Fanfic / Twelve Moons and a Fortnight

Cover design for Twelve Moons and a Fortnight. Credit to stiltonbasket^note original source here

Before his trip to Lotus Pier, Lan Wangji never truly knew the meaning of happiness.

He spent the whole of his childhood in a sort of muted melancholy, rarely feeling anything but ill-temper and exhaustion, when they came upon him; and then Wei Ying called out to him on the path outside the Cloud Recesses, and the world in all its dullness trembled at the sound—it quivered, tilted, righted itself like a weighted doll pushed off its feet, and when it settled it was alive in a way Lan Wangji never believed it could be.

But now, Lan Wangji’s world has been transformed again. He knows what it is to sleep beside Wei Ying for a reason other than keeping warmth in a cold damp cave, and he knows that Wei Ying delights in receiving gifts with all the simple pleasure of a child, and that he rests on his back when he sleeps alone and lies on his side when Lan Wangji sleeps in his bed with him. He knows that Wei Ying can cook only three dishes: lotus-seed cakes, Jiang Yanli’s lotus root soup, and a kind of spicy congee that nearly turns Lan Wangji’s throat to ash the first time he tastes it; and it is knowing these things that brings him joy for the first time in his life, because Wei Ying has chosen to share them with him.

— Chapter 12

Twelve Moons and a Fortnight by Stiltonbasket is a Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfic in which Wei Wuxian becomes acting sect leader of the Yunmeng Jiang sect while Jiang Cheng helps their nephew Jin Ling take over the Lanling Jin sect.

At first, his life at Lotus Pier is nothing short of idyllic. But as time goes on, a perilous night-hunt, a mysterious illness connected to the loss of his golden core, and his own deepening feelings for his sworn soulmate Lan Wangji force Wei Wuxian to come to terms with the fact that his past isn’t finished with him yet.

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This fanfiction provides examples of:

Twelve Moons And A Fortnight

• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: In canon, it is heavily implied that Nie Huaisang forced or otherwise manipulated Mo Xuanyu into using the soul-sacrificing ritual to bring back Wei Wuxian. In Twelve Moons and a Fortnight, it is stated that Nie Huaisang had little to do with Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, and that Mo Xuanyu was planning to bring him back all along. This trope sometimes appears in Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfiction with regards to Nie Huaisang’s role in canon events.
• Adoptive Name Change:
  • Xiao-Yu (originally Yang Yu) is renamed Lan Yu and given the courtesy name Xiaohui after his adoption.
  • Nie Shiyong adopts the Nie clan name after her rescue by Nie Huaisang, who presumably also gave her a personal name. Her birth name is never revealed.
• After Action Patch Up: Lan Wangji tends to Wei Wuxian after the battle with the land-eater and helps him recover from the subsequent qi deviation
• Age-Gap Romance: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Because of Wei Wuxian's death and resurrection sixteen years later, he and Lan Wangji now have a sixteen-year age gap.
  • Also Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, who are implied to be married during the epilogue. Wen Qing was also resurrected sixteen years after her death, resulting in a similar age gap between her and Jiang Cheng.
• All-Loving Hero: Wei Wuxian is portrayed this way, with a huge soft spot for just about everyone (especially his disciples).
• Almost Kiss: Subverted. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji share several emotional kisses before their Big Damn Kiss, but these are “friendly” kisses on the cheeks or forehead, because Wei Wuxian doesn’t realize that his feelings for Lan Wangji are romantic.
• Always Save the Girl: Subverted. Though Lan Wangji attempts to rescue Wei Wuxian during a dangerous night hunt, he is eventually forced to remain behind and protect the civilians of Lotus Pier and the surrounding villages.
• Anachronic Order: Plot points are frequently revealed or hinted at via the characters' letters to each other before they appear in the narrative.
• Anchored Ship: Heavily implied to be the case for Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. It remains to be seen how these two can pick up their relationship again, given Nie Mingjue’s death before the events of the fic.
  • However, a later story in the series confirms that both of them ascend to godhood after dying, and reunite in the heavenly courts.
• Appetite Equals Health: Wei Wuxian’s poor health is frequently brought into focus by highlighting his lack of appetite. When he recovers, he is able to eat normally again.
• Back Story: Played frequently throughout the story, usually in the form of a secondary character explaining past events to Wei Wuxian.
  • On one occasion, Li Shuai narrates the story of her rescue during the Wens’ invasion of Yunmeng to Lan Wangji while they wait for Wei Wuxian and Yu Zhenhong to return from a night hunt.
• Balcony Wooing Scene: While drunk, Lan Wangji flirts with Wei Wuxian on the balcony of their shared guest room, hints at his love for him by telling Wei Wuxian about Nie Mingjue’s unrequited feelings for Lan Xichen, and even persuades his sweetheart to help him bathe. Unfortunately, Wei Wuxian doesn’t get it.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted. As Wei Wuxian's illness progresses, he grows noticeably thinner and more haggard.
• Beautiful Dreamer: Played several times throughout the fic, as Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian usually sleep in the same bed.
• Big Brother Instinct: Wei Wuxian understands Jiang Cheng’s wishes and motives despite their years of separation, disagreements, and one-sided hatred (on the side of Jiang Cheng).
  • Jiang Cheng is also known to be protective of Wei Wuxian after their reconciliation, traveling hundreds of miles in a single night to provide spiritual energy after his (Wei Wuxian’s) qi deviation and later going through life-threatening surgery for a chance to save his brother.
• Beta Couple: Li Shuai and Yu Zhenhong are this to Wangxian, and are shown to balance their work and family responsibilities with relative ease. They also manage to help the main couple with matters of the heart, as shown when they try to coax Wei Wuxian into thinking about his feelings for Lan Wangji.
• Bookmark Clue: Remnants of Mo Xuanyu’s distinctive makeup, discovered between the pages of a book Nie Huaisang gives to Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian identifies the makeup by its scent, and deduces that it must have belonged to Mo Xuanyu because the book’s original owner was a doctor who would not have regularly worn makeup, and Mo Xuanyu was known for heavily powdering his face.
• Cast from Lifespan: Lan Xichen has incredible healing powers, but he consumes part of his life force every time he uses them. This eventually causes his death in a later fic in the series, when he sacrifices his life to regrow a friend’s severed hand.
• Chastity Couple: Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian show plenty of physical affection for each other, just not the intimate kind.
• Cheerful Child: Xiao-Yu and the juniors, as well as most of the Jiang disciples and Yu Zhenhong’s three children.
• ContinuationFic: Twelve Moons and a Fortnight picks up almost immediately after The Untamed leaves off, not counting the ending scene in Episode 50 where Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian reunite.
• Conveniently Interrupted Document: Wei Wuxian's soul-summoning array.
• Cool Teacher: Wei Wuxian is considered to be this by the Jiang disciples, who are excited to have a front-row seat to his unique demonic cultivation.
• Dead All Along: Lang Xiyan is later revealed to be Wen Qing, living in Lang Xiyan's body after a successful soul-summoning. The true Lang Xiyan has been dead all along, having sacrificed her soul in the hope that Wen Qing could save her child's life.
• De-power: Jiang Cheng loses his cultivation for good when he gives up his golden core to save Wei Wuxian’s life, but he doesn’t regret it. In fact, the event breaks down the last remaining walls between himself and his brother and he adjusts quickly to life as a non-cultivator.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Wen Qing, who was burned to death in the novel. In the fic, she is said to have committed suicide, presumably to avoid assault at the hands of Jin Guangshan.
• Distant Finale: The epilogue is set around five years after the conclusion of the plot.
• Doorstopper: Twelve Moons and a Fortnight on its own is over 290,000 words long. The whole series is 491,205 words long!
• Double-Meaning Title: Until very late in the story, the title is implied to refer to the length of time Wei Wuxian spends at Lotus Pier before his marriage to Lan Wangji. However, it also refers to the length of time between Wei Wuxian's revival and his predicted death, due to the way in which he was brought back to life.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: On the night after their wedding, Lan Wangji dreams of his future family with Wei Wuxian.
• Exact Words: Xiao-Yu's mother told him that they were staying in the brothel so that his father, a wealthy cultivator, could one day reunite with them and take them to live in his beautiful home. Wei Wuxian points out to Xiao-Yu that he also fulfills that criteria as his adoptive father.
• Evil Is Petty: The Jin Sect planned to force Wen Qing to experiment in demonic cultivation, but Jin Guangshan wanted to force her to be his sex slave because he could. Wen Qing killed herself to prevent that from happening.
• Everyone Can See It: Everyone thinks that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are already in a romantic relationship even before they officially get together, with the exception of the characters who know that Wei Wuxian still believes they are only friends.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Wei Wuxian attends a banquet in expensive wedding robes and jewelry, though he isn’t actually getting married at the event in question. Rather, the banquet is held to celebrate the end of a successful discussion conference, and all the guests are made to wonder if Wei Wuxian will be marrying Lan Wangji at the feast before it becomes clear that Wei Wuxian is merely wearing wedding-appropriate garments in a plot to provoke Lan Wangji into confessing his love, orchestrated by Nie Huaisang and his sect members.
• Fan-Created Offspring: Yu Zhenhong and Xiao-Yu, both of whom are related to canonical characters. Yu Zhenhong is the only son of Yu Ziyuan’s older half-brother, while Xiao-Yu is the biological grandson of Anxin, a prostitute whose ghost Wei Wuxian consults during Empathy in the final chapters of Mo Dao Zu Shi.
• Fate Worse than Death: Mo Xuanyu’s altered summoning rite dooms Wei Wuxian to the fate of slowly re-experiencing every injury that led to his death. Because Wei Wuxian died after falling from a cliff, he attempts to overdose on anaesthetic medication ahead of time rather than wait for his condition to become fatal, since the only treatment would be to have his golden core (currently residing in Jiang Cheng’s body) returned to him. Extracting the golden core could very well kill Jiang Cheng, even if he were willing to give it up, so Wei Wuxian chooses a quick death instead. Spoiler: the anaesthetic does not work, and he ends up making a full recovery.
• Fix Fic: Several canon details are changed in order to make them more palatable or less depressing.
  • Among other alterations, A-Qing survives being stabbed by Xue Yang, Lan Xichen does not spend very long in seclusion, and Jiang Cheng is shown in one of the side stories to have begged Jin Guangshan to spare Wen Qing rather than accepting her death sentence.
  • The fic further goes on to state that Wen Qing committed suicide rather than being sentenced to death by burning, as she was in Mo Dao Zu Shi.
  • Wen Qing is also not permanently dead, as she was brought back via the soul-summoning rite soon after Wei Wuxian was.
• From Roommates to Romance: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji live together during most of the story, but Lan Wangji doesn’t confess his feelings until the final arc. Hence, they co-parent and carry out their shared duties in the same space long before Wei Wuxian figures out why Lan Wangji keeps sticking by his side.
• Ghostly Goals: Mo Xuanyu appears in Wei Wuxian's dreams and even possesses him, and Wei Wuxian eventually finds out that Mo Xuanyu is trying to relay the truth about his strange sickness.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: To let Lan Wangji know that he accepts his proposal of marriage, Wei Wuxian treks up the mountain where they separated from each other before the events of the fic and plays their song on his flute until the sound carries into the Cloud Recesses, where the juniors hear it and rush to inform Lan Wangji of Wei Wuxian’s return.
• Happily Adopted: Wei Wuxian adopts Xiao-Yu, while Lan Xichen adopts A-Qing. Both children and adoptive fathers have their lives transformed for the better after the adoption, and A-Qing’s arrival in the Cloud Recesses saves Lan Xichen from his canon fate of spending his life in seclusion.
  • Wen Qing continued to raise Lang Xiyan's daughter after saving her in gratitude for her mother resurrecting her.
• Happily Married: Wangxian, as well as Li Shuai and Yu Zhenhong. After their marriage, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are shown to be living a charmed life together.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: Any time a character is hurt, they are sure to be comforted by a loved one.
• Home Sweet Home: Wei Wuxian goes to Cloud Recesses, where he and Lan Wangji live together in bliss for the rest of their lives.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Wei Wuxian indicates that Lan Wangji can have any person that he wishes, and still chooses to remain by his (Wei Wuxian’s) side and raise a family with him.
• I Will Wait for You:
  • Lan Wangji understands that Wei Wuxian needs time to adjust to his new life and fulfill his duty to the Jiang Sect, and waits patiently until the latter is ready to acknowledge his feelings.
  • Xiao Yu's mother had less luck: she stayed in her brothel despite having options, hoping that her lover would take her and their son into his household. But her lover never returned, and she passed away without seeing him again.
  • The toddler Xiao Yu kept escaping his orphanage to return to the brothel, hoping that his father would come to find him. His wait ends when Wei Wuxian offers to adopt him.
• Incompatible Orientation: Lan Xichen is aromantic and asexual. While he loves Nie Mingjue very deeply, he does not love him romantically.
• Kid Fic: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji adopt a baby, Xiao-Yu, and begin raising him together early in the fic.
• Laugh of Love: Lan Wangji, who often laughs when alone with Wei Wuxian despite his stoic exterior. Also Wei Wuxian, though less so.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Played often with the secondary characters, who want the main couple to get together as badly as the audience does.
• Lethal Diagnosis: Wei Wuxian’s symptoms become deadly almost immediately after he discovers what is causing them.
• Like Father, Like Son: Lan Sizhui is said to take after Lan Wangji in looks and disposition, while his little brother Lan Xiaohui (Xiao-Yu) has more in common with Wei Wuxian.
• Love Epiphany: Wei Wuxian, upon realizing the nature of his love for Lan Wangji.
• Mama Bear: Lang Xiyan sacrificed her life to resurrect Wen Qing, the cultivation world's most renowned healer, in the hopes that she would be able to cure her dying baby.
• Notable Non Sequitur: Any and all seemingly abandoned plot threads in the fic are tied up in the end—with a vengeance.
• Near-Death Experience: Wei Wuxian, multiple times. During the events of Twelve Moons and a Fortnight, he becomes severely ill after a qi deviation, has a near-drowning experience, and nearly dies when his body begins to revert to the condition it was in at the moment of his death.
• Oblivious to Love: Justified, as Wei Wuxian is unaware of his romantic feelings toward Lan Wangji or Lan Wangji's reciprocation of them due not having the time to process nor recover everything that happened to him. From his perspective his Trauma Conga Line (the burning of Lotus Pier, falling into Burial Mounds, the Sunshot Campaign, his ambush at Qiongqi Path, and his resurrection)took place in the very near past, though these events took place over sixteen years previously. Wei Wuxian needed time to recover and find himself before he was ready to start a relationship.
• Only Mostly Dead: A-Qing, who survives her ordeal at Yi City before being healed and brought to the Cloud Recesses as a disciple. It’s implied that she was severely wounded by Xue Yang, as she was in The Untamed, but that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian managed to save her life by getting her medical attention in time.
• Only One Plausible Suspect: Everyone’s assumption with regards to the land-eater, against the (dead) Jin Guangyao.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: The adults at Lotus Pier are expected to work together to raise the children living there.
• Plot Parallel: The early years of Jin Guangyao’s life parallel Xiao-Yu’s.
  • Both were fathered (and subsequently abandoned) by wealthy cultivators, and born to prostitutes who later died of illness. However, Xiao-Yu is adopted by Wei Wuxian and given the Lan surname by Lan Wangji, and faces any backlash related to his illegitimacy with his family’s support, while Jin Guangyao suffered from it for the rest of his life
  • The two are also linked because Jin Guangyao set the brothel fire that led to Xiao-Yu’s mother developing weak lungs—she passed away when Xiao-Yu was two, promising him (as Jin Guangyao’s own mother did before her death) that his father would reclaim him.
• Power Incontinence: Yu Zhenhong is unable to control his spiritual spear, Shuaixing, which leads to near-disaster when its destructive magic goes on a rampage. However, this only happens because Yu Zhenhong was unconscious at the time and could not restrain it.
• Pseudo-Canonical Fic: The majority of new details in Twelve Moons and a Fortnight are not incompatible with The Untamed canon, though they are often incompatible with plot points from the original novel.
• Real Men Cook: Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng are all shown to be proficient cooks, capable of making complicated dishes without any assistance. Lan Xichen is said to bake delicious sweet red-bean buns, though it’s hinted that he doesn’t know how to cook anything else.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Lan Wangji is half Wen through his mother's side, making him a blood relative of Lan Sizhui (born Wen Yuan). The author has revealed that they are first cousins.
• Reluctant Ruler: Subverted. Instead of being reluctant to temporarily take Jiang Cheng’s place as Yunmeng Jiang’s sect leader, Wei Wuxian immediately travels to Yunmeng and accepts his new duties willingly. He does have doubts about his ability to do well in the post, but quickly gets over them with the support of his friends.
• Resurrection Sickness: Early in the story, Wei Wuxian states that he’s been feeling ill since he came back to life; later on, he discovers that the method of his resurrection is the cause for his strange symptoms.
• Revealing Skill: Despite having only written information and no experience with the core removal, Lang Xiyan completes the surgery on Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng without any complications. She turns out to be the resurrected Wen Qing.
• Sacrificial Revival Spell: Lang Xiyan found out about the soul-sacrificing ritual and used it to resurrect Wen Qing in the hopes that she would save her dying child.
• Slash Fic: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu stated that none of the characters except the main couple and Mo Xuanyu are gay, but Nie Mingjue is said to have been deeply in love with Lan Xichen in Twelve Moons and a Fortnight. This is later proven in two later works in the series written from Nie Mingjue’s point of view, where he reflects on his romantic feelings for his best friend.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Despite the unclear “are they or aren’t they?” Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are known for their public displays of affection.
• Sigh of Love: During exchanges of letters, Yu Zhenhong has observed that Wei Wuxian sighs more and has described his reaction to correspondence from Lan Wangji as “similar to Jiang Yanli, when she received a gift from Jin Zixuan”.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Wei Wuxian, while preparing for the discussion conference banquet.
• Shipper on Deck: Nie Huaisang, Yu Zhenhong and Li Shuai are known to support Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. They find ways to help Wei Wuxian realize his feelings for Lan Wangji or inform Lan Wangji of anything that concerns Wei Wuxian.
• Ship Tease: Ouyang Zizhen is shown to have a reciprocated crush on A-Qing, but the two are just friends for now.
• So Happy Together: Unaware that Wei Wuxian has hours left to live, Lan Wangji shares a tender moment with him and hints that he intends to propose as soon as possible.
• The Dutiful Son: Lan Sizhui is an incredibly filial child to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, and cares very much for his family. He also helps his parents raise his younger brother, Xiao-Yu, as well as two younger sisters who arrive in later fics.
• The Lost Lenore: Nie Mingjue, in the eyes of Lan Xichen.
• There Is Only One Bed: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji share a single bed even before they get together.
• Third Wheel: Xiao-Yu, who spends most of the story third-wheeling his parents.
• Together in Death: Subverted, in the case of Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. Though separated by Nie Mingjue's canonical death before the events of the fic, they reunite as gods after Lan Xichen dies and ascends to the heavens fifty years later.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: Lan Wangji drinks a sip of potent mead, expecting it to be a non-alcoholic drink because of its mild scent. He immediately becomes intoxicated and wakes up the next morning with no memories of the previous night.
• Virgin Power: Similar to Xie Lian in Tian Guan Ci Fu, Lan Xichen (portrayed as asexual and aromantic in the Twelve Moons verse) cultivates chastely, which amplifies his healing magic. No one else is said to do this, and it is unknown whether this would work for other cultivators in-verse or if Lan Xichen is a special case.
• Wedding Finale: The fic is scheduled to end with Wei Wuxian’s wedding to Lan Wangji.
• Wimpification: Twelve Moons and a Fortnight is primarily an Untamed fic, which already featured a weakened Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian’s health issues in the fic make him much weaker than he was in the novel. However, his emotional and mental fortitude remain unaffected.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Lan Xichen is renowned as the most handsome male cultivator of his generation, and even wins a drunken beauty contest against his fellow sect leaders. However, he believes that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are both better-looking.

Trouble With Talismans WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR TWELVE MOONS AND A FORTNIGHT

• Accidental Time Travel: Xiao-Yu broke into Wei Wuxian's off-limits lab and accidentally activated an experimental talisman, much to his older brother's horror.
• Alternate Timeline: It's implied that Xiao-Yu's actions create a separate timeline influenced by his existence and future knowledge, while his original time still exists.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Lan Sizhui has to wrangle his rambunctious 6-year old brother and take care of his infant sister while stuck in the past.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Xiao-Yu has no filter, and frequently reveals his parents' secrets.
• Kid from the Future: Lan Wangji is currently estranged from Wei Wuxian, and is shocked and delighted to learn that he will eventually have three children with him.