#Hunan University

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

if FEH was in RWBY I'm curious as to what faunus features the Askr/Embla royals would have

Note:

Faunus - a mostly human-like being with 1 animal trait that they can inherent from their parents

Laguz - has multiple animal features due to their shape-shifting powers

.

[derpduck-100]

Hunan-Style Chicken This easy chicken dish is flavored with honey, sherry, soy sauce, and Chinese bean sauce, along with fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions. Chopped dried chiles give it spice.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Character Analysis – Huan

I was thinking about why Huan leaves Celegorm when he does, and it’s clearly not just “he likes Lúthien better.”

The first question to answer is, why does it happen during the Leithian and not during or after Alqualondë? And while the Doylist (out-of-universe) reason for that is provably that Tolkien thought up the character of Huan specifically for the Leithian and didn’t think much about his role in the story before then, I think there’s a decent Watsonian (in-universe) one as well. Huan is a dog; an intelligent dog, yes, but a dog. He thinks like a dog, and he has the political understanding of a dog, which is to say: not much. If he wasn’t involved in the fighting at Alqualondë himself – and there’s no textual reason to think he was – I don’t think he would have had much understanding of what was going on beyond “people are fighting”.

But in Nargothrond Lúthien is talking to him, and she’s saying, “Someone that I love and am devoted to is in terrible danger from Sauron and his werewolves, and Celegorm is holding me prisoner and won’t let me help him”. That is something a dog can understand. And Celegorm understands the speech of animals – Huan can talk to Celegorm without needing elven or hunan language – but Celegorm isn’t listening. So Huan decides that Celegorm is doing sonething wrong, and that he’s going to help Lúthien rescue Beren.

And then, this is crucial, Huan goes back. He goes back to Celegorm, despite Celegorm being mad as hell at him for helping Lúthien escape. If he was just leaving because he liked Lúthien better, he wouldn’t have done that; he could have just gone with her and Beren then. He is actively choosing to renain loyal.

My understanding of Huan’s decision there is that he’s going to continue as he’s started: he’s going to be loyal to Celegorm and follow him, but if Celegorm tries to do things that Huan cannot morally countenance, Huan will try to stop him, and accept the consequences if Celegorm is angry at him for that.

So now let’s go to Celegorm and Curufin’s final attack on Beren and Lúthien. What changes then? The argument I’ve seen is, ‘But why at that precise moment? Celegorm wasn’t even doing anything particularly problematic compared to his other actions at the moment Huan changed sides! He was just trying to stop Beren from strangling Curufin!’

So, walking through what happens. Everything is happening extremely fast at the beginning – this isn’t an isolated sequence of events. Celegorm and Curufin see Beren and Lúthien walking unawares; they suddenly spur their horses at them, Celegorm comes at Beren with a spear while Curufin grabs Lúthien, and right when Celegorm’s about to spear Beren, Beren makes a jump and tackles Curufin off his horse. Huan doesn’t know what Celegorm and Curufin are doing until they do it, and there’s about a second between that and Beren tackling Curufin off his horse.

And what’s changed now is that Huan’s previous choice of action is no longer possible. He can’t just choose to oppose specific actions. Working for or with Celegorm means being complicit in good peoples’ deaths; there’s no opt-out, nobody-gets-hurt option. If Huan does nothing, Beren dies, in a fight that was caused by Celegorm and Curufin attacking two unarmed people at unawares.

And that’s when Huan changes sides. Not because he’s just decided he likes Beren and Lúthien better than Celegorm (he clearly likes them, but he stayed with Celegorm all the same after Tol-in-Gaurhoth), but because Celegorm has become someone who cannot be served innocently. The options are to let Celegorm kill people, or to stop serving him.

And crucially, this does not lead to Curufin dying – because Lúthien asks Beren to spare him, and Beren listens to her. Because Lúthien and Beren are good people whose character can be relied on, and heling them doesn’t mean people die – not even their enemies. If that hadn’t happened, I don’t think Huan would have stayed with them, even if he had still left Celegorm.

A lot of the story of the Fëanoreans and their followers can be fit into a framework of the question “At what point does loyalty become immoral?” It’s evoked in Maedhros defying Fëanor at Losgar; in some of the Fëanorean forces changing sides at Sirion and dying in defence of their victims; in the final conversation between Maedhros and Maglor. Loyalty to your father, to your liegelords, to your brother; and loyalty of a dog to his master.

[i-cant-sing]

What about platonic yandere Dracula and his child who is very affectionate towards him? Basically his shadow, he has to watch his steps so he doesn't step on his small daughter since she's always following him quietly

You are a very small child, and mischievous one too! But that's only what mama Lisa thinks. Daddy Dracula? Oh he wholeheartedly believes that you're an angel and that it's just everyone else around that peer pressures you to be naughty.

If it weren't for your small mischievous giggles, Dracula would've stepped on you a couple of times. You liked to sneak up on him, follow him everywhere he goes even though your parents don't allow you to leave the castle farther than the garden, but you always manage to hide in his big cloak and would go undetected of it weren't for Lisa grabbing you.

The few times that you did go out with Dracula, he would still hide you in his cloak and have a tight grip on you so that you don't wander off. He doesn't want anyone to know about your existence because you're too pretty, cute- you're the perfect child, and the universe is set on destroying perfection.

But of course, one of these times you managed to slip away from Dracula and he had a wholeass heart attack for like 5 minutes before he found you in a pub, standing on the bartop as you danced to some music and everyone at the pub was laughing at your silly moves. Dracula uses his super speed and grabs you and leaves the pub, starts scolding you for wandering off in the dark alley. And as you whine in his arms to be let go, a certain someone calls out from behind-

"Hey! Let that kid go, you creep!"

And low and behold, its Trevor Belmont. A drunk Trevor Belmont, but still.

Your eyes light up. "Trevy!"

"Hey kid." He smiles before taking a fighting stance. "Now you mister, let the kid go."

Dracula narrows his eyes at him. "She's my daughter."

"Yeah and I'm her mother." He scoffs, not seeing any resemblance between you and the man. "You're a vampire, aren't you? So let the human go or Ill march over there and you dont want me marching over therrre. " He slurred.

"She is literally my child with my hunan wife-" but Dracula is cut off by Trevor swinging at him and you gasping.

"Dad! Are you okay?" Wait dad? Now Trevor looks confused but he doesn't have much time to ponder over it when suddenly Dracula smacks him across the face so hard that Trevor falls unconscious, the vampire mumbling something about him being alive because his kid is there.

And you? Dracula takes you home immediately where both of your parents give you a lecture and ground you for a few years.

Oh well. Your sentence can be reduced by some tears and a little pouting. And if your new friend Trevor doesn't come marching in to "save you" from your family.

[whereserpentswalk]

You're a parasite possessing a human’s body. The hunan in question was doomed the momment they touched you. Of course, you didn't know it at the time, your species is only as intelligent as what it latches on to, and you happened to latch on to one of about a dozen truly sapient species in the known universe. You killed them, but you were no smarter than a bug when you killed them.

You exist in this weird space between humanity and inhumanity. Your body is human, your voice a human’s voice, your face a human’s face, but none of that is yourse, you're a creature that crawled in through that body’s mouth and replaced the brain. They were just someone searching around an alien forest, you barely know who they were, and now you're basically puppeting their corpse.

There are also ways you're not human. Most people who meet you assume genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or just some sort of mental illness makes you act the way you do. You useally don't admit what it actually is. Your mannerisms are off, even though you feel human emotions your voice and face rarely reflect them well. When you infected the body, your very nature changed it, you neutered it and made it soft and sexless, you made it take in the minimum amount of food making it skinny and frail. You feel more like a monster than you would if you looked more inhuman, like you're puppeting a corpse.

Still you have freinds, a steady job, a human life on a planet far away from the one you originated from. Despite everything people like you, there are humans who care about you despite you not even being one. You never told them of course, you just said it was faulty cybernetics. But you can live life, read books, enjoy the view of the rain from your apartment, listen to music faintly playing on a street corner. And it all feels stolen, like you can only enjoy all of this because you're stealing someone else's chance at it. The thought rarely crosses your mind but it does so frequently enough, perhaps once every few months, to truly upset you with what you are, to make you feel like everyone who loves you only loves you because they think you're something you're not. You remember that you're an invasive species, that you have no mother or father, that your very existence isn't meant to be.

There was a time when you met someone on the street who knew the body you once inhabited. She recognized it, ran up to you wanting to talk to you, saying she thought you were dead. When you came clean to her you expected to be horrified, to want to hurt you. She didn't. She said she understood, and that she's happy the person your inhabiting still exists in some regard. A lot of people die in the forest, how blessed your body was to birth something new.

[himboblackdragon]

Catalog of LBFaD drama name origins

Mythology -> book -> drama

Dongfang Qingcang / 东方青苍: The origins of this name are hotly contested, and to be honest the only hypothesis I remember is the Azure Dragon of the East. East being "Dongfang," and the dragon itself being alternatively called "Qing long" and "Cang long." (x)

Haotian Tower / 昊天塔: The tower where DFQC was imprisoned in, in both media. There's no Haotian Tower in mythology, but "Haotian God" is one of the names of the emperor of heaven. (x)

Ninth You / Jiuyou / 九幽: One name for the mythological netherworld, the capital city of the Moon Tribe in the drama. The capital city of the devil tribe in the book. (x)

Sansheng / 三生: The name comes from the "Three Lives Stone" (sansheng shi 三生石), which represents a lot of things in Chinese tradition, but probably the most salient being a rock in the underworld near the Oblivion River. In the novel universe, the rock is graffitied with the names of the ones the dead passing by wished to see most. The stone seems to have transformed into human form in the first book of the series, succinctly titled Sansheng, which tells the love story between Sansheng and Moxi, the novelverse God of War. (x)

Siming / 司命: A folk god, and usually male, who oversees human fates. In the CLJ novel she is responsible for writing the Fate Books. (x)

Xirang / 息壤: Mythological self-expanding-and-growing soil. Although it plays a key role in the book, it only appears in a throwaway line in the drama, when Changheng suggests building XLH a new body out of it. (x)

Mythology/literature/history -> drama

Chengying Sword / 承影剑: One of the ten famous swords of China, in historical and literary tradition. From the Spring and Autumn Period. (x)

Chonghua / 重华: Chonghua is the given name of a legendary emperor of China. (x)

Haotian Matrix / 昊天阵: "Haotian God" is one of the names of the emperor of heaven. (x)

Hellfire / 业火: A Buddhist concept, the fires of karma. (I'm pretty vague on what it actually is and where it exists.) In the book, DFQC's powerful fire is usually just called "raging flames" (lieyan 烈焰), and it's red instead of blue. (x)

Liyuan / 澧沅: Li and Yuan are two of the four big rivers that flow through Hunan. Coincidentally, also the names of two of the four rivers that flow into Shuiyuntian, that flooded when DFQC broke the pearl. (x)

Love Tree / Seven-Emotions Tree / 七情树: The name "seven-emotions tree" comes from the phrase "seven emotions and six desires," (qi qing liu yu 七情六欲). The exact emotions and desires this refers to differ based on school of thought. (x)

Lord Dong / 东君: A deity often paired with Yunzhong-jun as one of the two primordial gods. Seems to be a sun deity. His name literally means "Lord East." (x)

Lord Yunzhong / 云中君: A god from mythology, often paired with Lord Dong as one of the two primordial gods. Sometimes interpreted as a woman. (x)

Oblivion River / Wang Chuan / 忘川: A river in the land of the dead. To cross it, you must first drink a soup that makes you forget your past lives. (x)

Qu Shui / 曲水: Literally "winding waters," the name of Xiao Run's pageboy might come from the upper-class drinking game "Qu Shui Liu Shang" 曲水流觞, in which players "wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them." His nickname Ququ'r is phonetically very similar and means cricket. (x x)

Return to Ruin Realm / Guixu Zhi Jing / 归墟之境: "Guixu" was a place far to the east, that every body of water eventually emptied into. The characters break down into "return (to)" and "ruins." The "Zhi Jing" makes it "Region of Guixu" or "Guixu Area." (x)

Tai Sui / 太岁: A folk deity, but not necessarily evil. (x)

Xuanwu God / 古神灵玄武: Xuanwu is a constellation representing a tortoise-snake spirit. (x)

Xunfeng / 巽风: His name most likely comes from the "xun" trigram of the Eight Trigrams, of which the element is wind, or "feng." (x)

Yingzhao / 英招: Legendary creature that has the body of a horse, the face of a man, stripes like a tiger, and wings of a bird. Not like our waddling ball of fur at all. (x)

Yunmeng Lake / 云梦泽: One of the largest lakes in China in ancient times, now mostly nonexistent. (x)

Book -> drama

Bone Orchid / Gu Lan / 骨兰: It has more of a dried-vine aesthetic in the book.

Chidi Nüzi / 赤地女子: The god of war of the heavenly realm, in both media. DFQC's nemesis and the object of A'Hao's obsession.

Dayu Battalion / 大庾兵: Only mentioned once in the drama, along with the Tieyu Battalion 铁羽兵, as forces that Shangque has mobilized in response to Xunfeng's insurrection. Dayu's the name of DFQC's adorable (to me) pet sky/sea serpent.

Destruction of Heaven / Ruins of Ten Thousand Heavens / Wan Tian Zhi Xu / 万天之墟: A formless place where Siming can be found, in both the drama and the book. The book series further specifies that the Destruction of Heaven sits above the Three Realms and the Endless Desolate City (无极慌城 wu ji huang cheng) below.

Dieyi / 蝶衣: Ronghao's loyal right-hand woman is also present in the book.

Fairy Execution Platform / Zhu Xian Tai / 诛仙台: Where Changheng is to be executed after talking back to Yunzhong. In the book this was a platform over a mass of the book equivalent to evil qi/suiqi, which XLH was cast off from, almost getting eaten alive by the evil qi.

Fate Books / Mingbu / 命簿: The combination of these two characters seem to be an invention of the novel, and are records of the destinies of living people collected and administered by the land of the dead.

Fate Tree / Mingge Shu / 命格树: "Mingge," in both the novelverse and in the Love You Seven Times drama, are the stories high immortals (in CLJ's case, Siming) write to direct the fate of mortals. I'm not clear on the distinction between mingbu and mingge in the CLJ book.

Lucheng / 鹿城: In the book, a militarily important city of the Jin Dynasty, although the drama has styled it more into the Tang Dynasty, some thousand-plus years later.

Ronghao / 容昊: In the book, the wheelchair-bound master of the demon commerce city who's later revealed to be Chidi's obsessed student. We're not given the first character of his name in the book; it only ever calls him A'Hao.

Shangque / 觞阙: The name of the prime minister of the devil realm in the book, horrified by DFQC's erratic behavior while his body is being partially controlled by XLH. Show!Shangque's personality likely came from Dayu, Book!DFQC's overpowered flying serpent who follows him around like a loyal dog.

Shuofeng Sword / 朔风剑: "Cold northwest wind" sword, it's Chidi Nüzi's weapon in the book and the drama. It stays in sword form in the book, but becomes a geographical feature and a seal in the show.

Thousand Dreamland / Thousandfold Illusion / 千重幻境: A realm of endless very similar illusions that Ronghao/A'Hao tries to trap DFQC in to prevent him from finding XLH, in both media.

Xiao Lan Hua / Orchid / 小兰花: Our heroine!

Xie Wanqing / 谢惋卿: One of Chidi Nüzi's mortal incarnations in both media. However, in the book she is a general who's betrayed by the man she loves, an ordinary mortal, while XLH and DFQC watch.

Misc

Changheng / 长珩: Changheng's not in the book, but the book does have a troublemaker by the name of Changming 长命 who is DFQC's biggest "love rival" (he's like ten years old), and I wonder if the "Chang" part of Changheng's name comes from Changming.

Flying Fairy Pavilion / Life-Ending Pavilion / 飞仙阁: A reference to Xie Wanqing's real identity as the Fairy God of War. Also a euphemism for death.

Haishi / 海市: Conceptually, comes from the demon/nature sprite city, yaoshi 妖市, in the book. For the drama they got rid of the demon part and called it Haishi, Sea City.

Tongyun / 彤云: Xie Wanqing's maid, and an actual word that refers to red clouds or "dark clouds before snow." (x)

Xiao Run / 萧润: I'm not sure the Run part of his name is a reference to anything, but the Xiao is probably there to make the Xiao-lang wordplay work. (x)

Yannü 盐女 and Cangyan Sea 苍盐海: The "yan" is the same as in "Yannü." Which came first, I wonder? (The "cang" is the same as in Dongfang Qingcang.)

Sans Data

I do not know any special origins of, or was too lazy to look up:

Black Sash 黑杀斩, Bone-Devouring Spikes / Frost-Salt Nails 噬骨霜盐钉, Cangyan Sea 苍盐海, Changle Street, Cloud Shadow Mirror 云影镜, Danyin 丹音, Dark Pine Forest 暗松林, Dream of Nine Serenities / Jiuyou Dream 九幽一梦, Eternal Flame 长明火, Evil Qi / Suiqi 祟气, Firefly stone 奇幻流萤石, Fountain Palace 涌泉宫, Four-Water Pearl 四水宝珠, Fuju Cave 弗居洞, Glazefire 琉璃火, Granny Tie 铁婆婆, Green Flame Wine 绿焰酒, Hall of Divine Waters / Shenshui Ting 神水厅, Heart-Hidden Pin 藏心簪, Hidden Treasures Shop 藏珠斋, Jieli 结黎, Jinling, Jingyiya Teahouse 静逸雅轩, Karma Jail / Karma-Spanning Abyss 渡业渊, Liufang Pavilion 留芳阁, Night-Stream Building 夜溪楼, Northern Sea / Beiming 北溟, Primordial spirit 元神, Qingchuan 青川, Ranxi Flower 燃犀花, Shaking Light Peak 摇光峰, Shuiyuntian 水云天, Shuyu Forest 漱玉林, Silent Moon Palace / Jiyue Palace 寂月宫, Silver Lake 银湖, Soul Transformation Cauldron 化魂鼎, Soul Transformation Grounds 化魂墟, Southern Fairyland / Extreme South Fairy Continent 南极仙洲, Spirit Lock Gate 灵锁门, Spirit-Shattering Abyss 碎灵渊, Spirit Stones 灵石, Tianji Mirror 天极镜, Universe Pills 无极乾坤丹, Wind Prison 风牢, Wind Warriors, Wuqi 巫芑, Wuxian Clan / Witch-Salty Clan 巫咸族, Xilan 息兰, Xingluo 星落, Xishan 息山, Xiyun 息芸, Xuanshuang Whip 玄霜神鞭, Xuanxu Realm / Mysterious Realm 玄虚之境, You Jade Ring 幽玉戒, Yujing 玉京

Much thanks to sassybluee's Reference for Fic Writers.

This post is subject to change. Additions, corrections, and discussion welcome.

[akutasoda]

can I request the OM brothers with a reader that’s kinda like Banica conchita (Evillous chronicles)? I find her similar to Beelzebub which is why I wanna request it-

universal hunger

synopsis - how are they with a banica!mc

includes - lucifer, mammon, leviathan, satan, asmodeus, beelzebub, belphegor

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, wc - 1.2k

a/n: i got your other ask dw :) i kinda went more with banicas contract with the avatar of gluttony-

lucifer ★↷

↪as the eldest brother, lucifer preferred to have a good grasp on whatever idiotic thing his brothers had done. that included any pacts made. but he didn't quite know how to feel about the fact beel had made a pact with a human.

↪lucifer would've expected mammon or asmo (again) to form a pact with someone not beel. however that made him more inclined to believe that it was made with a much more valid reason. although he still wasn't quite sure how to react when you were the human exchange student.

↪it did bring some comfort knowing you would be at less risk of being a target of other demons with a pact from one of the brothers but other than that, he still didn't know how to feel about you. although he quickly realized that all you and beel shared, minus the pact, was your extreme love of food.

↪outside of that, lucifer did like how strong-willed you were. it was slightly refreshing and a welcome surprise to what he assumed the human exchange student would be like. maybe beel hadn't chosen such a bad person to form a pact with.

mammon ★↷

↪in all honesty, mammon found it near hysterical that beel made a pact with a human. he was one hundred percent certain that if he had done that, lucifer would've given him the worst punishment yet and yet he was fine with beel doing it.

↪although mammon could agree that you and beel were practically no different and it made sense why you two had a pact. your endless hunger rivaled the very own avatar of gluttonies and that was quite intimidating if mammon really thought about it.

↪originally, he would have to admit that he thought he could use your pact with beel to weasel out some grimm for him. but that plan was quickly thrown out the window by multiple factors - namely your genuine friendship with beel and overall lack of interest.

↪however that was something that he could secretly hope to build with you. for protection from those who claimed they were scammed by him and hopefully a quick source of money obviously. nothing else. not a genuine friendship. nope.

leviathan ★↷

↪levi couldn't care much less that the other hunan exchange student was someone who had already made a pact with beel. maybe he did find something comical about the situation but otherwise he couldn't have cared much.

↪although because of your previous connection to his brother, levi was much more inclined to trust you easier. beel wasn't exactly like a few of his brothers who made impulsive and often foolish decisions. and although beel and levi weren't really similar, levi could trust his judgment.

↪and even though you practically were beel if he was a human, levi found himself seeing you as a close friend sooner than he would've should you of been a complete stranger. although sometimes your strong-willed personality could intimidate him occasionally at the beginning.

satan ★↷

↪satan was rather surprised that beel made a pact with a human, it was just luck that the same person was the other human exchange student.

↪he could probably make an educated guess as to why beel would've made a pact with someone and his guess would've been right. the answer was evident by your hunger that rivaled the avatar of gluttonies own. now it seemed way too obvious.

↪in satan's eyes, your constant hunger and love for food was the exact same as his brothers, to the point that it was almost concerning considering you were still a human at the end of the day whereas beel was a demon. so satan was wildly surprised you ate just as much as beel - especially the devildom cuisines

↪but outside of that, satan was quite impressed by how strong-willed you were about anything else as well. a rather good candidate for the human exchange student who, outside of your constant hunger, was a genuine person to be around.

asmodeus ★↷

↪when asmo first found out that beel had made a pact with the human exchange student, prior to the programme, he was shocked. mainly about how he hadn't been told sooner - asmo hadn't exactly taken beel as the kind to go making pacts with humans.

↪so when you showed up in the devildom he was certainly intrigued as to why beel would've chosen to make a pact with you. although looking back asmo could've taken quite the educated guess as to why.

↪it really shouldn't of surprised him that you were practically a human version of beel and that's why you two had such a pact. but asmo thought it was quite sweet you two had such a bond over food.

↪although asmo did think that you were a nice person outside of that however. definitely someone he could talk and gossip with.

beelzebub ★↷

↪he recognised you immediately. how could he not when his pact mark thrummed to life as soon as you entered the devildom? and the fact that he could recognise you by your looks alone.

↪and in all honesty, beel was overjoyed that you were the exchange student - and it visibly showed when from the very first day of the programme you and beel practically became attached at the hip. it was clear you would adjust just fine.

↪it also became very obvious just why beel had formed a pact with you. your love of food rivaled his own and your open expression of wanting to try anything as long as it was edible meant that beel was eager to show you all the devildom cuisines he could - even if it could be harmful to humans as you didn't seem to care.

↪some people were even convinced that you were just beel if he was human. but it wasn't just your equal amount of hunger that beel liked about you, he also thought that you were just a genuine person who was nice to hang around.

belphegor ★↷

↪due to the twin bond between him and beel, whatever happened in their life was reported immediately back to the other. and so when beel formed a pact with a human belphie was the first to know. although he wasn't exactly happy about the fact some human had power over his brother now, he didn't let it show.

↪beel seemed happy with his choice and so belphie bit his tongue. even when you showed up in the devildom he held his thoughts back because beel seemed incredibly happy that you were the exchange student.

↪although, because you spent so much time with beel, that quickly became belphie as well. he was extremely reluctant at first but seeing just how much beel trusted you and how much he genuinely enjoyed being around you, belphie reluctantly gave you a chance.

↪it took a while, but eventually belphie saw why beel made a pact with you (minus the extreme shared love of food). maybe you weren't too bad, maybe belphie could bring himself to like you.

[coochiequeens]

Men having kids through surrogacy to fulfill selfish wants without thinking of the impact on the kids would be reduced if surrogacy agencies has a screening process

Wife returns from work one day, sees strange woman at home holding infant

Husband hires surrogate to have longed-for child, furious wife threatens divorce

By Alice Yan in Shanghai Published: 9:00am, 29 Mar 2024

A woman in China has told how her husband resorted to secret surrogacy to acquire a baby because the couple’s 29-year-old daughter refused to give him a grandchild.

The 53-year-old woman, surnamed Guo, said when she returned from work one day in September 2022, she saw a strange woman in her home holding an infant, according to Henan Television.

The stranger told Guo the child belonged to her and her husband, and she had been hired as a maid.

A shocked Guo later learned that the baby was born via surrogacy after her husband paid an agency.

The child was carried by a university student, the report said.

Guo and her husband, who live in Yiyang, Hunan province in central China, have one daughter – their only child, who told them she does not want to marry or have children.

“My husband said, ‘Your choice means I will never be a grandfather. What’s the point of raising you? Not having a baby means you are not filial, according to Chinese traditional culture’,” Guo said.

The man, whose age was not included in the report, said because the infant girl was so cute and healthy, he might ask the surrogacy institute for a boy next time.

“I flared up into a fury. I am going to divorce him,” said Guo.

The husband stole his wife’s identity card to apply for the infant’s birth certificate which states that he is her father and Guo is her mother.

“I flared up into a fury. I am going to divorce him,” said Guo.

The husband stole his wife’s identity card to apply for the infant’s birth certificate which states that he is her father and Guo is her mother.

The news report told the story of another man, aged 62, from Henan province in central China who also hired a surrogacy company without telling his family, so he could have a baby boy.

The man’s daughter said her father had wanted a son for a long time.

“After the one-child policy was abandoned, my father asked my mother to have another child for him. But my mother was nearly 50 and she did not want to have another child,” said the daughter.

She said the surrogacy company charged her father 540,000 yuan (US$75,000) and guaranteed the baby would be a boy.

Surrogacy is illegal in China. In 2023, the authorities issued a directive to crack down on the activity.

The story caused a heated discussion on mainland social media.

“I support surrogacy being illegal. Otherwise, women will just be used for their wombs,” one online observer said on Douyin.

“Maybe in the future, dating couples will need to check their DNA to see if they are siblings,” wrote another.

[neptunes-sol-angel]

Hey Sol-Cherubs! I've had this sitting in my drafts for a while but just didn't have the stability over the past few months to finally finish it. This is a pick a card for those having a tough time soothing themselves over a betrayal that happened to them, I hope this helps and gives space for those to validate their emotions but also see the situation from a different perspective to help them heal and move on.

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Pile One ⚔

If you had it your way? "If there's an open position for the devil's advocate, then I'll be it. If Karma's really a bitch, then how can I make her my apprentice? God if you're actually real, I think it's time to send the floods and bring back Noah's ship" If you had it your way, regardless of the religion that you practice and believe in, you'd want a higher power to "correct" this person. I feel like this individual is some sort of "fallen angel", someone who had great potential in being a trustworthy companion in your life, making good deeds to hunanity, or both, that ended up becoming the total opposite. Perhaps, one of the main immoral acts that this person committed, is putting you through some psychological torment that could have made you feel trapped in a mental spiral about your identity and self worth. They could have even weaponized personal information such as your trauma and insecurities that you confidentially shared with them, against you as a manipulation tactic. The vengeance that you want for this person, strikes to me as something that you're kind of wishing for, as if you're not entirely confident that justice will be made, or that if there actually is a higher power, that they'd consider your injustice as something that's worth putting attention towards and balancing. The kind of correction that you want this person to have, relates to some sort of reality check, where the feathers of their deceptive wings get plucked one by one to expose who they really are. This isn't even about other people seeing this person's exposure, you feel that the only way for balance to be restored is if this person recognizes and finally checks their own behavior. This person could have a stubborn ego that's pretty much fired up by delusion, or could have a habit of concealing their toxicity by latching onto others emotionally or spiritually. You don't want this person to catch a break, I'm seeing you kind of wanting them to be placed onto this wheel and spinned around for eternity which could represent internally how they made you feel, but also I'm envisioning the karmic retribution, as them trapped in a fun house, alone, filled with mirrors that expose their inner monstrosities.

How the universe is actually working this situation in your favor:

Instead of being passive in this situation to let a higher power get this person, the universe is actually using you to directly serve this person with a taste of their own medicine. The purpose of this connection since the beginning, was to be each other's mirror. You could feel like this situation has brought out the the worst in you, you may even be right, but this is actually cycle that's supposed to finally help you step into your power. The characters Eleven and One are what I think of for this pile, and also the planets Venus and Saturn. This encounter demonstrates the different ways of things being similar, but not exactly the same, and that there's always a choice. This person was used to restricting others with their superiority complex, until they met someone like you who let's your own energy speak for itself. Do not demonize yourself for the anger that you feel towards this person, but let it be known, that how this person treated you and the misuse of their talents is a habitual thing for them to do to others. The reality check is coming, but what's different is that it's not supposed to be something that's reoccurring, this cycle has gone on too long and this ending is actually what's supposed to be the nail in coffin for this person to change or remain stagnant in the consequences of havoc that they wreaked.

Pile Two ⚔

If you had it your way? If you had it your way, you'd dunk this person in chaos, pull them back up for air, and then dump them back in when they think that shit's sweet. I'm seeing this pile relating to a romantic connection from either the past or something in the present that's past it's expiration date that you need to end now. When they hurt you, they fumbled a big bag, so revenge in your image, would be for this person to literally fumble bags by getting massive hits to their finances and partnership deals. I see that person could have gave you a lot of false promises, and apologies with no changed behavior or sincerity. If they're with another person now, you want them to be dogged out by that individual. This could look like seducing them until they're comfortable as if they've found their dream person that'll elevate them higher in life, to actually being wiped out dry of whatever assets they had. This could be a massive financial loss, or an assassination to their confidence and charisma that they're used to fooling others with. This could even look like you partnering up with their lover to make this person's life a living hell. How the universe is actually working this situation in your favor: The universe is going to orchestrate an ending whether you like it or not, to get you away from this person. You or anyone else cannot be this person's karma in this situation, because they're already on the road of demolishing themselves just fine. If you see this person happy and at peace as if they're being rewarded for their behavior, they are not. This is a person that regardless of how brazen they are, that lacks self love to the point where they are incapable at the moment of treating others right, and will continue to ruin their relationships both professionally and intimately, until they do the inner work that is needed. This person is all talk, but you can only get but so far with words, people in their friendships, family, and career life are going to pick up on how foolish this person is and will follow suit in separating themselves from being associated with this person. It's going to hurt trying to move on with someone you really wanted to work things out with, but for your greater good, see this rejection as redirection from a sinking ship. This situation will teach you to not follow people and proposals at a face value, and to not destroy yourselves (tit for tat) to get back at someone.

Pile Three ⚔

If you had it your way?

If you had it your way, you'd set the whole building on fire. I keep seeing that scene with Tanisha from Bad Girls Club singing "I ain't get no sleep, cause of y'all, and y'all ain't getting sleep cause of me!". This could be a workplace that did you dirty, or in general something that you invested a lot of time, money, loyalty, and self sacrifices in that dropped and replaced you as if you were nothing. Perhaps this pile is for those in my audience who were known as the golden child of the family, working so hard to please people who don't value you outside of your achievements. You want to burn everything, flaming hot to the ground, so that you can finally lay on the ashes and just rest. You want something, anything, even a reset if it means getting your time back. How the universe is actually working this situation in your favor? Maybe the hard work didn't get you where you wanted, but use the knowledge learned and experience gained, to create something in your control and authority, in the right way. You know what it takes to build this new start, and you know what not to do when you acquire this newfound power when you're in a position to lead others. But more importantly, the universe is giving you an opportunity to slow down, and to not be humble when it comes to what you have to offer in this world ruled by transactional relationships and the rise and grind lifestyle. This is teaching you to nourish yourself in the way others didn't, and start investing in your freedom and tapping into your potential. You weren't meant to follow others, you're meant to lead, don't try to burn others dysfunction, it's not your responsibility to, let them have it. Redirect your energy into fulfilling your purpose, reclaim your life again.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers harness liquid crystal structures to design simple, yet versatile bifocal lenses

Researchers have developed a new type of bifocal lens that offers a simple way to achieve two foci (or spots) with intensities that can be adjusted by applying external voltage. The lenses, which use two layers of liquid crystal structures, could be useful for various applications such as optical interconnections, biological imaging, augmented/virtual reality devices and optical computing. "Most liquid-crystal-based devices are made from single-layer structures, but this limits light field modulation to a confined area," said research team leader Fan Fan from Hunan University in China. "We used bilayer structures composed of a liquid crystal cell and a liquid crystal polymer to realize more complex and functional modulation of incident light." In the journal Optics Letters, the researchers show that the new bifocal lenses can be used for polarization imaging, which is often used to enhance image contrast, and for edge imaging, which highlights the outlines of objects, making it easier to see fine details or spot certain shapes. The paper is titled "Bifocal lenses with adjustable intensities enabled by bilayer liquid crystal structures."

Read more.

[wangxianficrecs]

💙 feel better love by Anonymous

💙 feel better love

by Anonymous

T, WIP, 8k, Wangxian

Summary: When Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had decided to pay alternate universe versions of themselves a visit, they had not expected to find a version of Wei Wuxian who is travelling all alone. Lan Wangji has something to say about this. (In which MDZS Lan Wangji is unhappy about some of his CQL counterpart's actions following the events at the Guanyin Temple) Kay's comments: One of my absolute favorite stories that I come back to read again and again, because it's like the perfect post-CQL story for those of us who were more than a little miffed by CQL Lan Wangji's performance at the end of the series and him becoming Chief Cultivator and not accompanying Wei Wuxian when he asked. Well, here we have MDZS!Wangxian arriving in the CQL-world and promptly adopting CQL-Wei Wuxian, while CQL Lan Wangji has to drink vinegar and I just have to say, this story is everything for me. I love the characterization and the subtle differences between the two versions of Wangxian and I love MDZS!Wangxian doting on CQL!Wei Wuxian. Excerpt: Lan Wangji is having a… bad day. He is having a lot of those, recently. For once, it isn’t his job that’s bothering him. It is hard to be the Chief Cultivator, to put up with so much whining and so many snide overtures from sect leader after sect leader, but he cannot complain about it. Lan Wangji has never been one to complain, but even if he was, who would he share this burden with? His brother is in seclusion, taking no visitors, and his uncle is already busy leading the sect— Lan Wangji can offer no help, as the Chief Cultivator cannot show favour to one sect over the others. The job is hard, but there is nothing new to be said about it. No, what bothers Lan Wangji currently is him. The other version of himself. Lan Wangji had always thought that the day Wei Ying would return to Gusu would be a joyous one. In his mind, Wei Ying would have travelled as he had wanted to— he could not travel with Wei Ying, not when he had to take up the mantle of Chief Cultivator, but he knew Wei Ying understood that— and returned one day, and perhaps Lan Wangji would buy him some Emperor’s Smile from Caiyi Town and take him to that Hunan restaurant he always talked about, and he would meet the juniors and he would smile at Lan Wangji like he always did. Instead, Wei Ying had not returned alone with his donkey. He had appeared with another version of Lan Wangji.

pov alternating, post-the untamed, post-canon, canon divergence, the untamed & mdzs crossover, crack treated seriously, jealous lan wangji, caring lan wangji, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, angst

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[yebreed]

Knotting the Banner by David J. Mozina

Academic research unfolding within a living biographical narrative.

This impressive book combines the virtues of ethno-cultural and religious study and adventure novel. In the context of everyday Hunan, the reader discovers a world permeated with cosmogonic meanings: it’s like a Rabbit Hole into Taoist thinking. A complicated mystic quest takes place right in the rural daily routine.

David J. Mozina explores the topic of Banner Rites focused on worship of the Lord Yin Jiao (殷郊 aka 殷交), the principal of the sixty Tai Sui (太歲). The fierce celestial Tai Sui is a much revered guardian deity in Taoist exorcism.

An essential book for the connoisseurs of authentic experiences.

Mozina, D. J. (2021). Knotting the Banner: Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice. University of Hawaii Press.

[elipsi]

The combined influences of folk stories, classical literature, revolutionary symbolism, rural portraits, and modernism were near-universal, but it produced many different sorts of writers: there was Han Shaogong writing literary ethnographies of rural Hunan, Jia Pingwa telling contemporary stories within the framework of folk tale and the Ming vernacular novel, Wang Anyi refracting small-town life through Russian masters and Jiangnan fables. Can Xue’s unique experimentalism came from the same experience—thumbing through Lu Xun in her father’s dormitory, listening to the stories of the countryside, and then, belatedly, crashing into Franz Kafka.

Those influences were apparent in “Soap Bubbles in the Dirty Water,” the first story she published in 1985, which begins:

My mother has melted into a basin of soap bubbles. Nobody knows what happened. I would be called a beast, a contemptible, sinister murderer, if anyone knew.

source

[reinekes-fox]

What exactly does being a vampire entail in this universe? Is sunlight lethal to them, or just unpleasant? What about blood, does it need to come from hunans or can they subsist on animal? Does anything special happen if they drink from a supernatural like our werewolf and magician buddies? I'm curious about what kind of powers they have too.

It all depends on the bloodlines!

So far I have only introduced two in BoaR, another one in Dog Nights. But I have taken inspiration from old vampire myths (one eastern european bloodline can turn into moths and butterflies according to your gender), myths of the underworlds (finnish one is great) and whatever else fits. So yeah there are a lot, many died out and even more have risen from the ruins.

For the sake of not puking lore I will only focus on the BoaR ones, which are in many cases very smiliar:

Sunlight is lethal to them, but not in the first stage after they are turned. They need to drink human blood as animal blood would make them malnourished, the older they get the paler/lighter their hair gets, if they drink the blood of another mythical creature those powers would stay with them for a short time (except magicians)!

Some bloodlines are stronger than others, but magic is not something someone who hasnt been a magician, or possessing of magical talent, in life can learn. There are also certain arts of magic that wont work once you turn into one.

[supermura]

Zhang Boheng at the Hunan First Normal University

“High intensity and high level competitions are a challenge to my body but as an aa-er and captain, this is a responsibility I take on without looking back."

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Omni-Man vs Chaos!

Conditions:

No Restrictions. Feats for Omni-Man taken from both the comics and show.

Scenario:

Chaos leads the New Gods in an attempt to conquer Earth. Nolan informs them Earth isn't theirs to conquer.

Analysis: Omni-Man

In a universe filled to the brim with great and mighty heroes, none were more powerful than Nolan Greyson, the seemingly invincible Omni-Man. A Viltrumite from the planet Viltrum, was sent to Earth to protect humanity so that it may one day grow into a mighty civilization, but like most retellings of Superman's story, his true intentions were much darker than they seemed. In truth, he had been sent to Earth in order to scout it out and prep it for conquest beneath the boot of the mighty Viltrumite Empire and once his half human son began to exhibit powers like his, Nolan knew it was time begin his conquest.

While Nolan succeeding in slaughtering the Guardians of the Globe, he couldn't bring himself to kill his son, no matter how hard he brutalized him. Realizing that he had grown to love hunanity during his short time on Earth, Nolan left the planet in tears, leaving his ultimate fate uncertain.

When Mark woke up, he learned it took Omni-Man, at most, a week to fly to the Virgo Supercluster, requiring him to fly at roughly 3 billion times faster than light.

Nolan Greyson, upon witnessing his son struggle to catch an asteroid, casually remarked "that was a small one" before remarking that he once caught an asteroid the size of Texas. Weighing about 3935645100820866360600 kg and flying at about 75000 m/s, that meteor would hit with a kinetic energy of 2.6 Zettatons of TNT.

Indeed, this vast strength gap was made clear when Nolan, though conflicted in his emotions, effortlessly battered Mark around for the entirety of their fight, more than capable of beating him to death if he truly wanted to.

But, that's the thing. He didn't want to. No matter how much Nolan focused on his mission, he could not put aside the love he had for his son or the family he built here. Nolan might have tried to turn his son into a Viltrumite, in the end, Mark made his father... human.

It was this love for his family that resulted in Omni-Man turning around, eventually fighting alongside his son to save the planet he'd been raised. To the point of even destroying Viltrum outright by plowing right through it alongside his son.

As a Viltrumite, Omni-Man is naturally capable of flight, even in the vacuum of space, and can breath outside of Earth's atmosphere. Indeed, Viltrumite's are nigh impervious to any sort of traditional weaponry that Earth has to offer, including all Earth based forms of disease and radiation. His superhuman healing factor allows him to survive getting beaten into a coma, punched through the stomach, and getting his eyes gouged out! Similarly, Viltrumites have also shown to get stronger through intense training. As someone's whose been conquering planets for thousands of years, Omni-Man is easily one of the strongest Viltrumites around.

However, beyond all his brute strength and powers, Omni-Man is brutal and cunning warrior with hundreds of years of experience under his belt. Having grown up in the Darwinist society of the Viltrumite Empire, Nolan has trained all his life to be a ruthless warrior. He is capable of wiping out entire planets singlehandedly and was capable of beating all the Guardians of the Globe by himself.

But, he is not invincible. ....Because that's his son. Come on man, pay attention.

But in all seriousness, Nolan does have some weaknesses behind that awesome mustache. His super hearing makes him vulnerable to loud noises and sonic vibrations, to the point that loud blasts can stop him flying outright. Extended exposure to the extreme heat of stars can overwhelm his healing factor, as can severe damage to the brain or heart.

Nolan Greyson has protected humanity from gods, aliens, and even entire armies. And now, he stands out as the biggest threat the human race has ever seen. It was only through his love for his family that he was able to become the hero he always pretended to be.

Analysis: Chaos

The worst has come to worst. Alien beings have come to Earth to conquer it. Possessing incomprehensible herculean strength and insurmountable superhuman powers, these "News Gods" break the world over their knee. Immediately devastating the cities of the world to terrorize humanity into line, these New Gods demand statues in their honor and sacrifices in their name. In one desperate last attempt to survive, the American government launches the super soldier program E.V.I.L. and creates a super squad to fight back, the Hellions. The E.V.I.L. Heroes of Earth.

The New Gods are energy beings that travel from planet to planet, possess members the local population, imbue them with their power, and use their vessels to conquer and be worshipped as Gods.

If their mortal host proves to be too heroic, then the New God in question might get overtaken by their host and have their personality overwritten, so they try to possess only evil people.

Chaos is the strongest of the New Gods and their leader. He's been conquering worlds for thousands of years and has decimated countless worlds in his wake as the most powerful being in the universe.

He's so unstoppable, he didn't even think it was possible for anyone to hurt him. Not even his fellow Gods.

Chaos can fly at supernatural speeds, survive the vacuum of space, and reduce crowds down to screaming skeletons with his heat vision. He uses all of these powers to their full murderous potential to terrorize the people into submission, such as when the President stood up to him when forced to building a statue of Chaos, so Chaos flew to space and blew up the moon to send a message, sending chunks of it raining down to decimate entire cities.

Hell, it's suggested he could've destroyed it even more thoroughly if he wanted to, but doing so would decimate his new kingdom more than he'd be willing to put up with, so he made a point to only partially overcome it's Gravitational Binding Energy, even though he likely totally could've.

When the Hellions keep defying him and even one of his fellow gods turns against him for his childish sadism, Chaos decides to simply wipe his hands of the problem. Nuke the Earth in a single blast of heat vision and be done with it! In his own words "I'll do to your planet what I did to your moon."

Assuming he means total destruction and not partial (a character with future sight forsees a future where Chaos destroys the whole planet in one shot), he'd have to overcome the planet's Gravitational Binding Energy to do so. That's 59 Zettatons of TNT.

Ultimately, the redeemed New God Olympus sacrifices his life to save the planet he's grown to love, killing Chaos and reducing him to an energy being once more, flying off back into space to find a new host to possess and a new planet to rule.

Given that Chaos left as soon as he died and he describes the other New Gods as traveling the galaxy with ease, I'll presume a timeframe of about ten seconds. The next planet Chaos finds himself at is about twenty five light years from Earth.

That gets us about 78,890,000 times Faster Than Light.

But while Chaos may be satisfied with his new fiefdom now, a tyrant as petty as him is bound to return eventually. And when he does, the Hellions will be ready. For as long as they live, the Earth will be protected by E.V.I.L. Heroes.

Throwdown Breakdown:

Battle of the evil supermen. Both of these planet conquerors have thousands of years of atrocities under their belts, but only one can come out on top.

Chaos has a very clear cut strength advantage. It is made explicitly clear that Nolan cannot outright destroy planets while Chaos blatantly can. During the destruction of Viltrum, Omni Man needed the help of two other people to destroy the planet, with it even being noted that all three could be incinerated if something went wrong. So Chaos is explicitly textually stronger. 22x stronger even. Combine that with the fact extreme star level heat can kill Viltrumites and Chaos's heat vision can bust the Earth and Nolan's starting on the backfoot here.

Buuuuut, that's about where it all starts to go the other way. For as big as the gap in strength is, the gap in speed is even larger. Even with the most generous possible interpretation of Chaos flying to another planet, Nolan traveling to another Galaxy is much faster. 42x faster in fact. As devastating as any blow Chaos lands might be, he'd have to land those blows first, and Nolan's not gonna give him the opportunity.

This is a dynamic that Omni-Man's other advantages stack on top of. Chaos is petty and short tempered, so his mounting frustration as the stoic Omni-Man avoids all his blows will leave him more open. While Chaos's fist will certainly punching right through Nolan's chest if he ever lands a hit, that's a blow that Omni-Man's regeneration can bring him back from, whereas Chaos has none at all.

Omni-Man would likely use his opponent's ego and short temper to bait him into space away from Earth, keeping Chaos from leveraging it against him as collateral, before using his equal skill, superior speed, and greater longevity to gradually wear down his much stronger foe. While both are equal in experience, Nolan is better at keeping a cool head in a rough fight and is the better tactician generally. He's more than capable of wearing down Chaos over time.

Once Chaos's physical body is destroyed, it's just a question of whether Nolan could resist Chaos trying to possess him. And if this were Omni-Man at the beginning of the series, I'd say no. But, Omni-Man has grown beyond the evil superman archetype that Chaos embodies. While his countless atrocities will likely haunt him forever, Nolan did grow to genuinely love his family and the life he found on Earth. The kind of person good enough to turn around and stop being monster is likely good enough to overcome Chaos's possession should he attempt, likely extinguishing Chaos from the inside out as like what happened to Olympus.

In all likelihood, Chaos flies off to find a new planet to conquer, alive but throughly beaten, while a battered Nolan flies back home to the family he fought to save.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Omni-Man!