#BABY PANGZI

[pangzi]

[foxofninetales]

I was reminded of this ridiculous bit from the DMBJCQ manhua.

Pangzi decides he wants to have new pictures taken of the Iron Triangle and has the brilliant idea that he knows a couple of people with cameras! Why not use them!

So he sends out the call!

Paparazzi on paparazzi violence, LOL.

Picture taking time!

Waiiiit a minute

WAIT A MINUTE

In all fairness, Pangzi, what did you expect?

[ohyka]

tlt2 pangxie part 1/?

[pearlpugly]

Very late, very vaguely LC week inspired midnight foxes AU comic let’s gooo...! This burnout is k-wording me, but I’m slowly slapping it away, so plz bear with me X””D

[randomtwinkinthetomb]

Pangzi: I left instructions for everyone while I'm gone.

Wu Xie: Mine just says "Wu Xie no."

Pangzi: And I want you to apply it to every possible situation.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Ehm.. the hilarity is that two episodes later the “pro on Zhang family” dude says that the marks Xiaoge left can be only read by Zhang family members, and we saw that even Pangzi doesn’t know the meanings of those. Wu Xie said that Xiaoge left those only for him. And like I know that everyone joked already about them being married and Wu Xie being a Zhang, not a Wu since Sand Sea. But like can we have an extra of the fucking wedding. But like there was a moment when Qiling taught him that. And there’s shitton of dots before the 3 1 5 dots, look at this stupid face.

[hils79]

As part of my Christmas present my bestest housemate @bambiesque commissioned some DMBJ art for me from the super talented @kick-girl

I love it so much! Look at them!

[wushanju]

Last night was movie night at Wushanju ! They had everyone over and it was Xiao Hua's turn to pick a film so they watched Farewell My Concubine. If anyone asks he did not cry you didnt see anything. If he's hiding behind Xiazi a little bit that's just because he cant get comfy. Pangzi moved a box tissues to their end of the sofa, just coincidentally.

[mejomonster]

also on the subject of zhang qiling’s characterization. i really want to get through more of the novels. i’ve only gotten through books 1 and 2 so far, and only the english translations (which im assuming up in quality a bit once you move to merebear translates in the later books), and i did not even get to the xiaoge parts in book one in the chinese versions yet.

so like, my opinion of him in the books is very specifically book 1 and 2 translated. and im very curious how he evolves and how he’s presented and how he acts to the iron triangle group. 

book 1 and book 2 i actually think overall the drama adaptations did a good job of showing xiaoge’s personality in them, although a bit ‘sped up’ (just like pangzi’s mostly himself but ‘sped up’ to be closer and warmer and kinder to wu xie quicker than he is in the book, im assuming so the shows could get the iron triangle dynamic sooner).

in book 1, like The Lost Tomb drama, xiaoge is mostly a detached mystery man who’s intensely competent, dangerous, and aloof. in the book he doesn’t particularly give notice to wu xie as far as we can tell (from what i remember anyway), and wu xie mostly only notices him for how Talented he is (his cool fingers... ok wu xie calm Down lol), and because wu xie at that point is trying to pretend to be a tough cutthroat tomb raider like San Shu, but he’s naive and at heart always been just unable to ignore others suffering If he thinks he can help. So we get little bits of wu xie wondering if xiaoge’s okay, wondering where he is, checking on him (like wu xie is ultimately doing with pretty much everyone on the expedition he thinks he’s even got a .001% of being helpful to). Wu Xie is less charitable and goody-two-shoes than the shows, and just thinks in his pov selfishly, but even thinking himself ‘trying to keep myself alive fuck others’ he ends up going ‘oh fuck i should go try and grab that guy and help huh?’. So wu xie is thinking that way about xiaoge too, as is to be expected. What’s unique about it is that no one else is thinking of xiaoge as someone who needs to be cared about - who’s weak enough to need help, or an ally enough to deserve their time, etc. 

And that dynamic is also true in the show - in the drama the rest of the team is quick to assume xiaoge is against them, could kill them (quite possible), is using them, can handle things without them sticking any limbs out for him, and a lot of them don’t necessarily assume xiaoge would even help them If he was around and it was convienient for him. The drama blows it out of proportion, with wu xie being damsel-in-distress saved by xiaoge nonstop, and xiaoge visibly to the audience taking notice of wu xie SPECIFICALLY asking if xiaoge’s okay and trying to help him (as early as the scene in the Inn when wu xie carries him to a bed, and gets him food to eat). In the novel xiaoge does help wu xie at times, but at least from wu xie’s pov (the only one we get) it seems he just Happens to be helping. One can say xiaoge maybe already took a special interest in wu xie, simply because he DECIDES to help him (which he likely does because he notes wu xie is actually treating him like a Person unlike pretty much everyone else on the team, and wu xie’s also the only civilian on the team and therefore not necessarily as much of a potential enemy/threat to xiaoge and his goals). But from wu xie’s perspective xiaoge just seems like an enigma in book 1, who’s VERY competent and VERY cool and very mysterious, who wu xie treats like a Person who deserves to be concerned for like himself (unlike how others treat xiaoge), who happens to help wu xie out a bit (but multiple people help wu xie he’s a naive first timer he needs it lol).

So from book 1, you really don’t see a clear perspective on how Xiaoge views wu xie. Only that its apparent wu xie himself treats tomb raiders, all people generally, as People as worthwhile as himself to help (if he thinks - foolishly- he could survive helping them). So wu xie’s behavior is a contrast to literally everyone, and for someone like xiaoge its a treatment he generally doesn’t get. (I’d argue for Pangzi too, a reason they gradually gravitate toward each other too). The drama follows a similar arc, but xiaoge’s interest and the fact he’s been Affected by someone caring for him and what that makes him feel like is WAY more obvious and likely sped up (cause the early dramas speed up iron triangle dynamics a bit). In the drama, its CLEAR xiaoge’s repeatedly saving wu xie in part because wu xie in particular is trying to help xiaoge, treating xiaoge like a normal person like wu xie is, and assuming xiaoge has good intentions by default/is an ally by default. Wu Xie is being trustworthy, and safe, and attempting to be helpful, all things xiaoge never gets. And drama xiaoge tests that, even trying to show himself as scary and brutal AND a dangerous ‘traitor’ to the group without arguing with San Shu when san shu starts painting him that way. Killing an immortal in front of the group and wu xie after wu xie assumes he isn’t a killer, xiaoge and pangzi ready to murder each other, xiaoge and san shu clearly on opposing sides (meaning wu xie assuming the best of xiaoge means even MORE if he’s assuming xiaoge is worth trusting even as a stranger against the person wu xie loves/knows/trusts most in that group). So in the drama its more clear xiaoge is very affected by wu xie’s treatment of him, and that’s likely why he has an interest in checking in on him/keeping him safe later at the auction scene they add in, and the implication is that in The Lost Tomb 2 xiaoge’s still so eager on wu xie because wu xie truly WAS the person to treat him like a trusted person back. The drama is clearly more sped up/obvious than book 1. But the core intention of xiaoge mysterious, wu xie’s normal personality happening to touch xiaoge are in both. 

Onto book 2. I watched the drama The Lost Tomb 2 first, and so i expected that xiaoge suddenly being a lot WARMER and friendlier and open to smiling and joking and trying to be close to wu xie was “the drama speeding pingxie/iron triangle up in closeness” just like the first drama. However, mostly, that wasn’t the case. In both the show and book, Xiaoge first is introduced as Old Man Zhang who is a “professor” who shakes wu xie’s hand and smiles and is EAGER to talk to and touch him. Then wu xie finds out, once attacks happen, that old man Zhang is actually Zhang Qiling as he removes the face-mask disguise and helps wu xie out. In the show, I thought that was already SUCH a change of pace - for xiaoge to show up covertly, and then go gush to wu xie in disguise (just xiaoge gushing/socializing in general is out of place for him normally!). But then I read book 2, and in it old man Zhang gets more dialogue of trying to compliment wu xie (and wu xie taking it as veiled-insults implying wu xie is inexperienced, when its actually xiaoge having RESEARCHED wu xie’s background and gushing in an attempt to say he finds wu xie cool too and wants to be friends). 

So Old Man Zhang itself is so interesting, because this disguise and warmth to wu xie implies at some point in book 1 xiaoge DID decide he’s interested in knowing wu xie, and decided when book 2 came and wu xie was scouted for an expedition, that he xiaoge would show up too and attempt to socialize with wu xie again. which is all HUGE for xiaoge, a guy who 1. does not socialize or care to, 2. does not generally have any attachment to the world so just having an interest in getting to know someone is big for him 3. is purposefully making efforts to be warm and interact which are things from book 1 he seemed to not care to do at all. So in book 2 he is suddenly acting a LOT more like pangzi (a tomb raider but sociable and aware of how to be at least casually friendly and make JOKES, compliment people, vocalize team work and strategy). xiaoge is doing a LOT in book 2 to try and reach an olive branch out to wu xie in the hopes wu xie will take it. I also think the disguise portion as old man Zhang indicates on some level Xiaoge wanted to try socializing/connecting to wu xie without it being tied to himself, in case things went badly and he needed to not leave such an impression on wu xie. He clearly cared a LOT about how their next interaction went and wanting it to go WELL post book 1, which i find fascinating. In retrospect then, what WAS xiaoge thinking of wu xie in book 1. I wonder. 

And then this final bit, is perhaps me reading too deep into it, but Old Man Zhang specifically being old - to me that reads like Xiaoge hinting he’s maybe not this young cool enigma wu xie met him as, and seeing how wu xie will receive an older version of him (since he is in fact over 100). Its Xiaoge testing out the idea of if wu xie will socialize, still treat him the way he likes wu xie treating him, if wu xie finds out he’s not exactly the man wu xie expects. (and Xiaoge is not going to be what wu xie expects in MANY ways - he’s not as good intentioned as wu xie thinks sometimes, he isn’t human as far as he himself views things, he’s older than wu xie thinks, he’s not cool like wu xie thinks but more just very very out of touch and isolated. And to a degree i personally read, that Old Man Zhang was xiaoge testing the waters to see if wu xie would still amicably treat him decent if he didn’t meet Wu Xie’s expectations. 

Then the rest of xiaoge later? As he acts uncharacteristically warm and friendly compared to book 1? Rather than testing if wu xie will like his more particular niche traits, hes testing if He can interact in a way compatible with wu xie, and if that will get him the friendship and closeness he wants - like when u act more charming to win over a person’s attention. And it largely works, wu xie overall gets quite friendly and teamwork’s in response and trusts xiaoge. In the show The Lost Tomb 2 this is almost JARRING compared to xiaoge’s mysterious closed off personality in The Lost Tomb. In TLT2 he smiles warmly, he stares directly at wu xie a lot, he jokes, he touches wu xie in camradiere and not just to ‘save’ or help him. He discusses what he’s doing and his plans for getting through a given area to a degree (aka he communicates/attempts to). He is trying to joke and be team-player around as much as pangzi (who is a much more sociable tomb raider with a lot of charisma), and regardless of how intense xiaoge is acting his main goal just seems to be to develop a connection to wu xie. This is xiaoge, and he could have showed up, said little, offered a bit of help (since wu xie Trying to be helpful to others tends to sometimes inspire it in the people he’s with), done his own mysterious agenda, then disappeared. He didn’t need to smile, or discuss any plans at all with wu xie, or compliment wu xie on his background and credentials, or even research and look into him. I expected the drama version of xiaoge to be ramped-up for pingxie shipping potential that the drama wanted to utilize. But then i read book 2. And in book 2 yeah, there’s not exactly a bunch of soul staring gazes, so as usual drama ramped up things a little. But the core element, xiaoge changing so Drastically in an attempt to connect to wu xie and build a relationship to him, is still there. He’s wildly more like a ‘usual tomb raider’ like pangzi or panzi in book 2 - talking to wu xie, working as a team, actually helping wu xie clearly on PURPOSE and not just ‘oh it happened to be convienient to help him.’ 

Book or drama version, im guessing to some degree its book 2 with pangzi and xiaoge teamed up with wu xie, where wu xie starts gradually making an impression on them. In the long term, wu xie’s connection to them tends to temper them both to be kinder people... where they might have shot someone to death or stabbed them, when wu xie’s around they tend to slow those instincts, when wu xie remains their team member as the stories go on, they tend to want to do these things a bit less even when wu xie isn’t around because ‘what would he think.’ At least that’s true in the shows. So pangzi is also going through a transformation as early as perhaps book 2 from “casually sociable but will kill anyone if they turn out to not be allied to him” into someone more like “well wu xie’s naive but i may not wanna leave him to die” or “well if i don’t Have to shoot xiaoge maybe i won’t since he’s technically being neutral right now and we’re both with wu xie.’ I’m curious how that transition happens in the books for pangzi. In the shows? The shows 1 and 2 speed the transition up to make pangzi a loyal trusted friend FAIRLY quickly, then show 3 Ultimate Note tempers it a little to a more reasonable pace of ‘shady tomb raider who’ll kill most people’ to ‘well maybe he’s got a soft spot for wu xie.’ TLT2 in particular speeds things up intensely, but still showcases exactly how brutal pangzi (and xiaoge) are when wu xie is not around - how they only don’t kill each other cause they’re allies, how they’ll kill a-ning and her men or other randoms if its needed without a concern, how neither of them particularly care if an immortal gets murdered by xiaoge, how they don’t personally look out for one another and think ‘you’re a tomb raider too take care of yourself and i’ll handle me cause i don’t expect u to help if im screwed.’ 

Pangzi is an interesting case because like... as shown in TLT2, he can charismatically act inept then fight someone and win, he can charismatically act friendly then betray someone (he often uses looking incompetent, or seeming friendly, to get himself out of traps or save wu xie or get the chance to attack someone). So pangzi’s transition from closed-off tomb raider fine with killing, to emotionally attached to wu xie and wanting to align with wu xie’s morals a bit, is more subtle. Because he acts friendly to wu xie before its actually genuine friendship, and he’ll use the same ‘warmth’ to harm others that he uses without any intention but kindness toward wu xie. Pangzi’s evolution is more about getting a soft spot for wu xie, where he starts to feel he can be Himself without it always being an act, where he feels he Can risk being kind and helpful without getting screwed (because wu xie won’t screw him over generally), where he starts to feel bad about being brutal toward a novice like wu xie. I imagine once we get to Ultimate Note and the coinciding book, Pangzi’s characterization starts matching up more (but i haven’t read the books that far yet). 

I’m very interested on if book Xiaoge’s development matches when it coincides with Ultimate Note’s timeline. Because book 1 xiaoge is so much of a mystery/closed off its hard to pin down exactly what he thinks about the new person he meets wu xie. Then book 2 implies he thought quite a Lot but he also seems to be putting on a different kind of act in it. If in book 1 (and drama The Lost Tomb) xiaoge is trying to come off as an unknown stranger to keep people out and at a distance, then book 2 (drama The Lost Tomb 2 sea-tomb part) Xiaoge is trying to give off the impression he’s a sociable tomb raider like San Shu or Pangzi (even though he’s not) because he’s trying to get wu xie to engage with him more. And because it’s all wu xie’s pov in the books, we don’t really know why xiaoge took a particular notice to wu xie for sure, and why he decided it was worthwhile enough to attempt to engage and emulate tomb raiders who are Good at interacting with wu xie in order to get wu xie’s friendship too. I’m wondering if in later books we ever get a perspective on why xiaoge wanted wu xie’s notice/connection, and i am very excited to see xiaoge in general unfolding into more of his many facets as the books go on. Because as mentioned, book 1 he keeps people at a distance as strangers, and book 2 he’s putting on an act (and also potentially revealing how big his capacity for chatty friendliness is given the right incentive lol). 

I found Ultimate Note drama xiaoge to be interesting because he is clearly back to closed-off this-is-my-problem-to-handle but Wu Xie keeps extending olive branches to try and meet him halfway, and xiaoge tries at times to extend it back in an Honest way. Staring to try and say things to wu xie, letting wu xie feed him, letting wu xie ‘help’ him, letting wu xie start convos and HOLD him in those convos when he could easily just leave or overpower wu xie - and doing all these things while admitting he thinks its his problem, that he’s a monster, that he doesn’t want wu xie hurt, that he thinks wu xie is stepping out of line pushing this of him etc. whereas in TLT2 he was extending an olive branch just to get wu xie to be warm to him... by Ultimate Note he’d rather abandon wu xie if it means wu xie is out of THIS mess (he’s also like that in the later TLT2 portion after the water tomb). By UN he also realizes leaving wu xie won’t get what he wants, that wu xie will jump into xiaoge’s mess anyway, and they both try to meet each other halfway a bit more honestly. (and unfortunately the dramas are missing the time between water-tomb to Ultimate Note’s plot and all the development happening off screen/in the books there). From a book perspective, i’m wondering how things develop to UN’s point, and im wondering how close (or Overdone) UN’s depiction of the characterizations are compared to the corresponding book. (Because again... the shows tend to overdo the iron triangle closeness/development i personally think just in case they’re the first/only dmbj drama seen, so the audience gets iron triangle and pingxie dynamics no matter which drama they watch). 

[sharkbeneaththelotus]

Pangzi wears Xiaoge as a backpack I HAVE TOO MANY FEELINGS ONLY PANGYE CAN CONTAIN THEM ALL:

He first does it on the way out of the desert, the sun scorching their combined backs and the air bitterly cold. Xiaoge keeps his back shaded, and Pangzi keeps Xiaoge's front warm. He's too light; his wrists dangle down like driftwood wind chimes, but he's warm and breathing.

Pangzi puts his emptied pack back on over Xiaoge, and pulls the straps tight. Ahead of them, Wu Xie slogs doggedly along the path picked out by his compass, and Pangzi puts his head down and walks.

Xiaoge breathes cool air over his sweaty neck and the fabric trapped between them grows sodden with their combined body heat. At the edges, where sweat wicks into exposed cotton, the wind chills it instantly to ice. Pangzi can't tell if that's a relief from the burning heat, or the worst shit he's ever felt. He spends way too long thinking about it, one foot in front of the other, trudging onwards towards the camp Wu Xie insists exists.

He hopes Xiaoge doesn't mind having Pangzi's sweat on him; there's no way the Great Zhang Qiling is sweating. Hah!

---

The second time is soon enough after the first that Pangzi wonders whether Xiaoge was awake enough to remember that journey, because Xiaoge fits himself onto Pangzi's back like he is a backpack.

He's exhausted, mildly feverish, and only got off the tubes and monitors a day ago. Pangzi should not have brought him out to the gardens without a wheelchair to haul him back after. But he'd needed to see Xiaoge amongst green and growing things, and he was right; Xiaoge had come alive with plants to molest with his Zhang fingers. He'd even taken his slippers off before walking on the grass, so now Pangzi has to deal with pale green stains on his trousers, where Xiaoge's feet brush against the white fabric.

"Hup we go..." He warns, and Xiaoge curls tighter over his shoulders, bony elbows jabbing his collarbones as though Xiaoge's joints are just suggestions rather than actual rules. Bony and boneless, please make your mind up, Xiaoge.

He feels Xiaoge's sigh against the back of his neck, then the press of a sharp nose against the muscles between neck and shoulder; it was too much input, Pangzi should have known it would be. Back to the quiet room in the stroke ward he goes, Xiaoge's slippers dangling from his fingers and the man himself doing half the work of holding on to Pangzi's back.

Experimentally, Pangzi lightens his grip on Xiaoge's thighs, and the grip only gets firmer.

He lets go completely, and Xiaoge hold himself in place without problem.

"Hah! I'm one big mamma, and you're a baby monkey, ah?" He jokes, putting his hands back under Xiaoge's knees so the poor man can rest a bit. Xiaoge sighs heavily and goes limp as a sand bag.

"Alright, alright, this way..."

He gets a few strange looks, and is challenged by a security guard, but the band on Xiaoge's wrist is as good as a passport, and back they go.

---

The third time, Xiaoge isn't even ill.

As far as Pangzi can tell, and he's getting good at this hazy-eyed version of their Xiaoge, he's just grumpy. Their walk through the old streets of the antiques district had been peppered with quiet announcements about fake goods, and Pangzi had had to stop Xiaoge telling the whole market about it. They couldn't take that kind of heat! And Xiaoge didn't have a sword!

He'd been able to tell at a glance, in most cases, and occasionally with a touch, and apparently he had been restraining himself for their entire acquaintance, because the twist of his lip at the worst of the forgeries is hilarious. And going to get them both beaten straight out of the market.

He gets mulish about leaving, and Pangzi off-handedly threatens to carry him back to his shop and put him up in the window for sale, at which point Xiaoge climbs onto his back and hunkers there like a barnacle.

His hood brushes against Pangzi's freshly clipped undercut, and he feels the brush of eyelashes against the skin of the back of his neck, and Xiaoge goes tense all over in a shiver, then lax again.

Pangzi grabs him under his knees, hefts him up a little, and accepts that technically he did offer.

[pangzi]

Okay, TLT2.2 was incredibly smart designing the logo for Pangzi’s store. Half a moon for a place called yue ban?? in. cre. di. ble.

[fixaidea]

Time Masters AU - is that anything?

Well, now it's gonna be.

So. Retirement era Iron Triangle gets roped into an adventure. The place they are visiting is either cursed or otherwise heavily screwed up - physics just refuse to properly physics there. At one point one of them drops his mike and it just... disappears. Just gets swallowed up by nothing. They try working out where it went and what happened to it by talking into another one connected to it, to see if they can hear their own voice coming from it somewhere.

They never do find the lost mike. Instead, in the one still with them, they hear a small child's voice.

'Who are you?'

Wu Xie tries to talk to the kid but it becomes very obvious very quickly that a) he's not in the tomb with them and b) has no idea what a mike or even a phone is. At this point Pangzi has enough of Wu Xie's fumbling, snatches the mike from him and tells the kid the same thing Belle told Piel, that he, Mike, is just a weird little creature who can't see, can't touch anything or even get up and walk away on his own, so he'd be real grateful if the kid could help him out here. Oh yes, and to compensate for all his shortcomings, at least he has a set of different voices.

Not expecting the kid to react in any way, they head home, ready to forget about the lost mike and dedicate their energy to further researching the strange tomb... except the child keeps talking to them. Or to the mike, more precisely, because as per Pangzi's explanation he now threats it as an individual creature.

Sometimes it's just little things about his day... and sometimes it's hair-raisingly horrible stuff, relayed in an indifferent tone, like it's normal. It becomes evident that he's going through some really horrible abuse, and that Mike is basically the only friend he'd ever had and he has to go to great lengths to hide it or else it'd be taken away.

...Well, knowing all that, the Triangle can't just... not do anything, can they? They accidentally made this kid get attached but what can they even attempt to do to help him?

In the end, it's unclear which one of them suggested that the boy should run away - they were all implying it, even if unintentionally - but one day they wake up to the little kid proudly declaring that he did the thing, he ran away from home.

After surviving a collective heart-attack our Triangle decided that now that they've made this bed, intentionally or not, they will take responsibility and lie in it, and navigate this poor little guy to safety no matter what.

...And of course the big twist of the original story, that one of the adults is actually the kid they are trying to keep safe still applies: they've been talking to baby Xiaoge all along.

[ohyka]

something something hei xiazi and baby grave robber pangzi meet before the events of the lost tomb and some stuff happens

it's all because @pangzi said heipang prequel movie and then posted THIS and THIS.

part 1

[stupid-lemon-eater]

Fandoms: 盗墓笔记重启 | The Lost Tomb Reboot (TV), 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Xu Lei Relationship: Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie Characters: Wang Pangzi, Wu Xie Additional Tags: Cute, Fluff, Humour, Old Married Couple, Established Relationship, Slice of Life, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Kinda, Accidental Dragon Acquisition, Implied Iron Triangle (relationship), no beta we die like pangxie's enemies

Summary:

“Huh,” Wu Xie said, looking back at the object. “It looks like—” “A dragon egg?” Pangzi finished, nodding enthusiastically. Pangzi and Wu Xie find something unusual in a tomb, and decide to keep it.

For Pangxie Week 2023!

[randomtwinkinthetomb]

Wu Xie: [looking at Xiaoge] I'm not gay but DAMN

Pangzi: You don't have to be gay to appreciate a good-looking guy

Wu Xie: Nah, I'd fuck him

Pangzi: Oh okay shit

[redxblueihateloveyou]

I’m still dying over this scene, when Wu Xie got anxious cause he didn’t like to sit in silence when they went blind and asked Pangzi to say something, cause obv Xiaoge isn’t a man for this job, but when Pangzi refused, Xiaoge was just "I can talk for you, baby” T_T