Fanfic / And I Will Burn For You

And I Will Burn For You is a Series of Fics by Not_Rude_Ginger based on The Untamed. They center on Jiang Cheng, his leadership of the Jiang Sect, and the sacrifices he has had to make through the years to lead it. It can be read here.

So far, the series contains three fics:

• "Those that Stay Behind": Takes place immediately after canon, a couple of hours after Guanyin Temple.
• For What, For All But Myself: The main entry in the series so far. Takes place about five years after canon.
• "The Shadow Lingers": Set several months after the end of For What.

This Series Contains the Following Tropes

• Anchored Ship: In For What, Lan Xichen has become infatuated with Jiang Cheng and expresses his desire to enter into a relationship with him. Unfortunately, he does so ten days before Jiang Cheng expects to die and shares said desires with a very unimpressed Wei Wuxian, who tells him that now is not the time. It's not brought up for the remainder of the fic.
  • By "The Shadow Lingers", something is going on between the two, though it's not clear what.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Nian-Daifu strokes Jiang Cheng's hair late in the fic to comfort him. He’s known Jiang Cheng since he was a little boy, so Jiang Cheng doesn’t mind.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Platonic one between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng during the empathy arc. It triggers the beginning of their reconciliation.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Shengyuan Cult is a downplayed example. They don't want to end the whole world, just the world of cultivation.
• Baby's First Words: "The Shadow Lingers" is about Jiang Xi's.
• Back from the Dead: Xue Yang, as a result of a sacrifice summon by the Shengyuan Cult. Not for long.
• Big Brother Instinct: Wei Wuxian has this in spades once he’s back in Jiang Cheng's life, even slightly before they've reconciled. Case in point, he attempts to transport whatever it is that everyone thinks is possessing Jiang Cheng over to himself. Not that Jiang Cheng lets him.
• Big "WHAT?!": Wei Wuxian's reaction to hearing that everyone else suspects a resurrected Xue Yang is leading a cult.
• Blessed with Suck: The corrupted River spirit gives these out, granting blessings in an unpleasant or even fatal way. In Jiang Cheng’s case it’s definitely one of these: yes, he'll have an heir, after going through a painful, humiliating and dangerous experience which he expects will kill him in the end. Even though he survives, it's clear he has some lingering issues with just how Jiang Xi ended up coming into being.
• Blood from the Mouth: Occasionally the characters do this. It notably happens during chapter 22 when Jiang Cheng is absorbing a lot of qi and nearly dies of the strain.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Jiang Cheng did a great job with Jin Ling, who’s a bit spoiled and headstrong but is deeply loved and knows it. He promises to do the same with Kedou before he’s born too, telling him at one point that if he survives, the baby won’t be able to count how often he’s held.
  • "The Shadow Lingers" shows that he is making good on his promise and is an extremely attentive father.
• Celibate Hero: Jiang Cheng. Some of it is his asexuality, some is his various traumas preventing him from going for a political marriage.
• Cerebus Retcon: In-canon, Wei Wuxian's giving his golden core to Jiang Cheng is treated as an ultimate sacrifice and a heroic act on Wei Wuxian's behalf. This fic suggests that Jiang Cheng's horror over it after Wen Ning's reveals it is not due to hatred of Wei Wuxian's, but due to the fact that this was done without his consent. In that light, it becomes less of a heroic sacrifice and more of a violation.
• The Chains of Commanding: A lot of Jiang Cheng's difficulties come from his choice to prioritize his duty to Yunmeng over his family, especially Wei Wuxian. He also keeps reminding Jin Ling to remember his own duty as sect leader, no matter how much Jin Ling wants to be there for him while he’s struggling, and sends him away from Lotus Pier twice.
• Character Development: Jin Ling voluntarily brings up returning to Lanling in the last chapter, something he hasn’t done the whole time. This shows that he's growing into his role as Sect Leader Jin.
• Character Tics: Jiang Cheng rubs his chest a lot.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 8 ends with Jiang Cheng fainting on horseback while hearing Xue Yang's voice.
  • Chapter 21 ends with Jiang Cheng realizing the spy who's been passing information out of Lotus Pier is in his room with him.
  • Chapter 22 ends with Jiang Cheng seriously injured and fainting once more, not clear whether he's fatally injured or if his child has survived.
  • Chapter 25 ends on one HELL of one, with Jiang Cheng bleeding out after the surgery has gone wrong.
• Converse with the Unconscious: A few times, Jin Ling or Wei Wuxian speak to a sleeping Jiang Cheng.
• Cooldown Hug: Jiang Cheng is the recipient of a few when he has panic attacks, mostly from Wei Wuxian.
  • Jiang Cheng also gives JL one in "Those that Stay Behind" when he's freaking out in the wake of Guanyin Temple and Jin Guangyao's death.
• Cool Old Lady: Granny Meihui, one of the few people who survived the burning of Lotus Pier and who cares for the Jiang family.
• Cuddle Bug: Jiang Cheng really likes physical contact with his family. As he and Wei Wuxian reconcile, their tendency towards physical contact increases. He and Jin Ling also share a lot of touches.
  • Wei Wuxian is also a cuddler, and gives just as much as he gets from Jiang Cheng in the hugging department.
• Dead Person Conversation: Jiang Cheng in “Those That Stay Behind” talks to Xue Yang's body.
  • Lan Sizhui speaks with the spirit of the murdered Xi Kang as well.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The "blessing" by the river spirit is a pretty thinly veiled metaphor for sexual assault, between the experience itself and the resulting pregnancy. Which would make it the third one Jiang Cheng experiences. Poor thing.
  River Spirit: I do not ask permission.
• Doorstopper: For What alone is about 285,000 words, with the full series being close to 300,000 words long. According to Authors’ notes, there will eventually be more.
• Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Averted hard. While Jiang Cheng has some hangups on whether or not he’s been “unmanned” as a result and it wouldn’t generally be socially accepted, Wei Wuxian and everyone else are absolutely horrified that it happened to him and treat both assaults as the violations they are.
• Family of Choice: Yunmeng Jiang, as there are so few members of the sect by blood left, has become this.
• A Father to His Men: Jiang Cheng, who is very attuned into his sect members’ needs.
• Feeling the Baby Kick: A dark version, as Wei Wuxian doesn’t know what is currently inhabiting his brother and just thinks it’s a monster, so it brings revulsion rather than excitement when he feels it. He even threatens to kill it for hurting his brother so much.
  • Then, when he realizes that it's a baby, he feels for it kicking again, and is much more excited.
• Freudian Slip: In "The Shadow Lingers", Jiang Cheng at one point thinks that he wishes he could keep Jin Ling at Lotus Pier forever…while looking at Jiang Xi, his son. It becomes clear that he’s experiencing a flashback to when Jin Ling was a baby.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. While it’s not clear that it’s a human baby at the time, Bai Renci offers an herb concoction as an abortive measure to get rid of whatever’s in there despite great risk to Jiang Cheng. It fails and badly weakens Jiang Cheng in the process.
• Happily Married: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. A few Yunmeng Jiang disciples too, including Jiang Shouhai and Gao Changying (though not to each other).
• Heel Realization: Wei Wuxian realizes after watching Jiang Cheng's memories of being “gifted” something (which turns out to be an heir) by the river spirit that his choice to give Jiang Cheng his golden core without consulting him was a similar violation.
• Heir Club for Men: Much drama comes from this. Jiang Cheng's lack of an heir at the beginning of For What is one of the things he feels like he’s failed to do, leading pretty much directly to the unwanted conception of said heir.
• Heroic RRoD: Hosting the discussion conference while ten days away from his due date and recovering from channeling energy proves to be too much for Jiang Cheng. They actually have to move the surgery to remove the baby up a bit due to his deteriorating condition.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Poor Jiang Cheng, who really has a hard time seeing how anyone would care about him. At one point, he starts thinking Jin Ling probably prefers Wei Wuxian to him. At another, he wonders if his unborn child is already upset at him.
• Honor Before Reason: Bai Renci respects Jiang Cheng's unwillingness to have his condition discussed with other doctors even if that would save him.
  • Jiang Cheng himself refuses to ask Wen Ning for Wen Qing's notes on principle, even if they might help him, as he knows Wen Ning disapproves of him.
• Hypocritical Humor: A moment that's played for laughs is Jiang Cheng yelling at the juniors for fighting without cores… despite fighting while pregnant.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: One of the things Jiang Cheng says when bleeding out during his surgery is that “I’m Cold”. For obvious reasons, this terrifies Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling. Thankfully, Jiang Cheng survives, though he's very weakened.
• Infant Immortality: Well, fetus immortality. Jiang Cheng channels a ton of spiritual energy through himself to dispel the cloud, something he expects could hurt or kill the baby he’s carrying. Said baby is no worse for wear, and when he’s born has no ill effects.
• Innocently Insensitive: Jiang Li, a very young girl, tries to comfort Jiang Cheng after seeing how little Kedou is and knowing how hard carrying and delivering the child was. Unfortunately, her word choice is saying that she knows he'll do better next time. Given the awful, traumatic circumstances of carrying his child (and the fact that, unless they find another river spirit, he’s not biologically going to be able to!), it bothers him.
• Insistent Terminology: Soon after they discover that Jiang Cheng is carrying a baby and not possessed by some sort of parasite/spirit, Jiang Cheng mostly refers to it as “the heir”. Wei Wuxian calls him on it at one point. By Chapter 21, though, he does think of it as a baby a couple of times, and by chapter 22 it’s consistently “the baby” in his head instead. He thinks of it as the baby or even as his son for the rest of the pregnancy.
  • In “The Shadow Lingers”, Jiang Cheng is trying to get his son to call him “Jiujiu” instead of "diedie" Heartbreakingly, he had to do this for Jin Ling as well.
• Intimate Hair Brushing: Jiang Cheng gets his hair combed by Jin Ling to settle him down at one point.
• It Has Been an Honor: Before Jiang Cheng takes on all the spiritual power he needs to destroy the Shengyuan cloud, a process which in-story is treated as a probable death sentence, he speaks to several people around him like this, especially Lan Sizhui. Sizhui is deeply moved by his acceptance.
• Lap Pillow: While breaking down in the bell grove, Wei Wuxian ends up curled up with his head in Jiang Cheng's lap as the latter sings to him to settle him down.
  • Jin Ling also sits with his head in Jiang Cheng's lap at one point after having an emotional conversation about not wanting to be alone.
• Like a Son to Me: Jin Ling to Jiang Cheng. Especially prominent in “The Shadow Lingers”, where Jin Ling isn’t even present but Jiang Cheng is clearly having a flashback.
• Loophole Abuse: Jiang Cheng signed a contract to never marry or sire children. It never said anything about bearing a child on his own. Not that he’d normally be capable of doing so.
• Manly Tears: It’s a fic about Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng. Of course there’s going to be a lot of this. Wei Wuxian in particular absolutely bawls while finding out all the horrible things his brother’s gone through while doing empathy.
• Meaningful Name: Jiang Cheng's been apparently thinking of “Kedou”, or “tadpole”, as a milk name for the baby. He names him because his first movements felt like wiggles of a tadpole. As a bonus, Jiang Cheng loves frogs.
• Mr. Seahorse: Jiang Cheng was “blessed” by a river spirit so that he could have an heir, and since he doesn't have a wife he ends up being the one to carry it. In a horrifying deconstruction of this trope, the pregnancy is initially mistaken for a demonic possession of some sort, since the baby’s kicking causing internal bleeding on a regular basis (due to Jiang Cheng not having a womb). Furthermore, his stress and anger about not knowing what’s going on and fear that his core is out of his control cause qi-deviations, and the river spirit not giving him any sort of way to birth it naturally means he and everyone else treat it as a death sentence. That's not even adding in the normal unpleasant aspects of pregnancy like morning sickness, mood swings and fatigue.
• Mystical Pregnancy: The one at the center of the fic is one of these, caused by a river spirit. The baby is carried within Jiang Cheng's golden core rather than a womb (seeing as he doesn’t really have one).
• No Periods, Period: Averted in that some of the female disciples discuss monthly cycles and how bad Gusu Lan are at dealing with it. It was apparently bad enough that one of Lan Wangji's distant cousins defected to Yunmeng!
• Number Two: Jiang Shouhai, Jiang Cheng's distant cousin. Notably, even after Wei Wuxian promises to stay, Shouhai remains Jiang Cheng's second.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Gao Changying, who pretends to be a foppish idiot despite being Jiang Cheng's spymaster.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Lan Xichen cleanses the river spirit without any trouble near the end of the fic.
• Parental Substitute: Jiang Cheng is for Jin Ling. A conversation in “The Shadow Lingers” implies that Jin Ling called him "diedie" as a baby.
• Pregnant Badass: Zig-zagged. Early into the pregnancy, Jiang Cheng beats his nephew in a footrace, continues to train and fight, and goes on a daring night ride. Later on as the heir takes a toll and he’s left in a weakened physical and mental state, he basically stays hidden for several months. Then, when Yunmeng is threatened, he manages to unleash an array which requires significant spiritual power, catches a pair of demonic cultivators with Zidian, beats and kills Xue Yang in a swordfight, and acts as a conduit for basically the whole sect’s spiritual power to disperse a cloud of resentful energy. The last part is deconstructed, however, as it’s extremely dangerous both to Jiang Cheng and the baby and not something he wants to do. Said last bit also leaves him weak for the remainder of the pregnancy.
• Rape as Drama: Jiang Cheng had this happen to him twice, once by Wen Chao during the fall of Lotus Pier and once by Xue Yang at the direction of Jin Guangshan. The first took place under his parents corpses so they could watch, according to Wen Chao.
• Rousing Speech: Jiang Cheng gives one to his sect before they’re attacked by the demonic cultivators.
• Sadistic Choice: Jin Guangshan forced one on Jiang Cheng young: sign a contract to never marry or sire children, or not have access to his beloved nephew. He makes the choice without hesitation and signs.
  • An even worse one comes when Jiang Cheng is the only one left with a golden core in the aftermath of the Shengyuan Cult’s unleashing an attack. Since he’s carrying his child mostly in his golden core, this means risking the child he’s given up so much for. If he doesn’t, though, the entire cultivation world will be killed immediately, so he chooses to do so.
• Screaming Birth: Not as intense as some others, and less of constant screaming, but Jiang Cheng does cry out a few times during the surgery to deliver the baby. Justified, as he’s disoriented, being cut open and then hemorrhages.
• Screw Destiny: The water spirit seems to foretell Jiang Cheng's death by childbirth. It doesn’t come to pass, largely because of his own determination not to die.
• Ship Tease: By “The Shadow Lingers”, Lan Xichen has apparently written Jiang Cheng twenty times in six months, mostly personal letters. Jiang Cheng doesn’t seem to want to talk about it with Jiang Shouhai or Wei Wuxian, who both tease him gently over it.
• Song Fic: A few chapters feature song lyrics.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Jin Ling is said to very strongly resemble his uncle now that he’s grown up a bit more. Though he’s a bit taller!
  • Kedou, as a baby, also looks a lot like his father. As Jiang Cheng points out, there's not really anyone else for him to look like.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: Jiang Cheng and his child survive the events of For What. Jiang Cheng is left with PTSD, however.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Gao Changying, Jiang Cheng’s spymaster, obfuscates her true, calculating identity with a harmless persona interested only in trifles and is often noted to be carrying a fan. Sound familiar?
  • Bai Renci, a sharp-tongued female doctor with a preference for needles and a closeness with Jiang Cheng, is also a major character. Author’s notes from a scene where Jiang Cheng is nearly unconscious suggests that, at least subconsciously, she reminds him of Wen Qing.
• Trauma Conga Line: Jiang Cheng's been put through an even worse one than canon thanks to two horrific rapes when he was young, Wei Wuxian's giving his golden core treated as a similar violation, and then a river spirit’s “gift” as yet another violation of his autonomy.
• Truly Single Parent: Jiang Cheng becomes this as a result of the spirit's "gift".
• Unbroken Vigil: Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian hold these over Jiang Cheng a few times during the fic, including after his fight to restrain the cloud and after he nearly bleeds out.
• Wacky Cravings: Jiang Cheng's search for strange food late at night in the kitchen gets granny Meihui suspicious. It apparently runs in the family, with Yu Ziyuan also seeking out strange foods during her pregnancies. Over the course of the fic we see him eat a strange noodle dish and develop a taste for durians.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jiang Cheng's last thought when bleeding out after having delivered his son is wondering if his father is finally proud of him.
• Wham Line: "It’s not a monster". Everyone present suddenly realize that Jiang Cheng's not undergoing demonic possession, but pregnancy.