#You are all the same you are all nothing Zhao Jing will step on all your corpses to reach the next rung on the ladder

[chronomally]

Can't help but feel like the plan Scorpion King suggested was actually a test and Zhao Jing failed

#please feel free to ignore this #I'm watching Word of Honor #Scorpion King: Here is a plan in which I am a pawn for you to use or discard at your lesiure are you okay with this #Zhao Jing: Yes #Scorpion King: Oh. #He keeps like trying to differentiate himself and his situation from what happened with Tragicomic Ghost or Li Yao #You are all the same you are all nothing Zhao Jing will step on all your corpses to reach the next rung on the ladder #He will build a mountain of bodies to help him climb to the top and only shed a tear if someone demands it of him

[baoshan-sanren]

best cdramas I’ve watched since the last one of these posts in 2021 (also some not so good + some upcoming)

I’ve been too busy to make lists, so I’m leaving out every drama I dropped

Luoyang (watch on iQIYI VIP) adapted from the novel of the same title by Ma Bo Yong (马伯庸), starring Huang Xuan, Wang Yibo, and Song Qian. The Longest Day in Chang'an vibes, but like, lighter and more colorful in every sense of the word. So many excellent female characters. Moves at a good clip for 39 episodes without stuttering. The cast is out of this world. 9/10

The Longest Day in Chang'an (watch on Amazon Prime | watch on Viki) starring Lei Jia Yin and Yi Yang Qian Xi. Fckn masterpiece. The cinematography in this thing is a joy to behold. Visually stunning. Not a drama you can glance at occasionally and still catch the threads. Had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. 10/10

Sword Snow Stride (watch on WeTV VIP | watch on Viki) based on the xuanhuan novel The Snowy Path of the Heroic Blade by 烽火戏诸侯 starring Zhang Ruoyun and Hu Jun. I have a soft spot for Zhang Ruoyun so I was gonna watch this to the end even if it sucked. Luckily, it didn’t. Still, it’s sort of a run-of-the-mill adventure journey story, where the hero always wins against all odds. It does a good job filling that empty hole in your life that Joy of Life left behind. The cast is stellar, and the plot stable enough for enjoyment. 7/10

The Long Ballad (watch on Viki |  watch on YouTube) based on wuxia manhua by 夏达 starring Dilraba Dilmurat and Wu Lei. Dilraba Dilmurat is a fckn goddess. Not gonna lie, I watched this whole thing just for her. I’m not particularly crazy about Wu Lei as an actor, but he was amazing in this role. The plot meanders occasionally, and there are some episodes I’ve watched at 1.25 speed. Still, one of the better romances out there. 7/10

Marvelous Women (watch on Viki) starring Jiang Qinqin and Zhang Huiwen. This was glorious in every sense of the word. So many brilliant women. So many brainless men. In-depth study of duty, honor, loyalty and love. I laughed, I cried, I lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Beautiful story, exquisitely told. 10/10

The Theatre Stories (watch on iQIYI VIP) starring  Qin Kaixuan and Zhao Xiaotang. Fun, lighthearted joy of a story. The best comedy I’ve seen all year. Love it to fckn pieces. 9/10

Honorable Mentions

The Story of MingLan (watch on iQIYI VIP | watch on Viki | watch on YouTube) adapted from the novel of the same title by Guan Xin Ze Luan (关心则乱), starring Zhao Liying, Feng Shaofeng, and Zhu Yilong. Cao Cuifen is also in this, for those who fckn adore this woman as much as I do. First of all, Zhao Liying is magic on screen, regardless of the role. The romance in this doesn’t meander, even if the other story lines occasionally do. First two thirds were very enjoyable. Last third I could’ve done without. I believe I called this drama “the terrible, wonderful lives of women,” and I still hold to that. 6/10

Watched, but nothing to write home about

The Rebel Princess (watch on Amazon Prime | watch on Viki) adapted from the novel "Emperor's Conquest" (帝王业) by Mei Yu Zhe (寐语者) starring Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Yiwei. 5/10

The Legend of Condor Heroes (2017) (watch on iQIYI VIP) starring Li Yitong and Yang Xuwen. Meng Ziyi is also in this adaptation. 4/10

God of Lost Fantasy (watch on Amazon Prime | watch on Viki | watch on YouTube) adapted from the novel “Ancient Godly Monarch” by Jing Wu Hen starring Sheng Yilun and Wang Ziwen. 3/10

Legend of Zhen Huan (watch on Amazon Prime) starring Sun Li and Chen JianBin. 5/10

Mirror: A Tale of Twin Cities (watch on Viki) adapted from the novel "Jing - Shuang Cheng" (镜·双城) by Cang Yue (沧月) starring Li Yifeng and Chen Yuqi. 4/10

Still waiting on: 

Immortality - based on danmei novel The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by 肉包不吃肉 starring Chen Feiyu and Luo Yunxi

Winner Is King - based on the danmei novel Sha Po Lang by Priest starring Tan Jianci and Chen Zheyuan

Step By Step Lotus - based on historical novel Return to Ming Dynasty as Prince by 月关 starring Zhang Binbin and Luo Yunxi

Eternal Faith - based on danmei novel Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu starring Zhai Xiaowen and Zhang Linghe

Thousand Autumns - based on danmei novel of the same name by Meng Xi Shi - cast unknown

Joy Of Life Season 2 - based on wuxia novel of the same name by 猫腻 starring Zhang Ruoyun and Li Qin

A League of Nobleman - based on danmei novel The Society of Four Leaves by Da Feng Gua Guo starring Song Weilong and Jing Boran

Flying Phoenix - based on danmei novel of the same name by 風弄 starring Dai Jingyao and Shu Yaxin

The Story of the Bat - based on danmei novel Bat by Feng Nong starring Mao Zijun and Zhang Yao

The Longest Promise - based on xianxia novel Zhu Yan by 沧月 starring Xiao Zhan, Ren Min, and Zhang Yunlong

#cdrama #cdrama recs #long post #m

[verycharismaticdragon]

flash meta ask game chapter 53 & other thoughts on Zhang Chengling's arc

@willowclarissoon: Chapter 53, please! Thank you for doing this :D

Oh, New Year's chapter! It’s so sweet and funny and warm, always makes my heart full.

There is a lot of hilarious character stuff there (Chengling’s epic battle with the chicken is a prime example, but my personal favorite is Lord Zhou the kitchen disaster failing to light a stove, nearly setting the place on fire, then trying to pretend it’s not his fault and he knows what he’s doing), and some uh… less hilarious character stuff too (the Ghost Master being literally the only one of them capable of cooking anything that isn’t ‘meat roasted over bonfire’ is funny in passing, but then you start thinking about how he had to care for himself and a toddler, while being a teenager and living in the closest place to hell on earth, with nobody to rely on...), but I think the part that’s most interesting from perspective of analysis is when each character in turn reflects on their past and present over the celebratory dinner.

...Now, I initially planned this meta to cover all three of them, but unexpectedly managed to put together a lot of thoughts about Zhang Chengling, and you know what? Son boy deserves the meta spotlight for once.

So, here’s what Chengling is reflecting on for New Year’s:

While earlier in the book, Chengling felt so hopeless and lost he wasn’t sure how to continue living –

(chapter 36)

– now, when he considers his situation, he finds that even though his family is gone, there are still people willing to look after him and support him. His life is not what he expected it to be before the tragedy struck, but it is also so much better than what his mind came up with when he was at his most despairing. In other words, he had passed the dark time of his life, and found that there’s still joy to be experienced on the other side.

...Then, thinking about what this chapter establishes for Chengling made me think about how Chengling’s arc in general is a good example of Tian Ya Ke’s relationship to the genre.

Many have pointed out that his story is that of a classic wuxia protagonist: he had lost all of his family, now he has to train up under mysterious master(s) to level up get stronger and seek revenge. Except Tian Ya Ke completely ignores the parts of the arc typically glorified – even Zhang Chengling killing the Scorpion, which can be counted as getting revenge on at least one of the perpetrators, happens completely offscreen, and he doesn’t get anywhere close to taking on Zhao Jing – and instead focuses closely on a toll it all takes on this young boy. Zhang Chengling suffering from nightmares and trauma-induced memory loss, struggling with expectations that he has to step up and seek revenge, having to weather scorn when he, a 14-year-old kid, is not up to the task… Tian Ya Ke looks at the classic plot and goes: okay, but what does this do to a person psychologically? (Wen Kexing’s story, by the way, is also an exploration of this same question, just in a different light.)

At the same time, as our actual protagonist and primary narrator is Zhou Zishu, Tian Ya Ke also provides a look at this storyline from outsider’s perspective. And what does Zhou Zishu think of it all?

[Zhang Chengling] felt like everyone was staring at him, gossiping about him, forcing him to give them an explanation, but he truly knew nothing. Zhou Zishu [...] felt a surge of anger when he saw Zhang Chengling’s empty expressions. He wanted to push at everyone, then drag the young boy far away from all this filth. (chapter 30)

Zhou Zishu goes, actually, this is a child. He shouldn’t have to deal with that. And the narrative fully supports him on this: after Zhou Zishu takes Chengling away from the jianghu’s politics, Chengling gets to have a childhood – maybe not a normal one, but at least he isn’t forced to grow up before his time, and nobody is heaping adult expectations on his head, – and he gets to have a family too, those two ridiculous shifus who’ll always watch his back...

And here’s the thing: it is thanks to that care and support, not trauma and revenge, that Zhang Chengling gets to grow into a true wuxia hero we see him be in extra 5.

––––––

- tyk meta masterpost -

#flash meta ask game #tian ya ke meta #zhang chengling #zhou zishu #wen kexing #tian ya ke #tyk #faraway wanderers #priest novels #danmei novels #cnovels

[sixteenthshen]

i need help

I read a post on Zhihu last night - “How to evaluate the finale of Word of Honor?” The top commenter’s writing just killed me.

Heavy spoilers for episode 33/34. There’re no spoilers for the episodes after that, but I can’t guarantee this if there are replies.

The rest hidden behind a cut. 

I don’t need help explaining the finale or the happy ending, bad ending whatever it is, I’ve found my own way to come to terms with it. But I can’t accept what happened in 33/34 and the lack of follow up on the core of the issue, and that’s blocking me from enjoying the “HE”. To be fair, I think I may be a bit hormonal? Because this is really making me feel like crap. 

-----

This is a comment made by a Chinese user on Zhihu: 

I only want to say; the show might as well have ended when A-Xu jumped down the cliff after WKX. Even though it's a bit lame, at least the soulmate feelings were still there.

The grand finale basically destroyed the soulmate bond built up over 20+ episodes. The essence of it is gone; all of the "candy" and "knives" feel like they've been stripped away.

I've written so much about WKX & ZZS and how they were both falling for each other, saving each other. And now it all looks like a big joke.

It turns out ZZS's soulmate is ZZH, not WKX. The mountains and rivers in the world can't compare to meeting my soulmate. Since my soulmate is gone, I might as well die. (Play on the quote from the drama, instead of why should I live, it becomes I should just die)

(The poster starts talking to ZZS directly - referring to him as you) You're really a mistreated (tortured?) concubine, aren't you? Once you decide to give your whole heart, whole person away, you somehow always end up meeting some fake evil bastard (reference to Farewell my Concubine, basically that ZZS always ends up being suckered)

When you first fell into Prince Jin's trap, it's because you were young and not yet wise to the ways of the world, and believed in the grand words of your cousin and got conned into the world of politics. Sinking into the dirtiest, muddiest of marshes.

You plotted tirelessly for 18 months, suffered through 18 months of pain from the 7 nails, and finally exchanged it for 3 years of freedom. But when you met WKX, you fell right back in again.

Heraclitus said, "You cannot step into the same river twice" <<(I think this person mixed up the meaning of this quote, cause it doesn't fit, but basically intends to say people shouldn't make the same mistake twice)

The first time you stepped into the river, you got away with only half your life. The next time you stepped into the river, you nearly lost your life 4x (under YBY's sword, when you jumped off the cliff to your death for love, pulling out your nails, exploding the mountain to cause an avalanche + suicide), in the end you became a living dead person on Changming mountain.

I don't know if I should call you a living dead man, anyway, in my heart, once you pulled out the nails from your body, cutting off any other alternative you had just to help WKX take revenge… while WKX came back from the dead, and worked with everyone present at the scene to give the performance of a lifetime, you were already dead.

What a mockery, a farce.

You gave up everything but in the end, you were nothing more than a spectator.

He wanted you to give him face, to let him go home to explain things. You quietly stepped aside and gave him the stage. He wanted your baiyi sword to demonstrate his family's sword technique, to prove his identity. You gave it to him without a second word. He cut Zhao Jing's arms and legs tendons, crippled his martial arts, finally took revenge. You were happy for him despite everything.

When Mo Huaiyang accused him of being the Ghost Valley Master, he openly admitted to it and said the entire first part was just an act. You stood in front of him, to protect him. Said he is your shidi, and stood with him without any reservations.

But he had secretly already reached an agreement with Ye Baiyi. He knew YBY wouldn't hurt him, but you didn't know and yet you still shielded him. So terribly afraid that YBY would hurt him because of his identity. 

Everyone knew this was part of the scheme he laid out, everyone participated in his scheme. Only you didn't know. Only you foolishly believed that he wouldn't be alright without you, that he needed you to help him take revenge. That he had his difficulties so he couldn't confess the truth to you, as long as he did, then you would be the first to know everything. That he was your soulmate. This word "soulmate", if said enough times, it would even be real. In this life, right up until the end, we can't even fully understand ourselves, how do we talk about others?

----- 

the source is the top voted answer here. I like this poster a lot, she shared some great things throughout the course of the drama, 3 of which were the base of poems-related posts I’ve made here. I was doing fine before, but in the course of translating this answer for a friend, I made myself feel worse.

She later forced herself to look at it from WKX’s perspective and wrote a piece on it as well, but it... was very forced and I’m not too sure she even believed it herself. She ended that part with - “this made her feel very keenly that no matter how similar two souls may be, in the end, they are still two souls. He isn’t you and he will never be you. You can work endlessly and tirelessly to be closer, but your souls can never meet.”

I... I’m too sad to translate the WKX part in order to be fair to WKX in this post (if I feel better about it, i will later? but it didn’t make me feel better at all tbh) 

Can someone who can articulate well and believe that what WKX did was right, please help to make me understand episodes 32-34 from his perspective?

My main issues are:

We never got a proper 1-to-1 discussion between WKX and ZZS over the issue. At first, they were celebrating as a group, I can accept it. There wasn’t a time or place.

But when ZZS went back to his room early and sober, when everyone else was still drinking and having fun, I felt so bad for him.

When WKX came into his room, looking for ZZS when drunk, I know it isn’t supposed to be like this - but I can’t help but feel he didn’t dare to talk to A-Xu 1-to-1. Instead he went when he was drunk to spill his heart. It can be thought of as sweet, because the first person he thinks of when he’s drunk is A-Xu... but I can’t help but find it very selfish, because it leaves A-Xu with no way to talk about things. If you’ve ever talked to a drunk while sober, you would understand what I mean, it’s a one-way conversation, you can’t get anything through.

But that conversation left A-Xu with enough guilt that he can’t come clean to WKX about what he did. How can he tell WKX that he pulled out his nails, and is about to die. To take away WKX’s happiness, when Lao Wen just told him about how happy he was to have him in his life?

Lao Wen had 0 intention to be cruel, but it ended up being more cruel. And this lack of a proper discussion between the two of them, makes me call into question the whole thing about soulmates. I believe Lao Wen loves A-Xu the best he can (with his somewhat emotionally stunted self), but he’s not putting himself in the other person’s shoes to care for them. 

Love =/= care. And by not caring enough in this matter, I feel it’s thrown him into OOC. Where is the WKX who cared so much for ZZS at the start? Where is the tenderness? 

The drama never properly addressed why WKX faked his death and not tell A-Xu. The only reason they gave was that A-Xu was heavily injured (through Wu Xi). WKX just admitted he was wrong (and should drink). That’s all.

Thankssss. 

Please don’t preach to me about the happy ending or talk about the finale. I personally can’t resolve 32-34, I have found a way to accept the ending as long as I can accept these 3 episodes.

I may not be able to immediately accept your POV but I will force myself to try to find something that fits. I want to keep shipping wenzhou :( 

#i'm not even checking my own grammar cause this is making me too emo #WKX fans and stans #please help #i added a sad gif of a-xu #because he's sad

[unforth]

Could you elaborate on the parallels between the Scorpion and his dad and WKX and Purple Danger? I find that thought really interesting! <3

Oh my god you're asking me for meta? No one asks me for meta!!! Getting this made me so happy, thank you! And yes, I'd be delighted to!

Lemme preface this by saying: I have not read the book, and I've only seen episodes 1 through 27, and while I do know some spoilers for past what I've seen, I don't know everything, and I obviously can't speak to changes in dynamics that may happen past what I've watched.

So, I noted in this post that I felt like I'd just gotten slapped in the face by the parallels between Zhao Jing, and his relationship with Xie-er, and Wen Kexing, and his relationship and Gu Xiang. Specifically, the lines in episode 26 that caught me were these:

And the contrasts and similarities that they drew to these scene from Episode 24, which I watched yesterday:

(all screen caps are by me - I won’t have more screen caps just cause I really don’t have time to hunt them all down, I’m sorry, but the first two were easy to grab, and the second two I’d already taken cause that scene really got to me yesterday).

These lines, coming only two episodes apart, seemed like a really stark and deliberate effort to show a connection in the attitudes of Zhao Jing and Wen Kexing. They've also got some similarities in the childhood/history that got them to this point: Zhao Jing's family was fallen from grace, as was Wen Kexing's. Both are noted as seeming different from the "regular" people around them - Wen Kexing, it's explicit; with Zhao Jing, it's more how others seem to behave around him. It's harder to get a sense of Zhao Jing, since his own self-report is so dubious and the flashbacks we get to the Rong Xuan era are all given from the perspective of different unreliable narrators, whereas Wen Kexing's memories seem fairly intact (well, water of forgetfulness aside) and match the other remembrances we get of the same scenes.

With those similar, dubious foundations, they both resolve from a young age to take revenge for the perceived slights committed against them - and both have decided that regardless of who the specific instigators are for their suffering, they have no compunction about involving innocents as a whole. Zhao Jing wants the power he feels has been denied to him, and sets about conspiring to get that power. To achieve that, he sets about on a course that involves lying and using literally everyone who can help him. Likewise, while I'm still definitely missing some damn important of Wen Kexing's backstory (starting with, who protected the dog for him, and how he went from "kid getting regularly beaten by the previous ghost king" to "adult who is said to have literally eaten the previous ghost king"), he also clearly sets out to gain power through whatever means he can, and to survive, though from the get-go, his goal is essentially the inverse of Zhao Jing's: Zhao Jing wants to lift himself up, and sees nothing but virtue in doing so; Wen Kexing wants to bring everyone else down, and knows he's damned through-and-through for it.

(They're parallels, not matches, just to be clear! It's not that I'm saying everything is the same - on the contrary, it's the differences that makes it so intriguing).

Now, then, at some point relatively early in this entire process, each of these young men found a child. Given that Xie’er and Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishou are of the same generation, presumably they’re all around the same age - 27 or so - and also presumably, the previous generation were all in their late teens to early twenties when they had their own disastrous round of adventuring. So, if Xie’er is, say, 25, and Zhao Jing was probably around 20 (since he was one of the younger folks in the flashbacks), and 20 years have passed, and Xie’er was probably around the same age as child Wen Kexing when he was found? (I don’t know, and I don’t know if that’s ever established, sorry) So around 7? Then we’ve Xie’er being adopted by Zhao Jing and Wen Kexing being adopted by the Ghost King, each almost exactly 20 years ago. Presumably, also, Zhao Jing marries...drat, I can’t remember her name...was it Li Yao or something???...right around the same time - hence why Xie’er would think of her as a mother. Anyway, sorry, I’m really tired and I just lost the thread slightly, but the point is: a 20-or-so-year-old Zhao Jing finds a young Xie’er; and a few years later, a likely-early-teens-aged Wen Kexing finds a toddler Gu Xiang (because Wen Kexing is 27 now, and Gu Xiang is I’m guessing around 18, and she’s likely 3ish when Wen Kexing finds her, so that’d make her 3 or 4, and him 12 or 13). 

And here’s where the parallels really show the essential differences between these men, despite the areas of commonality in the hate they hold toward the world and their desire to see the world brought low.

Because, given a small child, Wen Kexing’s immediate, clear thought is: I will never let this child experience what I have been through. Now, he’s busted, and he’s crazy, so from that point of view, he still does her harm: she thinks of murder as nothing (as does Xie’er) for example. But even in that, the motivations are different. Gu Xiang says it herself after she kills the beggar and Cao Weining confronts her about it: if a person is out to harm her, if a person even might harm her, isn’t she justified in killing him? If that isn’t the quintessential Wen Kexing lesson right there, I don’t know what is: “Gu Xiang, you don’t kill because I tell you to, and you don’t kill for fun, and you don’t kill for no reason - but the moment, the very instant, you have a reason? Don’t hesitate, because if you do, you’ll be the corpse, not them.” Everything Wen Kexing teachers Gu Xiang is with the aim of helping her survive in the cruelest environment in the world, one that has flayed him and raked him over the coals over and over and over again. Further, despite the hints I’ve seen so far that he has early allies at Mount Qingya (Tragicomic Ghost has been shown to at minimum pity him, and find him an odd curiosity), Wen Kexing entrusts no one else with the most vulnerable creature who has ever come into his life (well, aside from that adorable puppy, which I have the bad feeling is going to be shown to be horribly murdered before his eyes, possibly by his own hand to prove a point...that would be thematically appropriate...). He gives Gu Xiang the tools to survive and fight for herself, even against him, and when she even begins to suggest she might prefer to be somewhere else - when he sees evidence of her finding happiness - he does everything he can to encourage her joy, support her happy ending, and free her. Wen Kexing is Gu Xiang’s father, in every useful interpretation of the term - she may call him master, and others might call her his maid, but their relationship is tender, encouraging, mutually supportive, and loving. Wen Kexing wants what is best for Gu Xiang, even at the expense of his own comfort and happiness, because he cares for her that essentially and deeply - and she likewise goes out of her way to protect him more than once.

MEANWHILE.

Given a small child, though I haven’t yet seen any flashbacks to when Xie’er was little and I don’t even know if there are any, it’s really obvious that Zhao Jing instantly goes, “how can I best use this to my advantage?” Instead of setting about to build this child up to be a functional adult who can stand up to the challenges that threatened to crush Zhao Jing’s life, Zhao Jing deliberately sabotages Xie’er’s ability to function as an independent unit. He teachers Xie’er to kill, not to protect himself, but on command - to kill because Zhao Jing says so, who Zhao Jing says, on even the merest whim, and is so successful at doing so that Xie’er has even less respect for life than Zhao Jing does (which was never much to begin with). Further, while we know that Wen Kexing will kill to protect Gu Xiang, Zhao Jing never so much as lifts a finger to do his own dirty work, and has zero compunction about throwing Xie’er under the bus when he suits his ends. In 27, he flat out says - “if you keep acting like this, and kill the Gentle Wind Sect, you’ll ruin me - which means I can never let you stand next to me in public.” He says this when he knows that Xie’er craves his approval and that one of Xie’er’s most cherished objects in all he’s done is to reach a point where he can stand at Zhao Jing’s shoulder as an acknowledged heir and successor and proudly say, “yes, I did all those things to help my father, because I’m a good son.” Further, Zhao Jing is constantly abusive and manipulative. When Xie’er does what Zhao Jing has trained him to do, on command (like a dog? more parallels??), Zhao Jing praises him, touches him kindly (and when else do you think Xie’er is ever getting touched kindly? Nothing like the casual and appropriate physical intimacy with which Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang shoulder bump and interact) and tells him how precious he is. The instant Xie’er steps a toe out of line, Zhao Jing denigrates him, threatens to take away that which Xie’er most wants (acknowledgement), scolds him, calls him a fool, says he doesn’t understand. Zhao Jing calls Xie’er his son, and insists that Xie’er call him yifu, and the world may even see that way - though they hardly can, since Zhao Jing refuses to be publicly associated with Xie’er - but they couldn’t be less related when compared to Wen Kexing, who allows all to see him call Gu Xiang his servant even as he flagrantly, publicly, repeatedly treats her as his child - culminating in the speech he gives Cao Weining when he gives permission for them to wed.

Everything Wen Kexing does, as fucked up as some of it is, is done with the aim of building Gu Xiang up into a strong, independent, functional adult who is less stained than himself and capable of pursuing happiness in the world.

And everything Zhao Jing does, all of which is equally if not more fucked up than what Wen Kexing does, is done with the aim of tearing Xie’er down, making him a powerful tool - a trained dog, if you will - and a dependent person who can be deployed on an enemy and must be kept permanently off-balance so that he never ever is an independent, functional adult - and, to help ensure that, he deliberately orders Xie’er to commit depraved acts that guarantee that Xie’er is more stained than himself, and therefore incapable of finding happiness in the world.

Anyway, I could probably go on, but I gotta leave to drive my kid to school and run a couple errands, but, in conclusion: when Zhao Jing said, “the world has failed me, and I shall do the same to the world,” and it became clear to me that he and Wen Kexing essentially share (or at least shared) the same core goal, I was struck by a lightning bolt about the parallels and contrasts between them as people, and them as father’s, and here you go.

Hope this is coherent, I’m really sleepy and in a rush. :D And I hope it answers your question!

(Also dear everyone: if you reply to this or add to it in reblogs I ask that you please respect that I’ve only seen to episode 27, and not rip me apart for things I haven’t seen yet, and try to avoid giving me spoilers? I know a few - or at least I think I do - like I know all the Major Character Death stuff - but I’m sure if you’ve seen the whole series you can spot places where you, dear reader, know things I don’t, and I’d ask that you not ruin those places for me, because I’m watching as fast as I can - about one episode a day - and I’d rather find out for myself. Thank you!)

#unforth rambles #unforth metas #meta #word of honor #word of honor spoilers #word of honor meta

[chalkrevelations]

SO, Episode 28 of Word of Honor was a roller-coaster ride.

(Spoilers, as ever, so scroll away and come back later if you want to see it unspoiled.)

They managed two entirely separate scenes in this one that had me going “Did … did that just happen? Is this really happening?” Let’s get this one out of the way first: The scene of Zhao Jing in his serial killer lair with the altar and memorial tablets and his serial killer trophies. Y’all. I swear, scene opens with a shot from behind of drunk Awful Yifu in his Fantasy Ancient China underwear staggering through a set of doors into a room with candles and draperies, and before I was able to register the rest of the set design, my brain gave a terrified squeak and started rabbiting around like, “Oh my god, please do not let this be Xie’er’s bedroom. Oh my god, they wouldn’t actually go there, not even hinted, surely that would be too far!” Then my eyeballs caught up and registered the set, so I thought I was safe, but that didn’t even turn out to be the moment in the scene that had me going “Is this really happening?” (Although I do think the fact my brain immediately jumped to that scenario speaks to the creepy vibe the show has managed to build between Awful Yifu and Xie Wang). So, Zhao Jing is a sloppy drunk and absolutely shitfaced, stumbling around and yelling at his dead brothers, and I’m sitting here watching him, feeling like I need a shower, with my skin a little bit trying to crawl off my body, and then he picks up Rong Xuan’s memorial tablet and pours an entire stream of alcohol out of the pitcher all over it, and I say, out loud, to the screen, “Oh my god, they just had him figuratively piss on that tablet.” Only, no, they didn’t, because there was no need to have him do it figuratively because then, he literally whips it out of his pants and takes a piss on the tablet, complete with sound effects, and I’m open-mouthed, thinking “Is this really happening?” As some background, I grew up in mainstream U.S. culture where ancestor veneration isn’t formally practiced - although it isn’t an entirely absent part of our cultural mythos, it’s just that now when I when I offer cultus to the Patres Patriae, it’s deliberate and intentional – but I’ve been doing ancestor work in my particular flavor of polytheism for long enough, and intensely enough, that I had a visceral reaction of disgust and horror to this. Hand literally clapped over my mouth in shock, even after watching all of his ranting at his dead brothers and spitting at his dead shifu and just generally being a disrespectful asshole with delusions of grandeur building up to it. So, yes, show, you have indeed convinced me that Awful Yifu is the worst, even in an episode that also devoted that much screentime to Prince Jin.

Fortunately, the other “Is this really happening?” moment was at the other end of the spectrum, somewhere in the face of how married Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing are, which I cannot believe passed censorship. I know I keep saying that, but every time I think I’ve adjusted to how far they’re going to go, the show laughs gay-ly as it pushes the envelope another mile down the road. Truly, this show is the gift that keeps on giving where these two are concerned, and not just because of Zhang Zhehan’s face. I realize I had to spend 50 episodes deciphering Lan Wangji’s smallest microexpression (not that I’m complaining), but I can’t believe how expressive both Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun are in these roles, with Gong Jun’s little sadness eyebrows when WKX wants ZZS to humor him, and how soft Zhang Zhehan’s face gets when ZZS looks at WKX, and how great they both are at making all this look like a pair of adults who are in an established relationship and confident of each other. I’d be as weak as Wen Kexing if Zhou Zishu pouted at me the way he does when he tells Chengling that he can’t do anything to help decorate the Manor except observe and direct because he’s oh, so injured and frail, poor him. Wen Kexing can laugh at Zhou Zishu when ZZS pokes at him by saying the papercrafter was such a beauty! (Compare this to his reaction back in the day, when ZZS deftly manipulated him out of bringing A-Xiang along on their honeymoon adventures by calling her a beauty and implying she might draw attention away from WKX!) Wen Kexing waves kitchen knives at Zhou Zishu in (somewhat fond) exasperation! Zhou Zishu now accepts Wen Kexing piling his plate with food at the table as perfectly normal! There’s no crying in Spring Festival! They send their kid outside to watch the fireworks so they can have sex some alone time! (Merciless killers. How the fuck so adorable?) Someone must have backed up an entire truckful of money to the house of someone very important to get this aired, because what is the heterosexual explanation for … any of this?

Other thoughts:

We continue to get small things that maintain the parallels between Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishou and Gu Xiang/Cao Weining, including the mirrored theme of finding a home with a welcoming family, shown through family dinner, and expressed through WKX’s description of his former self as a “lonely ghost,” echoing A-Xiang’s self-description (to Shen Shen in an earlier ep) the same way.

HAN YING! Listen, I am stupidly attached to this bit player, and not just because he’s a familiar face (because half of Wen Xu’s screentime in The Untamed was just a disembodied head hanging at the entrance to the Unclean Realm, so it’s not like there was time to get … attached). And I say stupidly attached because ever since we first saw the way he looked at ZZS with big puppy heart-eyes, I knew he was going to be a goner. I just know they’re gonna fridge him for the next step in ZZS’s journey, because something has to pry ZZS out of Four Seasons Manor, as much as I, personally, would like nothing better than to see 8 more episodes of wedded bliss for two gay dads and their son. (OK, one thing I would like better would be if their daughter and son-in-law came to live with them, too.) At least it looks like Han Ying will get to die taking a figurative bullet for ZZS, which will make him happy and might prevent him from finding out the Glazed Armor he’s so proud of bringing is actually pointless, because don’t think that didn’t hurt to know while I watched him being so proud of managing to get his hands on it. But I’d prefer he didn’t die at all, show. Also, why on earth are there only two (completed) stories under the ZZS/Han Ying label on AO3? Because yes, I have looked. I have the search open in another tab right now. Why haven’t more people taken advantage of this guy’s utter devotion for ZZS? How are people looking at the way Han Ying reverently brushes his fingers over the single white blossom on the wall mural in ZZS’s rooms back in Prince Jin’s palace and not falling all over that?

Xie’er, oh, Xie’er. You’re killing me, here. I need someone to rescue you, you desperate affection-starved little sociopath. So, to recap, last time we met, your Awful Yifu finally let it slip that he was never ever going to acknowledge your existence in public. So now, you’re being a very clever boy, setting up a scheme to manipulate him into having to publicly acknowledge you if he’s going to claim credit for your successes (because I’m sure you can’t even contemplate failure) in service to Prince Jin. So clever, but I hate to tell you, you’re clever at everything except learning from your mistakes when it comes to your Awful Yifu. You really learned nothing from Beauty Ghost, did you? Ugh, your sad little face as you watch your hot mess of an Awful Yifu while you wait for the maids to make tea – it hurts me. Please tell me you’re playing some kind of long game, and you’re just a really great actor. Because he’s sloppy drunk, and right now, watching your face journey, I think maybe you think that makes what he’s saying true – that he’s not guarding his words, and he means it when he tells you that of course he loves you and would never leave you. “Are you still angry with me?” Awful Yifu literally asks. “Alright, I’ll apologize. I was just mad. It didn’t mean anything. We’re together in this. I’ll always stand by you.” Xie’er, you have got to stop believing gaslighting abusive men who shovel that BS. This is what they call the honeymoon period in the cycle of abuse. Seriously. This is textbook. Please stop making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe think about the fact that your Awful Yifu is, single-handedly, the reason the Department of the Unfaithful actually exists in the first place. He is THAT AWFUL. I would like to think actually seeing his serial killer trophy room will make a difference, now that you have some confirmation of what Tragicomic Ghost told you and not the ability to wave it off as part of some he-said, she-said situation where how could we ever possibly know the truth, despite the fact that Zhao Jing has shown he’ll stab anyone in the back in his quest for power? But, then, I also thought maybe learning last ep that he never planned to publicly acknowledge you would make some kind of difference. Are you going to roll the dice again, gambler? Because I’ll tell you right now, the house always wins. (Not that you’d listen to me anymore than you listened to Beauty Ghost.)

(Also, wait wait waitwaitwait. Waitaminit. This is pure speculation and probably way too out there to be true (oh, but, someone’s going to write this AU for me, right?) Hot-mess drunk yifu tells Xie’er that they’ve been depending on each other “ever since I picked you up and brought you back home.” I can’t remember if we know anything about Xie Wang’s background at this point, but it does sound like Zhao Jing might have literally yoinked him off the street to raise him. He … he doesn’t think Xie’er is actually Yan’er, does he? Only he kidnapped the wrong orphaned urchin by mistake? I’m just sayin’, thinking back to Shen Shen’s reaction to finding out Zhen Yan was still alive, it would be exactly the kind of thing Zhao Jing would do, to keep this kid that his brother(s) wanted to find hidden right under their noses.)

Chengling and the chicken. I can’t, y’all. And Zhou Zishu’s face as soon as he realizes what Wen Kexing is telling Chengling to do – he knows this is going to be a show.

Prince Jin, you are almost as bad as Xie’r and his awful Yifu combined:

Prince Jin: Zhou Zishu, you mastermind, your super-secret spy network continues to spread everywhere, including into my very own palace. Oh, the things you must be plotting against me!

Zhou Zishu, chillin’ at Plum Blossom Manor, day-drinking, dressing up in pretty festive robes, taking advantage of his disciple’s unpaid labor so he doesn’t have to raise a finger for himself, and providing his husband with sex so incredible he is never required to actually cook: “OK, my gay husband and our son-with-two-dads, how about we just stay here together forever and be happy?”

Also Prince Jin: *Creeps on Zhou Zishu like a gaslighting m’fker*

Anyway, if Prince Jin always knew what Han Ying was up to all along, is the letter about ZZS’s father a plant, with false info? It was just kind of suspiciously hanging out in the open on Prince Jin’s desk.

#zhao jing #xie wang #zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #cao weining #zhang chengling #han ying #prince jin #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

[missfangirll]

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Fandom: Guardian Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Da Qing/Ye Zun Tags: Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-it, Getting Together, First Kiss, Time Travel, Timeline what Timeline

Read on AO3

- - - - -

 Ye Zun stumbled forward as the familiar energy of one of Shen Wei’s portals shoved at him, then suddenly the pull stopped and he collided with something soft, both he and the obstacle toppling to the ground. With a groan he opened his eyes—and froze. Next to him, Da Qing scrambled to sit up, and further away...

 “Lao Chu!”

 Chu Shuzhi’s brows were knitted together in his usual frown, maybe even more than normal, the reason for that now wriggling out from under Ye Zun with a grunt. Hastily he shifted and moved away from Guo Changcheng. A bit further down the street, Zhu Hong and Lin Jing were staring at them with wide eyes.

 “Sorry,” he mumbled, while trying to collect his thoughts. They had been in the palace, in the past, and then the king had shown them...

 The Seal! The Hallows!

 Hastily he turned to Da Qing who looked equally confused, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it. Before either of them could say something more, the portal behind them sparked again, revealing one, then two figures calmly walking through it before it collapsed entirely.

 Ye Zun could only stare.

 He probably would have sat there for an eternity, if it had not been for Da Qing, who after a second of hesitation flung himself at Zhao Yunlan, throwing his arms around his master in a tight hug. Ye Zun scrambled to his feet, then staggered towards Shen Wei, all but collapsing into his chest.

 “Gege,” he croaked, voice hoarse, and Shen Wei, after a look of bewilderment to Zhao Yunlan, returned the embrace, stroking Ye Zun’s back.

 They stood like this for a few heartbeats, until Zhu Hong cleared her throat, inhaling as she wanted to say something, then shut her mouth with a determined huff. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Ye Zun took a step back, looking at Da Qing. The cat sighed, then did the same, leaving Zhao Yunlan with a strange expression on his face.

 “We—,” Ye Zun began, at the same time Da Qing said, “Something happened.”

 They both looked at each other for a brief moment, then Da Qing nodded. Ye Zun continued, “We need to tell you something, but not here. Let’s find a safe place to talk first.”

 For all that he was obnoxious and annoying, Zhao Yunlan recognised when a situation was serious, and acted accordingly. Without asking any questions, he nodded towards the rows of buildings.

 “Maybe the bar is still in use,” he said, “last time the owner said it and he were neutral, maybe that’s still the case. At least we’re off the streets there.”

 The others nodded, and so they made their way to the bar.

- - - - -

 The bad news was that the bar definitely wasn’t neutral anymore. The good news, though, was that it now apparently served as the resistance’s headquarters, fully equipped with fake doors, emergency rations and bunk beds. Even An Bai looked like he’d fallen out of a movie set, complete with a beard and a haughty attitude to match. There was nothing left of the terrified kid he used to be when he first met Zhao Yunlan, or when he later struck a deal with the Regent to save his friends. He looked older, hardened and a bit disillusioned, and Zhao Yunlan wondered what he had seen in the last months that had changed him so entirely.

 He still greeted them amiably, his smile only flickering slightly as he recognised Ye Zun, but he didn’t ask any questions, only ushered them inside a small room adjacent to the bar’s main hall.

 There his implacable facade wavered a bit as he sank down on a stool, waving for them to find seats as well. Zhao Yunlan noticed that Ye Zun didn’t sit down, only moved behind Da Qing, laying a hand on his shoulder. He filed that information away for later and turned to An Bai.

 “Your Majesty,” he began, but An Bai just shook his head.

 “Please, no need for titles here,” he said, sounding tired.

 Zhao Yunlan nodded, then continued. “A few days ago, one of your people came to the SID for help. He told us about the situation and asked if we could help, so...” He trailed off, waving a hand at his team.

 An Bai nodded, slumping a bit in his seat. “It’s been a nightmare,” he said quietly, “I don’t know how long we can keep going, but...” He looked up. “Thank you,” he said, voice deep and full of emotion.

 The others nodded, and Shen Wei asked, “Has there anything else happened after the young man left?”

 An Bai shrugged, and for a heartbeat the gesture showed the twenty-year-old behind the warrior, like a superimposed photo, before he looked stern and tired again.

 “There haven’t been any new laws or regulations. We’re still trying to gather all the kids that had to leave home, to get them off the streets, but otherwise we’ve been laying low.” He sighed, wiping a hand over his face. “I’m really glad you’re here,” he added quietly.

 Zhao Yunlan nodded. “Alright then, give us a moment to talk about some things, then we’ll get back to you. Let’s find a way to solve this mess.”

 An Bai looked like he wanted to say something more, his gaze lingering on Ye Zun for a moment, but then he returned the nod and stood up.

 “Take your time,” he said. “I’ll be outside.”

 As soon as he had closed the door behind him, Zhao Yunlan turned to Da Qing.

 “Alright,” he said, “talk.”

 Da Qing and Ye Zun exchanged a glance, then the cat nodded with a sigh.

 “It’s complicated, but... Let me start from the beginning...”

 Truth be told, Zhao Yunlan wouldn’t have believed anything Da Qing relayed if he hadn’t been victim to the Hallows’ fickle machinations himself, but he still had a hard time following the story without a comment. If the shocked expressions around him were anything to go by, his team had similar issues. Ye Zun didn’t look up for most of it, only adding a few details here and there and some of his own observations and conclusions, but Zhao Yunlan’s brain was already whirring with the new revelations.

 “So,” Zhu Hong said tentatively as Da Qing had finished, “you think the Regent still has the Seal and is using it to manipulate people?”

 Da Qing nodded.

 Shen Wei hummed thoughtfully. “That explains,” he said slowly, “why the Regent hasn’t met any resistance in the last centuries.”

 “Yeah,” Zhao Yunlan replied with a huff, “but what are we gonna do about it?” He looked around at his team. “He’s had that thing for millenia, he’s not going to part with it because we ask nicely.”

 Ye Zun scoffed, but didn’t say anything. They all had the same thought, Zhao Yunlan knew: Was it possible to use the Hallows to override the Seal, like Da Qing and Ye Zun apparently had done, albeit unintentionally?

 Guo Changcheng, who hadn’t said anything since they had stepped out of the portal, turned towards Chu Shuzhi to whisper something in his ear, which made the other man huff in annoyance. (Although Zhao Yunlan had the distinct feeling that his frown wasn’t as severe as usual and his eyes almost looked fond.)

 “No,” he replied, more to the team than to Xiao Guo, “destroying the Seal won’t work. We don’t have all the Hallows, and even if we did, we have no idea how to use them to destroy one of them.”

 Xiao Guo looked contrite at being reprimanded, when suddenly Lin Jing chimed in. “We do, actually.” Everyone turned to him, making his ears turn red. “All five Hallows are here in Dixing,” he explained, “we have the Awl, the Brush and the Sundial, the Regent has the Seal, and the Lantern is somewhere above us, doing what it’s supposed to do.” He shrugged. “I mean, you said the Seal’s power is uniting, right? So maybe we can use that, use the other Hallows to find it, like...” He trailed off, not finding the right words, but Zhu Hong had understood him.

 “Like a divining rod,” she finished, not even showing slight amusement at the idea. She turned to Shen Wei. “Could you do that? Follow the energy, I mean.” She gestured at Da Qing’s bag and Shen Wei nodded slowly.

 “I think it is possible,” he said, giving Zhao Yunlan a look. “Still, we don’t know what to do with it if we find it. I don’t think I could destroy a Hallow, and I have no idea how to use the others to do that.”

 Everyone was silent, pondering about that, until Ye Zun said, “Maybe we don’t have to.” Having seven pairs of eyes directed at him, he shifted in his seat, trying to look unaffected. “I think Da Qing and I were sent to that specific point in time to shape that treaty. In a sense, to unite Haixing and Dixing.” As one, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan both sat up straighter, having understood what he was trying to say. Ye Zun continued, “I think there is a second reason. Maybe we were sent there to show us the Seal in the first place, to give us the information we can use now, to.. I don’t know, unite Dixing again?”

 Zhao Yunlan inhaled deeply, then nodded. “That makes sense, actually,” he agreed, wanting to add something more but Da Qing interrupted him.

 “There is one problem with that theory,” he said. “The only way to test it is to confront the Regent directly.” He paused. “And if that fails...” He trailed off.

 Indeed, Zhao Yunlan thought grimly. If that theory doesn’t hold, they’d all be majorly screwed, his team and An Bai’s resistance included.

 With a sigh he got to his feet. “We need to tell An Bai,” he said with a nod towards the door.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Only a short one, but I hope you still like it. <3 One short explanation on how the Seal works: The reason An Bai and co. are able to resist it is a) because they have been out of reach for a while, but also b) because what the Regent is doing right now is kinda contradicting the Seal's powers, so it's not as effective as it could be/used to be. He's gonna learn that the hard way ;)

#镇魂 guardian #guardian #zhèn hún #shen wei #zhao yunlan #weilan #otp: we've always been friends #da qing #ye zun #dazun #my writing #writing queue #ad astra per aspera

[eijie-cavies]

Word of Honor Ending thoughts.

Alrighty, I think the time has come to talk about the ending of Word of Honor, it has been a wild ride being with the show and patiently waiting for new episodes. I can say that Word of Honor is one of those shows that DELIVERED and did not waste my time. 

it’s not a masterpiece by a long shot but the heart and dedication put into this production just shone through and I know even we as viewers could see that. As a farewell to the drama that kept my BL loving heart alive i’ll be analizing the ending, from episode 34 to the end. i might talk about episode 37 in another post.

and without further ado, let’s analize.

I will be dividing this analysis into 4 parts:

1st: The right things we got from our last theories.

2nd: The wrong things we got from our last theories.

3rd. The plot and why I think it doesn’t take away everything formt he show.

4th: two part endings.

Part 1: The Right

The first thing we got right is the timeline. Shen Shen and Da Wu stood up in defense for Wen Kexing’s rushed plan. They needed to execute it in the heroes conference as the important people of the martial arts world would be there to witness everything. Shen Shen had stepped up to confess that the fake death was needed to let Zhao Jing’s guard down which worked wonderfully.

To add to that, Da Wu also confessed that he was a part of the reason why Wen Kexing did not tell Zishu, and this was because he needed to rest and not get into a fight.

this lead to our second theory being right, Wen Kexing was understndably worried and decided to just not tell him the plan, it is unclear if Da Wu knew of the entire plan or if he was only told some of it like A-Xiang, that would explain why he did not get to stop Zhou Zishu from leaving thinking everything would be okay as long as he gave the medicine to Zhou Zishu to cure any fatal wounds.

I think that about covers the right theories we have, now for the pther side of the spectrum which are the theories we got wrong.

Part 2: Wrongs

First we have Chengling and shen Shen, we were wrong in theorizing that it was Ye Bai Yi who told him of the plan, instead he was told of the plan by Wen Kexing when he returned to Shen Shen to explain everything to him (Keep in mind this is when he had finally rescued Zhou zishu and Chengling undoubtedly finally knew that Wen Kexing was the ghost valley chief after he was dropped off) 

So this could potentially solidify our previous theory that Chengling sent that messenger in haste after he was told, it was already too late to call that messenger back when Wen Kexing explained. So what probably happened was Wen Kexing dropped Chengling off to Shen Shen, saved Zhou Zishu while Chengling was told of Wen Kexing’s identity prompting him to send the messenger and then finally Wen Kexing coming back to explain everything, and so that led to Zhou Zishu going out to search for him.

Second it was Wen Kexing who went to Ye Bai yi to negotiate on things and what to do to execute the plan. Wen Kexing only wanted to expose his enemy, not kill hundreds of people and this convinced Ye Bai Yi to help him, in return Wen Kexing will eventually shut down the ghost valley.

i think that is all we have for the wrongs, there is no clear evidence if the letter about the heroes conference is a clue to justify our last theory but I think it was just basically a warning to Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu and let them know they may be potentially in danger of being hunted down by Zhao Jing.

and now we go to the last part. The plot.

Part three: The Plot.

Despite the Romeo and Juliet style of things, I don’t think it takes away everything that we had built up with the characters. If you take away the “Not telling Zhou Zishu;’ about the plan part it wouldn’t changed the fact that they were all in constant battle for the armoury key. in my opinion I think the writer made the safest route to lead to the ending. the conflict may be forced and I think there could be other plots that could have worked, but in their environment and how things are in their situation everything fell OUT of place and INTO place at the same time. If you think about it, if Zhou Zishu had not taken out the nails there would be no drive or urgency to go for the armory to shut down scorpion would lead to scorpion king realizing he had been cheated of the key and would undoubtedly lead an army to capture Wen Kexing. and the cycle would continue UNTIL they get the key. If Zhou Zishu had not killed the scorpion King and everyone in their alliance on that mountain they would not have been able to reach the armoury in time to heal Zhou Zishu as neither of them actually knew JUST where the armoury is. everything fell out of place (episode 32-33) then fell INTO place (34-36) and despite which ending you prefer it is up to you to choose that is why we were given the first and second (true) ending. Ye Bai Yi had also started withering the moment he started eating normal foods and is happy to live the rest of his life eating happily after he had finally completed both missions he had in mind.

now we move on the the last part.

Part 4: Two Endings.

Okay, admittedly the ending in episode 36 left SO MUCH questions rather than answers and that was what drove fans scratching their heads in confusion and going “What just happened?” only to be bombarded with a second ending that completely said “Fuck it we going the immortal route, let’s give them a happy ending” 

The reason for the first ending is an ambiguous open ending. nothing was made clear and specified of the two masters that practice the cultivation technique made it out alive, and even Xiaoling wad depicted as a motherly figure even though Chengling said that he only saw her as an elder sister. the producers and screenwriters opted actually to have only one true ending and that was the two of our main leads being immortals. BUT this did not get past cencorship (sadly) the reason for that weird cut in the was because they had planned to to put the true ending after the scene of the kids walking away from the frame but since you know cencosrhip and everything. BUT if you look closely, Chengling’s lines are EXTREMELY over dubbed, if you take a look at AvenueX’s video where she talked about the ending and the dubbing and why it was confusing to the fans (Bless her soul) She had stated that because of production reasons again they had to cut out at least 3 to 4 minutes of the ending to please the censorship, they refused to have a sad ending of course and so with a lil bit of dubbing magic or vaguely translated words, they played the ending and made it an open one for the audience to interpret (this is one of the ways they had manipulated the loopholes of cencorship) and with hardcore Wenzhou fans getting their happy ending for episode 37 Thus concluding the story of Word Of Honor.

thus now we come to a close to our analysis for the last 3 episodes of the drama. Thank you so much for reading this far. if you guys have anything you want to talk to me about i am open to hearing your opinions, ideas and even future discussion topics that you want me to do. But until then i will now close this analysis and giving out gratitude to everyone who worked for WOH. more power to the cast and staff and more power to Youkou with loads of other shows in the future. Thank you once again, Peace.

#wenzhou #word of honor #shan he ling #faraway wanderers #wen kexing #zhou zishu #zhang chengling #analysis #plot breakdown #come cry with me about Wenzhou TvT

[foxghost]

Joyful Reunion, Chapter 64

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 2, Chapter 15 (Part 2)

The dining hall falls quiet for a while as something seems to be occupying Bian Lingbai’s mind, and he keeps glancing at Duan Ling; in the end, it is Duan Ling who speaks first to break this awkward silence. “When is the wedding?”

“During the seventh month,” Yao Jing replies. “Uncle Yao Fu told me to wait in Tongguan, as the groom’s family in Xiliang will send someone for me.”

“You’ve had a rough journey,” Bian Lingbai says to Yao Jing. “You don’t have any servants you’re used to right now, so your Uncle Bian will make sure to give you a full retinue to take with you. If you want you can also ask that steward of yours to keep an eye out in the marketplace.”

“Sure,” Yao Jing replies, and seemingly reminded that her maid and servants were killed by those bandits, her expression darkens.

“You should go get some rest.” Bian Lingbai tells her.

Yao Jing nods and takes her leave. Duan Ling watches her go, feeling slightly baffled.

It’s one thing for the Marquess of Huaiyin’s niece from the Jiangzuo region to be married off all the way to Xiliang, but for her to have so few servants and end up getting kidnapped along the way is another thing altogether. Instead of the tradition of being picked up by her Tangut groom’s family in her hometown, she’s been sent here to Tongguan instead; on top of that, the entire business of the engagement is left in Bian Lingbai’s hands. What in the world is going on?

The only possibility is that … she’s out of favour with the marquess.

“What is it?” Bian Lingbai takes a sip of wine and says to Duan Ling, “Have you taken a fancy to the Yao family’s young lady?”

Duan Ling laughs. “Even if I fancy her it’s not like I’ll ever have a chance.”

Bian Lingbai bursts out laughing, finding Duan Ling’s candid ways rather amusing. He explains, “Your uncle was going to form a marriage alliance with the Yaos back in the day, but alas his own children were all too young and hadn’t reached marriageable age. So he actually asked me if it’s possible to arrange Yao Zheng for his nephew — he must have meant you. If he’s still alive, he wouldn’t have thought much of this young woman.”

Duan Ling nods, his expression coloured with melancholy.

Bian Lingbai says, “In a little while, the groom’s party from Xiliang will be here to pick her up. Once I’m done with those arrangements I’ll take some time to help you settle in.”

“I have something with me as well,” Duan Ling says, “I came all the way here to bring it to you, Uncle Bian …”

“Hm?” Bian Lingbai glances at Duan Ling absently, but Wu Du is frowning slightly, and then he coughs once.

Duan Ling looks at Wu Du as if asking for his approval, and Wu Du looks a bit displeased, the furrow between his brows deepening.

Duan Ling nods at Wu Du, but by now Bian Lingbai is getting somewhat impatient. “What are you being so secretive about?”

Duan Ling reaches into his lapel for an item, and stepping forward he hands it to Bian Lingbai. Bian Lingbai isn’t paying attention to it at first, and only once Duan Ling has untied the silk ribbon around the treasure map and unrolled it slowly in front of him does Bian Lingbai turn his attention onto Duan Ling’s face.

“What is this?”

Duan Ling thinks, this is the treasure map you’ve been looking for all along, but he doesn’t dare put it like that. He merely gives Bian Lingbai a nod and gets back to his own seat.

Wu Du scoffs. “Lucky you.”

Nonplussed, Bian Lingbai picks up the map by the edges and stares at it. Then with a sudden shudder his expression quickly changes and he turns to Duan Ling with an incredulous look on his face.

“My uncle hid it in the folds of a strategy manual and had it brought to me.” Duan Ling explains in detail the story he made up himself; basically, it’s about how Zhao Kui had great expectations of him, and asked him to familiarise himself with books on military strategy. He also hid this map in the cover and gave it to him so that once the pages of the Art of War have been turned so many times that the book falls apart, the map will reveal itself.

The story itself is actually full of holes — why would Zhao Kui not leave such a wonderful thing to his own son, and give it to his nephew instead, for instance — but the moment Duan Ling spies the look in Bian Lingbai’s eyes, he knows that nothing else really matters anymore.

“Wonderful … This is wonderful.” A strange look comes over Bian Lingbai’s eyes as he stares unblinkingly at the treasure map.

As Duan Ling looks into those eyes, he gets the distinct feeling that he seems to have seen that look somewhere before.

It’s the same look Cai Yan used to have in his eyes when he stared at Duan Ling’s jade arc.

Duan Ling only experiences a momentary lapse of attention before he’s dragged back to reality by Bian Lingbai’s crazed laughter.

“Wonderful! Wonderful!” Bian Lingbai says, “Wait here a moment.”

He promptly puts away the treasure map and leaves the room without saying anything else.

A bewildered Duan Ling turns to see what Wu Du will say, but instead of talking to him Wu Du simply keeps eating. Even as the night-watchmen have started ringing the first of the night watch, Bian Lingbai still hasn’t come back.

He’s probably gone to verify the map’s authenticity, Duan Ling surmises, and wonders if things will go smoothly if their plan continues to unfold in this direction. As they’re not alone he dares not converse with Wu Du, so once he finishes eating, he waits quietly. By the time a guard shows up to bring Duan Ling to Bian Lingbai’s study, it’s already quite late in the night, but the guard asks Wu Du not to follow.

Duan Ling and Wu Du exchange glances. Wu Du nods at him. They know that the true test of Duan Ling’s abilities has come.

Bian Lingbai is sitting in the study with an elderly man by his side, and judging by the man’s appearance he’s not young anymore, but he doesn’t wear a beard. With a pair of gloves on, he’s carefully examining the treasure map, looking up to give Duan Ling a nod when he comes in.

“This here is Master Fei.” Bian Lingbai says to Duan Ling, “His first name is Hongde, and he’s two generations your senior. He has worked for your uncle, as well as the late emperor. He is extremely knowledgeable.”

Duan Ling greets him politely.

“Where did you get this map?” The elderly man asks Duan Ling.

Thereby Duan Ling roughly repeats the explanation he gave Bian Lingbai earlier. The elderly man then gives him a slow nod, smiles, and says to Bian Lingbai, “Congratulations, general. Once you unearth this buried treasure, it will be enough to satisfy whatever our army may need.”

Bian Lingbai says to the elderly man, “Truly the heavens are on my side. When do you think will be a good time to start excavating, Master Fei?”

“We must wait a little while longer.” Fei Hongde rolls the map back up and returns it to Bian Lingbai. “No matter what, you must make sure this comes to the attention of no one else. I will survey the location personally, and let you know as soon as I find anything.”

On second thought, Bian Lingbai supposes that’s prudent, and he quickly nods to agree. “Should I send a squad of men over to keep watch over the area for now?”

Fei Hongde explains, “You can send some men disguised as mounted bandits and tell them to keep watch at the foot of the mountain, but since no one’s been there in twenty years I’m sure nothing can go wrong now. At the moment, you, me, and young Mister Zhao are the only ones who know of its existence, and I’m sure we can keep a secret. There’s no need for you to worry, General Bian.”

“Yes,” Bian Lingbai says, “You’re quite right.”

As he finishes speaking, Bian Lingbai breaks out once more into a belly laugh. He beckons Duan Ling over to sit at his side, claps him over the shoulder, and says, “The heavens have sent you here to aid me — this deed shall be done!”

Duan Ling smiles and nods, putting on a good show of being happy for Bian Lingbai. But Fei Hongde is staring at Duan Ling. “You must have had a difficult journey. I’d also just come back from Xiliang.”

Duan Ling says, “It was alright. I had Wu Du with me.”

Fei Hongde hums in agreement before continuing, “When did you cross into Xichuan?”

“Around the beginning of the year,” Duan Ling tells Fei Hongde.

“A number of the Shandong Guard used to work for your dad, and after they were relieved from duty they joined the Ministry of War. It’s surprising to me that you did not go looking for them but went to Wu Du instead. That was a good move on your part.”

“I couldn’t let them know I’m alive; after all, it’s hard to see what a person’s really thinking.”

Fei Hongde nods. “After that cousin of yours got married, where did she end up settling down?”

Duan Ling’s heart is beating out of his chest. He knows Fei Hongde is only pretending to reminisce with him while verifying his identity. Good thing he made sure to do his homework before his arrival. He asks, “Which cousin?”

Fei Hongde smiles. “Well, that I don’t quite remember. Back in the day when I was working for the late emperor in Shandong, I heard that you had a cousin on the maternal side with a face that could sink a thousand ships …”

“Fourth sister.” Duan Ling says immediately, “She fell ill later on.”

Fei Hongde nods slowly, and Bian Lingbai says to Duan Ling, “Master Fei has been everywhere. Even though he’s Tangut by birth, he’s an exceptional writer among those in my army. You can ask him for help with your studies.”

“Certainly,” Duan Ling replies.

Fei Hongde says to Bian Lingbai, “General, you still need to bring me a map of the area outside Tongguan so that we can discuss this in detail.”

Duan Ling knows his work is done here; Bian Lingbai then proceeds to shower him with advice and kind words, telling Duan Ling to get some rest. His present attitude towards Duan Ling compared to when he freshly arrived is already as different as night and day; he’s acting like an older brother.

Once Duan Ling is gone, Bian Lingbai turns to Fei Hongde and asks, “What do you think?”

Fei Hongde meditates on this a moment before replying, “There’s no problem with his identity. He should indeed be a member of Zhao Pu’s family.”

It’s only then that Bian Lingbai puts his mind at ease. “There is also the possibility that he’s an imposter.”

"Unlikely. You saw him too; this boy must have come from a literati family, and he shows the bearing of the descendent of a military man. He says little, but he’s quite natural and sedate when he does speak. When facing you, he’s not afraid — all that confidence is right there in his heart. That is absolutely not just any cowering boy one can find anywhere. Where would Wu Du even try to find a young man like that? And besides, doing so won’t do him any good.

Bian Lingbai supposes he’s right; what could Wu Du ever hope to gain by escorting a young man a thousand miles with a treasure map just to deliver money to him?

“That knave first betrayed General Zhao, then he killed Li Jianhong.” Bian Lingbai’s not even sure how he’s supposed to feel about this. “Even if he’s living under Mu Kuangda’s protection now, I’m sure he’s having a hard time of it. He must be trying to find some other livelihood.”

"Wu Du is a hesitant, indecisive man. Moreover, once he’s taken shelter with the Mu family, Chang Liujun will surely try to keep him down — he’d never tolerate Wu Du making a name for himself. He has nowhere left to go other than to come pledge his allegiance to you. This is to be expected.”

“If Helan Jie hasn’t come to me before he did … Having Wu Du at my disposal is not a bad thing.”

Fei Hongde heaves a sigh and says to Bian Lingbai, "Speaking of Helan Jie, I stand by my objection to your taking him in. If the government ever finds out he’s working for you, you won’t ever be able to clear yourself of any ties to the late emperor’s death.”

“Oh never mind that.” Bian Lingbai waves off his words with impatience. “You don’t need to say any more.”

Fei Hongde nods. “I will set out on surveying this area in the next several days.”

Fei Hongde rises and takes his leave. After he leaves the room, a seemingly perpetual smile returns to Bian Lingbai’s face. He unrolls the map, and looks at it over and over again, greed plain in his expression.

Late in the night Wu Du and Duan Ling head back to their rooms through the winding corridor.

A cool breeze wafts by. Duan Ling suddenly stops walking, and feeling something strange in the air, he stands in front of the covered gallery.

A full moon hangs over Tongguan, so big that it doesn’t even look real, spilling its pale silvery light upon the earth. Wu Du comes to a stop and turns to look at Duan Ling, one perplexed eyebrow raised.

“What is it?” Wu Du asks.

Duan Ling shakes his head; he has an odd feeling, but it’s not anything he can describe.

Wu Du stands behind Duan Ling and puts a hand on his shoulder, and together they look up beyond the courtyard. Beneath the bright moon Duan Ling has a false sense of who he is, as though he’s really become this “Zhao Rong”.

“The waters of Lake Dian, the moon of Tongguan,” Wu Du says, “the pine trees of Mount Yuheng, the snow of Languan.”2

Duan Ling immediately turns his head to say to Wu Du. “You know about that too?”

“Know about what?” Wu Du says, sounding bewildered.

“Those …” Duan Ling is reminded of those vast lands of the central plain Li Jianhong once spoke of, and he mediates for a moment on his thoughts before saying, “My dad also used to say that there are far too many beautiful places in the world.”

“Those born unbound in the itinerant layer of society have hearts that long to roam,” Wu Du says offhandedly.

“I see now this is what he meant by ‘the moon of Tongguan’. And there’s also the maple forests beneath Yubiguan …”

“You’ll see it someday,” Wu Du tells Duan Ling, “let’s go.”

“Do you mean to say you’ll take me there?”

“You can go ahead and think that if you’d like.”

They can’t say too much in Bian Lingbai’s estate, but he knows what Wu Du is trying to tell him; once they finish their work there, if he really wants to go, of course Wu Du can take him on a trip.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also e that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

Lake Dian is in Yunnan, Mount Yuheng is by the new capital, Jiangzhou, while “the snow of Languan” refers to a line in a poem. Languan isn’t a “pass”, but a mountain path in Qinling. (Tongguan is by Qinling) The poem referenced how the snow in Languan pass is piled so high that even horses would halt at the sight of it. ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

[bowsie22]

Weilan Collection 2

Summary: After Ye Zun’s death, the SID reopens its door with the original team back in place. With one big absence.

Zhu Hong hadn’t expected to be back in the office. But she and Fourth Uncle both agreed that she was in no way ready to be the High Chief of the Yashou fulltime. Instead, she had to go through weekly meetings and lessons with Uncle, Wu Qing and Ying Chun, learning their histories and cultures. After a few years, when she had matured, then she would take charge.

For now though, she was back working at SID. They were still her team, her family, even if there were a lot more workers. And even if something was missing. They’d lost a friend, more than one. Looking into Zhao Yunlan’s office she isn’t surprised to see him sitting in his chair, eyes fixed on the amber pendent resting on his desk.

“He’s been staring at it for an hour.”

Da Qing leapt onto her desk, butting her hand for scratches.

“Lao Li has left him food, but he’s ignoring it. It’s been a year Da Qing. I’m worried.”

A year since Ye Zun’s final attack. A year since Shen Wei’s death.

“Not even Lin Jing is this bad, and he lost Sha Ya.”

Da Qing growled, swiping a claw at his friend.

“You know you can’t compare those two. Lin Jing lost a prospective girlfriend. Yunlan, he lost his..his-“

“Soulmate.”

Their conversation stopped when Wang Zheng put down the phone shouting about a new case. The chief stepped out of his office, all signs of mourning gone.

“You heard her, let’s go!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Same energy as last time Chief. Off the charts.”

Zhao Yunlan sighed, looking away from Da Qing. This again. For the past three months, in every crime involving a Dixingren, they had found a dark energy. According to Lin Jing, it was identical to Shen Wei’s, which pissed Zhao Yunlan off. Was someone out there copying the Black Robe Envoy? Trying to destroy his reputation again? The man was dead. Would it kill people to finally leave him alone?

“And? Can it be tracked?”

“Unless Lin Jing has invented something in the two hours we’ve been gone.”

Zhao Yunlan sighed, massaging his temples. His headaches had gotten worse recently. He wasn’t sleeping, dreams of the palace and screams keeping him awake at night.

“Nothing else?”

“Afraid not Chief.”

“Ok, let’s go back to the SID. Maybe Lin Jing does have something.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I have nothing. Sorry Chief, but the Enovy’s power was always too strong and shorted out my instruments. This one is the same, I can’t track it.”

Lin Jing smiled sadly, knowing that nothing would comfort Zhao Yunlan.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault. Thank you. For trying.”

Since Shen Wei’s death, Zhao Yunlan rarely reacted to anything. He hadn’t threatened Lin Jing’s bonuses even once. It was odd. They wanted their old friend back. But they also knew better. Watching his friend pace in front of him, fingers tangled in his hair, Lin Jing opened his mouth, wanting to console him. Before he could, Wang Zheng raced into the lab.

“Chief, Minister Gao’s office is being attacked. Li Qiang says the reading from the Dixingren matches the energy found at the last few scenes.”

“Shit. Ok, all hands on deck. We leave now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The team spilled out of the cars, Da Qing and Zhao Yunlan leading them through the ministry building.

“Lin Jing, anything?”

“Outside the doors to Minister Gao’s office. Whoever is attacking him is there.”

Changcheng whimpered, concerned for his uncle. Chu Shuzhi wrapped an arm around the younger man’s shoulders, trying to comfort him. Growling, Zhao Yunlan burst through the doors, unholstering his gun, firing off a warning shot. His team scattered throughout the room, taking offensive positions.

“You! Stop right there! SID!”

The man (dressed in black trousers and a black hoodie. Zhao Yunlan glared. Another attempt to tarnish his Shen Wei’s reputation.) turned slowly. He tilted his head, staring at the chief of the SID. At least, that’s what Zhao Yunlan assumed. Black shadows covered his face. Cocking his gun, Zhao Yunlan was determined not to let him escape.

“Hands up and come with us peacefully. This doesn’t have to end with a fight.”

But of course, the man attacked. Damn, he was fast. In the blink of an eye he had taken out Lao Chu and Zhu Hong, the best fighters out of the group. He went for Da Qing, Zhao Yunlan firing before he could reach the cat Yashou. With a cry, the man stumbled away from Da Qing, slumping against the wall. Zhao Yunlan stormed over to his friend, punching his arm.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! You’re being attacked, you don’t freeze in place, you fight back! You defend yourself! Xiao Gao could do better!”

“I’m sorry, but-“

“But what?”

“Chief.”

Still angry, the Guardian turned his glare on the team’s youngest member. Xiao Gao stared at the attacker, face pale, tears in his eyes.

“Chief, it’s Shen Wei.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The original SID team stood in Lin Jing’s lab, staring at the man on the bed. Their scientist ran from machine to machine, running all kind of tests. The chief saw on the edge stood at the foot of the bed, eyes never leaving Shen Wei’s face.

“Finally, tests are finished.”

“And?”

“It’s him, it’s Shen Wei.”

“Shit!”

Zhao Yunlan started pacing, anger in every step. Zhu Hong stood in his path, stopping him. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she looked into his eyes, seeing the anger and pain there.

“Why is this a bad thing? Shen Wei is back. That’s good right?”

“He attacked Minister Gao. He’s been attacking people for months. He’s a criminal who’ll be sent back to Dixing as soon as he wakes up.”

“No, he won’t.”

As one, the team turned towards the door of the lab.

“An Bai?”

The King of Dixing settled into the couch, accepting the tea from Wang Zheng.

“Thank you.”

He leaned back, looking over his audience, Wang Zheng clutched onto Sang Zan’s arm, Jin Ling and Chu Shuzi stood on either side of a seated Zhao Yunlan, Da Qing sat on the table, close to his friend, while Zhu Hong and Guo Changcheng stood at either end of the table. Guo Changcheng had his diary out ready to take notes. An Bai sipped his tea, still not sure what to say.

“Forgive me Guardian, but I’m still not sure how you survived? I was told you had died.”

Zhao Yunlan sighed, knowing he needed to explain his own survival before learning about Shen Wei’s.

“There was a Dixingren, Zhang Zhi. He survived by sharing bodies with people. Turns out he’d been in my father’s body for about twenty years. He knew how the Guardian Lantern worked and volunteered to move into my body and sacrifice himself. I came back here and kept working with SID. Now, you tell me why Shen Wei attacked us.”

The younger man placed the cup on the table, running his fingers through his hair.

“There are certain people in Dixing who still support Ye Zun. One of them is a healer. This is going to be hard to believe.”

“Try us.”

“A part of Shen Wei’s soul was trapped in the Mountain Awl. This group managed to pull it out. Using the serum that insane Haixing scientist created, they upper her power to insane levels. She recreated Shen Wei’s body. He came back weakened, without his full powers, so he couldn’t escape.”

Da Qing interrupted the man, curious about something.

“How do you know all this?”

An Bai glared at the table, fists clenched.

“They’re not the only people who can break someone with torture.”

“When you say break?”

Hearing the hitch in Zhao Yunlan’s voice, the king looked up, eyes full of sympathy.

“They broke his mind. Shen Wei has no idea who he is, who you are or who the Black Robe Envoy is. As far as he’s concerned, he lives to serve this splinter group. All of whom have been arrested. Unfortunately, by the time we got to them, they’d already sent him to attack the minister.”

“Ok, so what’s the plan? Can he be helped?”

“Yes, there are plenty of Dixingren who can heal his mind and body. It won’t be easy, but, I think he’s strong enough.”

Zhao Yunlan slammed a hand on the table.

“He is plenty strong enough. We didn’t get where we are by doubting Shen Wei. Tell us what to do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn’t easy. For anyone. There were days where Shen Wei was catatonic, sitting on the couch in the SID offices, Zhao Yunlan beside him holding his hand. Other days he flew into random rages, destroying everything around him until Lao Chu had to restrain him. Those days ended with Shen Wei crying into Zhao Yunlan’s shoulder, apologising for everything.

His memory came back in dribs and drabs. His first memory, perhaps not surprisingly, was of Kunlun. There was a lot of confusion those first few weeks. When he remembered Ye Zun, Zhao Yunlan had to take a week off work. They spent that time curled together on Zhao Yunlan’s bed, Shen Wei crying and blaming himself. As his memories returned, so did his powers.

The best moment came when he remembered everything about Zhao Yunlan. Not wanting to wait anymore, he teleported into the other’s office, pulling the taller man into a kiss. They broke apart, gasping for air. Zhao Yunlan came to his senses first.

“What just happened?”

“I’ve waited ten thousand years. I’ve been tortured, I’ve died, I’ve had my brain broken and remade and throughout everything, there was always you. Just here, lingering in the back of my head. You saved me Zhao Yunlan. I love you.”

Laughing, Zhao Yunlan hugged the man, spinning them in a circle, aware that the test had come to ogle them.

“And I’ll always be there baby. I promise. You and me, through all the ages.”

A promise that Zhao Yunlan was only to happy to keep.

#weilan #zhenhun

[tanyavvvvvvf-blog]

Guardian Original Novel- Bonus Chapter Four - Finished on 2018/07/30 by Priest - P1

【Interpreter note: Token of Soul Suppression : Whoever have their names written on the token, will be a servant. They will have connection with the token, and have to follow commands from the master - Zhao Yunlan, God of Mountain KunLun.】

(I)

"... ... Here, click here, and then set up a pin number for payment." Zhao Yunlan handed a cell phone to Shen Wei, but not until Shen Wei took over, he changed his mind, set up a pin himself instead, "Never mind, I'll do it, you are too easy to guess."

Professor Shen is a very persistent person, all of his password were their door number, he has no awareness of security.

Shen Wei is a very detailed and decent man. After the battle, his focus was shifted from worrying about the Triple Realm to the arrangement of clothing, diet, housing, and traveling, these are so easy and effortless for him.

In the past, Shen Wei really didn't care to plan his life style. In troubled times, he would find a spot in the forest or mountain to hide. If the world was in the heyday of peace, he would look for an apartment and live a simple life. He wandered around the world for so long, honest and clear, has no deposit, not to mention of buying a property. So far, he has only a checking account for his salary, he is basically a normal middle-class man.

As for the famous mountains and rivers he inherited from KunLun, are in charged by the National Tourism Development Department, have nothing to do with him. He can't have the share of the fares or tickets.

"Look, I'll show you how to send out a Red-pocket here." Zhao Yunlan reached out and hooked over Shen Wei's shoulders, ruined his dignified sitting position. He took the chance of sharing personal experience, sent a red-pocket to himself, and he was quite satisfied with that. "Congratulations! The last old fogey of this century just stepped into Mobile Pay. ... .... What, again!"

Before he finished, his phone rang, Zhao Yunlan looked at the screen, didn't want to pick up, so he flipped the phone facing down. The phone rang for three times, but whoever was calling not going to stop, his office phone started to ring. Zhao Yunlan stretched his leg, poked Qing over the armchair, "Yo, fatty, pick it up."

Since Shen Wei was still sitting there, Qing held down his tamper. He jumped on the deck, treated the handset as Zhao Yunlan's face, slammed it off, "Hello, Special Inve.... Ah? HAHA, how are you Old Chief Zhao？Oh you're looking for the Chief Director? He just told me he's not here."

Zhao Yunlan:"... ..."

He looked at his phone, all three phone calls were not from the same person, the last two were from his father. He moved towards the phone unwillingly, "What's wrong with these monsters! Are they all right?! Going to my dad to pull a freaking string!"

Special Investigation Department, as is "Soul Suppression Unit", in the very beginning, it was like a "daycare", and a "Labor reformation + social working shelter".

In this department, except for Guo ChangCheng - a real human, and Wang Zheng- Sang Zan and other ghost-form officers that were taken in by Zhao Yunlan, the rest of the crew members could be divided into two types: Type one, for example Zhu Hong and Lin Jing, these were sent in here to accumulate experiences; Type two, Chu Shuzhi, a former prisoner. The Soul Suppression Unit was established to coordinate among the Triple Realms, and to guard the peace of the human world. Their daily life are to wipe behind those criminals who committed crimes, under the condition of complying with protocols, laws and regulations. This job alone was not a easy piece of cake, plus the director was a normal-looking young man, so there was never any talented person volunteered to join.

But the status quo was very different now. Ever since the barrier was devastated, the four Holy Items were re-arranged, the grand reincarnation was established, the Lord of Ghost ascended and became a celestial, and God KunLun returned to his rightful position, these facts might be secrets to mortal human, but not to the other forms of lives. After the battle night, the SID that no one cared, became the hottest issue. Everyone tried to step in to get some celestial blessing. It turned so annoying that Zhao Yunlan had to turn them down by telling them "There are not enough space for too many names on the Token of Soul Suppression (Note: A tree bark from the divine tree grown on top of Mountain KunLun)."

The token doesn't have enough space, but SID does. The SID is an administrative facility, founded by the government.

So, in order to get connection with SID, some smart pants started to lobby for reformation, and eventually they succeeded. SID was upgraded into "Special Investigation Administration Department - SIAD". Now there are agencies in different provinces, quite organized.

The "Section Chief Zhao" who was lying in the loft of 9th University Blvd all day long, thus inexplicably became "Chief Director Zhao".

This was the first year of opening for application after the reformation. Zhao Yunlan who was indulged in gardening and peaceful happy life, was directed by authorities to take over the recruitment. Sure won't have their names engraved on the token, but doesn't mean Zhao Yunlan wants some losers in his agencies, he had enough losers already. The whole department was shorthanded, so public recruiting was not a option. He sent out limited quantities of applications to different species, left the tough qualify selection to their leaders.

To get some extra applications, apparently some "talented people" had figured out shortcuts.

"Yes?" Zhao Yunlan picked up the phone and answered very sluggish, "What. You already retired, can't you just spend more time on dancing with those old ladies. Don't waste your time and energy on my career. Who called you anyway?! Errrrr... ... "

Qing lifted his ears, a rambling monologue boomed out from the other side of the line. At the beginning, Zhao Yunlan was trying to interrupt his father, "No, I did not. No, not at all", that didn't work out. Later, he decided to give up his resistance. He leaned to the desk, relaxed his leg, looked up the ceiling and then all the way down to Shen Wei's clean cuffs. He suddenly started to miss Med-Bowl, as least he never give so much lecture.

His dad, a retired Director, recently had been frequently visited, very angry after he found out why. Year of 2018 already, these people visited him just for a stupid job application form. What a stupid idea! That was why he called in to lecture Zhao Yunlan.

Zhao Yunlan answered very careless:"Yes, I know...... You're absolutely right...... No, I'm not a dictator... No, I didn't attempt to Rent-Seeking, I simply don't have enough employees for giving interviews. There are way too many applicants, I don't have enough people for a primary selection....... I am not corrupted. There's no acid rain in Dragon City lately...... No, I'm not playing with words. I certainly did not do that everyday. I do reflect on myself everyday. For real! As a precaution. Ask Shen Wei!"

Someone knocked on the door three times, Lin Jing craned his neck inside first. He bowed to Shen Wei first, "Thank you Prof Shen —— Chief, It's Dragon Boat Festival tomorrow, on behalf of the whole department, we would like know if we have any physical form of benefits or bonus for the holiday?"

Zhao Yunlan pointed to the door, "Post a notice of "Honest and self-disciplined", spend the holiday with your honesty not your benefits or bonus! Get out!"

So much for the representative Mr. Lin. He left the office with shame.

He just left, Zhu Hong knocked on the door, "Thank you Prof Shen! Hi Chief, I have a word from my Uncle Four, he wants to make an appointment with you for dinner. Some elder leaders from other monster-spirit spices want to meet you. But, I'm just a messenger. I don't like the idea at all. If you don't feel comfortable about it, just refuse. No need to worry about my stance."

Zhu Hong was definitely on his side, no need to doubt that. But the monster-spirit species is KunLun's direct line of disciple, he shouldn't avoid them. Zhao Yunlan was left with no choice, he waved his hand.

Zhu Hong turned away, almost bumped into Chu Shuzhi. He was in a big hurry, nodded to her, "You all right? ... Hey Chief, we have a situation. Some one used sorcery on the applications. "

Shen Wei looked up from the phone he was playing with, "What is it?"

Shen Wei doesn't interfere with the any business in general, unless someone ask his opinions. He started the topic this time, was because he personally impressed those "security seals" on the applications. The Soul Reapers was responsible for guarding the barrier, for 5,000 years he didn't waste his time. He watched all the spices rising and falling, he knew their skills. He is by meaning a living "lost sorcery library". But no one ever come to him to purchase any "patent", so "the library" is still living a mid-class life.

Chu Shuzhi:"Still have ten days before the deadline. But the applications we received have far over-numbered than what we sent out. Oh, by the way. Thank you, Prof Shen."

"Put them together. I want to see." Zhao Yunlan put down the handset, "And, what kind of cue is that? Why you all come in started with Thank You Prof Shen?"

Shen Wei:"Emmmm......."

Chu Shuzhi:"Prof Shen just sent us Red-Pockets. Must be the bonus for the holiday, right?"

Zhao Yunlan took over the phone from Shen Wei. Just a few minutes while he was on the phone, Shen Wei already mastered the skill of Mobile Pay, and he practiced. Using the "Contacts", he sent out red-pockets to all the crew members in the department.

Not one big red-pocket sent inside a chatting group, not the kind that if you're lucky you're get a good number of money, Zhao Yunlan hadn't teach him that. But individual red-pockets, were sent one by one through his contacts list. Already half way through, Shen Wei ran out of balance.

Money, to Prof Shen must be like online-video game tokens, those tokens you'll get a load once you log in, not those you need to pay.

Zhao Yunlan:"... ..."

Shen Wei:"?"

"A.....all right." Zhao Yunlan gave a twisted smile, "No balance in your account? No problem. I'll transfer some to you. Finish where you left. Don't leave anyone behind. Ah hahaha, You picked up so quick."

This Dragon Boat Festival, everyone received their bonus after all, funded by anonymous Mr. Zhao, really heart touching.

-----Continue W/ P2--------

Fan-art by -LLA- on Weibo.com, authorized for using. 

Go to my wattpad account to check the rest.  https://my.w.tt/mD5iXDc3pP

#guardian #zhenhun #镇魂 #shenwei #zhaoyunlan #zhuyilong #baiyu #赵云澜 #沈巍 #朱一龙 #白宇 #keep reading #keepreading

[miniatureclover]

Faraway Wanderers Reading Blog: Chapters 06-10

I AM BACK! Maybe I’ll be able to finish this live blog series before the live action comes out? Hopefully?

Chapter 6: The Beauty

Gu Xiang and Zhou Zishu are way too much together, ha. They also make a good team, surprisingly, even with Zhou Zishu having to bow out of the fight part way (throwing the same “poor fragile me” excuse Gu Xiang used right back at her…except he actually means it since the fool is literally dying a slow death by nails). He’s also a good teacher, and her a good student, and this really isn’t helping him lay low but ah well, I guess that flew out of the window once this whole mess started.

The fight scenes are pretty good, too. Gu Xiang is young and confident, but absolutely brutal and not afraid to use hidden weapons. She has good reflexes and instincts, though she is still young, and that’s reflected in her panic when she loses her weapon and getting overconfident. Contrast that with Zhou Zishu who is very observant and picks up some stones to help her out when he has to rest, and you can see the clear difference between them as people with two different experience levels. It’s really neat how the narrative manages to mix the characters’ life experiences, personality, and age into the way they fight without giving it away explicitly.

She blinked in astonishment — this ragged man’s ramblings worth diddlysquat, but his execution in battle was one of the cleanest and cruelest she had ever seen. It really made one wonder who he was.

Really throwing that image out the window. Guess it’s lucky he was nerfed by the nails, huh. And it turns out that our main character is also a rather brutal fighter, when he can fight without collapsing.

And here enters Wen Kexing, finally with a proper name! What an entrance. He’s already kind of a creep with no sense of personal boundaries, ha. He’s also really, really perceptive though. In a creepy way (who says “your shoulder blades are beautiful, therefore your face must also be beautiful”?? he’s such a ridiculous flirt).

Alas, we are left wondering whether Wen Kexing is really blinded by good looks or just very perceptive after Gu Xiang says that he has a tendency to exaggerate.

Chapter 7: Setting Off

Oh gosh, this poor boy. Protect him, he is precious. I’m talking about Zhang Chengling of course, who starts the chapter off crying because he has seen a lot of stuff go down, like his entire family dying to start things off, followed by people coming to kill him and a seemingly random beggar agreeing to deliver him somewhere safe? But, alas, might as well cry yourself a river while you’re at it, kid. It’s going to be a rough ride now that he’s stuck with this ragtag group.

Wen Kexing is such a clown. He has his wits about him, but he is such a clown with a punchable face. Zhou Zishu isn’t actually much better in terms of acting like a normal human being interacting with smaller human beings. At least Zhang Chengling is resilient. He bounces back quickly and continues to pester Zhou Zishu to become his teacher. He does still have nightmares, which makes sense after all he’s been through.

But he seems to remind Zhou Zishu of someone from his past, which is interesting.

Back to why Zhang Chengling is a precious bun and must be protected: after having nightmares and believing he’s woken his savior up, he says things like “I can…I can stop sleeping if it’s a problem?” That is not actually a legitimate solution to the problem, believe it or not.

Then some enemies arrive with a superpowered guqin/zither, which is hilarious no matter how many novels or dramas I encounter considering traditional guqin with silk strings aren’t very loud instruments (the description from the first sentence of the next chapter is right in that it’s more of a “thin” sound than other instruments).

Chapter 8: Moonshade

Wen Kexing is indeed an enigma, the perfect match for Zhou Zishu who is undoubtedly one himself. In between his moments of eccentricity, he provides a lot of insight to the martial arts world, the way he conveys the harshness of life in it striking a rather eerie note (Wen Kexing’s voice was gentle, “Even if he’s still alive, all of his meridians have been broken; he’s useless now. Death would be a happier fate for him.”) and slides right out of it a moment later.

This match also speaks to Zhou Zishu’s capabilities: injured, he managed to beat Qin Song who is apparently well-known for his ability to kill people with that zither, and with a crudely constructed flute at that.

He felt a particular aura from this man that suggested they might be birds of a feather, the other would definitely not do something if it didn’t benefit him. […] After lots of thoughts without any solid conclusions, he scoffed at himself — old habits died hard.

You two are indeed birds of a feather, glad you noticed. I do like how he slips back into old habits, after all, he only recently stepped away from his former life as a spymaster, it’d be difficult to put a stop to all of his old tendencies.

They even proceed to exchange a few moves, presumably to figure each other out, until the pesky nails driven into Zhou Zishu’s torso act up, which gives Wen Kexing an opportunity to be a creep and touch his face. Half of it makes sense, since he’s convinced Zhou Zishu is “a beauty” and hiding it somehow, but he seems the type to have done such a thing even without that reason.

This exchange is hilarious though:

-What’s my face made of? -Human skin. -It feels like it’s one with your body… -Well, I was born with it, so.

…I should hope so. These two are a comedy duo in their own right.

Gu Xiang continues to be a delight, in any case. She has no reserve about making smart comments as soon as Wen Kexing’s back is turned, probably knowing he can still hear her at a distance.

Finally, three days later, their little party manages to make it to Zhang Chengling’s father’s friend, but we’re only on chapter 8, which means there’s much more chaos to be had in their future. For now, Zhou Zishu is relieved he finished his self-imposed mission and gained some “merits”, but muses on how it’s exhausting to be good person, haha. Indeed, the world doesn’t make it easy sometimes, especially not the crazy martial arts world they live in.

Chapter 9: In the Woods

Name info-dump, I guarantee I will remember none of them. It does fill out the world and fits with Zhou Zishu’s character, since his job required him to know all the nitty-gritty details of the major players in the martial arts world.

Ultimately, the exposition serves to let us know why he decides stay in the manor for a bit, as he’s well aware that Zhao Jing and the rest of the people grouping up at his place aren’t as glamorous and gallant as they seem. Also, he’s already weak to Zhang Chengling’s puppy eyes, apparently.

Zhao Jing is catching onto the glaringly obvious hints at Zhou Zishu being far more than a random beggar, and his manipulation of Zhang Chengling’s eager to please nature might be a bad sign of what’s to come. Zhou Zishu is more than prepared for a little investigating into his real identity, and the deception runs deep enough that he has a whole fake history and job to go along with his name.

Zhou Zishu endures a round of social BS-ing, aka attempts to dig for information on him, which is explained in a really succinct manner: although the greetings and false praise are absolute bullshit and not genuine in the least, they do serve a purpose, which is to sort out who has relations with who, and who is an outsider to be wary of. It’s a good point. The boot-licking is a standard in the genre that emphasizes the importance of saving face and social relations. The author summed it up well.

After sitting through all that, Zhou Zishu decides he has stayed long enough and departs under the cover of night, except he can’t shake Wen Kexing off his tail, much to his annoyance.

I’ll admit, these two characters don’t draw me in quite as much as some of priest’s other protagonists, but their dialogue is a goldmine:

-“Escorting the young master Zhang is purely for gathering merits, so that I won’t have to endure any tortures in the Underworld after death. -“Correct, Brother Zhou truly shares the same mind with me; and as only beautiful people can do that, it is clear-” -“See, my dear soulmate, another chance for merit gathering has appeared.”

They continue bickering until they find a corpse in the forest, aaand this is where our plot kicks off!

Chapter 10: Netherworld

“Someone killed the Lord of Duan Jian Manor, and I’m a charitable person who wants to gather merits, so why not. And I’m bored anyway.”

Ha. And Zhou Zishu catches onto his BS right away, suggesting he might want to chase after Sun Ding because he’s the most powerful of the culprits who ran off. It’s hilarious how well-matched these two are, and how they just roll with each other’s ridiculous commentary.

Despite not wanting to get involved, Zhou Zishu can’t help it. His detective senses are tingling and he figures there’s nothing to lose since he’s a dead man walking.

However, their pursuit leads them to another dead body, and they take off after the person fleeing the crime scene until they reach a cemetery. Of course it’s a cemetery, haha. The person they were pursuing also disappears mysteriously. The whole scene is fit for a horror movie, complete with laughing animals.

Now, to be fair, and I’m not sure if this applies to owls, but some animals like foxes have truly terrifying vocalizations (one variation sounds like a screaming woman, for one). It’s no wonder people used to think demons and spirits existed. Unlike western depictions of the owl as a symbol of wisdom, among other things, in Chinese culture they’re apparently bad omens, at most used to ward off evil spirits.

Wen Kexing is so random and dramatic and loves to talk, haha. He tells a short story about owls being omens of death, then about locust trees being considered the door to the underworld. They really do find an underground cavern and river beneath the tombstone.

So! We have met our two main characters, become well-acquainted with their propensity to hide their true identities and incessant bickering when they’re together, and set the stage for solving a murder mystery. Decent progression for 10/78 chapters. I really love priest’s writing, which is always a delightful balance of pleasant and poetic description between good, distinctive dialogue and forward action to progress the story.

#faraway wanderers #tianyake #reading blog

[linoliu]

Liu Youheng: The Catalogue of the Discrimination of Ancient Chinese Music History (A Collection) 劉有恆：《中國古代音樂史辨正（甲集）》目錄

Liu Youheng: The Catalogue of the Discrimination of Ancient Chinese Music History (A Collection) 劉有恆：《中國古代音樂史辨正（甲集）》 [Abstract] Aiming at the important history in the history of ancient Chinese music and the mysteries of music and music that have not been solved so far, such as the emergence of the seven-level scale, "Zhou Li" is the origin of the pseudo-book, the lower scale, Su Shi The truth about the poetry, the Tang and Song dynasties, and the true harmony between the music and the music of the Yuan and Ming dynasties are fully analyzed and clarified. Xi Neng is engaged in the research and practice of ancient Chinese music history and music music. The person provides the identification of the details and the space for thinking. ［提要］針對中國古代音樂史裡的重要歷史及各時期的樂律及樂學迄今無法解開的謎，如七聲音階的出現、《周禮》乃偽書、下征音階的源始、蘇祗婆樂調、唐宋燕��含角調的真相，及元明清南北曲的樂調與樂律的真相等皆予以全面剖析及釐清，希能為從事中國古代音樂史及樂律樂學的研究及實務工作者提供巨細靡遺的辨正及提供思考的空問。

1. Correction of the Chinese Music Dictionary, music, ancient music, etc. 3 2. Yang Yinliu talks about the witchcraft factors in the origin of music 26 3. Talk about the Zhou Dynasty’s “Fun in the Room” 41 4. Yang Yinliu’s "The History of Ancient Chinese Music" Revealed 44 5. The theory of Jiahu's bone flute scale is the "Qingshang scale" or "the lower scale" is a hypothesis 50 6. The seven-tone and scale truth of Xia Shangtao 59 7. "Zhou Li" Contains the "Da Sile" Chapters in the Late Western Han Dynasty 61 8. The folk music of the Zhou Dynasty, which was wrongly told by the history of music ─ ─ mistakenly used the Book of Songs and the Songs of the South 102 9. Inferring the music of the Qin and the Western Han Dynasty from the so-called "feather recovery" in the "Historical Records" 108 10. From the "Six Laws" to the "Twelve Yin and Yang Lu" Story----Liu Wei Wang Yu's Forgery of Zhou Li 116 11. Zhouzhou Luzhou did not talk about the establishment of the "Old Scale" ("Positive Sound Level") 123 12. What is the "four meeting" music in the Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty? 129 13. Explain the mystery of the three great rituals of "Zhou Li. Da Shi Le" and its "eight circles" 131 14. Zhou Li's three great rituals, "six changes", "eight changes" and "nine changes" - Liu Wei, Wang Hao, forging "Zhou Li" 137 15. From "Three Summers" to "Nine Summers" - Liu Wei, Wang Hao, forging "Zhou Li" 146 16. Shi Shangshu's "Poetry, Ge Yongyan, Sheng Yiyong, Law and Sound" 152 17. "Become a phase" test 157 18. It is mistaken that the instrument "South" recorded in the Book of Songs is an oolong 167 19. Talk about the misunderstanding of "Shang Shu·Yi Yi": "Sniper slamming the ball, smashing the piano and smashing it" 171 20. Interpretation of the three so-called ancient instruments of "拊", "相相", "舂牍" 178 21. The origin of the bronze instrument is not the result of the beat 183 22. The "Beast", "Rope" and "Brattle" of the 琉 阁 舞 狩猎 狩猎 狩猎 实 实 实 实 实 实 实 实 188 23. "Liu Li" in "Zhou Li" is not a reference to "Liu Lu" 194 24. From "Zhou Guan" to Liu Wei's "Zhou Li", the story of "Six Music" (six generations of music) 201 25. Unravel the mystery of the two flutes of the Han and Wei Diqu, the two flutes of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Taiqu - and talk about Yang Yinliu’s miscalculation of the Eastern Han Dynasty to Wei’s law, should be about #c1 205 26. The four laws mentioned in the early days of the Western Jin Dynasty (Lianhe, Taile, Yi, Xian) 210 27. Talking about the lost flute blowing method----whistle blowing 217 28. The truth of the "clear angle of the clear corner" and the disintegration of the foundation of "the same three palaces" 237 29. Talking about the Qingqin of the Guqin is not the "Qingshang scale" (Yanle scale) that Huang Xiangpeng misjudged was born out of nothing. 258 30. Talk about taxonomy or talk about music theory? ——What is Yan Dan’s “Dan”? 263 31. The Northern Zhou Dynasty Su Shi Po music is the source of the seven-step workmanship of the later generations----Su Shi's "tune" is "all", "Dan" is the tone 268 32. The three changes of Yanyue style - from Su Shipo's five-tone to four-tone, and the beginning of the three-tone 272 33. In the "seven sounds, three sounds should be resolved" in the interpretation of the emperor's remarks, and the interpretation of "the music of the eight sounds" 280 34. On the Remains of the Great Tang Dynasty Yale Palace-----The Northern Song Dynasty Renzong Zhao Yu's "Jing You Le Jing Xin Jing" 285 35. Talking about the ruler spectrum, the reduction of the word spectrum, and the 琵琶 spectrum words all began to appear due to Yan Le 292 36. Tang Dynasty Yanle Corner: Under the "Commercial Corner with the Same Use" 295 37. To calibrate the first set of Dunhuang music scores 303 38. From the Tang Dynasty Yanle "Lin Zhong Shang Tune" to uncover the truth of the original Tang Tai Yan Yan Tai Tai cluster 309 39. Tang Dynasty Yanle Taicun Palace, also known as "Zhenggong" is the name of the ancestral memory of Tang Yanle, who was once too clustered for the palace. 40. Cai Yuanding of the Southern Song Dynasty guessed that Yan Le is a test of the scale of the next levy - Cai Yuanding's "change" is the clear angle, "闰" is the Qing Yu 317 41. The document of "Yellow Bell Pipe Tong Qiu" proves that Duan An Festival Yan Le 28 325 42. The birth law does not produce "one uniform seven palaces" or Yanle four palaces 329 43. Talking about the music function of "Everything" is no longer Yanle Siji (fourth scale) 332 44. Interpretation of the "Lü Lu four offenses" in the Tang and Song Dynasties - positive, side, partial, and side 336 45. Re-enactment of the Tang Dynasty Yanle B Tai Tai for the palace, "Don't know the five-tone wheel twenty-eight map" 341 46. ​​On the division of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the only seventeen-year-old tune is contained in the annals 350 47. Unraveling the Tang Dynasty Yanle 28 to the Northern Song Dynasty, only inheriting the mystery of the 17th Palace 358 48. Talking about the relationship between the Tang Dynasty Yanle angle adjustment and the Song Dynasty Yanle angle adjustment 362 49. From the Tang Dynasty Huang Zhonggong's "Famous Songs" in the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was known as the Lu Yin Palace. 365 50. Talking about the substitution table of Yanle in the Tang Dynasty and Yanle Palace in the Song Dynasty 369 51. Analysis of the Musical Theory of Jiang Baishi's "Drunken Merchants Pieces" in the Southern Song Dynasty Being Crafted into the Qing Dynasty's Phonetic Scale----Concurrently Talking about the Poor Translation of Baiyue Dao's Songs by Yang Yinliu 373 52. Talking about Zhang Yan’s "Etymology" on the volume of non-Zhang Yan 381 53. Since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Kunqu Opera’s Northern Qufu Palace has been reconciled to the original Yuan Ming Yan Le 28 383 54. Uncovering the mystery of the palace songs of the Ming Dynasty from the two northern songs of Zhu Zaiqu 393 55. Examples of Misjudgments in the Study of Ancient Songs and Tunes: Huang Xiangpeng's Interpretation of Jinbei's Guanle Music 398 56. From the perspective of Huang Xiangpeng's translation of "Crimson", the Western and vocal music theory is regarded as the mistake of analyzing traditional Chinese music. 402

Title: "The History of Ancient Chinese Music" (A) Author: Liuyou Heng Publisher: City State Press; Taipei Publication date: September 2019 書名：《中國古代音樂史辨正》（甲集） 作者：劉有恆 出版者：城邦印書館;臺北 出版日期：2019年9月

[chalkrevelations]

OK, wow, Episode 29 of Word of Honor, and that was A LOT. There is just A LOT going on, and all of it is A LOT.

(Spoilers. Scroll on past and come back later if you need to.)

Well, you know where this is going to start: Both A-Xiang and I are resolutely NOT crying. Yet. But you know who is? Cao Weining. We literally get a single crystalline tear drop, and oh god, I can’t take this, the mood swing from their adorable forest stroll and the way she noms up her corn family and the way he tries to blow away misfortune from the well of her palms and the way she looks up at him as she realizes how much he wants to take care of her and protect her forever – to this poor cinnamon roll and his eyes filling up with tears as he realizes the enormity of who A-Xiang is, the enormity of what he’s potentially done bringing her back to his sect and giving the Ghost Valley a way in, the way she’s hidden something so important from him. That she could have been stringing him along this whole time? That Wen Kexing, who he knows, who he knows as a good guy, is apparently the terrifying leader of the Ghost Valley? Nothing he knows is real, none of it makes sense, and it kills me, the wordless communication between him and A-Xiang, after she finally says it, finally lets him know who she is, and he just looks at her for confirmation, because he can’t believe it, and she gives that tiny little nod, placing all of this knowledge and her fate in his hands, the hands she’s held as he’s promised to stay with her and protect her always, to not fail her. OK. I take it back. A little bit, I’m tearing up. And then he doesn’t. He doesn’t fail her. His shixiong can’t figure out what Cao Weining and A-Xiang are apparently fighting about, because apparently Cao Weining hasn’t told anyone who she is!

Also, I have to yell excitedly about something here for a minute, because OMG THE MIRRORING they continue to maintain between Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu and Gu Xiang/Cao Weining. (!!!) I really want to point this one out, because it’s subtle but I think incredibly important, and you lose it if all you’re able to follow is the English subtitles. I have to give props to another Tumblr user (whose post I cannot for the life of me find again, and if anyone does, please let me know, so I can update this post), because I wouldn’t have caught it, with my Level 2 Duolingo Mandarin, if they hadn’t done a post a while back about the nuances of the use of “外人” (I think that’s correct) between ZZS and WKX in Ep 25 (and possibly Ep 26). In Ep 25 at 45:53, there’s a conversation about training Chengling – ZZS says something about getting WKX to do some of the training, WKX responds with something about letting “someone else” teach your disciple, per the English subtitles, and ZZS responds with “And you’re ‘someone else’?” Youku is using “someone else” here as a translation of 外人 (“wairen?” is maybe the transliteration of it?) which actually seems to mean “stranger” or more specifically “outsider” – someone who’s from “outside.” I presume in this context, specifically from outside your sect/family (which gives the whole conversation more layers, because by using this label for himself, Wen Kexing gives us another example of how he’s still resisting the idea of himself as a shidi of Four Seasons Manor, at that point, and is still unable to accept the full scope of his relationship with ZZS, even though he wants it so badly, because he is so terrified of getting it and then losing it). In Ep 26, 外人 comes up again, at 5:00, when ZZS finds WKX giving training advice to Chengling. SO, props to this currently unknown Tumblr user, because even though I kind of quickly scrolled past the post without fully reading it - because I hadn’t reached those eps yet, and I didn’t want to see too many spoilers -  the post did alert me to the word “outsider” as a meaning of 外人. And without that, I probably wouldn’t have twigged to A-Xiang’s use of “outsider” at the very end of this episode, when this shining, clever, fierce girl, who’s been taught to survive above all else, tells Cao Weining’s shixiong that he can’t just send her away for her own protection, that she’s going to stay and fight and die with the rest of them because he can’t take back his words about her being family and now treat her like an outsider. This time, the English subtitles actually use the word “outsider,” and yes, I checked the Mandarin subtitles, and she uses 外人 to claim her place as part of Cao Weining’s sect/family, the same word WKX uses – and ZZS challenges – to try to maintain his distance from ZZS’s sect/family. Ugh. My heart.

So, yeah, that’s a whole lot about A-Xiang in this ep, and it’s about 1/5 of everything that happened, so let me see if I can keep the rest of this from overwhelming anyone’s dash:

Han Ying. >: (  Show, gdi. It’s not like I haven’t said from the minute my dude gazed adoringly at ZZS, 20-something episodes ago, that he was a goner, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. This death and the scenes focused on it give us a LOT, though: Yikes on WKX’s desperation to save him, and flashback to the Four Sages of Anji – WKX knows he’s going to be out there digging another grave with a sword, and he really does not want that. Flashback to Eps 22 and 23 when Cao Weining told A-Xiang that he wanted her to be more careful because she would actually feel bad if she killed someone innocent, and ZZS told WKX he didn’t want him to have any more sins on his hands. Not to mention, literal flashback to the death of WKX’s parents, the most traumatic event of his life. Also, I noticed the difference here between WKX’s reaction to Han Ying the last time they met, which was pure vinegar, and his acceptance of him this time along with his desperation to save him, not even really for Han Ying, himself, so much as for ZZS.

Duan Pengju, omg, this asshole. Meanwhile, Chengling is getting to indulge his newfound bloodthirstiness, with the approval of his shifu. That’s right, Chengling, you should burn down his little battalion. Fucking superb, you funky little goldbean. Of course, then, we’re going to re-visit the most traumatic event of your life because everyone gets a little bit of PTSD triggering in this ep. As a treat. I … love? … that is maybe not the precisely correct word … how ZZS reassures Chengling that no, Tian Chuang will keep him alive - ZZS knows, like the rest of us, that creepster Prince Jin wants a piece of him. I do actually love how Chengling’s response is to try to wake up Wen Kexing, because he knows no one is laying a finger on ZZS if WKX is around to say anything about it. I also love the way ZZS sends Pengju scrambling backward just by stalking toward him. The minute he steps outside the Manor gate, ZZS is clearly the person in control of this faceoff, and the only reason he’s headed back to Jin in leg irons and a cage is because he’s allowing it to happen. I have a whole … thing about Zhang Zhehan’s physicality as an actor that I’m working on putting into words. Maybe next time. Also, just an aside, I cannot thank Zhang Zhehan enough for having his hair long during filming so that they’re able to integrate his hair into his wig and keep his natural hairline. It looks so much better than the typical wig sideburn look, and this scene is one of the places where it particularly strikes me, for some reason.

Last but not least, AAAHHHHHH. OH MY GOD. Stranger Danger in WKX’s dreams/memories was AWFUL YIFU. Zhao Jing, you really are THAT AWFUL.

#gu xiang #cao weining #wen kexing #zhou zishu #han ying #zhang chengling #duan pengju #zhao jing #zhang zhehan #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

[missfangirll]

Congrats on the followers!!! If I may ask, Jealousy, fluff, for Weilan? (if you're inspired of course!!!!)

Thank you for your ask 🥰

You didn’t specify who exactly is the jealous one, so I decided Shen Wei has to suffer 😈

But I tried to make it as fluffy as possible 😊🥰

Title is taken from the song "Honey, I'm good" by Andy Grammer.

  

I will stay true

It had all started with a hand.

With Zhao Yunlan’s hand, to be exact.

To be even more exact, with Zhao Yunlan’s hand on the back of a witness.

The hand in question had lingered there for exactly seventeen seconds – not that Shen Wei counted – and had proved to be a source of rising blood pressure for Shen Wei.

Why, or rather why now, he couldn’t tell. Zhao Yunlan had a habit of touching people, especially ones he was close to, which included an uncomfortably large number in Shen Wei’s opinion.

Not that he had an opinion about Zhao Yunlan touching people. Not at all.

So, the hand on the witness’ back, clearly meant to calm the person, had the exact opposite effect on Shen Wei, but before he could analyze his feelings further, Hei Pao Shi had to portal the suspect away, the incident leaving him with a slightly uneasy feeling for the rest of the day.

It had started with a hand and only worsened from there.

He had never before noticed just how comfortable Zhao Yunlan was with physical contact that wasn’t directed at Shen Wei himself. He half lay on Da Qing to look at a file, threw an arm around Lao Chu’s shoulder, put Xiao Guo in a headlock and ruffled Lin Jing’s hair. (He even made an attempt to pinch Zhu Hong’s cheek but aborted that mission as soon as he saw her face.)

It is his team, Shen Wei told himself, of course he would be comfortable with them. But Zhao Yunlan didn’t shy away from invading anyone’s personal space. Eventually, when he was flirting with a female police officer at a crime scene, Shen Wei had to violently stomp down the urge to walk over and kiss him senseless, just to make a point. Instead, he hid further in his hood and closed his eyes, willing his heart to resume beating.

Shen Wei very deliberately made a point to not examine the reason for his feelings, well aware that the answer to that lay in a lollipop and a promise made a lifetime ago. So he swallowed the bile in his throat and smiled, just like Kunlun had asked him to. Every time Zhao Yunlan smiled at a waiter, flirted with a secretary or gave a friend’s shoulder a jovial pat, he felt his stomach knot painfully and had to lower his gaze as not to let his pain show on his face.

Zhao Yunlan didn’t stop touching him, on the contrary, but Shen Wei found it increasingly strenuous to keep his body from responding too obviously. He wanted Zhao Yunlan to touch him, wanted to be the only one to have that privilege, and the resolve it took not to act on that desire left him feeling exhausted.

Kunlun had promised him a future, but he couldn’t be sure if this was it, if, this time, he was supposed to be the one asking for a smile, or if doing so would ruin everything. So he waited, and loved Zhao Yunlan in darkness and silence.

*

He reached his breaking point on a Tuesday.

On Friday evening, at the time Zhao Yunlan would normally return home, Shen Wei heard two voices in the corridor, one definitely Zhao Yunlan’s, the other he didn’t recognize. Intent not to eavesdrop, he retreated to his bedroom, which was farthest away from the door. He tried to occupy his mind by reading in a scientific journal, but gave up after he had read the same line a third time and still didn't know what the text was about.

A day later he was on his way to Zhao Yunlan’s apartment and had just opened the door, when he stopped abruptly. Across the hall stood a woman in her early twenties, long black hair and a very short dress, about to ring the doorbell. When Zhao Yunlan’s door opened, Shen Wei made a hasty retreat and silently closed his.

On Sunday, he didn’t even bother to go over, having seen the second pair of shoes on the doormat.

Thus, when Da Qing called him on Monday morning to tell him he was needed for a case, he felt like he hadn’t slept the whole weekend and was in an appropriately bad mood. After he had portaled in, he stubbornly focused on the crime scene photos, dodging Zhao Yunlan’s attempts to throw an arm around his shoulder or pat his knee, much to the other’s astonishment. He excused himself with urgent university matters only minutes later, leaving a confused Zhao Yunlan behind when he hastily portaled out. The rest of the day he hid in his office, ignoring his churning stomach and his phone, which had started to buzz in his desk drawer shortly after he had tossed it there.

He couldn’t face Zhao Yunlan, not even in a text message. He was behaving irrationally, he knew that, but seeing Zhao Yunlan – his Yunlan, his Kunlun – with other people made his insides freeze and his heart ache. No matter how much he reminded himself of the fact that Zhao Yunlan wasn’t his, he couldn’t ignore the pain that seared through him since he had seen… Well, he hadn’t seen anything, but his imagination insisted on presenting him a whole lot of possibilities he would have preferred not to consider.

He wanted Zhao Yunlan to be happy, he really did, but his soul screamed in agony when he realized that happiness might not include him.

When he finally left his office, he didn’t bother to take the phone. He didn’t know what to answer anyway. Later at home, after having stared at his dinner for an hour, he went to bed, tossing and turning restlessly.

He startled out of bed when he heard a rather insistent knock on his door. His alarm clock showed almost six in the morning, which meant he had slept for two hours. Drowsy and bleary-eyed he made his way to the entrance, hoping it wouldn’t be an emergency at the SID.

Outside the door, in shorts, a ratty t-shirt and without shoes, stood Yunlan, a sheepish smile on his face.

Shen Wei was suddenly wide awake. “Have you locked yourself outside? I can open your door if you –”

He was interrupted when Zhao Yunlan made a step into his apartment, suddenly standing very close to Shen Wei, giving him a considering look.

“I wanted to see you”, he said slowly, not breaking eye contact. Shen Wei closed his mouth and stepped back, motioning him in. When Zhao Yunlan sat down in the center of the living room couch, Shen Wei encountered another dilemma: sitting on the sofa would bring him very close to Yunlan, while choosing the armchair next to it would seem strange, given their past closeness. He swallowed and sat down on the armchair.

Zhao Yunlan had watched his movements and now fixed him with a gaze that Shen Wei couldn’t interpret. He shivered unconsciously and the other’s eyebrow shot up.

“Are you alright, Hei Lao Ge?”

Shen Wei winced at the title and stared at his lap. “Why wouldn’t I be? I am perfectly fine, thank you, Zhao Yunlan.”

When he felt a hand on his knee, he looked up, and the look in the other’s eyes made his breath catch. They were burning hot with emotion, dark and intense. Shen Wei began to understand how mice must feel when a snake stared down at them. He swallowed again and tried a reassuring smile, which apparently had the opposite effect, because the grip on his knee tightened.

“Shen Wei.” Zhao Yunlan tried again. “Talk to me. Are you mad at me? Have I said something stupid again? I swear, when I said you ate all –“

“I am not mad.”

Zhao Yunlan blinked at the sudden outburst and raised his eyebrow again. “Well, maybe you’re not mad at me, but clearly something is wrong.” He fixed Shen Wei. “Talk to me.”

Shen Wei closed his eyes and stayed silent. He didn’t trust his face at the moment, much less his voice.

“Xiao Wei.” A hand on his cheek, in addition to that name, made him shrink back. His resolution was crumbling and the last thing he needed now was Yunlan touching him.

Touching him like he had… Like he did with… His stomach turned again at the thought and he opened his eyes, sitting up straighter.

“Nothing is wrong, Zhao Yunlan, I assure you. You can go back to your apartment now. It is quite early.” He inhaled shakily. “I assume you are missed there.” Before he could stop himself, the sentence had made its way out, and Zhao Yunlan’s other eyebrow joined the first. He didn’t answer, just gave him such a scrutinizing look that Shen Wei had to force himself not to recede further into the chair.

After what felt like another ten thousand years, Zhao Yunlan moved. First, Shen Wei thought he really would leave, but then he took a step closer and in a fluent motion, knelt in front of Shen Wei’s armchair between his legs. Shen Wei swallowed hard.

Zhao Yunlan placed one hand on his thigh, the other reached up to cup his cheek.

“Xiao Wei”, he said again, with a warmth and tenderness Shen Wei only hazily remembered from a different life. “Xiao Wei, what do you think I did last weekend?”

Shen Wei refused to answer and only shook his head miserably.

Zhao Yunlan sighed fondly and caressed his cheek, smiling at him. “I am guessing you saw Wen Yao and Bai Yukun last weekend?” It wasn’t a question and Shen Wei didn’t answer. “Well, I didn’t sleep with either of them, if that’s what you’re concerned about.” He shrugged, and Shen Wei found himself coughing violently, staring wide-eyed at the other man. “I didn’t… I don’t…”, he wheezed.

Zhao Yunlan chuckled softly, stroking a thumb over Shen Wei’s cheekbone, and it took all of his crumbling self-control not to lean into the touch. The other man continued, sounding slightly amused. “They are Dixingren, Shen Wei. Friends of Zhu Hong.” He gave Shen Wei a meaningful look. “I asked them to tell me more about Dixing. Its history and traditions and stuff. Lao Wen is a historian, I believe you met him at the conference last month. Amazing you didn’t recognize him.” Shen Wei shrank into his chair. “Oh”, he managed.

“Yeah, and A-Kun is a wedding planner.”

Shen Wei suddenly had the very peculiar feeling of all oxygen leaving the room.

“A... wedding… planner…”, he squeezed out, “Why would….” He couldn’t finish that question, he really didn’t want to know.

Zhao Yunlan grinned at him, seemingly unfazed by his predicament. “I asked her about Dixing traditions because I wanted to ask you out, stupid.”

Oh.

Oh.

Shen Wei’s brain was still busy processing that information, when Zhao Yunlan leaned in and kissed him. He tasted of toothpaste and home, and Shen Wei couldn’t suppress a sigh. He leaned into the kiss, trailing the tip of his tongue over Yunlan’s lips and shivered with anticipation when they opened for him. When their tongues met, he closed his eyes and let himself be drawn into the other’s heat.

When they parted, Zhao Yunlan leaned his forehead against Shen Wei’s, breathing heavily, his whole face split into a wide grin. “Xiao Wei”, he said, and caressed the other’s bottom lip with his thumb, “would you go on a date with me?”

#Anonymous #guardian #镇魂 guardian #guardian fic #shen wei #zhao yunlan #weilan #fluff #my writing

[foxghost]

hi here’s another instalment of “I stayed up too late reading 鎮魂, edition chapter 13 - 26

Zhu Hong spends maybe 3 days a month being half snake (anaconda?). She keeps raw sliced meat in the office freezer, thaws it out in the microwave and “eats them like potato chips”

She also has snake pupils and a snake tongue. /this novel has all your monster needs

Zhu Hong: if you’re willing to sleep with me one night, I’d work for free Zhao Yunlan (totally seriously): …really? Zhu Hong: … (can’t believe he’s actually considering it)

The “black cloak envoy” in the show is named one-who-slay-souls in the book, and is exponentially more terrifying

take what prisoners? Send whom to jail? kills all the things

Zhao Yunlan: he’s kind of nice actually, but talks like an academic, uses too many words to say one thing

A “hungry ghost” is a shadow that is thin all over except for the stomach, with a mouth that opens 180 degrees, with arms like a mantis

Shen Wei’s first reaction on seeing it is to pick up a chair and BASH IT UNTIL IT STOPS MOVING

Shen Wei: shocked face that the cat is talking Daqing: Yes right but you just broke the head of a hungry ghost with a chair so why are you even shocked

Guo (repeats in his head): I am a cop Guo: is crying uncontrollably * Guo (to Shen Wei): I haven’t even had my first month’s salary — can’t i even SEE the money I won’t live to spend before i die? Shen Wei says nothing to this because laughing at him is probably improper Guo: Does professor Shen have wishes that has not been fulfilled? Shen Wei: Yes Shen Wei: There is a person, we are mere acquaintances, we have no relationship at all, in his heart, I am but a stranger he has spoken to a couple of times. But I still want to see him once more.

with a hungry ghost scratching at the door and Daqing promising rescue by Yunlan Shen Wei: Don't we have ways to save ourselves? Daqing: this is us — a common person, a garbage person, a vegetative person, and me — a lucky charm. Oh, ‘save ourselves’ you say. Do you think if we go into a hot steam wok, it would be enough to fill the gaps between a hungry ghost’s teeth?

amidst all this chaos, Guo is climbing Shen Wei’s leg bc he’s terrified, and Shen Wei’s priority is to HOLD HIS PANTS UP.

Lin Jing is … a monk? (fake monk, according to Yunlan)

Lin Jing: there are two men and a cat in there Yunlan: no way, Shen Wei wouldn’t abandon his student Lin Jing: … who is this Shen Wei Yunlan: mumbles nobody important Lin Jing: You only ever do that when you meet a beauty — is this Shen Wei a man or a woman? Yunlan: buddhist chant

when the hungry ghost is sucking up all the air + souls in a room, guo screams: I’m going to be sucked up!

and then somehow has the wherewithal to make up metaphors: i’m going to be sucked up like jello from a vacuum bag!

Yunlan cuts the energy between hungry ghost and guo, and guo starts falling — onto Shen Wei. Naturally, Yunlan rushes forward and catches Shen Wei into his arms and let Guo fall on his face

AND HIS FIRST PRIORITY IN THAT SECOND IS TO LOOK COOL

Zhao Yunlan holds onto Shen Wei’s waist and takes a halfstep the the side, and the lighter’s flame illuminates his face — handsome, cool, his features as chiselled as with a blade, gazing from the darkest place yet his pupils reflect the flame He successfully keep this act up like a big bad wolf, lowering his voice and looking into Shen Wei’s eyes, and like a hero protagonist saving a beauty in a movie, he asks quietly: Professor Shen, are you alright? At the same time, he completely ignores the whining intern on the floor.

Yunlan can hypnotise people and change/erase their memories of supernatural events, kind of MiB like

He does this to Shen Wei, carries him (like a bride, bc just before that Shen Wei’s leaning on his shoulder) takes him to his student’s hospital room, make sure he’s comfortably sitting, says a protective spell and EATS HIS TOFU

which is the chinese way of saying he took advantage, kisses the back of Shen Wei’s right hand and says: good night, sleeping beauty

of course, SHEN WEI wasn’t ASLEEP

he ‘saves’ the protective spell and leaves by the second floor window

i guess Shen Wei forgets about being human sometimes, only ghosts come and go by the WINDOW

Guo Changcheng GLOWS to someone who can see (like someone with a third eye) between worlds.

Apparently he’s been using his allowance to do charitable work for YEARS. There is so much merit built up in his ‘books’ he’s practically a saint

Guo Changcheng IS SO PURE

When the slayer arrives, the temperature drops below zero and the windows frost over

he has a black claok, doesn’t wear a mask. His face is just BLACK MIST.

He smells like winter. (and it’s nice?)

… like freshly fallen snow in the morning when one opens the door to it for the first time, that first breath you take on a snowy day — like endless and eternal snow that never melts, clean, yet extremely cold, mixed in with the scent of flowers dying in the frost — far and away, a fragrance like walking to the end of the world. But it’s only for a moment, because after that one’s nose feels frozen and can’t tell any smells apart.

Guo’s explanation in his head for this is: he’s from the southern hemisphere and it’s winter there. (omg)

And then the moment the slayer goes off with YUnlan he starts asking after his health seriously

the slayer is a motherhen (when it comes to yunlan anyway)

he uses the same tone of voice to kill ghosts as he does asking after ppl’s health and Guo thinks this is terrifying (it is)

Li Qian killed her grandmother, none of that heartwarming retconned stuff in the show

the Slayer finds out where the Reincarnation-dial is from Qian and Yunlan follows because he’s curious and finds the place … covered in bodies … of monsters and ghosts that the slayer’s just slain / beheaded.

Yunlan: What’s going on? We’re all responsible for the environment, your honour was only coming here to find a thing, how did this battle happen. tries to step around the bodies but there’s no place to put his feet (what battle? it was a SLAUGHTER)

So it seems Yunlan meeting Shen Wei in this life time was planned by the villain

Chu (old Chu from Zhao, Brother Chu from Guo) is thin as a moving skeleton, about the same age as Lin Jing

And they all slack off in the office MOST OF THE TIME

Yunlan pursues Shen Wei for 3 months, Shen Wei keeps on giving him excuses, the cat makes fun of him mercilessly

Yunlan is eventually reduced to buying a box of old books and stalking Shen Wei with his car on campus until the students are all staring and he has no choice but to knock on the window and asks WHAT ARE YOU DOING

so in the show they made this all about Yunlan being suspicious of him, but there’s none of that in the book, at this point he’s just pursuing the professor shamelessly

Yunlan: this is for you Shen Wei: … opens box No, this is too valuable I can’t take it Yunlan: makes up a bunch of lies my friend’'s emigrating they leave their books behind you take them Shen Wei: I — Yunlan: I what, we’re so familiar already, it’d be unconscionable to say no to keeping the books, see you, let’s have dinner this weekend drives off Shen Wei: is conflicted while suddenly standing on campus holding a heavy box Shen Wei: is happy Yunlan is being so lovely Shen Wei: is jealous that he may be like this with other people

So, Yunlan is an introvert

Yunlan’s heart is a little lazy, hasn’t interest in anything, there’s nothing of import at work right now, and aside from one important networking, occasionally harassing Shen Wei, he spends all his remaining time alone at home.

Yunlan lives in a studio apartment, ‘like a dog’, or ‘neither pig nor dog.’ in other words, MESSY

it’s Yunlan, apparently, that turned his role as ‘guardian’ / command of sealing the spirits(?) into a police department.

Yunlan has ended relationships (or have it ended on him) because he just doesn’t want to talk when he’s home

the reasons are “lack of communication”, “no passion” “Our personalities do not match, we don’t speak the same language” and “You have never loved me”

so he finally gets a date with Shen Wei on Sunday, and on Saturday he gets up at noon, eats bread and water and plays video games until he gets a massive stomachache

he stumbles out the door in his pajamas, a coat, and no socks in his shoes, to get food, and overhears a robbery taking place, and it’s SHEN WEI

they end up getting dinner afterwards and he eats like a starving man until he basically collapses from stomachache

Shen Wei takes him home and they trip over an open umbrella, it hasn’t rained in more than half a month

Shen Wei: Take off your clothes and go to bed Yunlan: But if I do you’ll say i’m improper Shen Wei: What Yunlan: is wearing pajamas under his coat has no socks Shen Wei: blushes Yunlan: shows off his chest You told me to take off my clothes Shen Wei: ZHAO YUNLAN WHY ARE YOU NOT WEARING SOCKS Shen Wei: WHAT HAVE YOU EATEN ALL DAY Yunlan: points at garbage can Shen Wei: the whole day? What’d you eat yesterday Yunlan: dunno, drank too much Shen Wei: Do you live like this everyday??? Yunlan: um, yeah? Shen Wei: about to die of anger

Yunlan, way to impress future husband, high-five

meanwhile, Yunlan’s thinking: he’s never angry, but he’s angry because he’s fallen for me. Because i’m handsome (NO JOKE)

Shen Wei: You’re not so young, and you’re established in your career, this is about time for you to find a girlfriend and make a home, ti’s best to have someone take care of you Yunlan: Are you seriously telling me that you haven’t noticed I’ve been pursuing YOU (looks depressed) Then fine, thank you for today, i’m alright, you can go home (fully expecting Shen Wei to feel sorry enough to come closer, Yunlan has a speech prepared and everything)

BUT HE LEAVES

And comes back the next morning 7am with groceries (gosh i love this trope) and takes care of Yunlan

Yunlan’s kitchen is full of kitchenware with the pricetags still on

Shen Wei preps food and heats his hands over the heater before touching Yunlan

to be precise, he strokes Yunlan’s hair and then kisses his own fingers (excuse the blogger. screams)

He feels as if he is a moth that has realised its fate, holding himself from the flame is painful

Yunlan comes out of his bath (in the afternoon) to find that Shen Wei’s cleaned his apartment, folded away his clothes, aired out his room, and made food

So naturally, he figures now’s the time to PROPOSE because wow he’s found THE ONE

Yunlan: Seriously, if you would agree, I will sell this place tomorrow, and buy a big place near your campus. Yunlan: I never thought about buying a big house before, it seemed like such a burden, but now I understand: if I want a person as my wife, then I must build a gold house to hide them. Shen Wei (thinks he’s making fun of him): Eat your food it’s getting cold Yunlan touches the back of Shen Wei’s hand: Even though it may not seem that way, but I’m perfectly serious

- queue requisite “i’m a man” and “you should have children” talk

Yunlan: I’m not obligated to propagate the earth for the sake of mankind, Teacher Shen, are you an ALIEN???

- Yunlan literally tells him: if you really want children we can get a surrogate, it’s easy enough to have kids when you have money - Shen Wei then refuses to go to a movie with him the next week but it’s because he’ll be out of town for a week and Yunlan counts that as a WIN

back at the office: Zhu Hong: Xiaoguo is a good kid, fast learner, but he’s too cowardly, it took him this long to accept food from me Yunlan: That’s natural, he’s afraid of people Zhu Hong: … Yunlan: He’s not afraid of you, because he obvs doesn’t think you’re people

earthquake news play on television Yunlan: Why wasn’t it a bigger earthquake, I had no my arms open ready to comfort him and everything Zhu Hong: Who’d you seduce this time Yunlan: Don’t make it sound so terrible, spring must come to the world and flowers must bloom, its fragrance cannot be missing romance, you ppl must not insult other people’s pure love Lin Jing: buddhist chant Zhu Hong: HELP.

Wang Zheng suddenly appear in the office during the day (she is a ghost, they dissipate in the light) and everyone rushes to close the blinds and give her incense

Yunlan (takes out cigarette): YOU Wang Zheng (moves backwards): Don’t make me breathe your second-hand smoke. Yunlan: …you’re a ghost, madam Wang Zheng, you’re not going to get lung cancer. Wang Zheng: Ghosts can smell smoke and fire, if you keep doing that, you’re going to turn into a human shaped mosquito incense.

Yunlan calls someone sister-in-law over the phone

Zhu Hong: How come director Song is his sister-in-law? He doesn’t even have a sister Daqing: Who knows, he goes out drinking and gains sister-in-laws (?)

- The ‘red’ threads connecting Yunlan and Shen Wei are myriad and golden (and Shen Wei can see them)

#fox text #fox reads 镇魂 #fox reads Guardian #at this rate i'll finish this book in another week