once given the opportunity to know that jgy's actions did not come from a place of evil, lxc's internal conflict was never "how do i cope with the fact he has done Crimes" but rather "how do i keep him safe from a world that wants to punish him for those crimes"

i've spoken at length about lxc's moral framework before, how he judges not by action but by intent. whatever you think of jgy's choices, there is no evidence that he was motivated by malice. if you're following me, you probably already know this, so i won't dwell on it.

however, this distinction is important for how lxc views him. and it's why lxc was so insistent on hearing everything from jgy directly. the accusations gave him the How, but what he really needed to know, in order to make any sort of judgement, was the Why.

the internal conflict he had prior to all the revelations was, again, nothing to do with the crimes themselves. all that mattered to lxc was finding out jgy's intent. but! it's during this period of uncertainty that we get the lan parents discussion

and this is where my original point lies. so, lxc has yet to speak to jgy and gain the answers he needs. but, he's already working through the possibilities. he knows all of this is about to come to a head, and it's no doubt going to be messy

so, he has two potential situations: the first is that jgy actually is moustache-twirlingly evil, and that his love for lxc was all a ploy to further his twisted machinations (hahahaha), OR jgy made a lot of terrible mistakes, but is not fundamentally evil, and his love was true

i mean, the first one would suck ass. but lxc knows pretty well already what he'd have to do in that situation. he even says so directly after the jade token scene: if jgy really has bad intentions (异心 = lit. different heart), he won't tolerate it.

fwiw, lxc's moral framework is dependent on the direction of one's heart (心之所向), there's a clear throughline here with his thinking. it's always about one's intentions, not actions. whether that's a good approach is another discussion entirely, and entirely subjective besides

so, the alternative hypothesis: jgy fucked up real bad, but he does genuinely love lxc. this is the one that turns out to be true, btw. but it's also the one that lxc was planning for in advance, just in case. this is where the lan parents discussion becomes relevant.

i spoke about this before in my liebing thread, but although one aspect of this storytelling is to help wwx understand lwj better, it is much more evidently an attempt for lxc to figure out what to do with the whole jgy situation (clarification in thread: https://twitter.com/guangmeow/status/1376541452038201350)

this is where the point in my original tweet lies: lxc has already decided that if he were to learn that jgy's love for him was true, his ultimate priority is therefore to keep jgy safe. just like qingheng-jun w/ mama lan: the crime doesn't matter, their loved one's safety does.

because lxc KNOWS the whole cultivation world's gonna be out for jgy's blood. he knows that jgy has done wrong. he knows the crimes were bad. he just doesn't judge them in a vacuum, and is undoubtedly sympathetic to the one that has committed them.

and the important thing is: the conflict he has is not over whether or not he *should* keep jgy safe, but by what method would be the kindest. qingheng-jun kept mama lan safe, but she was miserable. so, when lxc asks wwx whether what qhj did was right, he's trying to work out

whether the imperative to keep jgy safe should override the desire for happiness. he very clearly is not convinced that forced seclusion is the solution, but whatever decision he came to, we will unfortunately never get to know.

all we can be certain of is that when everything was more or less out in the open, lxc was certainly not convinced jgy's intentions were evil. neither wishing jgy dead nor being able to stand seeing him in pain; this does not speak of a belief that jgy should be punished.

so, why then, does he warn jgy that if any move is made, he will not hesitate to retaliate? he certainly follows through on this when nhs tricks him. the simple answer is quite literally that they never got to have a conversation in full.

lxc is still unsure, because the situation being as hectic as it was, they didn't... exactly get a chance to properly talk things out. we get the real feel for this in lxc's lamentations on the steps of the guanyin temple: beyond the understandable grief of losing jgy himself,

lxc was also upset because he was robbed of a chance to understand in full. because originally, that interrupted conversation would've been fine, right? jgy was alive, they could talk about it after, r-right? uh oh. so, lxc couldn't be *fully* certain yet. nhs preyed upon that.

post-stabbening is when we got what is, perhaps, the most important confession for lxc, personally. the one where he finds out that, actually, jgy did genuinely love him. to a level beyond anyone else, no less. when he asks lxc to stay, it is to know whether lxc loved him too.

this could be taken very cynically, but 1) jgy never intended to let lxc die, and 2) zzj has gone over the intentions of that scene at length (short version: it was an affirmation of love from both, nothing hateful). of course, knowing this, lxc choosing to stay isn't a surprise.

lxc has already basically established that he really doesn't want to live without jgy, and we get that from the lan parents scene, where lxc is floating the idea of following in his father's footsteps. in other words: giving up his whole life to keep jgy safe.

now, whether this would've taken the form of seclusion, or whether they would've eloped, or whether he would've found some other solution... who knows. either way: it was live with jgy, or die with jgy. the important point was always that he would be with jgy.

the problem is, jgy loves lxc so much that he cannot bear to see him come to harm. so, he saves lxc. and then lxc has the issue of, well. he doesn't really want to exist if jgy is not there. but jgy did not want him to die. so, seclusion. and waiting. for as long as it takes.

anyway! my point is, and the main thing you should take from this thread: lan xichen love jin guangyao want to hold him hand and kiss a lot