#but fdb understands that it's who llh is

[qpjianghu]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook ~ ep. 31

All these years, he's always been alone. You are the only friend I've ever seen him with.

[acequinz]

You know what I think I really really love about difanghua with a focus on Fang Doubing is that while DiHua clearly see each other it's Fang Duobing who tries to understands them.

And no this isn't a- Fang Duobing knows them better than they know each other or know themselves. It's that he sees them do something and he thinks about it and understands their feelings.

Cause there's a knowledge that both Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua have of each other that lets them know how the other thinks and what they will do next but it doesn't always mean there's an understanding there.

Di Feisheng knows that Li Lianhua is running but he doesn't understand why he's running, this isn't to say he's not sympathetic or doesn't care but he doesn't always understand the motivation for his actions. He knows them.

Similarly Li Lianhua knows Di Feisheng well enough to know his drive, to know his habits and knows his nature to recognise him even in disguise. But even he doesn't understand the motivation of Di Feisheng he knows it's there and so we see him stumble a few times when Di Feisheng switches gears.

Fang Duobing doesn't know everything, he is missing big chunks of story almost all the time, he missed a few many cues as well but he understands.

He understands Li Xiangyi and his burdens, he understands the pain Li Lianhua feels, he understands that Di Feisheng isn't just what he portrays himself to be, he understands his drive and motivation comes from a place of care and when he doesn't understand, he sure as fuck tries to. He doesn't just ask for explicit details to solve the mystery, he is just trying to understand them.

He needs to know the people under his protection!

So he understands them.

To conclude:- Fang Duobing is an Empath.

[wangquan-fugui]

this college au isn't getting out of my head so here y'all go, some headcanons

despite being the first in the world at age 15 LXY still ended up with crippling self-worth issues and imposter syndrome.. makes me think he'd be a burnt out fgli (first-generation low-income) student at a rich school.. university au (this has nothing to do at all with my experiences as a fgli student at an ivy league school lmaoo)

of course FDB is a shoo in legacy student and at first LLH is is incredibly annoyed bc FDB is clearly a rich kid who got in with his parents money

the name i picked for FDB is 择信 ("zéxìn" or "to choose faith"). his dad's name is 则仕 ("zéshì" literally "officer" the author is laugh at us so that zé didn't work, i picked another one to better fit my intention. same sound though.)

he's still called duobing as a nickname bc he was a sickly child, but fang zexin is what appears on official documents and his student id. of course his mom and his aunt still call him "xiaobao" and later on so does LLH

FDB abuses his "xiaohua" priviledges and when he extra wants something he'll pull out "xiaohua'er"

just them warming up to each other to deal with school stress. think of all the shenanigans!! i feel like 3am on a school campus is when you feel like you can do anything super well, even make empanadas when you've never made empanadas before (did i do this freshman year? yes.)

bonus: LXY has a phd in bio-med and is a famous researcher, but he's getting a herbology? nursing? (still deciding tbh) degree as LLH and passing it off as his first undergrad. he made a small fortune from his first go around so he can afford it, but i feel like he donated most of it and/or gave it to QMS + QP + SGD

yes i made LXY a genius progidy med student who got into college at 15 and wrangled a phd + patent at age 18. he's literally every asian parent's golden child wet dream. no wonder he disappeared and changed his name and only resurfaced 10 years later.

FDB is of course an engineering and business student (dual degree, our xiaobao is a champ) and he buys all the school swag cuz he has the spirit

bonus bonus: fdb is a professional college fencer lmaoo. do they have professional college martial arts?

bonus bonus li'er is a part of the family staff but the fang/he family pays handsomely so she's kinda uppity. she doesn't understand why her young master is hanging out with someone 1) obviously older and 2) obviously poorer

FDB of course falls in love at first sight bc LLH happens to be the most drop dead gorgeous person he's ever seen and reminds him vaguely of the researcher that helped with the cure to his childhood illness. surely there's no connection right..

FDB is 20 when he starts college bc he took a two year break to do an internship at his mother's company. it looks great on his resume and conveniently works well so i can line up canon ages

FDB finds out LLH is living in a van and immediately tries to move him into his dorm (freshman year). of course that doesn't work out, but i think around sophmore year, once they've started dating, he would've whittled down LLH enough for him to agree to live together in a house off-campus. LLH tries several times to convince the 20yo that he can do better than some old man who's just starting his undergrad at age 28 (my man breathes lies). FDB is literally signing their lease as he speaks.

bonus bonus bonus (and my fave): LLH makes those terrible tiktok recipes that never work but he keeps trying and the first couple of times FDB actually tries pretending that LLH's cooking is fantastic

bonus x4: DFS went to trade school and owns a handyman service (he makes bank doing it) and the jinyuan alliance is his crew of fixers. FDB is convinced DFS is a mob boss because LLH is always calling him Di 老大 (lǎo dà) when he comes around to fix LLH's rundown van. DFS gives LLH the i'm in love with u family discount but he'll never admit to it. the two of them have known each other since grade school.

bonus x5: DFS and LXY both did the same martial arts extracircular and were known rivals (affectionate) in those circles. they were constantly swapping between placing 1st and 2nd in tournaments.

bonus x5 extra bonus just for me: at one point LXY did call DFS "gege" before he grew out of it / they drifted a part. obvs they reconcillated bc LLH needed a van guy and DFS under all those scowls does care for LXY a lot.

bonus x6: LLH and JLQ absolutely know they are cousins (just bc it's hilarious for me if they do). they don't talk about it but JLQ hates him for "stealing" DFS's attention since their naptime days. he's her cousin timmy. LLH doesn't even know that he's seduced the love of her life, he's just vibing. DFS tries to explain to her that he's gay and has never been interested in women, but she doesn't believe in homosexuals exactly like in canon lmaoo

bonus x7: SGD and LXY were both in an orphanage before they got adopted by qi mushan and qin po. SGD protected LXY like an older brother, but got more bitter and jealous as LXY clearly displayed genius level academic excellence and as a by product got more attention (more care into selecting schools, more time dedicated to LXY's extracirculars, more time spent driving LXY to conferences and stuff as his research gained more traction)

can you imagine the pressure little xiangyi would've been put under to excel, and to excel bc he got this chance when all the other kids at the orphanage didn't? qi mushan and qin po weren't exacty rich, i imagine he must've felt so stressed being bombarded with scholarships and whatnot while his brother steadily closed himself off from xiangyi

nothing just imposter syndrome going off the charts when rumors started going around that a mistake in LXY's research cost someone their life. that no one should've trusted a teenager to be that smart. that some orphan kid just wanted attention and should've never been given a chance. it breaks him.

unintential pressure from qi mushan, qin po and SGD. why was he protected / saved / chosen if not to make their lives easier and to make them proud with his achivements. he's carrying his made-up expectations of their expectations and SGD's expectations

something something my dad was drunk one night and came on campus and told me i was the hope of our entire family bc i was the first to get into a good school and i could make something of myself. i was 18 at the time, same age as when LXY during his famous battle, and i just. feel some type of way. like. the man was carrying the expectations of the entire jianghu on his back. how was he not gonna be overwhelmed and break down?

bc this is a modern au i can make LXY go to therapy :) it takes a few years for him to be convinced to go (he is asian after all LOL), but he does go eventually and it helps him get the will to start again. FDB knows and actively encourages and praises LLH for taking care of himself.

LLH still carries the same self-hatred he has for his younger self bc he thinks his arrogance caused a mistake in his research and ended up causing ppl to die. he's working on it, okay, it's gonna take time

i'll end this with some crack: FDB accidentally hears DFS call LLH "xiangyi" and proceeds to give him an entire speech abt deadnames and such. it's bc he's seen LLH react to being called "xiangyi" before (come on, this guy was a prodigy and he's back at uni, some of the professors are bound to recognize him) and it's never pretty. he ends by saying "it's not like lianhua is running away from the law, he's not doing anything wrong" yes he thinks LLH is trans lmaoo. the entire time, DFS is giving him an incredious look. LXY was in fact running away from the law (or at least the press lmaoo). LLH is just standing there with an amused look on his face like "my xiaobao is a little confused, but he's got the spirit"

[peridot-tears]

WIP Wednesday: Cowboy!FDB, Chiropractor!LLH, Fighter!DFS

“This entire town feels like a fever dream,” Di Feisheng finds himself saying. “K-pop aesthetics next to Old West buildings like we just walked into an old American film. Now our traditional Chinese medicine in a covered wagon.”

He gestures at the anatomical poster on the wall, which charts out every meridian point in the human body. A matching bust sits on a shelf next to it.

“When in Rome,” Li Lianhua says, pulling up a chair at the small table and gesturing for Di Feisheng to do the same. “Tea?”

“No thank you,” Di Feisheng says, but Li Lianhua is already on his feet again, pouring from a kettle into a teapot. That wasn’t a question, then.

“May I ask,” Di Feisheng says when Li Lianhua has rejoined him, “how old are you?”

“Twenty-eight,” Li Lianhua responds, pouring out cups for them both.

So he’s only two years younger than Di Feisheng, and not just an older gentleman with the best skincare routine known to man. Interesting.

“Thank you.” Di Feisheng takes a sip. He can’t taste anything, but the bouquet tells him it’s jasmine.

Li Lianhua asks, “I assume you’re a brawler?”

Di Feisheng, baffled by the buffalo, the wagon, and the man, almost forgot why he’s here.

Almost. “I am,” he says, “and I need to work the knots out of my back.”

“Not just knots,” Li Lianhua says. “You’re clearly a grappler, so I take it that your shoulder has hit the ground more times than is healthy. It should be seizing up any day now. The thin fabric on your robe tells me that you know it’s easy to choke a man if his collar or lapels are thick enough. You’ve trained for it, so you know how it feels, but still, it’s a miracle you haven’t gotten a neck cramp yet. You’re lucky to have found me—I can crack you and massage you. Whenever you’re ready, you can get on the table and we can start now.”

Yes. Di Feisheng loves a man who understands him. He didn’t even know you could get neck cramps from too much choking. He nods vigorously, following Li Lianhua’s instructions to shuck off his clothes down to his neiyi, lying on his front so Li Lianhua can probe his back.

Li Lianhua tuts as he trails cool fingers across the landscape of knots and muscles. “Di-xiansheng, you’ve done a number on your opponents, but you’ve also done a number on yourself. We call that ‘equivalent exchange.’”

[gingersnapwolves]

Final thoughts on Mysterious Lotus Casebook~

Things I loved:

The main characters! Fang Xiaobao for character of all time. Who’s doing it like him? That ponytail should win an award for best supporting actor. Li Lianhua is obviously incredible but I’m going to hold a grudge against him for making Xiaobao sad. Di Feisheng was unexpectedly hilarious. Man comes out of a ten year recovery period and his first words are ‘I need a rematch’.

The minor characters! Princess Xiaoling was amazing. Yang Yunchun constantly simping for Shi from Baichuan court was hilarious. Shoutout to Murong Yao for being super hot. Qiao Wanmian for queen of everything. 

The villains (mostly)! Shan Gudao and Xiao Zijin being parallels because nobody was comparing you to Li Xiangyi except you (but it’s still so understandable that they would be so envious even as it doesn’t excuse their actions)! Shan Gudao not actually being secret royalty! Local man needs to just get a grip (but won’t)!

The themes! Dealing with grief and loss! Finding closure! Learning to live after a tragedy! Great job everyone, hit the showers.

The hurt/comfort! Enough said.

The wonderful trope I will choose every time: you don’t have to go along with your biological family when they’re toxic as fuck! I kept waiting for Xiaobao to be like ‘but he’s my real father, I have to do what he wants!’ but every single time Xiaobao was just like ‘wow fuck that guy, I’ve got parents who raised me and who love me and that dude fuckin’ sucks’. 1000000/10, no notes.

Things I did not love as much:

Although I don’t think JLQ is supposed to be particularly relatable, her whole motivation was like. Lady. He’s just not into you. Get a grip. Got very annoying by the end.

Most mystery shows, I like to try to solve things as clues are revealed and that was just not possible in this show. It felt like every single case ended with LLH giving a five minute monologue on stuff that there was no possible way the audience could have known, but he personally had figured out. I could barely track it even while he explained it. I’m still not sure who murdered Jin Mantang. Don’t get me wrong, the cases were fun and interesting, but Agatha Christie, they weren’t. Especially egregious towards the end, what with Li ‘I’ve deduced the entire imperial line is illegitimate based on two seconds looking at this mural which the audience hasn’t even seen’ Lianhua.

The ending didn’t thrill me. Like, it’s sad but you see it coming so you can kind of make peace with it. I even get why LLH wouldn’t let FDB even try to save him, because he didn’t want FDB to feel like he failed. But in that case, why the ambiguity? Couldn’t he have gone to his master’s grave and let them find his body or something? Just feels very rude lol.

tl;dr solid show and a lot of fun, definitely enjoyed it but don’t feel it rewiring my brain lol

[joyouslee]

MLC fic ramble - 《只今》 by

应该没人认出来

ok, since lofter has locked down all posts to people with accounts, I can't do full recs for anything on lofter anymore (i.e., I can't re-read so I can't give specific warnings), so instead I'm just going to ramble about the fics I love and if you are able to access lofter read at your own risk since this is just rambling based on my memory. Keep in mind my general warnings.

The author's summary of the fic is: a fic about what's more painful, losing the person you love or losing their love.

FDB goes back in time and becomes the young master of Wanshengdao in order to save LLH.

Here's the link to the first chapter, but now it just redirects to the login unless you have an account. (*weeps*) Go read if you can!

My spoilery ramblings under the read more:

This fic is AGONIZING. Oh the angst in this! The premise is all knives and the execution was sharp. In the original timeline LLH and FDB were lovers then LLH gives up the Wangchuan flower and leaves as in the drama. LLH dies and FDB buried him. FDB dies (later it's revealed how and it's heartbreaking) and wakes up back at Wanshengdao and this time he knows that LLH isn't going to eat the Wangchuan flower. SO he tells SGD he'll help him in exchange for the flower, and he ends up giving SGD the mother bug, and LLH is aware of the betrayal. He ends up imprisoning LLH so that he can cure him, but Qin Po dies in the process.

LLH escapes. (I can't remember the exact details but it was something like FDB marries LLH - I think SGD intends for it to be a humiliation for LLH - and lets him escape during the ceremony preparations.)

By the time LLH leads a rebellion back it's a couple of years later. He finds FDB blind and imprisoned in the Ji Le tower, dying from having the mother bug implanted in him.

The rest of the story deals with LLH's anger at FDB for what he did in order to save him (and from LLH's pov he doesn't understand why FDB would go to such extremes, since he doesn't know FDB has already experienced his death and knows he won't eat the flower), and LLH's gradual uncovering of the things that FDB did in order to try to save as many people as possible from SGD.

It also deals with FDB's guilt - his decision lead to Qin Po's death, and he also ends up killing government officials (I forget the details but it was later revealed to have been set up by SGD) as part of SGD's coup. So after his rescue he's tormented by his guilt and is very submissive to LLH. FDB thinks LLH hates him and thinks he deserves the hate (from LLH and from all the people he knows - people are calling for his head because he's SGD's son). LLH's angry about FDB's abasement and the way he's subsumed by his guilt and atonement, and is very conflicted because he loves him but also hates what he did.

Finally it deals with the inequality of their position and how that affects their relationship (e.g., FDB's reliance on LLH for his life/ protection, his inability to draw any boundaries because he feels he deserves punishment as well as because he thinks his own judgment is bad).

I love this because it's ultimately about atonement and forgiveness, and about how to live again after something so devastating. The amount of guilt FDB carries and how he works to atone for it - he is a good person who made an awful mistake, and he is trying so hard to make up for it. I loved seeing him slowly understand that sometimes there's no way to pay it back to the person hurt so he can only live and pay back the universe.

There's also a bit of political plotting and FDB gets to break XZJ's sword (yay!). This is huafang but DFS has a strong role as friend to both of them (and has comments about the dogfood he suffers through). So it's not just all angst.

A few warnings for the things I remember: there's an attempted rape (not explicit/ not between huafang), and power dynamics issues because of the imprisoning (both of LLH in the beginning and later FDB) and my recollection was that they were having sex through those time periods so no one was at his best. There also is some issues about dressing up as the wife in the weddings (i.e., SGD intended to humiliate LLH by it, and then later FDB reluctantly wears a woman's outfit when he marries LLH). Again, read at your own risk since this is just the stuff I remember.

[hualianisms]

Pairing: Li Lianhua/Fang Duobing

Rating: T

Word Count: 4,119

Summary:

“Fang Xiaobao ah, Fang Xiaobao,” he said with a smile. “Do you know? The Xiaobao I know and care for is someone who, whether frail and sickly in a wheelchair or a strong young martial hero, is kind even to ants, even to corpses, even to enemies. Who has a heart large enough to cherish the world and all its creatures. That is the zhiji who knows and understands me best in this world. That is the man I treasure. And that would never change, no matter your physical state.”

For a moment, Fang Duobing just gazed at him, raw emotion welling in those lovely eyes that were always too expressive, and were at that moment suspiciously shiny.

“Li Xiaohua…” Fang Duobing gave a watery chuckle. “You really know how to make a guy's heart race, huh?”

(For Cdrama Gotcha for Gaza @cdrama-action)

Tags: Post-Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, HuaFang, Established Relationship, Fluffy Ending, vulnerable fdb + llh protecting & caring for him, AU: bicha poison totally cured, Prompt Fill

[blobofcolour]

Finally finished watching Mysterious Lotus Casebook.

It's a good wuxia drama in itself and as someone who has read the novel, the drama also managed to bring out the spirit of the novel who is the man himself Li Lian Hua and his long goodbye to jianghu. Because he once shone so brightly and proudly, it was incomprehensible to those that love and hate him that he would be content with not having it all, even to the point of death.

I really feel for LLH because those around him - from friends to enemies! - insist on seeing him as Li Xiang Yi and continues to put their expectations of LXY on him. LLH keeps repeating himself over and over, but ultimately it seemed that only Zhan Yunfei truly understood and accepted Li Lian Hua.

有些人弃剑如遗 有些人终身不负 人的信念终是有不同的

LLH's tragedy is not in his death, but in those around him refusing to understand that we have different paths in life and choosing one over the other at different points in your life is perfectly fine.

If ZYF represented acceptance of LLH's choices, then Fang Duo Bing is the ultimate manifestation of rejection of LLH's wishes. I was SO frustrated with him throughout the drama arggg. While I can't recall how FDB was exactly like in the novel, he was definitely not like the drama and I have no idea what possessed the scriptwriter to turn him into this sulky, needy young girlfriend to LLH. Couldn't they have just gone for the master/student dynamic minus the neediness? I want to tear my hair out every time FDB professes to be LLH's 知己 zhi ji … hold up, I don't think you know the meaning of the words you are saying. Student yes, friend maybe, but zhi ji you are most definitely not. I find FDB constantly demanding LLH behave a certain way because a) FDB determines it's the 'correct' way b) LLH should reciprocate the friendship the way FDB wants.

Heck, even FDB's mom has a better understanding of LLH as evidenced by what she told him before LLH left for the palace. I mean, I get it, FDB is much younger and sees the world in a black and white manner. But still, even to the last freaking episode after everything that he has seen LLH gone through, he was like noooo, you stay here, I will find the antidote, I will cure you blah blah blah. Sure it's human nature to want your loved ones to not-die, but if FDB had even bothered really to hear LLH out and try to accept LLH's choices, I would have been less annoyed with him.

Like what kind of reasoning is this??? 拜托不要再情勒！ Why does LLH owe FDB or anyone for that matter to stay alive? Look, LLH is not actively looking to off himself but he has made peace with himself/his impending demise over the last 10 years. The world wouldn't let go of LXY and let LLH have his peace.

[angryteapott]

Okay, someone else posted so it got me thinking but one of the reasons I hate the reveal that li lianhua is ~secretly royalty~ and more importantly that shan gudao was a regular guy is because of happy's death. To sum up:

Happy is actually the reason i got so into the show, because without him the first few arcs would feel very flat. There's a bunch of little moments that show happy's interiority, and a bunch of little moments that show fang duobing blithely not getting it. My favorite of these moments is when fang duobing snatches a letter with happy's fathers handwriting as evidence. He'd intended to burn it at his mother's grave.

This is an interesting writing choice! It sets up our hyper privileged protagonist not really caring about non privileged people. It works nicely with Li Xiangyi's past being that he was a beggar. We also get a bit of that sort of backstory with di feisheng, but it doesn't really have a regular people vibe so it doesn't fit into this theme of this inherent conflict of who's important and who isn't.

And for the first few cases this is very important! Happy's death makes Fang Duobing seek vengeance for him, and he seeks justice for the guards as well while learning it was really the rich who vented their anger about their own selfish mistreatment of a loved one. Very much dual themes of who is justice for (fang duobing's arc) and people who were treated badly by the people who were supposed to love them. Yeah they got justice for the guards by... killing their enslaved colleagues... but fight scenes are a must I guess. This also is interesting in the context of Li Xiangyi founding Baichuan Court, a mechanism for justice (it's a cop show, I know, I know). This is the moment I think Li Lianhua first really notices Fang Duobing.

Then they never. Mention. Happy. Again.

Sputteringly, the themes are continued! Qiao Wanmian intentionally lets go of people related to the jinyuan alliance instead of assuming they're guilty by association. The lotus mansion arc's first victim is a redeemed courtesan with few choices and the girls of girl manor are treated sympathetically. Zijin is shown as evil both because he's jealous but also because he's shallow and obsessed with power instead of justice. There's a throwaway line that Sigu Sect should search for a merchant the same way as they do for Li Xiangyi. An important moment revealing that Fang Duobing sees Li Xiangyi as more than just his status is him understanding that the Sigu Sect should be about justice, combining neatly with Xiangyi's previous status as a beggar that people say he should be so embarrassed of he would kill Shan Gudao about it. But never is there a case with the same justice is for everyone thrust. The villains become determined by their ethnicity with a few one off 'greedy' characters. What is the point of the king of hell arc, other than to be background as LLH and FDB divorce? By the time we see Li-er again, Happy's erstwhile friend, the show is wrapped up enough in the main plot that it doesn't really notice that Fang Duobing tried to send Li-er for a blanket when the mansion is under attack in place of his mother when he says out loud he never thought his mother was in any real danger. The villains were people with birth defects mad about being treated as disposable who killed women to (reads notes) detoxify poison that actual emerald would work for that they never figured out how to identify from a local after ten years.

Then the main plot is revealed- Shan Gudao! Thematically, Shan Gudao is a villain because he was always jealous of Li Xiangyi, but he clings to shallow things like bloodline making him matter in the face of his trauma.

By this time in my least favorite way of upping the stakes not even Li Lianhua cares about the little people anymore, only about the "peace of the world" maintained by an emperor who was going to build an expensive pagoda for fertility issues, presumably at the expense of the people. Before we even get to the horrible no good reveal it's shown that Shan Gudao was treated as less than by his adults because his parents didn't have a relationship with them. He's evil because he was mad about it, not because his anger was misdirected. Then they reveal that all along good guy Li Xiangyi was the royal bloodline and the emperor and Shan Gudao are not.

Do you see. How far we've come. From a theme of you shouldn't ignore the lives of those of the lower class. Our fascinating justice seeking protagonist is secretly royalty, oooh. I guess it could be a play that these things are shallow and arbitrary, but it's a) actually important to the plot that he is for his literal actual blood and b) so far removed from the nuance of the first few cases it feels baffling to rewatch them. I hate it! I hate it so much! Instead of learning the explicitly stated lesson of the first few cases that things shouldn't be about shallow markers of power it should be about justice for everyone it turns into Fang Duobing learning Tianji Manor servants sure are useful as cannon fodder, no need to learn any of their names, oh my boyfriend is the most important interesting man on earth. Literally the end of the Fang Duobing Happy dichotomy is oh we forgot we did that. It's not even that they said the theme i liked was wrong it's that they said forget about that theme it's too complicated and low stakes really people just get too jealous of special people and the "world" is at risk ie the emperor and not anyone else. Which if they set that up as how things are or interrogate it and end up there I'll argue with it, but I won't call the writing just based on that. Here...

I really do love the characters and their relationships, but in terms of themes they dropped the ball so badly I'm having issues with the characterization

[bbcphile]

@nutcasewithaknife, your tags are AMAZING!

#THIS IS MAKING ME INSANE BECAUSE YEAH YESSS#i adore this because this bluffing is INTEGRAL to how they get around to trusting each other again i think?#like#after the 10 years dfs is unsure of who lxy has become and llh still sees dfs as the one who betrayed him#and the ensuing bluffing and threats of violence feels like they're poking at the edge of their trust for each other#and every time a promise of violence turns out to be a bluff they know each other a little better#honestly? i think the amnesia arc becomes a turning point because it makes llh realise that dfs ultimately just wants him to live#after all these bluffs any action that dfs has taken is towards that end alone#And by the time they toast to their 10 yr stabbiversary i think dfs is relieved because he too has realised that llh understands his goal#and will trust him and even maybe rely on him henceforth#That's the real tragedy of the final episode isn't it? dfs has complete trudt they're on the same page#that li lianhua understands his goal. that they will not betray each other's trust this time over.#but dfs hasn't realised that llh would decide that his goal was merely holding him back and set him 'free' instead of meeting him halfway#anyways. that was a bit of a tangent but THEY MAKE ME INSANEEE (@nutcasewithaknife)

I agree so much about the way other bluffs and the amnesia arc help them recalibrate their understanding of each other and brings them closer! What breaks my heart about the final episode and the scene where DFS gives LLH the wangchuan flower is that I feel like the initial bluffing about the yin leaves comes back to bite DFS again, given the look of hurt wariness on LLH's face when he says "I thought we were friends now." It feels like he still associates the flower with that initial threat (and possibly never realized it was a bluff), and also thinks that DFS just wants his fight and for him to be LXY not LLH--not understanding that fighting as equals is a love language and communication style for DFS and that the fight was supposed to be a celebration of having survived and overcome their obstacles and their past and finally being together--and so it feels like a lot of the progress they made during the amnesia arc and the newly wed room was erased. And I completely agree that some of it is because LLH wants to set DFS "free," and I also think some of it is that LLH kind of wants to reset things to the way things were when they didn't understand each other as well, because it's easier for him to let go and leave DFS behind to die if he can convince himself that DFS just wants a fight and won't mourn him too much because FDB can replace him. 😭

The Yin Leaves Threat Is a Bluff (MLC Meta)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook fans: Are we ready to talk about how the yin leaves threat was a bluff?

So many people seem to be taking Di Feisheng at his word that he wanted to make Li Xiangyi eat the yin leaves of the Wangchuan flower to regain his martial arts for one last glorious fight and that he was fine with Li Xiangyi dying very painfully from their poison after. And I see why: after all, LLH took him at his word, too, and LLH is famously smart and a good detective.

However, LLH has a history of jumping to false conclusions about DFS and, like the rest of the jianghu, assuming the worst of him: in fact, his mistaken belief that DFS broke the peace treaty and had his shixiong killed is the central misunderstanding that nearly destroyed both their respective sects and each other. So, since LLH is canonically very bad at telling who actually wants him dead and who loves him, it’s worth investigating this further. And looking at DFS’ history of bluffing is a good place to start.

DFS and Bluffing

Di Feisheng has a history of bluffing and/or threatening to kill or torture people when he doesn’t mean it. Here are some of his most notable examples (but click here for a much longer list of things he’s lied about or withheld info about):

Threatening to kill Qiao Wanmian to convince LLH to let him find a cure for Bicha (he doesn’t kill women)

Threatening to torture Gao Qian for information (he searches rooms instead)

Threatening to kill FDB when LLH says he’s trouble (the smirk after shows he was joking)

Threatening to kill Xiao Zijin at the wedding if LLH doesn’t help him get into 188 prisons (LLH walks him into a trap and yet DFS doesn’t even try to hurt XZJ in the fight)

Lying about poisoning and curing QWM to protect LLH’s identity and pretending to kidnap her

In all of those examples, DFS is trying to help or protect LLH, albeit in a very dysfunctional way. In the first example, he’s trying to blackmail LLH into living; the second example is to solve the case to find Shi Hun to expel the Asura Grass so he can find a cure for Bicha; the third is a joke, but also one designed to make LLH admit he does care about FDB because LLH is pretending he doesn’t care about anything as a prelude to giving up once he finds SGD’s body; the fourth is to get evidence that someone framed the Jinyuanmeng so LLH will trust him again and want to live to figure out who really killed his shixiong; and the last is to protect LLH’s identity (even though he only agreed to protect it until the Asura Grass was expelled. He’s trying to prove to LLH that LLH can trust him and he wants to help him, not harm him.)

All that to say: DFS has a history of bluffing about threatening to kill people if he thinks it will help Xiangyi live, and will take on the role of the villain—role the jianghu regularly casts him in—if he thinks it will help. And as some of those examples show, he also doesn’t share his plans with LLH until after the plan has been completed. And just look at all the things DFS withheld from LXY at their first donghai battle if you need more examples: he doesn’t mention that he knows it’s a frame job or why he stole SGD’s body. In all these examples, it’s not just that DFS has control issues and doesn’t want to share theories until he has proof: it seems likely that he knows/assumes LXY wouldn’t have believed him, because LLH already proved he didn’t trust him when he fell for the frame job, broke the peace treaty, and attacked the Jinyuanmeng. DFS assumes that there’s no point in presenting information to someone who won’t listen to it; he’d think it’s a waste of time and energy that could be better spent actively solving the problem.

But Why Bluff About the Yin Leaves?

Yao Mo’s Questionable Loyalty:

When DFS says he just needs LLH to live long enough to compete with him, he’s not talking to LLH himself: he’s talking to Yao Mo. In fact, the entire yin leaves plan was Yao Mo’s idea. And that changes everything.

Why? Well, for starters, Yao Mo is the one who invented the Bicha poison and gave it to JLQ to use on LXY (without DFS’ knowledge or permission). That alone is reason enough for DFS to not know if he can trust him, and this lack of trust explains why DFS never told Yao Mo that the mystery patient was LXY/LLH or that he was poisoned by Bicha. Since JLQ poisoned LXY because DFS paid so much attention to him and to fighting with him, it makes sense that DFS would try to protect LLH by hiding his identity and not drawing attention to him. 

But of course, as soon as Yao Mo figures out the mystery patient was poisoned with Bicha, that secret is blown. The pained face (and Throat Bob of Emotion) DFS makes while Yao Mo is having this realization shows not only how upset he is that they don’t yet have a cure, but also how worried he is that Yao Mo now knows it’s LLH, which makes everything more complicated.

DFS was right that Yao Mo would figure it out, since the first thing Yao Mo does after this realization is tell DFS he’s thought of a way “to heal him so he can compete with you.” DFS had pointedly NOT mentioned competing with him in front of Yao Mo yet (to hide LLH’s identity), so this is definitive proof that his cover is blown and that DFS needs to find a new way to keep LLH safe. 

This new plan is to downplay how much LLH means to him, and that motive explains so much about this scene. We know from watching him grieve and tear up while mourning LLH at his personal waterfall after his enthronement ceremony that DFS is miserable because of LXY’s supposed death and that he doesn’t see the point in fighting anymore without him, so we know that one last fight with LXY wouldn’t fix that: he’d still be dead and DFS would still be devastated. 

(Here are some screenshots of him mourning at the waterfall.)

But this isn’t common knowledge. In fact, it seems to be a closely guarded secret; he’s mourning in private, with only Wuyan as a witness. In public and to the rest of his subordinates, he’s trying to project the attitude of the unemotional, unflappable, heartless demon of the jianghu because his reputation is part of his armor that keeps him safe. It lets him seem like he doesn’t have any weaknesses (since “a swordsman shouldn’t have weaknesses”), and it keeps people from knowing that his primary weakness (other than the mind control bug) is LXY/LLH. 

(NOTE: He’s not even comfortable with anyone other than Wuyan and the three kings knowing he cares more about reaching the pinnacle of martial arts than he does about the Jinyuanmeng itself, and it’s not clear if any of them know that he mainly wants to increase his strength and power to free himself from the mind control bug. That’s how closely he guards his vulnerabilities.) 

With that in mind, if he wants to keep Yao Mo (and therefore JLQ) from knowing how important LXY is to him, there’s only one possible answer to Yao Mo’s question about whether he’d mind if LLH dies from the yin leaves after the fight: pretending he wouldn’t object. If he said he’d give up a fight rather than let LLH die from the yin leaves, then Yao Mo would know LLH matters to him more than fighting, which would be revealing a weakness. If DFS said he would give the entire Wangchuan flower to LLH to cure him and would therefore be sacrificing his chance of getting stronger, it would be painting an even larger target on LLH’s back and showing Yao Mo that endangering LLH would be the key to controlling him. The only safe option for both LLH and DFS is for DFS to claim he doesn’t care if LLH dies after they fight and to give orders to find the flower.

Here’s a gif of his command about the Wangchuan flower:

Notice his furrowed brow, the tightness around his eyes and mouth, the way he’s almost wincing as he gives the order? He is miserable about having to play this game and his incredible poker face is barely up to the task.

Here’s a still image of right after the pronouncement; you can still see the barely suppressed wince.

After this command, he dismisses Yao Mo from the cave immediately so he doesn’t have to keep pretending he’s going to sacrifice LLH. The entire time Yao Mo is present, even while he’s walking away, DFS holds himself completely motionless, staying in character from the bluff and desperately waiting to be alone with LLH. The instant Yao Mo is gone, DFS slumps in relief, or at least, does his version of a slump: he bows/droops his head as though the weight of what just happened was too much to shoulder. 

Here’s a close-up of his reaction:

DFS’s relief at being alone with LLH shows that he believed LLH knew him well enough to know when he was bluffing.

He was wrong. 

LLH: Believing the Worst of DFS (again)

LLH’s belief that DFS wants to kill him for a duel makes sense, since at this point, he still thinks DFS did in fact have SGD killed and broke the peace treaty, and he’s pissed off, feeling betrayed, and also in pain (from the medicine and the Beifeng Baiyang transfer that made him cough up blood, and from all the snake bites–he’s primed to read those as exclusively aggressive and cruel attempts to heal him at all costs for the fight, and not to realize that DFS would absolutely do all these things to himself to heal his own martial arts without batting an eye. And he’s in too much pain to see the horrified look on DFS’s face when LLH coughs up blood and DFS realized he almost killed LLH while trying to cure him.) 

But that doesn’t mean LLH is right. 

DFS, upon seeing that LLH has again cast him as the heartless villain, doesn’t try to dispute it. In the same way that he didn’t explain about why he took SGD’s body at the donghai battle, he doesn’t explain himself about the flower, possibly because he thinks he doesn’t have time to waste arguing. His goal is to get LLH to live–he grieved him for a decade, after all, and doesn’t want to have to do it again–and he is painfully aware that he is running out of time. LLH hasn’t exactly been subtle about only staying alive to find and bury SGD’s body, and now that they’ve accomplished that, he wants to make sure LLH doesn’t give up. Growing up in Di Fortress, DFS probably learned how to recognize what it looks like when people give up on life, and seeing those signs in LLH would explain some of the desperation behind his actions.

So, what does he do instead of trying to convince LLH the threat was a bluff? Here’s a gif of his response:

He swallows his disappointment at being thought a heartless killer–bowing his head again and shaking it, then looking up at the cave roof in exasperation–and takes a long, long inhale to collect himself and to quickly brainstorm a new plan. Once he’s figured it out, he says LXY’s name and launches into stage 2 of his plan to convince LLH to live: correcting the initial misunderstanding that first led LLH to not trust him anymore. 

DFS tries to convince LLH that someone conspired against both of them a decade ago–the truth he thought LXY wouldn’t believe him about on the ship–because if that worked, then it would solve two problems: 1.  LLH might believe him that he doesn’t want to kill him for the rematch if he knew he hadn’t had SGD killed, and 2. LLH would choose to stay alive to find SGD’s real killer and get revenge. 

And when LLH doesn’t believe his initial attempt, he gives what is possibly his longest speech in the entire show detailing the evidence supporting his claim that they were both set up and offers to help him find the truth in exchange for their rematch. While he definitely does want a rematch, DFS mentions it here in part because LLH thinks it’s all he cares about; if he were to offer to help without requiring the fight, LLH would be less likely to believe him and even more suspicious of his claims, especially since LLH currently thinks DFS would kill him for said rematch.

But unfortunately, his plan for them to team up fails as he thought it would all those years ago, so he decides to play along with being the heartless villain LLH thinks he is, and it’s only then that he threatens to kill FDB (revealing FDB’s parentage in the process), because he knows that LLH would stay alive to protect FDB. 

I have another 2000+ words worth of thoughts about his talk and fight with FDB–the way he tries to “kidnap” him first instead of fighting him, the way he looks miserable during the fight instead of enjoying it the way he did during the fight at QWM and XZJ’s wedding–but it will have to wait for another meta because this is already way too long as it is. The point, though, is that he’s not fighting FDB because he wants to or is enjoying hurting him: he actually hates every second of it and of performing the role of jianghu villain LLH has once again cast him in. But he’s doing it because he thinks it’s the only way to keep LLH alive. 

These aren’t the actions of someone who just wants to sacrifice his old rival for a fight; they’re the actions of someone trying everything he can think of to keep the person he loves alive. It’s an incredibly convoluted way to show his care, but given that he’s desperate, out of time, and can’t get LLH to trust or believe him, it makes sense that he’d fall back on a reliable skillset that’s kept himself alive despite all the odds: bluffing, keeping his true goals a secret, adopting the mantle of villain, and letting himself be hated for things he hasn’t done.

With both the fight with FDB and with the yin leaves threat, DFS plays the villain to try to force LLH to live, because he’d rather LLH hate him and live than love him and die. 

Because Di Feisheng has never wanted Li Xiangyi–or Li Lianhua–dead.

[acequinz]

Does anyone remember the idea i pitched about the DFS as an emperor, LLH as his concubine and FDB as the new empress being forced into a marriage.

Switching things around for that. LLH is the real emperor but switched positions with DFS for safety reasons and cause he's not supposed to be overworking himself.

This causes a massive confusion for FDB who had the ceremony with DFS but enters the marriage chambers to find LLH lounging on the bed.

"why are you here?" Fang Duobing asks, standing at the edge of the bed. There was no anger in his tone just a bone deep exhaustion from the ceremony and the need to crawl into the bed regardless of the new man being present was strong.

"to keep my betrothed company." Li Lianhua smiles coyly, trying to take a peek under the veil to see his bride's face.

Fang Duobing nodded as the understanding came to him, "ah- great, then you can entertain him. Is there a different room for me? I wanna sleep." He muttered, looking around for an exit that wouldn't give him away.

Li Lianhua chuckled grabbing Fang Duobing's wrist and pulling him to the bed so he could look at him properly, right at that time the door opened and Di Feisheng stepped in closing the door behind him and securing it.

"I see you started already," Di Feisheng said, carefully keeping his voice neutral.

"Aiyah I need to see my bride's face at least, there's nothing inappropriate going on," Li Lianhua waved his hand at the emperor while Fang Duobing struggled to free his wrist.

"who said I am your wife? Let go!" Fang Duobing whined, tugging harder. "You! You help me! I don't care what sort of business you have with your consort! I don't want to be a part of your silly perverted games! I am a man from a proper upstanding family. How dare you treat me this way?" He yelled at Di Feisheng, his surprise at being overpowered as obvious as the moon shining in the sky.

Di Feisheng rolled his eyes before striding over and pulling Fang Duobing's arm free but he did not let his escape, rather he picked him up and deposited the new bride in the waiting arms of his consort who seemed very pleased holding the mouth gaping wife.

"yes, i know. It's very stimulating isn't it? How easy he picks you up like you weigh nothing? When he did that to me the first time I was so red I had to visit the physician to make sure I wouldn't burst," Li Lianhua teased, boping the nose of the youngest in the room.

"Xiangyi~" Di Feisheng interrupted, his voice rough.

"okay okay, I was just teasing. I will explain everything to our new bride."

[acequinz]

Oh fuck I am in love with him!- headcanons

Li Lianhua

With Di Feisheng there's always been an attraction that Li Lianhua held, like even when he was the leader of sigu sect, he had a lot of responsibilities and already soaring relationship so he never really gave that attraction any space and simply put it in the- respect- corner. Where it stayed until everything fell apart and they met again years later. And the final realisation was when they sat together in the wedding room talking about the fight 10 years ago, finally free from any dust clouding the true nature or their feelings for each other.

It isn't a hit or falling on the face moment but a gentle acceptance as Li Lianhua takes his attraction for dfs out of the respect corner and stores it away in his heart cause he knows it means love and he's happy about it.

With Fang Duobing he knows he finds him attractive at the start- 10/10 cute as fuck but silly enough that I would bang- then he panics a little more but like briefly- wait.... Him oh no, I ended up caring more than I wanted to but oh he's so cute maybe it will be fine, it's not like this will go anywhere- and then it keeps calming and calming and stays in his heart like it was always there as if there's no version of him that wouldn't absolutely adore Fang Duobing.

His feelings for fdb seem to be like a strong river merging with the ocean. They are where they are supposed to be and it calms him in a way he didn't knew love could. Of course he still worries and frets but then he looks at him and it feels okay. It feels good.

Di Feisheng

With Li Xiangyi he has always known but also never felt an urge to act on it, when they first met it was instant when he saw the way he moved with the sword, it was beautiful and strong. How was he to not fall for that? But he was satisfied with them sparring together or fighting a serious battle. Yet he had accepted the peace treaty because LXY was as eloquent and responsible as he was beautiful and strong which only made di feisheng appreciate him more. He knew lxy's heart belonged to another but he was fine with it as long as he could be lxy's rival.

His feelings for LXY relaxed him as much as it burned like passion within him. No one could ignite his passion the way lxy's existence did and that fact itself calmed his heart.

When it came to fang Duobing the acceptance of his feelings was just as smooth. At first he hadn't seen the appeal, sure fang Duobing was an attractive man and had talent but he couldn't really understand why llh cared for him the way he did. Until he did, in the kindness FDB showed for him, whether it was when he didn't know who he was or when he knew who he was. Sure the brat still teased and poked but at the end of the day his care was very visible and it made sense.

FDB grew on DFS just like he had grown on llh and since then there was no escape. Not that dfs really wanted to escape anyway.

Fang Duobing

Now here's a dramatic one. His immediate reaction to romantic feelings is panik!!!!!

When he falls for Li Lianhua, he doesn't even realise it until Dfs enters the picture because that's when his jealousy is at peak, but he still somehow manages to convince himself that it's because Li Lianhua said he was his best friend but now he was doing best friend stuff with dfs and it's not fair! It takes him seeing the way Li Lianhua looks at Qiao Wanmian with genuine affection that breaks his heart in a certain way despite his own jokes about setting them up together to understand that oooohhh it's romantic.

He wants Li Lianhua to look at him like that but he never catches the looks of genuine adoration thrown his way but he does catch them thrown at DFS and that hurts him even more but he perseveres.

With Di Feisheng it's almost easier. Realising that is. He looks at him and fights him and feels genuine appreciation for skills (when he's ignoring the close bond the other holds with llh). And also there's an itch, an itch to push and pull and be pushed and pulled that Di Feisheng seems more than happy to indulge in him, he knows when Di Feisheng is treating him like an unruly brat, been recieving that treatment from his mother and aunt for way too long and so he pushes more for Di Feisheng to look at him for the man he is and not the brat he thinks Fang Duobing is.

He knows he is attracted to Di Feisheng at least sexually because every time he calls out to the other and he materialises out of nowhere, very seamlessly barging into Fang Doubing's space and he starts looking forward to it, then when A-fei actually seems to soften at him, it's just ... Yeah I am in love with him too. FUCKK!!!!

[joyouslee]

This has very 破镜重圆 modern!AU vibes to me - this is the melancholy pining from a distance period. FDB had a huge crush on LXY when he was a kid. They run in the same social circles and LXY was the bright shining star wunderkind who was kind to the kid in the wheelchair getting snubbed at the gala. LXY falls from grace [insert something plotty and cool] and vanishes for 10 years. FDB meets LLH again and helps him right the wrongs. And there's kissies. BUT THEN! LLH finds out he has a terminal illness or I dunno has to go undercover to do something dangerous [insert dogsblood plot elements] and tries to let FDB down gently but ofc that's impossible bc FDB doesn't understand the concept of letting go so he breaks up cruelly and vanishes. 5 years later whatever thing that took him away is resolved (miracle cure! LXY rises from the ashes!) and he sees FDB, all grown up and even more gorgeous. Now's the time for melancholy pining and longing glances (see above pics), 追妻火葬场, except well this is FDB so it just takes an apologetic glance, nose rub, a partial explanation and FDB forgives him. Cue 5000 words of smutty reconciliation.

how nice of cheng yi and zeng shunxi to post these photoshoots on the same day... fanghua au thoughts, anyone?

[nutcasewithaknife]

y'all are being too amazing in the tags for me to leave all this there.

#YOU UNDERSTAND ME#listen like. ok. how it goes for me is#yeah dfs imo is gay and not really bending the other way but i do have an image of him and qwm coming across each other post canon#and they sleep together at least once out of sheer want for physical comfort#and they're two of a very few people from Before who could and understand both lxy and llh (@difeisheng)

#dfs doesn’t need 10 years of recovery#instead he sneaks out and goes to find the one person who might know what was so very Wrong with lxy at the end#because dfs could tell that lxy wasn’t himself and he doesn’t know how to deal with what happened#qwm is understandably alarmed when the injured dfs appears at her doorstep#but she’s mourning too. she doesn’t chase him away#because the sigu sect is in pieces around her and lxy is Gone#but dfs isn’t here to kill her#to get a final revenge on lxy#no#dfs is here for answers#together they manage to find out the truth about what happened to sgd#or at least enough of it#and by the time fdb comes home dragging llh behind him neither of them are the people they used to be anymore#mysterious lotus casebook (@jianghushenanigans)

#This is so funny I was just spitballing a role reversal au with kingsandbastardz#And I was talking about how qwm and dfs would be sworn siblings#I can see it though. Especially if it happened after she and lxy/llh broke up#Breaking news! The mengzhu of the sigu sect and the jianghu's number one villain have gotten together!#(This DEFINITELY has not happened before)#I think they would work though (even if it's for like a case or something?)#Their relationship is built on mutual respect and dfs certainly wouldn't coddle qwm as xiao zijin did#He'd certainly be chivalrous and they'd be one of those couples you always see arm in arm#But he wouldn't be like yeah you're a woman. Sit back while I the man do all the work#Plus it's not like a marriage alliance WOULDN'T look good for them#Also the gossip would be INSANE (@mx-myth)

#i imagine them meeting in the ten year gap and they should be enemies (di feisheng killed qiao wanmian's fiance) but instead they're both#mourning (they were both in love with the same impossible guy and don't mind sharing with someone who also understands him)#i just think they would be able to give each other solace the way nobody else can give them#because nobody else feels what they feel#they're the two people who no matter how much time passes will continue to miss what they had#(Fang Duobing misses what he could have had; Yun Biqiu yearns for what didn't happen)#so yeah just. put the two of them in the same room and watch them break down crying the way they couldn't either with anyone else or#alone before#because here is someone who understands the depth of their pain#even post canon nobody shares exactly what they have even tho Fang Duobing comes close#but he doesn't share their knowledge of Li Xiangyi only Li Lianhua#and both parts of him are an important part of him#(something that Li Lianhua would like to deny)#anyway. i think they are so neat#i dont want to ship them romantically i want to ship them in a breakdown way (@endrega23)

Also, the tags that made me wheeze so hard because I forgot to even think about it:

#xiao zijin would be Livid i think (@ari3su)

#pairings that would make xiao zijin combust on the spot (@moondal514)

okay if we're gonna be qiao wanmian posting, may I present: qiao wanmian and di feisheng

[lvicevlk]

#mysterious lotus casebook #di feisheng #li lianhua #fang duobing #mlcb meta #yes THIS #OMG #of the three of them fang duobing is unquestionably the scariest motherfucker in the room #and it's not because of his sword prowess or his skill with mechanisms or what have you #it's because when he decides he's behind a cause he's a ZEALOT #for llh that works in his favor... mostly #but it means that fdb is capable of doing ANYTHING in the name of what he believes in #torture? no problem. imprisonment of a sick man? sure thing. #he's willing to go to any lengths to accomplish his goals and he's not afraid to get his hands dirty #and that makes him TERRIFYING in ways that di feisheng never really reads as #di feisheng will kill you #he will make an example of you #but he's clean about it #and it's never without a direct effect in mind #and FUCK but sometimes that makes me want to see fdb go darkside after llh's death #and have dfs being at his side helping him sure... but he's also a restraining influence #even if no one understands that that's what's going on #anyway #i still think about this a lot #TT^TT #queue you hear the people sing? (via @eirenical)

I don't think Di Feisheng would be particularly bothered by getting his hands dirty in the ways described, provided he was convinced it was needed. Despite what reputation would have people believe of him, he's a pretty self controlled kind of person. If he feels it's necessary to hurt someone to reach his goal then he will, when it's no longer necessary then he stops. And I wonder if it has something to do with having spent a good chunk of his life under the power of people who hurt him just because they could, who had absolute power over him and deliberately abused it. Di Feisheng escaped them and made himself into one of the most powerful figures in the world but he's actually pretty restrained in how he exercises that power. He doesn't tend throw it around just to prove that he can.

Like in Cailian Manor: he intimidates and threatens to get answers and cooperation but he doesn't need to do any more than that so he doesn't. Because he doesn't have to, there's no need to go further when they've done what he wants.

Or that scene in the flower trap: he knocks the entire leadership of Baichuan Court on their asses without much effort after they rush him and then he just leaves. Because why would he fight them? They're not a threat to him and hurting them doesn't help him so there's no point continuing the fight.

Which is all to say that yes, Di Feisheng is a pragmatist fully willing to be brutal about it but largely uninterested in crossing the line into deliberate or unnecessary cruelty while Fang Duobing does not acknowledge any such lines or limits once he decides on a cause and those are two very different types of terrifying.

for all the threatening and light-to-intensive manhandling that di feisheng does, it's my firm headcanon that he's never actually followed through on genuinely torturing someone by his own hand. either because he didn't need to, but if not that, then because he didn't want to. it happened in jinyuanmeng, obviously, but i don't see that as something he would have carried out himself ("never again", he thinks of the child trapped in the di mansion, of how his own body keeps the score). and if he did, he wouldn't have taken pleasure in it.

fang duobing, on the other hand, is the protagonist whom we witness supervising forced interrogation in canon, and between that and the fact that he'll call di feisheng a 大魔头 to his face while having what i'm fairly sure is the higher onscreen kill count, i adore the subversion of the archetypes these characters seem to be on the surface.

[mx-myth]

Exactly. Fdb strikes me as one of those people whose parents never swore around them and so once they heard their first swear around their early teens they just constantly started swearing. It's as much exploration and experimentation (in a way) as it is rebellion. Despite the obvious love and respect he has for his parents (and how much they love him in return) fdb at home constantly has to be good in accordance with the trappings of his station. Him going out into the jianghu frees him to act out - bothering llh, spending copious amounts of money, talking back to dfs/a-fei, and even (to some extent) solving cases (think him lying to get into baichuan court). I think this is maybe why he wants so desperately for llh to see him as an equal (even going so far to say that their shifu/disciple relationship doesn't exist anymore, which was the driving force behind the majority of his life) - beyond the all the expectations on his shoulders, disregarding his years of accomplishments, he wants someone to see him for himself and not the roles he plays or the fronts he puts up (I forgot what I was going to write it so it may sound a bit awkward).

And no matter what way he looks at it, I can't see fdb considering dfs an equal when they first meet. The gap between their martial arts is too wide and obviously initially their only connection is through llh - who is evidently very close with dfs. But I absolutely think that, before they even considered themselves friends, they trusted each other. During their fights, fdb trusted dfs not to truly harm him AND also trusted that dfs could handle himself if he himself went all out (see your point about dfs telling him to draw his sword and I'm also thinking about the choking scene where it's obvious fdb is actually trying to strangle dfs while dfs is simply holding him back). I also agree with what you said about their interactions between fights. I absolutely think that if they made a mess in the Lotus Tower llh would make them clean it up. I think this gives them an opportunity to observe each other and realise that they have some things in common - for example, they're both hard workers. It would break down their initial first impressions of each other, which probably aren't the best.

I think it would also set them up for post-canon when their mutual link of llh is gone. In a way, they're exactly like llh and dfs are when they meet again in the beginning of the show. Sure, maybe they're less close, but they still have mutual trust, mutual understand, and mutual respect. They even share some of the same experiences. In a way, they're the kinds of equals fdb wanted himself and llh to be. Dfs doesn't care at all how he's seen, and it could definitely be said that fdb cares too much. But what that means is is that dfs sees past all the surface stuff and cuts to the core of fdb (in contrast to his parents who see their beloved yet sheltered child or the jianghu who sees a new young hero) while fdb sees all aspects of dfs but still knows that it's not everything about him (in contrast to jlq who saw him as the passive object of her desire or the jianghu who sees a ruthless villain). In a way, this is the relationship they both had with llh - and maybe he knew this, and that's why he gave them to each other when he disappeared.

mysterious lotus casebook is about a generation of people stuck in time, and one boy who's the age they all were when they stopped moving forward but unlike them he still gets a chance to be Young