#mingjue is NOT a good brother to him to be clear but he is the absolute rock and foundation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hannigramislife · 4 months

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for my own gratification bc i just ran into nie mingjue hate in the wild, would you mind making a post that defends my poor good boy? he worked so hard and got gaslit to shit before getting murdered terribly ;; literally everyone sat there telling him "youre being too harsh" and he's just responding appropriately. like yeah, if you witness a murder, ya kinda got to do something about that as a clan leader. its kinda your responsibility, even when you care about the person who did the murdering. he was also a really young when he took on the role of clan leader and idk, it just made me rlly sad to see people dunk on him cuz wtf he's literally just trying his best in an impossible situation WHILE being perpetually fucked over by his clan's own traditional cultivation cuz now the stronger he is as a leader, the closer he is to going literally insane and dying bc of it. (mingjue did nothing wrong i will die on this hill) ((sorry for going on a tirade, im just sad and defensive of my good boy rn))

Oh no! I'm so sorry you had to go through Nie Mingjue hate! Truly tragic. I went through that once when in the beginning of me reading the books, when I still had no proper opinions, and never again.

I'm more than willing to make a post about Nie Mingjue! I'm always down to talk about Nie Mingjue tbh, he's my heart and love and if I were to have been given the opportunity to be his right hand person, I would have simply never betrayed his trust and married him. Rip Jin Guangyao but I'm different.

Anyways, I, huhhh, actually think you?? Covered it all??? Pretty much?? Yet I will talk about it. This will be long and non-coherent, because I don't have the books rn to find quotes in them and honestly, I could write essays on Nie Mingjue either way.

Nie Mingjue is a central piece of the narrative, despite the limited amount of appearances he made, and the fact that he wasn't close to the main characters at all. The entire second part of the plot revolves around him- it happened because of him. His murder is a tragedy; literally, by greek standards, man has Cassandra Curse all over him, so I don't get how people can tell me, confidently, that his death was warranted. I've been told the man had asked for it, and this has mostly been by Jin Guangyao apologists.

So let me make something real fucking clear.

Nie Mingjue did not deserve to die. Let's get that out of the way, anyone can fight me on that. Nie Mingjue had more good qualities than half the people in this fucking story, despite his flaws. After his father was brutally murdered when Mingjue was only in his teens, Nie Mingjue stepped up as clan leader. We can only speculate the hardships that await someone leading a clan at such an early age. Yet, political challenges weren't the only thing he had to battle; Nie Mingjue knew about his clan's harmful cultivation, and he knew he was going to die young. So what did he do? His best. Literally his best, always. He was always giving 100% of his abilities, because that's who he was.

Let's talk about who Nie Mingjue was, shall we?

When Jin Guangyao, still Meng Yao then, describes Nie Mingjue, he finds himself perplexed, because Nie Mingjue isn't like other men. He is not frivolous, and he has no vices; Meng Yao describes how Nie Mingjue never showed an interest in arts, or alcohol, or women. All he did was train, and fight the Wens during the war. It shows that he had a one-track mind from the start, and has got a strict discipline; yet this strictly disciplined man, leader of a clan that prizes strength, continuously indulges his lazy and undisciplined half-brother, his one and only heir, despite not understanding his interests. We gather, pretty quickly, that Nie Mingjue is a bleeding heart for his brother, and for the ones he loves in general. We see the same softer side displayed in the presence of Lan Xichen, and of course, for some time, Meng Yao.

People seem to think Nie Mingjue took Meng Yao's betrayal too harshly. As if somehow seeing a man he thought to have been just and honest commit premeditated murder, then cover it up, was something he was just supposed to get over. To this day, I can't believe how Lan Xichen was so understanding of it. But not only did Nie Mingjue catch him in a cowardly act - Meng Yao proceeds to manipulate him, using the fact that Nie Mingjue cared about him, to stab him in the back. Or front, however it happened. I get that Meng Yao was in a difficult position, that he suffered at the Jins, that he felt backed in a corner; but Nie Mingjue was a man that had extended his help to Meng Yao before, and even then, he went to find Meng Yao in righteous fury, ready to help him again. To Nie Mingjue, the idea that Meng Yao "had no other choice" but to kill - to kill in the manner he did - it could have been nothing but a betrayal.

One thing that I personally highly respected Nie Mingjue for was the fact that he did not judge Meng Yao for his background. This is not up for debate; Nie Mingjue stood up for him, quite publicly, quite vocally, when Meng Yao was being insulted over it. And not only that, but he promoted Meng Yao to be his right hand man, just like that. Because he's impulsive, and to prove a point, but it was still huge of him to do. Not even Lan Xichen would have done that - In a society built on power dynamics between social classes, Nie Mingjue was one of the few characters who did not let that define his actions. It wasn't because he was born privileged (though he was) but because he he didn't let anything other than his judgment direct his actions. Nie Mingjue also never shied away from anything; if it had to be done, he did it, no matter the cost.

Nie Mingjue was decisive, and had an iron will. When Meng Yao killed the Nie disciples in Qishan, he wanted to kill Meng Yao. Meng Yao told him, paraphrasing, that "don't you understand that if I hadn't done that, it would have been your corpse up there?" and Wei Wuxian takes it to mean "Translation: I saved you so you can't kill me, because that would mean you're in the wrong." So Nie Mingjue hesitated for a second, then said: "Fine! I'll kill you, and then take my own life!" And the only reason he didn't, was because Lan Xichen was there. Otherwise, Nie Mingjue would have killed his former friend, then followed him to whatever afterlife awaited.

Nie Mingjue is often portrayed like he doesn't understand stuff, like he's stupid, simply because of his black and white sense of morality. That's not correct: Nie Mingjue understands motive, but he doesn't accept the ends justifying the means. Scratch that, he doesn't accept or justify either, if they're unjust. The murder of the Jin commander, the murder of the Nie disciples, not executing Xue Yang - how can Nie Mingjue possibly understand Meng Yao's decisions, when Nie Mingjue would rather die, any day, than live thanks to vile actions?

And then, Nie Mingjue starts falling into qi-deviation. We know that it affected his temper the most, and his judgement. I don't understand how it works, really, so I don't know by the end how much was Nie Mingjue and how much was the mess that the spirit made of him - maybe a combination of the two. But what is certain, is that the rapid qi deviation changed him.

But I could write a hundred more pages on him, meticulously going over every single scene he has ever appeared in, because I find him that interesting. I find him the most interesting, and the most appealing character, because in a story where the navigation of the cultivation world's complex politics and hierarchies with tact and diplomacy is crucial, Nie Mingjue stands uncompromising in his principles, choosing duty and honor over anything else, even when it's hard.

#the untamed #mdzs #cql #mo dao zu shi #nie mingjue #nie mingjue had his flaws #and he had his virtues #i will not allow slander on his name #when he always did what he thought was best and just and good #when he was loving and kind and hot-headed but he was also just in his early 20s with the weight of the world on his shoulders #cold absolutely freezing day in hell when i'm over him

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untamedmetablogiguess · 7 months

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finally got around to watching Fatal Journey and honestly the most devastating part of it is not how it gives us adorable baby Nie brothers ( though that does hurt), nor how it makes Huaisang accidentally implicated in the music poisoning (though that hurts, too) - it’s how it deepens Huaisang’s character from merely a harmless pleasure-seeker to a genuinely good person.

the version of Huaisang we see in the show proper isn’t particularly interested in being moral! He’s not a BAD person, he doesn’t want to hurt anybody, but neither does he particularly care to be GOOD. he leaves that, like all the tough parts of life, to his da-ge to take care of. Surely Mingjue is righteous enough for both of them! Huaisang’s no good in a fight- surely he’d just get in the way! Huaisang’s tragedy, originally, is his descent from a lovable goofball, a harmless fop, a perpetual baby brother, into a hardened, ruthless, desperately lonely man hellbent on revenge no matter how many people he has to destroy on the way. And that’s a pretty good tragedy!

but with the material introduced in Fatal Journey, Huaisang appears to be a genuinely good person- a much better person than anyone ever gave him credit for. He sees something he believes is morally reprehensible being done by the people he loves and respects- especially his brother, who is regarded as a paragon of righteousness in their society- and he stands up and says ‘no.’ I don’t think ANYONE else does that, at least where we can see it. WWX’s whole DEAL is doing the right thing in the face of people who have waaay more power than him (Wens, Jins….), but he’s never put in this specific situation because the people he loves and respects aren’t the ones doing morally reprehensible things! The closest parallel we see is maybe LWJ fighting the Lan elders in defense of WWX, but that is much less a principled stance based on moral virtue and much more an act of tremendous personal love and sacrifice. He’s not doing it because it’s there right thing to do, he’s doing it because he loves WWX and doesn’t CARE whether that’s right or wrong anymore.

NHS is put in a fairly unique position where he is directly exposed to some of the basest hypocrisy of the cultivation world, and instead of saying ‘well, da-ge’s doing it so it must be okay, I guess it's not really that bad,” he says ‘No, this is unacceptable.’ He says ‘You’re better than this. WE are better than this. We HAVE to be better than this.’ He is not, ultimately, able to change anything about it, because he doesn’t have that kind of power, but he SAYS it, he makes it clear, directly to NMJ’s face, that he is disappointed in him, and ashamed of what he is doing, and he thinks it’s wrong.

and the fall from THAT, from someone who argues that exploiting the corpses of the dead is wrong EVEN if those people were criminals, into someone who would deliberately desecrate the body of a woman he KNOWS is innocent because it’s the best way he can think of to hurt the person he wants to hurt, a person for whom the ends justify any and all means, and who ignores or disregards the collateral damage of any other lives destroyed - that’s SO MUCH WORSE. That hurts SO much more.

#meta #my meta #nie huaisang #nie bros are fascinating #the untamed #fatal journey

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i-will-cry-you-a-river · 7 months

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Like all things in Nie Huaisang's life, it started with Da-ge.

When killing Jin Guangyao and causing the heartbreak of Lan Xichen didn't help, didn't bring back his Da-ge nor gave him happiness or peace, at least - he tried something else.

The thing about sacrificing one, and alienating the other source of his to demonic cultivation was that it made everything way harder than it should have been - but he was always a resourceful little demon. Just as easily as he defeated the mastermind behind the murder of his Da-ge, he found himself back in time, when Jin Guangyao was still called Meng Yao and Da-ge was still a living, lovely little ball of rage and fierceness.

It was a strange experience, to be older than his brave and strong and talented Da-ge, but... he would always be his spoiled little didi. It wouldn't take long to get back to being the pampered little Second Master of Qinghe. Except...

He couldn't allow himself to be that lazy and shallow as he was. His Da-ge would. Not. Die. Not under his watch.

He was ready to kill Jin Guangyao, before the man could lay even a finger (or a faulty note) on his brother, but-

The man he met at the first time he opened his eyes in his past - in his new present -, was Meng Yao. His favorite non-Da-ge person, his friend, his first (second, if he wanted to be honest) crush. Da-ge's deputy, whose presence was essential in the daily lives of Qinghe. Nie Huaisang's plans changed in the minute he heard his A-Yao's soft words of concern.

"Is Second Master okay? Should I call for the healer?"

It was real.

Ever since he realized who killed his beloved brother, he questioned everything he knew about Meng Yao. He questioned his care, his love, his friendliness. But it was all real. His A-Yao really cared about him.

Maybe not Jin Guangyao. But Meng Yao did. And that care was what saved him.

"No, it's okay! It was just a quick dizziness, but everything is good now. And how many times more should I tell you that it's A-Sang?! A-Sang! A-Yao is so cruel to his A-Sang," he pouted, and the helpless adoration in the other man's eyes was so clear to him now that he didn't understand how past him had failed to notice it.

"Once more, probably," Meng Yao sassed, his tiny smile and cute little dimples hidden behind his sleeves.

"So cruel..." Nie Huaisang muttered, hiding his own smile behind a fan.

"Sect Leader sent me to tell you to get ready for the arrival of Young Master Lan," A-Yao said, taking Nie Huaisang's hairbrush in his hand to tame the unruly hair, and the younger boy allowed it, deep in his thoughts.

Meng Yao had to stay. Qinghe couldn't afford losing him right now, Jin Guangshan didn't deserve him, Nie Mingjue needed him at least until after the war, and Nie Huaisang... well, he wanted him. But in the past, as soon as Meng Yao had a better option, he took it, be it the adoration of Lan Xichen, the acceptance of Jin Guangshan or the opportunity to become Sect Leader. Meng Yao would do everything to be as close to power as he could, to be acknowledged and respected.

Nie Huaisang couldn't give that to him. He was just the heir, and saving Nie Mingjue was the whole reason for doing the whole time travel thing. He was not powerful enough. On the other hand, he would never allow Nie Mingjue to fall for Meng Yao, as his brother would never survive that relationship. Allowing Jin Guangshan to accept Meng Yao into the Jin Sect was absolutely out of the question. But-

But.

Hm.

That might work.

Lan Xichen had fallen for Meng Yao before. It was inevitable, but it was not enough. They would never do anything with their feelings; Xichen-ge was too Lan for anything, and Meng Yao would always feel inferior. And just the two of them... that would not guarantee Nie Mingjue's survival. (Hah! On the contrary, it would make the whole murder easier.) But!

But...

Lan Xichen always had a soft spot for Nie Huaisang. With some carefully timed helpless tears, some grateful hugs that last longer than appropriate, some flattering words and carefully cultivated image of being soft and sweet and just spicy enough to not be seen as a younger brother, it would be so easy to seduce the First Jade.

A-Yao already adored him, and if he had the means, the opportunity and the incentive to have Nie Huaisang as his, he would take it. Before, he never started anything with Huaisang because being the husband of the Second Young Master was not attractive enough. But being the spouse of the heir of Qinghe AND the heir - soon-to-be Sect Leader - of Lan was a completely different thing. Having connections to not one but two of the Big Sects, being Consort Lan, the husband of a man who would be indulgent to all of his manipulations and power games would be a temptation not even Meng Yao could resist.

Jing Guangshan had to die soon, though. It would be a shame to kill his not-yet-husband because he thought it was a good idea to suck up to his walking sexually transmitted disease of a father.

#better than revenge #nie huaisang #meng yao #lan xichen #xisangweek2023 #xisangyao #xisang #sangyao #xiyao

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jaimebluesq · 3 months

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Dage prompt! Modern AU, NHS brings JC home officially as his boyfriend. Dage likes him, he's clearly dependable and obviously in love with NHS. But he's still gonna make him sweat a little (and then maybe buy him a beer).

Thank you for the prompt! Always love a protective Da-ge. I hope you enjoy!

~ ~ ~

Nie Mingjue had been in the laundry room when his brother came through the front door – without knocking, as usual – and the first he heard from his brother’s new boyfriend was a string of curse words whispered sharply. Nie Mingjue had been a step away from running to the kitchen to get his most impressive meat cleaver... but when he poked his head into the hallway, he paused at what he actually saw. A tall young man (but not as tall as Nie Mingjue) was helping Nie Huaisang out of his jacket, even holding his hand out expectantly to take a hat and scarf, and when the curses restarted, Nie Mingjue discovered that they were about how Nie Huaisang had ‘forgotten’ his gloves again.

Something Nie Mingjue had reminded his brother about his entire life.

When Nie Mingjue came out to greet them, he was properly introduced to Jiang Cheng. The young man made a quick bow – proper, respectful – and though he looked a little nervous, he was not overly fearful.

So far so good – he was already a sight better than Nie Huaisang’s last three significant others.

Over dinner, he found out Jiang Cheng was a veterinarian – good money, loved animals – and had met Nie Huaisang when his pet budgie had fallen sick (it had been a minor infection, and the bird had survived to twitter again). When Nie Mingjue asked his brother about what he’d been doing lately, Nie Huaisang began to talk about a painting he’d been working on, and Jiang Cheng immediately pulled out his phone to bring up a photo of it – supportive of Nie Huaisang’s hobbies, proud of his work. And when Nie Mingjue started teasing his brother about never going to the gym, at first Jiang Cheng had joined in – apparently he’d been trying to get Nie Huaisang to join him for a yoga class – but the moment Nie Huaisang looked genuinely affected by their teasing, Jiang Cheng stopped, took his boyfriend’s hand, and changed the subject.

For once, Nie Huaisang had brought home a date that Nie Mingjue was hard pressed to find fault with.

But that didn’t mean Jiang Cheng was completely off the hook.

After dinner was finished, Nie Huaisang pulled Jiang Cheng up to help clear the table of dishes. As they began filling the sink with water, Nie Huaisang announced he needed to make a stop in the men’s room – and then he looked meaningfully, and warningly, at Nie Mingjue. He shrugged innocently at his baby brother, then waved him off. The moment Nie Huaisang was out of sight, however, Nie Mingjue stood up and walked over to the fridge.

“You don’t mind if I do some prep for tomorrow’s dinner while you work on the dishes, do you?” he asked Jiang Cheng as he took out a rack of ribs he’d pulled out to defrost that morning.

“Of course not,” Jiang Cheng replied, gently sliding dishes into the soapy water. “Let me know if I’m in your way, or if I can help.”

“I will.” He opened a drawer and pulled out his favourite meat cleaver – it sat in his hand like an extension of his arm. He placed the rack just so, then brought the cleaver down with a bang to separate a mass of bone and cartilage.

Jiang Cheng jumped at the noise and looked over; his hand paused mid-way to reaching for a scrubber.

Nie Mingjue was gratified to see a slight shake in the hand.

“Did my Didi mention how our parents died when we were really young?” he asked ‘casually’ as he noisily chopped to separate the meat between two ribs. Jiang Cheng nodded; his throat bobbed. “For all these years, we’ve been each other’s only family.” Another rib separated. “Sure he’s my baby brother, but I practically raised him, too. That means something, don’t you think?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“And A-Sang hasn’t always had the best taste in partners.” He chopped through another mass of cartilage. “There was this one little asshole he dated in secondary school. Thought he could pressure him into doing something he wasn’t ready for.” He sliced out several more ribs with strength and efficiency. “Sure, I’m lucky the little brat never pressed charges – I think he claimed that a bear attacked him – but even if he had, it would have been worth it. Because nobody – and I mean nobody – hurts my Didi and lives to tell about it.”

He slammed the cleaver down into the butcher block so hard that it stuck into the wood. Nie Mingjue let it go and reached for a nearby cloth to wipe his hands off. He looked up at Jiang Cheng, who had yet to look away from the knife, and tilted his chin, waiting for a response.

“Da-ge, what are you doing?”

Nie Mingjue looked to the kitchen door where his brother had just returned to glare at him.

“A-Cheng, did he try to scare you? He acts tough, but he’s just a big teddy bear.” Nie Huaisang walked over to the sink and affectionately bumped his hip into Jiang Cheng’s, then picked up a towel.

It had been ages since Nie Mingjue had watched his brother help with the dishes without half an hour of cajoling and a bribe or two.

“It’s all right,” Jiang Cheng replied, giving Nie Mingjue a nod. “Nothing worse than anything I’ve said to A-Jie’s boyfriends.”

Nie Huaisang lifted an eyebrow in his boyfriend’s direction. “You threatened to make Jin Zixuan a eunuch and feed his balls to the neighbour’s dog.”

Jiang Cheng scrubbed at a plate with a satisfied grin. “And I’d do it again.”

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes and took the plate from his boyfriend to dry.

Nie Mingjue watched them, a fond smile on his face.

Okay, Didi – this one’s all right.

#nie mingjue #sangcheng #nie huaisang #jiang cheng #protective da-ge

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3cosmicfrogs · 3 months

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for the ask game: naybe an AU where LXC is not on the stairs at thaf JGY/NMJ confrontatiom but baxia Got Attached so she refuses to be like. Slammed down?? And nieyao js now awkwarsly staring at each other, because whay is happening

hmmmmm you propose an interesting scenario.... i guess this could fit into the More Sentient Baxia AU that Woob and i have fever-dreamed up? in that case, five headcanons of what would happen if baxia got Attached:

baxia does not want to kill the Searching-Wanting-Waiting-Watching Human. she likes him, he gives nice skritches. and he always surrounds himself with a delicious aura of almost-evil that she just itches to sink her teeth into and rip away from him... Plus, her master clearly likes him too, he just needs her to show him!

baxia has seen into her human's heart and decided that he needs to get laid, immediately. She will take the necessary steps to make this happen, because she is a Good Sabre! now that she's saved the Searching-Wanting-Waiting-Watching Human, she only needs to find a way to make her intentions clear to the Floating-Calming-Softly-Quietly Human... her best course of action is clearly to start hovering in his peripheral vision from what she is sure is her most seductive angle.

Misunderstandings! Misunderstandings everywhere! naturally, because they are grown adults, mingjue and meng yao cannot possibly have a conversation about this. they will continue to Agonise separately and entirely unproductively while Xichen looks on and sighs. All the while everyone is being terrorised by baxia. Eventually someone breaks (my bet is on xichen) and demands to know exactly what is going on?! and if you think the resulting argument anything is but a sarcastic word-duel you'd be wrong! again, because nieyao are mature, grown-ass adults about this who can totally handle their feelings.

"are you upset you couldn't follow through, da-ge?" "I swear this has never happened before! I usually perform just fine!" "that's alright, mingjue-xiong, maybe you were just stressed?" "yes, there's no reason to be embarassed, da-ge." "a-yao is right, i'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time...?" "well did it ever happen to either of you?!" "...no." "whatever! let's try again then, i'm sure i'll manage this time!" <- this conversation will be overheard by an outside character of your choosing (nhs perhaps?) to Maximum Comedic Effect.

When the Issues Are Being Resolved, mingjue is faced with the absolutely mortifying ordeal of explaining to his increasingly incredulous sworn brothers that yes, nie sabres do in fact sometimes talk to their masters, of course this is normal what are you talking about, and also his magical bloodthirsty weapon has decided that he really really needs a romantic relationship and picked xichen and meng yao. yes she's been tormenting him. they can try a relationship he supposes, just to satisfy the Magical Bloodthirsty Weapon of course, no feelings will arise surely, and if nothing comes of it she will back off. this is entirely unaided by huaisang, who keeps orchestrating bed shortages and feeding the three of them aphrodisiacs because he is convinced that his brother is suffering from erectile dysfunction.

I'm not very good at making coherent plots or headcanons as you can see, but i thrive in crack treated seriously, and so this is what this will be.

#mail from the beloved mutuals #3zun #sentient baxia #i really need to make some humanoid designs for her istg. i have like. ten billions ideas

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thebiscuiteternal · 2 months

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Wait omg how does wen ruohan’s death go in this verse

Okay this is gonna be kind of long because I still want Meng Yao to be the one to deal the death blow so I gotta set shit up.

So.

Meng Yao enters the Nie sect much the same way he does in canon, with him being noticed as the person who's doing a lot of battlefield cleanup and placating the locals and shit and he's good at it, so just as he's about to be given a good solid logistics position, someone recognizes him as, you know, that embarrassing bastard son of Jin Guangshan.

So he gets assigned as an aide to Huaisang.

And Huaisang almost immediately likes him! Likes him enough to tell him that, no, this assignment is basically him being made fun of.

Meng Yao is understandably not happy about this, but it's better than battlefield cleanup, so he tails Huaisang as he goes among the infirmary and food tents. And it becomes clear that while the soldiers and battle cultivators may still treat Huaisang with no respect, he's started winning over the healers and cooks and other support workers because he listens and observes and uses what little power he has to make sure they're well-supplied and everything's running efficiently and rolls up his sleeves to help with his own hands when needed.

And he gradually wins over Meng Yao too, to the point Meng Yao opens up about his wishes to work his way into his father's sect eventually.

Well, there's no way he'll earn enough prestige in his current position, so Huaisang offers to send him to be a bodyguard to his younger brother. If Mingjue is the one talking about how smart and brave and hard-working he is, then people will actually listen.

Some of Nie Huaisang's sneaky people skills have clearly rubbed off on his little brother, because as soon as ten-year-old Nie Mingjue reads the 'recommendation' letter from Huaisang, he's all in on the plan.

Things go relatively well for about six months, until Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue (who weren't supposed to be listening in) find out that Wen Xu (not dead yet in this timeline, though Wen Chao is) managed to capture Huaisang in an ambush and is headed to the Nightless City to present him to Wen Ruohan (and to keep him alive for his own reasons but mostly that).

Distressed that no one seems to care about getting his brother back, Nie Mingjue begs Meng Yao to do something.

Meng Yao is not stupid enough to go engaging fucking Wen Xu and however many cultivators he has with him in open combat, but he is very good at blending in where he shouldn't be and picking off a few of the raiding party to steal their clothes and disguise himself as one of them. Huaisang recognizes him immediately, but wisely keeps his mouth shut, passing him info about his captors via secret hand signals, and Meng Yao uses that info to continue picking off enemy cultivators all the way to the Nightless City.

(Wei Wuxian is also on the rampage by this point, which effectively disguises his efforts further, as everyone is terrified and paranoid and chalk up their dwindling numbers to the fierce corpses and the like.)

He doesn't manage to kill Wen Xu before they wind up in the throne room, and the sheer power Wen Ruohan radiates is nauseatingly frightening.

But, fortunately, all of their attention is focused on Huaisang, and none of it is on him.

And as we've already established, he is very, very good at using that to his advantage.

#mdzs #reverse nies #larger age gap nies #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #wen ruohan #wen xu

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wangxianficrecs · 1 year

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❤️ This Time Around by KouriArashi

❤️ This Time Around

by KouriArashi

T, 83k, JGY & NHS & WWX

Summary: Years after Nie Mingjue’s death, Nie Huaisang goes back in time to prevent it from happening by killing Meng Yao before he can become a monster. Nothing goes as planned. Nie Huaisang gave a heavy sigh. None of it excused the things Jin Guangyao had done. None of it would make him forgive his brother’s death. But did it have to be that way? This was a child. A child who was crying in the night, on the cold stone he had as a bed, because someone he looked up to had hurt him. How could he blame him for what he had become? How could he say that this boy deserved death? Who was he to make that judgment? Could he save both his brothers? Or: Nie Huaisang accidentally adopts a bunch of chaos gremlins.

Mojo's comments: I am such a sucker for a pied piper of hard-luck orphans. In this case, it's Nie Huaisang, who is such a funny caretaker, he kind of reminds me of the Dread Pirate Roberts, ya know -- 'Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.' -- except in a less explicit and more paternal way. Heh. So, his moral compass is very gray, but his actions show a heart of gold, and the kids are very clear on which one speaks the loudest. The first one he picks up is Meng Yao, around the age of 7, then Wei Ying, then Xue Yang (who is a bitey, hilarious, feral cat) and lastly, Mo Yue (not yet, and never Xuanyu, since nhs stole his name back in the beginning of this adventure). So in one way, this story is the Chinese xianxia's answer to Louisa May Alcott's Little Men, except with a time travelling single dad. So nhs wanders around the edges of the cultivators' world, claiming to be a disciple of Baoshan Sanren, hanging out with different sects to get his boys some training (and maybe learn some secrets) and periodically, maybe, slaying a sect leader on the down low. It's magnificent.

Excerpt: Nie Huaisang took a deep breath and thought about screaming, or crying, or throwing both of these brats in a river. “My brother was a good man. He was just and righteous. And he was murdered by someone he thought was a friend because he stood in the way of that person gaining power. My friend who made the talismans lost everyone he loved and threw himself off a cliff because he tried to stand up to the people in power and they destroyed him. I will not - I will not - watch that happen to anyone else I care about. Do you understand?” “I understand,” Meng Yao said, and leaned against him. Ridiculous, Nie Huaisang thought, and wanted to scream even louder. His brother’s murderer trying to comfort him. Jin Guangyao hadn’t killed Wei Wuxian, and hadn’t even been wholly responsible for his death, but he had certainly played a key part in it. Now this child had the audacity to try to console him, as if he was an entirely different person. Because he was.

time travel, fix it, pov nie huaisang, kid fic, accidental baby acquisition, parent-child relationship, introspection, character study, domestic, grief/mourning, found family, growing up, pov wei wuxian, pov alternating, cloud recesses study arc, happy ending, everybody lives/nobody dies, angst, politics, past child abuse, moral ambiguity, @gingersnapwolves

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

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rosethornewrites · 4 months

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Fic: illuminate the world

Relationship: Jiāng Yànlí/Jīn Zǐxuān

Characters: Jīn Zǐxuān, Jiang Yanli, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Wēn Níng | Wēn Qiónglín, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Wēn Qíng, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue

Additional Tags: Introspection, Jīn Zǐxuān Tries, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Protection Squad, Ethics, Mentioned Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Mentioned Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Life Debt, Repaying Debt, Mentioned Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo, Cultivation Sect Politics, Honor, POV Jīn Zǐxuān, POV Third Person, Podfic Welcome

Summary: After the events of chapter 24, Jin Zixuan must consider the request to swear siblinghood and the entire situation, including the actions of his own clan.

Notes: See end

First fic: the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break

Second fic: Honor Good People

AO3 link

———————

Jin Zixuan wasn’t unaware that he was kept in the dark about certain things; too many conversations had stuttered to a halt when he entered rooms for him to be ignorant of that reality. He’d always told himself he didn’t want to know what his father was up to, having learned unpleasantly at a young age about his father’s more salacious inclinations.

But standing in the Burial Mounds between his wife and the sentient fierce corpse of a man who had died by his clan’s hands, watching a toddler melt down in abject terror at the sight of his zhushazhi, screaming for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji—calling them Diedie and Baba, with implications he wasn’t able to immediately comprehend—he couldn’t ignore the signs he’d been seeing in the months since the war.

He could only let A-Li wipe the mark of his clan away, hoping in vain that it would calm the child, and then let himself be ushered away by his xiao jiuzi as the man who was his jiuzi tried to comfort the boy, only to be greeted by the sight of civilians and the elderly in a clearing with some ramshackle huts.

Koi Tower had always been a place where one had to watch their step, and he’d spent a lot of his childhood learning not to show his emotions or trust anyone through bad experiences, but he hadn’t thought it could sink to the level of throwing children, civilians, and the elderly into labor camps for no crime but their family name.

He wished the corruption of his clan stopped there, but he met a woman who showed him a peony branded on her body as Mianmian would have had a sun burned into her face if not for Wei Wuxian, and heard tales that turn his stomach about the callous treatment and deaths of all children but the little boy who was rightly terrified of him—a little boy who was apparently his zhizi through A-Li, the adopted son of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji who as it turned out were married.

If that were all, it would have been easier to handle, but then Jiang Wanyin told him exactly how far Wei Wuxian would go for family, that he’d found a way to give him his own jindan after his was melted by Wen Zhuliu… and had not intended to tell him, instead resigned to suffering silently and becoming the enemy of the jianghu repaying Wen—Wei, rather, now Wei—Qing and Wei Ning for sheltering them and performing the surgery by saving their family. Or he would have, had Lan Wangji not discovered the truth and decided he would not stand for it, instead confessing they’d somehow been married since they were fifteen, which confusingly he hadn’t told Wei Wuxian until he determined it could be used to protect him and…

“They’re disgustingly in love,” Jiang Wanyin muttered, shaking his head, “and I guess it didn’t even occur to my idiot brother that was why he was obsessed with Lan Wangji.”

“They are also not quiet about it at all, so now there are silencing talismans engraved on the cave wall that get activated every evening,” Wei Qing added.

She had rejoined them in time to explain the core transfer after finishing a session of musical healing cultivation on Wei Wuxian, something she and Lan Wangji had invented.

And that was significantly more than Jin Zixuan wanted to know, ever, about his jiuzi—thinking about his surgically-removed jindan was hard enough, and Wei Qing had blessedly not gone into much detail but his imagination was enough—but he didn’t dare protest under the circumstances.

“I would prefer not to know certain things about my brother,” Lan Xichen said, blessedly, and the discussion moved on.

So Wei Wuxian’s act of liberating the labor camp and all that had followed was due to a life debt for rescuing Jiang Wanyin—Jin Zixuan had to reconsider his view of Wei Ning as timid given that he’d drugged Wen Chao and his men to do so—sheltering them following the razing of Lotus Pier, and performing the transplant surgery. Which, according to Jiang Wanyin, was at least in part because he felt he owed a debt to the Jiangs, which turned his stomach because he could see A-Yao feeling he had to do whatever their father wanted out of a perception of owing the Jin for finally recognizing him. Wei Wuxian had felt he owed his very jindan, though Jin Zixuan was certain from seeing him defend his siblings it was also a measure of the depth of his love for them.

Wei Ning’s actions, arguably treason, had been prompted by Wei Wuxian simply being kind to him, which was amazing in and of itself and made clear his values.

Jiang Wanyin and A-Li, upon learning of this debt, had decided to also shoulder the burden with him, as had Lan Wangji in marrying him.

Nie Huaisang believed he should also shoulder some of the burden because of his own life debt—Wei Ning had helped him escape from the Wen indoctrination after the rest of them had been left for dead at Muxi Mountain. Otherwise he would have been a valuable prisoner to keep Chifeng-Zun out of the war effort.

The argument, which was somewhat tenuous if only because it required he agree, was that he too owed a life debt through A-Li because she had been sheltered along with her brothers, and thus the eight of them should swear siblinghood. Jin Zixuan saw no need to disagree, as without them his wife may not have survived, and that was enough for him.

“A-Li’s debt is my debt,” he said as soon as Jiang Wanyin paused to take a breath.

Given that this likely went against his father’s wishes, his decision could be unfilial, but life debts transcended that in his eyes.

The bright hope that his words sparked in those gathered around him, A-Li’s like the sun, only confirmed he’d made the right decision. Even Zewu-Jun and Chifeng-Zun.

Jin Zixuan abruptly realized why—Fuqin couldn’t move openly against Wei Wuxian if he was his heir’s sworn brother, and so he and these refugees would gain more protection.

He didn’t regret the decision. Perhaps it was the fact that he had grown up seeing and trying to ignore the rot at Jinlin Tai and couldn’t deny that he could absolutely believe that it had sunk so low as to do the things that had been done at that labor camp, could believe his own cousin Jin Zixun would sell women from the camp to brothels, and could still see little Wei Yuan wailing in abject terror at the sight of his zhushazhi every time he closed his eyes that made it easier to dismiss any doubts he might have.

Wei Wuxian was a war hero whose ill treatment since the war was distasteful, and it disgusted him that his clan was violating its own motto through vilifying him—darkening rather than illuminating the world. Jin Zixuan had stood in battle with him during the Sunshot Campaign and now knew more of the price he had paid to help them win it. Further, he had done his utmost to protect A-Li from him when he was an absolute boor.

Becoming his sworn brother would be an honor and the right thing to do.

More importantly A-Li loved her brother and wanted to protect him, wanted him home so he could heal.

That was enough for him.

———————

Nie Huaisang’s already started on the propaganda, as you can see, pushing his tale of Wen Ning letting him escape. I’m not sure Nie Mingjue completely believes him, but under the circumstances he’s not going to question it. But are there hints of the Headshaker in his rewriting the narrative to suit his needs?

The Jin clan motto is “opening the doors toward wisdom and aspiration; illuminating the world with the vermilion light,” which is referred to in the title.

Glossary:

baba = dad (informal)

diedie = dad (informal)

fuqin = father (formal)

jindan = golden core

jiuzi - wife’s younger brother

xiao jiuzi - wife’s youngest brother

zhizi - younger brother’s son, can apparently also refer to wife’s younger brother’s son?

zhushazhi - zhusha is cinnabar, and with zhi it becomes cinnabar mole

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drama--universe · 2 days

Text

Five Chickens (Part 2)

Pairing: Untamed Juniors x fem!reader

Word Count: 1.5k words

Part 1

Taglist: @bryonyashleysworld, @yuki-snow-cry & @harrystylesfan2686.

A/N Not really a story, more like some compilation of moments with them. Hope it's to everyone's liking :)

"How about your uncle?" "You're crazy." Jin Ling scoffed at you and you whined as you let your head fall back against the wooden frame before leaning it sideways to lay on Jingyi's leg instead.

"Wuxian-ge would say yes..." Sizhui commented as he looked up from his book and slid back slightly, making Zizhen jump slightly as he was leaning against Sizhui's legs. You nodded in acknowledgement before turning around and whacking Jin Ling, who flinched before whacking you back.

"Him and my brother would totally love it!" You laughed softly before looking at Zizhen interrupted the conversation. "I honestly don't think this is a good idea..." He said and you sighed before nodding, leaning your head back and shrugging.

"Alright then... Chicken~" You teased and Zizhen turned red before crossing his arms with a pout while Sizhui tried to calm the atmosphere slightly.

"So you want to move my murder to my other uncle? Because that I can kind of agree to..." "That's my brother, kind of like him." You stated and Jin Ling groaned at you, cursing softly at the disagreement.

"Does your family not have problems?" He continued and you scoffed at him, looking up from Jingyi's leg.

"Oh, we have many problems... I mean, parents dead, Mingjue-ge dead and the Huaisang-ge is barely holding our clan together when he can do so much better. Honestly, not that different from you, huh?" You gave him a wink and Jin Ling rolled his eyes, pillow thrown your way that you skillfully dodged.

"Same here." Sizhui commented and Jingyi quickly thew in a word as well with a smile, which made all of you turn to Zizhen. His eyes widened and he quickly shook his head at you.

"Mine's fine." "Eh, you'll get there." You commented, which earned you a hit to your head from Jingyi. "Don't curse him." You giggled at him before picking at your skirt.

"So... I'll ask?"

"What on earth is that?" The shock was clear in Zizhen's voice and the rest was seemingly just as shocked. You looked at the animal beside you before looking back at the rest.

"I have no clue! But look how cute!" You crouched down and took ahold of the beast's head and smushing it together with a large grin on your face.

"That is a predator." Sizhui commented as he got closer, pulling you away from the animal. You whined, making grabbing hands towards the animal and it was quick to follow you with careful steps. Sizhui paused and let go of you, letting you sit on the ground while the large animal came closer to you and sat down in front of you.

"Where did you find that tiger?" Jin Ling asked, making you turn your head before turning back to the supposed tiger. "So you're just a big kitty, huh?" You smiled as the cat purred at you while Jin Ling rolled his eyes, sighing loudly at you.

"How do you not know what a tiger is?" "I didn't study animals, I studied sabers and murder cases." You answered as you scratched the top of the tigers head.

"What's a good name for-" Leaning down slightly to check before continuing. "-guy?" You asked, looking back to the rest.

"Pudding!" Jingyi jumped in as he got closer, kneeling down and petting the animal as well. He was delighted when the animal purred again, pushing his head closer before flinching when he heard someone else approach.

"Oh, kitty~" Wuxian's voice rang out as he ran over, leaving a shocked Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng. You just greeted the man with a happy smile before introducing him to Pudding, choosing that the name was just perfect for the tiger.

"So dogs are a no for that guy, but a murderous tiger is okay?" Jiang Cheng commented and you could hear someone laugh, assuming it was Jin Ling.

The library was empty except for the five of you, supposedly studying and yet failing so miserably. Well, you were anyway, the rest was doing fine. Instead you were staring at Sizhui, who was reading his work again while chewing on his fingernails. As if he sensed your gaze, he looked up at you before pulling his hand down with wide eyes.

"Is something wrong?" He asked and you chuckled, placing your chin in your hands with a grin.

"You're so cute it's distracting me." You laughed as you watched Sizhui go red, something that you a so loved to see.

"That's a good one." Jingyi commented and you scoffed. "What, going to use it on a Lan? They'll have a stroke." You joked and Jingyi shrugged as he closed the scroll that he was reading.

"Would be funny to watch." "You'd get whipped for that." Jin Ling pointed out with a raise of his eyebrows and you shook your hand at that statement. "They stopped that, remember? It's writing now." "That's so much worse." Jin Ling commented and you shrugged at him before looking at Sizhui again, who had opted to hide his face in his hands.

"Now that nobody's studying! I have an idea!" You said and everyone looked at you before Zizhen spoke up.

"That's dangerous." He said and you scoffed at him, throwing your pencil at him.

"Oh, shush."

"I can believe you just walked off!" Sizhui and Zizhen were shocked, Jin Ling disappointed and Jingyi was cackling. You were just confused.

"Yes? I walked away mid-conversation, so what? They were boring me to death and my survival instincts kicked in." You gave a shrug as you bit off the last piece from the fruit skewer before chewing on the stick itself out of habit.

"She's the mother of the sect leader! She's more important than you think?!" "I have Pudding." You smiled as you entered your room, the four boys pilling in after you. You sat yourself down and giggled again.

"I think she had smoke coming out of her ears, heh." You giggled to yourself as Jingyi sat next to you and Jin Ling on your other side. Jingyi leaned in slightly to whisper in your ear.

"You're the first who dared to do that." He said and you turned your head with a surprised look before smiling proudly. "Yeah, survival instinct my ass. It was nice knowing you." Jin Ling said and you laid your head down on his shoulder.

"Make sure everyone cries on my funeral?" You ask and Jin Ling nods, patting your hand that rested on his lap. You smiled and closed your eyes before sighing softly.

"Do you think she'll actually kill me?" You opened your eyes again to look at Sizhui, who shrugged.

"I think you're doomed."

Walking around, you tried to ignore the whispers as you held on to Jingyi's and Sizhui's arms, the other two not present at the moment. You didn't feel like talking, not after everything that went down at the temple. Someone you trusted and regarded as a brother killed your biological brother and your second brother had know this for years. Who would feel okay after all that, because you definitely didn't.

"Is she dating them or something?" A voice rang through as you walked to your room, but everyone ignored the comment as you continued. You barely registered entering your room or sitting down, not even when you were being wrapped in your sheets did it register. You felt numb, but that comment kept ringing in your head.

"Now, I know I should be in shock and all... but does everyone think that I'm dating you?" You asked, which made both boys freeze in their spots before bursting into laughter.

"Now that's a problem we can't avoid." Jingyi commented and you shrugged at him, not really minding it.

"You call it a problem. I call it a solution. Guess who won't get marriage proposals?" You gave a tired smile and Jingyi scoffed before sitting down beside you on the bed, pulling you down to lay down. Sizhui soon joined you and it was then that your walls broke down. Tears started streaming down your face as you clung to both of them, not being able to stop the waterfalls. They didn't seem to care for the wet spot on their clothes as they comforted you and when the two others arrived, Jin Ling just as teary as you, they just joined into the pile. You felt slightly better when you were not the only one crying, but even if you were it would be okay with your friends around you.

The adults later found you all huddled up together, clinging to each other while you slept. Their little chicks.

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robininthelabyrinth · 1 year

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The Greed Is The Unraveling - Chapter 4 - ao3

Wen Ning couldn’t tell what was more awkward.

The presence of not one but two fierce corpses sitting in the dining room of the Nie sect, surrounded by sabers teeming with resentful energy that wanted nothing more than to slaughter them?

Nie Huaisang looking thoughtfully at the father that had notoriously died in a hideous fashion when he was only six, and therefore scarcely remembered?

Nie Mingjue, the toddler, insisting quite loudly that he wanted to sit in the lap of Nie Mingjue, the fierce corpse?

Wen Ning, surnamed Wen like an enemy, sitting here in the midst of it all?

Probably that last one.

“Don’t be so nervous,” Nie Huaisang scolded him in an undertone. He seemed amused, face hidden behind his fan, but then he always seemed amused to Wen Ning these days; ever since he’d gotten his brother back, even dead, he had become practically tranquil. “This is our home, da-ge and I! We’re more than welcome here, always, and so are our guests. It’s all very hospitable here.”

Wen Ning tried to paste on a smile and also hide his head in his arched-up shoulders as if he were a turtle at the same time. It wasn’t his home, and unfortunately for him, he wasn’t a guest – in fact, what Nie Huaisang was very pointedly not saying was that Wen Ning had only been transported into the past to land here with the two Nie brothers, rather than with the juniors he liked to follow and protect or with Wei Wuxian who he spent the rest of his time with, because he’d been spying on them. No one had asked him to, but Wei Wuxian had expressed a bit of concern a few times regarding what Nie Huaisang would get up to now that he’d finished all his other plotting and, well, it wasn’t as if Wen Ning had anything better to be doing…

Of course, his attempts at being stealthy had been demolished by the unexpected pull of time travel.

(He would die of embarrassment, only he was already dead. As it was, he was wondering if it was still somehow possible.)

“Oh, we’re extremely hospitable,” the former (current?) Sect Leader Nie said. He was somehow smiling, and it even seemed genuine. He seemed to think this was funny. “This is the most interesting thing that’s happened in – ages! Isn’t that right, Xiaoxiao?”

“No, da-ge,” a broad-shouldered woman with a positively massive saber on her back said disinterestedly from where she was standing guard by the door. “Your first wife was plenty interesting.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“It counts.”

“Ah, Xiaoxiao, my darling little sister, you don’t understand…”

“Little cousin, why don’t you take the one surnamed Wen out for a walk?” Nie Xiao said to the child that was hovering around her side. Her eye was twitching a little – she was clearly younger than Sect Leader Nie by a good number of years, but that dynamic didn’t appear in evidence at all. She looked like she was about to let loose and punch her sect leader and elder brother in the face, while he looked like he’d probably just nod and say that he deserved it while offering some corrections to her form. Not that Wen Ning thought that a battleax like this woman would need improvements to her undoubtedly perfect fighting technique… “Let the rest of this conversation be between us Nie – excluding the children, of course.”

Nie Zonghui, tasked with the responsibility for removing Wen Ning from the situation so that the scary lady could start yelling at her sect leader in private, was apparently twelve and therefore not a child, a fact he made very clear to Wen Ning at once as soon as they got outside.

Despite that, it was pretty clear he had no interest in disobeying the orders of what turned out to be his aunt.

Wen Ning couldn’t blame him. She seemed rather scary.

Had he mentioned that she was scary recently?

She was.

(Nearly, but not quite, as scary as Nie Huaisang, who just watched the goings-on in front of him with that tranquil smile, casually fanning himself, and somehow despite that looking more terrifying than anyone else in the room.)

Of course Nie Zonghui promptly ruined that moment of shared understanding by taking Wen Ning over to the training yards to meet his parents, who were also extremely scary, and also someone they all called Auntie Xinwei, who was even scarier. It turned out that Nie Zonghui’s parents were the Nie sect’s training masters, saber-mad and crazed with a desire to perform physical exercise – something Wen Ning hadn’t enjoyed while he was alive, and wasn’t overly interested in now that he was dead, insane rages when he was out of his mind not being applicable – but Auntie Xinwei, a mere travelling warrior from the last generation, was worse.

She was a doctor.

Or…maybe?

She didn’t look as scary at first sight, except for the fact that she took one look at Wen Ning and started talking about medicine and wanting to try things, and Wen Ning had learned enough medicine from his sister to know for absolute sure that absolutely nothing she said was medically accurate or recommended.

“She’s more enthusiastic than talented,” Nie Zonghui admitted (very quietly), and ushered Wen Ning away on his somewhat alarmed parents’ orders. Wen Ning was starting to feel like an unwanted hot potato, and also possibly like the Nie sect was far more dangerous than he’d previously realized. Was this why his uncle had never tried to take it over directly? “Still, she’s better than the Sect Leader.”

“Is she?” Wen Ning asked, feeling dubious. The sect leader, Nie Huaisang’s father, had seemed relatively normal, if possessed of a strange sense of humor. “What’s the matter with him?”

“Well, you see, it’s his taste in romantic partners. My parents have never forgiven him for what happened with his first wife…”

At the end of the explanation, Wen Ning thought he probably had more questions than answers.

“What about his second wife?” he asked nervously, thinking about the rendition of ex-lovers Nie Zonghui had just regaled him with, and also about how dangerous Nie Huaisang looked to someone with eyes that could see resentful energy. Sometimes he wished he’d just taken one look and gone the other way. “What was she?”

“…he doesn’t have a second wife, Wen-gongzi.”

“Oh. Uh. He will?”

“And will she be something weird?”

“…probably.”

Nie Zonghui sighed.

“Well, come on,” he said. “I’ll show you some other parts of the Unclean Realm.”

Wen Ning followed, and wondered as he did at how often Nie Zonghui had to do distraction tours like this. Surely it couldn’t be that common, right? …right?

They toured several sights of great interest to Nie Zonghui – the snack pantry, for one, though he did become apologetic when he realized Wen Ning couldn’t sample anything – and were just passing by one of the side gates when it opened unexpectedly and Wen Ning ran straight into his uncle.

It took a moment for him to realize what was unusual about this.

Wen Ning had been a clumsy child in his youth, and he’d always been running after his sister, so it wasn’t uncommon for him to run into people, and his uncle, with his habit of prowling around the Nightless City, more than most. Luckily it had mostly happened when he was very young, when his uncle was still mostly inclined to shrug it off and ignore it, and by the time his uncle had completely lost his mind and become far more dangerous, Wen Ning had learned the basics of not crashing. But it was still something he remembered with a startlingly vivid sense of clarity.

Therefore, the first thought that came to his mind when it happened was – Why isn’t he taller?

Followed, after a moment, by, Wait. Why is he here?!

“Sect Leader Wen, you’re hurt!” Nie Zonghui exclaimed, and Wen Ning blinked, then realized to his shock that it was true. His uncle’s white-and-red robes were more red than white, except only those parts that were the brown of dried blood, and he was leaning heavily on someone who was clearly a Lan, but whose white robes had been so covered in mud and blood that they were nearly unrecognizable.

Wen Ning automatically rushed over to support his uncle’s other side. He’d been eight when his uncle had lost his mind for good, old enough to have plenty of memories of when his uncle had been terrifying only to outsiders. It had taken years after that before he’d finally realized that his uncle had changed so drastically that there was no turning back.

“Do I know you?” his uncle asked him with a faint frown.

“Is that really the important thing to focus on here?” the Lan beside him asked. “You need medical care. Immediately.”

“He’s my bloodline,” Wen Ning’s uncle said stubbornly. “I know everyone in my bloodline, but I don’t know him. That means I’ve either missed something – or someone kept it from me – or else I’ve started to lose my mind –”

“I’m from the future,” Wen Ning blurted out. “And you’re not crazy yet!”

His uncle stared at him for a moment, and then smirked, that subtle-but-still-present touch of humor sneaking into his expression the way Wen Ning remembered from when he was very small. “That’s not as comforting as you might think, you know.”

“Medical treatment,” the Lan stressed. “Now.”

“Uh, Auntie Xinwei’s visiting,” Nie Zonghui said, and both the Lan and Wen Ruohan made faces suggested that they were familiar with the lady in question.

“I know the basics?” Wen Ning offered. Clearly, no one sane wanted to be treated by Nie Xinwei.

“That’ll do until we can convince someone else to help,” Wen Ruohan said with a shudder. “Qiren, this young man is supporting me just fine, you should go get Lao Nie –”

“Wait,” Wen Ning said, suddenly horrified. “This is Teacher Lan?”

“On second thought, the small Nie boy can go get his sect leader. I insist that you stay while we find out everything we can from my future kinsman, including everything he can tell me about you.”

Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily, Nie Zonghui managed to wrangle up his sect leader in swift order, only he also brought along Nie Xiao, Nie Mingjue in both editions (the larger one carrying the smaller one on his shoulders), and Nie Huaisang, sweeping up behind the rest of them at a causal walk.

“Oh, good,” he said when he saw Teacher Lan helping Wen Ning tend to his uncle’s wounds. “Very good. The two of you getting together will solve all sorts of problems in the future.”

“Getting together what?” Teacher Lan asked.

“What sorts of problems?” Wen Ruohan inquired, which was – extremely worrying, actually.

“But I thought he was together with the Sect Leader…?” Nie Zonghui said, which was both much more worrying and also easily the most horrifying thing anyone had said, ever.

“We are,” Wen Ruohan said, which immediately eclipsed the previous statement in horror.

“You mean you were,” Nie Huaisang said coolly. “I happen to want to be born, thank you, which means you two will split up at some point over it, and from my understanding the entire fiasco just rots the relationship from that point on. Far better to cut it off now and start over again fresh with someone new. Someone with better morals. Someone that isn’t likely to cheat on you.”

Wen Ruohan turned his gaze onto Sect Leader Nie with a glare.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Sect Leader Nie protested. “I haven’t even done anything yet. Anyway, you and Qiren do seem very cozy. It’s cute!”

“We’re not,” Teacher Lan said. “It’s too cold to be cozy, and the clothing-drying spell only works so many times. A blanket would be nice.”

Wen Ning numbly dug one up and handed it to him. It seemed like the least he could do.

Poor Teacher Lan.

“Thank you. Are you in fact surnamed Wen?”

Wen Ning nodded.

“And are you really from the future?”

Another nod.

“…are there many conscious fierce corpses in the future?”

“No, just us two,” Wen Ning said, relieved to finally be able to answer a question. “It’s complicated.”

“What was that about a dragon?” Wen Ruohan, who’d been having a completely different conversation, demanded loudly. “Lao Nie! What the fuck?”

“I haven’t done anything yet!”

“I’ll testify to that,” Nie Huaisang said. He was smiling. “He never got around to it, last time around. I was just saying that I’d be curious to see what a little sibling that was also partially a dragon would look like, assuming that this time you don’t murder my father before he had the chance to procreate a third time.”

“Lao Nie!”

“I haven’t done it yet!”

“You’re not denying that you would!”

“Well – I mean – I guess it depends on the dragon –”

“Would you like to go somewhere else to have a bath and a change of clothing?” Wen Ning asked Teacher Lan, desperate for an excuse to get out of the room, and was deeply relieved when the other man agreed. Once they were out of the room, they lapsed into a much more comfortable silence.

Well, mostly comfortable. Wen Ning was still mostly horrified, but also a little curious.

“Uh, Teacher Lan?”

The shockingly young Lan Qiren glanced at him.

��Are you really interested in my uncle?”

Lan Qiren blinked. “I don’t understand the question,” he said. “Who doesn’t have an interest in him? He’s extremely dangerous. Not paying attention to him is a recipe for disaster.”

Oh, there was definitely room for disaster here, Wen Ning thought miserably. It was like watching a happy little sheep follow a wolf into its den for a cup of tea, and filial piety meant that Wen Ning couldn’t even warn him.

Though maybe his uncle would benefit from having someone a little less unbelievably irritating as Lao Nie in his life. And who knew? Maybe Teacher Lan’s morals would rub off a little…and maybe Teacher Lan wouldn’t even be that unhappy about it, given how charming Wen Ning’s uncle could be when he was really trying –

Oh, who was he trying to fool? Poor Teacher Lan. He was doomed.

Just as doomed as the future they were all from, actually. They’d really messed this up entirely, hadn’t they?

That conviction only got worse when they returned to the room and Wen Ning’s uncle explained that that the reason he looked the way he did was because he’d been attacked by people who sounded an awful lot like Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

And also, apparently, Lan Qiren’s terrible older brother and Jin Guangshan.

“Obviously this is unacceptable,” Wen Ruohan said, his voice silky and mild in a way that suggested he was about to commit atrocities. “We will need to take firm action in response to this.”

“No need,” Nie Huaisang said, still fanning himself. “There’s an easy fix.”

They all turned to stare at him.

(Well, except for the fierce corpse Nie Mingjue, who was pinching his brow as if he knew exactly what his little brother was going to say and was just barely refraining from groaning at the idea.)

Nie Huaisang’s smile widened.

“Relax, all of you. Jiang-xiong will have to run into his grandfather by now – a-die, you once told da-ge all about him and really, it explains so much – and he’s a bright fellow; he’ll figure everything out soon enough, and that means he’ll be heading this way. More to the point, Jiang-xiong has exactly no sense of subtlety, which means there’s no way that he won’t make a gigantic stink on the way, and that means that Wei-xiong will hear about it and be heading here, too…in his own style.”

Nie Mingjue groaned.

(Little Nie Mingjue excitedly mimicked him.)

“Yes, da-ge, he’s probably going to blow something up, especially if anyone tries to lock him away somewhere, if you know what I mean. And an explosion of that magnitude will draw everyone’s attention, even er-ge, who probably didn’t even notice the time travel from his stupid little seclusion house, and then he’ll know that he needs to come here, too. And once they’re all here, there’s a very nice, very straightforward fix to every single one of our problems.”

“This is such a terrible idea,” fierce corpse Nie Mingjue muttered. “Even worse than tricking everyone you care about in the cultivation world to take a one-way trip back in time so that you can get access to the one person who has both enough power and enough skills in arrays to restore my sense of taste.”

Wait. Was that why they’d all gone back in time?!

(Was Nie Huaisang going to share? Wen Ning would like to taste things again.)

“Stop complaining,” Nie Huaisang said. “And stop underestimating the brilliance of my plan! I’m going to use the time anomaly to have Sect Leader Wen restore you to life, not just your taste.”

Okay, assuming Wen Ning was also getting in on that deal, he was officially no longer complaining.

Their future was terrible. Who needed it?

Listen, Wen Ning had grown up under his uncle’s tutelage, and his uncle had once been the most brilliant cultivator alive. He knew enough to figure out that – if you ignored his airy and almost certainly sarcastic words about wanting to be born – Nie Huaisang intended to use the untapped potential of their own future supposed-to-happen births to power an array that would bring a future corpse or two back to life. Sure, it meant that Wen Ning would probably never be born, but that was fine: if he had toddler Nie Mingjue’s age right then Wen Qing had already been born, and that’s more of what he cared about.

Actually, if he thought about the time and the ages, Jiang Yanli was likely already on the way, and Lan Xichen would have been only a few months off from being conceived. If Nie Huaisang really wanted to generate a lot of potential-time-bending power, he could interfere with those births as well – all he needed to do was prevent the future Madame Lan from marrying her husband! – and then, well…

Hmm. He’d still need to find a leverage point to anchor them to the timeline, though.

That had always been his uncle’s complaint about the time-manipulation array: he’d been able to use it to keep his own age permanently locked at his late twenties, but he hadn’t been able to really change anything because permanent time travel required there to be a second anchor point outside of the time, and that was impossible.

Eh, it was Nie Huaisang, and he’d already claimed his plan was ‘brilliant’. Surely he’d accounted for that?

“How bad are we talking here?” Lao Nie asked.

Nie Mingjue looked resigned. “A-die, you’re going to love it.”

Lao Nie looked excited.

Lan Qiren looked concerned. Wen Ruohan looked…mostly still murderous, but with a mildly curious edge, in a way that was weirdly not entirely unlike that mostly feral cats Wen Ning used to feed behind the Nightless City.

(It was so weird for Wen Ning to see his uncle back to the mostly-still-a-human-being self he’d once been. He was actually not awful about his murderous impulses, which were mostly reasonable and not absolutely insane. He was the fun uncle again. It was terrible.)

“Would you like to share your solution?” Wen Ruohan drawled. “You have one chance to outbid ‘kill them’ in the ranking order in my mind, so I suggest you use it well. Going once, going twice…”

Terrible.

Nie Huaisang laughed and snapped his fan shut.

“I can do that,” he said confidently. “It’s called ‘we make things worse to make them better’. Now, I believe, in this time period, you would already be familiar with the lady called Cangse Sanren…?”

#mdzs #wen ning #nie huaisang #wen ruohan #lan qiren #sect leader nie #nie mingjue #my fics #my fic

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eleanorfenyxwrites · 3 months

Text

The Waves are Rising and Rising

|Beginning| |Previous|

Chapter 8

Breaking news, Jinlintai continues to be the fucking worst. Chapter 9 will post on Monday!

--//--

The Phoenix Mountain hunt is such an exhausting exercise in constant de-escalation that, by the end of it, Jin Guangyao half wishes he’d never planned at all. It’s supposed to be his chance to prove himself to the cultivation world; he’s earned himself a title and a reputation as a war hero, and now it’s his chance to show them that he’s more than just a blade, that he deserves to be up in the lofty clouds among the gentry.

In short, he has proved his martial prowess. Now it is the far more perilous opportunity to prove his social prowess.

The lead up is a frenzy of activity, and whilst he knows that he thrives under pressure and genuinely enjoys challenges, he barely has time to sleep and eat and by the day of the hunt he is frantically circling his tiny flicker of qi around his body just to keep himself on his feet.

Thankfully, he has no dual cultivation sessions to worry about — when his sworn brothers arrive a day early to get settled in, the most that is expected of him is playing Song of Cleansing, partly to keep up appearances, partly because even just a small amount of help is better than none at all to tide Nie Mingjue over. Getting to spend a few golden hours with Lan Xichen is a little oasis in the mess of the rest of his day, and even Nie Mingjue’s quiet, stern presence doesn’t ruin it. The man is actually surprisingly… well, cordial isn’t the right word, but he’s not outright aggressive, and he doesn’t glare at Jin Guangyao outside of his usual resting face, so Jin Guangyao takes that as a win.

In a pattern that Jin Guangyao is coming to recognise with deep exasperation, everything is going fine until Wei Wuxian decides to open his big irritating mouth.

The opening ceremony traditionally involves all participants shooting for their place in the hunt. It had been Jin Zixun’s suggestion to up the ante by involving the Wen prisoners, and no one had made a fuss about it (Jin Zixuan’s shot had been showy and arrogant but not out of the realms of normal behaviour in such ceremonies) until Wei Wuxian had stepped up to the plate for his turn.

He’d had the audacity to publicly ask Lan Wangji for his forehead ribbon (Jin Guangyao had heard Lan Xichen, sitting behind him on the dias, suck in a sharp outraged breath, even as his own stomach had clenched in horror), and when he had naturally been refused, he’d blindfolded himself with his own arm wrapping, immediately usurping Jin Zixuan’s arrogance by a thousandfold by shooting five arrows over the heads of the prisoners, and then even turning to tip Lan Wangji a wink, making it clear exactly who he was showing off for.

As the entire ceremony area erupts into clapping (Nie Mingjue’s utterly deafening claps both audible and identifiable over the din, which is oddly endearing, it’s rare that the man shows active enthusiasm), Jin Guangyao sees nothing but his father’s barely concealed wrath in his peripheral vision. It is, naturally, up to him to save face for the Jin clan.

“Well, of course everyone here is welcome to join in the hunt — the archery contest was just a warm up!” Jin Guangyao smiles and laughs around at the assembled crowd, and both his cheeks and feet ache. “Now that Wei Wuxian has so impressively demonstrated his skills, let us consider the rest of the opening ceremony cancelled, and proceed onto the hunt itself?”

Jin Guangyao fumes, but he’s far too good at what he does to ever let that show externally. One stupid man had decided to show off for his crush, and now all his hard work for the opening ceremony has utterly gone to waste.

Cancelled.

Jin Guangyao smiles and nods politely at the disciples as the wave of them sweep out of the ceremony area and into the mountain, and he is allowed a brief reprieve when Lan Xichen calls him over to come sit with himself and Nie Mingjue. The raised seating area is designed for the sect leaders, and guests of sect leaders, to sit and socialise whilst their disciples participate in the hunt, but Jiang Wanyin flees the small talk after less than five minutes to join the others in the mountains, and not long after Jin Guangshan leaves in the opposite direction, back to Koi Tower, accompanied by two serving girls.

Jin-furen watches after him for a few seconds, before quickly covering over her anger and humiliation with a bright, brittle smile, and inviting Jiang Yanli to walk with her. Jin Guangyao has been privy to enough conversations between Jin-furen and her son to suspect that they may coincidentally bump into Jin Zixuan whilst on their walk, and that Jin-furen may coincidentally be called away to attend to something. With most couples, there might be a concern about the two of them requiring a chaperone, but…

Well. No one’s worried about that with Jin Zixuan. Jin Guangyao has only known him for around a year but from that short period of observation it seems he’s about as amorously assertive as a panda.

With the seating area abruptly emptied besides a few servants milling around with not much more to do than hold wine and try not to fall asleep, it’s… surprisingly comfortable. Jin Guangyao hadn’t been expecting to find social events with his sworn brothers (well, Nie Mingjue specifically) an actually pleasant experience.

“That Wei Wuxian certainly has some face, pulling a stunt like that,” Nie Mingjue mutters, shaking his head. “And asking for your brother’s ribbon, too,” he leans sideways and bumps Lan Xichen’s arm companionably with his own, “will Wangji be alright?”

Lan Xichen’s smile grows a little tighter at the corners, the only thing that betrays the real emotion behind it. “This is not the first time that Wei-gongzi has done something audacious to try and get Wangji’s attention, but this is the first time he has been so… public.”

Jin Guangyao shifts on his cushion, trying in vain to find a way of sitting that doesn’t make his knees and hips ache, and when his sworn brothers glance at him, he covers it by leaning forwards to pick up a cup of tea from the table in front of him. “Ah, I am sure that everyone will be distracted by the challenge of the hunt, and the whole thing will blow over in no time, er-ge.”

“I am not certain if he truly knows what he is doing to Wangji, when he acts like this,” Lan Xichen murmurs. “And I do not know what would be worse — if he genuinely has no idea, or if he does know and keeps acting like this anyway.”

Under the cover of the table and the thick material of their wide silk sleeves, Jin Guangyao slips his hand into Lan Xichen’s and squeezes.

“Da-ge, did you want to join in the hunt?” Jin Guangyao asks. “I had a particularly fearsome yaoguai hidden on the easternmost peak, if you wished for a challenge.”

Nie Mingjue blinks at him, and if Jin Guangyao is reading him right, he actually seems… touched that Jin Guangyao thought of him. Which is ridiculous, as the host and hunt planner, it’s Jin Guangyao’s job to make certain that there are enough beasts and prey for everyone.

But that doesn’t stop it feeling good.

Nie Mingjue glances to Lan Xichen, the corner of his mouth tipping up in a smile. “It’s been quite a while since we’ve gone on a night hunt together, do you want to come and help me face this particular challenge? I owe you payback after last time you stole my kill.”

“Stole your kill?” Lan Xichen gives a gentlemanly chuckle, raising an eyebrow. “If by that you mean saved your life, then certainly, you are welcome to try to pay it back.”

They both turn and look at Jin Guangyao, who had been quietly wrestling his aching desperation not to be left out into a small enough size that he can repress it and only feel the acidic tang of its misery in his throat. He isn’t powerful enough to fight such a creature — he wasn’t before their last dual cultivation session, and he certainly is not now he’s had such a setback in his golden core. He will be nothing but a liability to them.

“Will you come with us, A-Yao?” Lan Xichen asks.

“Ah, my apologies, da-ge, er-ge,” Jin Guangyao forces a smile onto his face. He knew this would happen when he suggested the yaoguai, and he did it anyway, because he’s a good host, and a good sworn brother, and he will prove himself to Nie Mingjue. “I am the overseer of the hunt, and as such I will be much too busy to participate myself.”

“Lianfang-zun?”

Jin Guangyao turns towards the voice, then quickly stands when he sees that it belongs to an Ouyang disciple in a small crowd of disciples from other sects.

“Good day, is there something that I can do to help?” He asks, even as anxiety starts to rise inside of him and his feet and knees violently protest how quickly he stood up.

The Ouyang man seems to have been appointed the spokesperson. He glances back awkwardly at his companions, who urge him forward. “Well… there isn’t any prey.”

On reflex, Jin Guangyao smiles wider. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand. We made certain there was sufficient prey in every area, and at such an early point in the hunt, they can’t possibly…”

He trails off as the disciples all exchange looks. Clearly there’s some other factor here.

“It’s that Wei Wuxian!” One of them blurts. “He’s using his wicked tricks to lure all the prey into Jiang nets.”

Several of the other disciples, emboldened now, corroborate that they’ve heard flute music in the forest and seen the distinctive swathes of black smoke that are indicative of demonic cultivation.

Jin Guangyao keeps smiling. He makes reassurances that he will fix this, that he will investigate and see this made right, and in his mind he imagines putting his hands around Wei Wuxian’s neck and throttling him.

The group of disgruntled disciples trot off — mollified when Jin Guangyao gestures them over to the food and drink that was supposed to be for the sect leaders who have nearly all left — and Jin Guangyao allows himself a moment to pull himself together.

“Da-ge, er-ge,” he says turning to face his sworn brothers, “I regret that I-”

“We’ll come with you,” Nie Mingjue says immediately.

Jin Guangyao blinks. “But… the hunt?”

“If what they’ve said is true, it doesn’t sound like there’s much of a hunt left.”

“Let us help you, A-Yao.” Lan Xichen insists gently. “And if there is no real problem and this has all been overblown, then da-ge and I can go on to hunt the yaoguai afterwards.”

Jin Guangyao swallows back the mortification, and tries to allow himself the relief that follows on its heels. If Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen come with him, then he need not worry about the potential threat of the beasts in the mountain hunt area, and people tend to be less comfortable showing him open disrespect when he has a very tall, broad sect leader behind each shoulder.

The three of them set off on their swords. It’s necessary to fly, to be able to properly canvass the hunting area, and whilst Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen keep sharp, close eyes on him as he steps onto Hensheng, he’s proud that he has enough spiritual energy to fly smoothly and at a reasonable height, even if it’s not as easy and effortless as his sworn brothers make it look and the strain makes sweat prickle on his scalp under his hat.

The mountain is full of activity, swarming with it, but it is, unfortunately, clear to see that the disciples were not lying or exaggerating. The prey is scarce, the vast majority of it already captured in Jiang spirit nets.

Gods-fucking-dammnit, Wei Wuxian.

“He works fast, I’ll give him that,” Nie Mingjue says with a low whistle.

“It’s an effective strategy,” Lan Xichen admits.

“Not really conducive to a fair and sporting competition though.”

“Whilst there is no specific rule against what he’s doing, I suspect that there might be by the end of today.”

“There,” Jin Guangyao gestures to a clearing where a group of people appear to be gathered; most of them are in Jin golds and creams, but, next to a woman in pale aquatic blue, there stands a man in Wei Wuxian’s ubiquitous, distinctive red and black.

The three of them descend and touch down on the ground (Lan Xichen pre-emptively cups a hand under his elbow as he steps off Hensheng so that he doesn’t stumble, in a move that from anyone else would feel patronising, but from him just feels kind) to see a scene of agitation and barely restrained violence. Jin Zixun and Wei Wuxian are at the centre of it, of course, and around its edges are Jin-furen, Jiang Yanli, Lan Wangji, and Jin Zixuan. It is not too difficult to guess what the point of contention might have been between such a mismatched crowd.

“You!” Jin-furen barks as she spots him, and immediately marches over. Jin Guangyao fights the urge to cringe away (and a brief urge to duck behind his sworn brothers) and steps up to meet her halfway, hoping his smile doesn’t convey too much of his anxiety.

“Is there a problem, muqin?” Jin Guangyao asks. He hates calling her that (she certainly is not his mother) and she hates it when he calls her that, but etiquette is etiquette, and any other term would be an insult, regardless of their personal feelings about it, especially in front of such important guests. “How can this humble one help you?”

“You useless little toad!” Jin-furen hisses. “Idiot! Fool! You cannot be trusted with a single thing! The hunt is ruined, there is no more prey, you did not bring enough to the mountain.”

“Please do not worry yourself, muqin,” Jin Guangyao says between his teeth, smile so wooden it’s starting to make his jaw ache. “This one factored into the planning considerations that there would be so many venerable cultivators taking part in the hunt and made certain there was an extended area with some extra beasts, in case the prey was defeated too quickly. This one will simply ensure-”

“It’s too late! Our guests are already bored and furious! What do you have to say-”

“Jin-furen, enough.”

Jin Guangyao freezes at the sound of Nie Mingjue’s voice. Surprisingly, Jin-furen does too, her tirade trailing off as she stares up at him. Nie Mingjue’s standing almost directly behind Jin Guangyao, so he gets to watch as her face contorts, trying to decide how to respond.

Nie Mingjue takes a step forward, arms folding. “You have made him aware of the problem, and he has proposed a solution that will take care of it. Why the hell are you still wasting his time? Just let him go and fix it.”

“If da-ge and I help A-Yao to extend the hunt area, then it won’t take long at all, and no one will be greatly inconvenienced,” Lan Xichen adds, somewhat more diplomatically.

A charged silence reigns in the clearing. Jin Guangyao chances a glance around; Jin Zixun looks… constipated, clearly still spoiling for the fight that has just slipped through his fingers; Jiang Yanli, stood with Wei Wuxian, is watching the whole scene with wide, anxious eyes, and Lan Wangji, on Wei Wuxian’s other side, has his gaze fixed on Lan Xichen, ready to take his cue on the situation; Wei Wuxian himself is red-eyed and slumped against Jiang Yanli’s side, trembling with some powerful emotion; and across from them all stands Jin Zixuan, looking about as obtuse and awkward as he ever does.

Jin-furen stares at Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen, and for several seconds her shock prevents her from responding. And then her mouth wobbles into an unconvincing smile, and she laughs. “Ah… of course. Of course.” She twitches her head in Jin Guangyao’s direction and her smile turns downright poisonous. “What are you waiting for? Go. Do your job.”

Jin Guangyao bends to give a bow that’s considerably deeper than etiquette demands, and hurries away as fast as his twinging knee will allow him, ears ringing and mind racing and adrenaline pumping through his system. Did Nie Mingjue just save him? Or did he just condemn him to something worse later, when Jin-furen is able to find him alone? Nausea rises in his throat at the prospect of what will likely await him once they all return to Jinlintai.

“A-Yao?”

And there it is, the humiliation rising after the initial animal fear has abated; if it weren’t awful enough having his brother and cousin and other gentry members that are supposed to be his peers witness Jin-furen abasing him, his own sworn brothers did — sworn brothers who have a tendency to try and benevolently meddle when they think there’s a problem (or, at least, he has one sworn brother who might, and the other could likely be convinced). There’s a clawing, desperate feeling in his chest that wants to drag tears from his eyes and sobs from the deepest part of him, but he shoves it down and down until he’s able to smile.

Jin Guangyao pivots on a heel and turns to find Lan Xichen following him, and Nie Mingjue following him. “Er-ge,” he says, he clears his throat when his voice catches, “da-ge. Thank you for the offer of help, but I have this under control. Please return to the hunt, and I will meet you both later back in Jinlintai for the feast.”

“Are you certain?” Lan Xichen asks, clearly reluctant.

It’s sweet. Jin Guangyao reminds himself how much he loves his er-ge as he counts to shi in his head. “Yes, er-ge. Thank you again for the offer to help, but I will be fine. I will see you both later.”

He tugs Hensheng from his sword belt and steps onto her before there can be any more protests, and flies off. He doesn’t actually need to be there in person, but he just cannot hold himself together if he spends any more time in that clearing; he breathes the cool fresh mountain air in deep gulps, and the clawing feeling trying to drive him to tears settles a little. Woodenly, he directs the Jin servants to open up the fenced and gated zones to extend the hunting area, then tells them to spread the word throughout the mountain that there is more prey available now.

And then, refusing to acknowledge the aching of his back and feet and the pounding in his head, he flies back to Jinlintai. There’s not much more he can do for the hunt now, but there’s a banquet afterwards and there are still so many elements that need supervising, so many tiny details that could go wrong. If he can make sure that the banquet goes perfectly, maybe the guests will remember this not as a subpar failure that Wei Wuxian messed up, but as an enjoyable evening at the end of a busy day.

The afternoon passes in a daze. He greets people as they arrive, flitting between the top of the steps and the banquet hall, ignoring the sickening vertigo that still haunts him when he sees the yawning view from such a height, as well as the protests of his aching, aching feet. When Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji arrive, Lan Xichen attempts to convince him to sit for a while (because he’s wonderful and Jin Guangyao adores him), but he’s too busy for that, unfortunately. He consoles himself with the idea that so long as he is in public, so long as he is seen, Jin-furen is unlikely to attempt to exact her revenge, so he will play the charismatic host until his legs give out.

He opens the banquet officially with a toast to the Jiang sect, to celebrate their win on the hunting ground, and though he’s never cared much for young Jiang Wanyin, the bright and honestly delighted grin that he flashes around the room as he raises his cup is… kind of sweet.

Jin Guangyao is just settling in to the possibility of this event actually not being an entire disaster when he notices his odious fucking cousin making his way across the hall, cup of wine in each hand, with the kind of smile that does not bode well for anyone.

Especially when Lan Xichen appears to be his target.

Jin Guangyao scrambles around the dais his father’s throne sits on, and all but breaks into a jog trying to intervene, though he’s too slow; Jin Zixun is grinning lazily, tilting his head at Lan Xichen, who is returning his grin with a tight, narrow-eyed smile that conveys with everything besides words a deep and intense urge to punch him in the face.

It is incredibly unfortunate that Jin Guangyao cannot allow that to happen (his brain brings up a vivid imagining of it, in slow motion and from every angle, and he tucks it away to… examine more thoroughly in the privacy of his own room later). He places himself between them and does his best to diffuse the tension. “Ah, tang-xiong, the Lan clan has a specific precept against consuming alcohol, it would not be proper for Zewu-jun to accept your toast, but he means no offence to you.”

Lan Xichen’s smile twitches at the corner in a way that indicates he does, in fact, mean a great deal of offence, but thankfully he does nothing besides incline his head to indicate Jin Guangyao is correct.

“Ah, but the Jin clan and the Lan clan are such close friends,” Jin Zixun protests, voice turning sickly sweet, “sure he cannot protest just one drink.”

The way that Jin Zixun’s grin widens as he says close friends, the way he glances a little too quickly between Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen — does he know? Does he suspect something? There’s no way he could possibly know, there is no record of what they’re doing, there’s no evidence to find, he can’t possibly-

Lan Xichen, still practically glaring at Jin Zixun (Jin Guangyao has no idea how he’s enduring it), reaches out a hand and takes the proffered cup. Holding eye contact, he tips the wine into his mouth with a sharp, graceful jerk of his wrist, then places the cup back in Jin Zixun’s hand. He lifts his eyebrows expectantly, as if to say, satisfied?

Jin Zixun turns away with a sneer, and Jin Guangyao does his best not to let his shoulders sag in relief. He sees Lan Xichen glance around, sees his gaze meet Nie Mingjue’s — Nie Mingjue, who Jin Guangyao hadn’t even considered in this altercation, whose nostrils are flared and mouth is pinched tight, clearly holding himself back from intervening, thank the gods — sees the little shake of his head, telling him it’s not worth it.

Unfortunately, Jin Zixun chooses Lan Wangji as his next target.

Fortunately for the short term, though unfortunately for the long term, Wei Wuxian intervenes before Jin Guangyao can, snatching the cup from Jin Zixun’s hand and throwing his head back borderline indecently to drink it. Lan Wangji watches him, eyes huge.

“I need to talk to you,” Wei Wuxian says to Jin Zixun, setting the cup down on Lan Wangji’s table with a loud clack, apparently heedless of the fact that its occupant is staring at him like he wants to bend him over said table and commit a public indecency.

Jin Zixun rolls his eyes. “It will have to wait until after the banquet. I’m busy.”

“I just have one question, it won’t take long,” Wei Wuxian insists. He’s not quite crossed the line to outright impolite, but he’s toeing it. “I need to know the whereabouts of a Wen prisoner that I found out today was supposed to be under your… care.”

“Ha. How am I supposed to remember the names of all those Wen-dogs? I told you, it will have to wait.”

“His name is Wen Ning. He helped me during the war, I owe him a debt. Please, this is a matter of some urgency.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes are wide and it’s clear that he is holding onto his temper with a very thin tether. Jin Guangyao prays his cousin makes a sensible choice, but being sensible has never been Jin Zixun’s strong suit.

As if to demonstrate, he leans forward into Wei Wuxian’s space and says, loudly and slowly, “It. Will. Have. To. Wait.”

Wei Wuxian’s posture goes stiff and furious. From where Jin Guangyao is standing, he can see the man’s eyes starting to grow red, the way his mouth is curling into a snarl. He opens his mouth-

And someone else’s voice speaks.

“Jin-er-gongzi, come on, this just sounds like a stupid administrative screw up,” says Nie Mingjue, leaning forwards in his seat with an exasperated expression, and there was no way Jin Guangyao could have predicted that. “For gods’ sake, stop being obtuse and just point him to whoever has the paperwork he needs so we can get on with dinner. I’m hungry after that hunt.”

Jin Zixun gapes, and he’s not alone — Jin Guangyao is pretty sure his own mouth is hanging open, and Wei Wuxian is frozen in shock that Nie Mingjue — Chifeng-zun! — would take his side. The whole hall has gone silent. Nie Mingjue settles back in his seat, folding his arms. Briefly, he glances to his side at Nie Huaisang; the majority of his brother’s face is covered by his fan, but he is watching the whole interaction intently.

What is going on?

“I… I…” Jin Zixun blusters. “Well, I don’t know who this Wen Ning is, or where he’s been or what’s become of him! How am I supposed to know who’ll have the fucking paperwork for him?”

Wei Wuxian recovers quickly, to his credit. “Don’t know what’s become of him? How about I give you a clue then — I heard that you used him as bait in a night hunt. I heard that you tried to force him and his people to carry spirit lures when you were trying to capture the Bat King, and when they refused, you beat him to a pulp! Does that jog your memory?”

Gasps and whispers echo around the hall. Jin Guangyao fights to keep his face neutral; it would be a lie to say he had no idea that Jin Zixun was mistreating the Wen prisoners — simply because he knows that his cousin is a violent oaf with a tendency to misuse his power, and a man comfortable with abusing someone who is supposed to be his peer in a public setting is definitely more than comfortable abusing prisoners of war in an out-of-the-way camp out near Qiongqi Pass. Jin Guangyao may not have known the specifics, but he’s hardly surprised.

“Jin-er-gongzi,” Nie Mingjue growls and — oh gods, he’s on his feet now, rounding his table with a thunderous expression, “is this true?”

“No!” Jin Zixun blurts, backing away. And then he adds quickly enough that Jin Guangyao is almost as exasperated as he is horrified at how quickly his perfectly planned out banquet is going to hell — “And even if it was, who cares! What does it matter! They’re just Wen-dogs!”

“It matters because this is not what we agreed would happen. We said that the combatants would be executed, and the non-combatants would be used as labourers. If you're using the prisoners as bait in night hunts and beating them to a pulp, clearly the Jin sect does not need these resources!" Nie Mingjue gestures sharply in Lan Xichen's direction, "Pass these labourers onto where they’re actually needed — the Lans are still rebuilding, they could do with the help!"

Whispers turn to murmurs around the room. Nie Mingjue has made a fair point, one that Jin Guangyao would be impressed with if he weren't part of the sect being accused of willfully breaking political agreements. He can already hear Yao-zongzhu starting up on one of his usual aggrieved tirades; since the war the man has been an insufferable sycophant whenever he's been in Jinlintai, but it seems that something in the air has changed, because now he’s boldly reminding everyone around him that his sect was destroyed by the Wens, too! Doesn’t he deserve additional labour? Interestingly, Jiang Wanyin — the leader of a sect who absolutely should receive reparations in the form of labour — has kept his mouth firmly shut.

Lan Xichen’s expression stays neutral but, standing relatively close to him, Jin Guangyao can see the strain around his eyes. Nie Mingjue may be right, but no sect appreciates having the whole jianghu publicly reminded of how low they've been brought in the wake of the Wens' destruction.

"Whilst rebuilding efforts are proceeding well, I cannot deny that we would benefit from some…" Lan Xichen’s smile turns a little awkward, "help."

Help. And that is how they will see it — the Lan do not believe in indentured slavery (at least not in the same way the other sects do, though Jin Guangyao has heard enough about Lan Xichen’s mother to know they have a very particular way of approaching the punishment of those they consider evildoers), so if they are granted custody of the Wens, it is likely some agreement will be reached in exchange for their labour. Jin Guangyao glances anxiously towards his father; he will take it as a personal slight to lose valuable prisoners to a sect who, in his mind, would be basically freeing them.

Jin Guangshan is smiling insofar as he is baring his teeth and his mouth is curved up, yet his face is full of nothing but anger. Jin Guangyao resists the urge to hide behind Lan Xichen and clutch at his robes, the way he'd done in Nightless City when Nie Mingjue had raged at him, and in a strange twist of fate, at this point even hiding behind Nie Mingjue himself seems like a safer prospect than standing in the eyeline of his father in this kind of mood.

"Of course, of course!" Jin Guangshan says, "Never let it be said that the Jin clan does not help its allies! Whatever resources you need, Zewu-jun, just say the word. In fact, perhaps it might be best if the Lan sect were in charge of distributing such resources entirely."

It's a ploy. It's so obviously a ploy that Jin Guangyao has to clench his fist inside his sleeve to avoid grimacing in second-hand embarrassment. Jin Guangshan is trying to call Lan Xichen’s bluff, to get him to admit that it's far too big a job to take on whilst they're trying to focus on rebuilding — to admit that the Lan clan is weak and unstable, and therefore allow the Jin to keep full control over the Wen prisoners. A more contrary, hot-headed sect leader might refuse to cave, accepting the burden and dooming his sect to struggle to keep their heads above water in such a tumultuous time, but Lan Xichen has a cool head on his shoulders and can't be baited so easily, and certainly would never take such a risk to his people purely for the sake of pride.

He will have to admit he cannot and concede weakness. Jin Guangyao can see Nie Mingjue coming to the very same conclusion, can see the moment Nie Mingjue decides this is unacceptable and makes up his mind to intervene.

"Fuqin," Jin Guangyao jumps in, before Nie Mingjue can open his big angry mouth and say something he can't take back, "what if-"

"No need to bother Zewu-jun with this," says Wei Wuxian, stepping cooly back into the centre of the conversation, temper clearly tamed for now. "I started it, I'll finish it. If Jin-zongzhu can get someone to get the paperwork ready, I can go now and collect Wen Ning and the others — I'll be responsible for finding the best place to send them."

"Wei Wuxian!" Jiang Wanyin hisses, fury in his eyes but pale-faced; Jin Guangyao can't blame him at all.

"I will help Wei Ying."

In what feels like perfect synchronisation, everyone in the hall turns to look at Lan Wangji. He has stood to his feet, expression as solemn and serious as ever.

"Lan Zhan?" Wei Wuxian whispers disbelievingly.

(Using each other's personal names in the middle of an inter-sect banquet! Jin Guangyao's skin prickles at how indiscreet they are.)

"I will help. Wei Ying cannot do this alone."

"Oh!" Wei Wuxian perks up in sudden understanding. "Lan Zhan, you are so good at politics! Yes, if both the Lan and Jiang sects are involved, that reduces the burden on both of them but means they both get the help they need! Right?"

For the first time possibly ever, Jin Guangyao actually feels bad for Lan Wangji, who is clearly trying to communicate desperate yearning through his intense stare, but Wei Wuxian is apparently only understanding it as… political zeal?

Gods help them both.

When Jin Guangshan doesn’t immediately shoot the idea down (it would be a bad look if he did, Ouyang-zongzhu is already muttering about 'upright, righteous Hanguang-jun' and the collective members of the hall seem to be in favour of this proposed arrangement), Jin Guangyao decides that enough is enough and someone needs to wrestle this banquet back under control.

He sends Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji off with a servant to find whichever administrator has the records that are relevant to the Wen prisoners, and by the time he returns, the banquet has more or less settled again because someone with excellent timing has brought out the food (Jin Guangyao will have to investigate amongst the servants to find out who, he believes that reward-based discipline is more effective than punishment, especially given the attitudes of the rest of his family).

By the end of the day Jin Guangyao is dead on his feet, has a headache building behind one eye socket, and has spent a good few hours going about in damp robes because, when Jin Guangyao had brought him his evening tea, Jin Guangshan had thrown it back at him.

"You said Nie Mingjue wouldn’t be a problem!"

Jin Guangyao had expected his father would be in a foul mood, but that doesn’t stop the way his back twinges as he crouches to pick up the cup. "My apologies, fuqin. Chifeng-zun has never expressed any interest in our treatment of the Wen prisoners prior to this point — I am not certain why he has suddenly taken an interest now. It was uncharacteristic of him."

Jin Guangshan had narrowed his eyes at him. "All that time you're spending with him nowadays and you can't even guess his political opinions? What's the use of it? What's the use of you?"

Dread pools in Jin Guangyao’s stomach and he scrambles to kowtow, even as pain spikes through his knees. "This humble one begs your forgiveness, I will do better, I-"

"No need," Jin Guangshan sneers. "I think it's time we deal with Nie Mingjue more permanently."

Jin Guangyao stares down at his own hands pressed flat against the marble floor, mind racing, blood pounding in his ears. "Fuqin?" He chokes out.

"I think you know exactly what I mean."

He forces himself to at least appear calm, even if he feels like he's about to throw up. He absolutely cannot show weakness here. If his father suspects for even one moment that he feels any kind of reluctance around the prospect of ‘dealing with Nie Mingjue more permanently’, he will pounce on it like a hunting hound scenting blood. He needs to reason purely pragmatically. He cannot allow any emotion to slip through.

“If fuqin would allow this humble one to make a suggestion?” He says, keeping his eyes demurely fixed down on the floor but lifting his head a little so his father can better hear him.

“Fine,” Jin Guangshan says, his tone bored.

“Chifeng-zun may be known for his temper, but he is an expert tactician, and for the most part does not make rash or risky decisions regarding his sect in political situations. However, today he very publicly disagreed with the Jin sect, and aligned himself with Wei-gongzi, who has a reputation for being disrespectful and stirring up trouble wherever he goes. Everyone knows that he hates the Wens for what happened to his father, and he’s never had any sort of positive relationship with Wei-gongzi, so why would he choose such a risky topic to speak out about?”

“Why indeed,” Jin Guangshan murmurs.

He’s curious. Good. A flicker of hope stirs in Jin Guangyao’s heart.

“Initially he advocated for all of the Wen prisoners to be executed, so there is no reason for him to care about their welfare now. I believe there must be some motivating factor we are missing — and anything that could persuade him to take this kind of political risk would be an incredibly valuable piece of information to use against him.”

Jin Guangyao risks a glance up; his father is staring thoughtfully into the distance, lips pursed. “And you believe you can be the one to find this information?” He asks, without looking down.

“I believe I can.”

He would be trading Nie Mingjue’s trust for Nie Mingjue’s life, and the thought makes his heart ache, but at the end of the day Nie Mingjue would still be alive — and Jin Guangyao has done far worse already to keep Nie Mingjue alive. He can work out the details at a later date; he can lie and cheat when he has the time to think it through properly, for now he just needs to persuade his father that his sworn brother doesn’t need to die. Everything else is manageable.

Jin Guangshan finally looks down, running his fingertips absently over the ornately carved armrest as he studies Jin Guangyao’s face. “Very well.” He says, and Jin Guangyao uses every ounce of his willpower to stop himself sagging in relief.

“You know what the consequences will be if you fail,” Jin Guangshan calls as Jin Guangyao makes his hasty exit, and because he is facing away from his father, he allows himself a moment to close his eyes and shudder.

--//--

If one good thing comes out of the Phoenix Mountain hunt, it is that Jin Zixuan (somehow?) managed to make enough of a positive impression on Jiang Yanli that she agrees to a longer visit at Jinlintai, and he apparently must continue to make a positive impression, as she agrees to reinstate their engagement without Jin Guangyao having to employ any of the subtle methods of political pressure he and his father have discussed.

It seems that she genuinely just… likes him.

Apparently there’s no accounting for taste.

Jin-furen wants primary control over planning what will no doubt be the biggest, gaudiest wedding of the generation (alongside Jiang Wanyin, who is doing his best to keep up with her demands), but she is quite happy to use Jin Guangyao as a dogsbody for the parts of it that she’s not interested in. Even if Lan Xichen hadn’t asked for them to take a break with dual cultivation, Jin Guangyao would likely have needed one, because he is run just as ragged as with the Phoenix Mountain hunt.

Thankfully, unlike the Phoenix Mountain hunt, there are no diplomatic incidents and everyone seems to be on their best behaviour throughout the whole event. Jin Zixuan is far too besotted with his new wife to stick his foot in his mouth, Jin Zixun has been extensively and very creatively threatened by Jin-furen regarding what exactly will happen to him and his chances of carrying on the bloodline if he dares to start a fight, and even Wei Wuxian keeps his usual drunken mayhem to a minimum, clearly invested in making sure his beloved shi-jie’s big day goes smoothly.

The general opinion of the jianghu seems to be that Wei Wuxian’s new restraint must be due to how much time he has been spending around the Lans — particularly Lan Wangji — fulfilling the responsibility he swore to uphold in regards to dealing with the Wen prisoners. Jin Guangyao has been kept updated by Lan Xichen as to how it has been going, and it is impressive how much they have managed to achieve in just the few months they have been working together.

Less officially, Lan Xichen has also cheerfully been updating him on how things are going personally between his brother and Wei Wuxian, and… well. Those two make Jin Zixuan look suave.

Jin Zixuan who, against all odds, in a few short years has gone from the least likely young master in his generation to find romantic success, to utterly outstripping everyone else by unexpectedly falling in love, getting married, and having an heir on the way, if Jin Guangyao is not mistaken (there are very few reasons why a wedding might be moved a month earlier at rather short notice).

And whilst his brother gets to bask in newlywed bliss, Jin Guangyao works himself to the bone, tries to avoid his family’s wrath, and absolutely definitely does not count down the days until his next trip to Qinghe.

|NEXT|

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #The Waves are Rising and Rising #Jin Guangyao #Nie Mingjue #Lan Xichen

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lostintherealmsofthefandoms · 1 month

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I read this theory about how sqx and hx reincarnated into wwx and lz, which I liked but made me think and think and come up with my own theory.

Friendly reminder this is only supported by the voices in my head.

Spoilet alert for tgcf and mdzs

Okay so sqx eventually died as human and let's assume he did reincarnated. Now who do we know that loves fan and have a big brother who also ended up dying. That's right, sqx reincarnated as Nie Huaisang. His fascination for fans came from his past life, in which he used to use a fan as weapon and was powerful with it. This type of thing sticks with you.

But in this life time he has karma to clean, this karma is related to his brother, all the confused feelings that he had regarding all he did, how yet he didn't, he couldn't take revenge. This time is different, this time he could take revenge on his brother. He could have a more easy and swiftly closure with his brother, something that in his previous life he could never.

So he clear his karma by taking revenge for his brother this time.

Meanwhile we can assume or not that Nie Mingjue is the reincarnation of Shi wudu, his karma being quite heavy, besides the whole saber thing while alive, war, being betrayed, killed, and finally years as a resentful corpse. Heavy karma for a heavy thing that he did.

Going back to our beloved sqx. So after clear his karma as nhs, after he died he reincarnated in normal and peaceful lives, after all he deserved receive a lot of good karma.

That until he get in modern days, as he reincarnated as this nerd dude obsessed by a novel...

Now there's one thing missing to sqx and this is He xuan. Hx "lived" for years after sqx died, reincarnated and died again. Untill he himself "died" that would be more like his form as hx cease to exist, disappears, but nothing truly disappears, everything is energy and energy is transformed. So he next life form is naturally a bit different, cause is not exactly a reincarnation, cause he was already dead. So he ended up as a character in a novel, a fucked up character with tragic and dark life, he has karma to pay too. Being trapped in a novel is like being trapped in a loop, at least untill external forces interfere. As he was a ghost, yin energy he naturally ended up in a yin body as a half demon.

So yes, He Xuan now is Luo Binghe.

And Shi Qing Xuan is Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan fascination for lbh comes from past lives even though he could never realize that.

Time for they meet. He transmigrates. One again he's is in a body full of magic, all he lost has returned to him. His powers, a brother, he can use his fan without anyone picking on him, as he wishes, and it just misses he xuan, now lbh. Than after the whole thing in svsss they finally are able to be together, with all karmas cleared, they can finally be happy together.

#shi qingxuan #he xuan #beefleaf #tgcf #mdzs #nie huaisang #svsss #bingqiu #mxtx theory #mxtx #mxtx universe

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mxtxfanatic · 2 years

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You know what though? I do very much so feel bad for Lan Xichen in how his upbringing fucked him up. Like, I know I’ve made quite a few posts about how he knew about Jin Guangyao’s crimes but was able to ignore them by saying that jgy “must” have had a reason to commit them, and @/motivationisdead just made a fantastic post about how lxc witnessed at least two attempts on jgy’s life by Nie Mingjue but also shrugged those off, but all of this really ties back to his parents’ history and his clan’s unwillingness to let anyone know the truth of the matter.

Like, imagine growing up where your father is in seclusion so you never really meet him, and your mother is imprisoned because everyone says she murdered a clan member and your father saved her against the clan’s will. Nobody, not your uncle or elders or mother, tells you why she committed the murder, and you never see your father to ask. On top of that, you are witness to your clan lying about the circumstances of your mother’s marriage into the clan as well as her imprisonment (also dubbed “seclusion” to the public) despite this very clearly being against the clan rules. Then your mother dies and you are still a child and anything you may have had the thought to ask her as you matured can now never be answered because your clan has proven that they will not be honest or forthcoming with the truth.

But you love your clan, the people who raised you and taught you and brought you up to be the adult you now are. And you love your mother who was always kind and fun and gentle and loving with you and your brother. How do you consolidate these two conflicting ideas, that your clan known for its righteousness would imprison a woman for life against her will, removing her children from her care to only see them once a month, and your mother who, for all of her caring and kindness, is a murderer? Well, Lan Xichen dealt with it by simply refusing to ask those necessary questions, even when he gained the power to do so, so that he did not have to destabilize either image in his mind. He makes the very clear decision to never seek out the truth, so that both his mother and his clan are in the right and good.

If you can just neatly package everyone’s actions into “they had a reason, so who am I to question or judge?” then every action can be justified and no person is truly ever in the wrong or culpable for their wrongdoings. This is Lan Xichen’s life philosophy until Guanyin Temple, and this is why 3zun was such a fraught dynamic from his end.

#mdzs #i know it would defeat the purpose of the details being intentionally ambiguous #but i really want mxtx to explain wtf was happening with the lan sect and madam lan #human metas mxtx

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gravitywonagain · 2 years

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i am not a vessel for your good intent

the sunshot alliance requests the aid of the feared immortal, yiling laozu, in taking down wen ruohan and qishan wen. it does not go the way they expect it to.

happy birthday, wwx! you get to yell at sect leaders and be an immortal with wings!

[G? for now?, 3k, 1/1?, Pre-Wangxian]

(look, i have no idea where this came from or where it might go or if it will go anywhere. let me know if you want to see more or not and we'll figure it out from there?)

CW: suggestion of implied cannibalism

It begins as expected.

Yiling Laozu sweeps into the banquet hall trailing smoke and shadow that folds itself into the shape of long, feathered wings. His eyes burn like cinders, or steel fresh from the forge. He is uncommonly beautiful, with long lashes, high cheekbones, a mole beneath petal-plush lips. But that too must be expected of an immortal, even one whose life force is fed by what he steals from others. If evil wasn't seductive it would be easy to ignore. Yiling Laozu is not easy to ignore.

Lan Wangji swallows food he can no longer taste. Flattens his palms against the silk of his skirts.

The prattle of the hall dies quickly; chopsticks are set to rest and porcelain cups and bowls clack down against lacquered wood tables. Silence bulges in throats.

Yiling Laozu speaks and though his voice is smooth and pleasant, he is angry. Anyone can tell. None should be surprised.

"Honored cultivation clans," he says, grinning sharp as shale, "I see you've set no place for me at your banquet."

Jin Guangshan rises to answer but Yiling Laozu stops him with a wave of his hand.

"A banquet for your gentry, it seems, while your soldiers eat millet and vinegar. Tell me, nobles, will you wait until they begin scouring battlefields for meat before you throw them the scraps of your pork?"

The implication is clear -- insulting, an outrage. Many stand, fury and pique poised on tongues, yet few speak. Those that do find less help from the mob than they'd anticipated and quiet themselves quickly. None so much as reach for their swords.

Yiling Laozu sucks his teeth like a disapproving parent: a soft sound that somehow echoes throughout the hall. “A poor way to treat those you wish to fight your battles for you.”

Lan Wangji can’t help but agree with him. He had said as much to his brother earlier that night, but Lan Xichen isn’t the one throwing this banquet, and it would have been discourteous not to attend.

“Ah, Yiling Laozu!” Jin Guangshan is already standing at the head of the banquet hall, having sat himself there like the commander of the campaign despite his belated entry into the war. “Welcome to Jiangling, and to the Sunshot Campaign.”

Nie Mingjue, the true commander of this front, doesn’t quite manage to hide his glare at Jin Guangshan. He and the rest of the sect leaders in the hall stand and bow to the dread immortal in greeting.

He inclines his head in return, but his red eyes are sharp on each of the sect leaders before him.

“I have received your invitation. What is it you want from me?”

The leaders of the four largest sects represented, the four men who wrote the letter that was sent to Luanzang Gang, move to stand directly before Yiling Laozu. Three of them are too poised to fidget, but Jiang Wanyin is only sixteen. Still he holds himself well, to Lan Wangji’s eye, and stands strong enough to represent his sect well.

"You know our request. We seek your aid in our war against Qishan Wen."

Jin Guangshan’s words are honeyed thorns. His tone is demure, but he speaks as if to a spoiled child. Placating, superior.

The hall chokes with anticipation, cultivators holding their breath against hope. There has been no question asked, not really, but sect leaders and disciples alike await Yiling Laozu’s next words like his voice alone will save them.

They expect a price to be listed, a negotiation, possibly. There have been rumors and wagers made on what the immortal lord of the dead might ask in return. Gold, land, slaves. A virgin bride -- a harem of them. The throne of the Sun Palace. Lan Wangji has not participated in such idle reverie, but he too is a soldier at war and he does not begrudge people their entertainment.

His own fingertips turn a bloodless white where they are pressed into the meat of his thighs, blue silk dimpled around them. He breathes to calm his nerves.

Yiling Laozu allows the silence to drag out. His ember-bright eyes flick around the hall from one person to the next. His head cocks to the side, as if he is considering them. At last, he returns his gaze to the four sect leaders who stand expectant in the center of the hall.

"No."

"No?" The question is voiced by many. Different volumes and different tones, but all asking spin a thread of surprise.

It was an answer that was left undiscussed, the fear of it too strong to invite such an outcome into reality by speaking it. And, truly, it was unthinkable. They are on the right side of this war. An immortal would see that, would agree. Would help them destroy a madman.

So nobody truly expected Yiling Laozu to say--

"No," Yiling Laozu confirms.

Murmurs begin to roll across the floor like distant thunder. Lan Wangji doesn’t need to hear them to know what they’re all saying: we’re doomed.

A void carves itself into Lan Wangji’s chest as the refusal sets in. Ice follows quickly to fill it.

If Yiling Laozu does not help them, they are dead. They have no other recourse -- they would not have turned to such a creature if they had -- and they are losing this war. Badly. It will be months, at most, that they will be able to hold out. But how many must die during that time? How many will they lose to Wen Ruohan’s mad grab for power?

It is Nie Mingjue who demands, "Why would you come all this way only to refuse?"

Lan Wangji has known Nie Mingjue all his life and he has always been quick to anger. Now, however, he is not angry so much as incredulous. Lan Wangji understands that, too.

But Yiling Loazu simply shrugs, a huge gesture for all of its casual impertinence, as the massive smoky wings heave in tandem with his shoulders.

"I get bored in Yiling,” he drawls. A lazy smirk. Lan Wangji wants to tear it off his face.

"Surely,” says -- Nie Huaisang, surprisingly, from behind his fluttering fan, still seated at the table that was to his brother’s right, “there are less wearisome ways of entertaining yourself."

"You'd think that, Nie-gongzi. But nothing quite entertains me like sect leaders lying to my face."

"Lying?" Again, the question echoes through the hall like hail in a canyon.

"Indeed. Lying.” He says it coolly, assuredly. “Now, tell me sect leaders: Why do you seek my aid in your war?"

There is a pause, uncertainty swirling in the air.

Lan Xichen asks, hesitantly, "Do you wish us to lie to you, then?"

"I do not. But that won't stop you. And neither will my imputation. That's what makes it so entertaining.” That shale-sharp grin again. “So. Go on. Why do you want my help?"

Jin Guangshan begins, "Qishan Wen has grown too hungry--"

"Nope. Next."

Jin Guangshan falters, shocked, the way powerful men are often shocked any time their power is undermined. Certainly he had expected Yiling Laozu to let him at least finish whatever speech he’d rehearsed. "Excuse me?"

"I will not,” says Yiling Laozu. “Really, Jin Guangshan, were you even trying? You, Nie-zongzhu. Your turn."

Nie Mingjue’s brow furrows. He glances sideways toward his brother, though Lan Wangji doesn’t follow his gaze to see what encouragement or confidence Nie Huaisang might offer, and the exchange, whatever it was, is over in a blink. Yet Nie Mingjue seems to have drawn something from it.

He meets Yiling Laozu’s bored gaze and says, "Wen Ruohan has pressed the borders of Qinghe for years.” He pauses, seemingly expecting to be cut off as Jin Guangshan was before him.

Yiling Laozu says nothing, blinking his fire-bright eyes -- dowsing the flame in shadow and then sparking it back to life, the dark fan of his lashes catching at the ends the way treetops do at sunset.

So Nie Mingjue continues, “He is a threat to my people and to my family and I want him destroyed."

"Oh, much closer.” Yiling Laozu’s grin goes lopsided, losing its edge and rounding with amusement. “Well done, Nie-zongzhu. But, you're still lying to me. Next."

"Revenge."

Jiang Wanyin is, as ever, blunt and irascible. But Yiling Laozu doesn’t seem to mind.

The immortal looks at the teenager like Lan Wangji might look at the youngest of his juniors: indulgent but with guiding censure.

"Yes, well, that is obvious,” he says, a pale hand emerging from the shrouding darkness to gesture vaguely at Jiang Wanyin’s person. “You're sixteen and wearing a white sash over robes made for a sect heir. Your shiny new guan might as well still have your father's blood on it. But why my help, young Jiang-zongzhu?"

"Because you have a power that he does not."

There might be a tremor in Jiang Wanyin’s voice. Yiling Laozu might hear it, too. If he does, he doesn’t mention it, doesn’t poke at it. He is not here to injure, it seems. Certainly not to step on those who are already brought low. But why, then?

"Flattery,” he grins again, as if it is his mouth’s natural state to be smiling in some way, “you might think will get you anywhere. But I prefer honesty. Next."

Lan Xichen is the only major sect leader left standing and Lan Wangji feels the ice in his chest crystalize into sharp, jagged points. They cut through his lungs, his spine, his belly.

"Is this a game to you, Yiling Laozu?" Lan Xichen asks.

Yiling Laozu’s head cocks to the side like a bird with wings like his. "Have I not already answered that question, Lan-zongzhu?” His other hand, just as pale and fine-fingered as the first, and he opens his palms to the sky. “Yes. Yes, it is a game.”

He spins, exhorting each cultivator in the room. Lan Wangji thinks he catches an ink-slick glimmer of black robes inside the shadow. “You all claim to want my help, yet you will not tell me why. Why, then, should I help you? You waste my time, I waste yours.” The amusement has drained from him leaving frustration and ire to darken the handsome features of his face as he returns to face Lan Wangji’s brother.

“Lan-zongzhu, I would remind the rest of this grand assembly that your sect has rules against falsehood. So, please, why do you want my help?"

"I don't."

The collective gasp shocks through the room like a discordant note. It holds, waiting for something, anything, to harmonize, to take away this sick feeling in Lan Wangji’s chest. The one that keeps his eyes glued to his brother’s face.

Lan Xichen does not waver. He does not demure. He holds Yiling Laozu’s gaze, shoulders square, jaw set.

And Yiling Laozu’s lips begin to curl once more.

"Yes,” the word sizzles out of him. “Good.” He laughs, dark and delighted, “Now we're getting somewhere! Would you care to elaborate for the assembled gentry?" His arms sweep wide, gesturing around himself, but his eyes do not leave Lan Xichen.

Lan Xichen’s do not leave Yiling Laozu, either.

"You are greedy and vain,” he says, tone much colder than the diplomatic voice Lan Wangji is so used to hearing from him, “your cultivation is abhorrent, you play games with people's lives, and you are here only to mock us while our lands are overrun and our people slaughtered.”

Lan Wangji barely suppresses a flinch as Yiling Laozu’s eyes flicker brighter, but Lan Xichen does not pause his speech.

“I do not want your help,” he reiterates, “but I do believe that we need it to stop someone even worse than you."

There is a strain in his posture that only Lan Wangji would be able to identify as fear. Lan Wangji holds the same fear within himself. His brother has openly insulted the Dread Immortal. It could very well be the last thing he does, and Lan Wangji would be entirely incapable of protecting him.

But Yiling Laozu surprises him once again by bowing. A low and perfectly executed salute, as if he were but a servant among sect leaders.

"Thank you, Lan-zongzhu, for your candor."

"Mn," Lan Xichen nods. Lan Wangji can see how tightly his teeth are clenched together.

"But, if I may,” says Yiling Laozu with a similar courtesy to his overly polite bow, “I do have some counterpoints that may illuminate further why I have decided to crash your garish banquet.”

The darkness of his wings begins to unfurl, spilling feathery shadows across the floor. As if anyone would refuse him his piece. As if anyone could stop him if they tried.

“To your first point: I live in a very small province on a mountain that nobody else wants, not in marble palaces draped in gold and snow-white silks." He does not need to draw attention to Jin Guangshan -- the man splutters enough to do it himself. But even if he hadn't, nobody in the hall missed the suggestion in the imagery.

Yiling Laozu continues, "Second: you know less about my cultivation than you know about the Nie clan's." He turns to face Nie Mingjue, something complicated in the red tinged set of his brow, "Less than Nie-zongzhu knows about it, himself, I think. I would help you with that, should you wish it."

Nie Mingjue is clearly affected by the offer, though Lan Wangji cannot tell how, exactly. But Yiling Laozu moves on before he has the chance or obligation to respond to it. A mercy, of a kind.

"As for the rest of your accusation, you are entirely correct.” He looks back to Lan Xichen, “I am playing games and I am mocking you. But who in this room has even thought through the consequences of asking one monster to slay another? Anyone?”

Nobody speaks. Nobody breathes louder than they have to.

Yiling Laozu’s rage is beautiful and terrible to behold. It is a surprisingly quiet thing, his voice low, almost a growl. Sharp teeth bared in moonlight, bathed swiftly in blood.

“I shall put it bluntly. What happens when the monster who helped you is exhausted and weak and suddenly there is no other monster to fight? Will you let him live peacefully on his mountain where he has been for centuries? Or will you, having defeated the evil to the west, turn your armies southward and descend on my town. On my people."

"We could offer you a treaty," says Nie Mingjue.

"And who would keep you to it?"

"A marriage, then. An alliance,” suggests Jin Guangshan, surely without any intention of giving up his own son to secure it.

"A hostage or a spy. Even if I could stomach keeping such a person prisoner in my house, they would only ever be someone you could bear to lose. Not overly effective as a deterrent for war."

"You wish us to give you someone dear?" Lan Xichen asks.

"No.” Yiling Laozu spits the word. “You are missing the point. You have nothing I want and no possible way to guarantee the safety of my people, my land, or myself at the end of this war.”

Lan Wangji does not miss the way he orders that list.

Yiling Laozu shakes his head, his rage tempered by weariness. “Nobody in this banquet hall is without ulterior goals, and I do not begrudge you them. But I will not help you only to have you turn on me and mine as soon as you have enough room to breathe. Your self-righteousness and your fear and your hunger is all too thick."

The room is, if possible, more shocked than it was after his first refusal. There was still some small hope in that surprise. A chance for bargaining, maybe. Now there is none. Yiling Laozu has made sure of it.

He looks sad.

"See, Nie-gongzi. Wasn't that entertaining?"

Yiling Laozu turns to leave. The tips of his wings drag against the floor like physical things. In the stunned silence, his footsteps echo, strident, purposeful, as he makes his way toward the mouth of the hall.

Lan Wangji stands. He is not sure what drives him to do it. He has never been skilled with words or diplomacy. But neither, he supposes, have helped here, tonight.

And there’s something about him -- about Yiling Laozu. Some kind of pull that Lan Wangji feels. A connection, an understanding. He tugs on it and Yiling Laozu halts.

"You prefer to let Wen Ruohan slaughter us, then?" asks Lan Wangji.

He is surprised by the even timbre of his own voice. He feels himself shaking apart with something more than anger, more than fear, yet held together by something else entirely. Harmonics finally beginning to resolve the frozen discord in his lungs.

Red eyes flick to his and Lan Wangji finds himself paralyzed under the weight of them. These eyes, he understands, have watched centuries pass.

"What do you think this is, young Lan? Do you think you are the first people to conquer and be conquered? I have seen more of you fall to each other than to the ghosts and beasts and demons you all destroy in your contests for glory. You are in a war. There is no winning in a war, only death. Only suffering."

Lan Wangji did not notice Yiling Laozu moving; he did not notice himself moving. But now they stand an arm’s length apart in the center of the hall, gazes locked on each other.

"There would be less death if one of the armies was yours."

He wonders what would happen if he reached out, if his fingers touched the shadows. Would they feel like the feathers they emulate?

"True. But that is not your goal. Your goal is victory. Should I choose to support your side because you are righteous? Look around you, young Lan. Look at the men who lead your armies. Tell me, are they more deserving of their people? Their land?"

Lan Wangji doesn’t look, but he does understand. He does not, entirely, disagree. But there is no room for nuance in Yiling Laozu’s judgment. No room for hope.

"You do not know them."

"You do not know them. And you do not know me." Yiling Laozu’s voice quivers over the last word. Only barely. A string that breaks upon stilling the final note.

Lan Wangji narrows his eyes. "You came here tonight, not to mock us, but to weigh us. And we almost changed your mind. We defied your expectations as you defied ours."

"What is it you think you know, young Lan?"

He bristles. That’s the third time Yiling Laozu has called him “young” and he hates it. He hates it viscerally even as he recognizes the disparity between them. He is likely painfully young to Yiling Laozu. But he is not a child to be dismissed as such. To be lied to. You do not know me.

"You want to help us. You want Wen Ruohan gone, just as we do."

"No.”

Lan Wangji almost staggers at the certainty in the word. He blinks. But he is sure. He is not misreading this. So he sets his jaw and raises an eyebrow, challenging the Dread Immortal.

The immortal who returns Lan Wangji’s challenge with an eyebrow raise of his own. “I want him gone, sure, but not to assume his place,” his chin juts toward Jin Guangshan. Then toward Nie Mingjue and Jiang Wanyin, “Not to kill the terror from the north. Not for revenge. And not, young Lan, because it is right."

Young Lan.

They are standing even closer now. Lan Wangji thinks he might be able to feel Yiling Laozu’s breath on his face. He might be beneath the arch of his towering, black wings.

"If you do nothing, he will come for Yiling just as you believe we will."

"If I do nothing, that is likely true."

"So you will do something?"

Something softens around Yiling Laozu’s eyes. The red of them dims just enough that Lan Wangji can see the hint of an iris inside, likely only because they are standing so close. The corner of Yiling Laozu’s mouth ticks up -- a tiny smile, different from all the others he’s worn tonight. Lan Wangji’s breath catches in his throat.

"Yes,” Yiling Laozu whispers, and it sounds like it’s a concession to even say it. “But not for you."

There is a sound like a thousand wings flapping inside of a cave and the world goes black.

When Lan Wangji opens his eyes again, Yiling Laozu is gone.

#the war ends like 3 days later and whenever lwj meets the new zongzhu of qishan wen she says to him 'yllz sends his regards'#wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #fanfiction #mdzs #yiling laozu #immortal!wwx #sunshot campaign #my writing #title from 'tongues & teeth' by the crane wives #i honestly don't know where this goes #lwj probably goes to yiling at some point and meets farmer!wwx in the town? they chat for a bit. maybe a'yuan is there?#wwx doesn't think lwj recognizes him but lwj has the shape of his face burned into his mind #i mean it probably ends with lwj marrying an immortal and working toward immortality himself #but like... i have no idea how we get there from here #send me ideas if you feel like it! crowd sourced fic writing? why not!#happy birthday wwx!#i am not a vessel for your good intent

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