#Granny Huo

[this-blurry-photograph]

The Lost Tomb: Ep.9

Is that Xiao-ge in a suit!

Does Granny Huo have some inside information about Wu Xie and the gang? And is the inside informant A-Ning or Xiao-ge?

I can't decide if it's funnier if Xiao-ge regularly runs in these circles, and of course he'd be at this prestigious event, or if he doesn't and he snuck in and is lurking around conspicuously.

I really want to know what Xiao-ge is thinking watching this commotion that Fatty, High Jr., and Chen Chengcheng are throwing.

Granny Huo is savage: "That's because she has a bad eye and married a short-lived man."

I saw that reflexive step, Xiao-ge, when the guy tripped Wu Xie.

Who's this guy getting a dramatic entrance?

Oh the fiance of the girl they've been making a big deal about, got it.

[fixaidea]

'I will tell you since you are also the descendant of the Mystic Nine, but these two must stay outside.'

Says Granny Huo to Wu Xie right in front of Zhang Qiling.

I know, I know, she had no way to know, right at this moment no one knows shit about Xiaoge including Xiaoge, but still. The Irony.

[merinnan]

100% shamelessly stolen.

Rules: Make a poll of your favourite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

I know, I know, TECHNICALLY not female, but when she appears outside of being a bell, she presents as a female.

Tagging absolutely anyone else who wants to do this!

[sleepingobsidian]

Other relatives/"relatives" around Wu Xie and the Kids

Wu Meifen/ Wu-nainai - Grandmother and Great-grandmother. Very proud. Handles the legal site of the Wu family. Raises only the best dogs. Certified badass (as in she has a slip of paper framed proclaiming that she can kick anyones ass signed by Foye. **Foye!**.) Ready to kick Granny Hous (she was still alive in DMBJ2) ass anytime. Li Cu is her favourite but she spoils any of the children rotten. Has found a succesor in Yang Hao. Is only going to kick the bucket after Granny Huo. Has a spoiling competition going on with Zhang Rishan. Ready to slap her dumb Sons and her dumb Grandson. Retired feral.

Zhang Rishan - *Grandfather*. Adores Wu Xie and the children. Ready and willing to strangle Xiaoge (for whatever reason). Spoils the children rotten. Ready to throw down for any of those kids. Had a long conversation with LCs teacher once. The man might have pissed his pants. Insists on each of the children getting an education. Lets Yang Hao intern in the Hotels kitchen whenever he wants. Will deny liking Wu-nainais egg tarts to the day he dies. Yang Hao is his favourite.

Shades - The cool uncle, teacher to Su Wan. Su Wan is his favourite. Ready to murder for that child. Hands out candy to Su Wan and Li Cu anytime though. Not immune to the puppy eyes. Is able to calm a fight between Liu Sang and Pangzi. Is able to start an arguement between Bai Haotian and Li Cu. Tought Yang Hao to make drug candies.

Er-shu - the strict uncle/granduncle. Willing to kill for the kids. Ready to kill the kids. Can't keep up with them. Spoils them secretly. What *Grandfather* and Grandmother gift in monetary form or with smth else he gifts in experience and training. Li Jiale is his favourite. (Li Jiale is after LC the nicest one. Accidently threw a bowl at Su Wans head once no body lets him forget it.) Sets rules, is able to enforce them. The kids respect him.

Papa Wu & Mama Wu - Currently living in Kairo. Send letters and call a lot. Send a lot of gifts and puzzles. Take care of the Tiger Trio when they are staying in Kairo for University. Are highkey worried for everyone. Bai Haotian has been their favourite so far. Once the trio touches down in Kairo it is Yang Hao (somehow he has become the voice of reason).

[psychic-waffles]

wrote a whole thing out for the dmbj discord yesterday but thought it might be useful here as well

tldr: according to the dmbj books there's probably two different things affecting hei xiazi's eyesight

1. his miscellaneous eye disease that may or may not be related to his immortality that causes him to be able to see better in the dark (he needs a tiny speck of light for it to work, it doesn't work in pitch black) and for him to be able to see other weird details in low light (the best description i’ve seen of this is in  moving forward through the flowery night aka the heihua extra) this may or may not be getting worse (i'm sort of assuming he's gradually able to see less in bright light but his ""darkvision"" remains the same but that’s speculation on my part)

2. what i’m really here to talk about: there’s something making his vision fully black/fade out intermittently (regardless of external light levels) which started probably shortly before the main dmbj story, and has got significantly worse during reboot

more below the cut (contains spoilers for all of reunion book 2, and minor spoilers for the reunion drama)

caveat 1. i haven’t double checked the timeline because ~gestures at dmbj~ so some timings might be vague

caveat 2. *i can’t read chinese and any terms i’ve used are whatever terms were used in merebear’s translations, so please correct me if anything is wrong!

i’m also gonna preface all of this real quick with a couple things. Most of this info is taken from two retellings of "the strange case of the burning corpse" which you can read in full in sha hai chapter 112-115 and reboot book 2. Both times the story is told by xiao hua (mostly), and the when we first hear it in sha hai it's sort of 50/50 whether the story is true or not. When we hear it again in reboot it's a bit more substantial and is atleast probably true. (as always take any of this with a pinch of salt).

***

so the version we hear in sha hai is as follows and talks about the first time xiao hua met hei xiazi: when xiao hua was younger (either teenager or early 20s probably) and staying will granny huo there was an incident nearby where a building burnt down and 14 corpses were pulled out, 13 had drowned before being burned and were laid out in the shape of a fish, and one had burnt standing upright on the roof. The 13 drowned corpses were also found to have a strange eye disease. hei xiazi is called in by chen pi to investigate and after looking round the scene he says there should be a 15th body and proceeds to find a well with an ancient corpse in it under the building with a mirror stuck in it's chest. That night after hei xiazi had gone down into the well he starts experiencing eye problems, every time he opened his eyes he felt something pushing his neck down so he could only look at the floor (xiao hua then says that hei xaizi then blindfolded himself and lived for 6 months without his sight, but then backtracks on this so 🤷‍♂️). meanwhile granny huo finds out the 13 drowned men were loggers who dug up the ancient corpse, they all developed a weird eye disease and found a priestess* to help them, who turned out to be the corpse standing on top of the building burnt up. wu xie (who had been listening to xiao hua tell the story) then falls asleep so we don't get any more context for any of that.

***

all in all pretty weird and possibly mostly made up, however then the story gets revisited in reboot with a bunch more detail and making a bit more sense generally.

context for if you have seen the drama version of reunion: this is all tied to hei xiazi's visit to the mute village, which in the books is a stand alone story set just prior to reboot, only hei xiazi goes there and ershu etc don't follow later.

context for if you haven’t seen or read reunion: hei xiazi goes to ‘mute village’ to investigate some strange happenings related to thunder and an underground river, but while he's there he meets a mute woman called chuchu who is making a documentary about the village.

Hei Xiazi realises he knows chuchu, and figures out he saved her from a fire when she was a child, in connection to the burning corpse case.

***

so back to continue the burning corpse story where it starts up being told again in reboot: hei xiazi tracks down the priestesses daughter. he realises (due to his weird eyesight) he can see something strange on her back, maybe the same thing that was on his back before. the girl says she can do a ritual to help him with this whole case and takes him to a school where they set up an array etc. hei xiazi isn't sure if the ritual is legit or not but the info he gets from this girl is that there's an "immortal thing*" that wants to go back "below" (none of this is elaborate on). Once hei xaizi leaves the school a fire was started and he rushed back in to save some kids one of whom is chuchu (whose vocal cords were presumably damaged in the fire). when they get outside they see a burnt up corpse standing on the roof who turns out to be the priestesses daughter.

now to jump back to approximately the present where hei xiazi is running around mute village: he realises that the "immortal thing" that he'd encountered all those years ago is wrapped around chuchu's neck, over her vocal cords, and realises she was the girl from the fire and it must have latched onto her then. (note: it seems like the ""immortal thing"" goes for weak points? like the vibe i got was it went for chuchu's vocal cords cos there was already a problem there and/or they were damage from the fire?) so he decides he needs to deal with this thing once and for all. him and chuchu go into the underground river and hei xiazi tricks the "immortal thing" into leaving chuchu and going back to being on his back. his eyesight starts to black out, closing in from the edges, and he throws himself into the underground river. to make a long story short; hei xaizi is pretty fucked, mostly blind, and being attacked by evil crabs. luckily 1. whenever thunder rings out through this underground river hei xiazi’s eyesight returns briefly, and 2. xiaoge shows up out of nowhere and helps him use a mirror they find (like the one originally stuck in the ancient corpse) to potentially kill the creature on the back of hei xiazi's neck, or at the very least drive it away into the depths of the underground river.

***

so that's all context i guess, the sort of important bit is the following: after hei xiazi had the "immortal thing" on his neck last time it took 19 days for his sight to return at all, and since then his sight faded in and out on the daily (like that moment in the heihua movie). at the point of xiaoge rescuing him this time around he didn't know if his sight would return but at the point they escape the underground river he is fully 100% blind.

once again npss i would love it if you could concisely explain any of this 🙏🙏🙏 and/or atleast confirm if the story being told here is true and hei xiazi isn’t just making up some bullshit

[mekare-art]

DMBJ Recs Round 5: Focus on Female Characters

The post is up here, now go forth and share your love for fanworks centering A Ning, Xiao Bai, Huo Xiu Xiu, Liang Wan, Su Nan, A Tou, Chen Wenjin, Queen of the West, Granny Huo, Ye Piao Piao and all the others!

[programmedradly]

Oh hey, look at that. I did need to self-soothe after Ultimate Note ended, and somehow I managed to turn those couple of lines into a whole (small) fic, and then added a little sequel. Funny how that goes!

Set right after Xiaoge falls out of the big jade hole and after Granny Huo tells them about her expedition plans, respectively. Pingxie, around 2500 words each, gently escalating from a T to an M.

For the WiP titles game... Pingxie? 👀

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY ARE SO IN LOVE. *claws hands down face*

The document right now is just a paragraph from Xiaoge's POV, so it's already doomed, because how would I even begin to write Xiaoge POV. 😅 But who knows! Maybe after I finish Ultimate Note I'll need to self-soothe with some fic.

[justpostsyeet]

Ah yes

Just playing with my legos while 3 children I kidnapped and threw them in death pit are trying to save themselves

Noticing side characters part 30

[heymeowmao]

xiao hua: (to wu xie) you have no sense of humor. hei xiazi is more fun. wu xie: /offended/

xiao hua: (to wu xie, while maneuvering a trap corridor) if these drop and i become mince meat, xiazi can take me back and make dumplings.

/watching xiao ge sword-routine his way, shirtless, through a flaming maze/ pangzi: why do i get the feeling zhang family mechanisms were designed so they can show off lao gao (cox’s man): valid

lao gao: (to pangzi) your fingers are too short :(

xiao hua: there’s something there xiazi: (reappearing after having been mia for a bit) i’m such a nice person, how could you call me a “thing”?

[randomtwinkinthetomb]

*a little after their fight at the hotel*

Wu Xie: Wow... granny huo really hates us.

Pangzi: *Giving Wu Xie and Xiaoge a pointed look* Maybe she's just homophobic.

Wu Xie: Xiaoge and I are not a couple Pangzi.

*At the same time*

Xiaoge: *Looking hurt* We're not?

Pangzi: *Looking outraged* you're not?

[this-blurry-photograph]

The Lost Tomb 2: Ep.18

Wu Xie's been captured. He's damseling again!

Pangzi gets to be saved by Xiao-ge for a change!

There are so many people in this tomb and almost none of them are fairing very well at all. The casaulty rate is gonna be so high.

Well this is a jarring tone change. Cut from Wu Xie in dire peril, and falling to what could possibly be his death, to Xiuxiu and Granny Huo talking about love and doing a product placement.

Pangzi just assuming Wu Xie must be with Xiao-ge. But does this mean it wasn't Xiao-ge who saved Wu Xie? His speech implies he hasn't encountered Wu Xie here yet but I also don't super trust what Xiao-ge says. I am loving this Xiao-ge, Pangzi interaction without Wu Xie as a buffer, though.

Uuuumm. UUUUMM. Why is he dressed in a wet suit? Why is he in a coffin? What is happening here???

Time travel? Teleportation? What is going on??? Was it a dream? I'm breaking out the theories again. 

[fixaidea]

Zhao Yunlan has a long-standing, bitter and almost entirely one-sided feud with the Mystic Nine - as did all the previous incarnation of the Lord Guardian with every previous generation, for as long as the Mystic Nine has existed.

One-sided, because the wast majority of family members don’t even know about the Guardian Order, no matter how much headache they’ve caused them over the centuries.

Thing is, trespassing and robbery are not Zhao Yunlan’s department, he and his team can only show up when the escaped zombies have already started to eat people’s faces, and whichever idiot accidentally released them is usually not at the crime scene anymore, aaaand then Granny Huo stonewalls him when he tries to find out who was there, exactly when and why.

Granny Huo is, of course, almost as done with Zhao Yunlan as he is with her, but not nearly as much as she is with whichever incompetent youngling made her deal with him again. After the blood rain curse three years ago the people responsible ah... disappeared for good.

That said, she’s not the only one who knows about the Guardian Order:

Wu Sanxing knows what he did and would LOVE to never meet Zhao Yunlan ever again.

Zhang Qiling also met him before, but has no idea when and how, he only knows he’s deeply annoyed with him, and that the feeling is mutual.

Wu Xie is blissfully unaware of the Guardian Order, he just knows that he’s somehow pissed off this Chief Zhao. Whatev, he can join the queue.

[thosch3i]

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗墓笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@ 

[kolachess]

DMBJ Names and Honorifics Explained - Don’t trust the subs!

I’ve no idea if someone has already made such a post, but I really like explaining Chinese as it’s also good practice for me, so here we go.

If you are a non-Chinese speaker, you might have noticed inconsistencies in subs when referring to all the different characters. And / or that the names don’t seem to match up to the sound of the name. 

So here’s a little cultural and character guide to understanding DMBJ names.

Why are there so many names, nicknames, and honorifics for one person in a Chinese drama? To chalk this all up to nicknames is... grossly over-simplifying things. The thing with names / honorifics is very rooted in Chinese culture itself. Chinese culture is one heavily indexed on relations and hierarchy, so depending on your place in the ‘hierarchy’, whether it’s society or family, you will refer to each other as different things. As an example to illustrate complexity, where in English, ‘uncle’ refers to all male siblings of either of your parents, in Chinese, your father’s younger brother is addressed differently from your father’s older brother and also different from your mother’s brother. 

Chinese names and translation to English - Space? No space? Hyphens? Last name first?

So Chinese is a pictographic language. Each ‘character’ is one word, and one syllable exactly. Hence, you don’t need spaces or hyphens or anything in Chinese. Spaces and hyphens when romanized are purely for English speakers’ convenience. 

For example, in Chinese, the names would be written as wuxie, wusanxing, wangpangzi, etc. (And no such thing as capitalization either.) As a general rule of thumb, because for documentation purposes, the surname is separated out, Chinese people generally end up writing the given name all smushed together even if they are 2 words.

And yes, the surname always goes first. Other way is just... weird. Never happens.

Can you space out two words of a given name? Sure I suppose. Probably less seen.

As for hyphens with honorifics... sure? I’m not sure if smush together or hyphen is more official actually... 

What are Chinese names? How do people pick a name?

Unlike English names, Chinese people compose their names. Which means... you can have anything from names that have literary eloquence and deeper meaning，like ‘Wu Xie’, where ‘Wu’ is homonymous with ‘Without’ and ‘Xie’ means ‘Evil’, so Wu Xie’s name carries the meaning of ‘no evil’...

...to names that have little to no deep meaning and sometimes downright stupid sounding, like ‘Wang Pangzi’ which does indeed translate to Wang Fatty lol.

That’s why if you ask Chinese people to provide common Chinese names, they’ll stare at you blankly. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t some popular names, given people sometimes name themselves after famous people and there are plenty of generic ones as well.

But this is also why, when meeting for the first time, you might hear a lot of people explaining how their name is written (i.e. with which word), because there are a looooot of homonymous words and it’s impossible to tell how write someone’s name without them ‘spelling it out’.

How do Chinese people call each other by name?

Most Chinese names (surname + given name) will form 2-3 syllables (very rarely there will be 4). 

General rule of thumb:

- Using someone’s full name is always generally acceptable (not to be confused with addressing them... that’s a whole different game).

- You never refer to someone with one syllable. Which means if their given name is only one syllable, you pretty much always say both surname + given name together (Hence why Wu Xie is always Wu Xie and never ‘Xie’). If their given name is two syllables, you might call them by given name only if you’re familiar. 

Of course, there are tons of ways to give people nicknames (more explanation below), so you might end up only using one syllable of someone’s name, but in conjunction with another prefix / suffix of sorts.

So yes, the subs say ‘Zhang’ for Zhang Qiling but that’s BS no one has ever referred to him as simply ‘Zhang’. And for that matter, no one ever refers to him as simply Qiling either, though that’s more out of habit than any rules of names. And finally, they rarely refer to him as Zhang Qiling at all... more explanation below.

Basic ‘prefix’ / ‘suffix’ / ‘honorific’ introductions relevant for DMBJ

These aren’t really prefixes and suffixes and honorifics. They’re simply words. But for sake of simplicity, let’s just treat them as that.

-ye (sounds like ‘yeah’) = ‘Grandpa’ of the generic ‘old man’ sense, but also ‘master’ or ‘lord’ to indicate status / respect. 

Example usage: Wu Sanxing (Wu Xie’s third uncle) - People like Pan Zi call him Sanye, which means ‘Third Master’. 

It can also be casually used by someone to refer to themselves in third person and indicate their ‘prowess’. Again, due to Chinese cultural relations, there’s a lot of emphasis on hierarchy, so people often humorously refer to themselves in third person with a title of more seniority (’this ancestor’ or ‘this old miss’). 

Example usage: Pangzi always referring to himself as Pangye. ‘Make way, Pangye is coming in clutch with the bombs!’.

-shu (sounds more like ‘soo’) = ‘Uncle’. This can be an uncle related, or not. 

Example usage: Wu Sanxing (Wu Xie’s third uncle). Wu Xie and his peers will generally call him Sanshu, because they’re of the same generation and need to call Sanshu with some level of respect. Of course, Sanye is also respectful, so certainly Pangzi can call him Sanye. But Pangzi calling him Wu Sanxing would be disrespectful. (Zhang Qiling on the other hand, technically can call him whatever since he’s the oldest haha).

-ayi (sounds like ‘ah-yee’) = ‘Aunt’. Similar as uncle. 

Example usage: Chen Wenjing (in Ultimate Note, Sanshu’s former girlfriend). You’ll notice Wu Xie addressed her as Wenjing-ayi. Of course, since she was a bit less familiar with them, and wasn’t always around, he and others will refer to her as simply Chen Wenjing... it’s complicated. The nuances of when it’s ok to leave off the suffix is an art form lol.

-ge (sounds like ‘guh’) = ‘older brother’. Can also be related or not. Can be used alone, or doubled up (which tends to be cuter).

Example usage: Huo Xiuxiu refers to Wu Xie as ‘Wu Xie-gege’ and Xie Yuchen as ‘Xiao Hua-gege’. Pangzi told Yun Cai (the girl he crushed on) to call him ‘Pangge’. And yes! This is the ‘ge’ in Xiaoge. More explanation below.

Xiao (sounds like ‘shall’) = ‘Small’ or ‘Little’. This is often used in creating a nickname and used first before a name.

Example usage: Wu Xie’s second uncle will refer to him as ‘Xiao Xie’. Wu Xie refers to Xie Yuchen as ‘Xiao Hua’, which translates to ‘Little Flower’ and is a nickname based off his stage name, Jie Yuhua. And yes! This is the ‘xiao’ in Xiaoge. More explanation below (because translating it as ‘little older brother’ makes no sense I know).

Lao (sounds like ‘lao’ lol) = ‘Old’. Similar usage as ‘xiao’.

Example usage: I think I remember Granny Huo perhaps referring to Wu Laogou (Wu Xie’s grandfather) as ‘Lao Wu’?  But also, yes, his actual name has that word too.

Numbers - Numbers are very commonly used in nicknames.

Er (sounds like ‘are’) = Two / Second.

San (sounds like ‘san’ lol idk) = Three / Third.

Hence why Wu Xie refers to his uncles as ‘Sanshu’ and ‘Ershu’. (And yes, their names themselves also conveniently carry the numbers...)

You’ll never say ‘one’ though. Instead, ‘da’ or big / large is used.

Names of the characters

Wow so only after all that can we begin to explain the many names... Let’s begin.

Wu Xie - Wu Xie is actually the most straightforward thank god. Most people will call him this, Zhang Qiling included.

AKA Tianzhen or even Xiao Tianzhen - This is nickname provided Pangzi gave him meaning ‘naive’ or ‘innocent’, and what Pangzi calls him most if not all the time. There’s a phrase in Chinese too called ‘tianzhenwuxie’ to mean innocent, carefree, and pure. The ‘wu’ there is a different but homonymous word with Wu Xie’s ‘Wu’, but the meaning and reference is clear (Chinese has looooots of homonyms and puns). This is also why that phrase ‘My lifetime, in exchange for you a decade of innocence and purity.’ from Zhang Qiling to Wu Xie is so heart-wrenching, because those last four Chinese words are ‘tianzhenwuxie’, a poetic play on his two names. 😭 

AKA Xiao Xie - Called by his second uncle, Wu Erbai

AKA Da Zhizi - Called by his third uncle, meaning ‘big nephew’. ‘Da’ here just means the oldest really. Wu Xie is Wu Sanxing’s oldest (but also only) nephew. And ‘nephew’ here too specifically refers to the son of your brother.

AKA Xiao Sanye - Called by Pan Zi, Bai Haotian (from Lost Tomb Reboot). Sanye here is in reference to how he dogs his third uncle’s footsteps all the time. And he’s the younger version so... there.

AKA Laoban or Wu-laoban - Called by Wang Meng, business partners because laoban means ‘boss’.

Zhang Qiling - Whew OK honestly, I don’t think of him as ‘Zhang Qiling’ much at all, because very rarely do any of the other characters refer to him as Zhang Qiling. Most of the time it’s...

AKA Xiaoge - This is what Wu Xie and Pangzi refer to him a lot as. Xiaoge literally translates to ‘little big brother’, but that meaning is weird in English. So don’t think of it that way. Xiaoge is just a generic term for a young guy. Like... ‘lad’? Lol. But he’s all mysterious and stuff so the generic term just stuck. This is also why in Tomb of the Sea, someone referred to Li Cu as ‘xiaoge’, because he was indeed a xiaoge. But in Wu Xie’s heart, there’s only one Xiaoge. ❤️

AKA Menyouping - The name of this ship! Pingxie! This is what Wu Xie referred to him mostly as in his first POV novel. It means ‘stuffy oil bottle’ and communicates the sentiment of ‘poker face’ or just someone with no expressions.

Note on Zhang Qiling: This name is actually a title rather than a name. Qiling is the title given to the Zhang patriarch responsible for handling the spirits of their ancestors... eh it’s complicated and warrants its own post if you want to know more.

Note on ‘Kylin’: I know this is what the official translations had it, but like... wtf. What, no. Like, idk what happened here, but this is a terrible mistranslation. ‘Kylin’ or ‘Qilin’ is the name of the mystical beast of which Zhang Qiling has a tattoo of, but it is two entirely different words from the ‘Qiling’. Don’t let the similarity in English spelling fool you. Completely different words. Some translator thought Kylin might market better probably. But... no. It’s just wrong. I have to do a double-take when I see people writing ‘Kylin’. Come on translators, have more faith in your English speaking audience. Fans can adapt! Don’t butcher the name for sake of marketability!

Wang Pangzi - Yes, ‘Fatty’ is the accurate translation haha. Most people refer to him as Pangzi, including Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling.

AKA Pangye - Referred to by Pangzi himself, but also sometimes people who are trying to suck up to Pangzi.

AKA Pangge - Referred to by his love interests.

Wu Sanxing - Wu Xie’s third uncle. See, I don’t even know what to call him by default because I’m not sure what the subs tend to say. 

AKA Sanshu - Wu Xie and his friends will call him this.

AKA Sanye - Pan Zi and other people in the industry will call him this.

Hei Yanjing - Again, I’ve no idea which name to use as his primary. Translates literally to ‘sunglasses’. Not technically ‘black sunglasses because that’s redundant’. See, even the spacing between his name here is unnecessary because this isn’t his official name, only a nickname. I don’t think we have his real name. But this version is generally called by most others I think?

AKA Hei Xiazi - This means ‘black blind person’, and is what Xiaoge refers to him as... and some others.

AKA Heiye - Just a more respectful reference. Called by Xie Yuchen.

Xie Yuchen - Called by Xiaoge and others less familiar.

Jie Yuhua - His stage name.

Xiao Hua - Called by Wu Xie, as it’s a nickname built off of his stage name.

Huaye - Called by Hei Yanjing and Pangzi, but more so out of humorous flattery than anything. 

.

.

Whew that was a lot. Just be glad this isn’t MDZS where people had courtesy names on top of all these names... I think I’ll stop there, but feel free to shoot me any questions about other characters!

[canary3d-obsessed]

Lost Tomb Reboot Lewks: Part 12

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for both seasons of The Lost Tomb Reboot

Look 61

The first look is Wu Xie’s road trip outfit, which includes this grey and white jacket. It has a contrasting elastic waistband, cuffs, and neckline, and slanted pockets. 

This is exactly the sort of jacket that my 5th grade science teacher would have worn in 1979, and she would have slayed in it.  She awakened something in me and it wasn’t love of STEM. (Spock was responsible for my love of STEM, and various other awakenings in 5th-grade me) I’m sure it would still look great on her, because she is probably a silver haired foxy granny now, and that’s who this jacket belongs on in the current century.

Wu Xie should never have gotten within a mile of this old lady jacket.

To clarify, I’m not being gender-essentialist here; I’m being ageist. If this jacket had some contemporary detailing or interesting features to offset its last-century vibe, the way Bai Haotian’s green roller derby jacket does, it would be fine even though I’m not a fan of this sort of collar in menswear. But it’s just a nicely-made old lady jacket. Mary Berry could bake a nice cake while wearing this jacket. 

Note: Liu Sang could wear the hell out of this jacket, of course, because that man can wear literally anything and make it look like it’s made of spun pheromones.

(more after the cut!)

Wu Xie eventually improves this look by taking the jacket off and giving the camera operator a nice long look at his ass. He’s wearing dark jeans and a long-sleeve white thermal shirt, which is a great improvement. 

Look 62

The granny jacket is contrasted by the blessed arrival of Huo Daofu’s daddy jacket, and the rest of the clothing that Huo Daofu is wearing with it.  This is a dark green jacket with a nipped in waist, military styling, and invisible stitching that says "obey" You can't see it, but oh, it's there.

He's wearing this jacket of domination with jeans so tight they appear to be made of paint. I approve of these jeans so much that I might need to take a break from writing for a moment. 

Instead of shoes he’s opted for a pair of tall riding boots, just in case anyone failed to get the message.

He finishes off this look with gold rimmed glasses, pomegranate-toned lips, and an air of authority so strong that even Pangzi does what he tells him to with minimal back chat.

Later the jacket comes off, so he can wrap it solicitously around the shoulders of a person who is already wearing a perfectly good jacket.  OP looks up “service top” in the dictionary.

Underneath, Huo Daofu is wearing a grey houndstooth waistcoat. Shen Wei’s tailor would gnash his teeth in envy, if he saw the cut of this vest. This tops off a warm-toned brown shirt worn with a silver-toned watch. The watch is...round, and it tells time. He’s wearing a brown belt with his black jeans. Huo Daofu is great at combining warm and cool, formal and casual, in a single look. 

Look at this dapper bitch. Slaying this hard has got to be against his Hippocratic oath.

This jacket-free look is combined with hip posture so provocative that it sends Wu Xie into a hasty search for the last scraps of his heteronormative assumptions. Xiao Bai does her best to help.

Look 63

The beards. 

OP's family of origin is full of hairy visigoths, so Pangzi's beard is a style I've encountered before, alas. We call this a [US] Civil War beard. This one is terrible and lopsided, but at least it covers a lot of Pangzi’s face.

Wu Xie’s fake facial hair isn't terrible, but isn't great. You can tell it’s fake because everything about Zhu Yilong is inherently lovely, and this isn’t. 

Also, it's a ridiculous idea for a disguise. Wu Xie's close-trimmed chin patch and mustache are nice style, very typical for a Chinese dude. They let Wu Xie’s lovely facial structure continue to do its thing while they just provide a bit of an accent. But this is a problem, because they don't change his appearance in any meaningful way; his cheekbones are still visible from orbit. 

He’s wearing this facial hair and cap with the same vest he wore earlier to practice slingshot. This time he's accessorizing with a simple tan jacket, with an interesting buttonhole detail... 

...and with an attractive human IV stand.

Doctor doctor, give me the news, I've got a bad case of loving you you loving me.

Look 64

This look belongs to the man that Jia Kezale’s wife has replaced him with. We have to infer his look based on his shoes, and that he is presumably in the same league as the extremely hot Jia Kezale. 

Based on these shoes, which are very nice, if a little weathered, Huarache-style loafers, this other man in her life also presumably wears linen trousers and a guayabera shirt. 

*mentally pictures this person* 

ok, I guess I don't blame her. 

[Image, and shirts, from cubavera dot com]

Look 65

After having his IV fluids, Wu Xie goes for a nighttime motorbike ride, because he apparently needs to go way up on a hill to see that the hotel he’s staying in is circular.

So, what is with the Ultraman motorcycle helmet? Does it have any padding or insulation at all? Why doesn’t it cover more than 40 percent of his head and face?

And shouldn't it have a chin strap?  How does it stay on in a crash?  I mean yes I know this is a show with sentient crustaceans...yeah, never mind. I’m sure that’s a super effective helmet. 

Once the rain starts, his mustache and beard look better. Still not great, but better. Here he looks like he’s cosplaying as Zhou Yunlan.

Now he’s wet and lying on the ground because...oh, hell if I remember. Just look at him, poor moist snookums. He needs a blankie and a hot tea and a hurt-comfort fic about him and his doctor. 

This look gives the newest members of the polycule an opportunity to demonstrate their devotion, as they haul him off the motorcycle and over to a wall, and then continue to stand in the rain, for some reason, instead of going indoors. 

I gotta say, when a producer decides to pour water on Zhu Yilong, they  commit to it.

Speaking of commitment, here’s Huo Daofu holding his hand up over Wu Xie’s face like a tiny umbrella. 

Bonus 1

Look at the yellow duffle coat on that kid. She looks beautiful and classic, and the mustard yellow color just pops so nicely in this scene. 

The mustard yellow also visually marks her allegiance to gold-dragon-wearing Xue Wu. 

Bonus 2

This look is Wu Xie’s antique-scheming outfit, but now he is wearing the Sunglasses of Manpain. They belong to Pangzi, but Wu Xie is wearing them while he waits for Pangzi to collect his angst from the morgue.

These sunglasses are good to wear while contemplating the fact that, despite the many differences in narrative tropes between Chinese and Western media, the one where a female character is hurt and/or dies merely to further a male character's emotional development remains a constant.

That said, this is a nice small signifier of their relationship, as he puts these glasses on Pangzi, allowing him to hide his feelings, while hugging him, allowing him to express his feelings.

[cross-d-a]

As I'm slowly making my way through DMBJ Vol. 8 (takes place right after Ultimate Note), I'm coming across a lot of little passages that I adore and want to share bc Feelings✨

Warning: these excerpts obviously contain spoilers for what happens after Ultimate Note. So if you don't want spoilers please skip this post! (*・∀-)☆

For all these posts I'm using MereBear's absolutely amazing translations!!! Please check out their work!!! They put a lot of time and effort into it❤️✨

The scene I really wanna talk about first takes place in Chapter 25: No Choice.

To set it up a bit: Wu Xie is still masquerading as Sanshu and has returned to the mountains to try to find his friends. He's got a whole team of people with him and he manages to reunite with Pangzi who's escaped the horrors underground. Pangzi's got a map leading to Xiao Ge carved into his own belly. Before Pangzi wakes up, Pan Zi and Xiao Hua decide to follow the map while Wu Xie anxiously waits above ground. Then they lose contact and Pangzi wakes up. Wu Xie and Pangzi are eager to rescue their friends so they set out with the rest of their team. Except!! Wu Xie hasn't found a good moment to reveal himself to Pangzi!! He's still posing as Sanshu and it's Stressing him The Fuck Out. THEN! We get this lovely little gem of a passage:

It's such a cute little moment!! And also a meaningful one. Pangzi knew it was Wu Xie and he still kept up the charade so Wu Xie could save face. Wu Xie's somehow managed to fool everyone but Pangzi (and believe me, Wu Xie's barely scraping by the skin of his teeth at times). But Pangzi knows Wu Xie so well that he immediately saw it was him. And he still chose to follow Wu Xie despite not knowing his plan. Despite not knowing why exactly he was masquerading as Sanshu. He trusts Wu Xie so much that he didn't even question it. He just ran with it, damn the details.

Except, okay I'm gonna rip the rug right out from under this sweet moment because there is something hilarious about this scene, too. In Chapter 15: Fatty in the Gap, Wu Xie finds Pangzi who is hurt and mostly unconscious, and Wu Xie is just losing his mind a bit with worry. I'm gonna do a post about this particular scene later, but what you need to know is this:

Wu Xie TELLS Pangzi that he's actually Wu Xie and not Sanshu! He fucking tells him! Is Wu Xie so worried about Pangzi that he immediately forgets this? Does he get so distracted by everything after this moment that he forgets? (Xiao Hua and Pan Zi do leave after this, and Wu Xie's going a bit crazy worrying about Xiao Ge) Pangzi is also very out of it when Wu Xie tells him and he's comatose for a while afterwards, so maybe Wu Xie didn't think Pangzi heard. But even through the pain Pangzi reaches out and grabs Wu Xie's wrist, like Wu Xie is the only thing that could reach him. And then he relaxes. Like he's acknowledging Wu Xie. Like he's comforted by Wu Xie being there. He trusts Wu Xie. That is so painfully obvious. (And oh god there is a LOT about the deep trust between Wu Xie and Pangzi in Vol. 8 like holy shit)

But also, if we assume that Pangzi does know 'Sanshu' is Wu Xie because he remembered this moment- it is fucking hilarious that Pangzi chooses to tease Wu Xie in that Chapter 25 reveal moment. It is so in character for their relationship. However, I think Pangzi would know it's Wu Xie without being told. They just know each other so well. They understand each other so well, though they're still learning. (more on this in a later excerpt post!!)

And right after Pangzi reveals that he knows who Wu Xie is, Wu Xie scolds Pangzi for not telling him beforehand:

And there we have it again. Pangzi's unwavering trust. "Of course I'll cooperate with you," he says. Because Pangzi would follow Wu Xie to hell and back.

And, because I am always crying about the theme of trust in Vol.8, the conversation ends with this:

I just- have so many feelings about this little scene. Once again, Wu Xie and Pangzi understand each other so well. But I think Pangzi understands Wu Xie more than Wu Xie understands himself. We talk about Wu Xie being a bleeding heart a lot, and it's true. And Pangzi knows it. He sees it, he recognizes it, and he knows it's Wu Xie's greatest strength and worst flaw. In these chapters, Pangzi establishes that he does not trust Xiao Hua. He does not trust Granny Huo. He does not trust anyone in this expedition. He trusts no one but Wu Xie. And Wu Xie trusts far too easily. Pangzi loves Wu Xie so much, but he realizes that if Wu Xie continues in this way he won't survive. Not alone. This is why Pangzi puts himself in this caretaker role. He'd rather be the one to take the brunt of the darkness of the world (he is much like Xiao Ge in this way, treasuring Wu Xie's innocence). But Pangzi is also practical. Pangzi can't always be there to save him. In fact, Wu Xie's been separated from him for a while now. And as much as it pains Pangzi, he wants to teach Wu Xie not to trust so easily. Because he knows Wu Xie won't survive this by being so naive. (Again, even if his naïveté is one of the reasons why Wu Xie is so precious to Pangzi)

There's a lot of character development in Vol.8 that really hurts, especially because it foreshadows Wu Xie's character in Sha Hai. Here, Wu Xie is young, and he's thrust into this grand plot he's desperately trying to figure out. And he's alone for a lot of it. Left to fend for himself and pretend to be someone he is not. Someone who is ruthless and scheming. Someone who puts the mission above all else. And this someone (Sanshu) raised him. It's a lot to deal with. Especially when he starts seeing these traits reflected in himself. But if he doesn't act this way, then the people he loves will die. So he forces himself to carry on despite this bleeding heart. I'm gonna do later posts about how Wu Xie sees himself, but I think this book is really the beginning of how young Wu Xie grows into the hurt and weary Wu Xie we see in Sha Hai.

Anyways, I just really wanted to share this little moment between Wu Xie and Pangzi. Especially because I feel like their relationship sometimes gets overshadowed by Pingxie. This little scene stole my heart not only because it's adorable, but because it's very heartbreaking and truly reveals their characters and relationship ❤️