#and cxs is like “... are you sure?”

[ghostlyenola]

Ah. I have severely underestimated his freakiness

[apollos-boyfriend]

link click is genuinely so fucking funny as a concept. every day lu guang looks at his impulsive ass extremely high empathy boyfriend and goes “hey babe i’m about to send you into a very emotional and traumatic moment in time you promise to not do anything impulsive and emotional right” and every damn time cxs goes “oh COURSE not i know the rules babe i’m not STUPID” before proceeding to make an extremely impulsive and emotionally-driven decision that fucks up the timeline and further dooms their already insanely fucking doomed asses

[psychopomp-namine]

.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I honestly think it’s too soon to know for certain whether Cheng Xiaoshi is truly doomed or not. I feel like we’re still missing a lot of important information here

[moonzeroo]

guess who finally watched the last few episodes of link click s2 and is now coping by watching the live action

[bluebunnysart]

MAKE TETO PURR IN YOUR NEXT FANFIC AND MY LIFE IS YOURS.

Anyways hi (I am smelt_enjoyer from ao3) In your mikuteto fanfics I noticed you have been leaning towards more chimera-ish traits for teto (wagging tail etc.) so you should…. Maybe… do purring 👉👈🥺… please

Anyways I love your mikuteto fanifics I would sell my soul for them

LOOOL

This ask made me genuinely laugh because I wasn't expecting it at ALL xD Thank you for enjoying my fics!! 💕💕💕 Ever since this AU's Miku and Teto appeared in my head, they've never left, so every day I am literally thinking about them and missing them and trying to figure out how to make them cooler 😂😂😂 (not an exaggeration, I probably relistened to the same four songs like literally 2-3 days ago while thinking about them again lmfao, will share if requested xD)

This is such an interesting request fr but I'll consider it wwww

You're absolutely right that I lean towards more chimera-ish traits for Teto, and that's 'cuz I think it's cute hahaha xD As a chimera, she IS a kind of animal (a combination of more than one of them), but I want to assure my audience that I don't make her animal-like 'cuz I'm a full-blooded furry or anything hhdsfkfds I do it 'cuz I really like the contrast with Miku (who's learning how to be more human-like and isn't instinctual/"alive" like Teto) and 'cuz I really like the idea of Teto's more unconscious side giving her away. Animals are pretty instinctual/straightforward (a dog's tail will wag when happy, for example) so Teto's tail is always doing all the talking even if she acts outwardly tsundere. In one of my yapping sessions (one of the first ones), I even talk about how her wings and pose might change to imitate/recall the defensive posture of an owl, so she's animal-like without going the full nine yards and being an ACTUAL animal (in terms of "non-human-like" vs not, I think/hope you get what I mean without me being 100% accurate over definitions fsdhkfsjdfds)

With all that said, purring isn't out of the question for her but my favorite animal to compare her to is the dragon (as a shameless dragon lover) so the animals I usually compare her to are typically, like, aggressive fhdhfkjds What that means, obviously, is instead of being cute and cat-like, she's more likely to growl, snarl, or bark instead of purr (I hope this mental image isn't off-putting LMAO I'm talking purely theory, she might not do these things if my brain ultimately decides it's too out of character for her), but yeah! Hmm!!

What I'll give you is if chimera Teto is relaxed and calm enough, it's not farfetched for her to purr (make a contented sound from her throat, the definition of purring) but are you sure you want this fhshdfkdsfsd How far can it go before the animal-ness gets too weird wwwwww

I'm not self-conscious about it or anything www I just want to say that this Teto (chimera Teto) also has a lot of pride, so even if she ever wanted to, she would probably NEVER do anything like roll on her back and act cat-like/ask for pats, so she's got some human-like ego to get past first before she ever acts cuddly like a kitten. Like I said before, she's more likely to growl in my head than purr, so I feel like even that growling can be turned into like a sound of satisfaction. BUT gdskfldsfs she's animal-LIKE but she doesn't go THAT far, so I would have to figure out what kind of situation would call for that hhkjdshdsj Teto still knows how to smile and express her feelings without acting like an animal (I feel like the latter is PRECISELY what embarrasses her and what she suppresses, stuff like if she ever gets slightly possessive or needy towards Miku) so yeah, I wrote all of that just to ramble about your suggestion and how the Teto in my mind is reacting to all of that xD

I'll think about it, basically! But I wonder if it'll work... If it doesn't show up, I hope this explanation suffices as to why, LMAO, but I like the idea though! ^^ It's cute! xD

Anyhow, pls keep your soul 😂😂😂😂 You need that... Also, I don't have that kind of money and don't purchase such things, so pls value it more wwwww

You're totally free to send me more asks about the AU 'cuz I think about it constantly and I love seeing people's interpretations and ideas, but this ask alone also made me happy. Thank you! c: I'm glad you approve. Makes me happy for real! ❤🥰

[waterlilyvioletfog]

Cang Xuan is frankly a very difficult person to have sympathy for because his great pain/trauma is losing Xiaoyao and it’s hard for the audience to take him seriously when he’s waxing poetic about how much he misses his meimei and how it guilty he feels that he couldn’t protect her when SAID MEIMEI!! IS IN HIS DUNGEONS!! HAVING HER HANDS EATEN BY MAGGOTS!!! ON HIS ORDERS!!!!! AS HE SPEAKS!!!!

[dokjas-lostselfpreservation]

WHAO DID I JUST ATTRACT AN ARTIST TO MY DOMAIN??????????

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I IMAGINED IT???????

OHMYGOD???????????

lu guang: i would die for you.

cheng xiaoshi: *joking* not if i do first~

lu gaung:

lu gaung: if i ever catch you saying something like th-

[lightspringrain]

These are panels for chapter 1 and chapter 2 of my CX-2 Tech fanfic "Return From Darkness". If you like emotionally rich, grounded and character driven stories, please be sure to check it out! It is one emotional roller coaster ride. Art done by Collophora. Concepts by me.

[side-quest-girl]

What if we reframed LG's actions as a desperate person doing, albeit to an extreme (and in an unhealthy way), what we have seen him and CXS do for so many others-- an attempt to process grief and regrets while visiting, but not altering, the past.

What if he took it too far, and dived too deep. What if he went in with the surface intention of never breaking his own rules (even the 12 hour one), even if deep down he probably knew it was a bad idea. Too raw, too personal, too addicting. Too soon. And what if he's gone through every picture like a mad man, going earlier and earlier, trying, not to save CXS (he knows he can't, shouldn't), but to extend his time with him as much as he can. 12 hours at a time.

But then, he gets to the last photo. The earliest. The day they met and LG's final chance to be with CXS as himself. And it's... too much. The little restraint LG has had with all the previous photos, back when he knew there were more pictures, more memories, to lose himself into, disappears. The dam breaks, and he lets himself drown. Lets himself go. Decides, even if overstaying his welcome means disappearing into the waves of time, forever drowning and trapped and unable to return to the present, that's okay. Because he doesn't have a present to return to. Not really, not one he can live in.

And so, he stays. Overstays the 12 hours and feels the last remnant he has of his CXS, the gold in his eyes, drain away. But that's okay, because to his slight surprise he doesn't drain away with it, and he now has something so much better than a remnant with him. CXS himself. One who doesn't remember him, remember them, sure. But a CXS that's alive and happy and that LG can finally have for more than 12 hours again.

...

And still, he broke one rule. He overstayed his dive. But he still remembers the other, more important one. Carved into his soul from all the times he and CXS had repeated it, he knows. Past or future, let them be.

And he will. He tries (and fails) to put the inevitable future out of his mind, and focuses on maintaining the past, step by step. And it kills him to do it, but he does. Because how can he not? The past must be preserved. Their future (their damned, heartbreaking future) must be preserved.

But then...

Despite doing everything in his power to keep things the same...

Things change.

LG knows it's his fault. The little missteps here and there have had a cascading effect (at least, he thinks that's the case... it's not like there's another meddling time traveler, is there?) and now everything is spiraling from fate's destined path. He's screwed up so much now. He could, should leave now and pray things return to how they were before, that time repairs itself from all his changes, somehow. But it's not just the small things. Nodes have changed. You can't turn back from that. And... oh, right, he can't go back now anyways. The gold is gone from him now, and he's trapped. And it's a terrifying feeling.... everything is changing from how it should be, and LG can't escape all the glaring reminders of just how badly he messed up, but...

It's actually a relief, deep down. Because the timeline is already unraveled, the future already undone. And now LG finally, finally has permission to do the one thing he could not justify doing in all the 12 hour dives before. LG can finally deliberately make changes. He no longer has to settle for letting himself drown in the unmovable tides of time, only to love and love and lose again, unable to do anything but watch and know. Now, LG can swim. He take take action.

Now, Lu Guang, can try to save Cheng Xiaoshi.

Because time has already changed. Nodes have already changed. There is no future to protect anymore. Just a person. Him.

[psychopomp-namine]

I actually have a fic idea but lc is a show that's like. you will never ever have all the information and context until the end. and I am a writer who writes best and more confidently when I have all the info and context at my fingertips. so now I'm just like 🧍‍♂️

anyway. ramble in the tags

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Theory: LX intended for CXS to dive to save LG

Preface and disclaimer: this is kind of an out-there theory; more a few loose thoughts that I found interesting to think on - I fully expect that some or all of this will turn out to be totally wrong. Link Click loves showing us scenes only to later have them be revealed as either a) shown out of order, or b) recontextualized by further info we weren't initially privy to. I fully expect this will be the case in s3.

For now though, concerning Cheng Xiaoshi's death, Yingdu arc is what we have to work with. And there's a particular scene that really, really bothers me: the very opening confrontation against Vein.

(Actually, there's a lot that bothers me. There are multiple timeline inconsistencies that can't simply be explained by animation error - the most egregious is CXS figuring out his powers by diving alone when he had to figure that out in s1, well after the point many timeline changes had already occurred that would directly lead to the events of s2, our current timeline. It makes my head hurt. That's why this post is not about the inconsistencies, even though it bothers me that I cannot come up with a good explanation for this atm. My best guess is that multiple possibilities or potentials are collapsing in on a singular timeline due to LX, SYY and/or LG's actions but I really don't know. Whatever. On with the theory.)

Let's start with a key assumption. If this assumption is proven to be wrong later, then the theory very much falls apart, but I feel fairly confident about this for now.

Assumption: CXS's death scene from Yingdu episode 1 is the original timeline, as is the dive back to the basketball court.

The reason I think this is from both a narrative standpoint and a character one. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense to show us either the first timeline or the most recent one after s2's cliffhanger ending. These are the timelines that actually have consequences for our story. Here, we see a lot of focus given to the transfer of Cheng Xiaoshi's power, and his dying request of Lu Guang. This dying request, to save everyone, is referenced in a later nightmare sequence, where Lu Guang is reminded that everyone has died. I don't think it makes much sense to focus on Cheng Xiaoshi's final words in a repeated timeline, unless they were framed as something Lu Guang has clearly heard before, which, they weren't.

Which brings me to the main reason I believe this is the original timeline: Lu Guang's reaction.

He's in shock for much of the events here - doesn't look at all like he knows or knew what was about to happen. If this wasn't the original timeline, I would expect him to look more desperate and sad than shocked. His reaction after diving also doesn't make much sense to me if this isn't the first dive he's attempted. Again, I'd expect him to look more haunted and sullen if this is a repeat. Instead, he looks around at his clothes and at his surroundings for a bit before getting hit by the ball, sees Cheng Xiaoshi, gasps and immediately tears up. <- Not the reaction I'd expect from a man used to diving.

Hopefully, you either agree with me or can at least suspend your disbelief enough to hear me out.

Let's go over what's odd about the initial Vein confrontation, yes?

Vein never actually shoots or even aims at Cheng Xiaoshi

"This is the punishment for you changing the past."

Vein doesn't finish off Lu Guang afterwards

Point 1: Vein knocks Cheng Xiaoshi back and twirls his gun. A few seconds pass in which Vein does not aim at Cheng Xiaoshi at all, just stands there, maybe to make sure he stays down. Lu Guang rounds the corner and Vein immediately fires a shot at him.

If Vein wanted to kill Cheng Xiaoshi, he could've already done it here. He's fast. He fired that shot at Lu Guang in a split second. The implication here is that Cheng Xiaoshi was not the target - the target was Lu Guang.

Point 2: Vein tells Lu Guang that his actions are punishment for changing the past. If we go by the assumption that this is the original timeline, this... doesn't make much sense. Lu Guang doesn't have the power to change the past without Cheng Xiaoshi's ability. It suggests that Vein is not after them here because of Lu Guang's attempt(s) to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but for some other deviation.

Conclusion? This is a shared punishment. In the original timeline, it seems very likely that Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi made some kind of change, or changes, to the past. <- This may actually explain why Lu Guang in the current timeline is so adamant about Cheng Xiaoshi not changing anything.

It is possible that the combination of their powers resulted in some kind of significant deviation, or else that they were mistaken for or had the blame pinned on them for someone else's actions. Either way, Vein seems to only gun for one of them, but it's not the one I'd expect.

After all, if this is a punishment for changing the timeline (and presumably, you wouldn't want them changing anything else), why wouldn't you shoot the guy who actually... makes the changes? Why try to shoot Lu Guang?

Well... maybe you would if you actually wanted the exact opposite outcome.

Vein misses Lu Guang several times in this scene. It's a little strange, given that he's been backed into a corner and his attempt to fight back does him no good at all. You can see in his fight against Shao Yuanyuan/Wang Qing in episode 6 that he does have good aim and is actually fairly efficient with his objectives. You could say he's toying with him, and maybe so! Vein clearly loves a good fight. Much like Liu Xiao, he has the vibe of a "hunter". But Vein also is stated to have a certain set of principles. To me, it feels like he's putting on a show.

This brings me back to the main question: why didn't he try to shoot Cheng Xiaoshi? Why kill everyone connected with them and attempt to kill Lu Guang, ostensibly as "punishment", when Cheng Xiaoshi is the one who can actually dive?

Point 3: Lu Guang helps Cheng Xiaoshi into the darkroom and locks the door. Vein fires a shot but then just kind of... stands there, grimacing. He doesn't even try to break the door down, which I'm sure he easily could. <-This is the weirdest part of the scene.

I don't think this was supposed to happen. I don't think Cheng Xiaoshi was intended to take that bullet.

I think Vein put on that show, wanting Cheng Xiaoshi to see him shoot Lu Guang. I don't think Vein expected Cheng Xiaoshi to dive in front and die.

You could say that Vein just decided to wait outside for Lu Guang to come out instead of exerting energy, but that's strange because in the time afterwards, from 23:11 on September 12th when they stumbled into the darkroom to just a little before 00:05 on September 13th when he leaves, Lu Guang gets injured, but is left alive, and Vein is nowhere to be seen. There is absolutely no way Lu Guang was able to fend off Vein, and the only other possible sign of a continued skirmish is more blood on the photo and its positioning (this could be an animation error, truthfully - everything else in the scene is the same as before - but if it is an error then that helps my point even more - there are no further signs of struggle).

The police didn't arrive and force Vein to leave. The implication is Vein left Lu Guang alive after waiting patiently outside the door for him to come out. Why? Why wait?

Well, one possible explanation: he didn't want to interrupt the power transfer.

Think about it. Why leave one alive, but kill everyone else? If it was to avoid them making changes, only one of the pair with the actual powers needs to die. Not everyone connected to them. This situation seems explicitly orchestrated to make it so Cheng Xiaoshi cannot resist diving back. I suspect he was already intending to - if you look at the scene where Lu Guang glances down at the shattered photo, his breath hitches - I suspect Qiao Ling is already dead and they know that.

Cheng Xiaoshi's last request is to save everyone, since he is now unable to - he cannot take the shot himself, so he passes the ball to the person he trusts most. And I think this was the goal all along. In a situation like this, how could he not try to save them? Especially if, as I suspect, the rules regarding past and future weren't made quite as strict in this timeline as they are in the current one.

Except this didn't go quite according to plan, because in epic Cheng Xiaoshi fashion, he did something that wasn't anticipated and died in Lu Guang's stead. Not ideal, clearly, from Vein's reaction, but it doesn't actually matter.

All that matters is that one of them dives back. The outcome is the same.

Why kill everyone, but leave one alive, and with a power that will allow them and inevitably tempt them to try to save their loved ones? The most obvious answer is if this is exactly the outcome you wanted.

--

Now, why do I say Liu Xiao intended this if the main actor here was Vein? Well, for one, Vein doesn't seem aware in Yingdu arc of changes to the timeline, except in this scene. Needless to say, he is definitely not privy to Lu Guang having future knowledge - Lu Guang is suspicious to him, but it does not seem to occur to Vein that he could be from the future. This information likely comes from Liu Xiao, who Vein works with during the arc to obtain Cheng Weimin's book and who unzips his body bag at the end of the season. Out of anyone who could've orchestrated this, our favourite puppeteer manipulator is the most likely candidate.

I won't claim to know what's going on with Liu Xiao, nor what his goals actually are, but I suspect he has at least some future knowledge or is somehow able to catch glimpses of parallel lines. He comes across as much older in the flashbacks with him and Li Tianchen as children. There is an odd bit in Yingdu episode 2 during the roulette scene where there is a flash to the gun killing him. Metaphor or vision? It's hard to say.

Interestingly, in the Bridon pv, Liu Xiao looks back at Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang in the airport and smiles but does not approach them. Lu Guang even mentions that they didn't run into Liu Xiao in the past timeline.

At the end of episode 1, in the current timeline, Liu Xiao says "Finally, we can start the game." It implies that all the pieces are finally in place. This may be why he approaches Cheng Xiaoshi in the airport and asked Xia Fei to trail him, expecting him to have dived back from the future.

I suspect his knowledge isn't perfect. Liu Xiao is a gambler. He's not like Lu Guang, who needs to have perfect control and anticipate every outcome. He wasn't really paying much attention to Lu Guang at all until he noticed something strange - ostensibly his heartbeat. Again, I suspect the person he intended to have dive was Cheng Xiaoshi. Lu Guang was not expected - but he can still work with this, and clearly does, because at no point does it seem like any of Lu Guang's actions or knowledge disrupted his plans. Instead, it seems like everything is going smoothly because of his actions.

Everything Lu Guang does, including his decision to stall Vein and try to get him killed, seems to work out in Liu Xiao's favour. I suspect, inadvertently, that Lu Guang is doing exactly what he wants him to. Lu Guang's only real moment of "masterminding" is therefore implied to have been anticipated. Liu Xiao smiles when Xia Fei receives the call about Vein's "death", as if he knew.

"You might have seen something interesting."

It checks out. This frame from Train Trail during his verse says "the puppets are standing" over everyone's silhouettes - including Lu Guang. Lu Guang is also frequently shown as either trapped or drowning in official art and in Yingdu - if he was intended to be a mastermind on equal footing with Liu Xiao, I really don't think we'd see so much of his feelings of helplessness, nor his repeated assertions that he essentially has no idea what he's doing and doesn't actually expect the outcome to change. Liu Xiao doesn't seem to have any such compunctions or concerns in this sense.

If Lu Guang does turn out to have been essentially manipulated into this situation, it would follow a particular pattern seen in Link Click. There are characters who enact control over others but are ultimately being puppeteered or manipulated (Liu Min trying to control what is said about him comes to mind, as does Li Tianchen's literal control, to an extent), as well as characters who, through desperation and/or love, and the limited options available to them in their shitty situations, become complicit in something immoral and suffer for it (Emma taking the money from Zhu, Li Tianxi being the other half of the remote control, Vivian becoming a scammer). If Liu Xiao really did orchestrate Lu Guang's dive, then Lu Guang would follow both these patterns, as a puppet with the power of future knowledge that can (and perhaps has) hurt others, and as a victim who made a desperate choice and is now trapped by its consequences.

One last bit of evidence - this time explicitly about Liu Xiao.

^Everyone is familiar with 091305 by now. September 13th at 12:05 am. The date and time Lu Guang dived back from. However, something interesting here: the year is blurred out.

Moreover, I see people say sometimes that this is Cheng Xiaoshi's death date - it isn't. Remember the time from when they were in the darkroom? Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred on September 12th, just a little past 11:11 pm.

Here's one last fun thing before I close out this post:

Liu Xiao, why does the date on your Tetris game-over say September 12th, 2024 when Yingdu arc takes place in 2019? I wonder whose game-over this could be?

[miyamiwu]

Xia Fei is a green tea bitch (and I love him for it)

But first, a definition from Baidu:

Green tea bitch (绿茶婊, lǜ chá biǎo) = internet slang that initially referred to young models who appear pure and innocent but are actually materialistic and would use their looks to climb the social ladder. Over time, it evolved to also describe those who put on a no-makeup makeup look but claiming it’s natural. Their defining trait is pretending to be harmless, to appear as if they’re broken inside but no one can tell, and looking sickly but serene—all the while actually harboring ambitions greater than anyone else.

WAIT! Stay with me—I’m not saying Xia Fei slept his way to the top. Green tea is more of a vibe. I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s just something you’ll naturally understand after encountering them several times in media. I’ll just show several examples of Xia Fei being green tea to show my point.

My belief in green tea!Xia Fei started from this:

Xia Fei once again acted as an interpreter for Vein. The first time this happened was in YE4, when he was about to explain something to CXS after Vein said he looked tasty.

At first, I just found it really cute that Xia Fei knows his laoban so well that he can act as his interpreter, but then it hit me—

In the finale, how exactly did he know that Vein intended ShiGuang to be his substitute partners in the photoshoot? ShiGuang’s visit was sudden, and their request was even more unexpected. He and Vein weren’t really given the time to discuss it and come to an agreement with what to do.

Sure, XF could’ve inferred that Vein’s “serve me” and “pay with your body” translate to “work as a model.” But where he did get the translation “work as a model with Xia Fei”? Why is he including himself in the translation? Vein never mentioned his name once during the conversation.

We know Xia Fei is brazen with Vein, but he’s still an employee after all, a part-timer even. Can he just manage other people’s work arrangements like this? Not to mention, he’s making ShiGuang work with him. A part-timer saying that two guys are being recruited as models still sounds normal… but automatically assuming (and declaring) that those new guys are going to help him in his job before the boss even says anything? No matter how close Xia Fei is with Vein, considering the boss-employee relationship between them, it doesn’t sound right.

So, I thought… Is Xia Fei really relaying Vein’s meaning? Or is he actually enforcing his own meanings on Vein’s words?

And Vein…just lets him. (“Felix always does whatever he wants.”)

How green tea!Xia Fei could be real

First Appearance

Xia Fei’s first appearance in the show just reeks of green tea. Heck, a tea room was even mentioned:

In this scene, he was openly whining to a coworker about how his boss won’t let him eat snacks. And okay, employees complaining about their boss is normal. But the way Xia Fei worded it is soooo not professional:

“If he catches me sneaking food again.”

It’s as if Vein is personally watching over his food intake. Bitch, how??? Vein was barely in Yingdu. His plane just fucking landed. How is he catching you???

Xia Fei wasn’t just whining in this scene. He was flaunting his closeness with Vein. Green tea energy 🍵🔥

And this is how the show is introducing him to us. They’re not showing us his silly or serious sides first. Of all aspects of his character, they chose to show us this.

The Elevator Scene

Unlike some people, I only go for the best, whether it’s a project or a connection. Isn’t that right, boss?

....Why did he say that?

No, no, the real question is: How could he say that while on the call with Vein???

The allegation being true or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that he did not deny it. In fact, he even fucking owned it, but with some corrections: “I’m not sleeping with that 60-year old guy. Unlike you guys, I only go for the best, like my boss. Right, boss?”

What the fuck.

(Related post: my understanding of those women’s gossip)

If he had said such words without Vein listening in, I could’ve just interpreted it as him making up stuff so he can snipe at those women. But no! Vein heard everything he said. Vein, who hates lies, heard his Felix implying that he was sleeping with him, the boss.

And all these in a censored Chinese show???

Once again. What the fuck.

Green tea energy 🍵🔥

Xia Fei pairing himself with Vein

In CMedia, the green tea bitch is usually a woman who likes the male lead but dares not confess. Instead, she just tries to keep others away from the ML. When she sees the ML showing interest in the protagonist or anyone else, she would then “casually” display how close she is with ML either as a way of marking her claim over him or to make the protagonist feel that the ML’s actions for her are nothing special because he does it for everyone else.

(Think Kurumi from Kimi ni Todoke trying to make Kazehaya “everyone’s Kazehaya.” That girl is classic green tea.)

The green tea would do this by mentioning, often in a whiny tone, the stuff ML has done for them (“He’s always watching my food intake, he’s so annoying”) or by deliberately showcasing her deep understanding of the ML (“Actually, what laoban meant…”).

With these in mind, we can recontextualize this scene as Xia Fei being green tea 🍵🔥:

The framing here has struck me since I first saw it… The way Xia Fei moved to Vein’s side (putting them in one group), leaving Cheng Xiaoshi (whom Vein just complimented for looking tasty) across them, separate from them, and barely in frame.

I could be overthinking it, but if this were in any other genre, this would be a classic green tea move 😂

There are just too many nods on Xia Fei being more than what he seems

The bus Xia Fei is riding on in the OP contains the words “Look Carefully.”

These are the same words on this art by Yuyu:

(Yuyu is the animation director who posted that “See You Later” art and practice animation featuring Vein and Xia Fei)

In YE6, Jack also warned Cheng Xiaoshi about Xia Fei:

“He’s not as innocent as he looks.”

Oh, and I think it was definitely Xia Fei who tattled to his laoban that Jack released company secrets. After all, Xia Fei’s loyalty to Vein is unquestionable.

Liu Xiao also has something to say:

“If you know each other’s true colors…”

Finally, Lu Guang has always been wary of Xia Fei:

As he should. After all, Xia Fei is so close with the man who killed Cheng Xiaoshi in previous timelines.

(I also believe that Lu Guang never genuinely thought of Xia Fei as his friend, unlike Xia Fei does for him and CXS.)

Conclusion

Let’s go back to the original definition of a green tea bitch:

Green tea bitch (绿茶婊, lǜ chá biǎo) = internet slang that initially referred to young 1.models who appear 2.pure and innocent but are actually 3.materialistic and would use their 4.looks to 5.climb the social ladder. Over time, it evolved to also describe those who put on a no-makeup makeup look but claiming it’s natural. Their defining trait is 6.pretending to be harmless, to appear as if they’re broken inside but no one can tell, and looking sickly but serene—all the while actually harboring 7.ambitions greater than anyone else.

Xia Fei is a model.

Jack says he only appears innocent.

His character profile states that he likes money.

He has the looks.

He did not deny the sleeping his way to the top allegations (re: elevator scene).

He may be narcissistic (This is more apparent in his Rent a Shell PV, and Director Li has stated that the character PVs are a closer representation of what the antagonists are actually like because in Yingdu they are restrained)

Now, all we’re missing is the ambition aspect. What does Xia Fei desire the most? Or rather, who—

It’s Vein.

Vein is his ambition.

He cares about his laoban a whole lot that he’s vowed to uncover the truth behind his death no matter how bizarre it may be.

Xia Fei may be green tea, but it’s all to get closer to Vein. If he indeed slept with Vein (it’s already heavily implied), then it’s not for him to gain fame or status, as a traditional green tea bitch would. It’s simply to be with Vein.

If he’s stepping on others to get to the top (as many characters have hinted), then that’s because Vein is at the top. And he needed to reach him.

Xia Fei is green tea, and I love him for it.

[anotherdragon]

not sure if its just the yaoi brain worms but I think its kind of crazy that lu guang and cxs actually feel like. subtextually gay in the bridon arc. like in the first two seasons its oh they're the two male leads in an anime/donghua people ship them thats a given its fine ig but here every five minutes its like 🤨 what did you say 🤨 do you want to run that by me again 🤨

[snorlaxlovesme]

not sure if this has been said before or if this theory has any teeth, but ever since the Yingdu finale it's always bothered me that THAT'S apparently the timeline we're currently in? i expected to see at least one failed dive to prove that Lu Guang has re-lived the timeline multiple times. 1. bc it makes him more tragic, and that's just wish fulfillment for me, but more importantly 2. this line at the end of the finale

saying that this is the LAST chance Lu Guang has to save him (implying more chances were had and they were fucked)

and there IS the implication that Lu Guang has done dives outside of what we see because

this is an insane little diary to have of some of the EXACT TIMES that certain things happen. like, if you asked me to make exact timestamps for something that happened to me a WEEK ago I probably couldn't do it. maybe Lu Guang is just built different, but this to me implies that other dives have happened

but the thing i'm proposing today is: could Lu Guang have been implying that he has done many dives to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but maybe possessing Cheng Xiaoshi HIMSELF?

we've always just kind of assumed that Lu Guang was diving back into his own body and re-living as himself (and in Yingdu, specifically, he does) but if he received CXS's power from him, does that not give him the power to possess ANYBODY who's taken a photo? and why NOT choose Cheng Xiaoshi, the professional photographer and active social media user. he would have a ton of options to choose from right in the studio.

and if YOU received the power to possess people in the past and YOUR best friend had just been killed, wouldn't occam's razor suggest that the easiest solution to prevent them from being killed is to possess THEM and remove them from harm's way?

maybe that's what Lu Guang had been talking about. maybe, using photos Cheng Xiaoshi had taken, he had possessed him as many times as he was able to to try and prevent him from being killed by Vein. fought Vein, hidden Cheng Xiaoshi, run away, etc etc, but somehow Cheng Xiaoshi always ended up dead as a result

finally, as an act of desperation, the LAST idea that Lu Guang had, was not to possess Cheng Xiaoshi, but to go far back in time and possess himself. to set up everything exactly how he wanted, to control the system far enough in the past that the murder of Cheng Xiaoshi isn't even a whisper of a thought in Vein's mind. if he possessed himself and STAYED in the past, he could control everything from the very start

[morganbritton132]

I feel like Steve's non-Upside Down friends definitely have a group chat for all their Steve-based conspiracy theories that's just filled with really off the wall excuses and tidbits that Steve's said - how panicked is the government agent-babysitter about it?

The first-year teachers definitely do, for sure!

The chat was originally called ‘The Steve Harrington Experience’ because every conversation with the man is something else, but they ended up changing it after Kathy pointed out that it made it seem like they all experienced Steve Harrington, ‘Sexually, u know?’

“Yes, Kathy…” Marissa said in an exasperated voice note. She must be driving. “You didn’t need to spell it out. We’re changing it.”  

‘Not saying I’d be opposed 2 the experience,’ Kathy added helpfully in the group chat. ‘U see those trousers he wore yesterday. Not much left to the imagination there.’

‘Thank you, Kathy.’

The group chat was changed to the ‘Support Group for David’s Obsession’ which is just, haha. Funny. David is not obsessed with Steve Harrington. He just isn’t.

Sure, nothing about the man makes any sense.

And yeah, maybe David talks about that fact a little too much. Maybe he has asked the group chat probing questions about Christmas lights. Maybe he even made a dentist appointment with Edward Harrington, DDS just to make sure he wasn’t the Eddie Harrington they knew.

He wasn’t obsessed. He was just due for a cleaning.

The other day in the parking lot after work, Steve asked if David could see the license plate number on the white 2015 Mazda CX-3 that was circling the block. David read the number off for him and Steve wrote it down. He didn’t explain anything.

David texted the group chat about it, ‘Maybe he’s a spy?’

‘Do you think spy organizations sent out a lot of epileptic agents with service animals?’

‘Maybe the epilepsy is a cover.’

Kathy replied, ‘It’s not.’

David kinda hates how he only tunes in to the staff meeting about Career Day when Steve mentions that Erica can’t come. Something about pissing off her constituents by favoring a community in a state she doesn’t represent. Yada, yada, yada, “Dustin’s still coming though.”

“Dustin,” David repeats, feeling the amused way that Marissa is looking at him. He can’t even be bothered by Jordan hiding a smile in her hand. “Your brother is coming to Career Day?”

Steve beams, “Yeah, man. He comes every year.”

Kathy was a second-year teacher that was definitely here during last year’s Career Day. She could have mentioned it. David can’t even fully digest this information when Steve knocks his knuckles against the table and snaps his fingers, “Oh! My ex works for the paper. I’ll see if they can come.”

David somehow gets roped into finalizing the rest of the list of speakers for Career Day (i.e. they need to confirm if Steve’s people are going to be there and Cindy didn’t want to do it). When he stops by Steve’s classroom at the end of the day, he is surprised to find that Steve is not alone.

There’s low music playing from the corner of the room now that the students have gone home and Steve is at his desk grading papers. Eddie is standing at the board, drawing a dragon-like creature with dry-erase markers.

Eddie is humming along to the song on the radio, occasionally brushing his fingers along Steve’s shoulders when he reaches for a new color. It’s a cozy moment and he almost hates to interrupt, but David has leftovers in his fridge that he wants to get home to.

He knocks against the doorframe, “Steve, you have a minute?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Steve asks, leaning back in his chairs far enough that his head brushes against Eddie’s back. “Babe, you remember David from the cookout?”

“The history teacher,” Eddie hums, distracted by his drawing. He erases a line of red from the fangs with his finger. “Stevie’s saying great things about you, kid.”

“I – wow, that’s – thanks! It means a lot! I, uh. I’m finishing up some things for Cindy and she just needs a confirmation on your people for Career….” David trails off when Steve makes a sound between his teeth like a hiss and gives him a big wide-eyed look. “…Day?”

Steve’s wide-eyed expression forms quickly into an innocent smile when Eddie turns to look at him, “Babe-“

“Career Day?” Eddie asked scandalized, hand to chest. “Career Day is coming up, Steven? I had no idea.”

Steve’s eyes flicker away from Eddie’s over to David’s and he says, “Yes. Yep, they’ll be here with bells on. Henderson and Wheeler. Just them.”

“Wheeler?” Eddie manages to sound even more scandalized. “Stevie, you – you invited Wheeler to Career Day and not your own husband? I have a career!”

“Yes, you do,” Steve says in a voice that’s a little too ‘second grade teacher’ to not be a little bit insulting. “And you’re amazing, and I love you, but they wanted people with career paths that didn’t start so…infamous?”

David starts inching out of the room because as much as he wants to know more about Steve, he doesn’t want to witness an argument he started. He’s almost to the door when Eddie says, “I worked for my success.”

“Yeah, I know,” Steve sighs like he’s remembering something awful. “If only there wasn’t a mob.”

David is out the door when he hears that and he pauses for only a second before pulling out his phone like, ‘what the fuck, guys????’