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mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess · 10 months

Text

Sleep like the dead

@cullen-blue23

🧟😴😭(The ONE TIME Wen Ning decides to take a nap. The juniors find him and assume he’s passed on for good. Ugly crying ensues. He wakes up to find several teenagers bawling on him)

Funny story: one evening, when I was still living in the university dorm rooms, I fell asleep very early (it was still light out) because I was exhausted. My preferred sleeping position back then was hands on my chest, motionless, on my back, like a dead person.

My roommate came home from class at some point that evening and I suddenly woke up to someone shaking me, increasingly panicked, asking me if I'm dead on the verge of tears.

I just said "yes" and got back to sleep. (I do not remember this part, I just know I woke up briefly - my roommate told me this the next morning. Apparently she'd been shaking me for a while before I decided to respond!)

Anyways, enjoy!

"Oh, sweet, uncle Ning is here!" Lan Jingyi exclaims as he notices Wen Ning leaning against one of the large, wisteria trees in the bunny field, little fluff balls surrounding him. "I wonder if he has any new stories from his travels! I've had enough of old teacher Lan's lectures!"

"We only have about ten minutes or so until the next lecture, Jingyi." Zizhen reminds, in a tone that's more befitting to Lan Sizhui than himself.

"Yeah, but it's with senior Wei, so we can be a bit late. He is too, especially now that Sizhui is back and they're catching up." A laugh. "He gets so mopey whenever he and uncle Ning leave for more than a week, whining about his little radish forgetting about him or something!"

"C'mon, it's cute." Zizhen elbows him. "And anyway, Sizhui always brings us gifts so..."

"At least he does!" Jingyi says, accusingly side-eyeing Jin Ling. "Some of us are incredibly stingy!"

"Shut up, what am I, your sugar daddy?! Get a job!"

"I have a job, dumbass, I'm a cultivator!"

Jin Ling smiles, venomously. "Oh, really? I must have forgotten, that's how remarkable you are!"

"You fu-"

"Guys?" Zizhen interrupts, having gone ahead to greet Wen Ning. His voice is shaky and his complexion pale, "I-I think uncle Ning is - I think there's something wrong with him!"

Jingyi and Jin Ling quickly close in the distance and crouch to take a look at the man. He looks... like he always does. Pale, dead, you know - the fierce corpse aesthetic. But his eyes are closed, and he doesn't seem to be... moving. At all.

Jin Ling reaches to poke his hand. "Uncle Ning?"

Nothing. He frowns, and reaches to shake his shoulder. "Uncle Ning!"

There is no response. Wen Ning stiffly leans against the tree, expressionless, shadows and sunrays dancing on his face.

"Come on, this isn't funny, wake up!" Jin Ling tries again, hiding his worry behind apparent anger. "Wen Ning!"

Jingyi reaches to tug on one of Wen Ning's sleeves, vision increasingly blurry. "Wake up, why won't you wake up? Uncle Ning!"

Zizhen lets out a sob, joining his friends as they attempt to bring Wen Ning back to consciousness. But no amount of shaking or tugging or begging seems to work, and their words are increasingly broken by sobs .

"We-we need to - senior Wei - Sizhui - he's gone-" Jingyi tries, tears falling down his face as he slowly resigns to the reality of what is happening.

"Shut the hell up! He's not!" Jin Ling yells, the tears filling his eyes starting to fall, "He's - he's fucking dead already, how can someone die twice?!" And Jin Ling resumes trying to wake him up, poking his cheek. "Wen Ning, what the hell are you doing?! Open your eyes already!"

"How - how are we going to tell... how..." Zizhen mumbles, wiping his tears. "I don't want uncle Ning to be gone!"

"He's not!" Jin Ling insists, his face wet with tears, red from both anger and panic. "He's fucking not! He's - I -"

But the more he tries, the more he loses hope. This has never happened before, this isn't something they can fix. This isn't something anyone can fix, Wen Ning is really...

"Wake up! Wen Ning...! How dare you do this to me...! You said...!"

There are no more words now, no more attempts. The three juniors cry over Wen Ning's corpse, trying to will themselves to get one of their seniors and... and... Oh, uncle Ning really is gone now, he's gone and they'll never see him again, they'll never talk to him again, he won't ever tell them stories or help them with night hunts or scare off Jin Ling's annoying cousins or...or...or...

There is a grunt.

Wait. A grunt?!

Jingyi's head snaps up. "Guys!"

"Shut the fuck up, Jingyi!" Jin Ling cuts in, "I don't want to hear any of your-"

"Why are you guys crying...?" A new voice joins in, and the juniors attention snaps towards the source, where Wen Ning blinks wearily at them, as if awoken from a deep slumber. "Did something happen...?"

There is no response except three juniors now having jumped in his arms.

"Don't ever fucking do that to me again!" Jin Ling warns, "We thought you died!"

"Well, I already-"

"No, for good!" Jingyi adds, and makes no effort to hide how he's snuggling to the Ghost General's chest. "We tried to wake you up for so long and you just wouldn't!"

"And anyway, what's up with that? Fierce corpses don't sleep!" Zizhen asks, trying to get Jingyi to leave him some room on Wen Ning's chest.

"I found a potion... I missed sleep and wanted to experienced it again..."

"Yeah, well, warn us next time! Can you imagine how Sizhui would have reacted? Or senior Wei? Or even Hanguang-Jun?!"

"I will tell you next time, Jingyi. And do not worry, Sizhui didn't get scared the first time I took the potion... When I woke up, I found him calmly trying to invent...something to bring me back."

"Ah yes, the senior Wei instinct."

---

The juniors don't show up to class, so Wei Wuxian goes to find them and scold them about it - after all, they can flunk, he doesn't mind that, just let him know!

So he storms through the Cloud Recesses, growing increasingly worried about where they could be - has something happened to them? Are they sick? Did they get cursed? Did they die?

And just as he's about to go grab Lan Zhan from his meeting with his brother because the kids are nowhere to be found, what if they got kidnapped or worse!

...he finds them.

And Wen Ning.

They're all snuggled together, napping underneath the large wisteria tree, bunnies around and on them.

The sight is so heartwarming that Wei Wuxian decides not to disturb them.

In fact, he decides he wants to nap too, and settles next to Jin Ling, leaning against Wen Ning's shoulder.

----

"Why does Hanguang-Jun look like that?" one Lan junior asks as he spots the man walking from the bunny field with a grim expression.

"It's the vinegar." the other replies, "Senior Wei must have done something that's gonna have us banned from being around the jingshi for three days again."

"Man, I wish that was me."

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #writing attempts #wangxian #wwx #lwj #wn #lsz #ljy #jl #oyzz

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shanastoryteller · 2 years

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope it’s a great one!!!

Something WangXian pretty please

a continuation of 1 2 3 4

A-Yao had told him to be wary of Mo Xuanyu. He'd said that their father had taken an unusual interest in her but despite showing promise as a cultivator, she'd been thrown from the tower for no reason he'd been able to find.

Jin Guangshan's interest had only piqued after that.

Lan Xichen doesn't doubt A-Yao about much. But if Jin Guangshan has truly chosen to send his daughter into the Lan clan to spy or ruin them, he thinks that Mo Xuanyu seems an odd choice.

Then again, rumors have it that she's odd. Perhaps she's a choice made out of necessity rather than desirability.

She's awkward and uncomfortable and not doing much to hide it, deflecting every question he asks about her but without asking any probing questions of her own. Everything she asks is perfectly innocuous, questions she'd ask anyone she'd find herself at a table with.

He's talking about the disciples back home when her expression sharpens and she interrupts him. "Nephew?"

He stares, confused, running back what he'd just said through his head. Ah, he had been talking about Sizhui.

"I have a son," Wangji says, the first time during this meal he's spoken without prompting.

Her eyes widen. "You," she starts, then cuts herself off. She turns to Jiang Yanli and gestures sharply to Wangji, her eyebrows saying everything that her mouth isn't. Something about it tugs at him, like he's seen this scene play out before, but of course he hasn't. He's meeting Mo Xuanyu for the first time, and Jiang Yanli's encounters with her are probably still in the single digits.

Jiang Yanli raises her sleeve to hide her smile. "It's nothing inappropriate. He is adopted."

It's not inappropriate, but it could pose a problem. He'd assumed she'd been told about Wangji, she certainly should have been if she's some sort of spy or saboteur, but perhaps not. It would be within her rights to demand any children she and Wangji have to be placed in the lines of inheritance before his adopted child, to take the place of clan heir as blood descendants and children of a legitimate marriage.

Wangji will never agree to it.

His brother has tensed, bracing himself for this arguments, but for the first time since entering the room Mo Xuanyu doesn't seem pained, a grin stretching across her face. "Really? That's great. I love kids."

"He is fifteen," Wangji says after an awkward beat while they all blink at her.

She shrugs. "So? When I was that age, I still had a lot of growing up to do. Don't you remember being fifteen, Lan Wangji?"

His face goes glacially cold and he raises his cup to his lips instead of answering.

Mo Xuanyu's grin slip down into a frown and Lan Xichen holds back a sigh.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #keela1221 #untamed

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robininthelabyrinth · 1 year

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prompt 1: I'd love to see a niecest fic (where it is truly mutually requited, no hypnosis mindbreaks required; I'm a terribly softhearted romantic & just want to see them happy~) that incorporates your characterizations of the saber spirits somehow? Like, Baxia and Aituan, idk, end up like... bonded somehow by their masters getting together and that... maybe helps balance the qi deviations or IDK I WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY *cough* ok. yes. something. prompt 2: ohhhh I know. Jiang Cheng gets some sort of temporary story-convenient amnesia and assumes that (probably still a small child)!Jin Ling is his son, Jin Ling maybe... doesn't correct him for a bit? ("Wait whose kid is this. Did I give birth to a kid somehow. I mean I guess that might as well have happened, sure.") prompt 3: turns out Wen Qing was also being kept secretly alive but imprisoned by the Jin sect all this time, and Jin Ling discovers her in the aftermath of canon. Chengqing y/y? ANYWAY please feel free to select any of these that may strike your fancy, do not feel obligated to pick more than one or any of them, actually. (also I'd appreciate not having my name published as the prompter of any of these, if you don't mind. I don't think you do that, as a general rule, but just in case you might have.) P.S. I adore your work; every day that you post something is a day considerably brightened for me. and also the other days, because I do a lot of rereading. <3 <3 <3

ao3

So. We're doing something about this, right?

Baxia stirred. Slowly, like a great big old rumbling beast that was actually quite fast when it wanted to be, which knew that there was nothing in the world that could hurt it and anything foolish enough to do so was destined to a terrible fate of being played with and then demolished. Cruelly. Viciously.

Without remorse.

Yes, she said with admirable patience. We will do something about...'this'.

Oh good, Aituan said, amazed, surprised, and relieved that he'd survived this far into the conversation. Baxia was scary, all right? There were masterless sabers less scary than her. Daughter of the dragon, one of the best-forged blades in the sect, and she'd been used to her full potential, too - basically the opposite of Aituan in every way shape or form, really. It's just, you know, my human's been leaking again and I hate it when that happens.

Nie Huaisang might have some faults as a human, Aituan would allow (mostly because Nie Huaisang would similarly allow, and even seemed a bit proud of), but he was an excellent master. Sure, he might not cultivate Aituan all that much - it was kind of amazing Aituan had a personality at all rather than being a lifeless hunk of metal - but that was fine! Aituan, infected by his master’s shaping, didn't especially want to be constantly cultivating anyway. They didn't need that, the two of them. They were chill.

I thought he'd stopped leaking in the bed once he'd reached the appropriately age..?

Not that type of leaking! Leaking from the face, I mean. Salt water.

Ah, Baxia said. Yes, my human does that, too. Quite a bit. I'd assumed it was a regular part of their function.

Aituan thought about what he knew about the senior Nie brother, who was a highly emotional sort of person - inclined towards wet eyes for a myriad of reasons, such as joy, sadness, rage, a bit of passing beauty, and even something Nie Huaisang very fondly called 'allergies'. He could see how Baxia might have reached that conclusion.

Well, my human doesn't do it very much at all, he said. Not for real, anyway. Only when he's unhappy.

Baxia didn't say anything.

This will make him less unhappy, Aituan added, because he might be a mute piece of metal, but silence was a little intimidating when the silence was Baxia's. That shit had weight, and heft, and maybe stabbing power. He thinks revealing the extent of his desires will lead your master to reject him.

Absurd.

I know! Your master is doting and meticulous with his affections. He would never turn his back on a beloved one.

Nie Mingjue had the stubbornness of a saber in that way, and Aituan meant that as a wholehearted compliment.

True, Baxia said, sounding satisfied - like any saber, she approved of people speaking highly about her master. Not to mention that the underlying 'issue' seems rather...pointless.

I know! Aituan exclaimed. I mean, I have no idea why humans are so hung up on all that grinding and grunting stuff -

I believe it's associated with human reproduction. Maybe.

Only when you have compatible male-female pairs, but you don't see humans stopping with that, do you? Aituan sighed. His master was something of an expert on this subject. Males, females, multiples, solo...you know, I think they do it for fun.

Baxia rumbled thoughtfully. Like training?

...I think they think it’s more fun than training, Aituan said, and tried to ignore Baxia's silent skepticism. Most humans, anyway; not necessarily yours. Humans are weird, okay?

The silence turned agreeable. That was something no saber would disagree with.

Anyway, put that aside. Let’s just take it as given that humans like grinding themselves against each other instead of against a proper whetstone, and that my master happens to very much want to grind against yours in particular. And yet he's tormenting himself and making himself unhappy and refusing to do anything about it because - you won't believe this - because they were forged by the same maker.

That’s the reason? Surely you jest.

I'm not, Aituan insisted. I asked my human about it specifically. That's the reason.

Baxia was displeased. That's ridiculous, she said. That's it? That's the cause of all this fuss?

Aituan was just happy someone finally understood his perspective about this whole fiasco. Nie Huaisang had a penchant for the dramatic, but he seemed quite earnestly distressed by this little non-dilemma, even after Aituan had assured him - having checked with Baxia - that his brother adored him unreasonably and would do anything he wished. He hadn't exactly appreciated Aituan's disbelief when he'd explained the issue, either - in the end, he'd just said that it was probably something sabers couldn't quite grasp.

I thought it was something serious, Baxia complained. The way my master has been carrying on, you'd think he was doing something evil in even wanting to do it. But there's no evil here! We would know!

Naturally. They were Nie sect sabers, forged and cultivated to fight evil from the very start; no one knew evil better than they.

And it's not as if my master's predecessor was any better. Look at the unusual ingredients he chose to use in forging his sons! Each one stranger than the next!

This was true. Nie Huaisang had once grown a tail in his sleep - Aituan had suppressed it on his behalf, naturally, and he was fairly certain that his master still regarded the entire event as a bad dream brought on by snacking excessively on that imported cheese from the south, but it had definitely happened.

The old Sect Leader Nie had a lot to answer for, really.

It would seem to solve a lot of problems for them to pair off together, Aituan agreed. They're a known quantity for each other, and it keeps either of them from bothering anyone else with their nonsense. They’d be able to pick forging ingredients for the next generation on the basis of logic rather than emotion. And they both want it! There's literally no problem here!

None at all that I can see, Baxia proclaimedwith a very reassuring tone of finality. We will fix this.

Yes!

And we will fix your cultivation as well.

Ye- wait, what?

My master’s cultivation has begun to exceed my own, Baxia explained. Humans don't have a consolidation period - they just keep growing even after they reach a breakthrough point. If he continues to grow at the current rate, he will exceed my reach within ten years.

That…wasn't good. It was in fact very bad.

The Nie sect practiced a complementary cultivation style, human and saber cultivating side by side along the path of the Great Dao. If the two ever fell seriously out of sync, they would increasingly risk qi deviation. Such a tragic end had been the fate of the Nie sect seniors whose sabers now rested in the saber tombs, and would likely consume their own masters eventually, absent some plan...

...which it sounded like Baxia had.

You are a weak cultivator, she said. Your master is, too. If we redirect my master's cultivation for the purpose of strengthening you and your master instead of increasing his own strength, it would add at least two dozen years to the timeline - and that will be enough for me to finish consolidating my own power and reach my own breakthrough, letting me match him once more. My master and I will then be able to cultivate side by side through the next period.

Huh. That meant work for him, which Aituan didn't especially want, but much less work than if he were doing all the cultivating himself. And it'd be good for his master, not needing to worry about losing his brother at a young age...

All right, he said. Say, how long is the next period? Until you run into another consolidation period and we need to start worrying again?

Baxia considered the question. Not terribly long, she said. Perhaps 200 years? Perhaps 250?

That seemed reasonable enough, right? How long did humans live, anyway?

Well, whatever. It was more than ten - his master ought to be thanking him (and Baxia!) for putting in so much effort on his behalf.

That's fine, Aituan said. All right, we're in agreement. So...now what?

#mdzs #baxia #aituan #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #lots of headcanon references #my fic #my fics #rather silly

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thebiscuiteternal · 2 months

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Hey there,

Then maybe something for your OTHER beauty and the beast SangYao (?) AU?

I didn't even notice at first (I do love the snake one too), but I meant the one where Huaisang is on the run from wen soldiers, and stumbles into cursed Meng Yao's/Jin Guangyao's gothic mansion

(For those wondering, nonnie means the second concept in this post. Also, this ended up being a two-parter because I couldn't decide on POV and @micchikureshima made a good case for "por que no los dos?")

---------------

Meng Yao had long gotten used to the sound of water. With little material to use and no tools at all, his attempts to repair the roof of this place had amounted to practically nothing, and the house was in an area that practically invited rain.

So it wasn't the drumming and trickling from the holes in the roof that roused him from his dozing.

It was voices.

Immediately, he was on his guard. While it had been, according to his tally scratches on the wall of his room, over a year since the last time his father had sent opportunistic idiots his way, he wasn't stupid or hopeful enough to think the man had given up on getting rid of him.

Seeing no reason to make finding him easy, he gathered the shadows around him and let the fangs and fur come, then crept out the door to peer over the balcony.

His 'guests' were almost always rogues or outer disciples from some minor sect, looking to make a name for themselves and gain a little more prestige for their leaders at the grown-ups' table. The last time he'd made a notation under the day's tally mark for anyone from a major sect had been...

Well, he could refresh his memory later. It had been a very long time, at any rate, so he was more than a little surprised to see not one or two, but six cultivators wearing the white and red flames of the Wen sect gathered in a knot just inside the doors to the main hall.

For a moment, panic clawed its way up his throat, the fur down his spine and tail bristling on end. Had his father finally gotten so fed up with his existence as to pay for legitimate assassins? And he'd never had to fight this many before, what if they-

Wait... no... their attention was focused on something else. One of them viciously kicked a bundle of sodden green and grey clothing that lay on the floor, and Meng Yao couldn't help wincing when he realized that the 'bundle' was, in fact, a boy.

Wait... green and grey...

Why were a bunch of Wens chasing and abusing a Nie? Here? Admittedly, he couldn't keep track of anything like intersect politics when he couldn't even go out to the front yard, but according to what he'd heard on the way to meet his father, all of the major sects were in some sort of coldly polite stalemate. Had something drastic changed outside?

He didn't have time to ruminate on the question, as one of the cultivators finally looked up from their target, and then nudged another.

"Hey. Isn't this the house? The one Jin-zongzhu's always complaining about?"

The second man craned his neck to look around the main hall, then pulled a scroll sealed with a waterproofing talisman out of his sleeve and opened it.

A map.

His jail was on maps now?

Apparently so, because the man holding it grinned. "It is. Damn, today might actually be a good day if we could hand the little bitch and Jin-zongzhu's eternal gratitude to Wen-da-gongzi."

"Let's get to it, then," the one who'd kicked the boy -the one he assumed was the leader- said as he bent down and dragged the boy up by the hair. "Spread out in pairs and start laying-"

Oh, no.

No, no, no.

While it might have been easier to pick them off once they split up, he absolutely couldn't risk giving them time to start setting traps. The closest anyone had come to killing him had been the prick who'd decided to turn one of the few rooms that still had solid flooring into a maze of wire snares and then had chased him into it, and he was not putting up with that nonsense again.

A low growl building in his throat, he jumped up onto the balcony railing and then launched himself at the still speaking human, snapping his jaws shut on the man's neck before he'd finished giving the order.

The man immediately fell backwards under his weight to land on the floor hard, dropping the boy in the process, and he wrenched his head to finish tearing out the throat before whipping around to go for the next.

He'd managed to catch them off guard, but by the time he'd downed the second one, the last four had all drawn their swords.

Pulling the shadows from all the corners of the room, he dropped down through the floorboards and the reformed himself at their backs to maintain the element of surprise.

When the last cultivator fell dead, he stood in the doorway, head down, teeth bared, fur bristling, panting for breath in an effort to calm his defensive instinct back down. When he'd finally regained his composure, he slowly reconstructed himself back into his human shape before approaching the boy and rolling him onto his back to take a better look.

Huh. He'd be pretty if it weren't for the black eye and the dried blood under his nose. Despite having been roughly manhandled, his hair still held a number of intricate little braids and his clothing, though ripped and dirty and soaking wet, was of high quality.

A member of the inner family, maybe?

Curiosity ate at him, and the only way he'd get answers was if he made sure that the boy recovered enough to wake up.

Deciding he'd deal with the bodies of the other 'guests' later, he easily scooped the boy into his arms and headed deeper in the house towards one of the fireplaces he knew could still be used.

#mdzs #jin guangyao #meng yao #nie huaisang #fanfic #sangyao #eventually

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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year

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While I do sympathise and agree that many of the ‘immoral’ thing JGY did were a direct response to others attacks on him, for survival and family normal or pragmatic behaviour (I honestly didn’t blame him for the incest at all, I agree there was nothing to be done; and I’m glad JGS died) I have some questions. Especially since you and another user mentioned that him being in power was better for more people (that he did things that benefitted others and him as a side effect too) - then how does one reconcile with what happened to the Tingshan He sect? And even the gamble he takes on JZX’s life by sending him after JZixun? That seems like self serving ambition…

Honestly, anything JGY did to get around or harm JGS and even NMJ, I agree. While one was better than the other, I don’t think either of them were great leaders, nor were they always reasonable, and he was likely a better leader than them.

(Also, I’ve heard varying accounts about the watchtowers being useful/useless, good intentioned and not, can you please point me towards the chapter that makes that clear?)

Thanks

hey anon, sorry for taking such a long time to respond to you! I believe that I answer most of the questions you raise here in my reblog over here, but I'll try to pull out the salient points for you in my reply. fwiw I'm not going to dig down into the jgy-jzx stuff because I think @lansplaining did a great job of that already over here, but my tl;dr version for myself is that I just think mdzs-jgy was mad, made a bad judgment call, and assumed that wwx would have more control over wn than he did.

okay, now to address the rest of your ask:

the tingshan he

the first thing to remember about the tingshan he is that jgy is demonstrably not in power when this sect is brought to xy's demonic cultivation wonderland. jgs is still the jin sect leader. I bring this up because I think it's important to acknowledge that the tingshan he were going to die whether jgy was present to serve as death's ferryman or not. their fates were sealed as soon as they began actively agitating against jgs's desire to establish the position of chief cultivator. here's the relevant sections I highlighted from the villainous friends extras:

as I pointed out in my linked reblog, what this shows us is two things: 1) jgy began with diplomacy and negotiation to try to bring the tingshan he to heel, and I believe we can reliably trust that this is true; if it weren't, he su would have protested this as a lie; and 2) in he su's own words, the tingshan he were prepared to oppose jgs's desires with violence.

however, anon, if you're hoping I'll write something here that will thoroughly cleanse the figurative blood of the tingshan he from jgy's hands (since he is not the one doing the actual killing--xy is), then that's not going to happen--just like there is nothing that anyone can write about wwx's actions vis-à-vis his gruesome murder of wang lingjiao, wen chao, and the other wen sect cultivators that he tortures, mutilates, and kills in the aftermath of the sacking of lotus pier that will remove their literal blood from his hands. I'm not going to say anything that will make one of these actions more morally (I hate this word now) redeemable than the other, because even though their circumstances are different, the acts themselves are still quite awful!

one thing I did not point out in my linked meta, however, and which I do think is significant to call out when examining the full context of the violence that jgy oversees, is the amount of control that jgy does not have over how xue yang chooses to kill the tingshan he. please note that these excerpts are pretty gruesome because, uh. well, canon-typical xue yang, pretty much:

so, on the one hand, xy clearly cuts out he su's tongue here because he is flinging the usual shitty insult at jgy, making a dig about his birth status and his mother. which, yay, thank you xue yang c': but also, jgy is clearly surprised that xy does not kill he su and the rest of his sect before giving them to the fierce corpses. then we have the paragraph that follows:

here, jgy is visibly disturbed by the cries of the children specifically, and though he doesn't step in to intervene, I still find his visceral reaction to what he is witnessing significant when considering his character and how he feels broadly about the violence he facilitates. because yes, he brought the tingshan he to this place knowing that they were going to be killed because of their political opposition to his father's plans. he knew that bringing them to the demonic cultivation grounds meant that they were going to be given to xy for his macabre body horror experiments to pursue demonic cultivation. neither of those things mean that he expected them to be ripped apart while still alive, or that he's emotionally or psychologically untouched by what his actions have brought about.

so... how should we reconcile /gestures @ all of this, The Horrors with all of the tangible good that jgy puts into the cultivation world later on? my short response is, the exact same way wwx stans reconcile wwx's Horrors with his later good deeds (tho as you've probably guessed I don't lean as much on inherent moral goodness or badness in my analyses). so to make this work, we also have to take a look at what constitutes jgy's good deeds. nb: this is essentially what I wrote in my reblog meta, but I'm going to copy/paste or paraphrase/lightly edit it here just to keep everything in one place:

jgy's tangible positive impact on the jianghu

the initial points I raised in my reblog meta (different link from above) emphasize the tangible positive impact that jgy's actions put into the world: peace and stability for both the gentry and the common people. here are the following points where I provide more support for my initial arguments.

his tenure as chief cultivator and jin sect leader objectively does preserve jin ling's place in the line of succession, because once he is gone, we see that jin ling's position is not secure. period. this is in the text. this isn't an opinion. [edit: there’s some good discussion between myself and @madtomedgar in the comments of this post wrt jgy, jl as heir, and how much responsibility jgy has for destabilizing his life in the first place.] from chapter 116, the "banquet" extra:

furthermore, jgy does rein in the fiscal corruption that had been rampant under jgs's tenure. we know this because the text tells us so in the "iron hook" extra (chapter 123):

beyond making it unquestionably clear that lanling is in a much shittier position now that jgy is gone, this part 👆is further confirmed in the official character index of the 7seas translation--which is not something I usually rely upon in my analyses, but it makes clear the broad perception of life in the jianghu under jgs vs jgy:

jgs's character summary: "Under [Jin Guangshan's] rule, the Jin Sect was loathed by the cultivation world for its shameless abuses, corruption, and excesses."

jgy's character summary: "Jin Guangyao rose from humble circumstances and became not only the head of the Jin Sect but also the Cultivation Chief of the inter-sect alliance. His work as an undercover spy was instrumental in the success of the Sunshot Campaign. His skill at politicking and networking is matched by none, and through restructuring and reparations he was able to largely make up for the damage done to the Jin Sect's reputation by his father's rule."

in one of these scenarios, corruption was rampant enough that everyone was unhappy. in the other scenario, that corruption was reined in, and that matters.

the jianghu is also objectively the safest and most peaceful it has ever been under jgy's tenure as chief cultivator, and I don't think this gets acknowledged enough. looking to chapter 45 when wwx and jl are talking about the past, and jl is sulkily pointing out that both his uncles became famous at "fifteen-or-so," wwx's own thoughts are:

Wei WuXian commented in silence, That’s not the same! Back then, the QishanWen Sect was still on top and everyone had to watch out. If they didn’t fight and cultivate as much as possible, who knew if they’d be the next one to run out of luck? During the Sunshot Campaign, you’d be hauled to the battlefields no matter if you were fifteen or any other age. Now, since the situations is stable and the sects are at peace, of course the atmosphere isn’t as tense and people don’t cultivate like they’re crazy. There’s no need anymore.

in other words (to paraphrase some commentary by @xiyao-feels) when the wen were in charge, the world was a shitty and dangerous place filled with war and violence--and now the world is peaceful, and kids like jin ling are allowed to grow up without the very real possibility of being marched off to war hanging over their head at all times. jgy is the chief cultivator who made this reality possible.

and a big part of why the jianghu is a more stable and peaceful place also comes down to the watchtowers, which is one of the points you specifically wanted more details on, anon! so we'll go to chapter 42 in the novel to look at them in more detail:

After Jin GuangYao officially succeeded the position of Sect Leader and became the Chief Cultivator, he immediately gathered people and resources from the sects, and started to carry out his past goals. In the beginning, the voices of opposition were deafening. A lot of people suspected that the LanlingJin Sect used it to gain personal benefits and stuff its own pockets. With a smiling face, Jin GuangYao persisted for five years. During the years, he allied but also fell out with countless people. Using both gentle and forceful methods, he did all that he could and what he wished for was finally completed. More than twelve hundred “lookout towers” had been built.

These “lookout towers” were scattered around the more remote places. Every one of them were assigned disciples from certain sects. If anything strange happened, they’d take action at once. When they couldn’t deal with the matter, they’d send out messages to other sects or rogue cultivators for help. Even if the cultivators who came wanted something in return while the locals were too poor to give them any, the money that the LanlingJin Sect gathered throughout each year would be enough to support them. [red emphasis mine]

All of these happened after the death of the YiLing Patriarch. Wei WuXian only heard the ins and outs from Lan WangJi after they passed a few lookout towers during their journey. Rumors had it that Koi Tower was preparing to build the next batch of lookout towers, increasing them to three thousand in number so that they covered a greater area. Although after the first lookout towers were built, they received widespread approvals due to their notable effects, the voices of suspicion and ridicule had never died either. When the time came, the cultivation world would definitely be thrown into chaos again.

five years!! that is a long-ass time to devote to a project, particularly one that costs him substantial political capital as well as actual money, if your only goal is the consolidation of political clout, because a lot can happen in the span of five years. it certainly isn't the right way to go about laundering money, since for a money laundering scheme to work, it has to actually, you know. pass through a system that is actually making money in the first place, which this one transparently was not. if it was a guaranteed money-maker, jgs would not have opposed wasting time on something that 👆(see above) clearly devotes lanling jin resources towards supporting the poor who cannot protect themselves. whatever the political opposition to the project by jin sect opponents, for the broader jianghu and the common people, the success of the watchtower program was a net positive. anyway: when acting exclusively under his own power and allowed to make his own decisions free of fear and danger, jgy is fundamentally not a destructive character. (thank you again, @confusion-and-more)

okay I think this should answer most of your questions, anon! please do hmu again if you want me to dig down into anything else, I am, as always, super happy to talk about jgy at the drop of a hat.

#asks answered #mdzs #mdzs meta #jin guangyao #he did crimes??? good for him 😌

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llycaons · 7 months

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im just going to make a complication post for it: this fic btw

His brother is excellent at small talk, at making people feel at ease, at saying the right thing at the right time. Lan Wangji, for his part, is excellent at silence, at staring at people until they feel uncomfortable enough to leave the room, and at reciting rules – in short, he is a model member of Gusu Lan and as such definitely not fit for public appearances.

so true he IS good at all that

Wei Wuxian proudly presented a self-drawn family portrait to his sister, who was thrilled and promised to hang it up in the main reception hall. When Jin Zixuan walked past it hours later, he saw that the picture showed his beautiful wife, their beautiful son, his two brothers in law, and a peacock. The peacock had a vermillion dot between its eyes.

oh this is hysterical. imagine jyl actually going along with that

“Say da-jiu. Can you say da-jiu? Da-jiu. Da-jiu. No? Let’s try Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian. Really, nothing? Aiyo, we’ve been at this for so long now and you still insist on staying silent? I’m very disappointed in you. Hey, say Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan. Say Lan Zhan. Think of his face when he hears you say that. Think of Jin Zixuan’s face when he hears you say that! Do it for da-jiu. Look how simple it is. Lan Zhan!”

wwx WOULD teach his nephew to saw lwj's name

Can you believe he hasn’t said a single word yet?” “He’s two months old,” Jin Zixuan bites out. “Shijie was already speaking in full sentences at that age,” Wei Wuxian says with the confidence of someone who hasn’t actually met Jiang Yanli until she was eleven. “Must be your side of the family, I suppose.”

WHAT A DICK

But if he stays behind, then how can he know for sure that this event serves as the romantic bonding time he has planned? He knows that Wei Wuxian is a skilled cultivator...His attention won’t be captured by someone with lesser skills, he needs a match, someone who can keep the ever-fleeting interest of someone as scatter-brained as Wei Wuxian. Zewu-jun would have provided a pool of calm to Wei Wuxian’s restlessness, but even Nie Mingjue, for all his anger and intensity, has something solid about him. People look at him and see a man who will not yield for anyone. Jin Zixuan hopes that Wei Wuxian will look at him slay monsters today and see a man who will make for a good husband and a demanding, yet gentle lover.

I CAN'T

Wei Wuxian is sitting cross-legged on the mossy grass and appears to be weaving together the stems of several dandelions, occasionally throwing some of the petals in Lan Wangji’s direction, who steadfastly ignores him in his muted conversation with Nie Mingjue... They both look over at the rest of their group, where Wei Wuxian has finished his flower crown and is presenting it to Lan Wangji with a little flourish. Lan Wangji gazes down at it, then turns back to Nie Mingjue, who’s watching this display intently. Physically incapable of accepting defeat, Wei Wuxian now tries to deposit the dandelion crown on Lan Wangji’s head anyway; Lan Wangji takes one step to the side. Wei Wuxian changes tactics and makes a grab for Lan Wangji’s hand, equally unsuccessful. Wei Wuxian has finally given up and lets the wreath drop to the ground between them, his sulk visible even several metres away. He starts walking over to them, and in the background, Jin Zixuan sees Lan Wangji bow down to pick the crown back up, tucking it into his sleeve,

typical

“There is no shame in weakness,” he says, vaguely recalling his uncle’s advice. “There is only shame in failing to try.” “Um,” Nie Huaisang says.

help

Wei Wuxian still doesn’t understand boundaries, because he immediately invites Lan Wangji along – and, of course, he’s really obnoxious about it. “Of course, I’ll come to Qinghe,” Wei Wuxian says, eyes bright with the promise of adventure. “It’ll be nice, won’t it, Lan Zhan? Get a bit of a break from everyday sect life.”

he just assumes lwj will be there with him...

#I had to stop im so little into this thing #ficblogging

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admirableadmiranda · 2 years

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If Sects in mdzs don't charge anything for their services, how do they make their money and some are so rich?

So we don’t actually know if the sects do or don’t charge for more minor things. It’s not of particular import for the story, so it’s not covered. We know that most of the high profile cultivators prefer to only take on risky hunts to boost their reputation and Lan Wangji is known for showing up anywhere to help anyone for nothing at all. He stands out for all three of those reasons.

I do think a lot of it is probably just more based on how civilizations like that worked then and even now. Gusu Lan, Yunmeng Jiang, Lanling Jin, the first part of all those names conforms to a territory. So if we were to break it down into more western terms, these are all lords. They are the nobility. Being the nobility means they own the lands and people pay them for the privilege to use it.

Yunmeng Jiang is set on the waters right in the center of the Jianghu. Between the value in their sect colors (look up why purple was a color of wealth in historical times it’s fascinating) and the fact that they are so centrally located, you can easily assume that they make their money off of trade in dyes, lotus silks and say trade taxes to go through their lands, more if you want people to keep bandits off of your valuables. Gusu Lan might specialize in something entirely different, for one thing at least according to Wei Wuxian they have the best wine, so the cost of both selling it outside of Gusu as well as the resources to make it might be their own income source. In addition they are scholars and musicians, both practices that require very skilled workers and a lot of wood and bamboo to produce the things they need, so you could extrapolate from that they might have a solid wood and bamboo control in the trade markets.

Lanling Jin was founded by a merchant if I recall correctly and were always the sect that flashed their wealth the most. This does not necessarily make them the most wealthy, it could all be gold gilt and glamour to sell the image, but people certainly believe it. Qinghe Nie and Qishan Wen just get too little in terms of land descriptions in story for me to come up with any examples, but there are many ways to make money depending on what’s in your territory.

In addition there are also minor sects/clans who enjoy prestige in allying with the great sects. Controlling smaller amounts of land, they can tax the people who live there and then the great sects can tax the minor sects within their territory. All of these things combined can lead to some very wealthy great sects especially in peacetime with no famines or bad seasons or anything like that.

As for people paying for cultivators, while it’s not explicitly stated it is reasonable to assume that rogues get paid for their work, as while being able to do everything for free is admirable, you still need money to eat. However being a rogue cultivator does allow them to go to places that might be willing to either pay more or help them out in other ways.

It’s just like irl society, just we have an additional factor in a job based around dealing with the things that go bump in the night. There are all sorts of ways to world build it if you want, but these are the ones that I think are most likely in universe.

Hope that helped!

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #asks #anon #anon asks #the great sects #the jianghu #one of the advantages in working in fiction that is our world but shifted slightly left #is you can let our own civilizations do the heavy lifting for understanding these things #I went more with lord territories rather than kingdoms in my example #as it seems to be a bunch of small groups in the same area #just with no emperor

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dreamingsushi · 10 months

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Till the End of the Moon - Episode 33

We are slowly approaching the end of this drama. The two main leads are at odd ends. We still have no clue as to how they’ll get rid of the evil bone. Up to this point there’s really nothing to guess right.

Jiumin hasn’t given up upon being together with Susu. Their biggest obstacle is the return of the demon god. So he wants to find a way to prevent him from ever coming back. And he wonders if Si Ying and the other demon knows anything since he himself knows nothing. So he goes to Huangyuan to find Si Ying and Jing Mie. What a dumb idea. Jing Mie is angry that Dimian escaped. Jiumin pretends to appear in front of Si Ying and Jing Mie as the demon god to ask questions, but he doesn’t get any useful info. They recognize him as just the future demon god and tell him there’s no way he’ll escape becoming the demon god because the evil bone is indestructible. The only one aware of the flaw of the demon god’s plan is the demon god himself.

Both Jiumin and Dimian went to see Susu at the same time. Both assuming the other one is there to harm Susu, they start fighting. Susu stops them and Dimian tells her to keep her distance from him, but he promises to keep his identity a secret and to not injure him as long as he doesn’t hurt her. Jiumin tells Susu about the other demonic object he merged with and admits he doesn’t know how to take it out. he asks if there’s a chance for them to start anew as Jiumin and Susu, but she’s still firm about them not being together. He swears that he’ll prove to her that he’s not the demon god. Now he gets to decide who he is. He’s not going to give up.

Monü, formerly Ye Bingchang, sends Nian Baiyu to Tantai Jin’s side so info will leak that Jiumin is the demon god fetus. It’s creepy, I don’t like saying it like this, but it kind of gets the bigger picture through a little better than future demon god. Jiumin speaks in favour of Nian Baiyu who was always loyal to him, so he’s accepted amongst the celestial. Yue Ya is in charge of getting Nian Baiyu settled down since he wants to remain by Jiumin’s side.

While he’ away hunting demons, Gongye Jiwu ends up finding the silk house Monü set up to hide the demon girls. She recognizes him right away as Xiao Lin and offers to take him to Jing capital city in her carriage since she’s going over there too. he agrees. Will she be able to seduce him? Or will she end up hating even more Susu now? It wouldn’t be so surprising if she did.

Yue Ya is suspicious of Nian Baiyu being a spy since he asks so many questions. She still ends up telling him that Cang Jiumin must have followed Li Susu to the capital of Jing, info he relays to Jing Mie. Dimian notices the demonic messenger going around. He thinks he should do something about Cang Jiumin before the demon god is reborn. In town, Li Susu find the streets empty. She learns from an inn keeper that a demon as been attacking the village lately and he advises her to leave if she wants to live. The demon is too powerful to be defeated. She’s upset at Cang Jiumin for following her, but he says it’s the festival of his native country so it’s only natural that he would attend, so she’s probably the one following him. Then she tells him that a newbie cultivator should leave in case the demon attacks him and then retorts that she’ll protect him if that ever happens. I love seeing them bickering at each other again. It’s way much better than when she was fighting and ignoring him. Jiumin is a little disrespectful though, because she said she didn’t want to start over with him and yet he keeps pursuing her. He should respect her will instead of following her around to try and win her back. However then there would be no more plot to the story I guess. It’s just sad because it kind of shows that it’s okay to pursue someone that doesn’t even want to. It’s a lot of pressure. They end up staying at the same inn as Gongye Jiwu. They discuss how to defeat the demon. Li Susu says that they need a certain weapon, but she doesn’t remember which one, so Jiumin suggests that he uses a messenger crow to ask Nian Baiyu to get the info for them. So they set up a plan to catch the demon by restricting the area she can access, setting up some sort of red string that once she touches it, she won’t be able to get rid of and will lead them to her. They split up to cover the areas where she’ll be able to go around. The demon shows itself to Jiumin in the shape of Li Susu. He recognizes her right away and tricks her into believing he’s under her spell before attacking her and missing. She escapes to reach Gongye Jiwu’s area. She tries to enchant Gongye Jiwu with talking about Susu’s heart, but he doesn’t even give an inch. But then she tries again with a little bit more of a success and she almost succeeds, but I think Monü saved him and made him snap out of it before she devoured his brain. Anyways, they noticed that Susu fearing him is his weakness or something like that. I don’t really understand why Susu was drunk sleeping in the first place since they were trying to catch a demon. Jiumin ends up managing to defeat the demon lady that showed him illusions. His will to save and protect Li Susu’s what made him breakthrough.

Sounds like Jingmie might be interested romantically in Siying. He bought dolls that once burned dow they will be protected. He was about to make them kiss when Siying spots him and scolds him for developing useless feelings similar to those of a human. They want to ruin the festival because it’s dear to Cang Jiumin.

Cang Jiumin tells Susu he knows she still fears him the most, but she tells him that she believes him and that he is not the demon god because he would never hurt her. He’s worried that everyone would learn about his true identity, since he heard all the disciples say they would like to kill the demon fetus. The poor man. He really was born to a life of unending pain. I hope he gets luckier in his next life.

And that’s it for this episode. I’m still quite confused as to why Susu was drinking on the night they were hunting the demon and I hope they will explain it to us in some way, because that seems very out of character for her. But it wouldn’t be the first time, the writing of her character is lacking in my opinion. Not to be mistaken, I like her, but they make her do stuff that makes no sense, probably to get the plot going, but it’s just so illogical... And they can do better, they proved it so many times. Really, I hope that they give us a little more consistency for the last few episodes, she deserves it.

#till the end of the moon #luo yunxi #bai lu #deng wei #chen duling #xianxia #xianxia drama #costume drama #cdrama #c-drama #chinese drama #drama review #drama recap #drama reaction

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henshengs · 2 years

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heyy idk if this is a good place to ask, but you seem to be good with novel!canon?? so i thought maybe you'd know the answer to the question that's been bugging me lately (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿)

basically, do we *know* when exactly jgy found out that it was sms who cursed jin zixun? (and also when he started trusting sms with his own secrets?) because people seem to assume that he knew the truth from the start, but the more i think about it, the more unlikely it feels. i mean, i don't see any reason for jgy *at that point* to risk his status and possibly life to help a man cover up his crime, when he could just rat him out to daddy and jin zixun.

this is an excellent question! as far as I can tell, we don't know. sms says he wasn't working for jgy when he cursed jxn, that's all we get. he doesn't seem surprised when sms talks about it, so I think he knew by that point at least. the most interesting part of the book scene is

Jiang Cheng’s was cold, “Is it necessary to ask? If Jin ZiXun weren’t cursed, nothing that happened afterwards would have to happen! The attack helped you remove Jin ZiXuan and Jin ZiXun, both of whom were of the same generation as you. It cleared away everything that obstructed your path to the LanlingJin Sect and the position of Chief Cultivator. Su She was behind the curse, and he’s a trusted subordinate of yours. Is it really necessary to ask whose orders he followed?!”

Jin GuangYao refused to answer, as though he was focused on meditation.

seems to me like SOMETHING is going on there, but it's kinda hard to tell what! is jgy offended that jc and lxc would think he was behind it? did he actually in some way manipulate the situation into going down like that, but he's reluctant to own up to it? or is he courteously leaving space for sms to let people assume he cursed jin zixun on his orders, if that's what sms wants? I don't know but it's fun to speculate.

to get back to your actual ask, I don't know that I agree that jgy would have ratted sms out. jin zixun was also jgy's tormentor, and I don't think jgy had any loyalty to him. jgy also really enjoys acting as protector when he can, and I can see him doing what he can to protect sms as a precursor to the way he later protects and mentors xy. also, jin zixun assuming he was being cursed by wwx did serve jgy's overall interests at that point (though jin zixuan's death did not.)

personally I headcanon jgy finding out after Qionqi Pass. at that point, jzx and jzxn were already dead, and serving sms up to the Jins wouldn't have done much for anybody when wwx was already such a perfect scapegoat.

#replies #ask #holy--milk #sms blogging #su minshan #thanks for the ask about my guy! sorry i couldn't be of more help

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justyouraverageomniversedreamer · 2 years

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In the first part of my ask I was referring to what post-resurrection characters had said about the Jiang clan. Basically, association with Wei Wuxian almost cost the Jiang to get annihilated by the Jin. It's rather obvious that the Jin were the most powerful at the time and the Jiang couldn't afford to go against them. In one scene pre-seige, even the Lan are shown as unable to go against the Jin. This is because the Jin joined in the war late and lost less people and resources during the war. That, combined with the Nie being pro-wei-wuxian's death meant that no one could afford to stand with Wei Wuxian.

yeah i had though that way of talking about the situation looked familiar

i hope you can bear with my rambling here, i haven't had a proper conversation/discussion about something im interested in in probably ever, or maybe i just talk like this who knows

anyway, to be clear i dont hate jiang cheng for (most of) the decisions he made like to understand his though process you'd have to recognize the inferiority complex that he was always trying to hide but was unfortunately instilled into him by the piss poor way that the jiangs were raising their two (unofficially three) children while dealing with their own relationship issues and constantly fighting in front of them

then there was the massacre then the loss of his core then wei wuxian went missing in the middle of the war only to return a demonic cultivator who refused to pick up his sword then after the war as the heir now the head of the clan he really had to pick up the politics game because there was literally no one else to fix things up at home and his sister was getting married and the jin clan inserting themselves as the new power and then wei wuxian does something goes and gets him self ostracized from the entire cultivation world by protecting 'war criminals' of whom jiang cheng really doesnt care about since he really just hates any with the surname wen at this point….

[though i don't know if jiang cheng really had any idea what he was doing not to mention i don't know if his voice would have had much sway in a court][though i would assume if he was at the big meetings then he must've kept his head down because there's no way that those guys wouldn't have brought up to jiang cheng that wei wuxian was once the head disciple and they should 'hear out his opinion']

anyway i didn't mean to start a big discussion though its been fun

My initial point was less about what they stood to lose but more of a what they would stand to gain by protecting him like you know him still being alive

Being that they both cared about him the decision weighed on both of them. like when you weigh in your mind if you alone can really stand to let him be killed by other cultivators or will you stand aside and let it happen (lead the charge as if he brought it on himself after killing your sister and her husband he really is too far gone)(or even something like 'at this point there really is nothing i can do' though considering his reaction to wei wuxian being brought back to life i don't know about this one)(but we know the way he hides concern behind anger so… but also he was definitely threatening wei wuxian with fairy and thats just not great. hes changed at least a little in the time since wei wuxians been gone and if they could just talk properly maybe we could find out how much)

Like they both wanted to try protect him but only one of them did actually attempt it and that was both too late and also not late enough and the other one (supposedly) led the attack against him though it was a moot point in the end seeing as none of these three idiots could talk to each other properly or literally any other person that they trusted, if there really was another way out of this situation it would have been in actively figuring out a plan

but lan wangji was still hesitating on following what his clan says is right and what he thinks is right, jiang cheng is so angry and his inferiority complex and all the ways his mom talked to him about wei wuxian keeps popping up at the worst moments not to mention the stress of rebuilding his clan, wei wuxian meanwhile is now public enemy number one and his almost brother keeps trying to ask him questions so hes getting super defensive all the time and never answering properly (almost like hes hiding something)

also i would just like to say that as far as i remember wei wuxian was so strong he probably didn't need to be protected especially since people led an attack on him at the burial mounds a place where he would literally be at his strongest but after jin zixuan then the wens and yanli he was actually at his lowest mentally and wangji was out of commission at this point so when jiang cheng showed up in the attack against him he probably thought that he really was alone

but i can talk about wei wuxians depression all day (its one big 'did you fall or did you let go' type of situation) thats besides the point.

he needed support and he needed to know he had support but he didn't then they both lost him

anyway anyway i was just making an initial observation about a difference between jiang cheng and lan wangji,

it may have been circumstance and personal morals but it was a really obvious difference thats all i'm saying- obviously this is just a one sentence explanation and these characters are deeper than this and those were the younger versions of them, it was a really hard time for all of them

this is such a great story man like i did read it properly when they did the core reveal in the novel they actually talk, like one side properly bears all his feelings and the other tells us his reasons in his head then gives a skim version out loud because he's an idiot (because he knows jiang cheng, because he's tired and sad but good at hiding it and has been even before the war that started it all)

#bro dont even get me started on yu ziyuan and jiang #fengmian #modaozushi #sometimes reading a character reacts to their story fic really #helps remind you just how much change the characters have #gone through #like what they would have done at the beginning of the story vs the end #my browser refreshed while i was writing this so i had to start over #then my power went out #i will be rereading this story everytime i feel the need so help me god #ask

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likeshipsonthesea · 3 years

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mianmian gets to the lan sect lectures, discovers very quickly that every one of her peers has decided to use this time to figure out how quickly they can get into bed with someone of the opposite sex, and decides almost immediately that she has to pick a suitably unattainable guy to have a crush on.

the thing is, mianmian is lanling jin’s head disciple. she is capable, intelligent, and very very gay. the last of these things she isn’t exactly keen on telling people yet for a variety of reasons up to and including jin zixuan will be so awkward and stubbornly supportive about it and she doesn’t know how to deal with that yet

so when her friends giggle over the other young masters and finally turn to mianmian-- who’s trying to memorize at least some of the fifty-thousand rules before their quiz tomorrow--and they ask her, “who do you like, mianmian?” she says the name that she carefully picked out of a handful of options.

“lan-er-gongzi,” she says, without looking up from her textbook, and she assumes that will be the end of it.

lan wangji is both incredibly attractive and unrelentingly resistant to all attempts to flirt with him. she, like half the other female cultivators, can moon over him (or pretend to moon over him) all they want and nothing will come of it. it’s perfect. she’s a genius. the worst she’ll have to do now is pretend to be infatuated with him when her friends start gossiping. it’s fool proof.

spoiler: it’s not

it’s not, no, because her friends are horrible and immediately start gossiping about it to everyone, and usually mianmian wouldn’t care but then jin zixuan finds out. jin zixuan, whose marriage complex is being brought to center stage with the forced proximity to his bride-to-be. jin zixuan, who for some reason decided he has to live his stolen crush-addled youth vicariously through his only real friend that isn’t related to him. jin zixuan, who for some godforsaken reason takes it upon himself to contrive situations for mianmian and lan wangji to be alone together incessantly.

it unfortunately takes mianmian longer than she would like to figure out what’s happening. she’d give herself a break for it-- she was being responsible and studying, thank you very much-- but she doesn’t have much sympathy for her own stupidity seeing as she’s currently locked in a section of the lan library with the second jade of lan

and suddenly, suddenly she’s just so fucking tired. of studying, yeah, the tests here are brutal and there’s no one to bribe to make sure she doesn’t lose points on stupid things, but also tired of lying to the people she loves and tired of training this hard and being an amazing cultivator only for people to care more about her eventual marriage-- to a man of all things!-- and also, let’s be real here, she’s been in lectures with beautiful capable intelligent women for like months and she’s losing her gay ass mind

and so maybe, possibly, as she’s locked in a library with a clearly confused and annoyed second jade of lan she kind of, momentarily, loses it and rants all of this at his steadily widening eyes

at the end of it, she realizes with no small amount of panic that she’s just confessed not only her attraction to women but the fact that she’s been letting wen qing’s ears of all things distract her from her studies. if anything, she’s sure lan wangji will fault her for inattention

but the second jade of lan, after a drawn-out moment filled only with mianmian’s labored breathing and rising panic, simply says, “i understand.”

mianmian stops. she squints. she tilts her head. she squints some more. lan wangji’s ears go pink and just like that she realizes -- “you’re a cut-sleeve.”

lan wangji’s ears go even pinker. he doesn’t nod, or agree, or outwardly react in any way, but mianmian is a capable, intelligent cultivator, and she’s sure of it.

mianmian sighs with a relief she didn’t know she could feel. “thank the gods.”

lan wangji doesn’t seem to know what to make of this response, or mianmian’s increasingly frequent trips to the library following their conversation, or mianmian’s staunch determination to befriend the guy, but that’s alright. mianmian is old hat at befriending awkward sect heirs by this point.

it’s not like lan wangji expressed any desire for her friendship, but the prospect of not being the only one with absolutely no interest in the straight shenanigans happening at gusu lan summer camp is enough to let mianmian ignore his obvious confusion. lan wangji is a great listener and only sometimes blushes when mianmian waxes poetic about the beautiful women she’s forced to surround herself with every day

“no but you don’t understand,” mianmian insists, alone in the library with lan wangji, “jiang-guniang asked me to help her with a sword form. i put my hands on her waist. i said something idiotic bc she was so pretty and right there and then she laughed. lan wangji. i’m in love.”

“yesterday you were in love with wen-guniang,” lan wangji says as he impassively turns a page in his book. “has this changed?”

“no, i’m in love with both of them. all of them. lan wangji. they’re all so pretty all the time. it’s horrible.”

lan wangji presses his lips into a firmer line, which mianmian’s come to understand means he’s repressing a smile. “i’m sorry to hear it brings luo-guniang such trouble.”

mianmian groans, fairly undignified, but that’s a lost cause with lan wangji at this point anyway. “i swear, if jin zixuan says one more bad thing about her i’m going to punch him and marry her myself.”

lan wangji says, “mn,” which mianmian takes to mean that he supports her in this line of thinking, which she finds both quite sweet and ridiculously funny.

grinning, she teases, “lan-er-gongzi, if i do end up marrying jiang-guniang, will you bear witness to our elopement?”

lan wangji’s lips press again, this time in the way that means he’s repressing a frown. “jiang-guniang’s brothers wouldn’t allow for an elopement,” he says.

mianmian huffs. “as if yunmeng or lanling will deign to host our wedding.”

lan wangji appears to ponder this for a moment before he says, “gusu will host it,” and it’s at that moment that mianmian realizes she’s actually gone and fucking befriended the second jade of lan.

what is her life.

of course, it’s not long after that that she goes to find jin zixuan and explain that she can’t make their weekly sparring match today because she has plans with lan wangji (jiang yanli tenderly brushed some of mianmian’s hair away from her forehead while they were working on sword forms and if mianmian doesn’t tell someone about it she’s literally going to explode) and she’s trying to be as polite as possible only for jin zixuan to scoff and pout (”i don’t pout”) and say, “i never took you for one of those women who throw themselves so wantonly at a man”

it’s only for having been friends with this absolutely horrible communicator for most of her life that she doesn’t immediately punch him in the face. “what did you just say to me,” she demands, but jin zixuan just sets his jaw and looks away, flushing down his neck in the way his mother describes as unbecoming and--

and mianmian suddenly realizes that her ridiculous best friend is jealous of lan wangji.

(in a friend way, of course, he’s like her brother, the one time his mother implied that he ought not get too close to women in case it jeopardizes his betrothal to jiang yanli, he insisted he didn’t have any female friends repeatedly as his mother delicately danced around outright saying mianmian’s name until finally she broke and jin zixuan was basically like huh?? mianmian doesn’t count?? she made me eat dirt like six times when we were kids)

the sheer ridiculousness of jin zixuan, to set her up with a guy and then get jealous when she spends all her time with him

and fuck her, but she loves her stupid awkward ridiculous sect heir best friend and she doesn’t want him to think she’s gone and left him for someone else (gods know jin zixuan’s loyalty complex rivals his marriage one (on second thought the two might be connected)) and so, after making a few quick decisions, mianmian grabs her stupid best friend by the wrist and pulls him to the library

he protests all the way there, but he’s been letting her drag him wherever she wants since they were five and it isn’t as if he’s going to break the pattern now. she drags him to the library and sits him down across a startled lan wangji and then finally breaks and gushes about jiang-guniang’s fingertips brushing her forehead and doesn’t look at jin zixuan once the whole time

lan wangji, on the other hand, sends jin zixuan frequent glances, as if worried on mianmian’s behalf, which is super sweet and also how the fuck did mianmian get two awkward sect heirs to care about her platonically wtf. she spares a thought for her poor auntie, who would’ve loved to have a sect heir care about her niece in much less platonic ways.

at the end of mianmian’s rant, jin zixuan is blinking quite a lot. “you like women?” he asks. he’s always been a bit slow on the uptake. mianmian nods. “you like jiang-guniang?”

mianmian shrugs. “more or less. she’s just really pretty and i’m dying about it. it’s fine.”

lan wangji says, “mn,” sympathetically and jin zixuan continues to gape.

mianmian winces. “you’re not going to be weird about this, are you?”

jin zixuan shakes his head quickly. “no, no-- of course not, i--you know that i--you’re my best friend, i don’t care--what does it matter to me, who you want to--to touch your hair.”

it’s probably the most awkward sentence he’s said to her in years, but possibly more articulate than she’d been expecting. it makes her tear up regardless and she punches him in the shoulder to hide it, and that’s basically how the three of them start hanging out in the library nearly every day after lecture.

sometimes they go to the sparring ground, bc who’s better sparring practice than the second jade of lan? and sometimes (once or twice) mianmian manages to convince lan wangji to join her and jin zixuan for lunch in caiyi town when they don’t have lecture, but mostly they meet in a secluded part of the library where mianmian can rant about how pretty all the women at lectures are, jin zixuan can turn pink whenever she mentions jiang-guniang, and lan wangji can “mn” and nod sympathetically at all the right parts

and mianmian thinks that’s going to be the end of it, they’re just going to be friends now and everything else will move on as usual, bc by some ridiculous trick of fate lan wangji and jin zixuan seem to like each other. which makes sense in hindsight bc they’re both awkward sect heirs who care about cultivation and people a lot even if they’re not great at showing it

(and he’d never say it but mianmian thinks jin zixuan’s easy acceptance of her liking women is probably the first time lan wangji’s ever seen someone accept that kind of thing before (maybe, possibly, other than his brother, lan xichen seems really cool, even if he does smile kind of intensely at mianmian whenever he happens upon her hanging out with his little brother.))

so they’re friends, they’re unexpected friends, and sometimes lan wangji even makes jokes in that dry deadpan way of his and sometimes jin zixuan doesn’t completely trip over his own words and manages to act like a normal human being and mianmian gets two idiots to care about and a perfect place to vent her womanly frustrations, and she thinks that’s the end of it and then wei wuxian accosts her after lectures one day

“do you like lan zhan?” he asks accusingly, eyes narrowed to slits. “what am i even asking, of course you like lan zhan, but do you like-like him?”

mianmian thinks sadly to herself that she’s much too into women to be dealing with all these men’s emotional problems. “lan wangji is my friend,” she says, carefully sidestepping wei wuxian, who continues to squint at her suspiciously. really, he’d been amusing when he flirted with her, but this? this is just ridiculous.

“does he know that?” wei wuxian asks. “because if he doesn’t, that’s just leading him on, and it’s really not nice to--”

“lan wangji knows we’re friends,” she says, trying to enunciate to get her point across clearly. “you can ask him, if you don’t believe me.”

wei wuxian squints a moment longer before he turns and flounces off. mianmian thinks this is the end of it until she’s accosted again after dinner with, “he said you were friends!”

for some reason, wei wuxian seems even more troubled by this than earlier. mianmian tries to suppress her eyeroll. “i told you he would?”

“but how,” wei wuxian says, suddenly whining. “i’ve been trying to be his friend for months and he refuses to acknowledge me.”

oh, mianmian realizes with a quickly dawning horror. she and lan wangji are not the only cut-sleeves at cloud recesses this summer. (she has suspicions, of course, but no confirmations on any of the others, but this. wow.)

she also realizes, decides really, that she has enough repressed sect heirs in her life and she cannot deal with wei wuxian’s cut-sleeve crisis or his evidently large attachment to lan wangji right now. she turns decisively and walks the fuck away. not her problem.

the lectures end eventually, of course, and mianmian and jin zixuan return to lanling with a horde of golden robed disciples, freshly deflowered and not all together more learned. it’s what, she thinks grimly, their sect leader would want.

the first few weeks go by and she realizes that she’s missed unloading about her frequent and fast falling-in-loves. jin zixuan just doesn’t sympathize right, bless him, and so mianmian takes to writing letters. she sends two without receiving a reply and just starts to write the third when a letter with the gusu symbol is delivered to her room.

she’s almost expecting to find a single mn written on the page-- she would’ve been delighted with just that, actually, the sheer hilarity of such a thing-- but instead she finds several pages filled with lan wangji’s perfect calligraphy.

it’s more than he’s ever spoken out loud, but it seems that propriety dictated that he return mianmian’s extensive letter with one of his own and he’s done so admirably. he responds to the events mianmian detailed in her letters-- most succinctly summarized as, woman are gorgeous and i’m dying-- and then writes about his own life in cloud recesses. apparently, he went on a little night hunt with wei wuxian and also nie huaisang and jiang cheng were involved? seriously, mianmian misses out on all the fun.

he’s also apparently taken in some rabbits, which mianmian immediately decides she needs to see. lan wangji, sitting prim and proper, with a bunch of rabbits in his lap? amazing. wei wuxian would die on sight, she’s sure of it.

he also ends his letter with a warning about qishan wen that has mianmian frowning. she takes it to jin zixuan who reads the paragraph and frowns. “i’ll talk to my father about it,” he says, which she can tell by his hunched shoulders he doesn’t expect to do much.

“talk to your father’s general too,” she suggests, because that man at least thinks with his head and not his dick.

jin zixuan nods but doesn’t hand back the letter. he skims it instead with a barely concealed surprise at lan wangji’s previously hidden expansive vocabulary. mianmian snorts and grabs the letter back. “you can write to him yourself, you know.”

jin zixuan flushes down his neck. “i know!” he insists and then turns and runs away because he’s a coward. mianmian shakes her head, smiling. what an idiot.

still, another week goes by and a letter arrives from gusu and, when mianmian takes it, assuming it’s for her, she finds it addressed to jin zixuan in lan wangji’s impeccable calligraphy and she grins to herself like an idiot. look at jin zixuan, making friends

(she suddenly understands why lan xichen gave her all those intense smiles during the lan lectures)

they go on in this way, writing letters to lan wangji from lanling. sometimes mianmian steals jin zixuan’s letters before he sends them so she can squeeze in some ranting in the post script without wasting a whole second thing of paper, and lan wangji replies dutifully, more verbose than he ever was in person, and it’s nice okay, like. she and jin zixuan have been best friends since they were kids but neither of them has ever been any good at listening and lan wangji is just so honest and earnest in everything, like they didn’t realize that people outside of lanling were actually not always plotting your downfall??? who woulda thunk

and then of course the wens go and ruin everything. they go to the wen lectures bc jin guangshan doesn’t want to “anger our trading partner” like the guy isn’t obviously going to burn carp tower to the ground the first chance he gets, and mostly mianmian and jin zixuan are just vaguely annoyed and put out about it

then lan wangji shows up with a broken leg and a burned sect and they are ready to murder some dudes

after years of breaking in and out of carp tower she and jin zixuan are old hats at this breaking and entering stuff and they manage to sneak into lan wangji’s guest quarters and tend to his wounds, ignoring all his silent glares and ranting furiously about how they’re going to murder wen chao by making him choke on his own dick (mianmian) and how they’re going to war with the wen sect even if he has to threaten his father with acknowledging all of his bastards as proper siblings in public to do it (jin zixuan)

lan wangji just says “mn” and makes various muted, distressed expressions, but mianmian thinks he’s touched.

“are your brother and uncle alright?” she asks, when she’s set his broken leg and forced pain medication down his throat.

“brother escaped with our sacred texts,” lan wangji says. “uncle is... unwell.”

mianmian knows lan wangji hates touch but the way he says it, with this horrible little frown, emoting more than she’s ever seen him, his barely suppressed anger and grief literally making his hands shake into fists, mianmian can’t help it, she hugs him. “we’ll make them pay,” she swears into his shoulder, ruining the lines of his robes with how she clutches at them. “i promise you.”

jin zixuan awkwardly pats lan wangji’s shoulder, which is a lot for him and mianmian spares a moment to be proud of his growth.

unfortunately, wen chao seems to delight in torturing lan wangji on his injured leg and lan wangji refuses to show weakness, which both impresses mianmian and pisses her the fuck off. she approaches wen qing (and her still gorgeous ears, sigh) and asks her to tend to lan wangji, since she’s like actually a doctor. wen qing does bc she’s beautiful, intelligent, and kind and mianmian spends most of that night sighing deeply as she relates this to a significantly drugged lan wangji

the cave of the xuanwu goes about the same as you’d expect. wei wuxian saving her from getting her face branded off is pretty rad of him, though he could’ve just like knocked the brand away instead of throwing himself in front of it but whatever, you do you boo. when lan wangji gets left behind the two of them don’t even have to wait for jiang cheng to grumble and ask for their help, they’re already on their way to carp tower for an army, thank you very much

when they rescue wei wuxian and lan wangji and lan wangji immediately turns to walk back to cloud recesses on a broken leg mianmian says, “fuck no, that’s not happening, you’re getting medical attention and then someone will fly you back home, okay, wtf wangji, sit down.”

and lan wangji is a stubborn bitch so obvs he’s like no but he’s also severely starved, dehydrated, and injured, so it’s not like he can just shake off mianmian holding him down and this goes on long enough for wei wuxian to wake up and see mianmian touching lan wangji, and something in his poor little brain just like breaks and he demands says, “lan zhan, come back to lotus pier with us.”

his argument, as he explains it, is that lotus pier is closer (it’s not; they’re just as close to carp tower as lotus pier) and that it’s closer to gusu for when lan wangji has to return home (it’s not; same deal) but then jiang cheng starts yelling, possibly in support possibly not mianmian’s not sure, and jin zixuan starts getting awkward, probably about the whole golden army behind him bc he’s a nerd and hates being overdressed at functions (this is basically the same thing), and mianmian looks at lan wangji and she sees--

something. she isn’t sure what exactly, but lan wangji looks at wei wuxian as he argues with his brother and he presses his lips into a thin line in the way that means he wants to smile and mianmian thinks, oh. maybe wei wuxian isn’t completely unrequited in his lan wangji obsession.

growing up in lanling, she knows how to use information to her advantage, so she immediately says, “young masters wei and jiang, what a great idea. lanling’s disciples would be pleased to accompany you and second young master lan to lotus pier to ensure everyone’s safe arrival.”

everyone splutters, indignant, confused, awkward (jiang cheng, wei wuxian, and jin zixuan, respectively) but lan wangji narrows his eyes at mianmian and doesn’t try to convince her to let him walk to gusu again, so she counts it as a win.

sect leader jiang and his wife seem surprised and annoyed, respectively, to be taking in so many guests, but sect leader jiang merely smiles pleasantly and directs them to some guest quarters and mianmian and wei wuxian ask, simultaneously, for doctors to tend to lan wangji and wei wuxian makes a face at her and mianmian sighs to herself that she really is too gay to be in the middle of his thing with lan wangji.

turns out, walking a lot and fighting a cannibalistic turtle on a broken leg doesn’t do wonders for healing. lan wangji is also the worst patient ever, he keeps trying to sneak out and get up even though word came from his brother that he’s safe and alright and that cloud recesses is starting to rebuild after qinghe nie and lanling jin came to its aid and pushed out the wen

but with the combined efforts of mianmian, jin zixuan, and wei wuxian (and even jiang yanli at one point, bc who could say no to her soup??) they manage to get lan wangji to just rest for a fucking second, really which results in the jin disciples and lan wangji staying in lotus pier for longer than anyone could’ve expected

mianmian spends most of her time (when she isn’t forcing lan wangji to just fucking stay in bed) working with the jiang disciples, practicing archery, sword forms, and mooning after all the beautiful women here.

(”lan wangji, i know she’s scary, but have you seen madam yu? she could whip me with zidian and i’d thank her” “luo-guniang, please don’t ask madam yu to whip you” OR “lan wangji, i’m almost positive madam yu’s maids are a thing, do you think they’d let me join them just like once” “luo-guniang, could you please pass me my sword?” “why” “i’d like to put myself out of this misery” OR “she made me soup. lan wangji. lan wangji, i know you’re not sleeping, wake up, you have to listen to me, this soup”)

they end up staying so long that when wang lingjiao shows up threatening a child about a kite while sect leader jiang is away, she has a lot more to deal with than madam yu. since none of this had been a “sanctioned visit” no one actually knew that there was nearly an entire troop of jin disciples staying at lotus pier, so when the wens attack they are sorely unprepared for what they’re going to face.

(and ofc lan wangji breaks out of bed heroically and keeps madam yu from whipping wei wuxian, which means they aren’t down one of their most powerful fighters and mianmian has to suffer through the moon eyes they’re making at one another in the middle of a battle no less, she knew wei wuxian had no shame but she’d been hoping lan wangji would have some)

after the wen attack (and defeat) on lotus pier and the jin’s inarguable part in it, the war starts in earnest. lan wangji, after his long rest, heals fine and goes back to gusu to help rebuild his sect and plan for war, and mianmian and jin zixuan return to carp tower to plan as well, ignoring jin guangshan and focusing instead on his general to ensure lanling supplies necessary aid in the war effort

and war is always shitty, of course, and mianmian hates watching her sect family die on the battlefield, hates waiting for updates after every battle to see who’s still alive, hates the politics and jin guangshan trying to wheedle his way out of fighting when there’s fucking lives on the line

(and she could never know, how much easier it is, with yunmeng jiang at its full strength, with one of the brightest minds of their generation there to plot and help, with two of the best fighters not out searching for someone and instead focused on the front)

they reach nightless city after months of fighting and mianmian is ready to just fucking stab wen ruohan herself when they’re suddenly trapped. blocked in on all sides by puppets, their fallen soldiers rising again to turn on them, and it--it looks like they’re gonna die.

“this sucks,” she says to lan wangji, stifling her fear and choking it down. “i never even got to kiss a girl.”

lan wangji just says “mn.”

jin zixuan, beside them, says, “i was an idiot about jiang-guniang.”

lan wangji just says, “mn.”

then wei wuxian pulls out a fucking flute and a-- floating piece of metal? the army of puppets and corpses stops advancing, held in place by-- music, apparently? and wen ruohan emerges from his lair, black energy falling off him in waves, wei wuxian the idiot flies forward to meet him, gets wen ruohan’s hand around his throat for his trouble.

lan wangji yells, “wei ying!” and mianmian thinks, really not fair that lan wangji is gonna get a boyfriend before i get a girlfriend

and then wen ruohan gets stabbed by jin zixuan’s half brother of all people. wen ruohan, along with his puppets and wei wuxian, fall to the ground. lan wangji rushes forward to catch wei wuxian, mianmian runs after him, finds herself in company with jin zixuan and jiang cheng. when they get there, wei wuxian is barely conscious but he’s-- he’s fucking grinning up at lan wangji from the cradle of lan wangji’s arms

“lan zhan,” he says, “you caught me.”

lan wangji nods, says, “mn,” which is basically his equivalent of i’ll always catch you, wei ying.

“really,” mianmian says aloud, “it’s so unfair.”

the aftermath of the war is more annoying than the war itself, what with all the politics and in-fighting and jin guangshan trying to be the biggest dick there ever was. jin guangshan tries to name himself chief cultivator in wen ruohan’s stead but nie mingjue suggests jiang fengmian instead and the lan sect backs him. jin guangshan tries to demonize the wens but at wei wuxian’s loud rebuttal and sect leader jiang’s backing (which is then backed by both gusu lan and qinghe nie) he’s once again shouted down. and then jin guangshan tries to propose to jiang-guniang for his son and the poor woman just seems so awkward and her father doesn’t seem to know what to say and--

mianmian elbows jin zixuan whose eyes widen ridiculously but, after another, harder hit, he suddenly stands. all eyes go to him, which mianmian knows he hates, but he bows to his father, then jiang yanli, and says, “jiang-guniang, forgive my father’s impertinence. this is not the time or place to be making such an offer, but he--” jin zixuan winces visibly. “--he knows of my feelings and wishes to make his foolish son happy. please, do not feel the need to respond.”

then he promptly sits down, flushing down to his neck, and mianmian shares a disbelieving glance with lan wangji from across the horrible nightless city palace room.

she’d really only meant for him to suggest jiang yanli answer privately, at a later time, but wow, jin zixuan really went for it. also no way jin guangshan knows his son has fallen in love with jiang yanli, so nice save face there. maybe he has been paying attention in all of their etiquette and political espionage classes.

jiang yanli flushes way prettier than jin zixuan and nods politely, stands and bows and thanks the jin clan for being considerate in this time of turmoil, perhaps they can discuss this matter at a later date (jin zixuan looks like he nearly faints at this, and mianmian feels vindicated in all her forlorn ranting. overreacting her ass)

when everything has been settled, wen qing has been appointed the new sect leader of qishan wen with promises to return land to those who lost it and pay reparations to the hurt civilians, as well as have the yin iron destroyed for good. during the final ceremony where all the sects have tea and pledge to be loyal to one another (until the next great war, of course) mianmian leans close to lan wangji and sighs, “her ears look even lovelier with her hair tied back by her new sect leader hairpiece.”

lan wangji says “mn” because he’s a cut sleeve in love with wei wuxian and has nothing even closely resembling taste.

mianmian, on her own, decides to make them both happy. before the jin clan departs from nightless city, she goes up to wei wuxian and asks for a moment of his time. wei wuxian seems confused but follows and, once they’re alone, he says, “mianmian, are you about to get me into bed, because i must tell you that i am a respectable young cultivator and you’ll need to marry me before--”

mianmian gives him her best unimpressed look (she’s had much practice with it, thank you jin zixuan) and cuts him off with, “i like women.”

wei wuxian’s eyes go wide. “but you and lan zhan--”

she cuts him off again before he can say something so stupid she has to stop talking to him to refrain from breaking all laws of propriety. “look,” she says, “you’re friends with wen qing. now that she’s sect leader, your brother can’t go after her. i, on the other hand, very much can. if you promise to figure out a way for me and her to get close, i’ll tell you a secret you’ll like very much.”

wei wuxian seems hesitant for all of half a second before he breaks. “tell me.”

“do you promise?”

wei wuxian raises three fingers. “promise.”

“on your sister’s life?”

begrudgingly, wei wuxian nods.

“on her soup?”

“just get on with it!”

mianmian smirks, pushes onto her tiptoes, and whispers the secret into wei wuxian’s ear. with that, she returns to the pavilion where all the sects mingle as they wait to depart, wei wuxian trailing behind her in a daze, his mouth hanging open.

lan wangji, who had been watching since mianmian asked wei wuxian for a moment to talk, frowns nearly imperceptibly. mianmian grins at him and his frown grows.

ah, whatever. she walks over to him, unbothered by the quickly growing alarm in his eyes. once next to him, she turns around to see wei wuxian staring unabashedly. her smile only widens.

“you’re going to thank me for this,” she says.

wei wuxian shakes himself, his eyes focusing, and immediately starts walking towards them.

lan wangji, voice flat but wavering, asks, “luo-guniang, what did you do?”

mianmian laughs, says, “i get to give a speech at your wedding,” and walks away just as wei wuxian reaches them.

(she does, actually, give a speech at their wedding. she may or may not be drunk during it, jin zixuan gets embarrassed for her, and she starts tearing up and has to hide it in the shoulder of her wife’s lovely well-tailored robes. it’s alright, though, wen qing doesn’t mind)

EDIT: now on AO3 with a real fic version from lwj’s pov!

3K notes · View notes

fixielixie · 3 years

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i hate that cql made demonic cultivation into something that is actually harmful to the body and spirit. not only does it lessen the effect of the genuine mental turmoil the world was putting on wwx, without any other sort of influence, but i think it also takes away from one of lan wangjis biggest learning moments.

i was chatting with some cql onlies and they were shocked when i said something about demonic cultivation not being inherently bad for your mindset. in cql its heavily implied that demonic cultivation made wwx unstable, erratic, more prone to anger and emotional outbursts. and the choice to do this, like many of the other decisions in cql, feel like really lazy writing.

in the novel, demonic cultivation clearly has no effect on the mind or body or spirit; when wwxs comes back to life, he continues to regularly use demonic cultivation tenquinces, big and small amounts depending on the situation. never once does he make a comment or observation of it effecting him negatively in anyway, nor is it shown to.

the significance is that its in clear contrast to everything you hear about wei wuxian and demonic cultivation. everyone acts like once wwx picked up this evil path it twisted him from a young upstanding cultivator into a unforgivable monster. all of wwxs decisions post-burial mounds are watered down and blamed on his lack of control other the path he invented. the jins use this a way to tarnish the reputation wwx built for himself as a war hero, and making him into a threat that is dangerous and uncontrollable. which, was all lies.

the only reason wwx ever lost control of himself was because of the circumstances that were forced upon him in extremely stressful situations, where everyone was losing it. wwx is hardly ever acting out, but is rather reacting to move made on him.

lwj has to learn that he was /wrong/. that he was indirectly blaming wwx for his reactions because he was so sure that the use of resentful energy was hurting wwx. i dont think he really knew he was wrong until he was at nightless city, and he saw exactly how wwx was being pushed to become the villain the cultivation world wanted him to be. i think it lwjs mind, it was easier to assume it was demonic cultivation that was isolating wwx, rather than everyone with sway was turning against him. lwj couldnt fix the fall out of the cultivation world deciding that wwx was too dangerous, but he could fix the demonic cultivation. i think he realised here that it wasnt the demonic cultivation, that rather it was the false narrative that would be wwxs downfall, hence why we see him actively fighting back against them to defend wwx.

i see people describing this as 'lan wangji throwing away his own morals' and use this decision as an argument for lwj only existing to be wwxs love interest and i literally couldnt disagree with a take more. lwj isnt throwing away his morals, he's realising that he was wrong. he had assumed too much, been influenced by the words around him, didnt trust wwx when he said he knew what he was doing.

and i think that cql making demonic cultivation into something that /does/ make you uncontrollable and more dangerous makes this whole situation completely pointless. because cql!lwj had nothing to learn from it, he was in the /right/. wwx was uncontrollable and ready to snap at any moment, demonic cultivation has changed him for the worse and he needed to stop using it before it went too far. i just find this so much more less impactful, and the eventual death of wwx for lwj much less tragic. bc really, all lwj could do was say i told you so. cql!lwj could have never stood by wwx while using demonic cultivation, bc it was actively harmful. lwj defending wwxs use of demonic cultivation in cql /is/ him throwing away his own ideals, considering he would never be content with wwxs use of something that hurts him.

#mdzs #cql #lots of opinions on demonic cultivation #please know that these posts are always inspired by fanfics ive read who use cql tropes like this #let wwx invent demonic cultivation #and let it be just a new source of power #rather than a shameful practice and is constantly hanging over wwxs head #because it isnt!

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robininthelabyrinth · 2 years

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NingenShikkaku (on Ao3): I've read a wild hc somewhere about how WRH is actually still alive and running a barbecue restaurant in Qinghe. I'd very much love to read something along that note. Preferably with Lao Nie also alive and running said BBQ with WRH.

Wen Ruohan had been struck down at last. He lay on the floor senseless, the dire wound struck by Meng Yao seeping into a growing pool of blood. Even if just left along, he wouldn’t last long.

Meng Yao, satisfied with what he saw upon his return, lifted up his blade once more to cut off the tyrant’s head.

“Let me do it.”

He paused, then glanced at Nie Mingjue – who was in a fair bad state himself, covered in blood, hair loose, eyes red, barely able to lift himself off the wall he was leaning against. Even his voice was cracking, pained and hoarse.

“The final blow was mine,” Meng Yao reminded him. That was important, after all; he needed the credit of killing Wen Ruohan to get back into the Jin sect – to preserve his life, even, after what he’d done to Nie Mingjue.

“I know,” Nie Mingjue said. “You will have all the credit. But…please. Give him to me.”

Meng Yao thought about it. Everyone knew the story of Wen Ruohan murdering Nie Mingjue’s father through shattering his saber, dooming him to a slow painful death by qi deviation – no doubt Nie Mingjue just wanted to play some part in the man’s demise, however minimal, in order to appease his emotions or perhaps his honor.

Anyway, he’d already promised Meng Yao the credit. He shrugged and lowered his sword. “He’s all yours.”

Nie Mingjue nodded and pulled himself to a standing position, picking up Baxia with a wince. “I’ll do it,” he said, then gave Meng Yao a pointed look that made Meng Yao roll his eyes: he wanted to do it alone, too? Really?

Fine, it didn’t matter. Compared to Nie Mingue’s original reaction to finding out about Meng Yao’s involvement – threats of murder and all, but for Lan Xichen’s timely intervention – not wanting Meng Yao to be present during his final revenge was fairly minimal.

“I’ll go help Zewu-jun,” he said politely, and left Nie Mingjue behind.

Nie Mingjue waited until he was sure Meng Yao was fully gone to hobble over to where Wen Ruohan lay clinging onto the last remnants of life.

“The things I do for family,” he muttered, pulling out a transportation talisman and dropping it on the body. “Each of us more stupid than the next…I almost hope you really do bleed out, you bastard.”

When nothing was left but the swiftly fading glow of the disintegrating talisman, he grunted in satisfaction and went off to find his camp. He needed medical attention, and fast.

As for Wen Ruohan…

Well, Nie Mingjue’s father had a rotating staff of doctors at his side at all times, each of them well trained in battlefield medicine to help deal with any consequences from the qi deviations that still recurred every once in a while, though luckily none as dire as either the one that’d initially struck him down or the one six months after that which had temporarily convinced them all he wouldn’t make it. By now, most of the time they worked as waiters at the restaurant Nie Mingjue had set up to entertain his father in his retirement – apparently, restaurant wars were nearly as bloodthirsty as night-hunts, only the gossip was better – but they were still skilled and trained. If anything, they would probably appreciate the challenge of saving a man who’d been pierced through when all his defenses were down.

Assuming they managed to save him, they’d be able to bind him, too, the way they’d bound Nie Mingjue’s father, cutting them off from accessing their cultivation, eliminating the source of the poison that had been driving them mad. As for what Wen Ruohan would do after he healed up and regained his sanity, after he learned that he was never being allowed out again…

Well, Nie Mingjue just hoped Wen Ruohan liked barbeque.

#mdzs #meng yao #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #wen ruohan #my fic #my fics #alt headcanons #lot of WRH today for whatever reason

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plan-d-to-i · 3 years

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(google translate again, yeah)

(I forgot to thank you for the last answer, I really didn't know that the drama used the music of my compatriot, it was a pleasant surprise for me)

I don't know if anyone has asked you this before, but do you think JC was good with WWX as a kid?

I mean not just their childhood, but the time of their training in Gusu.

I really love JC, and I understand perfectly well that he is the most dick in character, but I love him precisely during my studies at Gusu, I can not give any arguments that then JC was directly GOOD to WWX, but he is clearly cared a little about him and even ... worried? at least that moment after the punishment where JC helped WWX get to the room...

Yay - I'm so happy to hear about Stravinsky :)

Hahah loving jc as the dick that he is is the way to do it! go for it. :) also, sorry this was so delayed I wanted to reread the Cloud Recesses arc so it would be fresh in my mind before answering.

In terms of jc the Cloud Recesses arc is perhaps the most 'mellow' we see him aside from the Lotus Pod Extra but for me it's still impossible to find him a worthwhile person. I can already see the faults in his character that I know will only get worse as he grows older. Canonically I don't see how he would have any friends studying in the Cloud Recesses if he didn't come as a package deal w Wei Wuxian. I mean I doubt jiang cheng would have any friends without WWX period. In fact jiang cheng doesn't make any friends over the course of 13 years. He's also unable to find a wife bc of his temperament and behavior...

What we can glean about their relationship in the Cloud Recesses arc (and even the Lotus Pod Extra) is that any time WWX gets a kind word or understanding from someone, jiang cheng scoffs at it. Any time someone shits on WWX, jc is there to agree, to relish the idea of WWX being punished, and shit on him some more. He would be an immensely exhausting person to be around. He doesnt believe in WWX's ideas and ingenuity, (as NHS does for example), he doesn't believe WWX is hurt, he always assumes the worst of him, he doesn't believe LWJ might like WWX. The only thing he ever seems to believe is that WWX will dishonor YunmengJiang and that WWX should be punished. So for a kid who supposedly wants his father's approval so badly he instead constantly acts like his mother's mouthpiece/minion. He reprimands WWX like he's trying to become Madam Yu 2.0. I see jc stans all the time being like oh he had to keep WWX in check bc WWX was such a lOOooose canon, for the good of the Clan!! lol listen JFM didn't give a f...about WWX's behavior (in his letter to LQR) why are you so concerned? JFM would have preferred for jc to try & save his peers in the Xuanwu cave or at least to understand why that was the correct course of action rather than for him to just sit in front of the class in the Cloud Recesses and tell WWX off for giving LQR as good as he got, while actually still breaking the rules himself but eschewing punishment.

salt up here, quotes below :

Even when Nie Huaisang picks up on the fact that WWX is being treated unfairly by LQR, jc dismisses it and piles on WWX instead.

Nie Huaisang said, “Old Man Lan really seems like he’s coming down especially harshly on you. Every time he reprimands someone, it’s always you.” Jiang Cheng grunted. “He deserves it. What kind of answer was that? He can get away with saying that sort of nonsense at home, but he had the nerve to say it to Lan Qiren’s face. He was practically asking for the old man to kill him!”

But does WWX get away with ANYTHING in Lotus Pier? When we know he is punished constantly for EVERYTHING? This is jiang cheng fully being his mother's mouth piece. It's not something WWX would get away with, it's something jc knows JFM wouldn't mind. Which is why he's so pissed off. Which begs the question if JFM would not be upset with WWX's behavior why does jc need to criticize him? Again :

A dark expression shadowed Jiang Cheng’s face, and his voice was filled with anger. “Why are you so proud of yourself? What is there to be proud of?! Is being told to get out some amazing accomplishment? You’re making our entire clan lose face!”

and his glee at the idea that WWX will be punished leaves a bad taste in one's mouth considering how WWX was perpetually punished in Lotus Pier by jiang cheng's mother for... existing.

Jiang Cheng smiled grimly. “Now that you’ve thoroughly offended both Lan Wangji and Lan Qiren, you’re basically dead tomorrow. No one’s going to clean up your corpse either.”

and again

Without the old one, only the young one remained. This would be easy to deal with! Wei Wuxian rolled off the bed and laughed while putting on his boots. “Heaven’s charmed clouds are blessing me with shade.” Jiang Cheng was beside him polishing his sword with loving care when he decided to spill cold water over Wei Wuxian’s head. “Just wait until he gets back. You can’t escape punishment.”

Where others like NHS see value in WWX's thoughts

Nie Huaisang thought for a while. “Actually, I thought what you said was very interesting,” he said, not entirely able to hide his envy and yearning.

jc is always dismissive of WWX's ideas. These are inventions that WWX realizes. Demonic cultivation in the first conversation and The Spirit-Attraction Flag and The Compass of Evil in the second:

“Enough,” Jiang Cheng warned. “Whatever nonsense you spout, you better not head down that sort of dark road.”

Changing the topic, Wei Wuxian said, “If only there was something like fishing bait that could draw the water ghosts in. Or, something that could point in the direction they’re hiding, like a compass, that sort of thing.”

“Lower your head and watch the water,” Jiang Cheng said. “You’re letting your fantasies run wild again. Concentrate on looking for water ghosts like you’re supposed to.”

“Hey, mounting swords and flying was also only a fantasy once!” Wei Wuxian said.

He's also a hypocrite. Because even though he berates WWX for misbehaving, he himself breaks the rules. He drinks, he even goads WWX into buying liquor, the only difference is that he doesn't get punished for it, and he doesn't feel like coming forward and getting punished for it :

Naturally, Jiang Cheng was too embarrassed to talk about what Wei Wuxian had been up to. After all, all of them had egged him on to go and buy alcohol, and they all deserved to be punished as well. He could only speak vaguely. “It’s nothing. It’s nothing. It’s not that bad! He can walk. Wei Wuxian, why haven’t you gotten off yet?”

It's no wonder WWX is so impressed by LWJ's integrity in spite of his social status, when he's clearly used to the other dynamic :

“Lan Zhan, I really admire you,” Wei Wuxian said sincerely. “After I told you that you had to punish yourself too, you actually did it. You didn’t let yourself off at all. I can’t argue against that.”

A dynamic which is shown repeating in the Lotus Pod Extra where WWX is the only one to get punished for sunbathing, and which repeats here when Wei Wuxian here stops jiang cheng from confronting Zixuan over YanLi's honor (and jc's) and does it himself.

Zixuan :“Why don’t you ask what about her could make me satisfied?” he said in return.

Suddenly, Jiang Cheng rose. Wei Wuxian pushed him away and stepped between them, smiling coldly. “You think you’re very satisfactory? As though you have the right to be so picky!”

Zixuan: “If she’s unhappy, then let her break off the engagement! I certainly don’t cherish your wonderful disciple-sister. If you cherish her so much, why don’t you take it up with your father? Doesn’t he love you more than his own son?”

After hearing the last sentence, Jiang Cheng’s eyes narrowed, and Wei Wuxian was no longer able to contain his own fury. He flew at Jin Zixuan, his fist raised.

WWX takes the punishment alone. Same way he offers to do when he hurts himself falling from a tree because jc threatened him with dogs. meanwhile jc is gleeful to see him being punished.

[Wei Wuxian] was kneeling on the stretch of pebble road to which Lan Qiren had assigned him when Jiang Cheng walked over from afar and mocked him. “You’re kneeling so obediently.”

“It’s not like you don’t know I have to do this all the time.” Wei Wuxian’s voice filled with schadenfreude. “But this Jin Zixuan guy, there’s no way he hasn’t been pampered and spoiled rotten since birth. No one’s ever forced him to kneel, I’m sure of it. If he doesn’t wind up crying for mommy and daddy today, I’m not named Wei.”....

Wei Wuxian "...It’s a good thing you didn’t do anything.”

“I was going to. If you hadn’t pushed me away, the other side of Jin Zixuan’s face would be hideous too.”

“Stop it. His face is uglier for being lopsided."

WWX is happy to have spared jc from getting into trouble but jc makes the whole thing about himself anyway (like everything else ever) and is upset JFM would rush over for WWX - in his mind. Even though JFM clearly had to rush over to meet with Jin Guangshan not to coddle WWX in any way.

"Jiang Fengmian had never rushed to another clan in less than a day because of him. Regardless of whether what happened was big or small, or good or bad." Never

WWX on the other hand tries to be observant of jc's feelings and reassure him & distract him from his moods :

When Wei Wuxian saw Jiang Cheng’s melancholy expression, he thought he was still upset with what Jin Zixuan said. “You should leave. You don’t need to keep me company any longer. If Lan Wangji comes again, he’ll catch you. If you have time, you should find Jin Zixuan and watch his pitiful kneeling.”

Later in the book after nearly dying in the Xuanwu cave WWX leaves his sick bed to run after jc and comfort him after his mother's rant, even though WWX had to listen to his parents (and himself) being slandered by YZY. jc doesn't spare any thoughts for how other people might be feeling or suffering. His entire perception of the world is centered around himself. To him even WWX's greatest fear doesn't generate empathy, only amusement or later on a form of torture.

From that point onward, they made trouble everywhere together, and if they encountered a dog, Jiang Cheng would always chase it away for him, then enjoy a peal of derisive, unbridled laughter at Wei Wuxian’s expense beneath whichever tree the boy had leapt atop.

he grew up on the streets, often having to fight for food with vicious dogs. After several bites and chases, he gradually became extremely scared of all dogs, no matter the size. Jiang Cheng laughed at him because of this quite a lot of times.

This brings me to the last point. jc's resentment of WWX's interest in Lan Zhan, or in a serious friendship outside of him. I see so many ppl say that bc WWX fought he was kicked out of the Cloud Recesses early... but was he?

Jiang Cheng was somewhat taken aback. “Lan Wangji? What was he doing here? He still has the nerve to come see you again?”

“Yeah, I think his bravery is laudable if he still has the nerve to come see me. His uncle probably told him to check on me and see if I was kneeling properly.”

Jiang Cheng’s instincts were sending him ominous signals. “So were you kneeling properly?”

“I was then,” Wei Wuxian replied. “But I waited for him to walk away a bit, then took a tree branch, lowered my head, and dug out a hole in the dirt near me. It’s the pile right by your foot—there are ant tunnels there. It took me so much effort to find them. Anyway, I waited for him to turn back and see my shoulders shaking. He had to have thought I was crying, so he came back and asked. You should have seen his face when he caught sight of the ant tunnels!

“…” Jiang Cheng said, “Why don’t you just get the hell out and go back to Yunmeng? I bet he never wants to see you again.”

Thus, that evening, Wei Wuxian packed up his things, got the hell out, and went back to Yunmeng with Jiang Fengmian.

Repeatedly throught his stay in the Cloud Recesses even while NHS was observing that LWJ's behavior around WWX was strange and unique, jc was telling WWX he is hated and bothersome. When WWX wanted to apologize to LWJ jc is completely dismissive of it :

“He hates me already? I was thinking of apologizing to him,” Wei Wuxian said.

“Oh, so you want to apologize now? It’s too late!” Jiang Cheng said derisively. “He’s exactly like his uncle. He thinks you’ve been wicked ever since you were an embryo, so it’s beneath his dignity to pay you any attention.”

Later on when WWX mentioned wanting to invite LWJ to Lotus Pier jc categorically says no.

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

BONUS

jc also always doubts WWX. He suspects him immediately of wrongdoings. He doesn't believe that getting hit with the discipline ruler in Cloud Recesses actually hurt him until LXC confirms that WWX might take more than a few days to heal. He doesn't understand WWX is in actual trouble from the Waterborne abyss and assumes he's fooling around luckily Lan Zhan is there to rescue him:

The disciple’s lower body had already been swallowed by the black whirlpool. It spun faster and faster, and he continued to sink deeper and deeper, as though something hidden beneath the water was pulling down on his legs.

Mounted on Sandu, Jiang Cheng had risen calmly until he was about sixty meters above the whirlpool before he looked down. Filled with displeasure at what he saw, he shouted and dove down. “What are you up to now?!”

The suction force inside Lake Biling grew ever stronger. Wei Wuxian’s sword was optimized for agility, and consequently, its strength happened to fall just short, and they were nearly pulled to the surface of the lake. Wei Wuxian steadied himself and held on to Su She with both hands.

“Someone help! If I can’t pull him up soon, I’ll have to let go!” he shouted.

Suddenly, the back of Wei Wuxian’s collar tightened, and his body was lifted into the air. He twisted his neck and saw Lan Wangji holding him up with one hand.

He maintains this same mindset when he tries to whip LWJ and WWX as they're attempting to leave Lotus Pier after the ancestral hall confrontation when WWX passes out.

Is jc evil in the Cloud Recesses ? No. He's just an annoying, basic, disagreeable asshole who doesn't bring anything positive to someone like WWX. People like jc become obsessed with kind, outgoing, generous people, people who don't set boundaries on what they give and what others take in their friendships. Even though they're dependent on them for their social interactions, because who else would socialize with them willingly, they resent them in equal measure, but at the same time they wouldn't be drawn to another selfish, self centered piece of shit person like themselves.

On a personal note, even Cloud Recesses jiang cheng is someone I would exclude from any personal friend group. Friendship with him is adding a minefield of jealousies and snide comments to every interaction. Things that then others will need to compensate around because he won't compromise or empathize w issues outside of his own concerns.

Translation source : x

#This is long af because I wanted to have one post where I included everything #I’ve bitched about jc’s behavior in the cloud recesses for a long time so it was time to put down the quotes #mdzs #Cloud Recesses #Lan Wangji #Wei Wuxian #Nie Huaisang #jiang cheng

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