Family means nobody gets left behind

So we all know about the whole injuring elders thing, right? How LXC and LQR asked 33 of them to help bring back LWJ and he ended hurting them all. Which makes it a situation where LWJ went up against 35 people to protect WWX but only 2 were left out?

Now does this 33 + 2 pattern sounds familiar? Maybe not in MDZS but in another work of MXTX... like TGCF? Where a certain Ghost King got his fearsome reputation for challenging 35 heavenly officials, 33 of which were utterly obliterated afterwards?

(By the way, I tried to recall if that specific pattern occurred in SVSSS, but nothing really jumped to mind. The only time I could see it happening thematically would be either SQQ's fake trial or if somehow LBH had, offscreen, tracked down all the demons presents during the CQ invasions' arc...)

So yeah I would *have* to re-read SVSSS to be completely certain, but for now let's just say that this a common pattern between only MDZS and TGCF.

Which still sort of struck me as odd, you know, because "If I had a nickel...." and all that, but it also made me wonder if there was a deeper or symbolic meaning to either the number 33 or 35. And so here's a fun fact.

Like, we’ve got:

Luo Binghe: half-heavenly demons, ruler of the 3 realms, potentially one of the most powerful being in the whole SVSSS universe

Lan Wangji: Hanguang-Jun, cultivator with a peerless reputation, one of the most poweful cultivator of his generation

Wei Wuxian: Yiling Laozu, certified genius, created a whole new branch of cultivation from scratch

Hua Cheng: 800 years old Ghost King (with only 2 others ghost of equal rank) feared by ghosts and heavenly officials alike

Xie Lian: Crown Prince of Xian Le, 800 years old God who somehow managed to ascend 3 times (while having little to no spiritual energy for the last 2).

I know some people complain that post resurrection, we only see LWJ doing things for WWX (doting on him, protecting him, supporting him etc) and not the other way around, that it seems a little one-sided and unbalanced... But that's the point.

Putting aside the fact that LWJ had become so OP that it would take an one-on-one fight against someone on NMJ's or WRH's level for him to be truly in danger.... had he at some point been put in a situation where he was in need of reassurance or protection or being defended, there's no way WWX aka Mr. "I'm putting everyone else safety before my own and take everyone burden into my own body" wouldn't be the very first in line.

But that situation is never shown (or very briefly with WWX getting angry at JC for dissing at LWJ). And not just because this is a danmei and it follows the very stereotypical rules of gong must protect shou. No it's because WWX's personal journey is all about learning that's it's okay to rely on someone, that someone else would willingly and gladly follow him into the night, that it doesn't have to be a single-plank bridge. So it wouldn't make sense to have WWX be once again in the role of the Protector.

The symbolism of "falling/jumping down" and "catching" is used in almost all of WWX significant relationship and the degree of success in catching him represents how well they're able to protect him.

1 - Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Let's start with SVSSS.

Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu is your typical unreliable narrator in several ways.

First, regarding what happened in the original. At the beginning the only thing we knew about PIDW came from Shen Yuan's knowledge and own interpretations of the book. So of course we're taking everything at face value and accept all lot of Facts that OG!SQQ was an unredeemable scum villain (lecher, murderer, abuser, low IQ etc) for example. Though it becomes quite apparent half-way through the story (with the introduction of Airplane and when hints of OG!SQQ are shown) that Shen Yuan might not have been informed of the whole picture behind PIDW. There were a lot of background information and character depths that Shen Yuan weren't aware of (and he is discovering them at the same time as us the readers, but even if we're given hints and can infer about some things, the whole picture would only become apparent in the Extras ).

This is of course due to the fact that Shen Yuan used to be a Reader just like us and wasn't privy on the thoughts and disastrous plotting process of the Author.

Secondly, the narration in SVSSS is heavily influenced by SQQ own thoughts, views and interpretations of what he is living through. We know most of if not all his inner thoughts without much filtering. And it is very obvious right from the beginning that SQQ considers himself (due to his status as a transmigrator) an Omniscient Narrator (spoiler he is so not.)

Now the thing is, SQQ is very genre savy, okay? And say what you want, but he's actually quite observant... and it's not even that he can't identify the tropes when they happened to him (the amount of times he complained to the system from being involved in a wife plots) .... it's just that his internalized homophobia and his previous knowledge of PIDW is preventing him from reaching the right conclusions.

We, as readers, don't have this problem though. And this is why, SVSSS is a comedy, it is playing with the fact that we know SQQ is an unreliable narrator and it only works if we manage to notice what SQQ is missing. SVSSS thrives from SQQ being an unreliable narrator and all the misunderstandings that derive from it. I mean the whole Jinlan arc would read very differently if we were taking things at face value.

So yeah, SY | SQQ is an unreliable narrator and we were meant to notice that he is one right away.

2 - Mo Dao Zu Shi

Let's move on to MDZS and its narrator's, Wei Wuxian.

Now, WWX doesn't appear like an obvious unreliable narrator. His thoughts and feelings do, of course, colored the narrative when describing facts and people (and boy, that man has Opinions) but that is to be expected in any narrator.

Like SQQ before him, WWX is very observant but blind to his own impact on other people's lives. And it was implied thoroughly through the novel that he failed to notice the depth of people's feelings for him. And because of that, since you're seeing the world through WWX's eyes you have to try to read between the lines to understand some people actions. A lot of things are left to (more or less) interpretation, which is why some characters characterization wildly differs from one adaption to the other. (Jiang Cheng is probably the one who suffers the most from this problem, *squinting at the donghua adaptation of JC*).

So while WWX seems like a case of typical slightly unreliable narrator due to chronic obliviousness, you might not feel the need to label him as an unreliable narrator.

Until you realize that WWX tended to downplay a lot of things regarding his own sufferings and most importantly that he deliberately left things out of the narrative. Like... you know the whole thing with his golden core.

... Which is worse than SQQ, because at least SQQ didn't try to hide anything from the readers and you know.... conveniently forgetting a lot of things because he's got a bad memory.

3 - Tian Guan Ci Fu

Oh boy.... where to begin?

Xie Lian's narration, contrarily to both SQQ's and WWX's, appears to be sort of dry, a little matter-of-fact even? He is a lot less transparent with his own thoughts, so much that I've even been reluctant at the beginning to qualify TGCF as being from XL's POV. And more importantly he often doesn't bother to tell us things that he already knows (and he knows a lot of things). Which makes him the worst narrator ever.

I mean, you think the guy 's got a case of "a little bit oblivious" what's with him so half-assingly trying to "check San Lang's status/true identity" or him not realizing that the Middle court officers were obviously his former general in disguise.... But then speed forwarding to the next arc (or several next arcs in the case of Mu Qing and Feng Xin) and you realize that he actually knew all along and just didn't bother to tell us...

And it's super funny because he's like, "What? Do you think you guys were being sneaky or something?"

Another thing that makes him so unreliable is that you see him reading aloud the story of the demise of some general and then ten chapters later you realize that the general was him all along and he didn't even twitch while talking about it.

That of course prompted the running gag that if some random characters appears in the background/past of the current arc relevant character, then that random character had a 90% chance of being Xie Lian.

So yeah Xie Lian is most unreliable narrator of all three MC, because you don't have a clue that he's one until it's hitting you in the face.

4 - ??

So, seeing as how things have progressed so far, doesn't it mean that the 4th MC would be even worse than Xie Lian?

At this point, I wouldn't even be surprised if we spent two third of the 4th novel bemoaning on how the MC is so oblivious about the ML's (and his wholeass harem of side-characters) affection for him and then we got a scene like:

4th MC, after witnessing ML drinking vinegar, grinning affectionately: Pfft, we've been married for ten years and he's still being like this.

Readers : ....

Readers: !!! WHAT?! You're married?! Since how long?!

4th MC: Oh did you not know? But we've been holding hands the whole time?!

Readers: You didn't mention any of that!

4th MC, blinking: Oh we've been doing it so often that it just didn't register as something needed to mentioned?!

Readers: What about others things though, like kissing or papapa? Didn't you think it would be worth mentioning?

Summary: In which Shang Qinghua tries his hands at adapting catchy opening songs and Shen Qingqiu is. not. amused.

A spiritual aura sweeps through Cang Qiong Mountain Within the Qing Jing Peak’s disciples, I, The Handsome Junshang with Earth-shaking shattering power, am the most beloved Even the Xuan Su Sword and the Bai Zhan War God have to let me play freely! If I want to show off on Earth, I'll win the Immortal Alliance Conference. If I want to become an emperor, I'll grace the Southern Demon Palace with my presence. If I were to admit that I was wrong, my heart would still be arrogant. Around the Cang Qiong Mountain, the favorite of Qing Jing Peak, Sauntering around with a light slash of Xin Mo, I have explored all of the Demon and Mortal Realm, Using just a drop of my blood to alter my destiny. Fearless in the face of countless challenge, even from the Endless Abyss But what I really fear the most is Shizun disappearing on me! To properly court Shizun, we can't afford to relax at any step, To properly court Shizun, we will be impulsive together. To properly court Shizun, we have to cooperate for Shizun. Gradually achieving spousehood, Where our names will be praised for ten thousand generations, Luo Binghe!

- Journey to Shizun’s bed, song adapted by Shang Qinghua

Just to give you an idea, since then I have :

fallen back into an anime/manga (a bunch of new ones and the super long ones that I stopped watching/reading like one piece or BNHA)

consumed trillions of related fanfictions/meta

created a wholeass other tumblr about bnha (@fluffyferalkacchan , if anyone is interested)

finally started widening my horizon and started reading manhua/manhwa

realised that some of those aforementioned manhwa were adapted from webnovels

bingeread my way through the knovels’ holy trinity (TCGF, ORV, TSCTIR, exactly in that order)

got my hands on the physical copy of all three of MTXT’s works and started rereading them…

… which made me reread/rewatch all related contents…

… aaaand we’re back full circle again right here!

Which sort of validate for me the theory that you never really lose an hyperfixation, you just lock it away in a corner of your mind behind relatively thick doors until the right boulder comes your way and break them down.

Recently I have been thinking about JGY and NHS’s dynamics and about how JGY never saw NHS coming even though he knew that NHS was smarter than he looked like.

One of the reason is of course arrogance and pride. But, I think that in JGY’s defense NHS might as well be his worst natural enemy. If a blind spot had a form then JGY’d would be distinctively NHS-shaped. And here’s why:

《 Their core personality traits and beliefs 》

While JGY is very familiar with acting weak, vulnerable and so on to manipulate his ennemies (both from a physical and emotional point of view), he had never not even once appeared less smart than he truly was.

I think it never even occurred to him that people would act dumb (in the long term) or incompetent to deceive people because it clashes fundamentally with his whole existence.

Think about it. If JGY had shown less competence than he had, would he have managed to attract the attention of NMJ and be promoted (regardless of how bullied he was)?

If JGY had been anything short of super-competent would he manage to enter the rank of WRH? If he had not managed to prove himself and maintain such level of hyper-competency would he manage to keep playing spy by WRH and staying alive ?

If JGY had not been so convincing would he manage to kill WRH and crawl his way to his father’s grace? And even then, if he had shown the slightest amount of failure or incompetency he probably would have been kicked out of Jinlintai. If he had not maintain that high-competency could he manage to keep his position as chief cultivator?

For JGY incompetency and failure to do his designated jobs doesn’t just mean a small wound to his pride. No most of the time for most of his life it meant death or being kicked out.

So for someone who lived such a high-strung and stressful life, where his next breath, his next warm meal was entirely reliant on how competent he was at his job... how could it ever occur to him that someone could act incompetent on purpose?

Maybe if it had been for a short time then he might have been suspicious and notice but NHS acted this way for 10+ years... who would willingly lower themselves that way for so long, especially if they had the weight of a whole sect on their shoulders?

This is just fundamentally clashing with who he is as a person that it is no matter NHS could sneak on his blind spot. One of JGY biggest mistake was probably not to realize that having no ambition doesn’t mean not having any motivation.

《 JGY’s bias towards the elite 》

I thing JGY had encountered a certain amount of smart/competent/strong people in his life. And while he is naturally weary of physically strong people, he probably view them as less threatening than smart people.

Likewise even among the smart, he probably differentiate between ‘book smart’ and ‘street smart’. Of which JGY stands easily at the top of both. However the kind of smart that’d allow you to survive/thrive is definitely the street kind.

Even if he were aware of the fact that NHS hid his intelligence and cunning, he’d probably expect it to lie within the realm of “book-smartness” and not even the useful kind but the ‘useless’ kind of intelligence directed towards poetry, arts etc.

So of course how could this pampered young master, whose hardest struggle growing up had been on thinking how not to get drag on the training field by his big brother, ever be able to compete with JGY in term of street smartness?   Comparatively WWX and XY, because of their background, make way more of a threat than NHS could ever be in JGY’s mind. And that’s because he grew up prejudiced towards the rich and the elite.

《 NHS & JGY are two different types of masterminds 》

If you’re familiar with TV tropes and especially the Gambit tropes then I’d describe JGY’s plans as strongly lying in the Xanatos Gambit areas (with now and then a hint of Batman Gambit). Basically what it means, is that JGY is the type of mastermind who plays chess. He’ll look at all the outcomes and try to plot things so that no matter what outcome ends up happening he’d still win one way or another.

And while he can more or less improvise when things go sideway, it’s pretty obvious that it is when he has to make hasty decisions that he tends to make a lot of mistakes. 

NHS’s plans are of the  Gambit Roulette kind. In other words, his plans mostly rely on luck and chance occurrence. He had absolutely no way of knowing that MXY would succeed in resurrecting WWX, and even if MXY did, NHS had no way of knowing that WWX would be curious enough to investigate the case of the possessed arm, he had no way of knowing if WWX and LWJ would manage to find all the other body parts and successfully find discriminating facts about JGY... 

So basically what NHS was doing was planning stuff one step at a time. He didn’t need to have a whole plot with thousands of contingencies, he just needed to be nearby where the whole chaos was and try to nudge things in the direction he wanted. Therefore... How could JGY possibly predict NHS’s moves when probably even NHS didn’t know what he would do at that time?

In other words, while JGY is busy analyzing and trying to predict other people’s moves like they were merely pawns on a chessboard...he can’t predict NHS’s move at all because NHS is playing a whole other game altogether.

NHS is basically playing Texas Hold’em Poker, with his two starting cards being WWX and LWJ... Then he’d look at the cards start to appear one by one (calculating the odds, weighing whether he’d be able to get a good combinaison throwing chips here and there to bluff his way out), and hoping that at the end he’d get a better hand than JGY.

So yeah that’s probably why JGY never really stood a chance against NHS.

And while we’re on the game analogy, I’d like to make an aside here to talk about the juniors, who are probably NHS’s natural enemies (just as NHS is JGY’s).... They’re like those wild joker cards that keeps randomly popping for no reasons whatsoever, causing mayhem and chaos ... [especially Jin Ling haha]... And you’re not really sure if they are helping or making everything worse. And so NHS’s approach to dealing with those unknown wild cards was like “If you’re going to cause trouble and pop up anyway, then rather than having you appear out of nowhere and ruin everything, I’ll be the one to lead you there so that you stop surprising me!”

After spending so much time with LSZ, WWX got a lot of opportunity to learn more about his adoptive son. So he often asks LXC, LJY and LWJ stories about LSZ’s childhood. And so he learned about  the influences of the adults in LSZ’s life and how it affected his personality and behavior.

For example, while his gentle and diplomatic personality obviously came from the influence of his equally diplomatic uncle (no example needed to be mention, it was pretty obvious seeing as LWJ has all but appointed LSZ as his spokesman), one could sometimes still spot here and there the tiny bits of pure stubbornness that were all LWJ. 

During the period where LWJ had been bedridden due to his injuries, LSZ was only allowed to visit him once a month [in an utter bitterly mirror of what happened with Madam Lan]...  Except that LSZ despite not remembering his past had separation issues and was absolutely anxious at the idea of not seeing LWJ often... So in the beginning LQR would panic anytime he lost sight of LSZ who apparently was very good at disappearing on him, only to find him later in the Jingshi, snuggled beside a sleeping LWJ. 

After the tenth times basically LQR gave up on lecturing him and just let him live in the Jingshi. [By the way what LQR didn’t know was that LXC had been purposely helping LSZ sneaking away, because he’s still fucking bitter about their childhood and didn’t want his nephew to grow up like them]  

According to LJY, LSZ was also prone to bouts of mischievousness though it manifested in such a way that most of the time no one ever see it coming and even if they did, they never directly connect it with LSZ (even when LSZ pranked them right in their face). It used to drive LJY crazy when they were kids but now he just finds it hilarious, especially since he realized that LSZ seriously lacked self-awareness on that matter.

Because whenever LSZ planned to prank someone or break the rules, he’d copy the rules two times preemptively. And he thought that the teachers/people in charge were aware of it and so when he inevitably got caught for pranking someone/breaking the rules they won’t add any punishment because LSZ had already punish himself. That’s the argument LSZ gave to LJY whenever the latter mocked LSZ about never getting into trouble even when he wanted to. 

And so, to prove his point, one day when they were something like ten or eleven, LJY had thrown LSZ’s stash of self-punishment right in front of a senior and casually said “Sizhui was the one who gave a small stash extra-candies to the shidis. He disciplined himself accordingly, please verify his work.” And the senior’s reaction was to laugh and shake his head, “You really don’t need to find such excuses to copy rules, we all know Sizhui loves to copy rules on his free time! Sizhui is such a diligent disciple, don’t be ashamed of what you like to do.” LSZ: ...... LJY *laughing his ass off and vindictively pointing at his best friend*: See! It’d probably take befriended demonic cultivators or fierce corpses for anyone to notice you did something wrong and punish you! [Jingyi has super prophetic powers, fight me]

Of course when WWX learned about it he laughed his ass off, patting LSZ on the shoulder and telling him how proud he was. WWX: I was afraid that growing up with the Lans would have make you all mature and all... But I’m so glad there’s still some of that little shit who used to con Lan Zhan into buying him toys in you. LSZ *with a straight face* : Wei-qianbei, if you don’t stop laughing I’ll add a dozen cups of salt in your chili oil... WWX, narrowing his eyes: you’re bluffing. LSZ *smiling serenely*

About like two weeks later, the entire Gusu Lan sect saw WWX making a weird dying noise right after eating a bit of his spicy dish and then coughing and rushing to gulp down a whole barrel of water. All the while cursing, while LSZ just sweetly smiled in the background and LJY patted him on the back. LJY: See, Wei-qianbei, I told you, right in the face, and you still didn’t saw him coming.

What came as a surprise to WWX is that apparently, sometimes seemingly out of the blue [but not really, you just needed to notice the warning signs] LSZ would almost totally forego the “good and sweet diplomatic route” and immediately jump into the “still polite but with a cold and very sharp edge that will stab you one hundred times where it hurt most”.

LSZ has a very distinctive line when it concerns disparaging words or attacks towards his family and whoever he considers his friends and well.... As all of his acquaintances are pretty much badasses, he usually doesn’t really feel the need to intervene, they can pretty much fight their own battle themselves... But if he even feels the slightest hint that his friends/family are unsettled then he’d immediately plant himself like this huge mountain right between whatever threats and his friends/family and then - regardless of whom he’s talking to - he’ll cause a huge scene where he’ll demand a public apology.

LJY used to be bullied when he was a kid because he was too loud and brash and didn’t know how to act like a Lan at all [I hc that LJY’s parents are actually both Lan, coming from two different branches, which technically makes him the most Lan to ever Lan]. And whenever it happened LSZ would come to his rescue, standing right in front of him. Then he’d proceed to list all the rules that the other party had broken before ending with “Please apologize to Jingyi and then go to Hanguang-Jun for discipline.”

After hearing about those, WWX felt a strange pang in his heart without really knowing why... For some reasons, LSZ’s behavior just seemed very familiar.

It’s only when he himself witnessed one of those as LSZ defended JL that it clicked. It was JYL... LSZ was acting like WWX’s shijie.

So it turned out that LWJ had raised LSZ in a way that he thought WWX would have like his son to be raised. And whose values and behaviors better than WWX’s beloved shijie? But the thing is, LWJ didn’t really know much about JYL personally... The few things that he knew was what he heard from WWX: she was gentle, caring, made the best lotus root pork ribs soup ever, loved her brothers very much and that was about it. 

Water ghouls AU!

[Part 0.5: Meeting Wei Ying]

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

Madam Yu and Madam Jin were in Yiling for a night hunt, where they encounter kid!WWX being chased by a group of dogs. Seeing the kid cornered and trying to protect his very small bun... Both of them couldn’t help but think of their own children in such a position and went to chase the dogs away.

Madam Jin actually brought WWX two other buns.

WWX of course was very grateful towards the two very kind [AN: I think it’s the first time I’m using Madam Yu and kind in the same sentence, pff] aunties... And when he saw that they carried swords his eyes went very wide, before hastily rummaging through the pockets of his dirty clothes. He pulled out a talisman and gave it to Madam Yu, beaming, “Here auntie, a lucky charm for you!” 

Both Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked intrigued by the ‘lucky charm’ that was actually a talisman. But they were unfamiliar with the sigils on it, and considering the slightly childish handwriting, both of them guessed that it might have been the kid’s work. It was more than probable that the kid’s parents were cultivators and he saw them writing talismans and wanted to copy them... Of course, to his small mind the sigils were probably no different from gibberish. And so he thought that he had made a proper “lucky charm” and decided to gave it the kind aunties as thanks.

Even Madam Yu had to admit that the kid was cute and endearing. So she took the talisman, thanks him and shoo him away.   [Because she could be kind from time to time, but not that kind and besides they still have a ferocious beast to hunt down.] She slid the talisman in her sleeves and will probably throw it away later when the kid wasn’t watching.

And well two hours later and the street rat and his talisman were probably the last thing on her mind. ‘Cause the lone ferocious beast that they were supposed to kill turned out to be a pack of six ferocious beasts.

At some point during the quite challenging fight, Madam Yu got momentarily distracted by something and it allowed one of the beast to rush through her defense. Considering how close it was and the direction of its jump, she barely had the time to raise one arm to protect her face. But before it could actually chunk at her arm it suddenly stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible wall. The protective barrier of course collapse barely a few seconds after because the spiritual energy sustaining it was quite low but it gave Madam Yu enough time to take a few step back and counterattack.    

Soon enough after that all the beasts were dealt with and they could finally relaxed. This was when Madam Yu took out the ‘lucky charm’ from her sleeve. It just happened that the arm she had raised to instinctively protect herself had been the one with the talisman within the sleeve. And sure enough, the talisman was still warm and the sigils were slightly bright in some parts and burnt in others. Indicating that it had been activated not so long ago.  

Madam Yu and Madam Jin looked at each other with wide eyes. Turned out what they thought were a child drawing was actually a proper protective talisman!

So of course they had to go and track WWX down again, because a kid who could write talisman that could be activated and properly worked (even if it was for merely a few seconds) was nothing short of a genius. It would be a tremendous waste not to nurture such potential.

They didn’t have any difficulty in finding the kid again, he was actually sleeping in one of the corner of the street where they had met earlier near a small makeshift tent made of dirty quilts.

The kid woke as they came closer and beamed at them, “Aunties, are you finished night hunting? Did the lucky charm help?” Madam Yu: It did. Did you write it yourself? The kid nodded enthusiastically. Madam Yu: Do you want to learn more? WWX: Can I? Madam Yu: I belong to the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. It is one of the Great Sect of the cultivation world. If you come home with me, I’ll take you in as a disciple and teach you. I won’t be kind though, so be prepared. WWX: I’ll come!! I’ll come! Please teach me!     Madam Yu: Very well, then come along. WWX rushed into the makeshift tent to take out his meager belongings (one fourth of a cinnabar, a very decrepit brush and the two buns that Madam Jin brought him earlier) and happily followed the other two. [And that’s how you catch a wild Wei Ying, *clap clap* (and she didn’t even need to bait him with watermelon)]

Because it was quite late at night and because the kid was super dirty, they decided to stay at a nearby inn, where the kid was forced to take a bath and changed clothes (that Madam Jin brought him... it was the clothes of the inn’s owner’s son and weren’t of high quality but it was definitely better than the clothes that WWX had been wearing).

After the kid looked more presentable and way cleaner, they took the opportunity to ask him about his talismans.

Turns out they were right. His parents had been cultivators  - probably rogue cultivators - and it was his mother who taught A-Ying this protective talisman. It was apparently his “job” to help them make it. Because he was “back-up” and it was a “very important job”... And she had made him make a dozens of them until he got it right and could actually activate them.

Thinking about it, the mother’s aim had probably been to provide him with a tool to protect himself just in case.

By the time, he finished talking about it, the kid was starting to nod off so Madam Yu send him to bed. But just when she did so, she suddenly realized that she didn’t actually know his full name. “A-Ying, what is your name?” WWX *sleepily*: A-Ying’s name is Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian. Madam Yu, suddenly filled with dread: Wei? Are your parents Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren? [By the way, at that time, news of the WWX’s parents death had not reach Yunmeng yet, which is why she didn’t make the connection immediately when she heard WWX calling himself A-Ying] WWX: Yes! Auntie, do you know them? Are you friend with them? Madam Yu: We are not friend. But I do know them. WWX: Oh...  

About eight months ago, WWX’s parents had gone to a night hunt in Yiling. And because they thought that this case might be more dangerous than usual, they didn’t take him with them for the actual hunt and made him wait for them back in the street of Yiling [in the exact corner where his makeshift tent is]. They never came back.

Madam Yu, once WWX fell asleep, very bitterly: So she’s dead... And I’m actually taking her kid in. What kind of fate is this? Is she mocking me beyond the grave?

Madam Yu could actually picture with great clarity what was going to happen as soon as WWX will arrive at Lotus Pier. JFM will welcome him with open arms. A son of a servant will be raised way above his station, not only as a mere disciple of the sect but like a son of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. And A-Cheng will probably cease to exist in the eyes of JFM as soon as the son of Cangse Sanren would arrive.

Madam Jin seeing Madam Yu very sour face, tried to reason with her, “You’re not going to leave back in the street, are you? Outside of the fact that he is Cangse Sanren’s son, he didn’t do anything wrong and has a lot of potential.” [Those words are so going to bite her in the ass a few years later when Meng Yao comes into play, haha] Madam Yu: I am not coming back on my words.

Besides she was pretty sure that even if she left him there, as soon as words of their death reached JFM’s ears, he’d go and search the whole word for Cangse Sanren’s son. He wouldn’t give up until he managed to find him and then they’d end up exactly in the same situation (actually it was probably even a worse situation, there was no way rumors wouldn’t fly around with Jiang-zongzhu looking for and adopting the son of the woman he was rumored to be in love with).... The only way to prevent this situation was to straightforwardly kill the kid right now. But Madam Yu had not reach such a low point that she would go and murder innocent young kids no matter how troublesome their parents were.

If she’s going to have to endure the presence of Cangse Sanren’s son either way, then so be it. If she’s going to have to get used to the idea that Cangse Sanren’s son will from now on be an adoptive son of her family, then so be it. But she will make sure that both sons will be treated accordingly, even if this is the last thing that she’ll ever do! 

---------

Status Progress:

>> Wei Ying has been upgraded to adopted!

>> Madam Yu has been upgraded to on her way to become a good mother out of pure spite!

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Author’s note: Right so remember when I said after part 3 that Meng Yao will appear next time? I lied. (Though he does make his entrance in part 4, you get this prequel/backstory first.)

So in canon (please correct me if I’m wrong) WWX’s parents died when he’s about six and he’s only found by JFM when he’s about eight or nine? That’s such a huge gap. And my personal hc to explain it is that actually JFM didn’t know they died for a long time.

I mean both of them were rogue cultivators. If there were no one around when they died how would it be possible for anyone to know that they died? My guess is that they actually send messages/letters to JFM once in a while (like every two or three years to let him know what they’re up to). Stuff like, “If after X times you didn’t get any news, then please consider us dead” or something. If they died in Yiling right after sending one of their letters, informing him of their location, then it would make sense that JFM would only notice that something is wrong a few years later with no new letters. Naturally he’ll go look for them and search at the last place they mentioned first and try to trace back what happened from there. Which is how he found WWX in the street of Yiling.  

Now in this universe Madam Yu stumbles upon WWX by pure accident less than a year after his parents’ death, which means that he actually gets adopted younger than he was in canon. Which means that by the times the event of part 1 happens, he was already living with the Jiang for something like 4 years (which explains why he has so much more lee-way and is so much more comfortable within the family).

WWX and NHS’s relationship post-canon is truly weird and complicated. No one quite know if they get along or hate each other guts [not even them]. But whether they are friend or not, at each gathering without exception one of them would seek the other out. [Sometimes they don’t even need gathering, one of them would randomly pop up at each other’s place]

Then will ensue a conversion full of passive aggressiveness where taunts in the forms of veiled flattery would made, where vague barbs and pointed comments would be thrown around, and laughter would also come up at weird instance. In other words the tones and mood of their conversation could change at the drop of the hat. [Sometimes it would even swing widely in the space of less than an incense]. 

That’s because since WWX and LXC got closer to each other once WWX started to live in Cloud Recesses, WWX actually witnesses how depressed LXC is. And he can’t really forgive or forget that NHS was like 66% behind this.

NHS feels really guilty about it, but didn’t have the courage to go see LXC yet.

Another feature of their relationship is that since WWX discovered that NHS had a knack for digging up dirt, any time one of his ducklings happened to need information, WWX would make a point to tell them “Go ask Nie-zongzhu, I am sure he doesn’t know anything about it.”  Cue super confused ducklings. But since they are dutiful they still obeyed and went to ask NHS .

And because NHS still feels like he owes WWX a debt, he would grudgingly give the information. If it’s something that he truly doesn’t know, then he’ll send one of his disciples to do search and dig out the information. [NHS: Wei-xiong, you wouldn’t happen to know why the juniors keep coming to me to ask for information? WWX, *straight face*: No clue. NHS: That’s a shame... I’d really appreciate it though if they stopped doing that. If you out who they are would you pass the message for me? I really hate the extra work. WWX: Sure.... *Five minutes later, after one of the junior wonder about sth very inconsequential like where the fruits they ate come from or where is the best shop to buy whatever* WWX, without hesitation: Go ask Nie-zongzhu .]

 Speaking of the Nie disciples and juniors...      

 Officially there are some of them, but their cultivation level are average at best so no one really pay attention to them.[Like they were there the whole time, even during pre-canon and canon events... they just have a very low presence, think kuroko from KnB]

But… they are everywhere. NHS has started a really complicated and throughout spy networks comprised of orphan kids and street rats that he had trained himself to be as innocuous as possible… Some might know each other, but only NHS really know how many and who they are.

WWX is aware of their existence and that prompted the game of “Catching the Canary”: Just to piss off NHS, he’d start to randomly pick some kids to accompany them on Nigh Hunts… He says it’s a teaching experience for his ducklings to protect the civilian (NHS says freaking bullshit, as eight time out of ten, it is actually one of the NHS spy that is getting picked)

No one knows how WWX does it, but what is actually scarier is LSZ… Somehow he can always pick up the spy… (truth is… Sizhui is just naturally kind and wouldn’t dismiss anyone even very low presence people, but because NHS spies are paranoid they think that he knows… and so they’ll be like “I’ll do better next time” and LSZ thinking that they’re talking about cultivation or something always nods “Good luck, you can do it” and then endeavor to remember them so that he’ll know if their path cross some others time…. (which is the opposite of what they want…) and the other juniors had taken their cues from LSZ so all of them are starting to do it too [with more or less success...]. (WWX thinks it’s hilarious, while NHS is starting to think the juniors are actually his natural enemy or something)  

And because of LSZ reputation of always noticing the NHS juniors, even if LSZ pinpoints a kid that isn’t part of the Nie Sect, the other Nie spies think that the kid is… because well, even they don’t know everyone for safety issues, but if LSZ noticed them then they must be an NHS’s spy… SO they’ll give a report to the random kid… who’ll be super baffled and say “But I don’t know you???” “yeah, yeah and I don’t know you!” “No I really don’t know what you’re talking about!” “Look I’m in a hurry so if you could report back to Zongzhu as quick as possible it would be great!” “O…kay?” “Great” Most of the time, the random kid doesn’t dare to go seek an audience with a sect leader (no matter how bad his reputation as a slacker) just for such a weird thing. But some are actually more brave and dutiful so they’ll actually go and then NHS would look at them and be like “Who?” [He’ll actually take some of them in as disciples, because why the hell not? ]

NHS would complain about it to WWX during one of their Passive Aggressive friendly chat. Like whoa they have refined passive aggressive conversation to a whole new level: sometimes their entire  conversation were made of metaphor, quotes, insinuation and imagery... So much that eavesdroppers would be like “What kind of language is this? Are they cursing each other??”  

It happened to LSZ and LJY, who had gone with WWX to visit NHS…. They were completely baffled with the whole conversation. Though when they related it back to Jin Ling who had pretty much learned the language “Passive Aggressiveness”  through sheer osmosis. [Come on he grew up in Jinlintai, Passive Aggressive might as well be the native language. And he was raised with an uncle who couldn’t talk without seeming passive aggressive or plotting something and another uncle who always default at being at first super aggressively passive and then just outright super aggressive after some time]

So I’m currently reading a C novel called Card Room. Which is basically the MC and ML having to go through several survival/puzzle/escape/mystery rooms. And the arc I’m reading right now is about murders occurring on a three-days trip train and the two main characters have to investigate and solve them. In real life, one is a forensic doctor and the other one is a police investigator, so it’s pretty easy for them. In the context of the room though they are impersonating train attendants.

And at some point after discovering the first victim, the forensic doctor rattled a bunch of medical facts and the witnesses around him where like “???” and one of them even went like “Are train attendants really that amazing nowadays? You know medicine?!”

So then a plot bunny emerged in my mind about an universe where aboard a train all staffs are actually hidden (or not so hidden) badasses... Like if you’re familiar with the TV tropes terminology they are all either  Ambiguously Trained or Almighty Janitors.  And because my mind always come back some way or another to MDZS nowadays.

So imagine the MDZS characters... It might be that after canon, all of the characters for some reasons miraculously came back to life and all the cast managed to reach immortality. Or that all of them are actually the reincarnation of the canon characters and remember their past lives (and got the same skills/abilities). Anyway, no matter the reasons, they are all chilling in the modern areas and for some reasons are actually all ‘working’ as staff members of this special train.

Except none of them actually bother to hide their skills or even try to appear normal... Some do try to at least do their jobs but well, with more or less success depending on the person ...So of course pure chaos and mayhem follow!

[Part 3: The Four River Beasts (or WWX’s naming sense, take two)]

(part 1) (part 2)

Because WWX ends up having (accidentally) this big army of water ghouls, he decides to gift the members of his family their own personal water ghoul. And like any good pets, those water ghouls obviously needed good names (he wasn’t going to let Jiang Cheng name anything ever).

Xuánwǔ (漩武 - “whirlpool” “warrior”)

Qīnglóng ( 清龙 - “pure/quiet” “dragon”)

Zhūquè (潴雀 - “pond” “sparrow”)

Báihǔ (白浒 - “blank/empty“ “edge of the water/shore”)

They are of course based on the four symbols/mythological beasts (Xuánwǔ the Black Turtle, Qīnglóng the Azure Dragon, Zhūquè the Vermilion Bird, Báihǔ the White Tiger)   and the names are pronounced exactly the same way. WWX of course thought that it was hilarious so when he told them the name of their pets JC just sort of went “You named your pets water ghouls after the four symbols?! Really? Don’t you have any respect?”

“No, no, it’s not actually the same, look the names are written this way!”

And so he shows the characters he used and they all went “...”

“See? They are not the Four Mythological Beasts, but more like the Four Jiang Mythological Beasts ( 四江神兽 )!!!”  

“WEI WUXIAN!!!!”

[AN: Okay so I was 100% only going to use “Water” because I really liked the sound of ‘Sì shuǐ shén shòu’ and like a dumbass I didn’t thought of the very obvious “River”...  Just a small reminder that Jiang ( 江 ) means “River”, I have no idea if the joke really works in Chinese or not, but it was way too tempting not to use it.]  

In the end, Madam Yu made him change it to Four Water Mythological Beast on the official paper because there was absolutely no way they would go with such a name, it was already bad enough that Wei Wuxian business sounded like “sinking ships” ! But for some reasons the name Four Jiang Mythological Beasts spread around Yunmeng and everyone call them that, regardless of the official name.(And by the time the Sunshot Campaign rolls around, the whole cultivation heard about how the Jiang had four Mythological Beasts and the name sticks.)

As for who gets which pets Water Ghouls:

Whirlpool Warrior/Xuanwu is a Water Ghoul that was trained to attack/defend against threats. It got created with a tremendous amount of spiritual energy and so it possesses a special technique that is akin to what a Waterborne Abyss can do... It creates a whirlpool to sunk in any enemies (thus its name). And well obviously, it would belong to Madam Yu. I mean can you just imagine Madam Yu standing right in the middle of a whirlpool and bringing her full stormy wrath on whoever/whatever dared to piss her off? (At some point Xuanwu figures out how to send whirlpool to the shore, and so Madam Yu starts to bring it with her when she is night-hunting near a body of water... Because whirlpool+Zidian is one of the most devastatingly destructive attack ever)     

Quiet Dragon/Qinglong goes to JFM, it is a very calm and steadfast water ghoul that specializes in boat transportation. It can move in such a way that will not cause ripple in the water at all, most of the times when it is driving the boat, you wouldn’t even notice that the boat is moving unless you’re looking at the shore and see the fast moving landscape. (It also means that if it decided to sink your boat, you’d already be drowning before you even realized something was there)

Pond Sparrow/Zhuque  is a very small water ghoul. It is fast and sneaky and somehow it has eyes everywhere. It is used to monitor the water and the shores for threats. It can produce sharp gurgling noises of various tones that could be compared to a bird song (if the bird was half-way drowning and your ears were somehow non-functional). The song is used to communicate with and alert all the other water ghouls. Somehow Zhuque is very good at locating the best lotus seeds and would regularly bring back some to JYL.

Empty Shore/Baihu is a hunting dog water ghoul. If it got a whiff of a scent or spiritual energy it will be able to track down anyone as soon as they are under a li (~500 meters) of a body of water. It is very, very persistent and will not give up unless it manages to get its prey. Its offensive abilities are like strong current waves to Xuanwu’s whirlpool in terms of destructive ability. It will send a huge wave towards the shore (not unlike a small tsunami) that will, depending on how it is controlling the current, either crash down everything on its way or  drag whatever it wants in the water). It is also very good at tracking down  “wild water ghoul” and dragging them back for WWX to purify. Baihu is naturally for JC.     

And well in case you’re wondering, WWX’s own water ghoul pet (the first one he ‘tamed’ that had nearly drown him) is called Hēi Shuǐ ( 黑水 - “Black Water”) which is more straightforward and isn’t nearly as entertaining as the names he came up with later (ie. with no puns or play on words), but in his defense he had not yet come up with the mythological beasts theme when he named his pet.

[AN: Black Water is a direct reference to Black Water Submerging Boat, one of the Four Calamities and one of the three Supreme Ghosts in TGCF]

Hei Shui, by virtue of being the first (and a total accident), lacks most of its siblings flashy abilities. However what it loses in pure destructive power, it more than makes up with speed, ingenuity and intelligence. All water ghouls were intelligent by nature, but Hei Shui had reached a level that was downright terrifying.

Years later, after getting acquainted with a certain Second Jade of Lan, WWX will gift him  Yù Tù (欲兔- “to wish for, to desire” “rabbit”) , which sounds like “ Yù Tù, Jade Rabbit” (also known as Moon Rabbit) another famous mythical figure... (he got a “Shameless!” with red tainted ears in return once he actually explained that it didn’t actually stand for the Jade Rabbit)...Yu Tu was given the task to act cute (or as cute as a water ghoul could be), transport the occasional letters between WWX and LWJ and rescue any drowning people it might encountered... but really 90% of its job is to act adorable... [Also it might or might not have the lethal ability to completely obliterate anything weaker than a Waterborne Abyss in case of emergency...]     

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Status Progress:

>> WWX has been upgraded to naming menace!

>> Water ghouls  have been upgraded to  no longer nameless super badass water beasts!

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Okay there’s no art for this part, cause my drawing skills are utterly unable to reach the level that would allow me to draw what I’ve got in mind for this one. (In case you’re curious, I envision a huge poster like thing divided in four parts. In each parts you get one of the four Jiang with their water ghouls + their respective mythological beasts in the background. Madam Yu would be standing right above a whirlpool, with zidian crackling around her. JC would stand cross-armed above a huge tsunami-like wave. JFM would standing on a boat, looking calm and mysterious. JYL would be on a bridge, looking peaceful as she glanced down at her water ghoul)....

WWX’s usual trend of interaction with people is that he’ll jump straight to the overly familiar address, and would switch back to formal to let people know that I’m very pissed off right now/shit is about to go down/I am serious!

But, it’s different with LXC.

After WWX and LWJ get married, WWX will still refer to LXC as “Zewu-jun” and likewise LXC will keep calling WWX affectionately “Wei-gongzi”.

It’s not because they don’t get along or anything. On the contrary their relationship is quite good, it’s just because they got used to using Zewu-jun/Wei-gongzi and it’s hard to break habit, so they just keep using it.   

And when they do refer to each other as “dabo” or “Xichen-ge” and “Wuxian” it’s not to distance themselves, on the contrary it’s when they are really upset/serious about sth/trying to comfort and it’s their way of reminding each other “We are family and it is my prerogative to be worried about you! ”... and whichever uses this first, the other one will always switch to this form of address as well to acknowledge it (”yes we are family”).

Likewise with LSZ they keep the “Wei-qianbei”/”Sizhui” but  whenever one of them is upset they would revert back to “Xian-gege”/”A-Yuan”  and the other will systematically follow.

At some point, by virtue of always being around LSZ, LJY basically gets adopted as well... though LJY was very insecure about it as first, with a “I’m not really that close to them, it’s just because I’m friend with Sizhui and really they must think I’m annoying” kind of mentality... But then one days he gets very upset about something, WWX goes to comfort him and in a moment of vulnerability LJY just blurts out “Wuxian-ge” and without missing a beat WWX goes “A-Yi”     

Jin Ling at some point witnessed some of those switching address moments and felt a little bit left out so he wanted to try it as well... So at some point he gathered all his resolve and tried to call WWX “da-jiu” But because he’s an easily embarrassed yellow fluffy little ball of awkwardness it ended being something like “da - WEI WUXIAN!”. And WWX just snorted and called him “xiao-Ling”  “!!! Don’t call me that, I’m not as small little kid, at least use A-Ling! No wait... I mean call me Jin Ling!” “Too late, A-Ling it is.”