kolachess - Tumblr blog

[kolachess]

Qiubing Chinese Fic Recs: What if rewrites

Sharing some more Qiubing fic recs from Lofter! Remember, these fics are written in Chinese, and so if you want to read them, you'll have to suffer some terrible MTL (or be able to read Chinese). Note: I’ve found that Safari’s built in translation seems to fare better than Google, as the names are least translated properly. I haven’t played around with other translators.

This round is focused on some of the (many) 'what if?' themed rewrites, which I'm currently obsessed with (in case you missed my first rec). Most of these involve rebirth / time-travel / consciousness returning to a previous part of the timeline. (Reborn here means to have been reborn into an earlier time.)

Note: Lofter is similar to Tumblr, and authors post chapters in individual blog posts. To find later chapters of the same work, just navigate to the author's page and search through blog titles with the same title (usually they'll number it somehow). Also, these titles tend to be more descriptive like a prompt rather than function like AO3 poetic titles.

Disclaimer: Crappy title translations and rough synopsis are mine... don't judge too hard 🤣). These synopsis notes are more for me to remember what the story is about... Also, my criteria for good Chinese fics is simply not being too OOC, and NO easter egg BS (i.e. the author basically tries to make money off of their fic by hiding majority of the story behind a paywall). My Chinese is too crappy to pick out good prose vs. bad prose haha.

Title TL: Sickly kitty, acting mode is on (WIP)

(AKA: What if Li Bing had returned to Shendu after those three years still sickly and with white hair, if he never entered Dalisi, but knew a lot of things?)

Synopsis notes: Mostly a canon rewrite, but with a LB who has white hair and prone to illness. LB still ends up involved in all the cases, but there's slightly less animosity between our favorite pair and more of QQZ trying to look after LB.

Title TL: Reborn before any tragedy occurs; this time we must have satisfaction (WIP)

(AKA: What if Li Bing's consciousness returns to a time when no tragedy had yet occurred?)

Synopsis notes: LB returns back to before their country started the war, before his father died, and before he parted with QQZ. He implores his father and QQZ to investigate the suspicious nature of the war, and thus they embark on more investigations. Features a stubborn LB, protective but indulgent QQZ, LB crossdressing as a woman because Wang Qi isn't there, redeemed Chen Jiu...

Title TL: What if after General Qiu died, Li Bing was reborn? (COMPLETE)

(AKA: What if LB returns to when he first took up his post as the Vice Minister of Dalisi?)

Synopsis notes: LB returns to when he first returned to Shendu and took on the Vice Minister post. Features a calm and shameless tease LB and a QQZ trying his best to remain unaffected and maintain a charade. LB keeps sneaking into QQZ's room in the middle of the night...

Title TL: If you eat (my) Li family's bing (cake), then you become my (Li Bing's) person (WIP)

(AKA: What if QQZ's consciousness returns to when he first met LB?)

Synopsis notes: QQZ returns to when he first met LB and tries to cue him into the conspiracy earlier and prevent all tragedies from happening. Features QQZ centric POV, which is a fresh take! Of course, doting and indulgent QQZ as always...

Title TL: A reborn Li Bing will definitely force Qiu Qingzhi to spill the beans (COMPLETE)

(AKA: What if LB was reborn to three years prior as QQZ returns from war and manages to force him to speak the truth instead of avoiding him?)

Synopsis notes: LB returns to when QQZ just returned from war and stubbornly refuses to let the guy ghost him. Featuring an alive and doting papa Li, sickly and fragile LB (no cat form), doting / protective / occasionally teasing QQZ, Yi Zhihua becoming bffs with LB (much to QQZ's chagrin), and everyone is happy.

[kolachess]

Just wanted to share a wonderful Qiubing fic I came across on the Chinese sites that scratched some of the canon-ending-upset itch. 🥰

I have no idea what everyone's appetite is for reading machine translated fanfics (and unfortunately, Google likes to translate Li Bing's name into 'Li Cake' 🤣)... but if people are interested, I might share some of the fics I come across. (Personally, I have a very low tolerance for MTL fics and never read them... but the English fandom for Qiubing is still too small, and I'm already trudging through the Lofter pages in search of content anyway... so I figured I might as well share what I find haha.)

Fortunately, while searching on Lofter requires an account, accessing the individual blog pages do not. So you shouldn't have to deal with tedious account creation should you choose to read some fic. You just have to deal with crappy MTL.

About this fic I'm sharing though:

Title (It's a saying, which, via my crappy translation, equates roughly to): "To wish you a long life"

Notes (my own): A sort of what-if fix-it fic, in which Li Bing spiritually(?) travels repeatedly to an altered timeline in which his father did not die that fateful night. Cue themes of sickly!Li Bing (per his canon younger self), a doting Qiu Qingzhi, Li Bing desperately trying to change the 'past' so Qiu Qingzhi doesn't die... it's sweet.

So yes, if people are interested / don't think the MTL is too horrific, let me know and I'll share more! Or I'll share them anyway as a way to archive my own reading notes because I don't trust Lofter to maintain account access predictably.

[kolachess]

Hello, can I ask if you know where to watch KOD with English subtitles? I've been looking everywhere but can only find the first episode 😥

Hey! I think there's only the MTL ones so far if we're talking about *all* of the episodes... You can check out the Discussions section and also Comments section of the MDL page. People have shared links there.

I understand Mandarin so I watched all of it without subs.

[kolachess]

Ruan Nanzhu being shamelessly possessive over Ling Jiushi (The Spirealm / Kaleidoscope of Death)

Just throwing together some fun moments (nothing too spoiler-y) from the episodes I've watched thus far! Jealous and pouty RNZ is the best lol. He's got a wealth of tools at his disposal that's he's unashamed to employ to monopolize LJS.

Ep. 10 - RNZ invoking Confucianism to prevent his boi from sleeping away from him 🤣

Ep. 16 - RNZ performing 'sa jiao' or acting 'moe' to reclaim his boi's attention

Ep. 22 - RNZ invoking 'professionalism' to block any attempts to get close to his boi

-

Please pardon my low quality gifs and crappy sub overlay lol. I don't blog gifs that often... just wanted to share some fun moments in advance since I know the subs are going to take a bit to come out!

[kolachess]

Olivarry Fic Search: fandom geek Barry explains fandom and their ship to Oliver?

Y’all, I haven’t been in this fandom in years. But the other day, I was going through my Google drive graveyard of fics that never saw the light of day, and to my surprise, I’d started an Olivarry fic. Clearly, I wanted to read this very tropey fic, which is why I attempted to write it but got nowhere. So, I’m now asking kind strangers in the fandom... is there such a fic along these lines?

Here’s a short snippet I’d written to give you the vibe (And yes, I’m shamelessly just sharing my writing in hopes of finding the fic I desire to read. Or... you know. If it doesn’t exist... and someone wants to take it on...):

“Did you know…” Cisco started off slowly, drawing out the question with no small measure of unadulterated glee, “…that you two have fanfiction written about you?” He grinned at them with eyebrows arched in his typical, ‘holy shit I cannot believe this is happening’ manner.

“I…what?” Barry managed, face paling because of course he of all people knew what fanfiction was. He also knew that Oliver, of all people, probably wouldn’t.

“Well—okay, it’s not about you two per se, like… you know, Barry Allen and Oliver Queen, but about Flash and Arrow, who are essentially you two,” Cisco quickly amended.

Oliver, who had been quietly watching the proceedings with a frown, finally chimed in with, “What’s fanfiction?”

Plot points / additional notes:

Barry is a bit of a fandom geek, and now has to explain to Oliver what shipping, feels, OTPs, etc.

Cisco scores points within the fandom with solid ‘headcannons’

Barry going full geek and pointing out issues like a fan (e.g. debating their ship name ‘Flood’ or ‘Hash’ for Flash x Hood and of course both are equally terrible in his opinion, thank god for rebrandings cuz Flarrow sounds way cooler) and Oliver kind of looking at Barry like ‘why the hell do you know all this, who are you, what have you done with my bf”

Barry really wants them to go to Comic Con…. And not just as attendees, but as Flash and Arrow. You know… for reasons.

[kolachess]

Star Struck - Explaining the conflict and cultural nuance

Those of you who have seen the Korean BL, Star Struck, probably thought it was a(nother) mediocre school BL. In a year with more and more BLs from South Korea (yay!), it might have been an easy pass.

BUT, if you’re like me, you will have really, really appreciated the refreshingly realistic taste of a friends-to-lovers dynamic, complete with a conflict that is not just over one-sided or mutual dislike of each other for once! (Which is not to say I didn’t love the BLs that had that... they’re all great. But I do think expanding scope is always admirable!)

I realized that part of the reason why what seemed to me a rather thoughtfully constructed set of characters and plot development comes across as plain boring to many others might partially be a cultural nuance issue.

So, here’s my attempt to bridge that gap and give it a little more credit than it got (at least, so far). Of course, that’s not to say I think this drama is perfect... I do think a lot of pacing / editing could have done with some improvement. And at the end of the day... it is a coming of age sort of school drama, so it’s not going to be crazy complex. And I’m also writing this after episode 4, so there will be spoilers through episode 4. 

Disclaimer: I am not Korean, nor did I grow up in South Korea, so I definitely do not have complete authority on this subject matter. However, I feel like a lot of what was happening in Star Struck might have been... unfairly overlooked or otherwise not understood by audiences who are less familiar with Eastern Asian cultural values, so as a Chinese American, I wanted to do my best to add a bit of perspective.

So. What is the root of SHJ (Seo Hanjoo) and JYJ (Jo Yoojae)’s conflict?

Certainly, SHJ’s (seemingly) one-sided crush on JYJ and JYJ’s reactive jealousy is a large part of it, but the other big part is a newfound wealth gap and how that translates into what esteem they hold each other in.

From the get-go, we can tell SHJ is very (self-)conscious about money. He knows how hard his mom has to work, and he feels guilty and early on already tries to justify to himself (and others) that some costs, like the cram school he saved up to attend, are not worth it. He’s too prideful to honestly mention his money troubles to anyone.

Although SHJ doesn’t know JYJ’s rich yet in this scene, JYJ’s financial circumstances still was better off than SHJ’s. But he’s clearly uncomfortable with the idea of his best friend paying for him like that. And here’s where I’ll do some cultural breakdown.

In East Asian culture, the collective identity comes first, and the individual comes second. Meaning, people take more pride in what school they graduated from, what company they work for, what their family background is, more so than people in many other cultures. I’m not talking school pride like, ‘I’m proud to be a <insert school mascot>!’ kind of spirit. I mean that everyone in your life, in society, will measure your worth first and foremost (and often only) by the primary institution or family background you came out of. And with SHJ’s sort of background - poor, single-mother - that’s a big stigma. He’s still a rational human being though, so at least he doesn’t blame his poor mother for their circumstance (which some kids do, given all the pressure of society). But that all said, this clearly weighs on him - how his lack of money reflects on him. And if money is viewed at all similarly to how it’s viewed in China... it’s basically a measure of your capabilities and standing in society. The inability to be generous with your money is ‘losing face’ i.e. embarrassing. And so... yeah. It’s a lot of ‘dings’ in SHJ’s social profile. The kid is understandably a bit self-conscious, though he clearly tries to not let it get to him.

Fast forward to when he finds out JYJ is now ‘rich’... Obviously, he’s upset at not being told because they’re supposed to be close friends. However, he’s clearly super self-conscious about being seen as someone who’s that sensitive about money. Notice how he hasn’t actually commented / asked about JYJ ‘moving out’. (Note: I wasn’t 100% sure if this carried the implication that JYJ might be moving away, but the text message made it sound like that? Correct me if I’m wrong.) He immediately assumes JYJ didn’t tell him because he’s pitying him or otherwise worried about how he’d react because of how it involves money. And he hates that. (Which... he’s not totally wrong about. JYJ might not pity him like how SHJ is thinking, but he definitely worries a bit about how SHJ will perceive things, and it becomes this death spiral of misread intentions.)

And of course JYJ starts to comment on SHJ’s family, which just confirms all of JYJ’s worst fears. He suddenly ‘realizes’ that his best friend who he has a crush on actually walks on eggshells around him because of his money situation, which is a blow to his self-esteem, because what does that mean? That there’s a meaningful gap now in their social status and JYJ looks down on him and just never said? That JYJ sees SHJ as too delicate to be able to handle this new reality? (His insecurities and perspectives, not necessarily what JYJ thinks, of course.) 

It’s like having a close friend say something that makes you suddenly wonder if they were actually judging you this whole time, and your mind goes into overdrive analyzing every past interaction you’ve had and reading in between the lines to see if you were actually blind all this time. To SHJ, who is already a bit self-conscious about all of this... it’s a major blow. And although he says he’s only ever felt inconvenienced by his poverty... I’d say he’s being a bit dishonest with himself. Again, he’s clearly not the shameful type to blame his poor mother, but he clearly has trouble admitting his circumstances to even his closest friend.

Meanwhile, for JYJ...

...the guy is clearly struggling too. He obviously cares for SHJ and extremely mindful of his money situation, hence previously wanting to just pay for SHJ at the cafe. However, he also doesn’t want to hurt SHJ’s pride even more, so he ultimately still tosses his pair of perfectly good shoes he no longer wants despite wanting to give it to SHJ.

Once SHJ cools down a bit, and JYJ extends the olive branch, they both apologize to each other and come to an understanding. However, as is with a lot of human emotions... getting over it in the moment does not necessarily mean getting over it for good if you haven’t addressed the inner demons that spawned these bad feelings in the first place. And it’s not long before we see another issue pop up.

At this point, SHJ has had to move into the side house (and hides it from JYJ). He finds the Gucci receipt in the pocket of the jacket JYJ lends him, and JYJ immediately tries to wave it off saying it was pretty much something his mom made him buy.

He’s clearly worried about SHJ feeling bad again. He definitely doesn’t seem to care for the materialistic things as much as his parents seem to, and he even seems a bit embarrassed by it. So when SHJ brings up his big new house, he immediately tries to make light of the situation by joking about how indeed, the one good perk is that he can no longer hear his parents fighting. So that’s clearly another thing that weighs on him. SHJ is seemingly rather sensitive to JYJ’s money situation, but JYJ doesn’t really want anything to do with it at all. And the thing he really wishes could be new and shiny - his family’s relationship - is not something their newfound money could buy. In fact, it’s possible he’s even a little envious of JYJ for having such a caring mom.

Later, when he finds out SHJ has moved into the little side house / shack, he’s understandably upset that his best friend had chosen to hide this from him, that he didn’t see JYJ as understanding enough to be honest with him. He obviously also aches for SHJ’s circumstances. 

Gift-giving is a big part of East Asian culture, but there’s casual gifts between friends, and there’s gifts between everyone else. When you’re gifting gifts to someone less close, you definitely don’t want to go for things too cheap, so people tend to skew for expensive and unnecessary things because it’s part of social gestures and having ‘face’. While well-intentioned, sometimes receiving (and continuing to receive) gifts, especially more expensive ones, can make the receiver feel like they have to reciprocate in kind and continue to stand on ceremony or otherwise have this formal distance between the other person. It’s a big game of chicken sometimes, but some people’s ‘face’ won’t allow them to take a more casual, intimate approach first. This is not the main reason why JYJ gets upset of course, but it is an element.

All that compounded - he’s hurting already on SHJ’s behalf, yet his best friend seemingly doesn’t trust him enough and still tries to save face. And what’s worse, SHJ seems to think JYJ is materialistic and chases expensive things, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth - he dgafs about this kind of stuff. So to have his best friend essentially woefully misunderstand his character, continue to hold him at arm’s length / treat him with non-intimate courtesy, make sacrifices that hurt himself to give JYJ something that makes him seem materialistic and puts even more distance between them due to their economic gap... he’s pretty hurt and furious.

Of course, in reality, while SHJ not telling JYJ might be partly due to his pride, the expensive gift was purely because he was crushing hard. And cue the confession tumbling out.

-

So actually, I feel like there was a wonderful build-up of their tension, oriented not entirely on SHJ’s romantic feelings towards JYJ, but a very real issue between two people compounded by the complexity of romantic feelings.

Although I grew up away from the frontline influence of these sort of social gestures and expectations, it was still a big part of my upbringing. And I feel the agonizing indecisiveness over what to say, how to react, etc. You read intention into every gesture and word, because that’s how Asian culture operations.

I was rather surprised to see people comment that this drama was boring, but upon analysis, I did consider that part of it might be because a lot of this tension goes over the audience’s head if you weren’t brought up in that context. What seems like beautifully nuanced dance of well-intentions-turned-sour might come across as a jumbled mess of ‘being upset over unnecessary secrets’. That, coupled with some abrupt scenes that might not be tied in too smoothly, might have led to a lower evaluation.

Or it’s just my bias for a non-romantic-feelings based tension haha.

-

Anyway... curious what others think!

[kolachess]

Lan Jue x Wang Yan (Mowen) - Best ship name ever

Ok, definitely quite random, but I just wanted to take a moment to applaud the Chinese ship name for Lan Jue x Wang Yan from A League of Nobleman. I’m actually unsure if there’s been a good ship name for these two in English (nothing seemed to pop out at me?), but the Chinese fandom seems to have settled on 兰砚知己, which is perfect because:

兰 = ‘Lan’ in Lan Jue

砚 = ‘Yan’ in Wang Yan

知己 = ‘Zhiji’, which is confidante / soulmate (not necessarily in the romantic sense, but bromance / BL has opted to make it a Thing, and I’ve decided to roll with it)

And, there’s a similar sounding Chinese phrase ‘蓝颜知己‘  (in fact, only the second word has a different intonation from the ship name) which specifically refers to the male confidante of a woman (the ‘lan yan’ here means ‘blue’, or more specifically, ‘blue color’). 

And to add more fun, a common follow up / associated joke or saying is that ‘blue blue often turns green’, where the color green (and more specifically, wearing a green hat), means you’ve been cuckolded. That is to imply, of course, that any close male friend of a woman will likely always become a romantic interest. (Personally, I think that’s BS, but anyway that’s the saying / joke.)

So then coming back to this ship name, it was just *chef’s kiss*. Like, other ship names are often sayings or phrases as well, but not quite so well mapped multi-dimensionally.

P.S: I’ve opted to not tag this post with that tag, since I assume folks using that tag would already be aware of this and not impressed by my realization 🤣

Bonus: If you want to search for Lan Jue x Wang Yan content... searching this tag on bilibili gives you all the fun fanvids.

[kolachess]

Chinese Terms Reflective of the Culture: 连累

Pretext: I love languages, especially the way they get influenced and shaped by the culture they’re born from. For example, the Inuits have 40-50 different words for snow, because they live in an environment with lots of snow! Snow is important to them as it’s such a strong presence in their day to day lives. You won’t find the same words mapped to English since the historically English speaking regions were less snowy.

Similarly, there’s a lot of Chinese terms that don’t have a parallel in the English language because the environment and society emphasize different things. If you watch cdramas, I’m sure you’ve come across them before. Although, whether or not it registered might depend a lot on the translation qualities. Here’s one I’ve thought about quite a bit:

连累 (lian lei) - To implicate, to involve someone else, to drag them into trouble with you would be a rough translation, but none of these fully captures the sentiment of this term. 

This is an action, so you’d use it like ‘I (lian lei)’d you’. While ‘implicate’ is a singular word I used to translate, it’s missing out on so much. It doesn’t carry the same weight of guilt / accusation, nor does it capture the nuance that it was the association (as opposed to necessarily active involvement) that brought trouble in the end. The individual words that compose this are 连 which means ‘connect’ and 累 which means ‘tired / strain’. 

When I hear a phrase like ‘I (lian lei)’d you’, it’s full of guilt, apology, and regret over, not so much the 'guilty’ action, but more over the fact that the other person was unfairly involved due to their association. You agonize over having accepted their kindness or friendship, and / or over not being capable enough to prevent your burden from having to be shared by them. The closest phrase I feel can compare is something like “I didn’t mean to involve you”, but it would have to be buffered by a lot of good prose. And conversely, it’s quite accusatory if you’re saying ‘You (lian lei)’d him’. You’re accusing them of being inconsiderate, naive, selfish, or all of the above.

And honestly, this sort of term only truly makes sense in Eastern / collectivist cultures, where your identity is first and foremost not of you as the individual, but your relation to the society. In Western cultures, people might think it unthinkable to punish family of someone for what someone did. But in Chinese culture, this was extremely prevalent. Even today, it persists in more nuanced ways. Responsibility means something different in Eastern vs. Western cultures, and this term reflects that.

[kolachess]

Ghostman’s Backstory

 Who is Ghostman?

First, you very likely have no idea who I’m talking about. Ghostman, as Wu Xie dubs him ‘鬼影’, is a character that shows up in Volume 8 (the last volume, and in drama-speak it means the events right after Ultimate Note) briefly to impart a lot of insightful explanations on Wu Xie (and we the audience). 

This does mean this will be a lot of spoilers then and quite lengthy. I’ll usually tag these with posts spoilers, but I’m using a cut this time too.

When does he first appear?

So technically, he’s made an ‘appearance’ earlier, as the mysterious figure stalking them around Banai, and the person who tried to steal the box containing the iron block from Xiaoge when they first visited his former residence.

Although described as ‘collapsed’ or ‘sloped’ shoulders, this should not be confused with the ‘collapsed shouldered’ figure standing behind a screen Wu Xie saw in the old photograph that led them to Banai in the first place (that was later unveiled to be an iron figurine (Vol 6, Ch. 35)). (However, there does seem to be another mention of the photo that may contradict this... so idk. It’s all Wu Xie hypothesizing anyway.) 

What does he look like?

From Wu Xie’s description in the novel:

His whole body was like a mass of wax that had quickly melted at first. All the skin was mottled with holes, but the melting process seemed to have stopped abruptly. His shoulders were practically nonexistent, his hands hung on both sides of his body, and all the flesh and skin on his shoulders were wrapped around his body. I could even see the joints through the thin skin covering his shoulder bones. His whole face had been melted and his hair was so long and unkempt that it was practically knotted together.

When and why does he approach Wu Xie?

He approaches Wu Xie (and Pangzi technically) as they are about to enter the mountain to find Zhang Family Ancestral Manor and save Xiaoge. 

Recap: A long-range authentication system was set up for the manor in Sichuan, which is where Wu Xie’s team operated. After they messed up a password though, they lost contact with Xiaoge and Pangzi’s team in Banai. Wu Xie then rushed over to perform a rescue operation, and for reasons, had to utilize his Sanshu’s identity to do so (so he’s posing as his Sanshu). Pangzi managed to make it out somehow, and now they’re both trying to get back in.

Ghostman approaches Wu Xie because he recognized Wu Sanxing and was curious what he was doing back here. Hence, he finally shows up and asks Wu Xie to follow him (Vol 8, Ch. 31).

Who is he really and what is his story?

It turns out his name is ‘Zhang Qiling’ (though presumably no meaningful connection to THE Zhang family). Thirty years prior, he was part of the  ‘archaeology team’ of Chen Wenjin that came to Banai. 

He joined the team because he was part of the result of a nation-wide search for people named ‘Zhang Qiling’, and was the only one who remained by some qualifications (Vol 8, Ch. 36). He doesn’t know the significance of the name, however.

Although an archaeology team nominally, their real task was to bring a coffin into the mountain (Vol 8, Ch.35-6). What this is, he has no idea. But he says they were all deceived, and only three people probably knew the real situation.

When they went into the mountain and finally reached the building, the miluotuos (rock beings that preyed on humans and were attracted to their warmth) had been hot on their heels, even if they couldn’t immediately breach the alkali barrier. This concentration of Miluotuos triggered the Manor’s defense mechanism - a spray of alkali mist that kills / scares them off, but also liquefied the team. Those in the building were instantly liquefied, and Ghostman was fortunately in the tunnel and only got lightly exposed, and he still became the way he is today (Vol 8, Ch. 35)

He only survived all these years thanks to the help of Panma. And since then, he’s been raising lynxes and keeping people from approaching all these years. If they did get too close, he’d kill them, because it was better they died by his hands than inside that terrible place and feed more miluotuos.

He asks ‘Sanshu’ what he’s doing back here and if he knew things would happen the way they did back then, and if that was why Sanshu did not join their group. He also wants to know who is ‘in charge’ now and if Sanshu agrees now that the ‘secret’ should never be revealed.

What all did they learn from him?

Since Wu Xie was posing as Sanshu and didn’t have his actual memories, he had to tread very carefully on how to answer / ask follow-up questions.

The origin of the qilin tattoo

The Yao people in the area would tattoo a qilin tattoo on their best hunters when they come of age. It turns out the reason it took the shape of the qilin it is today was because a Han tattoo master had come through around Ming or Qing dynasties (1300s - 1900s) to teach here and decided to modify / improve it. 

Now as to where the original tattoo came from... it was deemed a necessary thing for hunters who hunted deep in Yangjiao Mountain, which to the people was a very unique place. They’d forgotten the reason though, and only carried it out of tradition.

Eventually, Ghostman’s team chased down enough clues to realize it was a very precise topographical map of the mountain. It mapped the route to the Yao ancient road. The Yao people spent a lot of time trying to figure out what special thing was at the end of the route, and Ghostman’s team similarly presumed this special thing must be the Manor. But then they realized it was a closed loop. (Vol 8, Ch. 34)

Miluotuos and secrets of the mountain

The path that wound around complicatedly was in fact more of a ‘fence’ to keep the miluotuos at bay. Miluotuo actually means ‘old grandmother’ and refers to the whole mountain. Technically the rock people are the miluotuo’s shadows.

The miluotuos eat people by trapping them inside the rock they secrete, which is why when Wu Xie and co. got stuck in the cave from the siphon, they couldn’t find any entrance. And since the miluotuos are everywhere in the mountain, it’s like the entire mountain is jelly with shifting passages.

And as I mentioned above, miluotuos are attracted to heat and while trapped in the walls, could break through if attracted enough. Hence, the Manor has a defense mechanism of misting alkali, which would force them to retreat. (Vol 8, Ch. 34)

Thousand year plan

The Zhang family had actually planned to move the Manor to this area nearly a thousand years ago. Two points - 1) the vegetation around this mountain was of especially good wood for construction. And there was a great fire in Ming dynasty (1300s-1600s) that conveniently wiped out the original vegetation. 2) To transport this lumber down, they formed a deep vertical hole all the way to the bottom of the underground cave. They did this simply by placing a copper ball at the entrance of the cave, and let thousands of years of rain slowly wash away the stone since water would pool at the bottom of the ball. (Vol 8, Ch. 33)

Others

There was a ‘Chen Qing’ group that was Sanshu’s faction, presumably led by a ‘Lao Yu’.

There’s a secret in the mountain that should not be revealed to the outside world. And they’re very close to losing the ‘key to all the secrets’ presumably because Xiaoge got trapped inside.

Notable questions / implications:

What is the significance of the five pointed star that he tosses ‘Sanshu’? (Vol 8, Ch. 32)

Whose coffin was carried into the Manor? (Vol 8, Ch. 35-6) 

Some netizens have hypothesized this to be Wang Canghai, but who knows.

What is the ‘secret’ that must not be known by the outside world? (Vol 8, Ch. 35) 

I want to say that while this might be related to the Zhang family secret / gate, it’s not quite it. Otherwise Ghostman would probably know what Zhang Qiling meant?

What’s the ‘only key’ that will soon be lost? (Vol 8, Ch. 36)

Again, maybe he’s referring to Xiaoge, but then why would he not know the importance of Zhang Qiling?

Why does Wu Xie feel like he recognizes Ghostman? What’s his relation to Wu Xie? “As he spoke, he regained his composure. Although his whole face was melted, I suddenly had a thought—I seemed to recognize him.He wasn’t in that photo and didn’t have the kind of relationship I thought he did with Uncle Three. As I was thinking this, I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I had met him before, but where? Who was he?” (Vol 8, Ch. 35) 

Only ‘three’ people probably knew the full truth of the situation. Assuming Chen Wenjin and Huo Ling were two, who was the third? And was this before or after the ‘replacement’, so were these even the real Chen Wenjin and Huo Ling?

Why did they conduct a nation-wide search for Zhang Qiling? (Did they actually care to find their patriarch for once?)

[kolachess]

DMBJ Drama IP State of the Union (and why UN is so much better than main series)

For those curious, I found an article (in Chinese, but MTL does a decent job of translating) discussing the IP history and status of DMBJ, i.e. who owns the rights to produce the dramas over what and till when.

Article here: https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2021-07-19/doc-ikqciyzk6336805.shtml

Quick points: 

There are two to three parties involved in the current IP battleground - Huanrui Century, who was sold majority of the DMBJ drama IP originally, Linghe Culture, who was subcontracted or sold the rights from Huanrui to produce Ultimate Note (Vol 4-7), and the original author himself who established his own company and has been slowly building up more DMBJ IP / derivatives and trying to reclaim drama IP.

According to sources, it’s unlikely Linghe will be able to cooperate with NPSS again, so the chances of them actually produce the Finale, or the follow-up to Ultimate Note, are low. 😭 (Although, note that the production of Ultimate Note did not involve NPSS yet was the one adaptation most true to his works... ironically.)

NPSS also has long had disagreements with Huanrui Century, so who knows what will happen next.

I really wanted the producers of Ultimate Note to produce the Finale, and now I’m not sure which I’m more scared of - The Lost Tomb level of quality being carried over into the Finale, or the Finale never being made. If you want learn more about the likeliness of having Linghe produce the Finale, just read this.

[kolachess]

Thank you for domestic Pingxie! life in the Rain Village is the best!

Awww glad you enjoy it! 🥰

[kolachess]

Pingxie / Iron Triangle Snippets - Wu Xie Missing His Bros

Context: When Wu Xie splits off from Xiaoge and Pangzi (he goes to Sichuan, and they go to Guangxi) so they can work together to get into the Zhang Family Ancestral Manor.

Source: Merebear’s translations.

Vol 8, Ch. 35

I had been to many beautiful places with Fatty before, but when I first saw them, I was always knocked down by Fatty’s witticism. It was rare to be separated from him, and this time, the feeling was so different.

Vol 8, Ch. 41

Without Poker-face and Fatty around, I didn’t have much confidence in myself. Plus, my feet were injured. All I could think about was my own ending. If I died this time, Fatty and Poker-face would surely sigh with emotion at my grave and say “This guy can’t do without us.” It was at this moment that I really regretted separating from them so easily.

Vol 8, Ch. 42

If I had to say I made an error in judgment, it was that I didn’t trust his abilities enough. If it was Poker-face, I honestly would have stayed put.

Vol 8, Ch. 50

I once again wished that Poker-face was here. I was suddenly starting to realize that it wasn’t my own good luck, but the two people around me who solved so many problems. I had really been taking it for granted.

Vol 8, Ch. 53

I couldn’t help thinking of Fatty and Poker-face again. If they were here, the black-haired corpse would’ve had his head cut off before he could scratch my back. Or I would have seen Fatty rush out from those pottery jars and screw everything up. But I would have been saved.

Vol 8, Ch. 57

I had never been so overwhelmed. If it was a normal situation, I could calm myself down because I had Poker-face and Fatty around me. But now I was suddenly all alone.

I thought of the many times I had been trapped and in danger with them. Whether it was in the Seven Star Lu palace, at the bottom of the sea, or in Changbai mountain, I had never felt so anxious. But now….

Analysis / Callouts:

Nothing really to analyze. But I just love how Wu Xie is such a pining disaster without the other two around. How are you so useless without your husband and mama to coddle you, hmm?

[kolachess]

Thanks! It was liu sang and bai haotian's(did I spell it right? lol) names I was curious about

You spelled it right!

Liu Sang - Appears in The Lost Tomb Reboot / Reunion: Sound of Providence as Xiaoge’s number one fanboy (Wu Xie doesn’t count). Liu Sang is known by most people as simply Liu Sang. 

AKA Sang Bei’er - I think the only other nickname he has is from Pangzi, who calls him 'Sang Bei'er'. Sang is from Liu Sang’s name of course. Sang ‘丧’ means loss / mourning. Bei ‘背’is back, and ‘儿’ er is child. This had me at a loss, and I asked my mom, who was also like ‘what are you kids reading nowadays, this makes no sense’, so 😅. I did read some others explain that it was a pun on ‘jinx’ as well and / or it was some reference to their first encounter. 

AKA... Zombie? - The confusing thing though, is that even though ‘Sang Bei’er’ is what the subtitles always print, it’s not what Pangzi always says. He says ‘Sang bi’ at one point (when they ran away from the hand clams and he was cursing at Liu Sang). ‘Sang bi’ can arguably be Pangzi’s Chinesification of ‘Zombie’ (there is a Chinese word for zombie too, but it’s definitely right up his alley to use the English equivalent instead). The English subtitles (on Viki at least), thus do translate this to ‘zombie’, lol. I guess when you look at Liu Sang, he can be kind of zombie-esque.

I did do a quick google search for ‘丧背儿’ on daomubiji.org, but didn’t find anything. So it doesn’t look like it was in the book either, so no additional clues there.

Anyway, jinx or zombie, take your pick.

Bai Haotian - Appears in The Lost Tomb Reboot / Reunion: Sound of Providence as Wu Xie’s number one fangirl. Her name is written ‘白昊天’, and ‘haotian’ translates to ‘clear / vast sky’ and refers to the sky in a certain position / season.

AKA Xiao Bai - Most of the time, she’s referred to as this. And mostly by Wu Xie. Xiao, is again, just ‘small’ and a common prefix for a nickname. And naturally, combined with her surname, forms ‘Xiao Bai’.

AKA Simei - Pangzi calls her this. This is comprised of two words - ‘Si’ meaning ‘four’ and ‘mei’ meaning ‘younger sister’. Basically dubbing her the fourth member of the Iron Triangle hehe. Or honorary member at least. Kinda cute, even if that’s not she was aiming for lol.

There might be other random titles others referred to her as on a one-off, and those would likely all be ranks / official positions. I don’t recall specific events to go look them up though.

[kolachess]

Hey! Your DMBJ Names and Honorifics Explained - Don’t trust the subs! post was very informative to me, who only knows some of that context and is especially interested in name meanings. Did you plan on making more posts with other character names, or would you be willing to if not? There were a couple characters I was curious about besides those you wrote of.

Happy to do so. Ask away!

[kolachess]

In case folks didn’t know, The Lost Tomb 2.2 (poorly subtitled ‘Explore with the Note’, but really should just be ‘Cloud Top Heavenly Palace’ or something) is out!

And alright, it’s definitely more in line with The Lost Tomb 2 production style / level, so it’s a bit of a step down from Ultimate Note. The script was quite abysmal to start, resulting in weird lines and acting, but it did get better.

In any case, I do think this moment was cute though! This is more in line with the casual / subtle but still believable things Xiaoge does that has me squealing. 

I like how Xiaoge is like ‘If I just hold my arm out, he’ll be OK’ and Wu Xie likewise is like ‘If I just hold onto his arm, I’ll be OK’. Okaaay, you two.

(Green bars are a software bug but I’m too lazy to care.)

[kolachess]

Pingxie Snippets - Pangzi is a shipper on deck

Context: This is where they were in Banai by the lake where all those mysterious things happened. They went up there with Ah Gui and his teenage daughter, Yun Cai. Pangzi, being the perv he is, kept flirting with / chasing after Yun Cai, but Yun Cai seemingly only has eyes for Xiaoge. Xiaoge went off to brood by the edge of the lake, and Yun Cai followed after.

Source: Merebear’s translation of Volume 6, Ch. 19.

Yun Cai sat next to Poker-Face, but I couldn’t hear what she said to him from this distance. Fatty looked straight at them and I joked, “You’re looking a little lovelorn. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Fatty said disapprovingly: “You’re the same!”

“Your mother!”  I said angrily, “I’m not as perverted as you. I’m not interested in little girls.”

Fatty patted me: “I believe Little Brother is definitely a man of good character.”

Analysis / Callouts:

Ah, sadly they cut this from Ultimate Note. I believe the equivalent scene was in episode 20. Anyway, Pangzi definitely knows here and definitely wasn’t referring to Wu Xie being lovelorn over Yun Cai 😉. But indeed, Xiaoge is loyal so neither of them have anything to worry about.

EDIT: @laireshi shared the original uncut version from @thosch3i. Check it out here. Still not as explicit as the novel, but Pangzi is indeed fulfilling his shipper on deck duties there too! They totally could have kept that in and pretended Pangzi was making a joke about Wu Xie liking Yun Cai too c’mon???

[kolachess]

Zhang Qiling’s Backstory: Main Arc

Xiaoge’s backstory is long and mysterious, and there’s a lot we still don’t know as readers. There are starts and stops to his story, but the one I’ll focus on here is the most recent contiguous backstory we have of him.

Source: Volume 6, Ch. 3 (of Chinese version)

Where in the timeline does this fit?

Six to four years prior to main arc.

What was he known as at this time?

He was known as “Ah Kun” by the outlaws that used him, and later “Yaba Zhang” or “Mute Zhang” by Chen Pi Ah Si and company.

What was his role / what was he doing at this time?

Xiaoge’s role here was quite tragic. He was found by some Vietnamese outlaws in a village in Guangxi. Because he was out of it (likely memory loss), they thought he was an idiot and tied him up to use him as bait.

What happened next?

Chen Pi Ah Si collaborated with the Vietnamese on one job where they used him like this. However, something went wrong, and they ended up having to seal the tomb.

While the Vietnamese had died off or scared off, Chen Pi Ah Si couldn’t resist going back. He later re-entered the tomb only to find a naked Xiaoge sitting on a coffin in the middle of the tomb, zombies dead all around him.

After that, he became one of Chen Pi Ah Si’s men. Presumably, he was working for Chen Pi Ah Si until the main arc.

Connecting the dots to known events

In the events of the first volume when Xiaoge is first introduced, Sanshu had just sold the Black Gold Ancient Sword to Xiaoge. Sanshu seems to have recognized Xiaoge here and was startled he hadn’t aged since the events of the Xisha underwater tomb expedition. Xiaoge had come highly recommended by a ‘friend in Changsha’ (Vol 1, Ch. 7), and Chu-ge said Sanshu had borrowed Xiaoge from Chen Pi Ah Si, so presumably that ‘friend’ was him.

(There may have been something more involved with how Sanshu had the Black Gold Ancient Sword to begin with, which was actually a relic of the Zhang family, and what his ploy had been behind putting it up for sale. I’ll update with references if I find something.)

EDIT: Thank you @destielonfire for finding the reference to above: Apparently, Sanshu had taken the Black Gold Ancient Sword (or acquired it somehow) from Zhang Family Ancient Manor during the 1976 Banai Archaeology Expedition led by Chen Wenjin (Vol 8, Ch. 52) and later used it to ‘test’ Xiaoge ( Vol 8, Ch. 81).

Where did this information come from?

This all came about after the ordeal at Tamutuo, where Xiaoge came out of the meteorite completely catatonic and with no memories again. Wu Xie started to look for clues into his past, and remembered a Chu-ge who used to work with Sanshu.

How Sanshu came by this info is a bit more involved. He’d always been investigating what happened to the Xisha underwater tomb archaeological team. It was only after seeing Xiaoge again in the cavern of blood zombies in Shandong (Vol 1), that he realized Xiaoge had also been part of the group that hadn’t aged. He sent Chu-ge off to investigate, and the ultimately learned all of the history with Chen Pi Ah Si.

What else did they learn? 

Chu-ge had gone to Xiaoge’s place of residence in Banai (stealthily, to avoid Chen Pi Ah Si). He took only one photograph with him - the picture of a ghost-like man standing behind a screen labeled ‘1984, Golmud People’s Liberation Army Sanatorium’. Afterwards, he was caught by Chen Pi Ah Si and arrested.

Wu Xie, at this point, asked what big secret it was that Chu-ge wasn’t saying, but Chu-ge was unwilling to say anything more. If Wu Xie wanted to know, he’d have to go Guangxi himself and look at those other photographs on he table. Then Wu Xie would ‘naturally understand’ why he’d stopped investigating, as he’d cautioned Wu Xie to do at the very start of their meeting. Wu Xie later thinks he was bluffing about knowing what was on those photographs, but acknowledges he’d have to have known there were photographs at least.

Interesting implications and questions

Well obviously, the question of who or what is in the photograph arises, as well as what those other photographs contained. Hence why Wu Xie and co. then traveled to Banai, where the events involving the Zhang Family Ancestral Manor eventually took place.

This also means, of course, that Chen Pi Ah Si knew full well who Xiaoge was when meeting him again at Changbai Mountain.