#the difference between bingmei and bingge is that bingmei is a sad sad boy while bingge is an angry sad boy

[parlerenfleurs]

It becomes more and more probable to me that Bing-ge never really had fun, loving sex that he actually wanted with any of his wives. I mean I would have to check between the web version and this translation to make sure how different it might be, but reading the extract of PIDW that describes Binghe's first time, this time it struck me how it is actually a dubious consent situation. Where Qin Wanyue wanted to climb him before dying and he simply didn't have the heart to refuse. How sombre and joyless is that?? The wording very much implies he had no previous interest in her or in doing that with her.

I guess Binghe, in any version, is condemned to a sad, unwilling first time involving death and a sacrifice LOL (his sacrifice in this case)

Also, what fortifies this for me is his early relationship with Ning Yingying. Even Shen Qingqiu is more affected by her naive charm and affection than the boy is! Shen Qingqiu wants to bask in the regard this pretty little girl had toward him, Ming Fan is jealous that she prefers Binghe's company, and meanwhile Binghe.... Just doesn't seem to feel anything at all about her or her attentions. In fact, were he to feel something, we would all find it logical if it was mostly annoyance and dread - because she is kind but clueless, adorable but always a source of problems for him.

Yet he takes her into his harem. He takes Qin Wanyue. And the little palace mistress. And any girl or woman who shows an interest. Maybe he feels initially like it is his duty. Taking responsibility, repaying kindness. Maybe after a while that's just what is expected of him and so he does it, again and again, take another, and another. Maybe he starts out giving himself without any true joy or desire, and then like everything else it gets twisted, and it is both the necessity of feeding Xin Mo, and just another kind of challenge to get women he does not even want to yield to him. Just another deep kind of self-harm also.

And that would mean that the Bingge VS Bingmei extra is perhaps the one time Bingge initiated sex because he really wanted it, not because it was expected or by force of habit (but perhaps a little as a form of self-harm still, because... He knew Shen Jiu way longer, and that is very much his face)