#jiang chen

It's time to shitpost on Mo Dao Zu Shi.

It's drawings I did while I was reading along the novels, so this is what I was thinking at the time I was reading some of the passages.

Time-travel 1 chapter (complete) 20k words

Wen Qing’s last memory was of death by smoke inhalation.

It was objectively interesting—death by fire. Painful, of course—hideously, mind-rendingly painful. But surprisingly quick. Asphyxiation within minutes, before the burns were even fourth degree over most of the body. A learning experience. Or it would have been, if it hadn’t ended in, well. Death.

That was her last, lightheaded thought—a weak joke at her own expense. Wei Wuxian would have been proud.

That was her last thought. But then she woke up.

She opens her eyes to a black table covered with a red cloth, and a body full of needles. Acupuncture, of course, she thinks giddily. The afterlife of a doctor involves acupuncture. Why not?

Upon closer inspection, she appears to be working on Wen Ruohan, which also makes a certain, cracked sort of sense. He’s dead too, after all. And maybe this is a punishment, or a test. Because last time, Wen Qing had let Wen Ruohan live—out of fear, out of misplaced attachment, out of principle.

Swiftly, efficiently, she shoves a needle at the base of his skull significantly deeper, channels qi though it, yanks it from side to side, and severs his spinal cord, paralyzing him and putting him completely at her mercy. A severed spinal cord that high up means he’ll die soon in any case, but she decides to take no chances that he’ll somehow manage to heal himself—she grabs the knife she habitually carries and is apparently still carrying in the afterlife and stabs him in the side of the neck, twisting and jerking until the delicate structures within are mutilated beyond repair. Wen Ruohan is dead before he has a chance to call out. Or whatever the afterlife equivalent to death is.

Time-travel has some strange effects, depending on who travels and from when. In With Surgical Precision, Wen Qing dies as in canon and then opens her eyes just in time to eliminate the problem of Wen Ruohan in what she considers a nightmare of the afterlife. Who knew?

As further events unfold, it becomes clear that this may not be the afterlife. Wen Ning, while shocked, understands all too well. In for a dime, in for dollar.

Summary:

Fate seems determined to keep throwing them together. Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng have a chance to talk. This fixes some things. Sequel to Listen to the Ocean (Hear it Break)

Ship: ChengQing

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence | Post-Golden Core Reveal | Hurt/Comfort

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63570229

Excerpt:

Wen Qing says nothing as Jiang Cheng opens her cell door. The slow grind of metal on stone is far too loud in the present silence as if only hours ago she had not heard the screams of her people and the sounds of battle.

“Lady Wen,” he greets, surveying the confines of this cell and stares long and hard at the manacles around her wrist and the array drawn on them. 

Qi sealing arrays. She’d designed them herself for risky surgeries where one’s qi could lash out and hurt the physician or patient. The irony of it all feels like a slap in the face. And was most likely Wen Chao’s intention.

As does his presence here. 

“Sect Leader Jiang,” she echoes like it is enough, like it can encompass everything that lies between them.