#Mi screaming about Yingdu

[kuschelkissen]

Yeah. "The song is not a tear jerker", YES IT FUCKING IS

I'm a fucking mess, I'm crying, I'm not gonna survive this fucking show if I'm gonna be crying within TEN FUCKING SECONDS OF THE OPENING?!

"I couldn't make it to you", are you for fucking real?!

😭😭😭😭😭

Can't even really enjoy the song because OF COURSE it's in English, so i can't even tune out the lyrics!! 😭

The visuals on top??

Gorgeous, BUT HEART WRENCHING 😭😭😭

Gf was like "he's smiling 🥹", well I'm fucking not?! He's also crying! Good, we have that in common, I guess?!

^ Accurate depiction of myself rn, just add some trembling on top, well done, bilibili, well done👏

[kuschelkissen]

Idk, somehow this doesn't make it easier for me 😭 every time we get something new, I feel more and more hopeless for the ending

💀

[kuschelkissen]

Ok so. Actual predictions I make about Yingdu

List under cut

Cheng Xiaoshi dies on screen at least once.

Cheng Xiaoshi dies in a dream and/ or flashback

Xia Fei dies (bonus points if he actually dies in the fire that killed Cheng Xiaoshi at one point. Based on the opening lol)

the two chapters will be split between actual prequel (3 years ago) and the present (current timeline? Or maybe the previous one. Probably somewhere before s1)

(Basing this entirely of 2 things, the 2 different outfits and the fact that Lu Guang said in the first trailer "i think he might be in Yingdu" and "he can't go to Yingdu", which sounds to me like something happened on their overseas trip?)

(Not sure where the flashbacks with the Qiaos or the basketball scene will be in this)

Lu Guang almost drowns (bonus points for cpr. YES I KNOW IT'S NOT A KISS BUT THEIR LIPS TOUCH AND I'M DESPERATE, OK?!)

full scene of the meet cute at the basketball court (but it's not the first timeline)

Vein can control dreams

Xia Fei will betray... someone. I hope it will be Vein and Liu Xiao, but my gut tells me it will be ShiGuang

Xia Fei and the blonde woman are related¹

(If my gf is right and he is her in disguise, I'm gonna scream and laugh, it would be funny)

Xia Fei probably has powers. Whatever they will look like

Vein is not an actual cannibal (praying for this one, I don't want to mute more artists I like)

we will see the Qiaos taking care of Cheng Xiaoshi (bonus points if the whole "I'll give you a ten year loan for rent" is shown as a joke and papa Qiao's way of trying to make cxs think they're not pitying him, so he let's them help him.)

Cheng Xiaoshi gets his powers (gets them or they awaken)

idk if there will be actual backstory for Lu Guang, but I hope so. I wish to see their actual first meeting, though I don't think we will get that in Yingdu. At least not if the white hair theory will be confirmed, what I assume won't happen before s3 when Qiao Ling confronts Lu Guang.

(WELL? We got at least some background on him yet??)

"thank you for your cooperation, sweetie" is said to either Lu Guang or Cheng Xiaoshi after he helped Vein with something that seemed harmless, but lead to something horrible. (Bonus points if he says it to Lu Guang after whatever he did to help lead to Cheng Xiaoshi dying)

we learn something about Cheng Xiaoshi's parents

- a few questions will be answered, but in the end we will be left with more

every episode will end with a cliffhanger so bad I'll cry

I think that's all for now, need to sort my thoughts more for the rest

EDIT after seeing the final PV

Lu Guang's conversation with Liu Xiao about controlling the future has actually nothing to do with Cheng Xiaoshi's death because it hasn't happened at that point. It is the beginning of the Loop, though

Lu Guang's power turns out to be actually different than what we thought it was

EDIT2 after seeing the ending

the man and woman you see from behind are Xia Fei's parents who died in the big fire (blonde woman is his sister and part of me wants to say she thinks she's the only survivor but her brother survived, too. Adding this one solely based on that cipher reading "there is more than one survivor to this disaster". But in the end it doesn't make sense with XF being so prominent as a famous model, so... UGH. There is, again, more to this.)

(still dunno what his agency is though lol)

[kuschelkissen]

My prediction for Yingdu:

I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna cry each fucking episode, because the opening is gonna make me cry, and the more the series progresses, the more I'm gonna cry, because each episode will give more context and will make the opening worse.

This is the one prediction I can make where I'm 100% certain of

[kuschelkissen]

So uh...

💀💀💀

[kuschelkissen]

That actually would make sense, especially with the mirror imagery. It also would work perfectly to link this flashback/ prequel to the ending of s2 and work as a bridge between s2 and s3 🤔 since a prequel in the middle of 2 seasons is a bit odd, I think?

Yingdu's entire arc is Lu Guang's memories that Qiao Ling is experiencing

I honestly didn't expect to see Qiao Ling in the Yingdu arc, I thought she had no role there. So when posters and trailers started showing her, I was glad to be wrong because I love Qiao Ling a lot. But then I wondered...

What kind of role could she possibly have there?

As far as we know, she didn't go to London with Lu Guang and Xiaoshi. It's not like she knows about their powers, because by the season 1 finale, when her friend goes missing, she says something like "so that's how your powers work". So during this arc, she just goes doing her routine at home, hanging out with her friends and stuff like that.

But she has posters, she's in the trailer and on the official fanarts for the arc. It's too much for merely appearing in future arc character（´～｀)

At the end of the second season, Qiao Ling gained Li Tianxi's ability and saw Lu Guang's memories. And I thought that if during the whole arc, we will see Qiao Ling trying to figure out what really happened during the trip to London before all the rewinds made by Lu Guang. She already realizes that they have changed something in the past and that in this past Xiaoshi was dead, so maybe she will try to figure out what happened in detail to decide what to do....（；￣＾￣）

[kuschelkissen]

"Every time I watch the opening song together with the first part of the first episode of the Yingdu, I feel like crying. 🥲"

Cool cool cool.

So I'll extend my predictions to We will see Cheng Xiaoshi die in the first part of the first episode.

Yeah, I'm not OK

[kuschelkissen]

Putting this under the cut, I just watched the new ending...

Why the fuck

does he look

SO FUCKING SAD IN EACH FRAME?!

WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?!

[kuschelkissen]

So uh. Episode 2?

First of all, after last week, this felt like it was 5 minutes long?? Or, you know, short.

Didn't help that the opening only played after 10 minutes, like really in the middle...

I wonder if LX's power really is... great hearing? Idk. I feel like there's more to it, he's a liar and a manipulator, and we're explicitly told not to trust him, so I won't.

(He was pretty cool in this ep though. And so damn pretty...)

So. That guy (don't remember his name) could see the future, right? With that emphasis on his eyes before he 'saw' lx getting shot? And he knows Cheng Weimin...

Idk, something tells me Dad is already dead and he stole his power 🥲

Then... there was a timeline change again, right? My theory is, in the original tl, cxs would've given lg the photo and lg probably would've told him "nothing of interest happens here" and stopped him from going there...? What do you think?

The sibling quarrel... 😭 again, ql knew something she would've told someone, second time now. Third time is the charm, so we will see her confront lg about that memory in s3, pretty sure about that.

But also... cxs just leaving instead of screaming at her for hiding this for a decade... boy is so gentle, despite all the shit that went down in his life 😭

He totally was ruffling LG's hair to make him look away while he was fighting the tears btw.

Someone who is better with symbolism, what are your thoughts on the red threads tangling the gears and writing Bridon? 🥲 and especially lg ripping the threads?

Also also I'm a bit 'miffed' that the drowning is metaphorical. Where's my kiss cpr gonna come from now??

[kuschelkissen]

Generally yes, but he says "this is the punishment because you (plural) changed the past" (at least that's what I was told), and for all we know it could as well mean that the two of them changed something (probably something big?) in a past dive and that's why he's here to punish them.

(I'm looking forward to why he let Lu Guang live in the end, when he tried to kill him first)

Is Cheng Xiaoshi's death a paradox?

Why do I say this? Because of this specific line of dialogue said by Vein:

Specifically, I’m talking about about the “grandfather paradox.” This paradox is one of the most common dilemmas in time travel stories and scenarios. It illustrates a problem arising from the effect of time travel on causality—the principle that a cause must precede its effect. The paradox suggests that a cause is eliminated by its own effect, preventing its own existence and creating a loop of reverse causation. For example, if someone were to travel back in time and prevent their grandfather from meeting their grandmother, they would never be born, which would make it impossible for them to travel back in time in the first place.

In this case, Vein knows that Lu Guang altered the past, so he arrives at the photo studio and shoots Cheng Xiaoshi. However, Vein is probably unaware that this very act will ultimately be the catalyst for the time-traveling events in the first place. This creates a classic “chicken-or-egg” problem: Did Vein kill Cheng Xiaoshi first, or did Lu Guang change the past first?

The actions, effects, and consequences are all interlinked, trapping them in a paradox that Lu Guang is desperately trying to break. Yet, his efforts are inherently contradictory—attempting to prevent Cheng Xiaoshi’s death is the very thing that ensures it happens. This vicious cycle highlights the core dilemma of the grandfather paradox: any attempt to change the past creates a self-defeating loop.

And to support my crazy theory, here’s what Vein’s character description says:

Vein knows what will happen. How? I’m not sure, but my guess is that it has something to do with Liu Xiao—perhaps he provides the information, and Vein acts as the executor. Or maybe it’s connected to Vein’s own powers.

[This is a mess. I might be wrong, and maybe this scene isn’t the first time Cheng Xiaoshi died, but I like paradoxes, so I had some fun writing this lol].

[kuschelkissen]

Watched Ep1 of Yingdu Arc and survived!!

Thoughts under cut because spoilers!! Duh.

ok. Uh. Where do I even start.

The basketball scene, man, that looked so good. OH that looked SO DAMN GOOD???

And then BAMM whiplash, Vein's in the fucking photo studio, throwing Cheng Xiaoshi around as if he wasn't a full grown man of 1,80m 💀 I kinda expected to see CXS die soon, but wow. That was... uff, wow, thanks for the tears I guess

I will sound terrible, but... I kinda wish that scene had been longer? Dunno, feels like we barely saw LG grieving over this.

Watch this statement come back to bite my ass, when we get the full extended scene in the last episode lol

Because I feel like it has to come back? Like. What the fuck happened? Why is Vein here? Like. HERE here, in the photo studio. Why is Xiao Li dead? And Qiao Ling??

This makes the intro including her in all of these scenes so much worse! 😭 And no wonder LG dove back... EVERYONE IS DEAD. Who wouldn't have done the same...

And oh god, that whole power-transfer scene. Not only was it a fucking beautiful metaphor with the basketball, it also looked so pretty how the gold faded from CXS's eyes 😭 And I guess he transferred it voluntarily? Gave it to Lu Guang so he could save everyone (no pressure, tho). God, I'm sobbing again as I type this...

I really wonder what happened in that almost hour long time period between CXS dying and LG diving. Since LG was hurt when he got the photo, and I don't assume that Vein just... you know, LEFT, I guess there was a fight? Do you think LG went feral again? Or did Vein think he'd die from his wound(s?) and just left him to bleed out?

(Also I guess an interesting thought, that all of that doesn't matter anymore once he's diving 🤔)

Anyway.

THESE FUCKERS FAKED BLACK HAIR LU GUANG FOR THE PREVIEW?! WTF?

Like. Okay?? I knew there would be all sorts of misdirects, but??? Just plain out faked it, huh?!

I'm not mad tbh. While I like the white hair theory (what if Black/White Doomed Yaoi™ can only be fixed by making both of them black haired??), I stopped liking it when they made it seem like the power transfer gives you 1 white hair at a time. That would've been too much for me to handle T___T And LG looks great with white hair, so. Yeah.

I did NOT need the next whiplash after crying over CXS's death, but I guess they met by one of his classmates (?) literally throwing a fucking BASKETBALL into LG's face??? And apparently there was a need to show that THREE times. OKAY, SURE, see me laughing through my tears??

(ok, other than that, that scene was so cute. And sad. LG almost crying again, the sound of his voice, grabbing his arm, as if he had to feel that he was actually there, ALIVE...)

Cried through the whole opening again, obviously.

And then the moment I have been waiting for.

Cosplayer. Lu Guang. And not just ANY cosplayer, no no. He's apparently famous in the scene?? What??

("Taking photos of beautiful women~" (Lu Guang almost dying from choking on his coke) I can't)

AND HE'S A WEEB, he's cosplaying and reading manga AND I DIDN'T THINK I COULD LOVE HIM MORE BUT APPARENTLY I CAN???

"I thought you were more the Shakespear type" ALL OF US, CXS, ALL OF US!

Seriously, I love this so much??

Trying to sort my thoughts, but it's kinda hard. It was a bit of a ride??

And the Club girl wanted to put CXS in a couple cosplay for LG, I can't! CXS, you COWARD, you looked great in that! (I wanna draw that, but I'm already like 20h late so there's probably several drawings of that already...) (LG taking a picture of it and then mocking him with it!! I swear, that whole scene was heartwarming?? He felt so... so...??? IDK?? Different. Somehow more playful? I love it T___T)

(Him being swarmed by people who want to take a photo of him, UGH, perfection. And QL clocking her brother immediately, "are you jealous" lmao)

I love the Chibis every now and then. And the funny faces, kinda missed that after S1. CXS and QL are such siblings, they way they ganged up on Zhou Xun... or pleaded with LG... UGH I love them. Love them so fucking much!!

CXS carrying patches with him at all times is such a cute detail, idk??

Handholding 😌💕 and an actual hug. Well. A short one, before LG chickened out.

"Are now partners for life", lmao, extra funny because that's what homosexual marriage is called in German.

I missed that, but my gf pointed out that LG's eyes were golden at first, and when he joined CXS and QL later, with the voice over about "maybe after 12h you're stuck forever", he had his normal grey eyes. And since they zoomed in on the eye to show us that, I guess she's right that the 12h are over at that point and he's now stuck. After all, he clapped at the con and was still there.

Also, CXS was WAY too relaxed about him having powers? "Wait, so you DO have powers?? Wow." Uh, not how I would've reacted lol xD but then again, he said, he felt that he had a secret and that he "knew 2 people with eyes like yours", so... uh... what does that mean, CXS? (Except that your parents probably had powers, too)

The way LG looks at him. UGH. UUUUUGH my heart can't take it.

That scene on the couch where he hugs himself... after that soft smile. yeah, why not, break my heart again, sure sure...

LU GUANG. CANONICALLY. WEARS CHENG XIAOSHI'S CLOTHES!! The fucking cat hat wasn't a present to LG, it is CXS's!! (well, maybe he gifted it him anyway, but whatever xD he originally bought it for himself! Now I wanna draw him in that outfit lol??)

There were several moments in this that gave me Live Action feels. I don't remember all of them right now, but CXS calling LG handsome/beautiful was one of them and the "we're not even together, and she's breaking up with me?? T__T" cries come to mind. idk xD Makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

UUUUGH so yeah.

I really wonder if this is the current timeline or not. Or if we will see the deathscene one more time in the last episode?? Though "I'll use my last chance and go back to the beginning" kinda feels like that was the current one?? Or we will find out another reason why it might be the last chance...

Uh. Final thoughts?

It was A LOT less bad than I feared it was?? The blow from Cheng Xiaoshi's death scene was softened with all the cute and funny stuff later, so right now I actually regret not watching it before work lol

Animation quality was nice, but it's very obvious that the most of that episode's budget went into the first 10 minutes xD Not a complaint, just stating the obvious.

I like the new style, though I still think I slightly prefer Studio Lan's style? Can't even put into words exactly what it is.

Also I miss thick eyebrow Lu Guang =T Thankfully, at least the ending delivers on that front.

Lastly, I'm really not sure why they made this into one hour-long episode? It was pretty clearly meant to be two, with a very clear cut pretty much exactly in the middle, and two stories that are completed in themselves. I feel like that would've made more sense for the finale, when everything's going down? Idk.

(who knows, maybe we will still get that, so we get the full 8 episodes after all?)

[kuschelkissen]

Going to bed now. See you all tomorrow to scream together about the new opening.

[kuschelkissen]

Thankfully, this thread on Twitter helped me feel better about the Dead Wife flags 😭

This frame is simultaneously keeping my alive and killing me.

God, give my mutuals a person who will look at the them the way Cheng Xiaoshi looks at Lu Guang 🙏. The eyes, the smile, the hand holding... OMG THE HAND HOLDING (I'm so normal about this).

On the other hand, this is a model Dead Wife frame. This is exactly what you see in a movie when a guy mourns his Dead Wife who passed away way too young and way too tragically. The only missing thing is black and white filter and some sad piano playing in the background.

[kuschelkissen]

Hate hate hate 😭😭 as if the popular theory of this being the 5th time wasn't already bad enough???

THESE SCENES !!!!

“Trapped in endings I don’t want you to know.”

FUUUUUCK

how many times lg how many times did you watch him die?

[kuschelkissen]

This, but followed by "Will things really go the way you want?", has me in shambles.

I am so unwell, because... what does that mean?? If Lu Guang had the power to control the future, then one would assume that, YES, things WILL go the way he wants? So I'm wondering what this question means.

A part of me is also wondering whether or not this is about CXS to begin with... what if this Controlling-the-future is what caused his death in the first place? Don't ask me how, because my thoughts are a literal mess after the PV and OP, but something about LX's line here and the one from S2 ("I want to bring timelines together", or whatever his words were), ARGH, I have a bad feeling about this...

time travel mechanics wise i am definitely beginning to feel as though (like others have pointed out) LG isn't abandoning timelines per se, but rewinding time ("play it till the end and then reset" vibes) — and maybe the past and future motto + the idea of major nodes isn't a Sure fact, but rather LG's way of retaining as much control over the timeline as possible.

I'm reminded of the earthquake arc, how CXS pleads to save the others and LG very heatedly says something like "changing the past could completely erase the life we have in the present"

CXS probably understood it as a straightforward butterfly effect, but in actuality CXS changing major things throws in a variable that LG hasn't accounted for, and as a result could jepordize the future LG has been so painstakingly fighting for.

[kuschelkissen]

I really, really want to see them get closer, even for ten minutes.

PLEASE I BEG YOU GIVE MY A BIT OF THAT HAPPINESS 😭 I need a few nice scenes between all these horrors, or I'll simply crumble to dust

Can we talk about how scenic and (romantic??) the lightning in the new yingdu OP is??

Most scenes are set in the late afternoon bathed in soft sunlight. This time of the day often carries a nostalgic and wistful tone(at least to me personally) which feels very intimate to me.

The whole OP feels like wistfully looking at a fond memory and I think the scenes wouldn't come off the same way if it weren't shown in those melancholic late afternoon summer days.