#like did you know that Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian in the novel take turns rejecting both each other's thanks and apologies until they've

[least-carpet]

'replacing jc in someone's affection' I am crying! wwx doesn't do it once but twice! It's fascinating! Also, this makes me understand why some people, reading the novel, come to the conclusion that wwx doesn't care anymore about jc. Yeah, it's a valid interpretation!

Listen, I just rotated, and rotated, and rotated this scenario (—because, like, both child and adult Wei Wuxian are sincerely in need of support and affection, but I think receiving it as a child while it was withheld from someone he loved, what might have seemed like taking it away from someone who also needed it, also contributed to his boundary problems and self-sacrificial tendencies and eventual resentment—like he needs it but it hurts someone he loves deeply when he gets it but he still needs it, how can he reconcile these conflicting truths?? OK I will stop now—) and, uh, have a tiny little sketch of that zhanchengxian fic concept below, with which I will exorcise my sad past chengxian/past zhancheng/current wangxian thoughts.

It was going to be a perfect triple triple drabble but I needed 80 more words in the centre section to describe Jiang Cheng's tears. You know how it is.

Pursued by Lesser Ghosts

At first he was busy and grateful for it.

Then, Jin Ling settled, elders cowed, sect in order, Jiang Cheng was forced to returned to Lotus Pier. Empty, now.

His sect ran as it always did. He slept poorly. He dreamed often. He walked up and down the pier at night, pursued by lesser ghosts, echoes of people who were alive, just gone. His own life closed around him as tight as any noose, one long merciless sequence of work, sleep, work.

He had a minor qi deviation.

“Go back to dual cultivation,” said the doctor.

“That’s no longer possible,” he said.

The doctor looked up. When Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything else, she said, “Well. Come here for acupuncture once a week. Consider visiting Jin Ling.”

Relax, she didn’t bother to say.

Jiang Ping, his one surviving cousin, took tea with him, and said: “I know things have been stressful. Perhaps you would consider marriage now?”

“I didn’t think marriage was relaxing,” said Jiang Cheng, drily.

“It can be. After everything, well… it’s nice to have someone there.” Jiang Ping looked up, thinking. “Having someone there and working a lot. I don’t think it’s possible for Sect Leader to work harder, so you’ll have to try the other thing.”

Jiang Cheng let out a snort despite himself. Jiang Ping grinned at him.

He could get married, he supposed. What was there to prevent him?

He didn’t call for a matchmaker. He worked harder, kept himself so busy he could hardly think, but at night, laying in his bed, he ached with loneliness before sleep. And in sleep, he saw them, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both, invariably walking away from him, hand in hand.

Sometimes he was silent; sometimes he called to them. It didn’t matter. They never turned around.

-

In Wei Wuxian’s dream, it was high summer, air as thick as syrup, and he was lying under the trees along the riverbank with his head in Jiang Cheng’s lap.

Above him, Jiang Cheng was eating tanghulu. Playfully, Wei Wuxian opened his mouth like a baby bird, and Jiang Cheng, rolling his eyes, took a piece of fruit and fed it to him, red and almost glowing. His index finger brushed against Wei Wuxian’s mouth.

Sometimes, he dreamed and he didn’t know whether it was just a dream or a fragment of a memory. He thought this might have happened—he faintly remembered begging Jiang Cheng to let him rest his head in his lap, across his narrow, muscled thighs.

Suddenly it was night, and Jiang Cheng was gone.

“Jiang Cheng?” called Wei Wuxian, and found his voice was a child’s voice, high-pitched and nervous. “Jiang Cheng?”

He rushed through Lotus Pier, now dark and empty, towards Jiang Cheng’s room. Then, in the way of dreams, Jiang Cheng was in front of him, a child again, too, face swollen with tears as he wept alone on the pier.

Wei Wuxian froze, panicked.

Someone picked him up; Uncle Jiang had appeared. But instead of saying anything, he turned and walked away. “Uncle Jiang,” Wei Wuxian whispered, but Jiang Fengmian didn’t respond.

All Wei Wuxian could do was look over Uncle Jiang’s shoulder at Jiang Cheng, at his crumpled, sobbing face. You don’t understand, he thought, suddenly, I love you but I need this, I need it, I need it.

That face changed again, blurred into Jiang Cheng's adult face, still weeping as he knelt on the pier. And then the strong arms around him weren’t Uncle Jiang’s but Lan Zhan’s, holding him tight in a bridal carry, taking him away as he squirmed to look back, to not look away from Jiang Cheng’s face, they had been so happy only a moment ago—

Wei Wuxian woke late, his face wet. Went to look for a handkerchief. Opened a drawer he hadn’t looked in before to find: two purple hair ribbons. An open jar of salve, carved with the insignia of a well-known Yunmeng herbalist. And a lavender handkerchief, embroidered with a little frog. Wei Wuxian traced it gently with his thumb.

-

The day was a little crisp, but bright and beautiful. Lan Wangji had risen at the appointed time, eaten breakfast serenely with the sect, and taught some advanced guqin lessons. Lan Sizhui was coming along beautifully, playing more delicate and precise every day, a delight to teach.

Everything was just as it should be in the Cloud Recesses, but Lan Wangji was still somehow uneasy.

He had gained everything he had dreamed of as a teenager, in one bewildering fell swoop. His life had been overturned, but for the better, the man he had wanted for so long delivered to him on a silver platter. He was unbelievably lucky.

Of course, he grieved what had happened to his brother. Lan Xichen deserved only good things. It was bitter to find out someone you had loved so deeply had deceived you—had failed you—had abandoned you.

But with the exception of that dark spot, the suffering and absence of his brother, his life was everything he had ever asked for, wasn’t it? A pristine life, on the surface.

If there was a dark shadow underneath, the ripple of something passing through a lake on a sunny day—something slipping out of an incautious hand, lost to the water—that too was life, wasn’t it?

He had never been so happy in his life. He had never before been so happy in his life, as he had once imagined it.

He averted his eyes from that shadow.

Until, one day, he returned home, and found Wei Ying, sitting at the room’s low table, holding a handkerchief in one hand. Remnants of a different life that had collected in his home. No—that he had kept. Gripped tightly.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, brightly, face stretched in a brittle smile. “What’s this?”

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #lan wangji #zhanchengxian #chengxian #zhancheng #wangxian #asks #my fanfic #mdzs + #least-carpet thoughts #ONCE AGAIN HERE'S HOW ZHANCHENGXIAN CAN STILL WIN #and by “win” I mean “suffer”

[veliseraptor]

So that latest Zelkam art of the core transfer has been sucking my brain out of my head all night. And now I can't stop thinking of how much JC's inherited that he never wanted or knew: Zidian (mother), the core (brother), Jin Ling (sister), Suibian (brother x2). I'd include the Jiang name and clan if I wanted to include his father. And it hurts me. He's left with so many remnants of his loved ones and yet how hollow does he feel? How unloved? Answers surely depend on post/canon timeline but idk. I'm just wrecked. *dies quietly*

I have a lot of Feelings about the ways in which Jiang Cheng really does just keep getting handed inheritances he doesn't want to have. People keep giving him things (in a material and metaphorical sense), but it doesn't seem like the give him things as an uncomplicated gift but as this enormous, weighty thing that comes with an immense price. "Here, take my life," people keep saying to Jiang Cheng, "take this and my death with it." And the hideous irony of the core transfer is that that's true even when Jiang Cheng himself tries to give his own life for the people he loves, only with the result that Wei Wuxian turns right around and gives up his own to "fix" it.

But yeah! His mother bequeaths him Zidian in the process of sending him away while she dies. Wei Wuxian dies and leaves him with a flute and a sword he doesn't want. Jin Ling...it's not that he doesn't want Jin Ling, he always would have wanted to be in his life, but not like this. oh I know I'm going to do the thing I do and quote my own fic

You, me, and a-Cheng, said a-jie’s voice in his ear. We must stay together, and never separate.

He’d never learned how to let go, but he’d been the one left behind anyway.

for someone who is in a lot of ways defined by the way that he holds on to the past, for better or worse (and I don't think it's all bad! his success rebuilding Jiang Sect is I think owed in part to his drive to never let what happened to it before to happen again), he does keep end up being the one left, and left holding mementos and reminders that are just a constant chafing reminder of what he lost.

it really adds something fun and spicy too to the bit during the second siege of the Burial Mounds, both in the novel and in CQL:

Jin Ling had never seen so many fierce corpses before, much less at such a close distance. He could feel his scalp tingle, and clenched Suihua's hilt. Yet, suddenly, his fist was peeled open, and a cold object was stuffed inside. He looked down in surprise. "Jiujiu?"

Jiang Cheng propped himself up with Sandu, which had lost its spiritual energy. His figure wavered slightly. "Try losing Zidian, just see what happens!"

[...] When Jin Ling saw that all of the people his age had rushed over, he couldn't hold himself back either. When Jiang Cheng was distracted, he stuffed Zidian back into his hand and sprinted toward the front... (Chapter 80, trans. Exiled Rebels)

The way it's acted here in particular it feels very much like Jin Ling at least has a sense of how loaded this gesture is, whatever Jiang Cheng says about giving it back. Here he is! Continuing the chain of just passing down things as a legacy that in no way substitute for the person they stand for.

just to set those screenshots alongside this:

there's something I think to Jiang Cheng that's not just incredibly painful in all the obvious ways about the core transfer, but specifically in the way that it's related to a sacrifice he very deliberately made - and now he finds out that not only was that sacrifice ultimately utterly pointless, or worse than pointless, the person he originally made it for made it so. It's this "oh, you can sacrifice yourself for me but I can't do the same for you?" that's so bitter to feel, both because I do think there's some amount of "why do you always, always get to come out of things the hero" but more than that, "why did you do this when I made my decisions specifically to protect you; does my desire to protect you not matter? doesn't it mean anything?"

Jiang Cheng standing with his hands full of memorials going "I don't want these," because what he actually wanted was his family, but the world kept taking them away, and apparently in at least one case his family actively didn't get the memo.

#conversating #apprenticedmagician #been a while since jiang cheng feelings but here we still are! #jiang cheng #the sad queer cultivators show

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

🔥 Do you think WWX and JC would make up after canon? I personally don't, I think WWX made his boundaries clear but I'd like to hear your takes and reasoning!

No I don't, I've spoken on what I think of this in a similar post some time ago so I'll repost that here again.

I think what was shown within the novel, was as true of a “reconciliation” as the two could have gotten between them.

Wei WuXian, “Uh, I think it’s best if you… also stop keeping it on your mind. I know you’ll definitely always keep it on your mind, but, how should I say it…” He held onto Lan WangJi’s hand, saying to Jiang Cheng, “Right now, I do really think… it’s all in the past. It’s been too long. There’s no need to struggle with it any longer.”

This is Wei Wuxian extending the only thing he can do between them, which is letting things settle in peace, move on safely, to start somewhere new in both of their lives without the other. Wei Wuxian had never wanted Jiang Cheng’s thanks for what he had chosen to do, he had done it out of love, which for Wei Wuxian can’t be measured in debts owed. He is urging Jiang Cheng to let go of a past that will only haunt him unhappily, they can’t gain whatever had been lost. And I think Wei Wuxian had long known that before Jiang Cheng given he does not treat Jiang Cheng and he the same as he once did and had drawn a line of boundaries between each other well before Guanyin Temple. Note that he never once calls Jiang Cheng “shidi” after the timeskip as he once affectionately had.

Wei Wuxian does not ask for apologies to himself, he tells Jiang Cheng to apologize for his remarks to Lan Wangji more than once due his own sense of loyalties for those that extend their kindness to him as his own shame doesn’t take precedent.

Wei WuXian took the flute. Remembering that Jiang Cheng was the one who brought it, he turned over there and commented casually, “Thanks.” He waved Chenqing, “I’ll… be keeping this?”

Jiang Cheng glanced at him, “It was yours in the first place.”

After a moment of hesitation, his lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to say something else. However, Wei WuXian had already turned to Lan WangJi. Seeing this, Jiang Cheng remained silent.

By this point hours later Wei Wuxian is once again subconsciously showing where he has drawn the line. Taking to heart what he had said they should do, not take what had once happened to heart anymore and stop thinking about it. And once Wei Wuxian has made something clear he follows through with exactly what he had said he would do.

I think Wei Wuxian had made his intentions known, and as he says later he would rather remember the kindness and happiness in his life than the worst of it. He doesn’t need a reconciliation, he is with the family he has found and made for himself without being pushed away and takes the unconditional love that is offered to him. I had once likened his inquires in the extras like how someone would about an old past friend, of course you would ask about their well-being and hope the best, but that does not mean you want to ever really see them again in person after that relationship was shut and closed. It is bittersweet, but broken friendships always feel like that, a piece of someone will always care about who they used to be close to and Wei Wuxian was always very caring in his sentimentality even with the bad. But he does not crave for anything else from Jiang Cheng any longer as he has found his happiness with who he wanted.

As for Jiang Cheng, I think he needs to finally learn to ultimately be by himself and learn to be himself without his hold onto past dead hopes. He had built his reputation on that in a world that is ultimately moving on and changing while he stagnated in his unchanging hate for 13 years. But he no longer had that tether to continue it on any longer. His life didn’t end with Wei Wuxian’s death, and it didn’t end when he fully confronted Wei Wuxian with his hate. He’s given a chance to be out of what he thought was forever Wei Wuxian’s shadow, and personally I think, even if he “loved” Wei Wuxian, he never truly liked him as he never tried to understand Wei Wuxian as a person.

There is a lot of matters that can’t be buried between them, as people they are polar opposites in what they want and cherish. They are not what the other needs in their life. I think Jiang Cheng’s lesson is to move past a life that he had made a habit of to be selfish and Wei Wuxian was a passive catalyst that had helped him to fester that. Sometimes, it is just simply the better option to leave each other and move on without the possibility of being friend’s for ones own peace. And reconciliation isn’t always as satisfying as a fairy tale in real life, nor should it be an award for the bare minimum show of humanity to another.

They do not understand the other's way of living. You cannot continue a relationship without understanding what the other needs or their views of life. They will be at a forever impasse because repayment and debts is what they grew up giving the other. Jiang Cheng still barely is able to understand why Wei Wuxian did not say anything, because bringing up that sacrifice would be breaking his soul. To reveal such a secret would shatter the happiness that Wei Wuxian finally earned by himself. It would be dragging Wei Wuxian back into a relationship based upon transactional favors and being granted live in return based on that again, while being able to take it away as Jiang Cheng saw fit.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #canon jiang cheng #lol reconciliation #wei wuxian doesn't need it except it or want it #sometimes it is sadly that simple to end a relationship

[spriteofmushrooms]

I am the anon about your jc's favorite things. If you want write even an essay about him, I would read it. I love him and he deserves more appreciation posts

Here's the 3100 word essay I wrote to introduce @lokorum to Jiang Cheng for a commission, which turned out to be unnecessary since they'd watched the donghua, so then we spent several months talking about Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and how cute a-Ling is.

It likely has a few errors in the timeline since (1) the novel is Like That and (2) it was a few months after I read it.

If you have anything specific you want to know my thoughts on, though, let me know. My brain is 80% Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng is a warlord and cultivator from ancient China. He was raised to inherit and run the YunmengJiang cultivation sect, but his father was never pleased with him and his mother constantly compared him to his martial brother, Wei Wuxian. The only person who ever treated Jiang Cheng with unconditional love was his older sister, Jiang Yanli, and even she seemed to prefer Wei Wuxian. But, as much as this hurt, Jiang Cheng could understand; after all, he loved Wei Wuxian the most, too.

In his personal life, Jiang Cheng devoted himself to protecting Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli as much as he could. While he was always behind Wei Wuxian, he worked on his cultivation, martial arts, and education doggedly. He always tried to stay aware of the political dangers surrounding them.

For example, when Wei Wuxian met the heir of another sect and his bodyguard, Jiang Cheng warned him not to insult the heir Wen Chao and to stay clear of Wen Zhuliu, who was capable of destroying a cultivator's golden core. Since Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's swords were captured by the Wen sect, and the political miasma was growing more tense as the Wen sect degraded the other sects more and more, Jiang Cheng wanted to ensure that YunmengJiang didn't become a target. Then Wei Wuxian stepped in to defend another disciple, and Wen Zhuliu started towards him. Jiang Cheng, weaponless, charged Wen Zhuliu and Wen Chao with such a fierce expression that Wen Zhuliu ran and Wen Chao called a retreat.

Once they returned home, the tension only grew worse. The Wen forced every sect to stop night hunting, so that all of their disciples were recalled home. Until one evening, the Wen came to Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng's mother bound Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian with Zidian and forced them to leave via boat as she and the disciples fought to the death. When JC and WWX found JC's father, he listened to them carefully, rebound them with Zidian, and took his remaining disciples to Lotus Pier.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, both 17, were the only survivors. Jiang Yanli was away, fortunately, but they don't know if the sect she was sheltered in had also been hit.

Jiang Cheng fights Wei Wuxian, strangling him in a field as he screams that Wei Wuxian brought the Wens' attention to Lotus Pier. After, exhausted, hurting, they walk to the nearest village. Wei Wuxian offers to go out and buy food, since Jiang Cheng is a more valuable target. Jiang Cheng agrees.

As Wei Wuxian sneaks out, Jiang Cheng follows him. It's a good thing he did, too, because he can see a group of Wen soldiers closing in on Wei Wuxian. In a moment, Jiang Cheng leaves hiding, catches their attention, and runs--but he's exhausted. He didn't expect to escape, though, so as they catch him, he's only grateful that Wei Wuxian should now be able to continue on. They take him back to Lotus Pier. They torture him, destroy his golden core, and leave him to die. Jiang Cheng will never tell Wei Wuxian about this.

What Wei Wuxian thinks... is that Jiang Cheng went back to Lotus Pier on his own to get his parents' bodies. Which is so stupid! But Wei Wuxian has always been faster, so he should be able to catch Jiang Cheng... And he runs all night... But somehow, he never even catches sight of Jiang Cheng.

After Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian save an unconscious Jiang Cheng, they take him to Wen Ning's sister, Wen Qing, a doctor. When Jiang Cheng wakes up, all he sees are their Wen robes, and he kicks them away from him. Wen Qing uses an acupuncture needle to put him under again. WWX, WN, and WQ spend days together as coreless Jiang Cheng remains in the coma. WWX begs WQ to transfer his golden core into JC, something that has never been done before. WQ says there's a 50% chance of failure, even death. WWX doesn't care; and he eventually gets his way.

Wen Qing removes the needle. When Jiang Cheng wakes up, only Wei Wuxian is there. WWX tells JC that he knows of a mystical way to restore his golden core, but JC must be blindfolded, and he must follow WWX's every order. JC trusts him, because in the end, Jiang Cheng always trusts Wei Wuxian.

After, Wei Wuxian says, we will meet at the base of the mountain. Don't be late!

For two days, Wei Wuxian stays awake as Jiang Cheng is once more put under. Wen Ning holds Wei Wuxian down, and Wen Qing pulls his golden core out and places it in Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian forces them all to secrecy, because Jiang Cheng must never know.

A note on golden cores and where they're located in the body, the lower dantian: it contains the will to live. Because Jiang Cheng's lower dantian was destroyed, he had no will to live without a golden core to heal the damage. Because Wei Wuxian's lower dantian was scarred, his desire to live was damaged.

Jiang Cheng makes it to the foot of the mountain. He waits, and waits, and waits, and waits, and waits, and waits, until finally he becomes convinced that he will have to search for Wei Wuxian himself. For three months, Jiang Cheng searches the jianghu for him...

...because Wei Wuxian, cored, weak, exhausted, had been captured by Wen Chao. Branded. Tortured. And then thrown into the Burial Mounds, the site of an ancient battle where thousands and thousands of bodies were left behind. Only ghosts, fierce corpses, and Wei Wuxian could survive there. He learns how to cultivate using resentful energy, the energy of demons and the dead. And when Wei Wuxian walks out of the Burial Mounds holding a black flute, he stalks down Wen Chao.

So that's how Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng reunite: after Wei Wuxian has spent weeks killing every Wen around Wen Chao one by one, forcing Wen Chao to eat parts of his own legs. Forcing Wen Zhuliu to watch his charge diminishes in front of his eyes. Forcing Wen Zhuliu to accept he can't protect Wen Chao, not anymore.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian finish Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu together. Jiang Cheng hugs him, but Wei Wuxian doesn't hug back. Jiang Cheng offers Wei Wuxian's sword, which Jiang Cheng liberated from the Wens and has been carrying for months; but Wei Wuxian has no golden core and can no longer wield his sword.

But obviously, Wei Wuxian can't say anything...

What follows is war. Along with many of the other sects, YunmengJiang fight the Wen. Wei Wuxian, with his power over the dead, is instrumental in their victory; Jiang Cheng's tactics point him where to hit.

But when the fighting is over, Wei Wuxian is destroying himself. He doesn't do any of his duties to the sect, so Jiang Cheng picks up his slack. He's always drunk; he's pompous and aggressive. He insults whoever he wants to insult. He says he'll kill whoever he wants to kill. Jiang Cheng makes excuses for him, covers for him. Jiang Cheng reaches out, again and again. What's wrong? Why are you acting like this?

Wei Wuxian, hating what he is now without a golden core, poisoned by resentful energy, pushes Jiang Cheng away.

Things get worse, and worse, and worse, until Wei Wuxian really does kill their former allies: some of the Jin guards at a concentration camp where surviving Wen cultivators were being forced to labor and were being tormented by the guards on top of that. Wei Wuxian takes the Wen survivors to the Burial Mounds, raises a corpse army to guard them, and proceeds to imitate the tyrant Wen Ruohan who everyone just got finished killing together.

The other sect leaders pressure Jiang Cheng to disown Wei Wuxian, but Jiang Cheng says that he will pay reparations for the guards Wei Wuxian killed. In public, he defends Wei Wuxian as best he can at 19, the youngest sect leader, the only one without a council of elders, the only one without any significant ally. But Jiang Cheng is alarmed. Jiang Cheng goes to visit Wei Wuxian and beg him to come home. Jiang Cheng says that the world is starting to turn on Wei Wuxian, and that it won't matter if what he did was right, because all outsiders see is what they fear. "If you continue to defend the Wens, I can't defend you..."

...But Wei Wuxian isn't only defending some Wens. He's defending Wen Qing and Wen Ning, who saved Jiang Cheng. He raised Wen Ning, who was killed by the Jin guards, as a favor to Wen Qing. Wen Ning is now a fierce corpse, but he's still himself... mostly.

And Wei Wuxian couldn't be in Lotus Pier anymore. He couldn't continue to do nothing; he couldn't stand the constant reminders of what he gave up. He couldn't look at Jiang Cheng, healthy and strong, and resent him anymore.

Wei Wuxian tells Jiang Cheng to disown him. That they'll have a public battle. That the world will know that Wei Wuxian and his Wens stand apart.

They do, and...

...Jiang Cheng brings Jiang Yanli in her wedding clothes to visit Wei Wuxian in secret. Jiang Cheng suggests that Jin Zixuan (Yanli's future husband) and Jiang Yanli let Wei Wuxian give their firstborn son, Jin Ling, his courtesy name (aka what baby will be known as when he's an adult). Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Jiang Yanli conspire to spread positive news about Wei Wuxian and his people; they invite him to JZX's and JYL's son's first month party. As if they're saying, "Look, Wei Wuxian isn't scary! We trust him with our baby. How can he be dangerous?"

Unfortunately, some of his enemies found out. They ambush Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning in the same area Wen Ning was killed in. They fight. Once Jin Zixuan hears from a little bird that they're going to be attacked, he flies as fast as he can, but he's too late. Jin Zixuan tries to calm the situation; the others aren't calmed. Wei Wuxian, three years into being poisoned by resentful energy, loses control of Wen Ning. Wen Ning, no longer the sweet, shy boy he once was; Wen Ning, powered by resentment; Wen Ning, who was killed and tormented by men who wore the same colors Jin Zixuan wears... Wen Ning punches a hole through Jin Zixuan's chest, killing him instantly.

Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning flee.

Jin Zixuan was the heir to the LanlingJin sect. His father demands the other sect leaders attend a pledge meeting. We've tolerated Wei Wuxian and his unnatural cultivation for too long; my son is dead. We must all hunt him down...

...And Jiang Cheng, who had to comfort his sister when they found out that the love of her life had been killed by Wei Wuxian, is silent for the first time. He doesn't defend Wei Wuxian. How can he? He has no idea what's going on. He's been lied to for years. As far as Jiang Cheng knows, Wei Wuxian still has his golden core; as far as Jiang Cheng knows, Wei Wuxian could have stopped using resentful energy any time he wanted.

Which means... as far as Jiang Cheng knows, Wei Wuxian chose to not help Jiang Cheng run the sect. Which means Wei Wuxian chose not to carry his sword. Which means Wei Wuxian chose not to stay with Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian chose it all. But Wei Wuxian said he could control it. And why wouldn't Jiang Cheng trust Wei Wuxian, who could always do anything he thought of? If all of it was a choice, if Wei Wuxian can control it all, why wouldn't Jiang Cheng trust him?

Jiang Cheng says nothing. He has no words to defend Wei Wuxian anymore. Because as far as Jiang Cheng knows, Wei Wuxian killed Jin Zixuan on purpose.

YunmengJiang can no longer stand with Wei Wuxian, even in secret. But Jiang Cheng can't stand the idea of anyone else facing Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng leads the siege...

Jiang Yanli can't stand living in a world where her husband was killed by her sweet Wei Wuxian. She goes to the battlefield and cries out for Wei Wuxian, who has once more lost control of the resentful ghosts and corpses he's called to fight. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian go to her.

One of Wei Wuxian's fierce corpses wounds her. She collapses; Jiang Cheng catches her. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli stare at each other as Jiang Cheng tries to stop the bleeding. Seeing an opportunity, a cultivator whose brother Wei Wuxian killed other strikes down at Wei Wuxian--who is pushed out of the way by Jiang Yanli. She dies in Jiang Cheng's arms.

Wei Wuxian flees. Jiang Cheng follows. Wei Wuxian uses the last of his will to force the fierce corpses to tear him apart. Jiang Cheng can't stop it. He sees the whole thing. When he leaves the battlefield, he takes the black flute Wei Wuxian forged in the Burial Mounds; and he takes Jiang Yanli's body.

He goes to LanlingJin, where his baby nephew Jin Ling is. And somehow, Jiang Cheng, even though he has no rights to Jin Ling--even though he has no allies--even though he's still young--somehow, Jiang Cheng leaves LanlingJin with Jin Ling and a split custody agreement. Jin Ling would be raised half in YunmengJiang and half in LanlingJin. (I personally headcanon that Jin Ling was raised by Jiang Cheng until he's 7, at which point they start to switch off.)

During this period of Jiang Cheng's life, it's whispered that he has no heart. How could he, when everyone knows he killed Wei Wuxian? Two of the villains talk about Jiang Cheng. They say that he's obsessed with Wei Wuxian, that he doesn't truly believe Wei Wuxian could be dead. One of them, a demonic cultivator known for sadistic killings, laughs and calls Jiang Cheng a mad dog. A rabid bitch.

#pallas.rtf #mdzs #hi anon #long post

[lansplaining]

[one snippet of a chengqing holiday romcom blah blah] [previous part] 

Dinner turned out better than Jiang Cheng expected. More to the point, he was more able than he expected to eat the half-familiar foods and not get dragged down into abject melancholy over who hadn’t made them. 

As they neared the end of dinner, Wen Qing said, “Do you mind if I excuse myself for a little bit after this? My brother wants to do a little family video call.”

“Of course,” Jiang Cheng said. “We’ll start a movie or something, how’s that sound, A-Ling?” 

Jin Ling gave his enthusiastic agreement, and when the meal was done, Wen Qing remained in the dining room, Jin Ling went to play in the sitting room, and Jiang Cheng-- ignoring Wen Qing’s attempts to extract a promise from him to leave it all for her-- went to make a start on the dishes. After a little while, Jin Ling got bored and wandered into the kitchen, busying himself with some toys he’d brought along. 

“Did you enjoy dinner, A-Ling?” Jiang Cheng asked, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the running water.

“Uh-huh,” said Jin Ling, in the tone that meant he was completely distracted by whatever he was playing with. Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes with a smile and picked up another plate. 

Welcome to your voicemail box. You have five new messages-- 

Jiang Cheng nearly dropped the plate. He hurriedly shut off the tap. “A-Ling! What have I told you about taking my phone without asking?”

“Not yours!” Jin Ling protested indignantly, holding up a phone in a lilac-colored case. Jiang Cheng blanched. He’d taken it out earlier today and turned it on-- hastily swiping away the humiliating reminder of how many missed calls there were, so many more than he’d remembered making-- just in case there was anything in her phone notes that elaborated on some of the recipes... he must have left it out... 

He lunged for the phone. 

-- first new message: “Hi jiejie. Ahaha fuck this is-- an objectively pathetic thing to do, fuck-- but I don’t have anyone else to talk to right now...”

Jiang Cheng froze. It really was just like in stupid novels, like his blood went cold. That voice. He hadn’t heard that voice in four years. 

After a second that felt like an hour, Jiang Cheng pulled himself back together and snatched the phone out of Jin Ling’s hand, jabbing frantically at the screen to just-- he didn’t know if he’d deleted the message or saved or what the fuck ever, but it shut up and the screen went dark. Jin Ling peered up at him with wide, dark eyes, and seemed to be deciding whether he was going to start to cry. Jiang Cheng really couldn’t care less if he did throw a tantrum, he was still practically shaking, it was like he could still hear that laugh in his-- 

No.

He could actually hear that laugh. 

Now that the white noise of the tap and the clank of cutlery was silenced, he could hear Wen Qing’s voice floating in from the dining room, and-- fainter, tinnier-- the voices of whoever she was speaking to on the video call. She hadn’t put in headphones. And there it was again: that laugh. 

Jiang Cheng’s feet moved without the conscious input of his mind. He shoved the half-open door to the dining room wide with more force than he’d intended, and found himself face to face with Wen Qing’s tablet screen, her back facing the door. He found himself face to digital face with-- 

“Wei Wuxian.” 

#chengqing christmas #my fic #i've been excited for this twist :) #it's almost done!

[rubbleinrainbows]

I've seen a few posts about how jiang cheng and wei wuxian have no chances of ever being the same pair of brothers they were before everything happened. That it's never going to be them standing up for each other, but standing on the separate sides of the room. Taking separate roads, only glances exchanged sometimes, burden of reciprocated fault too heavy to bear together. And as angsty and seemingly rational the idea may be—I don't thinks that's quite it.

(For the sake of convenience, I'll be referencing only the scene from the Untamed, when jiang cheng is captured by jgy and confronts wwx about the golden core. )

Jiang Cheng goes through all the phases of grief—first, angry at wwx turning out to be the misunderstood hero, shunned by the public as he sacrifices himself again and again, living out the Jiang clan's motto while all jc could do was live in his shadow.

Angry that after all the years he spent rebuilding everything wwx tore down by accident—his whole family just collateral damage of his arrogance—couldn't have happened without another one of wwx's sacrifices. That he couldn't even protect his nephew from it.

Painful desperation and unwillingness to accept it when Jgy tells jc he's partially responsible for wwx's fate.

After everything, all he can do is repeatedly shout at wwx, asking why he did it. He'd had everything, and just when jc had maybe hoped in the deepest part of his soul that his brother would prove to be a self fulfilling prophecy. Y'know. Out of spite, he gave it all away and lied about it so jc wouldn't suffer.

As such, accepting that hurts. Understanding that hurts.

True, before the knowledge that wwx wasn't just his irredeemable bastard brother who flew too close to the sun and JC had to watch from the ground, tending to earthly matters, their relationship might've ended at the hurt being the final straw. Instead, we are given a scene of forgiveness.

Jc allows wwx to get closer to him, even allowing him to touch his face and wipe his tear. Using visual symbolism, I believe this exchange is foreshadowing for the brother's reunion and building of something new out of themselves.

Someone may argue—left with no debts between them, they are perfectly free to part ways.

But is that it? Sure, debt and repaying it by all means is a theme woven throughout the whole story—screw the differences of the novel or show. However, no matter how often debt is a metaphor for love, we cannot equate such two things. Debt and love aren't synonymous.

So while Jiang Cheng and wei wuxian do not owe each other anything anymore (as wwx clearly states, telling him to forget all the mistakes they both made in wwx's first life), loving someone is not a job. Jc doesn't need a contract to love his brother despite everything that happened, because that's just not how the love between siblings works. Wwx is the same, and you cannot tell me he doesn't miss jc—for the love of god, he gave away his golden core for that man and that's not a thing that stops mattering when he dies.

In the end, it will take time. Jiang Cheng has to forgive wwx, and then himself for it to work and it'll be no small effort on wwx's part either; no one said anything about reforming bonds being easy. I'll even allow myself to use the golden cores as a reference, in that losing them is far too easy and reclaiming them often requires far too much effort for people to do it.

It's like I wrote before though—loving someone is not a job you choose, you're payed for, or that you quit.

In other words, even if they can part ways, in no universe would either of them choose to. If JC really didn't know about wwx's sacrifice, why waste 16 years of your life looking for your presumably dead brother who probably dispersed, when you could finally live without him in peace? With all the trouble he'd caused?

After all, when you start to love someone, it's impossible to erase that. And Jc is just human, seeking out other humans.

#the untamed #mdzs meta #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #yunmeng brothers #character study #character analysis

[mercyandmagic]

Heya Mercy! I'm the person who made the teen!wangxian fic rec list yesterday and it wasn't until you reblogged it that I remembered YOU WROTE ONE OF MY FAVORITE FICS EVER (i.e. The Oriole Behind You) so anyways if you don't mind, I would love for you to talk a little bit about that fic. I know it's been a while since that fic was published, but how did you come up with the idea? How did you come up with the ships? What was the process like when you wrote it? How did you come up with the twists and turns?

Anyways, thanks for being awesome. Keep slaying!

Oh! Thank you so much!!!

I didn’t come up with the forced marriages part. My sister @hamliet came up with the idea of Wen Ruohan setting up all these pairings. We both adore Wangxian, Xiyao, Xuanli, Nie Mingjue/Wen Qing, and Sangyu. I’d recently written a fic with Jiang Cheng and Mianmian (Sentiment), and Xue Yang/Chang Ping (Everything But a Father), and Hamliet pointed out that Jiang Cheng and Mianmian is perfect because he always blamed the fall of Lotus Pier on Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji defending her. If his siblings married the respective defenders, it only fits for Jiang Cheng to marry Mianmian, and I love that idea.

As for Qin Su/Wen Ning, and Su She/Jin Zixun, I’ve written them in Brothers and Sisters and I adore the respective two cinnamon rolls and enemies-to-lovers aspect to our two bitter boys (Yes, I stan Jin Zixun because if I don’t, who will?). 

Hamliet asked me to write it instead, and I was all to happy to oblige. I initially set out to have a happy/cracky tone.

And then... Writing the twists and turns was really one of those things where characters take the pen and run with it. I opened with Meng Yao, and by the end of the first chapter, it was entirely different than the idea I’d had when Hamliet first texted me. A-Yao started revealing all this angst, and then Xue Yang arrived and still revealed more angst. Lan Wangji gave me even more angst with his pain in the second chapter. 

I wrote it faster than most stories, and the characters just kept choosing where to go. Some plot points remained unchanged: Wangxian had to have their questionable ‘first time,’ Xuanli needed to have Jin Ling. When I began to realize how many characters were having kids and that it wasn’t realistic... that’s when I side-eyed Meng Yao and realized it would make perfect sense for him to have slipped a potion in Qin Su and Jiang Yanli’s food. 

Jiang Yanli as the one orchestrating the rebellion was a surprise, but I really liked the idea of the gentle but brave Yanli as the driving force. She may be nice and sweet, but she’s incredibly brave in the novel, and I think she’s the type to risk everything for her son, just like she did for Wei Wuxian at Nightless City. 

I’ve always felt a little less comfortable with Songxiao, but diving into the stoic Song Lan’s feelings was really fun to try out and led to the surprising and humorous (to me) reveal at the end that he and Xiao Xingchen had never actually defined their romantic feelings before.

I think I was able to write it so quickly in part because this story was a great retreat during the tumultuous Spring of 2020. A comforting distraction from the outer hellscape. And... everything just kept falling into place based on how the characters worked out. 

Thank you for the ask – it’s been really fun to remember. :) 

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #writing fanfic

[winepresswrath]

I think I might be a tsundere for MXTX romances because I keep saying I don't care for them and read her books for everything but the romance, but I'm also weirdly attached to all her canon pairings???

You may be! I have a weird relationship to all of them that basically goes:

Scum Villain: her earliest and IMO least polished work, features both my least favourite and favourite of her canon ships, would not recommend to anyone without a small list of warnings, my absolute favourite of her novels.

Heaven's Official Blessing: I genuinely think this is her best novel, and it features my favourite of her main couples by a significant margin. Takes up comparatively little space in my brain compared to the other two.

MDZS: neither her best work nor my favourite of her couples. I'm completely obsessed.

#like yes cql helps with that #particularly because I do really like drama wangxian #but even aside from that it just does so many things I like! #It keeps me coming back #like did you know that Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian in the novel take turns rejecting both each other's thanks and apologies until they've #done the whole quadrant? #ahhh!!! how dare she #or oh man there's this great moment where WWX is running after Jiang Cheng #when he thinks Jiang Cheng has left him to go after his parents' bodies #and it's his lowest moment in the first life up to that point #it explicitly comes closer to breaking him than anything else has so far! #and a) that never being resolved in terms of him figuring out why jc did it while b) Wen Ning is the person who #rescues him from that despair #delicious

[lecinea]

Regarding you yunmeng bro reconcilliation post-canon post (I'm sorry if I'm intruding, I saw it on the mdzs tag). First, I'm not really fond of JC, I try not let this taint my judgment, but it's hard so take it with a grain of salt (I'm also not pointing out WWX's mistakes but we know what they are so i think it's okay). I agree with what you said about the people they are coming from who raised them but I feel like that's precisely why they can't have a relationship anymore. JC can't let go, he just can't. He spent years hunting and torturing people that he thought could WWX. He kept WWX's flute as bait. He blamed everything that went wrong with his life on WWX even things I'm pretty sure he knew wasn't WWX's fault. He holds resentment close to his heart as if his life depended on it (just like his momma). Yes, he's traumatized and I will never take that lightly but people who loves you don't have to put up with your abuse just because of that. WWX and JC value different things, they have completely different priorities, they always had. After 13 years, after knowing the truth he looked at it as WWX wanting to be the hero and not doing it as an act of love. He's so worried about what WWX will think if he tells WWX that he saved him that day because if it was the other way around he would think WWX was doing it to outshine him. JC is bitter, and yes, i get that he suffered and you shouldn't compare your pain to others but so did everyone else. Especially WWX. Sometimes people have been in your life for years, sometimes they're family. And sometimes they don't belong with you anymore. JC and WWX were only supposed to come together in WWX's past life, and WWX grew out of that. WWX deserves to be happy and if that means he should be far away from someone who comes from a home that he was abused in, then so be it. They were all kids and it's okay if he wants to leave all that behind.

Don’t Worry! You’re not intruding. I put in the tags that I welcome discussion, as long as it stays civil (because insulting others over fictional characters is dumb). I find it fascinating how differently we all read Jiang Cheng and his relationship with Wei Wuxian and I actually had a lot of fun responding to you. I tried to touch on everything you mentioned, give my point of view, so it did turn out quite long. I will put most of the post under a read more. The main points that I will discuss are the following:

- Jiang Cheng’s inability to let go - The Guanyin Temple breakdown - Wei Wuxian’s feelings on the matter - Why I think a post-canon reconciliation is possible (and to me the logical place for their relationship to go).

Lets go!

So, let’s start off with how Jiang Cheng cannot seem to let go of the past. It’s definitely something that you see a lot with MXTX’s antagonists (and the love interests, both Lan Wangji and Hua Cheng have a long memory and do not forgive easily. I cannot talk about SVSSS because I haven’t read it yet.) and are in stark contrast with the protagonists, who have the (mostly) healthier approach of letting go of the past and moving on. But I think it’s important to think about why someone cannot move past their resentment. Jiang Cheng’s inability to let go of his anger, his refusal to believe that Wei Wuxian is truly gone and his doggedness in pursuing demonic cultivators have a few different reasons that all got tangled up in a ball of negative emotions that, at the end of the novel, he has to start to detangle before he can heal.

The first reason I’ve identified is that Jiang Cheng doesn’t know why everything post-sunshot campaign spiraled out of control, and that torments him. Why didn’t Wei Wuxian talk to him when something was clearly wrong with him? Why did Wei Wuxian refuse to use his sword when the demonic cultivation made the entire cultivation world nervous? Why did Wei Wuxian abandon him? To protect the family of the ones that destroyed his no less. Why did Wei Wuxian lose control? He was the brightest mind of their generation and he lost control and Jiang Cheng’s sister died. Why? Of course, we know why. Wei Wuxian didn’t have a golden core and the resentful energy he used was slowly eating his soul alive. But Jiang Cheng doesn’t know this until Wen Ning tells him. Only then the can piece together what actually happened a decade ago. Before that, I think Jiang Cheng blamed everything that happened on Wei Wuxian’s arrogance that he thought he could handle the negative effects demonic cultivation has on your soul and demonic cultivation itself. In that context the hunting of demonic cultivators seems a lot more logical, almost justified even. If Jiang Cheng blamed demonic cultivation on everything going wrong, it makes sense to try your best to eradicate it. Understanding what happened is also one of the things necessary to letting go. And that is something that can happen now that Jian Cheng knows the truth.

The second reason why Jiang Cheng holds on to his anger is because it’s a survival technique. A way of coping with his mountain of trauma. After Jiang Yanli died, Wei Wuxian lost control, killed thousands of people in his grief and anger, and if Lan Wangji hadn’t saved him, he would’ve died there. And that only delays the inevitable, we don’t know much of what happened those few months between the Nightless City and the Siege of the Burial Mounds, but I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian just got lost in his grief. The only the thing novel says about Jiang Cheng right after his sister dies is that he holds her body, not fully realizing what has happened yet. But it makes sense that after reality sets in, he also gets consumed by grief and anger. Which he utilizes to storm the Burial Mounds. But then Wei Wuxian is dead, and nothing is better. So, Jiang Cheng has two options, lean into the grief or redirect his anger to a new target. He holds onto the anger because it keeps him going, gives him purpose. And he needs to keep going, because he has a sect to run and a now parentless nephew that he feels responsible for. It’s not healthy, it’s not good. It makes him bitter and miserable. But maybe he thinks he deserves that.

Which leads me to my final reason. Jiang Cheng does not hate Wei Wuxian and he hates himself for it. I think there are hints of it spread throughout the novel. Jiang Cheng doesn’t allow dogs in Lotus Pier, and he keeps Chenqing (which I do not think he used as bait, since no one knew he had it.). He refuses to believe that Wei Wuxian is truly gone even though he saw him die (or was at least close by). When he finally has Wei Wuxian in his grasp, he sets a (well-trained) dog in front of him and the only thing he seems to want is for Wei Wuxian to apologize and to take him back to Lotus Pier and make him kneel in front of the ancestral shrine. Now, is using Fairy to keep Wei Wuxian under control cruel? Absolutely. But at no point did he have Fairy attack him or hurt him in any other way. It’s not nice, but it’s not the horrible torture that you would expect from Sandu Shengshou. However, what really convinced me that Jiang Cheng doesn’t hate Wei Wuxian is his breakdown at Guangyin temple.

And here it is clear to me that we read Jiang Cheng’s outburst in the temple very differently. Because where you read Jiang Cheng interpretating Wei Wuxian’s sacrifice as an act of heroism, proving that he’s the better man, I saw the scene much more as Jiang Cheng tearing himself down. He uses the most effective technique he knows, the one his mother always used (and his father to a lesser degree). The way that his parents made him feel like shit. Comparing himself to Wei Wuxian, and always coming up short. And I do think there is a subtle difference between the two interpretations. Because in one, Jiang Cheng keeps blaming Wei Wuxian, in the other, he’s placed the blame on himself. He starts naming all the bad things that he could trace back to Wei Wuxian, there is a desperation to him when he does it. This is what he has held onto for thirteen years, the anger, the bitterness. But most of these grievances boil down to Wei Wuxian leaving, and Jiang Cheng not knowing why. He keeps repeating that he’s ‘supposed to hate him’, but what’s notably absent is him actually saying that he hates Wei Wuxian. That’s because he doesn’t. He’s hurt and he’s angry, but that’s not the same as hate. And now he knows that most of the things that he has spend over a decade blaming Wei Wuxian for, all happened because Wei Wuxian gave him his golden core. So really, the one to blame is him. “Why is it that now it’s like I’m supposed to have wronged you.” He says and the anger he felt for so long is no longer righteous and so it’s losing its grip on him. He knows that Wei Wuxian did it out of love because he did the same. If he’d still been angry, that would be the moment he would reveal his own sacrifice. Because that would bring this nebulous blame back to Wei Wuxian. But he doesn’t. He’s no longer angry and now the only thing that remains is his grief. He asks Wei Wuxian why he didn’t tell him, repeats the dream they had, the dream he had, of them leading the Jiang Sect together. There’s intense sadness there. Maybe, if he had known, things would’ve turned out differently (though honestly, I don’t think it would’ve. I think that if Jiang Cheng would’ve taken Wei Wuxian’s side the Jiang sect would’ve been eradicated along with the Wen remnants, but maybe that’s just me being a pessimist). In the end Wei Wuxian apologizes to him and Jiang Cheng lets out a laugh and mockingly says what a fragile person he is that he needed an apology after all this time. The one he’s mocking is himself, because he did need to hear his brother acknowledge that he hurt him. That validation of feelings is also a step in the right direction of closure and healing.

Now I’ve spent over a thousand words on Jiang Cheng’s feelings and while I could go on about his other, older traumas, that would only make things even longer (if anyone’s curious, you can ask, and I may write more), so now we’re going to switch to the other side of the story, Wei Wuxian.

I will go in less detail with Wei Wuxian, because most of MDZS is from his point of view, so we all know a lot more about his motivations. Let me be very clear that I also love Wei Wuxian. I have kind of latched on to Jiang Cheng as a comfort character (because I do have a weakness for sad assholes), but that does not mean that I dislike Wei Wuxian in any way.

Now, I’ve read a lot of anti-Jiang Cheng posts, and meta against a reconciliation and there are two points that I see come back a lot. Which is that Jiang Cheng is abusive towards Wei Wuxian and that Jiang Cheng abandoned Wei Wuxian when he needed him most, so of course it would be best to cut such a toxic person out of his life. The thing is, while his fans might feel that way, I don’t think Wei Wuxian shares those feelings. Though of course, this is my interpretation of the book and of course I think I’m correct, but you do not have to agree with me.

I think everyone can agree that Madam Yu physically and emotionally abused Wei Wuxian when he was a child/teen. She took the frustrations of her failing marriage out on a kid that had nothing to do with it. She was completely wrong to do so. Meanwhile Jiang Fengmian did not do enough to stop it. You know who did try his best to stop his mother? Jiang Cheng. But he was just as much a kid as Wei Wuxian and couldn’t do much. And he does this with others as well. His harping on Wei Wuxian to behave, to not start trouble, to not play the hero are attempts to keep his brother safe. And I absolutely think that Wei Wuxian knows this. He doesn’t listen, because in the end, Wei Wuxian does what he thinks is right, no matter the consequences and Jiang Cheng does get frustrated by that. But that’s not abuse, and I don’t think there is any point in Wei Wuxian’s first life where he’s scared of Jiang Cheng hurting him (maybe the exception being when Jiang Cheng strangles Wei Wuxian after his parents die. But that is a moment of madness in grief, not okay, but abuse generally implies a pattern of behavior and that’s not what that is.) In Wei Wuxian second life their roles are different, and I do think he’s a bit scared of what Jiang Cheng might do to him. But again, I wouldn’t classify that as abuse. Wei Wuxian also very much does feel responsible for Jiang Yanli’s death, so he doesn’t blame Jiang Cheng for blaming him. Several times he defends Jiang Cheng when others talk badly about him. And the only time he gets upset with his brother is when Jiang Cheng directs his anger to someone other that Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian also never feels abandoned by Jiang Cheng because he doesn’t. This one is always a bit weird to me. Like, I do get being upset that Jiang Cheng didn’t openly support his brother after he took the Wen remnants, it was an awful situation and Jiang Cheng was a young sect leader of a still recovering and vulnerable sect. Immediately after Wei Wuxian frees the Wens, Jiang Cheng does try to defend his brother’s actions, but gets steamrolled over by the other sect leaders, until Mianmian stands up and defends Wei Wuxian, then she leaves the Jin sect and goes rogue. But she is just a simple person and her support is really only for that meeting, she doesn’t go to the Burial Mounds to join Wei Wuxian, so she’s not a threat. But if Jiang Cheng were to support Wei Wuxian it would just broaden the target to include both the Wen remnants and the Jiang sect. Jin Guangshan is not going to allow Wei Wuxian to just exist, not if he has the tiger seal. That is what Jiang Cheng tries to convince Wei Wuxian of when he visits the Burial Mounds. He literally says, “If you insist on protecting them, I cannot protect you.” Because he knows what is going to happen. And Wei Wuxian also knows, but he accepts the consequences because it’s the right thing to do. By cutting himself off from the Jiang sect, he is removing the risk that the people of Yunmeng Jiang become collateral damage. Jiang Cheng is the only reason the Jiang sect still exists, he cannot distance himself in a way that would support Wei Wuxian and bring no danger to his people, so he accepts Wei Wuxian defecting.

But make no mistake, the one who feels abandoned here is not Wei Wuxian, but Jiang Cheng. When Jiang Cheng apologizes to him in Guanyin temple, Wei Wuxian dismisses it, because he thinks there is no need for Jiang Cheng to apologize and urges Jiang Cheng to move on and let go, because it’s a lifetime ago. And maybe in that moment Wei Wuxian does mean it as moving on from each other, because he still felt like he had to repay the Jiang sect in some way and giving Jiang Cheng closure is a way to do that. And maybe Jiang Cheng takes it that way and convinces himself that it’s for the best that they each go their separate ways. But that’s not necessarily what they want.

So now we are post-Canon. Wei Wuxian does not have any negative feelings about Jiang Cheng, maybe still a vague feeling of responsibility and guilt but that’s it. Jiang Cheng has given up on his anger and can finally go through the other stages of grief. It might take a while, especially because I do see Jiang Cheng as the type to keep busy to distract him from pesky feelings and Jin Ling will definitely need guidance in restoring his sect. But eventually Jiang Cheng will reach acceptance and can look to the future, instead of being held captive by his past. And that is when I think he’ll reach out to Wei Wuxian. Because I don’t think they value different things. They both want to protect, Wei Wuxian wants to protect everyone, especially the weak and helpless. Jiang Cheng wants to protect his family and sect. Those aren’t different, it was the sad circumstance that in the political climate after the Sunshot campaign, it was impossible to do both. That is where things went wrong. Neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng was capable at the time to express their thoughts and emotions in a way that the other would understand, so they talked past each other, and withheld information. The lack of communication was detrimental in a world that seemed intent on tearing them apart. Because Wei Wuxian was a wild card that they didn’t want around, and Jiang Cheng was struggling to keep his head above water as a sect leader and couldn’t stand up to it.

After thirteen years the air has finally cleared and the sting has been removed from Jiang Chengs wounds and if he finds the courage to reach out to Wei Wuxian, I’m pretty sure Wei Wuxian would be nothing but happy. Letting go of trauma and sadness doesn’t have to mean letting go of everyone that was involved in that. They both hurt each other, but they also care deeply. And maybe now they’re ready to be honest (maybe with a little help from Jin Ling). Eventually Jiang Cheng can tell Wei Wuxian why he was captured by the Wens, without it being an accusation. Maybe Wei Wuxian will realize that Jiang Cheng didn’t care about any kind of repayment to Yunmeng Jiang, that Wei Wuxian has value just by himself, that Jiang Cheng just wanted his brother, but didn’t have the words to say so.

I don’t know, I just think it would be nice for them both.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #mdzs #cql #yunmeng shuangjie #mdzs meta #this is 4 pages in word and took me several hours to write #God I hope I got my point across #If you disagree with something or I remembered something wrong from canon feel free to message me #Or if you agree with me that's also nice to know #this is pretty much my yunmeng bro magnum opus #There is more to talk about I hardly touch on their childhood traumas here #and there is the role Jin Ling Lang Wangji and Wen Ning might play in any past and future interactions #but there is already so much #whatever your opinion please be kind #and if you can't be kind just block me #the untamed #fuck i forgot that tag oh well

[amynchan]

Sorry to bug you but can I ask for your take on the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling? Like. Any thoughts.

You are never bugging me, like, ever! XD I love getting my brain picked! (even when my brain is a slush of "I love this character so much!")

Ok, but Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling. I actually really like their relationship! It's flawed, it's good, and I will eat it up! I'm gonna answer this by breaking it up into "Jiang Cheng," "Jin Ling," and "Their Dynamic."

Jiang Cheng

Ok, I gotta start off with my dude. XD It's no secret I love him, and I'll rag on him till the day I die with oodles of affection. On the surface, the most anyone can say is that he's hard on Jin Ling and loves him. This is true, but I spent a good chunk thinking about why that is, and it dawned on me: Jiang Cheng isn't raising Jin Ling in a vacuum or alone.

So, the first one. Obviously, the events of Jiang Cheng's life as he perceived them (losing his entire family, the betrayal of Wei Wuxian, having to rebuild the sect, scrapping for rep) will affect how he raises Jin Ling. Jin Ling is the only family he has left, and he's been proven to put his family as first as he can. Jiang Cheng, when he has Jin Ling, looks like he doesn't let this kid out of his sight under normal circumstances. When he did send Jin Ling off, it was due to the fact that Lan Wangji was in his presence, and Jiang Cheng hates Lan Wangji because, to him, Lan Wangji is the reason his family fell apart (true? Nah. Does he think that way? Yeah.) Otherwise, Jiang Cheng would have stuck by Jin Ling's side during the nighthunt. He went after Jin Ling toward the end of the book as well, and he makes a dig at "do you know who your family is?" when Jin Ling didn't come back to him and instead went to Jin Gungyao.

Which is the second half of this: Jiang Cheng isn't raising Jin Ling alone; he's co-parenting with Jin Gungyao. Jin Gungyao, who is diplomacy and gentle smiles and gifts and affection and the things that Jiang Cheng just isn't naturally. Jin Gungyao clearly has Jin Ling's affections (again, the kid ran to him when Jiang Cheng said not to come back if he couldn't find anything), and seems to be really indulgent. I think Jiang Cheng is trying to pick up the slack. Where Jin Gungyao is indulgent, Jiang Cheng is strict. Where Jin Gungyao has distance, Jiang Cheng is close. They raise Jin Ling so oppositely that it's basically good-cop, bad-cop, with Jiang Cheng being the bad cop.

I do have a couple of things regarding Jiang Cheng that I do want to say, tying together the "family first" and "competing with Jin Gungyao." The first time we meet Jin Ling, it's revealed that he's got 400 spiritual nets all over Dafan mountain, and Wei Wuxian immediately assumes that the Jin clan was the one to pay for those nets. The truth is that the Jiang sect paid for those. Jiang Cheng paid for those, and they actually cost the sect quite a bit to have. When going on the night hunt, Jiang Cheng provided both the means and the support to give his nephew the best chance he could. He was definitely too strict on him (Not Even Gonna Defend That), but the fact is that what he does do, he does because Jin Ling is all he has left, and he loves him.

He's just an angry purple grape about it.

Jin Ling

Jin Ling is one that I didn't pay too much to when I was reading the novel. I didn't look for how he felt about much of anything, and I took what was given to me. I knew him as a part of a bigger plot, as a character, and his interactions with Wei Wuxian, but I didn't give too much thought into how he reacted to Jiang Cheng. I figured he was the kid who will 'grow up to learn his uncle was wrong, turn his back on his spoiled upbringing, and end up befriending the uncle who was wronged,' as the narrative goes. Roughly, he does this more-or-less, but how he acknowledges Jiang Cheng is interesting.

Jin Ling does seem to fear Jiang Cheng in a sense. Jin Ling knows that his uncle will never hurt him (and he won't), but he does fear disappointing his uncle. Like, 'if I disappoint him, it's the same as disappointing my own father' levels. Again, he runs off to Jin Gungyao when he can't live up to Jiang Cheng's expectations, and he claims to have been so upset that he couldn't eat well. While the claim is swiftly shot down by Jiang Cheng (and then backed up by Jin Gungyao, so who's to say what's the truth?), saying this does indicate that Jin Ling at least knows that Jiang Cheng's first concern is Jin Ling's health and safety. He's also not so afraid that he wouldn't dare run his uncle around for the greater good (read: when he helped Wei Wuxian escape).

These two things show me that Jin Ling knows where his uncle's priorities are, and he knows that he himself is pretty high up there. He does trust his uncle, and he does love him, even if he's terrified of letting him down.

For most of the story, Jin Ling is also going through a series of changes and revelations. Jiang Cheng is wrong about Wei Wuxian, and Jin Gungyao eventually tries to kill him. His entire world is being upended, and I figure that I don't get much about Jin Ling's normal state until the end, when things have settled, because that's when we see the worry that Jiang Cheng has for Jin Ling reciprocated. From what very little I can remember (it was the end of the story, my heart was too full of emotions!), Jin Ling is facing down most of the devastated Jin sect and power hungry wolves on his own because he doesn't want to trouble his uncle, who he knows is going through a shocking aftereffect himself. Jin Ling doesn't think that Jiang Cheng needs the extra hassle, and Wei Wuxian is the one to encourage Jin Ling to rely on Jiang Cheng because Jiang Cheng wants to be needed by his own family.

As far as Jin Ling goes, that's what I have. He's not scared of being hurt by Jiang Cheng, but he is scared of disappointing him, which I think is huge.

Their Dynamic

The angry, bad-cop uncle and the somewhat spoiled, pushed-too-hard nephew. Jiang Cheng's presence in Jin Ling's life is important, and while the two do bumble around each other (Jin Ling's fear of disappointing Jiang Cheng and Jiang Cheng's inability to show positive reinforcement unless they're in a life-or-death situation), they do love each other. Jiang Cheng fears for his nephew and wants him to be safe, but he also wants him to be strong. Jin Ling is afraid of disappointing Jiang Cheng, but you can only be that afraid if you actually do love in return.

They need help, and I think Wei Wuxian, towards the end, is helping a little bit by giving Jin Ling a little insight. Jiang Cheng will need a lot of help on his end to lighten up, and I think with Jin Gungyao gone, he won't have to play 'bad cop' so often and be forced to give more positive reinforcement. But hey, that's just what I hope. XD

Anyways, thanks for waiting for this! I wanted to do this question justice, which is why it took so long, and I hope you enjoyed my take on it! *^_^*

#mdzs #OnTheSeries #Jiang Cheng #Jin Ling #hgeosifd #my heart #guys I love them #they're dumb and I love them

[no--envies]

In my opinion, one of the reasons JC went crazy after WWX’s death and started venting his own anger and hatred on every demonic cultivator he met, regardless if they were guilty or innocent, is that he couldn’t stand the fact that he hadn’t managed to deal the killing blow to WWX. After all his effort in leading the siege and using the information he had on the Burial Mounds to plan the action and convince everyone else to follow him, he wasn’t even the one who actually killed WWX. WWX died because one of his cultivation techniques backfired and he was torn to pieces by his own ghost army.

I think JC couldn’t accept this. After everything he had done - and thinking he was justified in hating WWX for all the perceived wrongdoings he believed he was a victim of - WWX had managed to surpass him once again. Nobody was able to kill him, not even him.

We know JC’s reaction in the aftermath of the siege because JGY and XY directly comment on it in the extra focused on them:

Xue Yang, “What about his flute? Can you get me Chenqing?”

Jin GuangYao shrugged, “Not Chenqing. Jiang WanYin took it.”

Xue Yang, “Doesn’t he hate Wei WuXian the most? Why would he need Chenqing? Didn’t you also get that sword of Wei WuXian’s? Give him the sword in exchange for the flute. It’s long since Wei WuXian stopped using his sword, while Suibian sealed itself and nobody can pull it out. What’s the use of keeping a fucking piece of decoration?”

Jin GuangYao, “You really ask me to do the impossible, Young Master Xue. Do you think I haven’t tried? How could anything be that simple. That Jiang WanYin has already gone mad. He still thinks Wei WuXian hasn’t died. If Wei WuXian returned, he might not search for his sword, but he’d definitely come for Chenqing. And so, he would definitely not give up Chenqing. A few more words of mine, and he might blow up.”

Xue Yang sniggered, “A mad dog.”

(Chapter 118, ExR translation)

Whatever JC had tried to achieve by leading the siege, he wasn’t able to achieve it. If the only thing he had wanted was to punish WWX for his deeds, he would have been satisfied with his own role in WWX’s death. I don’t think killing WWX was the only thing he wanted, though. He was probably trying to prove something, to himself and everyone else. He wanted to prove that he could surpass WWX for once, and that WWX had been wrong all along in choosing to put himself at risk to help others instead of listening to him. He wanted WWX to admit it was all his fault.

After a while of silence, Jiang Cheng asked, “You’ll stay like this from now on? Got any plans?”

Wei WuXian, “Not at the moment. None of the group dares go down the mountain. People don’t dare do anything anything to me when I go down the mountain either. It’ll be fine as long as I don’t stir up trouble on my own.”

“On your own?” Jiang Cheng sneered, “Wei WuXian, do you believe that even if you don’t stir up trouble on your own, trouble won’t come and find you? It’s often impossible to save someone, but there are more than thousands of ways to harm someone.”

Wei WuXian replied as he ate, “A man with strength can defeat ten with skill. I don’t care if they have thousands of ways. I’ll kill whoever comes.”

Jiang Cheng spoke in a cool voice, “You never listen to any of my opinions. One day, you’ll come to understand that I’m the one who’s right.”

(Chapter 75, ExR translation)

JC had always tried to convince WWX to abandon his path. Since he couldn’t outshine WWX in any way, he wanted to at least prove he was right in the path he had chosen, that choosing to help others at the expense of oneself ultimately wasn’t worth it. But WWX wasn’t swayed in the least. He kept walking resolutely on his single-plank bridge in the dark, regardless of what anyone else thought.

WWX was aware of JC’s mentality: he knew JC wouldn’t willingly put his own reputation at risk to help him protect Wens if he could avoid it. This was one of the main things that divided them since they were teenagers: their values and outlooks were simply too different, it was only a matter of time before their choices made them take completely diverging paths. WWX was fine anyway, he could take care of himself - this mindset could be seen as too overconfident, but he wasn’t completely wrong. He knew he could protect the Wen remnants even without relying on anyone else, since he managed to do it for two years before everything crumbled at Qiongqi Path.

In the end, Jin Zixun ambushed WWX accusing him of something he hadn’t done, and everything spiraled down so quickly he couldn’t do anything to prevent it, until he lost control of his demonic cultivation and killed Jin Zixuan. The sects’ suspicion towards him turned into open hostility and everyone was immediately ready to consider him an actual threat to them all. After the bloodbath of Nightless City, WWX was labeled as the scourge of the cultivation world, an enemy that should be eliminated to guarantee everyone’s peace and safety.

At first glance, one could think JC was right and WWX was wrong. But if this was really what the novel is trying to tell us, why was JC unable to move on for thirteen years, while WWX was immediately ready to start a new life and leave everything in the past after he was brought back? Even when JC managed to capture WWX and confronted him, WWX didn’t have anything to say to him.

The cup was steaming. Before he had taken a single sip, Jiang Cheng suddenly hurled it at the floor. He lifted the corner of his lip slightly and spoke. “You—you don’t have anything to say to me?”

[...]

“I don’t know what to say to you,” Wei Wuxian replied sincerely.

“So you refuse to repent,” Jiang Cheng said in a low voice.

In their past conversations, they had frequently tried to sarcastically undermine each other. Wei Wuxian thus replied without thinking, “Similarly, you haven’t improved a single ounce either.”

Jiang Cheng’s answering smile was brimming with fury. “Fine. Then let’s see which of us truly hasn’t shown an ounce of improvement.”

(Chapter 24, Fanyiyi translation)

I think this exchange is very interesting: WWX and JC are no longer bickering or teasing each other as they so frequently did in the past. What had once been a complicated relationship with genuine affection beneath it all, now retained only the semblance of it. There’s no more warmth, no more anything worth trying to repair. While JC is still adamant about using WWX as a scapegoat to avoid reflecting on his own mistakes, WWX has long since moved on. He doesn’t even feel resentment towards JC, he just wants to live his new life freely.

JC is an interesting foil for WWX, their interactions show how fundamentally incompatible they are and both of their character arcs highlight one of the main themes of the novel: the importance of letting go of all the grudges and negative feelings and remembering the good things, since only then one can truly be free. This is something WWX knows perfectly well:

Wei WuXian propped his arm on Lil’ Apple’s head, spinning Chenqing in his hand, “My mom said you have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free.”

This was one of the only things he remembered about his parents.

(Chapter 113, ExR translation)

#mdzs #mdzs meta #jiang cheng #wei wuxian

[stiltonbasket]

What made you decide to ship Lan Xichen with Nie Mingjue? Since Nielan is one of the less common LXC ships (though I love it the most). But LXC is more frequently shipped with JC and JGY, so I was just curious how you decided on the ship. Especially since NMJ was long dead by the time CQL ended.

As for how my Nielan agenda started, it was partly because I couldn’t get into any of Lan Xichen’s “main” ships. I didn't get much of a Xiyao vibe from the novel and LXC barely interacted with Jiang Cheng at all, so I didn't find that ship compelling either. But I wasn't that invested in any of the characters during my early fandom days, so I was a-ok with reading background xicheng and xiyao in Wangxian fics.

But then I started drafting TMAAF, and I had to decide what to do with Lan Xichen going into seclusion. It didn't seem right to leave him there, so I had A-Qing survive Yi City and recover with LXC's help; and after Lan Xichen got the chance to save one person who was hurt as a result of JGY's actions, the rest of his character arc in TMAAF came naturally. He realized that still being alive meant that he could change things going forward, and that he was first and foremost a sect leader; he was still responsible for the people in his care, and decided that had no right to shut himself away from them while he still held his position.

At the time, I noted that Nie Mingjue would likely have had a similar outlook in LXC’s place, but it was just a passing thought. And then I reread a few chapters of the novel, and stumbled across this passage:

The headless corpse lunged again. Lan XiChen had finally returned to his senses. Raising Liebing to his lips, he started to play as well.

Wei WuXian didn’t know if it was only his imagination, but as soon as the soft, serene tone of the xiao appeared, the corpse’s movement paused. For a moment, he seemed to have stood still and listened, then turned around, as though he wanted to see who was the one playing the music. Yet, without eyes or a head, he couldn’t see anything at all.

Much like Lan Wangji did with Wei Wuxian, Nie Mingjue recognized Lan Xichen through his music. But Lan Xichen played Liebing in his presence when Nie Mingjue was a) dead b) unable to see or hear him, even in whatever limited way a fierce corpse might be capable of using its senses, and c) missing his head, and Nie Mingjue paused in his search for his own head because he knew someone he held dear was close by. 

Even brainless, and dead, Nie Mingjue’s body could sense Lan Xichen’s spiritual power and hold himself back from attacking him.

That was the first time I considered Nielan as a romantic pairing, as opposed to friendship, and then I finally realized that TMAAF’s Lan Xichen would never find a happy ending without Nie Mingjue.

Around then, I outlined the backstory of Nielan’s early childhood and the unwitting part they played in Wen Ruohan’s decision to take over the cultivation world (and wrote LXC a happy ending by having Nielan reunite as gods in the heavenly court)! After that, there was no going back. :P

#asks #nielan #i'm not really one for ship manifestos #you either ship something or you don't #as given by my one-person shi qingxuan x yushi huang agenda asdghje #but nielan have SO MUCH in common too #both elder brothers who became sect leaders too young #and love their baby didis with all their hearts #both care for each other SO much #nmj accepted jgy as a sworn brother just because lxc asked and ughhhhhh #i weep #tmaaf meta #twelve moons and a fortnight

[ibijau]

I don't think I've seen this anywhere (and if you know of any fics that do have this concept, please link!), but what if the events of MDZS (all media) was actually based on history within a modern AU of MDZS?

So like, as an example, you have people speculating whether or not Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were lovers or not in the same way people do with some real historical figures today, some theories that say Nie Huaisang orchestrated everything that go mostly ignored by everyone except those in the #NieHuaisangDidIt community because it's Nie Huaisang, who is largely remembered as a relatively harmless sect leader, etc... Some even still think the Yiling Patriarch was pure evil, though the novel, shows, and audio drama have since made this an unpopular opinion to have.

And then there's Wei Wuxian, be it through reincarnation with regained memories or immortality, listening to all of this in the background.

“I'm just saying that you wrote your thesis on him, so of course you're biased,” Jin Guangyao said. “There's no way Nie Huaisang organised all this. Everyone in that period agrees that he was so stupid he could barely do basic additions!”

“I have a phd and I can't count either,” Nie Huaisang countered. “Listen, I tell you, the proof is all there if you just look.”

Of course, they weren’t called Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao, not in this life, but Wei Wuxian wasn't good with names. In fact, after centuries of being alive, he was worse with names than he'd ever been. Thankfully, this crowd Lan Wangji and him had become friends with didn't mind at all the nicknames he'd picked for them.

“And I can prove that Jin Guangyao didn't even die, and made a name for himself in Japan,” Jin Guangyao retorted. “There's this Han man who suddenly appears out of nowhere in the Japanese court, claiming to know great magic, and...”

“Yes, I've seen the movie too,” Nie Huaisang yawned, taking another sip of his bubble tea.

Jin Guangyao went red and purple, while Wei Wuxian tried to hide a snicker. If there was one sure way to piss of Jin Guangyao, it was by mentioning that recent movie that had come out, very loosely inspired by a series of blog articles he'd written years ago when he was still a student. The inspiration was loose enough that he hadn't been involved in the process at all, because the scenarist had pretended they just happened to have come to the same conclusion.

It wasn't a bad movie, Wei Wuxian thought. It wasn't a goodone either, but he quite liked the actor who played Lan Wangji in it (Wei Wuxian himself wasn't part of the plot, sadly, on account of being officially dead by then), and the fight scenes were pretty fun. Besides, he felt like Jin Guangyao should have liked it even better than he did.

The actor playing him was the tallest member of the cast after all.

“I hope you choke on your tea,” Jin Guangyao muttered, to which Nie Huaisang answered with a bright grin.

It was about to devolve into a fight (an animated academic discussion, Jin Guangyao would have called it) when Lan Xichen entered the boba place, radiant as always. She ordered her own tea (plain black tea but with extra sugar and the sweetest fillings available, as usual) and sat with them, apparently oblivious to the adoration with which Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang gazed upon her.

Wei Wuxian had a bet going on with Jiang Cheng about which man would ask her out first in this life. He also had a bet going on with Jin Ling regarding whether anyone would dare ask her out at all. Wei Wuxian would have tried to help the matter, but Lan Wangji wouldn't allow it, worried for his sibling. A needless worry, Wei Wuxian thought. Lan Xichen was doing well for herself in this life, and so were the other two. Going into academia had been a great way for them to channel their lingering resentment. Their fight had almost never gotten physical in this life.

“I'm sorry for being late, jiejie wanted me to help her order something from overseas,” Lan Xichen apologised, smiling warmly. “I hope I didn't interrupt anything important? You seemed to be chatting, no?”

“We were talking about Guangyao's movie,” Nie Huaisang cheerfully answered.

Jin Guangyao looked about ready to murder him, but Lan Xichen just laughed in that sweet, careless way of hers and in a second both men had forgotten their previous argument.

“Oh, that reminds me, I brought something that might make you laugh,” she said, digging into her handbag. “It's in your field of study... in a manner of speaking.”

She put a book on the table. On the cover were two handsome young men, one dressed in black and carrying a flute, the other in white holding a bright sword. Above them, bold characters professed that this book was called “The Founder of Demonic Cultivation”.

Wei Wuxian's drink went the wrong way, and he nearly died coughing on a tapioca pearl. When everyone was sure that he wouldn't choke so stupidly, they all turned their attention back to the book.

“What's that?” Jin Guangyao asked.

“It's a danmei novel,” Lan Xichen explained, a spot of red on her cheeks. “Jiejie lent it to me the other day, and as soon as I started reading I realised the subject was... familiar. It's about Wei Wuxian. The real one I mean,” she added with a smile to Wei Wuxian who pretended to be fascinated by his bubble tea. “It's, ah... very creative. It takes liberties with some of the events, but, ah, it's very well written.”

“Wonderful, more fiction,” Jin Guangyao muttered.

Meanwhile, Nie Huaisang eagerly grabbed the book and started browsing it with hungry eyes. He had theories about that, too. Mostly, about the exact nature of Wei Wuxian's relationship with Jiang Cheng, which he had once explained to Wei Wuxian with far more details than the immortal would ever have cared to hear... and he hoped Jiang Cheng himself would never hear about it.

In fairness to Nie Huaisang though, his arguments had been very convincing, and Wei Wuxian would have had doubts, if he hadn't been married to Lan Wangji for over a thousand years.

“Oh, Lan Wangji,” Nie Huaisang grumbled, closing the book and sliding it back toward Lan Xichen. “I suppose I see the appeal, but there's really no evidence whatsoever in their case, you know?”

“We know,” Lan Xichen said with an indulgent smile.

“Now, Jiang Wanyin and him, on the other hand...”

“You people are obsessed with romance!” Jin Guangyao complained. “His relationship to Jiang Wanyin was platonic!”

Wei Wuxian distractedly nodded. That was indeed true.

“And so was his relationship to Lan Wangji,” Jin Guangyao added with a disgusted glare at the book.

Wei Wuxian grimaced. That was very much not true.

“From the letters I've read, I think in today's world, the Yiling Patriarch would probably be asexual,” Jin Guangyao argued. “Not that I particularly approve of using modern terminology to describe the sexuality of long dead people, but if you consider everything we know about him, then... are you ok?”

“Peachy,” Wei Wuxian coughed, trying not to burst out laughing. Jin Guangyao's pride was still a delicate thing in this life. “Hey, Xichen-jie, mind if I borrow that book until we meet again? I think Lan Zhan would love it.”

“Sure, I don't see why not.”

Wei Wuxian grinned, and pocketed the book.

Lan Wangji and him were going to have a good laugh that night, as they always did whenever someone wrote a new story about them.

#nie huaisang #lan xichen #jin guangyao #wei wuxian #mdzs #I know nothing about academia and I'm too lazy to do research #wangxian later agrees that somehow the danmei is the one version that's closest to the truth #and that's how they find out that Lan Jingyi has reincarnated #jau writes

[admirableadmiranda]

Hi, sorry in advance for this rant bcs i just saw this take that made me go through a thousand stages of what the fuck. Tldr someone said that wwx and jc are two sides of the same coin and one can’t live without the other and im just?? For jc yeah i can see that but wwx?? Like.. how?? I dont hate jc (novel) but i do abhor this fandom little meow meow that he’s become. Anyways, they also said that life was a little more unfair to jc because he didn’t get the happy ending that wwx got and i mean... wasnt his character arc more than enough?? ppl do know that happy endings are not a requirement for every character, right?? these ppl do know that lxc and a bunch of others didnt get their happy ending too right?? they know that jc isnt the main character right???? (i sincerely doubt it) it’s so infuriating to see how his “stans” these days are pushing so much for him to have this “protagonist halo”. And tbh, isn’t it insulting to their “poor” jc that they’re making him seem still obsessed over wwx when he himself already said in the end that ppl should go back to where they belong and that he cant believe event after all these years, he still wants wwx to acknowledge him? Side note, jc lead a MASSACRE on innocent people and did wwx ever demand apology from him? No!! And I personally enjoyed his arc so much because he’s turned into a character who’s trying to finally stop obsessing over the past and his shixiong and yet these stans keep pushing this narrative that he hasn’t moved on at all like what the hell give him a break?? He’s done with the past and he wants to MOVE ON. Yet y’all are there making him seem like an obsessed poor puppy goodness me.

It's okay Anon, I invite your rant. Come tell me about how much it sucks that Jiang Cheng stans are taking a somewhat interesting character and stripping him of all of that.

Jiang Cheng does get a pretty happy ending by Modaozushi's standards, he's still alive and in a position to make different choices. That's way more than most characters get! Especially given his position in the story! He's one of the key antagonists, his actions directly contribute to pretty much every negative event that comes through. Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao both were killed and deservedly so, because they would not stop hurting people. Jiang Cheng is given another chance to prove he could be better if he wants.

And it is very insulting in many ways how they want to take away his one good decision to let Wei Wuxian go. Because while some stans seem to think that he's soft and fragile and didn't do any of these things, plenty of them just want him to continue to hurt everyone around him without regard. And his journey throughout the story really is learning that his words have consequences. His actions have reactions. If you continue to hurt and berate and abuse people, they will eventually want nothing to do with you. And you cannot change that. Jiang Cheng realizes that he cannot keep tying Wei Wuxian to him and everything is too broken to be fixed and lets it go. That's pretty huge for characters like him. It makes me upset that they refuse to acknowledge that, or blame Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng's arc ends with him not blaming him any longer. His stans just don't get him.

I'm sorry you're having a hard time enjoying Jiang Cheng as he should be in this fandom. He is a less interesting character when the stans get their hands on him. I would highly suggest continuing to come talk to me (who is less bothered by JC as long as my poor Wangxian aren't suffering at his characterization) or even better, @jiangwanyinscatmom, the most trustworthy fan of Jiang Cheng around as well as fabulous person in general. She will happily talk to you about who he is and how we should really care for him if you need a friendly ear.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng #asks #anon #anon asks #hanging out in the trash heap with sempai

[kikyan]

Yandere Jiang Cheng Headcanons

These are my interpretations of his persona and none of these are 100% accurate. I don’t condone any of these actions in real life and all of this is purely fictional.

First, god damn this man is so traumatized. Perfect yandere material, anyway I see him as overprotective, possessive, obsessive, and stalker. Here is why:

My man really got the short end of the stick with EVERYTHING that happened. Sister? DEAD. Parents? DEAD. Brother-in-law? DEAD. Adoptive Brother? DEAD BUT NOT DEAD. Golden core? STOLEN. Nephew? ORPHANED. Responsibilities? STACKED UPON HIM. Since this takes place in different timelines I will be focusing on both but mostly after the time skip.

Before entering cloud recess and even during his stay, he was seen as most responsible of the two. Literally, their dynamic was, goofy brother, caring sister, strict brother. He landed on the strict one, but he had his morals and priorities set. He also did his best to uphold the family name and standards. Always scolding Wei Ying when he did dumb shit and always reminding him, “If Father-”. In the drama, Wen Qing was given a much bigger role and it was hinted that he had some crush on her. He acted so bashfully around her, smiling and doing the whole ‘don’t embarrass me around her’ type shit. So, if he met his S/O before the time skip, he would act like this.

Stalker. While both obsessive and stalker match up in definitions, I think that stalker is more of a tamer way to describe it. Here is why. As a stalker, in cloud recess he would probably take the same pathway to get to the lectures, just to catch a glimpse of his S/O. During the lectures, he would pay attention because he can’t slack off, but he would turn to catch his S/O and turn away if they caught him staring. Occasionally asking around where they are, find out where they are staying. It’s the glimpse and lingering gazes that really cause that ‘stalker’ trait. Gets even worse when they start looking for the yin iron pieces, trying to hear the latest information about his S/O’s clan. When the Wen clan start’s making moves he’s on his way to get the latest information on his S/O. Taking up the clan’s mantle he had more access to information and events where he could see them. My man was really out here trying to find ANY information on his S/O.

After time skip and all the depression shit? OBSESSED. Literally, he would know EVERYTHING. The last clan you invited over, any family members, your clan’s status and position. If you were from a smaller clan, he would offer to look after it during the night hunting and other events, very RUDELY he would announce it. “Such a small clan, almost extinct. It’s best if some of my men aid you in the night hunt.” You're the head of your own clan? Meetings often discuss things and will literally try to push for you to join or make an alliance of sorts. You’re already with him? He has his men follow you 25/8 along with his nephew because he can’t spare to look away. This ties in with overprotectiveness and possessiveness. He’s lost so much he can’t bear to lose anything more.

Overprotective. Again, he’s lost so much? His love is genuine and will do what he can to assist his S/O in protecting them. No one will come to harm them or they will have to answer to him. It’s like him and Jin Ling, it’s harsh and tough, but he truly does care. He just doesn’t want to seem so attached to avoid people wanting to take away the things he loves the most. When Wei Wuxian comes back he would definitely keep his S/O out of it. Jiang Cheng (HAVEN’T READ THE NOVEL DON’T COME FOR ME) strikes me as the one who knows Wei Wuxian isn’t to blame, but he can’t help but accept it. He doesn’t want to risk his S/O getting involved in family issues because he doesn’t know what the consequences are. Possessive. It comes in the package that he will more than likely be a bit controlling with his S/O. Like his nephew, he is real iffy of him exploring alone because of the many situations that happened to him. Not just anyone can watch over his S/O, it has to be someone he trusts which might be Jin Ling. Telling him that he better watch over them, though I think Jin Ling doesn’t mind because he would get along with Jiang Chen’s S/O. Clan meetings and someone approaching his S/O? Hand around their waist typa beat but without the hand around the waist. Well maybe, idk I’m kinda skeptical about it.

In terms of being dangerous? 6/10. It’s more the controlling and overbearing aspect of it because while he is strong and can do something, he probably won’t because it’s not in his nature. He’s lost so much and he can’t bear to lose another person. It really is tough love with him, often scolding Jin Ling and his S/O because I’d do stupid shit with Jin Ling. He’d say some harsh things, he doesn’t mean them but it’s all to keep you guys safe. It’s that right now, so many things are left unanswered and he can’t afford to let his guard down or let people know he can.

Shameless comment but HES FINE ASF, LIKE THE TIMESKIP? DADDY-

#yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x y/n #yandere x darling #yandere x you #yandere fanfiction #yandere headcanons #yandere headcannons #yandere anime #yandere imagines #mo dao zu shi #untamed fic #the untamed #grand master of demonic cultivation #mdzs #jiang cheng #yandere Jiang cheng #yandere mo dao zu shi #yandere jiang cheng x reader #yandere mdzs #mdzs x reader #mdzs x y/n #yunmeng jiang #jiang cheng x reader

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Hi! So first of all I want to clarify that I'm not in any way saying jc isn't a homophobe, because I mean, it's pretty obvious. However back when I read the mxtx interview I read her answer as 'wwx acted all of a sudden very different with lwj, to the point where it was jarring for jc who had not seen him act that way before.' I do not think jc understood at all wwx's affections towards lwj, and this did not think it was disgusting because he saw it as flirting. (1/2)

I find it weird that people use it as a 'proof' that jc is homophobic when it's not straightforwardly telling us it's homophobia, and also since you know, the novel is right there and tells us far more clearly that jc is, in fact, a homophobe. (2/2)

So, here, I agree the interview isn't a stated full explanation in itself and not to be used as evidence alone.

I think that at the time it was not fully homophobia on his part when he had first noticed Wei Wuxian's attention for Lan Wangji in Cloud Recesses. Jiang Cheng had never understood Wei Wuxian's penchant for wanting to be around Lan Wangji and I think that his surprise of Wei Wuxian flirting with a man (He himself talks about how he never thought it odd with Wei Wuxian flirting with women all the time) Lan Wangji was always the strange outlier for flirting. It steadily devolves into more overt homophobia as they get older.

Cloud Recesses when they're 15,

Wei WuXian replied, “Yeah, I also thought that he should be praised for having the courage to come see me. He was probably told by his uncle to come check if I was kneeling properly.”

Jiang Cheng instinctively felt a foreboding sensation, “Were you kneeling properly?”

Wei WuXian, “I was kneeling properly. After he was some distance away, I found a stick and started to dig in the dirt. The pile beside your foot. There’s an ant hole there that I went through tons of trouble to find. When he turned his head, he saw that my shoulders were shaking, and he definitely thought that I was crying. He even came back to ask me. You really should have seen his expression as he saw the ant hole.”

“…” Jiang Cheng spoke, “You should get lost and go back to Yunmeng as soon as possible! I don’t think that he wants to see you ever again.”

The part that sticks out here is the fact that Jiang Cheng feels any sense of foreboding at all for a silly situation that Lan Wangji had walked away from seeing Wei Wuxian was actually okay. It's the first seed of him continuing the line of thought that "He hates you". He is already feeling strange about Wei Wuxian's flirting and chooses to sort of project this hate into Lan Wangji for Wei Wuxian.

Lotus Pier summer after Cloud Recesses lessons:

I just thought of someone.”

Jiang Cheng, “Who?”

Wei WuXian, “Lan Zhan.”

Jiang Cheng, “Why would you think of him for no reason? Reminiscing what it felt like to copy sect rules?”

Wei WuXian spat out a seed, “It’s fun to think of him. You don’t even know—he’s just too amusing. I told him, ‘Your sect’s food is disgusting. I’d rather eat stir-fried watermelon peel than eat your food. If you have time, come have fun with us at Lotus Pier…'”

Before he even finished, Jiang Cheng slapped his watermelon off, “Are you mad? Inviting him to Lotus Pier—are you trying to torture yourself?”

Wei WuXian, “Why are you so upset? My watermelon almost flew away! I was just being polite. Of course he wouldn’t come. Have you ever heard of him go anywhere by himself to have fun?”

Jiang Cheng had on a stern expression, “Let’s make this clear. I don’t want him to come, anyhow. Don’t invite him.”

Wei WuXian, “I never knew you hated him so much?”

Jiang YanLi sat down between the two, “Who are you talking about? A friend you made in Gusu?”

Wei WuXian responded happily, “Yeah!”

Jiang Cheng, “What a shameless ‘friend’ you are. Go ask Lan WangJi and see if he wants you as one.”

Wei WuXian, “Fuck off. If he doesn’t want me, I’ll bother him to the point that he does.” He turned to Jiang YanLi, “Shijie, do you know Lan WangJi?”

Jiang YanLi, “I do. He’s that Lan-er-gongzi whom everyone describes as handsome and talented, isn’t he? Is he really that handsome?”

Wei WuXian, “He is!”

Jiang YanLi, “Compared to you?”

Wei WuXian thought about it for a moment, “Maybe just a bit more handsome than me.”

He formed a tiny bit of space between two fingers. Taking the plate away, Jiang YanLi smiled, “He must be truly very handsome, then. It’s a good thing you made a new friend. In the future, you two can visit each other in your free time.”

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng spat out his watermelon. Wei WuXian waved his hands, “Forget it, forget it. All that’s at his place is bad food and a whole lot of rules. I’m not going again.”

Jiang YanLi, “Then you can bring him here. This is a good opportunity. Why not invite your friend to come stay at Lotus Pier for sometime?”

Jiang Cheng, “Don’t listen to his nonsense, Jie. He’s super annoying in Gusu. Lan WangJi would never want to come home with him.”

Wei WuXian, “What do you mean!? He would.”

Jiang Cheng, “Wake up. Lan WangJi told you to get lost, didn’t you hear? You still remember that?”

Wei WuXian, “What do you know!? Even though he told me to get lost on the surface, I know for sure that he secretly wants to come play with me in Yunmeng—in fact, he would love to.”

Wei Wuxian is still in the belief that Lan Wangji does like him. Jiang Cheng of course isn't amused by Jiang Yanli's indulgence in Wei Wuxian's daydreams. Wei Wuxian continues to, well, essentially pine innocently about Lan Wangji, his fellow disciples even encourage it leading to... Jiang Cheng sulking even further over the fact that Wei Wuxian is in fact pining over another boy. He puts two and two together as Wei Wuxian is flirting with the girls on shore later on and he talks of the things he will do with Lan Wangji as he visits. He talked of training with Lan Wangji in the same way he invited the girls to watch him train.

Phoenix Mountain Hunt

Lan WangJi suddenly raised his hand, stopping a flower tossed over from behind him.

He looked back. Over at the side of the YunmengJiang Sect’s riding formation, which hadn’t departed yet, Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue impatiently, seated at the front. However, the person beside him sat on a horse with black, gleaming hair. His elbow was at the head of the horse as he looked to the side as though nothing happened, talking and laughing with two slender-bodied maidens.

Lan XiChen saw that Lan WangJi had drawn the reins and ceased to move forward, “WangJi, what happened?”

Lan WangJi, “Wei Ying.”

Wei WuXian finally turned around, face full of surprise, “What? HanGuang-Jun, did you call me? What’s up?”

Holding the flower, Lan WangJi seemed to be quite cold. His tone seemed cold as well, “Was it you?”

Wei WuXian immediately denied it, “No, it wasn’t.”

The maidens beside him spoke at once, “Don’t believe him. It was him!”

Wei WuXian, “How could you treat a good person like this? I’m getting angry!”

Giggling, the maidens pulled their reins and went to the formations of their own sects. Lan WangJi lowered the hand that he held the flower with and shook his head. Jiang Cheng spoke, “ZeWu-Jun, HanGuang-Jun, apologies. Don’t pay attention to him.”

Lan XiChen smiled, “That is fine. I will thank Young Master Wei’s kindness behind the flower in place of WangJi.”

When they slowly rode into the distance, carrying with them the clouds of petals and fragrance, Jiang Cheng glanced at the colourful sea of handkerchiefs waving on the watching towers before turning to Wei WuXian, “Why are you throwing out flowers along with the girls?”

Wei WuXian, “I think he looks nice. Can’t I throw a few as well?”

Jiang Cheng pointed his nose into the air, “How old are you? Who do you think you are, still playing tricks like that?”

Interestingly enough, this flower scene is similar to what had once occurred during the summer of Lotus Pier. This is after it had been established that Wei Wuxian thinks Lan Wangji now dislikes him morally. Yet he still reaches out to tease and flirt with him, leading Jiang Cheng to continue asking why well into their early 20's is Wei Wuxian still doing this. It was excusable when they were younger but now this is inexcusable and troublesome for someone who is supposed to be his righthand acting on whims still and flirting with a man of reputation. Jiang Cheng actively had encouraged the rift between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji after the return from the Burial Mounds. He agreed very readily that Lan Wangji wanted to imprison Wei Wuxian instead of extending any help in regards to Wei Wuxian's volatile disposition that went on for years after this altercation, convincing himself and Wei Wuxian of Lan Wangji's supposed hate.

Wei WuXian was in such a state of distress that he couldn’t remember whether or not he called someone’s name at all. He only managed to pull himself together after Jiang Cheng commanded the dog to back away. After a moment of hesitation, he abruptly turned his head away. On the other side, Jiang Cheng left his seat. There was a whip attached beside his waist. With one hand on it, he bent down to look at Wei WuXian’s face. After a pause, he straightened up and asked, “Speaking of it, since when have you been so close to Lan WangJi?”

Wei WuXian immediately understood whose name he had unconsciously called out.

Jiang Cheng smiled menacingly, “It really is quite curious how far he went to protect you, back on Dafan Mountain.”

A moment later, he corrected himself, “No. You weren’t necessarily the one whom Lan WangJi was protecting. After all, the GusuLan Sect couldn’t have forgotten what you did with that loyal dog of yours. How could someone so celebrated for his righteousness tolerate the likes of you? Maybe he’s familiar with this body that you stole instead.”

His words were cruel and sinister. Every sentence seemed well-meaning on the surface, but was actually derogatory. Wei WuXian couldn’t bear hearing it any longer, “Watch your language.”

Thirteen years later his taunts have become more refined as he is well off into hating Lan Wangji himself now that Wei Wuxian had been dead. He taunts that Lan Wangji is more promiscuous than presented as well as using Wei Wuxian's old goodwill for Lan Wangji for him to go on the defense. Jiang Cheng however thinks using the fact these men are gay is only a tool, he does not believe they are as his disgust of Mo Xuanyu being gay does disgust him. His suspicions have turned into bigotry instead finally in the years that Wei Wuxian was gone.

When Jiang Cheng accused him, Wei WuXian couldn’t defend himself at all, but he just couldn’t bear it when those words were being directed at Lan WangJi.

Wei WuXian reprimanded, “Jiang Cheng, just listen to yourself. What are you saying? Is it appropriate? Don’t forget who you are. After all, you’re the leader of a sect. Insulting a renowned cultivator in front of Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu’s spirits—where is your discipline?”

His original intention was to remind Jiang Cheng to at least hold some respect for Lan WangJi. However, Jiang Cheng was always sensitive. From those words, he managed to make out the notion that he wasn’t fit to be a sect leader. Immediately, darkness crawled up his face, bearing an eerie similarity to how Madam Yu looked when she was angry. His voice was harsh, “Who is the one insulting my parents in front of their spirits?! Could you two please understand whose sect you’re in? I don’t care if you act so shamelessly outside, but don’t you dare fool around inside our ancestral hall, before my parents’ spirits! After all, they were the ones who brought you up—even I feel ashamed for you!”

Wei WuXian never expected such a huge blow to crash down on him. He was both shocked and furious, blurting, “Shut up!”

Jiang Cheng pointed outside, “Mess around outside however you want, whether under a tree or on a boat, hugging or otherwise! Get out of my sect, get away from anywhere my eyes can see!”

Hearing him mention ‘under a tree’, Wei WuXian felt his heart skip a beat—could Jiang Cheng have seen the moment where he crashed into Lan WangJi’s arms?

His guess was not wrong. Jiang Cheng did indeed go out to find Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi. He chased after them in the direction that the street vendors pointed at. A voice in his heart seemed to tell him which places Wei WuXian would definitely go. He caught up to them in just a while. Yet, he just so happened to see Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi enveloped in a tight embrace under a tree, unwilling to let go of each other even after so long.

Goosebumps immediately ran down Jiang Cheng’s body.

Although he’d made guesses at the relationship between Mo XuanYu and Lan WangJi before, they were only attacks trying to offend Wei WuXian, not that he really suspected anything. He’d never thought that Wei WuXian would have ambiguous ties with a man, because after all, when they grew up together, Wei WuXian had never expressed any such interest. He’d always loved good-looking girls with a passion. On the other hand, it was even more impossible for Lan WangJi. He was famous for his asceticism, seemingly interested in neither men nor women.

But hugging like that seemed intense no matter what. At least, they didn’t seem like normal friends or brothers. He immediately recalled that Wei WuXian had always stuck to Lan WangJi ever since he came back. Lan WangJi’s attitude towards him was also different from what it was before he was reborn. At once, he was almost certain that the two really were in that kind of relationship. He couldn’t turn around and leave, yet he didn’t want to say a single word to the two, so he continued to hide himself as he followed them. Every single look and movement that passed between them seemed different in his eyes. For a while, the shock, absurdity, and slight disgust that he felt combined to overpower his hatred. It was only after Wei WuXian brought Lan WangJi into the ancestral hall that the long-suppressed hatred was awakened again, devouring his courtesy and rationality.

Wei WuXian was holding something back, “Jiang WanYin, you… apologize right now.”

Jiang Cheng mocked, “Apologize? For what? For exposing your thing for each other?”

Wei WuXian raged, “HanGuang-Jun is only my friend—what do you think we are?! I warn you. Apologize right now—don’t make me beat you!”

Hearing this, Lan WangJi’s expression froze for an instant. Jiang Cheng laughed, “Well, then I’ve never seen “friends” like that before? You warn me? Warn me against what? If you two had the slightest trace of integrity left, you wouldn’t have come here and…”

Seeing the change in Lan WangJi’s expression, Wei WuXian thought he must have felt insulted by Jiang Cheng’s words. He was so angry that his entire body was shaking. He didn’t dare think about what Lan WangJi would think after being shamed like this.

Obviously in the penultimate scene Jiang Cheng himself is being "the unreliable narrator" that fans love to accuse Wei Wuxian of. He says he never expected this of the two, but all the years of his behavior shows that he had always gone out of his way to keep the two away from each other and had always been mildly homophobic when the two did express interest in the other however innocent it had been in their youth.

All of this is to say, when it comes to how MXTX worded that interview answer, I think it was meant as a careful nudge for those who had still tried to insist that Jiang Cheng didn't mean to be homophobic, actually wasn't homophobic and was just angry at any other actions of Wei Wuxian and lashing out about that etc, it was her telling people to simply pay attention to the underlying shadowing of Jiang Cheng and how he exasperated his own pre-existing biases that morphed into an uglier hate.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #anti jiang cheng #but not really cause i love him #Jiang Cheng's canon homophobia #so so long I am so sorry this turned into a massive breakdown of your one question #but that's what happens with a day off lol #don't mind me #asks