#trying to be a father and an older brother to Huaisang | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thebiscuiteternal · 3 months

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I love your larger age gap Nie Bros au! I want to float the idea of a role reversal larger age gap au where Nie Huaisang is the much older sibling of the pair, and Nie Mingjue is the baby brother.

Whew.

Honestly, it would lean more towards the "bitter" side of bittersweet, because Nie Huaisang has spent his entire fourteen/fifteen years of life knowing that even if his father has tried to love him, even though he has tried to be a good son, he's not the kind of heir his father or the sect wants and never will be. He's sharp and clever, but also small and sickly and exhausted easily and will never be a good night hunter or battle leader. He's so very un-Nie-like that only the fact that he shares his father's eye color and a few of his facial features keeps people from making accusations about his parentage (and even that doesn't stop them sometimes).

But at least his father never tried to replace him or his deceased mother, right?

And then, right after his father has just died, a midwife shows up with a strong healthy baby and a bundle of paperwork declaring the child fully legitimate, and Huaisang has to grapple with the realization that his father did very much try to get a replacement, and since the paperwork is all nice and legal, the elders and senior disciples likely knew about it and said nothing.

He wants to scream or vomit or break things or hit someone, but he does none of the above and just sits beside the crib and stares at nothing while the elders debate his future like he's not even present.

Then there is a little tug on his hair, and when he looks down, little Mingjue has a fistful of it stuffed in his mouth and is staring up at him with big green eyes and... dammit, he can't hate this kid. Mingjue doesn't know what's going on, has no idea how he's destroyed what little of a life his older brother had just by existing. It's not his fault.

Huaisang sighs and gently tugs his hair free, then reaches in to let Mingjue clutch his hand and giggle and gnaw on his fingers.

It's eventually decided that Huaisang will be (a puppet) sect leader, with provisions that as soon as the sect has decided Mingjue is old enough, he will abdicate and leave, so as not to complicate his brother's position by hanging around.

Needless to say, this does not make Huaisang feel the slightest bit better, but he has no choice other than to at least try to do well by his new title, which proves to be more difficult than it has to be because literally every single one of his decisions gets argued and debated and he's constantly being patronized even though it's apparent he's not as stupid as people expect him to be.

Ironically, the son who will replace him winds up becoming his only refuge. Since they didn't have the years of being brothers from the Reverse Nie "canon" timeline, Mingjue never grows up absorbing the disdain everyone else has for Huaisang. Rather, Mingjue has already imprinted on him and throws unholy fits when people try to keep them apart.

It's more common than not that Mingjue sleeps cuddled against his brother's chest in Huaisang's bed instead of his own crib. He starts developing a fierce protective streak before he even knows how to walk or talk, scowling at anyone whose tone he doesn't like when they talk to his brother and trying to grab for hair or throw things at them when he gets really upset about it. People learn quick that if they want to badmouth Huaisang, they have to do it out of earshot of Mingjue, and that only holds more true as he grows up and begins grasping language and starts becoming aware of the disparity between how hard his brother is trying versus the things people say about him.

Everyone else better start watching their insults before they find that Mingjue has grown to have more loyalty to the brother who loves him and does his damnedest to care for him despite all his other duties versus the sect who wants to split them up.

And that's as far as I've currently gotten with this idea.

#mdzs #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #nie sect #reverse nies #larger age gap nies #ideas #worldbuilding

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allthelittlecreepycrawlies · 8 months

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Tonight in "Things I Will Probably Never Write!" it's a yokai AU based on the new official merch art (that finally gave us Nies).

----------

Huaisang grows up very much not wanting to be an ox yokai. Everybody knows he's never gonna be as strong and intimidating as his father and brother, so they have no qualms making fun of the "slow, stupid cow" to his face.

His brother's not much help because Mingjue is solidly in the "ignore it or beat the mockery out of them" camp, and gets mad about Huaisang disrespecting their family if he ever voices his hopes that he's mortal like his mother (supposedly was).

When his horns and tail start growing in, fully cementing him as an ox, Huaisang is inconsolable (and in a lot of pain, tbh). Mingjue is caught between mad that he's taking it so hard and worried because his health has never been great and the transformation might genuinely be fucking him up. He spends most of the transformation period in the worried stage, but when it ends and Huaisang's still alive, he slides over into the mad stage because Huaisang is still distraught and attempts to hide his new demonic appendages.

So they're already constantly at each other's throats over their heritage when Meng Yao enters the picture.

---

Meng Shi was a mirror who ascended into a yokai, and Meng Yao winds up taking after her rather than his father.

He's very precocious, too, developing his first soul mirror, a tiny compact, at a very young age, and Meng Shi is both impressed (her clever boy!) and relieved (a compact is very easy to hide and protect).

As he gets older, he refines his mirror into more elaborate shapes, but he hits a bottleneck when he's fourteen, because he's already reached the point where he'll have to start binding other souls if he's going to improve.

Meng Shi worries, because while she had tethered some of her long-term clients to her own mirror, the general atmosphere of the brothel meant she couldn't have many or tether them too tightly, and most of them were mortal besides.

If her son is going to survive the weakness that is slowly killing her, he needs to get out in the world and start finding other yokai to snare.

So, knowing that it will be the last time she'll see him because her power will run out and her "human" form will fade before the time limit's up, she directs him to spend five years finding yokai souls to tether.

He suspects what she's up to and doesn't want to leave her, but he is a dutiful boy, so he goes.

Naturally, his first instinct is to look into his father's clan, though, on his mother's orders, he's careful to hide what kind of yokai he is.

It goes badly. Very badly.

He winds up being picked up (literally) from the stairs by the visiting Nies after Huaisang saw him fall (and almost shatter!). As they help him to a local healer, he secretly checks his mirror, both to make sure it's still holding up and to see if it will let him glean any more useful information about his rescuers.

He is very surprised when Huaisang's reflection doesn't show an ox, like his brother.

It shows a bird.

---

After he's been handed over to a healer, he winds up eavesdropping on what sounds like a very old argument between the brothers, because just before the stairs incident, Mingjue had caught Huaisang trying to hide his horns and tail again.

And Meng Yao, being very well-read and very good at putting pieces together, realizes he's stumbled on an exceptionally rare opportunity.

Yokai whose types became misaligned across incarnations, like… say… a bird soul being born to an ox body, are a particularly potent power source for mirror yokai, both because the clash between soul and body constantly leaks power, and because their dysphoria and misery make them easy to snare.

More than that, Meng Yao could even take the risk to seal Huaisang away within the mirror itself, rather than having to rely on the tenuous tethers his mother used, because if even half of what Mingjue snaps at his younger brother is true, Huaisang going missing won't be an actual problem.

It would be a win for everyone, really. Inside the mirror's little pocket dimension, Huaisang can live as the species he should have been, Mingjue will no longer have to deal with such an inadequate heir, and Meng Yao will have a permanent companion and an almost endless power supply to further his growth.

He just has to arrange the right moment to make his move.

#mdzs #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #sangyao #ideas

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lilapplesheadcannons · 3 months

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Nie MingJue, the unintentional kidnapper

Or that time A-Yuan almost got adopted into the Nie Sect

Nie MingJue is starting to get slightly uncomfortable. Sure, it has been decades since HuaiSang was a toddler (two decades, to be more specific), but surely toddlers need to blink more? The child is looking at him like he is the most mesmerising vision it has ever seen in its entire 4 years on earth.

He tries to glance through the door without being too intruding. He understands there is a touching reunion happening somewhere inside, and God knows he doesn't want to interrupt the Jiangs screaming and crying and hitting and hugging their wayward prodigal demonic cultivator, but surely someone else can take the child? Is it not a cousin of the Ghost General and her terrifying sister? Now he thinks about it, he is not so sure they are very fit guardians if they are willing to abandon their charge to any random cultivator. And the worst part is A-Yao, the person best suited to deal with this situation, has left with them, presumably trying to find a quieter resting place for the Wen remnants away from the chaos that is the 100 days celebration of the newest Jin baby.

He flinches when a soft finger cautiously pokes his cheek. The child grins guilelessly at him and says, "Pretty gege!"

Nie MingJue blushes to the root of braids. That's it! This child is obviously surrounded by unreliable people who would teach him utter nonsense or dump him in the middle of enemy territories, so as a responsible adult, it is his solemn duty to adopt the child (a boy? It is dressed as one, but who knows with Wei Wuxian?) and take it to Qinghe. He stands up with the child under one armpit, the child seemingly unbothered by being dangled like a sack of potatoes.

"He's mine!"

Lan Xichen's baby brother looks just as angry as he did on the day they first met, when he ended up biting HuaiSang. Except now he is almost as tall as MingJue, and he has already put the tip of his finger on his sword.

Rude!

Nie MingJue, a sect leader and the chief cultivator, is an older brother first and foremost. How can he resist ruffling Lan Er-Gongji's already ruffled feathers even more?

"I didn't know Wangji had a child."

Wangji bristles even further, reminding him of the time he accidentally stepped on Second Mother's cat's tail.

The child waves at him from his precarious position, "Rich Gege!"

Does Wangji's eyes soften a little? Nie MingJue can swear he saw a crack of smile in his lips. Surely, he is just hallucinating. The child chirps out again, "Pretty Gege!" pointing at MingJue. The room temperature plummets several degrees.

"GIVE HIM TO ME!"

If Wangji doesn't want to take over from Lan Laoshi, he can easily earn his living teaching enunciation to rich masters. Nue MingJue heard every syllable distinctly, including the single exclamation mark at the end. Is he serious?

Nie MingJue stares at him. He has heard rumours. The light bearing lord! The war has done awful things to the cultivators. Once kind, just men have been reduced to butchers with enough trauma to last a few lifetimes, but surely it hasn't changed the upright young man in front of him to such an extent that he was willing to...

He moves the child from underneath his arm and settles him down on the ground behind him.

"Look here, Wangji, he is just a child..."

He gets interrupted again by the same clear, obstinate tone.

"Give him to me! Now!"

Has Wangji lost it? Does he want to kill a child, practically a baby, to avenge his father and his sect? Does he really think he can get away with killing the adopted child of Wei Wuxian when Wei Wuxian himself was just a few doors away? Not to mention the Ghost General and the Jiang sect leader in the vicinity?

You can probably cut the tension with a blunt sabre. That's the first thing Lan Xichen notices when he walks in, the second thing being his brother and his best friend locked in a staring contest. Wangji looks like he is ready to start a fight, and Da-Ge has that little mocking smile, which means he is happy to indulge. Behind him, little A-Yuan is studiously examining the pattern on the carpet.

Wangji breaks the stare first. He turns to his big brother and says, almost petulantly,

"He's not giving A-Yuan back!"

Lan Xichen smiles and shakes a deprecating finger at MingJue in mock sensor,

"Now, now, what do you mean by not handing over my nephew to my brother? Da-ge! If you indeed want a child,..."

Wait a second! The jibe about the child being Wangji's, that was purely a taunt. Is it true? Did Wangji really have a child? A 4 years old? But, he begs your biggest pardon, Wangji is a child himself! How can he have a child? When? With whom?

Having his sympathetic brother on his side seems to encourage Wangji to speak further.

"A-Yuan called him pretty!"

If only people could see their Light bearing Lord pouting! Xichen tuts.

"For shame, Da-Ge!"

But before Nie MingJue can demand explanation, A-Yuan decides he has had enough of the carpet and stands up, then walks over to Lan Wangji in a brisk, businesslike manner, who bends down to pick him up without breaking eye contact with Nie MingJue and pointedly kisses the child's forehead.

Nie MingJue is pretty sure he is having a Qi deviation right now. Ah well, there are worse ways to go, he supposes.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs crack #pure crack #nie mingjue #lan wangji #a yuan #wen yuan #lan xichen #Just imagine Wei Wuxian brought the whole burial mound to the Carp Tower for Jin Ling's 100 days celebration #of course he and the Jiang siblings have a lot to catch up on #and Jin ZiXuan needs to hold the baby while patting Jiang Yanli on the back #And Jin GuangYao needs to somehow accommodate few extra dozen of people! Managerial nightmare!!#Wait! Nie MingJue is just sitting there! Let him mind the toddler for a while!#Lan Wangji believes his precious son almost got kidnapped by the chief cultivator

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jaimebluesq · 11 months

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hiiiii. remember that post we discussed where jin guangyao mistakenly gets the idea nie huaisang is the same kind of libertine as his father and is trying so hard not to let his feelings about it show that he just keeps stressing himself out more? and then it turns out the brothel workers aren't sex partners, they're novel/art collaborators?

(i swear im not asking for a full fic. one little scene is *plenty*.)

Yes! I'm more than happy to oblige :D I hope you enjoy this, and happy birthday!

~ ~ ~

Meng Yao was seriously questioning all of his life choices.

It has seemed a good idea to come to Qinghe Nie after his efforts to join Lanling Jin had been thwarted. At first it had seemed the Nie were just as bad as every other cultivator, judging him for his mother’s profession, until Nie Mingjue had proven to be above such things. Meng Yao had happily taken advantage of the new opportunity presented to him to try and make himself invaluable to his sect leader, hoping that under Nie Mingjue, his hard work would speak for itself. And his life had been going well! Even when he’d been assigned to occasionally wrangle his sect leader’s little brother, what had first seemed to be a punishment became a boon because he soon discovered that very few people were trusted enough to allow close to the Nie brothers. Nie Huaisang had almost immediately adopted Meng Yao as another older brother, despite them being quite similar in age, and Meng Yao came to realize he actually enjoyed doting on him in return.

There had only been one problem: the sweet boy he’d taken a shining to was a Jin Guangshan in the making. At first it had been subtle, him noticing Nie Huaisang’s occasional lustful and lascivious glance toward women and men alike, though his looks were always well-disguised so as not to clue in the object of his affections. Then there had been the spring books – so many spring books – that always seemed to be open to the most lewd images whenever Meng Yao visited his young master’s bedroom. Finally, it had been the brothel visits. That had been the last straw for Meng Yao, the moment he’d truly begun shaking his head at his charge’s future and wondering what he had gotten himself into coming to Qinghe Nie. Had he adopted a ‘didi’ only to watch him become his father? One time, Nie Mingjue had asked him to accompany Nie Huaisang on one of his visits to the Scarlet Veil, but Meng Yao had found an excuse to remain in the Unclean Realm. After Meng Yao had refused two more such requests, Nie Mingjue had stopped asking, which suited him just fine.

Until today. Technically, his sect leader had not asked him to accompany Nie Huaisang to the brothel – because Nie Huaisang was already there, and was late coming home. The disciple that had left with him had returned an hour ago, drunk and reeking of alcohol with no memory of having been accompanied by anyone, let alone his young master. And thus Nie Mingjue had come to Meng Yao and asked him to retrieve his brother because there were few others he trusted to do so while keeping his brother’s reputation intact.

How could Meng Yao refuse?

And now he stood before the brothel’s doors, dreading what he would find when he entered.

He hadn’t been to a brothel since he had left Yunping. They reminded him far too much of his childhood, walking down corridors to hear moans of pleasure and the occasional scream of pain when a client abused the courtesan who had taken them to bed, worrying every day that his mother would meet such a client and she would be taken from him. Fear that he would be forced into the same line of work despite his mother’s efforts to keep him from it. He respected the courtesans who worked such places – their clients were the ones who deserved his derision.

And unfortunately, sweet little Nie Huaisang was one such client.

He took a steeling breath before entering the Scarlet Veil and speaking to one of the ladies, introducing himself as a representative of Nie Mingjue and asking to speak with Nie Huaisang. He expected to be told to wait while they retrieved him – instead, the woman gave him a knowing smirk and waved for him to follow her down the corridor. He kept the disgust from his face as he imagined the worst, of walking in on Nie Huaisang in bed with a courtesan – this was a side of his young charge he did not want to see in person, but if it was what he needed to do to retrieve him, then he would suffer through it.

They approached a door at the end of the corridor and the woman told him that Nie Huaisang was inside, then she turned and left. She didn’t even have the courtesy to stand by as moral support as he entered whatever den of depravity lie beyond this door. He sighed and knocked to advertise his presence.

After several moments, the door was slid open just enough for a head to peek through. “Yes?” the woman asked, looking Meng Yao from head to toe. She was still fully dressed in silky green robes, her hair coiffed to perfection and her makeup immaculate.

“I’m here to retrieve Nie-gongzi,” he said with a smile to mask his displeasure.

“And you would be?”

“This one is Meng Yao.”

“Just a moment.” The door was slid shut and he could hear voices murmuring on the other side, but soon enough it was slid open all the way and the woman gave him a small bow. “Please come in. Nie-gongzi is just on the other side of the screen.”

The door was shut behind him as he moved into the room. The screen was rosewood with paper panels, each painted to portray an erotic act between two or more participants. He closed his eyes a moment as if that could prevent him from seeing whatever was in the room beyond the screen, but he had to open them eventually. He sighed and walked around it-

He froze.

“I know I’m late,” Nie Huaisang called out from a low table on the floor. “But I’m so close to being finished, I didn’t think Da-ge would mind too much.”

Nie Huaisang was kneeling and holding a paint brush, fully dressed in the same clothing he’d worn upon leaving the Unclean Realm. There was a courtesan seated to his left wearing black robes with lavender piping, and she held in her hand an ink stick which she ground in a bowl to produce a silky dark grey ink. Before them stood another courtesan, bare save for a diaphanous sash that was strategically placed to cover certain parts of her body, and she held still as if she had been a dancer caught mid-movement.

This... wasn’t what he’d expected.

He approached Nie Huaisang’s table and looked down to find several pieces of paper, all of which had been painted to show the three courtesans present in various poses and states of undress. The detail was exquisite – he had appreciated Nie Huaisang’s artistic talents before, but nothing Meng Yao had seen compared to what he was currently working on.

“I found the story!” The courtesan who had admitted Meng Yao approached with a sheaf of papers in her hand. “We wrote this one a month ago, and I think it will work perfectly with this set of paintings.”

Nie Huaisang excitedly took the papers from her hand and looked them over, then grinned. “You’re right, this one’s perfect! Do you think we’ll be able to get it finished in time?”

The courtesan nodded and sat to his right. “We promised the publisher a new book before the season was out, and this should satisfy him until we finish some of our more intricate pieces.”

Publisher? Story? Meng Yao’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.

“Ah, where are my manners,” Nie Huaisang muttered, then looked up to Meng Yao. “A-Yao, these are Lady Zhou, Lady Yang, and Lady Wong. Ladies, this is Meng Yao – I’ve mentioned him before.”

The woman who had been grinding ink – Lady Yang – placed the ink stick onto the grinding bowl and wiped off her hands, then she stood up and bowed to him. “It is an honour, Meng Yao. Would you like to sit? We have some tea, if you like.”

Nie Huaisang tsked. “What did I tell you about there being no bows in this room.” He smiled at her affectionately and she giggled, then turned to fetch the tea.

Meng Yao slowly lowered himself to the table opposite Nie Huaisang. “May I ask, Nie-gongzi... what exactly is going on here?”

“What do you mean?” Nie Huaisang asked, pursing his lips as he lifted his brush to make another stroke upon his paper. “You’ve seen my spring books.”

“I’ve seen spring books in your room, yes...”

“Honestly, the first few I acquired were so badly drawn. Limbs out of proportion, bodies in unnatural positions... you would think the artist had never seen a naked woman before.”

“Neither had you, at the time,” Lazy Zhou teased with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, but at least I had the sense to see one before putting ink to paper to draw one.”

“So...” Meng Yao paused, feeling as if he needed to reevaluate his entire worldview. “You’ve been coming to the brothel to paint.”

Nie Huaisang nodded.

“He’s being modest,” Lady Wong said from above – she shifted from where she’d been standing and stretched out her limbs. “He paints and writes most of the stories-”

“The three of you help!” Nie Huaisang protested.

“-and it was his idea to publish our own spring books,” Lady Wong finished.

“Now who’s being modest?” Nie Huaisang returned. “We all know the three of you are the sexual experts here – none of the sex scenes would be remotely legible if it weren’t for your experience.”

Lady Yang returned with the tea set and distributed cups, then patted Nie Huaisang’s head. “We keep telling you we’re more than happy to help you get some experience as well.”

Nie Huaisang’s face turned bright red. He picked up a cup and drank to avoid replying.

“He’s a romantic,” Lady Zhou said in an aside to Meng Yao. “Says he’s waiting for that special someone.”

Meng Yao blinked and looked to his charge. He had greatly misjudged him, and he swallowed down a small ball of guilt in the back of his throat. “And do the profits get back to the Unclean Realm?”

“Only a little,” Nie Huaisang replied, looking thankful for the change in subject. “Some of it pays for my visits here – sadly a courtesan’s time isn’t free, even if there’s no ‘business’ involved. And the rest they split among themselves.”

“Another year,” Lady Wong said with a hopeful smile, “and we might be able to buy our way out of here. We’re saving up, and... I can embroider, Lady Zhou paints fans, and Lady Yang has met a young man that wishes to marry her, but he’s poor and cannot buy out her contract.”

“She won’t let me do it either,” Nie Huaisang pouted and looked to Lady Yang. “But you can’t stop me from buying the fabric for your wedding robes when the time comes.”

Meng Yao looked from one person to another, then settled on Nie Huaisang. “You do know what people think you do here.”

Nie Huaisang nodded, a rare serious look upon his face. “Honestly, I prefer it that way. You know how people look down on me for my painting and for liking poetry and hating training my saber... I can just imagine what they’d think if they knew I’ve been coming here all this time and was still a virgin.”

The three courtesans looked at Meng Yao, and he realized they were protective of Nie Huaisang. They were waiting to see how he would react, to see if he would look down on him for his interests and what he did here, and perhaps for helping them.

Meng Yao took in a deep breath and reached out to take Nie Huaisang’s hand in his, and he could feel the corners of his eyes beginning to grow wet. “I knew your brother was more open-minded than most of his station, and I’m sorry for doubting you were as well. I wish there had been someone like you in Yunping, to help my mother when she needed it most.”

Nie Huaisang’s hand squeezed his back. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I know you’ve never judged me for my interests, but... I guess I’m just used to keeping it to myself. It’s nice to have secrets, sometimes.”

They shared a look, and all was well.

“So,” Meng Yao said, releasing Nie Huaisang’s hand and picking up the ink stick to take over grinding the ink, “what can I do to help?”

(The End!)

#meng yao #nie huaisang #birthday gift

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robininthelabyrinth · 2 years

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Inspired by your 'Xichen is the master manipulator' - Qiren really IS the power hungry brother that the Lan elders always feared he might be

“Could you at least tell me why?”

“Why not?” Lan Qiren asked. He sounded genuinely puzzled, as if he really had no idea why anyone would object to everything he’d done. “There was nothing else I could have done.”

“What do you mean?”

Lan Qiren shrugged. “I love my sect,” he said, and the offensiveness of hearing that after everything – after all the secret machinations, after all the scheming, the traps, the tragedies that had been wrought perhaps not by this man’s hands but at the very least from his mind – was almost breath-taking. “I love my sect more than anything else. More than anything, you understand? My Lan sect deserves the best, and only the best…was I supposed to stand aside and watch as it was driven into the ground by the mismanagement of others?”

That provoked a bitter taste, welling up on the tongue.

“It was not wrong, when everyone described my older brother as a cultivation maniac,” Lan Qiren said thoughtfully – slipping instinctively into a lecture, ever the consummate teacher. “A shining star, beautiful, but he burnt out so quickly, too quickly. He fell in love with a woman who didn’t love him and promptly fell apart when she didn’t return his affections; he forgot everything, even the sect, wasting our resources and mismanaging our affairs. Should he have been allowed to lead us all into destruction, just because he was born first and me second…? No. Our ancestors wouldn’t have wanted that.”

They wouldn’t have wanted a second son to scheme against the first, either.

“After he was put aside with that wife of his – and really, I barely did anything there but present the two of them with opportunities for their own self-destruction, you can scarcely hold it against me – after that was done, I governed the sect well for many years,” Lan Qiren continued. “I was good and fair, I did what I had to, avoided what I didn’t. I protected our reputation and made us proud, and when the time came, I stepped down and handed over power just like a good son the Lan sect should…”

“Did you? Did you really?”

Lan Qiren arched his eyebrows. “My help was not only needed but wanted, was it not? Xichen always asked for it. He was still young, still unsure, and I was after all right there, ready and available to assist. Surely you cannot hold that against me? Of course, he did keep the power for the big decisions. Like asking the Jin sect for help rebuilding.”

“And we could not permit that.”

“It was tantamount to turning our great Gusu Lan sect into mere subsidiary petitioners of Lanling Jin,” Lan Qiren said coldly. “I sought to dissuade him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Just like his father before him, he was blinded by love, and misused his power as a result. What could I do, then, but act…? The Jin sect could not be allowed to remain at the top.”

“You…what about Nie Huaisang?”

“A clever boy, though a poor student. He wanted revenge for his brother, and wasn’t picky about what he needed to do to get it; he was more than willing to play his part. And it all worked out in the end, did it not?”

“How can that be?! I – the entire world has been torn apart! Now Xiongzhang is in seclusion, and I –”

“Wangji,” Lan Qiren sighed. “Ah, Wangji, Wangji. You have your love, do you not, your new husband? You broke all our rules, not once but twice, for him…you were always my favorite, or else I would not be so generous with you. Be satisfied with what you have, and do not seek more than that.”

Lan Wangji’s hands tightened into fists. “Or else…what?”

“Don’t be so ungracious,” his uncle rebuked. “Tell me now: do you think you can lead our sect, and lead it well, and still be Wei Wuxian’s devoted husband? If you say so, I will step back and let you try.”

Lan Wangji swallowed. “And if I fail…?”

Lan Qiren’s eyes upon him were as chill as any glacier. “You may be my favorite, Wangji. But if you think you will ultimately fail our sect and me, then I would strongly recommend that you not even try.”

#mdzs #lan qiren #lan wangji #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons

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tragcdysewn · 2 months

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was that wang yizhou? oh no no, that was just nie mingjue, a canon character from the untamed. they are twenty six years old, use he/him, and are aware that they are not actually from washington dc. too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here:

about two years, physical age is about twenty eight

what is your character’s job:

he's a secret service agent, assigned to kirei monsula

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom:

right after his death

has any magic affected your character:

he's alive again, and the saber spirit affecting his mind is muted

and any other information you might find useful for us and the other members to know:

nie mingjue is the first son of the nie clan leader, and the heir to the clan. he was raised to be the leader, to master the clan's techniques and become a perfect example of their principles.

his mother died when he was four years old, and his father remarried and had his half brother, huaisang, a few years later. mingjue doted on his little brother, even from childhood. his brother was very soft and artistic, the opposite of mingjue in every way, but mingjue adored him

when mingjue was only fifteen, their father died in an attack orchestrated by wen ruohan, and mingjue was suddenly the clan leader far earlier than expected, as well as tasked with taking care of huaisang in their parent's place. he took it in stride, and became a solid leader for the clan

as he grew older, the nie clan saber techniques began to mess with his mind, and he started trying to prepare huaisang to take over in his place. but before he could make many preparations, the wen clan declared war on the cultivation world, and he took charge of the armies and led cultivators into battle. this was both a personal vendetta for his father, and a desire to keep the wen clan from overtaking the traditions of every other clan

during the war, he witnessed one of his closest friends kill a general from his armies who'd been cruel to him, and he kicked the man out of the sect. to him, this was a mercy, banishing him rather than executing him for the crime, but he never even asked meng yao about why he'd done what he'd done, and that was the beginning of his downfall

at the end of the sunshot campaign, he was captured by wen ruohan, and meng yao claimed himself as the wen leader's close confidant. he was then revealed as a spy for the clans once wen ruohan was killed, but mingjue's trust in him was entirely broken by that point, despite his dearest friend placing his faith in meng yao

he assisted in the campaign against wei wuxian, believing the man to be harboring war criminals who would one day attack and restart the war, and was present at the man's death, hoping it would bring about a time of peace

for a few years after the war, that was, in fact, the case, but soon after, the saber spirit began taking a hold on his mind, making him more and more volatile. unbeknownst to him, it was hurried on by meng yao, now jin guangyao, under the guise of helping him

eventually, he snapped entirely, and attacked jin guangyao, who then revealed what he'd done, before killing mingjue and cutting him into multiple pieces that he scattered across the country, his disappearance left unsolved for years until his body parts began to attack innocents, and they were rediscovered by lan wangji and wei wuxian and reassembled by his little brother, his spirit sealed in a coffin with jin guangyao to fight for the next century

in dc, he holds no memory of his spirit's actions, but has been informed of how he was deceived in life, both in terms of wei wuxian and the saber spirit, and is attempting to make amends for the crimes he committed against he innocent wens, as well as balancing his mental state before he hurts anyone else

#hw: intro #murder mention tw #dismemberment tw #i rlly took the two buffest giantest dudes in this fandom and went 'baby boy baby boy baby'

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stiltonbasket · 2 years

Note

i know they’re currently at war but can we see lxc and jc competing to be spiritual baby a-yuan’s favourite uncle?

“Zewu-jun, seventeen; Jiang-zongzhu, twelve,” Li Shuai whispers in Nie Huaisang’s ear. “I don’t think Jiang-zongzhu’s going to beat him by the time you leave, Nie-ge.”

Nie Huaisang pulls out his fan and wafts a few strands of hair away from her neck. He would have dealt with his own sweaty neck first, but Li-guniang is a lady, and Nie Huaisang knows what chivalry demands of an upright young master, even if his low cultivation prevents him from being gallant as often as he would like.

“I don’t know about that,” he muses, stroking his chin in a reflexive imitation of Lan Qiren. “We’ve only been here three days, and Xichen-ge wants to stay for another two weeks.”

“You mean Hanguang-jun wants to stay,” Maiden Li reminds him. “Now be quiet, or they’ll hear us.”

The two of them are hiding in Lotus Pier’s expansive rose gardens, cultivated by Li-guniang and Jiang Yanli after the end of the Sunshot Campaign. The rose trees have grown up quickly, nourished by the abundant lingli in the earth, which means that the place is perfect for spying: namely, on Zewu-jun and Jiang Cheng, who set up their lunch table a few yards away. A-Yuan is with them, because Hanguang-jun and Wei-xiong had things to do in town, and the two uncles have been fighting over A-Yuan’s favor since they left--although it doesn’t seem to be much of a contest.

“A-Yuan,” Nie Huaisang hears his brother-in-law coo, followed by the tell-tale jingling of A-Yuan’s little hands playing with Xichen-ge’s ornaments. “Do you like bofu’s necklace? You can have it when you’re a little older.”

“Isn’t that the necklace Chifeng-zun commissioned for your betrothal?” Jiang-xiong asks. “You can’t just give it to A-Yuan.”

“My husband will understand,” Xichen-ge says tranquilly. “If I ask, Mingjue-xiong will make me another.”

“Spoiled,” Li Shuai mutters under her breath. “Tian ah, he’s more bewitching than a huli jing.”

“He is,” Nie Huaisang agrees. Married life suits Lan Xichen beautifully, and da-ge refuses to let his new husband leave their chambers without covering him in jewelry: earrings, necklaces, delicate bracelets, sparkling chains affixed to his hairpins, and even a silver and white-jade ring which was said to have belonged to the Nie sect founder’s wife.

The trinkets have been Xichen-ge’s greatest weapon in the battle for A-Yuan’s affections, since babies love playing with shiny things, and Jiang-xiong doesn’t wear any jewelry but his father’s old guan. In Nie Huaisang’s opinion, Jiang-xiong could easily do better with Yuanyuan if he borrowed a few of Jiang-guniang’s old zanzi, but Jiang Cheng insists that resorting to such tactics would be playing dirty: he is the uncle that A-Yuan sees every day, he says, so Zewu-jun’s use of pretty baubles to win the child over will mean less than nothing in the long run.

“Yuan’er,” Jiang Cheng says again, a little closer to Huaisang’s hiding place this time. “Come here so jiujiu can give you some lotus milk pudding.”

A-Yuan nods and squeals in delight, clapping his little pink hands together before rolling off Lan Xichen’s lap. “A-Yuan pudding!”

“There!” Jiang-xiong exclaims, dragging A-Yuan into his arms before Xichen-ge can try to pick him up again. “Good child, Yuanyuan! Jiujiu will put extra sugar in your pudding, just the way you like it.”

“Sugar will rot his teeth,” Lan Xichen objects. “At his age, he should not be eating anything sweeter than plain fruit.”

“He barely has any teeth, Zewu-jun. And anyway, Pan-daifu says lotus curd is medicinal. It’s good for him.”

Xichen-ge laughs and bows his head in defeat. “En, very well. I would not lightly contradict another healer, especially one with so many years’ worth of experience. Good afternoon, Jiang-zongzhu!”

With that, the two part ways, leaving Nie Huaisang and Li Shuai to extract themselves from Jiang Yanli’s favorite thornless rosebush. Nie Huaisang got his robes caught in a knot of roots, so Yu Zhenhong has to be called in to render assistance; and after that, their little band of schemers retreats to Huaisang’s guest pavilion to discuss the events of the day.

“That brings us to seventeen for Zewu-jun and thirteen for Jiang-zongzhu,” Li Shuai says triumphantly, while Yu Zhenhong pours her a cup of lotus tea. “We might catch up to him yet, Brother Nie.”

“Not if I have anything to say on the matter,” Nie Huaisang retorts. “After all, it’ll be difficult for Jiang-xiong to pull ahead after Wei-xiong and Yuanyuan move to Gusu.”

Li Shuai drops her cup of tea.

“What?” she screeches, driving a flock of blue-crested herons out of the water at their feet. “Seriously? Da-shixiong’s agreed?”

“According to my sources, yes,” Nie Huaisang drawls, retreating behind his fan. “You see, Nie Zonghui went out to buy himself a new summer cloak last night, and he heard Wei-xiong and Wangji-xiong talking on the roof near the training court when he came back. Wangji-xiong was confessing his feelings, and Wei-xiong accepted them and promised that he and A-Yuan would move to the Cloud Recesses by Yuanyuan’s second birthday.”

“In the middle of the night? When none of us were around to hear?” Li-guniang says indignantly. “How can da-shixiong call me his favorite shimei, when he treats me like this?”

Yu Zhenhong laughs. “He’ll have to announce the engagement sometime, A-Shuai. And since we already know, we can start preparing da-shixiong’s wedding gifts early.”

“With what money?” Li Shuai demands, springing up to her feet. “Oh, I hope shixiong plans his wedding before Jiang-shijie’s! Jin Zixuan’s been sniffing around lately, and we won’t be able to afford a fine wedding for Wei-shixiong if Shijie gets married first.”

“Jiang-guniang is older,” Nie Huaisang reminds her. “She should be married first.”

“Well, yes, but Jin Guangshan should cover her expenses. It’s not as if he’s good for anything else.”

Li Shuai and Yu Zhenhong trade significant looks over Nie Huaisang’s head, too obviously thinking of Jin Guangshan’s latest message asking Wei Wuxian to surrender the Yinhufu to Lanling. He doesn’t know that Wangji-xiong is Yuanyuan’s father, or that Gusu Lan holds stronger ties to Yunmeng than Lanling has to anywhere else; but he clearly believes that he should be sitting on the throne Wen Ruohan left behind, and Gusu’s new marriage alliance to Qinghe will only have accelerated his plans to obtain it.

“Da-shixiong will be safer in Gusu, too,” Yu Zhenhong murmurs. “We cannot claim full sway over our own private affairs while Jiang-shijie hopes to marry Jin Zixuan. And it will happen sometime, so Wei Wuxian must leave Yunmeng Jiang as soon as possible.”

Nie Huaisang nods. After Wei-xiong marries Lan Wangji, matters concerning Wei Wuxian will be the Lan sect’s business: and through Da-ge’s marriage to Lan Xichen, the business of the Nie sect as well. But for now, making demands of Wei-xiong will do nothing but inconvenience Yunmeng Jiang, and compromise the youngest, weakest zongzhu among the four great clans.

“Brother Nie,” Yu Zhenhong says gravely. “Now that da-shixiong and Hanguang-jun have sorted out their feelings, the wedding preparations must be handled with the utmost speed and discretion. Not one word of this should reach the Jinlintai.”

“That I can do,” Huaisang promises. “We’ll give no more than a month’s notice before the wedding, and Nie Zonghui and I will handle all the tradesmen’s orders. Now, scram! I can see Jiang-guniang coming this way.”

So they scatter, sprinting in different directions before Jiang Yanli can turn the corner and catch them. Li Shuai activates an air-beneath-water talisman and jumps into the lake, while Yu Zhenhong darts down a side passage leading back to the kitchens; and Nie Huaisang takes a transportation talisman to Lan Xichen’s guest quarters, where he finds his brother-in-law eating loquats on a luohan bed with one of Huaisang’s myna birds.

“Well?” Xichen-gege asks, with a sly glint of mischief in his eye. “Do we have a plan, Huaisang?”

Nie Huaisang opens his fan and covers half of his face with it.

“Oh, Huan-ge,” he smirks, “do we ever.”

#wangxian #nielan #nie huaisang #mo dao zu shi #lan sizhui #the untamed #cultivation baby sizhui au #my fic #not during the war but uncle competition is here!#>:3

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ibijau · 3 years

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Prompt: Nie Huaisang finds out by accident that Wei Wuxian really was Jiang Fengmian's illegitimate child with Cangse Sanren. It's up to you what you want Huaisang to do with that information.

Nie Huaisang looks like his mother, and at age sixteen is about the same height as she was.

It's probably why Sect Leader Jiang, who made the mistake of drinking with Jin Guangshan at this banquet, had now grabbed Nie Huaisang and is talking to him as if he's an old friend. After all, his mother is from Yunmeng. She was the illegitimate daughter of a former Jiang disciple and the daughter of an official stationed in the area for a few years. A Jiang disciple who already had a wife, and a son who, upon learning he had a half-sister, had invited her to visit sometimes. She'd become friendly with her half-brother, and with the lady he would someday marry, and then because he was always around she'd also become friendly with Sect Leader Jiang, who had eventually introduced her to Nie Huaisang's father, eventually leading to the birth of Nie Huaisang himself and then her marriage to Sect Leader Nie, in that order.

Technically, this all means that Nie Huaisang is actually Wei Wuxian's cousin.

Or so he thought until tonight. Because tonight, Sect Leader Jiang is drunk enough to think he's talking to an old friend, and the things he's confiding to poor Nie Huaisang are...

Well, first of all it's making him a little sad, if he's honest, because he doesn't particularly like his Nie cousins, so it was a comfort to think that he secretly had a real cool cousin who is fun to hang out with.

But mostly those confidences are making Nie Huaisang impossibly uncomfortable. It's not something he should know. It's not something he wants to know. And although he's not exactly the brightest person in the world, there's a little voice in a corner of his mind telling him that this is information that could cause a lot of chaos if he repeated it to the wrong person. It certainly would hurt Wei Wuxian a lot, who takes great pride in the people he believes to be his parents. It would also ruin Sect Leader Jiang's marriage. And it would destroy Jiang Cheng.

Nie Huaisang, at age sixteen, hates the thought of hurting people who haven't deserved it.

He announces loudly that Sect Leader Jiang needs to rest, and with the help of a Nie disciple takes the man to his room, where he won't force unwanted confession onto unwilling boys who didn't even want to be at this stupid banquet in the first place.

In the morning, Sect Leader Jiang has a terrible hangover, as expected. But when Nie Huaisang greets him, the older man shows no fear, no regret. He must have forgotten what the wine made him say.

Nie Huaisang pretends he's forgotten too, and doesn't share this secret with anyone, not even his brother.

Nie Huaisang, at age sixteen, would rather not bother with anything more complicated than matching patterns for his next outfit.

Nie Huaisang, at age eighteen, is cheerfully ignoring all the complexities of the world around him, happy to know that with the Wen sect gone, everything is now at peace.

He's aware that things aren't so simple, but he's happy to pretend otherwise. The Jins don't bother him, personally, so he doesn't care that they're clearly trying to grab power for themselves in the aftermath of the war. Jin Guangshan is very unpleasant and dresses like a nouveau-rich who thinks gold goes with everything, so of course nobody is going to fall for whatever it is he's trying to do.

It is vaguely concerning to see Wei Wuxian be the target of much Jin ire. Even knowing what he knows, Nie Huaisang still somewhat considers him to be family. He should have been family, if not for some old people being complete idiots when they were young (unlike Nie Huaisang, who is also young and an idiot, but in a very cool and fashionable manner that he will never, ever regret). Sometimes, Nie Huaisang feels like he should try to help, only to invariably remember that there's not really anything he could do. It's such a messy situation, and there's just a lot about it that he doesn't understand.

Even this damn secret he's been carrying for an entire two year probably wouldn't do any good. It might make the Jiangs hold on even more dearly to Wei Wuxian, or it might upset Jiang Cheng so much that he'll kick out his first disciple on the spot, and won't that be a mess.

Nie Huaisang, at age eighteen, just doesn't feel like getting involved in anything political, because ultimately none of it concerns him.

Nie Huaisang, at age twenty-five, is wondering if there's anything to be gained from destroying Jiang Cheng.

It'd be a very easy thing to do, and he sometimes think it might be a useful one, too. If he could make it seem like the rumour is coming from Lanling... Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng have a tolerably good relationship in general, but the recent death of Jin Rusong has disturbed their careful balance. All of a sudden, they find themselves both needing little Jin Ling as an heir, and while it doesn't seem likely that they would normally get in a fight over that, perhaps with the right encouragement, perhaps if Jiang Cheng were already angry about something else...

In the end, Nie Huaisang decides against it. Not out of kindness, he doesn't have an ounce of that left in his bones, but out of fear. That plan is too risky. Jiang Cheng could surprise him by taking the news better than expected. Or else, Jin Guangyao might well turn the reveal that Wei Wuxian was Sect Leader Jiang's true first-born to his advantage, robbing Jiang Cheng of his hard earning reputation until Yunmeng Jiang loses the power it fought so hard to regain after the war.

Nie Huaisang, at age twenty-five, discards yet another plan and resumes his patient watch, waiting for his enemy to show a weakness he can exploit.

Nie Huaisang, at age thirty four, doesn't know if he'll ever share that secret revealed to him almost two decades ago.

He doesn't need that to keep Jiang Cheng on his best behaviour now that he's risen to being Chief Cultivator, and he doesn't think that it's something he could use against Wei Wuxian, who apparently doesn't care about anything except whatever fun is to be had in Lan Wangji's bed.

It is frustrating sometimes to have such a weapon in his possession and be unable to use it. After all Nie Huaisang has far more than Jiang Fengmian's drunken confession to prove the truth. He's found letters to his mother from Wei Changze and his wife which mention 'a certain incident' before they left, and how 'they will still raise the child away from Yunmeng' because 'it was a mistake, never to be repeated, and if Fengmian knew, he'd try to take their child to replace the one from that woman he was forced to marry'.

Nie Huaisang, at age thirty-four, almost wishes that Nie Huaisang, at age sixteen, had just accidentally revealed the truth one day, so he wouldn't still be burdened with yet another secret he cannot share with anyone.

And of course he could just say it, just tell Wei Wuxian the truth and be done with it, but...

But a secret is a weapon, and Nie Huaisang hasn't survived this long by wasting the weapons life threw his way.

Nie Huaisang, at age thirty-four, continues to wait for the right time to strike.

#nie huaisang #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes

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plan-d-to-i · 2 years

Note

Has mxtx ever mentioned the relative ages of the characters in mdzs? Is Lan wangji birthday before/after Wei Wuxian’s in autumn? The 7/8 days age gap between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian an 11 months gap? Same with Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao? Just curious

She mentions them a few times but usually as estimates so it's hard to pin the down exactly.

Ex: "Jiang FengMian fed [WWX] a piece of melon, and he let Jiang FengMian carry him back. Back then, Jiang Cheng was also around eight or nine."

Chapter 13 however confirms WWX and jc are the same age:

At a later time, Wei WuXian pondered upon the reason why his relationship with Lan WangJi wasn’t good. Getting to the root of the matter, everything started when he was fifteen, coming to the GusuLan Sect with Jiang Cheng to study for three months.

and

In that year, aside from the YunmengJiang Sect, there were also the young masters from other clans, sent to study here from parents who heard of the reputation. The young masters were all around fifteen or sixteen.

LWJ is also the same age:

Nie Huaisang said, “Is there another Lan Zhan? Of course it’s him. My gods, he’s the same age as us, but he doesn’t have a bit of the lively energy people are supposed to have at our age. He’s so stiff and severe—he’s even worse than his uncle.”

The point is any difference is negligible. People just tend to try & use jc's age to infantilize him and justify his shitty behavior, and they ignore WWX's youth in order to burden him with maximum responsibility.

As for JGY and Jin Zixuan, I'm afraid I don't know the exact difference. I just know JGY says this :

“Why is it that even though we were born on the same day, Jin GuangShan could host a grand banquet for one son, and watch with his own eyes how his subordinate kicked his other son down Koi Tower, from the first stair to the last!” (106)

and we also have this:

The title “Lianfang Zun” referred to the current head of the Jin Clan of Lanling, Jin Guangyao. He was the only illegitimate son recognised by Jin Guangshan. He was also Jin Ling’s youngest uncle, and the younger half brother of Jin Ling’s father Jin Zixuan. At the same time, he was also the older half-brother to Wei Wuxian’s present persona, Mo Xuanyu. (chapter 11 taming wangxian)

So Jin Zixuan seems to be older but we don't know by how much exactly.

#mdzs #answers #Wei Wuxian #jiang cheng

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darkandstormyart · 3 years

Text

Xicheng fic recs

(figured i might make a list of my own)

(to be expanded as i dig out more treasure/remember stuff)

in no particular order:

Deep as the Yearning Night by FreckledStarKnight

“At first, it was pure chance. The second time was accidental. And the third time? Well, they say the third time’s the charm, after all. Lan Xichen discovers that Jiang Wanyin sings beautifully and is immediately enamored by it. His pursuit of Jiang Wanyin’s secret talent leads to a discovery and a series of events that he did not anticipate at all. Not that he’s complaining, of course. He got what he came for and more. Or, how two sect leaders get together through the song called love. CQL-verse.“

post-seclusion lxc

trying to get jc to sing

bonus lxc & jin ling feels i hadn’t considered before

cute

Always use protection by hesselives

“In which Lan Wangji attempts to hire a new bodyguard for his older brother, a well-known traveling exorcist. Jiang Wanyin doesn’t even make his carefully considered list of Top Ten Candidates, and yet here he is.

Lots of wandering in the countryside, distant yelling, and mildly inconvenient spirits.”

bodyguard au

honestly just really intersting worldbuilding

Rewrite the stars by Arashii

“Five great kingdoms have been fighting for years and when the kingdom of Yunmeng is destroyed, the Crown Prince Jiang Cheng vanishes.In Gusu, Lan Xichen makes an offer impossible for Jiang Cheng to refuse. His life or revenge? There’s only one option and Jiang Cheng swears loyalty to the man he hated the most his whole life, the Crown Prince of Gusu, Lan Xichen himself.Written for XiChengFest2020 - Day 4“

ROYALTY AU ROYALTY AU

enemies to lovers!

flashbacks! i love flashbacks so much ohmygod

No paths are bound by Arashii

“In seclusion, Lan Huan has the support of a ghost no one has seen since the massacre of Yunmeng Jiang. His feelings start changing with the often visits and conversations they share. Before Lan Huan can confess though, he ascends, leaving everything and everyone behind him.

Two hundred years later, back to the Human Realm and without powers, the Martial God Zewu-Jun has a mission to uphold. His Heavenly Calamity started. The clues are little and the support comes in the most unexpected form, the current Ghost King: Sandu Shengshou. Now they need to stick together to contain a menace that is slowly growing.“

TGCF AU TGCF AU

ghost king jiang cheng come on

doesn’t follow tgcf plot, just the setup so no spoilers

jiang cheng gets the dogs and the xichen he deserves

once upon a dream by cafedeolla

“Xicheng soulmate AU

An au where your dreams are small snippets of your soulmate’s day. They’d show small things like buying coffee, reading a book, or hanging out with people from their perspective.

The problem was that people always have expectations and Jiang Cheng knows he always falls short of them. Time and time again.“

soulmate au, but being soulmates is more a problem than a solution

misunderstandingssss all over the place

now with a squel (in progress?)

Lan Furen series by jagaimocchi

“Jiang Cheng leaves Lotus Pier before the Wen Internment Camp and before the destruction of his home. When he meets Lan Xichen on the run from the Wens after the burning of Cloud Recesses, his plan to live a peaceful life away from cultivation sects is quickly derailed. Now, free to make his own choices, he cannot find it in himself to leave the other man's side.

With love, patience and time, Jiang Cheng finds his own happiness and peace with his past.“

have you ever wanted a fic where jiang cheng peaces out from home in search for a better life, bc he’s Had Enough??? jags got you covered

adorable xicheng

good uncle-dad-figure Lan Qiren

ongoing <3

Just around the riverbend by JungleJelly

“One day.

Jiang Cheng just wanted one day of peace and quiet, away from home, away from his responsibilities, away from his idiot brother and his nutcases of a mother and father. Just a few hours alone — him and a boat and nothing else.

Clearly, that was too much to ask for.”

now with a new story in the series which is adorable too!!!

mermaid!lxc need i say more?

Bad ideas (where they lead) by JungleJelly

“Jiang Cheng is a busy man. Fortunately, he is also a huge pushover when it comes to his sister, so when she recommends that he start doing yoga, he agrees pretty easily.Featuring Lan Xichen in yoga pants, Jiang Cheng’s inability to handle a crush, and, perhaps most importantly, a big fluffy dog.“

done for 2020 MXTX MiniBang

yoga instructor Lan Xichen

Jiang Cheng is: struggling with a crush on the yoga guy from youtube & very angry about that

If there’s a price for rotten judgement by TheWanderingHeart

“All Jiang Cheng wants to do is, well... his job, really. Other than that? Keep the city safe, keep his nephew alive, keep his sanity intact (if possible).

So when his brother calls with unexpected news, he knows all of that is about to fly out of the window.

***

[Every instinct is telling him don’t ask, you don’t want to know. By this point, Nie HuaiSang has scooted closer to listen. Jiang Cheng takes a steadying breath and pulls out his antacids. “What did you do?”]”

superhero au, come on

jc just trying to do his job in peace

(he can’t)

i love it so much oh my god *sobs*

The Form of Boneless Ice by TheWanderingHeart

“Mythical beasts have long ago been driven to extinction by the gentry — hunted for sport, but more importantly for their magical cores. Since then, there remains only one creature that has never been caught. The Jiang’s retreated a long time ago. Abandoning land altogether, they sought safety where the humans could not reach.It all comes to a head though, purely by chance. (Or is it by fate that a spontaneous decision allows for them to meet? If fate were a rock!) Jiang Cheng suddenly finds his whole life balanced on the head of a pin — on the flimsy promise of a human boy. In his opinion, things cannot possibly get worse!(But then they do when the Wens decide it’s finally time to search for the elusive merpeople, and suddenly nowhere is safe.)“

there she goes again, with another beautiful xicheng story full of awwww and mythology

actually one of the first xicheng fics i read

i chose it because there were mermaids

painfully accurate takes on Jiang family dynamics

kids! lots of kids!

Let me Slytherin to Your Heart by TheWanderingHeart

“Jiang Cheng never thought he'd return to Hogwarts, but in hindsight, he probably should have known that someday he would.With his nephew about to start school, he reluctantly takes his good friend's bad parenting? career? advice and ends up tumbling head-first back into the madness that he hoped he'd left behind... and rediscovering some feelings he thought he'd left behind too.“

Harry Potter au!

just really fecking cute

lots of snakes

[I am not going to link all of Jo’s fics, though I probably could, just my 3 favourites. UOSB is there by default]

Talent Hunt Crew Finds Angry Guy Shouting On College Campus, Recruits Him For Vocal Projection Abilities by oh_fudgecakes

“Jiang Cheng, resident Angry Guy and heir to a conglomerate empire, has never been the apple of his father’s eye. Quashed under the shadow of his brilliant brother, the music prodigy Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng sees his chance to turn things around when he is recruited by the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt. One problem: he can’t sing to save his goddamn life.As he struggles to develop his nascent singing abilities, Jiang Cheng finds himself sucked into the whirlwind drama of reality TV, helped along by his adoring siblings, his irritable vocal coach Wen Qing, and strangely enough, the unfairly attractive host of the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt, Lan Xichen. Somewhere in the glare of the stage lights and an unexpected first love, Jiang Cheng stumbles upon the thing he was searching for all along: the courage to dream — and to attempt the impossible.“

done for 2019 MXTX Big Bang

uuuuuuuuuuh i might have cried maybe

heartwarming? painful at times? lots of family love?

slowburn xicheng being lovely

The Provenence of Hope series by velithya

“A chance meeting on a night hunt sets a course of events into motion that will change everything. Featuring Xicheng getting together, recovery for Lan Xichen, healing for Jiang Cheng, and always, always, hope.“

got everything. feels. hope. love. ~~healing~~

A Small Measure of Peace by Sandstone112

“With his brother in seclusion, Lan Xichen finds himself in temporary custody of his nephew with little to no expertise in the child-raising department. Uncertain and alone, Zewu-Jun is willing to do everything to be the person Yuan needs—even if it means inviting Sandu Shengshou to a playdate.“

a loooot of adorable family times with jc and lxc taking care of their nephews

good grandpa lqr!

canon but fixed and less painful

🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋if you wish to avoid scurvy:🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

Some day I’m gonna make you mine series by locketofyourhair

xicheng getting together through the years

friends with benefits but the real benefits are the friends we made along the way

Take me over (take me tonight) by velithya

jiang cheng has a tattoo and lan xichen doesn’t stand a chance

i'd be the sweet feeling of release (mankind now dreams of) by piyo13

two bros, chilling in a cave, no feet apart because they don’t want to lose their cultivation powers what are you gonna do

haven’t read yet and shame on me, but AM GONNA:

Upon Our Silver Bridge by TheWanderingHeart obviously

““When the path ignites a soul, there's no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long.” ― Hakim Sanai

Lan Xichen's sorrows have caught the attention of something. Unlike the adventures and foes they have faced before, there is no obvious enemy here to defeat. If this is the same thing they thought had taken Nie Mingjue's life, then he believes it is fated for him to die as well. Nothing can stop the black fire when it wants to burn.Jiang Cheng is sure his part in this is over. Wei Wuxian is back, his grand adventure concluded, and he'd never been at the centre of it anyway. So what does it matter what happens to him in the end? Slowly, he will come to realise that there will always be a battle to fight, a story to tell, a choice to make, and there is no such thing as an end to anything.“

it was difficult to do things in 2020 and few i regret not doing more than not reading uosb yet :’(

i will tho

Emergency Help Wanted by piyo13

“EMERGENCY HELP WANTED I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only.“

Running Our Hands Through Embers by MarvelousMar

“If asked, Jiang Cheng would compare falling in love with Lan Xichen to a moth inevitably drawn to a flame.It burned.***In which Jiang Cheng discovers that even death can't help him escape from his trauma, so he embarks on a quest to save the people he loves, fix what he can, make the love of his life fall for him, and maybe, somewhere along the way, do a little bit of healing.”

The Beginner’s Guide to Moving On by InvincibleMel

gone from ao3, but i think there’s a link with a pdf going around

#xicheng #fic rec #Jiang Cheng #lan xichen #mdzs #the untamed #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zu shi

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thebiscuiteternal · 1 year

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I love your Nie bros concepts! How do you think the story would've been affected if Nie Huaisang were significantly younger - fifteen or sixteen years younger than Mingjue, perhaps born right before or even right AFTER he became sect leader. On one hand, you'd have Mingjue toting a baby around. On the other, you'd have Huaisang as a baby/young child DURING THE SUNSHOT CAMPAIGN.

Oooh, that has potential! Fandom (especially me) has gotten a whole lot out of Nie Mingjue having to balance between older brother/parental figure, but getting tossed into the teen parent deep end immediately after losing his father and being handed a sect? At fifteen? Whew.

Okay, so I am brainstorming this as I type, (which is pretty much how I post all my twitter concepts :p) so bear with me.

Let's start off by saying that Papa Nie and Huaisang's mama didn't marry by mutual agreement. They loved each other deeply and he took very good care of her, but they both knew she couldn't fill his first wife's shoes and weren't going to try and force it.

She doesn't live inside the Unclean Realms, so he and two healers he'd assigned to her were the only ones who knew she was pregnant.

And when it becomes evident that the shattering of his saber is turning him homicidally insane, the healer isn't about to let her anywhere near that whole mess.

But this becomes A Problem in and of itself when her health inexplicably begins to nosedive late in the pregnancy. Nobody can figure out why. She's eating fine and taking care of herself, but she keeps getting weaker and is losing weight despite the fetus continuing to grow.

Does it -somefuckinghow- have to do with his inevitably terminal decline?

Seven months in, she's bedridden and fading fast, and when the healer asks, she makes the call to induce labor. It might save or kill one or both of them, but if nothing is done, they're both definitely going to die.

Five days after Papa Nie's violent death, as the Nie sect is preparing for their previous sect leader's funeral, one of the two healers shows up at the gates bloody, distraught, and cradling a thick bundle of blankets, trying to shield it from the unseasonably chilly winds.

Let's say no one believes his(her? I don't really have a clear picture of these two yet, except I'd assume one is a midwife?) story. After all, Papa Nie had kept the pregnancy close to his chest.

But the arguing wakes up the -small, sickly, disturbingly quiet- baby in the blankets and he blinks up at them with the unmistakable green eyes of a bloodline Nie.

I am assuming that there are ways of telling parentage in this world, since as many fake pearls as Jin Guangshan seemingly gave out, one would have to know which kids are actually his bastards, so the test is run and yes, the baby is Papa Nie's.

Which puts forth a new dilemma, because the baby is a bastard child.

A couple of people in the room voice the opinion that it should just be gotten rid of, either by finding a parent well away from the sect or... other means, if necessary.

But Nie Mingjue happens to walk in and catch the tail end of that argument and demands to be caught up on the situation.

On being told he has a (very unexpected, very illegitimate) half-brother, he turns to the healer, who reflexively gives the baby a defensive squeeze and steps back.

Nie Mingjue's exhausted, red-eyed, and so pale that he practically matches his mourning robes. He looks like hell.

The moment the baby lays eyes on him, he giggles and reaches for Nie Mingjue's hair, and everyone sees the moment his bruised, grieving heart latches on to the infant. They can just tell the baby's not going anywhere, that Nie Mingjue refuses to lose any more relatives right now, even one he's only just met.

"Did she give him a name?"

"Huaisang. She wanted to name him the same way we do," the healer clarifies when Nie Mingjue gives her a questioning look.

"Okay, then. Hello, Sang-er."

#mdzs #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie brothers #using my headcanon that the nies use birth names that sound like courtesy names #for expediency's sake #ideas #train-of-thought writing #this didn't get into a full timeline #because i got caught up in Feels #oops #larger age gap nies

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allthelittlecreepycrawlies · 11 days

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For day four - cats

While being held a guest/captive somewhere because of something, Huaisang is given a stray cat that came too close to the kitchen as a kindness/joke. It's a tame, thin, very unimpressed looking cat.

When their father had fallen and they had been taken prisoner, he had been separated from his brother.

The underground bedroom he'd been locked in was nice enough, but it had come with orders.

"Behave, and your brother will be treated well. Cause a fuss, and he dies."

The parameters of "behaving" apparently included enduring the cruel mocking whims of the Wen sect leader's second son.

He had only ever met Wen Xu before, who had mostly ignored him in favor of goading his da-ge into dangerous dares and competitions, but Wen Chao was an entirely different, more direct and petty, flavor of cruel.

His only regular companion -"An assistant for you," Wen Chao had said mockingly- was a boy of barely five who'd been offered up like a sacrifice by his father, Jin Guangshan, about a year after Huaisang's own capture.

As much as they both hated it, Yu-er was the one who had to go fetch meals or ask the servants for baths and changes of clothes, since the spelled chains and collar Huaisang had to wear prevented him from climbing up to the exit of their shared room. Though they always got what they asked for, Yu-er frequently came back with bruises or scrapes from guards or servants annoyed by having to care for them, and Huaisang would have to spend what little spiritual power he could access healing them up.

So it went for another year, the two of them enduring and doing their best to endure Wen Chao's taunting gestures, until the sound of yowling drew their attention to the upper opening.

"Brought you another present," Wen Chao called with a sneer as he dropped a rough-cloth bag through the door.

Huaisang caught it before it could land on Yu-er's head, then promptly regretted it as the hissing, spitting thing bit him through the cloth.

He managed to swallow back a yelp and not throw the bag on the floor, which seemed to annoy Wen Chao enough that the older boy huffed and slammed the door shut, leaving them alone again.

"A- are you okay?" Yu-er asked as he carefully coaxed the jaw clamped on his hand to let go.

"I will be. Help me and untie the knot, would you?" Huaisang replied, indicating the rope holding the bag shut.

The bag went surprisingly quiet as Yu-er struggled to do so, the contents having apparently realized they were trying to release it. When the cloth fell away, Huaisang was left holding -as he'd already guessed- a cat.

It was scruffy from having been handled so roughly, and far too thin, but it was still a surprisingly beautiful cat. Its -his, Huaisang amended after checking, much to the cat's apparent dismay- fur was a pale gold with darker gold splotchy stripes that would be brilliantly shiny after some brushing. The cat regarded them both with distrustful orange eyes, but made no more attempts at biting or clawing now.

"Pretty," Yu-er murmured.

Surprisingly, the cat seemed to understand and accept the compliment, managing to preen a little despite being dangled in Huaisang's hands.

"Well... I guess we've got a cat, now," Huaisang said, nonplussed. He couldn't imagine why they had a cat. It being sent as an actual gift was entirely against Wen Chao's character, and he couldn't see the jerk being ordered to give them an actual gift.

The cat meowed at him as if in agreement with his confusion, and he couldn't help the smile that pulled at his mouth at that.

"Hm, what should we call you? Perhaps Ming?"

"Or what about Fu?" Yu-er suggested.

"Chen?"

"Huang?"

"Yao?"

"Mrrowl!" the cat replied vehemently, making them both stare at him.

"Huh. Okay, Yao it is," Huaisang said, tucking the cat into his arms as Yu-er ran over to the lunch tray he hadn't yet taken back to the kitchens to get their new pet something to eat.

Neither of them noticed when Yao nosed at the shackles around Huaisang's wrists, nor when their power dimmed slightly for just a moment when he did.

#mdzs #sangyao week #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #mo xuanyu #fanfic

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scarletjedi · 2 years

Text

So, I’ve been stuck on this Mingcheng dynamic for a while now- I started to get to it with my mingcheng time travel not-fic, but it’s not quite what has my attention.

this got long and kinda half-ficced?, so cut for length

Imagine this: post-canon Jiang Cheng rekindling a friendship with Nie Huaisang, and a night of drinking/reminiscing turns into accidental(?) slipping into the past. But not transmigration! No- their adult selves end up in the past.

Insert time-travel Sunshot fixit shenanigans. Maybe Lotus Pier burns, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe young JC becomes sect leader young- maybe it’s because his father dies, maybe it isn’t. But they change *something* and Yunmeng Jiang does not fall as far, his people are not so completely wiped out.

His younger self doesn’t need to sacrifice himself to the Wen for Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian doesn’t sacrifice his core for Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian still plays with fire, still gets burned, still has Lan Wangji to bandage his wounds.

Wen Ruohan falls, and Nie Hauisang, the headshaker, gets to work. They need to keep Jin Guangshan from simply stepping in and taking over. They need to keep Meng Yao from becoming the Jin Guangyao against whom Huaisang waged quiet war for over a decade.

This is where we narrow in: Nie Huaisang was accepted readily into Qinghe Nie, slotting into place as another Nie Brother, still Mingjue’s didi even though held older, but trying to be a good older brother to his younger self. It is…complicated. His younger self has still only the potential for the type of double speak and subtle control that he himself has had to grown adept at, and he often finds himself frustrated at himself.

Jiang Cheng, The senior Sandu Shengshu, laughs at him when Huaisang confesses over tea in Qinghe when Jiang Cheng comes to visit.

Lotus Pier was less prepared to accept the elder Jiang Cheng. With his parents, and his younger self, still alive, tensions run high in relation to hierarchy and succession. Despite his very presence proof that Jiang Cheng achieved the impossible and rebuilt these piers himself, bringing the Jiang sect to the forefront of the cultivation world— he is still not his father’s son, and while his younger self has grown more into his confidence, he’s not there yet. (Wei Wuxian is, though, and it helps and hurts thay this Jiang Cheng has the dream of the twin heroes realized while his own— it doesn’t matter. He just hoped it’s enough. Wei Wuxian’s eyes follow Lan Wangji, and Lan Wangji follows back). Jiang Cheng offers his expertise, his talent at training new recruits, and his labor at rebuilding— but they’re not *his* piers. They’re not even the piers he remembers. It’s something new. Something for his younger self. As it should be.

Once again, Jiang Cheng has no home.

So— he visits Nie Huaisang (sr) in Qinghe.

And, in Qinghe, there is also Nie Mingjue.

Jiang Cheng remembers Nie Mingjue- they fought together, leas in the aftermath together, but he was already on the decline, already trapped in the spiral that would end in his murder, and Jiang Cheng doesn’t remember much that isn’t replaced by the image of his fierce corpse.

So, the elder Huaisang and the elder Jiang Cheng are drinking in Qinghe, reminiscing over their misspent youth at Gusu, when Mingjue walks in.

He stops, clearly not expecting to find them, when Huaisang waves him over with a “Da-ge! Drink with us!”

Mingjue looks st Jiang Cheng, as if confirming his welcome, and whatever he sees has him walking over to join them.

It’s a good night- Mingjue is funny, when he lets himself relax. And he smiles when Jiang Cheng is cutting, all dimples when Huaisang is a fluttering fan. It’s not a very long night, but it is a fun one, and Jiang Cheng finds himself looking forward to the next one. And the next. And the next.

Eventually, Huaisang is delayed and Jiang Cheng finds himself alone with Mingjue. It’s not awkward, like it could be. Jiang Cheng isn’t old, it he’s old enough to not bother with awkwardness, and with Mingjue it seems to be much the same- they’ve seen too much, been through too much. It’s a very pleasant evening, especially when Mingjue flashes those dimples, laughing at the jokes Jiang Cheng cracks that never seem to land with anyone else. It’s not the last time.

***

And that’s what I have! This is the set up! The dynamic between post-canon Jiang Cheng and post-Sunshot Nie Mingjue. I am *obsessed* - what *is* the dynamic?! Does Jiang Cheng jiujiu Mingjue? Does Mingjue da-ge Jiang Cheng? Do they switch? Does Mingjue like having an older man submit to him? Does service-top Jiang Cheng take care of Mingjue? How does Huaisang (either of them) react to their relationship? How does younger Jiang Cheng? How does this relationship save Mingjue’s life?

(Also, I see a lot more conversations on Twitter these days- should I cross post this?)

#mingcheng #jiang cheng #nie mingjue #is this a fic?#let’s call it a fic prompt

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lansyuan · 4 years

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do you love fics where wei wuxian and lan wangji parent the crap out of lan sizhui? do you want to read accidental baby acquisition fics until your eyes bleed? would you die as your heart slowly turns to mush from the softness of this family? bitch the fuck, me too. here are some of my personal favourite fics of wangxian ft their turnip son a-yuan. its a range of canon divergence, post canon, thirteen years of inquiry, raising a-yuan at the burial mounds au etc - there’ll be something for literally everyone. enjoy!

the kite string and the anchor rope by fleurdeliser (38k+)

When A-Yuan gets sick and Wen Qing doesn't have the supplies she needs to properly treat him, Wei Wuxian can only think of one place to go for help.

a crying shame by thunderwear (16k+)

Lan Wangji gets emotionally blackmailed by a toddler. It somehow fixes everything.

to recollect and long for by wonderlands (22k+) *2/3 works posted at time of posting this rec list.

a 3-part series about best boy lan sizhui and his wonderful dads who love him and each other very much.

forgetting envies, remembering your loving hold by cosmicfuss (3k+)

The first time Zewu-jun plays for him he is five and the man is trying to comfort him, playing soft songs good for soothing children. It works to a degree but he wants his gege, he wants his gege to play his lullaby. Zewu-jun apologizes and tells him that his gege is hurting right now, and needs to be alone to get better.

When he plays the xiao, A-Yuan says, "you're holding it wrong!" When he turns fourteen, he learns to play guqin, and is many years ahead of his classmates in that regard. A large factor in that is how much he has practiced Inquiry. He has grown up hearing snippets from the jingshi, of Wangji attempting to reach a spirit that never answers.

When he's sixteen, he hears a familiar tune played in the forest, he and his fellow juniors battling a stone god. It's been years since he's heard it, and he wonders why this man, Mo Xuanyu, knows it so well.

Or, Lan Sizhui grows up and learns, and remembers.

five times wei wuxian tried to embarrass lan sizhui by blackelement7 (6k+)

(and one time he realized just how badly he'd played himself)

or: In which Wei Wuxian starts a fight but Lan Sizhui (with some meddling from Lan Jingyi) ends it.

inquiry by incendir (10k+)

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

storge by respira (9k+)

Lan Sizhui is a lake.

as the warren grows in number by kore_fics (3k+)

Before Sizhui could take another step he was surrounded by black and red, loud laughter in his ears and warm fingers running through his hair, messing it up. Palms squished both his cheeks together and Lan Sizhui let out a laugh.

Lan Sizhui was home.

tell some storm* by qurbat (31k+) *the moments with Sizhui are in chapter 2, however I highly recommend reading the whole fic, it’s adorable.

"We were raised as a generation of war, A-Yuan," Xian-gege said to him. "If your generation choses to be one of love - well, I don't think any of us would be opposed to that."

In the aftermath of the events at the Guanyin temple, the cultivation world scrambles to understand their current reality. A man roams the countryside with a string of white in his hair. Another sits on the highest seat of power with a ribbon of red around his forehead. The younger generation turns out to be full of romantics. Nie Huaisang is to blame for everything, always. Jiang Cheng realizes that happiness has been more that 16 years overdue.

Wei Wuxian declares that it's time that bitch pays up.

After a generation of war - much to the consternation of the elders, much to the delight of the young, much to the pleased shock of the subjects of the tale - the world welcomes a love story with open arms.

guess we're not eating leaves today by missingnarwhal (2k+)

Baby A-Yuan has cooked up a feast, but only one lucky gege will actually get to taste it!

Set in an alternate timeline where everything is okay after Wei Ying + Wens started living in the Burial Mounds.

response by aki_no_hikari (12k+)

What if Wei Wuxian hadn't been silent to Lan Wangji's Inquiry?

love, in all its small pieces by ynvel (4k+)

Ah Yuan is brought to the Cloud Recesses and exchanges the sun and its ashes for the clouds. Lan Wangji brings a boy home, calls him his son, and renews the promises he made.

Or: Lan Sizhui is adopted by Lan Wangji and learns about his new life. Lan Wangji in turn learns about hope and living again.

child surprise by ariaste (4k+)

He huffs a sigh. “Fine. Just - let’s just make it the law of surprise, shall we? That’s nice and simple, eh? Leave it up to destiny what will bring us back in balance. Let it drop something of yours into my lap, something small, and we’ll call the debt paid.”

Three debts, three repayments.

there's a lunatic in mo village by bastetcg (11k+)

There's a lunatic in Mo Village! And to Lan Sizhui's surprise, Hanguang-Jun has decided to bring the madman back to the Cloud Recesses! How embarrassing!

A mostly canon-compliant look into Lan Sizhui's thoughts and childhood.

on being a big boy by emberloey (1k+)

“My little A-Yuan,” Dad had said the next morning, kneeling down to A-Yuan’s height with a smile, “all grown up now. Soon you’ll be hunting without your poor old dads.”

“Never!” A-Yuan shook his head and latched onto Father’s leg. He smiled up at Father, who smiled back and nodded his head. “A-Yuan always needs Dad and Father!”

in all these shades of blue (i think we found you) by fleetling (5k+)

5 times Sizhui thought about his father's white robes, and 1 time Lan Wangji wore blue.

(Or: Lan Sizhui had never seen his father in anything other than white robes.)

this is when the feeling sinks in, i don't want to miss you like this (come back, be here) by mischievousmurmurs (6k+)

Just now… the butterflies’ conversation. Where did you learn that from, Ah-Yuan?

Ah-Yuan pats his chest. In here, shushu. I feel it in here. And in here, too, he adds, pointing to his head.

Sizhui has never quite been able to remember nor forget the memory of seeing people who he knows loved each other, loved him, and whom he loved in return.

or - a wangxian story, as told by their adopted son.

yours, mine, and ours by casecous (2k+)

When they have both mostly recovered, and A-Yuan is back to his smiling, playful self, Lan Wangji presents him with a forehead ribbon. A-Yuan’s little fingers bump into Lan Wangji’s thumbs as he traces the cloud motif along it.

“You are Lan now. This is very important,” Lan Wangji tells him and A-Yuan looks away from the ribbon to meet his eyes. “You must not take it off as you please. Only family may touch it.”

A series of wangxian family moments.

innocence by snowberryrose (8k+)

In which Wei WuXian gets to raise A-Yuan.

Canon divergence from episode 31.

to recollect and long for by mme_anxious (4k+)

Lan Xichen is there when his brother becomes a father. Lan Sizhui is there when his father's heart breaks, again. Wei Wuxian is there when his son gets drunk for the first time.

Or, the GusuLan forehead ribbon, in three parts.

our little one by writedeku (6k+)

A-Yuan is here. A-Yuan, who Wei Ying loved so much. A-Yuan, who was taught to laugh just like him. Wangji hugs him to his chest and curls over him, ignoring the way the wounds on his back pull and tear. “I have to take care of you,” he says. “I will not leave you.”

(Or: Lan Wangji comes back from Yiling with a child he does not know how to care for and a black hole in his chest. Somehow, he makes it work.)

gathered herbs & sweet grasses by hansbekhart (19k+)

Later, when he’s older, it’s this that A-Yuan will remember most: the stretch of silence, the two of them both dirty and shaking with fever, as he looked at Brother Rich, and Brother Rich looked back at him.

the sacred homeland by particulate (8k+)

He has many names, and some are mouthfuls of blood.

[Or; a chronology of Sizhui, in which he does not forget.]

to the act of making noise by words-writ-in-starlight (19k+)

His father in white plays the song late into the night, and when A-Yuan wakes up confused and afraid, the guqin lulls him back to sleep.

Lan Sizhui hears his father play the same song every night for his whole life, and never, ever get an answer.

when he comes home to you by kika988 (2k+)

Home is Cloud Recesses now, and that's a thing Wei Wuxian is still getting used to. He still feels like a guest here, most days, though Lan Wangji has done everything to make him feel at home. He stands out like a sore thumb amongst the serene disciples and flowing white fabric.

Cloud Recesses has been home to Lan Wangji and Sizhui for years. It is their home, where they've built their family.

The thought warms Wei Wuxian even as it sits a little ill with him. He's an intruder here, in their homes, in their lives, the same way he had been in Lotus Pier.

five times people didn’t know sizhui is lan zhan’s son and one time they did by trilliastra (3k+)

“A-Yuan.” He repeats, reaching out for the boy, growing restless when he can’t touch him. “A-Yuan.”

Oh. Lan Xichen closes his eyes as the tears start to fall. Oh, Wangji.

Carefully, Lan Xichen takes the boy and lays him next to his brother on the bed, Wangji holds him protectively against his chest and A-Yuan stops his little cries immediately.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen tries again, running a hand through his brother’s hair softly, “who is he?”

“He’s my son.”

5 times the lan head disciple broke the rules by liji (6k+)

“I am not aware of any rule forbidding falling in love,” Hanguang-Jun said at last. There was a quiet sadness in his eye, like he was watching a scene from far away. The novelty of it gave Sizhui the courage to ask his next question.

“Have you ever been in love, Father?” he asked.

(or, five times that Sizhui broke the Lan sect's rules growing up)

the seasons change (but i love you the same) by kdkdkd (7k+)

"Hanguang-jun!"

When did you stop calling me Bàba, A-Yuan?

Lan Wangji had always promised himself that he would never become a poor father like his own had been.

Unfortunately, it feels like he has failed to keep that promise.

✨ bonus round ✨ uncle jiang cheng and nephew lan sizhui

tintinnabulum by respira (8k+)

A small bell chimes, the sound soft and pleasant like the water crashing against a pier, like low whistles in an empty cave, like a guqin playing a lullaby.

#the untamed #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan sizhui #lan yuan #wen yuan #wangxian family #wangxian fic rec #myficrecs #creations #listen i just really love this family #1k

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

Prompt: what if jc was lxc's age (and jyl maybe 2 or 3 years older) and wwx was lwj's/nhs' age when he was brought to lotus pier? (Or anything that involves a much bigger age gap bw the jiang sibs and wwx - where wwx is babey)

Untamed

“You know what,” Jiang Cheng said to his sister, who looked at him. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not marrying a woman.”

Jiang Yanli’s lips started twitching uncontrollably and she hid her smile behind her sleeve. “Oh?”

“Nope. I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun.”

“On the basis of…?”

“If you take two adult men in charge of two Great Sects,” Jiang Cheng said, doing his utmost best to keep a straight face, “with all the power we can generate between us, we might – maybe – have a chance at disciplining our baby brothers.”

Jiang Yanli burst out laughing.

“There, there. It’s all right,” he said, grinning, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder. “You can join us if you’d like. There’s enough room in Qinghe for two wives.”

“We are not both running away to Qinghe,” she said, giggling. “A-Cheng!”

“What? I think it’s a great idea. If our parents want us back, they can negotiate with Chifeng-zun for it – may they have more luck than they had with the whole medicinal herb debacle.”

“A-Cheng, I am officially tabling this idea,” Jiang Yanli said, still snorting. “Older sibling privilege.”

“I let you out of the womb first as a matter of courtesy,” Jiang Cheng sniffed. “And now you use it against me? A-Li, how could you?”

“Call me jiejie! It doesn’t matter how much older, a few shichen or a few years, older is still older.”

“You probably elbowed me with those sharp pointy things you have on your arms. Weapons of war.”

“Older is older!” she sang. “Now tell me, what did A-Xian do this time?”

“Would you like it in chronological order, or in order of severity? I can also group it by theme, if you prefer.”

“Oh no,” Jiang Yanli said, covering her eyes. “Oh no.”

“And the chief-most theme,” Jiang Cheng said, continuing anyway, “is still called Lan Wangji.”

“Oh no!”

“He has the worst crush,” Jiang Cheng said, shaking his head with endless amusement. “And he just – refuses to admit it. ‘Nooooo, shixiong, we’re just friends, he can’t even stand me most of the time, he’s always trying to get me in trouble, but sometimes he lets me sit next to him and spend time with him and he’s so handsome and I really just want to make him laugh –’”

“We have,” Jiang Yanli said thoughtfully, “raised an idiot.”

“He was fine when we got him,” Jiang Cheng disagreed. “We have spoiled an idiot.”

“This is true. Maybe we should go form a mutual complaining society with Chifeng-zun; isn’t his little brother also an idiot?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Jiang Cheng said. “Worse: they’ve teamed up. Nie Huaisang buys Wei Wuxian porn now.”

“Oh no…”

“In return for help cheating on his tests!”

“Oh no!”

“So that’s why I’m going to marry Chifeng-zun,” Jiang Cheng concluded. “Our parents may be disappointed by my decision, but with our powers combined, we might be able to save the world from our respective younger idiots.”

“Maybe,” she said, and shook her head. “A-Cheng – about our parents…”

Jiang Cheng shook his head as well, echoing her action but more in denial. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that she took after their father and he took after their mother, that she was born a shichen prior to midnight and he a shichen after and their personalities completely different as a result; it was no one’s fault that their parents didn’t get along, with their mother disdaining what she perceived as Jiang Yanli’s passiveness and lack of passion and their father despising Jiang Cheng’ prickly temper and difficulty communicating his affection without scolding.

It certainly wasn’t Wei Wuxian’s fault for being younger and more brilliant, talented at everything he did and with just the sort of personality their father liked best – the combination of his former best friend and the girl he’d once thought of marrying – and that he’d always made that preference very clear to everyone, even to their mother who often worried that her husband would dispossess her children in favor of his foundling and who lashed out at everyone in response.

That had hurt – hurt a lot, even, and Jiang Cheng was soft and sensitive underneath all his defensive layers, but any time he got angry over it he would look at Wei Wuxian, their little A-Xian, baby Xianxian, who adored his older siblings more than anything and was adored in return, and he forced himself to get over it. He was old enough, by the time Wei Wuxian arrived, to know to whom the blame really belonged.

“I spoke with Nie Huaisang while I was at the Cloud Recesses,” Jiang Cheng said in an undertone, one reserved just for his sister. “He’s asked me to pass along a message to his brother, the next time I go night-hunting, about the whole debacle – he’s so terribly apologetic, you understand, he couldn’t wait for the post – if we get to Qinghe by tomorrow, Chifeng-zun will be able to get to Gusu in time to intervene before our father does something wretched like cancel your engagement and take A-Xian home early from his studies.”

“The engagement I wouldn’t mind,” she remarked. “If Jin Zixuan feels so strongly about it that he’d get into a fistfight with A-Xian, it’s better not to marry, no matter what our mother might think. But on no account is A-Xian to be sent home early! He needs his education!”

Unsaid was everything else he needed, things he could get better at the Cloud Recesses than anywhere else.

“Then we go?”

“We go,” she agreed. Between the two of them, Jiang Cheng had more talent at cultivation, but she was steadier, even in her overall mediocrity: when the two of them flew on a sword together, they could make it much further and faster than anyone expected.

Qinghe wasn’t really close enough for a quick jaunt – they flew all night without stopping – but Chifeng-zun was amendable to their scheme, jumping at once onto his saber and making his way straight to Gusu. A waste of spiritual energy all around, really, but far faster than their father would move, with his Sect Leader’s dignity and retinue, rushing to the Cloud Recesses to save his precious little Wei Wuxian from having any connections in life that weren’t to the Jiang sect, and the Jiang sect alone.

And never mind how much he needed those connections: needed to have friends his own age, needed to have more time with that crush of his, needed independence and freedom and everything the Jiang sect supposedly stood for - needed for them to support him and act as the foundation beneath his feet, rather than the chains tying him down to earth.

Chifeng-zun – who was only a few years older than they were – was really a very understanding person, getting the problem at once and immediately agreeing with their view on things. Perhaps there really was something to be said about the difference in generations…

“Let me show you to rooms where you can rest,” Chifeng-zun’s aide said, a slender young man with a polite smile on his face as he saluted. “I’ll arrange for refreshments as well.”

“We hate to trouble you, but in all honesty you are a lifesaver,” Jiang Yanli said to him warmly, and he unexpectedly flushed red at the cheeks. “A-Cheng, let’s follow this handsome young man and rest a while before we return to the Lotus Pier.”

The young man was blushing.

“What’s your name?” Jiang Cheng asked, and the blush faded away at once as the man paled a little: it would be one he expected them to recognize, then, and not in a good way.

“This one is Meng Yao,” he said, and saluted again even though he’d already saluted once before, and Jiang Yanli’s eyes flickered to Jiang Cheng’s very briefly before she caught his arms and raised him up.

“I’ve heard of you. Smart and talented enough to get Chifeng-zun’s attention, even so far as becoming his personal deputy - you must be brilliant. Truly, you deserve a better father,” she told him, and he stared up at her, dumbstruck.

“Don’t mind her,” Jiang Cheng said. “She’s trying out this new thing in which she says everything she feels without thinking first.”

She elbowed him. “And isn’t it your fault?” she asked snappishly. “You’re the one who needs to speak your mind more; I’m just modeling good behavior!”

If she’d been older than him – really older, rather than just a few shichen – maybe she would have held her tongue more and played the role of the peacekeeper, trying to protect him from his father’s indifference the way she had tried to when they were both younger, just as he had tried to distract his mother from her with his hard-fought accomplishments. It wasn’t until they had little Wei Wuxian to spoil and care for, a joint task that required both of their attention, that they realized that splitting their forces like that was pointless and self-defeating: it wasn’t actually helping that Jiang Yanli suppressed so much of her spirit until she felt like little more than a reflective mirror with no content, nor that Jiang Cheng nearly worked himself to death trying to prove that he was worthy of his father’s love and respect that he would never receive, and it never would.

So they stopped.

They were trying very hard to stop, anyway.

“You’re very kind,” Meng Yao murmured, and led them to their rooms.

The moment he closed the door behind him, Jiang Yanli turned to Jiang Cheng and said, “I’ve changed my mind about your plan – we can run away to Qinghe. You marry Chifeng-zun, and I’ll marry that charming boy out there.”

There was an audible thudding sound from the corridor outside, as if someone had accidentally walked into a wall, and they both grinned at each other.

“Mother would kill you,” he warned her in an undertone.

“And being married to someone who disdains me enough to fight over my worthlessness in public wouldn’t?” she retorted, smiling even though her expression was tinged with pain: if she had one ambition in life, it was to never become their mother. “The marriage agreement might have been forged by our mothers, but the text of it says ‘the Jin sect leader’s son to the Jiang sect leader’s daughter’. Why can’t I marry him?”

“He hasn’t been acknowledged.”

“Only technically. Everyone knows he’s the real deal, or else his father wouldn’t have made such a fuss about it.”

“But –”

“Anyway, he must be a good man, or Chifeng-zun wouldn’t have promoted him.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jiang Cheng said. “Chifeng-zun doesn’t have the sense of self-preservation the heavens bestowed on a lemming.”

There was a vaguely audible snort from outside their door. It seemed Meng Yao, at least, had the good sense not to leave guests in his house unattended, and no discrimination against the very useful business of listening at doors.

He also had a sense of humor, which was good given Jiang Yanli’s newfound ambitions in his regard.

“Yes, well, I wasn’t saying I’d elope with him tomorrow or anything,” she sniffed, eyes dancing. “Give him some time to prove himself to me.”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but smile back. “That’s true,” he said, raising his voice a little. “At Chifeng-zun’s side, he’ll be able to make a name for himself until the whispers all say that his father was an idiot for keeping him away.”

“And if even that doesn’t work, I’ll marry him in and make him help me run the Jiang sect,” she said cheerfully. “Who needs Lanling Jin?”

“Wait, since when are you inheriting the Jiang sect?”

“I’m older! And anyway, aren’t you marrying Chifeng-zun? That means you’ll be away helping run his sect, and that leaves an opening at home for me.”

“…huh. Good point.”

“Maybe you can just swap places with Meng Yao,” she said, starting to giggle again. “And we can all see how long it takes anyone to notice…”

“Our parents might not,” Jiang Cheng said dryly. “But Chifeng-zun would. If only because I have my sights set on his bed, and I don’t think Meng Yao does.”

“You don’t know that; everyone wants Chifeng-zun. Maybe you have competition.”

“Better to have competition than be oblivious. Do you want to hear the whole story about A-Xian and Lan Wangji’s tragic mutual pining disaster? Xichen-xiong told me all the details he’s been leaving out of his letters.”

“Tell me everything!”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #meng yao #nie mingjue #my fic #my fics #jiang sect twins #crazycat27 #mingcheng #meng yao/jiang yanli

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