LINKDING

Summary: The Institute of Religious Studies was housed in one of the oldest structures at the university, an ornate hipped-roof building that overlooked the campus from the foot of the northern peaks. Aside from the narrow drive that wound up the rise from the other side of campus, the only access was via a steep staircase or a switchbacked path that took twenty minutes to ascend. Most people on campus called it the Mountain. ➤ songxuexiao t4t4t modern au where they're grad students in china ➤ I had the pleasure of getting to see this fic as it came together, and the thought and care verity puts into their writing is always so evident in their beautifully written and beautifully constructed stories! ➤ from song lan's pov as he watches creepy stalker xue yang entwine herself into his bff (and object of pining) xiao xingchen's life ➤ sl DOESN'T trust xy, he DOES find it super hot to put her in her place and have sex with her, he DOES struggle to be fully vulnerable with xxc despite everything she is to him ➤ the vibes are so good, I love how real and present each character and their complex emotions about each other are, and I love the way the theme of the weather runs through the whole fic holding things together ➤ highly recommend! ➤ 12k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>The Yiling Patriarch is a living legend—a terrifying, ancient force of nature, dispensing punishment or reward with implacable, indifferent fairness. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, is a weird but oddly charming guy who wanders around the cultivation world making fun of people's art and mooching food from sect leaders. It really upsets people to find out that they're the same person.</blockquote> ➤ a fun cute look at a time travel fixit au where wwx is the alarming immortal who fixed the burial mounds and will grant wishes to deserving people, and lwj meets him for the first time at 8 years old and decides he'll marry him ➤ I enjoyed the look at how this au has changed things for all sorts of different people across the cultivation world, and the ways in which wwx both is indeed extremely powerful and also is someone who still has his blind spots and emotional vulnerabilities ➤ lots of different povs throughout the fic which is fun too! ➤ 17k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Lan Wangji comes over and they kiss. Lan Wangji comes over and they have tea. Lan Wangji comes over and they talk. It turns out that the available study materials are contradictory and unenlightening.</blockquote> ➤ Because Of Reasons, wwx and jc are both married off to lwj after the destruction of lotus pier. wwx is blissfully happy about it; jc struggles with it on a NUMBER of fronts ➤ from jc's pov, about him figuring out how to have a successful relationship with his husband, with his place in his new sect, with his brother and co-spouse, with himself and his struggles in cultivation these days ⮞ jc's pov obviously doesn't like to think about any of these things straightforwardly, he's too busy being tsundere about everything lol ➤ I love seeing him finding his own way, figuring out how to have a life that works for him even if it isn't what he would have chosen! ➤ 17k words in length ➤ (also: fuck jkr and all, but if you also fondly remember helenish's hp fic "theft of assets, destruction of property" then this is the mdzs fic for you!)

Summary: <blockquote>“What do you think about,” Wei Ying said aloud, before she could stop herself, before she could even think twice about the repercussions. “When you.” She finally found Lan Zhan’s eyes, molten in the low light, and swallowed in a tiny, audible gulp. “You know.” On Wei Ying, Lan Zhan’s gaze didn’t waver even a fraction. “Giving head,” she said. Wei Ying was certain she’d misheard. “Getting head?” “No,” said Lan Zhan. / After a surprise party gone awry, Wei Ying surprises herself.</blockquote> ➤ i loved the unusual detail of them being swimmers/divers, and all the water stuff worked into the prose

Summary: <blockquote>Meng Yao rescues the first Jade of Lan and takes him into his home, becoming far more involved than ever anticipated. / The guards are getting closer; the man, likely Lan Xichen, tries not to curl in on himself. Meng Yao gives himself five seconds to consider the implications of getting involved before he swings his work bag off his shoulder and drops it rudely in the First Jade of Lan's lap. "I told you not to slouch," he says, a firm note of displeasure in his voice. / Stands alone from the prequel fic.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>“Okay,” Jingyi says, as Sizhui puzzles this out aloud. “Okay! So the demon has been turning its victims into children.” “I think so,” Sizhui says. “To make them easier prey,” Jingyi says. “Yes,” Sizhui says. “So—” Jingyi’s voice cracks here, “this kid is Senior Wei.” Wei Wuxian, still tangled in his own massive robes, blinks politely at them. (Or: Wei Wuxian is cursed on a night-hunt, and the junior quartet rapidly finds themselves in over their heads.)</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Zixuan would like to be closer with his half-brother. He would like to skip all the awkward fumbly beginning bit where they don't know each other and just magically arrive at fraternal harmony, where they can joke around like the Jiangs and look out for each other like the Nies and have that spooky synchronicity like the Lans, but the truth is that he's never had a sibling, and he has no script or example for what you're meant to do when you discover one as an adult. They don't have years of in-jokes and growing pains to fall back on, they're basically just strangers who happen to share a parent. / the sickfic fixit in which JGY discovers the Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known and Zixuan discovers the Mortifying Ordeal of Getting To Know Other People</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Lan Zhan, an up-and-coming sport climber, has always kept to himself. A traditional climber, he hates Wei Ying's flashy, dynamic style on sight when they meet on the youth international competition circuit. But all that changes when a new competition format is announced, and training for it makes Lan Zhan realise that though climbing is a solo sport, it doesn't have to be a solitary one. Two years. Four cities. A Wangxian climbing AU.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>The slow purpling of the evening sky makes their robes blend into their shadows, their shadows blend into the still water stretched out before them. Home, Jiang Cheng thinks, satisfied, and A-Ling exhales softly against him, and everything is good, and none of them move to leave.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Lans agree to take in the DafanWen after Wei Wuxian rescues them from Qiongli Path. Their only condition: that Wei Wuxian lets himself be purified of resentful energy. Lan Wangji thinks this is how he will finally get his Wei Ying back, free from demonic influences. Wei Wuxian thinks this is a fancy way of saying "execution."</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Do you know people die of tooth infections?” “Stupid way to die,” Wei Wuxian mumbles. “I agree,” Wen Qing says. “So: you’re going to the dentist.” / While on the run, Wen Qing drags Wei Wuxian to a free clinic where they are confronted with someone from their past lives, a root canal, and the devastating suggestion of how things could be different.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Nie Huaisang doesn’t expect Lan Xichen to consider him still worth liking after everything he’s done. (He also doesn't want to admit to himself how much he'd love to be proven wrong.) Nie Huaisang had painted, in the dark of night with only the light of a dozen candles and a luminescent pearl, a vast fire-scourged plain. In the midst, offset and growing out of a rocky shelter, he’d added a single shoot of green bamboo, tall and straight despite everything. Balancing the bamboo on the other side of the scroll were two lines of poetry: The grass is burnt but not destroyed by the prairie fires / When spring winds blow they bring it back to life. Rolled up in the painting’s scroll was a note that Nie Huaisang wrote right before committing to sending it. The note, which was even more terrifyingly honest than the painting, read: I will do my best to become worthy once more of being considered your friend.</blockquote> ➤ more kind than many fics about the two of them! and I love the knifey fics but this vision of their future is good too

<blockquote>Nie Huaisang stole happiness from Lan Xichen. He stole peace. If he could just see him, and see for himself exactly what he’s done, and know—that will be enough. Then he’ll be able to paint again, and his hands won’t shake as he does it, and he’ll remember why he ever in his life bothered to put brush to ink to paper. After all, a man should have to live with his mistakes. There is no other way to learn from them. His brother believed that.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Qin Su is sick and tired of this wedding. And her marriage. Nie Huaisang is conveniently present.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Jiang Cheng was getting better at controlling his outbursts. He didn’t often bother, but he wanted a good deal on the saffron silk so he bit back the first furious bellow that threatened to escape him. “He’s dead," he bit out. “At the siege at Nightless City.” He didn’t clarify which siege as old man Guo seemed to be one of the ten or so remaining people in the world who didn’t know Wei Wuxian had been the Yiling Patriarch. He expected condolences and to be honest it would be nice, just once, if someone’s response to that revelation was something other than ‘well, good.’ Jiang Cheng’s anger at Wei Wuxian burned hot and cold. Most of the time he wanted to stab him properly. Other times the thing he couldn’t forgive was Wei Wuxian tearing free of Lan Wangji’s grip. Old man Guo just blinked in confusion. “Is he?” He scratched the back of his neck. “I must have beThe Porcelain Lotus of Yunmeng - The Feels Whale (miscellea)en mistaken. Well that explains it, I suppose. I’d wondered why he didn’t recognize me.” Or: that one where Wei Wuxian doesn't die at the Siege of Nightless City and Jiang Cheng finds him first.</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: The Porcelain Lotus of Yunmeng A Place for Fury ➤ the individual stories are complete but the series is not, and it does not feel done as a narrative

<blockquote>Wei Ying is running so late to his meeting with fellow grad student-slash-friend Lan Zhan. But in Wei Ying's defense, he has just learned that his grandmother is the Baoshan Sanren, zongshi of the extremely mysterious and highly scrutinized Celestial Mountain sect. Also, she wants to name him her heir?!</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says at last. His voice is low and hoarse. “Wei Ying, what is the last thing you remember?”</blockquote> ➤ happily married post-canon wwx gets hit with a memory-loss curse and the last thing he remembers is the burial mounds. ➤ an interesting variation on amnesia where it hits /after/ the traditional get-together and happy ending, and the memories never come back but wwx figures out how to be happy in this world anyway

<blockquote>When the former Madam Lan hears that the new Sect Leader Lan married a criminal who is kept in the same house where she once lived, she has only one choice. She has to return to Cloud Recesses to rescue Wei Wuxian!</blockquote> ➤ first chapter is what's in the summary, second is lxc's response to his mother's return

<blockquote>Lan Huan is ready to take his relationship with Jiang Cheng to the next level. Spending the weekend at Jiang Cheng's place is definitely going to achieve that, but not at all in the ways he expected. Lan Huan didn't know his brother was seeing someone. Wei Ying didn't know about Lan Huan's shitty ex. Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan just want their boyfriends to get through this weekend intact.</blockquote> ➤ I was sad to not see on-page the work towards repairing the relationship between lwj&lxc, but it's very good as what it is nonetheless

<blockquote>Jingyi has his hands up immediately, ready to fire a warning talisman. “Who are you?” “Jingyi, it’s me. It’s Sizhui.” “I don’t know any Sizhui. How do you know my name?” / Something has gone wrong with the world. The worst part is, Sizhui's the only one who realizes it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Generations after the events of the novel, Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao come out of retirement to investigate a series of mysterious fires targeting the watchtowers.</blockquote> ➤ the fic works well as is but I am still desperate to know what the solution might be that will honor yao-guniang's ambitions and keep her safe from yao-zongzhu at the same time!

<blockquote>Meng Yao gets dosed with truth pollen. The cure has some side effects.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Lan Wangji is trying out a body shape when he hears footsteps on the stairs. He is already thinking he has done it wrong--he forgets, sometimes, how many fingers a hand should have, and so he makes his body have sleeves instead, to cover his mistakes. It is a man. It is a man who will scream, probably. Lan Wangji is body-shaped. Lan Wangji tries to count how many fingers the man has before he leaves. “Oh!” the man says, blinking. His eyes are whole, wide, and deep brown, with long lashes. He has a face for smiling, cheeks round and well fed, and when he smiles his eyes crease at the corners. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was up here.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>When the Jiang family falls on hard times, they are faced with two choices - have Jiang Yanli marry wealthy asshole Jin Zixun to clear the family's debts, or have Wei Ying marry the youngest son of the equally wealthy Lan family. To save his elder sister from a miserable loveless marriage, Wei Ying agrees to the match. There's just one catch - his prospective husband is already dead.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>After ten years spent chasing a terrible revenge, Nie Huaisang is left with the knowledge that if he can tear down Jin Guangyao he can destroy anything. Nie Huaisang has avenged his da-ge and seen the rot at the center of his sect. He weighs how easy it would be to walk Jin Guangyao’s path, to produce an heir and become something he’s terrified of to keep the Nie alive for a few extra decades. Or -- or he can return to dalliance. / Post-canon Nie Huaisang challenges Jiang Cheng to a months-long game of sex chicken and ends up getting a lot more than he schemed for.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Ying hires Lan Zhan to landscape her third wedding. </blockquote>

<blockquote>It’s too late for any of Hanguang-Jun’s rabbits to be awake -- one of the sundown chores for young disciples is to herd them back into their hutch -- but the rabbit field is as good a spot as any for quality sulking, so Lan Jingyi makes his way there. Someone has beat him to it. Lan Jingyi stares at Hanguang-Jun. Hanguang-Jun stares passively back. When Lan Sizhui is swept away with the Ghost General, off on a new adventure, Lan Jingyi is the one who returns to Cloud Recesses alone. </blockquote>

<blockquote>“Well, when I asked Wei-gongzi what you might want for your birthday, he asked me what I could give you that no one else could.” Lan Sizhui can’t help but smile. It’s so Wei-qianbei to answer a question with a question. “A-and I thought… if you wanted, I could…” The next words are so quiet, Lan Sizhui struggles to hear them. “I thought I could show you our family.” For Lan Sizhui's birthday, he receives a glimpse behind the curtain of all that was. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Wei Ying was pretty sure his next door neighbor Lan Qiren hated him until he adopted A-Yuan. Now he’s bringing by disgustingly healthy food, taking Wei Ying and A-Yuan to family dinners, and let’s not even mention the nephews he keeps hinting Wei Ying should meet. Is it possible Wei Ying, consummate orphan, has found a family in his grumpy old neighbor?</blockquote> ➤ series consists of: The stuffed bunny, the beautiful nephew, and other gifts from Lan Qiren The extravagant wedding, the gorgeous brother, and other reasons you should listen to your uncle

<blockquote>At first, it felt like things returned back to their usual rhythm. The kids seemed to get over the shock of an unfortunate twist in the night-hunt, and soon none of them seemed too troubled over it. Lan Zhan, however, was another matter altogether. or, lwj starts acting strange</blockquote>