#(wkx asking for it to comfort himself when he zzs are still Not Talking)

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

zzs before and after he realizes that wkx isn‘t just a bad person who senselessly delights in other people‘s pain

[joylinda-hawks]

I don't feel well now. Maybe another time. WOH, episode 35, part 9. WKX sits on a throne with his eyes closed. He is dressed in his red robe. He looks like he's sleeping. GX approaches him dressed in her wedding attire. She says she saw her mom and dad. She explains that her parents would like to thank WKX. They want to talk to him. With his eyes closed, WKX says he doesn't feel well right now and he can talk to them another time. WKX sits more comfortably on the throne. GX suggests that WKX have some tea. He places the cup on the table next to the WKX throne. WKX explains that he is tired and asks GX to leave. The girl is surprised but agrees and repeats that she will go. Then GX turns and walks away. Before walking away, he takes one last look at WKX, who is almost lying on his back with his hand resting on his forehead. GX smiles and calls WKX brother and asks him to take care of himself. GX leaves sobbing and WKX, surprised, opens his eyes and looks behind the girl. When he gets up, he knocks over the cup of tea. He calls for Ah Xiang and she disappears. Desperate, WKX calls her name. He's still in Ghost Valley decorated for the wedding. However, this is the dream that WKX is living. ZZS is sitting by his bed, wiping away the tear that is rolling down WKX's cheek. ZZS looks at his younger brother with sadness in his eyes. She touches his cheek with a gentle movement of her hand. A unique scene of WKX on the verge of life and death, meeting GX who wants to take him with her. But WKX isn't ready for that yet. And half-conscious, he refuses GX. Only later does he realize and wants to keep the girl. ZZS is worried about WKX and his condition and, disregarding his own health, sits by the bed of the unconscious WKX. He knows that he is dying, but he doesn't want to watch his younger brother die. Maybe he guesses that WKX is balancing on the verge of life and death, so he wants to bring him back to the world of the living with a gentle touch. Again, both ZZH and GJ showed how much they are worth and how perfectly they can express deep feelings. The despair of WKX and the sad look of ZZS will be remembered forever.

[yuanzhous]

i love this ask game! ofc i have to ask - which scene was it for spark to a flame? 👀

Ahhh, thank you 💖💖💖 The process of making this fic was a little bananas, I'm so pleased to get to talk about it!

I knew the very basics of the setting from the start, but not exactly what had zzs otherwise occupied/hanwen going out alone, so I jumped straight ahead and wrote THAT SCENE pretty much before anything else. Too long to include in full but:

Han Ying shuts the doors behind them soundlessly. Up here, it is quiet, the jovial sounds coming from the hall indiscernible unless they stretch their hearing. The privacy robs Wen Kexing of his bravado, only serving to make the novelty of the situation starker.

“How bold of you, Ying’er,” he drawls, circling Han Ying with his hands tucked behind his back. “One might think you were propositioning me.”

[...]

He’s still reeling from the revelation that he wants Han Ying even without Zhou Zishu as an intermediary. It’s vindicating to tease him and make him laugh and blush – and it’s just as vindicating, he discovers now, to push him until he retaliates, to have his attention like this, sharp and focused.

“I can arrange that,” he murmurs. “Another time, perhaps?”

That, of course, implies there will be a repeat of tonight. Han Ying’s face is only inches away. Wen Kexing is met with the full force of his grin as he nods.

“Next time,” Han Ying agrees.

This scene was the cornerstore of the fic for me. I wanted to establish several things with it, that being

1) HY and WKX having been in bed together before, have sufficient knowledge of each other's preferences and boundaries to allow for going as hard as they did, even if it isn't explicitly mentioned.

2) ZZS would be absolutely enthusiastic about them starting something with each other, there's not a question in anyone's mind here about that.

3) But this also isn't about him -- it's an opportunity for hanwen to figure out their own dynamic outside of him, if the attraction remains, if there's something more, how they want it to develop.

4) They're both kind of anxious for this not to be just a one-time thing, as much as they won't say it outright.

I was also pretty enthusiastic to get to write this exchange towards the end, though it underwent some revisions:

Wen Kexing could deflect, nag about Zhou Zishu having been busy, stick to the excuse he’d given himself earlier.

“Your Ying’er is a menace,” he tells Zhou Zishu instead.

“Huh? What nonsense. My Ying’er is a good boy,” Zhou Zishu says indulgently. “I don’t know what your Ying’er is like.”

Originally the whole piece was going to retain a bit more of the playful fight atmosphere from early on, so when they met up with ZZS at the end HY would be like "ha look at that, look how sweet and good I can be, I'm just an ass to you on purpose". But then both HY and I realized that a very strong dose of TLC was needed to get WKX comfortable in subspace, so it all became a bit softer. Pretty happy with how it turned out, though.

Thank you for the ask 💖

[chalkrevelations]

Word of Honor Ep 6, and let’s talk a little about what’s canon, and what’s not, and about the particular slip-slidiness of the line between them on this show.

But first, due diligence: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so you’re going to find SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the entire show. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch unspoiled. Also, heads-up, this got super long, because I had to talk about that stuff up there and then still talk about the ep. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

So, “canon,” as applied to fannish source material (in Western fandom, at least) traditionally has been considered the official stuff – the episode, the book, the comic, the movie – based on the religious definition of  “canon,” the collection of texts accepted as genuine and official within a religion. The word “fanon” – widely accepted fannish ideas – plays on this, as does the fandom concept of “word of God,” or things the Creators have said about the text but outside of it. Is it in the show as it aired or the book as it was printed? Canon. Is it not in the show as it aired or the book as it was printed? Not canon. (Apocrypha? Maybe. Anyway.) Generally, I think we’d say that things like material in the first draft of a script that doesn’t make it through revisions and onto the screen isn’t canon, even if you can get your hands on a copy of the first draft. The final product that airs is what’s canon. BUT this gets super slippery in something like WoH, in a way that’s exemplified in this episode. This ep is one of the places where people who can lip-read Chinese have spotted some significant dialogue changes between what the actors say on-screen and what lines have been dubbed in. (Everybody’s dubbed in cdramas, it’s just the thing that happens. You have your on-screen actors, and you have your voice actors. The ONLY person in The Untamed who did his own voice dubbing, for instance, was Ji Li, who played Nie Huaisang. All the other characters had voice actors dubbed in. In fact, the voice actor for Jiang Cheng in The Untamed is the voice actor for Wen Kexing in WoH.) One of the descriptions of WoH that I’ve heard is that this show was filmed as a bl and dubbed as a bromance. The thing is, nobody tried very hard to hide the shift. There are plenty of places that you can clearly see the actor’s mouths don’t match the dubbing, and they’re not artfully shot or edited to hide this. They’re fully on-screen, mouthing words that don’t match, right out in the open, almost like they want to you to pick up on it. Almost like it’s canon, because it’s right there on-screen, aired in the episode. In my first-watch reactions to Eps 36 and 37, I talked a lot about how the dubbing puts a layer of de-queered no-homo over what the on-screen actors are saying in these places, but if you can see what they’re actually saying and understand it, does that make it canon? What does it mean, both textually and meta-textually, if you can’t believe what you’re hearing – what you’re being told – because it contradicts what you’re seeing? How does that affect what we’re told about Our Protagonists and its “truth,” particularly in the final scenes? How much is the show deliberately working against censorship in this way? How much is it teaching us to look deeper than what we’re hearing on the surface?

Several people have talked about what’s actually being said by the on-screen actors in places where this happens, and I’m going to direct you to AvenueX on Youtube if you want a complete overview, because she’s reliable and has a good compilation that’s easy to find. She has a couple of videos called “Lip Reading for Sugar,” and the March 9, 2021, installment includes the Ep 6 incidences, the most significant of which are: At 3:05 in the ep, when WKX throws himself on Zhou Zishu’s back during the zombie Drug Men attack, calls him “mom,” asks ZZS to carry him, and tells “mom” that “your shoulder blades are the most beautiful.” Only no, Gong Jun didn’t say this, if you watch his mouth compared to the sound of the words. Instead of “niang” (mom), he says “Zhou Zishu.” Twice. “Zhou Zishu, carry me.” “Zhou Zishu, your shoulder blades are the most beautiful.” This is not only important because it emphasizes he’s gay for Zhou Zishu’s shoulder blades, but also because he’s fucking baked on Drunk Like A Dream incense when it happens, and later, ZZS will reveal that Drunk Like a Dream makes you see what you most desire, and he’ll confront WKX about how he “kept calling” someone’s name while he was under the influence of it. This makes no sense with the dubbing we get, because with “mom” dubbed over ZZS’s name here, WKX only calls Zhou Zishu’s real name once while he’s under the influence, at the end of ep 5. That is not kept calling. ANYWAY, once WKX clears his head and flies them away from the Drug Men, back to the a lakeside, there’s another disjunct at 5:05, when the dubbing has WKX tell ZZS not to play hero, that he doesn’t lose face if WKX helps him, and ZZS responds with something about your grandmother’s bear, which AvenueX tells me is a real Chinese idiom, although not for what. What Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan appear to actually have said, though, is that WKX tells ZZS that this was just like a hero saving a beauty, with the implication that ZZS is the beauty, the damsel in distress, and ZZS respons that no, it’s like the beauty saving the hero, without a lick of concern that he’s the beauty, the damsel, in this scenario, just that he did all the work killing Drug Men and now this asshole is going to act like he’s the one who did the saving. At 31:24, dubbing has WKX telling ZZS that he’ll give ZZS whatever he wants if ZZS can get him some of the Drunk Like a Dream, but AvenueX tells me that he actually offers his body in exchange, in a way that implies marriage. And at 32:22, when ZZS asks WKX what he saw under the influence of the Drunk Like a Dream, the dubbing gives us some random story about baby WKX throwing a rat on his mother’s bed, while Gong Jun’s mouth seems to be saying something something about being in the bridal chamber with his beloved �� so circling back to our first instance at 3:05, WKX using Zhou ZIshu’s name is now super-interesting, eh?

Another slip-slidey point of canon here is that there are two versions of this episode. The original version didn’t have the rabbit-washing scene. That was an extra that was inserted later into a Special Version ep when Youku reached 2 million subscribers. But the Special Version is now available on Youku’s channel (it’s the one I watched for this re-watch), AND it’s the regular version that’s on Netflix. So at 25:28, we now get this adorable little scene where ZZS and WKX are cleaning two rabbits in the lake before cooking them, and WKX splashes ZZS who pretends to be irritated before splashing WKX back and running away up the riverbank, chased by WKX. It’s flirty and playful and ALSO a foreshadowing of the flashback we’re going to see in a later ep, when they play together for an afternoon as children. Wasn’t canon before. Now it is.

Anyway, even with the (bad) dubbing that we get, this is a fantastic WenZhou ep. We open with them still being menaced by the zombies Drug Men, with a lot of swordwork by ZZS before he starts flagging because of his Nails Issue, whereupon WKX instantly sobers up, goes Evil Ghost Valley Master on Imposter Hanged Ghost who’s controlling the Drug Men, kills him with his Fan of Death, then scoops up ZZS and flies him off to a lake, where he attempts to tenderly check ZZS’s pulse and take care of his wounds before ZZS slaps away his hand like an offended maiden. WKX has to give him the qi smackdown in order to hold him still to :coff: pull down his robes and suck out the poison from the Drug Men scratches on the back of his shoulder. :hands: I remember the first time around, watching this with my mouth hanging open, demanding to know the heterosexual explanation for this. (Also, if you’re rummaging on Youtube, the Five Straight Guys Watching Word of Honor for this ep is not to be missed. They’re a little questionable in their reaction to the poison sucking, but before that, they’re a bunch of squeamish babies over using the dagger to further slice open the wounds to get to the poison, and it’s HILARIOUS. They can’t even look at the screen once the dagger comes out, hiding behind their hands. I love them, more and more as the eps go on, but they are WEAK compared to even the newbiest hurt/comfort fangirl.) There’s some more back and forth between WKX and ZZS about revealing their true selves to each other, no you, no YOU. WKX makes it clear that he knows there’s something really wrong with ZZS, and then they fight, set to romantic music, and ZZS ends up falling in the lake. I do the victory arms (  \o/  ) to myself where I’m sitting on the couch and startle one of the cats, because FINALLY we’re going to get rid of that execrable fake facial hair. ZZS fucks with WKX by staying underwater long enough that WKX panics and also dives in, we get some really cheap and awful underwater effects, and ZZS reveals his face! They end up back on the edge of the lake, drying their perfectly dry outer robes, while they sit around the fire together in their perfectly dry inner robes, but I am not going to complain because y’all. I CANNOT with how smug and pleased ZZS is for just a moment about WKX mooning over how pretty he is. Then he remembers to be an ill-tempered gremlin and pokes at WKX with a flaming stick, but I had to rewind four times just to catch that little moment of satisfaction about being admired again – it’s subtle and gorgeous and Zhang Zhehan is going to kill me with his face one of these days. ZZS demands dinner on this date, and fake-coughs pitifully to get WKX to go hunt something down, while he stays and does his delightful little thinky face as he pokes at the Soul Winding Box they got from Imposter Hanged Ghost. Then we get a shot of WKX looking at ZZS before he heads off to catch some rabbits that confirms he now knows he’s really Zhou Zishu, rather than Zhou Xu.

So, we’ll get back to the Ghost and the Box in a minute, but I do want to mention that this whole ep is layered through with mini-references and thematic stuff. Imposter Hanged Ghost rings his little bell to control his Drug Men, and remember that, we’ll see that again. WKX asks if ZZS came from the Healer’s Valley when ZZS offers him an antidote to the Drug Man poison; we learn later that WKX, himself, is the one who came from the Healer’s Valley. When ZZS gets the Soul Winding Box open and finds a piece of the Glazed Armor inside (Danyang’s, taken off of Ao Laizi by Ghost Valley before he was hung at the gate of Sanbai Manor), he gives it to WKX, tells him to throw it away if he doesn’t want it. WKX says he couldn’t possibly, and that he’ll wear it because it’s his first gift from A-Xu. Compare this to the way Xie’er will wear Awful Yifu’s Glazed Armor around his neck. We also see some of the thematic and referential stuff come up in conversations that form a repeated pattern in this ep of ZZS stressing what a bad and dangerous person he is: He scoffs at the idea he’s from Healer’s Valley, and asks if he looks like someone who practices medicine; WKX responds that he looked like a professional killer (true) who was cruel in the abandoned temple (presumably while escaping Mirror Lake) and frightening to a kind-hearted man like WKX who can’t even kill a chicken (particularly amusing given the prep for New Year’s dinner in a later ep, when WKX is the only one who CAN). At the lakeside and again after ZZS hightails it away from Sanbai Manor when they spot Han Ying there (HAN YING, my beloved), WKX asks if ZZS is a fugitive, what he’s hiding from, and says that he’ll protect him – by reason, because would he kill anyone unreasonably (omg, where to even begin? How many guys have you choked out at this point)? When they’re arguing about ZZS revealing his “true” face, ZZS warns that most people who’ve seen his real appearance are dead (probably true). WKX says he’s not afraid of death (not his own, at least, we’ll see that the thing he’s afraid of is ZZS’s death). ZZS warns WKX that he’s not only sharp-tongued, he’s ruthless (true). He tells WKX that he’s murdered many people (true) and set them on fire (not unlikely, frankly) and committed many crimes (true, in a way, although they were state-sanctioned, making them legal, if morally reprehensible). This is the ZZS who put the Nails in himself, who talks to himself about what a truly awful shixiong he is, who tells Prince Jin that he’s only good as a weapon. I like how we see this at the same time that we’re starting to see the side of him that’ll preen when someone thinks he’s pretty - this is a process, and it’s subtle, not as high-drama as WKX’s, but it’s there, nonetheless.

We also formally meet Xie Wang in this ep, artfully posed and playing his pipa among the bodies – old and new – of Zhao Coffin Home. He and Changing Ghost have a bit of a slapfight over whose fault it is that Imposter Hanged Ghost, who was actually Long-Tongued Ghost, got killed and got his (Danyang’s) Glazed Armor took by WKX, when Changing Ghost stole it from Ao Laizi, put it in the Soul Winding Box and gave it to Long-Tongued Ghost specifically to deliver it to Xie Wang. Xie Wang is super cool through all of this, and I think we get a sense of how deadly he is by the way Changing Ghost backs down. So, here’s what’s falling together: Some iteration of Ghost Valley is working with Xie Wang and the Scorpion Sect, giving the Scorpions access to the Soul Winding Threads, which we saw used at the Mirror Lake massacre and in the woods outside of Sanbai Manor to kill Yu Tianjie in the last ep. Via Xie Wang, Ghost Vally has access to use of the Drug Men, which we’ve seen at the Zhao Coffin Home (so far), although we haven’t yet been told (I think) how Xie Wang got access to the potions to create Drug Men (we also know ZZS read about Drug Men in a book somewhere, and got enough info to engineer an antidote to them). Xie Wang and the Scorpions have access to Drunk Like a Dream incense, which had to come from Prince Jin’s court, having been engineered by ZZS based on a much stronger formulation. Han Ying, from Tian Chuang in Prince Jin’s court, has been seen at Sanbai Manor, Zhao Jing’s place.

Meanwhile Chengling is doing poorly, with no appetite and getting bellowed at some more by Shen Shen, who would be the worst if only I didn’t know everything I know, which makes me cringe when Zhao Jing refers to Chengling as “my son, now.” NO. RUN, Goldbean. For some more thematic and referential stuff in this ep, WKX calls Chengling a “lonely chick with no one to rely on” and tsks over the fact that he’s “surrounded by hounds smarter than foxes” now that he’s under the care of the Five Lakes Alliance. This is clearly to manipulate ZZS into thinking Chengling is better off with ZZS, but it also sounds like an awfully apt description of Zhen Yan in Ghost Valley. I’m just sayin’.

[a-very-fond-farewell]

aside from the fact that I lose my goddamn mind every time I think of the “save it/you’re my person” scene and that I do, in fact, love shl with all my wretched goblin heart despite its flaws and the last five episodes or so... what if.

what if, instead of a Romeo&Juliet situation, we had an Achilles&Patroclus situation??

(I’m obviously pretending that scenario is not another tragedy in itself too, bc science)

let me elaborate:

ZZS knows WKX and his every little quirk, habit and move;

ZZS happens to be a master of disguise, as we know;

ZZS takes WKS’s place at the siege (which can be a somewhat satisfying outcome for the foreshadowing of ep.13);

WKX was forced to sleep through it all thanks to a slow but inevitable drug concocted by Wu Xi’s and that ZZS gave WKX before his departure for ghost valley (ZZS also asked GX and CWN to follow WKX secretly to keep him safe while unconscious, but didn’t explain anything else to them, not wanting them to meddle or impulsively participate in the siege and risk their lives);

(WKX had already planned with ZCL for the kid to fake-kill him on the cliff, but ZZS doesn’t know this bc it happened when he was too busy being sexy and bloody while he was captured in Jin);

(WKX had already obtained YBY’s permission to stage the whole thing at the cliff, but ZZS doesn’t know this either for the reasons stated above);

(WKX agrees to help WX while they talk in ghost valley, but soon after his talk with auntie LFM he falls asleep);

YBY knows he is not fighting against WKX but understands why ZZS is doing this and keeps going to keep the pretense up;

ZCL doesn’t understand the person in front of him is ZZS (only bc ZZS imitates WKX so well) and fake-kills him anyway;

ZZS (as WKX) falls down the cliff;

WKX wakes up and discovers he is officially considered to be dead;

WKX is technically free to leave with ZZS if he so wishes, but ZZS is nowhere to be found and he panics;

ZZS had planned to give WKX a way out from jianghu without any more vengeance nor bloodshed and was even willing to die for him by falling down the cliff if that were the case, but he had discovered ZCL’s dart was a fake one and he takes some time recuperating after the fall and hides somewhere;

while everyone is looking for the body and the key, WKX and GX (along with CWN and ZCL) look for ZZS in a race against time;

XW thinks WKX has bolted and didn’t keep his word, so he gives up on the whole plan to see his adoptive father rise just to get him to lose everything in the end, BUT he has already found the witness DK and keeps him around just in case (???);

ZJ gets impatient and somewhat reveals his true colors while they search for a body + XW finally sees through his adoptive father’s bullshit when ZJ publicly denies their affiliation and walks away** from him after revealing he has seen the poisoned weapon used against RX + he brings out the witness DK and reveals he was the one drugging him to become a puppet to frame GC;

YBY confronts ZJ and upholds justice (especially for RX’s death) as he should and captures him in ghost valley;

YBY closes ghost valley himself and orders hot lady LFM to keep an eye on the remaining ghosts to make them atone;

LFM has a chance to be the one keeping ZJ captive and make him pay for what he had done to her and her family (and maybe she cuts his silver tongue out and sends it to XW and maybe he is nice enough to cure her illness for the trouble);

ZCL and WKX (and best girl GXL!) can see themselves vindicated by the knowledge ZJ will rot in the ghost valley with no possibility of ever hoard enough power for himself with those weakened martial arts of his;

WKX finds a bloody ZZS and y’all can have all the hurt/comfort you can possibly want while these two idiots comes to term with the fact that they are two while ass fucking liars who deserve each other for the rest of their mortal lives;

GX can marry her CWN + his master will not interfere bc YBY saw through his greed for power and put him in his fucking place;

**since LQQ doesn’t need to expose ZJ’s true colors for scorpion boy XW, she is not gifted with the recipe for mengpo tea, she leaves YQF to serve XW (or to die, depends on if XW will feel the need to keep him around and feed him the antidote) to either live what little time she (allegedly) has with LFM or she tags along WKX and finds herself in the new Four Seasons Manor and somehow Wu Xi saves her life before she can go back to ghost valley and live a very long and fulfilling life with LFM as sapphics should;

the author of this post is a huge idiot and is well aware this is full of plot holes like a piece of Swiss cheese but damn it if it ain’t a delicious cheese.

PROS:

no immortality (despite how much I love the ending of shl, I know many were hoping for a tyk type of ending so, here’s my solution);

we have a wedding with no bloodshed;

we have sapphics (and a potential new pairing for WX if he keeps insisting on being on his “older men agenda”);

we still have angst with the race-against-time to find ZZS;

the viewer/reader would still be none the wiser if the siege is seen through (what we believe to be) WKX’s pov... but there’s no ZZS in sight either and we then see fake!WKX fall down the cliff only to see real!WKX wake up in ghost valley soon afterwards (and we would still be left bamboozled and in the dark until we understand what ZZS has actually done to give WKX a second chance at life as a normal person).

CONS:

no immortality;

NO “SAVE IT/YOU ARE MY PERSON” SCENE (just to save which I debated against making this very post, just so you know);

NO BELLY HUG SCENE WITH SOFT LAOPO (I deserve to be chased by dogs for this);

no eating ice and snow scene (skin me alive ;^;);

no white-haired WKX;

no sexy dual cultivation;

no armory no mountain no party;

no post-coital, afterglow, flirting, sparring scene with tender gazing on the mountain;

no sweet child NianXiang (kill me for this ;-;)

alternatively:

They discuss like actual soulmates and come up with the plan to fake WKX and ZZS’s death so they can fuck off into the sunset together with their children and live somewhere nice with no jianghu to worry about bc YBY does his best to save them and put ZJ in his place.

~fin.

[tlanwen]

Every time wenzhou should have (or could have) kissed in the entirety of Word of Honor (2021)

a few disclaimers- 1; MEGA spoilers for the whole entire show. yes, all the way up to episode 36. 2; we have gotten so so many sweet moments in this drama and there is no doubt in my mind that the production crew did their absolute damnedest to give us a genuine love story with all the constraints that were set on them. they did a fucking incredible job and the lengths they went to to embody wenzhou’s love and bond on screen is commendable to say the least. and i owe them my life. However i just think said sweet scenes just scream ok now kiss at very specific moments, and i need to get it out of my system. Long ass fucking post under cut!

are you strapped in. ok let’s go

The rooftop scene (Episode 9)

earlier in this ep we get the legendary “the world isn’t important, what’s important is finding your soulmate” monologue, perfect setup leading up to their rooftop drinking date. the “why won’t you ask me why i’m happy?”// “i know you’ll tell me, in your own time” exchange??? a killer. a kiss would fit in perfectly, ideally right after zzs shushes wkx (and wkx shuts his mouth. for once). quite literally this moment is Made for a first kiss.

“You look like a worried mother“ // drinking by the road (Episode 12)

man, this episode. I can’t decide which moment is more suitable (and both happen in busy streets so that rains a little on our emotional parade), but at this point we’ve got acknowledgement on both sides that they’re willing to accept each other as the people they truly are, and they’ve rescued their surrogate son from impending doom twice. but i am leaning towards the latter scene, esp bc of the way zzs leans into wkx while they’re talking. he hasn’t done that much up until now. kiss kiss.

Talking about disguises & mustaches (and getting on one’s knees?¿) (Episode 13)

this scene is so fucking sugary and light, they’re just teasing back and forth (zzs! teasing wkx! that’s new!). we also get the severely cute “wait, did you just admit that my face is outstanding?” line. just kiss already.

Rain divorce (Episode 14)

angst? did someone say, pain? if this were a regular boring romance flick, this is were the tragedy-ridden kiss would go. wkx is watching the future he planned for both of them crumble right in front of him, trying to come to terms with the fact that zzs is dying (and that he did it to himself, on purpose.), and zzs is just kind of going thru it. the rain really would add to the drama of it all, like Right after the “fortunately, fortunately...” line. punctuate it with a kiss. would also add to the irony of wkx saying he hasn’t fallen yet, and yet here he is, a mess, bc of this information he wasn’t ready to receive (thanks ye baiyi).

3rd child rescue and cave chats (Episode 16)

we’ve had the angst, we have the begrudging /i’m mad at you and i love you but i dont like you right now/ moments, and in comes more rain and wkx monologuing. zzs saying that wkx isn’t evil and that he has a kind heart is exactly what he needed to hear. and i just think he should’ve finished it with a kiss <3

Drunk mess wkx (Episode 17)

why is this man allowed to drink. this is all so much take your fucking pick. after the “my lips are the perfect size, right A-xu?” comment, the ”does it hurt?” coupled with wkx’s hand reaching out to zzs’ chest. the “i’m just scared. could you not die on me?”?? zzs tucking in a very drunk and sad man and saying “one day you’ll open up your heart to me, until i achieve it even god can’t tear me away from you” just............. pick a line any line. 

Tumbling out of the cave under Longyuan Cabinet (Episode 18)

specifically in that birds-eye shot where it slowly pans over to their disheveled faces after the romcom-esque tumbling out of the tunnel (that was framed oh so romantically in the episode trailer. complete with romantic music). like are you Kidding me. 

((i’m skipping ep 19-21. i think some people would say at any point during the cave scenes/the shidi/shixiong reveal would also be fair game, but in my opinion it’s far too much of an emotionally volatile situation so i can’t see any kiss potential. the hand holding and comforting was much appreciated tho))

Wkx sneaking up on his deep-in-thoughts husband (Episode 22)

secluded lake? check. all alone? check. gentle smiles in a tense moment? we got a bingo. at this point zzs knows who wkx actually is And respects his decision to go by his own chosen name as a separate entity from the healer sect he came from (for his own personal, maybe misguided reasons). and i just think that *screams*

Waking up from the stress induced sleep (thru the power of hand holding?) (Episode 23)

this whole thing was so much, and the way the scene is framed to look like it was zzs’ touch that literally woke up wkx, And the way he looks at him after he wakes up. yea. kiss methinks.

Literally the entirety of the night time venting/healing/spilling ur guts out scene (Episode 24)

Ok i’m about to contradict myself here, i said im not going over ep 19-21 because Volatile Emotions, and this scene is also very viscerally emotional and intense but oh my God the intimacy! the openness! i had to look away multiple times during this scene bc it really seems like a private moment we shouldn’t be privy to. i cannot in good conscience say that, had wkx not kind of stormed out at the very end, a kiss would be guaranteed. whether to soothe zzs after so much crying or whatever other reason.

Painting restoration (also episode 24)

wkx’s second love language is acts of service and this episode is all the evidence i need to make that statement. we do get a very cute heartfelt family hug in here and wow cute but im sorry i cannot let go of the fact that there should have been a kiss here. i really hate inserting photos in textposts but i have to bc i need everyone to understand how much zzs looks like he wants to devour wkx whole after he realizes what he’s doing

look at it. he’s down bad.

More drinking! yay! (Episode 25)

just soulmates drinking and talking in the hush of night after their kid has been put to bed. always a great way to start an episode. they’ve settled into 4 seasons manor at this point and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere, they just look so comfortable in these shots. if u dropped a quick peck on the cheek in there i wouldn’t blink twice.

Narrow escape from dying with (and for) each other, courtesy of ye baiyi (Episode 27)

at this point most secrets are out of the bag, they see each other fully and were about to be killed 4 seconds ago. we’ve got the perfect setup, zzs already grabbed wkx by the face, the only thing between them and a kiss was the looming threat of sepsis.

speaking of episode 27, The spice grinding scene (have i mentioned i fucking love episode 27)

just two soulmates grinding spices at night. this scene is so lighthearted and cute, after a whole episode of emotional turmoil and cementing how emotionally vulnerable they're willing to be/how dedicated they are to respecting each others’ boundaries while still supporting each other, a kiss would fit in for sure.

Literally any point in the new years celebration (Episode 28)

waaAAAAA family decorating, bickering, and dinners. if i was writing it in i would put it right after chengling runs off to watch the fireworks, leaving wenzhou alone with each other. but anything goes really, they’re in their element all episode.

Knight in shining (red) armor rescue (Episode 30)

first of all- fuck prince jin, second of all, THIS SCENE ARE YOU KIDDING ME. literally the damsel in distress getting rescued. complete with a horseback ride! and wkx kneeling in front of zzs and acknowledging him as his master (and therefore himself as part of the sect again!!!!). so many emotions. i dont even care if they’re in front of all their new disciples. a romantic kiss is necessary. it would be so easy for zzs to take the hand he’s patting wkx with and use it to drag him up into a kiss.

Hairpin scene (Episode 30)

i’m not even gonna say anything. these bitches engaged on screen. good for them

“Save it, you“ (Episode 32)

god. just god. zzs gently floating down to wkx, thinking he’s gonna throw his life away in anger Again and getting so very in his face. and saying That. with That smile. what else is an option. there is no other option. just kiss.

“Senior, please let me handle this“ (Episode 33)

i am willingly ignoring how fucking painful this scene is if you think about it for longer than 3 seconds. wkx isn’t dead! and the asshole forgot to tell his beloved to not do anything stupid while he was away! oopsie! zzs is a)very mad, b)very relieved, c)is about to experience a lifetime’s worth of regret in about 3 minutes. but first thing’s first, the love of his life isn’t dead. that deserves a kiss.

Drunk wkx 2: painful boogaloo (Episode 34)

these episodes are so painful to re-watch lol. wkx clinging to zzs’ waist and talking about how easy it is to be a good happy person when he’s around him. they probably couldn’t manage a proper kiss between the alcohol in wkx and the Pain in zzs, but a gentle forehead kiss would fit in well while zzs is softly petting wkx’s head (still resting on his chest. that’s an important detail).

Wedding aftermath (Episode 35)

i’m so distraught. anyways. you can’t tell me zzs was going to sulk away to die alone like some sort of tragic housecat while wkx is recuperating after the battle (and after losing the second most important person in his life) without a kiss. not without giving him the gentlest of forehead kisses.

Literally at any point in episode 36

i’m watching this tomorrow but i don’t need to. i don’t care. we know what happens. we know how it ends. if you’re about to give up your life to keep your soulmate alive you best preface it with the kiss of a lifetime.

[naoyatoudo]

i need to rant about how zzs was treated in shl hold on spoilers for the end of the drama

still pissed. i hate HATE HATE that zzs was shoved to the side and became the little side piece to wkx’s story of revenge. hello? he’s the MC. ZZS is the MC. WKX is the ML. this is not the wkx story this is the zzs story, literally, he is the main character. why does he just drop back into the background at some point, shoved into a corner, used only to make wkx look good? hello? how the fuck is it that he was captured and tortured for days but no one asks after him or shows much care when he comes back...........it just goes to wkx’s stupid plan that he DOESN’T TELL ZZS ABOUT? HELLO?

and after wkx “dies” no one even thinks to keep an eye on zzs despite him literally trying to commit suicide to follow after him before. how the fuck could they just leave him alone?? and then even when zcl and jby and wx learn about him taking out the nails they just are like. ok bye :) at least zcl cries but  THE FOCUS IS STILL ON WKX??????????? THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME OUTSIDE LIKE 5 MINUTES??? AND WKX OF COURSE HAS THIS WEIRD OOC MOMENT AND LIES TO ZZS AND ACTS LIKE ZZS DESERVES IT AS IF HE HASNT LIED TO ZZS MULTIPLE TIMES NEAR THE END DESPITE THE FACT THEY HAVE A WHOLE THING ABOUT NOT LYING TO EACH OTHER BUT WHATEVER. HAHA. WHO CARES RIGHT? AS LONG AS WKX LOOKS SYMPATHETIC AND GOOD! FUCK. IT’S SO OBVIOUS THE SCRIPTWRITER HAS A WKX BIAS IT MAKES ME FEEL ILL.

I’M SO ANGRYYYYYYY HOW ZZS WAS TREATED LIKE SHIT IN THIS. LIKE GREAT SO YOU TOOK AWAY HIS DECISION WITH HIS LIFE TO SACRIFICE YOUR OWN SO HE’D LIVE FOREVER AND TRAPPED ON A MOUNTAIN AND CAN ONLY EAT SNOW. ALONE. FOREVER. HOW KIND OF YOU. IT’S NOT LIKE YBY HAS A WHOLEEEEEEE EXTRA ABOUT HOW MISERABLE THAT IS OR ANYTHING IN THE NOVEL RIGHT? FUCK OFF. HOW DARE YOU DRAMA WKX.

NOT TO MENTION HOW THE COSTUMES AND MAKEUP WERE CLEARLY HIGHER QUALITY FOR WKX...LIKE REALLY? REALLY?????/ ASIDE THE NEW YEARS ONES IT’S SO STARK HOW MUCH MORE MONEY WENT INTO WKX’S LOOK. AND THE AMOUNT OF TIMES WE HAVE TO SEE THE SAME STUPIF FUCKING FLASHBACKS OF WKX YES I KNOW HIS PAST YES I GET IT I DONT NEED TO SEE IT EVERY EPISODE 3 TIMES.

THE NOVEL. IS ABOUT. ZZS. IT’S ABOUT HIM LEARNING TO MOVE ON AND SPEND HIS LIFE FREELY. WITH HIS OWN DECISIONS. AND BE HIMSELF. SINCE HE COULDN’T DO ANY OF THAT WHILE STUCK SERVING THE EMPEROR (PRINCE HERE, WHATEVER). AMAZING HOW WKX TAKES THAT AWAY FROM HIM AT THE END OF THE DRAMA AND IT’S PLAYED AS GOOD AND ROMANTIC. WKX’S REVENGE PLOT IS IN THE BACKGROUND AND IN THE END HE LITERALLY /LITERALLY/ CHOOSES TO LIVE SO HE CAN BE WITH ZZS. THERE IS NO SACRIFICE ON HIS PART. ZZS DOES NOT GET INVOLVED IN HIS SHIT EXCEPT TO SAVE HIM AT THE END. ZZS LITERALLY STATES WKX’S PLOTS ARE HIS OWN AND HE HAS NO RIGHT TO BUT IN IN THE NOVEL.

WHY DID YOU WRITE ZZS LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHO HE IS? I GET CHANGING THINGS TO MAKE HIM PALATABLE FOR  A WIDER AUDIENCE BUT COME ON. AND HIS CRYING AND SIMPERING..LIKE..>???????????? EVEN THEN FINE. BUT THEN YOU TURN HIM INTO A SIDE PIECE WHO JUST IS THERE FOR WKX TO LOOK GOOD. I AM SSSSSO MAD AND I’M GLAD APPARENTLY CHINESE FANS ARE TOO (?) . he deserved better. he did not deserve to be cast aside so the limelight can be on wkx. i feel so bad for zzs and for his ACTOR because even with the actos everyone is soooo focused in wkx’s actor.

wkx’s actor did well don’t get me wrong, glad he is getting attention, but zzs’ actor did really well too.......ugh. the way people are so into wkx and just use zzs as a piece for him even in fics now..like whya re so many fics zzs crying over wkx dying or being a comfort for an upset wkx?? zzs is the one who is literally in pain every single day, was literally tortured and betrayed, lost EVERYONE from his sect, and the whole shit show with wkx’s fake death HE WASN’T TOLD WAS FAKE. SO HE HASTENED HIS DEATH. but no it’s all about wkx and wkx’s emotions right? fuck off.

i’m gonna write so much stuff for zzs. im gonna write jby noticing zzs is upset and confronting and comforting him. for a supposed best friend in the drama he didn’t do fucking much. idk why wx and jby were even there, in the novel they cure him but here they just. what give him medicine so he can live an extra week? wow great.

im so sad we didnt get to see all the things zzs thinks in the novel that show how affected he is by everything and how traumatized he is. i hate how they made his shizun this friendly father figure when he was a rough person who died and left everything for zzs to handle alone at FIFTEEN. i hate how they made zzs the prince’s cousin for NO FUCKING REASON when zzs was just some guy from a family in the jianghu who befriended the prince to help his sect survive.

why is it the series starts off well and with zzs as the mc and switches at some point to be the wkx show? i still like wkx but im so........disappointed. im so disappointed if my rants didnt say it enough ufbhvndskm, especially how the other characters dont notice how upset or pained zzs is at any point?? how the fuck did jby not??? amazingly zcl is the best with it...T__T

also why is it they fight constantly and even though zzs is literally right usually wkx is the sympathetic one and they never talk it through zzs just kind of goes back over to him and they act like normal?? hello??? yeah, uh, zzs was RIGHT. INNOCENT PEOPLE WERE LITERALLY BEING KILLED FOR WKX’S PLAN. YES ZZS WAS RIGHT. IT’S HIS LIFE IF HE WANTS TO JUST DIE FROM HIS WOUNDS AND NOT LOSE HIS MARTIAL ARTS HE CAN. does no one remember in the novel when wkx tries to destroy his martial arts zzs stops him with a “if anyone should understand, it’s you..” and wkx just stops and says “yes...i..i understand...” and respects zzs’ wishes???

what were their other stupid fights? oh yeah zzs again saying innocent people die and oh look he was right again. when wkx betrays zzs’ trust and does his fake death without telling him zzs doesnt even get mad at him. meanwhile wkx raged at him for choosing his own path in life that wkx didnt want...right, that’s good. then the fucking end with wkx saying it’s his turn to lie to zzs like he didnt before. i would punch wkx into the ground for that. fuck you asshole, are you kidding me with this shit??

also why did it take so long for zzs to realize who wkx is in the drama?? in the novel they figured each other out right away almost... why is zzs weaker physically and not as smart.. T_T and he took his disguise off earlier so the fangirls wouldnt have to deal with the “ugly” (wasnt even ugly) look...i know it would never have happened but i feel like wkx’s reaction to his real face was kind of understated. i’ve already said i dislike the shidi-shixiong thing but i do get why they did it so whatever.

im mostly mad about how zzs was picked up, slapped around, and thrown outside.........

scriptwriter why do you hate zzs.......?

[joylinda-hawks]

Have you watched enough of me? WOH Episode 3 Part 7. HH asks SS to follow him. SS and the other men follow the leader of the Beggar Gang. Meanwhile, ZZS, WKX, ZCL, and GX are resting in a ruined Luohan Temple. The two men are sitting down, and a boy is sleeping on the floor. ZZS sits with his eyes closed, and WKX watches him. ZZS sighs and opens his eyes, as if waking up from a trance. He notices that WKX is still watching him and asks if he's had enough. WKX replies that he wondered what kind of face was underneath the disguise. ZZS doesn't say anything, simply picks up a stick from the ground and hits ZCL with it, the boy wakes up and notices that ZZS gave him some of his clothes to cover up. ZZS says he's going to dawn and thanks him. Rising from the ground, ZZS declares that fate has allowed them to meet. WKX adds that thanks to fate, they will meet again. ZZS smiles and stands up, ZCL also stands up. WKX asks ZZS why they have to wait for another meeting. GX, who was sitting closer to the exit, also wakes up. WKX, who is following ZZS, says that ZZS wants to send the child to Lake Tai. He adds that it is a long journey and that he has a boat. WKX wants to admire the scenery around Lake Tai and they can go on his boat. And asks the station that it won't be great. ZZS and ZCL leave the temple. WKX almost screams and says that he can't watch people who are supposed to be together encounter difficulties during the journey. ZZS ignores WKX and continues with ZCL, and also receives a robe from ZCL. Seeing ZZS's behavior, WKX finds it interesting. He adds that he can't wait to find out who ZZS really is. GX turns to him and waves his hands. He talks loudly about people who are meant to be together. GX tells that this Sick Guy exhales more air than he takes in and could fall over at any moment. GX asks why he said to take him with him. She says that WKX thinks he has a comfortable life. WKX states that GX hasn't met many people yet. He explains that ZZS's voice is fantastic and his body is very handsome. His shoulder blades in particular are one of a kind. GX states that WKX talks about ZZS as if he was some kind of beauty, but he's just an ordinary man. WKX replies that of course, and asks if he thinks he doesn't know that ZZS is a man. WKX explains that ZZS's face and body shape don't match at all. However, he doesn't see any trace of any disguise. He remembers touching ZZS's face. He adds that ZZS must be really talented to do it so well and doesn't see any mistakes. He also talks about ZZS's sword and remembers when he touched it. GX asks why those people were acting so mysteriously last night, and their leader called himself the Hanging Ghost. WKX leaves, and GX asks where he's going. WKX repeats that fate will allow them to meet again. The fate of WKX and ZZS. It was fate that made them meet as children, and it was fate that made them meet now. ZZS is deprived of not only feelings, but also the memory of past events. Slowly, threads of empathy and compassion awaken in ZZS. But he still can't recognize WKX, who only wants to confirm his suspicions. That's why WKX gets sick like this, and ZZS doesn't want anyone to recognize him and tries to discourage WKX. However, ZZS feel sorry for the child, and he acts like his father, giving him part of his robe as a blanket. ZZH and GJ are fantastic in their scenes together, their summaries exude even delicate eroticism. We watch this series just for them.

[joylinda-hawks]

Will I still be myself without my cultivation? If not, what am I living for? WOH, Episode 14, Part 4. ZZS stands at the railing on the balcony of Ziyun Manor and looks ahead at the falling rain. A little behind him stands WKX. Both men stand silently, accompanied by a sad song. WKX approaches ZZS and asks him how much time he has left. ZZS, looking ahead, replies that it is at least two years. WKX addresses ZZS as Ah Xu, and ZZS tells WKX as Brother Wen, that others can talk nonsense but not WKZ. WKX is extremely sad and addresses ZZS as Ah Xu again, and ZZS puts his hand on his shoulder, which he shakes off and violently calls out Zhou Zi Shu's name. ZZS cannot understand WKX's behavior, but he asks if he will still be himself without his cultivation, and if not, what is ZZS living for? WKX is surprised by the coldness in ZZS's voice and grabs him by the shoulders, saying that he must live. He then explains that as long as ZZS is alive, he, WKX, has time to search the entire world and find a way for ZZS to regain his cultivation. ZZS is touched by WKX's devotion and, smiling sadly, explains that he would rather die after ten courses, a free man, than live ten years against himself. ZZS also tells WKX not to worry, because they still have time. Time to taste all the wines in this world. ZZS pulls WKX by the hand, suggesting that they go. WKX pulls his hand away and replies that he understands it better than anyone else. ZZS is turned away from WKX. WKX asks if this isn't a twist of fate. He explains that when he was little, he often disobeyed his parents and didn't put in the effort to practice martial arts, preferring to play. His parents always said that if he didn't work hard when he was young, he would regret it later. That when he grows up it will be too late to learn. WKX explains that he argued with his parents and says that when he grows up it will also be too late to play with pebbles and bird eggs. WKX sadly adds that who would have thought that all the important things in his life happen at the wrong time. When he wanted to play, he couldn't, when he wanted to learn martial arts, there was no one to teach him. With bitter reproach in his voice he says that he can never have what he wants. ZZS also takes WKX's words and is unable to look him in the face. WKX finally adds looking at ZZS that it is already too late to save the one he cares about. These last words of WKX are like a blow to the heart for ZZS and he is unable to say anything. WKX starts to say that fortunately, but he doesn't finish because ZZS turns to him and asks if he has finished and says that he is the one ZZS who will die soon, he is the one ZZS who wasted his entire life and became a laughing stock. ZZS asks WKX vehemently why he is making these sad faces. ZZS says that he sacrificed everything to regain his freedom. Then ZZS pushes WKX and adds that even if WKX persuades him to postpone his death for a few years, it means that there is no point in knowing WKX. WKX is emotionally broken and does not respond to ZZS's provocations, who leaves immediately afterwards. This is one of the most emotional and memorable scenes from the series. This scene must have also been a huge challenge for both actors. WKX wants to save ZZS at all costs, and ZZS cannot understand why WKX wants to do this. Besides, life has taught ZZS to be tough and cruel, which is why he responds to WKX very coldly. Meanwhile, WKX recalls his childhood when he was still with his parents, these were his only happy memories from childhood. ZZS does not know WKX's past yet, if he did, maybe he would not be so cruel to him. ZZS doesn't want to lose his cultivation, so he is reconciled to the fact that he will die in a few years, he wants to comfort WKX that they have these few years to be together as soulmates. But WKX wants to have ZZS for a much longer time. The soundtrack, the song perfectly captures the atmosphere of the scene. ZZH and GJ as actors perfectly entered the role and the feelings that had to be conveyed in this scene. We don't know where the role of ZZS and WKX +1