ARCHIVE OF DIXING | English 镇魂 Guardian Fanworks Directory

Of course, she thinks, of course the first thing she does when trying to do something different, trying to move away from dressing for Zhao Yunlan’s eyes, is to dress like him instead. She has had something of a wake-up call in recent months, has found herself looking into the mirror and seeing not herself, but an imitation. An imitation of a woman, an imitation of a man, an imitation of a person. All of it carefully measured against the yardstick of the first human to show her true kindness - the clothing, the hair, the makeup, the painful high heels, even her own feelings. Everything was calculated, offered up for evaluation by a man who was, for all that she idolized him, a bit of a dick.

What returned to Shen Wei was not just the pendant with Kunlun's soulfire. What was being recovered was much more than what he knew he had lost.
He was unwilling to lose it all.

Did Shen Wei ever find the love of his life on the streets of 1990s Chicago? Did RayV and RayK's relationship ever improve? The answers to these burning questions may be found here.

(N.B. In the interests of full disclosure, I did not write the summary under the influence.)

As an omega, there is not much Shen Wei can do to protect his didi after a terrible disgrace. But at least he can take the brunt of societal consequences on himself by pretending he had been the one assaulted.

General Zhao offers him a helping hand, or maybe drags him deeper into misery - only time will tell. Shen Wei knows better than most how to do battle with a courteous smile and a bowed head.

Shen Wei had to admit that Wu Xie was correct. If he were to attempt to recover his pendant himself, it would be easier for him to be killed or imprisoned again and the contents of the pendant discovered by Hell's Court than for him to succeed. But what would become of Zhao Yunlan now if Shen Wei still couldn't even get close to him without causing him harm, if he lost Wu Xie so soon?
Once, under a sky as starry as tonight, Shen San had told Shen Wei that he could make wishes if he saw shooting stars.

Wu Xie, lying on the rug with the book, the blanket not quite wrapped up but tangled in him, stopped his attempt at reading again. That shy contentment that Shen Wei occasionally showed about something, casually about his own thoughts, was always - always - charming.

Shen Wei and the regrets he wasn't allowed to have.

The boyfriend from his past that Wu Xie found inside the tomb was now everyone else's problem.
While everyone in the team had doubts and theories, Shen Wei was embarrassed.

"Never again turn your back on me. Don't run away from me. Kill me first, but don't try to abandon me.”
That was when the Ghost King understood, despite everything he still couldn't be clear about, he was perfectly capable of understanding that. Because the Fire God had spoken his language. And because the very land where they lay and forcibly intertwined was now what was left of what had once been Zhurong's great friend. The realization hit the Ghost King harder than the fear he had felt before: Zhurong was, in a peculiar way, like him - completely alone.

After being rescued from his imprisonment, Shen Wei admired the starry sky that he had not seen for a long time. And the loved one he never believed he would see again.

...
[This work takes place right after the first part of "Of fallen gods and forgotten sacrifices" (the first work in this series), so if you're new here, you can read this one after the first one and before all the others]

"You didn't have to come down the mountain just for that." The being pointed to the umbrella.
“Oh?” Kunlun couldn't believe the audacity of that ordinary thing to dismiss him and not even thank him for his concern. “What kind of thing are you that you don't even have a bit of courtesy?”
...

Zhao Yunlan thought that there was something very wrong with him for being so allured by Wu Xie and his partner, by the relationship they had... and he didn't even know Shen Wei in person. He thought he had done a lot of ridiculous things in his life, but falling in love with a couple is the worst of them.

Shen Wei coughed, a fleck of blood beading on the side of his lips, and Zhao Yunlan’s heart thundered heavily in his chest. He was dimly aware that his hands were shaking as he held on to Shen Wei.

“You got yourself hurt again!” Da Qing’s petulant tone and scolding words are softened by the way he is carefully curled on Shen Wei’s stomach, purring so loudly that the sound vibrates throughout Shen Wei’s body.

Zhao Yunlan falls into another dimension, and then promptly proceeds to nearly die. It turns out that dark energy doesn't agree with him and it's everywhere.

Podfic of New Dimensions by tinypinkmouse.

Zhao Yunlan falls into another dimension, and then promptly proceeds to nearly die. It turns out that dark energy doesn't agree with him and it's everywhere.

Shen Wei often found himself marveling at the thought: he had a real life. He was delighted with every thing about that house, about his new life. Some of his paintings, less personal than what only Wu Xie knew, now also began to appear on the walls of the house - landscapes, flowers, birds. It took a lot of encouragement from Wu Xie for Shen Wei to be confident about decorating the place with the art he made himself. He was still shy about it, but he was satisfied somehow.

Working at the SID, Wu Xie faces the memories in silence. Memories of the one who forgot him and everything he once meant.

After settling in Longcheng, the cold weather that sets in reminds Shen Wei and Wu Xie of how they once breathed together. And maybe it promises them that they will still be there when time passes, appreciating what they never wish they had let go.

Zhao Yunlan expected the Regent of Dixing to be like the Envoy—dignified, robed, and brandishing his power for all to see. And maybe he would have been more of those things if his first introduction to the SID hadn’t been Lao Chu furiously attacking him in the street.

AKA: Zhao Yunlan learns about Dixing politics and gets a crash course in Envoy. (The final part of the Taking It Slow series.)