#yu qiushuang

[howdaretrashships]

You used to be quite arrogant and very talented. You made a lot of friends, but few of them were true friends... Later something big happened and you ended up all alone.

[eirenical]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 5

Poor thing. None of the people she loved loved her. And none of them wanted to leave her alive.

[Do not repost. Do not remove caption. Thank you!]

Gif IDs and meta babble under the cut.

[ID: Three gifs of Li Lianhua from episode 5 of Mysterious Lotus Casebook. He is shown from mid-chest up in the first gif and from the shoulders up in the last two. He is speaking of the murder victim in the case they are investigated (text in the main post). He looks a little sad, also a bit resigned. There is a brief cut in the first gif to Fang Duobing looking equally sad.]

So this rewatch is going... SO WELL. I keep finding these ridiculous parallels in places I don't expect to find them and losing my entire damned mind about it. This episode struck me the first time as existing mostly to establish that LLH is, in fact, a good detective. He's wily as hell and has the knowledge to back it up. It's also the avenue by which we're introduced to the Jinyuan Alliance and some of the other side players that come back later on. But I didn't think much of the mystery itself. Of the parallels that are going to be drawn later on.

Yu Qiushang died twice, victim to the people who supposedly loved her most, because she was in the way. Because it was too dangerous to leave her alive with the things she knew.

...kind of like Li Xiangyi.

Only it wasn't about what he knew, it was about who he was. He was inconvenient, and too righteous to be left alive to interfere. And he, too, was killed multiple times over the course of the story:

Once by Jiao Liquiao and Yun Biqiu with teh Bicha Poison.

Twice by Di Feisheng over the Eastern Sea.

Thrice by Xiao Zijin and the rest of Sigu Sect when they disbanded the Sect rather than try to rebuild.

And one final time when Shan Gudao set out to destroy his legacy and reputation.

All people he loved (yes, I'm counting Di Feisheng in that category, fight me ^_^). All people who didn't (or at least who he thought didn't) love him back in the same way. All people who betrayed him.

And if you watch that last gif: there's a breath that gets punched out of him; that hitch before he says those final words; that twist to his features like he's just now seeing this parallel himself.

This one hit home.

And then to find Di Feisheng in the back mountain so soon after when he's helpless to confront him? The way his fist clenches because he's practically DRIVEN by the need to do SOMETHING... but he can't. He isn't strong enough. He's hurt. It would be suicide.

But this case has brought all of that roaring to the surface and he's not ready for it.

It's no wonder he passes out.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to go cry in a corner about this man YET AGAIN. 😭🥺😭

[difeisheng]

regarding yu hongzhu and jiao liqiao: i think it's so fascinating that we have these two women left standing who were both put in positions of high status below di feisheng, and who should hate each other now for their pasts. yu hongzhu is the last of the twelve guardians thanks to jiao liqiao, and jiao liqiao would never let her go for her proximity to the man she was obsessed with. and yet, by the present day, these two have still been bound in some kind of relationship by their loyalty to di feisheng for over ten years.

why did jiao liqiao let yu hongzhu live, after all her sisters in jinyuanmeng were dead? was it because her usefulness in protecting di feisheng in seclusion won out over jiao liqiao's jealousy? was it because yu hongzhu had a husband and another lover already, and therefore she wouldn't care to compete for di feisheng too? did jiao liqiao threaten yu hongzhu with killing yu qiushuang, held over her head anytime yu hongzhu considered putting her life in the present over that of her master's? how many times did yu hongzhu want revenge on jiao liqiao, only to hold herself back, because her duty to the alliance and its survival had to come first?

it's circling one another in a vicious dance. you can't kill her, but you can never forget. yet you're twisted together by devotion to another, by the years sacrificed (years lost), by the forging of yourselves into something so sharp in blade and tongue in a man's wulin so that all of them save for the one you serve look at you and react only with fear.

and so, the natural conclusion to all of this, of course, is that these two should hatefuck about it.

[chenqingssuibian]

so! mystery lotus casebook, episode four! i have just finished it, and may rewatch it later, but! here are my thoughts for now:

- yu hongzhu is a milf. look at her. really a worthy holder of the title madam yu after queen yu ziyuan. if yall don't start fan casting this woman as your young-yzy and writing angsty fics about her and jiang fengmian i swear to GOD I will do it myself

- they were really gonna flame broil my main man dr li. they really were. but duobing came in clutch with the. were they needles he threw to break the chains? he broke something. anyway

- speaking of li lianhua we have been graced with a new outfit. i am going to thank word of honor specifically for the new-outfits-every-episode for no other reason that i saw wen kexing do it first. and also cheng yi, because GOD does he look pretty in teal

- watching them examine the body and realize there is no Way she was only dead for a day was very funny. especially because li lianhua already suspected it and was so smug about it being confirmed

- that's the thing about li lianhua. he is a smug bitch. i cannot Wait for him to finally be surprised

- the whole murder plot is good. i like this investigation! they're following up leads! they're scrounging around! they're extracting a needle from poor qiushuang's heart!

- speaking of qiushuang's heart. there is no way she did not know her sister thought her best friend was in love with her fiancé. like... i know we never see her on screen but c'mon she can't be stupid

- and that best friend. she played a part in her murder? gut wrenching. even more gut wrenching when we realize that she was only trying to save the man she loves

- shadow puppets play a large part in this episode. I need you to know that. i Love shadow puppets theyre my favorite kind of puppetry so this is Very good for me

- duobing does something smart this episode and sets a trap in best friend's room to catch the killer when he tries to tie up loose ends! good job duobing! have a cookie <3

- and in the end, who did it? who killed poor qiushuang? the brother in law. for money! i had a feeling that shady bitch was part of it but they Did get me with the whole love poem for qiushuang's fiance bit.

- either way - yun jian, girl, bestie. your best friend's brother in law? I know you're catatonic from realizing your lover murdered your best friend but we Need to talk about this

- unfortunately this episode ends before we get the true conclusion - sure, they've revealed the gambling debts brother in law has-apparently the fangs are bankers, because duh-and the affair and the special family technique with shadow puppetry, but. they cut to the ending song </3 which means i wont get to see yu hongzhu's beat down until at Least when I get home around 7:30 pm. ah well

anyway. 9/10 for the episode I just wish we'd gotten the conclusion to the case in it. and that we had a proper goodbye from li'er, who duobing sent back home. but oh well