Cheng forget. But something about XuanYu must have touched him so deeply... that Lan Zhan had not been able to do much about it. The kid’s smiles and clumsy antics would always linger in the back of the other’s mind no matter how much he tried to ignore them.

Coming back from his job at ZiXuan’s firm, exhausted and vulnerable, Jiang Cheng decided to visit his sister the same day Nie MingJue had brought his family there. So he was particularly weak to the sight of a bright, soft XuanYu when YanLi introduced her younger brother to their guests.

To Lan Zhan’s absolute delight, Jiang Cheng immediately bowed down to a scary looking Nie MingJue and asked his son’s hand in marriage.

Yes, grovel to this precious boy and learn your place.

XuanYu only tilted his head at that weird man bowing to his parents and smiled.

His laughter ringing up to the sky, where Wei Ying was still listening.

From where he would have kept watching.

[I worked so hard on this please reblog]

[kobato means “little dove” I thought it was cute since XuanYu is a magpie! + I wanted MXY a chance at life and for once this is a reversal-sacrifice from WWX’s part and I think it’s neat.]

[JC would be 43 or so... which yikes. but this is all I could do. I don’t like huge age gaps but at least everyone is a consenting adult, okay?]

[the thing that started this was like “what if LXC was an only child and LWJ did not reincarnate bc he’s still in the afterlife or something? then the entire thing escalated so...yeah.]

now I will cry for ages. I worked so hard on this good god D:

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs/au: clamp #mdzs/au: kindergarten #mdzs/au: kobato #mdzs/au: modern #mo xuanyu #jiang cheng #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #RAREPAIR ALERT #I AM TRASH I WILL SHIP JC WITH A ROCK FOR ALL I CARE #xiyao #tw eating disorders mentioned #wangxian #yucheng #chengyu

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Top 10 Newest Romance Spring Anime

Top 10 Newest Romance Spring Anime Spring is here Guys! Which means we are gonna get a new set of Anime Series and just like every time we get to experience a whole new taste of ROMANCE. As soon as the Trailers and Very First episodes were released I went through nearly 17 Romance Genre Anime and concluded a list of ‘Top 10 Newest Romance Spring Anime’ So, buckle up guys, try to withstand the Storm of Love. NO: 10 - Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai Also known as ‘We Never Learn’ is a 13 Episode Anime which is based on a Manga. Since childhood Nariyuki Yuiga dedicated himself to becoming a high-achieving student in his school, despite his history of poor grades. Yuiga’s late father always said that a useless man should strive to be useful and only a failure can understand the bitter experience and feelings of another failure. Third-year high school student in order to give his struggling family a better life, his ultimate goal is to obtain the special VIP nomination, a prestigious scholarship covering all future university tuition fees. Although Nariyuki attains more than 80% for all the subjects he is not a genius in any particular field. To his delight, Nariyuki receives the nomination, but along with one condition: he has to tutor his two-star classmates, who are each hopeless at the other’s subject of expertise! To make matters worse, the subjects they are horrible at are the same subjects they want to pursue for their future. As the time to passes, Nariyuki come up with creative and more practical tutoring methods for the girls to achieve their dreams. NO: 09 - The Demonic King Who Chases His Wife This is a Chinese, Original Net Animation with 12 Episodes and each run for 13 minutes. She’s a renowned assassin of 21st century, actually crossed over to become Su Manor’s most useless good-for-nothing Fourth Miss. He’s Jin Empire’s imperial highness, was an emotionless overbearing demonic tyrant with unrivaled talent. Everyone knew that she useless and bullied her as they pleased. But only he wouldn’t let go of her even if his life depended on it. NO: 08 - Kono Oto Tomare! English name ‘Stop This Sound!’ is an Anime which mainly evolves around Music & Romance in School life. Since the graduation of the senior members of the club, Takezou ends up being the sole member of the "Koto" (traditional Japanese string instrument) club. Now that the new school year has begun, Takezou tries to seek out new members into the club, but if he fails in his endeavor the club will become terminated. Out of nowhere, a new member barges into the near-abandoned club room, demanding to join the club. NO: 07 - Tong Ling Fei Chinese Original Net Animation ‘Psychic Princess’ tells you the story of Beautiful Qian Yunxi and Strange & Cold Ye Youming. Qian Yunxi, the oldest daughter of the prime minister was born with a special ability. Because of this she was labeled as 'abnormal' and was raised at Mt. Lin Yun. At 16, she took her younger sister's place to marry into the royal family of Ye. Rumors say Ye Youming is strange, cold and cruel. NO: 06 - Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san A Cute Anime with 12 Episodes where you meet Nakano, a salaryman working for an exploitative company, who is suddenly intruded by the fox, Senko-san (800-year-old little girl). Whether it be cooking, cleaning, or special service(?)... she'll heal his exhaustion with her tender "care." NO: 05 - Fruits Basket (2019) No introductions needed I guess, anyone who loves Anime must have already covered the First Edition of lovely Anime Fruits Basket. Fruits Basket 2019 is the remade version of previous edition with better graphics. If somebody here isn’t familiar with the storyline let me give you an introduction. Due to a family tragedy, 16-year-old high schooler Tooru Honda takes matters into her own hands and moves out... into a tent! Unfortunately for her, she pitches her new home on private land belonging to the mysterious Souma clan, and it isn't long before the owners discover her secret. But, as Tooru quickly finds out when the family offers to take her in, the Soumas have a secret of their own‚ when hugged by the opposite sex, they turn into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac! NO: 04 - Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma ‘Mr. Nobunaga's Young Bride’ Anime pitches light on how Nobunaga, A middle school teacher who failed to get in to a relationship for years suddenly caught up in a situation where his dream girl appeared from thin air and claiming she is his wife to be. Can life get blissful for Nobunaga than this as for considering all the trouble he undergone before. However, the one who appeared before him was a 14-year-old girl. Appears to have arrived from the Sengoku era, she mistakes Nobunaga as Nobunaga Oda and urges him to conceive a child with her. Thus, begins the age-difference love comedy between a gal game-loving teacher and a Sengoku era expert princess. NO: 03 - Senryuu Girl An Anime which has a serene and peaceful setting which helps viewer to be more relaxed while watching it. Yukishiro Nanako is a cute, cheerful high school girl with one strange trait—instead of verbal communication, she writes senryuu (a type of haiku) poems to express her thoughts. Together with ex-delinquent Busujima Eiji, they are budding freshmen of the school's Literature Club. Even though Nanako doesn't talk, with the power of senryuu, the adorable pair has no problem enjoying their fun school-life through the tune of 5-7-5 syllables. NO: 02 - Miss Washer! Her and I in Female Bath!? Another School Romance which has episodes with 3-minute duration. The Story reveals a love comedy between a clumsy guy and a girl behind the red curtain! "Is This Really Massage...?" Souta started to work part-time at sentou, which is his hometown, as a back washer, ends up washing Aoi, who is his classmate but trying to cover her identity... As he massages her with days of hate from her harassment continues, He realized that Aoi has in love with him one-sided...! When he touches her hot skin, she also realized that the one who washes her is Souta. NO: 01 - Ao-chan Can't Study! One of the loveliest and bit erotic, love story Anime. It all started when Ao was in kindergarten, she was a nice and high-spirited little girl who smiled ear-to-ear. One day she told her classmates how her father, a bestselling erotic author, chose her name: "A as in apple and O as in orgy!" That day still haunts her ten years later as she studies with a single goal in mind: to get into an elite university and achieve independence from her father once and for all. She has no youth to misspend and no time to think about boys...until her classmate, "King Normie" Kijima, approaches her with a shocking confession of love. She tries to lose Kijima, but he just can't take a hint...and as her mind runs wild with dirty thoughts, she realizes her father has totally influenced her! So, Do You agree with the above List? Your comments are highly Welcome. Please comment what type of Video would you like to see next from Our channel and remember to Like, Share & Subscribe to Our Channel to make it grow Bigger and Better. Thank You for Watching!

https://youtu.be/8XumCgu5Z9s

#top 10 #anime

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ibijau · 3 years

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and another thing for the lingzhui winter exchange :D this one for HamsterQinghua

Sizhui smiled, looking absolutely devastated.

“I really would love to hang out with you, but I already have plans with someone after school. Another time?”

Jin Ling scowled.

First of all, because he hadn’t cornered Sizhui on the way to his next class to invite him to hang out. It was a date. He was trying to ask Sizhui out. Sure it’d be at the fast food place they always ended up after school, because Sizhui had an early curfew on week nights and too many activities to attend in the weekend, but they would have gone there with intent, and so that would absolutely have counted as a date.

Second of all, Sizhui had exactly two other friends: his annoying cousin Jingyi, and Zizhen from the art club they all went to. And Jin Ling, prudently, had made sure that neither of them had plans with Sizhui that afternoon. Which meant that Sizhui had plans with someone that Jin Ling didn’t know about.

Before he could ask about that, Sizhui’s phone started buzzing, its screen lighting up to warn of an incoming call. Because Sizhui had it in hand at that moment, Jin Ling was able to catch a glimpse of the screen, which was enough to turn his blood to ice, especially with the way Sizhui’s eyes lit up and a small smile crept up on his face.

“Ah, I’ve really got to take that!” Sizhui apologised. “And you have English next, right? So I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He dashed off without so much as a last glance at Jin Ling, all his attention on his phone.

Jin Ling sat with Zizhen at the back of the English classroom, and they both proceeded to ignore anything the teacher intended to share with them, too busy whispering about the crisis that Jin Ling had just discovered. And it had to be a crisis to distract Zizhen, who usually at least tried to pretend he was paying attention. But the situation was too dire for that.

“Are you sure it can’t have just been his father?” Zizhen asked in a hushed tone.

“Sizhui would never call him ‘daddy’,” Jin Ling assured him, careful to keep his voice low as well. “He’d never be so informal, he’s not Jingyi. So it has to be someone else. And he looked so… happy.”

Zizhen rested his chin on the palm of his hand. He glanced at the teacher, just to make sure their lack of attention hadn’t been noticed yet, then glanced sideways at Jin Ling.

“Do you think he has a sugar daddy or something?”

“But he doesn’t need the money,” Jin Ling grumbled. “His family owns half the town.”

“Yeah but Jingyi says his dad checks how he uses his allowance,” Zizhen pointed out, “so maybe Sizhui wants to have money he doesn’t need to explain how he spends? Also, it might be his way of rebelling. I mean, he’s overdue for some real teenage rebellion. Nobody can be that good all the time. Or maybe the guy is just, like, insanely hot and Sizhui is super into him.”

Jin Ling checked that the teacher wasn’t looking, and kicked Zizhen’s chair.

“So what?” he hissed. “I’m hot too.”

“Cute at best,” Zizhen retorted, unphased. “On a good day. Nothing that could compare to the appeal of an older guy with money, ready to spoil him and buy him everything he likes.”

“I always buy him milkshakes,” Jin Ling pouted. “When he lets me, anyway.”

In truth, Jin Ling would have loved to spoil Sizhui more, but Sizhui refused most of the time and even insisted on paying for Jin Ling’s snacks frequently, like Jin Ling was some sort of little sibling who needed to be looked after. It didn’t help that Sizhui had weird hang-ups about debts and owing things to anyone. Jingyi said it was because he had gone through some difficult things before being adopted by the Lans, but on bad days Jin Ling felt it was just because Sizhui wanted to put distance between them.

Today was definitely a bad day, because Sizhui had a cool older boyfriend, maybe.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Zizhen asked.

“Nothing.”

Zizhen’s eyebrows rose high on his face. “Your crush has a sugar daddy and you’re not going to do anything about it?”

“It’s his life,” Jin Ling hissed. “I’ll get over it easily.”

There were people he might have hoped to convince with that. Zizhen definitely wasn’t one of them. He had been Jin Ling’s confidant through the whole ordeal, from the slow realisation that he had a crush on Sizhui, to trying to get the attention of the older boy. Zizhen had brainstormed with him through dozens of ideas for a first date to ask Sizhui on. He knew how much Jin Ling liked their friend. More than liked, perhaps, though it wasn’t something Jin Ling felt ready to face, especially not after this new development.

“Okay,” Zizhen whispered. “That’s very mature of you and all. Then I guess I’ll be the only one following Sizhui after school to catch a glimpse of his mysterious super hot sugar daddy. I understand how that doesn’t interest you at all.”

Jin Ling kicked his friend’s chair again, this time attracting the attention of the teacher who glared at them. They both put on their most innocent smiles, and their usually good grades meant the teacher let it go for that time, only warning them to be quiet and let others work.

“So, are you coming with me or not?” Zizhen whispered when there was less attention on them.

“Only to make sure you don’t get in trouble,” Jin Ling retorted. “I don’t care at all about who Sizhui may or may not be dating. And I swear if we’re spotted, I’m blaming you.”

Sizhui’s date was an older man who was at least in his mid-thirties. He didn’t look particularly rich though, not with his patched up leather jacket, ripped jeans, and long messy ponytail. He looked rather like the sort of person who some of Jin Ling’s relatives made fun of sometimes for refusing to grow and act their age, and who obviously didn’t have a real, serious job like they did.

He was very handsome though. Movie actor handsome. And he smiled so wide when he walked to Sizhui that it illuminated his face, like Sizhui was the best thing to have ever happened to him. And he wrapped an arm around Sizhui’s shoulder as they walked together to the café across the street from their high school.

It was awful. Sizhui really had found himself a 'mysterious super hot sugar daddy' as Zizhen put it, and it was obvious that they both cared a lot about each other, and there was just no way Jin Ling could compete with that.

“I’m going home,” he grunted as they watched the couple sit on the terrace.

“No you’re not,” Zizhen retorted, grabbing him by the elbow and pulling him ahead.

With how much Jin Ling struggled and complained, it was a real miracle that Sizhui and his mysterious date didn’t notice them coming to sit at the nearest table, nothing but some potted plants hiding them. But apparently the couple was just that into each other, and Sizhui had his back on them anyway and he was too polite to turn around and look at the commotion, while his stupid hot date didn’t know the two weird teenagers peering at him through the leaves of some small palm trees.

He was even more handsome from up close, the bastard. However, the older man’s face had something very punchable to it. It might have been just Jin Ling’s jealousy speaking. At the same time, the waiter very pointedly rolled his eyes at something Hot-and-Mysterious said, so obviously he was, in fact, a universally annoying person.

Still, he had such a soft expression when looking at Sizhui, Jin Ling didn’t know how anyone could allow themselves to show their emotions so openly, especially at that age. He wanted Hot-and-Mysterious to stop already, especially because of what Sizhui was saying to deserve such an expression.

“It’s just so much, you know?” Sizhui explained, almost shyly. Jin Ling could just picture that smile his friend had sometimes, with just a hint of insecurity, like he feared to bother people just by being around. “I’m… it’s too much. I’m sure I’m not supposed to feel this much. My great-uncle would say I’m too young for this.”

“But you’re feeling it,” Hot-and-Mysterious retorted, clearly a little amused. “You can’t be too young if you’re already feeling it.”

Sizhui nodded. “It’s a little scary though, isn’t it? Every time, it feels like my heart is going to explode, and… and I keep wondering if I’m going to ruin this by saying too much, or doing too much, or…”

Hot-and-Mysterious leaned toward Sizhui, and took his hand, gently brushing his thumb against Sizhui’s knuckles.

“Love is scary,” he said. “But it’s good as well, right? Don’t listen to people who tell you to be reasonable or to wait until you’re older. School’s important, studies are important, but… you’re young. You’ve got to live a little, right?”

“You think this could be love?” Sizhui gasped.

“Sounds like it to me,” Hot-and-Mysterious replied with a fond chuckle. “Hey, it’s fine. I don’t mind. If anything, I’m happy. I’m glad the two of us can talk openly about something like that. I’m glad my baby can tell me this.”

That, it turned out, was exactly as much as Jin Ling could put up with. He stood from his chair so fast it fell behind him, and strode away from the café and from Sizhui being in love with someone else. It had been a stupid idea to follow Sizhui and his boyfriend, anyway, so Zizhen could pay their tab for having suggested that in the first place. Jin Ling had been raised better than that, and if his parents heard about it, they’d have his head for acting like such a creep.

He hoped Sizhui would find joy with his stupidly hot boyfriend.

Personally, Jin Ling knew he would never be happy ever again.

The following day, Jin Ling didn’t see Sizhui until lunch break at school. It was unusual, because they always chatted a bit before their first class, and would at least smile at each other when they met between lessons. That morning though, Jin Ling changed path to make sure it wouldn’t happen. It got him scolded by the teachers when he arrived late, but it was better than having to see Sizhui and be reminded that the older boy was in love with someone else.

It worked until lunch, when Sizhui managed to spot him trying to buy a sandwich he’d eat in a hidden corner.

“Hello, A-Ling!” Sizhui greeted him as he joined him in the queue. He was smiling brightly, a touch of colour to his cheeks. It was unfair, really, that someone so pretty existed in Jin Ling’s life. How was he supposed to not have fallen for Sizhui? “I didn’t see you this morning, I was starting to wonder if you were sick maybe.”

“I’d have texted you,” Jin Ling grumbled.

“Not if you were very sick,” Sizhui replied. “So I’m glad I found you. Especially since I have something I want to talk about, if you have time?”

“Sure. Let me just grab lunch.”

Sizhui nodded, clearly in an excellent mood. They both got a sandwich, and walked toward a deserted corner, under the stairs to the science classrooms. It was a quiet place to hang out at, especially at that hour of the day. They only ever went there when it was just the two of them, because the space would have been too small if Zizhen and Jingyi had joined them. In fact even for two people it was a little cramped. Normally Jin Ling secretly enjoyed that forced closeness. That day he couldn’t bear it and sat a little further away, even if it meant he’d be visible should anyone pass by.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Jin Ling grumbled, glaring at his sandwich.

He wasn’t sure why he’d bothered buying it. He really wasn’t hungry.

Next to him, Sizhui nervously nodded, also looking down at his lunch.

“Right. That. Right, right. Here is the thing,” Sizhui explained. “I’ve been wondering… would you like to go to the cinema with me on friday? Just… just the two of us, I’m not inviting Zizhen and Jinyi. And it’d be my treat of course. And if you want, we can grab something to eat after? I’ve already asked my father, he’s okay with letting me stay out a little later.”

“You’re making it sound like a date,” Jin Ling huffed.

“Well, yeah, that’s because it would be one. I’m… I’m asking you out, A-Ling.”

Jin Ling looked up at his friend with round eyes. It was everything he’d ever wanted to hear, and Sizhui didn’t look like he was joking. If anything, Sizhui seemed so embarrassed that he couldn’t even meet Jin Ling’s face, his entire face red, his knees drawn against his chest.

It should have been the best thing ever, except…

“What about your boyfriend?” Jin Ling blurted.

“My what?” Sizhui gasped.

“I know about him!” Jin Ling announced. “I saw you with him yesterday, and Zizhen too saw you! You were at the café, all cozy and happy with that guy! And he was holding your hand!”

“A-Ling, that’s not… it’s not like that, I swear!”

“Of course it’s like that!” Jin Ling exploded. “And I like you a lot you know! I like you and I want to go out with you! But I know you have a boyfriend and I’m not desperate or stupid enough to go out with you when you already have someone! I’d have thought you liked me a little better than that, and I’m so disappointed that you’d try something like that, and…”

“A-Ling, that was my dad!” Sizhui exclaimed, hurriedly putting away his sandwich.

Jin Ling blinked a few times, shocked into silence by that very stupid lie.

“Well, not my real father obviously,” Sizhui hurriedly corrected. “You’ve met my father. But that’s my… my other dad, I guess.”

“You said your birth parents were dead!”

“They are,” Sizhui confirmed, drawing his legs to his chest once more and resting his forehead against his knees. “It’s… it’s a little complicated. I don’t even remember all of it, honestly, but my dad told me some of it, and my father confirmed it. So… when I was very young, my parents died, and I went to live with some relatives of mine. There was my great-aunt, an uncle, and some cousins, as well as a friend of my cousins.”

Sizhui turned his head so he could look at Jin Ling, and smiled.

“It wasn’t a bad time. I was pretty happy there, and that friend of my cousins kind of informally adopted me. Or I adopted him?” Sizhui chuckled. “Well, I started calling him daddy, anyway, and nobody corrected me. It was… it was really great. I stayed there for a year or two. Until there was that fire.”

Sizhui hid his face again, while Jin Ling nodded along. The rest was new, but Sizhui had already told him about losing his family in a fire. He had just assumed that meant his parents.

“Dad managed to get me out,” Sizhui whispered. “But he couldn’t save anyone else, so after that it was just the two of us… but not for very long. It really hit him hard to lose everyone like that, and he didn’t really have a steady job at that time, or any family to turn to, you know? So for a while we lived in the streets or in squats here and there, until I got sick and he realised he couldn’t keep me anymore. He managed to get social workers to take me away, and he just disappeared from my life. And then a few weeks ago, he contacted me again. He’d finally managed to land on his feet again after struggling for years, and he’d found out I was adopted, and… and it turned out my father and him knew each other in school, so my father agreed to let him talk to me. We’ve met a few times, and we text a lot and call sometimes. It’s nice.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jin Ling mumbled.

Sizhui raised his head, blinking away some moisture at the corner of his eyes before smiling at Jin Ling.

“It’s okay. It’s not so bad, I’m glad to have him back. And one of my cousins actually survived the fire, so I’ve been in contact with him as well. It’s… it’s kind of cool to have family again. I mean I have my father and his family, but this… this is different, right?”

“I meant sorry for forcing you to share that,” Jin Ling corrected. “It’s… you didn’t need to tell me that. I messed up. Fuck, I messed up again!”

Sizhui laughed, softly, a fragile little sound that made Jin Ling’s heart beat faster.

“It’s okay,” he repeated. “If it’s you, I don’t mind sharing that sort of things. I’ve wanted to tell you about it actually, but I was waiting to make sure that things were going fine first. Plus I was kind of hoping that maybe when I introduced you to my dad, it’d be as my boyfriend. It’s… I’ve been telling him about you.”

“You have?” Jin Ling gasped. “Oh no. What did you say?”

Sizhui laughed again, a little lighter and more cheerful this time.

“I’ve told him that you’re clever and determined,” Sizhui announced with a warm smile. “That you always try hard to do the right thing, and even though you have an awful temper sometimes, you’re never afraid to admit when you’re wrong. I’ve told him also that you’re… you’re very handsome, that I like you a lot, and that I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a long while. And I have, now. So, uh. Friday night?”

“No way!” Jin Ling exclaimed.

When he saw Sizhui’s pretty smile fall, Jin Ling almost slapped himself.

“No way you’re asking me on a date,” he clarified, “because I’m the one asking you out. I’m the one taking you to the cinema, and taking you out to eat after! It’s the least I can do after...” Jin Ling made a vague hand gesture. “So, yeah. I’m asking you out, and I’m taking you on a date!”

Sizhui stared at him with wide eyes. He blinked a few times, his mouth dropping open, and burst out laughing.

“Sure, let’s do it like that,” Sizhui agreed, smiling beautifully once more.

Jin Ling smiled back.

It was going to be the best date in the history of dating, he’d make sure of it.

#lingzhui #zhuiling #jin ling #lan sizhui #ouyang zizhen #mdzs #jau writes #someone dropped out so I offered to help which is why I did two things #this one was my original contribution #had a lot of fun with it!!

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