#lan sect mandates

[treasurechestsubs]

Year End Big Bulk Release - MDZS Audio Drama S1 7 Mini-theatres + 3 Extras + S3 Extra - Into the Dream-End English Subbed

Hello everyone~ :D

It's the last day of 2023! This has been a pretty busy and a fun year for us all to be able to share so many episodes of different projects we've taken up.

To end the year with something special, we have a big bulk release of 11 videos today~

We have the following for you all today: MDZS S1 7 Mini-theatres + 3 Extras- 3.5 - No 4.5 - Escape 5.5 - Ancestor's Story 6.5 - Ant 7.5 - Loquat 10.5 - Director 11.5 - Sticky Rice Porridge (The numbers 3.5, 4.5, etc. mean that these mini-theatres were released after episode 3, 4, etc.) --- Extra - 40 Million Benefits-LWJ Extra - Fear of Dogs Extra - Lan Sect Mandates

=and=

MDZS S3 Extra - Into the Dream-End the latest extra that was released by the audio drama creators on Wei Wuxian's birthday.

All of these episode can be accessed via our discord server. To request an invite to the server, please fill up this >> request form <<

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Happy watching~! :D

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #audio drama #season 1 #season 3 #mini-theatres #extras #no #escape #ant #director #ancestor's story #loquat #sticky rice porridge #40 million benefits Lan Wangji #fear of dogs #lan sect mandates #into the dream #end #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #pure love #action #fantasy #drama #comedy #mo xiang tong xiu #mxtx #treasure chest subs

[dr-duckie]

soooo has anyone thought of a mdzs x svsss transmigration au with shen jiu and meng yao?

i’m not going into detail over their similarities but most people get the idea— brothels, yqy/lxc, spite, villainous antagonists that didn’t deserve what they were put through as a child, late start in cultivation, cunning personality, etc etc

yea.

let me start: shen jiu, one day, is gifted a high quality book set from one of his brothel jiejies when visiting them. at first, shen jiu had no plans to legitimately read them (mostly due to a lack of leisure time), but he eventually got to reading it when he was on a qian cao-mandated break after a qi deviation.

he gets hooked. when SJ is nearing the end of the novel, his thoughts are as followed: JGS deserved to get castrated and his limbs thrown to the endless abyss— WWX, although he was absolutely shameless, he was at least competent— LWJ was a fool for being so in love, but he was moral and loyal— and lan xichen…

an ache forms in shen jiu’s heart whenever he thinks about him. lxc, a man with a gentle, pacifistic, amiable personality who believed in what was right all the way until the end. he wholeheartedly supported and trusted his sworn brother, jin guangyao, until he couldn’t anymore.

shen jiu was touched. lan xichen, that man, had wasted all his efforts on an irredeemable monster. in a similar fashion, yue qingyuan was doing the same.

as for meng yao… shen jiu resented him. he had a loving mother, one who worked so hard for his happiness, only to squander all her efforts. meng yao… had what shen jiu envied the most in the newest disciple he just brought in. luo binghe. imo, it would be a clear sign of shen jiu’s self hatred projected onto meng yao. he sees the two of them as the hopeless scum of society, too broken to be loved. they were “charity cases” that couldn’t be fixed, no matter what.

soon after shen jiu finishes the novel, he falls into a qi deviation (the very same one that shen yuan transmigrated into) and dies. through some time space dimension jumping, shen jiu lands into the body of one 14 yo meng yao. and that’s just the beginning of his story.

shen jiu starts out by practicing cultivation in secret. meng yao’s body, although he is no prodigy, would definitely benefit from practicing from a younger age. then he gets to planning. with how shen jiu is, he would not step a foot in the karp tower, with a system or not. like, just no. i believe he’d set JGS on fire if he ever had to see the guy. the only plot point shen jiu intends on fulfilling is saving lan xichen, and then living a comfortable life away from the jianghu.

but within a year of living with meng shi in the brothel, shen jiu grows attached to her. he *wants* to make her proud, even if he wasn’t her real son. he was a total impostor. but even so, he didn’t want her legacy to be tainted by the actions of jin guangyao— who was now still meng yao, who is now shen jiu. but he doesn’t want to go to the jin sect. after an arduous process of actual communication with someone for a long time, meng shi realizes that the jin sect wouldn’t be good for her son, and jin guangshan wouldn’t help her *or* meng yao. the night before meng shi dies, she tells shen jiu that she loves him, regardless of whether he may fulfill her dreams.

aaaand, after that, shen jiu buries meng shi. he makes enough money as an artist (in secret, with his skillset from qing jing) to give her the proper burial rites. after that, he runs away. shen jiu finds a job as an assistant to an artist who sold fans and paintings in caiyi town. through his job, he meets NHS first, when he’s on his first year of being st the cloud recesses. surprisingly, shen jiu and nie huaisang have a friendship that… isn’t too bad. shen jiu is amiable, shows off the different fans he’s painted, and nie huaisang eagerly buys all of them. nie huaisang also buys out shen jiu’s other works, like his poetry and short stories. that day, with shen jiu’s qiankun pouch full, he treats himself to tanghulu.

the second encounter with nie huaisang brought along jiang cheng and wei wuxian. at that point in time, they were investigating the waterborne abyss problem. shen jiu, a year older now, shows nie huaisang his “new” invention: the war fan. wei wuxian is absolutely delighted at the new invention, and jiang cheng, although less excited that WWX, is considerably impressed as well. as for NHS, well, words can’t describe his happiness. shen jiu, on a whim, gifts it to him for free— mockingly thanking NHS for being such a generous patron. nie huaisang, unable to contain his excitement anymore, jumps on shen jiu and embraces him dramatically. this causes such a commotion, lan wangji comes over. with his brother.

(okay, i’m done writing for today.)

#mdzs #svsss #shen jiu #meng yao #shen qingqiu #jin guangyao #qijiu #xiyao #what if

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: LQR is betrothed to WRH.

ao3

“Absolutely not,” Lan Qiren said, and the mandate from the imperial court was only saved from the destruction because it had been plucked out of his hands before he had fully finished ingesting what he had just read. “Absolutely not.”

“I don’t see that we have much of a choice,” one of his cousins, Lan Bocheng, said, and for all that he and Lan Qiren rarely agreed on much, given how much he resented Lan Qiren’s role as the acting sect leader of their Lan sect, he at least looked just as grim as Lan Qiren felt. “It’s an imperial decree. Are you going to tell the Emperor that he can’t have what he wants?”

“Exactly that,” Lan Qiren said through gritted teeth, “if what Wen Ruohan wants is my nephew!”

“It’s not like that.”

“How can it not be like that?! That – the Emperor sent an decree ‘inviting’, or better put, demanding that second young master Lan be delivered to the Nightless City within half a month in order that he be given an ‘opportunity’ to join the imperial harem! What else could it mean if not that he has his eyes upon Wangji?!”

“Don’t misunderstand me,” Lan Bocheng snapped. “I’m just saying that there’s more to it than what appears on the surface – Wangji isn’t the only one who received such a letter. It’s said that such letters were sent out to a number of promising well-born young masters and young mistresses throughout the cultivation world, and it is only an ‘opportunity’, meaning that there’s every chance that none of them will be forced to actually become concubines. This is a matter of hostages, not matrimony.”

“It’s still shameful,” Lan Qiren rebutted, although he grudgingly acknowledged that the additional information helped calm him down. “To be known for the rest of your life as having been sent to be another man’s concubine is to be disgraced forever, even if everyone knows the real story…how does such an ‘opportunity’ work, anyway? Isn’t anyone selected to be a concubine immediately disqualified from holding any other position at court?”

That was the reason usually bandied around for why the head of the Nie family, general of the imperial forces, hadn’t ever been married in, even though he was well known to frequently share a bed with the Emperor.

“Imperial concubines are traditionally not allowed out of the harem,” Lan Zhengzhi said. “They aren’t even permitted to receive visitors without special dispensation, not even family.”

Lan Qiren’s hands clenched once more.

“The full letter accompanying the mandate stated that the young masters and mistresses invited to the Nightless City wouldn’t immediately become full concubines, but rather ‘nominees’. They would reside in the outer parts of the imperial harem, treated like honored guests and permitted to continue their studies and cultivation. Ultimately, if they are not selected for the inner harem, they would be permitted to return home.”

Someone scoffed; Lan Qiren wasn’t sure who, but he agreed whole-heartedly. Once Wen Ruohan had all those hostages in the palm of his hand, there was little reason not to keep them there permanently – all the young men and women of the cultivation world being carefully reeducated in the Nightless City, taught the ways of the Wen rather than their families, and if they or their families took a single step out of place, their entire futures would be cut off through the ‘honor’ of being selected…

Disgusting. Clever, but despicable – truly the standard badge of honor for the cultivation world’s self-dubbed emperor. Wen Ruohan had been a sect leader like any other a few generations back, only he and his younger brother Wen Ruoyu had teamed up to scheme against, buy out, or flat out conquer virtually everyone who stood in their path. They had been unstoppable and irrepressible, the strengths of each one compensating for the weaknesses of the other; after they had survived the schemes against them in their youth, there was no dividing them, and without that wedge, there was no hope for anyone else to get in. In the end, the other sects had only been able to grit their teeth and wait for the generations to pass, hoping to get their own back once the two brothers had fallen.

Only – they hadn’t.

It was said that Wen Ruohan’s high cultivation made him look as though he were still in his twenties despite all the years that had passed, while Wen Ruoyu, who despite being younger was a touch weaker, looked older than him, he too remained in the prime of his life, a powerful fighter who had rather unorthodoxly selected the spear as his weapon. He was no less dangerous than his brother, the master of arrays who had cultivated to such heights and found a way to drag his brother up to the heavens along with him, and together…well. Their elders, peers, and juniors that had been scheming against them were all eventually defeated by this indefatigable longevity, and now Wen Ruohan was the imperial master of the cultivation world in truth.

There was no one who could stand against him.

He was also already married to several consorts (albeit none that had yet been named Empress), and was possessed of two full grown sons a few years older than Lan Qiren’s nephews, but Lan Bocheng was right; that patently wasn’t the point of this. After a fairly lengthy period in which the imperial harem remained empty after the deaths of the Emperor’s original wife and children, which were rumored to have been caused by the Emperor himself, a wife had been brought in as a political gesture, locking down alliances, and an heir of appropriate lineage had been born shortly thereafter. Perhaps it had been that which had reawakened their emperor, as one of the palace maids had born him a child only a few years later – though personally Lan Qiren had always thought that that latter incident had more to do with the timing of Lao Nie having brought out his own son and heir for everyone to see.

No, Lan Bocheng was indeed right: this wasn’t about marriage, or lust. It was about power.

It was probably Wen Ruoyu who’d thought of this scheme, in fact. He was a bit more straightforward than Wen Ruohan, a little less likely to accommodate diplomacy and a little more likely to opt for brute force to get his way – he got along splendidly with Lao Nie, to the point that Lan Qiren had serious questions about who was sleeping with who in the imperial court, and also a certainty that he did not want answers – and he also had a well-known fondness for collecting things. Most of the gifts sent in tribute to the Emperor were really sent for him, since everyone knew that although Wen Ruohan’s own interests were positively inscrutable, he was invariably pleased by anything that made his brother happy.

Despite that, this scheme…

“It is still intolerable,” Lan Qiren said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s intolerable. We don’t have a choice,” Lan Bocheng said, and Lan Zhengzhi nodded in agreement. “No one can resist the imperial forces – even we Great Sects only continue independently as their vassals through their permission. Even if both Wen Ruohan and Wen Ruoyu were incapacitated and you somehow convinced Lao Nie to fight on our side, we still wouldn’t be able to defeat their armies, not even with the help of the rest of the cultivation world! We simply have no choice. We cannot resist. We must obey.”

Lan Qiren looked down at the piece of paper lying on the table. We herein invite the Lan sect to send the honorable Lan-er-gongzi to the Nightless City, for we have granted him the opportunity to take part in the selection of imperial concubines, held upon the date of…

He raised his eyes abruptly, and turned to look out the window. From where they were, he could just see the Wall of Discipline, upon which their family rules were written.

“You are not wrong that we cannot resist, but as my students have often taught me, there are different grades of obedience,” he said, already mentally putting together what the appropriate punishment would be for a deliberate and flagrant breach of No dishonest practices. It was a severe one, as such discipline was judged, but when weighed against his nephew’s life, it was less than nothing. “Do not forget my brother.”

The others blinked at him, no doubt wondering at the apparent non sequitur – after all, Qingheng-jun, while rightful leader of the Lan clan and Lan Qiren’s older brother, had been locked away in seclusion for years and years by now. He had in fact been all but forgotten by most people, mentioned only when the elders wanted Lan Qiren to do something he didn’t, tiny jabs at the fact that he was only acting sect leader, not the real thing.

“I am not referring to him in his role as sect leader,” Lan Qiren explained. “He is not only that. He is also my elder brother…and compared to the Emperor, one could justly say that we are all young.”

“You can’t be serious,” Lan Bocheng blurted out, his face changing as he realized what Lan Qiren meant.

“I am.”

“But that’s – that’s ridiculous! You can’t possibly mean to go yourself! You – you’re one of the imperial courtiers, a minister in the imperial court! You’re the sect leader! Think about what a joke it would make of our sect, having our sect leader join a harem –”

“Given an opportunity to join a harem,” Lan Qiren said, voice heavy with sarcasm. “And I am only acting sect leader, as you so often like to remind me. It is equally a joke to send Wangji as it is to send me, so why not send me? The note requires us to produce the second young master Lan, a title which has described me for longer than it has described him…you say we cannot resist? Very well, we will not. We will produce one, if not the one that they thought.”

The others tried to argue him out of it, but Lan Qiren remained steadfast.

Even if their absurd actions did nothing but make Wen Ruohan laugh, then so be it – Lan Wangji would not be going to the Nightless City. Lan Qiren’s introverted nephew, who did not know the terrors of the world outside the walls of the Cloud Recesses, would remain where he was, and Lan Qiren would face the humiliation and dishonor in his stead.

He would be going to the Nightless City once more – but this time, not as a Great Sect leader, not as a minister of Wen Ruohan’s court, not even as a distinguished teacher…but as a proposed bride.

Well, so be it.

#mdzs #lan qiren #wen ruohan #my fic #my fics #set in an AU because I was in a mood while I filled it #embarrassingly late

[noswordinourlake]

@tavina-writes asked for arranged marriage fic recs, which turned into...this. Sorry Tav some of these are just very politically plotty but I figured those also fell into your mandate! I was going for a vibe. ANYWAY.

All fics MZDS/the Untamed!

Also under a read more because this got. Long.

CANON DIVERGENCES

marry for love by tuesday (3k, T, complete)

"Nie Huaisang snapped open his fan and covered his face. "Be careful. I'll take advantage.""

50-50 cute and intrigue!

from the other side of sorrow (series) by Sour_Idealist (128k, E, complete)

"Yu Ziyuan cuts off Wei Wuxian's hand. The cultivation world changes."

I couldn't tell you the split on emotional devastation and intrigue on this one because it's all happening all the time.

CANON? I DON'T KNOW HER

The Other Mountain by nirejseki (287k, T, complete)

"Lan Qiren still couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it.

He was married.

He had a wife.

That wife was Wen Ruohan."

I feel like anyone who likes politically plotty fics is already following nirejseki but I also feel like this list would be incomplete if I left off THE arranged marriage fic of all time so.

""You want Wen Ruohan dead," the Patriarch continued idly. "You want his corpse puppets eliminated. You want his halls burned to the ground and his soldiers disemboweled and begging for mercy. Have I about covered it?"

love, in fire and blood by cicer (360k, E, complete)

He gave another knife-edged smile.

"But what will you give me in return?"

"We would be willing to offer quite a bit in return for Wen Ruohan's defeat," Lan Xichen admitted. "But I'm afraid we don't know what an immortal such as yourself desires. Please advise us."

The Patriarch waved at hand at the front of the tent. "I want Second Young Master Lan.""

¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

not too strong by fluffysocks (89k, E, complete)

"He sinks back, closes his eyes again so he doesn’t have to look at all that red silk for a moment. He takes a deep breath.

It’s done. Jiang Cheng is married.

Now he just has to live with it."

Yes this is a Jiang Cheng/Lan Qiren arranged marriage AU. Trust me. Trust me. It's GOOD STUFF.

Restoration by ritualist (85k, M, complete)

"They say he was thrown into Luanzang Gang by the man who killed his parents; they say that he is an immortal cultivator who had been in a deep trance until the Wen sect disturbed his rest and incurred his wrath; they say that he is the fierce corpse of a cultivator who had somehow regained his mind and his spiritual powers. When Lan Wangji sees him for the first time, he understands why people talk.

Meng Yao wants safety. Xue Yang wants vengeance. The Sunshot Campaign wants victory. Yiling Laozu provides, for a price."

I'm a sucker for a nonlinear narrative! I don't want to know what is happening and no spoilers you won't for most of this fic. In a good way.

Give Me A Chance To Fall by brooklinegirl (38k, E, complete)

"Jiang Cheng just blows his breath out and rolls his eyes right back at Wei Wuxian. "Stop being an asshole," he says. "You're lucky this is being set up for you. Do you know how many people would die--literally die--to get the chance to be betrothed to Lan Wangji?"

"Betrothed." Wei Wuxian rolls the word around in his mouth. "It even sounds stupid.""

The classique arranged marriage AU.

JOKES JOKES JOKES

I Started From The Bottom/ And Now I'm Rich by x_los (58k, E, complete)

"Wen Qing traps Wei Wuxian in the Demon Slaughtering Cave, but Wei Wuxian isn’t interested in being the beneficiary of the Wen Remnants’ noble sacrifice. His efforts to free himself accidentally send him back to the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign. Coreless but armed with demonic cultivation, knowledge of the future and his wits, Wei Wuxian takes advantage of this opportunity to come out on top of both the war and its aftermath—before either has a chance to happen—by marrying and swiftly burying the cultivation world’s worst men.

Lan Wangji is confused, hurt, and uncomfortably aroused by Wei Wuxian’s improbably elaborate series of Sect-themed bridal negligees."

I hesitated to include this fic in this section because it does get pretty dark and psychologically heavy but it is also. Hilarious. So!

Best Friends Forever by varnes (17k, T, complete)

"It happened like this: Jin Ling was a sect leader now, which was, and Jingyi really meant this, fucking hilarious. There were few things funnier, in his honest opinion.

Because he was young, and inexperienced, and also — it had to be said — a real shithead, there was apparently some belief amongst his advisors that the best way forward, to promote the picture of a stable, mature sect leader who absolutely did not cry at the drop of a hat, was for Jin Ling to get married.

-

OR: Jin Ling and Jingyi get engaged.

Things spiral from there."

Jingyi POV from varnes is a gift. Jingyi POV trying to figure out the post-canon political landscape is a treasure.

#the untamed #mzds #mzds fic recs #fic recs #this ended up being way longer than i expected OOPS #oh well Tav i hope there are at least a couple here that are new to you! #also looking at my bookmarks it occurred to me the Queen's Thief series would probably be very much your speed if you haven't read it yet

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

In the meantime, I offer the intro for a Wangxian arranged marriage fic

The betrothal was decided amongst the hissing of Madam Yu, the angry tightening of Jiang Cheng’s eyes and the quiet exasperated words of agreement from Jiang Fengmian. It had been the suggestion of Madam Yu. As if she had swallowed a lemon during the evening meal, she pinned Jiang Fengmian with a dark and deep stare.

“I have a proposal Jiang Fengmian, one you will not overlook or protest before I have had my say.”

Jiang Fengmian sipped his tea first, slow and calm, as he seemed to glance at a spot just above Madam Yu’s shoulder saying, “ I am, and will, listen, my lady.”

There was a disdainful “ha” that escaped Madam Yu’s lips. And as Wei Wuxian plated bits of spiced meat and vegetables he saw the way Jiang Cheng’s hand tensed around his chopsticks in wait for what was next.

She continued on, as she sat poised and stiff, “ I have taken it upon myself regarding a future marriage with that of Gusu Lan.”

Finally, Jiang Fengmian’s eyes met those of Madam Yu’s in weary attention. “This is the first you have mentioned anything of the kind.”

Madam Yu’s lip curled in preconstructed patience, “ If I had it would not come to anything if left to you, just as I had to take it upon myself to secure our daughter's affairs for her own future.” It was rare that Madam Yu would bring Jiang Yanli up within these conversations, and such a thing had become a marker of predicting the shift of anger when the subject was either Wei Wuxian or Jiang Cheng. Her marriage prospect to Jin Zixuan was all but set to stone for Madam Yu’s concern. Silently Jiang Yanli watched the exchange with wide, worried eyes.

“My lady, what is it that you wish to accomplish with such a match?” Jiang Fengmian’s eyes flickered to Jiang Cheng, as did Wei Wuxian's. It would not be unheard of to call for such an early arrangement. Jiang Cheng had turned of age, and was the heir of Yunmeng Jiangs sect seat. Still, the little of what Wei Wuxian had heard, the marriages of Gusu Lan were later in their lives as scholars and practically ascetic before marriage. For Madam Yu to have planned so meticulously, it was something she seemed unwilling to let go once seized.

“What do I wish for?” Madam Yu snapped, “What I wish for is the security of this place, you sit without worry to the advantages in front of your face you let pass by! Why do you look at him now in when you do not spare a glance for any other reason? Jiang Fengmian, when you do, you still don't understand!”

A lacquered hand pointed at Wei Wuxian suddenly and Madam Yu’s eyes narrowed, “It is for that one. You dare to suggest, Fengmian, that I am so inept, I am to throw the heir of Yunmeng Jiang, my son, towards a betrothal that the sect of Gusu would have to deny! As if I do not know what I suggest! As I would dare to suggest a marriage that is less than what the heir of Yunmeng is expected to accept! Even you know intersecting ties with another clan such as Gusu, is auspicious and is laughable to reject when it is to our favor!”

The notion was outright preposterous within Wei Wuxian’s mind, Madam Yu, who never within a day of her life spared more efforts than forced to regarding Wei Wuxian, had decided to extend a path of betrothal negotiations.

But it was Jiang Cheng who blurted out words before even Wei Wuxian himself, “He is a sect disciple! A cultivator of Yunmeng Jiang!”

Madam Yu pierced him with a cutting look, “ As you said, a disciple raised by Yunmeng Jiang. Is it not my right as the wife of this sect to do as mandated with its disciples when it calls for them?”

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #work in progress

[madtomedgar]

maybe this is a boring ask, but: which sect would run the most chaotic coffeeshop?

It's the Jiang.

The Lan sect coffee shop is 90% incredibly boring, but periodically something Big happens but management keeps such a tight lid on it you only know the ominous bare outline, to the point where like... did you coworker go on vacation or was it employer mandated rehab? A Jin coffee shop starts out just disgustingly sleezy. Friends don't let friends work there etc and then it's suddenly Under New Management :) and it's... actually the best place to work now? None of the barristas are going to examine that too closely. They get bonuses now! The Wen coffee shop is just standard "dad who started business is annoyed at his shiftless sons" but the day to day is fine until it comes out this was a money laundering front the whole time. The Nie coffee shop is fairly well run but the boss has anger issues, OR poorly run because the boss is always drunk by 2pm, but it's whatever because the workers all know what they're doing.

The Jiang family, however, is the exact perfect situation for a horribly chaotic and toxic family business. Dad, who is technically the big boss, has checked out, and also hates his family. Mom is doing most of the actual work and letting dad have it about this, and also just constantly losing it and taking it out on everyone. Son boy will Never Be Good Enough but Must Be Good Enough and has 5000 complexes about this, daughter is in full-blown pollyanna denial, and then there's The Interloper who is the only employee dad likes, and who is actually very good, but ever since he's been promoted to manager, mom has been actively trying to sabotage him and roping everyone into this. Also if they get your order wrong and you say something about it, mom comes out of the back, yells at you, yells at the barrista, yells at The Interloper (even if it's not his shift, she will call him and yell at him because it's somehow his fault), and yell at dad, but you will get what you asked for. Everything is 3 dimensional chess, and you are in the middle and always lose.

#untamed stuff

[rosethornewrites]

Tuesday & Wednesday T & G reading

The usual

Finished

Teen:

Honesty is the Best Policy (But it Scares the Living Hell Out of Me), by Elpie (Horribibble)

The rules are clear, and also written directly onto the cliff face.

You genuinely cannot miss them.

So Wangji says, “You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen, but I am required to punish you.”

And then realizes exactly what it is that seems to have gone wrong.

-

Or right, when you consider the cosmic implications of running into your soulmate at sixteen years old and immediately threatening to have them spanked for breaking the rules.

(An AU in which you cannot lie in the presence of your soulmate. And this may or may not give Wei Ying hives.)

Paper, String, and Beads, by Lilypad_Frog (3 chapters)

The Wall of Discipline has many rules against luxuries and taking excessive pride in appearance, but it also has regulations mandating their forehead ribbons and robes, even allowing for discrete adornments to denote their position within the sect.

General:

Inquiry, by incendir (2 chapters)

Sizhui cannot fall asleep for a long, long time that night. He hears the ever-familiar melody again. He thinks perhaps he has memorized it by now.

Becoming A Demon And Staying Kind Despite It, by Girl_behind_Books

The life of trans!wwx

the good rain knows its season, by theLoyalRoyalGuard

It’s a cool, rainy day in Yunmeng.

Even in the rain, Wei Ying insists on swimming.

Unfinished

Teen:

You Are Of Their Ilk, by Eleanor_Fenyx (2nd in a series)

Lan Qiren and his nephews have successfully rescued 7-year-old Wei Ying from homelessness on the streets of Yunmeng, and he's overjoyed to finally have a home to go to. He knows - because Master Lan has told him - that the Cloud Recesses have a lot of rules and he might find it hard to live there at first, but he's hopeful that he has finally found where he belongs. They don't really expect him to follow all 3000 rules...right?

//

Wei Ying blinks hard against the characters swimming in front of his eyes. They steady for a moment, some unknown scribe’s clear, graceful lines sharpening briefly before they go all blurry again with a fresh round of tears. Wei Ying presses his lips together and continues copying anyway - he doesn’t have all the rules memorized of course, he’s not Lan Zhan, but this section is, unfortunately, one he’s familiar with.

Running is forbidden.

Causing noise is forbidden.

Sitting improperly is forbidden.

Do not stand incorrectly.

Do not smile foolishly.

Do not use frivolous words.

Do not exult in excess.

Do not laugh for no reason.

He doesn’t need to see them clearly to write them.

One Summer's Day, by slex (slexenskee) (2nd in a series)

Thirteen years after he sealed the Burial Mounds, The Yiling Patriarch opens up his elusive and mysterious Yiling Wei Sect to its very first Discussion Conference. This is most unfortunate for Jin Guangyao, who has a secret he needs to come clean with that he'd wanted to keep hidden in those mists forever.

What he would do to have another chance to see him again. Just like that sparkling, ephemeral afternoon in the Yiling tea shop, this time with Wei Ying held tightly to his side, A-Yuan and a boy— or girl— with his eyes and Wei Ying's smile next to them. He knew it was nothing but a fanciful daydream; no one has come in or out of the Burial Mounds in nearing two decades. There will never be another chance meeting of fate between them, no matter how pleasantly parallel it might seem.

Still, he has an odd feeling about it all. As if maybe this time would be different.

Here With Me, by iamwish

Wen Qing finds him on the roof of where he’s been staying, nursing a jar of Sishu’s wine.

“Wei Wuxian! What are you doing up there?”

Wei Wuxian hasn’t had nearly enough wine to get tipsy, let alone drunk enough for his words to slur, but he slurs them anyway for nostalgia. “What if Lan Zhan doesn’t fall in love with me?”

-

Wei Wuxian finds himself in the past, a few months before the Gusu Lan lectures, and decides that his best shot at hiding his trauma fixing the future is faking his own kidnapping and asking Wen Qing who all he needs to kill before she or someone she trusts is in charge of QishanWen. Clearly, he thought this through.

Or: Wei Wuxian creates a No War!AU, and then he has to live in it.

General:

Lies and Truth, by parodismal

What happen if Lan Wangji decided to actually check Qiongqi Path after Wei Wuxian leave?

....

It leads to a domino effect towards a new Chief Cultivator

Is it a better?

Or worse?

Cabbages, by dreaming of your qin (sherleigh)

In which Lan Qiren gains a son-in-law.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #cql #chen qing ling #untamed fanfiction

[angstymdzsthoughts]

Manipulative Lan brothers but with a royalty twist.

Like Lan Xichen is the heir apparent but looking at him collaborating with the Jins, marrying a Jin for power, looking at the ever increasing Jin presence in the court, Lan Wangji is somehow rendered powerless in his own home.

The court politics has gotten dirtier, officials don't do their jobs, people are being extorted and the empire is ignoring the old rules of GusuLan.

When LXC pressurises LWJ into marrying Wen Xu, as in marrying into Wen Kingdom so he could be removed from the game of thrones, LWJ is left with no choice but to protest. For daring to reject the mandate of the Son of Heaven, Emperor Lan Xichen orders him to be lashed with the discipline whip.

Broken himself, and looking at the crumbling kingdom Lan Wangji sends a proposal to the banished demonic cultivator Yiling Laozu. Offering him a chance at redemption in return of his help with overthrowing his own brother.

Overthrowing an emperor and giving support to a usurper probably wouldn't be seen as a redemption to anyone but the usurper in question. Wei Wuxian could acknowledge that without Wen Qing pointing it out to him. But when the usurper was the honorable Lan Wangji...

Wei Wuxian didn't know what had happened to drive Lan Wangji into plotting against his older brother. The little settlement they have built near Yilling didn't get much news. It was risky, but Wei Wuxian couldn't just ignore this cry for help and he needed a better idea of what he was getting into before he made a decision. Wen Qing called him a reckless fool but still gave him supplies and helped him with his disguise.

Gusu greeted him with an alarming amount of Jin Sect peonies. He found out that emperor Lans new bride came with Jin sect money, Jin sect merchants, and Jin sect nobles who quickly climbed the ranks inside the palace.

He was easily able to pass himself off as a newly acquired servant to the palace and made quick work of finding Lan Wangji's rooms. He found Lan Wangji laying in bed, his back wrapped in bloodied bandages and hardly even able to move. Thirty three strikes from the discipline whip, Lan Wangji explains. For disobeying a direct order from the emperor. For daring to protest a marriage that would deliver him into the hands of a man known for his cruelty. Lan Wangji continued to plead his case to Wei Wuxian, talking about how the people of Gusu suffer and how his brothers council is filled with Jin loyalists, but Wei Wuxian's mind has already been made. Anyone who would hurt Lan Wangji like this deserves to suffer.

#reply #wei wuxian #lan wangji #lan xichen #mdzs

[stiltonbasket]

Why did Nielan marry each other in 'the Trouble with Politics'? Assuming LXC is still asexual in that one? Was it for the specific purpose or strengthening their sects and weakening the Jin? Or was it because, like in the qin su verse, they just decided to have kids together and thought it'd be easier if they were married? Or is LXC actually in (romantic) love with NMJ in this verse?

Lan Xichen is still ace in this verse (he usually is in my fics, though not always) and tends towards the aro side of the romantic spectrum, but his relationship with Nie Mingjue still thrives best within a marital context. He and NMJ want to be each other's first priority, spend every possible moment with each other, and work together freely without any secrets between them, but sworn brotherhood doesn't give them that freedom: the only relationship that would break down all the socially mandated boundaries between them is marriage, which also gives them the opportunity to raise children together.

It also relieved them from the guilt of "plotting against" Jin Guangyao and investigating some of the shady ventures he was involved in--the unequal nature of their sworn brotherhood was weighing on both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue, and they jumped over that hurdle by getting married. LXC was free to treat JGY as a friend and brother and openly cherish NMJ as his soulmate and husband, and Nie Mingjue was delighted by that.

#asks #reference #yiling wei au #idk how to explain the nielan relationship really #it's so fundamentally different from wangxian's #especially given how little their incompatible orientations matter #not that it would that much for wangxian either but ye

[fleetofshippyships]

"I don't know why you let him treat you like this" hurt/comfort for whatever pairing you feel like (maybe nielan? Or early nmj/jgy)

I...really missed the mark on this prompt XD, no hurt/comfort, post nmj/jgy...whoops...but Emily liked it when I shoved it in her face to read last night, so that's good enough for me XD

Past Nieyao (present pining) | Complicated Relationships | 3zun Dynamics | Open/Ambiguous Ending

AO3 Link

To Hope in Vain

“I don’t know why you let him treat you like that.”

Jin Guangyao lifted himself from his extended bow towards Jin Zixun’s angry departure. He didn’t immediately look at Lan Xichen, even though it was impolite to not respond at once. Perhaps he would have reassured him at once, if Nie Mingjue wasn’t standing right beside him, scowling darkly as usual.

“A-Yao?”

The name tugged at something in Jin Guangyao’s chest. He turned to Lan Xichen and offered what he hoped was a convincing smile.

“It is not my place to—”

“You wouldn’t know your place if—”

“Mingjue!” Lan Xichen hissed.

Nie Mingjue promptly shut his mouth, but his glower remained. They made an interesting pair, Lan Xichen’s gentle smile and Nie Mingjue’s scowl. It was rare to see them apart since the fall of the Wen Sect, and even before they’d all become sworn brothers. That fact unfortunately meant that it was increasingly difficult to see Lan Xichen alone.

He wished he could be ignorant of Nie Mingjue’s reasons for always accompanying Lan Xichen to see him, but he could not.

Nie Mingjue’s eyes were far from the only set constantly keeping watch on him, waiting for betrayal, but they were the ones that hurt the most to feel.

“You’d be better placed elsewhere,” Nie Mingjue muttered, looking over at the doorway through which Jin Zixun had disappeared.

Lan Xichen expression softened as he looked at him. “The Unclean Realm, perhaps?”

Something in Jin Guangyao’s chest shattered at the words, and the memories, before he collected the shards and locked them away. That time had passed. To be welcomed by the family he served, even if still despised by others in the sect...it was a position he would never find himself in again.

Better to move forward. There was much to do and no time for looking backwards.

“Better than these vultures overly concerned with birth,” Nie Mingjue muttered, before turning to face Lan Xichen directly. “When do we depart?”

It rankled to be ignored, and to hear Nie Mingjue look down on anyone for treating him poorly over his birth when he treated him plenty poorly in other ways, but Jin Guangyao knew better than to even mention it.

Lan Xichen was blind when it came to Nie Mingjue, and Nie Mingjue would only jump at the chance to berate him for his despicable acts and remain deaf to his reasons until he accepted punishment to atone, even though that punishment would be death.

Some part of him still ached to be well-regarded by Nie Mingjue again, but he would not die to achieve it.

“Soon,” Lan Xichen replied, turning to Jin Guangyao. “Will you join us? There have been some disturbing reports from villages between here and Gusu, we plan to investigate on our way there.”

There was once a time Jin Guangyao would have given anything to go on a small night hunt with Nie Mingjue, away from the judgment of others, knowing he would be treated in accordance with his actions and not his birth.

But now his actions garnered disgust and hatred, rather than respect. Lan Xichen’s presence, though desirable itself, was not always enough to outweigh the pain of time spent with Nie Mingjue.

“I have too many duties here to spare the time, but I will organise some provisions to be packed for you to—”

“You’re coming,” Nie Mingjue interrupted, fixing him with a determined look.

Lan Xichen sighed and shook his head. “What Mingjue means is that we have already requested of Sect leader Jin that you accompany us. As sworn brothers, our mandate to help others in need comes before administrative sect business that can easily be handled by another. If you would like to join us, you will find no impediment.”

Jin Guangyao could almost laugh at Lan Xichen’s naivety. Nie Mingjue did, releasing a low snort.

Lan Xichen was too quick to assume the best in people and closed his eyes to anything else, and Nie Mingjue saw much but did little to stop any of it.

In another time, before the war and the things he’d done, they would have been the perfect trio of sworn brothers, each contributing something another lacked.

It was a pity fractures had set in before they had even finished speaking their vow.

Futile though it was to hope those fractures could heal while he was already part way through planning to make them worse, hope did remain, no matter how frequently and deeply he locked it away.

“Very well, I will accompany you,” he said.

At the very least, some time away from the constant mutterings about his mother would be worth the increased time as the target of Nie Mingjue’s scorn.

Lan Xichen was always seeking to mend the rift that had formed between them, and as futile as Jin Guangyao believed it to be, he never could quite deny him the attempt.

One day he’d succeed in snuffing out the part of him that still ached for Nie Mingjue, but he was not fool enough to believe it would be soon.

#mdzs #the untamed #nieyao #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #meng yao #my fanfic #prompted works #*

[natcat5]

Lethe (wangxian madoka magica au) chapter 2 notes

Read it on AO3

Once again, didn’t want to end a disgustingly long chapter with a disgustingly long author’s note. So I’m posting the note on tumblr, for the world to see, which is mortifying, but hey, I probably only have to do it once more after this! And I promise this time I have actual notes relating to the story that you don’t have to have watched Madoka Magica to understand.

Spoilers for the first two chapters of Lethe below, for episodes 1-10 of original madoka magica anime, and for the first two madoka movies.

image references for the newly revealed cultivator outfits (Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian) are at the bottom of this post. 

General Notes

-this is a very long chapter. I liked the structure of Lan Zhan’s timelines being bookended by NHS’s death, but if i was sensible i would have taken all of the stuff from nhs’s time as a cultivator and made that chapter 2, and left the entirety of Lan Zhan’s timelines as chapter 3, but I was. just really determined to have this story be 3 chapters. bc there’s three madoka movies, y’know?  Ahhh I know, I know sorry this chapter is like. almost 40k.

-i am continually surprised by how much i enjoy writing nhs, and how easy i find writing him. i just think he’s neat. i had a nhs-focused fic that took place in canon that I wanted to write, but ultimately abandoned bc it was so ashfksh artsy and weird. but writing him in this made me want to take another stab at that fic again. he’s so fun! he’s so interesting! 

- “It is a cascade of terrible words that seem without end until Lan Zhan’s mouth abruptly closes around the high tone of day.” me, blatantly flexing my bare bones knowledge of mandarin. yeah that’s right, i know what tone ‘day’ is. ignoring the fact that i have no idea if grammatically this sentence in mandarin would even end with the word ‘day’.

-sometimes i like to read madam yu as being over the top cruel, for drama’s sake. but i never like to write it. the refusing wwx dinner is a punishment, Madam Yu wouldn’t consider it cruel, and the family allows it. It is abuse, but it’s not over the top cruelty for drama’s sake. i was afraid that the solipsistic stuff was over the top cruelty for drama’s sake and almost cut it. however, the thing with being a child, is that sometimes adults make casual remarks that stay with you, forever. Madam Yu probably made a cutting remark here or there, lashed out with a word or a sentence. but i doubt she’d remember every instance of it, and she’d never consider it cruelty. but children remember the casual remarks that shape them, that injure them. my mother is the best mother on the planet, but i can remember with clarity a casual remark she made about me that cut me to the core and i’ve never forgotten. when i brought it up, she didn’t remember 

- “What’s the use in offering a contract to someone who does not have a wish they would die for?” I’m very aware this contradicts everything kyuubey says to wwx about potential in chapter 1. kyubey is not lying in either instance. but once wwx’s potential becomes uh, monstrous, even with the jiangs alive, kyubey’s conception of potential changes. why is it so monstrous? we’’ll find out in chapter 3 ;)

-i didn’t want to paint wen ning as naive or silly or too trusting. wen ning’s adorable but canonically he is not naive. he just imprints on wei wuxian hard. In this story, Kyubey met Wen Ning before Wuxian did. So a lot of that dogged loyalty Wen Ning canonically has towards wei wuxian is also present towards Kyubey in this story. kyubey was the first person who was nice to him, who told him he could be something, that he wasn’t useless or helpless. that’s why he trusts Kyubey so much :(

-here’s the thing with sect leader lan. he married a lady. they both went into seclusion as punishment. separate. yet. they still had two kids. like, one kid, an heir, we can...maybe guess it was mandated, or a result of the wedding night. but two kids???? are you in seclusion or not my guy. we don’t know enough about dad lan, i think, to make definitive judgment calls on what he was like. i went with what worked best for this story. a guy who cant stick to his own principles and makes everyone around him suffer for his poor decisions.

-it’s funny, i really wrung my hands over wwx saying anything bad about madam yu, bc the vibe i get from him canonically is that you could torture him and he would never badmouth the jiangs no matter what. so i really wasn’t sure whether it was in character to have him identify madam yu’s behaviour to him as violent. hilariously, i had absolutely no such handwringing over lan zhan attempting to murder his father. canonically, i don’t think he hates his father. but also canonically he has like. a lot of bottled up anger. and since they’re not in ancient china, he didn’t really have an outlet for it, and also didn’t interact with anyone but his immediate family so. im willing to accept that this action was perhaps ooc, but....it felt right? im sorry, im probably wrong, but like, the vibes, i have no regrets with lan zhan’s characterization in this story, im sorry, it’s just, canonically he does indeed give off ‘refined swan thinks of nothing but murder every day’ vibes. so?? perhaps im wrong but im also right

Madoka Magica Specific notes

-I do not think everything I had Lan Zhan explain about how most cultivators turn into witches immediately is completely supported by pmmm canon. I mostly based this off of Charlotte/Nagisa’s story. The fact that the grief seed was found in the hospital suggests, to me, that she had literally just turned into a witch there, rather than having been a witch for awhile, which means Kyuubey was contracting other girls while hanging out with Madoka and co. But other than that, I’m not certain that ‘the majority of Kyubey’s contracts turn into witches almost immediately’ is supported in canon. But, again, I am going for consistent internal logic for this story, and it made the most sense. 

Playlist notes

Chapter 2 songs:

Runaway by the National -a little bit NHS, a little bit LWJ, a little bit WWX

World on Fire by Sarah McLachlan -Wuxian in the aftermath of more of LWJ’s terrible reveals about cultivators. also, everyone in the aftermath of NHS’s ability being revealed

Your Bones by Of Monsters and Men -LWJ & WWX, post NHS’s death

You are a Memory by Message To Bears -LWJ, about to explain it all

Skinny Love by Birdy -LWJ’s first timeline

Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) by Florence & the Machine -LWJ as a cultivator in that initial set of timelines

Dead Hearts by Stars - “Wangji never trusts the others again.” (i.e. the timeline with five cultivators, and on, and on, and on, )

Hey Ma by Bon Iver -funny thing. I heard this song, and the scene of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying in the bedroom having their first kiss and first time just. formed in my mind. so this song is very much the soundtrack for this scene. im not sure how well the lyrics fit, it’s just. the vibes. to be honest, getting to this scene, this matters this matters this matters, was a driving motivation for writing this fic. i was like, i think i can write a real emotional gutpunch. i think i succeeded? 

Heroes by Peter Gabriel -the first ever victory against Walpurgis Nacht. hollow, useless, victory

Blissful Death by Keiichi Okabe -A burst of light. A shattering of glass.

All the King’s Horses by Karmina -Unspooled.

Control by Halsey -”The solution is so simple. Wangji should have long ago accepted that there was no room in his life for restraint.”

Magia (quattro) by Kalafina -gotta throw a madoka soundtrack song in here, right? this song’s lyrics would be from lwj’s pov. but consider this the soundtrack for all the walpurgis nachts that wei ying defeats, only to die immediately after

English lyrics

Weight of the World (Japanese vr) by Keiichi Okabe -Lan Zhan, trying, trying, trying, enduring Wwx’s hatred after he can’t save NHS I’m a little annoyed I couldn’t find where I got my translation of this from, the one i copied into my itunes song info. however i think it’s that the translator went back and edited the translation that was posted on the website. im really fond of the one in my itunes, but i guess this translation’s more accurate, oh well.

English lyrics

Hurts Like Hell by Fleurie - “His secrets are his bleeding, broken heart.” 

Magical girl Cultivator outfits

Wei Wuxian: 

Once again, tragically, invented by my mind. I don’t know why I punish myself like this. I don’t know if it’s bc it’s purple, but it was impossible to find a simple hanfu in the style I had in mind.

This is basically the closest, but the hanfu is purple with black detailing, the belt is black and purple, the sleeves are narrower with no extra gauze, and the robe ends just above the knees. the red undershirt’s about right.

Leather wristguards as seen on The Untamed

bright red leggings and black combat boots, i think you can use your imaginations for. 

Hair is styled sort of like this. Bangs on the left side pulled back, and tied with a red ribbon in a bow.

I’m genuinely a clown for going out of my way to search for an image of his hairstyle. no one else gets this treatment!

Wen Qing:

There are a lot of times, writing this fic, where I’m like ‘Wen Qing really deserves better than what im giving her here’. i hope chapter 2 soothed the sting of chapter 1 a little. still, her cultivator outfit is another one of those times, bc it’s litcherally just her donghua outfit

but instead of red flames it’s embroidered with red stemmed flowers. i just really like this outfit it’s both cute and mature!!! i love it for her!!! 

#natchat5 #nat's fanfics #mdzs pmmm au #the untamed #the untamed fanfic #mdzs #mdzs fanfiction

[merakilyy]

I Made My Choice and It Was You

Pairing: Wangxian, platonic Lan Xichen and Wei Ying bonding Tags: Post-canon, Hurt/comfort, domestic fluff, emotional baggage, minor PTSD and nightmares, family bonding Summary: It's hard for Lan Xichen to trust his judgement after having so blatantly misjudged the character of Jin Guangyao, but watching Wei Wuxian interact with his brother reminds him that good can come from his judgement. (The 5+1 fic that was supposed to be lighthearted and funny. Instead, it turned into Lan Xichen being the best brother (in-law) ever as he helps Wei Wuxian work through his complicated emotions and they bond over younger brothers and rabbits.)

On AO3

After the Guanyin Temple, mere weeks after entering seclusion in one of the deeper caves of Cloud Recesses, Lan Xichen found himself unwillingly dragged out of seclusion by none other than Lan Qiren, shufu , the Grandmaster himself.

As it turned out, Wangji had wasted no time before marrying Wei Wuxian. As Lan Qiren told it, Wangji had just barely been named Chief Cultivator when his first action was to take off with Wei Wuxian on Bichen and promptly disappear without warning. Had it been anyone else, their sudden disappearance would have been a major scandal. But it was the Yiling Patriarch and Hanguang-jun, and the cultivation world had just been turned upside down with Jin Guangyao’s downfall, so barely anyone even noticed their impromptu disappearance and the disapproval of a handful of sect leaders barely registered.

Two weeks later, Lan Wangji had returned with a familiar red ribbon tied snugly around his wrist and dragging along a cheerful Wei Wuxian on his arm. An even more familiar white ribbon held up Wei Wuxian’s hair.

While Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji had stepped inside the Yashi to discuss Wangji’s recent behaviour, Xichen had been left alone with his new brother-in-law to wait in the Jingshi.

A heavy silence fell upon them.

It wasn’t as though Xichen disliked Wei Wuxian, per se. He had found Wei Wuxian’s endless energy and penchant for finding himself in trouble endearing at times. After all, he had actively encouraged and pushed for Wei Wuxian to befriend Wangji back when he was just a visiting disciple from Yunmeng Jiang. Even during the Sunshot Campaign, he hadn’t actively discouraged Wangji from pining after Wei Wuxian. After Wangji told him of the Wen elders and children Wei Ying had taken with him into the Burial Mounds, Xichen still could not find it in him to fully denounce Wei Ying the way Lanling Jin and Qinghe Nie had. Even when Yunmeng Jiang turned against its former head disciple, Xichen and Gusu Lan officially maintained neutrality against the Yiling Patriarch. Xichen only disapproved of the Yiling Laozu’s methods, not the ideology.

But then the slaughter at the Nightless City happened and Xichen could only watch helplessly as he found himself on opposing sides with his own brother. Xichen did his best to keep the Lan disciples far from where Wangji and Wei Wuxian were tearing through the battlefield, not wanting to force Wangji to make that kind of decision. (A part of him already knew who Wangji would choose and he selfishly didn’t want to face that reality). Despite the distance, he saw Wei Wuxian throw himself off a cliff and the absolute grief on Lan Wangji’s face when Wei Wuxian finally slipped out of Lan Wangji’s bloodied fingers.

It was difficult to not hate Wei Ying as he watched Wangji in the aftermath of the Nightless City.

Still, Xichen did his best to push aside his feelings towards Wei Wuxian when he had returned for the sake of his brother. It became even harder to dislike Wei Wuxian after the truth about his golden core was revealed. Be righteous . Righteousness had been ingrained into each member of the Gusu Lan sect since birth; what else could such a selfless action be, to give away one’s own golden core, other than the highest form of righteousness?

Yet, a part of Xichen struggled to forgive Wei Wuxian for all the suffering he brought upon Wangji.

So, in the absence of a pressing mystery to solve and without Wangji’s presence, Xichen and Wei Wuxian found themselves sitting rather uncomfortably in the Jingshi. Xichen closed his eyes and prepared to settle his mind for meditation while Wei Wuxian fiddled with Chenqing and his new ribbon.

Wei Wuxian didn’t see Xichen’s eyes soften as he observed the tender way in which Wei Wuxian stroked his finger along the cloud embroidery on Wangji’s forehead ribbon as he absentmindedly found comfort in the physical manifestation of Lan Wangji’s love.

“Wangji is correct,” Xichen said, opening his eyes after his failed attempt at meditation.

Wei Wuxian jumped at the unexpected speech but said nothing, hands fiddling with Chenqing’s tassel.

“Wei Gong-zi is loud in everything that he does,” Xichen continued when Wei Wuxian said nothing. It was odd, seeing Wei Wuxian have so little to say. “Wei Gong-zi has a loud presence.”

“Ah. I. Apologize?” Wei Wuxian

“No need.” Lan Xichen knew well enough of Wei Wuxian’s endless ability to put his foot in his mouth at the most inopportune moments and silently commended Wei Wuxian’s attempt to mollify his new brother-in-law. “Wangji sees no fault with it, and recent events have more than proven that Wangji is a superior judge of character than I.”

A heavy silence settled between them again.

Wei Wuxian would rather be hit with Zidian than talk to Lan Xichen about the Guanyin Temple. The events of the Guanyin Temple were what exonerated and redeemed Wei Wuxian’s reputation. The Guanyin Temple restored Wei Wuxian’s life to him, but the Guanyin Temple ripped Lan Xichen’s life apart.

So they were at a bit of an impasse.

A shuffling noise brushed past the entrance of the Jingshi as a pair of disciples swiftly passed by. The relief on Wei Wuxian’s face from this distraction was palpable and Xichen was struck with a realization.

It wasn’t that Wei Wuxian didn’t have anything to say. Wei Wuxian had plenty to say and was quite literally vibrating with all that he wanted to say. But he didn’t say any of it out of the fear that he might inadvertently offend or hurt Xichen.

Despite the unease in the room, and his own ongoing inner turmoil, Xichen smiled ever so slightly. Lan Qiren was a lost cause, but Wei Ying did care about Xichen’s opinion because Wangji cared. For all his uncouth mannerisms, Wei Wuxian was and had always been far more perceptive than anyone (except Wangji) realized.

Xichen felt a weight lift from his shoulders. It was a subtle change, but Xichen noticed the relief he felt at this realization. It wasn’t that Xichen had ever doubted Wei Ying loved his brother, but it was hard to believe Wei Ying deserved the sheer amount of love Wangji had for him and it was hard to believe Wei Ying loved Wangji equally knowing what Wei Wuxian had done to Wangji in a past life.

But here was a Wei Wuxian who desperately wanted Lan Xichen’s approval just because Wangji still cared deeply for his brother’s approval. Xichen knew Wangji well enough to know Wangji would never admit to any of this, and the sheer fact that Wei Wuxian could read Wangji well enough to realize this and care endeared him to Xichen greatly.

Unfortunately, this realization did nothing to ease the fraught tension in the Jingshi.

But, at least Lan Xichen was able to return to his seclusion slightly lighter than when he left.

~~~

As was to be expected, Wangji was a regular visitor during Xichen’s seclusion. They rarely spoke these days  -- Wangji saved his words for his husband and Xichen had few words since the Guanyin Temple. Instead, their preferred method of communication was to converse through music.

It had been years since they last used music as a regular form of communication. Sixteen years ago, Wangji had been grieving and music was Xichen’s last resort after his brother had been unresponsive to all interactions that did not involve A-Yuan. In a fit of desperation, Xichen had joined Wangji’s Inquiry with Liebing. Somehow it had worked and with that tenuous connection they slowly began to heal the Wei Ying-sized rift that had come between them. Back then, Xichen had not been able to understand how Wangji’s grief had nearly driven him to madness. Even as Wangji slammed Xichen with wave upon wave of soul crushing, unmitigated anguish through his guqin, Xichen could not fully comprehend the overwhelming sorrow that haunted Wangji down to his core.

Now, with the tables turned, Xichen still did not understand the full extent of his brother’s grief but he did at least gain an understanding of a fraction of what Wangji must have felt. It wasn’t that Xichen didn’t love Jin Guangyao. He trusted -- had trusted -- A-Yao to have had his back whenever he needed it and he would have done the same in return. The love and loyalty of a sworn brother was not so easily forgotten, even after A-Yao’s less than stellar deeds were revealed one after another. Even after the full extent of A-Yao’s treachery became known, Xichen continued to reserve a place in his heart for his sworn brother. For both his fallen brothers. Yet, at times it felt cheap to call his relationship with Jin Guangyao or Nie Mingjue loving when he could see the love Wangji had for Wei Wuxian. Even though Wei Wuxian was never their topic of conversation, Xichen could feel his brother’s love for Wei Ying in the undertone of every note. Wangji’s love for Wei Wuxian was all-consuming and radiated out from every part of his being. Wei Wuxian’s existence was loud, but Wangji’s love was even louder. As much as he had loved his sworn brothers, Xichen’s relationships with Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao contained barely a fraction of the kind of love Wangji had for Wei Ying.

Thinking back, Xichen shouldn’t have been so surprised when his mid-morning meditation was interrupted by Wei Wuxian for whom rules of propriety was more suggestion than mandate.

“Sect Leader Lan,” Wei Wuxian greeted somberly with a proper bow.

“I am in seclusion, Wei Gong-zi. I am no sect leader so there is no need for such formalities. We are brothers now.” Xichen looked at Wei Ying neutrally, unsure why his unruly brother-in-law was here and not helping his brother prepare for the upcoming Roundtable Conference.

“About that...” Wei Ying said in a tone that invited trouble. “You’re going to have to come out of seclusion.”

“Pardon?” Lan Xichen had forgotten how blunt Wei Ying could be. Or, rather, he was unprepared for the tactful tactlessness Wei Wuxian utilised when he wanted something.

“Cloud Recesses is hosting the next Cultivation Conference. We need a Sect Leader. Certainly Lan Zhan is the best in the world, but even he can’t represent Gusu Lan as both Sect Leader and Chief Cultivator. Imagine what ridiculous accusations Sect Leader Yao would come up with!“

Wei Ying’s inclusion of himself as a part of the Gusu Lan didn’t escape Xichen’s notice.

Wei Ying’s less than stellar appearance didn’t escape Xichen either.

It wasn’t obvious, and by no measure did Wei Ying look poorly, but Xichen did notice a heaviness in Wei Ying that hadn’t been there the last time they spoke after he and Wangji eloped. It was a different heaviness from his time as the Yiling Laozu and unrelated to his cultivation. This heaviness was more akin to exhaustion.

Wangji had always been careful to never mention his husband, not wanting to hurt his brother with the reminder of his own happiness. Xichen certainly would not have minded if all Wangji talked about was Wei Ying, though he greatly appreciated Wangji’s approach all the same. But, just as Wangji’s love couldn’t be contained, neither could his concern for his husband. It was a passing concern, and Xichen knew that if Wei Ying had been in any real danger Wangji would not have remained silent.

But, looking at Wei Ying now, Xichen could see the dark shadows under his eyes. While Wei Ying’s presence had always been loud before, it had since been tempered down and replaced with exhaustion. Wangji had briefly mentioned Wei Ying’s tendency towards nightmares after they fled Jinlin Tai, and Xichen suspected that tendency remained.

“Anyway,” Wei Ying continued when Xichen remained silent, “I would have offered to stand in as either but can you imagine the scandal that would cause? The Yiling Laozu playing at the Chief Cultivator? Or better yet: the Yiling Laozu as the new Sect Leader of Gusu Lan? Half the Sect Leaders would go into qi derivation on the spot! Besides, I can’t be dragging down Lan Zhan at these Conferences. I know Lan Zhan doesn’t care for politics but even Hanguang-jun’s reputation can only take so much.”

Xichen rather disagreed that anything could tarnish Wangji’s reputation now, nor did Wangji even care about his reputation, but he felt a flood of warmth towards Wei Ying for his concern.

“I understand Wei Gong-zi’s concerns but I am not understanding why it is required that I leave my seclusion,” Xichen said, staring at Wangji’s ribbon in Wei Ying’s hair. It was clearly tied by Wangji, with the bow tied in a careful butterfly and double knotted so that it would not come loose from Wei Ying’s unpredictable movements. Wangji had since replaced his own forehead ribbon but continued to wear Wei Ying’s red ribbon around his wrist. “Is Uncle unable to participate?” Xichen asked, concerned.

Wei Ying waved his concern away, “No, no, Old Man Lan is fine. Mostly. There was an incident with Jingyi last week which wasn’t his fault, really, I mean how could Jingyi know that the book was cursed? I never knew Old Man Lan could move that fast but it didn’t stop the book from knocking over a fountain and anyway he’s fine but he’s refusing to leave his secluded meditation for another week until his qi levels even out again.”

“And the Elders?”

“Sect Leader Lan,” Wei Ying gave Xichen a look that wasn’t quite judgemental, but it certainly wasn’t without judgement. “Would any of the elders do anything I asked of them?”

“Wangji can ask.”

“Lan Zhan is too busy.”

“Too busy to speak to our own Elders?”

“Yes?”

Unconvinced, Xichen simply looked at Wei Ying.

It wasn’t long before Wei Ying caved.

“Okay! It’s because Lan Zhan has been so busy and I wanted to do something useful beside just terrorizing the juniors, you know? I mean, I’m great at terrorizing the juniors and I have the best night hunting supervision record but that doesn’t exactly help Lan Zhan, you know? So I volunteered to organize the entire conference so Lan Zhan could just focus on his talking points because he’s doing all the hard work already! He’s trying to make real changes that no one important wants but Lan Zhan is the best and the little border towns no one wants to remember deserve our protection too. But apparently these conferences take a lot more work to set up than one would think and I still haven’t figured out how to arrange the seating so Jiang Cheng doesn’t get in a fistfight with Sect Leader Yao again and Sect Leader Ouyang has to be near Lanling Jin and Gusu Lan so Zizhen don’t get too lonely but Sect Leader Ouyang wants to be nowhere near me, and then I realized we’re missing an actual representative but I can’t ask Lan Zhan to do two jobs but the juniors are too young and no one else will do anything if I ask.” It wasn’t entirely clear if Wei Ying was still breathing at this point, but Xichen couldn’t help but be impressed that Wei Ying had volunteered to single handedly organize an entire conference.

Xichen sighed and nodded. He shouldn’t have expected any reason other than Wei Ying’s love for Wangji.

Besides, it would give him a chance to slip some sleeping herbs to Wangji to give to Wei Ying.

~~~

“Zewu-jun!”

Once again, Lan Xichen found his late morning meditation interrupted by Wei Wuxian, who breezed his way into the cave with all the subtlety of a hurricane.

“Zewu-jun!” Wei Wuxian bowed respectfully before throwing himself in a kowtow at Lan Xichen’s feet before Xichen could wrap his head around what was happening.

“Wei Gong-zi?” Xichen blinked at the sight before him, trying to understand what was happening. With his head bowed so low, Wei Wuxian’s hair had moved to the side and revealed a splattering of dark love bites along the back of his neck that only Wangji could have left. Blushing at the implications, at the physical evidence of Wei Wuxian’s nightly activities with his brother, Xichen quickly rushed to pull Wei Wuxian up from his kowtow.

“Wei Gong-zi, please, there is no need for such formalities between family.” Xichen’s hands gripped Wei Wuxian’s upper arms, holding Wei Wuxian upright so he would not try to kowtow again.

“But Zewu-jun! I need your help!” Wei Wuxian wailed, his hands tightly gripping Xichen’s forearms.

With Wei Wuxian upright, Xichen could see further love bites trailing down from just under Wei Wuxian’s ear into the high collar of his robes.

Wangji , Xichen thought pleadingly, some discretion . There was no rule against displaying one’s love, but there was one against debauchery. And, Xichen strongly suspected, once his uncle saw Wei Wuxian, there would be a new rule against leaving evidence of kisses.

Forcing his eyes to focus on Wei Wuxian’s face, and directing his mind to focus on the situation at hand, Xichen spoke. “Wei Gong-zi, are we not at peace? There are no events scheduled for the new few months. Why such urgency?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes were wide and desperate. “But Zewu-jun! Lan Zhan’s birthday is coming soon and I don’t have a gift!”

Xichen blinked. “Is Wangji’s birthday not several months away?”

“Yes, but his gift needs to be perfect!”

Xichen would have liked to move this conversation to the table where they could talk over tea. However, Wei Wuxian was leaning heavily enough that Xichen suspected that if he loosened his grip the slightest bit, Wei Wuxian would return to kowtowing.

“Wei Wuxian, I don’t understand. Wangji views your presence as the greatest gift. There is no need to give unnecessary material goods.”

“But Zewu-jun! You don’t understand!” Wei Wuxian’s grip on Xichen’s forearms was growing tighter and tighter. If this went on much longer, Xichen suspected he would find handprint shaped bruises on his arms. “Lan Zhan is so good to me! My gifts will never be good enough and I can't match up to what Lan Zhan will give me without your help.”

Confused, Xichen tried to push Wei Wuxian’s body upright. “But Wei Gong-zi, you have given Wangji many excellent gifts in the past. He enjoys his rabbits immensely and they bring him much joy, you left him Lan Sizhui for a gift and watching Sizhui’s growth was Wangji's sole purpose to live for a long time, and you have now given him your heart.”

“Zewu-jun, you don’t understand! Lan Zhani gives me little things everyday. He cooks all my meals just for me so I can enjoy every meal! He learned how to use spices for me! He hides Emperor's Smile in the jingshi so I can have it whenever I want and he’s the one who raised Sizhui into a perfect son! He lets me sleep in and brushes my hair and Lan Zhan is perfect. Lan Zhan even wrote a song just for me! Zewu-jun, I have no money and have nothing to offer him!”

Wei Wuxian looked as though he was about to burst into tears with how much Wangji loved him and Xichen couldn’t decide whether to feel joy at how dedicated Wangji and his husband were to each other, or to immediately soothe Wei Wuxian before he actually cried. But, with Wei Wuxian so close, Xichen also noted with satisfaction that the dark bags under Wei Wuxian’s eyes from the last time he had seen him had faded greatly.

“Wei Gong-zi,” Xichen said slowly, carefully, trying to pacify Wei Wuxian. “Did you know, Wangji has kept every gift you’ve ever given him? Every scrap of paper, every sketch, even the flower from Baifeng Mountain he keeps.”

“Of course! But Zewu-jun those are such little things.”

“Wei Gong-zi, you must know that Wangji will treasure any gift you present him with.” Xichen smiled, trying to pacify his brother-in-law.

“I know,” Wei Wuxian looked down, though he no longer leaned so heavily on Xichen’s arms. “Which is why I need to do something Lan Zhan will actually enjoy. I don’t want him to keep something he hates just because I gave it to him.”

Xichen remained silent for a moment, thinking. He let his hands release Wei Wuxian as he was no longer at risk of being kowtowed to. “My brother,” Xichen said, softly, thoughtfully, “he is a man of action, not substance. A gift need not be big, but Wangji will understand the intention behind it. Wangji has always enjoyed your paintings, and has always appreciated your penchant for creativity. I cannot tell you what to give, but I believe Wei Gong-zi will find the adequate gift for Wangji.”

For a long moment, Wei Wuxian was silent, thinking through Xichen’s words. He was quiet long enough for Xichen to almost return to his meditation when Wei Wuxian recovered.

“I understand now! Thank you Zewu-jun!”

Cheerful, Wei Wuxian raised his hands above his head. Xichen stared, confused, for half a second before he realized what Wei Wuxian was about to do.

Horrified, Lan Xichen was almost yelling. “No, Wei Wuxian! Please, stop! We are family now! You need not kowtow to family!”

~~~

In the end, Lan Xichen didn’t remain in seclusion for very long.

He did return to seclusion after the conference which, despite being organized primarily by Wei Wuxian, had gone perfectly smoothly. (Secretly, Xichen thought the conference went smoothly precisely because it had been organized by Wei Wuxian.) No fistfights broke out, no new rivalries came to light, no extramarital affairs took place, and no one left horribly dissatisfied with the implemented changes. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying had convinced all the sects to contribute to a collective fund to support activities for poorer villages that couldn’t afford to hire a cultivator but required their services and to build a series of schools to educate promising young cultivators who were no longer connected to a sect. But a year after the Guanyin Temple, he was rather forcibly encouraged to return to his position and duties by Wei Wuxian.

Not by Wei Wuxian directly. Wei Wuxian himself had very little to do with actually leaving seclusion, but it was because of Wei Wuxian that Xichen ended his seclusion so soon.

In a classic Wei Wuxian move, he managed to break three ribs, a hip, receive a nasty wolf bite on his thigh, and enjoy some internal bleeding after taking a group of junior disciples from Gusu Lan and Lanling Jin on a night hunt.

What happened was this: Wei Wuxian was standing on a tree branch, observing the juniors from above as they took down a standard beast. The night hunt went smoothly. No injuries, and no one cried. Jingyi and Jin Ling even managed to avoid getting into a shouting match. The problem was a stray dog. No one ever saw the dog, but Wei Wuxian very much heard the dog bark and, in his panic, fell off the branch he was standing on.

Certainly, that was far from the first tree Wei Wuxian had fallen out of. Hanguang-jun would not have punished the juniors, though it would certainly feel like a punishment when Hanguang-jun inevitably levelled his disappointed glare upon them for allowing Wei Wuxian to be careless and get bruised. But, it was nothing out of the ordinary. And really, it shouldn’t have been a problem except that the tree was near a cliff. It wasn’t a steep cliff and Hanguang-jun may have just assigned the juniors with undesirable chores for a couple days to make a point, but there was a rocky patch where Wei Wuxian landed. Some especially jagged rocks left deep scrapes and minor lacerations along Wei Wuxian’s arms and hands and the impact broke a few bones. And perhaps the juniors could still have avoided a severe punishment since it was Wei Wuxian’s fault for climbing up a tree so close to a cliff. But, naturally the rocks were not the only things waiting at the bottom of a cliff. A wild wolf had wandered into the area to investigate the new sounds, which set off Wei Wuxian’s terror, which in turn alarmed the wolf. No one saw what happened exactly, but everyone heard Wei Wuxian’s screams as he ran away, in spite of his injuries, and the wolf’s snarls as it chased Wei Wuxian.

Hanguang-jun found Wei Wuxian before the juniors did.

“So,” Xichen asked Sizhui as they stood outside the Jingshi after Sizhui recounted the events that had transpired, “what happened to the juniors Wei Wuxian was supervising?”

“Jingyi sent a signal to Hanguang-jun as soon as Senior Wei slipped from the tree.” Sizhui had not been on this night hunt, having been relegated to the task of teaching the youngest disciples the basics of qin playing while the regular instructor was recovering from a broken finger.

“And where is Lan Jingyi now?”

“Copying five hundred sets of the rules under the supervision of Grandmaster Lan.”

“Handstands?”

Sizhui nodded. “Hanguang-jun was not pleased.”

If he had any less self-discipline, Xichen would have sighed. It wasn’t like Wangji to lash out at their junior disciples over Wei Wuxian’s actions.

Having been raised by the reserved Hanguang-jun, Sizhui recognized the disapproving look on Xichen’s face and quickly added, “Ah, Zewu-jun, Jingyi chose the location due to a bet with Sect Leader Jin over whether wolves were similar enough to dogs to scare Senior Wei. The other junior disciples were told to copy the rules just eight times and to write a letter of appreciation to Senior Wei.”

The incident occurred a week ago but Wei Wuxian was recovering slowly due to his lack of spiritual energy to expedite the healing process, and because an infection had set in that had just barely been kept at bay by Wangji giving Wei Wuxian his own spiritual energy for hours each day. With Wei Ying so severely injured, Wangji was hovering at his bedside. Much of his work as Chief Cultivator was reading and responding to documents, but it was difficult to be both Chief Cultivator and Sect Leader while attending full time to an uncooperative patient. And so, Xichen was forced to come out of seclusion and return as Sect Leader.

When Sizhui and Xichen entered the Jingshi, they found Wei Ying lying miserably in bed. Most of his body was hidden under their blanket, but his forearms were visibly wrapped in thick bandages. Wangji was sitting at his side in bed, back against the headboard, perched carefully beside Wei Ying, careful not to jostle his injuries. A flash of red could be seen under his sleeve when Wangji shifted his arm.

“My perfect night hunting record,” Wei Ying lamented, poking at Wangji’s side. “Lan Zhan~”

“Shhh,” Wangji hummed. He set aside the document he had been reading and looked down at Wei Ying. “Rest.”

Wei Ying opened his mouth to protest but Wangji interrupted him by gently stroking Wei Ying’s face and affectionately patting his cheeks.

“Wei Ying must be more careful,” Wangji said, leaning down to pepper Wei Ying’s forehead with kisses.

“Wangji is correct,” Xichen said.

Wei Wuxian turned his head in surprise, but Wangji simply looked up and nodded his acknowledgement. “Xiongzhang.”

“Xian-gege,” Sizhui rushed to kneel at Wei Wuxian’s bedside, dropping the honorifics in the privacy of the jingshi. “How are you?”

“A-Yuan, what a good child, asking after his seniors. Look Lan Zhan, what a wonderful child you raised!”

“We raised,” Wangji corrected instinctively. Turning to Sizhui, Wangji said, “Wei Ying’s fever broke this morning. Wei Ying will make a full recovery as long as he listens to the doctor and rests.”

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whined, “I’m hungry.”

“You ate less than an hour ago.” An outsider may have thought Lan Wangji was reasoning with his husband, but Xichen knew Wangji would do whatever Wei Wuxian requested of him, no matter how ridiculous.

“A-Zhan~” Wei Wuxian gingerly reached for Wangji’s hand. When he found it, Wangji clasped their fingers together, stroking his thumb along the back of Wei Wuxian’s hand. For someone as terrified of dogs as Wei Wuxian, he certainly had the Puppy Eyes™ perfected as he looked up at Lan Wangji with pure, unfiltered adoration.

“If Wei Ying wishes,” Wangji said, bringing Wei Wuxian’s hand to his mouth and trailing a line of kisses down his wrist as if they were alone. “I will cook for Wei Ying.” In a fluid moment, Lan Wangji stood from their bed. Bending down, he rearranged their blankets so Wei Wuxian would be warm and comfortable without him and pressed a kiss to Wei Ying’s forehead. “Be good.”

“Hurry back!” Wei Ying waved cutely at Wangji.

“Mn.” Xichen could see Wangji smiling.

Bowing at his brother, Wangji was about to apologize for not immediately addressing Xichen but Xichen waved Wangji off. “Wangji, I believe your husband is waiting,” he said teasingly.

With a nod, Wangji swept out of the jingshi.

“Ah, I will join you,” Sizhui rose to his feet and scurried after Wangji. “May we check on Jingyi on our way to the kitchens as well?”

Left alone with his brother-in-law, Xichen took a seat on the chair Wangji had set by their bed for the doctor.

Taking a cursory glance around the Jingshi to see what changes had been made in the year since he entered seclusion, he found evidence of Wei Wuxian everywhere. While outwardly as immaculate as ever, Xichen could see piles of half finished talismans and books stacked unevenly on Wangji’s work desk. The closet door was opened with the slightest crack, but Xichen could see the dark robes Wei Wuxian preferred neatly lined up beside Wangji’s white Gusu Lan robes. On the bookshelf, Xichen would see where Wei Wuxian had added to Wangji’s collection of books, as well as little trinkets lining the shelves. Mostly, they were little bunnies carved from jade, wood, or bronze. Wangji once considered such items as superfluous, but they made Wei Ying happy and thus became a necessity.

In particular, Xichen found his eyes drawn to the large painting hanging on the wall of the Jingshi directly across the door where everyone would see when they entered. It was a family portrait of Wangji, Wei Wuxian, and Sizhui with their instruments in the back hills surrounded by Wangji’s bunnies. Lil’ Apple was in the background, munching on an apple. Xichen recognized the brushwork to be Wei Wuxian’s, having seen his doodles as a guest disciple many years earlier.

Xichen was also pleased to note that the dark bags that had lined Wei Wuxian’s eyes before the conference had faded even more and that the bundle of herbs he had given to Wangji sat on their bedside table, clearly used. Several other medicinal pouches had joined it; Xichen recognized several mild anesthetics and spirit cleansing herbs.

“Xichen-gege,” Wei Wuxian said. It had been less noticeable when speaking to Wangji, but Wei Wuxian’s words were slightly slurred as though he wasn’t fully coherent. Glancing at all the medicinal pouches by their bed, Xichen guessed Wei Wuxian was still in a fair amount of pain. Though he had never explicitly given Wei Wuxian permission to address him so informally, Xichen found that he liked the familiarity.

“Xichen-gege,” Wei Wuxian repeated, with a hint of urgency.

“Yes, Young Master Wei?”

“Da ge,” Wei Wuxian said, eyes glazed over with happiness, “isn’t Lan Zhan the best? Lan Zhan is so good to me.”

Amused, Xichen decided to play along Wei Wuxian’s antics. Xichen nodded, “Wangji is indeed excellent.”

“Lan Zhan is the best at cooking. A-Zhan is perfect at everything. His arms are so strong and he holds me so well and Da ge, did you know Lan Zhan is ticklish in the crook of his elbow? I found out by accident and I’m the only one who knows so don’t tell anyone!” Wei Wuxian was babbling and Xichen felt his heart warm at how much sheer, unadulterated adoration and love was radiating off of his brother-in-law.

Perhaps this should have been an uncomfortable discussion to partake in, but Xichen found he didn’t mind watching Wei Wuxian profess his love for Wangji. Their feelings were not a secret and Xichen found joy in the knowledge that his judgement of Wei Wuxian as a good friend for Wangji to have was at least correct. Having been witness to their shameless confession to each other in the Guanyin Temple, such innocent declarations of Wei Wuxian’s love simply filled Xichen with warmth.

“Da ge, da ge! Are you listening? Did you know Lan Zhan once gave me chickens he stole? He even vandalised property! What a bad influence Hanguang-jun is! But I still love my A-Zhan because he did it just for me. But only for me! He can’t steal chickens for anyone else!”

Lan Xichen was rather dubious of the assertion that Wangji would ever commit such a petty crime, but he had also long since learned that there was no length Wangji would not go to for Wei Wuxian. “Did you enjoy the chickens?”

Wei Wuxian pouted but his tone remained bright. “I had to put them back but I’m sure Lan Zhan would give me more if I wanted. They could make friends with the bunnies. And Lil’ Apple! Da ge, I liked the chickens so much because Lan Zhan gave them to me. I like anything A-Zhan gives me.”

For a long time, Lan Xichen had been unable to hear, or even think, of the word da ge without hurting as it had become a reminder of how they, how he himself , had failed Nie Mingjue, but Xichen found that he rather enjoyed being called da ge by his brother-in-law. The direct Lan family had never been big, but Wei Wuxian was an excellent addition no matter what their uncle thought.

~~~

Lan Xichen had never liked Jinlin Tai. Under Jin Guangshan, under Jin Guangyao, and even now under Jin Ling, Jinlin Tai had only ever been an ostentatious display of wealth that Lan Xichen had never been comfortable with.

It was Sect Leader Jin’s birthday and his advisors wanted to throw a massive party to celebrate while conspicuously reminding everyone that despite the dishonourable actions of their previous two Sect Leaders, they were still unbelievably wealthy and incredibly powerful.

Having rediscovered his footing as Lan Sect Leader, Xichen found that he had become more aware of those around him. He had never been unobservant, given the reserved nature of his own brother, but Xichen was finding his observational capacity beginning to spill into the territory of being overaware. This awareness largely manifested itself in the less generous observations of pettiness around him. When Gusu Lan had arrived, Xichen noticed how Sect Leader looked at Wangji with absolute terror and immediately continued apologizing profusely to Wangji for his role in the disasterous nighthunt from two months earlier, and to Wei Wuxian for not understanding wolves were dogs but worse. During the banquet, he noticed how Sect Leader Sima made unbecoming advances towards the daughter of Sect Leader Zhao, how Jin Chan and a small group of Jin disciples mockingly laughed at each word said by Jin Ling, how Sect Leader Jiang and Wangji were very obviously avoiding looking at each other, and he couldn’t help the distaste he continued to feel towards Moling Su, a feeling which Wangji felt even more strongly. Xichen also noticed that Moling Su had been excluded from most cross-sect activities and that Lanling Jin had invited them to their leader’s birthday banquet as a reminder of their irrelevance. They could come to a birthday banquet and bear gifts, but they could not participate in any activities of value.

He also noticed how Wei Wuxian’s eyes filled with tears when Sect Leader Jin was introduced with his courtesy name for the first time, and he noticed how Wangji immediately reached over to hold Wei Wuxian’s hand when it happened.

When it had begun raining outside, Xichen noticed how Wei Wuxian melded even closer into Wangji’s side as Wangji gave Wei Wuxian increasingly concerned looks.

He noticed that two hours into the banquet, once the dinner had shifted into a open socialization period, that Wei Wuxian would rub his waist in discomfort. This was the same hip that had been broken a couple months ago during that unfortunate night hunt Wangji was still upset with Jingyi and Jin Ling over. It would be improper for Wangji to blatantly hold his husband’s waist, but Xichen could see how Wangji would discreetly give Wei Wuxian some spiritual energy throughout the night to ease the pain.

While Wangji and Sect Leader Jiang were blatantly avoiding each others’ paths and firmly standing on opposite sides of the room, Lan Xichen noticed that Wei Wuxian had slipped away from the banquet entirely after speaking briefly to Sect Leader Jin.

Wangji approached Xichen shortly after making this observation. “Xiongzhang.” Wangji bowed. Wei Wuxian's red ribbon flickered from under Wangji's long sleeves as he raised his arms.

“Wangji,” Xichen bowed in response, “Where is Xiao Wei?”

“Wei Ying is not feeling well.” Although the response is deadpan and diplomatic, Xichen can see the tension and concern in his brother’s eyes even though it would be a grave insult to Lanling Jin for the Chief Cultivator to leave early.

However, as the Lan Sect Leader who is participating in his first event since recently leaving seclusion... “My apologies to the Chief Cultivator,” Xichen says, bowing again to his brother, “this Sect Leader must also excuse himself.”

Wangji knows exactly what his brother is doing, and Xichen can see some of the tension ease from Wangji’s eyes.

It is raining harder than expected when Xichen steps outside, but the wide eaves of the Jinlin Tai roofs keep him dry.

The Lan entourage has been given adjacent rooms and Xichen finds himself stopping in front of Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s room. The unexpected silence behind the door gives him pause, but Xichen knocks on the door anyway.

The door opens to show a dishevelled Wei Wuxian who has exchanged his formal robes for a simple inner robe that Xichen suspects belongs to Wangji and an outer robe that definitely belongs to Wangji. The clothing hangs loosely off Wei Wuxian's lean frame. Wei Wuxian’s hair is flowing loosely down his back, the elaborate pins and headpieces Wangji has painstakingly combed into his hair earlier now abandoned on the dresser. Wangji’s ribbon is in Wei Wuxian’s hand, his fingers stroking the impeccable cloud embroidery.

“Wangji was worried about you,” Xichen says, stepping into the room.

Wei Wuxian steps back to sit at the low tea table, vaguely gesturing for Xichen to join him. “Did Lan Zhan send you?”

“You could say that,” Xichen says, kneeling as Wei Wuxian pours them tea. He notices how Wei Wuxian’s legs are not crossed properly as they had been during the banquet. One leg is sticking out to the side, slightly bent at the knee.

“Of course,” Wei Wuxian gives a self-deprecating smile as he passes Xichen his tea. “You can tell Lan Zhan I’m fine.”

The tea is still hot, but Xichen takes a sip anyway. “I am also concerned for my brother-in-law.”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t look surprised, but Xichen notices how Wei Wuxian looks down at his own cup.

When Wei Wuxian says nothing, Xichen continues, “Is your injury still bothering you?”

Xichen can see Wei Wuxian about to spew empty reassurances and stops him before he can begin. “I am not as astute as Wangji,” Xichen says, setting down his cup, “nor am I as well-read in your body language as Wangji, but it is clear to me that you have been in discomfort all evening.”

“Ah,” Wei Wuxian’s hands clench at his borrowed robes, pulling the fabric tighter around himself in a poor mimicry of Lan Zhan’s arms around him. “It is…” Wei Wuxian pauses for a moment to think, perhaps to contemplate how candid he should be. “I am still sore. My leg doesn’t appreciate being folded for long periods of time. Dogs bite harder than you think, you know.”

“And your hip?” Xichen inquires gently, knowing that for all Wei Wuxian likes to complain about petty annoyances and minor inconveniences, Wei Wuxian’s internal conflicts are as closed off as Wangji’s are, if not more.

Wei Wuxian shrugs almost casually, although Xichen can see Wei Wuxian shifting his weight. Smiling vacuously, Wei Wuxian says, “I thought the doctor was exaggerating when she said it takes upwards of six months for non-cultivators to recover from broken bones. It’s been over two months but it still hurts to stand or sit for too long.”

“You are recovering well, regardless.”

“It is strange to be reminded of your own mortality,” Wei Wuxian says mirthlessly. “Isn’t it funny? I literally died and came back to life and almost had my soul destroyed but it’s a stupid tree that actually shoves vulnerability at my face. That, and Jingyi making stupid bets with Jin Ling.”

Though the words are almost bitter, Xichen can hear the underlying affection Wei Wuxian has for his wayward juniors.

“Jingyi is very sorry,” Xichen says diplomatically, humour dancing across his features. He notices how Wei Wuxian’s cup is empty and reaches for the teapot to refill both their cups.

Nodding his thanks, Wei Wuxian pours the tea down his throat. “I should be too young for this, all these pains and aches. My heart can’t take all this stress. Lan Zhan is the worst, saying the most embarrassing things! And all so genuine! I need warnings before Lan Zhan speaks because my heart really can’t take it! Honestly, that Jin Ling must be sneaking off with Lan Zhan behind my back. Where else could be have learned to pull off that trick with his courtesy name?”

Wei Wuxian complaining about Lan Zhan’s declarations of love are a staple in every conversation and never fails to entertain Xichen. Wangji is exceedingly over the top in his expressions of love, but so is Wei Wuxian and it fills Xichen with warmth when he sees how happy his brother is. But, Xichen also hears how Wei Wuxian stumbles over courtesy name . He sips at his tea again, waiting for Wei Wuxian to continue.

And he does, after finishing off his tea. While Xichen refills Wei Wuxian’s cup, Wei Wuxian speaks.

“You know, Xichen-gege, I was the one who gave Jin Rulan his name.”

Surprise flickers across Xichen’s face; his eyes widen but he says nothing because Wei Wuxian has more to say.

“Jiang Cheng made fun of me for choosing Rulan. Because lan . I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time. There wasn’t much I could think about with what little of me was left from the resentful energy, but lan just sounded pretty and I guess I loved Lan Zhan before I ever understood what that kind of love was. Jin Ling hated it though, and who can blame him? He says it’s too feminine but we all know it’s because I chose it.” Wei Wuxian isn’t crying, but his eyes are watery in the candlelight.

Xichen hates it.

A sad Wei Ying makes a sad Wangji but in his heart, Xichen knows that Wei Wuxian is not someone who is meant to be sad.

“Regardless, it seems that Sect Leader Jin has accepted you as his uncle.”

Wei Wuxian turns those watery eyes toward Xichen and Xichen’s heart clenches. “That doesn’t make me not responsible for shijie’s death. Or Jin Zixuan.”

Xichen isn’t quite sure what to say, and he sips his tea so he can think about what he can say when a flash of lightning streaks the room with light. The subsequent clap of thunder causes Wei Wuxian to flinch. Not by much -- the cup into his hands does not spill over his fingers -- but it is disturbingly clear exactly what Wei Wuxian thinks of the weather.

“Wei Wuxian?” Xichen reaches out when Wei Wuxian says nothing.

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” Wei Wuxian rushes to apologize, plastering an empty smile on his face. “I just don’t like storms very much.”

“Childhood fear?” Xichen asks. Friendly as he is with his brother-in-law, there are times when Xichen is strikingly aware of how little of Wei Wuxian’s life he actually knows. He does not understand why Wei Wuxian fears dogs, or why Wangji has strictly designated one field for kite flying where Wei Wuxian will never see the juniors and youngest disciples play.

Shaking his head, Wei Wuxian sets his tea cup back down. His expression is carefully blank, but Xichen can see the slight tremble of his fingers. “Not exactly.”

When Wei Wuxian drifts off, Xichen tries to pull him back into the present. “Wei Ying?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes flicker up in surprise; Xichen has never used his given name before even though they are family now. “Ah, sorry. A lot of my worst memories happened in a storm. And it’s so cold and wet!”

The last part is so blatantly tacked on in an attempt to minimize how much of himself Wei Wuxian is offering but Xichen suddenly realizes how Wangji meticulously schedules nighthunts that Wei Wuxian supervises on days that will not rain, how Wangji played melancholy music during rainy days during Xichen’s seclusion, and how Wei Wuxian is the most tired after a rainy night.

“It is okay to dislike the rain,” Xichen says, after a long silence. Wei Wuxian has lost his empty smile and his eyes are still watery as he wraps Wangji’s robes even tighter around himself. “I find it difficult to be in the Cold Springs Cave, in spite of the sacredness of Lan Yi’s cave. We cannot control the associations we create between our feelings and our circumstances and should not blame ourselves for such perceived weaknesses. The blame is not ours to bear.”

Their tea is now lukewarm, but Xichen refills his cup anyway. Wei Ying’s cup is still full, though the tea is now cold. Sipping at his tea, Xichen sees how the tension lessens ever so slightly from Wei Ying’s shoulders and his grasp on Wangji’s robe is no longer at risk of ripping the fine fabric. Wangji’s ribbon is still draped over Wei Ying’s hand and Wei Ying is running his fingers over the detailed needlework for comfort, to ground himself.

Wei Wuxian sits in quiet contemplation as Lan Xichen adds, “Rulan is an excellent name. I believe Sect Leader Jin has grown into it quite well.”

With a watery smile, Wei Wuxian looks back up at Xichen. “Thank you, da ge,” Wei Ying pauses momentarily before adding, “and I’m sorry.”

Xichen smiles gently. “We are family, Xiao Wei. Gusu Lan takes care of our own, even from ourselves and our own melancholies. There is nothing to be sorry for.”

~~~

The first problem was that Lan Zhan was gone for the week on a diplomatic trip to Yunmeng Jiang. The second problem was that Lan Zhan had taken Sizhui and Jingyi with him.

The third problem, and most pressing, was that Lan Zhan had left Wei Ying behind in Cloud Recesses. Alone. With neither husband nor son. Not even Wen Ning was nearby, having gone off night hunting with a band of open-minded rogue cultivators he had met in Caiyi Town.

It wasn’t that Wei Ying was bitter at having been left behind, exactly. He wasn’t not bitter, but it wasn’t as if he had been drinking vinegar.

“Can you believe it!” Wei Wuxian wasn’t yelling, really. His voice was a few decibel levels above what was normal for him, but it was Cloud Recesses, most of the junior disciples were in class while the senior disciples were meditating, and Wei Wuxian might as well have been screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs at midnight with the looks he was receiving from the Lan Elders he passed. “Lan Er Gege abandoned me here! My husband gets to go off gallivanting around Lotus Pier with our son while I have been forsaken!”

Wei Wuxian carried several haphazardly balanced bundles of vegetables and apples as he made way to the back mountain. As usual, Wangji’s ribbon was tied securely in Wei Wuxian’s hair. The silky tails of the ribbon fluttered behind Wei Wuxian, carried by the breeze.

Xichen stayed several paces behind Wei Wuxian, carrying his own treats for the rabbits in baskets and smiling neutrally at the passing Elders to placate them.

“Lan Zhan and A-Yuan can’t even enjoy the food! They’ll walk past all the vendors, all the wonderful scents and spices and not realize what they’re missing!”

Silently, Xichen noted that Wangji’s spice tolerance had increased rather significantly after nearly two years of marriage to Wei Wuxian.

“Lan Zhan can’t even stand Jiang Cheng! I had to stop Lan Zhan from pulling Bichen on Jiang Cheng at the last Cultivation Conference! Me! The Yiling Patriarch! I had to be the voice of reason!” Wei Ying raged as he aggressively stomped towards Wangji’s rabbit enclosure.

One head of cabbage tumbled out of Wei Wuxian’s arms. Wei Wuxian didn’t notice and simply continued his rampage into the rabbits. Without a break in his step, Xichen gracefully scooped the wayward vegetable from the ground and followed his brother-in-law into the rabbits.

Carefully, he placed the basket on the ground and checked to see if there was any risk of squishing a rabbit before sitting himself down in the grass. Wei Ying had done nothing of the sort, having simply dove directly onto the ground. Any unsuspecting rabbits would know to race out of the way in time. Chaotic as he was, the rabbits had long since become accustomed to Wei Wuxian’s brand of chaos.

And they knew he came with treats.

With rabbits perched on his torso and nibbling at the bok choy they had brought, Wei Ying turned to Xichen with a thoughtful look.

“Da ge,” Wei Ying said, eyes downcast and morose even as he lay on his back, “what do you think would have happened to your relationship with Lan Zhan if he had stayed with me in the Burial Mounds?”

Startled, Xichen looked at Wei Ying. “Why do you ask?”

As Xichen watched, Wei Ying didn’t say anything at first. He fed the rabbits on his chest two more leaves of bok choy before turning back to Xichen.

“Its just,” Wei Ying drifted off, head shifting so he was looking directly up at the clear blue sky. Only a few wispy clouds streaked thin lines across the skies, “I was just curious.”

“It is unlike Xiao Wei to think about that period,” Xichen hummed, thinking about what if Wangji had truly abandoned Gusu Lan back then. What would he have done then? What could he have done?

Wei Wuxian stretched an arm out, enticing a smaller bunny to snuggle against his side. “Lan Zhan doesn’t like it when I think too hard about the past,” he says ruefully, treating the new bunny to an apple slice. “It makes me sad. But it’s hard not to think about the past when Lan Zhan is with Jiang Cheng.”

Even as he continued to ponder the thought of Wangji in the Burial Mounds, Xichen suddenly understood what Wei Wuxian was really thinking about. “You miss him.”

“Of course I miss him! I miss my husband when he leaves the room. I miss him when he stands too far away from me in a big room. I miss him when he is already at the top of a flight of stairs and I’m still down at the bottom.”

“Xiao Wei,” Xichen looked at Wei Wuxian, unimpressed, knowing that Wei Wuxian was intentionally trying to delay the real conversation he wanted to have.

Sighing, Wei Wuxian talked about what he really wanted to say. “Jiang Cheng was my brother in every way that mattered.”

Wei Ying paused for a long time, content to feed the bunnies as they surrounded him. There was a little white one with black spots nuzzling Wei Ying’s neck that had just been born the past spring. It was the only one who wasn’t purely white and it was Wei Ying’s favourite.

Xichen said nothing, content to feed the rabbits that had surrounded him as he waited for Wei Ying to collect his thoughts.

“After the Guanyin Temple, I spoke to Jiang Cheng. We didn’t plan it, but we ran into each other in the Unclean Realm. Neither of us had told Nie Huaisang we were going to visit but I think Nie-xiong still planned it,” Wei Ying huffs out a dry laugh. Nie Huaisang was now the black sheep to be wary of in the cultivation world, and wasn’t that just ridiculous?

(Deep down, Wei Wuxian knew Nie Huaisang had always been smarter than he let on. Not book smart -- never book smart -- but the artist in Nie Huaisang saw more with a single glance than Wei Wuxian could ever see in any amount of time.)

“He yelled at me and threatened to break my legs. We cried and apologized to each other. I went back to Lotus Pier with him because he threatened to break my legs if I didn’t. But I wanted to see what it was like when people weren’t trying to kill me. But it was all wrong, you know? Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu weren’t there, Shijie wasn’t there, and no one I grew up with was there. I realized that Jiang Cheng is the only person left in the world who knows who I was as a child and I don’t know what to do with that.

“Da ge, you tell me stories about Lan Zhan all the time. And I love them! And it makes Lan Zhan happy even when we laugh at him because it means we’re getting along. But Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan hate each other. I didn’t think Lan Zhan could hate anyone as much as he hated me but then I saw him look at Jiang Cheng.”

“Wangji never hated you,” Xichen jumped in instinctively. He hadn’t intended to interrupt Wei Ying, and he knew Wei Ying now understood the entirety of Wangji’s feelings for him, but it would never not be strange hearing about the possibility of a Wangji who didn’t love Wei Ying with his entire being.

Wei Ying smiled, thinking about his husband. “He didn’t. Lan Zhan really is the best. I couldn’t stand being in Lotus Pier because it wasn’t right. It isn’t home anymore and the entire time I just wanted Lan Zhan with me so I could show him everything I saw.

“I talked to Jiang Cheng before I left. Really talked. I didn’t tell him how hard it was to enjoy being in Lotus Pier without Shijie and everyone I knew, but I think he knew. He said that I had always chosen Lan Zhan over him and that he should have expected this to be no different. It’s true, isn’t it? I have always chosen Lan Zhan, except when I took the Wens to the Burial Mounds.”

When nearly a minute passed and Wei Weuxian didn’t add anything more, Xichen spoke. “In the Nightless City,” he said, startling Wei Ying with his abrupt change of topic, “I saw you fight Wangji. I saw Wangji fight with you when you came down from the rooftops. I watched Wangji cut down anyone who could have harmed you and I kept our disciples away.”

Gently brushing the bunnies on his chest back onto the ground, Wei Ying slowly sat back up. His earlier hip injury had long since healed, but Xichen still found himself looking for signs of  discomfort as Wei Ying moved. Why? Wei Ying wanted to ask but he couldn’t find the words to do it.

Seeing the question, the confusion, written across Wei Ying’s face, Xichen continued while stroking the soft ears of the rabbit in his lap. “You know that our family is passionate and fiercely devoted to those we love. Wangji is no different. He may be the fiercest of us all,” Xichen smiled wryly. “If I had allowed Wangji to cross swords with one of our own, I would have forced him to choose between two factions of his heart. That is not a fair decision to thrust upon someone. I was scared. I think I knew, even then, perhaps especially then, that Wangji would have chosen you over me. For a long time, until recently, I did not wish to think too deeply about what Wangji would have chosen. He has always chosen you, and I was not ready to face the reality that he would choose you over Gusu. I believe, if I had forced the choice upon him, I would have lost him forever.”

Picking up the little spotted bunny, Wei Ying cradled her gently in his arms. He fed her an apple slice as he looked at Xichen. “Me? Would he have? The rules were -- are -- so important to Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying trailed off.

“Not so.” Lan Xichen said with absolute certainty. “Wangji entered the forbidden section of our library without permission to research ways to counter the effect of demonic cultivation. He was punished when he returned from visiting you at the Burial Mounds.”

Wei Ying was shocked. “He did that? For me?”

Xichen nodded. “When he was whipped for supporting you, he asked Uncle ‘who is right? Who is wrong? What is black? What is white?’ ”

A strangled noise came from Wei Ying. He was now clutching the spotted rabbit with both hands as if the rabbit was all that was keeping him grounded. “He....Lan Zhan said that?” When Xichen nodded, Wei Ying continued, in awe, “I...there is a lot I don’t remember from my first life. But those words, those are the words I said to Lan Zhan when he came to stop me. When I escaped with the Wens. Lan Zhan...he really said that?”

“Uncle was furious,” Xichen said with a small smile, borrowing one of Wei Wuxian’s techniques to lighten their conversation. The rabbit in his lap had grown restless and shaken off Xichen’s hand. Unbothered, Xichen watched as the rabbit hopped out of his lap back into the field.

Turning back to Wei Ying, whose little spotted bunny was licking at his chin, Xichen said, “I do not know the entirety of what has transpired between you and Sect Leader Jiang. I do not doubt that you loved each other greatly and continue to care for the other, just as I do Wangji, but you were pushed to make a decision prematurely and Jiang Wanyin was unprepared for the consequences of that decision. Unlike Wangji and I and Gusu Lan, Yunmeng Jiang was never granted the luxury of time.”

“Lan Zhan still blames Jiang Cheng,” Wei Ying says quietly. The rabbit in his arms has grown restless and is now perched on his shoulder, nibbling at his hair.

Brushing invisible dust from his outer robe, Xichen spoke. “I saw you fall. I heard Wangji scream and watched as he leapt after you. I watched you slip from his grasp and heard Wangji cry out afterwards. We have had eighteen years to come to terms with our role in the events, years that you have not had, but it is still difficult for Wangji to see Jiang Wanyin as anything other than the one who turned his back on his brother.”

“It was my choice to fall,” Wei Ying’s throat is choked with tears that have yet to fall, his voice just barely above a whisper.

“But Jiang Wanyin made choices that deepened the chasm between you.” Xichen held up a hand when Wei Ying opened his mouth to disagree. “Choices were made on both ends, but Jiang Wanyin made his decisions out of the unpreparedness of seeing you choose Wangji. It seems inevitable now to think that you ever had a choice that wasn’t Wangji, but it was not so clear back then. Just as I had not been ready to lose Wangji, Jiang Wanyin had not been ready to lose you. Until Jiang Wanyin is able to accept that you and Wangji were always destined to choose the other, it will be difficult for either of them to view the other with anything but resentment. I am only thankful that I was never in a position to force Wangji to choose between us, and that I was given enough time to repair my relationship with Wangji and to make my peace with our fate.”

Smiling a watery smile, Wei Ying sets the restless little spotted rabbit down on his lap where she nibbles at the remnants of a bok choy stem.

“Do you regret your choices?” Xichen’s voice was strained. He didn’t want to ask this and was fearful of the answer, even though he knew there was nothing to fear and he already knew what Wei Ying would say.

As the tears finally overflow from his eyes, Wei Ying looks at Xichen and says with absolute certainty, “how can I, when my choices have led me to Lan Zhan?”

Feeding the last of their prepared snacks to the spotted rabbit, Wei Ying wipes his tears with his sleeve before turning to Xichen.

“Everyday I think my heart is going to burst with how much I love Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian says softly, cheeks aflame. His eyes are downcast and darting, usually modest for someone who regularly shows off the love bites Wangji leaves on him.

Xichen beams, happy for the happiness his brother and Wei Wuxian have finally found after so much suffering. “Then cherish that love because it will always be enough.”

#mo dao zu shi #wangxian #mdzs #lan wangji #lan zhan #wei wuxian #wei ying #the untamed #cql #chen qing ling #lan huan #lan xichen #陈情令 #the untamed 陈情令 #魔道祖师 #lan yuan #a yuan #lan sizhui #My writing #cql fic #untamed fic #cql fanfic #untamed fanfic

[robininthelabyrinth]

LXC is the legal guardian and adopter for LSZ or LJY, and NMJ has questions.

part 2 of the LJY-adopted-by-LQR fic (now also on ao3)

-

“So, did I knock you up before I went to war or something?” Nie Mingjue asked. “Because I feel like you should’ve mentioned it if that was the case. Possibly in a letter.”

Lan Xichen was so tired that it took him a solid minute to parse what was wrong with that sentence and how to respond, and it was not by following his first instinct to apologize that he should’ve written better letters.

“Stop making fun of me,” he said instead, groping towards some measure of dignity.

Sadly, dignity was in very short supply when you were taking care of babies. Multiple babies. Well, one baby and one toddler, which was somehow worse?

Lan Xichen was pretty sure they’d figured out how to time their crying off each other.

“I would never,” Nie Mingjue said, like a liar, and then he picked up little Jingyi and – Lan Xichen simply cannot find another way to put it – shook him, in a manner not unlike testing a melon for freshness.

For some reason, this made Lan Jingyi stop crying and start making snuffling little giggles instead.

“How did you do that?” Lan Xichen asked, eyes wide.

“Do what?” Nie Mingjue tucked the baby into the crook of his arm and scooped up some food off the table, offering it to him, and Lan Jingy actually ate it. “Xichen, are you feeling all right?”

“Shhh!” Lan Xichen hissed, eyes fixed on the baby, which was neither spitting up everything nor wailing as if his heart was broken. “No unnecessary noise during meals.”

Nie Mingjue snorted in amusement. “Sure,” he said amiably, in the tone Lan Xichen had long ago learned meant ‘nice rules you’ve got there, it’d be an awful shame if someone found a loophole in them’. “This isn’t a meal, though; it’s just a snack.”

Lan Xichen eyed the still-not-crying Lan Jingyi and decided that now was not the time for a spirited debate on the virtues of discipline and fulfilling the merits rather than the word of a rule.

“Where’s monster number one gone?” Nie Mingjue asked abruptly. “He must be very good at hiding, because I looked away for a blink of an eye and he was gone.”

Lan Xichen’s eyes slowly dropped down to where a cloth-covered lump was not-so-sneakily edging towards Nie Mingjue’s foot.

Nie Mingjue was one of the foremost front line fighters of their generation, and possibly the previous one as well. His physical ability was matched only by his incredibly keen senses.

There was no way he was not aware of the lump.

“It’s a real shame, too,” Nie Mingjue continued. “I was planning on doing a test of how far you can throw children, but I think monster two here’s a bit too small to make the test worthwhile. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be –”

You can’t throw children, Lan Xichen was about to say, except Lan Sizhui was tearing off the tablecloth and jumping up in excitement, shouting, “Here! Here! I’m here! I’m big enough! You can throw me!”

“Why does he want to be thrown,” Lan Xichen murmured, bewildered. He’d never wanted to be thrown around as a child. Had he?

In fairness, he wasn’t sure. No one had ever offered.

Apparently, though, Lan Sizhui did very much want to be thrown around, and Lan Jingyi even condescended to allow Lan Xichen to hold him while he watched.

“Higher! Higher!” Lan Sizhui shouted.

“Really? Is this high enough?” Nie Mingjue held him up at eye level.

“Higher!”

“Like this?” Above his head.

“Higher!”

“You sure?”

“Yes!”

“All right. How about –” Baxia slithered out from her place by the door, zipping over until she was right in front of Nie Mingjue, allowing him to step onto her like a stair, and then zipping upwards to about hip-height, lifting Nie Mingjue and Lan Sizhui with her. They very nearly hit a tree branch with their heads. “– this?”

Lan Sizhui shrieked with laughter.  

“It’s too early to introduce them to flying,” Lan Xichen objected, because it was. “Mingjue-xiong…”

Nie Mingjue hopped down with a laugh. “All right, one last toss,” he told Lan Sizhui. “Then you nap. Okay?”

“Okay!” Lan Sizhui, who had never once willingly succumbed to naptime in the entirety of the time that Lan Xichen had known him, promised earnestly.

Back into the pile of soft grass he went, giggling the entire time, and amazingly enough he really did fall asleep afterwards. Lan Jingyi, too, had fallen asleep at some point.

“I’ve decided that your brother needs more experience running a sect,” Lan Xichen told Nie Mingjue, who raised his eyebrows. “Starting immediately. I promise to allow you to leave when Jingyi is, oh, shall we say five years old..?”

You could reason with a five year old. 

Nie Mingjue laughed.

It was a type of laugh that suggested that he thought Lan Xichen was making a joke. This was incorrect.

“You’d be amazed at how serious I am,” Lan Xichen told him threateningly, “I’m sect leader here, this is my territory, I can have you arrested any time –” but by that point Nie Mingjue was already bundling him off to bed, too, combing out his hair and plying him with snacks and –

This was not helping his argument that Lan Xichen should be allowing him to leave rather than keep him trapped in the Cloud Recesses as a babysitter-slash-love-slave. 

Well, he wouldn’t really do that, of course. He’d let him go. Eventually.

It’d probably be good for Nie Mingjue’s stress levels, honestly.

“Seriously, though, how did you do that?” he asked, his head on Nie Mingjue’s lap. “They didn’t cry once.”

“I’m good with kids,” Nie Mingjue said, his fingers digging into Lan Xichen’s scalp in just the right way. “Now can you explain to me how exactly you ended up with them? Two, no less?”

Lan Xichen groaned and covered his eyes with a hand. “Sizhui’s Wangji’s,” he explained. “Not biologically, but he’s put his name down in the family register under his own. But, you know…”

“I know.”

Lan Xichen appreciated that he didn’t need to go into it. The doctors had estimated that Lan Wangji would regain full mobility within three years, so that was the period the elders had mandated for his so-called ‘seclusion’, but with Lan Wangji being locked away like that – even with visitors, even though he was trying his hardest to care for the child from where he was – meant that someone had to care for the child’s day-to-day life until his brother was ready to resume the role.

“Jingyi is a cousin, I think,” he continued. “His parents are dead, and uncle accepted guardianship for him…I think he’s going to adopt him, actually.”

“Then why is he with you?”

“I volunteered.”

“Xichen, I say this with a full heart of affection and tremendous respect for your capabilities,” Nie Mingjue said. “But why in the world would you go and do a stupid thing like that?”

Lan Xichen sighed. The worst part was, he couldn’t even argue that it wasn’t stupid – he was, quite obviously, terrible with children.

“Uncle’s still injured from the war,” he admitted. In fact, his injury was probably even older than the war, dating as far back as the burning of the Cloud Recesses – his uncle had never been much of a fighter, his impressive cultivation strength stemming almost entirely from gentler arts like music and learning and meditation, but when his home and his family and his students were at risk, he’d fought, while Lan Xichen ran. Not just fought; he’d kept fighting long past the point that his body allowed. It only made sense for the bill to need to be paid. “He had a recurrence of an old complaint, not long ago; he started coughing up blood. The doctors insisted that he try to avoid anything that might cause him  stress.”

“Stress. Like, say, a rowdy infant?”

“Exactly like a rowdy infant,” Lan Xichen agreed, glad that Nie Mingjue did not mention that what had happened with Lan Wangji was also likely a source of stress. At least the two of them had slowly started to repair their relationship recently – the heartbreak would kill their uncle sooner than anything else, and Lan Xichen might be weak, but he really couldn’t tolerate the idea of suffering any more loss.

And also, if Lan Wangji could see his way to forgiving their uncle, he might one day agree to forgive Lan Xichen, too.

“I see. So you ended up with the little one, too.”

“Yes. And they hate me.” Nie Mingjue coughed a little. “No, don’t deny it. They clearly hate me. They always cry and spit and yell -”

“They’re children, Xichen,” Nie Mingjue said. “Traumatized children. They do that.”

Lan Xichen didn’t need to open his eyes to know that Nie Mingjue was frowning in memory of pain long past. Lan Xichen remembered, with painful clarity, how young Nie Huaisang had been when Lao Nie had died, how badly he had taken it.

There’d been a lot of crying and vomiting and yelling there as well.

“You’re good with kids,” Lan Xichen said instead of commenting, trading delicacy for delicacy; he would not touch Nie Mingjue’s still-bleeding wounds just as Nie Mingjue avoided his own. “Very good.”

“Well, I like to think so, anyway.”

They remained in blissful, comfortable silence for a while.

“How would it have even worked?” Lan Xichen finally asked. His eyes were still closed, Nie Mingjue’s fingers running through his hair; he never wanted to move again.

“Hmm?”

“If you knocked me up before you went to war. I mean, they’re not even the same age.”

“Well, one of them’s from the affair, obviously.”

“I’m sorry, am I cheating on you now?” Lan Xichen opened an eye and pinned Nie Mingjue with a fierce look that instructed his lover to reconsider.

“Of course not,” Nie Mingjue said, mock-solemnly. His eyes were dancing. “You were so distraught after receiving incorrect news of my untimely demise that you conducted a ghost marriage with my spirit, and then went and had a child to continue my name.”

“…they’re both surnamed Lan.”

“So what? Are you saying I’m not good enough to marry into your sect, is that it?”

Lan Xichen’s cheeks were hurting from trying not to laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of implying such a thing.”

“There you go, then.”

“Can I ask why I felt the need to have a child to continue your name if I had one already?”

“…well, fuck,” Nie Mingjue said. “I’ve got nothing.”

Lan Xichen burst out laughing.

#mdzs #lan xichen #nie mingjue #nielan #lan sizhui #lan jingyi #my fic #my fics #whistling brook #I know this doesn't quite match the prompt #but it ended up fitting in perfectly with the previous ficlet #walburgablack

[word-wounded]

@memorystxrs // starter call

        Lan Wangji settles himself cross-legged in front of his guqin, trusting that playing the instrument will numb the hollow ache of loneliness in his chest as it always has. Calloused fingertips strum expertly over familiar strings as he launches into the opening of the song he’d written in a cave, believing his life was nearing its conclusion, for the boy trapped alongside him. Music flows from the guqin to fill the jingshi, doubtlessly spilling from the building to the rest of the Cloud Recesses, but Lan Wangji does not worry. Most members of his Sect are well-used to his nocturnal habits. 

        After three years in mandated seclusion after the Battle of Nightless City, Lan Wangi thought he understood isolation. But during that time, even caught in the throes of his grief and regrets, his brother had been an unmoving, unrelenting presence in his life. A-Yuan, too, had become an unexpected support, while the rest of the Sect stayed far away. Now, with Wei Ying returned to him, yet still gone from his side to travel the world, Lan Xichen in seclusion, unlikely to return anytime soon, and A-Yuan traveling with Wen Ning, Lan Wangji feels quite adrift, despite the responsibilities of Chief Cultivator that keep him busy. 

       A hurried knock at the door redirected Lan Wangji’s attention outward, and he blinked, putting the guqin away with a pass of his arm before moving across the floor to open it. Standing on the other side of the door is the young man he’d brought to the Cloud Recesses as a child. There is no evidence of injury or harm visible when Lan Wangji looks for it, and he relaxes somewhat, relieved. His chest warms, and Lan Wangji regards the younger man with an expression very near to a smile. “Lan Sizhui,” he greets, standing back to clear the door. “Welcome home.” 

#character: lan wangji #memorystxrs #verse: the untamed [post-canon] #[i'll write you another starter or two for different characters if you like! :)]

[rosethornewrites]

Fics I read this week!

MDZS/The Untamed, entirely. Including Tumblr fics here now, even if I shared them as well.

A lot of these are super short since I decided to embark on a journey to clear my AO3 “Marked For Later” list of anything under 3k words by reading them.

This is also a lot of fanfiction and I might have a problem. Any fanfiction addict support groups out there?

Also, I learned that I can only post 100 links. So this is going up early and I’ll separate the Not Rated, E, and M ones into a different post for next week.

Finished:

Not Rated (or Tumblr fics):

Parents, by @bloody-bee-tea

Untitled, by @mondengel

Untitled, by @mondengel

Untitled, by @cerusee

Xue Yang - The Third Jade of Gusu, by inawritingfrenzy

As Long as You're Here, by Aitheriomeraki

You are the last person I need to tell me exactly what I already know. You’re going to tell me to go back to cultivating the righteous path. You’re going to tell me that this is against the principles of a cultivator. I’m going to hear you drone on and on about what’s wrong with what I’m doing. You’re going to tell me that I’m acting like a pure disgrace, completely out of line, extremely unhinged and unruly and every other word your Lan vocabulary can muster up.” His words felt heavy but unstoppable, tears making their way to his eyes.

“You’re-” He was about to continue before getting cut off.

“Wei Ying… zhiji.” Lan Wangji breathed out like a plea, like a prayer. -------------- OR Lan Wangji talks to Wei Wuxian the day after killing Wen Chao.

Things we lost in the fire, by KatAnni

Three instances in Lan Wangji's life that involved fire. One of them certainly ends better than the others.

OR Wangxian can be cute in any situation, even when someone sets fire to their inn.

Sleep Talk, by breezebrocolis

"...But being awakened through such ungodly hours is worth it after all, because Wei Wuxian discovered that, contrary to popular belief about his boyfriend's sleeping habits, there’s a moment when Lan Zhan sleep talks, and he's the only one who knows it."

and

"...for now, after all and a year more, he'd never choose to have those lonesome minutes back. It turns out that filling the gaps with emptiness was necessary once, but it doesn't really fit him anymore. Lan Wangji has Grace on his side for now, the print of Wei Ying's delicate fingers into his skin."

In other words, a study about WangXian's sleeping habits.

Hold On, by voxnoxsox

“And really,” Wei Ying continued, “it makes no sense. Why would they not want to hug you, Lan Zhan, or, like… Do you warn them off or something? Give them the ol’ icy Lan glare?”

“No,” Lan Zhan said, when it was clear a response was required. His mind was a little preoccupied with Wei Ying’s hands still running up and down, up and down.

Rated E:

The Dreams of Youth, by Sami (25 chapters)

"Mother, I have to go, with or without you. Please come with me."

"A-Zhan, you're five years old," she says.

"With or without you, Mother," he pleads. "Please come with me."

Lan Wangji starts again from the beginning.

Rough and Tumble, by SugarMilkTea (3 chapters)

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are paired together for sparring, because of course they are.

Wei Wuxian is better than the rest of the disciples, because of course he is - so Lan Wangji takes him to another field to train privately.

Things escalate, because of course they do.

and if we choose to fall (who's to say it isn't flight?), by KiaraSayre (2 chapters)

Wei Wuxian has an idea and makes a talisman. A sexy talisman.

to live this way is not for the meek, by la_muerta

Yiling Laozu and his band The Restless Dead are one of the biggest names in the rock scene, playing to thousands of screaming fans in sold-out concerts all over the world.

But underneath the black leather, makeup, and untouchable, arrogant facade is a side of Wei Ying that only Lan Zhan gets to see.

Awareness, by syriala (last in a series)

Awareness is slow to come to Jiang Cheng, mostly because he doesn’t want to be aware. He’s warm and comfortable and Jiang Xiuying is bound to be still around and that is really all Jiang Cheng needs in life.

But then there’s an open mouthed kiss to the hinge of his jaw, Jiang Xiuying slowly trailing his way down Jiang Cheng’s throat, and it’s enough to get Jiang Cheng’s eyes open, however reluctant he might be.

Jiang Xiuying seemingly knows him better than Jiang Cheng does himself because he is already looking up at Jiang Cheng, his eyes sparkling and a teasing grin on his lips.

“Good morning,” Jiang Cheng says, his voice still rough from sleep and Jiang Xiuying leans up to capture Jiang Cheng’s lips in a kiss.

The heat behind it tells Jiang Cheng exactly where Jiang Xiuying wants to take this today, and Jiang Cheng can’t say that he minds too much.

yours for the taking, by SugarMilkTea

“There’s still time to back out, you know,” Wei Ying says, quiet enough that even the attendants waiting at the corners of their table won’t hear.

Lan Wangji pauses in the middle of reaching for the sash on Wei Ying’s—on his husband’s—outer robes. A pit opens in his stomach. His hand falls to his lap, and he lifts his eyes to meet Wei Ying’s. “Is that what you want?”

---

The components of the marriage ceremony are easy in theory. The handfasting, the bows, the feast... and the Taking.

housed by your warmth, by wangxiians

wei wuxian may never grow to enjoy mornings but he enjoys this, he really enjoys this – stolen time together, bodies reuniting, waking up before the world.

Rated M:

Heaven Hath No Fury, by Lady Mythos (Lady_Mythos)

The two biggest mistakes Yu Ziyuan has made are as follows: assuming Wei Wuxian was the cause of all her problems and assuming Cangse Sanren was dead.

Or, Cangse Sanren has a lot of things to say to the bitch that abused her son.

weird and awkward, by sami (3rd in a series)

At the age of sixteen, Lan Zhan falls in love, somewhat against his will.

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too, by adrian_kres (4 chapters)

Like half of all sound-tied people, Wei Ying was born with words in his heart and needing the melody they belong to. It’s his soul marker, and he’s been searching for his soulmate his whole life. Things change when he hears a tune being hummed in a cafe that matches his lyrics perfectly. Except he didn’t see who was humming it! To help, his brother’s soulmate puts him in contact with the beautiful pianist Lan Wangji, who makes Wei Ying question if he wants to find his soulmate at all…

Until The End, by abCEE (40 chapters)

"When I - when I tied my ribbon around our wrists, I knew what I was doing and I privately honored it." Wei Wuxian's brows continued to meet as he tried to understand where the conversation was going until realization dawned on him. "Wa - wait! Lan Zhan, is it what I think it is?!!" "It is usually done at the end of a wedding ceremony -" "What-" "But it could have been acknowledged as an engagement." "Lan Zhan!" He cannot believe what he is hearing now. "But my ancestor revealed herself -" "And we bowed… three times. We bowed, Lan Zhan!"

In which wangxian are married since the Cold Pond Cave incident, knows how proper communication works, and had confessed in the middle of the Sunshot Campaign. Things went up and down from there.

Breaking The Ice, by aflaminghalo

“Why are are you asking for punishment?”

Bring Your Honor, Bring Your Shame, by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (21 chapters, third in a series)

Nie HuaiSang has a problem. His brother is losing his mind.

Rated T:

don't close your eyes, by howodd5ever

In which Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian actually talk about the porn book.

Another Road, by Rynne

Something in the Guanyin Temple goes wrong. When Lan Wangji opens his eyes, he's fifteen again.

Phobia, by yougetsomekisses

What if Lan Wangji had been thrown in that dungeon with Wei Wuxian?

Snow Hunt, by InsanitysxCreation

A short scene of a winter hunt.

Entirely self indulgent, in that the idea of Lan Wangji in white leather gloves arrived in my brain and wouldn't let me continue until I'd written this.

真金不怕火炼 | True Gold Fears No Fire, by adrian_kres

In the immediate aftermath of a successful Sunshot Campaign, Wei Ying is kissed by Lan Zhan at the Phoenix Mountain Hunt while blindfolded. But when the blindfold comes off, Lan Zhan is nowhere to be found. Now, Wei Ying must deal with this heartbreak on top of forced therapy he was mandated to complete due to using demonic cultivation to end the war. Through it all, Wei Ying learns he has value, and that his assumptions about what happened at the hunt may not be entirely correct.

Fantasy, by snowberryrose (3 chapters)

In which Wen Qing leaves Or: Wen Qing rescues herself

Canon divergence from episode 20

Chapter 2: Qin Su’s choice Chapter 3: Xue Yang’s end

Four Parts Honey and One Part Vinegar, by masked (6 chapters)

“You know,” Ouyang Zizhen says thoughtfully over dinner one day, “I’ve never seen Wei-qianbei get jealous before.”

Lan Jingyi pauses for the briefest second, remembers the sect rule of keeping silence during meals, and decidedly forgoes it. “What?”

“Well,” Ouyang Zizhen continues, “Hanguang-jun always has a lot of admirers everywhere we go, but Wei-qianbei never seems to mind it.”

“Why are we talking about this?” Jin Ling asks flatly.

Four times Wei Wuxian doesn't get jealous, and the one time he does.

sweet dreams, by ShippersList

Distance won’t hinder Wei Wuxian from giving his Lan Zhan a goodnight kiss.

Sugar Baby, by nirejseki

“Huaisang,” Nie Mingjue said, and uh oh, that sounded like his ‘bad news’ voice. “We need to talk about your spending.”

That was worse than Nie Huaisang had thought.

“Is the talk going to be about how amazingly economical I am in making intelligent and aesthetically appropriate purchases?” he asked hopefully, clutching his latest and most aesthetic fan.

“Oddly enough,” his brother said, “no.”

Somehow, Nie Huaisang hadn’t thought so.

He was...No, He was Incompetent, by Corundum_Creations

He was Lan Wangji, a Twin Jade of the Lan Clan and he could face anything... so how did he become so incompetent with taking his Wei Ying and hiding him away?

The Resentful Cultivator Who Cried 'I'm Fine', by Mikkeneko

"Who's possessed?" another voice joined the scrum, and Wei Wuxian moaned in despair as Jiang Cheng came marching over to join the rest of the party, glaring daggers at Wei Wuxian for being the source of all this trouble. Purple lightning crackled on his wrist as his eyes narrowed. "This idiot got possessed? I can take care of that with Zidian! Stand back!"

"Ahaha, Jiang Cheng, there's no need for that!" he protested hurriedly. "Really, I'm not possessed!"

"Ah," Lan Jingyi nodded knowingly. "That's exactly what someone who was possessed and trying to throw us off the trail would say!"

---

While on a night-hunt with his friends and family, Wei Wuxian takes a near miss from a dangerous beast. Fortunately he wasn't hurt... but for some reason, they have trouble believing him when he says I'm fine.

Why I Can’t Help But Love Red, by spiralingbutmakeitanimerelated

Lan Wangji takes a bath after a night hunt. Wei Wuxian has questions about the night he branded himself.

Not Till Then Dare I Part From You, by forgottenenvy

WangXian share a tender moment as Lan Wangji braids flowers into Wei Wuxian's hair.

Snowmelt, by sugar_shoal

Lan Zhan has been badly injured on a night-hunt. Wei Wuxian panics only a little. Jiang Cheng drags them all to a nearby abandoned hut to wait out the encroaching blizzard.

Head Empty, Only Wei Ying, by nana_banana

Wei Ying is getting married? To someone not Lan Wangji? Fuck. Not if Lan Wangji has anything to say about it.

sparrow heart, by CeliaBlair24 (fourth in a series)

They pass notes through the spaces between their desks about nonsensical, inconsequential things. About the weather and birds, romance novels, and the forest behind the Cloud Recesses where they spend all their afternoons playing.

And Wei Wuxian is smart, both by the books and on his feet. If he wanted to, he could easily play Lan-xiansheng’s favorite class pet --studious and diligent about being studious; creative besides-- but he doesn’t. He listens to Lan-xiansheng and Jiang Wanyin’s complaints with half an ear and when all is said and done, he turns his back on them both and greets Nie Huaisang with his cheeky smile.

Otherwise known as "Nie Huaisang falls into like."

Retrospective on the State of the Field: Qinghe Patron X (QPX) Studies, by bladedweaponsandswishycoats (jeweledichneumon)

"Qinghe Patron X, eh?" Nie Huaisang chuckles, noticing the heading. Licking his lips, he circles the listing for the conference panel with a yellow highlighter. Despite the moniker having become common several years ago, he still gets a kick out of it. Of course he'd have to go to that one. He takes a moment to feel the faint touch of regret that he isn't on the panel himself; it is always more fun messing with people as a panelist than trying to rely on the Q&A period to say something provocative but relevant.

or

In which immortal cultivator Nie Huaisang likes to fuck around with scholars attempting to study what they think they know about him, and other shenanigans he gets up to (both with and without the help of his friends) in the modern age.

or

The year is 2021. Lan Wangji still goes where the chaos is, though these days that can mean a lot more than night hunts. Especially when Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang are dedicated to making sure being immortal never gets boring.

A Story for the Ages, by Supernova_Sage

Lan Wangji saunters over to the mystery section. He can hear people whispering, but he isn’t close enough to make sense of the conversation. The lilt in the voice makes it sound like one person is asking a question. Hmm. If he can hear whispering, they’re still being far too loud. He shakes his head and continues his browsing. He pulls his phone out to check the time. It’s nearly 6p. He really should get home. He still needs to feed the bunnies and feed himself and look over emails and—

He stops in his tracks. Stops when he sees the book that he’s been waiting to check out for months now. Every time he’s stopped by, though, it’s been checked out by someone else. And now it’s finally here. Sitting on the shelf in front of him. Once he manages to collect himself, he reaches for it. His fingers don’t touch the spine of the book, though. Instead, he finds his fingers brushing against the fingers of another.

DanTian - Into the Dark (LWJ), by ArchiveWriter (fourth in a series)

Wangji's memory holds images of Wei Ying. Wangji does penance by reliving his memories, and by making sure Wei Ying is loved. Wangji burns the millet porridge he's supposed to stir whilst Wei Ying fetches water for tea.

chasing echoes, by SWANPYRE

Lan Wangji must learn to co-exist with what he has learned his entire life to despise.

Snowfall, by nightflower

During a winter storm in Cloud Recesses, Wangji's old scars ache. Wei Ying takes care of him.

relics of love, by cl410

“Oh my god. Oh my god.”

Lan Zhan pinched the bridge of his nose. “The bunnies were almost eaten.”

“Our son was almost traumatized for life,” Wei Ying said, choking on a laugh. “Lan Zhan, he almost witnessed a double homicide on our own balcony.” He wheezed with laughter, clutching his ribs.

“We will install higher locks,” Lan Zhan said grimly.

Rated G:

A-Yuan's guide to eat the rich (a.k.a. How A-Yuan single handedly stopped a siege from happening and saved everyone), by fanficaddictXOXO

A-Yuan is only three years old. But he knows many things. He knows how to write his name. He knows potatoes are better than radishes (Xian gege said so). But the most important thing he knows is that the handsome gege with a white forehead ribbon is rich.

Obviously You Hate Me, by Sarehz

Wei Wuxian leans across the round table. "Okay, this isn't going to work."

From across the very same table, Lan Wangji raises one puzzled eyebrow. "Mn?"

"This!" Wei Wuxian gestures between them.

Begotten, by ecorie (6 chapters)

“He’s mine.” He echoed what had once been teasingly said in jest, and added, “This is my son.”

Against all odds and without a choice, Lan Zhan brings A-Yuan back to Cloud Recesses. Xichen keeps his brother’s secrets, and shields the child when Lan Zhan could not.

Alone Stands the Quiet, by ecorie

The story of the Yin Iron starts with a celestial war and ends with Lan Sizhui.

A Good Plan, by nirejseki

“The…Lan sect?” Meng Yao said doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

“I am,” his mother said, her mouth tight. She looked upset, the way she always did these days when he referenced, intentionally or otherwise, the original plan that she had had to send him to join his father, sect leader of Lanling Jin. She’d raised Meng Yao on a steady diet of stories of what his life would be like when his father finally took him back the way he’d promised her he would, stories that had filled his days and nights for years and years and years, and then just last year she’d suddenly stopped talking about it entirely. It was as if the person who’d told those stories had nothing to do with her.

Meng Yao didn’t know what had happened, but he assumed it must have been pretty bad.

“It'll be a good fit,” she added.

The Late Great Custody Debate, by stiltonbasket (5 chapters)

"You owe me child support," Lan Zhan blurts, before Wei Wuxian can open his mouth to say hello to him. "Take responsibility."

Or, the one where Lan Wangji's pet rabbit has a better love life than he does, and single father Wei Wuxian develops a healthy fear of attorneys, courtesy of his next-door neighbor.

Switcheroo, by nirejseki

Mo Xuanyu thought that this Wei Wuxian person whose body he’d stolen must have been a really interesting person, mostly because he’d been here for three days so far and nobody’d noticed the switch yet.

A Kiss for you, my love, by Speechless_since_1998

"Ladies and gentlemen."

Suddenly the attention of the whole hall turned to Nie Huaisang, near the orchestra with a microphone in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other, "On this wonderful evening I would like to share with you all the happiness I feel. for a wonderful couple who got married today. " Wait a minute did he say marriage? He must have heard right, even Lan Zhan had stiffened. “Let's give him a wonderful round of applause. To Wei Ying and Lan Zhan newlyweds. " Hot shit. They weren't supposed to attract attention.

The attention of the room focused on them, whispers in the crowd, some scandalized, some excited. Nie Huaisang motioned for him to keep the game, but what was she supposed to do ?! "Lan Zhan, we mustn't ..." He didn't have time to finish the sentence as Lan Zhan kissed him. In front of everyone.

Soulmates, by Yacs_Weasley

Ever since he was a little boy, Wangji had longed to find his soulmate.

Stay with me, by KatAnni

Sizhui's memories come to him in pieces, and some of them in dreams. This time, he dreams of Wei Wuxian putting him in a tree. He runs to the Jingshi immediately, to find his Baba.

The truth, by syriala (first in a series)

“Do you even remember a single person of those you killed after the war?” he demands to know and Jiang Cheng turns his glare on him.

“Why should I?” Jiang Cheng asks and a fearful hush falls over the crowd. “Do any of you remember even a single person you killed in your lives?” he asks them and is met with a pretty telling silence.

“You’re a monster,” someone whispers, but in the quiet it rings out loud and clear.

Jiang Cheng has heard these words a lot in the past sixteen years, and so he simply smiles at them, even though they sting like always.

He reminds himself that the people that matter know the truth, that they know him for who he truly is, and that it has to be enough.

Boys, by nirejseki

“Hey,” Lao Nie protested mildly. “Who’s the father here, me or you?”

“If a-die wants a new wife, little uncle will find one that isn’t inclined to kill him.”

That sounded like a recitation.

“Then what’s even the point,” Lao Nie grumbled, and reached out to ruffle his son’s hair, enjoying how Nie Mingjue yelped when he did, glaring up at him with offended dignity.

Loss, by FlutterFyre

Lan Wangji knows something is wrong.

Hearsay, by syriala (second in a series)

“A girl went missing a few days back,” Wei Wuxian says, voice serious, and Jiang Cheng can just imagine the accusatory look on his face. “Coincidentally you were seen in that area during the same time.”

“So?” Jiang Cheng wants to know and Wei Wuxian makes a frustrated sound.

“What did you do with her?” Wei Wuxian asks him, even though he clearly already made up an answer for himself.

An ally, by syriala (third in a series)

“I just don’t want you to force yourself to face them,” Jiang Cheng finally says and Jiang Xiuying smiles at him.

“I’m not forcing myself. I am going on my own free will. It will be fine. And besides, Lan Xichen was never the reason I left.”

“But he didn’t stop you either,” Jiang Cheng mutters, and then rolls his eyes. “Fine. Accompany me, see if I care.”

“All I see is you caring,” Jiang Xiuying honestly gives back and Jiang Cheng flushes bright red.

Escalation, by syriala (fourth in a series)

“How can you lie to him like that?” Lan Wangji wants to know but it seems to be morbid curiosity more than anything else, because he goes right on. “You’re coming with me to the Cloud Recesses. There will be a trial.”

“A trial,” Jiang Cheng scoffs out, because it’s a farce and nothing more.

Lan Wangji has already decided on his sentence. And they all know it's going to be death.

Resolve, by syriala (fifth in a series)

“Regarding the accusations made against me today,” he starts and cuts his glare over to Sect Leader Yao, who has the good grace to shrink back at the venom in that glare, “I have something to say.”

“Speak,” Lan Wangji demands, but he doesn’t sound too sure all of a sudden, doesn’t seem too happy with the proceedings, and Jiang Cheng does rather enjoy the feeling of triumph it brings him.

“I am innocent. I did not kill any demonic cultivators, nor did I torture them.”

His voice rings out in the courtyard because everyone is silent for two seconds, but then chaos erupts. The voices calling him a liar are the kinder ones, and Jiang Cheng shakes his head at them.

“And I have proof,” he continues, raising his voice so that it carries over the others.

Devotion - Gather, by syriala (sixth in a series)

“What?” Jiang Cheng asks, because for once he is in no immediate danger of being murdered by the other Sects and Jiang Cheng really doesn’t think that look is fair.

“You absolute asshole,” Jiang Xiuying hisses at him and Jiang Cheng knows that if he wasn’t injured Jiang Xiuying would try to slap him over the head or shake him until he sees sense.

“What? What did I do now?” Jiang Cheng wants to know because he was asleep! There is no way he could have done something to upset Jiang Xiuying like this!

“I don’t even know where to start,” Jiang Xiuying says and starts to pace Jiang Cheng’s room, without giving any thought to the fact that this is Jiang Cheng’s bedroom and he really shouldn’t be here.

Well, Jiang Cheng is not going to say that to him, because with the mood Jiang Xiuying is in right now it wouldn’t go over well for Jiang Cheng, Sect Leader or not. Not that he actually cares anyway.

It’s Jiang Xiuying after all.

Home in Lotus Pier, by syriala (seventh in a series)

Jiang Cheng's angry frown turns into a confused frown when he sits down for breakfast and finds a box next to his bowl of congee.

“What is this?” he asks into the room, because someone is bound to be around, but he doesn’t get an answer and Jiang Cheng heaves out a sigh.

He tugs the box close and opens it and he’s surprised to find that his favourite tea is in it. It’s hard to come by lately, as it is entirely seasonal and only grown in a small spot in Sect Leader Yao’s territory, and after everything that happened at the Cloud Recesses a few months back, he already mentally said goodbye to it.

He wouldn’t be getting any more supplies from Sect Leader Yao after all, so this is more than surprising.

But the gifts don't stop there.

Parallelism, not equivalence, by DreamaholicsAnonymous

Wei Wuxian reminded him of Xingchen, Song Lan thinks, not for the first time.

Bring Your Secrets, Bring Your Scars, by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (fourth in a series)

Nie MingJue keeps his promises.

All Your Madness, I Will Tame, by Terri Botha (Isilwath) (fifth in a series)

Wen Qing in the Burial Mounds.

Puppy, by Speechless_since_1998

Returning home, Lan Zhan found his husband hiding behind the sofa and A-Yuan sitting on the ground playing with a puppy dog.

The puppy must have been a few months old, probably hadn't even been weaned. It was harmless, but Wei Ying didn't care. It was enough that it was a dog to be afraid.

“Ah, Lan Zhan! You finally arrived! Take that monster away!" Wei Ying pleaded, refusing to come out of hiding.

A-Yuan puffed out her cheeks, "Shiro is not a monster!"

Heaven, he had already given it a name.

Being Good, by ricochet

Lan Wangji tries to be good.

no shadow can touch, by sunflowersfield

When it is time to hand out the mics, Lan Zhan forces himself to lower his expectations. Their exchange will be fleeting, and Wei Ying will barely even look at him.

Or: Wei Ying is cast in a musical at his local community center. Lan Zhan is the theater technician.

make a mess (inside my heart), by avenqelic

Wei Wuxian looked comfortable against Lan Wangji’s white sheets, curled up in his blankets. Lan Wangji’s chest ached, mind swirling with possibilities – falling asleep looking into Wei Wuxian’s eyes, waking up in his arms, holding each other close as the moon shifted across the sky and the sun rose.

Finding a way home, by ThisIsWhereTheMagicHappens

Prompt idea for a less than one thousand words one shot! Lwj walks into a coffee shop and barista wwx cannot stop flirting with him while both of them are dying on the inside because the other is so handsome! Wwx writes his number on the cup! Up to you if lwj has an existencial crisis after finding the number or if he even finds the number. Bonus points if the oneshot ends with lwj going back to the cafe and wwx smiles at him when he sees him! — this is a.a. now with a prompt

DanTian - Planting Gentians (LWJ POV), by ArchiveWriter (1 chapter plus art)

Wei Ying's been up their old mountain early in the morning. Wangji does needlework and indulges in watching Wei Ying's hands. A slice of domestic contentment because I like them happy.

Tease, by annjellybean

Now, Wei Ying had long outgrown teasing his husband mercilessly the way he used to back in their childhood days, they had been through so much since then, he had honestly forgotten how to do so. That being said, it did not mean Wei Ying had completely forgotten his gremlin roots, and as a self-proclaimed gremlin husband, today he wanted to tease.

Pure Morning, by ShizunThirst

It’s on mornings like these that Lan Wangji can love Wei Wuxian the way he deserves to be loved.

deeper etchings, by fensandmarshes

“And remember, a-Yuan,” comes the voice, lowered but still loud as though it shuns the petty boundaries of the house, “you absolutely cannot tell diedie about this.”

Lan Wangji pauses, there in the middle of the portal array, halfway through setting down his bag, and tilts his head just slightly.

Caring Warmth, by MountainMist

Wei Ying is sick and lonely. Head empty only Lan Zhan.

And how Lan Zhan takes care of him.

just them, together., by adeptiwings

It was okay, now that it was just them.

the boy with rabbit ears, by dragontea

Lan Zhan got lost in an amusement park and found his way home in the company of the boy with rabbit ears.

heart-shaped knots, by twigofwillow

There’s been a ghost in Cloud Recesses for over thirty years, but no one has talked to her until now.

Setting Suns and Dawning Realisations, by wereworm

Wei Wuxian's plans for a romantic night out in Caiyi with Lan Zhan are ruined when he works late, the sun already setting by the time he makes his way home to the Jingshi. Instead, they enjoy a quiet night in and Wei Wuxian comes to terms with the peace that he'd fought so hard to earn and the life that's he's finally allowed to have.

[For the prompt: a sweet wangxian date night in]

Won This For You, by Preludian_Staves

He looks up as his husband comes into the room with something suspiciously large hidden behind his back.

A single soul (no more), by Lysdance1

The core transfer surgery goes as in canon BUT it leaves the spiritual link open between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and, well, what goes one way can go both ways.

"It's what keeps him (mostly) sane, a tether in this dark place where he cannot feed and cannot sleep and cannot escape; through the link he feels - trickles of love, Jiang Cheng's worry for him. It shouldn't be enough, but somehow, in this dark, dark place, it is. It reminds him, faintly, of home, and in the dark he hears the rhythm of one, luminous, far away soul."

To Need Someone, by Preludian_Staves

"A-die?"

"Hm?"

"What does mean to need someone? To want them with you?"

Approval, by Speechless_since_1998

"You look tired, "he said, sipping his tea. He shouldn't, it wasn't kind. But he couldn't resist teasing him a little.

Lan Zhan stared at him blankly, "I've been drinking."

"I saw."

"I kissed Wei Ying."

"I saw that too."

And thanks to the gods there was no uncle because he hated worldly occasions, otherwise he would have a heart attack.

"We had sex at his adoptive parents' home."

"And?"

Lan Zhan raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you surprised?"

"Oh, sorry, now I'll try again ... Really? !!"

"You're not funny."

Unfinished:

Not Rated:

An Obsidian Among Jades, by bluebeads

What happens when a sad lost mantou cheeked Lan Zhan teams up with a cheerful one to find his family in the unfamiliar streets of Yilling. A Yu Ziyuan Ultimatum AU which I submitted a while ago on angstymdzsthoughts Also a Gusu Lan Sect Wei Wuxian.

I've had enough, by pluma1007

He is ascending. They’re minds unhelpfully supplied.

Then, Wei Wuxian is gone.

The cultivators are in disarray.

“Wei Wuxian… Wei Wuxian ascended!”

“How can this be?! A monster ascended?!”

“No! My core! My powers had diminished!”

Hearing that, the cultivators checked their cores. Gasps rang out the mountains. Enraged cries are heard, cursing Wei Wuxian. There are also those who kowtowed, praying for forgiveness. There are others who praised him.

Song of Joy and Regrets, by HelloKitten

The Archery competition at Qishan this year has hit a snag. As the Sects face the wrongs perpetrated by their future selves, Wei Wuxian finds himself adopted by half of the cultivation world who are determined to save him from himself.

Baby Wangxian suffers. Adult Wangxian's job here is done.

"I'm starting to see a pattern to all his plans..."

"Do they all involve him being bait?"

"Yes" came deadpanned responses.

Hua Cheng is not amused.

Rated E:

the long way back home, by Misila

Wei Ying always knew he was the single discordant note in the Jiang household. That was why, after graduating from university, he didn’t return home. With him gone, Yu Ziyuan wouldn’t have anyone to compare her son to, and Jiang Fengmian wouldn’t have to keep avoiding his own family to prevent further conflict.

…Right?

(Seven years later, married to the man of his life and with a four year-old son, Wei Ying returns to his hometown and tries to reconnect with his siblings and befriend his nephew; but, most of all, he struggles to figure out what’s wrong with his brother and how to help him, despite Jiang Cheng not wanting to have anything to do with him anymore.)

Will You Stand Beside Me, by trashgavin

Wei Wuxian takes all his strength and spits blood in Wen Chao’s face. His eyes narrow and he speaks, though his voice is quiet and full of pain.

“Go to hell.”

It only makes Wen Chao laugh. He releases his hair and stands to his feet. “Bring me a whip.”

Rated M:

For the Dust and the Dirt, by Nyxelestia

His breath came out in shaky gasps, but still he could do nothing as the demonic copy of himself brought the blade down to the bare skin of Wei Wuxian’s uninjured shoulder. He whimpered when he felt a small cut, then when the blade lifted. He didn’t have time to even think of relief before it came back, right next to the first cut in a different direction, then again below in a line, multiple small lines in multiple directions like…like a character.

“Like I said,” the demon mused as Wei Wuxian realized what it was doing. “I’ll write it down for you.”

A brutal assault on a Cloud Recesses student leaves the Cultivation world reeling. Wei Wuxian struggles to recover, while everyone else tries to make sense of an ominous message. But since when do demons care about sect politics, anyway?

Between Wen Ruohan's rising aggression, simmering tensions across the guest disciples, and the mysterious fierce corpses still popping up all over the place, Wei Wuxian would rather ignore the confusing, horrifying visions the demon left him with.

If only the demon's taunting predictions didn't keep coming true at every turn.

I Know How Those in Exile Feed on Dreams of Hope, by rabbit_habits & saltedpin

“What does it mean, that Wen Ruohan has all the Yin Iron?” Jiang Cheng asked, dragging himself up into a sitting position – her medicines must have worked quickly, because his ribs gave only a twinge when he moved.

Wen Qing settled down beside him, head bowed as she packed away her supplies, her shoulder brushing his arm when she moved. “It means that no one in the cultivation world can oppose him,” she whispered.

—

Canon divergence AU in which Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan are captured by the Wens after escaping from the Xuanwu's cave, before they can return to rescue Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

Misunderstood, by Silver_Flame_2724

There is something called a memory ball that shows the memories of a chosen person.

In order to further incriminate the already dead Yiling Patriarch, the cultivation world decides to use this memory ball at the next Discussion Conference to show how evil the demonic cultivator can truly be.

What appears, though, truly shocks them all.

laughing shadow, by ich_bin_ein_stern

During the commotion involving Wei Wuxian, A-Ling refused little sleep. His screams carried across Koi Tower, putting wailing ghosts too shame. He was inconsolable by everyone. It was only when Jin Zixuan unintentionally passed the room holding Wei Wuxian while trying to calm down his son did A-Ling miraculously settle down. Since then, he has slept peacefully every night. Yanli expressed, in the quiet and security of their bedroom, that perhaps Wei Wuxian's spirit soothed A-Ling and continues to do so.

At the least expected times, Jin Zixuan swears he can hear the distant sound of a flute.

But when he stops to actually listen for it, he hears nothing.

Come From My Inkstone, by magicgenetek

“So your plan,” Nie Mingjue said dubiously, “is to move into the Burial Mounds to write and illustrate erotica about you and Lan Wangji seducing the Yiling Patriarch to earn his trust and sell the public on the idea that he's not a threat, then convince him to give up the Yin Tiger Seal?"

“The way I said it sounded better,” Nie Huaisang said. “And you forgot the part about me seducing the Ghost General, that is crucial.”

“I hate this, and as your brother, I am begging you not to actually stick it in a fierce corpse. How much money do you need?”

Rated T:

Here We Go Again, by Alliandra

He looked over to where the swordswoman was still fighting, but her focus seemed entirely locked onto that fight so it was unlikely that she could have had anything to do with the energy drain. He was still wracking his brain for something else to do to assist, so this thing didn’t kill them both, but now he was feeling weak, dizzy and currently not far from helpless.

~~~~~~~~~~

It has been several months since the events at the Guanyin temple and Wei Wuxian is wandering around on his own. After he helps a stranger kill a very dangerous beast he uncovers what seems to be a conspiracy aimed at ending his life. He heads back to Cloud Recesses with his new companion in tow, looking to get Lan Wanji's help in working out what is involved.

Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling made a surprising discovery under Koi Tower that may well be linked to the threat against Wei Wuxian's life.

Can they all work together to find out what is going on and put a stop to it, before something disastrous occurs?

A place of Gold, by ThisIsWhereTheMagicHappens

A few days after Wei Wuxian has parted from Lan Wangji on a forest path, he gets surrounded by Jin officials in an Inn, who formally ask him to return to Jinlintai to fill in the position of Sect Leader, as is his right and duty.

Wei Wuxian thinks it is an artful prank. Until it is not.

Blossoming flowers in a full moon - 花好月圆, by ThisIsWhereTheMagicHappens

What if Wei Wuxian wasn’t able to get out of Lan Wangji’s grip at the cliff in Nevernight? What if Lan Wangji refused to let go?

All will be well when the day is done, by abCEE

The one where Yu Ziyuan time traveled but she thought that it was her visions of her alternate life.

She learned that there is a brat named Wei Ying who brought destruction to her and her family's life.

And so in her present, she vowed that she will never allow that to happen.

In which Yu Ziyuan found the four-year-old Wei Ying, newly pushed out of the inn where his parents left him, and decided that no, this child must never be associated with her, her family, and their sect at all.

And so Yu Ziyuan thought that she could bring him somewhere where someone may or may not find him but definitely far from where her husband could find him. If he's lucky, he'll survive that winter, if he's not, then death awaits the fevered child.

This is the extent of mercy that Yu Ziyuan could give a child.

With this, she'll raise her children without having to deal with a brat that brings trouble where he goes according to her visions of her alternate life.

Like the tag stated, this is definitely not Yu Ziyuan centric.

Rated G:

How Jin Zixuan Helps Everyone, by BryxcrSt

The Yunmeng Heroes, Twin Jades, Nie Huaisang, The Peacock, Cinnamon Roll Ghost General and Lan Qiren suddenly transport back to the past before the Conference in Qishan, with their very memory of how all their clans battled Wen Rouhan's and now they're all ready to prevent it from happening now that they're back to the past. Especially Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian.

Surprisingly, Jin Zixuan wants to help them instead of standing out of the front line like how he used to but what can he do?

To Repeat, Repay, and Repair, by adrian_kres

Wei Wuxian has died again and his family grieves. Lan Sizhui, now married and with children of his own, grieves the loss of both fathers, as Lan Wangji has entered seclusion. But somehow, he unknowingly sends himself back to the time he spent in the Burial Mounds at three years old. Will his family take his confused, nonsensical warnings seriously? Are they doomed to repeat the same fate?

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #chen qing ling #cql #mdzs #wangxian #untamed fanfiction

[robininthelabyrinth]

Pastime (with good company) (ao3) (aka NMJ/WWX/LWJ) -  part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, past 5, part 6, part 7 

-

Wei Wuxian still wasn’t sure how Lan Wangji had convinced him to come to Qinghe in the middle of the night, even flying through the middle of a thunderstorm to get there.

Possibly he’d still been thinking with his lower half at the time that he’d agreed – he’d been so close to the edge, skating on it, holding himself back intentionally so that the eventual peak would be even better, and to have it snatched away at the last moment had been brutal.

Or maybe it had been the panic in Lan Wangji’s eyes. The worry, the fear.

The realization that someone knew.

He hadn’t been all that concerned with pleasure after that.

“You can’t tell anyone,” he’d begged, desperate. “Please, Lan Zhan – not anyone! No one can know!”

Lan Wangji had wavered, seeing how much it mattered to him and wanting to honor his wishes, wanting to help him - Lan Wangji always wanted to help him - but also needing to share the unexpected burden. In the end he had insisted: “One person. Wei Ying, a marriage cannot be founded on a lie.”

Nothing else in the world would have worked to convince him, given the risks of disclosure, the risk that if more people knew that the secret would get out, that Jiang Cheng would find out, but that – 

That did. 

Lan Wangji was right: it was one thing to enter a marriage for convenience, for political gain; if that was all there was to it, then Wei Wuxian wouldn’t have needed to say anything. He could have hidden it forever, refused to dual cultivate beyond acting as a passive vessel; he could have presented himself in the marriage not as Wei Wuxian but as the Yiling Patriach, with all the benefits and disadvantages that came with it, and that would be that.

But it wasn’t just that.

Maybe it started out that way, but it wasn’t that way now. Not with the way Nie Mingjue had smiled at him, the way he’d looked at him, intense and serious, after that spar – the discussion they’d had afterwards, when he’d raised his proposal again, serious this time, that they would all marry, the three of them. When he had made clear that his offer could be rejected at will without insult, that he meant it as something that was not for politics, not for need, just…to be married. To be together, the three of them, all three of them, to exchange bows and vow to live together as husbands for the rest of their lives, simply because they wanted to. 

Nie Mingjue and Lan Wangji both - they’d been clear about what they wanted, and they wanted a marriage with Wei Wuxian, and not his reputation.

Lan Wangji was right.

A marriage like that – a marriage like the ones his parents had, when his mother had picked an outstanding servant over all the other more promising or well-respected men she could have had simply because he made her laugh, the type of marriage he’d always dreamed of, the type he’d always wanted for himself – couldn’t be founded on a lie.

And so they were on their way to Qinghe.

The journey was long, even by sword, even for someone with cultivation as high as Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian had not enjoyed flying on a sword since the he’d been thrown into the Burial Mounds, refusing Wen Qing’s occasional well-intentioned offers; he tried to get some enjoyment out of the fact that his arms were wrapped around Lan Wangji’s waist, his front pressed up against Lan Wangji’s back (he wondered if Lan Wangji would let him rut up against him like this, put himself between those white thighs until they were dirty –) but even the most sexually charged fantasies faded away into the cold reality that he was going to need to talk about this.

And that was before it started raining.

The last shichen of the trip was in complete silence, and only the warmth of Lan Wangji’s hand against his, his spiritual energy flowing calmly between them, kept Wei Wuxian from true panic. And then they were in Qinghe, landing in front of the door, and the guards at the gate were letting them in and then – 

Nie Mingjue was there, waiting the entry hall.

Beautiful Nie Mingjue, who was only half-dressed, his hair unbound and with only an outer robe over his underclothing that he’d thrown on but hadn’t bothered to belt before rushing to the doorway, concern clearly written all over his face.

“What happened?” he asked.

“There’s no emergency,” Wei Wuxian said, and when Lan Wangji turned to glare at him, he raised his hands. “There isn’t! It’s been like this for months, Lan Zhan, and nothing will change if we let Mingjue-xiong get some sleep; we really didn’t have to fly here in the middle of the night –”

“To confirm – no attack has broken out, and no one is imminently dying?” Nie Mingjue interrupted.

Even Lan Wangji was forced to nod at that.

“In that case, you can come inside and have some tea while you explain,” Nie Mingjue said, waving his hand at one of the deputies that was lingering there. “I don’t mind being awake at this hour, but our sentries saw you coming through the storm and I thought it might be a situation where we would need to raise the army.”

Wei Wuxian’s shoulders hunched up. He should have thought about that, they both should have thought about that: Nie Mingjue was not merely a sect leader but a general, not merely a general but the leader of the Sunshot Campaign, the general that had given orders to generals; of course he would think first of war. “Nothing like that.”

“My apologies,” Lan Wangji said. “Our urgency was only my eagerness.”

“Don’t apologize,” Nie Mingjue said briskly. “Matters can be urgent even without a battle; it’s only a question of scale. Follow me.”

He led them to a small receiving room – it wasn’t the one usually used for guests, which Wei Wuxian had been to before, but something more intimate, warmer: the wooden furniture was sparse in the way it always was in Qinghe, with a restrained sort of charm, but there were intricate metal whorls on the walls that caught the eye and soft tapestries that made the cold stone feel less hostile.

“All right,” Nie Mingjue said as he strode into the room. “There’s tea in the corner; one of you can prepare it. Now tell me what the matter is.”

Wei Wuxian looked at him.

“…perhaps Sect Leader Nie would like to get dressed first?” he suggested, a little desperately. 

It was a stalling method, yes, but also – really. There was a certain amount of stress a man could be under at one time, and trying to actually tell someone about everything that had happened would be bad enough without having to also figure out how not to stare at the part of Nie Mingjue’s white under-robes that had started gaping open at the chest, a glimpse of supple flesh and the barest hint of pink –

Nie Mingjue huffed, though it was unclear whether it was out of annoyance or recognition of the effect he was having. “Very well. Wangji, the tea?”

The second he left, Wei Wuxian turned to Lan Wangji. “I know we’re here for a very serious reason and we’re going to need to talk about things and all that, but you saw that, right?”

Lan Wangji’s ears went red.

“Oh, you saw it all right,” Wei Wuxian said, and grinned. “Did it make you want to bite?”

“Wei Ying.”

“All right, all right, I’ll stop. And yes, I’ll – I’ll explain. To both of you.”

A marriage cannot be built on a lie.

Wei Wuxian wanted this marriage to work. He wanted it to be a partnership, like the one his parents had, not – not what Uncle Jiang and Madame Yu had.

The only way he could get what he wanted was if he told them the truth: that he had lost (given up) his golden core during the war, that he could no longer cultivate the orthodox path of the sword, that demonic cultivation was not only a choice but a mandate.

(They didn’t need to know about Jiang Cheng.)

When Nie Mingjue returned, now fully dressed and his hair pulled back in the simplest possible crown, no braids or anything, Wei Wuxian didn’t hesitate.

Nie Mingjue and Lan Wangji were mercifully silent during his explanation, interrupting only long enough to ask some questions – good ones, thoughtful ones. Some were aimed at understanding more of what he went through in the Burial Mounds, while others gently pointed out flaws in his story, sometimes embarrassing ones; if he were ever to tell this story to others, he would need to cover those up better.

They knew he was hiding something, but they let him hide it.

They trusted him.

(Maybe he would tell them about Jiang Cheng after all. But – not yet.)

When he finished, they were quiet for a long moment.

“Thank you for telling me,” Nie Mingjue finally said, and he meant it, too; he was Nie Mingjue, he didn’t say things lightly. If he was angry, he would have shown it, just as he had when Wei Wuxian had described what Wen Chao had done to him before rushing ahead and making clear that Wen Qing had helped him (a deliberate blurring of the timeline, but there was nothing he could do about it) but now there was no anger anywhere on his face, just thoughtfulness. “It explains – a great deal.”

Lan Wangji nodded in agreement, and Wei Wuxian felt the stickiness of guilt: would Lan Wangji think of all those times he’d begged Wei Wuxian to come with him to Gusu, to stop using demonic cultivation, and think himself a fool? Would he think Wei Wuxian had been laughing at him, knowing it was impossible?

He wouldn’t, of course, but Wei Wuxian felt guilty regardless.

“Not to get stuck on technical matters,” Nie Mingjue continued, “but curiosity compels me to ask. What forging are you using as the channel?”

Whatever Wei Wuxian might have expected Nie Mingjue to say, whether scolding or sympathy or even pity, it wasn’t that. 

He didn’t even understand that.

“What?” he said blankly.

“Is it that seal of yours? Or something else?”

“Forging?” Lan Wangji asked. He looked as confused as Wei Wuxian. “Wei Ying uses his flute to cultivate.”

Nie Mingjue’s frown deepened. “Resentful energy corrodes the protections of the souls if used for too long without a venting channel – without a proper outlet, the corrosion will build up in the meridians and dantian, and will ultimately lead to a backlash…are you saying you aren’t using one at all?”

“Are you saying you know about the effects of resentful energy?” Wei Wuxian asked, eyes lighting up. “I’ve never heard anything about venting, corrosion, or build-up – though it makes sense, actually, given some of the other aspects of resentful energy that I’ve observed or theorized. Gathering resentful energy has an exponential effect, the reason why a bunch of drownings in one place don’t just make more water ghouls, but a Waterborne Abyss, and why a battlefield is easier to raise than a single grave…everyone says demonic cultivation affects the temperament, but there’s never any detail. I haven’t been able to find any books on it.”

“Nor I,” Lan Wangji said. “Even in the forbidden portion of the clan library.”

“There aren’t many books,” Nie Mingjue agreed. “Demonic cultivation is well known to be forbidden, so most of the knowledge is handed down orally.”

Lan Wangji’s back got even straighter, if that was even possible, and Wei Wuxian understood the implication a second later: the Nie sect had always been a bit of an outlier from the other sects, Qinghe with its reputation for oddity, with its strange rituals and bizarre customs, its pride in having descended from butchers, a bloody profession associated with resentment, rather than gentry –

“You use demonic cultivation,” Wei Wuxian breathed.

“Not the way you use it, we don’t,” Nie Mingjue said dryly. “Let us not take away from the magnitude of your achievement in creating an entirely new cultivation path, Wei Wuxian, and one that can be used by those who cannot cultivate in the traditional fashion no less. We do not cultivate the ability to manipulate fierce corpses through their resentful energy, I’d never even heard of such a thing before, but we do utilize resentful energy in a fashion that other sects do not.”

“What do you use it for?” Lan Wangji asked. He looked as fascinated as Wei Wuxian was – really, he wasn’t that hard to read at all, once you had an idea of what to look for. All of his expressions were in the little things, the way his eyes curved or narrowed, the redness of his ears, the corners of his lips.

Nie Mingjue’s fingers flicked, a seemingly casual movement, but only a few seconds later the door slammed open as his saber flew into the room, hovering for a moment before whistling through the air as it made its way to Nie Mingjue’s hand.

Wei Wuxian turned to stare. 

“The personal quarters of the Nie clan aren’t anywhere near this hall,” he said slowly. “You clearly left your saber behind when you came to greet us, which I appreciate as a gesture of trust even though we wouldn’t have taken insult if you did…you summoned it all the way from here, and it came on its own? How could you guide it through all those hallways without using hand seals?”

“For something so straightforward, Baxia does not require guidance,” Nie Mingjue said, and held the saber out lengthwise for them to look at. “You asked what we use resentful energy for: this is the answer.”

“Only the most powerful spiritual weapons have enough awareness to recognize their masters,” Lan Wangji said, leaning forward. His eyes were bright with curiosity, with not a trace of judgment for the unorthodoxy they were discussing, and Wei Wuxian would spare some time to think about how beautiful Lan Wangji was in full scholar mode if he wasn’t equally entranced by Nie Mingjue’s revelations. “Much less find their way through a complicated series of hallways when their master wants them, without even a single hand seal acting as a summon…the Nie sect’s sabers have always been regarded as the finest weapons one can use against resentful beasts.”

“Very good as always, Wangji,” Nie Mingjue said, and Lan Wangji looked pleased at the recognition. “The founder of our sect was a butcher as well as a cultivator. As you know, occupations that require blood are notoriously considered bad for cultivation, the resentful energy from the work affecting their temperament and potential – take the traditional example of the fate of the executioner, who might arise as a fierce corpse despite lacking any resentments of his own. But my ancestor realized that the resentful energy of the beasts he slaughtered could be channeled not in the wielder of the saber, but the saber itself, and in doing so it would grow more powerful in its own right – power that could then be used to supplement the traditional orthodoxy of the dao of the sword and saber.”

Wei Wuxian’s brain was bubbling full of new ideas that had never even occurred to him before. The approach wasn’t as unorthodox as his own cultivation, nor perhaps would it be as reviled – the resentful energy of yao would be far less pernicious than the type he used, which came from humans, and using it as a whetstone to sharpen a sword’s spirit was far less intrusive than manipulating it directly as if it were spiritual energy – but it was fascinatingly different from everything he’d grown up hearing.

“What’s the cost?” he asked, because that was important. There had to be a cost, something the Nie sect was willing to pay that others weren’t, or else the secret would have gotten out at some point and become widespread.

“The difficulty in managing the process as the saber strengthens,” Nie Mingjue said. “The saber can store resentful energy, but we are the ones to cultivate it; it passes through us, and in time the strain will become too much unless we break through the limits of our cultivation and reach the heavens in a single bound. We trade the latter half of our lives for the power to make a difference in the first.”

“Qi deviation,” Lan Wangji murmured. All the Nie sect leaders had died of it, eventually; the fact of it was well known.

“Every generation tries some new means to mitigate it, some of which work better than others,” Nie Mingjue said with a shrug. “I had meant to make it clear to both of you before the wedding, but chances are high that the two of you will outlive me – though with luck the time is still some distance off.”

Wei Wuxian’s fingers curled together into fists in his lap, and he sees the stiffness in Lan Wangji’s spine that has nothing to do with pride; he didn’t need to share glances with him to know that they were both in violent agreement that something would need to be done about that.

After all, neither of them were interested in becoming widows, and together they could do marvelous things, unthinkable things – especially if Lan Wangji were willing, as Wei Wuxian for the very first time thought he might be, to help him research the more esoteric possibilities, to delve into the mysteries of his demonic cultivation and find out its reaches, the benefits and the costs that could be extracted from it.

If Nie Mingjue thought his husbands would just placidly accept a future without him, he would just have to wait and see what they would do.

“The tendency towards qi imbalances cause by our way of cultivating is aggravated by the hereditary Nie temper, which is said to be aggravated by the cultivation style in turn,” Nie Mingjue said, his voice a little dry; he was clearly well aware of his faults. “That’s one of the reasons I want to leave my sect to Huaisang in the future – he might not be the strongest cultivator, whether due to his naturally weaker talent or just because of how lazy he is, but he’s calm and thoughtful instead of temperamental, capable of great patience, and he cultivated a golden core using our traditional methods without losing those qualities.”

“I mean, I guess I’ve seen him with his saber,” Wei Wuxian said, a little doubtfully. “Not to be rude, but has he ever used it?”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes. “Not as much as he should, but yes, he’s even cultivated the spirit within it. Unfortunately, the saber and the master reflect each other, which means his saber turned out to be a lazy plonk that would rather act as a paperweight than actually stab someone.”

Wei Wuxian tried, and failed, to hide his smirk. He wondered if he could somehow use Nie techniques to regain control over Suibian, despite lacking a golden core – how wonderful it would be, if that were possible!

He thought there was a good chance Nie Mingjue would agree to teach him what he needed to know to do it, too.

“I had assumed you were using the Stygian Tiger Seal as a channel in a similar manner to the way I use my saber,” Nie Mingjue continued, frowning again. “That’s clearly not the case, and that means your demonic cultivation is even more radical an innovation than I had previously considered it to be. However, with your consent, I would like to build you a channel for you to try to start processing your cultivation through, in the hopes that it will work to ease the strain of it on you. My clan uses forging, a mixture of metal and qi, to create a base that can be built up into a saber, though I suppose in your case it doesn’t have to be. Tonight, if you’re not too tired.”

Wei Wuxian nodded. He’d known that backlash was a possibility, had already accepted that he’d likely have an early death as a result of it, had arrogantly assumed he’d be able to come up with something to prevent it, but just because he was doing something new didn’t mean he couldn’t try to supplement it with something that had been practiced for generations – especially since given how he’d used demonic cultivation so far, any backlash would probably end up with him ripped to pieces by a thousand fierce ghosts. 

Not really his ideal death.

Especially not before he managed to marry these two!

“I don’t want other people to know, though,” he said, his fingers twisting in his robes at the mere thought. The same anxiety as before: the more people knew his secret, the more chance there was of someone slipping up, of someone finding out – of Jiang Cheng finding out, and his shidi wasn’t stupid, merely too trusting to those he loved; he’d figure it out as soon as the pieces came together. “How many do we need to tell to do it?”

“None,” Nie Mingjue said, and Wei Wuxian started in surprise. “Are you not my intended husband? I can do it myself.”

He paused a moment, and then smiled. “Thank you.”

Wei Wuxian blinked at him. “For what?”

“For allowing me the opportunity to finally get Huaisang off my case about picking your betrothal gift.”

Lan Wangji huffed in amusement, as if some guess had been confirmed, and Wei Wuxian thought that maybe there was a chance this whole thing wouldn’t be a disaster after all.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #nie mingjue #my fic #my fics #academic discussion of demonic cultivation #for those following along you may have a hint of what happens next chapter #pastime with good company