LINKDING

Summary: In which Mei Changsu takes the poison. And wakes in a universe where the Lin family fell ten years earlier. ➜ Nirvana in Fire fic where MCS bodyswaps with himself from an alternate universe where he's an imperial eunuch ➜ a fascinating little glimpse into this alternate world! I am so curious how this is going to go....for both versions of MCS ➜ 1k words in length

Summary: Lin Chen is exactly where he wants to be, thank you very much. ➜ pre-canon Nirvana in Fire fanfic ➜ outside pov about Lin Chen being his bestworst self at unsuspecting people ➜ it's so funny. I love Lin Chen. ➜ 2k words in length

summary: Life is better with the other around. ➤ ahh what a lovely sweet little ficlet about Jingrui and Yujin's friendship!! I love them ➤ 400 words exactly, two double drabbles

Summary: When Xiao Xuan tells her of the Chiyan rebellion and that her beloved grandson Prince Qi is to die, the Grand Empress Dowager takes drastic action. ➤ omg it's NiF genfic focusing on Tai-nainai and Gao-gonggong ➤ canon divergence AU where Tai-nainai hears about the Chiyan rebellion and decides to take her own action ➤ I love how well Tai-nainai and Gao-gonggong understand each other! ➤ thanks to @aegtx@wandering.shop for the rec! ➤ 1.3k words in length

Summary: Lin Chen did not look up from his book. “What on earth,” he said, clipped and precise, “makes you think that I would want to meet the man you're busy dying for?” / In which Lin Chen joins the Consort Jing fanclub, Mei Changsu re-evaluates several tenets of his existence, and Xiao Jingyan decides that if everyone else is having an emotional crisis, he might as well join them. ➤ HELLO it's a 12k Lin Chen/Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan ship fic I am there with bells on!!! ➤ mcs has a thing with jingyan and separately a thing with lin chen. he wants to make them be in the same room with each other. ➤ mcs gets what he wants and immediately gets to regret it in like five different ways, which is exactly what I love to see ➤ it's got so many delightfully fraught conversations between various iterations of the characters! ➤ it involves lin chen and jingyan talking about mcs behind his back! ➤ it involves lin chen and consort jing teaming up! ➤ LOVED IT.

Summary: <blockquote>My collected meta on Nirvana in Fire, featuring obsessive dives into history, language, fandom, calligraphy, and a lot of Chinese names for penises.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Like a fool, Jingyan had believed Lin Chen when he said Mei Changsu—Xiao Shu--was dead for the second time. In Jingyan's defense, who expected someone to fake their death twice? Wasn't it--just a little--over the top?</blockquote> ➤ a post-canon Nirvana in Fire fic in which Jingyan discovers that Mei Changsu survived after all...and never let Jingyan know. ➤ Jingyan is uh. not handling it well, the loneliness and responsibility of being emperor. and this only makes it worse! ➤ anyway it's a venue for lots of real good angst, and I definitely cried at one point! ➤ I also really appreciate the use it makes of various secondary characters who are also important figures in Jingyan's life ➤ many feels. I love these characters. there IS a happy ending. ➤ 31k words in length ➤ (not quite enough of an ending to really give space to come down from the heights of emotion, but otherwise a good enough fic that it's worth it!)

<Summary: blockquote>Twelve years after the Chiyan massacre Jingyan, bitter and grieving, is urgently called back to the capital and presented by unexpected marching orders by his mother: he's to leave his military career and marry Mei Changsu, an eighteen-years-old maiden who claims to be a daughter of his mother's old friend, mysterious Mei Shinan. Jingyan is furious, but he's too filial a son to disobey his mother...</blockquote> ➤ NiF canon divergence fic where Jingyan is called back to the capital to an arranged marriage with a young maiden named Mei Changsu ➤ I love seeing what is and what is not different in the plans and in how the two of them relate to each other, in this changed context! ➤ some great cameos from other characters too ➤ what a fun and satisfying read! ➤ 10k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>As winter sets in, Shen Zhui and Cai Quan compare notes on the firework factory case.</blockquote> ➤ Nirvana in Fire fic about Cai Quan/Shen Zhui!!!!!! god I love these nerds ➤ Reading fic about their comfortable relationship with each other as they argue and work and engage in endless bureaucracy just filled me with enormous fondness for them both ➤ they should be a thriving ship in the fandom and it's a tragedy there's not more fic about them, but this one is GREAT. ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Jingyu is quiet. He’s been quiet ever since the news came back about Chiyan army’s betrayal and subsequent slaughter at the hands of Xie Yu. Since the death of his uncle and cousin and aunt.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Undo this storm</blockquote> ➤ so I love the vid and it's clearly extremely well done, and I see why they chose the song they did, but....I HATE this particular style of vocals in music and it half-ruins the vid for me. For a lesser vid, the song would ruin it entirely. (I'm just glad there are subtitles, because otherwise it would be back to unwatchable!)

Summary: <blockquote>The Old Master thinks Chen-Chen is bored, and sends him on an interesting case . . .</blockquote> ➤ during the time when LC is working on healing mcs as much as can be done

<blockquote>Instinctively, Gao Zhan knows when his majesty is about to wake, and so he can relax now.</blockquote> ➤ about eunuch gao

<blockquote>The first indication there was something peculiar happening in the Inner Palace came heralded by the news that Prince Jing had returned injured from exile in the northernmost battlefields of Da Liang and it was revealed that the Emperor had not only granted an audience with Concubine Jing, but consented to allowing her to tend to Prince Jing herself, heretofore unprecedented liberty.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Xiao Jingyan volunteers (behind Mei Changsu's back) to be Lin Chen's guinea pig for a science experiment that will benefit Mei Changsu. He doesn't know it's to produce the Bingxu Pill. Mei Changsu is not happy about any of this when he finds out, especially not when Xiao Jingyan accidentally tramples on his complex feelings about his disability.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mei Changsu approaches sex toy acquisition the same way he does corporate espionage, public relations scandals, identity theft, and meal planning before grocery runs. (or, Mei Changsu wants to fuck Jingyan until he screams.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Sir Su,” Jingyan said, “Forgive me, but I can’t help but feel strange referring to you in such a manner after such intimacies.” “Ah,” said Lin Chen, abruptly thrown out of his warm, post-coital state, “No, Your Highness is going to have to trust me on this, calling me Changsu is really going to spoil the mood.”</blockquote> ➤ the one where lin chen goes to the capital under the name mei changsu to enact mcs's plans on his behalf! genius premise, enacted with perfection

<blockquote>“The last thing I remember, I was at Meiling. I don’t remember this ambush you’re talking about. We were fighting Da Yu. Winning.” Lin Shu scrubbed a hand across his face. “Now they told me everyone thinks I’m a traitor and if anyone sees me, I’ll be arrested and killed… it’s ridiculous. That can’t really have happened. Even if someone framed us, the Emperor would figure out we were innocent in the end.” “I’m sorry,” Jingyan said. “It’s true. The Emperor believed everything.” Lin Shu was quiet, considering. “Wait,” Jingyan said. “Who’s ‘they’?” Or, the one where a young Lin Shu shows up out of nowhere and leaves Jingyan doubting the truth of what's happened in the past twelve years--and especially doubting his closest advisor.</blockquote> ➤ ahhhhh this is mostly AMAZING. the ending feels like it's lacking something to feel like it's a proper resolution and ending point for the story, but everything up to that point is perfect. And a good ending is hard to write!

<blockquote>“The seventh prince of Da Liang has arrived at Mount Langya.” Mei Changsu sat very still, his eyes wide in the face he had worn for only a few months now, since Meiling. Then he set down the ink brush and straightened his back. “Get rid of him.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>An experimental medicine of Lin Chen's makes Mei Changsu dream his way back into the past. Dream, of course, of Lin Shu.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Jingyan was leaning in, one fist clenched on the table, and Mei Changsu searched for something to say that could ease the terrible solitude that Jingyan carried like a weight, and was also true, and would not compromise the deception necessary to achieve their goal.</blockquote>

<blockquote>She picks up her cup and sips delicately of the chrysanthemum tea she brought. It is cooling and calming. She doesn’t need calming, but Mei Changsu might. She is about to administer a medicine that the patient will find disagreeable. The patient looks fevered, at the moment. “What is wrong with Jingyan?”</blockquote> ➤ consort jing convices mcs to not die post-canon

<blockquote>Meng Zhi is a good friend.</blockquote> ➤ yessss

<blockquote>In the early days of the Alliance, Li Gang is tasked to find a house. Instead, they prepare a home.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Five times Mei Changsu denied being a qilin and one time he didn't.<blockquote>

<blockquote> It wasn’t that Xiao Jingyan had been looking for an excuse to leave the capital. Nevertheless, he was relieved to receive news of a bandit troupe terrorising the villages along the northeastern borders. His late father had been sick for four years. Jingyan had remained in the capital for a further three to help Jingyu become the new emperor. Now that he’d succeeded, he was raring to leave the stifling confines of court, even for just a little bit. While investigating bandit activity, Jingyan is rescued by the Jiangzuo Alliance. Their famous chief, Mei Changsu, insists on a meeting but refuses to show his face.</blockquote>

<blockquote>if you don’t believe him, just watch</blockquote>

<blockquote>I was hoping that you'd notice my despair.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Prince Yu challenges Jingyan to an unconventional drinking game.</blockquote>

<blockquote>There exists a rare herb, known for its ability to loosen the tongues of those who ingest it. Found only in Southern Chu, it would be highly prized as a tool for interrogation save for three things: 1) It’s extremely hard to find and harder to prepare, with even the slightest mistake transforming it from a truth serum into an exorbitantly expensive (but surprisingly tasty) cocktail; 2) The herb must be freshly picked and immediately treated in order to be effective, and is only stable for up to one month before spiralling out into unknown and unforeseen side-effects; 3) It keeps getting stolen from the interrogation chambers only to turn up in the food and/or drink of various consorts, concubines, and political figures, giving the court an Imperial Headache and leading to a Decree that it’s absolutely forbidden in court, yes even if you think that it’d be funny.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: rarely pure and never simple three truths (no lies, because we've been dosed with truth serum) the adventures of Xiao Jingyan, amateur detective