#my hope: cheng xiaoshi saves everything lu guang couldnt fix

[clickedwrong]

on running motifs & Lu Guang:

- Cheng Xiaoshi's always just a little faster, a little better, always a little out of reach. His fingers just can't touch him sometimes.

- Lu Guang's always caught in a mix of momentary awe and envy whenever Cheng Xiaoshi pulls off a brilliant plan on the spot that somehow works. (think Red Eyes, almost saving Emma, the Liu Siwen fight)

Falls in love just a little bit more with Cheng Xiaoshi each time he shows him something can change. Something's he's never been able to account for on his own, despite all the overthinking he does.

- Even at the boat scene - rewind or not, he knows he can't catch up to save Cheng Xiaoshi, he's probably failed at it himself. So he leaves him one last clean chance, a photo for him to do it himself.

- Their first meeting is Cheng Xiaoshi inviting him to play - holding his hand out. Join him, he asks. Run with me. Play this game with me, won't you? Lu Guang is hesitant to join (why is he on the court in the first place?), hesitant to even return Cheng Xiaoshi's friendliness although the game goes well.

- "Why so serious? It's just a game." - Is pre-CXS Lu Guang that aloof, or is that just rewind!Lu Guang speaking? Has he already ruined them by interfering at the very first time they meet?

Is he just protecting his own heart here, trying not to get too attached?

- Also consider the "I don't lose basketball games. Ever." CXS dunk scene + cut to Lu Guang remembering how they first met, then finally reminding him (and himself) that this isn't his life. But for that one moment he hears that, he's filled with hope again somehow - maybe somehow Cheng Xiaoshi could actually fix things? It's maybe why he gives in to let him "try" to save the mother - a small tiny burning hope in him that he wouldn't ever admit.

anyway, tldr: Lu Guang can never catch up with Cheng Xiaoshi, and he knows it from the very start. It's exactly what draws him to Cheng Xiaoshi over, and over, and over again ("What I see in him? He asked me to play") He answers honestly when Qiao Ling prods him again: "Maybe it's because he's naive". That light, that hope, that want to reach for something more - despite the way everything is. Maybe he can change things.