#yingdu spoilers

[conswayo]

liar

[mysterialistic]

I really like the contrast between Cheng Xiaoshi’s attitude and personality and what we’ve seen from his father. Unless there’s an underlying reason for why his dad left, the donghua frames it as though he abandoned his family because he wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility of being a parent. He left Cheng Xiaoshi with his mother, believing she’d do a “better job” raising him. And we all know how that turned out—she went after him and never came back (so… we assume she died on that process?)

Either way, that’s not the point. The point is that Cheng Weimin acted like a coward—afraid of the responsibility that parenthood requires—and chose to run away instead of staying, learning, and facing his fears. Now, he’s weighed down by guilt, feeling like he “failed his son,” and tries to compensate for it by becoming a teacher and taking care of other children. As Cheng Xiaoshi said, he’s a hypocrite—a weak man who hides behind this new role instead of going back to the child who really needs him, the one he should be caring for because it’s his duty.

Cheng Xiaoshi, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. The abandonment he suffered didn’t break him or lead him down a similar path; instead, it shaped him into a good person. I’ve said it before, but Cheng Xiaoshi is deeply empathetic. He prioritizes his loved ones over everything else, to the point where he’s willing to compromise his morals for their sake (like in Yingdu episode 1, when he threatened Vivian for Lu Guang’s safety) or even sacrifice himself for them (jumping in front of a bullet to save Lu Guang and Qiao Ling).

He NEVER runs away from his loved ones, no matter how difficult the situation gets. In fact, he never gives up on anyone—not even strangers. He’s brave, selfless, and driven by a strong sense of justice. Yes, this often leads to reckless behavior, but I can guarantee he would NEVER abandon someone he loves simply because he couldn’t face a challenge. NEVER—not in a million years—would he abandon, say, his own child. That’s just not who he is.

So, in a way, the only good thing that came out of Cheng Weimin’s disappearance is that it made Cheng Xiaoshi who he is today: someone incredibly caring, brave, and selfless.

[lucrecia84]

Literally everything is a code, oh god.

[darkrooklobby]

🫧Dive🌊 - a short comic for Link Click (Yingdu/Bridon arc)

Domestic cats will go to great lengths to avoid water. They do not like being wet, and prefer to not get close to bigger bodies of water, like lakes and oceans.

Domesticated cats stay mostly indoors, away from deep waters, which can cause significant fear and shock for the cat.

Cats dislike getting their whiskers wet, since it might disrupt how they perceive their environment.

Cats are used to staying dry. They clean themselves without water, and despite drinking water sometimes, they get enough of it from food.

Wet fur might leave a cat prone to the cold, because it destroys the insulative later of it. Wet fur is also heavy, which slows down the cat, and makes it vulnerable in the face of danger.

🫧🫧(I should quit overthinking🥲so anyway...)🫧🫧

Yingdu Kitty Guang agenda! 👀🫶✨ + a dialogue exchange from episode 1 that had an impact on how I perceive the show. I decided to interpret it in my own way, and here we are! Hope it looks nice?✌️✨

(Artist notes: This comic took wayyyy too long to make! 🥲 My idea stemmed from the ironic fact that 'diving' is an actual thing that people do, and that cats hate water, with Lu Guang often being depicted as a white cat... Additionally, the 12 hour limit on this risky act of 'diving' kinda made me think that if you stayed longer, you can drown.

"It's a nice metaphor!" - I thought, naive, a week ago. Since then I've been fighting for my life academically and also with my PC which was prone to exploding while I worked 😭😭😭 All in all, this project was fun and allowed me to discover a linear workflow, but on the other hand, it drained me. Additionally, covering my art in watermarks was painful, since I didn't want to mess the picture up, but alas, as an online artist, I have to watch out... 😔)

[ghostlyenola]

"What the --- is this??" The censor over his curse took me out so hard I love this show 😭😭

[catguangcorner]

just thought about all the nightmares lu guang has had, most of them involving vein — and then how he decides to go and seek info from vein, all the while seeming his usual calm and collected self....how hard is he disassociating and repressing his trauma for the sake of cheng xiaoshi 🥲

[littencloud9]

one of cheng xiaoshi’s core qualities, as lu guang also pointed out, is that he’s overly empathetic, able to feel the person he’s inhabiting’s emotions deeply. i think it even reaches levels of projection sometimes, and link click always knows how to showcase it in the most painful ways possible </3

him as wang qing shouting at his dad that he’s been helpless for years, and that he’d spent days waiting alone for someone that will never come, that the bullying hurt but not as much as the emotional pain of being lonely etc. the scene of wang qing looking in the mirror and cheng xiaoshi being the reflection was fantastic too, because it shows that he doesn’t just possess the person, but he reflects what they think and feel, and that’s how he gets into trouble. his knack for impulse combined with the hyper emotions he feels causes him to make reckless decisions

but at the same time, it’s why he’s so, so kind—why he remains warmhearted despite all the bullying and why it is so hard for him to not change the past. why he tries to talk emma out of suicide back in s1, why he relayed those messages for chen xiao, why he agreed to help doudou’s family despite just going through massive trauma and was grieving. because if he can make someone’s life just a little bit better, just so they wouldn’t have to suffer the way he did, then why wouldn’t he?

[shantechni]

⚠️Spoilers for Yingdu Chapter EP5⚠️

Guys, I cannot with this series anymore, we're supposed to interpret this as Lu Guang not liking how they're relying on Vein, but the reaction is so far removed from the anxiety we've been seeing for the past 4 episodes that it genuinely just comes off as him being jealous of how well Cheng Xiaoshi and Vein get along.

[mykingdomforapen]

Your best friend doesn't want you to notice that he's hurting himself, but you do.

Cheng Xiaoshi doesn't go for the arms, which means that he has thought thoroughly about this before. Instead as the two of you sit at the Sherlock Holmes themed pub that you took him to after that dive, he has one arm wrapped around his middle, and his hand tucked furtively under his white shirt at his waist.

You're not supposed to notice, but he's digging his fingernails deep into his skin until the sting of it can shock him out of crying.

You want to say something. He wants you to not notice. He's pretending that he's admiring the pub's decorum, its classic architecture and the Victorian silhouettes framed on the walls, pretending that his fish and chips and mushy peas require all of his attention. If he looks up, if you see his eyes, you know you'll see the tears rimming the edges, the pink that begins to settle in, and that's the last thing he wants.

You don't know what to do.

You're doing the best you can, and it doesn't feel like enough. Not after Cheng Xiaoshi's heart was shattered, after the hero that he built up in his head of his father so gently and eloquently snuffed out his hope like a candle. Cheng Xiaoshi won't say it, everything that he has ever feared and believed about himself, but you know that it is evolving from fear to fact in his heart--that he is unwanted by his own father, by his neighbors and peers, by virtually everyone because of some innate deficiency, some failure he cannot pay for with anything but his own skin. His parents' absence had severed self-worth from his whole being since he was a child, and as much as he had learned to skip and run and dance and laugh in spite of it, it is painfully obvious, and you can never help but notice it sometimes, the way his laugh will hobble like a stool with uneven legs.

You took him out to the River Thames in hopes that summer city lights will brighten his spirits and distract him. He agreed jubilantly, talked a mile a minute as he looked up pubs that served something not fried so that your throat will not be sore. He smiled at you. Talked in a voice that is affectionate and cheerful. Made you think that things are going to get better, that he'll be okay. And now he digs his fingernails into his flesh until he leaves welts.

You can't help but look at his arms. He wears short sleeves, and you've seen him in swimming trunks before, and you know that you would have noticed scars. But obviously, there are places of him that you haven't seen before where ugly scars could stay--his soul, for one. But you can't help but worry, after what he had said through Wang Qing's lips when she pulled up her sleeve and showed Cheng Weimin all those mottled bruises. Cheng Xiaoshi retreats into himself in his sadness, you know. And once it's out of your sight and reach, you don't know what it morphs into, and where else he will claw at himself.

But he's looking away from you, and makes mundane commentary to show that he is here, beside you. He talks nonsense of Sherlock Holmes, how he remembers there being a translated book in his attic--stops himself when he realises whose it was, then laughs louder, jokes stupider, compliments your choice in pub as if you had opened it, and you realise he worries about you, too.

It becomes a spar, almost. You suggest going to a gelato shop after this, so that he can have something sweet. He scolds you gently for considering eating something cold while you're sick. You bring up the possibility of seeing the Winnie the Pooh exhibit that he had wanted to go to but deemed not enough time. He says that he'd rather make sure you rested. It's maddening. It's a stalemate. You want to wrench his hand away from his middle. You alone know that in another life, a different sort of wound struck that place. A different kind of self-harm.

You wait until you're both out of the pub. Because he hates crying in front of people, and even more so in public. Because if you catch him red-handed, and clawed, he will hate himself for it, and he has been through enough. You both compromise on the gelato because you reasoned to him that affogato is warm. He orders a cone and he's licking the edges before they melt and you think about how much you wish life was kinder to him, and how much you wish he was kinder to himself.

"Cheng Xiaoshi," you say.

He pauses. He looks at you, and there's nervousness in his eyes, because he is convinced that you're going to say something that will make him cry. He doesn't want your pity, but how could you ever give him pity? His father confirmed his greatest nightmare, and Cheng Xiaoshi stood up and defended the little boy who wept alone and afraid in his home. He protected that inner child, even if not all parts of himself will agree.

"How's your ice cream?" you say instead.

"Good!" he says, with a little relief. "Do you want to try some?"

"Idiot, I'll spread my sickness to you."

"I don't mind. It's a good flavor. It'll go well with your coffee. Come on--"

He takes your spoon and scoops a bit of his into your affogato, and you can't help it. You reach over and ruffle his hair. It's soft and thick and you don't know what to say.

"Are you wiping your sticky hands on me?" he jokes.

But when you don't pull away, and don't speak, he quiets. Your hands are gentle, and you always keep your nails to the quick. Your touch will never hurt him. I'm proud of you, your fingers say as they stroke his head. I'm so, so proud of you. And that silent, clawed hand finally slips away from his middle.

[crabboytahomaru]

Lu Guang reminding Cheng Xiaoshi that he'll stay by his side no matter where he goes when they're preparing to dive into the photo... I would fall even deeper in love w Lu Guang not gonna lie because he's basically saying even when you are in the past and we are no longer in the same time space, even when you are not physically with me, I will always be with you. It doesn't matter how far away you are, there isn't a place you can go where I can't reach.

[egoitsharu]

The cycle of sacrifice

In the original timeline, Lu Guang was the one who died. Perhaps it was an event that deeply marked Cheng Xiaoshi, pushing him to search for a way to reverse that fate. He discovers the power of time travel, but with a hidden condition: every time he changes something significant, his own fate comes closer to sacrifice. Thus, Cheng Xiaoshi might have made a deal with “someone” or “something” (perhaps the rules of the universe itself), where he traded his life or his repeating fate to save Lu Guang.

The “halo” that appears over Lu Guang could symbolize that, after that deal, he became something more than just a human, like a temporal anchor that ensures time doesn’t completely fall apart. This would explain why he always seems to be aware of timelines and changes: he is aware of Cheng Xiaoshi’s sacrifices, but he can’t say it openly because it would break the rules of the deal.

However, in each timeline, Cheng Xiaoshi ends up dying or sacrificing himself, and this could be because the universe is trying to restore its balance. Lu Guang could be caught in a desperate struggle to protect Cheng Xiaoshi, knowing that his life was “borrowed” from him and that he is dooming his best friend.

Perhaps the end of the story will revolve around a heartbreaking choice: Cheng Xiaoshi must decide whether to accept his fate to save Lu Guang one last time or if they both must break the cycle, even if it means Lu Guang loses the life he was never meant to get back.

[conswayo]

like him

[mysterialistic]

AND THE WORST PARENT AWARD GOES TO…

[Actually no, that one is for Li Tianchen and Xixi’s dad lol, but I don’t like Cheng Weimin, I’m sorry]

[darkrooklobby]

~Dance of Death~

[temporary-joyride]

This scene had me laughing SO hard, omg there were almost tears in my eyes. Cxs is like "I think I picked a lot of my English back up!" and I'm like oohh good for him!! Pretty impr- "You look tasty!" Wait, that's not. That's definitely not right- "You look tasty too!" Oh god now he's encouraging it "LG look! I learned an authentic greeting!" YOU HAVEN'T!! SOMEBODY TELL HIM

Cxs please 😭

[catguangcorner]

wait also when vein said "are you guys involved" HE'S TALKING ABOUT SHADY SHIT NO?? and xf seems to be in the know....