Wen Ning is Bae

did up a doodle suggestion for NMJ on patreon~

(MDZS, book 1, p. 269, 7S translation)

Nie Huaisang continued, ‘our cultivation method is also different from the other clans, and with our founding father’s butcher background… bloodshed was inevitable. The sabers wielded by our clan leaders throughout history have always been extremely heavy with resentment and killing aura. Almost every clan leader has suffered a qi deviation and died a violent death. Their characters were also irascible, and those sabers have a lot to do with it.’

(MDZS, book 1, p. 270, 7S translation)

I’ve seen some debate and uncertainty about whether the Nie clan’s saber curse was caused by their butcher ancestry or not, but I think this confirms it. The question from Lan Wangji that Nie Huaisang is answering is about why they keep the man-eating fortress in Xinglu ridge; the answer is, of course, that it is the grave of the resentful saber spirits. Nie Huaisang starts his explanation with saying the Nie used to be butchers and this is why they wield sabers, and than comments that because of this, bloodshed was inevitable. Because they were butchers, their sabers are heavy with resentment and killing aura. Because they were butchers, and carry sabers, the Nie clan leaders have suffered qi deviation, died violent deaths and had irascible characters. Even if they also have a different method of cultivating, it is made quite clear that a big reason of why the Nie clan of Qinghe has to carry the saber curse, is because they were butchers.

“Wei Wuxian licks his fingers clean, unselfconscious in a way that’s infinitely more sexy than his fumbling seduction attempts before, and grabs for a peach, which he scuffs on the breast of Nie Mingjue’s robe before taking a bite that rolls juice down his chin.”

Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang and the parentification that ends up hurting both them, all that rage that comes from that pressure and need to protect, that vicious loyalty being a given despite it all. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen having a good but somehow distant relationship that isn’t quite what it ought to be despite the fact they clearly care immensely for each other. Wen Qing and Wen Ning and the doomed nature of it all.

Jin Ling is terrified of his uncle, who’s notoriously short tempered and regularly threatens to break his legs, but is shocked at the notion that he’d ever have struck him because he hasn’t, not once. Wei Wuxian teaching him how to fight bullies and worrying that he doesn’t have friends, after knowing him a few months and getting into physical fights with him most of the times they’ve interacted.

Lan Sizhui. I’m not even getting into it right now but holy fuck.

step 1: pretend to be a gay lunatic (he already was a gay lunatic)

step 2: throw step 1 out of the window as soon as someone disrespects the lan clan (his life-long crush's clan)

step 3: play the flute (the instrument well known as the yiling patriarch's spiritual weapon of choice)

step 4: summon the ghost general (the yiling patriarch's right hand man)

step 5: play a song composed by hanguang-jun that only him and the yiling patriarch have ever heard