Here we have the return of Gong Jun's and Zhang Zhehan's respective birthday finest!
You've seen these outfits a number of times before - the white and green outfit Gong Jun wore for his birthday livestream in 2021:
And Zhehan's black and green outfit he wore for his birthday broadcast, also in 2021:
The "fat body" style is a fig style variation with a larger head and body, designed for extra cuteness.
The main problem with the fat body style is that sometimes the extra material in the head makes them even more top-heavy, and prone to tipping over. These, however, balance alright, which is even more remarkable because Zhehan tips to the side.
Gong Jun is making Zhehan's hand sign, and Zhehan is flashing the LLD sign. Too cute!
If you're curious about the hand signs, here's the two versions, plus more of Zhehan in his birthday outfit:
This second one is easy, but the LLD one is a little more challenging to do!
I'm very used to the white polystyrene boxes, so I was a little bit worried when I got some slightly softer black ones. But no issues at all - these two arrived safely!
You can see the really cute oversized heads here (and ears!).
Zhehan has a bit of a (also cute) lean forward and off to the side. I would not have thought he could stand up, but it's not a problem! It just looks a little precarious.
You can see here how Zhehan has one foot that's a bit shorter than the other. Happens to many of us!
This is a great view of Zhehan's spikier hair!
He looks adorable leaning forward, I don't know why, he just does! Actually maybe I do know why, it's the same head-first kind of thing that toddlers do, so it's pretty cute here!
Oh no! I just realized he's missing an earring! What the heck. It's the hanging one, too. Huh, I don't recall seeing this earring anywhere..it's there on the box photo, but where is it? I'm going to have to search through my whole unpacking area.
Here we are back around again. I love the moon and stars in their eyes! Sometimes we get their own individual moon and stars, and sometimes we get the reflection of each other's, like we do here. Zhehan is looking at his star and Junjun is looking at his moon!
You can now see why Zhehan is both a bit tilted and leans - he has a big dollop of extra resin on his left foot. I tried to see if it would come off, but nope, it's quite firmly part of his foot.
We get the bonus of a nice shot of the tops of their shoes!
Very cute, individualized boxes and box art.
Wish me luck as I search up and down for that earring! I'll come back and update this post if I can find it.
“My five starts danmei novels.” Short, well, you do know, not short reasons why I like them.
🎋 —C Language Cultivation.
carrd.
Programming? Cultivation? A pretty man with long hair? Fucking swipe my card— wait, I don't own a card... Anyways, you get my point!
This novel, C Language Cultivation, had all the possible elements to make it into the top of my favourite novels. Did it achieve it? Well, fellas, it is in the post for something!
Believe me, for a moment, I was crazy enough to think that studying Computer Science because of this book was a good idea of a degree (it is, but Angie is a literature girl), so Imagine how good it is.
If you're done with slow burn (I'm never done with slow burn, but there are times when I appreciate a couple who gets straight to the point), read C Language Cultivation! Dong Jun and Lin Xun had THEE tension going on from the moment they've met, and I was screaming with every single interaction.
I believe this novel had one of the best plot twists I've read in my entire life (and I've been reading since I was 10, guys, 10 years old!). I was literally staring into the wall, trying to process what I've just read. I still can't believe how it fucking played with me.
Alas, Dong Jun and I share birthdays! Do you need another reason to start reading it, like, mmm, NOW?
🎋 —Beyond The Outline.
carrd.
Grab yourself to something because this is the second, THE SECOND novel with almost no angst (there are sad moments, but it's mostly cute) that I ranked as a five starts book. The author? Obviously, Mu Gua Huang.
You see, guys, Mu Gua Huang makes me love happiness and to be quite addicted to it. Once I started this novel, I would keep reading it until 5 a.m., and it was worth it!
Beyond The Outline has a precious message behind the hilarious and mysterious situation where two high school students, completely opposite from each other, switch bodies after being hit by lightning. I was this emoji 🥺 all the time.
I love this couple. Shao Zhan 🤧, look, I don't mean to spoil you, but he does something that I was like, “No man will do this for me never. He's the last romantic.” He's the best boy and the best boyfriend. If someone hates him, they seriously need some help.
🎋 —Alpha Predator.
No carrd, unfortunately.
Some of you may say, “Angie, didn't you review this novel before?” And I will do it again.
Alpha Predator is the last novel of the 188男团 (if you don't know, basically, the gongs are all 188 and scummy) and the best I've read from Suida. This book basically fell from the sky for me. I was on a reading block (is that the right term in English?) and needed something that made me retake my usual reading rhythm. May I aggregate that this has been the best novel I read in 2023 by so far? It is.
As the title suggests, Alpha Predator is an ABO world where rank plays an important role in society. The ML and scummy gong (mi bebé solo estaba jugando) is an S class Alpha, which means he is the one on top of the pyramid. I love Qu Moyu, and I am willing to defend him with my life. I accept that I tweeted that he was a stupid Alpha, but we all make mistakes, hahaha.
I love QuShen. 💜 They are my favourite 188 couple, and the best, in my not so humble opinion. They admire each other, and they come to love each other despite all the misunderstandings, and that makes me 🤧.
If you like scummy gongs and trust my taste, give it a try!
🎋 —Po Yun.
carrd.
What do we have here? My last reading, the best crime book, and the novel that made me couldn't look my chemistry teacher straight in the eye! The last point is kind of a long story that I'll tell you some other day.
Anyways, who are these sexy gentlemen? I'll introduce you to Yan Xie and Jiang Ting, the protagonists and couple of Po Yun!
I have great memories of reading this novel. I remember sending voice messages to one of my friends about this book: “Girl, you wouldn't believe what just happened...” Dalia and I agree that this is an amazing book.
I also found it quite realistic in the aspect of how much can drugs fuck up someone's life. I won't elaborate on this because it's spoiler, but you will piece a lot of things once you know about a certain character past.
As for the romance, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, WHY THE FUCK I WASN'T IN THAT WEDDING. I WOULD HAVE CRIED WHILE DRINKING EXPENSIVE WINE (I don't even like wine). They're HOT and they LOVE each other.
🎋 —First-Class Lawyer.
carrd.
Look, maybe I wouldn't have dropped out of law school if it were as entertaining as this novel, but it wasn't in my case. Putting that new fun fact about me aside, welcome to First-Class Lawyer by Mu Su Li.
This novel is set in a futuristic environment, so Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan are not just lawyers but interstellar lawyers. Amazing, isn't it? The mystery involves the other planets, so you'll see them space-travelling to find out the truth. And if that didn't sell you, Yan Suizhi is “dead.” Yup, our main character was awakened from death and put in another body in the first chapter. As the critics (me) say, “You know the book is good when the author kills the protagonist in the first page.”
The couple, aw. Imagine having someone you could tell anything, it doesn't matter how insignificant it is, and that they listen to you and that they love you so much —that's Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi. They're also teacher × student, from those who like that kind of dynamic!
As I told you in the beginning, this is written by Mu Su Li, author of QQGK, which means it is freaking good!
Some of you may be wondering, “Where the fuck is BAB?” I'M WAITING FOR OFFICIAL ART. 😭 HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO ART BAIT YOU IF THERE IS NO OFFICIAL ART???? /cries in it's my favourite book and it doesn't have art even though it was signed to a lot of publications
[coughs] I hope you like this pt. 4 of Angie recs! I don't know when I'll post the next, but this is my humble effort of making you read these amazing novels!
As a way to cap off the year, I thought it would be nice to go over all the LLD candy from 2022! There were a ton of little ones (read: kadians, matching clothing, possible hickies, sunset photos, etc.), so this will just be focusing on the larger notable ones. They’re all dated and in chronological order, because I’m me.
Remember to take these with a grain of salt. Enjoy~
January 23rd → Gong Jun’s studio Weibo posted his 2021 year in review video, completely leaving out August despite him having had two livestreams, a song release, and a reality show air during that month.
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January 29th → Gong Jun posted a commercial for KFC to his Douyin where he rips dates off a calender that has 1 and 5 missing. (No one talks about this one but it’s one of my favourites. 🥺💕)
February 14th → Gong Jun posted a commercial to his Weibo at 11:29, then posted two photos of himself to Weibo at 13:14 (kadian for “forever”), then posted the same to his Instagram at 13:15, using the kadians to make the sequence “Gong Jun forever Zhang Zhehan”. The photos had been taken at Xiao Yu Hill in Qingdao at almost the exact location that Zhehan had taken photos at in 2018.
His Weibo post had the caption “Happy Valentine’s Day [11 husky emojis]”, the same caption he had used in 2021. Some people noted that “Zhang Zhehan” is eleven letters long, and interpreted the use of the same caption as a way of saying that nothing has changed.
March 5 → Gong Jun posted a vlog with Nancy Mulligan by Ed Sheeran as one of the BGM, a song about a couple eloping during the Northern Ireland conflict. Fans found that one of the top comments on the song on Netease is “When China allows homosexuals to get married, I will play this song at our wedding,” and the song has widely been adopted by the gay community for its message of marrying and growing old together despite societal rules.
April 26th → (Purely rumor, take with a full spoon of salt.) Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan were supposedly seen together at the entrance to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Beijing. Reportedly they saw someone take photos and Zhehan stepped forward to pay the person off, only for Gong Jun to stop him and say to the photographer, “Do whatever you want.” The following day was Zhehan’s lunar birthday.
May 6th → (Instagram cw) Guo Yunfei, the casting director and actor of Duan Pengju from Word of Honor, posted a photo of himself making the LLD handsign with the caption, “I hope the ‘waves’ (浪花, langhua) like it. I know what happened recently, but what can I say or do? … I hope everyone can be sincere and kind, have a safe future, and live up to your friendship.” This was the day after the Instagram was deactivated.
May 11th → Zhehan’s birthday. The post count on Gong Jun’s Weibo went up by two despite nothing new appearing, indicating that he had posted privately.
May 17th → (Again, purely rumor.) Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan were supposedly seen together near Liangma Bridge in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. According to this one, Gong Jun asked the fans who photographed them to delete the photos and they willingly complied.
May 20th → Kangshifu released a mini-movie for 520 starring Gong Jun and an actress who looked strikingly like Zhang Zhehan, including a scene where she wore an outfit almost identical to one Zhehan wore during his 2021 birthday concert. The film included drawn illustrations of the two lead characters, one of which was found to have been directly traced from a photo of Zhehan from the Word of Honor concert. One of the lines included on the teasers leading up to the release was “I didn’t hide you away properly. It’s apparent in every drawing of mine.”
May 23rd → Gong Jun posted photos from a photoshoot for L’Officiel magazine to his Weibo—completely innocuous until people discovered that the caption, “✈✈✈~ ”, auto-translated to “对对~ 我爱你~ (Yes yes~ I love you~)” in the international app. This was later confirmed to have been an intentional Easter egg. Interpret it as you will~
June 9th → Gong Jun posted cooking photos from when he had been visiting his family during the previous month. It was noticed that there was one more set of chopsticks than there should have been if it was only his family. As well, it can be seen that Gong Jun was cooking the cilantro separately from the rest of the dish—Zhehan is known to not like cilantro. June 9th is May 11th on the lunar calendar.
(There were so many little things throughout May and June, you could tell Gong Jun was giving Xie and co. the middle finger. A thread I made of all the ones I’m aware of can be found [here].)
August 1st → (slight knives in this one) BEAST posted an article to their WeChat about their Qixi product line, in which they included the lines “Remembering that we couldn’t spend the previous Qixi together as we were at different places I even secretly childishly cried, and was angry at him. He promised that he’ll give me a surprise next Qixi.” and “Love is separated by the mountains and seas / The mountains and seas can be flattened”. The latter was written on a banner Zhehan had recieved from a fan during the Word of Honor concert; Qixi 2021 was August 14th.
September 5th → VogueFilm released an interview Gong Jun had done with them where he talked about his morning routine, wherein he said, “If you have a problem with your knees, don’t do running, cycling, etc. Even though they seem easy, if you don’t master the technique well, it will actually affect your knees” Photos of his food included a jianbing, which a few weeks earlier he had said his “ahyi” made for him, as well as eggs prepared in a way unique to Jiangxi.
October 14th to 20th → Gong Jun stopped having an umbrella shield him from photographers while going to work and took full advantage of it by wearing clothing associated with Zhehan for the next several days. Details can be found in my post for that week, look for the 🍬 emojis.
November 2nd → During a livestream for Hsu Fu Chi, Gong Jun mentioned multiple of his other endorsements and at one point walked off set to grab his LockNLock thermos, which he then drank from on camera for exactly five seconds while the host was made to wait. On the same day, his studio posted a douyin with the song 隆里电丝 by 盛宇DamnShine, which includes the lines “Some people will become your friends / or your zhiji / Some people will fight with you to the end / as long as you're happy (开心就好)”
November 17th → A photo from 2021 that Gong Jun’s studio posted as part of his time train series included a blurred out red and blue smear that was possibly a photo from the Word of Honor concert being used as his phone’s wallpaper.
November 28th → Gong Jun posted a photo of a handwritten note saying that he wouldn’t be doing a birthday livestream the following day. Something that was possibly his hexagon ring appears to have been deliberately placed behind a glass of water in the photo.
December 17th → Gong Jun posted travel photos from Yunnan, which included two photos of a figure from behind wearing a hoodie that completely covers his head. There is debate over whether this person was really Gong Jun, especially as the shoulders seem to match Zhang Zhehan’s stature.
What’s your own favourite candy from the year? If I didn’t include it here, please feel welcome to add it as a reply or reblog! 🍬🍬🍬
bonjour alina (to read in fake french accent)!!! another year another nov the 20th made happier and lovelier and dearer to me for being your day !!! (and another year of wishing i could eat cake with you) you are so important to me and i hope you know i love you very very much 🩷🩷🩷🩷 let's hope for another year of walking jopping together and i hope you have a lovely night !!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🩷
omgggg is lady apple 🍎 texting mee ... 😍
im always happy to spend this day knowing it's my very own da vinky twin's birthday 🎂 im so lucky to have this special opportunity to meet a twin later in life i believe in destiny btw it was meant to happen 🤓 we shall eat cake together and jop outside in the sun happily and in my heart i always feel like that when i think about you ❕im feeling very sentimental im just happy the heavens decided you needed an equally insane mutual andd frand and arranged all of this (real. i checked the facts it happened) 🤲
howww did you make these gifs they are perfect... special effects gong jun you are so important and friendly.. is that jaejoong??? ohh many complicated feelings as i know where there is jaejoong there also are his nippples 🧍♂️ i hope he doesn't feel vertigo from spinning so much 🙏 oh i love these i need to find a way to print these gifs idk frame by frame and arrange them in a flipbook perhaps that will be good