LINKDING

Summary: Feng Xin caught a whiff of soap from the bedsheets, just barely there beneath the aroma of the candle glowing on the bedside table. The fine fabric was fresh and soft against his skin as he joined Xie Lian under the blankets. For some reason, that set him on edge. ➤ yessss ➤ omggg this is exactly the kind of dynamics I love to see between Feng Xin and Mu Qing during the Xianle era ➤ fx and xl are so SWEET together and fx and mq are so....united in their mutual disdain for each other and how they're connected with each other ➤ and how sex with each other doesn't actually change any part of that for fengqing; they have a good time having hatesex, they still hate each other, they're connected forever via their hatred for each other and their mutual love of xl, and their mutual inability to understand /how/ the other approaches their love for xl ➤ it's just so good!!!! ➤ 3k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Shen Qingqiu wakes up in his plant body after Huayue City. There is only one problem: Memory loss.</blockquote> ➤ an SVSSS bingqiu fanfic wherein sqq wakes up in his plant body with amnesia and makes a home in the small village nearby, blessing its crops ➤ lbh eventually comes through looking for his shizun, and sqq helps him ➤ trying to find the right words to describe the tone or flavour of a piece of writing can be so hard but imo that's one of the things this fic does best! it's got this like....distanced, fairy-tale, dreamy vibe that really drives home how disconnected sqq is from his life and his emotions here and it's so great ➤ (happy ending, of course!) ➤ 5k 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>When Mu Qing glanced over at Xie Lian beside him, he was startled to find him already watching him. A small smile played on his lips. “You know, Mu Qing,” he started—and if Mu Qing didn’t know any better he would say he sounded almost shy— “no one else that I fight with feels like a challenge. You’re the best of them all.” Mu Qing’s throat was tight and his face was hot, like he was going to cry. His eyes were quite dry, though. “You’re the best. You always will be.” / Mu Qing can't seem to reconcile the simple facts of his relationship to the crown prince with his more complicated feelings for Xie Lian.</blockquote> ➤ mu qing pov from the xianle trio era ➤ ft. class issues and teen relationship drama ➤ xie lian is an enormous martial arts nerd and a naive but shining prince; mu qing is pining but hyper-aware of class boundaries and how everyone sees him; feng xin is ready to judge ➤ it's so great and succeeds so well at what it's doing, I love it ➤ I love the last scene, which it ends on, about xie lian's appearance after he ascends. perfect ending to the fic ➤ 7k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>In the wake of Shen Qingqiu's death, the Old Palace Master decides to take what he thinks is an opportunity. Luo Binghe makes him regret it.</blockquote> ➤ lbh is having a totally chill time of it having a breakdown after his shizun dies ➤ the old palace master of huan hua is ALSO having a totally separate chill breakdown about once again having a disciple under his control (....he thinks) who looks like su xiyan ➤ when their breakdowns intersect, no prizes for guessing who wins lol ➤ It's Time For Binghe Angst ➤ such a good view into what might have happened at the very beginning of the 5 year period where sqq is dead! ➤ 5k words in length

Summary: <blockquote>Chu Wanning has a thin face, and gets embarrassed easily. They both know this. Mo Ran loves it, as he does every part of Chu Wanning, even if the man himself will shy away from any verbal professions of affection. To Mo Ran, it’s endearingly infuriating how Chu Wanning will allow Mo Ran to do all sorts of filthy things to him, but draws the line at being complimented with tender words. So. A compromise. / Chu Wanning takes a potion that puts his body to sleep, but leaves his mind awake, so Mo Ran (2.0) can be as tender as he wants without Chu Wanning getting too embarrassed and running away.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>He Xuan cannot contend with what he holds. How it can be possible that Shi Qingxuan has everything and is so unconscious of it as to hand himself thoughtlessly over to his own predator. / He Xuan is managing the trajectory of his revenge just fine.</blockquote>

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>Over the course of his life, Xie Lian learned that there were some fates worse than death, that death could be a mercy—far too benevolent for those of Yong'an. They stripped him of his entire life: his friends, his family, his crown, his kingdom, his godhood. Xie Lian lost everything and he was being forced to live with it, so no, he would not be so kind as to gift his enemies with that which he craved most. They deserved one of those fates far worse than death, and he knew exactly how to give it to them. / Or: Darkness hangs heavy over Xie Lian. Wu Ming looks after him.</blockquote>

Summary: <blockquote>Hua Cheng huffs out a laugh. “You do have terrible luck,” he agrees. “And mine is quite good. But you don’t know that you wouldn’t win it back. Play with me?” “San Lang,” chides Xie Lian, voice crinkling gently as it’s swept along to the midpoint between amusement and fondness. “Are you going to let me win again?” “Depends,” says Hua Cheng, “on what you’re betting, Gege.” / A search, a gambling table, and the events thereof.</blockquote> ➤ a great look at the two of them in a mid-canon stage in their relationship, and the careful dance the two of them are engaged in, getting closer and closer to each other, has a delicious frisson here

Summary: <blockquote>Nie Mingjue cannot do the one thing Jin Guangyao was relying on him to do. No matter how utterly he claimed to reject Jin Guangyao before, he accepts the fucking proposal. Nie Mingjue’s only condition is that they be married according to traditional Nie custom.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Do you want me?” Hua Cheng asked, one shoulder bare. Eyes wide, Xie Lian nodded. Hua Cheng let his spiritual power swell behind the words. “I promise you. You can have every part.” / Hua Cheng returns to Taicang Peak.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Shen Qingqiu can't just let the sect leader die. (Or, Shen Qingqiu begrudgingly(lying) assists when Yue Qingyuan gets dosed by a fuck or die poison.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Post-canon, Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang strike up a very unhealthy relationship in order to cope with their grief and unanswered questions.</blockquote> ➤ oof! deliciously fucked up. marked as wip but works as one standalone chapter and hasn't been updated in years

<blockquote>The truth was that Nie Huaisang wanted to be angry like Jiang Cheng, without caring about the consequences. Or: years after Nightless City, Nie Huaisang finds himself in a moment of weakness.</blockquote> ➤ incredible nhs pov

<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>It’s always dark in a coffin. The dead don’t need light or air. They don’t need space, either, because the reality of the coffin is a world in and of itself: a small one, separated from the three realms by layer upon layer of pain turned grief turned obscurity until not even that remains, washed away by waves of existence flowing around it. All that’s left is the heavy weight of being forgotten. Time measures it with life growing in the soil above. Xie Lian knows it intimately. After all, he was once nailed with a wooden dowel to the bottom of a coffin, and buried in it. / Or: Hualian in the coffin in chapter 121, but make it traumatic rather than horny.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“I’m going to kill the Ghost King,” said White Dragon Devouring Moon. “Hmm,” said Xie Lian.</blockquote> ➤ I can tell there's vast amounts of context I'm missing to make this land with full force, but it's still great ➤ (coming back to it later with context; IT'S SO GOOD)

<blockquote>In his dreams, Xiao Jiu is dead. Post-canon, Yue Qingyuan receives a series of unsettling visitations. It's probably nothing to worry about. "Tell me, Sect Leader: in your vast and storied experience, what do the dead usually want with the living?"</blockquote> ➤ tags: <blockquote>#sometimes a ship is just two codependent assholes who deserve to haunt each other for all eternity #and that's okay #look I think this is a fix-it but ymmv </blockquote>

<blockquote>Luo Binghe buys groceries, eats, cries, and eats again.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The poem, Prince Qi later told Lin Shu, was a better lesson for Jingyan on how the quarry conflict had played out than any lesson he himself had tried to impart. “Normal lectures hit his thick skull and decide to march around rather than chance the passage between his ears,” Prince Qi said. "Who knew the solution was to get our Xiaoshu drunk and improvise verse?" His compliment lit up Lin Shu like a sky lantern – in one tipsy, inspired flight of improvisation, he had made his friend blush so gorgeously and pleased the Crown Prince. But Lin Xie had not been so delighted.</blockquote> ➤ mutual pining in their young days, and why it's a bad idea

<blockquote>After many years of peaceful marriage, Luo Binghe gives in to the urge to ask his husband about the things he's seen in their shared dreams. Shen Qingqiu - known expert in denial, compartmentalization, and avoidance - panics a bit about having put off this transmigration reveal for so long. Luo Binghe's concerns are much more practical.</blockquote> ➤ I LOVE THEMMMMMM

<blockquote>Tenzing Tharkay, trying to find William Laurence during the invasion of Britain, in more than one sense, must reconcile the man he knows with the massacres he is committing.</blockquote>

<blockquote> Shang Qinghua sighed. “Well, I suppose men will always be led by their bedpartners.” [...] As Liu Qingge left the other peak lords behind, he considered this latest weapon in his arsenal. Could he use it to defeat Shen Qingqiu, and finally become Yue Qingyuan’s favorite? And, more importantly, would it be dishonorable? No, he decided. It would be the bond of warriors. Liu Qingge wants to be Yue Qingyuan's favorite shidi. Shen Qingqiu doesn't want to let him. Yue Qingyuan just wants his martial brothers to get along. And nobody gets what they want. </blockquote> ➤ delicious complicated relationships that never get resolved! sort of gen, sort of poly?

<blockquote>One evening when all the scholars had worked late, I suggested to Kay that he stay and sup at the temple before returning home. He was still half-absorbed in his work, and I think was unaware of the contented smile he wore as he said, “No, thank you, Costis will be waiting for me.” One may set one’s roots in another person, although it is not a soil I would have liked to chance for myself. Kay the scribe may be braver than I, or he may only be younger.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Malcolm Connor is staring at my bike. It’s not for the first time. </blockquote> ➤ pre-ot3

<blockquote>He is not gone. Lan Wangji has to practice the thought sometimes. He is gone is a thought that he has worn into his being through years and years of tracing and retracing, and his mind flows easily into those hollowed lines the way water always finds its course. He has to step out of the house, out into the early morning, and think: He is not gone. Even though I cannot see him, he is not gone.</blockquote> ➤ ohhhhhh

<blockquote>Zhou Zishu gets drugged, gets rescued, gets fucked better by Wen Kexing, and thinks about the fact that he has things to live for, in approximately that order.</blockquote> Author's note:<blockquote> "i bet i can convey the extent to which wkx is having a bad time from the pov of the person who's too high to function" i said, putting on my finest clown nose</blockquote> ➤ REALLY GOOD at that actually!! And also at the horrible headspace zzs is in!

<blockquote>It is not the same blade; yet it is still a good weapon.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Garak picked through the detritus that remained of his shop, and considered his options. It wasn't going to be easy. Of course it wasn't. The Federation had every reason to be exceptionally careful with the artifact the Bajorans had so courteously lent them—and every reason not to let a Cardassian in the same room with it. (Set during 1.01. Garak receives an unexpected visitor—and is taken to an even more unexpected place.)</blockquote> ➤ Garak receives a vision of the future, before his first meeting with Julian