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The Glory ep 27 spoilers

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NOT beating the Dengwen drum/The Drum of Appeal again smh. I'm very tired of this over-romanticized badass/girl power/matriarch whatever FLs beating the Appeal Drum to save the beloved men in their lives trope. Dressed in their finest, looking pure and pitiful and in such an intentional "heroic but feminine way".

It's like the ultimate consolidation of the idea a woman doesn't have the means or power to get the thing done instead of begging to a higher entity (who is ultimately a man). A male lead always saves his women so heroically, on horseback and going to war and political connections and other "manly" methods. (Now don't come at me with "but back then women couldn't do much..." because 1. They did a freaking LOT actually 2. These are not actual historical dramas 3. Just don't)

How about we have a ML for once, who is out of his wits and options and grovels at the Dengwen to save a woman in his life? I'm sure in Chinese history there were instances. In my culture also there are stories of appeal drums and people of all walks of lives used it, not just wronged noble ladies. I dislike how in period dramas it has now become synonymous with the highest plot climax moment a FL can have.

Btw you can read some interesting articles about Dengwen drum here and below too

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Made a (barely deserved) edit for his ex too because I'm nice like that (and also because I love the song and felt it's fitting)

Do enjoy this too! 🐒

Made an edit for beloved babygirl and atticwife Li Lun!

Enjoyyy! 🍃

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Spoilers for Ep 14-15 of The Glory/Gui Nv

Gotta give it up for The Glory for successfully switching my feelings about an extreme character from one polar end to the other. Doesn't happen everyday. Wow.

So I wasn't even a big fan of the show. Atop the repetitive assembly line tropes, its pacing was rushed and logic uneven but I liked the lighting, women's costumes, the main leads AND THE GIRLFRIEND WAAH so I kept kinda binging it with sporadic attention.

Show had the most toxic and unhinged mother ever whom I did NOT think was possible to be justified no matter how hard they tried, because while it's valid to send away and estrange your child because she was being schemed upon by the second wife, there was no need to let the child suffer so much. But when they finally revealed what truly happened..... SPOILERS

It wasn't as simple as Mother's natal family was destroyed by Father so she's out for an unreasonable revenge massacre. It wasn't as simple as "she was trying to keep the daughter away for her own safety and going to unreasonable extremes for it because she's nuts" just because of a jealous concubine set to ruin a baby girl's future (who thought it'd be a boy, if the doctor assumed it'd be a girl she likely wouldn't have gone down with such a plan, she's still an evil woman yes but she's not that insidious, her motives are pretty transparent); it's the FATHER who was a hella insane psychopath! Under his meek and kind exterior he's a hypocrite and a heartless scumbag who made me feel like even Emperor Qianlong was more humane!

This is NOT a justification for her actions. Being a victim doesn't absolve you of your crimes, she IS terrible for the abuse she inflicted/allowed to happen on her child and not caring if dozens of victims would die in the course of her bloodlust. BUT Finally, I'm seeing her for what she is. She's no longer really a human with sound, functional brain. She's a severely traumatized caged animal who's been on feral and delusional survival mode for YEARS. Imagine:

You are torn from your lover, your family is ruined, you are forced to marry and sleep with the person who presumably caused all of it, you are already getting through every day with revenge and bitterness in mind, but a targeted, "healthier" version of it.

Throughout your pregnancy, your unborn child is labelled as a curse.

You give birth after hours of agony, with no one but maids by your side because they are all too busy frantically prioritizing superstition over her.

You are told your newborn baby will be beaten to exorcise the supposed demon in her. Your husband says; "It's okay, we can always have another baby."

You run to every family member's door and beg for their mercy and help and they pretend to be deaf and blind (Remember, you are still freshly postpartum).

Wild with desperation and rage, you pretend like the demon is yourself, and demand that YOU be beaten instead. And your husband agrees and gives his order.

You are (STILL FRESH OUT OF LABOR) beaten until your legs are so mangled you become a cripple!

Your child is sent away

You get isolated in a lonely back garden with just your maids, with IMMENSE physical and emotional agony, you lose all contact with outside world, no one to offer a single kind and comforting word to you except your maid and zero way to heal your mind and get back your focus. You gradually lose your touch with reality and to be indelicate, there's no way for you to "touch grass" even if you wanted to because HAH. You are confined inside that house's walls and wheelchair!

Only hatred and toxicity are your companions, and it only keeps growing, you are no longer planning for a "reasonable revenge", it's full-on war now. And in a war, everyone will die, regardless their innocence.

When you are at the height of your plans, your daughter suddenly returns home. In the very tiny gap in your heart that you've left for your child, there's fear, there's grief that your child suffered horribly while she was away, but after the years you had, you do not know how to express your love and concern in any sort of "healthy" way. Every fiber of your body can only scream at your daughter "GET OUT. GET OUT!!!" and you resort to any means to have your daughter RUN the hell away from this horrific place, and from you, the "failed, incompetent excuse of a mother who couldn't save her child" before it's too late. Yes, the child hadn't had any better life outside but, in your head, she has, she will, because remember, that's what you choose to believe, that was the belief that kept you going, in your years of re-living your trauma and gradually losing touch with reality and reason.

You are no longer a person but a husk of one, so of course your behavior is not going to be reasonable. You are merely acting by your deeply ingrained instincts: which is to KEEP AWAY THE CHILD and I WILL KILL EVERYONE ELSE AND THEN MYSELF SO I'M FINALLY FREE.

After seeing ep 14-15 my verdict is that mother's actions were COMPLETELY understandable, and I can't fault her no matter what crime she commits because I probably would've done the same in her place.

Her daughter, Hanyan, is by NO means obligated to love or "try to understand" her mother and mother doesn't ask her to either, but Hanyan -bless her- chooses to, first out of her own delusional belief and hope that kept her going; that "My mother must still love me, just because", and then after learning of the full extent of the things that happened. She is the first person to approach her mother and teaches her the words "letting go" and "it's not worth losing yourself to toxicity and self-loathing over a man."

And dear reader, this scene.

I fucking cried, okay? Only I know how deeply this scene resonated with me. You are free to interpret their individual characters and their dynamic whatever way you want, I hope you don't come after me for mine. That's all.

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Made an edit for beloved babygirl and atticwife Li Lun!

Enjoyyy! 🍃

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Finally colored my Zhu Yan/Li Lun & their tree baby art for my FoF fic Flowering Season.

Thank you @emotional-mess-of-jellies for helping me with digitally polishing up the sketch and color correction! ☺️ Without you this would've remained a 10cm× 5cm ballpoint pen sketch on the back of a discarded handout.

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Yan An and Handcuffs: A Story

So, I was watching certain FoF episodes for *cough research purposes and uh seeing Li Lun rocking these cuffs and chains reminded me of Yan An and the hilarious handcuff situation he got himself into four years ago...

He was in this variety show called Idol House with his fellow PENTAGON members, where they played various silly games and one of them was for two members to try guess and describe an item that wasn't shown to them but the rest of members, and fight for the ownership for it, giving reasons for why they REALLY want it.

The items ofc would be all sorts of ridiculous things, making the two demanders' claims sound all the more funny to the onlookers. And guess what Yanan's item was? 😂

And Yanannie was blissfully unaware and started making the wildest, most specific descriptions about the unknown item, a risky but daring move because he's that competitive lol

LMAO (you should see his team members reactions to this, they were fighting to breathe)

And it got worse and worse... 🤣

The moment of truth lol

So basically it's really fucking funny to see the very same guy, being like this, 4 years later 😂

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1,000 Years of Longing [fic]

I needed me some Li Lun, lots of Li Lun and Zhuo Yichen, with Zhu Yan still being present there as a shadow, a memory, a promise, and the glue keeping them both together. It's a Post-Canon kind-of-fix-it that spans across quite a devastating vista of experience, with Zhuo Yichen taking it upon himself, as he always does, to save the people that he loves the most (or rather, that one person). Li Lun gets saved as well, but definitely not by mistake.

So it's an M/M/M kind of situation and Li Lun's post-redemption redemption arc. I love that polycule to bits and now I've finally witnessed it being born (at least in my own mind :D). There's gentleness, and flirting, and teasing, and hurt/comfort, and guilt, and trying to make sense of things, and a hideous amount of waiting.

If you read it and like it - come celebrate with me in the comments! :D

Summary:

“I think you’re mistaking that feeling for something else entirely,” Zhuo Yichen says cryptically, but then decides to elaborate, seeing no understanding on Li Lun’s face whatsoever, “You don’t have to be with me to get close to him. We don’t even need to be friends, you and I. Let alone… something else,” his gaze becomes somewhat intense as he says this, making Li Lun’s heart miss a few beats.

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Did you know Yan An (闫桉) can play Erhu !? Or of his familiarity with Traditional Chinese Music in general?

So, you may know Yanan from his adorable kpop boy group PENTAGON days or from his magnificent portrayal of Li Lun in recently aired Cdrama Fangs of Fortune.

And I need to share this delightful piece of information with y'all, since it's not well-known and Yanan doesn't quite self-promo stuff about himself (if you've seen videos of him you'll know, he can be super outspoken and lacking a brain-to-mouth filter at the weirdest of times, but mostly he's really, really softspoken and shy) and this particular talent of him didn't have much use in kpop (a missed opportunity, I'd say!)

Intro

Both of Yanan' parents are in Classical Chinese music field. Timestamped, you can listen here to him singing two of old-style lullabies his parents sang to him 🥺

Here's him trying to mimic playing erhu for his team members

Here's him in 2018 Chinese Music Idol Talent show Chao Yin Zhan Ji, discussing with his teammate Wu Jiacheng (from C boy group X NINE) and friend The8/Xu Minghao (from K boy group SEVENTEEN), whether he should include erhu into his and Jiacheng's performance.

And the crew went ahead and got him a whole new erhu to use! Too bad because it was missing pieces, and Yanan couldn't really get it to work, and they didn't end up using it in the performance.

Later in the show, the idols were told to collaborate with some International Level Instrumentalists, and one of them was Lian Peiru, a famous pipa performer. And Yanan went all; "My mom plays pipa" and it ensued a whole hilarious conversation between him and that laoshi about "Who is better, your mom or me?" and "Pipa playing girls are scary" 🤣 Timestamped and eng subbed, here

(Yanan and Junhui, his partner, didn't choose her as their instrumentalist in the end anyway and also, he withdrew from the show due to mental health reasons -see, like I said though he's a very quiet and reserved person, he really stands his ground when it comes to stuff that matters to him- so we didn't get to see him associated with Traditional Chinese music again until...)

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Air-erhu again in 2023 dating variety show Hit it Off

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2023 Chinese Idol Variety show Youth pi Plan!!!

FINALLYYYY!!! Look at him goooo! If you are someone who frequent bilibili, you'll highly likely recognize this song, it's a cover of Jing wei by 30 Years Ago, 50 Years Later!!! And we not only got to see him performing it with two other amazing girls, but play erhu for it too! Him talking about growing up playing erhu.

And lastly, this show had a segment called With Baba x Mama, and we FINALLY got to see Yanan's sweet parents too, baba playing erhu, mama playing pipa, while Yanan danced and sang. The entire thing was so wholesome and a feast for my ears. Timestamped, but no subs. : (

After, there's a segment of He laoshi interviewing them three, and with my beginner level mandarin I understood that baba had made Yanan a snack, which he eats right there on stage, and the parents thank the audience for supporting their son and that they only wish that Yanan eats well and is at peace, always, and Yanan starts crying 😭

Interview of the Yan family (if you open this on PC browser you will be able to auto-translate the subs)

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That's all I have for now! Hoping Yanan plays more erhu in future, toodles!

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A little Li Lun Character Analysis

Ok call me insane but I think Li Lun will really understand what Female Rage is.

Maybe I've seen way too much Gongdou dramas but think, he was a very untamed demon, as wild as he could get, quite unlike Zhu Yan who was a more humanized ape demon. Both due to his inherent nature as a tree and because he just didn't have much exposure to human world other than the TWO times he ventured to it, tagged along with Zhu Yan, and they were like what, at least a few centuries old already.

Imagine that! You are centuries old and the second time you come on a market date at mortal world, you see your own kind being tortured and held in captive in a dungeon! And the first external reaction of your bestie/love interest/charge who was the bridge between Wilderness and this suddenly horrific human world was to not show the same panic you did.

I would freak out too!

Now listen, I'm not defending that he killed unrelated innocent civilians. He did and it was wrong, even though his lash out was somewhat understandable when put to perspective.

And then what happened? He was quick to be given eternal jail time. Nobody even explicitly showed him concern about his severe burn wounds, and he was kept in dark about how the imprisonment was a so called "kindness" because it kept him from dying from the burns, up until the LAST MOMENT he broke the imprisonment himself and burned away!!!

Since the show only told us what happened with the prosecution of Li Lun and not with the Pharmacy, we cannot say whether Zhu Yan/Baize Goddess/Demon Hunting Bureau were just as fast to lock the place down and tried to bring the people to justice, all we know is that immediately after Li Lun was imprisoned, Blood Moon happened and Baize Goddess and Demon Hunting Bureau were killed, so the pharmacy people naturally got away even though they might have been under a legal process because well, all the upholders of law just died and the only remaining one withdrew because he was overwhelmed with guilt.

So basically everything went downhill outside while Li Lun was banished to damp and gloomy Da Huang and he was as good as forgotten in the heat of the moment. Even if someone maybe meant to properly talk to him and explain shit, none of them ever came because they died! And due to this very same guilt and other baggage, Zhu Yan never ever visited Li Lun in jail for 8 years either. And Li Lun was left to make whatever he wanted out of it, and he did, as well an abandoned, silenced, free spirit of nature in endless agony bound in a musty cave would.

One might think his wrath with Zhu Yan was so overdramatic as if it's been hundred years of beef whereas it's only been 8 years, but when put into context like this, 8 were more than enough, don't you think? It only shows just how fast and strongly his pain and resentment built up.

And the world called him obsessed, delusional, hysterical and villainized him to hell and back... including his only connection to the world, Zhu Yan.

And he tried and tried to understand why, to the best of the ability of a lonely tree with no methods of meaningful communication left with the outside. Obviously he failed, but he tried.

And nobody ever tried to understand him.

He was the Attic wife in a Gothic novel. He was the concubine in Cold Palace, and he was the name-called first wife of a wastrel of nobleman with 3 other mistresses. Look I just watched the first 2 eps of the currently airing Cdrama Blossoms and I just got into a mood ok.

In the end, he obeyed the "last mercy of Zhao Yuanzhou". Or more specifically, he finally got to hear that his Zhu Yan was thinking of his wellbeing all this time and all his hatred melted away in a second.

And when he saw that Zhu Yan was in danger, he threw away the life and second chance he so longed for and returned for Zhu Yan’s assistance... and his only words to Zhu Yan were:

"A moment is more than enough."

And after that, he wouldn't speak directly to Zhu Yan anymore, wouldn't touch him, only addressing him via Zhuo Yichen: having recognized Zhuo Yichen as his love's current priority/the person Zhu Yan cares for more than he does for him. Zhu Yan might object that no, they both are equally important to him, but clearly, that's not how Li Lun read him, and honestly after everything who can blame him? Not even the so called "last mercy" was given to him face-to-face by Zhu Yan, so it's no wonder if Li Lun believes that Zhu Yan doesn't really care much to speak let alone continue a relationship with him, just that Zhu Yan didn't want him to die, which is a pretty low bar.

"Zhuo Yichen, please help me protect Zhu Yan from now on", Li Lun says as he holds Zhuo Yichen and gazes into his eyes, as if he's trying to parse out what made Zhuo Yichen more worthy of Zhu Yan’s love, defense and care than him.

"Zhuo Yichen, look carefully! Do not miss!", he says in his last moments. Remember me, the one who loved Zhu Yan first. I was once special to him too. Do not be like me, but know that I had a glorious presence in his life as well.

He doesn't turn to look again at Zhu Yan, he doesn't see Zhu Yan desperately clambering after him, to keep him from dying to buy them -Zhu Yan and Zhuo Yichen- more time. Maybe he heard Zhu Yan calling his name brokenly, but it was already too late.

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Local Black Locust tree behavior 😌🍃

If there are trees you aren’t alone

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First tweet: “I saw a piece of fabric? on the floor of my room so I went to pick it up but it was actually the moonlight that entered through the window lmao”

Quote RT: “1000 years ago this would have been a poem, not a tweet”

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles - Xu Lei, 重启之极海听雷 | Reunion: The Sound of the Providence (TV 2020) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, Minor or Background Relationship(s) Characters: Wang Pangzi, Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Zhang Qiling, Original Child Character(s) Additional Tags: Fluff, a tiny bit crack, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Kid Fic, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Mythical Beings & Creatures Summary:

If anyone asks, Wu Xie will tell them that he loves his life in Rain Village.

The Iron Triangle acquire a few strays.

Keep reading

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The next time you've got a friend over, set an example and put your phone on the table, visibly there but not too far away, to let them know that you're intentionally present, not distracted, your attention is undivided and you want to be fully focused on being right there to spend time with them. Don't mention it or draw attention to this, you're not doing this to be preachy or wanting praise, you just want to be a good friend and you value your friend's time. Ideally, your friend will either notice this or even pick it up without conscious notice, and set their own phone aside on the table as well.

Then, when your friend takes a minute to go to the bathroom, grab your phone and take a photo of your friend's phone sitting on your table. Do not touch it, and put your own phone back exactly where it was immediately once you've got the picture. Carry on with whatever you two were doing.

Once your time is up and your friend has left for home, wait for a good 15 minutes or so, for them to either get back home or be well on their way there. Text your friend, "hey, you forgot your phone", and send them the photo you took of their phone on your table. Set a stopwatch running from the moment your friend sees the message.

Measure how many seconds it takes for your friend to process this and tell you to go fuck yourself.

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BACK ON MY FOF REALISATIONS! This happened thanks to:

Fangs of Fortune: Burned by Fire, Healed with Love by YenGirl which is a sweet fix-it series for FoF ending and therefore contains spoilers for the ending, as does this post. Proceed with caution!

Only now I realised that in canon, Xiao Jiu almost died the same way as Li Lun- by burning. They both suffered with relation to Ever-burning fire too. But because Xiao Jiu is part human too, he retained his human form without turning to ashes but goddamn how hurtful that must have been!

Also omg that's why Xiao Jiu was a great choice for Li Lun to parasite! They are both trees so they are compatible! I swear the more I think about FoF the more layers I unravel.

I just

Had a realization about Fangs of Fortune.

Li Lun's reluctance to go out of his comfort zone is

because he's a tree!

And Zhu Yan is literally a monkey, he's supposed to roam!

Wow

For some reason until now I thought they are assigned those origins for only "haha monkey and a tree what a pair" reasons 😭

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[ENG SUB] BTS of the scene between Zhuo Yichen and Li Lun in EP23 of "Fangs of Fortune"

Jiarui why are you so high on life, you're scaring poor Yan An lol

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I get it now. Li Lun and Zhu Yan had a really bad break-up and now Li Lun is going to make it everyone’s problem.