While Reading The Books, I Remember Wei Wuxian’s Relationship With Jin Ling Hitting Me Especially Hard.

Please somebody, get Bichen away from wwx

THRITY SOMETHING, RENOWNED CULTIVATION AND WAR VETERAN HANGUANG-JUN SULKING AND POUTING BC WEI WUXIAN DARED TO SMILE AT A GROUP OF LADY FARMERS

like if this isn’t the cutest image to ever be conjured 😭😭😭 lan wangji of the past would have burst into a rage and gave the cold shoulder or hissed a “shameless” at wwx but now, nearly two decades later, all he can do is pout and sulk 😭

Wei Wuxian: Lan Zhan! Our son is giving me /such/ an attitude right now!

Lan Wangji: *comes into the tea room to see WWX and LSZ at the table* Hm? 😐

Lan Sizhui: 0.0 *big eyes and pouting because he’s literally not doing anything wrong* ??? 🥺

Lan Wangji: *turns to WWX* Hm? 🤔

Wei Wuxian: *picks up an annoyed looking rabbit from the floor* Look at this little monster, he’s thumping his legs at me because I won’t give him my food! This is human food! It’s cooked!

Lan Sizhui: *giggling* 🤭

Lan Wangji: *soft eyes of love and affectionate blinks* Mm. 🥰 Entitled.

Bunny: *angry thump at WWX as soon as he’s set down* 😡🐰

god jin guangyao’s fucking face when they announce zewu jun at the post war celebration at nightless city will never not make me scream. the suddenly giant saucer eyes, the hopeful lift of the eyebrows, the tiniest little curve of a smile - zewu jun is here? i get to see him? now? socially? all dressed up in my jin clan best? as equals at a banquet? do you promise??

a peaceful day

My favorite part of Lan Wangji's character arc is the way he goes from wanting not to be seen for who he is, even if it is lonely, to being determined to show everyone who he is and daring them to judge him.

This poor fifteen year old boy, totally overwhelmed with romantic thoughts about another man, while everyone he knew informed him that this person would never be accepted in his life. This eighteen to nineteen year old, plagued with the need to keep his affections a secret. The twenty year old who turned away from it due to the opinions of his uncle and elder brother.

The twenty two year old who lost the love of his life and faced punishment from his clan for daring to love someone they disapproved of... then went back and told them he didn't care: "This child of the Yiling Patriarch is now mine, thanks. I don't care if you punish me, I'm done cutting off the people I love for your sake."

Turned into a thirty five year old who shackled this man to himself for everyone to see. He became a person who refused to waver in his commitment to stand by them, despite the consequences. Ultimately, he told those same family members that if they had a problem with his spouse, he didn't have to be their family anymore.

He became strong enough to support his spouse through experiencing the judgment of a 'family' member who refused to accept him.

And through this journey, he found the security of self that allowed him to love freely and take chances. Self-acceptance allowed him to build the life he wanted--to share the safety he built for himself with the people he valued the most.

Xie Lian, age 17, says (paraphrasing): "if heaven needs to sacrifice an innocent little boy to be appeased then heaven is wrong and I will stand against it" and he continues to do that until 800 years later with head being bashed in still screaming he won't do what Jun Wu said. I love him.

Continuing on with my Yunmeng Trio Role Swap Au idea, I'll just write down the major changes to each character. This post will be about our beloved hero-complex Shixiong!

(1) Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian in this AU takes over Jiang Yanli's role as the family mediator, often serving as the middle ground for every family argument while also trying to make sure the family stays together. He remains quiet and reserved, only showing in extremely private moments to his trusted few his true burning personality.

In Canon MDZS! Wei Wuxian after being rescued from the streets is at first timid and shy, before graining confidence in himself due to Jiang Yanli's influence.

However, in this Swap AU! due to Jiang Yanli's stronger core, Madam Yu pours more attention and pressure onto her, causing Jiang Yanli to not have as much time to care for him, and also being more tired herself.

Wei Wuxian seeing Jiang Yanli's state , realises that Madam Yu increases the Jiang Sibling's training whenever he misbehaves or worsens her anger, so in order to taken some burden off of Jiang Yanli Wei Wuxian becomes quiet and more reserved, hiding away his true personality as he slowly resigns himself himself acting as a "Calm and respectful servant's son that obeys the noble family that took him in" despite protests from Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli who try to stop him.

Of course, he shows his true personality when he's alone with the Jiang Siblings, which leads to many who are not disciples at YunmengJiang to wrongly assume that Wei Wuxian is a mature and calm head disciple.

After Jiang Yanli gets an engagement with Jin Zixuan (That Jiang Cheng loudly detests with Wei Wuxian silently agreeing with him), Jiang Fengmian decides to try and broker a closer relationship with the GusuLan.

Since the Lan don't do Arranged Marriages in respect to their Sect's origin, they decide to try and get Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian to become friends (after Jiang Cheng loudly protested he would never be friends with someone so boring, at least Wei Wuxian is secretly funny behind his quiet facade!)

Even if this arrangement caused Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian to argue yet again for nights ("What? Is my son so much of an embarrassment you have to use that brat as a replacement!?" "San-niang, that's not what's happening–" "THEN WHAT IS HAPPENING!?"), eventually a meet up between the two was set up.

When the two meet, it's immediately clear that the two's (outward) personalities were near identical, which is the only reason Lan Qiren even allows the two boys to hang out alone while he and Jiang Fengmian discuss other import details.

After the two were left alone to hang out, Wei Wuxian felt only awkwardness as while he usually is quiet, usually Jiang Cheng or the other disciples were the ones talking and bantering, with Wei Wuxian being able to add in his perspective here and there (and be allowed to be himself because he was in the safety of people he trusted)

Lan Wangji was not like that.

Unlike Wei Wuxian who forced himself to stop fiddling with his sleeves and resist the urge to kick the stones that litter the paths of the paths, Lan Wangji merely looked off in the distance, every once in a while stopping to glare at nearby misbehaving disciples who immediately apologised and ran in fear of him.

Wei Wuxian wonders if this is some sort of secret test from the Lans. Perhaps he has to survive the battle of acting like a statue and not to saying a single word.

After an eternity (only 5 minutes) Wei Wuxian sighed loudly, indicating his acceptance of his loss to the quiet Jade boy beside him whose only indication he noticed Wei Wuxian's existence was the short nod when they introduced to each other by their respective elders.

"So Uh... Nice weather?"

"Mhm."

"My name's Wei Ying, courtesy name Wei Wuxian." Wei Wuxian curses at himself thinking that Jiang Fengmian already introduced him earlier.

"Mhm."

"So... do you have a favourite colour?"

"No."

Despite attempts at various topics, but Lan Wangji just seemed to get more and more silent.

Wei Wuxian internally is screaming.

'What the– DID I ACCIDENTALLY OFFEND HIM? I JUST BREATHED!? DAMN IT DID I JUST RUIN UNCLE JIANG'S ATTEMPTS AT A FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LANS!?'

Wei Wuxian eventually gives up as Jiang Fengmian and Lan Qiren finally return, the two engrossed in what appears to be a deep conversation about tea of all things.

As Wei Wuxian bows and he and Jiang Fengmian prepare to make their leave, Wei Wuxian can't help but take another glance at the other boy.

As he stares back, he is only met with a bitter, ice cold gaze.

...

When Wei Wuxian returns back to Lotus Pier, he immediately rants about his entire visit to Jiang Yanli, who is more overprotective of Wei Wuxian and thus only tells him to tell her if he ever feels uncommon with Lan Wangji, and Jiang Cheng, who seemingly only grew more and more annoyed at this 'ungrateful' Lan Brat.

Jiang Cheng was annoyed because Jiang Fengmian said that Wei Wuxian wouldn't be able to attend as many classes with Jiang Cheng as before, now instead having to regularly visit the Lan Clan in order to further better relations. Jiang Cheng very much doesn't enjoy this.

"Why does that Lan Statue get to keep Wei Wuxian all to himself!?" Jiang Cheng complained loudly.

Wei Wuxian sighed, "Jiang Cheng, you can't say that about Lan—"

"I DON'T CARE! AREN'T YOU MY SHIXIONG!? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SPEND TIME WITH THAT PIECE OF STONE—"

"Jiang Cheng, please stop yelling," Jiang Yanli groans, rubbing her head from the pain of hearing his screeching.

Wei Wuxian sighs in relief, "Thank you Shijie. Now can you tell him that he can't say those things about Lan–"

"Oh no. I agree with him."

Wei Wuxian felt his hope for this family die.

Jiang Cheng puffed his chest, seemingly proud seeing even Jiang Yanli agreed with him.

"SEE! EVEN A-JIE AGREES THAT STUPID UGLY STONE FACE–"

"I did not say that."

"–SHOULDN'T GET TO HOG ALL YOUR TIME! HE NOT EVEN FROM HERE AND YET HE INSISTS ON STEALING OUR HEAD DISCIPLE!?"

The door slammed open.

"JIANG CHENG! WHY ARE YOU YELLING!?"

"A-Niang!"

"Madam Yu!"

As Jiang Cheng was promptly pulled by the ear to be scolded by Madam Yu, Wei Wuxian couldn't help but smile happily at being called Shixiong with Jiang Yanli laughing at him too before also being dragged off by Madam Yu.

...

Eventually, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were sent to the GusuLan for the lectures.

While Jiang Cheng was busy preparing himself to present himself as a dignified heir, Wei Wuxian was silently excited to try and improve his friendship with Lan Wangji.

Yes, he had visited the boy a few times over the years, but many of their conversations would just end with Wei Wuxian talking to himself for an uncomfortable amount of time while Lan Wangji would just nod and 'Mhm' occasionally.

It was okay, Wei Wuxian would gladly continue this routine if it meant that the Jiangs and the Lans would maintain good relations, but he would prefer to actually be friends with the second Jade.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes.

"I don't know why you keep trying to talk to him... He clearly isn't worth yours, or anyone’s efforts."

Wei Wuxian just sighed.

"Jiang Cheng, please remember you can't say that when we're so close to the Gusu. What if an elder hears you and reports you to Madam Yu?"

Jiang Cheng flinched.

"Yeah yeah, but still," Jiang Cheng said. "Every time you try to talk to him, it makes me feel like punching him. He doesn't even greet you! The audacity!"

Wei Wuxian tried to stop him, but Jiang Cheng continued.

"First he steals you from helping me train! Then he forces you to come ALL the way to the Gusu every week to talk to him!? Who does he think he is!?"

Wei Wuxian shook his head, "Jiang Cheng, it doesn't matter that muc–"

"But it does!" Jiang Cheng yelled back. "You keep letting people walk all over you! Why don't you at least try to defend yourself!?"

"Jiang Cheng, please..." Wei Wuxian placed his hand on Jiang Cheng's shoulder. "It's not that bad. I can take whatever they say. I don't care about what they say about me."

Wei Wuxian tightened his grip on Jiang Cheng's shoulder.

"So please... Let me try and talk to Lan Wangji. I'm sure he doesn't mean anything bad! Maybe he's just shy?"

"Shy? Of you?"

"Jiang Cheng."

"Alright! Alright!" Jiang Cheng relented. "I wont insult him to his face! But that doesn't mean I have to like him!"

Wei Wuxian let out a sigh of relief, taking this as a rare win for himself.

"Good. Oh, and would you look at that? We're at our destination!"

Jiang Cheng turned and saw he was correct. Their ship was drawing near the ports of the Gusu, a quiet, yet large crowd of merchants and villagers doing their business on the docks.

I was thinking about the bodies of supremes.

Hua Cheng has perfect skins. Xie Lian was able to find no faults with his appearance, which was relevant to proving his ghosthood because at the very least typically ghosts aren't able to perfectly recreate the amount of hair on a normal human head or the insides of a body, because they need to be able to visualize it and typically a person can't visualize the full components of a person's insides or just how much hair is on a human scalp.

I assumed and I think others do too, that Hua Cheng is purely so perfect because he's a supreme.

But Xie Lian hasn't ever inspected He Xuan well enough to know how perfect his skin is, and his Ming Yi skin was imperfect and had unusually pale hands, though Xie Lian did not clock that as suspicious at the time he noticed.

Meanwhile Hua Cheng has a full, perfect head of hair, he can eat and drink and breathe, and he has a heartbeat.

Hua Cheng was part of the nursing staff during the Xianle face disease plague. And he for sure has photographic memory; outside of the butterflies, he is and had been able to perfectly recall full conversations from when he was only 10 and recite them back to an oblivious Xie Lian, and perfectly recreate Xie Lian's every outfit down to the finest details to the point Mu Qing finds it disturbing.

I wonder if his skins are so perfect not because he's a supreme, but because his photographic memory and anatomical, medicinal knowledge from his time as a human has allowed him to create the skins with such perfect accuracy.

I feel like that'd be nice if that were the case. Like proof that the little things he tried as a human were not worthless and did help him become who he did. Proof he was always special, and not just in the cursed way he thought.