#yukong

Original Artist: fudfudddd (Xitter)

"Hello, guest from the Astral Express."

Yukong was happily unhappy about settling for this unspoken arrangement between Guangyuan, Caiyi, and herself.

We know so little about Caiyi, but I always sensed that the codependency was very mutual, that they were both trying to maintain what had always existed between them for most of their lives—almost like soulmates—always without admitting that they danced in and out of line. And at the same time, she was trying to build something solid with Guangyuan WITHOUT letting go of Yukong's hand. Caiyi kept dragging Yukong along with her.

Or at least even outside this fic is how it seemed like from their diaries and Yukong’s companion quest.

Idk I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

it is absolutely not overstepping i am so honored!! thank you!!

i think there's definitely a world in which that is true, it seems like completely valid interpretation. i mean, she literally named their child. undoubtedly, she was a strange, unspoken part of caiyi and guangyuan's relationship. i interpret caiyi's way of stringing yukong along as a stubborn refusal to give anything up. she wanted the codependency, but she wanted the husband and the child and the storied career. yukong once described her as "nagging" and i like to think of her as someone who exerts all control over a situation that she can, making up for the cosmic insignificance both her and yukong couldn't help but feel.

yukong held baggage like every xianzhou soldier holds baggage. in the way they're robbed of a life without war, in the way they never really grow up, but never really experience typical youth. so many xianzhou citizens are raised to fight, their long lives actually considered more expandable than a mortals. in this fic, she has poor emotional regulation and poor coping mechanism, not just because of the caiyi situation, but because the culture endless war doesn't care for anyone as an individual.

i think a really underrated aspect of yukong is her realistic selfishness. we see it in her relationship with qingni, and this fic really focuses on it in her relationship w caiyi. we get to see every messy, i love how the author portrays her, all her canon recklessness and youth also shown in her shortsightedness and selfishness in her inner dialogue.

as current yukong is represented by her feeling of "age," this fics version of past yukong is represented by "youth" in a way i find that really accurate. (i also love how yukong uses feixiao as a catalyst for those negative emotions.)

i love how this fic explores the line about yukong crying more than caiyi over guangyuan because it's one of my favorites from the exchange stories. there's so many reasons for yukong to be upset and this fic explores every one of them.

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Art by Checku !