LINKDING

Summary: “How could you let him?” she asked abruptly. It came out—menacing. Her own voice hadn’t been capable of conveying anger like that. If she’d tried very hard to rage, it would have been shrill and unimpressive, and if she’d spoken the way she’d tried to just now, it might have chilled the right room but it would still have sounded gentle. A-Cheng’s voice had no softness in it, and both boys went very still. ➤ mdzs/cql canon divergence au, where instead of mxy sacrificing himself to resurrect wwx, jc sacrifices himself to resurrect jyl ➤ jyl and wn and mxy eat soup together about it ➤ and jyl grapples with how she feels about everything that happened. and what she's going to do next ➤ and like. DANG I love it!!! ➤ 5k words in length

no summary ➤ mdzs/cql time travel au fic where Sect Leader Yao travels back in time at the point of his death, and intends to Make Changes For The Better ➤ a funny and fun look at how things happen, with and without his intervention! ➤ 6k words in length

summary: <blockquote>“If you died,” Huaisang started, not knowing quite where he was going with this. “I mean, you did die, da-ge, but if someone had killed you… what would you want to happen next?” / In the wake of Nie Mingjue’s death, Nie Huaisang realises how much he’s been left in ignorance. How could the artsy little brother be left to run their ancestral asteroid-mining clan? What other secrets are hidden in his san-ge’s past? And how should he get revenge? Maybe having da-ge’s personality backed up on a server was supposed to help with all this. Maybe.</blockquote> ➤ mdzs space au about nie huaisang and his years-long project in avenging his da-ge ➤ a repeated theme throughout the fic is nhs visiting and talking to back-ups that had been taken of nmj's personality before death, and the way that this makes literal how HAUNTED nhs is by his brother's absence is just sooooooo good ➤ the worldbuilding is great, the things that are changed from canon due to this different context are great, the anguish and monofocus of nhs are great ➤ I AM ALL EMOTIONS ;_; ➤ 8k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>“The…Lan sect?” Meng Yao said doubtfully. “Are you sure?” “I am,” his mother said, her mouth tight. She looked upset, the way she always did these days when he referenced, intentionally or otherwise, the original plan that she had had to send him to join his father, sect leader of Lanling Jin. She’d raised Meng Yao on a steady diet of stories of what his life would be like when his father finally took him back the way he’d promised her he would, stories that had filled his days and nights for years and years and years, and then just last year she’d suddenly stopped talking about it entirely. It was as if the person who’d told those stories had nothing to do with her. Meng Yao didn’t know what had happened, but he assumed it must have been pretty bad. “It'll be a good fit,” she added.</blockquote> ➤ canon divergence fic where young Meng Yao goes to the Lan Sect to learn cultivation as a guest, instead of trying to be accepted into Jin ➤ I had a lot of fun with the route this fix-it took! ➤ and I enjoyed that it included friendship between Meng Yao and Su She <3 ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Jiang Cheng realises that his own nephew has never tried his mother's signature dish, and takes it upon himself to rectify this. [Recipe at the end]</blockquote> ➤ post-canon, jiang cheng realises jin ling has never tasted his mother's soup ➤ cue the epic quest to learn how to recreate it, and the things he learns along the way ➤ lovely fic about family and about food ➤ 4k words in length ➤ thanks to stultiloquentia for the rec!

Summary: <blockquote>The truth was they had been friends. Three months is a long time to spend with someone, day after day, sharing meals and weary hours. At the time, Jiang Cheng really didn’t have anyone else and neither did Lan Wangji. It wasn’t only the search that bound them, but the desperation as well: that there might be some mercy in the world left for the two of them. That out of everyone else they’d lost, Wei Wuxian at least should live.</blockquote> ➤ exploring the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji; the three months of almost-friendship when they were searching for Wei Wuxian together, and then the many years of hatred that followed ➤ and yet lwj saves jc's life when he's injured in a night hunt. but they still hate each other. ➤ the deep well of bitterness on both sides, as both feel fully justified in their hate! god it's so good. the vibes in this fic are impeccable. ➤ 2k words in length ➤ thanks by-lookitmychicken for the rec!

Summary: <blockquote>In-between meeting back up at the start of ep 44 and returning to the burial mounds, the trio stops to get Wen Ning presentable for their upcoming trip through a small town.</blockquote> ➤ wen ning touch-starved and uncomfortable with the changes in his body as a fierce corpse

Summary: <blockquote>“I think the member coordinator saw our Chinese names and was like, ‘Better send all the Chinese Jews to these guys,’” Ning said. “All the better!” Wuxian said, grinning. “Double holiday for everyone!” / The Wens host Sukkot/Mid-Autumn Festival.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Wait,” Wei Wuxian said, goggling at Jin Guangshan and not caring one bit that he was being incredibly rude by interrupting the other man’s announcement, nor the fact that he was implicitly challenging Jin Guangshan on his own home territory, being as virtually the entire cultivation world had returned to Lanling City for the feasting following the Phoenix Mountain hunt. “Wait, wait, I’m sorry, are you trying to tell me that you think Teacher Lan – and just to make sure we’re being precise here, we’re talking about rule-abiding, rigid, stubborn, boring old nerd Lan Qiren, the one who used to lecture me all the time about even thinking about something unorthodox – is the Lan sect’s secret demonic cultivator?!”</blockquote> ➤ the one where lqr becomes a demonic cultivator instead

Summary: <blockquote>Jin Ling didn't mean to commit zine fraud. Surely you get a free pass if you didn't know how taxes work?!</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Or, 'five times Wei Wuxian broke the rules, and one time Lan Qiren broke them instead'. In which Lan Qiren learns, reflects, and comes to know the man now married to his nephew.</blockquote> ➤ lqr pov

Summary: <blockquote>sometimes second chances are given to the person you least expect. Or, the Wen Chao time travel AU that literally nobody, and I mean no one on this entire planet, asked for.</blockquote> ➤ damn, I'm so invested in this tbh, the way wen chao's trauma overwhelms all his other priorities, but also mean that he can barely bring himself to actually do anything to change the course of history, and the steady care wen zhuliu provides him but which wen chao is unable to trust as unshakeable.

Summary: <blockquote> You are angry, but also tired. It is a kind of tired that never stops, a constant exhaustion that seeps into your bones, your heart, that never disappears no matter how much you rest. You are tired of being angry, tired of wondering, tired of regretting.</blockquote> ➤ the one where jc maintains chengqing over the 13 years wwx is dead - bamboo flutes require upkeep to keep from cracking

Summary: <blockquote>Minutes turned into hours, and the shrills of agony puncturing through the walls of the courier station did not stop. Sometimes they would diminish, even silent for a moment, before exploding into a battered howl, enough to make the wind shiver. Still, Lan Wangji did not move.</blockquote> ➤author's note: <blockquote>So yesterday i may have had a realization on twitter about why, near the end of the novel, wwx says that "you dont like when i say thank you to you" and cited the courier station as a time when he said "thank you", when he never did. I thought it might have been just an overlook by MXTX, but it was still odd considering MDZS had been revised at this point. Then I thought about how LWJ didn't leave, but waited downstairs, and that they might still have had a short interaction that day. So, this happened! It follows right after chapter 62, when LWJ walks downstairs the courier station while JC and WWX stay to kill Wen Chao, so you might wanna re-read that part (if you're able) just to refresh your mind.</blockquote> ➤ oof

Summary: <blockquote>The life and times of Luo Mianmian; or, what happened after she secedes from Lanling Jin sect. As she suspected, the world is far bigger than the great cultivation sects.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“It’s just odd.” Qiren raised an eyebrow at his nephew’s words. “Hm?” “After all, Wangji and I grew up with you telling us our parents do not define us,” Xichen said—a half explanation Qiren knew the boy would want to finish. “And?” he probed. “And you are defining Wei-gongzi by his mother,” Xichen pointed out with a polite smile.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Transcript of video interview of Dr. Jiang Yanli, textile historian at the California Institute for Magic and Cultivation.</blockquote>

<blockquote> The rules and principles of his sect had always given Lan Qiren structure and purpose beyond the frailty of human attachments. Once, he had believed that his nephews were, in this, his mirror. The years and their events eroded this belief. In its place, he was starting to see a different kind of trust in his family and his sect. One that could bend with the pressure of time and not always break. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Mianmian sets her drink down on the floor with a clink. “If she’s that perfect, it’s no wonder she can put up with you two.” The room goes silent. Across the room, Wen Qing’s expression has morphed from this might be a crisis to this is absolutely a crisis and we need damage control, stat. Jiang Wanyin bristles, opens his mouth to say something mean in response. Lan Wangji is more worried about Wei Ying, who has gone very, very still beside him. He knows that Wei Ying’s relationship with his adoptive family is complicated—a web of obligations and resentment that might never be untangled; he knows that Wei Ying constantly felt like a burden, and that Jiang Yanli was the only one who offered unconditional affection. / or, lan zhan reflects on sibling relationships while wei ying scrambles to get his jiejie the perfect birthday gift</blockquote> ➤ unfinished, possibly abandoned, but the one chapter stands alone just fine

<blockquote>Lan Zhan finds A-Yuan lost in the railway station. He maybe finds more than he bargined for. Some mornings you leave for the office and come back with a son (and possibly a husband too). cw. lost child and the fears that surround that, but nothing bad happens to A-Yuan. Loss and grief lightly touched on.</blockquote>

<blockquote>[All of the Wens die and the world calls it justice. The Yiling Patriarch dies and the world rejoices. His soul responds to neither summoning nor Inquiry. A shattered soul, not enough to linger. The war is finally over—history rewritten. And Lan Huan wants to retch as he watches the ghost of a Wen boy follow his brother into the Cloud Recesses.] Or: A-Yuan in the Cloud Recesses for thirteen years as a ghost.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“I know what you’re thinking,” he insisted, “and you’re a fucking idiot. You think it’s not fair that I have a core and you don’t. You think your life has been hard. You think the worst possible thing has happened to you.” He knew it was true, because he remembered thinking that. He’d lain in bed for days like a fool, believing that nothing could be worse than losing every hope of cultivation. “You hate seeing me because I have something that you don’t, and I —” he choked on the words. “You have no fucking idea.” The other Jiang Cheng’s face grew more and more contemptuous as he talked. “You’re wrong,” he said icily. “I don’t want a single thing you have. Not at the price you paid.” --- Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian find themselves in a world where things went differently.</blockquote>

<blockquote>You are the young wife of Sect Leader Wen, and you're on the verge of discovering something important. About your husband, yes, but also about yourself.</blockquote>

<blockquote>lan jingyi needs a fucking break by-jingY33T getting a phd in 3 things at one time sounded like a great idea when i started out | tired but hella wired | 21+ he/they views my own Location: probably the microfiche archives Website: uni.edu/cartographicfolklore Joined: August 2012 324 Following 5,678 Followers ------------- lan jingyi needs a fucking break by-jingY33T 6/8/22 LISTEN UP YOU HISTORY-LOVING FUCKS HAVE I GOT A WILD FUCKING THEORY FOR YOU: THE YILING LAOZU PROBABLY ACTUALLY EXISTED AND MAY HAVE BEEN A HUUUUUUGE SAPPY ROMANTIC: a 🧵 [1/?]</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Wuxian always enjoyed picking an aesthetic and really leaning into it. As an adolescent, he was joyous, entitled and high-born; during the war, he was dangerous and threatening. After the war, he was lost. But then he found his new aesthetic: Elder of the Jiang Sect.</blockquote> ➤ omg this is a lot of fun, and also I love that this allows him to find a respectable position in his clan even with his post-war struggles!

<blockquote>Qin Su frowns up at him with her hands on her hips. How did you know what I was thinking? she does not say, but he hears just the same. Jin Zixuan blinks at her. I heard you, he thinks carefully. Can you hear me?</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mo Xuanyu thought that this Wei Wuxian person whose body he’d stolen must have been a really interesting person, mostly because he’d been here for three days so far and nobody’d noticed the switch yet.</blockquote> ➤ there's clearly a lot of context missing that mxy doesn't have, and it ends before any of that is resolved, but mxy's little story of accidentally possessing teen wwx's body is still lovely

<blockquote>“I don’t suppose you’re able to see what might let us out of here, though?” Lan Xichen asks, with just the slightest edge in his voice. “What I noticed of the array earlier suggested it’s waiting for something, but I didn’t have enough time to see what.” Wen Ning shakes his head, then remembers himself again and says out loud, “No, nothing now. I saw that we’d tripped something when we came in, but...” The bright characters of the array that activated the trap had flared out too quickly for Wen Ning to work out how it was constructed, and he’d been more than a little distracted grappling with the yao besides. Not for the first time, he wishes he had Wei Wuxian’s memory for small details seen once. “I agree there must be a way to open it, though. This cave doesn’t feel like it wants us dead.” A sentient fierce corpse and a sect leader walk into a cave...</blockquote> ➤ lxc & wn post canon

<blockquote>"I'm so tired," Wei Ying complains, tossing his hand down instead of Going Fish for the sixteenth time this game alone. "I can't even remember who's said what and now I'm losing, like, the easiest card game in existence." He looks tired, too. The spaces under his eyes are sunken, a bruised purple under skin that looks thin and stretched-out to the touch. Fragile. He's looked exhausted for days now, but even when they're curled up on the couch together, Wei Ying's head in Jiang Yanli's lap, humming an unrecognizable tune softly as she strokes his hair, he doesn't sleep.</blockquote> ➤ wwx going to his sister for a safe place when he's in a bad place with depression

<blockquote>The bundle of mail from the Qinghe Nie Sect arrives in Cloud Recesses late one evening. All but one piece of the pile is a stack of invitations to this year’s Cultivation Conference, wrapped in light blue string. The last is a short, handwritten list wedged between two envelopes, unnoticeable until it flutters to the floor. (Or: the juniors stage a tiny, benevolent rebellion.)</blockquote> ➤ awww a bunch of people who care about wwx conspiring to get him better-treated!