Songxuexiao Exchange

a fanworks exchange for Song Lan, Xue Yang, and Xiao Xingchen from MDZS/CQL

[sxx-exchange]

Good day Yi City! The party preparations have started! Round six for the Songxuexiao Exchange is go! Signups open OCTOBER 9. Be ready with your prompts!

Songxuexiao Exchange 2025 on AO3

Schedule

October 9 - Signups open

October 17 - Signups close (5:00 p.m. EST)

October 20 - Assignments Sent Out

December 7 - Works Due (5:00 p.m. EST)

December 14 - Works Revealed

December 19 - Creators Revealed

[lahayawrites]

Splendour of Frost

Fandom: MDZS / The Untamed Pairing: Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang Rating: Mature Words: 36,121

In the wintry kingdom of Tian Shan, criminal Xue Yang is captured by knight Song Lan and made a servant to prince Xiao Xingchen. While Xue Yang plans to escape, (un)fortunately, the prince starts to grow on him, and when it becomes clear that strange things are happening at court, Xue Yang and Song Lan have to team up to foil a plot against Xiao Xingchen.

Featuring:

XY stealing jewels and hearts

SL as a knight pining for his prince (he's also got a big sword)

XXC with a crown and magic powers

Childhood friends Songxiao

Songxue enemies to lovers

Angst, hurt / comfort, eventual romance & happy ending

A-Qing, Wen Qing and more

A castle, a ball, an assassination plot, scented magic and snow

Power imbalance (but they resolve it)

XXC trialling restorative justice in his medieval fantasy kingdom

This is my @sxx-exchange fic for rebel_jams.

Pls read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75511546

And if you like exquisite gothic vibes & victorian vampires with suspense and some very dark elements but also gorgeous prose, cosy moments and a HEA, read the stunning gift fic I received:

sing of apocryphal death, oh sweet decay by emocsibe

Please do mind the tags for everything <333

[z-delenda-est]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang. Rated T, 17k, no archive warnings apply.

Q: Why is a graveyard a great place to write a story? A: Because it has so many plots.   Okay, okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one: A ghost, a fierce corpse, and a demonic cultivator wake up in a coffin house…

My fic for the @sxx-exchange may be my most favorite thing I've ever written. Please go read it! It's funny, and weird, and spooky!

I can't tell you what it's about, because that would spoil the surprise. I can tell you that it is the first fic to use the Xue Yang/candy tag (?!).

Also, it features a totally necessary and plot-relevant scene where Xue Yang chucks a bunch of candy through ghost!Xiao Xingchen's head, for science!

(No, really, you haven't read one quite like this before.)

[lightbluedevil]

My work for this years @sxx-exchange

My second time participating in the event, this time also as a mod, which was fun!

Not sure if this could get taken down so it can be found in my Bsky (same username) and in ao3

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[veilchenjaeger]

It's time for the obligatory post, now that the most wonderful time of the year (a.k.a. @sxx-exchange) is almost over. This is the fic I wrote for @veliseraptor's lovely prompt, which allowed me to make this whole thing about A-Qing. (Sorry. I am who I am.)

Little Ghost of Crossroads

Rating: M Fandom: MDZS Relationships: A-Qing & Xue Yang, A-Qing & Xiao Xingchen, A-Qing & Song Lan, Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang (mostly Songxiao and Xuexiao) Words: 73,765 (why) In his last moments, dying by Lan Wangji’s sword in Yi City, Xue Yang shatters A-Qing’s spirit. She’s sent back to the day it all fell apart with one clear objective: kill Xue Yang and save Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan. Of course, things can never be that easy.

Featuring:

Time loops, but our protagonist has never heard of time travel

Songxuexiao going through it in multiple variations

Xue Yang haunting the narrative, just a little, as a treat

The lingering effects of having had the Yiling Laozu in your head

The insurmountable task of saving your stubbornly miserable daozhang's life and happiness while also readjusting to having a living body again after spending seven years as a ghost and trying not to fall apart from all the unprocessed trauma, and other normal things to experience in your teens (Twenties? Who even knows at this point.)

A-Qing lying to herself, her daoshi, Xue Yang, and you, the reader

If you enjoy Yi City fix-its with twists, please also check out the beautiful gift I got! It's a wonderful and very intriguing take on SXX after the fix-it, featuring Songxue sharing a brain! You know you want brain sharing in your life!

[heebiebeebies]

In Depth

What I made for madsabouthugh for this year's @sxx-exchange

You can see it on AO3, as well as other works people have created for the exchange.

For Song Lan, I was inspired by a fire “eel” (Mastacembelus erythrotaenia), while for Xiao Xingchen it was partially a blind cave fish (Typhliasina pearsei), even though I ended up using the colors of another species of tetra. My intention was to have them belong to another kind of realm, aside from simply make them be aquatic creatures infatuated with someone from the land above. Songxiao as cave creatures felt fitting.

As for Xue Yang, he is a creature from the land, but there’s more than meets the eye.

Now that the Groucho glasses are off, there are some other things I had mentioned in the AO3 comments that I want to include here, such as what I envisioned for all three of them as characters.

Xiao Xingchen, our little star, is an aquatic creature who is partially blind, and has a scar that matches Song Lan’s. He is immensely kind, and as selfless as you can expect. He’s not aware, however, of how ominous he can look to land creatures, as he’s eager to befriend them, not helped by his uncanny pretty smile and his ghostly looks making the land creatures believe he’s an apparition underwater. He thinks the best of them, has this curiosity towards them; he sees them as so similar to himself, but finds their differences so fascinating (you don’t want to know how many times he’s tried to examine their feet).

Song Lan, my beloved chew toy, is quite stoic, he seems emotionless, and can be genuinely terrifying when hiding in plain sight as he’s hunting. He was a solitary creature for most of his lifetime until he met Xiao Xingchen. Unlike his mate, he can’t speak or imitate the language of those from land. He can’t see well either and light hurts his remaining eye.

They both developed a fondness that grew with time, intensifying after a fight they had. Not long after their reunion, Xiao Xingchen spotted a creature from the land going to the lake to wash their body, battered and covered in scars. What sparked his interest was noticing the creature was also missing a part of his body, just like Song Lan and himself. Xiao Xingchen tells Song Lan about his discovery and Song Lan makes him promise he’ll only watch from afar.

That’s until the land creature dives into the lake and finds Xiao Xingchen staring at him. He gets scared the first time, but eventually returns to check if the eye watching him underwater was real.

Xiao Xingchen seems concerned about Xue Yang, the land creature, worried about how often he appears to be hurt. Song Lan doesn’t go anywhere nearby, despite keeping his eye on Xue Yang from the beginning, being a looming presence in the shadows.

Xue Yang was initially an ordinary human, but has had this incapacitating curse cast upon him, exacerbating and being incurable, causing him to have awful flareups, transforming into something he can’t recognize but hates nonetheless, that leave him hurt and exhausted afterwards. He lashes out more and more, pushing away those who hadn’t already ran away.

When Xue Yang arrives to the lake looking worse than before, and seems like he’s about to pass out, Song Lan is the one to rush to his rescue.

[eyalsfantasy]

HEY YOU!

Yes you! Fellow songxuexiao fanatic, check out my fic!

If you like the idea of finding a good use for the skull piercing nails and song lan loosing some of his mysophobia and gaining a crush on his surgeon whilst having a crisis over that, this fic is for you!

This was written as part of the songxuexiao exchange, go check out that collection while you're at it for even more amazing works of both writing and art!

Check it out:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sxx_exchange_2025/works/75407256

Special thanks to the mod team of the @sxx-exchange for helping all of us along the way! Your work is not unnoticed!

[iodhadh]

This Aurora Shines Also On You

Fandom: The Untamed Pairing: Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang, Song Lan/Song Lan Rating: Explicit Words: 43,178

The Jin Exploration Corps has never been able to visit 31 Tianshan e, so when they find its skies unexpectedly clear, they jump at the chance. They send an away team to complete a scientific survey. What they discover is a technologically baffling alien society with a twenty-year history of mistrust for outsiders. When one of the aliens takes a shine to Xue Yang, he isn't expecting anything deeper than a two-day flirtation. Then he finds himself accidentally married to Xiao Xingchen's fiancé, and everything gets very, very complicated.

Read it here.

It's my @sxx-exchange fic for this year! For @nakimochiku. I once again went totally insane and wrote over forty thousand words. It's fine, who needs sleep or a social life anyway?

I had so much fun writing this. I've wanted to do a biological BDSM setting for ages, and I always love a good sci-fi. The consent dynamics are unhinged, the infidelity is recursive, the kink is unnegotiated, and for all that it's pretty lighthearted when you really get down to it. I just love these boys so much. Enjoy!

•••

“Xue Yang to the bridge,” crackles the intercom.

Xue Yang is so intently focused on the geological samples he’s been cataloguing that the sound of his name makes him jump like a startled cat. He jerks upright, knocking one of the sample boxes off the bench with his elbow, and has to lunge for it before it dumps three different planets’ worth of rock and dirt in an indeterminate jumble on the geolab floor. He manages, barely. “Shit,” he says, and then slaps the intercom button. “Acknowledged. Give me thirty seconds to put these rocks back where they belong.”

Thirty seconds later—probably, who’s counting—he has stored the samples, stripped off his coveralls, hurled his safety lenses back into the cupboard, and thrown himself into the nearest elevator. He arrives on the bridge a respectable three minutes after being summoned, which is pretty damn impressive for having legged it halfway across the ship.

As usual, Jin Guangyao has no respect for his efforts. “Thank you for joining us,” he says, in the passive-aggressive way that means you’re late and he wants you to know it. Rude. “Take a look at the viewscreen. The captain would like your assessment.”

Xue Yang manages to resist pulling a bitchy face for that total lack of context. He knows what the captain would like your assessment means: Jin Guangyao has an agenda, and he’s manoeuvred his brother into asking for Xue Yang’s opinion because he knows that Xue Yang can be counted on to back up whatever he wants. Since what Jin Guangyao wants is usually interesting, Xue Yang doesn’t mind playing along—but it would be less of a headache if he wasn’t going in totally blind. Obligingly, he takes a look at the viewscreen.

And then he blinks, and looks again. “This is the Tianshan system, isn’t it? Is that 31 Tianshan e?”

“You can see, I trust, why we wanted your thoughts,” Jin Guangyao says.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Xue Yang says, and just barely remembers not to swear out loud on the bridge in front of the captain.

The Jinlintai Exploration Corps has been aware of the Tianshan system star—and the dozen or so planets orbiting it—for around fifteen years now. Most of the system has been charted, and there has never been anything of particular interest about it to linger over. Ships passing through this sector of space do a basic scientific survey every few years; this is the first time the Sparks Amidst Snow itself has come out this way, and they had no reason to believe their trip here would uncover anything they haven’t already seen four or five times before.

The one planet in the system that has not been charted is 31 Tianshan e. It has an anomalously strong planetary magnetic field and unpredictable geomagnetic storms; every probe they’ve tried to send down has been torn apart, or completely lost contact with their communications array. They’ve never sent a shuttle with actual personnel. They’ve barely ever even been able to see the surface clearly. Most of the time the planet is wreathed in brilliant auroras: beautiful, but highly liable to interfere with their instruments.

But now Xue Yang is looking out the viewscreen at a perfectly clear atmosphere, unprecedentedly calm geomagnetic readings, and—he crosses to the console to double check the data—absolutely no indication that the storms will be starting up again anytime before the next four days.

“We need to get down there,” he says. A pressing sense of urgency swamps him without warning: who knows if they’ll ever get this chance again? “This might be our only shot to map the planet. We’ve never been able to get decent readings from it—there could be literally anything down there.”

Jin Zixuan, who has been quietly sitting by in the captain’s chair with his usual attitude of vaguely authoritative awkwardness, clears his throat. “Am I correct in understanding that if the storms start up again, we might not be able to get an away team safely back aboard ship?”

Xue Yang shrugs. “Probably,” he says, turning to address the captain directly. “But we don’t need to worry about that. Look at these readings.” He pulls his personal tablet from his belt and transfers over the console data with a gesture, then presents the screen to Jin Zixuan. The captain studies it seriously, his face set in an expression of polite incomprehension. Xue Yang blows out a sigh. “There’s nothing,” he explains. “As far out as our predictive models can reach. We’ve literally never seen the magnetic field this quiet.”

“I’ve been told the storms are unpredictable,” Jin Zixuan says, though he sounds cautiously prepared to be convinced. God, Xue Yang hates dealing with officers.

“Not that unpredictable,” he says.

“Xiongzhang,” Jin Guangyao cuts in. “If Xue Yang says we’ll be safe for a few days, we can trust his assessment. We should be fine to take an away team down for a short survey.”

Jin Zixuan hesitates for another moment, then seems to firm up his spine. “Very well,” he says. “But I want you back up here at the first sign of trouble. We can’t risk anyone being stranded on the planet.”

“Of course, xiongzhang.”

“Guangyao, I’m putting you in charge. Select your team as you best see fit. Dismissed.”

Jin Guangyao sweeps immediately into an immaculate bow, shooting Xue Yang a glare out of the corner of his eye until he follows suit. “Thank you,” he says. “We’ll leave within the hour.”

Xue Yang waits until the elevator doors have closed behind them before he says, “So you’re taking me with you.”

“Obviously,” Jin Guangyao says. “Pack your things and get down to the shuttle bay. Do not make me wait.”

Read the rest on AO3!

[sxx-exchange]

Masks off! Guess who, daozhang?!

Creators have now been revealed! The AO3 collection is no longer anonymous. Huge thanks to everyone who participated in the exchange this year, from creators to pinch hitters and to everyone who cheered us along. Go leave your love to all our writers and artists! This exchange couldn’t happen without you!

We’ll be reblogging promo posts over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. Creators remember to @ us in your promo post so that we can see them and reblog them!

As always, if you want to talk Songxuexiao, come hang out with us in the exchange discord server. We're here all year: the exchange may be over for now, but it's always Songxuexiao season.

[sxx-exchange]

THE PARTY IS HERE!

The Songxuexiao Exchange is live! Thank you so much to everyone who signed up, betaed, pinch hit, made a treat or was just following on the side. Your hard work has paid off and now you can relax and enjoy the results. We’re so grateful to have you in this exchange!

Remember to leave lots of love for your gifter and enjoy all the other presents at this party!

Creators will be revealed in a few days, so stay tuned for that and promos. In the meantime, you can come and join us to celebrate in the discord. Now it’s time to enjoy the party!!

[sxx-exchange]

The deadline is here! Doors have closed! Thank you to everyone who got their work in, and to everyone who checked in with us for an extension. If you have an issue with your assignment, please get in touch with the mods ASAP so we can give the pinch hitters as much time as possible to get something done!

If you requested an extension, you have until December 9 at 5:00 p.m. EST to get your assignment in. If that time is not enough then reach out to a mod! Further extension will require discussion, and approval will be on a case-by-case basis.

If you're pinch hitting, you have time to work until reveals. Please get your work in on time for the exchange to go live on December 14. Although sooner is always better!

Thank you to everyone participating in the event! You've all done a great job and now it's time to get ready for the party!!

[sxx-exchange]

Yi Cityzens how’s it going with preparations for the party? There’s still over thirty hours left to get your assignments in! 

Worried about not having enough time? Get an extension request here ASAP! 

[sxx-exchange]

If you’re finishing up your exchange gift and have some free time, or wishing you signed up to create this year, please consider signing up to be a pinch hitter!

We have one current hit open and tend to get a couple more right towards the end of the exchange.

The form can be found here.

[sxx-exchange]

You still have a little over a week left until assignments are due, at 5:00 p.m. EST on December 7. You can find our countdown clock here!

If at any point you start feeling like you need more time then look no further; you can find the request form for an extension here.

If you know you won’t be finished by the deadline then please default as soon as possible so we can find a pinch hitter in time. If we don’t hear from you by the deadline then you’ll be defaulted as well, so please keep us updated if needed!

If you’re feeling unsure then here are a few examples of what it would look like to have a complete vs. incomplete work by the December 7 deadline:

If your piece looks like the column on the left, you're good to go. But if by December 7 your piece still looks more like the incomplete right side column, you must request an extension and commit to the new deadline.

You can do it!! We believe in you and can’t wait to see what you’ll be bringing to the party!

[sxx-exchange]

Done with your assignment and looking for something more to do? Time for treats!

For this exchange, a treat is an extra gift you can create for a request that wasn't assigned to you. If you're done with your assignment and want to do more (or if you didn't participate in the event, but would still like to do something), come check out the prompts!

The prompts you submitted in your request for the Songxuexiao Exchange through AO3 can only be seen by the mods and your gifter, treats are an additional opt-in. So if you want your exchange request to be available for treats, you need to submit a letter (a publicly viewable Google doc or a blog post) with your prompts to this form to have it included in the list. And please include your AO3 username somewhere on the page!

The list of prompts available for treats this year can be found here.

Submitting prompts for treats is optional and you can still create treats for others even if you don't share your own prompts. Also you do not need to be signed up for the exchange to create treats!

Treats have no time limit and no minimum requirements that they have to meet, neither for artist nor writers. Drabbles and sketches are totally welcome!

Treats should be submitted to the AO3 collection (sxx_exchange_2025) and gifted to the prompter, just like the assignments.

If you have any questions about treats (or anything else event related), don't hesitate to reach out!

[sxx-exchange]

what defines a "treat" within the context of this event? and which roles in the event are capable of giving/receiving said treats?

( p.s, thank you for your hard work mod team! your efforts are not unnoticed!!)

There aren’t any minimum requirements for treats, it can be a short fic or a quick sketch, whatever you feel like doing, just as long as you stick to your recipients wishes! And anyone can give treats, if you participate in the event and are done with your gift, or if you didn’t participate, but still want to do something. Just add them to the Ao3 collection (sxx_exchange_2025) so it'll show up when revealing time comes!

We’ll be posting more about treats later! 

[sxx-exchange]

THE ASSIGNMENTS for Songxuexiao Exchange 2025 ARE OUT NOW!! 

If you can’t find the assignment in your inbox (including spam folders) and still don’t see anything after a half hour or so, you can contact us on Discord or at [email protected]