[Fic] The Heart of the Matter

[branchandroot]

Fandom/Arc: The Untamed / Home Is
Characters/Pairings: Lan Jingyi, Lan Sizhui, Wen Ning, Lan Sizhui/Lan Jingyi
Summary: Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi and their growing partnership, before and after canon.
Meta: Porn, Fluff, I-4
Word Count: 1950

Sizhui had always been fascinated by the collection of Lan writings about the history and disciplines of their clan. They were so varied. Some were chilly and precise, some were zealous, and some, in Sizhui’s opinion, really wanted to go back and be monks and not deal with worldly matters at all. All of them, though, seemed to stumble when they tried to talk about intimacy and passion, and started talking around the details. It was really quite frustrating for a studious young man who just wanted to learn.

Read: Ink Burns | AO3

Comments

[darkemeralds]

Awesome! I joined this fandom quite recently. Will go add this to my growing collection.

[branchandroot]

^_^ b WWX and LWJ caught me first, as the earlier stories in this arc attest, but the ducklings are just /so adorable/, I could not resist some for them too.

[darkemeralds]

I hear that there's some kind of sequel series in the works featuring...I think...Nie Huaisang and the younglings. It scrolled past me on Twitter. Is this something you've heard about?

[branchandroot]

I have heard about it, and that could be seriously ultra adorable (or it could be kind of terrifying, depending on how deep they dive into Nie Huaisang). Nothing about release dates yet, though, that I've seen.

[darkemeralds]

I'm still working on understanding NHS's role in everything. There is a lot of fundamental subtlety to the story, and it's doubled and tripled by the language barrier and the sheer level of concentration required to read the subtitles and watch the expressions while also being distracted by the Mandarin (I love it when I recognize a word!).

I'm hoping that my third pass through the series will clear it up.

[branchandroot]

I actually read the novel first (in translation) and that helped /immensely/ in understanding what was going on.

[darkemeralds]

It could well be a factor of age, but though I'm enjoying the novel (I'm about 3/4 through it, just coming up on the big Guanyin Temple climax), the profusion of character names that I haven't memorized yet is making the subtle political story pretty opaque.

I have lots of time, though, and I'm more than willing to keep going through everything. I learn and understand more with each pass through the story, and it's great for my brain!

[branchandroot]

*rueful* I /absolutely/ kept the index of character names open while I read, because wow. Yeah.

[darkemeralds]

Ooh! Could you point me to this index please?

[branchandroot]

Sure! They don't gloss everyone, but they get most of the main characters at least: https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/gdc-character-and-sect-guide/

[darkemeralds]

Awesome. Thank you! This is so helpful.