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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

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Associates - Part 2 - ao3, pt 1

“What’s this I hear about you getting up in Nie Huaisang’s face?” Jiang Cheng demanded the instant Wei Wuxian reached the front door of the inn. The tone was so familiar, so usual for him – irritated yet fond despite himself – that it took a moment for Wei Wuxian to realize that the question wasn’t anything like what he was expecting.

Not least of all because he wasn’t expecting Jiang Cheng to be there in the first place.

“What?” he said blankly, and then – “Wait, did you not put it together yet? He’s the one that planned the whole thing with Jin Guangyao –”

“Yes, I know that,” Jiang Cheng said impatiently. “Still, don’t associate with evil? Who the fuck are you to say something like that to anyone, least of all to him?”

Wei Wuxian crossed his arms in front of himself, his shoulders going up to his ears. “You still think I’m evil, then?”

“No, I think you’re a fucking brat, but also that if you were schemed against then you certainly didn’t make it hard for them to do it,” Jiang Cheng said, crossing his own arms and glaring. “Or was all the arrogance and insulting people and throwing the first punch when they came at you at the Qiongqi Path and throwing arrows at people at the Nightless City and deliberately setting up cultivators to murder each other before jumping off a cliff all things that Jin Guangyao made you do, too?”

Wei Wuxian winced.

“I have other examples,” Jiang Cheng said pointedly. “Anyway, come inside, I’ll buy you some wine, if you call what this stupid inn serves wine.”

“I wasn’t planning on staying here,” Wei Wuxian lied.

“It’s the only inn in a half-day walk,” Jiang Cheng said impatiently. “It’s also about to rain, and you already gave the innkeeper’s son your donkey to take to the stable. Will you come inside already? I’m not going to bite.”

Wei Wuxian allowed himself to be convinced by this faultless logic. “You came about the water demons, too?”

“I don’t think they’re water demons,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “I checked the river, it’s fine, so it must be something similar leaving the same sort of traces…waiter! Service now, if it’s not too much to ask!”

The wine was passable, if barely, but the food served with it was filling in just the right way.

“This seems out of the way for you,” Wei Wuxian commented. He’d been traveling randomly as a rogue cultivator for months and months now, the way he always dreamed of doing, and he spent the entire time wondering why it felt empty; he suspected it was the same reason he turned sharply to look any time he saw white out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn’t quite willing to admit it out loud yet. If he did, he’d have to face up to the fact that there was nothing stopping him from turning his feet and Lil’ Apple’s hooves back towards Gusu and the Cloud Recesses and Lan Wangji, and if he did that he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be leaving again so quickly.

“I heard you were in the area,” Jiang Cheng said, which made Wei Wuxian feel warm inside. “I wanted to yell at you.”

Wei Wuxian burst out laughing.

Jiang Cheng really must have forgiven him, he thought, unable to resist smiling. Jiang Cheng yelled at those he loved and ignored those he hated – it was when Jiang Cheng didn’t look at you that you should worry, and when he looked at you and was silent…that was the worst of all.

“I did,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “Seriously. Nie Huaisang. What were you thinking?”

“Are you saying that what he did wasn’t evil?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“I’m saying I would have done the same thing if it was you or jiejie,” Jiang Cheng said, looking down at his jar of wine. “Are you saying you wouldn’t?”

Wei Wuxian hesitated. If it had been Jiang Cheng that had been poisoned by his own anger, by someone he trusted – betrayed into dying in just the way he’d feared most – and it was possible, wasn’t it? Jiang Cheng had trusted Jin Guangyao - he’d raised Jin Ling alongside him, never suspecting…

“Don’t answer that,” Jiang Cheng said quickly, just as Wei Wuxian said, “I would have.”

Jiang Cheng looked at him, surprised.

“Probably not in the same way,” Wei Wuxian clarified. “I would have avenged you, but I wouldn’t have – he put so many people in danger, what he did, the way he did it. He put Jin Ling in danger.”

“Jin Ling put Jin Ling in danger,” Jiang Cheng said. “As he always does. You have no idea the trouble magnet that brat is. And as for Nie Huaisang…you’re being unfair.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. He’s not like you, the you that you used to be. He’s weak. He’s not good at doing things. He’s not powerful, he’s not a genius; he had to learn everything the hard way…anyway, not everyone’s you, willing to gamble everything on trying to do the ‘right thing’. He had a sect to take care of.”

Just like me, Jiang Cheng didn’t say, but Wei Wuxian heard it anyway. And in the end, all the bravado and recklessness of his last life – it had been the right thing to do, but all he’d won for the Wen sect was another year or so of living in fear before they’d walked willingly to their deaths into the hands of the Jin sect on his behalf. In the end, only A-Yuan had been truly saved, and even that was only because of Lan Wangji’s intervention.

Wei Wuxian didn’t regret his actions, but maybe if he could go back in time, he might’ve done things a little differently. He might’ve been more restrained in his actions, been more cautious, less willing to get into fights, less willing to allow his terrible reputation to spread without bothering to correct it – he might have been a little more thoughtful about all the obligations that so suddenly had settled on his shoulders.

Thought about the ones that had been there all along, invisible.

“And Mo Xuanyu?” Wei Wuxian asked, still unwilling to give up so easily. “Put aside leading us all on a wild goose chase, risking all our lives at the Burial Mounds –”

“Something which brought to light a hidden threat, or did you think Su She would just volunteer himself?”

“Putting that aside, Mo Xuanyu died to bring me back. Is that nothing?”

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said flatly. “A man’s life is his own. Nie Huaisang might’ve paid someone to tell stories about you, but he didn’t take a knife to Mo Xuanyu’s bones; Mo Xuanyu did that. If you really want to start talking about the subject of indirect blame for other people’s death…”

“Fair point,” Wei Wuxian said begrudgingly. “Fine. Perhaps I was being harsh.”

“You were,” Jiang Cheng agreed. “Not to mention stupid and short-sighted, again. Do you know he’s taken to referring to you by name?”

Wei Wuxian frowned. “So what?”

Jiang Cheng glared at him, but he also put some extra meat in Wei Wuxian’s bowl. “So, he’s been calling you Wei-xiong since the Cloud Recesses, even after you got famous as the Yiling Patriarch, even after you were dead and your name black as coal, and now, now he calls you Wei Wuxian? Because he thinks you hate him? Even if you just wanted to be a jackass, is he really someone you want to make your enemy?”

Wei Wuxian did not want Nie Huaisang as his enemy.

He never really wanted anyone as his enemy, not really – excluding maybe Wen Chao, Wang Lingjiao, and Wen Zhuliu, who deserved it – but least of all did he want his enemy to be Nie Huaisang as he last saw him: blank-eyed and tired, older than he should be, the smile on his face as smooth and insincere as anything that Jin Guangyao had ever tried; the dagger in the dark finally brought out to the light.

Anyone who could smile like that after having pulled off a years-long plot that led the entire cultivation world around by the nose –

No, Wei Wuxian did not want Nie Huaisang as his enemy.

“Surely enemy is a strong word for a bit of formality,” he said, but Jiang Cheng gave him a look and he had to admit even to himself that he didn’t believe it. Nie Huaisang was overly intimate with everyone he could be, and he’d never heard of him stepping back after he’d established the closer level; he even called Jin Guangyao san-ge until the very moment of his death. Maybe he still did. “Well, shit.”

“Exactly,” Jiang Cheng said.

“How do you even know about that?” Wei Wuxian asked. It’d only been the three of them at that conversation – him and Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang – and Lan Wangji wasn’t a gossip.

“Nie Huaisang,” Jiang Cheng said promptly, as he’d expected. “He wanted to let me know that there were no hard feelings if I decided to break treaty with him.”

“If you – what?” Wei Wuxian stared at him. “Break treaty? All the trade routes and boundary lines and – and everything, all the connections between the Nie sect and the Jiang sect…why in the world would you ever break treaty? Why would he even suggest that?”

“Because of you, obviously,” Jiang Cheng said. “He was there for the whole – you know – when we had it all out at the temple. He knows the whole story, he knows how much I owe you; if you decided to come tell me what you told him in Hanguang-jun’s presence, do not associate with evil –”

“I wouldn’t!” Wei Wuxian protested. He’d been ‘evil’ before, the one who was shunned and rejected by all; he’d never go around riling people up to exclude another the way he’d been excluded.

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “You wouldn’t do it deliberately, but you also said to his face that you wouldn’t associate with him. Do you know how that sounds? Association is association, even by proxy. He figured we’d make up eventually, and then that’s Yunmeng Jiang and Lanling Jin both against him, since Jin Ling tends to follow my lead and likes you, and of course there’s you and Lan Wangji…”

Leaving only Qinghe Nie out in the cold, alone and isolated.

Do not associate with evil.

Yeah, Wei Wuxian could see the problem. He wouldn’t even have to lead the charge himself the way Jin Guangshan had against him; he would just need to hint at his disapproval, and he had enough sway with enough of the right people that they might change their actions just to please him, and then where would Nie Huaisang be?

Offering not to take it personally when Jiang Cheng turned his back on him even though they’d been friends ever since their days at the Cloud Recesses, apparently.

Wei Wuxian had by this point teamed up enough with the junior troop to have heard the stories from Jin Ling and the others to piece together how the time when he’d been dead must had gone. Nie Huaisang might have relied heavily on his brother’s two sworn brothers to run his sect and keep his position, but he’d always been very friendly with Jiang Cheng, and it’d been his unstinting support (brainless support, the juniors had said on automatic before realizing that they had no idea if it was brainless or not) that had helped Jiang Cheng keep pace with the others, to not get left out.

Yeah, fine. Wei Wuxian was, perhaps, being something of a dick. He got that.

“Are we?” he asked instead of conceding, because ‘sorry’ had always been something he’d needed to build up to. “Going to make up eventually?”

“Of course we are,” Jiang Cheng said. “You literally came back from the dead, and then we got stuck in a temple with a villain that helpfully explained all of our problems to us in the process of nearly killing us. If that’s not a sign from the heavens that we’re going to get over this eventually, what is?”

Wei Wuxian had to give him that one. “All right,” he said. “Good.”

“Good,” Jiang Cheng said, shoulders relaxing a little when Wei Wuxian didn’t rebuff him. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“What do you mean? The water demons – or, well, not water demons –”

“No, I mean, why are you…you know, wandering around everywhere,” Jiang Cheng said. “I would’ve figured you’d be at the Cloud Recesses.”

“I probably will be, eventually,” Wei Wuxian said, admitting it for the first time to himself as well. “But I need some time to stretch my legs, get the wanderlust out. Be without burdens for a little while. And then, when I’m clear about – a lot of things, then I’ll go back to him.”

“I figured as much,” Jiang Cheng said. He looked a little uncomfortable, like he wanted to say something, but was thinking better of it. “Well, you’re always welcome to come by the Lotus Pier. Obviously.”

It wasn’t obvious at all, and Wei Wuxian was so glad to hear it that his heart hurt in his chest.

“I will,” he said, swallowing down his questions about what Jiang Cheng had been about to say. It couldn’t have been that important, anyway. “I will. Promise.”

“Good.”

“Want to tell me about the not-water demons you’ve been investigating?” Wei Wuxian suggested.

Jiang Cheng looked incredibly relieved to have the feelings part of the conversation over with. “Yes, of course,” he said. “I started by checking out the area where they’ve been reporting the disappearances –”

(Much later, Wei Wuxian will ask Jiang Cheng why didn’t you tell me that Lan Zhan was drowning! and Jiang Cheng will say I thought you knew! Wei Wuxian will shout of course I didn’t know and you let him get wrangled up by Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng will say sorry I thought you knew how to take a hint or did you leave your brain behind in the afterlife and Wei Wuxian will seriously consider punching him.

But that was later.)

#mdzs #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #my fic #my fics #associates

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scarletjedi · 3 years

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Untitled Untamed Time Travel Fix-it Fic but make it Mingcheng pt 3A

@piyo-13

Part 1: The Setup

Part 2A: Gusu Revisited

Part 2B: Gusu Unleashed!

Part 3A: The Return of the Plot

One day, Lan Qiren announces that there will be several days without classes, as he is expected to attend a discussion conference in Qinghe. Students are expected to continue their studies independently, but everyone knows that it’s some much needed time off.

And, if Jiang Cheng’s memory serves, this was when Lan Xichen led them to fight the Waterborne Abyss. It plays out more or less as Jiang Cheng remembers, with Lan Xichen leading a mixed group of juniors down to the lake. The group consisted of himself, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and a few Lan disciples, as well as Wen Ning and Wen Qing. Nie Huaisang had smothered laughter when Xichen had asked, insisting that he was going to stay and “study.” Jiang Cheng wasn't sure if Lan Xichen believed him, but Nie Huaisang really wasn’t a strong cultivator, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to handle a water demon.

But, knowing what the problem actually was, and being able to convince Lan Xichen that this was more than a few water ghouls without saying “I’m from the future and we’ve done this already: here’s what you need to know” was a bit beyond Jaing Cheng’s skill. Wangji was no help, nor was Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes, suspicious.

Later, Jiang Cheng would shake his head at his naivete in thinking Wei Wuxian had something planned using resentful energy, instead of what he actually did, which was flirt inappropriately with Lan Wangji the entire time.

Granted, that wasn’t much different from the first time, but this time Lan Wangji flirted back, and yeah, their flirting looked a hell of a lot light fighting together (and the pang of jealousy Jiang Cheng felt was an old ghost, and easily put to rest. He had his brother back, and he wasn’t going to let old hurts sour what was becoming a stronger bond) — but it also looked a hell of a lot like foreplay--

On the boat next to him, Lan Xichen’s smile had become a little fixed, his neck flushed an embarrassed red. When he met Jiang Cheng’s eye, Jiang Cheng sent him the same commiserating look he would sent A-Jie when Wei Wuxian was being ridiculous. Lan Xichen started, but sent a rueful (and, hopefully, honest) smile in return.

The events played out much as they had before. Su She lost his sword in the lake. Wei Wuxian almost fell into the abyss trying to save Wen Ning. Lan Xichen put the pieces together and came up with Qishan Wen. And, if Wen Ning’s eyes were less ghost-white, and more fierce-corpse black, well — it’s not like it would be something others would recognize.

They traveled back to The Cloud Recesses by boat, and when Wei Wuxian held up a pair of surreptitiously purchased bottles, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes.

Yeah, what the hell. He could use a drink.

~*~

That evening is surreal as everyone piles into the room Jiang Cheng shares with Wei Wuxian. Some things are the same as before: there are peanuts to eat, and their outer robes are thrown over the windows to hide the lights of the lanterns that will remain lit well after curfew. But this time, it's more than just him and Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang. This time Jin Zixuan is there, holding a bag of boiled sweets like it’s an entrance fee. Wen Ning, sitting hunched over as if it could make his already surprisingly broad frame smaller, brought roasted and salted melon seeds. One concerning thing, however, was that Nie Huaisang, along with the peanuts, had insisted on bringing “entertainment.” Jiang Cheng hoped it was game cards, but it was more likely to be porn.

...or porn themed game cards...

Oh, fuck, it was porn-themed game cards, wasn’t it?

Jiang Cheng shook his head, trying to chase the worry away. There was a larger issue at present, one that challenged everything Jiang Cheng remembered about their group’s shared past...

The wine was provided by Lan Wangji.

Sure, Wei Wuxian had snagged a couple bottles on the boat ride through the market, same as last time, but he had only managed to grab two bottles. No, when Lan Wangji had arrived, walking in like he was busting them for breaking the rules *again*, he had, instead, pulled *three* bottles from his sleeve, and Jiang Cheng wasn’t entirely convinced there wasn’t more stored there for later. It certainly seemed like something this Lan Wangji would do to please Wei Wuxian — and judging by the way Wei Wuxian threw himself into Lan Wangji’s arms, it was *working*

Jiang Cheng sat next to Nie Huaisang, which placed him next to Wen Ning. Their tentative truce held as Wen Ning smiled at him, tight lipped but honest. Jiang Cheng was sure his returning expression was no less pained. Jin Zixuan sat gingerly on Nie Huaisang’s other side.

Jiang Cheng grabbed one of the bottles on the table, and Nie Huaisang hurriedly pulled several cups from somewhere. Jiang Cheng poured four cups, and dropped the bottle on the table. Wei Wuxian could get his own when he put down Lan Wangji.

Roughly, though gentle enough not to spill, Jiang Cheng placed a drink before Nie Huaisang and Wen Ning, and then all but shoved a third at Jin Zixuan. “Drink up,” he said brusquely, downing his own glass and pouring another.

“Jiang Cheng!” Wei Wuxian protested — Oh, now he’s paying attention! — “Savor the wine! Emperor’s Smile is a wine so unparalleled—”

“I’m about to ask him about A-jie,” Jiang Cheng snapped, and Wei Wuxian fell silent. Then, to Zixuan, who had remained frozen, cup in hand: “Drink up!”

Jin ZIxuan drank.

It didn’t take long for his face to flush, his eyes to blink more slowly — long enough for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian to join them, Wei Wuxian leaning in to check on Wen Ning, who nodded back. Ignoring that exchange, Jiang Cheng watched Jin Zixuan pour another cup with more care than usual. He had to admit, he was a little surprised: he expected greater tolerance for pleasures from someone from Lanling Jin.

“So,” Jiang Cheng said, not too proud to admit that he enjoyed the sudden look of terror in Jin Zixuan’s eyes. “Why don’t you want to marry my sister?”

Huaisang choked on his drink, but Jin Zixuan lowered his cup, answering seriously. “I don’t know your sister.”

Jiang Cheng waited, but there was nothing more forthcoming. “That’s it? You don’t know her? Tsh—” he pointed at Jin Zixuan with the finger of the hand holding his cup. “That’s easily fixed.”

Jin Zixuan...slumped. There was no other word for it, and Jiang Cheng was reminded, yet again, that Jin Zixuan was only fifteen — the only actual teenager in the room.

Jiang Cheng sighed internally. That meant he had to be an adult about this, didn’t it? Damnit.

He held up a hand to stop Wei Wuxian’s irate sputtering from becoming actual words. “Don’t you want to know your intended?”

Jin Zixuan glared at him, sullen, and Jiang Cheng had a sudden flash of Jin Ling, and what he would become as a teenager — even as a toddler, the child clearly hadn’t inherited his mother’s composure. But, Jiang Cheng was the adult in the room (by default. Huaisang was, actually, the oldest, but Jiang Cheng was confident in thinking that didn’t count when Huaisang was determined to recapture his misspent youth in between plotting the fate of the cultivation world), and being the adult meant waiting out the teenager.

After a long moment Jin Zixuan downed his drink, as if for courage, and spat, “I would like one thing in my life to be my own!” It was supposed to be angry, and Jiang Cheng could sympathize with that anger — how much of his own life was wha Jiang Cheng would have chosen? — but in this moment, it was just even more clean that Jin Zixuan was still a teenager — and a poorly socialized one at that.

Jiang Cheng knew Luo Qingyang had tried her best, but there was only so much even as capable a woman as she could do in a place like Jinlingtai.

“You are a sect heir—” Jiang Cheng began, but Jin Zixuan cut him off.

“So I can choose nothing for myself?!”

Jiang Cheng slammed his palm on the table, the echoing crack of it silencing and stilling the room. “Yes! Exactly! Your life is not your own; it has never been your own, and sometimes that’s easy, but sometimes...” He swallowed, mind’s eye full of battlefield thunder and a surprisingly boyish grin, “sometimes life will seem to offer you everything you ever wanted and you cannot take it because your sect comes first.” Mortifyingly, his voice cracks, and Nie Huaisang shows some damned tact by gripping his hand in comfort under the table where Jin Zixuan can’t see — and Lan Wangji’s face looks as stoic as he ever did in Jiang Cheng’s memories, and Wei Wuxian looks like he might cry, and—-

Jiang Cheng cleared his throat. “So all you can do is choose the way you face it. You can be sullen and cry “why me” and like miserable for both you and her, who has no more choice in this that you. You can make things difficult for your sect, mine, our parents — or, you can choose to make an effort, get to know A-Jie. You can choose to walk into the future with an ally.” He narrowed his eyes. “Or do you want a marriage like your parents’? I know I wouldn’t wish mine on anybody.”

He raised his cup to drink, but it was empty. A bottle appeared in his field of vision, and Jiang Cheng watched as Nie Huaisang filled his cup.

“Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian began softly, but he shook his head.

Pointing at Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng said. “Make you choice. Now,” he sniffed. “Huaisang, you promised entertainment?”

“I did!” Nie Huaisang said, giggling as he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a stack of cards with a flourish. “I found these in a little shop in Qinghe. The art is exquisite, and they’re quite rare, so be careful! Don’t spill anything on them!”

With a practiced flick of his wrist, he spread them on the table. Jin Zixuan choked and Jiang Cheng sighed.

Yep. Porn cards.

Squinting, he picked up one to get a better look. Oh. Cutsleeve porn cards. Well.

“Nie-xiong!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, half-delighted and half-scandalized. He leaned in closer to look, but it was Lan Wangji who picked up a card to study it more closely. He showed it to Wei Wuxian, who turned purple, grabbing the card and hiding it against his chest. “Lan Zhan!”

“Ah ah! Don’t bend them!” Nie Huaisang scolded, flapping his fingers as he would his fan.

“You-!” Wei Wuxian tried, but he couldn’t get the words out past his mortification. Jiang Cheng smirked and picked up a card of his own, not really looking closely but loving the way Wei Wuxian made a noise like steam escaping. Really, his favorite song.

After that, their little group was solidified. It gained them some severe looks from Wen Qing, (and one terrifying moment when Jiang Cheng, in a hurry to make it back to his dorms before curfew, turned a corner and came face to face with her. She was smaller than he remembered, the force of her presence making her grow in his memory, but after a moment of far too intense eye-contact, Jiang Cheng stepped aside to let her pass, which she did. Jiang Cheng told himself that the flash of light by her fingertips was an illusion, and not her needles), but every time Lan Xichen saw their group with Lan Wangji he smiled and let them be.

Once, Jiang Cheng saw Jin Zixuan talking closely with Jiang Yanli, and slowed down until he saw Mianmian standing within earshot, pointedly not looking. No need to get involved, himself. Mianmian was more than capable of smacking him if Jin Zixuan stepped out of line.

Wen Ning was a surprising help for Nie Huaisang, possessing an incredible amount of patience and a talent for tutoring. When Nie Huaisang passed the next exam without asking Wei Wuxian to help him cheat, he threw himself at the shy boy, draping over him the way he used to his brother’s sworn brothers, sobbing his thanks. Wen Ning awkwardly patted his back and waited for him to stand.

~*~

So, since this is the Untamed canon, the whole Yin Iron thing happens, only this time Wangxian *know* they’ve eloped, and have decided to make that everyone *else’s* problem by being utterly shameless while keeping knowledge of their elopement to the core group of time travelers. Wangji makes it clear that he would be traveling with Wei Ying, who also makes it clear that there is no way he would let Lan Zhan handle this alone. The plan is still to travel after the lectures complete.

Nie Huaisang is adamant that they have to leave before that if they wait, they’ll miss Xue Yang, and delaying too long would trap them between Gusu and Wen Xu. Lan Wangji is perfectly happen to fuck up Wen Xu, but agrees the Yin Iron is more important.

Either way, the lantern festival comes, and Jin Zixuan isn’t a total jerkwad, having actually talked to Yanl at some point — actually, based on the way they’re looking at each other, they probably talked a lot. Mianmian caught Jiang Cheng’s eye and winked. Huh.

Leaning in closer to Nie Huaisang, Jiang Cheng wurmured, “if my sister marries Jin Zixuan before the war, how badly will that impact your plans?”

Nie Huaisang waved his hand, clearly focusing more on his lantern. “I’ve several contingencies for that, don’t worry!”

The rest of the lantern lighting goes off without a hitch, and Jiang Cheng releases his lantern with a wish that he refuses to speak out loud.

Afterwards, there’s still a commotion, but instead of Wei Wuxian punching Jin Zixuan because he’s being a dick, it’s becuse several disciples stumbled over Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian ... well, they were fully clothed then Jiang Cheng opened up, so it couldn’t have been anything too scandalous. When they’re brought before Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen for discipline, the former looks about ready to qi deviate, while Lan Xichen was absolutely planning Lan Wangji’s wedding robes.

Jaing Cheng narrowed his eyes.

Even Lan Xichen’s composure cracked, however, when Lan Wangji dropped the “we eloped” bomb, and Jiang Cheng heard Lan Qiren shout for the first time off of a battlefield. Eventually, however, it was decided that the handfasting could be seen as an engagement rather than a marriage (and even Jiang Cheng recognized how stubborn Lan Wangji looked at that), and the couple would be seen as officially courting. The proper letters and gifts would be delivered to Yunmeng Jiang immediately—

“We should wait!” Wei Wuxian blurted out, and hand to backtrack quickly to explain: dealing with the Yin Iron should take precedence. If they started formal marriage proceedings, then Lan Wangji wouldn’t be available to hunt the Yin Iron. So, they should wait until after their search before sending the letters.

“We cannot allow you both to go alone, even if nothing is yet official, there is still propriety to observe.”

Somehow, neither Wei Ying nor Lan Wangji let slip their late nights in the Jingshi, and Jiang Cheng found himself saying goodbye to Yanli as he and Nie Huaisang prepared to travel with the two newlyweds.

~*~.

The events play out much the same as before, only this time instead of sending Meng Yao, Nie Mingjue sends Nie Zonghui to collect them and Xue Yang (who, after they testify the his confessions of his crimes) is summarily executed - and then, they have two pieces of Yin Iron.

But, before that happens, their party arrives in Qinghe.

Nie Mingjue is waiting for them, like before, but this time there is a noticeable pause when he sets eyes on Jaing Cheng (and oh, but he wasn’t ready—) — long enough a pause that those watching noticed, and it was only at Huaisang’s prompting that Nie Mingjue began to speak, repeating the words he said the first time as if a script he was told to follow, save for the way he paused again after his paise made Jiang Cheng flush like a teenager with a crush—

Nie Zonghui gives his report and takes Xue Yang away, and Meng Yao leads “the visiting young masters” away to rest and refresh themselves from travel. The minute they are alone, Nie Huaisang *flings* himself at Nie Mingjue, sobbing. “DA-GE!”

“Didi, what did you do?!” Nie Mingjue demands, his words belied by his tone, near tears himself, and the way he holds Huaisang back just as tightly.

Gathering himself, Nie Huaisang steps back, squares his shoulders, and snaps open his fan. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Da-ge. I didn’t do anything.” Mingjue’s eyes narrow and the fan flutters. “Really it’s all about being in the right place.” He blinked, slow. “At the right time.”

Dinner that night is a tense affair, not out of discomfort, but out of the need to keep up pretense. Mingjue took the opportunity between meeting with his brother and the meal to met out Xue Yang’s sentence, and when Meng Yao idly commented on the fact that acting unilaterally as he had would make certain political allegiances difficult, Nie Mingjue commented that war was inherently difficult, and if the Nie sect were the only ones to notice that Wen Ruohan had gone to war without informing the rest of them, that was hardly his fault, was it.

(Meng Yao had looked at him, and when Nie Mingjue raised an eyebrow, he shook his head. “Nothing, sect leader, just...it always surprises me more when you are like your brother than when your brother reminds me of you.”

Nie Mingjue had laughed, low and self-aware. He did hope that they were able to keep Meng Yao from making the same mistakes in this life: he did, genuinely, like the man.)

They did not keep silent during the meal, as they were not in Gusu, but as was customary during joint functions, they refrained from discussing anything of substance until the meal was over, and no one pressed Lan Wangji to speak. But, once the meal was over and they lingered over a delightful Qinghe wine that was clearly not chosen by Nie Mingjue himself, not the way he looked surprised by the contents of his cup, Nie Mingjue dismissed the staff and gave Meng Yao his leave for the night. It was only once the door was closed behind them that the facade dropped.

Nie Mingjue rubbed his forehead. “All of you? Us? All of us?” he asked, sounding far too tired, and Jiang Cheng, sitting opposite Nie Huaisang, next in line from Nie Mingjue, moved to reach out in comfort without thinking. Mingjue was seated too far away, however, and Jiang Cheng watched, instead, as Nie Mingjue gathered himself once more.

When Mingjue looked up, Jiang Cheng began talking, explaining that it was only supposed to be him, but something had gone wrong. That they were lucky that their error brought more people along and did not, for example, kill any of them. In such a ritual, Jiang Cheng was pretty sure it would not be a normal death, and despite the rituals he had undergone to prevent such things, he did not want to haunt the earth after attempting and failing to go back in time.

“Is this all of us?”

“There’s one more,” Nie Huaisang said, and hesitated. “He’s on our side, and always has been!”

Nie Mingjue lowered the cup. “Who?”

“Wen Qionglin,” Nie Huaisang said, and raised his fan to cover his mouth. “The Ghost General.”

Nie MIngjue breathed deeply through his nose, letting it out slowly even as Baxia rattled eagerly beside him. Jiang Cheng eyed the saber warily - he didn’t know what effect traveling through time would have on Mingjue’s qi, and he didn’t want his lover to deviate before they had a chance to keep him alive.

But, Baxia settled, and Mingjue turned his focus on Wei Wuxian. “Yes. Let’s talk about the Ghost General.” Jiang Cheng wasn’t surprised when Lan Wangji’s arm came up between Wei Wuxian and Nie Mingjue, nor when Wei Wuxian patted it gently, trying to urge Lan Wangji to step aside. Lan Wangji didn’t move, and Jiang Cheng cleared his throat, sitting up straight to speak like the sect leader he was, even if he wasn’t yet.

Oh, he’s going to have to face that soon, isn’t he?

“Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is not an issue. The circumstances that lead to its creation will not be repeated,” and here, he turned to Wei Wuxian. “Under any circumstances.”

Wei Wuxian opened his mouth as if to argue, shot his eyes sideways to Lan Wangji, and slumped, visibly, as if he was truly still a teenager. He nodded, holding up three fingers in salute.

“And what circumstances were those?” Nie Mingjue asked, raising an eyebrow. “If this is something that could be replicated—”

“It isn’t,” Jiang Cheng snapped. Nie Mingjue looked at him in surprise: it wasn’t that Jiang Cheng had never snapped at him before, but perhaps he could tell how upsetting Jiang Cheng found the whole mess. He forces himself to settle, to lower his shoulders and unclench his jaw. Softening his voice as much as he could, he offered: “Later.”

Nie Mingjue watched him for a moment, and then nodded.

Of course Wei Wuxian had to ruin it. “Jiang Cheng is correct in saying that the conditions wont be repeated, and the effects of my research are not currently affecting this world, it doesn’t change the fact that I know this path - I am still capable of it’s cultivation.”

“Good,” Nie Huaisang said, his tone steely enough to override any other reactions to that proclamation. “Your skills were instrumental in not only ending the war, but winning. We’ll need your talents again if we want to defeat Wen Ruohan.”

After a moment, Nie Mingjue nodded. “I have to agree. I don’t like it, you’re too talented a cultivator to lose you to wicked tricks a second time, but I can’t deny that it was effective on the battlefield.”

“Perhaps not as your primary path of cultivation?” Lan Wangji said, the plea within obvious. Wei Wuxian smiled at him, softly enough that it was as if the rest of them suddenly didn’t exist.

“Don’t worry, Lan-er-gege. I just got Suibian back - I have no desire to cast her aside so quickly.”

From the corner of his eye, Jiang Cheng saw Nie Mingjue frown at that - probably remembering all the times Wei Wuxian publicly refused to wear his sword.

“How close are we to war?” Jiang Cheng asked, and as a distraction, it worked. It was also a legitimate question: his first time though, Jiang Cheng hadn’t been unaware of the political tumult, but he was also fifteen and preoccupied by more local matters. Lotus Pier’s policy of “not our business” didn’t help him remember the details.

Well, the details before it burned.

The conversation shifted into a true council of war; the Wen forces acted much the same as before, which confirmed to Nie Huaisang that there probably wasn’t another rogue time traveler on the loose. Unlike before, however, Nie Mingjue had been busy, setting Meng Yao to the task of establishing correspondence (in Nie Mingjue’s name, of course) between the other major sects, seeking to bring them closer together earlier, to hopefully fend off some of the destruction.

So far, it hadn’t worked.

“Wen Xu is already marching on Cloud Recesses,” Lan Wangji said, and Nie Mingjue nodded.

“I have a team of Nie disciples ready to escort you back to Gusu, to aid in the defence of your home. They will be ready to leave in the morning, you should make better time if you fly, and should beat Wen Xu there.” Lan Wangji bowed his thanks, and leaned into Wei Wuxian when he attached himself to Lan Wangji’s side. Jiang Cheng didn’t watch - it seemed that the lovebirds finally realized that their responsibilities were pulling them in two different directions, for now.

Turning away, Jiang Cheng met Nie Mingjue’s eyes, and followed him from the chamber towards a reunion of his own.

Part 3B: The Road to War!

#mingcheng #mingcheng notefic #my fic #the untamed

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curiosity-killed · 3 years

Text

hardest hue to hold

in which i was seized by a very niche idea that i proceed to Not Explain in-text at all

cw: major character death

word count: 1355

Lan Wangji is gold. Gold like the glint of his eyes, gold like summer sunsets melting through Yunmeng’s lakes. He glimmers and gleams, dragon scales refracting under water.

“It’s a sign from the Heavens,” Wei Wuxian pontificates, lifting his wine in a solemn toast to the sky, “that I must have some divine mission with him.”

“Mission to annoy him into kicking you out,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, reaching for the wine even as he twists to check the robes blocking the window haven’t slipped.

Wei Wuxian leans easily out of his reach, lifting the wine so Jiang Cheng scrambles up on his knees to reach for it. He is also a little drunk but not so much as his baby brother. His baby brother who still hums blue even as he scowls and gripes at Wei Wuxian and tries to steal his precious liquor.

“I think,” Wei Wuxian declares solemnly, “he is my soulmate.”

Across the table, Nie Huaisang sniggers and scoops up a handful of nuts to chomp on. He is blue, too, but not like Jiang Cheng, not like shijie. Nie Huaisang is the same indifferent grey-blue of most the people Wei Wuxian calls friends; none of them burn the deep, royal blue of his siblings. Secretly, Wei Wuxian uses his Sight sometimes just to see it—to see that blue fire at his sides and be warmed by the knowledge of its presence.

“You’re an idiot,” Jiang Cheng gripes as he gives up on his pursuit of the wine. “You’ve never even figured out what gold means. Maybe it’s just because of his cultivation or whatever.”

Petulant as he is, Jiang Cheng isn’t wrong. Red and blue are easy enough to understand, but the way certain people light up in gold doesn’t seem to follow much of a pattern. His mother would be able to tell him if she were here, if he could still remember those earliest lessons.

All of Baoshan-sanren’s disciples share the Sight. It’s nothing more than the foundation of their cultivation, really, a way of fitting themselves into the cycles of qi flowing through the world and them. By aligning themselves in the fabric of those energies, they are able to learn from the intuition of the world around them to recognize friend or foe, ally and enemy. Wei Wuxian must have learned it when he was a small child, but all he remembers of those lessons are the warmth of being held and the delight of feeling woven into the world around him. Perhaps, if he ever encounters his mother’s shidi out in the world, Xiao Xingchen will tell him what it means.

Jiang-shushu was gold when he found Wei Wuxian before he faded to blue; sometimes errant disciples show up gold when Wei Wuxian has to bring them back from getting lost in the woods or when they’re hiding after a scolding from Yu-furen. It’s always temporary, a fleeting illumination as brief as sunlight through spring leaves.

Lan Wangji endures.

After the Burial Mounds, after the red-haze barrows of a thousand restless enemies, he still shines gold. He gleams when he scolds Wei Wuxian, when he demands Wei Wuxian come back to be locked away in Gusu, when he sits there playing his healing music after Nightless City. Broken, Wei Wuxian decides. The resentment of the Burial Mounds, the gnawing hunger of the Seal—they must have corrupted the last of his mother’s gift, eaten away the last vestiges clinging to the hollow carved through his core. Still, he looks to Jiang Cheng and shijie and blue curls soft around their outlines.

Zhiji, he says on Baifeng Mountain, and Lan Wangji’s gold matches the light through the leaves before Jin Zixuan’s voice breaks through. The one to kill me, he thinks in Qiongqi Pass when Lan Wangji’s outline is blurred and distorted by the rain but still golden. Oh, he thinks in Yiling when a-Yuan and Lan Wangji’s gilded forms blur together at the tea house. He doesn’t let himself think more.

And then—

The spread of cultivators at Nightless City is a sea of blood, a glimmering, shifting lake of embers to match the volcanic channels carved through the cliffs. Good, he thinks with a laugh from the roof. Good, good. Let them be his enemy. Let them chase with their slavering jaws and bared teeth. Let them see if they can catch him even now, even when he meets them at the executioner’s platform.

Among all of them, Jiang Cheng’s steady blue has dulled and looks almost purple in the wine-red wash. Of course. Stubborn shidi. He almost laughs. The spirits follow his sight, turn ravenous on all those red sparks, but there is a flash of gold in Wei Wuxian’s periphery and he turns. A smile carves up the curl of his lips.

“Lan Zhan ah Lan Zhan,” he says as he turns to take in that sunset glow, “I always knew it would come to this.”

It’s been years since they first fueled on that silver-lit roof, since Wei Wuxian first saw Lan Wangji lit up in gold from within. His hollow chest echoes with the memory, the surety of a piece clicking into place. So this is what it means, he thinks, for gold to withstand the fire.

Lan Wangji presses and parries and pleads as they dance across the roof, and then Wei Wuxian hears his name called and turns to a spark of blue struggling amidst the scarlet night—and Lan Wangji lets him go. Distantly, Wei Wuxian is aware of gold in his periphery as he races toward shijie. He cannot think, cannot look to it, but the flicker and spark darts in the corner of his eyes. It is too small, in the end, too matter. A single golden grain against the blood red tide. Wei Wuxian kneels, empty-handed as red overtakes shijie’s steady blue, as death draws away that light and leaves only blood.

Jiang Cheng shoves him away with a hand awash in blue light, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean anything. They were only ever colors, pigment bleeding through sodden paper. He stumbles, laughs, is caught up in the red tide. Let them take him to the cliffside, let the scarlet drag him deep to drown. The light is gone already, the world blurring together so that all of it is the same indistinct red and grey. How many of them did he once know? How many lit up blue in the days of the summer lecture? Three thousand scarlet jaws open wide and he lets go. If they want a body to burn, they can try to catch him in the fall.

Only—his arm jolts, pain shooting, tearing through his shoulder. On the other side, Lan Wangji’s arm bleeds red. It’s soaked through the white of his robes, splattered on his cheek, and still he shines. Wei Wuxian wants to laugh, can’t help smiling a little. Light-bearer, even here, burning gold for Wei Wuxian even in this endless night. He wants to say that it’s not that Lan Wangji carries the light so much that he is the light, this steady gold undaunted by shade or scar, but the time isn’t right. If there ever was a right time, he’s lost it long ago. The kindest thing he can do now is take his shadow with him, leave Lan Zhan to return to the world of light beyond them.

“Lan Zhan,” he says, “let me go.”

There’s no room for him in the wide world now, no place left for him to go.

A figure moves beyond Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian’s heart finally eases. Yes, he thinks, alright. Let it be like this: let them be the ones to see him off. He wrests his wrist from Lan Wangji’s grip as Sandu bites into the stone, and he is free. Hot wind scours his cheeks on the descent, resentment crawling up from the cavern of his chest to devour his flesh and bones. Up above, blue blurs into gold against the growing dawn.

Wei Wuxian smiles and closes his eyes.

#untamed fic #wwx #untamed au #my writing #don't look at me! i am just. here. doing the things i do.#LMAO next time I write a fic in the middle of the night and decide not to proofread someone pls smack me

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canary3d-obsessed · 4 years

Text

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 (first part)

(Masterpost)(Episode 05)

Warning: This contains spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Bad Boys Bad Boys What You Gonna Do

Nie Huasang’s brought his nuts, and someone’s brought wine, so the boys are drinking in Wei Wuxian’s guest house. Finally he gets to drink some of the Emperor’s Smile wine that he’s been doing all those product placements for.

Boys, get a bowl or something for your shells, were you raised in a barn?

Wei Wuxian hits on waxes poetic about the wine, and Jiang Cheng tells him to shut up.

Wang Zhuocheng’s raw-fish-eating face may have failed him, but his drunk faces do not disappoint.

Wei Wuxian teases Jiang Cheng about his list of standards for a chick: She should have natural beauty, be virtuous and caring, from a good family, not too talkative, with a gentle voice, and not too capable. Also she should not spend too much money. Drunken running ensues.

Cue Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

(more behind the cut)

Much of the fandom has decided this list is a good fit for Nie Huaisang himself, and it sorta is. But he is both talkative and unvirtuous, what with all the current sneakiness, and all the eventual murders.

This also definitely doesn't fit Wen Qing because she's capable as hell.

This list is, however, a 100% a match for Jiang Yanli. Not in a weird, Jin Guangyao way--a lot of men want to marry a woman like their sister. In a gender-divided and generation-divided society, a man’s sister might be the only woman he’s ever known well. Jiang Cheng adores Yanli and she’s his ideal model of a woman, as opposed to his mother, who...isnt.

All these robes and talismans over the door do nothing to stop Lan Wangji from strolling in.

Okay so - Lan Wangji is the senior disciple of the Lan Clan, yea? There is no way that patrolling the guest area is in any way his job. He is just walking around here at night specifically to see what Wei Wuxian is doing.

I already did a gifpost of the boys and their totally nonsexual horseplay, over here. I’ll just add, for sad factor, that Jiang Cheng is play-choking Wei Wuxian when they’re all on the bed, and later in the running-and-crying episode he is gonna for-real choke him. Foreshadowing! or maybe just coincidence!

One fun thread running through the young-cultivators episodes is that Nie Huaisang is legit terrified of Lan Wangji while also having a major aesthetic crush on him. Look at how flustered he is here, trying to act sober while also checking him out.

Lan Wangji is shocked and visibly upset - what are you guys doing? This is not his busting face, this is, for a moment, his vulnerable and disillusioned face. He is super not used to what normal people are like.

Wei Wuxian doesn't lie or otherwise try to get off the hook, which has got to have Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang grinding their teeth in frustration. He invites Lan Wangji to join them for a drink. LWJ cites a the “no drinking on campus” rule and WWX tries to convince him to chill.

Then we have this lovely coordinated faint by the boys, to get out of going to get punished. Nie Huaisang has been practicing fainting in front of a mirror just in case he ever needs a skill like that in the future.

Wei Wuxian keeps trying to turn this into a date. Eventually Lan Wangji is so upset he admits he can’t take all three of them by himself.

Then the boys run away fake-barfing and Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with a talisman.

Steal His Agency That’s What You’re Gonna Do

What Wei Wuxian does to Lan Wanji here is definitely wrong. But it's not entirely a disaster. It allows some crucial information to be shared between them, and it results in Wei Wuxian getting the utter shit beat out of him and never doing this again. I mean, he continues to mind-control his enemies and their eventual corpses, but he doesn't intentionally violate a friend or ally's autonomy in the future. Uhh not counting that whole golden core surgery-without-consent situation. And probably some other situations I’ve forgotten. He improves slightly, okay?

It’s important to note, incidentally, that the Lan rules about drinking and other “vices” should not be viewed through a Christian lens. The Lans are neither puritans nor ascetics (look at their clothes, furniture, and jewelry, for starters). Being drunk is forbidden probably because it’s a loss of self-control.

Speaking of self-control, mad props to Wang Yibo for being able to have zero physical reaction to fingers snapping in his face.

Drunk Lan Wangji

Under duress, Lan Wangji knocks back a cup of wine and promptly passes most of the way out.

Wei Wuxian puts Lan Wangji into bed not unkindly, but pretty much like a sack of potatoes. Compare this to how tenderly he handles Lan Wangji the next time he’s drunk.

WWX tells LWJ to call him Wei Gege, and giggles. Is this a term of endearment in this context? So far the various boys are calling each other -xiong, not -ge or gege. In Western media, men calling each other “bro” is basically saying “no homo,” but brotherhood and sisterhood in C-Drama is often a way of indicating stronger love than friendship, without saying whether it's sexual or not.

They finally start to have a conversation, and when Lan Wangji explains that no-one can touch his headband except, etc etc, Wei Wuxian stops trying to touch it. So at least he's not a handsy bastard in addition to all his other faults.

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that his clan is boring and women won't want to marry him. Lan Wangji says that's fine. On one level this is the show acknowledging that he's gay, but I think he's responding in a gender-neutral way; he doesn't want to marry anyone. Marriage, from his perspective, is the literal worst.

We don't know how he felt about his father, but he definitely loved his mother deeply, and she had a profoundly unhappy marriage, in which her husband did not provide companionship and her children were taken from her.

A note about all that: The dynamics of heterosexual marriages in The Untamed are not based on contemporary companionate marriage. Sex and reproduction is a wife's job in this world, and giving a gentry woman the option to choose her husband is radical. Wei Wuxian is the only one who dares say that Jiang Yanli should have a choice when Jin Guangshan casually tries to give her to his son in front of everyone.

OP made this today but will totally reuse it when episode 23 rolls around

So Lan Wangji’s parents' marriage was extremely problematic but not necessarily for the reasons it would be in contemporary terms. Having signed on to marry Lan Dad, Mom would have expected to live together and get laid regularly (important for health, in some traditional views, regardless of love/no love) and to have the company of her children. Instead, she was isolated. Lan Dad wanted to have it both ways and so even though he loved her and apparently hooked up with her sometimes, he didn't do his duty by her. She didn't love him but she did her duty.

Wei Wuxian continues to not get it, calling Lan Wangji dull and babbling about Lan Wangji’s parents until he realizes that LWJ is an orphan like him.

A nice shift happens here. Once the penny drops, Wei Wuxian doesn't ask a single additional question - he just sees - by reading Lan Wangji’s face - what the deal is, and shares his own story to show he understands.

This is the first time Wei Wuxian mentions being chased by dogs, which is kind of a big deal, because why was he left all alone when his parents died?

Why didn't anyone take him in before Jiang Fengmian found him? How isolated are independent cultivators in this world?

Tea Time

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen are having tea, and the Lan Clan is so uptight they don't touch each other's teacups. I don't know what this thing is called so I'm going to call it a tea speculum.

Lan Qiren is back from the cultivation conference and says the red crack plague is happening over in Qinghe where the Nie clan lives. Lan Xichen fills him in on the water demon, specifically saying Wei Wuxian figured out the connection to the red crack dudes, and explaining who WWX is, as if Lan QIren hadn't already thrown stuff at him and threatened to eventually kill him.

Fun fact that I just noticed this week so didn't make it into earlier posts: In Episode 46, when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are in the Jiang ancestral hall, WWX says he was often punished to kneel there, and LWJ said that they heard about this in Gusu.

So when WWX came to Gusu he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Lan brothers were aware of it.

Busted and Beaten

A Lan snitch comes in to say that Wei Wuxian has successfully corrupted Lan Wangji, which really shouldn’t cause as much surprise as it does.

“Wei Wuxian got drunk”

“Lan Wangji got drunk”

Lan Xichen takes a moment to consider carefully whether Wei Wuxian is a good friend for his little brother and whether perhaps he was too hasty in throwing them together. Ha ha ha no he doesn’t.

On the punishment porch, Lan Xichen tries to lecture Lan Wangji in a calm way, but Lan Qiren wants to beat him and Lan Wangji wants to get beat. Wei Wuxian can’t understand why Lan Wangji doesn’t let him take the blame for the drinking.

Lan Qiren goes way the fuck overboard with this punishment because he's angry--losing control and losing his sense of proportion--and Lan Xichen is shocked. The drone camera watching from above is also shocked.

Lan Qiren has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, but his extreme rigidity and chronic resentment of anyone he perceives as bad are serious problems. His nephews are both struggling with complex moral quandaries as they get older, and he is absolutely no help to them in resolving their conflicts.

This is definitely...a style of parenting & teaching, but you can see how poorly it works, with Lan Wangji straight up saying “fuck it” after many years of conformity. Lan Xichen is devoted to the middle path and tries to be obedient. But he is actually not walking anywhere near the middle path, as he gets pulled into colluding with a murderer at the same time as getting dragged onto his brother’s carnival ride. These men need parenting that isn’t so, uh, fucking stupid. (Yes, grown adults still need good parenting; watch Go Ahead if you doubt me)

Wei Wuxian initially yells and falls down when he gets hit, but then he sees Lan Wangji is taking the beating without any reaction and he tries to do the same.

Aftermath

Jiang Yanli gently lectures the boys, blaming Jiang Cheng for Wei Wuxian's drinking. Jesus Christ, he's the younger sibling, could you just NOT, Yanli?

Both boys ask Yanli not to tell their parents. The boys bicker about who's at fault and then Wei Wuxian shifts to baby voice and starts whining to Yanli about the pain.

Yanli tells him to suck it up, and says after school she'll -- ok and I know this will be a surprise for everyone -- make soup for them. The boys immediately get back on the same team, which is team Please Put Meat In the Soup.

There's a nice character building moment for Wei Wuxian here. When he sees Lan Xichen he initially turns away to avoid running into him, but then he adults-up and goes to face him and greet him, giving him a half of a bow because of the pain, the pain. Rather than complaining about his punishment he meekly asks if he's broken another rule.

Lan Xichen tells him that he did wrong but that Lan Qiren’s punishment was too harsh, and then in what is one of my favorite Lan Xichen moments, invites Wei Wuxian to use the cold spring to heal, but doesn't invite Jiang Cheng to go with him even though Jiang Cheng also was beaten. Lan Xichen, Matchmaker Auntie Extraordinaire.

Then he answers Wei Wuxian’s question about his mom by saying she was just like Wei Wuxian and drove Lan Qiran up the wall. Jiang Cheng's reaction to that is really sweet. He does enjoy Wei Wuxian at the same time as being constantly irritated by him.

Lan Xichen does his patented “breaking off in the middle of saying something and leaving out a chunk of the story” maneuver, although this time he doesn't include a flute solo.

OP is mildly obsessed with Xuan Lu’s shoulders in this outfit. Also Yanli has an interesting sword, that's got some wood carving similar to Subian, but without the organic look, which OP only noticed because of screen capping Xuan Lu’s shoulders.

Club Ruohan

Wen Qing continues to be pretty and slightly evil at this stage, sending magic fire notes to her boss using this talisman that is definitely floating in the air and not just hanging from a string.

Wen Ruohan is in the mosh pit with his zombie groupies while he reads Wen Qing’s extremely vague status update and says "it all makes sense."

Reach out and touch faith

Soundtrack

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Writing Prompt

How did Wei Wuxian’s parents die?

Admin Notes

I’m going to start spacing out my “first part” and “second part” posts by a few days. I’ll update this post to link up the second part once I post it, and my masterpost is always up to date.

Also: if you want more of my original content but don’t want to follow my whole blog (not following is fine!), I keep a pinboard of fun stuff at the top of my blog. I try to post original content at least once a week.

Continued in the second part later this week!

#fytheuntamed #wangxian #the untamed #cql #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #my gifs #restless rewatch the untamed #restless rewatch #canary3d #the untamed spoilers

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satan-chillin · 3 years

Text

Hereafter (2/7)

Wei Wuxian is sent off of Cloud Recesses, bade by his fathers to "have fun and make friends" which, now that he thinks about it, sounds like a gross oversimplification of what the next six months away from home will entail.

If he happens to form unlikely connections, start a matchmaking, and gets unwittingly involved in the presently strained political state of the cultivation world, those are just par for the course.

Chasing after one of the famed Twin Jades of Lan, however, is an added bonus.

(Or, WWX was sent to Gusu by his fathers Wen Kexing & Zhou Zishu)

Part 2 of Spirited Away Series. Part 1 here.

Also available in Ao3. Hereafter Chapter 1 here.

❆❆❆

Putting aside the Wen debacle in the orientation day and his shixiong’s leave—which Chengling had done after waiting for Wei Wuxian’s first classes to end so he could bid his junior a proper farewell—his first week was rather promising.

For one thing, he finally had the name of that Lan Disciple: Lan Zhan, courtesy name Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian shouldn’t be surprised at the name given his display of dedication; he, of course, elected not to call him that. Lan Zhan rolled off the tongue more than Lan Wangji.

“You’re quite bold, aren’t you?” was Nie Huaisang response to that. He was a fast acquaintance and a faster friend who found Wei Wuxian a quick study and who in turn Wei Wuxian also found interesting. They got along like house on fire especially during the times Nie Huaisang proved to be a trove of gossips within the cultivation world. “I’ve known him longer, but I won’t dare address one of the Twin Jades of Lan informally."

Twin Jades sounded fitting. Notwithstanding Lan Xichen’s warm disposition and Lan Zhan’s standoffish character, Wei Wuxian could somehow understand how the brothers were said to be similar in appearance—at a glance, that was. He was quite proud to admit that he could spot numerous differences between them aside from the eyes.

Wei Wuxian hummed, absently remembering the forehead ribbon he had snatched and safely kept in a pouch at the bottom of his chest. For safekeeping. Not that it was terribly missed, he thought, not after he last noticed Lan Zhan wearing a new one.

“And you?” he asked. “What do they call you?”

“I might have earned the title of the Most Useless Young Master,” Nie Huaisang replied blithely. “I haven’t heard it directly from anyone, mind, but Wanyin might have mentioned it in passing.”

At the careless shrug Wei Wuxian got in response to his incredulous blink, he scoffed. Alright, so Nie Huaisang might not have the making of a standard cultivator—belonging from a prominent sect famous for their prowess with the saber and as a younger brother of a known cultivator might have demanded more than the average from him—but he was far from useless. While he was aware of his complete lack of martial talent combined with a weak golden core, Nie Huaisang excelled in the other aspects like the finer arts and literature.

The first time they interacted, Wei Wuxian had mistakenly thought that he cultivated with a fan and wielded it in place of a sword, but instead, they had ended up discussing the finer details of the intricate painting on his fan. Wei Wuxian lacked the aptitude for painting despite liking to watch a-die paint, and Nie Huaisang, with his own creation depicting the mountains of his homeland, was outstanding in his own right for their age.

From what Wei Wuxian knew of the Qinghe Nie Sect, Nie Huaisang must be the polar opposite of their values, with his slight build, meek personality, and overall soft nature. You’d look at him and see someone to protect instead of a protector—the impression which Wei Wuxian might have instinctually adopted as the truth. Not to mention that he was already piling up plenty of owed favor after Nie Huaisang handled the previously unruly raven Chengling left for him as a messenger bird between Four Seasons Sect and Cloud Recesses. Nie Huaisang had not only adeptly tamed the raven; he was also going into the trouble of keeping it from stern eyes together with the variety of his kept birds caught in interest.

Up to this day, Wei Wuxian still didn’t know how the raven remained silent.

“You’re not useless,” he argued, though Nie Huaisang’s pout said that he was more offended by that. “What I’m asking is what they call you if the Lan has the Twin Jades. Surely the Nie Sect aren’t blind and can see that they have an attractive young master.”

Nie Huaisang blinked at him in disbelief before an endearing tint of red broke across his cheeks that he hastily hid behind his fan. “Wei-xiong! D-Don’t say embarrassing things like that!”

Oh ho, Wei Wuxian thought gleefully. Who would have thought that a young master was unused to compliments? And he thought that was only Lan Zhan. Smirking, he touched the top of the fan with a finger and brought it down to uncover Nie Huaisang’s face teasingly.

“Huaisang!”

A scowling young master came approaching with thundering steps. Wei Wuxian racked his mind for a name; Jiang Wanyin, if he recalled correctly, who Nie Huaisang was quite close to.

He went to make a gesture of a formal greeting when Jiang Wanyin outright ignored him in favor of Nie Huaisang, glaring down at him as he barked, “Where have you been? You promised A-jie you’ll join us for lunch.”

“Ah, sorry, Wanyin. I kinda forgot,” came the nervous reply. “I’ll make it up to Yanli-jie. Promise!” Nie Huaisang glanced between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Wanyin. “Speaking of which, you two haven’t been introduced yet, have you?”

“We haven’t,” Wei Wuxian said. Standing straighter, he bowed and introduced himself. Oddly enough, the mention of his name merely deepened Jiang Wanyin’s scowl, though he was not remiss in his courtesy, a little curt it might be. “Nie-xiong and I lost track of time when he showed me how to track that rosefinch by the stream.”

“Wanyin, you should come with us next time,” Nie Huaisang eagerly said. “You can teach us how to fish.” At Wei Wuxian, he shared, “Yunmeng Jiang is based in Lotus Pier so they’re near a big lake. Their disciples are very good swimmers, and Wanyin here is one of the best.”

Interestingly, Jiang Wanyin’s face colored—truly, what was with the young masters here being unused to a little bit of compliment?—though he hid it with a clearing of his throat. He didn’t seem keen to engage with Wei Wuxian in a conversation, electing to mutter, “I’ve taught you before.”

“That was years ago! You can’t expect me to remember how when I can’t even remember the lesson earlier.”

“Says the person who can memorize an anthology,” inputted Wei Wuxian. “Which reminds me—drop by later tonight. I’m going to show you something.” Nie Huaisang would definitely like his baba’s written poems.

“There’s a curfew at nine,” Jiang Wanyin retorted, crossing his arms in disapproval. “Your brother won’t like it if he heard you’ve been fooling around,” he admonished Nie Huaisang.

“Da-ge knows I’m fooling around though. Besides, what makes you think we’ll be caught?”

Wei Wuxian nodded sagely. “Nie-xiong will provide the silencing talisman, and I have an extra measure of security in my room. You’re invited too, Young Master Jiang. I’ll supply the alcohol, of course, but you have to bring in something too. Peanuts, maybe?”

“Wanyin, Yanli-jie still has lotus seeds, right?” Nie Huaisang asked. He nudged Wei Wuxian. “You have to try them.”

“Alcohol is forbidden here.” With Jiang Wanyin’s impassioned reminder, one would think he was doing very well mimicking an uptight Lan Disciple. “Just because you like breaking rules from day one means you can drag others into doing the same.”

And, oh, that was for Wei Wuxian.

Nie Huaisang smacked his folded fan on Jiang Wanyin’s arm with a resounding hit which would have been amusing, seeing as he was also adorably glaring like an angry puppy, if Wei Wuxian wasn’t befuddled at the sudden hostility from basically a stranger. It was enough, however, to send Jiang Wanyin into confused indignation that Nie Huaisang took advantage of, bodily turning him by the shoulders and dragging-ly pushed him with merely a yell of a “Later, Wei-xiong!” before hurrying away.

Wei Wuxian watched their backs, distantly hearing the unintelligible noise of bickering, and wondered what to make of Jiang Wanyin’s peculiar attitude towards him.

❆❆❆

He heard the coded knock at the exact time, and Nie Huaisang slipped in noiselessly alone.

“I went to Wanyin first. He’s already sleeping,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry about earlier. Wanyin has a temper, but he’s not normally that rude.”

Wei Wuxian waved a hand dismissively. He expected this already. “It’s done, Nie-xiong. Don’t sweat it.” Though he would rather not have Nie Huaisang apologizing when he wasn’t the impolite one in the first place.

He smiled, easing the tension on Nie Huaisang’s shoulders. With Wei Wuxian’s permission, he set on placing the silencing talismans. He observed him work, whistling lowly; he had to learn how to recreate those.

Once Nie Huaisang was done, Wei Wuxian did his own magic, gesturing at Nie Huaisang to crouch next to him. He watched with curiosity at the wooden cube half the size of a palm inlaid with a square of metal that Wei Wuxian placed where the edges of the doors meet. Pressing the metal that served as a button, tiny, curved, iron barbs embedded themselves on the wooden frame.

“There! No one will barge in on us.” At Nie Huaisang’s rapt stare, he explained, “It’s a mechanism from Longyuan Valley. They have all sorts of toys there, from locks to specialized boxes, but the most fascinating are their traps and the structure of the Longyuan Cabinet itself.”

He went into a narration of the brief history of Longyuan and how his shixiong came to be its sole disciple. Nie Huaisang was a great listener, especially when Wei Wuxian launched into tales about his known home in the middle of sharing a jar of wine.

“You know, some of our scrolls said that our clan founder originated from jianghu,” he said. “He was a butcher, but that’s as much as we know of him.”

It wouldn’t be surprising if it was true. The people of the Nie Sect were martially inclined, famous for the typical aggression that characterized the pugilists in general. Wei Wuxian would also bet that way before there had been no clear distinction between cultivators and those who did not cultivate in the same manner.

“Maybe our ancestor was like one of those martial artists who managed to achieve immortality. It’s not like they’re different from cultivators who cultivated longevity,” Nie Huaisang speculated, hiccuping slightly. “We have this regular guest in the Unclean Realm who’s not a cultivator but is a semi-immortal, I think.”

“Semi-immortal?”

“I remember seeing him around since I was a kid, and he still looks young except he has more white in his hair. It suits him since he wears all white, and if anything, he looks handsome. Da-ge thinks so too, even if he's shy to say it aloud. I know him! Not that he needs more reason to like him because he’s really strong and likes to spar as much as da-ge. He gets really happy for weeks when he’s around.”

Wei Wuxian chuckled. Oddly enough, the white attire and wisps of white hair reminded him abruptly of a certain sour grandpa who he hadn’t seen for quite some time now. Grandpa Ye’s last visit at the Four Seasons Sect was three months ago.

Eventually, he remembered why he invited Nie Huaisang in his quarters past curfew, though he might be a little late in remembering seeing as they were already slurring by the time they perused baba’s original poems. At one point, Wei Wuxian whipped out his dizi, belting out random notes while Nie Huaisang whacked the table as an accompaniment, all the while singing praise to the great poet that was Wei Wuxian’s father and loudly claiming that he was ashamed of himself for not knowing him.

Thank the gods for the silencing talismans.

❆❆❆

If Wei Wuxian was asked, he’d say that it was a coincidence to stumble upon the clearing near the back hills of Cloud Recesses. If he happened to have heard that a certain young master could be found around this area, well.

A glare greeted Wei Wuxian. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m strolling the grounds and simply came across a young master diligently practicing his drills,” Wei Wuxian said airily. “Go on, Young Master Jiang.”

Jiang Wanyin clicked his tongue. “And enjoy a free commentary? No, thank you.”

“Fine. You’ll hear nothing from me. I’d love to watch and study forms from different cultivation sects. Lan Zhan made an exhibition of his, though I’m curious to see more of Lan Sect.” Jiang Wanyin looked as if he was torn between asking how in the hell he fought the Second Young Master Lan and responding with silence to discourage Wei Wuxian’s presence. The joke was on him if he thought he could send Wei Wuxian away that easy. “It was quite an evening,” he said wistfully. “In the blue night, he stands in the dark svelte and urgent. ”

Jiang Wanyin rolled his eyes and turned his back, completely missing the mischievous grin. Wei Wuxian reclined languidly once Jiang Wanyin continued with his training.

He moved like someone who began training at a young age, likely as young or younger than Wei Wuxian when a-die started instructing him. While his movements were not the fluid motion of Lan Zhan, Jiang Wanyin’s were just as solid with a different center for his foundation. He had a long torso and upper limbs—a swimmer’s build that might have influenced his prioritizing of strength over stealth.

“Your form is crooked,” Wei Wuxian called. While not as adept as Lan Zhan, it wasn’t necessarily a poor balance; call him petty, but this was his payback for their previous encounter. “Your right is your dominant side, isn’t it? Placing your left foot behind your right will abort your turn halfway.”

Jiang Wanyin threw a scowl past his shoulders but minutely corrected his posture. “I’m ambidextrous,” he argued.

“Yes, that’s very amazing of you, Young Master Jiang,” came the instant reply that further irked him. “I heard that Yunmeng Jiang practices archery. Your skills must be superb.”

“It’s a rudimentary skill any Jiang Disciple should learn.” Jiang Wanyin turned to him without sheathing his sword. “And you? What does your sect specialize in?” Coming from him, the question was akin to a demand.

“Plenty,” Wei Wuxian said. “My fathers are masters of different martial arts, but they use different weapons. A-die taught me the sword, and baba the fan. There’s also a skill in disguises passed down from generation to generation by Four Seasons Lords so a-die does the same but only to those interested. Baba originally came from a family of healers so he also teaches what he learned from his father. Four Seasons Sect is connected to two more sects because of its First Disciple, my shixiong, Zhang Chengling, and through that link, Four Seasons adopted other forms of teaching to disperse among its inner and guests disciples. If you’re looking for a single specialization our sect is known for, I can’t give you a definite one since we’re more of a sum of many parts.”

Jiang Wanyin looked at him peculiarly, and Wei Wuxian could see several questions running through his head yet voiced none. Then Jiang Wanyin’s scowl morphed into a perpetual frown instead. “Is that how they met your parents?”

Wei Wuxian was perplexed. “What?”

“Your masters… fathers. They sound like worldly people. Did they meet your birth parents on the road or did they come across your sect first?” Jiang Wanyin hesitated before adding, “I know you—or at least, I’ve heard of you before from my father. He said he was close friends with your birth father, Wei Changze. He used to be a Yunmeng Jiang Disciple who became a rogue cultivator when he married your mother, Cangse Sanren, a student of the immortal Baoshan Sanren.” At Wei Wuxian’s wide eyes at every word that spilled out of his mouth, Jiang Wanyin paused. “Wait. You don’t know this?”

“I—I don’t. I’ve never—I don’t know anything about my birth parents aside from their names and occupation before they passed away.”

And Wei Wuxian used to believe that he already made peace with the knowledge, or the lack thereof. He had a father and mother who birthed him to this world, and he also had two fathers he grew up loving as his true parents, the family that he recognized. But to think that someone actually knew about his birth parents that he could remember merely vague faces of.

It was… it was…

“Oi. Don’t cry!” Jiang Wanyin said urgently. His panic, Wei Wuxian found subconsciously, was kind of funny. “I’ll tell you more—just don’t cry!”

“Okay.” Wei Wuxian wiped his face hastily. “You said you heard my name before?”

Jiang Wanyin swallowed but nodded awkwardly once he was sure that Wei Wuxian wouldn’t go crying on him again. “My father looked for you,” he said, stooping down next to him. “The news of your parents' death reached him a year late. He searched everywhere, even the streets, but he couldn't find you. If he had, then he would’ve brought you home to Lotus Pier to raise you.” He shuffled on his feet. “He kept looking for you for years, and I think he gave up when he thought you died. He mourned for you and your family. He had no idea that you were somewhere far away.”

“I was in the streets,” Wei Wuxian whispered. “I remembered that much. I think your father would have found me if baba hadn’t done so first. He… came across me in the middle of a snowstorm and brought me to his home and to a-die.” He smiled. “My home.”

He would have a different life raised next to Jiang Wanyin, calling Jiang Wanyin’s father as his too, but Wei Wuxian couldn’t imagine a life where it wasn’t his a-die who spoonfed and carried him around the Four Seasons Manor that first night he woke up with them, where it wasn’t baba who took him away from the cold and brought him to the warmth and called him ‘little one’.

It warmed Wei Wuxian’s heart to discover that his birth parents had people who had cared for them, and, by extension, him. Perhaps it was a tad selfish of him to be glad that Jiang Wanyin’s father had not found him, that Wei Wuxian would willingly endure the snow and hunger if it meant having the years he would have with his fathers.

“Thank you for telling me, Jiang-xiong.”

❆❆❆

They wouldn’t call each other friends just yet, but with Jiang Wanyin’s increasingly constant presence, Wei Wuxian could probably call him an acquaintance.

Well, he had looked after far more difficult children before.

Jiang Wanyin took it as a personal offense that Wei Wuxian lacked the basic knowledge of creating simple talismans and decided to take up the mantle of a tutor; a tutor with an incredibly short fuse for patience that his student couldn’t resist goading. As recompense, he would invite himself to Jiang Wanyin’s daily drills, offering a regular training opponent that was reluctantly accepted at first until Wei Wuxian wiped the ground with him.

They never spoke again of his birth parents, though he doubted that Jiang Wanyin had more to say beyond what his father had told him. If Wei Wuxian wished to learn more, he would have to reach out to Sect Leader Jiang.

He sighed, unable to concentrate. He escaped the confines of his room to get some air. He couldn’t sleep, and he’d rather not seek the assistance of alcohol tonight. A-die had told him once that there was no comfort of reprieve in drunkenness, only an added headache in the next morning.

It was baba’s xiao that had done wonders on the random evenings he was plagued with insomnia. Baba wasn’t here now so Wei Wuxian would have to resolve this himself. Bringing the flute to his lips, out flew the notes of his favorite ballad that baba used to play for him about a ghost king who met a wanderer with three years of his life left.

Then, as if beckoned by the lulling of the music, a Jade in white descended in front of Wei Wuxian, enrapturing as always.

He smiled. “Hello, Lan Zhan.”

#fanfic #fanfiction #shl fic #cql #chen qing ling #mdzs #untamed fic #crossover #wangxian #wei wuxain #lan wangji #the untamed #word of honor #wwx gets adopted by wenzhou

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besanii · 4 years

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if your still writing tonight, Double Happiness please? I need fluff if im to survive shattered mirrors ;-;;; thank you for saving my soul with your fics

Wei Wuxian leans against the trunk of the peach tree, his legs stretched out along the length of a low-hanging branch, and tips his head back to swallow a mouthful of wine. He sighs gustily afterwards, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and grins down at the approaching Xiao Xingchen.

“You can’t hide here forever you know,” Xiao Xingchen tells him. “Shijie will eventually find her way here.”

Wei Wuxian makes a face.

“I’ll take whatever time I can get,” he says. “You don’t know how hard it’s been these past few weeks, Shishu. Just…constantly, everyday, ‘when’s the wedding?’, ‘how long have you been together?’, ‘when are you having children?’—I don’t even have the right parts for that, Shishu!”

Xiao Xingchen chuckles and shakes his head.

“If you’re really worried about that, there is a fish tribe living in the West Ocean that has cultivated a special skill for that purpose,” he says. “I’m sure if you asked very nicely, Zichen would be willing to introduce you. Their leader owes him a life debt.”

Wei Wuxian groans and slumps further along the tree branch, one hand over his face. Who wants to think about children? He’s too young to have children! There’s still so much he wants to see—not to mention, if he wants to ascend to High God before Lan Wangji, he wouldn’t have the time for children!

An image of a tiny, baby version of Lan Wangji appears in his mind. Would he be born in human form, or hatched from an egg? The Qing Qiu Fox Tribe are always born as foxes, and only took human form around their first birthday, when they were old enough to have a semblance of control over their powers. He’d been the cutest kit in the history of their tribe. He’s sure Lan Wangji would have been the cutest baby dragon.

Would their child be a dragon or a fox? He’s not sure they can be both. Jin Ling, disappointingly, turned out to be a peacock like his father, but at least he’s cute and lovable and not at all like his father in personality. In any case, his and Lan Wangji’s future babies would be even cuter.

Wait.

“I’m not physically equipped to lay eggs!” he yells, sitting bolt upright.

“You won’t need to,” a familiar voice says. “We are born in human form.”

He must be drunk. Or having some sort of weird fever dream, because there’s no way Lan Wangji could have managed to find him here. He’d been careful about sneaking out! He hadn’t even told anyone! How does Lan Wangji keep finding him?

“Are you stalking me or something?” he mumbles, cheeks flushed with either embarrassment, or wine, or both. “I’m supposed to be good at hiding.”

“You are,” Lan Wangji assures him with a smile. “I’m just better at seeking.”

Wei Wuxian pouts and takes another swig from the jug.

“Are you here to drag me back to the Nine Heavens, Lan Zhan?” he asks. “Where’s Shishu?”

Lan Wangji shakes his head. “I’m here to keep you company. Xiao Xingchen-shangshen said to let you know he will be in his house if you need him.”

At this, Wei Wuxian perks up. He swings his legs over the branch and faces Lan Wangji, a wide smile spreading over his face.

“So I don’t have to go back?” he presses, just to confirm. Lan Wangji shakes his head again. He whoops, punching the air in his excitement. “Freedom!”

The motion disrupts his already precarious perch and he goes toppling forward off the branch, arms and legs flailing the in the air. Lan Wangji is there in one lightning-fast step, wrapping an arm firmly around his waist to hold him upright, their bodies pressed together from chest to knee as their feet touch down gently on the grass. The wine jug lays forgotten by their feet.

Wei Wuxian’s heart is beating too fast, he can hear it in his ears. It must be the shock of the fall, he thinks faintly. Or tries to, but it’s hard to think when he’s pressed up this close to Lan Wangji, with barely a breath of space between them. He can see the flecks of gold in Lan Wangji’s eyes, the way they darken slowly as they stare at each other, and feels himself falling.

“Wei Ying…” His eyes fall down to Lan Wangji’s lips, mesmerised by the way it shapes his name. “Wei Ying.”

It must be the wine. He must have taken the wrong wine from the storage room, otherwise he wouldn’t be feeling this lightheaded, this hot, after only three jugs. He feels the arms around him tighten, pulling him even closer, and he follows it blindly, closing his eyes and pressing their lips together.

Lan Wangji gasps against his lips and presses in closer, threading his fingers through Wei Wuxian’s hair and angling their heads for better access. He moans at the first, hesitant brush of Lan Wangji’s tongue against his lips, and parts them for him. He feels, rather than hears, Lan Wangji’s responding moan, low and deep in his chest; it’s a heady feeling, knowing he has this effect on Lan Wangji.

They eventually break apart for air, but Lan Wangji is loathe to let him go too far, the hand in his hair holding him firm as they pant against each other’s mouths.

Lan Zhan is really beautiful like this, Wei Wuxian thinks hazily. He traces the light flush across those perfect cheekbones with his fingers. And only I will ever get to see him like this.

Except, he won’t. Because they’re not engaged, not getting married, not even together. Not really. This is all for show.

The thought crashes over him like an ice-cold wave, chasing away the lust-fuelled haze that had settled over his mind like a thick blanket. He gasps and pulls away more forcefully, struggling against Lan Wangji’s grip.

“Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji asks, startled. “Wei Ying, what’s wrong?”

“I-I need to go,” Wei Wuxian says in a panic. He feels it bubbling up from his chest, into his throat, and gasps again. “Lan Zhan, we shouldn’t—we shouldn’t be doing this.”

Lan Wangji relents. As soon as his grip loosens enough, Wei Wuxian reverts back to his original form in a puff of smoke, and disappears through the trees.

// buy me a ko-fi //

Previous parts here

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rosethornewrites · 3 years

Text

Monday’s T & G fics

Here are the fics I read today! Some of these are ones I’m subscribed to (and behind on).

Finished:

Rated T:

Encounter - Grass Butterfly, by ArchiveWriter

LWJ POV - set just after WWX's death and LWJ having suffered his punishment.

Context: Timeline mash-up. In my interpretation of events, Wen Quing and Wen Ning go to Jinlingtai alone; a lynchmob of clansmen led by Jiang Cheng besiege Burial Mounds whilst WWX is away with little Wen Yuan to try and get them back; when he returns, he can only hide the child in the charred tree before flying to face the massed clans in his last battle. LWJ chases after him – trying to find him after learning of the Wen siblings’ fate, he races to the old mountain, finds the child and rescues him to Cloud Recesses, then flies to the battlefield at Nevernight where he defends WWX and injures the elders of his own clan, who on behalf of his brother and uncle try to capture him and whisk him to safety before the clans overwhelm WWX (and potentially LWJ with him), then gets dragged off to Cloud Recesses after WWX jumps off the cliff.

two scheming babies scheme murder, by anxiouswreck0_0 (second in a series)

SangYao get married! Knowing how the last wedding went, how will this one go?

Mourning for Love, by bingolin

Lan Wangji had not thought about him in a while. But all who looked at him could almost see the ghost embracing him from behind and weighing him down- regardless of whether they knew to whom the ghost belonged.

Lan Wangji had not thought about him in a while.

But tonight, he was thinking about him.

Home is in Your Arms, by kitsyu

Lan Wangi is trying to grade papers; his husband is a welcome distraction.

(Just a short bit of post-canon fluff and domestic life in the cloud recesses. Minor spoilers if you squint)

Rated G:

In Which Lan Xichen Finds His Brother’s Behavior Concerning, by AshurbanipalJones

“He drank the wine he drank, suffered the wounds he suffered.”—Módào Zǔshī

But you're somebody else, by hamlets_ghost (second in a series)

Two brothers reunite for the first time after many, many years...

Wei Wuxian's plan for sneaking alcohol into the cloud recess is less than successful

Now I can't stand to be alone, by hamlets_ghost (third in a series)

Wei Wuxian is out night hunting alone and bites off more than he can chew.

Luckily a handsome rogue cultivator comes to his rescue.

Don't need you, by Poitre_4

Prompt: 178. "Don't do it. If you attack now, then I won't be able to keep you safe"

Character: Jin Ling

The Best Medicine, by BaconnEggs

Wei Wuxian knows something is wrong when he wakes up before Lan Wangji does.

It's nine in the morning. Waking up at this time is par for the course for Wei Wuxian, but absolutely unheard of for Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian turns over to look at him, and even in the dim light filtering in from the curtains, the drawn paleness of his skin is hard to miss.Wei Wuxian grazes a tentative hand over Lan Wangji’s forehead and he seems to wince at the touch, face tightening as a low groan escapes his lips. The knuckles of Wei Wuxian’s fingers are met with dry, unpleasant warmth.

A fever.

(AKA Wei Wuxian takes care of a sick Lan Wangji because dammit Lan Wangji deserves to be taken care of and given soup as much as Wei Wuxian does)

Alternate Evil, by enchantingmiranchahalo

Post-canon Wei Wuxian time travels to the moment he's reunited with Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng after the Burial Mounds.

Serial Killer, by nirejseki

“So what are you going to do about it, Xichen?” Jin Guangyao heard Nie Mingjue demanding, and paused, tilting his head to the side to listen rather than proceeding to enter the room.

Nie Mingjue had gotten increasingly irascible as of late, no doubt in large part to the growing influence of the Song of Turmoil that he’d been playing for him, and much of his ire was (correctly, although unknowingly) aimed at Jin Guangyao. It therefore would be better to stay outside and listen, to figure out what argument Nie Mingjue was using and design appropriate countermeasures – to convince Lan Xichen that Nie Mingjue was, as usual, making a fuss when there was no reason, and that it was safe to simply ignore him or downplay his concerns.

“Da-ge…”

“Don’t da-ge me! He’s killing people!”

Jin Guangyao tensed.

intersections, by sasamelons

He had just made it to the streetcar stop when he heard his name being called.

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying clattered his way down the street with his hastily-thrown on jacket and wild shoulder-length hair falling out of his ponytail. Lan Zhan had given up on trying to fight his way across the crowd before he left, had only managed to catch Wei Ying’s eye and wave from the other side of the room. His heart sped up at the thought that the other man had run out of the bar to say goodbye.

"Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,” he said in between pants as he caught his breath. Despite his exhaustion and eagerness to get home only a moment ago, Lan Zhan had the sudden thought that he might be happy to stand on this street corner forever, if Wei Ying kept saying his name like that. “You’re leaving already?”

Growing up, at five intersections.

A Game of Chess..., by Ladycroft4evr

Just WangXian hanging out at Cloud Recesses, Life after Yi City... specifically after that insanely adorable bunny lantern/heart eyes at Tanzou market <3

Of course WangXian have a heck of a lot of free time between then and the Epic Confession @ Jinlintai :D So A bored Wei WuXian suggests a game of Chess (Weiqi/Go), small bet between WangXian...juniors make a cameo too lol.. Have fun, folks :)

Unfinished:

Rated T:

I've Heard of Second Chances, but This Is Ridiculous, by velvet_green

One of Wei Wuxian’s experimental talisman arrays sends himself, his husband and his brother to that mythical land of long ago – the Gusu Lan lectures of their youth.

Wei Wuxian is amused. Lan Wangji is silent. Jiang Cheng is angry.

And their younger versions are mostly just very, very confused.

Muted, by Akabara_13

Jiang FengMian thought the boy would talk again once the storm passed, but Madam Yu praised his silence. The boy would not talk to anyone, but his brother and sister.

demons run when a good man goes to war, by Miranda_Aurelia

In their attempt to consolidate power, Wei Wuxian is framed and executed by the Jin Sect.

A pity, because Wei-xiong was possibly the only person that could have stopped Lan Wangji from razing Koi Tower to the ground, thought Nie Huaisang uncharitably. As for him? They really should have left his brother alone.

Serendipity, by midnight_soul

Lan Wangji is tired of his family’s passive-aggressive persistence in his love life. He will not go on another blind date; the first two times were disastrous enough.

Wei Wuxian has had enough of his family telling him no one would want to stick with him, no one decent at least.

One trying to live his life peacefully and another wanting to prove his family wrong, how can their plan fail? They’re practically meant for each other.

Decay exists as an extinct form of life., by Amanie

Wei wuxian dies after years with the people he loved.

And then he woke up.

——

A jar of emperor’s smile crashed to the ground.

And Wei Wuxian screamed.

“How do you kill an immortal?”

Rated G:

The Undesirable Son, by FragranceLotion97

Wei Wuxian has been living with his Master, Baoshan Sanren, ever since his parents died at a Night Hunt when he was ten years old. Years later, his Master sends him off to join the lecture in Cloud Recesses for a special secret mission to save the entire Cultivation World from the heinous dictator, Wen Ruohan.

Wei Wuxian's journey in finding the real meaning of family and love in Cloud Recesses.

Patriarch, by nilavu

In which Hanguang-jun sends a letter to the Yiling Patriarch inviting him to Jin Rulan's one-month celebration and receives a surprising letter back.

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

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tanoraqui · 3 years

Text

[previous]

so right here is probably where you get your obligatory “Wild Hunt follows our hero back to the human realm, forcing them to go on a high-stakes, high-speed chase with their romantic interest as their (fantasy, no cars involved) driver.” Tylweth Tyg Lan Wangji, flying yarrow stalk, clinging tightly together, natch.

their goal is the Duchy of Butchers’ Hill. They probably crash-land in a courtyard

quick history of Butchers’ Hill: a merlin so lowly she had a job in the human world as a butcher, before she saved a monarch’s live and so earned the use of a Hope Chest, and through further service, a duchy. In the face of lingering scorn, she named her new demesne after her mortal career, because fuck you

the current duke, Nie Mingjue, is Tuatha de Danaan through and through, child of happily divorced parents - well, one’s dead, now - because it was an amiable political marriage and his mother had a barony to inherit on a different continent

however his brother and heir, Nie Huaisang, had. Daoine Sidhe mother (everyone knows, though she more or less wandered in one day and left a few years later when she’d stopped her dancing). He has fine Tuatha features, but his hair is the dark dark red of a cursed rose, his eyes are yellow rather than copper, his magic is scented of roses as well as Nie stone. He’s never been able to open a portal. His mother was sickly, they say, and something went wrong in the childbirth; she recovered, but not for long

their goal today is not the duke but in fact his younger brother. “Wei-xiong!” Nie Huaisang says cheerfully, with the air of someone who’s about to get some ~gossip~. “And Lan-er-gongzi! It’s good to see you! You look like you need a drink.”

Lan Wangji accepts tea, Wei Wuxian accepts wine, and takes a deep sniff - not of the wine. He cuts through the burgeoning small talk. “Nie-xiong, your mother wasn’t a Daoine Sidhe.”

(if I was writing this properly, I would’ve foreshadowed this with more recent historical context, with descriptions of everyone’s magical scents at that first confrontation in Glamour Hall. Suffice to say: his magic smells like his grandmother’s)

“...No,” Nie Huaisang says, after a particularly long sip of wine. “She wasn’t.” He leans forward, because if they’re doing real gossip, then they’re doing real gossip. “Neither was yours, right?”

“Ah, busted,” says Wei Wuxian. “So, can you open a Rose Road?

Hold up, you might ask at this juncture. How does he know about that? Did Captain Pete tell him? For that matter, he knew his exact relation to her - Toby didn’t know this stuff, circa her own fight with Blind Michael! What gives?

Well, here’s the story...

Wei Wuxian is already feeling pretty shit, wandering the streets of Yiling with magic overuse ache like he’s been run over by a tractor, which needless to say is the only reason Wen Chao gets the jump on him

the Burial Mounds is an abandoned iron mine. I think Wen Chao shoots him, first, too, with, like, a gattling gun full of shards of iron (please don’t ask about the technology level of this setting). Anyway, it’s an obvious death sentence. A cruel, slow death sentence, iron poisoning with a fun side dose of, like, broken limbs from being dropped down a mineshaft. Wen Chao laughs and leaves; Wei Wuxian lies here in agony and waits to die

Except...he doesn’t

and then he continues to not

or maybe he does, or comes as close as makes no difference, and wakes up again anyway?

the first time that happens, the Night Haunts arrive. expectantly. There’s only room for a couple of them, and they won’t stay long because of all the iron, but they do their duty; they come for the body

But the body is still living

hallucinating, a little

definitely he assumes the night haunts are a hallucination, at first

he starts talking to them, and eventually, they talk back (maybe one who wears the face of one of the Lotus Lakes squires).

it’s not in the night haunts’ nature to aid the dying but it is acceptable to wait with them, and trade stories with them, or perhaps simply give them, as a parting mercy...

but it’s not parting. For three months, the Night Haunts take shifts perching on the few iron-free spots in this hole in the ground and waiting for Wei Wuxian to die, and letting. him coax them into telling stories with memories as old as Faerie. He needs something to focus on other than the pain - and thirst and hunger, when he remember them. He does his best to pick shards of iron out of his skin, passes out and would die save for the power in his blood, and wakes up and picks out more iron. “Liar’s child”, they call him, and enjoy talking to someone living once more.

Eventually, he gains enough strength to start crawling, climbing, falling, pushing himself up and crawling again towards the exit.* Eventually, he breaks into the open air again, rolls over on clean grass and turns his head sideways to spit a last (for now) mouthful of blood.

He keeps some of the iron scraps. He forges them into points for his new trident, the Wens having confiscated his old one. He introduces Wen Chao to it a couple months later.

[fastforward out of the flashback!noises]

“I caaan,” Nie Huaisang says reluctantly, tapping his fingers on his wine glass. “But it’s really hard and I’m not very good at directing them, and you just want to use it to help a Wen.”

(here’s more history of Butchers’ Hill: not long after his second wife passed away, the old duke was elfshot. The poison in it was slow-acting; only after several decades did he start to fail. This turned out to be a mistake on King Wen Ruohan’s part, because it meant Nie Mingjue had had time to grow in his own power and military experience. the Sunshot Campaign began not long thereafter)

(there were arguments for Nie Mingjue to take the crown of Golden Sun, after, but it was Jin Guangshan’s changeling who killed Wen Ruohan, and the Daoine Sidhe are ever hungrier than the Tuatha de Danaan)

“I’ll owe you one,” Wei Wuxian promises. “If you want, I can even shift your blood to one side or the other - I can’t imagine it’s comfortable, being half-plant, half-mammal.”

(it’s an honest offer, not a threat. But also: Wen Zhuliu died in agony, at the hands of the Yiling Patriarch. Rebalancing the blood hurts more than anything in the world, except maybe 3 months of death by iron poisoning.)

“I don’t think so,” Nie Huaisang says consideringly. “I mean, yes, it’s terrible sometimes but...could I claim the favor for someone else, if they agree to it?”

“If you can get me on a road to Blind Michael’s realm and back, sure. You don’t need to worry about aiming me.” He flips a compass out of his pocket,

once again: do I need o dwell on Blind Michael’s dark realm, night without the hope of moon or stars? There’s running, there’s chasing, there’s fighting...rather more fighting than Toby, actually. As established: the Yiling Patriarch isn’t popularly called a Hero (yet), but he is known for his bloody battlefields.

There’s negotiating. Blind Michael is predictably cruel; Wen Ning is sitting at the foot of his throne like a dog, though he hasn’t grown much more than fur and sharp teeth. So far. Wei Wuxian bargains one soul for another and presses rose-wrapped candle and compass into his friend’s already-less-paw-like hands, whispers, “Think of your sister and follow it. Tell her we’re even. Don’t look back, accept any help you’re offered but not ask for it, and you have...” He checks his watch. “About 2 hours.”

He watches Wen Ning go - for a moment. Until Blind Michael calls, “Take him,” and someone hits him very hard on the back of the head, and the empty sky swallows him up.

TBC

#mdzs #the untamed #october daye #my fic

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rainiedeforest · 4 years

Note

If you're still doing wangxian requests, I had this idea the other day. What if Jiang Yanli wasn't betrothed to Jin Zixuan, but to Lan Wangji? Wei Wuxian would do AnyThing for his sister, but what does he do when he discovers he's falling in love with her fiance?

Hi! Yes, I’m taking requests and my inbox is open :3 You know? I have been suffering a lot with this ask because it’s so sad, because we all know that he will do, as you said, anything for his sister, her happiness is more important than his. So I cannot think in anything but pain. Because even if he has the chance to be happy with his beloved, he will decline it. So, I really hope you like it and that it was what you have had in mind, and if not, feel free to tell me :3

“What do you think?” Jiang Cheng asked him when his eyes fell on the two figures who were taking a walk through the garden at that moment.

“About?”

Jiang Cheng looked at Wei Wuxian with a frown, as if he really believed it was a joke.

“About them. Do you think it will be a harmonious marriage?”

Wei Wuxian took his time to reply. His eyes were fixed on the couple, who seemed to be conversing amiably on some very interesting topic. Jiang Yanli laughed at something before placing her hand on the man's forearm and Wei Wuxian felt his heart twist in pain at the scene. Not for his sister; He loved her, he wanted her to be happy, there was nothing he wanted more, but the man with whom she would have to be happy... He was the same man for whom he felt something completely forbidden.

Lan Wangji.

Why him of all the possible candidates? Why not Jin Zixuan, who had shown a certain attraction to her even though he cried out loud that he was not? Why not Nie Mingjue, who was always kind and even chivalrous every time they exchanged a word?

But not. Every night, unfortunately, he was able to reminisce about that night he had met him. It hadn’t been the best of encounters, he knew it himself: they were almost killed by each other in the sword duel that had arisen unplanned, and it had become clear to Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji didn’t find his presence acceptable. It didn't take a genius to see it, even if he took it as a joke.

Because everything was always much easier if he masked it between smiles and good humor. Thus the others didn’t influence much and didn’t get to the bottom of everything.

But, after that, they had formed a kind of special relationship, or so Wei Wuxian believed. It was something like friendship but doesn’t feel like friendship. Does that even have any sense? He can say that Lan Wangji tolerated him more than something else. He kept giving him those serious, cold looks that seemed to ask if he was being serious, but there was no longer that killer instinct every time he said his birth name.

It was a miracle.

Although, now he was beginning to understand why it was like that.

He knew that his Shijie was betrothed to one of the sons of the Lan clan leader and he, in his innocence, always believed that she would be with the eldest. Lan Xichen was the epithet for a gentleman; He was kind, intelligent, attractive, skilled in the sword, in drawing, with a love for music, with a high level of cultivation and had a charm that allowed him to dazzle anyone.

That's why when he heard her talk about Lan Wangji at dinner, Wei Wuxian looked at her excitedly, thinking everything else but that.

“Have you met him? Lan Zhan is amazing, isn’t he?” He asked because, despite everything, he admired him more than he wanted to admit. Lan Wangji was his equal, the only one who could stop him, that could let him be.

Jiang Cheng looked at him in surprise, as his Shijie did, and her words were far kinder than those of the future heir to the Yunmeng Jiang Sect.

“Yes, A-Xian. My fiancé is a bit quiet, but he's nice and kind in his own way,” she replied softly before looking down at the bowl of soup they were having for dinner.

“Your... your fiancé?” he asked as if someone had grabbed him by the neck and they were squeezing hard.

“Of course his fiancé! Who else?” Jiang Cheng rudely replied, rolling his eyes.

Whenever they had spoken of Jiang Yanli's fiancé, it had been in terms that could easily fit with Lan Xichen. In fact, they were known as the Jade Twins. That mistake on his part was allowed, right?

“A-Cheng,” his sister soothed, smiling at Wei Wuxian sweetly, as she always did. “Lan Wangji is the man I'm going to marry A-Xian. You didn’t know it?”

Of course not.

He was just the son of a servant. He wasn’t a real member of the family although his shijie and Jiang Cheng tried hard to make him believe.

“Uh... Yes... Of course I do. I just thought…” His shijie’s worried look was enough to make him shake his head and smile. “Never mind, Shijie. Has he been nice to you?” Jiang Yanli nodded smiling and Wei Wuxian felt a pang in his heart that he perfectly masked with another smile. “That's the only thing that matters. And if he doesn’t make you happy, I myself will kill him with my own hands.”

After that, it wasn’t uncommon for him to cry night after night, trying to stifle his sobs against his pillow because, without him considering it, he had fallen in love with him.

He had fallen in love with Lan Wangji, with Lan Zhan. He had fallen in love with someone already engaged. He had fallen in love with the fiancé of his beloved Shijie. He had fallen in love with someone forbidden.

He was living in a nightmare and so it was going to continue.

Because he would hide his feelings as best he could and would be watching them from afar, cheering on his Shijie because, for the first time in many years, she seemed genuinely happy.

That's why, with that question from Jiang Cheng, he turned and smiled at him.

“Of course. They will be the most harmonious couple that has ever existed on the face of the earth,” he answered before laughing. “Too bad I can't say the same for you and your fiancée.”

“What fiancee?”

“Exactly.”

“WEI WUXIAN!” He yelled before chasing after him, not realizing the furtive look Lan Wangji had given him.

A few nights later, just the day before Lan Wangji left Lotus Pier to go home to prepare for the long-awaited wedding, Wei Wuxian went to town with the clear intention of getting drunk. Too drunk.

He bought all the pots of alcohol he could and put them in his room, hiding them under the bed like someone hiding a treasure.

And when the night arised and thought that everybody was sleeping, he was enjoying them in her own way when she heard the noise of knuckles against her bedroom door. He got up, staggering like a newborn deer, and opened the door.

”Lan Zhan!” he said, leaning against the door with a goofy grin on his face that didn't reach his eyes at all.

“Wei Ying...”

Lang Wangji's eyes took in Wei Wuxian's appearance and concern seized him. His hair was disheveled and only a few strands remained in the high ponytail that he seemed to find so flattering, his clothes were rumpled and misplaced and his eyes were red from the tears that were wetting his cheeks.

Wei Wuxian lifted the pot with some alcohol remaining and looked at him smilingly.

“Are you alrigh-?”

“What are you doing here, Lan Zhan?” he asked, cutting him off because he didn't want to hear his voice too much. Not because he didn't want to, because he adored it, but because he couldn't. Because just hearing his voice was like a dagger in his heart. Because he won’t have him ever. “You should be sleeping. It's already past nine.”

Lan Wangji closed his mouth and stepped inside with that security and grace that describes him perfectly, closing the door behind him. He grabbed Wei Wuxian by the arm and led him to the bed, where he sat him down.

“Wei Ying, we need to talk.”

Wei Wuxian laughed sardonically.

“About what? That you are the fiancé of my beloved shijie and you didn't tell me anything?” The question came out as if it were a poisoned dart before he raised the jar to his lips. But as soon as it touched his lips, he pushed it away with a pout. “Why is the wine always gone?”

“Wei Ying, stop drinking.”

“No. Drinking is the only thing that keeps me from going crazy,” he replied, bending down to pick up another pot, but he got dizzy before his knees touched his chest. “I think I'm going to throw out.”

It was like he didn't need to be told twice. Lan Wangji hurriedly held out one of the empty jars so that he could throw out if he needed it, but instead met the watery, crystallized gaze of Wei Wuxian.

"Wei Ying, are you okay?"

"Why are you so good to me? I am just the adopted son of the Jiang family, a nobody, the son of a servant. And still... You have always cared about me even if you look at me with hatred-”

“I don’t hate you.”

"Yes, you do. Because I annoy you. But it's normal you know? Who would want to be by my side when you can have someone as amazing as my shijie? Because she's amazing, you know? She is the best woman on the world.”

“I know,” Lan Wangji muttered. “But I want you by my side.”

Wei Wuxian laughed so bitterly that tears spilled out of his eyes again.

“Don’t lie, Lan Zhan. Today you are very transgressive with your own rules, right?” He said trying to find something funny to hold onto to laugh, but all he did was make a sigh escape his lips. “It doesn't matter what we want. It doesn’t matter...”

“No, Wei Ying-”

“It doesn't matter, Lan Zhan” He shook his head and looked down. “You are going to marry Shijie and you are going to be very happy. I know... I've seen how she looks at you.”

Lan Wangji said nothing but remained silent. Wei Wuxian took the silence as an affirmation that his feelings were going in the same direction.

“And I… I'll be at the side, cheering and supporting you whenever you need it.” A sad and bitter smile spread across his face. “Always in the shadows.”

“Wei Ying, I…” He cleared his throat and looked at him, lifting him by the chin to meet his eyes. “What do you feel for me?”

Wei Ying cupped his cheeks and shrugged.

“It doesn't matter how or what I feel, Lan Zhan. It is my shijie's feelings that are at stake and I will never, ever, put my own happiness above hers,” he replied seriously as if the entire state of alcohol intoxication had been a facade. He got up from the bed and pulled Lan Wangji toward the door. “You'd better go. I don't want the disciples on duty to catch you leaving my bedroom,” he opened the door and pushed him out, feeling a treacherous tear run down his face before closing. “Be happy, A-Zhan.”

I have the song Satisfied of Hamilton in my head all time when I wrote this and, maybe, I will continue this so they have a happy ending... But, it’s all at your choice :3

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #lan zhan #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #my writing #ask #drunkenkurage #to be continue?#I'm dying #really this was really hard to write #Satisfied vibes?

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ibijau · 4 years

Text

Nobody really asked for it, but time for more de-aged LXC trying to figure out what the fuck happened to him!

This and previous instalments are also on AO3

Lan Xichen opens the door, expecting his uncle, or better yet his brother. Instead he finds himself face to face with a stranger dressed in black and red, smiling in a conspiratorial manner that promises nothing good.

“Zewu-Jun, won't you invite me in?”

The man doesn't look surprised by his youth, meaning he knew to expect it. Only four people know, though: Lan Qiren who discovered him, Nie Huaisang who found out, Lan Wangji who was told, and presumably Lan Wangji's husband. Lan Xichen doesn't think his uncle or brother would tell anyone. He trusts Nie Huaisang to have kept the secret as well. The weak link, then, is this Wei Wuxian who Lan Qiren dislikes so much and thus forbade Lan Xichen from seeing. Could Wei Wuxian have told someone? Lan Xichen understands that his brother-in-law dabbles in unconventional means of cultivation, perhaps he felt one his colleagues might know how to handle his current state? But then why not...

“Ah, right, you wouldn't recognise me!” the stranger laughs. “We make quite a pair here, Zewu-Jun. I'm Wei Wuxian.”

“You're not!” Lan Xichen protests, shocked by the nerve of that man. “I've met Wei Wuxian. Even accounting for the passing of time, you look nothing like him.”

The man only laughs harder. Something about it startles Lan Xichen. The face and body are wrong, even the voice is, but the mannerism, the manner of laughing are...

“Right, right, funny story there, it's me but the body isn't mine,” the man explains with a too cheerful grin. “So Lan Zhan really didn't tell you, eh? Even after so long, if his uncle says something, he's still likely to listen. Anyway, why don't you let me in before someone sees that I'm here? I thought we could have a little chat, you and me. I bet you've got questions and fancy that, I think I have answers.”

Lan Xichen hesitates to call Shuoyue to him to chase away this intruder. It's what he should do, what his uncle would want him to do.

But it's been three months now, and Lan Xichen is starting to fear that he will never return to being the man he had grown into. A pity, a shame, a blessing, he doesn't know. But that's how things are, and if this man really has answers...

Lan Xichen steps aside, silently inviting the man to come in. The stranger saunters inside, letting Lan Xichen close the door behind him. He really does move like Wei Wuxian, it's uncanny.

“So, let's do this,” the man says, sitting at the table and taking out a jar of wine from his sleeve.

Lan Xichen half wants to laugh. This really must be Wei Wuxian, then. He's never met anyone else shameless enough to drink so openly inside the Cloud Recesses. He sits down opposite his... his brother-in-law, apparently.

“You're a clever man,” Wei Wuxian says, opening his jar. “And as I remember, you were pretty sharp as a boy too. They've been careful around you, but I'm sure you must have guessed a few things already. Do you want to tell me what you think you know?”

Lan Xichen nods.

“I know there was a war. I think it was against the Wens, but that's just an educated guess. We've been fearing open conflict with them since before my birth. My father died shortly before that war, or during it, and I became sect leader in his place. I think I was still young.”

“You weren't quite twenty yet,” Wei Wuxian confirms.

Lan Xichen startles. That's too close, that's too soon. He's just eighteen now, how could he become a war leader in less than a year?

“After the war, I don't really know what happened,” Lan Xichen confesses, still shaken by how young he rose to power (will rise to power). “But my brother doesn't trust me anymore, and I'm not sure I'm friend with Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang either.”

Brother would not have approved, Lan Wangji said about the marriage that appears to make him happier than anything in the world.

You can find better friends than me, Nie Huaisang had muttered, refusing to look at him.

“Wangji and Nie Huaisang say I don't grow into a bad man,” Lan Xichen whispers. “But I wonder if they're both lying to spare me.”

Wei Wuxian shrugs, and takes a sip of wine.

“What's good, what's bad?” he asks. “From what I can tell, you did what you thought was right. You've trusted all the wrong people and you've been blind to things that should have alerted you, but you weren't the only one to be fooled so I don't suppose you can be blamed. Still, even if you're not bad yourself, there are some who'll say in allowing evil to reign, you're tainted by it.”

Lan Xichen has to close his eyes and take a deep breath. It's not what he wanted to hear, but it feels more sincere than Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang's attempts to comfort him. Lan Xichen thinks he likes Wei Wuxian.

“What evil did I protect, then?” he asks. “Will you tell me this much?”

“It's a long story,” Wei Wuxian sighs, glancing at the window. It's still early afternoon. “You won't like most of it, Zewu-Jun. But I've learned the hard way that secrets can tear apart a family and you know what? I'm tired of seeing Lan Zhan hurting over something he can't control. If he can't tell you, I will.”

And so, he does.

It is a painful, convoluted story of war, friendship, betrayal and power. Wei Wuxian is mercilessly honest about it all. He admits to his own fault, just as he denounces those of others. Lan Xichen is made uncomfortable when he hears some of the decision he's made (will make), though the worst part is that he understands why he chose (will choose) this. If Jin Guangshan said those prisoners were treated humanly, how could he not believe his elder? If Wei Wuxian killed people in so ruthless a manner, in such great numbers, how could he not join the effort to take him down before he striked again? If Lan Wangji betrayed his own sect...

Lan Xichen cries at hearing that his brother chose to stand against them, at the news of thirty-three strikes of the discipline whips. He knows the history of Gusu Lan, knows how traitors are to be treated. He hopes his brother understood (will understand) that this was the most merciful punishment he could get away with.

He cries again when he hears that Nie Mingjue has died. His best friend, his oldest friend, his confidant, the person he trusted above all others.

He doesn't understand when Wei Wuxian tells him that he unknowingly sided (will side) with Nie Mingjue's murderer, but Wei Wuxian himself is surprisingly kind about it.

“Jin Guangyao was good at being what people needed him to be. There's little shame in having been fooled by him when he fooled so many. Even I couldn't quite believe it when I first realised that he was involved. There's just one person who saw right through him.”

Lan Xichen gasps.

We all lied to you.

“Nie Huaisang?”

Wei Wuxian nods, and continues his tale, but it makes no sense.

Nie Huaisang isn't like this. He's a sweet boy who smiles and laughs easily, who pretends to cower before his brother but stubbornly does as he pleases, knowing Nie Mingjue adores him too much to punish him. He's friendly and open and honest. He's not someone who lies and hides and plots in the dark. He's not someone who pretends to be people's friends only so he can better stab them in the back when the chance comes.

The way everyone else changed... that makes sense. He can imagine Lan Wangji going too far for love. He can see Nie Mingjue becoming inflexible in his vision of justice. Even for himself, he's always been the sort to try to please everyone, so it's no surprise that he became that man who sided with whoever seemed to promise peace. But Nie Huaisang? Nie Huaisang never gave any sign that he was anything but lovely and a little silly, how could this have happened?

“It's hard, losing the person who took care of you,” Wei Wuxian notes in a voice fraught with barely contained pain. “It can break you. I certainly did for me. And when something is broken, you have to be careful or the shards of it will cut even those trying to help.”

Wei Wuxian means himself and Lan Wangji.

He might mean Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen, also.

Lan Xichen can feel a headache coming. He cried too much, and he learned too much, it feels like his skull is trying to collapse onto itself to block all this. He half regrets giving in to curiosity, but mostly he's glad he did.

Now he knows.

Now he understands.

It's not cowardice that pushed the man he became to do this to himself. He doesn't think that man really regretted those choices, not even the wrong one because they were made in good faith, and from a sincere heart, with what information he had.

Still, they were wrong choices, and they alienated him from just about everyone he ever cared for. These earnest, honest choices killed Nie Mingjue, they made his brother fear his happiness would be resented, they turned Nie Huaisang into a cruel and lonely man.

The man he became didn't want to forget, Lan Xichen thinks. He just wanted a chance for new choices, unburdened by the old ones, and he wasn't sure to deserve that chance as he was.

“That's the whole story,” Wei Wuxian says, oddly gentle now. “That's everything that happened, at least the parts that I know. There's got to be more, but I wasn't there for it, obviously. If you want more details, you'll have to ask someone else.”

Lan Xichen nods, wiping his tears with the back of his hand.

“Thank you for this, Wei gongzi. And thank you for...” he hesitates, and sighs. “Thank you for making my brother happy now, even if apparently it wasn't always so. I can't really judge the past, but I can see the present, and I like the way he smiles when he speaks about you.”

I like the way you smile when you think of him too, Lan Xichen decides as Wei Wuxian's face illuminates with a grin. He doesn't think the man he became could see this without resentment, but he can, and he's glad for it. He's glad he can rejoice in his brother's happiness and not feel the weight of twenty years of hardship spoiling it.

“Thank you as well, Zewu-Jun,” Wei Wuxian says. “That means a lot to me. I'll let you be now, you'll probably want a moment to digest all this, eh? Sorry for dumping it on you all at once, but... like I said, secrets break families. I've seen it once, I'm not seeing it twice.”

Lan Xichen nods. He feels tired, and the headache is there, unpleasantly insistent. He walks Wei Wuxian back to the door, makes him promise to come again, maybe with Lan Wangji next time. It seems to make Wei Wuxian genuinely happy, for which Lan Xichen is glad. He thinks they'll get along, the two of them. How could he not get along with someone who loves Lan Wangji this much?

Once Wei Wuxian is gone, Lan Xichen prepares some tea. It helps with the headache, and gives him time to think.

At dinner time, his uncle comes by to bring him food and give him news. There's no progress on a cure, partly because Lan Qiren still doesn't know how this happened. He still refuses to say what they both know: that Lan Xichen did this to himself. Lan Qiren is a man who can live with his choices, who can take loneliness if it is the price of righteousness, so of course he cannot understand what his nephew did. Lan Xichen doesn't tell him about Wei Wuxian's visit, and he doesn't tell him what he realised about this choice his future self made.

When he is alone again, Lan Xichen ponders what to do, now that he knows why he's here, why he's like this.

A chance for new choices.

He grabs some paper and prepares some ink. In carefully chosen words, he explains his newest choice, so his uncle and brother will not worry. They still will, of course, because they love him, and he's sorry because he loves them as well, but this can't be helped. It is something he must do.

He leaves his letter on the table, propped against a cup so that it cannot be ignored by anyone coming inside, and exits the house. In the near darkness of the rising night, it's easy to move undetected. It is easy, also, to avoid the disciples who patrol the Cloud Recesses so make sure everybody respects the curfew. He almost laughs as he jumps over the wall, elated by his own daring.

He doubts the man he'd have become would have tried to sneak out like this, partly because he can hardly believe he's doing it himself. But this too is a choice, and so is hopping on Shuoyue and turning it Northwest, toward Qinghe.

It's time for new choices.

Maybe Lan Xichen will regret those as much as he ended up regretting the others, but he won't know until he tries.

#lan xichen #wei wuxian #xisang #if you squint #mo dao zu shi #jau writes #not sure if I'll add another chapter or leave this open ended #I just love lxc a lot and I think he made the choices he had to make and there are a lot of decisions he'd struggle to regret #it caused him pain but at that time it seemed the right thing to do or the only thing to do and so he did his best #/sob I just love lxc so much okay???

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biwenqing · 4 years

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long for you

Wei Wuxian has often been accused of speaking without thinking. This time, he might be overthinking what just needs to come from the heart.

for fytheuntamed on tumblr's untamed spring fest day four prompt: bunnies

Teen | Words: 1568 | ao3

Wei Wuxian sat, looking at the blank paper in front of him. He wanted to fill it, spill onto it everything that was chasing itself around his mind. Maybe if he put the words down, he would be able to speak them without drowning.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up and wetted a brush. Wei Wuxian began only for no characters to reveal themselves. Instead, he began to carefully draw the little bunny nest he had found when he camped beside the road the day before. Three little babies, their eyes still mostly closed and ears so small, curled into a perfect circle of grass. The mother must have been in a hurry for Wei Wuxian to be able to spy them, the tangle of leaves that made up the roof not fully covering the babies.

Once he captured the image, Wei Wuxian wrote around the picture, describing what he had seen. How he had settled on the other side of the road with Lil Apple, and watched for the mother to come back, ready to chase off any fox or hawk that might prey on the nest. He had used some of the Lan meditation techniques to rest while he kept watch.

[That felt fitting, Lan Zhan. I knew that you would have done the same.] Wei Wuxian wrote as he reached the final space on the paper. [I often find you with me, even though you are far from my side. I imagine your reaction to all the people and things along my travels, hear your voice in my dreams. I miss you terribly.]

Signing his name, Wei Wuxian tried not to linger on the words as he waited for the ink to dry. It was only a fraction of what wanted to come pouring out. But there were things that were better said in person, he had to remember. He could only hope that Lan Wangji would understand. He folded it and took it to be sent out.

The woman who accepted the letter raised her brows at the address. “Gusu is only a few hours ride away,” she said but then quickly waved a hand. “Sorry, not my place to comment.”

Wei Wuxian’s smile was more forced than normal. “I’m in town for a little bit. I will check back before I leave in case there is a response.”

The woman nodded. “As you say. Have a good day, young master.”

Returning to the inn, Wei Wuxian stopped to make sure Lil Apple was content in the stables. As content as she ever could be anyway. Her bad temper seemed to have gained her a priority spot among the horses and ponies. Wei Wuxian gave her the carrot he had brought and went to find his own dinner.

Wei Wuxian was able to shake off some of the odd melancholy that had been hanging on him like ill-fitting robes, after some wine and joining different tables to collect information from other travelers. Talking with his waiter as well got him the local gossip. There seemed to be some issues with an old well just outside of town, haunted by a spirit of a child who had fallen in long ago. It wasn’t pressing, only harassing those who came too close, so Wei Wuxian decided that he could leave it for the morning. Another unpaying job, but he didn’t mind. It was important to let that spirit rest.

The room he had paid for was small, unlike the lavish ones Lan Wangji had been able to afford when they traveled together. It was a nice break from sleeping rough, and Wei Wuxian was able to order an almost warm bath so he could wash some of the smell of donkey off himself. Letting his outer robes dry after he washed them, he dressed in just his red ones before climbing into bed.

It wasn’t late but the day’s travel had been long. Wei Wuxian fell asleep as soon as he pulled the covers over himself, leaving the window open on a summer night.

The sound of someone landing on the floor, the boards creaking, had Wei Wuxian startling out of bed sometime later. He reached for Chenqing where it rested next to the bed, turning to face the intruder.

Even when lit only by weak moonlight, Lan Wangji seemed to glow. It must have been a bit of a struggle to get through the window. Wei Wuxian blinked slowly trying to process this as his sleep-addled brain seemed to give up functioning by the sudden appearance of Lan Wangji, too much like the dream he had been startled from.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji apparently had no such issue gathering his thoughts. He strode across the room, hand gently wrapping around Wei Wuxian’s wrist.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian breathed, trying to read his face despite the deep shadows. It was too dark. “Are you angry at me?”

“If you were to pass by so close without coming to see me, yes,” Lan Wangji said, letting go and stepping back a bit. He waved his hand to close the window, and again to light the two little lamps in the room.

Wei Wuxian looked away and admitted, “I hadn’t decided.” He wanted to make sure he had the right words in the right order before he saw Lan Wangji. This was not the time for his rambling.

“Why the letter?” Lan Wangji asked, then seemed to notice that Wei Wuxian was only dressed in his under layer. His ears turned red, as they did when he was embarrassed, and he focused just on Wei Wuxian’s face. “Why say that you missed me but not come see me?”

Wei Wuxian tried to hold Lan Wangji’s eyes. With the light, he could see that there was a tension around his eyes, in the lines of his mouth. Wei Wuxian felt something inside him sink. “I have made you unhappy.” That was the opposite of what he always tried to do, despite what others may believe of his actions.

“Only in that I miss just as fiercely,” the words came out in a rush and seemed to surprise Lan Wangji as much as they did Wei Wuxian. He didn’t stop though. “Every day I wish you were at my side, or that I was at yours.”

“But your duties...” Wei Wuxian said even as he stepped closer, letting Chenqing rest on the bed once more. Lan Wangji not only let him into his personal space but reached to take his hand.

“Don’t make me happy as Wei Ying does,” Lan Wangji said, eyes searching Wei Wuxian’s face.

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what he would find there, but he knew what he wanted. Reaching up his free hand, he gently touched Lan Wangji’s cheek, trying to find the mirror to his own truth. Lan Wangji pressed closer, turning his head into Wei Wuxian’s hand until his fingers brushed the headband.

Wei Wuxian let out a shaky breath but didn’t pull away. He felt silly at the way tears gathered in his eyes, but there was no way he could contain all that he felt. “How can we have only been parted a month, and it hurts this badly?”

Lan Wangji didn’t have an answer, lifting Wei Wuxian’s other hand up and pressing a kiss to his fingers. His voice was rough when he said, “Come home with me Wei Ying. Come home until I am able to travel with you.”

“I will,” Wei Wuxian said, not needing to think it over anymore, not when Lan Wangj voiced what he wanted most in the world. But he had one thing left that worried him. “Your reputation-”

“Is strong and will not be harmed by me finally being happy.” Lan Wangji pressed another kiss to his hand, and it felt like fire being sent through Wei Wuxian’s veins.

Wei Wuxian moved his other hand to run it over Lan Wangji’s ribbon. Lan Wangji didn’t pull away, instead, he began to smile in his way. Wei Wuxian wanted to taste that proof that he could make Lan Wangji happy. “Lan Zhan?”

“Wei Ying?”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Always.”

~*~

The innkeeper was clearly surprised the next morning when two people left the room he had rented to one, but he didn’t comment. Nor did he seem put out by Wei Wuxian saying he wouldn’t be staying another night, especially when Lan Wangji paid and left a large tip. Walking out of town with Lil Apple in tow, they aimed to stop by the haunted well before turning towards Gusu. So much was the same and yet to Wei Wuxian, it felt as if the world had shifted overnight.

He couldn’t stop smiling.

“Did the mother come back?” Lan Wangji asked, breaking their companionable silence.

“What?”

“The bunnies,” Lan Wangji looked over at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian found it was possible for him to smile even wider. Taking Lan Wangji’s hand, he tangled their fingers together. “She did. She fed them and then covered the nest properly.”

Lan Wangji nodded, seeming pleased.

“Lan Zhan, you really do have such a soft spot for bunnies.”

“Mn. And Wei Ying.”

Wei Wuxian laughed, leaning into Lan Wangji’s side. “It’s an honor to be placed so highly.”

“It is the bunnies who should be honored,” Lan Wangji said, and Wei Wuxian knew he was sharing in the laughter.

#untamed spring fest #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxain #the untamed #my fic #idk how i made this fluffy prompt very dramatic #i also wrote something for day three but i don't really like it so it will probably go unposted

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bottomlwjrights · 4 years

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MO DAO ZU SHI REREAD:Thoughts™️....and Stuff

Chapter 43

Oh im trying so hard to stay calm as im about to read this but im so excited i love these chapters

Im really trying but even wwx making the effort to analyze lwj’s face is driving me nuts

Id just like to point out these chapters are titled “Allure”

Oh no this is like what he did when they were writing in the library

“Both his features and the hand at his forehead were impeccably fair in color. He looked as if he was a piece of fine jade”

Wwx was describing how lwj smells and how the sandalwood scent was warmed up by the wine and then said “the scent could almost be described as intoxicating” im gonna scream

“Now that Wei WuXian was near enough, the scent intertwined with his breaths. He couldn’t help but bent down further so that he was even closer to Lan WangJi. Vaguely, he thought to himself, Strange… Why is it starting to feel a bit hot in here?” Ohohoho

“Wei WuXian finally noticed that his heart was beating a bit too fast.” Shut uuuuuup

Okay im gonna lose my mind, i love wen ning

Also he left a man shaped dent in the ground when he fell

“Won’t you be a good boy?” Wwx calling lwj a good boy is canon so suck it i guess

Wwx brushing his fingers along lwj’s eyelashes is tender

Wwx, @ wn knealing in front of him: what the fuck are you doing? Stand up

Wwx obviously believes wn to be an equal to him, kneeling when he kneels, kowtowing when he kowtows until wn finally decides to stand in front of him

Wow anyways loved that ningxian moment

God....i feel so bad for wn...

Jin Ling....please...

This scene hurts me

Goddamn is wn someone who takes the blame for everything

Do NoT kiCk My BoY

Just a note, wwx does come to wn’s defense here, pulling lwj back and telling him to calm down

Wwx really doesnt like it when wn kneels to him

“Lan WangJi scrunched his brows and covered his ears. He then turned around with his back toward Wen Ning. Facing Wei WuXian, he used his own body to block their eye contact.” Lwj acts like such a little kid when he’s drunk oh my gosh

“Just as he was about to leave, Wei WuXian stopped him, ‘Wen Ning, why don’t you… find somewhere to hide first?’ Wen Ning paused for a second. Wei WuXian added, ‘One can say that you’ve died twice already. Go get some good rest.’” I dont care what anyone else says this is sweet “go get some good rest” 🤧

Lwj really took off his forehead ribbon for wwx without skipping a beat wow....

Oh and how wrong wwx is about it not holding any significance, he just doesnt know it yet

Trying to stay calm, trying not to scream about lwj taking off his forehead ribbon for wwx and then tying his wrists together with it

Knfnckc lwj reaching to take off wwx clothes again slnfckfk

“You said that you’ll listen to me, didn’t you? Be a good boy and take it off.” Twice in one chapter? Im being fed

“Lan WangJi stared into the distance as he tugged at the ends of the forehead ribbon, contently swinging them around.” 🥺🥺🥺🥺 thats so cute

Ooooh lwj decided to show people when wwx said it would look bad on lwj if someone else saw them because he doesnt care if it makes him look bad hes gonna publicly claim wwx as his

Only ljy would hurl himself across a table to cover up a bottle of wine lmao

Lan WangJi is So shameless, holds up wwx’s hands tied with his forehead ribbon in front of his son and the other Lan disciples who know exactly what that means

Chapter 44

Chicken wing chicken wing

God im never gonna get over lsz shoving the chicken wing back into ljy’s mouth

Oh pls....lwj shoving wwx on the bed...

Oh!!! I forgot that after wwx said ow, lwj checked his head... he really didnt wanna hurt him

I really vibe with lwj being so concerned and gentle

“Sitting on the bed, Lan WangJi hugged his knees and clutched the hand that Wei WuXian had just licked to his chest, not moving at all.” I 🥺🥺🥺🥺

My god lwj was scared that he was gonna wipe it off 😭😭😭

Okay this is so so so cute, i dont care what anyone else thinks

“Hiding behind the screen, he showed only half of his fair-skinned face, peeking silently at the direction of Wei WuXian.” This tears me up

“You caught me”

“he enunciated each word with heavy emphasis and sounded anxiously eager” jakfncjfof gOD

Aw :( you’re not gonna lick me??? :(

Anyways lwj likes to be licked my wwx 👀

“Again clutching the hand that had been licked, he faced the wall silently.” Goddamnit this is so fucking cute 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Listen they should play chase or hide-and-seek post canon, like itd be so cute and sweet, somebody should hop on that

“As he spoke, he held up one of Lan WangJi’s hands, bent down, and kissed between two of his slender fingers.” Listen im trying to not freak out but this is incredibly tender

“Wei WuXian’s lips pressed onto his distinct knuckles. Softer than the touch of feather, his breaths wandered to the back of his hand, and he kissed again.” This entire scene is too much

Hand and wrists kisses are so tender good god im gonna scream

“Over the clothing, he kissed where his heart was” jajfnkc so sweet!

“Suddenly, however, as Wei WuXian stared at those soft, pale-red lips, he didn’t know what had taken over him, but he suddenly went and kissed them.After the kiss, he even licked them, as though a kiss wasn’t enough.” AHHHHHHHH

I know that lwj wanted to deescalate the affection, but did he have to do it by knocking himself out???

“Even though he was drunk, even though he wouldn’t remember anything when he sobers up, I still shouldn’t have done something so outrageous… It’s too disrespectful to him.” This is important

God i love when characters touch their own lips after a kiss it’s such a good trope

“In the future, it was best to not make Lan Zhan drink anymore” this is also important

Okay this was one of my favorite chapters to read so far

Chapter 45

I physically cannot handle lwj gently picking wwx up off the ground and putting him into bed right now

“... Wei WuXian could see Lan WangJi’s still-indifferent face. He immediately felt more awake...” i cannot

This entire scene is too tender for me, lwj rubbing ointments on wwx’s wrists...

Thinking about how wwx and lwj shared both their firsts kiss and how they’ve never kissed anybody except eachother

It makes sense that people including wwx would assume that lwj is straight bc thats what people do even in modern times (bc homophobia and heteronormativity) but also how tf does anyone think lwj is anything except gay

“It’s possible that he’s never even had such thoughts before…” “But judging from Lan Zhan’s habit of self-restraint, he’s probably really careful about not crossing any lines.” false.

Lwj just letting the juniors socialize, because hes good

Wwx once again taking any chance he can to bestow knowledge and wisdom upon the juniors, this time jl

“After the mention of Lan WangJi, Jin Ling looked to Wei WuXian in a strange way. He wanted to say something, but held it back, ‘You and HanGuang-Jun… Nevermind.It’s your own business. Anyways, I don’t care about you guys at all. Have fun being cut-sleeve. The disease is incurable.’”JIN LING

“I already know the meaning behind the GusuLan Sect’s forehead ribbon. Now that it’s already like this, then stay by HanGuang-Jun’s side properly. Even if you’re a cut-sleeve, you should be a modest one. Don’t go about messing with other men, especially people from our sect! Or else, don’t blame the results on me.” Kandkckdkdn i can NOT

The scene kills me wow

As my reading buddy asked, why does wwx not mention wn when talking about how jc and lwj know who he is? Like does he not think thats pretty significant? especially bc thats one of the things that tipped jc off

LWJ IS SO SASSY 😨

Also pls stop picking on him about his memory

Ahhh the damsel of annual blossoms...

God i love wwx.....

Did lwj write the book that lsz read this from......

“Although still expressionless, an unusual glint hid beneath his eyes. He looked as though he was laughing at him.”

GOD “Wei WuXian’s heart skipped a beat and then thumped faster and faster.”

Lsz is the one to tell wwx about the meaning of the forehead ribbon

The lan juniors blushing thinking about what wwx means to lwj

Once again, wwx describing lwjs appearance in depth, talking about how dashing he is

“Along with that overly-pretty face of Lan WangJi’s, now that they met again, Wei WuXian’s eyes had momentarily been blinded by his looks, failing to immediately recognize him.”

“Softer than even the touch of catkin blossoms carried by the wind, the object made Wei WuXian’s cheek itch....The ends of his forehead ribbon danced in the breeze, gently brushing against Wei WuXian’s face.” Wow....i love this imagery with all my heart

The way that somethings are worded in this novel is just so beautiful

Lxc and the others lan sect disciples reactions....

Yanno the lan disciple who whispered “a man” definitely wasnt making things better, considering lwj definitely had a crush on wwx at this point

“He seems a bit too excited. It seems like he really loves HanGuang-Jun a lot. Look at how happy he is…” WHICH LAN SAID THIS

Wwx is so mortified by this entire situation because he kept violating something sacred to lwj, doing something so intimate like touching his forehead ribbon without his consent and he didn’t even really know that he was doing it

#mine #Phoenix rereads MDZS #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #ningxian #wangningxian #i will take very little bit of nx and wnx as i can i love them all so much #lwj #wwx #wn #lsz #ljy #been a long while since the last one for reasons and stuff

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