A Phoenix Rising - An Untamed Story (Book 1 In Series)

Chapter 00

Hello dear readers.

A few words before I begin: Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu is the story about two men who fall in love. If this makes your skin crawl, that's quite all right, but I suggest you find another story to read. Just hit the back button now and go on with your day.

There is some smut here. Nothing too graphic, but definitely not something children should be reading. I also use swear words here and there. I'm not a huge fan of swearing in general, but there are times and places where letting one fly free is the most appropriate word choice to make.

I'm not Chinese and my knowledge of Chinese customs and history is limited to what I remember from the single chapter on Asia back in 9th grade, a few documentaries I watched on the Discovery channel, and a few Asian dramas. So please consider any mistakes about Chinese customs and history as part of my fiction rather than ignorance.

I've been informally studying Mandarin for a year now, and can understand almost 1000 words/phrases when spoken slowly and clearly. I'm going to use some of that knowledge in my story. In Mandarin Chinese the words for he/him (他), she/her (她), and it (它) are all pronounced the same: tā. So without context clues and simply simply saying tā, the speaker can mean one gender and the listener can infer another. My use of gender pronouns in certain scenes might therefore be confusing but is definitely deliberate.

This fiction is based mostly on the TV show as read through English subtitles. Wei WuXian is in Wei WuXian's body, not Mo XuanYu's. That said, I'm also using an English translation of the book (exiled rebels scanlations) as a reference because the timeline in the TV show does not make sense. Somehow Wei WuXian has been dead for 16 years, but when we're taken to the past, it's 16 years ago that Wei WuXian first arrived in Cloud Recesses.... Add together the months spent in classes, 9 months for a baby, 3 months in the Burial Mounds, and additional time for the SunShot Campaign, rebuilding, etc.? The TV timeline falls apart rather quickly. So I'm working from the book in that Wei WuXian has been dead for 13 years and the story started 7 years before that.

I firmly believe that not every male unattached to a female in a BL must also be secretly gay. Mo Xiang Tong Xiu has stated that in her story, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi are the only gay men; they will continue to be the only gay men in my story.

I'm also using the ages used in the book. So in the past, Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng were 15, Lan WangJi 16, Wen Ning 13 or 14. Jiang YanLi 18/19. Wen Qing in the show is 24 ish; I don't remember her age being listed in the book, but 24 is too old to be attending classes with young teenagers in my not so humble opinion, so I'm going to make her 18/19 as well.

I've read the book twice and watched the series twice. I'm not an addict. Nor do I have a photographic memory. Any parts of my story that go against what was shown on TV and in the book are either my own mis-remembrances or deliberate, I'm not going to tell you which is which, and in any case are now part of my fiction.

Thank you for reading.