#kingsandbastardz

[peridot-tears]

Fic Writer Q & A!

Tagged by @dragongirlg-fics UwU

How many wips do you have currently?

2 for Lianhua Lou, 3 for Mo Dao Zu Shi.

Lianhua Lou

strings played against his throat, my whumpfic in which FeiHua's escape from Jiao Liqiao goes wrong, and Di Feisheng marries her to ensure the wellbeing of Li Lianhua, who becomes her concubine. Just updated uwu

My unpublished modern AU where Di Feisheng is an MMA fighter cowboy, Li Lianhua is his chiropractor, and Fang Xiaobao is the new sheriff in one of those Chinese towns they built purely for tourism. In this case, it's an Old West theme. Here's a preview.

Mo Dao Zu Shi

My Mo Dao/Percy Jackson crossover where WangXian and friends romp through Camp Half-Blood!

My Wen Xu/Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji AU where Wei Wuxian is adopted by the Wens instead of Jiang Fengmian. I swear I subvert so many jianghu tropes, this could be its own original novel, but here we are lol.

My two-part where Jin Zixuan flees to Lotus Pier and manages to alert the Jiangs in time for the Wang Lingjiao's attack. It's mostly written from Yu Ziyuan's perspective, and it's been a delight.

More Q&A below the cut!

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

Definitely #1 under Mo Dao. It's a huge labor of love, but I'm thinking maybe I thought too big with the plot. It could have just been a fun teenage romp, but then it turned into a drama that handles much larger themes, and the trouble is in being able to tie up all the plotlines I suddenly have.

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

Usually when I have two days in a row off of work, so my brain has had at least 24 hours to clear out and think about fun. I go into a pleasant fugue state, meaning I'm focused, but I can occasionally take a five-minute break to chatter about it with my frens or listen to a song. (I'm answering this post while I'm working on fic btw.)

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

Oh nah lol. I sometimes line some chill songs or ballads up in the background or like a Buzzfeed Unsolved marathon for background noise, but sometimes it has the opposite effect where I can't focus at all. So sometimes I just write in complete silence.

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

Balls to the waaaaaaall babeeeeeee. Aside from the ones that're born from me chattering with frens. Both my Lianhua Lou fics and #2 under MDZS are from very specific and thorough chats that I screenshotted for reference.

I tag @westiec @theleakypen @kingsandbastardz @tavina-writes @heyholmesletsgo @the-wintry-mizzenmast and whoever else wants to do this, how do I know this many people lol.

[exitvelocities]

One sentence prompt but it's 2:

"A-Fei is an adult, educated, and he's not slow, so why do you explain everything to him so clearly, but you won't have the courtesy to do the same for anyone else? It's almost like you actually tell him the truth."

"what do you mean," li lianhua says mildly, "i always tell the truth."

"do not start with me," fang duobing says, pointing an imperious finger at li lianhua, "you liar!"

"how hurtful," li lianhua murmurs, taking a sip of tea.

"hurtful? you think that's— okay, no, i'm not falling for that, you sly old fox."

"again with the name calling," li lianhua says, in that infuriatingly calm tone.

"answer the question," fang duobing says, "no more prevaricating."

li lianhua is quiet, face unreadable. fang duobing hates when he does that.

"a'fei," he says finally, "is a man it's better not to have misunderstandings with, that's all."

fang duobing scoffs. "you always talk like you're so familiar, so why be afraid of that?"

"perhaps it's a matter of respect," li lianhua says, scratching his nose.

"are you saying you don't respect me?!" fang duobing squawks.

"hulijing," li lianhua says, standing up, "i think it's time to go home."

"hey," fang duobing says, trailing after him, "answer the question!"

a'fei detaches himself from the wall by the door, eyes glittering. he gives no indication of having heard the conversation but fang duobing gives him a suspicious look anyway. he points two fingers at his eyes, then at a'fei, then his eyes again. a'fei sneers.

"li lianhua," he says, falling in beside li lianhua, "i have a question."

fang duobing stops dead. "do not answer that!" he cries, running to catch up with both of them, hulijing trotting merrily at his side.

*

fic meme requests still open!

[qilingxiong]

I couldn't find the bts footage but here is a still shot of it. I think it made it in but at a sideways angle so it looked like a chest strike --- but it seems like throat strikes are dfs thing. Makes sense, though. Throats are a lot more disabling than punching the chest. Very economical.

alright, i made a quick shoddy gif of the moment and slowed it down slightly to observe:

so yeah this makes sense, it IS a throat strike— di feisheng was poisoning fang duobing with the gang qi— and that tracks for his character, but it only made it in at a weird angle. it was probably tricky because for this moment they were editing together on-location footage, which you can see with zeng shunxi on wires in that bts photo and the other clip you sent, and bluescreened studio footage for that bullet time shot (you can see how the lighting changes slightly there in contrast with the rest of the fight). it's a very cool sequence but unfortunately the sacrifice was missing the full view of fang duobing getting choked 😔 sad!

(you can see the 360° camera setup they were using for the latter here, this screencap is from a li lianhua vs shan gudao fight but they employed the technique for multiple scenes):

[peridot-tears]

^ TRUE. The biggest tell for me was when I'd travel elsewhere or literally just meet someone here in the US who grew up in another country and grew up watching the exact same TV shows I did. Cultural imperialism and soft power is also a thing!

'White Americans don't have any culture, they're just [normal/boring/generic/empty]. 'Culture' is when you're quaint and exotic and have interesting ethnic foods and holidays." is such a grating bit of nonsense to have somehow become progressive commonsense in a lot of places.

[bbcphile]

We’ve talked a lot in Mysterious Lotus Casebook about the importance of the Eastern Sea beach, but I just realized that waterfalls also play a really important role in the show, especially as related to Di Feisheng! Di Feisheng’s interactions with waterfalls reflect his past memories of and feelings for Li Xiangyi and hopes for the future with Li Lianhua.

Immediately after his enthronement ceremony, Di Feisheng escapes to a private gorgeous waterfall to drink wine and reminisce about missing Li Xiangyi and how empty things feel without him. The waterfall is beautiful, secluded but with good sightlines, and sensorily soothing (smell and sound of moving water)—everything the Di Fortress wasn’t—so it is probably one of the few places he can actually decompress. He certainly seems more at home there than he does in the alliance headquarters or at his training grounds, given his occasional half-smile and more relaxed body language replaced the crossed arms, loose fists, rigid posture, and hypervigilance to his surroundings he often has. Given his usual discomfort in new places, his comfort at this waterfall suggests that he’s spent time here prior to entering seclusion, especially since Wuyan knew to meet him there. Once we learned about the extent of his trauma, I’d assumed that this private waterfall functioned as a safe space–for any of you lucky enough to have not needed PTSD therapy, it means a place you can visit or imagine to calm down and ground yourself in the present if you’re experiencing flashbacks or other symptoms, and moving bodies of water are common choices–and that it was comforting because of the space itself and not because of any associations between waterfalls and memories of Li Xiangyi.

But then Di Feisheng visited a waterfall in the back hill of the Sigu sect (!!!) three times in three episodes (!!!), which make waterfalls even more overtly associated with Li Xiangyi. For the first instance, he meets Wuyan at the Sigu waterfall after he failed to break into the prison there. Di Feisheng must have spent time there in the past in order to have suggested it as a meeting spot for Wuyan in the first place, and it must have been a secret that he knew about it for it to not have already been crawling with guards after he defeated the entire sect leadership. This is the first big suggestion that he and Li Xiangyi had spent significant amounts of time alone together at the waterfall before the East Sea battle 10 years ago, and that he still treasures those memories. The fact that Di Feisheng spends the scene staring with overt longing at the waterfall, even while Wuyan is talking to him, makes this reading seem even more likely. It might also explain why he loves his own private waterfall, if waterfalls and memories of happy times with Li Xiangyi are so inextricably linked.

Di Feisheng leaves the waterfall that reminds him of Li Lianhua just long enough to save the man himself by taking Qiao Wanmian “hostage” and proposing a prisoner exchange at the gazebo on the back hill of the Sigu sect. This gazebo is, of course, right next to the waterfall he couldn’t take his eyes off, so back to the waterfall he goes.

After having deposited Qiao Wanmian at the gazebo, Di Feisheng resumes staring at the waterfall, not taking his eyes off it during his entire conversation with Wuyan, which is, like the conversation at his own private waterfall, mostly about wanting Li Xiangyi in his life. It’s no surprise, then, that everything Di Feisheng does at the waterfall is to try to win back Li Xiangyi’s trust: first, he protects Li Lianhua’s identity by claiming his own Beifeng Baiyang cured a-Mian’s poison, and second, in freeing the subordinate who can prove to Li Lianhua that the Jinyuan Alliance was framed for Shan Gudao’s murder, he gives Li Lianhua proof that he didn’t betray his trust or break the peace treaty. With the prisoner exchange, then, the waterfall becomes more than just a reminder of his memories of Li Xiangyi: it becomes the site of two acts of service (Di Feisheng’s main love language) designed to restore Li Lianhua’s trust and their former intimacy to what it used to be.

The last time we see Di Feisheng and the Sigu sect waterfall is when he’s been poisoned with Wuxin Huai and is struggling to stay conscious and about to lose his memory: he carves “find Li Lianhua” on his palm with a rock, then stumbles past the very gazebo he’d placed the formerly poisoned Qiao Wanmian in and into the water, hoping it will carry him to where Li Lianhua can find him. The entire time he’s writing and then walking, the waterfall is behind him, but as he begins to lose consciousness, he twists before he hits the water, which means that he’s facing the waterfall as the current carries him away. This scene perfectly and heartbreakingly shows the connection between waterfalls and Di Feisheng’s memories of Li Xiangyi, which he knows he’s about to lose from the poison; you could even read the way he wants to float down the river while facing the waterfall, even though he’s unconscious and unable to see it, as his trying to hold onto his memories of Li Xiangyi for as long as he can, by facing the waterfall that represents him until it’s gone from view. 

The Sigu Sect waterfall then becomes a literal safe space when he has nowhere else to go and when he’s being hunted by his own people (a nightmare that must have at least in part reminded him of his time at the Di Fortress). For him to trust it to carry him safely while unconscious, given his trauma history, he must be so familiar with it from his time with Li Xiangyi that he would know both where the waterfall would spit him out, and that the area is secluded enough that no Jinyuan alliance members would find and kill him. In other words, the Sigu Sect waterfall brings him the same sense of safety, familiarity, comfort, and protection that Li Xiangyi/Lianhua himself provides, and he entrusts his unconscious body to its waters just as carving his name into his palm entrusts his body to the man himself.  

It’s no wonder, then, that Di Feisheng’s fainting into the Sigu Sect waters is a literal trust fall that he hopes will carry him from the waterfall that embodies past memories with Li Xiangyi to Li Lianhua himself; he knows Li Lianhua will help and protect him as the water did, and hopes that he will regain not only the memories of Li Xiangyi, but also the trust of Li Lianhua, and perhaps, an even closer intimacy than they once had by the Sigu Sect waterfall.

[la-muerta]

《也且由他》 Translation

On 14 March 2024, 藤萍 Teng Ping-laoshi (author of Auspicious Pattern Lotus House) and 严艺丹 Yan Yidan-laoshi (music director for Mysterious Lotus Casebook, who also wrote most of the songs for the OST) posted the lyrics for a song that did not make it to recording eventually.

It's clearly written about Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi, and I've translated the lyrics below:

--

"Even In This, I’ll Leave It Up To Him"

I've been on a reckless journey of a thousand miles How many times going back and forth have I asked for directions?  How many people have lost hope in the desolate fog and under the waning moon? Shoulder to shoulder, we have faced many dangers and difficulties

I didn’t understand the wind and the moon [1] even when the city was destroyed  My eyes are heavy as I stared into the darkness of the night I fulfilled my promise to meet you for our battle of life and death  By ending the delusions and obsessions [2] of love and hate Fulfilling our final farewell to each other

Here I am, my dao is weeping blood While you charged ahead alone on the quest for innocence Only on a snowy day in the crumbling ruins will I be able to meet you again I look back, and the road behind is filled with raging wind and biting cold

The path ahead is uncertain again I'm always gazing at the crows circling at sunset [3] Favours owed and resentment grow together Life is more unpredictable than death A thousand piles of snow drowns ten thousand waves [4]

--

Translation notes:

[1] literal translation, but 风月 also means romantic entanglements

[2] 痴嗔; referring to two of the three “poisons” in Buddhist teaching that are the cause of all mortal suffering and obstacles to enlightenment

[3] crows mate for life, at sunset they return to their nests; likely a reference to Yuan Dynasty poem 《天净沙·秋思》 describing the melancholy sound of their cries

[4] the snowfall represents inevitability, and the tides are obstacles in life

Thanks to @kingsandbastardz for sharing the lyrics!

P/S: 14 March is White Day (when guys give their partners reciprocal Valentine's Day presents) so happy V-day to DiHua nation I guess 🥲

(Image from weibo post and transcription of original Chinese text under cut)

《也且由他》 

千里莽征途 几番来回问去路  荒烟残月下几人还凋零了期盼 并肩共度了重重危难 

城破湮灭也不知风月 眼眸沉沉望尽了黑��  赴君一战生���约  痴嗔爱恨终结 是同奔赴了诀别 

此处有我长刀在啼血 你自去闯清白戒 残垣断壁大雪天才能与你相见 潇潇回首一路凛列

前路又茫茫  总凝望昏鸦夕阳 恩与怨共长 生比死更近于无常 千堆雪淹没万重浪 

[randomingoftherandomness]

I shall be severely unwell when this drops. SEVERELY. UNWELL. 

One may even say FERAL.

Can they just... drop it already ;A; I’m too impatient to watch this. The trailer is so good...

Tagging the moots @kingsandbastardz @xinyuehui @xia-xueyi @snicker-doodles @rose-tinted-vision @dangermousie BECAUSE HNNGH

[peridot-tears]

Wait, so this could mean that Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua BOTH had elder brothers they lost in childhood.

Which begs the question, did Di Feisheng also suppress the memory or forget the way Li Lianhua did?

Here's a thing to get people's brains churning.

Di Feisheng's gege = played by Mei Dijie 梅弟杰

Now that one kid that DFS fights and kills at Di Fortress is named Di A'man (played by Wang Ziyi)

This means... there is a missing/deleted scene somewhere involving DFS' gege?

Barring a brand new location with brand new actors, it's possible that DFS' gege is one of the guys either at Di Fortress or the bamboo grove fight.

Which also means DFS potentially had to kill his own brother.

*finger guns* Kinda gives additional meaning for him going back to the fortress and freeing everyone.

[rose-tinted-vision]

nine albums or songs I've been listening to lately x nine people I’d like to get to know better x tag game with no name

(thank you for the tag @lianhuajing !!)

1. why did you choose your url? uh. it was a play on "rose tinted glasses"

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them. nope!

3. how long have you been on tumblr? I think 2022? i knew about it before, just never bothered to make a blog

4. do you have a queue tag? don't kill me, what's a queue tag?

5. why did you start your blog in the first place? I had some Thoughts about Blue Lock and wanted to post meta for it

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp? uhh Flora.

7. why did you choose your header? Reo is one of my Blorbos and I just really liked that panel of him

8. what’s your post with the most notes? probably the "do you download fics" poll

9. how many mutuals do you have? about 20? i don't remember

10. how many followers do you have? 120?

11. how many people do you follow? 91

12. have you ever made a shitpost? yes. i think.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day? an hour?

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? nope

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts meh. some of them are funny i guess

16. do you like tag games? yep! it's nice interaction

17. do you like ask games? i do! but uh. it's a silent empty void here. an echo chamber, if you will.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? i have no idea but i see @kingsandbastardz a lot in the mlc community

19. do you have a crush on a mutual? nope

20. what is the last song you listened to? 若梦 by 周深

21. what are you currently watching? i just finished The Double! probably starting on Dashing Youth next

22. sweet/ savoury/ spicy? savoury!

23. what is your current relationship status? single

24. what is your current obsession? The Double,,,,

25. what are nine albums/ songs you've been listening to lately?

若梦 by 周深

如故 by 张碧晨

如初 by 张碧晨

借过一下 by 周深

万物不如你 by 张杰

Our dawn is hotter than day by Seventeen

Hitorijana by Seventeen

my music taste is kinda...i tend to stick to a few artists...

26. tagging (no obligation to do this!) @randomingoftherandomness @good-vs-evo @chrysofightme @bbcphile

[lyselkatz]

Flowers for the Black Fairy 💐

Adding a new outfit to the "YáoYao paperdoll collection" to mark this day. We sent a bouquet (from 10 countries) to him thank to the help of a couple of Mainland wolflings.

🖌Commission

Special thanks to @kingsandbastardz and @the-wintry-mizzenmast 💜💜💜

[mx-myth]

I was talking with @kingsandbastardz the other day and happened to get enough inspiration to smash this out. Kind of ooc for dfs? But also it's exactly him because he is that possessive.

The harsh noise of the waterfall has become the background to his meditation by now. His senses easily wash over his surroundings, aware of every stone and tree and blade of grass. Di Feisheng feels one corner of his mouth quirk up, infinitesimally, at a change in the air.

“Mengzhu,” Wuyan says, materializing by his side. He brings the scent of pine with him, as he always does. Di Feisheng breathes it in. “I come to report there are no threats in the area.”

“As expected,” he says. It was Wuyan after all who had found this waterfall for his meditation, and it was him who worked hard to make it safe for him. “Always diligent.”

“Mengzhu,” Wuyan says. It comes out like he’s saying thank you. He leans in and pulls him closer by the back of his robes. “You flatter this one,” he says.

Di Feisheng rumbles as he presses his nose against the warm, vulnerable skin of Wuyan’s neck. It had taken a long time to get him to stop saying this lowly one or this unworthy one. He disagrees with those forms of address because Wuyan is the most capable person he’s ever met. “It is merely a fact,” he says before he turns his head to kiss him.

Wuyan reciprocates. He kisses him like they have all the time in the world, his hands sliding carefully over his ornate robes. Di Feisheng, amused despite how familiar this all is now, lets him take the lead. They end up sideways in the grass, trading breath between their soft open mouths. He considers this too a kind of meditation.

“Mengzhu,” Wuyan says finally, some indeterminable time later. It’s in his apologetic tone that means they probably should stop indulging themselves and resume their normal roles and responsibilities. He huffs and accepts it, sitting up. Wuyan does the same, shaking the grass from his ponytail. He feels something akin to jealousy, looking at his plainer clothes and simpler hairstyle.

“Go first,” he orders. Wuyan gets up and bows, disappearing in front of his eyes. His pine scent, a byproduct of his qi-concealing technique, lingers even as his qinggong carries him away. Di Feisheng breathes it in one last time.

A-Yan, he thinks possessively. It’s too dangerous a thought to have. It’s a double-edged sword, the kind that can kill him or Wuyan or both of them. He breathes it out and leaves it to be carried away by the water as he goes, following.

[rinbylin]

#i think any equal relationship between llh and fdb needs to address this teacher student thing for it to work for me#meanwhile dfs and fdb are lucky in that they don't have this barrier just due to dfs' personality#even if dfs were to teach fdb anything i feel like their relationship would still be in an equal footing beause dfs doesn't want a student#the only thing dfs cares about is your strength and abilities and nothing else matters to him

lol yes! it's like him ignoring fdb the very first time fdb challenges him, that's him being more like are you even strong enough to deserve to fight me? than you're just a kid and you shouldn't even dare think of fighting me.

also thanks for the expansion. (I was also thinking about that exact tea pouring scene at some point.) you're certainly right about fdb wanting and trying very hard to level his relationship with llh. that's after all how he had came to bond with llh to begin with. it actually plays into his desire to want to be treated as an equal in jianghu by everyone else - not just by llh. since he was just a smol bb who had never seen the world, eager to make his own place in the world.

I think that's exactly the fun thing with fdb/llh's relationship. the layers and complexity. because of the circumstance they got to know each other, fdb gets the chance to be commanding and speaks to llh as a friend, give llh emotional assurance, and llh benefits from it. while shifu lxy's impact on fdb as a person and llh's desire to protect fdb as a family are still undeniable and irreversible. they're all true and coexists. even though I personally maintain that llh sees fdb in more familial terms than not even until the end and it doesn't matter at all to me whether his treatment of fdb changes to match fdb's, it doesn't negate that they have a special place in each other's lives.

"#their rs is only as equal as he decides it to be" hits the nail on the HEAD for me THANK you. llh and fdb are friends the way parents and children can be friends. fdb makes a very commendable effort at being equals with llh and llh can allow and enjoy it to an extent but there IS a gap. fdb not having access to llh's past puts him in a unique position to understand llh in a way that nobody else does and that IS good for llh, like fresh eyes on such a worn out painful story. but there's also an element of responsibility that llh has for fdb that he doesn't have for dfs. dfs is his equal and can make his own life choices. he only escaped dfs at the end because of dfs's own choice to trust him with the flower, not anything llh could have done. but he can still escape fdb on his own power just fine. ANYWAY EVERY RELATIONSHIP IN THIS SHOW IS KILLING ME IN UNIQUE AND SPECIFIC WAYS thank u for understanding

(for context)

NO THANK YOU for understanding!!!! I didn't even think anyone was going to read [inserts opinion that I think could get me into a situation surrounded by knives] as you can tell I hid it deep in the tags of reblogs of my own non-maintagged post hbhjbhjbhjbj - and even much less agree with something of it

hell yeah. to me their relationship is entirely premised on that gap between them, for better and for worse. that's how fdb can be unique to him but at the same time also puts him out of fdb's reach forever (that's why ep 30 hits hard). it's very likely llh wouldn't have continued with their relationship - at least with the degree of investment he did - if not for finding out his connection to sgd. so the familial element in it is virtually inseparable from the manner they ended up to be with each other. (like also, on top of how how lxy was literally a formative "adult" figure to bb fdb.)

while fdb thinks this is a friendship the whole time, llh actually treats fdb like a younger family member 小辈, with the front of being friends bc he was a Liar hiding his identity. and then post-identity reveal was bc he's just a Liar who doesn't feel the need to load his own problems on a younger member as an elder. (I do think this mismatched perceptions of their relationship is delicious)

also that's such a good add-on regarding dihua's relationship - particularly about the element of trust between them, which is a basis to why I can consider them friends in some dimension even back when they were more of rivals, unlike fdb with llh. like llh/fdb, they contain a paradox: being the ones who understand each other better than anyone else can but also bc they're so up close on each other that they fail to really see each other too. they're equals premised on the circumstance of them being from the same generation with a shared past (that is also part of their tragedy), but also, in a very curious space of it not being entirely mutual - simply due to llh being the person he is with the kind of conflict he's facing. (once again, all the relationships llh have are embedded with a degree of them being unrequited and it's <333 </333)

THEY REALLY ARE KILLING ME TOO IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE YEAH

[exitvelocities]

Kiss prompt: post canon - dfs has never kissed or been kissed before

fic meme is still open! just added a new meme i'll take requests for as well.

*

"what, really?" li lianhua says, and di feisheng turns away, shoulders stiff.

"why would i lie?" his voice is hard but li lianhua knows him well enough to see the fine cracks in his mask, to wonder at what's underneath. "i haven't, i don't—" di feisheng's jaw works silently. his ears are tinged red. ah.

li lianhua draws closer, steps around him until he can see di feisheng's face again. he lifts a hand to touch, applies gentle pressure until di feisheng is looking at him. "i'm sorry," he says softly, "i didn't mean to upset you."

"who would i have been kissing," di feisheng says finally, "if not you?" his mouth twists like he wants to take the words back immediately. li lianhua doesn't let him.

"have you thought about it?" he asks, smoothing the collar of di feisheng's robes with his free hand. di feisheng is so still li lianhua isn't entirely sure he's breathing.

"have you?" he says finally, jaw thrust forward like this, too, is a battle. li lianhua puts both hands on his face, fondess bubbling up in his chest, overflowing like a rill swollen with rain. this man.

"sometimes," li lianhua says with his half moon smile, "when i let myself." di feisheng looks like he doesn't quite trust the admission but he's not pulling away. "oh, a'fei," li lianhua says, "it doesn't have to be complicated." that's halfway a lie because everything about them is complicated, but li lianhua is confident in hard won his ability to simplify.

he lifts himself up onto his toes and presses a delicate kiss to di feisheng's lips. "see?" he says.

di feisheng looks at him for a long time, flickers of emotion playing across his face too fast to read. that's okay, li lianhua thinks. after everything, what they have is time.

"that easy?" di feisheng says finally, and li lianhua nods, hands dropping to di feisheng's broad shoulders.

"it's as easy as we make it," he says and di feisheng looks thoughtful.

"all right," he says and, leaning down, kisses li lianhua again.

[qilingxiong]

So from the beginning my dominant view of dfs has been the submissive-as-a-guard-dog-hunting-falcon-etc (as in he's EXTREMELY selective, but once he's picked a guy who has earned his trust, he'll bend with loyalty). So was curious about your take on difang in that capacity. I feel like they have the beginnings of that emotion between them in the canon timeline, but it's not anything conscience on fdb's part.

hmmm, i'm with you on this, and they're not quite there in canon just yet. there just isn't enough time for that kind of focus, and difang aren't the core relationship of this show anyway. but like you said, we DO see the beginnings! things like their interactions in shishou village especially or perhaps some at the end hint at them developing that aspect in their relationship. i think maybe if a-fei had hung around for one more case, or something like that, we would've started to see more loyalty directed toward fdb, and fdb put more trust in him in kind. as it stands though, we're left to fill in a lot (the thing is that mlc in general sets up difang very well as a premise in canon, but they're a pairing whose spotlight ultimately is offscreen and with whatever the fandom wants to do with their transformative potential)

[evilfarmin]

Enjoy more casebook 🪷 silly comic below :D (3ish pages)

Fdb and dfs have been relegated to plastic IKEA plates until they can prove that they can handle breakables. Llh still gets to enjoy 14k ppm of lead with his bdubs soapy chicken.

Llh: if you're going to be homophobic I have news for you about your so called shifu. You won't receive it but there is news.

this is big poggers to @\kingsandbastardz for that pillow meta wouldn'tve had the mental image without you.

[kseniyagreen]

To avoid making this long post even longer, I'll just quote the end and continue:

@kingsandbastardz "He's just not translating it very well and I wonder if, in the end, llh ever fully gets the message?"

Yes, this question has been bothering me since I finished watching the drama.

I think Li Lianhua fully realized Di Feisheng's love for Li Xiangyi, not just for fighting, at least after the scene in the wedding chambers - this one looks like Li Lianhua understands and accepts Di Feisheng's feelings. But.. Big but...

It seems to me that until the very end, he was inclined to believe that Di Feisheng loved Li Xiangyi and wanted to bring Li Xiangyi back. And if Li Lianghua doesn’t want to be Li Xiagnyi anymore, then he can’t be with Di Feisheng.

Therefore, his farewell to Li Xiangyi’s sword was also his farewell to Di.

What he doesn't fully understand is that for Di Feisheng, there is no dilemma for Li Xiangyi or Li Lianhua at all. For him there is only a living spirit, which he sees in him now as well as ten years ago.

And Di Feisheng tried to express this in words about the sword, that the owner of the sword is alive as long as his sword is alive.

But did Li Lianhua understand the symbolism of these words correctly? Or again he fell into the trap of an internal traumatic delusion that if he does not want to be Li Xianyi, he cannot have anything that Li Xiangyi had.

And the saddest part of this misunderstanding is that I think Di Feisheng in the finale makes the same mistake he made ten years ago, which is, in general, an inevitable mistake for him.

He relies entirely on fighting as a way to establish contact.

Ten years ago, during the Battle of the Eastern Sea, he also saw that Li Xiangyi was confused - but put off the conversation until after the battle. Because fighting is the most reliable and complete way for Di Feisheng to communicate, convey his feelings and perceive the feelings of others.

But then a lot of things happened, and instead of understanding, they both almost killed each other.

And I think in the finale he makes the same mistake - he expects to make things clear about their relationship through a fight. And, as is generally typical of autistic people, he relies too much on the agreement between them. That Li Lianhua will fulfill his promise and come, no matter what is going on in his head.