curiosity (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
curiosity) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomweekly2026-02-24 05:52 pm
curiosity) wrote in fandomweekly2026-02-24 05:52 pm
Entry tags:
[AMNESTY #029] Bitter Stars (MDZS)
Theme Prompt: #286 - Working Together
Title: Bitter Stars
Fandom: MDZS
Rating/Warnings: NC-17 - discussions of war, trauma, and other heavy topics.
Bonus: No.
Word Count: 1,000
Summary: Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji are united for a common purpose. It isn't what either one expected but that part doesn't matter. What matters is their goal; finding Wei Wuxian.
Of all the places Lan Wangji had thought to find himself in the middle of a war, working side-by-side with Jiang Wanyin was not one of them. The stone-faced Second Jade made no attempts to explain himself to the wasp-tongued Yunmeng Sect Leader as they searched high and low for their lost companion; soulmate and adopted brother.
Eventually Jiang Wanyin no longer saw the need to keep up his guard around his inscrutable partner and began telling Lan Wangji stories of Wei Wuxian in his youth. How little A-Ying turned every steamy, slow summer Yunmeng day into an adventure. How every little lesson turned into a season’s worth of learning with all the convoluted questions and theories he presented to the confounded, underpaid tutor. In the stories, their childhood was nearly idyllic, when it was just the children themselves.
Then Jiang Wanyin’s father turned favoritism into slow poison and Madam Yu made disappointment a honed blade whetted with rage. Others began to take note. Locals at first, followed by neighbors. Soon everyone commented on it, fanning the flames of Madam Yu’s rage higher and higher. The pattern was set. The boys were trapped.
In dark nights, in cold camps under cold and accusatory Qishan stars, Jiang Cheng told those stories too. How Wei Ying became Wei Wuxian and took more than his fair share of punishment. How Jiang Wanyin’s faults were loaded onto the brightly smiling youth’s back as well. How those bright smiles became brittle and Wei Ying began to disappear behind the mask of Wei Wuxian, Head Disciple.
“It’s no wonder he’s stronger than me,” Jiang Wanyin confessed evening after finding yet another Qishan outpost reduced to nothing more than smoking ruins and the echoes of screams. “He had to carry so much more than me and every time I tried to lighten his load, to carry my own weight, my parents despised him instead of allowing me.”
Lan Wangji observed the bobbing of Jiang Wanyin’s throat and the wet sheen over his eyes. He waited, since he had nothing to say himself. His own family experience did not offer points of comparison, save for both fathers being blind - though in different ways.
Jiang Wanyin continued. “Now they are both dead and can allow nothing. We are free of the trap but those patterns remain unless I can find Wei Wuxian and free him myself.”
Across the unlit fire, Lan Wangji said nothing. But he seethed for the mistreatment Wei Ying had suffered. If he considered it closely, Lan Wangji could see where the former Sect Leader Jiang had blundered terribly with all his children and his wife. Lan Wangji could see where Madam Yu had so easily allowed negative emotions to warp her life.
Jiang Wanyin and Maiden Jiang were every bit as poorly used as Wei Ying, if he was honest in his assessment of the situation. Lan Wangji did not want to be honest or fair. He wanted Wei Ying safe, alive, whole, and home. Preferably Lan Wangji’s home and not the treacherous waters of Yunmeng Jiang, so fraught with emotional undercurrents that even their most prized lotuses had bloomed warped.
“Lan Wangji,” Jiang Wanyin said then, breaking the tense silence. “If he is better with you, safer with you, once we find him, then that is what I want. He will always be my brother. Yunmeng Jiang will no longer be the stone around his neck. Even in the end, when I tried and failed to save him and jiejie, I knew that as much as I wanted the three of us to always be together, the fates had other ideas.”
Lan Wangji thought long and hard. Did Jiang Wanyin mean what he said? Or was it grief talking? Could anything said in the dark of night, without witnesses, be taken at face value?
“Mn,” he replied at last.
It was well past nine. He should have been asleep long before. Even so, he could not close his eyes. Somewhere, Wei Ying wandered alone and very likely injured. Lan Wangji would work together with Jiang Wanyin for as long as necessary to find Wei Ying. Then he would find the right words to tell Wei Ying his feelings.
If he survived the night.
Jiang Wanyin responded to the attack first. Lan Wangji was aware and keenly angry with himself over the fact. One minute the new Jiang Sect Leader was asleep. The next purple lightning was shredding a cadre of Wen troops thinking to take two lone cultivators unawares. Lan Wangji did his part, killing an even dozen and leaving two alive for questioning while Jiang Wanyin vented some of his seemingly endless anger.
Several bloody and scream-filled hours later, the two of them had a lead. Abandoning the pretense of camp, Jiang Wanyin and Lan Wangji moved through the night like a ghost and its shadow, hunting for the boy with the bright smile and the infectious laugh. Rumors pointed to deeper within Qishan. Something was stalking Wen Chao. He was on the run. Wen Zhuliu was barely able to keep him alive as they fled.
Was Wei Ying the devil haunting Wen Chao? Lan Wangji did not know what to hope for. He could see on Jiang Wanyin’s face, as the two raced through a moon-lit clearing, that hope and anguish fought within the young sect leader as well. Somehow, that made Lan Wangji feel closer to the snappish man. Both were torn over this new lead.
Would the once bright-eyed boy do the terrible things the now-dead soldiers had reported? Nightmares, poisoning, other tortures that plagued Wen Chao until he was more than half mad? Or was the creature tormenting the last remaining heir to Wen Ruohan something more sinister than any sect could stand against alone?
Were they racing into a trap?
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji prayed silently while running. “Be well.”
Above the two men, the Qishan stars laughed bitterly.
Title: Bitter Stars
Fandom: MDZS
Rating/Warnings: NC-17 - discussions of war, trauma, and other heavy topics.
Bonus: No.
Word Count: 1,000
Summary: Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji are united for a common purpose. It isn't what either one expected but that part doesn't matter. What matters is their goal; finding Wei Wuxian.
Of all the places Lan Wangji had thought to find himself in the middle of a war, working side-by-side with Jiang Wanyin was not one of them. The stone-faced Second Jade made no attempts to explain himself to the wasp-tongued Yunmeng Sect Leader as they searched high and low for their lost companion; soulmate and adopted brother.
Eventually Jiang Wanyin no longer saw the need to keep up his guard around his inscrutable partner and began telling Lan Wangji stories of Wei Wuxian in his youth. How little A-Ying turned every steamy, slow summer Yunmeng day into an adventure. How every little lesson turned into a season’s worth of learning with all the convoluted questions and theories he presented to the confounded, underpaid tutor. In the stories, their childhood was nearly idyllic, when it was just the children themselves.
Then Jiang Wanyin’s father turned favoritism into slow poison and Madam Yu made disappointment a honed blade whetted with rage. Others began to take note. Locals at first, followed by neighbors. Soon everyone commented on it, fanning the flames of Madam Yu’s rage higher and higher. The pattern was set. The boys were trapped.
In dark nights, in cold camps under cold and accusatory Qishan stars, Jiang Cheng told those stories too. How Wei Ying became Wei Wuxian and took more than his fair share of punishment. How Jiang Wanyin’s faults were loaded onto the brightly smiling youth’s back as well. How those bright smiles became brittle and Wei Ying began to disappear behind the mask of Wei Wuxian, Head Disciple.
“It’s no wonder he’s stronger than me,” Jiang Wanyin confessed evening after finding yet another Qishan outpost reduced to nothing more than smoking ruins and the echoes of screams. “He had to carry so much more than me and every time I tried to lighten his load, to carry my own weight, my parents despised him instead of allowing me.”
Lan Wangji observed the bobbing of Jiang Wanyin’s throat and the wet sheen over his eyes. He waited, since he had nothing to say himself. His own family experience did not offer points of comparison, save for both fathers being blind - though in different ways.
Jiang Wanyin continued. “Now they are both dead and can allow nothing. We are free of the trap but those patterns remain unless I can find Wei Wuxian and free him myself.”
Across the unlit fire, Lan Wangji said nothing. But he seethed for the mistreatment Wei Ying had suffered. If he considered it closely, Lan Wangji could see where the former Sect Leader Jiang had blundered terribly with all his children and his wife. Lan Wangji could see where Madam Yu had so easily allowed negative emotions to warp her life.
Jiang Wanyin and Maiden Jiang were every bit as poorly used as Wei Ying, if he was honest in his assessment of the situation. Lan Wangji did not want to be honest or fair. He wanted Wei Ying safe, alive, whole, and home. Preferably Lan Wangji’s home and not the treacherous waters of Yunmeng Jiang, so fraught with emotional undercurrents that even their most prized lotuses had bloomed warped.
“Lan Wangji,” Jiang Wanyin said then, breaking the tense silence. “If he is better with you, safer with you, once we find him, then that is what I want. He will always be my brother. Yunmeng Jiang will no longer be the stone around his neck. Even in the end, when I tried and failed to save him and jiejie, I knew that as much as I wanted the three of us to always be together, the fates had other ideas.”
Lan Wangji thought long and hard. Did Jiang Wanyin mean what he said? Or was it grief talking? Could anything said in the dark of night, without witnesses, be taken at face value?
“Mn,” he replied at last.
It was well past nine. He should have been asleep long before. Even so, he could not close his eyes. Somewhere, Wei Ying wandered alone and very likely injured. Lan Wangji would work together with Jiang Wanyin for as long as necessary to find Wei Ying. Then he would find the right words to tell Wei Ying his feelings.
If he survived the night.
Jiang Wanyin responded to the attack first. Lan Wangji was aware and keenly angry with himself over the fact. One minute the new Jiang Sect Leader was asleep. The next purple lightning was shredding a cadre of Wen troops thinking to take two lone cultivators unawares. Lan Wangji did his part, killing an even dozen and leaving two alive for questioning while Jiang Wanyin vented some of his seemingly endless anger.
Several bloody and scream-filled hours later, the two of them had a lead. Abandoning the pretense of camp, Jiang Wanyin and Lan Wangji moved through the night like a ghost and its shadow, hunting for the boy with the bright smile and the infectious laugh. Rumors pointed to deeper within Qishan. Something was stalking Wen Chao. He was on the run. Wen Zhuliu was barely able to keep him alive as they fled.
Was Wei Ying the devil haunting Wen Chao? Lan Wangji did not know what to hope for. He could see on Jiang Wanyin’s face, as the two raced through a moon-lit clearing, that hope and anguish fought within the young sect leader as well. Somehow, that made Lan Wangji feel closer to the snappish man. Both were torn over this new lead.
Would the once bright-eyed boy do the terrible things the now-dead soldiers had reported? Nightmares, poisoning, other tortures that plagued Wen Chao until he was more than half mad? Or was the creature tormenting the last remaining heir to Wen Ruohan something more sinister than any sect could stand against alone?
Were they racing into a trap?
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji prayed silently while running. “Be well.”
Above the two men, the Qishan stars laughed bitterly.