#sunshot campaign

[kettledemon]

Meng Yao is not taking the surprise adoption well

Based on this post I made

[readingandbooking]

The sunshot campaign is so funny to me. It’s pivotal to the plot the story would not be the same without it do we know what happened in it no. Mxtx really said don’t worry about guys just trust me it sucked.

[neo--queen--serenity]

I think about Meng Yao's time under Wen Ruohan constantly. Like it's always talked about in passing as this thing he did, for better or for worse, but I think it's one of the more horrific side-plots of MDZS.

Did Meng Yao enjoy the power he wielded as Wen Ruohan's favorite? Or did the horror, the wider implications of being Wen Ruohan's favorite haunt his every step, whittling away at his sense of self? How much control did Wen Ruohan exert over him? How close, how entitled, did Wen Ruohan feel to his right-hand man? Did he love Meng Yao as a member of his own family? For a dictator famous for his abuse of power, how did this affect the shape of his favoritism?

And, in turn, did Meng Yao feel loved by Wen Ruohan, by the Qishan Wen he worked with? He held a position that was hard-won by acts of loyalty and blood; his Wen comrades, at the very least, understood his worth. Did they mistreat him, like everyone else? Did he have a sense of community with them? Did he miss this dynamic, once he gained his own seat of power in the cultivation world? And did he feel guilt for missing it?

[helpmeimblorboing]

It’s important to note that while the Lotus Pier Massacre is often depicted as the pier being set ablaze, that’s not actually the case

Unlike the Cloud Recesses, the only damage explicitly mentioned as having been inflicted on the Pier is when Wen Chao demanded that the lotus symbols be removed

In fact, the fact that the Pier seems superficially identical is even used as an added gut-punch. When Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng sneak back into the Pier, we get this scene :

“ The gates of Lotus Pier were tightly shut. Outside, lights glowed brightly. Fragments of moonlight flowed along the crystalline water. Dozens of large lanterns in the shape of nine-petaled lotuses floated by the dock in silence. Everything was the same as before. Yet, it was because of how everything was the same as before that it tormented the heart.”

So why is it rebuilt by the time Wei Wuxian is reborn ? It’s probably meant to be yet another sign of Jiang Cheng’s insecurity. After all, remember what Wang Lingjiao said when she stormed into Lotus Pier ?

“Lotus Pier really is quite nice. It’s so big. It’s just that all of the houses are a bit old.”

And again, when Wei Wuxian revisits the Pier after the Second Siege, we get this scene, that - on top of telling us of Lotus Pier’s new state, is meant to be yet another depiction, I feel, of how the Pier is no longer Wei Wuxian’s home

“The training field was two times larger. Each new building seemed to be taller than the previous, adorned with curving roof decor. It seemed grander than before and had more splendor. But, compared to the Lotus Pier of his memories, it had changed too much.

Wei WuXian felt a sense of loss from deep within. He didn’t know whether the old buildings from the past were blocked behind these impressive new buildings or if they were torn down already.

After all, they were indeed too old”

Now that’s a deliberate echo if I’ve ever seen one. Wang Lingjiao’s catty little jab - especially paired with her subsequent role in the massacre - stung Jiang Cheng so much that he ultimately rebuilt Lotus Pier over it

It also stands as a nice little contrast with the Lan Sect. Because - again, contrary to popular belief, the Lan Sect was not massacred in Wen Xu’s attack. In fact, it kind of seems like it wasn’t an attack at all

From Chapter 52 :

“One of the disciples beside them whispered, “Of course his face isn’t so great. Last month, the Cloud Recesses was burnt down. You didn’t know yet, did you?”

Hearing this, Wei Wuxian jolted, “Burnt down?!”

In the past few days, Jiang Cheng had heard too many of these stories, so he wasn’t as surprised as Wei Wuxian was, “By the Wen Sect’s people?”

The disciple, “You can say that. You can also say… that the Lan Sect itself burnt everything down. The eldest son of the Wen Sect, Wen Xu, went to Gusu. He accused the Lan Sect’s leader of something and forced the Lan Sect’s people to burn down their own residence! It was given pretty names like cleaning up the place so that it’s reborn from the firelight. Most of the Cloud Recesses and its surrounding forest has been burnt down. Just like that, the hundreds of years old paradise had been destroyed. The leader of the Lan Sect was heavily injured. We don’t even know if he’s still alive. Well, well…”

Wei Wuxian, “Is Lan Zhan’s leg related to this?”

The disciple, “Of course. The first place that Wen Xu ordered them to burn down was the Library Pavilion. He declared that he’ll teach anyone who wasn’t willing to do it a lesson. Lan Wangji refused. He was attacked by Wen Xu’s people and they broke one of his legs. It hadn’t even been healed yet, and he was dragged out here again. Who knows what they’re trying to do?!”

It kinds of sounds like Wen Xu pulled something similar to what Wang Lingjiao attempted in Yunmeng - only, you know, successfully. Wen Xu simply walked in the front doors, accused the Lan of wronging them, and demanded that the Lan burn Cloud Recesses themselves… and unlike the Jiang, the Lan did so.

It seems only Lan Wangji spoke out against the burning - getting his leg broken as consequence. As for Qingheng-Jun… we’re never TOLD he fought the Wen or the Wen attacked him. It’s entirely possible the building he was in was just set on fire and he couldn’t escape in time.

That’s probably why the Sects were able to continue to delude themselves regarding the true state of affairs, and are still able to pretend that war wasn’t on the horizon - the Cloud Recesses wasn’t massacred, it was “disciplined”, and by it’s own people, no less

I wonder if that was the plan at Lotus Pier, too - if, like the Recesses, the Pier was simply supposed to be burned - before Wang Lingjiao overstepped by demanding personal, petty, revenge against Wei Wuxian, and then misspoke again, prompting an attack from Madame Yu that blew the entire operation’s cover.

Maybe Wen Zhuliu was lying in wait just below the Cloud Recesses with an army of his own, like the one that took the Pier, waiting for the Lan to make any attempt at resistance.

I wonder if that was the plan for all the Sects, with the Nie being saved for last, because Wen Ruohan knew that the Wen-hating Nie Mingjue would refuse any attempts at “discipline” out of hand, prompting an attack that would set off a war against a much, much, weaker foe, with three of the four sects weakened by “Wen discipline”, and the fourth hopefully massacred

Now that I think about it, that was probably the case for the Wen Indoctrination, too. Before, you know, Wen Chao blew it

[cozycottagevibes]

Wen Ruohan: *winning the Sunshot Campaign*

Wei Wuxian, a coreless 17 year old with a death wish, a stick, and a magical hunk of iron: *kicks door open*

Wei Wuxian: *chugs margarita* 'Sup bitch, guess who's sonless.

[pakhnokh]

Those two are subliminally flirting even on the Sunshot Campaign battlefield.... *sigh*

(Drawn in 2022)

[wangxianficrecs]

no higher honor by MichelleFeather

no higher honor

by MichelleFeather

G, 10k, Wangxian

Summary: There…there was a way for them to get and stay warm, Wei Ying had been thinking about it since the last ember of the fire went out, when he had finally given up on trying to rekindle the fire. Watching the single orange ember’s light dim, until it had turned to ash, had solidified a decision in Wei Ying’s mind. He wouldn’t let Lan Zhan die in this cave. Even if it meant he wouldn’t come out of it alive. Kay's comments: I loved this Huli Jing lore in this story! With them only being born a Huli Jing if a soulmate was also out there being born as a Huli Jing somewhere! And also really loved Jin Zixuan and Lan Qiren teaming up in this story, a very unlikely but charming pair of allies. Excerpt: Lan Zhan’s eyes widened the more Wei Ying spoke, the more he moved their hands around. He couldn’t contain the gasp that escaped him as Wei Ying placed his hand on top of his head, directing him to send a thin stream of spiritual energy to him and to stop once he felt Wei Ying’s. They were the same instructions his mother used to give him, so that they could still communicate even when she was- Wei Ying’s words… the way he spoke as if they were his last, the tears that streamed down his face as he looked at him before transforming, before shifting into the most beautiful fox, Huli Jing, Lan Zhan had ever seen. All black from head to toe, five bushy tails fanning out behind him, Wei Ying had never looked more beautiful than in that moment. Lan Zhan didn’t think as he moved.

pov multiple, canon divergence, post-xuanwu of slaughter scene, xuanwu of slaughter cave, sunshot campaign, post-sunshot campaign, fox wei wuxian, fox lan wangji, huli jing wei wuxian, huli jing lan wangji, jiang cheng bashing, good uncle lan qiren, supportive lan qiren, fake character death, soft lan wangji/wei wuxian, lan wangji/wei wuxian get a happy ending, good person jin zixuan, mpreg, no golden core transfer

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[hyperfixpixistix]

I thought too hard about sangcheng last night and now I'm imagining how Nie Huaisang must've felt when his two best friends suddenly went missing.

Lotus Pier was burnt down, there's no trace of either of them, so everyone assumes the worst. Nie Huaisang is distraught about this and at the same time he doesn't believe what everyone is saying. So he uses his current spy network to try and find them.

He only catches a few dead ends even after weeks of searching and eventually gives up.

Then Jiang Cheng resurfaces and Nie Huaisang is so happy to see him, only for Jiang Cheng to be so different. He'd always been the serious one, sure, but this is different. The boy who would scoff at his friend's antics before joining in was gone, replaced with a stressed and overworked sect leader frantically trying to rebuild what he lost. And all Nie Huaisang could do was watch him sink further and further away.

Then Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds. The moment Nie Huaisang heard about this, he couldn't be more relieved.

'Finally, Wei-xiong will talk some sense into him! Then everything will go back to normal!'

But whenever Wei Wuxian speaks to him, his smile is always forced, his eyes are too dull to really seem happy, and everything else about him is wrong. The first time Nie Huaisang hears him playing Chengqing is when he realized that nothing was normal anymore.

Everything had changed, and he's the only one who didn't. All his friends had grown up already, and he was still just a kid.

A useless, head-shaking, cowardly kid.