#i still love link click but …

[aashiyancha]

Another Domestic shiguang 4-panel

[wrathyforest]

Today's performance with Wang Yifei, Zuo Yiping and Guo Hongxu <3 LC-mu knows how to resurrect me, my mental health is holding only thanks to them.

[destinyesque]

[ihavesomejays]

死光hahahahhahaaahaha you don’t understand how much mileage i get out of that pun

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 2

on it 🫡

[heartscrypt]

link click twewy au upon ye

[protect-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[misakarose]

LINK CLICK 2.10    ↳ 「 i m p r o v i s e 」

[remiruen]

summertime fades

[link click spoilers below]

and winter is never ending

[storge]

Lu Guang & Cheng Xiaoshi Link Click (2024)

[sunnylittledragon]

Common traits in my favourite ships:

Pure heart of gold

Have abandonment issues

Would sacrifice their own life for the people they love

Calm and collected of the pair

Operates more on logic over emotion

Not afraid to commit murder for the person they love most

[anotherferalrat]

LINK CLICK BRIDON ARC SPOILERS AHEAD

I DONT WANNA HEAR NONE OF YALL BEING MEAN TO EITHER OF MY SONS EVER AGAIN AND I NVR WANNA HEAR EARTHQUAKE ARC DISCOURSE EVR AGAIN

LOOK

DOES CHENG XIAOSHI NOT LISTEN TO LU GUANG SOMETIMES? YEA. DOES IT SOMETIMES (ALL THE TIME) GET HIM IN A PICKLE? YEA.

BUT DO U SEE LU GUANG BLAMING HIM? NO. BC HE UNDERSTANDS WHO HE IS. AND HE WILL NOT CHANGE THAT.

Bc he loves his self sacrificial lil idiot (he's one too)🫶

[wrathyforest]

ONCE AGAIN @mimicha-arts and I MADE A COLLAB 🔥🔥🔥🔥 LG by Micha, CXS by me

[chodzacaparodia]

The first episode of the Bridon Arc briefly unlocked my fear when it comes to certain ships where the past of at least one character is unknown

I'm talking about this:

It's almost certain that Cheng Xiaoshi is talking about his parents:

And the first thing I thought when I heard those words was, "Oh shit, what if they're related?"

I swear my heart stopped at that moment.

There's nothing worse when a perfectly built ship is ruined by the news of these characters being related.

I believe it's just my paranoia because I'm traumatized by such cases. That the romantic feelings of Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi are safe

But if it turned out to be true, it would be the worst example of homophobia I've ever encountered in my life and I would never emotionally recover from it.

[yingdu-lover]

who could have thought lu guang's original ☠️ feud was with his own mother-in-law and not the hot head trio (which he probably caused himself)

like imagine this conversation between lu guang and shao yuanyuan

shao : why did you go back in the past and mess up things?!

guang : and who was the one who caused her own son's death?!

shao : ...

guang : ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ

shao : I would return to him after saving my husband-

guang : well, your husband is husband and my husband is not husband?!

(☠️ really wanted to use "twada kutta tommy sada kutta kutta?" here)

[veifei]

finally finished my link click rewatch in time for yingdu tomorrow..... somehow i feel even less prepared oughhh this show is going to make me suffer so bad