#through this we get a glimpse of what it must be like for wenzhou

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

zhiji. zhiyin.

moments since then--

i wanted / the past to go away /

i've been looking for places where silence means peace

i wanted to leave it, like another country;

and not loneliness, because i've spent enough time

i wanted / my life to close, and open / like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song / where it falls /

tell me about despair, yours,

down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery; /

and i will tell you mine. / meanwhile the world goes on. / meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, /

i wanted /

over the prairies and the deep trees, / the mountains and rivers. / meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.

to hurry into the work of my life; i wanted to know, whoever i was, i was /

tell me about despair, yours, and i will tell you mine. / meanwhile the world goes on.

alive /

i've been looking for places where silence means peace and not loneliness

for a little while.

"Moments since then" (from 'Places I’ve Taken My Body: Essays' by Molly McCully Brown, source); "I wanted the past to go away" (from 'Dogfish' by Mary Oliver, source); "Tell me about despair, yours, and i will tell you mine" (from 'Wild Geese' by Mary Oliver, source)

TYK excerpts under the cut:

"Close friends that can completely understand each other" ('Story about Zhiyin', from the wikipedia article of Bo Ya, source); "I thought you said you intended to live and die with me, Part 1/2" (TYK, Ch.46, tl. wenbuxing); "Luckily, I haven't fallen deeply in love with you yet." (TYK, Ch.29, tl. lianzi); "Does it hurt?" (TYK, Ch.45, tl. wenbuxing); "I thought you said you intended to live and die with me, Part 2/2" (TYK, Ch.46, tl. wenbuxing); "To feel a closeness to a friend or a loved one despite being seperated by a great distance" (from the idiom definition of "海內存知己，天涯若比鄰", wiktionary article, source)

[aiyexayen]

The shiny link said to ask you things so here I am. What's ur fav outfits for each of WKX and ZZS?

THANK YOU FOR ASKING although this is a very difficult question, given how many thoughts and feelings i have about their outfits. i've never tried to boil it down to favourites, but i'm going to go on a small journey and see if i can do it.

(1/5)

zishu first. devastating intro.

this outfit makes me nostalgic for my first watchthrough. it's sexy, and i really like the way we see wenzhou both in red before anything else. but it lacks a kind of depth in the same way the unknown character does to us; it's a first impression. certainly a good one but just can't be my top favourite outfit.

his second tianchuang outfit is even better. it puts him in blue--his colour, siji shanzhuang's colour, even though it's draped in black and part of tianchuang right now. we get a lot of soul shattering emotions in this outfit as we start to learn who zhou zishu actually is, what he cares about, what he's built, who he's lost, what he is capable of doing. episode one kills me.

and then we also get a reprise of this outfit later, which is what really spikes its ranking up for me. the way he wears it subtly differently, coming full circle to finish this fight now that he's changed so much after the year he's lived. the way that blue he'd always carried with him, even into the heart of tianchuang, really stands out in stark contrast to jin-wang's red and gold.

beautiful. it's up there but doesn't quite get favourite.

and honourable mention of course are his other two we catch glimpses of in episode 1--brilliant shixiong blue accented in fUCKING green in his flashback as if he's remembering a time when he was still human, and his "i'm riding off to die now" cloak. these get NOTHING from me because i'm so sad.

moving on.

zhou zishu tries to become unobtrusive and unnoticeable and ordinary but instead he looks Like This:

and we all hate and despair and love that perfect hair shoulder blades jawline in equal measure. especially wen kexing.

comfy, rugged, unapologetically blue. this outfit introduces the flask, introduces him to wen kexing and zhang chengling, and we have some good times with it. but it's simple, and dark, and so is his view of his remaining life right now, and that hurts a bit too much.

so, next is the outfit wen kexing gives him and he's briefly suspicious but he does wear it, deciding to trust wen kexing a bit and caving in a little to the concept of being something more than he'd planned. we're expanding to two shades of blue, too, very nice.

this outfit sees us through the epic fight with the beggar gang, the heartrending siji shanzhuang flashback, the LIPS ON SHOULDER and that's not even the only reason this outfit is a top contender to the title.

because more layers means the chance to take them off. and it must be discussed how much work the under layers do in this outfit.

look at this man revealing that there is indeed more to himself, letting himself be less guarded around wen kexing. look at his smile, his playfulness, and that fucking fairytale princess that has been hiding under so many masks, perfectly offset by that pretty pale blue and that soft hairstyle.

but i'm not sure i can commit to favourite.

pin in that one, i will keep going. so, this first yueyang outfit is just So Much.

the HAT, the DRAPE, the ZHIJI-ACKNOWLEDGING, the way that gray creeps in. zhou zishu has revealed his face and in doing so has decided not to hide, in more ways than one, as he says to han ying. he's decided to deal with his shit a bit and maybe live a bit better with the time he has left. he's becoming himself and it's so much.

and as if that wasn't enough, after their big fight when it all goes wrong, zhou zishu GOES BACK to wearing THIS outfit. "let's try this again." backing up, making up, re-centering in the last place that felt more himself and then setting back out again on the right foot.

and then he sits in the miDDLE of the STREET, outer robe HALFWAY OFF HIS SHOULDER in stark contrast to the structure of the breakup-outfit, and SAYS LAO WEN'S NAME. what am i supposed to do with that. what. WHAT.

i think this one comes extremely close to being my favourite, pin in this one, too.

speaking of the breakup-outfit.

it's so shimmery, suddenly full of so much structure and colour. zhou zishu, trying to reconcile who he's been with who he wishes he could be with who he doesn't want to see lao wen become, abruptly wrapping himself up in all these layers and trappings of a man that's a different kind of shield against the pain and it doesn't really make him any less lost in the end. but damn is it pretty. i can't really put my finger on it but something about his hair and that collar. and, of course, the blood. the declaration that nobody can stop him from killing who he wants and getting what he wants. hot damn.

however, comparing it to the two top contenders for the title right now, i don't think it beats either one.

part 2

[ryukoishida]

Quan Zhi Gao Shou / The King’s Avatar TL Fic: In which human!Wenzhou encounters vampire!Shaotian, and then everything goes to shit.

Title: Long Nights Ahead Author: semiquaver | AO3 | Lofter Translator: ryukoishida Fandom: Quan Zhi Gao Shou / The King’s Avatar Part: 1/16 Genre: Vampire AU, romance, angst, fluff Rating: NSFW Character(s)/Pairing(s): Yu/Huang (Wenzhou/Shaotian) Summary: It’s as if Huang Shaotian has the power to bewitch Wenzhou so that he strays from the righteous path — just as he originally only wanted to have a drink with his colleague, just as he has never intended to bring a strange man home. T/N: If you can read Chinese, please support the author by reading the original work! And if you’ve enjoyed this translation, please leave a comment for the author on their AO3 as well!

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Chapter One

Sleeping around with a vampire is extremely insane, Yu Wenzhou thinks.

These creatures’ existence is one of contradiction — they are dangerous yet beautiful. Even in the modern society where human beings have long accepted their kind, Wenzhou still chooses to stay far away from them. There is only one reason for that: in the end, he’s only a simple, normal man who is serious about his work and passionate about his interests, and he rather likes remaining within a safe and balanced boundary than to be involved with any sorts of predicament.

Coincidentally, vampires and predicaments are two things that never stray too far from each other.

Tonight’s trip to the bar is due to a colleague’s invitation; Wenzhou hasn’t really thought that he’d run into someone he’d take an interest in. When he glances up, the other man is half-sprawled across the countertop chatting with the bartender. Jeans and a hoodie, the too-short hem of his shirt rides up to reveal a bit of his waist, and the two piercings on his left ear glimmer with a peculiarly bright gleam under the bar’s dull lighting.

It seems like he can be a university student: his eyes are very big, and even though his profile is all angular lines, he still looks quite boyish. Like a child, he’s biting the end of his straw, and frivolously chattering away.

Wenzhou is seated not that far from him — about a few paces away with several people separating them. It’s normal for him to want to stare at such a good-looking man, but the moment Wenzhou is looking his way, he realizes that the man has also turned to look at him, and he’s winking at him deliberately.

That grinning face allows Wenzhou to understand that this is the man’s way of greeting him. Wenzhou responds with a polite smile as well, raising his glass in a salute, and when he swallows the mouthful of alcohol, he can taste a hint of sweetness laced within it.

He hasn’t expected he’d meet anyone special here, but as the man gets himself a fresh drink and easily meanders between the few people to get to him, Wenzhou thinks to himself that it wouldn’t be so bad if something does happen tonight.

The bar is cacophonous with people barely having any space to move. The other man is not shy at all, and with a kind of familiarity reserved for an old friend, he plops himself into the seat directly adjacent to Wenzhou’s, their shoulders and legs touching, and a whiff of icy chill passes from the stranger onto him.

This surprises Wenzhou a bit. Observing from afar, this man looks to be the type that exudes fervent heat, like a university student who’s just finished a game of basketball, skin slicked with sweat, and even at a distance, one would feel the oozing waves of warmth emitted from his body.

“Hey, how’s it going? Just by yourself?” the stranger goes straight for the kill with no hesitation. His voice is similar to how Wenzhou has imagined — a few degrees hotter than his own body temperature.

“No,” Wenzhou replies honestly.

When he hears Wenzhou’s answer, he begins to look around curiously, his mouth slightly parted from bemusement. Wenzhou knows what he’s searching for, and so he points to a man wearing a black shirt; his colleague’s original intent is to hunt for someone to hook up with, and currently he’s happily conversing with a scantily-clad lady.

“Hahahaha! Hoes before bros — this, I’ve seen a lot,” his eyelashes flutter when he blinks, his laughter pleasant, yet he doesn’t continue.

But his gaze is bluntly carving a path along Wenzhou’s body, scrutinizing him, and Wenzhou thinks that this man is quite fascinating: why would he refuse to continue when they are already here? Their thoughts and intentions have already conjured up violent and dangerous sparks through their shared, heated gaze; it seems like there’s no need to hide or put up a disguise any longer.

“Not really,” Wenzhou smiles lightly at him, “everyone’s got their own aspirations.”

The other man clearly understands the underlying meaning of his words, and intentionally sends him a reserved smile, a hand reaching out, his tone formal as if they’re having a business meeting, “I’m Huang Shaotian.”

“Yu Wenzhou.”

It’s as if Huang Shaotian has the power to bewitch Wenzhou so that he strays from the righteous path — just as he originally only wanted to have a drink with his colleague, just as he has never intended to bring a strange man home.

When they step out of the bar, it’s obvious that Shaotian has been drinking way too much. Even after so many drinks, his face is still cool to the touch, his eyes glassy and his legs unsteady, so he half-sprawls, giggling all the while, onto Wenzhou’s frame as he nuzzles the tip of his nose against Wenzhou’s neck.

Wenzhou texts his colleague with one hand to let him know that he’s leaving first, while his other hand shoves the drunk man into the taxi parked on the side of the street. He hasn’t thought that Shaotian is capable of such strength, and while they struggle in the midst of pushing and pulling, Wenzhou topples into the backseat in the end, and the two appear equally flustered.

The taxi driver is already impatient: he’s tapping his fingers against the steering wheel and silently hurrying them. And so, with Shaotian’s limbs tightly wrapped around him, Wenzhou moves into a more comfortable position with some difficulty, reaches for the door to pull it shut, and lifts his head to tell the driver his address.

It’s taken him a lot of effort to finally manage to get the drunk man to sit properly. After all this hassle, Shaotian finally looks like he’s done messing around; he stays quiet, running his hands along Wenzhou’s waist, his tongue licking the side of Wenzhou’s neck relentlessly.

With a vicious rage, the driver honks his way out of the city center lined with bars and clubs. When he catches a glimpse of his passengers through the rear-view mirror, he tuts a few times, shaking his head, and murmurs to himself, “Young people these days…”

‘Young people these days sure are reckless,’ Wenzhou finishes the driver’s thought in his head.

Shaotian looks like he’s in his early 20’s; perhaps he’s really just a university student. If the estimation of his age is correct, Wenzhou himself is at least five years older than him. Despite that, this kid really excels at provoking and teasing him; he has no sense of self-preservation, and neither does he seem to be afraid of being tricked.

The taxi winds through streets after streets, and makes a final stop in front of Wenzhou’s apartment building. After paying and thanking the driver, Wenzhou hauls Shaotian out of the vehicle by his shoulders. Wenzhou has initially thought it’ll be difficult, but as it turns out, the other man seems to be sober now, so Wenzhou doesn’t need to try too hard since Shaotian cooperatively allows himself to be coaxed out of the car. After he regains his footing, he even pulls his arms up for a huge stretch along with a yawn. The tears that have been gathered earlier are pushed to the corners of his eyes, and Shaotian reaches a hand up to rub them away, making his eyes slightly bloodshot.

Wenzhou catches the other man’s wrist in his hand, “Stop rubbing your eyes like that.”

“We there yet?” Listlessness colours his voice, yet he has a tight grasp of Wenzhou’s hand as if he’s afraid the other man will escape.

“Follow me,” Wenzhou wants to laugh, but he regrets it after a few seconds because as he guides Shaotian up into his apartment unit as if he’s leading a child along, he can’t help but feel a little guilty.

Open the door. Close the door. Lock it.

The moment they cross the threshold of his home and before Wenzhou can even have a chance to slip out of his shoes, Shaotian is already crowding him against the nearest wall, effectively immobilizing Wenzhou. Shaotian is stronger than Wenzhou has initially expected; the hands that press against his shoulders are unyielding as if the seemingly frail wrist Wenzhou has been holding a moment ago is nothing but an illusion.

The man pushes his tongue past the seam of Wenzhou’s lips without mercy, inviting Wenzhou to do the same by licking deeper into the wet cavern of his mouth. Shaotian is actually a little shorter than Wenzhou, so in order to reach him, Shaotian has to be on his tiptoes when he prowls over and collapses his entire weight onto Wenzhou.

He’s incredibly impatient, merely sucking fervently at the beginning, but he’s nibbling and biting at Wenzhou’s lips before long. The urgency and madness in Shaotian’s every movement make Wenzhou feel like this is the longest and most exhausting kiss in his thirty years of life — so much so that the desperation within him is enough to burn and consume everything in its path. Shaotian finally decides to lean away from the kiss before neither of them can pass out from lack of oxygen, and the eyes that have been tightly shut before blink open once more; his gaze is still slightly unfocused, but his laughter is open and genuine.

“You must taste really delicious,” he suddenly says with a serious and frank tone as if he’s actually commentating about some sort of rare delicacies.

Shaotian stares at Wenzhou for a while longer, and then drifts closer to nuzzle his cheek, the bridge of his nose, kissing his way down to the other man’s Adam’s apple and running his fingers back and forth along the exposed skin of his waist and abdomen. He always seems to be so eager and piqued, yet his every gesture is carefully measured. Even Wenzhou finds himself intoxicated by this intimacy; the closeness creates the fantastical impression that he and Shaotian have always been a pair of cherished lovers rather than just two strangers who are about to screw after striking up a brief conversation.

They kiss from the entrance of the doorway all the way to the living-room, and then roll onto the plush carpet in front of the television cabinet, and from there they continue to kiss until they reach the bedroom, finally tumbling onto the soft bedsheets in a mess of limbs and bites. Shaotian hasn’t really bitten Wenzhou that hard until now. He likes to lick, and his tongue has covered almost every, single exposed inch of Wenzhou’s skin earlier on, but now he’s peppering kisses along the same path he’s licked before and at last he’s biting on Wenzhou’s lower lip.

It hurts a bit. Wenzhou can definitely feel it.

He doesn’t mind it too much the first time it happens, but when his earlobe gets nipped next, Wenzhou hisses and pushes Shaotian off of him in an instant.

Shaotian’s clothes are rumpled and messy from their previous activity, and his hair is in an even more of a disarrayed state; his face is full of confusion, and he blinks, puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

“Let me look at your teeth,” Wenzhou grips his chin and pries his mouth open with a little too much vigor.

Shaotian’s words are blurred around the edges since his mouth is still being forced to remain open, “Aren’t you treating me a little too roughly for someone you’ve just met for the first time? And here I thought you actually look like a nice guy…”

His canine teeth are razor-sharp.

“You’re a vampire?” Wenzhou interrupts his babbling.

“I’ve always been one. It’s not like I was denying it.”

Wenzhou lets go, and Shaotian moves his jaws experimentally; it seems like Wenzhou’s clutch has caused him some pain and he struggles to recover for a short moment, but when he sees the other man’s response, Shaotian immediately shouts, “Oi, oi! What are you getting up for? We’re not done yet!”

“Let’s not. Where do you live? I’ll take you home.”

“Are you discriminating against me because of what I am?”

“No.”

Pouting like an irritated child who hasn’t gotten what he wants, Shaotian asks, “Then why don’t we keep going?”

Wenzhou admits that he’s the one who’s being unkind under such circumstances, but he doesn’t want to betray his own principles by sleeping with a vampire without first knowing the truth. At least now that he has some clarification, he recognizes what the other man’s intentions are.

“What were you thinking?”

“What do you mean? I thought I was being pretty obvious. I told you before: I thought you look like you’d taste delicious.”

Wenzhou completely understands. “So, you’re here for my blood.”

“Why are your beliefs so outdated? Whether it’s for blood or for that, it’s only a one-time deal. Let me bite you once — just once — and have a taste, and I guarantee that you won’t regret it. I have excellent technique in this regard.”

He’s not wrong. Everyone knows that the person who’s having their blood sucked will feel a rush of pleasure during the process; some even points out that if both of the involved parties are compatible with each other, the kind of pleasure from this act is even more intense and leaves a deeper impression than mere sexual intercourse. In this modern society, there’s nothing eccentric about having a vampire as a sexual partner: while you feel good, my craving is satisfied. All in all, it’s a win-win situation for both sides.

Even though it’s rather strange for the vampire sitting before him to flaunt his awesome feeding techniques, he does appear to be a reliable and responsible man; besides, Shaotian’s physical attributes perfectly correspond to Wenzhou’s tastes. It’s just that Wenzhou doesn’t want to easily comply merely due to these few simple conditions, for although Shaotian hasn’t intentionally hidden the fact that he’s a vampire, he hasn’t offered to tell him the truth either. If Wenzhou hasn’t asked outright, he probably won’t know about it until it’s all too late.

And Yu Wenzhou, if anything, especially hates people who has an act-first-ask-later attitude.

“You should get up. I’ll take you home,” Wenzhou says, though he hasn’t expected Shaotian to lie back on his bed shamelessly with a kind of finality to show that he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Just let me have one bite. I promise you won’t feel a thing; I won’t leave a scar either, and I definitely won’t kill you. Now that the Humanity Protection Act has been strictly established, and with those cops that especially target my kind being so vicious, I wouldn’t dare try anything crazy. Buddy, come on, it’s just a one-time arrangement, right? We each take what we need from each other, so why not?”

Wenzhou remembers from a book he’s read that since vampires’ lifespans are much longer than the average humans’, their personalities are usually less inviting and much colder; they avoid interaction with others all together. Yet the vampire before him is very talkative, and as he watches the way Shaotian’s facial expressions flicker and shift while he babbles nonstop, Wenzhou honestly just wants to chuckle.

Wenzhou tries to contain his laughter and pats the spot at the end of his bed, “Get up, or I’m calling the police.”

“You are so cruel! Doesn’t the human society have a teensy bit of compassion anymore?” Shaotian begins to unwillingly drag himself up, and then he topples over, an arm hooking around the human’s neck to keep himself in place.

“Yu Wenzhou, tell me the truth. Just now, didn’t you want to do me?”

He sure doesn’t beat around the bush much.

Wenzhou shoves at him half-heartedly, but the gesture isn’t strong enough to push him off.

“Not anymore.”

“Are you serious?” Shaotian leans forward so that his forehead touches Wenzhou’s, and his tongue slips out to wet his lips, the motion languid and deliberate. “Just one bite. I guarantee you’ll feel incredible.”

Everything after that happens in a blur. Before Wenzhou has a chance to move or speak, Shaotian is already cradling his face and placing a soft kiss on his eyelids, and then he quickly shifts to the side of his neck. It is at this very moment that the sharp pain that shoots straight into his muddled mind finally catches up to him and jolts him back into complete lucidity.

He should have pushed him off, Wenzhou is thinking to himself, yet his body is utterly frozen.

The stench of blood scatters within the enclosure of the room, but the throbbing ache on his neck is gradually dissipating, and replacing that is an indescribable pleasure that spreads through every part of his body. Wenzhou has never experienced this kind of exhilaration before; he can feel the flow of the blood along his neck, the sensation of Shaotian’s soft and yielding lips and his teeth piercing through his skin. This should be dangerous, yet every suction is a shot of elation that Wenzhou craves and can’t get enough of; he leans forth and lightly kisses the soft turfs of Shaotian’s hair.

The moment is brief, but at the same time it feels centuries longer. When Shaotian’s lips part from his neck, he pulls out a slip of bandage and accurately sticks it onto the wound that he’s created.  

“Extra-strength remedy. You’ll heal in two days.”

Shaotian discards the plastic packaging into the garbage can by the corner of the room. “So, how was that? Pretty good, right? Those who’ve been bitten by me have all claimed that my technique is top-class within the field — no pain, all pleasure.”

Why is he treating this as if he’s talking about a specialized field in the job market anyway?

Wenzhou wants to laugh again, but before he even has a chance to reply, Shaotian springs up to his feet and hurriedly says, “Shoot! I’m going to be late for work! You do taste really good. Catch ya next time!”

In a second, Shaotian jumps out of the bedroom window like a burst of flowing wind and disappears into the night without a trace.

Can this be considered as a heartless act?

Wenzhou stops by the windowsill and picks up a card that the other man has dropped in his haste to leave. It’s strange that he hasn’t even noticed when Shaotian has written the note:

“Thanks for your hospitality. Sleep well. I’ll make it up to you next time.”

He isn’t even certain he wants there to be a next time.

He puts the card into a drawer, and then thinks, if there is a next time, he will not forgive him so easily.