you are light

“Stop causing trouble”

-

Lan Zhan finds the rabbit in the winter.

Fur pitch-black against the snow, it huddles in a pitiful, bedraggled ball at the edge of the Gusu Academy’s herb garden when Lan Zhan calls Jin Rulan’s fat, spoiled familiar to heel, and continues to cower even after Fairy has trotted reluctantly away to sit by Lan Zhan’s side.

Lan Zhan initially intends to leave it, to hold Fairy just long enough to let the rabbit run back into the night where it belongs, but when it uncurls and limps forward, red splatters drip onto the ground behind it.

There is no matching stain on Fairy’s muzzle, so it is not a harm that Gusu is directly responsible for, but - to save the animal from Jin Rulan’s dog just to leave it to die in the cold would not be a mercy.

Slowly, carefully, Lan Zhan scoops it up and tucks it into the front of his robe, where it can share his body heat. He expects it to struggle, and so is pleasantly surprised when it calms immediately and begins to nose around in his clothing.

“Be still,” he tells it mildly, and, whistling for Fairy to follow, heads back up the hill, towards the light of the main hall.

👀 👀 👀

Everything is gorgeous and I love it so much, but I ESPECIALLY ADORE the sleeping on LWJ’s face (100% definitely happened, headcanon accepted) and the PLAYING DEAD - this is a rush job, but how could I not write a thing:

“Playing dead will not help you,” Lan Zhan tells the rabbit, who had taken one sniff of the medicinal potion and dramatically keeled over. “We need to ensure that the curse that hit your leg has left no lingering effects.”

The rabbit ignores him.

Lan Zhan is not unsympathetic - the potion does not smell appetising in the least. But it must be taken nevertheless. 

“My brother brewed this especially,” Lan Zhan says patiently. “He stood over it for two hours.”

Gasping and wheezing, the rabbit drags itself back to the vial in Lan Zhan’s hand. It takes another sniff and promptly flops over onto its side.

Lan Zhan sighs. Time for Plan B.

“It does smell very strong,” he says, quietly withdrawing a small metal container from his sleeve and setting it down on the table. “It wouldn’t be surprising if it made you lose your appetite completely.”

Eyes still closed, the rabbit nods and coughs pitifully.

“In that case,” Lan Zhan continues, returning the container to its original size with a quick Engorgement charm before tapping his wand on the lid to open it. 

The smell of lotus root soup wafts gently out. 

“There’ll be no need for the palate-cleanser I asked the house elves to make you.”

One of the rabbit’s eyes springs open.

“What a shame,” Lan Zhan says, bending to take a slow and deliberate closer look. “They even put chilli in it.” 

He swishes his wand, even more slowly and deliberately, to Levitate the lid back on.

“I wonder,” he adds, the final nail in the coffin, “if Fairy might still ea-”

His closing flick is stopped by a black paw on his wrist.

The rabbit gives him a baleful stare, turns to the vial and taps its uninjured leg expectantly.

my personal favorites:

Part 2 is Here

JJWXC, or 晋江, is by far the largest webnovel site for female audiences in China. This is their system for labeling stories–authors are supposed to choose one tag from each category for their creation. The explanations are based on the annotations provided to author accounts.

If I’ve made any mistakes, please let me know!

Format Tags

小说 = prose fiction

评论 = review

随笔 = essay

诗歌 = poetry and verse

剧本 = screenplay

Originality Tags

原创 = original

衍生 = fanfic

Orientation Tags

言情 = BG(boy/girl), het

纯爱 = (very euphemistic way to refer to) BL, yaoi

百合 = GL, yuri

女尊 = GB(girl/boy), het where the female partner is dominant. In practice this involves a lot of stories where the social/biological roles are reversed and men live in harems and/or bear women’s children and so on.

无CP = no central romantic relationship

POV Tags

Because Chinese writing doesn’t have rules against “head-hopping”, there’s no real line drawn between POV and main character.

For BG, GB, and 无CP the options are:

男主 = Male MC/POV

女主 = Female MC/POV

不明 = Unclear

For BL and GL the options are:

攻 = Seme

受 = Uke

互攻 = Characters switch

不明 = Story doesn’t mention position

Setting Tags

近代现代 = set in recent/modern eras starting around the Republican era in CHina

古色古香 = set in history during existing dynasties

架空历史 = set in an invented dynasty (think the equivalent of the generic medieval setting in Western stories)

幻想未来 = set in future

Primary Genre Tags

爱情 = predominantly romance

武侠 = predominantly wuxia adventures

奇幻 = non-xianxia fantasy, such as Western fantasy or paranormal fantasy

仙侠 = cultivation or Eastern mythology based fantasy

游戏 = online MMO setting

传奇 = MC’s dramatic life story

科幻 = science fiction

童话 = cute, innocent stories that inspire feelings of childhood again

惊悚 = horror

悬疑 = mystery/suspense

轻小说 = light novels, shallow and fun with engaging characters

古典衍生 = fanfic of ancient/classical works

东方衍生 = fanfic of Eastern works, mythology, folktales, history, etc.

西方衍生 = fanfic of Eastern works, mythology, folktales, history, etc.

其他衍生 = other fanfic

Tone Tags

悲剧 = tragedy

正剧 = between comedy and tragedy; “normal”, reasonable progression of events

轻松 = lighthearted, humorous

爆笑 = laugh-out-loud, exaggeratedly funny