The dock above Jiang Yanli is old and rotten in places, but not rotten enough to give away where she’s hiding underneath it, trying hard not to giggle. Her brothers are supposed to be leading her fiance deeper into the woods and eventually out onto the dock, telling him all sorts of made up ghost stories. The three of them had come up with them together last night, but she had been the one to decide that Jiang Cheng should be the one to tell them, Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but grin and that gave the whole thing away.
The sound of their voices drawing closer and closer is Jiang Yanli’s cue to dive beneath the surface of the water, unbound hair fanning out like the bloom of a flower as she draws breath into her chest and holds it. All she has to do is wait for Nie Mingjue’s shadow to tower over the water, and then she could wrap her hand around his ankle while Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both shoved him into the lake.
They couldn’t do this sort of thing when she was engaged to Jin Zixuan. They tried, and he hadn’t taken it well.
The white robes on her body, layers upon layers of them to keep from allowing them to be come see through, grow heavy and rough in the water, but they do little to slow Jiang Yanli down as the dock above creaks and groans under the weight of three grown men. She can see just enough past the glare of the sun to know that Nie Mingjue is squinting hard at the water, she has to time this perfectly.
Wei Wuxian leans over Nie Mingjue’s shoulder, pointing something out, and it’s Jiang Yanli’s cue to strike, pushing herself up out of the water with a force she shouldn’t have to wrap both small hands around Nie Mingjue’s ankle while both of her brothers shove their shoulders into his back, pitching him forward while they run away, howling with laughter.
Jiang Yanli is almost certain that she’s a very convincing corpse, she can’t see past her own hair to tell otherwise, but the way Nie Mingjue splashes and tries to fight against her hands on his arms all but confirms it. He’s reaching for Baxia, Jiang Yanli knows she shouldn’t laugh, but she still does, it makes him stop splashing for just one long moment before reality sinks in.
“You!” Nie Mingjue sputters, hair clinging to his face as he dips below the surface for just a moment before he remembers how to tread water. It’s an improvement, he couldn’t even float when they’d first gotten engaged. Alarm gives way to amusement as he tries to swim towards her, only to be met with empty water as Jiang Yanli dives away from him, black hair and white burial robes billowing out around her.
Nie Mingjue no longer sinks like a stone, but he still can’t keep up with Jiang Yanli when she truly tries to keep away from him. “I didn’t know Mingjue-dage was so eager to swim with me,” Jiang Yanli grins as she resurfaces, pushing her hair out of her face just to look at him. Some men would have splashed and thundered their way back to the shore by now, but all Nie Mingjue has done is watch her as if she’s something to be marveled at.
He swims towards her carefully, never knowing whether or not she’s going to slip through his fingers again, and admittedly, Jiang Yanli thinks about it, but she lets him draw closer instead. She could push him under again, but that feels too mean, even she wouldn’t forgive herself for that. That’s something her brothers did to each other.
She chooses to be sweet, instead, brushing wet hair from his face and then pressing that same hand against his cheek. He would get tired of swimming with her soon enough, she has to take what she can.
“I would have swam with you sooner if I’d known you made for such a pretty ghost.” Nie Mingjue smiles when he says it, pressing a kiss to the palm of her hand right after, and Jiang Yanli feels her stomach flip before it fills to the brim with butterflies. It isn’t fair how he can tease her right back after she’d conspired with her brothers to push him into the lake.
Slowly, they drift closer and closer to the shore, sinking into the mud just a little as they climb out of the water together, water falling off the both of them in sheets. If she’d been alone, Jiang Yanli might’ve just laid on the dock so the sun could dry her from bottom to top, she might’ve even fallen asleep in the sun like that, but who knows what kind of rumors would get spread if anyone caught her lying her cheek on Nie Mingjue’s chest while they dried together?
She should lead him over to the tree trunk where her clothes, her real clothes, not the burial robes she’d bribed her shimei to get for her, lay hidden, but Nie Mingjue’s arms wrap around her waist. He’s careful not to pull her wet hair as he holds her close, his eyes glued to her face. He always treats her as if she’s some great beauty, as if she’s something to be held close to his heart.
The humidity of Lotus Pier is already making both of their hair curl, Jiang Yanli wants nothing more than to reach out and run her fingers through Nie Mingjue’s curls, her eyes blinking wide while he continues to watch her like he can’t bear to let her out of his sight.
She shouldn’t. Jiang Yanli knows that she shouldn’t, but before she can think twice about it, she’s standing on tiptoe to kiss Nie Mingjue. Her arms wrap around his neck, keeping him close and keeping herself up, though she doesn’t need to for long.
Nie Mingjue picks her up and holds her against him before Jiang Yanli even realizes that she’s being moved, her own hands sliding down to his chest. She can feel his heartbeat there, but it feels far, far too fast for something as simple as picking her up. Carefully, because it might break whatever spell they’re under, Jiang Yanli slides one hand up to Nie Mingjue’s throat, feeling for his pulse and finding it just as fast.
“Sect Leader Nie,” Jiang Yanli calls him that to dump ice water over her own head, her lips still numb from the kiss when Nie Mingjue rests his forehead against hers, his eyes fluttering shut. She needs to get down, she needs to put some sort of distance between them so she doesn’t do anything he might regret. It doesn’t matter that she started it, it doesn’t matter that she played a trick on him or kissed him first. This is too much, she’s done too much, and all Nie Mingjue has done is reward her for it.
Jiang Yanli doesn’t expect to be kissed again, nor does she expect the kiss to linger as long as it does. She can’t hope to control the soft sound that flutters out of her throat, as if one of the butterflies in her stomach has broken loose.
“Qinghe’s waters will be too cold and shallow for you to do this again, Lady Jiang.” Nie Mingjue speaks to her softly, but the reminder of her own title does nothing to cool off the warmth that’s building up underneath her cheeks, “You’ll have to find other means of playing tricks after we marry.”
Nie Mingjue still wants to marry her, even after Jiang Yanli pulled him into the lake and pretended to be a ghost. She even dressed the part.
Slowly, and then all too quickly, a smile bursts across Jiang Yanli’s face while her cheeks burn hotter, threatening to dry them both in an instant. They aren’t supposed to be alone together, not until after they’re married, they’ve already broken that rule, among others. She shouldn’t go to Qinghe until the wedding, either, Jiang Yanli knows that. Her wedding robes aren’t even done yet.
“Perhaps a visit to the Unclean Realm should be arranged,” Jiang Yanli speaks softly, leaning her chin against her hand while she pretends to think, “I’ll have to think of what can be prepared once I settle in, won’t I?”
Jiang Yanli doesn’t expect to see Nie Mingjue grin down at her, but it puts her heart in her throat all the same.
“Your future husband might have tricks of his own, Lady Jiang.” It doesn’t sound like a threat or a warning, it sounds like a promise.
Jiang Yanli can’t wait for him to follow through with it.
huge fan of how in mdzs mxtx managed to cram in not just one, but TWO characters whose story arcs were just "I love my polyamorous himbo husband, but I wish he would stop bringing home evil little twinks who really want to murder me"
Jiang Yanli can’t help the sniffle that comes as she drags the wet cloth over Nie Mingjue’s cheek and down his neck, her other hand holding onto his much larger one, afraid to let go for even a moment. How could this have happened? It was only supposed to be a simple nighthunt, Nie Mingjue had even taken her hand in his and promised her that he’d be home before dawn.
Dropping the cloth back into the bowl at her side, Jiang Yanli lets her hand fall down to Nie Mingjue’s chest, relieved when she feels the strong, steady beat against her palm. She should know that it would take far more than this to take her husband from her, but he’d still been bloody when they brought him home. Not even the strongest Nie disciples had been able to keep her away from his bedside while the healers dressed the worst of his wounds, leaving her to tend to the smaller ones after they were done.
“See what trouble you get into when I’m not with you?” Jiang Yanli scolds lightly, though she’s sure he can’t hear her in his sleep. Slowly she rises from where she’d been sitting and reaches for his hair ornaments, unclasping them and setting them aside in the way she’d become accustomed to since their wedding. “This should be more comfortable.” She’d said that on their wedding night too, reaching to start unclasping the clips that held his braids in place.
He’d been worried about hurting her, that she was small and he was not, he’d said it as she worked the intricate braids loose with her fingers, catching both of her hands and raising them to his lips as he promised he wouldn’t ever take anything she wasn’t ready to offer. She’d smiled at him then, and she smiles at him now, she’d told him she’d loved him then, and she’d tell him she loved him now, if only he were awake.
She runs her fingers through his hair again, now free from his braids and fanning out on the pillow underneath him. Later, after he’d woken up, she’d tease him about how cute he looked, but for now, she reaches for his comb and traces the designs on it with her fingers for a moment before setting about on her next task.
Every knot and tangle from the fight is combed out, starting at the bottom and working her way up to keep the comb from accidentally pulling and causing him more pain, it’s only when she’s halfway through with a middle section that Nie Mingjue begins to stir.
“A-Li?” He calls out to her, his voice raspy and his eyes screwed shut for a moment longer before he tries to open them.
“I’m here.” Jiang Yanli answers, managing to smile just a little as she feels her heart squeeze in her chest. Her smile drops quickly as he tries to sit up and her hands push back on his shoulders, shaking her head and trying to push him back down onto the bed.
He could stop her if he truly wanted to, but he only hesitates for a moment before he lets her lay him back down. “You need to stay put for a few days, A-Sang promised he would look after things.” Jiang Yanli says, her hands folding into her lap as she sits back down next to him.
“Is that the advice of my healers or my wife?” Nie Mingjue asks, a worn smile coming onto his face as he reaches for her hand, and Jiang Yanli gives it to him, her fingers curling between his.
“My husband should have been more careful.” Jiang Yanli says, refusing to answer the question, holding onto his hand with both of hers now as she raises his knuckles to her lips. There’s a touch of mischief to her smile now, an expression that Nie Mingjue had learned to watch for and treasure all at the same time, another thing about her that made his stomach do funny things.
Nie Mingjue reaches forward because he can’t stop himself, tucking a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear with his free hand and letting it linger on her cheek before he tugs her forward gently. Jiang Yanli follows him easily, making sure she isn’t touching or laying down on any of his injuries before she allows herself to relax next to him, looking up just as he leans down to press their foreheads together.
“I came home before dawn.” Nie Mingjue teases, eyes flicking towards the pale morning light coming through the window behind them.
Jiang Yanli’s eyes widen for a moment, a half hearted scolding on her tongue before it dissolves into a laugh, her husband had kept his promise.
I'm back for more mingli shenanigans to say that nmj would absolutely cry when their kids are born, not just the first, all of them, he's got big emotions
YAY MINGLI SHENANIGANS!!
You know, one of the things that I absolutely love about Nie Mingjue is how many times he cries. And I think Yanli would, too.
She has had enough of tears that come from frustration, fear, sorrow, loss, resentment, rejection. Helplessness and pain. There have been so many tears from arguments and worry. And yes, Mingjue cries when he’s sad, when he’s overwhelmed, but he also cries when he’s happy. When he’s proud.
He cries when she tells him she’s pregnant. He cries when he holds their first daughter for the first time, open and shaking, hands so tender and gentle that it was like he was holding something made of glass. He cries when she takes her first steps, shocked blinkings as he presses the back of his hand to his mouth to keep from making a noise and startling her into falling over.
He cries again when she tells him she’s pregnant again. He cries when their second daughter is born, smiling and gentler than the first, but still full of short, huffed breaths and sniffs. He cries when Huisang forms his golden core, late as it is, maybe only enough to keep him steadily on his sabre for flight and not anything fancy, but he is proud.
He cries when, on his days where he’s certain he’s not doing enough, as a Clan Leader, as a brother, as a husband, as a father, when Yanli holds his face and looks him in his eyes, smiling and just tells him again and again, ‘You are enough.’ It’s not that she wants him to cry, but she knows when he does, it’s finally sunk in and the bit that was scared heard it.
(real talk - 7k in to my first foray into MDZS on a nmj/jyl fic and 5k is just pure gentle smut of their wedding night. this is them getting to know each other and learning to let their guards down and that its okay to love each other and fuck i could ramble for years. pls give feedback if you got any!!!) ((i also just realised this is 1.5k wtf am i doing))
Nie Mingjue had never peeled a lotus root before in his life, but he was finding the activity oddly soothing in a mediative way. When you added in Jiang Yanli’s gentle humming as she prepared what she needed in the kitchen around them, he was fiercely glad she had invited him to cook with her, to spend time with her in such a meaningful way. It made his heart stutter to think that she truly wanted to spend time with him, to get to know him… it had to be a step in the right direction, surely.
He had minimal knowledge of culinary skills, aside from what he needed to know when out travelling or night-hunting and making your own meal was the only guarantee of food. He knew how to skin and roast a hare, skewer a fish over a stick on a log fire, what basic berries were edible or poisonous, but he had never had the experience of making a complete home meal from scratch.
He watched as she walked with confidence around the kitchen - one he knew she had been sneaking into for a few weeks now – and he felt a surge of affection so strongly he nearly broke the knife in his hand with the sudden clench of his fist. Ah, he thought suddenly, she must feel so comfortable here. He was a fool, he berated himself, for not realising sooner. He wondered how difficult it would be to commission her own private kitchen, instead of her waiting until the cover of night and until all the cooks had left to come to the one place in Qinghe where she clearly felt most secure.
“I was never skilled in cultivation, and I know my mother was always disappointed by that,” She spoke into the still night air quietly, her eyes locked on the soup pot as she checked if the water was boiling correctly. He hummed to let her know he was listening as he kept at his task.
“As a first-born daughter to a powerful Sect leader, I was a disappointment from the beginning. Not that my parents loved me any less,” she spoke in a measured tone, collecting the lotus roots he had finished peeling. “I know my father loved me. My mother loved me too, in her own way; I just wasn’t what she wanted. I was born too small, too delicate, not suited for the exertions that came with a true cultivators life. I smiled too easily, she said, and my voice was too soft. I never spoke back, I always held my tongue, and I was underwhelming in every skill she attempted to teach me.”
She grabbed a package of herbs Nie Mingjue couldn’t name from a woven basket he hadn’t noticed earlier, and placed a small pile in front of herself and handing him a knob of ginger. “Cut it into small pieces, please,” she instructed softly, attending to her own pile of herbs.
“When it came to being a woman in a cultivators world, my mother was the exception. I think she hoped I would be too, and she didn’t know how to handle me when I couldn’t do what she did,” she smiled wanly, taking his small pile of ginger pieces and placing them in the small bowl that was blanching the pork ribs.
“I was everything she wasn’t, and I was fine with that. I was a slow learner, she always said, and it was true. Cultivating my golden core was more difficult for me compared to my brothers, and I was never clever enough with academic pursuits.”
“Everyone has their strengths,” he hedged carefully, feeling oddly vulnerable without a task to keep his hands busy. What she was speaking of was hitting very close to his heart, and his concerns with his little brother.
“That’s true,” she smiled at him with crinkled eyes, sliding him half the peeled lotus roots with a gentle, “slice them about a thumbnail thick, please.” He nodded, observing her first few slices and trying to mirror them, the same way he learned his basic sword formations all those years ago.
“I know I’m not strong, or beautiful, or skilled, but I love my brothers. They taught me nearly everything I know. They taught me patience, they taught me diplomacy, they taught me how to handle a multitude of situations -” here, she laughed lightly, shaking her head slightly at some imagined shenanigans, he assumed, “- and they helped teach me my own value. Not everyone has to be great with a sword to have worth, or have a golden core to be important. Sometimes acknowledgement, love and care, understanding, and a warm meal can be priceless.”
She grasped a pair of nearby chopsticks and fished the pork ribs and pieces of ginger out of their small pot, adding each one into the larger boiling soup pot. She then added the herbs and her sliced lotus roots in next, indicating for him to do the same. He nodded, collecting all his sliced lotus roots in a single handful - compared to the three handfuls it took her - and placed them in the pot too, a strange feeling welling in his chest as she used a ladle to mix all the ingredients together.
“I know I’m not what you envisioned in a wife, and I know others perceive me as weak,” she turned to look at him now, her gaze never wavering from his eyes as she took one of his hands in her two tiny ones, and all he could think was I have never felt hands this soft in my entire life, “but I truly hope I am able to offer something to you in this marriage. Before, I had been promised to another who never chose me and I lived my life knowing it was all my parents ever thought I was fit for. I had watched their own volatile marriage, and resigned myself to my own with a man who didn’t want me. Now we have a choice, and I want it to be the right one for both of us,” her eyes had begun glistening with tears at this point and Nie Mingjue felt his own beginning to water in response. And people call me a brute, he thought with a self-deprecating laugh.
“Lady Jiang, anyone who perceives you as weak or lacking are fools. I saw how fiercely you defended Wei Wuxian at Phoenix Mountain and how politely you tore strips off that Jin boy. You are well aware of my own reputation, I’m sure,” he snorted, knowing exactly what image others had tried to paint of him in her mind, “and to have come here regardless, and bear your heart and intentions to me, I would have to have a head full of rocks to see you as anything but my equal.”
He paused, taking a moment to really think about what he was going to say as he knew this woman would take whatever he said to heart, and it felt only right to return what she had revealed to him tonight. He placed his free hand on the two that was cupping his other, feeling his heart jump at the smile she gave him.
“I can be ill-tempered, uncompromising, and socially blunt to the point my brother has said a blow to the head would be more subtle,” he chuckled here, feeling his chest warm as Jiang Yanli huffed a laugh with him. “You are everything I am not, Lady Jiang, and that is a good thing. You are brave, and beautiful, and something I had never expected I would find in my life. Let me court you, Jiang Yanli. Let us make this work.”
Nie Mingjue was startled as new tears suddenly fell from her eyes, following the near exact same track as the last set from a few moments ago.
“I would like nothing more,” she said sincerely, her smile blinding him as he reached out to wipe them away with his thumb.
Ah, maybe time to lighten the air.
“Now, how long until our hard work bears fruit?” He asked, looking over at the soup they had made together.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that part? We will need to wait until at least morning to enjoy it,” she laughed cheekily as she pulled away from him, turning around to take hold of a small woven basket he hadn’t noticed before. “I suspected you might like something a little more immediate though, so I made something for you a little earlier.” She was blushing as she handed him the box, oddly quiet as he opened the lid.
“Your brother mentioned you liked sweet things, so I hope this suits your tastes,” she bowed slightly towards him as he looked at the delicate osmanthus cakes hidden within, marveling at the fine flower detailing on the top that he could swear looked finer than any detailing he had seen on any cake before.
“Lady Jiang, if I hadn’t asked to court you just now, I can assure you that this would have certainly done the trick.” A laugh startled out of him as he soaked in the situation. A beautiful woman, wooing him with cakes. Truly, had the world gone mad? He smiled wider as she laughed with him, her eyes filled with more joy than he had ever seen in her before.
Introducing Li's buddy Lau Jianhung, who works as a cook in Master Wong's kitchens.
Lau is the son of a pig farmer; he and Li met on the boat ride overseas. He's a good cook, but he's pretty clumsy, so his shirt collects a lot of stains, and his hands collect a lot of burns and cuts. His given name is Jianhung, but friends and family often call him Porky (for obvious reasons)
(I want him to have a crush on Li when she's dressed as a girl, not realizing that she's also the guy he works with)
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