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wangxianficfinder · 2 months

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Fic Finder

Feb 24th

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1. Eyyyy it's me boyfriend XD (eyyyyy hello again 😊 - Mod C)

I'm here for a fic (I think it's a time travel fic) that I forgot the name of. All I remember is a scene where a village in Lotus Pier was flooded and Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Wei Ying went to aid the people. Lan Zhan and Jin Zixuan also tagged along but Lan Zhan is openly courting Wei Ying on that fic while Jin Zixuan is being himself

And that's sadly all that I remember 😔. Thank you!

FOUND? This is probably a stretch but #1 isnt And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together), is it?

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2. There was this fic I read sometime ago and it was about how lan Wangji accidentally uses silencing spell on wwx too hard that wwx isn't able to open his mouth again and lan Wangji isn't able to lift the spell. It's during the cloud recesses study arc and the major issues with the permanent silencing spell is that Wei Wuxian isn't able to even eat anything and he can't practice inedia fir long. Please find this fic?

FOUND? 🧡 Couldn't Scream Couldn't Shout by mermorgie (T, 42k, WIP, WangXian, Not for jc stans, i tried to not bash jc too much but like, Muteness, Sign Language, references to selective mutism, Homophobic JC, canon jc characteristics, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Anxiety Attacks, Pining, LWJ is a Panicked Gay, Supportive Sibling LXC, JZX Tries, LQR Tries, Protective JZX, Scheming NHS, Bisexual JZX, LWJ is Bad at Communicating, WWX Has ADHD, Autistic LWJ, WWX Has a Fear of Dogs, Jiāng Family Bashing)

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3. hi !! this is for ficfinder, i'm looking for this modern au with crime elements ?? i think wwx is a thief/pickpocket, and lwj and the lan clan are organised crime ish but art associated. lsz and ljy were also heavily featured as mentees of lwj, wwx makes a playlist. it was multi-chap, probs over 30k. they correspond over email quite a bit, and it's set in multiple cities, there's an entire chap where they talk to each other in logical fallacies and friere is quoted. tysm !!

FOUND! (i’ve got) trouble in mind by seularen (E, 76k, wangxian, JGY/LXC, modern w magic, heist au, thief WWX, forger LWJ, consigliere JGY, epistolary, long-distance relationship, d/d elements, Canon wangxian kinks, happy ending)

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4. Brain cannot brain rn so I need you guys' help finding a fic

So like, it was a Canon divergent fic where wwx submitted himself to the clans and was ordered to be cleansed of resentful energy in order to... prove he wasn't corrupted? Something like that? For the Wens? And it was ritual dual cultivation. He was sent blindfolded to a room so he couldn't tell who it would be (it was lwj, of course.) Wwx knew it wouldn't exactly work cuz he didn't have a core, but he did it anyway.

There was a second.... part? Chapter? The was from Lwj's pov of after, where he finds out about the core, then JC? A Jiang disciple? Shows up to tell them to get their asses to the conference hall because JGS is being JGS and this whole thing was mostly just a distraction

That's all I can remember, thanks for the help!

Hi 👋 4 from the latest fic finder, a friend on discord found the fic I was looking for! It was 'the meaning of the ritual' by newamsterdam

FOUND! the meaning of the ritual by newamsterdam (E, 8k, wangxian, Explicit Sexual Content, Blindfolds, Light Bondage, Ritual Sex, Canon Divergence, Let LWJ Fuck the YLLZ 2k19, First Time Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Porn with Feelings)

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5. I'm hoping you can help me find a fic.I haven't had any luck searching for it. I think it's a time travel fic. At one point it's during the Cloud Recesses classes. Jiang Fengmian is the Chief Cultivator and comes to talk to Jiang Cheng. They're talking in Nie Huaisang's room and he and Lan Xichen are standing outside it. Jin Zixuan walks by talking loudly about Jiang Yanli in a really rude way and Jiang Fengmian hears him and comes out to confront him. Any help would be appreciated!

FOUND! We'll Build A Dynasty (one the heavens can't shake) by One_eyed_God (T, 66k, wangxian, WQ & WWX, WN & WWX, JYL & WWX, canon typical Jiang family dynamics, BAMF WWX, Canon JC Characteristics, POV Outsider, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship, WWX is a Wēn, Sect Leader WWX, Genius WWX, The Casual Intimacy of Hand-Holding, A Love Letter to WWX, Minor JYL/LXC, Not JC Friendly, Time Travel Fix-It) the scene described happens about a third of the way into the first chapter

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6. Hello and I hope I'm doing this right. I remember this fic that's set in the modern setting and mo xuanyu is recently married (engaged?) To lan zhan but wei ying takes over the body and then just decides to follow along. Lan Zhan ends up finding out that it's a different soul and ends up falling in love with him. I don't remember the name and I hope you can find it if it's not deleted. Thank you! @nightshade2017

FOUND! Write It on My Neck by diamondbruise (E, 23k, wangxian, A/B/O, Transmigration, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, Fake Marriage, Falling In Love, Jealousy, Happy Ending, Anal Sex, Spanking, usual wangxian cnc elements, Misunderstandings)

is it a transfiguration as opposed to resurrection?

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7. hello! love what you’re doing with the blog! i need help finding a fic: i remember it was lqr pov and at one point lwj left the lan sect behind to go to the burial mounds and lqr and some other elders go to investigate and find o ur lwj and wwx married and adopted a gaggle of children. i remember lqr nagging on lwj for disrespecting lan rules bcs he was wearing like too many adornments and spoiling the kids. also the rabbits had their own pen in there.

FOUND? 🔒 Unpack Your Heart by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (T, 22k, wangxian, Romance, Everybody Lives, Canon Divergence, LWJ Has Feelings, Protective LWJ, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, LWJ Stays at the Burial Mounds, Burial Mounds Ensemble as Family, Wangxian in Love, YLLZ WWX, Lan Clan Elders are Assholes, Minor Transgender Character, Qiongqi Path Divergence, LWJ loves his bunnies)

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8. Hello! I'm looking for a fic which I cannot remember the name of. The main things I remember are that Meng Yao stays for the Cloud recesses lectures and roommates with Nie Huaisang. The only scene I can remember is Nie Huaisang ends up mudering a Jin disciple who tried to kill Meng Yao with a rope. Wei Wuxian ends up finding them afterwards and getting help right after.

FOUND? somewhere to belong by KouriArashi (T, 62k, LXC/JGY, JGY & NHS, wangxian, JGY & WWX, Canon Divergence, Friendship, Developing Relationship, Families of Choice, Class Issues, Bullying, Light Angst, Politics, Eventual Plot, Happy Ending)

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9. Hello, I am looking for a fic where Wei Wuxian is not brought into the body of Mo Xuanyu. Rather a random cultivator does the ritual instead as revenge for killing his family in the nightless city. His terms are for Wei Wuxian to despair, so naturally WWX finds Lan Wangji and falls in love only for the ritual wounds to start trying to kill him for not despairing. He nearly loses his arm before they figure out how to save him. Happy ending.

There's also a few bits about WWX trying to get the sword of his body's og owner to come around and work with him. @shinyobsessed

FOUND! A Storm of Laughter in the Stillness of the Jingshi by OnlyMeAndMyBones, 2nd in series (T, 74k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, LXC & WWX, angst w happy ending, hurt/comfort, injury, recovery, mental illness, depression, PTSD, rehabilitation, slow burn, empathy, guilt, forgiveness, suicidal thoughts)

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10. Hi! Can someone help me find this fic, please?

Lan Wangji is a post-war-soldier and nowadays is actually helping people to adopt a therapeutic “bunnie”. A man named Wei Ying goes there trying to find a bunnie to adopt, lwj get supper mad because this “man” is loud and disastrous and ask (order) him to go out of there. Later he learns with lxc that “Wei Ying” is actually Wei Wuxian, one of the most dangerous people from the war.

Lwj gets sad about his treatment towards wwx, because both of them are very traumatized by the war. That’s the beginning for their future relationship. It’s setting in modern setting too.

Thank you! @weicongee

FOUND? Recovery by Unforth (G, 27k, WangXian, Modern AU, Rabbit Breeder LWJ, Veteran LWJ, Veteran WWX, PTSD, therapy animals, Therapy Rabbits, LWJ is an Asshole Sometimes, Doctor WQ, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Former Prisoner of War WWX, LXC is a Good Brother, Gray Asexual LWJ, Anxiety Disorder)

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11. Hi hi! There's a modern au fic I'm looking for that I can't find no matter how many tag searches I do! It's a modern au where wwx gets drunk and sad bc he loves lwj and he doesn't think he cares for him back. Nhs calls lwj for a rise home for him, but wwx doesn't know its him and "services" him on the way home if you know what I mean

I think it ends with nhs texting one of them to talk to each other so they finally get together

FOUND?🔒Nie Huaisang plays cupid like a baller by KizuKatana (M, 10k, WangXian, Accidental drunken confession, Dirty Talk, sort of mistaken identity, Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism, so much pining, So many tropes)

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12. hello i am looking for a fic where lan wangji is a stripper and wei wuxian is the bodyguard who is protective of him, and it was probably xianwang @ahiku-chan

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13. hi! Last year I read a fic where Wei Ying is kept imprisoned or like in an unresponsive state in Jin Guangyao’s secret room behind the mirror. He’s accidentally consumes/cursed with a spell that requires him to have sex to stay alive? Jin Guangyao then calls Jiang Cheng to pick him up and they return to Lotus Pier where after a couple of days Wei Ying like I have to leave cause I don't deserve to be here. Lan Zhan then finds him in a state of delirium. That was the last update then. Thank you sm

FOUND? 🔒 The Return series by LtLJ (G, 63k, JC & WWX, wangxian, WWX & WQ, WN & WQ, Canon Divergence, Yunmeng Brothers Reconciliation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, YLLZ WWX, BAMF LWJ, five year old JL, ten year old LSZ, ten year old LJY, discussion of a canon suicide attempt, canon-typical curses, Angry sabre spirits, BAMF Everybody, Complicated Relationships, they're trying but they aren't there yet, BAMF NHS, Canon-Typical Behavior, Hurt/Comfort, WQ Lives, WWX & WQ Friendship, BFFs)

FOUND? till our ribs get tough by feelslikefire (E, 38k, JC/WWX, wangxian, WIP, Dubious Consent, Forced Feminization, magical pussy, Sex Pollen, Fuck Or Die, Possessive Behavior, Breeding Kink, Canon Divergence, Top JC, Top LWJ, Bottom WWX, Bondage, bondage via Zidian, Dubcon Somnophilia, WWX has possessive boyfriends but luckily he's into it, Intercrural Sex, Cunnilingus, Anal Sex, Spanking, Pussy Spanking, Dirty Talk, Porn With Plot, Oral Sex, Rough Sex) It has fuck or die and starts with Wei Wuxian being kept in the secret room

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14. Hi! I'm looking for a fic that I clicked on in tumblr (possibly through your page, I have no clue) read about half the first chapter put my phone down and then reloaded the app it went all the way back to the top of the feed, never to see the fic again 😭

It was a Canon divergence AU, WWX thought Something Was Probably Up when he got the invite to JL's one month celebration so went in disguise as a woman, and the first line was him hitting on LWJ, who obviously twigged almost right away and took him to an inn, and that was all I got to.

Sorry it's not much to go on but hopefully someone recognises it! Thank yooou 💕 @scenicpixie

FOUND! My Leaves Reach Ever for the Sun by nonplussed (T, 26k, WangXian, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fix-It, Crossdressing, Idiots in Love, Sharing a Bed, Canon Divergence, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies)

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15. hi can u plshelp me find this fic it's driving me crazy as i don't remember the name

Basically wwx and lwj are already married but wwx wears a mask all the time and tbh they barely get to see each other like during the cave scene here lwj kept on deliriously calling his name they then kissed for the first time (they were already married during this)and then lwj pushed him away like literally ...

also they like had sex for the first time at where wwx was sitting w his ghost girls(they were already married during this too)...the ghost girls were still there this time lwj jus appeared wwx waxed poetry abt him jus standing there(who woudnt)he indirectly told wwx to not commit infidelity wwx seductively walked to him seduced him they fucked then wwx pushed him away literally and yea lwj went away

also wwx had adopted some babies too at the end i rmb

and yea during all this wwx wore tht fucking mask

FOUND? sounds like A Price to Pay by wangxianist which unfortunately has been deleted. 😭

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16. hellooo, i'm looking for a fic where wei ying came from new york (i think) it was somewhere in america to china. wei ying lives with lan zhan along with his uncle and brother. i still remember a scene where lan zhan asked wei ying to take off his shoes but he misunderstood and took off his pants instead lol. thanks!!!

FOUND? The Fifth Type of Non-Contact Force by Caixx (Not Rated, 83k, WangXian, Modern AU, High School, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Fluff and Humor, Actually Somewhat Canon, Mutual Pining, Horny Teenagers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Non-Graphic Smut)

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17. Hi, I'm not sure if this is how this works. If I'm doing it wrong please let me know.

I've been looking everywhere for a story where Wei Ying is a reincarnated phoenix and doesn't know it. He eventually finds out and because of everything he goes through, he's taken over by the pheonix, and the firebird part of him wants to destroy the world.

I remember the sects locked him in the Gusu caves while they tried to find out how to control him.

Eventually Lan Zhan figures out a loophole where the Phoenix/firebird agrees to hold off until Lan Zhan dies...and then Lan Zhan cultivates immortality as a loophole. I remember it was on AO3 and was complete.

I'd be grateful for any help you guys could give me. @vitolieltrue

FOUND? Breathing Firestorm by ladyshadowdrake (M, 110k, wangxian, angst, fluff, captivity, creepy WRH, no non-con, dreamsharing, politics, people making the best decisions they can, epic length, mythical creature WWX, canon-typical violence, dark, happy ending)

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18. Hii i have a fic i cant seem to find anymore T_T. It was modern, explicit, with genderbent wangxian and pretty much just smut. I have this vivid recollection of butch lan wangji with short hair sitting in a bar (?). Then (but this might be me confusing two fics together tbh) they agreed to a deal where lwj showed wwx how to kiss, how to be intimate etc, and theyd have lessons at lwj's house every few days or such.

FOUND! throw the keys back by dustyloves (E, 31k, wangxian, F/F, Gender Changes, Cisswap, Modern, College/University, The Porn Is the Plot, Virginity Kink, Dom/sub, Teacher/Student Roleplay, Sexting, Dirty Talk, Non-Consensual Spanking, Mild Painplay, Mutual Pining, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Under-negotiated Kink, despite the tags it's actually quite soft)

NOT FOUND! sideways by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 20k, wangxian, F/F, Modern, Cisswap, butch dyke LWJ, Casual Sex, not so casual sex, many many orgasms, Fingerfucking, Cunnilingus, strap-on sex, So much kissing, WWX gets rekt, straight girl WWX, except for how she isn't)

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19. For the fic finder, I saw someone mention a fic in which after LWJ and WWX wander off with their donkey in the novel epilogue, they come back and find that LWJ's been voted Chief Cultivator behind his back. He does not take this well. Does anyone know of it? @kedaliya

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20. Hey I'm looking for this fic where either WY or LZ is a camboy and the other accidentally finds the account. They subscribe and continues to watch their channel behind their back.

But the camboy eventually finds out and they have a fight regarding respect and boundaries. All is well in the end but the camboy is extremely disappointed the other went behind his back to watch his channel and pretended like he didn't know anything. The other party apologises.

Does it ring any bell? @imstillthinkingaboutithmm

FOUND? For a Good Time, Call by ScarlettStorm (E, 170k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Pining, Porn, like in the writing and also as a plot point, onlyfans au, repressed LWJ, sex worker WWX, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, Background ChengQing, background NieLan, background XuanLi, Nonbinary NHS)

FOUND? ❤️ All Old Things are New Again by The Feels Whale (miscellea) (M, 52k, wangxian, modern, reincarnation, sugar daddy, kink negotiation, gentle dom LWJ) HGBun has reached immortality and finally finds WWX reincarnated

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#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

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prince-liest · 9 months

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more self-indulgent jgy abo headcanons

I read a fic so long ago that I no longer remember the fandom nor characters involved, but the thing about it that really stuck in my mind was that it was an abo-verse fic that used the concept that omegas have an ingrained biological need for physical (including platonic) affection, to the point where “touch-starvation” was a medical diagnosis

this is obviously extremely up my alley for ALL my blorbos, but consider jin guangyao in particular:

unlike the usual ‘omega pretending to be a beta’ trope, I think that once he is established at jinlintai, he would not really try to let people assume that he’s a beta. being an omega leads people not only into underestimating him, but also into offering him a certain degree of safety in providing a veil of stereotype-associated demureness, placidity, etc. it is more to his benefit for people to see him as a polite young man, perhaps even one who, yes, is a war hero - but people can’t quite imagine what kinds of things he must have done for that. surely nothing too bad.

but at the same time, this is the character who couldn't even serve tea to people as nie mingjue’s deputy without people making a show of wiping off their fingers after touching the cups. people know he is an omega, people judge him for being an omega on top of all the other things he is already judged for, but I suspect that most of the relevant and appropriate people in jinlintai avoid touching him unless absolutely necessary. in a world where casual contact is thoroughly commonplace just due to the socialities set up by their biology, jin guangyao has a personal space bubble of like 2-3 feet because he's the dirty son of a prostitute.

he walks through the halls, ostensibly the second young master of the tower, and feels like he is drowning in the physical manifestation of loneliness.

who does he have left? family? jin zixuan is not close to him, and frankly is likely an alpha raised by alphas to whom it would not even occur to that such needs need to be minded. jin guangshan certainly is aware, but is using it as leverage, allowing and denying contact as he see fits to manipulate jin guangyao the same way he does with his fatherly affection. there are his sworn brothers, but his relationship with nie mingjue is fraught: certainly da-ge wouldn’t withhold contact as punishment or leverage, but that doesn’t mean he wants to touch jin guangyao anymore, nor does he really understand how the necessity of it feels when he grew up with nie huaisang, an omega who has never been shy about taking whatever affection he wants. and er-ge... he just isn’t around enough.

lan xichen is still the best option, and by the time they have the opportunities to see each other, jin guangyao is pressing nails into his palms to stop from just plastering himself up against lan xichen’s side, which surely would be humiliating for both of them. but still, he’s so aware of it any time they’re in the same room, meting out as many small touches as he can get away with without embarrassing himself. lan xichen slips his fingers over jin guangyao’s wrists as he pulls him up from a bow, intending warm affection. jin guangyao doesn’t want to let him know that it feels like being allowed to gasp for a single breath of air before his head is shoved back underwater.

(with nie mingjue, it is worse. da-ge is just as aware as jin guangyao is when they touch, but for all the worst reasons.)

it is the strangest blessing whenever jin guangyao sees nie huaisang. it’s embarrassing, a little - the knowledge that nie huaisang understands, unlike most people in jin guangyao’s life. but nie huaisang takes that embarrassment onto his own self willingly, never hesitating before making a fool of himself in the way that only a terminally younger brother can, and simply flinging himself into his san-ge’s arms. it’s nostalgic, too: nie mingjue isn’t quite so aware of how important touch is with how proactive nie huaisang can be, and so during his days as deputy, it was often nie huaisang who gave meng yao what he could not ask for.

the cultivators at jinlintai look down on him just as the ones in the unclean realm did, but now there is no willing young master to soothe away the tangible, physical ache of it. more often than not, jin guangyao tucks his hands into his sleeves to hide the way his fingertips shake.

anyway this is my petition for jiang yanli to take two looks at this situation and promptly wrinkle her brows just the slightest amount, expressing quiet concern to jin zixuan that it’s strange how she doesn’t see anybody touch his half-brother very much, does she? and jin zixuan is a little confused, a little embarrassed, a little off-balance - he doesn’t feel close enough to jin guangyao to be that casual, but he’s an alpha, he doesn’t get it until jiang yanli explains to him, with a beta’s patience, the value of family bonds to an omega as well as jin zixuan’s responsibility as a brother (older brother? younger? his father claims older, but there’s no way to truly know - ), and isn’t it wonderful, having a little brother?

and then someone pats jin guangyao over the head until he’s feeling a little less strung-thin and out of options, he realizes he has to keep jin zixuan and jiang yanli alive lest he actually lose his mind (sympathy for da-ge? oh no...), and etc etc things end happily ever after, the end, QED.

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xiyao-feels · 1 year

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On the topic of WWX's privilege vs JGY's, there's this exchange with WQ after he's killed Jin Zixuan that always stands out to me:

He could neither shout nor move, rasping, “Why are you going to Koi Tower? I wasn’t the one who cursed him with Hundred Holes at all…”

Wen Qing, “But they have set their minds that it was you.”

Wei WuXian tried his best to think of ways to deal with this. Suddenly, he thought of something, “Then find the real person who set the curse! Jin ZiXun’s definitely gone to experts of cursing. The most common way to deal with these curses is to hit them back, let the effects rebound back to the one who placed the curse. Even if not all of the power could be rebounded, a large portion can. We can just look for someone who has the same curse marks on them!”

Wen Qing, “There’s no use.”

Wei WuXian, “Why not?”

Wen Qing, “There are so many people—where could we look for them? Set up a checkpoint on every street of every city and make everyone take off their clothes so that we can check?”

Wei WuXian protested, “Why not?”

Wen Qing, “Who’d be willing to set up these checkpoints for you? And for how long do you intend to search? We could perhaps find them after eight or ten years, but would those people be willing to wait?”

Wei WuXian, “But there are no rebounded curse marks on me!”

Wen Qing, “During today’s incident, did they ask you?”

Wei WuXian, “No.”

Wen Qing, “That’s right. They didn’t ask. They straight-up prepared to kill you. Do you understand now? They don’t need any proof. They don’t need you to find the truth either. Whether or not you have curse marks on your body doesn’t matter at all. You’re the YiLing Patriarch, the King of the Demonic Path. You specialize in dark curses, so it wouldn’t even be strange if you didn’t have curse marks on you. On top of that, you didn’t have to do it yourself. You could’ve gotten Wen-dogs, your slaves, to do it for you. It’s you no matter what. You won’t be able to deny it.”

(ER 77)

At this point WWX still feels on some level like he can defend himself with reason—not just from one person, but from the mob. He expects that something like finding the actual person who set the curse can be done, and while I don't think he's really thinking through how much work that would be, it suggests that he's not used to having to think through how much effort it would take, to prove himself innocent. Intuitively, he expects to be given the benefit of the doubt, not by everyone but by enough people; intuitively, he expects a situation where at least someone in authority is on his side.

And he's wrong, of course, as he realizes here, and as he learns even more deeply at Nightless City. But I think the fact that he has to learn it speaks a lot to what his experience of the world was, until this point.

And the thing about JGY is, he'd never have made this mistake, because he's never had the things that WWX did! He's never been given the benefit of the doubt, he knows not to expect support from any authority. Tbh we see him surviving only because he doesn't make this mistake: what do you think would have happened to him, if he'd turned himself in at Langya, if he'd tried to argue with NMJ after Sun Palace instead of fleeing?

There are a lot of scenes showing just how different their circumstances are, but this moment says a lot to me. Even now, even after everything that's happened, WWX still expects things to play out as though he's a favoured member of the Jiang sect; and he doesn't realize just how different things are for someone who's really outside the system.

#thatswhatsushesaid this one's for you

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poorlittleyaoyao · 6 months

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23,27,29 & 30 for Jin Guangyao for the character asks?

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

I'm not a fragrances person, so I'm a bad person to ask for this! Hmm. Something light but sharp, like mint + cinnamon + ginger but not in a dessert way.

27. Their guilty pleasure

right now I am thinking about the Nie braids under the hat bc ahhhhh, but BESIDES THAT--

Buying little treats for himself when he is out and about. Once he has money of his own, he starts resentfully pushing back against his long-ingrained inner voice going "we have food at home"/"we don't really need this" because no! He can get this thing! His brother never had to worry about needing things before getting them so why should he! So he gets the little treat and then feels guilty about the impracticality of it, and then feels angry about the guilt.

29. Eating habits

It's not that he doesn't like food--most of his little treats from #27 are food--but JGY very much comes off as a person who loses track of when he last ate until his energy has plummeted. If he's not having a meal as part of some official function with observers, has will stash food away for later out of habit--partly because he hasn't shaken the instinct to keep food onhand whenever possible just in case, and partly because eating too much too fast upsets his stomach, especially if beef or pork are involved. He can handle spice like a champ though.

(As both an eating habit and a guilty pleasure, he likes to get the nicest possible versions of treats or meals that Meng Shi used to buy them on special occasions.)

30. Sleeping habits

ohhhh this man does NOT sleep well. sleep no more, Lianfang-zun hath murdered sleep, etc etc. And let's be honest, has he ever been in a setting where he's felt 100% safe even before the big crimes made the paranoia worse? His mind doesn't stop spinning, his sleep is light, and he compensates for insufficient sleep with stimulants, which exacerbates the problem. He needs to go to sleep facing the room's entry point, and he gets cold easily so he has SO many blankets.

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pbaintthetb · 3 months

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For the potential AU: One where, instead of kicking JGY down the Koi Tower steps, JGS decided there was some use to his bastard son and brought him into the sect.

hah I was actually thinking of asking you something similar :-D...

Okay, so first things first it's important to establish that JGY shows up at a different time i.e. NOT on Jin Zixuan's birthday. He is also, perhaps, less naive? and waits for Madam Jin to uh, not be in residence, before showing up. Man bides his time, perhaps stalks Lanling for a bit

JGS doesn't like this Meng Yao fella very much BUT, without all the awkward shame, his wife, and the threat that maybe this bastard is actually older than the heir, hes more willing to talk. And maybe he admires/MY lets slip that he waiteed for Madam Jin to be out, and JGS is like I like this shady character. Alternatively, having a son that nobody knows about around can be useful for things (like spying or DC) JGS can't be seen to be doing- because JGY can live there but unlike canon, his acknoweldgedment (or pointed lack) is NOT made into a big thing

Nie Mingjue has a bit more respect for JGY, firstly, man doesn't do the who Lanya incident, secondly kicking him down teh stairs is not as loaded, C. the whole JGY in Qishan spy thing feels less personal without all the lanya history and less like proof he's a inherently shady and D. Nie Mingjue can let himself believe that this pooor guy didn't know enough about sects to know how JGY was using him. NMJ gets to live! This is, until, of course, NMJ realises that arguably JGY is like 2x as manipulative as canon, what with staking out Lanling, the whole spy thing hten they fight. Who knows if he dies

Mo Xuanyu is less worrying to Jin Guangyao in this au, it's more JGS realising that having bastards around to do dirty work can be useful and sure JGY needs more lackeys. It (feels) at least less to JGY like MXY is here to discredit him. JGY doesn't ovelry like MXY as he's too young and weak to be super useful, and also maybe he feels bad about trapping MXY as a pawn between him and his father, so MXY is just kinda... there. JGY would stick him off to XY to do demonic-y things in teh basement together while JGY is being a helpful son, but he's not sure this is a great idea, so MXY is just... kinda there

post Sunshot JGY seems to be doing well, he's a son, he's there, he's still a war hero (and he is too useful and has too much dirt to be convienently gotten rid of)... that is, until, JGS makes sounds like he's planning to do to JGY what JGY does to MXY because keep your potential blackmailers close, or discredit them utterly adn exile them amirite and hm, Jin Guangyao is like no and sets up a whole staged JZX death before rescuing him so now JGS can't get rid of him and keep face

Thanks for the ask! this was kinda rambly and unclear idk

tldr jgy is a son but secretly(ish) until post war, but he feels more secure in his post in Lanling- he's too useful to JGS. Even if he's not actually more secure in his post as a son

Less death! (at laest for now, but if JGY is in jZX's good books by saving his life then they really don't need his dad, and MXY is like.... just there JGY being begrudingly nice to him while JGS tries to use him. Just saying...)

#ask #mdzs #jin guangyao

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truly-morgan · 8 months

Text

[Possessive & jealouse LXC, feat. Wen brothers]

XiCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 29-08-2021

[#xicheng, modern cultivation, possessive and jealous lxc]

Set where Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng have been turning around each other for a certain time now (believing they are discreet when everyone knows about it). It takes months before they finally start officially courting (of course two sect heir cannot just start dating like that without following traditions! Who do you think they are?)

things are going great, his courting goes smoothly and it is even close to an end! They can soon start an "official" relationship! But then jc is sent to one of the lectures given in qishan, where he will stay for at least three months. This makes lxc a bit sad because it will make it hard for them to meet, but jc does sound rather excited to go study over in qishan so he will support his choice to do so. ("The wens might have enormous egos and be arrogant, but they are still strong, plus they are not as bad as centuries ago," jc told him).

Plus! He will go with nhs, wwx and lwj, he knows he will be in good hands anyway. He is a bit nervous because it is the first time in months that they won't really be able to meet as often as they did (although they can still Facetime, call and text each other.) and well even if the wen are not as bad as they were in the past, jfm didn't have the best of relationship with wrh in the latest years. He simply hopes everything will go alright for his boyfriend.

The three months session starts, and everything goes well, jc let him know how everything is going and he is reassured. Then he notices nhs socmed post. He knows the young man is rather active on them (contrary to lwj and jc), so he isn't surprised to see him post about what happens (he is even happy to see jc happy with his friends.) but then he notices that wrh boys are often around in the latest updates. He is a bit surprised and curious because he knows wc can be a bit to handle sometimes.

"Wen heir showing us around Nightless City, this boy is not as bad as we first thought 😜 even my best friend agrees for once"

accompanied to the post is a picture of the group at a restaurant, nhs and wwx making peace signs to the camera, lwj drinking tea on the side while wx seems to be showing something on the menu to jc. They are rather close, even for the small booth they have, although he tries to let anything bad come from it.

"A-cheng is having a good time trying qishan specialities, it alright," he tells himself. after all, who's better to suggest good qishan dishes other than someone who grew up there?

He thought it would be a one-time thing, yet as the days go by, more and more posts made by nhs include either or both of wrh sons. and the more it goes, the closest they seem to be to jc too.

He tries not to care, not to let that possessiveness in him make him fly all the way to qishan so he can kidnap his boyfriend. "I think you need to stop stalking a-sang account" jgy suggest when he met up wth his best friends, "I doubt jc will suddenly decide to marry one of the wen".

"All I see is nhs not studying enough" nmj mentioned (although he takes note to ask his didi not to post as much maybe, it would be bad to have to deal with lxc if he loses it fully because of his post).

yet, after that dinner, nhs seems to post even more!?

"Training is nearly as strict as back home 😩😭 though chengcheng seems happy to train with wen xu"

added to this a video of jc and wx fighting "Finally the weekend, out with our new friend for good food and drinks😋🫕"

added to this is a group picture, jc sitting between wc and nhs while wc has an arm around jc.

(Also are they letting a-cheng drink?!?)

"poor wen, believing they had a chance against chengcheng in a swimming competition 🤭"

added is a video of them swimming showing jc win, joined soon after by wx and wc who mess around a bit with him in the water and it goes on and on like this, where he sees his boyfriend slowly getting closer and closer to wrh sons. Even when jc talks about his days it drives him crazy how much they seem to be around him so suddenly (obviously this is all internally, he couldn't force jc to stop hanging out with friends because of his own issue).

but the more it goes, the harder he can channel out this jealousy and possessiveness. things are going great with jc, but he wishes he could share all these more /with/ jc too. He doubts any of the wen would even try to get jc after the news of their courtship went around the cultivation world.

but the three months are coming to a close soon and lxc suggests being the one to go get lwj (lqr doesn't object as he assumed it will give him a small break from lxc acting weird all the time). So he goes to go get lwj, although the first person he goes looking for is jc. He finds him walking outside the wen residence with wx helping him carry his bags.

he doesn't hesitate when he walked quickly to him, calling out to him so jc will turn in his direction, hugging him and lifting him. he is happy that his arms quickly reciprocates the hug and to hear jc calling to him happily surprised. when he finally puts him back down he keeps an arm around his waist, keeping his boyfriend close to him (he missed that so much).

he doesn't miss the smirk on wx lips, as though the young man knows what he is doing.

lxc is quick to fully kidnap jc, helping him with his bags. he won't leave jc side for a good while for now. He catches up with jc, the man happily telling him how the last days went by (also lots of kissing, which jc is happy to give).

they do eventually join wwx and lwj, ready to take jc back home with him even after wwx protest (thankfully jc agrees to it so the head disciple cannot say anything 😌).

jc somewhat already know why lxc seems so needy suddenly and he will happily indulge in erasing all his jealousy and possessiveness by letting lxc do everything with him too as he stays a bit in cloud recess.

also, a 100% nhs was trying to tease lxc to see if the man would run back to his beloved after seeing all this (he is impressed by lxc self-control).

also, a 100% wx was in it and was a bit more touchy on camera than he would be normally, just to annoy the lan heir

I don't why, I just like the idea of the wen boys not being /that/ bad and friendly once you get past all the arrogance and ego they might have.

Original

#tweet archive #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #xicheng #lan xichen #jiang cheng #modern au #modern cultivation world #possessive lan xichen #friendship building

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thebiscuiteternal · 1 year

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would nmj's fate change in the larger age gap au? with the changes in relationships and political dynamics, i just can't see jgy finding it as easy to decide to kill him in this version.

I think it would, for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, no matter which version of canon you use, Nie Huaisang is going to push the "ge" button in the back of Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao's brain hard. I wrote a little snippet of them meeting on Discord using the non-CQL setting

Please imagine that during Sunshot in the greater-age-gap Nies timeline, something comes up at the Unclean Realms and since Mingjue can't leave the battlefield for whatever reason, he asks newly-minted 18yo aide-de-camp Meng Yao to go handle it.

So Meng Yao goes to the Unclean Realms and is met at the gate by a 10/11 yo with a grumpy expression.

"You're not Da-ge," he says, clearly disappointed.

Oh, this is the Sang-di that his sect leader is always talking about.

He's adorable.

Meng Yao smiles. "Sorry, but even your brother can't be in two places at once. This one is Meng Yao; his assistant."

Nie Huaisang brightens up just a little. "Oh! The really smart one!"

(Zongzhu actually said that in his letters home? Meng Yao's a little touched.)

Huaisang takes him to meet the supply overseers who needed assistance, but sticks around instead of going back to whatever he'd been doing.

Meng Yao catches the boy watching him a couple of times, but every time, Huaisang quickly looks away, face red.

They don't talk about it before Meng Yao leaves, crisis averted.

Cute little creechur! Who clearly thinks he's cool despite growing up around all these powerful cultivators! Meng Yao is smitten.

And then add in the fact that Mingjue and Huaisang's relationship is much more stable, with it being evident to anyone with eyes that they're each other's foundation, and Jin Guangyao would have a much harder time justifying the damage to a Huaisang that killing Mingjue would do.

Especially since, if I haven't fucked up my own timeline, he would be all of fourteen when his big brother died and he got thrown into an inheritance crisis. Yikes.

Of course, there's also another option.

Supposing instead that Jin Guangshan were to go the route that Nie Mingjue dreads the most, the very reason he'd held off on making Huaisang his heir to begin with: he is very young and very vulnerable and it would do a lot of damage to sect morale if anything were to happen to him.

Suppose Jin Guangshan decides the best way to remove Nie Mingjue from being a pest politically is to get rid of Huaisang.

Now, I've had a story where Jin Guangyao goes through with it; most of you have seen that.

But again, it's much harder to justify killing a 14yo than it is to kill a 20-23yo, especially one that clearly loves you.

Angsty soul-searching ahoy!

So I think either way, he'd try to stall for time. Maybe he can't tell them directly what's going on without feeling unfilial to his father, but he can drop hints and let his father braid enough rope to hang himself.

Whether or not it would work is still up in the air.

#mdzs #larger age gap nies #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #jin guangshan #ideas #worldbuilding #yes i skipped over whether or not the falling out between nie mingjue and meng yao would still happen #i haven't decided yet

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guqin-and-flute · 2 years

Text

Snowed In

[Thank you, Valentine’s Day, to give me a hard and fast deadline to post something 🙏 This is the most self indulgent, snuggly post-Reconciliation 3zun in the 3zun Raise Jingyi AU. One of y’all asked me for fluff in these trying times, so here it is! Not an ounce of angst to be seen and you really don’t need any backstory. I planned...a lot more for this but then JGY fell asleep. So...there will be more.]

[3zun Raise Jingyi AU tag] [AO3 link]

When the door to the Hanshi slid open unexpectedly, only about an incense stick’s time since his husbands had left, Lan Xichen didn't even get the chance to wonder who was entering his house uninvited before Nie Mingjue's resigned voice announced, "Well, no way in hell that's happening."

Xichen had been wistfully tidying the last remnants of their 3 day long stay from his sleeping area, but now stood with a broad smile, poking his head around his painted privacy screen. "Oh? Back so soon? You missed me that much? What did you forget?”

The gust of crisp, chill air that had rolled in with him smelled sharply of a winter storm, and when he saw the pink of his cheeks and ears and the shards of snow and ice embedded in Mingjue's wind tossed hair, he raised his eyebrows. “Ah."

"A blizzard," Mingjue confirmed, as if Xichen had said something to agree with, giving his broad shoulders a shake, shedding little clumps of snow like a mountain pine on the rug by the door. “Huge.”

Xichen drew near, fondly reaching out to brush what he could from Mingjue’s hair, carding his fingers through to gently free some of the tangles before they became wet from snow melt and more unruly. “How far did you get?"

As he wrestled with the frozen laces of his thick traveling cloak, Mingjue growled, "Hardly away at all, maybe a few miles down the mountain. It hit fast, it should be here any--" As if by that cue, a gust of wind rattled the winter shutters like a warning. "Minute.”

Obligingly, Xichen brushed his hands away and set to methodically picking open the half frozen knots as Mingjue settled his broad hands on Xichen's shoulders to let him work. "There's nothing for it; I'm snowed in."

Xichen chuckled. While the words sounded resigned, Da-ge’s tone was more self satisfied than anything else. The dark silver cloak finally relented and slid from his shoulders with a heavy flump onto the floor and, hooking his fingers behind Mingjue’s ice cold belt buckle to tug him closer, Xichen lamented, "Well, oh no, what a terrible inconvenience to have to house Da-ge overnight an extra day while our son is away with his shushu." A happy coincidence--they had actually planned the outing with Wangji for after A-Yao and Dag-e had left so as not to take time away from seeing them. Now, he got him all to himself.

"Mm, a horrible fate, to be sure," Mingjue hummed and leaned in to press his surprisingly warm mouth to his, grazing his lip delightfully with his teeth. He was warming already, easily, with the circulation of his qi; the fingers that grazed Xichen’s throat were already merely cool. It made him shiver.

Mingjue, however, pulled back with a frown. "Should we worry about A-Yao?"

Instantly, Xichen tensed. "He left about a half an hour before you did--could he have missed it? Is it that large?”

“It was like a wall coming from the Northwest. Maybe he did.” He did not sound convinced. “He probably managed to land somewhere to wait it out,” he amended. “You know he’s not one for stupid risks, he wouldn’t push on.”

Yes, but A-Yao’s core wasn’t as strong as Da-ge’s or his own and he wasn’t raised in the mountains where the weather can turn vicious in an instant with no notice at all. Had he thought to steer closer to towns or was he planning to fly straight over the mountains to save time? Turning, he reached for Shuoyue. “We should--”

In a blast of frigid wind, the door shoved open, letting in an eddy of driving snow clumps and a panting A-Yao himself. Snow and ice threaded through his dark hair too, though far more heavily. It stood out bright, like jewels, and it flecked his eyebrows and eyelashes in a way that would have been pretty if he hadn’t been shivering so hard his teeth were chattering, his cheeks, nose, and ears deeply flushed to almost match the vermillion dot between his brows. “It’s. Cold,” he panted plaintively as Mingjue and Xichen instantly descended upon him, bundling him between them, towing him deeper into the Hanshi’s heat.

“What the hell were you thinking, coming back here?” Da-ge reprimanded with a frown, flicking what snow he could from the top of his head and shoulders, as Xichen chafed his palms up and down his upper arms to warm him. “I was just telling Xichen you wouldn’t take stupid risks and here you are making me a liar.”

“Ugh.” A-Yao allowed them to lead him, staggering, over to the fireplace of white charcoal glowing an inviting orange-pink. “Please, s-scold me. Later. When I can. F-feel my extremities," he gasped between tight sips of breath. He collapsed stiffly before it in an uncharacteristically unruly heap, hand to his side as grimaced, closing his eyes. “Uff.”

"Your ribs?” Xichen asked worriedly, as he knelt beside him and began picking the frozen laces of his soaked clothes apart before they melted and made him wet as well as freezing. It was difficult to get a good hold on them, he was shivering so hard; the frigid air wafting off of his thick cloak, as if he were made of ice himself.

“S’just because of. The cold-d. It’ll pass. I’m fine.” A-Yao would say that no matter what the truth was, but the fact that his brow was furrowed and his breathing labored spoke volumes as to how much it pained him.

Though none of them were strangers to the ache that crept into the seams of broken bones with deep cold or pressure change, A-Yao’s ribs were an old, mishealed wound laced with scar tissue that plagued him worse in the winter months. A remnant--A-Yao always skirted discussing the issue, but both Xichen and Mingjue knew it was from his brutal rejection at Koi Tower. Xichen couldn’t imagine it would have been easy to climb back up the mountain, let alone fly through a snowstorm with them hurting so.

Mingjue made a sympathetic sound in the back of his throat and placed his large, warm palms over A-Yao’s cherry red ears, the tips of his fingers spanning his cheeks. At this, A-Yao groaned in appreciation and pressed them closer with his own shaking hands, the same brilliant shade as his ears. “Surely Caiyi Town was closer,” Xichen couldn’t help but press, managing to finally peel off the ice crusted cloak from A-Yao shoulders, laying it out next to the fire. “Or were you over the mountains? In winter?”

A-Yao shrugged off this gentle accusation--or perhaps it was a particularly violent shiver--curling over closer to the radiating heat. "It hit out of-f no-owhere. Once I saw the clouds. I turned around. If I’m g-going to be trapped somewhere for days. It’s going to be here, not in some. Random inn.” Grimacing, he shuddered, hard. “Hate cold. Hate.”

“Yes, our little tropical bird,” Mingjue teased, earning himself a sour scowl.

“Y-y-you’re both just h-horrible mountain men. Used t-to stupid weather. Lanling and Yunmeng have s-sensible seasons. None of this. Deep freeze, blizzard b-bullshit.”

A smile tugged Xichen's lips at his show of temper and dour tone--he loved cranky A-Yao because it was not so terribly long ago that cranky A-Yao hadn’t felt safe enough to show his face in front of Xichen, let alone Da-ge. “Mmm, of course,” he agreed, nodding in sympathy as he took A-Yao’s hands, stroking them slowly between his own, examining his fingers for frostbite while warming them at the same time.

A-Yao groused something unintelligible under his breath, but sat still and allowed the inspection, leaning his huddled shoulders back into Da-ge’s chest. His harsh breathing was starting to slow and his fingers were intact, slender and soft as they ever were, if frozen a deep red, so Xichen gathered them up and kissed their tips before smiling at them both. “Both of you undress and back in bed. I’ll make you tea.”

Mingjue felt A-Yao tilt up to look at him within the frame of his hands and he looked down to catch him dimpling ironically. “Looks like we're. To be pampered-d, Da-ge. Best submit. You know how he gets.”

“You sure needed exhaustive convincing,” Mingjue replied dryly, but removed his hands from A-Yao’s icy ears to support him as he struggled to his feet and Xichen disappeared back around the privacy screen to the bed.

With ruthless efficiency, Mingjue stripped the shivering A-Yao of his quickly melting outer golden layers as he complained about Mingjue not bothering to fold them until he was left wonderfully slender and exposed in the expensive looking sky blue undershirt and pants he had seen him don not an hour earlier in the afternoon before they had all parted ways. He supposed he was too cold yet to divest him of those, too. A pity. He contented himself with settling his hands on A-Yao’s lithe waist as he tried to return the favor and undress him back. He seemed to be having some difficulty making his cold-clumsy fingers work. After a few seconds of struggle, A-Yao simply ended up growling, then turning to glower over his shoulder at the cranes soaring over mountains that hid their husband. “Er-ge. Help.”

Mingjue snorted when Xichen poked his head out, face all lit up. “A moment, A-Yao,” he beamed at them and disappeared once again.

Xichen adored when A-Yao got bossy, claiming that it was easier to love on him when he was not attempting to be “useful”. Mingjue had to admit that he agreed, though the petulance just made him want to tease the man more, to earn his own scowl. Conversely, he also loved it when Xichen became all homey and tender, so it all worked out.

“I have hands,” Mingjue reminded him, releasing him to unhook the offending belt buckle, only to have A-Yao tug it from his hands, coiling it up when Mingjue would have simply dropped it onto the pile of robes beside them.

“Should make you fold them,” A-Yao scowled, pawing Mingjue’s robes open. “Wash them.”

Alright, as a rule, Mingjue hated complaining. But even he had to admit that such directionless ire from the man was amusing, even cute--and only because it was him. A soft edge.

Xichen appeared next to them, kneeling down to gather up the sodden lump of A-Yao’s clothes as the wind gave a shriek outside before laying a kiss onto the braids on top of his head. “I have them.”

When Mingjue’s robes were adequately freed, A-Yao grumpily shoved them off of his shoulders. Then, crowding closer, he shoved his freezing hands inside of Mingjue’s undershirt and burrowed his face into his chest exposed by the gape of his collar, mumbling, “You’re always so warm.”

Mingjue snorted and reached down to scoop up his thighs, hefting him up effortlessly closer, engaging his golden core to rush his qi a little faster, heating more. A-Yao, in turn, wrapped tight around him with all 4 limbs, arms around his neck, legs around his waist, cold nose buried in his collarbone. “And you’re a heat leech.”

There returned no words, only an disagreeable noise made against his skin, grinding in his ice chip of a nose. Xichen chuckled and rubbed A-Yao's back, kissing the corner of Mingjue’s mouth. “Bed, you two.”

Mingjue smirked at the order but obeyed, bearing A-Yao over to the bed. The wind was a low, constant roar up the mountain, now, every so often rattling the door and the window screens, attacking the chimes Xichen had on the corner of his eaves so they cried out in metallic terror. The din made it even more cozy of a prospect to bury themselves in the thick winter blankets of Xichen’s bed that smelled of him. Now, Mingjue saw that it was piled even higher with extra lush blue blankets embroidered with silver clouds and an ivory down comforter that hadn’t been there when they had left. He managed to peel A-Yao off of him with minimal growling to tuck him under the extra covers and slip in after him.

A-Yao wormed deeper into the bed, clearly rubbing his legs together like a contented cricket judging by the roiling of the mounds of fabric. “Mmmm, Er-ge, you’ve finally used the bed warmer I gave you!”

The bed was indeed deliciously cozy as Mingjue slid beneath the covers, as if the three of them had only just left it. The warmth seeped into the still chilled skin of his thighs. A-Yao was buried up to his cheekbones, still pink hands poking out to fumble his guan out of his half frozen hair before passing it to Mingjue to set on the low, shining side table.

“Ah, well, this is the first time,” Xichen admitted sheepishly, clinking around with the tea and fireplace, out of sight. “It’s not like I can’t just wait for the bed to warm up with me in it.”

“Yes, but if you don’t need to, why would you?” A-Yao demanded, sounding not only outraged, but practically offended.

“It felt a little...self indulgent.”

“Er-ge, that’s entirely the point.”

“You Lan and your asceticism,” Mingjue agreed with a grunt as he began to help to meticulously unwind the ice frosted braids in A-Yao’s hair--the ones that echoed his own Nie style without being a direct copy of any of them. Close enough to the ones that meant ‘married man’ that Mingjue himself knew without it making any Nie who might see suspicious.

The familiarity of them never failed to spark a little flare of possessive pride when Jin Guangyao wore them--he had watched with hungry eyes as A-Yao sat before the mirror earlier in the day, quick fingers plaiting them to life. He had caught Mingjue watching and his reflection had smiled slyly.

Seeing them now made him want to nibble the shell of his red ear, but in the mood A-Yao was in, he might just bite back. Instead, he just wrapped a frozen braid in his fist to get it to melt faster so he could peel it apart easier--A-Yao would kill him if he fucked up his hair.

"Well, for the past few days, I've had my own personal bedwarmers, so I had no use for it."

Mingjue watched A-Yao’s mouth curl. “Mmm, you missed us already? After just an hour?” Little ferret, tucking away praise and affection.

Xichen hummed in agreement “Mmm, of course. Terribly. Desperately,” he said, lightly, in that way where he told the truth without burdening them with its intensity, like it was just a joke. But they both knew. After all this time together, they knew him, their constant, their enduring anchor, their safe place. Ever patient, ever self effacing. They also knew how to pry his polite, sheltering presence open like a clam until he trembled beneath them both and let them love all of him without reservation or shame. He intended to take the opportunity to do so tonight--or sooner.

Shimmying down to get his feet closer to the lovely heat, he instead was met with A-Yao’s icy toes. Immediately, A-Yao rolled over on top of him, curling up and plunging said toes straight in between Mingjue’s thighs while he primly wormed his equally frigid hands into Mingjue's undershirt to nest under the small of his back. He lay, coiled up on his middle like some sort of burrowing creature. “You better not be trying anything interesting with your fucking icicle feet straight in my crotch,” Mingjue warned.

A-Yao’s reply was simply to lightly set his teeth into the flesh of his left pec where he was laying his head without comment. Mingjue was pleased to note that A-Yao’s shivers had moved from violent shuddering to small, blanketing tremors. He wrapped his arms around him, hugging him closer, smoothing his palm up and down between his shoulder blades. In turn, A-Yao laid his frozen cheek back onto his chest.

“You're warmer than both of us, come do your spousal duty,” he complained through the screen at Xichen; not truthfully, in Mingjue’s opinion. He himself was essentially back to normal, thanks to his golden core. He agreed with the spirit of the request, though, wanting Xichen’s long, firm body to be here, pressed against his own.

“The tea is nearly done, A-Yao.”

“Er-geeee.”

Mingjue snorted and slid his fingers up into A-Yao’s dampening hair, tugging gently. “Let him bustle. It makes him happy.”

At this, Xichen laughed out loud, coming around the screen in a sweep of blue silk and the scent of hot tea. His smile-curved eyes danced as he repeated, “‘Bustle’?”

“Yes. When you get to take care of someone, you bustle around.”

Xichen shook his head, still smiling, and sat on the edge of the bed where he laid out his tray on the side table, set with robin’s egg blue cups and elegant brown teapot, dark from years of use. With his long fingers, he offered a full, steaming cup out to Mingjue.

“Er-ge is too elegant to bustle--he tends,” A-Yao said, then groused, "Hey," as Mingjue levered himself up to a sitting position to accept, sliding A-Yao down.

“Hey yourself. I’m being tended to.” The tea was delicious, not too sweet, not too bitter and piping hot in his hands and down his throat. Something herbal and earthy--Mingjue wasn't a connoisseur like Xichen or Lan Qiren, but he liked it well enough, especially when winter set in. Xichen reached out to cup Mingjue’s cheek and watched him drink, obvious satisfaction evident on his face.

Grumbling, A-Yao melted down Mingjue’s torso, nuzzling his still chilly cheek into the junction of Mingjue’s hip instead, tucking the blankets around his head like an enormous hood. Xichen smiled indulgently, and reached his free hand out to smooth his thumb down his cheek. “Poor, frozen A-Yao. Feeling any better?”

Truthfully, yes, Jin Guangyao was feeling a bit better buried in the furnace-like heat of Da-ge and the bed warmer. His skin, hands, and feet burned ferociously as they melted, the tightness in his side a looming threat if he moved too vigorously again, but while the wet burn of his lungs lingered, he was no longer fighting for breath. The pain in all his seams and old breaks stayed a whining, present ache, but that was to be expected, in this weather. And most of all, Er-ge was indeed in his doting mood and, luckily, Jin Guangyao was in the rare mood to be doted upon. So he put on an affected scowl and snuck a hand out to latch onto the lapel of Xichen’s robe. “No. I’m cold. It hurts. I want you in here, too.”

At this, Mingjue snuck his free hand underneath his cocoon of blanket and soothed the flat warmth of his palm up and down his spine. Jin Guangyao purred despite himself.

Er-ge grinned, fondly, his thumbpad a drop of sun summer-izing the cool of his cheek. “Oh? Do you have an ulterior motive to this plan?”

Jin Guangyao allowed his lips to tilt and raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps. Come find out.”

Xichen chuckled and, sadly, took his hand back from his face to pick up the other cup. “Tea first, then fun.”

“Yes, you’re still shivering,” Mingjue agreed in an almost accusatory tone, scuffing the friction of his rubbing up just a little faster to acknowledge this fact.

“Sex would warm me up,” he grumbled, though the sting of such a denial--of which there was next to none--was immediately softened by Xichen breaking his own order of operations and leaning down to lay his lips on Jin Guangyao’s cheekbone where it emerged from the blanket. More heat.

Turning, Jin Guangyao brought their mouths together, reveling in the sting of it against his still awakening lips. Mingjue’s palm suddenly branded blazingly hot in contrast to his chilled skin as it cupped one of his buttocks, snugging him up closer to his side.

This did nothing to quell the comfortable crabbiness he had allowed the storm to brew in him. Even his ass was cold? This was stupid. Who in the world needed to live on a mountain that snowed? No one. It was excessive. He pulled away to grouch at the room in general, “Why do people live here?” as Xichen gently guided him to sit up, tucking him back up against Mingjue just like he tucked the just too hot tea into his stinging hands. “It’s too cold. It’s ridiculous.”

At this, Mingjue laughed out loud behind and beneath him and Xichen shook his head with a smile before spiriting the tray away, back around the privacy screen. His shadow was painted a dim blue against the paper as the glow from the lamps slowly became the only light source bright enough to throw light.

The storm was deepening, darkening the windows that rattled in the constant low roar of it up through the trees. He could imagine the bamboo whipping around, the violent swaying of the tops of the pines as the snow pelted into them, while they were here, enveloped in warmth and safety. The thought made him blink heavily, laid back against Mingjue’s chest, legs tangled in his as he nursed his searing little teacup. The gentle clinking of Xichen tidying, Mingjue’s strong heartbeat, the voiceless howl of the wind blended in the comfortable nothingness. Even his cultivated temper was melting away with the cold, leaving him quiet and sleepy and loose. There was nowhere he needed to be but here--indeed, nowhere he could be but here, curled up, warming and aching and loved. The simplicity of it was enough that his usually humming thoughts were curiously silent.

Da-ge lifted a hand and rested it heavily on the crown of his head, heating his scalp. Craning around, he peered up at Mingjue, who blinked back down at him with his own slightly muzzy smile. Some of his hair had escaped their strict braids, either through undressing or the wind, fuzzing out wildly in the dampness of melted snow. Jin Guangyao reached up and fumbled the pin from his husband’s huge, circular guan one handed, brows screwed together in concentration. Putting the chilly length of the pin between his teeth to hold--as his other hand was occupied holding his Er-ge prescribed and, apparently, incredibly necessary tea--he wrestled its cold curves free of the damp frizzed braids. Da-ge bore it with no more than a stoic wince, but when Jin Guangyao began to worm his fingertips down to his scalp, he reared his head back with a displeased noise in his throat, grimacing.

“Your hair is going to dry terribly odd,” Jin Guangyao protested after tucking the pin aside under the pillows, leaning up closer. Mingjue merely craned back farther out of his reach, straightening up his spine so Jin Guangyao would have to clamber up onto him in order to continue with a proper angle.

And he was going to--until Xichen’s long, slim hands descended like gently falling snow themselves, untangling them strand by careful strand as he smiled oh-so-softly down at them both. “A-Yao, drink,” he commanded, tone fond.

Moodily, A-Yao obeyed. The first sip he took felt like molten metal across his lips and tongue, down his throat--but it pooled just as warm as any alcohol in his gut and any tightness from shivering still lingering in his body loosened just that much more. It just felt...good. He felt good. It was a fairly new occurrence--at least with such frequency and duration. It dug him a little den that felt safe enough to murmur, “Mmm, pet," as he nuzzled his cheek back into Mingjue’s collarbone lazily, closing his eyes.

“Hmm?” Mingjue rumbled.

“Pet me. Love on me.” Because they would. And they wanted to. And he knew it.

Above him, Xichen sighed in happy contentment even as Mingjue vented a disbelieving huff, and 2 sets of warm hands settled onto the back of his head, his shoulders, his cheek. With his eyes closed, they were nearly indistinguishable if he let his attention wander--and he did. The gentle stroking seeping like broth, like…like spring, pooling together. Underneath him, a steady heartbeat, the soft bellows of lungs.

Dimly, a careful hand took the precariously dipping cup from his lax fingers. He melted down into the dark.

#I am now sleepy #Forgive major editing errors I intend to clean it up a little before posting it to Ao3 #I just wanted to get it out tonight because YAY #my stuff #my fic #3zun #And I reworked a ton of it today so #3zun raise jingyi au #3zun raise jingyi au content

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crossdressingdeath · 3 years

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Looking back, I feel like JC is projecting himself on JL. Like he couldn't do all this stuff as a teen so he's having JL do it. JC sets impossible standards JL couldn't possibly achieve on his own but JC expects him to. And I hate when people take the "I'll break you're legs" threat as coming from love. Like, even if teen JL knows it's an empty threat, he probably didn't as a kid. If I had to pick between an uncle who threatens me all the time and sets too high of expectations to an uncle with kind words and smiles if somewhat distant I'd definitely choose the latter.

For me the thing with the "Oh, JC threatens to break JL's legs out of love!!!!" argument is... point me to where it's suggested to be loving or joking. Show me JC smiling as he says it, or JL laughing at it. Show me anything suggesting that it's anything more than an empty threat that JL knows is empty only because JC has made it so many times and never actually did it (presumably because actually attacking the heir to another sect and breaking his legs, nephew or not, would in fact not be taken as a sign of avuncular affection by the sects at large). JL runs all the way to Koi Tower to get JGY's protection FROM JC at one point, explain to me how that says he thinks JC's threats are "loving". And if he doesn't think they're loving, explain to me how JC continuing to make them when JL thinks they're serious but probably won't go anywhere and responds accordingly is anything other than abuse.

And yeah, JC is definitely projecting onto JL; he's expecting JL to be the super-prodigy mega-genius who can outdo WWX in all ways that JC wanted to but obviously never could. And obviously JL can't be that; for one thing he doesn't have WWX's once-in-a-generation genius, and for another JC isn't teaching him how to be that sort of cultivator. JC teaches JL what he believes, which is 1. abuse authority, 2. cheat, 3. give up when it gets hard, and then expects JL to be like Brilliant Self-Sacrificing Genius WWX by... magic, I guess? Because of course he does. Because it's not like he's not WWX's equal because he's a horrible person who can't be arsed to make any effort to improve and doing his best to teach JL to follow in his footsteps while expecting him to be like WWX was doomed to failure in the first place, or anything. He wants JL to outdo WWX, but never really bothered to teach JL to outdo WWX; the only "teaching" we see him offer is "Hey, do this thing that I probably couldn't do even now never mind at your age or I'll never let you come home again" which... you know... isn't so much teaching as it is an ultimatum and it nearly gets JL killed because JL takes it seriously and throws himself into battle with a foe he knows he can't defeat. And then JC yells at JL for being an idiot! Even though JL just did what JC told him to do. Hey uh. JC stans. This guy? This guy. This is the guy you're insisting is the best uncle ever? The guy who orders his nephew to fight a foe well beyond his skills and then yells at him for doing it? Him? Really?

#mdzs #grapehate #jin ling #asks #anon

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

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Prompt: Jiang Cheng “accidentally” kicked Jin Guangshan down the stairs of Koi Tower. JGY busted a lung in delight and derailed all his evil plans, essentially stopping him from going evil. Madam Jin looks at him as if he was an angel of justice. Lan Xichen pulled a muscle trying to stop himself from laughing. Nie Mingjue went and asked him in marriage. NHS looks suspiciously delighted by the turn of events and only Jiang Cheng knows why. Ty!!!

“We could do it,” Nie Huaisang whispered in Jiang Cheng’s ear.

Jiang Cheng ignored him. They couldn’t, no matter how vile Jin Guangshan was, no matter how grasping for power, no matter how he’d looked at Jiang Yanli even though she was his future daughter-in-law – the political ramifications would be too great.

No matter how tempting.

“No, really, we can. Remember the time Master Lan hit me with the scroll…? Like that.”

No. They couldn’t. It would be –

“After the way he’s been talking about Wei-xiong all this time, it seems like the least we could do.”

…fine.

“How dare you!” Jiang Cheng abruptly shouted, turning and shoving Nie Huaisang. “You little brat! You little –”

“I’m sorry!” Nie Huaisang said, fleeing. “I didn’t think you’d be so offended, Sect Leader Jiang –”

“Offended! I’ll show you offended…!”

He threw himself forward, pretending that he meant to kick Nie Huaisang; Nie Huaisang dropped to the ground at just the right moment, and so the kick flew over his head, Jiang Cheng’s foot landing straight in the middle of Jin Guangshan’s chest just as he finished turning to see what was happening.

The force of it sent him flying backwards, which would normally be fine, something he’d be able to deal with, but he had just been standing at the head of the great staircase of Koi Tower and there was no safe place to land.

If he’d been even a little more inclined towards the martial arts, rather than devoting himself to dissolution, he would have still been able to catch himself, but as it was…

Thump.

Dead silence.

Of all people, it was the always calm and unflappable Jin Guangyao that broke first, letting out a snort and being forced to cover his mouth with his sleeves to try to prevent any further sound.

It was too late by then, of course; Nie Mingjue, who was afraid of nothing and no one, burst into full fledged laughter, coming deep from the belly, and it was so infectious and uncomplicatedly joyous a sound that everyone in the vicinity found themselves laughing along whether they found it funny or not.

Even Madame Jin’s lips were twitching so hard that Jiang Cheng briefly wondered if she was having a stroke; Jin Zixuan had buried his face into his wife’s shoulder to keep from disgracing the family, while Jiang Yanli wasn’t even pretending not to be giggling. The usually graceful Lan Xichen was clutching at his sides as if he’d abruptly developed a stitch and even the ever-expressionless Lan Wangji was actually smiling, his eyes curved into crescents, and he gave Jiang Cheng a friendly nod of approval for what might be the very first time in the entire time they’d known each other.

Jiang Cheng’s face was red from all the attention, and also maybe from laughter (thump, thump, thump, with some extra jingling sounds from all the gold Jin Guangshan was wearing), but he remembered his role in these proceedings and said, with great dignity, “Oops.”

That just set everyone off again.

“It was an accident,” he insisted, pretending like Nie Huaisang was not literally rolling on the floor laughing his head off. Just because some people had no shame didn’t mean he wasn’t conscious of his sect’s dignity, and of potential repercussions for what he’d just done on a mean impulse. “Really! I was aiming at Nie-gongzi –”

“Whatever he said to you, I’ll make it up,” Nie Mingjue wheezed. “Three times over. That was amazing.”

Jiang Cheng ducked his head. “Sect Leader Jin –”

“Should consider more exercise,” Nie Mingjue declared, his voice carrying all the way down to the foot of the stairs where Jin Guangshan, red-faced with fury, was being helped to his feet. “Or else shorter stairs. No, no, Sect Leader Jiang, this isn’t your fault at all; it’s clearly my brat of a younger brother’s – if anyone should be blamed, it’s him. Let my Nie sect answer for it.”

And that was tantamount to saying that no one would ever answer for it, what with the current tensions between the Nie and Jin sects – the Jin sect would never risk the loss of face that might happen if they asked for recompense and were rejected, or worse given something incredibly minor.

Jiang Cheng coughed into his hand. “Maybe we should all go back inside?”

As they went, he vaguely heard Jin Guangyao tell Nie Mingjue, “He’s going to want your head for that,” and Nie Mingjue say in return, “If he pressures you, tell me and I’ll kick him down the stairs again” and honestly, he really didn’t want to know.

Besides, Nie Huaisang was tugging on his arm with a grin and saying, “I’m going to tell Wei-xiong what you did!”

“No you are not.”

“I definitely am!”

#mdzs #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #madame jin #jin zixuan #jiang yanli #my fic #my fics #Anonymous

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fakeikemen · 3 years

Text

After seeing this gifset of Mo Xuanyu something has awoken in me and now I must rant about it.

Here's what I think: Jin Guangyao lied about Mo Xuanyu harassing him.

Not really gonna comment on whether he was actually queer or not because that is completely up in the air. And the things in the story that do point to mxy being queer (all in a negative light) can be disproved. This is speculative yes, but in the same way we speculate about jgy killing Jin Rusong. Jgy kept this entire incident hidden from Lan Xichen. And that’s a little weird because making himself look like a burdened suffering soul in front of lxc was one of his priorities. I don’t see why he wouldn’t weaponize this. Not saying that he has to tell everyone about how he was sexually harassed or that he is obligated to tell it to the people close to him. But lxc was a frequent guest at Lanling. And everyone and their mother at Lanling knows about the fiasco and they don’t try to hide their knowledge of it. Word had spread far enough for rogue cultivators to know. So its a little weird that Lan Xichen has no idea who Mo Xuanyu even is.

Following further in the vein of even lxc not even catching a whiff of mxy; jgy possibly isolated him from the others. Assuming that mxy was in Lanling for a year atleast and that he was brought there to make him the primary choice for succeeding Jin Guangshan it becomes just much more weirder that lxc doesn’t know him. If he had been someone who was indeed flaunting his attraction to men, (like many believe) he’d have been known.

But mxy was 14 when he was called to Lanling. He had to leave his home and go to a completely foreign place where he would be definitely looked down upon. The Mo family already had a bad public opinion. Mxy’s mother was the daughter of a servant of the Mo family. His social status might have been a bit better than jgy but not by much. I am pretty sure that mxy felt like he was walking on eggshells the whole time. It would have been way too easy for jgy to win over his trust and to isolate him from the others as someone who had a nice and reassuring presence and was also from the lower strata of society and wasn’t looking down at him. Lanling’s hostile environment would’ve definitely helped jgy with this.

And after cutting off mxy from all the other people, how easy would it have been for jgy to turn around and lie about mxy to everyone else? Jgy may not have been highly regarded by his “family” but he was keeping everything working and talking and making "connections" with other people for years now. Other people noticed and appreciated him (including Wei Wuxian in his first life time.). Jgy can also put on a good show. People would listen to him and believe him. We also know that jgy was already wary of jgs bringing in other illegitimate sons to prevent him from becoming the heir. Jgy would have definitely planned to drive mxy away since the moment he set foot in Carp tower. Mxy probably never stood a chance.

And mxy would have no one to support him or to clear his name. Because he would have only been around jgy (more reason for people to believe that he was into jgy). There was no way for people to believe that mxy was innocent.

But going back to the speculations about mxy being open/loud about being into men being the factor that makes people believe jgy; it's not possible.

The society in MDZS is homophobic. Let’s leave aside historical accuracy because MXTX clearly mentioned in the author’s note that MDZS wasn’t supposed to be historically accurate. Even Wangxian, who seem to be completely unbothered by the homophobia around them, elope and get married. As one does when their marriage is likely forbidden. Not to mention that they are both powerful individuals with immense popularity and are revered or feared by so many and no one would dare oppose them, except close family. (No but fr imagine walking up to the inventor of modao and being “eww u like guys??” and thinking that you can survive that given the reputation that the Yiling Lazhou has. And I think its pretty self explanatory by the way that no one questions Lan Wangji when he drags “mxy” around that no one dares to bring it up.) And later they are shown being apprehensive about the acceptance of their marriage. The banquet extra shows that their marriage is accepted by Gusu Lan because Wei Wuxian sits beside Lan Wangji in it, but before that lwj was called in by Lan Qiren and most probably given another earful along with the grudging acceptance and neither do the other people at the banquet look very happy about wwx’s presence there. Yes, there is also the possibility that all of this was because wwx is the “big bad” who invented modao (and this definitely contributed to the Lan clan being against the marriage as well) but if it was only that, then the prime objective should have been clearing wwx’s name and making people believe that he’s changed for the better, or something idk. But the way wangxian deal with the unacceptance of their relationship seems like the more dominant issue is homophobia.

We also have wwx using the cover of being gay to act up based on the misguided opinions that other people have about queer people (queer people being pervy predators, etc) to make others feel disgusted and make them stay away from him so that he can avoid suspicion. And it works! Because the people are homophobic.

Anyway, that leaves no room for someone from mxy’s hierarchy to walk around freely proclaiming that he likes men without being shunned. It would cut his ticket to the throne real quick as well. Whatever he was doing at Lanling, he wasn’t doing that. (Sidenote: no one in Mo village calls mxy slurs or talks about him being a predator they all seem to be preoccupied with his lunacy and not his sexuality. Which is certainly interesting to note.)

(Also there is a very neat irony in jgy lying about his half brother harassing him while he’s the one who is married to his own half sister. So yeah.)

#mo xuanyu #mdzs meta #jin guangyao #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #actually i like overthinking about mxy more than i'd like to admit #ira's posts

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grewlikefancyflowers · 3 years

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Just saw this phrase on my dash from chapter 51 "There was resentment within her heart. She simply wanted to let out the rage, even if it made no sense. All the rest were quiet as they endured her temper."

like m8 how can you think she was anything but an abuser? she was a person in power who wanted to vent her power on others, especially those who couldn't do anything about it. Her son became the exact same type of person, in the end. There is no defending any of it, not without doing abuse apologism, or victim blaming.

That quote really sums her up. MXTX makes it so clear that Madam Yu's... parenting style... is rooted in her resentment, there's no hidden tender motivations beneath her harsh words.

This doesn't just apply to Madam Yu either, the conflict of MDZS is hugely rooted in people being filled with resentment, and directing it where convenient. I don't need to say who the main culprit here is.

This even applies to WWX's actions during the SSC, which are condemned, narratively, by LWJ, and by himself later on.*

The only reason WWX is able to clear his reputation is because JGY replaced him as the cultivation worlds most convenient person to hate.

To me, something MXTX reiterates over and over in her works is that your own emotional conflicts are never an excuse to do wrong, and that being guided by your emotions is bad.

Not just resentment either, LWJ's inability to control his emotional reactions around WWX, in his behaviour when they're teenagers and the phoenix mountain kiss, are the main source of conflict between wangxian in their relationship development.

*This isn't a 'WWX is ~morally grey~ for killing people during the war take', but his actions during this time are fuelled by his rage, by his vengeance. It's not necessarily a case of him being wrong - killing and torturing for revenge aren't out of place in the setting - but rather his motivations were skewed. LWJ recognises this, that's what he finds so concerning, he thinks WWX has lost sight of his true self. LWJ doesn't have the full picture, but he's not completely wrong either.

Though WWX did vent his resentment in ways even he thinks of as excessively cruel, it never overtakes him to the point that he can't see past it - he still protects the Wens, the ones who haven't done anything to wrong him. He never directs his anger in a place that isn't justified.

#mdzs

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xiyao-feels · 3 years

Text

Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the differences between Empathy and the original—per scene and then a general reflection.

Episode 10

(episode 10 differences)

Going through this chronologically, our first comparison is the captain encounter. Honestly I think NMJ was straight-up inventing most of this—even aside from the sheer absurdity of MY, what, smuggling XY out of prison, bringing him into the middle of everything (he runs into the Captain and friend AND WWX!), XY…just going back into prison…well, anyway, putting all that aside—the Captain's questions here seem like NMJ's preoccupations, not the Captain's. The Captain is hugely contemptuous of MY, but he's not, like, obsessed with his innermost heart, you know? "You're lying! I just saw that. You were talking. Tell me honestly. What's your ulterior motive?"—that's NMJ, not the Captain at all. Plus there's the way the Captain grabs MY basically the exact same way NMJ does.

Next up there's MY telling NHS he's going to go check on XY—minor phrasing differences aside, one thing that's interesting is we don't get all of MY's reaction/decision before he tells NHS in Empathy, just the tail end:

Ahhhh, now, the bit where NMJ sees MY stab the captain! You can see here the beginning of a pattern of Empathy erasing the Wen. MY throwing himself in front of the blade to save NMJ is removed, of course, but so is NMJ fighting WZL, as he was before going to the prison in episode 10; in the Empathy he's just kind of standing there. And then sees MY, uh, creepily pick up a sword??? And follows him??? Instead of hearing that XY's escaped and running to the prison because of that, which is of course what happened in episode 10. (So XY is erased some in this scene, too; even when it comes to MY's excuses, he says It wasn't me, but we don't get to 'Xue Yang killed him', as we do in the original.)

Some other points of interest here… Of course the expression NMJ sees on MY as MY kills the captain is only shown in Empathy. Interestingly, also, while MY is quite clearly terrified at NMJ's approach in both, in episode 10 it's presented immediately, while in the Empathy he has a beat before he starts reacting that way.

The last scene—NMJ confronting MY and kicking him out of Qinghe. In the Empathy, we start with MY having been thrown onto the floor, rolling—but this isn't there in episode 10, and to be honest I think it probably didn't actually happen. First, while I can see NMJ throwing MY onto the floor, I don't actually think he'd throw him quite that hard at this point in time? And it's also got a lot of visual echoes of JGY rolling down the stairs; I think he's projecting backwards. Of course, it still takes MY longer to recover in episode 10; Empathy consistently minimizes the physical harm done to MY.

So the conversation is interesting because it's really just two different conversations in the Empathy vs episode 10. In episode 10, MY leads with the Captain's abuse of him, and he's clear that it's habitual, ongoing, long-term. In Empathy, he leads with the Captain releasing XY, /adds in/ that the Captain wanted to kill him (that's not there in episode 10!), and absolutely skips over and minimizes the abuse: the beatings aren't mentioned, the credit-stealing isn't mentioned, the insulting and humiliating… even the 'Every time' is removed from before the 'he humiliated my mother', making it seem like this was a one-off provocation instead of habitual. NMJ's somewhat unhinged rant about MY's motives, including the would you have killed everyone at the cave if I hadn't helped you, is also Empathy-only (and then when MY starts to reply NMJ is like, Don't lie to me! and MY shuts up, suggesting perhaps that a denial would have been lying, which may be part of why people think this is a remotely reasonable assertion).

Some other interesting things—in episode 10, we see NMJ lift his sabre and then lower it, unable to go through with it; in Empathy, we don't see that at all—in general I think there's less of a sense that he's struggling with his decision, in Empathy, it's more just like He Is Doing The Righteous Justice. Fascinatingly we also don't see him put Baxia away in Empathy—I think he must because we see a scene where he already had, in episode 10, but we don't actually see it. We also don't see MY, injured, get up and thank NMJ and walk out, or indeed NMJ's conflicted gaze after him; the scene cuts off too soon.

Episode 22

(episode 22 differences)

There's only one scene for episode 22: the WRH, NMJ, and MY scene, inside Sun Palace. Right off the bat, we have the Wen erasure again; the episode 22 scene starts with WRH directly addressing NMJ and tormenting him and his Nie cultivators, whereas the Empathy one only starts when MY walks in. (Although interestingly MY addresses WRH as xiandu, while he doesn't seem to say anything with his bow in episode 22).

This one is an interesting scene because there's relatively little overlap? In the episode 10 scenes, you mostly saw different versions of the same events; in this one there's some of that, but there are also large chunks of time that are only in episode 22 or only in Empathy. Most of the MY-interacting-with-NMJ is only in Empathy, including, yes, the damn sabre touch. But we do have the beginning of MY talking to NMJ in both. MY's expression is different in Episode 22 vs Empathy—it's a little hard to capture in a still, but it's a lot more, mmm, simpering-mockery in the Empathy version?

Ah, one detail that's interesting—so, in CQL—which is to say in Empathy because we don't see this sequence at all in Episode 22—when that Nie cultivator calls the place 'a den of Wen' he uses 温/温氏, for Wen, and then when people are insulting MY in this scene they're using 走狗. But in MDZS all of those are actually 温狗, Wen-dog. Which is definitely more directly disrespectful to WRH than the 走狗 insults, but I feel like in general CQL doesn't use 温狗 a lot, while in MDZS it's all over the place—so while it's an interesting detail I'm not sure it's suggestive for Empathy in particular. Hmmm.

We return to things being shown in both Empathy and Episode 22 with NMJ shoving MY back. In Empathy, we only see MY stagger a little, while in episode 22 it's quite considerable—again, Empathy's tendency to minimize the physical damage MY suffers.

And then MY kicks NMJ in return! Okay this is actually fascinating, because in Empathy, it looks like this totally wipes NMJ out, and the scene stops here. But that isn't at all what happened! He's knocked onto his back, yes, BUT he recovers and comes up and shoves MY hard enough he goes flying:

He gets up and goes to attack MY, and would probably have killed him if WRH hadn't interfered. Which, don't get me wrong, is entirely reasonable of him given his understanding of the situation but it is not at all the impression you'd get from Empathy. If anything NMJ's collapse in the Empathy after MY kicks him looks like the collapse he has after WRH finishes with him, in episode 22. And MY saying How dare you be so rude in front of Clan Leader Wen when he kicks NMJ is also removed—the whole sequence here is really another example of the removal of the Wen from the Empathy scenes.

Incidentally, MY didn't actually kill all the Nie cultivators, in this scene. If you look while MY is flying back, at least one of them is still alive:

And then you can see all four are dead while NMJ's attacking WRH:

But MY has been on the floor recovering from NMJ's attack, so he definitely didn't kill the at least one and quite probably two who are still alive.

WRH asks MY if NMJ killed Wen Xu question; you have MY staying quite noticeably silent, which I think is still meant to be understood as MY saving NMJ's life. I guess they changed it because the MDZS version really doesn't work with the flow of events as happens in CQL? For the record, in MDZS MY answers yes, but then immediately suggests that they torture him instead of killing him immediately, and then once WRH isn't set on killing him immediately, kills WRH on the spot and starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of there. So there's no WWX for distraction, and Sunshot's army definitely isn't right outside, there's only LXC he sent a message to and who hasn't quite shown up yet—so in MDZS he's taking a bigger risk, and more unambiguously saving NMJ's life and winning them the war. Which is not, to be clear, to in any way minimize CQL MY's astonishing bravery and achievements.

Episode 23

(episode 23 differences)

So in both we start with LXC holding NMJ and looking down at him. In episode 23, when NMJ sees MY, we see LXC see and notice his reaction and /then/ look over at MY in concern, whereas in Empathy we don't get that moment—it just goes to both of them looking at MY.

NMJ demands his sabre back, and in both MY complies, though in the Empathy one he takes a beat longer and looks more worried about it. In the original, MY also has "Let me explain" which is dropped from the Empathy.

In both we have NMJ attacking MY with Baxia, and trying to get past Shuoyue—in the Empathy it's a bit shorter, though, and we also lose LXC asking NMJ what he's doing this for. I think that goes with cutting LXC seeing NMJ react before he looks over at MY, above; the effect is to make NMJ's response seem more obvious/natural, when in fact LXC is pretty baffled by it at the time.

"he became the Wen's underling and had been helping the tyrant at Nevernight!"—the language on 'became the Wen's underling' is actually different in episode 23 vs Empathy. In episode 23, you have 原来投靠了温氏; in Empathy, though, it's 原来是做了走狗. Note the 走狗 as earlier!

Okay, and now the big one: LXC giving NMJ reasons they should trust MY/not kill him. Empathy cuts most of this. It keeps that MY is the one who sent the map, but it drops: that the reason LXC is here today is because MY sent him a message; that MY was the one who schemed to get WRH's guard down, and then /killed him/; that MY was the one who saved LXC's life after CR burned; and that MY independently approached WRH to spy on him and has been sending LXC letters the whole time. /That's really not trivial. That's a lot to cut./

I wonder if this has any relation to the common idea that LXC did not in fact have a lot of very good reasons to trust JGY.

(Incidentally it's after the MY killed WRH reveal, in episode 23, that NMJ lowers his blade.)

...also. so. In episode 23 LXC asks MY, you know, didn't he already tell NMJ about all this (a question which makes a lot more sense in MDZS, where NMJ has already woken up before LXC joins them, but I just run with it), and MY says, you saw it ZWJ, even if I had he wouldn't have believed me. And NMJ—again it's kind of hard to capture in a still, but he pretty much reacts like he thinks that's ridiculous and MY is just making excuses/being manipulative?

And then of course that gets erased from the Empathy, as well as as just mentioned most of the reasons LXC actually gave. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, this also means it cuts what I'm pretty sure is the first on-screen use of A-Yao—it does show up later in the Empathy version of this scene, so I don't think that's hugely significant, but just as a note.

Then there's MY kneeling in preparation for apology, which is in both Empathy and episode 23. The Empathy cuts make it seem like he kneels pretty much right after NMJ lowers his blade, though, and we don't get to see him making the deliberate choice to step out if LXC's protection to kneel—again, I think it makes LXC seem more understanding of NMJ than he actually is here.

The apology proper is only in Empathy; honestly it mostly seems fairly reasonable to me, although it does mean you only hear LXC saying "But I believe, when he was doing such things, deep in his heart he must have been…" after the version that cuts most of his reasons for believing that. In terms of actual changes, I wonder if LXC reacted more quickly/strongly to the bit where it looks like NMJ is actually going to kill MY? It's definitely more understated than his previous reactions, and it would fit with the other changes made.

Last scene: the oath. At this point I think it's fairly well-known that NMJ looking at JGY, and LXC turning his head to look at them both, is only in Empathy—there's also, maybe?, a small change to the text; in episode 23, "Both God and people will be furious with us" is 天人共怒, but in Empathy it's 天人共戮. I say maybe because—on the one hand, the subs definitely use a different character, and it's in both the YT subs and the Netflix subs even though those aren't always 100% identical, but while I'm not usually checking the audio for this I did here because it's just the one character and the audio pretty much sounds the same to me? (ep 23) (Empathy) Could just be my ear, or a mistake on the subs' part or the audio part, who knows.

Overview

Looking at all the changes together, a few patterns emerge.

First, people who are doing damage who aren't JGY—the Wen, XY—tend to get minimized or erased from the narrative. Similarly and to some extent as a result, the harm caused by JGY is exaggerated; also similarly, the good that JGY does is also minimized or erased. Meanwhile, the damage done /to/ JGY is minimized—both the environment of abuse he suffered at Qinghe, and the physical harm done to him, which he usually recovers from much more quickly in Empathy (even when the attack itself is made stronger as, unusually, it is in the confrontation where NMJ kicks MY out of Qinghe). Finally MY is made more manipulative than he necessarily is; while I'm not saying he's never being manipulative, NMJ understands his expressions of weakness as /purely/ manipulative and inherently false, when in fact the weakness MY expresses is very real, however calculated, or not!, its expression may be.

Honestly—in this JGY who does way more harm and way less good than he actually does, who is more powerful and experiences less damage than he actually does, who is never actually weak but only acting that way to manipulate people? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of where popular takes on JGY come from.

#long meta #more than one tag could contain

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vespertineflora · 3 years

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Title: we’re family now, aren’t we?

Rating: G Summary: Jin Ling was nearly three weeks old, and in that time, Jin Guangyao hadn't yet been allowed to hold his nephew, despite very desperately wanting to. Jiang Yanli thought it was time to change that. (2.5k, h/c and family feels)

@goddamnshinyrock drew this heartwrenching art and i couldn’t accept the hurt so i needed to let jgy hold baby!!!!!!!!! (by proxy of jiang yanli, whom i love)

~~~

“Xiao-shu!”

The name being thrown in Jin Guangyao’s direction made him pause mid-step as he’d hurried across the courtyard, hopping from one set of chores to another as was ever the case for him. Of course, he knew it was Jiang Yanli before he even turned to look, the same placating smile he’d long since grown used to wearing rising to his lips without a thought.

Jiang Yanli was resting comfortably on a bench in the small pavilion nearby, a bundle of blankets in her arms that most certainly contained a particular infant. The smile on her own lips was open and warm, authentic enough to extend that same warmth to her eyes as she looked at him.

Jin Guangyao couldn’t begin to guess why he was being called, but he approached Jiang Yanli regardless, stepped up to the outside of the pavilion as he asked, “Is there something I can get for you, Saosao?”

Upon her arrival in Carp Tower, Jin Guangyao had tried to address her properly as a lady of the sect, the wife of the sect heir, but she’d refuted such a title from him almost immediately. Jiang Yanli had insisted that he was her husband’s younger brother, and she his brother’s wife, and that they should address each other as such, which had been... rather baffling to him. She’d come to live in Carp Tower several months after he had, but of the two of them, there was no question in Jin Guangyao’s mind as to who was more welcome there. Jin Guangyao knew his place, knew where he stood in the eyes of his father and Jin-furen (despite his continual efforts to change this), and knew that Jiang Yanli’s place in the family was more secure than his own.

In spite of Jin Guangyao’s instincts telling him that actually indulging the idea that they were family was most certainly doomed to tragedy, he had sensed her determination and decided it was better not to argue with her.

“No, no,” she said with a faint shake of her head. “I just wanted to know if you had a few moments to spare. If you’re busy, I don’t want to disturb you.”

Continue Reading on AO3 or below the cut

Jin Guangyao might have laughed if he were in a better mood; he wasn’t sure a day went by where he wasn’t busy, honestly, but... it was almost because the work never seemed to end that it wouldn’t truly matter if he dropped everything to indulge whatever it was that Jiang Yanli needed from him, even if he couldn’t imagine what that might be.

The two of them... hadn’t actually spoken much in the near-year since her marriage to Jin Zixuan. Not only was the difference between their places in the sect enough reason for their paths to cross only occasionally, but Jiang Yanli’s health had been precarious during the pregnancy, and for the last several months, she’d only left her bedroom for fresh air and to have the occasional dinner with the family. He had been instructed to bring things to her room from time to time, but beyond such small exchanges, Jin Guangyao hadn’t really had a conversation with her, and he’d most certainly never spoken to her in private beyond perhaps the exchange of a few words.

Even still, Jin Guangyao could... sense how different she was from everyone else living in Carp Tower. His personal experience with her was limited, but he’d seen the sweet way she interacted with the family, and even how companionable she was to the servants, who were more so used to being ordered around or ignored as they worked. There was a sincerity and a gentleness to her nature that didn’t seem to belong within the walls of Carp Tower.

Maybe it was that, more than anything, that made Jiang Yanli a bit of an enigma to him. Kindness was something Jin Guangyao had so rarely encountered that he had difficultly accepting it at face value. Beyond the kindness he’d learned to expect from Lan Xichen, he wasn’t used to seeing it (and was even less used to receiving it).

“I have a few moments,” he told her, still having no idea what she could want.

“Oh, wonderful!” The smile on her lips only grew as she adjusted her position on the bench, shifting to one half of it, while motioning to the spot beside her as she insisted, “Come, sit.”

Jin Guangyao hesitated just a second, almost certain this would be a trap of some sort if he was dealing with anyone else, before he gave in, crossing the small pavilion and taking a seat on the bench next to her. His eyes naturally fell to the boy being cradled in her arms, fell to his dark eyes open with wonder, his round little cheeks, his tiny fingers curled up near his mouth as he gummed on them inquisitively. Almost immediately, Jin Guangyao could feel a tug somewhere near his heart just from looking at the sweet child, but he swallowed hard against it, and forced himself to look back up at Jiang Yanli, tried to push past the faint tightness in his throat to ask what it was he was here for when...

When he noticed the way she was leaning in to him, extending her arms towards him as if she was trying to hand him...

He hadn’t held Jin Ling yet. The boy was nearly three weeks old now, and had been passed through the arms of nearly every member of the family, and a majority of the servants... but the one time Jin Guangyao had offered to take Jin Ling from his father and back to his room... Jin Guangshan had denied him immediately. In the time since, Jin Guangyao had felt... almost like Jin Ling was somehow off limits to him. For as much as there was a part of him desperate to be close to the boy that was supposed to be his nephew, Jin Guangyao had been made to feel like he could only look on from a distance, had only felt the isolation from his place in the Jin family all the more harshly. Ever since, he’d tried to stayed back, tried to pretend that looking at the baby he’d been forbidden from touching didn’t feel like taking a knife to the chest, because if he were ever going to earn his father’s love, he needed to at least respect his wishes in regards to this.

He’d hoped rather fruitlessly that... he could convince himself that staying away from Jin Ling had been his own choice, and that that could somehow quell the ache in his heart every time he saw him.

“Put your arms out a little more,” Jiang Yanli instructed him gently, meeting his gaze as she asked, “You wanted to hold him, didn’t you?”

There was a lump forming in Jin Guangyao’s throat that he couldn’t seem to swallow, so he just nodded numbly, and moved as he’d been told to, letting Jiang Yanli carefully shift the tiny bundle into his arms.

It... it wasn’t the first time he’d held a baby. Though it wasn’t an experience he’d had frequently, he’d had more than a handful of moments in his life when he’d had some reason to pick up an infant: he hadn’t been the only child born in the brothel, though he was the only one who hadn’t been quietly whisked away by their father; in the Unclean Realm, there’d been hardly any duty he hadn’t helped with at some point; during the war, he’d helped more than one mother carry her baby away from the danger of a nearby battlefield. As soon as the weight of Jin Ling’s tiny body was in his arms, the shift was almost natural to him, taking just a few seconds to hold him to his chest as he adjusted his arm properly to support his head and neck...

But holding a baby had never felt like this before. Jin Guangyao had never felt such a swell of warmth and love like the one that was bowling over him now, had never felt his eyes prickling with tears like this. He felt overwhelmed by the weight of the baby in his arm, by how small Jin Ling was, by his wide, open eyes, staring up at him with a sort of curiosity, by...

“A-Ling,” Jiang Yanli cooed next to him, leaning in a bit closer. Her hand rested casually at Jin Guangyao’s elbow and she reached over with the other hand to rub her finger against Jin Ling’s chubby little arm as she said sweetly, “Say hello to your shushu, A-Ling.”

He was holding his nephew. Maybe his own father didn’t want to acknowledge what he was, but... blood was blood and there was no changing it. Jin Guangshan was his father, Jin Zixuan was his brother, and Jin Ling... Jin Ling was his nephew.

After Jin Guangyao’s mother had died, he’d followed her wishes all the way to Carp Tower, only to be violently turned away... and in all the time since his father had officially accepted him into the Jin Sect and given him a new name, he’d done nothing but try to please him, nothing but try to earn the respect and recognition that he’d been told should be his by the nature of his birth. Nothing he’d done so far had seemed to earn that from Jin Guangshan, and Jin Guangyao wasn’t going to stop trying but...

Jin Zixuan had been awkward and distant with him at first, as if unwilling to talk to him, or just unsure how to go about it, but now, in recent months, he’d taken to calling him A-Yao, thinking of him as his brother, and that... that wasn’t meaningless to Jin Guangyao. It wasn’t what Jin Guangyao had been fighting for or expecting, and it didn’t save him from needing Jin Guangshan’s approval, but it was something, it was a start, it was more than Jin Guangyao had had before, and now... Jiang Yanli had decided to recognize him as well, she had accepted his place as Jin Zixuan’s brother more easily than anyone, and Jin Guangyao suddenly found himself all the more grateful for that...

Because it seemed like, as long as Jiang Yanli had any say in it, Jin Ling would grow up knowing exactly who Jin Guangyao was to him.

Maybe it wasn’t what he’d come to Carp Tower hoping for all those years ago, but... in the end, the one thing that Jin Guangyao had wanted the most was family--and it seemed like Jin Ling would be raised in a world where he knew, without a doubt, that Jin Guangyao was his uncle.

Before Jin Guangyao had even realized what was happening, he felt the warm wetness of tears rolling down his cheeks--he was immediately shocked and embarrassed to be crying, and even more embarrassed to be crying in front of Jiang Yanli. He quickly tried to swallow the rest of his tears, even though it was impossible to reverse the ones that had already fallen and take back the raw display of emotion that he usually kept under such tight control. As discreetly as he could, he lifted the arm that wasn’t supporting Jin Ling to quickly wipe the moisture from each cheek, before letting his hand fall to gently touch Jin Ling’s arm and lightly stroke the back of his hand with a finger.

If Jiang Yanli noticed that he’d been crying, she was kind enough not to mention it.

They sat together quietly like that for a few minutes, Jin Guangyao coaxing himself through a few slow breaths until he could feel his emotions leveling out once more, until he felt calmer and more able to actually focus on the baby in his arms. Soon, the expression on his face had softened into a genuine smile as he rubbed his finger against Jin Ling’s round cheeks, brushed it against his little nose, stroked the back of his hand again, just feeling... strangely at peace for a few moments as he indulged in holding his tiny nephew.

At some point, Jin Ling’s little hand wrapped around it, squeezing it with the surprising strength infants had and dragging it to his mouth to suck on his fingertip--if Jin Guangyao hadn’t already felt attached to Jin Ling, that alone would have been enough to win him over completely.

“I think he might be getting hungry,” Jin Guangyao commented softly, his voice cracking just the faintest bit from the moisture leftover in his throat.

“It’s been a couple hours since he ate, so I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jiang Yanli replied with a soft laugh, playfully pinching at Jin Ling’s foot through the blanket and making him kick his leg as a smile curled at the corner of his lips.

Even still, they sat quietly together for another minute, before Jiang Yanli finally reached for Jin Ling, slowly shuffling him back into her arms as she said, “Xiao-shu, I had no idea you were so good with babies.” Her voice was overflowing with a warmth that made Jin Guangyao’s softened heart feel even softer. “I think A-Ling likes you very much. You’ll have to come spend more time with him from now on.”

Jiang Yanli didn’t have to say it any more plainly than that for him to understand what she was doing. In an instant, it was clear just how much she’d been paying attention. Either she knew what Jin Guangshan had done with him and Jin ling, or she at least knew that Jin Guangyao had been keeping his distance for a reason other than his own desire to do so. In the most graceful way possible, without touching on anything that would have caused Jin Guangyao greater embarrassment to have brought up, she’d found her own way to extend to him a solid invitation into their lives.

Jin Guangyao wasn’t sure anyone had ever done something to make him feel so included, especially not here in Carp Tower; he found himself speechless for a moment as she pushed herself up gingerly from her seat, taking a moment to adjust her hold on Jin Ling.

When Jin Guangyao did finally find his voice, all he could manage to get out was a slightly stunned, “Thank you, Saosao.”

He wasn’t sure he had the words to express how grateful he was, but he had a feeling that Jiang Yanli would understand him anyway.

The smile that settled on her lips was somehow even warmer than before, and with a degree of sincerity and affection that he could only dream of expressing, she said, “Of course, Xiao-shu. We’re family now, aren’t we?”

Without waiting for him to answer, she gave Jin Guangyao a little nod before she turned and headed back towards her room with Jin Ling.

Jin Guangyao took another few quiet moments to himself, letting the even rhythm of his breathing lead him past the erratic emotions of the last few minutes, reflecting warmly on what it was like to hold his nephew in his arms... and how nice it felt to think about getting to do it again sometime.

A quiet smile lingered on his lips for as long as he let himself linger on the moment... until he finally huffed out a soft breath, rose to his feet, and carried on with the rest of his day’s work.

#vesper posts #jin guangyao #jiang yanli #jin ling #mdzs #mdzs fic #cql #cql fic #the untamed #the untamed fanfic #mo dao zu shi #family

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watch-grok-brainrot · 4 years

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Wei Wuxian and Chinese Virtues of 忠孝仁义

There’s a lot of conversation about Wei Wuxian and how he struck out on his path without a concern for the Jiangs; about how he’s reckless and not giving a sh*t about his role within his society; about how he had a family and siblings and threw it all away for his sense of right and wrong. But the way I read his actions is within the context of the virtues of 忠孝仁义 (and how the virtues, especially 义, is ingrained in him via the Jiang sect motto). WWX’s major decisions can all be read as him acting in accordance with one or more of these virtues. Even when WWX is being his most irreverent self (and yes he’s rude and bring about a lot of second hand shame) he still remembers the we-self (to borrow from baoshan-sanren’s post) context as the head disciple of the Jiang Sect. Even when he seems to abandon everything, he didn’t abandon his understanding of these virtues.

First of all, let’s talk about 忠. 忠 (zhōng) is loyalty, devotion, fidelity. I usually associate the concept with loyalty towards your country but it can be applied to other units too. In the case of CQL where we don’t see an Emperor or country, it would only make sense that this concept be applied to either a person (e.g. SuShe at JGY) or a sect.

Tangent, feel free to skip: An (maybe THE) embodiment of this virtue is 岳飞 (Yue Fei), one of THE MOST famous Chinese generals. Yue Fei lived during the second half of the Song dynasty. He loved his country so much, he wrote poetry about drinking his enemy’s blood and eating their flesh (壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血) and taking back his country’s lands and saving the two previous emperors from being POWs. He is famous for the tattoo of the words “尽忠报国” (exhausting all loyalties to replay country aka i will be loyal and fight for my country until i die) on his back bestowed by his mother before he left home. When he was unjustly executed for treason, the executioners saw that on his back and the people knew a great man was wronged.

(if anyone wants a translation of the poem and a rambly share about some of my favorite Yue Fei related facts/stories, let me know. Otherwise, i’m gonna get back to our favorite necromancer)

So back to WWX. His loyalties are very much with the Jiang sect. After JFM and YZY dies, within the structure of 忠, Jiang Cheng is effectively who he needs to be loyal to because Jiang Cheng is the sect leader and essentially the symbol of the sect. The act of giving up his core to JC, then, embodies the idea of loyalty within the context of 忠. (I’ve seen memes about how WWX gave consent, WQ gave consent, but JC didn’t. drwcn has a great post about consent. For this post, i’m not going to go into it because this is outside my defined scope.) Furthermore, 忠 compels WWX to protect the Jiangs. I’ve read meta that thinks WWX was trying to get himself killed based on the crossing of his hanfu and his mouthing off at Wen Chao. I’m inclined to believe that reading because if dying means JC would never find out, so be it. And as long as WWX is dead, there will be no evidence of the core transfer so JC would never lose face before other cultivators. It would mean the Jiang sect can be rebuilt to its old status without being tainted by WWX’s sacrifice.

Ok, next is ��. 孝 (xiào) is most often translated as filial piety. I don’t think there is a good sense of it in western culture. In chinese culture, it is the expected deference younger generations need to display to elders in their direct lineage. [Note: i use lineage because you can be 孝 towards your biological parents and grandparents, your kungfu master and their master, your adopted/honor bound parents, etc but not to everyone who is in a higher generation. It’s very family/lineage based.] 孝 is complicated because it’s ingrained into Chinese kids at a really young age. Go pour your grandparents tea. Go give your grandparents a back rub. Listen to your parents. When your parents get old, you’ll take care of them. Respect your elders. Even if your elders are wrong, don’t talk back. It’s a set of emotions that tie you to your ancestry. To turn your back on it feels like turning your back on your culture and identity.

Tangent, feel free to skip: Ok, this is really cool and I had to share. In looking up 孝 in the online xinhua dictionary, it says about the etymology: “形声。从老省，从子。” This is so cool! We have two characters: 老 (old, as in Yiling Laozu) and 子 (child). You’ll notice 孝 is a character where to top part of 老 is taken and 子 essentially follows. This character is a style of character where the meaning comes from the structure of the character. So 孝 is where the children follow the old, often blindly and with disregard of their own needs.

WWX, as an orphan, can only direct his 孝 towards Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. 1) No matter how awful they were as parents, JFM and YZY raised WWX. 2) WWX is the head disciple. That means JFM is his shifu. [He calls JC his shidi and JYL his shijie for that reason.] That teacher-disciple relation is often described as “一日为师,终生为父” (a teacher for one day should be treated like a father for life). Both 1 and 2 bind WWX to the Jiangs regardless of his adoption status. So, when on the boat YZY and JFM tell WWX to take care of JC and JYL, it’s the order of an elder in his direct lineage. To not listen, to not defer to that order would not be 孝. Considering they perished at Lotus Pier, WWX was obligated to execute those orders to their fullest whatever the price (i.e. golden core).

Along those same lines, out of 孝 (and human decency, tbh) WWX and JC had to retrieve JFM and YZY’s bodies. Wen Ning helping them out in that situation is a HUGE favor. Not to mention all the other things WN and Wen Qing does for them. I will get to the favors and their ramifications later.

Ok, moving on to 仁. 仁 (rén) is most often translated as benevolence or humanity. (I want to say I find the translation of humanity very interesting from a bilingual child’s perspective because the chinese character for person/human is 人 which is also rén. I got the concept confused a LOT.) 仁 is found in the love and kindness shown towards fellow humans. Ctext often translates it as virtue, which is a bit too broad, IMO. I think this line from Confucian Analects explain the concept succinctly:

樊遲問仁。子曰：”愛人”

Fan Chi asked about benevolence [仁]. Confucius said, "It is to love all men."

WWX embodies this love better than everyone else in the story (except maybe LSZ but LSZ probably gets it from WWX). WWX meets stuttering WN and acknowledges him, offers to give advice, and truly sees the younger man. He treats WN with kindness and friendship (and yes, he takes advantage of WN’s willingness to push him around in a turnip wagon but that’s more shenanigans). WWX also sees the Wens at Phoenix Mountain as human and steps out of line to help them. His blindfolded five arrow show stems out of his 仁. His saving Mianmian is also an expression of his 仁. So many of WWX’s actions stem from 仁. A lot of the fandom see it as his empathy and I agree! It is that! But it can also be viewed as his internalization of the virtue to love humanity.

Finally, 义. 义 (義,yì) is actually the reason this ENTIRE post came to be. 义 is the same 义 as Yi City. I offer the traditional version of the character above so you can see how it compares to the stone on the way to Yi City. You will recall when WWX says Yi City, LWJ asks, “Yi, which means chivalrous?” And WWX explains same character but for coffin/mortuary in this case.

Actually, 义 is used in a lot of words:

正义- correct/rigit + 义 = righteousness

意义 - ideal + 义 = meaning

侠义 - knight -errant + 义 = chivalry

义气 - 义 + air = personal loyalty; code of brotherhood

名义- name + 义 = nominal

义父 - 义 + father = sworn father (this is a difficult to translate idea that sometimes i translate as godfather for simplification and cultural parallelism. it’s a parent figure that you acknowledge via vows. If the character for father is replaced with brother, then it’s the relationship that the 3zun have. And OMG i want to talk about the 3zun and romance of 3 kingdoms and how much of a awful un-义 person JGY is… but also holy out of scope batman)

In the case of virtues/morality, we’re looking at 义气 - the 义 that means loyalty to people and a code of brotherhood. The Jiang Sect ancestor is described as a 游侠 (yóu xiá, wandering hero). The ancestor’s identity as a 侠 (xiá), which indicates a highly skilled martial artist/fighter who will defends others (à la wuXIA and xianXIA), places him within the world of 江湖 (jiāng hú, sometimes translated as rivers and lakes or “pugilistic world” in some wuxia subtitles). In 江湖, 义 is the most important virtue. Based on 义, you help those in need. You stand out and do what is right. You are an outlaw that follows a strict moral code. 义 is the foundation of the Jiang Sect’s motto. Furthermore, the idea of 义气 can in some ways be viewed as currency. You do me a favor, I owe you one. You treat me with decency, I return the favor. You DO NOT return kindness with ill intent. It is taboo.

WWX exemplifies 义. 义 is part of what makes him so lovable and reckless. For 义 , he sticks out his neck for LWJ during Wen Summer Camp. For 义, he follows LWJ to search for the Yin Iron. Under 义 , he is free to be the hero who lends a hand whenever it’s needed. Oftentimes, 仁 and 义 go hand in hand because to stand up and stand out for other requires love of others and seeing their humanity.

So let’s get back to the Wen remnants: for 义, WWX must protect WN and WQ. As I mentioned before, WN and WQ had done WWX and JC (and thus the Jiang Sect as a whole) MULTIPLE HUGE FAVORS. 1) saving JC from Wen Chao at Lotus Pier. 2) retrieving JFM and YZY’s bodies. 3) transferring the golden core against WQ’s best judgement. All of these actions are so vital to the survival or the reputation of the Jiang Sect. WWX knows it. I’m positive JC knows it. To turn their backs on WN and WQ would be 不仁不义 (neither 仁 nor 义). Really, the ONLY thing they should be doing from the perspective of 义 is helping the Wens to repay their kindness. But WWX knows, as the head disciple, that JC cannot afford to align the Jiang Sect in sympathy with the Wens because it’s political suicide. The Jiang Sect WILL NOT SURVIVE if Nie, Jin, and Lan all turn against them. Even if Lan stood neutral, Nie and Jin would still be able to wipe out barely rebuilt Jiang.

So what does WWX do? He has already painted himself as a rebel, as rude, as ill bred. And from an outsider looking in, WWX is in alignment with his slippery descend into darkness. WWX knows if he steps just a little more out of line, he can accomplish everything else his morality dictates. (We could talk about WHY WWX feels like it’s ok for him to give up everything and analyze WWX’s self worth and what not. But that’s also outside the scope of this post and i’m pretty sure other people have done a better job of it than I could.)

Save the Wens, run away to the Burial Mounds, and defecting are all aligned with WWX’s morals. Defecting protects JC and the Jiangs sect in an act of loyalty (忠). Defecting also protects JC and JYL, thus fulfilling the filial piety toward YZY and JFM’s instructions (孝). Saving the Wens returns the debt of 义 that JC and WWX owe to WN and WQ. Saving the Wens also appeal to WWX’s sense of 仁 towards the non-cultivators. Lastly, protecting the Wens means JC does not end up 不仁不义. From WWX’s perspective his actions are the only option for him to really have no regrets when he asks his heart.

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