Under My Sky

In the drama, in episode 6, when Lan Zhan was drunk and Wei Ying tried to adjust his forehead ribbon, Lan Zhan bats his hand away and says the following sentence: “If not parent, wife or child, how can I let anyone else touch it?”

HOWEVER

In the following screenshot (taken by some fan so I’m sadly unsure which scene it’s from), you can see the Gusu Lan Sect rulebooks.

Please note how the one rule circled in red is literally the only rule that is easily decipherable, like even the rules right next to it are so very slightly blurred or partially hidden:

If you’re having a hard time copying down the characters, don’t worry, I did it for you: 非父母道侣前 不可摘抹额

Not only that, I also translated it for you and the exact translation (I did a breakdown of each character’s’ meaning at the very bottom if you’re interested) is: “If before a person who is not father, mother or cultivation partner, it is forbidden to take off forehead ribbon”.

Cultivation partner.

CULTIVATION PARTNER.

C U L T I V A T I O N P A R T N E R.

Nowhere in the rule is the word “wife” mentioned. They really went with the gender neutral “cultivation partner” in the official rulebook. They really just said “fuck your heteronormativity, we’re going all inclusive”. They really did that.

They really did that.

That there is a single rule in that shot that is decipherable and it so happens to be about cultivation partners and forehead ribbons? Coincidence??? I think tf not. It’s way too deliberate of a shot to be anything BUT done on purpose.

Once again, I’m amazed by the crew’s dedication to this ship and the fans for noticing it. Honestly, it’s such a small detail that it would literally never get noticed, yet it means so fkn much to the fandom. Even if it did get noticed, unless you know the meaning behind it, it’s not like it would get flagged either.

Is it something that is worth getting this excited over? I say, up to you. Personally, it quite literally made my day because it’s such a small detail that the crew thought to include. It’s especially meaningful since, based on my recollection, we’ve never heard the term “cultivation partner” mentioned ever in the drama, it was a novel-only thing that Wei Ying uses (I may be wrong so don’t quote me on this, or just let me know if I am).

Yet, after all the times we’ve seen Wei Ying mess with Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon (I know y’all thinking about episode 6 with drunk!Lan Zhan and Lan Zhan tying their wrists together later in that same episode but hello? episode 40?? when paperman!WY was tugging on his ribbon and LZ barely even scolded him?? hello????), we can now pretty much very safely assume that Lan Zhan considered it okay for Wei Ying to do so because, wife be damned, Lan Zhan has already recognized Wei Ying as his one and only cultivation partner (brb, sobbing)

Seriously, once again, I gotta thank the crew for further validating the fact that WangXian became cultivation partners at the end of the series.

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The breakdown:

非: Unless, apart from, non-

父: Father

母: Mother

道侣: 道 = Tao (from Taoism) which in this case, would refer to cultivation and 侣 = companion, this literally means cultivation partner

前: Before

不可摘: Cannot take off

Modern Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji