An Acceptable Arrangement
is a Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed fanfic. It centers on the Nie sect one generation before the events of the novel as Hou Yue, first wife of Nie Hongshan, attempts to secure an heir for the sect.
An Acceptable Arrangement features the following tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Hou Yue dies, but manages to secure an heir for Qinghe.
- Chosen Conception Partner: Sun Qiu is picked to have children due to her youth and strength, making her likelier to carry successfully than Hou Yue. Unusually, it’s Hou Yue who does the picking rather than her husband.
- Continuity Nod: During one early scene with Wen Ruohan in which he suggests marrying his children into the Nie Sect, Hou Yue hopes that any children Sun Qiu may have will meet any Wen children on the battlefield instead. As canon will show, she gets her wish.
- The first time Mingjue meets Wen Ruohan, he bursts out crying and doesn’t let him get near. This sums up what their relationship would become.
- The first time Mingjue speaks to Huaisang (who isn’t born yet), he introduces himself as “your da-ge”. Huaisang almost exclusively refers to Mingjue as “da-ge” within canon.
- Hou Yue states that the child she is carrying would only become Nie Sect Leader in the face of a great tragedy. Huaisang does become Sect Leader Nie after his older brother is murdered.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sun Qiu and Hou Yue occasionally have their moments. Especially Sun Qiu.Nie Hongshan: (as Sun Qiu is giving birth and holding his hand): She’s bruising [my hand].Sun Qiu: You both wanted a strong concubine. Aaahhh! Give me your hand again.
- Death by Childbirth: Poor Hou Yue…
- Determinator: Hou Yue, the first wife of Sect Leader Nie. She is willing to risk her marriage, reputation within the cultivation world, and position in the Unclean Realm to get Qinghe an heir. Later on, she is ready to do whatever it takes to deliver her baby alive. This includes dying.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Sun Qiu holds Hou Yue in her last moments of consciousness as her death by childbirth takes place.
- Elsewhere Fic: Takes place a couple of decades before the canon events, with some of the older generation appearing as young men or, in Mingjue and Huaisang’s case, as babies.
- Face Death with Dignity: Hou Yue, when informed that her labor has gone on too long and her child is now at risk, immediately assents to a c-section, chooses to drink a tea that will let her doze off rather than remain awake, then sends her husband out of the room so that he doesn’t have to witness her death.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: Hou Yue gets to feel Sun Qiu’s baby kick at one point.
- Four Is Death: Hou Yue dies in childbirth during her fourth pregnancy. Averted, however, with the baby she's delivering: Nie Huaisang, who will outlive basically every other named character in the story.
- Happily Married: Hou Yue and Nie Hongshan, who are in a loving, supporting marriage. Later, Nie Hongshan and Sun Qiu, who have similar interests. They are all an exception in the Cultivation world.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Jin Guangshan's canon misogyny is very present here.Jin Guangshan: What is a woman good for, if not for her face and figure?
- In the Blood: Downplayed. Hou Yue is shown to be very intelligent and calculating with an artistic streak, not to mention fiercely loyal to her family and willing to do what needs to be done for them. Just like her son would end up being. What makes their resemblance this trope is that she dies giving birth to him, meaning he would have no way of picking it up from her.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Hou Yue really, *really* wants kids. Naturally, by the time the fic has started she has only gotten pregnant three times after ten years of marriage and lost all of them.
- Last Kiss: Minutes before her death due to a c-section, Hou Yue gets one of these with her husband, then with their wife.
- Late Pregnancy Realization: Downplayed with Hou Yue, who doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until the baby kicks Mingjue, around five months in.
- Named by the Adaptation: Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang's parents are all given names: Nie Hongshan as their father, Hou Yue as Huaisang's mother, and Sun Qiu as Mingjue's mother.
- Polyamory: At first it's Hongshan married to both Hou Yue and Sun Qiu. Eventually the three are all together.
- Premature Birth Drama: Huaisang is born about a month and a half early during a difficult birth that killed his mother. It’s not the focus of the fic, but the second-to-last scene suggests it’s a point of major stress for the family.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Hou Yue, who on the surface is rather demure and is implied to be built delicately, is a capable manager of her household with strong willpower and who is unafraid to deliver verbal smackdowns when they are much needed. She's also said to go on Night Hunts, though doesn't do so in-story.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Nie Huaisang is said to resemble his father and brother quite closely even as a small child.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Hou Yue and Hongshan are not trying for her to get pregnant by the end of the fic, as they have an heir. However, she still does.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Sun Qiu and Hou Yue; the former loves Night Hunting and archery, while the latter prefers clothes-making and walks in her garden. Hou Yue is still said to have gone on Night Hunts, however.
