#dmbj ladies

[lunanoc]

this is probably definitely an unpopular and potentially controversial opinion, but i saw a take recently on npss and the female characters of dmbj that to be fair pops up often that i feel it’s a pretty prevalent one, so i just. decided to give my two cents on it that once again no one asked for

more under the cut because this got a little long

just to be clear, this a topic that has quite a bit of nuance and multiple layers to it, and perception entirely depends on both personal interpretation and your medium of choice. i’m also not saying that npss is some pioneer in terms of writing female characters because he’s not. but i also feel that saying he’s a blatant misogynist and that he can’t write female characters properly at all is a gross exaggeration and doing the ladies of dmbj a disservice

i’m also going to be talking about the books specifically here, since the books and the dramas/movies treat female characters differently not only because of plotline reasons, but because of the differences in the nature of their narratives. the dramas have quite a bit more of the accusations people tend to like throwing at dmbj like reducing female characters to flat, one-dimensional archetypes or fridging the dramas do have su nan though, but contrary to what a large part of the fandom seems to push forward, the dramas don’t and can’t represent dmbj in its entirety, and if you’re going to try and do that, you can’t leave out the books and vice-versa, but seeing how different both versions of the story can get at times i just tend to separate them entirely

as it stands, the only female characters who die in the books zhang haixing not counting because we technically don’t know what happens to her are a ning and yuncai, and i guess you can add huo xiangu to that, but she's part of the lao jiumen and chen pi ah si dies similarly so not sure that counts here really. and while you can argue for a ning at least that her death for narrative purposes was fridging, npss also used panzi’s death later on for similar narrative purposes, so at least in that respect he doesn’t discriminate

don’t get me wrong, the books aren’t perfect either, and you do get misogynistic comments from the male characters from time to time that make me squint, which is why i’m not trying to pretend dmbj is peak feminism, but they’re also not egregious or frequent enough comments, and in my opinion the main difference with the dramas is that the male gaze in the books is at least somewhat more justified, because where the dramas are necessarily presented from a third person pov, the books are wu xie’s first person pov for the most part. dmbj is essentially written as and treated as wu xie’s memoirs, and so everything and everyone is seen and filtered through the lense of his perception. and wu xie is a man, so that comes with its own set of ramifications. and even then ironically, wu xie is far from the only or the worst culprit when it comes to casual misogyny. pangzi has his fair share of takes, as do a number of other characters

but for all that the female characters are sometimes placed into archetype boxes by virtue of not only the narrative being from wu xie’s pov, but also the fact that the tomb robbing business is shown to be a male dominated one, and also just because npss himself is a man, that doesn’t mean those female characters aren’t complex and fleshed out characters in their own right to the same extent as their male counterparts of similar narrative relevance

i’m thinking of huo xiuxiu for example, who’s arguably the most prominent and recurring female character in dmbj, who from the get-go is very quickly made out to be not a pretty girl (or rather not just a pretty girl) but quick-witted the likes of which wu xie resonates with as a kindred spirit and draws a number of parallels with himself because he finds they share similar ways of thinking and problem solving. she’s capable, skilled, and sees herself as an equal to the iron triangle and the men around her, and yet none of this detracts from either her femininity or her vulnerability as the youngest lao jiumen member, and later as the one left behind to pick up the broken pieces of her own family. she’s a leader in her own right, and she gains support from xiao hua and wu xie in the years leading up to sand sea just as much as she lends them her support in later canon. all of this without ever being presented as a potential love interest and reduced to only that wu xie’s lack of interest in women in a practical sense as romantic/sexual partners is a topic for another post but it’s also a thing that contributes to not relegating most of the female characters to just that too

i’m not about to say npss is being particularly progressive, but it’s also interesting and nice to note that even in recent canon, just like the iron triangle and xiao hua, huo xiuxiu is well into her 30s and unmarried without it ever either being mentioned really or being an issue, which considering the cultural significance of marriage in china, even more so seeing as xiuxiu is the heiress and head to a powerful family, it’s worth noting she’s not treated any differently from the male characters who make the same equally culturally problematic choices. she’s too busy going with the iron triangle, xiao hua, and hei xiazi down into dangerous tombs (which is why she’s often featured in official merch as a main cast member alongside the iron triangle and heihua)

i’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty about every single female character otherwise this would get way too long but i could, but even someone like liang wan, who is absolutely portrayed as vain and sometimes unrealistically obsessed with her appearance and chasing after men, i personally find still has more depth given to her in the book in some respects, because as zhang rishan isn’t in sand sea the book, she has no romance plotline, and so not only does she get pov chapters, she gets pov chapters that flesh out her involvement with wu xie’s plan and the wangs by extension, and her goals, though never followed through on because npss didn’t tie up that loose end, i find are far more driven by something deeply personal. zhang haixing in tibetan sea flower is arrogant and condescending, manipulative as much as she is competent, and while pangzi especially responds to her behavior with borderline misogynistic provocations, it’s very clear that her character isn’t so much the fruit of putting her in the femme fatale archetype box as it is a consequence of her being a zhang. because both zhang haike and zhang hailou (aka ‘little brother zhang’) who are both men, are very much also like this. special mention also to the girls from the side novel a thousand faces because yes npss wrote a book that’s entirely about two women who may or may not be girlfriends

i could also talk about chen wenjin whose entire story runs very much parallel to wu sanxing’s and they both end up with similar endgame situations and are both tragic characters but this post is already long enough. there are more minor female characters who get their share of both “screentime” and development on par with their male counterparts, and for the sake of argument, some of these female characters have as much presence and/or depth given to them as a character like liu sang, who while being a fandom darling, is also very much a minor character. so what i’m saying is that while yes most of the characters in dmbj are men, and the main cast even more so (excluding xiuxiu), at equal level of importance, there’s about as much depth to a character like liu sang as there is to a character like liang wan, or a ning, and so at some point it begs the question of how much of the fandom’s perception of depth in minor female characters is colored by personal preferences rather than objective fact. are there female characters who are basically reduced to being a romantic interest and serve no real purpose other than to be the source of a man’s pain? yes looking at yuncai whose death is both sudden (while it does have some minor foreshadowing) and happens so far towards the end of the book that it almost seems pointless, and in the end only serves as the catalyst for pangzi’s own suffering and justifies his almost ten-year on-and-off retreat to banai

because again, npss isn’t out here making dmbj a feminist manifesto, and there’s room for criticism and pointing out a number of things if you wanted to. but he also doesn’t write bad female characters. they’re as much people as the men are for better or worse, and saying npss can’t write women properly is doing them a disservice. not to mention the fact the dmbj never leans into romance and that actually almost every single ‘canon’ romance is doomed in some capacity means women are rarely relegated to solely being potential love interests, which in a narrative dominated by the male gaze is actually nice?

[tuna-fish-in-the-cloud]

PingXie bridal carry 🤭

They're official cosplayers in an official event, so I shamelessly added dmbj tag 🏃🏻‍♀️

Source: In the comment area

[xiaobaosnoona]

@asiandramanet creator bingo - free choice

[traineecryptid]

(Reboot) Liu Sang's Dossier

At the beginning of the series (S1, EP4, 35 minutes-ish), Er-shu gives Wu Xie a dossier on the expert he had hired. Pangzi is the one that takes it tho...but there are still some info on it worth looking into! (google doc version here)

(top-right box) 调查档案 Survey File Investigation report

档案编号 File Code No. 17 File number No. 17

(top-middle box) 一， 调查人员须规范填写调查表,按要求将搜查资料进行整理；

The investigator-in-charge is required to organize the information found and fill out the investigation file as required;

二， 档案一式两份，做好备[份]

Files should be filled out in duplicate, make sure to prepare two copies.

机密级别 Level: 三级 Information classification*: Level 3 *in terms of confidentiality

(top-left box) 调查[?]述 Investigation summary(?)

姓名：刘丧 性别：男 Name: Liu Sang Gender: Male

探墓特别准 Very accurate at finding tombs

会一种失传的听雷探墓秘法 Knows a secret type of thunder-listening, tomb-finding method that is no longer practiced

听力超群且听觉分辨力好 Exceptional hearing and good at identifying what he hears

幼年丧母 成年[?]父 Lost his mother when he was young, [?] his father when he became an adult

(box under diagonal lines) 附录 Appendix

(box above photo) 调查内容 Investigation content

(box with photo) 姓名：刘丧 性别：男 Name: Liu Sang Gender: Male

西北人士 90后出生 Northwesterner Born in the 90s

半路出家开始玩古董。 Amateur antiques collector.

探墓特别准。 Very accurate at finding tombs.

会一种在关中已经失传很久的听雷探墓的秘法， Knows a secret type of thunder-listening, tomb-finding method that had not been practiced for a long time in the Guanzhong* *a region in China approximately covering the modern day Shaanxi province.

据说只要天上打雷，就能找到墓宝所在。 Allegedly, he could find the location of tombs and treasures as long as it’s thundering.

听力超群且听觉分辨力特别好， 很多声音能听出信息来，像个移动的声呐。 Exceptional hearing and very good at identifying what he hears. He can identify information from a myriad of noises, akin to a portable sonar.

[身世：]刘丧母亲生他时候难产身亡，他父亲带他[回老家的]时候被拐走， [Life background:] Liu Sang’s mother passed away from childbirth complications when she had him. He was kidnapped on the way back to his father’s hometown with his father.

被卖给了一个听力异于常人[的瞎眼老]姑子。 He was sold to an [blind old] woman that had exceptional hearing.

是西北一代(带)*有名的顺风耳 She is a known clairaudience in the northwestern region. *suspected typo in the original text

刘丧跟着[瞎眼老姑子练]就了一身异于常人的听力. Liu Sang honed his hearing abilities to an exceptional range while living with this blind old woman.

[刘丧长大以后，]千辛万苦找到他亲生父亲, [After Liu Sang grew up,] he found his birth father after much hardship.

他亲生[父亲不认]他，结果刘丧一把火把他父亲[烧死] His birth [father did not acknowledge] him, and as a result of that, Liu Sang [burned] his father to [death].

调查人：贰京 Investigator: Er Jing

______________________________________________________________ There are a few bits marked out with […] where I could not make out what is written on the report, but I’ve used what Pangzi was saying in this scene to fill out the blanks. Below is the transcript and my translation of Pangzi’s chatter to Wu Xie during Liu Sang’s introduction scene.

(0:35:57) 胖子： 这孙子呀 Pangzi: This fucker huh?

吴邪：怎么？你认识这高手？ Wu Xie: Why? You know this expert?

胖子：什么高手啊？ 我在潘家园打牌的时候，这孙子找过我茬。就这鬼脸化成灰我也认识他。 Pangzi: What expert? This fucker had messed with me when I was playing cards at Panjiayuan. I could recognise his stupid face even if he’s been cremated.

刘丧，九零后，半路开始玩古董。据说是探墓特别准。他用的什么方法呢？就是听雷探墓。 Liu Sang, born in the 90’s, amateur antiques collector. Allegedly, he’s very accurate at finding tombs. And how does he do this? By listening to the thunder.

这是一个古法。听说在这个关中地区早已失传。就是天上一打雷—咔嚓—他一听就能找到这墓。 This is an ancient method. Word is, this is a lost art in the Guanzhong region. It’s like, when it thunders—kacha—and he’ll listen to it and be able to find the tomb.

这不是靠天吃饭吗？他不完全靠本事啊。多多少少得靠点运气吧，对不对？ Isn’t that just living at the mercy of the elements? He’s not really using his own abilities. That gotta depend on his luck, more or less, am I right?

这货他不是说听力好，他是这个听觉的分辨力特别好，就能从各种声音里边听出信息来。吹牛地说就是一移动的声呐。 It’s not that this fucker has an exceptional hearing. He’s just good at identifying what he hears, so he could identify information from a myriad of noises. It’s just a boastful way of saying that he’s a portable sonar.

吴邪：那照你这么说的话确实是挺厉害的呀。像个蝙蝠一样。 Wu Xie: From what I heard from you, he’s actually quite amazing. Like a bat.

胖子：哪有蝙蝠厉害啊 给他张脸呢还 Pangzi: How can he compare to a bat? You think too highly of him.

(0:37:01-0:39:46 Liu Sang centric scene, omitted because it’s not relevant here.)

(0:39:47) 胖子：我跟你说 这货不是靠听力出的名。是这人就邪行。 Pangzi: I’m telling you, this fucker’s fame didn’t come from his hearing abilities. It came from how cursed he is.

这刘丧他妈生他时候难产死了，你说丧不丧？他爸带他回老家，半道这刘丧就让人给拐跑了。 This Liu Sang’s mother died due to childbirth complications while having him. Very inauspicious, don’t you think? His father brought him back to their hometown, but halfway there, Liu Sang was kidnapped.

卖给了一个瞎眼老姑子。这瞎眼老姑子吧，不是一般人。听力异于常人。 He was sold to a blind old woman. Well, this blind old woman isn’t an ordinary person. She had extraordinary hearing.

是这个西北远近闻名的顺风耳。 She is a known clairaudience in the northwestern region.

这刘丧跟这瞎眼老姑子日久天长就硬生生地就学会了这一身的这个异于常人的听力。 This Liu Sang honed his hearing abilities to an exceptional range with much hardship while living with this blind old woman.

后来这个丧背儿长大了，我要我要找我爸爸，走到哪里都要找我爸爸。还真找着他这爸爸了。 After this unlucky fellow grew up, “I want to find my dad”, everywhere he goes, “I want to find my dad”. Surprisingly, he really found his dad.

爸爸不认他，你猜怎么着？这丧背儿居然想放火烧死他爸爸，这亲爹啊，他全家。 His dad won’t acknowledge him. Guess what happened next? This unlucky fellow actually thought to set fire and burnt his dad—this is his birth father we’re talking about—and his dad’s family to death.

你说他邪不邪。这是好东西吗这个？怎么，你还不信哪？我跟你说，我说得千真万确，我跟你说 Now isn’t that just cursed? Can someone like that be anything good? What? You don’t believe me? I’m telling you, everything I say is absolutely true, I’m telling you.

(0:40:41 Wu Erbai comes into the tent with Liu Sang and interrupts the conversation)

[hils79]

Hils Watches Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Ep 1

Okay, I really shouldn't be doing this, but I keep seeing gifs and how am I supposed to resist two of my DMBJ boys in the same drama. Especially when one of them is Cheng Yi who I love.

Also, I promised @xantissa I would check it out and report back.

I'm only going to be watching this in slow time because I really want to finish The King's Avatar, but on a weekend when I have a bit more free time I can squeeze in an ep here or there. So there won't be regular updates for this one.

Also, I don't have a VIP iqiyi account so I can't watch it too fast anyway :D

I think I read that people involved Blood of Youth and Love and Redemption were involved in this? Or it has similar vibes to them? Either way I loved both of those dramas so I am hopeful for this one

I'm only on the opening credits but, god, look at him. He's so good at looking tortured and pretty

Oh no I am having traumatic Heroes flashbacks. Hopefully this will be less sad.

He always looks so good when he's getting whumped and I'm glad whoever made this realised that

God to love a drama that starts with an establishing backstory

At 17 I was still in school and had no idea what to do with my life

Very much enjoying this dramatic boat fight

Oh no has he been poisoned? That's fighting dirty!

7 minutes into the first episode and he's spitting blood. That might be a new record for him

Flashfoward 10 years and Cheng Yi is now a doctor and apparently mpreg is a thing

I love his doggo already

I'm assuming there's a reason he's wearing this mask beyond The Aesthetic

Lady, it is rude to just rip a dude's mask off without his consent

Ah, that's why he was wearing the mask. He wanted to be a cop so badly he went to cop school undercover

Well, Zeng Shunxi does have experience playing the only heir to a wealthy family whose parents don't approve of the line of work he's gone into

Not sure that's true given Li Xiangyi 'died' 10 years ago when Zeng Shunxi will have been about 10

God, you can see why he was cast as Wu Xie

Ehehe! I knew he was lying

God, he's so cute

I love that they keep cutting to random shots of the dog. The editor clearly knows what's important

Yes, good. He's already vowing to marry Li Xiangyi

Wow they literally just met

Congrats you now have a sugar baby

Yep. Cool.

Aww they were getting along so well and then Li Xiangyi drugged him and told him he was a useless detective

Well, he brought the dead back to life so I guess Fang Duobing has to marry him now

I really hope that he actually said that

Yes, please do slam him into a tree and then feel him up

YAY! Soon they will solve crime together

That was a lot of fun. I'm not used to seeing Cheng Yi in a more comedic role. I'm used to him being all stoic and pining

[inimitablereel]

2023 Fic+Vid recs

A variety of things I liked this year, made this year. Once again, this got long, so fic recs and fandom-specific recs for dmbj are below the cut. But first a few miscellaneous vids

[vid] Cockroach Motherfuckers by eruthros, thingswithwings multifandom Immortal queer characters multi-vid! This is exactly as much fun and hopeful as it sounds. I've seen maybe 2 of the sources so you know, you don't have to have seen them all.

(We) Didn't Just Come Here to Dance [Fanvid] by FairestCat fandom: Newsies I haven't actually seen newsies, but I really liked this vid. Taking the (very dramatic) musical theater dancing and putting it to a Carly Rae Jepsen song works SUPER well, visually very fun time. Also, unions!

[Vid] Oceanographer's Choice by absternr fandom: Heroes (cdrama 2022) Bai Choufei, Su Mengzhen, and Lei Chun's fucked up relationship(s)/falling apart bad times. This vid is deeply upsetting, just a real exploration of sometimes caring a lot about each other makes everything worse. For maximum sad times, this goes well with absternr's other heroes vid, hey, I just met you, which is the meet-cutes that led to this whole mess.

[AMV] The Draw by Lovely Goblin fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena Black Rose Arc! I've watched this vid so many times really good weird and creepy black rose arc vibes really good parallels between all the different duelists

Also blanket rec that if you've seen Everything Everywhere All at Once, consider looking for vids for it. There's a bunch on ao3 (which can be easier to navigate than youtube, though there are definitely more total vids on youtube) and they're pretty much all spectacular? I was going to include one or two in this rec post and couldn't decide

The wild phonemes of 40 Eridani Keid by astronicht Fandom: Star Trek (aos/tos mashup canon) relationship: Spirk ~10k words rated E You know if you'd told me a year ago I'd be reccing a spirk fic in 2023 I would have been a bit surprised. This is not particularly my fandom wheelhouse. But you know, they're always good, and this fic is really great. This is almost an episode-fic except that nothing really happens plot-wise. But instead of a plot we get a lot of musing about geology and diplomacy and clever references to current events as history in that very trek kind of way and Spock being bitchy just for fun.

fuori dal mondo by bladedweaponsandswishycoats fandom: Qi Ye relationship: Beiyuan/Wu Xi, Beiyuan/Zhou Zishu (more plot than ship focused) ~60k words rated E This is a retelling of Qi Ye except Beiyuan is... some kind of eldritch horror, part-time. It pretty much goes beat for beat through canon (which I appreciate, I loved that book and do not like any of the current tls enough to reread) but with the added layer of whatever is going on with this eldritch thing, which is very cool and tied into canon so don't let me spoil it for you.

We're Leaving Our Shadows Behind Us by lady_ragnell fandom: Tortall - Protector of the Small relationship: Kel/Neal/Yuki ~70k words rated T Canon retelling of Squire and Lady Knight but from Neal's POV. This fic really digs into Neal as a character and the details of the worldbuilding of Tortall, especially the chamber of the ordeal. Also somewhere along the way it sold me on this ship, which I wasn't exactly rooting for when I read the books the first time.

The Untamed/MDZS

a harmony between qin and se by Alaceron relationship: Wangxian ~60k words rated E This is a gender-bent (to make it a het romance) no magic historical drama au where Wei Wuxian is a woman who's arranged to marry Lan Wangji. Honestly this is pretty far from the untamed, especially in terms of themes, though some plot elements will be familiar, but mostly it's just a really great compellingly written historical drama, that happens to have main characters with some familiar characteristics.

Like a Game of Chess by countingcr0ws relationship: Wangxian ~40k words rated T Modern au: influencer Wei Wuxian runs into Lan Wangji on a trip to Taiwan and they travel around together. I love all the little details of their trip - it's like getting to see a new place without going anywhere. Also sometimes I forget that wangxian are very cute? They're a good ship brant

The Epic Highs and Lows of High School Zine Production by el_em_en_oh_pee relationship: Jin Ling & Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling & the mdzs juniors ~7k words rated G Modern au: High schooler Jin Ling has big feelings about a lot of things, including zines, gender, and family. One of those juniors-centric fics that makes me say oh they are Teens huh.

DMBJ

A Little Hole in the Wall by MountainRose gen, Liu Sang centric ~8k words rated G Honestly I would rec this fic even to people who know nothing about tomb shows. One thing that really draws me to a book is descriptions of food (I have read multiple food memoirs this year), and this restaurant au has AMAZING food (and food prep) in it. Not too plotty, mostly just descriptions of delicious things and characterization via cooking.

green with an attitude by ilgaksu relationship: heihua ~8k words rated T If you are in the English language dmbj fandom and you care at all about heihua you probably have already checked out ilgaksu's fic, which has basically defined heihua for the English language fandom. My favorite heihua moments are when other people show up and give you that foil to realize how weird they are, and this fic has that both via Xiuxiu and Wu Xie. Also, a fic about dancing!

making anything last, keeping anything safe by A (mumblemutter) relationship: Wu Xie/Xiao Bai (background pingxie) ~8k words rated M Post canon Xiao Bai takes Wu Xie to explore a tomb that should be perfectly safe... (They set off a sex pollen trap.) I don't particularly ship this, but this fic was extremely well done and kind of sold me on the ship. Fun tomb, really fun characterization for everyone involved.

A World Made Over, Fresh and New by Thimblerig gen, iron triangle, Wu Xie & Li Cu ~1k words rated G If you've ever gotten specific dmbj fic recs from me, it's probably included something by Thimblerig, they're amazing at pulling in very specific canon snippets in under 5k words and I'd generally recommend going through their work by tags if you're looking for fic with underloved side characters or fic set during a part of canon that isn't UN or post-canon, which are generally easier to find. That said, this particular fic is in fact the fandom staple of post-reboot let's go look at a tomb and pulling in a big ensemble cast including some reboot folks. But it's a staple because it's a good vibe, and this is a really well done sliver of friendship and relationship building and perhaps even a tomb trap?

[Vid] Still Into You by absternr iron triangle ot3 This vid is a bop! Multi-tomb show iron triangle being in love, through the years! I've got this bookmark tagged as "joyful"

[vid] When He Died by teyla Wu Sanxing-centric This vid really leans into the weird tomb nonsense and conspiracies and builds to something quite odd, meant in the best possible way. A concentrated version of what tomb shows want to be at their best, from a horror/strange spooky things perspective. Mind the tags.

[Vid] Before I Do by absternr Xiuxiu character study A vid all about Xiuxiu being a badass - she's so clever and cunning and she will figure out and surpass her family history.

[sunriseverse]

soooo about the dmbj sunrise au I read your iron triangle fic about it and the concept has me by the throat I would like to know more about the sunrise verse 👀 anything you feel like sharing

okay, let's see if i can do this in a manner that in any way makes sense, is organised, and is reasonably useful.

for starters, i'll toss over this introductory post, if you want a tl;dr that i made a bit ago (it is very abbreviated, and doesn't cover a majority of the verse beyond the barebones): sunrise at a glance.

i've been attempting to figure out a way to explain sunrise, and i think the best way to do it would probably be chronologically, starting from the effective beginning of history, as it pertains to rosemary and thyme. then i'll go a bit deeper into some world specifics, such as the martial sects, upgrading, and the politics of the zhang sect as it stands prior to the end of the sha hai parallel era. finally, i'll talk about some inspirations, both aesthetically and thematically.

PART ONE: the history

while technically the sunrise canon runs more or less parallel to real-world history up until slightly after the establishment of the mongol empire (565 before zhang reunification, abbreviated henceforth to BZ; real world equivalent somewhat varying depending on when you consider the mongol empire as having conquered china), once it diverges, it diverges rapidly. the yuan dynasty is founded in 448 BZ, and by 458 BZ, the first prototype silk-weaving machine is created, and rapidly thereafter (420 BZ) the first textiles factory is founded in chang'an (modern-day xi'an).

in 425 BZ, a pair of twins named zhang yihai and zhang yishan are born. due to their family's impoverishment, they're left at a daoist nunnery not long afterwards. they were trained in cultivation techniques from a young age, but were not considered remarkable enough to become disciples of any particular local master, and instead became wandering disciples, training sporadically under various independent masters in return for services rendered.

however, while they didn't become remarkable in this period of time, they were educated to a respectable level, both in cultivation techniques and scholarly arts. then, in 400 BZ, while travelling, they discovered a vase that was able to increase the abilities of anyone who held it. realising the potential of this artefact, they rendered it into an ink to create tattoos with, binding its abilities to their own bodies, and shortly after, created the zhang sect, the tattoos becoming the marker of the sect. unbeknownst to either twin, the vase was an artefact that had slipped into their world from a different world, and if they hadn't rendered it into an ink and bound it to themselves, carrying it would have aroused the attention of its original owners, the entity known as the hive. this binding also gave the zhang an innate ability to better resist hive-madness, ie brain damage caused by exposure to a humanly incomprehensible world and

for about five years, the zhang sect slowly rose in prominence, with zhang yihai and zhang yishan acting as co-leaders of the sect, known by a variety of titles (the most character-relevant being zyh's title of 锷女士 [e nvshi, lady of the blade/master above], and zys' title of 馥郁君 [fuyu-jun, lord of fragrant flowers]) . however, as time passed, the two siblings began to differ on what they wanted the role of their sect to be in the world—zhang yihai wanted the sect to be more martially-focused, aiding the people in a more immediate way, while zhang yishan felt the sect should be more scholarly, aiding the people by collecting and preserving knowledge, with the sect splitting roughly in half with which disciples sided with which sibling. In 400 BZ, tensions between the two siblings reached a boiling point, and the two came to blows—a fight which led to zhang yihai killing zhang yishan (partially due to the fact, which she didn't know at the time, that she was qilin-blooded and thus functionally immortal).

after realising what she'd done, zhang yihai took on the title of zhang qiling, as she was the only remaining member of her family, and carried her brother's body and performed his final rites. from that point on, she withdrew into seclusion, excepting for a brief period where she bore a child to continue the family lineage. without firm leadership, the zhang sect stagnated, faltering in its previous rise to prominence, and faded to a mostly unremarkable status, with its members split hereditarily from that point on either into hai or shan subjects, depending on which sibling their ancestors had aligned with.

in 360 BZ, the xie and hong families emerge. in 340 BZ, industrialisation accelerates, and the first steam engines are produced to power factory equipment. in 330 BZ the remaining jiumen families emerge, and align with the zhang sect.

in 300 BZ, wang zanghai compiles research on the zhang, and comes to believe that a hive artefact is responsible for their immortality. he artificially creates a rift in changbaishan in order to steal a hiveside artefact, but is killed in the process, with the artefact becoming lost.

in 200 BZ, the first steam engine train is created to allow for an efficient long-distance means of transporting goods. the first telephone is invented in the same year. in this window of time, the first people to find wang zanghai's notes on the zhang form the wang clan, vowing to bring the hive into the world, as they believe that this will allow immortality to be granted to all who come in contact with it. as the zhang are believed to be the enemy, they begin to infiltrate the jiumen.

in 120 BZ, the first automobile is invented. zhang ruitong, future leader of the zhang sect is born in 100 BZ. in 0 AZ, the ming dynasty is founded, and zhang ruitong succeeds in reuniting the zhang sect, as well as raising its status to that of foremost martial sect. in 85 AZ, xiaoge is born in tibet, and two years later in 87 AZ, hei xiazi is born in the chimkent (şymkent) area, a politically fraught region which will come under the control of the kazakh khanate, founded in 97 AZ.

in 95 AZ, an earthquake disturbs the hiveside artefact that wang zanghai stole, bringing it to the hive's attention, and the changbaishan rift begins to expand. as part of an agreement between the jiumen and the zhang sect, the xie heir is sent to fight the hive behind the rift. when the xie heir fails to return in the winter of 105 AZ, the jiumen renege on their agreement with the zhang, not wanting to lose any further heirs. the wang, embedded within the jiumen, begin to purposely open rifts, beginning the hive incursion. with zhang ruitong's death, xiaoge becoming sect leader, as well as the first zhang to undergo upgrading to become a ranger, and in spring of 105 AZ, the zhang elders form the first board to govern the sect, arguing that xiaoge is too inexperienced and busy with his responsibilities as a ranger to govern properly.

in 109 AZ, the first non-zhang sect, the gongsun sect, hosts a zhang ranger as the ranger programme expands. in 152 AZ, much of the lao jiumen are killed when qiu dekao trades the names of families with histories of grave-robbing to the government, as well as accusing them of wartime profiteering through the black-market sale of artefacts retrieved from hive-tainted areas. those that survive flee to beijing, where the jiumen become the jiumen association.

in 160 AZ, zhang qishan, better known as fo ye, heads the gutongjing research projects, an attempt to try and find a way to give immunity to hive-madness to zhang rangers through the study of a hive-touched species of snake, the heimaoshe. the project fails, but fo ye becomes aware of the wang, and trades zhang sect secrets in return for a reduction of rifts in the vicinity of his family, the somewhat estranged southern zhang. by 165 AZ, the zhang sect's influence is comparable to our world's mid-level nobility. by 170 AZ, the iron triangle have all been born (pangzi in 161 AZ, and wu xie in 169 AZ). the internet is invented in 169 AZ, and in 170 AZ, conscription of all qilin-blooded zhang sect members begins as the number of volunteers had dropped sharply in recent years. the same year, the zhang main board implements the first "kill switches" in upgrading procedures, allowing them to remotely terminate rangers if they are deemed a danger due to rift-madness. in 186 AZ, conscription is expanded again, this time to any zhang sect members of lower status whose positions are deemed non-essential.

in 190 AZ, the iron triangle meet. between 190 AZ and 195 AZ, the events of rosemary and thyme take place, and in 195 AZ, due to the discovery of anchoring as a method to make rangers' jobs no longer a death sentence, the draft is expanded again to include all adult zhang sect members, excluding those who hold high-level positions. in 197 AZ, xiaoge takes wu xie's place behind the rift in changbaishan. over the next ten years, a parallel to dmbj's ten year plan/sha hai takes place. unlike in dmbj canon, the reason wu xie kidnaps li cu is in order to find the lost wang hive artefact, which is drawn to innocence—something that wu xie, by this point, firmly lacks. in 206 AZ, the sha hai plan comes to a head, with the majority of the wang being destroyed. in the spring of 207 AZ, wu xie returns the artefact wang zanghai stole to the changbaishan rift, after which point the remaining rifts begin to naturally close as the hive is satisfied. in august of 207 AZ, xiaoge returns from hiveside, the iron triangle is reunited, and the hive incursion officially ends, ending zhang conscription, and xiaoge disolves the zhang boards, ending the sect's massive sociopolitical reign.

PART TWO: world specifics

part i: the zhang board, and sunrise as a dystopia

in the era of rosemary and thyme, ie the final years of the hive incursion, the zhang sect is not only incredibly powerful martially, but also politically. since the first hive incursion and the creation of the ranger programme, the zhang have been able to gain an unparalleled control over the martial world specifically, and the general populace more broadly. this is largely due to a number of facts: firstly, the zhang, as the only sect who produce rangers, are viewed as, and actively work to reinforce the view of themselves as, protectors of the empire. secondly, as areas become hive-poisoned after a rift is opened, the common people are encouraged to relocate to zhang-affiliated martial sect territories/compounds, as hive-poisoned areas remain dangerous for a long period after the rift is closed. the zhang-affiliated sects, aside from hosting rangers, also host subsets of the main zhang board, known collectively as "the zhang boards", comprised half of zhang, one quarter of the host sect, and one quarter of scientific and medical specialists, who are in charge of the ranger(s) each affiliated sect hosts.

in return for protection, those living in zhang-controlled areas must adhere to a number of zhang sect regulations. this includes the restriction of access to media that is labelled by the zhang main board as "anti-cause", including anything that criticises the zhang sect's power. this has led to the highly-lucrative, but also highly-dangerous, black-market for media such as film and literature, periodicals, the creation of pirate radio, and so forth. depending on the severity of what someone is reported as possessing, they can either be demoted and given restrictions, or they are given a hearing to determine a sentence, or, in extreme cases (such as being found to be actively associated with anti-zhang groups), exiled from the sect compound either for a set period of time or indefinitely.

zhang sect members are under stricter watch than the average zhang-affiliated person. rangers specifically are heavily monitored, especially in their access of non-sect created materials, and they are discouraged and punished for possessing any materials that may be interpreted as criticising the zhang main board, its marriage and reproductive policies, and its treatment of potential and active-duty rangers, especially any materials that may suggest the draft should not exist, or that the rangers and their families should be compensated for what is essentially a suicide job. for more "mid-level" crimes, forced confessions, similar to those of the 60s/70s in our world's china, are used as a way to reify the confessors of their position within the social and legal order, reinforce to others within the collective that they will be discovered and punished if they do not comply with zhang sect regulations, and communicate that noncompliance is harmful to the collective, ie the zhang sect as a whole.

in regards to marriage and reproductive policies, the zhang sect is incredibly strict within the sect. all of-age sect members are paired based on a number of factors, such as qilin blood status, place within the sect hierarchy, and history, both personal and familial, with compliance to the main board's policies. the aim of these pairings is to produce as many children as possible in order to maintain the ranger system, and thus the zhang board's power. while non-heterosexuality is not explicitly penalised, any sect member who shows resistance to marrying and producing offspring will face both social and legal pressure, and, in extreme cases, punishment in an effort to continue the zhang bloodlines. the only reason that xiaoge is allowed to maintain his relationship with the iron triangle is due to the fact that he is the first ranger and, at least in name, the leader of the sect, and the main board would risk losing power if they attempted to treat him in such a way, and, in this specific case, they would prefer for his family line to die out, since he survived the upgrading procedure all those decades ago despite their hopes, leaving them no possible rivals for control of the sect—and, even then, he faces unspoken pressure to minimise the nature of their relationship as much as possible.

part ii: upgrading, and the precarious position of living weapons

upgrading is the colloquial term used to describe the process which the zhang undergo in order to become rangers. during the process, the body is torn apart and replaced with an average of 60% tech, or "mechanics", a number which varies depending on the "generation" of rangers (xiaoge, and the first batch, would have been about 70%, while newer rangers hover around 55% as improvements in tech optimise the mechanics). this is all done without anaesthetic, as anaesthetic runs the risk of causing the body to be unable to integrate the mechanics properly. generally*, the zhang are the only ones with the training necessary to survive upgrading.

however, even the zhang are human, and their minds are not meant to be able to comprehend input from non-organic systems, even with a large portion of modern zhang training going towards trying to equip potential rangers to deal with this input. in an attempt to solve this problem, especially that of a ranger potentially risking not being able to interpret a warning from their mechanics of a failure, interfaces were created. this allows the ranger to pull up a number of systems, such as diagnostics and recommended courses of action, and in newer generations of rangers, interfaces even allow rangers to access predictions of results of a course of action based on damage/injury levels, control nanotech particles to disperse them to mitigate any critical injuries until a fight is completed, and so forth. the interface in a proper upgrade is implanted in the cerebral cortex. included within newer generations of interface implants are hard-coded the ability to receive a specific command from the zhang boards that allow them to remotely "put down" a ranger if they're deemed a threat—usually due to rift madness aggression, but there have been a number of times where the reason was more muddy; more than one ranger in only the early stages of rift madness was "put down" not long after they began to question the zhang board.

part iii: the exception to the rule

while generally only zhang are able to survive upgrading, there is one notable exception: that is, hei xiazi. however, as the only official method of upgrading is through procedures administered by the zhang. hei xiazi, though, realised early on that the money was quickly drying up in grave robbing and instead booming in the trade of hiveside artefacts, and, already cursed due to a previous tomb excursion, opted to undergo a black-market upgrade.

however, due to the fact that it was black-market, it was essentially a one-of-a-kind event, and one that was largely done with an understanding of zhang upgrades obtained through extrapolation of zhang abilities, and a small amount of study of rangers' corpses which had not been recovered by the sect in the early days due to physical distance. as such, hei xiazi's systems are......................unique, to put it lightly. his mechanics are exposed to the elements rather than being hidden beneath synthetic skin, and a lot of the more specialised pieces are often not what they should be, but rather the closest substitute—something that is a persistent issue, as demonstrated in whatever was left. especially of issue is his interface system—half the time it doesn't work, and it often displays errors for minor issues, or mislabels critical issues as minor ones, and generally is an annoyance. while zhang rangers' interfaces are designed to seamlessly integrate with their personal usage style, hei xiazi's interface is akin to a video game tutorial pop-up—bright red, and almost impossible to dismiss. an amusing issue hei xiazi deals with is that while zhang rangers' interfaces run on their own, specialised frequency, his runs on a separate one—one that, in some areas, is also used by niche pirate radio broadcasters, meaning he has to manually disable his interface entirely or suffer listening to whatever is being broadcast directly in his head. also, unlike zhang rangers, his systems whirr audibly—not loud enough to not fade into the background, but noticeable enough if you pay attention. he also tends to run hot.

part iv: zhang ranger duties, and power-plays of the boards

zhang rangers are assigned to specific sects, and the area that falls under that sect's control is what they are responsible for. if a rift opens in their host sect's territory, they are the ones dispatched to fight the hive and seal the rift. in some cases where a rift is larger than usual, rangers from nearby areas may be deployed to help in the effort, in which case they will use sense-sharing to synchronise their attacks. i wrote a more in-depth post on sensesharing, and therefore anchoring, here: a beginner's guide to anchoring. once a rift is closed, a ranger is summoned back to their host sect, where they are hooked up to a system that projects a recording of the fight for the sect's board to review their conduct, which also forces them to relive the memories as if they are happening again. while it's justified as searching for early signs of rift madness, it's also a thinly-veiled means of asserting board control over the rangers, and if the rangers are found in error, they can be disciplined or given restrictions. while ostensibly rangers are highly-respected warriors, honoured for their sacrifices for the people, the boards, and the zhang elders, see them as potential threats to their power.

part v: sha hai, the bronze gate, and wu xie's honed ruthlessness

as noted, wu xie chooses li cu specifically because of his innocence. while earlier in the ten year period, wu xie may have been able to find the wang zanghai artefact, due to the events of 205 BZ, this became an impossibility. in 205 BZ, in order to contain the rift in changbaishan, wu xie created the plans for the bronze gate, and contracted a team to construct it. once it was completed, in order to minimise the possibility of anyone discovering a weakness in the gate, and thus its abilities to contain the changbaishan rift and the hive, therefore creating a possibility for xiaoge to have to go behind the rift once more, wu xie not only destroyed the plans he had created for it, but also killed the entire team.

PART THREE: inspirations, acdemic reading i've done, and other mischellanea and closing remarks

it will come as no surprise that sunrise is inspired by the 2013 film pacific rim (dir. gdt). for a long time, i've wanted to create something that gave me the same amount of passion as that film gave me in 2018-2020, and the idea of drifting, in specific, is one that's always fascinated me. sunrise was intended to be a one-off, pacific rim-inspired, fanfic—and, since then, it's grown into something far larger, as evidenced by the fact that my reply to this ask is over 3k. it is no longer merely daomu biji with pacific rim added as a topping, but its own thing, which i spend a not insignificant amount of time thinking about, speculating on, and adding to not only weekly, but even daily. however, aside from pacific rim, there's a number of other pieces of media that have inspired me when it comes to sunrise—his dark materials by phillip pulman, bad and crazy (2021), and the ascendant trilogy by k arsenault rivera are all works that have, in one way or another, shaped me, both as a child and now, as an adult, and impacted my writing. more generally, science fiction as a genre and explorations of dystopian fiction have heavily informed me in creation and in writing sunrise.

my tagline for the verse on ao3 is simple: the blade that cuts your chains still cuts another’s neck. sunrise is meant to be not just one story, but rather a world in which stories exist—stories which impact both the characters, and the others in the world they live in. things that seem like victories at first turn out to be tragedies for others—anchoring saves xiaoge's life, and the lives of other rangers, but also causes the expansion of the ranger's draft, putting countless other, previously-safe, sect members at risk. wu xie's construction of the bronze gate ensures the hive will remain contained—but it costs the lives of the entire team of builders to ensure that safety. the good of the many does not outweigh the good of the few; sunrise is not a world of black and white, but rather shades of grey.

besides media influences, sunrise has also benefited greatly from my own delving into academic texts. i'm lucky enough to now have access to an almost unmatched library of texts on chinese history, and historical society, culture, and a thousand other things, at least in the united states. while the texts i've read may not have had obvious impacts upon the world of sunrise, they've allowed me to better build the world of sunrise into a living, breathing thing in my mind. of the texts i've read, i've most appreciated food and environment in early and medieval china (e. n. anderson) and sexuality in china: histories of power and pleasure (howard chiang). i'm on break at the moment and also plan on reading the development of chinese martial arts fiction in order to solidify my portrayal of wuxia in sunrise.

sunrise has also allowed me to experiment with narrative in ways i had not done previously—both in terms of linearality, and in terms of perspective. all sunrise instalments so far are told in a non-linear format, and the next instalment i am (very slowly) working on includes both third and second person povs.

there is a large amount of miscellanea included in my lore notes, but it's largely specific to pairings rather than the overall world of sunrise, and so has therefore been committed. hopefully, this has been a decent exploration and explanation of the 'verse. however, i am always open to further questions, so if you have something specific you want to ask, please, feel free! and thank you, once again, @child-of-the-fairy-folk for asking me about sunrise :)

[mekare-art]

DMBJ Recs: Rare Pairings

The post is up, so go forth and rec your favourite fanworks! For the purposes of this round, any pairing that isn’t Pingxie or Heihua counts as rare. Pairings with the DMBJ ladies are especially welcome. As in the previous round, please warn for any AO3 warnings that apply.

If you have a DW account, please add your rec in the comments of the post on DW. I‘ve added a handy reccing template this time.

If you don‘t, please reblog this post and add your rec (optionally with a link to a rec post on another platform) so I‘ll be notified and can add it to the post.

Next topic is Hurt/Comfort in 2 weeks time.

[lasenbyphoenix]

How could I explore the canon leather outfits and not include these? If I've missed any of the DMBJ ladies in leather, please show and tell!

[thelaithlyworm]

WIP meme

Thanks for tagging me @nemainofthewater and also @bladedweaponsandswishycoats

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Disclaimer: some of these are for fandoms that I barely remember and are unlikely to be continued, others are just vaguely sketched in ideas without much in the way of writing...

A Little House in Pingting (it was a c-drama called, maybe Exquisite Girl? something like that. interesting worldbuilding and i'm not sure why i didn't get to the finale)

A-Ning Stays For Lunch (Heavenly Palace, DMBJ)

An Imperfectly Articulated Knowing (Nirvana In Fire)

Bai Haotian & Li Cu Meet (Post-Reboot, DMBJ)

Banking Fire (Ashes of Love)

Black Coffee (Star Trek La Sirena)

Blackboard Notes: Crimson Spider Takes the Pearl (DMBJ)

Bright Soul (Nirvana In Fire)

Chuchu Rescue Fic (DMBJ, Reboot)

Cicada Season

Fei Liu's Marvellous, Wonderful, Never-Bad, Very Good Day

Hard Times At Wushanju (DMBJ)

Heat in the Belly, Like Burning Coal (DMBJ, Sand Sea)

If At First You Don't Succeed (DMBJ, Reboot)

Portraits of a Young Lady (Nirvana in Fire)

Possible Su Nan & Wu Xie friendship (DMBJ, Sand Sea)

Purge (Star Trek La Sirena)

Scheduling (DMBJ)

Scratching at Oblivion (DMBJ, Nausicaa of the Valley of Winds)

The Fall and Rise of Bai Shan, Hapless Grad Student (DMBJ, Mystery in the Abyss)

The Humperdinck Variation (Princess Bride)

The Lone Dumb Husky and Cub (erha)

The Most Mysterious Thing (DMBJ, Reboot)

The Pleasant Night Has Come (that one where hou minghao played a dragon)

Xiao Bai Deals with Death (DMBJ, Reboot)

Yanyou and Runyu After the End (Ashes of Love)

tagging (if you choose to be tagged) @procrastinatorproject @regionalpancake @jazzfic @bean-in-dice @foxofninetales

[difeisheng]

I've seen people say that they hope Xiangyi ends up with that su lady and while I respect everyone's interpretation of the show it's so clear to me that this is obviously a thinly veiled bromance. I checked on mydramalist and only the male leads are part of the main cast, everyone else is either a guest star or a support role, even liqiao. And furthermore, I genuinly don't see any hint of Xiangyi or any of the male leads reciprocating the attention these female characters give them, Xiangyi just seems to need Miss Su to give him further information about his mission, but she's obviously infatuated just like liqiao is with DFS.

ohhhh, people are genuinely shipping xiangyi and xiaoyong? interesting. actually i don't mind their dynamic so far tbh (i'm up to ep 17 atm). they remind me of wu xie and bai haotian in the lost tomb reboot, in that it's a girl with a crush and the romantic attraction in that dynamic is pointedly one-sided, but she's young and it's an earnest and naive thing and she's allowed to live with that crush, not be ridiculed for it constantly. and eventually the two of them find some other friendly thing to be instead and it works for both of them. also it's a nice contrast to liqiao being deeply, unnervingly possessive of di feisheng.

and the show really is leaning toward bromance or at least centering the relationships between the three leads far above anything any of them have (or are going to have) with a female character. @mejomonster brought up a point that i'm also curious about and that's on the nature of the source novel is, because it's not a BL (or this show wouldn't have gotten aired in 2023 i think) but given the natural comparison of cheng yi and zeng shunxi having been in dmbj, i wonder if it's on that story's level of "the novels felt gay but adaptations got progressively gayer thanks to fan attention" or if the source novel is just like this from the get go

[eigwayne]

I restarted The Golden Eyes, which I had watched the first eps of and then had to find a new viewing platform, because iQiyi does that thing where they upload the first 1-5 eps of a show and the rest is only available on their own app for premium members. And I am that stubborn person that won't pay for yet another streaming site unless it's a necessity. And if I didn't get premium iQiyi for Ultimate Note I am damn well not going to get it for The Golden Eyes. Sorry not sorry.

Anyways, it's available with ads on Rakuten Viki. Viki's anti-adblocking is actually better than my current setup but their ads are also less frequent and obnoxious than Youtube, so I sucked it up and restarted it there.

Despite the really dramatic opening, it's kind of leisurely paced. And I originally had no idea how they're going to get 50+ eps out of this but it is trotting along at its own speed so they can probably stretch it that far. If you watch Candle in the Tomb or Daomu Biiji and are more into the seedy underbelly and daily lives of the antique world than the ghosty horror of tomb robber shows, you'd probably be interested in this show.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about most of the characters and acting. Zhang Yixing is probably at his Mystic Nine level rather than his more skilled Ming Dynasty level, but the character is also kind of an awkward dude so maybe it's the character. Imagine, my DMBJ friends and neighbors, if Wu Xie got into mystical shenanigans while running his shop at the beginning of the franchise. I could easily see Zhang Yixing pulling that off based on this show.

However, I do not like the police lady, neither the character nor the actress, and Zhuang Rui's bestie is alternately amusing and annoying so I don't know what to make of him. But Yin Nanfeng's actress showed up and she's a delight~ Hong Xuan could totally play Liang Wan (and judging by Back From the Brink, Yang Rong could pull off Yin Nanfeng).

Overall, I'm enjoying it. But I'm 13 eps in and they've barely touched on the mystic eye baloney, so we'll see if this leisurely stroll towards the plot pays off.

[ohyka]

xie yuchen:

also xie yuchen:

[hils79]

Hils Watches Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Ep 31

"If you won't let me carry you up the mountain to heal you I'll just spend the rest of my life with you, and that's a promise!" Love that he's acting like this is a threat of some kind

I think she's finally got the message, but I worry about what this means for Di Feisheng

I still don't think she's made the connection between why Di Feisheng isn't into her and why he's so obsessed with Li Lianhua

He's got Xiao Se vibes now that he's wearing his big fluffy cloak

Plot twist apparently Shen Gudao secretly hated Li Xiangyi for being better at martial arts than him?

Aww he's all grown up and acting as therapist for his boyfriend/master

Imagining sitting down and having to listen to the story of how your dad who until recently you thought was your uncle actually hated the man you are now dating with every fibre of his being

Another DMBJ veteran! He was in Ultimate Note with Zeng Shunxi, and also Lost Tomb Reboot

He loves Li Lianhua so much there's no doubt in his mind that Li Xiangyi was not at fault even when it's his own dad

Yeah, save it for the bedroom

Another fabulous outfit for Di Feisheng. God, I really hope he gets to go back to being A-Fei before the end of this drama. No one here gives a shit about him, apart from the psychotic woman who does not give a shit about him in a healthy way.

I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love

(That is a Hamilton lyric, Tumblr. Please don't censor this post)

I love him. "I'm going to leave you locked up with all the people you tortured. Enjoy, crazy lady."

Deals with Jiao Liqiao and immediately starts looking for Li Lianhua. This pleases me. Go back to your boys.

Don't let Fang Duobing hear you say that. He'll do the puppy eyes again.

I don't want to get my hopes up. There's still another 9 episodes to go.

Ah, of course it's a life for a life kind of deal. Yeah, Li Lianhua is never going to agree to that. I don't think Fang Duobing would either if he knew, no matter how much he loves Li Lianhua

Oh shit! Fang Duobing is still hurt from when he was protecting Li Lianhua!

Oh my god have they really just introduced a secret prince storyline? Wait, does that mean Fang Duobing is also secretly royalty?

[psychic-waffles]

Newest trailer for Mystic Nine: Qing Shan Hai Tang, out Feb 10th!

[januaryisnotanartist]

I was going to do a thing, but faces continue to be really difficult.

So here’s a plain headshot of UN A-Ning instead.