Chengxian - Blog Posts

hiii! for the ask game, an au where jc gets de-aged post-canon to his freshly traumatized 17 year old self? playing happy family in cloud recesses, wwx is brutally pulled out of his ‘the past is in the past’ bubble when he finds out. for extra knives, maybe wn tells him

1. I think it should be JL, and not WN, who tells WWX. JL is invested in JC (and in JC and WWX’s relationship)! WN is mostly invested in #getwreckedSLJ.

WWX doesn't really understand what JL expects of him - WWX’s heart leaped when he understood the content of JL’s letter, and his belly twisted as though he was going to be sick, but he managed to calm down enough to write a reassuring letter back to JL. (Surely that was what JL expected, right?) WWX had to sit on his own hands to keep from doing something stupid like grabbing a sword and flying off, and then he had to ask to LWJ to distract him, because it keeps buzzing, buzzing under his skin.

There's no new letter from JL. WWX forces himself to think it means everything went back to normal. And makes himself distracted (he loves his husband!) before his mind trips down the path of what if not. (JL wouldn't write then. He'd show up.)

2. There’s no second letter but JL shows up. WWX, who's been thinking that there was no reason for JL to come but if things had gone worst with JC, doesn't know what he looks like when he sees JL and doesn't really register the sound of people sliding their swords out.

“You have to come, why didn't you come! I had to leave jiujiu because you weren't coming, and I'm going to have to return to Jinlintai once I’ve brought you back, so grab your things, shibo. Oh, you don't need to take much, LP will put you up with what you need. What matters is going back so jiujiu can see you.”

JC is alive. JC is alive. Once the news break through the dull rushing sound in WWX’s ears, tension he didn't know had frozen his body seeps away.

The Jin disciple accompanying JL puts his sword away, under the misapprehension that WWX isn't ready to leave right away. LWJ says WWX’s name and presses his arm, and WWX nods fiercely. No time to waste, is there? Now JC wants him there.

3. There’s a disciple of YMJ as a welcoming committee when they fly down, or maybe two; WWX doesn't pay attention, he leaves JL and LWJ to deal with them - “hey, wait!” JL yelps, “do you even know where you’re going?”

WWX’s feet slow, stop. LP is changed. WWX isn't even sure JC left the infirmary where it once was.

JL catches up with an annoyed, worried huff. He sounds just like JC. “Here, this way.”

4. JC looks– JC looks.

WWX’s legs give up from under him.

JC looks at him with an intense frown, features almost twisted in desperation - WWX’s name on his lips. WWX scrambles on the ground, knees banging on the polished wood, fingers feverishly untangled as he reaches for the long-lost shape of WWX’s shidi, crumpled as discarded hopes, slight as a memory.

“You– why are you here?” JC's words fall like stones on WWX’s bones before WWX can reassure himself JC’s real. “They told me you live in Gusu. You don't even look like yourself, why did you come back?”

How like JC! One thousand words to cut through WWX like one thousand blades. WWX ignores him, fists his hands in JC's robes, presses his face against JC’s thighs. He needs to feel the warmth of JC’s body, make sure he’s not a ghost, not a dream.

JC's hand on his shoulder, shaking. WWX is suddenly reminded of JC’s hands pushing him down, this same JC throttling him. It feels like the last time they touched, did JC ever touch him after that, did WWX let him?

5. “I’ll fix it – I promise, JC, I’ll make it right,” WWX breathes, recklessly, helplessly. How easy it is to fall back into these old, dizzying habits!

JC’s eyes are full of shattered distrust and cloudy hopes, like he’s been told WWX lies, like he still believes WWX first.

The lack of a meaningful relationship in the past for wangxian, has made me a chengxian shipper (imo that's why so much vitriol against jc)

oh my god anon. anon.

this genuinely never occurred to me before, because I am highly indifferent to shipping and forget that it is a life-or-death situation in other corners of fandom, and so I have been sitting here figuring that oh, they just hate JC because they have no reading or viewing comprehension and think he hates WWX

BUT I THINK YOU'RE RIGHT

BECAUSE JC IS A REMINDER OF WWX'S LIFE BEYOND LWJ

and the enmeshment and shared history the two of them have going on is something that LWJ does not and cannot share, because it happened already! it is written! it's done! whereas Wangxian's current shared story theoretically could include JC unless pains are taken to keep him out.

I'm not sure if tumblr allows any kind of hornee content now

Anyways, drawing hands SUCKS

I truly believe Wei Wuxian wouldn't be able to live in a world where there is no Jiang Cheng. Throughout his life Jiang Cheng has always been a presence there, a figure that bleeds into the background on mundane days and outshines even the sun on the brightest. Wei Wuxian has always lived with the knowledge that Jiang Cheng was safe somewhere.

Even when he's Yiling Laozu, in the back of his mind he knows Jiang Cheng is out there, breathing, fighting. He sees him often despite exiling himself, has Jiang Cheng practically knocking on his front door even when the world sees them as enemies.

And even when he comes back as Mo Xuanyu, Jiang Cheng lurks in the background. He knows by filtered gossip that Jiang Cheng is safe, that he's in the highest position to be so, that the core that spins in him has kept that promise of protection. Wei Wuxian can keep his distance because he knows Jiang Cheng can protect himself, understands that being around him would only cause more pain for them both.

And yet if harm came Jiang Cheng's way, no matter how far across the land Wei Wuxian was, he'd know and he'd come running.

And if Jiang Cheng died then Yiling Laozu would show himself again.

Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, has to live. It's not just his pride that keeps him alive but his honour for his family, his sect. He cannot let his own life end when he needs to avenge theirs, when he holds a little Jin Ling in his arms and knows he needs to protect that child. But the death of Wei Wuxian? That kills his spirit, takes a small part of who he is away. That's the reason why he continues to hunt Demonic Cultivators, why he tries to reason with himself that Wei Wuxian isn't dead, that there's a way to find him, bring him back kicking and screaming if he has to. Jiang Cheng refuses to acknowledge the death of Wei Wuxian because if he does then that means it's real, right? And Jiang Cheng would have to live with the knowledge that the only last person to know who he was, Jiang Cheng and not Sandu Shengshou, A-Cheng and not Jiang-Zongzhu, was truly utterly gone.

They really are the soulmates born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

woke up today with a mighty urge to put chengxian in a haunted house

'replacing jc in someone's affection' I am crying! wwx doesn't do it once but twice! It's fascinating! Also, this makes me understand why some people, reading the novel, come to the conclusion that wwx doesn't care anymore about jc. Yeah, it's a valid interpretation!

Listen, I just rotated, and rotated, and rotated this scenario (—because, like, both child and adult Wei Wuxian are sincerely in need of support and affection, but I think receiving it as a child while it was withheld from someone he loved, what might have seemed like taking it away from someone who also needed it, also contributed to his boundary problems and self-sacrificial tendencies and eventual resentment—like he needs it but it hurts someone he loves deeply when he gets it but he still needs it, how can he reconcile these conflicting truths?? OK I will stop now—) and, uh, have a tiny little sketch of that zhanchengxian fic concept below, with which I will exorcise my sad past chengxian/past zhancheng/current wangxian thoughts.

It was going to be a perfect triple triple drabble but I needed 80 more words in the centre section to describe Jiang Cheng's tears. You know how it is.

Pursued by Lesser Ghosts

At first he was busy and grateful for it.

Then, Jin Ling settled, elders cowed, sect in order, Jiang Cheng was forced to returned to Lotus Pier. Empty, now.

His sect ran as it always did. He slept poorly. He dreamed often. He walked up and down the pier at night, pursued by lesser ghosts, echoes of people who were alive, just gone. His own life closed around him as tight as any noose, one long merciless sequence of work, sleep, work.

He had a minor qi deviation.

“Go back to dual cultivation,” said the doctor.

“That’s no longer possible,” he said.

The doctor looked up. When Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything else, she said, “Well. Come here for acupuncture once a week. Consider visiting Jin Ling.”

Relax, she didn’t bother to say.

Jiang Ping, his one surviving cousin, took tea with him, and said: “I know things have been stressful. Perhaps you would consider marriage now?”

“I didn’t think marriage was relaxing,” said Jiang Cheng, drily.

“It can be. After everything, well… it’s nice to have someone there.” Jiang Ping looked up, thinking. “Having someone there and working a lot. I don’t think it’s possible for Sect Leader to work harder, so you’ll have to try the other thing.”

Jiang Cheng let out a snort despite himself. Jiang Ping grinned at him.

He could get married, he supposed. What was there to prevent him?

He didn’t call for a matchmaker. He worked harder, kept himself so busy he could hardly think, but at night, laying in his bed, he ached with loneliness before sleep. And in sleep, he saw them, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian both, invariably walking away from him, hand in hand.

Sometimes he was silent; sometimes he called to them. It didn’t matter. They never turned around.

-

In Wei Wuxian’s dream, it was high summer, air as thick as syrup, and he was lying under the trees along the riverbank with his head in Jiang Cheng’s lap.

Above him, Jiang Cheng was eating tanghulu. Playfully, Wei Wuxian opened his mouth like a baby bird, and Jiang Cheng, rolling his eyes, took a piece of fruit and fed it to him, red and almost glowing. His index finger brushed against Wei Wuxian’s mouth.

Sometimes, he dreamed and he didn’t know whether it was just a dream or a fragment of a memory. He thought this might have happened—he faintly remembered begging Jiang Cheng to let him rest his head in his lap, across his narrow, muscled thighs.

Suddenly it was night, and Jiang Cheng was gone.

“Jiang Cheng?” called Wei Wuxian, and found his voice was a child’s voice, high-pitched and nervous. “Jiang Cheng?”

He rushed through Lotus Pier, now dark and empty, towards Jiang Cheng’s room. Then, in the way of dreams, Jiang Cheng was in front of him, a child again, too, face swollen with tears as he wept alone on the pier.

Wei Wuxian froze, panicked.

Someone picked him up; Uncle Jiang had appeared. But instead of saying anything, he turned and walked away. “Uncle Jiang,” Wei Wuxian whispered, but Jiang Fengmian didn’t respond.

All Wei Wuxian could do was look over Uncle Jiang’s shoulder at Jiang Cheng, at his crumpled, sobbing face. You don’t understand, he thought, suddenly, I love you but I need this, I need it, I need it.

That face changed again, blurred into Jiang Cheng's adult face, still weeping as he knelt on the pier. And then the strong arms around him weren’t Uncle Jiang’s but Lan Zhan’s, holding him tight in a bridal carry, taking him away as he squirmed to look back, to not look away from Jiang Cheng’s face, they had been so happy only a moment ago—

Wei Wuxian woke late, his face wet. Went to look for a handkerchief. Opened a drawer he hadn’t looked in before to find: two purple hair ribbons. An open jar of salve, carved with the insignia of a well-known Yunmeng herbalist. And a lavender handkerchief, embroidered with a little frog. Wei Wuxian traced it gently with his thumb.

-

The day was a little crisp, but bright and beautiful. Lan Wangji had risen at the appointed time, eaten breakfast serenely with the sect, and taught some advanced guqin lessons. Lan Sizhui was coming along beautifully, playing more delicate and precise every day, a delight to teach.

Everything was just as it should be in the Cloud Recesses, but Lan Wangji was still somehow uneasy.

He had gained everything he had dreamed of as a teenager, in one bewildering fell swoop. His life had been overturned, but for the better, the man he had wanted for so long delivered to him on a silver platter. He was unbelievably lucky.

Of course, he grieved what had happened to his brother. Lan Xichen deserved only good things. It was bitter to find out someone you had loved so deeply had deceived you—had failed you—had abandoned you.

But with the exception of that dark spot, the suffering and absence of his brother, his life was everything he had ever asked for, wasn’t it? A pristine life, on the surface.

If there was a dark shadow underneath, the ripple of something passing through a lake on a sunny day—something slipping out of an incautious hand, lost to the water—that too was life, wasn’t it?

He had never been so happy in his life. He had never before been so happy in his life, as he had once imagined it.

He averted his eyes from that shadow.

Until, one day, he returned home, and found Wei Ying, sitting at the room’s low table, holding a handkerchief in one hand. Remnants of a different life that had collected in his home. No—that he had kept. Gripped tightly.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, brightly, face stretched in a brittle smile. “What’s this?”

having a lot of thoughts this evening about the classic yunmeng reconciliation trope of “magic plot device forces the jiang cheng sacrifice reveal” running head first into “wei wuxian is canonically The Worst™ at boundaries” and in cql canon literally sticks a mind control talisman on lwj for a prank and it’s never mentioned again

so like. picture this. Jiang Cheng has a secret. no, not that secret, some other secret. something smaller and almost as sad and maybe even a little tawdry??? Jiang Cheng has fucked, is what I’m saying. and there’s some monster who eats virgins and Wei Wuxian is GLEEFUL at the opportunity to SWOOP IN AND SAVE HIS SHIDI, of course he and hanguang-jun will take care of it chengcheng, only for extremely grumpy jiang cheng to red-facedly inform his brother that he is NOT a virgin and he can lead his own night hunts THANK YOU

and the top of wei wuxian’s head comes off

Jiang Cheng. JIANG CHENG. His tiny baby awkward blushing foot-in-mouth shidi. JIANG CHENG. Jiang Cheng who was blacklisted by the matchmakers. Jiang Cheng who was supposed to be SAVING HIMSELF FOR MARRIAGE LIKE A PROPER YOUNG SECT HEIR. jiang cheng has fucked. 

Wei Wuxian has to know. he HAS to know. he is insane. he is bothering jiang cheng CONSTANTLY. he will not shut up. he will never shut up. Jiang Cheng will not know peace until he reveals to Wei Wuxian who dared to sully his precious baby brother with their slutty hands!!!!

but of course it’s like…sad. a few doomed wartime trysts with Nie Mingjue, or a single slow aching fumbling goodbye with Wen Qing who decided she didn’t want to die a virgin, or a few companionable years falling exhausted into bed with Jin Guangyao and/or Qin Su once the boys were FINALLY asleep…or for maximum gut punch, maybe it’s the old standby where Jiang Cheng was raped after his capture. 

the point is, this isn’t a fun funny sexy story for Jiang Cheng, this isn’t an exploit to crow over or an embarrassing but ultimately warm encounter. this is an old, quiet, painful, pointless memory of something tragic that Jiang Cheng still feels miserable about, and also thinks he’s pathetic for feeling miserable, and also it’s fucking private. so no matter how much WWX whines and wheedles and threatens and cajoles and begs, he won’t tell. he gets angry and snappish at first, and then instead of cracking, he just starts retreating into himself and not responding to WWX any more, which is, obviously, UNacceptable!!! 

the minute the evil not-unicorn is dead wwx invents a truth talisman in a 76-hour frenzy, slams it on jiang cheng’s back, and gets more than he bargained for

Please tell me there's at least one fic where Wei Wuxian's return means that Jiang Cheng's golden core starts to glitch and cause problems (wants to return to its original owner) and the only way to deal with it is dual cultivation-___-

Please.

drawing Them in this particular scene was actually devastating to my emotional well-being :D

Hehe, I am thinking that JC got tangled in some shenanigans that keep following Wei Wuxian, and in effect got sent to some other dimension where everything is the same but isn't.

And now WWX has to go and retrieve him - and for that ends up going through quite a few realities in a "Where isy my shidi?" adventure that places him face to face with a variety of Jiang Chengs and his own feelings of shame, guilt, love and anger towards his shidi.

He sees a Jiang Cheng who have lost their core and a one that didn't, ones that reclaimed his sect and one that was enslaved by Wen Zhuliu as some sick standin for his mom. One that saved Yanli and sacrificed his sect and one that never forgave Wei Wuxian (ohz so that's how his actual hate feels) and one that got over WWX's death and forgot (and that's how indifference feels, Wei Wuxian hates it!). There is a reality where JC didn't get a replacement core and Wei Wuxian was the Jiang Sect Leader who kept him under lock and key (and that Jiang Cheng was miserable, but didn't want to run away, as long as his Wei Wuxian loved him still...).

There is one where Jiang Cheng is married to Lan Xichen and they have kids??? (Wei Wuxian hates it! Hates it! Hates it!!! ....just can't explain why... His shidi would never...right? And what does it mean Jiang Cheng gave birth to the kids?? Oh gods, he never wants to have Lan Xichen sit him down for a sex talk ever again>_<!!! The alpha/omega sex sure is something!) That world unsettled him the most. How is it that Jiang Cheng is happily married here? How is it that Lan Xichen chose him to marry??? Doesn't he mind the awful personality and constant anger? His shidi is very pretty and great, and strong, but he is just like his mom and... Lan Xichen almost slaps him in the head in that universe. Which is scary, because Lan Xichen never gets angry to Wei Wuxian's memory. And on account of a joke? Wei Wuxian doesn't get it.

"If you stopped looking at him and trying to see his mother instead of the boy you grew up with." The big alpha tells him. "Then you'd understand."

And uh, yeah, that one kinda....stung a bit. Maybe that reality wasn't that bad - for Jiang chengttonhave someone who cared for him and understood him. For his shidi to have family again, one that loved him as he should be loved even if it didn't include Wei Wuxian. Even if his shidi had to birth babies and take that monstrous Lan pillar...(he hated it, hated it, heated it!!!)

It's still better, however, than the one reality Wei Wuxian stepped into that just... Didn't have Jiang Cheng of its own. One where he died at the hands of Wen Chao, where the Sunshot Campaign never even got off the ground, because their Wei Wuxian burned the Wen to the ground and salted the ashes. There's no Lan Sizhui there, no Wen Ning. Wen Quing died under his hands like all the others. There's no Yunmeng Jiang. Just Wei Wuxian full of rage and the world that lives in fear of him. What a miserable existence.

He left that world as fast as he could, sick to his stomach.

On the quest to reclaim his precious shidi.

AllAlone!WWX would most definitely breach containment after original WWX and JC leave. Because why would he stay in his own empty/lonely world if he doesn't have to? There must be plenty of JCs out there, surly one is in need of a shixiong? Who knows, maybe he could even gain a whole collection of them too.

An adult JC because he always wanted to see JC grow into his gorgeous self, a teenage JC, one that he himself saved even, to fix his past sins, a child JC because he's simply too cute to leave out, same goes for the catboy version he found, and he especially had to save his shidi, this time shimei, from being married off to Wen Chao of all people. With so many JCs he would never be alone again! . . . Oh god he would start a sort of Shidi war now wouldn't he?

Oh, he'd absolutely get ideas after meeting Another Himself from a different dimension where Jiang Cheng survived. He'd 100% interrogate the Canon!WWX and learn that there are other worlds where JC lived.

And it would stay with him and torture him for days, weeks, months... And he'd tell himself that he won't do it, that he can't, that Jiang Cheng that's happy where he is should be left there, that he couldn't hurt them...

But, if there was Jiang Cheng that wasn't happy where he was? If there was Jiang Cheng that was left without Wei Wuxian? Alone in a ravaged, sect, without his golden core without support, unprotected from the greed of other sects... His shidi that was always trying to hard, that was ready to give from himself until nothing was left for the safety of his loved ones... How could Wei Wuxian leave him to such terrible existence?

And so it starts, the mission of finding a shidi for himself. And the longer it goes, Wei Wuxian isn't even lying to himself anymore - he's doing this for himself. He cannot be in a world where his Jiang Cheng isn't. He cannot live with himself and his guilt anymore. He won't.

how insane do you think wwx would go when he's traveling all around the cultivation trying not to think of lotus pier, only to hear that somehow sect leader jiang got knocked up??? (with, unbeknownst to wwx, his own golden core baby!!)

"!!! HOW? SHIDI EXPLAIN??"

"What the fuck, why didn't I think of that?" Think of what, Wei Wuxian?? Which part? COME BACK AND ANSWER ME.

"Jiang Cheng can't raise a child by himself." Jin Ling is right there. You've met him. He's clearly fine?

"Hahaha, someone knocked up Jiang Cheng."

[YLLZ boot-up noises.]

I keep thinking if WWX had come back and JC had managed to have a kid or two, WWX would be feral about them. He’d be torn between complete adoration because they’re baby JC’s! Look their doing the little pout he did when he was a kid and WWX bullied him! And complete and utter rage at their existence. How dare someone make babies with JC without his approval, what if they’d muddied up his cuteness with their unworthy genes. No one should have even touched JC without WWX’s supervision. I think it’s extra fun when they’re WQ’s kids as well, if only for the killer frowns their kids would have and the confused disgust WWX would feel.

XD glorious!

But on a serious note, I think that he'd be overjoyed to know that JC found himself a wife and has a family that makes him happy. It would sting a bit that the same was denied to him, but WWX would be happy for his shidi and adore his kids.

...unless (and here on a less serious note) it's an omegaverse and JC is the omega in question and that's when WWX will go feral about some strange rude unworthy alpha having their way with his shidi???!! JC was such a finnicky and particular omega, there's no alpha in the world suitable to deal with his quirks and to protect him properly! There was one alpha to do that's but he died, but now he's back and even if Wei Wuxian wasn't in love-love with his shidi, he was prepared to be his alpha (platonically, of course, and for the purest of intentions of course;) and now...

Someone took his place.

They have to go.

I just realized Kaeluc is Chengxian but in another universe

Think about it, two sworn brothers that loved each other dearly drifting apart after the tragic death of their family. And they still think to this day that they were betrayed by their beloved.