“As you can imagine, it’s not exactly easy to make a whole family disappear. The Wens needed help with getting out of here as quickly as possible, leaving no trace behind. The Wen siblings had met someone during their studies who had sensed the danger the family was in, and in an attempt to help them, had become a target too. So, he took it upon himself to leave his old life behind in order to help the Wens disappear, but also to protect those who were close to him back then. You know this man as…Xian-gege.”
Sizhui drops the two photographs he was still holding. “You are joking,” he says, incredulous.
In which the first steps to a reunion are being taken.
—–
Chapter 5 is out now! Total chapter count has been updated to seven. ♥
I’m having a lot of thoughts and feelings about Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling’s relationship right now. Jin Ling most likely went through a phase where he called Jiang Cheng ‘A-Die’, because when you’re young, your parent is determined by who takes care of you, not blood relation. The first time Jin Ling does it, Jiang Cheng, for a split second, feels happiness and pride, before being overcome with guilt and devastation. Jiang Cheng should have never had to play such a role in Jin Ling’s life in the first place, and he felt he was never going to do as good as a job as Yanli and Zixuan, yet he was what Jin Ling had. He never wanted them to be replaced or forgotten, so from then on, he does everything he can to make sure Jin Ling knows he is not his A-Die. He also hates the fact that Jin Ling mourning his parents is something that he had to almost be taught, and not something that happened naturally, because Jin Ling never got to know his parents enough to even know what he was missing.
Angst aside though, I also like to imagine that as the years go by, being called 'A-Die’ bothers him less and less. He never gave Jin Ling permission to do so, but Jin Ling still slips up from time to time, and eventually (when Jin Ling is in his 20s or something) Jiang Cheng just stops correcting him, since being called 'A-Die’ doesn’t hurt as much as it once did.
I love the idea of Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan becoming besties. Like, it starts off with Jin Ling conning them into “helping” with his different school projects, building solar systems, volcanos, etc… until it becomes a routine that whenever Jin Ling has a school project, they spend hours bonding working on it together (90% of the time Jin ling isn’t even there). When there is a lull in the projects Jin Ling gets assigned, jc and jzx feel like they’ve lost their excuse for hanging out, and are both too awkward to reach out. It comes to a head when Yanli gets tired of seeing jzx mope around the house, sighing at the birdhouse he and jc ‘helped’ a-ling build for his woodshop class, and forces him to reach out to jc. She reassures him that 'yes, jc misses you too, he asks if Jin ling has any school projects every time I talk to him’, jzx finds the courage to invite jc out, and a beautiful friendship is born. They go out multiple times a month and text all the time, jc has even called jzx 'xuan-ge’ and wwx has never felt more betrayed
Jiang Yanli: has, surprisingly, actually been arrested at least once but no one knows what for, and everyone is too scared to ask, all they know is that she made a lot of friends in her holding cell
“Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed. Like Schrödinger’s cat inside a box you can never ever open.” — David Mitchell
[id: gifs from the 25th episode of the series “The Untamed.” Each gif has a white frame around it. The first shows Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian standing together in Lotus Pier, initially laughing together before both of them look surprised at Jin Zixuan, offscreen. The second shows Jiang Cheng grabbing Wei Wuxian’s arm. The third shows Wei Wuxian blindfolding himself before preparing to shoot an arrow. The fourth shows Jiang Yanli acknowledging Madame Jin before turning to face an offscreen Jin Zixun, expression stormy. The last gif shows Wei Wuxian noticing Wen Qing on the side of the street, wind blowing his hair. /end id]
so a couple people either commented or put in the tags of my recent post saying something to the effect of “they’re all lesbians”, and I didn’t want to reply to anyone specific because I didn’t want it to feel mean or like a callout, but I did want to say, just so you guys know - in any and all content I create of Yanli, she is bisexual. obviously feel free to headcanon her as any sexuality you like in your own content! I’m not saying anyone’s headcanons are wrong or bad! but in my content, she will always be bi.
as a bi woman who has been in a relationship with a man for twelve years, and happily married to him for four, making content for Yanli who is both bi and married to Zixuan is very important to me, as there are many people - sadly, often actually within the queer community - who think that bi (or pan) people with partners who are a different gender somehow don’t “count” anymore, or they’re doing queerness “wrong”, or they’ve “settled” for a subpar relationship. obviously this is absolute steaming bullshit!!! we’re still here and we’re still queer
