#which means i have guaranteed jing yuan

[ricochetluv]

sampo knew i was sad and decided to stop being coy and finally came home....

[yurinaa-world]

"𝒜𝓃 𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓂𝑜𝓁𝑒𝓈"

💫𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈: Jing Yuan x Gender-Neutral reader

💫𝒮𝓎𝓃𝑜𝓅𝓈𝒾𝓈: The mole on his cheek seemed to make you feel a type of way about it, along with the nonsense stories about moles, you can't help but feel jealous

💫𝒲𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈: Fluff, & Spelling Mistakes

💫𝒩𝑜𝓉𝑒𝓈: it's just me rambling nonsense again

💫𝒥𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒴𝓊𝒶𝓃 "𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒢𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒳𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓏𝒽𝑜𝓊 𝒞𝓁𝑜𝓊𝒹 𝒦𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈"

The hidden whispers in the Loufu speak of old wives’ tales, in which the moles engraved into the skins of lovers were once kissed by their significant others in their previous lives. Those old tales have always resurfaced now and again by the young and new couples as a way to think of their love as eternal. It was just a guilty pleasure to think about

Such love for each other engraves a physical imprint on each other's skin until they meet again in another life or every life.

 But these stories only make you frown after hearing them repeatedly, some even teasing you about your annoyance, “Mad because you and Jing yuan probably weren’t together in your previous life?” Or “seems like someone else must’ve loved kissing the general under his eye.” Hearing variations of those words seems to torment you in the back of your mind whenever you look at the beauty mark under his eyes.

They were rubbish legends anyway, bound to be fake.

He’s curious, why exactly did you take notice of the small mark now? The small mole under his eye, had you staring so intensely while your one hand cupped his cheek, it looked as if you wanted the mole to disappear from under his eye—truthfully he believed you had quite an adorable expression.

“Something on your mind?” He questioned, leaning into your touch with that signature smile plastered on his ravishing face. Your hand falters when his eyes lock onto yours, trying to withdraw your hand before he captures your wrist to draw you back to cheek, leaning and pressing his face more in your hand this time.  

It’s something so little, like an old tale you’re worried over. But since it had caught Jing Yuan's eyes, it was doubtful he’d leave the worries in the back of your mind alone, that gaze as a general he had never seen, but as your lover, he’d seen it plenty of times from you. “Perhaps…a feeling of jealousy,” he hummed, finding the needle in the haystack instantly, his smile widened when he saw your eyes shift at his hypothesis, “Worrying over a little mole isn’t like you.”

You feel the embarrassment pool into your stomach on how to articulate your thoughts into words, it sounds senseless on why you were feeling jealous. His gaze on you for your answer wasn’t helping either, he wanted an answer; not letting you retract your hand from his clutches.

“They say…that moles on a person's skin are where their previous life’s lover liked to kiss,” you murmur, your thumb gently touching the beauty mark with your thumb, covering it, “...it mentions over and over that I couldn’t help but think of you,” you mutter with such bitterness that even the densest could tell what you were feeling.

 He couldn’t help but be astounded at that “declaration” you made, laughing in a split second, you really are his lover, worrying about something so little. “Your previous lover loved kissing you there.”

He just snaps at those words leaving your mouth, getting a better clutch on your wrist before hauling you forward—directly landing into his arms, facefirst into his chest—his hand landing on your cheek when you look up at him. “Only someone as beautiful as you could have given to me.” Bring your hand to his lips, just land a kiss on your knuckles.

“I guarantee, that in every life I would see your radiation figure and still fall to your feet.”

if you liked this, consider tipping me on ko-fi! it'd mean a lot!

[generalsmemories]

How to take care of your lover (short life species) when they're sick

✧ jing yuan x gn!reader

✧ based on the ask: helloooo!! may i request a scenario in which jing yuan’s significant other (a short life species that isn’t a xianzhou native) has gotten sick? (jing yuan is not adept at taking care of the sick as he is a long-life species). how worried would he be? would he be ridden with thoughts of potential death?

i love ur writing btw!! - requested by anonymous

✧ contents: established relationship, fluff, hurt/comfort, mentions of character death (relax, it's not as bad as it seems), spoilers for jing yuan's, blade's and dan heng's past (sorta), maybe ooc at times

✧ a/n: for humorous purposes jing yuan will have no idea what a fever is. let's say that the illnesses that xianzhou natives have to suffer are most of the time a life or death situation so the concept of a fever is practically nonexsistent for them.

"I must say general, I didn't think of you as the type to be able to take care of a short-lived species whose fallen ill at such a short notice," Welt says, eyes wandering towards March 7th whose currently sleeping peacefully on a bed inside Bailu's clinic, the trailblazer close by to watch over. And although their gaze is not on the pair behind them, Jing Yuan can tell that they too are curious. "Oh, but I don't mean this with ill intent, I'm just surprised is all," he adds on quickly, the general merely laughing at the quick explanation.

"No worries, Mr. Yang. It's an understandable surprise. Us long-life species have other health conditions to worry about that other species doesn't need to mull over and vice versa. I just happened to have a bit of experience from before, and seeing that Ms. Bailu wasn't here to personally attend to you all and I had time to spare, it was the least I could do," Jing Yuan explains, making Welt hum in question, "Pardon if this sounds rude, but might I ask where that experience comes from?"

The general laughs, shaking his head as a silent gesture to tell Welt that he doesn't mind, "Not at all, you're esteemed guests after all, telling you a bit won't harm anyone - it's not exactly a secret either," Jing Yuan starts, "I used to have a lover when I was younger that had a shorter lifespan than I is all."

There's a moment of silence, the people before him probably not expecting him to reveal something that vulnerable as easy as he did: "They often got sick because of their curious nature that didn't work well with their frail body, I was often worried sick myself," Jing Yuan reveals with a soft chuckle, and if one had a keener eye they could tell his eyes softening significantly too when reminiscing the events.

"... How long ago?" the trailblazer suddenly asks. The question catches Welt off guard, but before he could try to dismiss it Jing Yuan let's out a low noise of contemplation, "A couple of years ago. I think just before I got appointed as a general," he answers in the end.

Oh, so it was at least a couple of decades ago.

"Yingxing, I think [Name] is dying!" the craftsman almost slams the hammer down on his finger instead of the metal he's welding when the door gets kicked open, letting out a silent curse before directing his gaze towards the door with a quirked eyebrow.

"Kid, I can guarantee you that they don't wake up one day and decide that today is the perfect time to die," Yingxing points out, untying his apron as Jing Yuan begins to explain. "No you don't understand, today I went to their room to wake them up again, but they didn't answer! But I noticed that the door was not locked-"

"You went into their room without asking?"

"Yes? Anyway, they were still in bed, but they didn't even acknowledge me when I called out to them! But when I got closer, I noticed that their face was unusually red and that their whole body was warmer than usual. They were also heavily breathing, but even when they burning up they didn't let me cool them down-"

"Okay, okay. Stop, I already understand," Yingxing tries to placate the young solider, trying to move behind him to get your motionless form into his own arms, but Jing Yuan merely turns around. The action making you groan uncomfortably by the fast motion, "What are you planning on doing? Are they dying?!"

"No. They're either just running a high fever or been in contact with something unknown onboard the Luofu that their immune system haven't encountered yet, move them more than that and they're gonna puke all over the floor which I honestly do not want, so give them to me before you make them worse!" Yingxing barks out, rubbing his temples to get rid of the rising headache, "Do you long life species not suffer from a fever every now and then?"

"... Why would we?"

"Why did I even bother to ask, can you bring Dan Feng here to just look and see if it's not any serious illness? And then I can teach you how to take care of a short life species - seeing as this is your reaction," Yingxing says with a laugh, motioning at Jing Yuan's frantic state before cradling your body into his own arms.

Nonetheless, the Vidyadhara high elder was very rudely interrupted from his duties to get (willingly) dragged away by a distressed Jing Yuan.

"Jing Yuan it was just a sneeze, no need to bundle me up this much," you croak out under the amount of covers stacked upon you, a clearly worried Jing Yuan by your bedside with even more covers. "If anything you're going to crush me with how heavy these are, I don't exactly have the strength to get them off at the moment either-"

"Have you gotten weaker? Do I need to get Dan Feng again to check?"

"No- he was just here 10 minutes ago to give me some medicine again, don't go- I'm serious, Jing Yuan come back this fever is no different from the other ones, I promise!" you plead, somehow managing to grab onto the ends of his cape to make him stop, "I admit it's my fault that I stayed outside in the rain too long when it started to become windy too." you reassure him, tugging a tiny bit on the cape to make him settle on the edge of the bed, to which Jing Yuan obediently does.

"You worry too much," you mumble, tugging Jing Yuan further into the bed so he can lean against the headboard while you slowly manuever around to settle between his legs before burying your face into his stomach.

"Aren't I too warm wearing my usual clothing? Do you want me to grab something first, maybe eat something? You've barely eaten anything, Yingxing said you should at least try to stomach something when you get sick, how about I try to make the congee again before you-"

"No, just stay like this. Last time you tried to make congee you almost cut off your fingers and burned down the kitchen" you mumble, turning your head to grin up at Jing Yuan who only gives you a defeated smile, "You should really worry less. You've seen me sick a few times now and I just need a few days of rest, so just take it easy here with me," you whisper. Jing Yuan could tell that you were getting sleepy from fatigue with the way your eyelids were dropping, but even while fighting off sleep you manage to remind him of one last thing, "... If you're going to try to cook after I fall asleep, at least call Yingxing..."

"... And you call me a worrywart."

[razorblade180]

Calculated Risk

Stelle:Caelus, hear me out. We have all the necessary teammates for Jing Yuan.

Caelus:….

Stelle:*sweating* AND! We are at pity. No offense to Serval, or Arlan but they could use some help. Let’s just toss some tickets and-

Caelus:Nothing is guaranteed.

Stelle:And that’s fine! If we get him then that’s amazing! If we don’t, we could possibly Clara or Welt to join us properly, and Acheron is a certainty. Not to mention, Qingque might get her final eidolon. In many ways we can end net positive.

Caelus:I see your point. However, did you forget the fact we aren’t swimming in tickets?

Stelle:Counterpoint, you and I aren’t bitches. We can work hard enough to get enough jades for Acheron.

Caelus:What about Adventurine? We are desperately in need of imaginary too.

Stelle:Is that the guy you really want to invest in?

Topaz and Yanqing: Yes, yes you do.

Stelle:Ignore them. We can figure that man out a little later. Besides, we are 260 out of 300 warps. Welt can’t ignore us forever. Not to mention, low pity means more odds to meet Gallagher. 

Caelus:…..Fine. *hands tickets*

Stelle:Noice. *spends them*

Caelus:Whoever is on the other side of that door, you’ll have to deal with.

Stelle:This benefits both of us! It’s fine!

E1 Himeko:*walks out* Hello again.

Steele:*drops to the floor* IT WAS A THREE OUT OF SIX CHANCE OF SOMETHING NEW! HOW DID I LOSE A 50/50 IN EVERY SENSE!?

Caelus:Congratulations, pure fiction is now even easier, which honestly isn’t bad at all. *looks left*

E6 Qingque: Let’s goooooo!

Caelus:You’ve also cemented Qingque as our current strongest teammate without question. Also a good thing considering we still have Swarm to finish.

Qingque:…Well this stopped being a joyous moment.

Stelle:I’ll start the grind for tickets tomorrow…

Caelus:*pats back* Good attempt.

[astralexpressarchives]

Jing Yuan in the Sedition - New Proof!

So, most people know that we have basically no idea what Jing Yuan was actually doing during the sedition. Blade has this one ominous voice line about him that reads:

He always... He always understood the price better than any of us, yet he never spoke up — never did anything!

What this means we don't know yet but I found some evidence that Jing Yuan was actually there.

I was re-watching the Jingliu vs Blade fight cinematic and noticed a section that flickers by really quickly.

Basically, it shows these images:

This pic is important because:

It shows Dan Feng's cloudpiercer spear, the broken sword wielded by Jingliu and later by Blade, and Jing Yuan's weapon

The sword being broken at this point tells us it is during the sedition at the earliest

The presence of the sword graveyard, the burned trees, and the mountains also indicates the location of the sedition after the drama

This implies that Jing Yuan was at the sedition event when it was happening! (This is not the fight with Shuhu because the mountains are not the border that Shuhu was attacking btw)

Not sure what resulted in all of them having to leave their weapons behind

So I've included two pictures because the initial assumption is that this must be the scene where Jingliu fought Jing Yuan after she became marastruck but it is not! The surrounding locations are totally different, the new pic has the flags and mountains in the background. It is this location:

This is also after Jing Yuan became the general and acquired Lightning Lord from Tengxiao which was close to the sedition because we know from letters that Dan Feng was his very first case.

We know from this livestream that Jingliu did not become marastruck until after the 10 Lord took her away, which was about 1 year after the sedition. 14:09 is the relevant timestamp.

And we also know from the myriad that Jingliu was leading the cloud knights after she got her magic ice sword during her fight with the abomination:

So yeah...

Since they snuck these frames in on like 0.1 second flickers they're definitely intended to be teasers that Jing Yuan was infact there and that he found Jingliu after she defeated the abomination.

I only noticed them because I'm autistic enough to watch all of the cinematics on the slowest speeds possible lmao.

And also Jing Yuan's fansong contains a picture of Jing Yuan summoning Lightning Lord at the mountains. (This fansong is by the company everyone thinks Hoyo commissioned because of their weird accuracy - infact Hoyo apparently recently added their songs to their spotify playlist or something so it's more or less guaranteed at this point. You can watch all their videos on their bilibili.)

So yeah I don't really know what to do with all this information at the moment. I think it could explain why Jingliu is targeting Jing Yuan in her trailer, though.

It does place this scene as probably during the sedition, especially with the gushing red moon and the flames.

Jing Yuan probably stepped in and stopped her from going a bit too far because she does, of course, need to spend some time post-sedition still a member of the cloud knights before she gets taken by the 10 lords.

[thg-rcg-simps]

There was a debate in our heads if to pull on the Boothil banner but since we don't really need another DPS and weren't so simpy when looking at his personality, we decided to go for Fu Xuan instead.

Not only does the Diviner look like a magical girl, she also fits perfectly into our Xianzhou obsession, ähm I mean Team!, and also she is just a 4 in 1 character basically.

(also back then we couldn't summon because we were still way too broke because of Bladie and Jing Yuan T-T)

We did the math and, behold we would get her since we didn't get the guaranteed pull on Aventurine (I still cry over him, but hey, Preservation for Preservation xD)

And we got her!!!

In only 3 Multis!

Which is like super crazy on its own, but it's not the end of today's completely out of world lucky day.

No, since we got her so early (without guarantee actually), we opted to go fully in and go for the Light cone. I mean, it's just absolutely broken and it looks amazing.

And than this happened:

BFSAADEELPLAPSJ!!!!!!!!

We got 2 5 star Light cones. IN ONE MULTI!

So in only 9 Multis, we not only got Fu Xuan herself, Luka, Hook, Pela, Sampo, some Landau's Choice and enough Geniuses' Repose to have a V star Light cone now, no, we got 2 Fu Xuan signature 5 star Light cones!!

Needles to say, we're head over hills and just super extremely happy with it!

Welcome home Fu Xuan! We have Qingque and Jing Yuan right beside you hihi (also wanted criminals and traumatized children, but they are very cute too!)

-TakumiHairGuy & RikkaCatGirl

[aoxizu]

day 102, likely the last day of saving for jing yuan rerun: 373 wishes

tomorrow. jing yuan tomorrow

i will wake up tomorrow morning and see jing yuan on the banner but sadly due to this thing called 'school' i won't be able to sit down and properly play until later that night

i should have at least one member of a live audience watching on the side, possibly a second

shoutout to @神策府在编团雀 on xiaohongshu, who was my inspiration to start this series, and who has been saving for 148 days with the end result of 521 wishes where they stopped redeeming for warps and counted primogems instead

their profile on xhs

my final plans are to go for e1s1 jing yuan, and if i get lucky have enough saved up for an aventurine in 2.1, but i probably won't be doing anything like this again

unless screwllum shows signs of becoming a playable character soon, in which case welcome back this is your host zcxv and we are going to save for screwllum one wish at a time.

also jing yuan rerun does not mean i will shut up about this guy, the kazuha simp who lives in my house you should know i'm not going to stop talking anytime soon and if you want to have access to star rail you should be warned ◉⁠‿⁠◉.

final tally: 75 pity no guarantee on character banner, 50 pity no guarantee on light cone banner, and 373 wishes

slightly more editing again today, 1 day (technically 13 hours and 50 minutes at the time i'm posting this) left until jing yuan's banner opens

祝景元四面八方来，五湖六海来

[maskednihilism]

ooc. No spoilers here, just me showing off a bit!

E1 Welt! Which means I'm guaranteed for Jing Yuan on the next banner! Sampo will be with his best friend soon 🥺

Speaking of him, I have him at E3 thanks to the Hanu event! Biblically accurate Sampo will soon happen!

Andddddd

I whaled :p I needed to rep my boy.

[prettyboykatsuki]

HOPING I GET JING YUANNN AND YOU TOO!! I was guaranteed for him…. Then seele came home on accident. So i had to re-GRIND all over again for that pity, HOPING TO GET HIMMFMCNNS

i have to ask like. if i havent got a single 5 star on the limited banner does that mean im at 50/50 or is the first guaranteed sdjksjkl i think its a 50/50 but i can't rmb

either way i have been restraining myself like crazy because i want him so bad i have like 112 wishes saved which wasnt that bad bc its early game!! the grind was kinda wild though i can't imagine REGRINDING FOR THAT??? LIKE I TIP MY HAT OFF TO U

BUT MAY JING YUAN WANTERS BE JING YUAN HAVERS!!!!!!

[tranquildr3ams]

Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜, 2018)

Director: Yui Bun Chu

Cast: Andy Yang, Allen Deng, Leo Luo, Adonis Liao, Zhi Yuan Xia, Faye Wang, Ting Wei Zhou, Yukee Chen, Kathy Chow, Bella Du, Yang Peng, Run Jun Wang, Zhong Hua He

In ancient times, the Flower Goddess dies after giving birth to a daughter. Before she passed, she fed her daughter the Unfeeling Pill, ordered her subordinates to keep the girl’s birth story a secret and to imprison her within Shui Jing for 10,000 years. The girl’s name is Jin Mi. 4,000 years later, the Heavenly Emperor’s second son, Xu Feng, was entrapped by someone and mistakenly entered Shui Jing. He was saved by the ignorant Jin Mi. After living together for 100 years, Xu Feng gradually developed feelings for Jin Mi. Someone close to them wants to use those feelings for their own benefit. – MyDramaList

Where to watch with English subtitles (as at March 25, 2020): Netflix Canada & Youtube

QUOTE/SCENE

Jing Mi: That one’s so ugly. Why did you bring it here also? Phoenix: I feel that one is the most beautiful of all the Phoenix lanterns, because it contains our memory. Jing Mi: This is the memory of Saint Girl and King Yi. [pause] What a beautiful view!  It’ll be great if we can drink some self-made osmanthus wine. In fact, before I descended to the mortal world, I buried some osmanthus wine I made here. Phoenix: I dug it out several days ago. Let’s try  your wine today. [next scene] The wine you made is indeed savory and mellow. Jing Mi: I must have some skills amongst the six realms. Why are you staring at me like that? Phoenix: Its great that I don’t have to look at you through the veil. Jing Mi: Isn’t it beautiful?

STORY

Ashes of Love is essentially a love story and its where it thrives at its best. Much like the structure of 2017’s Eternal Love (review) and background, this one is set a little different  in the actual fairy world where this one has six realms however, the Sky realm is still the highest one (as it usually is) and the story resides in these different deity/fairy ranging from flowers to nocturnal creatures to celestial creatures and all kinds of animals and even inanimate objects. In terms of creativity, the story is full of them and that is one of the many highlights of this one and can bring so much fun to this as it makes for some leaps of beliefs but in a fantasy world like this one, its more about learning about it first. And that is a lot of the charm especially as it starts off fairly light-hearted and fun.

The realms here are really where the many past dilemmas have ignited from the past generation between the Floral Goddess, Heavenly Emperor, Water Immortal and all the other people linked to them. Its created essentially what happens to Jing Mi to have been given the Unfeeling Pill when she was born to prevent her from meeting her curse of love with the first 10,000 years of her life, which ends up being the catalyst of all the events that end up happening as misunderstandings happen as the truth unfolds. But that said, each of these realms of the three focused on among the six is different in its own way and has its own traits reflective of the place but yet still has their own good and evil characters.

At the end of all this, between war and feuds and misunderstandings and realm battles for power, it all dials down to the romance and the love triangle between Jing Mi, Phoenix and Runyu instigated by jealousy and unfairness on one end and then creating revenge and hatred, making things worsen. Its all a story of the basic philosophy and belief in Chinese that what is meant to happen will happen regardless of how you plan on changing its course, that act alone is also destined to happen. Also goes along with you reap what you sow at the end of the day especially as what is given off from one generation can affect its next. Its all very common plot points and themes in ancient Chinese fantasy TV series as Eternal Love has about the same kind of plot point (as an example since its the other one in the same genre). What does work here is that once you get past those similar plot points and embrace what they do different in building this new world and its characters, Ashes of Love has a stronger bond with its love story and leads (for myself) whereas in comparison, Eternal Love is entertaining well-rounded but perhaps didn’t quite connect as much in terms of the main leads and their love story. I don’t mean to compare but I did watch them almost back to back.

Before we jump to pacing, I need to mention that the costume designs here are really nice. There’s a lot of thought of each one from the Birds Realm to the colorful Flower Realm to the dark Demon realms outfits as as well as the gold and white and more royalty colors in the Heavenly Realm. Its one of the elements that make me love watching Chinese Fantasy TV series. The costumes and the hair ornaments and hair styles are just so beautiful! While I’m talking about this, I do have to mention that when they do close-ups of the props, fake flowers and such, it is pretty apparent, maybe one of the lesser elements of this series. But then, I guarantee you that there is one “sex” scene in this (its public TV so nothing explicit) and its filmed so poetically and beautiful that I was really impressed by the whole thing especially when you remember the true forms of the leads on hand.

LENGTH/PACING

Episodes: 63 Episode length: 40-45 mins approx.

Its incredible how long Chinese TV series are sometimes especially these big production Chinese fantasy ones. Ashes of Love is surprisingly long at 63 episodes and yet, the script is done so well that the story progresses in phases that gives time for each stage of these characters to grow and develop individually and together in their different relationships, friendships, family, brothers, etc. It doesn’t take a break from this other than maybe the secondary couple from the demon realm which ends up being a rather touching story as well by the end.

Looking at the phase, the first part (as I mentioned) before is about the meeting between Phoenix and Jing Mi and her introduction from the Flower Realm to the Heaven Realm and gradually the reveal of her true identity as well as her growing relationship in their few hundred years as the helper and disciple of Phoenix. As her true identity gets revealed, it jumps into the next phase of the story where it shares about the past and the characters involved and what actually happened, throwing the hatred of the Heavenly Empress and her desire to split up Jing Mi and Phoenix while Phoenix’s brother, Runyu gets pulled into the mix and he learns about his mother and it builds on his revenge and his plot slowly conspire. Things gets more messy here as this also get intermitted with Jing Mi’s mission to become an immortal by going to the Mortal Realm to experience the suffering of mortal life to gain knowledge where she ends up connecting with her feelings more as a turn of events takes Phoenix to have a rather intense romance. Finally, the third phase appears after all the plots of phase 2 unravels and Jing Mi unexpectedly breaks the Unfeeling Pill’s effects and realizes her real feelings and makes up for her mistakes to Phoenix. That turns into the most painful, emotional and heartbreaking moments of search and hopelessness and this last part is just such a ode of how the beginning builds up its characters and relationships so well that this part ends up working a lot. (I mean, I bawled my eyes out a ton in the last 8-10 episodes or something)

CHARACTERS/CHEMISTRY

Leads: Jing Mi & Phoenix

Ashes of Love takes a lot of time and attention on building these two characters. Its great because the focus never quite leaves them even when they are apart and doing their own thing. There’s a lot of factors that work here. The first is that its not dubbed voices and the actual actors are voicing these characters because both Andy Yang and Allen Deng are really talented actors and in their respective roles as Jing Mi and Xu Feng (aka Phoenix, as I keep referring to him), they are incredibly convincing and hard to not ship them, to be honest. These two characters are strong individually as they both have their own family, relationship and realm issues to deal with and consider in all their choices and their own secrets to uncover. Its what makes their love story so heartbreaking and bittersweet altogether because each of their own issues and it all comes down to Jing Mi and the Unfeeling Pill that stops her from realizing her own feelings until its too late which makes their relationship take a very heartbreaking turn of events. The chemistry between these two characters are fantastic especially in some scenes of how the director uses close-ups to the dialogue around them where they both are able to act with their eyes and interpret some genuine feelings without saying anything.

Brothers & Family Feud: Phoenix & Run Yu

All royalty has their own conflicts and Phoenix’s family is the Heaven realm’s family which creates all kinds of crazy as the Heaven Emperor reveals to be a rather unloyal man where his past creates the Empress’s hate and jealousy making a lot of issues become unfair to the older son, Runyu the Night Immortal. What starts off as a rather good brother relationship despite the parent issues ends up turning sour as Runyu’s character ends up having a subtle villain type of change full of plot and schemes, creating this character that flips from the nice guy at the beginning.

Love Interests, Villains & Other Characters of Interest

Love Interests for Jing Mi is mostly Runyu as well as some other characters that don’t really have too much to mention however the main villains of the series is one, the Heaven Empress, aka Phoenix’s mother (as mentioned before because of jealousy) and the second is Phoenix’s “cousin”/crush who likes him a lot and believes she is the one destined for him and does increasingly evil acts. The two villains in the end are the main cause of Phoenix’s “demise”. Everything comes in full circle in Chinese philosophy and nothing proves it quite like how TV series stories work. You can’t say these two villains don’t do a great job. Empress is portrayed by 90s Hong Kong TV actress Kathy Chow who does a fantastic job that its hard to not dislike the character much like Faye Wang as the love interest who plays on the more annoying side of things.

Of course, the more fun additions do go to the Green Snake and the other colorful character of the Flower Realm just like the Moon Immortal (Phoenix’s uncle) who are comedic but in desperate times, knowledgeable and contribute to the dilemma in their own ways. There’s a lot of characters in Ashes of Love so its hard to talk about all of it.

OVERALL

Ashes of Love is a really great series. Its one that takes its sweet time to move through its different story levels to gradually connect with each of these characters as they develop and learn about the different secrete in their life, especially with the main female character, Jing Mi. The magical elements and this new world and the possibilities gives it the space to believe in all the twists and turns and thats because its already given it such a creativity to begin with which also sparks some deeper thoughts on how certain plot points would work but never quite doubt its possibility, leaving space for the audience to draw their own conclusions. The different worlds have beautiful CG effects that make them unique as well as their own kingdom and rules as well as different worlds and their feuds with each other.

Aside from all that is crafting these characters that work so well on their own in complexity. Having 63 episodes to do it definitely feels like it would be a drag but it isn’t most of the time because these characters need it and its because of that, it makes especially Jing Mi and Phoenix’s story so much more emotional to watch whether its happy moments to the extremely heartbreaking moments. Fantastic series that makes me want to watch and rewatch and notice those little story plot details more.

MAIN THEME

TV Binge: Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜, 2018) #AshesofLove #香蜜沉沉烬如霜 #CDrama #Fantasy #Romance #TV #Review

Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜, 2018) Director: Yui Bun Chu Cast: Andy Yang, Allen Deng, Leo Luo, Adonis Liao, Zhi Yuan Xia, Faye Wang, Ting Wei Zhou, Yukee Chen, Kathy Chow, Bella Du, Yang Peng, Run Jun Wang, Zhong Hua He…

TV Binge: Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜, 2018) #AshesofLove #香蜜沉沉烬如霜 #CDrama #Fantasy #Romance #TV #Review Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜, 2018) Director: Yui Bun Chu Cast: Andy Yang, Allen Deng, Leo Luo, Adonis Liao, Zhi Yuan Xia, Faye Wang, Ting Wei Zhou, Yukee Chen, Kathy Chow, Bella Du, Yang Peng, Run Jun Wang, Zhong Hua He…

[tlehg-blog]

I can imagine that American studio executives and foreign policy wonks breathed a sigh of relief when the 2016 film The Great Wall (directed by Zhang Yimou) “bombed” at the global box office. Representing a co-production between China and the United States through the Wanda Group’s recent acquisition of Legendary Entertainment, The Great Wall was meant to bring together American film making and marketing skills with Chinese capital in order to showcase China to the world. Starring Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe and Chinese star Jing Tian alongside Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau, the film was rocked by controversy before its release, including accusations of whitewashing and a formulaic yet meaningless story. Earning $171 million in China and $163 million from the rest of the world including the United States, The Great Wall made a modest profit but nothing of the magnitude of The Fate of the Furious (2017), Transformers: The Last Knight(2017) or the Chinese production Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) which made 5.7 billion yuan domestically ($860 million).

We can see The Great Wall as an example of a new kind Chinese soft power effort that seeks to place China much more prominently in the public’s eye. By learning from Hollywood and utilizing its massive marketing and global distribution reach, China hopes to promote itself as an attractive nation in the eyes of the world. It has been long said that Hollywood films promote an American lifestyle and American political values. Although The Great Wall was seemingly a failure, Chinese filmmakers and film companies will have learned valuable lessons to be applied in their own future productions – with or without American partners.

These ideas of being attractive underpin what Joseph Nye called a nation’s “soft power,” defined as “the ability to get what you want through persuasion or attraction in the forms of culture, values, and policies.” The United States has been seen to be the primary beneficiary of soft power throughout the 20th century, through its image-making pop culture industries and Hollywood in particular. People all around the world desire not just American products, but an American way of life replete with its democracy, civic institutions, and worldview. Rather than just coercing people through military or economic means, many people have been won over to America through its power of attraction and want what America wants.

As China rises and becomes a global player as big as, if not bigger than, the United States, many have argued that China will also need to develop its own forms of soft power. Successful soft power will convince the world that China is a benign and benevolent power and attract others to Chinese culture and its way of life. As early as 2007, then-Chinese President Hu Jintao was quoted as saying that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will definitely be accompanied by the thriving of Chinese culture.” More recently, in 2014, President Xi Jinping said, “We should increase China’s soft power, give a good Chinese narrative, and better communicate China’s message to the world.” One of Xi’s signature policies, the “Chinese Dream,” has been proposed as a kind of corollary or alternative to the American Dream. This is all part of a “charm offensive” that will only accelerate in years to come, especially in light of the events at the recent 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

However, the consensus amongst observers is that despite its efforts in developing soft power over recent years, China is not making a significant dent in world public imagination. Writing in a recent series of blog posts, Joshua Kurlantzick (author of Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World) remains “doubtful” of Chinese soft power. He notes that “despite the fact that Beijing has upped its soft power efforts since 2007, its soft power appeal has not grown” and has in fact declined. Robert Thomas, writing for The Diplomat, comes to a similar conclusion and argues that China’s investment in soft power is not paying off. An Economist article from early 2017 also comes to a similar conclusion, arguing that Chinese pop culture is nowhere as attractive or ubiquitous as American pop culture.

One problem that analysts point to is the dissonance between image and action. Thomas points out that the recent death in custody of Liu Xiaobo was a soft power “own goal” for China as the world saw how the Nobel Prize winning activist was treated. Many are not convinced that China’s construction activities in the South China Sea and the acquisition of strategic infrastructure in countries such as Malaysia and Sri Lanka are benign. Moreover, the Confucius Institutes, which have been touted as a main component in the Chinese soft power agenda, are said to be a risk as their activities come under scrutiny and may not deliver on the investment.

Other examples include in the media, where China has begun to assert its message through a variety of means. A number of key media have been acquired by mainland companies in recent years, including the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Other media companies such as Apple Daily (Hong Kong) and the New York Times have come under financial pressure. And there is an expansion of state-owned media Xinhua and CGTN (formerly CCTV) around the world. The criticism here is that Chinese media interests are promoting forms of propaganda and suppressing voices critical of China.

Ultimately though, analysts of Chinese soft power say that the Chinese political system is a liability. Despite the focus on soft power and the spending of billions of dollars, China is fundamentally unable to be attractive because it’s not a liberal democratic regime like the United States. China, unlike the U.S., will never be able to attract people through the ideals of freedom, political participation, and civil liberties. Similarly, China’s undemocratic political system is opaque to outsiders and seemingly impenetrable. But perhaps these observers have got China and the rest of the world wrong.

First, they are seeing Chinese soft power through an American lens. That the United States was the case study for Nye’s theory is not a problem; the problem is assuming that other nations need to be like America in order to be attractive. This is to universalize the particular and speaks of the ethnocentrism of many American policy thinkers. Since China is diametrically opposite to America, the conclusion is that China lacks fundamental criteria to be an attractive country. China’s attractiveness is in fact very different from the United States’, and American observers may be blind to what makes China attractive. This is not “soft power with Chinese characteristics,” as Mikael Weissmann calls it facetiously, but requires an understanding of how the rest of the world thinks.

As my colleague Bill Case has proposed, China is in fact a very attractive model to leaders and politicians in Southeast Asia and no doubt in other parts of the world. Leaders see in China a powerful nation able to defy American and Western dictates, whilst assuring economic stability and prosperity for its citizens. China emerges as a solution for struggling regimes in Southeast Asia as they navigate difficult economic scenarios or, in the case of Malaysia’s embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak, a corruption scandal that threatens the legitimacy of his premiership. China provides a useful model for already illiberal and authoritarian-leaning political leaders and regimes to sustain themselves.

American and other Western observers fall into the trap of assuming that freedom, civil liberties, and democracy are more desired than economic stability and prosperity. As Chua Beng Huat has argued in the case of Singapore, liberalism is not a necessary precondition for the functioning of an advanced capitalist nation. Instead the legitimacy of Singapore’s leaders comes from their performance as economic managers and their ability to respond to citizen demands. Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” argument increasingly looks anachronistic. Many people in developing and poorer nations look up to Singapore, and increasingly China, as a model of political stability coupled with economic growth and prosperity. If people have to give up a few civil liberties – which many do not enjoy anyway – then why not, if it means less corruption, better infrastructure, more jobs, and increased income.

Looking at China’s rapid development – and as more people see it – China will grow in stature amongst lay opinion. Democracy is increasingly seen to produce inaction and stalemate as evidenced in countries across the European Union, United States, and Australia. Many Indonesians increasingly opine that things were better under authoritarianism and pejoratively call the post-1998 era “democrazy.” China, by contrast, is seen to take a no-nonsense approach to problems; it has clear objectives and gets things done. Rights may be trampled or limited in this process, but to many people who live in clogged cities like Jakarta or Manila or in underdeveloped regions, China’s model of action and development look like a godsend.

In an era of economic uncertainty, declining social mobility, economic inequality, rising unemployment, and casualization, the American model looks increasingly less appealing. If the election of Donald Trump is symptomatic of these problems, then it is little wonder that people are looking to other countries to emulate. On the other side of the Pacific, China continues to grow in stature and appears to be a paradigm of stability and prosperity. China’s success is of course not guaranteed, but in a world of economic uncertainty, the China model increasingly looks more attractive than Pax Americana.

Thomas Barker holds a PhD in Sociology from the National University of Singapore and teaches film and cultural studies at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

[webpostingpro-blog]

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New Post has been published on https://webpostingpro.com/china-live-streaming-would-be-internet-stars-boost-billion-dollar-market/

China live streaming: Would-be internet stars boost billion-dollar market

Jing Qi, a part-time presenter on the stay streaming platform Huajiao, underwent a cosmetic surgical procedure in March to improve her probabilities of becoming a web movie star.

After 5 hours of rhinoplasty and facial fat injections that left her with gauze covering her nostril, eyes, brow and cheeks, the 27-12 months-vintage stated she felt “even worse than dead”. However the struggling become well worth it.

Jing is amongst tens of lots hoping to locate online stardom as an anchor at the live video streaming phenomenon sweeping China’s media.

The quickest-emerging net zone barely existed in China 3 years in the past, however, final 12 months produced revenues of extra than 30 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) and in step with an estimate by way of funding bank China Renaissance Securities, is set to extra than triple that by using 2020. That puts it on course to overhaul cinema field workplace receipts in some 12 months’ time.china stock market

“I want extra people to observe me, to spend Huajiao cash on me,” Jing explained, regarding the digital gifts her on-line fans purchase that she can later redeem in part for cash.

“Ultimately, I’ll be capable of marrying a tall, good-looking and rich guy,” Jing said.

The fast growth of live streaming in China has attracted a hurry of investment, led by China’s tech heavyweights, Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Institution Retaining and Baidu Inc. They wish live streaming can increase present offerings in e-commerce, social networking, and gaming.

Facts about china

Tencent, the USA’s largest online gaming and social networking business enterprise, is backing a slew of streaming and interactive enjoyment corporations, including gaming platform Douyu. Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace released a stay-streaming platform early last year, permitting sellers to promote products without delay to on-line visitors in real time.

What’s Being Shipped Out of China

We assume you will agree that logistics and cargo volume play an important function in the success of an eCommerce commercial enterprise.

Both measure the health of one’s business as well as the economic increase of a country; the greater shipments, the better financial system.

Delivery services range in price from one u. S . A . to any other, but they percentage one not unusual goal – to supply the goods as rapid as viable.

However, if a rustic has been consistently shipping an overwhelming quantity of parcels, wouldn’t this pique your interest as an enterprise owner?

In case you ask us, we might check out it proper away, and so we did!

The united states of America with the largest Parcel volume

Based totally on worldwide shipping records, China has been transporting the biggest parcel volume.

It money owed for 68.79% of total packages shipped internationally as of October of this year.

The primary destination of China’s parcels turned into the united states in which there may be a growing range of customers patronizing Chinese language products because of their aggressive costs.

Aside from that, China’s speedy and cheaper Delivery service also keeps drawing more US clients to its online stores.

One example of a fast and less costly Chinese delivery provider is ePacket, China Post’s specific Delivery arm, that is answerable for turning in online orders to us, Uk, France, Russia and Australia.

What’s Coming out of China?

Granting that China offers low-fee transport, what merchandise are non-Chinese language consumers buying with the intention to avail themselves of this provider?

Based on the information collected with the aid of our research group, most of China’s shipments comprise pinnacle-selling products from online shops like Alibaba and AliExpress, namely:

Smartphones and smart watches

Garb Footwear Computer systems and hand-held devices Domestic home equipment Domestic décor and out of doors products Chinese language sellers on Amazon’s market who are leveraging Amazon Prime China, which became launched remaining month, have also considerably contributed to the variety of parcels shipped out of China.

Although China’s eCommerce continues to flourish and growth the quantity of shipments for its B2C phase, the 2015 records on Chinese exports display that China’s top 10 exports account for over 60% of the united states of America’s international shipments.

Amongst those lucrative export products are:

Electronic merchandise High tech merchandise Machinery Food and drinks Clothing Clinical and commercial garb and gadget Plastic and ceramic merchandise Vehicles and mills Metal products Shoes The main export destinations of China encompass America, United kingdom, Netherlands, Hong Kong and countries in the Eu Union.

Subsequent to China, Malaysia recorded the biggest volume of shipped parcels last month, making up eight.13% of the whole range of shipments global.

Consistent with Malaysia’s 2015 exports facts, the pinnacle 20 exports of u. S . encompass:

Included circuits Petroleum oils Semiconductors Crude oil Laptop components clothing and add-ons Television monitors and projectors Printers Asphalt mixes Animal fats Low-voltage switches and fuses Smartphone devices Optical readers Sound system Domestic furnishings In the meantime, huge volumes of parcels shipped from Netherlands, which account for 5% of parcels shipped globally, incorporate the delivery system and Equipment.

The important destinations of that merchandise are Austria, Africa, and the united states.

In the meantime, Singapore’s general parcel shipment of three.70% consists of Clothing, Domestic home equipment, and groceries.

Hong Kong money owed for 2.60% of the arena’s total parcel shipments, and the majority of the goods shipped out of it grabs objects, accessories, skincare products, Footwear, and purses.

Relationships: Why Would Someone Accuse Their Partner Of Cheating

If one is in a dating, they might start to wonder what has come about to it. This may be a sign that it is now not having the equal effect on them because it used to have.

What This could show is that they have not been putting in as plenty attempt as they did in the past. Possibly they’ve spent extra time at paintings than they usually do, or their companion isn’t always as available as they had been within the beyond.

Any other Path

At a deeper level, This will display that they’re now not at the same page, so to speak. For one reason or Every other, they are not going to have the same form of connection as they did before.

It can be said that things like this manifest, and that there may be nothing that you can still do approximately it. At the end of the day, human beings are people, and this means that they’ve their very own paths to follow.

No Guarantees

If this wasn’t the case, there is as strong risk that numerous relationships could remain lots longer than they do. Everybody could then have the equal wishes, and there could be no cause for them to enjoy the struggle.

As this isn’t how life works, there may be usually the threat one character can grow to be having the preference to experience life in a different way. And it is not going to be feasible for them to stay with the identical character.

Impartial

Whilst this occurs, it does not suggest that one individual is good and Any other is awful; it’s miles without a doubt a part of life. Even if one became to alternate, it would not suggest that the opposite individual would stay.

Their time together will have come to an end, and the greater they are attempting to resist this the more difficult their lifestyles may be. In this state of affairs, the nice thing for them to do can be to simply accept what is taking place.

The identical enjoy

One element they might do to make it easier can be to assume that they’re in the equal function. This may then give them an experience of what the other character is going thru, and why they are unable to preserve.

Why The Stock Market Will Soon Favor Value Investing Again

Value Investing is a famous funding strategy which enables to identify best stocks (by using the use of an approximation of the shares’ Cost) which are currently undervalued inside the market. The worth/Price of each stock is based on the performance of the agency in addition to a view of its destiny sustainable profitability (known as normalized go back on equity).

When you consider that the beginning of 2009,

The worldwide markets have confronted a monetary repression era. It became a length of low-interest prices in addition to chance-encouragement that has led to a super time for growth Making an investment. Moreover, the marketplace has provided a lack top class to nearly all those corporations that could grow in such an environment of confined financial enlargement possibilities. Meanwhile, the market has paid less interest to the traditional Cost elements, which include P/E (fee-to-income) ratios and dividend yields. But, those factors have supplied big go back premiums over the long-term.

The entirety has its season and it’s far completely truthful to say, this has been a long and cold iciness for Cost buyers which might be devoted to the fashion. Sincerely after the excessive-flying days of the tech bubble within the late Nineties, Price has not been this out of favor.

It’s miles extremely essential to keep in mind that the Cost/growth cycles have a tendency to be imply-reverting. Moreover,

They have lasted between 7 and 10 years from trough to peak on common. With the boom fashion now in its 9th 12 months of relative out-performance, the contemporary segment of this cycle may be drawing to a near. We may additionally soon input into an environment which once again favors Value Making an investment.

After the incidence of this shift within the market, the day before today’s laggards could end up tomorrow’s leaders. Further, investors may additionally need to be positioned, therefore. Even though nobody has any crystal ball that could inform precisely whilst the cycle will turn. But, there are still some signs and symptoms that a shift may already be occurring.

[aoxizu]

day 40 of saving for jing yuan rerun: 182 wishes

i fell asleep before making a post yesterday

we are now at the point where if i somehow lose all of my pity i'll still be able to get a guaranteed jing yuan

the event is a little shorter than i expected but that's probably because of the simulated universe and other stuff that's also in this update

this is a wild stretch but in the final victor light cone description, dr ratio is referred to as "them". therefore, obviously, mihoyo intended for people (me) to interpret dr ratio as nonbinary, and the use of the pronoun them definitely wasn't for any other purpose such as keeping a mysterious air about the characters or anything

also a very big thing about the quest is that the trailblazer gets to talk for once

you can pick options and then the trailblazer will have a Voice Line, which is something that i almost forgot could happen

also there's several ace attorney cross examinations i mean debates, which feel less out of place as dr ratio does have the overall feeling of a debate kid

there's also at least 2 instances of this thing

which you may recognize from tingyun

the characters that do this in the quest don't quite do it to the same extent, but it's noticeably intentional and not just a tilting head to the side while talking thing

honestly i thought the second part of the quest with dr ratio was a lot more interesting than the first part with ruan mei

spoilers ahead probably

in the first part of the quest, it was basically just ruan mei telling you "oh i accidentally frankensteined and created life and now you need to help me take care of it" while also telling you to your face about how much she doesn't trust you

which nothing against ruan mei but it's not that enjoyable of a premise, just being told to do stuff for the hundredth time

whereas in the second part with dr ratio you get more independence and have to prove your innocence, which actually requires some thought and is to me personally more interesting than just being told to do something

i also liked that dr ratio is getting some screen time in the main quest instead of just suddenly showing up in a random character quest with no plot relevance or connection to other characters (i'm looking specifically at argenti), which i suppose might be because he's going to be a bridge character into 2.0, kind of similar to kazuha in genshin, so he can't just be dropped into the plot with absolutely no prior mention

and also once again the trial run characters with the hoyoverse builds are better than what i will ever be able to do, which is a little sad but oh well

anyways to end this post have a screenshot i took during the main quest

[aoxizu]

day 69 of saving for jing yuan rerun: 270 wishes

woke up early to watch the 2.0 livestream just to make sure that jing yuan will be rerun

dhil will be in first half while jing yuan will be in second half

and also other stuff happened i guess i just didn't care about it as much as my jing yuan rerun

what this means is that in the time between now and jing yuan's rerun, i will be spending every moment in star rail in the caverns of corrosion, specifically the one that gives jing yuan's follow up attack set

this is going to be pain. fortunately i found a good argenti that will help but it's still going to be pain.

maybe it's time to use all 60 of my fuel?

at the same time, it's exciting to see that there is an end to it all

i have everything else ready for him

literally everything

and he is guaranteed with his light cone, so he is going to be the first character that i fully max out the traces on

i left one prison (erudition calyx) only to enter another (follow up cavern)

i also still need to build my asta and improve tingyun and fu xuan for my eventual jy/ty/fx/asta team, which only really involves getting speed boots and leveling up asta's skill and ultimate to max (though that is incredibly expensive)

why do things cost so much in this economy

[aoxizu]

day 56 of saving for jing yuan rerun: 229 wishes

i am now only 11 wishes away from a guaranteed jing yuan and light cone, which means that i can guarantee a 0+1 jing yuan (:

i don't know if i'm going to drop everything on jing yuan if i do end up winning the 50/50 or save a few wishes for later characters

i might end up trying to get topaz on a rerun for dr ratio

i just really need a second team which will have to wait until after i get jing yuan and build him

[aoxizu]

once again i am qlipoth. that is me. i am the true architect, i am the builder of walls, the amber lord, the firmamend arbiter. 5/5 preservation characters (ok only 2 of them were limited 5 stars but still)

(this is from back in october or september while i was pulling for lynx)

so the count is e0s0 gepard and aventurine and e2s1 fu xuan

nanook still hates me. i had to get misha from the event and still have not seen any sign of arlan or xueyi, though i did get clara on standard, so that was nice

i still need topaz, which i could have gotten in 1.4, but it was 100% worth it to save for 3 updates and get 373 wishes for jing yuan, which does mean now that i have to really start trying in moc/pure fiction to get enough for topaz and to guarantee screwllum, who will ideally be able to use jing yuan's light cone but who knows if his kit gets sudden drastic changes later on

i do also. need another dps. but who needs dpses when you could just pull for supports right

but honestly fu xuan is so nice to use that i've mostly retired gepard, so we'll see if aventurine can convince me to start running preservation again over jing yuan and if he can carve out enough of a niche for me to go back to the double preservation days

but also this puts me in a bad spot with topaz, since i have so many areas where it's like 26 out of 27 chests found, and also topaz can work with jing yuan in addition to just ratio

in an ideal world i would simply wish enough to guarantee topaz but with so much uncertainty (what mihoyo wants ):< ) i am probably just going to be a normal player and continuously gamble throughout the banners