#llh's love language

[qpjianghu]

Li Lianhua + saying "I love you" without saying "I love you" (2/?)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

[extraordinarilyextreme]

Ladies and gentlemen, in recent days, have you been well? I am Di Feisheng. Once, I only wished to comprehend the greatest lost knowledge, and fight another battle with my old foe Li Xiangyi to my heart’s content. But, alongside old friends, and new friends, as we solved cases in all four directions, as well as completed my revenge, it seems that some things are no longer the same. The present me is still willing to intensively study martial arts and dedicate myself to progressing my kung fu. But I will also admire the breaking waves, the rising sun, and the mountains and rivers; I will also enjoy the fireworks of the day-to-day. The wish of my heart is, namely, freedom, stretching as far as the skies and as vast as the seas. I hope you and I can live carefree and traverse the lands unhindered. If it is fated, we will see each other again. - Di Feisheng

[hualianisms]

Not father & son, not master & disciple, but a secret third thing

First of all, let me preface this by being clear that everyone is free to headcanon anything they want and like/dislike anything they like/dislike! That being said, sometimes I see international fans interpret FDB as LLH's son, or their dynamic as parent-child or otherwise familial, and as a native chinese speaker, I just wanted to share some reasons why I personally did not interpret them as familial.

Granted, at the start of the show, FDB is kept in the dark and also not up to LLH's level of skill in solving cases. However, FDB quickly catches up in crime-solving skills, intellect and maturity by the 2nd half of the show, after a well-written growth arc. I think the beauty of the characters and relationships in this show is that they grow & evolve, and are meant to do so. The dynamic that LLH & FDB had in episode 1 is quite different from their dynamic at the end of the show. By the later episodes, they are 2 adults who are very much equals.

Why I don't read them as father & son:

LLH & FDB act and speak in a manner that is far too informal & familiar with one another, which would be extremely inappropriate for any kind of parent & child, even a surrogate one. Several times, FDB calls LLH by just his first name "Lianhua", and sometimes even calls him "Damn Lianhua" when he is angry/upset at LLH. This would be extremely rude for a disciple to call a master, or a son to call a father. No son talks to his father the way FDB talks to LLH, and no disciple talks to their master like that. Unless the son/disciple hates the father/master, and is outright rejecting his father/master altogether. As we see in the show, not only does FDB not hate LLH at all, he instead cares deeply for LLH and would do anything to save him. Why, then would someone scold/curse someone they care about? Does the trope of the upset spouse/partner sound familiar?

For comparison, see FDB's interactions with He Xiaohui, who he is close to - he is informal & affectionate with her, but never calls her anything other than "娘 niang" ("mother"). I can't emphasize enough how taboo it is in Chinese culture to ever call your parent or parental figure by their name under any circumstance.

2. In ep 31, FDB himself explicitly rejects the idea of LLH as his shifu and himself as LLH's disciple, responding that he is too old to be LLH's disciple and it was merely a joke. He clearly sees LLH as an equal, and rejects the notion of their relationship being anything other than that of 2 adult equals. LLH also tells his shiniang that FDB is not his disciple, and a few episodes ago LLH told FDB that he has never understimated FDB.

Coding/hints as something other than platonic:

Zhiji/zhijiao - FDB calls LLH his 知交 zhijiao in ep 19, and 知己 zhiji in ep 34. "In this life, I, Fang Duobing, recognize you as my only zhiji." is practically a love declaration. And this bond is reciprocated by LLH, bc in a deleted line in ep 19, translated by forayuarchive on twitter, LLH is the one who first calls FDB his zhijiao.

To clarify, Zhiji is not specifically a romantic term, but it's what was used in both The Untamed and Word of Honor - both dramas based on danmei novels with canon gay main pairings - to bypass censorship, to code the bond between the main duo as deeper than your typical platonic male friendship. (See this post for a detailed explanation of the significance/history behind the term zhiji, and see this twitter thread for an explanation of the meaning of zhijiao in MLC - especially how zhijiao is specifically mutual, reciprocated).

2. Married bickering - forayuarchive on twitter has discussed in these twitter threads how the tone of many of LLH & FDB's interactions (especially FDB) is similar to how married couples or romantic partners speak to one another bc of the level of familiarity, tone and language. For my fav example, see this note (translation by forayuarchive) that FDB left LLH in ep 35, which reads pretty much like a note that a spouse/partner might write when leaving their shared house in a hurry.

3. "Xiaobao" - Personally as a native Chinese speaker, LLH calling FDB "xiaobao" in front of everyone is a level of intimacy that genuinely would make me feel embarrassed to hear as a third party. 小宝 xiao bao (literal meaning = "little treasure") is usually something you call actual babies/children AND is FDB's family nickname for him, so if you're calling a grown man that in front of everyone including his colleagues, family and even strangers, then one might assume he is likely either your biological family or your romantic partner. (For comparison, just imagine calling your s/o their parent's special childhood nickname for them at work.)

4. Deleted lines where FDB calls LLH "xiaohua'er". 小花儿 Xiaohua'er ("little flower") is very intimate and feels like something someone might call a lover. Or, at least, definitely not a platonic shifu, even less so a parental figure. (For meta on the names that LLH & FDB use for one another, see forayuarchive's twitter thread.)

5. More deleted scenes (translated by forayuarchive on twitter), perhaps cut due to censorship, which make apparent LLH's high regard and deep care for FDB. For e.g., a line of internal monologue by LLH in ep 40, translated here by forhenjun, shows that LLH thinks of FDB as the only person in his two lifetimes who has always treated him as a human being rather than putting him on an unfair pedestal.

6. Official MLC accounts act like as if they ship them.

As murderedbyhomework mentioned, there is a song in the official soundtrack of MLC called "Fanghua's Day-to-Day Life" (yes, the exact same words as their ship name). Sounds like a couple's daily domestic life, doesn't it?

The official iQiYi Romance youtube channel lists clips of LLH & FDB under the romance category.

The official MLC douyin account posts MVs with emotional captions (e.g. this one translated here by forayuarchive) that emphasize how much both LLH and FDB mean to one another. Another official MLC douyin calls LLH & FDB the person each other trusts the most.

The MLC clips posted by the official Guangdong TV weibo account also has captions such as these (translated by rice_jpg) that straight up describe FDB's feelings towards LLH as "when you like someone" (very similar CN phrasing as the phrasing used to describe romantic crushes).

7. They are subtly paralleled with a canon straight romantic couple (see fanqxiaobao's twitter thread on the parallels btwn LXY/QWM scenes and certain LLH/FDB scenes). MLC also made a distinct change from the novel by not having FDB get married to Princess Zhaoling, even though the drama could have easily given FDB a romance with her.

8. If you're familiar with chinese romantic tropes or the danmei genre, LLH & FDB fit many common romantic tropes e.g. sharing a drink on the rooftop under the moonlight, forgotten first meeting in childhood (and then meeting again properly as adults), power couple fighting side by side (they even held hands!), nianxia, protective younger ml, sickly older mc - just to name a few. Danmei even has many stories of shizun/shifu & disciple pairings who fall in love as adult equals.

There's honestly lots more but these are just some off the top of my head. Again everyone is free to interpret anything! This is just me explaining why as a native chinese speaker I personally did not read their dynamic as that of a father and son.

[murderedbyhomework]

Something about that line in 愛蓮說 “sayings out of love for lotus” 可遠觀而不可褻玩焉 (the lotus can only be viewed from afar but not touched and played with), and cheng yi describing Li Lianhua to have a 柔和的冷漠敷衍 (a gentle and soft kind of cold uncaring and carelessness) to him. Something about Li Lianhua forever distancing himself from people when they scream “let me know you let me love you” at him, forever not letting people close even when they’re touching physically, but not because he thinks he’s too noble for it, but because he thinks the people around him are too noble for him, a dying man with very little left in life to tie him to it, to stick around him for long. Llh and his “pushing people away is my love language” because just like the lotus he named himself after, the people around him are truly noble and the gentlemen among men, and he feels near undeserving of them and their presence.

[technicolouredmonochrome]

this is ridiculous but after watching mysterious lotus casebook fang duobing might just be my favourite character of all time???

he's just so endlessly optimistic and idealistic and it's ridiculous at first but he learns and grows and adapts but it doesn't turn him into doom and gloom man just makes him more practical and grounded. he's loyal to the people around him. he makes friends through the sheer power of puppy dog eyes and positivity. he will not hesitate to kill a man for touching LLH, but will also call out LLH when he's being a piece of shit. he has loving parents that he loves just as much in return and doesn't for a second waver when he finds out they are not his birth parents. he knows the power of chosen families. his love language is acts of service. he will never hesitate to stand for what he believes in.

his nickname is xiaobao (aka little treasure) and everyone that loves him calls him that because as much as they love him, they are also in awe of the fact that he would choose to love them in return with the full force of his devotion. LLH looks at this boy with his one memory of LXY that has changed his entire life and thinks: even if the entire world went to shit because of me at least i did one thing right.

i just love fang duobing so so much. and his character in mysterious lotus casebook is a wonderful portrayal of what it means to be optimistic in a world where good may not necessarily win, when you sometimes have to grapple with loss, where you might fight hard for something you believe in and lose it anyway. what it means to fall again, and again, and again. what it means to pick yourself back up. what it means to keep on going.

[skymoonandstardust]

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 ,  chapter 3

Chapter 4

An: sorry this one is short. Haz and reader finally meet though, so that’s something! next part will be longer, i promise. 

Burning. Scorching pain was all Harrison felt. His heart was pounding, either from the terror filled dream he had just left or from the pain, he couldn't tell. Someone was groaning somewhere in the room and It took him a second to realize it was him.

From the sterile smell of chemicals in the air and the very medical looking try beside his bed the part of Harrison that was conscious and sane realized he was in some kind of hospital.

But where? . .this obviously isn't Asgard.

Squeezing his eyes shut he tried to conjure any memories of what had happened and how he got here. . .but there wasn't much. Just a disjointed image of the throne room full of gods laughing and cheering at him, then a pain between his shoulder blades and blackness. 

It makes no sense! . . .but I have bigger things to worry about.

Frantically his eyes roved the room, trying desperately to see anything that could tell him where he was but there wasn't much there either. He could see a blank black rocky wall that suggested somewhere underground, but that didn't tell him a lot. It could still be nearly any of the nine world's and the bookcase full of books wasn't very useful. Mostly because the spines were too far away to detect what language they were written in. 

Suddenly Harrison heard steps approaching.  Without even thinking he surveyed his surroundings again and once more came up with nothing.

Not a single thing in reach to help me defend myself. Just my luck. 

A second of thought did away with the possibility of pretending to sleep. Whoever it was had obviously heard him so there was no use faking. The only thing to do was to wait and meet whoever was coming. 

A gorgeous lady in a midnight black dress rounded the corner. The dark crown glinting on her head kept him from making the mistake of Calling her a nurse or matron, but he hardly noticed it. The fact that she looked half dead was more than a bit distracting.

Next to her E/C eye a dull lifeless white one glimmered and the one side of her body looked blackened as though it was dead and rotting away before his eyes.

Harrison tried to keep the horror out of his eyes and not flinch away but he saw in her face that she had seen it anyway, seen it and accepted it as though it was to be expected and she got it everyday.

Probably because she does, you twat.

He immediately felt guilty and looked down, pretending to nod in greeting, masking his regret as a sign of respect.

"My lady." 

She nodded back, lips still pursed.

"Your highness. We are honored to have you with us."

"Thank you," Harrison shifted and cleared his throat, "but where exactly is here? Do you know what happened?"

"I don't. All I know is that my border guard found you and brought you to me as you are, and I was hoping you could tell me why you're down here."

She sank down in a chair with a sigh. "But of course it wouldn't be that easy.He'd make sure it wasn't." 

She seemed to be talking more to herself than to him, but Harrison spoke up anyway. 

"Him? Him, who?"

The Queen went on like she hadn't heard him.

"I can at least tell you where you are though. You died somehow and came to my realm, Helheim."

It suddenly seemed like there was no air in the room. 

"H-helheim. So you must be?" 

Hel nodded, her face screwing up in even more displeasure before she stood and gave him a mocking curtsey that seemed to make more fun of herself than of Harrison.

"Yes I'm Hel, daughter of Loki and the giantess Angerboda and ruler of the Underworld. Welcome."

"Thanks." Harrison chuckled dryly. "I feel all comfy and cozy now." 

Her lip lifted slightly, letting a smile flicker across her face for a second before it was gone and she was examining him intently, as though he was an interesting pile of bones or the next person on her torture list and she was deciding how to play with him. 

"You seem to be taking this very well, Odinson." 

Harrison raised an eyebrow. "And you thought I'd be cowering and weak? Is that how you wanted me?”

The instant the words were out he knew he'd made a mistake. The pain and anger in her eyes hurt him more than his wound ever had as she stared him down with her unnerving mismatched eyes, lips pressed into the grimmest line yet. 

"I am not my father."

Harrison felt the need to point out that wasn't really an answer but, it was answer enough for him so he just nodded awkwardly again and risked a glance at her. 

"I know, my apologies. You're not Loki any more than I'm Odin."

The few stringy H/C hairs bounced with the full luscious locks on the other side. 

The silence dragged on as Harrison found himself examining her again. Try as he might, Harrison couldn't get over her appearance. Half of the queen’s face was flawless skin, gorgeous H/C hair and a deeply stunning E/C eye. If he had seen only that side facing him he would have thought without doubt that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and cower. . . obviously the inheritance of her father, Loki, who was indisputably handsome among the gods.

The other side made her seem like an exhumed body.  Blackened wrinkled rotting flesh led him up till he was gazing once more into the lifeless glazed white eye. Only a few of the H/C hairs cling on stubbornly, as though they refused to be decomposed with the rest. 

I have no idea which side is worse. . .

 Hel cleared her throat and spoke suddenly.

"You will find that you are well known and loved here as you were everywhere else. We are honored to have you. So, as Asgard and Midgard grieve, we will hold a celebration for your arrival. As soon as you are well enough for it, I will hold a feast in your honor to welcome you properly."

Harrison's mind started racing and his brow furrowed. Unfortunately his confusion didn't go unnoticed.

Hel's forehead furrowed as she looked at him

"What's wrong? You're not pleased with that?"

 "What? No! thank you, I'm glad to hear that and eagerly looking forward to it. . . But, I'm. I'm just--surprised.

"Why?" 

Her half blank stare bored into his blue eyes, clearly issuing a challenge.

She wants me to say it. Fine, I will. Nothing less than she deserves after everything.

"Well it's just. . .my father was the one to condemn your brothers. He sent you here. So. . ." He trailed off, not quite sure how to end and not daring to say the words.

"So you would expect me to torture you for all eternity sooner than honor you and give you comfort."

Harrison tried to speak but really, what words could he say after that? It was true, but she seemed to be expecting an answer anyway so he simply nodded.

"As you said, you are not Odin, and I am not Loki."

Hel stood, nodded to him once more and walked off without waiting for another word, and Harrison found himself staring after her.

Yes, I think I'm beginning to understand that. . .

@madmadmilk @hollandroos @hazmyheart @marvellous-holland @queenofmotherfuckingterrasen @aidiastyles @hey-its-grey @mysmileyspideyboi  @pascalispedro @a-sea-of-fandoms @scarlettsoldier @imadeangirl-butimsamcurious @scarlettsoldier  @fangirl-who-dreams @esoltis280 @theresnofandomforthis @cassiopeia-barrow  @dragonangel-funandfire @iaiabear @coffeeismylife28 @katiegoddessofmischief

LLH taglist: @the-crazy-fanfictionist @spideygirl2003 @allegra-writes @rebekkah4766 @musicandbokkslovingweirdo @petersoftboyparker @fanficparker

[letslearnhangeul]

[Blog Update] 7.7.19

Hello Everyone!  Thank you so much for being patient with me on my very unexpected and long hiatus.

I am glad to announce that I am returning to this blog!  Life happened and I was very busy this year trying to take care of myself and my studies as I have just wrapped up 50% of my undergraduate career so I hope you guys & gals understand.

[Some Updates on Myself & My Blog]

Let’s Learn Hangeul launched about 3 years ago as a small passion project of mine to help myself learn more Korean and share the knowledge/journey with the community on Tumblr.  I love learning languages.  It’s been so much fun getting to share my journey with you guys and watch my blog grow, and so inspiring to receive overwhelming support from a wonderful community who supports my interest in studying foreign language.  In terms of my blog, here are few small changes to look out for:

·        name/url spelling correction from “hangul” to “hangeul

·        new banner inspired from the old one

·        new avatar/icon designed by my self! (I’m lowkey proud it almost looks like my own airlines or something haha)

Which segues into the next section ->

[New Business & What to Expect]

The revamped look is only the beginning.  After doing some clean up and reflection, I realized that one of the biggest challenges in producing my own content was finding infographics/designs for the content I wanted to put out.  But, I realized that as a result of working in some pre-professional student orgs, I developed a skill set to start developing my own content and make is as original as I want it to be.  This means that moving forward, I hope to produce:

·        content centered around monthly/weekly themes

·        vocabulary lists/grammar & sentence structure lessons

·        history/entertainment/holiday bits

I am still getting used to the new program and self-design, and each of my posts will now contain a LLH (Let’sLearnHangeul) mark as well.  I am in the process of making more content so please be patient!

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who supports my blog and continued to breath life into it while I was gone!  Let’s continue making great progress, together!

[qpjianghu]

Li Lianhua + saying "I love you" without saying "I love you" (1/?)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

[qpjianghu]

Li Lianhua + saying "I love you" without saying "I love you" (3/?)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

[qpjianghu]

Li Lianhua + saying "You were my brother, Shan Gudao, I loved you" without saying "I love you" (4/?)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)

[murderedbyhomework]

There's a saying somewhere on the cn fandom that 如果角姐是戀愛腦，李相夷便是師兄腦 (if jiao liqiao is love brain, Li Xiangyi was shixiong brain) and like it's so true tho. Like we as a random do not talk about just how much Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua loved his shixiong, even outside the obvious "spending his remaining 10 years with the one goal of finding his shixiong's remains and immediately giving up on fighting against death after finding sgd to the extent where dfs had to bring out the big guns to get llh to continue living for a while".

There's way too many stuff I could talk about but I'll briefly talk about Wenjing. As depicted in canon, Wenjing was sgd's 18th birthday present for lxy, made from Yun Metal (not that lxy knew it at the time). The name of the sword itself says a lot about lxy's love for his shixiong. Wenjing (刎頸）refers to the phrase 刎頸之交, aka "a friendship/relationship one would slit their throat for, referring to friendships where one would willingly and gladly lay down their life for the other". Li Xiangyi is the one who names this sword, and he directly references this phrase when naming the sword. One could say wenjing was a symbol of just how much sgd meant to lxy.

So how much does wenjing mean to Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua? Going off canon, lxy was a bit of a peacock, and he liked to show off things he deemed impressive, yet for things that were actually really important to him, such as his love for cheap candy, he kept close to his chest. So what about Wenjing? It's a beautiful sword, and very well made, but Li Xiangyi never showed it off to anyone and kept it extremely private, because in his opinion, sgd's gift was something he wanted to keep just for himself. As top of the Jianghu, a lot of him was shown to the public and under public scrutiny, everything about him placed on the spotlight, placed on a pedestal, yet lxy was possessive enough over this sword to keep it to himself, like a secret only his shixiong and himself would know.

And then there's lxy always keeping wenjing on him even during his years as llh. As lxy, he had shaoshi as a sword already, and he didn't need another sword on him, not really, because he's proven that even disarmed he's not defenseless, but he kept wenjing on him anyway, because it was probably a symbol of his shixiong's love for him. And as llh, he would continue keeping the sword on him, despite being a wandering doctor who supposedly knew no martial arts and would be too poor to have such a beautiful sword.

And finally, llh chose to destroy shaoshi instead of using it to end himself (it's canon he literally said to shaoshi "using you to end me is rather inappropriate"), but despite wenjing later being revealed as, in fact, a sign of sgd's betrayal and hate of llh, llh never destroyed that it. He did throw it into a cliff face so no one could ever reach it again (low key excalibur situation hmn), but in my mind, it wasn't ever an action of hate against sgd, not a rejection of his gift, but rather llh throwing wenjing away from himself before he could actually get really mad and destroy this gift from his shixiong. He might have left wenjing behind when he went off to die, but we all know Llh's love language is abandonment.