I think a MDZS Psych AU would be hilarious. WWX's this super observant genius who remembers everything he sees and can easily guess people's true motives, but it only ever gets him into trouble.
First, YZY hates him for getting better grades than JC, then he's kicked out of LP for calling WC on his lies at a charity gala, effectively blackening the Jiang name. After leaving, he gets caught up in a plot to assassinate him, which leads to him testifying against the Wens in court - which leads to a new, intense interest in seeking justice for those who can't.
...Unfortunately, even this gets him in trouble. WWX's called in one too many tips to the local police station and now he's a suspect! Oh woe! Whatever is he to do?! They're going to lock him up and throw away the key!
LWJ, an up and coming officer with a decade long crush on WWX: Do not worry. I will speak with Uncle to clear your na-
WWX promptly decides to announce that he's psychic.
"Impossible!"
LQR...doesn't believe it. No one really believes it, but LXC takes the opportunity to hire WWX as a consultant for cases...
"...Otherwise not easily solved," he explains delicately, very subtly not winking at his brother who's also very subtly not eavesdropping on their conversation. "You would of course be working with Wangji."
WWX considers it for a moment: a well paying job that interests him, and he gets to bother LWJ all day? How could he possibly say no?
And so he doesn't. In fact, he agrees.
WWX and LWJ become partners. LWJ the dashing young police officer, WWX the spooky, scary crackpot-
"Do not insult yourself, Wei Ying," LWJ chastises.
WWX can't help but swoon. "So protective of my reputation LZ!"
"Mn."
LWJ has good reason to be protective - and of more than just WWX's reputation. Since becoming 'psychic', WWX's attracted a number of very vocal detractors who find his methods disrespectful - along with several enemies in high places who can't afford to have their secrets uncovered.
Thankfully, LZ is always there to keep him safe. And when LZ's busy, WN is willing to step in and help.
(WWX is somehow blind to both LWJ's boundless adoration, and the fact that he's essentially employed WN as a part-time bodyguard behind his back.)
Still, no system is perfect. While investigating the murder of a local debutante, WWX is captured by one of his enemies' lackeys - Jin Zixun.
"...Who?" he asks, drawing a blank.
Jin Zixun pokes his finger in WWX's face. "You-! Don't you remember everything? How can you pretend not to know me?!"
WWX blinks. He's sure he's never seen this person before in his life. But when he says as much, Jin Zixun looks fit to beat him.
Thankfully, before things can get too heated, LZ breaks into the warehouse they're keeping WWX in and rescues him. Is this another swooning moment? Of course! Any moment is a good swooning moment with LZ around.
"Mn," LWJ agrees, picking WWX up in a bridal carry (after arresting the bad guys, of course).
WWX laughs, hiding his cherry-red face in LWJ's neck.
"LZ!" he whines, batting his partner's chest. "Don't just agree with me! Think about my heart."
LWJ tilts WWX's chin back, so he can look him in the eyes as he says, "I think of nothing else."
WWX almost swoons for real. What an unexpected confession! Maybe he isn't as observant as he's given credit for?
"Ridiculous," LWJ denies, "You are very observant. Just not psychic."
WWX laughs so much he almost falls out of LWJ's arms. Thankfully, LWJ is stronger than he looks.
"I am so psychic!" he argues once he's caught his breath. "I'm getting a vision right now!"
"Oh?" LWJ's raised brow shows exactly how little he believes Wei Ying.
"It's true!" WWX says. "I see...! It's us! We're standing side by side and...we're getting married! We're gonna be together forever, er gege."
Heart in his throat, he looks up to find LWJ staring back at him with dark, hungry eyes.
"Mark your words," he says in a growl, and WWX gulps.
That day, LWJ becomes a little less sceptical of his new fiance's preternatural powers, and WWX becomes a firm believer in LWJ's physical prowess. š
----
Jin Zixun, some hours later, still handcuffed to a chair in the abandoned warehouse: Hello? I think you forgot me? ...Hello??
Transferring... drunkji..
the sounds of flute in the night
Cloud Recesses Arc but modern and less depressing:
LWJ: that BRAT has been harassing me all month!
LQR: Wei Wuxian is just like his mother- he needs attention or he'll whither away and die.
LWJ: Good. Let him whither.
LQR: Bu-ut if you give him attention, he won't know what to do with it. He will panic and his face will turn interesting colors.
LWJ: .... I see.
(The next day)
WWX: Lan Zha-a-a-an, how is the most beautiful person in Cloud Recesses?
LWJ: I don't know, how are you?
WWX: *blue screen and elevator music* Buh-hue guh sjdklgisoskkjdnfnf
(Lan Qiren and Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze are all sitting in the background watching the show)
Wei Changze: I got you the same way.
Cangse Sanren: Yes, but you did it to flatter me. Wangji did it out of spite. I hope he enjoys the next five minutes of quiet, because it only gets worse from here.
(All the adults sip their tea for the next five minutes. It is a beautiful day in Cloud Recesses, and Wei Wuxian is a terrible guest disciple.)
Superstar Luo Binghe au. All the directors beg him to be in their movies because his fame will immediately assure success for anything they make. Heās handsome, charming, dedicated, and most of all, extremely talented. He even does his own stunts!! Women love him, and men who say they hate him will still watch his movies so they can figure out how to be more like him.Ā
The only weird thing about Binghe as an actor is that he refuses to star in romantic films. He wonāt kiss anyone, wonāt pretend to date someone on screen, wonāt even let another actor take over his role for the scenes he doesnāt want to do. His reason? Heās completely loyal to his husband.
Everyone thinks itās stupid, obviously. You arenāt ācheatingā by pretending to love someone else, itās literally your job! Luo Binghe still refuses and says even heās not good enough an actor to make anyone believe he could ever love someone other than Yuan-ge.
His fans hate this mysterious Yuan-ge. Because of his (probably insecure and jealous) spouse, all of Bingheās fangirls cant see him sweep some y/n character off their feet. Itās even worse because they donāt know anything about this guy. Whenever someone asks to see or learn about Bingheās husband, the star says heāll never reveal Yuan-ge to the public, because heās too beautiful and he doesnāt want everyone falling in love with him.Ā
People kind of run with the idea that obviously this guy must be a total weirdo who Binghe is embarrassed to be seen with. That has to be the explanation, because no matter how perfect someone is, how can they have such a chokehold on THE LUO BINGHE??
Then, one day, years after Luo Bingheās initial rise to fameā¦. He goes on a talkshow. With his husband Shen Yuan.Ā
Obviously EVERYONE tunes in. No one uses TVs anymore bc of the internet, but just for this show, viewer ratings are the highest theyve ever been. Everyone wants to know what the fuss is all about with this guy to have Luo Binghe so down horrible.Ā
And Shen Yuan isnāt a weirdo. Heās also not some pretty yesman. He makes jokes that make the audience burst into laughter. Heās opinionated, which is really refreshing when every other celebrity stays neutral on every topic to avoid losing fans. Heās polite, but heās not a pushover. Heās likeable, but heās not a try-hard about it. Referencing memes makes him an instant hit with the younger generations, and the calm gentle way he talks makes him a hit with the older ones. All of a sudden everyone is going, okay we see why Luo Binghe is obsessed with him.Ā
Except⦠while shen yuan was making jokes and charming everyone, Luo Binghe was at his side, pathetically pawing at his husband for attention. The actor keeps whining every two minutes to be reassured yuan-ge still likes him. Whenever Shen Yuan compliments the host, Binghe looks like heās about to cry. Whenever Luo Binghe jealously wraps his arms around shen Yuan everyone watching just rolls their eyes.Ā Seeing them together people realize⦠shen yuan is the one thatās out of Luo Bingheās league.
In just one hour public opinion goes from āno one can be worth binghe acting like that forā to āluo binghe is so annoying, let shen yuan talk!!āĀ
The next day someone finds shen yuanās twitter and it blows up. He has his own fan pages now. Thereās no pictures of him online other than the footage from the talkshow, so the fan accounts just post that over and over again. Shen yuan retweets a post about him with the caption āi never realized she was holding a plate of corn in this sceneā and everyone loses their mind. Everything he says immediately goes viral bc thatās luo bingheās attic wife.
People start nagging Binghe to post about Shen Yuan bc theyre so attached after his one and only publicized appearance. Binghe is super possessive, but yuan-ge tells him not to worry, so he relents and posts pictures of him and shen yuan on vacation. Theyāre together, holding hands⦠but shen yuanās face and body are blurred out. Itās HORRIFYING. He looks like an eldritch monster bc luo binghe refuses to let anyone look at his yuan-ge in a swim suit, go away you perverts!! His instragram is now just full of pics of shen yuan where his eyes are blacked out so noone else can see how pretty they are. Itās nightmare fuel
Shen Yuan is unfortunately too unbothered to post pictures of himself. Everyoneās tired of Luo Binghe for āhogging shen yuan all to himselfā when Shen Yuan is practically an internet celebrity now.Ā
People go to watch movies and their theatre conversations sound like this:
āOh, Luo Bingheās in this one!ā
āWho?ā
āYou know Shen Yuanās annoying husband?ā
āOH THAT GUY..ā
hc that lan wangji wrote a shit ton of poetry. from when he met wei wuxian, he was constantly writing poems about him. after he died, the poems turned from passionate and hopeful to mourning, just as lwj did. after wwx returned, there wasn't really much time to write, what with them running around the jianghu mystery-solving, but once everything has settled down and they're living together, wwx finds the poetry hidden in the jingshi. there are hundreds of pages, enough to fill dozens of books, and the vast majority of them are very clearly about wwx. before this, there was a part of wwx that still thought this was temporary, that lwj would get tired of him and he would be thrown out. but reading the poems lwj had written over the years destroyed that doubt. wwx saw so much of what lwj's life had been like, while wwx was dead; some of the pages were spotted with tears, even blood. many were smudged, or had been crumpled and smoothed out. by the time lwj returns to the jingshi after his duties, wwx is lying on the floor, tear tracks staining his face, surrounded by the contents of lwj's heart.
complicated feelings on jiang fengmian aside, i think the reason i donāt buy into the whole ājfm favoured wei wuxian much more than his sonā and tend to agree with wwxās words to jc that of course jfm would be more stern with jc because jcās his son is becauseāmy asian parenting experience has been somewhat the same (and i actually think this might be a bit of a universal experience regardless), not in the exact way mxtx portrays this relationship but in that my parents and parents of every single person i have ever known (mostly; there are always a few exceptions) show this pattern of being sweet and cordial and generally non-disciplinary towards kids who arenāt their own and being way stricter and more stern with their own children because they are the ones they are parenting. thereās almost this mutually known boundary that you donāt go and yell at anotherās kid to correct bad behaviour, rather the impetus of imparting important values and lessons is reserved as your right for your own kids. thatās how iāve always read jiang fengmianās dynamic with wei wuxian vs jiang cheng. he was stern with jc because thatās his son and heir, someone he cares for very deeply. on the other hand, he does care for wei wuxian as well but he has never crossed that mental boundary from uncle to father figure in his head and his interactions with wei wuxian have never read as paternal or favourably partial over jc to me.
Poster done for Lwj birthday flower event in S Korea. A bit early, but happy birthday HGJ! š©µ
This is so accurate for no reason!
now that i've finished tgcf i can make memes about all three books! i was tempted to put binghe at the absolute center because he could easily go into any quadrant at different points in his life, and both lwj and hua cheng could swing jock, but i think the most important thing is that wei wuxian is all four at once. somehow.
mock film poster featuring foxxian, dragonji, and baby a-yuan! this was so fun
Since MXTX said HuaLian live until the modern times, have some random headcanons:
Hua Cheng keeps being an interior decorating king so of course his and Xie Lian's home is tastefully decorated for every season and holiday. However, that doesn't stop Xie Lian from occasionally adding the fugliest item ever because he got emotionally attached to it in the store. "It was all by itself, San Lang, nobody wanted it... i know what that feels like better than anyone..." and now they're both sniffling holding an ugly styrofoam pumpkin in the middle of the fall decor isle of Ikea.
The stray animals food budget is off the charts but it's nobody's fault all strays are immediately drawn to Xie Lian and he has to feed them cause he "knows what it's like to be hungry". This does not just include cats and dogs but also rats, raccoons, several bird species and at least one coyote.
Speaking of budgets, the financial control authorities are lowkey on Hua Cheng's case because he is still stinking rich but nobody knows where the cash is coming from. They think Ghost City is the name of some shady mafia establishment and are trying to find dirt on Hua Cheng but there is literally nothing there and it eats the government alive.
Xie Lian occasionally dumpster dives in places where he knows they throw perfectly salvageable things. Hua Cheng cries every time it happens but he stands watch so the police doesn't arrest his husband for it.
In the same vein, Xie Lian insists on recycling literally everything. They have those different colored trash bins and everything, and every time Hua Cheng places an item in the wrong bin, Xie Lian gives him a disapproving look that has the ghost king crumble.
They have so many house plants. It's like a little jungle in their living room but the air is so crisp.
They keep several scrapbooks of paintings, pictures, letters etc from all the people they met to remember them even hundreds or thousands of years after those people have passed away. Even if they now have access to phones and other media for storage, they keep up the tradition of using scrapbooks and notebooks anyway.
Xie Lian is actually up to date with memes and internet slang but has embraced being a cringe Facebook grandpa and is now committed to the persona. Hua Cheng finds this hilarious (he runs a very well maintained beauty channel and a side channel on swords where Xie Lian features in every video and geeks out about their sword collection. They have a golden button and a very large following).
Hua Cheng has a 25 step skincare routine and only uses the fanciest brands of products for literally everything. Xie Lian still swears by 8 in 1 shampoo and somehow has clearer skin. Hua Cheng is both enamored and scandalized about it.
Hua Cheng is a very big fan of acryllics and lets Xie Lian pick the base color every time. Xie Lian takes this task very, very seriously and tries to coordinate it with any activities/events they have planned so Hua Cheng stays being stylish.
Hua Cheng has a portable Dyson Airwrap with him at all times because one time a kid said his hair looks like a wet dog.
Xie Lian is not allowed to get a job because every time he tried to along the decades he became a cautionary tale somehow.