Hehe, thank you!

I'm dying to talk about something in my CLJ/LBFAD longfic An Orchid of the Moon. Now that I finally published this part, I can.

(Chapter 42 spoilers for any current readers in the chat)

But I was very excited to come up with this plot point early on, legit three years ago. I knew Canglan would have better communication skills in this AU since they're on the same side, and they also spend more time as a couple. So DFQC telling XLH about the Bone Orchid being poisoned instead keeping it from her was a natural addition. What I was really excited about writing was how XLH is able to purify the evil qi from the bracelet and release Chidi Nüzi's trapped spirit.

With this AU in general, I was really interested in how small changes would impact the story's trajectory. This change still keeps the characters on the same path, but it alters some things too. Not gonna lie, I did not want to deal with Chidi Nüzi returning and that whole plotline, and this change eliminates it entirely. Even 3 years ago, before I got really into writing the story, I knew it was going to be long, so I wanted to make it easy on myself as much as possible.

And also, the main point of the story is Canglan. I'm not a huge fan of how the drama shifts the focus away from them at this point in the story. Like the Danyin and Jieli part just annoys me tbh. Chidi Nüzi's story at least is necessary to the plot in the drama, but I don't need to write about it haha. Maybe I will sometime in its own fic :P

Anyway I was SO EXCITED when I finally got to write this part. It's been three years in the making lmao

Hellooo 💕 methinks I am doing well ☺️

Oooh wait what about "seconds" like second in a duel

Anonymous: Salvation for stw?

Anonymous: Subscribers for Song 👏（＾ν＾）

Anonymous: Sighing for Song 😩

Anonymous: Standard-bearer…?

Anonymous: Security guards for stw?

Anonymous: Shields for stw?

ampersandra: stooges? spears? i feel like it's probably something that'll feel really obvious in hindsight though lol

Anonymous: Okay so the clues we have so far (probably).... - English word , pretty commonly spoken in given context , not NSFW - tangentially related to either soft toys , soldiers, subscribers, supporters or sentinels . - starts and ends with 's' , plural noun. - not related to storyline. Atp we should just start the hangman game.😅 Seniors ? Siblings?

not-the-alex: As an American, I am LOSING MY MIND trying to figure this out. And yes pride! Pride in being able to get it right 😂

not-the-alex: Subjects for song 👑

Anonymous: stewards, seneschals, seconds (in a duel against whom though) or suitors, supervisors, super-something-else-s (because you are)

❌

Minor amendment to the commonness of the word in question: the non-American members of the team haven't heard this word used too much, not in our intended sense of it, so we think it may be American slang? So, not as common as we initially said.

Additional clue, it's a single word, not a compound like some of the guesses above.

not-the-alex: Is your clue about the soldiers, soft toys, and subscribers ask?

Why pride lmao… Yes, that's the one.

Anonymous: Sentinels/sentries for stw? Maybe to protect and warn him if shj or hyj are near and about to create problems for him xD

Another tangentially related guess…!

not-the-alex: Softies! Stormtroopers! (....swifties?)

terrorofstars: saviors? 🤠

Anonymous: Stress balls for stw?? (S-class ones i guess) That man needs to de-stress

li-esonthefloor: shoes... soles.... st..ilettos.... swords....................... ....scribes.....

Anonymous: Saviors, sugar daddies , stakers, suppliers , signees, Signers, scouts, submissions - for stw ?? (If not..then on a scale of 1-10, how commonly used that word is?) Sorry if we are bothering you too much but this is so fun hehe 😅😅