#the family just DOTES on Xiao Yu
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stiltonbasket · 23 days ago
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xiao-yu continues to be a little baby found in the cabbage patch in the emperor au? Though if he's only 6 months old, he's going to need more care and support than 2 year old tmaaf-verse xiao-yu.
Someone: Your highness, what about your royal duties?
Wei Wuxian, cuddling baby Xiao-Yu: Give them all to Xichen-jie. I'm busy taking care of this cabbage.
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nodoubtinus · 4 months ago
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for the character ask game!
xu yu - 2 4 12
jinming - 23 24 25 :3
luo hanying - 5 9
YIPPEEEEE THANK YOU FOR ASK :D :D :D
Xu Yu
2. Favorite canon thing about this character?
Other than the ✨️bisexuality✨️, I really love how sincere she is! Unlike most of the people in the show, Xu Yu doesn't really have a mask- you always know exactly how she's feeling and what she's thinking at any time. It doesn't serve her well in the palace- especially the harem- because it means she's easy to manipulate, but it makes me really like her!
4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?
Mulan! 100% Mulan. But have Huna play the role of Li Shang 🏳️‍🌈 (maybe it's a Monstrous Regiment kind of situation? Something to think about later)
12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?
This is a bit of a specific one, but I think Xu Yu's mum died either giving birth to her or when she was very small. We see that the rest of the family is very close-knit and cares for each other deeply, but Madam Xu is never mentioned At All. If it wasn't for basic biology, I'd think General Xu just straight up spawned his kids lmao
It would explain why she's so terrible at being a noblewoman (no role models to teach her, since couldn't learn from her dead mother) and why her father and brothers were quite so willing to dote on her and teach her martial arts (because who else could she spend time with?)
And it gives her a fun narrative parallel to Jinyun! They each had what the other lacked, Xu Yu growing up with no mother and Xiao Jinyun growing up with no father, but now they can give their children the best of both :]
Xiao Jinming
23. Favorite picture of this character?
This one! He's helping 😋👍✨️
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24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?
I think he's a lot like Nie Huaisang from Mo Dao Zu Shi! On a surface level they're both silly younger brothers with fans, who don't want to be responsible and are usually shipped the purple guy. And Then They Flip and you realise they're actually the cleverest bitches around, driven by loyalty to their older brothers, and You've Been Played.
25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?
First impression: Aw, cute comic relief! 😊
My impression as soon as he went into interrogation mode: !(゚〇゚) -> o(*゚∀゚*)o
Luo Hanying
5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?
Jupiter by Sleeping At Last! I know it's kind of cheating to give the astrologer a planet song, but it does fit him.
9. Could you be roommates with this character?
Hmm... it's complicated! I think I could at first, but Luo Hanying would get more and more sick of my strange mannerisms and get more and more passive-aggressive about it, and it'd end up with us both being mutually miserable in the space of about a year XD
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silenteyes · 4 years ago
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If Wei Wuxian Grew Up In Different Sects (or with our lovely Rogue Cultivators)
ft. fanfictions I’ve read for each of them - excluding Yunmeng Jiang Sect
Warnings: Spoilers for MDZS, Canon-typical Yu Ziyuan and her treatment to WWX, a few uncensored cursing
Yunmeng Jiang Sect
Clearly, we know that he and the Jiangs have a- complicated relationship. With Jiang FengMian it’s on a thin line, and though it’s clear he cares for WWX - JFM still sees WWX as just a disciple, not a son because the last words he says to WWX are “A-Ying, A-Cheng... you must look after him.”
With Madam Yu it’s clear that their relationship is unhealthy, she basically abuses him. With Jiang Cheng it’s also unhealthy - as much as I loathe to say it, they will NEVER get the reconciliation we want because WWX has done too much for JC to forgive and JC and his anger issues are not safe for WWX. The only ACTUAL healthy relationship he’s got in the Jiang Sect is with Jiang Yanli. She forgives a lot and it’s clear she loves WWX.
Gusu Lan Sect
Ah - yes, this one. In all honesty, if he WERE to be found by the Lans he would’ve probably be well-behaved since he was just a child and easy to, how do I say it - teach. 
He might still have his playfulness but it would be toned down quite a lot. I also like to think that he would get along with Madam Lan and most probably prevent her death. This may be an unpopular opinion, but he and Lan Xichen would get along well, and LXC would be the one to make him comfortable first. WWX would still grow close with Lan Wangji of course, but if anything happens he would not go to LWJ first.
If they grew up together, I’m sorry - but I can’t imagine that he would date LWJ then. But, you can think the other way around! I don’t boss you and tell you who to ship and who not to ship! 
Fanfiction: ‘Some call it kidnapping. The Lan Clan call it adoption.’ by IceBreeze 
Summary: “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, look!” Wei Ying did a twirl. “I’m the same as you now! Am I pretty? Say Lan Zhan, am I pretty?”
Huan muffled a laugh behind his sleeve as A-Zhan said “Mn,” eyes never once leaving Wei Ying. There was something a little like awe in his stare, like Wei Ying was the only one in the world to him at that moment, and if Huan hadn’t already known that his little brother cared deeply for Wei Ying then that look would have been all the confirmation he needed.
(If A-Zhan knew what marriage and romance was beyond the vague explanations he’d heard then he’d probably already be courting Wei Ying, with all the dogged determination he shows everything he puts his mind to. It’s adorable, and Huan supports it wholeheartedly, no matter what direction it heads in the end).
Or: an AU Wei Wuxian is taken in by the Lan clan instead of the Jiangs.
Qishan Wen Sect
Hm, this one is quite complicated. To be honest, WWX would probably fit in well in the sect, and Wen Ruohan most possibly cares about power, and WWX is powerful so he’d care for him AND Wen Xu. Wen Chao is just there in the background being bullied, I like to think.
WWX would make Wen Qing their head doctor and give her more power, while he would also help Wen Ning with archery. All and all he would be alright in the Wen Sect, but there would still be a couple casualties here and there, because of Wen Chao’s jealousy.
Fanfiction:  ‘ He was brighter than the Sun’ by AncientOceanmelody
Summary:  Wei Wuxian was the head disciple of Yunmengjiang Sect, he was the pride of Yunmeng. Jiang Fengmian see him like a son, everyone (except Madam Yu) love him.
He would do everything for those who were dear to him.
So why do is feel horrible when Uncle Jiang didn't hesitate when he offer himself to the Wens instead of Jiang Cheng?
Why is he crying?
After all, he was just the son of a friend, the son of a servant, is was obvious his Uncle would prefer his Sect over him.
Qinghe Nie Sect
Again, I’m gonna be honest, but this sect would be the BEST one for WWX to grow up in. Nie Mingjue would get along great with WWX (we’re ignoring canon GROWN WWX) and Nie Huaisang has another brother :D
NHS and WWX would use their time to cause mischief and plot stuff while NMJ is like “These are my brothers. They’re annoying. Don’t you fucking dare lay a finger on them.”
Just - THEY WOULD BE THE HEALTHIEST RELATIONSHIP EVER IN ALL THE SECTS! NMJ taking care of WWX and NHS, NHS constantly worrying over WWX and NMJ because they fight (you know- war I mean) and WWX just being the self-sacrificing moron he is and protecting NMJ and NHS
Fanfiction: ‘shades of grey’ by cl410
Summary: This was why he didn’t like to leave the Unclean Realm, Nie Mingjue thought with dismay. Guileless dark eyes blinked up at him, tiny hands clutching at his robes.
Or: Nie Mingjue comes across Wei Wuxian before Jiang Fengmian, and decides Nie Huaisang could use a friend.
Lanling Jin Sect
OH BOY! I just love Jin Zixuan getting along with WWX and being an older brother to him. I would think that if JZX (Not Zixun, I despise him) grew up with WWX they would definitely get along and have a healthier relationship than the Yunmeng Bros. Jin Guangshan would definitely not see the point in having WWX in there, and Madam Jin is much more empathetic and she would be the on to take care of WWX.
You may be wondering - Jin Zixuan is Jin Zixuan. Wouldn’t his pride get in the way of things? He’s not called a peacock for no reason, and yes! I can see why you think that! But look at MianMian! She’s JZX best friend BECAUSE she probably grew up with him, and it’s clear in terms of temperament she’s better than JZX and she might even rival him in swordsmanship. If given the choice to grow up with him, WWX would have an amazing brotherly relationship with JZX, and would most likely accept the fact that WWX is amazing and would be PROUD of him. 
Also JZX’s relationship with Jiang Yanli may improve JUST BECAUSE WWX is there
(I might just be biased, idk)
Fanfiction: ‘Twin Treasures’ by crossdressingdeath
Summary: When Madame Jin happens to come across Cangse Sanren's orphaned son on a trip to Yiling, she can't bring herself to leave him there. Wei Wuxian finds a somewhat different family. Jin Zixuan finds a little brother. The course of history changes accordingly.
(Some things are written in fate, but even fate itself changes.)
Rogue Cultivators - Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen
Let me point out first that Xingchen is ETHEREAL! HE’S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON ON THE PLANET! (Song Jiyang is amazing istg I’ve never watched The Untamed but I’ve SEEN clips of them like 哥你怎样那么美). 
ANYWAYS, BACK TO THE POINT! Xiao Xingchen and Song Zichen would be amazing parents, don’t deny it. SZC would be rocky at taking care of WWX at first but he would get the hang of it and be the most over-protective person on the planet and would KILL ANYONE who hurts his family. Xiao Xingchen on the other hand would be the doting and loving parent. He spoils WWX but not as much as SZC (though he would never admit it). SZC and XXC would be the best if you want WWX to have parental figures.
Fanfiction:  ‘Frost moon's sun’ by RenaFair
Summary: Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan had dreamed of founding a sect together, that is until Xingchen heard what happened to his shijie. The two then decides to put their little dream on hold as they care for a pair of tiny hands between them, protecting the little boy with a sunshine smile as best as they can.
Alternately; Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan adopted Wei Ying after his parents' death.
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spockandawe · 4 years ago
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Hi....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.
It’s absolutely no problem at all!! I don’t think I’ve been asked this before, but hey, I also have zero object permanence, so it keeps things fresh and new. And it’s interesting to see how my answers change over time! Lemme see, I think I’m going to go in reverse order, because I feel like then I’ll be doing the worst agonizing up front.
TGCF
Fifth favorite: YIN. YU. I know that he’s a minor character and him even making it onto the list is pretty solid performance, but I do feel guilty that he isn’t higher than this. He came out of nowhere in my first reading and punched me in the stomach with emotions. I find his sections so hard to read, and I was DEVASTATED when he died and BEYOND stoked to find out he was still alive in the extras. His story hurts so much! I am weak against characters who have relatively modest goals and still see them snatched away (see also: my next entry) and have to struggle on. I wish wish wish I had a way to see more of how he made his peace with things after being thrown out of heaven, and the nature of the (distant) relationship with Hua Cheng and what happens with Quan Yizhen now that he died in his arms, and still came back anyways, my god!
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Fourth favorite:  He Xuannnnnn. I have a hard time articulating particulars, but. I love him a lot. I love a character with a grudge, with a deep, painful grudge, where the grudge is hurting him almost as much as it’s hurting the people around him, and setting the grudge aside would also hurt, and then what has any of this been for-- I've used this metaphor for other characters, but I don’t care if I’m overusing it, because I love it. He feels like a character caught in a thorn bush, where simply being there... hurts, but trying to escape or move in any ways is going to hurt worse, and there’s no path forward that doesn’t involve pain. And like... I don’t love the way he hurt Shi Qingxuan (who didn’t quite make this list adfasgdafsd I’M SORRY) but I wouldn’t have liked to see him swallow back down all that pain and set aside everything that happened to his family and fiancee either! I’m always, always soft for characters who have no good path forward and who grit their teeth and set out anyways.
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Third favorite: MU QING!!!!!!!!!! I have done... extensive screaming about him. And I love him veryvery much. I can already tell that this list is going to have a lot of mean boys on it, and like... no regrets. Especially since this is one of my FAVORITE flavors, an unapologetic mean boy who is rarely (but sometimes!) soft for the people around him, and who regularly tries to do decently by people, but who consistently gets shat upon and misunderstood and accused of acting in bad faith. I screamed when he and Xie Lian finally got to talk their friendship out in the book. I also screamed when I realized how immediately after Xie Lian’s return he started looking out for him again, and how sincerely, despite his horrible attitude about it. I still want to write more fic for him so badly. I love him so much.
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Second favorite: Xie Lian! What a good boy! The best boy! He’s so sweet and gentle, but also the best fightboy this world has ever seen, and also so gently snarky with the people he loves! I just... really love me some traumatized characters who have trouble recognizing that they can be Loved, and I’m not going to write this whole essay right now, but I think in some ways, he’s the most... passive about his romance, out of all the leads? Shen Qingqiu is aggressively oblivious, but Xie Lian kind of gently shrugs off the idea that he might be Hua Cheng’s special someone, until he finally gets hit with the cluestick. I generally shy away from the idea of a character “earning” love, but he’s maybe the mxtx character who moves me most with ‘you deserve to be loved’
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Most favorite: Hua Cheng. HUA CHENG. Oh my god, gotta love this boy. Gotta love this devotion. I love a mean boy who is soft for one person, and he EMBODIES it. I mean, I love Shen Jiu, but he barely manages to do the soft thing at all, while Hua Cheng is over here like ‘if I could only be the stone beneath your feet--’ It’s hard to talk about him separately from Xie Lian, because they’re a unit in my head more than just about any other characters on this list are. I don’t want to get this list to get out of control, so I’m not going to scream for too long, but... I could just watch him go forever. I want to write him forever, and that’s a huge aspect of what draws me to some characters.
MDZS
Oh god, I think I lied, I think this book is going to be hardest. Making these choices is AGONIZING.
Fifth favorite: .....Lan Wangji. Oh god, I feel bad about how low he is. But this story is just packed SO full of wonderful characters, and I’m already consumed with guilt over all the characters who aren’t going to make it. I don’t love them less! But my love for characters in this particular story is very evenly distributed. And I think that Wang Yibo’s acting is possibly scoring points with me that the book might not have earned all by itself. Microexpressions and subtle body language add SO MUCH to a character with such flat affect, and I would be drawn to such a closed-off character anyways, but it really helps. And I love, like... the combined subtlety and intensity of his relationships. It’s not that subtle once you know what to look for, and the brother/sworn brother network makes for varying degrees of how much other characters understand of the things he chooses not to explicitly express, and it gives a really interesting character to the way he interacts with the people around him. Also, love me a man with intense separation anxiety.
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Fourth favorite: Jiang Yanli? I think it has to be Jiang Yanli, but these rankings are hard. So. I just talked about how much I enjoy the flat affect and closed off nature of Lan Wangji? Well, guess what, I also love it when m’girl is just very GENUINELY AND OPENLY an absolute sweetheart of a person, and I love the contrast between her genuinely kind nature and the uncomfortable pressure that her family’s dynamics put on her to start parenting at a very young age. It’s not necessarily a happy situation, but she adores her brothers so much and they adore her so much! And it’s... a very understated element of the story, but after her parents died, her baby brothers went off to war, and one wreaked havoc as a straightforward commander and one of them disappeared for months and returned as a creepy-ass zombie puppeteer. And she STILL dotes on them like before, despite knowing what they’re capable of. Like, yes, Wei Wuxian just raised an army of corpses and forced a man to eat himself, but I shall still boop him on the nose and feed him Soup. How can I not adore energy like that?
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Third favorite: Wei Wuxian, I think. I do adore him a lot. He gives me some of the same vibes that make me ache most with Xie Lian, where he is trying his best, and is struggling to hold on in the face of lots of suffering, and I find it really interesting that when the suffering peaked, Xie Lian was forced go on because he couldn’t die, while Wei Wuxian... expired. That line about ‘he thought that no matter how large the world was, there was still no place for him’ always sticks with me, and hurts me deeply. Xie Lian had most of his personal attachments stripped away, and was left to wander on his own, while Wei Wuxian still had a number of strong connections left, but abruptly exited life. And that informs their respective trauma so interestingly! The way Wei Wuxian bounces between high energy chaos and drained exhaustion is really fascinating to me, and was the thread that held me attached to the book through a very confusing beginning. And I’m still very drawn to how intensely he loves, whether it’s Xiao Zhan’s fantastic acting, or it’s him busting out with how much he wants Lan Wangji in the middle of the Guanyin Temple scene. He’s a fantastic character, honestly, I don’t think such a convoluted book would have held together very well without a protagonist this strong.
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Second favorite: Xue Yang :X Look, he’s a good boy and I love him. Who among us hasn’t done a few mass murders that we are completely unrepentant about, but that we would really like to keep hidden from our current boyfriend, actually? Anyways, as always, love me an angry boy who makes terrible decisions for understandable reasons. And I do love a character who is consumed by agonized ragrets (see my next entry), but I DO also love me a character who has no regrets at all and doesn’t even have much interest in trying to justify himself to anyone else around him. Just look at that confidence! Look at him go!!
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Most favorite: Jiang... Cheng....... I knew he and Xue Yang were going to be at the top, but those were the only parts of this list that were easy. I mean. Love a self-sabotaging angryboy who is also super super sad and keeps hurting himself in his own confusion. And while I love the romantic thread in all of the mxtx books, the agonized family thread in mdzs is one of my favorite parts, and something that I don’t really see echoed in any of the other stories. I need ten million jc+wwx reconciliations, at LEAST. He’s so sad! And so angry! And I want to see him becoming less of that thing, and for Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian to demonstrate very firmly how much they love him, because they do. I am invested in his happiness in a way that goes far and beyond any of the other non-main characters, haha
SVSSS
Fifth favorite: Tianlang-jun. I think? Oh god, but moshang. THIS IS REALLY HARD, I HATE THIS ;-; But especially since writing my fic, Tianlang-jun has really won me over. And like, he already hurt me good in the novel, just thinking about how he was an innocent young guy, just! Trying to have a girlfriend! And instead got trapped in sensory deprivation, body-rotting-hell for twenty years, when he didn’t do anything wrong!!! He suffered, so much! And I live for his intensely strained relationship with Luo Binghe, because it’s! Perfectly understandable and painful, from both of their perspectives! And he wants to hate humans so badly, but in the end, when he’s told that Su Xiyan never betrayed him, he starts helplessly asking the people around him, ‘really? is it really true?’ and then in the end he loses the only family member he has left who cares about him, and it’s just! Everything is terrible! I have a su xiyan au brewing in my head because I can’t stand it! Someone just give this man a loving partner!!!
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Fourth favorite: Shen Qingqiu. But... moshang??? Goddammit. Anyways, this dumbass. I find him so endearing, in his dumbassery. I sometimes get a bit frustrated with Wei Wuxian for being oblivious, and Shen Qingqiu is just asking for me to react the same way, but I... don’t, for the most part? Because he thinks he has good information, and he’s slow to react to a changing playing field, and I still haven’t read another transmigration novel that strikes the same balance of hypercompetence and intense incompetence :ppp It’s a funny book, and he’s a funny character! And I really vibe with him, in most parts of the story, which covers a pretty darn wide emotional spectrum. Plus, the running internal commentary is choice.
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Third favorite: Liu Qingge. Look, I’m a woman of simple needs, and sometimes I just need a high-quality fightboy who clearly cares deeply and is absolute garbage at expressing his emotions. I can’t articulate it much better than that. I absolutely howl at the succubus extra, when Shen Qingqiu is talking to Madam Meiyin about his future partner, and Liu Qingge is like ‘oh my god, sHE IS CLEARLY DESCRIBING ME’ and Shen Qingqiu is like ‘haha, liu-shidi, i thought you thought this was stuupidddddddd’. They’re both so dumb. I love them so much. But stupidity plus war god fighting energy has a narrow lead over stupidity and internal commentary track.
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Second favorite: SHEN JIU. GOD. I’m still arguing with myself over whether he should go first, but Luo Binghe hurts me consistently through the whole entire story, so I think he wins. Shen Jiu just stabs me in the heart at strategic moments. This is it. My ideal mean boy who is soft for one (1) person, and who BOTH does unconscionable things for terrible reasons (someone just. give him a pile of girls to teach, it will be much more pleasant for everyone involved), and who ALSO gets blamed for things he didn’t do even when he tries to act in good faith. It is the best of all painful worlds. And even at the end, when he has a powerful person who wants desperately to protect him, he still tries his hardest to shove that person away, to keep him safe. I’ve got like four aus where he gets to live. I’m so invested in this character, I love him so much.
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Most favorite: Luo Binghe. He was.... made for me............ Like, the overwhelming amounts of childhood angst were baked in by Shang Qinghua, but the in-story pain and suffering is PRECISELY my jam. I love a character with separation anxiety! I love a character with massive anxieties over being unwanted! Over nobody ever, EVER just choosing him! I love a character struggling with the idea that the person he loves most in the world thinks that he’s intrinsically Disgusting! I love the kind of stubborn determination that leads him to preserve a corpse for five years, desperately hoping for a way to revive it, constantly cooking fresh food, in case, in case he someday wakes up. The way Hua Cheng loves is overpowering, but he’s had time to like... learn to be mellow when he needs to be. Luo Binghe doesn’t have a chill bone in his body, and if he’s acting chill, it’s probably because he’s done some mental math and decided that being more clingy right now will probably get him pushed away harder. I love the combination of manipulative tendencies and a very, very genuine fear of rejection and being unwanted. There is nothing I don’t love about Luo Binghe, including his worst decisions. I love him so so much.
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aurora077 · 3 years ago
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The Value of Recognition - Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - Well shit
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13934252/1/The-Value-of-Recognition
“Wei-qianbei, are you okay?” asked Lan Sizhui. Healer Zhang had been quietly filling in Second in Command Pan about what they knew so far, but the juniors had been focused on their Senior Wei and the adorable child who they couldn’t believe was actually the irascible Sect Leader Jiang. As such, they noticed when the mood on that side of the table dropped.
One minute everything was fine and he was enjoying the food and the next, Wei Wuxian’s chicken had slipped out of his chopsticks, Jingyi style, and had (luckily) landed on his bowl of rice without him noticing a thing. He’d fallen silent and seemed to be far away. None of them knew why he was reacting this way to the toddler’s innocent words.
“Who’s A-Ying?” Ouyang Zizhen whispered to Lan Jingyi.
“Beats me…”
But he remembered something and it seemed to click. “Wait.. Do you think... that it’s Wei-qianbei?” Jingyi replied, thinking of all the Wei Yings Hanguang-Jun had said since his return.
“Young Master Jiang,” said Jin Ling, also concerned about Wei Wuxian’s reaction and as straightforward as his uncle he asked, “Who is A-Ying?”
“A-Ying is A-Ying,” he chirped, “Wei-shufu said A-Ying will be fwens with A-Cheng, like A-die and Wei-shufu. But he didn’t bwing A-Ying.”
Jin Ling seemed like he’d caught on. He looked between his xiao jiujiu and Wei Wuxian with a mix of pity and sorrow.
Wei Wuxian had noticed none of this. His head was filled with white noise. Wei Changze. When did Jiang Cheng meet Wei Changze? Jiang Cheng never mentioned meeting his parents. And he himself didn’t remember ever being to Lotus Pier before Jiang Fengmian found him (though granted he did have a shitty memory). Mini Jiang Cheng said his Wei-shufu promised to bring A-Ying to play with him. Was that… Did it never happen because his parents...didn’t make it back?? Was three year old Jiang Cheng’s memory of Wei Changze the last time he ever set foot in Lotus Pier? Grief held his heart like a vice at the thought.
Wei Wuxian did not remember how long he was on the streets. He vaguely remembered being around five in the only memory he has of them that remained clear. Him, getting a little too big to ride on his father’s shoulders, but his father humoring him anyway. His mother was laughing and happy, sitting on a donkey and looking at them fondly.
His years on the street blurred together. All he knew was that his parents were on a night hunt and when they were done they would come and get him. But he waited and waited and nobody came. Eventually the food they had left him had run out and he had gotten hungry and wandered away from their camp (and later, couldn’t find his way back). He’d had to fight other children, even adults, for little scraps of food and the best places to find shelter for the next few years. And of course, the worst thing to happen to him was those feral street dogs who would chase him and bite him, especially if he’d managed to scrounge up any little food from the stuff people threw out.
(“Senior Wei.”)
When Jiang Fengmian had found him and taken him home, he was amazed at the beauty and splendor of Lotus Pier. To a nine-year old who’d been on the streets for years, he had never seen such a sight. If he had been there before, he would have surely remembered it! He could only conclude that he hadn’t gotten the chance to visit Lotus Pier. He didn’t recognise Jiang Cheng when he met him as a child and Jiang Fengmian had only said that this would be his home now. He hadn’t asked him if he remembered him or Lotus Pier.
Wei Wuxian hadn’t gone with Jiang Fengmian because he knew him, he had gone because the man said he knew his parents and had offered him food and shelter. By then, he was old enough to know that his parents were never coming back.
My god, his parents. When was the last time he thought about his parents? He’d told Jiang Cheng to leave the past in the past. The bitterness and the pain. He’d wanted them both to move forward and live happily. But now he was staring the past in the face, forced to confront things he had buried. Things he hadn’t even known he’d buried.
(“Master Wei?” “What’s going on with him?”)
Jiang Fengmian had rarely actually talked to him about his parents aside from the time he’d found him and told him they were his friends. He’d doted on him and treated him like he was his own son (unlike his actual son who’d gotten treated coldly many times, causing an argument between Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan every time without fail…).
It made Wei Wuxian feel terrible. He was happy that Uncle Jiang liked him and treated him well, but it felt really horrible to be the reason why Jiang Cheng’s face fell every time Wei Ying was praised and he wasn’t. He’d loved his grumpy shidi and causing him pain was the last thing he’d ever wanted to do. (Though he’d managed to do it time and time again.) But he’d meant it that day when he’d told Jiang Cheng that he didn’t want people assigning him to other households. His parents had been real people in this world. It was funny that now, it was Jiang Cheng who had to remind him of that, albeit unknowingly.
When was the last time he’d thought about his parents?
He choked back a sob.
(“Wei Wuxian!” “What is happening right now, is he okay?”)
How did he never know that he looked like his father? Who was left alive that knew his parents? Lan Qiren? (A man who disliked his mother... and hated him.)
Who was left to talk about them and honor their memory? Wei Wuxian had been so young and his memory was poor. He hardly remembered them at all. Why did nobody ever tell him he looked so much like his dad that a toddler, who surely couldn’t have interacted that much with the man, could recognise him in Wei Wuxian’s face to the point he’d thought it was him?
(“Senior Wei, can you hear me?”)
Wei Wuxian, in his obliviousness, had not even realised that was the case. Because he hadn’t known. Oh he’d heard about his mother. How she came down from Baoshan Sanren’s mountain, how she’d been so much like him. How Jiang Fengmian had loved her but she chose his father anyway. Just like Cangse Sanren, is what people said about him, once upon a time that is. Rarely anyone mentioned his father. And now, nobody mentioned them at all. Because nobody (save the uptight Lan Qiren) could even remember them. They were like footnotes in the grand scheme of his life.
His parents were footnotes in his life. He hadn’t intended to do it, but it seemed like they were part of the past he’d left behind when he told his shidi to leave it there.
He felt like weeping.
And indeed he must be, because the sound of it reached his ears. He reached a hand up to wipe his tears but.. his face was dry?
He felt a tug on his sleeve.
“Wei-shufu, A-Cheng is sorry.”
His vision cleared. Oh. He was surrounded by worried faces and a now teary-eyed baby, whose cries were a lot more silent than before but also a lot more sorrowful now.
“Wei-shufu don’t leave A-Cheng. A-Cheng will be good,” he cried, “Pwease don’t tell A-die A-Cheng was bad. A-Cheng won’t ask for A-Ying.”
Tears silently slid down the toddler’s face, and that was the impetus for his to fall too. He picked up the toddler and cuddled him, hiding his own teary face from the others in the child’s hair.
“Who said A-Cheng was bad? Was it the scary geges?” (“Hey!” protested Lan Jingyi.)
He stroked the child’s head consolingly, trying to control his own sorrow. He didn’t know what expression he had on his face when being struck with the past, but he hadn’t meant for the child to think he was to blame.
“A-Cheng didn’t do anything wrong. Wei-shufu was just missing his family.”
(Lan Sizhui gasped. It seemed like he too realised what was going on. He shared a look with Jin Ling. Wen Ning too had realised what was happening, and if a corpse could have cried, he would be sobbing on his friend’s behalf.)
“W..wei-shufu c..can *hic* bwing them to ‘otus Pier too,” said Xiao Cheng, sniffling.
Oh that precious little thing. “Maybe next time,” he deflected, “This time your Uncle Wei is here for you.”
He patted the child’s back. “Don’t cry now, come on, let’s finish your breakfast okay?” A-Cheng nodded. But he was quiet and let Wei Wuxian feed him the rest of his meal. Everyone else was subdued as well, each thinking that those two people never seemed to be able to escape an encounter with each other unscathed.
------
With the awkward breakfast over, Wei Wuxian had pushed his emotions aside; he’d reflect on those another time. Right now it was time to get down to business.
“Second in Command Pan, can I call you Senior Pan? That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it?” he quipped.
Pan An huffed but acquiesced.
“Okay so Senior Pan, Healer Zhang has briefed you already on what we know. With your sect leader currently… indisposed… Lotus Pier of course will be your responsibility and I beg your leave to help and to use the library etc as needed. It falls to you to grant us permission to stay but if we have it I promise I’m going to do everything in my power to make this right. A-Ling has a sect to run as well so the both of you can’t do everything alone. It’s going to be difficult enough to contain the news of what happened. People talk and lots of people would have seen Wen Ning bringing him in last night. The Lans have a song called Inquiry which I’m sure you’ve heard of. Lan Sizhui is proficient enough and I thought we could start our investigation by communicating with the spirit to find out what exactly it cast.”
“I admit Master Wei, I’m not pleased to have to accept your help for this. But yes you have my permission to do what it takes to break this curse, even though Sect Leader might break my legs when he... comes back,” said long suffering second in command Pan. “Why would A-Die bweak gege’s legs?” asked A-Cheng innocently. Crap.
“Uh your A-Die isn’t going to break anyone’s legs, A-Cheng,” Wei Wuxian laughed sheepishly. “Gege was just joking,” said a panicked Pan An.
Healer Zhang facepalmed. “Young Master Jiang, may I make a suggestion?” she said earnestly, seemingly invested in going along with the idea that he was in charge while his father was away. She had not, however, forgotten for a moment that this child was in fact her sect leader. He was responsible to a tee and would take Wei Wuxian’s words about being in charge to heart, even as a toddler. But he was also a child at the moment and there are some things you just don’t discuss in front of a child. Especially when it was about him. He would hear his name come up and wonder what he had done and how would they explain things to him then?
He hesitated but nodded.
“Why don’t you and your Flower-gege go with Flower-gege’s friends to do a patrol of the sect? Your Uncle Wei, Sizhui-ge, and Second-In-Command Pan have some boring adult things to talk about.”
Mini Jiang Cheng looked up at his Flower-gege who smiled encouragingly. “Okay,” he said softly, wanting to do his best while his family were away. He already messed up and made Wei-shufu sad. Maybe A-Die would give him a hug if he did a good job and didn’t cause any more trouble..
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shijiujun · 5 years ago
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[Spoiler-ish] Eps 1-6 of The Lost Tomb Reboot
Cast: Wow this show boasts like a stellar cast outside of Zhu Yi Long, can’t believe Baron Chen is in this, and we see two familiar faces from TSOMD in this one too (Yu Ming Xuan who plays Ding Rong & Huang Yang Tian Tian who plays Dong Er), but everyone’s roles are ON POINT. Zhu Yi Long, as always, that face and that jaw and those eyes and skin.... *chef’s kiss* he be so handsome (and so many other handsome guys?!!! even like the older uncles XD) 
HORROR FACTOR: Erm. Wow, so it’s actually a bit more scary than I thought it is?!! Like the CGI isn’t perfect but damnnnnn it’s like The Mummy Returns but like in more sinister, darker lighting and some terrible creepy crawly slimy thing - I am not a fan of creepy crawlies and like weird long wriggly stuffs, like I honestly wouldn’t recommend watching this at night? It’s not as bad as a bl horror/thriller I recently read because damn I honestly couldn’t sleep after that, but this one has a lot of bodies and corpses and hollow eye sockets in skulls and what not, scary fingers moving... I mean, yeah, if you’re weak of heart like me, watch in the day yes
Characters:
Wu Xie is a cinnamon roll. He be a soft, cute and determined cinnamon roll, that’s all I can say. The glow-up in the first episode was definitely very much required. HAHAHA but I also love how he’s doted upon by EVERYONE-ish? He as always fits the hurt/comfort and whump thrope REALLY WELL. I won’t say much more, but I do think there are eps where he’s gonna just faint and everyone panics later XDDD But his third uncle obviously dotes on him, his second uncle too, and he’s from a rich family?! Rich tomb raider fam that kind of functions as like the mafia - Totally up my alley - And oof bonus part with Wu Xie playing a video game while Serious Shit happens behind him
His two friends - Pang Zi and Xiao Ge, Pang Zi is chaotic and noisy and timid but loyal, while Xiao Ge is a martial arts expert and handsome boi, he and Wu Xie have so many like moments where they just stare fondly at each other. Not say imma ship, but love the eyes man
Second uncle and his sidekick - Obviously dotes on Wu Xie, dresses like a rich tycoon, while sidekick is also obviously a tomb raiding expert, but when they’re not out on expeditions these two are honestly like Mob Boss and Mob Boss Right Hand Man together
OOOOF Baron Chen’s Hei Xia Zi character - He’s so chaotic it’s ridiculous, and I do like him a lot
Liu Sang - A pretty boy with very good ears, who’s the newest addition to their team. Kind of a brat. A cute one, but I also do foresee more friendship moments between him, Xiao Ge and Wu Xie XD
Plot: Intriguing and moves fast enough - Humour is entirely on point and like I said the backstory, underlying like mystery for now is pretty good 
Bonus: ZHU YI LONG IN A REALLY SOFT KNIT SWEATER. ZHU YI LONG UNDER THE SUNLIGHT. ZHU YI LONG IN TEARS. YAS PLS. 
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drwcn · 5 years ago
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haha this kid has it hard. There is not a single functional romance in this entire family. None. I wrote a little something :) I do take prompts, I just might not be very timely to respond, depending on my inspiration reserve and work schedule/exams etc. Again, btsf!verse (or post btsf!verse if you will, that’s where my brain is at these days), but can be read independently. Hope you don’t mind.  
Warning: this is a fluff piece but a servant gets slapped in this. she is a minor, a trope frequently scene in historical dramas and traditional households. 
When Jin Ling was seven years old, he developed his first crush. In the many years to come, he would develop many crushes - pretty girls, tall boys - but his first crush was on one of Jinlintai’s servant’s daughter, an older girl with shiny braids and soft dark eyes. And because he liked her, he found all sorts of reasons to see her (read: pester, command, annoy). 
Jin Ling was a menace, and xiao-Rui had up until this point in time tolerated his behaviour, but this last straw was the one that finally broke the camel’s back. 
Clack!
Jin Ling didn’t know the right vocabulary for it yet, but an older him would reflect on this as the moment he “fucked up”. The yin’er congee splattered across the marble floor and up the hem of his brocade robes, staining it. Beside the upturned cherry-wood tray, the jade bowl and ivory spoon laid in pieces. 
Oops. 
Jin Ling wouldn’t have panicked, because truly this was no big deal. He was sure the kitchen had lots of other bowls and could whip up another congee in no time. But then xiao-Rui slowly knelt down, curled up into a ball and began to cry. 
Jin Ling felt all the calm instantly evaporate from his small seven year old body. Oh no! Crying girl?! What to do, what to do, what to do???? 
What did father do when mother cried??? Ah heck, what was he thinking? Mother didn’t cry. Crying was beneath Mother. 
“What’s going on here?” A harsh voice echoed from down the hall. Jin Ling blinked, surprised. Nobody here ever dared use that tone of voice with him. At Lotus Pier maybe, he and his little sister Jiang Rao would get reprimanded for being particularly naughty, but that was usually their mother and she never needed to raise her voice to put the fear of immortals in them. Jin Ling swallowed nervously, looking over his shoulder, praying that Jiang Yanli didn’t somehow magically transport herself from Yunmeng to appear behind him. 
She didn’t. Thank the gods. 
From spring to fall of every year, Jin Ling spent his time at Lanling under the care of his uncle Lianfang-zun who he would one day succeed. After several months, Jin Ling had come to realize that his Uncle A-Yao was itching to spoil him due to having no children of his own. This meant outside of his daily lessons in cultivation and etiquette (sprinkled with just a little bit of politics), Jin Ling was allowed to run wild, something he was rarely allowed to do at his a-niang’s Lotus Pier unless his a-die championed on his behalf. Jiang Yanli was a gentle mother, sweet, soft-spoken, and loving. But everyone under the sun with half a brain knew Sect Master Jiang was a woman made out of diamond, forged by the war, beautiful and unbreakable. Up against her, even with his father and his two uncles backing him up, Jin Ling had no chance.
The voice that called out belonged to an older woman, a momo, neatly attired in pale orange and earth brown - servant’s colours - with her grey streaked hair tightly coiffed back into a severe bun. She walked briskly, back straight and face grim, until she came all the way up to them and their mess. [momo - an older female servant]
Once she saw who he was, she quickly relaxed her posture and curtsied deeply, “shizi*, shao-gongzi*, I apologize on behalf of the servants for not tending to your needs that you must trouble yourself to come down to the lower units. What may I do for you? What has this undisciplined yatou done to upset you?” [1)shizi = heir, 2)shao-gongzi = young master, 3)yatou = girlie, referring to a young girl, or a servant girl].  
Jin Ling blinked, much confused. Surely, he was the one causing the upset. He certainly wasn’t the one crying. 
“Uh....” 
“Oh no, you stupid girl, that’s Qin-zhangshi’s yin’er congee and her favourite bowl!” The momo yelled angrily. [zhangshi 长事 - head of staff] 
Qin-zhangshi? Oh yes, that was his aunt Qin Su, Jinlintai’s Head of Staff who handled all the internal affairs. This would be the duty of the Lady of Lanling if his uncle A-Yao had had a wife, but he didn’t, hence the burdening of his only sister to rise to the task.  
“Zhao-momo, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to -” xiao-Rui squeaked as Zhang-momo pulled her up by the ear. A second later, a loud clap was heard and she cried out in pain. Zhao-momo had slapped her soundly across the cheek, leaving red to bloom where her hand had been.  
That jostled Jin Ling out of his trance. “Hey!” He exclaimed, using all the power of his seven-year-old barely-cultivated body to shove the momo out of the way.
After that he barely remembered what he did. 
-
Qin Su was having an exceptionally good day. Jinlintai for once was running like a well-oiled machine, so much so that she felt in the mood to call for a bowl of yin’er congee as a mid-afternoon snack. It was one of her favourite treats...but it was taking a rather longer time than usual to get here. 
Before she could ring to see what was the hold up, the door to her study burst open, revealing her seven-year-old nephew, a servant girl he dragged by the hand, and a flustered Zhao-momo, the supervisor of the kitchen staff.  
The front of Jin Ling’s robe was ruined by a large patch of food stain - congee from the looks of it. The girl, sobbing, had clearly been struck, and Zhao momo.... 
Qin Su took one long hard look at the situation and was instantly reminded of what Jin Zixuan had been like at this age. As Qin Cangye’s daughter, she had  crossed path with him frequently all her life. She wasn’t quite sure how Meng Yao might’ve behaved at seven, and xiao-Yu had always been too timid for a Jin, but this...this had Zixuan’s bullshit all over it.  Though, Qin Su internally rolled her eyes, even without his father, Jin Ling had plenty of bad examples to learn from: 
Jiang Cheng, for one, never outgrew awkward, not with the way he still stared at Wen Qing every cultivation conference. At least it was difficult for most people to discern between his deathly stare of murder and his thirsty stare of sexual frustration. 
Wei Wuxian and Hanguang-jun, as saccharine and grossly in love as they were now, only learned to communicate after one of them faked their death for a year. 
xiao-Yu visited Qinghe every month and stayed for most of it. Qin Su never asked him what he did there, and frankly she didn’t want to know. 
As for a-Yao, if Zewu-jun didn’t do more than play his goddamn instruments and talk about philosophy every time he invited A-Yao to Cloud Recesses, Qin Su was afraid her poor brother would soon physically combust.  
Thus, with the full fondness of a doting aunt and the exasperation and wisdom of a woman who once almost married her own brother, Qin Su said, “A-Ling, my sweet dear, that is not how you treat a lady, and certainly not how you treat a lady you like.” Jin Ling dropped the girl’s hand like a hot potato. “San-gugu! I don’t - that’s not - I mean - I -” [san-gugu = third auntie] While she left the boy sputtering, Qin Su turned to the older servant. “Zhao-momo, you may return to your duties. You’re an efficient supervisor; I’ve always liked that about you, but if I hear of you hitting another one of the girls again, you and I will have words, am I clear?”  “Yes, Qin-zhangshi. Of course, of course.” Zhao-momo backed out the room and fled.  Softening her tone, Qin Su waved the girl over. “Come, child, come closer and let me take a look. My, you are pretty one. Now, now no more tears, or you’ll redden those lovely eyes. Oh geez,” she clicked her tongue as she tilted the girl’s face to examine it. “It’s a bit swollen. Luoti,” She looked to her handmaid. “Bring her down to get some ice and ah...some cream. For the inflammation.” “Yes, ma’am. Come on, xiao-Rui.” 
“Thank you Qin-zhangshi! Thank you Qin-zhangshi!”  Luoti led xiao-Rui away, shutting the door behind them with a click. Jin Ling, shame-faced and embarrassed, stood before his only aunt with his head bowed low. “Gugu...you’re not - you’re not going to tell a-niang on me are you?”  His uncle never tattled. If Jin Ling did anything wrong, Uncle A-Yao would give him a stern talking to that would often turn to a long boring lecture. But then after, Uncle A-Yao would simply have a word with his a-die, and his a-die would just give him another Jin-styled talking to and then brush the whole thing under the rug so his a-niang would never find out. (She still does though, more than half the time, like goddamn magic.) Now his gugu, his gugu was the best, the absolute best, and he’s yet to receive any kind of reprimand from her. 
Well there’s a first time for everything - as his da-jiujiu would say. 
Qin Su rose from her dais, came up to him and lifted his down-turned chin so he could look her. “A-Ling. Are you going to tell me what happened?” “Uhm....”  “Hm?” “Will you tell mother? I promised her I would be good.” And I haven’t been.  
“Of course I will. She is your mother and deserves to know about your well-being. But, remember this: honesty will grant you forgiveness, but dishonesty will only see to punishment. Your a-niang has always been fair with you and your sister, hasn’t she?”
The boy visibly sagged. “I was bothering xiao-Rui. And I made her drop her tray. The congee spilled everywhere and the bowl broke,” confessed Jin Ling. 
“And why did you do that?”
“Because...” 
“Because?” 
Jin Ling grumbled something incoherent. 
Qin Su sighed. Taking his hand, she said, “Let’s get you changed, my love. And then after, you and I will have a long talk. Don’t worry, it’s not one of your Uncle A-Yao’s boring lectures. If you’re good, maybe we can go to town and I’ll let you pick out an apology gift for poor xiao-Rui. How does that sound?” 
Jin Ling nodded fervently, his smile wide. 
Qin Su chuckled, thinking that while her generation may have been thoroughly fucked over by the circumstances of their youth, there was no need to continue that tradition. Not when the times have been so peaceful. Tonight, she will write to her lovely sister-in-law who will surely have a good laugh over her son’s antics.   
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theaestheticdiariesx · 5 years ago
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DongFeng Headcanons
Headcanons coming to you from @m-mimima and @lovesasusaku12 . Because we love the DongFeng couple and need more than what the show gave us. Though we were blessed with a lot.  
Both Dong Hua and Fj are super thirsty for each other and some of the women try to shift into FJ. Dong Hua catches on pretty quickly and questions them about all the things they did/do. He usually is still pretty ice face unless FJ is around and then all of his attention is on her. Everyone is confused af about this powerful, stoic god who is putty in FJ’s hands. 
Fj likes to hang out with new immortal General Ye, but she always makes sure that DH is around and flatters him a bit more than usual. Dh likes Ye, just not around his wife. 
Fj becomes more mature, but she is still FJ through and through. She still loves to play pranks and is super flustered when DH calls her Fu Ren. 
If anyone tries to bully Fj or say anything about DH or her family, she reminds them who her husband is. She is pretty powerful on her own, but there are some people that don’t listen to her. DH always shows up and silently supports her. 
After the ending of pillow book, DH and Fj finally get married. Dh personally issues a statement saying that he will destroy anyone that dares to stop or interrupt the ceremony. Needless to say, the ceremony goes well and they are finally together “officially”. 
DH being a baby and calling FJ back for slight injuries. She doesn’t really mind and loves to be around him. 
Zhi He dies when she comes back for visits and sees Dh and FJ together and tries to get in between them, but Dh stops her and is like why are you coming in between me and Fu Ren. FJ always gets flustered when Dh calls her Fu Ren. DF love to sit together at banquets and she serves him food and he ignores everyone but her and likes to tuck flowers in her hair. Fj gets sad thinking about Aranya, but DH reminds Fj that the failed fate brought them together. 
DH and Fj have three kids, two boys and a girl. DH slightly favors his little girl because she is basically a mini FJ. Fj and baby girl usually fight over who gets to sit in DH’s lap (in fox form). 
Dh is forever sad at missing Fj’s pregnancy with gun gun. So he keeps FJ close during her subsequent ones and is a super attentive husband. He likes to burns summons from the heavenly king for meetings, so FJ just goes with him. But he pays more attention to her and stops meetings to get something that FJ wants, and guilt trips fj with him missing Gun gun’s time. He hugs gun gun a little bit tighter and dotes on him too. 
The third pregnancy (baby girl) is the hardest on FJ. At night, she likes to grab DH’s hand and tells him to tell his restless child to stop and let her rest. He replies with “this one takes after their mother in being restless” but dies happily on the inside. 
Dongfeng babies are usually well behaved and the entire Bai family is astounded. But since they are the kids of two trolls,they love to pull pranks and never get caught. DH loves to join in the pranks. 
The babies join Dh in the meetings. He loves wearing the baby in slings and curl up against him when they are older.  If anyone gets too rowdy, then he points to the baby sling and tells them to settle down and not wake his kids. 
DH loving his family and having family dinners even after the kids grow up. He loves having his family surrounding him because he has been alone for way too long. He also makes sure that all of his family is protected. He doesn’t hover, but makes sure that they are okay. 
Dijun loves to spoil his daughter and carries her everywhere either in his arms or sitting on his shoulders. He teaches his daughter how to play Go and she eventually beats LS (as a small baby). Dh tells her to call LS “nephew” because he lost. Zhong Lin comes to tell him that FJ is calling the baby and DH is like *___*, I’ll take her. 
FJ uses her babies to get out of trouble. They usually just show up and say “Grandpa” and BOOM, forgiven. #noshame 
The DF babies are both mentally and emotionally smart. They are well behaved, but very naughty. They and BQ’s kids cause so much mischief. They love to prank Si Ming, who just accepts his fate. 
Everyone likes to cling onto FJ and she is all “I love you all, but i have stuff to do. When did i become the responsible one?” =_=“.
The sky kingdom is a lively place due to all the little ones (Df, BQ, and LS and Cheng yu’s kids). The girls have tea parties at Tai Chen Palace and FJ makes them pastries and DH provides the tea and hangs out for a bit with them. 
Zhi He dies every time she comes to visit and sees the df babies. She knows that she can’t do anything to them bc Dijun will not stand for it. Whenever Zhi he tries to pull anything, the babies call her Grumpy Old aunty instead of just aunt. She also dies seeing the (df) baby girl looking a lot like a mini fj. 
Xiao Yan joining the babysitting squad (He is always supervised with the kids). Dh’s baby girl develops a baby crush on Yan yan and Dh loses his mind and tells her no she doesn’t like him like that. Dh stays a little jealous of Xiao Yan and FJ is ???. 
DF’s daughter grows up to be a beauty (after her mother) and Dh threatens any suitors with his sword (he’s not subtle about it). LS uses his friendship with Dh to threaten away his daughter’s suitors. 
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skullsandwineglasses · 4 years ago
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To Dear Myself Review/Rant
If you’ve had the patience to watch all 45 episodes until the end, then you probably know what I’m going to talk about in this review. I feel like it’s pretty unanimous that the ending was awful. 
It’s a slow burn slice-of-life drama. I don’t normally watch these types of dramas and instead go for the ones that are fantastical and far away from reality so that I can completely get lost in another world. But Liu Shishi and Zhu Yilong are familiar faces, and I’m more likely to start a bad drama with familiar actors than a good drama with unfamiliar actors, because I’m basic and want to invest as little attention and mental effort as possible (it takes work to warm up to new faces). 
The drama started off promising: it introduced obstacles that normal couples and families would face. Obstacles like money, social class, infidelity, unemployment, workplace competition, the value and desirability of “aging” women who prioritize work over love. It was relatable, even though some of these are unfamiliar experiences for me, a psychology grad student in her mid-20s. I didn’t expect this drama to be inspiring. I didn’t want this drama to be inspiring. But I wanted it to be at least logical, if not realistic. The drama seemed to promise reality though, which I held out hope for, but instead it butchered the character arc for most of the leads. 
[spoilers ahead]
The devolution of Li Si Yu and Chen Yi Ming’s relationship was laughable. 
LSY is afraid of marriage, while CYM believes that the ultimate goal in life is to get married and have a family. They don’t see eye to eye on this, and so the pressure causes them to break up. I respect this. It’s a common problem: you can’t really move forward when one isn’t ready to settle down, and the other isn’t willing to wait or support them. CYM is portrayed as a calm, composed, and morally upright person who feels uncomfortable when LSY makes a questionable decision. But CYM is also a hypocritical person who suppresses his feelings. Whenever he’s displeased, he acts as thought everything is fine until he can’t hide it anymore and explodes with unbidden rage. He punches the roof of the car, he slams the desk. It’s a little scary tbh. LSY is portrayed as a passionate and impulsive career-driven woman. She has to make tough decisions, and you understand why she makes them. Whenever she’s unhappy, she’ll let you know. The drama seems to set up a character development arc for these two flawed characters. 
LSY starts her own company, but then fails, and ends up learning that while it’s important to fight for what you believe in, but you shouldn’t be too caught up in whether your fail or succeed. It’s the classic “it’s about the journey, not the destination” kind of lesson. 
After a bout of heartbreak, CYM is swept off his feet by the manipulative Wang Ziru. She lies to him, evades him, controls him. At this point in the drama, we think that LSY is better off without him because he seemed to have moved on so swiftly. CYM and WZR seem to have a calmer relationship than the one he had with LSY. They never argue. We see that he’s easily attracted to confident, powerful women, but expects them to settle down with him when they’re not ready. For a third of the drama, he’s happily in love with WZR and doesn’t think about or interact with LSY (except when he comes to her office to tell her to shut her company “for her own good”). It looks like he completely moved on.
LSY on the other hand, misses him. She’s always looking at the only picture that she’s saved of them together. She still loves him. 
I liked that they introduced Guan Xiao Tong as a potential love interest for LSY. Despite being over a decade younger than LSY and constantly being looked down by her because of this, I thought he was quite mature. I also liked how LSY wasn’t “moved” by him. The typical drama would have her eventually reciprocate his feelings and make him her rebound. Yes, she was amused by him, but she knew that he wouldn’t grow up fast enough with her, and so she never led him on. It made their relationship wholesome. Even though LSY  wasn’t attracted to him, I liked how the drama normalized a potential may/december relationship between a woman and man. Though I don’t think I can forgive the drama was making him disappear so abruptly after he found out that his dad was struggling financially. Maybe the drama implied that GXT was too busy “growing up” by helping with his dad’s business so his relationship with LSY came to an end and that he was no longer relevant to drama, but that wasn’t made clear at all. 
Zhi Zhi also stopped appearing after the 3rd last episode of the drama when she decided not to marry the misogynistic Su Li Xing and to instead stay in Shanghai for her career, which also implied that there could be a chance for her and Liu Yang to get back together (their storyline is a whole other can of worms, but I have to admit that no other drama, movie, or book has made me cry as hard as Zhi Zhi confronting the mistress and then getting publicly slapped by her husband. Not sure if it was the drama itself that had the power to move me, or if it was because I watched that scene at 3am on a Thursday, or because it reminded me of some personal experiences, but either way, I sobbed hella hard that night).
But back to LSY and CYM. In the last 2 episodes of the drama, they start appearing together in scenes again. There are some unresolved emotions. There is still attraction. Nervous, longing, awkward glances. After nearly 20 episodes of believing that a reconciliation is impossible, you start wondering if the drama is hinting that they’re gonna force them back together in the last 2 episodes. CYM sells his apartment to support LSY’s project. Haowen tells LSY that CYM still calls out her name when he’s drunk (although it’s still unclear if this was just a gimmick to distract her to sign the sale agreement). 
CYM can’t give WZR a straight answer about whether or not he still loves LSY. He punches Gong Jing in the face for cheating LSY out of her shares. 
And even after all this, guess what happens? He confronts WZR. She tells him she lied to him to help him preserve his dignity. She tells him she had to do underhanded, unethical things in order to save the livelihood of an entire company that she’s responsible for. He’s moved. He’s grateful for her thoughtfulness towards him. He stands by her. He chooses her. 
I mean, what? Does he really love her that much that he’s willing to look past everything she’s done? All the crimes and hurt she’s committed? I don’t need to him to get back together with LSY. I don’t want them to. I think he’s a terrible character who believes that happiness and fulfilment only comes form finding a woman who’s willing to let him love and dote on her. But this decision just doesn’t match the morally upright character we’ve been sold with at the beginning of the drama. LSY only made one morally questionable decision, of which she apologized for, and yet CYM was already questioning whether or not they should continue their relationship because he felt like they were going different ways. And yet he forgives WZR? Because he loves her? But? What about those ambiguous, uncomfortable faces he made when he was with her? Like that scene when he helped take off her coat before she went into the awards ceremony, and he stood back, leaning by the door, staring off into the distance looking sad and regretful?? What are we supposed to make of those scenes and expressions? I probably shouldn’t victim blame, especially since WZR created an uneven power dynamic in their (lowkey toxic) relationship, but I’m just not sure what the scriptwriter was trying to do with this plotline. It felt like they were condoning WZR’s behaviour (despite saying she was arrested in a voiceover) because CYM forgave her. Or were they condemning CYM’s passiveness? Again, not clear.
And then the final scene with the women marching on happy and hopeful, and then men staring out onto the city skyline looking lost and depressed? Female empowerment is great, and it was nice that they were all single at the end (except for Xiao Ling, I guess), but was it really necessary to tear men down to emphasize this? But then again, the drama kind of had to since they wrote shitty male characters. I just dislike creating the winner/loser dichotomy. 
I respect that Liu Yang is working his way towards forgiveness and has found what he’s passionate about. But I don’t know if he’s forgivable, because what he did was pretty unforgivable, but he’s showing growth and is working towards redemption, which is somewhat admirable. 
Haowen went from being the most level-headed one to becoming the most impulsive and obsessive one. 
CYM is just blank. Absolutely blank. There is nothing interesting about him. At first you pity him for being the one who’s always chasing after LSY and being the one to give in first for the sake of the relationship, but then you realize that he’s just trying to mold himself into what he thinks is the “ideal” boyfriend, which he thinks is someone who is able to succeed without the help of his girlfriend. He thinks it’s weak to rely on the help of his girlfriends, which is ironic since most of the career moves he made in the drama were directly because of his girlfriends. 
Anyway, I could just go on about how much I didn’t enjoy this drama, and other people on youtube and mydramalist have ranted more eloquently about this. I usually don’t write drama reviews unless there’s something I’m deeply unhappy about. 
My recommendation? Don’t watch this. But if you’re curious, don’t be afraid to jump and skip scenes. There are no likable characters. Even Zhi Zhi doesn’t start to become likable until she decides to leave her husband. Is this a feminist drama? Yes to the extent that it normalizes women in their 30s who are single and career-driven (which is a pretty big deal in China where unmarried women over 25/27 are considered “leftover” women), but I’m just not sure whether the plot does justice to these women. The verdict is still out on that. Thoughts?
Oh and one final qualm that I have with this drama is the LSY and WZR never had a final face-to-face confrontation. After everything that WZR did to LSY, LSY never got to interrogate WZR. WZR could have even gave LSY some final parting words. Instead, CYM took LSY’s place and the drama made it seem that WZR was only answerable to him and no one else. There was just absolutely no closure from this messy, messy drama.
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mcheang · 4 years ago
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ELOD episode 54 review
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Feng Jiu is heartbroken when Dong Hua fails to show up. Zhe Yan informs Feng Jiu she is pregnant. Having tired of her chase for Dong Hua’s love, Feng Jiu has given up on him and heads to the mortal realm to raise her child. Only Zhe Yan knows because she does not want her family to force Dong Hua to take responsibility. Love has to be willing.
Xiao Yan and Lian Song head to Fanyin Valley and are informed that Xuyang is dead. With them there, Dong Hua heads inside to try to purify the valley in vain. When he comes out, he vomits blood upon learning Xiao Yan failed in his mission to inform Feng Jiu.
Years have passed by. Feng Jiu is doing reasonably well. Jielu is now the last royal biyiniao and prepares her clan to fight Miao Luo. Dong Hua searches for Feng Jiu.
As a mother, Feng Jiu dotes on Gun Gun, who loves her very much. That is not to say Feng Jiu is a flawless parent. Rather it seems she is the child while Gun Gun is the parent. Feng Jiu is determined to cut ties with Dong Hua and refuses to tell Gun Gun of his existence.
Despite how the Bai clan would probably help Dong Hua fight Miao Luo, they still refuse to help him find Feng Jiu. Dong Hua is prepared to face Miao Luo but wants to see Feng Jiu one last time.
He forces Feng Jiu to appear by announcing there will be the last chance for mortals like Qingti to become immortal. Feng Jiu and Gun Gun return to the fairy world and visit Xie Guchou.
Meanwhile, Nie Chuyin is Miao Luo’s regent and has been empowered by her. He bullies the other demon lords and his own loyal underlings. He also keeps sacrificing his own clan to Miao Luo. Xiao Yan comes to challenge him. While no match against Chuyin, Xiao Yan tricks him into admitting he plans to overthrow Miao Luo. The latter overhears and kills Chuyin as a consequence and also because Xiao Yan promises her information about Dong Hua if she does so.
What I like
Xie Guchou is such a loyal friend.
Gun Gun is adorable. Like a toddler walking, I am reminded of a penguin...? He is also smart, able to question his mother’s questionable excuses. And he is such a mother’s boy! Squeal!
Jielu looks like a Queen. Regal and mature.
Xiao Yan finally sees Dong Hua as a friend.
What I dislike
Yes, the Biyiniao clan deserve recognition for their sacrifice. But I’m annoyed that they haven’t properly settled what they did to Aranya.
Sheesh, Feng Jiu, you were left waiting by Dong Hua. But that doesn’t mean you just dump your friends. She left Cheng Yu hanging without a proper goodbye.
Lian Song’s remarks to Bai Zhen and Zhe Yan rub me the wrong way. It sounds like his majesty has given up on Feng Jiu for behaving this way, when I rather side with Feng Jiu and say it is the other way around. She has given him his last chance!
I wanted to see Dong Hua’s desperate search! Couldn’t they have added that?!!
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roses-are-blue16 · 6 years ago
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Novels-Random order
Novelupdates.com for more info about anything -> Back to Masterpost
Fave: 5/5
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zu Shi
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Historical, Mystery, Romance, Shounen Ai/Yaoi Other Unofficial tags: Smart Protagonist, Shameless Protagonist, Smart ML, Love interest falls first, Devoted Love Interest,  beautiful couple, power couple, wuxia, interesting supporting characters    
Status: Ongoing 
Art: 1 2 3 4 5 
Other things: there is an Manhua & Donghua out, all posts tagged by name here
Official Summary: As the grandmaster who founded demonic cultivation, Wei WuXian roamed the world in his wanton ways, hated by millions for the chaos he created. In the end, he was backstabbed by his dearest shidi and killed by powerful clans that combined to overpower him.He incarnates into the body of a lunatic who was abandoned by his clan and is later, unwillingly, taken away by a famous cultivator among the sects—Lan WangJi, his archenemy.This marks the start of a thrilling yet hilarious journey of attacking monsters, solving mysteries, and raising children. From the mutual flirtation along the way, Wei WuXian slowly realizes that Lan WangJi, a seemingly haughty and indifferent poker-face, holds more feelings for Wei WuXian than he is letting on…
My Thoughts: First chinese novel I stumbled upon and I fell in love with. To me everything about this story is absolutely perfect, from characters, to plot, romance, mystery and worldbuilding...everything was so unique and beautiful. And the translation group Exiled Rebels does an excellent job portraying it in english as best they can. There are some hurdles tho: for example if you haven’t read any chinese novels before you have to adjust to terminology a lot- especially names (everyone has like three names). So if you’re like me who stumbled into it with no idea what expect you’ll probably get confused a lot but if you stick out you’ll get used to it and rereading the first few chapters later after adjusting is probably a good tip. Unlike other BL/Yaoi stories that I’ve seen (mostly japanese manga) the romance actually blends and makes sense; and not fetishized or forced, even if you don’t like the genre it won’t get in the way of the story (especially with china’s censorship).    
   2.  The Legend of the Sun Knight 
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery  Other Unofficial Tags: Shameless Protagonist, Anti-Hero Protagonist, Strategy, Hilarious interactions, War, Neocromancy, Leader, Loyalty, Elemental Magic, Black-Bellied Protagonist, Demons, Sarcasm abound
Status: Complete  Other things: Manga-(Discontinued?) 
Official Summary: I am a knight. To be precise, I am the Church of the God of Light’s Sun Knight.The Church of the God of Light worships and serves the God of Light, and theirs’ is one of the three largest religions on this continent.As the whole continent knows, the Church of the God of Light has the Twelve Holy Knights, and each one has his own unique personality and features.To be the Sun Knight is to have shining golden hair, sky blue eyes, a compassionate nature, and a brilliant smile.“The benevolent God of Light will forgive your sins.”I must have said that line at least a million times in my time as the Sun Knight.However, the greatest wish in my life is to be able to stand before the entire continent and roar, “Damn your ‘the whole continent knows’! This Sun Knight just doesn’t feel like smiling! I just don’t want to forgive these human trashes! I just want to pepper my sentences with ‘f***’!”Unfortunately, even to this day, I continue to wear a smile as I say, “The benevolent God of Light will forgive your sins.”
My Thoughts: Actually read this years ago (5-6?), and I always thought it was a japanese novel but I guess it isn't(?)-anyways not important. This story was absolutely hilarious, you won’t meet a more entertaining guy.  The contrast between how he’s forced to act as the leader of the religion- belevont, kind, smiling, pure- is the total opposite of his real personality so much so that it gave a shock (of pure delight) cuz of the drastic inner and outer faces. There’s 12 knights in total ,each is totally unique and you get introduced to them super fast. There is different conflicts that occur, that fall on Grisia’s ( the mc) shoulder to solve as he is the leader and while it starts off lighthearted, in the end some serious stuff occurs. This is a very warm hearted story about brotherhood i think overall. (Also heard that Grisia falls into the legendary trinity of shameless protagonist: Wei Wuxian from GDC is one of them and I agree lol). Very unique storytelling, it twists all kinds of classic tropes and plays with them, overall a very fun read.
   3. Eight Treasures Trousseau 
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Genre: Historical, Josei, Romance, Drama Other Unofficial Tags: Arranged Marriage, Calm/Lazy Protagonist, Ambitious ML, Politics, Power Couple, Royalty, Doting Love Interest, Beautiful Couple 
Status: Complete
Official Summary: Everyone in the City of Jing thinks that bestowment of marriage between Xian Junwang and the daughter of the Yi’an Marquis House is to insert a fresh flower into manure.Xian Junwang was that fresh flower and the di daughter of Yi’an Marquis House was that manure that was not liked.It is said that what is heard is false, seeing is believing. Who knows what the truth really is?
My Thoughts: A really nice story set in Ancient China, and in my opinion the best one written. The story has both the female lead and male lead on pretty equal field in terms of their relationship, you won’t see any weak-willed person in this couple. This story also portrayed realistically the difficulties of living in Ancient China as a woman, by showing us many different kinds of people. The villains make you feel complicated emotions even when you hate them, which shows you great storytelling. No-one is excessively stupid and the mc is just stomping over them with her “cleverness” in this story which I liked. The MC is actually very lazy and this gave the story a very relaxed feel, which lead to time just flying by. I’ve just recently reread it which rare for me to do.  
   4.  A Slight Smile is Very Charming  -Side Stories
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Genre: Romance, Comedy,Josei,School Life, Slice of Life   Other Unofficial Tags: MMORPG, Gamers, College/University, Power Couple, Beautiful Female Lead, Handsome Male Lead, Smart Couple
Status: Complete 
Other things: Adapted to a drama: Love 020
Official Summary:What is it that makes a man fall in love with a woman at first sight? Appearance? Aura? Wealth? NO, when campus prince and gaming expert, student Xiao Nai first saw Bei Wei Wei, what made him fall in love was not her extraordinary beauty; but her slim and slender fingers that were flying across the keyboard and her calm and composed manner!!! Embarrassing, no?At the same time, gaming expert Bei Wei Wei was on the computer methodically commanding a guild war, and won a perfect and glorious victory despite being at a disadvantage; completely unaware of the fact that cupid is nearby.Soon after basketball player; swimmer; all-around excellent student; and game company president, Xiao Nai, uses tactics both on- and offline to capture this beauty’s heart. Therefore this romance slowly bloomed.
My Thoughts: This is a very quick, lighthearted story. It gets straight to the point with no drama, if you just want a nice, quick romance to read then I highly recommend. When I was debating whether to read it or not, one of the reviewers on novelupdates said it had a drama, and I usually hate drama’s but they recommended it, so I went to check it out before I started reading and I surprisingly loved it. I usually hate cheesy but they managed to pull it off real well, so I was squealing and cringing at the same time (lol), it’s probably because the actors are really good looking so you can’t help but let it slide. The drama added some drama not a lot but some to the story. When I went back and read the novel I realized how quick it was compared to the drama. I recommended both honestly, if you’re looking for some fun. 
   5. Rebirth of a SuperModel
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Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life, Yaoi  Other Unofficial Tags: ShowBiz, Transmigration, Black-Belly Protagonist, Love Interest Falls First, Clever Couple, Talented Couple, Power Couple, Celebrities, Acting, Media 
Status: Complete    
Official Summary: In his past life, Ming Yu struggled in the European and United States fashion circles, eventually becoming the well deserved king of the catwalk.After dying from a serious illness and being reborn, Ming Yu was surprised to find: Huaxia stars shone brightly, there were successful names everywhere!In this better world, on a more vigorous and brilliant stage, the first supermodel tries to reproduce the glory of another world! Interviewer: May I ask Mr Xi, this year Ming Yu said he would surpass you. As the number one global supermodel, what is your opinion on this? Xi Ze: This is a bad question. My family has very strict rules. Home Owner Ming Yu: …….  The pair of black-hearted husbands will sweep the fashion industry, conquering the world. 
My Thoughts: A really fresh story, I never got bored. It focuses more on the MC and his rise as a supermodel, and sprinkles in the romance with ML. While reading it (before it got completed), it felt like me and other readers were cheering on the MC as fans as well, which was a lot of fun. I’ve read some other showbiz transmigration stories but I got annoyed or bored real fast, this one I found real fun, no matter how many days until the next chapter you could pick it up and feel happy. Some things people might not like: there a lot of photoshoot scenes (he is a model) so some might get tired of that, but they go by pretty quick. While MC was the number one model in his old world, it doesn’t make him OP, he has his own flaws and he grows a lot which makes him more interesting. 
   6.     Sansheng, Wangchuan Wu Shang
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Josei, Romance, Supernatural, Tragedy   Other Unofficial Tags: Goddess, Gods, Mythology, Heavenly Tribulations, Honest Protagonist, Protagonist loyal to Love Interest, Reincarnation, Beautiful Couple  
Status: Complete
Official Summary:  This is a story that follows the courtship between a stone from Hell and a god from Heaven that begins in the underworld and spans for three lifetimes in the mortal realm.
My Thoughts: Honestly was suprised how much I liked it. Despite the MC being naive, and ready to throw it all away for the ML, you can’t hate her. This a very fast story (about 15 chapter and 3 bonus stories), which adds to its charm. If it was longer I might have not liked it as much. There are overwhelmingly positive reviews about this story on novel updates which made me give this story a chance and I agree with them. If you like romance definitely check this out.   
    6.  The Earth is Online 
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Psychological, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Shounen Ai/Yaoi   Other Unofficial Tags: Game Elements, Thriller,  Survival Game, Special Abilities, Calm Protagonist, Clever Protagonist, Slow Romance, Modern Day
Status: Complete       
Official Summary: Six months ago, tens of thousands of black phantom towers appeared all over the world, floating above the cities. Chemists, physicists, religious people… all of them could do nothing.Six months later, people became used to the towers and no longer paid them attention.One day, Tang Mo saw a flying insect crash into it instead of going through it. The next day, a sharp and clear child-like voice issued an announcement to all humans. “Ding dong! November 15th, 2017. The earth is online.”  The black tower’s three iron-clad rules: 1. Everything is explained by the black tower. 2. 6 o’clock to 18 o’clock is the game time. 3. All players, please strive to attack the tower.
My Thoughts: You won’t find a story more unique than this. I doubt there’s anything similar to this story. Something that might come close might be the manga Tomodachi Game, but that's only the doing games for survival bit. I don’t know how the author came up with this, the games are so smart, that you may feel like you’re getting smarter by the end of it or that you’re IQ is hopelessly low. And it’s not the fact that rules are ridiculous and don't follow logic either, when the answers are revealed they make sense.. Honestly reading this I’m glad something like (probably ;) ) won’t happen because I doubt I would survive. I have a real admiration for the author for coming up with this. The story is good at keeping you wary and on edge that something is going to happen at any moment. Some issues?: The romance was so so slow burning that it became a background character, and there wasn’t a big payoff moment like the author gave us this weird analogy when they finally did the deed, that I was burning with indignation, just thinking about it pisses me off, but it probably has to do with the censorship in china. Also there were too much straight explanations that kinda got annoying but could be ignored. I think with how well the author set up the survival element that you could ignore the flaws pretty quickly. So glad I found this novel.      
   7.  Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil - Side Stories
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi, Yaoi Other Unofficial Tags: Acting, Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence, Episodic, Mob Protagonist, System, Virtual Reality, Cunning Protagonist, Devoted Love Interest, Possessive Characters, Hacker
Status: Complete       
Official Summary: A top hacker was chosen by the Lord God to be reborn into countless worlds, always as an expendable villain.With no free will, every world became a dead end. Every one of his lives ended tragically. Finally, after wresting control of the Villain System, this ace hacker decided to enact revenge. Even if his very bones were rotten, he’d choose to occupy the very heights of morality, if only on the surface.Thus, he would change his fate as an abused slag.
My Thoughts: If you’re on novelupdates you’ll hear about this story at some point, it has become infamous on the site. And for good reason, this is the top written System transmigration into multiple world stories, or just system stories. There a multiple worlds and each one has it’s own flavor you’ll definitely have your favorites. It’s a very fun story to read and if you’re new to system stories like I was when I read this, you’ll inevitably compare all others to this one.  
    8.  The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage
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Genre: Historical, Josei, Martial Arts, Mature, Romance Other Unofficial Tags: Betrayal, Politics, Military, Royalty, Scheming, Revenge, Beautiful Female Lead, Handsome Male Lead, Cunning Couple, Slow Romance 
Status: Ongoing 
Official Summary:  Shen Miao, the Di daughter of a military lineage, pure, amiable, quiet and yielding, foolishly in love with Prince Ding, threw herself into the role of a wife. After assisting her husband for six years, she finally became the mother of the world (Empress).She accompanied him to fight for the country, flourished the country’s territory, took risks to become a hostage in another country. When she returned five years later, there was no place for her in the Inner Palace.The beauty in his arms smiled brightly, “Older sister, the country is stabilized so, you should retire.”Her daughter met with a violent death and her son the Crown Prince was deposed. Her Shen family who sacrificed themselves for the country and the Emperor, not a single one of them were lucky enough to escape. With the change of one dynasty, everything was overturned. Her clan perished and she had to mourn for her children.Shen Miao never thought that being a married couple who have gone through trials and tribulations and mutually assisted each other was just a stage joke to him! He said, “Seeing that you have followed Zhen for twenty years, Zhen will grant you an intact corpse. You should thank this kindness.”Under the three Chi (1 chi = 1/3 meter) of white silk, Shen Miao made a malicious vow: In the time to come, she will take part in each and everyone’s end!Upon rebirth, she returned to the time when she was fourteen, when the tragedy had yet to occur, her family was still alive and she was still the pure, amiable, quiet and yielding Di daughter of a military lineage. Relatives hiding a black heart, Elder and younger (female) cousins are ruthless and malicious, the new Yiniang is like a tiger watching its prey and the disreputable man who wants to repeat the events?Her family must be protected, the huge enmity must be avenged, the Imperial seat of the country must also be a part of the trophy. In this lifetime, let’s see who can beat the others!
My Thoughts: I’ve tired to read numerous novels with the reincarnating to get revenge trope and I’ve never been able to complete them for variety of reasons but ultimately it’s because they end up sucking. This novel however is like a ray of light for this trope. Whatever way you think she’s gonna resolve something you’ll never guess right. I’m always pleasantly suprised. That’s something I can say for the whole novel it’s always surprising even with the current chapters with story almost at a close we readers just got shocked yet again. You’ll definitely experience a variety of emotions watching the story unfold, right now I’m pulling a napkin between my teeth (please author put us out of this misery already T.T). I doubt you’ll be disappointed.    
Great: 
Everyone Thinks that I Like Him 
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Genre: Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen Ai/Yaoi  Other Unofficial Tags: Uni, Dense Protagonist, Slow Romance 
Status: Complete 
Official Summary: From infancy to maturity, what Ye Zhou dislikes the most was “two”.The reasons were: he was ranked second at home, he had been forever ranked second at school, no matter how diligently he worked and tried, he couldn’t shake off that “second” curse. What was more exasperating was that, at University, not only was he ranked second, but even his appearance that he was proud of had to be classified as second best! Why can’t I obtain the first place!The eternal second will rise!Then, Ye Zhou, after his vigorous efforts finally rises and the result was… the first became his boyfriend.This is the story of a man who has been forced to be “second” and how he became the first, most popular.Protagonists: Ye Zhou, Shang Jin.
My Thoughts: Cute, Fluffy, Funny. As you can see there is no drama tag so if you’re looking for an explosive story this is not it. But it is a very realistic story especially in regards to the acceptance of the couple how it differs for the younger generation vs. the older generation. The story is very natural and the characters believable. If you a cute story this is it.  
    2.  Empress with no Virtue 
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Genre: Adult, Comedy, Drama, Josei, Mature, Romance, Smut Other Unofficial Tags: Arranged Marriage, Bickering Couple, Politics, Misunderstandings, Politics, Royalty, Imperial Harem, Power Couple,
Status: Complete
Official Summary:  The free-spirited and brutally honest Ye Zhen Zhen was unwillingly chosen as Empress to the playboy Emperor Ji Wu Jiu. Their very first wedding night, she kicked the Emperor down from their bed and he sought out his concubine instead. This completely disastrous start was only the beginning of their eventful life together.
My Thoughts: Although not especially memorable, I enjoyed reading it. It was fun watching the couple act petty to one another. Honestly their relationship reminded me of boys pulling on pigtails to get the attention of their crush. There are a lot of funny and fluffy interactions, made for a fun read.   
tbc.... Posted 2/13/19
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stiltonbasket · 2 years ago
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bakery teen xiao-yu has one of those floursack baby projects? Floursack baby is doted on and spoiled. wwx and lqr bring out the old family baby clothes and gear for floursack baby. floursack baby is hanging out in the bakery! there's a photo with wangxian titled "our first grandbaby <3" nie zhuyan is looking at all of this in confusion and envy of the floursack baby. He wants xiao-yu cuddles!
This would be really cute but it would also be really funny if the Wangxian family had fun playing with the floursack baby while Xiao-Yu is just "... 😐" about it. He spends the week of the parenting project cuddling Chunyang and Jin Ling's baby sisters (a.k.a., the real family babies) while Sizhui and Wangxian look after the floursack baby.
At school, Xiao-Yu leaves the flour baby to Nie Zhuyan, who's doing the project with him. NZY is very happy about this.
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ineedcandyandcoffee · 3 years ago
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Okay so I was going to write this out all in the tags as one does but this quickly spiraled out of control, so forgive me.
I can’t help but think of moving this au to PIDW. After a long life where Shen Jiu and Shen Yu die (of old age so this doesn’t get too tragic) both of them end up in PIDW. Shen Jiu ends up in his original body after a qi deviation and at first he is not happy. He’s back in a sect filled with people he doesn’t like, missing both his family and the modern comforts he’s used to, and with an older brother that doesn’t listen to him. 
So after some moping Shen Jiu keeps pulling a Liu Qingge and tries to spend as much of his time out of the sect as possible. He does not want to be around Luo Binghe right now because he’ll probably end up killing him. Killing children is bad and he might, might be feeling the slightest bit guilty due to the past child abuse. 
So on one of the journeys outside of the sect he comes across a suspiciously familiar cultivator. A cultivator that looks and acts likes his da-ge. After some hijinks, surprise surprise, it actually is his da-ge. Shen Yu promptly decides to follow Shen Jiu back to Cang Qiong because even if this is a different world that’s still his Xiao Jiu and there’s no way he’s going to leave him alone. 
Shen Jiu and Shen Yu go back to Cang Qiong and Shen Yu promptly makes himself at home. This includes, but is not limited to, taking over Qing Jing’s kitchen to make sure they’re feeding his A’Jiu right, fending off Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan. Hunting down plants and beasts that would benefit Shen Jiu’s cultivation. (And hadn’t his A’Jiu’s past here been a surprise? That the little brother he doted on had been a slave? Had been whipped, and starved, and branded like cattle. Had likely suffered even more than what he said, because right now he thinks he knows what caused his Xiao Jiu’s fear of men. Let’s just say that Qiu Haitang should never cross paths with Shen Yu.)
All the while Yue Qingyuan is producing vinegar in the background. ‘Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu how can you call this stranger da-ge, huh? Qi-ge’s always been here, you don’t need a da-ge. Xiao Jiu look at me please?’ T口TT口TT口T
Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe are just gritting their teeth in the background. 
Liu Qingge: ‘what do you mean I’m banned from Qing Jing? Who are you to tell me anything? Shen Qingqiu has never mentioned a brother before. Shen Qingqiu quit hiding behind him and fight me!’ Cue fight between Liu Qingge and Shen Yu instead.
Luo Binghe: ‘Shizun is nice now? Shizunnn, pay attention to me! Look at Binghe’s improvement in his work. Shizunnn???’
I feel the need to inform you that actually you have at least two brocon loving anons. I sent the most recent ask but someone else sent the others. :)
Oh really? My bad! Have some more brocon Shen as a treat then:
Shen Jiu sticking his feet onto Shen Yu's lap for his older brother to paint his toenails. Instead of the usual clear vanish, Shen Jiu has decided on a bright red creme polish instead. His fingernails have already been painted red by Shen Yu as well. 😉
Shen Yu never goes to a charity gala with a "date" because he has Shen Jiu with him for that.
Shen Yu being that "instagram boyfriend" because he takes a lot of pictures of Shen Jiu for Shen Jiu... Insert scenes of Shen Jiu bossing Shen Yu around about how to take better photos and criticizing the end results. Why yes, they usually go on vacations together (without their other siblings).
Shen Yu slathering sunscreen over Shen Jiu's back. Slowly. Thoroughly. Spreading. A Thick layer of white liquid. (◕‿◕✿)
(In the background, Shen Yuan stares on enviously. He wants someone to help him with the sunscreen too! He always missing that one section on his back and gets sunburnt there. Da-ge, oh da-ge. Don't forget you have other young siblings you should be helping too!!!)
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thekoreanlass · 6 years ago
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I’m not really a big fan of C-dramas or Meteor Garden, but who will forget this phenomenal drama that started from a Japanese manga until it became a TV series that probably has the most remakes? Taiwanese, Korean, Indonesian, and now a Chinese remake!
The Meteor Garden fever has surely converted people of all ages into fans, not just of the drama but the fictional popular quartet F4! Who would forget Dao Ming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Mei Zuo, and Xi Men? The original boys brought us wonderful songs that most 90-ish kids would still remember and sing along to, which would definitely lead us back to memories of the Taiwanese version’s immense popularity.
At that time, I remember myself still being a kid, who willingly followed her older sister’s every whim and recorded every single episode on a tape recorder for her. Those were the dark times that I totally got sick of being in front of the television and the drama, but gladly Vic Zhou was there to grace me with his presence. I so loved Hua Ze Lei as a kid. He was my ultimate crush, that was probably why I started crushing on Yoon Jihoo as soon as the Korean remake took over a few years later.
More than that blast from the past feeling though, the hottest topic this 2018 is the comeback the drama is making through the Chinese remake, starring this generation’s most beautiful faces, Shen Yue (Dong Shan Cai), Dylan Wang (Dao Ming Si), Darren Chen (Hua Ze Lei), Connor Leong (Feng Mei Zuo) and Caesar Wu (Xi Men Yan).
Shen Yue feels very familiar to me after her ‘A Love So Beautiful’ drama aired in my country and boosted in popularity. The boys, however, are all new faces to me but I must say the moment I saw them I really felt good to see that they are taking over the F4 role. Maybe because they all just look so handsome and charming that their face value already makes the cut.
Anyway, I’ve been rambling about the randomest things, but that’s just because I feel excited to talk about the 2018 version after just watching it. I’m up to episode 6 of the drama, so I shall share my first impression about what happened from the beginning to that point.
Here goes nothing!
Catchy Start
What caught my attention when I started episode 1 is how it opened the story with Shan Cai asking ‘Have you ever wondered what will happen to you in the future?’ and concluding how her 18 year old self never thought something like that will happen to her while a scene of her throwing a strong flying kick to Dao Ming Si’s face plays in slow motion.
I think that, that flying kick on the face totally brings a huge head start to the drama, causing for curiosity to uproot as they left what happened a mystery and began the generic introduction of characters. Shan Cai being the ordinary girl who will luckily land the role of heroine in one hell of a rollercoaster ride. And there was also–lo and behold–the notorious F4, who seems even more perfectly described in this version (a really much improved background than their earlier versions!) that it is too good to be true. To fictitious, to say.
Nonetheless, the start of the drama really managed to grab my attention, so I’m giving them a perfect score for that.
Same but Different
So, we get the same thing but maybe with a Chinese twist to it? I’m not sure whether it’s because they want it to be different from its past versions, but this one definitely has a very unique taste to it.
They changed a lot of things like:
Shan Cai’s family background – The original Meteor Garden and even Boys Over Flowers portrayed her as someone coming from a poor family that barely made a living. Here, Shan Cai at least came from an average family with a mom that cooks and gets money from delivering takeouts and has a father that works as a bank manager (I think they said that was his job).
In the previous versions too, her parents look really pathetic to me. I mean, the father and mother were both selling off their daughter to Dao Ming Si / Gu Jun Pyo. But at least, the mother in the Chinese version is not that loud and annoying and although she still dotes on Dao Ming Si so much that she can sell Shan Cai out to him, at least, her father is there to become the buffer that stops her antics.
An even more perfect F4 – If that’s even possible! So, I know it’s kind of cliche now that the poor girl falls in love with the rich guy. It’s a common trope among dramas, but of course we don’t get tired of the rich and handsome guys of F4! As in never get tired of them!
And to make it much better–or worse? but that’s up to you–the drama made these four flower boys even more desirable bachelors. You’ll easily know about how different and better they are right from the first episode when a random Junior walks up to Shan Cai, Qing He and Li Zhen and tells them about the popular F4.
Dao Ming Si may be the forever pineapple haired guy (his hairstyle gets even better too!), but he’s now finally equipped with the knowledge of being able to speak three or four languages and a talent for business. The old Dao Ming Si can’t even get a quote right, which was really funny back then. He was handsome and rich, but not so smart. But now he can just be everything, well except for the short temper and his anger management problems plus obsession for Shan Cai.
Hua Ze Lei used to be just quiet and snobbish like a cold prince in the older versions, but this drama made it so that they could explain his introverted behavior as related from the slight autism he had when he was a kid and is supposedly cured by the great Teng Tang Jing. Can you even cure autism? I made my own research and gladly they said a minority portion of those people with autism get cured depending on the severity of their autism and the therapies they go through over the years, but its still debatable. However, giving this drama the benefit of the doubt, this is fiction. I’m not gotta criticize it for not knowing any better. For sure, they know what they are doing.
Mei Zuo and Xi Men – so they’re like the third in command in all the versions if you ask me. I’m pretty sure, in terms of appearance, they are of equal importance. Two obnoxious, overprotective friends with a tendency to womanize. I see women hanging around them everywhere, but that’s their role. It’s the casanovas that are more interesting to watch. However, like I said they are the ‘much improved’ versions: wherein Mei Zuo has an impeccable memory that they can never lose in the card game ‘Bridge’ and Xi Men has a liking for tea, due to his family background.
I’m not sure if this is going to sound nicer and may help them look smarter, but I think this version of F4 is the milder, much civilized guys. I mean, they don’t bully someone so randomly out of the blue and make their lives a living hell. Instead, as it was explained, they are so good at the card game ‘Bridge’ (that they even have a club for that!) that many people want to challenge them and to stop anyone from just randomly challenging them, they set an odd rule that you need to first receive the ‘Joker’ card as an invitation for a Bridge match.
That doesn’t sound like much what would bad boys do, right? It would have been nicer if they stuck to the original, but I guess this isn’t so bad either. At least, if they challenge somebody it would make much more sense. Plus, they look really cool playing that game.
Hello ‘Joker’! – So, bye bye to that red card that Dao Ming Si used to send his victims and say ‘hello’ to the less threatening ‘Joker’ card in your locker. Prepare to lose in the game of Bridge with F4 and eat some slippers as the consequence!
At least, it’s befitting for them to use the card, though, right?
College and Milk Tea – I get it every version of Shan Cai is different that’s why she’s a freshman in the Nutrition course here and she works part time at a milk tea shop called ‘Talented’ with Xiao Yu.
 Fights and Reconciliations – Well, I remember Li Zhen–Shan Cai’s newfound friend–also liking Dao Ming Si in the past and because she’s jealous of Shan Cai she intentionally sets her up so that she looks like she slept with someone she met at a club.
The same friend betrays her in this version, but her reason is sort of different and somehow ‘coincidental’ and Shan Cai ends up forgiving her because she’s just that kind of person and Dao Ming Si can never have a say about it or kick her out of university since he doesn’t own it. But at least, all is well. And to be honest, I like how things ended up well between these two friends in this version, since the problem arose from something trivial and it’s just unreasonable for someone to drop out because they were being bullied for some petty reason, right?
Meteor Garden 2018 gets you hooked by these positive changes and makes the drama a bit lighter than its older versions that are leaning more on its dramatic quotient.
However, on another note, I must admit that Shan Cai didn’t experience as much hardship as the old Shan Cai did. Dao Ming Si bullies her in the most childish sense, plotting childish jokes that you can’t call disturbing. I guess, because he’s been sheltered for long enough and didn’t grow up dating girls left and right, that he is having a hard time expressing himself to her and with his very impatient personality makes him extremely possessive of her.
The lack of emotional turmoil boxes the potential of each of them to do even better in portraying their role, however.
So, in a nutshell, Meteor Garden looks totally brand new with the many additions, but still has more room to improve with the acting. Not saying, they aren’t good, but there got to be something more with that actor or actress. So, I’m looking forward to improvement until it’s 48th episode!
Fast Pacing
Is it just me or this drama is moving too quickly that I’m getting worried what more will they show in the next 44 to 48 episodes?
Not that I am complaining about the quick pacing, it’s just that maybe I am not used to it. The Taiwanese version really had a slow, agonizing pace that I would not really stick to it until the end if I had to do a marathon, while this one was just like leafing through pages in a book while only skimming it very briefly, which I think is good but pretty worrisome. Not unless they have more to show that won’t be dragging and not just a filler, then I guess the pacing should be fine.
Total Flower Boys
I can definitely say that this version totally left me drooling at the boys. All of them are really good looking you can’t say they’re a waste. They do have their different charms that set them apart from each other, but in total all of them are likable eye-candies!
I used to be a solid Hua Ze Lei kind of girl, but after watching Dylan Wang portray Dao Ming Si, I can’t help but fawn over the boy. He just fits the prickly, childish and short-tempered rich boy role that’s not too rough but not kind looking either. At some points, he’s cute and surprisingly I don’t despise him for childishly annoying Shan Cai.
The Strong-willed Wild Flower that often bends
You can say that Shan Cai is that heroine who doesn’t easily back down from a challenge. She’s always been stubborn and antagonizing, especially towards Dao Ming Si. She’s been consistent in this love-hate relationship they have that sometimes it’s hard to believe how they ended up together.
But I must say I sometimes feel anxious about Shen Yue’s version of Shan Cai. She’s a good actress and its nice she can easily tear up when an emotional scene comes up, but why do I feel like this Shan Cai is being more fickle now than before? She’s fickle that I find it annoying she lets Dao Ming Si kiss her without a fight even when she likes Hua Ze Lei. I think she sounds more like a pushover or a very easy person, especially when she lets Hua Ze Lei kiss her after just seeing him kiss another girl without any second thoughts and while bringing her along with him at the beach.
A Real Douche
Excuse me for my opinion, but now that I’ve watched this version, I can’t help but think Hua Ze Lei is the real douche here and not Dao Ming Si, who did nothing but devotedly love Dong Shan Cai, I mean, Lei may appear like a cool guy because he’s quiet and introverted and he doesn’t look like he can play any tricks at girls, but the thing is he keeps stringing Shan Cai along–even kissing her cheek without any proper reason and even if he didn’t like her back then when he did it–even if he likes Jing. He even follows her to Paris and lives with her, but just because she doesn’t make time for him and he’s not man enough to be able to save their relationship, that he leaves and shakes up Dao Ming Si and Shan Cai’s blossoming love-hate relationship.
Well, I’m not saying he’s bad, but still for sure no one wants to be the second option when it comes to the person you like. No matter what, a girl needs to have some self-respect and can’t treat herself unjustly by having false hopes that one day this stupid guy will look at you. And Lei shouldn’t be that guy that gives her false hopes just because he knew she likes her and then only goes back to her after realizing Jing doesn’t need him. That’s just plain stupid. Like seriously. I’d rather pick the person who genuinely likes me more and not the person who will only give me the second place. You won’t be truly happy with someone who only puts you second in his life.
Romance
It’s still so complicated like before that it’s unbelievable. I can’t say that there will be such romance in reality, but nonetheless, I totally feel like the chemistry between Dylan Wang and Shen Yue is like second nature to them that you may find them rather unarguably cute together and suited for each other. Together, they make my heart really flutter like a teenager and grin like an idiot nonstop.
Over all
Surprisingly, I think I am being won over by this drama to another level after watching its first few episodes. Of course, I  had  my own doubts upon hearing another remake is on its way, but with some leap of faith that it wouldn’t just be some cheap drama remake, I think that it’s worth the wait and the time I invested on watching it.
I can’t say that it surpassed the other versions, because they all have their different charms. But I can probably say that Meteor Garden 2018 managed to surpass itself.  With its impeccable cast and the awesome production and directing, it surpassed expectations of most Meteor Garden fans.
Plus, add the fact that its very lighthearted in its element compared to the past versions and really much cuter that it must attract, too, the younger audience.
I will not dwell with the fact, though, that it’s pretty long for 40+ episodes times 40 minutes worth of TV viewing per episode and will just enjoy the flow of things while it can entertain me so I wouldn’t overthink about its length being a disadvantage at this time. Maybe they can use it to their advantage too, but who knows? Only time will tell.
Nonetheless, I will recommend this to anybody who just simply loves Meteor Garden at any day. You should try it if you’re up for another Meteor Garden fever and be charmed by the eternal F4!
I will rate this drama 4.7 out of 5 for surprising me and getting me hooked!
See you later for my On going and Final review for this drama in the future!
  First Impression: Meteor Garden (2018) I'm not really a big fan of C-dramas or Meteor Garden, but who will forget this phenomenal drama that started from a Japanese manga until it became a TV series that probably has the most remakes?
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bryanclaesch · 7 years ago
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The Top 10 Reasons Why Yang Should Be Your Favorite Character
Hey, everyone.
So to finish up my Top 10 Reasons Why This-Character Should Be Your Favorite series, we have the last member of Team RWBY, our sunny, little dragon, Yang Xiao Long. Once again, I'd like to thank my friend Michaela Roan and RWBY Wonderland admin Blake Belladonna for their help in making this list. If you want to join RWBY Wonderland, click this link: https://www.facebook.com/rwbywonderland/. And, if you guys want to make sure you don't miss the next series of RWBY posts, subscribe to my RWBY mailing list: http://eepurl.com/cWX8Fj. But if you really want to show me the love, support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.con/bryanclaesch.
Alright, then. Let's finish this bitch.

"Yang? Is that you?"
 1. "Oh! I'm so proud of my baby sister!"
Yang and Ruby make for interesting siblings. Their proportions are different, their weapons are different, their hair is different, hell, they don't even have the same last name. But despite these differences, Yang still looks out for Ruby with great enthusiasm and she's been doing so for a long time. While we aren't told exactly when, I would estimate that it has been somewhere between 10 to 12 years ago (since Volume 1) when Summer was killed. This effectively cemented Ruby and Yang together as they no longer had a mother to rely on. With Yang being the older and likely feeling guilty for nearly getting the both of them killed, it's apt to say that Yang has practically become a surrogate mother to Ruby.
Something that struck me the other day was that it's never mentioned why Yang thinks it's the best day ever that Ruby gets to go with her to Beacon. Most older siblings would be annoyed if their little brother or sister got moved so far ahead that they ended up going to school together. But not Yang--she's super excited about it. We could assume it's because Yang just has that upbeat of a personality, but it's more likely Yang is relieved that she won't have to leave Ruby behind to fend for herself. I mean, do you remember in Players and Pieces where the Nevermore filled the battlefield with its quills? Do you remember how Yang rushed to help Ruby, and then the tight hug she gave Ruby after Weiss saved her from the Deathstalker? Yang hugs Ruby a lot in Volume 1. Then there's the part in The Shining Beacon where Ruby mentions that Yang used to read to Ruby every night before bed, an activity that is usually performed by a parent.
Another strange thought I had was that because Ruby is so much like Summer and Summer was the only mother Yang ever knew, and so by cherishing Ruby the way she does, Yang is holding onto and cherishing the memory of Summer. No longer able to love her mother, Yang turns to her baby sister and makes sure to love Ruby the way Summer deserved. Hence, Yang becomes the over-doting big sister.
"Please, stop..."
 2. "I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest. Not just for you, but for the people you care about and who care about you."
Monty had an interesting idea behind introducing the characters of RWBY. It was his intention to make them all look like stock, one-dimensional characters, and then as the show went on, to fill them out. Not many writers have the balls to do that since most readers, editors, and publishers won't even give a writer the time to set something up like that. Once they look stock, no one thinks to read on or care about what happens to them in the story.
When we're introduced to Yang, she's supposed to come off as the super extraverted, quintessential party girl. Always looking for fun and always on the move. But Yang is more than that. She deeply cares about her friends and family, and their relationships are very important to her. Remember when she started crying in Destiny when she thought Blake didn't believe her for being attacked by Mercury? Yeah, a skin-deep, party girl wouldn't do that. A party girl also wouldn't have a never-ending search for the mother she never knew. While Yang could have lived her life as she saw fit and think of Raven as dead to her, she doesn't. Yang genuinely cares about her friends and family, and she feels the sting of rejection or disbelief quite deeply. All of which will make Yang and Blake's reunion very interesting to see.
3. "Wait! Yang! Is she alright?"
"Uh... She's uh... She's gonna be alright. I think she's just... I think it's just going to take some time for her to get used to things. She's too strong to let this stop her."
Yang is a strong girl. Physically, but also mentally. She has such a strong will that you could call her stubborn, such as in her fight against Neo. And while Yang did take some time getting used to only having one arm, she didn't let it interfere with her day-to-day to life, and she hated how her incident with Adam left her with PTSD. Not wanting to be pitied or looked after by Tai, she took a chance on the prosthetic arm from Atlas in an attempt to re-forge her life and achieve a degree of normality that was more normal than being without it. Something I've mentioned elsewhere is that a good indication of Yang's inner state is her hair since it's so important to her and her vision of self. When it was tied up, so was she. But when her hair flows freely, that's when she's ready to burn brighter than everyone else.
4. "Yes, Junior. I have several. But instead of 'sweetheart,' you can just call me 'sir!'"
You ever seen Persona 4: The Animation? Do you remember the scene where Yu and Yosuke are sharing a tent with Kanji and he gets irritated with them for thinking he's gay, so he declares he's going to go sleep with the girls since they had more balls than them? Yeah, Yang is one of those girls that Yu referred to when he said, "For some girls, that is true."
Whether you call it balls, confidence, daredeviltry, or brash, Yang isn't afraid of doing what needs to be done in order to achieve her objective. She'll grab a guy by the balls, she'll destroy his club, she openly declares that she'll be turning heads, and she'll put herself at risk to help her friends. Of course, though, if Yang can have fun while doing it, she's going to. Let's not forget how she giggled after being launched off the cliff in The First Step.
Yang's favorite ballet is the Nutcracker.
(Is it true that Barbara actually grabbed Jack's balls once?)
5. "You're Yang Xiao Long. My sunny, little dragon."
Whenever we see Yang, we usually see her smiling and having fun. She's very positive and upbeat, and very few things get to her. In fact, it's unusual to see her bothered by something or even hurting. When she was bested by Neo, lost to Adam, and Blake didn't believe her or worse, ran away, those were all difficult moments for her. She's not one to sweat the small stuff. She can even take a jab thrown her way about her arm and her hair. Yang is emotionally resilient, and she can almost always find a reason to smile.
I need a better system than Print Screen.
 6. Bumblebee
Did you honestly think I was talking about the ship? Well, if you read the Top 10 Reasons Why Blake Should Be Your Favorite Character you wouldn't have. (Maybe I'll do a blog post on why I hate the ship so much and why it's actually a terrible idea.)
But, anyway, Yang's got a bike. And bikes are pretty cool. While I may not like bikers for their impetuous attitudes, I find it difficult to squash my desire for a motorcycle. I have fond memories of being a kid and zipping around my neighbor on my bike. What could be better than strapping 1000 CC's of power to that experience. And so, just like with Ruby and scythes, the cool factor of Bumblebee helps make Yang cool(er). And as far as we've seen, she's a safe and responsible driver, but very capable and skilled when the time comes. Which is more than we can say for the Fake AH Crew and their talents on bikes. (To be fair though, most of those blunders are Gavin.)
7. This Porridge Is Too Cold
Just like how Ruby is a great interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood, Yang is a great interpretation of Goldilocks. In fact, I'd say Yang is a huge improvement on the original. For one, she isn't a stupid kid who committed a B&E, raided someone else's food, messed up the ass grooves on their favorite chairs, and then invited herself over for a slumber party. And the only notable thing about Goldilocks was that she was a dumb blonde and a criminal. Yang's neither of those things, and her hair has more meaning to who she is than just a color. Still though, I'd love a direct reference or joke back to Goldilocks in RWBY. The scene where she killed a couple of Ursas isn't enough.
8. "Laugh all you want. I'll be turning heads tomorrow night."
Well, I told you all it was coming, and here it is: Yang is the sexiest member of Team RWBY and possibly the whole show. Which is a bold statement considering Yang has some pretty stiff competition from the likes of Neo and Emerald. Hell, even Glynda has a number of very committed fans. But for me, the victor is Yang, and it's not just because of two very large and obvious reasons. She's got a great ass, too! No, I kid. Although it did look good in the Yellow Trailer. But the reason why I saw Yang is the sexiest character is because she has both a banging body and a fun personality. Everyone wants to have fun and we all prefer to be around pretty things rather than ugly, so that instantly makes Yang a winner across the board. True, my RWBY waifu is probably Weiss and Ruby is the most adorable, but who wouldn't want to at the very least date Yang? It'd be a good time.
Did you know that Monty based Yang's dress off one
Marilyn Monroe wore?
9. Dumbass: I'm a master of Karate! Hi-ya!
Smartass: I'm a master of Ka-chuk.
Dumbass: What's Ka-chuck?
Smartass: *Pulls out a shotgun and pumps it*
The Ember Celica. Who in their right mind would strap a shotgun to a gauntlet? I criticize, but just like combining a rifle with a scythe, it's actually a great idea. It combines a long range weapon with a short range one, and who wouldn't want to attach a shotgun to a gauntlet. I'm pretty sure a lot of people think the hidden blade from Assassin's Creed is one of the coolest things ever, so why not attach a shotgun to a gauntlet? Never mind the fact you're strapping a shotgun's recoil straight to your arm. But, hey, if we're going to get that picky, we're going to have to dismantle every weapon in RWBY. So let's just enjoy the Ember Celica as it is and imagine ourselves punching someone we really don't like with them.
10. "With each hit, she gets stronger. And she uses that energy to fight back. That's what makes her special."
Yang's semblance. The ability to take damage and then dish it back twice as hard. It's a pretty good one. Admittedly, it has some flaws and Yang isn't always strong enough to take the hit, but come on, she's a friggin' Super Saiyan! And what's more, she's a female Super Saiyan. There aren't any of those in DBZ, and if Yang could fire a Kamehameha (my autocorrect recognizes Kamehameha but not saiyan), it'd be the hypest shit. In fact, I'm kind of surprised no one has done any art of Yang using the Kamehameha. (Fan artists! Don't let me down!)
But anyway, we've all had those moments when we get so pissed, we give people that "You're so dead" face and we want the vehemence of our anger to be reflected in how hard we hit them. There'd probably be a lot fewer trolls if that was true. Too bad we aren't all Super Saiyans, but at least Yang is.
"Oh! Looks like Yang is angry. And you wouldn't like her when she's... upset."
 And there you have it. The Top 10 Reasons why Blake should be your favorite character. It you guys think I missed any, go ahead and add them in the comments below.
Keep writing, my friends.
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stiltonbasket · 4 years ago
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Can we have a hundred day celebration for Shuilan in renouncement? Would love to see Wangxian happily showing off their baby and the everyone being KO’d by her cuteness.
If anyone had told Wei Wuxian what his future would hold five years ago, he would have laughed at the impossibility, and then dug a hole for himself in his favorite radish patch until Wen Qing came along to fetch him. 
How strange it would have sounded to the Yiling Laozu holding court in the Burial Mounds, scraping by on thin luobo stew and the odd egg from market to feed A-Yuan, that one day a child of his would receive the blessings of all the Lan sect the moment she came into the world, and again thrice over at her hundred-day feast! It scarcely seems real to him now, after more than a year as Lan Zhan’s husband and the Lan Clan’s Xinhua-jun, and the sight of his richly dressed reflection in the looking glass bewilders him so much that he scarcely registers it when Lan Zhan materializes behind him with A-Lan in his arms.
“A-Lan looks so sweet, Lan Zhan,” he laughs, when his husband reaches out to touch his elbow--in a gesture that means come back, xingan, for I am here beside you, and you need never want for anything again. “She’s sparkling almost as much as you are.”
Lan Zhan dressed the baby in a tiny, glittering robe covered with beaded flowers, and whenever the light falls upon her little body, A-Lan glows like a moonlit pearl: so cool and soft and calm that Wei Wuxian can scarcely look away from her, even after the hundred-day feast is well underway in the banquet hall. He and Lan Zhan hold the seats of honor today, rather than Lan Xichen, and Xiao-Yu sits close beside them with his fluffy hair tied up into two pigtails.
“May I hold her, Hanguang-jun?” a kindly matron from the Cheng sect asks. Lan Zhan nods, and Lan-bao is swiftly transferred into Cheng-er-furen’s arms: puzzled by her sudden ascent, certainly, but happy enough to blink her big eyes up at Second Lady Cheng and coo like a roosting pigeon.
“Oh,” Cheng-er-furen gasps, as A-Lan kicks her tiny feet in their pink satin shoes. “Xinhua-jun, she’s beautiful.”
Wei Wuxian feels his heart quiver in his breast. “They say that one beauty recognizes another,” he says gravely, laughing out loud when Lady Cheng’s cheeks flush red. “Lan-bao can already tell, Lan Zhan, don’t you think?”
Lan Zhan presses his lips together and refuses to answer, but Wei Wuxian can see them twitching up at the corners. “That means he agrees with me,” he teases, as Cheng-furen slips a red packet into Xiao-Yu’s hands and kisses the toe of A-Lan’s little sock. “Don’t you, xingan?”
Lady Cheng rolls her eyes at their flirting and passes down the line with a smile, yielding her place to the next guest before going to find a seat at the banquet table.
“Ah, Wei-xiong,” the next well-wisher sighs, snapping open his favorite fan and holding it out to the baby. “A-Lan’s gathered quite a crowd today, hasn’t she?”
“Well, we did limit the full-moon ceremony to only our friends and family,” Wei Wuxian points out. As far as social events go, A-Lan’s full moon was one of the most exclusive gatherings of the year, open to members of the Lan sect and only by invitation to guests outside the Cloud Recesses; Ouyang Zizhen was generally envied as the sole attendee unconnected to Wei Wuxian by sect or familial ties, though he would have been invited anyway as Ouyang-zongzhu’s heir. “Lan Zhan was worried that we might fall ill during the monsoon season, so of course we had to invite everyone now that the weather’s turned warm again.”
Huaisang gives a meditative nod and lets A-Lan chew on the handle of his fan. “Lan-bao doesn’t have any teeth,” he yawns, when Wei Wuxian stares at the fan in disbelief and tries to pull it out of the baby’s mouth. “She can gum on my fan all she wants, I doubt she can put a dent in it.”
But the fan loses its charm before long, and A-Lan starts fussing in her blue satin wrap and refuses to settle until Wei Wuxian picks her up. The next group of guests offers their good-wishes one by one, leaving behind gifts like red packets and jade pendants and enough books to set up a new wing in the Library Pavilion; and a little while later, a shy two-year-old wanders up with his mother and presents a clumsily-carved dizi, just the right size for a toddler about as old as he is.
“I married out of the Cloud Recesses, so I live with my husband in Caiyi now,” the mother explains, as her son looks into Lan-bao’s crib with big eyes and makes soft cooing sounds in a clear attempt to play with her. “He runs a woodworking shop, so when we heard about the invitation to Lan-xiao-guniang’s hundred-day, Fang’er asked him to help carve a dizi for her.”
Wei Wuxian is so thoroughly charmed that he promises to stop by the woodworking shop later in the month, and present little Lan Fang--who seems to have taken his mother’s name, to retain his connection to her sect--with a learning dizi of his own.
“You can never begin too early,” Lan Zhan offers, catching Xiao-Yu by the sleeve to stop him from feeding his spicy peanut snacks to Lan Fang. “Does he prefer the flute above other instruments, furen? If so, he could come to the Cloud Recesses to study alongside Xiao-Yu when Wei Ying starts his music lessons.”
Wei Wuxian flinches, wondering if Lan Zhan has lost his senses--because what good mother would send her son to learn the dizi from the infamous Yiling Patriarch, even if he had been redeemed in the eyes of the gentry by his marriage to Lan Wangji? But Lan Fang’s mother is already nodding, looking fondly at Xiao-Yu as he offers Fang’er a bite of tangyuan, and the look in her eyes when she turns to Wei Wuxian is full of nothing but happiness.
“Xiao-Fang doesn’t get along very well with the children in Caiyi,” she sighs. “But he’ll surely come to study here one day, so if I could send him and know that Xiao-Yu-gongzi would look out for him--”
“Xiao-Yu will!” A-Yu exclaims, grabbing Lan Fang’s hand. “He’ll be A-Yu’s shidi!”
Lan Fang is more interested in doting on A-Lan, but Xiao-Yu is delighted by the prospect of having a junior sect brother, and tells the next ten people in line that he has become a shixiong now.
All in all, A-Lan’s hundred-day feast goes off without a hitch, and Wei Wuxian is nearly in tears at the sweetness of it all by the time Jiang Cheng arrives with a set of silver baby jewelry.
“A-Cheng, you shouldn’t have,” he chuckles, ducking his head so that Lan Zhan can pat his eyes with a cool handkerchief. “Lan-bao has enough jewelry for a new set every day, by now!”
“This isn’t just any set of jewelry,” Jiang Cheng informs him, motioning his head disciple to come forward and open the flat jewel-cases to reveal necklaces, bangles, ankle-bracelets and a longevity lock encrusted with silver beads.
Upon closer inspection, Wei Wuxian discovers that each tiny bead is a miniature clarity bell, etched with the Jiang sect lotus blossom and reinforced with so many protective charms that the collected set must have cost a small fortune.
“Didi,” Wei Wuxian begins, trying in vain to swallow the lump in his throat. “This, this is--”
“She won’t be able to wear these for long, but you could get them disassembled and extended with plain silver when she’s older,” his brother interrupts. “But A-Shuai says you should put them into storage when A-Lan gets older, because heaven knows I can’t afford another set.”
Lan Zhan frowns. “Why would we need another set?”
Jiang Cheng fixes him with a pointed stare, and Wei Wuxian feels his cheeks turn crimson when he finally gets the hint.
(Three years later, A-Lan’s hundred-day clarity jewels are passed down to a newborn baby sister, and no one is more pleased than her adoring jiujiu when Wei Chunyang wears them at her own full moon celebration.)
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