Fanfic / The Concubine Mo Chronicles

The Concubine Mo Chronicles is a Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfiction series written by Enigmatree on Archive of Our Own.

An AU in which the Lan are the Imperial family, the Jin, Jiang, and Nie are Dukedoms, and even 13 years dead, Wei Wuxian is still the most feared man in all of China. Newly resurrected, Wei Wuxian would love nothing more than to cultivate a core and go become a rogue cultivator.

Except, there's something very suspicious going on in the Imperial Palace, and while Wei Wuxian might not be able to help Lan Wangji in solving it, the unassuming and soft-spoken "Prince-Concubine Mo" sure can.

Contains the following tropes

• The Ace: Wei Wuxian effortlessly answers any question and test the eunuchs throw at him in the hopes to discredit a male lunatic about to become an Imperial concubine.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Here, Qin Su is Lan Xichen's concubine rather than Jin Guangyao's wife. Lan Sizhui also passes as Lan Wangji's biological child instead of merely being a Lan Sect member.
• Adaptational Villainy: It is very possible that Qin Su is genuinely in cahoots with Jin Guangyao and that she was part of the Frame-Up that Zhao Lingling attempted.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Mo Xuanyu is told that Qin Su and Zhou Lingling are close allies. When Zhou Lingling's scheme to frame the Prince-Concubine as a violent madman is thwarted and exposed, Qin Su, who had been advocating to punish Wei Wuxian, quickly starts to apologize a little too effusively. Therefore it's uncertain if she was in the scheme.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: Hearing that Lan Wangji finally took a concubine (when he's supposed to be so hopelessly pining after Wei Wuxian's memory that he mourned the guy for more than a decade), Nie Huaisang goes to congratulate his friend for growing a sense of humour and pranking everyone only to walk on the Imperial Brother with said concubine. He almost faints from shock.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The tragic backstory started due to Wen Ruohan's rebellion to seize the imperial throne. While he was defeated and killed Lan Sizhui, aka Wen Yuan lives by passing as Lan Wangji's biological son and heir. Given that Lan Xichen is asexual and Lan Wangji has a male spouse, that leaves Lan Sizhui as the only heir to the Imperial Throne.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Concubine Mo is a sweet, quiet and demure young man, surely he's far too delicate to live in the inner court — wait, did he just stab this servant through the hand? Is that dried blood on his face?!
• Big Brother Instinct: The Emperor is very defensive of his younger brother's happiness. He harshly punishes an eunuch for badmouthing Lan Wangji choosing a male lover and covers any trace of Concubine Mo practicing demonic cultivation to not have to execute him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Wei Wuxian is quite upset to find a servant delivering poisoned porridge to Lan Wangji and decides to shake him up for his boss' name. It starts with a sharpened hairstick through the dude's hand and continues with a Gory Discretion Shot of twenty minutes.
• Combat Haircomb: To honour the late Empress Dowager, a favoured Imperial concubine will receive a sharp-steel hairstick to wear. It gets used against Wei Wuxian when another concubine tries to frame him as a wild manic to see him expelled from the palace, and he later uses it against a servant paid to poison Lan Wangji.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Wei Wuxian's expectations regarding the new Grand Chancellor is for the dude to be more decent than his two immediate predecessors. As they were Wen Ruohan and Jin Guangshan, this bar is so low it pratically lies on the floor.
• Deadly Decadent Court: As befits an Imperial Palace drama, there's political intrigues galore, a concubine trying to ruin another, and a poisoning attempt on the Imperial brother.
• Did Not Think This Through: The Frame-Up of Wei Wuxian attempted by Zhao Lingling and possibly Qin Su was rather poorly though out and relied on the mistaken assumption that Lan Wangji did not care that much about 'Concubine Mo'.
  • Also for Lan Xichen, his unfair, so called 'neutrality' during the incident causes Wei Wuxian to lose all trust in the emperor.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • At least two people — Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen — worry about Lan Wangji taking Mo Xuanyu as his concubine in order to mold him into a substitute for Wei Wuxian.
  • As Prince-Concubine Mo is officially introduced to the Palace, people quickly decide he's far too fragile, obedient and airheaded to be a serious threat. His servants start to lose said impression as Wei Wuxian reveals more of his true character.
  • The viewpoint of a-Xu, one of Wei Wuxian's maids, reveals the servants are under the impression that the Imperial Brother and his brand-new concubine are going at it like rabbits.
  • Because no one is supposed to know about Lan Sizhui being adopted in the Imperial family, Wei Wuxian wonders if Lan Wangji has been briefly married while he was dead. Obviously he didn't do the math and realized Sizhui was far too old for having been conceived in the timeskip.
  • Qin Su and Zhao Lingling were supposed to marry Jin Guangyao and Lan Wangji respectively prior to being claimed as the Emperor's Concubines. See Unwanted Spouse. Wei Wuxian is under the impression that Lan Xichen is a lecherous fiancee stealing menace when the emperor is actually asexual and only took the concubines to spare his friend and his brother the pain of Unwanted Spouse.
• Evil Chancellor: Wen Ruohan tried to crown himself Emperor after burning Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji's father alive, Jin Guangshan was focused on spreading corruption and raping any pretty face he met, and now Jin Guangyao is holding the title.
• Frame-Up: Zhao Lingling rips Wei Wuxian's clothes with a sharpened hairpin and pours boiling tea on her own legs to make everyone believe "Mo Xuanyu" is far too violent and unstable to stay a concubine to the Imperial Brother.
• Exact Words: The newly resurected Wei Wuxian jokingly says that Lan Wangji can hide him among his concubines. Lan Wangji decides to consider that a marriage proposal and makes Wei Wuxian his one and only concubine.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Lan Yi ascended to the throne right after her brother's untimely death and cleaned the house with such dedication her whole court was changed five times, she just wouldn't stop murdering corrupt nobles and elders with her guqin. The Empire was so traumatized by her rule they opted to make any later ruler into a Puppet King.
  • Given how unrepentably corrupt and self serving nobles and officals are, she might have just had a point.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Zhao Lingling was supposed to be Lan Wangji's fiancee, but he tossed her at his brother to get rid of her. She is quite furious when 'Mo Xuanyu' becomes the Prince-Concubine.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Lan Wangji drops his teacup on the floor when he first sees Wei Wuxian in full Imperial concubine apparel.
• Hidden Depths: Lan Wangji is left floored by Wei Wuxian flawlessly slipping into the role of a well-raised, demure and well-educated concubine. Guy did know his manners, he just doesn't give the slightest care about following them most of the time.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Lan Xichen utterly loathes Wei Wuxian for breaking his brother's heart and couldn't be more happy about Lan Wangji seemingly forgetting him to fall in love with someone else.
  • Qin Su appears to have it toward Mo Xuanyu, since is very possible that we was involved in the Frame-Up attempt.
• His Heart Will Go On: Lan Wangji taking Mo Xuanyu as his concubine is interpretated as him finally letting go of Wei Wuxian. Of course, it's immediately downplayed by Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen noting alarming similarities between the concubine and the Yiling Patriarch, and outright subverted since Mo Xuanyu is Wei Wuxian with another identity.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The resurrected Wei Wuxian jokes that Lan Wangji could hide him in his harem, which Lan Wangji treats as a proposal. Cue the Imperial Brother bringing "Mo Xuanyu" to the Silent Wing as his concubine.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Lan Xichen. Not only does he entirely trust Jin Guangyao, he fully buys that Mo Xuanyu is nothing but a harmless and passive concubine.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Lan Xichen is entirely okay with his baby brother apparently marrying a supposed lunatic who might practise demonic cultivation on a whim, as long as Wangji is moving on from his thirteen-year-long depression.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Wei Wuxian has several maids to dress him and bring him food. The most prominent one is named a-Xu.
• Love Confession: Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that he would prefer to be Lan Wangji's slave than Lan Xichen's empress. Lan Wangji is understandably flustered.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lan Wangji cast the silencing spell on Zhao Lingling when she was insulting Wei Wuxian. While kudos to him from protecting his beloved from verbal abuse, he might also have accidentally prevented her from revealing that Qin Su was also involved in the scheme.
• Not a Morning Person: Actually a minor plot point — since Wei Wuxian doesn't wake up for breakfast with Lan Wangji, he's unable to twig on the fact that someone is poisoning the Imperial Brother through his morning meal until it's almost too late.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Wei Wuxian plays the obedient, lovesick and polite concubine to the hilt in order to fly under the radar of anyone who might possibly peg him as a threat.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Lan Xichen openly badmouths Wei Wuxian as his brother's only mistake in front of Lan Wangji's brand-new concubine, and Wei Wuxian refuses to trust the Emperor for his refusal to intervene into the Frame-Up against him.
• Odd Friendship: Nie Huaisang apparently decided it would be an excellent idea for him to become closer with Lan Wangji.
• Oh, Crap!: Wei Wuxian slightly panics when he meets the new Grand Chancellor and understands that Jin Guangyao likely is his new body's half-brother.
• Outside-Context Problem: The servants from the Imperial Palace are rather floored about how they need to act and tend to a male concubine. An eunuch outright expresses his doubts about Wei Wuxian's ability to rule the household because of his junk.
• Puppet King: After Lan Yi's iron-fisted, bloodsoaked rule, the Emperors have been reduced to this. Lan Xichen expresses some frustration over his inability to not be weak.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Yiling Patriarch used to wear black and red, and demonic cultivators (often very straightforwards cases of Bad Powers, Bad People) dress the same in his memory. Lan Xichen feels rather displeased as a consequence to see his brother's concubine has garments in these shades, outright considering to forbid him the colours.
• Replacement Goldfish: Deconstructed by Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen, both of them thinking Lan Wangji found Mo Xuanyu reminiscient of Wei Wuxian for his overall physical structure and his practise of demonic cultivation, and is currently molding him into a perfected substitute. Both acknowledge it's entirely unhealthy and Lan Xichen admits it's unfair to Mo Xuanyu to be forced into acting someone else's life. Considering the consequences if anyone found out 'Mo Xuanyu's' true identity, Lan Wangji doesn't correct them.
• Royal Harem: Move along if you're looking for fanservice — as befits a Chinese Palace Drama, the imperial harem is a hotbed of intrigues with potentially lethal consequences. One concubine maims herself to provoke another's disgrace out of jealousy and is implied to be executed when it fails.
• Royal "We": Used by Lan Xichen when he's acting as the Emperor.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: It's hinted that Nie Huaisang actually has figured it out that Mo Xuanyu is Wei Wuxian.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Jiang Yanli confessed to her adoptive brother a wife isn't supposed to have an opinion about politics, and Wei Wuxian's maids gently remind him that his new status forbids him to do more than stand around and look pretty. It's emphasized by his Imperial wardrobe's cut: the new garments are so restrictive and flimsy Wei Wuxian is unable to run, jump or do anything if he wants to avoid destroying them.
• Stepford Smiler: Wei Wuxian, ooh boy. He's pretending to be a vapid concubine while hiding some genuine trauma and a startling bloodlust.
  • Lan Xichen's viewpoint shows him as surprisingly conflicted regarding his role as the Emperor and how it clashes with being Wangji's older brother.
• This Is Unforgivable!: After learning that one of the demonic corpse's parts was buried within his late mother's courtyard, Lan Wangji goes full Tranquil Fury and announces the Emperor is going to be just as pissed off.
• Unwanted Spouse: Qin Su for Jin Guangyao, he begged Lan Xichen to demand her for an Imperial Concubine so Jin Guangyao wouldn't have to marry her.
  • The Imperial Elders tried to betroth Lan Wangji to Zhao Lingling, he also got rid of her by tossing her at the Emperor.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Wei Wuxian takes offense with people thinking they can poison Lan Wangji and not be gruesomely murdered for their crime.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Wei Wuxian's Imperial concubine apparel is described as softening his appearance into something more sexually ambiguous.
• Woman Scorned: It is very possible that Lan Xichen's concubines are all unwanted fiancees tossed at him by his friends and family. At least two of them are unhappy about this and envious that Lan Wangji's concubine is actually wanted.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: Invoked when a feverish Lan Wangji accidentally calls Wei Wuxian by his true name in front of Lan Xichen, forcing his concubine to pretend it's a case of the Crown Prince being too sick to distinguish between his past and current lovers.
• Yandere: The rejected fiancee of Lan Wangji poured boiling water on her own legs to frame Lan Wangji's beloved as a violent madman.