#nirvanainfire au idea: in response to the chiyan massacre, nihuang secedes from the empire and closes her borders. on her way out she demands a new fiance to replace the one that’s just been killed: someone with both royal blood and and a connection the lin family
lin shu wakes up to a world where nihuang and jingyan have fully embraced their revenge era as the lord and lady of the mu state. they are bitter, they are suspicious, and they are NOT kindly disposed to this upstart mei changsu. this is very inconvenient for mei changsu’s plans both politically (he can’t make jingyan the new emperor if he’s now pseudo-king of this rebel state) and personally (nihuang and jingyan look VERY sexy working together as a united front against outsiders)
i don’t think nihuang and jingyan are sexually involved except for a very sad consummation of their marriage where they both cry BUT they do become ride or die partners. meanwhile the emperor, having just killed off one of his best armies along with its best strategists and leaders, has no wait to retaliate against his OTHER best army without opening himself up to attack on the southern border
#nirvanainfire icymi, there are two chapters of this now up at ao3. i made slight adjustments to the premise for maximum dramatic irony or, as one commenter put it, “angsty clown potential”
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50350402/chapters/127203166