#zhen ruyu

[smolnerdisms]

I think something that gets me so much about Wen Kexing in Word of Honor, is his line "It's too late." He uses it twice when Zhou Zishu is going on about how he's finally found Zhen Yan again, and then a few more times when Shen Shen confronts him about his parents. At that point, he cries out in despair- "They're both dead, along with Zhen Yan." And it's just so completely gutting.

I have a unique experience of being betrayed, of my family being hurt, by people who I trusted, who formed a large part of my community, my identity, and who I thought would help us in time of need. It led to such a horrible traumatic experience, for all of us. And it does feel like a part of me has died. I keep meeting people who are part of this community (and have nothing to do with the others) and they still believe in it and wonder why I don't. But the reality is, I don't have the ability to anymore. I suspect I will regard this community with distrust and skepticism for years to come. It is indeed too late. The part of me that believed is long gone, replaced with anger and trauma that will never fully heal.

I am in a unique position to understand why Wen Kexing had such a burning desire to burn the world down and himself along with it. Because sometimes, all you want to do after such a horrible betrayal is hurt the ones who hurt you. Calling them dogs and demons doesn't even faze me. Even though there is good people in the mix, they didn't do anything to help and so they're going to be part of the pyre too.

So at the end of the series, when Wen Kexing takes his revenge on Zhao Jing, and calls out the Jianghu for namedropping his father but not helping them, it gives me a very sick sense of satisfaction. That's what I wish I could do as well, but I can only engage in the catharsis that fiction allows.

Wen Kexing is a fucked up little guy. But he's my fucked up little guy. And I understand him perfectly.

[mtkay13]

(and way more TYK designs below!)

Here it is! My personal designs of the (mostly) full TYK cast! What I mainly learned from this: TYK has a lot more characters than expected, haha.

My idea was mainly to get a clearer image, for myself, of all the people appearing or being mentioned in the book (and btw, a big chunk of the characters above died before the story even started and don't even get a line, but, you know...). One of my guidelines was, everyone has to look interesting, has to look like the main character of their own story. TYK is pretty much a story about side characters... so if noone is a main character, everyone is, no? (...does that even work? lol) Some of these designs were inspired by SHL, because it being the first one I saw, it of course left an impression in my mind. The rest is essentially taken from the few descriptions we get in the book, and my own imagination (plus some help from pinterest for the clothing). Rong Changqing is 100% inspired from @tbgkaru-woh depiction of him.

One noteworthy thing: the giant dog is too big. I thought it was supposed to be the size of a big horse, but it's actually the size of a pony... woops. Now, additionally:

The protags families! Wen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao had to look heroic because that's pretty much what their characters are about. The traditional Wuxia story heroes that marked the legend. Conversely, the Zhou family has to be as plain and normal as possible, haha. ZZS says, in QY, that he's often called "Zhou San" (=Zhou three), which means he's the third child in his family. Since I like the idea of him being the youngest, I only gave him an older brother (who will inherit the position of head of the family and thus justify ZZS being able to leave for a shady remote sect) and an older sister. And as another bonus:

Hehehe. So these are... let's say, the men in ZZS' life, before WKX.

- Jiuxiao, of course, because I'm convinced ZZS had feelings for him

- Huang Xu, an OC developed with Bichen (son of a HLZ supporter, whose family ZZS infiltrated for a while --as Su Yan-- to try and sway them towards HLY's cause ((Su Yan's "Yan" is the same "Yan" as in Zhen Yan, just as a little nod to SHL))) - Zhu Ai, a magistrate OC, developed with Moose and Bichen, who's deeply infatuated with ZZS --only knowing him as that one guy who handles imperial guard watch tours and trains guards--

-and one guard I just like to imagine having a crush on him too. I started working on some guy from WKX's childhood too, but I feel like WKX's past is such a huge can of worms, I'll save all of that for later, haha.

[minnarr]

god typing up my notes on Long Que’s account of the events around Rong Xuan’s death and can we TALK about the tragedy that Wen Kexing feels no one tried to help his parents but actually multiple people did but there was too much against them. He knows about Qin Huaizhang, but he didn’t know about Zhang Yusen, whose father broke his legs to stop him from helping the Zhen couple, or that Rong Xuan knocked Zhen Ruyu out at Mount Qingya possibly in a failed attempt to take all the heat on himself, or about Long Que, who spread rumors and hid his sect away for twenty years to try to draw some of the pressure onto himself and tried and failed to find them, and hoped for all of those years that they were still living well somewhere in hiding. Not all of the people who failed them failed them for lack of love and loyalty. </3

[ao3feed-doctorwho]

Dimensions: personal and relative

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/idxShGI

by Sekiei

When the Doctor saves Zhen Yan and his family, he gives him a gift and promises they will meet again.

Words: 5218, Chapters: 2/2, Language: English

Fandoms: 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021), 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) RPF, Doctor Who

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Zhang Zhehan, Wen Kexing, Ye Baiyi, Gong Jun | Simon, Gu Miaomiao, Wen Ruyu, The Doctor (Doctor Who)

Additional Tags: it's all twitter's fault, this wasn't supposed to happen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Nothing explicit, i have no idea what this is, yes zhang zhehan is the doctor, guess who's the tardis, no relationship but some horniness and gratuitous leering

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/idxShGI

[naniya27]

I can’t get teenaged wkx, face blank, tears streaming down his face, humming the last bait of Le Miserables’ ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from my head 😭😭😭

[aussie-tea]

lmfao does this bitch really think that Gu I-poisoned-my-fucking-brother-in-law-to-blackmail-him-and-single-handedly-protected-my-husband-and-son-from-the-martial-arts-world Miaomiao would be ashamed of Wen Kexing.

We all know that queen is up in heaven going "YES SON FUCK THEM UP. NIANG IS SO PROUD OF YOU!"

[verycharismaticdragon]

“My surname isn’t Rong”: on Wen Kexing’s parentage and Zhou Zishu’s genre awareness

Small preface: look, I’m not anywhere near being qualified to speak broadly about wuxia, but since nobody with better knowledge had written this meta, I decided to just give it a try. If anybody has their own thoughts and especially corrections to add, please feel free to!

Today, I want to talk about Wen Kexing’s parents as they are presented in the novel, changes made to their story in adaptation, and how it ties into the genre shift between the novel and the show. Before getting into their actual stories though, let’s first take a quick look at a wrong assumption made by Zhou Zishu once:

(chapters 32-33, tl wenbuxing)

Interestingly, Zhou Zishu had already guessed Wen Kexing’s parentage correctly prior to this scene, recognizing Wen Ruyu’s swordsmanship, so why does he rescind that version? There’s a multitude of reasons, and I’m not entirely joking when describing them as Zhou Zishu’s genre awareness.

Who is Wen Kexing? Current master of the Ghost Valley, someone who’s keeping a close eye on the Lapis Armor situation, and a martial genius who can go toe to toe with a literal immortal. Who is Rong Xuan? Someone with connection to the Ghost Valley, someone whose legacy is sealed by Lapis Armor, and a martial genius whose techniques are believed to be so exceptional they’d elevate one to a status of peerless master overnight. Then, who is Wen Ruyu? Well, comparatively, a nobody. His name may have been well-known back in the day, but a couple decades later the only one who remembers him is Zhou-walking-wikipedia-Zishu.

Going off those facts, it makes sense to suspect that Wen Kexing is connected to Rong Xuan – both from within a story and from the reader’s perspective. After all, that would make for a neat plotline – the prodigal son of an unjustly murdered genius father coming back years later to set things right and/or enact revenge…

But Tian Ya Ke’s narrative does not follow the rules of plot convenience – in fact, it deliberately subverts them. Wen Kexing is exactly who he says he is – the son of an almost-nobody who came to be where he is by a combination of desire to survive and pure chance. 

And this is where we come to the changes in adaptation. In the novel, Wen Ruyu is not part of Rong Xuan’s group. He happened to know Long Que and happened to be travelling with him, but that’s it. Wen Kexing’s parents were but bystanders who accidentally got dragged into the whole Lapis Armor mess and suffered for it; the reason Zhao Jing does not realize who Wen Kexing is – despite both visual resemblance and the use of his original surname – is that for Zhao Jing, Wen Kexing’s parents were just that unimportant, mere stepping stones for his rise to power. Why would he remember their faces or names? And that’s exactly why he is completely blindsided by Wen Kexing. How could someone with no exceptional heritage climb high enough to impede him? The answer is, of course, step by bloody step.

The show changes that. Wen Ruyu, renamed Zhen Ruyu, becomes part of Rong Xuan’s circle. His sorry fate is entangled with that group’s tragedy – he isn’t a completely unrelated collateral the way he is in the novel. The name change was also necessary for the show’s plot to work because, unlike novel’s Wen couple, show’s Zhen couple is remembered; here, were Wen Kexing to use his original surname, it would definitely alert his enemy.

Now, I have read a few analyses of SHL’s wuxia tropes, but I haven’t seen any that would tackle TYK as a subversion of the genre (except in brief mentions or asides). Ngl, I pray for the day someone with sufficient knowledge writes a comprehensive meta on the topic. But I do believe the changes to Wen Kexing’s backstory outlined above stem from the differences in approach to genre.

TYK, being a subversion, refuses to play by the rules and make Wen Kexing’s ~mysterious parentage~ matter to the plot; in fact, it posits that it’s only mysterious because it’s so utterly mundane. SHL, in a way, circles back to the tropes TYK was moving away from: the assumption that Wen Kexing is Rong Xuan’s son is also wrong here, but much closer to the truth – SHL’s Wen Kexing’s parents were connected to the Lapis Armor by more than just coincidence, they were someone of note, their names are remembered. Here, when Zhou Zishu asks “Is your surname truly Wen?”, the answer is not clear-cut at all.

––––––

- tyk meta masterpost - - TYK/SHL comparisons masterpost -

[demoniqt]

Cookie Jar - Chapter 10 - demoniqt - 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) [Archive of Our Own]

Chapter 10: The Immortal Master of Twin Peak Mountain Part 4

The Immortal of Twin Peak meets his future parents and Rong Xuan finally catches up.

[sandu-zidian]

Zhang Chengling didn’t know why, but he instinctively trusted the two men that had decided to accompany him back to Coruscant.

They were Force sensitive, no doubt about that. They did not hide their skill with the Force, protecting him from pirates and smugglers alike with a flick of their hand, propelling figures figures away and moving quicker than the wind.

Zhou-shu had a lightsaber as well, one he wielded with the precision only a trained Jedi would be able to. The saber pulsed differently from the bright red ones that cut his master down with. Despite the metaphorical weight of the white blade, it gave him a sense of hope as well. He wasn’t alone, not like he thought he would be standing over Master Yusen’s body.

Wen-shu did not have a lightsaber. Instead, he wielded a metal tipped fan, lightly guiding the skillfully thrown fan with a slight push here or there. He never got blood on his clothes, always flicking the blood off the thin metal blade with a wipe on a fallen body. Chengling knew he was dangerous, could feel how the Force gathered around him like a coming hurricane. But standing next to the man, at the eye of the storm, Chengling couldn’t find it in himself to fear him. Not when he was protected by the harsh wind and thunderous lightning Wen-shu created.

He would miss them when he made it to the temple. But life was constantly on the move. He was content in the two men only being part of his life and destiny for a couple of weeks. After all, attachment to what is a constantly changing circumstance only begets suffering, is what the Jedi Masters stated.

He only hoped the Temple would be as warm and welcoming as Zhou-Shu and Wen-shu.

[ocdhuacheng]

*john mulaney voice* ah a secret room...... never a good thing to have

[jayswing101]

Fic-only version under the cut.

Wen Kexing ran his comb through Zhou Zishu’s hair, gently and deftly smoothing out the knots. He marveled again at its softness. A quiet chuckle slipped past his lips as he remembered the tangled mess that adorned A-Xu’s head when they first met.

“What is it?” Zhou Zishu asked, tilting his head slightly to meet Wen Kexing’s eyes.

“Just thinking about the bird’s nest you sported when you were in disguise,” he answered, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Hmm, lucky I have you to keep my hair nice and neat now, don’t I?”

Wen Kexing hummed in answer, pushing Zhou Zishu’s head forward again as his fingers divided a small section of hair into three strands and began braiding. This had become a quiet ritual for them after they had sealed the armoury and relocated permanently to the mountains. Every morning, Wen Kexing would comb Zhou Zishu’s hair before carefully braiding it. The style was different day to day, ranging from one long, simple braid down the centre of Zishu’s back, to a complex set of plaits arranged at the crown of his head, held in place with one of a dozen zan, the lengths free-flowing around his shoulders. No matter the style though, Wen Kexing was careful, moving with care, and savouring every second spent braiding his A-Xu’s tresses.

"That reminds me,” Zhou Zishu starts, leaning his head back again. “ You do my hair everyday now, and used to do A-Xiang’s too, but you never let either of us touch yours. Why is that?” 

The hair falls from Wen Kexing’s frozen fingers, the soft smile drops from his face. His breath stilled in his chest, and he can feel his eyes getting hot.

“Lao Wen? What is it?” Zhou Zishu asks.

Taking a deep breath, and clutching at Zhou Zishu’s shoulder for strength, Wen Kexing tells him.

“A-Yan, do you know why I braid your hair so carefully every morning?” he hears his mother ask. She is standing behind him, her hands working to gently weave his hair into two long braids she will pin up to keep out of his face. Her hands run over the zan’s cloud-shaped top.

“No Mama, but the other boys don’t braid their hair. Why do we?”

“Because, A-Yan, our hair is very precious to us. In the Healer Valley, we’re taught that hair is sacred. It’s how your Nainai recognises you. Our hair connects us to the people who came before us, and it’s where we carry our spirits. So it’s important to protect it and keep it safe. Do you understand, little one?” She asks the last as she comes around to crouch in front of him, his braids tied off and pinned up. 

Zhen Yan nodded. “But why braids?” Gu Miaomiao smiled and laid a hand on his small shoulder.

“We let our hair grow long and braid it for protection. The three strands represent the body, mind, and spirit, and when we weave them together, they can protect and strengthen each other. Three strands are stronger than one, just like three people are stronger than one. But it’s important to only touch and braid your hair with good thoughts, and only let people you trust touch your hair, people you know will touch your spirit with love.”

“I understand Mama. That’s why you can touch my hair and so can Baba, but the boy that pushed me yesterday can’t because he’s mean and he’ll make my spirit bad.Can I go play now?”

Gu Miaomiao laughed even as she nodded, watching A-Yan run out of their home, hair pinned up and out of harm’s way.

The peaceful scene collapsed. Zhen Yan ran into a pair of unfamiliar black-clad legs. 

“Oh sorry mister!” he exclaimed, brushing himself off. “I’m so-”

SMACK. Zhen Yan crumbled to the ground, his cheek stinging with the slap.

“A-Yan!” Gu Miaomiao shouted, running out to protect him, Wen Ruyu not far behind. The rest dissolves into a confusing blur of fear and confusion, Zhen Yan abandoned in the dirt, flashes of black, white, and red as ghosts surged forwards to surround his parents. He could hear himself screaming, crying out for his Mama and Baba but they never came. Zhen Yan didn’t understand why they weren’t coming to him until the big man who had hit him called the ghosts away and he saw them. His parents’ bodies, motionless on the ground. 

Why were they sleeping? 

Before Zhen Yan could ask the big man what his parents were doing on the ground, the big man’s hand reached out, picking him up by his hair. Zhen Yan cried out in pain, but that only made the man yank on the soft strands harder. He couldn’t understand why the big man would do that to him; would risk damaging his very spirit like that. Hadn’t his Mama said hair was sacred? That it should only be touched with care and with love? So then why was the big man hauling him by his hair?

Zhen Yan was dragged all the way to the Ghost Valley by his hair. The big man brought him to a large cavern and stood in the middle of a crowd of ghosts and demons, all jeering at the small child clutched within their master’s grip. A sharp cry pierced the hair, Zhen Yan crying out against the pain as his feet left the ground, his hair bearing his entire weight as the big man lifted him up for all to see. 

The shling of a sword being drawn. A woosh of hair caressing his cheek. A crack as small knees hit the hard-packed earth. Laughter, manic and fierce, as the ghosts watched a human child frantically gathering the long pieces of hair off the ground. It only got louder when the child started patting his own head, crying out at the realisation that it was his hair. His hair that had been defiled and shorn short. His spirit that had been tarnished. His last connection to his parents, to his ancestors, severed. 

Wen Kexing didn’t realise he was shaking until Zhou Zishu’s arms wrapped around his waist. 

“Lao Wen,” he started before pausing and drawing Wen Kexing into a tight hug instead. He pulled him in tightly, as if to soothe away the old hurt. His hands rubbed warm, soothing circles on his lower back, careful as ever not to touch Wen Kexing’s hair. He held on until the shaking stopped, until Wen Kexing’s breathing slowed and returned to normal.

Stealing himself, Wen Kexing pushed himself away slightly before he continued.

“Zhen Yan died that day. His life was cut short along with his hair.” He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath to steady himself. “It took a while for me to recover after that, but it wasn’t all bad in Ghost Valley, as long as I stayed close to Luo Fumeng. She raised and protected me until I was strong enough to protect myself. She is the only one who has touched my hair since the old Valley Master cut it, and she’s the one who taught me to braid when I took in A-Xiang. She used to braid my hair too, but I told her to stop. Wen Kexing is not worthy of the sacred nature of braids.” 

Zhou Zishu drew in a sharp breath at those last words. Wen Kexing turned away from him again, refusing to meet his eyes. A hand landed on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, hunching into himself again. He couldn’t stand to see the softness, the love and compassion and comfort, in Zhou Zishu’s eyes. He couldn’t stand to be told that he is worthy of braids, of everything, not when he knows it’s not true.

A sigh, and Wen Kexing heard rustling as Zhou Zishu stood from where he had still been sat on the stool. The air grew heavy as he felt his companion draw closer. He tensed as he felt a gentle tug on a loose strand of hair.

“Is this okay?” Zhou Zishu whispered from behind him, fingers dragging lightly through the dark strands. “You can trust me, Lao Wen. Me and A-Xiang, and Chengling too. None of us would ever hurt you.”

Air rushed out of Wen Kexing’s lungs as he nodded jerkily, eyes squeezed shut, hands shaking again even as he passed Zhou Zishu the comb. A little laugh, a small, joyful sound, rustled the hair at the back of his neck, and he relaxed a fraction, letting himself be pushed onto the stool. Slowly, as Zhou Zishu carefully and methodically ran the comb through his hair, Wen Kexing felt himself relax. When he felt clumsy but nevertheless gentle fingers part the long strands into three smaller sections, he closed his eyes again, a single tear running down his cheek. 

“You are worthy of this, Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu said, as he wove the hair into an untidy braid.

And maybe, in time, with A-Xu braiding his hair everyday the way Wen Kexing braided his, maybe he would believe he was worthy of it, too.

Part 2

[manggaetteokkie]

Fuckkkkkk Zhou Zishu not giving a single fuck about anything or anybody and jumping in to defend Wen Kexing is probably both one of the most heartwarming and one of the hottest things ever:

[Translation of Ep 27 Preview]

Zhou Zishu: After interacting these past days, do you still not understand Old Wen’s nature?

Ye Baiyi: As the Ghost Valley Master, for the sins of the three thousand ghosts, don’t think he can escape even one of them!

Zhou Zishu: If you want to step foot in SiJi Mountain Pavilion, it will be over my dead body.

Wen Kexing: If you want to kill me, then kill me! If I die by your hands, I will come back as a ghost and remain entangled with this disgusting realm to the very end!

Ye Baiyi: Stubborn... Then I will fulfill your wish!

Zhou Zishu: You are not worthy!

Zhou Zishu: Ye Baiyi, it’s because Zhen Ruyu sacrificed himself for Rong Xuan that his whole family was destroyed. With your conscience on the line, ask yourself: anybody can interrogate him, but are you worthy?!

-

God, Zhou Zishu’s so protective, he literally doesn’t give a damn that Ye Baiyi is both his elder and much stronger than he is, he will absolutely risk his life for Wen Kexing. Also, him spitting straight facts to all the injustice Wen Kexing is facing must mean so much to Old Wen who’s probably never been able to rely on anyone but himself... His incredulous gaze as A-Xu was going off on Ye Baiyi is so heartbreaking, like he can’t believe someone is actually speaking up for him 😭

[somuchnonsense]

Following up on this post where Wen Kexing says that his father was not a clever man:

Zhen Ruyu was a good man who expected other people to be good too, and it got him and his wife killed. You can see how WKX decided that he wasn’t going to make the same mistake, that if he had to be cruel to survive, he wouldn’t hesitate.

But you can also see that there’s still kindness in him in spite of that, in the way he treats A-Xiang and Chengling and sometimes Zhou Zishu (and even Han Ying). Maybe he’s more like his father than he intended to be...

[minnarr]

my fanfic year in review 2023

turns out i posted 13 this year, which is better than i thought tbh! here they all are for your perusal

JANUARY

and now good-morrow to our waking souls - this was mostly written i think autumn 2021, i just cleaned up the first arc and yeeted it bc i wasn't going to finish the larger story anytime soon. pre wangxian, the old kingdom au

and two dzzs lunar new year drabbles:

such frivolous things - lqq&wkx feeling each other out precanon

to sweep clean - a snippet of qhz & his then-future wife

FEBRUARY

i posted nothing! 🥳

MARCH

winter could melt inside your hands - hanzhou, background wenzhou, postcanon in everyone's alive at siji au, huddling for warmth and first kiss

APRIL

the immortal wanderers spring exchange! i wrote 2 fics

sample of one - qi ye verse, wu xi asks zzs for help practicing kissing with mixed results

take a look at what we've made - shl au where rcq also became immortal and rongye get mixed up in canon events together & work out that the love is requited

separately, started the wip all our yesterdays where qhz shows up in siji arc in the midst of all the stuff everyone is trying to work out

MAY

Carve Out My Heart - this piece was written for the Trapped horror zine, a missing moment piece that treats rong xuan's resurrection and yue feng'er's death as a horror story

AUGUST

take a little time (walk a little line) - gao xiaolian pursues her crush on one of shen shen's female disciples in a happy postcanon au

JUNE, JULY

also nothing

AUGUST

secret weapon - a little precanon adventure where gu miaomiao and zhen ruyu meet long que's future wife when they're both after things that have been stolen from them. also healer valley is full of snake shapeshifters, including gmm

SEPTEMBER

nada

OCTOBER

The Demon General's Wife - gu xiang/gao xiaolian xianxia au with arranged marriage; another exchange fic

NOVEMBER

another month without posting

DECEMBER

i finally finished both my fandom trumps hate fics! which i had been worrying about between other events but not actually writing...i had fun with them both though

Here Comes Trouble - au where qhz lives longer, wkx is a siji disciple and talks zzs into taking the sect to camp on yby's doorstep and ask for help, much to yby's annoyance

The Road is Never Lonely - postcanon, nianxiang is on her first trip alone & this weird old couple keeps following her (spoilers: it's wenzhou)

[chalkrevelations]

Back, finally, with Word of Honor, Episode 11, which involved a lot of waving my hands around over precious button Zhang Chengling and his concern about whatever ridiculous argument between his Murder Dads left his shifu in a snit and must be solved right this minute. I really think if he could’ve just pushed their heads together like two Ken dolls to make them kiss and make up, he would have. Didi, I could eat you up with a spoon, although not in the creepy way that Du Pusa threatens. I promise.

First, though, due diligence: Spoilers, possibly likely for the entire show, not just this ep, so scroll away and come back later if you are still, at this point in the game, trying to watch the whole 36.5 eps unspoiled. Also, this is hella long. Strap in. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

First thing I actually want to do is point out a couple of scenes that I found particularly striking for various reasons. The first one is not quite the opening scene - which is super-brief and involves Yueyang’s prep for the Heroes Conference, Gao Shan (AKA Chengling’s bully-in-chief) being smug about Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance (oh boy, are you in for a surprise, you little schmuck), and Gao Chong’s extreme weariness at the idea of Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance. Gao Chong is very tired, y’all. It’s been a long 20 years. There’s also a ginormous sword on display, like Yueyang is now having a dick-measuring contest with who they think is the disciple of the Changming Sword Immortal (and oh boy, are you guys in for another surprise. I’m not sure what part of “immortal” y’all don’t understand). But I digress - as I said, this is a very brief scene, and then we cut back to Luo Mansion, where we left Ghost Valley and Lunatic Wen at the end of the last ep. Everyone is gone except for Wen Kexing, who’s still plotting, Beauty Ghost, who’s trying to stay tf out of this current shitshow as much as possible (good luck with that), and Tragicomic Ghost, who is totally and completely Done With This Shit. She berates WKX for acting crazy, he gets snappy back – I feel like their relationship is maybe a little bit fraught at this point – and Beauty Ghost attempts to soothe the waters, leading to an eyeroll from Tragicomic Ghost with a directive to stand the hell up and stop being scared of this idiot child throwing his weight around. WKX dismisses Tragicomic Ghost so he can plan a Very Secret Mission for Beauty Ghost in secret. WKX is … he is super-tired at this point. Painfully, achingly tired. I would almost say weary. We can see it in Gong Jun’s face. It’s a nice subtle bit of acting, and it definitely says something about WKX’s relationship with these women that he’s willing and able to show it in front of them, even as he’s still throwing his weight around.

Anyway, Liu Qianqiao proves her smarts by showing her hand just enough for WKX and us to see that she’s seen through the Lunatic Wen act to the utility of chokin’ out a dude as a warning, to try keeping Changing Ghost in line (good luck with that), but she also assures all of us that she only wants to serve the Ghost Valley Master and has no agenda of her own. WKX assures her that he has everything under control (Uh … huh. OK, my dude) and tells her he has a task for her, before detouring into a quiz about her disguise technique (learned from Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu’s shifu at Siji Manor, and this is probably a tipoff that the Very Secret Mission will involve disguising herself), about Siji Manor, and about why she never visited there. We get some interesting vague hints about her past, including the fact that she met Qin Huaizhang when she was “little” and he took pity on her “disfigurement,” according to both the Youku and Netflix English subs. @coralcoloratura pulled out 童年时 (tóngnián shí) from the Chinese subs for me, which does mean “childhood.” Given that the going story is Yu Qiufeng’s wife threw acid in LQQ’s face over their affair, this opens up some questions about how old LQQ actually was when all that happened. Viki subs, per @janedrewfinally, add that she says she treated Qin Huaizhang to a meal, so she couldn’t have been too young. But Qin Huaizhang dies when ZZS is just 16, and LQQ can’t be any older than ZZS, and is likely younger (good lord, I just checked actor ages, and Ke Naiyu is 7 years younger than ZZH, so that’s probably not a good age gap to port over to the show, because just. No.). All this leads me to place LQQ at somewhere between Zhang Chengling’s age and Gu Xiang’s age (at most) when this whole tragic backstory happened, which is still pretty freakin’ young, and I can see why she would consider herself a child, at least metaphorically, in terms of naïvete, if not literally. I don’t know how much exploration has been done about this, on the fannish side of things, but it seems like an area rich for exploration. Also, I CANNOT TELL YOU how much I now want to read the AU of WKX and LQQ both actually being brought to Siji Manor at various times by Qin Huaizhang and staying there. I suspect that with those two shidi backing him, ZZS might never have had to go to Prince Jin in the first place. (Clearly this makes some things problematic, including A-Xiang, but I keep thinking about ZZS, WKX and LQQ growing up together … And anyway, I’m ALSO willing to read the AU(s) where WKX’s storyline stays the same, but LQQ does come to Siji Manor – both the AU where she and ZZS together manage to save the sect, and the AU where she goes with them to Jin, and the kind of weapon she could be for ZZS there, as he runs Tian Chuang. Who’s writing all this? Anyone? Anyone?) Anyway, when WKX asks why she didn’t visit Siji Manor, LQQ tells WKX that she’s a ghost now and doesn’t want to think about the living world anymore, which is probably a way of saying she wishes she had gone there and doesn’t want to talk about her many and varied bad decisions back in the day; it also acts as an unknowing reinforcement of that bright line WKX is desperately trying to maintain for himself between the world of ghosts and the world of humans. Plus it gives him the chance to speak the very portentous line that “Yes, we’re ghosts, and ghosts disappear in the light,” pulling the theme of light back in, again and giving us all kinds of foreshadowing. Cut away as he leans in to whisper her mission to her.

The other really striking scene, for me, happens near the end of the ep, when Gao Chong visits the shrine room, with the memorial tablets of his various brothers and friends. This hit me not just because of Hei Zi’s acting (which is great, don’t get me wrong) but also because this is a scene that reflects both backward and forward in the show - back to ZZS in Ep 1 and forward to the two scenes that Zhao Jing will have in this same room – as well as giving us all sorts of subtle clues about relationships throughout the show. So first of all, we see, in a shot that will mean more the deeper we get into the show, tablets for Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao (or, “his wife,” as the Youku subs call her, and this is me, rolling my eyes), who were apparently close enough to Gao Chong that he keeps memorial tablets for them on his home altar - which helps explain why WKX is so incensed that none of these Five Lakes Alliance assholes helped his parents when they were turned out of the Healer’s Valley, although that’s not something we would have known yet on a first watch through the show. Gao Chong lights some incense and apologizes to the tablet of Zhang Yusen for letting Zhang Chengling get kidnapped. He talks about waiting 20 years to learn the truth – which is kind of cryptic, but probably means the truth about who poisoned his sword before the spar with Rong Xuan, which we hear about in a later scene this ep – and gets a little bit salty about the fact that it doesn’t matter if everyone else doesn’t believe him, but why didn’t Zhang Yusen believe him? Again, I’m assuming this is about Gao Chong’s protestations that he’s not the one who put poison on his sword. We also learn in this same ep – from Chengling – that Zhang Yusen’s break with the Five Lakes Alliance seems to have at least started that far back, and that Yusen would have been at Mount Qingya to stand with Rong Xuan against his other Alliance brothers, if Yusen’s shifu hadn’t broken his legs so that he couldn’t travel there. (Yusen clearly had some strong feelings about this, if that’s what it took to get him to sit still for it. Also, it makes me wonder how Ye Baiyi’s feelings about Chengling might change if he ever learned that Chengling’s father intended to defend and stand with a guy who Ye Baiyi considered his own child, as well as his disciple.)

Gao Chong then proceeds to have a little crisis of faith – he’s very tired, y’all, it’s been a long 20 years – and talks about how no one understands him, and he’s old, and everyone’s dead. He also yells at Rong Xuan’s tablet, calling Rong Xuan da-ge but also saying he’s sorry he ever met him, but then there’s this brief little moment after, when he seems a little bit shocked at himself for saying it out loud, which reminds me, honestly, of the moment in CQL (we’ve all seen The Untamed, right, I don’t have to put spoiler warnings for it, right?) when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in the Yunmeng Jiang memorial hall and Wei Wuxian talks about Yu Ziyuan’s punishments back in the day, then pats his own mouth and says “My fault, my fault, my fault” before bowing to her tablet. Like, yes, their relationship was multiple levels of fucked-up, and his reaction is not out of place given some of his continuing neuroses, but also, this is just not a thing you do, speaking ill of the dead to their faces. I’m sure Gao Chong does regret ever meeting Rong Xuan, and the way that led to the building of the Armory and the Five Lakes Alliance to guard it, and the position that ultimately put Gao Chong in - not to mention that if he never met Rong Xuan he never would have accidentally killed him. But you can’t say things like that OUT LOUD to the MEMORIAL TABLET. Then contrast this to Zhao Jing, who literally takes a piss on the tablet in one of the later episodes. Because he’s the worst. And THEN, Gao Chong kneels and talks to the tablets of Zhang Yusen and Lu Taichong, his dead Five Lakes Alliance brothers, saying they must have met again in the netherworld, and that they’re probably swearing about him right now, and this is the point when I sit straight up and exclaim, out loud, “Fuck. Me. This is Zhou Zishu’s breakdown at the mirror in Episode 1.” When he talks to Jiuxiao about how Jiuxiao and Jing’An must have met again in the afterlife by now and are probably discussing what an awful shixiong ZZS is, right? And then Gao Chong even laughs bitterly like ZZS, and cries like ZZS, and I just. OK. FINE, show. I’ll try to go a little easier on Gao Chong, because you’re clearly linking him to ZZS, here, and I’m willing to forgive ZZS for anything. I suppose I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t try to extend just a little bit of the same grace to Gao Chong.

So, that’s a lot of verbiage, and I haven’t even gotten to Wenzhou yet, but trust me, I have some things to say about them. While WKX has been terrorizing the troops, ZZS left Han Ying’s place and immediately started drinking again, because that continues to be the best way – in combo with his Nails – he knows to kill himself by increments, but so sad, he’s run out of wine as he wanders the marketplace, alone and zhiji-less. Inside Yueyang, Chengling finds a note purporting to be from “Xu,” instructing him to meet at the North Gate that night, and like the little idiot they keep calling him (he really is too pure for this world), he takes it at face value. On his way that night, he runs into Gao Shan, who inadvertently almost saves him by interrupting his sneaking around to try to bully him back to his room. Something something food as bonding, because the lie Zhang Chengling comes up with is that he’s hungry (he’s not eating Yueyang’s food, and it’s not nourishing him), and he’s on his way to find something to eat (because he and his Murder Dads are in a mutually nourishing relationship, and that’s who he wants to be with). Also, no, he would prefer going to find something to eat for himself and not eating whatever Gao Shan will bring back to Chengling’s room. (A little bit, I’m sad there’s never any place to fit in some canon-complicit long-form enemies to failboats to lovers fic for these two. I have to admit, I would read it. Someone should do something with the tension between them, although I don’t really want it to be anything that will make Best Boy permanently sad.) Anyway, A-Xiang shows up just as Gao Shan is about to frog-march Chengling back to his room, and Gao Shan never sees her coming before he’s knocked out on the ground. A-Xiang is confused about the note but nevertheless helps Chengling get to where he’s supposed to meet “Xu,” whereupon she gets beat up and gets her didi took by the Scorpions. (There’s an interesting moment here where Pretty Arhat is fighting with A-Xiang and asks what her relationship is to Beauty Ghost, which whaaaaaat? THERE’S some backstory I need more on. I’m assuming this is based on A-Xiang’s hand-to-hand fighting style, which I think is the only thing Pretty Arhat has seen at this point, and exactly WHEN has she gotten so familiar with Beauty Ghost’s fighting style? Also, I like the apparent nod to Beauty Ghost’s influence in raising A-Xiang (and we’ll see more of this).) Meanwhile, ZZS has been inexorably drawn to the place he left his child disciple child and is moping right outside of Yueyang, so he sees Pretty Arhat fly away with Chengling. Murder Dad 1 springs into action.

Yueyang disciples run around like ants whose hill has been kicked over, looking for Chengling in town, and two of them encounter Wen Kexing, out for a midnight stroll in a fetching pastel blue and green combo. They ask him about seeing a guy. With a pipa. Or maybe without a pipa. So maybe just a guy. Wen Kexing correctly deduces they’re asking about Phantom Musician Qin Song, who covered Pretty Arhat’s getaway by incapacitating everyone with his magic music. YY disciples are excited and tell WKX yes, this dude was involved in kidnapping Zhang Chengling! Y’all. WKX’s face when he hears that. He is not happy. Almost immediately, he spots Qin Song on a rooftop. Murder Dad 2 springs into action.

So, WKX the Ghost Valley Master finds Qin Song, asks him where Chengling is, crushes his playing hand, threatens to break every single bone in his body one at a time (meanwhile dropping the tidbit that he learned the number of bones in the human body from his dad), and tells him a little story about a time when – apparently – he asked another guy the same question (about WHO? has A-Xiang been kidnapped in the past, because that’s about the only other person I can imagine him being like this about?) and only had to break 80 bones before he got an answer. Meanwhile, ZZS actually finds Chengling, in the Scorpion lair where Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat have variously been molesting him (srsly, I feel like I should probably say something to a trusted adult Murder Dad), torturing him with unpleasant magic pixie dust, smacking him around (he loses a tooth, y’all), and waterboarding him. During all this, Pretty Arhat says she’s yet to meet a man who can stand up to waterboarding, and I’m kind of reminded of WKX’s scene threatening Qin Song, and I don’t know if that’s on purpose or not. Chengling literally spits in her face and proclaims that he’s the son of Zhang Yusen, none of whose sons are cowards, and about then, ZZS busts down the door like he’s WKX (by throwing Monster Jiang through it), tells the Scorpions he’s their daddy, and gets into a big fucking fight with all three of them. He flags a little bit somewhere in here as he starts having some Nail pangs (which, yeah, it must be getting about midnight, which is when that’s supposed to happen) and spits some blood, but he reassures Chengling and then tells the Scorpions no one can stop him from killing who he wants and getting what he wants (OK, Wei Wuxian …). Then he shoots some projectiles from some little contraption up his sleeve that we get a quick look at that I did not remember AT ALL from my first watch of the show but is literally like the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act. Huh. Anyway, he kills Monster Jiang, and Du Pusa (who didn’t give a shit about Monster Jiang OR Qin Song earlier), wants to capture him alive, supposedly so she can get revenge for them by teaching him how it feels “to want to die more than live.” Joke’s on you, lady – too late! That’s literally his constant state of being!

About this time, Qin Song comes flying through the doors – or what’s left of them – gasping his last breath as WKX makes his dramatic entrance. Chengling not only calls him “Wen-shu” but also has already figured out exactly how to manipulate Murder Dad 2 and tells him that in addition to kidnapping him, they also hurt ZZS. WKX is predictably murderous, and Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat run away and hide behind the skirts of Xie Wang’s robes as the Zombie Drug Man Army approaches. WKX tells ZZS to take Chengling and leave, ZZS refuses, and Xie Wang LITERALLY SAYS “IN LIFE AND DEATH YOU WILL NEVER PART. WHAT A TOUCHING MOMENT.” and I am DYING. Also, this will not be the last time ZZS/WKX will exhibit what Xie’er wants from his Awful Yifu. Anyway, Xie’er calls ZZS “Leader Zhou,” then tells WKX that he’ll tell them who he (Xie Wang) is if WKX tells them all who he is first. ZZS is Very Done with all of this and smoke bombs the Scorpions to escape. Xie’er shows he actually does know who both of them are – even though each of them doesn’t know everything about the other’s identity yet, and won’t for a while – by telling Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat that they’re the leader of Tian Chuang and the leader of the Ghost Valley and wondering “How did these two devils end up together?” Like calls to like, I guess.

OK, this is getting super-long, so I’m going to attempt to wrap up with the actual Wenzhou material. We cut to Murder Dads and Chengling sitting in the forest, around a campfire, and Chengling is in heaven, back with his family. He’s super-emotional, and ZZS is all, come on, be a man, don’t cry (OK, crybaby). WKX gives some campfire-cooked rabbit? maybe? to ZZS, who starts a precedent by passing it to Chengling. Please, A-Xu. WKX wants to feed his laopo, will you eat something, ffs? Chengling, still emotional, tells them that he knows they’re the only ones who are sincerely kind to him, that Five Lakes Alliance has all kinds of agendas and none of them care about him, and nobody has asked him what he wants. (I know, bb, they were awful.) ZZS asks what he wants, and Chengling says he wants to learn martial arts, to get revenge, and to not be a useless child anymore. Oh god, the cut to WKX here. His face, y’all. He is not cool with the fact that Chengling thinks he can’t be a child anymore, and probably with whatever role he (WKX) had in it. He is so sad. It’s killing me. However, it’s not as if WKX has lost his edge, and he also pounces, asking Chengling if something happened that made him suspicious of the Alliance. Chengling spills that his dad already didn’t trust them and also told him not to trust anyone ever, but he trusts his Murder Dads! This kid, I tell you. He tells them that his dad hid the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor in his stomach and starts getting ready to cut it out for them before ZZS stops him. He tells them Yusen gave him a letter for the Changming Sword Immortal detailing Rong Xuan’s injury (and we get our first iteration of the story of the battle between the Five Lakes Alliance brothers and Rong Xuan, the poison on the sword, and how that turned Rong Xuan evil). Per Chengling, the original argument was about the Combined Six Cultivation Method. Also per Chengling, the Alliance bothers should have been responsible for Rong Xuan after that, but no one stood up for him – I mean, Zhang Yusen would have, but his legs were broken. We learn that the poisoned sword that injured Rong Xuan belonged to Gao Chong. ZZS looks taken aback, but this all just CONFIRMS WKX’s SUSPICIONS.

Cut away for another scene. Cut back. ZZS has suddenly remembered that he’s pissed off and that someone (else, not him) is sleeping on the couch tonight. Earlier, they were sat in order of Chengling, ZZS, WKX. Now Chengling has been put between them. WKX asks for wine, A-Xu is being passive-aggressive and ignoring him before finally handing the wine gourd to Chengling to pass to WKX. He won’t even look at WKX. It is hilarious, particularly as he only remembered he was mad after they’d all eaten dinner, which WKX cooked, and the pair of them made sure their child was OK. Chengling wants to know if they fought and tells them there’s nothing confidants can’t resolve. He’s in full puppy mode. He tells WKX to hurry up and comfort ZZS, because you know he looks tough on the surface but he’s got the softest heart! Didn’t you teach me that tough women can’t resist clingy men? ZZS’s indignant little face at this is a picture. Chengling offers to apologize for WKX. WKX’s face is all fondness for Chengling, except for the eyebrows, which are doing the Tragic Sadness Eyebrows at ZZS. ZZS is all, OK, fine, although he immediately changes the subject and starts talking about the kidnapping attempt. He tells Chengling that the world is dangerous right now, and the safest place for him is Yueyang Sect. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS? Chengling sadly nods. My little dude, c’mon. ZZS’s Nails are bothering him and WKX takes the chance to feed him qi, which ZZS accepts – might I note - without complaint. WKX waxes rhapsodic about A-Xu’s shoulder blades, and says he once saw a dead body with beautiful shoulder blades. Smashcut to a flashback of two people who we don’t yet know are Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao dead on the ground. Although this takes place immediately after the scene of Gao Chong at the altar, when the first tablets we see are Zhen Ruyu’s and Gu Maiomiao’s, we also don’t know yet to connect those names to these bodies. Tricksy, show. We see Zhen Yan place his hand on Gu Miaomiao’s back, and WKX’s voiceover talks about how he could tell she was a beauty despite the blood everywhere. ZZS interrupts this morbid tale to say they should let the past stay in the past, and then tells WKX, “My condolences,” even though WKX hasn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the story about this dead body that it was even anyone he knew, let alone someone he was related to. Because A-Xu isn’t stupid. Immediately after this - after saying they should leave the past in the past - ZZS asks WKX who he is. WKX goes into his Philanthropist Wen evasion spiel. ZZS shakes his head, visibly steels himself, and apparently comes to the decision to model the behavior he’s trying to encourage by coming clean about his real name, his relationship to Siji Manor, all of his bad decisions, his choking guilt over the deaths of all the Siji Manor disciples, and his reign of state-sanctioned terror as founder and leader of Tian Chuang. Notably, the very first word Chengling speaks to ZZS after hearing this rundown of supposed and actual crimes is to call him “Shifu” again to get his attention before asking for more info about the Scorpions. THIS CHILD. MY HEART.

ZZS tells them both, “I spent half my life alone, doing things I didn’t want to do and killing people I didn’t want to kill,” and I literally want to reach into the screen and shake WKX, because OMG LAO WEN. You are reflections of each other, and he’s baring his soul, and you’re going to continue to be so afraid that he’s not going to accept every part of you that it’s going to be episodes and episodes before you open up, and even then, only after he figures it out on his own. :hands: To make things even more OBVIOUS, ZZS then asks Chengling if he still wants ZZS to be his shifu after learning all of this, and Chengling doesn’t even hesitate, he says “Of course,” and ZZS and I are both about to cry. UGH. Zhang Zhehan, your face. It’s killing me. This is a man seeing the hope of resurrection for the sect he was convinced he had ground into dust. ZZS and Chengling are both so busy being emotional at each other that WKX has to take matters into his own hands, encouraging Chengling to bow, and we get a real bow to shifu this time, in a scene that once again mirrors the later scene when Zhen Yan makes his bow to Qin Huaizhang to become a Siji Manor disciple.

ZZS tells Chengling, all right, then. You are the first disciple of the sixth generation. (SHIXIONG. NO PRESSURE.)

End ep.

[kuroi-no-sora]

Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu. Gu Xiang and Cao Weining. Ye Baiyi and Rong Changqing. Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao. Luo Fumeng and Zhao Jing.

All of them are too contrast with each other. Whether their relationship is successful or not, it depends on both parties to reach middle ground.

One is dark and one is light. One is too brash and one is timid. One is too blunt, one is polite. One is seeking peace, and one is fighting. One is modest and one is too ambitious.

Some of their story are cut short due to stroke of misfortune, some are longer. But, in a relationship, every pair have contrast with each other but mirroring themselves, having the same goal or core.