#I don’t get the whole ‘Zhen is like his daughter! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

orsuliya · 4 years ago

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Hi) Do you think Awu would be happy with Zitan? I think the best thing Daddy Wang did was to force het to marry XQ. I mean he knows his daughter well. I think all those men (Zitan, Helan Zhen, Huaien) who were in love with her, would eventually dissapoint her. Which happened pretty early with Zitan lol I think they all lived in a fantasy, without really realizing what kind of a woman she is. I think they happen to be compatiable with XQ on all the levels. And he is the only one that matches her spirit. And the one she truly admires and looks up to) Potato is the only one who got over his affection towards her and managed to treat her as a sister or a friend) Who knew)

Ah, I knew I couldn’t keep escaping this question forever. This is absolutely not a slight against you, Reasonably Potato-Friendly Nonnie, not at all. It’s... complicated.

Now, let us consider how could such a marriage even take place. Of course there is always the elopement, although in order for that to succeed Zitan would need to be much less... Zitan. But is there any possibility of getting Awu and Zitan hitched even earlier for the purpose of this exercise? Well, yes, there is.

I am not going to consider a pre-series betrothal if only due to Awu’s age. Besides, such a betrothal would be akin to putting a cat among pigeons, which is something that Daddy Wang might absolutely do... but not without a guarantee of proportionate gratification. Letting such an agreement stand for long - with no possibility of sealing the deal early - is a no go, not when every other party would try to tear it asunder, use it for their own purposes or strike preemptively just in case.

Yes, I know that Daddy Wang had no intention of giving Awu’s hand to any of the Ma princes. And certainly he wouldn’t be able to marry her off to Zitan, should Zilong still be free, not without alienating his sister completely by building up a rival claimant with his own two hands.

Of course Zilu works his magic and Wanru becomes Zilong’s Crown Princess; this opens new, exciting possibilities. Potato is off the table completely: surely Awu could never become a second wife and neither would the Xies agree to see Wanru degraded so. This makes the rather stubborn Empress Dowager malleable; now what?

Well, let’s say that Xiao Qi pulls a runner much, much earlier, about five minutes after catching and putting Awu down. Even then Daddy Wang wouldn’t be all that keen on having Zitan as his son-in-law... unless one of two impossible things happened:

Impossible Thing number 1. Daddy Wang decides that Potato is an evolutionary dead end and decides to change horses halfway through the race. No, I do not mean that he goes for an earlier coup. He simply elects to switch his prospective puppets; I have no idea why would he do that, but he totally could, you know. Potato gets mashed in mysterious circumstances, Zitan gets Awu... for about nine months or however long it takes them to produce an heir... and then chokes on his own flute the minute a son is born unto him. Or rather unto Daddy Wang, who snatches this shiny Platinum Ticket up immediately. Awu gets a sweet gig as an Empress Mother, should Daddy Emperor expire prematurely. And they all get killed by the wondrous duo of Zilu&Jianning. Or maybe not, since the governor of Huizhou would probably stay loyal in this scenario, giving Xiao Qi enough time to save everyone and their dog. As always. In this scenario there is every possibility that Awu wouldn’t become disappointed with Zitan... because he wouldn’t live long enough for that in any case. And even if there was enough time for that to happen, Daddy Wang would make sure there were no dark clouds to throw shade on their marriage… for as long as it actually lasted. Why am I so sure that Zitan would have to die in this scenario? Well, how else could Daddy Wang install his Platinum Ticket on the throne? The way I see it, in this case Daddy Wang might not even go for the throne himself; a grandchild is, after all, a wholly different thing from a grand-nephew.

Impossible Thing number 2. Daddy Wang gets hit with a low-flying brick and gets a truly genius idea of making peace with the Xies. Wanru is married to Potato, so if Awu gets married to Zitan, there is simply no way that either side could step out on this status quo by, let’s say, marrying a daughter off to Xiao Qi and his big bad army. The only problem is that nobody would take such an entente lying down. The Empress Dowager wouldn’t, since it basically halves her own power as a prospective Empress Mother. Zilu&Jianning wouldn’t, since a Wang-Xie alliance could force them to wave their own chances goodbye. And the Emperor certainly wouldn’t, not when much of his power derives from serving as a mediator between warring factions! Even for the Xies and the Wangs it makes little sense: why take half a pie when you can have it whole? Without an external factor forcing their cooperation, there’s just no way they would go for that, unless as a way to shore up their positions. But that is a strategy good for the currently weaker Xies, not for Daddy Wang! Damn, that would have to be one heavy brick! Anyway, this scenario requires both couples to take part in an elaborate court dance of precedence, power games and daily balancing between two factions. Otherwise it all comes toppling down. This dance is certainly something that Awu can do… but Zitan absolutely cannot, not with his tendency to act like an offended kindergartener every time his ego gets hurt. Potato is much more likely to swallow an insult or ten than Mr. Flute and Awu would quickly see her husband for the child he is. No long-lasting happiness to be found there, sorry.

In both these cases court life would quickly reveal Zitan’s true face. Oh, I doubt he would go full-blown villain in either scenario, regardless of his probable life expectancy. The problem is that Awu knows and loves Zitan as this happy, carefree prince. What concern is Cheng’s governance to Zitan? He’s the Emperor’s youngest, most beloved and most spoiled son, the one with a greatly favoured mother; in this family even the presumptive heir gets little to no actual preparation for ruling and neither does the most talented prince!

Marriage to Awu automatically catapults Zitan into the very centre of Cheng’s political scene. What is permissible and even cute in a favoured youngest princeling is catastrophic in a pillar of the Empire. And Awu? Awu would be there with him all the way; infinitely more capable and yet comparatively powerless. Because riddle me this: what happens once Zitan’s beloved wife starts to show him up? As she inevitably must, knowing them both. Somehow I don’t think he would glow with pride or boast about her accomplishments. We saw how Zitan treats most women in his life, how he treated Wanru when she was his best ally and even Su Jin’er while she served as his spy. Women are allowed to have their own agendas and interests… as long as their agenda is to make Zitan great (again), regardless of any actual pay-off for them and theirs.

Love… love would last for a while. But you see, Zitan exhibits another worrying tendency, which would show its ugly face sooner or later. Starting from the Huizhou arc, he no longer sees Awu as she is and stubbornly tries to make her fit the mold he constructed in his head. And that mold is designed in such a way as to make him, Zitan, shine. He came late to their elopement? He didn’t come late at all, she just didn’t wait! He’s the faithful lover here. That mold is also very, very stiff and not very big to begin with. Surely what Awu wants most is to be an Empress. She’s a Wang daughter and Wang daughters become Empresses, who cares what Awu actually thinks or feels. Oh, sorry, that’s the second mold he constructs, the first was Zitan’s little wife, completely satisfied with living somewhere far from the capital and listening to his dreadful poetry all day long. Yeah, that romantic fantasy? It could have never happened; while believing in it might be forgivable in a fifteen-year-old Princess, it’s rather less so in a Prince who may become a target at any moment due to the Xie-Wang rivalry.

Okay, I have no idea where this whole thing is going and it shows. Let’s look at the third impossible thing, namely what would happen should that bloody elopement end in a success.

Impossible Thing number 3. Awu and Zitan run away and for some reason Daddy Wang doesn’t track them down. Which would take him a week at most, since neither Awu nor Zitan are all that inconspicuous, unmarked golden leaf or not. Golden leaf of presumably imperial grade is hella suspicious even without any markings, so kudos to Jinruo. But then how could she know any better…? But let’s say Daddy Wang gives up. And so do the remaining Xies, who just lost their potential claimant. And so does Zilu, who would totally set a potential rival loose. And the Empress Not-Yet-Dowager, paranoid that Zitan could be plotting with provincial magnates. And the Emperor, once he wakes up! Not like he wanted to put Zitan on the throne, right? And so does every single other interested party who could use a nifty imperial figurehead of their own. So Awu and Zitan settle down in a small house somewhere in… somewhere. What then?

Well, that small house… While Awu might be able to live and even thrive in such circumstances, Zitan is made out of different clay. Who was it that complained about the Imperial Mausoleum, which was basically a palace; and who had her wedding night under the stars dealt splendidly in Ningshuo after the first cultural shock? Okay, let’s say he sees this new servant-less and palace-less life as his Glorious and Noble Sacrifice, which is the only way I can imagine him being more or less happy with it. He woud drive Awu mad in a month. Either she gets a husband who is visibly unhappy – even if he doesn’t actually say so – or one that keeps indirectly blaming her for their new circumstances.

Also, I don’t think Jinruo’s stash would last all that long, not if they wanted to keep some standard of living, not without replenishing it in some way. Surprisingly, they both have some rather marketable skills; Awu is good with budgeting, for example, and Zitan would make a credible music master or calligraphy teacher. They could be… reasonably happy with that? Although seeing as Zitan is perfectly content with sitting a whole year out in his room, doing… nothing, I can’t see him being all that eager to make an honest living.

Then children would come and with children usually come problems, pulling them both further into the daily grind. Now, Awu would probably be okay with that, but Zitan with his lofty ideals? Zitan, who wasn’t able to imagine how Awu could possibly love or do anything more than tolerate a mere soldier? Somehow I can’t see him being anything but deeply unhappy with this rather prosaic existence. And unhappy with being unhappy, because he should be ecstatic, right? He married his love, he fulfilled his dream! How can he feel so... so mopey about it?!

He would be unhappy and unhappy with being unhappy, and sooner or later he would start searching for somebody to blame. And Awu would take that blame, at least in the beginning. Not because she’s a doormat, no. Because without her loftly titles, without her family and her position, she would probably feel much more vulnerable. We know how she felt about being a traitor’s daughter and Xiao Qi did everything in his power to shore up her position, even as he assured her that it mattered not at all. Would Zitan be half as observant and supportive? Yeah, I don’t think so. Besides, there would be a grain of truth in Zitan’s accusations: while it wasn’t Awu who came up with this whole idea, it was her mother who organized the elopement. Zitan was the victim, a poor unknowing lamb led to the slaughter the boat.

And you know what? Even if no blame was being thrown around, even if they both found acceptable equilibrium in their daily lives, even if they both were more of less satisfied with their new existence… it would still be a bloody tragedy.

And no, I am not talking about their differing levels of maturity or the fact that I rather doubt that a man like Zitan would be able to keep a woman like Awu permanently satisfied in every aspect of their lives.

My main beef with the elopement scenario is the fact that Awu was born to move empires, not wither in some backwater. She’s designed to operate on an entirely different scale! For all that she may dream of having a pretty little house somewhere in Ningshuo, those dreams take on an entirely different flavour knowing that the man living with her in that pretty little house would be Xiao Qi. You don’t exactly need to decide the fate of empires yourself when you have a man who could easily do just that eating out of your hand. The level of satisfaction is more or less the same, I guess. Note that even at the end Xiao Qi and Awu don’t give up power. They may choose to live quietly in their beloved Ningshuo, but the moment something goes really wrong? They will be back in the saddle in five minutes flat. That big bad army isn’t going anywhere either and that neat final voiceover? Gives us a pretty good idea as to their plans for the future:

grasslands + grateful and thus loyal manpower + big bad army = economical and military powerhouse + all benefits of being a vassal state + de facto independence

That’s no withering in obscurity, let me tell you! Not like living with Zitan under an assumed name would be.

ETA: Oh, I know what the question was! Do I think that Awu would be happy with Zitan? NOPE.

#ask and answer #what was the question again #sorry for going off like that #zitan oh so pretty and oh so useless #the rebel princess #monarch industry #rebel princess meta

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skullsandwineglasses · 4 years ago

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Awu - A coping character

Like a lot of people, my immediate reaction after watching episodes 59-63 was dissatisfaction and frustration. It seemed like Awu was a passive character. I still think she is passive, but that’s not necessarily a flaw or something that we should fault her about. This is going to be a helluva long post, but let me try to explain.

Awu is what you would call a “coping” character. She copes with obstacles thrown at her. She reacts to the machinations that blow up around her. She doesn’t really strive for things, except for probably general happiness. In the trailers, you hear her say in the voiceover, “I just want to be with the one I love”. Awu is a romantic. We saw this when she was young and crushing on Zi Tan and how she begged the emperor to grant her the wish of marrying for love. When she is a married woman, we see her wanting to start a family with Xiao Qi. We see her actively seek out ways to boost her health so that she can bear a child. Her ultimate goal is to find true love and have a family.

In a way, she reminds me of the Mandalorian. There’s a meme that says that even though the Mandalorian is the main character that the audience follows, in the grand scheme of things, the Mandalorian is actually just a side character among a group of main characters. The Mandalorian doesn’t strive for much. He just wants to be a Space Dad (TM) to Baby Yoda and to find a jedi to train his adopted child, and he has absolutely no interest in the politics in the galaxy. But, he’s always unwillingly thrust into politically-charged situations by these “main” characters around him who have their own political missions.

As a princess, Awu is the center of attention. Everyone dotes on her. But she isn’t a key player in the palace politics at all. She has no desire to be apart of it, even though everyone tries to pull her into it: Daddy Wang trying to force her into an military-advantageous marriage, her Empress aunt trying to get her to marry her son the crown prince, and then her Emperor uncle using her to help protect his will. Everyone has their own political agenda that each would have long-lasting consequences to the empire, but all Awu wants is to live happily ever after with the person she loves. This goal of hers never changes throughout the drama, which I admire. Even up to episode 63, she’s asking Xiao Qi to let go of vengeance and leave the capital with her to go live up north like they’ve always dreamed and planned together. While I don’t really agree with her asking XQ to give up vengeance, I completely understand why she asks him.

Among a cast of characters who are constantly planning and scheming, even Xiao Qi now with his drive for justice and vengeance, it almost feels like Awu doesn’t belong, and I think this difference between her and the people around her is why it can seem frustrating to some viewers. We project our emotions onto her and expect her to react as we would. We expect her to act like how we think we would act in that situation. But Awu has always been different from the people around her. I don’t think she’s ever really been in-sync with any character expect maybe for her mom, her maids (Jin’er doesn’t count), and Xiao Qi. So now that her and XQ are slightly out of sync in terms of their attitudes, we’re feeling a little on edge.

I think many would agree that Awu is a smart character, but she doesn’t scheme. And again, that’s because she’s a simple young woman, so we can’t expect her to scheme since she’s never had to. She’s never had to scheme to survive. Even when her whole family schemes, they always think about sparring her because of how much they loved her in the past. People complain about her being the last one to find out about things, but that’s because she doesn’t really involve herself in matters outside the house. She always thinks the best of people and so she never suspects them. She’s saintly to a fault. In a way, Awu is a very idealistic character, but also a resilient one since she’s able to remain true to her original nature even after witnessing the worst of her family. I admit, this was a little hard to buy at first, which was why I was frustrated with her, and her character isn’t everyone’s cup of tea because it’s a really Mary Sue kind of character, but after having cooled down these past few days, I’ve learned to respect her. With all the cunning and ruthless female leads recently, it’s nice to see a female lead who stays true to herself even after facing adversity, instead of becoming hardened and jaded and cynical. I feel like we hate on these kinds of FLs too much, kind of like how everyone hated Bella from Twilight back in 2010. I secretly really liked Bella and related to her when I was a teen, but I boarded on the hate-bandwagon because everyone else hated her.

BUT, I think what’s causing all the backlash is what people expected Awu to become based on how she was set up from the beginning. It almost feels like the writers couldn’t decide if they want her to be brash and rebellious, or loyal and true to the times. So we end up with a confusing combination of both, and different viewers end up having different expectations of what they want her character to be, hence all the disagreements about how to interpret her actions and decisions.

At the beginning, we’re introduced to a sheltered, loved, and carefree young woman of noble blood. Awu is then forced to marry a man she hardly knows, her lover won’t elope with her, and her husband leaves her on her wedding night. This is her first major turning point, and we see an immediate change in her. She matures overnight. She seems to have lost her carefree innocence. She isn’t as bubbly as before.

Because we see this major change in her character so early on in the drama, this is what we expect to continue moving forward for her character, and that she’s going to keep being molded in this way by life-changing events.

She’s then captured by Helan Zhen and has to try to survive, and she does this very well when you consider her sheltered and noble upbringing. In fact, a lot of the things that Awu does in the drama are out of line with her upbringing. She supports the Emperor’s decision to grant XQ, a peasant-born general, the ranking of a prince. She is able to adapt to the rough lifestyle in Ning Shuo. She’s able to whistle like a bandit, much to Xiao Qi’s surprise. And when you think about it, you begin to wonder, where did Awu learn to whistle and ride a horse like that? Who snuck her out of the prime minister’s manor in order to teach her these things? I doubt it was her brother or the princes, considering how useless and misogynistic they are. Her grandmother taught her politics and the arts, which helped her become worldly and cultured, but she didn’t teach Awu what a peasant’s lifestyle is like. So it’s actually a huge surprise that the spoiled daughter of a princess is able to fall in love with a low-born general and feel safe and at ease with him so quickly and easily. We’re briefly told that Awu likes selfless heroes, and so that’s our explanation for why she was able to fall for Xiao Qi. But to me, I think her falling in love with Xiao Qi is another example of how Awu is able to cope with the circumstances.

When Xiao Qi rescues her and takes her back to Ning Shuo, she’s resistant towards him. She seems defeated. Lifeless. We think her time in captivity with Helan has induced another permanent change in her. When Xiao Qi opens the window to let some fresh air in, she calls hims “cu lu” ( 粗鲁), which means rough. It’s something you say when you insult someone for being inelegant, thoughtless, and rude. She scorns the women’s taste of clothing in Ning Shuo, and is surprised when she learns that XQ, along with the rest of the army, only showers once a month because of the lack of hot water.

BUT, what begins to change Awu’s mind so quickly is seeing how righteous and devoted Xiao Qi is. She sees him as a good marriage partner. Her situation could have been a lot worse. After all, after seeing how unhappy her mother, the Empress, and Wanru were in their marriages, Awu expected a similar situation with her own arranged marriage. But instead, she quickly realizes what a lucky hand she’s been dealt, so she accepts XQ and lets herself fall for him. She doesn’t really have a choice anyway, so she embraces it. I especially love the scene during the siege when she tells Zi Tan that she fell in love with Xiao Qi because of his heroism and his selflessness towards the empire, while she now looks down on Zi Tan. If only Xiao Qi were there to hear her confess her love to him so vehemently.

In Ning Shuo, we see Awu begin to soften towards Xiao Qi. She becomes her old carefree self again around him. THIS is something that deviates from most coming-of-age stories that feature a female lead who is irreversibly changed by a traumatic life event. Awu returning to her normal, positive self instead of being jaded foreshadows how her character will behave for the rest of the drama. Yes, Awu doesn’t “grow” like other female characters, but she stays consistent and optimistic, which is a virtue in itself because it reflects her resilience.

When Awu is separated from Xiao Qi and has to protect a city against a siege by her uncle, we see her rise up to the challenge on her own. We see her command an army. We see her stand up to Zi Tan. She shows potential of becoming a “rebel princess”, which again raises our expectations that she’ll become more involved in politics. But at the same time, she’s still a young woman who likes to cuddle with her husband and be doted on by him when he returns. This is the Awu that we’ve known from the beginning. She’s used to be doted on by people who love her. What we have to remember from this siege arc is that while Awu showed great leadership skills, this is not who she wants to be. She CAN be this person, but she doesn’t want to be. The drama subtly reminds us of this when Xiao Qi comes back and she melts into his arms.

This aspect of her character is echoed again in episode 36 when she and Xiao Qi are cuddling in their signature corner of the manor. She says that she doesn’t seem to have to worry about anything when he’s around. XQ teases her about what she would do while he’s gone at war. She tells him that she can face anything on her own when he’s not there, but when he is here, all she wants to do is rely on him.

We tend to forget that Awu likes to be doted on (e.g., remember all those moments throughout the beginning of the drama where she likes to lie in people’s laps. See this post.) This was how she grew up. Loved and spoiled. But Awu CAN be strong. She’s perfectly capable of being strong. That’s why the Emperor trusted her with his will. That’s why Wanru and Zilong trusted her with their child aka the future of the empire. But, she doesn’t want to be this person who has suddenly become the pillar of the empire. She wants to live a simple life. That’s why she sounds so somber when she talks to Nanny Xu about the meaning behind “Mu Yi Tian Xia”, and her duty as the wife of a general and the descendant of royals to unite the commoners with the blue bloods. It’s a tall order, but she’s willing to take on that responsibility for the good of the empire. Again, this shows that Awu is a reactionary character who copes with turmoil that comes at her, but that’s because she’s taking on goals that she didn’t want or ask for in the first place. She has an entirely different set of goals. She dreams of living out another story. But instead, she’s born into this one.

After the siege, Awu’s next major turning points involve her family, and I think this is where it becomes divisive. She finds out about her Emperor Uncle having tried to have her and XQ killed, her cousin trying to steal the throne, her Empress Aunt trying to burn the Emperor’s will, her father trying to stage a coup, her mother killing herself as a result, and her having a miscarriage. In the end, she forgives everyone even after having seen the worst of them. Even after realizing that they’d sacrifice her for power. This is all understandable, even if saintly of her. These are the people who raised her, so I get why she would forgive them. Awu values family (to a fault). It’s not in her nature to abandon family, especially given how close she is to them. They helped shaped who she grew up to be. She lived a happy childhood with them. She’s never known abuse. Heck, even when they betray her, like the Emperor, they apologize to her soon after. Everyone seems to want to appease her. Even the Empress after all she’s done. Can you blame Awu for not having it in her to hate people? As rotten as her family is, they always try to spare her, and they only target her as a reluctant, last resort (even though they all want her husband killed though. It’s weird how they justify loving her, but still think it’s okay to kill her husband).

Awu does make some questionable decisions and judgments though, and I feel like she thinks of Xiao Qi too idealistically and takes him for granted, which can sometimes be unfair to him.

Case 1 is when she goes out of her way to help Qian’er and meets with Helan Zhen in secret and then dances with him. Like what many people have said, they feel angry that she danced with HZ before her own husband. And when Xiao Qi expresses anger and concern over her meeting with HZ, she insults him by saying he lacks a sense of familial duty since she doesn’t have a proper family or clan. This was a low-blow, but I excused it since it was in the heat of the moment.

Case 2 is the aphrodisiac incident. I think this is when Awu realizes that she hasn’t been considerate enough of Xiao Qi. When she learns that Xiao Qi was the victim in the situation, she immediately defended him and cast out Qian’er. However, up until this point, Awu has always taken Qian’er’s side against him. There’s no doubt that Awu loves and appreciates Xiao Qi, but it sometimes feels like she forgets how much he does for her and how tolerant he is of her family. Xiao Qi, an undefeated general and god of war, is nearly assaulted at the hands of his wife’s cousin because his wife has a big heart and let the predator into the house. Awu has always seen Xiao Qi has invincible, but this was the moment when she realizes that he can be broken, and she can be the cause of it.

Case 3 is what everyone’s been talking about recently, which is how she is reacting to Xiao Qi’s rage towards his betrayed fallen soldiers. While I understand that Awu is stuck in the middle, it also feels like she’s prioritizing her family over his feelings. She knows that Xiao Qi is angry, and yet she asks him to leave with her. She has the expectation that he will listen to her. She’s (quietly) making him choose between her and his army, which is unfair, even if she’s doing it for his own good. Do I agree with what she’s doing? Not really. But do I sympathize with her motivations? Yes. It’s taken me a couple of days, but I think I now understand.

Xiao Qi definitely has flaws too (e.g., the contraceptive fiasco). They both keep secrets from each other and try to make decisions for each other. Two sides of the same coin. Ugh, these two frustrate me so much, but I still love them so much.

Overall, people are expecting Awu to be one type of character, but they ignore how the drama’s been characterizing her. We can agree or disagree with her character’s development, but when you break it down, Awu’s character makes sense and is actually quite consistent, which is surprising for a 68-episode drama. Usually characters take a 180-degree turn after being drawn out for so long, but Awu has stayed true, for better or for worse. Do I still get frustrated at her sometimes? Of course. But, I can sympathize with her.

Rant over.

#monarch industry #the rebel princess #上阳赋 #awu #cdrama #this has taken me 2 hours to write #i don't have a life but I have a bunch of assignments waiting for me #rip #cdrama rant #my life hasn't been my own since jan #character analysis #deep dive

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5lazarus · 3 years ago

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Dragon Eyes: an Avatar-The Last Airbender Fanfic

Dragon Eyes

On a diplomatic mission to the Fire Nation, Katara leaves the children with Aang to have tea with Zuko and Mai. But the two of them have something they want to talk about. They've lived enough of fathers neglecting one child for the other, and they have seen enough.

Katara wishes they had propositioned her, rather than bring this up. Read on Archive of Our Own here.

Years of travel in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation have not made handling the heat any easier. Katara rejoices in shedding her layers, showing off some skin. Aang is entertaining all the kids—all of them, not just Tenzin, and Zuko’s daughter, too. She is relieved to have them out of her hair, to have the time to sit down and comb through her hair. She twists her hair into her old Fire Nation fashion and grins at herself in the mirror. She loves her hair loopies, but it’s nice to shake things up a bit.

Aang is taking the kids through the palace and tormenting the tour guide Zuko sent them with Ty Lee. Katara is taking advantage of the break. Zuko told her he’ll be in the garden with Mai, doing a tea meditation. Apparently they do that every morning, to keep a finger on each other’s pulse. At first Katara was nonplussed, wondering if that was a euphemism, and was slightly alarmed when he invited her to join them. Aang has talked about how the Air Nomads practiced polyamory. The Water Tribe does not. Katara does not.

It is terribly, terribly hot, humidity a caress on the skin, and she bends it cooler around her limbs, swiping the sweat away. Barefoot she walks down the tile path into the courtyard. Mai and Zuko are sitting by the turtleducks, drinking tea. Mai sees her first and raises a small cup in welcome.

Zuko says, “I told you she’d come.”

Mai rolls her eyes. “Hot tea on a hot day? Only offer this to Katara, not any other officials from the Water Tribe.”

“Fair,” Zuko says. He smiles at her. “Aang’s got the kids?”

Katara settles down at the tea table, one of those elegantly-carved pieces of wood that look deceptively simple and thus cost a fortune. Zuko uses wooden prongs to place a small porcelain cup before her and Mai. She touches it, eggshell thin. It’s warm.

“The tea tastes better that way,” Zuko says. Mai looks at him fondly. “Easier now that I don’t have to hide the fire bending.”

Katara smiles. “I really am surprised we didn’t run into each other earlier. Your uncle’s tea shop was so popular!”

Zuko hides his face behind his hair, and Mai puts her hand on his arm. Iroh’s death is still raw on him. She takes the tongs from him and begins pulling thin, silvery green leaves from a jar. She places them in a scoop made from bamboo.

“Bai hao yin zhen,” Mai says. “Early spring.” An eagerness underlays her usual drawl. Katara raises an eyebrow. She really likes the tea. Mai says, “Here. Smell.”

Katara leans forward. “The things I do for diplomacy!” She grins, and takes a cautious sniff. Her eyes widen, and she inhales deeper, drunk on the scent. “That’s like the sun!”

Mai smiles, and Zuko shakes himself out of his reverie to say, “Uncle always said the tasting notes were honey and sun fruits, after the rain. This is the new buds of a tea tree. There are other white teas, just as exquisite, that include the leaves, but I’ve always loved this one. It’s a treat.”

Katara says, “Well, thank you for sharing with me. If it tastes anything like it smells….”

“Uncle always served you red tea, right?” Zuko takes an open pot and closes a hand gently around its handle. The water begins to bubble. “He thought you’d like a deeper flavor. It’s good for the cold. But white tea cools me down.”

Katara leans back on her haunches, raising her face to the sun. She listens to the burble of the koi pond behind her, where Zuko has placed a shrine to Yue. Reparations, she thinks. Not enough: Sokka and Suki broke up, of course, and he has never quite been able to settle down since. She’s there, silent in the bright sky, and while it is not enough, at least the world is whole.

The courtyard is gritty under her hands, and she wipes at them, wincing at the soreness in the joints. She’s been stressed. These family trips are always stressful. Aang, for all his meditation, never seems to be able to focus on packing and he makes Bumi’s inattention worse, and then Kya gets upset that Bumi is bothering her and kicks up a fuss, and then Tenzin of course cries, and Appa covers him in slobber trying to comfort him, which makes him cry worse, and then he needs a bath, and then Bumi and Kya get upset, because the baby is the baby and the Airbender and everything, as Kya once screamed. She sighs. It is good to have some time in the sun, while Aang takes care of the kids, and have some intelligent conversation besides when she was having her next baby. She wasn’t. Three and a husband were enough.

Mai says, apropos of nothing, “Dragon eyes.” She slides the tea from the scoop into a gaiwan, shaking the leaves to spread them on the bottom.

Katara opens her eyes. “What?”

Mai says, “It means the water’s boiling. When the bubbles are that large, like dragon eyes. It means it’s the temperature that’s good for this kind of white tea. Though some brew it cooler—with crab eyes, rather than dragon eyes.”

Zuko takes his hand from the pot and skillfully pours the boiling water into the waiting gaiwan. He places its lid on the top, and pours it swiftly into another exquisite porcelain pitcher, almost translucently blue. Like blood, Katara thinks, and then banishes the thought. Hama wouldn’t like her here. The honeysuckle smell fills the garden. Zuko pours the tea, almost silver-green, into her cup.

He says, “Don’t drink. Just smell.”

Katara looks at him doubtfully. It seems like such a waste of such wonderful-smelling tea. The Fire Nation court has always struck her as excessive, though she is leery of people who prattle on about decadence.

Mai says, “You can drink it. But it’s the rinse, you rinse leaves like this the way you do rice.”

Katara says, “You ever cooked rice?” Zuko laughs, and Mai rolls her eyes.

“Very funny,” she drawls. “When we searched for Ursa. Eventually I got it right.” Zuko grins in a way that makes Katara think that perhaps she never did.

He points to the figure, painted in blue, sitting serenely at the center of the tea table. “Or you can offer it to her.” Katara picks up the porcelain figurine. It’s of a woman, a mother, holding a child close. She catches Mai’s eye. Zuko still hurts for his mother, for his father, for his cousin and his sister and his uncle. It manifests in such obvious ways, how he grieves his family. She doesn’t even need to hear it, but Zuko says it anyway. “It was my mother’s. Noriko, I mean.”

“Have you spoken to her recently?” Katara says carefully. She places the figurine back onto the table and unceremoniously dumps her cup over it, hoping it scalds through the paint. Families are complicated, Zuko’s insanely so. Mai gives her an amused look and does the same.

Zuko shrugs. “I just wish she’d talk to Azula. She hasn’t visited her once. And I know it’s hard, and you never really know when the lucid period will end, but—“

Mai says, “Loving Azula isn’t easy. It might get better when Ozai dies.”

Then they are silent as Zuko picks up the pot again and flash-brews the tea. It is hard to be sour with such a sweet smell filling the air. They don’t need to say it. It would have been better if Aang had killed Ozai. It is easier to come to peace with the dead father than the living disposed king and his mad daughter.

Zuko pours the honey-sweet tea into her little cup. She sips it, lost in its clear light taste. This is what the dew hidden in a flower tastes like, she thinks. She tries to slow down sipping at this minuscule cup, but too fast, the tea is gone. Zuko is smiling.

“Another cup?” he says, and she nods eagerly. “This was one of my uncle’s favorites. One of the many things he loved from the Earth Kingdom.”

They drink, reveling in the sheer loveliness of it. It’s like drinking light, Katara thinks. Earth and fire and water, in one cup. The warm porcelain soothes her aching hands. A muscle relaxes in her neck, and she lets her shoulders down. She rolls them, happy in their mobility.

Mai looks at her with an acupuncturist’s eye. “Pinched nerve?” she asks. “I can look at that. If you’re comfortable.”

Katara stops, cup halfway to her mouth. She’s going back to her original thought that they were hitting on her, which is flattering, but no. Absolutely not. She’s got enough going on, even if Aang wouldn’t mind, or even be into it. No.

Zuko leans forward. “There’s something we’ve been wanting to ask her.”

Katara’s heart stops. She puts the cup down, a little too hard. “I—uh—“

“Have things been alright with Aang?”

Mai’s mouth twitches. “I think she thought we were going to ask her something else.”

“Everything’s fine!” Katara blurts. Mai can be such a troll sometimes. “I mean. Traveling with the kids is always…a lot, but—why?” She’s irritated now. She has not been pleased with Aang, but three small children take a toll on communication in a marriage. She’s embarrassed that it has been that obvious. She fiddles with the figurine on the table.

Zuko and Mai exchange a look. They look like they’re waiting for the other to speak. Finally, Mai heaves a sigh.

“Bumi wrote Izumi something in a letter,” Mai says. She folds her hands in her lap. “You know how they’re friends. And it made her very upset.”

“Well,” Katara says. “If he was nasty to her, I’ll speak to him, but I don’t see what this has to do with my marriage. Bumi is—“ She stops. Bumi is always in the middle of things, fussing around, crashing into walls just like his namesake. She loses patience with him too often, she knows that, but Kya’s easy to distract with a waterbending lesson, and Tenzin just sits with his scrolls when Aang isn’t putting him through his paces. He’s so much like his father, an absolute whirlwind of energy. She’s privately thought it’s a shame he didn’t inherit his father’s bending, rather than Tenzin, but that is something she can not let herself think for long.

“He says he doesn’t think his father loves him, because he’s not a bender,” Zuko says. “Which I know is not right. But I have been in that position before. And he told her that Aang is never around, that he just travels from temple to temple with Tenzin, and he and Kya are just left at home. And that he’s worried about you too. It was a very…” He trails off, and looks at Mai.

Mai finishes, “The ink was smudge. He’d been crying. So we wanted to talk to you, because it scared Izumi. Because we both know what it is like to be ignored by our fathers.” She smiles thinly. “And the toll it took on our mothers.”

Zuko says, “I’m sorry if we overstepped, it was just—hard to read.”

Katara says, “Why didn’t he tell me? It’s—he does his best to present for the kids, but Aang has his Avatar duties, and as the last airbender, there’s so much he needs to teach Tenzin, so it’s just easier for him to bring only him along. Have you tried to move three children around the world on bison-back?”

Zuko looks wry for a second. “Well,” he says. “It depends if you count Sokka as a child.”

Mai puts her hand on his arm: not the time.

Katara says, “I wish it was better, but I knew I wasn’t walking into something that was easy. From the start. He could be a better father, but what can I do? What can I do?” She’s furious now, tears rising to her eyes, and she looses a ragged breath, surprised at her own fervor. Wordlessly Zuko pours her another cup. She downs it, barely tasting it.

Mai says, “If he’s not being a good father to your children and a good husband to you, you can leave. We’re not our mothers, Katara.” Zuko looks at her warningly. “Sorry. I don’t know how it was in the Southern Water Tribe, but for my mother, she thought she had no choice. But there is always a choice. Even if it isn’t easy. I don’t—“

Zuko says firmly, “You deserve better. Bumi and Kya deserve better. And Tenzin too. That sort of resentment between siblings is poison. I should know.”

Katara would have preferred that they proposition her. She closes her eyes. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispers. Louder, she continues, “I know Bumi deserves better. From both of us. I know it hurts them. I can see it in the way they treat Tenzin. Kya already barely speaks to Aang. But. Tenzin is my son, too. And of course he and Aang would be closer. It’s just—if I take my children and go, I’m taking Aang’s family away. And I know the Air Nomads were different, he wasn’t raised to stay in one place, if you were a bender and a boy you’d be sent to the temple and that was it, but—“

“Bumi is Southern Water Tribe,” Mai says. “And even if his father is an Air Nomad, only his brother counts as one. Because of bending. And that isn’t fair for him. For Kya either, because they are both. And you know you need to do something about it.” Katara looks up, surprised at the emotion in her voice. Mai stares at her steadily. “Katara, you saved the world. You’re the hero of the Fire Nation, the Painted Lady, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. You deserve a husband who is a coparent to all your children, not just one.”

Katara says, “You don’t—“ and then there is a crash and a scream and the sound of raucous laughter as Aang comes running in on an air ball, Tenzin nipping at his heels.

“C’mon,” he yells behind him, “faster, you snail sloths!” He and Tenzin pause, perched on the air they so effortlessly bend. Tenzin looks a little harried. Bumi comes running in, panting, then Kya, and Izumi at a more sedate pace.

“That’s…cheating,” Kya says. She grips at the wall. “That wasn’t fair!” She is genuinely angry, almost at the brink of tears, and Izumi bumps her reassuringly. Bumi throws himself on the ground.

Tenzin says pedantically, “You didn’t say no bending.”

Izumi snaps, “Maybe it didn’t need to be said!”

Aang jumps onto his feet, and Tenzin follows. Kya is crouching over Bumi now, muttering to him. Mai’s face is a stone. Zuko is blushing.

“What’s up?” Aang says, grinning. “Did I miss anything fun?”

Katara pours herself a cup rather than answering. She considered the heat and sweetness in the air. With a flick of her risk, she bends it over the mother figurine, washing her clean.

“Oh, you know,” she says. “Diplomacy. We’ll talk about it when we get home.”

#avatar: the last airbender #atla #atla fanfiction #atla fanfic #fanfic #anti kataang #katara #mai/zuko #katara & mai friendship #katara & zuko friendship #friendship #bad dads #divorce #post canon #family drama #family issues

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youtiaoshutiao · 4 years ago

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i just finished "the romance of tiger and rose" and i have nothing to watch now :( do you have any cdrama recs?

hello!!!! sorry i got to this a week late my tumblr is like... neglected currently

anyway i’m so glad u enjoyed tiger and rose!!! i love it so much too :D for cdrama recs, omg it really depends on what u’re looking for!!!! i find it so hard to narrow down dramas that are my faves to recommend because i actually watch very little HAHA and i only watch to completion dramas that i really like anyway xD anyway i’ll just list a few that i’ve watched recently (meaning like... from mid 2019 till now) and really enjoyed!!!

period dramas:

- joy of life 庆余年 (2019): hard to describe this tonally because it’s v irreverant and hilarious yet moving and deep and suspenseful?! the first 15 episodes are fun and enjoyable but i think i really really truly got into it after that and became invested 100%. in my eyes it felt like a fervent love poem to life and the human condition especially towards the end. the characters are all very fascinating and there’s a lot of twisty plot twists. excellent acting and script writing. only caveat is that it’s the first season out of a planned 3 season series so it ends on a cliffhanger, and the female lead doesn’t really have as much agency compared to the other supporting female characters (mainly due to her circumstances and the role she plays i guess).

- young blood 大宋少年志 (2019): YOOO THIS is a huge lovelovelove for me, you have the most lovable squad consisting of 6 very different and generally lonely teenagers who get roped into this secret services thing where they deal with top secret government plots and stuff. and they start off all on the wrong foot and grow to LOVE EACH OTHER and RELY ON EACH OTHER and HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. *sobs just thinking about it* has many supporting characters that are interesting and whom u also get invested in. It’s an original script written by Wang Juan 王倦 who also wrote the joy of life script, except young blood is 100% original and not adapted from a webnovel! just like tiger and rose’s script, which is also an original script written by Nan Zhen. this is SUPER SUPER rare nowadays in cdramaland which is why i stan these 2 dramas so hard hahaha. caveat: young blood also ends on a kind of cliffhanger/open ending, but it still felt like the arcs that the entire series covered in terms of character development were well completed so i was okay with it. plus there are lots of hints that there’s also gonna be a season 2, though I think Wang Juan is still writing the script for that.

- under the power 锦衣之下 (2019/2020): this is the drama that tiger and rose is sometimes compared to in terms of how it became so popular unexpectedly. i would wholeheartedly recommend this 100% solely for the OTP which is a Tsundere Embroidered Uniform Guard (Ming-dynasty secret police) ML x Bubbly/talkative/street smart Constable FL. they are SUPER SUPER cute and the leads (who are both my faves) play them super well and their romantic development is presented really organically. the outfits esp the male lead’s are A+++ also and make him look super super hot. i like the OST too. however everything else is quite mediocre lol especially the special effects and the meandering sideplots and there was a whole plot arc that didn’t really make much sense because a lot was edited out because of censorship. STILL VERY ADDICTIVE THO

- the story of ming lan 知否知否应是绿肥红瘦 (2018/2019): a very long drama (but quite normal by cdrama standards lol) basically about the ~journey~ and ~growth~ of our protagonist minglan, unfavoured daughter of a concubine of a relatively high ranking civil servant. it’s a very different vibe to a lot of other cdramas in that it’s very slice-of-life and slow paced, but i think it’s fascinating how it showcases how women deal and work with the internal dynamics of a household in a patriarchal society, and how that affects societal and political affairs as well. her OTP with an unfavoured son from another family (lol) is also very very delicious as it’s basically 2 people who have gone thru a lot of Trauma as children treasuring each other/learning that they too are treasured by the other and them building their own family and household against all odds and evil family members. it’s v long and slow paced as i mentioned earlier but it’s very very rewarding!! and i think many of my tumblr mutuals would agree it’s quite a favourite :D

modern dramas:

(i’ll admit that i’ve only had the brainspace the past 1 year for fluffy brainless modern dramas so all these are just for the FLUFF)

- skate into love 冰糖炖雪梨 (2020): uni drama where the FL re-picks up her true love speed skating after abandoning it for Reasons and gets back into it competitively. her OTP is her primary school deskmate who is an ice hockey player. the otp is very very fun!! the ML has a lot of resentment towards FL initially because FL was quite the bully in primary school but i really like how they resolved it and eventually the ML falls first and falls Really Really Hard and it is Delicious. the career aspects was quite well done also and i really rooted for the FL to rediscover her passion and pick it up again, and also for the ML to become better at his craft. caveat: i actually still have 10 episodes to go as i stalled because i know there’s a couple of episodes coming up that are going to be frustrating because of typical Misunderstanding and Miscommunication blablabla. but that’s pretty common lolol and overall it’s still a cute watch.

- the 致我们 series consisting of 3 dramas :

1) a love so beautiful 致我们单纯的小美好 (2017): high school drama basically tsundere male lead x bubbly female lead, they’ve been classmates since young and are next door neighbours, female lead has a crush on him since forever

2) put your head on my shoulder 致我们暖暖的小时光 (2019): set in uni, female lead’s doing an internship far from her school, male lead is a physics student and his parents have a flat for him that is near female lead’s internship place, BAM THEY ARE FLATMATES!

3) the love equations 致我们甜甜的小美满 (2020): uni drama, female lead is a chinese language major who loves writing forensic novels online, male lead is a forensic science major.

all 3 are really cute lolol. i put these 3 because i just watched the third one two months ago and i feel like i have to mention it in the context of the first 2 haha. the first 2 were definitely hits both domestically and internationally. i feel the 3rd one kind of flopped? in terms of reception compared to the first 2 and a lot of my drama mutuals couldn’t get into it, and i can understand why because it did feel more unpolished? in terms of directorial choices/the editing/the acting/the script. but i still somehow really loved it for some reason, i think some parts of the ML’s life esp his relationship with his mum really resonated with me, and i loved FL and her friendships with her dormmates so so so so much. so i really rooted for the OTP. i think objectively in terms of quality i would rate them 2 > 1 > 3, but in terms of feels... i loved them all. and it’s all just pure fluff anyway at the end of the day HAHA.

ok i’m running out of time writing this hehe but also a quick shoutout to my 2 favourite youth/high school dramas forever - With You 最好的我们 (2015) and My Huckleberry Friends 你好旧时光 (2017) which are sister dramas/set in the same universe and imo, are the pinnacle of youth dramas and what it means to capture the anxieties/stresses/mundane joys/pain/beauty of the Chinese/Asian high school experience.

there are many others from before 2019 that i watched and enjoyed but i didn’t put them in hehe. and i’m sorry HAHA i actually don’t have much trust in my own taste LOL but i hope it helps!!

ohhhh and i’ve been trying to avoid starting on new dramas because of Exam Prep but there’s been SO MANY airing lately that i’ve been interested in:

The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落: apparently super well done suspense/thriller drama that’s receiving rave reviews everywhere!!

Love A Lifetime 暮白首: an original wuxia starring ren jialun (ML in under the power) whom i love so much and zhang huiwen

My Girl 99分女朋友: this is a modern day cdrama written by nan zhen!!! (who wrote tiger and rose) so i think it might be worth checking out :))

#recs #cdrama #joy of life #young blood #the story of Ming Lan #under the power #skate into love #a love so beautiful #Put Your Head On My Shoulder #the love equations #with you #my huckleberry friends #the bad kids #love a lifetime #my girl #mine #drama watching #replies

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thefeastandthefast · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Serenade of Peaceful Joy as propaganda...

I was just thinking about Serenade of Peaceful Joy as propaganda tool and political morality play and realized...

If the drama is intending for the Chinese viewer to put themselves in the shoes of “the people” and not in the shoes of Danshu or Huirou or the other female characters, then I can see how the writer might think that the characterization of the emperor is sympathetic and that Huirou should ultimately accept her fate. All of the utterly illogical writing suddenly makes way more sense if that was the goal. I’ll explain my theory:

So... the emperor is constantly going on about how “the people” want peace and economic prosperity and most importantly, they need the imperial family’s conduct to be a moral example. In the last episode, he takes Huirou to visit a lantern-making family and shows her how everyone, from the oldest to the youngest, is working hard to make a living. He tells Huirou that her actions need to be considered above reproach because she owes it to “the people”, because “the people” didn’t pay taxes to support her posh princess lifestyle for twenty-some years so that she can hit her working class mother-in-law, canoodle with Huaiji, burn her house down, and interfere with government policy- you, if you are a Chinese viewer, are supposed to think, “EXACTLY, I DIDN’T PAY MY TAXES SO THAT SOME FUERDAI CAN GO CRASH THEIR FERRARI STREET RACING, HAVE ORGIES IN SANYA, AND USE THEIR PARENTS’ POLITICAL INFLUENCE TO GET AWAY WITH IT.”

Fuerdai (富二代) is the term for the rich children of China’s current political and economic elite. They are a much-reviled group in China, because they’re often the very public, scandalous face of the type of corruption that enormous economic inequality has wrought in the past few decades and because they are often shielded from the consequences of their scandals by powerful parents.

Badly behaving fuerdai are also considered dangerous to the stability of the CCP, because their existence has been used to levy criticism at the CCP’s failure to manage party officials. This Bloomberg article is worth reading to understand the whole phenomenon and I’ll just quote a little bit here: “The fuerdai (pronounced foo-arr-dye) aren’t just an embarrassment. The Communist Party seems to consider them an economic or even political threat. President Xi Jinping himself spoke out this year, advising the second generation to “think about the source of their wealth and how to behave after becoming affluent.” An article published by the United Front Work Department, the bureau that manages relations between the party and nonparty elite, warned: “They know only how to show off their wealth but don’t know how to create wealth.” Some local governments have taken steps to reeducate their wealthy elite. In June, according to Beijing Youth Daily, 70 heirs to major Chinese companies attended lectures on filial piety and the role of traditional values in business.”

The failure of Huirou to understand Huaiji’s attempts to explain poverty makes sense if this was the show’s message. She wasn’t meant to understand that lesson from his mouth because the writer needed Huirou to be taught this lesson by her father, emperor Xi Jinping... I mean, Renzong. So Renzong putting her in her place is presented to us as an act of benevolence to “the people” even if it destroys Huirou. Actually if you follow this logic, the story’s emphasis on Renzong’s love for Huirou makes his sacrifice of her happiness even more an act of selflessness for “the people”. You’re supposed to think, “WOW, even his daughter is not as important as justice for the people!”

The character of Zhang Bihan is interesting to consider from this angle too. Her love of extravagant luxury goods like ivory, pearls, and rare porcelain are shown repeatedly to be a political liability in addition to a personal failing. Add to that Lady Jia’s black market salt and human trafficking ring. Zhao Zhen’s weakness for Bihan and everything she and her circle represented and his rejection of sober, sensible Danshu was a sign that he still needed to learn how to put his own desires second to that of “the people”. Bihan is his fatal flaw to overcome on the path to sainthood. Because propaganda is most effective when you feel like those in power are just nice people trying their best even as they are fucking you over. But of course, in the end the writer makes Zhao Zhen realize that Danshu was always the best choice and choosing her signals his apotheosis. This is why Bihan and Danshu could never evolve beyond their tired archetypes. Never mind the ahistorical characterizations and relationships! Evidence-based depictions of a more complex Zhang Bihan that remained Renzong’s true love to the end and an adversarial Empress Cao/Renzong relationship wouldn’t fit the story that this propaganda requires.

Huaiji, his brother Yuansheng, and their family clearly represent “the people” starting from the very first episode. They’re the equivalent of the coal miners that American politicians love to talk about in the abstract as representatives of the working class. If you take Huaiji and Yuansheng’s journey as citizens who were deeply wronged by their government but who were then given opportunities to thrive later by the same government, you’ll see how the writer has very purposefully created a narrative (not in the book!) where lives destroyed by bad policy are merely accidents of fate but lives improved or justice restored are credited to compassionate government policy. The brothers losing the family business and each other, Huaiji losing his bright future and becoming a eunuch- none of the Liang family’s misfortunes can be attributed to Renzong or previous emperors purposefully making decisions to hurt people. Whereas their reversals of misfortune CAN be attributed to deliberate action on the part of the emperor and the government.

And when forcing a corrupt government to see and address injustice through unorthodox means, the writer wants you to know that you should expect and accept without complaint punishment for using those unorthodox means, even if you are justified in your cause. Yuansheng, after capturing and publicly reporting his aunt and the local official who had colluded to sell off his brother, doesn’t resist army exile and sees it as an opportunity instead. He’s later rewarded for his unquestioning submission with imperial patronage of his restaurant, becomes a successful businessman, and is reunited with his brother.

The emperor, after discovering that Huaiji is Yuanheng in the last episode, gives him back his real name and reunites him with Yuansheng. Though Huaiji is brutally parted from Huirou, his loss and longing are neatly tucked away from view in the end, unlike in the novel. Drama!Huaiji’s end is presented as a relatively happy one, where you see him sitting in a schoolhouse next to a beautiful river, quietly mounting a painting. He hears that the emperor has passed and makes a respectful obeisance. The drama wants you to think that he is grateful and he will recover, despite all the trauma that he has gone through. Because he HAS to recover, as a symbol of one of “the people” who has enjoyed the emperor’s grace.

The only wrench in the gears, though, is that Huirou, Huaiji, Danshu, He’er, Maoze, and Qiuhe got their personalities and backstories from a book with different priorities. And so that persistent feeling of wrongness I kept having watching this show was the feeling of seeing the visible seams stitching this Frankenstein’s monster together.

#serenade of peaceful joy #held in the lonely castle #清平乐 #cdrama #period drama #historical drama #my commentary

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akatsuki-shin · 4 years ago

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Review: 狼殿下 Láng Diànxià (The Wolf)

I’m finally done marathoning this show in the past week, so I thought I’m gonna write my comments on this drama here.

Summary: As a teenager, Ma Zhaixing, daughter of Kuizhou City Governor, Ma Ying, met a young boy at the mountain near her hometown who was raised by the wolves. A severe misunderstanding caused the boy to be implicated of murder and the two were separated, with the boy falling off a cliff, thinking that Ma Zhaixing had betrayed him, and Ma Zhaixing, with her leg broken, continued to live her life ridden with guilt.

Eight years later, the boy, who was apparently saved and adopted by their Emperor, Chu Kui - given the title Prince Bo (Bo Wang) - encountered Ma Zhaixing again after her family was suddenly massacred by an unknown assailants in the middle of the night.

However, their relationship was no longer as how it used to be and the two were tangled in the political conflict between the warring nations.

Main Cast(s):

Li Qin as Ma Zhaixing

Wang Talu as Bo Wang

Xiao Zhan as Ji Chong

Xin Zhilei as Yao Ji

Kuo Shuyao as Yelu Bao Na

Ding Yongdai as Chu Kui

Lin Yowei as as Chu Yougui

Notes:

This review contains my personal view on the drama and does not represent the entire audience

There are spoilers

THE GOOD(S):

1. Action

Realistic, believable action and fighting scenes, both in small and large scale. A few weren't exactly perfect, but the majority of it is more than good enough to cover for the flaws.

Bo Wang's solo fights, his duels with Ji Chong, and Ji Chong's first battle in the forest (when he and the bandits were trying to kidnap Bao Na) were among the best; those are super cool and intense. They do use quite a lot of CGIs, and while it isn't exactly marvel (as in, you can tell it's fake), the visualization and movement are quite smooth so it doesn't disturb the atmosphere and our watching enjoyment.

Though, I'm a bit sad that Ji Chong's eagle, Zhui Ri, turns out to be a CGI, as well. It looks so real, I thought they were using a real bird. :'))

2. Supporting Characters

With the exception of the two main leads and a few other characters, I can say with confidence that I love the characters of this drama.

The charming, smart, and kind-hearted second male lead, Ji Chong.

The loyal Night Fury Trio - Wen Yan, Mo Xiao, and Hai Die.

The spoiled princess Yule Bao Na, whose first impression was nothing less than annoying, but grows to be the most lovable, supportive girl ever that makes me want to keep rooting for her.

They also have two of the best father characters I've ever seen in awhile, the King of Jin and Ma Ying.

Even a considerably minor character, like Grand Supervisor Shi, was nothing less than lovable, especially when he scolded Ji Chong like a worried mother after the latter finally returned home in seven years.

3. Music

The Wolf has some really beautiful soundtracks, and the songs are placed perfectly in every corresponding scene

4. Cameraworks

This is something quite technical and to be honest, I'm also not an expert in this. But I think the cameraworks in this drama were really good. The angle, how they switch the focus when taking certain characters in a certain scene further emphasizes the atmosphere, and it often serves as a great shot to the breathtaking outdoor sceneries where they shot this drama.

5. Visualization of how the story starts and ends

Xing-er and the Wolf Boy playing in the forest of Wolf Mountain.

------

THE BAD(S):

1. The Main Leads' Relationship

Generally, the big plot and conflict are actually pretty interesting. The politics, the wars, the betrayals, how the opposing sides are trying to trick and outsmart each other are all a classic that we've often seen in many historical dramas and movies. Personally, I never get bored with this theme as long as it is executed perfectly and I think The Wolf executed this in a good way.

Unfortunately, the main pairing ruins this for me and this ends up becoming the biggest flaw that destroys the enjoyment of watching this drama.

"Childhood sweetheart turns enemies" is something we've seen pretty often, and it's not something bad. If anything, when they finally fixed the misunderstanding and reconciled, it would be the climax, the best part of the entire development.

But The Wolf sadly dragged Ma Zhaixing and Bo Wang's relationship to the point that it became annoying.

When Bo Wang first discovered that Ma Zhaixing has never betrayed him in the past, the scene when he rescued her from the kneeling punishment at the palace was so moving I was almost in tears, more so because it finally looks like they can rebuild their relationship despite Ma Zhaixing still hasn't figured out that Bo Wang was the Wolf Boy from her childhood. It should've ended right there. Maybe later, they could add a plot where Ma Zhaixing would finally find out the truth.

But no, they just have to keep switching between love-hate-love hate right to the last few episodes. At this point, there was no more character development, no more relationship growth. It's just a purely unnecessary drama that makes Bo Wang look inconsistent, that strips Ma Zhaixing of any character development that she should've had as the main character of the story.

And speaking of relationships, although Ji Chong being paired up with Bao Na was the best conclusion for the two of them, the development was way too fast, it looks like the drama team is just forcefully pushing it to happen as soon as possible.

At the point where there are only 3 episode left, they didn't have to add that bit of drama between Ji Chong and Bao Na, because 1). They weren't the main characters, 2). The story was nearing its climax, why would you slow down the pace for an unnecessary drama of two side characters?

It almost looks like Ji Chong and Bao Na are taking the spotlight from the main characters. It would've been perfectly fine to end it when Bao Na was accompanying Ji Chong at the bonfire after he let go of Ma Zhaixing to return to Bo Wang; the audience would understand that these two would end up together, and the closing scene where Ji Chong invited her to travel the world with him can still be shown without the intervening drama.

2. The Main Leads’ Hero Complex

Both Ma Zhaixing and Bo Wang keep sacrificing themselves for others and putting themselves at the bottom as if they have no value. It might look heroic the first time they do it, but since they repeated this pattern way too often, it looks to me like they're playing victim instead.

What's more?

Whenever they're about to sacrifice themselves 1). They would always put a burden on the side characters who genuinely love them by asking them for some "one last favor"', 2). They would just end up being saved by the others after all those big talks.

But of course, all of the other characters ideally will still cry for them every single time they're about to do this whole sacrifice thing.

This is seriously the first time I'm watching a drama where the main characters barely have any character development from start until the end.

In fact, I think the main character of this drama is supposed to be You Zhen, the fourth, youngest prince of Yang. He was ever only a supporting character here, but he's got the most character development among others and if you've been paying attention to his story from start to finish, you'll see that is very fitting to be the main character of a political/war drama:

"An innocent, youngest prince who was doted on by his three brothers, but this brotherhood was severely broken by a misunderstanding caused by their own power-thirsty father, and after many struggles and suffering, he found out the truth, fought for the truth, and became the last surviving member of the royalty who would finally govern his people in peace."

3. Inconsistent Character(s)

First of all, the second female lead, Yao Ji.

From the drama's opening, to the first few episodes where she appears, it feels like we are getting this super big villain vibe from her. I really thought she's going to be one of those people the main characters would have to defeat, or maybe turn into an unexpected ally, later near the climax.

But no, she was only strong in the beginning. For the rest of the story, she was only a woman who actually loves the main male lead and wants to keep him safe.

Secondly, Chu Yougui.

What even is his motive to be a villain?

First, he wants to frame and kill Bo Wang because he thought Bo Wang caused their eldest brother's death. But this has since been proven to be wrong because their father, Chu Kui, was the one who set up his own eldest son's death (for whatever reason I don't remember because I don't think the drama ever told us clearly). And then when he was brought back later, suddenly he wanted to overthrow his father and become the King? Just where and how does all this motive come from?

It would've been fine to make Chu Kui the main villain because he's been portrayed as such since the beginning, the power-thirsty tyrant who would stop at nothing to gain authority and glory.

4. Some Technical Things

Ma Zhaixing kept wearing that keepsake of a bell on her belt, even during undercover missions. How come she doesn't get caught?

Ji Chong keeps accidentally hearing everything over the wall in the most perfect timing far too many times

Also, there are many instances where the characters could travel so fast between places, you'd think they are all living in the same town

------

My Verdict: 6/10

Honestly, I almost drop it before I'm even halfway through... o(-(

It has great concept. It has interesting conflict. The actors all did amazing job, I have no complain about their acting. But the execution is just ugh...

#The Wolf #Review #Wang Talu #Li Qin #Xiao Zhan #Drama Review

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the-archlich · 4 years ago

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With the DW press conference happening this weekend, I was hoping to get your thoughts on the adds that are going to be grandfathered in from 9 (+Xun Yu). It's no secret that none of these guys have really been able to find a meaningful role in the DW narrative and I was wondering how you would inject some life into them for DW10?

It’s kind of hard to remember what the characters are at this point, they made such little impact...

Xun Yu: Obviously he’d be one of Cao Cao’s advisers, but I think the key here is dividing up the duties. Let guys like Xun You, Guo Jia, and Jia Xu handle the nuts and bolts of a plan while Xun Yu comes up with more general strategies and policies. He works in the macro, the others handle the details. Since he was also an exceptional judge of ability it makes sense for him to be the guy planning who does what. (i.e. send Xiahou Dun to do X while Cao Ren handles Y).

Xun You: Another adviser. Like I said above the key is separating responsibilities. Let him work his magic on the small scale. Xun Yu comes up with the general plan (”We need to join with Liu Bei and defeat Lu Bu before we can worry about Yuan Shao starting a war with us; and we need to keep Lu Bu from uniting with Yuan Shu) while Xun You handles the details (I’ll go with Xiahou Dun to break the dam and flood Xiapi. Guo Jia can go with Xiahou Yuan and intercept Lu Bu’s daughter to prevent an alliance with Yuan Shu). The easiest way to juggle all of Wei’s strategists is just to make their responsibilities distinct and clear. Since Xun You was also a very quiet and private person, maybe have him be hesitant to speak in group settings, only opening up when he’s alone with Cao Cao or Xun Yu.

Cao Xiu: Emphasize his friendship with Cao Pi and use them (and Zhen Ji) to bring out other aspects of these characters. Let Cao Pi be cold to outsiders but confide insecurities or worries to Cao Xiu. Let Cao Xiu remain mostly in the background until the later portions; Wei has fewer generals in the years after 220 and that’s when he became most important anyway. He doesn’t need a crowded spotlight, he can have his time in the sun later. I generally liked the personality they gave him in DW9, for what little that’s worth. I liked presenting him as overeager and desperate to repay the goodwill he’s received from his relatives, rather than a foolish man easily deceived. Let him be impulsive and big-hearted. It’s a nice way of looking at a man who is frequently maligned, when he’s discussed at all. Also give more emphasis to the battles between Wei and Wu after 220 so he has something to do.

Man Chong: Like Cao Xiu, it’s okay if he hangs around in the background for the early years. He lived a very long life and has plenty of time to show off in the later half of the game. Just make sure to include plenty of opportunities for him to beat down on Wu, as he did historically. He had a very well-documented and strong personality that should be easy to include. Let him take the place of an honored elder, the guy who’s been there since the beginning. He’s seen it all before and wasn’t impressed the first time. He’s the guy who always knows what to do and never falters, because he’s always seen worse. Let him come into the spotlight with most of the others are gone and really lean into his experience. He’s done it all, and done a damn good job of it.

Cheng Pu: He was the steady rock at the heart of Wu. Let him be the guy who’s calm and collected - even while charging the front lines. He’s the person everyone turns to for stability - especially in changing times like after the deaths of Sun Jian and Sun Ce. He’s a beloved uncle, to the Sun kids and pretty much the whole army. When everything else is going to shit, he’s the one they all lean on. And let him have his time in the sun; during Sun Ce’s conquests, at Chibi, and at Jiangling. Zhou Yu should still be the mastermind behind most of that, but Chen Pu should get to be in charge of executing the attacks. Let him have his turn.

Xu Sheng: someone else who can emerge later in the years. Some of Wus’ biggest talents died about 217, right when Xu Sheng really started making his name. Lean into that. There’s a hole in the roster and he can fill it. Again, it helps to include more of the fighting between Wei and Wu because that’s when he was most important - at Ruxu, Dongpu, and Guangling.

Xin Xianying: Don’t use her as a stand-in for Xin Pi. Why bother doing that? If she’s going to be part of the Jin story, use her that way. She’s probably best used as a sort of informal adviser - not necessarily invited to the war councils, but important people come to her for advice (or scolding). Giving her an informal role in the hierarchy frees you up to send here wherever you need her. But let her stand on her own, don’t just pretend she’s Xin Pi. If you want Xin Pi, just add Xin Pi.

Yuan Shu: This man had such a strong and vibrant personality and such a clearly defined impact on the era it should be easy to decide what to do with him. Let him act as the Sun family’s early patron, and an antagonist to Cao Cao and Liu Bei. Let him represent the crumbling aristocratic order, the last gasping breath of the old world who can’t even see his end coming.

Zhou Cang, Xiahou Ji, Dong Bai, and Hua Xiong aren’t characters I’m going to treat seriously. Cut Xiahou Ji, having her around is just disgusting. I couldn’t care less what becomes of the others.

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years ago

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In your opinion, what do you think is the predominant love language of Sokka and Azula? And how would they express it to each other? :)

I really don’t know much about this whole classification of love languages, if you want me to be honest xD a quick wikipedia search says it’s basically a way to break down and categorize different displays of love? And there’s five of them, apparently? I have to say frankly that, as I write them, Sokka and Azula basically do everything in that list of five languages:

Words of affirmation: one of my main must-haves in virtually any Sokkla setting, where Azula is either not redeemed or halfway there, is Sokka telling Azula she’s not a monster. As you may have noticed, that particular thing bugs Azula fans a lot, and we really wish someone would tell her she isn’t one :’D thus, one of Gladiator’s most emotional scenes in Part 1 is Azula’s mild breakdown in Ember Island where Sokka reasons with Azula’s belief of being a monster and tells her that she’s about as human as can be, and the darkness inside her isn’t anything that makes her fundamentally worse than anyone else. There’s so many scenes I could point to that feature words of affirmation they say to each other, or that they say to other people about each other *cough* look forward to chapter 187 *cough*, some of my favorites from Azula to Sokka was her reasoning for wanting to celebrate his birthday (” I've wanted to celebrate your birthday because I'm quite grateful that you were born”), as well as her later affirmation that she loves him for who he is: (”I can say, truthfully… that I love that you're a non-bender. I know it might seem strange, but… I wouldn't change anything about you"). This is without going into the ten thousand times they’ve said they love each other :’D virtually all their conversations in Part 2 end up featuring words of affirmation of one sort or another, from either of them, no matter how often they may tease each other. So... this one is pretty predominant, I suppose?

Quality time: and see, this one happens to be Gladiator Part 2 in a nutshell. Whenever they have any time to spare (well, when Azula does, in particular), their immediate idea is to spend that free time together, in whatever capacity is possible. Outside of free time, they also work together as sponsor and gladiator, so they have their training sessions, Sokka’s fights, the events in the League... Sokka also helps her out with anything she may need (for instance, he took up a job as swordmanship teacher for the Enforcers to give Azula a hand, which still means they get to spend a bit of time together, even if she’s really busy with her new undertakings), so in the end, they spend most their time together, and they’d spend even more of it if they could. They only separate whenever they have no official justification for spending time together, such as when Sokka was still recovering from the Jeong Jeong incident, and even then they were desperate to return to each other ASAP. So... yeah, I think it’s safe to say, Gladiator-wise, they dedicate all the time they can to each other. And, as far as I’m concerned, other stories and settings could even have them spending more time together than they do in Gladiator, since there’s no Ozai breathing down their necks and threatening to kill Sokka if he finds out he’s his daughter’s secret lover. Therefore... quality time is also guaranteed.

Giving gifts: This one might be the less obvious one with Sokka and Azula, because Azula’s initial generosity (in Gladiator) answered some very specific needs: she ensured he was well fed, clothed, trained, bought him a house, found a maid for him... basically, she gave him a thousand things, but it wasn’t because she was showing she loves him, it was because she knew such things would be necessary for Sokka to offer a decent performance as a gladiator. Now then, after their initial hurdles are out of the way and their relationship has progressed, Sokka gives Azula occasional gifts but constantly struggles to come up with something she’ll genuinely cherish. He made Xin Long’s armor, he brought her flowers, he tried to cook for her, he gave her a tiny hot-air balloon, and crafted a betrothal necklace for her... he also wrote poetry, and he’ll try his hand at another artistic venture with Azula very soon. But this stuff is pretty sparse, even if Azula appreciates it a lot whenever it happens. As for Azula, she will give Sokka some pretty nice gifts very soon, just as she continues to provide for all his needs. In recent times, the gifts she’s been willing to give Sokka have been mostly non-physical ones, such as the thumbs-up she gives his crowd in his stead, once they’re leaving the Royal Dome on the day he wins against the Mad Alchemist, or ordering her Barge back into Whaletail Island’s port so Sokka could meet Katara... it’s stuff that means a lot to him, more than any physical gifts might (this, paired with the fact that Azula had offered to bring him home whenever he wished to go, without forcing him to stick to their original deal). So, maybe the gift-giving isn’t quite the classic sense of it, but it still happens in its own way. In general, I think it’s difficult for Sokka to give gifts to a Princess who basically can have it all... so that’s why he generally tries the DIY route with gifts, and so far it has paid off wonderfully because she genuinely loves everything he crafts for her. I think in most settings it’d have to be this way, and depending on Azula’s situation, she can either give him anything he wishes for or maybe resort to small but heartfelt gifts and gestures that mean a lot to the two of them.

Acts of service: this one may even tie slightly with the previous one, but frankly, as far as acts of service are concerned, these two take it the extra mile. Sokka didn’t always fight as her gladiator out of his own convictions, he started off doing it because of their deal... but as time goes by, he genuinely cherishes his role in her life and he would fight anyone for Azula’s sake, if need be. It’s, of course, a mutual thing because Azula will protect Sokka against anything, even her own father, no matter the cost. Hence, their relationship dynamics and battle couple behavior can be interpreted as acts of service for each other. Sokka, like I said before, has tried to cook for Azula too, which is a more classic act of service, as far as I can tell, and she appreciates his efforts even if not his results just yet xD in future chapters Sokka goes out of his way (in two different instances) to get lychee wine for Azula because he knows that’s the only licquor she likes, and every time he does that her heart grows twenty sizes. He also cared for her while she was sick, and she often does the same when he’s wounded, such as how she cared for him in Jeong Jeong’s arc. Sokka also tries to help her have good relations with people such as Captain Zhen, by agreeing to teach swordsmanship to his son because he hoped that would help Azula. Everything Azula did in the current Whaletail Island arc counts as well as an act of service: she’s privileging Sokka’s needs and his bond with his family well above her own needs, to the point of preparing herself to face that he might choose to stay with Katara - and she’s determined to respect his decision, if he were to make it. So, I’d say this one ranks really high, perhaps more than everything else?

Physical touch: ... but this one’s obviously a big deal too considering how damn difficult it is for them to keep their hands off each other at any given moment xD from something as innocent as walking through the Capital’s tunnels holding hands, hence, fulfilling Sokka’s wish for them to “walk through the city while holding hands”, to their very frequent intimate encounters, once these two are together they’re as good as magnets, constantly seeking contact with each other. Sokka has always struck me as a highly affectionate person once he’s with someone he genuinely loves, and so he pours that affection on Azula constantly, to the point where, in the early days of their relationship, she could barely keep up with it all. Physical touch doesn’t come quite as easily to Azula as it does to him, as she has never been someone who receives a lot of physical affection, but her attraction to Sokka has made it so she craves for him physically and on every possible level she can... therefore, despite she’s been awkward when other people show her any physical affection (often pushes Ty Lee off when Ty Lee hugs her, or remains unresponsive, barely responds to Toph’s hugs and stood limp and awkwardly the first time she did it, nearly flipped out when Ozai reached for her hand in the temple that one time, and most recently was left drawing blanks when Zuko hugged her....), she’s at ease when it’s with Sokka, so much that she welcomes his touch and everything about physical contact with him, altogether.

In short... I seriously think they do it all? You could, perhaps, rank the languages depending on which one is more predominant, to a fault xD but there’s genuinely no love language they outright don’t do, at least in Gladiator (and honestly, I doubt they don’t use all love languages in my other stories). But I guess, if you really want me to rank them...

Acts of service

Physical touch - Words of affirmation

Quality time

Gift-giving

Sorry, I really think Physical touch and Words of affirmation are virtually tied together in the story, both things tend to happen at the same time, and I really can’t bring myself to rank either thing higher, so it’s a draw. Quality time falls to #3 because they can sacrifice being together sometimes, as much as they hate doing it, but they can survive while being apart (despite Sokka would likely argue with me and say he absolutely can’t, but you know, ignore him (?)). Gift-giving, while very heartfelt and cute when it happens, is sparse, like I said... so it can stay in the last place, despite it’s still part of what they do for each other.

Is this comprehensive enough? :’D I sure hope so...

(if anyone needs me to hide this under a read more, let me know... got longer than I thought it would, woops)

#anon #... ended up being a very gladiator-oriented answer so #gladiator #sokkla #love languages is such a strange new concept to me #it's not the first time I hear it #but frankly Sokkla do it all #if that's not how it's supposed to work well #I'm sorry the love between my OTP is as OP as it is (?)#but that's how it works (?)

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queensqewed0722 · 5 years ago

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Mengfei Comes Across (I love and hate you!) Sometimes you come across a drama that you end up enjoying so much yet get so frustrated and disappointed about because you know it could have been so much more. That’s how I felt after watching the C-drama “Mengfei Comes Across” (also known as “Oh My Cute Consort”). This premiered in 2018 and starred Jiro Wang as Emperor Wen Lou, and Jin Chen/Gina Jin as Lady Bu Meng, his consort.

 I stumbled upon it while watching some clips on YouTube about something else and it was recommended to me. It looked very beautiful so I decided to watch the clip. I became curious because the premise reminded me so much of a favorite anime called “Saiunkoku Monogatari” so I searched for the complete series with English subs. Fortunately enough, they were readily available on YT.

 The series revolves around Bu Meng, the daughter of the Royal Court Historian, who ends up becoming one of the Emperor Wen Lou’s consorts because of a slight that her father had done towards the Emperor. In return for the offense, His Majesty decides to pick on her, though harboring no personal interest in her at all. Meng doesn’t want the attention because she’s read in her books that imperial consorts who gain the attention of the Emperor often become the target of intrigue and malice and can even lose their lives. Meng intends to live a long, happy life so she strives to avoid him at all costs.

Unfortunately for her, not only does she end up directly under his radar because of her father, but her personality and antics turn the Emperor’s initial disinterest into curiosity. She ends up somehow getting involved with him in so many ways, despite herself, and he ends up liking her more and more along the way. However, Meng’s desire is to leave the palace and gain her freedom again, so when the Emperor becomes the target of mysterious assassins, Meng volunteers to help find the culprits in exchange for her freedom. Together with Minister Zhen Shishuang, an investigative prodigy who also happens to be her childhood friend and first love, Meng succeeds in uncovering a serious plot against the Emperor, masterminded by his first consort, Imperial Consort Ru, adopted daughter of the Prime Minister.

 But the Emperor is hard-pressed to honor his word to let her go, especially when he learns that Minister Zhen and Meng were once in love and almost married each other. Yet he decides to set her free, much to his mother, the Empress Dowager’s disappointment and anger. Meng, on the other hand, realizes that she can’t leave him anymore because somewhere along the way, despite her reluctance, she had fallen in love with him.

 That’s basically the summary of the series.

 I’m actually quite torn about this drama. On the one hand, I found myself liking it very much. The aesthetics were good: costumes were beautiful and the actors were just so pleasing to the eyes. The comedic timing of the main actors were on point, although the minor ones seemed just a bit too overdone for my taste. And the chemistry of the leads was just lovely and they had this level of sexual tension between them that made me jump on their ship.

 This is the first time I’ve watched Jin Chen/Gina Jin and Jiro Wang. I don’t know them and I’ve never seen anything of theirs. But to me, they were perfect as Meng Fei and His Majesty. Every time I saw them on screen together, I felt warm and fuzzy and I smiled so much. I just wanted the scene to go on and on because they were just beautiful and the sparks were there. Jiro Wang had this seemingly hooded gaze that smoldered every time he looked at her. It’s like a mix of deep affection and intense desire toward her. Gina Jin, on the other hand, had just enough level of denseness and disinterestedness towards him. And her face, especially her eyes, are just so expressive. She had this wonderful interplay of mischievousness and intelligence that often manifested through a bright smile which made her whole face glow, making me understand just why Jiro Wang’s His Majesty is so taken with her.

 But apart from that, the drama left me very frustrated because the story and plot development left a lot to be desired, as far as I’m concerned. The series was 36 episodes long (according to some early reports, it should have been 45) yet the main plot seemed to have exhausted itself by episode 21, which is when the Emperor and Meng Fei admitted their love for each other. Even in terms of story arcs, the meatier part of the drama was in the first half until this point, what with the assassins and the intrigues from the consorts and the objections from the Empress Dowager all coming into play, together with the comedic antics of the characters. After that, it was mostly stand-alone arcs involving minor characters (although there was also a handful of this in the first few episodes, which almost made me stop watching), with the Emperor and Meng merely becoming instruments to push the story along. In fact, they hardly had any substantial or meaningful screentime at all.

 To my mind, it was too much time wasted on arcs that never had any real purpose in driving the main story, which could have been devoted to expounding on more interesting sub-plots, such as the story of Lady Xiao, one of Meng’s fellow consorts and closest friends. She’s a former general who grew up with the Emperor and fell in love with her fellow general, Shi Shang. This could have been very interesting and compelling because after they were separated when the war ended, and after her father’s death, the Emperor made Lady Xiao enter the palace to give her sanctuary. She encounters Shi Shang afterwards inside the palace, as an assassin hired by a rival state to kill the Emperor. It turns out that he had been captured by them after the war and made to drink poison. In exchange for the antidote, he had to assassinate the Emperor. This could have tied beautifully with the first arc on the assassins that were sent by the Dongli State and led by Imperial Consort Ru, who turned out to be their princess.

Another interesting sub-plot that should have been tackled and tied into the assassin story arc was the one of Chen Yuanxi, Meng’s childhood friend, who also became a soldier. She and Meng’s brother, Bu Yue, have always been at odds since childhood, yet in the end it turns out that they are in love with each other. If it weren’t for the fact that Yuanxi was thought to have been killed in battle and a corpse that was mistaken for her brought home for burial, much to Yue’s grief, they would not have admitted to their feelings for each other. Bu Yue, incidentally, is also a well-known and much-admired general.

 The latter part was really such a waste. I could only imagine how much more interesting this would have been, especially if the friendship between the Emperor and Meng was allowed to flourish some more before they decided to become lovers. Their scenes together before Meng realized she loved him were just wonderful. And those moments when he would hint at his deeper feelings for her and she gets flustered are just the stuff that wonderful, fluffy romances are made of.

 And how nice it would have been if Minister Zhen was tapped by the Emperor to head the investigations on the assassination attempts and he became a trusted advisor. Just imagine the Emperor’s own dilemma, if they had become friends as well, even as he is riled up with jealousy because Meng likes Zhen very much.  And I really think there should have been scenes of the Emperor and Lady Xiao talking intimately as friends, especially regarding his feelings for Meng. After all, they grew up together. I think it’s possible that her father may have trained him too. And I think it was also hinted at that they fought together before he became emperor? I’m not sure about this but it’s not far-fetched.

 If I were to rewrite this drama, I would make the development of the romance between the Emperor and Meng revolve around the assassination plot and the political intrigue of the rival states. I would also make Minister Zhen’s character stay throughout the drama, not only because he would have been very useful in attempting to uncover the plots against the Emperor, but his presence would have presented a nice tension between the Emperor and Meng. It would have made Meng’s decision to stay as consort, despite her loss of freedom, more compelling. And I would give more meat to the story of Meng’s three consort friends, Consort Xiao, Consort Yan and Concubine Qu. I’d take out all the other minor arcs, like that of the imperial cook and imperial physician.

 I would have made Meng stand firm on her decision to leave the palace anyway to pursue her own dreams, despite the fact that she’s slowly falling for the Emperor (just to prove that she is truly independent and empowered) but would have made her return in the second half of the story at the request of the Empress Dowager (who didn’t like her very much for her son). Perhaps something serious would have happened to the Emperor as a result of the attempts on his life, and Her Majesty would ask Meng to come back and care for him. And there would have been a man-to-man talk between Minister Zhen and the Emperor about their love for Meng. And maybe Zhen would talk to Meng and help her come to terms with her own feelings for the Emperor. I wouldn’t have made it so easy for her to just accept that she had fallen for him and give up on her own dreams. No matter how ditzy she may sometimes seem, Meng’s character is intelligent and independent. It would have made for a more interesting romance, not to mention given the drama more time to give Meng and the Emperor - with Zhen thrown into the mix - more screentime cuteness together.

 Oh well. I would have to content myself with re-watching this up until episode 21 and just imagine all the ways this drama could have been so much better than just a slapstick comedy.

#cdrama #mengfei comes across #oh my cute consort #jiro wang #gina jin #jin chen #bu meng #emperor wen lou

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shijiujun · 5 years ago

Text

[ENG] History3: Trapped Novel - Chapter One

~8,600 words (proofread by @weilongfu)

Translation Masterpost can be found here

Disclaimer: Translations are entirely mine - these are not official translations and some phrases have been changed for better English interpretation so you’ll definitely see better/different translations elsewhere. Also keeping in mind when we translated this we aren’t exactly thinking about the style of writing and this translation is as close to the novel as we can make it XD So yes, some parts may be a little awkward to read. And yes some teeny weeny details and words may not turn up in the translation because the Chi to Eng mind acrobatics didn’t work out. If you see asterisks, scroll all the way to the bottom for notes!

Full chapter below the cut

Chapter One

Twenty-nine years ago

“You-“

“Shhh!”

A hand grips around Tang Guo Dong’s arm and pulls him hard into an almost invisible alley as he sprints past a building, and both he and his companion press themselves tight to the uneven walls behind their backs, holding their breaths until the little gangsters who are carrying fruit knives and yelling profanities run past the alley they are hiding in.

Chen Wen Hao takes a look at his slightly skinnier companion, and somberly, speaks, “If they come back for us, I’ll be behind covering for you, and you run first!”

“This is not the time to play heroics! If we fight, we fight together, and if we run, we do that together too,” Tang Guo Dong glares at his friend and says in between harsh pants.

After catching their breaths slightly, both men begin to venture deeper into the alley. Trying their luck with every metal gate they come across in the alley, they hope to find an open one letting them through the building to escape on the other street, but it seems as if fate is against them today — even after searching through the whole alley, not a single one is open.

Tang Guo Dong’s forehead creases in a frown. “We can’t keep hiding like this. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless someone goes out first to divert their attention, and that’s the only way the other one of us will have an opportunity to run,” Tang Guo Dong looks up, nodding towards the alley’s exit, illuminated by the streetlights and repeats what Chen Wen Hao said just a few moments ago.

“Are you kidding me? Didn’t I just bring up this possibility earlier?” Chen Wen Hao side-eyes Tang Guo Dong, who is standing right next to him.

He’s suddenly hit on the head by the man, who’s a year older than he is.

“What you said earlier was impulsive, what I just said is the conclusion I’ve come to after some deep considerations.”

“Yes, yes, how about, let’s swap over. I flee, and you stay. After all…,” Chen Wen Hao laughs, “I still have Li Zhen waiting for me.”

“Didn’t someone just offer to help me get away while he stayed to clear things up? It’s really as they say… once you get a woman you abandon your brother.”

Their shirts are drenched thoroughly with sweat. Both men speak leaning against the wall, and Chen Wen Hao lifts an arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He smiles, “I intend to marry Li Zhen right after she graduates. What do you think?”

“The both of you have been together for so long, it’s about time you both started a family. If you have a kid I’m calling godfather first!” Tang Guo Dong says, while moving his gaze to the pile of concrete slabs and cement bags sitting right next to the wall, and also the cart sitting a little further from the bags, obviously used to transport them.

Chen Wen Hao points at the cart, immediately understanding what Tang Guo Dong is thinking and the both of them move in the direction of the cart. They first move the toppled-over cart into an upright position, before moving each cement bag into the cart and also adding two concrete slabs right at the top of the pile.

“You want to be the godfather? Why would I have a problem with that? Remember to give the kid a bigger red packet!”

“Not a problem. Once our power and position are stable, we’ll have all the money we want. Would I be afraid of you extorting me for red packet money?”

“Alright! With your word on that, I guarantee I’ll let you leave this place alive. If not, my future son or daughter will miss out on a few good red packets.”

Chen Wen Hao holds on tightly to the rusty handles of the cart and pushes it towards the exit of the alley, while Tang Guo Dong himself holds onto two concrete slabs walking behind him, until they stop at the corner where Chen Wen Hao first pulled him to hide in the alley.

“Don’t think too little of me. Next time I’ll have my own son too, and that’s when it’s your turn to return me the red packet money.”

“It’s a deal.”

Both men’s gazes meet, and in their eyes, what is reflected is the deep trust they have for their best brother.

Just then, the gangsters from before return to the spot where they first lost Tang Guo Dong and Chen Wen Hao — their loud voices gradually get louder and louder as they approach the dark alley.

“They’re here.”

“Let’s go!”

Suddenly, the cart emerges from its hiding spot in the alley, slamming right into the men running right in the same direction. Before any of them can yell for and warn their counterparts, they’re knocked out with the concrete slabs Tang Guo Dong is holding, following right behind the cart. More of them follow, and both Tang Guo Dong and Chen Wen Hao, armed with the slabs and fruit knives taken from the defeated gangsters respectively, begin to fight.

Twenty-eight years ago

“I’m leaving Xing Tian Meng in your hands.”

Tang Guo Dong leaves a gun, a few booklets and a stash of keys on the desk.

“That won’t do. You’re Xing Tian Meng’s leader. If you go to prison, this gang will be dismantled and we’ll have wasted our hard work these past few years,” Chen Wen Hao protests with a somber expression, trying to stop the man before him about to head to the police station and turn himself in.

“But if we don’t hand one person over, Si He Hui is not going to let this go.”

They beat up and injured the oldest son of Si He Hui’s boss, and this was no small matter. He was already prepared to sit in prison for a few years.

“You’re right,” Chen Wen Hao says, “So, I’ll go.”

Tang Guo Dong stares at the man before him, wide-eyed and stunned. “But I planned that, and it was me who did it, it has nothing to do with you!”

“No! It was me who did everything. You’re the one who doesn’t know anything.”

Chen Wen Hao pats at his good friend’s chest, then helps Tang Guo Dong to adjust his slanted tie.

He smiles. “Don’t worry. I can take a beating better than you can, and I’m more suited for life inside.”

“Wen Hao…”

“But you have to promise me something, you have to help me take care of Li Zhen… and,” the smile hanging on his lips morphed into something bitter, filled with guilt, and he opens his mouth to speak again, “Help me keep this from her, I don’t want to see her cry.”

“I promise you.”

Their voices hoarse, as they make a promise from a man to another man.

Half a year later | Meeting Room in Prison

Tang Guo Dong, clad in a suit, quietly sits in the meeting room of the prison, the space separated by a wall of glass, until the door on the other side opens, and in walks Chen Wen Hao, who’s dressed in a white t-shirt and shorts in black. Both men pick up their black receivers, but the man who’s already served a few months of his sentence in jail is scrutinising Tang Guo Dong’s every move coldly.

“Wen Hao, I made a few dishes and brought them here, they’re all your favourites.”

Chen Wen Hao looks at him as if he’s a stranger and interrupts Tang Guo Dong mid-sentence, asking, “Someone messed with me this week, did you arrange it?”

He watches as Tang Guo Dong keeps silent, and he accuses angrily, “Fuck! It actually was you. Tang Guo Dong, how long do you want me to be locked up for?”

“Si He Hui declared that they want to kill you, it’s safer for you to be in here. Wen Hao, give me a few more months, I will settle everything on the outside.”

“A few. More. Months?! Don’t forget that I’m in here because of you, or did you think that I don’t have to go out anymore? Just because Xing Tian Meng will be fine with or without me, is that it? Tang Guo Dong! Li Zhen is still waiting for me outside, you can’t fucking do this to me!”

Chen Wen Hao sneers coldly, slamming his hand against the reinforced plexiglass separating the both of them, getting more agitated as he speaks.

Tang Guo Dong holds the receiver in his left hand and explains, anxious, “Wen Hao. The moment you get out, your life will be in danger. Believe me, let me finish everything and I’ll get you out, please believe me.”

“How long has the matter with Si He Hui passed? You’re Xing Tian Meng’s leader, and you can’t even handle this? Who do you think you’re trying to lie to?!”

“Wen Hao!”

Tang Guo Dong shouts Chen Wen Hao’s name with an air of defeat, sighing. He then turns away, and nods towards the other person who’s standing outside of the room, gesturing for her to come in.

“Li Zhen? What are you doing here?” Chen Wen Hao looks at the figure entering the room, then asks the man who should’ve have helped him to keep this whole thing a secret, “Why is she here?”

“I-“ Tang Guo Dong is once again speechless, but before he can say anything else, the receiver in his hands is snatched away by Lee Li Zhen, who was here with him this time.

“Chen Wen Hao, how could you lie to me?” she asks, furious.

Everything about Si He Hui, about Chen Wen Hao’s sentence, she was the last one to know. Didn’t the both of them promise to start a family together? And yet here they are, the man who’d promised her all that, lying to her even about this.

“Li Zhen, I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to tell you, I just…”

“I’m pregnant.”

Facing the love of his life, Chen Wen Hao cannot bring himself to look at Li Zhen straight in the eyes, but is surprised at the news.

“Really?”

His excitement at the news barely lasted three seconds as Li Zhen’s next words shot him right straight to hell.

“I aborted it.”

With utter disbelief, Chen Wen Hao looks at the woman he loves, and asks, “What did you say?”

“I went for an abortion.”

Li Zhen’s tone is absolutely even and calm, as if she didn’t just take the life of a child. Her eyes are cold, so cold and icy that it hurts. Chen Wen Hao presses his hand against the glass, crying and chokes out, “Why? That’s our child… why?”

“Wen Hao, you and I live in different worlds, we can never be together. From now on… you take care of yourself…” Li Zhen says somberly, and without another word, she leaves the receiver on the table.

She walks out of the meeting room with an air of finality, intent on not looking back ever again.

“Li Zhen! Li Zhen listen to me! Li Zhen!”

Chen Wen Hao strikes the glass with all his might, but no matter how much he yells and hits the glass, he can not call her back, this woman who’s already made her choice. Seeing Chen Wen Hao’s face filled with tears, the man standing on the side picks up the receiver again, worried, trying to soothe the agitated and heartbroken Chen Wen Hao.

“Wen Hao, calm down and listen to me! Listen to me-“

Misreading the man’s attempt to soothe him and thinking instead that Tang Guo Dong is making fun of him instead, Chen Wen Hao yells at Tang Guo Dong. Tang Guo Dong who promised that he would help to keep her in the dark but instead brought her here instead,

“Tang Guo Dong, you bastard! How could you do this to me? If you’re capable enough, then don’t ever let me get out, otherwise when I get out I will definitely kill you! Kill you! Kill you! Ugh-“

The two guards in the meeting room immediately rush forward to Chen Wen Hao, bringing out handcuffs to stop his violent behaviour. Chen Wen Hao, in his fit of rage, lashes out at every person who tries to approach him, until reinforcements arrive with tasers to restrain the prisoner. Chen Wen Hao finally quiets, and lets the prison guards take him away to be locked up back in his assigned cell, looking just like a ratty, old doll that’s been abandoned.

“How could I… How could I ever betray you…”

Tang Guo Dong murmurs into the empty receiver, eyes following Chen Wen Hao as he’s dragged away.

Four years ago

“Xiao Tang, I can go up by myself, you wait here for me,” Tang Guo Dong says to Tang Yi, who is in charge of driving today, as he alights the car where it has stopped at the path’s entrance.

“Why? Who’re you meeting? Why won’t you let me follow you?” Tang Yi, who only lets his fringe down in front of people he trusts and his eyes losing the sharpness that a member of Xing Tian Men would have, protests, just like a clingy child.

“Hold on to this,” Tang Guo dong smiles, ignoring the boy’s question, only passing Tang Yi the cigarette box in his hands before making his way up the muddy stairs.

“Lao Tang!” Tang Yi calls, knowing that no matter how much he asks, the man will still not give him an answer.

As the man is leaving, Tang Yi snatches the cigarette hanging from Tang Guo Dong’s lips and frowns, “Don’t smoke anymore.”

Tang Guo Dong, whose last cigarette was taken away, smiles at the boy, who always nags at him like an old hen, and pats at his shoulders. “Wait here for me. I’ll be away for only a moment, and then I’ll be back.”

“Nnn,” Tang Yi nods.

His eyes are filled with a mix of admiration, worship and indescribable emotions, and his gaze follows Tang Guo Dong’s back until the man disappears from his line of vision. Only then does he sit on the stairs to wait for the person who’s most important to him.

As he moves along the path and approaches his destination, the agreed location of his meeting, Tang Guo Dong does not realise that he is being followed. His grip around the leather bag he’s holding tightens, until a figure appears on the other side.

“It’s been a long time, Li Zhen.”

“If it wasn’t for the case, I would never want to see you again,” Li Zhen, who has been MIA all these years, says to Tang Guo Dong, distant.

“I understand. Calling you here today, it’s because I’ve made my final decision.”

Tang Guo Dong passes the package in his hands over to Li Zhen, who takes it and removes its contents, looking through the documents for a moment. Her face is green as she returns the documents back into the bag, turning around to face Tang Guo Dong.

“Li Zhen?” Chen Wen Hao, who’s been closely following Tang Guo Dong and hiding a distance away, asks in confusion after seeing clearly the person Tang Guo Dong is meeting with.

He wants to walk over and ask, how could the both of them lie to him? One was Tang Guo Dong, who swore to him that he could not find Li Zhen, and the other person was the woman who cruelly aborted their child. He wants to ask… all these years, what has happened?

Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, gunshots sound out, piercing through Chen Wen Hao’s ears. Even Tang Yi, sitting a distance away, hears the gunshots and immediately takes off in the direction Tang Guo Dong left in.

It is too late. Anxiously arriving at the scene, all Tang Yi sees is a lifeless Tang Guo Dong, lying in a pool of his own blood.

“Lao Tang!!!” Tang Yi shouts, running over, only to realise that other than himself, there’s another person there as well, clad in a black cap and hiding in the shade.

“Don’t move!”

The sense of danger and threat prickling at his skin, Tang Yi immediately makes a grab for his own handgun and points it at the only person who knows the truth of what just happened here and yells at the man.

Chen Wen Hao, who was hiding under the cover of the trees and leaves, meets Tang Yi’s gaze with murderous intent. Filled with hatred, Chen Wen Hao instead turns the confusion and rage he accumulated all these years at Tang Guo Dong and Li Zhen’s actions, onto this young man who called Tang Guo Dong ‘Lao Tang’. Because now, Chen Wen Hao will never get the answers he wanted from both Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong, with them dead.

Bang!

A third gunshot rings out as Chen Wen Hao pulls the trigger at Tang Yi’s chest, and a third victim, his chest slowly drenching red in blood, falls to the ground.

“Lao Tang…”

Tang Yi falls on the pavement, littered with little bits of stone and watches as that pair of shoes moves away, the sound of the shoes striking against the ground as it disappears from his view, and his vision fades to black.

Four years later | Investigative Team 3 Office

“Meng Shao Fei! Who the hell do you treat me as?”

As usual, from the team’s office echoes Captain Shi Da Pao’s shouts, and to the side of the office on the long bench, sits a row of gang members from Si He Hui and Xing Tian Meng in handcuffs, all who were just caught at a club in the midst of negotiation.

Dressed in a black leather jacket and with both his hands on his hips, the Captain continues to yell. Standing on his left is Zhao Li An, who is frantically fanning the Captain with a yellow fan, hoping that their raging boss will calm down a little.

“The search warrant wasn’t even issued yet, and you dared to bring the whole team and trespass on their meeting unannounced? How can you ever do this? You’re becoming bolder and bolder, let me warn you, don’t think that I can’t handle you, that I can’t deal with you.”

“Boss, document,” Jun Wei, upon realising that something is wrong, quickly brings a document over and deliberately interrupting the Captain’s sentence.

With his other hand, he holds onto a golden plate with lighted scents, circling it behind the Captain’s back thrice, hoping the calming scent will soothe the volcano that’s about to erupt.

Shi Da Pao chases after Meng Shao Fei, who’s walking off with his head down, and persists, “All this time you’ve been hounding Tang Yi, I’ve closed one eye and let you do what you want, but I never could have imagined you climbing over my head! Don’t think just because you’ve accomplished some things in yours years at the station, that you can just do whatever you please now!”

“Boss, have some tea,” Yu Qi turns up with a mug filled with hot tea, worry and concern written all over her face.

“Boss! This time the search warrant was just a little slower, we still managed to get evidence of Xing Tian Meng and Si He Hui’s secret meeting, and we even caught Tang Yi’s men!”

“So what? So you’re going to bring the team to attend everything that Xing Tian Meng is doing?! Who the hell do you think you are? Paparazzi? Or do you think we’re the government census?! Xiao Ya is about to get married, can I beg you please not to bring the team even more trouble?”

Shao Fei points at the row of people currently cuffed at the long bench, and indignant, says, “If it wasn’t for them agreeing on it beforehand and messing everything up, I would’ve caught Tang Yi too!”

Speaking of which, Shao Fei feels the anger building in him again. Tang Yi actually made use of him to arrest Si He Hui, he’s obviously messing with him, treating him like an idiot!

“Shut up! Come with me!”

The Captain yells at his stubborn subordinate, turning and heading into his office.

Standing on the sidelines, four young team members gather.

Jun Wei, holding onto documents and watching the Captain and Shao Fei’s backs, asks the person standing next to him, “Zhao Zi fanned him, I lighted the scents and you brewed Boss’ favourite tea, why is Boss still so angry?”

“Looks like Shao Fei really stepped on a landmine this time,” Zhou Guan Zhi replies, in his hands a paper cup.

Huang Yu Qi watches as the door slams shut loudly. “Will this become a homicide case?”

“Should we call the police?”

Zhao Zi barely finishes his question, before a red-haired Xing Tian Meng member scoffs, “Aren’t you guys the police?”

Inside the office, Shi Da Pao brings over a huge stack of paper and pushes it to Shao Fei, saying, “Read these files properly.”

“Boss, the files from four years ago I’ve read so many times.”

“How many times have you read it? Did you read the important parts? Tang Yi said it clearly in his statement that year, he doesn’t know, and that means he doesn’t know!”

Shi Da Pao puts both his hands on his chest, glaring at his young, impulsive and stubborn subordinate.

“Boss, that year, Li Zhen, Tang Guo Dong and Tang Yi were found at the site, and only Tang Yi survived. How could he not know anything?!”

“Especially because he’s the only one who survived, his statement is the one that counts! Did you think we didn’t investigate properly? That year, the ones who were shot dead, one was a cop, the other Xing Tian Meng’s leader. Both the media and everyone else in the upper levels were waiting for us to break the case, but Tang Yi’s statement had no flaws.”

Meng Shao Fei looks at his Captain and retorts, “It’s not that there were no flaws. It’s because we don’t have enough evidence!”

“Well you’ve chased him the whole of four years, did you find any new evidence?”

“I may not have evidence, but what if that year, Tang Yi was never the victim? What if this was all an elaborate ploy by him to wrestle control of Xing Tian Meng from Tang Guo Dong?”

“An elaborate ploy?!” Shi Da Pao yells again, pointing at Shao Fei’s chest, getting more agitated by the second, “So it was a ploy, and he shot himself in the heart? Get it right, that year he almost died because he lost too much blood, and he was in the ICU for more than half a month! How do you scheme when you’re about to die? The police investigate based on evidence! Meng. Shao. Fei. Do you have any evidence?!”

“Yes! So I don’t have evidence, but I’m damn sure Tang Yi lied in his statement!”

“How can you be so sure when you don’t have any evidence? You should just change industries and become a scriptwriter instead.”

“Boss…”

At the Captain’s comment, Shao Fei is stunned speechless, his tone filled with defeat.

“Don’t! It should be me calling you ‘boss’. Boss, please I beg you to think again, these four years you’ve been chasing Tang Yi, how many times has his lawyer sued you? All the cases are still valid and none of them are closed, and the apology letters you’ve written are so thick I can use them to press on instant noodles already. Fine, let’s not talk about that. The one who’s most unlucky is me. Because of all the rules you’ve broken all the years, I’ve been called out by my own boss so many times, do you even know that? Can’t you just let me have a few peaceful and quiet days? A few quiet days?”

“But-“

“Boss! Boss!” Zhao Li An interrupts Shao Fei’s sentence as he rushes into the office, pointing at something outside of the office, frantic. “Interpol says they’re taking Jack away.”

The ‘Jack’ that Zhao Li An is speaking of, is the red-haired bodyguard who has been in charge of protecting Tang Yi the past year.

The moment Meng Shao Fei hears that, he rushes out of the office and stops Jack, who’s being moved, snapping at the Interpol guard, “Why are you taking him away?”

“I’ve already passed the necessary documents to your team members. This man has to go back with us and assist our investigation.”

“Investigate what?”

“This is classified information and I cannot reveal it to you. If you don’t mind, please move aside,” the male officer, dressed in a suit, says, then pushes past Shao Fei with Jack.

“Don’t you dare follow!”

Captain Shi sees it clearly — the way Shao Fei is not about to just give up and obviously intends to follow both Interpol and Jack to argue with the officer — and immediately goes up to stop him, this Shao Fei who, any time he meets Tang Yi, is irrationally impulsive and rushes to act before thinking.

“Boss, we caught him, if other departments want him are you just going to them snatch our suspect away?”

“Well the last time because you were chasing Tang Yi, you ruined their operations in Thailand, now they’re taking someone we’ve caught, if you think about it, we’re only making amends! Don’t you dare go and trouble them now. Did you hear me? Go home!”

Meng Shao Fei tosses his Captain a dissatisfied look, then tugs his arm away and walks off.

“Where’re you going?”

“Going. Home!”

Shi Da Pao looks at Zhao Li An, who’s standing next to him and pushes him forward. He warns sternly, “Follow him closely, don’t let him make trouble.”

“Okay,” Zhao Li An reluctantly agrees to it, because he doesn’t dare to resist against Boss’ orders. so all he can do is to nod and follow after Shao Fei with a sigh.

Shi Da Pao returns back to his office, his eyes catching onto the pile of documents and files still scattered across his desk and in that moment, a flash of bitterness and guilt crosses his eyes. He sighs, before picking all the papers up, and putting them where they belong.

On the main street

On the busy streets of the business district, Shao Fei and Zhao Zi walk with a bit of distance between them. As Shao Fei walks forward, Zhao Zi follows, and the moment Shao Fei pauses in his footsteps, so does Zhao Zi.

“What are you following me for?”

Annoyed at having someone follow him so closely*, Shao Fei spins around on his heel and turns to face Zhao Zi. Zhao Zi ends up slamming his forehead against Shao Fei’s chest. Rubbing at his hurting forehead, Zhao Zi says forlornly, “Don’t be so fierce to me! Boss is the one who asked me to watch you.”

“Then if I go home to take a shit are you going to follow me there as well?”

“Don’t think you can fool me, we’ve known each other for so many years, and you still want to lie to me? You’re going to find Tang Yi, right?” Zhao Zi may have a young, childlike face, but his expression now is one of smugness, his chin angled upwards, as he sees through his best friend’s lies immediately.

“So what if I am?”

“Geez, are you trying to get yourself sued for abuse of authority and stalking a good citizen again by him?!”

“I’m now off duty as it is after work hours. If I do meet him, I call that a coincidence. How is he going to file a complaint against me?”

Shao Fei grins, entirely smug. He’s thankful for the past four years’ worth of complaints filed against him, and also the numerous apology letters he’s written — the experience has allowed him to understand the grey areas in the law.

Zhao Zi pouts, then unceremoniously scoffs, “Bullshit! You don’t even know where he is right now, how are you going to ‘coincidentally’ meet him?!”

Shao Fei continues his walk, then suddenly stops his footsteps in front of a tailoring store. Using his thumb to gesture inside, he smirks, “Who says I don’t?”

Squinting to look inside the luxurious, classy store, Zhao Zi is surprised to see that Xing Tian Meng’s leader is, in actual fact, seated inside with two female staff standing at his side. Turning back to Shao Fei, he asks, “He really is here! Ah Fei, how did you know?”

“He’s here every Wednesday afternoon to observe at the store.”

“Tomorrow afternoon?”

“Cheng Shang Hotel.”

“Saturday night?”

“Ya Zhi club.”

“Sunday afternoon?”

“Guan Du Gardens.”

“You really know his schedule! But why is it so easy to track Tang Yi’s whereabouts now?”

“It really was quite difficult to track him previously, but from the start of this year, his schedule became quite regular out of a sudden. I find it a little strange too, which is why…”

Shao Fei is about to push the door open, but the staff on the inside beats him to it, pulling the door inwards. With a polite smile, she says, “Boss invites the both of you to come in.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Shao Fei nods, taking a step inside, only for Zhao Zi to grab onto him.

“Shao Fei, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Her boss told us to go in, so let’s go!”

“No we can’t! If you go in, you’ll not just be moving your mouth, but you’ll actually take action**, and when that happens we’ll really be in trouble!” Zhao Zi whines, his grip on his best friend’s jacket deathly tight.

In turn, Shao Fei grabs onto Zhao Zi’s black and white-coloured plaid jacket, a style that is completely different from his, and says, exasperated, “I promise you, that won’t happen. Also, isn’t Boss’ daughter getting married soon? He told us to wear something more presentable, so we don’t end up embarrassing him. What are you planning to wear on the day of the wedding? Do you have anything presentable to wear? This one? Since we’re already at the store, of course we have to each pick a suit each, let’s go!”

“Hey, hey! Ah Fei! Ah Fei!”

“Don’t pull at me, what can happen to us as we’re choosing a suit?”

“Senior-“

Zhao Zi tries his very best to stop Shao Fei from going in — after all, he is under orders from the Boss — and grabs onto Shao Fei’s jacket with all the strength he has, but Shao Fei is undoubtedly stronger than he is, and in the end, all Zhao Zi can do is follow him inside.

“What can I do for you?” Tang Yi asks with a raised eyebrow, seated on the couch looking through some papers, and stares at the man who’s been chasing him relentlessly for the past four years.

“Who’s looking for you? I’m here to buy clothes.”

Embarrassed and awkward, Zhao Zi randomly picks up a jacket with a print and grabs for the price tag, counting the price printed on it, “Ten, hundred, thousand… ten thousand?! Jesus, this costs 60,000?!”***

“So expensive?!”

With utter disbelief — because how can a piece of cloth cost 5 digits — Shao Fei grabs the jacket from Zhao Zi and looks at the alarming price himself, his eyes going impossibly wide.

“Take it! It’s a gift from me for the hardworking citizens’ nanny,” the mocking suggestion floats over from the the direction of the couch.

“I don’t need it!” Shao Fei retorts.

After all, it’s only, only, a small 60,000 dollars. What’s the worst that could happen? At most, he’ll just have to eat instant noodles to survive for the next few weeks.

On the other side, Zhao Zi points at himself, excited, “Does this mean I can have one too?”

“Do you want to die?!” Shao Fei pulls Zhao Zi aside and warns in a low voice.

Was Zhao Zi kidding him? How could a police officer from Investigative Team Three no less accept bribes from a gangster? If boss ever found out about this, the matter would no longer be as simple to solve with just a 3000 word reflection essay.

The man on the sofa straightens to his feet and approaches Shao Fei, the corners of his lips curving into a smile, “Give him a discount then, if he can afford it.”

“I said I don’t need one!”

“Is that so? Then I have to thank Officer Meng for his purchase. Here, come and take his measurements.”

“Mr. Meng, please come this way,” says the female staff dressed in a red uniform as she takes the 60,000 dollar jacket from Shao Fei.

“Oh, okay.”

Shao Fei is led to the side for someone to take his measurements, and he watches as Tang Yi suddenly receives a call. The man speaks so gently over the phone, and Shao Fei is momentarily stunned, until Tang Yi finishes his call and walks over to him.

“Officer Meng, you’ve got really got taste. This entire set was custom made from cloth imported from England, and you look great in it. The only thing is, the price is also exorbitantly expensive, but if Officer Meng likes it, we’ll definitely give you a discount.”

“I don’t need it! I said I don’t need the discount.”

Tang Yi does not even bother with a response. His smile is insincere and sarcastic, and without another word, he turns and leaves the man who turns up to stalk him every Wednesday without fail in the store.

“Hey! Don’t leave, hey!”

Half an hour later, Shao Fei leaves in a sour mood with his new luxury suit, a suit which cost him about a month and a half’s pay.

===

“Hey, let’s not be police officers anymore. How about we follow Tang Yi and become gangsters instead? It feels so much more worth it to in a part of the mob!” Zhao Zi asks Shao Fei, both hands busy with a bowl and a pair of chopsticks.

“Okay, how about tomorrow we both quit and then go over to Tang Yi’s as undercovers, and in this way, we can even investigate the case, what do you think about this plan, boss?”

“Don’t be rash, I was just kidding,” Zhao Zi protests in a panic.

If Boss ever heard of this, they’d be beaten up so badly they would be sent straight to emergency.

“Hmph,” Shao Fei snorts, “Let’s see if you dare to say stupid shit like this again.”

Zhao Zi’s mouth twists as he considers his colleague and good friend carefully. Hesitantly, he says, “But then again, speaking of which, Shao Fei…”

“What is it?”

“You’ve been hounding him for the past four years. People who don’t know you would think that you have a crush on Tang Yi.”

“Have a crush, your head! He’s a gangster and I’m a cop, how is that possible?”

Persisting on this and refusing to accept Shao Fei’s response, Zhao Zi rolls his eyes and scoffs, “Let me tell you, don’t be so confident. God loves to slap people in the face.”

Shao Fei pauses while eating his bento, pointing at his nose and stresses, “If I say it’s impossible, it’s impossible!”

Leaving the dining table and heading over to the wall behind him, Zhao Zi points at all the information and notices about Xing Tian Meng pasted on the wall, and retorts, “Impossible? If it was impossible, would you hand draw Tang Yi’s arrest warrant, and even write out his height so clearly? And also put all of these up where you’ll definitely walk past the moment you enter through the door?”

Shao Fei points at the wall with his chopsticks and says, “I pasted it there because I wanted to remind myself that I have to find out-“

“-the truth from four years ago,” both men say in unison.

“Right!”

“Forget it,” Zhao Zi shrugs, giving up on this argument with his senior, “If you say it’s impossible, then it’s impossible.”

He returns to the table and picks up his half eaten bowl of instant noodles, changing the subject entirely and turning into a fanboy, almost, “But today Tang Yi’s look, he was pretty handsome! It’s such a pity that he is a gang leader, if he was a star he would definitely have a lot of fans, and I’ll be one of those fans too!”

“Are you dumb?”

“I’m not dumb. Let me tell you…” Zhao Zi says, his voice muffled as he eats, “Now people who smile prettily are really popular. If you put it online he’s guaranteed to go viral, and not only will girls like him, even boys will too!”

Shao Fei retorts, pointing his chopsticks at Zhao Zi this time, “Who said that? I don’t like him.”

“If you used the same amount of energy and effort you use to chase Tang Yi on girls, you’ll already have had a dozen children.”

“Tch, aren’t you also forever single yourself Hey, what are you doing? Who was the one who said that because I bought a really expensive suit today and he’s scared that I’ll eat instant noodles daily, so he bought a bento over to add some dishes for me?”

Shao Fei watches as Zhao Zi snatches his pork-rib bento away, and Zhao Zi even pushes the almost-empty bowl of instant noodles to the front.

“Who asked you to remind me that I’ve been forever single? Hmph! Can’t I regret treating you to this bento? Ah! My pork ribs!”

Zhao Zi glares at the senior who’s always sassing him and hitting him where it hurts. He grabbed the bento over earlier, but this time he was slower for only half a beat, and Shao Fei still managed to snatch the delicious fried pork chop from the bento. Now, Shao Fei is making faces at him from the living room.

The Tang Household

In the bathroom, Tang Yi’s sculpted and slender body is hidden by the shower mist. The warm water falls onto his short hair, slowly trickling down the curves of his chest and firm muscles, and back…

Later, as Tang Yi finishes his shower and walks out of the bathroom into his bedroom with a towel draped over his head, he sees Zuo Hong Ye. Hong Ye, whom he treats like his sister, wearing one of his white shirts and lying sprawled across his bed, her long legs exposed.

“Be careful not to catch a cold.”

“I’m so disappointed, you saw a beauty dressed like this and you didn’t have the slightest of reactions!”

“Welcome back,” Tang Yi bent down and kissed Hong Ye lightly on her forehead, before walking towards his closet.

Hong Ye shifts her legs from the bed onto the floor and gets up to follow him. She asks, “I heard that Meng person managed to catch Jack. What, is he still making things difficult for you?”

Not long after she landed back in Taipei, the first news she heard was the arrest of Jack, Tang Yi’s closest bodyguard, to the police station by Meng Shao Fei.

“Who was the snitch this time?”

“I’m not going to tell you! Otherwise if Xing Tian Meng’s members keep getting fired by you, you’re going to have to do everything by yourself because we’ll have no one left!” Hong Ye says, firm in not snitching on the person who’s feeding her information about Tang Yi.

“That guys didn’t ruin your plans, did he?”

“Nope.”

“No?”

“Not only did he not ruin things, he even helped to send Old Ke and his men into prison, and that saved me a lot of effort on my part.”

The only reason why he deliberately leaked news of Xing Tian Meng and Si He Hui’s meeting to Meng Shao Fei was so the police officer could arrest Si He Hui’s leader.

Confused, Hong Ye looks at Tang Yi, the brother she’s grown up with. “So you sent him a suit as a gift? Why do I feel like the both of you are behaving more and more like friends? But you better stay away from him! Don’t you forget that the first two years, he brought you so much trouble! Even if you know how to handle him now, you should still be careful.”

Tang Yi, wrapped cozily in his blue bathrobe, walks over to his table and pours himself a cup of tea, merely nodding at Hong Ye’s words.

“Ah Yi! I’m serious! Meng Shao Fei is not a fool. Even if you know his temper very well, the same could be said of him about you. Also, these few years, you know exactly how many drug routes in Cambodia you’ve taken down. The first year, no one took notice, but if you keep doing this, I’m only afraid that-“

“Drink some water?”

“Don’t change the topic!” Hong Ye says unhappily, pushing the approaching cup away.

“You don’t have to worry about the gang’s affairs.”

“Let me ask you. Why are you so intent on dismantling that drug route in Cambodia? Are you targeting someone? Or does this have anything to do with the incident four years ago?”

“You’re thinking too much. If I knew who killed Boss Tang, do you think I could let that person off?”

Tang Yi has only ever let his hair down in front of people that he trusts, and it is only in front of someone he trusts that he resembles more like a ‘person’, with a warmth that human being should exude. The Xing Tian Meng leader stares at the woman before him somberly, and watches as she snatches the mug away from him.

“I can’t just leave the people in the gang who’re opposed towards our mission of going legal alone. I’m only pulling some tricks to force these opposing members and brothers to give up on drugs, especially those who have connections to the people in Cambodia.”

“If that’s the case, I can help you…”

Tang Yi shakes his head, cutting Hong Ye off, “You do what you need to do, and that’s properly running our legal businesses, so that we can let our brothers lead normal lives. Just leave the rest to me.”

“Xiao Yi!”

“Don’t worry! I know what to do.”

Hong Ye looks at Tang Yi with worry. Although they share no blood between them, they’re closer to each other than real siblings are, and she is well aware that once Tang Yi has decided on something, no one can change his mind. All she can do is compromise. She sighs, “You have to promise me that you’ll be careful, and, you absolutely must stay away from Meng Shao Fei.”

“Okay, I promise,” Tang Yi replies, his fingers gently combing through Hong Ye’s hair, doting on the woman he’s protected since they were much younger.

Cheng Shang Hotel

Li Zhi De is used to walking right behind the young Xing Tian Meng leader as his protection detail. He barely steps into the lift and presses the button for the fifth floor, before a figure speeds right into his line of vision and uses a hand to stop the lift doors from closing shut.

“Meng Shao Fei, this is a members-only lift, what are you doing here?” Ah De glares viciously at Shao Fei, who has shown up here unwelcome.

With both eyebrows raised in challenge, Shao Fei looks past Ah De’s shoulders to look at Tang Yi who’s standing inside the lift, and says, “I’m looking for that person behind you, I have some things to discuss with him.”

“What business can there be between you and I?”

“Did you hear that? Scram!”

Just as Tang Yi rejects Shao Fei, Ah De immediately moves one step forward and forces Shao Fei outside of the lift. Just as Ah De thinks he’s gotten the upper hand, his shoulder and right hand is quickly twisted and pressed behind his back. Shao Fei tightens his chokehold on Ah De’s neck, and in one smooth movement, swaps positions with Ah De and pushes the stunned Ah De at least ten feet away from the lift. He quickly rushes into the lift just as the doors are closing.

“Meng. Shao. Fei!” Ah De curses and kicks at the shut metal lift doors, watching the red numbers on the screen change.

“It’s only you and me now,” says the unwelcome guest in the lift, smug.

Tang Yi briefly looks at the rapidly changing floor numbers on the screen, and coldly replies, “You’ve got five floors worth of time.”

The next second, Shao Fei simply presses the lighted button for the fifth floor twice and overrides the lift system, and then instead presses the button for the highest floor. He says, “Well, now we have 17 floors worth of time.”

Tang Yi watches the numbers change again, and without a choice, he asks, “Officer Meng, how can I help you?”

“The previous time at the tailor store you insisted on giving me a discount, and I was thinking, that I should give you something in return. And so I found something that resembles you to give you as a gift.”

Shao Fei reaches into his pockets and pulls out a white skeleton keychain, shaking it in front of Tang Yi’s eyes. “You see? It has a dead face like yours, I’m giving this to you. Hold onto it!”

Tang Yi grabs at the keychain, then stuffs it back into Shao Fei’s pockets. “I’m telling you, stop chasing after the truth from four years ago, because everything I said in my statement then was the truth.”

He’s well aware of the reason why Shao Fei is hounding him, and that is because of that double homicide from four years ago.

“You were at the scene. That’s the truth. You were shot at the scene. That’s also the truth. Even you losing too much blood and almost dying, that’s also true,” Shao Fei agrees, then with a challenging smile, he continues, “But you said you didn’t see the person who shot you. That. Is. A. Lie!”

“You’re the only one in this world who believes that.”

Shao Fei looks at the Xing Tiang Meng leader before him, the only person who knew what happened four years ago, and calmly replies, “Because I’m the only person in this world who understands you.”

“On what grounds do you think that I’m lying?” Tang Yi asks, turning around to face the police officer who has been chasing him for the past four years.

“It’s instinct! I can tell you are lying and even though I don’t know why you’re doing this right now, but I know you’re hiding the truth, and I can also tell that because I’ve hit the mark, you’re actually panicking inside,” Shao Fei retorts, stepping closer to Tang Yi with each step, until Tang Yi’s back is pressed against the walls of the lift behind him.

Shao Fei moves so close, until they are only a breath apart, and says, “Your ears are red. You really are panicking.”

He smiles, victorious, and moves back. “If you don’t want me to keep stalking you, then just tell me what happened four years ago.”

“Hmph,” Tang Yi smirks suddenly, and then he’s forcing Shao Fei to the corner of the lift instead using his height as an advantage over the police officer.

Tang Yi’s hand reaches out towards the side of Shao Fei’s waist.

“You- you you, what are you doing? Don’t mess around, I won’t fall for your tricks!”

Shao Fei had the upper hand earlier, but now that Tang Yi is so close, almost intimately close, Shao Fei is now the one panicking.

“You’re still not enough for me to want to mess around with you.”

Immediately after, Tang Yi grabs onto Shao Fei’s left hand and spins him around so that his back is facing him, then holds him by the neck and spins Shao Fei so that he falls backwards towards the ground. At the last moment, Tang Yi supports Shao Fei’s weight with his right hand, preventing Shao Fei from really falling down.

“You nearly slipped? Officer Meng?”

Entirely speechless and breathless because of how close Tang Yi is to him, Shao Fei opens his mouth, about to respond, when Tang YI pulls him upright again and pushes him back to the corner of the lift. Then, he brings up the handcuffs he successfully picked from Shao Fei and waves it in front of him.

“This is what I wanted to take.”

Coming back to himself, Shao Fei lunges for the handcuffs, but Tang Yi easily restrains him and with a single move, cuffs Shao Fei to the raliings of the lift.

“What are you doing?!”

The lift stops right on the 17th floor and Tang Yi moves out of the lift easily, only turning back to wave the handcuff keys at him with a smile. “Goodbye, Officer Meng.”

“Tang Yi! You bastard, come back!” Shao Fei hollers furiously as the lift doors close, his right hand cuffed securely to the railings.

A few hours later, in the Captain’s office.

Zhao Zi is holding onto a detached railing, standing right next to Shao Fei, accompanying his best friend to accept their Captain’s scolding.

“Boss, we already handled this with Cheng Shang Hotel’s manager and compensated them for this, and they don’t intend to file a complaint against the station, so…”

Wham!

Shi Da Pao interrupted Zhao Zi’s attempt at smoothing this situation over with a loud slam of his hand against the office desk. Pointing at the both of them, he yells, “Just because they aren’t filing a complaint, everything is okay? Is this how you guys use the department’s budget?!”

“Boss, I said, it was because I was on a case, that’s why-“

“A case, bullshit! I’ve told you so many times but you’ve ignored me totally. From tomorrow onwards- no, from now onwards, you’ll be moved back to desk duty and you’re banned from going out! Additionally, you’ll write a 2000-word apology letter. Zhao Zi, you better watch him for me! If he hasn’t written more than 2000 words you’re not allowed to bring his letter to me!”

Zhao Zi whines, his face crumpling, “Why is it me again?!”

“Boss!!!”

“Another word from you and it’s 3000 words!”

“I-“ Shao Fei looks at the Captain’s retreating back, and wisely swallows the words at the tip of his tongue.

The Tang Household

Tang Yi gently picks up a blue tea pot, and pours the amber liquid into a cup that is of a similar shade of blue as the pot. Closing his eyes, he enjoys the scent of the tea, and not even when someone walks right to his side, does he move.

“Boss, there’s news from Cambodia.”

Jack is there standing on his left, his hair gleaming red and wearing those fingerless gloves of his.

“Talk,” Tang Yi says, sipping at his oolong tea.

“Chen Wen Hao is back.”

Tang Yi places his teacup down and opens his eyes slowly, the burn of hate flashing across his eyes momentarily.

“Finally, he’s back.”

*directly translated Zhao Zi is literally referred to as ‘a piece of goldfish shit’ for some reason

**directly translated, it says ‘you’ll not just be moving your mouth, but moving your hands as well!’

***60,000 NTD is about 2000 USD

#history 3: 圈套 #history3圈套 #history 3: trapped #history3: trap #history3: trapped #history3 novel #history3 merchandise #translations

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drivingsideways · 5 years ago

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thoughts on episode 28-29, spoilers under the cut

well, after a long time, I got two episodes in a row that I actually enjoyed quite a lot! Mostly because the drama spent the time on inner palace drama and not so much on court politics, though of course, plot wise, they were inter-related!

In random order of things:

- The “subplot” of Xia Song and Jia got some unexpected screen time. I always liked these two schemy, corrupt characters and their relationship, and this episode we get the other side of Jia’s “I tried to commit suicide when he married that woman” line; turns out our crafty, moderately competent, not very good looking Comissioner Xia is also deeply in love with her??? He wrote the loveliest song for/about her!! (A song she sings in one of the early episodes, about lovers parting!) And he loves her for who she is, including that she sent her niece to his household, in a petty act of spite/ revenge, which was apparently the last straw for his wife? Like the unexpected bitter-sweetness of their relationship really came for my heart!!! I half wished Jia had left the palace when the Emperor told her that he would grant the separation, but not allow Xia Song to marry again and that he’d be sent away. On the other hand, given who she is, why would she? She’s ruthlessly pragmatic and probably realizes that Xia Song’s love for her might not outlast the ignominy of exile and poverty! But I think the decision does hurt , and I doubt we’ve seen the last of this couple! I’m kind of secretly rooting for them in my heart!! I want them to survive this clusterfuck of a world that is palace politics!!!

- Unexpected fallout of domestic drama is- more domestic drama, but within the palace walls! How much did I love that He’er goes to war against Zhang Bihan??? Like, bitch you thought????? I also loved the scenes later with He’er and Danshu- where He’er admits that (a) her daughter is more important to her than the emperor and (b) that in fact, she feels closer to Danshu than the Empress. I feel deeply sorry for He’er, though He’er herself doesn’t seem to feel unhappy except for Bihan’s drama? Like she was barely 15 when she made that decision to enter the palace- and despite the Empress Dowager warning her, the Empress Dowager didn’t really attempt to dissuade her either, I think. But these many years later, you can’t help wish she’d not made that decision; she was clearly someone who’d have been happier in a more normal domestic arrangement. That said, He’er showing some fire in these two episodes was a welcome change, especially when you also see how her attitude toward the Emperor has also undergone a slight change.

- Speaking of people whose feelings about the Emperor are changing- surprise, Zhang Bihan is beginning have mixed feelings about him too- he’s no longer the “ideal man” in her life, whom she must possess- instead, his whims and fancies are even more real as a threat to her and her child now. Bihan beginning to listen to Jia and play the smart game is also a good change, though I do feel her character has been irreparably damaged by the careless writing from the start.

- And speaking of people whose feelings about the Emperor AREN’T changing- oh, Danshu. On the one hand, I feel like this stasis is bad writing? Because I’m frankly *tired * of women pining after asshole men until one day, miraculously, their quiet devotion gets “rewarded” when the asshole “realizes” their worth. Fuck that noise.

On the other hand, I do feel that deep loyalty and stubborn holding on to an ideal despite the hurt it causes her, is also very Danshu? Like you see that in the way she went ahead with the marriage to the Daoist dude; and re: Zhao Zhen, she fell in love with the idea of him much before she fell in love with him, and the two aren’t really separable now. And the more he fails to live up to that ideal, the less she’s able to admit it to herself, because to do that would be to destroy everything she’s given her entire life to, and the last years since her marriage(7?10? I’ve lost track) in particular. It would be admitting that the hurt goes deeper than just being in love unrequited; it would mean admitting that the man in her idealistic heart does not exist. Hence- the always finding excuses for him, even for his grossest excesses, and I’m not even talking about the personal hurts. Yes, he sent ten thousand men to their death , but he just made a mistake, and he’s so deeply sorry, and even when he exhibits some self-awareness of that (when he admits that the decision was driven in part by his desire to be remembered as great), even when he does that, she’s more inclined to forgive him than not. She cannot, like the audience, take a dispassionate look at him and say “Alright he’s a fairly decent ruler, but he’s an absolute disaster of a human being!!” Like that’s probably the cultural/philosophical ethos of the time too working on her, because the Emperor was the nation, and the nation was everything? At least for someone from her particular family and social class, and her own ambitions to serve that ideal.

It makes me wonder if there’s ever going to be a point of no return for her? What would it take to crush that idea of him in her head completely? What would he have to do? We already know it’s nothing against her personally that would do the trick- she’s swallowed his insults and neglect for years and years. If the break comes, I suspect it has to be something where he acts in an unjustifiable way to someone else- perhaps Huaiji or Huirou or (hehehe) Maoze- something that irreparably damages his image in her eyes as a kind and good and benevolent ruler. But I don’t know if it will ever happen in the drama. Historically speaking, they never separated. Which is fine, but I would also be super interested in a story where Danshu slowly changes into someone who’s comfortable to take power for herself ( and not necessarily as an end in itself, but as a means to an end?), rather than serve, as the scales fall from her eyes. Again history says, she was practically forced to retire from her position as regent after Renzong’s death. I don’t know if the drama will go there- more likely it’ll stop a little after his death, and the establishment of her as regent and Zongshi as emperor.

Anyways, at this point, I’ve more or less accepted that *my * happy ending for Danshu in canon would basically be her surviving Emperor Fucklord and being surrounded by people to love and admire her, and no longer having to play second fiddle to a man she’s ten times better than.

- In Emperor Fucklord update- he gets really angry with Maoze in a way that’s not totally explicable? As a result he both gives Maoze a promotion while simultaneously sending Maoze away from him; later, when he finds out that Dong Qiuhe was hired by Maoze, I think he’s already, in his mind using it to justify his angry reaction to Maoze’s telling him that he’d failed to report Xia Song’s affair with Jia to him. Perhaps Emperor Fucklord is so angry because he feels that the whole scandal could have been avoided if Maoze had kept him informed; perhaps he feels that giving Maoze more leeway not fully in accordance with usual conventions is against the principle he was preaching to Huaiji just before- the need to control even “personal kindness” because it could lead to indiscipline and overturning of the stable social order. RULES ARE GOOD, is Emperor Fucklord’s new mantra, after spending half his life thus far blaming every woman in sight for following rules! Perhaps it’s the retreat of a ruler who’s been badly hurt by the debacle of the war, perhaps it’s just the usual thing where people become more conservative as they get older? Whatever it is, I foresee some immediate pain for Maoze and the Empress as they navigate this more rigid version of him coupled with his paranoia.

- The contrast between Emperor Fucklord’s embrace of convention and tradition just as Huirou, in her innocence, is questioning everything is nicely done, and sets the stage for their future conflicts.

- I like the Huirou/Huaiji friendship; her unknowing poking at his wounds, and her immediate regret when she sees that he’s hurting. I also really like that it’s essentially her friendship with him that’s setting her on the path of questioning a lot of shit that passes for “tradition”. She’s too young to know it or feel it as keenly now, but as a noble woman, she’s only a few steps higher in practice, than the eunuch. And I don’t doubt that it’s partly that kinship which will drive their relationship forward.

The only thing slightly uncomfortable for me is that knowing these two are meant to be a couple in the future shadows all the current (non sexual/romantic!) interaction, and with the age difference between them, it’s just- weird. Perhaps if I hadn’t known their future trajectory, it would be easier. I should clarify it’s nothing inappropriate in their writing- it’s just the foreknowledge fucks it up for me.

Anyways, the one thing I didn’t get in these two episodes was any direct interaction between Maoze + Danshu and that is unacceptable!!!!! Why am I even watching this except for them???!!!! PFFFT.

#serenade of peaceful joy #held in the lonely castle

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dreamingsushi · 5 years ago

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Eternal Love of Dream - Episode 23

Fengjiu is still pretty depressed by what happened in the mortal realm. No wonder. It was quite a trial for her too, hurting the man she likes (even though Song Xuanren and Donghua actually nothing in coming, except maybe that they look alike) to the point that he died and causing the death of somebody who was innocent. That’s something I like about this Fengjiu compared to Ten miles of Peach Blossom. She’s growing. She’s still that mischievous fox girl and she’s still doing foolish stuff (and probably will again) but she’s actually in the process, she’s getting more mature. And even though I am really sad about what happened to Ye Qingti and I am probably going to sob for a while thinking about it, I feel that was a turning point, forcing Fengjiu to actually grow up. She had a hard time in the mortal realm, and she knew she messed up big time. However, without a consequence as important as the death of someone who didn’t deserve to die because of her mistakes, I don’t think she would have really understood that sometimes love means that you won’t help the person you like and watch them go through trials. It’s too early to know how much did she understand by now, but I feel she’s less childish and this is going to make that whole story on a different level than Ten Miles of Peach Blossom. I hope.

So back to the story and behind with my own thoughts, Chengyu comes to take Fengjiu out. She has been secluding herself for a few days and seems like she’s thinking of drinking the Love forgetting water, like Bai Qian did. Chengyu warns to not imitate her aunt. We all know how bad it ended up for a long time. Then, Fengjiu argues that their cases are different, since Yehua loved Bai Qian all along whereas Donghua doesn’t even know that she exists. Not yet. Anyways, Chengyu pulls her out.

Zheyan is having tea (does he actually drink something else other than peach wine? I didn’t know haha) with Fengjiu’s father. He actually came to look out for him because one of his friends is interested in Xiaojiu and wants to talk wedding. Bai Yi guesses on the spot that this friend of him must be Cangyi. Zheyan confirms it is him. He fell in love at first with Fengjiu and cannot stop thinking about her since then. Since they are of the same... hm how can I say it? They have a similar rank amongst the deities and immortals? Bai Yi has already had an eye on him, he’s pretty awesome (well he doesn’t say it like that but I am just helping him to be honest) and he does think he’s a match for Fengjiu. Bai Yi says he’s going to discuss it with Fengjiu first, because after all she’s the one that needs to be okay with it, not him. The wedding letter has already been written, if Fengjiu agrees they can start to get ready.

Fengjiu can give up on Donghua in her head, but not in her heart. She feels bad for hurting him and she hurt him, but she’s hurting more than he does.

Maybe not. Ever since Donghua woke up, he feels pain in his chest. Okay, maybe I was wrong and Song Xuanren actually liked Xiaojiu for real in the end. It might have started as just admiration for her beautiful looks then he slowly fell for her personality. I still don’t like Xuanren because he thought everything he wanted should belong to him and I don’t think his love was entirely sincere. In the sense that, even though we know she didn’t like Qingti that way for real, if he loved her so much, he should have let her go way earlier. But now that I think back, he begged the Dowager Queen to free the two of them, probably knowing that they would get back together once out of the palace. Well, this trial thought him a lot about love, if he ever remembers it. He won’t look at the report of his mortal trial, he thinks it’s unnecessary.

Fengjiu asks Chengyu how should forget about Donghua and Chengyu tells her to find somebody who loves her, somebody who would worry about her, take care of her. Chengyu notices that Xiaojiu always wears the bangle Qingti gave to her and she says that if she didn’t go to the mortal realm because of her selfishness, he wouldn’t have died. She owes him a life. She will definitely find a way to bring him back. Then they hear some sound at the door and Chengyu hit the impertinent one listening at the doors!

Naturally, that would be Lian Song. Who else would pester so much Chengyu. Actually, he’s probably the only guy in the Nine Heavens who dares to annoy her. Seeing the two of them, Xiaojiu bids her farewell and goes back to Qingqiu. He actually came to deliver the weapon he designed for her. She takes and shuts him outside the room haha. They are so cute. He begs her again to help and she agrees when he says if not, then she shall finish the date they had together. So she agrees to get rid of him as fast as possible.

Wow. Donghua is dreaming of his mortal trial and wakes up startled. He wonders if these dreams are from his mortal trial and why would he still have these memories. He wonders who’s the girl in his dream. Not long after, Chengyu and Lian Song happens to fight again and she ends to throw the weapon and it almost hit Donghua. When he sees it, he reminds more memory of his mortal trial. He just gives back the weapon and Liang Song says, when he’s gone, that ever since he came back from the mortal realm, Donghua has been weird and wonders if he encountered something bad in the trial. But Chengyu just attacks back and resume the fight haha. She’s so angry and says that Donghua’s the bad thing. Such a loyal friend that Chengyu though <3

When Fengjiu comes back to Qingqiu, she’s extremely drunk and Ahli asks her why did she drunk so much wine? Then he tells her not to get in because Bai Yi is waiting for her. But he doesn’t have the time to finish what he was saying because Bai Yi comes right then. Fengjiu runs to her father and hugs him, saying she missed him. Ahli shakes his head and tells Bai Yi that Xiaojiu is really sad. Riceball is the cutest though <3

Dad scolds her. She regrets going to the mortal realm. He forgives her and tells her to never do it again. In the next days, she should focus on her classes. He then tells her that Cangyi asked for her hand. As she reads the wedding letter, she agrees to the wedding. Bai Yi is like, daughter, you have to think carefully, your wedding isn’t a game. She’s like you’ll been drinking alcohol at my wedding soon!

Back in the Nine Havens, Lian Song sees Zhong Lin looking worried. He asks him, since Dong Hua came back not long ago, how come does he look so worried like that? He says Dong Hua has been weird lately and now he wants to have a look at the report on his mortal trial. Wow, he did change his mind faster than I thought.

Siming brings the report himself to Donghua, so if he has any questions, he can answer them. But he keeps playing chess without looking at the scroll. Donghua looks at it and then Lian Song asks to see it too. Siming didn’t write the truth, he said Donghua was in love with Zhou Mengxi. But he says there’s nothing wrong with it, it just doesn’t match his memories. Lian Song tells him since it’s in the past, just leave it in the past if it doesn’t show any problems. So Donghua is like, well you should leave Chengyu in the past too then. And Lian Song is like, this is different.

Fengjiu and sees Ahli playing with wedding ornements. She tells him not to play with his mom’s stuff and Ahli says, it’s not Bai Qian’s, but her’s since she agreed to marry Cangyi. She suddenly remembers and rushes to see her dad. She asks him to cancel the wedding. He says it’s too late and he can’t help her. She should be responsible for her choices.

Since daddy won’t help her, she’s going to run away. Ahli asks her why doesn’t she ask Bai Qian to help her, but since it’s soon to be Bai Qian and Yehua’s wedding, she doesn’t want to bother her. Then, she remembers she has another uncle hehehe. She blames him for letting Zheyan come and talk about this wedding proposal and tells him she’s going to run away. Bai Zhen agrees to help her though. A letter comes from Cangyi saying he had to go to the mortal realm and can’t come to chose the wedding day. Bai Zhen says that’s not good for Xiaojiu. But Bai Yi won’t change his mind, saying how nice and a good party for Fengjiu.

Wow, Ahli is so smart. He says that if Cangyi doesn’t want to marry her anymore, than everything would be solved. Ahli runs to tell Bai Yi that Fengjiu left to cancel the wedding herself. Bai Yi runs out right after her.

Fengjiu asks to see Cangyi and he’s happy to see her, it says it’s fate he gets to see her before he leaves for the mortal realm. She tells him it’s all a misunderstanding and that she doesn’t want to marry him. Then he says it’s normal since she doesn’t know him yet, but he doesn’t doubt that with time, she will like him. Wow. Are all the boys so sure of getting Fengjiu’s heart all the time?

Anyways, he won’t agree to cancel the wedding so she says since she’s going to be the Queen, there are rules. If she wins a fight against him, then they should cancel the wedding. At first he doesn’t want to, because he never fights with woman so she’s like if you don’t agree it means you accept to cancel the wedding and she’s about to leave. So he agrees to fight with her. She destroys like... everything around and at some point almost fall down and he catches her. She’s like, we’re not done, let’s keep on fighting, but they don’t get the chance because daddy just came to stop his daughter.

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